The snotty judge-ette who who can't understand the Constitution has her undies in a bundle.
The judge then said she would sign the initial document, but only after all 38 mothers involved in the case the high court ruled on signed it first.
State officials had said earlier that children could start being returned Monday, but attorneys for the parents said the new requirement could add days to the time frame.
The high court on Thursday affirmed an appeals court ruling ordering Walther to reverse her decision last month
Hell hath no fury...
HT: John Lott
Saturday, May 31, 2008
National Gun Ban: Get Rich Selling Knives
In England:
One of Britain's leading trauma surgeons has told how one in three of his Accident & Emergency patients is now a stabbing victim.
Karim Brohi, a consultant surgeon at the Royal London Hospital, said the proportion of injuries from knives and guns was now on a level with - if not greater than - cities such as Los Angeles or Chicago.
He described how, on occasions, the wards in his hospital resembled "a war zone" with some patients being treated for their second or third knife wound.
And - in a letter to the Evening Standard - Mr Brohi, along with two senior trauma medics, called for more prevention strategies to solve the underlying causes of knife crime.
No question about it. Gun control worked.
HT: Clay Cramer
One of Britain's leading trauma surgeons has told how one in three of his Accident & Emergency patients is now a stabbing victim.
Karim Brohi, a consultant surgeon at the Royal London Hospital, said the proportion of injuries from knives and guns was now on a level with - if not greater than - cities such as Los Angeles or Chicago.
He described how, on occasions, the wards in his hospital resembled "a war zone" with some patients being treated for their second or third knife wound.
And - in a letter to the Evening Standard - Mr Brohi, along with two senior trauma medics, called for more prevention strategies to solve the underlying causes of knife crime.
No question about it. Gun control worked.
HT: Clay Cramer
"Well, I Had a Couple of Drinks..."
Drinking leads to forgetting stuff.
When the officer walked up to the woman's car, he noticed she was not wearing pants or underwear, just a white sweater. The woman initially denied that she had been drinking but later admitted she had had a couple drinks earlier in the evening.
The report did not say whether the woman's clothing was in her car.
When the officer walked up to the woman's car, he noticed she was not wearing pants or underwear, just a white sweater. The woman initially denied that she had been drinking but later admitted she had had a couple drinks earlier in the evening.
The report did not say whether the woman's clothing was in her car.
China Is Our Friend, Part 60,186: Utilities, Slurping, and National Defense
If you rely on electricity, you'll be interested in this story.
If you're Governor Jim Doyle's security guy, you'll be interested in this story.
And if you are fool enough to think that PRChina is "our friend," maybe this story won't matter to you...
Computer hackers in China, including those working on behalf of the Chinese government and military, have penetrated deeply into the information systems of U.S. companies and government agencies, stolen proprietary information from American executives in advance of their business meetings in China, and, in a few cases, gained access to electric power plants in the United States, possibly triggering two recent and widespread blackouts in Florida and the Northeast, according to U.S. government officials and computer-security experts.
One prominent expert told National Journal he believes that China’s People’s Liberation Army played a role in the power outages
You will remember this outage:
...the intrusion may have precipitated the largest blackout in North American history, which occurred in August of that year. A 9,300-square-mile area, touching Michigan, Ohio, New York, and parts of Canada, lost power; an estimated 50 million people were affected.
Officially, the blackout was attributed to a variety of factors, none of which involved foreign intervention. Investigators blamed “overgrown trees” that came into contact with strained high-voltage lines near facilities in Ohio owned by FirstEnergy Corp. More than 100 power plants were shut down during the cascading failure. A computer virus, then in wide circulation, disrupted the communications lines that utility companies use to manage the power grid, and this exacerbated the problem...
Just a coincidence, that virus, of course...
PRC tried it again, and succeeded:
...a blackout in February, which affected 3 million customers in South Florida, was precipitated by a cyber-hacker. That outage cut off electricity along Florida’s east coast, from Daytona Beach to Monroe County, and affected eight power-generating stations
...a Chinese PLA hacker attempting to map Florida Power & Light’s computer infrastructure apparently made a mistake. “The hacker was probably supposed to be mapping the system for his bosses and just got carried away and had a ‘what happens if I pull on this’ moment.” The hacker triggered a cascade effect, shutting down large portions of the Florida power grid, the security expert said. “I suspect, as the system went down, the PLA hacker said something like, ‘Oops, my bad,’ in Chinese.”
But it's hardly restricted to just shutting down infrastructure.
...officials are worried about the Chinese using long-established computer-hacking techniques to steal sensitive information from government agencies and U.S. corporations.
Brenner, the U.S. counterintelligence chief, said he knows of “a large American company” whose strategic information was obtained by its Chinese counterparts in advance of a business negotiation. As Brenner recounted the story, “The delegation gets to China and realizes, ‘These guys on the other side of the table know every bottom line on every significant negotiating point.’ They had to have got this by hacking into [the company’s] systems.”
That would not be surprising, knowing the Chinese' inclination to cheat. (See, e.g., the various "fake" brand-label items. Ask Briggs & Stratton, or Chrysler Corp. about that...)
Now we get to Jim Doyle.
During a trip to Beijing in December 2007, spyware programs designed to clandestinely remove information from personal computers and other electronic equipment were discovered on devices used by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and possibly other members of a U.S. trade delegation, according to a computer-security expert with firsthand knowledge of the spyware used. Gutierrez was in China with the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, a high-level delegation that includes the U.S. trade representative and that meets with Chinese officials to discuss such matters as intellectual-property rights, market access, and consumer product safety. According to the computer-security expert, the spyware programs were designed to open communications channels to an outside system, and to download the contents of the infected devices at regular intervals. The source said that the computer codes were identical to those found in the laptop computers and other devices of several senior executives of U.S. corporations who also had their electronics “slurped” while on business in China
Heh. Jim Doyle, world-traveler, was just over in PRC on a trade mission. By now the PRC knows the personal peccadillos of all the Republicans in the Legislature. And they're probably laughing up their sleeves about the State of Wisconsin's budget "remedy."
And who traveled with Doyle? Have they had their laptops scoured since?
“China is indeed a counterintelligence threat, and specifically a cyber-counterintelligence threat,” said Brenner, who served for four years as inspector general of the National Security Agency, the intelligence organization that electronically steals other countries’ secrets. Brenner said that the American company’s experience “is an example of how hard the Chinese will work at this, and how much more seriously the American corporate sector has to take the information-security issue.” He called economic espionage a national security risk and said that it makes little difference to a foreign power whether it steals sensitive information from a government-operated computer or from one owned by a contractor. “If you travel abroad and are the director of research or the chief executive of a large company, you’re a target,” he said
And now we get to the "We may be lying about this...." part, wherein hacked USGovernment agencies deny that there was "any damage."
That is, 'There's no damage we're going to TELL YOU about, stupid!!"
In 2007, an unidentified hacker broke into the e-mail system for Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s office, and the Pentagon shut down about 1,500 computers in response. But officials said that the intrusion caused no harm. In 2006, a State Department employee opened an e-mail containing a Trojan horse, a program designed to install itself on a host machine to give a hacker covert access. As a result, officials cut off Internet access to the department’s East Asia and Pacific region, but the department suffered no long-term problems
"Nothing to see here. Move along."
This IS serious.
So why are so many officials increasingly sounding the alarm about network attacks, Chinese hacking and espionage, and the advent of cyberwar?
Part of the answer lies in officials’ most recent appraisals of the cyber-threat. They cite evidence that attacks are increasing in volume and appear engineered more to cause real harm than sporadic inconvenience. Without naming China, Robert Jamison, the top cyber-security official at DHS, told reporters at a March briefing, “We’re concerned that the intrusions are more frequent, and they’re more targeted, and they’re more sophisticated.”
What about a three-to-five day power blackout in SE Wisconsin? Think you and/or your business could take that without missing a beat?
Because most of the infrastructure in the United States is privately owned, the government finds it exceptionally difficult to compel utility operators to better monitor their systems. The FBI and DHS have established formal groups where business operators can disclose their known vulnerabilities privately. (Companies fear that public exposure will decrease shareholder confidence or incite more hackings.) But membership in these organizations isn’t compulsory. Furthermore, many of the systems that utility operators use were designed by others. Intelligence officials now worry that software developed overseas poses another layer of risk because malicious codes or backdoors can be embedded in the software at its creation. U.S. officials have singled out software manufacturers in emerging markets such as, not surprisingly, China.
But hey! That software was CHEAPER!! We got our SCADA system's security at the best possible price--what could possibly go wrong??
Were it just a matter of keeping your beer cold, or your Legislator's drinking habits private!
“Numerous computer networks around the world, including those owned by the U.S. government, were subject to intrusions that appear to have originated within” the People’s Republic of China. Although not claiming that the attacks were conducted by the Chinese government, or officially endorsed, the declaration built upon the previous year’s warning that the People’s Liberation Army is “building capabilities for information warfare” for possible use in “pre-emptive attacks.”
Defense and intelligence officials have been surprised by China’s cyber-advances, according to the U.S-China Economic and Security Review Commission. In November, the commission reported that “Chinese military strategists have embraced … cyberattacks” as a weapon in their military arsenal.
“We are currently in a cyberwar, and war is going on today,” Andrew Palowitch, who’s now a consultant to U.S. Strategic Command, told an audience at Georgetown University in November. STRATCOM, headquartered at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, oversees the Defense Department’s Joint Task Force-Global Network Operations, which defends military systems against cyber-attack. Palowitch cited statistics, provided by Cartwright, that 37,000 reported breaches of government and private systems occured in fiscal 2007. The Defense Department experienced almost 80,000 computer attacks, he said. Some of these assaults “reduced” the military’s “operational capabilities,” Palowitch noted.
For all his other problems, at least The President is paying attention to this.
...the White House [has crafted] an executive order laying out a broad and ambitious plan to shore up government-network defenses. Known internally as “the cyber-initiative,” it was formally issued in January. The details remain classified, but it has been reported that the order authorizes the National Security Agency to monitor federal computer networks. It also requires that the government dramatically scale back the number of points at which federal networks connect to the public Internet. The Office of Management and Budget has directed agencies to limit the total number of Internet “points of presence” to 50 by June.
Some doubt that it is only PRC who is playing with our national defense systems--and it's probably not ONLY the PRC. On the other hand,
China’s military history has been defined by asymmetric warfare, said Harry Harding, an expert on Chinese domestic politics and U.S.-China relations, who teaches at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Cyber-warfare is just one of the more recent tactics. If the U.S. government tries to protect its systems, the Chinese will simply attack the private sector; he cited the financial services industry as an obvious target. “I have no doubt that China is doing this,” Harding said.
The good news: computer hackers cannot disable a good old-fashioned Mauser 98 action.
Buy more ammo.
If you're Governor Jim Doyle's security guy, you'll be interested in this story.
And if you are fool enough to think that PRChina is "our friend," maybe this story won't matter to you...
Computer hackers in China, including those working on behalf of the Chinese government and military, have penetrated deeply into the information systems of U.S. companies and government agencies, stolen proprietary information from American executives in advance of their business meetings in China, and, in a few cases, gained access to electric power plants in the United States, possibly triggering two recent and widespread blackouts in Florida and the Northeast, according to U.S. government officials and computer-security experts.
One prominent expert told National Journal he believes that China’s People’s Liberation Army played a role in the power outages
You will remember this outage:
...the intrusion may have precipitated the largest blackout in North American history, which occurred in August of that year. A 9,300-square-mile area, touching Michigan, Ohio, New York, and parts of Canada, lost power; an estimated 50 million people were affected.
