No Government Cheese

Don't Be A Wuss

2007-10-27T15:16:00.000-04:00

Cook your meat in a fire.

Viking style.

While there, check out the 10 manliest video games ever.

But don't blame me if you are offended by this offering.

Foot In Mouth

2007-10-27T14:46:00.000-04:00

Does anyone stick his foot in his mouth more often than Sen. Joe Biden? Maybe he should stick to plagerism. All of his original comments typically require his people to issue a clarification.

The latest, in an interview in which Biden criticizes President Bush on education, he then tries to explain why the D.C. has such a poor school system:

"There's less than 1 percent of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than 4 or 5 percent that are minorities. What is in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you're dealing with," Biden said.

The retraction and re-explanation:

The Biden campaign moved quickly to clarify the senator's remarks in a statement: "This was not a race-based distinction, but a discussion of the problems kids face who don't have the same socio-economic support system (and all that implies -- nutrition, pre K, etc.) entering grade school and the impact of those disadvantages on outcomes."

Fair enough, Senator. Let's correct your quote:

There's less than 1 percent of the population of Iowa that is [don't have the same socio-economic support system (and all that implies -- nutrition, pre K, etc.)]. There is probably less than 4 or 5 percent that are [don't have the same socio-economic support system (and all that implies -- nutrition, pre K, etc.)] What is in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you're dealing with.

Uh, yeah. Iowa has less than 1 percent (and, at the same time, less than 4 or 5 percent) of kids that have some socio-economic disadvantage. That's what you meant.

Biden then picks on Pakistan.

On foreign policy, his area of expertise, he said, "I'm a hell of a lot more worried about Pakistan," which already has nuclear weapons, as opposed to Iran, which is still working on nuclear enrichment, a possible step on the way to developing them. "I wish we'd pay as much attention to Pakistan as the saber rattling we're doing with Iran," Biden said.

I understand why Biden mentioned the threat of Pakistan. He was obviously reaching out to voters from Pakistan's rival, India. After all, Indians are a fast growing demographic in Biden's home state Delaware, at least according to this quote from Biden:

"In Delaware, the largest growth of population is Indian-Americans, moving from India. You cannot go to a 7/11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking."

We are pretty sure you weren't Senator.

Great New Quote

2007-10-27T14:37:00.000-04:00

BEST RECENT QUOTE BY POLITICIAN

A friend told me about this McCain quote at the office on Friday. I confirmed it on several websites.

Thought I'd share.

It is really a classic.

"Hillary tried to get a million dollars for the Woodstock museum. I understand it was a major cultural and pharmaceutical event. I couldn't attend. I was tied up at the time." - John McCain

Hot Time In The City

2007-10-23T14:25:00.000-04:00

Philadelphia, without a sports champion since Dr. J led the 76ers in 1983, and known for its brotherly love, if you consider throwing batteries as sports teams, booing Mike Schmidt and throwing snow balls at Santa Clause as brotherly love, now must accept losing yet again.

Philadelphia has been voted by Travel and Leisure magazine to have the least attractive people in the country. Ok, technically, it came in 25th on the list of attractiveness. Out of 25. Miami came in first on attractiveness, with San Diego second, though many people think the hottest people live in San Diego.

Philadelphia did pick up the pace on cleanliness (22 of 25) and safety (23 of 25).

A curious one for me: New Orleans ranked as the 2nd friendliest city, well ahead of San Diego. Yet, San Diego seems to have the edge on using sports stadiums for natural disaster evacuations:

Like Hurricane Katrina evacuees two years earlier in New Orleans, thousands of people rousted by natural disaster fled to the NFL stadium here, waiting out the calamity and worrying about their homes.
The similarities ended there, as an almost festive atmosphere reigned at Qualcomm Stadium. Bands belted out rock 'n' roll, lavish buffets served gourmet entrees, and massage therapists helped relieve the stress for those forced to flee their homes because of wildfires.

Not even one report of cannibalism.

Atlanta, which was ranked in the teens in most categories, pulled in a big number 6 on barbecue.
We were robbed.

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In other news

Lest we forget, the Clintons have a history that should make one pause in the Democratic primary. It won't though.

Some people smoke because it keeps them skinnier. Not so says another anti-smoking groups' study run through a University (keep in mind that if a study were funded by tobacco and found smoking did cause you to be skinnier, it would be untrustworthy). Smoking mice are smaller and eat less, but they are also less muscular. This is supposed to make you not want to smoke. Like bigger and fat is the same as smaller and fat?

President William J. Clinton is now considering Singapore on his short list of vacation spots.

Chuck Norris has endorsed Mike Huckabee for President. If you do not know who Chuck Norris is, then read this. And pray he doesn't kill you tonight.

Read this. Warning -- Christianity mentioned.

More Reasons To Privatize Social Security

2007-10-18T17:26:00.000-04:00

It obviously is not enough to keep people from coming out of retirement.

Consider the latest group that had to come out of retirement because social security could not pay the bills:

Evander Holyfield

Beautiful Atrocities

Wuzzadem

And of course, the Ebb & Flow Institute.

Except for Evander, it is great to have you each back.

We will be watching Villainous Company closely. Heating that lake house can't be easy on the checkbook.

Thursday's Thoughts

2007-10-18T14:34:00.001-04:00

A woman is cited for disorderly conduct. For yelling profanity. In her own home. At her toilet.

In other news, her boss says that she will not be punished for her run in with the law. On the contrary, she may be promoted for being good for morale.

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Not all criminals are idiots. This guy seemed to have a pretty clever gig going.

Gibson was driving a stolen box trailer, taken from Central Food Equipment on Reynolds Road in Lakeland in 2005, deputies said. The trailer had been outfitted with two tanks with a capacity of 3,250 gallons of fuel.

Gibson rigged a trap door in the bottom of the trailer and parked over the underground fuel tanks at gas stations. Deputies said he would drop a hose into the tanks and use marine batteries to pump the gas into the trailer.

He would unload the fuel into larger tanks at his business, Crews Towing, at the Recker Highway property, authorities said. Gibson would sell the fuel at $1.80 a gallon, authorities said.

Who wants to bet he got caught because he was reselling the gas too cheap?

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Alabama man finds a better way to get his house cleaned than hiring the nearest illegal alien. He catches a burglar in the act, and makes him clean the house at gun point.

Adrian McKinnon held the suspect -- Tajuan Bullock, 33, of 2963 University Drive -- at gunpoint and told him to sit on the floor until he decided what he was going to do, she said.
"We made this man clean up all the mess he made, piles of stuff, he had thrown out of my drawers and cabinets onto the floor," she said.

Once police arrived, Bullock complained to them about being forced at gunpoint to clean up the home.

"This man had the nerve to raise sand about us making him clean up the mess he made in my house," she said. "The police officer laughed at him when he complained and said anybody else would have shot him dead.

"That made the man shut up."

What a beautiful story. I love it when people get to serve as their own judge and jury.

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Why do I send my children to private school, you ask?

A school board on Wednesday approved birth control pills and patches for students at a middle school in Portland, Maine. Condoms were already available.
The sixth through eighth grade students at King Middle School will be able to get the contraceptives at their student health center.
Opponents cited religious and health objections. Supporters said students often can't discuss sexuality with their parents.

Imagine that! A sixth grader being hasseled by his parents over a few birth control pills. These knuckle draggin neanderthal parents just slay me.

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And now, for those fast hitting news stories you seek at the beginning of the newscast.

In sports, how do the Colorado Rockies keep winning, you ask? Ask their new player - God.

Today's non-Vick cruelty to animals award goes to some guy in England. Wow. I can't condone it. I mustn't. Won't do it.

In weather, Florida storms destroy a church day care and a beer tent at an Oktoberfest. Oh the humanity! (For either one, I reckon.)

Day (Season) 7 is coming (note the new address). Sometime. The new trailer comes out in Times Square on October 25. Even if Hillary is elected, Jack will protect us.

For Camojack: new 24 cast member Carly Pope:

Yeah, it would have been better if she were holding a beer or riding a motorcycle. You can't have everything. Where would you put it?

Finally, if you think the Feds are getting soft on punishment, read this legal yarn about Amtrak.

How Long We Work

2007-10-17T21:28:00.000-04:00

I really miss blogging like I used to. Truth is, a 60 plus hour work week protecting the man, two baseball seasons for the oldest (and I'm head coach, which means leaving work at 4pm on game nights), 35 children's birthday parties, and an infant just get in the way of internet surfing. I'm not even reading as much as I used to, and certainly not commenting like I used to.

A lot happened since my last post. Cassandra called it a career, for now, by shutting down the best general purpose blog on the internet, Villainous Company. And all she left us was a small taste of her brilliance. As Johnny Lang once sang, I look out my window, but it's still raining.

On the good news, the Ebb & Flow Institute has turned on the lights again. Pile On may just be campaigning, but his answers to some fast talking interrogation make you realize what a great President he would be.

Of course, I guess we should be thankful for the calm, even flow of Heigh Ho.

Well, I guess I'll talk about sports now.

It's almost too much just to keep up with the Kentucky Wildcat football team, which rocks this year and is currently #7 in the first BSC poll. Sorry about that LSU! NOT!

If you have a Heisman pick, here is your man: Andre Woodson (picture above).

Although no one will believe me, I picked the Rockies to win it all this year (well, I picked them at the beginning of the playoffs -- not in March). Getting to the playoffs by winning 16 of 17 or whatever it was convinced me. Always pick the team on the roll in baseball. I can't say I'm sorry the Mets imploded like a bad cake either. I would have liked my Braves to make it. Maybe next year.

My daughter's t-ball team which I manage much in the same vein as a collie herds cats finished the regular season 8-3-1, tied for the best record in the league. Now for the pressure cooker double elimination playoffs. The trophy size is based on the playoffs only. Oh, and of the 4 games we didn't win, I was unable to be there for 3 of them. Hey, I'm not Crash Davis. Somebody call The Sporting News.

In popular culture, I continue to wonder how Brittney fell so far. And that fall was after Crossroads. What a shame.

In real news, a student was suspended for simply suggesting that college students might should be allowed to carry concealed weapons. Regardless of how you feel about his idea, simply suggesting a change in policy is not a threat, nor is it insane. A case can be made for his position. Yet, to get back into school, he must undergo a psychological evaluation.

Yeah, a psychological evaluation over a political opinion on peacefully carrying concealed weapons. The biggest thought police tyrants occupy many of our colleges and universities. Of course, had he made outrageously untrue scientific claims, called President Bush bad names and called for the elimination of capitalism, he might win a Nobel Peace Prize.

Speaking of which -- what does global warming have to do with world peace? No - really. The Nobel Peace Prize geniuses that gave the award to two of the worst leaders in history (Arafat and Carter) offered an explanation. (See here -- read the second paragraph.) It is so ridiculous, I don't think even a lawyer could say it with a straight face.

I may be guest blogging at EFI as well. Keep checking here and there every so often.

Random Thoughts (It's About Time)

2007-04-19T21:15:00.000-04:00

Thought I'd post tonight. How y'all doing?

First, let's deal with Imus. Dumb thing to say. Rude, also.

The real tragedy is that he gave Rutgers all this free press, when the real story was as always Tennessee. First, Tennessee won, Rutgers lost. Yet because of Imus, the LOSERS got all the press.

I watched the NCAA women's championship game, and as always (except when they are playing my real team, UK) I rooted for the Lady Vols. I think Pat Summitt is awesome. If my daughter is ever offered a scholarship by Pat Summitt, she will take it, or I will kick her arse up I-75 all the way to Knoxville. I otherwise hate Tennessee. Nothing sucks like a big orange, but Pat Summitt is what Bobby Knight could have been with a little self control and class.

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Next we have abortion. Partial birth, that is. The Supreme Court refused to declare unconstitutional a law that banned partial birth abortion. The 5-4 ruling gave some coniptions.

As Best of Web reports:

[T]he New York Times, whose editorial on the subject was typically hysterical:

The justices went so far as to eviscerate the crucial requirement, which dates to the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, that all abortion regulations must have an exception to protect a woman's health.

As far as we know, [Justice Anthony] Kennedy and his four colleagues responsible for this atrocious result are not doctors. Yet these five male justices felt free to override the weight of medical evidence presented during the several trials that preceded the Supreme Court showdown.

BOW continued:

For her part, Justice O'Connor, then the swing vote on the Court, drew a virtual roadmap for legislators to follow in passing a constitutional ban. And as far as we know, Justice O'Connor isn't a doctor either!

Meanwhile, CNN quotes one top male Democratic lawmaker who opposes yesterday's ruling: "A lot of us wish that Alito weren't there and O'Connor were there," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, who opposed Alito's nomination, said.

Yet Reid voted for the law the court upheld. As far as we know, Harry Reid isn't a doctor, so why is he giving second opinions?

Several points here. First, many of the Supreme Court justices actually, technically, are doctors.

Like medical school students who earn an M.D. and graduate school students in any number of academic disciplines who earn a Ph.D., most law school students also receive a doctoral degree—juris doctor, to be precise. * * * *

ABA Model Code of Professional Responsibility. Disciplinary Rule 2-102 permitted a J.D. or LL.M. (master of law) recipient to use doctor with his or her name, the committee concluded in ABA Informal Opinion 1152 (1970). * * * *

The committee advised, however, that it may be misleading for a lawyer to use doctor in certain contexts, such as advertising legal services relating to medical malpractice . . . .

Or, it appears, in ruling on cases involving abortion.

Next point, what is up with Reid voting for a law, then criticizing the Supreme Court for upholding it? Who does he think he is? President Bush (you know, McCain-Feingold)?

Finally, here is what Justice Ginsberg had to say at the conclusion of her dissent:

In candor, the Act, and the Court’s defense of it, cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this Court— and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women's lives.

And isn't that the problem, really? The Court has "declared" this "right" again and again. And not once was this right declared in the actual Constitution.

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Alex Baldwin is being made to look like a tool by his wife's divorce attorney.

After Ireland failed to answer her father's scheduled morning phone call from
New York on April 11, Alec went berserk on her voice mail, saying "Once again, I
have made an ass of myself trying to get to a phone," adding, "you have insulted
me for the last time." Switching his train of thought, Baldwin then exercised his incredible parenting skills and took a shot at his ex-wife, declaring, "I don't give a damn that you're 12-years-old or 11-years-old, or a child, or that your mother is a thoughtless pain in the ass who doesn't care about what you
do." The irate Baldwin went on to say, "You've made me feel like s**t" and threatened to "straighten your ass out."

In fairness to Baldwin, I'm sure there is more to this than meets the eye. People can be quite manipulative in custody cases, and Baldwin might have good reason to be irate.

But before I get soft, let's take a walk down memory lane with Alec Baldwin:

[Baldwin is] the guy that in December 1998 urged that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde be stoned to death and his family killed. That's what he said while a guest on the "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" show.

"If we were living in another country, what we, all of us together, would go down to Washington and stone Henry Hyde to death, stone him to death, stone him to death!" said Baldwin. "Then we would go to their house and we'd kill the family, kill the children."

[Then there is the] Hollywood fund-raiser he threw for Clinton in August 1998. He almost called it off at the last minute. Why? He learned that the White House organizers were preparing foie gras.

An angry Baldwin called up the Democratic National Committee bigwigs demanding that this outrage be stopped. You see, to make foie gras, geese are force-fed to enlarge their livers. The Baldwins are animal rights wackos. Making geese eat too much is bad. Stoning politicians you disagree with and advocating the killing of their families is good. Get it? Any questions?

Listen to what he told Movies USA in March of that year about his political demons: "I talk about these things because I'm committed and when I'm done I feel kind of disgusted with myself. Sitting in a coffee shop and talking about it is not committed. I think once or twice a month I lie in bed at night and think how I'd like to find a militant organization -- like some Black Panther or IRA equivalent -- that revolved around some important cause and go out and blow up some chemical plant. Really put my a-- on the line. One of the most significant differences I see between the right wing and the left wing is that in this country, the right wing's fanatical assassins -- they have better aim."

I was right the first time. He is a tool.

==============================================================

Guiliani may not know how much milk and bread costs . . .

But when asked about more mundane matters — like the price of some basic staples — Giuliani had trouble with a reporter’s question. “A gallon of milk is probably about a $1.50, a loaf of bread about a $1.25, $1.30,” he said.

A check of the Web site for D’Agostino supermarket on Manhattan’s Upper East Side showed a gallon of milk priced at $4.19 and a loaf of white bread at $2.99 to $3.39. In Montgomery, Ala., a gallon of milk goes for about $3.39 and bread is about $2.

but apparently Edwards doesn't know how much to pay for a haircut.

Quad-City barbers put down their shears and sputtered words like “preposterous” and “impossible” Wednesday when they heard of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards spending $400 for a haircut. In the Quad-Cities, $10 or $12 is about average.

In fairness to Rudy, he was a little low on the milk (about 50% low), but bread costs are highly variable based on brand, type and whether you have a Kroger Plus Card. You can get bread for $1.25 a loaf. John Edwards on the other hand was about 40 times too much for the cost of a hair cut. Two Americas indeed.

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Back to Imus. Race is a big issue again. I read the book Blink recently. It is about the subconscious and cognitive thinking in a fraction of a second. In it, the author discusses a test that measures (allegedly) your subconscious attitudes about race (positive and negative). The test can be taken on line here. When I read Blink, I didn't think the test sounded all that solid to me. It seemed to me that the order in which you take different parts of the test would impact the outcome. After taking the test, I learned that I had a "moderate preference for African-American over European-American."

Either the test is as weak as I thought before I took it, or I'm not a racist and you (probably-take the test and find out) are.

I have nothing profound to say about the murders at Virginia Tech except that I'm glad all of my friends with friends and family there are okay.

Spd was one of those people. He is worth reading. My prayers are with you all.

The Little Stuff

2007-01-09T09:25:00.000-05:00

Just a few things to ponder.

It is unconstitutional in New Jersey for "idiots" to vote. No, really.

State Senate President Richard Codey introduced a bill Monday that would remove language from the New Jersey constitution that was designed more than 150 years ago to prevent people suffering from mental illness or handicap from casting their vote in national, state or local elections.

Codey wants to eliminate a section that says "no idiot or insane person should enjoy the right of suffrage" and substitute with a reference to "a person who has been adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting."

Codey went on to say that had this law been enforced, he never would have been elected to office in the first place.

In related news, a decade ago, the Republicans were pushing to eliminate the Department of Education and give local schools more control. Thanks to our "conservative" President, the Federal government now controls our local schools more than ever before. And the law is up for renewal. I wonder how the Democrats will treat the bill.

In other news, Saddam's cat is in need of adoption. See photo to left.

Feel like being pissed off? Read this. Remember, conservatives are crazy, death obsessed, and irrational.

Speaking of New Orleans, near New Orleans, illegal alien Africanized killer bees are taking jobs away from the American bees.

President Bush says that Amercian bees don't want the job, but once the African bees were removed, American bees lined up for blocks to get jobs in honey production.

Scorpions on a Plane! Starring, ... oh never mind.

One word: WUSS! Don't give me that equal rights crap. This man is a disgrace.

SPANKING!

2007-01-09T07:28:00.000-05:00

In Arizona, corporal punishment is alive and well. The Gators spent the evening spanking until it hurt the Buckeyes.

Florida 41

"The" Ohio State University 14

First point, the SEC rules.

Second point: The only undefeated team: Boise State University.

As I said, Boise State should be number 1. Congrats, however, to the insufferable Gator fans. They are the first school in history to hold both the Men's basketball and football NCAA championships at the same time.

Bowl Championship Series my ass.

Baseball Hall of Fame

2007-01-08T19:31:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow we find out who made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and who got screwed, maybe for the first time, or again. Making the Hall is tough. First, you only get voted on by lots of whiney, self important little sports writers. Talk about holding a grudge. It's like that girl you didn't call your freshman year. They never forget it when you didn't give them a post game interview, and they vote against you forever. Just ask Jim Rice. Then, you have to get 75% of the vote. That is constitutional amendment tough, folks. Still, some people inexplicably get in, and other can't seem to break through.

