As we noted below, the word "investment" is beginning to be troublesome.
It's bad enough that our Dimowit, DarthDoyle, uses the term as (not-too) Secret Code for "SPENDING."
But when the Milwaukee JS reporter (could be either Walters or Forster) uses the same word in reporting on the address, without quotation marks, or even semi-quotes, ...shall we call it inaccurate? Are they using Doyle's linguistic linguini to make it All Better? Or is this 'reality-reporting'?
He will also encourage campuses to develop greater specialization. For example, at UW-Milwaukee, which has sought $10 million for its research agenda, Doyle called for greater investment to attract top experts to the school and allow for more partnerships with the private sector.
In fact, Darth wants to SPEND $10MM (or a big chunk thereof) on UW-M's research program proposal.
Shall we call a spade a spade in news coverage?
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Florida "Criminal" Gun Permits?
There's been a bunch of ink spilled over the allegation that the State of Florida is issuing concealed-carry permits to "criminals."
Not so fast. John Lott provides the facts that the NYSlimes (inter alia) 'forgot.'
But these individuals were not convicted of "felonies." Florida judges have the power to take a plea, impose probation (without entering a conviction) and once the person completes that, "withhold conviction." These individuals are eligible for a permit because they were not convicted of anything. If the cases are as horrible or the evidence as clear as you claim, why are the judges withholding convictions? Second, I talked to a Mary Kennedy with Florida's licensing department and she confirmed for me that only one person last year lost his permit for any firearms related violation. That is 1 out of 410,000 permit holders.
Now you know the REST of the story.
Not so fast. John Lott provides the facts that the NYSlimes (inter alia) 'forgot.'
But these individuals were not convicted of "felonies." Florida judges have the power to take a plea, impose probation (without entering a conviction) and once the person completes that, "withhold conviction." These individuals are eligible for a permit because they were not convicted of anything. If the cases are as horrible or the evidence as clear as you claim, why are the judges withholding convictions? Second, I talked to a Mary Kennedy with Florida's licensing department and she confirmed for me that only one person last year lost his permit for any firearms related violation. That is 1 out of 410,000 permit holders.
Now you know the REST of the story.
Bi-Partisan Terror Caucus
Here's a good thing:
Today at a press conference in the U.S. Capitol, U.S. Representative Sue Myrick (R-NC), along with Representatives Bud Cramer (D-AL), Kay Granger (R-TX), and Ben Chandler (D-KY) formally announced they have formed a new bipartisan Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus. Myrick, Cramer, Granger, and Chandler are the co-chairs of the new caucus.
The Caucus mission statement states that it “serves to educate Members of Congress, their staff and the general public about the threats to our country that are fueled by extremist ideologies. The Caucus recognizes that terrorism is not a Democrat or Republican problem; it is a critical issue for all Americans. To this end, the Caucus will facilitate an educational process and healthy exchange of ideas in a bipartisan setting.”
Sue Myrick states, “Terrorists don’t target Democrats or Republicans. They target Americans, and this is why we must face this issue as Americans… Members of Congress and the American public must know the threats we face from radical jihadist terrorists. This caucus will give Congress the tools and resources it needs to communicate those threats to the public, as well as help them make more informed decisions when it comes to terrorist issues….
Let's hope that this caucus is able to make a LOT of noise. The WOT will go on for much, much longer than the Iraq engagement (although there will be overlap.) We need to know what's going on out there.
HT: Counterterrorism Blog
Today at a press conference in the U.S. Capitol, U.S. Representative Sue Myrick (R-NC), along with Representatives Bud Cramer (D-AL), Kay Granger (R-TX), and Ben Chandler (D-KY) formally announced they have formed a new bipartisan Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus. Myrick, Cramer, Granger, and Chandler are the co-chairs of the new caucus.
The Caucus mission statement states that it “serves to educate Members of Congress, their staff and the general public about the threats to our country that are fueled by extremist ideologies. The Caucus recognizes that terrorism is not a Democrat or Republican problem; it is a critical issue for all Americans. To this end, the Caucus will facilitate an educational process and healthy exchange of ideas in a bipartisan setting.”
Sue Myrick states, “Terrorists don’t target Democrats or Republicans. They target Americans, and this is why we must face this issue as Americans… Members of Congress and the American public must know the threats we face from radical jihadist terrorists. This caucus will give Congress the tools and resources it needs to communicate those threats to the public, as well as help them make more informed decisions when it comes to terrorist issues….
Let's hope that this caucus is able to make a LOT of noise. The WOT will go on for much, much longer than the Iraq engagement (although there will be overlap.) We need to know what's going on out there.
HT: Counterterrorism Blog
Owen Did It
Displaying his self-flagellating tendencies, Owen actually read Darth's speech and commented.
I am beginning to hate the word "investment."
I am beginning to hate the word "investment."
Keep Your Ears on Biden
As Betsy points out, Sen. Biden loves to talk. And the more he talks, the more you learn.
“Are they going to turn to Hillary Clinton?” Biden asked, lowering his voice to a hush to explain why Mrs. Clinton won’t win the election.“Everyone in the world knows her,” he said. “Her husband has used every single legitimate tool in his behalf to lock people in, shut people down. Legitimate. And she can’t break out of 30 percent for a choice for Democrats? Where do you want to be? Do you want to be in a place where 100 percent of the Democrats know you? They’ve looked at you for the last three years. And four out of 10 is the max you can get?”
Well, Senator, we think you'll live to regret dissing the Hildebeeste.
Then he discusses the Breck Girl:
“John Edwards wants you and all the Democrats to think, ‘I want us out of there,’ but when you come back and you say, ‘O.K., John’”—here, the word “John” became an accusatory, mocking refrain—“‘what about the chaos that will ensue? Do we have any interest, John, left in the region?’ Well, John will have to answer yes or no. If he says yes, what are they? What are those interests, John? How do you protect those interests, John, if you are completely withdrawn? Are you withdrawn from the region, John? Are you withdrawn from Iraq, John? In what period? So all this stuff is like so much Fluffernutter out there. So for me, what I think you have to do is have a strategic notion. And they may have it—they are just smart enough not to enunciate it.”
That commentary also applies to Our Own Fluffernutter: Feinie bin Getouttathere.
“Are they going to turn to Hillary Clinton?” Biden asked, lowering his voice to a hush to explain why Mrs. Clinton won’t win the election.“Everyone in the world knows her,” he said. “Her husband has used every single legitimate tool in his behalf to lock people in, shut people down. Legitimate. And she can’t break out of 30 percent for a choice for Democrats? Where do you want to be? Do you want to be in a place where 100 percent of the Democrats know you? They’ve looked at you for the last three years. And four out of 10 is the max you can get?”
Well, Senator, we think you'll live to regret dissing the Hildebeeste.
Then he discusses the Breck Girl:
“John Edwards wants you and all the Democrats to think, ‘I want us out of there,’ but when you come back and you say, ‘O.K., John’”—here, the word “John” became an accusatory, mocking refrain—“‘what about the chaos that will ensue? Do we have any interest, John, left in the region?’ Well, John will have to answer yes or no. If he says yes, what are they? What are those interests, John? How do you protect those interests, John, if you are completely withdrawn? Are you withdrawn from the region, John? Are you withdrawn from Iraq, John? In what period? So all this stuff is like so much Fluffernutter out there. So for me, what I think you have to do is have a strategic notion. And they may have it—they are just smart enough not to enunciate it.”
That commentary also applies to Our Own Fluffernutter: Feinie bin Getouttathere.
DarthDoyle Wants to Spend, Spend, Spend!!
And off to the races we go!
Of course, there are these minor difficulties:
His 2007-'09 budget must control a long-term deficit estimated at $1.6 billion to $2.1 billion, depending on the accounting system used. That gap could also worsen by $277 million, if the state Supreme Court rules against the state in a sales-tax refund claim filed by the Menasha Corp.
Estimating likely expenses through June 30 and tax collections through mid-2009, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau predicted Tuesday a midyear surplus of $110 million - or about $40 million more than the last report, issued in November by Doyle budget aides.
That surplus assumes the Ho-Chunk tribe will pay $30 million the state says it is owed, but which the tribe disputes.
That good news of a higher surplus was jeopardized by a warning of a total of $99.3 million in year-end deficits in four programs, which could lower that midyear surplus to about $11.3 million when state government closes its budget books on June 30.
Fiscal Bureau Director Bob Lang listed those overruns as: $46 million in the Wisconsin Shares program that subsidizes child care costs; $38 million in higher Department of Corrections spending; $9.7 million in Office of the Public Defender; and $5.6 million in the BadgerCare program that provides health care for the working poor.
Of course, there are these minor difficulties:
His 2007-'09 budget must control a long-term deficit estimated at $1.6 billion to $2.1 billion, depending on the accounting system used. That gap could also worsen by $277 million, if the state Supreme Court rules against the state in a sales-tax refund claim filed by the Menasha Corp.
Estimating likely expenses through June 30 and tax collections through mid-2009, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau predicted Tuesday a midyear surplus of $110 million - or about $40 million more than the last report, issued in November by Doyle budget aides.
That surplus assumes the Ho-Chunk tribe will pay $30 million the state says it is owed, but which the tribe disputes.
That good news of a higher surplus was jeopardized by a warning of a total of $99.3 million in year-end deficits in four programs, which could lower that midyear surplus to about $11.3 million when state government closes its budget books on June 30.
Fiscal Bureau Director Bob Lang listed those overruns as: $46 million in the Wisconsin Shares program that subsidizes child care costs; $38 million in higher Department of Corrections spending; $9.7 million in Office of the Public Defender; and $5.6 million in the BadgerCare program that provides health care for the working poor.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Marquette U's "Honors" Program: Rotting from Within
GOP3 reports that some academic "honors" program at Marquette U will be producing the Vagina Monologues as part of a "symposium". Marquette U has thus managed to slam the virtues on the very same day in which it announced that Marquette will NOT allow criticism of its programs or profs.
We suppose that this is the result of "Symbolic Logic," (a sham and a ripoff used at Marquette in the beginning of the Sex/Drugs/Rock'n'Roll age.)
The highly controversial “Vagina Monologues” will be the heart of a symposium sponsored by the Marquette Honors Program entitled “Academic Conversation on Catholicism, Sexuality, and Human Rights,” April 14 at 4 p.m.
The announcement of the event is less than a year after the university denied left-leaning student organization JUSTICE’s request for the monologues’ performance last spring. The Rev. Andy Thon, Vice President of Student Affairs, said at the time a performance of the monologues would be “distractive” from the issue of violence against women.
But Director of University Communications Brigid Miller said this rendition of the monologues are permissible because they are being sponsored by an academic department, not a student organization. Unlike students, faulty-based “academic units are free to host lectures, discussions and symposia that are appropriate to their subject areas.
"Academic" Department?
Surely you jest, Brigid.
Academics needs VM like music needs fish.
As to criticism, the Warrior reports that Students for Academic Freedom was denied its application to become a recognized student group at Marquette.
The Warrior comments:
Quite clearly, criticizing Marquette, particular programs at Marquette and individual professors is viewed by Marquette bureaucrats as “inimical to Marquette’s commitment to academic freedom.”
In other words, “academic freedom” doesn’t include the right to claim that faculty and administrators are using their freedom in a biased way!
Like, for example, mocking Catholic and Christian virtue...
We suppose that this is the result of "Symbolic Logic," (a sham and a ripoff used at Marquette in the beginning of the Sex/Drugs/Rock'n'Roll age.)
The highly controversial “Vagina Monologues” will be the heart of a symposium sponsored by the Marquette Honors Program entitled “Academic Conversation on Catholicism, Sexuality, and Human Rights,” April 14 at 4 p.m.
The announcement of the event is less than a year after the university denied left-leaning student organization JUSTICE’s request for the monologues’ performance last spring. The Rev. Andy Thon, Vice President of Student Affairs, said at the time a performance of the monologues would be “distractive” from the issue of violence against women.
But Director of University Communications Brigid Miller said this rendition of the monologues are permissible because they are being sponsored by an academic department, not a student organization. Unlike students, faulty-based “academic units are free to host lectures, discussions and symposia that are appropriate to their subject areas.
"Academic" Department?
Surely you jest, Brigid.
Academics needs VM like music needs fish.
As to criticism, the Warrior reports that Students for Academic Freedom was denied its application to become a recognized student group at Marquette.
The Warrior comments:
Quite clearly, criticizing Marquette, particular programs at Marquette and individual professors is viewed by Marquette bureaucrats as “inimical to Marquette’s commitment to academic freedom.”
In other words, “academic freedom” doesn’t include the right to claim that faculty and administrators are using their freedom in a biased way!
Like, for example, mocking Catholic and Christian virtue...
Even MORE Wisconsin Spending
HT Owen.
This case is very important:
The 4th District Court of Appeals in Madison ruled Thursday that Neenah-based Menasha Corp. was eligible for a tax exemption on what the manufacturer said was customized business software. The Department of Revenue argued the software should be considered uncustomized, or “off-the-shelf” software that isn’t eligible for an exemption.
And Menasha Corp is hardly the Lone Ranger in this situation.
The Menasha case amounted to a $343,000 tax refund, plus interest, for the company. But similar cases could amount to as much as $250 million in refunds and interest, and as much as $100 million in potential lost taxes for the two-year budget that ends June 30, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau said in a recent memo.
Nelson estimated the potential liability for the state would be lower, perhaps between $120 million and $150 million.
There is another case working its way through the courts which could also go against the State. In that one, various Wisconsin companies have placed earning assets in Nevada, which does not have an income tax. Wisconsin is suing for what it claims is a tax liability.
This case is very important:
The 4th District Court of Appeals in Madison ruled Thursday that Neenah-based Menasha Corp. was eligible for a tax exemption on what the manufacturer said was customized business software. The Department of Revenue argued the software should be considered uncustomized, or “off-the-shelf” software that isn’t eligible for an exemption.
And Menasha Corp is hardly the Lone Ranger in this situation.
The Menasha case amounted to a $343,000 tax refund, plus interest, for the company. But similar cases could amount to as much as $250 million in refunds and interest, and as much as $100 million in potential lost taxes for the two-year budget that ends June 30, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau said in a recent memo.
Nelson estimated the potential liability for the state would be lower, perhaps between $120 million and $150 million.
There is another case working its way through the courts which could also go against the State. In that one, various Wisconsin companies have placed earning assets in Nevada, which does not have an income tax. Wisconsin is suing for what it claims is a tax liability.
More Wisconsin Pension Problems
Wisconsin taxpayers have another bill to pay.
Governments in Wisconsin face costs of around $17.4 billion beyond what they have already set aside to pay for pensions and other benefits promised retirees, according to a study by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute released today.
The paper, by former Wisconsin Secretary of Administration George Lightbourn, is the first to attempt to quantify those costs, which are moving into the spotlight after changes in accounting rules requiring they be calculated.
"The exact amount will not be known until 2009," Lightbourn writes. "But it is already clear that there are either tax hikes or program cuts in the future for Wisconsin taxpayers."
The costs are of two types: pension plans that fall short of the money needed to pay promised benefits, and the amount of money needed to pay other retirement benefits, mostly for health insurance
The State of Wisconsin has figured its unfunded liability for both pensions and other promised retirement benefits, and has sold $1.3 billion in bonds to fund the obligations. Lightbourn said that with interest, the bonds will cost $3.6 billion to retire.
Will these numbers emerge during DarthDoyle's State of the State address?
Governments in Wisconsin face costs of around $17.4 billion beyond what they have already set aside to pay for pensions and other benefits promised retirees, according to a study by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute released today.
The paper, by former Wisconsin Secretary of Administration George Lightbourn, is the first to attempt to quantify those costs, which are moving into the spotlight after changes in accounting rules requiring they be calculated.
"The exact amount will not be known until 2009," Lightbourn writes. "But it is already clear that there are either tax hikes or program cuts in the future for Wisconsin taxpayers."
The costs are of two types: pension plans that fall short of the money needed to pay promised benefits, and the amount of money needed to pay other retirement benefits, mostly for health insurance
The State of Wisconsin has figured its unfunded liability for both pensions and other promised retirement benefits, and has sold $1.3 billion in bonds to fund the obligations. Lightbourn said that with interest, the bonds will cost $3.6 billion to retire.
Will these numbers emerge during DarthDoyle's State of the State address?
Monday, January 29, 2007
SECRET!!! Catholic Code
Sent by a friend who (obviously) wishes to remain anonymous.
This information is for Catholics only. It must not be divulged to non-Catholics. The less they know about our rituals and code words, the better off they are.
AMEN: The only part of a prayer that everyone knows.
BULLETIN: Your receipt for attending Mass.
CHOIR: A group of people whose singing allows the rest of the Parish to lip-sync.
HOLY WATER: A liquid whose chemical formula is H2OLY.
HYMN: A song of praise usually sung in a key three octaves higher than that of the congregation's range.
RECESSIONAL HYMN: The last song at Mass often sung a little more quietly, since most of the people have already left.
INCENSE: Holy Smoke!
JESUITS: An order of priests known for their ability to found Colleges with good basketball teams.
JONAH: The original "Jaws" story.
JUSTICE: When kids have kids of their own.
KYRIE ELEISON: The only Greek words that most Catholics can recognize besides gyros and baklava.
MAGI: The most famous trio to attend a baby shower.
MANGER: Where Mary gave birth to Jesus because Joseph wasn't covered by an HMO. Holiday travel has always been rough.
PEW: A medieval torture device still found in Catholic churches.
PROCESSION: The ceremonial formation at the beginning of Mass consisting of altar servers, the celebrant, and late parishioners looking for seats.
RECESSIONAL: The ceremonial procession at the conclusion of Mass led by parishioners trying to beat the crowd to the parking lot.
RELICS: People who have been going to Mass for so long, they actually know when to sit, kneel, and stand.
TEN COMMANDMENTS: The most important Top Ten list not given by David Letterman.
USHERS: The only people in the parish who don't know the seating capacity of a pew.
SECRET HOT LINE number direct to the Holy Spirit" that only Catholics know -- "Et cum spiri - 2 -2 -0"
Please do not spread this list around. One never knows when Elizabeth I will resume her activities.
This information is for Catholics only. It must not be divulged to non-Catholics. The less they know about our rituals and code words, the better off they are.
AMEN: The only part of a prayer that everyone knows.
BULLETIN: Your receipt for attending Mass.
CHOIR: A group of people whose singing allows the rest of the Parish to lip-sync.
HOLY WATER: A liquid whose chemical formula is H2OLY.
HYMN: A song of praise usually sung in a key three octaves higher than that of the congregation's range.
RECESSIONAL HYMN: The last song at Mass often sung a little more quietly, since most of the people have already left.
INCENSE: Holy Smoke!
JESUITS: An order of priests known for their ability to found Colleges with good basketball teams.
JONAH: The original "Jaws" story.
JUSTICE: When kids have kids of their own.
KYRIE ELEISON: The only Greek words that most Catholics can recognize besides gyros and baklava.
MAGI: The most famous trio to attend a baby shower.
MANGER: Where Mary gave birth to Jesus because Joseph wasn't covered by an HMO. Holiday travel has always been rough.
PEW: A medieval torture device still found in Catholic churches.
PROCESSION: The ceremonial formation at the beginning of Mass consisting of altar servers, the celebrant, and late parishioners looking for seats.
RECESSIONAL: The ceremonial procession at the conclusion of Mass led by parishioners trying to beat the crowd to the parking lot.
RELICS: People who have been going to Mass for so long, they actually know when to sit, kneel, and stand.
TEN COMMANDMENTS: The most important Top Ten list not given by David Letterman.
USHERS: The only people in the parish who don't know the seating capacity of a pew.
SECRET HOT LINE number direct to the Holy Spirit" that only Catholics know -- "Et cum spiri - 2 -2 -0"
Please do not spread this list around. One never knows when Elizabeth I will resume her activities.
State DWD Program Short $128 Million. Complete Idiots?
Every two years, Wisconsin Gummint agencies are required to submit a budget. After the usual tweaking and yanking, the budget is approved by the Legislature and the Governor. Then the agencies proceed to spend accordingly.
Most normal folks begin by assessing one of two things: projected income, or projected expenses.
Maybe DWD doesn't "get" that yet.
In a letter to legislators and other officials made public Friday, state Secretary of Workforce Development Roberta Gassman said the state must consider tightening income criteria in ways that would knock some poor families off the program. The cuts could also raise parents' co-payments, cut rates paid to providers and start a waiting list for parents needing child care, she said.
Several paragraphs later, you find this little gem:
...Gassman said a deficit of $128.2 million in Wisconsin Shares, including a $46 million shortfall in the current fiscal year that ends June 30, is putting "extraordinary pressure" on spending.
So.....they were short $80+million last year and kept it a secret?
.....Oh, yeah. Last year was election year.
So the Governor and his Secretary of DWD either 1) deliberately and seriously screwed up their projected expenses, or 2) seriously screwed up their projection but DIDN'T TELL ANYBODY because DarthDoyle was running for office, again.
Your choice.
Most normal folks begin by assessing one of two things: projected income, or projected expenses.
Maybe DWD doesn't "get" that yet.
In a letter to legislators and other officials made public Friday, state Secretary of Workforce Development Roberta Gassman said the state must consider tightening income criteria in ways that would knock some poor families off the program. The cuts could also raise parents' co-payments, cut rates paid to providers and start a waiting list for parents needing child care, she said.
Several paragraphs later, you find this little gem:
...Gassman said a deficit of $128.2 million in Wisconsin Shares, including a $46 million shortfall in the current fiscal year that ends June 30, is putting "extraordinary pressure" on spending.
So.....they were short $80+million last year and kept it a secret?
.....Oh, yeah. Last year was election year.
So the Governor and his Secretary of DWD either 1) deliberately and seriously screwed up their projected expenses, or 2) seriously screwed up their projection but DIDN'T TELL ANYBODY because DarthDoyle was running for office, again.
Your choice.
HRC: "I Don't Want It!!"
The Hildebeeste figures she'll be sworn in as President early in 2009, but there's one trapping of the office she doesn't want: the War on Terror.
Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday that President Bush has made a mess of Iraq and it is his responsibility to "extricate" the United States from the situation before before he leaves office.
It would be "the height of irresponsibility" to pass the war along to the next commander in chief, she said.
Right, Hill. I'm sure GWB's cutting the orders to evacuate right now.
Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday that President Bush has made a mess of Iraq and it is his responsibility to "extricate" the United States from the situation before before he leaves office.
It would be "the height of irresponsibility" to pass the war along to the next commander in chief, she said.
Right, Hill. I'm sure GWB's cutting the orders to evacuate right now.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Thomas Aquinas on Cheese Standing
HT: Berres. You wannabe Thomists should enjoy this:
Does the cheese stand alone?
It seems that the cheese does not stand alone:
Objection 1: There are many dairy products such as milk, yogurt, cream, half and half and the like. In the natural world, all stand together with the cheese in the dairy isle and freezer section, therefore the cheese does not stand alone.
Objection 2: The tradition handed down by the FDA has always grouped cheese with other dairy products and as leading to your daily dairy intake. As such, the cheese does not stand alone.
Objection 3: It is not in the nature of cheese to stand as it has no legs or any other standing apparatus and since, as the Philosopher says, “nature is a source or cause of being moved and of being at rest” (Physics I, ii), nothing can do what is not in its nature. Thus the cheese does not stand alone because it cannot stand at all.
Objection 4: It is said that “milk does a body good” and therefore is great. Therefore the cheese does not stand alone, but with the milk.
Objection 5: In the Holy Land per se, also known as Wisconsin or Land that is inherently Holy, cheese is not the only object of fame. For Wisconsin is also known for polka, toilets, tamales, fireworks, and bubblers. The cheese must, then, stand with all of these and not alone.
On the contrary:
The Poet says, “Hi-ho the derry-o, the cheese stands alone.”
I answer that: The cheese stands alone in two ways. Firstly, among dairy products it is the most pungent and therefore the most easily identifiable by smell and taste. It is also the most carefully crafted of all dairy products as well as the most diverse in kind. As what is most important is given the most attention, the cheese is unique among dairy products and stands alone as one.Secondly, cheese by its very nature is holy. Some cheeses have a greater actuality of their holiness, such as Edamer or Swiss. (Note that this is why the Swiss Guards are only allowed into the Vatican after consuming exorbitant amounts of Swiss cheese.) Other cheeses have a lesser actuality, such as Cheddar or Brie. Nevertheless, this holiness is possessed by each cheese essentially regardless of its actuality. As such, cheese is necessarily holy, unlike other foods, and therefore stands alone.
Reply Objection 1: The word ‘alone’ can be used in two different senses; the first existing individually and in solitude, the second existing in a class of its own above all else to which it is compared. The Poet uses ‘alone’ in the latter sense while the objection applies to the former.
Reply Objection 2: There are two types of grouping, metaphysical and effectual. Metaphysical groups mark out something regarding what it is while effectual groups mark out something according to the result it produces. The FDA’s grouping is an effectual one as it means that all those in its group result in a healthy body. However, thee cheese stands alone metaphysically.Moreover, there are two types of tradition, for tradition depends upon authority. A contingent tradition is dependent on a temporal authority, while a universal tradition does not. The FDA is a temporal authority, has a contingent tradition, and therefore can not speak on the metaphysical matters at hand.
Reply Objection 3: The word ‘stand’ can not only be used properly, i.e. by the means of legs, but also analogically, i.e. “I should stand up to him” or “Stand proud”. Regarding the cheese, stand is used analogically and therefore does not require legs or any physical organ of standing.
Reply Objection 4: It is also said, “Behold the power of cheese.” Cheese has a power that strikes fear into the hearts of men. As fear is a gift of the Holy Spirit, cheese has a greater power than milk and stands above it and alone.
Reply Objection 5: Cheese is not native to Wisconsin, nor is it found only in Wisconsin as it is commonly found in France, Italy and the like. As such, it is not associated with Wisconsin per se but per accidens. Hence it is only accidentally associated with bubblers, polka, etc. So it does not stand with them per se but per accidens. Thus, the cheese stands alone per se.
Original: Becket of the Holy Whapping.
Not mentioned by TA: the Poet also says "The Casein Goes Rolling Along."
Does the cheese stand alone?
It seems that the cheese does not stand alone:
Objection 1: There are many dairy products such as milk, yogurt, cream, half and half and the like. In the natural world, all stand together with the cheese in the dairy isle and freezer section, therefore the cheese does not stand alone.
Objection 2: The tradition handed down by the FDA has always grouped cheese with other dairy products and as leading to your daily dairy intake. As such, the cheese does not stand alone.
Objection 3: It is not in the nature of cheese to stand as it has no legs or any other standing apparatus and since, as the Philosopher says, “nature is a source or cause of being moved and of being at rest” (Physics I, ii), nothing can do what is not in its nature. Thus the cheese does not stand alone because it cannot stand at all.
Objection 4: It is said that “milk does a body good” and therefore is great. Therefore the cheese does not stand alone, but with the milk.
Objection 5: In the Holy Land per se, also known as Wisconsin or Land that is inherently Holy, cheese is not the only object of fame. For Wisconsin is also known for polka, toilets, tamales, fireworks, and bubblers. The cheese must, then, stand with all of these and not alone.
On the contrary:
The Poet says, “Hi-ho the derry-o, the cheese stands alone.”
I answer that: The cheese stands alone in two ways. Firstly, among dairy products it is the most pungent and therefore the most easily identifiable by smell and taste. It is also the most carefully crafted of all dairy products as well as the most diverse in kind. As what is most important is given the most attention, the cheese is unique among dairy products and stands alone as one.Secondly, cheese by its very nature is holy. Some cheeses have a greater actuality of their holiness, such as Edamer or Swiss. (Note that this is why the Swiss Guards are only allowed into the Vatican after consuming exorbitant amounts of Swiss cheese.) Other cheeses have a lesser actuality, such as Cheddar or Brie. Nevertheless, this holiness is possessed by each cheese essentially regardless of its actuality. As such, cheese is necessarily holy, unlike other foods, and therefore stands alone.
Reply Objection 1: The word ‘alone’ can be used in two different senses; the first existing individually and in solitude, the second existing in a class of its own above all else to which it is compared. The Poet uses ‘alone’ in the latter sense while the objection applies to the former.
Reply Objection 2: There are two types of grouping, metaphysical and effectual. Metaphysical groups mark out something regarding what it is while effectual groups mark out something according to the result it produces. The FDA’s grouping is an effectual one as it means that all those in its group result in a healthy body. However, thee cheese stands alone metaphysically.Moreover, there are two types of tradition, for tradition depends upon authority. A contingent tradition is dependent on a temporal authority, while a universal tradition does not. The FDA is a temporal authority, has a contingent tradition, and therefore can not speak on the metaphysical matters at hand.
Reply Objection 3: The word ‘stand’ can not only be used properly, i.e. by the means of legs, but also analogically, i.e. “I should stand up to him” or “Stand proud”. Regarding the cheese, stand is used analogically and therefore does not require legs or any physical organ of standing.
Reply Objection 4: It is also said, “Behold the power of cheese.” Cheese has a power that strikes fear into the hearts of men. As fear is a gift of the Holy Spirit, cheese has a greater power than milk and stands above it and alone.
Reply Objection 5: Cheese is not native to Wisconsin, nor is it found only in Wisconsin as it is commonly found in France, Italy and the like. As such, it is not associated with Wisconsin per se but per accidens. Hence it is only accidentally associated with bubblers, polka, etc. So it does not stand with them per se but per accidens. Thus, the cheese stands alone per se.
Original: Becket of the Holy Whapping.
Not mentioned by TA: the Poet also says "The Casein Goes Rolling Along."
A Leading Liturgeist Snivels and Spits
Just one paragraph from a letter written by John Page (ex-Twit-in-Charge of ICEL) will tell you all you need to know:
Liturgiam Authenticam is negative, depreciative and condescending. It is closed, introverted and defensive. There is no vision. Nothing uplifting or hopeful. Its scolds and belittles. It doesn't speak to the human longing for God but rather to a staid and airless world that contains solely in itself all the answers [...] The conciliar intent, deeply pastoral in nature, was in favor of the use of the living language in the Church's public worship. A document that only pays lip service to the genius and claims of the receiver language(s) is empty of all credibility. [...] This document creates ex nihilo "liturgical translation, sacred language" and fences them off (to be kept pure and uncontaminated from the reality of the living literate vernacular languages). Only the Holy See would have the hubris to enshrine such an ignorant position.
(Letter to Bp. M. Taylor, May 9, 2002)
Dare we say "divisssssssssive?"
Could the proper adjective be...ahhhh...."mean-spirited"?
Does "nasty name-caller" fit the fellow?
Of course not!!
He's a Liturgeist! That means that he is above reproach.
Gratias a Deo, he's also unemployed now.
HT: CWN
Liturgiam Authenticam is negative, depreciative and condescending. It is closed, introverted and defensive. There is no vision. Nothing uplifting or hopeful. Its scolds and belittles. It doesn't speak to the human longing for God but rather to a staid and airless world that contains solely in itself all the answers [...] The conciliar intent, deeply pastoral in nature, was in favor of the use of the living language in the Church's public worship. A document that only pays lip service to the genius and claims of the receiver language(s) is empty of all credibility. [...] This document creates ex nihilo "liturgical translation, sacred language" and fences them off (to be kept pure and uncontaminated from the reality of the living literate vernacular languages). Only the Holy See would have the hubris to enshrine such an ignorant position.
(Letter to Bp. M. Taylor, May 9, 2002)
Dare we say "divisssssssssive?"
Could the proper adjective be...ahhhh...."mean-spirited"?
Does "nasty name-caller" fit the fellow?
Of course not!!
He's a Liturgeist! That means that he is above reproach.
Gratias a Deo, he's also unemployed now.
HT: CWN
Iran: "IN" in Iraq?
This is a matter of grave concern:
On January 20th, a team of twelve men disguised as U.S. soldiers entered the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala, where U.S. soldiers conducted a meeting with local officials, and attacked and killed five soldiers, and wounded another three. The initial reports indicated the five were killed in the Karbala JCC, however the U.S. military has reported that four of those killed were actually removed from the center, handcuffed, and murdered.
The American Forces Information Service provides the details of the attack in Karbala. Based on the sophisticated nature of the raid, as well as the response, or cryptic non-responses, from multiple military and intelligence sources, this raid appears to have been directed and executed by the Qods Force branch of the Iranian Republican Guard Corps. My sources agreed this is far to sophisticated an operation for the Mahdi Army or Badr Corps, while al-Qaeda in Iraq would have a difficult time mounting such an operation in the Shia south. "The Karbala Government Center raid the other day was a little too professional for JAM [Jaish al-Mahdi, or the Mahdi Army]," according to a military source.
This raid required specific intelligence, in depth training for the agents to pass as American troops, resources to provide for weapons, vehicles, uniforms, identification, radios and other items needed to successfully carry out the mission. Hezbollah's Imad Mugniyah executed a similar attack against Israeli forces on the Lebanese border, which initiated the Hezbollah-Israeli war during the summer of 2006.
HT Malkin.
We noted earlier that the RoE in Iraq have been changed to allow US military to kill or capture Iranians discovered inside Iraq. Roggio notes the same, and speculates that the change in RoE may be a result of this intelligence.
On January 20th, a team of twelve men disguised as U.S. soldiers entered the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala, where U.S. soldiers conducted a meeting with local officials, and attacked and killed five soldiers, and wounded another three. The initial reports indicated the five were killed in the Karbala JCC, however the U.S. military has reported that four of those killed were actually removed from the center, handcuffed, and murdered.
The American Forces Information Service provides the details of the attack in Karbala. Based on the sophisticated nature of the raid, as well as the response, or cryptic non-responses, from multiple military and intelligence sources, this raid appears to have been directed and executed by the Qods Force branch of the Iranian Republican Guard Corps. My sources agreed this is far to sophisticated an operation for the Mahdi Army or Badr Corps, while al-Qaeda in Iraq would have a difficult time mounting such an operation in the Shia south. "The Karbala Government Center raid the other day was a little too professional for JAM [Jaish al-Mahdi, or the Mahdi Army]," according to a military source.
This raid required specific intelligence, in depth training for the agents to pass as American troops, resources to provide for weapons, vehicles, uniforms, identification, radios and other items needed to successfully carry out the mission. Hezbollah's Imad Mugniyah executed a similar attack against Israeli forces on the Lebanese border, which initiated the Hezbollah-Israeli war during the summer of 2006.
HT Malkin.
We noted earlier that the RoE in Iraq have been changed to allow US military to kill or capture Iranians discovered inside Iraq. Roggio notes the same, and speculates that the change in RoE may be a result of this intelligence.
Health Insurance Blithering: "47 Million Uninsured"
The Bush health-insurance proposal has not been on the table for a week, and it's drawn more partisan fire than the War on Terror.
That's an accomplishment!
Some of that partisanship spills into "news" stories and it significantly distorts what should be a reasoned debate.
For example, in Saturday's JSOnline, we see the following:
The administration estimates that the average tax bill for families who now buy their own health insurance will go down by more than $3,650 in 2009, the year the tax break would be enacted. President Bush estimates that 3 million more people would get health insurance as a result.
That is a small percentage of the estimated 47 million people without health insurance, most of them lacking coverage for a year or longer.
That number--"47 million"--is pure horseapples.
The Congressional Budget Office ran the numbers (2003 report) and found that it is a wild exaggeration--not just a 'high-end guess.'
The key to understanding the legerdemain is separating "uninsured for a WHOLE year" from "uninsured at SOME POINT during a year." The numbers change dramatically:
CBO found that there are up to 40 million (non-elderly) people who are uninsured at "some point" during the year, but only 21 to 31 million who are uninsured for a "whole year or more." They also found that up to 59 million are uninsured "at any time" during a year.
Naturally, that 59 million figure is a totaling of the other two categories.
