This is cute, and stolen (whole and entire) from The Digital Hairshirt.
It's entitled "Why MEN Don't Write Advice Columns" (bear that in mind...)
Dear Ask Al:
I hope you can help me here. The other day I set off for work leaving my husband in the house watching the TV as usual. I hadn't gone more than a few hundred yards down the road when my engine conked out and the car shuddered to a halt. I walked back home to get my husband's help. When I got home I couldn't believe my eyes. He was parading in front ofthe wardrobe mirror dressed in my underwear and high-heel shoes, and he was wearing my make up. I am 42, my husband is 44 and we have been married for twelve years. When I confronted him, he tried to make out that he had dressed in my lingerie because he couldn't find his own underwear. But when I asked him about the make up, he broke down and admitted that he'd been wearing my clothes for six months. I told him to stop or I would leave him. He was let go from his job six months ago and he says he has been feeling increasingly depressed and worthless. I love him very much, but ever since I gave him the ultimatum he has become increasingly distant. I don't feel I can get through to him anymore. Can you please help?
Sincerely, Mrs. Sheila Lusk
Dear Sheila:
A car stalling after being driven a short distance can be caused by a variety of faults with the engine. Start by checking that there is no debris in the fuel line. If it is clear, check the jubilee clips holding the vacuum pipes onto the inlet manifold. If none of these approaches solves the problem, it could be that the fuel pump itself is faulty, causing low delivery pressure to the carburetor float chamber. I hope this helps.
Al
Frankly, I thought Al was spot-on. It's most likely a fuel problem.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Saturday, September 29, 2007
It's LONDON, Not South Africa
I've heard and seen this error too many times.
Miller (Whips'n'Leather) Brewing is owned by South African Brewing Co.,
.....which is BASED IN LONDON, ENGLAND!!!
not in South Africa.
Another good reason for 1776.
Miller (Whips'n'Leather) Brewing is owned by South African Brewing Co.,
.....which is BASED IN LONDON, ENGLAND!!!
not in South Africa.
Another good reason for 1776.
The Marxist on the 2A
From Arms and the Law:
I don't consider the "liberal wing" as a lost cause, as Tushnet apparently does. The leading lights on the individual rights side are all quite liberal. Akhil Amar, Sanford Levinson, William van Alstyne. Don Kates and Joe Olson got their start as civil rights workers who took up arms to defend against attack. This issue resonates across political lines. Heck, I know a devout Marxist who is a lifer in the NRA, and his explanations make more sense than the conservative ones. I.e., how will the workers defend themselves without arms? Why do most gun control schemes have exceptions for corporations' hired guards?
(Not that anyone expects a Rockefeller family guard to gun them down...)
It so happens, however, that it is remark about the NFA is true.
Your Marxist friend is right. As you know, the NFA contains a provision that allows corporations and trusts to purchase NFA firearms without local law enforcement sign-off; individuals have to be approved by the local CLEO.
As you also know, only the military and law enforcement can presently purchase machine guns that were made after May 1986. Someone is floating a proposal to allow security companies, who conveniently have contracts with state or federal governments, to purchase newly made machine guns.
So as "Arms" posits, the Parker case may well be THE 'case of the term' for SCOTUS--the decision may well have an effect on various provisions of the NFA, such as the 'newer' machine-gun ban.
After all, machine guns are common military weapons--sorta like what a 'militia' should be familiar with. Given the usual restrictions on purchases (and the zillion-dollar budget required to feed and maintain machine guns) I don't think that availability will have a big impact.
I don't consider the "liberal wing" as a lost cause, as Tushnet apparently does. The leading lights on the individual rights side are all quite liberal. Akhil Amar, Sanford Levinson, William van Alstyne. Don Kates and Joe Olson got their start as civil rights workers who took up arms to defend against attack. This issue resonates across political lines. Heck, I know a devout Marxist who is a lifer in the NRA, and his explanations make more sense than the conservative ones. I.e., how will the workers defend themselves without arms? Why do most gun control schemes have exceptions for corporations' hired guards?
(Not that anyone expects a Rockefeller family guard to gun them down...)
It so happens, however, that it is remark about the NFA is true.
Your Marxist friend is right. As you know, the NFA contains a provision that allows corporations and trusts to purchase NFA firearms without local law enforcement sign-off; individuals have to be approved by the local CLEO.
As you also know, only the military and law enforcement can presently purchase machine guns that were made after May 1986. Someone is floating a proposal to allow security companies, who conveniently have contracts with state or federal governments, to purchase newly made machine guns.
So as "Arms" posits, the Parker case may well be THE 'case of the term' for SCOTUS--the decision may well have an effect on various provisions of the NFA, such as the 'newer' machine-gun ban.
After all, machine guns are common military weapons--sorta like what a 'militia' should be familiar with. Given the usual restrictions on purchases (and the zillion-dollar budget required to feed and maintain machine guns) I don't think that availability will have a big impact.
Friday, September 28, 2007
"Cheap" Employees vs. The Customer
Clayton has a problem with his HP. (He ain't the first. NONE of my family member will ever again purchase an HP laptop. It's better to purchase a car which was underwater for several months than an HP laptop.)
In any case, he also discovers something: that there IS a computer manufacturer who does not outsource its customer service to "cheap labor" countries.
A reader points out that someone has taken up the challenge. Gateway advertises:
Now offering 100% North America-based telephone technical support.
That would not necessarily have prevented Clayton's problem--nor does Gateway necessarily have better customer-support software and systems.
But it would have saved him a lot of time just in repeating numbers over and over and over and over...
It is becoming more clear (albeit we're 5 years away from the 'tipping point,') that outsourcing for "cheap labor" is NOT the answer. Whether it's junk (or poison) parts, llllloooooooonnnnng shipping delays, or the inability to understand plain English--sooner or later the customer simply goes away.
In any case, he also discovers something: that there IS a computer manufacturer who does not outsource its customer service to "cheap labor" countries.
A reader points out that someone has taken up the challenge. Gateway advertises:
Now offering 100% North America-based telephone technical support.
That would not necessarily have prevented Clayton's problem--nor does Gateway necessarily have better customer-support software and systems.
But it would have saved him a lot of time just in repeating numbers over and over and over and over...
It is becoming more clear (albeit we're 5 years away from the 'tipping point,') that outsourcing for "cheap labor" is NOT the answer. Whether it's junk (or poison) parts, llllloooooooonnnnng shipping delays, or the inability to understand plain English--sooner or later the customer simply goes away.
The Lesson of Tennessee for Wisconsin Residents
This will be fun to watch--because there WILL be a Federal lawsuit.
Starting today, state Department of Revenue agents will begin stopping Tennessee motorists spotted buying large quantities of cigarettes in border states, then charging them with a crime and, in some cases, seizing their cars.
Critics say the new “cigarette surveillance program” amounts to the use of “police state” tactics and wrongfully interferes with interstate commerce. But state Revenue Commissioner Reagan Farr says his department is simply doing its job, enforcing a valid state law while protecting Tennessee retailers who properly pay state taxes.
Agents have already been watching out-of-state stores that sell cigarettes near the Tennessee border to “get a feel where problem areas are,” Farr said.
While declining to be specific, the commissioner said “problem areas” are generally along interstate highways with exits near the Tennessee border.
Of course, 4th Amendment will come into play here. Searching cars for legal products is not founded on "probable cause" under any circumstance--although it may be interesting to watch a case which involves re-selling the butts.
That "protecting retailers" phrase is also of interest. Here we have a State official who explicitly states that they are using State law-enforcement resources to "protect retailers" from importation of legal products from another State for personal use. That's a new one, but similar to the Wisconsin expenditures to implement the Internet Sales Tax regime.
Of course, I will be pricing cigarettes in Illinois when the Republicans cave on the butt tax, and I intend to utilize the differential for my own benefit. There are many others who will be doing the same thing. It's one thing to ask for a self-declaration for 'use-tax' purposes but another thing entirely to do search-and-siezure. And as to 'use-tax': shall the State of Wisconsin begin collecting "use-tax" on gasoline purchased in Minnesota but used in Wisconsin?
And there are rules which come into play, beginning with Rule Number One:
NEVER allow a cop to search your vehicle for cigarettes. It ain't no crime to have 20 cartons of cigarettes in the USA which were legally purchased for personal consumption, even if they were purchased in another State.
After Rule Number One comes Rule Number Two: have your attorney's number on speed-dial.
Rule Number Three: have a nice "damages" number in mind--about 10x what you actually want.
Starting today, state Department of Revenue agents will begin stopping Tennessee motorists spotted buying large quantities of cigarettes in border states, then charging them with a crime and, in some cases, seizing their cars.
Critics say the new “cigarette surveillance program” amounts to the use of “police state” tactics and wrongfully interferes with interstate commerce. But state Revenue Commissioner Reagan Farr says his department is simply doing its job, enforcing a valid state law while protecting Tennessee retailers who properly pay state taxes.
Agents have already been watching out-of-state stores that sell cigarettes near the Tennessee border to “get a feel where problem areas are,” Farr said.
While declining to be specific, the commissioner said “problem areas” are generally along interstate highways with exits near the Tennessee border.
Of course, 4th Amendment will come into play here. Searching cars for legal products is not founded on "probable cause" under any circumstance--although it may be interesting to watch a case which involves re-selling the butts.
That "protecting retailers" phrase is also of interest. Here we have a State official who explicitly states that they are using State law-enforcement resources to "protect retailers" from importation of legal products from another State for personal use. That's a new one, but similar to the Wisconsin expenditures to implement the Internet Sales Tax regime.
Of course, I will be pricing cigarettes in Illinois when the Republicans cave on the butt tax, and I intend to utilize the differential for my own benefit. There are many others who will be doing the same thing. It's one thing to ask for a self-declaration for 'use-tax' purposes but another thing entirely to do search-and-siezure. And as to 'use-tax': shall the State of Wisconsin begin collecting "use-tax" on gasoline purchased in Minnesota but used in Wisconsin?
And there are rules which come into play, beginning with Rule Number One:
NEVER allow a cop to search your vehicle for cigarettes. It ain't no crime to have 20 cartons of cigarettes in the USA which were legally purchased for personal consumption, even if they were purchased in another State.
After Rule Number One comes Rule Number Two: have your attorney's number on speed-dial.
Rule Number Three: have a nice "damages" number in mind--about 10x what you actually want.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
The Church and Liberalism
An excerpt from a very lengthy (and worthwhile) blogpost.
The excerpt will give you a flavor for the post's discussion, but also is the core.
...the Church has elevated certain elements of the classical liberal agenda—and without compromise—by divorcing liberalism from its historic excesses. By situating liberalism within a Christian philosophical and theological framework, the Church has sufficiently anchored liberalism’s vision of individual liberty and human rights in a proper anthropology.
This process began with Pius IX’s 1864 Syllabus of Errors, which condemned the radical elements of the liberal movement, and has continued all the way through John Paul II’s encyclical letter, Fides et Ratio. By asserting this, however, I am also recognizing that the Church has condemned the excesses and abuses of liberalism. Among these would be the errors of atomistic individualism, the absolute right to private property, the idea that law originates from the will of the people, and the rejection of legitimate authority, especially the moral authority of the Church. Yet I would suggest that these condemnations, and others, have been carefully focused on specific errors of liberalism so as not to disregard many of the key insights that liberals advanced, such as religious liberty, freedom of association, and economic liberty.
Admittedly, the Church has prudently taken more than a century to develop her teaching on these matters. Consequently, the nuancing of liberalism has been gradual and slow to develop.
--Michael Therrien, published by Acton Institute
Worth remembering.
The excerpt will give you a flavor for the post's discussion, but also is the core.
...the Church has elevated certain elements of the classical liberal agenda—and without compromise—by divorcing liberalism from its historic excesses. By situating liberalism within a Christian philosophical and theological framework, the Church has sufficiently anchored liberalism’s vision of individual liberty and human rights in a proper anthropology.
This process began with Pius IX’s 1864 Syllabus of Errors, which condemned the radical elements of the liberal movement, and has continued all the way through John Paul II’s encyclical letter, Fides et Ratio. By asserting this, however, I am also recognizing that the Church has condemned the excesses and abuses of liberalism. Among these would be the errors of atomistic individualism, the absolute right to private property, the idea that law originates from the will of the people, and the rejection of legitimate authority, especially the moral authority of the Church. Yet I would suggest that these condemnations, and others, have been carefully focused on specific errors of liberalism so as not to disregard many of the key insights that liberals advanced, such as religious liberty, freedom of association, and economic liberty.
Admittedly, the Church has prudently taken more than a century to develop her teaching on these matters. Consequently, the nuancing of liberalism has been gradual and slow to develop.
--Michael Therrien, published by Acton Institute
Worth remembering.
That's It for Miller; Now It Will Be .410 Target
My home, my choice!
I've never really liked Miller Brewing products--the "Lite" beer is froggy-water with yellow coloring, anyway; the only decent formula they have was purchased, and the "High Life" label gives people headaches.
But Miller has chosen its markets carefully. Fine.
Going forward, no Miller at this residence. I don't care if you bring your own; the 12-packs will be emptied by a single blast from my .410 shotgun.
I, too, can "choose"--or if you prefer, "UN-choose."
I've never really liked Miller Brewing products--the "Lite" beer is froggy-water with yellow coloring, anyway; the only decent formula they have was purchased, and the "High Life" label gives people headaches.
But Miller has chosen its markets carefully. Fine.
Going forward, no Miller at this residence. I don't care if you bring your own; the 12-packs will be emptied by a single blast from my .410 shotgun.
I, too, can "choose"--or if you prefer, "UN-choose."
The "Marriage Amendment" Redux?
A crank from UW-Oshkosh gets a curious concession.
A Dane County Circuit Court judge today ruled that a Door County man doesn't have the right to challenge a state constitutional amendment defining marriage on constitutional grounds, but left open the possibility he could be allowed to challenge it based on how it was presented to voters.
...However, Niess [the judge] directed both sides to provide more information on the question of whether the amendment was properly put to voters. McConkey is arguing that it wasn't because a constitutional amendment should only contain one subject, while this one contained several.
Nope. The single topic was gay "marriage," including any and all variations thereof by name or in fact.
And the "presentation" made by gay "marriage" supporters was blatantly fraudulent. Wouldn't it be fun if Judge Niess found that?
A Dane County Circuit Court judge today ruled that a Door County man doesn't have the right to challenge a state constitutional amendment defining marriage on constitutional grounds, but left open the possibility he could be allowed to challenge it based on how it was presented to voters.
...However, Niess [the judge] directed both sides to provide more information on the question of whether the amendment was properly put to voters. McConkey is arguing that it wasn't because a constitutional amendment should only contain one subject, while this one contained several.
Nope. The single topic was gay "marriage," including any and all variations thereof by name or in fact.
And the "presentation" made by gay "marriage" supporters was blatantly fraudulent. Wouldn't it be fun if Judge Niess found that?
Another Audit at Red's
In the "ongoing news" section, we find that Red's had ANOTHER BATFE audit.
It's finally become clear to Red's that the business of BATFE auditors is to 'find problems' and they're going to 'find them' at Red's.
Still think that the term "jackboot" is meaningless in the USA?
It's finally become clear to Red's that the business of BATFE auditors is to 'find problems' and they're going to 'find them' at Red's.
Still think that the term "jackboot" is meaningless in the USA?
Lefty Argues Against "Healthy Wisconsin"
On another blog, there's a discussion of Walker's parks-labor plan. One of the Lefties argues that Walker's plan is bad. No surprise.
Perhaps you recall that the Lefties have argued (falsely) that "Healthy Wisconsin" will deliver health-care to EVERYONE in the State for no real increase in cost. Nobody believes that, of course--not even the Lefties.
How do I know that? They TOLD me:
Walker gives you a tax freeze, so you pay no more in taxes, but you get less in services. That would equate to a tax hike, thus saving one nothing, but hurting everyone.
See where he's going? He argues that Walker's plan will maintain costs and reduce services. The Left also argues that Healthy Wisconsin will (roughly) maintain costs and INCREASE services (or the number of people served.) In fact, they claim that health-costs will be REDUCED because all those eeeeeeeeeevvvillllllll Administrators will be unemployed:
...the Lewin Group actually found that HW would reduce health care spending by over $750 million in the first year alone.
Hmmmmmnnn.
Looks like a case of "Whose Goose" to me.
Perhaps you recall that the Lefties have argued (falsely) that "Healthy Wisconsin" will deliver health-care to EVERYONE in the State for no real increase in cost. Nobody believes that, of course--not even the Lefties.
How do I know that? They TOLD me:
Walker gives you a tax freeze, so you pay no more in taxes, but you get less in services. That would equate to a tax hike, thus saving one nothing, but hurting everyone.
See where he's going? He argues that Walker's plan will maintain costs and reduce services. The Left also argues that Healthy Wisconsin will (roughly) maintain costs and INCREASE services (or the number of people served.) In fact, they claim that health-costs will be REDUCED because all those eeeeeeeeeevvvillllllll Administrators will be unemployed:
...the Lewin Group actually found that HW would reduce health care spending by over $750 million in the first year alone.
Hmmmmmnnn.
Looks like a case of "Whose Goose" to me.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Esenberg Laws Down the Law
OK. Kinda, sorta 'lays it down.' Here's his last 'graf:
This is a critical juncture. The court is now more or less evenly divided between two groups of justices who have dramatically different notions of the role of the judiciary. It is the purpose of this white paper to facilitate a discussion about this important trend and to foster a dialogue about the proper role of the courts in our state. It is the hope of its author that it begins now—in earnest.
So--lousy punditry aside, he actually 'laid down a challenge'--to the voters and the Supremes.
Earlier, the Shark reviewed our beloved Supremes' startling rulings of the last few years--the one which essentially was a "Shirley Says" ruling on concealed carry; the one which was a "Shirley Says" ruling on casino compacts; and the one which was a "Shirley Says" ruling on evidence in juvie cases.
Note the similarity in titling of the cases? I got that from Esenberg, who characterized a SCOTUS ruling on church/state as WWSD (what would Sandra do) ruling.
The guy is just a font of ideas.
He also slammed my thought that Shirley's inane Hamdan rule would pre-abort any CCW regulations, drat it all...which doesn't mean that one cannot try, hey. Who knows who will be sitting on the Court when a case comes up?
Worth the read, folks. We DO have to have a discussion.
This is a critical juncture. The court is now more or less evenly divided between two groups of justices who have dramatically different notions of the role of the judiciary. It is the purpose of this white paper to facilitate a discussion about this important trend and to foster a dialogue about the proper role of the courts in our state. It is the hope of its author that it begins now—in earnest.
So--lousy punditry aside, he actually 'laid down a challenge'--to the voters and the Supremes.
Earlier, the Shark reviewed our beloved Supremes' startling rulings of the last few years--the one which essentially was a "Shirley Says" ruling on concealed carry; the one which was a "Shirley Says" ruling on casino compacts; and the one which was a "Shirley Says" ruling on evidence in juvie cases.
Note the similarity in titling of the cases? I got that from Esenberg, who characterized a SCOTUS ruling on church/state as WWSD (what would Sandra do) ruling.
The guy is just a font of ideas.
He also slammed my thought that Shirley's inane Hamdan rule would pre-abort any CCW regulations, drat it all...which doesn't mean that one cannot try, hey. Who knows who will be sitting on the Court when a case comes up?
Worth the read, folks. We DO have to have a discussion.
If "Fatherless" Is Correct, Abp. Dolan Has More Work to Do
Just sorta came across this (StatCounter is wunnerful...wunnerful.)
Frankly, nothing here is surprising, but the use of direct quotations is unusual unless one actually tape-recorded the conversations.
Discussions with our new “pastor” about the new liturgical practices that violate Redemptionis Sacramentum include such “pastoral” comments as:
“I will not celebrate the Liturgy in a way that makes ME uncomfortable.” (This is in reference to calling God “Father” and praying the Eucharistic Prayers as written.)
Poor 'Fatherless.' He must have missed the last 20 years of "I Gotta Be MEEEEEE!!!"
“Your previous Pastors (who celebrated the Mass according to the GIRM and Redemptionis Sacramentum) did the parish no favors and poorly formed the parish when it comes to Liturgical practice.”
(Unimaginative morons, they...)
“The Archbishop has not fully implemented the GIRM and Redemptionis Sacramentum in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.”
(That may be news to the Archbishop of Milwaukee...)
“I am not sticking my neck out here as there are parishes in other parts of the Archdiocese that celebrate the Mass in a more liberal way than I do and are not required to change.”
When telling “Father” that his actions are dividing the parish his comment is: “Maybe that needs to happen.” So much for being concerned about the church community.
(See "I Gotta Be MEEEEEE!!!!" above)
And my person favorite: “If I have a choice between listening to you (Fatherless Catholic) and listening to Bishop Sklba, I will listen to Bishop Sklba.”
(Translation: Bp. Sklba tickles my ears. You don't. Get lost.)
Hmmmmmm. I guess Archbishop Dolan does not matter in this.
Ummnnnnhhhhh....in an Archdiocese which is chock-full of Liturgeist/Dissenting priests, one hesitates to guess the precise Parish in which this set of scandals is occurring.
It would be sorta like guessing which part of Lake Michigan is wet.
Note to 'Fatherless:' Try St. Anthony's, 9th/Mitchell, 10:00 AM Sundays--or for a REAL treat, try St Stan's, 5th/Mitchell, 10:00 AM Sundays.
Better to go to Mass and thank God afterwards than to go and think about ways to strangle puppies...
Frankly, nothing here is surprising, but the use of direct quotations is unusual unless one actually tape-recorded the conversations.
Discussions with our new “pastor” about the new liturgical practices that violate Redemptionis Sacramentum include such “pastoral” comments as:
“I will not celebrate the Liturgy in a way that makes ME uncomfortable.” (This is in reference to calling God “Father” and praying the Eucharistic Prayers as written.)
Poor 'Fatherless.' He must have missed the last 20 years of "I Gotta Be MEEEEEE!!!"
“Your previous Pastors (who celebrated the Mass according to the GIRM and Redemptionis Sacramentum) did the parish no favors and poorly formed the parish when it comes to Liturgical practice.”
(Unimaginative morons, they...)
“The Archbishop has not fully implemented the GIRM and Redemptionis Sacramentum in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.”
(That may be news to the Archbishop of Milwaukee...)
“I am not sticking my neck out here as there are parishes in other parts of the Archdiocese that celebrate the Mass in a more liberal way than I do and are not required to change.”
When telling “Father” that his actions are dividing the parish his comment is: “Maybe that needs to happen.” So much for being concerned about the church community.
(See "I Gotta Be MEEEEEE!!!!" above)
And my person favorite: “If I have a choice between listening to you (Fatherless Catholic) and listening to Bishop Sklba, I will listen to Bishop Sklba.”
(Translation: Bp. Sklba tickles my ears. You don't. Get lost.)
Hmmmmmm. I guess Archbishop Dolan does not matter in this.
Ummnnnnhhhhh....in an Archdiocese which is chock-full of Liturgeist/Dissenting priests, one hesitates to guess the precise Parish in which this set of scandals is occurring.
It would be sorta like guessing which part of Lake Michigan is wet.
Note to 'Fatherless:' Try St. Anthony's, 9th/Mitchell, 10:00 AM Sundays--or for a REAL treat, try St Stan's, 5th/Mitchell, 10:00 AM Sundays.
Better to go to Mass and thank God afterwards than to go and think about ways to strangle puppies...
The Axis of Evil? You Bet Your Life...
Occasionally, it's good to read a few facts which are NOT part of the MSM mantra.
Here, conditions in North Korea's concentration camps are reported.
[At] Haengyong, hidden away in the mountains, Camp 22 - North Korea's largest concentration camp, thousands die each year and prison guards stamp on the necks of babies born to prisoners to kill them, North Korean defectors have said.
Witnesses have been quoted by British media, including the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and The Observer news paper, "watching entire families being put in glass chambers and gassed." They are left to an agonizing death while scientists take notes, the defectors said.
Other experiments in these and other camps allegedly include chemical experiments. "An officer ordered me to select 50 healthy female prisoners," said Soon Ok-lee, who was imprisoned for seven years. "One of the guards handed me a basket full of soaked cabbage, told me not to eat it but to give it to the 50 women. I gave them out and heard a scream from those who had eaten them. They were all screaming and vomiting blood. All who ate the cabbage leaves started violently vomiting blood and screaming with pain. It was hell. In less than 20 minutes they were quite dead," The Observer news paper quoted her as saying.
The victims of the Tender Mercies of the Supreme Leader have something in common:
Many of the victims are believed to be Christians as North Korea's Stalinist system of carrying out Communism is based on "total devotion" of the individual to an ideology promoted by the late leader Kim Il Sung and his successor and son, Kim Jong Il. Christianity is seen as a threat, several Christian and other observers have said. North Korean authorities have denied wrongdoing and say the North Korean people love to serve the country's "dear leader".
Based on what's reported, it would seem we have a cross between Stalin and Mengele running this place.
HT: WardWideWeb
Here, conditions in North Korea's concentration camps are reported.
[At] Haengyong, hidden away in the mountains, Camp 22 - North Korea's largest concentration camp, thousands die each year and prison guards stamp on the necks of babies born to prisoners to kill them, North Korean defectors have said.
Witnesses have been quoted by British media, including the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and The Observer news paper, "watching entire families being put in glass chambers and gassed." They are left to an agonizing death while scientists take notes, the defectors said.
Other experiments in these and other camps allegedly include chemical experiments. "An officer ordered me to select 50 healthy female prisoners," said Soon Ok-lee, who was imprisoned for seven years. "One of the guards handed me a basket full of soaked cabbage, told me not to eat it but to give it to the 50 women. I gave them out and heard a scream from those who had eaten them. They were all screaming and vomiting blood. All who ate the cabbage leaves started violently vomiting blood and screaming with pain. It was hell. In less than 20 minutes they were quite dead," The Observer news paper quoted her as saying.
The victims of the Tender Mercies of the Supreme Leader have something in common:
Many of the victims are believed to be Christians as North Korea's Stalinist system of carrying out Communism is based on "total devotion" of the individual to an ideology promoted by the late leader Kim Il Sung and his successor and son, Kim Jong Il. Christianity is seen as a threat, several Christian and other observers have said. North Korean authorities have denied wrongdoing and say the North Korean people love to serve the country's "dear leader".
Based on what's reported, it would seem we have a cross between Stalin and Mengele running this place.
HT: WardWideWeb
Cops Whining About Getting Tickets
I didn't believe it, either, until I read the posts on this site.
Obviously, the image and the reality differ. "Professional Courtesy" waivers for "testing the top-end of my new 'Vette"?
What jackasses.
Obviously, the image and the reality differ. "Professional Courtesy" waivers for "testing the top-end of my new 'Vette"?
What jackasses.
A Certain Car Salesguy Could Kill Me for This...
...but I don't care. Besides, I have the .357 handy...
Via Tom McMahon, Kent Howard's words of wisdom:
For 15 years, Clark has talked about the advantage of keeping a new car for at least 10 years or buying a used car and keeping it for at least four years. Cars lose about half of their value during the first three years, but then the loss ratio drops off pretty steeply after that time. Consumer Reports has now done a study on the virtues of keeping a car for 15 years. Bear in mind that most owners only keep their vehicles for three or maybe five years. But by keeping a car for 15 years or 225,000 miles, you save $31,000 dollars. The report found that during the course of 15 years, your average maintenance will be $18,000 and your insurance will be $18,000
Another trick--buy a car off-lease; your capcost is about 1/2 of "new" car, and with only 50K or less on the clock, it's not likely the car could have been abused seriously. Besides, you can purchase the 'remainder' of the OE warranty, usually good for 75,000 miles.
Via Tom McMahon, Kent Howard's words of wisdom:
For 15 years, Clark has talked about the advantage of keeping a new car for at least 10 years or buying a used car and keeping it for at least four years. Cars lose about half of their value during the first three years, but then the loss ratio drops off pretty steeply after that time. Consumer Reports has now done a study on the virtues of keeping a car for 15 years. Bear in mind that most owners only keep their vehicles for three or maybe five years. But by keeping a car for 15 years or 225,000 miles, you save $31,000 dollars. The report found that during the course of 15 years, your average maintenance will be $18,000 and your insurance will be $18,000
Another trick--buy a car off-lease; your capcost is about 1/2 of "new" car, and with only 50K or less on the clock, it's not likely the car could have been abused seriously. Besides, you can purchase the 'remainder' of the OE warranty, usually good for 75,000 miles.
Congress at Work
Lawdog found a nugget.
And whoever Uncle Jay is, he's a scream. Certainly not like Miss Frances--or Mr. Rogers.
Go on. Click on the link, and then on the embedded YouTube.
And whoever Uncle Jay is, he's a scream. Certainly not like Miss Frances--or Mr. Rogers.
Go on. Click on the link, and then on the embedded YouTube.
Pelosi: "Rules Are for Suckas"
Congressmen Drier, Hastings, et.al., are releasing a report today on the Dysfunctional Democrat-run House Rules Committee.
Our report, entitled “Out of Order,” details a Democrat Rules Committee operated by partisan advantage, invoking the following heavy-handed tactics:
• Rewriting bills to include massive tax increases and Medicare cuts with no debate.
• Rejecting more Minority-sponsored amendments than the previous Congress.
• Issuing more than double the number of closed rules prohibiting amendments than the previous Congress.
• Reducing by an entire day the amount of time Members have to review legislation and submit amendments for consideration.
• Adopting a policy of turning some Members of Congress away at the door of the Committee when they attempt to submit amendments.
• Abandoning its pledges for regular order in the House by jamming through huge bills with less than 24 hours for review.
In a desperate effort to keep the legislative process from seeing the light of day, the Democrat Majority have repeatedly waived long-standing precedent and transparency measures. The result has been a disorganized and chaotic House as the Majority party has proven that political expediency is the Democrat’s #1 virtue.
Order, of course, proceeds from an orderly mind. There are two elements there, folks: 1) a mind; and 2) 'orderly.'
What we have in the DemDominated Congress is Will--not Mind.
Our report, entitled “Out of Order,” details a Democrat Rules Committee operated by partisan advantage, invoking the following heavy-handed tactics:
• Rewriting bills to include massive tax increases and Medicare cuts with no debate.
• Rejecting more Minority-sponsored amendments than the previous Congress.
• Issuing more than double the number of closed rules prohibiting amendments than the previous Congress.
• Reducing by an entire day the amount of time Members have to review legislation and submit amendments for consideration.
• Adopting a policy of turning some Members of Congress away at the door of the Committee when they attempt to submit amendments.
• Abandoning its pledges for regular order in the House by jamming through huge bills with less than 24 hours for review.
In a desperate effort to keep the legislative process from seeing the light of day, the Democrat Majority have repeatedly waived long-standing precedent and transparency measures. The result has been a disorganized and chaotic House as the Majority party has proven that political expediency is the Democrat’s #1 virtue.
Order, of course, proceeds from an orderly mind. There are two elements there, folks: 1) a mind; and 2) 'orderly.'
What we have in the DemDominated Congress is Will--not Mind.
The Hildebeeste: Inching Timidly With Money
Nobody would call HRC a 'visionary.' She's a very cautious individual, as her Senate record demonstrates. In the words of Josh Green, "a timid, calculating, pol." Nothing bold, nothing new--strictly buy-and-sell retail politics, with the single exception being her 'HillaryCare' program--and you know where that went.
And "buy-and-sell" retail politics is more than just a phrase.
Disgraced fund-raiser Norman Hsu did a lot more than just pump $850,000 into Hillary Clinton's campaign bank account: He also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local, state, and federal candidates who have endorsed Clinton or whose support she courted
...In at least some cases, Clinton or her aides directly channeled contributions from Hsu and his network to other politicians supportive of her presidential campaign, according to interviews and campaign finance records
With that quote from the Boston Globe, the Captain draws the obvious conclusion:
This revelation shows that Hillary and her campaign didn't just passively receive funds from Hsu. The campaign actively worked with Hsu to distribute the funds to other campaigns, and in return, Hillary bought endorsements with the stolen money.
It's a well-worn formula.
Of course, the "bought-and-sold" include DarthDoyle, now fast becoming Wisconsin's most-purchased Governor.
And "buy-and-sell" retail politics is more than just a phrase.
Disgraced fund-raiser Norman Hsu did a lot more than just pump $850,000 into Hillary Clinton's campaign bank account: He also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local, state, and federal candidates who have endorsed Clinton or whose support she courted
...In at least some cases, Clinton or her aides directly channeled contributions from Hsu and his network to other politicians supportive of her presidential campaign, according to interviews and campaign finance records
With that quote from the Boston Globe, the Captain draws the obvious conclusion:
This revelation shows that Hillary and her campaign didn't just passively receive funds from Hsu. The campaign actively worked with Hsu to distribute the funds to other campaigns, and in return, Hillary bought endorsements with the stolen money.
It's a well-worn formula.
Of course, the "bought-and-sold" include DarthDoyle, now fast becoming Wisconsin's most-purchased Governor.
Vrakas Showing the Way
Here's a guy who gets it.
Waukesha County Board members responded with a mix of cheer and fear Tuesday to a 2008 county budget proposal that would slow spending increases to less than 1%.
In presenting his $254 million proposal, County Executive Dan Vrakas said the spending increase of about $400,000 would meet the needs of the county's growing population.
As a result of that,
Vrakas also said most property owners would see their tax bills for county government stay the same or decrease.
It's the SPENDING that drives the TAXES.
Waukesha County Board members responded with a mix of cheer and fear Tuesday to a 2008 county budget proposal that would slow spending increases to less than 1%.
In presenting his $254 million proposal, County Executive Dan Vrakas said the spending increase of about $400,000 would meet the needs of the county's growing population.
As a result of that,
Vrakas also said most property owners would see their tax bills for county government stay the same or decrease.
It's the SPENDING that drives the TAXES.