Anywho, I turned in my ballot. Here is who I voted to induct into the Hall of Fame:

1. Tony Gwynn. A no brainer on everyone's ballot. The best hitter since Ted Williams. I once read where he swung and missed a pitch only 19 times in an entire year. He won 8 batting titles, hit .350+ 5 years in a row, blah blah blah. Puleze girlfriend.

2. Cal Ripken, Jr. Personally, I think Cal Ripkin is overrated. Don't go bonkers here on me. Overrated doesn't mean he isn't good. It is a statement about the people who talk about him. Ripken was a great player and deserving of the Hall. I just think writers fall all over themselves to hyperbolize his career because he was such a nice guy. Still, he is the only SS to win 2 MVPs, and he turned the SS into a hitter's position. His ironman streak was icing on the cake to a great, Hall of Fame career.

3. Jim Rice. This guy is the opposite of Cal Ripken. Sportswriters hated him and continue to punish him. His longevity numbers might be borderline for some players (just under 400 HR and 3,000 hits), but he put up his dominant numbers in a short career. But he dominated for 11 years with both power and average. He was a great player during that time. In those 11 seasons, Rice led the AL in home runs, RBI, runs scored, slugging and extra-base hits. And the only hitter even close in most of those departments was George Brett. It was long enough. Vote him in.

4. Dave Conception. For a while, I didn't think he deserved in the Hall. I've changed my mind. People need to remember that shortstops didn't become big hitters until recently (see, Ripken, above). The first recent SS to be a hitter was Cal Ripken, and now we have tons of power hitting, high average SS (Tejada, Jeter, A-Rod for a while, etc.). Conception played in a different era. He is one of only 14 SS to play 2000 games and collect 2000 hits. He won 5 Gold Gloves and his offensive and defensive numbers (.972 to .978 fielding percentage) were comparable to Ozzie Smiths, the only SS considered better than Conception in his day. He was also on a winner, the Big Red Machine, and a big reason why they were winners. The best SS in the majors for part of his career, and second best after Ozzie Smith came around. It may sound like grading on the curve, but that is worthy.

5. Goose Gossage. For a while, I too considered Goose's numbers not worthy. But he, like Sutter last year, pioneered the modern closer. Like Sutter, and unlike today's closers, he pitched fewer games and more relief innings per game, but he was one of the dominant pitchers of his day for a decade. In fact, he was better than Sutter, who was voted in last year, and had a longer career. Hall of Famers are to be judged by their era, and in Goose's era, he was the relief pitcher everyone wanted. He belongs.

6. Mark McGwire. McGwire is the controversy this year. Did he cheat? Well, if that means use steroids, most likely. Of course, baseball didn't have a rule then, not that it should matter. The numbers, though, put him in the Hall. He was a 12 time all-star, broke the major league home run record for a single season, is the all-time leader home run to at-bat ratio (1:10.6) in major league history, and even won a gold glove. The guy clearly had talent, hitting 49 home runs in his rookie season before showing any signs of being juiced. He is 7th on the all-time home run list with 583. He was also a genuinely good saleman for the game, especially during the come back of the major leagues in 1998. He ruined his good will with his Congressional testimony, but I can't refuse to vote for the guy. His looking bad isn't grounds for denying the guy his due. I wish I could say it was, but it isn't. Unlike McGwire, I truely despise Barry Bonds, but unless he gets indicted or tests positive for roids, I'll argue for his induction, too. Unlike Rose and Shoeless Joe, McGwire is on the ballot. It is an uncomfortable vote. This guy explains my feelings best on the subject. If Gaylord Perry, who did videos showing how he cheated, can be in the Hall, so can McGwire. His numbers can't be denied.

That is it for me. Several guys up this year were really good players whom I just can't seem to get over the hump. The closest two are Blyleven and Dawson. It wouldn't bother me in the least to see them inducted, even though Dawson was a stuck being a loser playing for the loser Cubs who suck.

The Pitchers.

Tommy John is a close call, and an argument can be made. I mean, they named the most important surgery after the guy. Tommy John surgery and Lou Gerhig's disease are the biggest contributions to medicine by major league baseball.

Jack Morris is hard to say no to. If I were in a World Series, he is one of a handful of pitchers I would give anything to start for my team. I don't think the career numbers are there.

Bert Blyleven also is a closer call. Perhaps the closest. He has great career longevity, so his career numbers match up well.

Position players.

Dale Murphy is another I really want to be in the Hall, but I wouldn't vote for him. He was a dominant player for about 5 years, and won back-to-back MVP awards in 82-83. The reason McGuire is a controversy is because baseball, unlike football, has a 'character' consideration in its rules. In other words, in evaluating a player, voters are supposed to consider character. Because Murphy is borderline (399 career HR, just shy of the nearly universally accepted 400 mark), it is often argued that his character should push him over the top. I don't think he makes it, and I can't see using the fact that he is a good guy make up for the lack of longevity in his numbers. I guess I'm afraid of grade inflation, and I see him, Tommy John, as well as Andre Dawson and Steve Garvey.

Jose Conseco is for me a tough call, especially after casting the vote for his former teammate McGwire. The guy had some great numbers. He hit 462 HR, which is 30th all time, won an MVP and Rookie of the Year award, started the still rare 40-40 club (players with 40 HR and 40 SB in same season). He makes me feel too icky, and his 'dominant' career wasn't long enough for me. The HR has a different meaning in Canseco's era. Plus, he has admitted to cheating and being an all around dispicable person. At least with McGwire, there remains some doubt.

Number 1

2007-01-02T06:55:00.000-05:00

I can go ahead and fill in my ballot for the final NCAA football rankings. I don't need to wait for the Ohio State v. Florida game in 6 days. I've seen all I need to see. I'm voting the Boise State Broncos as my number 1 team.

How can you do that, KJ, you ask? Aren't you an SEC boy? What if Florida wins against Ohio State? Well, I hope that happens, but that won't change my mind.

Why Boise State? Here is why:

1. They beat a very good, No. 7 ranked 10-2 Oklahoma team that lost only once (and once more on a call so bad the refs responsible were suspended for the rest of the year) in the best, wildest game I have seen since that Doug Flutie game against Miami.

2. They are undefeated, 13-0, having beaten every team they played. No matter what, neither Ohio State, which played the weakest Big 10 schedule possible, or Florida, can say that.

3. The National Championship in football is mythical. I can vote for any undefeated team I want. So like when I was ready to vote for the snubbed Auburn and Utah, I can vote for Boise State.

4. You know as well as I do that Oklahoma could have played with Ohio State. Boise State beat them.

5. Boise State plays their home games on a blue turf field. See picture. How do they do that you ask? Well, c'mon. Turf is plastic. They can make it any color you want.

So there you have it. I loved last night's game, and I think Boise State should get a share of the Title.

My final season top ten:

1. Boise State
2. Ohio St./Florida winner
3. Wisconsin
4. Ohio St./Florida loser
5. Auburn or
6. LSU if they win
7. Kentucky (screw Louisville and USC). The Cats won their first bowl game in 22 years.
8. Who cares.
9.
10.

Enjoy the rest of the meaningless games.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-27T08:26:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I've been absent doing my non-virtual job these last 6 months or so I've hardly posted a thing. So let me give everyone so inclined a belated

Merry Christmas!!

If you aren't inclined to celebrate Christmas because you are a practicing Jew, then a belated Happy Hannuka! No hard feelings on my part.

If you celebrate Kwanzaa or Winter Solstice, or some other crap, well, don't bother me with that crap. I don't recognize holidays created in the late 1960's as a political statement or based on astrological BS.

Also, let me go ahead and say

Happy New Year!!

Yeah, I know there may be Chinese people or people who haven't converted to the Gregorian calendar yet that may be offended by my western yearism attitude, and to you I say, don't bother me with that crap. I'm willing to get drunk on your new years day, also.

In other news, The Cheese offers its condolences to our most recently deceased President, Gerald Ford. I hardly knew you. No, really. I hardly knew him. I was like in elementary school during his reign. I was more concerned with the outcome of the last kick ball game.

And finally, a stress reliever. Take batting practice on those annoyingly popular penguins. Enjoy!

Atlanta = Den Of Ursine Iniquity?

2006-12-19T16:29:00.000-05:00

Coincidence???? We think not. Consider the evidence.

Item One: proprietor of little "l" libertarian Blog disappears for a protracted period of time.

Item Two: Seamy stories begin to filter out of the Hotlanta Metropolitan Area. Baby pandas photographed stretched out flat on their bellies, so inebriated they can barely walk:

Zoo Atlanta’s 99-day-old giant panda cub rose on four shaky legs Thursday morning and took a few tentative steps — a first for the youngster.

She wobbled like a drunk in a windstorm, but there was no mistaking her intentions: She’s ready to move on her own, nearly in time for her naming ceremony.

Disgraceful. The poor thing doesn't even have a proper name yet and she's already hitting the sauce. And with a start like this, is it any surprise she's confused?

Children sang and performers put on a lively dance Friday as Zoo Atlanta unveiled the name of the nation's newest panda cub - Mei Lan, a 12-pound ball of adorableness too young to attend the hoopla.

Chengdu Director Zhang Zhihe said Mei Lan, pronounced "may-lan," has male overtones, a gift Chinese parents bestow on female children whom they want to step outside traditional roles for women.

Now wait just one cotton-picking minute... I thought Atlanta was a family town? But it gets worse:

Lun Lun [the mother] was inseminated in March through a new process that aims to get a nearly pure ... sample from a male panda using massage, zoo officials said.

O-kay... we are not going to think about that one too hard.

Just what is going on down there, anyway?

"Little Peach" indeed....

Who Really Cares?

2006-11-28T09:46:00.000-05:00

A new book out compares liberals to conservatives in the area of charitable giving. His conclusions, surpising to some apparently (including the author himself) is that conservatives far out give in time, money and even blood than liberals. Personally, I find his conclusion as startling as "sex leads to pregnancy," "smart people have higher IQs than idiots" and "having a baby leads to sleepless nights," but some people (those who like spending YOUR money instead of their own on other people) will apparently be surprised.

One news story on the book begins as follows:

Philanthropy Expert: Conservatives Are More Generous

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse University professor Arthur C. Brooks is about to become the darling of the religious right in America -- and it's making him nervous. The child of academics, raised in a liberal household and educated in the liberal arts, Brooks has written a book that concludes religious conservatives donate far more money than secular liberals to all sorts of charitable activities, irrespective of income. In the book, he cites extensive data analysis to demonstrate that values advocated by conservatives -- from church attendance and two-parent families to the Protestant work ethic and a distaste for government-funded social services -- make conservatives more generous than liberals. The book, titled "Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism" (Basic Books, $26), is due for release Nov. 24…….

Thomas Sowell discusses the book in his recent column.

Professor Brooks admits that the facts he uncovered were the opposite of what he expected to find -- so much so that he went back and checked these facts again, to make sure there was no mistake.

What is the reason why some people are liberals and others are conservatives, if it is not that liberals are more compassionate? Fundamental differences in ideology go back to fundamental assumptions about human nature. Based on one set of assumptions, it makes perfect sense to be a liberal. Based on a different set of assumptions, it makes perfect sense to be a conservative.

The two visions are not completely symmetrical, however. For at least two centuries, the vision of the left has included a belief that those with that vision are morally superior, more caring and more compassionate. While both sides argue that their opponents are mistaken, those on the left have declared their opponents to be not merely in error but morally flawed as well. So the idea that liberals are more caring and compassionate goes with the territory, whether or not it fits the facts.

Those on the left proclaimed their moral superiority in the 18th century and they continue to proclaim it in the 21st century. What is remarkable is how long it took for anyone to put that belief to the test -- and how completely it failed that test.

In reading the amazon discription, he also correlates religious belief. This seems obvious to me. Liberals on average (Yes, I'm generalizing here - I know not all liberals ...) are more secularist and less religious. Conservatives, more religious and less secularist. Serious Christians, be they protestant, Catholic or LDS, are called upon to be charitable by their faith. If they sincerely believe in that calling, it should not be surprising if they were more charitable. If such Christians are more conservative on average, which I think would be the case, then that would support the conclusions of the book.

You can buy the book here.

A Lot of Hot Air

2006-11-27T10:08:00.000-05:00

What does the top map show?

Answer: Not the worst hurricane season ever.

As was predicted here. And here. And here.

But remember -- just because a bad hurricane season in 2004 and 2005 proved global warming, this non-hurricane season does not disprove global warming.

No, it doesn't.

And another thing. Just because the best weather scientists and their computer models failed to accurately predict the severity of a hurricane storm season this year does not mean that we should doubt their same computer models on the issue of global warming 5, 10, 20 or even 100 years into the future. So quit saying that it does call into question any doomsday prediction of environmentalists. It means nothings.

Telemarketers

2006-11-20T11:33:00.000-05:00

This clip (from the Bob & Tom show) teaches you how to handle a telemarketer.

Enjoy.

Happy Thanksgiving if I don't make it back this week.

Goodbye Uncle Milt

2006-11-16T14:01:00.000-05:00

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

In college, my economics buddies referred affectionately to Milton Friedman as "Uncle Milt." We read his books and watched his videos in several different classes. He was among the giants of explaining why the free market is the superior method of distributing resources. He passed away today.

"The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom."

From The Best of the Web:

Milton Friedman, RIP. Word reached us this morning that Milton Friedman has died. Friedman, who won the Nobel Prize in Ecnomics in 1976, was a giant in free-market economics--and freedom more generally--and a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal. Just last month he penned an op-ed lamenting Hong Kong's departure from laissez-faire economics. Back in July Tunku Varadarajan published a charming interview with Friedman and his wife, Rose. Milton Friedman was 94.

"Most economic fallacies derive - from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another."

You can read more about him in his Wikipedia entry.

"Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself."

Better yet, go to the Friedman Foundation and help in one of his projects, the promotion of school choice to improve K-12 education. This is one of his causes that I whole-heartedly support.

"The society that puts equality before freedom will end up with neither. The society that puts freedom before equality will end up with a great measure of both."

This personal tribute to Dr. Friedman is worth reading.

"Nobody spends somebody else's money as carefully as he spends his own. Nobody uses somebody else's resources as carefully as he uses his own. So if you want efficiency and effectiveness, if you want knowledge to be properly utilized, you have to do it through the means of private property."

Finally, if you want your kids educated in economics, they need to read his books and watch his videos. His Free to Choose project resulted in a PBS TV show and a book. Order the videos here. Buy some books here.

Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.

Have a high school graduate coming up in the spring? This is the best gift you could give him or her.

The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment, was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy.

God bless you, Uncle Milt. You will be missed. Especially by those that love freedom.

The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm; capitalism is that kind of a system.

Negative Ads

2006-11-16T10:38:00.000-05:00

Were negative political ads bad in your area this year? In Georgia, we had an all out nuclear war of negative ads for a Supreme Court justice spot.

And it has filtered down to the race for pre-school president. Check out Jimmy Jones's ad about his opponent Billy. You do want to see this.

Winner, "Not My Job" Award

2006-11-16T10:27:00.000-05:00

Heh.

*************************************************************

You Know What Burns My @$$?

2006-11-14T09:39:00.000-05:00

1. The Vatican preaching about walls.

A senior Vatican cardinal on Tuesday condemned the building of walls between countries to keep out immigrants and said Washington's plan to build a fence on the U.S.-Mexican border was part of an "inhuman program".
* * * *
"Speaking of borders, I must unfortunately say that in a world that greeted the fall of the Berlin Wall with joy, new walls are being built between neighborhood and neighborhood, city and city, nation and nation," said Martino, head of the Vatican's Council for Justice and Peace.

Well, Cardinal, there is a big difference between walls with the purpose of keeping people in, and those intended to keep people out. The U.S. does not force people to stay in the U.S. East Germany did. While it is true that Mexico's economy sucks, it isn't commiting genocide. People aren't fleeing for their lives. They are fleeing for their pocket books. The U.S. has every right to protect itself and control its borders. As does Saudi Arabia and Isreal, where the border very clearly is intended to prevent killers from entering the country.

We shouldn't be surprised though. This is the same guy who whined that the U.S. treated Saddam "like a cow" after his capture. The comments were so stupid that the Pope publicly distanced himself from the comments.

On the border issue, what is your alternative solution, Cardinal? How would you protect countries from invasion, whether economic or terror related? Protecting people from predators isn't exactly what the Church does best, now is it? Call us when you have some effective answers.
*********************************************************************************

2. People complaining about third-parties, particularly libertarians. Sometimes, they are the necessary ingredient to get coalitions built and get things done.

Critics of the Libertarian Party, who focus on their modest if growing number of office-holders, are often unaware of the Party's emphasis on local community networking and consensus coalitions that underlie real politics. Indeed, many of their most signal policy victories--the Earned Income Credit, the increasing collapse of ballot restrictions across the US, and anti-poverty programs such as the Alaska Permanent Fund--are the result of the Libertarian willingness to envision and do the hard work coalitions require, and then share the credit.

The passage of eminent domain limits and amendments in many state elections this year were largely the work of libertarians. The linked article deals specificly with Florida.
********************************************************************************

3. Being forced to choose between bad Republican leadership and worse Demcratic policies and leadership. Thanks a lot "party of small government." Thomas Sowell looks at both problems in his always insightful way.

*********************************************************************************

4. Finally, people who quote Richard Cohen in the same post where the link me. The nerve of some blog princesses.

Really.
*********************************************************************************
5. Superheroes. And Thanksgiving. Hmmm ... I wonder what they are thankful for? (Warning: adult language.)
**********************************************************************************
6. Changing the Colonel? Say it ain't so.

Sound Bites 11/13

2006-11-13T13:23:00.000-05:00

It is nice to know that Pelosi will be governing from the center, just as her non-leftist district in San Franciso would want her to do.

Meanwhile, Elton John explains to us the meaning of tollerence. Pot, I'm kettle. You're black.

Although no Democratic incumbent lost in the general election last week, one did lose in the primaries this year. Bad timing to get beat again, Cynthia. Let's home your district keeps you at home this time.

Sometimes, the intelligence of our administration and military is worthy of question. Read this article, and pay attention to this:

The incident is a setback for the aggressive U.S.-China military exchange program being promoted by Adm. Fallon, who has made several visits to China in recent months in an attempt to develop closer ties. However, critics of the program in the Pentagon say China has not reciprocated and continues to deny U.S. military visitors access to key facilities, including a Beijing command center.

In contrast, Chinese military visitors have been invited to military exercises and sensitive U.S. facilities. Additionally, military intelligence officials said Adm. Fallon has restricted U.S. intelligence-gathering activities against China, fearing that disclosure of the activities would upset relations with Beijing.

I'm glad we shared first. Welcome back, Cold War.

It isn't the decision to fire Rumsfeld. It's the timing. Heh. But seriously, it doesn't look good. I'm surprised, frankly. But only a little.

Forty things that only happen in the movies.

For you history and imperialism buffs out there: This is really cool.

Tip for you would be counterfeiter: when photocopying your money, set copier to "2-sided."

Finally, is Michael Vick killing your Fantasy Football team? Try Fantasy Congress. Damn that Cynthia McKinney!

Just a question

2006-11-10T00:06:00.000-05:00

In Georgia, ads ran during the election cycle accusing opponents of "being a liberal." The oppenents denied the charge. Even when it was true, though it wasn't always.

But do you ever see liberals saying -- "Hey, I'm a liberal and my oppenent isn't!"? Maybe it's just Georgia.

Here is a great example. An AP article in which San Franciscoans (what are they called? oh, yeah, "hippies") dispute the "liberal" labe.

SAN FRANCISO!! NOT LIBERAL!??

WHO ARE THEY TRYING TO FOOL?

Give me a break.

Gingrich Speaks

2006-11-09T15:36:00.000-05:00

If the president had decided to replace Secretary Rumsfeld he should have told us two weeks ago," Gingrich said. "I think that we would today control the Senate and probably have 10 to15 more House seats. And I found it very disturbing yesterday in the press conference, the explanation that the President gave.

