Another apology for using bad numbers

For the last few months I've been sending out apocalyptic messages about our Seven Trillion Dollar budget deficit, the amount I thought we were going to be short for the next 10 years.

My bad.

The true amount is $9 trillion. Whoever combined this Washington Post chart with the Obama logo wasted his time, for it's now inaccurate.

The nine-trillion dollar amount assumes that Obamacare will be "budget neutral", but that's the number I'm running with from now on.

Please stay tuned for future apologies.

NO AID OR COMFORT TO THE ENEMY, NO WAY !

I'm probably as patriotic as the next person.
I think that we in the U.S. probably have the best system of government, as long as we don't convert it into a feed trough for friends of our upper level government employees.
I stand up for the National Anthem, and sing loudly.
I learned a long time ago that declaring perpetual allegiance to a concept is a bad idea. Anyone wanting you to stand up and recite a pledge is probably manipulating you. That's why I don't like the idea of a "pledge" of allegiance to a flag, or any other kind of loyalty oath.
Our national monuments are better than anyone else's national monuments.
I appreciate veterans.

Then there's this:

This is a trailer owned be Central Transport, a "Less Than Truckload" freight company. All of their trailers have the same flag and slogan on the back door.

(One other thing I believe in, and this comes from being a Boy Scout....if you're going to put the flag on something, you're supposed to keep it clean. And if you're going to fly the flag, and the flag gets tattered, you're supposed to take it down and burn it. If the right-wingers ever get their way, the driver of this truck will be prosecuted for flag desecration. Freakin' filthy. )

Now let's get to the point. I need for someone to explain this slogan to me, using little bitty words that I can understand.

"Support Our Troops Whenever We Go...."
Are the people at Central Transport encouraging us to support our troops whenever we go to war? Whenever the CT trucks are rolling? Whenever we go....potty?
This is vague, and needs clarification.

"No Aid of Comfort To the Enemy - No Way!"
That first sentence was a masterpiece of clarity compared to this one.
Are Central Transport drivers occasionally asked to attend housewarming fundraisers for Osama bin Laden? Are the CT freight terminals surrounded by Al-qaeda operatives who want to come inside for coffee and donuts? Do ABF, Estes, SAIA, and YRC sometimes try to make a fast buck by shipping nukes into Afghanistan? And Central Transport doesn't want any part of it?

I'm just wondering.

Caption Contest - Spycam Edition

I need a caption for this picture, which may have been taken with one of the new spycams that concerned parents use to monitor babysitters.


Tarrant Liberty Guy, in a last minute effort, won last week's contest.

Birth of a libertarian

A libertarian is born.

Let me get this straight

My mother sent me this today:

Let me get this straight.
Obama's health care plan will be written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it,
passed by a Congress that hasn't read it,
signed by a president who smokes,
funded by a treasury chief who did not pay his taxes,
overseen by a surgeon general who is obese,
and financed by a country that is nearly broke.
What could possibly go wrong?

Mama, I'm not worried about it going wrong. I'm worried about what happens if it works exactly as planned.

Teleprompter Jesus

TELEPROMPTER JESUS

If you've got a problem,
Or even think you might,
Just tell him, and he's on it
He'll make everything all right.

He's the D.C. Santa Claus,
He'll meet every need,
He can stop the polar thaws,
cause the oceans to recede.

(Voter Chorus)
Give us everything we want,
We know you want to please us,
If they type it, you will read it,
You're the Teleprompter Jesus !

Cash For Clunkers, Bailouts,
Porkulus and TARP !
Took G.M. and Chrysler,
and he's still looking sharp !

Geithner and Pelosi,
Biden, Harry Reid,
Gonna work together to get
Everything we need.


(Children's Chorus, groaning under the weight of debt)
Give them everything they want,
But if you want to please us,
Make our parents pay their share,
You're the Teleprompter Jesus !

