Watcher of Weasels (love the name !) runs something called "The Watchers Council".
It's a group of a dozen bloggers who, every week, submit their best piece of writing to the rest of the council. They use a complicated Watcher of Weasels-like percentage vote on who did the best job, and the winner gets lots of links and web traffic to whatever he/she wrote.
They also nominate one blog post apiece written by someone from the outside.
Wolf Howling, who has been in the blogroll to your right from day one, took a liking to this thing I wrote about Blog for Human Rights Day. Mr. Howling threw it in the ring for consideration by the Watchers Council.
These people, out of all the stuff blogged about last week, out of all the millions and millions of worthwhile blog entries out there....they decided that my Human Rights Day thing was the best. So now I'm getting traffic from here and here and here and here and here and here and here and about eight other places.
If I were a Democrat, I'd say that I'm humbled by the recognition.
But that's a total misuse of the word "humbled", isn't it? If people throw rotten vegetables and eggs and dead animals at you, and then say you're a total idiot, then you're humbled. How did we ever start using the word "humble" incorrectly? Any time someone gets an award or recognition, they say they're humbled. In my opinion, when you don't get an award, or win the game, or finish the marathon....you're humbled.
Instead of saying "I'm humbled", I should say that I'm pretty dang proud to get some recognition from The Watchers Council.
In the name of LinkLove, here are my picks for the best things written by the Watcher's Council:
The Education Wonks have an interesting post on the recent gang warfare in the Los Angeles Public School System. Read this, and tell me if any parents in their right minds would consider sending their kid to these schools. One thing that would've been an interesting side note.... No real teaching is going on in these places, since they're Gladiator/Gangsta Training Academies, and students risk their lives by showing up. So what's the biggest news in education from California these days? The teachers union is lobbying the state to outlaw home schooling. The mind recoils.
The Glittering Eye is running a series of editorials that Gittering Eye's father wrote for The Saint Louis Post-Dispatch. The first one, Adolph The Great, is about students at Yale (and Time magazine) nominating Hitler as "Man of The Year" due to his turnaround of Germany's economy. There are several other pieces by his father in there - just keep hitting the "father's editorial" links.
Rhymes With Right takes one of my least favorite politicians to the metaphorical woodshed. Iowa Senator Tom Harkin recently claimed that John McCain's family having four generations of military service somehow makes McCain unfit for Presidential leadership. Mr. Rhymes With Right has some harsh words for Senator Harkin, and says he should be ashamed of himself. I agree, but for totally different reasons.
Tom Harkin, the senator from Archer Daniels Midland, should be ashamed of himself because he's a whore for the ethanol industry. A worn out, pimped out, used up, totally bedraggled slut. John McCain has proven that he can take care of himself.
Done With Mirrors takes a look at the problem we Christians know as "theodicy". Prompted by the historical and theological explorations of Reverend John Hagee, Done With Mirrors asks, as an outsider, how can monotheists reconcile the idea of an all-knowing, all-powerful God with some of the totalitarian outrages of the previous century. (The short answer: We can't.)
Joshuapundit specializes in deep lengthy posts about the Middle East, almost all of which are worthwhile. But I've got to give you a link to this YouTube parody of an academic sensitivity training session. Funny stuff.
SoccerDad is another blogger who focuses on Jewish issues, Israel, and the Middle East. He's got so much interesting stuff in there that my head hurts. I look forward reading all these people in the future. If I have to settle on just one post to highlight, it would be "What Makes A Pro-Israel President?"
The Colossus Of Rhodey has some commentary on a Mark Steyn piece about John McCain vs. The Democratic Party . Senator Tom Harkin, who is shaping up nicely as the villain of this post, also comes in for some well-deserved abuse. But not nearly enough.
Bookworm Room liked the new Indiana Jones movie even less than I did. She's correct when she states that Cate Blanchett looks fabulous. She's mistaken when she states that (the fight scenes were) "like a Rock ‘em Sock ‘em robot, only the heads stayed attached at the end," because Cate Blanchett's head doesn't. But that's trivial. The movie was not good.
BWRoom also has a link where like-minded commenters can recommend their favorite books.
Cheat Seeking Missiles has a discourse on the lowered height requirement in the North Korean Army. (It's now 4'3". That's four feet, three inches tall.) Cheat Seeking Missiles believes this is due to systemic malnutrition in the Socialist Paradise of North Korea.
Well, there's a perfect control group of people with identical ethnicity in the Raging Capitalist Hellhole of South Korea. I wonder how the two nations compare? Can someone let me know if the South Korean military has to admit 4'3" recruits? I think not.
Wolf Howling, who was good enough to get me into all this, has a post on Oil, Gas, Supply & Demand. He talks about the belief that supply and demand have nothing to do with cost and price. He's also the 3rd or 4th one of these folks to post the YouTube video of Rep. Maxine Waters threatening to nationalize the oil companies.
As a small "l" libertarian, I think Maxine Waters' statements are mildly comical. (Imagine what The U.S. Postal Service could do for UPS. Imagine what a V.A. hospital could do for Harris Methodist hospital in Fort Worth. Imagine what the Department of Motor Vehicles could do for Toyota.) The Watchers Council apparently thinks this video is knee-slapping, rolling in the floor laughing, blow-your -drink-through-your-nose funny.
If you can imagine Maxine Waters and her minions taking over an oil company....yeah, it's pretty funny.
Also, while you're in there, check out the various wolf pictures above each blogroll category. The first time I saw the one he picked for "The Left", I laughed for hours.
Hillbilly White Trash has some marketing advice for the Republican party in "Rebranding The G.O.P." One explanation that may be needed for those with other belief systems....RINO stands for "Republican In Name Only".
The Hillbilly has the largest blogroll I've ever seen. He also did 2,200 posts in 2007. The Hillbilly is committed to his cause.
In his leisure time, he runs something called The Hillbilly Ecosystem. (Go ahead and click the link.... it's a blog traffic ranking system using redneck stereotypes as the hierarchy categories.) By one of his standards - blogrolls - I'm a Heavily Armed Moonshiner. By another - hits and comments - I'm a Heavily Armed Saloon Keeper.
Perhaps if all these good folks keep sending traffic my direction, I'll achieve a solid "Heavily Armed Saloon Keeper" status by the end of summer.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Free Trade's Benefits Are Not A Paradox (Shhh...The children might be listening.)
James Surowiecki, of The New Yorker's Financial Page, has written an excellent article called:
The Free-Trade Paradox
by James Surowiecki May 26, 2008
Mr. Surowiecki has written some excellent stuff in the past, my favorite being "The Wisdom of Crowds", a book about majority opinions, elections, betting lines, and how something as goofy as Wikipedia can grow to be more helpful than an encyclopedia.
I agree with what he's written here, for the most part. This posting will be a sort of anti-Fisking. What I hope to do here is draw attention to how gently, calmly, and lovingly Surowiecki takes his almost exclusively Democratic Partly Loyalist audience by the hand and tries to lead them to the conclusion that The Sky Is Blue and Grass Is Green.
All the acrimony in the primary race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has disguised the fact that on most issues they’re not too far apart.
Actually, the acrimony hasn't disguised anything. Take the names off their websites, and 95% of us couldn't tell which is which.
That’s especially the case when it comes to free trade, which both Obama and Clinton have lambasted over the past few months. At times, the campaign has looked like a contest over who hates free trade more: Obama has argued that free-trade agreements like NAFTA are bought and paid for by special interests, while Clinton has emphasized the need to “stand up” to countries like China.
The Clintons' position of "standing up" to China is like Neiman-Marcus "standing up" to Dollar General for providing products at a lower cost.
Two weeks ago, both senators signed on as sponsors of a new bill that would effectively impose higher tariffs on China if it doesn’t revalue its currency.
YEAH ! That will show....us. Put a tariff on their stuff so we'll have to pay....more. With friends like Hillary, who needs....Obama.
The candidates are trying to win the favor of unions and blue-collar voters in states like Ohio and West Virginia, of course, but their positions also reflect a widespread belief that free trade with developing countries, and with China in particular, is a kind of scam perpetrated by the wealthy, who reap the benefits while ordinary Americans bear the cost.
Actually, with these trade agreements running into the thousands of pages, we don't have true Free Trade with anyone outside our borders. But more trade is better than less.
It’s an understandable view: how, after all, can it be a good thing for American workers to have to compete with people who get paid seventy cents an hour?
How can it be a good thing for everyone who reaps the benefits of lower costs on anything? How can it be good for American oil companies who can only produce oil at $130 a barrel to compete with companies who can bring it in for $90? I believe if confronted with that situation we would all collectively say "Screw the American oil companies". And their employees and their household pets. The benefits for everyone would be big enough to counteract the harm done to someone. It's that simple. But unions are somehow seen as more wholesome....
As it happens, the negative effect of trade on American wages isn’t that easy to document.
Hmmm....wonder why. Could it be that the individual negatives are totally blown away by the group positives? Please remember, Mr. Surowiecki is trying to teach Democrats why their beloved Government Economic Control does more harm than good. Be patient. A master is at work here....
The economist Paul Krugman, for instance, believes that the effect is significant, though in a recent academic paper he concluded that it was impossible to quantify.
I've now read enough Paul Krugman to believe that he couldn't quantify two-for-one pricing at The Dollar Store. Nope, says Dr. Krugman. You can't quantify it, but I know it's bad.
But it’s safe to say that the main burden of trade-related job losses and wage declines has fallen on middle- and lower-income Americans. So standing up to China seems like a logical way to help ordinary Americans do better. But there’s a problem with this approach: the very people who suffer most from free trade are often, paradoxically, among its biggest beneficiaries.
Notice Reverend Surowiecki's continued use of the word "paradox", both in the previous sentence, and in the title of this sermon/essay. He's saying that Free Trade's benefits defy intuition, much like the idea of a round earth defies intuition. Saying it's a "paradox" doesn't imply that the Free Trade skeptics are dumb. It merely suggests that the skeptics don't know what everyone else has clued in on since 1936.