Burmaster Can't Read (the Signs)
The 'reading gap' in Wisconsin is bad.
But the 'reading gap' of Eliz. Burmaster, our Chief of Education, is worse--because she either cannot or will not state the obvious.
Burmaster said the high and rising level of poverty in Wisconsin was a big factor behind the gaps. She said she wanted to know whether other states had the same proportions of students from low-income homes as Wisconsin.
"It's not just an achievement gap," she said. "It's an economic gap. It's a gap in health. It's a quality of life gap. All of those things influence student achievement."
While you're looking at the "poverty level," Liz, why don't you look at the INTACT FAMILIES level? You remember--daddy, mommy, children.
Or, to put it another way, Liz, don't let your PC confuse you with the appearances.
But the 'reading gap' of Eliz. Burmaster, our Chief of Education, is worse--because she either cannot or will not state the obvious.
Burmaster said the high and rising level of poverty in Wisconsin was a big factor behind the gaps. She said she wanted to know whether other states had the same proportions of students from low-income homes as Wisconsin.
"It's not just an achievement gap," she said. "It's an economic gap. It's a gap in health. It's a quality of life gap. All of those things influence student achievement."
While you're looking at the "poverty level," Liz, why don't you look at the INTACT FAMILIES level? You remember--daddy, mommy, children.
Or, to put it another way, Liz, don't let your PC confuse you with the appearances.
Suicide by Multi-Culturalism? B-16's Call to Lepanto
Ever wonder why Benedict XVI spoke as he did at Regensburg? Or on the Western conceit of 'relativism'? Or more recently, on the topic of "religious freedom"?
It's because the State Departments of the 'civilized' West STILL don't get it. And even if they did, they don't have the moral capital to say what they have to on the topic.
Fortunately, Robert Spencer does.
...Six years after 9/11, and a year and a half after Donald Rumsfeld observed that “We need to find ways to win the ideological battle as well,” the jihadists’ ideological challenge is not being answered adequately. Osama’s challenge to Christianity and advocacy of Sharia is an opportunity for Western leaders to stress the aspects of Judeo-Christian civilization that Sharia law denies: notably the equality of dignity of men and women and the freedom of conscience. But no Western leader will do this, because it would contradict the multiculturalist dogma that no civilization or culture has any virtues that any others do not possess.
...even conservative media figures are hesitant to discuss the cultural conflict. The ideological challenge that the jihadists are making to the West remains the single most misunderstood aspect of the war on terror. As Osama invites us once again to accept Islam, probably very few Americans would be able to articulate why they wouldn’t want to accept the invitation, and yet talk of Sharia and how it contradicts basic Western understandings of human rights remain taboo.
So the West, paralyzed by its 'multi-culturalism' (which of course is derived from relativism), is unable to articulate a response to Bin Laden and his followers. And just as in the last major go-round with the Muslims, it is the Church who takes up the challenge.
Let's hope it works again.
It's because the State Departments of the 'civilized' West STILL don't get it. And even if they did, they don't have the moral capital to say what they have to on the topic.
Fortunately, Robert Spencer does.
...Six years after 9/11, and a year and a half after Donald Rumsfeld observed that “We need to find ways to win the ideological battle as well,” the jihadists’ ideological challenge is not being answered adequately. Osama’s challenge to Christianity and advocacy of Sharia is an opportunity for Western leaders to stress the aspects of Judeo-Christian civilization that Sharia law denies: notably the equality of dignity of men and women and the freedom of conscience. But no Western leader will do this, because it would contradict the multiculturalist dogma that no civilization or culture has any virtues that any others do not possess.
...even conservative media figures are hesitant to discuss the cultural conflict. The ideological challenge that the jihadists are making to the West remains the single most misunderstood aspect of the war on terror. As Osama invites us once again to accept Islam, probably very few Americans would be able to articulate why they wouldn’t want to accept the invitation, and yet talk of Sharia and how it contradicts basic Western understandings of human rights remain taboo.
So the West, paralyzed by its 'multi-culturalism' (which of course is derived from relativism), is unable to articulate a response to Bin Laden and his followers. And just as in the last major go-round with the Muslims, it is the Church who takes up the challenge.
Let's hope it works again.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Take It to the WI Supremes? You're Nuts!
Yesterday evening we posted a brief on the victory of Mr. Vegas.
A Milwaukee Circuit judge ruled that the Milwaukee DA's attempt to charge Mr. Vegas with unlawful carrying of a weapon was unconstitutional given 1) the 25th Amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution and 2) The SCOWI's Hamdan ruling.
However, if you follow the "Hamdan" link above, you'll find that Screechin'Shirley Abrahamson was able to FUBAR the 25th Amendment with yappaflappa that is a clumsy and irrational rewrite of Kafka (at best.)
In Hamdan, SCOWI grudgingly acknowledged that a shopkeeper had a (WI) Constitutional right to have a concealed weapon on his premises because his place of business was in a very dangerous location. (Shirley also graciously conceded the common-law's ancient grant of the right to keep a concealed weapon in one's home. Nice of her, no?)
BUT if that 'imminent danger' could not be proven, then Screech would not allow concealed carry. Period.
The practical effect was that someone who carries in their car had to demonstrate that it was necessary to protect his life or limb--which demonstration Vegas was able to present, convincingly. At the time of Hamdan, I argued that Shirley's Court was setting up a situation in which each and every "in-car" carrying incident could or would be litigated all the way to SCOWI--and potentially "advance-abrogating" any CCW legislation.
Well, I was partly wrong, because Vegas came around. But it's only a pre-trial decision in one Circuit Court. Thus, Vegas will not set another evolutionary precedent.
IMHO, there was no good reason for Chisholm to bring charges against Vegas in the first place--other than to punish Vegas for disobeying Chisholm's asinine "order" not to carry in the future. This was an open and shut case, even in the LaLaLand of Shirley Abrahamson, and Chisholm wasted resources in bringing the charge.
Were this to advance to trial and appeal, the Court of Appeals would find exactly the same as did the Circuit Court. However, there's no guarantee that Shirley's Gang would rule consistently with their Hamdan decision--because Shirley has demonstrated that the Constitution as written means nothing---nothing---to her and her compliant majority. Thus, 'consistency' is not required--Shirley makes up the rules as she goes along. It's entirely possible that she would have found FOR the Milwaukee County DA on some cockamamie premise.
In the meantime, the "training" and "licensing" requirements of CCW proposals is now endangered. If (under Hamdan) one can carry in a place of business without "training," and Hamdan's provisions apply to "in-car" concealed carry, why should anyone get "training"? Why spend money to obtain a "license" if Vegas and Hamdan did not?
Over time, as more case-law builds, the Wisconsin courts will be forced to allow more and more instances of concealed-carry. So long as a CCW law is not in effect, each of them will abrogate more and more CCW "training" and "licensing" provisions...
Given the outcome of Vegas, for example, what's to prevent carrying in your car on the way to work if you work in a "dangerous" place? And what's to prevent carrying in your car if you are driving to (or habitually drive through) a "dangerous" place?
Nothing. No training required--and no "fees" payable to the Sheriff, either.
Shirley's Will-to-Power is truly awesome--and has (potentially) resulted in a ridiculous patchwork of "yea/nay" carry permissibilities.
Perhaps she's proud of her "jurisprudence." But she shouldn't be.
A Milwaukee Circuit judge ruled that the Milwaukee DA's attempt to charge Mr. Vegas with unlawful carrying of a weapon was unconstitutional given 1) the 25th Amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution and 2) The SCOWI's Hamdan ruling.
However, if you follow the "Hamdan" link above, you'll find that Screechin'Shirley Abrahamson was able to FUBAR the 25th Amendment with yappaflappa that is a clumsy and irrational rewrite of Kafka (at best.)
In Hamdan, SCOWI grudgingly acknowledged that a shopkeeper had a (WI) Constitutional right to have a concealed weapon on his premises because his place of business was in a very dangerous location. (Shirley also graciously conceded the common-law's ancient grant of the right to keep a concealed weapon in one's home. Nice of her, no?)
BUT if that 'imminent danger' could not be proven, then Screech would not allow concealed carry. Period.
The practical effect was that someone who carries in their car had to demonstrate that it was necessary to protect his life or limb--which demonstration Vegas was able to present, convincingly. At the time of Hamdan, I argued that Shirley's Court was setting up a situation in which each and every "in-car" carrying incident could or would be litigated all the way to SCOWI--and potentially "advance-abrogating" any CCW legislation.
Well, I was partly wrong, because Vegas came around. But it's only a pre-trial decision in one Circuit Court. Thus, Vegas will not set another evolutionary precedent.
IMHO, there was no good reason for Chisholm to bring charges against Vegas in the first place--other than to punish Vegas for disobeying Chisholm's asinine "order" not to carry in the future. This was an open and shut case, even in the LaLaLand of Shirley Abrahamson, and Chisholm wasted resources in bringing the charge.
Were this to advance to trial and appeal, the Court of Appeals would find exactly the same as did the Circuit Court. However, there's no guarantee that Shirley's Gang would rule consistently with their Hamdan decision--because Shirley has demonstrated that the Constitution as written means nothing---nothing---to her and her compliant majority. Thus, 'consistency' is not required--Shirley makes up the rules as she goes along. It's entirely possible that she would have found FOR the Milwaukee County DA on some cockamamie premise.
In the meantime, the "training" and "licensing" requirements of CCW proposals is now endangered. If (under Hamdan) one can carry in a place of business without "training," and Hamdan's provisions apply to "in-car" concealed carry, why should anyone get "training"? Why spend money to obtain a "license" if Vegas and Hamdan did not?
Over time, as more case-law builds, the Wisconsin courts will be forced to allow more and more instances of concealed-carry. So long as a CCW law is not in effect, each of them will abrogate more and more CCW "training" and "licensing" provisions...
Given the outcome of Vegas, for example, what's to prevent carrying in your car on the way to work if you work in a "dangerous" place? And what's to prevent carrying in your car if you are driving to (or habitually drive through) a "dangerous" place?
Nothing. No training required--and no "fees" payable to the Sheriff, either.
Shirley's Will-to-Power is truly awesome--and has (potentially) resulted in a ridiculous patchwork of "yea/nay" carry permissibilities.
Perhaps she's proud of her "jurisprudence." But she shouldn't be.
How To Be A REAL Shepherd
Mentioned by The Jester. This evidently occurred during a discussion (radio or tv) on May 1st. My guess is that it was about Hitchens' atheism book.
FATHER RUTLER: I have met saints. You cannot explain the existence of saints without God. I was nine years chaplain with Mother Teresa [inaudible]. You have called her a whore, a demagogue. She’s in heaven that you don’t believe in, but she’s praying for you.
If you do not believe in heaven, that’s why you drink.
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Excuse me?
FATHER RUTLER: That’s why you drink.
God has offered us happiness, all of us. And you will either die a Catholic or a madman, and I’ll tell you the difference.
From this snip it's clear that Fr. Rutler holds Hitchens' intelligence in high regard.
Later:
“At the end of the event as he staggered, sweating and red faced, out of the room, he [Hitchens] advanced on Father Rutler in a threatening and physical manner, screaming that this beloved pastor and brilliant scholar whom he had never met was `a child molester and a lazy layabout who never did a day’s work in his life’. His behavior was so frightening that a bodyguard put himself between Hitchens and Father Rutler to protect him. Several of the event organizers then escorted Hitchens to the men’s room and when he emerged he continued his psychotic rant, repeating the same calumnious and baseless screed as before. It was then that Father Rutler, in the most charitable manner, told Hitchens [for the second time] that he will `either die a madman or a Roman Catholic’. … Unless he faces his alcoholism soon, I am betting on the ‘madman’ ending for him.”
Those words are the words of a real pastor of souls, folks. Not some cardboard 'happy-clappy' wonzo; not a "no offense at any cost" nice-boy-with-collar.
That is a shepherd. Let us pray that Hitchens was sufficiently jolted to think about those words. Hard.
FATHER RUTLER: I have met saints. You cannot explain the existence of saints without God. I was nine years chaplain with Mother Teresa [inaudible]. You have called her a whore, a demagogue. She’s in heaven that you don’t believe in, but she’s praying for you.
If you do not believe in heaven, that’s why you drink.
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Excuse me?
FATHER RUTLER: That’s why you drink.
God has offered us happiness, all of us. And you will either die a Catholic or a madman, and I’ll tell you the difference.
From this snip it's clear that Fr. Rutler holds Hitchens' intelligence in high regard.
Later:
“At the end of the event as he staggered, sweating and red faced, out of the room, he [Hitchens] advanced on Father Rutler in a threatening and physical manner, screaming that this beloved pastor and brilliant scholar whom he had never met was `a child molester and a lazy layabout who never did a day’s work in his life’. His behavior was so frightening that a bodyguard put himself between Hitchens and Father Rutler to protect him. Several of the event organizers then escorted Hitchens to the men’s room and when he emerged he continued his psychotic rant, repeating the same calumnious and baseless screed as before. It was then that Father Rutler, in the most charitable manner, told Hitchens [for the second time] that he will `either die a madman or a Roman Catholic’. … Unless he faces his alcoholism soon, I am betting on the ‘madman’ ending for him.”
Those words are the words of a real pastor of souls, folks. Not some cardboard 'happy-clappy' wonzo; not a "no offense at any cost" nice-boy-with-collar.
That is a shepherd. Let us pray that Hitchens was sufficiently jolted to think about those words. Hard.
It's the Inventory
....not "sales."
The fall in [existing home] sales pushed the inventory of unsold homes to a record 4.58 million in August. That means it would take 10 months to exhaust the inventory of homes on the market at the August sales pace, also a record figure
The previous record inventory was around 8 months' supply, except in the early 1980's/late 1970's, when it was almost 12 months.
The fall in [existing home] sales pushed the inventory of unsold homes to a record 4.58 million in August. That means it would take 10 months to exhaust the inventory of homes on the market at the August sales pace, also a record figure
The previous record inventory was around 8 months' supply, except in the early 1980's/late 1970's, when it was almost 12 months.
George Soros: Moneyed Anarchist
Investors' Business Daily has a series going on George Soros (we mentioned some of it yesterday, HT to Powerline.)
Here's another interesting little nugget:
How many people, for instance, know that James Hansen, a man billed as a lonely "NASA whistleblower" standing up to the mighty U.S. government, was really funded by Soros' Open Society Institute , which gave him "legal and media advice"?
That's right, Hansen was packaged for the media by Soros' flagship "philanthropy," by as much as $720,000, most likely under the OSI's "politicization of science" program.
And this:
Didn't the mainstream media report that 2006's vast immigration rallies across the country began as a spontaneous uprising of 2 million angry Mexican-flag waving illegal immigrants demanding U.S. citizenship in Los Angeles, egged on only by a local Spanish-language radio announcer?
Turns out that wasn't what happened, either. Soros' OSI had money-muscle there, too, through its $17 million Justice Fund. The fund lists 19 projects in 2006. One was vaguely described involvement in the immigration rallies. Another project funded illegal immigrant activist groups for subsequent court cases.
So what looked like a wildfire grassroots movement really was a manipulation from OSI's glassy Manhattan offices. The public had no way of knowing until the release of OSI's 2006 annual report.
And Soros has other pals:
Do people know last year's Supreme Court ruling abolishing special military commissions for terrorists at Guantanamo was a Soros project? OSI gave support to Georgetown lawyers in 2006 to win Hamdan v. Rumsfeld — for the terrorists.
Remember that Soros makes his money by exploiting instability. So his interests lie in destabilizing the US, which will contribute to destabilizing/devaluing the USD.
Of course, in pursuing this end, Soros has no problem with creating anarchy, which will have an impact on your wives and children, sooner or later.
Here's another interesting little nugget:
How many people, for instance, know that James Hansen, a man billed as a lonely "NASA whistleblower" standing up to the mighty U.S. government, was really funded by Soros' Open Society Institute , which gave him "legal and media advice"?
That's right, Hansen was packaged for the media by Soros' flagship "philanthropy," by as much as $720,000, most likely under the OSI's "politicization of science" program.
And this:
Didn't the mainstream media report that 2006's vast immigration rallies across the country began as a spontaneous uprising of 2 million angry Mexican-flag waving illegal immigrants demanding U.S. citizenship in Los Angeles, egged on only by a local Spanish-language radio announcer?
Turns out that wasn't what happened, either. Soros' OSI had money-muscle there, too, through its $17 million Justice Fund. The fund lists 19 projects in 2006. One was vaguely described involvement in the immigration rallies. Another project funded illegal immigrant activist groups for subsequent court cases.
So what looked like a wildfire grassroots movement really was a manipulation from OSI's glassy Manhattan offices. The public had no way of knowing until the release of OSI's 2006 annual report.
And Soros has other pals:
Do people know last year's Supreme Court ruling abolishing special military commissions for terrorists at Guantanamo was a Soros project? OSI gave support to Georgetown lawyers in 2006 to win Hamdan v. Rumsfeld — for the terrorists.
Remember that Soros makes his money by exploiting instability. So his interests lie in destabilizing the US, which will contribute to destabilizing/devaluing the USD.
Of course, in pursuing this end, Soros has no problem with creating anarchy, which will have an impact on your wives and children, sooner or later.
Monday, September 24, 2007
CCW Victory in Milwaukee!!
Here's the scoop:
Today, the 31st Circuit Court of Milwaukee County ruled that the Concealed Carry Weapons (CCW) statute was unconstitutional as applied to a particular defendant -- in this case, a pizza delivery driver who carried a gun for self-defense on the job, after being robbed repeatedly in a high crime area.
Andres Vegas is a pizza delivery driver and has been robbed and mugged while attempting to deliver a pizza on four different occasions. The first time was in March of 2005. The second time was July 14, 2006, when Vegas was attacked and threatened at gunpoint. Vegas, armed with a firearm, exercised his constitutional right of self-defense and shot one of the assailants. Vegas was not charged with the crime of carrying concealed and was ruled as acting in self defense. Not only was his firearm confiscated at the time of arrest, but it was never returned. He was subsequently told by the prosecuting District Attorney that if he were to use a firearm in self-defense again he would be prosecuted.
On September 13, 2006, an unarmed Vegas -- acting under the orders of the District Attorney to avoid prosecution -- was robbed, beaten, and sprayed with pepper spray by three assailants. Consequently Vegas went out and purchased another firearm. On January 4, 2007, Vegas was again attempting to deliver a pizza when two men approached him and pointed a gun in his face. This time, he responded by again exercising his right to self-defense and shot his assailant in the hip. Vegas then secured his assailant' s firearm along with his, placed them both on the roof of his car, dialed 911, and waited for the police to arrive. The DA determined that he acted in self defense, but he was subsequently charged with CCW for the moments before he was assaulted and defended.Even though this charge was brought forward by the DA’s office, the court has ruled in favor of Vegas, saying:
“Defendant Vegas has demonstrated the requisite extraordinary circumstances that warrant his concealed weapon…Vegas legally purchased his firearm for the purpose of security and protection. There is a strong inference that Vegas’ concealed firearm has saved his life during these violent assaults…Vegas has a substantial interest in being secure and protecting himself by carrying a concealed weapon.”
“This Court is not convinced that there are any reasonable alternatives that would have secured Vegas’ safety. Vegas' concealed weapon has most likely saved his life on several occasions; this the State cannot ignore. The State has conceded that Vegas did not have an unlawful purpose for concealing a weapon. Given the totality of the circumstances, this Court is satisfied that the Defendant has affirmatively answered the two-prong analysis as outlined in Hamdan and Fisher and thus grants the Defendant’s motion to dismiss.”
This is a giant step forward in the battle for Right-to-Carry in Wisconsin. This court ruling will likely lead to future citizens exercising their right to self-defense by carrying concealed firearms. Unfortunately this will likely lead to subsequent prosecutions, but this circuit court ruling will become a perfect example of law-abiding citizens' need for concealed firearms for protection against crime, especially in high crime areas such as Milwaukee
You could draw two conclusions from this case.
One possibility: the DA brought the case specifically to 'lose', with the intent of clarifying the law which Screechin'Shirley has screwed up beyond a fare-thee-well.
Second possibility: the DA brought the case because he is invincibly ignorant.
Today, the 31st Circuit Court of Milwaukee County ruled that the Concealed Carry Weapons (CCW) statute was unconstitutional as applied to a particular defendant -- in this case, a pizza delivery driver who carried a gun for self-defense on the job, after being robbed repeatedly in a high crime area.
Andres Vegas is a pizza delivery driver and has been robbed and mugged while attempting to deliver a pizza on four different occasions. The first time was in March of 2005. The second time was July 14, 2006, when Vegas was attacked and threatened at gunpoint. Vegas, armed with a firearm, exercised his constitutional right of self-defense and shot one of the assailants. Vegas was not charged with the crime of carrying concealed and was ruled as acting in self defense. Not only was his firearm confiscated at the time of arrest, but it was never returned. He was subsequently told by the prosecuting District Attorney that if he were to use a firearm in self-defense again he would be prosecuted.
On September 13, 2006, an unarmed Vegas -- acting under the orders of the District Attorney to avoid prosecution -- was robbed, beaten, and sprayed with pepper spray by three assailants. Consequently Vegas went out and purchased another firearm. On January 4, 2007, Vegas was again attempting to deliver a pizza when two men approached him and pointed a gun in his face. This time, he responded by again exercising his right to self-defense and shot his assailant in the hip. Vegas then secured his assailant' s firearm along with his, placed them both on the roof of his car, dialed 911, and waited for the police to arrive. The DA determined that he acted in self defense, but he was subsequently charged with CCW for the moments before he was assaulted and defended.Even though this charge was brought forward by the DA’s office, the court has ruled in favor of Vegas, saying:
“Defendant Vegas has demonstrated the requisite extraordinary circumstances that warrant his concealed weapon…Vegas legally purchased his firearm for the purpose of security and protection. There is a strong inference that Vegas’ concealed firearm has saved his life during these violent assaults…Vegas has a substantial interest in being secure and protecting himself by carrying a concealed weapon.”
“This Court is not convinced that there are any reasonable alternatives that would have secured Vegas’ safety. Vegas' concealed weapon has most likely saved his life on several occasions; this the State cannot ignore. The State has conceded that Vegas did not have an unlawful purpose for concealing a weapon. Given the totality of the circumstances, this Court is satisfied that the Defendant has affirmatively answered the two-prong analysis as outlined in Hamdan and Fisher and thus grants the Defendant’s motion to dismiss.”
This is a giant step forward in the battle for Right-to-Carry in Wisconsin. This court ruling will likely lead to future citizens exercising their right to self-defense by carrying concealed firearms. Unfortunately this will likely lead to subsequent prosecutions, but this circuit court ruling will become a perfect example of law-abiding citizens' need for concealed firearms for protection against crime, especially in high crime areas such as Milwaukee
You could draw two conclusions from this case.
One possibility: the DA brought the case specifically to 'lose', with the intent of clarifying the law which Screechin'Shirley has screwed up beyond a fare-thee-well.
Second possibility: the DA brought the case because he is invincibly ignorant.
G K Chesterton Does Irony
Maybe it's the GKC Paradox. It's also ironic.
“Openly and to all appearance, this ancestral conflict has silently and abruptly ended; one of the two sexes has suddenly surrendered to the other.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, within the last few years, the woman has in public surrendered to the man. She has seriously and officially owned that the man has been right all along; that the public house (or Parliament) is really more important than the private house; that politics are not (as woman had always maintained) an excuse for pots of beer, but are a sacred solemnity to which new female worshipers may kneel; that the talkative patriots in the tavern are not only admirable but enviable; that talk is not a waste of time, and therefore (as a consequence, surely) that taverns are not a waste of money.
All we men had grown used to our wives and mothers, and grandmothers, and great aunts all pouring a chorus of contempt upon our hobbies of sport, drink and party politics. And now comes Miss Pankhurst with tears in her eyes, owning that all the women were wrong and all the men were right; humbly imploring to be admitted into so much as an outer court, from which she may catch a glimpse of those masculine merits which her erring sisters had so thoughtlessly scorned.”
...to which the Hildebeeste's now-infamous "Laugh of the Witch at Full Throat" lends a fitting exclamation point.
“Openly and to all appearance, this ancestral conflict has silently and abruptly ended; one of the two sexes has suddenly surrendered to the other.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, within the last few years, the woman has in public surrendered to the man. She has seriously and officially owned that the man has been right all along; that the public house (or Parliament) is really more important than the private house; that politics are not (as woman had always maintained) an excuse for pots of beer, but are a sacred solemnity to which new female worshipers may kneel; that the talkative patriots in the tavern are not only admirable but enviable; that talk is not a waste of time, and therefore (as a consequence, surely) that taverns are not a waste of money.
All we men had grown used to our wives and mothers, and grandmothers, and great aunts all pouring a chorus of contempt upon our hobbies of sport, drink and party politics. And now comes Miss Pankhurst with tears in her eyes, owning that all the women were wrong and all the men were right; humbly imploring to be admitted into so much as an outer court, from which she may catch a glimpse of those masculine merits which her erring sisters had so thoughtlessly scorned.”
...to which the Hildebeeste's now-infamous "Laugh of the Witch at Full Throat" lends a fitting exclamation point.
Beats Corn-a-Hole by...Oh...100 MPG
Think that only the Japanese are working hybrids?
Think again.
Hybrids Plus Inc., founded last year in Boulder, Colo., lashes together up to 1,200 lithium-ion cells the size of D batteries into pumped-up battery systems that can be charged in wall outlets. "In daily usage, we're seeing numbers as high as 137 miles per gallon," says CEO Carl Lawrence. Even with their Rocky Mountain-high cost—refitting a Prius can cost $24,000—the conversions are drawing interest from wealthy techies who gain psychological satisfaction from using less gas. (This is Boulder, after all.)
Even better:
Widespread use of plug-in hybrids would be good news for utilities, which could sell the juice at night during periods of low demand. EnergyCS, a 13-person engineering shop in Monrovia, Calif., is developing an electronic and software system that would allow plug-in hybrids to charge batteries efficiently. One of its clients: the giant utility Pacific Gas & Electric. In April, PG&E used a hybrid to demonstrate an application of V2G technology. V2G isn't a category on Craigslist. It stands for vehicle-to-grid: In addition to drawing power from the energy system, hybrids can theoretically provide the power stored in their batteries to the electrical grid. Should V2G come to fruition, on a sweltering August day, you could run your air conditioner off your Ford Escape.
There is this practical problem:
Naturally, cost is an issue. It takes 64 years of gas savings to pay off the extra investment a Hybrids Plus conversion entails. But these entrepreneurial initiatives function as demonstration projects for risk-averse big companies, which know how to reduce costs through mass production. In August, A123Systems signed a deal with GM to help develop a fuel cell for the Chevy Volt. GM believes a plug-in hybrid like the Volt, which could be in showrooms by 2009, could render the average daily commute—about 40 miles—gas-free.
Not to worry. The Legislature and the Governor will raise the taxes on electricity and sunlight ASAP.
HT: The Big Picture
Think again.
Hybrids Plus Inc., founded last year in Boulder, Colo., lashes together up to 1,200 lithium-ion cells the size of D batteries into pumped-up battery systems that can be charged in wall outlets. "In daily usage, we're seeing numbers as high as 137 miles per gallon," says CEO Carl Lawrence. Even with their Rocky Mountain-high cost—refitting a Prius can cost $24,000—the conversions are drawing interest from wealthy techies who gain psychological satisfaction from using less gas. (This is Boulder, after all.)
Even better:
Widespread use of plug-in hybrids would be good news for utilities, which could sell the juice at night during periods of low demand. EnergyCS, a 13-person engineering shop in Monrovia, Calif., is developing an electronic and software system that would allow plug-in hybrids to charge batteries efficiently. One of its clients: the giant utility Pacific Gas & Electric. In April, PG&E used a hybrid to demonstrate an application of V2G technology. V2G isn't a category on Craigslist. It stands for vehicle-to-grid: In addition to drawing power from the energy system, hybrids can theoretically provide the power stored in their batteries to the electrical grid. Should V2G come to fruition, on a sweltering August day, you could run your air conditioner off your Ford Escape.
There is this practical problem:
Naturally, cost is an issue. It takes 64 years of gas savings to pay off the extra investment a Hybrids Plus conversion entails. But these entrepreneurial initiatives function as demonstration projects for risk-averse big companies, which know how to reduce costs through mass production. In August, A123Systems signed a deal with GM to help develop a fuel cell for the Chevy Volt. GM believes a plug-in hybrid like the Volt, which could be in showrooms by 2009, could render the average daily commute—about 40 miles—gas-free.
Not to worry. The Legislature and the Governor will raise the taxes on electricity and sunlight ASAP.
HT: The Big Picture
It's Cooling. It's Warming. It's The End of the World...
John Kerry and this guy Hansen have something in common.
Climate Change: Did NASA scientist James Hansen, the global warming alarmist in chief, once believe we were headed for . . . an ice age? An old Washington Post story indicates he did.
Yup. Voted for "cooling" before he voted for "warming."
HT: Clay Cramer
Climate Change: Did NASA scientist James Hansen, the global warming alarmist in chief, once believe we were headed for . . . an ice age? An old Washington Post story indicates he did.
Yup. Voted for "cooling" before he voted for "warming."
HT: Clay Cramer
I Feel Pretty: Pinky Pinky Bang-Bang
So far, neither Guns and Ammo nor The American Rifleman has mentioned this.
... the two girls were immediately drawn to a rifle and a youth shotgun.
But it wasn't the firepower of the guns that attracted the girls' attention. It was a color: Call it blaze pink.
Say what?
Gander Mountain and the Cabela's in Richfield - which was selling a pink pistol the other day, along with two pink long guns - are displaying more than promoting pink firearms.
But the decidedly feminine form of a traditionally male pursuit may be catching on.
Hanson said the pink rifle sold well enough last year in its first season in Gander Mountain stores that the pink shotgun was added late this summer.
The deer will laugh themselves to death. No need for ammo, folks.
By the way, there IS a group self-named "the Pink Pistols," who are handgun-owner homosexuals.
... the two girls were immediately drawn to a rifle and a youth shotgun.
But it wasn't the firepower of the guns that attracted the girls' attention. It was a color: Call it blaze pink.
Say what?
Gander Mountain and the Cabela's in Richfield - which was selling a pink pistol the other day, along with two pink long guns - are displaying more than promoting pink firearms.
But the decidedly feminine form of a traditionally male pursuit may be catching on.
Hanson said the pink rifle sold well enough last year in its first season in Gander Mountain stores that the pink shotgun was added late this summer.
The deer will laugh themselves to death. No need for ammo, folks.
By the way, there IS a group self-named "the Pink Pistols," who are handgun-owner homosexuals.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Vibrancy in Dallas
Here's a fellow who gets it.
After mentioning that he's in a 'friendly' environment (the University of Dallas) where the students don't have to be dragged to Mass, he then makes utterly sensible remarks. I'll repost it in full, so the Archdiocesan folks can copy it...
Teach the apostolic faith full on…no compromises on basic doctrine or dogma. This generation of college students can smell an intellectual/spiritual weasel a hundred miles away. They would rather hear the bald-faced Truth and struggle with it than listen to a priest/minister try to sugar-coat a difficult teaching in the vain search for popularity or “hipness.”
Preach the gospel full on…ditto. Tell it like it is and let the students grow in holiness. Yes, they will fail. Who doesn’t? But let them fail knowing what Christ and his Church expects of them. Lowering the moral bar comes across as expecting too little from them. What does that say about the Church’s view of our future ecclesial leaders? They can’t cut it, so we have to shorten the race.
Give them charitable work to do…present this work as a kind of “churchy social work” and they will not stay away in droves. I regularly cite Matthew 25 as my scriptural backing for asking them to do volunteer work in the community. Frankly, They have been beaten with the Social Justice-Work stick all their lives and most of what they hear sounds like the socio-economic engineering agenda of a modernist, socialist political party. This is attractive to some, but my experience is that students yearn for a chance to do something Truly Good for their community. If their leaders loudly and proudly attach volunteer work to the Gospels as a an exercise in charity rather than an experiment in social engineering, they will come.
Challenge them intellectually…these are smarts kids. They want to know what the Church teaches and why. They don’t always agree with the Church. Fine. Coming to holiness through obedience is a long, long road for some (..even for Dominican friars who try really hard!). They aren’t afraid of tough texts or difficult arguments. Just give them the documents, read along with them, answer questions honestly and clearly, and let them make the choices they will be responsible for. You have no control over what they will come to believe or practice. Fortunately, that’s not our task. Jesus said, “Preach and teach the gospel.” He said nothing about punishing those who will not hear or see.
Feed them…they’re poor and hungry. Yes, I mean feed them spiritually, but I also mean feed them literally—food, drink, and fellowship do amazing things for students on budgets and for students who have endured slap-dash catechesis and dumbed-down, irreverent liturgy.
For the ecclesial leaders over 45 y.o. (esp. campus ministers): [Or Liturgeists with "Yout' Mass" and "Yout' Catechism class...]
These students aren’t you at 18. Apply your own standards of liberality and let them explore the fullness of the Church’s ancient traditions. You had a crappy childhood at St. Sixtus of the Perpetual Frown under the bruising discipline of Sr. Mary of the Five Wounds of Christ, so religious habits, rosaries, crucifixes, devotional booklets, Latin, incense, sanctus bells, etc. all remind you of stifling dogmatic lectures, knuckle-rappings, silly moral imperatives, triumphal-martial Catholicism, etc. Guess what? They aren’t you! They didn’t have these experiences, so they don’t associate Eucharistic adoration and First Friday Masses with intellectual repression and physical pain. Let them transform these traditions and make them their own. This is what you did, right? Well then, be consistent and apply your own principles. If you don’t, they will simply ignore you as a dinosaur and look for unofficial leadership elsewhere…which is exactly what you did when your elders failed to allow you the room you needed to explore and grow!