Nine Trillion, Ten Trillion,
Eleven Trillion debt,
As long as China's lending,
Then he ain't finished yet.

Spending all this money,
It's really not so hard,
When he puts the charges on
our childrens' credit card.

(Groaning Chorus of Debtor-Fetuses)
Give them just a little less,
We know you want to please us,
Don't read everything they type,
Dear Teleprompter Jesus !

Jesus fed five thousand
With some fishes and some bread,
Our Man could print a trillion bucks
With one nod of his head.


Gonna spread the wealth around
At least that's the plan,
It won't cost you a penny,
You don't make two-fifty grand.

(Final Chorus, repeat and fade)
Give us everything we want,
We know you want to please us,
If they type it, you will read it,
You're the Teleprompter Jesus !

I've got a basic guitar chord pattern down for this, still working on the melody.
Pics from here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here.

So many topics, so little time....

I have blogger friends who occasionally claim that they don't have anything to write about. I repeat....I have blogger friends who claim that they don't have anything to write about.

We've been dumped into the middle of the most amazing, hog-stomping, buck-raking, fleece The Sheeple circus anyone could hope for. Anyone that who can type should get out of bed in the morning thanking god for the chance to be alive in the year of our Lord 2009.

Here's everything I'd be ranting about at great length today if I had more time to do so.....

The Netroots folks who put the Democrats in charge of the House, the Senate, and The White House have been strangely silent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. What happened to THE FIERCE MORAL URGENCY OF NOW that we heard so much about until January? Write a post about how and where THE FIERCE MORAL URGENCY was lost, and the efforts of the White House janitorial and landscaping staff to find it. Photoshop a milk carton to show TFMU as a missing person.

Roger Kimball has latched onto the Yale University Press decision to censor the book about the censorying of the Danish cartoons of Muhammed. The plot is thickening. The book had already been vetted by Yale's legal staff, and some Islamic scholars had already approved of the book and its contents. But Yale has some financial relationships with some nasty places in the Middle East. Ye shall know the Veritas....

Ron Paul wants to audit The Fed. Copy the entire editorial onto this site. No snarky comments allowed.

George Will thinks the people who run the United States Lottery programs have no business moralizing about online poker. Write a post about the people who subsidize the lottery, vs the people who would contribute towards online poker. Or, God help us all, blackjack.

Charles Krauthammer takes up the idea that government involvement in health care would save money. He has a good time with it. But not as much fun as I would have, bringing up defense contractors, $800 screwdrivers, $5,000 toilet seats, the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, VA Hospitals, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Post Office, and every other government money pit.

Little Green Footballs 2.0 has a funny picture of Obama as The Joker as a Doctor. Follow up with this gem where they're saying that if you don't think the Obama/Joker posters are racist, you're a racist. Print it as is, but delete the text. Ask for captions.

It seems that people aren't dressing properly when they approach the thrones of their lords and masters at the Healthcare Town Hall meetings. How dare the serfs wear a ballcap while addressing a U.S. senator? Go Medieval. Explain for the 10,000th time that these are not our leaders. They are our employees. In a truly just society, electing a president or a senator would be like deciding whether to keep the old lawn service or hire a new one.

Ed Morrisey continues The Obamateurism Of The Week. Link to it, then "share it" on Facebook.

There's a new documentary about Saint Albert, The Goracle Of Music City and radical environmentalism. It's called "Not Evil, Just Wrong". Post the trailer. Clear the Comment Field for Cedric Katesby.

ABC's John Stossel is understandably puzzled by the Feds raiding medical marijuana dispensaries in California. What were you expecting from the new Hope and Change administration? Change?

Professor Bainbridge contrasts the Healthcare Town Hall crazies with previous crazies. Compare all of these groups to Martin Luther and the church door, various clerics who waited three days barefoot in the snow to see the pope, Buddhists igniting themselves during the Viet Nam war, and every other performance art protest. Sometimes a letter to the editor isn't enough.