Officially, the blackout was attributed to a variety of factors, none of which involved foreign intervention. Investigators blamed “overgrown trees” that came into contact with strained high-voltage lines near facilities in Ohio owned by FirstEnergy Corp. More than 100 power plants were shut down during the cascading failure. A computer virus, then in wide circulation, disrupted the communications lines that utility companies use to manage the power grid, and this exacerbated the problem...
Just a coincidence, that virus, of course...
PRC tried it again, and succeeded:
...a blackout in February, which affected 3 million customers in South Florida, was precipitated by a cyber-hacker. That outage cut off electricity along Florida’s east coast, from Daytona Beach to Monroe County, and affected eight power-generating stations
...a Chinese PLA hacker attempting to map Florida Power & Light’s computer infrastructure apparently made a mistake. “The hacker was probably supposed to be mapping the system for his bosses and just got carried away and had a ‘what happens if I pull on this’ moment.” The hacker triggered a cascade effect, shutting down large portions of the Florida power grid, the security expert said. “I suspect, as the system went down, the PLA hacker said something like, ‘Oops, my bad,’ in Chinese.”
But it's hardly restricted to just shutting down infrastructure.
...officials are worried about the Chinese using long-established computer-hacking techniques to steal sensitive information from government agencies and U.S. corporations.
Brenner, the U.S. counterintelligence chief, said he knows of “a large American company” whose strategic information was obtained by its Chinese counterparts in advance of a business negotiation. As Brenner recounted the story, “The delegation gets to China and realizes, ‘These guys on the other side of the table know every bottom line on every significant negotiating point.’ They had to have got this by hacking into [the company’s] systems.”
That would not be surprising, knowing the Chinese' inclination to cheat. (See, e.g., the various "fake" brand-label items. Ask Briggs & Stratton, or Chrysler Corp. about that...)
Now we get to Jim Doyle.
During a trip to Beijing in December 2007, spyware programs designed to clandestinely remove information from personal computers and other electronic equipment were discovered on devices used by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and possibly other members of a U.S. trade delegation, according to a computer-security expert with firsthand knowledge of the spyware used. Gutierrez was in China with the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, a high-level delegation that includes the U.S. trade representative and that meets with Chinese officials to discuss such matters as intellectual-property rights, market access, and consumer product safety. According to the computer-security expert, the spyware programs were designed to open communications channels to an outside system, and to download the contents of the infected devices at regular intervals. The source said that the computer codes were identical to those found in the laptop computers and other devices of several senior executives of U.S. corporations who also had their electronics “slurped” while on business in China
Heh. Jim Doyle, world-traveler, was just over in PRC on a trade mission. By now the PRC knows the personal peccadillos of all the Republicans in the Legislature. And they're probably laughing up their sleeves about the State of Wisconsin's budget "remedy."
And who traveled with Doyle? Have they had their laptops scoured since?
“China is indeed a counterintelligence threat, and specifically a cyber-counterintelligence threat,” said Brenner, who served for four years as inspector general of the National Security Agency, the intelligence organization that electronically steals other countries’ secrets. Brenner said that the American company’s experience “is an example of how hard the Chinese will work at this, and how much more seriously the American corporate sector has to take the information-security issue.” He called economic espionage a national security risk and said that it makes little difference to a foreign power whether it steals sensitive information from a government-operated computer or from one owned by a contractor. “If you travel abroad and are the director of research or the chief executive of a large company, you’re a target,” he said
And now we get to the "We may be lying about this...." part, wherein hacked USGovernment agencies deny that there was "any damage."
That is, 'There's no damage we're going to TELL YOU about, stupid!!"
In 2007, an unidentified hacker broke into the e-mail system for Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s office, and the Pentagon shut down about 1,500 computers in response. But officials said that the intrusion caused no harm. In 2006, a State Department employee opened an e-mail containing a Trojan horse, a program designed to install itself on a host machine to give a hacker covert access. As a result, officials cut off Internet access to the department’s East Asia and Pacific region, but the department suffered no long-term problems
"Nothing to see here. Move along."
This IS serious.
So why are so many officials increasingly sounding the alarm about network attacks, Chinese hacking and espionage, and the advent of cyberwar?
Part of the answer lies in officials’ most recent appraisals of the cyber-threat. They cite evidence that attacks are increasing in volume and appear engineered more to cause real harm than sporadic inconvenience. Without naming China, Robert Jamison, the top cyber-security official at DHS, told reporters at a March briefing, “We’re concerned that the intrusions are more frequent, and they’re more targeted, and they’re more sophisticated.”
What about a three-to-five day power blackout in SE Wisconsin? Think you and/or your business could take that without missing a beat?
Because most of the infrastructure in the United States is privately owned, the government finds it exceptionally difficult to compel utility operators to better monitor their systems. The FBI and DHS have established formal groups where business operators can disclose their known vulnerabilities privately. (Companies fear that public exposure will decrease shareholder confidence or incite more hackings.) But membership in these organizations isn’t compulsory. Furthermore, many of the systems that utility operators use were designed by others. Intelligence officials now worry that software developed overseas poses another layer of risk because malicious codes or backdoors can be embedded in the software at its creation. U.S. officials have singled out software manufacturers in emerging markets such as, not surprisingly, China.
But hey! That software was CHEAPER!! We got our SCADA system's security at the best possible price--what could possibly go wrong??
Were it just a matter of keeping your beer cold, or your Legislator's drinking habits private!
“Numerous computer networks around the world, including those owned by the U.S. government, were subject to intrusions that appear to have originated within” the People’s Republic of China. Although not claiming that the attacks were conducted by the Chinese government, or officially endorsed, the declaration built upon the previous year’s warning that the People’s Liberation Army is “building capabilities for information warfare” for possible use in “pre-emptive attacks.”
Defense and intelligence officials have been surprised by China’s cyber-advances, according to the U.S-China Economic and Security Review Commission. In November, the commission reported that “Chinese military strategists have embraced … cyberattacks” as a weapon in their military arsenal.
“We are currently in a cyberwar, and war is going on today,” Andrew Palowitch, who’s now a consultant to U.S. Strategic Command, told an audience at Georgetown University in November. STRATCOM, headquartered at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, oversees the Defense Department’s Joint Task Force-Global Network Operations, which defends military systems against cyber-attack. Palowitch cited statistics, provided by Cartwright, that 37,000 reported breaches of government and private systems occured in fiscal 2007. The Defense Department experienced almost 80,000 computer attacks, he said. Some of these assaults “reduced” the military’s “operational capabilities,” Palowitch noted.
For all his other problems, at least The President is paying attention to this.
...the White House [has crafted] an executive order laying out a broad and ambitious plan to shore up government-network defenses. Known internally as “the cyber-initiative,” it was formally issued in January. The details remain classified, but it has been reported that the order authorizes the National Security Agency to monitor federal computer networks. It also requires that the government dramatically scale back the number of points at which federal networks connect to the public Internet. The Office of Management and Budget has directed agencies to limit the total number of Internet “points of presence” to 50 by June.
Some doubt that it is only PRC who is playing with our national defense systems--and it's probably not ONLY the PRC. On the other hand,
China’s military history has been defined by asymmetric warfare, said Harry Harding, an expert on Chinese domestic politics and U.S.-China relations, who teaches at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Cyber-warfare is just one of the more recent tactics. If the U.S. government tries to protect its systems, the Chinese will simply attack the private sector; he cited the financial services industry as an obvious target. “I have no doubt that China is doing this,” Harding said.
The good news: computer hackers cannot disable a good old-fashioned Mauser 98 action.
Buy more ammo.
Friday, May 30, 2008
RadioMouth Misses the News, Rants to No End
A late-afternoon Milwaukee RadioMouth rants about J B Van Hollen's "security guard" noises for the Republican Convention.
Gee.
Maybe he should read the newspaper during "prep time"--instead of the Racing Form.
Gee.
Maybe he should read the newspaper during "prep time"--instead of the Racing Form.
The REST of the Fr Pfleger Story
Take it from Roeser--because he knows.
Pfleger loves a show and he relished his clowning around, affecting Hillary sobbing into a hanky and prancing around as a performer for the relish of the crowd.
The speech should have been the last straw in a series of Pfleger insults to his Church and the IRS, making a mockery of its supposed stance against mixing politics with nonprofit church worship. If this had been another priest who had gone to a church, blistered Obama and his black following, you could bet that he would be hauled down to the chancery and silenced…sent to a rehab center because of mental imbalance (a favorite prior archdiocese punishment to some authenticist priest dissenters) before the day is over.
But in an archdiocese where ecclesial leadership comes in the form of parsing over performance, where lay public relations specialists hold sway, that is not likely to happen. But still, Pfleger’s near-lunatic conduct has shocked even the staid Democratic party adherents who plan to occupy many of the posh offices that used to be Quigley preparatory seminary which they have now assigned to themselves.
Now as before, the archdiocese, fearful of its own shadow, trembling in its deference to the largely Irish bloc of hack, pro-abort Democratic politicians who guide much of its fundraising, doesn’t want to encourage a racial confrontation over removal with the white Pfleger the darling of black activists, leading the Church to be perceived as…horrors!...authoritarian, seeking to censor the fiery pastor for political activity in behalf of “civil rights” so treasured by the oligarch one-party (most of whom nominal Catholics) that has been in power in Chicago longer than the USSR existed from Lenin to Gorbachev.
Previous archbishops were themselves simpatico to calming the waters with the local Dems. Now the job has been handed over to the de-facto CEO of the archdiocese, Jimmy (his baptismal name) Lago, the lay chancellor…formerly Ed Vrdolyak’s best Democratic precinct captain. Lago more than anybody else understands that Pfleger is far more than just another hyperbolic racial demagogue. He is a key operator in the Cook county Democratic party, and is every bit as bright a light in the Democratic party firmament in his own way as are the Democratic Catholic Daleys, the Madigans, Emil Jones, the Hynes, Eddie Burke, the Stroger clan et al, not to forget that great layman Dickie Durbin. And then you get to the black Protestant wing: Barack Obama and the three Jacksons.
Jimmy Lago understands that to make Pfleger a martyr ruptures the archdiocese’s indissoluble linkage with the Democratic party, the party of abortion and gay rights and secularism. That tie-in now goes right up to the probable (the election is his to lose) next president of the United States, Barack Obama Although Obama has issued a statement chastising Pfleger for his wild and frenetic appearance at Trinity United Church of Christ…and Pfleger himself has expressed contrition for acting much like a drunk on a spree…, Pfleger still has an enormous following among blacks and is in fact, word and deed a major Democratic party leader.
If this had happened to a Roman Catholic pastor in, let us say, Deerfield who entertained a crowd with prancing about insulting Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in favor of John McCain, a heavy hand bearing the ecclesial ring now bequeathed to the chancellor would smack him upside the head and he’d be on a long-long sabbatical.
Pfleger should be unhorsed as pastor tomorrow, chastised officially, not given any further pastoral appointments while he undergoes prolonged suspension. He truly is one of the very few Catholic clerics who has earned his trip courtesy of the mental health budget to the funny farm for psychological counseling.
There is one very slight chance some of these censorious actions would happen. Not because he has harmed the Church. Mercy, no. If he has indeed harmed the Obama campaign so seriously…by resurrecting the specter of a loony rogue pastor ala Jeremiah Wright…that Pfleger’s future service to the Democratic party has ended. That just could be.