There are a number of other facts which are significant. Among them:
Many children (3 million or so) are eligible for Medicaid, but are not covered because their parent(s) have not applied for the coverage on behalf of the children;
Over 75% of the uninsured state that their health is "good", "very good", or "excellent."
HALF of the "uninsured spells" lasted 4 months or LESS.
People with less education are more likely than higher-educated people to experience long uninsured spells. Some 23 percent of spells among people in families in which no one graduated from high school last more than two years, compared with a figure of only 8 percent among people in families in which at least one person has a bachelor's degree
Obviously, a reflection of "employability."
About 19% of those who were un-covered for a year or more state that they "do not need insurance" (!!) or "don't believe in insurance" (!!!!)
Finally, about 23% of those who are un-covered are Hispanics. The CBO does not break down that category, but it is certain that some proportion of that group are illegals.
Unfortunately, some people are more interested in throwing political bombs than in rational discourse:
"You got to take this proposal for what it is," said Paul Fronstin, a health care economist with Employee Benefit Research Institute, a policy research organization. "It's not about insurance reform and it's not about health care reform. It's about premiums and taxes. And it's about ideology."
The "I-word" is code for irrational. Perhaps a mirror would help Mr. Fronstin.
There's a reason that Wisconsin liberals are not interested in Bush's proposal: it's called "politics."
Bush wants to make other federal health programs more flexible so that they complement, rather than hinder, state reform efforts. For instance, instead of sending billions to hospital emergency rooms and other providers to treat the uninsured after they get sick (the current practice), states could use the funds to help the poor obtain the sort of private coverage available to the rest of us.
In general, moving decision-making closer to the problem (i.e., to the State) is a good thing. It's called 'the principle of subsidiarity,' and is a matter of common sense. But States wish to avoid the responsibility which goes with the authority, because it's much easier to point fingers at "the Feds" than to actually be responsible. State deficits matter, and States have "other priorities."
Ironically, Bush's plan does what most liberals want: it will increase taxes on those who have exceptionally good plans--the OTHER source of State recalcitrance, particularly in States with strong public employee/teachers' union presence.
Briefly, the Bush $15K cap will make many teachers' health-plans partially taxable. This is absolutely anathema to Jim Doyle (among others.)
So how to address this problem while ignoring the obvious? Simple. Go to "the future."
The president proposed creating a standard deduction - $15,000 for families, $7,500 for individuals - for health insurance starting in 2009. If the cost of a health insurance policy exceeded the standard deduction, the amount above the limit would be taxable.
...The deduction would be pegged to the Consumer Price Index, not the rise in health care costs or in health insurance. The difference is significant. Since 2000, the cost of health insurance offered by employers rose an estimated 87%, compared with an 18% increase in the price index, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
This means that more people's health benefits eventually will exceed the deduction - about 40% of health plans in 10 years, by one estimate.
"It doesn't matter how many people we are talking about today," Fronstin said. "The fact is, six, seven years from now, you are talking about a big number."
Fronstin demonstrates how "ideology" really works with his projection. It's no different from the AlGore "Inconvenience:" find a cataclysmic possibility in the future, and flog it.
Let's settle down and start with germane facts; accept responsibility, and design a plan which works. Bush's proposal is an excellent start, if only the Ideologue Left would stop their screeching and spitting long enough to work with it.
That's an accomplishment!
Some of that partisanship spills into "news" stories and it significantly distorts what should be a reasoned debate.
For example, in Saturday's JSOnline, we see the following:
The administration estimates that the average tax bill for families who now buy their own health insurance will go down by more than $3,650 in 2009, the year the tax break would be enacted. President Bush estimates that 3 million more people would get health insurance as a result.
That is a small percentage of the estimated 47 million people without health insurance, most of them lacking coverage for a year or longer.
That number--"47 million"--is pure horseapples.
The Congressional Budget Office ran the numbers (2003 report) and found that it is a wild exaggeration--not just a 'high-end guess.'
The key to understanding the legerdemain is separating "uninsured for a WHOLE year" from "uninsured at SOME POINT during a year." The numbers change dramatically:
CBO found that there are up to 40 million (non-elderly) people who are uninsured at "some point" during the year, but only 21 to 31 million who are uninsured for a "whole year or more." They also found that up to 59 million are uninsured "at any time" during a year.
Naturally, that 59 million figure is a totaling of the other two categories.
There are a number of other facts which are significant. Among them:
Many children (3 million or so) are eligible for Medicaid, but are not covered because their parent(s) have not applied for the coverage on behalf of the children;
Over 75% of the uninsured state that their health is "good", "very good", or "excellent."
HALF of the "uninsured spells" lasted 4 months or LESS.
People with less education are more likely than higher-educated people to experience long uninsured spells. Some 23 percent of spells among people in families in which no one graduated from high school last more than two years, compared with a figure of only 8 percent among people in families in which at least one person has a bachelor's degree
Obviously, a reflection of "employability."
About 19% of those who were un-covered for a year or more state that they "do not need insurance" (!!) or "don't believe in insurance" (!!!!)
Finally, about 23% of those who are un-covered are Hispanics. The CBO does not break down that category, but it is certain that some proportion of that group are illegals.
Unfortunately, some people are more interested in throwing political bombs than in rational discourse:
"You got to take this proposal for what it is," said Paul Fronstin, a health care economist with Employee Benefit Research Institute, a policy research organization. "It's not about insurance reform and it's not about health care reform. It's about premiums and taxes. And it's about ideology."
The "I-word" is code for irrational. Perhaps a mirror would help Mr. Fronstin.
There's a reason that Wisconsin liberals are not interested in Bush's proposal: it's called "politics."
Bush wants to make other federal health programs more flexible so that they complement, rather than hinder, state reform efforts. For instance, instead of sending billions to hospital emergency rooms and other providers to treat the uninsured after they get sick (the current practice), states could use the funds to help the poor obtain the sort of private coverage available to the rest of us.
In general, moving decision-making closer to the problem (i.e., to the State) is a good thing. It's called 'the principle of subsidiarity,' and is a matter of common sense. But States wish to avoid the responsibility which goes with the authority, because it's much easier to point fingers at "the Feds" than to actually be responsible. State deficits matter, and States have "other priorities."
Ironically, Bush's plan does what most liberals want: it will increase taxes on those who have exceptionally good plans--the OTHER source of State recalcitrance, particularly in States with strong public employee/teachers' union presence.
Briefly, the Bush $15K cap will make many teachers' health-plans partially taxable. This is absolutely anathema to Jim Doyle (among others.)
So how to address this problem while ignoring the obvious? Simple. Go to "the future."
The president proposed creating a standard deduction - $15,000 for families, $7,500 for individuals - for health insurance starting in 2009. If the cost of a health insurance policy exceeded the standard deduction, the amount above the limit would be taxable.
...The deduction would be pegged to the Consumer Price Index, not the rise in health care costs or in health insurance. The difference is significant. Since 2000, the cost of health insurance offered by employers rose an estimated 87%, compared with an 18% increase in the price index, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
This means that more people's health benefits eventually will exceed the deduction - about 40% of health plans in 10 years, by one estimate.
"It doesn't matter how many people we are talking about today," Fronstin said. "The fact is, six, seven years from now, you are talking about a big number."
Fronstin demonstrates how "ideology" really works with his projection. It's no different from the AlGore "Inconvenience:" find a cataclysmic possibility in the future, and flog it.
Let's settle down and start with germane facts; accept responsibility, and design a plan which works. Bush's proposal is an excellent start, if only the Ideologue Left would stop their screeching and spitting long enough to work with it.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Cdl. Martini, SJ: Not To Be Followed
Occasionally we've mentioned Cdl. Martini (SJ), now retired from his perch in Milan. We've never been friendly about him, and he just keeps adding to the pile of garbage he puts on the front porch of Catholics:
...the ten pages of doubts, hypotheses, and “gray areas” of cardinal Carlo Maria Martini in dialogue with bioethicist Ignazio Marino published in last week’s edition of “L’espresso” came like the manifesto of an antipope.
The fact that cardinal Martini... cleared the way for the use of the oocyte in the first hours after fertilization, maintaining that here “no sign of an individually distinguishable life yet appears,” was seen as an act of surrender to what John Paul II defined as the modern “culture of death.”
This is very serious stuff.
Martini is a close friend of Milwaukee's immediate-past-Archbishop.
...the ten pages of doubts, hypotheses, and “gray areas” of cardinal Carlo Maria Martini in dialogue with bioethicist Ignazio Marino published in last week’s edition of “L’espresso” came like the manifesto of an antipope.
The fact that cardinal Martini... cleared the way for the use of the oocyte in the first hours after fertilization, maintaining that here “no sign of an individually distinguishable life yet appears,” was seen as an act of surrender to what John Paul II defined as the modern “culture of death.”
This is very serious stuff.
Martini is a close friend of Milwaukee's immediate-past-Archbishop.
Bloomberg, Barrett, and Bullshit
The mayors agin-"illegal" guns are, of course, against all gun-ownership. Their platitudes about hunters are merely the lipstick they paste on the pig.
Jolly Olde England has enacted what the mayors want. How's that working out?
Labour has been accused of losing control of gun crime as new figures show a sharp rise in armed robberies. Guns were used in 4,120 robberies last year - a 10% jump - including a 9% rise to 1,439 in the number of street robberies where guns were used.
There was also a rapid and unexplained increase in the number of times householders were confronted in their own homes by armed criminals. Residential firearms robberies show a 46% leap, a record 645 cases in England and Wales - up 204 on the previous year and four times the level recorded in 2000-01.
Bloomberg, Barrett, (et al) kinda hope you can't read the facts.
HT: Vox Popoli
Jolly Olde England has enacted what the mayors want. How's that working out?
Labour has been accused of losing control of gun crime as new figures show a sharp rise in armed robberies. Guns were used in 4,120 robberies last year - a 10% jump - including a 9% rise to 1,439 in the number of street robberies where guns were used.
There was also a rapid and unexplained increase in the number of times householders were confronted in their own homes by armed criminals. Residential firearms robberies show a 46% leap, a record 645 cases in England and Wales - up 204 on the previous year and four times the level recorded in 2000-01.
Bloomberg, Barrett, (et al) kinda hope you can't read the facts.
HT: Vox Popoli
Less Union Membership
BLS released its annual report on union membership. Summarized by NAM's "Shopfloor," we read:
In the Fifties, unions represented almost 35% of the workforce. By 1983, that number had dipped to 20%. Yesterday's numbers show that union membership has dropped to its lowest point since the government began tracking the numbers -- to an embarrassing 12%. In the private sector, the news is even worse for labor, where they now represent a paltry 7.4% of all workers.
There are lots of reasons for this, and not all of them have to do with "union intransigience" on wage/benefit/rules/conditions. A significant portion has to do with membership dissatisfaction with the movement's internal governance and overtly leftist politics.
With a history that is somewhat rooted in the Guild movement of Europe (before the Protestant Revolution took effect) the union movement's leadership should re-examine their Guild-like roots.
Unless there is reform, the movement may well practically disappear in private industry.
In the Fifties, unions represented almost 35% of the workforce. By 1983, that number had dipped to 20%. Yesterday's numbers show that union membership has dropped to its lowest point since the government began tracking the numbers -- to an embarrassing 12%. In the private sector, the news is even worse for labor, where they now represent a paltry 7.4% of all workers.
There are lots of reasons for this, and not all of them have to do with "union intransigience" on wage/benefit/rules/conditions. A significant portion has to do with membership dissatisfaction with the movement's internal governance and overtly leftist politics.
With a history that is somewhat rooted in the Guild movement of Europe (before the Protestant Revolution took effect) the union movement's leadership should re-examine their Guild-like roots.
Unless there is reform, the movement may well practically disappear in private industry.
Democrat Party Slaps US Workers
The Democrat Party's "new inclusive-ism" does not include US citizen workers.
Senate Democrats quashed a proposal yesterday that would have dramatically increased civil fines on employers who hire illegal aliens.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican, offered the amendment to the bill now being debated that would increase the federal minimum wage.
Ridding the economy of illegal aliens, he argued, would do far more to help low-income wage earners than simply raising the minimum wage. Not only do aliens displace U.S. citizens in the work force, he said, they also artificially suppress wages.
"Our whole purpose of the minimum-wage act is to increase the wages of working Americans, particularly low-skilled workers," Mr. Sessions said. "That's a noble goal."
One of the reasons "that those salaries have lagged behind is because of a large influx of illegal immigrant labor," he said. "That is indisputable, and it's not been discussed much here. People apparently don't want to talk about it, but we're going to talk about it."
One leading opponent of American citizen-workers is Ted Kennedy.
Hyannis, after all, needs gardeners.
Senate Democrats quashed a proposal yesterday that would have dramatically increased civil fines on employers who hire illegal aliens.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican, offered the amendment to the bill now being debated that would increase the federal minimum wage.
Ridding the economy of illegal aliens, he argued, would do far more to help low-income wage earners than simply raising the minimum wage. Not only do aliens displace U.S. citizens in the work force, he said, they also artificially suppress wages.
"Our whole purpose of the minimum-wage act is to increase the wages of working Americans, particularly low-skilled workers," Mr. Sessions said. "That's a noble goal."
One of the reasons "that those salaries have lagged behind is because of a large influx of illegal immigrant labor," he said. "That is indisputable, and it's not been discussed much here. People apparently don't want to talk about it, but we're going to talk about it."
One leading opponent of American citizen-workers is Ted Kennedy.
Hyannis, after all, needs gardeners.
Rules of Engagement Now Read: Kill Iranians in Iraq
Common sense emerges.
The Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran's influence across the Middle East and compel it to give up its nuclear program, according to government and counterterrorism officials with direct knowledge of the effort.
Three officials said that about 150 Iranian intelligence officers, plus members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Command, are believed to be active inside Iraq at any given time. There is no evidence the Iranians have directly attacked U.S. troops in Iraq, intelligence officials said.
But, for three years, the Iranians have operated an embedding program there, offering operational training, intelligence and weaponry to several Shiite militias connected to the Iraqi government, to the insurgency and to the violence against Sunni factions. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the CIA, told the Senate recently that the amount of Iranian-supplied materiel used against U.S. troops in Iraq "has been quite striking."
"Iran seems to be conducting a foreign policy with a sense of dangerous triumphalism," Hayden said.
About time.
The Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran's influence across the Middle East and compel it to give up its nuclear program, according to government and counterterrorism officials with direct knowledge of the effort.
Three officials said that about 150 Iranian intelligence officers, plus members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Command, are believed to be active inside Iraq at any given time. There is no evidence the Iranians have directly attacked U.S. troops in Iraq, intelligence officials said.
But, for three years, the Iranians have operated an embedding program there, offering operational training, intelligence and weaponry to several Shiite militias connected to the Iraqi government, to the insurgency and to the violence against Sunni factions. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the CIA, told the Senate recently that the amount of Iranian-supplied materiel used against U.S. troops in Iraq "has been quite striking."
"Iran seems to be conducting a foreign policy with a sense of dangerous triumphalism," Hayden said.
About time.
China Is Our Friend!! Part 58249
Seems that "journalists" in China have ethics problems:
Chinese reporters are demanding such hush money with increasing regularity from businesses and government agencies in exchange for the withholding of unfavorable news.
In many ways, blackmail journalism grew naturally out of a system in which Communist Party censors control the news rigorously, barring reports that could be seen as unfavorable to the party or contrary to the government's political goals. If the ruling party distorts the news for political reasons, blackmailing reporters have concluded, why wouldn't they do it themselves for financial reasons?
Which means, of course, that there are Things We Don't KNOW that we don't know about PRChina.
We do know about slave labor, to-order body-parts sales, forced abortions, and working conditions which would make Dickens convulse.
But those are not problems. Those are "signs of growing economic prosperity."
Chinese reporters are demanding such hush money with increasing regularity from businesses and government agencies in exchange for the withholding of unfavorable news.
In many ways, blackmail journalism grew naturally out of a system in which Communist Party censors control the news rigorously, barring reports that could be seen as unfavorable to the party or contrary to the government's political goals. If the ruling party distorts the news for political reasons, blackmailing reporters have concluded, why wouldn't they do it themselves for financial reasons?
Which means, of course, that there are Things We Don't KNOW that we don't know about PRChina.
We do know about slave labor, to-order body-parts sales, forced abortions, and working conditions which would make Dickens convulse.
But those are not problems. Those are "signs of growing economic prosperity."
Thursday, January 25, 2007
The KGB vs. Pius XII: "The Deputy"
Most of you know that the play The Deputy has been used (and cited) as ammunition against the Catholic Church. In sum, the play questions the Church's attitudes and actions on behalf of the Jews during the Holocaust.
But you don't know this:
In 1963, General Ivan Agayants, the famous chief of the KGB’s disinformation department, landed in Bucharest to thank us for our help. He told us that “Seat-12” had materialized into a powerful play attacking Pope Pius XII, entitled The Deputy, an oblique reference to the pope as Christ’s representative on earth. Agayants took credit for the outline of the play, and he told us that it had voluminous appendices of background documents put together by his experts with help from the documents we had purloined from the Vatican. Agayants also told us that The Deputy’s producer, Erwin Piscator, was a devoted Communist who had a longstanding relationship with Moscow. In 1929 he had founded the Proletarian Theater in Berlin, then sought political asylum in the Soviet Union when Hitler came to power, and a few years later had “emigrated” to the United States. In 1962 Piscator had returned to West Berlin to produce The Deputy.
...The Deputy saw the light in 1963 as the work of an unknown West German named Rolf Hochhuth, under the title Der Stellvertreter. Ein christliches Trauerspiel (The Deputy, a Christian Tragedy). Its central thesis was that Pius XII had supported Hitler and encouraged him to go ahead with the Jewish Holocaust. It immediately ignited a huge controversy around Pius XII, who was depicted as a cold, heartless man more concerned about Vatican properties than about the fate of Hitler’s victims.
Before writing The Deputy, Hochhuth, who did not have a high school diploma (Abitur), was working in various inconspicuous capacities for the Bertelsmann publishing house. In interviews he claimed that in 1959 he took a leave of absence from his job and went to Rome, where he spent three months talking to people and then writing the first draft of the play, and where he posed “a series of questions” to one bishop whose name he refused to reveal.
Lots more at the link to Open Book. The author of the above is a Romanian intelligence officer, who was acquainted with higher-level KGB bastards.
HT Amy
But you don't know this:
In 1963, General Ivan Agayants, the famous chief of the KGB’s disinformation department, landed in Bucharest to thank us for our help. He told us that “Seat-12” had materialized into a powerful play attacking Pope Pius XII, entitled The Deputy, an oblique reference to the pope as Christ’s representative on earth. Agayants took credit for the outline of the play, and he told us that it had voluminous appendices of background documents put together by his experts with help from the documents we had purloined from the Vatican. Agayants also told us that The Deputy’s producer, Erwin Piscator, was a devoted Communist who had a longstanding relationship with Moscow. In 1929 he had founded the Proletarian Theater in Berlin, then sought political asylum in the Soviet Union when Hitler came to power, and a few years later had “emigrated” to the United States. In 1962 Piscator had returned to West Berlin to produce The Deputy.
...The Deputy saw the light in 1963 as the work of an unknown West German named Rolf Hochhuth, under the title Der Stellvertreter. Ein christliches Trauerspiel (The Deputy, a Christian Tragedy). Its central thesis was that Pius XII had supported Hitler and encouraged him to go ahead with the Jewish Holocaust. It immediately ignited a huge controversy around Pius XII, who was depicted as a cold, heartless man more concerned about Vatican properties than about the fate of Hitler’s victims.
Before writing The Deputy, Hochhuth, who did not have a high school diploma (Abitur), was working in various inconspicuous capacities for the Bertelsmann publishing house. In interviews he claimed that in 1959 he took a leave of absence from his job and went to Rome, where he spent three months talking to people and then writing the first draft of the play, and where he posed “a series of questions” to one bishop whose name he refused to reveal.
Lots more at the link to Open Book. The author of the above is a Romanian intelligence officer, who was acquainted with higher-level KGB bastards.
HT Amy
Ethanol: All You Needed to See
At the behest of my longsuffering better half, I watched GWB capitulate to the Socialist Axis in Congress the other night.
Big Gummint, Big Gummint, Big Gummint, blah, spend, spend, spend, blah, yap.
(puke, puke, puke.)
Iraq was an exception, as was the WOT. It would be very helpful for the President if he would find a nice short rhetorical device by which he could connect those dots, but he's undoubtedly working on it, right?
Then came Big Gummint: Energy!
When he announced that Corn-A-Hole[ing] the Republic was on his agenda, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Corn-A-Hole) almost jumped out of his chair with glee (the camera caught it.)
That was all one needed to see or know about the issue.
But there's another thing one should know:
Net of the tax subsidy, the price of ethanol is $2.04 a gallon, which is 70 cents more than the $1.34 wholesale price of gasoline. And the energy content of ethanol is only two-thirds that of gasoline. (Forbes)
Thanks, George.
Even more here, including the following:
“Right now Congress is giving billions to ethanol, biodiesel, and the nuclear industry,” Doug Koplow of Earth Track consulting firm said in the same Christian Science Monitor article. About $6 billion in 2006 went to subsidize ethanol. (Only nukes make sense.)
Bush’s desire to continue “investing” in ethanol can only mean more mandates and subsidies for the energy source – funded by taxpayers.
“President Bush is proposing a huge expansion of the corporate welfare state,” said Ebell, CEI’s Director of Energy Policy, in a release dated Jan. 23, 2007.
The article also points out that the Middle East only provides about 20% of our imported oil; Mexico and Canada supply the majority of imports.
So GWB simultaneously proposes to reduce the flow of USDollars to Mexico for oil, AND to increase the cost of food for poor Mexicans by increasing demand for corn (and the price, as a result.)
It's too tragic to be comical.
Big Gummint, Big Gummint, Big Gummint, blah, spend, spend, spend, blah, yap.
(puke, puke, puke.)
Iraq was an exception, as was the WOT. It would be very helpful for the President if he would find a nice short rhetorical device by which he could connect those dots, but he's undoubtedly working on it, right?
Then came Big Gummint: Energy!
When he announced that Corn-A-Hole[ing] the Republic was on his agenda, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Corn-A-Hole) almost jumped out of his chair with glee (the camera caught it.)
That was all one needed to see or know about the issue.
But there's another thing one should know:
Net of the tax subsidy, the price of ethanol is $2.04 a gallon, which is 70 cents more than the $1.34 wholesale price of gasoline. And the energy content of ethanol is only two-thirds that of gasoline. (Forbes)
Thanks, George.
Even more here, including the following:
“Right now Congress is giving billions to ethanol, biodiesel, and the nuclear industry,” Doug Koplow of Earth Track consulting firm said in the same Christian Science Monitor article. About $6 billion in 2006 went to subsidize ethanol. (Only nukes make sense.)
Bush’s desire to continue “investing” in ethanol can only mean more mandates and subsidies for the energy source – funded by taxpayers.
“President Bush is proposing a huge expansion of the corporate welfare state,” said Ebell, CEI’s Director of Energy Policy, in a release dated Jan. 23, 2007.
The article also points out that the Middle East only provides about 20% of our imported oil; Mexico and Canada supply the majority of imports.
So GWB simultaneously proposes to reduce the flow of USDollars to Mexico for oil, AND to increase the cost of food for poor Mexicans by increasing demand for corn (and the price, as a result.)
It's too tragic to be comical.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Naming Names and Kicking Ass
This Deacon here--is HE the "bad guy"?
A deacon upbraided Rep. Brian Higgins during Sunday morning Mass in St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church for voting in favor of embryonic stem cell research, prompting the congressman and his family to walk out during the sermon.
The Rev. Art Smith, pastor of the South Buffalo church, said he felt "horrible" about the Higgins family's departure on "Respect Life Sunday" and offered an apology from the pulpit after the congressman had left.
Bishop Edward U. Kmiec of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo later issued a statement also criticizing Deacon Tom McDonnell's action.
"I can't tell you how terrible I felt," Smith said Tuesday. "While we have to always uphold the church's teachings regarding life, I don't think it's ever fair to publicly criticize someone who serves our community and our parish so well."
Added Kmiec: "The pulpit is not the appropriate place for confronting a member of the congregation. It is my belief that in situations like this, we are more effective when we have substantive, one-on-one conversations with individuals outside the context of the Mass."
The Congressman in question is rated "100%" by NARAL and has voted against life at every opportunity.
And if Bp. Kmiec had said "Look, I've spoken with the Congressman and he's committed to his evil ways--but the Deacon shouldn't have named names..." we'd feel better.
But that's not what the Bishop said, is it? In fact, the Bishop doesn't say ANYTHING about whether he's addressed the issues with the Congressman, does he?
Hmmmm.
"What happened is so painful, so hurtful," Smith said. ".
Fr. Smith is the pastor of the parish.
It hurts so bad! Pain. Owwwww!
Tell me, Father: does it hurt as bad as getting your brains sucked out before you get chopped up so it's easier to get you out of the womb?
Hmmmmmm?
HT: ProEcclesia
A deacon upbraided Rep. Brian Higgins during Sunday morning Mass in St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church for voting in favor of embryonic stem cell research, prompting the congressman and his family to walk out during the sermon.
The Rev. Art Smith, pastor of the South Buffalo church, said he felt "horrible" about the Higgins family's departure on "Respect Life Sunday" and offered an apology from the pulpit after the congressman had left.
Bishop Edward U. Kmiec of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo later issued a statement also criticizing Deacon Tom McDonnell's action.
"I can't tell you how terrible I felt," Smith said Tuesday. "While we have to always uphold the church's teachings regarding life, I don't think it's ever fair to publicly criticize someone who serves our community and our parish so well."
Added Kmiec: "The pulpit is not the appropriate place for confronting a member of the congregation. It is my belief that in situations like this, we are more effective when we have substantive, one-on-one conversations with individuals outside the context of the Mass."
The Congressman in question is rated "100%" by NARAL and has voted against life at every opportunity.
And if Bp. Kmiec had said "Look, I've spoken with the Congressman and he's committed to his evil ways--but the Deacon shouldn't have named names..." we'd feel better.
But that's not what the Bishop said, is it? In fact, the Bishop doesn't say ANYTHING about whether he's addressed the issues with the Congressman, does he?
Hmmmm.
"What happened is so painful, so hurtful," Smith said. ".
Fr. Smith is the pastor of the parish.
It hurts so bad! Pain. Owwwww!
Tell me, Father: does it hurt as bad as getting your brains sucked out before you get chopped up so it's easier to get you out of the womb?
Hmmmmmm?
HT: ProEcclesia
101 Dumbest Business Moments of 2006
HT Big Picture blogsite, this from CNN Money.
Among others: McDonald's gives away MP3 players complete with viruses which upload to PC's; NWA offers discount-fares in a "Hunt for Hoffa" promo; Starbucks sends (printable) coupons by email--which get replicated nationally, at great cost and with a lawsuit, to boot...
You get the idea.
Among others: McDonald's gives away MP3 players complete with viruses which upload to PC's; NWA offers discount-fares in a "Hunt for Hoffa" promo; Starbucks sends (printable) coupons by email--which get replicated nationally, at great cost and with a lawsuit, to boot...
You get the idea.
The Smoke Tax and Ban: Complementary!
DarthDoyle is a man of contradictions. He agrees that killing babies by abortion or ESCR is a "good" thing.
On the other hand, smokers (who have escaped the womb untouched by DarthDoyle's pals) should not be smoking. It might kill them.
It has been observed that smokers will "find the money" to feed their habit despite the marginal increase in cost, which is likely for most of them. Even if they cut back on smoking, the difference will be small.
So a question: where will the money come from?
Not rent. Not heat. Not food.
It will come from other entertainment: restaurants, vacations, toys.
NOW you know why Darth also proposed banning smoking everyplace in the State. It won't make any difference. Smokers will not be spending money in restaurants and bars after they pay the Darth tax on cigarettes.
And you thought Darth was just a PIG-tax-grabber/liar.
On the other hand, smokers (who have escaped the womb untouched by DarthDoyle's pals) should not be smoking. It might kill them.
It has been observed that smokers will "find the money" to feed their habit despite the marginal increase in cost, which is likely for most of them. Even if they cut back on smoking, the difference will be small.
So a question: where will the money come from?
Not rent. Not heat. Not food.
It will come from other entertainment: restaurants, vacations, toys.
NOW you know why Darth also proposed banning smoking everyplace in the State. It won't make any difference. Smokers will not be spending money in restaurants and bars after they pay the Darth tax on cigarettes.
And you thought Darth was just a PIG-tax-grabber/liar.
2nd Amendment to be Erased in Maryland?
Some dipwad frosh Maryland legislator wants to eliminate "assault weapons."
Although the name is masculine, the instinct is feminine, and the daffynitions in the proposal are astounding.
According to Senate Bill 43, introduced last Wednesday by freshmanSenator Mike Lenett, an "assault weapon" is simply a semi-automatic firearm (not a fully automatic machine gun) that has some scary-looking cosmetic features such as a folding stock; a bayonet mounting lug; a thumbhole stock; etc. It is not caliber, ballistics or function that defines an"assault long gun" but simply appearance. If passed, the legislation would also ban some shotguns and nearly all pistols, except possibly revolvers.
People like Lenett are not doing responsible legislators any favors at all.
HT: Of Arms and the Man
Although the name is masculine, the instinct is feminine, and the daffynitions in the proposal are astounding.
According to Senate Bill 43, introduced last Wednesday by freshmanSenator Mike Lenett, an "assault weapon" is simply a semi-automatic firearm (not a fully automatic machine gun) that has some scary-looking cosmetic features such as a folding stock; a bayonet mounting lug; a thumbhole stock; etc. It is not caliber, ballistics or function that defines an"assault long gun" but simply appearance. If passed, the legislation would also ban some shotguns and nearly all pistols, except possibly revolvers.
People like Lenett are not doing responsible legislators any favors at all.
HT: Of Arms and the Man
Reduce Man-Caused Global Warming Contributions!
There. The moonbats should like that headline, no?
Trouble is, they won't like the content of the post.
James Lovelock differs from most global warming fanatics in that he actually believes in it. You can tell, because he advocates heavy reliance on nuclear energy. As Lorrie Goldstein observes:
[A]ny politician who says he or she is concerned about global warming, who is not advocating for nuclear power, does not really believe our world faces an imminent threat, no matter what they say publicly.
The reason is that if burning fossil fuels really has "brought us to the brink of cataclysmic climate change that threatens humanity," nuclear power is "the only energy source that can stave off disaster without plunging us into a new Dark Age."
Yet you don't hear much about nuclear power from Al Gore et al., because the envirokooks who set the agenda don't approve of it. It's not that they're against human activity that causes global warming. They're against human activity, so they pretend it causes global warming. Plunging us into a new Dark Age is very much a part of the agenda, for those who aren't ambitious enough to want to wipe out the human race altogether.
By the time this antihuman ideology filters down to the average citizen, it takes the form of puttering around in a Prius to save polar bears from falling through the ice, as if anyone intelligent enough to operate a motor vehicle could genuinely believe driving hybrids will affect global temperatures.
Lovelock doesn't. As a co-creator of the "Gaia theory" — which views Earth as a single living organism — his moonbat credentials would seem to be impeccable. The problem is that he isn't using global warming as an excuse to raise taxes, hustle a research grant, or advance some other agenda. He truly believes, so he found the only feasible solution. It's been right under our noses for decades: nukes.
Reality: there will be battery developments which will reduce utilization of petroleum for commuting.
But batteries require charging, with actual electricity, delivered at 120v and usually fairly high amperage (compared to a lightbulb, anyway.)
Nukes provide 120v, high amperage, and zero--repeat, zero--fossil-fuel emissions.
HT: Moonbattery
Trouble is, they won't like the content of the post.
James Lovelock differs from most global warming fanatics in that he actually believes in it. You can tell, because he advocates heavy reliance on nuclear energy. As Lorrie Goldstein observes:
[A]ny politician who says he or she is concerned about global warming, who is not advocating for nuclear power, does not really believe our world faces an imminent threat, no matter what they say publicly.
The reason is that if burning fossil fuels really has "brought us to the brink of cataclysmic climate change that threatens humanity," nuclear power is "the only energy source that can stave off disaster without plunging us into a new Dark Age."
Yet you don't hear much about nuclear power from Al Gore et al., because the envirokooks who set the agenda don't approve of it. It's not that they're against human activity that causes global warming. They're against human activity, so they pretend it causes global warming. Plunging us into a new Dark Age is very much a part of the agenda, for those who aren't ambitious enough to want to wipe out the human race altogether.
By the time this antihuman ideology filters down to the average citizen, it takes the form of puttering around in a Prius to save polar bears from falling through the ice, as if anyone intelligent enough to operate a motor vehicle could genuinely believe driving hybrids will affect global temperatures.
Lovelock doesn't. As a co-creator of the "Gaia theory" — which views Earth as a single living organism — his moonbat credentials would seem to be impeccable. The problem is that he isn't using global warming as an excuse to raise taxes, hustle a research grant, or advance some other agenda. He truly believes, so he found the only feasible solution. It's been right under our noses for decades: nukes.
Reality: there will be battery developments which will reduce utilization of petroleum for commuting.
But batteries require charging, with actual electricity, delivered at 120v and usually fairly high amperage (compared to a lightbulb, anyway.)
Nukes provide 120v, high amperage, and zero--repeat, zero--fossil-fuel emissions.
HT: Moonbattery
Free Speech? Rug-Merchant Doesn't Like It.
Jessica points out that Euphoric Reality has a comprehensive rundown on the rug-merchant controversy.
Only problem: when you get to ER, they advise that their site was hacked, and a good chunk of their posts/responses were deleted.
So you have to go here to get more.
Meantime, American Spectator blog says that "the employee was fired." I don't recall that fact emerging from the JS report--only that the employee "was disciplined." The second link above repeats the claim of "firing."
That's not what the Company President told the JSOnline.
From what's written on ER, it seems as though the Company is a small-time distributor of goods, linked to a number of other minor-interest small-time businesses dealing with fitness and athletics--not to mention yoga.
The claim that the Company employs 10 people is highly questionable.
But then, so is the whining about "free speech," no?
Only problem: when you get to ER, they advise that their site was hacked, and a good chunk of their posts/responses were deleted.
So you have to go here to get more.
Meantime, American Spectator blog says that "the employee was fired." I don't recall that fact emerging from the JS report--only that the employee "was disciplined." The second link above repeats the claim of "firing."
That's not what the Company President told the JSOnline.
From what's written on ER, it seems as though the Company is a small-time distributor of goods, linked to a number of other minor-interest small-time businesses dealing with fitness and athletics--not to mention yoga.
The claim that the Company employs 10 people is highly questionable.
But then, so is the whining about "free speech," no?
Bachelor Party Done Right
An acquaintance of mine will be assuming the "'til death do us part" position later this year.
I got the early word on a planned Bachelor Party.
It begins at Fletcher's Arms in Waukesha. The plan is to engage a dozen or so men in the sport of target-shooting, using a variety of long- and handguns. It's estimated that the group will go through 500 rounds or so in a couple of hours, despite numerous breaks for doughnuts, coffee, and highly-taxed legal substances (tobacco.)
Next, the party goes.....
But who cares? The best part is described above.
I got the early word on a planned Bachelor Party.
It begins at Fletcher's Arms in Waukesha. The plan is to engage a dozen or so men in the sport of target-shooting, using a variety of long- and handguns. It's estimated that the group will go through 500 rounds or so in a couple of hours, despite numerous breaks for doughnuts, coffee, and highly-taxed legal substances (tobacco.)
Next, the party goes.....
But who cares? The best part is described above.
Elmbrook Board Goes for Broke
After playing the "pricing" game, the Elmbrook Board of Education will ask taxpayers to remit an average of $315.00/year increase in taxes for the next 20 years, by spending $100 million or so on renovating Elmbrook's two high schools.
The original proposal was $99.8 million, but Board member Schwei (obviously a clever fellow) asked the Board to knock $500,000 off the request so that the request would appear to be "$99 million" rather than "$100 million."