You didn’t follow in the religious/spiritual footsteps of your parents, why would you expect them to follow in yours? More than anything these younger generations need our patience. Keep your contempt and snarky commentary to yourself. You only injure your already sketchy credibility.
You grew up (for the most part) in a sexually repressed culture crowded with rules and punishments. They didn’t. They grew up in the sexual chaos your revolution caused and still celebrates. If they want to figure out what virginity, chastity, and NFP is all about, let them. Again, your snarky predictions of their inevitable failure will only serve to further damage your credibility—it will not deter them. Also, ask yourself: why are you threatened by their desire to put their sexuality in the context of faithful marriage?
[Dear Father--you don't REALLY want to know that answer, do you?]
These younger generations respect ecclesial authority most when those in authority show themselves to be people of integrity and strength. They do not expect moral perfection from you, only consistency and heroic effort. Failure is a demon they struggle with daily. Your efforts to weaken the moral ideals of the faith so that they might “succeed” are patronizing. We have to own up to the fact that recent attempts to undermine the moral teachings of the Church are really about the Baby-boomer generation’s obsession with sex and its very public need to have their sexual lives approved and celebrated, especially by those most likely to disapprove.
Also, please, please, please don’t assume that they want their Christian lives to mirror their secular culture. You wanted the Church to look more and more like your “times.” They don’t. They want their Christian lives to be counter-cultural, against the secular grain. Yes, they are extremely naïve sometimes about what this actually means but you will lose them instantly if you think an MTV Mass is the hip thing to do. Why would they come to a MTV Mass? They have MTV (and worse) 24/7 on their cell phones. They don’t need or want you for entertainment. Church is not a concert or an amusement park. What they don’t have on their cell phones is the Real Presence of Christ in his Eucharist.
Looks like my daughter made a good choice of colleges, no?
Best part: she works for this guy in the Campus Ministry office!
After mentioning that he's in a 'friendly' environment (the University of Dallas) where the students don't have to be dragged to Mass, he then makes utterly sensible remarks. I'll repost it in full, so the Archdiocesan folks can copy it...
Teach the apostolic faith full on…no compromises on basic doctrine or dogma. This generation of college students can smell an intellectual/spiritual weasel a hundred miles away. They would rather hear the bald-faced Truth and struggle with it than listen to a priest/minister try to sugar-coat a difficult teaching in the vain search for popularity or “hipness.”
Preach the gospel full on…ditto. Tell it like it is and let the students grow in holiness. Yes, they will fail. Who doesn’t? But let them fail knowing what Christ and his Church expects of them. Lowering the moral bar comes across as expecting too little from them. What does that say about the Church’s view of our future ecclesial leaders? They can’t cut it, so we have to shorten the race.
Give them charitable work to do…present this work as a kind of “churchy social work” and they will not stay away in droves. I regularly cite Matthew 25 as my scriptural backing for asking them to do volunteer work in the community. Frankly, They have been beaten with the Social Justice-Work stick all their lives and most of what they hear sounds like the socio-economic engineering agenda of a modernist, socialist political party. This is attractive to some, but my experience is that students yearn for a chance to do something Truly Good for their community. If their leaders loudly and proudly attach volunteer work to the Gospels as a an exercise in charity rather than an experiment in social engineering, they will come.
Challenge them intellectually…these are smarts kids. They want to know what the Church teaches and why. They don’t always agree with the Church. Fine. Coming to holiness through obedience is a long, long road for some (..even for Dominican friars who try really hard!). They aren’t afraid of tough texts or difficult arguments. Just give them the documents, read along with them, answer questions honestly and clearly, and let them make the choices they will be responsible for. You have no control over what they will come to believe or practice. Fortunately, that’s not our task. Jesus said, “Preach and teach the gospel.” He said nothing about punishing those who will not hear or see.
Feed them…they’re poor and hungry. Yes, I mean feed them spiritually, but I also mean feed them literally—food, drink, and fellowship do amazing things for students on budgets and for students who have endured slap-dash catechesis and dumbed-down, irreverent liturgy.
For the ecclesial leaders over 45 y.o. (esp. campus ministers): [Or Liturgeists with "Yout' Mass" and "Yout' Catechism class...]
These students aren’t you at 18. Apply your own standards of liberality and let them explore the fullness of the Church’s ancient traditions. You had a crappy childhood at St. Sixtus of the Perpetual Frown under the bruising discipline of Sr. Mary of the Five Wounds of Christ, so religious habits, rosaries, crucifixes, devotional booklets, Latin, incense, sanctus bells, etc. all remind you of stifling dogmatic lectures, knuckle-rappings, silly moral imperatives, triumphal-martial Catholicism, etc. Guess what? They aren’t you! They didn’t have these experiences, so they don’t associate Eucharistic adoration and First Friday Masses with intellectual repression and physical pain. Let them transform these traditions and make them their own. This is what you did, right? Well then, be consistent and apply your own principles. If you don’t, they will simply ignore you as a dinosaur and look for unofficial leadership elsewhere…which is exactly what you did when your elders failed to allow you the room you needed to explore and grow!
You didn’t follow in the religious/spiritual footsteps of your parents, why would you expect them to follow in yours? More than anything these younger generations need our patience. Keep your contempt and snarky commentary to yourself. You only injure your already sketchy credibility.
You grew up (for the most part) in a sexually repressed culture crowded with rules and punishments. They didn’t. They grew up in the sexual chaos your revolution caused and still celebrates. If they want to figure out what virginity, chastity, and NFP is all about, let them. Again, your snarky predictions of their inevitable failure will only serve to further damage your credibility—it will not deter them. Also, ask yourself: why are you threatened by their desire to put their sexuality in the context of faithful marriage?
[Dear Father--you don't REALLY want to know that answer, do you?]
These younger generations respect ecclesial authority most when those in authority show themselves to be people of integrity and strength. They do not expect moral perfection from you, only consistency and heroic effort. Failure is a demon they struggle with daily. Your efforts to weaken the moral ideals of the faith so that they might “succeed” are patronizing. We have to own up to the fact that recent attempts to undermine the moral teachings of the Church are really about the Baby-boomer generation’s obsession with sex and its very public need to have their sexual lives approved and celebrated, especially by those most likely to disapprove.
Also, please, please, please don’t assume that they want their Christian lives to mirror their secular culture. You wanted the Church to look more and more like your “times.” They don’t. They want their Christian lives to be counter-cultural, against the secular grain. Yes, they are extremely naïve sometimes about what this actually means but you will lose them instantly if you think an MTV Mass is the hip thing to do. Why would they come to a MTV Mass? They have MTV (and worse) 24/7 on their cell phones. They don’t need or want you for entertainment. Church is not a concert or an amusement park. What they don’t have on their cell phones is the Real Presence of Christ in his Eucharist.
Looks like my daughter made a good choice of colleges, no?
Best part: she works for this guy in the Campus Ministry office!
GWB Does the Right Thing v. Ahioutyejob
Malkin quotes as follows:
After having been rejected by the United States administration to visit the site of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is now planning to meet the families of the 9/11 victims, Fars news agency reported.
Good. Thanks!!
After having been rejected by the United States administration to visit the site of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is now planning to meet the families of the 9/11 victims, Fars news agency reported.
Good. Thanks!!
How Many Divisions Has the Pope?
You have to hand it to B-16.
First he takes on the LeftoWacky establishment in the Church by making the Johannine Use available easily.
Now (again) he takes on the Muslims.
The Pope has again risked provoking the wrath of the Islamic world, by criticising its treatment of Christians.
Benedict XVI attacked Muslim nations where Christians are either persecuted or given the status of second-class citizens under the Shariah Islamic law.
He also defended the rights of Muslims to convert to Christianity, an act which warrants the death penalty in many Islamic countries.
His comments came almost exactly a year after he provoked a wave of anger among Muslims by quoting a Byzantine emperor who linked Islam to violence.
Yesterday, near Rome, the 80-year-old pontiff made a speech in "defence of religious liberty", which, he said "is a fundamental, irrepressible, inalienable and inviolable right".
In a clear reference to Islam, he said: "The exercise of this freedom also includes the right to change religion, which should be guaranteed not only legally, but also in daily practice."
Addressing the problem of Islamic extremism, he added: "Terrorism is a serious problem whose perpetrators often claim to act in God's name and harbour an inexcusable contempt for human life."
By the way, he will also draw fire from the RightoWacky element in the Church, which has a cockamamie view on 'religious freedom.'
Lepanto, ....Vienna, .....
First he takes on the LeftoWacky establishment in the Church by making the Johannine Use available easily.
Now (again) he takes on the Muslims.
The Pope has again risked provoking the wrath of the Islamic world, by criticising its treatment of Christians.
Benedict XVI attacked Muslim nations where Christians are either persecuted or given the status of second-class citizens under the Shariah Islamic law.
He also defended the rights of Muslims to convert to Christianity, an act which warrants the death penalty in many Islamic countries.
His comments came almost exactly a year after he provoked a wave of anger among Muslims by quoting a Byzantine emperor who linked Islam to violence.
Yesterday, near Rome, the 80-year-old pontiff made a speech in "defence of religious liberty", which, he said "is a fundamental, irrepressible, inalienable and inviolable right".
In a clear reference to Islam, he said: "The exercise of this freedom also includes the right to change religion, which should be guaranteed not only legally, but also in daily practice."
Addressing the problem of Islamic extremism, he added: "Terrorism is a serious problem whose perpetrators often claim to act in God's name and harbour an inexcusable contempt for human life."
By the way, he will also draw fire from the RightoWacky element in the Church, which has a cockamamie view on 'religious freedom.'
Lepanto, ....Vienna, .....
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Bernanke's Bumbling
From Abelson, via The Big Picture:
"NO GOOD DEED, OF COURSE, goes unpunished. And wouldn't you know, Mr. Bernanke's muscular move that touched off a blistering rally in stocks also, it grieves us to report, had less salutary, if equally predictable, consequences in other trading arenas
...A euro fetched a record price in U.S. dollars and the Canadian dollar -- the loonie -- achieved parity with our battered buck for the first time in over three decades (who's crazy now?). Virtually every currency known to man appreciated against our beleaguered greenback...
The incidental devaluation of the U.S. dollar sent the price of crude, which is denominated in dollars, barreling to an all-time high above $84 a barrel ...a spurt in gold to nearly $745 an ounce, the highest price since January 1980...
...he managed to steepen the Treasury yield curve, which means that the longer-term obligations, which effectively determine the level of mortgage rates, went up. Not, we suspect, the ideal medicine for what ails homebuilding
In other news, (related--read between the lines--) the US taxpayer will relieve bond-holders such as Lehmann, BearStearns, and others of high-risk 'nuclear waste' mortgages through FHA and FreddieMae actions.
Not the first time that moneyed interests have purchased Government policy and actions.
"NO GOOD DEED, OF COURSE, goes unpunished. And wouldn't you know, Mr. Bernanke's muscular move that touched off a blistering rally in stocks also, it grieves us to report, had less salutary, if equally predictable, consequences in other trading arenas
...A euro fetched a record price in U.S. dollars and the Canadian dollar -- the loonie -- achieved parity with our battered buck for the first time in over three decades (who's crazy now?). Virtually every currency known to man appreciated against our beleaguered greenback...
The incidental devaluation of the U.S. dollar sent the price of crude, which is denominated in dollars, barreling to an all-time high above $84 a barrel ...a spurt in gold to nearly $745 an ounce, the highest price since January 1980...
...he managed to steepen the Treasury yield curve, which means that the longer-term obligations, which effectively determine the level of mortgage rates, went up. Not, we suspect, the ideal medicine for what ails homebuilding
In other news, (related--read between the lines--) the US taxpayer will relieve bond-holders such as Lehmann, BearStearns, and others of high-risk 'nuclear waste' mortgages through FHA and FreddieMae actions.
Not the first time that moneyed interests have purchased Government policy and actions.
Rudy's Getting Desparate
Let's face it: when your track record with wives and children is ...hard to defend...you have to try to make up for it when appearing before the Common People, right?
So what better than a clumsily-engineered way to say "I Love You" to wifey-dear?
Judith Giuliani apparently didn’t get the memo that her husband was scheduled to address the crowd at 11:30 a.m. EDT. Half-way through Giuliani’s 20-minute speech, his phone, stashed in his pants pocket, rang. (Washington Wire has no desire to be the manners police, but c’mon. As the Washington Post points out, this isn’t the first time Giuliani’s forgotten to silence his phone.
As the crowd listened, Giuliani told her he was giving a speech to the NRA and asked if she’d like to say anything to the members. He listened for a moment, laughed and then began winding down the call. “Love you, dear. Have a safe flight,” Giuliani said before hanging up and continuing his speech right where he’d left off.
Sure, Rudy. We'll buy that crapola.
So what better than a clumsily-engineered way to say "I Love You" to wifey-dear?
Judith Giuliani apparently didn’t get the memo that her husband was scheduled to address the crowd at 11:30 a.m. EDT. Half-way through Giuliani’s 20-minute speech, his phone, stashed in his pants pocket, rang. (Washington Wire has no desire to be the manners police, but c’mon. As the Washington Post points out, this isn’t the first time Giuliani’s forgotten to silence his phone.
As the crowd listened, Giuliani told her he was giving a speech to the NRA and asked if she’d like to say anything to the members. He listened for a moment, laughed and then began winding down the call. “Love you, dear. Have a safe flight,” Giuliani said before hanging up and continuing his speech right where he’d left off.
Sure, Rudy. We'll buy that crapola.
Soros: It's the Money, Stupid!
The Captain interviewed a woman who gets it, in part.
Monica Showalter of Investors Business Daily takes a look ...
IBD believes that Soros works as a political nihilist. Showalter, in her interview on Wednesday's Heading Right Radio broadcast live from IBD's offices, says that Soros has a pattern of undermining government institutions and democratic processes. He uses instability to make money in his currency speculation, racking up billions while nations reel from the effects of his trading.
But I think that Showalter draws the wrong conclusion:
...Showalter believes that's intended to force a sovereign UN-based government on the world rather than the nation-state model.
No, Monica. You can reduce Soros' MO to just the "making billions" part. Soros may tell folks that he's a Globaloney Believer who wants Whirled Peas.
But you'd be a damn fool to believe it.
It's the money, honey.
Monica Showalter of Investors Business Daily takes a look ...
IBD believes that Soros works as a political nihilist. Showalter, in her interview on Wednesday's Heading Right Radio broadcast live from IBD's offices, says that Soros has a pattern of undermining government institutions and democratic processes. He uses instability to make money in his currency speculation, racking up billions while nations reel from the effects of his trading.
But I think that Showalter draws the wrong conclusion:
...Showalter believes that's intended to force a sovereign UN-based government on the world rather than the nation-state model.
No, Monica. You can reduce Soros' MO to just the "making billions" part. Soros may tell folks that he's a Globaloney Believer who wants Whirled Peas.
But you'd be a damn fool to believe it.
It's the money, honey.
"Soldier of Fortune" Bunch in More Trouble
For whatever reason, I've always been a touch uneasy with the concept of "rent-a-soldier." Either they are legitimate military, or they are accidents waiting to happen.
Blackwater seems to have found the accident(s).
From the Captain:
Blackwater Security has returned to its work for the US military and State Department in Iraq after Baghdad threatened to expel them after a deadly shooting.
Although they're back 'on the job,' that might be temporary.
The Captain quotes a report that portends bigger problems:
Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq weapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.
Evidently a couple of bozos were snatching M-4s and selling them to the PKK, who used them against the Turks. The Turks retrieved the weapons, complete with serial numbers...
It ain't gonna be pretty.
Blackwater seems to have found the accident(s).
From the Captain:
Blackwater Security has returned to its work for the US military and State Department in Iraq after Baghdad threatened to expel them after a deadly shooting.
Although they're back 'on the job,' that might be temporary.
The Captain quotes a report that portends bigger problems:
Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq weapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.
Evidently a couple of bozos were snatching M-4s and selling them to the PKK, who used them against the Turks. The Turks retrieved the weapons, complete with serial numbers...
It ain't gonna be pretty.
Ruuuuudeeeee!!!! Flip/Flop, Flip/Flop...
Rudy appeared before the NRA's Board and proceeded to wiggle.
In the Q&A, he was asked about whether he still supported the lawsuit he filed in NYC against gun manufacturers, and flipped on the issue. He said, at the time, he was focused on using every law he could, and every interpretation of the law, to reduce crime, but that since then, the lawsuit has taken "twists and turns" and so he no longer supports the current version. He said the Parker decision and 9/11 also changed his thinking on it--the connection to Sept. 11 will probably raise questions among Giuliani cynics. Also, just yesterday, he had punted on the lawsuit question, saying he doesn't discuss pending litigation.
There's a case to be made that Rudy's a closet Statist--just like the Hildebeeste. You could argue that the particular affliction of Statism comes in a couple of flavors; Rudy's just happens to be flavored more like Tommy Thompson's than FDR's.
In contrast, there's Fred, who is a Federalist--and whose major challenge is to get people to understand that Federalism is a virtue.
In the Q&A, he was asked about whether he still supported the lawsuit he filed in NYC against gun manufacturers, and flipped on the issue. He said, at the time, he was focused on using every law he could, and every interpretation of the law, to reduce crime, but that since then, the lawsuit has taken "twists and turns" and so he no longer supports the current version. He said the Parker decision and 9/11 also changed his thinking on it--the connection to Sept. 11 will probably raise questions among Giuliani cynics. Also, just yesterday, he had punted on the lawsuit question, saying he doesn't discuss pending litigation.
There's a case to be made that Rudy's a closet Statist--just like the Hildebeeste. You could argue that the particular affliction of Statism comes in a couple of flavors; Rudy's just happens to be flavored more like Tommy Thompson's than FDR's.
In contrast, there's Fred, who is a Federalist--and whose major challenge is to get people to understand that Federalism is a virtue.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Nurse Judy: Shove It
Take your offer and....
Assembly Republican leaders rejected a $1 billion package of tax increases and other funding programs that Senate Democrats said they need to drop their universal health care plan from the overdue state budget.
"I am providing you nothing in return," said Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem). He said Healthy Wisconsin, which would provide universal health care by 2009, should have never been added to the state budget by Democrats who control the Senate.
"This is a significant tax increase," said Republican Rep. Kitty Rhoades of Hudson, co-chairman of the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee.
Today, Senate Democrats said they would drop the Healthy Wisconsin plan, but only if Assembly Republicans ageed to raise the 77-cent cigarette tax by $1.25, levy a surtax on hospital revenues to attract more federal aid and transfer $175 million from the Patients Compensation Fund that helps pay medical malpractice damage awards."This is a complete offer," Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson (D-Beloit) told Huebsch. "You don't get to pick and choose what you like, and what you don't like."
Thanks, Rep. Huebsch, for 'picking and choosing' the right answer: NO!
Assembly Republican leaders rejected a $1 billion package of tax increases and other funding programs that Senate Democrats said they need to drop their universal health care plan from the overdue state budget.
"I am providing you nothing in return," said Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem). He said Healthy Wisconsin, which would provide universal health care by 2009, should have never been added to the state budget by Democrats who control the Senate.
"This is a significant tax increase," said Republican Rep. Kitty Rhoades of Hudson, co-chairman of the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee.
Today, Senate Democrats said they would drop the Healthy Wisconsin plan, but only if Assembly Republicans ageed to raise the 77-cent cigarette tax by $1.25, levy a surtax on hospital revenues to attract more federal aid and transfer $175 million from the Patients Compensation Fund that helps pay medical malpractice damage awards."This is a complete offer," Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson (D-Beloit) told Huebsch. "You don't get to pick and choose what you like, and what you don't like."
Thanks, Rep. Huebsch, for 'picking and choosing' the right answer: NO!
Wisconsin Gummint at Work
These are the poeple that Nurse Rached Robson wants to manage your healthcare.
...we examined 2006 daily revenue recorded in the State’s Data Collection System and found instances for every day of the year in which amounts recorded by electronic meters differed
from amounts counted by casino staff by at least 3.0 percent and more than $25. In discussing this issue with the Division, we found that it was unaware of almost all of the differences we identified and could not readily determine their causes.
...
One of the primary reasons the Legislature and Governor authorized the expenditure of approximately $1.0 million for the development and support of the Data Collection System through FY 2006-07 was to assist the Division in ensuring the integrity of Indian gaming by allowing it to readily identify instances in which amounts recorded by electronic meters in the gaming devices differ from amounts collected and counted by casino staff. Although the
Division reviews many important financial controls implemented by casinos, it has not routinely used the Data Collection System to identify these differences, which are important in identifying
potential irregularities in gaming operations and financial reporting that cannot be identified from other controls the Division reviews. Moreover, we found that from March 2006 through April 2007, the Division did not review data maintained by casinos to determine
whether the tribes routinely identified, investigated, and documented differences between amounts recorded by electronic meters and amounts counted by casino staff, as compacts require.
Wisconsin's Gaming Control folks are just plain....underperforming.
You don't want to THINK about how sloppy procedures like these could impact your spouse's heart surgery...
...we examined 2006 daily revenue recorded in the State’s Data Collection System and found instances for every day of the year in which amounts recorded by electronic meters differed
from amounts counted by casino staff by at least 3.0 percent and more than $25. In discussing this issue with the Division, we found that it was unaware of almost all of the differences we identified and could not readily determine their causes.
...
One of the primary reasons the Legislature and Governor authorized the expenditure of approximately $1.0 million for the development and support of the Data Collection System through FY 2006-07 was to assist the Division in ensuring the integrity of Indian gaming by allowing it to readily identify instances in which amounts recorded by electronic meters in the gaming devices differ from amounts collected and counted by casino staff. Although the
Division reviews many important financial controls implemented by casinos, it has not routinely used the Data Collection System to identify these differences, which are important in identifying
potential irregularities in gaming operations and financial reporting that cannot be identified from other controls the Division reviews. Moreover, we found that from March 2006 through April 2007, the Division did not review data maintained by casinos to determine
whether the tribes routinely identified, investigated, and documented differences between amounts recorded by electronic meters and amounts counted by casino staff, as compacts require.
Wisconsin's Gaming Control folks are just plain....underperforming.
You don't want to THINK about how sloppy procedures like these could impact your spouse's heart surgery...
Sad News for U of D-Mercy
Small world, sorta. The Jebby mentioned here spent many hours in a classroom with me.
(But he was the valedictorian...in contrast, I managed to graduate.)
In an update of sorts to my coverage of the relatively recent controversy involving the University of Detroit Mercy — which had advertised job opportunities at Planned Parenthood, among other scandalous items — a UDM alumnus who had given nearly $200,000 to the university "will never give them another dime.
"The alumnus, Tom (not his real name), who works for a major German bank in Chicago, reports that about two years ago, he met with Maureen Fay, then-outgoing UDM president, Father Gerard Stockhausen, S.J., then-incoming (and current) president, and F. Thomas Lewand, UDM board of trustees chair, "about this exact issue."
"I was prepared to make a gift of $3 million to UDM upon my death," said Tom, via e-mail. "I asked that these [pro-abortion] links and Web sites be removed. I was blown off, so I had UDM removed as a beneficiary from my estate.Tom said that Father Stockhausen treated him in a very abrupt and cavalier manner, even telling him "I see nothing wrong with these organizations. They do a lot of good."
The same article goes on to mention that the "job placement" with Planned Parenthood has apparently been 'disappeared' from the UD-Mercy website.
One always wonders what happened to guys with umpty years of Catholic education (and who were obviously the smartest people in the room) when they make remarks such as reported above. But hey--Fr. Stockhausen--good luck with that.
HT: The Curt Jester
(But he was the valedictorian...in contrast, I managed to graduate.)
In an update of sorts to my coverage of the relatively recent controversy involving the University of Detroit Mercy — which had advertised job opportunities at Planned Parenthood, among other scandalous items — a UDM alumnus who had given nearly $200,000 to the university "will never give them another dime.
"The alumnus, Tom (not his real name), who works for a major German bank in Chicago, reports that about two years ago, he met with Maureen Fay, then-outgoing UDM president, Father Gerard Stockhausen, S.J., then-incoming (and current) president, and F. Thomas Lewand, UDM board of trustees chair, "about this exact issue."
"I was prepared to make a gift of $3 million to UDM upon my death," said Tom, via e-mail. "I asked that these [pro-abortion] links and Web sites be removed. I was blown off, so I had UDM removed as a beneficiary from my estate.Tom said that Father Stockhausen treated him in a very abrupt and cavalier manner, even telling him "I see nothing wrong with these organizations. They do a lot of good."
The same article goes on to mention that the "job placement" with Planned Parenthood has apparently been 'disappeared' from the UD-Mercy website.
One always wonders what happened to guys with umpty years of Catholic education (and who were obviously the smartest people in the room) when they make remarks such as reported above. But hey--Fr. Stockhausen--good luck with that.
HT: The Curt Jester
More Chesterton
From the daily read:
THE abyss between Christ and all His modern interpreters is that we have no record that He ever wrote a word, except with His finger in the sand. The whole is the history of one continuous and sublime conversation. It was not for any pompous proclamation, it was not for any elaborate output of printed volumes; it was for a few splendid and idle words that the cross was set up on Calvary and the earth gaped, and the sun was darkened at noonday.
--12 Types, GKChesterton
THE abyss between Christ and all His modern interpreters is that we have no record that He ever wrote a word, except with His finger in the sand. The whole is the history of one continuous and sublime conversation. It was not for any pompous proclamation, it was not for any elaborate output of printed volumes; it was for a few splendid and idle words that the cross was set up on Calvary and the earth gaped, and the sun was darkened at noonday.
--12 Types, GKChesterton
What the Hell Is the Matter With GWB? Ground Zero for Ahmidoingob?
The Secret Service reports to the Sec/Treasury, who reports to GWB. CORRECTION: see comments--the Secret Service now reports to DHS Sec'y Mikey Cherthoff.
Draw you OWN damn conclusions:
The source says regardless of the NYPD’s rejection of the request for a Ground Zero tour, Iran’s president and his entourage will be accompanied by a Secret Service protective detail, a detail provided to all heads of state when they visit the United States.
Dear Mr. President,
Thanks for making the (D) case about your .....intellectual challenges.....so much easier to make.
As a side note:
How come there's a discussion of Columbia U--but no discussion of the Secret Service protection on local talk-radio?
UPDATE: Maybe it's on, maybe it's off. Iranian twit Ahmendlikglskgob now states he 'will not insist' on a visit to Ground Zero--but according to the NYT's "buzz," if he decides to go there, the Secret Service will escort him.
Unless, of course, all the assigned agents become "ill" ...
Draw you OWN damn conclusions:
The source says regardless of the NYPD’s rejection of the request for a Ground Zero tour, Iran’s president and his entourage will be accompanied by a Secret Service protective detail, a detail provided to all heads of state when they visit the United States.
Dear Mr. President,
Thanks for making the (D) case about your .....intellectual challenges.....so much easier to make.
As a side note:
How come there's a discussion of Columbia U--but no discussion of the Secret Service protection on local talk-radio?
UPDATE: Maybe it's on, maybe it's off. Iranian twit Ahmendlikglskgob now states he 'will not insist' on a visit to Ground Zero--but according to the NYT's "buzz," if he decides to go there, the Secret Service will escort him.
Unless, of course, all the assigned agents become "ill" ...
Ted Stevens (R-AK) Next to Go?
Here's an interesting tidbit:
The FBI, working with an Alaska oil contractor, secretly taped telephone calls with Sen. Ted Stevens as part of a public corruption sting, according to people close to the investigation.
The secret recordings suggest the Justice Department was eyeing Stevens long before June, when the Republican senator first publicly acknowledged he was under scrutiny. At that time, it appeared Stevens was a new focus in a case that had already ensnared several state lawmakers.
The recorded calls between Stevens and businessman Bill Allen were confirmed by two people close to the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still under way. They declined to say how many calls were recorded or what was said.
Allen, a wealthy businessman and Stevens' political patron, agreed to the taping last year after authorities confronted him with evidence he had bribed Alaska lawmakers. He pleaded guilty to bribery and is a key witness against Alaska legislators. He also has told prosecutors he paid his employees to renovate the senator's house.
If they've got the goods on Stevens, I'd LOVE to see the perp-walk featuring this jerk.
HT: The Captain.
The FBI, working with an Alaska oil contractor, secretly taped telephone calls with Sen. Ted Stevens as part of a public corruption sting, according to people close to the investigation.
The secret recordings suggest the Justice Department was eyeing Stevens long before June, when the Republican senator first publicly acknowledged he was under scrutiny. At that time, it appeared Stevens was a new focus in a case that had already ensnared several state lawmakers.
The recorded calls between Stevens and businessman Bill Allen were confirmed by two people close to the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still under way. They declined to say how many calls were recorded or what was said.
Allen, a wealthy businessman and Stevens' political patron, agreed to the taping last year after authorities confronted him with evidence he had bribed Alaska lawmakers. He pleaded guilty to bribery and is a key witness against Alaska legislators. He also has told prosecutors he paid his employees to renovate the senator's house.
If they've got the goods on Stevens, I'd LOVE to see the perp-walk featuring this jerk.
HT: The Captain.
The Federal Do-Not-Call List
Just in case you wish to "go national," here's the Federal Trade Commission's "Do-Not-Call" registration page:
http://www.donotcall.gov
You can also register by phone: 888-382-1222
Very simple and quick.
HT: Betsy
http://www.donotcall.gov
You can also register by phone: 888-382-1222
Very simple and quick.
HT: Betsy
Bush and Biden, LOST in a Tree...
It seems that Our President is indeed a lineal descendant of old "Globaloney George" Bush I.
With all the critical problems facing America today, it's hard to see why President Bush is wasting whatever is left of his political capital to partner with Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., to try to get the Senate to ratify the United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty.
This piece of dung was dumped years ago--but evidently someone forgot the stake in its heart.
The treaty has already been ratified by 155 countries. Most of them no doubt expect corrupt U.N. bureaucrats to divvy up the riches at the bottom of the sea, which will be brought to the surface by U.S. investment and technology, and parcel them out to Third World dictators to support themselves in the lavish style to which they would like to become accustomed.
The treaty even gives the Authority something U.N. bureaucrats have lusted after for years: the authority to impose international taxes (disguised by euphemisms such as fees and royalties).
WARNING: Asinine-Argument Alert (First Class):
The Bush administration argues that the United States needs the treaty to protect U.S. interests in the world's oceans and to ensure that the U.S. Navy can go where it needs to go. The problem with that argument is that if the U.S. signs and ratifies the treaty, America will be bound to abide by its decisions.
Based on U.S. experience in other international organizations such as the World Trade Organization, decisions will usually be contrary to U.S. security and economic interests. The U.S. Navy can already go wherever it needs to go, and it should remain that way.
How in the Hell GWB can argue that "we need it so that the Navy can go where it needs to..." is beyond me. Maybe that was actually Biden's yappaflappa...
Time for another burial at sea. Maybe this time it won't pop out again.
With all the critical problems facing America today, it's hard to see why President Bush is wasting whatever is left of his political capital to partner with Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., to try to get the Senate to ratify the United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty.
This piece of dung was dumped years ago--but evidently someone forgot the stake in its heart.
The treaty has already been ratified by 155 countries. Most of them no doubt expect corrupt U.N. bureaucrats to divvy up the riches at the bottom of the sea, which will be brought to the surface by U.S. investment and technology, and parcel them out to Third World dictators to support themselves in the lavish style to which they would like to become accustomed.
The treaty even gives the Authority something U.N. bureaucrats have lusted after for years: the authority to impose international taxes (disguised by euphemisms such as fees and royalties).
WARNING: Asinine-Argument Alert (First Class):
The Bush administration argues that the United States needs the treaty to protect U.S. interests in the world's oceans and to ensure that the U.S. Navy can go where it needs to go. The problem with that argument is that if the U.S. signs and ratifies the treaty, America will be bound to abide by its decisions.
Based on U.S. experience in other international organizations such as the World Trade Organization, decisions will usually be contrary to U.S. security and economic interests. The U.S. Navy can already go wherever it needs to go, and it should remain that way.
How in the Hell GWB can argue that "we need it so that the Navy can go where it needs to..." is beyond me. Maybe that was actually Biden's yappaflappa...
Time for another burial at sea. Maybe this time it won't pop out again.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Oil Up, Dollar Down
The Canadian dollar is now at par with the USD.
Oil up to $83.30
Nothing like a 50-basis-point rate cut to save the day for banks and bond-houses---
Oil up to $83.30
Nothing like a 50-basis-point rate cut to save the day for banks and bond-houses---
Priest Makes Ass of Self in Floriduh
Taken from an account of a meeting concerning the Motu Proprio. "Fr. Willis" is the Diocesan Director of Liturgy for the Diocese of St. Augustine, FL.
Fr. Willis followed this comment up by making the most shocking comment that he made all night. It was a study from Creighton University saying that people who have ADD can focus better at the Latin Mass with all the silence than at the Novus Ordo where there is more "active participation".
To say that "Creighton University Studies" are suspicious is redundant.
Can you say "Jesuit-run"?
HT: Fr. Z
Fr. Willis followed this comment up by making the most shocking comment that he made all night. It was a study from Creighton University saying that people who have ADD can focus better at the Latin Mass with all the silence than at the Novus Ordo where there is more "active participation".
To say that "Creighton University Studies" are suspicious is redundant.
Can you say "Jesuit-run"?
HT: Fr. Z
New Jersey "Leads" the Way
Unfortunately, the leadership is precisely toward the sewers.
For the first time, a religious organization in New Jersey is being punished by the government because it refused to permit same-sex civil union ceremonies on its property.
Despite its historic nature, this officially sanctioned discrimination against a religious group did not require a special act of the legislature or ruling of the court to accomplish. A state bureaucrat, one Lisa Jackson (the state commissioner on environmental protection), quietly sent a letter informing the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, a Methodist organization, that the pavilion it owns on the beach is no longer eligible for exemption from state real estate taxes. (The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association also remains the target of a state investigation into whether it has violated the state's anti-discrimination laws by refusing to permit same-sex ceremonies on its property.)