"We need candor, we need directness," said Gingrich, a potential 2008 presidential candidate."We need to understand the threats we faced with are so frightening and so real, the danger that we'll lose two to three American cities so great, that we cannot play games with each other, cannot manipulate each other, we have to have an open and honest dialogue, and I found yesterday's staments at the press conference frankly very disturbing."

He condemned Bush's admission that in making last week's statement about Rumsfeld, he had known he was being misleading.

"It's inappropriate to cleverly come out the day after an election to do something we were told before the election would not be done," Gingrich said. "I think the timing was exactly backwards and I hope the President will rethink how he engages the American people and how he communicates with candor."

In other words, "don't lie to us Mr. President." Read it all here. He also talks about the entire Congress. Frankly, Gingrich is right most of the time.

Happy Blogiversary -- Or Whatever

2006-11-09T13:00:00.000-05:00

Happy 2nd Birthday to the Blog called The Unrepentant Individual.

That blog is Brad's creation. It is now in the terrible twos.

He has since made a lateral move and also serves on The Liberty Papers.

Thus, UI has changed focus, but it is still a worthy stop.

And of course TLP is a must stop.

Keep writing Brad.

Pcitured at right is Brad (or so we are told).

Super Hero Politics

2006-11-08T16:36:00.000-05:00

Heh.

Hulk - Libertarian: "Hulk just want to be left alone."

Check them out.

H/t: Cassandra.

Republicans Earned It

2006-11-08T09:57:00.000-05:00

The Federal Elections

Well, the mid-term elections are in, and the Republicans faced the music for becoming a party in power acting like a party trying to keep power. What we know is that the Democrats routed the Republicans in the House, and you will all now be saying Maddam Speaker Pelosi. Many of the new Democrats are conservative Dems, but that won't make much difference. The agenda and committees will be run by long time serving uber-liberals.

The Senate, while officially undetermined, is going to go Dem also, as both Virginia and Montana, two states that should belong to the Republicans, will soon be called for the Dems.

In many ways, I see this as a positive. The Republicans perhaps will become conservative agenda focused again, which propelled them to power in the House in 1994. Maybe they could read that Contract With America again. Even in a post-9/11 world, that document describes good government. I didn't read anywhere in there about increasing spending beyond all control, expanding the Federal education department, lacking the guts to even try to reform social security or bringing a bunch of new entitlement programs on line.

Don't get me wrong. This is a victory for the party supported by the Communists (the official website here) and the Islamic Terrorists. That is sad. [Note: This AP article all but admits that those who want a weaker, less influential America wanted the Dems to win.] But it cannot be denied in my mind that the Republicans did everything to earn this defeat. My only hope is that they can regroup and ensure that America does what it needs to do in the War on Terror. And maybe they can come back looking more like the focused, principled Party of 1994 and less like the liberal, big spending, vote buying Party they were in 2006.

I must also admit that a Congress and President that can't pass anything might be a good thing, at least on domestic matters. In international policy, it really doesn't matter. President Bush has shown a willingness to do what he wants without Congressional authority. That isn't a criticism per se. It just is. So while I think Congress needs to pass laws dealing with the handling of terror suspects, I don't think gridlock will stop President Bush from doing what he thinks is necessary. I can only hope he handles that trust well.

FWIW, I really hated to see Steele lose in Maryland. I was rooting for that guy.

The States Give A Mixed Message

In many states, other issues were used to get people to the polls. People, ignorant of economics, continued to vote to increase the minimum wage, a wage that only applies to teenagers and the otherwise unemployable. All states considering minimum wage increases voted for them. Union pay is often tied to minimum wage, and other jobs that pay more than minimum wage will have to increase their pay, which is the real reason behind such measures. So what if a few jobs are lost entirely.

A good summary of state initiatives is here.

Other states dealt with the gay marriage issue again. As I understand it, 7 of 8 states voted for the bans. Arizona was the lone holdout, and the first state to reject the ban. This could be a trend in favor of the gay activists who seek to change the meaning of the word "marriage." Or, it could be that the ban in Arizona was overreaching as it also sought to ban civil unions or domestic partnerships, something with which most people generally have no problem. The Cheese doesn't think gay marriage should be a constitutional issue -- it should simply be a legislative issue. But, the Cheese understands why these bans are necessary. State Supreme Courts, ignoring their role, may otherwise change the law without regard to the legislative process. It has happened in Mass. and very recently in New Jersey. So these bans are probably necessary to either limit or send a message to the state Surpeme Court justices.

Abortion also went to the ballot box. South Dakota rejected 55-45 a tough ban on abortion in all cases but the life of the mother. This again could be simply overreaching -- people are hung up on the rape/incest exceptions, even though they constitute a miniscule number of abortions. Or it could mean that the majority of people, even in somewhat conservative South Dakota, are pro-choice. I think it was probably both. In any event, I think it was great that the issue was voted on in South Dakota. Abortion belongs to the political process, not the Courts. How it turns out I care less about, though this blog is moderately pro-choice until viability, and extremely pro-life after viability (Note: I did not ask the other contributors their opinions -- I unilaterly made this position the one for the blog).

Eminent domain limits were also on the ballots, though I don't know how most states did on that measure, but a Yahoo search reveals headlines that suggest most measures passed. For some reason, CNN didn't think this issue was worthy of its state initiatives chart linked above.

Elsewhere, land use was a hot issue, part of a backlash against a 2005 Supreme Court ruling allowing the city of New London, Conn., to buy up homes to make way for a private commercial development.
Eleven states considered eminent-domain measures barring the government from taking private property for a private use; Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Dakota and South Carolina approved them overwhelmingly. In four states - Arizona, California, Idaho and Washington - voters could require state and local authorities to compensate property owners if land-use regulations lowered the value of their property.

Georgia voted to limit it with 82% of the vote, and for that I cheer. Georgia also protected hunting and fishing rights with a constitutional amendment by 81% of the vote.

Stem-cell measures were also on the ballot in a few states. I think the Michael J. Fox crowd won these, but I'm not paying attention to this non-issue. If the research is promising enough, private money will finance it.

Georgia's Republican governor, who upset the incumbent 4 years ago, won in a landslide. He is a pretty good Gov., and our state is doing well. I applaud his victory. Georgia also elected the first Repbulican Lt. Gov. ever -- though I voted against him as explained below.

In Georgia, lots of tax issues are handled by a referendum. I must admit that these piss me off. They were as follows: expand homestead exemption for the elderly and surviving spouses of peace officers and firefighters, extend ad velorum exemption to farming equipment, verteran organizations which refurbish historic aircraft (what?), and charitable institutions, and give surviving spouses a base year value homestead exemptions.

What does all that mean? It means, essentially, do you want to give tax breaks to the elderly, farmers and surviving spouses of police and firefighters, and make the rest of us pick up the tab. The response, overwhelmingly, was yes. I voted no on every one of these measures except for the one that applied generally to all charitable institutions.

I think tax policy should be off limits to such games and free-riders. The elderly are the wealthiest class in our society on average, and they get the most tax/entitlement benefits. They should pay their taxes like the rest of us. The spouses of firefighters are no worse off than the spounses of construction workers who die on the job. We all must face spouces who die. There should be no special tax break class for this. I am all in favor of low taxes and low spending. But I hate special tax exemptions. We should all pay our share, to some degree. I voted Libertarian, and against the Republican candidate for Lt. Gov. in Georgia (he won anyway). I voted Libertarian in a few races anyhow, but I primarily voted this way because the Rep. candidate wants to eliminate the income tax on ALL senior citizens. Right, that's fair -- I have to pay more income tax because Ted Turner is exempt from state income tax. This type of tax policy making is garbage.

Here is looking to the future. I hope to find a principled, serious, and mostly conservative leader for 2008, and a large group of followers to take back the Congress from the Party supported by the Commies and Terrorists.

Meds for the Mid-terms

2006-10-26T13:08:00.000-04:00

tee bee

The elections, that is.

Here's a little something to get you in the mood if you're on the left side of the aisle:

Via John Ray via Steve.

Give Us Strength, Dear Lord

2006-10-25T15:33:00.000-04:00

Lest we succumb to temptation and be consumed in the fires of iniquity:

A testy exchange between a Superior Court judge and a lawyer has netted the attorney two days in jail and the temporary loss of his law license.

Judge Michael Helms also sentenced Raymond Marshall to submit to a psychologist's examination and to perform 70 hours of community service for the contempt of court violation.

Marshall cannot practice law for 30 days, but his license may be returned sooner if he performs the community service, Helms said.

An outburst in court by Marshall was the culmination of a dispute that began about a month ago, when one of Marshall's clients appeared before the judge on an assault charge - the third time the case was brought to a trial.

What did the erring esquire do to draw down the wrath of the Court?

On Oct. 4, the first day of the latest trial, Helms stopped Marshall during the questioning of one of the witnesses.

Marshall said "Lord," reared back in his chair with outstretched arms, cast his eyes upward and turned to the audience, Helms said.

"How am I supposed to take that?" Helms said Thursday as he penalized the lawyer. "If the court does not get the respect from members of the bar, we can't have the respect from clients, and then we have anarchy."

Marshall, who is also a minister, said the remark was the beginning of a prayer. He apologized to Helms and said he did not intend to be disrespectful or for his remark to be heard by others.

"When you're involved in trial and the motors are running ... there are times when you feel you need strength and my strength comes from God," Marshall said.

The Almighty was unavailable for comment.

Thank Those That Gave

2006-10-03T10:36:00.000-04:00

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you.

Jesus Christ and the American G. I.

One died for your soul.

The other for your freedom.

Thank them both. Over and over again.

Yeah, I'm just not blogging a lot right now am I?

'Pope Regretful Over Outrage'

2006-09-16T11:42:00.000-04:00

tee bee

Regretful, that is, for quoting an ancient manuscript.

In his speech Tuesday to university professors in Germany, Benedict cited an obscure Medieval text that characterizes some of the teachings of Islam's founder as "evil and inhuman" — comments some experts took as a signal that the Vatican was staking a more demanding stance for its dealings with the Muslim world.

No, blowing up buildings while crashing passenger-loaded planes (with children onboard) into them and hoping for a high bodycount isn't evil or inhumane - if you're a psycho.

Meanwhile, Mecca burns.

"We do not accept the apology through Vatican channels ... and ask him (Benedict) to offer a personal apology — not through his officials," Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanon's most senior Shiite cleric, told worshippers Friday in Beirut.
Two churches in the West Bank were hit by firebombs Saturday, and a group claiming responsibility said it was protesting Benedict's words.
In Iraq, the main Sunni party warned the pope's comments could lead to violence between Muslims and Christians. The pope "should not be lured into returning to the Crusades," the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party said in a statement.
"The world today needs all religious authorities to cooperate to curb the phenomenon of violence," it said. "We urge all Christian religious authorities in both the Arab and Western world not to be involved in the confrontation against the Islamic world as it could lead to Muslim-Christian violence, God forbid."

We should speak the truth in love to a world thirsty for living water. But our leaders must make no mistake that Islam has to face itself and "cooperate to curb the phenomenon of violence" that it has created, or be held accountable.

Only one world religion advocates the forceful subjugation of all people.

Sorry, Rosie, but the destructive and now-historical actions of a handful of militant wackos at abortion clinics doesn't compare:

O'Donnell: “Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America.”
Say what?
We have not seen Christians flying planes into buildings. Or strapping on an explosive vest to blow up pizza parlors. Or driving explosive-laden cars into police stations. Or beheading bound prisoners. Or denying education to women.

We've legislated this 'activism' out of existence. Which proves a further difference: These so-called dangerous people live by the law, not their own desire for vengeance and world dominance.

The reaction to Pope Benedict's moderate criticism - delineating Christianity from Islam and its penchant for jihad - has given these fascists yet another excuse for a looting and murdering spree.

How much of this is the peaceful Christian and secular world going to sit still for?

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan's remarks in the Fox article, for example, don't signal a lack of welcome for the Pope so much as they attempt to mask glee that his trip will be anything but peaceful.

I'd go in the bullet-proof glass helicopter if I were you, Benedictus. I think they'd like nothing better than to parade you down main street, or at least your head on a spike.

CP @ GMC.

Leaky Vessels

2006-09-14T11:33:00.000-04:00

tee bee

Novak, attempting to set the reocrd straight writes: "First, Armitage did not, as he now indicates, merely pass on something he had heard and that he 'thought' might be so. Rather, he identified to me the CIA division where Mrs. Wilson worked, and said flatly that she recommended the mission to Niger by her husband, former Amb. Joseph Wilson. Second, Armitage did not slip me this information as idle chitchat, as he now suggests. He made clear he considered it especially suited for my column."
Novak slams Armitage for holding back all this time.
Armitage's silence for "two and one-half years caused intense pain for his colleagues in government and enabled partisan Democrats in Congress to falsely accuse Rove of being my primary source. When Armitage now says he was mute because of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's request, that does not explain his silent three months between his claimed first realization that he was the source and Fitzgerald's appointment on Dec. 30. Armitage's tardy self-disclosure is tainted because it is deceptive."

Um... Novak, meet pot; Armitage, meet kettle.

I agree. It's all your fault.

Hrmph.... I'm trying to stifle the CLEARLY useless urge to ask why Novak keeps coming out holding the clean end of the stick in this whole Novak-spawned mess, even when he's stirring the pot.

Via Kim Priestap; CP @ GMC.

Identify Your God

2006-09-14T09:05:00.000-04:00

I read this in the Best of the Web and thought it interesting.

Children of a Lesser God

A Baylor University study "found that Americans hold four different images of God," London's Times reports:

Nearly a third of Americans, 31.4 per cent, believe in an Authoritarian God, angry at earthly sin and willing to inflict divine retribution--including tsunamis and hurricanes. . . .

At the other end of the scale is the Distant God, seen by 24.4 per cent as a faceless, cosmic force that launched the world but leaves it alone. . . .

The Benevolent God, popular in America's Midwest among mainstream Protestants, Catholics and Jews, is one that sets absolute standards for man, but is also forgiving--engaged but not so angry. Caring for the sick is high on the list of priorities for these 23 per cent of believers. . . .

The Critical God, at 16 per cent, is viewed as the classic bearded old man, judgmental but not going to intervene or punish, and is popular on the East Coast.

That adds up to 94.8%, which leaves some room for other conceptions of God. Here are some we thought of:

Totalitarian God. He is everywhere, and he is watching you.

Multitasking God. Answers prayers by phone, fax and BlackBerry, all at the same time.

Noncommittal God. Loves his children, but isn't "in love" with them.

Isn't this fun? If you can think of other "Gods," send them along and we'll publish a list of the best.

If you send an e-mail to Best of the Web (opinionjournal@wsj.com), please comment on your proposed God. I would like to see them. I will recognize the best "other Gods" if I get enough comments. But given that I've posted once in a month, I doubt I will.

Don't expect anything until after next week. I will try to blog some again after next week.

Carol Bouchard -- Remembering Just One of the 2,996

2006-09-10T15:05:00.000-04:00

As the size of a project grows, so grows the chance of becoming overwhelmed. In my church, which is Christian, we have this discussion all the time. Christians struggle to save all the souls of mankind. It is our calling. We are not to do it by force or intimidation, however. We are to do it with love and revelation.

We will never succeed to save the world. Nor can any one of us, or any one church, send missionaries to the entire world. So each person and group must pick our missions, be they foreign or domestic, and do them as well as we can. There comes a time when one has a lost soul in front of us asking for direction. We must not fail to try to reach that soul. Just that one. Among millions. Every lost soul is worth saving.

An analogous problem faced one whose idea was to honor those who died in the attacks on America on 9/11. How do you honor 2,996 people who lost their lives at the hands of evil men? The solution, thought up by The 2,996 Project, was to let bloggers tackle the problem one person and one blogger at a time. So I accepted my duty to honor one soul that met its maker on 9/11. I honor Carol Bouchard.

*********************************************************************************

This task is daunting. I am asked to honor a life I did not personally know. So I will do my best to give you the basics of this important person whose life is missed by many friends and family members.

Carol Bouchard was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11 on 9/11/2001. She lived in Warwick, Rhode Island where she worked as an emergency room secretary at Kent Hospital. She had a sense of humor that many people commented about, and she was considered a friend who was always willing to lend a helping hand. She did her part to give back to her community. Among her efforts was her participation in a mentor program for local youth. She left behind her husband, Fred, pictured at right.

Many of the passengers that perished on the airplanes were professionals flying for business as they had done many times before. Not so with Carol. According to her friends and family, she was on her way to Las Vegas with a friend, Renee Newell, but she was reluctant to go because she was afraid to fly. She overcame that fear to join her friend on that trip.

I imagine Carol regularly overcame similar obstacles to achieve what needed to be done in her life. As I visited various tribute sites, I have learned that Carol was an etremely kind woman who passed only because she wanted to take some time to enjoy life with a friend. She left behind a family and co-workers and friends that loved her dearly.

Our world lost an important soul on 9/11 when Flight 11 was used as a weapon by evil men. Carol Bouchard's death is not one to be overlooked on a long list of names we don't know. Her's was a life to be cherished and missed, and those she touched before she left should remind us all of this special person we lost 5 years ago.

God bless Carol Bouchard and those who feel most personally that void from her loss. May her passing remind us all of the preciousness of the fragile life that God has given us, and may we all be inspired to live it fully for ourselves and others.

Never Forget, Nurses are Strong

2006-09-09T09:48:00.000-04:00

tee bee

What is it KJ would call this?

PORTLAND, Ore. — A nurse returning from work discovered an intruder armed with a hammer in her home and strangled him with her bare hands, police said.
Susan Kuhnhausen, 51, ran to a neighbor's house after the confrontation Wednesday night. Police found the body of Edward Dalton Haffey, 59, a convicted felon with a long police record.

Something like instant justice, I think.

The Path to 9/11

2006-09-08T14:30:00.000-04:00

tee bee

Hyscience has a post up about The Path to 9/11 and Losing Bin Laden.

After all the cries of Bush failure for not nabbing Bin Laden, it prompts the question: if Clinton botched the capture (on more than one occassion, it appears) why is Bush being held accountable for someone else's cleaning bill?

Good stuff. I may have to watch The Path to 9/11, if it ever makes it out of the can.

Signs of the Apocalypse

2006-09-04T11:54:00.000-04:00

tee bee

Gad! -- Tigerhawk is right.

Really. I thought he was being facetious, but he's not when he says:

I agree with Atrios.
It's a dangerously wrong view of the world.
...
I'm just saying that the Consensus View of Sensible Technocrats has been pretty disastrous for a lot of people. Sensible Technocrats are above of all driven by the belief that They Are Right.

And it's why - pragmatic as I consider myself to be - I am loathe to hoist anything other than the cross or the jolly roger above my flagship.

I think the great danger here is the utopic placebo that's inherent in groupthink.

Time to Surrender

2006-08-18T13:33:00.000-04:00

tee bee

Anybody coming with me? I'll need someone to wave the white flag - my hands will be full.

I suspect Cassandra's will be, too. After all, it's stupid to surrender to just anyone.

CP @ GMC.

'If we can turn the tide on this epidemic, it will unleash a burst of energy'

2006-08-16T15:09:00.000-04:00

tee bee

An interesting article: "Beating this Epidemic Will Mark a High Point for Humanity."

The vulnerability of the world's women has dominated the International AIDS Conference, though the official theme of 'time to deliver' hasn't been forgotten.
'If we can turn the tide on this epidemic, it will unleash a burst of energy and belief and human potential that I think will spill over' –Bill Clinton
A concerted attempt involving a wide range of efforts is needed if HIV/AIDS is to be beaten, former American president Bill Clinton said in a presentation at the International AIDS Conference yesterday.

CP @ GMC.

'They are patriots'

2006-08-11T19:14:00.000-04:00

tee bee

Jenna posts about Andrew Gimson's column in the Times Online, "Americans will die for liberty."