From the Talking Points Memo, on The Family, the conservative Christian lobbying group....
The right-wing Christian Broadcasting Network does damage control for C Street, explaining that the real question isn't, how many affairs were covered up, but rather, "how many affairs were thwarted." These are the guys that Nevada's John Ensign, Mississippi's Chip Pickering, and South Carolina's Mark Sanford have been hanging out with. Quietly and calmly ask why The Family has a tax-exempt status, when all they do is lobby congressmen and senators. And provide meetup places for their administrative staff.

Send people HERE. Warn them that they will wander around in there for days.

Valarie Jarrett, one of Obama's spokesmuppets, was recently booed and hissed at a Netroots Nation conference. The Netroots people aren't happy that Obama has kept almost EVERY objectionable George W. Bush war policy and program in place. Write a breathless expose which proves that Obama is merely a front for Karl Rove. Dick Cheney is the guy who programs Obama's Teleprompter.

Miko Andres, the world's youngest sharpshooter

From The Telegraph in the UK, where even the police don't have guns:


Pictured here at the Armscor Shooting Club, Miko loads, aims and fires his semiautomatic weapon at moving targets.
Complete with a gun belt, shades and a tailored shirt, Miko travels across the country participating in national junior competitions.

Competing against children ten years his senior (in the 9-17 age group), Miko is now looking to travel to America to test his talents.
For Miko's father, Cresencio "Mike" Pascua Andres JR, the boy's passion and natural ability for practical shooting has been carefully monitored by his family and shooting community.
"It is within the family and friends that Miko was influenced to love and enjoy the practical shooting sport," says Mike. "Because of his interest, we took turns in teaching, training and coaching him on the basics of the sport."
Practical shooting is one of the fastest growing sports in the Philippines and Miko took up the sport in January this year.
Seven months later, Miko is fully versed in the strict laws of the sport.
Despite the obvious dangers and concerns raised over a boy of six handling such a weapon, Mike is eager to stress that safety is always at the forefront of his mind.


Click here to read the rest of the article, which, BTW, reads like it's been translated from Choctaw to Philippino to English by someone using Google Translate. A rarity for British journalism.
Here's a random video of Miko in action on the range:



A coat of Whitening to Perry De Haviland of Samizdata, who congratulates Miko on not being British.

And on the seventh day, Donald Boudreaux rested....

George Mason University economics professor Donald Boudreaux has gone on a tear. The last few days on his Cafe Hayek blog have included some of the best posts I've ever read.

First, he has to correct Harold Meyerson's assertion that American manufacturing is declining. It isn't. We're combining parts from all over the world with our parts. That's what we do at my Jukt Micronics gig. If you're so inclined, you can go here to read an ancient post of mine about Harold Meyerson. Before this blog was two months old, I already knew I'd be needing a "Harold Meyerson" post label.

Professor Boudreaux then went to bed, but apparently slept fitfully. Perhaps he knew that there were still some mercantilist rent-seekers who hadn't been properly bitch-slapped. We will never know what motivated him, and it's not our place to ask the great man why, but The Professor got up early the next morning and explained to the English-speaking world that if you "protect" some of your citizen-manufacturers, all you're doing is making their products more expensive than they should be. This, in the long run, helps a small number of your wealthy citizen-manufacturers, but it hurts most of your citizen-citizens.

Later that afternoon, someone defiled Professor Boudreaux's comment field with disturbing news about what Beijing was doing to protect Chinese manufacturers. The Professor took off his academic robe, placed his chalk in the tray at the bottom of the board, and delivered a Karate Kid Crane Kick to the commenter. (I've added the commenter and his family to the prayer list at Broadway Baptist Church, and wish him a speedy recovery.)

Finally, before embarking on a much-deserved Sabbath day of rest, The Professor explains why there's no such thing as a free subsidy. Whether it's cotton, soybeans, corn, tobacco, or those things for which you can trade in a Clunker, someone is paying for every subsidy. And that would be you.