In a way, I'm both surprised and gratified at the Methodists' stand here.
HT: Paul
For the first time, a religious organization in New Jersey is being punished by the government because it refused to permit same-sex civil union ceremonies on its property.
Despite its historic nature, this officially sanctioned discrimination against a religious group did not require a special act of the legislature or ruling of the court to accomplish. A state bureaucrat, one Lisa Jackson (the state commissioner on environmental protection), quietly sent a letter informing the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, a Methodist organization, that the pavilion it owns on the beach is no longer eligible for exemption from state real estate taxes. (The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association also remains the target of a state investigation into whether it has violated the state's anti-discrimination laws by refusing to permit same-sex ceremonies on its property.)
In a way, I'm both surprised and gratified at the Methodists' stand here.
HT: Paul
Kathy Saile: The USCCB's Emerging Problem
HT: Gerald, who obtained the info from another blogger.
Saile's own words:
My first thoughts were of celebratory moments - a victory at the legislature, a liturgy to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, breaking bread with a new friend during a worthy campaign.
Nothing wrong with petitioning God for justice for all. But MLK was not a Catholic--sorry, guys, we have St. Peter Claver to talk about.
"U.S. policy on immigration is so harsh that once they are here, it's too risky to go back to Mexico," Saile said. "We say we are a society with family-based values, but our policy is destroying that."
If "family-based values" don't include respect for the law, you're in the wrong family, honey.
Saile's own words:
My first thoughts were of celebratory moments - a victory at the legislature, a liturgy to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, breaking bread with a new friend during a worthy campaign.
Nothing wrong with petitioning God for justice for all. But MLK was not a Catholic--sorry, guys, we have St. Peter Claver to talk about.
"U.S. policy on immigration is so harsh that once they are here, it's too risky to go back to Mexico," Saile said. "We say we are a society with family-based values, but our policy is destroying that."
If "family-based values" don't include respect for the law, you're in the wrong family, honey.
NON-Embryonic Stem Cells--Another Triumph
This is another piece of good news, although some men may hesitate:
"It is an idea that may make many men cross their legs. But researchers in the United States say stem cells harvested from a man's testicles could one day be used to repair his damaged heart, kidneys or even his brain.
The scientists have found a way to easily identify stem cells in the testicles of adult mice, and to coax them to become brain cells, muscle cells, heart cells, blood cells and even blood vessels. The next step is to see if they can do the same thing in humans.
And yes, my legs crossed as I posted this...
HT: The Shepherd
"It is an idea that may make many men cross their legs. But researchers in the United States say stem cells harvested from a man's testicles could one day be used to repair his damaged heart, kidneys or even his brain.
The scientists have found a way to easily identify stem cells in the testicles of adult mice, and to coax them to become brain cells, muscle cells, heart cells, blood cells and even blood vessels. The next step is to see if they can do the same thing in humans.
And yes, my legs crossed as I posted this...
HT: The Shepherd
Litigators With Chutzpah
"Chutzpah" is perhaps the least offensive term for these clowns.
Lakin Law Firm attorneys who have carried on a class action for three years with a dead plaintiff have figured out how to find a live one.
They think the defendant, American Family Insurance, should hand over a plaintiff on a platter.
Along with their manhood?
HT: Overlawyered
Lakin Law Firm attorneys who have carried on a class action for three years with a dead plaintiff have figured out how to find a live one.
They think the defendant, American Family Insurance, should hand over a plaintiff on a platter.
Along with their manhood?
HT: Overlawyered
Mayor Tommy's "Research" Pals
Well, Mayor Tommy spent another day in Washington DC. According to the report here, he was a lonesome figure--railing about "guns" and a Clinton program which was discontinued.
(Not that ANYONE would guess that the program was pure pandering and window-dressing. Bubba NEVER did that...)
At any rate, Mayor Tommy cites "research" from the Int'l Ass'n of Chiefs of Police.
We learned something about them.
A while back, the antigun Joyce Foundation made a hefty grant to fund a gun summit meeting by some members of the International Assn of Chiefs of Police. Here's the pdf file.
Surprise! It concludes we need lots and lots of gun control. Ban "assault weapons," repeal the Tihart Amendment, ban .50 BMG, outlaw possession by anyone with a violent misdemeanor record, ban armor piercing using a standard of actual ability to penetrate body armor (which would encompass virtually any rifle round), outlaw private gun transfers, increase ATF's budget, etc., etc.
But the interesting part is that the International apparently let Joyce staffers write the report:
"We are grateful to several key staff at the Joyce Foundation; President Ellen Alberding for her leadership, passionate concern for quality of life in our communities, and particularly for her interest in partnering with the IACP to address gun violence, Program Officer Roseanna Ander for her dedication to reducing gun violence in the Great Lake States and the nation, and her relentless enthusiasm as she worked with IACP staff to make the summit a reality and Communications Director Mary O’Connell, who has aided in highlighting and supporting the vision of our summit participants through her editing, writing and consistent work to produce this report. "
Sort of like letting Dan Rather write a report on CBS executives' policy and protocols.
(Not that ANYONE would guess that the program was pure pandering and window-dressing. Bubba NEVER did that...)
At any rate, Mayor Tommy cites "research" from the Int'l Ass'n of Chiefs of Police.
We learned something about them.
A while back, the antigun Joyce Foundation made a hefty grant to fund a gun summit meeting by some members of the International Assn of Chiefs of Police. Here's the pdf file.
Surprise! It concludes we need lots and lots of gun control. Ban "assault weapons," repeal the Tihart Amendment, ban .50 BMG, outlaw possession by anyone with a violent misdemeanor record, ban armor piercing using a standard of actual ability to penetrate body armor (which would encompass virtually any rifle round), outlaw private gun transfers, increase ATF's budget, etc., etc.
But the interesting part is that the International apparently let Joyce staffers write the report:
"We are grateful to several key staff at the Joyce Foundation; President Ellen Alberding for her leadership, passionate concern for quality of life in our communities, and particularly for her interest in partnering with the IACP to address gun violence, Program Officer Roseanna Ander for her dedication to reducing gun violence in the Great Lake States and the nation, and her relentless enthusiasm as she worked with IACP staff to make the summit a reality and Communications Director Mary O’Connell, who has aided in highlighting and supporting the vision of our summit participants through her editing, writing and consistent work to produce this report. "
Sort of like letting Dan Rather write a report on CBS executives' policy and protocols.
Half-Measure on MATC Board
It's a start--but not the best 'start.'
A hearing has been scheduled on a bill being pushed by suburban Milwaukee lawmakers to change the makeup of the Milwaukee Area Technical College board.
The hearing will be before the state Assembly's Committee on Colleges and Universities at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in Room 225NW of the state Capitol.
Sponsored by Rep. Mark Gottlieb (R-Port Washington) and Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), the bill requires that at least one of the nine members of the MATC board be a resident of a county other than Milwaukee County.
The word "ELECTED" does not appear in the brief story.
So Taxation Without Representation will continue, for the time being.
A hearing has been scheduled on a bill being pushed by suburban Milwaukee lawmakers to change the makeup of the Milwaukee Area Technical College board.
The hearing will be before the state Assembly's Committee on Colleges and Universities at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in Room 225NW of the state Capitol.
Sponsored by Rep. Mark Gottlieb (R-Port Washington) and Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), the bill requires that at least one of the nine members of the MATC board be a resident of a county other than Milwaukee County.
The word "ELECTED" does not appear in the brief story.
So Taxation Without Representation will continue, for the time being.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
More on "Energizing Vibrancy"
Yesterday we mentioned Terry's comments on an Archdiocesan "planning" thing...
Terry's mention went national, and Welborn picked it up.
A couple of incisive comments regarding the Elmbrook/Willow Creek phenomenon:
The answer is not to attempt to simplistically and slavishly imitate the apparent success of these rapidly growing church plants, as tempting as it might be, since they are, indeed, growing, and so much of their growth comes from now-unchurched Catholics.
... don’t think the growth is going to bear lasting fruit, and reading in some of their own literature, you are starting to hear worrisome noises about this, too - concerns about lasting church committment or lifestyle change, concerns about young people, and so on. It’s definitely there. These rapidly-growing places are very “contemporary” in their feel (whatever that means - one person’s contemporary is another person’s “er…lame”), so where does that leave those who grow out of the desire to have worship that’s centered on that type of music and pop culture themes? They seem to be extraordinarly centered on the personalities of the leaders.
And harking back to a practice which is now, simply, NOT practiced:
Remember what parish boundaries are all about. They are not so much about where you have the responsibility to go to Mass. They are essentially about for whom the pastor (and others) have responsibility. That’s right. The pastor’s responsibility is to share Christ with the parish - which is not just the people who show up on Sundays - it’s every person who lives in those boundaries, Catholic or not. Yeah.
Not that long ago, the Pastor of a parish would personally conduct a census--by driving to a neighborhood and going door-to-door. They could either be seeing Catholic families, or "by accident," show up at a Lut'ran door.
Of course, there's "no time for that" these days, right?
...have planning meetings, chatting about vibrancy and diocesan wide-efforts to make everyone more aware of their Catholic identity actually borne much fruit? Or just more mission statements and information packets collecting dust in a bottom drawer?
Because, see, that’s not the Catholic way, either - the way of evaluating the health and future of the Church via schematics and diagrams and planning packets either. The Catholic way is to imitate the saints, it seems to me. To preach, to teach, to gather the lost, to heal the sick, to be with the poor - to plunge into it.
Terry's trenchant request for "failure analysis" echoes in the above...
Is it the Age of Madison Avenue?
Which happens, I usually find, because people are relying on New Things and New Ideas and Exciting Paradigms instead of thinking - just a little bit - about what tradition has to teach us.
Ummmnnnnhhhhh....the Liturgeists' Revenge has roosted, folks.
In point of fact, it's exactly the Liturgeist's Revenge. A local parish organized a meeting with unhappy members (many of which were "Elmbrooking" part of the time) and got exactly what anyone would expect: install "greeters" at the front door, go "big" with Liturgical Production Values, and above all, Make It "Relevant," (whatever in Hell that may be.)
The Church's teachings are relevant--and they are vitally so.
Of course, pastors have to actually TEACH those teachings once in a while, too.
Terry's mention went national, and Welborn picked it up.
A couple of incisive comments regarding the Elmbrook/Willow Creek phenomenon:
The answer is not to attempt to simplistically and slavishly imitate the apparent success of these rapidly growing church plants, as tempting as it might be, since they are, indeed, growing, and so much of their growth comes from now-unchurched Catholics.
... don’t think the growth is going to bear lasting fruit, and reading in some of their own literature, you are starting to hear worrisome noises about this, too - concerns about lasting church committment or lifestyle change, concerns about young people, and so on. It’s definitely there. These rapidly-growing places are very “contemporary” in their feel (whatever that means - one person’s contemporary is another person’s “er…lame”), so where does that leave those who grow out of the desire to have worship that’s centered on that type of music and pop culture themes? They seem to be extraordinarly centered on the personalities of the leaders.
And harking back to a practice which is now, simply, NOT practiced:
Remember what parish boundaries are all about. They are not so much about where you have the responsibility to go to Mass. They are essentially about for whom the pastor (and others) have responsibility. That’s right. The pastor’s responsibility is to share Christ with the parish - which is not just the people who show up on Sundays - it’s every person who lives in those boundaries, Catholic or not. Yeah.
Not that long ago, the Pastor of a parish would personally conduct a census--by driving to a neighborhood and going door-to-door. They could either be seeing Catholic families, or "by accident," show up at a Lut'ran door.
Of course, there's "no time for that" these days, right?
...have planning meetings, chatting about vibrancy and diocesan wide-efforts to make everyone more aware of their Catholic identity actually borne much fruit? Or just more mission statements and information packets collecting dust in a bottom drawer?
Because, see, that’s not the Catholic way, either - the way of evaluating the health and future of the Church via schematics and diagrams and planning packets either. The Catholic way is to imitate the saints, it seems to me. To preach, to teach, to gather the lost, to heal the sick, to be with the poor - to plunge into it.
Terry's trenchant request for "failure analysis" echoes in the above...
Is it the Age of Madison Avenue?
Which happens, I usually find, because people are relying on New Things and New Ideas and Exciting Paradigms instead of thinking - just a little bit - about what tradition has to teach us.
Ummmnnnnhhhhh....the Liturgeists' Revenge has roosted, folks.
In point of fact, it's exactly the Liturgeist's Revenge. A local parish organized a meeting with unhappy members (many of which were "Elmbrooking" part of the time) and got exactly what anyone would expect: install "greeters" at the front door, go "big" with Liturgical Production Values, and above all, Make It "Relevant," (whatever in Hell that may be.)
The Church's teachings are relevant--and they are vitally so.
Of course, pastors have to actually TEACH those teachings once in a while, too.
FHA Enlargement: Banks or Homeowners' Help Bill?
You be the judge.
The U.S. House of Representatives today passed "The Expanding American Homeownership Act,” which will increase homeownership opportunities for millions of Americans by modernizing the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and returning it to its traditional role as an important financing option in today’s housing market.
...1) Eliminate the current statutory three percent minimum down payment, reducing a significant barrier to homeownership (this includes "0 down")
2) Create a new, risk-based insurance premium structure for FHA that would match the premium amount with the credit profile of the borrower.
3) Increase and simplify FHA’s loan limits. FHA’s loan limit in high-cost areas would rise from 87 to 100 percent of the GSE conforming loan limit and in lower-cost areas from 48 to 65 percent of the conforming loan limit.
...up to $762,000!!! for a "moderate-income" mortgage in some parts of the country.
This will give some Banks and bond-packagers (not to mention bond-holders) an escape from carrying nuclear waste mortgages.
In other words, it's now the taxpayers' problem.
The U.S. House of Representatives today passed "The Expanding American Homeownership Act,” which will increase homeownership opportunities for millions of Americans by modernizing the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and returning it to its traditional role as an important financing option in today’s housing market.
...1) Eliminate the current statutory three percent minimum down payment, reducing a significant barrier to homeownership (this includes "0 down")
2) Create a new, risk-based insurance premium structure for FHA that would match the premium amount with the credit profile of the borrower.
3) Increase and simplify FHA’s loan limits. FHA’s loan limit in high-cost areas would rise from 87 to 100 percent of the GSE conforming loan limit and in lower-cost areas from 48 to 65 percent of the conforming loan limit.
...up to $762,000!!! for a "moderate-income" mortgage in some parts of the country.
This will give some Banks and bond-packagers (not to mention bond-holders) an escape from carrying nuclear waste mortgages.
In other words, it's now the taxpayers' problem.
Stupid Middle East Tricks
Dumb and Dumber aren't THIS dumb:
...Jane's Defence Weekly, which reported that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria.
According to the report, cited by Channel 10, the joint Syrian-Iranian team was attempting to mount a chemical warhead on a Scud missile when the explosion occurred, spreading lethal chemical agents, including sarin nerve gas.
The No Smoking lamp was LIT, stupid!
HT: Confederate Yankee
...Jane's Defence Weekly, which reported that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria.
According to the report, cited by Channel 10, the joint Syrian-Iranian team was attempting to mount a chemical warhead on a Scud missile when the explosion occurred, spreading lethal chemical agents, including sarin nerve gas.
The No Smoking lamp was LIT, stupid!
HT: Confederate Yankee
Great Quote on the Fed
From The Big Picture:
The Fed now has a third problem to deal with: They have become Wall Street's bitch.
But Lehman Bros, BearStearns, Merrill, and a few banks are happy...
So who cares?
The Fed now has a third problem to deal with: They have become Wall Street's bitch.
But Lehman Bros, BearStearns, Merrill, and a few banks are happy...
So who cares?
NRA's "Big Money"--NOT!!
Not even close.
In the last two election cycles, MoveOn.org Political Action Committee spent more than $58 million in pro-Democrat political advocacy, according to Federal Election Commission records.
In just the 2006 election cycle, MoveOn.org spent $27 million in advocacy to elect a Democratic majority in Congress and used its formidable fund-raising clout to propel numerous Democratic challengers to House and Senate victories. By comparison, the NRA PAC donated $11 million in 2006.
The Dems don't really need the CollegeProf and NEA anymore.
HT: John Lott
In the last two election cycles, MoveOn.org Political Action Committee spent more than $58 million in pro-Democrat political advocacy, according to Federal Election Commission records.
In just the 2006 election cycle, MoveOn.org spent $27 million in advocacy to elect a Democratic majority in Congress and used its formidable fund-raising clout to propel numerous Democratic challengers to House and Senate victories. By comparison, the NRA PAC donated $11 million in 2006.
The Dems don't really need the CollegeProf and NEA anymore.
HT: John Lott
"Choice" Motivates MPS, Too
Not that it was unexpected, but hey....
...At issue is whether the program has appreciably helped the students who are given places in private schools, as well whether it has hurt the students who stay in public schools.
The soon-to-be-published paper, by a Harvard University-trained economist who is now at the New York Federal Reserve Bank, Rajashri Chakrabarti, answers the second question with a solid no. Ms. Chakrabarti argues that two major changes in the program pushed public schools to improve after 1999.
...Ms. Chakrabarti's analysis compares Milwaukee schools from which students left via vouchers to public schools outside the city with similar demographics that did not participate in the program. She found only small relative improvements in the Milwaukee schools' reading, language arts, and math scores prior to the two changes, but describes "a different picture" after they took effect, with affected public schools showing bigger improvements. She also found improvements in science and social studies, which were not tested until the late 1990s
John Witte, who has studied Milwaukee extensively, is a bit chary about Chakrabarti's paper, however:
"Changes of superintendents, changes of school boards, changes of curriculum — the list of other things that could have an effect is as long as your arm," Mr. Witte said
According to that [a Witte] analysis, only charter schools spurred a competitive improvement in public schools, and that effect was small, Mr. Witte said.
But:
But an education professor at the University of Arkansas, Jay Greene, praised Ms. Chakrabarti's design, saying it appeared to control for outside variables carefully. He characterized previous studies by Ms. Chakrabarti as having been fair, drawing both favorable and unfavorable conclusions about vouchers.
It DOES seem that all studies indicate that there is an improvement in MPS' education--whether or not it was caused by "choice" is in some dispute.
But we'll take the gain no matter how it got there.
HT: Captain
...At issue is whether the program has appreciably helped the students who are given places in private schools, as well whether it has hurt the students who stay in public schools.
The soon-to-be-published paper, by a Harvard University-trained economist who is now at the New York Federal Reserve Bank, Rajashri Chakrabarti, answers the second question with a solid no. Ms. Chakrabarti argues that two major changes in the program pushed public schools to improve after 1999.
...Ms. Chakrabarti's analysis compares Milwaukee schools from which students left via vouchers to public schools outside the city with similar demographics that did not participate in the program. She found only small relative improvements in the Milwaukee schools' reading, language arts, and math scores prior to the two changes, but describes "a different picture" after they took effect, with affected public schools showing bigger improvements. She also found improvements in science and social studies, which were not tested until the late 1990s
John Witte, who has studied Milwaukee extensively, is a bit chary about Chakrabarti's paper, however:
"Changes of superintendents, changes of school boards, changes of curriculum — the list of other things that could have an effect is as long as your arm," Mr. Witte said
According to that [a Witte] analysis, only charter schools spurred a competitive improvement in public schools, and that effect was small, Mr. Witte said.
But:
But an education professor at the University of Arkansas, Jay Greene, praised Ms. Chakrabarti's design, saying it appeared to control for outside variables carefully. He characterized previous studies by Ms. Chakrabarti as having been fair, drawing both favorable and unfavorable conclusions about vouchers.
It DOES seem that all studies indicate that there is an improvement in MPS' education--whether or not it was caused by "choice" is in some dispute.
But we'll take the gain no matter how it got there.
HT: Captain
500 Basis Points: Good or Bad?
Well, the Dow liked it.
But the Euro jumped--and I mean JUMPED--on the news.
So the dollar (at least as of yesterday) is less valuable than it was two days ago.
Result: we pay more for imports from PRC and other countries, and probably oil.
Next result: more US firms will be sourcing components within the USA.
That is all--for the time being.
But the Euro jumped--and I mean JUMPED--on the news.
So the dollar (at least as of yesterday) is less valuable than it was two days ago.
Result: we pay more for imports from PRC and other countries, and probably oil.
Next result: more US firms will be sourcing components within the USA.
That is all--for the time being.
The Rape of Federalism....Ted "The Swimmer" to Write PhyEd Curriculum?
While the State Pubbies were pandering, the DC Dems (and their RINO-diseased pals) were doing the same--except, of course, the DC Dems were giving money to their base (read NEA).
[Ron] Kind [D-WI] and Reps. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.) and Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) recently introduced the Fitness Integrated with Teaching (Fit) Kids Act, which would synthesize curriculums for physical education and academic subjects from kindergarten through high school. Kind is the lead author of the legislation.
The bipartisan group of members hope the legislation will be incorporated into the 5-year-old No Child Left Behind Act, which is up for review and reauthorization by the House Education and Labor Committee during this session of Congress.
Just what we need. Ted Kennedy-written regs on phy-ed.
[Ron] Kind [D-WI] and Reps. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.) and Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) recently introduced the Fitness Integrated with Teaching (Fit) Kids Act, which would synthesize curriculums for physical education and academic subjects from kindergarten through high school. Kind is the lead author of the legislation.
The bipartisan group of members hope the legislation will be incorporated into the 5-year-old No Child Left Behind Act, which is up for review and reauthorization by the House Education and Labor Committee during this session of Congress.
Just what we need. Ted Kennedy-written regs on phy-ed.
Pubbies STILL Don't Get Subsidiarity (Can You Spell Federalism?)
In another action yesterday, the Republican Assembly voted to continue interfering in local decisionmaking, limiting prop-tax increases to 2% or the % increase of new construction, whichever is greater.
It's a "feel good" thing; in effect, the State controls revenues of the locals, regardless of circumstance.
Maybe the concept of "Federalism" is not enshrined in the Wisconsin Constitution (there, it would be referred to as 'subsidiarity.') Regardless, that concept should be honored by people who call themselves "conservatives."
Oh, well. Pandering is the new Republican thing--and suicide. Just ask Congressional Pubbies.
It's a "feel good" thing; in effect, the State controls revenues of the locals, regardless of circumstance.
Maybe the concept of "Federalism" is not enshrined in the Wisconsin Constitution (there, it would be referred to as 'subsidiarity.') Regardless, that concept should be honored by people who call themselves "conservatives."
Oh, well. Pandering is the new Republican thing--and suicide. Just ask Congressional Pubbies.
State Senate's Robson On the Hot Seat
Nurse Judy is on her way to becoming "Nurse Death" for many school districts and municipalities.
...the Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill that would fund two of the most expensive programs - public schools and local governments.
Democrats, who control the state Senate, have promised to not take up the bill passed by the Assembly.
...Kreuser noted that Republicans, who control the Assembly, had agreed to go along with most of the school-aid levels recommended by Doyle and Senate Democrats. Under the bill passed Tuesday, aid for public schools would total a record $6 billion in the year that started July 1, and $6.3 billion the following year.
That's a lot of candy in the dish, Rep. Kreuser. Let's hope you have some idea how that will be paid for without ANOTHER addition to the Burden We Call Wisconsin Living...
...the Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill that would fund two of the most expensive programs - public schools and local governments.
Democrats, who control the state Senate, have promised to not take up the bill passed by the Assembly.
...Kreuser noted that Republicans, who control the Assembly, had agreed to go along with most of the school-aid levels recommended by Doyle and Senate Democrats. Under the bill passed Tuesday, aid for public schools would total a record $6 billion in the year that started July 1, and $6.3 billion the following year.
That's a lot of candy in the dish, Rep. Kreuser. Let's hope you have some idea how that will be paid for without ANOTHER addition to the Burden We Call Wisconsin Living...
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Terry Analyzes the "Analyzers"
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee appears ready to launch another "planning process." But it may, indeed, be a case of Same Stuff, Different Day.
Terry opines and raises a few points:
Brian T. Olszewski reported last month in our Catholic Herald on Archbishop Dolan's appointment of Father James Connell as vicar of planning. Fr. Connell wrote and is circulating a paper of "starter questions" called "Energizing Our Vibrancy". Based in part on responses to it, he will make recommendations to Archbishop Dolan. Preliminary conclusions are expected to be known by Thanksgiving, and he hopes new planning ideas will be in place for the spring budget planning for the fiscal year starting next July.
So far, so good.
In July, he published and distributed to about 500 people a document titled “Energizing Our Vibrancy” in which he posed what he termed “starter questions” about the present and future of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. (Quote from the Catholic Herald)
Terry comments:
The term "starter questions" looked like an acknowledgement that there's been an enormous amount of time and effort wasted in what was called planning. This goes back well more than five years. What we need is failure analysis, including looking at the assumptions on which the current planning approach is based. Instead we're getting a variation on the same approach. If he'll be trying to extract themes from huge numbers of responses, he repeats the mistake of the current process. It's too unsystematic, and based too much on opinion, and opinion of what the facts are, rather than on facts.
...if you want to know why people don't come to Sunday Mass, shouldn't you survey those people, not ask insiders and the self-selected their opinions?
To find 'those who have left,' merely stop at Elmbrook Church. THEY have opinions--and the fact is that Stu Briscoe has done very well with ex-Catholics.
Terry opines and raises a few points:
Brian T. Olszewski reported last month in our Catholic Herald on Archbishop Dolan's appointment of Father James Connell as vicar of planning. Fr. Connell wrote and is circulating a paper of "starter questions" called "Energizing Our Vibrancy". Based in part on responses to it, he will make recommendations to Archbishop Dolan. Preliminary conclusions are expected to be known by Thanksgiving, and he hopes new planning ideas will be in place for the spring budget planning for the fiscal year starting next July.
So far, so good.
In July, he published and distributed to about 500 people a document titled “Energizing Our Vibrancy” in which he posed what he termed “starter questions” about the present and future of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. (Quote from the Catholic Herald)
Terry comments:
The term "starter questions" looked like an acknowledgement that there's been an enormous amount of time and effort wasted in what was called planning. This goes back well more than five years. What we need is failure analysis, including looking at the assumptions on which the current planning approach is based. Instead we're getting a variation on the same approach. If he'll be trying to extract themes from huge numbers of responses, he repeats the mistake of the current process. It's too unsystematic, and based too much on opinion, and opinion of what the facts are, rather than on facts.
...if you want to know why people don't come to Sunday Mass, shouldn't you survey those people, not ask insiders and the self-selected their opinions?
To find 'those who have left,' merely stop at Elmbrook Church. THEY have opinions--and the fact is that Stu Briscoe has done very well with ex-Catholics.
Newspapers and Readers
Stolen from MWBH:
1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and who are very good at crossword puzzles.
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don’t really understand The New York Times. They do, however, like their statistics shown in pie charts.
5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn’t mind running the country — if they could find the time — and if they didn’t have to leave Southern California to do it.
6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did a poor job of it , thank you very much.
7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren’t too sure who’s running the country and don’t really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.
8. The New York Post is read by people who don’t care who’s running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.
9. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country but need the baseball scores.
10. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren’t sure there is a country or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority feminist atheist dwarfs who also happen to be illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy, provided of course, that they are not Republicans.
11. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.
12. The Oregonian is read by people who have recently caught a fish and need something in which to wrap it..
I'm sure that The Oregonian is not alone in its travails.
Locally:
13. The Catholic Herald is read by its editors and some of its writers.
1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and who are very good at crossword puzzles.
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don’t really understand The New York Times. They do, however, like their statistics shown in pie charts.
5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn’t mind running the country — if they could find the time — and if they didn’t have to leave Southern California to do it.
6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did a poor job of it , thank you very much.
7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren’t too sure who’s running the country and don’t really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.
8. The New York Post is read by people who don’t care who’s running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.
9. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country but need the baseball scores.
10. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren’t sure there is a country or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority feminist atheist dwarfs who also happen to be illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy, provided of course, that they are not Republicans.
11. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.
12. The Oregonian is read by people who have recently caught a fish and need something in which to wrap it..
I'm sure that The Oregonian is not alone in its travails.
Locally:
13. The Catholic Herald is read by its editors and some of its writers.
On Putting Down a Dog
A newbie blogger tells the story of his Mom putting down his newly-acquired pet dog.
He tells it well--especially in the last 'graf:
It helped that I'd only had King for a short while. I'd not known him as a playful, big-footed puppy. Yes, when I thought of feeding him and such, I snuffled a bit that evening. When I later went to say good night, I thought I heard Mother coughing in their bedroom. When I looked in, she had tears in her eyes. One does what must be done, but there's a price.
True.
He tells it well--especially in the last 'graf:
It helped that I'd only had King for a short while. I'd not known him as a playful, big-footed puppy. Yes, when I thought of feeding him and such, I snuffled a bit that evening. When I later went to say good night, I thought I heard Mother coughing in their bedroom. When I looked in, she had tears in her eyes. One does what must be done, but there's a price.
True.
Ike's Words of Wisdom That You Heard and Will NEVER Hear
Bill Katz has been around for a long time, and done a lot of VERY interesting things. Today, PowerLine pulls a couple of quotations from his blogpost from a few Presidents.
Two from Ike: first, the one ALL the Lefties love to love:
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex."
Katz demonstrates effectively that it's taken out of context--and that while it is what Ike said, it's not particularly exceptionable in any sense of the word.
Another Ike quote which the Left will ignore:
"Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite."
...and holding in thrall such Frankensteinian derivatives as ESCR or Chimera-creations---or maybe "global warming"?
Two from Ike: first, the one ALL the Lefties love to love:
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex."
Katz demonstrates effectively that it's taken out of context--and that while it is what Ike said, it's not particularly exceptionable in any sense of the word.
Another Ike quote which the Left will ignore:
"Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite."
...and holding in thrall such Frankensteinian derivatives as ESCR or Chimera-creations---or maybe "global warming"?
This Picture Is.......Interesting
HT to Eggster, whose superiority in "poli-blogging" is undeniable, right?
So says Blognetnews.com, in ranking "politically-influential" blogs:
1
Badger Blogger
2
McBride's Media Matters
3
Texas Hold 'Em Blogger
4
No Runny Eggs
5
FREEDOM EDEN
6
An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
7
Dad29
8
Boots and Sabers
9
From Where I Sit
10
The American Mind
11
Wigderson Library & Pub
12
The World According to Nick
13
Charlie Sykes
You figure it out.
Personally, I thought that the bottle of Glenfittig had a lot of influence on the ranker.
So says Blognetnews.com, in ranking "politically-influential" blogs:
1
Badger Blogger
2
McBride's Media Matters
3
Texas Hold 'Em Blogger
4
No Runny Eggs
5
FREEDOM EDEN
6
An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
7
Dad29
8
Boots and Sabers
9
From Where I Sit
10
The American Mind
11
Wigderson Library & Pub
12
The World According to Nick
13
Charlie Sykes
You figure it out.
Personally, I thought that the bottle of Glenfittig had a lot of influence on the ranker.
The $600 Million Double-Dare: Will Robson/Doyle Blink?
The Republican Assembly (and a few Dems therein) will shortly pass a 'partial' budget, covering school and municipal aids for the upcoming biennium.
The bill contains a lot to dislike--especially the part which maintains the HUGE subsidy-level for the City of Milwaukee. In general, it's a "spend as usual" bill. How do I know that?
Simple.
It's virtually the same bill as proposed by DarthDoyle.
In any case, if the bill fails to pass the State Senate, or if DarthDoyle vetoes it, there will be consequences--specifically, about $600 million in prop-tax increases.
So will the Senate "Leader" NurseRached Robson refuse to pass the bill and force $600 million in tax-increases on residents of the State?
Will DarthDoyle veto it and force $600 million in tax increases?
Double-Dare...
The bill contains a lot to dislike--especially the part which maintains the HUGE subsidy-level for the City of Milwaukee. In general, it's a "spend as usual" bill. How do I know that?
Simple.
It's virtually the same bill as proposed by DarthDoyle.
In any case, if the bill fails to pass the State Senate, or if DarthDoyle vetoes it, there will be consequences--specifically, about $600 million in prop-tax increases.
So will the Senate "Leader" Nurse
Will DarthDoyle veto it and force $600 million in tax increases?
Double-Dare...
Monday, September 17, 2007
Did Mgr. Malloy Get Hoodwinked?
Mgr. David Malloy is a very bright guy--and anyone who does a critical analysis of USCCB's activities since his appointment as General Secretary will be pleased.
(Note well: what individual BISHOPS do and say, or what BISHOP-committee-heads/members do and say, is not necessarily the position of the USCCB...)
In any case, the Mgr. made a new appointment:
Kathy Saile, a church advocate with a decade of experience in Catholic social ministry and Washington policy work, has been named Director of Domestic Policy for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
She starts her new position in October.Since August 2004, Saile has been Associate Director of Public Policy for Lutheran Services in America (USA), in Washington. Previous positions include Director of the Office of Peace and Justice, Catholic Social Service of Central and Northern Arizona and director of the Archdiocese of Phoenix Catholic Campaign for Human Development, 2001-2004; and Coordinator of Social Justice and Outreach Ministries, Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, 1997-2001. She also served as a Loaned Executive to Catholic Charities USA, May-July 2003.
She holds a master’s degree in social work from Arizona State University, and a bachelor of science degree in organizational communication from Ohio University.
Msgr. David Malloy, USCCB General Secretary announced the appointment September 13.
“Kathy Saile brings to this important position strong commitment to the Catholic Church and its social teaching, impressive knowledge of key domestic issues and extensive policy and advocacy experience. Her service in diocesan social ministry and here in the nation’s capital will be great assets in helping the bishops articulate and advance the Church’s principles and policies seeking economic and social justice in our nation.”