Obama really has been put at a disservice by this clerical clown, a disservice that Obama didn’t ask for, doesn’t deserve and could, if continued, haul him down. This could kick up Jeremiah Wright, always jealous of competition, for a repeat. But I don’t think Pfleger will be unhorsed or even seriously criticized by Church authorities. Pfleger will appear chastened either at the archdiocesan office or in his rectory and will stay that way until the very next opportunity to misuse his ministry for partisan political advantage while the archdiocese turns its back and raises its eyes in hypocrisy.
The short version?
1) The Archdiocese of Chicago is not run by its titular head, Cdl. George--rather, it is run by a claque of Democrat Party operatives.
2) Said Democrat Party operatives are perfectly happy with Pfleger's service to the Party. Therefore, who gives a damn about his 'service to the Church,' which is convenient, but secondary?
3) If Pfleger endangers the Party, he's out. But so far, so good.
Now you understand why Wisconsin Catholics are distinctly uncomfortable with John Huebscher, the apparatchik on the Wisconsin Catholic Conference's payroll. Huebscher, not as important to the Democrat Party as is Pfleger in Chicago, keeps a lower profile--but he is no less a threat to the Church.
Pfleger loves a show and he relished his clowning around, affecting Hillary sobbing into a hanky and prancing around as a performer for the relish of the crowd.
The speech should have been the last straw in a series of Pfleger insults to his Church and the IRS, making a mockery of its supposed stance against mixing politics with nonprofit church worship. If this had been another priest who had gone to a church, blistered Obama and his black following, you could bet that he would be hauled down to the chancery and silenced…sent to a rehab center because of mental imbalance (a favorite prior archdiocese punishment to some authenticist priest dissenters) before the day is over.
But in an archdiocese where ecclesial leadership comes in the form of parsing over performance, where lay public relations specialists hold sway, that is not likely to happen. But still, Pfleger’s near-lunatic conduct has shocked even the staid Democratic party adherents who plan to occupy many of the posh offices that used to be Quigley preparatory seminary which they have now assigned to themselves.
Now as before, the archdiocese, fearful of its own shadow, trembling in its deference to the largely Irish bloc of hack, pro-abort Democratic politicians who guide much of its fundraising, doesn’t want to encourage a racial confrontation over removal with the white Pfleger the darling of black activists, leading the Church to be perceived as…horrors!...authoritarian, seeking to censor the fiery pastor for political activity in behalf of “civil rights” so treasured by the oligarch one-party (most of whom nominal Catholics) that has been in power in Chicago longer than the USSR existed from Lenin to Gorbachev.
Previous archbishops were themselves simpatico to calming the waters with the local Dems. Now the job has been handed over to the de-facto CEO of the archdiocese, Jimmy (his baptismal name) Lago, the lay chancellor…formerly Ed Vrdolyak’s best Democratic precinct captain. Lago more than anybody else understands that Pfleger is far more than just another hyperbolic racial demagogue. He is a key operator in the Cook county Democratic party, and is every bit as bright a light in the Democratic party firmament in his own way as are the Democratic Catholic Daleys, the Madigans, Emil Jones, the Hynes, Eddie Burke, the Stroger clan et al, not to forget that great layman Dickie Durbin. And then you get to the black Protestant wing: Barack Obama and the three Jacksons.
Jimmy Lago understands that to make Pfleger a martyr ruptures the archdiocese’s indissoluble linkage with the Democratic party, the party of abortion and gay rights and secularism. That tie-in now goes right up to the probable (the election is his to lose) next president of the United States, Barack Obama Although Obama has issued a statement chastising Pfleger for his wild and frenetic appearance at Trinity United Church of Christ…and Pfleger himself has expressed contrition for acting much like a drunk on a spree…, Pfleger still has an enormous following among blacks and is in fact, word and deed a major Democratic party leader.
If this had happened to a Roman Catholic pastor in, let us say, Deerfield who entertained a crowd with prancing about insulting Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in favor of John McCain, a heavy hand bearing the ecclesial ring now bequeathed to the chancellor would smack him upside the head and he’d be on a long-long sabbatical.
Pfleger should be unhorsed as pastor tomorrow, chastised officially, not given any further pastoral appointments while he undergoes prolonged suspension. He truly is one of the very few Catholic clerics who has earned his trip courtesy of the mental health budget to the funny farm for psychological counseling.
There is one very slight chance some of these censorious actions would happen. Not because he has harmed the Church. Mercy, no. If he has indeed harmed the Obama campaign so seriously…by resurrecting the specter of a loony rogue pastor ala Jeremiah Wright…that Pfleger’s future service to the Democratic party has ended. That just could be.
Obama really has been put at a disservice by this clerical clown, a disservice that Obama didn’t ask for, doesn’t deserve and could, if continued, haul him down. This could kick up Jeremiah Wright, always jealous of competition, for a repeat. But I don’t think Pfleger will be unhorsed or even seriously criticized by Church authorities. Pfleger will appear chastened either at the archdiocesan office or in his rectory and will stay that way until the very next opportunity to misuse his ministry for partisan political advantage while the archdiocese turns its back and raises its eyes in hypocrisy.
The short version?
1) The Archdiocese of Chicago is not run by its titular head, Cdl. George--rather, it is run by a claque of Democrat Party operatives.
2) Said Democrat Party operatives are perfectly happy with Pfleger's service to the Party. Therefore, who gives a damn about his 'service to the Church,' which is convenient, but secondary?
3) If Pfleger endangers the Party, he's out. But so far, so good.
Now you understand why Wisconsin Catholics are distinctly uncomfortable with John Huebscher, the apparatchik on the Wisconsin Catholic Conference's payroll. Huebscher, not as important to the Democrat Party as is Pfleger in Chicago, keeps a lower profile--but he is no less a threat to the Church.
Who Shot Rick Santorum?
The ex-Senator from Pennsylvania certainly made enemies of the Cato variety with this:
...One of the criticisms I make is to what I refer to as more of a libertarianish right. You know, the left has gone so far left and the right in some respects has gone so far right that they touch each other. They come around in the circle. This whole idea of personal autonomy, well I don’t think most conservatives hold that point of view. Some do. They have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do, government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulations low, that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues. You know, people should do whatever they want. Well, that is not how traditional conservatives view the world and I think most conservatives understand that individuals can’t go it alone. That there is no such society that I am aware of, where we’ve had radical individualism and that it succeeds as a culture.
The Cato-ites were in high dudgeon, of course.
He declared himself against individualism, against libertarianism, against “this whole idea of personal autonomy, . . . this idea that people should be left alone.” Now he’s also against the conservative idea that taxpayers matter, that the federal government has a limited role.
Of course, the Cato crowd is wrong about a few details. Feddie provides a bit more, now from Huckabee, who drew a LOT of scorn from the Libertarian-leaners.
Republicans need to be Republicans. The greatest threat to classic Republicanism is not liberalism; it’s this new brand of libertarianism, which is social liberalism and economic conservatism, but it’s a heartless, callous, soulless type of economic conservatism because it says “look, we want to cut taxes and eliminate government. If it means that elderly people don’t get their Medicare drugs, so be it. If it means little kids go without education and healthcare, so be it.”
Well, that might be a quote pure economic conservative message, but it’s not an American message. It doesn’t fly. People aren’t going to buy that, because that’s not the way we are as a people. That’s not historic Republicanism. Historic Republicanism does not hate government; it’s just there to be as little of it as there can be. But they also recognize that government has to be paid for.
If the Pubbies buy into the social liberal/econ conservatism yappaflappa as described by Huckabee, they will also recede to Congressional numbers which resemble those of the FDR days.
We can, and should, have debates about 'how much Gummint is TOO much Gummint.' See Wiggy's post on the topic here for starters. But the lumpen-draconian libertarian MeMeMeMe stuff is simply not Conservatism. It is selfishness.
...One of the criticisms I make is to what I refer to as more of a libertarianish right. You know, the left has gone so far left and the right in some respects has gone so far right that they touch each other. They come around in the circle. This whole idea of personal autonomy, well I don’t think most conservatives hold that point of view. Some do. They have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do, government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulations low, that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues. You know, people should do whatever they want. Well, that is not how traditional conservatives view the world and I think most conservatives understand that individuals can’t go it alone. That there is no such society that I am aware of, where we’ve had radical individualism and that it succeeds as a culture.
The Cato-ites were in high dudgeon, of course.
He declared himself against individualism, against libertarianism, against “this whole idea of personal autonomy, . . . this idea that people should be left alone.” Now he’s also against the conservative idea that taxpayers matter, that the federal government has a limited role.
Of course, the Cato crowd is wrong about a few details. Feddie provides a bit more, now from Huckabee, who drew a LOT of scorn from the Libertarian-leaners.
Republicans need to be Republicans. The greatest threat to classic Republicanism is not liberalism; it’s this new brand of libertarianism, which is social liberalism and economic conservatism, but it’s a heartless, callous, soulless type of economic conservatism because it says “look, we want to cut taxes and eliminate government. If it means that elderly people don’t get their Medicare drugs, so be it. If it means little kids go without education and healthcare, so be it.”
Well, that might be a quote pure economic conservative message, but it’s not an American message. It doesn’t fly. People aren’t going to buy that, because that’s not the way we are as a people. That’s not historic Republicanism. Historic Republicanism does not hate government; it’s just there to be as little of it as there can be. But they also recognize that government has to be paid for.
If the Pubbies buy into the social liberal/econ conservatism yappaflappa as described by Huckabee, they will also recede to Congressional numbers which resemble those of the FDR days.
We can, and should, have debates about 'how much Gummint is TOO much Gummint.' See Wiggy's post on the topic here for starters. But the lumpen-draconian libertarian MeMeMeMe stuff is simply not Conservatism. It is selfishness.
RIP Korman--
One of the best.
In fact, so good that he could make you ROTFLMAO when he never said a word, and just let Tim Conway do his thing.
Here: the Dentist
HT: Ace
In fact, so good that he could make you ROTFLMAO when he never said a word, and just let Tim Conway do his thing.
Here: the Dentist
HT: Ace
UW Prof Endorses Obama (in 1996)
A UW prof endorsing Obama? So? The sun rises in the East, right?
But there's MORE to the story.
Apparently, Obama actively sought and received the stamp of approval of a Marxist third party that operated briefly in Chicago between 1992 and 1998. The group was called the "New Party" and was started in 1992 by Daniel Cantor (a former staffer for Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign) and Joel Rogers (a sociology and law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison).
(The red typeface is a pun, folks.)
Here's the history as written at Discoverthenetworks.com:
The New Party was a Marxist political coalition whose objective was to endorse and elect leftist public officials -- most often Democrats. The New Party's short-term objective was to move the Democratic Party leftward, thereby setting the stage for the eventual rise of new Marxist third party.
Most New Party members hailed from the Democratic Socialists of America and the militant organization ACORN. The party's Chicago chapter also included a large contingent from the Committees of Correspondence, a Marxist coalition of former Maoists, Trotskyists, and Communist Party USA members.
Hoo haaa. UW has Commies on the payroll, and they endorse Obama.
But there's MORE to the story.
Apparently, Obama actively sought and received the stamp of approval of a Marxist third party that operated briefly in Chicago between 1992 and 1998. The group was called the "New Party" and was started in 1992 by Daniel Cantor (a former staffer for Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign) and Joel Rogers (a sociology and law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison).
(The red typeface is a pun, folks.)
Here's the history as written at Discoverthenetworks.com:
The New Party was a Marxist political coalition whose objective was to endorse and elect leftist public officials -- most often Democrats. The New Party's short-term objective was to move the Democratic Party leftward, thereby setting the stage for the eventual rise of new Marxist third party.