The reason for this is simple: free trade with poorer countries has a huge positive impact on the buying power of middle- and lower-income consumers—a much bigger impact than it does on the buying power of wealthier consumers. The less you make, the bigger the percentage of your spending that goes to manufactured goods—clothes, shoes, and the like—whose prices are often directly affected by free trade. The wealthier you are, the more you tend to spend on services—education, leisure, and so on—that are less subject to competition from abroad.
Wal-Mart denim jeans are subject to the benefits of Free Trade. Houses in The Hamptons, tickets to The Met, and subscriptions to "The New Yorker" are not.
In a recent paper on the effect of trade with China, the University of Chicago economists Christian Broda and John Romalis estimate that poor Americans devote around forty per cent more of their spending to “non-durable goods” than rich Americans do. That means that lower-income Americans get a much bigger benefit from the lower prices that trade with China has brought.
Surowieckie has now removed his Clue Stick from its scabbard, but he has not yet struck anyone about the head and shoulders....he takes a few practice swings....
Then, too, the specific products that middle- and lower-income Americans buy are much more likely to originate in places like China than the products that wealthier Americans buy.
He is now raising the Clue Stick above his head....
Despite a huge increase in imports from China—they sextupled as a percentage of U.S. imports between 1990 and 2006—Chinese products are still concentrated mostly in lower-price markets. (By some estimates, Wal-Mart alone has accounted for nearly a tenth of all imports from China in recent years.)
Using perfect form, Surowieckie swings towards the addle-pated noggins of his audience with all his might ! ! !
By contrast, much of what wealthier Americans buy is made in the U.S. or in high-wage countries like Germany and Switzerland.
The Clue Stick makes contact ! ! ! And now, the follow-through....
This is obvious when it comes to luxury goods—Louis Vuitton bags, Patek Philippe watches, and so on—but it’s also true of many other goods, like electronics, kitchen appliances, and furniture, categories in which American and European manufacturers have continued to thrive by selling to the high-end market. According to the Yale economist Peter K. Schott, machinery and electronics products made in developed countries sell in the U.S. for four times the average price of Chinese products. And, since the late nineteen-eighties, that price gap has widened by almost forty per cent.
But, but, but....Hillary said all this was bad ! ! ! How can this be ? ? ?
This may not always be the case; as China’s economy continues to boom, its companies will likely move up the quality ladder and, eventually, become serious competition for high-end American and European manufacturers. But for the moment the benefits of free trade with China, at least when it comes to shopping, are concentrated overwhelmingly among average Americans. And the result is that, in the past decade, the products that they spend more on have become a lot cheaper compared to the stuff that rich people spend more on.
NO ! ! DON'T SAY IT ! I WANT TO LIVE OUT MY LIFE AS A XENOPHOBIC TRADE BASHER ! ! ! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T TAKE THIS AWAY FROM ME ! !
Broda and Romalis, in their recent paper, calculate that between 1999 and 2005 alone the inflation rate for lower-income Americans was almost seven points lower than it was for the wealthiest Americans.
IT'S NOT TRUE ! NOT TRUE ! I DON'T WANT IT TO BE TRUE ! trade&business&freedom are bad!!!Hillary&Barack are good ! ! ! NAFTA is bad ! ! Freedom is bad ! ! Excessive regulations are good ! ! Pelosi told me so ! AAAaaaarghhh !
That means that free trade with China has made average Americans, at least as consumers, much better off—in the sense that it’s made their dollars go further than they otherwise would have.
There, there now....I know this is hard to take, Surowiecki is saying. Maybe this next part will help you feel better.
Now, there’s a lot that’s left out of this equation, such as the fact that free trade may help richer Americans by increasing corporate profits.
O thank God I can still say the rich bastards benefit from trade. Thank you James Surowiecki, thank you thank you thank you....
And cheap DVD players may not, on balance, make up for lost jobs.
But notice that Reverend Surowiecki say "may" not. He's having a Krugman moment....
But the reality is that if we toughen our trade relations with China the benefits will be enjoyed by a few, since only a small percentage of Americans now work for companies that compete directly with Chinese manufacturers, while average Americans will feel the pain—in the form of higher prices—far more quickly and more directly than rich Americans will. Obama and Clinton, in their desire to help working Americans—and gain their votes—are pushing for policies that will also hurt them.
Ok, did James Surowiecki's sermon convert anyone? No? You're still going to base your beliefs about trade on pure emotion?
Thought so.
But before you click away, look at who made your computer.
For another take on this essay, click here to go to a Blog called The Economist's View.
The Free-Trade Paradox
by James Surowiecki May 26, 2008
Mr. Surowiecki has written some excellent stuff in the past, my favorite being "The Wisdom of Crowds", a book about majority opinions, elections, betting lines, and how something as goofy as Wikipedia can grow to be more helpful than an encyclopedia.
I agree with what he's written here, for the most part. This posting will be a sort of anti-Fisking. What I hope to do here is draw attention to how gently, calmly, and lovingly Surowiecki takes his almost exclusively Democratic Partly Loyalist audience by the hand and tries to lead them to the conclusion that The Sky Is Blue and Grass Is Green.
All the acrimony in the primary race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has disguised the fact that on most issues they’re not too far apart.
Actually, the acrimony hasn't disguised anything. Take the names off their websites, and 95% of us couldn't tell which is which.
That’s especially the case when it comes to free trade, which both Obama and Clinton have lambasted over the past few months. At times, the campaign has looked like a contest over who hates free trade more: Obama has argued that free-trade agreements like NAFTA are bought and paid for by special interests, while Clinton has emphasized the need to “stand up” to countries like China.
The Clintons' position of "standing up" to China is like Neiman-Marcus "standing up" to Dollar General for providing products at a lower cost.
Two weeks ago, both senators signed on as sponsors of a new bill that would effectively impose higher tariffs on China if it doesn’t revalue its currency.
YEAH ! That will show....us. Put a tariff on their stuff so we'll have to pay....more. With friends like Hillary, who needs....Obama.
The candidates are trying to win the favor of unions and blue-collar voters in states like Ohio and West Virginia, of course, but their positions also reflect a widespread belief that free trade with developing countries, and with China in particular, is a kind of scam perpetrated by the wealthy, who reap the benefits while ordinary Americans bear the cost.
Actually, with these trade agreements running into the thousands of pages, we don't have true Free Trade with anyone outside our borders. But more trade is better than less.
It’s an understandable view: how, after all, can it be a good thing for American workers to have to compete with people who get paid seventy cents an hour?
How can it be a good thing for everyone who reaps the benefits of lower costs on anything? How can it be good for American oil companies who can only produce oil at $130 a barrel to compete with companies who can bring it in for $90? I believe if confronted with that situation we would all collectively say "Screw the American oil companies". And their employees and their household pets. The benefits for everyone would be big enough to counteract the harm done to someone. It's that simple. But unions are somehow seen as more wholesome....
As it happens, the negative effect of trade on American wages isn’t that easy to document.
Hmmm....wonder why. Could it be that the individual negatives are totally blown away by the group positives? Please remember, Mr. Surowiecki is trying to teach Democrats why their beloved Government Economic Control does more harm than good. Be patient. A master is at work here....
The economist Paul Krugman, for instance, believes that the effect is significant, though in a recent academic paper he concluded that it was impossible to quantify.
I've now read enough Paul Krugman to believe that he couldn't quantify two-for-one pricing at The Dollar Store. Nope, says Dr. Krugman. You can't quantify it, but I know it's bad.
But it’s safe to say that the main burden of trade-related job losses and wage declines has fallen on middle- and lower-income Americans. So standing up to China seems like a logical way to help ordinary Americans do better. But there’s a problem with this approach: the very people who suffer most from free trade are often, paradoxically, among its biggest beneficiaries.
Notice Reverend Surowiecki's continued use of the word "paradox", both in the previous sentence, and in the title of this sermon/essay. He's saying that Free Trade's benefits defy intuition, much like the idea of a round earth defies intuition. Saying it's a "paradox" doesn't imply that the Free Trade skeptics are dumb. It merely suggests that the skeptics don't know what everyone else has clued in on since 1936.
The reason for this is simple: free trade with poorer countries has a huge positive impact on the buying power of middle- and lower-income consumers—a much bigger impact than it does on the buying power of wealthier consumers. The less you make, the bigger the percentage of your spending that goes to manufactured goods—clothes, shoes, and the like—whose prices are often directly affected by free trade. The wealthier you are, the more you tend to spend on services—education, leisure, and so on—that are less subject to competition from abroad.
Wal-Mart denim jeans are subject to the benefits of Free Trade. Houses in The Hamptons, tickets to The Met, and subscriptions to "The New Yorker" are not.
In a recent paper on the effect of trade with China, the University of Chicago economists Christian Broda and John Romalis estimate that poor Americans devote around forty per cent more of their spending to “non-durable goods” than rich Americans do. That means that lower-income Americans get a much bigger benefit from the lower prices that trade with China has brought.
Surowieckie has now removed his Clue Stick from its scabbard, but he has not yet struck anyone about the head and shoulders....he takes a few practice swings....
Then, too, the specific products that middle- and lower-income Americans buy are much more likely to originate in places like China than the products that wealthier Americans buy.
He is now raising the Clue Stick above his head....
Despite a huge increase in imports from China—they sextupled as a percentage of U.S. imports between 1990 and 2006—Chinese products are still concentrated mostly in lower-price markets. (By some estimates, Wal-Mart alone has accounted for nearly a tenth of all imports from China in recent years.)
Using perfect form, Surowieckie swings towards the addle-pated noggins of his audience with all his might ! ! !
By contrast, much of what wealthier Americans buy is made in the U.S. or in high-wage countries like Germany and Switzerland.
The Clue Stick makes contact ! ! ! And now, the follow-through....
This is obvious when it comes to luxury goods—Louis Vuitton bags, Patek Philippe watches, and so on—but it’s also true of many other goods, like electronics, kitchen appliances, and furniture, categories in which American and European manufacturers have continued to thrive by selling to the high-end market. According to the Yale economist Peter K. Schott, machinery and electronics products made in developed countries sell in the U.S. for four times the average price of Chinese products. And, since the late nineteen-eighties, that price gap has widened by almost forty per cent.
But, but, but....Hillary said all this was bad ! ! ! How can this be ? ? ?