Accepting the position, Saile highlighted her desire “to assist the Bishops in carrying out the Gospel mission” and expressed thanks for “this opportunity to integrate my commitment to social justice and my faith in my professional life."
The director of Domestic Social Development is the staff leader of the USCCB’s efforts on U.S. poverty, health care, hunger, housing, work, agriculture, the death penalty and other national issues. Her office is within the new USCCB Department of Justice and Peace and Human Development and will work with the Bishops’ new committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.
Yes, but:
WIN (‘Pro-choice. Democrat. Women. Network.’) 2006 WODW dinner party no. 14: Kathy Saile was 1 of 2 speakers at ‘Did the Left Cede Heaven? The Intersection of Faith and Politics.’ ‘Throughout American history religion has shaped US politics. Recent history has focused on the efforts and effects of Conservative Christians in the Republican Party, but the Left continues to be a party of people of faith. This dinner will highlight the way liberal people of faith organize to further progressive causes.’ (WIN)
About WIN: ‘WIN is Washington’s premier professional, political, and social network dedicated to empowering young, Democratic, pro-choice women.’ (WIN)
How sweet.
‘We've begun to regress to some pre-Vatican II activities, like singing Latin responses. I don't understand any of it!’ Kathy Saile of Phoenix, Arizona (US Catholic)
Willing to admit her ignorance, but still willing to throw stones from her ignorance.
This may be a rough ride for a while...
(Note well: what individual BISHOPS do and say, or what BISHOP-committee-heads/members do and say, is not necessarily the position of the USCCB...)
In any case, the Mgr. made a new appointment:
Kathy Saile, a church advocate with a decade of experience in Catholic social ministry and Washington policy work, has been named Director of Domestic Policy for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
She starts her new position in October.Since August 2004, Saile has been Associate Director of Public Policy for Lutheran Services in America (USA), in Washington. Previous positions include Director of the Office of Peace and Justice, Catholic Social Service of Central and Northern Arizona and director of the Archdiocese of Phoenix Catholic Campaign for Human Development, 2001-2004; and Coordinator of Social Justice and Outreach Ministries, Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, 1997-2001. She also served as a Loaned Executive to Catholic Charities USA, May-July 2003.
She holds a master’s degree in social work from Arizona State University, and a bachelor of science degree in organizational communication from Ohio University.
Msgr. David Malloy, USCCB General Secretary announced the appointment September 13.
“Kathy Saile brings to this important position strong commitment to the Catholic Church and its social teaching, impressive knowledge of key domestic issues and extensive policy and advocacy experience. Her service in diocesan social ministry and here in the nation’s capital will be great assets in helping the bishops articulate and advance the Church’s principles and policies seeking economic and social justice in our nation.”
Accepting the position, Saile highlighted her desire “to assist the Bishops in carrying out the Gospel mission” and expressed thanks for “this opportunity to integrate my commitment to social justice and my faith in my professional life."
The director of Domestic Social Development is the staff leader of the USCCB’s efforts on U.S. poverty, health care, hunger, housing, work, agriculture, the death penalty and other national issues. Her office is within the new USCCB Department of Justice and Peace and Human Development and will work with the Bishops’ new committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.
Yes, but:
WIN (‘Pro-choice. Democrat. Women. Network.’) 2006 WODW dinner party no. 14: Kathy Saile was 1 of 2 speakers at ‘Did the Left Cede Heaven? The Intersection of Faith and Politics.’ ‘Throughout American history religion has shaped US politics. Recent history has focused on the efforts and effects of Conservative Christians in the Republican Party, but the Left continues to be a party of people of faith. This dinner will highlight the way liberal people of faith organize to further progressive causes.’ (WIN)
About WIN: ‘WIN is Washington’s premier professional, political, and social network dedicated to empowering young, Democratic, pro-choice women.’ (WIN)
How sweet.
‘We've begun to regress to some pre-Vatican II activities, like singing Latin responses. I don't understand any of it!’ Kathy Saile of Phoenix, Arizona (US Catholic)
Willing to admit her ignorance, but still willing to throw stones from her ignorance.
This may be a rough ride for a while...
School Aids and Democrat Obstructionists
So the Pubbies in the Assembly offered a school/muni-aids provision that meets the desires of DarthDoyle and Nurse Rached Robson.
And the Dems didn't take it, despite the fact that the school/muni aids segment is about 50% of State spending and would move a major chunk of the Budget into play.
The Dim Dems are now obstructing the schoolhouse door (again.)
And the Dems didn't take it, despite the fact that the school/muni aids segment is about 50% of State spending and would move a major chunk of the Budget into play.
The Dim Dems are now obstructing the schoolhouse door (again.)
Sunday, September 16, 2007
The Poncho Lady of West Bend is Watching
StatCounters are great.
The Poncho-Lady of West Bend is investigating this blog.
Maybe she'll use the hymn in this post as her Official Poncho-Lady Song!
She also seems to be interested in The Jester and Call to Action.
Well, the CTA crowd is a bit older than she is...so maybe it's really The Jester, who just self-installed himself as a reporter for Newsweek magazine.
The Poncho-Lady of West Bend is investigating this blog.
Maybe she'll use the hymn in this post as her Official Poncho-Lady Song!
She also seems to be interested in The Jester and Call to Action.
Well, the CTA crowd is a bit older than she is...so maybe it's really The Jester, who just self-installed himself as a reporter for Newsweek magazine.
A Glorious Night in Milwaukee
About 400 souls were in attendance at St. Stan's on Friday evening for the Pontifical Solemn High Mass celebrated by H.E. Joseph Perry (now of Chicago, but originally from Milwaukee.) Many of the Bishop's former parishioners were in attendance--and what delightful people they are!!
Although the picture at the top is small (maybe you can click and get a larger one), you can just see, on the Epistle-side (right-hand for you Prots) and on the aisle, the uniform worn by David Clarke, the Sheriff of Milwaukee County. His couture was outdone by the K of C's--but that's because they have better hats.
HT (the pictures) The New Liturgical Movement
Riding North Ave.? Check Out the Trees!
P-Mac hits the nail on the head in demolishing Barbara Miner's snark-esque column about the 16-mile-ride on North Ave., and the story Ms. Miner tells lacks a couple of details--some of which make a difference.
Perspective time: for the vast majority of my lifetime, I have lived within 6 blocks of North Ave. Very early on, and briefly, on Teutonia Ave., only a few blocks north of North. Then, also briefly, (and also early) in Wauwatosa, a few blocks north of North. Mostly, and recently, both north and south of North (less than 6 blocks either side.) It's a street which I know very well.
Ms. Miner remarks on the war-torn look of the Avenue between 30th/40th, and compares it to the large-lawns-with-trees west of 124th St. Uh huh. Ms. Miner should take a side trip north of North up 30th a few blocks--or south of North a few blocks on 20th, if she wanted to see "war-torn."
For that matter, Ms. Miner seems to have missed the part of North Ave. east of Prospect. There are a lot of large trees there, too--and some VERY large houses--larger than the ones in Brookfield. But then, that wasn't the point, was it? She also seems to have missed the VERY large houses and elegant trees on both sides of North Avenue between 40th and 50th. Finally, she missed the neatly-tended and large-treed lots and homes between 60th and 92nd.
No. Ms. Miner's point was that in one area there is affluence, and in another, there is not.
The major difference? Exactly what P-Mac points out, (which happened to be my first thought, too): illegitimacy and lack of a high-school diploma have a lot to do with relative affluence.
And Ms. Miner seems to have missed a couple of other things--for example, the fact that from 124th to about 173rd, the lots in both Elm Grove and Brookfield are not that 'large.' They are generally 1/4 or 1/3 acres--and many of the Brookfield homes in that stretch are 2,000 square feet or less--not much larger than a Milwaukee bungalow.
Ms. Miner, like a lot of other folks, can pick "low" and "high" and insinuate for effect. What Ms. Miner ignored to make her point is that there's a lot more "middle" on that ride.
You know--like the "middle" in Riverwest.
And one other thing: it ain't a house which makes a home. It's the people inside, Barbara.
Perspective time: for the vast majority of my lifetime, I have lived within 6 blocks of North Ave. Very early on, and briefly, on Teutonia Ave., only a few blocks north of North. Then, also briefly, (and also early) in Wauwatosa, a few blocks north of North. Mostly, and recently, both north and south of North (less than 6 blocks either side.) It's a street which I know very well.
Ms. Miner remarks on the war-torn look of the Avenue between 30th/40th, and compares it to the large-lawns-with-trees west of 124th St. Uh huh. Ms. Miner should take a side trip north of North up 30th a few blocks--or south of North a few blocks on 20th, if she wanted to see "war-torn."
For that matter, Ms. Miner seems to have missed the part of North Ave. east of Prospect. There are a lot of large trees there, too--and some VERY large houses--larger than the ones in Brookfield. But then, that wasn't the point, was it? She also seems to have missed the VERY large houses and elegant trees on both sides of North Avenue between 40th and 50th. Finally, she missed the neatly-tended and large-treed lots and homes between 60th and 92nd.
No. Ms. Miner's point was that in one area there is affluence, and in another, there is not.
The major difference? Exactly what P-Mac points out, (which happened to be my first thought, too): illegitimacy and lack of a high-school diploma have a lot to do with relative affluence.
And Ms. Miner seems to have missed a couple of other things--for example, the fact that from 124th to about 173rd, the lots in both Elm Grove and Brookfield are not that 'large.' They are generally 1/4 or 1/3 acres--and many of the Brookfield homes in that stretch are 2,000 square feet or less--not much larger than a Milwaukee bungalow.
Ms. Miner, like a lot of other folks, can pick "low" and "high" and insinuate for effect. What Ms. Miner ignored to make her point is that there's a lot more "middle" on that ride.
You know--like the "middle" in Riverwest.
And one other thing: it ain't a house which makes a home. It's the people inside, Barbara.
US Chamber of Commerce Joins ACLU, AFL-CIO to Fight "No Match"
Not too surprising.
On September 7, 2007, the US Chamber of Commerce asked to intervene in a lawsuit initially filed on August 29 by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and the Central Labor Council of Alameda County, along with other local labor movements (groups), challenging the legality of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) "no-match" regulation. The groups seek to permanently enjoin DHS from implementing or otherwise giving effect to the regulation. (CCH News)
It will be interesting to learn whether the Chamber is filing to join the ACLU and AFL-CIO (et al) in opposition, or whether the Chamber will join with DHS in attempting to provide a measure of national security AND order in the labor markets.
I have my bets placed.
On September 7, 2007, the US Chamber of Commerce asked to intervene in a lawsuit initially filed on August 29 by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and the Central Labor Council of Alameda County, along with other local labor movements (groups), challenging the legality of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) "no-match" regulation. The groups seek to permanently enjoin DHS from implementing or otherwise giving effect to the regulation. (CCH News)
It will be interesting to learn whether the Chamber is filing to join the ACLU and AFL-CIO (et al) in opposition, or whether the Chamber will join with DHS in attempting to provide a measure of national security AND order in the labor markets.
I have my bets placed.
Israel Took Out a Nuke Facility in Syria
Captain Ed quotes the Times of London:
IT was just after midnight when the 69th Squadron of Israeli F15Is crossed the Syrian coast-line. On the ground, Syria’s formidable air defences went dead. An audacious raid on a Syrian target 50 miles from the Iraqi border was under way.
At a rendezvous point on the ground, a Shaldag air force commando team was waiting to direct their laser beams at the target for the approaching jets. The team had arrived a day earlier, taking up position near a large underground depot. Soon the bunkers were in flames.
Ten days after the jets reached home, their mission was the focus of intense speculation this weekend amid claims that Israel believed it had destroyed a cache of nuclear materials from North Korea.
To me, the most interesting phrase was "Syria's formidable air defences went dead." That's not something that happened by accident, and you can bet large money that there was redundancy-power for those systems. Elegant!
The Captain continues:
This operation had been planned since the spring, when the facility first came to the attention of the Israelis. The Syrians had apparently bought North Korean technology and materiel at about the time that Kim Jong-Il had started to cooperate with the West on nuclear disarmament. Analysts believe that Kim either hoped to hide his work by sharing it with the Syrians or just get as much hard currency as he could grab through proliferation.
I repeat: Elegant!
IT was just after midnight when the 69th Squadron of Israeli F15Is crossed the Syrian coast-line. On the ground, Syria’s formidable air defences went dead. An audacious raid on a Syrian target 50 miles from the Iraqi border was under way.
At a rendezvous point on the ground, a Shaldag air force commando team was waiting to direct their laser beams at the target for the approaching jets. The team had arrived a day earlier, taking up position near a large underground depot. Soon the bunkers were in flames.
Ten days after the jets reached home, their mission was the focus of intense speculation this weekend amid claims that Israel believed it had destroyed a cache of nuclear materials from North Korea.
To me, the most interesting phrase was "Syria's formidable air defences went dead." That's not something that happened by accident, and you can bet large money that there was redundancy-power for those systems. Elegant!
The Captain continues:
This operation had been planned since the spring, when the facility first came to the attention of the Israelis. The Syrians had apparently bought North Korean technology and materiel at about the time that Kim Jong-Il had started to cooperate with the West on nuclear disarmament. Analysts believe that Kim either hoped to hide his work by sharing it with the Syrians or just get as much hard currency as he could grab through proliferation.
I repeat: Elegant!
Friday, September 14, 2007
Bp. Wenski v. Fr. Neuhaus--Round II
And the bell sounds!
Fr. Neuhaus, a backer of the Administration on the Iraq War, questioned the initiative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to 'forge a bipartisan agreement to end the war in Iraq.' He sent his letter to Bp. Wenski of Orlando, FL., the chairman of the USCCB Committee on International Policy.
My, my--International Policy, no less.
At any rate, Fr. Neuhaus raises this point in his response to Bp. Wenski:
...when the bishops present their prudential judgments as the teaching of the Catholic Church, they are exceeding their competence (meaning authority). This is a matter of much greater gravity. The bishops can likely have slight influence one way or another in “forging,” to use Bishop Wenski’s term, U.S. policy in Iraq.
At the same time, however, Fr. Neuhaus conceded:
Differences over American policy in Iraq are in the realm of prudential judgment. There are indeed moral questions involved in any policy of consequence.
Indeed, Father. There ARE moral questions, which include the questions raised by the President in declaring (several timesin the last 3 years) that the Iraqi military is 'becoming ready for the task' of maintaining order. There ARE moral questions about the abysmal "training" given the utterly corrupt Iraqi National Police Force--which our own people now admit "should be disbanded." There ARE moral questions about the Sunni/Shia sectarian war which is becoming far more important than the terrorism of Al Quaeda in Iraq. And there ARE moral questions about what to do with the Catholic population which is fleeing (reportedly at the rate of 100,000/month) the Muslim jihad--whether perpetrated by AlQuaeda, Shiites, or Sunnis.
Neuhaus complains, rightly, I think, that the Bishops' original letter to Congress was a very convenient document for political purposes:
It expresses unhappiness with current policies and says that the bishops “share your deep concern for the dangerous and deteriorating situation in Iraq.” He told the Democrats that “our nation must have the moral courage to change course in Iraq and to break the policy and political stalemate in Washington.” He did not, as in his posting here, speak merely of a “responsible transition” but stated that the goal is “to bring an end to the war in Iraq” and, at another point, “to end U.S. military engagement in Iraq.”
And Fr Neuhaus is correct--that the Bishops do not have competence to determine the actual military situation in Iraq.
But the Bishops DO have competence to preach the Church's moral positions with the thought that Congress and the President will abide by clear moral dictates in settling the questions posed above, as well as the moral implications in leaving Iraq--no matter the timetable.
Fr. Neuhaus, on the other hand, is competent to serve the Archdiocese of New York as a priest.
Fr. Neuhaus, a backer of the Administration on the Iraq War, questioned the initiative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to 'forge a bipartisan agreement to end the war in Iraq.' He sent his letter to Bp. Wenski of Orlando, FL., the chairman of the USCCB Committee on International Policy.
My, my--International Policy, no less.
At any rate, Fr. Neuhaus raises this point in his response to Bp. Wenski:
...when the bishops present their prudential judgments as the teaching of the Catholic Church, they are exceeding their competence (meaning authority). This is a matter of much greater gravity. The bishops can likely have slight influence one way or another in “forging,” to use Bishop Wenski’s term, U.S. policy in Iraq.
At the same time, however, Fr. Neuhaus conceded:
Differences over American policy in Iraq are in the realm of prudential judgment. There are indeed moral questions involved in any policy of consequence.
Indeed, Father. There ARE moral questions, which include the questions raised by the President in declaring (several timesin the last 3 years) that the Iraqi military is 'becoming ready for the task' of maintaining order. There ARE moral questions about the abysmal "training" given the utterly corrupt Iraqi National Police Force--which our own people now admit "should be disbanded." There ARE moral questions about the Sunni/Shia sectarian war which is becoming far more important than the terrorism of Al Quaeda in Iraq. And there ARE moral questions about what to do with the Catholic population which is fleeing (reportedly at the rate of 100,000/month) the Muslim jihad--whether perpetrated by AlQuaeda, Shiites, or Sunnis.
Neuhaus complains, rightly, I think, that the Bishops' original letter to Congress was a very convenient document for political purposes:
It expresses unhappiness with current policies and says that the bishops “share your deep concern for the dangerous and deteriorating situation in Iraq.” He told the Democrats that “our nation must have the moral courage to change course in Iraq and to break the policy and political stalemate in Washington.” He did not, as in his posting here, speak merely of a “responsible transition” but stated that the goal is “to bring an end to the war in Iraq” and, at another point, “to end U.S. military engagement in Iraq.”
And Fr Neuhaus is correct--that the Bishops do not have competence to determine the actual military situation in Iraq.
But the Bishops DO have competence to preach the Church's moral positions with the thought that Congress and the President will abide by clear moral dictates in settling the questions posed above, as well as the moral implications in leaving Iraq--no matter the timetable.
Fr. Neuhaus, on the other hand, is competent to serve the Archdiocese of New York as a priest.
Attend The Met's Production---in Brookfield!
Yah, hey, dere...pop a brewski and settle in for Romeo et Juliette. Please, no power-burps!
The Metropolitan Opera is coming to nearly two dozen Marcus Corp. theaters under an agreement with a national presenter of live and prerecorded alternative entertainment events.
The agreement with National CineMedia L.L.C. will bring live digital broadcasts of The Metropolitan Opera performances to Marcus theaters in Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, and other markets. Local movie theaters joining the network are Marcus Majestic Cinema in Brookfield, North Shore Cinemas in Mequon, Renaissance Cinema in Sturtevant and South Shore Cinemas in Oak Creek.
The debut events planned for presentation in participating Marcus Theatres will be "The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD" series, with the next performance Dec. 15 of "Roméo et Juliette. .... Ticket sales to the general public begin Nov. 9.
See the ORIGINAL 'Fat Lady Sings' stuff. Pretend she's Juliette.
So how much popcorn and beer do you stock for a Ring Cycle?
This should be of some interest to the MSO, as well--who might benefit from a live, national broadcast series, particularly in facilities with the equipment of a Majestic.
The Metropolitan Opera is coming to nearly two dozen Marcus Corp. theaters under an agreement with a national presenter of live and prerecorded alternative entertainment events.
The agreement with National CineMedia L.L.C. will bring live digital broadcasts of The Metropolitan Opera performances to Marcus theaters in Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, and other markets. Local movie theaters joining the network are Marcus Majestic Cinema in Brookfield, North Shore Cinemas in Mequon, Renaissance Cinema in Sturtevant and South Shore Cinemas in Oak Creek.
The debut events planned for presentation in participating Marcus Theatres will be "The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD" series, with the next performance Dec. 15 of "Roméo et Juliette. .... Ticket sales to the general public begin Nov. 9.
See the ORIGINAL 'Fat Lady Sings' stuff. Pretend she's Juliette.
So how much popcorn and beer do you stock for a Ring Cycle?
This should be of some interest to the MSO, as well--who might benefit from a live, national broadcast series, particularly in facilities with the equipment of a Majestic.
Wisconsin Democracy Campaign "Education" Project is Educated by Feds
The shadowy partisan interest-group, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Education Project (WDCEP) was slapped silly by a summary dismissal of their asinine "complaint" about Mark Green's financing.
In a reminder to the "Project" that Federalism remains alive and breathing, the Federal Election Commission wrote:
"The commission determined that the enforcement of state law was the purview of the state, and it (the commission) should not expend resources to investigate such alleged violations," the agency wrote.
None of the shadowy operatives who run WDCEP were available for comment.
Doh!
In a reminder to the "Project" that Federalism remains alive and breathing, the Federal Election Commission wrote:
"The commission determined that the enforcement of state law was the purview of the state, and it (the commission) should not expend resources to investigate such alleged violations," the agency wrote.
None of the shadowy operatives who run WDCEP were available for comment.
Doh!
...And the War at Home
Think the jihadists are over there, getting squashed by the military in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Phillippines?
Think again. They're here, and have been around for quite some time.
A 1991 (1991!!!!) document from the "Muslim Brotherhood" lays out the plan:
The process of settlement [of Islam in the United States] is a "Civilization-Jihadist" process with all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that all their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and "sabotaging" their miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all religions. Without this level of understanding, we are not up to this challenge and have not prepared ourselves for Jihad yet. It is a Muslim's destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes, and there is no escape from that destiny except for those who choose to slack.
The document was presented in evidence in a Dallas, TX., trial concerning the "Holy Land Foundation," another element of the "Brotherhood"'s conspiracy, reports Rod Dreher.
The entire 18-page platform outlines a plan for the long haul. It prescribes the Muslim Brotherhood's comprehensive plan to set down roots in civil society. It begins by both founding and taking control of American Muslim organizations, for the sake of unifying and educating the U.S. Muslim community – this to prepare it for the establishment of a global Islamic state governed by sharia.
It sounds like a conspiracy theory out of a bad Hollywood movie – but it's real. Husain Haqqani, head of Boston University's Center for International Relations and a former Islamic radical, confirms that the Brotherhood "has run most significant Muslim organizations in the U.S." as part of the plan outlined in the strategy paper.
So what is this bunch?
The Muslim Brotherhood is an affiliation of at least 70 Islamist organizations around the world, all tracing their heritage to the original cell, founded in Egypt in 1928. Its credo: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Quran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope." Sayyid Qutb, hanged by the Egyptian government in 1966 as a revolutionary, remains its ideological godfather. His best-known work, Milestones, calls for Muslims to wage violent holy war until Islamic law governs the entire world.
And they have been around for a long, long time:
According to a 2004 Chicago Tribune investigation, establishing the Brotherhood in the United States has been a 40-year project that has worked mostly underground – even beneath the notice of many Muslims.
And CAIR and INSA are part-and-parcel of the group, even though as organizations, they have not committed criminal acts.
Of course, "sedition" hasn't been fully considered--yet.
Think again. They're here, and have been around for quite some time.
A 1991 (1991!!!!) document from the "Muslim Brotherhood" lays out the plan:
The process of settlement [of Islam in the United States] is a "Civilization-Jihadist" process with all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that all their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and "sabotaging" their miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all religions. Without this level of understanding, we are not up to this challenge and have not prepared ourselves for Jihad yet. It is a Muslim's destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes, and there is no escape from that destiny except for those who choose to slack.
The document was presented in evidence in a Dallas, TX., trial concerning the "Holy Land Foundation," another element of the "Brotherhood"'s conspiracy, reports Rod Dreher.
The entire 18-page platform outlines a plan for the long haul. It prescribes the Muslim Brotherhood's comprehensive plan to set down roots in civil society. It begins by both founding and taking control of American Muslim organizations, for the sake of unifying and educating the U.S. Muslim community – this to prepare it for the establishment of a global Islamic state governed by sharia.
It sounds like a conspiracy theory out of a bad Hollywood movie – but it's real. Husain Haqqani, head of Boston University's Center for International Relations and a former Islamic radical, confirms that the Brotherhood "has run most significant Muslim organizations in the U.S." as part of the plan outlined in the strategy paper.
So what is this bunch?
The Muslim Brotherhood is an affiliation of at least 70 Islamist organizations around the world, all tracing their heritage to the original cell, founded in Egypt in 1928. Its credo: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Quran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope." Sayyid Qutb, hanged by the Egyptian government in 1966 as a revolutionary, remains its ideological godfather. His best-known work, Milestones, calls for Muslims to wage violent holy war until Islamic law governs the entire world.
And they have been around for a long, long time:
According to a 2004 Chicago Tribune investigation, establishing the Brotherhood in the United States has been a 40-year project that has worked mostly underground – even beneath the notice of many Muslims.
And CAIR and INSA are part-and-parcel of the group, even though as organizations, they have not committed criminal acts.
Of course, "sedition" hasn't been fully considered--yet.
Doyle's Aide Nails It: The "Covenant" Is Fraud
Right there in the newspaper, plain as day:
Doyle spokeswoman Carla Vigue defended the ongoing recruiting efforts.
..."That the biggest part of the covenant - motivating kids," she said. "It's going to happen. It's happening now."
"Motivating kids" is all there is, Carla.
The King's new clothes are exactly what they were in the morality tale.
Not that we expect the term "morality" to catch DarthDoyle's attention...
Doyle spokeswoman Carla Vigue defended the ongoing recruiting efforts.
..."That the biggest part of the covenant - motivating kids," she said. "It's going to happen. It's happening now."
"Motivating kids" is all there is, Carla.
The King's new clothes are exactly what they were in the morality tale.
Not that we expect the term "morality" to catch DarthDoyle's attention...
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Georgetown Theologian Under Vatican Investigation
Well, doh!
The Vatican and U.S. Roman Catholic bishops are investigating the writings of a well-known American theologian who has analyzed how the Catholic faith relates to other religions.
The inquiry's focus is the Rev. Peter Phan, of Georgetown University, a Vietnamese-American priest from the Dallas diocese and former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America.
...According a story published in the National Catholic Reporter on Wednesday, the Vatican raised concerns that Phan's 2004 book, "Being Religious Interreligiously," is "notably confused on a number of points of Catholic doctrine and also contains serious ambiguities."
"Notable confusion" has never been a bar to CTSA Presidency.
The Vatican and U.S. Roman Catholic bishops are investigating the writings of a well-known American theologian who has analyzed how the Catholic faith relates to other religions.
The inquiry's focus is the Rev. Peter Phan, of Georgetown University, a Vietnamese-American priest from the Dallas diocese and former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America.
...According a story published in the National Catholic Reporter on Wednesday, the Vatican raised concerns that Phan's 2004 book, "Being Religious Interreligiously," is "notably confused on a number of points of Catholic doctrine and also contains serious ambiguities."
"Notable confusion" has never been a bar to CTSA Presidency.
A Different Kind of War
From Dreher, who dug up some interesting stuff.
Here he cites an essay from Kaplan:
When I asked Pentagon officials about the nature of war in the twenty-first century, the answer I frequently got was “Read [Israeli military historian Martin] Van Creveld.” The top brass are enamored of this historian not because his writings justify their existence but, rather, the opposite: Van Creveld warns them that huge state military machines like the Pentagon’s are dinosaurs about to go extinct, and that something far more terrible awaits us.
[snip] Debunking the great military strategist Carl von Clausewitz, Van Creveld, who may be the most original thinker on war since that early-nineteenth-century Prussian, writes, “Clausewitz’s ideas . . . were wholly rooted in the fact that, ever since 1648, war had been waged overwhelmingly by states.” But, as Van Creveld explains, the period of nation-states and, therefore, of state conflict is now ending, and with it the clear “threefold division into government, army, and people” which state-directed wars enforce. Thus, to see the future, the first step is to look back to the past immediately prior to the birth of modernism–the wars in medieval Europe which began during the Reformation and reached their culmination in the Thirty Years’ War.
Insofar as the Just War Theory applies to States, the AlQuaeda/state-less 'war' has been very difficult to define and fight. Ask both the Administration AND its opponents.
Van Creveld writes, “In all these struggles political, social, economic, and religious motives were hopelessly entangled. Since this was an age when armies consisted of mercenaries, all were also attended by swarms of military entrepreneurs. . . . Many of them paid little but lip service to the organizations for whom they had contracted to fight. Instead, they robbed the countryside on their own behalf. . . .”
“Given such conditions, any fine distinctions . . . between armies on the one hand and peoples on the other were bound to break down. Engulfed by war, civilians suffered terrible atrocities.”
Back then, in other words, there was no Politics as we have come to understand the term, just as there is less and less Politics today in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka, the Balkans, and the Caucasus, among other places.
Because, as Van Creveld notes, the radius of trust within tribal societies is narrowed to one’s immediate family and guerrilla comrades, truces arranged with one Bosnian commander, say, may be broken immediately by another Bosnian commander. The plethora of short-lived ceasefires in the Balkans and the Caucasus constitute proof that we are no longer in a world where the old rules of state warfare apply. More evidence is provided by the destruction of medieval monuments in the Croatian port of Dubrovnik: when cultures, rather than states, fight, then cultural and religious monuments are weapons of war, making them fair game.
Thus we have seen the destruction of Buddhist icons in Pakistan by the Muslims--not to mention the Mohammedan penchant to mash up the Temple Mount and to destroy Catholic churches in (e.g.,) Iraq.
Also, war-making entities will no longer be restricted to a specific territory. Loose and shadowy organisms such as Islamic terrorist organizations suggest why borders will mean increasingly little and sedimentary layers of tribalistic identity and control will mean more. “From the vantage point of the present, there appears every prospect that religious . . . fanaticisms will play a larger role in the motivation of armed conflict” in the West than at any time “for the last 300 years,” Van Creveld writes. This is why analysts like Michael Vlahos are closely monitoring religious cults. Vlahos says, “An ideology that challenges us may not take familiar form, like the old Nazis or Commies. It may not even engage us initially in ways that fit old threat markings.” Van Creveld concludes, “Armed conflict will be waged by men on earth, not robots in space. It will have more in common with the struggles of primitive tribes than with large-scale conventional war.”
Thus, the failure of the State Department, who did not (and still DOES not) recognize the power of religion in these conflicts. The professionally-godless cannot wrap their Yalie heads around the personally god-consumed.
While another military historian, John Keegan, in his new book A History of Warfare, draws a more benign portrait of primitive man, it is important to point out that what Van Creveld really means is re-primitivized man: warrior societies operating at a time of unprecedented resource scarcity and planetary overcrowding.
Here, of course, is a weakness in argumentation. The "scarcity...overcrowding" line has been in play since Malthus in the mid-1700's and has yet to prove out. Nonetheless, the theory remains of interest.
Van Creveld’s pre-Westphalian vision of worldwide low-intensity conflict is not a superficial “back to the future” scenario. First of all, technology will be used toward primitive ends.
...If crime and war become indistinguishable, then “national defense” may in the future be viewed as a local concept. As crime continues to grow in our cities and the ability of state governments and criminal-justice systems to protect their citizens diminishes, urban crime may, according to Van Creveld, “develop into low-intensity conflict by coalescing along racial, religious, social, and political lines.” As small-scale violence multiplies at home and abroad, state armies will continue to shrink, being gradually replaced by a booming private security business, as in West Africa, and by urban mafias, especially in the former communist world, who may be better equipped than municipal police forces to grant physical protection to local inhabitants.
Future wars will be those of communal survival, aggravated or, in many cases, caused by environmental scarcity. These wars will be subnational, meaning that it will be hard for states and local governments to protect their own citizens physically. This is how many states will ultimately die. As state power fades–and with it the state’s ability to help weaker groups within society, not to mention other states–peoples and cultures around the world will be thrown back upon their own strengths and weaknesses, with fewer equalizing mechanisms to protect them.
Thus the concern about 'balkanization-by-immigration' of the USA, by the way...
Whereas the distant future will probably see the emergence of a racially hybrid, globalized man, the coming decades will see us more aware of our differences than of our similarities. To the average person, political values will mean less, personal security more. The belief that we are all equal is liable to be replaced by the overriding obsession of the ancient Greek travelers: Why the differences between peoples?
So, Billiam, it's the Anti-Clausewitz for your morning read--because Clausewitz may be too heavy.
Here he cites an essay from Kaplan:
When I asked Pentagon officials about the nature of war in the twenty-first century, the answer I frequently got was “Read [Israeli military historian Martin] Van Creveld.” The top brass are enamored of this historian not because his writings justify their existence but, rather, the opposite: Van Creveld warns them that huge state military machines like the Pentagon’s are dinosaurs about to go extinct, and that something far more terrible awaits us.
[snip] Debunking the great military strategist Carl von Clausewitz, Van Creveld, who may be the most original thinker on war since that early-nineteenth-century Prussian, writes, “Clausewitz’s ideas . . . were wholly rooted in the fact that, ever since 1648, war had been waged overwhelmingly by states.” But, as Van Creveld explains, the period of nation-states and, therefore, of state conflict is now ending, and with it the clear “threefold division into government, army, and people” which state-directed wars enforce. Thus, to see the future, the first step is to look back to the past immediately prior to the birth of modernism–the wars in medieval Europe which began during the Reformation and reached their culmination in the Thirty Years’ War.
Insofar as the Just War Theory applies to States, the AlQuaeda/state-less 'war' has been very difficult to define and fight. Ask both the Administration AND its opponents.
Van Creveld writes, “In all these struggles political, social, economic, and religious motives were hopelessly entangled. Since this was an age when armies consisted of mercenaries, all were also attended by swarms of military entrepreneurs. . . . Many of them paid little but lip service to the organizations for whom they had contracted to fight. Instead, they robbed the countryside on their own behalf. . . .”
“Given such conditions, any fine distinctions . . . between armies on the one hand and peoples on the other were bound to break down. Engulfed by war, civilians suffered terrible atrocities.”
Back then, in other words, there was no Politics as we have come to understand the term, just as there is less and less Politics today in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka, the Balkans, and the Caucasus, among other places.