Most New Party members hailed from the Democratic Socialists of America and the militant organization ACORN. The party's Chicago chapter also included a large contingent from the Committees of Correspondence, a Marxist coalition of former Maoists, Trotskyists, and Communist Party USA members.
Hoo haaa. UW has Commies on the payroll, and they endorse Obama.
GWB Was McClellan's Kinda Guy
All you need to know about McClellan (and his godfather, GWB) is in this little quote:
Tom Pauken, who chaired the state's Republican Party in 1994 and whose bona fides are well established, warned in May 1999 that Bush was a "me-too Republican."
Comments the Spectator's Paul Chesser:
When loyalists to President Bush -- most notably Karl Rove -- say they are shocked about the things McClellan wrote in his new book about the administration (and what he's saying now), I have little sympathy. After all, this is what (pretty much) the whole Republican establishment tried to sell with the Bush package back in 2000, including how great it was that he worked with Democrats...
It's no surprise that GWB is an extremely 'moderate' Republican. So why is it a surprise that his entourage consists of the same?
Tom Pauken, who chaired the state's Republican Party in 1994 and whose bona fides are well established, warned in May 1999 that Bush was a "me-too Republican."
Comments the Spectator's Paul Chesser:
When loyalists to President Bush -- most notably Karl Rove -- say they are shocked about the things McClellan wrote in his new book about the administration (and what he's saying now), I have little sympathy. After all, this is what (pretty much) the whole Republican establishment tried to sell with the Bush package back in 2000, including how great it was that he worked with Democrats...
It's no surprise that GWB is an extremely 'moderate' Republican. So why is it a surprise that his entourage consists of the same?
NBA Commish: You'll Spend More, Milwaukee
Who the hell is THIS guy?
NBA commissioner David Stern said Thursday that the Bradley Center will suffice for now as the home of the Milwaukee Bucks, but the community will have to consider a new arena some day
..."Everybody agrees that this is not the revenue producing arena of the future that will enable the Bucks to compete in the future NBA. But based on good faith on both sides and the attempt to deal with the problem on an ad hoc basis, they seem to be doing OK. The crunch hasn't quite hit yet. But everybody knows this is a building that will ultimately need to be replaced."
"I think down the road given the shape of the bowl and constriction of the site . . . that eventually the citizens of Milwaukee will be facing the issue of a replacement for the Bradley Center," Stern said. "But why rush it? It's a good dialogue to have, a good discussion to have. The negotiations between the Bucks and the Bradley Center will have to reflect on the need to squeeze additional dollars out of this facility. But the Bucks are well managed, and for a period of time, this arena will do. And the planning process will obviously have to begin."
Notice how this guy neatly slips "...the citizens of Milwaukee..." into the BOHICA of "...facing the issue of a replacement for the Bradley Center." And you can expect, over the next several months, that the Mayor of Milwaukee will be shaping the spin to include "...the Greater Milwaukee area..." which will be code for Stadium Tax II.
You want a translation?
NBA commissioner David Stern said Thursday that the Bradley Center will suffice for now as the home of the Milwaukee Bucks, but the community will have to consider a new arena some day
..."Everybody agrees that this is not the revenue producing arena of the future that will enable the Bucks to compete in the future NBA. But based on good faith on both sides and the attempt to deal with the problem on an ad hoc basis, they seem to be doing OK. The crunch hasn't quite hit yet. But everybody knows this is a building that will ultimately need to be replaced."
"I think down the road given the shape of the bowl and constriction of the site . . . that eventually the citizens of Milwaukee will be facing the issue of a replacement for the Bradley Center," Stern said. "But why rush it? It's a good dialogue to have, a good discussion to have. The negotiations between the Bucks and the Bradley Center will have to reflect on the need to squeeze additional dollars out of this facility. But the Bucks are well managed, and for a period of time, this arena will do. And the planning process will obviously have to begin."
Notice how this guy neatly slips "...the citizens of Milwaukee..." into the BOHICA of "...facing the issue of a replacement for the Bradley Center." And you can expect, over the next several months, that the Mayor of Milwaukee will be shaping the spin to include "...the Greater Milwaukee area..." which will be code for Stadium Tax II.
You want a translation?
"MO' MONEY, SUCKAS!"
Van Hollen: "Not MY Idea" on Security
As I suspected, the foofoodust coming from ex-DoJ folks is pretty thick.
State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said Thursday he doesn't believe he needs a taxpayer-funded security detail at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul in September and didn't request one.
In an interview with the WisconsinEye network, Van Hollen said the issue was raised by aides in April, not by him.
"I didn't request it. All it was was an internal discussion," Van Hollen said. "I would be very surprised if I did" need security.
Some entrenched bureaucrats who are unhappy with Van Hollen had raised this "security request" (in effect, manufacturing an issue to discredit Van Hollen) after they had been demoted.
Joell Schigur, the former head of the state Department of Justice's public integrity bureau, previously expressed concerns about the fact that she was demoted from that position weeks after questioning whether it was proper for Van Hollen to receive state-sponsored security at a political event.
I guess Joell will have to find a new skeleton in the closet.
State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said Thursday he doesn't believe he needs a taxpayer-funded security detail at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul in September and didn't request one.
In an interview with the WisconsinEye network, Van Hollen said the issue was raised by aides in April, not by him.
"I didn't request it. All it was was an internal discussion," Van Hollen said. "I would be very surprised if I did" need security.
Some entrenched bureaucrats who are unhappy with Van Hollen had raised this "security request" (in effect, manufacturing an issue to discredit Van Hollen) after they had been demoted.
Joell Schigur, the former head of the state Department of Justice's public integrity bureau, previously expressed concerns about the fact that she was demoted from that position weeks after questioning whether it was proper for Van Hollen to receive state-sponsored security at a political event.
I guess Joell will have to find a new skeleton in the closet.
Mob Attacks Motorist, Fire Department
Yes, that's a Milwaukee story--reported by Channel 12 News last night.
A Milwaukee man said he thought he was going to die when a mob attacked him after he accidentally hit a 3-year-old girl with his car on Monday.
The man, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, said the mob also attacked firefighters who arrived at the scene to help the girl.
Firefighters put their lives on the line every day, but Milwaukee Fire Chief Doug Holton said that danger is increasingly coming from the people on the ground, not from those in the buildings. Holton said this must stop.
"Mob"? "Increasingly"? This is not good news, Mayor Barrett.
Hmmmmm. The local print medium isn't reporting this "increasing" danger.
Evidently the people responsible for the little girl were NOT paying attention, at all. The motorist will not be ticketed.
By the way, somebody stole the motorist's car and trashed it, too.
A Milwaukee man said he thought he was going to die when a mob attacked him after he accidentally hit a 3-year-old girl with his car on Monday.
The man, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, said the mob also attacked firefighters who arrived at the scene to help the girl.
Firefighters put their lives on the line every day, but Milwaukee Fire Chief Doug Holton said that danger is increasingly coming from the people on the ground, not from those in the buildings. Holton said this must stop.
"Mob"? "Increasingly"? This is not good news, Mayor Barrett.
Hmmmmm. The local print medium isn't reporting this "increasing" danger.
Evidently the people responsible for the little girl were NOT paying attention, at all. The motorist will not be ticketed.
By the way, somebody stole the motorist's car and trashed it, too.
GWB and Condi: Losing Control?
PJB argues that the US is no longer a credible broker in the Middle East.
Israel has ignored Bush's demand that it stop building and expanding settlements on a West Bank that is to be the heartland of a Palestinian state. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been secretly negotiating with Syria for the return of the Golan Heights in exchange for peace.
When America refused to play honest broker between Jerusalem and Damascus, Turkey, at Israel's request, stepped into the role.
The pro-American Lebanese government of Prime Minister Siniora has negotiated a truce and power-sharing arrangement with Hezbollah, giving that militant Shiite movement and party veto power in the Beirut government. Egypt is negotiating with Hamas for a truce in the Israeli-Gaza war and to effect the exchange of a captured Israeli solider held by Hamas for Hamas fighters held in Israel
We had mentioned earlier that Ms. Rice seems to be failing with North Korea, as well.
Buchanan has reservations about the "democratize" thrust of Bush's foreign policy--and Bush should share those reservations.
The Bush democracy crusade was put on the shelf after producing election triumphs for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt
I guess those were not exactly the results that we expected, eh?
Israel has ignored Bush's demand that it stop building and expanding settlements on a West Bank that is to be the heartland of a Palestinian state. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been secretly negotiating with Syria for the return of the Golan Heights in exchange for peace.
When America refused to play honest broker between Jerusalem and Damascus, Turkey, at Israel's request, stepped into the role.
The pro-American Lebanese government of Prime Minister Siniora has negotiated a truce and power-sharing arrangement with Hezbollah, giving that militant Shiite movement and party veto power in the Beirut government. Egypt is negotiating with Hamas for a truce in the Israeli-Gaza war and to effect the exchange of a captured Israeli solider held by Hamas for Hamas fighters held in Israel
We had mentioned earlier that Ms. Rice seems to be failing with North Korea, as well.
Buchanan has reservations about the "democratize" thrust of Bush's foreign policy--and Bush should share those reservations.
The Bush democracy crusade was put on the shelf after producing election triumphs for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt
I guess those were not exactly the results that we expected, eh?
Poncho Ladies: Excommunicated
No real surprise here:
The Vatican issued its most explicit decree so far against the ordination of women priests on Thursday, punishing them and the bishops who try to ordain them with automatic excommunication.
The decree was written by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and published in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, giving it immediate effect.
A Vatican spokesman said the decree made the Church's existing ban on women priests more explicit by clarifying that excommunication would follow all such ordinations.
Excommunication forbids those affected from receiving the sacraments or sharing in acts of public worship
Reuters' religion reporter immediately contacted notorious dissenter Fr. T Reese, SJ, who was removed from his position at America magazine for his ....ahhh...notorious dissent. Think of him as the Scott McCallum of the priesthood. Reese conjured up a popular front:
Rev. Tom Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, said he thought the decree was meant to send a warning to the growing number of Catholics who favor admitting women to the priesthood.
"I think the reason they're doing this is that they've realized there is more and more support among Catholics for ordaining women, and they want to make clear that this is a no-no," Reese said.
...."growing"? "who favor"?...
And he adduces the utterly inane argument that Christ (who is God, after all) was "constrained" in His actions:
Proponents of women's ordination say Christ was only acting according to the social norms of his time.
The poor guy couldn't get past the Scribes and Pharisees.
Right.
The Vatican issued its most explicit decree so far against the ordination of women priests on Thursday, punishing them and the bishops who try to ordain them with automatic excommunication.
The decree was written by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and published in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, giving it immediate effect.
A Vatican spokesman said the decree made the Church's existing ban on women priests more explicit by clarifying that excommunication would follow all such ordinations.
Excommunication forbids those affected from receiving the sacraments or sharing in acts of public worship
Reuters' religion reporter immediately contacted notorious dissenter Fr. T Reese, SJ, who was removed from his position at America magazine for his ....ahhh...notorious dissent. Think of him as the Scott McCallum of the priesthood. Reese conjured up a popular front:
Rev. Tom Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, said he thought the decree was meant to send a warning to the growing number of Catholics who favor admitting women to the priesthood.
"I think the reason they're doing this is that they've realized there is more and more support among Catholics for ordaining women, and they want to make clear that this is a no-no," Reese said.
...."growing"? "who favor"?...
And he adduces the utterly inane argument that Christ (who is God, after all) was "constrained" in His actions:
Proponents of women's ordination say Christ was only acting according to the social norms of his time.