This may not always be the case; as China’s economy continues to boom, its companies will likely move up the quality ladder and, eventually, become serious competition for high-end American and European manufacturers. But for the moment the benefits of free trade with China, at least when it comes to shopping, are concentrated overwhelmingly among average Americans. And the result is that, in the past decade, the products that they spend more on have become a lot cheaper compared to the stuff that rich people spend more on.
NO ! ! DON'T SAY IT ! I WANT TO LIVE OUT MY LIFE AS A XENOPHOBIC TRADE BASHER ! ! ! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T TAKE THIS AWAY FROM ME ! !
Broda and Romalis, in their recent paper, calculate that between 1999 and 2005 alone the inflation rate for lower-income Americans was almost seven points lower than it was for the wealthiest Americans.
IT'S NOT TRUE ! NOT TRUE ! I DON'T WANT IT TO BE TRUE ! trade&business&freedom are bad!!!Hillary&Barack are good ! ! ! NAFTA is bad ! ! Freedom is bad ! ! Excessive regulations are good ! ! Pelosi told me so ! AAAaaaarghhh !
That means that free trade with China has made average Americans, at least as consumers, much better off—in the sense that it’s made their dollars go further than they otherwise would have.
There, there now....I know this is hard to take, Surowiecki is saying. Maybe this next part will help you feel better.
Now, there’s a lot that’s left out of this equation, such as the fact that free trade may help richer Americans by increasing corporate profits.
O thank God I can still say the rich bastards benefit from trade. Thank you James Surowiecki, thank you thank you thank you....
And cheap DVD players may not, on balance, make up for lost jobs.
But notice that Reverend Surowiecki say "may" not. He's having a Krugman moment....
But the reality is that if we toughen our trade relations with China the benefits will be enjoyed by a few, since only a small percentage of Americans now work for companies that compete directly with Chinese manufacturers, while average Americans will feel the pain—in the form of higher prices—far more quickly and more directly than rich Americans will. Obama and Clinton, in their desire to help working Americans—and gain their votes—are pushing for policies that will also hurt them.
Ok, did James Surowiecki's sermon convert anyone? No? You're still going to base your beliefs about trade on pure emotion?
Thought so.
But before you click away, look at who made your computer.
For another take on this essay, click here to go to a Blog called The Economist's View.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Indiana Jones And The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull
I saw the new Harrison Ford movie "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of The Crystal Skull" tonight. Maybe it was last night. Maybe I didn't see it at the theatre. Maybe I saw it on a rerun of the X-Files.
Compared to the earlier Indiana Jones movies, it doesn't. Compare. At all. It's no more than a 6 on the 10 scale.
The script is some standard silliness about a missing blah blah blah that has to be reunited with the other blah blah blahs before the blah blah blah can happen. God knows I'm tired of that plot. All of this is tied together with some semi-entertaining dialogue, but the storyline feels like it was written by a committee.
The great John Hurt is in there somewhere in a beard and wild hair, muttering cryptic couplets about...who knows? Who cares? Anyone could've played that part.
It even has a self-congratulatory ending, where Indiana Jones and his bride are applauded by the congregation after their church wedding. God knows I'm tired of movies where movie extras gather around and applaud the heroes. Somehow, it's supposed to make the audience feel like they should applaud the movie.
It's set in the 50's, and Spielberg and Lucas feel obligated to show the FBI being intrusive in the name of anti-communism. One character changes sides 3 times, not for any rational reason, but to keep the plot rolling. Something was going on about magnetism and magnetic fields, but I lost interest in following it. Swords, light fixtures, and gunpowder are attracted to this magnet, but gun barrels are not.
There were some cool scenes involving jeeps and amphibian watercraft going through mountain roads in Peru. The first 15 minutes worth of action in the "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" warehouse, which turns out to be the infamous "Area 51", those are a fun 15 minutes. The videogames should be excellent.
And eventually they put the missing blah blah blah into the blah blah blah where it's belonged ever since it was stolen by blah blah blah and this causes all of the blah blah blah to start happening and the villain who wants to experience blah blah blah gets her head blown up.
I promise, you've seen it all before. For those of you who aren't 46 years old, you have no idea how much fun the first Indiana Jones movie brought to the screen. We had never seen anything like it.
You've seen this one before. Lots of times.
Compared to the earlier Indiana Jones movies, it doesn't. Compare. At all. It's no more than a 6 on the 10 scale.
The script is some standard silliness about a missing blah blah blah that has to be reunited with the other blah blah blahs before the blah blah blah can happen. God knows I'm tired of that plot. All of this is tied together with some semi-entertaining dialogue, but the storyline feels like it was written by a committee.
The great John Hurt is in there somewhere in a beard and wild hair, muttering cryptic couplets about...who knows? Who cares? Anyone could've played that part.
It even has a self-congratulatory ending, where Indiana Jones and his bride are applauded by the congregation after their church wedding. God knows I'm tired of movies where movie extras gather around and applaud the heroes. Somehow, it's supposed to make the audience feel like they should applaud the movie.
It's set in the 50's, and Spielberg and Lucas feel obligated to show the FBI being intrusive in the name of anti-communism. One character changes sides 3 times, not for any rational reason, but to keep the plot rolling. Something was going on about magnetism and magnetic fields, but I lost interest in following it. Swords, light fixtures, and gunpowder are attracted to this magnet, but gun barrels are not.
There were some cool scenes involving jeeps and amphibian watercraft going through mountain roads in Peru. The first 15 minutes worth of action in the "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" warehouse, which turns out to be the infamous "Area 51", those are a fun 15 minutes. The videogames should be excellent.
And eventually they put the missing blah blah blah into the blah blah blah where it's belonged ever since it was stolen by blah blah blah and this causes all of the blah blah blah to start happening and the villain who wants to experience blah blah blah gets her head blown up.
I promise, you've seen it all before. For those of you who aren't 46 years old, you have no idea how much fun the first Indiana Jones movie brought to the screen. We had never seen anything like it.
You've seen this one before. Lots of times.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
John Hagee, Jews, Hitler, Zionism, Theodor Herzl, Israel, and The Holocaust are now a bigger problem than Jeremiah Wright
Here's Pastor John Hagee, holding forth on what the prophet Ezekiel had to say about Hitler, the Jews, Zionism, Theodor Herzl, the birth of modern Israel, and the Holocaust.
McCain formally accepted Hagee's endorsement a few months ago.
My previous Youtube post on Hagee dealt with one of his discourses on Roman Catholics, and Catholicism essentially being the "Whore of Babylon" referenced in The Book of Revelation.
There must be something floating around out there where he attacks Hindus, because people keep putting "Hagee" and "Hindus" in the search field for this blog.
Hagee, in the video below, states that the Jews have "dead souls".
For betting purposes, I'm setting the over/under for McCain formally repudiating this guy at Saturday, May 24th, at 12 noon.
If you pick the "over" that means you think McCain will throw Hagee under the bus sometime AFTER lunchtime on Saturday. If you take the "under", that means McCain will distance himself from Hagee BEFORE lunchtime on Saturday.
If the Archangel Michael appears in The Promised Land riding a three-headed horse and blowing a trumpet, followed by four additional horsemen named War, Pestilence, Death, and Famine, then all bets are off, and no wagers will be paid.
McCain formally accepted Hagee's endorsement a few months ago.
My previous Youtube post on Hagee dealt with one of his discourses on Roman Catholics, and Catholicism essentially being the "Whore of Babylon" referenced in The Book of Revelation.
There must be something floating around out there where he attacks Hindus, because people keep putting "Hagee" and "Hindus" in the search field for this blog.
Hagee, in the video below, states that the Jews have "dead souls".
For betting purposes, I'm setting the over/under for McCain formally repudiating this guy at Saturday, May 24th, at 12 noon.
If you pick the "over" that means you think McCain will throw Hagee under the bus sometime AFTER lunchtime on Saturday. If you take the "under", that means McCain will distance himself from Hagee BEFORE lunchtime on Saturday.
If the Archangel Michael appears in The Promised Land riding a three-headed horse and blowing a trumpet, followed by four additional horsemen named War, Pestilence, Death, and Famine, then all bets are off, and no wagers will be paid.
Gar, German Girls, Gays, Guns, and Good Beer
This past weekend I went to my second meeting of the Tarrant County Libertarian Party, held at the Rahr Brewery south of downtown Fort Worth.
Lord have mercy, it was a good time.
I met some more great people, including a guy named Gar who runs the Random Ramblings blog. Gar's wife/fiance/simian (see picture at link) is from Germany, and at one point they ran into massive bureaucracy problems. This made him question what the heck government was doing in the Marriage Sanctioning Industry to begin with, especially regarding our gay and lesbian friends. So he's firing off letters about the issue to Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Maybe he'll give us the text of these soon.
Gar doesn't realize that Senator Hutchison is too busy trying to preserve ethanol mandates at their current levels to worry about preserving or preventing marriages to Germans. Unless, of course, gays people are involved.
He was also kind enough to send me an email explaining how to get the "Digg" button to appear at the bottom of every post I write. If I'm succesful, it's Gar's fault. It it's a total failure and 8 months of rants go off into the void, that's Gar's fault also.
If you've never been to the Rahr Brewery, check it out via the link above. There were probably 200 people in there, sampling samples and yelling at each other with intense gusto. The Libertarian meeting almost got drowned out by a guitarist playing better-than-average teen angst music. Plus, the Stars hockey game was on the big screen.
I believe the brewery is open every Saturday afternoon. It's one heck of a marketing campaign.
The next Tarrant County Libertarian Party meetup will be at the state convention, conveniently held in Fort Worth at the Raddison Hotel on Meacham Boulevard, June 13-15th.
In the meantime, I've been asked to help staff the Libertarian Party information booth at the Fort Worth Gun Show, June 7-8th. We're all about 2nd amendment rights. I've also been asked to help with a float for the Dallas Gay Pride Parade. Well, whatever it takes to get Kay Bailey Hutchison's attention.
Lord have mercy, it was a good time.
I met some more great people, including a guy named Gar who runs the Random Ramblings blog. Gar's wife/fiance/simian (see picture at link) is from Germany, and at one point they ran into massive bureaucracy problems. This made him question what the heck government was doing in the Marriage Sanctioning Industry to begin with, especially regarding our gay and lesbian friends. So he's firing off letters about the issue to Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Maybe he'll give us the text of these soon.