The thinking taxpayer may wish to know which "vital, critical, and necessary" part of the plan will be dumped along with the $500K.
The taxpayer might also ask whether there are any OTHER $500,000 portions of the plan which are not necessary--you know, to make the price sound even better.
The somewhat clumsy baiting of the hook has another effect: the Board will place another $9.5 million question on the ballot for increasing the space in both high-school gymnasiums.
So it's really a $109,300,000.00 expenditure, of which $500,000.00 is apparently unnecessary, and $9,500,000.00 for an addition to the addition (which doesn't really have to be integrated with the larger project, eh?)
Of course, that $315.00/year x 20 years assumes that the Elmbrook schools will not increase spending on other stuff--like faculty.
Uh-huh.
The original proposal was $99.8 million, but Board member Schwei (obviously a clever fellow) asked the Board to knock $500,000 off the request so that the request would appear to be "$99 million" rather than "$100 million."
The thinking taxpayer may wish to know which "vital, critical, and necessary" part of the plan will be dumped along with the $500K.
The taxpayer might also ask whether there are any OTHER $500,000 portions of the plan which are not necessary--you know, to make the price sound even better.
The somewhat clumsy baiting of the hook has another effect: the Board will place another $9.5 million question on the ballot for increasing the space in both high-school gymnasiums.
So it's really a $109,300,000.00 expenditure, of which $500,000.00 is apparently unnecessary, and $9,500,000.00 for an addition to the addition (which doesn't really have to be integrated with the larger project, eh?)
Of course, that $315.00/year x 20 years assumes that the Elmbrook schools will not increase spending on other stuff--like faculty.
Uh-huh.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Thoughts on Liturgy
From Germany, translated in England, to all 3 of our faithful readers. (Full text found at The New Liturgical Movement)
The author, a fellow named Martin Mosebach, proposes Six Theses regarding the Liturgical Revolution of 1969/70--ffd. Not a bad synthesis/reduction of the events, and accurate.
Paul VI’s reform of the Mass following the Second Vatican Council represents a unique event in
the history of the Church. Never before had the Church forbidden an old rite, never before had
she, as Cardinal Ratzinger has stated, put a “fabricated rite” in the place of a traditional one.
The defining rite of the Western Church prior to 1968 is in no measure “Tridentine”, i.e. the
creation of the Council Of Trent, as many would erroneously have it, but can, in its essentials,
be traced back to Gregory the Great.
...According to the oldest theological sources, which survive unbroken in Orthodoxy, it was
not the Last Supper of Maundy Thursday, but primarily the sacrifice on the Cross which was
present in the Mass.
When, shortly before its demise, the ideology of secularisation had penetrated the Church in
various guises, and concepts such as sin, guilt, sacrifice and salvation had come to resemble the
barbaric-atavistic residue of a religion which caused only embarrassment in sophisticated society, the traditional Sacrament was reinterpreted as being a peace-bringing commemorative breaking of bread by the congregation. There has been an irresolvable contradiction in the Church ever since: Papal doctrine incessantly promulgates the traditional view of the Eucharistic Sacrament, whilst common practice, which always carries more weight than teachings, has more or less departed from the centuries-old position and created an entirely new mentality among the faithful.
It's not a co-incidence that tunes such as "Peace Is Flowing..." and "Let There Be Peace..." were de rigeur through the 1970's. In fact, it's quite logical--a post-facto affirmation of this thesis.
The post-Conciliar liturgical reform cannot make the claim to be based on the Liturgical Constitution of the Second Vatican Council.
...John XXIII revised the missal in keeping with these ideas and, in 1965, issued a missal which
reflected the will of the Council Fathers. The deviations were minimal: there had been no interference with the actual ritual act at all.
...The most important elements of today’s Mass practice, as in the celebration of the Mass facing the congregation and not with priest and congregation uniformly facing East and the dispensing of Communion in the hand and not in the mouth, are not even integral parts of the Mass reform of Paul VI. They were wrested from Rome in disobedience to the instructions of the missal. The paradoxal result is the fact that a mass celebrated according to the old missal is considerably closer to the wishes of the Council Fathers than a mass of the ‘Novus Ordo’, even on the rare occasions when the celebration is dignified and in keeping with the instructions of the missal.
The 'disobedience' was encouraged and furthered by the LitWonkTutu crowd here in the USA, but also in Europe. That crowd still exists, personified by Bp. Traut-person, for whom history stopped in about 1975 or so...
The post-Conciliar liturgical reform is the first reform in Church history which did not aim to
re-establish form, but instead sought its dissolution, abrogation and relativisation. Today, every
form of liturgical order is de facto at the individual’s discretion. Confession has been largely
abolished. Obligatory fasting has been reduced to two days in the year, eucharistic fasting is
simply no longer required. Liturgical music and liturgical art are no longer subject to order.
The criterion for any form of liturgy today is solely what is “acceptable” and “accessible”. The
list of liturgical rules of conduct which the modern churchgoer no longer “accepts” is a long one.
Kneeling is completely out of the question; ritual language is not accessible; Mass times must be
convenient; passages from the Scripture which are somehow unsettling or harsh are done away
with. When churchgoers claim that the liturgy is “not relevant to them”, that they “don’t feel
involved in the liturgy”, that the liturgy “doesn’t speak to them”, the reaction of theologians
is always retreat; the parish priest who takes on the liturgy committee of his parish council can
expect no protection from his bishop, only the charge of not being accommodating enough, of
not being duly subservient. The reform of the liturgy has absolutely nothing in common with
religious reform in the old sense of the word. It resembles the hectic special-offer and closing down-sale mentality of a department store desperate to attract customers.
A most egregious example was the declaration that those who knelt for Communion were "in sin," propagated by a West Coast Bishop and his lackey parochial-vicar. It's possible that the Bishop was actually the lackey of the parochial vicar, of course.
Paul VI’s reform of the Mass places the emphasis not on the adoration of God, but on the
placation, chatechising, manipulation, and even entertainment of the congregation. The priest
stands facing the congregation, like the presenter of a television programme; when he says
prayers, the actual addressee, even if he appears to address God, is the congregation, in whom
he wishes to kindle religious feelings and to spiritually guide. Just as good educationalists strive
to have their pupils involved in the lessons, the congregation is incorporated into the sacred
actions as if their interest would otherwise wane.
Shades of Malcolm Muggeridge gone bad...
The motives given for the reform of the Mass are pastoral ones. The claim is made that the
exodus of the faithful from the Church was to be prevented. “Pastoral” in this sense, constantly
gauging the reaction of the congregation during prayers, the old Mass certainly was not. The
old rite was often celebrated even without the presence of the faithful, ‘in conspectu angelorum’.
Despite this fact, although not ‘performed’ for the congregation but rather attended by the
faithful who gave thanks for the grace of being present, the old Mass preserved the Faith in a
manner unsurpassed today. Whoever attended Mass knew that he was witness to the presence
of Christ. The way Mass is conducted today no longer guarantees this handing-down of the
Faith. Entire generations of young people have since come of age who no longer know what
a sacrament is, who no longer know the Credo and the Pater Noster off by heart. This, however,
is the result of a pastorally oriented reform of the Mass, a pastorally oriented reform of
the Mass which has emptied the churches.
I'll disagree in part with his cause/effect thinking here. It is not 'the reform' which has emptied churches in the West--although one can argue that 'the reform' contributed to this problem. The demise of religious practice springs from the culture of consumerism. All our percieved needs are satisfied; if we are living in Heaven, who needs salvation?
Nonetheless.
The justifications for the reform of the Mass are contradictory. Too many birds were to be
killed with one stone. ‘Modernisation’ was to take place, but with the intention of adhering to
Early-Christian practices. Pius XII had already seen the threat posed by ‘archeologism’, the
temptation to force the results of ‘scientific’ research upon the ‘lex orandi’, the law of prayer.
The results of scientific research have a habit of becoming obsolete within a few generations;
today’s state-of-the-art insight is old hat twenty years later. Academics claimed to have proof
that the Early Christians celebrated the Eucharist at a table, with the priest facing and looking
at the congregation. Exhaustive study by Klaus Gamber has now confirmed that the Church has,
from earliest recorded times onwards, worshiped the resurrected Christ by facing East towards
the rising sun. Since Gamber’s research, what was once celebrated as scientific certainty is now
suspected of being ideology.
True, in the first centuries Communion was dispensed onto the hand, but the accompanying signs of reverence far surpassed the kneeling receipt of the Sacrament which later became customary: the communicant removed his shoes and laid a cloth over his hands in order not to come in contact with the transubstantiated Christ,
C'mon, be honest: did your local Liturgeist with a Master's Degree tell you about the part in red above? Naaaaah.
The Offertory prayers of the old Rite were among its most beautiful parts. In the attempt to suppress the sacrificial character of the Mass, these prayers, an important link to the Byzantine Liturgy, had do disappear. With its philosophical-juristic exactness, the same obsolete scholasticism was then just the right thing to prove how the Offertory prayers unduly pre-empted the result of the Consecration. They were replaced by a medieval Jewish prayer-before-meals which underlined the supper character of the Mass and simply no longer mentioned the sacrifice.
There are two VERY important concepts in the snippet above. First, the 'link to the Byzantine Liturgy;' second, the re-linking to Jewish meal-prayers. The first has had the consequence of stalling (to some degree) the East-West re-unification. The second, besides re-inforcing the "meal theory," tends to blur the delineation between the Old Covenant (now inoperative for Christians) and the New Covenant; which blurring has confused some popular Catholic blogsters.
The reform of the Mass has engendered in Catholics a deeply anti-religious self-mindedness.
The Christian ritual is now no longer a gift of grace to be received in kneeling reverence, but
a commodity examined with ill-disposed caution, spurned more often than not. The hitherto
hermetically sealed mysteries of the Mass had to accommodate the muddle of opinions. What
was previously revered as a semblance of the celestial is now recognised as being constructed and arranged, and what has been arranged can also be rearranged. Then there is simply no end to the rearranging.
Benedict XVI has mentioned this--in fact, he's pounded on the theme.
Unimaginable in the atmosphere of the new mass is a prayer which actually stems from the Greek Orthodox Liturgy but which consummately expresses the spirit of the old Latin Liturgy: “Count us worthy to partake of your heavenly and fearful Mysteries at this sacred and spiritual Table with a pure conscience, for forgiveness of sins and pardon of offences, for communion of the Holy Spirit, for inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven and for boldness before you; not for judgment or condemnation.”
As we embark on the reform of the reform, these theses are worth recalling.
The author, a fellow named Martin Mosebach, proposes Six Theses regarding the Liturgical Revolution of 1969/70--ffd. Not a bad synthesis/reduction of the events, and accurate.
Paul VI’s reform of the Mass following the Second Vatican Council represents a unique event in
the history of the Church. Never before had the Church forbidden an old rite, never before had
she, as Cardinal Ratzinger has stated, put a “fabricated rite” in the place of a traditional one.
The defining rite of the Western Church prior to 1968 is in no measure “Tridentine”, i.e. the
creation of the Council Of Trent, as many would erroneously have it, but can, in its essentials,
be traced back to Gregory the Great.
...According to the oldest theological sources, which survive unbroken in Orthodoxy, it was
not the Last Supper of Maundy Thursday, but primarily the sacrifice on the Cross which was
present in the Mass.
When, shortly before its demise, the ideology of secularisation had penetrated the Church in
various guises, and concepts such as sin, guilt, sacrifice and salvation had come to resemble the
barbaric-atavistic residue of a religion which caused only embarrassment in sophisticated society, the traditional Sacrament was reinterpreted as being a peace-bringing commemorative breaking of bread by the congregation. There has been an irresolvable contradiction in the Church ever since: Papal doctrine incessantly promulgates the traditional view of the Eucharistic Sacrament, whilst common practice, which always carries more weight than teachings, has more or less departed from the centuries-old position and created an entirely new mentality among the faithful.
It's not a co-incidence that tunes such as "Peace Is Flowing..." and "Let There Be Peace..." were de rigeur through the 1970's. In fact, it's quite logical--a post-facto affirmation of this thesis.
The post-Conciliar liturgical reform cannot make the claim to be based on the Liturgical Constitution of the Second Vatican Council.
...John XXIII revised the missal in keeping with these ideas and, in 1965, issued a missal which
reflected the will of the Council Fathers. The deviations were minimal: there had been no interference with the actual ritual act at all.
...The most important elements of today’s Mass practice, as in the celebration of the Mass facing the congregation and not with priest and congregation uniformly facing East and the dispensing of Communion in the hand and not in the mouth, are not even integral parts of the Mass reform of Paul VI. They were wrested from Rome in disobedience to the instructions of the missal. The paradoxal result is the fact that a mass celebrated according to the old missal is considerably closer to the wishes of the Council Fathers than a mass of the ‘Novus Ordo’, even on the rare occasions when the celebration is dignified and in keeping with the instructions of the missal.
The 'disobedience' was encouraged and furthered by the LitWonkTutu crowd here in the USA, but also in Europe. That crowd still exists, personified by Bp. Traut-person, for whom history stopped in about 1975 or so...
The post-Conciliar liturgical reform is the first reform in Church history which did not aim to
re-establish form, but instead sought its dissolution, abrogation and relativisation. Today, every
form of liturgical order is de facto at the individual’s discretion. Confession has been largely
abolished. Obligatory fasting has been reduced to two days in the year, eucharistic fasting is
simply no longer required. Liturgical music and liturgical art are no longer subject to order.
The criterion for any form of liturgy today is solely what is “acceptable” and “accessible”. The
list of liturgical rules of conduct which the modern churchgoer no longer “accepts” is a long one.
Kneeling is completely out of the question; ritual language is not accessible; Mass times must be
convenient; passages from the Scripture which are somehow unsettling or harsh are done away
with. When churchgoers claim that the liturgy is “not relevant to them”, that they “don’t feel
involved in the liturgy”, that the liturgy “doesn’t speak to them”, the reaction of theologians
is always retreat; the parish priest who takes on the liturgy committee of his parish council can
expect no protection from his bishop, only the charge of not being accommodating enough, of
not being duly subservient. The reform of the liturgy has absolutely nothing in common with
religious reform in the old sense of the word. It resembles the hectic special-offer and closing down-sale mentality of a department store desperate to attract customers.
A most egregious example was the declaration that those who knelt for Communion were "in sin," propagated by a West Coast Bishop and his lackey parochial-vicar. It's possible that the Bishop was actually the lackey of the parochial vicar, of course.
Paul VI’s reform of the Mass places the emphasis not on the adoration of God, but on the
placation, chatechising, manipulation, and even entertainment of the congregation. The priest
stands facing the congregation, like the presenter of a television programme; when he says
prayers, the actual addressee, even if he appears to address God, is the congregation, in whom
he wishes to kindle religious feelings and to spiritually guide. Just as good educationalists strive
to have their pupils involved in the lessons, the congregation is incorporated into the sacred
actions as if their interest would otherwise wane.
Shades of Malcolm Muggeridge gone bad...
The motives given for the reform of the Mass are pastoral ones. The claim is made that the
exodus of the faithful from the Church was to be prevented. “Pastoral” in this sense, constantly
gauging the reaction of the congregation during prayers, the old Mass certainly was not. The
old rite was often celebrated even without the presence of the faithful, ‘in conspectu angelorum’.
Despite this fact, although not ‘performed’ for the congregation but rather attended by the
faithful who gave thanks for the grace of being present, the old Mass preserved the Faith in a
manner unsurpassed today. Whoever attended Mass knew that he was witness to the presence
of Christ. The way Mass is conducted today no longer guarantees this handing-down of the
Faith. Entire generations of young people have since come of age who no longer know what
a sacrament is, who no longer know the Credo and the Pater Noster off by heart. This, however,
is the result of a pastorally oriented reform of the Mass, a pastorally oriented reform of
the Mass which has emptied the churches.
I'll disagree in part with his cause/effect thinking here. It is not 'the reform' which has emptied churches in the West--although one can argue that 'the reform' contributed to this problem. The demise of religious practice springs from the culture of consumerism. All our percieved needs are satisfied; if we are living in Heaven, who needs salvation?
Nonetheless.
The justifications for the reform of the Mass are contradictory. Too many birds were to be
killed with one stone. ‘Modernisation’ was to take place, but with the intention of adhering to
Early-Christian practices. Pius XII had already seen the threat posed by ‘archeologism’, the
temptation to force the results of ‘scientific’ research upon the ‘lex orandi’, the law of prayer.
The results of scientific research have a habit of becoming obsolete within a few generations;
today’s state-of-the-art insight is old hat twenty years later. Academics claimed to have proof
that the Early Christians celebrated the Eucharist at a table, with the priest facing and looking
at the congregation. Exhaustive study by Klaus Gamber has now confirmed that the Church has,
from earliest recorded times onwards, worshiped the resurrected Christ by facing East towards
the rising sun. Since Gamber’s research, what was once celebrated as scientific certainty is now
suspected of being ideology.
True, in the first centuries Communion was dispensed onto the hand, but the accompanying signs of reverence far surpassed the kneeling receipt of the Sacrament which later became customary: the communicant removed his shoes and laid a cloth over his hands in order not to come in contact with the transubstantiated Christ,
C'mon, be honest: did your local Liturgeist with a Master's Degree tell you about the part in red above? Naaaaah.
The Offertory prayers of the old Rite were among its most beautiful parts. In the attempt to suppress the sacrificial character of the Mass, these prayers, an important link to the Byzantine Liturgy, had do disappear. With its philosophical-juristic exactness, the same obsolete scholasticism was then just the right thing to prove how the Offertory prayers unduly pre-empted the result of the Consecration. They were replaced by a medieval Jewish prayer-before-meals which underlined the supper character of the Mass and simply no longer mentioned the sacrifice.
There are two VERY important concepts in the snippet above. First, the 'link to the Byzantine Liturgy;' second, the re-linking to Jewish meal-prayers. The first has had the consequence of stalling (to some degree) the East-West re-unification. The second, besides re-inforcing the "meal theory," tends to blur the delineation between the Old Covenant (now inoperative for Christians) and the New Covenant; which blurring has confused some popular Catholic blogsters.
The reform of the Mass has engendered in Catholics a deeply anti-religious self-mindedness.
The Christian ritual is now no longer a gift of grace to be received in kneeling reverence, but
a commodity examined with ill-disposed caution, spurned more often than not. The hitherto
hermetically sealed mysteries of the Mass had to accommodate the muddle of opinions. What
was previously revered as a semblance of the celestial is now recognised as being constructed and arranged, and what has been arranged can also be rearranged. Then there is simply no end to the rearranging.
Benedict XVI has mentioned this--in fact, he's pounded on the theme.
Unimaginable in the atmosphere of the new mass is a prayer which actually stems from the Greek Orthodox Liturgy but which consummately expresses the spirit of the old Latin Liturgy: “Count us worthy to partake of your heavenly and fearful Mysteries at this sacred and spiritual Table with a pure conscience, for forgiveness of sins and pardon of offences, for communion of the Holy Spirit, for inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven and for boldness before you; not for judgment or condemnation.”
As we embark on the reform of the reform, these theses are worth recalling.
A Hard Look at BLS "Inflation" Numbers
Manipulation is the name of the game, but it is NOT a one-party trick. Clinton used it; so does GWB. And one of the worst is the Fed, whose former chair, Greenspan, was a master.
Start with the inherent bias built into the BLS models, and their tendency to understate inflation. Next, add a sprinkle of substitutions, quality improvements, and hedonic adjustments, all of which rationalize price increases as somehow non-inflationary.
Then, we have the Fed's focus on core inflation, which tends to ignore the non core items like Food and Energy (besides, who really needs Food and Energy anyway?). A variation on Core Inflation is Wall Street's love affair with Inflation -ex-inflation, which is a basket of only those goods and services that have not gone up in price.
Finally, the latet inflation innovation is a new concept I call Uni-directional Inflation, which states that when certain items (e.g., Oil, Corn, Copper) go up in price, it is not inflationary -- but when those same items drop in price, its proof positive that inflation has been vanquished.
The BushBots will get into examining these, ah, statistics when The Hildebeeste assumes power.
On "Substitution":
When someone buys Chicken instead of Steak because meat has gone up in price, that's evidence of inflation. The substitution process fraudulently rationalizes this to eliminate inflation from the BLS basket. Indeed, substitution is PROOF of inflation. When a product's price rises out of a consumers ability to afford purchasing it, its prima facie evidence of inflation. Only the starry eyed residents of ivory towers can say with a straight face that cheaper substitutes are non-inflationary.
On "Hedonics" (flogged by Greenspan):
Hedonics asks the question: "How much of product's price increase is a function of "inflation," and how much is a quality improvement?" Thus, the entire late 1990s concept of Hedonics is premised upon a flawed assumption: that Quality is static.
In reality, all products incrementally improve over time. Indeed, it is the very nature of all technology -- from fire to the wheel to the iPod -- that they become better/faster/cheaper/feature-laden over time.
Hedonics are the bastard stepchild of flawed assumptions and abstract theory. To call it dishonest serves only to slander liars. Consider:
"Hedonics opens the door to producing magical results: a lower inflation rate with generally rising prices, a higher growth rate although the economy may be weaker, and a higher productivity number, although productivity would have been declining without the hedonic imputations." --The Illusions of Hedonics
But hey! Keep thinking that the rate is only about 2.5 or 3.0%.
Just don't eat a lot of steak, buy gasoline, or notice the price of copper (or gold).
HT: The Big Picture
Start with the inherent bias built into the BLS models, and their tendency to understate inflation. Next, add a sprinkle of substitutions, quality improvements, and hedonic adjustments, all of which rationalize price increases as somehow non-inflationary.
Then, we have the Fed's focus on core inflation, which tends to ignore the non core items like Food and Energy (besides, who really needs Food and Energy anyway?). A variation on Core Inflation is Wall Street's love affair with Inflation -ex-inflation, which is a basket of only those goods and services that have not gone up in price.
Finally, the latet inflation innovation is a new concept I call Uni-directional Inflation, which states that when certain items (e.g., Oil, Corn, Copper) go up in price, it is not inflationary -- but when those same items drop in price, its proof positive that inflation has been vanquished.
The BushBots will get into examining these, ah, statistics when The Hildebeeste assumes power.
On "Substitution":
When someone buys Chicken instead of Steak because meat has gone up in price, that's evidence of inflation. The substitution process fraudulently rationalizes this to eliminate inflation from the BLS basket. Indeed, substitution is PROOF of inflation. When a product's price rises out of a consumers ability to afford purchasing it, its prima facie evidence of inflation. Only the starry eyed residents of ivory towers can say with a straight face that cheaper substitutes are non-inflationary.
On "Hedonics" (flogged by Greenspan):
Hedonics asks the question: "How much of product's price increase is a function of "inflation," and how much is a quality improvement?" Thus, the entire late 1990s concept of Hedonics is premised upon a flawed assumption: that Quality is static.
In reality, all products incrementally improve over time. Indeed, it is the very nature of all technology -- from fire to the wheel to the iPod -- that they become better/faster/cheaper/feature-laden over time.
Hedonics are the bastard stepchild of flawed assumptions and abstract theory. To call it dishonest serves only to slander liars. Consider:
"Hedonics opens the door to producing magical results: a lower inflation rate with generally rising prices, a higher growth rate although the economy may be weaker, and a higher productivity number, although productivity would have been declining without the hedonic imputations." --The Illusions of Hedonics
But hey! Keep thinking that the rate is only about 2.5 or 3.0%.
Just don't eat a lot of steak, buy gasoline, or notice the price of copper (or gold).
HT: The Big Picture
Eugene Kane Goes to Washington
Not really. But his spirit lives there!
"Freshman Rep. Stephen I. Cohen, D-Tenn., is not joining the Congressional Black Caucus after several current and former members made it clear that a white lawmaker was not welcome."
Cohen isn't black. However, the Congressman he replaced - Harold "I like sports and I like girls" Ford - was, and his district, in Memphis, is 60% black, and his staff is majority African-American. That clearly just isn't good enough, though.
..."Half my Democratic constituents were African-American. I felt we had interests in common as far as helping people in poverty," said Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), who attempted to join the caucus in 1975. "They had a vote, and I lost. They said the issue was that I was white, and they felt it was important that the group be limited to African-Americans."
And the Congressional Black Caucus has made it very clear who is not invited, either now or ever: White people.
HT: Redstate Conservative.
"Freshman Rep. Stephen I. Cohen, D-Tenn., is not joining the Congressional Black Caucus after several current and former members made it clear that a white lawmaker was not welcome."
Cohen isn't black. However, the Congressman he replaced - Harold "I like sports and I like girls" Ford - was, and his district, in Memphis, is 60% black, and his staff is majority African-American. That clearly just isn't good enough, though.
..."Half my Democratic constituents were African-American. I felt we had interests in common as far as helping people in poverty," said Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), who attempted to join the caucus in 1975. "They had a vote, and I lost. They said the issue was that I was white, and they felt it was important that the group be limited to African-Americans."
And the Congressional Black Caucus has made it very clear who is not invited, either now or ever: White people.
HT: Redstate Conservative.
Not in the Local Newspaper
The annual March for Life attracted more than 100,000 people.
As a former radical leftist, I attended many demonstrations in Washington, DC. Now having attended the March for Life two years in a row, I'm amazed at how under-reported the March for Life is - and all too aware of how that under-reporting contributes to the rampant stereotyping of pro-lifers as middle-aged white males. I actually saw very few of those today! What I saw were hundreds of thousands of people willing to brave the cold (DC had its first snow of the winter the night before) to affirm that a baby in the womb is not property to be destroyed, but a person that those committed to human rights must defend. It's a child, not a choice!
800 from Wisconsin alone, as reported on Channel 12 News last night.
HT: NewsBusters
As a former radical leftist, I attended many demonstrations in Washington, DC. Now having attended the March for Life two years in a row, I'm amazed at how under-reported the March for Life is - and all too aware of how that under-reporting contributes to the rampant stereotyping of pro-lifers as middle-aged white males. I actually saw very few of those today! What I saw were hundreds of thousands of people willing to brave the cold (DC had its first snow of the winter the night before) to affirm that a baby in the womb is not property to be destroyed, but a person that those committed to human rights must defend. It's a child, not a choice!
800 from Wisconsin alone, as reported on Channel 12 News last night.
HT: NewsBusters
West Allis Rug Merchant's Story Smells Funny
The rug-merchant has spoken, but it doesn't add up.
When Jessica first mentioned this, my initial thought was that the company in question employed a dipwad in Customer Service, and that the editorial stupidity was solely the dipwad's own "thought."
I still think so. But it now seems that the rug-merchant "company" may only have 1 (or at best 2) employees--the President and the Vice-President.
Vice president Sajid Nasir said the employee is being "held accountable." But he said the incendiary and threatening nature of some of the e-mails - and voicemails left at the West Allis home that co-owner Faisal Khetani shares with his parents - have shaken the family.
First of all, Sajid: if you don't use your HOME ADDRESS and PHONE NUMBER as a business address, you won't get calls at your HOME.
Of course, the grass-eaters showed up for the party:
"This is a matter of free speech," said Julie Enslow, an organizer with Peace Action Wisconsin in Milwaukee. "It is totally irresponsible for radio stations and bloggers to attack a person for his personal political views."
And the local Muslim spokesman is confused:
Othman Atta, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, said he would fault the worker for his lack of tact but defended his right to speak his mind.
"If you look at the polls, his opinion is reflected by a majority of Americans now," Atta said.
Atta is deliberately misleading on two fronts: first, the "worker" "spoke his mind" on COMPANY CORRESPONDENCE. It's not likely that Atta would be so cavalier and forgiving if one of his employees suggested that Muslims should become Catholic, on Islamic Society letterhead.
Hmmmmmmm, Mr. Atta?
Secondly, Atta is playing fast and loose with "polls." The "majority" of which he speaks is not overwhelming, by any means. It's slightly over 50%. Yes, it's a "majority." Barely.
How many "employees" does the rug-merchant have?
Is the "Vice-President" active in the business, daily?
Is the "President" employed by the State of Wisconsin on a full-time basis?
Heh.
When Jessica first mentioned this, my initial thought was that the company in question employed a dipwad in Customer Service, and that the editorial stupidity was solely the dipwad's own "thought."
I still think so. But it now seems that the rug-merchant "company" may only have 1 (or at best 2) employees--the President and the Vice-President.
Vice president Sajid Nasir said the employee is being "held accountable." But he said the incendiary and threatening nature of some of the e-mails - and voicemails left at the West Allis home that co-owner Faisal Khetani shares with his parents - have shaken the family.
First of all, Sajid: if you don't use your HOME ADDRESS and PHONE NUMBER as a business address, you won't get calls at your HOME.
Of course, the grass-eaters showed up for the party:
"This is a matter of free speech," said Julie Enslow, an organizer with Peace Action Wisconsin in Milwaukee. "It is totally irresponsible for radio stations and bloggers to attack a person for his personal political views."
And the local Muslim spokesman is confused:
Othman Atta, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, said he would fault the worker for his lack of tact but defended his right to speak his mind.
"If you look at the polls, his opinion is reflected by a majority of Americans now," Atta said.
Atta is deliberately misleading on two fronts: first, the "worker" "spoke his mind" on COMPANY CORRESPONDENCE. It's not likely that Atta would be so cavalier and forgiving if one of his employees suggested that Muslims should become Catholic, on Islamic Society letterhead.
Hmmmmmmm, Mr. Atta?
Secondly, Atta is playing fast and loose with "polls." The "majority" of which he speaks is not overwhelming, by any means. It's slightly over 50%. Yes, it's a "majority." Barely.
How many "employees" does the rug-merchant have?
Is the "Vice-President" active in the business, daily?
Is the "President" employed by the State of Wisconsin on a full-time basis?
Heh.
Swift's Dilemma: Congress Covers Its Ass
Congressmen complain to Cherthoff that Swift & Co. was harmed by the illegal-immigrant raid. This is called "covering your Congressional ass" and the American Spectator swallowed it whole.
Swift & Co. was a participant in the Congressionally-designed Social Security number-clearance program, which means that Swift & Co. was reasonably diligent.
But the Congressionally-designed program is inadequate (no kidding, Sherlock) for the purpose of detecting SS numbers which are being used twice.
It's a mess, designed by Congress.
But Congressmen will point fingers--so it's DHS' fault, right?
Swift & Co. was a participant in the Congressionally-designed Social Security number-clearance program, which means that Swift & Co. was reasonably diligent.
But the Congressionally-designed program is inadequate (no kidding, Sherlock) for the purpose of detecting SS numbers which are being used twice.
It's a mess, designed by Congress.
But Congressmen will point fingers--so it's DHS' fault, right?
Monday, January 22, 2007
Dies Irae Rises Again--to Rap. Hmmmmmm....
A few years ago, the Latin Liturgy Association published an item in which they claimed to have found over 80 musical quotations of the opening musical motif of the Gregorian Chant Dies Irae.
At that time it was over 80. It may be well past that today. Brahms, Rachmaninoff, and many others "classical" composers have used it. Britten used the tune in his own way--backwards and upside-down, as the opening motif for the Dies Irae in his War Requiem.
Shortly after the article was published, I heard the theme in the first violins of the orchestral score behind the scene where Papa Lion dies in Disney's Lion King--but that's not likely the only "non-classical" quotation used in the LLA study at the time.
And it's back, again!!
Yesterday, you saw a Nike commercial featuring a number of basketball players who were rapping.
Yup. The orchestral music behind them was the Dies Irae.
By the way, the text of the Dies Irae is not exactly heartwarming. It is a classic memento mori for those who have ears to hear.
And, yes, it may be used for funeral Masses, even in the Novus Ordo.
At that time it was over 80. It may be well past that today. Brahms, Rachmaninoff, and many others "classical" composers have used it. Britten used the tune in his own way--backwards and upside-down, as the opening motif for the Dies Irae in his War Requiem.
Shortly after the article was published, I heard the theme in the first violins of the orchestral score behind the scene where Papa Lion dies in Disney's Lion King--but that's not likely the only "non-classical" quotation used in the LLA study at the time.
And it's back, again!!
Yesterday, you saw a Nike commercial featuring a number of basketball players who were rapping.
Yup. The orchestral music behind them was the Dies Irae.
By the way, the text of the Dies Irae is not exactly heartwarming. It is a classic memento mori for those who have ears to hear.
And, yes, it may be used for funeral Masses, even in the Novus Ordo.
Solzhenitsyn on Law
Worth consideration:
People in the West have acquired considerable skill in using, interpreting and manipulating law, even though laws tend to be too complicated for an average person to understand without the help of an expert. Any conflict is solved according to the letter of the law and this is considered to be the supreme solution. If one is right from a legal point of view, nothing more is required, nobody may mention that one could still not be entirely right, and urge self-restraint, a willingness to renounce such legal rights, sacrifice and selfless risk: it would sound simply absurd. One almost never sees voluntary self-restraint. Everybody operates at the extreme limit of those legal frames. An oil company is legally blameless when it purchases an invention of a new type of energy in order to prevent its use. A food product manufacturer is legally blameless when he poisons his produce to make it last longer: after all, people are free not to buy it.
I have spent all my life under a communist regime and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either. A society which is based on the letter of the law and never reaches any higher is taking very scarce advantage of the high level of human possibilities.
So what IS 'the meaning of the word is....'?
HT: Chesterton & Friends
People in the West have acquired considerable skill in using, interpreting and manipulating law, even though laws tend to be too complicated for an average person to understand without the help of an expert. Any conflict is solved according to the letter of the law and this is considered to be the supreme solution. If one is right from a legal point of view, nothing more is required, nobody may mention that one could still not be entirely right, and urge self-restraint, a willingness to renounce such legal rights, sacrifice and selfless risk: it would sound simply absurd. One almost never sees voluntary self-restraint. Everybody operates at the extreme limit of those legal frames. An oil company is legally blameless when it purchases an invention of a new type of energy in order to prevent its use. A food product manufacturer is legally blameless when he poisons his produce to make it last longer: after all, people are free not to buy it.
I have spent all my life under a communist regime and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either. A society which is based on the letter of the law and never reaches any higher is taking very scarce advantage of the high level of human possibilities.
So what IS 'the meaning of the word is....'?
HT: Chesterton & Friends
Warning Flags, Chapter 28
Note that the Housing Index is a leading indicator for Personal Consumption expenditures since 1985.
Note the far-right-hand side of the graph.
Ugh.
HT: The Big Picture
Note the far-right-hand side of the graph.
Ugh.
HT: The Big Picture
Gun Control Nuts--Here's the Reality Check
As you may have suspected, the Brady Campaign (gun-control nuts) has been blaming George Bush for the problems some cities (ahemmmm) have in their violent-crime statistics.
The strategy was evidently outlined several months ago; various Mayors have been spouting the line ever since, including Milk-Carton Tommy in Milwaukee.
The refutation is contained in this article--but the author makes another interesting point (statistics are for 2005):
Separating states by RTC [Right-to-Carry] status, we find that RTC states’ average LEO [Law Enforcement Officer/100,000 population] rate is 29.7% lower than non-RTC states, yet their violent crime rate is 21.6% lower, and murder rate 30.4% lower. Non-RTC states have higher rates than the national average in all three categories: LEO, 125.4%; violence, 119.1%; murder, 129.3%. Meanwhile, RTC states average rates are less than the national average: LEO, 90.3%; violence, 93.5%; murder, 90.0%.
Lessee, heah, boys and girls...
Less cops/resident AND less violent crimes and murders/resident.
In other words, it's possible to reduce cops AND crimes by simply giving each law-abiding adult a nice new Colt .45 with a holster and a few dozen bullets.
Sounds good to me!
The strategy was evidently outlined several months ago; various Mayors have been spouting the line ever since, including Milk-Carton Tommy in Milwaukee.
