Barack Obama, William Ayers, "Dreams Of My Father", and ghostwriters

During the unpleasantness of last November, there was considerable debate about Barack Obama's relationship with former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers.
Obama described him as "a guy who lives in my neighborhood".

Mr. Obama didn't mention that William Ayers helped write the Obama memoir, Dreams Of My Father.

The following is from “Barack And Michelle – Portrait Of An American Marriage”, by Christopher Andersen. 2009, William Morrow Publishing.
Perhaps Andersen made all this up. Perhaps William Morrow's fact-checking department fell down on the job.
But if it's true, it would explain a lot about the direction of the last 9 months, wouldn't it? If someone wanted to destroy capitalism and the free market, could anyone improve on what we're now going through?
Indulge me here....
Here's the complete controversial text, from "Barack and Michelle" by Christopher Andersen, pages 164-166.

"Desperate to finish the book, Barack and Michelle took a leave of absence from their jobs and decamped to the Indonesian island of Bali so that, as his sister Maya put it, he could “find a peaceful sanctuary, where there were no phones, to work on the book.” When he returned in early 1994, Barack burrowed even deeper into the Hole (the office behind the Obama kitchen) in a last-gasp effort to finish it.
Two months later, with a September 1994 deadline looming, Barack was still stymied. It was around this time that, at Michelle’s urging, he sought advice from his friend and Hyde Park neighbor, Bill Ayers. Michelle had known Ayers’s wife, Bernadine Dohrn, at Sidley Austin, where Dohrn worked as a paralegal between 1984 and 1988. Dohrn’s father-in-law, former Commonwealth Edison CEO Thomas Ayers, just happened to be one of the firm’s most important clients."

One brief interruption. Like Fidel Castro, and like Che Guevara, Bill Ayers grew up very well-off, but wanted to rebel against the only system proven to make people well-off. Bill Ayers' father ran Commonwealth Edison. Sheesh.

"Barack got to know Bill Ayers’s father and his brother, John, when all three served on the Leadership Council of the Chicago Public Education Fun. Ajnother mutual friend of Ayers and Barack was Jean Rudd, whose nonprofit Woods Fund had provided Jerry Kellman with the money he needed to hire Barack as an organizer back in 1985.
Neither Michelle nor Barack seemed particularly troubled to discover that William Ayers and Bernadine Dorhn had been two of the 1960s’ most infamous radicals – leaders of the Weather Underground terrorist group that set off thirty bombs in the 1960s and 1970s.

After an explosion in the Weathermen’s Greenwich Village bomb-making laboratory killed three of their fellow Weathermen (including Ayers’s girlfriend at the time, Diana Oughton) and virtually destroyed the neighboring town house owned by Dustin Hoffman, Ayers and Dohrn went underground. In 1973 charges against them were dismissed due to prosecutorial misconduct, but Dohrn remained a fugitive until she finally turned herself in to police in 1980.
Ayers made no apologies for his terrorist past, and in the 1990’s still described himself as “a radical, Leftist, small ‘c’ communist….The ethics of communism still appeal to me. I don’t like Lenin as much as the early Marx.”

I love that phrase. "The ethics of communism". Communism killed somewhere between 60 and 100 million people. They made the Nazis look like amateurs. But their intentions were so good and wholesome.

Ayers’s radical past didn’t seem to bother Chicago’s civic leaders, many of whom worked with him on education reform. He worked particularly closely with Mayor Richard M. Daley on reshaping the city’s school programs – an effort that also brought him into contact with one of Daley’s assistants at the time, Michelle Obama.
What did interest Barack were Ayers’s proven abilities as a writer. Unlike Barack, Ayers had written and cowritten scores of articles and treatises, as well as several nonfiction books beginning with Education: An American Problem in 1968. But it was the tone Ayers had set in his latest book – To Teach (1993) – that Barack hoped to emulate.
The tale of a maverick teacher who takes her students onto the streets of New York to teach them firsthand about history, culture, and survival, To Teach was written in a fluid, novelistic style. Barack asked for Ayers’s input, and Ayers, who like so many in his circle was greatly impressed by the charismatic young activist, obliged.
To flesh out his family history, Barack had also taped interviews with Toot, Gramps, Ann, Maya, and his Kenyan relatives. These oral histories, along with his partial manuscript and a trunkload of notes, were given to Ayers. “Everyone knew they were friends and that they worked on various projects together,” another Hyde Park neighbor pointed out. “It was no secret. Why would it be? People liked them both.”

In the end, Ayers’s contribution to Barack’s Dreams from My Father would be significant – so much so that the book’s language, oddly specific references, literary devices, and themes would bear a jarring similarity to Ayers’s own writings. Even the caveat at the beginning of Dreams, in which Barack points out that he uses invented dialogue, embellished facts, composite characters, inaccurate chronology, and pseudonyms to create an “approximation” of reality, resembles Ayers’s defense of the inaccuracies in his memoir Fugitive Days. In the foreward to his book, Ayers states that the book is merely a collection of his personal memories and “impressions.”

In other words, don't bother fact-checking either book. Like the other products produced by these two, the books are bullshit.

“There was a good deal of literary back-scratching going on in Hyde Park,” said writer Jack Cashill, who noted that a mutual friend of Barack and Ayers, Rashid Khalidi, thanked Ayers for helping him with his book Resurrecting Empire. Ayers, explained Cashill, “provided an informal editing service for like-minded friends in the neighborhood.”
Certainly none of these authors hesitated to acknowledge their admiration for one another at the time. In his 1997 book, A Kind And Just Parent, Ayers would cite the “writer” Barack Obama (along with Muhammad Ali and Louis Farrakhan) as one of the celebrities living in his neighborhood. In turn, Barack would write a glowing review of that same book for the Chicago Tribune, and Michelle would host a panel discussion on the book at the University of Chicago, with Ayers and her husband as the principal speakers.
Thanks to help from the veteran writer Ayers, Barack would be able to submit a manuscript to his editors at Times Books. With some minor cuts and polishing, the book would be on track for publication in the early summer of 1995. In the meantime, he began showing the rough draft to a chosen few relatives.

From the dust jacket of "Barack and Michelle": Christopher Andersen is the critically acclaimed author of twenty-eight books, which have been translated into more than twenty-five languages worldwide. A former contributing editor of Time magazine and senior editor of People magazine, Andersen has also written hundreds of articles for a wide range of publications, including Life magazine, the New York Times, and Vanity Fair.