As I commented at Jenna's, I was touched by that article too, especially when I expect many here and abroad are crowing about this payback to Bush's crony, Blair, and how the evil neocons have created this terrible backlash of terrorism.

It was refreshing that not only did someone see through the smoke and blather, but they looked beyond themselves, the cultural divide and the national boundaries, and beyond our own harsh critics.

And someone printed it.

This should be today's required reading.

Not Necessarily the News

2006-08-11T17:05:00.000-04:00

tee bee

At the end of a long week of political turmoil, regional strife, thwarted terrorism and faux-to blogging, Marybeth points to a little levity over at the Banterist:

The 2006 Photo(shop) Journalism Awards.

My favorite:

"Israeli helicopters converge on a group of happy children having a wonderful day and minding their business. (Adnan Hajj for Reuters)"

Oy!

Follow the Money

2006-08-11T15:36:00.000-04:00

tee bee

Rightroots update:

That dude who ran against Lieberman did it with a fair share of netroots cash.

Rightroots: Oasis or Mirage?

2006-08-04T11:42:00.000-04:00

tee bee

Who's jumping on the Rightroots bandwagon?

Rightroots is an Emily's List - or more accurately, netroots* - for "candidates who actually want to win the War on Terror, secure our borders, and cut spending and taxes," according to Patrick Ruffini, the GOP's eCampaign Director. It's being coordinated through ABC PAC.

Who's behind Rightroots? Ruffini notes the founding blogmembers: John Hawkins, Right Wing News; Mary Katherine Ham, Townhall; Robert Bluey, Human Events; Erick Erickson, Redstate; Ed Morrissey, Captain's Quarters; Patrick Hynes, Ankle Biting Pundits; Lorie Byrd, Wizbang.

Congressman Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) has pledged support if Rightroots can raise $26,000 by midnight tonight.

The advantage I see to this is the quick coordination and involvement of the very strong conservative bloggers. I also like the fact that while Rightroots makes recommendations of who needs money and why, they don't designate your contributions - you do.

All that leaves is candidates who give more than lip service to GWOT, border control and fiscal restraint.

If you like it, add it to your blogroll. If not, I'd like to hear about it.

*According to Hawkins, "as of last night about 11:59 PM, the "netroots" had managed to already raise $386,968.31 for [Democratic candidates]."

CP @ BBA.

One Year Later: The Murder of Stephen Vincent

2006-08-03T14:35:00.000-04:00

tee bee

Steven Vincent was murdered in Basra, Iraq, one year ago on August 2, 2005, because he went where other journalists wouldn't.
- Judith Weiss, calling for a blogburst.

My post at VAM:

August 3rd, 2005
Freelance Journalist Body Found
Missing since Tuesday, the body of American freelance journalist Steven Vincent was found today. He had been shot. The interpreter who was accompanying him was wounded. Police are working with the British military and the US Embassy to find the killers. A photo of an Vincent’s body being inspected by an Iraqi security guard
accompanies the article.
BAGHDAD, Aug. 3 (Xinhuanet) — American freelance journalist Steven Vincent has been shot dead in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, Iraqi police and the US Embassy said Wednesday.
"I can confirm to you that officials in Basra have recovered the body of journalist Steven Vincent," embassy spokesman Pete Mitchell said.
Police in Basra said the American journalist, together with his female translator, were abducted Tuesday evening by five gunmen in a police car.
Vincent was shot multiple times while the translator was seriously wounded, police said.

"The US Embassy is working with British military and local Iraqi officials in Basra to determine who is responsible for the death of this journalist," the embassy spokesman said.
One would hope that the media would take up the cause of one of their own. The New York Times gets it right, reporting that "The incident involving the reporter, Steven Vincent, an art critic and freelance writer who had worked in Basra for months, was the first time an American journalist has been attacked and killed during the war. A handful of American journalists have died in vehicle accidents or from illness." The Times does note that 19 of these were apparently targeted attacks.
Clearly, Vincent knew too much.
On Sunday, The New York Times printed an article on its op-ed pages that Mr. Vincent had written about the British military in Basra, in which he sharply criticized the British for allowing religious Shiite parties and clerics to take control of Basra and populate the security forces with their followers.
He wrote that a police lieutenant had confirmed for him that a few fellow officers were carrying out assassinations of former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, apparently in revenge for the oppression of the Shiites under his rule.
"He told me that there is even a sort of ‘death car’: a white Toyota Mark II that glides through the city streets, carrying off-duty police officers in the pay of extremist religious groups to their next assignment," Mr. Vincent wrote.

JW post Via Bill. CP @ GMC.

Whither Liberty Part II

2006-07-28T11:03:00.000-04:00

tee bee

Part of the carryover conversation from Whither Liberty - At Government's Feet or at Its Head? was a discussion of exactly what government should be responsible.

I began with the federal government and delineated what I thought they should be responsible for:

A. Provide for the common defense
1. Support the states in preparing for civil and national defense

B. Promote the general welfare
1. Support commerce through minimal transportation organization and
2. Provide minimal regulation of commerce, seeking to ally states and never to trump them unless civil or national defense are jeopardized by a state's action or law
3. Ensure significant property ownership rights
4. Ensure significant self-protection rights
5. Ensure that taxation never rests inequitably
6. Ensure that taxation never rests heavily or accretes more to the federal government than to the states

C. Secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity
1. Provide reasonable order to the judicial process, explicitely ensuring that no laws contradict Constitutional laws
2. Provide minimal support and framework for states to provide education

Without a working framework of what you believe government should have the power to do, how can you support legislation and candidates?

More importantly, how can you influence them?

CP @ GMC.

Georgia Primary News

2006-07-19T15:50:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was Georgia primary day. I took KJita, to show her what voting was. She even got a Georgia "I voted" sticker from the lady at the booth. She then took mine, also. Since she wore two "I voted" stickers yesterday, I assumed everyone thought she voted Democrat twice. I taught her to say "I voted libertarian."

Anyway, the good news:

The Fair Tax was on the ballot in three Georgia counties yesterday. The results:

Gwinnett County:
Total Votes: 35,755
Yes - 31,068. 86.9%
No - 4,687 13.1%

Cobb County:
Total votes: 39,458
Yes - 33,598. 85.15%
No - 5,860. 14.85%

Fayette County:
Total votes: 11,517
Yes - 9,828. 85.33%
No - 1,689. 14.67%

Big win for the Fair Tax. Now, if we could only get the politicians to take notice.

Also, great news for the people of east Gwinnett and DeKalb County. Cynthia Jihad McKinney was forced into a run off election. Hank Johnson, a former two term commissioner of DeKalb County, took 47% to Cynthia's 48% of the vote. That means, in three weeks, even fewer people will vote to decide who wins the Democratic Primary for Georgia's forth district (and whoever wins the primary will win the election).

Ms. Sheehan was present at Cynthia's expected celebration party last night. Once again, she leaves disappointed.

What a story

2006-07-19T15:14:00.000-04:00

The annual, sort of, blog story is still underway at VC.

Our favorite hero, Brett Barboursville, a man who has risen from the dead more times than John Foregainst Kerry, was last spotted down at Rancho Malario, speeding off into the sunset toward Tijuana, a new face, and possibly a new identity. Meanwhile, Delilah, fresh from an appointment at the ALASE clinic, and the evil arch-fiend KKKarl Rove were experiencing what can only be termed a low polar moment of yaw inertia in Delilah's yummy red Mazda RX8 as she sped to Brett's side, unaware that he was, even then, fleeing the scene.

But at Farouk’s Souk and Pastry Nook, the course of true love ne'er doth run smooth. Given the events of the past year and Joe and Val Wilson's latest desperate plea for privacy via trial-by-media, we thought it only right to bring Brett back from the dead one. more. freaking. time:

Karl Rove to the butterfly kiss of Delilah's hand reaching across the jet black interior of the Mazda RX8; not the kind of treacly sweet butterfly kiss you see little girls give their Daddies but more the sweat-drenched, not-for-prime-time hot butterfly-on-butterfly action you see on the Nature channel late at night when your wife is out of town and the blinds are closed, her buttery soft digits momentarily caressing the gearshift as she retrieved her Moto Q from the glove compartment; "Brett honey?", she purred, almost as soon as her french-manicured fingers had ceased tripping across the keys as artfully as an exotic dancer from the Camelot in Teddy Kennedy's lap, "Those horrid Wilsons...you heard, I suppose...this changes everything!"...

Go check it out, and maybe contribute a good paragraph or two. Of course, if you haven't read the prior stories, you probably won't enjoy this one.

More Bad News About Global Warming

2006-07-17T16:20:00.000-04:00

Apparently, global warming is preventing the killing of white, knuckle dragging Republikkkans in Nebraska and Kansas.

The 30-county area they serve in central Nebraska and north-central Kansas hasn't had a confirmed tornado for the first six months of this year. That hasn't happened since 1950.

Global warming treatens the life of nearly everyone on the planet, especially women, children, minorities and Palestinians.

But isn't it just like a Bush-Reich environmental disaster to stop killing the trailer park communities of the white, Red Staters in the mid-west?

Set Your TiVo Now

2006-07-17T00:07:00.000-04:00

Comedy Central has finally grown a pair and will air the Scientology South Park episode again.

Comedy Central plans to air the Emmy-nominated episode on July 19. It was last scheduled to rerun in March but was abruptly pulled by the network.

The network said, hey, nothing unusual.

The network rotates its 150 episodes of "South Park" in and out of the broadcast schedule, spokesman Tony Fox said Wednesday. "This episode just happens to be rotating back in," he said.

Parker and Stone call BS.

The show's co-creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, were told in May that the episode was pulled from the schedule to appease Cruise and his partners in "Mission: Impossible III," according to reports.

Then they exercised their creative market power.

"If they hadn't put this episode back on the air, we'd have had serious issues, and we wouldn't be doing anything else with them," Stone said in Wednesday's edition of the trade paper Variety.

'Bout time.

This is one of the funniest episodes you will ever see. It is really a classic, though I would suggest that you probably won't like it that much if you belong a money grubbing, litigation happy cult that believes that we are all inhabited by stress causing aliens and that science fiction writers have the answers to life all the while pretending to be a religion for tax reasons.

No particular reason for that comment. I just don't think that is this show's demographic.

When Muslims Go Too Far

2006-07-16T06:22:00.000-04:00

A report from Katahkstan claims that a chicken laid an egg. Well, there is more to the story.

A chicken in a Kazakh village has laid an egg with the word "Allah" inscribed on its shell, state media reported Thursday.

"Our mosque confirmed that it says 'Allah' in Arabic," Bites Amantayeva, a farmer from the village of Stepnoi in eastern Kazakhstan, told state news agency Kazinform.

"We'll keep this egg and we don't think it'll go bad."

You realize that this can only escalate the war against the Christian world. Now we Christians will have to step up our battle over signs. We will see the Virgin Mary in the water stains of an underpass on I-65 or a grilled cheese sandwich (see right). Jesus' image will appear on moldy bread in Aunt Gertie's cupboard.

This is not going to be pretty. We need to disarm and stop this religious war quickly.

Any one for an omelet?

Open Letter to Tucker Carlson

2006-07-15T10:11:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite talking head shows is The Situation with Tucker Carlson show on MSNBC (Tucker's blog). I discovered it when it was on at 11pm M-Th nights and watched it when I could. MSNBC however has had nothing but disaster in that time slot. The network tried Donohue, which of course sucked bottom. Then they tried Dennis Miller, whom I enjoy greatly. But its ratings failed, and Dennis wasn't that great of a moderator at times. I do wish him the best in getting some type of talk show, whether it's political or not. Now they have Tucker's show.

Many people remember Tucker for being one of the right wing hacks (everyone was a 'hack') on Crossfire, and particularly the one that Jon Stewart called an "asshole." Takes one to know one I suppose. But Tucker and all the other hosts of that show were doing what CNN wanted as best as I can tell. It was a show about talking over each other, as many talking head shows become when more than one guest is on, or when anyone tries to talk over Nancy Grace or Bill O'Reilly.

Tucker's new show, however, does not suffer that problem. I have evaluated Tucker politically as an anti-Iraq war conservative with some of the good libertarian leanings. He regularly has segments with viewpoints opposing his own, but he talks to them politely, uses appropriate wit, and when he needs to cut them off to stay on point or time, he does so as politely as one can. He has a comfortable wit and I think the guy would be a hoot to drink with. Or maybe he is just a good actor. Doubt it.

Due to ratings issues, MSNBC recently changed its schedule. As of the July 4 week, Tucker's live time of 11pm was moved to 4 pm with a rerun at 6 pm. Before, I watched Tucker when I could and when I thought about it and the Braves weren't in a close game that the bullpen would eventually lose. Now, I TiVo him. In that sense, I will probably watch him more often that before. But I have complaints, because with the time change, there also came a format change.

In the old format, Tucker had a couple of regular guests, including Max Kellerman of ESPN and a segment with a liberal, usually some lady from Air America. When I say regular, I mean practically every night - I know Max was on every night. Max's job was to argue one or two issues as a devil's advocate -- no matter Tucker's position, he had to argue the other side. It was often a hoot as Tucker would force him to defend Nazi-loving NAMBLA members who counterfeit money, or whatever. I have yet to see either of those guests in the new format.

Instead, Tucker now has a segment called "Beat the Media." Its purpose is to take clips from MSNBC competitors and make fun of the hosts in some way. I suppose it would be funny if it weren't for the fact that many of the most ridiculous news programing is on MSNBC, other than Tucker of course. I understand why. Apparently Keith Olbermann runs the show since he is the only guy with a real audience, and his show is dedicated to (1) bashing the current administration and (2) bashing Bill O'Reilly. But this segment is beneath Tucker, and I think (and hope) he seems a little uncomfortable with this clear sour grapes approach to entertainment.

Hey, execs at MSNBC, don't turn Tucker Carlson into some self-important petty ankle biter of the competition like Keith Olbermann. Put him back in the 11 pm hour. No one is watching "Inside Reports: Lock up in an Arkansas Women's Prison." Except me of course, but that is purely for research purposes.

Masters In The Obvious

2006-07-15T00:01:00.000-04:00

An aquarium nut has noticed an unfortunate side effect to adopting two sharks. His fish disappear.

"These were ordered by, I believe a dentist, and when he saw that they were good-sized sharks (and) they wouldn't fit in his tank, they needed a home or they were going to die," Valentine said. The new additions to his tank have made snacks out of his other fish.

"They're not as hungry as normally today because they just ate one of our donated puffer fish," Valentine said. The puffer fish are not the only ones to fall victim to the sharks, Dwyer reported.

"We had a nice display of some angels, a couple of raffs and about 40 damsels. When the sharks were entered in the tank about a month ago, they're all gone," Valentine said.

As we know from pro-Saddam liberals, if the fish aren't in the tank now, they probably were never there.

He also has four children. I hope he doesn't encourage them to go swimming.

World Ends -- Women Hurt Most

2006-07-14T02:55:00.000-04:00

A new study reveals that women who work long hours are more likely to eat poorly, smoke and do other bad stuff. But men, the study found, are just fine.

"Women who work long hours eat more high-fat and high-sugar snacks, exercise less, drink more caffeine and, if smokers, smoke more than their male colleagues," said Dr. Daryl O'Connor, a researcher at Leeds University.

"For men, working longer hours has no negative impact on exercise, caffeine intake or smoking," O'Connor said in a statement released by the Economic and Social Research Council, which funded his study.

One can see the clear Catch-22 here. Our employers tend to reward hard workers, but we like good looking, hard workers. Since the hard working women are fat, high strung, and smelly from smoking, they don't get the promotion. The good looking women are of course not working hard, so they don't get the promotion. That leaves only us men, who thankfully are not judged so harshly on our looks.

God is good.

Animal News

2006-07-13T23:54:00.000-04:00

This man from Alabamastan gets the death penalty if Cassandra (see #27 on the link) is on the jury.

What gets terrorists fired up? Kangaroos:

Residents of the northeast Georgia town of Dawsonville are befuddled by news that an 87-acre kangaroo farm is listed among sites nationwide that are considered a prime target for terrorists. [T]he report released Tuesday by the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security caught the town by surprise.

Ya think? I wonder why.

The inspector general found that the National Asset Database includes "unusual or out-of-place" sites whose presence tainted the credibility of the list.

No kidding. As the Sheriff said, "If it's because they think it's a place that draws crowds, a Wal-Mart is a lot more dangerous than a kangaroo farm." Does anyone really (I mean really) doubt that Homeland Security is wasting at least 80% of the tax dollars being funneled through that moras?

In life's continuing effort to immitate art, "snakes on a plane":

Dutch customs officials found a live poisonous snake in a package sent by airmail from Hong Kong to a collector in the Netherlands.

Officials said customs inspectors thought the snake was a rubber gag gift when they first scanned the package.

However, the inspectors learned that the snake was a live creature when they noticed it moving. [Ed. note: You can't get anything past those "inspectors."]

Officials don't know if the snake might have posed a threat to passengers had it escaped, as in the upcoming movie "Snakes on a Plane."

Snakes on a Plane.

How can that movie be anything but a blockbuster?

Thoughts on the GWOT

2006-07-13T17:31:00.000-04:00

tee bee

I've posted a piece I've been working on for several weeks:Pro GWOT Since December 21, 1988.

It's become increasingly important in terms of support and strategy for the war that we acknowledge the locus as well as the broader roots of what we are up against.

It's a long piece, so I'll only post excerpts.

I've posted a piece I've been working on for several weeks:Pro GWOT Since December 21, 1988.It's become increasingly important in terms of support and strategy for the war that we acknowledge the locus as well as the broader roots of what we are up against.It's a long piece, so I'll only post excerpts.

...
I threatened back then to cull my unflinching support for the war from any perceived Bush loyalty in another post.
Here it is - the day the Global War on Terror began.
In 1988, terrorists took down a Pan Am plane over Lockerbie, Scotland (1, 2, 3, 4), killing 270 people, including eleven citizens of Lockerbie. A bomb detonated in the forward hold, causing the plane to dump passengers and debris over the 81 mile trail of the crash.
The world held its breath as the suspected terrorists were hunted; no one doubted that it was again the work of terrorists demanding either money for their cause or for the release of their fellow terrorists.
...
Regardless of whether you believe the terrorists behind the Lockerbie massacre were Libyan or Syrian, the fact remains that before Lockerbie went down, virtually every terrorist attack had taken place on soil or the air route of a sympathetic nation or in distant points where we had military presence.
Lockerbie signaled a sea change: These hyperactive and ideologically unified terrorists were opposed to the idea and ideals of the West - not simply any inroads or presence in their homelands by Westerners - and were now determined bring to the battle to our doorstep with as violent and costly results as possible.

CP @ BBA.

Get Gymkata In DVD

2006-07-13T04:06:00.000-04:00

Sleeping on the job has its punishment. You see, I needed your help. One of the most inept, inexplicably bad "sports" movies, actions movies, and general release movies of all time is Gymkata. "What is Gymkata?" you ask. Well, I've talked about this movie before, but here goes.

According to the tag line, it is "The skill of gymnastics, the kill of karate." Personally, I'd put my money on Hoyce Gracie everytime. Nonetheless, this movie has the script of a 10 year old, the acting quality of an elementary production of Peter and the Wolf, and the sound effects of a Bugs Bunny Movie. It is unintentional hilarity.

In 1985, Kurt Thomas had just competed and won something in the Olympics. Since it was OK to love your country in 1985, and many Olympians were still amatuers, many Olympic athletes were determined to cross over into money making careers. Thomas decided to pretend to be an actor, and his dream, Gymkata was made.

The plot is certainly unique. Johnathan Cabot (Thomas) is a champion gymnast. In the tiny, yet savage, country of Parmistan, there is a perfect spot for a "star wars" site. For the US to get this site, they must compete in the brutal "Game." No one has won the game in 900 years. That is right. 900 years. So to be prepared, Cabot trains for TWO MONTHS! Cabot, the son of a former operative, must win the game to get the star wars site approved. Cabot must combine his gymnastics skills of the west with fighting secrets of the east and form the absurd: GYMKATA!