The refutation is contained in this article--but the author makes another interesting point (statistics are for 2005):
Separating states by RTC [Right-to-Carry] status, we find that RTC states’ average LEO [Law Enforcement Officer/100,000 population] rate is 29.7% lower than non-RTC states, yet their violent crime rate is 21.6% lower, and murder rate 30.4% lower. Non-RTC states have higher rates than the national average in all three categories: LEO, 125.4%; violence, 119.1%; murder, 129.3%. Meanwhile, RTC states average rates are less than the national average: LEO, 90.3%; violence, 93.5%; murder, 90.0%.
Lessee, heah, boys and girls...
Less cops/resident AND less violent crimes and murders/resident.
In other words, it's possible to reduce cops AND crimes by simply giving each law-abiding adult a nice new Colt .45 with a holster and a few dozen bullets.
Sounds good to me!
Update on SnotFaced "Mat" Supplier
Jess McBride picked up the story, but she's hardly the only one.
Euphoric Reality has an extremely interesting series of posts on the event.
I think the jackass-in-charge at the rug company is not going to be a happy camper.
A rug company, no less.
Flying rugs?
Euphoric Reality has an extremely interesting series of posts on the event.
I think the jackass-in-charge at the rug company is not going to be a happy camper.
A rug company, no less.
Flying rugs?
Where's the Permission Slip?
The State of Wisconsin's DOT has sold lotsa driver's license information, and Owen is not a happy camper .
What got my attention was the following:
An Elections Board spokesman says they’re legally required to make that information public. It’s the same with the DNR and DOT, but they can allow residents to keep their names off requests for lists containing 10 or more names.
NEVER, ever, has DOT "allowed" me to keep my name off a list.
So, boys--where's the permission slip?
What got my attention was the following:
An Elections Board spokesman says they’re legally required to make that information public. It’s the same with the DNR and DOT, but they can allow residents to keep their names off requests for lists containing 10 or more names.
NEVER, ever, has DOT "allowed" me to keep my name off a list.
So, boys--where's the permission slip?
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Liturgy Done Right
Cdl. Arinze, speaking to a French institute of studies on the liturgy.
(One might regard this as a "lecture" in the admonitory sense...)
While, therefore, a higher liturgical institute should promote research, it above all bases its strong and durable foundations on the faith, on the Tradition of the Church and on the heritage enshrined in liturgical texts, gestures and postures. Such an institute appreciates that the sacred liturgy is a gift we receive from Christ through the Church. It is not something that we invent. It has therefore unchangeable elements which come from our Savior Jesus Christ, as in the essential forms of the sacraments, and changeable elements which have been carefully handed on and guarded by the Church.
...A higher liturgical institute trains experts in the best and authentic [theological]-liturgical tradition of the Church. It forms them to love the Church and her public worship and to follow the norms and indications given by the magisterium.
...Liturgical celebrations will beautifully manifest the faith of the Church, nourish this faith in the participants, awaken this faith in the dormant and the indifferent, and send the people home on fire to live the Christian life and spread the Gospel. This is very far from the cold, man-centered and sometimes openly idiosyncratic mannerism which our Sunday congregations are sometimes forced to endure.
...Unfortunately, many homilies as delivered by priests or deacons are not up to what is desirable. Some homilies seem to be mere sociological, psychological or, worse still, political comments. They are not sufficiently grounded in Holy Scripture, liturgical texts, Church tradition and solid theology. In some countries there are people who do not appreciate that the delivery of the homily at the Eucharistic Sacrifice is a pastoral ministry assigned only to ordained ministers: deacon, priest or bishop. Lay people laudably conduct catechesis outside Mass, but not the homily which demands ordination.
...The common priesthood of all the baptized and the ministerial priesthood of the ordained priest come from Christ himself. Confusion of roles in the hierarchical constitution of the Church does damage. It does not promote witness to Christ nor holiness for clergy and laity. Neither attempts at the clericalization of the laity, nor efforts toward the laicization of the clergy, will bring down divine graces.
...If a diocese does not have enough priests, initiatives should be taken to seek them from elsewhere now, to encourage local vocations and to keep fresh in the people a genuine "hunger" for a priest (cf. John Paul II, "Ecclesia de Eucharistia," No. 32).
One wonders how many Milwaukee-istic peccata were hit by these excerpts alone...
If you don't know, then take the hint: read the red!
HT: The New Liturgical Movement
(One might regard this as a "lecture" in the admonitory sense...)
While, therefore, a higher liturgical institute should promote research, it above all bases its strong and durable foundations on the faith, on the Tradition of the Church and on the heritage enshrined in liturgical texts, gestures and postures. Such an institute appreciates that the sacred liturgy is a gift we receive from Christ through the Church. It is not something that we invent. It has therefore unchangeable elements which come from our Savior Jesus Christ, as in the essential forms of the sacraments, and changeable elements which have been carefully handed on and guarded by the Church.
...A higher liturgical institute trains experts in the best and authentic [theological]-liturgical tradition of the Church. It forms them to love the Church and her public worship and to follow the norms and indications given by the magisterium.
...Liturgical celebrations will beautifully manifest the faith of the Church, nourish this faith in the participants, awaken this faith in the dormant and the indifferent, and send the people home on fire to live the Christian life and spread the Gospel. This is very far from the cold, man-centered and sometimes openly idiosyncratic mannerism which our Sunday congregations are sometimes forced to endure.
...Unfortunately, many homilies as delivered by priests or deacons are not up to what is desirable. Some homilies seem to be mere sociological, psychological or, worse still, political comments. They are not sufficiently grounded in Holy Scripture, liturgical texts, Church tradition and solid theology. In some countries there are people who do not appreciate that the delivery of the homily at the Eucharistic Sacrifice is a pastoral ministry assigned only to ordained ministers: deacon, priest or bishop. Lay people laudably conduct catechesis outside Mass, but not the homily which demands ordination.
...The common priesthood of all the baptized and the ministerial priesthood of the ordained priest come from Christ himself. Confusion of roles in the hierarchical constitution of the Church does damage. It does not promote witness to Christ nor holiness for clergy and laity. Neither attempts at the clericalization of the laity, nor efforts toward the laicization of the clergy, will bring down divine graces.
...If a diocese does not have enough priests, initiatives should be taken to seek them from elsewhere now, to encourage local vocations and to keep fresh in the people a genuine "hunger" for a priest (cf. John Paul II, "Ecclesia de Eucharistia," No. 32).
One wonders how many Milwaukee-istic peccata were hit by these excerpts alone...
If you don't know, then take the hint: read the red!
HT: The New Liturgical Movement
Publick Screwels vs. Common Sense
Hitchens:
'Special needs' sounds really alarming, as if the child involved is in some way physically or mentally damaged. In a small minority of cases, this may be so. But for the most part children with 'special needs' didn't have those needs until they were subjected to the disastrous teaching methods of so many of our primary schools. All they specially need is to be made to sit in rows and learn things by heart, after having been swiftly taught to read. Fat chance in much of the state system, however, as the woeful figures on literacy and numeracy show.
These schools are very glad to pretend that their serial failure to teach children to read can be blamed on the invented 'disease' of dyslexia or the invented 'disorder' of ADHD and its many allies. Actually it results from their ideological hatred of synthetic phonics, a wholly reliable and successful reading teaching method, whose virtues have been repeatedly proven by research over more than half a century, which many modern teachers apparently regard as being beneath them. In much the same way, they seem to despise chanting times tables or correcting spelling.
Acerbically re-affirming the "Great City Schools" Committee report.
HT: Relapsed Catholic
'Special needs' sounds really alarming, as if the child involved is in some way physically or mentally damaged. In a small minority of cases, this may be so. But for the most part children with 'special needs' didn't have those needs until they were subjected to the disastrous teaching methods of so many of our primary schools. All they specially need is to be made to sit in rows and learn things by heart, after having been swiftly taught to read. Fat chance in much of the state system, however, as the woeful figures on literacy and numeracy show.
These schools are very glad to pretend that their serial failure to teach children to read can be blamed on the invented 'disease' of dyslexia or the invented 'disorder' of ADHD and its many allies. Actually it results from their ideological hatred of synthetic phonics, a wholly reliable and successful reading teaching method, whose virtues have been repeatedly proven by research over more than half a century, which many modern teachers apparently regard as being beneath them. In much the same way, they seem to despise chanting times tables or correcting spelling.
Acerbically re-affirming the "Great City Schools" Committee report.
HT: Relapsed Catholic
On Abp. Wuerl and Queen-Granny Pelosi
I have maintained, here and elsewhere, that Abp. Wuerl's non-position-position on Speaker-ette Pelosi is, at best, not helpful.
Always happy to know that others have the same questions. First Things has a discussion and cites the USBishops' pastoral "On Preparing to Receive Christ Worthily in the Eucharist."
The statement says, among other things: “In order to receive Holy Communion we must be in communion with God and with the Church. . . . If a Catholic in his or her personal or professional life were knowingly and obstinately to reject the defined doctrines of the Church or knowingly and obstinately to repudiate her definitive teaching on moral issues, he or she would seriously diminish his or her communion with the Church. Reception of Holy Communion in such a situation would not accord with the nature of the eucharistic celebration, so that he or she should refrain.”
Voting for Federal funding of abortion, or for "partial-birth" abortion, certainly falls within the category of "...repudiat[ing]...definitive teaching on moral issues."
The statement goes on to address the question of public scandal. “To give scandal means more than to cause other people to be shocked or upset by what one does. Rather, one’s action leads someone else to sin.” The statement then quotes the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged.”
Here the Bishops' statement gets into levels of culpability. The definition of "scandal" given here would imply that such "scandal" is "mediate material cooperation," the definition of which follows:
Mediate Material Cooperation. Mediate material cooperation occurs when the cooperator participates in circumstances that are not essential to the commission of an action, such that the action could occur even without this cooperation. Mediate material cooperation in an immoral act might be justifiable under three basic conditions: [the term "might" is significant, because the presumption is against 'justifiable.']
[3] The danger of scandal (i.e., leading others into doing evil, leading others into error, or spreading confusion) must be avoided.
In other words, if "scandal" is not avoided, Mediate Material Cooperation is sinful.
(Back to First Things)
When the aforementioned Nancy Pelosi orchestrated a four-day gala in Washington celebrating her familial, ethnic, and—very explicitly—Catholic identity, people were alert to what would be said by the new archbishop of Washington, Donald Wuerl. He said nothing.
Also recently, Edward Cardinal Egan of New York gave a rare television interview in which he was persistently asked whether the pro-abortion position of Catholic politicians, notably Rudolph Giuliani and outgoing governor George Pataki, posed a problem for him. He just as persistently said he refused to be drawn into politics and answered, “They are my friends.” But of course he was making a statement of momentous political consequence, in that he seemed to be saying, as far as he is concerned, that the Church has no problem with pro-abortion politicians. It is understandable that Catholics and others have drawn the conclusion that, for both Wuerl and Egan, bishops of the two most prominent sees in the country, rejecting the Church’s teaching on the human dignity of the unborn child is not a big deal.
One would think that Bps. Egan and Wuerl are aware of the text in the letter "On Preparing to Receive..." which, after all, they signed.
Certainly appearances place Queen-Granny P in a very questionable position, when she voted FOR partial-birth abortion and regularly votes FOR abortion funding.
Is this a "big deal" or not, Excellencies?
Always happy to know that others have the same questions. First Things has a discussion and cites the USBishops' pastoral "On Preparing to Receive Christ Worthily in the Eucharist."
The statement says, among other things: “In order to receive Holy Communion we must be in communion with God and with the Church. . . . If a Catholic in his or her personal or professional life were knowingly and obstinately to reject the defined doctrines of the Church or knowingly and obstinately to repudiate her definitive teaching on moral issues, he or she would seriously diminish his or her communion with the Church. Reception of Holy Communion in such a situation would not accord with the nature of the eucharistic celebration, so that he or she should refrain.”
Voting for Federal funding of abortion, or for "partial-birth" abortion, certainly falls within the category of "...repudiat[ing]...definitive teaching on moral issues."
The statement goes on to address the question of public scandal. “To give scandal means more than to cause other people to be shocked or upset by what one does. Rather, one’s action leads someone else to sin.” The statement then quotes the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged.”
Here the Bishops' statement gets into levels of culpability. The definition of "scandal" given here would imply that such "scandal" is "mediate material cooperation," the definition of which follows:
Mediate Material Cooperation. Mediate material cooperation occurs when the cooperator participates in circumstances that are not essential to the commission of an action, such that the action could occur even without this cooperation. Mediate material cooperation in an immoral act might be justifiable under three basic conditions: [the term "might" is significant, because the presumption is against 'justifiable.']
[3] The danger of scandal (i.e., leading others into doing evil, leading others into error, or spreading confusion) must be avoided.
In other words, if "scandal" is not avoided, Mediate Material Cooperation is sinful.
(Back to First Things)
When the aforementioned Nancy Pelosi orchestrated a four-day gala in Washington celebrating her familial, ethnic, and—very explicitly—Catholic identity, people were alert to what would be said by the new archbishop of Washington, Donald Wuerl. He said nothing.
Also recently, Edward Cardinal Egan of New York gave a rare television interview in which he was persistently asked whether the pro-abortion position of Catholic politicians, notably Rudolph Giuliani and outgoing governor George Pataki, posed a problem for him. He just as persistently said he refused to be drawn into politics and answered, “They are my friends.” But of course he was making a statement of momentous political consequence, in that he seemed to be saying, as far as he is concerned, that the Church has no problem with pro-abortion politicians. It is understandable that Catholics and others have drawn the conclusion that, for both Wuerl and Egan, bishops of the two most prominent sees in the country, rejecting the Church’s teaching on the human dignity of the unborn child is not a big deal.
One would think that Bps. Egan and Wuerl are aware of the text in the letter "On Preparing to Receive..." which, after all, they signed.
Certainly appearances place Queen-Granny P in a very questionable position, when she voted FOR partial-birth abortion and regularly votes FOR abortion funding.
Is this a "big deal" or not, Excellencies?
The Progressives: Living a Lie
Dietrich von Hildebrand was a thinker. So when he puts forth an opinion, it's worth noting.
"Progressivism holds that human culture always improves.........But the thesis of progressivism is by no means confirmed by the facts of human history. Indeed, it is flatly contradicted by it. Progress can be spoken of in certain domains only.
It is true that in the course of history man has acquired an incomparably greater knowledge of the material world. In the natural sciences, in medicine, and especially in technology in the widest sense of the term, an enormous progress has been achieved.
...When it comes to the question of a truly human life, when we look at history from the point of view of true humanism, it is impossible to conclude that real progress has been achieved.
Who could claim that the second century before Christ was on a higher cultural level than was the fifth century before Christ in Athens? It is impossible to overlook the obvious ups and downs that take place in history with respect to culture and true humanism.
We could mention the "progress" of New Orleans to the very top of the murder-rate scale in the US, but let's not.
Or we coule mention the various Wisconsin ".....Progress" groups, some of which are busy denying the laws of Nature.
But let's not.
After all, "progress" was canonized by Darwin, right?
"Progressivism holds that human culture always improves.........But the thesis of progressivism is by no means confirmed by the facts of human history. Indeed, it is flatly contradicted by it. Progress can be spoken of in certain domains only.
It is true that in the course of history man has acquired an incomparably greater knowledge of the material world. In the natural sciences, in medicine, and especially in technology in the widest sense of the term, an enormous progress has been achieved.
...When it comes to the question of a truly human life, when we look at history from the point of view of true humanism, it is impossible to conclude that real progress has been achieved.
Who could claim that the second century before Christ was on a higher cultural level than was the fifth century before Christ in Athens? It is impossible to overlook the obvious ups and downs that take place in history with respect to culture and true humanism.
We could mention the "progress" of New Orleans to the very top of the murder-rate scale in the US, but let's not.
Or we coule mention the various Wisconsin ".....Progress" groups, some of which are busy denying the laws of Nature.
But let's not.
After all, "progress" was canonized by Darwin, right?
Regarding the Sex Predators' Shrinks
Although CWN blogs on the matter for different reasons, the key question remains: can "therapists" actually "cure" a sex predator of his affliction? Is their "opinion" worth anything?
This from an entry dealing with a priest/predator in Birmingham, Mass.:
...psycho-therapists were also culpably negligent. The [Bishops'-commissioned] National Review Board faulted therapy centers for giving mendaciously optimistic reports on the success of their treatment of abuser priests in order to keep business coming in (one of the lingering mysteries of the Crisis is the lack of outrage occasioned by this charge). Yet even discounting self-serving motives for optimism the cavalier incompetence of Birmingham's therapists (go here and here) is contemptible.
Almost every one of the worst abusers spent some time in therapy (at St. Luke's, the Servants of the Paraclete center, the House of Affirmation, e.g.) and was flagged out of the pits back onto the track by the credentialed, professional, state-of-the-art, etc., house staff. While we're on the topic of accountability, can anyone point to a single therapist who has lost his license as a consequence? Has a call been raised from within the profession for ridding itself of the quacks?
These questions are timely, given the upcoming trial-for-release of a known predator into the Milwaukee area (scroll to second item) and the "no surveillance" release of Billy Lee Morford.
IF there's a recurrence, WHICH of the shrinks will lose their license?
This from an entry dealing with a priest/predator in Birmingham, Mass.:
...psycho-therapists were also culpably negligent. The [Bishops'-commissioned] National Review Board faulted therapy centers for giving mendaciously optimistic reports on the success of their treatment of abuser priests in order to keep business coming in (one of the lingering mysteries of the Crisis is the lack of outrage occasioned by this charge). Yet even discounting self-serving motives for optimism the cavalier incompetence of Birmingham's therapists (go here and here) is contemptible.
Almost every one of the worst abusers spent some time in therapy (at St. Luke's, the Servants of the Paraclete center, the House of Affirmation, e.g.) and was flagged out of the pits back onto the track by the credentialed, professional, state-of-the-art, etc., house staff. While we're on the topic of accountability, can anyone point to a single therapist who has lost his license as a consequence? Has a call been raised from within the profession for ridding itself of the quacks?
These questions are timely, given the upcoming trial-for-release of a known predator into the Milwaukee area (scroll to second item) and the "no surveillance" release of Billy Lee Morford.
IF there's a recurrence, WHICH of the shrinks will lose their license?
Universal Health Care in Mass.
We've noted before that the Romney/Massachusetts 'Universal Healthcare' program has encountered problems. Not surprisingly, they are all cost-related.
In other words, the Government of Massachusetts lied.
A state panel says a package filling the minimum requirements for coverage under the state’s new health insurance will cost $380 a month on average for an individual, almost twice what former Gov. Mitt Romney projected when he proposed universal coverage.
... The minimum plan would limit annual out-of-pocket expenses to $5,000 for an individual and $7,500 for a family and include prescription drug coverage, according to the panel’s proposal.
As proposed, the maximum deductibles would be $2,000 per individual and $4,000 per family. Before the deductible kicks in, the plan would have to cover some medical visits and generic drugs to encourage preventive care.
We don't have plan design information here, but if it's really a "bare-bones" policy, this tells us that there are a LOT of bones in that "bare bones" pile.
IIRC, a "single" premium in SE Wisconsin is around $500.00/month--but the stop-loss is closer to $3,000./year than $5,000. as in the Mass. plan.
(For more on Romney's mess, see the American Spectator blogsite and search on Romney.)
In other words, the Government of Massachusetts lied.
A state panel says a package filling the minimum requirements for coverage under the state’s new health insurance will cost $380 a month on average for an individual, almost twice what former Gov. Mitt Romney projected when he proposed universal coverage.
... The minimum plan would limit annual out-of-pocket expenses to $5,000 for an individual and $7,500 for a family and include prescription drug coverage, according to the panel’s proposal.
As proposed, the maximum deductibles would be $2,000 per individual and $4,000 per family. Before the deductible kicks in, the plan would have to cover some medical visits and generic drugs to encourage preventive care.
We don't have plan design information here, but if it's really a "bare-bones" policy, this tells us that there are a LOT of bones in that "bare bones" pile.
IIRC, a "single" premium in SE Wisconsin is around $500.00/month--but the stop-loss is closer to $3,000./year than $5,000. as in the Mass. plan.
(For more on Romney's mess, see the American Spectator blogsite and search on Romney.)
See It, Eat It, and Other Subconscious Reax
Fascinating research, HT: The Big Picture. Pavlov would be very pleased, indeed.
Brian Wansink (also of Cornell) has been called the "Sherlock Holmes of Food." He is the director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, and is the author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. Wansink claims that our minds make more than 200 food-related decisions a day -- most of them without any actual thought.
Container size influences how much we eat: Moviegoers given five-day-old stale popcorn still ate 53% more if it was served in a big bucket than a small bucket.
Size of a serving bowl, a plate, or a package has repeatedly been shown to bias how much a person serves himself and eats by an average of 20-30%.
Glass Shapes: Because of visual illusions, people (even bartenders) pour 28% more liquid into a short wide glasses than tall ones.
We eat more if we like what we're drinking: In one study, diners drank the same wine but 1/2 were told it was from California, and the other 1/2 were told it was North Dakota wine (No, ND does not make wine). Those who thought they were drinking California wine ate 11% more food.
Bulk Purchases: 50% of the snack foods bought in bulk (such as at a warehouse club store) are eaten within 6 days of when it is purchased (Wansink and his Food and Brand Lab have been credited with the discovery of the 100 calorie packs)
Names of a food can create either positive or negative predispositions that can unfairly bias a person's perceived taste of a food.
Self Service: A person will eat an average of 92% of any food they serve themselves.
We don't pay attention to the extras: 31% of people leaving an Italian restaurant couldn't remember how much bread they ate; 12% of the bread eaters denied having eaten any bread at all.
We eat more if the evidence is removed: In a study of chicken-wing eaters, waitresses removed the bones from half the tables while letting them stack up on the other half. The diners who still had piles of bones on their plates ate 28% less.
Too much variety makes us overeat: Snackers were given bowls of M&Ms with either 7 or 10 colors of the candy. Snackers with 10 color options ate an average of 43 more candies than those with just 7 colors to choose from.
Proximity of candy on one’s desk has been shown to double how much a person eats over the course of a day
Friends make you eat more: You'll eat 35% more dining with a friend than when eating alone. Even worse, a person will double the amount of food ingested when dining in a group of 7 or more.
Eating fast makes you consume more calories: Consider this University of Rhode Island study on diet: researchers showed the speed at which we eat influences caloric intake. Faster eaters consumed on average 67 more calories then when they ate slowly. That's about seven pounds of per year. (People also reported feeling more full after eating slowly).
Although most of that is "Duhhh!" material, it's "Duhhh" on which most people don't reflect.
That's why the weight loss biz is over $10Bn/year in the USA.
Brian Wansink (also of Cornell) has been called the "Sherlock Holmes of Food." He is the director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, and is the author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. Wansink claims that our minds make more than 200 food-related decisions a day -- most of them without any actual thought.
Container size influences how much we eat: Moviegoers given five-day-old stale popcorn still ate 53% more if it was served in a big bucket than a small bucket.
Size of a serving bowl, a plate, or a package has repeatedly been shown to bias how much a person serves himself and eats by an average of 20-30%.
Glass Shapes: Because of visual illusions, people (even bartenders) pour 28% more liquid into a short wide glasses than tall ones.
We eat more if we like what we're drinking: In one study, diners drank the same wine but 1/2 were told it was from California, and the other 1/2 were told it was North Dakota wine (No, ND does not make wine). Those who thought they were drinking California wine ate 11% more food.
Bulk Purchases: 50% of the snack foods bought in bulk (such as at a warehouse club store) are eaten within 6 days of when it is purchased (Wansink and his Food and Brand Lab have been credited with the discovery of the 100 calorie packs)
Names of a food can create either positive or negative predispositions that can unfairly bias a person's perceived taste of a food.
Self Service: A person will eat an average of 92% of any food they serve themselves.
We don't pay attention to the extras: 31% of people leaving an Italian restaurant couldn't remember how much bread they ate; 12% of the bread eaters denied having eaten any bread at all.
We eat more if the evidence is removed: In a study of chicken-wing eaters, waitresses removed the bones from half the tables while letting them stack up on the other half. The diners who still had piles of bones on their plates ate 28% less.
Too much variety makes us overeat: Snackers were given bowls of M&Ms with either 7 or 10 colors of the candy. Snackers with 10 color options ate an average of 43 more candies than those with just 7 colors to choose from.
Proximity of candy on one’s desk has been shown to double how much a person eats over the course of a day
Friends make you eat more: You'll eat 35% more dining with a friend than when eating alone. Even worse, a person will double the amount of food ingested when dining in a group of 7 or more.
Eating fast makes you consume more calories: Consider this University of Rhode Island study on diet: researchers showed the speed at which we eat influences caloric intake. Faster eaters consumed on average 67 more calories then when they ate slowly. That's about seven pounds of per year. (People also reported feeling more full after eating slowly).
Although most of that is "Duhhh!" material, it's "Duhhh" on which most people don't reflect.
That's why the weight loss biz is over $10Bn/year in the USA.
Starve or Go North?
There are good reasons to leave a country. Imminent starvation is one of them.
So now we find that Congress, in its ineffable wisdom, has created a serious food problem for Mexico:
Skyrocketing prices for corn on the world market have pushed up the price of the humble tortilla, the mainstay of the Mexican diet, by nearly a third in the past three weeks, to 35 cents a pound in Mexico City and even higher in other parts of the country.
There is a continuing debate here about what caused the price of tortillas to shoot up so quickly. Some economists blame the increased demand for corn from ethanol plants in the United States, and it is true corn prices in the States last week reached their highest point in a decade, the United States Agriculture Department said.
This makes sense only if you adopt the "It's a Plot" mindset--the logic of which runs as follows:
1) Democrat congressmen realize that illegal aliens vote Democrat and join the SEIU.
2) Democrat congressmen need more votes; SEIU wants more members.
3) Democrat congressmen are funded by SEIU and the Queen Bee of Labor (Pres. of SEIU).
4) Democrat congressmen vote to force Corn-A-Hole into your car, raising the price of corn.
5) Food shortages arise in Mexico, the single largest source of Illegal Aliens after Islamic Terrorist Nations.
6) Mexicans flee to the USA, joining SEIU and voting (illegally) Democrat.
The only problem is that the scenario has a lot more credibility than both Kennedy and 9/11 conspiracy theories.
So now we find that Congress, in its ineffable wisdom, has created a serious food problem for Mexico:
Skyrocketing prices for corn on the world market have pushed up the price of the humble tortilla, the mainstay of the Mexican diet, by nearly a third in the past three weeks, to 35 cents a pound in Mexico City and even higher in other parts of the country.
There is a continuing debate here about what caused the price of tortillas to shoot up so quickly. Some economists blame the increased demand for corn from ethanol plants in the United States, and it is true corn prices in the States last week reached their highest point in a decade, the United States Agriculture Department said.
This makes sense only if you adopt the "It's a Plot" mindset--the logic of which runs as follows:
1) Democrat congressmen realize that illegal aliens vote Democrat and join the SEIU.
2) Democrat congressmen need more votes; SEIU wants more members.
3) Democrat congressmen are funded by SEIU and the Queen Bee of Labor (Pres. of SEIU).
4) Democrat congressmen vote to force Corn-A-Hole into your car, raising the price of corn.
5) Food shortages arise in Mexico, the single largest source of Illegal Aliens after Islamic Terrorist Nations.
6) Mexicans flee to the USA, joining SEIU and voting (illegally) Democrat.
The only problem is that the scenario has a lot more credibility than both Kennedy and 9/11 conspiracy theories.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Krauthammer's Iraq Option
Krauthammer comes up with a very interesting option, and since it generally comports with what I've been thinking about in the last 3 weeks, it deserves consideration:
What is missing is a fourth alternative, both as a threat to Maliki and as an actual fallback if the surge fails. The Pentagon should be working on a sustainable Plan B whose major element would be not so much a drawdown of troops as a drawdown of risk to our troops. If we had zero American casualties a day, there would be as little need to withdraw from Iraq as there is to withdraw from the Balkans.
We need to find a redeployment strategy that maintains as much latent American strength as possible, but with minimal exposure. We say to Maliki: Let us down, and we dismantle the Green Zone, leave Baghdad and let you fend for yourself; we keep the airport and certain strategic bases in the area; we redeploy most of our forces to Kurdistan; we maintain a significant presence in Anbar province, where we are having success in our one-front war against al-Qaeda and the Baathists. Then we watch. You can have your Baghdad civil war without us. We will be around to pick up the pieces as best we can.
US interests in the Middle East fall in two principal areas: maintaining the flow of petroleum (largely from Saudi Arabia) and destroying AlQuaeda (and its various subsidiaries.) If you like you can reverse those priorities.
Either way, a US military presence should be maintained in the Middle East.
But as Krauthammer points out, our Armed Forces don't necessarily have to paste targets on their backs while wandering about in Baghdad.
HT: Malkin
What is missing is a fourth alternative, both as a threat to Maliki and as an actual fallback if the surge fails. The Pentagon should be working on a sustainable Plan B whose major element would be not so much a drawdown of troops as a drawdown of risk to our troops. If we had zero American casualties a day, there would be as little need to withdraw from Iraq as there is to withdraw from the Balkans.
We need to find a redeployment strategy that maintains as much latent American strength as possible, but with minimal exposure. We say to Maliki: Let us down, and we dismantle the Green Zone, leave Baghdad and let you fend for yourself; we keep the airport and certain strategic bases in the area; we redeploy most of our forces to Kurdistan; we maintain a significant presence in Anbar province, where we are having success in our one-front war against al-Qaeda and the Baathists. Then we watch. You can have your Baghdad civil war without us. We will be around to pick up the pieces as best we can.
US interests in the Middle East fall in two principal areas: maintaining the flow of petroleum (largely from Saudi Arabia) and destroying AlQuaeda (and its various subsidiaries.) If you like you can reverse those priorities.
Either way, a US military presence should be maintained in the Middle East.
But as Krauthammer points out, our Armed Forces don't necessarily have to paste targets on their backs while wandering about in Baghdad.
HT: Malkin
Jessica May Have a Big One
This could be a lot of fun as it unfolds:
I am trying to confirm an email exchange that supposedly took place between a sergeant in Iraq and a West Allis company. I will delete the names of those involved until I confirm the information. Rest assured, I am trying as aggessively as I can to do so.
The soldier supposedly wrote an email this Tuesday to the company that said:
Do you ship to APO addresses? I'm in the first cavalry division stationed in Iraq and we are trying to order some (deleted by me) but we are looking for who ships to APO first.
The company allegedly wrote an email back that said:
We do not ship to APO addresses, and even if we did, we would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq.
The soldier confirmed to another Internet site,
This is all fact and true what happened. I'm with the first BCT 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq just trying to find someone to send the supplies we needed.
APO addresses are military mail overseas. Rest assured, I will be aggressively pursuing this and will let you know what I find out.
For what it's worth, the response "We do not ship to APO...if you were sensible...pull out..." was most likely written by some low-level customer service type, not the Company's CEO.
Watch for the want-ad for a Customer Service type in the next three weeks, if you're looking for an employment opportunity...
I am trying to confirm an email exchange that supposedly took place between a sergeant in Iraq and a West Allis company. I will delete the names of those involved until I confirm the information. Rest assured, I am trying as aggessively as I can to do so.
The soldier supposedly wrote an email this Tuesday to the company that said:
Do you ship to APO addresses? I'm in the first cavalry division stationed in Iraq and we are trying to order some (deleted by me) but we are looking for who ships to APO first.
The company allegedly wrote an email back that said:
We do not ship to APO addresses, and even if we did, we would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq.
The soldier confirmed to another Internet site,
This is all fact and true what happened. I'm with the first BCT 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq just trying to find someone to send the supplies we needed.
APO addresses are military mail overseas. Rest assured, I will be aggressively pursuing this and will let you know what I find out.
For what it's worth, the response "We do not ship to APO...if you were sensible...pull out..." was most likely written by some low-level customer service type, not the Company's CEO.
Watch for the want-ad for a Customer Service type in the next three weeks, if you're looking for an employment opportunity...
Oshkosh, Civil Liberties, and the Cops
The Oshkosh child-imprisonment case is slowly morphing into a situation which could be even more frightening than it is; one can literally hear the Nannies in Madistan writing legislation.
The proximate cause:
According to a police report obtained by the Journal Sentinel this week, Lynn Engstrom called 911 on Dec. 20 when Beth Redmann, the girl's paternal grandmother, tried to visit the girl and deliver presents. Redmann, who left before police arrived, later was ticketed for disorderly conduct after Engstrom claimed Redmann forced her way into the family's home.
When Redmann talked to one of the police officers, Joseph Nichols, about making a child abuse report, he told her he had seen all four children - the stepdaughter and Engstrom's three children from a previous marriage - in the home and they were fine....Nichols and the other officer who responded to the 911 call in December, Mark Lehman, saw the 13-year-old come downstairs to the bathroom while they were in the Engstroms' house on Minnesota St., according to their report. She then went back upstairs. Redmann already had left, and the officers had no reason to suspect child abuse at that point, Sagmeister said.
(Text slightly edited by FreedomEden, HT.)
One may argue that the police were insufficiently inquisitive. One may ALSO argue that the grandma was insufficiently explicit in her description of "abuse."
But what one should not argue is that the police have a right or duty to conduct a "find-the-evidence" search. There is such a thing as the Fourth Amendment which I, personally, would like to preserve.
After all, anyone can call a cop-shop and claim that there is some sort of criminal activity going on at a certain location. It may or may not be true. It may or may not warrant dispatch of officers, or Social Services agents.
But it does not necessarily warrant free-roaming walkabout "searches" of one's home.
For that, "probable cause" is required.
Keep that in mind as the inevitable occurs in Madistan.
The proximate cause:
According to a police report obtained by the Journal Sentinel this week, Lynn Engstrom called 911 on Dec. 20 when Beth Redmann, the girl's paternal grandmother, tried to visit the girl and deliver presents. Redmann, who left before police arrived, later was ticketed for disorderly conduct after Engstrom claimed Redmann forced her way into the family's home.
When Redmann talked to one of the police officers, Joseph Nichols, about making a child abuse report, he told her he had seen all four children - the stepdaughter and Engstrom's three children from a previous marriage - in the home and they were fine....Nichols and the other officer who responded to the 911 call in December, Mark Lehman, saw the 13-year-old come downstairs to the bathroom while they were in the Engstroms' house on Minnesota St., according to their report. She then went back upstairs. Redmann already had left, and the officers had no reason to suspect child abuse at that point, Sagmeister said.
(Text slightly edited by FreedomEden, HT.)
One may argue that the police were insufficiently inquisitive. One may ALSO argue that the grandma was insufficiently explicit in her description of "abuse."
But what one should not argue is that the police have a right or duty to conduct a "find-the-evidence" search. There is such a thing as the Fourth Amendment which I, personally, would like to preserve.
After all, anyone can call a cop-shop and claim that there is some sort of criminal activity going on at a certain location. It may or may not be true. It may or may not warrant dispatch of officers, or Social Services agents.
But it does not necessarily warrant free-roaming walkabout "searches" of one's home.
For that, "probable cause" is required.
Keep that in mind as the inevitable occurs in Madistan.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Blanchard's Full of Himself (and Other Ingredients)
Blanchard, the Dane County DA, wants ALL the prosecutions and intimates that the State's 71 other DA's are either crooked or incompetent.
And the Milwaukee JS buys it wholesale.
Blanchard said the worst "loophole" in the 75-page bill, which is on a fast track in the Legislature, is the plan to allow legislators or other state officials to be prosecuted in their home counties. Only if a local prosecutor declined would a neighboring district attorney, or the attorney general, have the right to prosecute.
"The attempt here to limit venue would create an entirely new form of immunity that would protect only one type of potential criminal defendant: state public officials who allegedly abused their positions," Blanchard told senators.
What Blanchard is revealing is not a 'failure' in the bill, but rather Blanchard's somewhat twisted understanding of the function of a DA--that is, one which is highly politicized. In other words, Blanchard is projecting his own standards and methodology.