Gar doesn't realize that Senator Hutchison is too busy trying to preserve ethanol mandates at their current levels to worry about preserving or preventing marriages to Germans. Unless, of course, gays people are involved.
He was also kind enough to send me an email explaining how to get the "Digg" button to appear at the bottom of every post I write. If I'm succesful, it's Gar's fault. It it's a total failure and 8 months of rants go off into the void, that's Gar's fault also.
If you've never been to the Rahr Brewery, check it out via the link above. There were probably 200 people in there, sampling samples and yelling at each other with intense gusto. The Libertarian meeting almost got drowned out by a guitarist playing better-than-average teen angst music. Plus, the Stars hockey game was on the big screen.
I believe the brewery is open every Saturday afternoon. It's one heck of a marketing campaign.
The next Tarrant County Libertarian Party meetup will be at the state convention, conveniently held in Fort Worth at the Raddison Hotel on Meacham Boulevard, June 13-15th.
In the meantime, I've been asked to help staff the Libertarian Party information booth at the Fort Worth Gun Show, June 7-8th. We're all about 2nd amendment rights. I've also been asked to help with a float for the Dallas Gay Pride Parade. Well, whatever it takes to get Kay Bailey Hutchison's attention.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Senator Ted Kennedy
Yesterday I tried to point out the irony of Barack Obama’s most prominent supporters in the Senate being 1) a former Klansman and 2) someone who left his companion to drown after an auto accident.
Today the guy who failed to render aid, Senator Ted Kennedy, was diagnosed with malignant glioma, a type of brain tumor. The former Klansman, Senator Robert Byrd, broke down on the floor of the senate, sending his thoughts and prayers to the Kennedy family. It’s not on Youtube yet, but I’m sure it will be. I'll plug that in here if it's posted soon.
Addition from 9:45 p.m. - as promised. I heard a clip from this on the radio this afternoon. These guys have worked together, for better or worse, for the last 40 years.....
Today the guy who failed to render aid, Senator Ted Kennedy, was diagnosed with malignant glioma, a type of brain tumor. The former Klansman, Senator Robert Byrd, broke down on the floor of the senate, sending his thoughts and prayers to the Kennedy family. It’s not on Youtube yet, but I’m sure it will be. I'll plug that in here if it's posted soon.
Addition from 9:45 p.m. - as promised. I heard a clip from this on the radio this afternoon. These guys have worked together, for better or worse, for the last 40 years.....
And there I was with yesterday’s piece of smart-assedness on my front page all day. The emails have been….interesting. Great timing on my part, huh?
Just to show the impact that all things Kennedy have on our culture, here are 36 of the top 100 search terms being entered into the Google search engine, according to “Google Trends” for May 20, 2008.
Malignant – a severe and progressively worsening disease or medical condition.
Glioma - any tumor formed in the glial, or supportive, brain cells.
Malignant Brain Tumor
Ted Kennedy Brain Tumor
Parietal Lobe – In the senator’s case, the left lobe, the location of the tumor
Mary Jo Kopechne – Kennedy’s unfortunate passenger in the Chappaquiddick Bridge incident
Chappaquiddick – see bridge above
Joan Kennedy – Ex wife of Ted Kennedy
Kennedy Family
Senator Kennedy
Vicki Kennedy
Victoria Reggie Kennedy – Current wife
Edward Kennedy
Chappaquitic – proof that American’s can’t spell. Enter the word Chappaquiddick – it’s the bridge connecting the island and Martha’s Vineyard. Location of the senator’s auto accident.
Glioblastoma – see Glioma
Kara Kennedy – the senator’s daughter
Patrick Kennedy – the senator’s son
Boston Globe – the paper of record for all things Kennedy
Kennedy Curse – the series of accidents, assassinations and traumas surrounding the Kennedy family.
Joseph Kennedy – the senator’s father. Also father of Joe, John/Jack, Bobby, and Ted/Edward.
Teddy Kennedy
Define Malignant – tending to be severe, and getting progressively worse.
Robert Kennedy – Senator Kennedy’s brother, assassinated while running for President in 1968.
Glioma Tumor
Cape Cod – the location of the famous “Kennedy Compound”.
Rose Kennedy – wife of Joe, father of Senator Kennedy
Rosemary Kennedy – institutionalized sister of Senator Kennedy
Ed Kennedy
Malignant Definition – tending to be severe, and getting progressively worse.
Joe Kennedy – either the patriarch Joe, or the son of Bobby.
Kennedy Chappaquiddick – already discussed above.
Ethel Kennedy – wife of Bobby
Brain Cancer
Longest Serving Senator – Senator Robert Byrd, who sent an emotional message to the Kennedy family today from the floor of the Senate.
Out of the top 100 terms put into Google today, Senator Kennedy in some way accounted for 36 of them. Agree with him or not, that’s some serious influence. Is there anyone else who could dominate the national conversation like this?
Monday, May 19, 2008
A Byrd In The Hand....
Former Klansman Robert Byrd, the Democratic Senator from West Virginia, has endorsed Barack Obama for President. 
The former KKK "Kleagle" and "Exalted Cyclops" stated that:
The former KKK "Kleagle" and "Exalted Cyclops" stated that: I believe that Barack Obama is a shining young statesman, who possesses the personal temperament and courage necessary to extricate our country from this costly misadventure in Iraq, and to lead our nation at this challenging time in history. Barack Obama is a noble-hearted patriot and humble Christian, and he has my full faith and support.
Senator Byrd entered the Senate in 1959, a period of service rivaled only by Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, another early Obama supporter in the Senate. You probably remember Senator Kennedy, whose anti-PT 109 moment in 1969 involved driving a car off the Chappaquiddick bridge. His heroic underwater escape from the car, which was burdened with an unconscious secretary, has become legendary. But not legendary enough to keep him out of the Senate for the last 40 years.
Hey, anyone can make a mistake. I know I make hundreds per day.
David Duke, Charles Manson, and Lieutenant William Calley have yet to endorse a Democratic candidate. The nation waits....
Book cover from Grouchy Old Cripple.
Don't Drink The Baby's Bathwater When You Throw It Out With The Kool-Aid....or something like that
One of the few Congressmen willing to stand up to the Farm Lobby is Arizona's Jeff Flake.
I think he got his metaphors confused in this remark reported by The Prince Of Darkness, Robert Novak.
(Paul) Ryan's fellow reformer, 45-year-old Jeff Flake of Arizona, in his fourth term, is less cautious about defying the leadership and has been kept off key committees. On Wednesday, he said of a $300 billion bill that raises farm subsidies and is filled with non-farm pork, "Sometimes, here in Washington, we tend to drink our own bath water and believe our own press releases."
However admirable Congressman Flake's policies may be, I believe "bath water" is not what Congress drinks, but is what Congress throws babies out with. The "Kool Aid" is what Congress persuades foolish voters to drink. It's a reference to Jim Jones poisoning his followers in Guyana.
I think he got his metaphors confused in this remark reported by The Prince Of Darkness, Robert Novak.
(Paul) Ryan's fellow reformer, 45-year-old Jeff Flake of Arizona, in his fourth term, is less cautious about defying the leadership and has been kept off key committees. On Wednesday, he said of a $300 billion bill that raises farm subsidies and is filled with non-farm pork, "Sometimes, here in Washington, we tend to drink our own bath water and believe our own press releases."
However admirable Congressman Flake's policies may be, I believe "bath water" is not what Congress drinks, but is what Congress throws babies out with. The "Kool Aid" is what Congress persuades foolish voters to drink. It's a reference to Jim Jones poisoning his followers in Guyana.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
How To Pronounce Sepulchre
For some reason, people are arriving here as a result of Google searches, wanting to know how to prounounce the word "sepulchre".
The U.S. spelling is "sepulcher", but I grew up with the King James Bible, and prefer the way it's done in the mother tongue.
Sepulchre is prounounced [sep-pulk-er]. That's a short "e" in sep, with the accent on the first syllable.
A sepulchre is defined as any chamber used as a grave.
The term "Whited Sepulchre" comes from one of Jesus' better rants, found in The Gospel of Matthew 23:27.....as I explained in my first post on this site:
The U.S. spelling is "sepulcher", but I grew up with the King James Bible, and prefer the way it's done in the mother tongue.
Sepulchre is prounounced [sep-pulk-er]. That's a short "e" in sep, with the accent on the first syllable.
A sepulchre is defined as any chamber used as a grave.
The term "Whited Sepulchre" comes from one of Jesus' better rants, found in The Gospel of Matthew 23:27.....as I explained in my first post on this site:
If you didn't have the social, cultural, and career advantages of growing up Southern Baptist, you might not catch the "Whited Sepulchre" reference....It's from a story told about Jesus, when he compared his accusers to "Whited Sepulchres" or Freshly Painted Tombs.It's bascially a reference to anything that seems ok on the outside, but is full of death and rottenness and corruption on the inside. Like the current Farm Bill, The Clintons, U.S. Trade Policy, me, Subsidies, The City of Arlington's Eminent Domain Abuse for Jerry Jones' Benefit, blah blah blah blah....
These tombs were beautiful on the outside, and full of rotteness and corruption on the inside. After accidentally touching a Sepulchre, or tomb, any devout believer who subscribed to the complete rigamarole of the clean/unclean belief system had to go through a long and tiresome cleansing process.
This purification and cleansing process could kill several weekends.Therefore, tombs were routinely painted Day-Glo white so anyone who happened to be going through the graveyard at night could avoid accidental contamination in the dark.This left weekends free for avoiding pork, studying the Torah, and throwing rocks at adulterous women until they bled to death.
If I routinely post updates on this site, I suspect I'll focus on various Whited Sepulchres that make me nuts.
Lots of things make me nuts. I make me nuts.
So does the government. Religious nut cases. Drive-through windows. Department of Transportation requirements. And perhaps I'll include some other musings on travels, extended family, and whether or not it's sane to own four weiner dogs.
Let's Starve Some More Children
This is from the EU Referendum.
If you care about starving people, read this post in its entirety.
We do not have a food crisis. We have a political crisis.