The posts about the Whole Foods boycotts are the dessert.

Brilliant, brilliant stuff. I want to go to George Mason U., and follow The Professor around while he teaches the multitudes. Maybe spend some time fishing on the Sea Of Galilee with him. Hold his coat while he heals some lepers. And then when Obama has him arrested for heresy, deny three times that I ever knew him. Then retire to my home village to write The Gospel of Saint Don.

It could happen.

William Mostow makes a controversial statement about rubbing dirt into wounds, long before results can be seen

Here's William Mostow, in the September issue of Liberty magazine:

It's interesting to see the political correctness with which free-market advocates respond to current statist interventions in the American economy. Even on talk radio and Fox, commentators express reservations about the stimulus plan and the government takeover of various industries but then indicate that time will tell whether any of these plans will work. Our president's intelligence is invariably mentioned as a preface to any criticisms of his policies.

If a patient were to tell me that he had been advised to rub dirt into a fresh wound, as a physician, my response would not be, "Well, I come from a different school of thought on wound care, so I'm pessimistic about the outcome of your treatment. But I guess we'll find out in a few weeks whether I'm right." Rather, I'd say, "All science and experience on the subject indicates that rubbing dirt in your wound is foolish, and bound to make your condition worse." So why aren't the same standards applied to economic arguments when the evidence is just as powerful?

Too many people see the present debate as one conducted among experts from different schools of thought. It is the obligation of anyone possessing any knowledge of classical economics to unequivocally describe our policymakers as either fools or charlatans, and their intellectual backers in academia and the media as quacks.

Well, we'll see. Time will tell. It's obviously too early to see if printing money to pass out to supporters is going to be effective or not.
Just because all the other government interventions have been boondoggles and financial disasters doesn't mean this one has to be. I mean, if you found some dirt that someone had thrown penicillin and Neosporin into, that dirt could help a wound, couldn't it? It really could happen.

My Political Opponent Is Hitler

Zomblog has documentation of the recent "My Political Opponent Is Hitler" trend that Speaker Pelosi has been lamenting.
Kind of hard to argue with.
Point conceded.
It's happening.

John Donatich, Yale University Press, The Jewel Of Medina, and the whimper of whipped dogs.

About a year ago, Random House pulled the plug on a novel about the prophet Mohammed and his child bride.
When time permits, please compare the Weasel Words in this old press release about "The Jewel Of Medina" by Sherry Jones, and John Donatich's whimpering in yesterday's NYT about "The Cartoons That Shook The World", a Yale University Press book about the cartoons published in Denmark that won't be published in Yale's book about the cartoons. (See previous post.)

After sending out advance editions of the novel THE JEWEL OF MEDINA, we received in response, from credible and unrelated sources, cautionary advice not only that the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.
We felt an obligation to take these concerns very seriously. We consulted with security experts as well as with scholars of Islam, whom we asked to review the book and offer their assessments of potential reactions.

I'll bet you dollars against donuts that the security experts and "scholars of Islam" in the Jewel Of Medina controversy overlap with the security experts and schoolmarms that John Donatich allowed to squash the Danish cartoon book.
These people are authoritative, yet anonymous.

We stand firmly by our responsibility to support our authors and the free discussion of ideas, even those that may be construed as offensive by some.

No, you don't. You didn't. You can't say that any more. You really can't. The point of publishing something like this is to offer another point of view, change people's minds, provoke a discussion, and possibly offend people. You caved in. You didn't support your authors and the free discussion of ideas. Notice the Weasel Words "may", "construed", and "some".

However, a publisher must weigh that responsibility against others that it also bears, and in this instance we decided, after much deliberation, to postpone publication for the safety of the author, employees of Random House, booksellers and anyone else who would be involved in distribution and sale of the novel. The author and Ballantine subsequently agreed to terminate the agreement, with the understanding that the author would be free to publish elsewhere, if she so chose.