But we knew Blanchard is a political animal, not a prosecutor with principles.
Mark Gundrum, the bill's author, has it exactly correct:
"Does (Blanchard) consider himself the only district attorney who could prosecute wrongdoing?"
Evidently the answer is "Yes."
And the Milwaukee JS buys it wholesale.
Blanchard said the worst "loophole" in the 75-page bill, which is on a fast track in the Legislature, is the plan to allow legislators or other state officials to be prosecuted in their home counties. Only if a local prosecutor declined would a neighboring district attorney, or the attorney general, have the right to prosecute.
"The attempt here to limit venue would create an entirely new form of immunity that would protect only one type of potential criminal defendant: state public officials who allegedly abused their positions," Blanchard told senators.
What Blanchard is revealing is not a 'failure' in the bill, but rather Blanchard's somewhat twisted understanding of the function of a DA--that is, one which is highly politicized. In other words, Blanchard is projecting his own standards and methodology.
But we knew Blanchard is a political animal, not a prosecutor with principles.
Mark Gundrum, the bill's author, has it exactly correct:
"Does (Blanchard) consider himself the only district attorney who could prosecute wrongdoing?"
Evidently the answer is "Yes."
Thursday, January 18, 2007
NPM (NaPalM)'s Strange Program--UPDATED!!
HT: Christus Vincit
I received from my pastor the registration book for the NPM convention scheduled for Indianapolis in July
(NPM is the National Pastoral Musicians' trade group. We've called it "NAPALM" since about the 1970's, for all the usual reasons.)
I noticed one particularly strange and abnormal thing, considering this is billed as a convention for Roman Catholic musicians. NOT ONCE AT ANY TIME DURING THE CONVENTION did I read that there would be HOLY MASS celebrated.
Flying the flag of NPM, clearly marked.
UPDATE: There actually IS one Mass. But you have to know what "community Eucharist" means in order to know that. See combox.
I received from my pastor the registration book for the NPM convention scheduled for Indianapolis in July
(NPM is the National Pastoral Musicians' trade group. We've called it "NAPALM" since about the 1970's, for all the usual reasons.)
I noticed one particularly strange and abnormal thing, considering this is billed as a convention for Roman Catholic musicians. NOT ONCE AT ANY TIME DURING THE CONVENTION did I read that there would be HOLY MASS celebrated.
Flying the flag of NPM, clearly marked.
UPDATE: There actually IS one Mass. But you have to know what "community Eucharist" means in order to know that. See combox.
Kiddie Car Seat Story "Withdrawn"
A few weeks ago, the nannies were apoplectic--Consumer Reports stated that a number of kiddie-car-seats were inadequate.
Oooooopsie!!!
Consumer Reports magazine backed off Thursday from its recent negative report on infant car seats, saying test crashes were conducted at speeds higher than it had claimed.
The magazine reported Jan. 4 that most of the seats it tested "failed disastrously" in crashes at speeds as low as 35 mph. In one test, it said, a dummy child was hurled 30 feet
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the crash tests were conducted under conditions that would represent being struck at more than 70 mph — twice as fast as the magazine claimed.
But hey--what's a 100% error now and then?
Oooooopsie!!!
Consumer Reports magazine backed off Thursday from its recent negative report on infant car seats, saying test crashes were conducted at speeds higher than it had claimed.
The magazine reported Jan. 4 that most of the seats it tested "failed disastrously" in crashes at speeds as low as 35 mph. In one test, it said, a dummy child was hurled 30 feet
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the crash tests were conducted under conditions that would represent being struck at more than 70 mph — twice as fast as the magazine claimed.
But hey--what's a 100% error now and then?
College and American Idol
You've seen the parade of folks who are rejects on the show. And you don't have to be Simon to figure it out, either.
There's an interesting parallel, by the way--now in the headlines because of the Democrat plans to "reduce interest rates" for some folks.
There is no magic point at which a genuine college-level education becomes an option, but anything below an IQ of 110 is problematic. If you want to do well, you should have an IQ of 115 or higher. Put another way, it makes sense for only about 15% of the population, 25% if one stretches it, to get a college education. And yet more than 45% of recent high school graduates enroll in four-year colleges. Adjust that percentage to account for high-school dropouts, and more than 40% of all persons in their late teens are trying to go to a four-year college--enough people to absorb everyone down through an IQ of 104.
No data that I have been able to find tell us what proportion of those students really want four years of college-level courses, but it is safe to say that few people who are intellectually unqualified yearn for the experience, any more than someone who is athletically unqualified for a college varsity wants to have his shortcomings exposed at practice every day. They are in college to improve their chances of making a good living. What they really need is vocational training. But nobody will say so, because "vocational training" is second class. "College" is first class.
Those who simply can not benefit from a college education should not be suckered into trying.
But it doesn't stop them, any more than it doesn't stop those poor fools who think that they can sing.
HT: Vox
There's an interesting parallel, by the way--now in the headlines because of the Democrat plans to "reduce interest rates" for some folks.
There is no magic point at which a genuine college-level education becomes an option, but anything below an IQ of 110 is problematic. If you want to do well, you should have an IQ of 115 or higher. Put another way, it makes sense for only about 15% of the population, 25% if one stretches it, to get a college education. And yet more than 45% of recent high school graduates enroll in four-year colleges. Adjust that percentage to account for high-school dropouts, and more than 40% of all persons in their late teens are trying to go to a four-year college--enough people to absorb everyone down through an IQ of 104.
No data that I have been able to find tell us what proportion of those students really want four years of college-level courses, but it is safe to say that few people who are intellectually unqualified yearn for the experience, any more than someone who is athletically unqualified for a college varsity wants to have his shortcomings exposed at practice every day. They are in college to improve their chances of making a good living. What they really need is vocational training. But nobody will say so, because "vocational training" is second class. "College" is first class.
Those who simply can not benefit from a college education should not be suckered into trying.
But it doesn't stop them, any more than it doesn't stop those poor fools who think that they can sing.
HT: Vox
State-Run Health Care--Another Minor Problem
Mitt Romney was responsible for implementing a new healthcare law in Massachusetts. It's not the same model as the one proposed for Wisconsin--in the Massachusetts plan, residents have the option of signing up for traditional commercial insurance OR taking a State-run plan.
But there are some, ah, difficulties which arose.
The state's landmark healthcare reform, which seeks to provide universal health insurance coverage, is creating an unexpected financial crisis for many clinics, nursing homes, and other healthcare providers.
The providers say they are bracing for substantial increases in their healthcare costs, as more of their employees comply with the reform law by signing up for insurance already offered by the small, nonprofit organizations.
Officials at area healthcare nonprofits say that compared to many other small businesses, they have a limited ability to offset the costs of adding workers on an insurance plan because their revenue is largely dependent on fixed federal and state reimbursements
Note that these 'officials' think that FOR-profit businesses DO have pricing power--that is, that small for-profits can simply raise prices to accomodate large cost increases. That's fatuous, but never mind...
Marva Serotkin , chief executive of the Boston Home, a Dorchester nursing home with 96 beds, said it pays 70 percent of individual health insurance and 60 percent of family insurance for employees, or about $4,000 a year for individuals and $7,000 a year for families. About 43 percent of the 212 full- and part-time employees at Boston Home are enrolled in its plan, at a cost to the nursing home of about $360,000 annually. She expects another 30 to 35 to sign up under healthcare reform, adding at least $150,000 in expenses. But most of her residents pay their bills with Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor, which reimburses nursing homes under a set schedule.
"Well," say you, dear reader, "that's because Romney's plan uses commercial health-insurance as an option. Commercial health-insurance costs a lotta money!!"
Uh huh. The WHP numbers are (at minimum) 12% of payroll. So tell me where THAT'S coming from in Wisconsin's non-profit sector.
But there are some, ah, difficulties which arose.
The state's landmark healthcare reform, which seeks to provide universal health insurance coverage, is creating an unexpected financial crisis for many clinics, nursing homes, and other healthcare providers.
The providers say they are bracing for substantial increases in their healthcare costs, as more of their employees comply with the reform law by signing up for insurance already offered by the small, nonprofit organizations.
Officials at area healthcare nonprofits say that compared to many other small businesses, they have a limited ability to offset the costs of adding workers on an insurance plan because their revenue is largely dependent on fixed federal and state reimbursements
Note that these 'officials' think that FOR-profit businesses DO have pricing power--that is, that small for-profits can simply raise prices to accomodate large cost increases. That's fatuous, but never mind...
Marva Serotkin , chief executive of the Boston Home, a Dorchester nursing home with 96 beds, said it pays 70 percent of individual health insurance and 60 percent of family insurance for employees, or about $4,000 a year for individuals and $7,000 a year for families. About 43 percent of the 212 full- and part-time employees at Boston Home are enrolled in its plan, at a cost to the nursing home of about $360,000 annually. She expects another 30 to 35 to sign up under healthcare reform, adding at least $150,000 in expenses. But most of her residents pay their bills with Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor, which reimburses nursing homes under a set schedule.
"Well," say you, dear reader, "that's because Romney's plan uses commercial health-insurance as an option. Commercial health-insurance costs a lotta money!!"
Uh huh. The WHP numbers are (at minimum) 12% of payroll. So tell me where THAT'S coming from in Wisconsin's non-profit sector.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Brookfield Joins the Greed Club, Sues AT&T
Not that it's any surprise, given their lusting over the Town's tax base on Bluemound Road...
Brookfield will join a consortium of suburbs that will help Milwaukee sue AT&T to provide a cable franchise agreement for its Internet protocol video service.
Brookfield aldermen voted unanimously Tuesday night to help fund the legal costs to have the Regional Telecommunications Commission intervene in a federal lawsuit the City of Milwaukee filed last month against AT&T. The RTC comprises 32 municipalities from southeastern Wisconsin.
Milwaukee and the suburbs are demanding that AT&T make annual payments to municipalities for its new service, a 200-plus-channel service dubbed "U-Verse." Time Warner Cable makes such payments under its longstanding franchise agreements.
But AT&T argues that its new system does not meet the definition of cable television. The company has agreed to pay the municipalities the same revenue offered by Time Warner; however, it will not enter into a franchise agreement.
Brookfield is not making noise about the "traffic hazard" posed by the AT&T boxes, (several of which are already up in this suburb.) They are not unhappy that AT&T will "redline" them because Brookfield residents cannot afford the service.
They just want to screw the ratepayer-citizens in the same way that they're screwing the Warner Cable ratepayer-citizens.
In other words, Show Me the (Guaranteed) Money.
Brookfield will join a consortium of suburbs that will help Milwaukee sue AT&T to provide a cable franchise agreement for its Internet protocol video service.
Brookfield aldermen voted unanimously Tuesday night to help fund the legal costs to have the Regional Telecommunications Commission intervene in a federal lawsuit the City of Milwaukee filed last month against AT&T. The RTC comprises 32 municipalities from southeastern Wisconsin.
Milwaukee and the suburbs are demanding that AT&T make annual payments to municipalities for its new service, a 200-plus-channel service dubbed "U-Verse." Time Warner Cable makes such payments under its longstanding franchise agreements.
But AT&T argues that its new system does not meet the definition of cable television. The company has agreed to pay the municipalities the same revenue offered by Time Warner; however, it will not enter into a franchise agreement.
Brookfield is not making noise about the "traffic hazard" posed by the AT&T boxes, (several of which are already up in this suburb.) They are not unhappy that AT&T will "redline" them because Brookfield residents cannot afford the service.
They just want to screw the ratepayer-citizens in the same way that they're screwing the Warner Cable ratepayer-citizens.
In other words, Show Me the (Guaranteed) Money.
Congregational Singing
An interesting couple of data points from NPM (NaPalM), the Nat'l Ass'n of Pastoral Musicians. The survey is far from statistically valid--but it's interesting nonetheless.
WHAT HELPS YOU TO SING THE LITURGY?
(From the people in the pew)
Familiar Melody 52.2%
Easy to Sing 51.4%
Traditional Song 47.9&
(Highest three choices from the list.)
The comparo is to the church musician:
Leadership of Organ or Instruments 66.4%
Meaningful Text 65.6%
Leadership of Cantor or Director 60.9%
So throw away the organist, 'meaningful texts' and the cantor. Sing Lobe dem Herren, Stille Nacht, and Adoro Te.
HT: New Lit Movement
WHAT HELPS YOU TO SING THE LITURGY?
(From the people in the pew)
Familiar Melody 52.2%
Easy to Sing 51.4%
Traditional Song 47.9&
(Highest three choices from the list.)
The comparo is to the church musician:
Leadership of Organ or Instruments 66.4%
Meaningful Text 65.6%
Leadership of Cantor or Director 60.9%
So throw away the organist, 'meaningful texts' and the cantor. Sing Lobe dem Herren, Stille Nacht, and Adoro Te.
HT: New Lit Movement
Threaten a Daughter? Sorvino Has the Answer
HT: Catholic Caveman:
"Goodfellas" actor Paul Sorvino pulled a gun on his daughter's ex-boyfriend after the man pounded on her hotel door and made threats, the daughter testified Tuesday.
"He got in my father's face and said, 'Go ahead, Paul, shoot, I ain't done nothing wrong,'" Amanda Sorvino, 36, told a Monroe County judge. The judge granted her request for a protection-from-abuse order against Daniel Snee, 21.
Amanda Sorvino testified Snee threatened to kill her at a hotel Jan. 3 in Stowe, Vt.; she said she locked herself in the bathroom and called both police and her father. Her 67-year-old father showed up before police, she testified. When police arrived, the young man was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, she said.
The meatball's lucky the cops showed up fast.
"Goodfellas" actor Paul Sorvino pulled a gun on his daughter's ex-boyfriend after the man pounded on her hotel door and made threats, the daughter testified Tuesday.
"He got in my father's face and said, 'Go ahead, Paul, shoot, I ain't done nothing wrong,'" Amanda Sorvino, 36, told a Monroe County judge. The judge granted her request for a protection-from-abuse order against Daniel Snee, 21.
Amanda Sorvino testified Snee threatened to kill her at a hotel Jan. 3 in Stowe, Vt.; she said she locked herself in the bathroom and called both police and her father. Her 67-year-old father showed up before police, she testified. When police arrived, the young man was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, she said.
The meatball's lucky the cops showed up fast.
Celibacy: Preserves Capital, Too
We're reminded by the drones, droningly, that "married priests" would solve a lot (if not all) of the Church's problems.
But marriage has its own, ah, requirements. So does living the Lavender Lifestyle:
The Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa has restored $9.4 million to parishes and schools that lost the money due to mismanagement of a consolidated fund.
The consolidated fund was set up to pay for things the diocese couldn’t afford and had several contributors. In 1999, after former Bishop Patrick Zeimann resigned amid a sexual misconduct scandal, the diocese discovered Zeimann had been using the fund’s money inappropriately.
A quiet celibate lifestyle is not only a faithful reflection of the vocation (alter Christus) but infinitely better for keeping one's name out of the newspapers.
But marriage has its own, ah, requirements. So does living the Lavender Lifestyle:
The Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa has restored $9.4 million to parishes and schools that lost the money due to mismanagement of a consolidated fund.
The consolidated fund was set up to pay for things the diocese couldn’t afford and had several contributors. In 1999, after former Bishop Patrick Zeimann resigned amid a sexual misconduct scandal, the diocese discovered Zeimann had been using the fund’s money inappropriately.
A quiet celibate lifestyle is not only a faithful reflection of the vocation (alter Christus) but infinitely better for keeping one's name out of the newspapers.
JS Columnist Chokes on His Research
Poor Mike Nichols. He won't fudge his research--so he's stuck with the wrong result.
Awwwwww...
About Annette Ziegler, running for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, here are the relevant quotes:
Lawyers are always going to say good things about judges on the record, but in her case they say the same thing off it, or on background. She's smart, the word is, and has a good temperament.
One attorney who practices in front of her frequently, for instance, said she is "top-notch."
"I know that a lot of the old-school guys thought that was the case," he said of politics being responsible for her getting the job, "but I can't imagine that many of them are displeased."
That is certainly not what Nichols wanted to write. Here's how he started:
Now that Annette Ziegler is running for the Supreme Court, maybe it's time to figure out why she's even on the circuit court.
Get the drift? We are shocked, I say, shocked to learn that she was appointed by Tommy T.
"The perception here," wrote Becker, who retired in 1999 but still lives in the area, "is that this is a purely political appointment. That may not be the case, but it certainly looks that way from our perspective."
...so says a retired judge (Becker.) Ziegler's family (really, her in-laws) donated to Tommy. Tommy appointed her.
The facts in evidence-- that she's a Marquette Law grad, with O'Neill, Cannon experience as well as a stint as a Federal prosecutor--had nothing to do with her appointment. (We should add that Atty. Cannon is NOT a 'conservative.' But maybe he, too, should be inspected.)
Nope. It's all money and politics.
And, as the judge might say...the facts.
Awwwwww...
About Annette Ziegler, running for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, here are the relevant quotes:
Lawyers are always going to say good things about judges on the record, but in her case they say the same thing off it, or on background. She's smart, the word is, and has a good temperament.
One attorney who practices in front of her frequently, for instance, said she is "top-notch."
"I know that a lot of the old-school guys thought that was the case," he said of politics being responsible for her getting the job, "but I can't imagine that many of them are displeased."
That is certainly not what Nichols wanted to write. Here's how he started:
Now that Annette Ziegler is running for the Supreme Court, maybe it's time to figure out why she's even on the circuit court.
Get the drift? We are shocked, I say, shocked to learn that she was appointed by Tommy T.
"The perception here," wrote Becker, who retired in 1999 but still lives in the area, "is that this is a purely political appointment. That may not be the case, but it certainly looks that way from our perspective."
...so says a retired judge (Becker.) Ziegler's family (really, her in-laws) donated to Tommy. Tommy appointed her.
The facts in evidence-- that she's a Marquette Law grad, with O'Neill, Cannon experience as well as a stint as a Federal prosecutor--had nothing to do with her appointment. (We should add that Atty. Cannon is NOT a 'conservative.' But maybe he, too, should be inspected.)
Nope. It's all money and politics.
And, as the judge might say...the facts.
Another "Survey Says" Pile of Crap
You've heard that "51% of American women are living without a spouse...."
Bullfeathers.
The Times got their numbers from the Census Bureau's new American Community Survey, which surveyed "117 million women over the age of 15." Wait a minute. "Over the age of 15"?
Lying with numbers, NYSlimes-style.
Bullfeathers.
The Times got their numbers from the Census Bureau's new American Community Survey, which surveyed "117 million women over the age of 15." Wait a minute. "Over the age of 15"?
Lying with numbers, NYSlimes-style.
Another Reason Pelosi Doesn't Like "Interest Groups"
As you know, the Empress, Pelosi, has rammed through a bill in the House which will have a devastating effect on grass-roots interest groups. (The Senate has added language which will have the same effect on churches.)
In brief, if the group 'influences voters' they will have to register with the Feds, fill out endless forms, and generally put up with a lot of government shit.
Screw the First Amendment. We're the Democrats! The Empire!! We were elected to RULE!!
Anyway.
Here's what the reliably pro-abortion Empress has to face in the "interest groups" interned postings: pictures of babies in utero displaying affection for their womb-mates (heh...) as brought to you by Modern Commentaries (see the link for the whole picture.)
We're waiting for Abp. Wuerl to adopt a "style" of teaching and ruling the Empress which comports with immutable Roman Catholic morals...
In brief, if the group 'influences voters' they will have to register with the Feds, fill out endless forms, and generally put up with a lot of government shit.
Screw the First Amendment. We're the Democrats! The Empire!! We were elected to RULE!!
Anyway.
Here's what the reliably pro-abortion Empress has to face in the "interest groups" interned postings: pictures of babies in utero displaying affection for their womb-mates (heh...) as brought to you by Modern Commentaries (see the link for the whole picture.)
We're waiting for Abp. Wuerl to adopt a "style" of teaching and ruling the Empress which comports with immutable Roman Catholic morals...
Good Luck With That, Mr. Hodge
The Milwaukee Bucks recently acquired a player named Hodge.
He's not likely to be happy with Our Governor, DarthDoyle.
A Denver Nuggets player who was shot nine months ago and traded this week was one of two Nuggets in the process of trying to obtain concealed handgun permits.
Guard Julius Hodge, who was traded Thursday to the Milwaukee Bucks as part of a multiplayer deal, and Nuggets forward Reggie Evans, began the process of trying to get permits about two months ago, well before the shooting death of the Broncos cornerback
Hodge did not deny applying for the permit but refused to answer questions about why he wanted to carry a gun.
Last April, a gunman fired at Hodge as he was driving on I-76, spraying his car with bullets. The point guard had left a nightclub a few minutes earlier. Five bullets hit him. No arrests have been made.
Here in Wisconsin, Mr. Hodge, you simply won't get a permit to carry. That's because here in DarthDoyle's Wisconsin, there is no NEED for law-abiding citizens to defend themselves. Just ask our police department members.
Right?
HT: John Lott
He's not likely to be happy with Our Governor, DarthDoyle.
A Denver Nuggets player who was shot nine months ago and traded this week was one of two Nuggets in the process of trying to obtain concealed handgun permits.
Guard Julius Hodge, who was traded Thursday to the Milwaukee Bucks as part of a multiplayer deal, and Nuggets forward Reggie Evans, began the process of trying to get permits about two months ago, well before the shooting death of the Broncos cornerback
Hodge did not deny applying for the permit but refused to answer questions about why he wanted to carry a gun.
Last April, a gunman fired at Hodge as he was driving on I-76, spraying his car with bullets. The point guard had left a nightclub a few minutes earlier. Five bullets hit him. No arrests have been made.
Here in Wisconsin, Mr. Hodge, you simply won't get a permit to carry. That's because here in DarthDoyle's Wisconsin, there is no NEED for law-abiding citizens to defend themselves. Just ask our police department members.
Right?
HT: John Lott
Moving the Goalposts
Although autism is the subject of this article, 'moving the goalposts' is not a new phenomenon. Ask any public-school administrator about 'special needs' students--which happen to be very lucrative.
How else to account for the fact that a disorder that before 1990 was reported to affect just 4.7 out of every 10,000 American children now strikes 60 per 10,000, according to many estimates--the equivalent of 1 in 166 kids?
But what if there is no epidemic? What if the apparent explosion in autism numbers is simply the unforeseen result of shifting definitions, policy changes and increased awareness among parents, educators and doctors? That's what George Washington University anthropologist Roy Richard Grinker persuasively argues in a new book sure to generate controversy
And here come the schools:
U.S. schools are required to report data on kids who receive special-education services, but autism wasn't added as a category until the 1991-92 school year. No wonder the numbers exploded--from 22,445 receiving services for autism in 1995 to 140,254 in 2004. Grinker points out that "traumatic brain injury" also became one of the 13 reportable categories in 1992, and it had a similar spike.
We're not going to argue with clinical specialists on the topic of diagnosis. On the other hand, this sort of attitude is not unusual among MDs, shrinks, et al:
Doctors are also more willing to apply the diagnosis to help a patient. "I'll call a kid a zebra if it will get him the educational services I think he needs," National Institute of Mental Health psychiatrist Judith Rapoport told Grinker.
And then there's the personal money (remember Social Security "Disability" payments for the little darlings?)
In some states, parents of children with autism can apply for Medicaid even if they are not near the poverty line. A diagnosis of mental retardation doesn't always offer this advantage.
By the way, Jim Doyle's Socialized Health mungoes will be reading this, too...
HT: Clay Cramer
How else to account for the fact that a disorder that before 1990 was reported to affect just 4.7 out of every 10,000 American children now strikes 60 per 10,000, according to many estimates--the equivalent of 1 in 166 kids?
But what if there is no epidemic? What if the apparent explosion in autism numbers is simply the unforeseen result of shifting definitions, policy changes and increased awareness among parents, educators and doctors? That's what George Washington University anthropologist Roy Richard Grinker persuasively argues in a new book sure to generate controversy
And here come the schools:
U.S. schools are required to report data on kids who receive special-education services, but autism wasn't added as a category until the 1991-92 school year. No wonder the numbers exploded--from 22,445 receiving services for autism in 1995 to 140,254 in 2004. Grinker points out that "traumatic brain injury" also became one of the 13 reportable categories in 1992, and it had a similar spike.
We're not going to argue with clinical specialists on the topic of diagnosis. On the other hand, this sort of attitude is not unusual among MDs, shrinks, et al:
Doctors are also more willing to apply the diagnosis to help a patient. "I'll call a kid a zebra if it will get him the educational services I think he needs," National Institute of Mental Health psychiatrist Judith Rapoport told Grinker.
And then there's the personal money (remember Social Security "Disability" payments for the little darlings?)
In some states, parents of children with autism can apply for Medicaid even if they are not near the poverty line. A diagnosis of mental retardation doesn't always offer this advantage.
By the way, Jim Doyle's Socialized Health mungoes will be reading this, too...
HT: Clay Cramer
City of Brookfield Just Wants the Land
Well, not just "the land." The City wants the whole damn thing--including the TAX REVENUES.
(Of course, they'll install Bloomberg Sidewalks at a slight additional cost.)
Town Supervisors held out the carrot of free fire service to the City of Brookfield's southwest side Tuesday night in requesting a joint meeting between the Town Board and city aldermen to renew negotiations over cooperating on fire service.
In making the offer, supervisors accused city staff of mischaracterizing negotiations about regional cooperation and raised questions about the city's plan to relocate two fire stations at a cost of more than $4 million
Town Supervisors expressed particular frustration at a handout given to city residents at a public hearing last week. It indicated that town officials refused proposals for cooperation on fire services.
Town Attorney James Hammes was more blunt. "Some of these points are absolutely false," said Hammes, pointing at the handout.
The City has been playing games with the Township for several years, under several different Mayors.
There's never been a doubt that the City covets the land (and revenues.) The City spends a lot of money--building monument-offices e.g.--and there's a lot of revenue available on Bluemound Road.
One wonders how long it will take before Town residents will be subject to the tender administration of the City's growing and prosperous bureaucracy (and popinjay municipal judge.)
(Of course, they'll install Bloomberg Sidewalks at a slight additional cost.)
Town Supervisors held out the carrot of free fire service to the City of Brookfield's southwest side Tuesday night in requesting a joint meeting between the Town Board and city aldermen to renew negotiations over cooperating on fire service.
In making the offer, supervisors accused city staff of mischaracterizing negotiations about regional cooperation and raised questions about the city's plan to relocate two fire stations at a cost of more than $4 million
Town Supervisors expressed particular frustration at a handout given to city residents at a public hearing last week. It indicated that town officials refused proposals for cooperation on fire services.
Town Attorney James Hammes was more blunt. "Some of these points are absolutely false," said Hammes, pointing at the handout.
The City has been playing games with the Township for several years, under several different Mayors.
There's never been a doubt that the City covets the land (and revenues.) The City spends a lot of money--building monument-offices e.g.--and there's a lot of revenue available on Bluemound Road.
One wonders how long it will take before Town residents will be subject to the tender administration of the City's growing and prosperous bureaucracy (and popinjay municipal judge.)
Right Location, Wrong Function
Another cop (see below for the first one) with a serious Gray-Matter-Deficiency Syndrome surfaces:
Milwaukee police officer was suspended Tuesday after her arrest on accusations of insurance fraud and other offenses, according to police and sheriff's officials.
Tamara R. Crouther, a 13-year veteran of the force, had been assigned to the department's downtown jail, said department spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz.
Now she'll be assigned to the jail again.
One wonders how long she'll be on the City payroll, given her union rights...
Milwaukee police officer was suspended Tuesday after her arrest on accusations of insurance fraud and other offenses, according to police and sheriff's officials.
Tamara R. Crouther, a 13-year veteran of the force, had been assigned to the department's downtown jail, said department spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz.
Now she'll be assigned to the jail again.
One wonders how long she'll be on the City payroll, given her union rights...
Stupid Crook Stories
What a maroon...
After his Bantek going-away party Nov. 22, Bradley was seen in his Bantek uniform on surveillance video, taking $21,980 from the Hyatt automated teller machine about 5:30 p.m., the complaint alleges.
He is charged with theft of more than $10,000 from the ATM and the theft of entity-identifying information for wearing the uniform after he left the company, according to the complaint. Both charges are felonies.
One hopes that he had brushed his teeth and smiled for the camera!
Maybe the Chicago PD should re-evaluate their recruit-screening techniques?
Adam T. Bradley, 31, of Chicago enrolled in the Chicago department's training academy Nov. 27
Leno will have a field day with this one.
After his Bantek going-away party Nov. 22, Bradley was seen in his Bantek uniform on surveillance video, taking $21,980 from the Hyatt automated teller machine about 5:30 p.m., the complaint alleges.
He is charged with theft of more than $10,000 from the ATM and the theft of entity-identifying information for wearing the uniform after he left the company, according to the complaint. Both charges are felonies.
One hopes that he had brushed his teeth and smiled for the camera!
Maybe the Chicago PD should re-evaluate their recruit-screening techniques?
Adam T. Bradley, 31, of Chicago enrolled in the Chicago department's training academy Nov. 27
Leno will have a field day with this one.
Bill Andrekopolous and Me
Proving that Superintendent Andrekopolous reads blogs and takes advice!
Andrekopolous has now sent the memo: students in MPS schools will NOT have a cellphone. That was Step One in my post.
Dad29: 1) Letter home and news release: MPS will not allow students to have cellphones in schools AND will not allow students to have them ON SCHOOL PROPERTY, period. No exceptions.
He also liked my Step Two:
Policies may vary somewhat from school to school, but the memo to principals suggested steps such as taking away a phone for a first infraction and perhaps requiring a parent conference before it is returned, with suspensions or central office disciplinary hearings required for repeat offenders.
From the Dad29 policy manual: 2) When the darlings arrive for classes, pat them down. If they have a cellphone, it goes to a locked closet. It will NOT be returned to the student, period. Only a parent may retrieve it.
If you need more help, Bill, just call.
Andrekopolous has now sent the memo: students in MPS schools will NOT have a cellphone. That was Step One in my post.
Dad29: 1) Letter home and news release: MPS will not allow students to have cellphones in schools AND will not allow students to have them ON SCHOOL PROPERTY, period. No exceptions.
He also liked my Step Two:
Policies may vary somewhat from school to school, but the memo to principals suggested steps such as taking away a phone for a first infraction and perhaps requiring a parent conference before it is returned, with suspensions or central office disciplinary hearings required for repeat offenders.
From the Dad29 policy manual: 2) When the darlings arrive for classes, pat them down. If they have a cellphone, it goes to a locked closet. It will NOT be returned to the student, period. Only a parent may retrieve it.
If you need more help, Bill, just call.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
The Ninth Circus--Back in Action!
Sure enough, the security of the USA is not a concern for the 9th:
A U.S. federal appeals court dropped on Tuesday one of nine criminal counts against "millennium bomber" Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian convicted of plotting to blow up Los Angeles International Airport, and ordered a lower court to recalculate his 22-year sentence.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco reversed his conviction of carrying an explosive while committing a felony. The felony was lying on a customs form by signing another man's name.
The court said it ordered the conviction reversed because the jury was not informed about the charge's link to the underlying crime.
"The government must demonstrate that the explosives aided the commission of the underlying felony in some way," Judge Pamela Ann Rymer wrote for a split three-judge panel. "There is no evidence that the explosives emboldened Ressam to lie or that he used them to 'protect himself or intimidate others."'
I'd like to know what that dumb broad would say if YOU had a trunkful of C-4 near the SanFran Federal Courthouse after having threatened to blow up a Court of Appeals.
We're near the point where the jurisprudents-in-question could be renamed "the 9th J***-off Court..."
A U.S. federal appeals court dropped on Tuesday one of nine criminal counts against "millennium bomber" Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian convicted of plotting to blow up Los Angeles International Airport, and ordered a lower court to recalculate his 22-year sentence.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco reversed his conviction of carrying an explosive while committing a felony. The felony was lying on a customs form by signing another man's name.
The court said it ordered the conviction reversed because the jury was not informed about the charge's link to the underlying crime.
"The government must demonstrate that the explosives aided the commission of the underlying felony in some way," Judge Pamela Ann Rymer wrote for a split three-judge panel. "There is no evidence that the explosives emboldened Ressam to lie or that he used them to 'protect himself or intimidate others."'
I'd like to know what that dumb broad would say if YOU had a trunkful of C-4 near the SanFran Federal Courthouse after having threatened to blow up a Court of Appeals.
We're near the point where the jurisprudents-in-question could be renamed "the 9th J***-off Court..."
Actuosa Participatio--a Property of Traditionalists
So argues Michael Foley, quoted in Blosser.
Making both the texts and rituals of the liturgy comprehensible to the people was a high priority of the reforms mandated by Vatican II. It was the desire of Sacrosanctum Concilium that the “Christian people, as far as possible, should be able to understand the [the liturgy] with ease” (Sacrosanctum Concilium 21; cf. 48). Raising the mind to God, Sacrosanctum Concilium states, enables the faithful “to offer Him the worship which reason requires and [to] more copiously receive His grace” (33). Sacrosanctum Concilium even makes provisions for liturgical instruction to be given within the liturgy itself (ibid.).
Even without in-service instruction or a single change to their rite (a point to which we shall return later), traditionalists as a whole receive high marks in this category. During a Latin mass celebrated today the faithful are typically engrossed in the beauty of the sacred liturgy, usually with the help of their well-annotated missals. As a general rule the pre-conciliar “horror stories” about Catholics “obliviously” praying the Rosary during Mass no longer apply; if these stories continue to circulate, it is usually by people who have never been to a celebration of the old rite in the past fifteen years.
Here is a very pertinent quotation from Benedict XVI (when Ratzinger):
[i]n those places where the liturgical movement had created a certain love for the liturgy – in those places where this movement anticipated the essential ideas of the Council . . . there was greater suffering in the face of a liturgical reform undertaken in too much haste and limiting itself often to the exterior aspect.4
That is true. Many Milwaukee-area parishes were onstream with the "Dialog Mass" and all the other reforms of Pius XII and John XXIII. That activity was shaken, not stirred, with the Revolution of 1969.
Back to Foley:
Indeed, I would go so far as to suggest that the more liturgically progressive the average American Roman Catholic is today, the less interested he is in actually learning either about or from the Mass. His goal is usually to “be creative” with the liturgy rather than understand it, and in general the zeal for the change which “creativeness” demands – be it personal, political, or liturgical – is rarely matched in this postlapsarian world by an eagerness to grasp what is being changed.
As I intend to show in a future article,12 the Church has always meant by active participation “actively engaged contemplation,”13 not an activist participation that effectively undermines the conditions for any real prayer. Hence most Latin Mass attendees are engaged in authentic active participation simply by virtue of their being prayerfully, lovingly, and attentively present in the Mass. This is especially true when they recite or chant the parts of the Mass proper to them, but it is important to note that it can be equally true when they do not. Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (aka Edith Stein) was a strong proponent of the participatory “dialogue Mass” movement of her day, through she herself spent the entire Mass in rapt, silent adoration. It would be foolish to conclude from this “undemonstrative” form of love that this great saint was any less a participant of the Mass than her more vocal pew-mates.
The term "actuosa participatio" when used with reference to the Mass, of course, means that one should "comport with Christ" Who offers Himself in self-sacrifice to the Father. To the degree that one achieves that unity with Christ, that is the degree to which one is "really participating" in the sacrifice...
Yet even if one accepts for the sake of argument the shallow conception of active participation as activism or mere external activity, Latin Mass congregations in general still participate more actively the Mass than Novus Ordo congregations in at least two ways.14 First, many traditionalists today do not just make the responses of the Mass (of which there are more in the Tridentine rite, incidentally) but its prescribed “actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes” as well, thus acting in accord with one of the professed goals of Vatican II (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 30). The frequent signs of the cross, striking of one’s breast, genuflections in honor of the Incarnation during the Creed and the Last Gospel or in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, and bowing at the Holy Name of Jesus in the rubrics of the old rite are often enacted meticulously by the faithful at a Latin mass, thus making for a holy and holistic worship that involves both body and soul.