The point that emerges from this is the cause of what turns out to be a "perceived" shortage is in fact an artificially induced phenomenon, arising entirely out of subsidy and trade distortions, overlaid with a heavy dose of politics.And from that, the lessons are clear. If market mechanisms are allowed to work, agriculture is well able to feed the current world population, and accommodate population growth for the foreseeable future. The only thing standing in the way of that are the politicians. We do not have a food crisis – we have a political crisis.
I repeat....We do not have a food crisis. We have a political crisis. The situation described in that Sunday Times article is both terrifying and infuriating.
Japan, through an insane trade agreement, is
1) forced to accept our rice, despite
2) having plenty of rice, but we don't allow them to
3) sell the rice, so therefore the rice usually
4) rots.
Good Lord in Heaven..... and this is the heavily subsidized rice that miraculously escaped being turned into ethanol.
This situation is probably irreversible, so please don't get worked up over it.
If you care about starving people, read this post in its entirety.
We do not have a food crisis. We have a political crisis.
The point that emerges from this is the cause of what turns out to be a "perceived" shortage is in fact an artificially induced phenomenon, arising entirely out of subsidy and trade distortions, overlaid with a heavy dose of politics.And from that, the lessons are clear. If market mechanisms are allowed to work, agriculture is well able to feed the current world population, and accommodate population growth for the foreseeable future. The only thing standing in the way of that are the politicians. We do not have a food crisis – we have a political crisis.
I repeat....We do not have a food crisis. We have a political crisis. The situation described in that Sunday Times article is both terrifying and infuriating.
Japan, through an insane trade agreement, is
1) forced to accept our rice, despite
2) having plenty of rice, but we don't allow them to
3) sell the rice, so therefore the rice usually
4) rots.
Good Lord in Heaven..... and this is the heavily subsidized rice that miraculously escaped being turned into ethanol.
This situation is probably irreversible, so please don't get worked up over it.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Lies We Tell Our Children, Part 2
This is a continuation of the story I began here. Click that link before continuing, or you'll be lost.
The Future Aggie was met on the ground by a group of well-wishers.
She brushed them aside as soon as possible, and then said "Ok, Dad, let's go buy a piglet !" Some of the well-wishers followed us, perhaps to make sure I wasn't going to go back on my promise, or perhaps because they'd never seen anyone purchase an Immigrant Boat People Piglet because of losing a bet.
We went back to the Vietnamese Pot-Bellied Pig booth. The runt of the litter was the only one left, and he was marked down to $10. The owners gave us some unhelpful literature on piglets and told us in no uncertain terms that we needed to get this one "fixed" as soon as possible. They didn't have any available info on what that would cost. I was betting it would be more than $10.
This was a male piglet and was immediately christened "Pumba", after the warthog in Disney's "Lion King" movie. He might have weighed four or five pounds.
As soon as The Future Aggie picked up her piglet, a squeal erupted like compressed air blowing through a dozen kazoos, mixed and filtered through Ted Nugent's amplifier system. She instantly put Pumba back on the ground and the noise stopped.
"It's a defense mechanism," the piglet salesman said, as if that much racket had actually come from Pumba. "It scares away predators." Later on, when I had the leisure time to read up on Vietnamese Potbellied pigs, I'd learn that they have a higher decibel level than airliners.
She picked up the piglet again. The Ned Beatty squeal started again. I was expecting officers from ASCAP to appear. But after about 20 seconds, Pumba chilled out and nuzzled into my daughter's shirt.
"Awwwww", said the onlookers.
We laughed all the way home, congratulating ourselves on being Urban Pig Owners, and laughing over the climbing wall adventure.
Once we got home, we cautiously put Pumba in the back yard with our dogs - the yellow lab and beagle we had at the time. The Learjet level squealing had freaked them out, but once all the sniffing was done, they ignored the pig and the pig ignored the dogs. Pumba ran around making tiny little grunting sounds and then started digging. It was ineffectual baby piglet digging, but still, yard digging is yard digging. Later on, I'd learn that the only way to stop this behavior would be to put a ring through Pumba's nose, foreshadowing the currently fashionable Tribal/Pierced look.
Mrs. Whited Sepulchre was away on a church retreat. (They retreat more than the Italian Army....) The Future Aggie and I brainstormed on how to break the news that she was now 1/3 owner of a Vietnamese piglet. We decided to just let it surprise her.
It could've been worse. Once she got over the initial shock and got the obligatory lecture out of the way (I can't even let you two go to Mayfest together, 'cause you'll come back with a pig....) Mrs. WS thought Pumba was cute, as yard pigs go.
For the first month, everything was fine. Pumba wasn't big enough to effectively plow the yard, and he sometimes helped the dogs chase squirrels. I was working retail at the time, and when I came home from late shifts, Mrs. WS would be sitting on the couch watching TV with Pumba in her lap with his head resting against her arm. Like a surrealist Madonna And Child painting. Or a preview of that infamous Tori Amos album cover.
The Future Aggie had a great time with him. They'd invent games where she'd tie a little bag of Purina Piglet Chow in a mesh sack, tie the sack to a rope, and then run Pumba around the yard. He also loved to push beach balls from one place to another.
But then Pumba started growing. And growing. He was no longer a good lap pig. One of the main reasons - we had neglected to get him fixed. A pig's manhood is all interior, not exterior, and any reproductive surgery is quite a bit more complicated (and expensive) than it is for cats or dogs. All of a sudden, The Future Aggie couldn't go into the back yard without being the unwelcome object of Pumba's carnal affections. The little beagle wouldn't even come out of the doghouse. She was totally terrorized. (If you've ever wondered about the size of a Vietnamese Pot-bellied Pig's manhood, it's about....oh, never mind.)
Our backyard began to look like....well, not that much different than it does now. But it was irritating to see the springtime grass ripped up by a pig, instead of being allowed to die from neglect. I was the only one in the family brave enough to go into the back yard to feed the dogs or the pig. (If you've ever wondered what it's like to have your leg.... oh, never mind.)
This event was the final straw: We live on a corner lot, and one day Mrs. Whited Sepulchre came home and saw three Fort Worth Water Department trucks parked by our back yard fence. 5 or 6 city employees were looking, laughing, and pointing at something. When she joined them at the fence to see what was going on, she saw that they were watching Pumba have (ahem) relations with one of his beach balls.
When I got home from work, she told me all about the trauma of being a popular lunch break spot for Civic Employees. "It would be really good," she said, "if we didn't have a pig in our back yard when I wake up in the morning."
It was a tough, tough decision.
Most of my regular readers know that I'm a firm believer in 2nd Amendment rights. Even if it's inside the city limits. Let's just leave it at that.
But the official story is that Pumba went away to live on a farm, where he would be happily surrounded by girl pigs in need of his services, and have plenty of wide open spaces and plenty of beach balls.
That's one of the many, many lies we sometimes have to tell our children.
The Future Aggie was met on the ground by a group of well-wishers.
She brushed them aside as soon as possible, and then said "Ok, Dad, let's go buy a piglet !" Some of the well-wishers followed us, perhaps to make sure I wasn't going to go back on my promise, or perhaps because they'd never seen anyone purchase an Immigrant Boat People Piglet because of losing a bet.
We went back to the Vietnamese Pot-Bellied Pig booth. The runt of the litter was the only one left, and he was marked down to $10. The owners gave us some unhelpful literature on piglets and told us in no uncertain terms that we needed to get this one "fixed" as soon as possible. They didn't have any available info on what that would cost. I was betting it would be more than $10.
This was a male piglet and was immediately christened "Pumba", after the warthog in Disney's "Lion King" movie. He might have weighed four or five pounds.
As soon as The Future Aggie picked up her piglet, a squeal erupted like compressed air blowing through a dozen kazoos, mixed and filtered through Ted Nugent's amplifier system. She instantly put Pumba back on the ground and the noise stopped.
"It's a defense mechanism," the piglet salesman said, as if that much racket had actually come from Pumba. "It scares away predators." Later on, when I had the leisure time to read up on Vietnamese Potbellied pigs, I'd learn that they have a higher decibel level than airliners.
She picked up the piglet again. The Ned Beatty squeal started again. I was expecting officers from ASCAP to appear. But after about 20 seconds, Pumba chilled out and nuzzled into my daughter's shirt.
"Awwwww", said the onlookers.
We laughed all the way home, congratulating ourselves on being Urban Pig Owners, and laughing over the climbing wall adventure.
Once we got home, we cautiously put Pumba in the back yard with our dogs - the yellow lab and beagle we had at the time. The Learjet level squealing had freaked them out, but once all the sniffing was done, they ignored the pig and the pig ignored the dogs. Pumba ran around making tiny little grunting sounds and then started digging. It was ineffectual baby piglet digging, but still, yard digging is yard digging. Later on, I'd learn that the only way to stop this behavior would be to put a ring through Pumba's nose, foreshadowing the currently fashionable Tribal/Pierced look.
Mrs. Whited Sepulchre was away on a church retreat. (They retreat more than the Italian Army....) The Future Aggie and I brainstormed on how to break the news that she was now 1/3 owner of a Vietnamese piglet. We decided to just let it surprise her.
It could've been worse. Once she got over the initial shock and got the obligatory lecture out of the way (I can't even let you two go to Mayfest together, 'cause you'll come back with a pig....) Mrs. WS thought Pumba was cute, as yard pigs go.
For the first month, everything was fine. Pumba wasn't big enough to effectively plow the yard, and he sometimes helped the dogs chase squirrels. I was working retail at the time, and when I came home from late shifts, Mrs. WS would be sitting on the couch watching TV with Pumba in her lap with his head resting against her arm. Like a surrealist Madonna And Child painting. Or a preview of that infamous Tori Amos album cover.
The Future Aggie had a great time with him. They'd invent games where she'd tie a little bag of Purina Piglet Chow in a mesh sack, tie the sack to a rope, and then run Pumba around the yard. He also loved to push beach balls from one place to another.