- The Random House Publishing Group

So who are these people that can tell Yale and Random House what to censor? Who elected them? Do they even exist? If you look at the article on the cartoon book, you'll see that they only way to learn what they said is by promising not to tell anyone.

Amazing.

Yale University Press bans controversial cartoons of Muhammad in new book about controversial cartoons of Muhammad.

I don't expect anyone to read this ridiculously long post. I'm just ranting. This is from The New York Times, with a fresh coat of Whitening for Hot Air....

It’s not all that surprising that Yale University Press would be wary of reprinting notoriously controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a forthcoming book.

Actually, it is surprising. And it's funny. When I was in the literary retail racket, I didn't hesitate to sell Rushdie's "Satanic Verses" or "American Psycho" by Brett Easton Ellis, or to host autographings by the Roe vs Wade lawyer, all despite some threats. You hire a security guard, and go on with your job.

Full Disclosure: I'm not proud of it, but I also sold a lot of Danielle Steel novels.

After all, when the 12 caricatures were first published by a Danish newspaper a few years ago and reprinted by other European publications, Muslims all over the world angrily protested, calling the images — which included one in which Muhammad wore a turban in the shape of a bomb — blasphemous.

That makes it sound like an immediate cause and effect relationship. It wasn't until a group of outrage-mongers produced a drawing of Big Mo's face on the body of a pig, several months after the initial publication of the cartoons, that the "Muslims all over the world angrily protested".

In the Middle East and Africa some rioted, burning and vandalizing embassies; others demanded a boycott of Danish goods; a few nations recalled their ambassadors from Denmark. In the end at least 200 people were killed.

That's what happens when you spread ink on paper to make satirical comments about all-powerful beings who can't take up for themselves.

So Yale University and Yale University Press consulted two dozen authorities, including diplomats and experts on Islam and counterterrorism, and the recommendation was unanimous:

Let's get real here....Is there ANY doubt in your mind what that group is going to recommend?

The book, “The Cartoons That Shook the World,” should not include the 12 Danish drawings that originally appeared in September 2005.

This is like writing a book about pencil sharpeners, but being told that you can't mention, you know, those devices with rotating blades that, you know what I'm talking about? they, like, fit on the end of wooden writing instruments, and you rotate them so that, you know, it gives them a fine point?

What’s more, they suggested that the Yale press also refrain from publishing any other illustrations of the prophet that were to be included, specifically, a drawing for a children’s book; an Ottoman print; and a sketch by the 19th-century artist Gustave Doré of Muhammad being tormented in Hell, an episode from Dante’s “Inferno” that has been depicted by Botticelli, Blake, Rodin and Dalí.

This is what we now call academic freedom. It's why they get tenure. It's why people who work in that environment have jobs for life. So they don't have to worry about offending people who think their god(s) can't take up for themselves.

The book’s author, Jytte Klausen, a Danish-born professor of politics at Brandeis University, in Waltham, Mass., reluctantly accepted Yale University Press’s decision not to publish the cartoons. But she was disturbed by the withdrawal of the other representations of Muhammad. All of those images are widely available, Ms. Klausen said by telephone, adding that “Muslim friends, leaders and activists thought that the incident was misunderstood, so the cartoons needed to be reprinted so we could have a discussion about it.” The book is due out in November.

I can't wait to open this book and dive into the Politically Correct Sensitivityspeak that Yale is going to dump into the preface. Can't wait. Will reprint it here.

John Donatich, the director of Yale University Press, said by telephone that the decision was difficult, but the recommendation to withdraw the images, including the historical ones of Muhammad, was “overwhelming and unanimous.” The cartoons are freely available on the Internet and can be accurately described in words, Mr. Donatich said, so reprinting them could be interpreted easily as gratuitous.

John Donatich can be described in words also, but I'll refrain. Notice the weasel words "could" and "interpreted".