The poor guy couldn't get past the Scribes and Pharisees.
Right.
Crazytown Colorado
And you thought all the granola-contents were in California!
With today's signature on SB200, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, has struck gender-specific restrooms and locker rooms statewide, giving woman and girls reason to fear being confronted by predators, cross-dressers "or even a homosexual or heterosexual male," according to a critic.
The state's new "transgender nondiscrimination" bill makes it illegal to deny a person access to public accommodations including restrooms and locker rooms based on gender identity or the "perception" of gender identity.
As a result:
"Henceforth, every woman and little girl will have to fear that a predator, bisexual, cross-dresser or even a homosexual or heterosexual male might walk in and relieve himself in their presence. The legislation lists every conceivable type of organization to which this law applies, including restaurants, bathhouses, massage parlors, mortuaries, theaters and ‘public facilities of any kind.’ Those who would attempt to protect females from this intrusion are subject to a fine of up to $5,000 and up to one year behind bars," he [Dr. Dobson] continued.
Fortunately, Colorado is also a CCW State.
With today's signature on SB200, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, has struck gender-specific restrooms and locker rooms statewide, giving woman and girls reason to fear being confronted by predators, cross-dressers "or even a homosexual or heterosexual male," according to a critic.
The state's new "transgender nondiscrimination" bill makes it illegal to deny a person access to public accommodations including restrooms and locker rooms based on gender identity or the "perception" of gender identity.
As a result:
"Henceforth, every woman and little girl will have to fear that a predator, bisexual, cross-dresser or even a homosexual or heterosexual male might walk in and relieve himself in their presence. The legislation lists every conceivable type of organization to which this law applies, including restaurants, bathhouses, massage parlors, mortuaries, theaters and ‘public facilities of any kind.’ Those who would attempt to protect females from this intrusion are subject to a fine of up to $5,000 and up to one year behind bars," he [Dr. Dobson] continued.
Fortunately, Colorado is also a CCW State.
Texas v. FLDS: The Final Chapter?
Looks as though the Social Worker Hive has been stoppped, at least for the time being.
In a crushing blow to the state's massive seizure of children from a polygamist sect's ranch, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Thursday that child welfare officials overstepped their authority and the children should go back to their parents.
The high court affirmed a decision by an appellate court last week, saying Child Protective Services failed to show an immediate danger to the more than 400 children swept up from the Yearning For Zion Ranch nearly two months ago.
"On the record before us, removal of the children was not warranted," the justices said in their ruling issued in Austin.
In another note:
Texas officials claimed at one point that there were 31 teenage girls at the ranch who were pregnant or had been pregnant, but later conceded that about half of those mothers, if not more, were adults. One was 27
There are two distinct issues here. First is the FLDS' claim that there is some sort of "religious" mandate for the practice of polygamy (which will be perfectly legal if SCOTUS follows the "logic" of Justice Kennedy, et al, in Casey and Lawrence.) Their claim is bogus under natural law, period.
The second is the remedy taken by Texas CPS--which was simply asinine. Forcibly removing, at gunpoint, 400++ children from their homes is...well....illegal.
In a crushing blow to the state's massive seizure of children from a polygamist sect's ranch, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Thursday that child welfare officials overstepped their authority and the children should go back to their parents.
The high court affirmed a decision by an appellate court last week, saying Child Protective Services failed to show an immediate danger to the more than 400 children swept up from the Yearning For Zion Ranch nearly two months ago.
"On the record before us, removal of the children was not warranted," the justices said in their ruling issued in Austin.
In another note:
Texas officials claimed at one point that there were 31 teenage girls at the ranch who were pregnant or had been pregnant, but later conceded that about half of those mothers, if not more, were adults. One was 27
There are two distinct issues here. First is the FLDS' claim that there is some sort of "religious" mandate for the practice of polygamy (which will be perfectly legal if SCOTUS follows the "logic" of Justice Kennedy, et al, in Casey and Lawrence.) Their claim is bogus under natural law, period.
The second is the remedy taken by Texas CPS--which was simply asinine. Forcibly removing, at gunpoint, 400++ children from their homes is...well....illegal.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
State Employees Get Raises
The State employee contracts are up for renewal, and the increases are...nice.
Least (bi-ennial): 8.30%
Most (bi-ennial): 11.00%
In addition, it's worth recalling that State retirement bennies are "fixed-benefit," meaning that retirement income is guaranteed to be $X/month, unlike "fixed-contribution" which means that the State's annual contribution towards a retirement fund is $X/year.
And those retirement bennies are a FAR cry from 401(k)'s, which may or may not include a contribution from the employer.
HT: FoxPolitics/Mary Lazich
Least (bi-ennial): 8.30%
Most (bi-ennial): 11.00%
In addition, it's worth recalling that State retirement bennies are "fixed-benefit," meaning that retirement income is guaranteed to be $X/month, unlike "fixed-contribution" which means that the State's annual contribution towards a retirement fund is $X/year.
And those retirement bennies are a FAR cry from 401(k)'s, which may or may not include a contribution from the employer.
HT: FoxPolitics/Mary Lazich
Tell Me Again About "Not 'Nuff Money" for UW Officials
Every few years (or more frequently) we hear all about the AWFUL situation at UW; they just cannot possibly recruit and hire qualified folks for positions because the compensation schedule is insufficient.
Martin, who reportedly made more than a half-million dollars in fiscal year 2006, will be taking a pay cut to come to Madison -- although she will make significantly more than Wiley's pay of $327,000 per year. In February, the UW Board of Regents voted to set a pay range of $370,000 to $452,000 for the position in an attempt to attract top candidates for the job.
The new Chancellor-ette took a CUT in pay to come to UW.
Hmmmmnnnn.
Which logical conclusion (based on the "compensation problem" blather) will the Regents choose?
1) Actually, $450K plus house plus car plus all expenses is sufficient for a high-prestige appointment such as UW-Madison; or
2) This candidate is not highly qualified.
By the way, you'll be hearing even more about "Domestic Partner Benefits."
"Domestic partner benefits have become increasingly important and it's the case that faculty do leave universities without them for universities that offer those benefits," says Martin
The big secret with "D P Bennies" of course, is that the bennies are payable for any current shackup. It's Universal HealthCare with window dressing nomenclature.
HT: Random10
Martin, who reportedly made more than a half-million dollars in fiscal year 2006, will be taking a pay cut to come to Madison -- although she will make significantly more than Wiley's pay of $327,000 per year. In February, the UW Board of Regents voted to set a pay range of $370,000 to $452,000 for the position in an attempt to attract top candidates for the job.
The new Chancellor-ette took a CUT in pay to come to UW.
Hmmmmnnnn.
Which logical conclusion (based on the "compensation problem" blather) will the Regents choose?
1) Actually, $450K plus house plus car plus all expenses is sufficient for a high-prestige appointment such as UW-Madison; or
2) This candidate is not highly qualified.
By the way, you'll be hearing even more about "Domestic Partner Benefits."
"Domestic partner benefits have become increasingly important and it's the case that faculty do leave universities without them for universities that offer those benefits," says Martin
The big secret with "D P Bennies" of course, is that the bennies are payable for any current shackup. It's Universal HealthCare with window dressing nomenclature.
HT: Random10
One Less Mass Murder, Thanks to CCW
Not reported in the Milwaukee JS:
...The alleged mass murderer had already killed two victims & had injured two others with gunshot wounds, but after reloading to resume his shooting spree he was shot & killed by an armed CCW permit holder who was also at the bar. The alleged mass murderer & his two dead victims were already dead by the time Police arrived on the scene
(In a small town in Nevada.)
HT: Of Arms and the Law
...The alleged mass murderer had already killed two victims & had injured two others with gunshot wounds, but after reloading to resume his shooting spree he was shot & killed by an armed CCW permit holder who was also at the bar. The alleged mass murderer & his two dead victims were already dead by the time Police arrived on the scene
(In a small town in Nevada.)
HT: Of Arms and the Law
The Search for Meaning
Can you decipher this?
"....But I am worried about the occasions on which antifoundationalist celebrations of queerness rely on their own projections of fixity, constraint, or subjection onto a fixed ground, often into feminism or the female body, in relation to which queer sexualities become figural, perfomative, playful, and fun. In the process, the female body appears to becomes its own trap, and the operations of misogyny disappear from view."
Well, I can't either. Probably because I didn't study enough German literature, or something.
Next time you're in Madistan, ask the UW's Chancellor-ette about it.
HT: Charlie Sykes
"....But I am worried about the occasions on which antifoundationalist celebrations of queerness rely on their own projections of fixity, constraint, or subjection onto a fixed ground, often into feminism or the female body, in relation to which queer sexualities become figural, perfomative, playful, and fun. In the process, the female body appears to becomes its own trap, and the operations of misogyny disappear from view."
Well, I can't either. Probably because I didn't study enough German literature, or something.
Next time you're in Madistan, ask the UW's Chancellor-ette about it.
HT: Charlie Sykes
Lied on Your HELOC App? It's Dischargeable
This is interesting.
...Judge Leslie Tchaikovsky ruled that a National City HELOC that had been "foreclosed out" would be discharged in the debtors' Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Nat City had argued that the debt should be non-dischargeable because the debtors made material false representations (namely, lying about their income) on which Nat City relied when it made the loan. The court agreed that the debtors had in fact lied to the bank, but it held that the bank did not "reasonably rely" on the misrepresentations.
...I argued some time ago that the whole point of stated income lending was to make the borrower the fall guy: the lender can make a dumb loan--knowing perfectly well that it is doing so--while shifting responsibility onto the borrower, who is the one "stating" the income and--in theory, at least--therefore liable for the misrepresentation. This is precisely where Judge Tchaikovsky has stepped in and said "no dice."
...it isn't so much that individual loans are fraudulent than that the published guidelines by which the loans were made and evaluated encouraged fraudulent behavior, or at least made it "fast and easy" for fraud to occur.
HT: Calculated Risk
Next time you hear some shill arguing that "the Banks were forced to make bad loans [by the Feds...]" remind them of this little story.
...Judge Leslie Tchaikovsky ruled that a National City HELOC that had been "foreclosed out" would be discharged in the debtors' Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Nat City had argued that the debt should be non-dischargeable because the debtors made material false representations (namely, lying about their income) on which Nat City relied when it made the loan. The court agreed that the debtors had in fact lied to the bank, but it held that the bank did not "reasonably rely" on the misrepresentations.
...I argued some time ago that the whole point of stated income lending was to make the borrower the fall guy: the lender can make a dumb loan--knowing perfectly well that it is doing so--while shifting responsibility onto the borrower, who is the one "stating" the income and--in theory, at least--therefore liable for the misrepresentation. This is precisely where Judge Tchaikovsky has stepped in and said "no dice."
...it isn't so much that individual loans are fraudulent than that the published guidelines by which the loans were made and evaluated encouraged fraudulent behavior, or at least made it "fast and easy" for fraud to occur.
HT: Calculated Risk
Next time you hear some shill arguing that "the Banks were forced to make bad loans [by the Feds...]" remind them of this little story.
Obama as Fiction Writer
Lawrence Henry shares my take on Obama.
Obama is not making "gaffes." He's been a myth-maker from the first. Isn't that the message of his books? He is basically nothing, with a mother who's a total flake and a father who's as absent as a father can be, no real other family to depend on. So he uses his brains (he has some), and he turns to literature of various kinds to assemble an identity.