So, how does the plot go, you ask? This is the best site to explain it: I-Mockery. I encourage you to read the summary from beginning to end. I know he tells you how the story ends, but it is OK. This is not a movie with the element of surprise. This is not Sixth Sense, trust me.

Where does Gymkata rate in the movie world? Well, it is Maxim's 17th Worst Movie all time. That was generous, actually. I have read other reviews that place it in much worse positions, including the worst sports movie of all time, and the worst movie of all time, but I can't find them on line.

In any event, there was an election being held by Amazon to vote to release this classic movie onto DVD. Here is another place to vote for Gymkata's DVD release. Like a Georgia democrat who still does not have to show ID, I voted often. But had I been on the ball, I could have appealed to my mass body of readers to vote for Gymkata as well. Alas, voting ended July 1, and the winners will be anounced in August.

Don't listen to this guy -- a Gymkata hater. If Gymkata is chosen, add it to your collection.

Gay* Thursday 7/13/2006

2006-07-13T00:37:00.000-04:00

The return of Gay* Thursday brings us the biggest, happiest, athletic event that the French speaking, boring, socialized medicine loving Canadians have organized since 1976. The First Annual World Out Games, which fairly could be called the Happy Games, is about to start. This is, if they can get the atheletes into the country.

Organizers of an international event in Montreal for gay, lesbian and transgendered athletes say some participants are having trouble getting into Canada, prompting a public appeal to federal Immigration Minister Monte Solberg.

Just two weeks before the games are to begin, 242 foreign participants are still waiting for visas, say organizers for the 1st World Outgames.

The Visa problems may be due in part because of discrimination against gays, though not directly by Canada.

Noel St. Pierre, an immigration lawyer in Montreal, told CBC that several of those rejected entry into Canada were told it was because they have criminal records.

St. Pierre said he was investigating the nature of the criminal records, since many of the invited athletes face prosecution in their home countries for being homosexual.

Yep. They are criminals, though their criminal record might be solely related to their one qualification for these games.

Would Mrs. Tingle call this ironic?

* Gay: 1 a : happily excited : MERRY b : keenly alive and exuberant : having or inducing high spirits 2 a : BRIGHT, LIVELY b : brilliant in color

For more Gay* Thursday fun, check out A Guide to Midwestern Culture.

More Soccer News

2006-07-10T19:21:00.000-04:00

Today's government run schools are turning our nation into a bunch of mindless, spineless, wimps. No tollerence policies are instituted to prevent administraters from having to exercise their mind and think, and everything from grading with colors to the playground is becoming a feeling sensitive pansy land.

But, when you decide to ban soccer, as school in Charlestown, S.C. did recently, it somehow doesn't feel so bad.

H/t: Best of the Web.

Carnival of Liberty LII

2006-07-09T19:10:00.000-04:00

The one year anniversary of the Carnival of Liberty was celebrated on July 4. Check it out at Unrepentant Individual.

There was a time, when I was more active, that participated in this Carnival on a regular basis. Perhaps I will get busy blogging again, but sadly, I am more than busy enough doing things that pay the private school tuition.

Oh, and if you don't like the Carnival of Liberty, you're a stinking commie.

Soccer Still Sucks

2006-07-09T17:10:00.000-04:00

Anyone who is a regular reader here knows two things: (1) my last few months of blogging has been rather boring (thanks to tee bee for getting anything done here); and (2) I hate the guts and livers of soccer. And unlike Danny Lombard, I have seen soccer and understand it.

Well, the World Cup is over.

Soccer sucks. It leads to famine, disease, gay gangs terrorizing cities (see photo above) and civil war. And we all know that all World Cup games end in 0-0 tie followed by shoot outs. That is, unless a team scores on a penalty kick or corner kick. No one ever scores during normal play. Nope. Peanlty kicks, corner kicks and the inevidible shoot out because no one can score in over time either.

Don't believe me? Watch the championship game when it replayed tonight on your local spanish speaking station. Here is what you will see:

France's only goal, Zidane's penalty kick in the seventh minute, was the lone score by an Italy opponent in seven games.

The Italians put the ball into the net 12 minutes later on Materazzi's header off a corner kick.

Then no one scores again. So Italy wins the game in a shoot out.

Ketchup

2006-06-27T13:06:00.000-04:00

tee bee

We flew out to California yesterday... got up at 3:45am to catch the Van Galder bus into O'Hare, just barely made our US Air flight to Phoenix (the TSA didn't think L should be allowed through security. In fairness, he did keep beeping everytime he went through the metal detector).

I'd be posting pics of Phoenix, which is an awesome moonring of mountains rising from the flat bottom of the valley, except that we had just enough time to get to our next flight and board. I'll make up for it when we hit the road and get to the Grand Canyon. And the Tetons. And Yellowstone (the one in Wyoming, not the one in Wisconsin). And Mt. Rushmore. And lots of the other places we will be seeing.

Road Trip!!!!

In the meantime, cross your fingers that I can get my mother-in-law set up with DSL while we're here. This dial-up AOhelL is going to give me a stroke.

One other thing... you could vote for me if you're so inclined. I'm up for blog of the week at MKE. I don't really know what they do or what the award might signify, since I've never heard of the blogs I'm up against, and if I had heard of them it would probably be a sure-fire sign that I should be trailing in fifth out of the five. I do appreciate their mission to get podunk blogs like mine exposure, since that's a main way we all find each other.

Check it here.

CP @ GMC.

Congress Encouraging Charity

2006-06-27T13:02:00.000-04:00

tee bee

Not. I knew that headline would get your attention, though.I was enjoying a leisurely read of yesterday's paper, getting into the finer points of Warren Buffet's unprecedented and unsurpassed pledge in Monday's Sacramento Bee (they picked up the Yuki Noguchi article from the Washington Post).

"The amount that Buffett is giving is record-breaking," said Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, a District-based newspaper covering the nonprofit world. "The fact that he's giving to the Gateses is unprecedented," she said, because most families have donated to causes in their own name."

It's a pleasant look into the conscience of the uber-rich, until this passage:

Giving away massive amounts of money comes with its own challenges, experts said yesterday, and such large gifts could attract the attention of Congress because foundations aren't regulated.
"We haven't seen that kind of influence all in one pot," Palmer said.

Heaven knows the nation's coffers haven't seen any benefit from that money when it was earned, then when it was invested, and again every time it made a profit.

I hope this isn't true, but the reality is that a politician who isn't chasing tax dollars to control isn't long a politician.

CP @ GMC.

Iraq Amnesty: Tribalism and Religion

2006-06-23T16:43:00.000-04:00

tee bee

Relevant to the conversation in the post "Iraq: Amnesty, Expediency, Failure," Jib posted on the article by Steven Pressfield, which argues in some ways perpindicular to my observations and in some ways parallel:

Islam is not our opponent in Baghdad or Fallujah. We delude ourselves if we believe the foe is a religion. The enemy is tribalism articulated in terms of religion.
For two years I've been researching a book about Alexander the Great's counterguerrilla campaign in Afghanistan, 330-327 B.C. What has struck me most powerfully is that that war is a dead ringer for the ones we're fighting today -- even though Alexander was pre-Christian and his enemies were pre-Islamic.
In other words, the clash of East and West is at bottom not about religion. It's about two different ways of being in the world. Those ways haven't changed in 2,300 years. They are polar antagonists, incompatible and irreconcilable.

I largely agree with Pressman's points, though I believe the formation, scripture and translation of scripture by the different sects encodes the violence against infidels - which includes tribes who call themselves muslim but don't agree on interpretations.

Thus religion can't be said to be separate in any way from how we describe and designate the tribes in question. They certainly wouldn't consider their religion meaningless to who they are and what their goals are.

Brit(ney) Blogging

2006-06-22T15:59:00.000-04:00

tee bee

Following in the footsteps of many a celebrity spouse, KFed / alias Fed-ex, is trumpeting a cause he has a passion - and time, money and the public eye - for:

"We’re bringing power back to the penny. Man, I feel good about the penny!”

Britney's future former husband is tossing his stove-pipe hat into the political ring for the noble penny. No kidding. Seems the dearth of real work available to Congress has some Yahoo Rep trying to oust the little copper rabbit's foot.

Am I the only one feeling nostalgic for that grand scheme from Office Space where the guys are going to get rich by diverting all those fractional cents into a separate bank account?

For once, I'm down with homey. Especially since someone had the presence of mind to make sure Mr. Spears didn't use the microphone to belt anything beyond pro-penny slogans backed by Virgin Group's Virgin Mobile and Americans for Common Sense.

CP @ GMC.

Iraq: Amnesty, Expediency, Failure

2006-06-17T11:50:00.000-04:00

tee bee

Amnesty. It's showing up again as a political bargaining chip, this time in Iraq.

From the Washington Post:

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Wednesday proposed a limited amnesty to help end the Sunni Arab insurgency as part of a national reconciliation plan that Maliki said would be released within days. The plan is likely to include pardons for those who had attacked only U.S. troops, a top adviser said.
Maliki's declaration of openness to talks with some members of Sunni armed factions, and the prospect of pardons, are concessions that previous, interim governments had avoided. The statements marked the first time a leader from Iraq's governing Shiite religious parties has publicly embraced national reconciliation, welcomed dialogue with armed groups and proposed a limited amnesty.

Rather than seeing it for the politically savvy pretzel-logic maneuver it is, some would have you believe that "Iraqi government does NOT support the U.S. troops."

One might as well say of the amnesty programs for illegal immigrants in the US that Congress and the President do not support American workers. Twisted thinking applied to a twisted attempt at gaining consensus.

Johnny, whose blog deck generally echoes my sentiments but with a left lean (and a left-leaning "patriotism" equation) , notes Bush's recent surprise visit to Iraq followed by Iraqi PM Maliki's amnesty proposal, and hits the nail square on the head:

Yesterday, Maliki announced an amnesty plan for insurgents. Specifically, as long as insurgents (or are they terrorists?) "weren't involved in the shedding of Iraqi blood", they would be granted amnesty. That means, insurgents who attacked, maimed, and/or killed U.S. troops would be forgiven [emphasis his].
Is there outrage? Are the so-called defenders of the troops calling for Maliki's head? No. On the day we reach 2,500 killed boys and girls in Iraq, the Republican chickenhawks are glad to offer amnesty to their killers.

Here you go, Johnny:

I protest. I am furious. This is a slap in the face to the people who shed their own blood and gave their lives so the Iraqis could come to terms - in peace.

Coming to terms through violence should have been put down and those involved must be brought in and tried for their crimes. Maliki is "making moves" with a "security crackdown," and seeks a necessary reconciliation. However, words and policies should affirm actions, not betray them.

Politically, the Iraqis may see this as akin to repatriating enemy combatants after the war. That may be fine for the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and perhaps for those caught up in the Iraqi infighting - providing they do not return to the field of combat. It's not appropriate for those who have killed ANY of the troops that put the Iraq government in place. A house divided against itself cannot stand. To count the coalition as some external designation is to create a myth that will create a permanent fracture in the long run.

But Johnny and others make a mistake if they attempt to put this political stripe on conservatives. It's a political maneuver as old as Menalaeus, and its name is neither Democrat nor Republican.

Its name is expediency. And done in this fashion, it's dead wrong.

CP @ GMC.

Something Good

2006-06-07T10:05:00.000-04:00

Cassandra linked this site today. Read her essay.

The site shows some of the photos from Iraq we can only get on the internet or from family and friends actually there. Just to make sure I can find it when I want, though, I'm linking it here and directing you to it.

Thank God For Lawyers

2006-06-05T16:51:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I know we often bring frivilous lawsuits designed to unfairly hurt the Man. But sometimes we are doing God's work. Like here.

The father of a Marine whose funeral was picketed by anti-gay protesters from a fundamentalist Kansas church filed an invasion-of- privacy suit against the demonstrators Monday.
It is believed to be the first lawsuit brought by a soldier's family against Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., whose members routinely demonstrate at military funerals around the country.

Albert Snyder of York, Pa., the father of Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, is seeking unspecified damages. The younger Snyder, 20, died March 3 after an accident in the Al Anbar province of Iraq. He was buried in Westminster, Md.

"We think it's a case we can win because anyone's funeral is private," Snyder lawyer Sean Summers said. "You don't have a right to interrupt someone's private funeral."

Members of Westboro say the military deaths in Iraq are God's punishment for America's tolerance of gays. They typically carry signs with slogans such as "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for IEDs," a reference to the roadside bombs used by insurgents.

The church has inspired dozens of state laws banning funeral protests, including a Maryland law that did not go into effect until after Snyder's memorial.

Shirley Phelps-Roper, a spokeswoman for the small congregation, said it is the first time Westboro has been sued by a soldier's family.
"We were exercising our First Amendment rights," she said.

Last I checked, harassment was not a first amendment right. Plus, many of these soldiers were not "public figures." I know the arguments that the Church's lawyer will likely make. I'm sure the ACLU will take on this case. They always defend the free speech rights of degenerates, but hardly ever decent folk. Still, I think this suit has some legs.

Good luck Mr. Snyder and Mr. Summers.

Two Brave Frenchmen

2006-05-26T12:06:00.000-04:00

What?! you ask. Let me explain. No, there is no time. Let me sum up:

Every liberal who willing to be rude claims to be brave, but we know better.

Now, this is bravery:

Who are the only two persons in France willing to go in the middle of this crowd [Muslims protesting the Danish cartoons], with a fake, freshly-cut hand holding a drawing pencil, and two posters hanging around their neck saying "free cartoonist" and "Support Denmark / Support Free Speech" (on a Danish flag background)? Arthur Wneir and Erik Svane of course!

Yeah, and they are French.

Our liberals could learn a lot from the French. Well, some of the French, anyway.

Stuff

2006-05-25T11:22:00.000-04:00

Look, I've got to post something, I know. So I'll use other people's hard work.

So, this is really really funny.

At Ayn Rand Nude Volleyball Camp, our motto is: objectivism r fun! Here you'll socialize with other marginal, slack-butted misfits as well as pimple-scabbed teenagers using great big words. We'll also study the objectivist theory of volleyball, in which we use rubber spheres to represent balls, thus providing a perceptual framework for meaningless gibberish.

And it ends with the traditional Ayn Rand Costume Ball, in which we dress as our favorite two-dimensional Rand caricature, then pair off to have joyless sexual intercourse.

So is this.

Without the pictures:

Wait, I think I understand now. Da Vinci was...

Shut up!

Why, do you think someone's listening?

No. You had me at Da Vinci.

Look, just hit the link.

And now...

... In more serious stuff, you wonder why I am fed up with the Republican party? That extremely cool guy Taranto sums it up:

"House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) told President Bush yesterday that he is concerned the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) raid on Rep. William Jefferson's (D-La.) congressional office over the weekend was a direct violation of the Constitution," reports the Hill:

Jefferson is being investigated to see if he influenced legislation in exchange for a number of elaborate, illegal payment schemes, including a single cash payment of $100,000, most of which was discovered in his freezer during a later raid of his home.

Calling the Saturday-night raid an "invasion of the legislative branch," House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) predicted the case would eventually be resolved in the Supreme Court and hinted that Congress would take further action. The majority leader said Hastert would take the lead on the issue because he is the chief constitutional officer in the House. "I am sure there will be a lot more said about this," Boehner said.

National Review's Byron York concedes that the raid "raises serious separation of powers issues" but reports that the Justice Department has taken "extraordinary care . . . to address those issues." First, investigators tried but failed to get Jefferson to turn over the evidence they needed. Then, the raid, according to the warrant authorizing it, was "conducted by special agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation who have had no substantive role in the investigation" in order to prevent any "politically sensitive" information from being disclosed.

In any case, Hastert and Boehner's objections are bound to rub many Republican constitutents the wrong way. After all, the first plank of the Contract With America was a promise to "require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress." Something like this makes it harder to argue that the GOP deserves to maintain its majority.

No kidding. Someone needs to shake up the Republicans. They are as lost as the Democrats on so many issues.

Finally,

creatism explained nicely and neatly, for all godless commy Darwinists to choke on.

Lawyerly Lit

2006-05-19T18:12:00.000-04:00

tee bee

It was a maxim with Mr. Brass that the habit of paying compliments kept a man’s tongue oiled without any expense; and that, as that useful member ought never to grow rusty or creak in turning on its hinges in the case of a practitioner of the law, in whom it should be always glib and easy, he lost few opportunities of improving himself by the utterance of handsome speeches and eulogistic expressions

If there were no bad people there would be no good lawyers.

Charles Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop

When one wanted one’s interests looking after whatever the cost, it was not so well for a lawyer to be over honest, else he might not be up to other people’s tricks.

George Eliot, The Radical

A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect.

Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering

Long Time No See

2006-05-16T16:29:00.000-04:00

I'm going to get some posting done. First, where did I go last week?

I did a Disney Cruise on the Disney Wonder ship (see below - click on ship for blow up picture). It was primarily for KJita's benefit of course. It was also my first cruise, so it was a new experience for me. I'm sure that to some extent, Disney's experience is somewhat unique. My thoughts:

Not really a cheap vacation. Food was plentiful and "free" but the alcohol (read beer) was about 4-5 bucks a pop. I smuggled some Makers Mark on board, so I didn't have to buy any sipping drinks. I did like the "beer" deal though. For $9.99 you buy a nice Disney mug (22 oz.). You then pay the price from any bar for their tap beer which is normally served in 16 oz. glases. You get the 6 oz. free. I made money on that deal.

I'm kind of a space person. I felt like I had to go into the hall to change my mind, and I had one of the mid to upper level priced rooms. Which means nothing, really, as to size of the room. There are only about a half dozen bigger rooms on the boat. Your room cost is based mostly on (1) location (stay away from the engine), (2) middle of boat for smoother ride, (3) near the elevators, and (4) exterior room (meaning you get a view and/or a balcony).

Service was great. Food was quite good. Drinks were not outrageous. They were cheaper than Turner Field, but I hated paying for them.

The Disney private island and beach was pretty cool. Great investment by Disney I'm sure.

The Disney characters were mostly good, but Pochahanntus looked Native Philipino, not Native American. Mulan looked as asian as Tiger Woods (yes, he is 50% asian), and as black as well. Aurora (left), KJita's favorite princess, was a little old for the job. I mean, c'mon, Aurora is only 16 in the movie. Cinderella was hot. Smokin'. So was Belle. Snow White was the least attractive, but she is in the cartoon as well, so that was expected.

The staff took my daughters' pillow case, which we brought for the autographs, and had all the characters sign it, so we didn't have to wait in lines for all of them unless KJita wanted a picture. Which she did quite often. Other characterws included, of course, the Mice (below right, with Kwan), Donald, Goofey, Pluto, Chip and Dale, Peter Pan, Hook and Smee, Stitch, and others.

The Broadway type shows were fun, but they were not Broadway shows per say. For example, they did not have the Broadway version of the Lion King or Beauty and the Beast. The first night they did a short musical based on the Disney movie Hercules. It was funny, especially the Hades character. The next two nights were shorts celebrating Walt Disney, the movies, etc. Enough Disney already!

The duty free shop on the ship had a good selection of Scotch. I do not understand why KJita can't bring a bottle back into the states though. That hurt. The Johnny Walker Blue was $135 on the ship, but I waited and found it for $132 in Nassau (and also found it on the same block for $156, so it pays to shop around a little). I also got a free leather Johnny Walker duffle bag from the Nassau store. I couldn't find any Macallan 18 in Nassau, so I bought it off the boat.

Personally, I liked it, but I would prefer to go to Sandles/Beaches, where my drinks are free also. Throw in some Disney princesses, and I'm sure I could sell it to KJita as well.

Four days is not really enough though. You have a half day when you board, and last day is wake up, eat and get out! So it is really 2 1/2 days, 3 nights. If I do it again (and I'm sure I will), I'll go a little longer and not so close to tuition time for KJita.

***************************************************************************************
Since I'm not a travel writer, let me tell you about my Manhattan business trip in early April.