He noted that he had been involved in publishing other controversial books — like “The King Never Smiles” by Paul M. Handley, a recent unauthorized biography of Thailand’s current monarch — and “I’ve never blinked.” But, he said, “when it came between that and blood on my hands, there was no question.”

A lot of great work has been produced in dangerous circumstances. Tom Paine - Common Sense. William Tyndale - The English Bible. John Bunyan - Pilgrim's Progress. Voltaire scratching out plays in the Bastille.

The line ends with John Donatich.

Reza Aslan, a religion scholar and the author of “No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam,” is a fan of the book but decided to withdraw his supportive blurb that was to appear in the book after Yale University Press dropped the pictures. The book is “a definitive account of the entire controversy,” he said, “but to not include the actual cartoons is to me, frankly, idiotic.” In Mr. Aslan’s view no danger remains. “The controversy has died out now, anyone who wants to see them can see them,” he said of the cartoons, noting that he has written and lectured extensively about the incident and shown the cartoons without any negative reaction. He added that none of the violence occurred in the United States: “There were people who were annoyed, and what kind of publishing house doesn’t publish something that annoys some people?”

Most academic writing is so dense and burdened with so much jargon that it really doesn't annoy anyone. No one finishes it who doesn't already agree with it.

“This is an academic book for an academic audience by an academic press,” he continued. “There is no chance of this book having a global audience, let alone causing a global outcry.” He added, “It’s not just academic cowardice, it is just silly and unnecessary.”

True. My younger brother is a history professor, and recently published a book through an academic press. He's got an interesting story to tell, he's a great writer, but the dang book costs $78.00. Not much chance of a global audience there.

Mr. Donatich said that the images were still provoking unrest as recently as last year when the Danish police arrested three men suspected of trying to kill the artist who drew the cartoon depicting Muhammad’s turban as a bomb. He quoted one of the experts consulted by Yale — Ibrahim Gambari, special adviser to the secretary general of the United Nations and the former foreign minister of Nigeria — as concluding: “You can count on violence if any illustration of the prophet is published. It will cause riots, I predict, from Indonesia to Nigeria.”

That swath of real estate from Indonesia to Nigeria doesn't include Yale, does it?

Aside from the disagreement about the images, Ms. Klausen said she was also disturbed by Yale’s insistence that she could read a 14-page summary of the consultants’ recommendations only if she signed a confidentiality agreement that forbade her from talking about them. “I perceive it to be a gag order,” she said, after declining to sign. While she could understand why some of the individuals consulted might prefer to remain unidentified, she said, she did not see why she should be precluded from talking about their conclusions.

I've beaten this dead horse elsewhere, but outside of a Townhall Healthcare meeting, is there any place on earth that stifles Free Speech more than academia? (I really do hate to sound so anti-intellectual, but damn....)

Linda Koch Lorimer, vice president and secretary of Yale University, who had discussed the summary with Ms. Klausen, said on Wednesday that she was merely following the original wishes of the consultants, some of whom subsequently agreed to be identified.

1. We're going to get people from all over the world to tell us what to do in this situation.

2. We're going to keep their recommendations (and identities) a secret.

3. The only way to read their recommendations is to promise that you won't ever, ever, ever discuss their recommendations.

4. Therefore, the 14-page document outlining their recommendations could be whatever the person who typed it wants it to be.

5. Brilliant.

....Other publishers, including The New York Times, chose not to print the cartoons or images of Muhammad when the controversy erupted worldwide in February 2006...

Face Of Muhammad cartoon came from here.

Why We Owe Barack Obama

Despite the Porkulus Program, Cash For Clunkers, The Bailouts, TARP, the unemployment rate, the cabinet that didn't want to pay taxes, the GM Takeover, and the fact that my dogs won't let me sleep....
In spite of all that, we still owe Barack Obama a huge debt of gratitude.