Fortunate Son - Party In Power version

Pretty funny, if you know enough about each politician's background.


Thanks to Moe Lane for producing.

Forty four percent of the electorate will self-identify as Libertarian (if you give them enough hints)

I don't see any way to condense what the Cato institute has to say here, so I'm going to scrape the entire post. Gentlemen, my apologies.

In today’s Washington Post, William Kristol exults:

The Gallup poll released Monday shows the public’s conservatism at a high-water mark. Some 40 percent of Americans call themselves conservative, compared with 36 percent who self-describe as moderates and 20 percent as liberals.

Gallup often asks people how they describe themselves. But sometimes they classify people according to the values they express. And when they do that, they find a healthy percentage of libertarians, as well as an unfortunate number of big-government “populists.”

For more than a dozen years now, the Gallup Poll has been using two questions to categorize respondents by ideology:

• Some people think the government is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses. Others think that government should do more to solve our country’s problems. Which comes closer to your own view?

• Some people think the government should promote traditional values in our society. Others think the government should not favor any particular set of values. Which comes closer to your own view?

Combining the responses to those two questions, Gallup found the ideological breakdown of the public shown below. With these two broad questions, Gallup consistently finds about 20 percent of respondents to be libertarian. The word “libertarian” isn’t well known, so pollsters don’t find many people claiming to be libertarian. And usually they don’t ask. But a large portion of Americans hold generally libertarian views — views that might be described as fiscally conservative and socially liberal, or as Gov. William Weld told the 1992 Republican National Convention, “I want the government out of your pocketbook and out of your bedroom.” They don’t fit the red-blue paradigm, and they have their doubts about both conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats. They’re potentially a swing vote in elections. Background on the libertarian vote here.

And note here: If you tell people that “libertarian” means “fiscally conservative and socially liberal,” 44 percent will accept the label.

That's right, 44%. Forty four percent. Combine that with this little nugget from the New York Times. Here's Jonathan Weisman:

Americans are growing increasingly pessimistic about the economy after a mild upswing of attitudes in September. But Republicans haven't been able to profit politically from the economic gloom, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.
The survey found a country in a decidedly negative mood, nearly a year after the election of President Barack Obama. For the first time during the Obama presidency, a majority of Americans sees the country as being on the wrong track.

This is possibly caused by the memory of Presidents named Bush and Reagan setting spending records until they were upstaged by a President named Obama. One day the electorate will figure out that Republicans don't want to change the direction of the national vehicle, they just want to drive it and choose which gas stations and restaurants to support.

One day, the electorate is going to figure out that Democrats invented "don't ask, don't tell", they are partially responsible for us having 20% of the world's prison population (with only 5% of the world's population to pull from) with their insane War On Drugs, and that the Democrats' economic policies keep more minorities in poverty than anything the Klan could've invented.

The Libertarian Party - One day soon, we're going to march on Washington and demand.....Nothing ! !

The Weekly Radley - A Brief Lawsuit

From the sheer undiluted greatness that is Radley Balko, in reference to the Above The Law website.

It defies commentary. It can't be condensed. The entire thing must be read from beginning to end. Hit the 2nd link. Read the comment field at your own risk.

Aw, what the heck. Here's the opening paragraph:

Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way. Albert Freed (pictured) won a trip to Hawaii (not pictured). As part of the vacation celebration, Mrs. Freed bought her husband some new Hanes brand briefs. But Mr. Freed is a husky gentleman, and apparently the new trunks couldn’t contain all of his junk. He sued Hanes, claiming they made “defective” underwear.

I'm sitting in Starbucks, laughing out loud. I'm crying. What in the hell would possess someone to drag something like this into court? Here's some more:

A question for the guys out there: How long would it take you to correct a problem involving sandpaper and your ----? Don’t you think ----- chaffing is something that requires immediate attention and decisive action?
And while we’re here, how long does it take for you to notice your stuff hanging out where it is not supposed to be?

Please forgive me for not filling in the blanks. My mama sometimes reads this stuff.

Hit the second link. Imagine this guy in court. Imagine the look on the face of the court reporter.

I love being alive. I love the internet.

Here's that link one more time.

Don't your customers need a Yugo ??

For my Serbian friend Igor :

Here's a 1988 sales video extolling the mighty and numerous selling points of the Yugo, such as the 1.1-liter engine that roared with 54 horsepower at 5,000 rpm, the 19.5-second quarter-mile time "ensuring safe access to major highways," and "no expensive computer chips to diagnose or replace.

Yes, the Yugo. It can do the quarter in 19.5 seconds. I think Secretariat could do the quarter in 19.5 seconds. Ah, the glories of Socialist auto manufacturing ! !



A fresh coat of Whitening to Autoblog for resurrecting this one.

Pictures from a fun weekend

I took a lot of unrelated pictures this weekend, and thought I'd roll them all into one post:

I went to my sister and brother-in-law's house Friday night. Mr. Chen, the factory owner that I've worked with during 5 trips to China, was having dinner with them. Mr. Chen is a Tool And Die maker who started his own company in China almost immediately after Xiamen (his hometown) became a "Free Enterprise Zone". (Free Enterprise Zone is a term used in Communist China to designate places where people aren't starving to death any more. It's strange how the Free Market works, isn't it?)
And for long-time followers of this blog, Mr. Chen is the star of The Infamous Chinese Dog Story, an epic tale of death, destruction, and bizarre cultural differences that has been read and copied and emailed all over 6 continents.

Mr. Chen speaks almost no English. Here he is cooking scallops and signaling that he needs to find a urinal.

This is Nancy. Nancy is Mr. Chen's translator, Salesperson, Office Manager, and right hand. Nancy also had a small part in The Celebrated Chinese Typhoon Story.

I spent Saturday morning working at the Jukt Micronics New Everman warehouse.
Tommy, Joshua, and the crew have brought order out of chaos. NOTHING is out of place in this entire facility. NOTHING.

Saturday afternoon, I went to the Tarrant County Libertarian Meetup at The Flying Saucer in downtown Fort Worth. Michael Badnarik, our 2004 Presidential candidate, was there. And that's Stephen Smith, of the "Beginner's Guide To Freedom" blog, on the far right. Stephen is staring off into the distance, thinking of things far more brilliant than anything I'll ever write.

Stephen is, after all, from Jackson, Mississippi.

That's me, plotting rebellion and upheaval with Tarrant County Libertarian Party Chair, John Spivey.