I stayed at the QT. In expensive, small rooms. I did this because my conference sold out before I signed up, but it also saved me money on my budget for more drinking and entertainment. It has a weird mixture of nice and cheap. The bed was really comfortable, a rarity in hotels other than Starwood and other high end chains. All rooms have a flat screen TV and DVD player. It had the pay per view, and the towels were as large and nice as anywhere. No tub (which I didn't mind). Very small toilet room though.

The rest of the room? Think Ikea decor, but without the sense of style. Yes, very modern, but not my style. I paid a little extra for a table so I could work (most rooms don't have one). It was small, round and had no drawers. The chair was plastic and uncomfortable. Oh, the room had wireless internet and helpful tech support (yes, I had to call), a fridge and a safe.

The bar at the QT is a hip spot. It was for ultra hip, beautiful people. Not me. Pile On maybe. It looked into the underwater part of the pool.

Overall, fine for a sleeping room and bigger than a cruise ship room. Light on service. If it isn't your money, and you don't need to worry about maxing out your budget, stay at one of the Times Square Starwood or Hyatt family hotels.

I had tickets to a Mets game (the Yanks were out of town). It rained out. Of course, a rainticket was worthless to me. So my impression of Shea Stadium is it sucks, and so do the Mets. But I knew that before I went to New York.

Let me just mention two places I found with a friend on Saturday. Both are in Manhattan in the 30's streets. For a great beer menu, try the Ginger Man. This place is a Pile On wet dream. Around 150 beers on tap as I recall. The food menu sucks though.

Keen's Steakhouse had a better food menu, and 100 Single Malt Scotch selections. Many dollars later, we had spent a lot of my expense budget and not had the same scotch twice. Both are highly recommended for reasons stated.

The Producers, Mel Brooks' Broadway show, was very funny, though I did not get to see Lane and Broderick.

And you thought you could only get stuff like this from Conde Naste?

WWKJD?

2006-05-12T11:46:00.000-04:00

tee bee

Kofi presses Bush to get involved for a change, saying Iran won't show its hand until the cowboy antes up. If the UK, France and Germany are calling the stakes, and it's known that Dubya backs the British and the French proposal of "a resolution under Chapter 7 of the United Nations charter ... invok[ing] economic sanctions or military force...", then what's to be gained by putting this on Condi's dance card?

Would the jury have convicted the priest if KJ'd managed the defense? Doubtful. As one of KJ's trusty research assistants (pro bono), I'd have gone after the letter opener and its makers to demonstrate the availability of similar tools, etc. Then we'd have attacked the "satanic" angle, providing other suspects. That's just for starters.

Pr0n domain tres-equis proposal dumped by ICANN - libertarian victory? " 'It increasingly raised the question of [whether] ICANN was itself now going to be expected to be the enforcer of every jurisdiction’s view of content,' [ICANN Chair Paul Twomey] said... 'Their concern was that people would be forced into that [domain] and it would be a mechanism for censorship,' said Mr Twomey."

'The Year of the Black Republican?'

2006-05-10T13:57:00.000-04:00

tee bee

I was skeptical when I saw the Washington Post headline, "The Year of the Black Republican?"

Black Repubs are nothing new, but the press has usually framed the left/right discourse in terms that Dems view them, generally as anomolous. So I was prepared for another race identity = liberal piece.

But after the usual recital of black/Dem allegiance debts, Dan Balz and Matthew Mosk focus on the political race of the three subjects: Lynn Swann (Governor, Penn.), Michael Steele (Senate, Md.), and Kenneth Blackwell (Governor, Ohio).

The three are running on similar platforms of lower taxes, smaller government, and opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, but they come to their contests with different credentials. Blackwell has a long résumé in elective office and conservative causes. Steele is a former state party chairman but has never been elected on his own. Swann is a true political novice, albeit one with the star quality of a Hall of Fame wide receiver.
All three begin as underdogs. Independent polls have shown Steele starting the campaign as much as 15 points behind the Democratic front-runner. Blackwell trailed by 10 percentage points in a pre-primary Mason-Dixon poll for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Swann trails Rendell in the polls and has lost ground since entering the race earlier this year.

Steele faces a blue state with just under one-third black votership; Swann is a celebrity and a rookie; and Blackwell faces the usual uphill road of a black conservative with a record (the charge: deciding while conservative=corruption).

The Repubs acknowledge strategy at work - ""We've gone from a model of outreach to a model of inclusion," [RNC Chair Ken] Mehlman said. "Outreach is a top-down approach. Inclusion says, 'Let's find some really good people and encourage them to run for office.' "

More to the point, both parties are looking at the long haul of voting patterns and black conservatives "proving" themselves to the left.

Voting patterns may change, and black voters may embrace conservatism and what it offers, but the Dem stance is unlikely to drop its cynicism regardless of the performance of the likes of Steele, Swann and Blackwell.

The Dems' real concern is the money required for these and other key races. Given the appeal of Steele in particular and the other two candidates in general as well as the profile of the offices in question, the demands will be steep.

CP @ GMC.

Vlogging: Learn Something New

2006-05-09T17:30:00.000-04:00

tee bee

Learn something about women while you experience blog's cutting edge, vlogging.

You will also learn about ostracism. And about its source in Islam from Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Muslim from Somalia.

Learn about the art of Theo Van Gogh and the price he paid for it.

And about author Oriana Fallaci. And journalist Atwar Bahjat.

Most of all, learn about courage.

Via Rusty. Hit the play symbol at the bottom left of the screen on the Hot Air page.

CP @ GMC.

Monday Reader

2006-05-08T13:44:00.000-04:00

tee bee

It's Monday! Yay! Aren't you glad you're back in the office, away from those prying kids and whiny spouses? Yeah, who needs free time.

Now that you've got your thinking cap back on, here's some food for thought in short bits. If you're hungry for more, follow the link.

-- Not that you'll ever catch me doing this for fun or protest. But I do want to be there when protest dude snorts a bee. Heh.

-- Dare I say it - the church framed the debate poorly, leaving itself no ground in an increasingly secular society.

-- A family member forwarded a slice of video taken in the early days of the month-long operation. We are pretty sure that the young man in the first half of the video putting on a backpack is Reuben.

-- Two words: Atwar Bahjat. Read the whole thing, it's very important.

Oh heck, this is funny and I don't have to write anything

2006-05-05T12:17:00.000-04:00

Just got this in an e-mail, and I had not heard it before:

A blonde woman was speeding down the road in her little red sports car and was pulled over by a woman police officer who was also a blonde.

The blonde cop asked to see the blonde driver's license. She dug through her purse and was getting progressively more agitated.

"What does it look like?, she finally asked.The policewoman replied, "It's square and it has your picture on it."

The driver finally found a square mirror in her purse, looked at it and then handed it to the policewoman. "Here it is," she said.

The blonde officer looked at the mirror, then handed it back saying,"Okay, you can go. I didn't realize you were a cop."

Outstanding ...

2006-05-05T09:40:00.000-04:00

... and true.

... and funny.

... and outstanding.

... and Cookie!

When Are We Going To Take Global Warming Seriously?

2006-05-04T14:56:00.000-04:00

More bad news on global warming, which we know can cause dams to break and which VP Al Gore told me was really, really bad.

Now, it has caused large hurricanes to become even larger, just like with Katrina.

Jupiter is growing a new red spot and the Hubble Space Telescope is photographing the scene. Backyard astronomers have been following the action, too.

"Red Spot Jr." as it is being called, formed after three white oval-shaped storms—two of which were at least 90 years old—merged between 1998 and 2000.

In other words, these storms are older than we can even measure through modern technology.

Little is known about how storms form on the giant planet. They are often described as behaving similar to hurricanes on Earth. Some astronomers believe that the spots dredge up material deep below Jupiter's clouds and lift it to where the Sun's ultraviolet light chemically alters it to give it a red hue.

The latest images could provide evidence that Jupiter is in the midst of a global change that can modify temperatures by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit on different parts of the globe.

Although the scientists can't explain how or why this is happening, it is the conscesus of the scientific community that this is caused by man made global warming.

Since we know that polution from the United States is what causes climate change, such as the Great Ice Age on Earth more than a million years ago, Hurricane Katrina, and the War/Quagmire In Iraq, it is no surprise that our conduct and refusal to sign Kyoto is responsible for this tragedy on Jupiter.

I only hope that President Bush will do his job and get all the poor Jupiturians of color evacuated in time.

A Modest Proposal

2006-05-02T15:33:00.000-04:00

tee bee

Re: They just want to come here

PaulNoonan wants to open the borders and be free to employ whomever he wants - in an effort to relieve Government of one of its burdens and thereby shrink it.

Chris and I (and many BBA members) want to continue to enjoy the prosperity we've earned through security; it's not that we're against small government, it's that government needs to effect one of its inarguable and sacred duties:

It must protect its citizens and their right to pursue life, liberty and property. Securing the borders must be the job of government, as is raising a standing army and fending off interlopers and attackers.

The failure of securing our borders weakens every aspect of our system, from the burgeoning level of social services available to the freedom to work in the World Trade Center or Pentagon without being blown up.

America is far from the first to engage this problem. Ireland was England's self-made Mexico. Jonathan Swift noted the hard circumstances of the Irish - the poverty and blight that forced them to leave their homes looking for any opportunity, begging, borrowing and stealing - and the burden this caused England.

Swift, an Anglo-Irish political essayist and author of Gulliver's Travels, whose father died before he was born in Dublin, Ireland, made his infamous proposal, which has been reprised many times. PJ O'Rourke's Eat the Rich owes its title to Swift.

I love Mexican food, but I'm not reprising Swift's proposal, though I agree with his assessment:

I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom a very great additional grievance; and, therefore, whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these children sound, useful members of the commonwealth, would deserve so well of the public as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation.

Therefore I offer my humble service and a strategy that will resolve this issue in a manner pleasing to all parties in less than a generation - much more quickly than any other proposal that has yet to be presented:

Annex Mexico now.

What do I ask in return? Swift's visage graces the Irish ten-pound note; let mine grace the new Estados Unidos twenty-five dollar bill.

CP @ GMC.

Does This Qualify as a Self-Fisking?

2006-04-27T20:47:00.000-04:00

tee bee

John O'Sullivan at NRO points to an ABC interview with Robert Fisk (via Tim Blair).

Fisk's starting point is to note that the person in the videotape looks like Zarqawi, which is a blow to the US, but otherwise, isn't so important:

I think it is part of the bestialisation, if you like, of those people we want to hate, in the sense that I think individuals like Zarqawi or bin Laden don't actually matter. It's a bit like, you know, after you make a nuclear bomb, you go around arresting all the nuclear scientists and putting them in prison. It doesn't do any good. The nuclear bomb exists. Al-Qaeda exists.

To quote Jessica Rabbit, Zarqawi's not bad. He's just been drawn that way.

O'Sullivan concludes, "I would guess this would finish him except that nothing ever does. He is kept afloat by the self-deception of his readership."

CP @ GMC.

Now You Know

2006-04-26T14:18:00.000-04:00

Secret prisons you say? How?

So that is how we did it!

More Domestic Wimpyness From President

2006-04-26T11:51:00.000-04:00

How can a President so resolute in the War on Terror and the interrelated War in Iraq be so lame on domestic issues? I wish I knew.

If forced to choose in the post-9/11 world, as we were in 2004, I want a President to lead on the international issues. That is his one nearly unopposed stage. At least his power is limited on the domestic front. He must deal with Congress.

President Bush, depsite showing guts and leadership (even if you disagree with him) in our WOT simply cannot find that same skill (leadership? political courage?) at home. Whether it is capitulating to the pharmacies in a future trillion dollar drug benefit plan (he didn't even insist on bulk buying discounts), reversing the conservative trend of making Federal education policy less intrusive, or bailing on us all by giving up any plan for Social Security reform, Bush cannot find the will to take on a domestic public outcry based on ignorance.

So now, in a speech yesterday (in which he did a good job discussing the positive news about our economy), he has ordered a price fixing investigation on "Big Oil." Give me a break.

Neal Boortz noted as follows this morning:

[Bush's speech was p]andering to the ignorance of the American people. Not one sign of leadership. Just a whimpering submission to the softness that is decaying the American spirit. There's George Bush yesterday sounding more like Jimmy Carter than like a president who is leading his country in a war on terror.

Why these harsh words? Because Bush took the easy way out yesterday. He bowed to the demagoguery of the Democrats and some Republicans. He ordered price-fixing investigations of the oil companies in spite of the fact that there is not one single shred of evidence that any collusion or price fixing is taking place. Over the years there have been many of these investigations. Not once -- not one single time has one of these investigations uncovered any evidence of price fixing by the oil companies.

This was a time for Bush to lead. This was a time for him to step in front of the American people and tell the truth. Educate them! Instead of trying to address the ignorance of the American people on the issue of gas prices, he pandered to that ignorance.

Tony Bleckley has also commented.

One of the things that always made me feel good in the morning was waking up and realizing I did not belong to the same political party as Chuck Schumer. It made me feel clean -- even before I took a shower. But now, with my Republican president pulling a "full Schumer," even a series of showers will not help.

****
It is ugly to see politicians trying to exploit for political gain the economic ignorance, paranoia of large corporations and petty envy that burden elements of the public mind.

But at least for the Schumers of this political world, they can claim in defense that they have become habituated to such demagogic practices through long usage. They can no longer help themselves. They wouldn't know how to function without constantly reciting gibberish to their gullible base voters.

President Bush is a lame duck. He has crappy poll numbers. He would presumably have the freedom to insist on doing the right thing, insist on educating a dumb public (at least trying) on such issues. He keeps educating us about the WOT. But he gives in constantly on the domestic front. I don't mean compromising on points here and there. I mean giving in.

I know President Bush ran on some of his liberal ideas like his drug benefit plan. We were forced to hold our nost and vote for him anyway because we didn't want Sen. Kerry running this war. But President Bush aslo ran on some conservative issues (like private Soc. Sec. acounts) and promised to be, generally, a conservative.

Pres. Bush wants conservative justices like Scalia and Thomas after all. And now we know why. We need them to vote to overturn the bills President Bush has signed into law and to prevent the intrusion on Federalism that his Attorney Generals makes a weekly practice of doing.

And now we need him to quit acting like a liberal New York Senator.

Duke Rape? They are Devils.

2006-04-25T11:16:00.000-04:00

I don't know if the Duke Lacrosse players accused of rape did it, but I certainly find reasons to question the allegation. And I admit, though normally my radar is up on false allegations, when I first heard about this on the news, I didn't think skeptically about it. Now, I suspect that a conviction is all but impossible, and perhaps because the charges are false. But I don't know. I'm not saying they are.

VC examines the issue of race and crime in depth today. It is a very good read deserving of a feature article in a national publication.

To make the subject more interesting, when I was in my last year of law school, I read a report about false rape accusations at a city in the midwest which housed a large university. With a sample size of 109 rape allegations over a 9 year perior, 41% of them were "false." By false, this meant that the accuser admitted to making up the charges, and the recant was deemed credible. No disputed cases, however unlikely, were included in the 'false' category, so the actual number of false charges obviously could be larger. Links to the abstract of the study I found in a few seconds this morning are here and here and here.

This isn't on point to Cassandra's post, but it is related. The motives of admitted fake accusers were usually (1) alibi (2) revenge or (3) sypathy/attention.

I also found Ann Coulter unusually subdued but very insightful on this subject. Her column focused on what each side has to learn.

However the Duke lacrosse rape case turns out, one lesson that absolutely will not be learned is this: You can severely reduce your chances of having a false accusation of rape leveled against you if you don't hire strange women to come to your house and take their clothes off for money. Also, you can severely reduce your chances of being raped if you do not go to strange men's houses and take your clothes off for money. (Does anyone else detect a common thread here?)
****

Whenever a gun is used in a crime, there are never-ending news stories about how dangerous guns are. But these girls go out alone, late at night, drunk off their butts, and there's nary a peep about the dangers of drunk women on their own in public. It's their "right."
Yes, of course no one "deserves" to die for a mistake. Or to be raped or falsely accused of rape for a mistake. I have always been unabashedly anti-murder, anti-rape and anti-false accusation -- and I don't care who knows about it!

But these statements would roll off the tongue more easily in a world that so much as tacitly acknowledged that all these messy turns of fate followed behavior that your mother could have told you was tacky.

Frankly, I'm all in favor of trying this case in the media, but we can't because the accuser is protected by the media's voluntary compliance with "rape shield" laws about identifying rape victims/accusers. Thus, we get "indefinite" details about the accuser, but we don't get to probe the accuser like we do the accused.

The DA seems to want it tried in the media b/c I fear he doesn't think he has a chance at a conviction, but he does have a chance at re-election.

Since we know an awful lot about this case, unlike other cases (see, e.g., Kobe), we might as well try it now. The evidence is mixed. It should make for an intersting drama. Sadly, the people involved are all too real.

Taking A Break

2006-04-24T13:24:00.000-04:00

Hedley Lamarr: My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.

Taggart: God darnit Mr. Lamarr, you use your tongue prettier than a twenty dollar whore.

I have been really busy lately with work and home, but I must admit that my week long silence is not due solely to that. It would be good if I felt like using my typing skills to write as purty as Hedley Lamarr speaks, but I just don't.

I'm not retiring, or quiting, or any of that. I'm just going to go at it a little light right now. I'm not motivated to write. The weather is beautiful, the demands of home, work and other are calling.

In the meantime: watch some Blazing Saddles.

On the subject of Kelo:

Hedley Lamarr: Unfortunately there is one thing standing between me and that property - the rightful owners.

On gun control and substance abuse:

Jim: Then one day I hear "Reach for it, mister." I spun around, and there I was standing face to face with a six year old kid. Well, I just laid down my guns and walked away. Little bastard shot me in the ass. So I limped to the nearest saloon, crawled inside a whiskey bottle, and I've been there ever since.

On race relations:

Lili Von Shtupp: Is it true how zey say zat you people are... gifted?
[Lights go out, sound of zipper opening]
Lili Von Shtupp: Oh. It's twue. It's twue. It's twue, it's twue!

On terrorism:

Taggart: I got it.
Hedley Lamarr: What?
Taggart: Let's kill every first born male child in Rock Ridge.
Hedley Lamarr: Nah, too Jewish.

John Kerry's position on the war on terror:

Reverend Johnson: Now I don't have to tell you good folks what's been happening in our beloved little town. Sheriff murdered, crops burned, stores looted, people stampeded, and cattle raped. The time has come to act, and act fast. I'm leaving.

On men and women:

Lili Von Shtupp: [singing] Here I stand, the goddess of desire / Set men on fire / I have this power. / Morning, noon, and night, it's dwink and dancing / Some quick womancing / And then a shower. / Stage door Johnnies constantly suwwound me / They always hound me, with one wequest. / Who can satisfy their lustful habits? / I'm not a wabbit. / I need some west.

A Little Hymn on the state of middle America:

Church Congregation: [singing] Now is a time of great decision / Are we to stay or up and quit? / There's no avoiding this conclusion: / Our town is turning into shit. Amen.

On Global Warming:

Lyle: Come on, boys! The way you're lollygaggin' around here with them picks and them shovels, you'd think it was a hundert an' twenty degree. Can't be more than a hundert an' fourteen.

On Economics:

[Taggart spots two workers on a hand-cart sinking into quicksand]
Taggart: Oh shit. Quick.
[Lassos the hand-cart and drags it (but not the men) out of the quicksand]
Taggart: Dang that was lucky. Doggone near lost a four hundred dollar handcart.

See you soon.