Because, as Van Creveld notes, the radius of trust within tribal societies is narrowed to one’s immediate family and guerrilla comrades, truces arranged with one Bosnian commander, say, may be broken immediately by another Bosnian commander. The plethora of short-lived ceasefires in the Balkans and the Caucasus constitute proof that we are no longer in a world where the old rules of state warfare apply. More evidence is provided by the destruction of medieval monuments in the Croatian port of Dubrovnik: when cultures, rather than states, fight, then cultural and religious monuments are weapons of war, making them fair game.
Thus we have seen the destruction of Buddhist icons in Pakistan by the Muslims--not to mention the Mohammedan penchant to mash up the Temple Mount and to destroy Catholic churches in (e.g.,) Iraq.
Also, war-making entities will no longer be restricted to a specific territory. Loose and shadowy organisms such as Islamic terrorist organizations suggest why borders will mean increasingly little and sedimentary layers of tribalistic identity and control will mean more. “From the vantage point of the present, there appears every prospect that religious . . . fanaticisms will play a larger role in the motivation of armed conflict” in the West than at any time “for the last 300 years,” Van Creveld writes. This is why analysts like Michael Vlahos are closely monitoring religious cults. Vlahos says, “An ideology that challenges us may not take familiar form, like the old Nazis or Commies. It may not even engage us initially in ways that fit old threat markings.” Van Creveld concludes, “Armed conflict will be waged by men on earth, not robots in space. It will have more in common with the struggles of primitive tribes than with large-scale conventional war.”
Thus, the failure of the State Department, who did not (and still DOES not) recognize the power of religion in these conflicts. The professionally-godless cannot wrap their Yalie heads around the personally god-consumed.
While another military historian, John Keegan, in his new book A History of Warfare, draws a more benign portrait of primitive man, it is important to point out that what Van Creveld really means is re-primitivized man: warrior societies operating at a time of unprecedented resource scarcity and planetary overcrowding.
Here, of course, is a weakness in argumentation. The "scarcity...overcrowding" line has been in play since Malthus in the mid-1700's and has yet to prove out. Nonetheless, the theory remains of interest.
Van Creveld’s pre-Westphalian vision of worldwide low-intensity conflict is not a superficial “back to the future” scenario. First of all, technology will be used toward primitive ends.
...If crime and war become indistinguishable, then “national defense” may in the future be viewed as a local concept. As crime continues to grow in our cities and the ability of state governments and criminal-justice systems to protect their citizens diminishes, urban crime may, according to Van Creveld, “develop into low-intensity conflict by coalescing along racial, religious, social, and political lines.” As small-scale violence multiplies at home and abroad, state armies will continue to shrink, being gradually replaced by a booming private security business, as in West Africa, and by urban mafias, especially in the former communist world, who may be better equipped than municipal police forces to grant physical protection to local inhabitants.
Future wars will be those of communal survival, aggravated or, in many cases, caused by environmental scarcity. These wars will be subnational, meaning that it will be hard for states and local governments to protect their own citizens physically. This is how many states will ultimately die. As state power fades–and with it the state’s ability to help weaker groups within society, not to mention other states–peoples and cultures around the world will be thrown back upon their own strengths and weaknesses, with fewer equalizing mechanisms to protect them.
Thus the concern about 'balkanization-by-immigration' of the USA, by the way...
Whereas the distant future will probably see the emergence of a racially hybrid, globalized man, the coming decades will see us more aware of our differences than of our similarities. To the average person, political values will mean less, personal security more. The belief that we are all equal is liable to be replaced by the overriding obsession of the ancient Greek travelers: Why the differences between peoples?
So, Billiam, it's the Anti-Clausewitz for your morning read--because Clausewitz may be too heavy.
Dysfunctional Politics--or the Waukesha County Bus
This brief 'graf from G K Chesterton is instructive, and it also speaks to those (on WISN Radio, folks) who curse the Wauksha County subsidization of a bus which allows people from Milwaukee to earn a living in Waukesha County.
THE lunatic is the man who lives in a small world but thinks it is a large one; he is a man who lives in a tenth of the truth, and thinks it is the whole. The madman cannot conceive any cosmos outside a certain tale or conspiracy or vision. Hence the more clearly we see the world divided into Saxons and non-Saxons, into our splendid selves and the rest, the more certain we may be that we are slowly and quietly going mad. The more plain and satisfying our state appears, the more we may know that we are living in an unreal world.
For the real world is not satisfying. The more clear become the colours and facts of Anglo-Saxon superiority, the more surely we may know we are in a dream. For the real world is not clear or plain.
The real world is full of bracing bewilderments and brutal surprises. Comfort is the blessing and the curse of the English, and of Americans of the Pogram type also. With them it is a loud comfort, a wild comfort, a screaming and capering comfort; but comfort at bottom still.
For there is but an inch of difference between the cushioned chamber and the padded cell.
---From an Essay on Charles Dickens
Worth remembering.
THE lunatic is the man who lives in a small world but thinks it is a large one; he is a man who lives in a tenth of the truth, and thinks it is the whole. The madman cannot conceive any cosmos outside a certain tale or conspiracy or vision. Hence the more clearly we see the world divided into Saxons and non-Saxons, into our splendid selves and the rest, the more certain we may be that we are slowly and quietly going mad. The more plain and satisfying our state appears, the more we may know that we are living in an unreal world.
For the real world is not satisfying. The more clear become the colours and facts of Anglo-Saxon superiority, the more surely we may know we are in a dream. For the real world is not clear or plain.
The real world is full of bracing bewilderments and brutal surprises. Comfort is the blessing and the curse of the English, and of Americans of the Pogram type also. With them it is a loud comfort, a wild comfort, a screaming and capering comfort; but comfort at bottom still.
For there is but an inch of difference between the cushioned chamber and the padded cell.
---From an Essay on Charles Dickens
Worth remembering.
Is Chisholm NOT Prosecuting??
From the blog of a former Milwaukee County prosecutor:
Our former boss, E. Michael McCann, used to say at staff meetings (125 ADAs, 5 DDAs, and him) that there was not a room in the state that had a gathering of finer trial attorneys. That remains true to this day -- although our current emphasis on not prosecuting crimes may result in change. The current "General Crimes" ADAs function less as a trial attorney than as a bureaucrat; are less an advocate for the impoverished and the victimized than a social worker deciding how not to hold offenders responsible for their actions. I only hope they realize the folly of "Deferred Prosecutions" and "Diversions," and re-establish a firm but fair set of policies for fighting crime and improving the justice system in Milwaukee County.
Well, that's interesting.
HT: Proof and Hearsay
Our former boss, E. Michael McCann, used to say at staff meetings (125 ADAs, 5 DDAs, and him) that there was not a room in the state that had a gathering of finer trial attorneys. That remains true to this day -- although our current emphasis on not prosecuting crimes may result in change. The current "General Crimes" ADAs function less as a trial attorney than as a bureaucrat; are less an advocate for the impoverished and the victimized than a social worker deciding how not to hold offenders responsible for their actions. I only hope they realize the folly of "Deferred Prosecutions" and "Diversions," and re-establish a firm but fair set of policies for fighting crime and improving the justice system in Milwaukee County.
Well, that's interesting.
HT: Proof and Hearsay
Think Again About Housing Prices
The chart shows Homes for Sale as a percentage of Total Housing Units, and the trend (pink line 2004-2007, Blue Line 1998-2002) is UP compared to the last housing-price blip.HT: The Big Picture
Apparitions of Osama
The questions begin to surface, and a big HT to Eggster, quoting a video/audio analyst Ph.D.
I do know that the room echo and background sounds change during different audio clips. And there are so many splices that I cannot help but wonder if someone spliced words and phrases together. I also cannot rule out a vocal imitator during the frozen-frame audio. The only way to prove that the audio is really Bin Laden is to see him talking in the video, but all references to current-events come during the frozen-frame section.
...
There are some very obvious places where the video has been spliced. Here’s some examples:
1:39 — A little more than a minute and a half into the video is a splice. He goes from looking out to looking down in less than 1/25th of a second.
13:13 — The second splice. Not as big, but definitely there.
There are actually six splices in the video as far as I can tell.
The video itself was filmed in two takes. The first section opens the video and ends at 1:56. The second section begins at 12:29 and continues until 14:01. That’s right: the entire 26 minute video has less than four minutes of animated footage. The rest of the video just shows a still-frame of Bin Laden. The two sections are clearly from different recordings because the desk is closer to the camera in the second section.
The Eggster has more with his usual laconic/droll commentary.
I do know that the room echo and background sounds change during different audio clips. And there are so many splices that I cannot help but wonder if someone spliced words and phrases together. I also cannot rule out a vocal imitator during the frozen-frame audio. The only way to prove that the audio is really Bin Laden is to see him talking in the video, but all references to current-events come during the frozen-frame section.
...
There are some very obvious places where the video has been spliced. Here’s some examples:
1:39 — A little more than a minute and a half into the video is a splice. He goes from looking out to looking down in less than 1/25th of a second.
13:13 — The second splice. Not as big, but definitely there.
There are actually six splices in the video as far as I can tell.
The video itself was filmed in two takes. The first section opens the video and ends at 1:56. The second section begins at 12:29 and continues until 14:01. That’s right: the entire 26 minute video has less than four minutes of animated footage. The rest of the video just shows a still-frame of Bin Laden. The two sections are clearly from different recordings because the desk is closer to the camera in the second section.
The Eggster has more with his usual laconic/droll commentary.
AlGore to Ban Men?
As long as we seek causes of Global Warming, someone will come up with them.
Men are worse for the environment than women, spending more on petrol and eating more meat, both of which create greenhouse gas emissions.
These are the conclusions of a new report by the Swedish Foreign Ministry."Three out of four cars in Sweden are today driven by men. Around ten percent of all drivers, mainly men, account for 60 percent of car journeys," report author Gerd Johnsson-Latham told Svenska Dagbladet.
Well, there's a cause. Now what's the solution?
Can't wait to hear AlGore's proposal, can you?
HT: Grim's Hall
Men are worse for the environment than women, spending more on petrol and eating more meat, both of which create greenhouse gas emissions.
These are the conclusions of a new report by the Swedish Foreign Ministry."Three out of four cars in Sweden are today driven by men. Around ten percent of all drivers, mainly men, account for 60 percent of car journeys," report author Gerd Johnsson-Latham told Svenska Dagbladet.
Well, there's a cause. Now what's the solution?
Can't wait to hear AlGore's proposal, can you?
HT: Grim's Hall
Russ Feingold, the Quandary Personified
Ol' Russ, reminding us that Stopped Clocks are right now and again:
Here's the list of Senators who voted in support of Dr. Coburn's amendment to suspend all earmarks until deficient bridges are repaired, or didn't cast a vote:
NAYs ---14 Barrasso (R-WY) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) DeMint (R-SC) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Feingold (D-WI) Grassley (R-IA) Isakson (R-GA) Kyl (R-AZ) McCaskill (D-MO)
Not Voting - 4 Craig (R-ID) Dodd (D-CT) McCain (R-AZ) Obama (D-IL)
Sen. Coburn proposed that ALL EARMARKS be suspended until the infrastructure (like bridges, for example) are brought up-to-snuff.
Feingold supported that proposal (despite the somewhat confusing "Nay" record-of-vote.)
HT: The Captain
Here's the list of Senators who voted in support of Dr. Coburn's amendment to suspend all earmarks until deficient bridges are repaired, or didn't cast a vote:
NAYs ---14 Barrasso (R-WY) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) DeMint (R-SC) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Feingold (D-WI) Grassley (R-IA) Isakson (R-GA) Kyl (R-AZ) McCaskill (D-MO)
Not Voting - 4 Craig (R-ID) Dodd (D-CT) McCain (R-AZ) Obama (D-IL)
Sen. Coburn proposed that ALL EARMARKS be suspended until the infrastructure (like bridges, for example) are brought up-to-snuff.
Feingold supported that proposal (despite the somewhat confusing "Nay" record-of-vote.)
HT: The Captain
Jerry Theder: A Man With a Mission
This guy Jerry Theder is making things happen in the Elmbrook District.
Mostly, he's making the $100million+ referendum look.....well.....extremely generous--and making certain Board of Education members look, ummmmm, clueless.
The Elmbrook District has been mumbling and grunting about re-doing its high schools for a few years. By and by, a committee recommended, and the Board approved, a referendum request which would have cost over $100 million. That plan would extensively remodel AND add to the existing high schools.
Elmbrook residents, no fools, regarded the $100 million tag as a 'negotiating position,' and slam-dunked it to oblivion.
Jerry Theder emerged as the "counter-voice" and is co-chairman of the new committee studying the issue.
First off, Theder and his allies decided that Elmbrook would NOT build enough capacity to accomodate Chapter 220 or "open-enrollment" students. In other words, Elmbrook will spend money only on its own resident-students.
That triggered a hard look at the student-number projections, and sure enough, they were high.
The Elmbrook School District should size its future high schools to accommodate 2,300 resident students in the 2016-'17 school year, a committee decided Wednesday night, a significantly smaller size than the high schools were designed to accommodate in the district's failed April referendum.
Just as a comparison, the last committee had proposed capacity for 2,900 students--SIX HUNDRED MORE than the UW's demographics experts estimated.
A Board member pouted:
...Theder offered a revised model calling for resident enrollment to be estimated at 2,143 students.
Co-Chairman Meg Wartman disagreed, saying that she had confidence in the APL projections, for which the district budgeted $5,000.
Wartman is a member of the Board who approved the original bazillion-dollar request.
A couple of weeks ago, Theder's Committee found another $1 million or so in savings related to handicap-access at Brookfield Central HS. Perhaps Ms. Wartman was surprised and disagreed with that, too.
Keep it up, Jerry!!
Mostly, he's making the $100million+ referendum look.....well.....extremely generous--and making certain Board of Education members look, ummmmm, clueless.
The Elmbrook District has been mumbling and grunting about re-doing its high schools for a few years. By and by, a committee recommended, and the Board approved, a referendum request which would have cost over $100 million. That plan would extensively remodel AND add to the existing high schools.
Elmbrook residents, no fools, regarded the $100 million tag as a 'negotiating position,' and slam-dunked it to oblivion.
Jerry Theder emerged as the "counter-voice" and is co-chairman of the new committee studying the issue.
First off, Theder and his allies decided that Elmbrook would NOT build enough capacity to accomodate Chapter 220 or "open-enrollment" students. In other words, Elmbrook will spend money only on its own resident-students.
That triggered a hard look at the student-number projections, and sure enough, they were high.
The Elmbrook School District should size its future high schools to accommodate 2,300 resident students in the 2016-'17 school year, a committee decided Wednesday night, a significantly smaller size than the high schools were designed to accommodate in the district's failed April referendum.
Just as a comparison, the last committee had proposed capacity for 2,900 students--SIX HUNDRED MORE than the UW's demographics experts estimated.
A Board member pouted:
...Theder offered a revised model calling for resident enrollment to be estimated at 2,143 students.
Co-Chairman Meg Wartman disagreed, saying that she had confidence in the APL projections, for which the district budgeted $5,000.
Wartman is a member of the Board who approved the original bazillion-dollar request.
A couple of weeks ago, Theder's Committee found another $1 million or so in savings related to handicap-access at Brookfield Central HS. Perhaps Ms. Wartman was surprised and disagreed with that, too.
Keep it up, Jerry!!
Muslims Stiffing the Blind in Milwaukee? Or Is It "Bad Walker"?
The Minneapolis Muslim-cabbie problem arrives in Milwaukee. But in this story, it's clear that there are a couple of agendas on the table.
Too bad the other agenda was dropped into the last 'graf, eh?
Heesen and Rattan [her guide dog] have used cabs to get to Heesen's job in West Allis. But sometimes they have waited more than an hour for a ride, or have had to call the cab company repeatedly after taxis arrived, then left when they saw Rattan, Heesen said.
...American United Taxi has a $1.25 million contract with Milwaukee County's Transit Plus program to provide about 500 rides each day for people with disabilities.
Christensen acknowledges that some of his drivers are afraid of dogs, or would rather not transport the animals because of cultural or religious reasons.
Christensen is blowing smoke with the "afraid of dogs" line. It's religious. Call it Mohammedanism.
The other agenda?
Walker Bad. Bad Scott. Bad, Bad, Bad:
...They also fear that catching a cab will be even harder if the County Board approves a transit system proposal to cut paratransit and bus service throughout the area.
Yah.
Too bad the other agenda was dropped into the last 'graf, eh?
Heesen and Rattan [her guide dog] have used cabs to get to Heesen's job in West Allis. But sometimes they have waited more than an hour for a ride, or have had to call the cab company repeatedly after taxis arrived, then left when they saw Rattan, Heesen said.
...American United Taxi has a $1.25 million contract with Milwaukee County's Transit Plus program to provide about 500 rides each day for people with disabilities.
Christensen acknowledges that some of his drivers are afraid of dogs, or would rather not transport the animals because of cultural or religious reasons.
Christensen is blowing smoke with the "afraid of dogs" line. It's religious. Call it Mohammedanism.
The other agenda?
Walker Bad. Bad Scott. Bad, Bad, Bad:
...They also fear that catching a cab will be even harder if the County Board approves a transit system proposal to cut paratransit and bus service throughout the area.
Yah.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
A Papacy Unlike the Prior One
Magister's account of the Papal visit to Loreto (excerpted):
In Loreto, the vigil with the thirty thousand young people who came from Italy and the rest of the world was comprised of two events: the first, an afternoon of prayer and reflection; and the second, a typical evening of musical entertainment, featuring famous performers.
This evening of music, which was broadcast live by one of the television channels of the Italian state, was conceived by Bibi Ballandi, a manager for famous artists and an organizer of televised events. He was the one who in 1997, for a similar evening during the international Eucharistic congress in Bologna, brought in Bob Dylan and Adriano Celentano to sing in front of John Paul II, who remained on the stage for the entire performance.
This time, in Loreto, there were Claudio Baglioni, Lucio Dalla, and the rock group "Vibrazioni." But the pope wasn’t there. While the singers were performing, he was secluded in prayer at the shrine, before the reliquary of the Holy House of Nazareth.
Later,
In Loreto, Benedict XVI instead personally participated in the afternoon meeting with the young people, organized by the heads of the pastoral care of young people for the Italian bishops’ conference.
But here, too, he made a clear departure from the prepared script. On the one side, there were the young actors who took turns reading – with theatrical flair, but still in a contrived manner – the passages selected by the organizers, many of which were taken from the Bible. On the other side, there was the pope, who set aside the texts prepared for him by the offices of the curia and responded to questions from the young people with spontaneous, improvised words that were unmistakably his own, and therefore also capable of penetrating the heart. While he was speaking and saying profound, demanding, touching things, there was an impressive silence and attention among the three hundred thousand young people listening to him.
Not a man of the "beau geste" but a teacher, in word and example.
HT: Fr. Z.
In Loreto, the vigil with the thirty thousand young people who came from Italy and the rest of the world was comprised of two events: the first, an afternoon of prayer and reflection; and the second, a typical evening of musical entertainment, featuring famous performers.
This evening of music, which was broadcast live by one of the television channels of the Italian state, was conceived by Bibi Ballandi, a manager for famous artists and an organizer of televised events. He was the one who in 1997, for a similar evening during the international Eucharistic congress in Bologna, brought in Bob Dylan and Adriano Celentano to sing in front of John Paul II, who remained on the stage for the entire performance.
This time, in Loreto, there were Claudio Baglioni, Lucio Dalla, and the rock group "Vibrazioni." But the pope wasn’t there. While the singers were performing, he was secluded in prayer at the shrine, before the reliquary of the Holy House of Nazareth.
Later,
In Loreto, Benedict XVI instead personally participated in the afternoon meeting with the young people, organized by the heads of the pastoral care of young people for the Italian bishops’ conference.
But here, too, he made a clear departure from the prepared script. On the one side, there were the young actors who took turns reading – with theatrical flair, but still in a contrived manner – the passages selected by the organizers, many of which were taken from the Bible. On the other side, there was the pope, who set aside the texts prepared for him by the offices of the curia and responded to questions from the young people with spontaneous, improvised words that were unmistakably his own, and therefore also capable of penetrating the heart. While he was speaking and saying profound, demanding, touching things, there was an impressive silence and attention among the three hundred thousand young people listening to him.
Not a man of the "beau geste" but a teacher, in word and example.
HT: Fr. Z.
9/11 Perspective
The first 9/11 clash between the Muslims and the West (really, Christendom) resulted in a defeat for the Muslims--which they remember, of course.
A narrative can be found here. It's not long, and it is readable.
Midway through, we learn that the French have never really changed:
The devious Louis XIV of France declined to help and instead used the opportunity to attack cities in Alsace and other parts of southern Germany.
By the way, the Hungarians aren't heroes, either.
A narrative can be found here. It's not long, and it is readable.
Midway through, we learn that the French have never really changed:
The devious Louis XIV of France declined to help and instead used the opportunity to attack cities in Alsace and other parts of southern Germany.
By the way, the Hungarians aren't heroes, either.
Once Again, the 9th Circus...
That little provision in the 1st Amendment that 'congress shall pass no law "prohibiting the free exercise" of religion' doesn't apply to the Courts, does it?
The American Legion is displeased with the 9th Circus:
The leader of the nation's largest veterans organization criticized last week's decision by the 9th Circuit Court to remove a cross from a World War I veterans memorial in California's Mojave Desert as the beginning of the "slippery slope of extreme secularism."
"This is one more prime example of wrong-headed political correctness and one more critical reason why the current Congress must pass the Public Expression of Religion Act," said American Legion National Commander Marty Conatser. "This is not about freedom of religion. The First Amendment also says Congress shall pass no law 'prohibiting the free exercise' of religion. The cross is an important symbol to millions of veterans, some of whom had to make the ultimate sacrifice for this nation."
Referring to the federal Court's September 6 decision, Conatser said that across the nation litigation is being brought by the ACLU and other groups attacking the Boy Scouts, the public display of the Ten Commandments and other symbols of America's religious history. "Today's lawyers and judges are outlawing the values and religious symbols that the Founding Fathers revered and proclaimed as the very foundation of the American republic," he said. "Today it's a memorial. Tomorrow, these same judges can order the removal of crosses on veterans gravestones, the dismissal of military chaplains and the closure of base chapels."
Adding injury to insult, the taxpayer PAYS the ACLU for their activism.
HT: CustosFidei
The American Legion is displeased with the 9th Circus:
The leader of the nation's largest veterans organization criticized last week's decision by the 9th Circuit Court to remove a cross from a World War I veterans memorial in California's Mojave Desert as the beginning of the "slippery slope of extreme secularism."
"This is one more prime example of wrong-headed political correctness and one more critical reason why the current Congress must pass the Public Expression of Religion Act," said American Legion National Commander Marty Conatser. "This is not about freedom of religion. The First Amendment also says Congress shall pass no law 'prohibiting the free exercise' of religion. The cross is an important symbol to millions of veterans, some of whom had to make the ultimate sacrifice for this nation."
Referring to the federal Court's September 6 decision, Conatser said that across the nation litigation is being brought by the ACLU and other groups attacking the Boy Scouts, the public display of the Ten Commandments and other symbols of America's religious history. "Today's lawyers and judges are outlawing the values and religious symbols that the Founding Fathers revered and proclaimed as the very foundation of the American republic," he said. "Today it's a memorial. Tomorrow, these same judges can order the removal of crosses on veterans gravestones, the dismissal of military chaplains and the closure of base chapels."
Adding injury to insult, the taxpayer PAYS the ACLU for their activism.
HT: CustosFidei
Thirty WI. Organizations Ask For Doyle Veto
Well, that's not exactly the story, but the effect will be the same. They wrote to the Legislature about providing a State tax deduction for HSAs; DarthDoyle is adamantly opposed.
...we urge you to include in your final package the provision to provide an income tax deduction for Health Savings Accounts. Wisconsin is one of only four states remaining that prohibit state income tax deductions for HSA accounts.
We applaud Governor Doyle and the Legislature for including in the state budget a provision that provides tax deductions for nearly all health care premiums that Wisconsinites pay. However, bringing Wisconsin in line with federal law and giving individuals who participate in health savings accounts a tax deduction will provide all Wisconsin residents with fair treatment under our state’s tax laws. It is important to recognize that more and more working families and Wisconsin farm families are participating in these plans.
Wisconsin is one of only four states that do not currently have a state income tax deduction for individuals and farmers who participate in health plans with HSAs. Wisconsin residents that utilize HSAs are being penalized by being forced to pay taxes on their health care savings and on their health care expenditures. Traditional health insurance plans provided by employers already carry a tax exemption since employees do not have these contributions included in their taxable payroll. In addition, the flexible spending accounts (FSAs) that allow individuals to save and spend on health care expenses are exempt. This creates a disparity between individuals who choose HSAs and those who have traditional health plans through an employer. In Wisconsin, tens of thousands of working families and farmers have chosen health plans with HSAs, and participation is significantly growing. These working families and farmers choose to use HSAs as a means to save money for their health care expenses.
Signatories include
American Family Insurance Group
WI Bankers Association
Community Bankers Association
WI Builders Association
Fiserv Health
WI Counties Association
Forward Janesville Inc.
WI Electric Cooperative Association
Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce
WI Farm Bureau
Humana
WI Federation of Cooperatives
Independent Business Assn of WI
WI Hospital Association Inc
Marshall & Ilsley Corporation
WI Independent Businesses
Metropolitan Builders Assoc. of Metro Milwaukee
WI Manufacturers & Commerce
MMAC
WI Merchants Federation
National Federation of Independent Business
WI PPO Association
Northeast
WI Chambers Coalition
WI Realtors Association
Sentry Insurance Group
WI Utility Association
WPS Health Insurance
Xcel Energy
...we urge you to include in your final package the provision to provide an income tax deduction for Health Savings Accounts. Wisconsin is one of only four states remaining that prohibit state income tax deductions for HSA accounts.
We applaud Governor Doyle and the Legislature for including in the state budget a provision that provides tax deductions for nearly all health care premiums that Wisconsinites pay. However, bringing Wisconsin in line with federal law and giving individuals who participate in health savings accounts a tax deduction will provide all Wisconsin residents with fair treatment under our state’s tax laws. It is important to recognize that more and more working families and Wisconsin farm families are participating in these plans.
Wisconsin is one of only four states that do not currently have a state income tax deduction for individuals and farmers who participate in health plans with HSAs. Wisconsin residents that utilize HSAs are being penalized by being forced to pay taxes on their health care savings and on their health care expenditures. Traditional health insurance plans provided by employers already carry a tax exemption since employees do not have these contributions included in their taxable payroll. In addition, the flexible spending accounts (FSAs) that allow individuals to save and spend on health care expenses are exempt. This creates a disparity between individuals who choose HSAs and those who have traditional health plans through an employer. In Wisconsin, tens of thousands of working families and farmers have chosen health plans with HSAs, and participation is significantly growing. These working families and farmers choose to use HSAs as a means to save money for their health care expenses.
Signatories include
American Family Insurance Group
WI Bankers Association
Community Bankers Association
WI Builders Association
Fiserv Health
WI Counties Association
Forward Janesville Inc.
WI Electric Cooperative Association
Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce
WI Farm Bureau
Humana
WI Federation of Cooperatives
Independent Business Assn of WI
WI Hospital Association Inc
Marshall & Ilsley Corporation
WI Independent Businesses
Metropolitan Builders Assoc. of Metro Milwaukee
WI Manufacturers & Commerce
MMAC
WI Merchants Federation
National Federation of Independent Business
WI PPO Association
Northeast
WI Chambers Coalition
WI Realtors Association
Sentry Insurance Group
WI Utility Association
WPS Health Insurance
Xcel Energy
Which constitute the Few and Brave who remain in this State, fighting for common sense.
HT: WisPolitics
US Military Tribunals in Foreign Countries--Why?
This answer will surprise you. It comes from Felix Frankfurter, in a decision regarding the use of military tribunals. (The full explanation is at the link.)
Frankfurter:
The practice of European governments to send officers to reside in foreign countries, authorized to exercise a limited jurisdiction over vessels and seamen of their country, to watch the interests of their countrymen and to assist in adjusting their disputes and protecting their commerce, goes back to a very early period, even preceding what are termed the Middle Ages.
* * * In other than Christian countries they were, by treaty stipulations, usually clothed with authority to hear complaints against their countrymen and to sit in judgment upon them when charged with public offenses. After the rise of Islamism, and the spread of its followers over eastern Asia and other countries bordering on the Mediterranean, the exercise of this judicial authority became a matter of great concern. The intense hos[tility] of the people of Moslem faith to all other sects, and particularly to Christians, affected all their intercourse, and all proceedings had in their tribunals. Even the rules of evidence adopted by them placed those of different faith on unequal grounds in any controversy with them.
For this cause, and by reason of the barbarous and cruel punishments inflicted in those countries, and the frequent use of torture to enforce confession from parties accused, it was a matter of deep interest to Christian governments to withdraw the trial of their subjects, when charged with the commission of a public offense, from the arbitrary and despotic action of the local officials. Treaties conferring such jurisdiction upon these consuls were essential to the peaceful residence of Christians within those countries and the successful prosecution of commerce with their people.
Of course, that doesn't prevent Saudi Arabia, for example, from openly continuing its anti-Christian (and anti-Jewish) practices.
HT: Counter-Terrorism Blog
Frankfurter:
The practice of European governments to send officers to reside in foreign countries, authorized to exercise a limited jurisdiction over vessels and seamen of their country, to watch the interests of their countrymen and to assist in adjusting their disputes and protecting their commerce, goes back to a very early period, even preceding what are termed the Middle Ages.
* * * In other than Christian countries they were, by treaty stipulations, usually clothed with authority to hear complaints against their countrymen and to sit in judgment upon them when charged with public offenses. After the rise of Islamism, and the spread of its followers over eastern Asia and other countries bordering on the Mediterranean, the exercise of this judicial authority became a matter of great concern. The intense hos[tility] of the people of Moslem faith to all other sects, and particularly to Christians, affected all their intercourse, and all proceedings had in their tribunals. Even the rules of evidence adopted by them placed those of different faith on unequal grounds in any controversy with them.
For this cause, and by reason of the barbarous and cruel punishments inflicted in those countries, and the frequent use of torture to enforce confession from parties accused, it was a matter of deep interest to Christian governments to withdraw the trial of their subjects, when charged with the commission of a public offense, from the arbitrary and despotic action of the local officials. Treaties conferring such jurisdiction upon these consuls were essential to the peaceful residence of Christians within those countries and the successful prosecution of commerce with their people.
Of course, that doesn't prevent Saudi Arabia, for example, from openly continuing its anti-Christian (and anti-Jewish) practices.
HT: Counter-Terrorism Blog
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Rieff on The Modern Era, Affirming GKChesterton
James Hitchcock wrote an essay in the Fall '07 Adoremus Bulletin which describes some of the work of Philip Rieff. Interesting stuff. While Hitchcock's article relates the 'therapeutic culture' to the "Liturgeist Culture" rampant in the Church from ~1965-date, these out-takes will be more general.
Rieff’s theory of history broadly identified three successive cultures, each of which had some kind of moral idea at its heart. The First (primitive) Culture regarded law merely as “taboo” — fear of magical forces in the universe. The Second Culture, beginning with the ancient Israelites, made law into morality or “interdict” — sacred prohibitions — based on an authority that came from on high. The Third Culture (“Deathworks”) is the modern assault on the Second Culture in the name of human autonomy, fueled by “transgressions” against interdicts — deliberate attacks on sacred laws.
E Michael Jones often mentions Nietzsche's "transvaluation of all values"--which sounds suspiciously like what animates Rieff's "Third Culture."
Rieff was opposed to the Third Culture, (also called the "Therapeutic Culture.")
Unlike the religious culture that it superseded, the therapeutic culture has neither demons nor villains, so that the therapeutic individual opposes nothing and practices everything. “Toleration” becomes the highest virtue and “rigidity” the gravest fault.
Therapeutic culture reduces interdicts merely to taboos, that is, to essentially irrational and neurotic compulsions arising out of fear and ignorance...
And Rieff identified the American national neurosis:
Because therapeutic man needs a wide range of releases, a culture of amusement dominates, assaulting the interdicts in order to break the stultifying demands of daily life. The culture particularly condemns the “sin” of boredom, making entertainment one of its highest goods.
...But ultimately, the command of the therapeutic culture is not mere tolerance but “thou shalt not believe”: not the beginning of a new faith but the dissolution of all faith.
Rieff includes a warning to the Libertarians:
The culture of impulse, based on an infinite number of wants elevated to the level of needs, requires the self to find salvation precisely in the breaking of corporate identities, a suspicion of all normative institutions, the transgression of interdicts, “elaborately argued anti-religions”, all aiming to confirm men in their “devastating illusions of individuality and freedom”.
And, perhaps, he shows us the root-cause of the "political mess" in DC and Madison:
The death of culture begins with the inability of those elites to communicate its ideals in inwardly compelling ways. Freud, however, taught authority to see in itself only the vestiges of taboo, causing many of the cultural elite unwittingly to go over to what he called the “mass” — those who have no love for instinctual renunciation — in the most elaborate act of cultural suicide Western intellectuals have yet staged.
The crisis of culture thus flows from the top down. Children cannot be obedient if their parents are not; but the new model is the relentlessly supportive parent for whom, as the child soon discovers, “no” often means “yes”. Interdicts are likely to be broken most readily by those who hold office, so that the most basic obligation of leaders is to discipline themselves. The highest use of the interdicts is to punish the powerful, since if fear is instilled in them the powerless will follow.
In other words, leaders who are incapable of self-discipline and who become part of the "mass" of those who cannot 'instinctually renunciate' are, in fact, leading society into suicide--while trumpeting their Therapeutic Credentials.