She Whose Name Is Not Spoken recently did a Q&A session someplace in Africa. It wasn't pretty.



If it weren't for Barack Obama.... I don't even want to think about it.

How long will this unfair competition be tolerated?

LittleGreenFootballs2 has some interesting stats about the results homeschoolers are getting relative to the public school system.

The most interesting part? Family income, whether the parent(s) have college degrees, or whether either parent have a teaching certificate has almost no impact on the homeschooled kids' test scores.

Next point of interest.... Think of all the miserable hours the public schools spend Teaching The Test.

Next question....If these kids aren't in a school system, where do they get their drugs?

And yes, the government is big enough to....

If a government is big enough to control health care, it's big enough to prohibit gun ownership.

If a government is big enough to prohibit gun ownership, it's big enough to control marriage.

If a government is powerful enough to outlaw gay and lesbian marriage, it's probably big enough to print worthless money to pay off its debts.

If a government is arrogant enough to flood the market with devalued currency, it probably won't hesitate to involve us in expensive foreign wars.

If a government is big enough to get into overseas adventures, it's probably big enough to staff military bases in 46 other countries.

If a government has 750 military bases overseas, it's probably irresponsible enough to burden its citizens with Eleven Trillion Dollars in debt.

If a government overreaches enough to burden each taxpayer with $40,000 in debt, it's big enough to protect its Federal Reserve system from an audit.

If a government is powerful enough to shelter its reserve banks, it's powerful enough to bail out favored industries and Troubled Assets.

If a government is arrogant enough to bail out campaign supporters with your money, that government won't hesitate to proscribe what substances you can and can't consume, ingest, or inhale.

If a government overreaches enough to outlaw recreational drug use, it won't hesitate to define how your children can be educated.

If a government is large enough to ban home schooling, it's big enough to set quotas and taxes on all commodities that enter its borders.

If a government is big enough to protect favored industries by putting ridiculous tariffs on imports, that same government is big enough to control your healthcare decisions.

United We Stand, Divided We Fall.

They're counting on continued division.

The Evolution Of God, by Robert Wright

For the next few days, Andrew Sullivan has turned his site, the Daily Dish. over to Robert Wright, author of "The Evolution Of God".

I'm about halfway through the book, and it's pure, undiluted greatness.

Brilliant.

Since I'm not through with the book, I'm not going to attempt a summary. Here's a good one, though, from a Disciples Of Christ minister in Troy, Michigan.

The idea that God has evolved may be off-putting to some and welcomed by others. How one responds to this idea may depend both on what is meant by the phrase and where one stands in regards to the idea of God. A believer may take this idea differently than will an unbeliever. Philip Clayton, in his book Adventures in the Spirit (Fortress, 2008) encourages believers in God to welcome dialog with science and philosophy, and not to fear any challenging implications to faith. It is with that sense of openness that I came to Robert Wright’s fascinating study of the evolution of the idea of God, from its origins in hunter/gather societies to the development of the great religions – especially the three Abrahamic religions. Wright admits that he approached this study with an agnostic sensibility. Indeed, the focus here is not on whether God exists, but how humans have envisioned and approached the idea of God. His is a materialist description, assuming that ideas of faith have evolved because they fulfill a role in society. Indeed, when he speaks of specific religious expressions he takes a rather minimalist view – that is Jesus said and did little of what has been ascribed to him, and the stories of early Judaism, from Abraham to Moses, likely did not happen.

Wright will be posting on the Daily Dish for the rest of this week. Go there.

Caption Contest - Strange Bedfellows Edition

I need a caption for this picture, which I found on Andrew Ian Dodge's site, Dodgeblogium.

I argued with the caption committee about this, but Leonidas won last week's caption contest. I felt that Leonidas's entry didn't properly explain the baby in the bathwater. The decrees of the competition committee must be obeyed. So congrats, Leonidas.