Blogrant, The Ties That Bind

2006-04-15T17:24:00.000-04:00

tee bee

You didn't think Easter Weekend meant you were relieved of blogging, did you? This is a bonus piece, since it's all about blogging and bloggers, and everyone's blogging it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
This is what the Washington Post finds to write about bloggers today:

SHERMAN OAKS, Calif. -- In the angry life of Maryscott O'Connor, the rage begins as soon as she opens her eyes and realizes that her president is still George W. Bush. The sun has yet to rise and her family is asleep, but no matter; as soon as the realization kicks in, O'Connor, 37, is out of bed and heading toward her computer.
Out there, awaiting her building fury: the Angry Left, where O'Connor's reputation is as one of the angriest of all. "One long, sustained scream" is how she describes the writing she does for various Web logs, as she wonders what she should scream about this day.
She smokes a cigarette. Should it be about Bush, whom she considers "malevolent," a "sociopath" and "the Antichrist"? She smokes another cigarette. Should it be about Vice President Cheney, whom she thinks of as "Satan," or about Karl Rove, "the devil"? Should it be about the "evil" Republican Party, or the "weaselly, capitulating, self-aggrandizing, self-serving" Democrats, or the Catholic Church, for which she says "I have a special place in my heart . . . a burning, sizzling, putrescent place where the guilty suffer the tortures of the damned"?
Darfur, she finally decides. She will write about Darfur. The shame of it. The
culpability of all Americans, including herself, for doing nothing. She will write something so filled with outrage that it will accomplish the one thing above all she wants from her anger: to have an effect.

Read the whole thing, or just check out the fun photo of Ms. O'Connor.

The lady serves as Hugh Hewitt's textbook example of the Democratic left. Pare that down to certain factions that identify with certain goals of the Dem left, and he has a point.

Maha, a member of the Big Brass Alliance, has an interesting, funny and pointed defense of O'Connor: Damn right, she's angry.

But anger isn't bad, maha says. Not if you "sort out the righteous from the unrighteous" and allow "the mud to settle," maha quotes from Sam Keen's The Passionate Life: Stages of Loving*.

What can you say to that? If O'Connor wants to scream online, where only those who crave to (or stray to your site by accident) can hear you scream, I'm for that. Much better than having her prowl the freeways of Sherman Oaks, gunning for all those Rovian sociopaths she comes across. Just funnin' with ya, maha. But you get my point.

An interesting side note is Maryscott's claim that the author of the piece, Finkle, claims to have never read a blog before being pointed to hers by an e-mail (which I find a stretch). Maryscott and her readers are happy with the article, but not the pic.

The moral of the story is - as a conservative, I must have a moral - thanks to the myopic appeal of "the profile," this is what outsiders will continue to think of the blogosphere (A friend of mine actually gasped when she was told I was a blogger, and added, "You're not one of them?").

But sustained ignorance is a choice. We may not agree with it, and we may be, in maha's borrowing of Keen's words, outlaws; we may continue in our own ways to try to pierce that warm blanket of blissful ignorance, but we have to respect it.

As much as some might want to discount the hyperbolic rantings of Maryscott O'Connor and the WaPo's front page reinforcement of the culture's view of bloggers, it's disingenuous not to honor the ties that bind us to Maryscott.

Enjoy William Brennan's wonderful post on the article. And not just because he uses the penultimately excellent word "bower." Brennan's "divorced from the right" but as an independent finds his "new love [lefties who share moderate stances, I'm guessing] is even more outrageous than the kooks I’ve been railing against."

Whatever else this produced outside the blogosphere, Maryscott has provided some pretty rich fuel for our keyboards.

*Bless his heart, maha found an online source for the Keen material.

CP @ GMC.

Have a Great Redneck Weekend

2006-04-14T10:50:00.000-04:00

I have finally finished my morning deposition.

I've checked the weather.

Sunny and warm.

Looking at my PDA . . .

I see I need to pick up some beverages.

Then, maybe a day at the races . . .

rooting for Dale Junior.

Have a great weekend.

Tax Day Cometh

2006-04-14T09:49:00.000-04:00

It is Tax Time.

Go up to your co-worker and ask him or her how money they paid in Federal income tax this year. Chances are he or she will tell you, nothing, I'm getting a refund, or some other stupid response. Ahhh, the benefits of tax withholding. Numb us to death with taxes we never bother seeing. Well, after getting hit hard last year with the alternative minimum tax, Mrs. KJ and I increased our withholdings. The check we are writing this year is much smaller, and I am happy about that. Still, it bothers me to think that my household is paying more than my first salary in income tax.

The answer? I think you can find it here and here. A debate between Neal Boortz and his "Fair Tax" plan and Yale Law Professor Michael Graetz on his tax reform plan can be seen at C-Span on line or on the TV as follows:

Saturday evening, April 15th, at 7:00
Sunday , April 16th, at 2:30 and again at 10:30 a.m.

Of course, a major problem with taxes is that it is so politically driven and designed to serve special interests. If bald people made tax policy, haircuts would have the highest taxes.

On a less serious note, here is an e-mail I am sure everyone has received, but today it is timely.

How Taxes Work . . .

This is a VERY simple way to understand the tax laws. Read on -- it does make you think!!

Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men — the poorest — would pay nothing;
the fifth would pay $1,
the sixth would pay $3,
the seventh $7,
the eighth $12,
the ninth $18,
and the tenth man — the richest — would pay $59.

That's what they decided to do. The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement — until one day, the owner threw them a curve (in tax language a tax cut). "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20."

So now dinner for the ten only cost $80.00. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six — the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share?"

The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, Then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being PAID to eat their meal. So the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of his earlier $59.

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man who pointed to the tenth. "But he got $7!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man, "I only saved a dollar, too . . . It's unfair that he got seven times more than me!".

"That's true!" shouted the seventh man, "why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night he didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered, a little late what was very important. They were FIFTY-TWO DOLLARS short of paying the bill! Imagine that!

[Ed. Note: A little Atlas Shrugged is thrown in here at the end of this story.] And that, boys and girls, journalists and college instructors, is how the tax system works.

The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore.

Where would that leave the rest? Unfortunately, most taxing authorities anywhere cannot seem to grasp this rather straightforward logic!

Sorry

2006-04-13T15:35:00.000-04:00

Gay* Thursday and all, and here I sit trying to figure out what the hell international abstention is all about. I may just have to call spd rdr.

See y'all soon! Maybe.

A Word From the No Government Cheese Censors

2006-04-10T18:21:00.000-04:00

Yes, it's true. In the interest of our readership, No Government Cheese has censors.

But, since this is a blog, they don't actually remove any, um, offensive content. One of the first rules of blogging is Never Take Down A Post. We take this very seriously here at the Cheese.

Nonetheless, certain things might have offensive content, which requires the studied intervention of the No Government Cheese Censors.

For those sensitive souls and valued readers who might have been upset by certain graphics in a certian post that we shall avoid pointing to here, we offer the following soothing distraction:

Pile's Picture Parade

We also recommend a little time spent learning all the words to this important song - be sure to click on the RealPlayer link to hear it, over and over and over and over and over again.

And be glad you came to No Government Cheese! For pictures of kissing that everyone can enjoy!

Just One Of The Hypocritical Sides Of This Debate

2006-04-10T15:11:00.000-04:00

Our political leaders are annoying, but since it was the illegal immigrant parade that interferred with my route to work this morning, they will get my wrath. So I stopped to let Keyser interview one fellow:

Why are you protesting?

Because America is made great by immigrants.

Why do you carry a Mexican flag (not pictured)?

Because I am Mexican.

You love your country?

Yes.

You are proud of your heritage?

Yes.

How did you get here?

I camped outside a border crossing for 10 days. Then, I crossed the border late at night. I was caught, and returned. I tried six more nights before I made it. Then, after nearly dying in the dessert, I paid a man to smuggle me to Atlanta. Since here I have made more money than I did my entire life, and I send a lot of it home to my family who will hopefull have enough soon to pay a smuggler several thousand dollars to drive them through the dessert in an un-air-conditioned box truck.

Why?

Who am I kidding. Because Mexico sucks, man.

Do you think you will be participating in any other protest marches?

Probably. Have you met my partner?

Immigration, Legalities and 'weaselly platitudes'

2006-04-10T14:05:00.000-04:00

tee bee

Mark Steyn ponders immigration, pushed to the forefront today by certain activistas, in "No Easy Answers on Immigration Conundrum":

All developed countries have immigration issues, but few conduct the entire debate as disingenuously as America does: The president himself has contributed a whole barrelful of weaselly platitudes, beginning with his line that "family values don't stop at the Rio Grande." True. They don't stop at the 49th parallel either. Or the Atlantic shore. Or the Pacific. So where do family values stop? At the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. If you're an American and you marry a Canadian or Belgian or Fijian, the U.S. government can take years to process what's supposed to be a non-discretionary immigration application, in the course of which your spouse will be dependent on various transitional-status forms like "advance parole" that leave her vulnerable to the whims of the many eccentric interpreters of U.S. immigration law at the nation's airports and land borders.
Here's another place where family values stops: The rubble of the World Trade Center. Deena Gilbey is a British subject whose late husband worked on the 84th floor: On the morning of Sept. 11, instead of fleeing, he returned to the building to help evacuate his co-workers. A few days later, Mrs. Gilbey receives a letter from the INS noting that as she's now widowed her immigration status has changed and she's obliged to leave the country along with her two children (both U.S. citizens). Think about that: Having legally admitted to the country the terrorists who killed her husband, the U.S. government's first act on having facilitated his murder is to add insult to grievous injury by serving his widow with a deportation order. Why should illegal Mexicans be the unique beneficiaries of a sentimental blather about "family values" to which U.S. immigration is otherwise notoriously antipathetic?

Read the rest.

Immigration certainly needs an overhaul. But it should be done in a way that creates a level playing field at worst, and at best privileges certain people such as someone marrying a citizen or coming to accept a job.

Perhaps that's one way to clear up the "jobs filled by illegals" canard - start there with streamlining that includes registering people who want to immigrate, pairing them with employers, and tracking/interviewing people to see how the transition is working.

It would be a step acceptable by almost everyone.

CP @ GMC.

Ask Sausage About The Law Day

2006-04-06T10:49:00.000-04:00

Knowing that many of you very likely woke up this morning wondering what Cass's dog thinks about important legal matters of the day, she asked me to whip up a little post for your general erudition in between the exhausting business of decapitating rawhide bones atop the down cushion of her Chippendale sofa.

You may think, "What does a Weiner Beast know about the Law?" Surprisingly, the answer is, "More than some people who go on and on about it". Two interesting issues in the news have centered around couples.

In the "How was your day, honey?" Department, this one has got to take the cake:

It was Zena the dog's day in Circuit Court Tuesday, although the key witness was not present.

The standard poodle's owners, Lisa and John Roberts, have been unable to agree on who should get custody as the terms of their divorce are finalized.

Two days of mediation didn't help, so an hourlong hearing before Judge Robert Childers decided the issue.

"I had one lawyer call me and say 'Did you really try a case today about a dog?' " said attorney Dorothy Pounders, who represents the wife. "I said 'Yes, I did. It's the truth.' There's a first time for everything. But it was very serious and very emotional."

Because animals are considered property under Tennessee law, it wasn't technically a custody hearing, so there were no issues of visitation or who should have primary residential parent status.

(There were no shared children in the marriage.)

Instead, Childers decided that the husband should have 5-year-old Zena during the week since he has an outdoor job and can take her to work with him.

The wife gets Zena from 6 p.m. Friday to 6 p.m. Sunday.

"It's like what a Solomon decision might do," said attorney Joe Duncan, who represents the husband. "The parties just felt so strongly about this issue that it was very difficult for them to give in, and that's what judges are for."

It's not the first time such an issue has gone to court. In another divorce case here five years ago, a Circuit Court judge had to decide who got custody of two golden retrievers (another split decision).

Ooooooo-kay. I can see why this couple split up. In other news:

A Jackson, Tenn., case involving the children's pet pig was resolved out of courtroom. "They worked it out through mediation," said Pounders. "They didn't have to litigate the pig."

I think we can all be thankful to have been spared the horror of unmitigated pigs.

But the Oink Cadre may have far worse things to worry about

The Violence Against Women Act, funded by federal taxpayers to the tune of nearly $1 billion dollars a year, holds training sessions for law enforcement officers, prosecutors and judges to teach them anti-male and anti-marriage notions, and how to bypass men's constitutional rights. Radical feminists have lobbied state legislators to pass laws that require a policeman to arrest someone any time they are called to investigate an alleged domestic-violence incident.

States have also passed laws that require prosecution even if the woman does not want to prosecute or testify. Unwanted and unnecessary arrests and prosecutions obviously prevent reconciliation and private resolution of family disputes.

What is wrong with this, you may ask? Don't we want to put violent abusers behind bars? Well, for one thing there is a little thing called the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution, which provides an accused with the right to confront his accuser:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense

But in two recent cases, defendants were convicted in trials where the accuser never showed up to testify and defendant's counsel never got a chance to cross-examine her or call her testimony into question. In the first case, Hammon v. Indiana:

Officers from the Peru, Ind., police department had made an unsolicited visit to the Hammon couple (presumably after a call from a neighbor). Finding that the Hammons' argument had ended, but broken glass and a broken gas heater in the house, the policeman asked both husband and wife what happened. Each said the argument was over and everything was fine.

Unwilling to accept the couple's own resolution of the dispute, a policeman interrogated the Amy Hammon separately to get her side of the argument. This time, she informed the officer that she and her husband had indeed had an argument. Unlike her husband, Amy Hammon claimed it was violent - culminating with Hershel Hammon shoving her head into a gas heater, breaking its glass, and punching her in the chest. At the officer's request, the wife completed a battery affidavit conveying these allegations.

The wife did not press charges and never showed up in court. Undeterred, without ever putting the wife on the witness stand, the prosecutor obtained a battery conviction of the husband based on the signed legal paper.

Hershel Hammon received a one-year prison sentence, for which he spent 20 days in jail. His home was ruined and, with this serious conviction on his record, his ability to support his family was substantially diminished.

This amounts to the police soliciting and then prosecuting charges on their own without giving defendants access to the accused, in defiance of the Sixth Amendment. In a second case, incredibly, a 911 tape was used to convict a second defendant whose accuser also did not press charges or show up in court:

A 911 operator had called back to a household and elicited allegations about domestic violence. The jurors heard only a tape-recording of a 911 operator prodding Davis' former girlfriend, Michelle McCottry, to give her side of the story without the boyfriend telling his side on the tape.

In my humble opinion, these judges are barking up the wrong tree.

This is just another example of how the feminist agenda results in preferential status for women at the expense of men's basic rights. Women are presumed to be adults. As such, like men they are accountable for their choices: the good as well as the bad. No one forces them to live with violent partners. If they choose poorly, they must find the courage to report them or leave them, as difficult as that may be. Feminists cannot continue to claim women are perfectly equal to men when it comes to jobs like the combat arms, while claiming they need protection from the harsh realities of life on the homefront. It's time to choose ladies: which is it? Are you just miniature men? If so, you don't need any special privileges.

Or are there, perhaps, some very real differences between men and women, in which case perhaps you may have to face the disturbing possibility that there are very real reasons (other than prejudice) for some of the inequities you ascribe to gender discrimination.

Just one dog's opinion. Now if you don't mind, I've got business to attend to.

Ma! He's Slacking Again!

2006-04-06T08:13:00.000-04:00

Sadly, KJ is off doing whatever it is that he does, leaving people who have real lives to deal with the wreckage that happens when little "l" Libertarians skip off, leaving conservatives to confront the consequences their so-called "lifestyle choices" inflict on others.

*sigh*

I'll be posting something as soon as I finish this bone.

Gators Win

2006-04-04T13:52:00.000-04:00

In case you missed it, last night the Florida Gators beat those left coast hippies from UCLA like an ugly step child with a lisp.

Congratulations to former UK assistant coach Billy Donovan.

Tonight, Duke takes on Maryland in the women's championship game, the first All-ACC championship game. Of course, the SEC has had both teams in the championship game twice.

No word yet on the investigation of the allegations not made against the Duke women's basketball team.

HBO Takes Us To New Depths

2006-04-03T15:50:00.000-04:00

Thanks to a new HBO program called Big Love, which takes on the subject of polygamy without judgment, a new marriage debate is underway. We haven't even finished the gay marriage debate yet, people.

Some conservatives have unfairly linked the gay marriage/civil union debate to things such as beastiality. The opponents also mention polygamy. While the former does not follow, the latter certainly does, in my opinion, logically follow.

Many people like Andrew Sullivan think it unfair to link the two debates.

I believe that someone's sexual orientation is a deeper issue than the number of people they want to express that orientation with. Polygamy is a choice, in other words; homosexuality isn't. The proof of this can be seen in the fact that straight people and gay people can equally choose polyandry or polygamy or polyamory, or whatever you want to call it. But no polygamist or heterosexual can choose to be gay. If you're not, you're not.

This post by Sullivan was a response to recent op-ed by Charle Krauthhammer which argued what I believe to be the future of this debate:

In an essay 10 years ago, I pointed out that it is utterly logical for polygamy rights to follow gay rights. After all, if traditional marriage is defined as the union of (1) two people of (2) opposite gender, and if, as advocates of gay marriage insist, the gender requirement is nothing but prejudice, exclusion and an arbitrary denial of one's autonomous choices in love, then the first requirement -- the number restriction (two and only two) -- is a similarly arbitrary, discriminatory and indefensible denial of individual choice.

I happen to agree with Chuck's logic here. That would not mean that one cannot chose one over the other. But one must accept as true the logical foundations of this argument. Once you knock down the definition of marriage be redefining one element of the relationship, you open the door to challenge other elements of the relationship. Krauthammer continues:

This line of argument makes gay activists furious. I can understand why they do not want to be in the same room as polygamists. But I'm not the one who put them there. Their argument does. Blogger and author Andrew Sullivan, who had the courage to advocate gay marriage at a time when it was considered pretty crazy, has called this the "polygamy diversion," arguing that homosexuality and polygamy are categorically different because polygamy is a mere "activity" while homosexuality is an intrinsic state that "occupies a deeper level of human consciousness."

Many libertarians whome I respect are easy prey for the polygamist argument. After all, in their mind marriage is really nothing special. It is merely a state intrusion into what should be a private contract. As Doug at the Liberty Papers argues:

One of the strongest arguments in favor of gay marriage that I’ve encountered is the one that says that the government has no right to intrude into the personal relationships of consenting adults and forbid them from entering into a legal status, in this case marriage, that they wish to enter into freely. This doesn’t mean that government is endorsing the relationship, any more than it endorses a producer of pornographic films who forms a corporation to run his busines. It merely means that the government is allowing people to engage in consenual activities that affect nobody but themselves. The logic, if you accept it, seems to me to be unassailable and its hard for me to find an argument that says that polygamy is per se different.

The libertarian argument proposed by Doug and some of the comments seems to refuse to recognize the reality that the State is involved and simply will not and cannot, dare I say, divorce itself from the regulation of marriage. That approach is the one welcomed by many libertarians, though not me. Doug's conclusion:

Kersten is obviously opposed to gay marriage and is using the polygamy argument as an argument against gay marriage itself, but her doomsday prediction of what marriage might turn into if society keeps going in the direction it has been doesn’t really sound that bad:

What’s the likely endpoint? Marriage may be redefined out of existence, and replaced by a flexible, contract-based system of government-registered relationships.

In other words, people would live their private lives in the way that they wanted. What’s so wrong with that?

Well, for one it is not a realistic political goal. For two, it not desireable.

Krauthammer concludes his essay, focused on the nature of the debate, nicely.

What is historically odd is that as gay marriage is gaining acceptance, the resistance to polygamy is much more powerful. Yet until this generation, gay marriage had been sanctioned by no society that we know of, anywhere at any time in history. On the other hand, polygamy was sanctioned, indeed common, in large parts of the world through large swaths of history, most notably the biblical Middle East and through much of the Islamic world.

I'm not one of those who see gay marriage or polygamy as a threat to, or assault on, traditional marriage. The assault came from within. Marriage has needed no help in managing its own long, slow suicide, thank you. Astronomical rates of divorce and of single parenthood (the deliberate creation of fatherless families) existed before there was a single gay marriage or any talk of sanctioning polygamy. The minting of these new forms of marriage is a symptom of our culture's contemporary radical individualism -- as is the decline of traditional marriage -- and not its cause.