...He's Gatsby, he's the King (or the Duke) from Huckleberry Finn, he's Philip Roth's carefully constructed professor from The Human Stain. He is, in short, a creature of American literature, not really an organically developed person at all
It's an interesting way to run a campaign. Bill Clinton got away with it for the most part--but that's because Bill Clinton was an 'extraordinarily good liar.'
Obama is not making "gaffes." He's been a myth-maker from the first. Isn't that the message of his books? He is basically nothing, with a mother who's a total flake and a father who's as absent as a father can be, no real other family to depend on. So he uses his brains (he has some), and he turns to literature of various kinds to assemble an identity.
...He's Gatsby, he's the King (or the Duke) from Huckleberry Finn, he's Philip Roth's carefully constructed professor from The Human Stain. He is, in short, a creature of American literature, not really an organically developed person at all
It's an interesting way to run a campaign. Bill Clinton got away with it for the most part--but that's because Bill Clinton was an 'extraordinarily good liar.'
Tax Ranking Spin
There was lots of ballyhoo!! and shouting!!! yesterday as a story from the Wisconsin Taxpayers' Alliance showed that Wisconsin's State/Local tax burden was 11th in the country.
That is, Wisconsin is out of the Top 10 Bloodsucking States.
But if you think you paid a lot of taxes, you're right--because:
...Wisconsin's taxes actually rose slightly in the fiscal year ended in June 2006 but those of other states rose more quickly
Yup. Some other States out-taxed Wisconsin last year.
Another news-editing quirk: while most reports stated that Wisconsin had only been in the "Big 10" since 1980, that does NOT tell the whole story.
Berry said the last time the state ranked 11th in the nation or better on taxes was in 1980, the year in which then Republican Gov. Lee Sherman Dreyfus and state lawmakers made a one-time cut in income taxes of $942 million.
Aside from that single year anomaly, the state has been in the top 10 since 1969, Berry said
Uh huh. That should make our Legislative Democrats feel better...
The actualities?
...all state and local taxes amounted to $22.3 billion, or 12.3 percent of personal income in Wisconsin in 2006. That was up slightly from the previous year, when taxes accounted for 12.1 percent of personal income.
The national average in 2006 for state and local taxes was 11.6 percent of personal income
In other words, you're still screwed more than most US citizens.
That is, Wisconsin is out of the Top 10 Bloodsucking States.
But if you think you paid a lot of taxes, you're right--because:
...Wisconsin's taxes actually rose slightly in the fiscal year ended in June 2006 but those of other states rose more quickly
Yup. Some other States out-taxed Wisconsin last year.
Another news-editing quirk: while most reports stated that Wisconsin had only been in the "Big 10" since 1980, that does NOT tell the whole story.
Berry said the last time the state ranked 11th in the nation or better on taxes was in 1980, the year in which then Republican Gov. Lee Sherman Dreyfus and state lawmakers made a one-time cut in income taxes of $942 million.
Aside from that single year anomaly, the state has been in the top 10 since 1969, Berry said
Uh huh. That should make our Legislative Democrats feel better...
The actualities?
...all state and local taxes amounted to $22.3 billion, or 12.3 percent of personal income in Wisconsin in 2006. That was up slightly from the previous year, when taxes accounted for 12.1 percent of personal income.
The national average in 2006 for state and local taxes was 11.6 percent of personal income
In other words, you're still screwed more than most US citizens.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Temporary Supremacy
Owen, a pleasant fellow, only scored 90%. 'Salright. He's just a kid.
I managed a 96.7%
Missed the Jamestown question because I was taking a nap at the time Jamestown was settled.
I managed a 96.7%
Missed the Jamestown question because I was taking a nap at the time Jamestown was settled.
Following Gay "Marriage" Is...
Scalia in Lawrence:
...At the end of its opinion--after having laid waste the foundations of our rational-basis jurisprudence--the Court says that the present case "does not involve whether the government must give formal recognition to any relationship that homosexual persons seek to enter." Ante, at 17. Do not believe it.
More illuminating than this bald, unreasoned disclaimer is the progression of thought displayed by an earlier passage in the Court's opinion, which notes the constitutional protections afforded to "personal decisions relating to marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, child rearing, and education," and then declares that "[p]ersons in a homosexual relationship may seek autonomy for these purposes, just as heterosexual persons do." Ante, at 13 (emphasis added).
Today's opinion dismantles the structure of constitutional law that has permitted a distinction to be made between heterosexual and homosexual unions, insofar as formal recognition in marriage is concerned. If moral disapprobation of homosexual conduct is "no legitimate state interest" for purposes of proscribing that conduct, ante, at 18; and if, as the Court coos (casting aside all pretense of neutrality), "[w]hen sexuality finds overt expression in intimate conduct with another person, the conduct can be but one element in a personal bond that is more enduring," ante, at 6; what justification could there possibly be for denying the benefits of marriage to homosexual couples exercising "[t]he liberty protected by the Constitution," ibid.? Surely not the encouragement of procreation, since the sterile and the elderly are allowed to marry. This case "does not involve" the issue of homosexual marriage only if one entertains the belief that principle and logic have nothing to do with the decisions of this Court. Many will hope that, as the Court comfortingly assures us, this is so
Next stop: Polygamy/Polyandry.
...At the end of its opinion--after having laid waste the foundations of our rational-basis jurisprudence--the Court says that the present case "does not involve whether the government must give formal recognition to any relationship that homosexual persons seek to enter." Ante, at 17. Do not believe it.
More illuminating than this bald, unreasoned disclaimer is the progression of thought displayed by an earlier passage in the Court's opinion, which notes the constitutional protections afforded to "personal decisions relating to marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, child rearing, and education," and then declares that "[p]ersons in a homosexual relationship may seek autonomy for these purposes, just as heterosexual persons do." Ante, at 13 (emphasis added).
Today's opinion dismantles the structure of constitutional law that has permitted a distinction to be made between heterosexual and homosexual unions, insofar as formal recognition in marriage is concerned. If moral disapprobation of homosexual conduct is "no legitimate state interest" for purposes of proscribing that conduct, ante, at 18; and if, as the Court coos (casting aside all pretense of neutrality), "[w]hen sexuality finds overt expression in intimate conduct with another person, the conduct can be but one element in a personal bond that is more enduring," ante, at 6; what justification could there possibly be for denying the benefits of marriage to homosexual couples exercising "[t]he liberty protected by the Constitution," ibid.? Surely not the encouragement of procreation, since the sterile and the elderly are allowed to marry. This case "does not involve" the issue of homosexual marriage only if one entertains the belief that principle and logic have nothing to do with the decisions of this Court. Many will hope that, as the Court comfortingly assures us, this is so
Next stop: Polygamy/Polyandry.
How to Lose $7.2 Billion
The French Bank, Societe General, lost about $7.2 billion on trading activities--all due to the activities of ONE of their employees. The report has been issued, and there are five lessons extracted by ComputerWorld.
Supervision was lacking. Despite several internal alerts that should have triggered a closer look at his activities, Kerviel remained largely unsupervised...
A new desk manager assigned to Kerviel in April 2007 was ineffective and weak, and did not have enough support from his superiors...The manager did not carry out an analysis of the earnings generated by his traders — a task that was supposed to be one of his primary responsibilities
Several alerts by the front office got little attention and less response...despite the suspiciously high value amount (59% of his group's earnings) and growth in Kerviel's declared earnings in 2007, no investigation or analysis was ever done.
Kerviel's manager had an overly tolerant attitude toward intraday trading activities. Such trading by Kerviel was "unjustified" given his assignment and lack of seniority as a trader, the report noted
The operations environment was critically chaotic. A "chronically" understaffed middle-office operations group, combined with fast growth and a rapid multiplication in the number of products, contributed to a chaotic operations environment,...
Any one of these is "textbook." Altogether, they add up, no?
Supervision was lacking. Despite several internal alerts that should have triggered a closer look at his activities, Kerviel remained largely unsupervised...
A new desk manager assigned to Kerviel in April 2007 was ineffective and weak, and did not have enough support from his superiors...The manager did not carry out an analysis of the earnings generated by his traders — a task that was supposed to be one of his primary responsibilities
Several alerts by the front office got little attention and less response...despite the suspiciously high value amount (59% of his group's earnings) and growth in Kerviel's declared earnings in 2007, no investigation or analysis was ever done.
Kerviel's manager had an overly tolerant attitude toward intraday trading activities. Such trading by Kerviel was "unjustified" given his assignment and lack of seniority as a trader, the report noted
The operations environment was critically chaotic. A "chronically" understaffed middle-office operations group, combined with fast growth and a rapid multiplication in the number of products, contributed to a chaotic operations environment,...
Any one of these is "textbook." Altogether, they add up, no?
Legal Asininity In Print (or) Why Dealing With Lawyers Leads to Drink
Pace Rick Esenberg, this is proof-positive that the legal profession is clearly removed from the real world.
Abstract:
This Article asks whether a fair application of the Supreme Court's current doctrine of stare decisis to the Supreme Court's current doctrine of stare decisis would counsel in favor of adhering to current doctrine or departing from it. Professor Paulsen argues that the paradoxical answer is that current doctrine of precedent suggests that current doctrine of precedent disserves all of the doctrine's supposed policy justifications. Accordingly, the Court's current doctrine of stare decisis may and should be overruled - according to the Court's current doctrine of stare decisis.
Throw away all those OTHER "lawyer-joke" books...
HT: Feddie
Abstract:
This Article asks whether a fair application of the Supreme Court's current doctrine of stare decisis to the Supreme Court's current doctrine of stare decisis would counsel in favor of adhering to current doctrine or departing from it. Professor Paulsen argues that the paradoxical answer is that current doctrine of precedent suggests that current doctrine of precedent disserves all of the doctrine's supposed policy justifications. Accordingly, the Court's current doctrine of stare decisis may and should be overruled - according to the Court's current doctrine of stare decisis.
Throw away all those OTHER "lawyer-joke" books...
HT: Feddie
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Is This Appropriate "Punishment"?
A under-18-year-old high-school athlete gets a DUI ticket, first one, no injuries, no property damage.
As a result, the athlete is "suspended" from athletic competition.
For ONE-HALF of the season.
(This did happen, but I'm being deliberately hazy about the details. It happened within SE Wisconsin.)
Seems to me that this is not the way to bend the sapling, folks.
Thoughts?
As a result, the athlete is "suspended" from athletic competition.
For ONE-HALF of the season.
(This did happen, but I'm being deliberately hazy about the details. It happened within SE Wisconsin.)
Seems to me that this is not the way to bend the sapling, folks.
Thoughts?
Obama Revises More History
We've already mentioned that Obama does NOT know when the Civil Rights marches occurred--he claims to have been conceived at that time, but his birth certificate shows he was born in 1961.
The marches were in 1965.
Here's another offering from the Mal-Educated Candidate:
Obama also spoke about his uncle, who was part of the American brigade that helped to liberate Auschwitz. He said the family legend is that, upon returning from war, his uncle spent six months in an attic. “Now obviously, something had really affected him deeply, but at that time there just weren’t the kinds of facilities to help somebody work through that kind of pain,” Obama said
The RUSSIAN Army liberated Auschwitz, Barak, baby.
You can look it up.
HT: Gerald
The marches were in 1965.
Here's another offering from the Mal-Educated Candidate:
Obama also spoke about his uncle, who was part of the American brigade that helped to liberate Auschwitz. He said the family legend is that, upon returning from war, his uncle spent six months in an attic. “Now obviously, something had really affected him deeply, but at that time there just weren’t the kinds of facilities to help somebody work through that kind of pain,” Obama said
The RUSSIAN Army liberated Auschwitz, Barak, baby.