By contrast, several of the relatively few rubrics of the Novus Ordo are either ignored by the average congregation (with experience as one’s sole guide, one would never know that bowing at the Holy name and striking one’s breast at the Confiteor are still in the General Instructions of the Roman Missal; or they are supplanted by illicit gestures such as holding hands during the Our Father and aping actions reserved for the priest alone, innovations that are generically condemned by Sacrosanctum Concilium (22, §3,23) and that have been explicitly condemned by the Magisterium several times since.
(Or, worst, the priest "apes" the celebration of the Mass invalidly. How does one "participate" in THAT?)
A little food for thought.
Making both the texts and rituals of the liturgy comprehensible to the people was a high priority of the reforms mandated by Vatican II. It was the desire of Sacrosanctum Concilium that the “Christian people, as far as possible, should be able to understand the [the liturgy] with ease” (Sacrosanctum Concilium 21; cf. 48). Raising the mind to God, Sacrosanctum Concilium states, enables the faithful “to offer Him the worship which reason requires and [to] more copiously receive His grace” (33). Sacrosanctum Concilium even makes provisions for liturgical instruction to be given within the liturgy itself (ibid.).
Even without in-service instruction or a single change to their rite (a point to which we shall return later), traditionalists as a whole receive high marks in this category. During a Latin mass celebrated today the faithful are typically engrossed in the beauty of the sacred liturgy, usually with the help of their well-annotated missals. As a general rule the pre-conciliar “horror stories” about Catholics “obliviously” praying the Rosary during Mass no longer apply; if these stories continue to circulate, it is usually by people who have never been to a celebration of the old rite in the past fifteen years.
Here is a very pertinent quotation from Benedict XVI (when Ratzinger):
[i]n those places where the liturgical movement had created a certain love for the liturgy – in those places where this movement anticipated the essential ideas of the Council . . . there was greater suffering in the face of a liturgical reform undertaken in too much haste and limiting itself often to the exterior aspect.4
That is true. Many Milwaukee-area parishes were onstream with the "Dialog Mass" and all the other reforms of Pius XII and John XXIII. That activity was shaken, not stirred, with the Revolution of 1969.
Back to Foley:
Indeed, I would go so far as to suggest that the more liturgically progressive the average American Roman Catholic is today, the less interested he is in actually learning either about or from the Mass. His goal is usually to “be creative” with the liturgy rather than understand it, and in general the zeal for the change which “creativeness” demands – be it personal, political, or liturgical – is rarely matched in this postlapsarian world by an eagerness to grasp what is being changed.
As I intend to show in a future article,12 the Church has always meant by active participation “actively engaged contemplation,”13 not an activist participation that effectively undermines the conditions for any real prayer. Hence most Latin Mass attendees are engaged in authentic active participation simply by virtue of their being prayerfully, lovingly, and attentively present in the Mass. This is especially true when they recite or chant the parts of the Mass proper to them, but it is important to note that it can be equally true when they do not. Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (aka Edith Stein) was a strong proponent of the participatory “dialogue Mass” movement of her day, through she herself spent the entire Mass in rapt, silent adoration. It would be foolish to conclude from this “undemonstrative” form of love that this great saint was any less a participant of the Mass than her more vocal pew-mates.
The term "actuosa participatio" when used with reference to the Mass, of course, means that one should "comport with Christ" Who offers Himself in self-sacrifice to the Father. To the degree that one achieves that unity with Christ, that is the degree to which one is "really participating" in the sacrifice...
Yet even if one accepts for the sake of argument the shallow conception of active participation as activism or mere external activity, Latin Mass congregations in general still participate more actively the Mass than Novus Ordo congregations in at least two ways.14 First, many traditionalists today do not just make the responses of the Mass (of which there are more in the Tridentine rite, incidentally) but its prescribed “actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes” as well, thus acting in accord with one of the professed goals of Vatican II (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 30). The frequent signs of the cross, striking of one’s breast, genuflections in honor of the Incarnation during the Creed and the Last Gospel or in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, and bowing at the Holy Name of Jesus in the rubrics of the old rite are often enacted meticulously by the faithful at a Latin mass, thus making for a holy and holistic worship that involves both body and soul.
By contrast, several of the relatively few rubrics of the Novus Ordo are either ignored by the average congregation (with experience as one’s sole guide, one would never know that bowing at the Holy name and striking one’s breast at the Confiteor are still in the General Instructions of the Roman Missal; or they are supplanted by illicit gestures such as holding hands during the Our Father and aping actions reserved for the priest alone, innovations that are generically condemned by Sacrosanctum Concilium (22, §3,23) and that have been explicitly condemned by the Magisterium several times since.
(Or, worst, the priest "apes" the celebration of the Mass invalidly. How does one "participate" in THAT?)
A little food for thought.
A Model for US Bishops
Of course, the predicate would be lavender, not Red.
Following the Bp. Wielgus affair,
Now the Polish bishops have decided to create an independent commission to investigate themselves for past collaboration with the security services. According to the Zenit Daily Dispatch for January 14, 2007, local investigative commissions will be formed across Poland, and a “National Ecclesiastical Historical Commission will be set up in March in which historians and jurists, among others, will take part. The Institute of National Remembrance [a pre-existing body created by the Polish government], established to investigate and document cases of Communist collaboration, has been entrusted with the files of the secret police, and will aid in the investigation of the bishops. The results will be sent to the Holy See, which will have the last word.”
Sure would be nice to have a little sunshine for cures, no?
Following the Bp. Wielgus affair,
Now the Polish bishops have decided to create an independent commission to investigate themselves for past collaboration with the security services. According to the Zenit Daily Dispatch for January 14, 2007, local investigative commissions will be formed across Poland, and a “National Ecclesiastical Historical Commission will be set up in March in which historians and jurists, among others, will take part. The Institute of National Remembrance [a pre-existing body created by the Polish government], established to investigate and document cases of Communist collaboration, has been entrusted with the files of the secret police, and will aid in the investigation of the bishops. The results will be sent to the Holy See, which will have the last word.”
Sure would be nice to have a little sunshine for cures, no?
"As Is, Where Is"--Really?
It's probably some sort of legal requirement, but ....really!!
Amcast Industrial Corporation has retained Keen Realty, LLC as special real estate consultant to market for sale the Company's excess industrial properties.
The property is located in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. The site consists of 8.4 acres of land and is improved with buildings totaling approximately 215,000 sq. ft. The two main buildings on the property are a manufacturing facility with 175,000 sq. ft. and an office building with 30,000 sq. ft. This location is ideal for continued use as an industrial/office use or for redevelopment.
"The property will be going to auction on February 13, 2007 in Indianapolis, IN. It will be sold as-is, where-is to the highest bidder at the auction, subject to Bankruptcy Court approval. All interested parties must act now."
Amcast Industrial Corporation has retained Keen Realty, LLC as special real estate consultant to market for sale the Company's excess industrial properties.
The property is located in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. The site consists of 8.4 acres of land and is improved with buildings totaling approximately 215,000 sq. ft. The two main buildings on the property are a manufacturing facility with 175,000 sq. ft. and an office building with 30,000 sq. ft. This location is ideal for continued use as an industrial/office use or for redevelopment.
"The property will be going to auction on February 13, 2007 in Indianapolis, IN. It will be sold as-is, where-is to the highest bidder at the auction, subject to Bankruptcy Court approval. All interested parties must act now."
Fooey. I wanted to purchase the property, but only if the seller assumed responsibility to move the damn thing to Brookfield.
Rollie Fingers Reacts
Rollie doesn't like the State of Wisconsin's Department of Revenue.
In a January 8 post to the website, RollieFingersSportsBlog.com, the state's web listing of the former Milwaukee Brewers pitcher's tax debt is challenged. "The Brewers went through the archieves (sic) and found that every paycheck issued to Rollie Fingers while he was a member of the Brewers had state income taxes withheld.
"The web post also suggested Revenue officials will to have answer for their public accounting of Fingers' tax situation. "I would say that those in charge are in more s..t than a Wisconsin cow walks through in a year."
Fingers operates the website.
Go, Rollie, Go!!
In a January 8 post to the website, RollieFingersSportsBlog.com, the state's web listing of the former Milwaukee Brewers pitcher's tax debt is challenged. "The Brewers went through the archieves (sic) and found that every paycheck issued to Rollie Fingers while he was a member of the Brewers had state income taxes withheld.
"The web post also suggested Revenue officials will to have answer for their public accounting of Fingers' tax situation. "I would say that those in charge are in more s..t than a Wisconsin cow walks through in a year."
Fingers operates the website.
Go, Rollie, Go!!
No Smoking Bars? No Problem
Somewhere on the 'net (can't find the blogger who posted it) there's a great story.
In Australia or NZ, the Moron-Nannies passed a national "no-smoking-in-bars" law.
OK. Fine.
Now, Joe, Sam, Charlie, and others are running bars from their own homes and garages. Smoking allowed. Profits go to Joe, Sam, and Charlie.
Screw the man!
Don't think for one second that it can't happen here.
In Australia or NZ, the Moron-Nannies passed a national "no-smoking-in-bars" law.
OK. Fine.
Now, Joe, Sam, Charlie, and others are running bars from their own homes and garages. Smoking allowed. Profits go to Joe, Sam, and Charlie.
Screw the man!
Don't think for one second that it can't happen here.
Earmark Reform Wins
No thanks to "Nobody's Senator" Kohl, PIG-Prototype Lott, and 44 other assorted scumbags, including Durkin...
But props to Feinie.
HT: Malkin
But props to Feinie.
HT: Malkin
Kucinich: "Fairness" Doctrine to Return?
Attempting to gain visibility, Denny Kook-inich wants to impose the "Fairness" doctrine on your radio.
This is LeftoWackie code for "Imposing Our Views on You."
The Fairness Doctrine did not require broadcasters to present issues in a "fair and honest manner"; it required them to turn their stations into ping-ponging punditry if they allowed opinion to appear on the air at all. It created such a complicated formula that most broadcasters simply refused to air any political programming, as it created a liability for station owners for being held hostage to all manner of complaints about lack of balance.
Why would Kucinich want to reimpose the Fairness Doctrine and kill off the AM band and talk radio? Because his allies have proven less successful than conservatives at building a market for their broadcasts. Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt, and a slew of conservative thinkers carved out an industry out of the AM wilderness, and the Al Frankens and Wendy Wildes can't keep up without government intervention. Air America would lose as well in this scenario, but I'm sure Kucinich sees that as a fair trade, and for good reason.
Of course, at this time, there are ways to get around AM radio. Podcast and other 'net devices are out there, after all.
Another alternative: take a pitchfork to Kook-inich's ass.
HT: Captain's Quarters
This is LeftoWackie code for "Imposing Our Views on You."
The Fairness Doctrine did not require broadcasters to present issues in a "fair and honest manner"; it required them to turn their stations into ping-ponging punditry if they allowed opinion to appear on the air at all. It created such a complicated formula that most broadcasters simply refused to air any political programming, as it created a liability for station owners for being held hostage to all manner of complaints about lack of balance.
Why would Kucinich want to reimpose the Fairness Doctrine and kill off the AM band and talk radio? Because his allies have proven less successful than conservatives at building a market for their broadcasts. Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt, and a slew of conservative thinkers carved out an industry out of the AM wilderness, and the Al Frankens and Wendy Wildes can't keep up without government intervention. Air America would lose as well in this scenario, but I'm sure Kucinich sees that as a fair trade, and for good reason.
Of course, at this time, there are ways to get around AM radio. Podcast and other 'net devices are out there, after all.
Another alternative: take a pitchfork to Kook-inich's ass.
HT: Captain's Quarters
Run a Bar? Tail's Pinned to YOUR Butt
This case should be interesting:
As police crack down on binge drinking, some bar owners say they're being unfairly cited when drunken people inaccurately finger their establishment as the place where the excessive alcohol was served.
Scott Kundy, owner of Cheapshots in downtown La Crosse, got a $285 ticket Jan. 7 after a drunken 22-year-old woman was found drenched and barefoot after climbing out of the La Crosse River. The woman told police she drank at Kundy's bar.
"It's not right. I didn't do anything wrong and did everything by the book," Kundy said.
It's an accepted practice to cite bar owners and servers based on an intoxicated person's word and a follow-up investigation, Police Chief Ed Kondracki said.
The chief couldn't remember an instance of a bar owner contesting the citation, but Kundy said he intends to have his day in court.
The bar-owner intends to raise credibility issues with the woman's testimony. That shouldn't be too hard to do. My first question would be "....Kundy's bar, eh? And where ELSE?"
As police crack down on binge drinking, some bar owners say they're being unfairly cited when drunken people inaccurately finger their establishment as the place where the excessive alcohol was served.
Scott Kundy, owner of Cheapshots in downtown La Crosse, got a $285 ticket Jan. 7 after a drunken 22-year-old woman was found drenched and barefoot after climbing out of the La Crosse River. The woman told police she drank at Kundy's bar.
"It's not right. I didn't do anything wrong and did everything by the book," Kundy said.
It's an accepted practice to cite bar owners and servers based on an intoxicated person's word and a follow-up investigation, Police Chief Ed Kondracki said.
The chief couldn't remember an instance of a bar owner contesting the citation, but Kundy said he intends to have his day in court.
The bar-owner intends to raise credibility issues with the woman's testimony. That shouldn't be too hard to do. My first question would be "....Kundy's bar, eh? And where ELSE?"
Another State Republican Party Screw-Job
It's really difficult to cry over Republican losses, given this crap:
With more than 50 businesses seeking to pour liquor for the first time in the city, [City of Brookfield] aldermen tonight will consider sidestepping a state-mandated $10,000 reserve liquor license fee by rebating the money in the form of a grant.
...The city has 49 regular class B combination liquor licenses and another 20 reserve licenses, under a state quota system based on population. Under the 1997 change, the regular license-holders have to pay only a $600 annual renewal fee. But the reserve-license holders also have to pay a one-time $10,000 fee that was designed to protect mom-and-pop taverns from new competitors.
[Brookfield City Clerk] Schmidt said that although it doesn't cost the city $10,000 to administer each license, it does cost more than the $600 annual renewal fee.
That annual fee hasn't budged in more than 12 years, she said. Each liquor establishment costs the city time and money on such things as building and police inspections, compliance checks on underage drinking laws and background checks.
"The Legislature has been rather stingy about giving us any kind of increase on that," Schmidt said. "Nobody ever wants to suggest that because the Tavern League is such a strong lobby."
Of course, it's not just the Pubbies. Russ Decker also has an affinity for the Tavern League, especially when they're serving free drinks at "receptions" for lonely Legislators.
With more than 50 businesses seeking to pour liquor for the first time in the city, [City of Brookfield] aldermen tonight will consider sidestepping a state-mandated $10,000 reserve liquor license fee by rebating the money in the form of a grant.
...The city has 49 regular class B combination liquor licenses and another 20 reserve licenses, under a state quota system based on population. Under the 1997 change, the regular license-holders have to pay only a $600 annual renewal fee. But the reserve-license holders also have to pay a one-time $10,000 fee that was designed to protect mom-and-pop taverns from new competitors.
[Brookfield City Clerk] Schmidt said that although it doesn't cost the city $10,000 to administer each license, it does cost more than the $600 annual renewal fee.
That annual fee hasn't budged in more than 12 years, she said. Each liquor establishment costs the city time and money on such things as building and police inspections, compliance checks on underage drinking laws and background checks.
"The Legislature has been rather stingy about giving us any kind of increase on that," Schmidt said. "Nobody ever wants to suggest that because the Tavern League is such a strong lobby."
Of course, it's not just the Pubbies. Russ Decker also has an affinity for the Tavern League, especially when they're serving free drinks at "receptions" for lonely Legislators.
Efficient Health Care, Right?
In order to make the case that State-run health insurance will be the greatest thing since....ahhh...sliced bread, the statists proclaim that "it will be more efficient."
After all, there's nothing more efficient than a State bureaucracy, right?
Consider this: When people in the state health programs change jobs, they have 10 days to send in a new statement of their earnings and a form from their new employer on what health benefits are offered.
State law has required the form since 2004. If the applicants miss the deadline, they and their children lose their health insurance.
"That absolutely needs to be changed," Ortiz said. "It's ridiculous."
State officials agree.
"It's been a failure from the beginning," said Jason Helgerson, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Family Services.
In 2005, the law was modified to require the state to send the form directly to employers. That proved even more unworkable. The state, unable to figure out where to send the letter, particularly when a company employs thousands of people, has never implemented the change.
Yah, that's "efficient." Streamlined, even.
Of course, the Illegal Alien Propaganda Machine is also at full throat:
The new federal law requiring people to prove their citizenship also has complicated the online applications.
"It just set up a lot of difficulties for states that were trying to simplify their application process," said Laura Summer, a senior researcher at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute.
Lemmeeesseee, heah. Enrolling in a commercial health insurance program takes about 10 minutes. Enrolling in the State-run plan can take, oh...90 days.
I think Seth & Co. have a long way to go.
After all, there's nothing more efficient than a State bureaucracy, right?
Consider this: When people in the state health programs change jobs, they have 10 days to send in a new statement of their earnings and a form from their new employer on what health benefits are offered.
State law has required the form since 2004. If the applicants miss the deadline, they and their children lose their health insurance.
"That absolutely needs to be changed," Ortiz said. "It's ridiculous."
State officials agree.
"It's been a failure from the beginning," said Jason Helgerson, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Family Services.
In 2005, the law was modified to require the state to send the form directly to employers. That proved even more unworkable. The state, unable to figure out where to send the letter, particularly when a company employs thousands of people, has never implemented the change.
Yah, that's "efficient." Streamlined, even.
Of course, the Illegal Alien Propaganda Machine is also at full throat:
The new federal law requiring people to prove their citizenship also has complicated the online applications.
"It just set up a lot of difficulties for states that were trying to simplify their application process," said Laura Summer, a senior researcher at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute.
Lemmeeesseee, heah. Enrolling in a commercial health insurance program takes about 10 minutes. Enrolling in the State-run plan can take, oh...90 days.
I think Seth & Co. have a long way to go.
GWBush to Steal It From Your Mother
Yah, the President wants to kiss the illegals, with your mother's money. It's a form of prostitution with GWB serving as the pimp--and your Mom (and auntie) flat on her back:
For years the president carried on an energetic public relations campaign to promote his plan to privatize part of Social Security, but he kept under White House lock and key the "totalization" agreement his administration secretly made with Mexico in June 2004.
There's a good reason for his secrecy:
...If and when Bush personally signs this agreement, it will automatically become law without any congressional action. The law that would have allowed one House of Congress to reject it by a vote within 60 days is generally thought to violate the Supreme Court's 1983 decision in Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha, which declared unconstitutional a one-House veto of a president's action.
Check and mate! I sign, you lose!! Hah!
...Totalization is the bureaucratic buzzword for the plan to put millions of illegal Mexican workers into the U.S. Social Security system. They would collect U.S. benefits based on their U.S earnings under false or stolen Social Security numbers plus alleged earnings in Mexico.
U.S. citizens must work 10 years to be eligible for Social Security benefits, but the totalization agreement would allow Mexicans to qualify with only 18 months of work in the United States, and pretend to make up the difference by assuming work in Mexico.
...All existing totalization agreements are with industrialized nations whose retirement systems are on a parity with that of the United States.
Mexican retirement benefits are not remotely equal to U.S. benefits. U.S. citizens receive benefits after working for 10 years, but Mexicans have to work 24 years before receiving benefits.Mexican workers receive in retirement only what they paid in plus interest, whereas the U.S. Social Security system is skewed to give lower-wage earners benefits greatly in excess of what they and their employers contributed.
Just by co-incidence, civil "servants" in Mexico have EXCELLENT retirement bennies from the Mexican gummint. PIGs (Party-In-Government types) are the same everywhere, no?
The Bush totalization plan would put millions of Mexicans onto the rolls of the U.S. Social Security system just as the baby boom generation retires. The White House won't deny that imposing higher taxes on U.S. workers is "on the table" to deal with the expected shortfall.
Bad enough that SS taxes will have to rise to paper over Congressional malfeasance over the last 40 years.
NOW we're expected to cover the cost of retirement for illegal aliens, too?
Why not PRChina retirees (assuming some poor slobs over there actually live past 65?) Here's why:
Totalization is part and parcel of the Council on Foreign Relations five-year plan for the "establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community" with a common "outer security perimeter." The 59-page CFR document - which can claim Bush administration approval because it is posted on a U.S. State Department Web site - demands the implementation of "the Social Security Totalization Agreement negotiated between the United States and Mexico."
Because the Rockefellers want it that way, that's why.
Silly question. Move along. Nothing to see here.
For years the president carried on an energetic public relations campaign to promote his plan to privatize part of Social Security, but he kept under White House lock and key the "totalization" agreement his administration secretly made with Mexico in June 2004.
There's a good reason for his secrecy:
...If and when Bush personally signs this agreement, it will automatically become law without any congressional action. The law that would have allowed one House of Congress to reject it by a vote within 60 days is generally thought to violate the Supreme Court's 1983 decision in Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha, which declared unconstitutional a one-House veto of a president's action.
Check and mate! I sign, you lose!! Hah!
...Totalization is the bureaucratic buzzword for the plan to put millions of illegal Mexican workers into the U.S. Social Security system. They would collect U.S. benefits based on their U.S earnings under false or stolen Social Security numbers plus alleged earnings in Mexico.
U.S. citizens must work 10 years to be eligible for Social Security benefits, but the totalization agreement would allow Mexicans to qualify with only 18 months of work in the United States, and pretend to make up the difference by assuming work in Mexico.
...All existing totalization agreements are with industrialized nations whose retirement systems are on a parity with that of the United States.
Mexican retirement benefits are not remotely equal to U.S. benefits. U.S. citizens receive benefits after working for 10 years, but Mexicans have to work 24 years before receiving benefits.Mexican workers receive in retirement only what they paid in plus interest, whereas the U.S. Social Security system is skewed to give lower-wage earners benefits greatly in excess of what they and their employers contributed.
Just by co-incidence, civil "servants" in Mexico have EXCELLENT retirement bennies from the Mexican gummint. PIGs (Party-In-Government types) are the same everywhere, no?
The Bush totalization plan would put millions of Mexicans onto the rolls of the U.S. Social Security system just as the baby boom generation retires. The White House won't deny that imposing higher taxes on U.S. workers is "on the table" to deal with the expected shortfall.
Bad enough that SS taxes will have to rise to paper over Congressional malfeasance over the last 40 years.
NOW we're expected to cover the cost of retirement for illegal aliens, too?
Why not PRChina retirees (assuming some poor slobs over there actually live past 65?) Here's why:
Totalization is part and parcel of the Council on Foreign Relations five-year plan for the "establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community" with a common "outer security perimeter." The 59-page CFR document - which can claim Bush administration approval because it is posted on a U.S. State Department Web site - demands the implementation of "the Social Security Totalization Agreement negotiated between the United States and Mexico."
Because the Rockefellers want it that way, that's why.
Silly question. Move along. Nothing to see here.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Abp. Wuerl: "Not My Style"
The not-at-all impertinent questions were given to Abp. Wuerl:
While in San Diego, Wuerl told California Catholic Daily reporter Allyson Smith that he has no plans to discipline the newly elected Democratic Speaker, who is now the most powerful Catholic in Congress -- and an ardent supporter of abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and pro-homosexual legislation.
Smith: “Did you make any statement last week about Nancy Pelosi going to Mass at Trinity University?”
Wuerl: “That was a matter between the university and Nancy. They were offering their location, and the Mass was celebrated by a priest with faculties, and there was no reason to make any comment.”
Smith: “Do you intend to discipline her at all for being persistent and obstinate about her support for abortion and same-sex marriage?”
Wuerl: “I will not be using the faculty in the manner you have described.”
Smith: “Will you make a statement to your priests and deacons to warn her not to allow her to receive if she presents herself for Communion?”
Wuerl: “You’re talking about a whole different style of pastoral ministry. No.”
Reminiscent of Casey at the Bat.
New theme song in DC Catholic circles: Anything Goes (Cole Porter)
HT: Amy, who also has extensive comments.
While in San Diego, Wuerl told California Catholic Daily reporter Allyson Smith that he has no plans to discipline the newly elected Democratic Speaker, who is now the most powerful Catholic in Congress -- and an ardent supporter of abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and pro-homosexual legislation.
Smith: “Did you make any statement last week about Nancy Pelosi going to Mass at Trinity University?”
Wuerl: “That was a matter between the university and Nancy. They were offering their location, and the Mass was celebrated by a priest with faculties, and there was no reason to make any comment.”
Smith: “Do you intend to discipline her at all for being persistent and obstinate about her support for abortion and same-sex marriage?”
Wuerl: “I will not be using the faculty in the manner you have described.”
Smith: “Will you make a statement to your priests and deacons to warn her not to allow her to receive if she presents herself for Communion?”
Wuerl: “You’re talking about a whole different style of pastoral ministry. No.”
Reminiscent of Casey at the Bat.
New theme song in DC Catholic circles: Anything Goes (Cole Porter)
HT: Amy, who also has extensive comments.
The Alternative Minimum Tax Continues to Threaten
This blog has mentioned the AMT a few times. Here, here, and here, for example.
USAToday today mentions it, as well--and it's not a love-tap:
If you are one of the 3.5 million people who pay the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), chances are you have committed at least two of the following three offenses:
•You have a family.
•You live in an area with high taxes, high real estate costs, or both.
•You own a small business.
Just in case you missed, it, there's an emphasis on bullet #2, which is pointed directly at the heads of Wisconsin taxpayers.
...The AMT adds complexity to an already ridiculously complex tax code by making people calculate their taxes not once, but twice. On their regular taxes, people claim deductions for dependent children, local taxes and businesses expenses. Then the AMT kicks in and takes them away. The AMT only allows two significant deductions: mortgage interest and charitable contributions.
Because the AMT is not indexed for inflation, it captures more people each year. Currently it can hit couples earning as little as $62,550.
That number is less than two average-wage Wisconsin residents earn.
There's another familiar theme in here, too:
The AMT is, in effect, an automatic tax-increasing machine that stirs huge uncertainty because it is subject to the whims of Congress each year. Congress has allowed the AMT's bite to increase slightly, while taking credit for preventing its full fury to be felt, by tinkering with exemption levels.
Had it not done so last spring, more than 18 million people would pay it this April, rather than 3.5 million. In April 2008, some 23.4 million will be caught if another fix is not enacted this year.
While these temporary patches might seem like a reasonable short-term solution, they have become a big problem in themselves. Any tax that goes up automatically raises serious questions about government accountability. By acting every year to limit the damage, Congress ducks the larger issue and creates opportunities for new mischief with each annual tax bill.
In Wisconsin, we call that "taxation without representation." Eliminating that practice on the Gas Tax cost Tom Reynolds his seat; a vengeful teat-sucking roadbuilders' group spent a lot of money to dump him.
Last year, a commission chaired by former Senators Connie Mack (news, bio, voting record) (R-Fla.) and John Breaux (D-La.) provided a blueprint on how this could be done. It recommended a number of changes as part of a plan to eliminate the AMT and simplify the tax code.
Chief among the proposals was scaling back overly generous mortgage interest deductions (on loans of up to $1 million).
That plan was attacked by the powerful real estate lobby and ignored by Congress and the Bush administration.
Conveniently, the teat-sucker lobbies all begin with "R"--Roadbuilders, Realtors...
Well, let's see what happens this go-round.
USAToday today mentions it, as well--and it's not a love-tap:
If you are one of the 3.5 million people who pay the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), chances are you have committed at least two of the following three offenses:
•You have a family.
•You live in an area with high taxes, high real estate costs, or both.
•You own a small business.
Just in case you missed, it, there's an emphasis on bullet #2, which is pointed directly at the heads of Wisconsin taxpayers.
...The AMT adds complexity to an already ridiculously complex tax code by making people calculate their taxes not once, but twice. On their regular taxes, people claim deductions for dependent children, local taxes and businesses expenses. Then the AMT kicks in and takes them away. The AMT only allows two significant deductions: mortgage interest and charitable contributions.
Because the AMT is not indexed for inflation, it captures more people each year. Currently it can hit couples earning as little as $62,550.
That number is less than two average-wage Wisconsin residents earn.
There's another familiar theme in here, too:
The AMT is, in effect, an automatic tax-increasing machine that stirs huge uncertainty because it is subject to the whims of Congress each year. Congress has allowed the AMT's bite to increase slightly, while taking credit for preventing its full fury to be felt, by tinkering with exemption levels.
Had it not done so last spring, more than 18 million people would pay it this April, rather than 3.5 million. In April 2008, some 23.4 million will be caught if another fix is not enacted this year.
While these temporary patches might seem like a reasonable short-term solution, they have become a big problem in themselves. Any tax that goes up automatically raises serious questions about government accountability. By acting every year to limit the damage, Congress ducks the larger issue and creates opportunities for new mischief with each annual tax bill.
In Wisconsin, we call that "taxation without representation." Eliminating that practice on the Gas Tax cost Tom Reynolds his seat; a vengeful teat-sucking roadbuilders' group spent a lot of money to dump him.
Last year, a commission chaired by former Senators Connie Mack (news, bio, voting record) (R-Fla.) and John Breaux (D-La.) provided a blueprint on how this could be done. It recommended a number of changes as part of a plan to eliminate the AMT and simplify the tax code.
Chief among the proposals was scaling back overly generous mortgage interest deductions (on loans of up to $1 million).
That plan was attacked by the powerful real estate lobby and ignored by Congress and the Bush administration.
Conveniently, the teat-sucker lobbies all begin with "R"--Roadbuilders, Realtors...
Well, let's see what happens this go-round.
Romney's Unusual Target-Shooter
Although it makes little difference to me if Mitt Romney is "good on guns," he's trying to become happy-happy with the NRA.
So he gives an interview about his bona fides as a "gun-guy."
Asked by reporters at the gun show Friday whether he personally owned the gun, Romney said he did not. He said one of his sons, Josh, keeps two guns at the family vacation home in Utah, and he uses them "from time to time." The guns are a Winchester hunting rifle and a Glock 9mm handgun, which Romney uses for target shooting . Romney also described himself as a sportsman who learned to shoot as a boy rabbit hunting in Idaho with a .22 rifle. He fondly recalled shooting quail last year at a Republican Governors Association event in Georgia.
"I . . . had a good time and actually knocked down a couple of birds," he said.
A Glock 9 for target shooting?
Counter-intuitive choice. Most folks who have 9mm's shoot at targets only to make certain that the weapon is useful for self-defense--not for the purpose of putting rounds in the "x" ring.
HT: Ankle-Biting Pundits
So he gives an interview about his bona fides as a "gun-guy."
Asked by reporters at the gun show Friday whether he personally owned the gun, Romney said he did not. He said one of his sons, Josh, keeps two guns at the family vacation home in Utah, and he uses them "from time to time." The guns are a Winchester hunting rifle and a Glock 9mm handgun, which Romney uses for target shooting . Romney also described himself as a sportsman who learned to shoot as a boy rabbit hunting in Idaho with a .22 rifle. He fondly recalled shooting quail last year at a Republican Governors Association event in Georgia.
"I . . . had a good time and actually knocked down a couple of birds," he said.
A Glock 9 for target shooting?
Counter-intuitive choice. Most folks who have 9mm's shoot at targets only to make certain that the weapon is useful for self-defense--not for the purpose of putting rounds in the "x" ring.
HT: Ankle-Biting Pundits
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Violent Women Like Hartland?
In the "Police Report" section we note THREE Hartland women are arrested for domestic abuse during the New Year's weekend.
Police are seeking charges against a 35-year-old Hartland woman on suspicion of domestic abuse/battery
Police are seeking charges against a 27-year-old Hartland woman on suspicion of domestic abuse/disorderly conduct
Police are seeking charges against an 18-year-old Hartland woman on suspicion of domestic abuse-disorderly conduct
Gracious. Hartland has what? 15,000 residents?
I thought it was MEN who abused their spouses during Bowl Games.
Police are seeking charges against a 35-year-old Hartland woman on suspicion of domestic abuse/battery
Police are seeking charges against a 27-year-old Hartland woman on suspicion of domestic abuse/disorderly conduct
Police are seeking charges against an 18-year-old Hartland woman on suspicion of domestic abuse-disorderly conduct
Gracious. Hartland has what? 15,000 residents?
I thought it was MEN who abused their spouses during Bowl Games.
Who's Your Nanny? Fairy Godmother?
Well--take your choice.
You want Carol Owens (R-Oshkosh)? She wants to write a new law making it illegal for teenagers to use a cellphone while driving.
Or you could have Fred Risser, (D-Madistan) who wants to make failure to use a seatbelt a primary offense, meaning that an LEO can pull you over simply for not wearing a seatbelt.
As you might expect, the roadbuilders already have a fairy godmother: Scott Suder (R), who thinks that "safer roads and a firm infrastructure" are critical to Wisconsin's ....
Whatever.
You want Carol Owens (R-Oshkosh)? She wants to write a new law making it illegal for teenagers to use a cellphone while driving.
Or you could have Fred Risser, (D-Madistan) who wants to make failure to use a seatbelt a primary offense, meaning that an LEO can pull you over simply for not wearing a seatbelt.
As you might expect, the roadbuilders already have a fairy godmother: Scott Suder (R), who thinks that "safer roads and a firm infrastructure" are critical to Wisconsin's ....
Whatever.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Bruce Bartlett's Complaint
See if you're empathetic with Bartlett:
One of the most frustrating things about being a conservative these days is suffering from both sides in the debate about George W. Bush. As soon as one admits to being conservative, one is assumed to be a supporter of the administration. It takes a lot of effort to explain why almost nothing this administration has done is “conservative” by the standards of what conservatism has meant historically.
Liberals don’t believe you and figure that you are just a rat deserting the sinking Bush ship. Independents don’t understand what you are talking about, because they have been told over and over again that this is the most conservative administration in history.
Meanwhile, many of those in charge of the institutions of conservatism — magazines, radio talk shows, think tanks, television news networks and such — have adopted the view that Bush defines conservatism. As comedian Stephen Colbert explained to me when I was on his show, a key tenet of conservatism is support for the president. Therefore, whatever Bush does is conservative.
To me, Ronald Reagan was a conservative. Yet conservatives constantly harped on him when he deviated from the conservative line. Reagan was continually berated for not doing enough to cut spending, for acceding to tax increases during budget negotiations, for appointing moderates to key positions, and for not doing enough to pursue a conservative agenda.
Today, many of those same conservative Reagan critics are among Bush’s strongest supporters. They robotically defend everything he does no matter how unconservative or even anti-conservative it is. This phenomenon truly baffles me.
One finds that Bush-adherence-syndrome (BAS) is most wretchedly asskissing immediately prior to elections. But then, there are "talk shows" to which I don't listen.
One of the most frustrating things about being a conservative these days is suffering from both sides in the debate about George W. Bush. As soon as one admits to being conservative, one is assumed to be a supporter of the administration. It takes a lot of effort to explain why almost nothing this administration has done is “conservative” by the standards of what conservatism has meant historically.
Liberals don’t believe you and figure that you are just a rat deserting the sinking Bush ship. Independents don’t understand what you are talking about, because they have been told over and over again that this is the most conservative administration in history.
Meanwhile, many of those in charge of the institutions of conservatism — magazines, radio talk shows, think tanks, television news networks and such — have adopted the view that Bush defines conservatism. As comedian Stephen Colbert explained to me when I was on his show, a key tenet of conservatism is support for the president. Therefore, whatever Bush does is conservative.
To me, Ronald Reagan was a conservative. Yet conservatives constantly harped on him when he deviated from the conservative line. Reagan was continually berated for not doing enough to cut spending, for acceding to tax increases during budget negotiations, for appointing moderates to key positions, and for not doing enough to pursue a conservative agenda.