Mandy the dachshund has been "great with child", to put it biblically, for quite a while. She decided to have 6 babies Sunday morning. I kinda had to help out with number 6, who was quite comfy inside his old resting place. Thought he was stillborn, cause he didn't move at all once he hit the great indoors. A couple of minutes passed by. I decided to let Mandy sniff him, etc., so she could see that he didn't make it.
Mandy licked #6 for about a minute and a half without stopping.
#6 woke up, lifted his head, and started sniffing around for breakfast. It's amazing how they just "know".

We let Mandy outside so we could count the puppies. 6 of them, and all seemed healthy. We let her in, and then watched some "Lost". I'm at the very beginning of Season 4, and I think the Island is the center of a Time Warp.

The Aggie and I decided to count how many boys vs. girls we had. We counted 4 boys and 3 girls. That couldn't be right, because we had 6 puppies. We counted again. Came up with 5 boys and 2 girls. (Their mother kept moving them around. That had to be the reason.) We counted again. It added up to 7. Mandy had pushed out another pup while we weren't paying attention.
Amazing.
I'm glad Mandy stopped at 7, because I think she only has place settings for 8. Woulda been crowded at the table.

It's strange how these tiny, delicate, effeminate, mewling, balls of life can grow up to be somewhat larger, delicate, effeminate, mewling, balls of life. I honestly don't know how I wound up with all these dachshunds. (Well, I know how I got the last 7. I just don't remember a conscious decision to fill the yard with them.)

Went to Boomerjacks in the old Montgomery Ward's area Sunday afternoon. There supposedly was a Cowboys game going on. I think the Cowboys won. This will only encourage Jerry to remain in place as G.M. Therefore, in the long term, this victory is a bad thing.

Other relapses were prevented. (Long story.)

When I got home, The Aggie had made a TCU pumpkin for my Paw In Law, who got his doctorate at TCU.

My Maw In Law countered with some ghost brownies.

End of weekend. It was a good one.

From the people who brought us the swine flu vaccine shortage....

From the people who brought us the swine flu vaccine shortage. Here's the Washington Examiner:


On Sept. 13, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, told ABC's This Week program that the government was on schedule to deliver an "ample supply" of swine flu vaccine by mid-October:
"We're on track to have an ample supply rolling by the middle of October. But we may have some early vaccine as early as the first full week in October. We'll get the vaccine out the door as fast as it rolls off the production line."
But here we are five weeks later and news reports are coming in from across the nation of long waiting lines of people wanting the shot, but being turned away because of grossly inadequate supplies. The typical explanation from public health offiials is that the swine flu vaccine requires more time to be cultivated than seasonal flu vaccine.
That's no doubt true, but did federal public health officials just discover that fact? These are the same government officials who will be in charge of your health care under the government-run health care system being sought by Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress.



Someone named Mike O'Keefe brought the entertaining signage. Links from Instapundit.

PaAnnoyed has joined Counting Cats In Zanzibar. Global warming retreats from view ! ! !

PaAnnoyed has joined up with The Feline Enumerators Blog. (Haven't visited in a while, guys. Sorry if this is old news.)


Hit this link for PaAnnoyed's opinions on impartial scientists cloistering themselves away from political and economic pressures in an effort to determine objective truth about Anthropogenic Global Warming. Or Cooling. Or Change. Or Whatever We're Gonna Spend A Shitload Of Money To Prevent.


Cedric, you'll be glad you did.


The picture of the countable cats cards came from here.

Rich Germans Demand Higher Taxes

From the BBC:

A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for the government to make wealthy people pay higher taxes.
The group say they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany's economic recovery.

If someone believes that government spending is the answer, and that person voluntarily throws more money into the gaping maw of the beast, that person is worthy of our grudging respect.

If someone believes that government spending is the answer, and that person advocates forcing others, at gunpoint, to throw more money into the gaping maw of the beast, then that person is beneath contempt.

Germany could raise 100bn euros (£91bn) if the richest people paid a 5% wealth tax for two years, they say.

But do you think they would leave their 100% intact in Germany to allow earnest pocket-pickers to have their way with it? Or do you think this wealth tax would have some unforeseen effects?

The petition has 44 signatories so far, and will be presented to newly re-elected Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The group say the financial crisis is leading to an increase in unemployment, poverty and social inequality.

Which is more likely to increase unemployment - allowing the wealthy to invest their money in whatever they they believe will create the biggest return on investment? Or letting the government spend the money on some random unholy cause?

Simply donating money to deal with the problems is not enough, they want a change in the whole approach.
"The path out of the crisis must be paved with massive investment in ecology, education and social justice," they say in the petition.

Call the folks at the Good Intentions Paving Company. The road to hell is about to get some work.

Those who had "made a fortune through inheritance, hard work, hard-working, successful entrepreneurship, or investment" should contribute by paying more to alleviate the crisis.
The man behind the petition, Dieter Lehmkuhl, told Berlin's Tagesspiegel that there were 2.2 million people in Germany with a fortune of more than 500,000 euros.
If they all paid the tax for two years, Germany could raise 100bn euros to fund ecological programmes, education and social projects, said the retired doctor and heir to a brewery.

Idea for a short-lived blog....a list of succesful government funded social projects.

Signatory Peter Vollmer told AFP news agency he was supporting the proposal because he had inherited "a lot of money I do not need".

Pete, here's an idea. Invest your money with someone who wants to grow and hire people. Put it to work. Don't invest it in a grievance factory.

He said the tax would be "a viable and socially acceptable way out of the flagrant budget crisis".

That was the #2 money quote right there. Socially acceptable. Because creating jobs by producing things people need is just so....tacky.

The group held a demonstration in Berlin on Wednesday to draw attention to their plans, throwing fake banknotes into the air.

Here comes the #1 money quote, and it's a good one:

Mr Vollmer said it was "really strange that so few people came".

Peter Vollmer, please step away from the Kool Aid.

Picture of Euros being pointlessly burned came from here.

Various Oil, Coal, and Chemical companies sued for not being superstitious

From The Jurist Blog:

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled that 14 victims of Hurricane Katrina have standing to sue companies for allegedly contributing to global warming , which they claim played a role in increasing the severity of the hurricane. The court found Friday that the plaintiffs had presented enough evidence against the oil, coal, and chemical companies named in the complaint to allow the class action lawsuit to proceed.

In related news, from various media outlets:

Little Bethany Hackensnot, of Buffalogump ND, has been placed under house arrest for stepping on a crack and breaking her mother's back.