Save The Earth - Buy A New Hummer

This is the official list of the top 10 new vehicles purchased under the Cash For Clunkers program.

1. Ford Focus
2. Honda Civic
3. Toyota Corolla
4. Toyota Prius
5. Ford Escape
6. Toyota Camry
7. Dodge Caliber
8. Hyundai Elantra
9. Honda Fit
10. Chevy Cobalt

Now that is a wholesome looking list, wouldn't you say? Except for the Ford Escape (and maybe the Civic) it reeks of earth-saving virtue.
The downside is that it's the government's list you're looking at, and therefore it's total horse crap.

On a list like this, do you think it's honest to distinguish between the Ford F-150 with seats of rich Corinthian leather, and the F-150 with seats carved from the tanned, preserved buttocks of gullible Democrats? And dilute the sales of the F-150 by acting like those are two different vehicles?
Should Hummers with radio stations preset to National Socialist Radio, Air America, and 1360 AM Rational Radio count as different makes and models from the Hummers with stations preset to right wing AM rants?
Please stay with me. This is good stuff.

Here's the real list, according to Edmunds, a respected auto industry sales guide:
1. Ford Escape
2. Ford Focus
3. Jeep Patriot
4. Dodge Caliber
5. Ford F-150
6. Honda Civic
7. Chevrolet Silverado
8. Chevrolet Cobalt
9. Toyota Corolla
10.Cobalt Ford Fusion

Wonder why the lists look so different? Here's CNN:

For example, the Ford Escape is available in six different versions including two- and four-wheel drive and hybrid versions. The government counts each version as a different vehicle using guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency. Only the front wheel drive, non-hybrid version made the government's top ten list.

The Ford Escape crossover SUV, instead of being the seventh-most popular vehicle under the program, as the government ranked it, was actually the best seller, according to Edmunds.com. The government pegged the Ford Focus as the top seller.

But wait, there's more ! ! ! Want to get $3,500 off the price of a Hummer, virtually synonymous with gas-guzzling American excess ????

But will buying a new Hummer H-3, Chevy Suburban or Ford F-250 Super Duty pickup really reduce America's craving for crude? Somebody thinks so, because they're all eligible new cars under the Cash for Clunkers program, which gives a $3,500 to $4,500 credit to car buyers trading in older gas guzzlers for more fuel-efficient cars.

But a close look at what qualifies as "more fuel efficient" in the program reveals loopholes big enough to drive a GMC Yukon through (yes, that's eligible, too.) The guidelines in the House-passed bill state that large SUVs and trucks, typically considered gas guzzlers in everyday conversation, qualify for the $3,500 credit, and in some cases the $4,500 credit, depending on the trade-ins that come through the door for them. New Category 2 trucks -- like the Hummer H-3, Ford Explorer, Chevy Silverado, and Toyota Tundra -- qualify if they get at least 15 MPG combined, and get at least one mile per gallon more than the car or truck being traded in.

This farce has nothing to do with saving the earth. This farce is about saving Detroit for one more election cycle.

The next time you see someone in a brand new Hummer, the neo-fascist military limo, stop and make conversation with him. Ask him how he likes it.



Tell him you hope he's happy with it. After all, you probably helped him buy it.
Fresh coats of Whitening all around to The Agitator and The Take for the links.

Give Kenneth Gladney A Beer Summit

There are rumors, nothing more than baseless unsubstantiated rumors, that a labor union has resorted to violence.



Is this really possible?

Yeah, it's possible. Kenneth Gladney, an African-American Obamacare skeptic, was beaten up by union thugs.

If you're interested you can now join a Facebook group called "Give Kenneth Gladney A Beer Summit". The Obamedic, Biden, Gladney, and Andy Stern of SEIU could all sit down in the back yard at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and have a cold one. Gladney could listen to apologies from the other three, who would explain that his injuries might be temporarily painful but would stimulate the economy by creating jobs for hospital personnel.