Today, many of those same conservative Reagan critics are among Bush’s strongest supporters. They robotically defend everything he does no matter how unconservative or even anti-conservative it is. This phenomenon truly baffles me.
One finds that Bush-adherence-syndrome (BAS) is most wretchedly asskissing immediately prior to elections. But then, there are "talk shows" to which I don't listen.
The Trautperson (Bishop) Drools
The world is small.
About 20 years ago, Dad29 wrote a nationally-published feature article on the torture and death of liturgical music. The first line was taken from the text "By the waters of Babylon..." We recited the usual facts, named the usual suspects, and lamented, harps hung.
About a week ago, Bp. Trautperson (no 'man' shall cloud his universality) drooled forth a jeremiad against those who would reform the reform. He managed to insult the Catholic laity, but that's not new; many pink-tutu-liturgy-wonks are John Kerry clones. He also insulted his brother Bishops and priests, who have learned, by and large, to ignore him.
But Anthony Esolen didn't ignore him. Instead, he printed an interlinear response to Trautperson's speech in Touchstone's blog.
The title?
By the Waters of Babylon
It's worth the read, by the way. It will not occur to the Bishop of LiturgyWonk that his day passed in (roughly) 1967...until he meets St Cecelia standing next to St Peter.
HT: CWN
About 20 years ago, Dad29 wrote a nationally-published feature article on the torture and death of liturgical music. The first line was taken from the text "By the waters of Babylon..." We recited the usual facts, named the usual suspects, and lamented, harps hung.
About a week ago, Bp. Trautperson (no 'man' shall cloud his universality) drooled forth a jeremiad against those who would reform the reform. He managed to insult the Catholic laity, but that's not new; many pink-tutu-liturgy-wonks are John Kerry clones. He also insulted his brother Bishops and priests, who have learned, by and large, to ignore him.
But Anthony Esolen didn't ignore him. Instead, he printed an interlinear response to Trautperson's speech in Touchstone's blog.
The title?
By the Waters of Babylon
It's worth the read, by the way. It will not occur to the Bishop of LiturgyWonk that his day passed in (roughly) 1967...until he meets St Cecelia standing next to St Peter.
HT: CWN
Mitt Romney: Gutter-Player
We've mentioned before that Mitt Romney is 1) NOT a Conservative and 2) a Flip/Flop artist--much like another Massachussetts pol with Presidential aspirations.
Here's another example:
Is this what we can expect from Mitt Romney’s campaign?
The pro-family group MassResistance has been publicizing its claim that Romney is not the social conservative he claims, giving evidence from his shaky record as Massachusetts governor.
Rather than reply on substance, Romney’s campaign starts by going straight for the gutter,...
In fact, it all portrays Camenker as an extremist, which in this context is how all pro-lifers and pro-marriage advocates are portrayed.
Wonder how long it will take before Romney realizes that he's not really a player in this election?
HT: Dom Bet
Here's another example:
Is this what we can expect from Mitt Romney’s campaign?
The pro-family group MassResistance has been publicizing its claim that Romney is not the social conservative he claims, giving evidence from his shaky record as Massachusetts governor.
Rather than reply on substance, Romney’s campaign starts by going straight for the gutter,...
In fact, it all portrays Camenker as an extremist, which in this context is how all pro-lifers and pro-marriage advocates are portrayed.
Wonder how long it will take before Romney realizes that he's not really a player in this election?
HT: Dom Bet
PBS Joins Jimmuh Carter in Anti-Semitism
For those who complain about Joe Sobran, at least it can be said that they aren't forced to PAY for his appearances through tax dollars.
Not the same with PBS, brought to you by---YOU!! And, by the way, it's not only the Jews' fault; it's Christianity's fault, and the Christians are easily the worst offenders.
This is what passes for intellectual discourse, I guess.
Diana West on Judy Woodruff's new (and inaccurate) "history", via Dhimmi Watch:
It only took PBS one hour to uncover the causes of anti-Semitism, now in an alarming heyday. In "Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence," narrated by Judy Woodruff, PBS offered the answer: The reason for Jew-hatred, now widely promulgated among Muslim populations, is, well ... Jews! Israel! Even Christianity!
Oh, brother. This wreck of a thesis emerged early in the documentary as fact and fiction collided, mangling cause and effect. According to the show, Jews basically caused Anti-Semitism in the Arab-Muslim region around them by first building the tiny modern state of Israel (500 times smaller than that Arab Muslim region), and then actually trying to defend it against a host of Muslim armies and terror groups. As PBS tells it, it isn't the genocidal proclivities of surrounding Muslim nations that have caused war unending on the Jewish state; it's the continued existence of the Jewish state that has caused the genocidal proclivities. The show practically begs a viewer to ask, Well, what else could you expect?
But there's more to this lefty apology for the luridly vicious Anti-Semitism expressed on a daily basis in the Islamic world in sermons, schoolbooks, television shows and newspapers, some of which is helpfully shown in the documentary. We are told that Anti-Semitism is something new to Islam. According to the practically oracular authority of Princeton's Bernard Lewis, never in 1,200 years did Muslims even think of Anti-Semitism, let alone act on it -- not until European Christian empire-builders introduced the pathology to the region in the 19th century, what with tales of Christ-killers and, later, the forged "Protocols of the Elders of Zion."
It wasn't that those first 1,200 years of Islam and sharia were exactly paradise for Jews, Lewis said, but Jews were "tolerated" so long as they accepted their "inferiority." This was a pretty breezy way to dismiss centuries of violence, oppression, fear and degradation inflicted, according to Islamic law, on "dhimmi" Jews (and on "dhimmi" Christians for that matter), as copiously documented by historian Bat Ye'or. But Lewis stuck to this story: "Anti-Semitism was introduced into the Middle East by Christians."
Even oracles get it wrong sometimes, I guess, because Lewis's explanation doesn't square with a long and vivid historical record, and that includes the Koran. The notion that Christians introduced Muslims to Anti-Semitism may well be the conventional wisdom -- indeed, it may even be that nonagenarian Lewis is the source of that conventional wisdom -- but just as surely as Anti-Semitism historically existed in Christianity, it also historically existed in Islam. And I can actually footnote that statement because, quite by chance, the same week the documentary aired, I happened to read the first chapter of a forthcoming book called "The Legacy of Islamic Anti-Semitism" by Andrew G. Bostom, author of "The Legacy of Jihad."
Bostom examines the origins of Anti-Semitism in the Koran (such as in 2:61, which decrees an eternal curse of humiliation and wretchedness on Jews, repeated in 3:112), in the canonical commentaries on the Koran, and in the historical record. And it all begins practically 1,000 years before, say, Queen Victoria made herself an empress. The question is, does Anti-Semitism's origin in Islam, whether Christian or Islamic, become a chicken-egg question for scholars, or does it actually matter?
It matters a great deal, and here's why. The conventional wisdom, as expressed on PBS, does two things. It blames Christianity and the West for introducing Anti-Semitism to a practically Edenic Islamic world, and it minimizes Islam's non-original sin of partaking of it. Indeed, this same conventional wisdom suggests that Anti-Semitism is the natural, if unfortunate, response of "unempowered" Muslims to contemporary political events beyond their control -- namely, the essentially Christian/Western-sponsored establishment of the modern state of Israel.
If we bothered -- if we dared -- to examine Anti-Semitism in its historical Islamic context (just as we have examined Anti-Semitism in its historical Christian context), we would better understand Islam's hysterical rejection of Israel, which, in Islamic terms, is a state of "dhimmi" inferiors restored to equality, if not economic and military superiority, its very existence a violation of traditional Islamic code.
Failing to do this, the West overlooks and effectively absolves Islam of its animus against Jews and, by modern extension, Israel. The West also consigns itself and, weirdly enough, Israel also, to the role of guilty parties who must continually try to appease an aggrieved Islam.
Twisted? You bet. But there's no hope of unraveling things without first setting a grievous historical record straight.
Facts? Not to bother with facts. PBS, sucking your tax dollars, has its own facts. What need have we of truth?
Not the same with PBS, brought to you by---YOU!! And, by the way, it's not only the Jews' fault; it's Christianity's fault, and the Christians are easily the worst offenders.
This is what passes for intellectual discourse, I guess.
Diana West on Judy Woodruff's new (and inaccurate) "history", via Dhimmi Watch:
It only took PBS one hour to uncover the causes of anti-Semitism, now in an alarming heyday. In "Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence," narrated by Judy Woodruff, PBS offered the answer: The reason for Jew-hatred, now widely promulgated among Muslim populations, is, well ... Jews! Israel! Even Christianity!
Oh, brother. This wreck of a thesis emerged early in the documentary as fact and fiction collided, mangling cause and effect. According to the show, Jews basically caused Anti-Semitism in the Arab-Muslim region around them by first building the tiny modern state of Israel (500 times smaller than that Arab Muslim region), and then actually trying to defend it against a host of Muslim armies and terror groups. As PBS tells it, it isn't the genocidal proclivities of surrounding Muslim nations that have caused war unending on the Jewish state; it's the continued existence of the Jewish state that has caused the genocidal proclivities. The show practically begs a viewer to ask, Well, what else could you expect?
But there's more to this lefty apology for the luridly vicious Anti-Semitism expressed on a daily basis in the Islamic world in sermons, schoolbooks, television shows and newspapers, some of which is helpfully shown in the documentary. We are told that Anti-Semitism is something new to Islam. According to the practically oracular authority of Princeton's Bernard Lewis, never in 1,200 years did Muslims even think of Anti-Semitism, let alone act on it -- not until European Christian empire-builders introduced the pathology to the region in the 19th century, what with tales of Christ-killers and, later, the forged "Protocols of the Elders of Zion."
It wasn't that those first 1,200 years of Islam and sharia were exactly paradise for Jews, Lewis said, but Jews were "tolerated" so long as they accepted their "inferiority." This was a pretty breezy way to dismiss centuries of violence, oppression, fear and degradation inflicted, according to Islamic law, on "dhimmi" Jews (and on "dhimmi" Christians for that matter), as copiously documented by historian Bat Ye'or. But Lewis stuck to this story: "Anti-Semitism was introduced into the Middle East by Christians."
Even oracles get it wrong sometimes, I guess, because Lewis's explanation doesn't square with a long and vivid historical record, and that includes the Koran. The notion that Christians introduced Muslims to Anti-Semitism may well be the conventional wisdom -- indeed, it may even be that nonagenarian Lewis is the source of that conventional wisdom -- but just as surely as Anti-Semitism historically existed in Christianity, it also historically existed in Islam. And I can actually footnote that statement because, quite by chance, the same week the documentary aired, I happened to read the first chapter of a forthcoming book called "The Legacy of Islamic Anti-Semitism" by Andrew G. Bostom, author of "The Legacy of Jihad."
Bostom examines the origins of Anti-Semitism in the Koran (such as in 2:61, which decrees an eternal curse of humiliation and wretchedness on Jews, repeated in 3:112), in the canonical commentaries on the Koran, and in the historical record. And it all begins practically 1,000 years before, say, Queen Victoria made herself an empress. The question is, does Anti-Semitism's origin in Islam, whether Christian or Islamic, become a chicken-egg question for scholars, or does it actually matter?
It matters a great deal, and here's why. The conventional wisdom, as expressed on PBS, does two things. It blames Christianity and the West for introducing Anti-Semitism to a practically Edenic Islamic world, and it minimizes Islam's non-original sin of partaking of it. Indeed, this same conventional wisdom suggests that Anti-Semitism is the natural, if unfortunate, response of "unempowered" Muslims to contemporary political events beyond their control -- namely, the essentially Christian/Western-sponsored establishment of the modern state of Israel.
If we bothered -- if we dared -- to examine Anti-Semitism in its historical Islamic context (just as we have examined Anti-Semitism in its historical Christian context), we would better understand Islam's hysterical rejection of Israel, which, in Islamic terms, is a state of "dhimmi" inferiors restored to equality, if not economic and military superiority, its very existence a violation of traditional Islamic code.
Failing to do this, the West overlooks and effectively absolves Islam of its animus against Jews and, by modern extension, Israel. The West also consigns itself and, weirdly enough, Israel also, to the role of guilty parties who must continually try to appease an aggrieved Islam.
Twisted? You bet. But there's no hope of unraveling things without first setting a grievous historical record straight.
Facts? Not to bother with facts. PBS, sucking your tax dollars, has its own facts. What need have we of truth?
Kagen: "Patent Medicine" Huckster, Too?
"Millionaire" Kagen (D-WI) is not merely an oaf, braggart-liar, or jackass. Apparently, he's also selling his own brand of "medicine."
And the FDA doesn't like it:
Federal health officials have warned freshman Rep. Steve Kagen that his Wisconsin allergy practice is in apparent violation of federal law for manufacturing and selling allergy shots without a valid license.
According to a letter sent to Kagen by the Food and Drug Administration, Kagen manufactured a variety of ragweed and grass allergen vaccines from commercially distributed pollen and sold the shots to patients at his clinic and in at least 24 other states.
The FDA letter, which was dated Dec. 18 but wasn't posted online until Thursday, said that Kagen, D-Wis., did not have a valid license required for introducing a biological product into interstate commerce.
Sorta kinda his own Health Care Reform, eh?
HT: Betsy's Page
And the FDA doesn't like it:
Federal health officials have warned freshman Rep. Steve Kagen that his Wisconsin allergy practice is in apparent violation of federal law for manufacturing and selling allergy shots without a valid license.
According to a letter sent to Kagen by the Food and Drug Administration, Kagen manufactured a variety of ragweed and grass allergen vaccines from commercially distributed pollen and sold the shots to patients at his clinic and in at least 24 other states.
The FDA letter, which was dated Dec. 18 but wasn't posted online until Thursday, said that Kagen, D-Wis., did not have a valid license required for introducing a biological product into interstate commerce.
Sorta kinda his own Health Care Reform, eh?
HT: Betsy's Page
Friday, January 12, 2007
Gummint VS. Society
Reflections on a book:
"I finished Albert Jay Nock’s Our Enemy, the State last month. I’ve been meaning to write something about it, but the holidays sucked the oxygen out of my time.
I think this minor classic boils down to a handful of points [among them]:
State power comes at the price of social power. If the state will take care of something, then people won’t.
[In addition] As social power collapses, so does society. This is Nock’s best insight, and upon two minutes’ reflection, is so obviously true that I’m kind of embarrassed I’d never articulated the thought before.
For years I’ve lamented that the welfare state kills charity, but I never reached the larger point: an increasing state gradually kills all social endeavors. (You ever wonder why the social fabric of Russia is in complete tatters?)"
Worth reflection. Look at Milwaukee, which is still under the long influence of Wisconsin's socialist-oriented philosophy of Government. We see significant deterioration of the City's moral foundation...the violent crime report released just today is certainly germane to the discussion.
A little further into the post, we see this:
Much like CS Lewis' Abolition of Man, where Lewis talks about the Tao as a type of natural law. Nock and Chesterton remind us of universal themes which transcend even Western culture. Confucian ethics are grounded in the idea that moral rectitude backed by social convention are far superior to any action of the state.
The legislator must consider what 'social power' is being replaced by State power, and what that might mean 10 or 20 years downstream.
Wisconsin's proposed health-care actions come to mind.
HT: Chesterton and Friends
"I finished Albert Jay Nock’s Our Enemy, the State last month. I’ve been meaning to write something about it, but the holidays sucked the oxygen out of my time.
I think this minor classic boils down to a handful of points [among them]:
State power comes at the price of social power. If the state will take care of something, then people won’t.
[In addition] As social power collapses, so does society. This is Nock’s best insight, and upon two minutes’ reflection, is so obviously true that I’m kind of embarrassed I’d never articulated the thought before.
For years I’ve lamented that the welfare state kills charity, but I never reached the larger point: an increasing state gradually kills all social endeavors. (You ever wonder why the social fabric of Russia is in complete tatters?)"
Worth reflection. Look at Milwaukee, which is still under the long influence of Wisconsin's socialist-oriented philosophy of Government. We see significant deterioration of the City's moral foundation...the violent crime report released just today is certainly germane to the discussion.
A little further into the post, we see this:
Much like CS Lewis' Abolition of Man, where Lewis talks about the Tao as a type of natural law. Nock and Chesterton remind us of universal themes which transcend even Western culture. Confucian ethics are grounded in the idea that moral rectitude backed by social convention are far superior to any action of the state.
The legislator must consider what 'social power' is being replaced by State power, and what that might mean 10 or 20 years downstream.
Wisconsin's proposed health-care actions come to mind.
HT: Chesterton and Friends
Trent Lott: STILL an Embarassment
Good ol' boy (?) Trent Lott provides continuing evidence of his PIG (Party-In-Government) gold-star membership by voting AGAINST earmark reform.
Credit where it's due: Feinie voted FOR earmark reform.
HT: No Runny Eggs, American Spectator Blog.
Credit where it's due: Feinie voted FOR earmark reform.
HT: No Runny Eggs, American Spectator Blog.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
The Border Incursion--Was it the Mexican Army?
Here's a story on the recent Mexican incursion which is NOT what the MSM reports:
The incursion into U.S. territory last week by “Mexican gunmen” was not a chance confrontation between the Arizona National Guard and untrained illegal immigrants, but a deliberate “perimeter probe” by an infantry-trained, uniformed Mexican force, officials say.
Euphoric Reality has learned in exclusive interviews with high-ranking sources within both the Arizona National Guard and the U.S. Border Patrol that the incident the mainstream media calls a “standoff” was in reality a military-style operation, carried out by a paramilitary unit of Mexican men dressed in uniforms, flak jackets, and armed with AK-47s in an apparent operation to probe the border defenses and test the limits of the National Guard troops. Using easily recognizable infantry movement tactics (such as arm and hand signals and flanking maneuvers), the Mexican unit deliberately moved in a military formation across the border from Mexico, while under surveillance by the National Guard and Border Patrol.
As the hostile force moved north over several hours, deeper into Arizona, National Guardsmen wearing night vision goggles were able to ascertain that the approaching gunmen were indeed uniformed (including PAGST helmets) and heavily armed. When the Mexican unit came within approximately 100 yards of the Entry Identification Team (EIT), the Guardsmen repositioned themselves in order to maintain surveillance and tactical advantage. They observed the Mexican unit sweep through the EIT site, and then rapidly withdraw back into Mexico. No shots were fired by either the Mexican gunmen or the Guardsmen. Border Patrol was on the scene within minutes of the Mexican unit’s withdrawal.
The Guardsmen, through an Arizona Border Patrol official, confirmed that the incident appeared to be an intelligence-gathering exercise designed to ascertain what the National Guard’s response would be to certain tactics. It is not an isolated incident, and many such probes have been reported by the Guardsmen assigned to the area. Though no shots were fired during this particular incident, shots have been fired near and in the vicinity of the soldiers at the EIT site in other situations, though not at the soldiers themselves. It is not clear from the uniforms if the Mexican soldiers were official Mexican federales or mercenaries hired by the drug cartels.
Since then, follow-on news reports have included statements from the Border Patrol that no shots were fired. This was confirmed today by Major Paul Aguirre, a Public Affairs Officer (PAO) for the Arizona National Guard. Rumors have circulated that the Guardsmen were not armed, and thus unable to defend themselves - and that is not the case. Both Major Aguirre and Rob Daniels, a Public Information Officer (PIO) for the Arizona Border Patrol, state that all Guardsmen assigned to EITs are armed, specifically with M16s and sometimes a sidearm. As well, there have been some contradictory news reports that stated the gunmen came “within yards” of the Guardsmen, while other reports state that the gunmen were approximately 100 yards away. Mr. Daniels clarified that the gunmen came as close as 100 yards to the Guardsmen. He also stated that the Guardsmen did not “retreat” but tactically repositioned themselves to maintain surveillance of the group of armed men while simultaneously radioing for Border Patrol agents. He asserted that the Guardsmen had followed their protocols perfectly, and that their services were invaluable to the Border Patrol agents.
...The ramifications of this incident hitting the public awareness are significant. There are incidents on the record of specially-trained military commandos attacking Border Patrol agents, of official Mexican Army soldiers operating inside the American border, and videos of uniformed Mexicans on American soil, confronting Arizona Minutemen volunteers. Hundreds of armed incursions have been documented by the Border Patrol. In one year, June 2005 until June 2006, over 250 armed assaults have been reported by Border Patrol agents, and several agents have been killed.
Michael Chertoff, head of Homeland Security, has gone on the record to dismiss reports of armed incursions by a uniformed military force as “navigational mistakes”, claiming that the Mexican soldiers were “lost.” However, Chertoff offered no explanation as to why these “lost troops” fired on American agents. The Mexican government claims that uniformed military soldiers coming from Mexico are actually American soldiers disguised as Mexican soldiers. Furthermore, when confronted with the possibility that Mexican commandos called Los Zetas, trained by U.S. Special Forces at Fort Bragg to support the Drug War, have defected from the military and now work as mercenaries for the drug cartels, Mexican officials have worked very hard to debunk such evidence. In an official report presented to the U.S. on behalf of the Mexican Office of Inter-Intelligence Affairs, Mexico claimed that “the Zeta army, or syndicate, is no more real than the [mystical] crying lady of Puebla.”
Yet, contrary to Mexican denials, Los Zetas do exist, and the U.S. Border Patrol is very familiar with them. In a June 2006 investigative news piece by News Channel 5 in Texas, Zetas discussed their training and murderous missions. They also issued a warning:
“These two members of the Zeta army also have a warning for American law enforcement:
They are here, with cells operating in Roma, Rio Grande City and Mission - and more are coming. ‘It is not a lie,’ Zeta-2 said. ‘They need to check good, because it is true.’”
...What the Zetas may lack in professional specialized training, they make up for in ruthless and savage violence. Last year, Times Magazine exposed much of the brutality in an article called Brutal New Drug Gangs Are Terrorizing The U.S.-Mexico Border, and added further information about the identity of Los Zetas.
“According to Mexican officials, Lazcano was a clean-cut Mexican army recruit from the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz when he was picked a decade ago to be part of the highly trained Airborne Special Forces Group. The unit was sent to the eastern border to battle drug trafficking. But in the late 1990s, Lazcano and more than 30 other members of the special forces began working for drug lord Osiel Cardenas, head of the Matamoros-based Gulf cartel, which at the time controlled almost one-third of the Mexican drug trade.”
Official Mexican propaganda notwithstanding, it can be safely assumed that the Zetas are a paramilitary force that has made regular incursions over our border in sometimes heavily-armed assaults. Whether they are actual rogue Mexican federales or uniformed mercenaries in the employ of the drug cartels remains to be seen. Perhaps a small clue to the uniforms is found in last year’s News Channel Five investigative report:
“‘The municipal police, the state police, the ministerial police, the police of the state,’ Zeta-1 said.
‘The soldiers and the federal preventive police. The military on the border. They are bought by the Zetas.’ The Zeta’s tools even include uniforms given by the police themselves.”
Regardless of who the uniformed soldiers are, or who commands them, what is paramount is that our southern border security is breached by foreign troops on an increasingly aggressive basis.
HT: Grim's Hall
The incursion into U.S. territory last week by “Mexican gunmen” was not a chance confrontation between the Arizona National Guard and untrained illegal immigrants, but a deliberate “perimeter probe” by an infantry-trained, uniformed Mexican force, officials say.
Euphoric Reality has learned in exclusive interviews with high-ranking sources within both the Arizona National Guard and the U.S. Border Patrol that the incident the mainstream media calls a “standoff” was in reality a military-style operation, carried out by a paramilitary unit of Mexican men dressed in uniforms, flak jackets, and armed with AK-47s in an apparent operation to probe the border defenses and test the limits of the National Guard troops. Using easily recognizable infantry movement tactics (such as arm and hand signals and flanking maneuvers), the Mexican unit deliberately moved in a military formation across the border from Mexico, while under surveillance by the National Guard and Border Patrol.
As the hostile force moved north over several hours, deeper into Arizona, National Guardsmen wearing night vision goggles were able to ascertain that the approaching gunmen were indeed uniformed (including PAGST helmets) and heavily armed. When the Mexican unit came within approximately 100 yards of the Entry Identification Team (EIT), the Guardsmen repositioned themselves in order to maintain surveillance and tactical advantage. They observed the Mexican unit sweep through the EIT site, and then rapidly withdraw back into Mexico. No shots were fired by either the Mexican gunmen or the Guardsmen. Border Patrol was on the scene within minutes of the Mexican unit’s withdrawal.
The Guardsmen, through an Arizona Border Patrol official, confirmed that the incident appeared to be an intelligence-gathering exercise designed to ascertain what the National Guard’s response would be to certain tactics. It is not an isolated incident, and many such probes have been reported by the Guardsmen assigned to the area. Though no shots were fired during this particular incident, shots have been fired near and in the vicinity of the soldiers at the EIT site in other situations, though not at the soldiers themselves. It is not clear from the uniforms if the Mexican soldiers were official Mexican federales or mercenaries hired by the drug cartels.
Since then, follow-on news reports have included statements from the Border Patrol that no shots were fired. This was confirmed today by Major Paul Aguirre, a Public Affairs Officer (PAO) for the Arizona National Guard. Rumors have circulated that the Guardsmen were not armed, and thus unable to defend themselves - and that is not the case. Both Major Aguirre and Rob Daniels, a Public Information Officer (PIO) for the Arizona Border Patrol, state that all Guardsmen assigned to EITs are armed, specifically with M16s and sometimes a sidearm. As well, there have been some contradictory news reports that stated the gunmen came “within yards” of the Guardsmen, while other reports state that the gunmen were approximately 100 yards away. Mr. Daniels clarified that the gunmen came as close as 100 yards to the Guardsmen. He also stated that the Guardsmen did not “retreat” but tactically repositioned themselves to maintain surveillance of the group of armed men while simultaneously radioing for Border Patrol agents. He asserted that the Guardsmen had followed their protocols perfectly, and that their services were invaluable to the Border Patrol agents.
...The ramifications of this incident hitting the public awareness are significant. There are incidents on the record of specially-trained military commandos attacking Border Patrol agents, of official Mexican Army soldiers operating inside the American border, and videos of uniformed Mexicans on American soil, confronting Arizona Minutemen volunteers. Hundreds of armed incursions have been documented by the Border Patrol. In one year, June 2005 until June 2006, over 250 armed assaults have been reported by Border Patrol agents, and several agents have been killed.
Michael Chertoff, head of Homeland Security, has gone on the record to dismiss reports of armed incursions by a uniformed military force as “navigational mistakes”, claiming that the Mexican soldiers were “lost.” However, Chertoff offered no explanation as to why these “lost troops” fired on American agents. The Mexican government claims that uniformed military soldiers coming from Mexico are actually American soldiers disguised as Mexican soldiers. Furthermore, when confronted with the possibility that Mexican commandos called Los Zetas, trained by U.S. Special Forces at Fort Bragg to support the Drug War, have defected from the military and now work as mercenaries for the drug cartels, Mexican officials have worked very hard to debunk such evidence. In an official report presented to the U.S. on behalf of the Mexican Office of Inter-Intelligence Affairs, Mexico claimed that “the Zeta army, or syndicate, is no more real than the [mystical] crying lady of Puebla.”
Yet, contrary to Mexican denials, Los Zetas do exist, and the U.S. Border Patrol is very familiar with them. In a June 2006 investigative news piece by News Channel 5 in Texas, Zetas discussed their training and murderous missions. They also issued a warning:
“These two members of the Zeta army also have a warning for American law enforcement:
They are here, with cells operating in Roma, Rio Grande City and Mission - and more are coming. ‘It is not a lie,’ Zeta-2 said. ‘They need to check good, because it is true.’”
...What the Zetas may lack in professional specialized training, they make up for in ruthless and savage violence. Last year, Times Magazine exposed much of the brutality in an article called Brutal New Drug Gangs Are Terrorizing The U.S.-Mexico Border, and added further information about the identity of Los Zetas.
“According to Mexican officials, Lazcano was a clean-cut Mexican army recruit from the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz when he was picked a decade ago to be part of the highly trained Airborne Special Forces Group. The unit was sent to the eastern border to battle drug trafficking. But in the late 1990s, Lazcano and more than 30 other members of the special forces began working for drug lord Osiel Cardenas, head of the Matamoros-based Gulf cartel, which at the time controlled almost one-third of the Mexican drug trade.”
Official Mexican propaganda notwithstanding, it can be safely assumed that the Zetas are a paramilitary force that has made regular incursions over our border in sometimes heavily-armed assaults. Whether they are actual rogue Mexican federales or uniformed mercenaries in the employ of the drug cartels remains to be seen. Perhaps a small clue to the uniforms is found in last year’s News Channel Five investigative report:
“‘The municipal police, the state police, the ministerial police, the police of the state,’ Zeta-1 said.
‘The soldiers and the federal preventive police. The military on the border. They are bought by the Zetas.’ The Zeta’s tools even include uniforms given by the police themselves.”
Regardless of who the uniformed soldiers are, or who commands them, what is paramount is that our southern border security is breached by foreign troops on an increasingly aggressive basis.
This also tells us why GWBush has been silent on the issue. It looks as though Mexico has lost effective control of some of its territory to drug gangs. Making an issue of it would embarrass Mexican "authorities," to say the least.
So GWB keeps his mouth shut in hopes that Mexico will find a way to fix the problem
Meantime, the connections between the drug gangs and the terrorists continue to solidify.
HT: Grim's Hall
Good News on Trade Balance
The red line shows a stabilization of the trade deficit (ex-petroleum, the black line) over the last few years. On the other hand, a $35BN/month deficit in merchandise and services is not exactly "great."
Somewhere, somehow, that deficit has to be paid for.
HT: Calculated Risk
Somewhere, somehow, that deficit has to be paid for.
HT: Calculated Risk
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Wisconsin Health Plan--A Serious Question
While the 'Evaluation' paper from WPRI uses rhetorical flourishes to make its distaste for the Wisconsin Health Plan clear ("command-and-control" is just a little...unkind), it does raise a very serious difficulty.
WHP, a proposal from Richards (D) and Gielow (R), will be funded by a 12% tax on employers and a 2% tax on employees, and will raise $12 billion/year for health-care expenses in Wisconsin.
However, WPRI analysis (admittedly not by actuaries) shows that the actual cost is likely to be between $16 Bn. and $20 Bn.
Hmmmm.....
Already somewhere between 33% and 66% short of required funding?
That would raise the tax to 18% on employers and 3% on individuals...for a plan which has a $2K out-of-pocket (less $500.00 HSA) stop-loss for individuals? Really!
Not a good start, folks. That sort of estimate-deficiency raises credibility problems.
(The report makes another point--that medical talent is a "limited commodity"--not helped by the fact that medical school seats are NOT keeping up with population increases in the USA.)
WHP, a proposal from Richards (D) and Gielow (R), will be funded by a 12% tax on employers and a 2% tax on employees, and will raise $12 billion/year for health-care expenses in Wisconsin.
However, WPRI analysis (admittedly not by actuaries) shows that the actual cost is likely to be between $16 Bn. and $20 Bn.
Hmmmm.....
Already somewhere between 33% and 66% short of required funding?
That would raise the tax to 18% on employers and 3% on individuals...for a plan which has a $2K out-of-pocket (less $500.00 HSA) stop-loss for individuals? Really!
Not a good start, folks. That sort of estimate-deficiency raises credibility problems.
(The report makes another point--that medical talent is a "limited commodity"--not helped by the fact that medical school seats are NOT keeping up with population increases in the USA.)
After Shooting Someone....Good Advice
The LawDog is not only an excellent humorist, but a bona-fide LEO. He has some thoughts about what to do after you've shot a home-invader and killed him.
Not a pleasant thought, eh? Yah. I don't want to be there, either. But as the Boy Scouts say, "Be Prepared."
Some excerpts:
If you spend any time at all on the various gun forums of the World Wide Web sooner or later the conversation will come around to "What to do after a shoot".
The advice given by anonymous figures riding the electron waves of the Internet can be ... amusing. At best. At worst, some of the advice given will guarantee that the shooter will be hip-deep in legal trouble for the next lifetime.
First off -- and I cannot stress this enough -- anyone who carries, or owns, a gun or a knife needs to know a lawyer.
If you should find it necessary to help a critter into his next incarnation, ...please call 911 as soon as possible.
The very next thing you should do is pull out that lawyer's card and call him (or her). I don't care how justifiable the killing was. I don't care if you're in Deepinahearta, Texas and the deceased is laying in the middle of your living room floor with an axe in one hand and a detailed murder list in the other. Call your lawyer.
Whatever you do, please, please, please do not greet the police while holding a pistol in your hand. Or a knife, bludgeon, broken bottle, chainsaw or whatever else you used to shove your critter in front of his Eternal Maker.
There's plenty more, as well as a followup post. Worth reading.
Not a pleasant thought, eh? Yah. I don't want to be there, either. But as the Boy Scouts say, "Be Prepared."
Some excerpts:
If you spend any time at all on the various gun forums of the World Wide Web sooner or later the conversation will come around to "What to do after a shoot".
The advice given by anonymous figures riding the electron waves of the Internet can be ... amusing. At best. At worst, some of the advice given will guarantee that the shooter will be hip-deep in legal trouble for the next lifetime.
First off -- and I cannot stress this enough -- anyone who carries, or owns, a gun or a knife needs to know a lawyer.
If you should find it necessary to help a critter into his next incarnation, ...please call 911 as soon as possible.
The very next thing you should do is pull out that lawyer's card and call him (or her). I don't care how justifiable the killing was. I don't care if you're in Deepinahearta, Texas and the deceased is laying in the middle of your living room floor with an axe in one hand and a detailed murder list in the other. Call your lawyer.
Whatever you do, please, please, please do not greet the police while holding a pistol in your hand. Or a knife, bludgeon, broken bottle, chainsaw or whatever else you used to shove your critter in front of his Eternal Maker.
There's plenty more, as well as a followup post. Worth reading.
New Home Building Numbers are Flawed
Just in case you think that "new home building" is only off 25% (bad enough...) it's WORSE.
New-home sales are tallied by the Census Bureau, based on a sampling of contracts signed by home buyers. Running at a pace of more than one million a year for the last four years, new-home sales have been a significant contributor to the housing boom — and to the economy. (Existing-home sales, reported monthly by the National Association of Realtors, count actual closings.)
But here’s the rub: If a contract to buy a home, signed in November, is canceled in December, the Census Bureau does not subtract the failed transaction from the number of sales, or add the house back to its inventory total.
So what's the big deal? HERE'S the Big Deal:
Note that Toll Brothers had cancellations of 37%, while Pulte Homes reported a 36% cancellation rate. And as we noted last week, Lennar announced a stunning land-related write-down of $500 million.
The NAR's survey of 30 large builders, (November 2006), showed cancellations running at an astonishing 38% of gross sales. That compares with 26% for the same period in 2005, and about 18% 1H 2005. In other words, cancellations are actually accelerating.
This is not the week to start your own lumber company.
HT: THe Big Picture
New-home sales are tallied by the Census Bureau, based on a sampling of contracts signed by home buyers. Running at a pace of more than one million a year for the last four years, new-home sales have been a significant contributor to the housing boom — and to the economy. (Existing-home sales, reported monthly by the National Association of Realtors, count actual closings.)
But here’s the rub: If a contract to buy a home, signed in November, is canceled in December, the Census Bureau does not subtract the failed transaction from the number of sales, or add the house back to its inventory total.
So what's the big deal? HERE'S the Big Deal:
Note that Toll Brothers had cancellations of 37%, while Pulte Homes reported a 36% cancellation rate. And as we noted last week, Lennar announced a stunning land-related write-down of $500 million.
The NAR's survey of 30 large builders, (November 2006), showed cancellations running at an astonishing 38% of gross sales. That compares with 26% for the same period in 2005, and about 18% 1H 2005. In other words, cancellations are actually accelerating.