Based on legal advice from Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell, owners of a New Orleans gay bar have been sued for attracting The Wrath Of God, which usually manifests itself in the form of hurricanes, floods, fire, and earthquakes.

Mildred Hacktooth, of Booger Den, Mississippi, is facing a lawsuit for failing to restrain her black housecat, Doctor Midnight. It seems that Doctor Midnight crossed a neighbors path, and three days later the neighbor failed to win the lottery.

Despite eleven straight years of the globe failing to warm properly, despite evidence that people used to farm in Greenland, despite evidence that Chicago used to be covered by a freakin' iceberg, despite the wildly fluctuating temperatures of the last few billion years, they're still trying to make money off of the Global Warming Scam.

I thought that hurricanes (or their absence) were "weather", not "climate". Aren't they trying to have it both ways with this lawsuit?

Abasi Ubuntu, of Kenya, recently shot Ms. Aluna Amanali following the untimely death of his cow. Evidence later revealed that Ms. Amanali was a witch.

Superstition pics came from here and here and here and here.

Tarrant County Libertarian Meetup, Saturday October 24th, The Flying Saucer

The Tarrant County Libertarian Meetup will be holding services at The Flying Saucer in downtown Fort Worth this Saturday afternoon (the 24th).

1:00 P.M.
111 E Fourth Street, Fort Worth
817.336.pint

This will be fun. There's plenty to talk about (I think we have some elections coming up in 2010, don't we?) and Big Daddy John Spivey is going to buy libations for the first person to show up with a libertarian themed book for the giveaway(s).

Hit the link for more info.

My Starbucks trade deficit is worsening

Every morning of my life, I spend $2.11 on a Starbucks double espresso. (That's known as a doppio, in the fake pseudo-Italian language Starbucks invented.)


Starbucks spends nothing with me. Nothing. Once a week, I check to see if they need any shipments hauled someplace in the lower 48 states. The answer is always NO.

That's a $14.77 trade deficit per week.

As I understand it, Starbucks arranges all of their freight through someplace in Seattle. How should Texas freight companies respond?
Should we immediately press for tariffs on inbound shipments of Starbucks coffee beans?
Should we lobby for higher road use taxes on all shipments not carried by Texas trucking companies?
Or perhaps we should call for a quota system, where Starbucks continues to ship their beans on non-Texan scab companies, but Texas trucking companies will have to be given their fair share?

There are some who say that these measures will raise the price of coffee in Texas Starbucks stores. But isn't this the only way to achieve social justice at Starbucks?

The Humble Libertarian

Here's another Libertarian Blog for your bookmarking pleasure: The Humble Libertarian. Mr. Humble offers us liberty-oriented wallpaper for your desktop. Go here for the complete set (it's worth it).

Here's another curiosity I found on Mr. Humble's site. This is a deleted scene from the Star Wars epic. I'll go ahead and print The Money Quote (at the 2:45 mark on the video):

"What good's all your uncle's work if the Empire takes it over? You know they've already started to nationalize commerce in the central systems? It won't be long before your uncle is just a tenant, slaving for the greater glory of the Empire."

Luke's friend obviously doesn't understand that the Empire had to nationalize commerce, healthcare, the X-wing fighter industry, and the Big 3 Detroit Droid Makers because of "the failed economic policies of the past 8 years".

The Humble Libertarian also writes well, BTW. Go here to read his warning about the new medical marijuana policy.

So many great blogs. So little time.

Does The Queen get to cut in line ???

From The Sunday Times on the UK's government controlled healthcare system. (That would be the London Times, not the state-controlled NYT.)

Here's Marie Woolf:

THE National Health Service has spent £1.5m paying for hundreds of its staff to have private health treatment so they can leapfrog their own waiting lists.
More than 3,000 staff, including doctors and nurses, have gone private at the taxpayers’ expense in the past three years because the queues at the clinics and hospitals where they work are too long.
Figures released under the Freedom of Information act show that NHS administrative staff, paramedics and ambulance drivers have also been given free private healthcare. This has covered physiotherapy, osteopathy, psychiatric care and counselling — all widely available on the NHS.
“It simply isn’t fair to have one service for staff and another for everyone else,” said Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, who obtained the figures.

We're not discussing fair and unfair. We're discussing what happens when government controls healthcare. For instance, under Obamacare, our Congress will get to keep its Cadillac plan.

“If the NHS has to circumvent their own waiting lists the system isn’t working well enough. It’s an admission by the NHS that their own system isn’t able to respond to the mass of people desperate to get back to work.”
The number of health service employees sent to private healthcare facilities has more than doubled in the past three years.

But but but but but.....why can't the British doctors and nurses and paramedics and ambulance drivers just wait in line with everyone else, the way we do at the Department Of Motor Vehicles, or the Post Office, or a V.A. Hospital?

The health department defended the practice and said sending doctors, nurses and other key staff for private treatment helped to get them back to work.
“If trusts want to get their staff back to work more quickly they can’t jump NHS waiting lists, so going private is an option,” said the spokesman.
“There is evidence that early intervention in tackling sickness absence enables staff to return to work more quickly.

Oh. Everyone is equal. But some are more equal than others. I wonder if this is the system The Queen uses....

Picture of people waiting in line forever came from here.

Super-complex col-lat-er-al-ized debt obligations ! !

From William N. Grigg, at the Pro Libertate blog, sung to the tune of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from Mary Poppins:

"Because the local sports mogul who owns the football team

Demanded a new stadium, or else he'd up and leave

We formed a sports authority to collect subsidies,

And now the bursting debt bubble has brought us to our knees"

Super-complex col-lat-er-al-ized debt obligations

Can be seen dis-int-eg-rating all across the nation!

And now the suf-fring middle class confronts annihilation --

Super-complex col-lat-er-al-ized debt obligations!

Hum-diddle-liddle-liddle, hum-diddle-LIE,

Hum-diddle-liddle-liddle, hum-diddle-FRAUD....

Now, everybody sing along ! ! !



I don't know if this is as good as my own "Teleprompter Jesus" ditty, but I like it.
William Grigg. The Pro Libertate blog. Yet another great libertarian website for your daily reads.

Caption Contest - More Dogs

I need a caption for this picture.


Harper won last week's Caption Contest, but with a different photo. First time ever.

Dog picture came from here. For a long, long conversation about this picture, go to Reddit.