Unfortunately,
In the therapeutic culture the only possible greatness is transgressive, which makes the destruction of received forms the essence of “creativity”. For example, there can no longer be religious art except things like Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ, which fuses the highest images with the lowest, with the aim of making the Second Culture disgusting.
Or the "entitlement Government," wherein leaders lack the self-discipline to restrain spending for the good of the country's future. This is, by the way, both Bush-ite and Ted Kennedy-ite; similarly, it was Tommy and Chuckie BOTH who spent Wisconsin into deep debt, and it is Doyle and Gard who continued the party, bringing Wisconsin's bond-rating to 47th of 50 States.
And in a salute to another favorite author:
The past then becomes a burden that threatens the present and must be mastered, so that the unique modern achievement is to be sprung loose from all historical memory. But, Rieff demands, “How dare we dismiss the authority of the past as if we understood it? From the past we gain our regulating weight, to hold against the lightness of our acts.”
That, folks, is G K Chesterton's "democracy of the dead" brought to our doorstep.
Rieff’s theory of history broadly identified three successive cultures, each of which had some kind of moral idea at its heart. The First (primitive) Culture regarded law merely as “taboo” — fear of magical forces in the universe. The Second Culture, beginning with the ancient Israelites, made law into morality or “interdict” — sacred prohibitions — based on an authority that came from on high. The Third Culture (“Deathworks”) is the modern assault on the Second Culture in the name of human autonomy, fueled by “transgressions” against interdicts — deliberate attacks on sacred laws.
E Michael Jones often mentions Nietzsche's "transvaluation of all values"--which sounds suspiciously like what animates Rieff's "Third Culture."
Rieff was opposed to the Third Culture, (also called the "Therapeutic Culture.")
Unlike the religious culture that it superseded, the therapeutic culture has neither demons nor villains, so that the therapeutic individual opposes nothing and practices everything. “Toleration” becomes the highest virtue and “rigidity” the gravest fault.
Therapeutic culture reduces interdicts merely to taboos, that is, to essentially irrational and neurotic compulsions arising out of fear and ignorance...
And Rieff identified the American national neurosis:
Because therapeutic man needs a wide range of releases, a culture of amusement dominates, assaulting the interdicts in order to break the stultifying demands of daily life. The culture particularly condemns the “sin” of boredom, making entertainment one of its highest goods.
...But ultimately, the command of the therapeutic culture is not mere tolerance but “thou shalt not believe”: not the beginning of a new faith but the dissolution of all faith.
Rieff includes a warning to the Libertarians:
The culture of impulse, based on an infinite number of wants elevated to the level of needs, requires the self to find salvation precisely in the breaking of corporate identities, a suspicion of all normative institutions, the transgression of interdicts, “elaborately argued anti-religions”, all aiming to confirm men in their “devastating illusions of individuality and freedom”.
And, perhaps, he shows us the root-cause of the "political mess" in DC and Madison:
The death of culture begins with the inability of those elites to communicate its ideals in inwardly compelling ways. Freud, however, taught authority to see in itself only the vestiges of taboo, causing many of the cultural elite unwittingly to go over to what he called the “mass” — those who have no love for instinctual renunciation — in the most elaborate act of cultural suicide Western intellectuals have yet staged.
The crisis of culture thus flows from the top down. Children cannot be obedient if their parents are not; but the new model is the relentlessly supportive parent for whom, as the child soon discovers, “no” often means “yes”. Interdicts are likely to be broken most readily by those who hold office, so that the most basic obligation of leaders is to discipline themselves. The highest use of the interdicts is to punish the powerful, since if fear is instilled in them the powerless will follow.
In other words, leaders who are incapable of self-discipline and who become part of the "mass" of those who cannot 'instinctually renunciate' are, in fact, leading society into suicide--while trumpeting their Therapeutic Credentials.
Unfortunately,
In the therapeutic culture the only possible greatness is transgressive, which makes the destruction of received forms the essence of “creativity”. For example, there can no longer be religious art except things like Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ, which fuses the highest images with the lowest, with the aim of making the Second Culture disgusting.
Or the "entitlement Government," wherein leaders lack the self-discipline to restrain spending for the good of the country's future. This is, by the way, both Bush-ite and Ted Kennedy-ite; similarly, it was Tommy and Chuckie BOTH who spent Wisconsin into deep debt, and it is Doyle and Gard who continued the party, bringing Wisconsin's bond-rating to 47th of 50 States.
And in a salute to another favorite author:
The past then becomes a burden that threatens the present and must be mastered, so that the unique modern achievement is to be sprung loose from all historical memory. But, Rieff demands, “How dare we dismiss the authority of the past as if we understood it? From the past we gain our regulating weight, to hold against the lightness of our acts.”
That, folks, is G K Chesterton's "democracy of the dead" brought to our doorstep.
Solemn Pontifical Mass for Motu Proprio
This is a reminder:
In thanksgiving for the Motu Proprio, a Solemn Pontifical High Mass will be celebrated by H.E. Jos. Perry at St. Stanislaus Parish, Friday evening September 14th, at 7:00 PM.
St. Stan's is located on the NW corner of 5th/Mitchell Streets, Milwaukee. There is a parking lot to the rear of the church, and plenty of on-street parking available as well.
If you are allergic to incense, bring allergy-control meds.
In thanksgiving for the Motu Proprio, a Solemn Pontifical High Mass will be celebrated by H.E. Jos. Perry at St. Stanislaus Parish, Friday evening September 14th, at 7:00 PM.
St. Stan's is located on the NW corner of 5th/Mitchell Streets, Milwaukee. There is a parking lot to the rear of the church, and plenty of on-street parking available as well.
If you are allergic to incense, bring allergy-control meds.
Marriage-Ceremony Wisdom
Found at Video Meliora:
On a recent EWTN show on marriage one of the guests commented that in Herzagovie that the marriage custom is that the bride and groom both put their hands on a cross and kiss it instead of each other after saying their vows. The priest reminds them that they have not found the perfect partner but rather their cross. If they let go of each other, they let go of the cross. The divorce rate is among the lowest in the world. - commenter on Disputations
No question my wife would agree with that characterization.
On a recent EWTN show on marriage one of the guests commented that in Herzagovie that the marriage custom is that the bride and groom both put their hands on a cross and kiss it instead of each other after saying their vows. The priest reminds them that they have not found the perfect partner but rather their cross. If they let go of each other, they let go of the cross. The divorce rate is among the lowest in the world. - commenter on Disputations
No question my wife would agree with that characterization.
G K Chesterton on Management
This is an outstanding thought which should be taken to heart by a few CEO's:
WHEN a man begins to think that the grass will not grow at night unless he lies awake to watch it, he generally ends either in an asylum or on the throne of an emperor. From the essay on Robert Browning.
Since there are no Empires handy, ...
Take it for what it's worth.
WHEN a man begins to think that the grass will not grow at night unless he lies awake to watch it, he generally ends either in an asylum or on the throne of an emperor. From the essay on Robert Browning.
Since there are no Empires handy, ...
Take it for what it's worth.
The Denominator of "Unemployment" Percentage
There are two ways to keep the (reported) unemployment percentage low.
First way: employ more people. (The numerator)
Second way: reduce the 'civilian labor pool." (The denominator.)
The 4.6% unemployment rate of August has to do with a reduction in the denominator, folks.
...We have referred to this number in the past as NILF -- Not-in-Labor-Force.
And that is precisely what happened to the Unemployment Rate in this month's NFP. The BLS Household Survey (Table A-1. Employment status of the civilian population by sex and age) showed that in one month, the US labor force decline[d] 1,379,000. (July 2007 = 154,871,000; August 2007 = 153,493,000).
That's an awful lot of people who suddenly decided to "retire." Similar numbers can be seen in the July 2007 "Not in labor force" -- it ticked up from 77,087,000 to August 78,717,000). If it wasn't for this sudden drop in the labor force, the Employment rate would have been = 0.945341606886.
In other words, a sudden and unexplained disappearance of a million plus workers from the labor pool managed to keep the Unemployment Rate almost a full percentage point below where it is more likely to be in that artificial construct called reality.
We're not so sure of "unexplained;" home-construction has dropped significantly, and a lot of labor was provided by illegals--meaning that they've returned to Mexico.
But then, it's still not quite the same as adding jobs--the numerator--is it?
Ms. Chao (Sec/Labor) is well-connected. That may be the limit of her abilities.
HT: The Big Picture
First way: employ more people. (The numerator)
Second way: reduce the 'civilian labor pool." (The denominator.)
The 4.6% unemployment rate of August has to do with a reduction in the denominator, folks.
...We have referred to this number in the past as NILF -- Not-in-Labor-Force.
And that is precisely what happened to the Unemployment Rate in this month's NFP. The BLS Household Survey (Table A-1. Employment status of the civilian population by sex and age) showed that in one month, the US labor force decline[d] 1,379,000. (July 2007 = 154,871,000; August 2007 = 153,493,000).
That's an awful lot of people who suddenly decided to "retire." Similar numbers can be seen in the July 2007 "Not in labor force" -- it ticked up from 77,087,000 to August 78,717,000). If it wasn't for this sudden drop in the labor force, the Employment rate would have been = 0.945341606886.
In other words, a sudden and unexplained disappearance of a million plus workers from the labor pool managed to keep the Unemployment Rate almost a full percentage point below where it is more likely to be in that artificial construct called reality.
We're not so sure of "unexplained;" home-construction has dropped significantly, and a lot of labor was provided by illegals--meaning that they've returned to Mexico.
But then, it's still not quite the same as adding jobs--the numerator--is it?
Ms. Chao (Sec/Labor) is well-connected. That may be the limit of her abilities.
HT: The Big Picture
El Terroristas! in Mexico...
Not well-covered, but thanks to Random10:
Pemex is reporting six coordinated explosions in a large-scale act of sabotage of its eastern natural gas pipelines. Well, you hear that, and, if you've got a brain, you think, "terrorism," or at least, "Chavez." Turns out there's evidence linking the EPR, who's claiming responsibility, to al Qaeda.
SIX bombs, 6 years after...less 1 day.
Pemex is reporting six coordinated explosions in a large-scale act of sabotage of its eastern natural gas pipelines. Well, you hear that, and, if you've got a brain, you think, "terrorism," or at least, "Chavez." Turns out there's evidence linking the EPR, who's claiming responsibility, to al Qaeda.
SIX bombs, 6 years after...less 1 day.
How Long the War on Terror?
It will be a very long one.
Defeating the enemy can constitute a victory, but only if military success is translated into political success. After all, wars are not fought for their own sake but to achieve a favorable peace. The reason defeating the enemy is not sufficient in itself for victory was articulated by Clausewitz: “In war, the result is never final…The defeated state often considers the outcome merely as a transitory evil, for which a remedy may still be found in political conditions at some later date.”
The successful translation of an enemy’s defeat into true victory is rare in history. World War II is one example. But even surrender does not necessarily lead to victory. Although Confederate armies surrendered at Appomattox and Durham Station, much of the social system of the militarily-defeated south was successfully reestablished in the years following the Civil War. The war is over when the loser, not the winner, says it is.
--M.T. Owens, Naval War College
HT: Betsy
Defeating the enemy can constitute a victory, but only if military success is translated into political success. After all, wars are not fought for their own sake but to achieve a favorable peace. The reason defeating the enemy is not sufficient in itself for victory was articulated by Clausewitz: “In war, the result is never final…The defeated state often considers the outcome merely as a transitory evil, for which a remedy may still be found in political conditions at some later date.”
The successful translation of an enemy’s defeat into true victory is rare in history. World War II is one example. But even surrender does not necessarily lead to victory. Although Confederate armies surrendered at Appomattox and Durham Station, much of the social system of the militarily-defeated south was successfully reestablished in the years following the Civil War. The war is over when the loser, not the winner, says it is.
--M.T. Owens, Naval War College
HT: Betsy
Dirtball Romney Consultant Goes Anti-Fred
Since Romney can't seem to move up in the polls with his platform and money, he's using the time-honored dirtball approach. (Xoff!! pay attention!!)
A top adviser to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney appears to be behind today's launch of a new Web site attacking GOP presidential rival Fred Thompson.
The site, www.phoneyfred.org, paints an unflattering picture of Thompson, dubbing him: Fancy Fred, Five O'clock Fred, Flip-Flop Fred, McCain Fred, Moron Fred, Playboy Fred, Pro-Choice Fred, Son-of-a-Fred and Trial Lawyer Fred. [View an image of the Web site]
Shortly after a Washington Post reporter made inquiries about the site to the Romney campaign, the site was taken down.
Nowhere on the site does it indicate who is responsible for it. But a series of inquiries leads directly to the website of Under the Power Lines, the political consulting firm of Warren Tompkins, Romney's lead consultant in South Carolina
We note that Tompkins was also a GWB consultant.
A top adviser to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney appears to be behind today's launch of a new Web site attacking GOP presidential rival Fred Thompson.
The site, www.phoneyfred.org, paints an unflattering picture of Thompson, dubbing him: Fancy Fred, Five O'clock Fred, Flip-Flop Fred, McCain Fred, Moron Fred, Playboy Fred, Pro-Choice Fred, Son-of-a-Fred and Trial Lawyer Fred. [View an image of the Web site]
Shortly after a Washington Post reporter made inquiries about the site to the Romney campaign, the site was taken down.
Nowhere on the site does it indicate who is responsible for it. But a series of inquiries leads directly to the website of Under the Power Lines, the political consulting firm of Warren Tompkins, Romney's lead consultant in South Carolina
We note that Tompkins was also a GWB consultant.
Monday, September 10, 2007
More MSM Wrong-icity
It wasn't a widely-reported event here in the USA, but the Pope recently visited Austria--specifically Mariazell and St Stephen's Cathedral.
As usual, the MSM on the scene got it wrong, according to a US-based blogger AND credentialed member of the press party:
A lot of media reports say that there weren't many people welcoming the pope - BBC said there weren't throngs along the streets.
Of course there hadn't been any plans or possibilities for such throngs and the streets were blocked by police, even the highway was lined by police.
Every venue had a set number of tickets to give out, and all the venues were packed, despite the truly horrible weather. One could barely pass through the masses.
BBC also wrote that only a few came to Mariazell on their own and somewhat snidely remarked that Church buses had brought in people. Yeah BECAUSE IT WAS CLOSED TO PRIVATE TRAFFIC ! One could only get in by train or bus.
So yeah, the BBC is full of crap - and you can add all kinds of other news outlets. Either they don't do their homework or they are deliberately lying. People stood in rain, cold and wind for hours, the venues were all jam packed.
And if anyone tells you about the anti-pope demonstrators - six boomers with banners, and two banners affixed to houses, that was it. The one 'we are church' banner said "peace and hope, sorrow and fear". Oh yeah and there was some weird woman handing out flyers saying Christians don't need a church - and ironically trying to recruit people for the "Free Christians" community.
Oh, well....
As usual, the MSM on the scene got it wrong, according to a US-based blogger AND credentialed member of the press party:
A lot of media reports say that there weren't many people welcoming the pope - BBC said there weren't throngs along the streets.
Of course there hadn't been any plans or possibilities for such throngs and the streets were blocked by police, even the highway was lined by police.
Every venue had a set number of tickets to give out, and all the venues were packed, despite the truly horrible weather. One could barely pass through the masses.
BBC also wrote that only a few came to Mariazell on their own and somewhat snidely remarked that Church buses had brought in people. Yeah BECAUSE IT WAS CLOSED TO PRIVATE TRAFFIC ! One could only get in by train or bus.
So yeah, the BBC is full of crap - and you can add all kinds of other news outlets. Either they don't do their homework or they are deliberately lying. People stood in rain, cold and wind for hours, the venues were all jam packed.
And if anyone tells you about the anti-pope demonstrators - six boomers with banners, and two banners affixed to houses, that was it. The one 'we are church' banner said "peace and hope, sorrow and fear". Oh yeah and there was some weird woman handing out flyers saying Christians don't need a church - and ironically trying to recruit people for the "Free Christians" community.
Oh, well....
Congressional "Ethics" Bill--More of the Same
The Congressional Ethics bill is a load of crappity-crap-crap (borrowing a phrase from BlogFather.) From Captain's Quarters, here quoting Bob Novak:
Until now, one or two senators could block provisions not passed by the Senate or House from being inserted, usually at the end of a session, into the final version of a bill. Under the new rule, it will take 40 senators to block any such provisions that are protected by the majority or even the bipartisan leadership. That will make it much easier to enact any number of special-interest measures, the goal of all too many members of Congress.
While Bush is likely to sign it, don't listen to the BS Congress is spewing about "reform."
It's more of the same (MS.) Next it'll be Piled Higher and Deeper...
Until now, one or two senators could block provisions not passed by the Senate or House from being inserted, usually at the end of a session, into the final version of a bill. Under the new rule, it will take 40 senators to block any such provisions that are protected by the majority or even the bipartisan leadership. That will make it much easier to enact any number of special-interest measures, the goal of all too many members of Congress.
While Bush is likely to sign it, don't listen to the BS Congress is spewing about "reform."
It's more of the same (MS.) Next it'll be Piled Higher and Deeper...
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Dream a Little Dream of Me...
The song has its origin in Milwaukee, believe it or not.
From the obituary for Adele Haehlen Lowe, born February 2, 1916 in West Allis, Wisconsin, died September 5, 2007 in Overland Park, Kansas
In the 1930's, Adele was the featured vocalist with the Billy Baer Band and was heard regularly on radio broadcasts in Milwaukee. The band performed at venues in and around that area and also at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago and Bear Mountain Resort in New York. A member of the band, Don Swan, wrote a song for Adele that became her signature closing number. Over the decades "Dream a Little Dream of Me" was recorded by a number of vocalists including Bing Crosby, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald and Mama Cass Elliott.
It's a 'little' torch song, a great tune with a gentle beat.
RIP, Adele. We'll be dreaming.
Here's Satchmo with Ella Fitzgerald...can't get better than this, folks.
HT: Wolftracker
From the obituary for Adele Haehlen Lowe, born February 2, 1916 in West Allis, Wisconsin, died September 5, 2007 in Overland Park, Kansas
In the 1930's, Adele was the featured vocalist with the Billy Baer Band and was heard regularly on radio broadcasts in Milwaukee. The band performed at venues in and around that area and also at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago and Bear Mountain Resort in New York. A member of the band, Don Swan, wrote a song for Adele that became her signature closing number. Over the decades "Dream a Little Dream of Me" was recorded by a number of vocalists including Bing Crosby, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald and Mama Cass Elliott.
It's a 'little' torch song, a great tune with a gentle beat.
RIP, Adele. We'll be dreaming.
Here's Satchmo with Ella Fitzgerald...can't get better than this, folks.
HT: Wolftracker
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Rudeee!!! Wrong!!! on the Law
Thanks to the intrepid RAG (with whom I disagree on a few topics, btw), we have a cite for Rudeeeeee!!! to study:
Here's what 8 U.S.C. 1325(a) says:
(a) Improper time or place; avoidance of examination or inspection; misrepresentation and concealment of facts
Any alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers, or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration officers, or (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the first commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both
(I'll trust RAG's implicit contention that this is a criminal law...)
RAG goes on:
You're correct that deportation proceedings to remove illegal immigrants are civil but to say that illegal immigration isn't a crime is just plain stupid.
You went on to say that you didn't believe that illegal immigration should be a crime, either. I guess that you're entitled to your opinion but the one that counts here belongs to Congress and Congress has already spoken.
Nice catch, RAG!
Here's what 8 U.S.C. 1325(a) says:
(a) Improper time or place; avoidance of examination or inspection; misrepresentation and concealment of facts
Any alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers, or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration officers, or (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the first commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both
(I'll trust RAG's implicit contention that this is a criminal law...)
RAG goes on:
You're correct that deportation proceedings to remove illegal immigrants are civil but to say that illegal immigration isn't a crime is just plain stupid.
You went on to say that you didn't believe that illegal immigration should be a crime, either. I guess that you're entitled to your opinion but the one that counts here belongs to Congress and Congress has already spoken.
Nice catch, RAG!
Quote of the Week--Better Than Kevin's!
Brett Favre:
"I hope I don't need any records for people to remember me as a pretty good quarterback."
Unnnhhhh.....my wife's from the Green Bay area, as are some in-laws, so I'm qualified to state that you're a Pretty Good Quarterback, Brett.
Damn, you're a good'un.
HT: Kevin--and since it was in a post Kevin provided, I do NOT understand how it escaped his notice.
"I hope I don't need any records for people to remember me as a pretty good quarterback."
Unnnhhhh.....my wife's from the Green Bay area, as are some in-laws, so I'm qualified to state that you're a Pretty Good Quarterback, Brett.
Damn, you're a good'un.
HT: Kevin--and since it was in a post Kevin provided, I do NOT understand how it escaped his notice.
Is This a Joke?
The ABC This Week show on Sunday:
Host George Stephanopoulos will discuss General David Petraeus's report to Congress with John McCain, John Kerry, and Alan Alda.
John F'n Kerry?
ALAN ALDA?
Hell--dump Kerry, get HotLips Houlihan. Better TV.
HT: RedState
Host George Stephanopoulos will discuss General David Petraeus's report to Congress with John McCain, John Kerry, and Alan Alda.
John F'n Kerry?
ALAN ALDA?
Hell--dump Kerry, get HotLips Houlihan. Better TV.
HT: RedState
"Just One Voter, Charlie"
How about a few thousand, Mayor Tom?
In what can only be called Serious Spadework--not to mention heroic and unsung--Washburn has methodically and meticulously chewed through the City of Milwaukee's election records from the 2004 debacle.
It ain't pretty--here is his PDF of the "most suspicious" wards and the table showing why.
You don't have to read the table, however, to appreciate some other little things.
The Election Commission has Lost 42 poll books --they simply disappeared. This would be like having your Bank "lose" the copies of your statements. It simply is NOT done, and is totally unacceptable.
There will be no final report explain the results of the continuing "investigation" promised in the preliminary findings published on May 10, 2005. Neither the Feds nor the Milwaukee DA will issue a final report on their "investigation."
...the November 2, 2004 election records were NOT confiscated by the Joint Task Force between the US Attorney of Eastern Wisconsin and the Milwaukee County District Attorney. Contrary to Wisconsin State Election law (WI Stats. 7.24)the records were transfered voluntarily by the City of Milwaukee Election Commission to the joint task force. --so the Election Commission was able to claim, FALSELY, that "the records are not available" for examination by other parties (think Washburn...) who are legally entitled to do so.
I do not propose that there be criminal prosecution of people who are grossly incompetent. But it seems that the City, the DA, and the Feds could at least admit that there was gross incompetence.
And, of course, if it was more than that, we have paid for an investigation--
HT: No Runny Eggs
In what can only be called Serious Spadework--not to mention heroic and unsung--Washburn has methodically and meticulously chewed through the City of Milwaukee's election records from the 2004 debacle.
It ain't pretty--here is his PDF of the "most suspicious" wards and the table showing why.
You don't have to read the table, however, to appreciate some other little things.
The Election Commission has Lost 42 poll books --they simply disappeared. This would be like having your Bank "lose" the copies of your statements. It simply is NOT done, and is totally unacceptable.
There will be no final report explain the results of the continuing "investigation" promised in the preliminary findings published on May 10, 2005. Neither the Feds nor the Milwaukee DA will issue a final report on their "investigation."
...the November 2, 2004 election records were NOT confiscated by the Joint Task Force between the US Attorney of Eastern Wisconsin and the Milwaukee County District Attorney. Contrary to Wisconsin State Election law (WI Stats. 7.24)the records were transfered voluntarily by the City of Milwaukee Election Commission to the joint task force. --so the Election Commission was able to claim, FALSELY, that "the records are not available" for examination by other parties (think Washburn...) who are legally entitled to do so.
I do not propose that there be criminal prosecution of people who are grossly incompetent. But it seems that the City, the DA, and the Feds could at least admit that there was gross incompetence.
And, of course, if it was more than that, we have paid for an investigation--
HT: No Runny Eggs
Not an Aggrandizer: Fred Thompson vs. The Expectation-Setters
When you read 'between the lines' of most (R) critics of Fred Thompson, you find that they are 'Aggrandizers,' either of themselves, or of their favored candidate.
Commentators who are not overtly shilling for another candidate play a variation on that theme; they look for The Strong Man With a Plan, a type of which is Lee Iacocca--in effect, a savior.
Both of them constitute the amorphous blob which can be called "The Expectation-Setters."
See, for example, this set of entries from the American Spectator's blogsite for a flavor---
"Fred Thompson came to the offices of National Review some years when he was still in the Senate. I liked him fine. He has done nothing, anywhere, ever. The Hubble Telescope could not find what he has done, because he has not done it." --Brookhiser, NRO
Or from Jennifer Rubin, quoting Fred on Social Security reform:
'It would have to be in the context of discussions about everything else. By everything else, I'm talking about our whole entitlement situation. Social is not really as imminent. It has to be a global deal,' he said. 'It's not necessary at this stage of the game exactly what you would insist upon or not insist upon at this stage of the game. That would probably be counterproductive.'"
And following that quote, her comment: Thank goodness we have Thompson to tell us we have an entitlement problem and it's not so good to talk specifics now. And a committee--who would have thought.
Or again from a Rubin entry:
Someone who doesn't like Thompson and does like another candidate dubs Thompson's run as the "Eeyore campaign" -- lots of hand dog doom and gloom and very little of that Reagan optimism. Ryan Sager of the NY Sun today did give that impression with this: "It isn’t, of course, that Mr. Thompson doesn’t have a point about all of the troubling national challenges listed above. It’s that he’s pointing out problems we all know exist without offering anything in the way of solutions.
And there are the (seemingly) hundreds who have pointed out that Fred does not have "executive experience"--certain ex-Governors make that point tirelessly.
All this is supposed to be Relevant and Very Important, although curiously enough it is not Relevant nor Very Important for HRC or Obama.
But it's not--if you understand Thompson's view and his real-world experience in the Senate.
First off, Thompson really believes in Federalism. That's very significant, because it means that the Federal Gummint SHOULD not 'solve every problem.'
Secondly, Thompson understands very well the political/partisan mess in Washington and that it is more complex than merely (R) and (D) division and acrimony. It also encompasses the competing rights, obligations, and the individual and collective egos of the House and Senate (the Legislative Branch--remember them?)
This means that Thompson understands how DC works in reality. Anybody can come up with a Plan. George Bush had a plan for fixing Social Security, remember? HRC had a plan for fixing health care, remember?
However, in the system outlined under the Constitution, both the House and the Senate get a vote. And in the current climate, not expected to change too soon, House and Senate members take delight in substantially re-arranging or nuking Presidential Plans.
Aggrandizers and Expectation-Setters are chasing rainbows; the Rudy plans, or the Romney plans, or the Huckabee plans will meet opposition and become dust.
Thus, Fred is not running as a Self-Aggrandizer, as anyone who saw his video announcement can tell. He is running as a Federalist. He is running because he sees problems ahead and he thinks that National Security, Unity, and Prosperity are important.
How to get there? Leadership and conviction. Not Self-Aggrandizing. Not Expectation-Setting.
Commentators who are not overtly shilling for another candidate play a variation on that theme; they look for The Strong Man With a Plan, a type of which is Lee Iacocca--in effect, a savior.
Both of them constitute the amorphous blob which can be called "The Expectation-Setters."
See, for example, this set of entries from the American Spectator's blogsite for a flavor---
"Fred Thompson came to the offices of National Review some years when he was still in the Senate. I liked him fine. He has done nothing, anywhere, ever. The Hubble Telescope could not find what he has done, because he has not done it." --Brookhiser, NRO
Or from Jennifer Rubin, quoting Fred on Social Security reform:
'It would have to be in the context of discussions about everything else. By everything else, I'm talking about our whole entitlement situation. Social is not really as imminent. It has to be a global deal,' he said. 'It's not necessary at this stage of the game exactly what you would insist upon or not insist upon at this stage of the game. That would probably be counterproductive.'"
And following that quote, her comment: Thank goodness we have Thompson to tell us we have an entitlement problem and it's not so good to talk specifics now. And a committee--who would have thought.
Or again from a Rubin entry:
Someone who doesn't like Thompson and does like another candidate dubs Thompson's run as the "Eeyore campaign" -- lots of hand dog doom and gloom and very little of that Reagan optimism. Ryan Sager of the NY Sun today did give that impression with this: "It isn’t, of course, that Mr. Thompson doesn’t have a point about all of the troubling national challenges listed above. It’s that he’s pointing out problems we all know exist without offering anything in the way of solutions.
And there are the (seemingly) hundreds who have pointed out that Fred does not have "executive experience"--certain ex-Governors make that point tirelessly.
All this is supposed to be Relevant and Very Important, although curiously enough it is not Relevant nor Very Important for HRC or Obama.
But it's not--if you understand Thompson's view and his real-world experience in the Senate.
First off, Thompson really believes in Federalism. That's very significant, because it means that the Federal Gummint SHOULD not 'solve every problem.'
Secondly, Thompson understands very well the political/partisan mess in Washington and that it is more complex than merely (R) and (D) division and acrimony. It also encompasses the competing rights, obligations, and the individual and collective egos of the House and Senate (the Legislative Branch--remember them?)
This means that Thompson understands how DC works in reality. Anybody can come up with a Plan. George Bush had a plan for fixing Social Security, remember? HRC had a plan for fixing health care, remember?
However, in the system outlined under the Constitution, both the House and the Senate get a vote. And in the current climate, not expected to change too soon, House and Senate members take delight in substantially re-arranging or nuking Presidential Plans.
Aggrandizers and Expectation-Setters are chasing rainbows; the Rudy plans, or the Romney plans, or the Huckabee plans will meet opposition and become dust.
Thus, Fred is not running as a Self-Aggrandizer, as anyone who saw his video announcement can tell. He is running as a Federalist. He is running because he sees problems ahead and he thinks that National Security, Unity, and Prosperity are important.
How to get there? Leadership and conviction. Not Self-Aggrandizing. Not Expectation-Setting.
The Case for Life
HT the Blogfather--here's a video which should give pause to those who "test" their babies for "perfection."
Really good stuff.
Thanks, Charlie!
Really good stuff.
Thanks, Charlie!
Doyle Steals $1 BN., Busalacchi Blames Republicans
Frank "The Fixer" Busalacchi, DarthDoyle's #3 running-dog, is playing "The End Of The World As We Know It" through the speakers at Wis DoT offices.
What he doesn't tell you is that TEOTWAWKI was caused by DarthDoyle's 'theft-by-fraud' scheme in the last couple of State budgets--and he doesn't talk about using State DoT lawyers to represent Doyle-campaign contributors. That costs money, too, Frankie...
The state transportation secretary Friday warned that unless a state budget is adopted by mid-October, the legislative impasse could lead to project delays, higher property taxes and increased bus fares.
...In a letter to Administration Secretary Michael Morgan, Busalacchi said seven major projects were at risk of delays if no budget is adopted by Jan. 1:
Three sections of Highway 41 in northeastern Wisconsin; Highway 10 from Marshfield to Stevens Point; Highway 53 in Eau Claire; Highway 26 in Jefferson; and Highway 18 from Prairie du Chien to Highway 60.
Yah--that pretty much looks like Wisconsin will have to shut down.
Do you suppose that $1Billion might have helped?
Over the past four years, more the $1 billion was moved from the transportation fund into other spending. Doyle moved much of that money by reshaping two budgets with his veto powers.
Once again, the spend-a-holic problem shows.
What he doesn't tell you is that TEOTWAWKI was caused by DarthDoyle's 'theft-by-fraud' scheme in the last couple of State budgets--and he doesn't talk about using State DoT lawyers to represent Doyle-campaign contributors. That costs money, too, Frankie...
The state transportation secretary Friday warned that unless a state budget is adopted by mid-October, the legislative impasse could lead to project delays, higher property taxes and increased bus fares.
...In a letter to Administration Secretary Michael Morgan, Busalacchi said seven major projects were at risk of delays if no budget is adopted by Jan. 1:
Three sections of Highway 41 in northeastern Wisconsin; Highway 10 from Marshfield to Stevens Point; Highway 53 in Eau Claire; Highway 26 in Jefferson; and Highway 18 from Prairie du Chien to Highway 60.
Yah--that pretty much looks like Wisconsin will have to shut down.
Do you suppose that $1Billion might have helped?
Over the past four years, more the $1 billion was moved from the transportation fund into other spending. Doyle moved much of that money by reshaping two budgets with his veto powers.
Once again, the spend-a-holic problem shows.
Friday, September 07, 2007
G K Chesterton on Despotism
Yup.
"THE sin and sorrow of despotism is not that it does not love men, but that it loves them too much and trusts them too little."
From his essay 'Robert Browning.'
We could, of course, discuss the Great Seatbelt Crisis here. But we won't.
"THE sin and sorrow of despotism is not that it does not love men, but that it loves them too much and trusts them too little."
From his essay 'Robert Browning.'
We could, of course, discuss the Great Seatbelt Crisis here. But we won't.
Communion for Abortion-Supporting Pols? Another Look
And, not surprisingly, the answer is still "No." "No" to politicians who "obstinately persist...in grave sin" by supporting abortion (or embryonic stem-cell research, for that matter.)
So says Abp. Burke of St. Louis, who just happens to have advanced education in Canon Law.
...In addition, the Decree of Gratian quotes the discipline of the Council of Agde or Montpellier: <>. [22] The cases which demand refusal of Holy Communion are seen to include murder and false witness, both public acts involving grave matter. Until the guilty party has been absolved of the grave sin, his reception of Holy Communion would constitute sacrilege and would give scandal to others, leading them to confusion regarding the sacredness of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
Abp. Burke dismisses the opinion of the West Coast Cardinal who deliberately confused Canons 915 and 916, too.