This is not the week to start your own lumber company.
HT: THe Big Picture
Oh, Yeah. THIS Will Work---not
Only someone whose IQ is less than room-temperature could propose this as a "cure:"
"Menino [Mayor of Boston, MA.] wants to suspend the driver's licenses and revoke the vehicle registrations of people convicted of firearms violations. The mayor hopes the stricter laws will not only reduce violent crimes, but also warn police pulling over cars that the driver may be carrying guns."
Psssssstt...hey, stupid!! If they're illegally carrying weapons, do you REALLY think they won't drive a stolen vehicle without a license?
HT: Arms and the Law
"Menino [Mayor of Boston, MA.] wants to suspend the driver's licenses and revoke the vehicle registrations of people convicted of firearms violations. The mayor hopes the stricter laws will not only reduce violent crimes, but also warn police pulling over cars that the driver may be carrying guns."
Psssssstt...hey, stupid!! If they're illegally carrying weapons, do you REALLY think they won't drive a stolen vehicle without a license?
HT: Arms and the Law
ACLU vs. National Security
Yup.
Proving yet again that it will undermine our country any way it can, the ACLU is suing the State of Rhode Island, the state police, state police Supt. Steven M. Pare, Trooper Thomas Chabot, and a "Jane Doe" trooper they haven't been able to identify for apprehending a van full of illegal aliens.
The van was pulled over when the driver failed to signal before changing lanes. The troopers had a look inside and found 14 illegal aliens, whom they escorted to the federal Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Providence.
According to the ACLU, this constitutes a violation of Rhode Island's Racial Profiling Prevention Act. Evidently, the police are allowed to have a look inside vehicles they pull over only if they are driven by Caucasians.
Somewhere, sometime along the line, someone will take action against the ACLU. Maybe it will be a father whose daughter was molested by an ACLU-defended goblin. Who knows?
Proving yet again that it will undermine our country any way it can, the ACLU is suing the State of Rhode Island, the state police, state police Supt. Steven M. Pare, Trooper Thomas Chabot, and a "Jane Doe" trooper they haven't been able to identify for apprehending a van full of illegal aliens.
The van was pulled over when the driver failed to signal before changing lanes. The troopers had a look inside and found 14 illegal aliens, whom they escorted to the federal Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Providence.
According to the ACLU, this constitutes a violation of Rhode Island's Racial Profiling Prevention Act. Evidently, the police are allowed to have a look inside vehicles they pull over only if they are driven by Caucasians.
Somewhere, sometime along the line, someone will take action against the ACLU. Maybe it will be a father whose daughter was molested by an ACLU-defended goblin. Who knows?
Banks Case: David Clarke Screwup, Too??
On further review, we find another interesting paragraph in the story:
Even if the warrant had been issued earlier, the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department, which runs the jail, doesn't check for Municipal Court warrants because they are not entered into the national criminal-information database the department uses, Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Kim Brooks said. Milwaukee municipal warrants can be seen at the Milwaukee Municipal Court Web site, but checking there is "not efficient" for the jail staff, Brooks said, adding that such warrants ought to be entered into the national database.
In brief: A Milwaukee municipal court issued a bench-warrant for the murderer, Banks, on November 20th, which would not be formally entered until 2 weeks later. Banks was picked up on November 23rd, but released by the County Jail on bond.
Apparently because of the 'customary' two-week delay in entering bench-warrants, the Sheriff's Office did not know that Banks was wanted.
Well, that's interesting.
MORE interesting is the line about "not efficient."
Is Sheriff Clarke trying to tell us that "efficiency" is more important than "public safety?" How the Hell does he explain the statement from Ms. Brooks?
Even if the warrant had been issued earlier, the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department, which runs the jail, doesn't check for Municipal Court warrants because they are not entered into the national criminal-information database the department uses, Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Kim Brooks said. Milwaukee municipal warrants can be seen at the Milwaukee Municipal Court Web site, but checking there is "not efficient" for the jail staff, Brooks said, adding that such warrants ought to be entered into the national database.
In brief: A Milwaukee municipal court issued a bench-warrant for the murderer, Banks, on November 20th, which would not be formally entered until 2 weeks later. Banks was picked up on November 23rd, but released by the County Jail on bond.
Apparently because of the 'customary' two-week delay in entering bench-warrants, the Sheriff's Office did not know that Banks was wanted.
Well, that's interesting.
MORE interesting is the line about "not efficient."
Is Sheriff Clarke trying to tell us that "efficiency" is more important than "public safety?" How the Hell does he explain the statement from Ms. Brooks?
She Who Must Be Obeyed...
Rarely does my longsuffering and self-sacrificing mate speak on matters political.
But even SHE cannot take any more Pelosi.
Her question? "How long do we have to watch her on TV?"
Well, at least 2 years, right?
But even SHE cannot take any more Pelosi.
Her question? "How long do we have to watch her on TV?"
Well, at least 2 years, right?
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Polonium-210--Another Possibility
Maybe it wasn't Putin's work:
A J Strata has been following all the public information as it has been forthcoming these last nine weeks, and is firmly convinced that Alexandre Litvinenko died as part of an elaborate and well financed polonium smuggling operation. It seems much more likely that rather than an insanely expensive assassination, one of the transport personnel simply falls victim to some combination of complacency, curiosity and clumsiness on the third delivery.
There really are only two likely reasons to smuggle in quantities of a volatile and deadly rare synthetic molecule. The first is to restore the decayed trigger on an older nuclear weapon and the second (and perhaps a fallback option) is to use the material as a dirty bomb in the heart of a western city. As A. J. Strata points out, the authorities have some idea of how much was leaked in the accidental contamination, but there really is no good understanding of how much is safely in the wrong hands.
Perhaps spread around with a release of the natural-gas "smellificator" ingredient?
HT: Random10
A J Strata has been following all the public information as it has been forthcoming these last nine weeks, and is firmly convinced that Alexandre Litvinenko died as part of an elaborate and well financed polonium smuggling operation. It seems much more likely that rather than an insanely expensive assassination, one of the transport personnel simply falls victim to some combination of complacency, curiosity and clumsiness on the third delivery.
There really are only two likely reasons to smuggle in quantities of a volatile and deadly rare synthetic molecule. The first is to restore the decayed trigger on an older nuclear weapon and the second (and perhaps a fallback option) is to use the material as a dirty bomb in the heart of a western city. As A. J. Strata points out, the authorities have some idea of how much was leaked in the accidental contamination, but there really is no good understanding of how much is safely in the wrong hands.
Perhaps spread around with a release of the natural-gas "smellificator" ingredient?
HT: Random10
Who's Stealing Airport Equipment?
From Counterterrorism Blog:
The Saudi daily Al Watan just reported that there have been a number of thefts of airport vehicles in US airports in the past few days including an United Air car on Chicago O'hare's airport. Also, attempts were made in the Buffalo airport to steal authorized vehicles and supposedly airport authorities around the country have noticed strange people watching restricted areas in airports.
What for? To assist terrorists in importing their pals from Mexico--past the border that George W Bush REFUSES to guard?
The Saudi daily Al Watan just reported that there have been a number of thefts of airport vehicles in US airports in the past few days including an United Air car on Chicago O'hare's airport. Also, attempts were made in the Buffalo airport to steal authorized vehicles and supposedly airport authorities around the country have noticed strange people watching restricted areas in airports.
What for? To assist terrorists in importing their pals from Mexico--past the border that George W Bush REFUSES to guard?
Kagen: National Laughingstock
Wisconsin blogger Lakeshore Laments, through Sean Hackbarth gets national exposure by exposing Cong. Kagen (D-WI) as a complete idiot:
...the funny story of a freshman Democratic congressman from Wisconsin who just cut and pasted to create his own website from a Nebraska Republican's site. Apparently, whoever on his staff who was assigned to create the site was so clueless that they just left in the contact information so the Wisconsinites are instructed to call the Nebraska guy's office if they want a flag that flew over the Capitol.
That is like kids I've had who plagiarize from the Internet but are too clueless to remove the links embedded in their paper.
"Not Ready for Prime Time" used to be an SNL marque. Now it's Congressional Dems.
...the funny story of a freshman Democratic congressman from Wisconsin who just cut and pasted to create his own website from a Nebraska Republican's site. Apparently, whoever on his staff who was assigned to create the site was so clueless that they just left in the contact information so the Wisconsinites are instructed to call the Nebraska guy's office if they want a flag that flew over the Capitol.
That is like kids I've had who plagiarize from the Internet but are too clueless to remove the links embedded in their paper.
"Not Ready for Prime Time" used to be an SNL marque. Now it's Congressional Dems.
Using Children as Cash-Cows
Well, it's "for the children," right?
The [Elmbrook] School Board is scheduled to vote tonight on whether to become the latest state public school district to add 4-year-old kindergarten.
The kindergarten readiness program has exploded in popularity across the state and country, as research has touted the educational and societal benefits and financial boost for districts.
The cost would be about $650,000 in the 2007-'08 school year. District reserves would be used but then repaid in future years, with increased property taxes and state aid that would be obtained with the increased enrollment.
Wonder why taxes keep going up? How about paying School District employees to be baby-sitters?
The [Elmbrook] School Board is scheduled to vote tonight on whether to become the latest state public school district to add 4-year-old kindergarten.
The kindergarten readiness program has exploded in popularity across the state and country, as research has touted the educational and societal benefits and financial boost for districts.
The cost would be about $650,000 in the 2007-'08 school year. District reserves would be used but then repaid in future years, with increased property taxes and state aid that would be obtained with the increased enrollment.
Wonder why taxes keep going up? How about paying School District employees to be baby-sitters?
Killer Released by DA, Who Blames Supreme Court
Yah, well, it's just another body, no?
Gregory C. "Bourgeois" Banks had nearly 5 grams of heroin in his car when he was arrested Nov. 23 on Milwaukee's north side, and a warrant for his arrest on an earlier Municipal Court drug offense was being processed, yet he walked out of the Milwaukee County Jail the next evening a free man.
Three weeks later, prosecutors charge, Banks, 28, abruptly killed a man who lived near the spot Banks had been arrested with the heroin after an anonymous phone tip.
Here's the fun part:
A report of the Nov. 23 arrest says that based on an anonymous call to police, officers had been dispatched "for drug dealing from a green Ford Taurus w/temp plates."
But, Chisholm said, what police found when they searched Banks and his car didn't amount to admissible evidence, even though the possession of heroin is a felony.
After reviewing the initial case file, Chisholm backed the judgment of the assistant district attorney who opted not to charge Banks, because none of the arrest reports indicated police had sufficient legal reason to pull Banks out of a legally parked car.
An anonymous phone tip alone "does you no good" as probable cause for a search or arrest, Chisholm said, citing U.S. Supreme Court case law.
The legacy of Kunstler and the ACLU: dead Milwaukee residents.
Gregory C. "Bourgeois" Banks had nearly 5 grams of heroin in his car when he was arrested Nov. 23 on Milwaukee's north side, and a warrant for his arrest on an earlier Municipal Court drug offense was being processed, yet he walked out of the Milwaukee County Jail the next evening a free man.
Three weeks later, prosecutors charge, Banks, 28, abruptly killed a man who lived near the spot Banks had been arrested with the heroin after an anonymous phone tip.
Here's the fun part:
A report of the Nov. 23 arrest says that based on an anonymous call to police, officers had been dispatched "for drug dealing from a green Ford Taurus w/temp plates."
But, Chisholm said, what police found when they searched Banks and his car didn't amount to admissible evidence, even though the possession of heroin is a felony.
After reviewing the initial case file, Chisholm backed the judgment of the assistant district attorney who opted not to charge Banks, because none of the arrest reports indicated police had sufficient legal reason to pull Banks out of a legally parked car.
An anonymous phone tip alone "does you no good" as probable cause for a search or arrest, Chisholm said, citing U.S. Supreme Court case law.
The legacy of Kunstler and the ACLU: dead Milwaukee residents.
Harkin Speaks for Dead Nazis
Nothing like a little "scientific research" in the minds of Dr. Mengele and Sen. Harkin (D-Iowa):
Focusing on preliminary "alternatives" like the amniotic stem cells won't fool that public, added Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.
"If we truly want to cure and treat diseases that afflict so many people in this country, our nation's top scientists should be allowed to pursue stem cell research of all kinds, be it embryonic, adult or amniotic," he said.
The Senator wants to use taxpayer money to finance this, as did the Nazis.
Some things never change...
Focusing on preliminary "alternatives" like the amniotic stem cells won't fool that public, added Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.
"If we truly want to cure and treat diseases that afflict so many people in this country, our nation's top scientists should be allowed to pursue stem cell research of all kinds, be it embryonic, adult or amniotic," he said.
The Senator wants to use taxpayer money to finance this, as did the Nazis.
Some things never change...
Monday, January 08, 2007
Caution Flags Are Up
The stuff you won't hear from Larry Kudlow:
"If we use 2005 dollars and the CPI-U (consumer price index for urban consumers), average weekly earnings decreased by about $1 per week over the 30-year interval 1975-2005," writes Wolff. "The folks have thus stopped saving and have taken on massive amounts of housing and consumer debt."
Wolff continues: "In 1999, total outstanding household debt was $6.4 trillion. As of the end of the second quarter of 2006 total outstanding household debt was $12.3 trillion. "Household debt has increased by almost as much since 1999 as the sum total of all debt accumulated by all households across the preceding 220-year history of the [United States].
In 1999, household mortgage debt stood at $4.4 trillion. At the close of the second quarter of 2006 it had more than doubled to $9.33 trillion.
In 1999, consumer credit outstanding was measured at $1.6 trillion. "Today, this stands at approximately $2.4 trillion dollars, signaling a 50% increase in less than seven years. This is usually soft peddled and talked down by comparison to skyrocketing housing values.
Household assets held as real estate increased by $9 trillion from 2000-2006. This might be called the mother of all modern bubbles. Yet household net worth struggled up by a mere $1.2 trillion. Net worth badly lags housing values because of waves of cashing out.
Max Fraad Wolff in the Asia Times
That's why some people don't pay too much attention to the DJIA. Even with the financial-asset gains (Dow at 12,000+), household net worth doesn't get traction against debt.
Hmmmmmm.....
"If we use 2005 dollars and the CPI-U (consumer price index for urban consumers), average weekly earnings decreased by about $1 per week over the 30-year interval 1975-2005," writes Wolff. "The folks have thus stopped saving and have taken on massive amounts of housing and consumer debt."
Wolff continues: "In 1999, total outstanding household debt was $6.4 trillion. As of the end of the second quarter of 2006 total outstanding household debt was $12.3 trillion. "Household debt has increased by almost as much since 1999 as the sum total of all debt accumulated by all households across the preceding 220-year history of the [United States].
In 1999, household mortgage debt stood at $4.4 trillion. At the close of the second quarter of 2006 it had more than doubled to $9.33 trillion.
In 1999, consumer credit outstanding was measured at $1.6 trillion. "Today, this stands at approximately $2.4 trillion dollars, signaling a 50% increase in less than seven years. This is usually soft peddled and talked down by comparison to skyrocketing housing values.
Household assets held as real estate increased by $9 trillion from 2000-2006. This might be called the mother of all modern bubbles. Yet household net worth struggled up by a mere $1.2 trillion. Net worth badly lags housing values because of waves of cashing out.
Max Fraad Wolff in the Asia Times
That's why some people don't pay too much attention to the DJIA. Even with the financial-asset gains (Dow at 12,000+), household net worth doesn't get traction against debt.
Hmmmmmm.....
US Chamber President: Stupid as a Squirrel
There is a wide range of opinions on "guest worker" programs, but the US Chamber of Commerce President, a Golden Spoon twit if there ever was one, has an opinion:
U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue says that anyone who opposes guest worker programs are dumb as a box of rocks. Donohue was defending Bush's proposal to allow unlimited numbers of guest workers into the United States...
The acceptable language, Tom, is "nativist," or "xenophobic," or "protectionist," as the President has taught us.
Stupid squirrel.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue says that anyone who opposes guest worker programs are dumb as a box of rocks. Donohue was defending Bush's proposal to allow unlimited numbers of guest workers into the United States...
The acceptable language, Tom, is "nativist," or "xenophobic," or "protectionist," as the President has taught us.
Stupid squirrel.
Tigger's Animosity
You've all seen the videos and heard the whining from the Daddy.
Here's the most likely explanation, from a former Scooby-Doo:
Notice the tail. I know that tail, because the last time I looked, Hanna-Barbara's "Scooby Doo" has one exactly like it. It's an erect piece mounted on a harness that is strapped around the waist and groin area of the person inside, before the outer costume is put on. If you pull down on the tail from the outside, the base end on the inside goes up. Guess where it goes if the wearer is a male.
Ri-i-i-i-ght!
Having seen the clip, I knew immediately that Tigger was irritated about something--and that is precisely what you can NOT see on the clip.
HT Man With a Black Hat
Here's the most likely explanation, from a former Scooby-Doo:
Notice the tail. I know that tail, because the last time I looked, Hanna-Barbara's "Scooby Doo" has one exactly like it. It's an erect piece mounted on a harness that is strapped around the waist and groin area of the person inside, before the outer costume is put on. If you pull down on the tail from the outside, the base end on the inside goes up. Guess where it goes if the wearer is a male.
Ri-i-i-i-ght!
Having seen the clip, I knew immediately that Tigger was irritated about something--and that is precisely what you can NOT see on the clip.
HT Man With a Black Hat
Health Care: Start with Facts, not Fallacies
Zlotocha over at In Effect has been running a small forum on health-care. It's interesting.
But I think he has some problems with his argumentation that need remedial care. (heh heh)
The assumption in the article was that medical bills were going unpaid because people in HDHPs didn't have the money to pay their high deductibles. While this is true, it masks another story lurking beneath.
That's his first problem. Zlotocha & Co. are arguing (in effect) that MD's and hospitals should be insured against business losses. Really? That was the original purpose behind Blue Cross and Blue Shield. But nobody claims that all Americans were covered by the Blues, do they?
Further, it may be true that HDHP subscribers don't have the moola to pay off medical bills. But there are reasons which may NOT involve the terms of the coverage--such as other payment obligations which may be out-sized--e.g., housing, cars, heat, gasoline, food...
Next argument:
In its new study, the health industry group Vimo found that while over 3 million people are enrolled in HDHPs, only 820,000 have bothered to open a HSA. What's more, while the average HDHP deductible is $2,378 for single coverage and $4,760 for family coverage, the average HSA balance is only $1,180, which is less than half of the single coverage deductible.
First off, the study acknowledges that it does not include the presence of HRAs--another vehicle utilized by employers who have HDHP health-plans. This gap is very significant and makes the study almost irrelevant to the thrust of Z's argument---which is that HPHP policies are evil in themselves, and that employers are simply taking the savings and running.
The Labor proposal advanced by Newby (AFL-CIO) is quoted as:
The basic idea is that all workers and their dependents in Wisconsin would be covered by a common, totally comprehensive health care plan. It would be financed in a fair fashion by affordable co-pays and deductibles by workers, and a flat per worker per month fee by employers.
Exactly what are "affordable co-pays/deductibles?" Family health-care expenses (money paid out for care or insurance premiums) in the US have run in a range between 4% and 6% of family income.
If we take two Wisconsin mean-wage earners (see below) and calculate 4% to 6%, we get $2,800. to $4,200. in co-pay/deductible liabilities as the norm based on history. Is Z. suggesting that LESS than the national norms is better?
Finally, although not mentioned in Z's thread, it is a truism that preventive care is far more efficacious than non-preventive care. It saves money in the long run.
But will Newby, Z., and the Doylies force Wisconsin citizens to obtain preventive care?
And our Governor, to his eternal discredit, refuses to tax-preference HSAs in Wisconsin, even though the IRS does so.
It's no wonder that HSAs are not all that popular.
But I think he has some problems with his argumentation that need remedial care. (heh heh)
The assumption in the article was that medical bills were going unpaid because people in HDHPs didn't have the money to pay their high deductibles. While this is true, it masks another story lurking beneath.
That's his first problem. Zlotocha & Co. are arguing (in effect) that MD's and hospitals should be insured against business losses. Really? That was the original purpose behind Blue Cross and Blue Shield. But nobody claims that all Americans were covered by the Blues, do they?
Further, it may be true that HDHP subscribers don't have the moola to pay off medical bills. But there are reasons which may NOT involve the terms of the coverage--such as other payment obligations which may be out-sized--e.g., housing, cars, heat, gasoline, food...
Next argument:
In its new study, the health industry group Vimo found that while over 3 million people are enrolled in HDHPs, only 820,000 have bothered to open a HSA. What's more, while the average HDHP deductible is $2,378 for single coverage and $4,760 for family coverage, the average HSA balance is only $1,180, which is less than half of the single coverage deductible.
First off, the study acknowledges that it does not include the presence of HRAs--another vehicle utilized by employers who have HDHP health-plans. This gap is very significant and makes the study almost irrelevant to the thrust of Z's argument---which is that HPHP policies are evil in themselves, and that employers are simply taking the savings and running.
The Labor proposal advanced by Newby (AFL-CIO) is quoted as:
The basic idea is that all workers and their dependents in Wisconsin would be covered by a common, totally comprehensive health care plan. It would be financed in a fair fashion by affordable co-pays and deductibles by workers, and a flat per worker per month fee by employers.
Exactly what are "affordable co-pays/deductibles?" Family health-care expenses (money paid out for care or insurance premiums) in the US have run in a range between 4% and 6% of family income.
If we take two Wisconsin mean-wage earners (see below) and calculate 4% to 6%, we get $2,800. to $4,200. in co-pay/deductible liabilities as the norm based on history. Is Z. suggesting that LESS than the national norms is better?
Finally, although not mentioned in Z's thread, it is a truism that preventive care is far more efficacious than non-preventive care. It saves money in the long run.
But will Newby, Z., and the Doylies force Wisconsin citizens to obtain preventive care?
And our Governor, to his eternal discredit, refuses to tax-preference HSAs in Wisconsin, even though the IRS does so.
It's no wonder that HSAs are not all that popular.
Who Are "The Rich?"
As the Alternative Minimum Tax debate looms, here are a couple of interesting factoids.
According to the Department of Labor/BLS, the Wisconsin mean annual wage (all 2.7 million earners) is $35,600.00.
So a two-earner household (mean wages for both) will be knocking down about $71K/year.
Now to Wikipedia for the AMT discussion:
Over the coming decade, a growing number of taxpayers will become liable for the AMT. In 2010, if nothing is changed, one in five taxpayers will have AMT liability and nearly every married taxpayer with income between $100,000 and $500,000 will owe the alternative tax
Note the $100K bottom-end.
That $100K is just a touch above the income of 2 mean-wage Wisconsin teachers (about $83K).
So if a teacher ($41.5K) marries a Financial Analyst ($67K) they lose the lottery on AMT.
By the way, if you want to do a very interesting comparo, let's take the couple above and see what they'd be earning in 1970 (inflation-adjusted)--
Voila!! $20,892.00
So--did your parents have to pay the AMT?
According to the Department of Labor/BLS, the Wisconsin mean annual wage (all 2.7 million earners) is $35,600.00.
So a two-earner household (mean wages for both) will be knocking down about $71K/year.
Now to Wikipedia for the AMT discussion:
Over the coming decade, a growing number of taxpayers will become liable for the AMT. In 2010, if nothing is changed, one in five taxpayers will have AMT liability and nearly every married taxpayer with income between $100,000 and $500,000 will owe the alternative tax
Note the $100K bottom-end.
That $100K is just a touch above the income of 2 mean-wage Wisconsin teachers (about $83K).
So if a teacher ($41.5K) marries a Financial Analyst ($67K) they lose the lottery on AMT.
By the way, if you want to do a very interesting comparo, let's take the couple above and see what they'd be earning in 1970 (inflation-adjusted)--
Voila!! $20,892.00
So--did your parents have to pay the AMT?
Pelosi Trying to Out-Do McPain/Feinie
If you thought that "free speech" was part of the 1st Amendment you're right.
But all that means is that you're not a Member of Congress PIG (Party-In-Government).
...Mark Tapscott of the Washington Examiner recently reported on a bill that Pelosi hopes to push through Congress. It's called the "Honest Leadership and Open Government Act." But if we had truth-in-labeling laws for lawmakers, this bill would be called the "First Amendment Extermination Act."
Under this bill, grassroots organizations that let you know what's going on in Congress would be required to register-that's right, register-with the government. Even worse, according to Tapscott:
"All informational and educational materials produced by such groups would have to be registered and reported on a quarterly basis. Failure to report would result in severe civil penalties (likely followed soon by criminal penalties as well)."
Under the McPain/Feinie/Pelosi regime, you VILL be silent, or VEE HAFF our VAYS to make certain.
But all that means is that you're not a Member of Congress PIG (Party-In-Government).
...Mark Tapscott of the Washington Examiner recently reported on a bill that Pelosi hopes to push through Congress. It's called the "Honest Leadership and Open Government Act." But if we had truth-in-labeling laws for lawmakers, this bill would be called the "First Amendment Extermination Act."
Under this bill, grassroots organizations that let you know what's going on in Congress would be required to register-that's right, register-with the government. Even worse, according to Tapscott:
"All informational and educational materials produced by such groups would have to be registered and reported on a quarterly basis. Failure to report would result in severe civil penalties (likely followed soon by criminal penalties as well)."
Under the McPain/Feinie/Pelosi regime, you VILL be silent, or VEE HAFF our VAYS to make certain.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
No Gummint Involvement Here
GM is showing off a new car:
It's been nearly 100 years, but Thomas Edison's belief in electricity as a viable propulsion system for automobiles is one step closer to reality due to the efforts of General Motors and General Electric. Today, GE participated in General Motors' unveiling of its newest concept vehicle, the Chevrolet Volt, here at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS). The Volt's E-Flex flexible propulsion system offers a global blended range of transportation energy solutions to regional energy issues and driving behavior
There's a LOT of plastic in this car, including the wiring (!!!)
"Wire running throughout the Volt is made from non-halogenated GE plastics and reaches an approximate 25 percent weight reduction compared to traditional wire in automobiles."
Goes about 40 miles on the batteries; 90% of car-trips in the USA are <30>
It's been nearly 100 years, but Thomas Edison's belief in electricity as a viable propulsion system for automobiles is one step closer to reality due to the efforts of General Motors and General Electric. Today, GE participated in General Motors' unveiling of its newest concept vehicle, the Chevrolet Volt, here at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS). The Volt's E-Flex flexible propulsion system offers a global blended range of transportation energy solutions to regional energy issues and driving behavior
There's a LOT of plastic in this car, including the wiring (!!!)
"Wire running throughout the Volt is made from non-halogenated GE plastics and reaches an approximate 25 percent weight reduction compared to traditional wire in automobiles."
Goes about 40 miles on the batteries; 90% of car-trips in the USA are <30>
How To Get Blog-Hits
Post a blog-entry about Saudi Arabia.
So far, 8 hits from Saudi Arabia, including from their Foreign Ministry--and that's in only 12 hours over a weekend.
Other hits on the article come from Iowa, Switzerland, France, and D.C.
So far, 8 hits from Saudi Arabia, including from their Foreign Ministry--and that's in only 12 hours over a weekend.
Other hits on the article come from Iowa, Switzerland, France, and D.C.
Brown County Endangers State Residents
Don't think so?
A 25-year-old illegal immigrant jumped bail Friday when he failed to show up to face accusations he molested a 12-year-old girl on several occasions last year.
Paulo Sheispan-Landero remained at large late Friday, having been released from custody Tuesday after posting $5,000 bail. He was arrested and booked New Year's Eve after the girl's mother alerted authorities.
Brown County Court Commissioner Jane Sequin on Friday revoked Sheispan-Landero's bond and issued a warrant for his arrest. Sheispan-Landero faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted on the lone count of first-degree sexual assault of a child under age 13.
The slimebag is heading back to Mexico, meaning that he WILL travel through Madistan or Milwaukee to get there--or maybe through Wausau before heading south along the Mississippi.
The story is actually MUCH worse than this recap makes it appear.
The Brown County DA is spinning like crazy--but he has no excuse for this ...ah...brain fart.
HT: Jessica
A 25-year-old illegal immigrant jumped bail Friday when he failed to show up to face accusations he molested a 12-year-old girl on several occasions last year.
Paulo Sheispan-Landero remained at large late Friday, having been released from custody Tuesday after posting $5,000 bail. He was arrested and booked New Year's Eve after the girl's mother alerted authorities.
Brown County Court Commissioner Jane Sequin on Friday revoked Sheispan-Landero's bond and issued a warrant for his arrest. Sheispan-Landero faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted on the lone count of first-degree sexual assault of a child under age 13.
The slimebag is heading back to Mexico, meaning that he WILL travel through Madistan or Milwaukee to get there--or maybe through Wausau before heading south along the Mississippi.
The story is actually MUCH worse than this recap makes it appear.
The Brown County DA is spinning like crazy--but he has no excuse for this ...ah...brain fart.
HT: Jessica
Arbitration Did NOT Work "Back Then"
The Teachers' Union wants you to forget history.
That is, if you learned any in the public schools in the first place.
"QEO isn't working," Doyle said in his 2003 budget message.
Democrats who took control of the Senate in the fall stand with Doyle on repealing the law.
Ending it would mean "each school board would be able to negotiate" and use the binding arbitration system that worked before 1993, said Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson (D-Beloit).
Robson lies, of course. The old system was guaran-friggin'-teed to produce generous increases in wages and bennies for WEAC members.
Their negotiators would find one school board which was 'friendly' (or weak) in a given geographical area, get large increases, and then leverage that against other area boards.
Most often WEAC didn't really make an effort to "bargain" with the other Boards. They knew that the arbitrator would base his award on 'other comparable districts'--and guess what--they already had that 'other comparable district' in the bag.
So if Mayville had increased teacher compensation by 6.0%, you could rest assured that Allenton, Slinger, West Bend, (etc., etc.) were going to be forced to cough up 6.0% as well.
That is, if you learned any in the public schools in the first place.
"QEO isn't working," Doyle said in his 2003 budget message.
Democrats who took control of the Senate in the fall stand with Doyle on repealing the law.
Ending it would mean "each school board would be able to negotiate" and use the binding arbitration system that worked before 1993, said Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson (D-Beloit).
Robson lies, of course. The old system was guaran-friggin'-teed to produce generous increases in wages and bennies for WEAC members.
Their negotiators would find one school board which was 'friendly' (or weak) in a given geographical area, get large increases, and then leverage that against other area boards.
Most often WEAC didn't really make an effort to "bargain" with the other Boards. They knew that the arbitrator would base his award on 'other comparable districts'--and guess what--they already had that 'other comparable district' in the bag.
So if Mayville had increased teacher compensation by 6.0%, you could rest assured that Allenton, Slinger, West Bend, (etc., etc.) were going to be forced to cough up 6.0% as well.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Got Vaseline?
Yah, that feeling is there for a reason:
Net Wisconsin property taxes for 2006-07 are estimated to rise 3.3% to $8.1 billion, exceeding last year’s increase of 2.3%, according to new figures from the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance (WISTAX). The percentages are for the state as a whole, and increases for individual communities can vary greatly.
Although this year’s 3.3% increase in total net levies is larger than last year’s, it is less than in recent history. Net levy increases averaged 5.4% since 1997 and 4.6% since 2002
Those dates are very significant.
Of the five major governmental units that use the property tax, schools accounted for the largest increase (5.4%), followed by technical colleges (4.6%), municipalities (3.8%), counties (3.2%), and the state (2.7%). This year, school levies will total $3.79 billion, or 43.5% of the gross total. Last year, school levies dropped 0.5% when the state boosted school aid.
The "proptax freeze" joins the "balanced State budget" in the REALLY BIG LIES reference book.
Net Wisconsin property taxes for 2006-07 are estimated to rise 3.3% to $8.1 billion, exceeding last year’s increase of 2.3%, according to new figures from the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance (WISTAX). The percentages are for the state as a whole, and increases for individual communities can vary greatly.
Although this year’s 3.3% increase in total net levies is larger than last year’s, it is less than in recent history. Net levy increases averaged 5.4% since 1997 and 4.6% since 2002
Those dates are very significant.
Of the five major governmental units that use the property tax, schools accounted for the largest increase (5.4%), followed by technical colleges (4.6%), municipalities (3.8%), counties (3.2%), and the state (2.7%). This year, school levies will total $3.79 billion, or 43.5% of the gross total. Last year, school levies dropped 0.5% when the state boosted school aid.
The "proptax freeze" joins the "balanced State budget" in the REALLY BIG LIES reference book.
McGee, Sr. and Hotpants Berger
Sykes bloggeth:
[There is audio] of Michael McGee Sr. threatening to "go berserk" and start shooting up City Hall, joking about using his 9 mm and other guns. As Wendy notes:
Charlie, If a kid in a high school said the words McGee Sr. did, he would be expelled and referred to juvenile authorities. If a community leader says it? No big deal.
...and if Wendy, or Charlie, or you or I were to remove documents from the National Archives, stuff them in our pants, and then shred parts we didn't like at home...
Do you REALLY think we'd get a fine and "community service?"
Obviously, if you want to do big-time crime, become a big-time player, preferably IN the Gummint.
You know, P-I-G loyalty knows no bounds--national security or lives of (our) children be damned.
[There is audio] of Michael McGee Sr. threatening to "go berserk" and start shooting up City Hall, joking about using his 9 mm and other guns. As Wendy notes:
Charlie, If a kid in a high school said the words McGee Sr. did, he would be expelled and referred to juvenile authorities. If a community leader says it? No big deal.
...and if Wendy, or Charlie, or you or I were to remove documents from the National Archives, stuff them in our pants, and then shred parts we didn't like at home...
Do you REALLY think we'd get a fine and "community service?"
Obviously, if you want to do big-time crime, become a big-time player, preferably IN the Gummint.
You know, P-I-G loyalty knows no bounds--national security or lives of (our) children be damned.
Saudi Arabia: The REAL Reason for Troops in Iraq?
It's a long article, but you ought to read it. It's far more interesting and informative than listening to Belling read-alouds from the Wall Street Journal or VD Hanson.
(By the way, when did Belling adopt the "Ding-Dong School" method and become Miss Frances?)
In brief, the family Saud (30,000 members and growing) is a wreck; some of the family has been actively supporting AlQuaeda and the "reformist"/jihadi/Muslim extremists; the oil-spigot can be severely crippled with 80 pounds of Semtex (!!!), and both State and the CIA seem to be ignoring it.
Unless, of course, you factor in the presence of 160,000 US ground troops in Iraq.
The good news: there's a LOT of money at stake in keeping Saudi oil fields running, and developing new oilfields with Saud partners. That money has been recycled to a number of US and foreign notables, including:
...the Carlyle Group—a private investment company, founded in 1987, that almost since its inception has been conducting immensely profitable business with Saudi Arabia. From 1993 to 2002 the chairman of Carlyle was Frank Carlucci, who served first as Ronald Reagan's National Security Adviser and then as his Secretary of Defense. Ca
(By the way, when did Belling adopt the "Ding-Dong School" method and become Miss Frances?)
In brief, the family Saud (30,000 members and growing) is a wreck; some of the family has been actively supporting AlQuaeda and the "reformist"/jihadi/Muslim extremists; the oil-spigot can be severely crippled with 80 pounds of Semtex (!!!), and both State and the CIA seem to be ignoring it.
Unless, of course, you factor in the presence of 160,000 US ground troops in Iraq.
The good news: there's a LOT of money at stake in keeping Saudi oil fields running, and developing new oilfields with Saud partners. That money has been recycled to a number of US and foreign notables, including:
...the Carlyle Group—a private investment company, founded in 1987, that almost since its inception has been conducting immensely profitable business with Saudi Arabia. From 1993 to 2002 the chairman of Carlyle was Frank Carlucci, who served first as Ronald Reagan's National Security Adviser and then as his Secretary of Defense. Ca