Patrick Dixon on the "Separation Of Church And Signs"

Here's my friend Patrick Dixon, chair of the Libertarian Party Of Texas, on "Separation Of Church And Signs". Patrick serves on the Lago Vista City Council.

A few weeks ago we had a vote on whether to have a community sign provided by the city government, paid for with taxes. I cast the lone dissenting vote. While the amount of money is small relative to the overall budget, our budget is very tight and we made lots of cuts to avoid raising taxes. Therefore this expense, though small, should not stand while other more urgent causes are cut. However, the real problem is not financial. I warned that having such a sign would result in a fiasco of contention and rancor over policy. Last night’s council meeting proved my point.

Our city staff prepared a draft policy for the sign at last night’s meeting. It contained an exclusion for content of a religious nature, which I support. In order to clarify the interpretation of this policy I started the questioning by presenting several examples from the church I attend. A fellow councilman asked if a vacation bible school could be advertised. This went on a good long while with the mayor concluding he doesn’t have any problem with using taxpayer’s money for advertising items of a religious nature.

Let me set some further context here. We begin council meetings with a prayer to Jesus Christ. I oppose this. I haven’t actively done anything about it because I have so many other battles to wage, but I would certainly welcome a policy change here.

Why would a Catholic who goes to church twice every Sunday oppose religion in city politics?

Perhaps you are familiar with the first amendment to the US Constitution. Perhaps you are aware of the inspiration the first amendment derived from Thomas Jefferson. Perhaps you are aware that Muslims, Jews, Atheists, and others have the same rights as Christians. Perhaps the Muslim, Jew, or Atheist wonders if they will get a fair shake on a zoning variance after the entire council prays to Jesus. Perhaps you are aware of the atrocities of the Taliban.

I take my faith seriously. I do not need George Bush, Bill Clinton, or any other politician being the middle man in my relationship with God. If we continue to empower politicians to take our money to promote their church, what happens when their church isn’t your church?

Now ask yourself, do I sound like a Republican to you?

Let me be more clear:

•I cast the lone dissenting vote against an ordinance allowing government to ban cell phone use in school zones
•I cast the lone dissenting vote to renew our curfew law

It is easy to stand on the sidelines and call yourself one thing or another. The true test of your identity is when you are outnumbered but refuse to compromise your principles.

So, do Libertarians hurt Republicans? Yes, when they are in power. We have had Republicans in power until recently and Libertarians have appealed more to voters that see their failure of leadership. The same will happen with Democrats. Research proves it.

Go here to read the entire article.

"Capitalism: A Love Story"

When I went to see Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" last night, I fully intended to purchase a ticket for a different film, just to get inside the theatre. (I wanted to see Moore's movie, but I have qualms about giving money to millionaire socialists.)
I forgot that plan in the ticket line. Oh well. I've supported worse.

I'd seen the preview, and had ranted on some of the same subjects.



Michael Moore creates movies in exchange for lots of $10.00 tickets.

Many of us value seeing Moore's movie more than we value our $10.00. Michael Moore values our $10.00 more than he values the time spent making his movies. Michael Moore and a lot of people made a voluntary financial exchange last night. That's called "Capitalism".

Why not engage in this voluntary Free Market exchange with Michael Moore, and let him explain to us why voluntary Free Market exchanges are evil?


If you're looking for a consistent, coherent attack on Capitalism, go elsewhere. The movie is a mishmash of attacks on things that Moore doesn't like, redeemed with some genuinely funny sight gags and film clips.
But if you want a beginner's guide to how Goldman Sachs looted the U.S. Treasury? Give Michael Moore your $10.00


Moore begins with footage from what he sees as America's Golden Years. Dad could buy a new car every three years, he had a pension, four weeks of vacation, and Mom didn't have to work. Why? Because during WW2, we bombed our economic competitors, Germany and Japan, into oblivion. (It was a preview of Cash For Clunkers. Destroy enemy cities, and then rebuild them. It creates jobs and stimulates the economy !!)


Then come some genuinely heartbreaking scenes of people being evicted from their homes, some of which had been in their families for generations. I don't remember any clear explanations of how homes that have been in one family for multiple generations can be foreclosured on, though. Was it an 80-year loan with a balloon note tacked on the end? Did the owners use the house as collateral for a business venture that didn't work out? Did the owner lose his job, and take out a loan against the property just to get by? I don't think Moore ever tells us.


A few of the episodes have so little to do with capitalism, they seem like they were filmed with another movie in mind. One episode where Moore went totally off the rails was an interlude about Judge Mark Ciavarella. This vile bastard, along with someone named Mark T. Conahan, took money under the table from a privately owned juvenile detention center, in exchange for sending more and more juvenile delinquents to the privately operated detention center.

I wrote an incoherent rant about Ciavarella and Conahan several months ago, and when Moore's attack on them began, I supressed an urge to walk down each row of seats and tell everyone to READ THIS.


But, like Michael Moore, I digress. Free Market Capitalism is about voluntary exchanges of time, merchandise, and property. Corrupt judges who can screw up the lives of 1,600 children by taking kickbacks are an argument for less government involvement in the economy, not more.

There are some funny scenes where the dialogue in an old Jesus movie is replaced with contemporary clutch-phrases. (A beggar comes to Jesus to be healed; Jesus turns him away because of a pre-existing condition.) I think the funniest one would be to have Jesus say "I don't think we should do this by ourselves. Let's get Caesar involved."


Then Moore got to the good part. He outlined how various financial institutions were making a fortune by placing exotic bets on the outcomes of our economic behavior. Hank Paulson got a lot of face time onscreen. Ditto for Larry Summers. Ditto for Tiny Timmy Geithner. You can quibble over Moore's choice of details, but he explains how that Unholy Trinity worked with Bush and a Democratic Congress to loot the Treasury. Timothy Geithner comes in for a lot of unexpected abuse. Even Chris Dodd's crimes against transparency got some screen time. I couldn't believe it.
It was more or less accurate and very entertaining, if you enjoy watching a comedy about how a pack of jackals got into your wallet.


Then the music changed. One could almost imagine the Lone Ranger riding over a hilltop. Moore's voice switched from despair to enthusiasm. The screen got brighter, and was suddenly filled with hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans, good solid Americans like you and me, and they were all focused on....


Barack Obama ! Barack Obama ! Barack Obama ! Holy shit, he's awesome ! !