One bishop issued a statement on the same day as the statement of the body of Bishops, which intimated that can. 915 is not to be applied in his diocese. He stated:
The archdiocese will continue to follow church teaching, which places the duty of each Catholic to examine their consciences as to their worthiness to receive holy communion. That is not the role of the person distributing the body and blood of Christ [4].
The statement of the bishop in question confuses the norm of can. 916, which applies to the self-examination of the individual communicant, with the norm of can. 915, which obliges the minister of Holy Communion to refuse the Sacrament in the cases indicated.
In a tour of historical responses to questions regarding 'those to be admitted to Communion,' the Archbishop mentions (inter alia) the case of those who join or promote the Communist Party:
On July 1, 1949, the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office issued a decree in response to four questions regarding the involvement of Catholics with the Communist Party. The third question was: <>. [46] The acts treated in the first two questions were: <>; and <>. [47]
The response to the third question was:
<No, according to the ordinary principles of denying the Sacraments to those who are not disposed >>. [48]
In the response to the first question, the reason why those who cooperate, in some formal way, with the Communist Party are not disposed to receive the Sacraments is provided. The response explains:
For Communism is materialistic and anti-Christian; the leaders of the Communist Party, moreover, even if at times they declare that they do not oppose Religion, in truth, they show themselves, both by teaching and by action, to be inimical to God, to true Religion, and to the Church of Christ. [49]
The lesson that Abp. Burke draws?
The discipline, in particular, indicates that among the categories of persons who are to be denied Holy Communion are they who publicly espouse political doctrines which are hostile to the Faith and to the Church. In a similar way, those who publicly support political platforms or legislative agenda which are gravely contrary to the natural moral law show that they are not rightly disposed to receive Holy Communion.
The whole thing is at the link, and it's pretty-near-exhaustive on the topic. Near the end, the Archbishop very gently dismantles the "argument" of canonist John Huels in favor of admitting to Communion the politicians:
John M. Huels, the commentator on can. 915 in the New Commentary on the Code of Canon Law, commissioned by the Canon Law Society of America, reduces scandal to a subjective reality, ignoring its essential connection to what is objective, what is right and wrong. He states:
The fact of actual scandal is, moreover, culturally relative. What causes scandal in one part of the world may not cause scandal elsewhere. In North America the faithful often are more scandalized by the Church's denial of sacraments and sacramentals than by the sin that occasions it, because it seems to them contrary to the mercy and forgiveness commanded by Christ. [76]
If a word, an action or an omission leads another into error or sin, there is scandal, whether the person who is led astray knows that he has been scandalized or not. If, as the commentator suggests, the faithful in North America believe that persons who publicly and grievously sin should be admitted to Holy Communion and that it would be wrong to deny to them the Sacrament, then effectively the faithful have been scandalized, that is, they have been led to forget or to disregard what the perennial discipline of the Church, beginning with Saint Paul's admonition to the Corinthians, has always remembered and safeguarded.
The Abp. also cites the Codes of the Eastern Churches which (as you might guess) are consistent with those of Pio-Benedict (1917) and of John Paul II (1983.)
Frankly, there's not much left to say...
HT: Catholic World News
So says Abp. Burke of St. Louis, who just happens to have advanced education in Canon Law.
...In addition, the Decree of Gratian quotes the discipline of the Council of Agde or Montpellier: <
Abp. Burke dismisses the opinion of the West Coast Cardinal who deliberately confused Canons 915 and 916, too.
One bishop issued a statement on the same day as the statement of the body of Bishops, which intimated that can. 915 is not to be applied in his diocese. He stated:
The archdiocese will continue to follow church teaching, which places the duty of each Catholic to examine their consciences as to their worthiness to receive holy communion. That is not the role of the person distributing the body and blood of Christ [4].
The statement of the bishop in question confuses the norm of can. 916, which applies to the self-examination of the individual communicant, with the norm of can. 915, which obliges the minister of Holy Communion to refuse the Sacrament in the cases indicated.
In a tour of historical responses to questions regarding 'those to be admitted to Communion,' the Archbishop mentions (inter alia) the case of those who join or promote the Communist Party:
On July 1, 1949, the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office issued a decree in response to four questions regarding the involvement of Catholics with the Communist Party. The third question was: <
The response to the third question was:
<
In the response to the first question, the reason why those who cooperate, in some formal way, with the Communist Party are not disposed to receive the Sacraments is provided. The response explains:
For Communism is materialistic and anti-Christian; the leaders of the Communist Party, moreover, even if at times they declare that they do not oppose Religion, in truth, they show themselves, both by teaching and by action, to be inimical to God, to true Religion, and to the Church of Christ. [49]
The lesson that Abp. Burke draws?
The discipline, in particular, indicates that among the categories of persons who are to be denied Holy Communion are they who publicly espouse political doctrines which are hostile to the Faith and to the Church. In a similar way, those who publicly support political platforms or legislative agenda which are gravely contrary to the natural moral law show that they are not rightly disposed to receive Holy Communion.
The whole thing is at the link, and it's pretty-near-exhaustive on the topic. Near the end, the Archbishop very gently dismantles the "argument" of canonist John Huels in favor of admitting to Communion the politicians:
John M. Huels, the commentator on can. 915 in the New Commentary on the Code of Canon Law, commissioned by the Canon Law Society of America, reduces scandal to a subjective reality, ignoring its essential connection to what is objective, what is right and wrong. He states:
The fact of actual scandal is, moreover, culturally relative. What causes scandal in one part of the world may not cause scandal elsewhere. In North America the faithful often are more scandalized by the Church's denial of sacraments and sacramentals than by the sin that occasions it, because it seems to them contrary to the mercy and forgiveness commanded by Christ. [76]
If a word, an action or an omission leads another into error or sin, there is scandal, whether the person who is led astray knows that he has been scandalized or not. If, as the commentator suggests, the faithful in North America believe that persons who publicly and grievously sin should be admitted to Holy Communion and that it would be wrong to deny to them the Sacrament, then effectively the faithful have been scandalized, that is, they have been led to forget or to disregard what the perennial discipline of the Church, beginning with Saint Paul's admonition to the Corinthians, has always remembered and safeguarded.
The Abp. also cites the Codes of the Eastern Churches which (as you might guess) are consistent with those of Pio-Benedict (1917) and of John Paul II (1983.)
Frankly, there's not much left to say...
HT: Catholic World News
Fred!!! Is In the Race
Yah, we knew that.
Here's some commentary from Patriot Post which happens to comport precisely with my thoughts on the matter.
What does the timing of Fred Thompson’s announcement say about him as a candidate? Well, mostly that he is a leader, not a follower. To his credit, Thompson is not a “formula candidate.” He doesn’t comport with the expectations of Beltway politicos, commentators and media types, and his campaign won’t be as slick as some of his opponents in both parties.
It's been alternatively irritating and enjoyable to hear the angst of the other candidates as their stalking-horses and the Punditocracy/MSM attempted to drag Fred into the race earlier. The aphorism that "misery loves company" came to mind a few times...but just as germane is Fred's comment:
Thompson expressed his doubt that voters will say, “That guy would make a very good president, but he didn’t get in soon enough.”
After all, says Thompson, “People treat politicians sort of like dentists—they don’t have anything to do with them till they have to.”
True.
Some other candidates' Stalking Horses (and professional assassins) have howled about Fred's not-perfect-Conservatism. Aside from the irony which was perfectly apparent in the cases of McCain, Giuliani, and Romney, the Patriot has another thought, with which I happen to agree:
...For the record, however, I know Fred Thompson—the man. I know his character, his intellect and his sincerity, and I know his views on the supremacy of our Constitution. Fred’s style is evocative of Ronald Reagan’s strengths. Like Reagan, Thompson speaks right over the heads of his opponents and the Leftmedia, directly to the people.
In 1993, Tennessee’s Republican leadership convinced Thompson, a relative unknown, to campaign for the unexpired Senate term of then-Vice President Albert Gore. He could have been just a sacrificial lamb, but on the campaign trail Fred demonstrated his ability to win the hearts and minds of Republican and Democrat voters.
Despite all the support Bill Clinton and Al Gore could muster for Fred’s opponent, popular six-term Democrat Rep. Jim Cooper, Thompson won a landslide victory in 1994...
By the way, people, "conservatism" is not always the question. It's "constitutional-ism" that counts in Congress and in the Presidency. Start there, and work your way forward.
That "and" which is highlighted in red is extremely important. Think again about what Fred has said about the partisanship in DC and its deleterious effects (except on the attack-machine operatives in BOTH parties...)
By the way, you can see the same crap here in Wisconsin.
Folks, "divided" is no way to win a war, and as Fred has also pointed out, the Jihadi extremists are just one chapter of "war." There will be (hell, they exist now) other opponents, not just military ones, who seek the demolition of the USA.
The central issue, to Fred, lies here:
Thompson’s philosophy and record are most clear in regard to constitutional exegesis pertaining to federalism and state’s rights, as specified by the Tenth Amendment to the Bill of Rights.
That amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” This language is specific about the limitations our Constitution places upon the central government and the rights and responsibilities reserved by the several states and the people.
...Thompson notes, “Before anything else, folks in Washington ought to be asking first and foremost, ‘Should government be doing this? And if so, then at what level of government?’ But they don’t. The result has been decades of growth in the size, scope and function of national government. Today’s governance of mandates, pre-emptions, regulations and federal programs bears little resemblance to the balanced system the Framers intended... A government powerful enough to give you everything can take away from you, anything. Our government must be limited by the powers delegated to it by the Constitution.”
There ARE Democrats who do NOT like the increase in power and influence of the Feds. There ARE Republicans who, conversely, DO like that increase. And it is a debate which is worth having out. In the original formulation, the States were to be 'laboratories,' and the Feds were only to make certain that State efforts did not violate the Federal Constitution.
Those days are almost gone--look e.g., at the "Great Seat Belt Crisis" where the Feds bribe the States to make arrests for Not Wearing Seatbelts.
That, friends, is pure poppycock.
On that note, it is clear that Thompson will give Republican front-runners Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, both “big-government Republicans,” a run for their money. The next debate is 17 September, four months ahead of the first state primaries. With Thompson in the lineup, expect a real debate.
No question about it.
Go, Fred, Go!!!
Here's some commentary from Patriot Post which happens to comport precisely with my thoughts on the matter.
What does the timing of Fred Thompson’s announcement say about him as a candidate? Well, mostly that he is a leader, not a follower. To his credit, Thompson is not a “formula candidate.” He doesn’t comport with the expectations of Beltway politicos, commentators and media types, and his campaign won’t be as slick as some of his opponents in both parties.
It's been alternatively irritating and enjoyable to hear the angst of the other candidates as their stalking-horses and the Punditocracy/MSM attempted to drag Fred into the race earlier. The aphorism that "misery loves company" came to mind a few times...but just as germane is Fred's comment:
Thompson expressed his doubt that voters will say, “That guy would make a very good president, but he didn’t get in soon enough.”
After all, says Thompson, “People treat politicians sort of like dentists—they don’t have anything to do with them till they have to.”
True.
Some other candidates' Stalking Horses (and professional assassins) have howled about Fred's not-perfect-Conservatism. Aside from the irony which was perfectly apparent in the cases of McCain, Giuliani, and Romney, the Patriot has another thought, with which I happen to agree:
...For the record, however, I know Fred Thompson—the man. I know his character, his intellect and his sincerity, and I know his views on the supremacy of our Constitution. Fred’s style is evocative of Ronald Reagan’s strengths. Like Reagan, Thompson speaks right over the heads of his opponents and the Leftmedia, directly to the people.
In 1993, Tennessee’s Republican leadership convinced Thompson, a relative unknown, to campaign for the unexpired Senate term of then-Vice President Albert Gore. He could have been just a sacrificial lamb, but on the campaign trail Fred demonstrated his ability to win the hearts and minds of Republican and Democrat voters.
Despite all the support Bill Clinton and Al Gore could muster for Fred’s opponent, popular six-term Democrat Rep. Jim Cooper, Thompson won a landslide victory in 1994...
By the way, people, "conservatism" is not always the question. It's "constitutional-ism" that counts in Congress and in the Presidency. Start there, and work your way forward.
That "and" which is highlighted in red is extremely important. Think again about what Fred has said about the partisanship in DC and its deleterious effects (except on the attack-machine operatives in BOTH parties...)
By the way, you can see the same crap here in Wisconsin.
Folks, "divided" is no way to win a war, and as Fred has also pointed out, the Jihadi extremists are just one chapter of "war." There will be (hell, they exist now) other opponents, not just military ones, who seek the demolition of the USA.
The central issue, to Fred, lies here:
Thompson’s philosophy and record are most clear in regard to constitutional exegesis pertaining to federalism and state’s rights, as specified by the Tenth Amendment to the Bill of Rights.
That amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” This language is specific about the limitations our Constitution places upon the central government and the rights and responsibilities reserved by the several states and the people.
...Thompson notes, “Before anything else, folks in Washington ought to be asking first and foremost, ‘Should government be doing this? And if so, then at what level of government?’ But they don’t. The result has been decades of growth in the size, scope and function of national government. Today’s governance of mandates, pre-emptions, regulations and federal programs bears little resemblance to the balanced system the Framers intended... A government powerful enough to give you everything can take away from you, anything. Our government must be limited by the powers delegated to it by the Constitution.”
There ARE Democrats who do NOT like the increase in power and influence of the Feds. There ARE Republicans who, conversely, DO like that increase. And it is a debate which is worth having out. In the original formulation, the States were to be 'laboratories,' and the Feds were only to make certain that State efforts did not violate the Federal Constitution.
Those days are almost gone--look e.g., at the "Great Seat Belt Crisis" where the Feds bribe the States to make arrests for Not Wearing Seatbelts.
That, friends, is pure poppycock.
On that note, it is clear that Thompson will give Republican front-runners Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, both “big-government Republicans,” a run for their money. The next debate is 17 September, four months ahead of the first state primaries. With Thompson in the lineup, expect a real debate.
No question about it.
Go, Fred, Go!!!
David Clarke's 180-Degree on CCW?
Evidently the Sheriff has seen the light. Following is a part of an email he sent to The Blogfather.
If Governor Doyle really wanted to help the City of Milwaukee, he should stop coming here. We already have an over abundance of underperforming politicians. My advice to him is to stay in Madison and sign property tax relief legislation for our over-taxed residents. If the police are no longer able to guarantee the personal safety of citizens, then reconsider your opposition to allowing law-abiding people the means with which to protect themselves. Yes, Governor, that means carrying concealed handguns.
Although I didn't follow his campaign(s) too carefully, my recollection is that the Sheriff was not in favor of CCW--or if he was, it was somewhat limited.
Happy to have him on board, in any case!
If Governor Doyle really wanted to help the City of Milwaukee, he should stop coming here. We already have an over abundance of underperforming politicians. My advice to him is to stay in Madison and sign property tax relief legislation for our over-taxed residents. If the police are no longer able to guarantee the personal safety of citizens, then reconsider your opposition to allowing law-abiding people the means with which to protect themselves. Yes, Governor, that means carrying concealed handguns.
Although I didn't follow his campaign(s) too carefully, my recollection is that the Sheriff was not in favor of CCW--or if he was, it was somewhat limited.
Happy to have him on board, in any case!
Thursday, September 06, 2007
The PRC's Pals: (or) ChiComs Are OUR Friends, Sucka!
At the time most of this was covered, I subscribed to the American Spectator, and believe me, there's even more to the story than R Emmett Tyrrell recaps here:
Asian money from shadowy figures has figured in Clinton campaigns going back to at least 1986. Writing in The American Spectator even prior to the Clinton campaign finance scandals of the mid-1990s, James Ring Adams followed the Riady family, an Indonesian family of Chinese ancestry then prominent among Clinton supporters and White House guests, back to Arkansas in 1986 where the Riadys played their eleemosynary role in Governor Clinton's reelection.
Riadys also owned rights to some coal-mines in PRC; they are very tight with the ruling PRC oligarchy/families. By co-incidence, President Clinton made a national park out of a coal deposit in the Western USA, which increased the value of the PRC coal mines...
In the autumn of 1992 the family illegally pumped as much as $1 million into Clinton's presidential campaign and in 2001 paid an $8.6 million fine for its indiscretions. In that settlement it admitted to 86 misdemeanor charges of making illegal foreign campaign contributions from 1988 to 1994. The Clintons dismiss The American Spectator as part of the "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy," though we have never been wrong when we made their "old news" new news.
In 1998, the Senate Government Affairs Committee report on the Clintons' 1996 fundraising scandal claimed "strong circumstantial evidence" that the Riadys may have illegally funneled money into the 1996 campaign. Whether they did or not, that 1996 campaign abounded with dubious Asian donors many of whom paid hefty fines for illegal contributions.
Former Democratic National Committee finance chair, John Huang, pleaded guilty to felony campaign finance violations after the Justice Department estimated that he arranged for some $156,000 in illegal contributions to his party. Just to be safe, the party returned more than $1 million.
Pauline Kanchanalak, a Thai businesswoman, admitted to making $690,000 in illegal contributions to the Democrats, $457,000 after a June 18, 1996 coffee at the White House with President Clinton.
Charlie Trie, a former fry cook from Little Rock, was convicted of federal campaign finance violations after he donated nearly $300,000 to the Democrats in the mid-1990s and personally delivered at least $640,000 in questionable checks and money orders to the Clintons' legal defense.
Taiwan-born Maria Hsia, a friend of Al Gore's since 1988, was convicted of arranging more than $100,000 of illegal donations to the Democratic Party during the 1996 presidential cycle from a Buddhist temple.
Yet there is more.
Johnny Chung pleaded guilty to numerous felonies committed during that race. He donated $366,000 to the Democratic National Committee, $35,000 of which he admitted came from Lt. Col. Liu Chaoying of the People's Liberation Army. Chung in May 1999 told the U.S. House of Representatives that Liu introduced him to Gen. Ji Shengde, head of Chinese military intelligence, who told him, Chung testified, that: "We like your president very much. We would like to see him reelect [sic] I will give you 300,000 U.S. dollars. You can give it to the president and the Democratic Party."
That paid off, too, as PRC folks were invited willy-nilly to visit such places as Los Alamos and Hanford Site by Clinton's DoE Secretary--a former health-insurance executive (!!)
Perhaps one of the reasons the Clintons can dismiss so many of the scandals in their wake as "old stories" is that the Clintons are what law enforcement officials call "repeat offenders." But I am perplexed as to why the mainstream media do not catch on. In the Hsu stories the press reported that he is a "textile executive." From what my reporters have been able to discover his textile concerns have no offices and no legitimate addresses. Philip Klein found that one of Mr. Hsu's addresses for his campaign finance filings is the site of the Mid-Manhattan Public Library. Put another way, this major Democratic donor seems to have had no visible means of support. Now he is a missing person.
There were Bank scandals with PRC money behind them; and a few dead bodies laying around various parts of Arkansas. There was the drug-running from Mena airport, and a few more dead bodies. There were the State Troopers, the girls, and a few more dead bodies.
These are dangerous people with dangerous friends.
Asian money from shadowy figures has figured in Clinton campaigns going back to at least 1986. Writing in The American Spectator even prior to the Clinton campaign finance scandals of the mid-1990s, James Ring Adams followed the Riady family, an Indonesian family of Chinese ancestry then prominent among Clinton supporters and White House guests, back to Arkansas in 1986 where the Riadys played their eleemosynary role in Governor Clinton's reelection.
Riadys also owned rights to some coal-mines in PRC; they are very tight with the ruling PRC oligarchy/families. By co-incidence, President Clinton made a national park out of a coal deposit in the Western USA, which increased the value of the PRC coal mines...
In the autumn of 1992 the family illegally pumped as much as $1 million into Clinton's presidential campaign and in 2001 paid an $8.6 million fine for its indiscretions. In that settlement it admitted to 86 misdemeanor charges of making illegal foreign campaign contributions from 1988 to 1994. The Clintons dismiss The American Spectator as part of the "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy," though we have never been wrong when we made their "old news" new news.
In 1998, the Senate Government Affairs Committee report on the Clintons' 1996 fundraising scandal claimed "strong circumstantial evidence" that the Riadys may have illegally funneled money into the 1996 campaign. Whether they did or not, that 1996 campaign abounded with dubious Asian donors many of whom paid hefty fines for illegal contributions.
Former Democratic National Committee finance chair, John Huang, pleaded guilty to felony campaign finance violations after the Justice Department estimated that he arranged for some $156,000 in illegal contributions to his party. Just to be safe, the party returned more than $1 million.
Pauline Kanchanalak, a Thai businesswoman, admitted to making $690,000 in illegal contributions to the Democrats, $457,000 after a June 18, 1996 coffee at the White House with President Clinton.
Charlie Trie, a former fry cook from Little Rock, was convicted of federal campaign finance violations after he donated nearly $300,000 to the Democrats in the mid-1990s and personally delivered at least $640,000 in questionable checks and money orders to the Clintons' legal defense.
Taiwan-born Maria Hsia, a friend of Al Gore's since 1988, was convicted of arranging more than $100,000 of illegal donations to the Democratic Party during the 1996 presidential cycle from a Buddhist temple.
Yet there is more.
Johnny Chung pleaded guilty to numerous felonies committed during that race. He donated $366,000 to the Democratic National Committee, $35,000 of which he admitted came from Lt. Col. Liu Chaoying of the People's Liberation Army. Chung in May 1999 told the U.S. House of Representatives that Liu introduced him to Gen. Ji Shengde, head of Chinese military intelligence, who told him, Chung testified, that: "We like your president very much. We would like to see him reelect [sic] I will give you 300,000 U.S. dollars. You can give it to the president and the Democratic Party."
That paid off, too, as PRC folks were invited willy-nilly to visit such places as Los Alamos and Hanford Site by Clinton's DoE Secretary--a former health-insurance executive (!!)
Perhaps one of the reasons the Clintons can dismiss so many of the scandals in their wake as "old stories" is that the Clintons are what law enforcement officials call "repeat offenders." But I am perplexed as to why the mainstream media do not catch on. In the Hsu stories the press reported that he is a "textile executive." From what my reporters have been able to discover his textile concerns have no offices and no legitimate addresses. Philip Klein found that one of Mr. Hsu's addresses for his campaign finance filings is the site of the Mid-Manhattan Public Library. Put another way, this major Democratic donor seems to have had no visible means of support. Now he is a missing person.
There were Bank scandals with PRC money behind them; and a few dead bodies laying around various parts of Arkansas. There was the drug-running from Mena airport, and a few more dead bodies. There were the State Troopers, the girls, and a few more dead bodies.
These are dangerous people with dangerous friends.
The Requirement of Beauty for Church Music
...music for the Mass, that is. Much as I love my Prot friends and readers, we'll go to the Catholic stuff here.
From Bob Grant, a Left Coast guy:
Q: Isn’t this really just a matter of taste?
A: Nothing prevents us from preferring one form of music to another. What’s more, nothing prevents us from preferring one form of popular religious song to another. But music that is suitable for sacred liturgy must be of a special sort. No longer can personal preference be the sole criterion. “Not all musical forms can be considered suitable for liturgical celebration” (Pope John Paul II, sacred music Chirograph, 2003). He quotes Pope Paul VI: “If music--instrumental and vocal--does not posses at the same time the sense of prayer, dignity, and beauty, entry into the sphere of the sacred and the religious is [thereby] precluded.”Pope John Paul called on musicians to “make an examination of conscience so that the beauty of music and hymnody will return once again to the liturgy. It is necessary to purify worship of ugliness of style, careless forms of expression, ill-prepared music and texts, which are not worthy of the great act that is being celebrated.”
So, yes, it IS a matter of taste. Educated taste. Critical and discerning taste.
In another essay, Grant tells us:
Too often, proponents of the liturgical music we have received since the Council have reduced sacred music simply to a matter of taste and spirit of the time and have thereby trivialized the matter as well as the tradition. This reflects a broader cultural blind spot that fails to recognize in the arts the power to form an individual for good or for ill...
That 'trivialization' is closely related to GKChesterton's honoring of Tradition as "the democracy of the dead." Many have (in fact) 'trivialized' the dead...
The question then, whether one particular form of liturgical music is better than another, is not necessarily a simple question of likes. Rather it is recognition of the formative power of painting, music, and literature. Tastes and preferences do exist, but these are not absolutes. Like moral conscience, our taste must be formed in accordance with the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.
Benedict XVI, just a couple of days ago, alluded to that 'formative power:'
The Pontiff said that music "has the power to lead us back ... to the Creator of all harmony, creating a resonance within us which is like being in tune with the beauty and truth of God, with the reality which no human knowledge or philosophy can ever express."
(Echoing Plato's 'music moves the soul, we know not how....' but adding the explicit theological formulation.)
Here's the tie-in:
...Gregorian chant [e.g.] might be cast aside as no longer relevant to the modern person. But beauty, truly understood, is not as fragile as this, because it is something rooted in the eternal and transcendent: God.
Precisely. We look at "dated" fashion, "dated" buildings, and notice that they are "dated." But what is really beautiful is NOT. There's an office building in Madison which was designed and built in the mid-1950's, but is absolutely beautiful. It is not "dated," but it does not look like a '30's building, nor a 19th-century building. It IS a '50's building, but its beauty is timeless.
From Bob Grant, a Left Coast guy:
Q: Isn’t this really just a matter of taste?
A: Nothing prevents us from preferring one form of music to another. What’s more, nothing prevents us from preferring one form of popular religious song to another. But music that is suitable for sacred liturgy must be of a special sort. No longer can personal preference be the sole criterion. “Not all musical forms can be considered suitable for liturgical celebration” (Pope John Paul II, sacred music Chirograph, 2003). He quotes Pope Paul VI: “If music--instrumental and vocal--does not posses at the same time the sense of prayer, dignity, and beauty, entry into the sphere of the sacred and the religious is [thereby] precluded.”Pope John Paul called on musicians to “make an examination of conscience so that the beauty of music and hymnody will return once again to the liturgy. It is necessary to purify worship of ugliness of style, careless forms of expression, ill-prepared music and texts, which are not worthy of the great act that is being celebrated.”
So, yes, it IS a matter of taste. Educated taste. Critical and discerning taste.
In another essay, Grant tells us:
Too often, proponents of the liturgical music we have received since the Council have reduced sacred music simply to a matter of taste and spirit of the time and have thereby trivialized the matter as well as the tradition. This reflects a broader cultural blind spot that fails to recognize in the arts the power to form an individual for good or for ill...
That 'trivialization' is closely related to GKChesterton's honoring of Tradition as "the democracy of the dead." Many have (in fact) 'trivialized' the dead...
The question then, whether one particular form of liturgical music is better than another, is not necessarily a simple question of likes. Rather it is recognition of the formative power of painting, music, and literature. Tastes and preferences do exist, but these are not absolutes. Like moral conscience, our taste must be formed in accordance with the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.
Benedict XVI, just a couple of days ago, alluded to that 'formative power:'
The Pontiff said that music "has the power to lead us back ... to the Creator of all harmony, creating a resonance within us which is like being in tune with the beauty and truth of God, with the reality which no human knowledge or philosophy can ever express."
(Echoing Plato's 'music moves the soul, we know not how....' but adding the explicit theological formulation.)
Here's the tie-in:
...Gregorian chant [e.g.] might be cast aside as no longer relevant to the modern person. But beauty, truly understood, is not as fragile as this, because it is something rooted in the eternal and transcendent: God.
Precisely. We look at "dated" fashion, "dated" buildings, and notice that they are "dated." But what is really beautiful is NOT. There's an office building in Madison which was designed and built in the mid-1950's, but is absolutely beautiful. It is not "dated," but it does not look like a '30's building, nor a 19th-century building. It IS a '50's building, but its beauty is timeless.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Ever Think About This?
Obviously, somebody was a bit unhappy with his last encounter with an LEO:
The Hyundai backhoe had been parked on the adjacent property of Loveland Excavating, about 200 yards from the cruiser, Detective Nick Colliver said.
“They either thought they were being funny or were angry,” Colliver. “This was just deliberate. There’s no doubt about it. They drove it from Loveland Excavating straight up to the cruiser, dropped the bucket on it and crushed it.”
I rather enjoyed that picture.
HT: Ten Reasons
MSM--Wrong Again on Pope Benedict XVI
If you read (and actually believed) the MSM reports last week, you'd think Pope Benedict joined AlGore's gang.
Wrong. I'll quote from Tom Peters at his blogsite The American Papist.
The press has already decided that his entire homily was primarily about saving the planet "before it's too late" (to quote from the Reuters headline). I'm going to reproduce the relevant passage where the Pope does speak about safeguarding Creation.This quotation consists of 162 words out of a 2,569 word address:
One of the fields in which it is urgent to work is most definitely that of safeguarding creation. The new generations are responsible for the future of the planet, which shows evident signs of a development that has not always known to preserve the delicate balances of nature. Before it is too late, we must make courageous choices with a view to a strong alliance between man and the earth.
We need a decisive Yes to safeguarding creation and a strong commitment to reverse those tendencies which risk bringing us to a situation of irreversible (environmental) degradation. That is why I appreciate the initiative of the Italian Church to promote greater sensitivity to the problems of protecting the environment by designating a national day for this purpose on September the first.
This year, attention is directed towards water, a most precious asset which, unless it is shared in a just and peaceful way, will become a cause for tensions and bitter conflicts. ...
and that's it: an entirely reasonable admonition for youth to protect Creation. Notice that the scope of the stewardship, as I read it, focuses on problems of micro environments, i.e, scarcity of water in certain regions, and a plural reference to the "balances of nature."
And the "green vestments" happen to be required during the season after Pentecost in the Church year. Has nothing whatsoever to do with the "Green Party" or 'earth-symbolism.'
Thought you'd like to know.
Wrong. I'll quote from Tom Peters at his blogsite The American Papist.
The press has already decided that his entire homily was primarily about saving the planet "before it's too late" (to quote from the Reuters headline). I'm going to reproduce the relevant passage where the Pope does speak about safeguarding Creation.This quotation consists of 162 words out of a 2,569 word address:
One of the fields in which it is urgent to work is most definitely that of safeguarding creation. The new generations are responsible for the future of the planet, which shows evident signs of a development that has not always known to preserve the delicate balances of nature. Before it is too late, we must make courageous choices with a view to a strong alliance between man and the earth.
We need a decisive Yes to safeguarding creation and a strong commitment to reverse those tendencies which risk bringing us to a situation of irreversible (environmental) degradation. That is why I appreciate the initiative of the Italian Church to promote greater sensitivity to the problems of protecting the environment by designating a national day for this purpose on September the first.
This year, attention is directed towards water, a most precious asset which, unless it is shared in a just and peaceful way, will become a cause for tensions and bitter conflicts. ...
and that's it: an entirely reasonable admonition for youth to protect Creation. Notice that the scope of the stewardship, as I read it, focuses on problems of micro environments, i.e, scarcity of water in certain regions, and a plural reference to the "balances of nature."
And the "green vestments" happen to be required during the season after Pentecost in the Church year. Has nothing whatsoever to do with the "Green Party" or 'earth-symbolism.'
Thought you'd like to know.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Trivia
Interesting stuff from Dr. Blosser (excerpts):
Detroit: Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, carries the designation M-1, named so because it was the first paved road anywhere.
Alaska: More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska.
Amazon: The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean. The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States.
Brazil: Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.
Canada: Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.
Ohio: There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio, every one is manmade.
More at the link.
Detroit: Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, carries the designation M-1, named so because it was the first paved road anywhere.
Alaska: More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska.
Amazon: The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean. The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States.
Brazil: Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.
Canada: Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.
Ohio: There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio, every one is manmade.
More at the link.
GWB, Our BIG BIG BIG Gummint Guy
He's at it again.
This time, he'll have the FHA "fix" the subprime problem. What he's REALLY doing is "fixing" a problem that Lehmann Bros. and Bear Stearns have (among others...)--and passing the cost on to the taxpayer.
Surprise, surprise!
...the Federal Housing Administration is going to guarantee loans for delinquent US borrowers. Set up during the Great Depression, the agency already acts to insure mortgages for low- and middle-income borrowers. Now anyone more than 90 days behind with their payments will get government-supported finance at lower, more favorable lending rates.
In other words, Washington is going to stall foreclosures by lending money to distressed debtors.
Bush is going to ask Congress to suspend – but only for "a limited period" according to the Wall Street Journal – a US tax provision that penalizes borrowers who lose their homes to repossession or who try to reduce the size of their loan by refinancing.
Meaning that the government's going to cut its own tax receipts.
...the US government – through an initiative led by the Treasury and the Housing & Urban Development department (HUD) – will identify home-buyers at risk of defaulting between now and 2009. For them, it will create "more favourable" loans, working with private lenders and insurers to reduce rates in the market and reverse the move away from higher-risk borrowers.
Put another way, Washington is going to underwrite the next two years of subprime re
This time, he'll have the FHA "fix" the subprime problem. What he's REALLY doing is "fixing" a problem that Lehmann Bros. and Bear Stearns have (among others...)--and passing the cost on to the taxpayer.
Surprise, surprise!
...the Federal Housing Administration is going to guarantee loans for delinquent US borrowers. Set up during the Great Depression, the agency already acts to insure mortgages for low- and middle-income borrowers. Now anyone more than 90 days behind with their payments will get government-supported finance at lower, more favorable lending rates.
In other words, Washington is going to stall foreclosures by lending money to distressed debtors.
Bush is going to ask Congress to suspend – but only for "a limited period" according to the Wall Street Journal – a US tax provision that penalizes borrowers who lose their homes to repossession or who try to reduce the size of their loan by refinancing.
Meaning that the government's going to cut its own tax receipts.
...the US government – through an initiative led by the Treasury and the Housing & Urban Development department (HUD) – will identify home-buyers at risk of defaulting between now and 2009. For them, it will create "more favourable" loans, working with private lenders and insurers to reduce rates in the market and reverse the move away from higher-risk borrowers.
Put another way, Washington is going to underwrite the next two years of subprime re