But then Pumba started growing. And growing. He was no longer a good lap pig. One of the main reasons - we had neglected to get him fixed. A pig's manhood is all interior, not exterior, and any reproductive surgery is quite a bit more complicated (and expensive) than it is for cats or dogs. All of a sudden, The Future Aggie couldn't go into the back yard without being the unwelcome object of Pumba's carnal affections. The little beagle wouldn't even come out of the doghouse. She was totally terrorized. (If you've ever wondered about the size of a Vietnamese Pot-bellied Pig's manhood, it's about....oh, never mind.)
Our backyard began to look like....well, not that much different than it does now. But it was irritating to see the springtime grass ripped up by a pig, instead of being allowed to die from neglect. I was the only one in the family brave enough to go into the back yard to feed the dogs or the pig. (If you've ever wondered what it's like to have your leg.... oh, never mind.)
This event was the final straw: We live on a corner lot, and one day Mrs. Whited Sepulchre came home and saw three Fort Worth Water Department trucks parked by our back yard fence. 5 or 6 city employees were looking, laughing, and pointing at something. When she joined them at the fence to see what was going on, she saw that they were watching Pumba have (ahem) relations with one of his beach balls.
When I got home from work, she told me all about the trauma of being a popular lunch break spot for Civic Employees. "It would be really good," she said, "if we didn't have a pig in our back yard when I wake up in the morning."
It was a tough, tough decision.
Most of my regular readers know that I'm a firm believer in 2nd Amendment rights. Even if it's inside the city limits. Let's just leave it at that.
But the official story is that Pumba went away to live on a farm, where he would be happily surrounded by girl pigs in need of his services, and have plenty of wide open spaces and plenty of beach balls.
That's one of the many, many lies we sometimes have to tell our children.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Lies We Tell Our Children
Brian Micklethwait has an interesting series of links and posts about "Lies We Tell Our Children". You could list Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, step on a crack-break your mother's back, the Tooth Fairy, or the doctrine of Original Sin. In Brian's case, the falsehoods were related to the death of the family cat.
It reminded me of one of my favorite stories about my daughter, The Future Aggie. You couldn't force her to read this blog at gunpoint, so this story should be safe here. Unless one of you people rat me out.
Every year, Fort Worth has a big celebration called Mayfest. There are a few carnival rides, but it's mostly fund-raiser booths, live bands, and good food. A fun time is had by all.
Payments at Mayfest are done with coupons. This lessens the need for cash handling and security at so many different locations. I probably bought about $50 worth of coupons. We rode a few rides, ate some junk food and were having a great time until we saw....the piglets.
They were Vietnamese Pot-Bellied piglets, miniature versions of regular pigs. In the mid-90's, there was a fad of keeping them as pets. Mother and Father pig were nowhere to be seen, which should've been a warning. Three Pot-Bellied piglets were for sale - something like $50 each for the larger two, and $30 for the runt of the litter. The Future Aggie was enthralled. Fascinated. Obsessed. She would be a Vietnamese Pot-Bellied pig owner, or die in the effort.
All Mayfest fun ended once piglets entered our sight. The Future Aggie has always been obsessed with animals, and will soon be going to the Veterinary Science school at Texas A&M. We now own 3 weiner dogs, and sorta own 3 cats. We've had as many as 17 lizards, including a basilisk named Norbert.
I didn't see room in the equation for a piglet, since in my experience, if left alone, piglets have always grown up to be pigs.
"Daddy, can we get a piglet? Huh? Huh? I'll take care of it, I promise, I promise....huh? Huh? I can pay you back out of my allowance? Can we get the little one?"
"We don't have room for a piglet," I lied.
"Daddy, we have plenty of room," she said. "Our back yard is huge."
"They eat too much," I lied.
"I'll feed it out of my allowance," she said. "Can we get the little one? He's the runt, so he won't eat much? Please?"
"No. We can't come home from Mayfest with a piglet," I said. "People would talk. Your mother would kill us both. I don't want to hear any more about it. Let's go ride some rides."
The Future Aggie appeared to be over it, since there was no more talk of pigs for at least thirty seconds. I kept invoking Mrs. Whited Sepulchre's absence from the decision, and how she would at least want to have input as to which piglet we'd purchase.
Then we saw the climbing wall. It was about 35 feet tall, portable, and had the usual assortment of knobs, projections and footrests bolted to it. If you haven't seen these before, there's a pulley at the top that a safety harness mechanism is threaded through. In this case, it projected about two feet over the climbing wall like a gallows.
It reminded me of one of my favorite stories about my daughter, The Future Aggie. You couldn't force her to read this blog at gunpoint, so this story should be safe here. Unless one of you people rat me out.
Every year, Fort Worth has a big celebration called Mayfest. There are a few carnival rides, but it's mostly fund-raiser booths, live bands, and good food. A fun time is had by all.
Payments at Mayfest are done with coupons. This lessens the need for cash handling and security at so many different locations. I probably bought about $50 worth of coupons. We rode a few rides, ate some junk food and were having a great time until we saw....the piglets.
They were Vietnamese Pot-Bellied piglets, miniature versions of regular pigs. In the mid-90's, there was a fad of keeping them as pets. Mother and Father pig were nowhere to be seen, which should've been a warning. Three Pot-Bellied piglets were for sale - something like $50 each for the larger two, and $30 for the runt of the litter. The Future Aggie was enthralled. Fascinated. Obsessed. She would be a Vietnamese Pot-Bellied pig owner, or die in the effort.
All Mayfest fun ended once piglets entered our sight. The Future Aggie has always been obsessed with animals, and will soon be going to the Veterinary Science school at Texas A&M. We now own 3 weiner dogs, and sorta own 3 cats. We've had as many as 17 lizards, including a basilisk named Norbert.
I didn't see room in the equation for a piglet, since in my experience, if left alone, piglets have always grown up to be pigs.
"Daddy, can we get a piglet? Huh? Huh? I'll take care of it, I promise, I promise....huh? Huh? I can pay you back out of my allowance? Can we get the little one?"
"We don't have room for a piglet," I lied.
"Daddy, we have plenty of room," she said. "Our back yard is huge."
"They eat too much," I lied.
"I'll feed it out of my allowance," she said. "Can we get the little one? He's the runt, so he won't eat much? Please?"
"No. We can't come home from Mayfest with a piglet," I said. "People would talk. Your mother would kill us both. I don't want to hear any more about it. Let's go ride some rides."
The Future Aggie appeared to be over it, since there was no more talk of pigs for at least thirty seconds. I kept invoking Mrs. Whited Sepulchre's absence from the decision, and how she would at least want to have input as to which piglet we'd purchase.
Then we saw the climbing wall. It was about 35 feet tall, portable, and had the usual assortment of knobs, projections and footrests bolted to it. If you haven't seen these before, there's a pulley at the top that a safety harness mechanism is threaded through. In this case, it projected about two feet over the climbing wall like a gallows.
At the very top of the wall was a bell. If you could ring the bell, the crowd applauded. Then you would rappel down the wall into the waiting arms of your girlfriend, you would High-5 your buddies, and you would feel more macho than anyone else.
But high school and college boys were getting about halfway up this climbing wall, getting scared, and bailing out. (Since the wall was portable, it swayed a little.) There were at least a dozen people in line to try it. Since it was expensive, The Future Aggie asked to try. I reasoned that if it would take her mind off the piglets, I was all for it, and forked over $12 worth of coupons. While we were waiting in line, a helpful cheerleader-type employee put her in a small safety harness and gave her a few climbing tips.
But high school and college boys were getting about halfway up this climbing wall, getting scared, and bailing out. (Since the wall was portable, it swayed a little.) There were at least a dozen people in line to try it. Since it was expensive, The Future Aggie asked to try. I reasoned that if it would take her mind off the piglets, I was all for it, and forked over $12 worth of coupons. While we were waiting in line, a helpful cheerleader-type employee put her in a small safety harness and gave her a few climbing tips.
In the meantime, a kid who looked like an American Gladiators contestant got halfway up the wall and came to a halt. He was scared to death because the wall was swaying. His buddies on the ground started booing. The Future Aggie looked on apprehensively as the kid on the wall faked a loss of balance and rappeled to the ground.
"Daddy," said The Future Aggie, "I think I might want to go look at some other things, and then come back to this...."
"Don't you even THINK about backing out of this. I've paid $12 in coupons."
Another huge athletic boy went halfway up the wall. Then he started climbing very, very slowly. "You can see Dallas from here," he said, before he muttered some obscenities and gave up, dropping into a knot of his friends. They called him names.
The Future Aggie didn't miss any of this. "I think if we went and got something to eat first, I'd have more strength and energy...."
"Dang it, we're not leaving this line," I said. "If we leave now, we'll never get back to this line."
"Well, what if we just rested a little right here, and let some of these other people go first?" she asked.
"I tell you what," I said, in a moment of weakness, "Get on that damn wall, climb to the top, and ring that bell. If you ring that bell, I'll buy you a piglet."
It was like that feeling you get as you slam the car door shut when you know your keys will be locked inside. I couldn't stop myself. I knew as my mouth, tongue, and teeth formed the sentences that I was making a mistake.
All of a sudden the climbing wall that had been Mount Everest was nothing but a speed bump. The Future Aggie was transformed. She ran to the climbing instructor, the perky cheerleader-type girl, and tugged at her shirt. "Hey, my Dad is going to buy me a piglet if I can ring the bell at the top. Can you teach me how to climb better?"
The climbing instructor, the perky cheerleader-type girl....she's going to Hell. She taught The Future Aggie all sorts of helpful climbing tips and hints. By the time we got to the front of the line, my daughter could've ascended the north face of The Matterhorn without an oxygen tank.
"Listen up, everyone !" the perky cheerleader-type climbing instructor said. "This is (insert The Future Aggie's name here). Her Dad is going to buy her a Vietnamese Pot-Bellied Piglet if she can get to the top of the wall and ring the bell !"
Half of the forty-or-so people gathered around the base of the climbing wall applauded politely for the nice father who was willing to reward his child with a piglet. The other half of the crowd, mostly the veteran onlookers, scowled viciously at the a-hole who had set an impossible task in front of his daughter.
Once the safety line was clipped to her harness, The Future Aggie went up the wall like Spiderman. "Go Go Go Go Go Go Go," the crowd chanted. "Slow Slow Slow Slow Slow," I thought. More and more Mayfest attendees gathered around the climbing wall.