And then everything got better? And then Obama didn't name Timmy The Tax Dodger Geithner to head up the Treasury? Larry Summers was banished from anywhere near the president's ear? Was Goldman Sachs Obama's #1 campaign contributor, or merely #2 ?? Coca-Cola went back to using sugar instead of corn syrup?

Did The Obamessiah come in and cleanse the temple? Or did he merely allow all the con artists to slide one seat higher in the pecking order?
We'll never know where Moore was headed with this awkward scenario, because the movie pivots over to a union strike at a door and window company.


Here's where it should've gone, though. The people who ripped you off with the Wall Street bailout are the people who ripped you off with the Stimulus Package. They take turns, leaving a few Geithners in place as a transition team.


You had no choice but to finance the Wall Street Bailout, the G.M. Bailout, and the Porkulus Package. Other people made that decision for you, and your grandchildren will have a diminished existence because of it. That's not capitalism. That's fascism. A corporatistic economic ideology where Government and business are intertwined.


Some billionaire capitalists financed this movie. A millionaire capitalist wrote it, directed it, and starred in it. That's ok. In our system, they have that choice.


This is the most pro-union movie I've ever seen, and workers should have a right to unionize. That's their choice. Employers should have a right to hire non-union workers. That's their choice.


Michael Moore has come under fire for using non-union labor to make this pro-union movie. Why did he use non-union labor? Because he had a choice.


If you support the right of billionaire producers to finance millionaire capitalist filmmakers who want to hire non-union labor to produce pro-socialist movies?

Please consider the Libertarian Party. We're Pro-Choice about everything.

South Park on the organization that was gonna get stimulus money for helping with the census

"Don't Tax, But Spend Anyway" Republicans

In which the Republican Party attempts to start a blog....
This is from the Hot Air site:

Among the glitches on the newly redesigned GOP.com: The site password was visible for a time in the New York section and the “Future Leaders” page was left (temporarily) blank. Quoth the chairman: “It’s a beta site, meaning that there — we’re working out a lot of the kinks and the bugs… So the Dems can have their fun.”

And so they have. Way to score an own goal, pal, completely needlessly and amateurishly.

Today's video on the GOP.com website moans about the "trillions in new spending".

Folks, until The Teleprompter Jesus entered the Washington Baptismal Waters, the GOP held all the records in new spending.

Unbelievable.

We're truly in the best of hands.

To my gay and lesbian friends: You do have another option

From the comment field at Pam's House Blend, on the dithering of The Teleprompter Jesus on the gay marriage issue, plus some anonymous White House comments lumping gay bloggers into the "internet left fringe":



We get rousing speeches pre-election to get our vote. Then we get that insulting-azz DOJ brief comparing us to pedophiles. Then in front of the tea-and-finger-sandwich crowd there's another inspiring speech about how BHO stands with us. Then today we're the pajama-clad fringe again?
WTF? over!
Not one thin dime, not one more vote until somebody up there gets their shit together and gets some action going in a positive direction. They have not seen fringe lunatic -- yet. My last gay nerve is not that ->.<- long now. They can stick this on-again-off-again up their azzes.

And another:

I am sick to goddamned death of the Obama administration. Give me an honest enemy any day over a snake in the grass.

Here are some words of wisdom from The Gay Patriot:

I have to say that while I do delight in mocking gay leftists for their sometimes seemingly slavish support of Democrats, I have been most impressed with the integrity of many left-wing gay bloggers. They haven’t marched in lockstep with an Administration, even one they helped elect. And it’s not just in dealing with a Democratic Administration. While most gay organizations have been silent on the persecution of our fellows living under oppressive Islamic regimes, many gay bloggers on the left have covered their plight, with one blogger even organizing rallies on behalf of gay victims of Islamofascism.

These bloggers are hardly a fringe of the gay community, indeed, they may well be representative of it. Nearly every gay Democrat I talk to has expressed the same frustration as do these left-of-center bloggers. They may agree with a number of things the President has done these past nine months, but they’re appalled at how he has failed to act on the promises he made to the gay community.

So, we should be grateful for the blogosphere–it may well be more representative of our community that the heads of the various gay organizations with their fancy offices and titles and more ready access to the mainstream media.

Here's another Right-Wing Extremist publication, The New York Times:

Impatient and discouraged by what they see as a certain detachment by President Obama on their issues, gay rights supporters took to the streets Sunday in the largest demonstration for gay rights here in nearly a decade....

The president did not lay out a timetable to repeal the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, voice support for any of the battles going on at state levels to allow same-sex couples more recognition under the law nor mention the march.
“He knows this march is happening, and he can’t even acknowledge it?” said Robin McGehee, 36, a co-director of the march. Ms. McGehee took issue with people she believes are giving the president a pass.

Representative Barney Frank called the march “emotional satisfaction” for its organizers and said of their intention to pressure the Obama administration, “The only thing they’re going to put pressure on is the grass.”

Way to go, Barney. Go back to running a whorehouse out of your apartment.

Here's someone named Beth, commenting on the Ann Althouse blog:

So my question for the pissed off gays--what are you going to do about it? Vote republican next election? sit the next one out? Good questions, all.

I'll support candidates who challenge the Democratic incumbents - some primary challenges would be useful at least to unnerve incumbents who do lip service to gay constituents but never come through for us.

And yes, I'll sit out an election if there's no good option, or vote third party. We've long since quit donating to any organization that has shown up at the Obama White House for their cocktails and photo ops. Screw them. They don't represent us.

Well said, Beth. Please remember that the Libertarian Party waits for you to come around. We don't think America needs a third party, but a genuine second party would be nice.

I was sorry to read about Elmo.

Can your kids purchase life insurance policies on you after you are dead ???

I got into this argument with some friends on Facebook about a month ago.

Imagine you're in this group of about a dozen families who are all afraid that their houses will burn down. So each family puts about 2% of their income into a pool every year, and this fund will cover the cost of a new home for anyone whose house burns down.

Sure enough, every now and then someone's house burns and the group fund has to cover it. By carefully adjusting the rate that everyone has to pay, the fund winds up with 3.5% more than it pays out. (That's the profit margin for the Health Insurance industry, BTW.)

Next, imagine that a newcomer wants into your group. He's heard good reports about the low cost, and how quickly the funds were applied after each household disaster.

There's only one catch: This guy's house has already burned down.
Would you vote for the group to build him a new house? Especially if he crosses his heart, hopes to die, stick a finger in your eye, and promises to start paying money into the fund one day?