As for gay marriage, I've come to a studied ambivalence. I think it is a mistake for society to make this ultimate declaration of indifference between gay and straight life, if only for reasons of pedagogy. On the other hand, I have gay friends and feel the pain of their inability to have the same level of social approbation and confirmation of their relationship with a loved one that I'm not about to go to anyone's barricade to deny them that. It is critical, however, that any such fundamental change in the very definition of marriage be enacted democratically and not (as in the disastrous case of abortion) by judicial fiat.

Call me agnostic. But don't tell me that we can make one radical change in the one-man, one-woman rule and not be open to the claim of others that their reformation be given equal respect.

I find nothing to dispute in Krauthammer's words. But what about the outcome of the debate? What is the public policy position one should take on polygamy? I do not think it the answer of the Liberty Papers, which says lets all just contract our family ways and ignore thousands of years of family experience.

Reason (a hard core libertarian magazine at times which has me as a subscriber) writer Jonathan Rauch jumps into the debate and goes in depth where Krauthammer and Sullivan and Doug do not: on the merits. The merits of the debate, as he sees it, has not been addressed.

A federal lawsuit (now on appeal), the American Civil Liberties Union's stand for polygamy rights, and the rising voices of pro-polygamy groups such as TruthBearer.org (an evangelical Christian group) and Principle Voices (which Newsweek describes as "a Utah-based group run by wives from polygamous marriages") were already making the subject hard to duck. So far, libertarians and lifestyle liberals approach polygamy as an individual-choice issue, while cultural conservatives use it as a bloody shirt to wave in the gay-marriage debate. The broad public opposes polygamy but is unsure why. What hardly anyone is doing is thinking about polygamy as social policy.

Having noted the dearth of opinion that tackles the public policy issues, he does, and not in the traditional libertarian freedom of contract way.

For reasons that have everything to do with its own social dynamics and nothing to do with gay marriage, polygamy is a profoundly hazardous policy. To understand why, begin with two crucial words. The first is "marriage." Group love (sometimes called polyamory) is already legal, and some people freely practice it. Polygamy asserts not a right to love several others but a right to marry them all. Because a marriage license is a state grant, polygamy is a matter of public policy, not just of personal preference.

He next argues that the many wives model rather than the many husbands model would be the expected norm if polygamy were legalized. From this assumption, comes the public policy concerns.

As far as I've been able to determine, no polygamous society has ever been a true liberal democracy, in anything like the modern sense. As societies move away from hierarchy and toward equal opportunity, they leave polygamy behind. They monogamize as they modernize. That may be a coincidence, but it seems more likely to be a logical outgrowth of the arithmetic of polygamy.Other things being equal (and, to a good first approximation, they are), when one man marries two women, some other man marries no woman. When one man marries three women, two other men don't marry. When one man marries four women, three other men don't marry. Monogamy gives everyone a shot at marriage. Polygyny, by contrast, is a zero-sum game that skews the marriage market so that some men marry at the expense of others.

So what, the libertarian says. Equality is opportunity, not outcomes. But why do we bring this result on us in this case? What is the outcome?

Valerie M. Hudson and Andrea M. den Boer, ponder those consequences in their 2004 book Bare Branches: Security Implications of Asia's Surplus Male Population. Summarizing their findings in a Washington Post article, they write: "Scarcity of women leads to a situation in which men with advantages — money, skills, education — will marry, but men without such advantages — poor, unskilled, illiterate — will not. A permanent subclass of bare branches [unmarriageable men] from the lowest socioeconomic classes is created. In China and India, for example, by the year 2020 bare branches will make up 12 to 15 percent of the young adult male population."

Summarizing his article, the outcome is that bare branch young men are going to be the criminal gangs and societal subclass warriors of the future. Does this help solve any of societies' problems? Hardly.

In particular communities — inner cities, for example — polygamy could take a toll much more quickly. Even a handful of "Solomons" (high-status men taking multiple wives) could create brigades of new recruits for street gangs and drug lords, the last thing those communities need.

Why do we know this? History for one. And, something similar is happening today in the United States.

Such problems are not merely theoretical. In northern Arizona, a polygamous Mormon sect has managed its surplus males by dumping them on the street --literally. The sect, reports The Arizona Republic, "has orphaned more than 400 teenagers ... in order to leave young women for marriage to the older men." The paper goes on to say that the boys "are dropped off in neighboring towns, facing hunger, homelessness, and homesickness, and most cripplingly, a belief in a future of suffering and darkness."

Some libertarians are missing out on the historic evidence of some institutions. Marriage seems to be one of them. Ironically or coincidentally, depending on your point of view, the Liberty Papers quoted this from Jonah Goldberg recently:

A bunch of readers wanted to know what I meant when I said that my views on “libertarianism” have “evolved” since my earlier, full-throated, attacks. Well, for starters, I no longer make jokes like: “Q: What’s the hardest part about being a libertarian? A: Telling your parents you’re gay.”

Again, more seriously, as I’ve watched compassionate conservatism, Buchananism, Crunchy Conservatism, and similar movements bubble-up since the end of the Cold War, I think it’s better for everybody concerned if we start from a foundation of libertarianism and build up from it. In public policy — as opposed to cultural politics — I think the default position should be libertarian and then arguments should be made for why we should deviate from libertarian dogma. I’m more sympathetic to arguments based on tradition and custom than your average libertarian.

It may be that tradition and custom have a solid basis. Or it may be that tradition and custom is a poisonous excuse for some other goal, such as Jim Crow was up until the 1960s. I think marriage is the former.

This public policy debate is better researched than my own, but I will reprint my comment at the Liberty Papers here:

You are all arguing in a dream land. No argument makes sense without first looking at your basic facts. Marx was wrong for this reason. People aren’t taught greed and self-interest. They are born that way.

The state does, will, and always has regardless of the culture recognized and legalized the issue of marriage. The fact that this country recognizes the church marriage is simply setting aside a formality. The only issue this debate is about is benefits.

The argument that the state should “get out of the marriage business” is both absurd and unreal. It won’t, and it can’t. How do you divide up property when the contract is broken? How do you divide up kids? How do you determine child support? The answer is: by agreement with court oversight, or by court rulings. Either way, the state is involved, and always will be. There are real concerns about force and fraud in the break up of a marriage. It is not unreasonable for the state to have a system in place to make sure that a spouse who helped build a strong home by staying home rather than working is protected when the other spouse decides that it is time to buy a convertible and date his college aged kid’s roommate.

Believe it or not, even a libertarian can see that having a stable home is good for society. Messing with a system that has worked for thousands of years is not to be done lightly, and frankly I think most of you have looked at your libertarian dogma book and said, hey, this is just like a business partnership. Let everyone join in. It isn’t a business partnership, except if your name is Clinton.

Next, we have a system of benefits in this country that recognizes marriage. The State has a system, and private business has a system. The State has every right to determine that it will recognize only traditional recognized married families. No one is denied equal access under this system. Everyone has the exact same right to marry one person of an opposite gender. Of course, the govt also has the right to expand its benefits as it sees fit (barring certain constitutional issues such as race discrimination). And it does. NYC e.g. allows (or used to) “domestic partners” to get benefits from its city employees.

Of course, private benefits can redefine this system as it sees fit. And it has. Lots of companies offer benefits to domestic partners or civil union relationships. Bully for them.

Dealing with the added strain on the court system and benefits issues is a reasonable justification to limit marriage to its “forever in the history of mankind” definition, recognizing of course that polygamy has been allowed in some cultures over time — cultures where men were always dying fighting wars and new warriors needed to be made.

Finally, everyone seems to ignore the obvious — you can live "like" a homosexual married couple or polygomous couple if you want, you just don’t have the recognition of the state or certain state offered benefits. You can live together, sleep together, leave property to each other in your wills, share benefits if your employer allows it (some employers don’t insure married couples’ spouses, so that is not certain anyway), write a living will for your partner, own property jointly and even have a “marriage” ceremony if your heathen preacher will give you one (I use the term heathen only because none of the texts of the major religions can remotely be read to approve of same sex marriage, and it is a stretch to argue for polygamy in them).

Peronally, I could live with “civil union” type laws. I have no problem with employers chosing to give benefits to whomever they see fit. That said, I actually think civil unions are very suseptible to abuse and may be more trouble than they are worth for this so called “fairness” issue. As Canada’s law has proven, people just start looking for “benefits” partners, not life partners. Brothers and sisters and bowling buddies form civil unions to get one on the insurance of the other. Then they looke for another “civil union” for pay or out of friendship.

This whole issue is a pandora’s box, and it isn’t just to be dismissed as religous fundamentalists run amock.

Also, you can’t realistically talk about public policy as if the onion were peeled back to its core. The onion has layers that you must work with. We have state sanctioned marriage — always have and likely always will in the US until we are destroyed like Rome. We have lots of govt. benefits that depend in some way on the marriage recognition. They aren’t going away so we can make polygamy OK just b/c libertarians don’t like those programs.

Finally, we have a population that recognizes the historical significance of marriage as it has been understood in Western countries for hundreds of years. It has worked. It isn’t some social experiment anymore. It deserves more than a Scalia like flip of the chin.

I"m Glad George Mason Lost

2006-04-02T14:32:00.000-04:00

Post supplemented. New material in red.

The feel good story of the NCAA Tournament came to an end yesterday as Florida beat George Mason, especially in the second half, like a rented mule. Good. I couldn't be happier.

My happiness has nothing to do with my affection for Florida. I admittedly have three reasons to root for Florida, but they are related only to the team I root for, Kentucky. Florida is in the SEC, and absent UK in the Final Four, I prefer to see SEC teams do well. Florida is coached by a former assistant coach at UK. Third, as UK is second in all time national titles to UCLA (11 to 7), I do not want to see UCLA win another one, and Florida has the best chance of stopping UCLA. So I will root for the Gators tomorrow night in the finals, their French center Noah notwithstanding.

My glee over George Mason losing has more to do with my discomfort with the whole "underdog" love fest in this country. Underdogs usually reach that status because they have failed to prove they can achieve compared to the opposition. In other words, we often root for the prior failure over the proven success. I often wonder if we are rooting "for" underdogs or "against" the successful opponent. In other words, this whole "root for the underdog" strikes me as little more than class envy.

My post is expectedly not winning me any praise this morning, so let me put it this way. Why do we have favorites and underdogs? For the most part, it is because the favorite has a track record of success or excellence. Isn't that a virtue? When you hire a lawyer, or a computer consultant or a secretary, don't you want to see a track record of excellence in her history (or his herstory)? Do you want the person with a spotty, inconsistent history to watch your back? Of course not.

But in sports, that is the accepted instinct. Why do we root against that high expectation of excellence? Is it the same thing that makes us want to tear down our political leaders?

I recognize that programs typically rise and fall over time. Sometimes an underdog makes a splash at the beginning of its rise to "favorite." Gonzaga a few years ago fit that bill. They made the Sweet Sixteen several times as "Cinderella" until people finally figured out that they were just that good playing in a smaller conference. Now they are ranked in the top ten all year and should have been in the Final Four. Most "Cinderellas," however, disappear at midnight and do not return. If George Mason makes a few return trips to win a few more tourney games, then they too can earn the right to be a favorite. That is the goal, after all, isn't it?

Most people often refer to the underdog as David in the David v. Goliath battle. That is a misnomer. First, David was not an underdog, though only he seemed to know it. He had God on his side and was told by God to engage in the battle. I don't care what or who you are playing, if God is on your side, you are not the underdog. The fact that the bookies in Judah did not know God was David's side is of little relevance.

I have it on good authority that God does not root for any teams in the NCAA tournament, though he does root against the Duke Blue Devils.

George Mason was the beneficiary of generosity to begin with. The NCAAA tourney has 65 teams now because of the social welfare mentality of giving every Division I conference a team in the tourney. They then add about 35 other teams from those that did not win their conference tournament and make millions playing the games. George Mason was the last team in the tournament this year. All other lower seeds were little conference touney winners. In other words, if the tornament had had fewer teams as it did for many years, they were out. But they made it and made the most of the opportunity. For that they are to be congratulated. For being underdogs, well, that just isn't a virture in my book.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy some of the early upsets every year as much as anyone. I love the game of college basketball and its tournament. With NBA defections and growing popularity, it is a sport with a lot of parity. It is getting more and more difficult to predict who will win in any given year. Parity makes for excitement. Still, the teams we think are going to win still win more often than not. There is a reason. They earned that prediction by being better than their opponent more consistently in the past.

I am also not saying that I always root for the favorite. I have teams and people I like and dislike for various reasons, which colors who I root for. But I seldom just root for the significant "underdog" if I have no reason to root against the favorite. It doesn't seem right. What did the favorite do other than lead others to believe it is the more successful team?

Underdogs are usually underdogs for a reason. One may be that they haven't had a chance to prove themselves or their gifts are unknown (see, David above). In that case, they aren't really underdogs, and they prove themselves once given the chance. I don't dislike these underdogs. This does not describe George Mason though.

No, the underdogs I don't like are the George Masons. They were barely invited to a ridiculously large tournament and got hot for two weeks. They were clearly a decent team and shared the regular season title in the 10th hardest conference in the country. They showed only a few signs of what they did this March. It is easily established that they didn't even belong in the dance. In other words, they earned their underdog status. Then they made the final four with a little help from a choking UConn.

Great teams in history are made over a season and the torney, not just a bi-monthly period. I congratulate George Mason's team on its success, but I would have rather seen Florida play a number of better teams that lost in the one and gone tournament format.

Now, to the teams that deserved to be in the final four due to an entire season of consistent excellence, I look forward to the Florida v. UCLA final.

Note: This post is not whining about the one and done tournament format. Many great teams have been beaten over the years before winning the national championship that was theirs to lose. GMason won its way to the final four fair and square. I am just glad I won't have to hear about them any longer. FWIW, I didn't like the NC State championship team either, but I liked Villanova's surpise championship because I hated Georgetown.

Drug War Revisited

2006-03-31T11:25:00.000-05:00

Stossel Asks The Right Questions.

John Stossel tackles the war on drugs and reaches my conclusion: the war isn't working, so why aren't we looking at other ways.

I am not in favor of hard, recreational drug use. I would fight it with every fiber of my being. Some people can never get past the harm of drug use, which I do not deny. But one must always ask, when formulating policy, what is effective as well is what is "right" or "good." I also favor, given my libertarian leanings, freedom in the absence of force or fraud. But I don't care to go down the "freedom" road on the issue of drugs. I will trade my libertarian stripes for drug prohibition if it will achieve its objectives. But it doesn't.

I just want to know: what has the money spent on the war on drugs produced. The answer: more prisoners, less civil liberties, more drug related crime, a budget black hole at every level, and no reduction in the availability of drugs. As Stossel summarizes:

I was once among the majority who believe that drug use must be illegal. But then I noticed that when vice laws conflict with the law of supply and demand, the conflict is ugly, and the law of supply and demand generally wins. The drug war costs taxpayers about $40 billion. "Up to three quarters of our budget can somehow be traced back to fighting this war on drugs," said Jerry Oliver, then chief of police in Detroit, told me. Yet the drugs are as available as ever.

Plus, our drug laws only serve to fund the criminals of this country and many others, including terrorists. As Stossel sees it, this is what we reap from our war:

1. More crime. Rarely do people get high and then run out to commit crimes. Most "drug crime" happens because the product is illegal. Since drug sellers can't rely on the police to protect their property, they form gangs and arm themselves. Drug buyers steal to pay the high black market prices. The government says alcohol is as addictive as heroin, but no one is knocking over 7-Elevens to get Budweiser.

2. More terrorism. The profits of the drug trade fund terrorists from Afghanistan to Colombia. Our herbicide-spraying planes teach South American farmers to hate America.

3. Richer criminal gangs. Alcohol prohibition created Al Capone. The gangs drug prohibition is creating are even richer, probably rich enough to buy nuclear weapons. Osama bin Laden was funded partly by drug money.

At the end of the day, I want a better America and a more effective policy. If it isn't some form of legalization, then tell me what it is. The current system cannot be defended on any rational cost/benefit analysis.

Gay* Thursday 3/30

2006-03-30T10:47:00.000-05:00

Today's Gay* Thursday is not really all that gay.* First, I have no really happy stories, though this one is colorful.

Colorful Antics.

Cynthia McKinney, forever the victim of racist attacks and wearer of very bright clothes, had a run in with a House police officer. This is standard conduct for her. Her conspiracy theories, including being one of the first Congresspersons to openly admit a belief that President Bush had prior knowledge of 9/11, would be humorous if it weren't so scary that her district, adjacent to my own, will vote for her no matter what.

The one term Ms. McKinney missed was because another black liberal ran against her in a Democratic primary, and all the conservatives in the district voted (along with some black liberals) for her opponent in the primary. [Her opponent then, apparently believing she was going to lose to Cynthia the next time, ran for Senate and lost badly.] Her father, a former state legislator, is also famous in these parts for blaming that loss on the Jooos and once pulling a knife on another legislator.

The issues: (1) She was bypassing security. (2) She was not wearing her lapel pin that makes identification of House members easier for security. (3) She recently changed her hair style and has, I was told by Boortz, "put some junk in the trunk." Compare older top picture with more recent picture below. (4) She was not entering her own office building, but a different House office building, for a meeting.

Under the circumstances, I would expect the officers to know her. She is a trouble maker and it is good for the police to know the trouble makers.

Humor Item For The Day:

Indiana is finally joining Daylight Savings Time. Purdue computer people fear the next Y2K.

But IT staff at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, fear the change will create complications galore.

"This is like Y2K except this one is really happening," said university IT spokesman Steve Tally.

Maybe Brad can help.

The Economy Is Great -- Just Admit It.

The Left cannot admit a great economy. When the economy boomed under Clinton (as it had been doing pretty much uninterupted, barring a short time after Gulf War I, since 1983), conservatives didn't deny it. They just credited the policies of President Reagan that continued to reap benefits.

The Left cannot do it. I have watched speakers refer, matter of factly without citing any supporting statistic of any kind, that President Bush has killed the economy, the middle class, etc. There is not evidence of it.

Chris Matthews calls our economy "not terrible." We have 4.8 percent unemployment and 17 straight quarters of positive economic growth. Well, I guess "not terrible" is a true statement.

Even Blue Voter Meccas like NYC are seeing a 5 year low in unemployment.

Tax cuts, one of the few conservative adgendas on the Bush platform, worked. If only we could quit spending so much money on programs we nearly had eliminated under the Clinton economic boom.

Dumbass Quote of the Day:

"I was treated well, but I don't know why I was kidnapped." Yeah, other than that whole shooting of your bodyguard, kidnapping you and keeping you for 3 months while releasing video threats of the intent to kill you, you were treated just peachy.

Advice Fer The Rookie

2006-03-29T18:26:00.000-05:00

Pssssst...

Keyser! Listen up!

I don't know what that slick Hotlanta shyster you shack up with has been telling you, but listen to an old hound dawg who's been around the block a time or two.

You want to stay away from the stuff in the brown and green bottles. Stick to the old ways...

These young pups. Ya have to teach 'em everything these days.

Yeah, But It Is Just Lacrosse

2006-03-29T07:25:00.000-05:00

Duke University has cancelled its entire Lacrosse season until an investigation of an allegation that three of the team members (as yet undetermined) were involved in an alleged rape at an off campus party is completed.

While that is such an upstanding position to take, let us not forget that it is just a lacrosse season.

Don't get me wrong, I am not busting on the merits of the sport. It is much better to watch than soccer.

But lacrosse doesn't bring a dime to the university.

It is easy to take the moral highground without the loss of funds.

Do you think Duke would have cancelled its basketball season, and the money that goes with the NCAA tournament, had its basketball players been accused of such conduct? Given how Duke's basketball fans act, it would take a lot more than a mere rape allegation.

Side notes: the lacrosse team has only one black player out of 48. Are they racist?

Oh, yeah, Duke sucks. Here is essay written by a friend of mine (he is not a UK fan; he is a UNC grad/fan and a Duke law grad) that proves it.

[I actually like all the Duke fans that I personally know. But Duke still sucks.]