You can look it up.
HT: Gerald
Obama at Seance
Honestly, you'd think the guy is Dan Quayle or GWB the way he mangles stuff.
Here's a snip from his Memorial Day speech in New Mexico:
On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today -- our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.
Of course, it's possible that he did NOT mangle his text, I suppose.
HT: JustOneMinute
Here's a snip from his Memorial Day speech in New Mexico:
On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today -- our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.
Of course, it's possible that he did NOT mangle his text, I suppose.
HT: JustOneMinute
The Madison Disconnect
Had the occasion to drive to Madison on Memorial Day.
Nice day for a drive, too...
And nice to know how the REST of the State lives.
Gasoline out there? $3.86/gal. for 'regular.'
When we left Milwaukee, the signs here read $4.16.
Nice day for a drive, too...
And nice to know how the REST of the State lives.
Gasoline out there? $3.86/gal. for 'regular.'
When we left Milwaukee, the signs here read $4.16.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Sociology 101, Birth and Death of Civilizations
Dreher read Sorokin's The Crisis of Our Age and took away a bit which he shared.
"Crisis" is a summation of Sorokin's cyclical theory of social development. He believed that civilizations cycle through three basic states, based on the dominant view of the nature of truth within that civilization:
1. The ideational, in which a culture is built around God, or some other transcendental source of truth. Material concerns are secondary to spiritual ones.
2. The idealistic, which synthesizes spiritual and material values through reason.
3. The sensate, in which a culture is built around material concerns, and de-emphasizes the spiritual as the foundation upon which the culture is built.
Sorokin held that both the ideational and sensate were only partial truths, and that true human flourishing would be out of balance if civilization focused too heavily on one over the other. Yet both provide for authentic human needs; as such, neither ideational nor sensate cultures can go on forever, without suffering a correction -- possibly traumatic -- marking the transition from one state to another. The idealistic model is, well, ideal, but it is also the most unstable, and rarest.
Sorokin was the first head of Harvard's sociology department.
More:
As order developed and wealth began to spread, the ideational culture of the early Middle Ages, gave way to the idealistic culture of the High Middle Ages, perfected intellectually in the work of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Scholastics. But then, in the 14th century, the Scholastics lost the great medieval debate to the Nominalists, who taught that the only truths we can know for sure are those revealed to us through our senses
Occam (of the razor-fame, preceding Gillette) was the first Nominalist.
Nominalism is the eccentric cousin of Aquinas' definition of knowledge, which (inelegantly approximated) stated that 'knowledge is the conformance of one's mind to reality.' Of course, Aquinas included God as the prime part of 'reality;' Occam's nominalism offered the possibility of excluding God.
Thus, ironically, we have 'knowledge' which is only relative, because it lacks the Center. Phrased another way, the Catholic mind seeks synthesis; the relativist mind doesn't care about that.
The denial of universals carries with it the denial of everything transcending experience. The denial of everything transcending experience means inevitably -- though ways are found to hedge on this -- the denial of truth. With the denial of objective truth there is no escape from the relativism of "man the measure of all things. " The witches [on the heath in "Macbeth" -- RD] spoke with the habitual equivocation of oracles when they told man that by this easy choice he might realize himself more fully, for they were actually initiating a course which cuts one off from reality. Thus began the "abomination of desolation" appearing today as a feeling of alienation from all fixed truth--Richard Weaver
Sorokin maintains that the "sensate" phase of the West, (c. 1400-date) has brought significant benefits in science, art, literature. But it's not unalloyed progress.
A further consequence of such a system of truth [sensate] is the development of a temporalistic, relativistic, and nihilistic mentality. The sensory world is in a state of incessant flux and becoming. There is nothing unchangeable in it -- not even an eternal Supreme Being. Mind dominated by the truth of the senses simply cannot perceive any permanency, but apprehends all values in terms of shift and transformation Sensate mentality views everything from the standpoint of evolution and progress. This leads to an increasing neglect of the eternal values, which come to be replaced by temporary, or short-time, considerations. Sensate society lives in, and appreciates mainly, the present. Since the past is irretrievable and no longer exists, while the future is not yet here and is uncertain, only the present moment is real and desirable.
Dreher's own short essay on Rieff's work:
Writes Rieff: "The question is no longer as Dostoevski put it: 'Can civilized men believe?' Rather: Can unbelieving men be civilized?" That is, can people who do not believe in the existence of objective truth, and the possibility that it can be authoritatively expressed, ever form a durable civilization?
That second question, "Can unbelieving men be civilized?" is far more portentous than Dostoevsky's...
"Crisis" is a summation of Sorokin's cyclical theory of social development. He believed that civilizations cycle through three basic states, based on the dominant view of the nature of truth within that civilization:
1. The ideational, in which a culture is built around God, or some other transcendental source of truth. Material concerns are secondary to spiritual ones.
2. The idealistic, which synthesizes spiritual and material values through reason.
3. The sensate, in which a culture is built around material concerns, and de-emphasizes the spiritual as the foundation upon which the culture is built.
Sorokin held that both the ideational and sensate were only partial truths, and that true human flourishing would be out of balance if civilization focused too heavily on one over the other. Yet both provide for authentic human needs; as such, neither ideational nor sensate cultures can go on forever, without suffering a correction -- possibly traumatic -- marking the transition from one state to another. The idealistic model is, well, ideal, but it is also the most unstable, and rarest.
Sorokin was the first head of Harvard's sociology department.
More:
As order developed and wealth began to spread, the ideational culture of the early Middle Ages, gave way to the idealistic culture of the High Middle Ages, perfected intellectually in the work of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Scholastics. But then, in the 14th century, the Scholastics lost the great medieval debate to the Nominalists, who taught that the only truths we can know for sure are those revealed to us through our senses
Occam (of the razor-fame, preceding Gillette) was the first Nominalist.
Nominalism is the eccentric cousin of Aquinas' definition of knowledge, which (inelegantly approximated) stated that 'knowledge is the conformance of one's mind to reality.' Of course, Aquinas included God as the prime part of 'reality;' Occam's nominalism offered the possibility of excluding God.
Thus, ironically, we have 'knowledge' which is only relative, because it lacks the Center. Phrased another way, the Catholic mind seeks synthesis; the relativist mind doesn't care about that.
The denial of universals carries with it the denial of everything transcending experience. The denial of everything transcending experience means inevitably -- though ways are found to hedge on this -- the denial of truth. With the denial of objective truth there is no escape from the relativism of "man the measure of all things. " The witches [on the heath in "Macbeth" -- RD] spoke with the habitual equivocation of oracles when they told man that by this easy choice he might realize himself more fully, for they were actually initiating a course which cuts one off from reality. Thus began the "abomination of desolation" appearing today as a feeling of alienation from all fixed truth--Richard Weaver
Sorokin maintains that the "sensate" phase of the West, (c. 1400-date) has brought significant benefits in science, art, literature. But it's not unalloyed progress.
A further consequence of such a system of truth [sensate] is the development of a temporalistic, relativistic, and nihilistic mentality. The sensory world is in a state of incessant flux and becoming. There is nothing unchangeable in it -- not even an eternal Supreme Being. Mind dominated by the truth of the senses simply cannot perceive any permanency, but apprehends all values in terms of shift and transformation Sensate mentality views everything from the standpoint of evolution and progress. This leads to an increasing neglect of the eternal values, which come to be replaced by temporary, or short-time, considerations. Sensate society lives in, and appreciates mainly, the present. Since the past is irretrievable and no longer exists, while the future is not yet here and is uncertain, only the present moment is real and desirable.
Dreher's own short essay on Rieff's work:
Writes Rieff: "The question is no longer as Dostoevski put it: 'Can civilized men believe?' Rather: Can unbelieving men be civilized?" That is, can people who do not believe in the existence of objective truth, and the possibility that it can be authoritatively expressed, ever form a durable civilization?
That second question, "Can unbelieving men be civilized?" is far more portentous than Dostoevsky's...
History, Considered
G K Chesterton reminds us of real history.
IF our faith had been a mere fad of the fading empire, fad would have followed fad in the twilight, and if the civilization ever re-emerged (and many such have never re-emerged) it would have been under some new barbaric flag. But the Christian Church was the last life of the old society and was also the first life of the new. She took the people who were forgetting how to make an arch, and she taught them to invent the Gothic arch. In a word, the most absurd thing that could be said of the Church is the thing we have all heard said of it. How can we say that the Church wishes to bring us back into the Dark Ages? The Church was the only thing that ever brought us out of them.
The Revisionists have yet to prove otherwise, but they enjoy unchallenged lies.
HT: VeniSancte
IF our faith had been a mere fad of the fading empire, fad would have followed fad in the twilight, and if the civilization ever re-emerged (and many such have never re-emerged) it would have been under some new barbaric flag. But the Christian Church was the last life of the old society and was also the first life of the new. She took the people who were forgetting how to make an arch, and she taught them to invent the Gothic arch. In a word, the most absurd thing that could be said of the Church is the thing we have all heard said of it. How can we say that the Church wishes to bring us back into the Dark Ages? The Church was the only thing that ever brought us out of them.
The Revisionists have yet to prove otherwise, but they enjoy unchallenged lies.
HT: VeniSancte
Elisabeth Witte, A Great Heart
Elisabeth sang...
Our association goes back more than 30 years, to the Conservatory Singers days. The lady was always helpful, slightly reserved if you did not know her, and a heartfelt smile and greeting when she knew you.
Yes, I knew Gerhard, too--
Elisabeth will always be that 'edelweiss smile,' and a great heart.
In paradisum deducant te angeli.
Our association goes back more than 30 years, to the Conservatory Singers days. The lady was always helpful, slightly reserved if you did not know her, and a heartfelt smile and greeting when she knew you.
Yes, I knew Gerhard, too--
Elisabeth will always be that 'edelweiss smile,' and a great heart.
In paradisum deducant te angeli.
Memorial Day: Part Three
Now comes Grim, a gentle warrior and academic, quoting GKC, on the need for soldiers.
Then Alfred smiled. And the smile of him
Was like the sun for power.
But he only pointed: bade them heed
Those peasants of the Berkshire breed,
Who plucked the old Horse of the weed
As they pluck it to this hour.
“Will ye part with the weeds for ever?
Or show daisies to the door?
Or will you bid the bold grass
Go, and return no more?
“So ceaseless and so secret
Thrive terror and theft set free;
Treason and shame shall come to pass
While one weed flowers in a morass;
And like the stillness of stiff grass
The stillness of tyranny.
“Over our white souls also
Wild heresies and high
Wave prouder than the plumes of grass,
And sadder than their sigh.
“And I go riding against the raid,
And ye know not where I am;
But ye shall know in a day or year,
When one green star of grass grows here;
Chaos has charged you, charger and spear,
Battle-axe and battering-ram.
“And though skies alter and empires melt,
This word shall still be true:
If we would have the horse of old,
Scour ye the horse anew."
To understand the reference to the White Horse, go here.
Then Alfred smiled. And the smile of him
Was like the sun for power.
But he only pointed: bade them heed
Those peasants of the Berkshire breed,
Who plucked the old Horse of the weed
As they pluck it to this hour.
“Will ye part with the weeds for ever?
Or show daisies to the door?
Or will you bid the bold grass
Go, and return no more?
“So ceaseless and so secret
Thrive terror and theft set free;
Treason and shame shall come to pass
While one weed flowers in a morass;
And like the stillness of stiff grass
The stillness of tyranny.