(Hint for Democrats: you're going to be giving him a house for nothing. Another hint: I'm not interested in what you ought to do in this situation, I'm interested in what you're going to do. People's houses burn every day, and you don't buy them a new one. I don't think you would let him into the group.)

Ok, enough of that hypothetical nonsense.

If the current Baucus Healthcare Bill passes, will any young person in this great land of ours be dumb enough to pay for health insurance?


Well, yeah. But they will be scarce. This is the Powerline blog explaining why:

....in the current version of the Baucus bill, there is no requirement to buy health insurance at all until after 2013, and by 2017 the penalty for failing to buy health insurance still amounts to only about 15% of the cost of the insurance.
Now, think about it: if you know that you don't have to buy health insurance when you are young and healthy, but if you should get sick, or just get older, you can apply for health insurance at any time and it will be illegal for the insurance company to turn you down, what would you do?
Obviously, you would defer buying insurance unless and until you get sick.
This means that the pool of those who are insured will be lower quality, and the cost therefore higher for everyone who buys insurance.

It is as though you could wait until you die, and then your heirs can buy life insurance on you.

As the great Thomas Sowell has stated a thousand times, in a thousand different ways: Government policies and programs should not be judged by their stated intentions, but by the incentives they create.

In this case they're creating GREAT incentives for younger people to go without insurance.

Our current government is beyond parody. They don't want healthcare for everyone, they want control. They want power.
Many of the people at the top have never even had to profitably run a Blockbuster Video night shift.
What could they possibly be thinking ? Where is the mainstream media on this joke?
Is there not a Woodward and Bernstein out there? Where is Jon Stewart on this? Letterman? Leno?
Anybody?

The Baucus Bill word cloud came from here.

Headline of the decade ! ! !

From Reason magazine, via the Probably Bad News site.

Here's an excerpt from the article in question. I suspect Mr. Cooper might have been giggling while writing this. Lane County is in Oregon, BTW.

"We got our hand out (for more money) on one hand, and we're we're Contraction of we are.
we're we are spending money with the other," Dwyer said. "That's a dilemma that we face."

The commissioners hope that an intense, 10-month public-information campaign that hits media, the general public, the county's own workers and specific groups will convince people that they're getting a lot of county services for their money. That could encourage support for the county-wide income tax, which would generate $70 million annually to fund current and additional public safety services.

But officials must be careful not to spend money advocating for the income tax, as that would violate a state law that governs how public money can be spent on campaigns, county attorney Terry Wilson said.

The commissioners can spend public money on some things they believe are in the county's best interest, including support for legislation or efforts to win federal money, Wilson said.

However, she added, even though the commissioners believe that the income tax for public safety is in the county's interest, they can't spend money advocating for it because it's tied to a vote of the people, some of whom may oppose the tax, and therefore the promotional spending.

The commissioners are expected, later this year, to approve a personal-income tax for public safety that would take effect if voters in November agree to change the Lane County charter.

The individual commissioners can - and will - advocate for the tax, but Dwyer said money will be spent ensuring only that voters are educated about county services and funding when they vote on the tax plan.

Got it? Good. They're spending a staggering sum of Oregon taxpayer money to let you know that if you don't give them more money, they're going to run out of money. (Unlike our Federal government, states and counties can't print their own funds.)

Voters have rejected 11 straight county public safety measures.

May their tribe increase.

The county needs to communicate on a higher level with its citizens," county spokeswoman Melinda Kletzok said.

Kletzok, the county's public information officer, will be the point person for a campaign to explain county services and funding. It will include newspaper, radio and TV advertising; news releases; an increased Web site presence; a video; numerous printed materials; and meetings with groups ranging from Neighborhood Watch to chambers of commerce, she said.

Supervisors from each county department have promised to contribute a total of up to $200,000 from their budgets to the campaign.

Remember, Lane County voters, your elected officials had enough money stacked around the office to fund the campaign to give them more money.

Another $50,000 is set aside in Kletzok's budget.

Fight The Power.

On religious legalism

About five years ago, Lord Sauron and I went to a three-day auction in New Jersey. Bought all sorts of stuff and hauled it back to Texas. One of the more memorable people from that trip was an old Amish guy who mostly bid on hammers, wrenches, and other hand tools. He wore the Amish homespun clothes, the suspenders, a straw hat, and some boots that looked like they were made by blacksmiths. (I've always lived in Mississippi and Texas, and haven't been around many Amish people.)

I didn't pay that much attention to Mr. Amish until he started bidding on the drill presses. This seemed like a violation of the Amish prohibition against electricty, right? What was he going to do with an electric drill press? I asked a friend of his, and here's the explanation I got:

The Amish have a prohibition against electricity. Well, let's define electricity. Let's say its the presence and flow of an electrical charge. A spark, perhaps. Think Ben Franklin's experiment with the lightning. Big spark.
A gasoline-powered electric generator compresses fuel with a piston. At some point, a spark plug ignites the fuel, pushing the piston downward. This creates motion.
For whatever reason, the Amish see this spark as a bad thing.

BUT.... what about a diesel generator? Would that be ok? Diesel fuel ignites spontaneously from compression. (The oldest joke in the mechanical/maintenance industry is to send a kid out to change the spark plugs on a diesel engine. Diesel engines don't have spark plugs.)
Therefore, its ok for the Amish to run machinery and lighting from diesel generators. Go here to learn about an Amish company that actually manufactures diesel generators.

Ok, next point.... During this same time period, I was running the Jukt Micronics metal shop, and we had most of the United Nations working in the place. We had metalworkers from Nigeria. Kenya, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Mexico, Guatemala, Eritrea, and Arkansas. I wanted to do something nice for the guys, and ordered pizza to arrive a few minutes before breaktime.

I ordered Pizza Hut Meat-Lovers pizza. I ordered Sausage pizza. Pepperoni pizza. Italian Sausage. Ham. And guess what? It was the middle of Ramadan. At least a third of my employees were Muslim, and I might as well have ordered everybody some pig-on-a-biscuit. Well, like I said above, I'd lived my whole life in Mississippi and Texas, and wasn't really tuned in to Muslim dietary requirements.

But here's where it got interesting: A small contingent of the Croatians (?) took some of the forbidden pizza to a corner, and they did something to it. I don't know what. Some kind of Mojo. When the pizza came out of the corner, it was ok for Muslims to eat, and a lot of them ate it. I wish that Baptists had a similar ritual to purify Jim Beam.