It got difficult at the halfway point. Maybe the knobs and projections were further apart. She kept going. It took her ten minutes to go five more feet. Wagers were placed. Money was changing hands. As a compulsive gambler, I almost bet against my own offspring, and was prevented from doing so only by the knowledge that I might need all my money to buy a freakin' pig.
At the 3/4 point, The Future Aggie slipped and lost contact with the wall altogether, spinning around on the end of the safety rope like a little spider. Once every revolution she would reach out toward the wall and miss it. The perkly little cheerleader-type climbing instructor, guaranteeing herself an even hotter spot in hell, told her to be still and stop spinning. Once that happened, she grabbed a wall projection with her feet and pulled herself to the wall.
The crowd down below went nuts. Totally batshit nuts. Total strangers were slapping me on the back in well-intentioned gestures of solidarity and support.
Ten minutes later, after a few more incidents of separation from the wall, The Future Aggie reached up and rang the bell. The cheers could be heard in Waco. She kicked away from the wall, leaned back like a commando, and allowed the hellbound cheerleader to lower her to Terra Firma.
"Ok, let's go buy a pig," she said.
Climbing Wall photo is from Moonwalk Rentals.
Vietnamese Potbellied Pig photo is from Stashy
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Blog For Human Rights - May 15th, 2008
It's May 15th. If you look to your right, you'll see this is Blog For Human Rights day. I decided to go old fashioned, and talk about a series of Norman Rockwell paintings based on Franklin Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" State of The Union Address. These were originally published in The Saturday Evening Post (1943), and were eventually used to sell War Bonds.
Yeah, yeah, I know. Norman Rockwell is totally out of favor and widely ridiculed as bourgeois kitsch. Rockwell was cursed with both talent and training, both of which are out of favor. If only he'd been inspired to create a Virgin Mary with elephant dung, or photograph a crucifix in urine. Now THAT is art.
But I digress....the painting above is called "Freedom From Fear". You can't see the newspaper headline that the father figure holds, but if I remember correctly it's about the Nazis fire-bombing Europe. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm mistaken.
Here's another image, a photo taken in the aftermath of recent explosions in Jaipur.
The seven bombs that injured this child were packed with lethal ball bearings and strapped to bicycles, and went off close to at least five Hindu temples within 20 minutes of each other.
In recent months, terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba has advocated jihad aimed at "liberating Muslim-dominated areas of India".
In this it has been echoing calls attributed to Osama bin Laden, who has made it clear he sees Hinduism as being an enemy equivalent to Zionism.
Here's the second Rockwell painting, called Freedom From Want. You can safely assume that it's Thanksgiving.
In the meantime our government, in an effort to guarantee that campaign donors are properly cared for, has mandated that MORE than 100 % of our yearly production of certain foodstuffs be converted to ethanol. The current Farm Bill, which will probably make it through the House of Representatives today, provides more of the same.
This has caused food prices all over the world to skyrocket. Food riots have broken out in Haiti, Bangladesh and Egypt.
Here's the third Rockwell painting in the series, and it's called Freedom of Speech. My parents had a picture book of Norman Rockwell paintings, which included this series, and I've always been intrigued by the man standing to speak. Do you see what's unusual about him, relative to everyone else?
He's the youngest person in the painting.
He's also wearing the grungiest clothes in the painting.
And yet everyone is listening to him.
In the meantime, our allies in Saudi Arabia are putting barbers on trial for "insulting Islam".
In Canada, believe it or not, Canada.... The Alberta Human Rights Commission, truly one of the most poorly named bureaucracies in North America, is hauling people into court for insulting Islam.
I'm noticing a trend.
I'm noticing a trend.
The last of the Four Freedoms paintings is Freedom To Worship. (In President Roosevelt's speech, it was Freedom Of Religion.)
Lest anyone coming to these pages for the first time think that I obsess over the Islamic concept of death to all apostates, well, I do. Just to share the joy and play fair, look at this quiz comparing remarks from Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Co. to those occasionally made by Bin Laden.
There are degrees of intolerance, however. This man was apprehended in Iran with a Bible in his car.
That's all I've got for "Blog For Human Rights" day.
I've done my best to contrast some Norman Rockwellian sentimentality with some rest of the world harsh reality.
Click on the little widget to your right, or here, and there are links where you can contribute to various worthwhile causes.
In the meantime, raise hell.
Don't put up with it. Don't vote for those who do. Bang pots and pans together in the middle of the street.
Ask yourself, What Would Norman Rockwell Do?
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Barack Obama, The Apostate
Here's an angle I haven't thought of before....
This was in the New York Times yesterday.
By Edward N. Luttwak
BARACK OBAMA has emerged as a classic example of charismatic leadership — a figure upon whom others project their own hopes and desires....Case in point is the oft-made claim that an Obama presidency would be welcomed by the Muslim world.
Yes, Obama's Father was a Muslim. But so what?
....But it is a mistake to conflate his African identity with his Muslim heritage. Senator Obama is half African by birth and Africans can understandably identify with him. In Islam, however, there is no such thing as a half-Muslim. Like all monotheistic religions, Islam is an exclusive faith.
Now that Luttwak mentions it, I don't know of any "blended" families where the kids go to the Mosque on Friday and to Hebrew school on Saturday mornings....
....As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.
I'm going to have to ping my friends at Muslims Against Sharia (see blogroll to your right) to get a ruling on this. They're the group that is translating the Koran into English.
....Of course, as most Americans understand it, Senator Obama is not a Muslim. He chose to become a Christian, and indeed has written convincingly to explain how he arrived at his choice and how important his Christian faith is to him.
Yes, but I still get at least two emails a week explaining his Muslim connections, and casting doubt on his conversion experience. All this in spite of his campaign being plagued by his decades-long association with a Christian minister, Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is “irtidad” or “ridda,” usually translated from the Arabic as “apostasy,” but with connotations of rebellion and treason. Indeed, it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder (which the victim’s family may choose to forgive).
Define Apostasy: Abandonment of one's religious faith, a political party, one's principles, or a cause.
Define Apostate: Someone who has commited the crime defined above.
With few exceptions, the jurists of all Sunni and Shiite schools prescribe execution for all adults who leave the faith not under duress; the recommended punishment is beheading at the hands of a cleric, although in recent years there have been both stonings and hangings. (Some may point to cases in which lesser punishments were ordered — as with some Egyptian intellectuals who have been punished for writings that were construed as apostasy — but those were really instances of supposed heresy, not explicitly declared apostasy as in Senator Obama’s case.)
It is true that the criminal codes in most Muslim countries do not mandate execution for apostasy (although a law doing exactly that is pending before Iran’s Parliament and in two Malaysian states). But as a practical matter, in very few Islamic countries do the governments have sufficient authority to resist demands for the punishment of apostates at the hands of religious authorities.
Imagine this scenario....
President Obama to the Head of State of a Middle Eastern nation: "Hello, I'm Barack."
Head of State of a Middle Eastern nation to Barack Obama: "DIE, INFIDEL !"
....At the very least, that would complicate the security planning of state visits by President Obama to Muslim countries, because the very act of protecting him would be sinful for Islamic security guards. More broadly, most citizens of the Islamic world would be horrified by the fact of Senator Obama’s conversion to Christianity once it became widely known — as it would, no doubt, should he win the White House. This would compromise the ability of governments in Muslim nations to cooperate with the United States in the fight against terrorism, as well as American efforts to export democracy and human rights abroad.
There's something wrong with the logic here. I can't put my finger on it. I'm afraid that the logic breakdown lies not with Edward N. Luttwak's editorial, but with the Muslim world. That paragraph, unfortunately, is goofy enough to reflect our present reality.
I really, really need The Muslims Against Sharia people to enter the comment field on this one.
That an Obama presidency would cause such complications in our dealings with the Islamic world is not likely to be a major factor with American voters, and the implication is not that it should be. But of all the well-meaning desires projected on Senator Obama, the hope that he would decisively improve relations with the world’s Muslims is the least realistic.
Depressing.
This was in the New York Times yesterday.
By Edward N. Luttwak
BARACK OBAMA has emerged as a classic example of charismatic leadership — a figure upon whom others project their own hopes and desires....Case in point is the oft-made claim that an Obama presidency would be welcomed by the Muslim world.
Yes, Obama's Father was a Muslim. But so what?
....But it is a mistake to conflate his African identity with his Muslim heritage. Senator Obama is half African by birth and Africans can understandably identify with him. In Islam, however, there is no such thing as a half-Muslim. Like all monotheistic religions, Islam is an exclusive faith.
Now that Luttwak mentions it, I don't know of any "blended" families where the kids go to the Mosque on Friday and to Hebrew school on Saturday mornings....
....As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.
I'm going to have to ping my friends at Muslims Against Sharia (see blogroll to your right) to get a ruling on this. They're the group that is translating the Koran into English.
....Of course, as most Americans understand it, Senator Obama is not a Muslim. He chose to become a Christian, and indeed has written convincingly to explain how he arrived at his choice and how important his Christian faith is to him.
Yes, but I still get at least two emails a week explaining his Muslim connections, and casting doubt on his conversion experience. All this in spite of his campaign being plagued by his decades-long association with a Christian minister, Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is “irtidad” or “ridda,” usually translated from the Arabic as “apostasy,” but with connotations of rebellion and treason. Indeed, it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder (which the victim’s family may choose to forgive).
Define Apostasy: Abandonment of one's religious faith, a political party, one's principles, or a cause.
Define Apostate: Someone who has commited the crime defined above.
With few exceptions, the jurists of all Sunni and Shiite schools prescribe execution for all adults who leave the faith not under duress; the recommended punishment is beheading at the hands of a cleric, although in recent years there have been both stonings and hangings. (Some may point to cases in which lesser punishments were ordered — as with some Egyptian intellectuals who have been punished for writings that were construed as apostasy — but those were really instances of supposed heresy, not explicitly declared apostasy as in Senator Obama’s case.)
It is true that the criminal codes in most Muslim countries do not mandate execution for apostasy (although a law doing exactly that is pending before Iran’s Parliament and in two Malaysian states). But as a practical matter, in very few Islamic countries do the governments have sufficient authority to resist demands for the punishment of apostates at the hands of religious authorities.