There was an article in the New York Times a few days ago about Shabbos elevators. You don't know about Shabbos (or Shabbat) elevators? Here's the Times:

Does that elevator “know” how many people are on it?
The question is at the core of a ruling issued by a group of prominent rabbis in Israel on Sept. 29 that seems to ban the use of many so-called Shabbos elevators: elevators fixed to stop on every floor from Friday evening until Saturday evening so that observant Jews do not have to press any buttons.
Since the 1960s, when high-rise apartment buildings became ubiquitous, the Orthodox rabbinate has made such elevators one of the few exceptions to Talmudic rules prohibiting 39 categories of activity on the Sabbath, including manual labor or the use of electrical devices. Like flipping a light switch, pressing an elevator button is considered the use of an electrical device.

You would think that if someone went to the trouble to program an elevator stop on every floor during the Jewish Sabbath, he ought to at least get credit for trying. Not so. Here's the "Ask A Rabbi" website:

One of the common misconceptions about how elevators work, is that they are moved by a powerful motor which works equally hard no matter how many passengers have boarded, or even if no passengers have boarded at all. If this were the case, then the added weight of the passenger is not a contributing factor in any of the functions of the elevator and he wouldn't be considered responsible for those violations of Shabbat caused by use of the elevator. This assumption though, is false.

The assumption is false because elevator motors do not use the same amount of power regardless of the number of passengers or weight. The following is an explanation of how the majority of elevators work, illustrating just a small number of Halachic issues surrounding the use of elevators on Shabbat:

1. Most elevators are the traction type: consisting of a car and a counterweight on opposite ends of a cable hanging from a pulley;
   
2. The pulley raises or lowers the car by using a motor, and stops by using a mechanical brake;
   
3. The motor only requires enough power to lift the difference between the counterweight and the car, and to overcome friction;
   
4. The weight is equal to half capacity of the car, thus the motor operates to counteract the pull of the weight when the elevator is less than half full, and does not operate when the elevator is more than half full, when the car is descending.

Since the weight of the passenger is partly responsible for the motion of the elevator, he becomes liable for any infractions caused by the elevator's descent. In a typical non-Shabbos elevator, these are some of the many problems that one could encounter:

• Letting your weight trigger the mechanism that slows the elevator down and stops it at the next floor.
  
  • Causing the light that indicates the floor that the elevator is presently on to illuminate.
    
  • Activating the system (resistance sensitive pads, photoelectric device, or proximity detector) that opens the elevator doors.
  
  

  
  

  The Institute for Science and Halacha has spent many years working out the various Halachic problems and have designs for Shabbat elevators that meet the most rigorous Shabbat standards. Don't just use any automatic elevator - check with a Local Halachic Authority and find out whether it really is Shabbat safe.
  

Get it? If anything about your body - your weight, your leg breaking a light beam, your sinful desire to press a button - causes the elevator mechanism to change its scheduled starts and stops, then you've desecrated the Sabbath. It's like "step on a crack, break your mother's back" times ten.

Which gets me to the new Eruv in Baltimore. An Eruv, according to Wikipedia, refers to the legal aggregation or "mixture" under Jewish religious property law of separate parcels of property meeting certain requirements into a single parcel held in common by all the holders of the original parcels, which enables Jews who observe the traditional laws of Shabbat to carry children and belongings anywhere within the jointly held property without transgressing the prohibition against carrying a burden across a property line on the Jewish sabbath.

Orthodox Jews can't carry property - i.e., books, keys, kids - across property that isn't theirs on the Sabbath. So they put a wire around a massive amount of land, theoretically enclosing it within the communal property boundary of the wire, and this means its okay to carry your textbooks from point A to point B on the Sabbath. As long as you stay inside the wire. Step outside it, and God gets pissed. Here's another section of Wikipedia on "coping without an Eruv":

Loose medicines may not be carried; most authorities have agreed that it is preferable that one who constantly needs medication remain at home rather than transgressing Shabbat by carrying medication. But if such a person leaves home, then comes in need of medication, it is permissible under the laws of Pikuach nefesh to break Shabbat and bring the medication to the person. A small number of authorities in recent years have been permitting carrying the medication, though, since such a person may be tempted to leave home without it, and then his/her life may be endangered thereafter.

I first learned about the concept of the Eruv in Harper's magazine. The Eruv in the linked article is more than 4,000 acres, and encloses much of Manhattan. That's one heck of a household. Various committees and experts inspect the wire from time to time, and ensure that it remains unbroken. Otherwise, those inside the magic circle would be doing forbidden work on the Sabbath.

My wife is a Baptist Youth Minister. Our church prides itself on being "moderate" Baptist, which these days is kinda like being a "moderate" jihadist. We like gays and lesbians. We have female deacons and ministers. We don't believe that the Republican Party speaks for God. (Some of us even think that you can disagree with us and not go to hell, but don't tell anybody.)

My wife is having another carpal tunnel surgery tomorrow.
According to long-standing tradition, Baptists don't consume alcohol.
People from the church are bring food to our house every other day for the next two weeks, since the church members know that my wife can't survive on my diet of Bud Lite and Chili. (Great folks, all of them.)
But I have at least a 12-pack of Bud Lite in the fridge.
According to my calendar, we're in the year 2009. We've put a man on the moon. We're mapping the human genome. If we could stay out of religious wars in the Middle East, we would've sent a man to Mars by now.
With the exception of maybe three people, every member of the church that I know is at least a social drinker. They're going to be putting stuff in our fridge.
My Bud Lite is now in the salad bin of the refrigerator, stored out of sight.

The Amish prohibitions against electricity, the Muslim ban on pork, and the Jewish regulations against work outside the household on the Sabbath? Those are all silly religious beliefs.
But the Baptist drinking ban is a tradition. We all know and acknowledge that Jesus turned water into wine, and that Paul said a little wine is good "for the stomach's sake".

None of that matters. Baptists don't drink. I can't be too careful, and I better consume that 12-pack tonight.

The picture of the Amish generator came from here.
The picture of the Shabbat elevator came from here.

Taking it to the next level

My friend Harper from Camp Blownstar is taking competitiveness to new levels.


Go here to see Harper's entry in my caption contest. Harper is the first person to bring photoshop to the table ! ! (Mere captions are so....previous millennium)


Link and bookmark Harper's blog "Passed Up Strange". Harper isn't just smart, but is also cerebral. Intellectual. Brilliant person, that Harper. Would've won the Nobel if the process wasn't rigged.