Imagine this scenario....
President Obama to the Head of State of a Middle Eastern nation: "Hello, I'm Barack."
Head of State of a Middle Eastern nation to Barack Obama: "DIE, INFIDEL !"
....At the very least, that would complicate the security planning of state visits by President Obama to Muslim countries, because the very act of protecting him would be sinful for Islamic security guards. More broadly, most citizens of the Islamic world would be horrified by the fact of Senator Obama’s conversion to Christianity once it became widely known — as it would, no doubt, should he win the White House. This would compromise the ability of governments in Muslim nations to cooperate with the United States in the fight against terrorism, as well as American efforts to export democracy and human rights abroad.
There's something wrong with the logic here. I can't put my finger on it. I'm afraid that the logic breakdown lies not with Edward N. Luttwak's editorial, but with the Muslim world. That paragraph, unfortunately, is goofy enough to reflect our present reality.
I really, really need The Muslims Against Sharia people to enter the comment field on this one.
That an Obama presidency would cause such complications in our dealings with the Islamic world is not likely to be a major factor with American voters, and the implication is not that it should be. But of all the well-meaning desires projected on Senator Obama, the hope that he would decisively improve relations with the world’s Muslims is the least realistic.
Depressing.
Thomas Sowell and Gasoline Prices
Please stand for this month's reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas....
Economist Thomas Sowell, the smartest man in the world now that Milton Friedman is dead, has proclaimed that rising fuel prices are due to supply and demand, mostly increased demand from China and India.
Therefore, there is no need to create a complex melodrama complete with heroic congressional investigators and villainous oil company executives.
In his latest epistle, Saint Thomas also accuses Senators Obama and McCain of straying too far from The Church Of Free Market Orthodoxy, but he did not appear to be speaking Ex Cathedra on that particular issue.
As future ministers of The Church Of FMO develop an internally consistent theology, the Obama/McCain mistake will perhaps be known as The Pelosian Heresy.
The Church Of FMO will soon visit both the Obama and McCain campaigns, and both candidates will be shown the Tools of The Inquisition. Obama will probably recant. McCain has seen worse.
High fuel prices will be with us for a long time.
The man has spoken.
Thus endeth the reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas.
You may be seated.
Economist Thomas Sowell, the smartest man in the world now that Milton Friedman is dead, has proclaimed that rising fuel prices are due to supply and demand, mostly increased demand from China and India.
Therefore, there is no need to create a complex melodrama complete with heroic congressional investigators and villainous oil company executives.
In his latest epistle, Saint Thomas also accuses Senators Obama and McCain of straying too far from The Church Of Free Market Orthodoxy, but he did not appear to be speaking Ex Cathedra on that particular issue.
As future ministers of The Church Of FMO develop an internally consistent theology, the Obama/McCain mistake will perhaps be known as The Pelosian Heresy.
The Church Of FMO will soon visit both the Obama and McCain campaigns, and both candidates will be shown the Tools of The Inquisition. Obama will probably recant. McCain has seen worse.
High fuel prices will be with us for a long time.
The man has spoken.
Thus endeth the reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas.
You may be seated.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Bob Barr?? Libertarian For President?? Why Not Jesse Helms??
Please tell me that Bob Barr, gay basher and drug warrior extraordinaire, isn't running as a Libertarian. Say it ain't so....
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - By Andy Sullivan - Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr said on Monday that he will run for president as a Libertarian, a development that could pull some votes from Republican candidate John McCain.
Bob Barr ??? THE Bob Barr ??? The Bob Barr who vehemently opposed medical marijuana use? They are talking about the former Congressman from Georgia, right?
Barr said neither McCain nor Barack Obama, the Democratic frontrunner, would rein in a government that he said has grown too powerful after the September 11 attacks.
This is the Bob Barr who helped sponsor the “Defense Of Marriage” act? That’s who the Libertarian Party might put up for President?
"A vote for the status quo ... is really and truly a wasted vote, because it is not going to do anything," Barr said.
I can agree with that….but Bob Barr?
When Jesse Helms is still alive and presumably available? And Trent Lott still has decades left in him? I haven’t checked on Rick Santorum in a long time….is he still around ?
The Reuters article goes on to speculate on how much Barr’s entry into the Presidential race could harm John McCain.
Well, it sure won’t harm Barack or Hillary.
Half of the libertarian worldview relates to limited government excursions into business, the economy, and voluntary transactions between individuals. Bob Barr may have seen the light, and perhaps he now advocates these positions. I can’t remember him doing anything spectacular in Congress to limit government, though.
The other half of the libertarian philosophy advocates minimal government intrusions into personal behavior. Bob Barr has made a career of being a libertarian nightmare on gay rights issues and the disaster that is the war on drugs.
So this is where the nation stands….
Sizable percentages of Obama supporters say they will not support The Clintons if they’re nominated as the Democratic nominee, and vice-versa.
A large percentage of Republicans aren’t happy with McCain the Maverick as their nominee.
Are there any capital “L” Libertarians who would be happy with Bob Barr?
Is this going to be The Winter Of Everybody’s Discontent?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - By Andy Sullivan - Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr said on Monday that he will run for president as a Libertarian, a development that could pull some votes from Republican candidate John McCain.
Bob Barr ??? THE Bob Barr ??? The Bob Barr who vehemently opposed medical marijuana use? They are talking about the former Congressman from Georgia, right?
Barr said neither McCain nor Barack Obama, the Democratic frontrunner, would rein in a government that he said has grown too powerful after the September 11 attacks.
This is the Bob Barr who helped sponsor the “Defense Of Marriage” act? That’s who the Libertarian Party might put up for President?
"A vote for the status quo ... is really and truly a wasted vote, because it is not going to do anything," Barr said.
I can agree with that….but Bob Barr?
When Jesse Helms is still alive and presumably available? And Trent Lott still has decades left in him? I haven’t checked on Rick Santorum in a long time….is he still around ?
The Reuters article goes on to speculate on how much Barr’s entry into the Presidential race could harm John McCain.
Well, it sure won’t harm Barack or Hillary.
Half of the libertarian worldview relates to limited government excursions into business, the economy, and voluntary transactions between individuals. Bob Barr may have seen the light, and perhaps he now advocates these positions. I can’t remember him doing anything spectacular in Congress to limit government, though.
The other half of the libertarian philosophy advocates minimal government intrusions into personal behavior. Bob Barr has made a career of being a libertarian nightmare on gay rights issues and the disaster that is the war on drugs.
So this is where the nation stands….
Sizable percentages of Obama supporters say they will not support The Clintons if they’re nominated as the Democratic nominee, and vice-versa.
A large percentage of Republicans aren’t happy with McCain the Maverick as their nominee.
Are there any capital “L” Libertarians who would be happy with Bob Barr?
Is this going to be The Winter Of Everybody’s Discontent?
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Redneck Swing
This picture was taken from the pickup with the TV on the tailgate. If you listen closely, you can hear the Lynyrd Skynyrd boxed set is playing in the background. Saturday, May 10, 2008
Test Of Willpower
I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I ask for your strength in giving me the will power to resist clicking on this link and writing something really horrible on this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form. I will not fill out this form.
Mandatory Drug Testing For Farm Subsidy Recipients
Lawmakers finish farm bill as White House repeats oppositionBy MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Married couples with joint incomes of up to $1.5 million from their farm operation could still qualify for crop subsidies under a five-year, $300 billion farm bill compromise that would boost the Agriculture Department's food and farm programs.
Don't even think about hitting that link unless you've got a strong stomach, or are already a subsidy recipient. Nancy Pelosi is also wanting to subsidize the jillionaire horse farms represented in the Kentucky Derby, fer heaven's sake.
They try to make this bill more wholesome by linking it to Food Stamps, Lunch Programs, etc., but the two concepts have almost nothing in common other than the word "food".
A lot of people get angry about subsidies to oil companies. Some people can get worked up over farm subsidies. One day a couple of weeks ago, Alex Chadwick on NPR ripped Senator Tom Harkin a new one over the amount of pork in this year's farm bill (pun intended). Senator Harkin, a Democrat who represents
As if we need more people waiting in line for the government tit.
When Chadwick called B.S. on him, all Harkin could do was sputter about, "Well, Exxon Mobil and the oil companies get a lot of subsidies, don't they?"
The man is an actual United States Senator. I don't have a transcript of the interview. I'll change the text above if someone can send me one.
A lot of people get angry about the character and work ethic of those who receive traditional welfare handouts. They advocate drug testing for all welfare recipients. After all, there's no point in subsidizing someone who is going to spend the money in an irresponsible manner. They don't want their tax dollars going to crack dealers. They get furious when the person in line ahead of them at the supermarket uses food stamps to buy top sirloin.
What's good for the Welfare Mother should be good for the millionaire racehorse owner, don't you think?
I propose similar testing for all forms of corporate welfare. If you get a subsidy for, say, your horse farm in Kentucky, there should be provisions in place to prevent you from spending the money on crack cocaine OR on ridiculous hats for the Derby.
If you get a subsidy for your sugar plantation monopoly in Florida, there should be provisions in place to send you to rehab and counseling if you're caught contributing to the campaigns of either major political party. There are certain classes of criminals you shouldn't be allowed to associate with.
If you're an Iowa corn farmer and take a government-mandated urinalysis, and you test positive for "Lobbyists", you would be forced to take classes in "How To Sell To Customers Instead Of Selling To Government". Flunk it again, and you don't get to have a caucus at your house in 2012. If you get caught with Lobbyists in your bloodstream one more time then it's three strikes, you're out. No Appeal. You would be forced to live off nothing but your wheat and soybean subsidy. No more corn subsidies for you, buddy.
I know, it's harsh. But those who stayed clean for a year, they'd get a "Just Say NO To Nancy Pelosi" T-shirt.
It would be a Hand Up, not a Hand Out.
It's all about Tough Love. Scared Straight.
This is your brain.
This is your brain on drugs.
And this is your brain voting for any politician who votes in favor of this farce.
Corn and Money picture from The Acton Institute, which is loosely affiliated with Calvin Theological Seminary, of all places. Hat Tip to The Truth Handler for the link to the AP farm bill article.
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