“Over our white souls also
Wild heresies and high
Wave prouder than the plumes of grass,
And sadder than their sigh.
“And I go riding against the raid,
And ye know not where I am;
But ye shall know in a day or year,
When one green star of grass grows here;
Chaos has charged you, charger and spear,
Battle-axe and battering-ram.
“And though skies alter and empires melt,
This word shall still be true:
If we would have the horse of old,
Scour ye the horse anew."
To understand the reference to the White Horse, go here.
Memorial Day: Part Two
".....Let us sleep now..."
Retrieved from "http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Strange_Meeting"
Strange Meeting--Wilfred Owen
It seemed that out of the battle I escaped
Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped
Through granites which titanic wars had groined.
Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned,
Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred.
Then, as I probed them, one sprang up, and stared
With piteous recognition in fixed eyes,
Lifting distressful hands as if to bless.
And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall,-
By his dead smile I knew we stood in Hell.
With a thousand fears that vision's face was grained;
Yet no blood reached there from the upper ground,
And no guns thumped, or down the flues made moan.
"Strange friend," I said, "Here is no cause to mourn."
"None," said the other, "Save the undone years,
The hopelessness. Whatever hope is yours,
Was my life also; I went hunting wild
After the wildest beauty in the world,
Which lies not calm in eyes, or braided hair,
But mocks the steady running of the hour,
And if it grieves, grieves richlier than here.
For by my glee might many men have laughed,
And of my weeping something has been left,
Which must die now. I mean the truth untold,
The pity of war, the pity war distilled.
Now men will go content with what we spoiled.
Or, discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled.
They will be swift with swiftness of the tigress,
None will break ranks, though nations trek from progress.
Courage was mine, and I had mystery;
Wisdom was mine, and I had mastery;
To miss the march of this retreating world
Into vain citadels that are not walled.
Then, when much blood had clogged their chariot-wheels
I would go up and wash them from sweet wells,
Even with truths that lie too deep for taint.
I would have poured my spirit without stint
But not through wounds; not on the cess of war.
Foreheads of men have bled where no wounds were.
I am the enemy you killed, my friend.
I knew you in this dark; for so you frowned
Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.
I parried; but my hands were loath and cold.Let us sleep now . . ."
Retrieved from "http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Strange_Meeting"
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Feingold's Secret Foreign Junket
And awaaaayyy they go!!
Usually, Jim Sensenbrenner is bashed all to smithereens for taking a trip overseas during Congressional breaks.
We're sure that Senator Feingold will get the same treatment--except Feingold's being a bit circumspect:
Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold also plans to spend this week's recess in a foreign country as part of his work on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But that's as much as his staffers would say about his trip.
Obviously a "Top Secret/Eyes Only" itinerary, right, Rusty?
Usually, Jim Sensenbrenner is bashed all to smithereens for taking a trip overseas during Congressional breaks.
We're sure that Senator Feingold will get the same treatment--except Feingold's being a bit circumspect:
Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold also plans to spend this week's recess in a foreign country as part of his work on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But that's as much as his staffers would say about his trip.
Obviously a "Top Secret/Eyes Only" itinerary, right, Rusty?
Back-Billed for Gas? Reality-Check Time
Yah, it's awful.
At least 21,000 We Energies customers are getting hit with unexpected bills totaling about $3 million after broken meters failed to accurately report natural gas usage this winter
We Energies is back-billing customers by estimating their gas usage.
As you might imagine, some folks are unhappy with the results.
A couple of days ago we got the bill for usage from early April through early May. We used LESS natural gas and LESS electricity than the year-ago period. (The utility provides cute little charts right on the bill.)
And the bill was higher than the year-ago comparable--by about $30.00. That's because the utility is charging more per therm and per KWH than last year.
Too bad about the meter problem, but hey! Prices are up, folks.
At least 21,000 We Energies customers are getting hit with unexpected bills totaling about $3 million after broken meters failed to accurately report natural gas usage this winter
We Energies is back-billing customers by estimating their gas usage.
As you might imagine, some folks are unhappy with the results.
A couple of days ago we got the bill for usage from early April through early May. We used LESS natural gas and LESS electricity than the year-ago period. (The utility provides cute little charts right on the bill.)
And the bill was higher than the year-ago comparable--by about $30.00. That's because the utility is charging more per therm and per KWH than last year.
Too bad about the meter problem, but hey! Prices are up, folks.
Dells Misses Foreign Labor. Awwwww. Too Bad
According to the JSOnline's story, Wisconsin Dells employers are scrambling for labor. Several days ago, a similar complaint was voiced by employers in Door County.
...due to changes to the national temporary guest-worker program and the weak American dollar, General Manager Tom Diehl and other Dells employers are facing an international labor shortage this summer.
"We have 27 (foreign workers) this year," Diehl said before the Tommy Bartlett Show opened its season Friday night. "Usually, we have no less than 60."
The nationwide crunch among tourist-town employers comes after Congress failed to renew a provision that exempted returning foreign guest workers from counting toward the limit of 66,000 per year. Without the exemption, applications for the H-2B visas were filled remarkably fast this year.
Hmmmmmm.
Read the entire article. Go ahead. What's missing from the article's text?
(Hint: it's spelled W-A-G-E-S)
Same thing was missing from the Door County article.
Reality-check time, here. There are PLENTY of American college students who would love to have a summer job paying $8.00-$10.00/hour. But if they want to pay a big chunk of their tuition bills with the proceeds, then living expenses have to be considered.
A college-student friend of ours took a summer job at the Dells a few years back. Even though she lived in a rental property with 3 other kids and lived on the usual Ramen-noodle diet, the expenses almost equalled the net-after-tax income.
Contrast that with real-life experiences of a few decades ago, when an ambitious college student could knock down ALL their tuition payment with a summer-job wage if they were living at home. Yes, college tuitions have risen, faster than medical costs, in the last 20 years or so. But then, "summer job" wages haven't kept pace, either.
According to DoL's COL-index: $2.50/hour in 1965 would be $17.+/hour today, and the UW-M's $150./semester tuition of 1965 would be $1,022.00 in 2008.
Maybe "creative recruiting" should include rents and meals--or larger wages?
Naaaaahhhhh. That would be silly--having Americans do jobs that Americans are WILLING to do.
...due to changes to the national temporary guest-worker program and the weak American dollar, General Manager Tom Diehl and other Dells employers are facing an international labor shortage this summer.
"We have 27 (foreign workers) this year," Diehl said before the Tommy Bartlett Show opened its season Friday night. "Usually, we have no less than 60."
The nationwide crunch among tourist-town employers comes after Congress failed to renew a provision that exempted returning foreign guest workers from counting toward the limit of 66,000 per year. Without the exemption, applications for the H-2B visas were filled remarkably fast this year.
Hmmmmmm.
Read the entire article. Go ahead. What's missing from the article's text?
(Hint: it's spelled W-A-G-E-S)
Same thing was missing from the Door County article.
Reality-check time, here. There are PLENTY of American college students who would love to have a summer job paying $8.00-$10.00/hour. But if they want to pay a big chunk of their tuition bills with the proceeds, then living expenses have to be considered.
A college-student friend of ours took a summer job at the Dells a few years back. Even though she lived in a rental property with 3 other kids and lived on the usual Ramen-noodle diet, the expenses almost equalled the net-after-tax income.
Contrast that with real-life experiences of a few decades ago, when an ambitious college student could knock down ALL their tuition payment with a summer-job wage if they were living at home. Yes, college tuitions have risen, faster than medical costs, in the last 20 years or so. But then, "summer job" wages haven't kept pace, either.
According to DoL's COL-index: $2.50/hour in 1965 would be $17.+/hour today, and the UW-M's $150./semester tuition of 1965 would be $1,022.00 in 2008.
Maybe "creative recruiting" should include rents and meals--or larger wages?
Naaaaahhhhh. That would be silly--having Americans do jobs that Americans are WILLING to do.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Memorial Day: Part One
Ross McGinnis will receive the Medal of Honor, posthumously.
McGinnis distinguished himself so greatly in his first three months in Iraq that a waiver was requested - and granted - to promote him to Specialist (E-4) despite lacking the requisite time in service.
On December 4, 2006, at the age of 19, Ross McGinnis traded his life for the lives of four members of his squad, when he jumped on a grenade and shielded them from the blast. He remains 19 years old forever.
On the last day of his life, PFC McGinnis was manning the .50-caliber machine gun mounted in a turret atop his Humvee, and serving as the rear guard in a mounted combat patrol against insurgents and sectarian fighters. As the convoy made a turn onto a narrow street, a fragmentation grenade was thrown from the rooftop of an adjacent building. According to the official report, "[McGinnis] immediately yelled "Grenade!" on the vehicle's intercom system to alert the four other members of his crew...[he] made an attempt to personally deflect the grenade, but was unable to prevent it from falling through the gunner's hatch."
For his subsequent actions, McGinnis was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, the military's third-highest award for combat heroism (specifically, for "gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States").
According to platoon sergeant Cedric Thomas, who was commanding the vehicle, "McGinnis yelled 'Grenade...It’s in the truck!’...I looked out of the corner of my eye as I was crouching down and I saw him pin it down.
From the Silver Star citation:
When the grenade detonated, PFC McGinnis absorbed all lethal fragments and the concussion with his own body killing him instantly. His early warning allowed all four members of his crew to position their bodies in a protective posture to prepare for the grenade's blast. As a result of his quick reflexes and heroic measures, no other members of the vehicle crew were seriously wounded in the attack. His gallant action and total disregard for his personal well-being directly saved four men from certain serious injury or death.
Greater love than this has no man...
Condi: Failing
I recall a local RadioYapper going into verbal....ahhh....bliss over the possibility of a Condi Rice run for the Presidency. I didn't understand that then; it was never obvious to me that Ms. Rice was anything more than a very bright and likeable lady.
It may well be that those are all the credentials she will have to show...
The "surge" of troops to Iraq has produced the signal foreign policy success of George Bush's second term. In his devastating Weekly Standard cover story on Condoleezza Rice's tenure as Secretary of State, my friend Stephen Hayes reports that Rice opposed the surge. (Hayes quotes Rice confirming her opposition to the surge in a May 9 interview conducted with him for the article.) The success of the surge is of course attributable to the brilliant performance of the American armed forces under the leadership of General Petraeus.
In his intensely reported article, Hayes takes a look at the major areas of foreign policy committed to Rice's care during Bush's second term: North Korea, Syria, Iran and Iran's terrorist proxies. In these areas, the administration's record is one of miscalculation, retreat and failure. Why? By way of explanation, Hayes quotes an unnamed State Department official: "We have gone from a policy of preemption to a policy of preemptive capitulation."
As one might expect, PowerLine's focus is on the Gordian Knot called the Middle East, where there is no initiative which seems to work. I don't think Condi should take the fall for that, because it seems that a 1,000-year history of intransigence (on both, or all three or four, sides) is a lot to overcome in 4 years--or 8.
But opposing the Surge? Bumbling on North Korea?
She coulda done better.
It may well be that those are all the credentials she will have to show...
The "surge" of troops to Iraq has produced the signal foreign policy success of George Bush's second term. In his devastating Weekly Standard cover story on Condoleezza Rice's tenure as Secretary of State, my friend Stephen Hayes reports that Rice opposed the surge. (Hayes quotes Rice confirming her opposition to the surge in a May 9 interview conducted with him for the article.) The success of the surge is of course attributable to the brilliant performance of the American armed forces under the leadership of General Petraeus.
In his intensely reported article, Hayes takes a look at the major areas of foreign policy committed to Rice's care during Bush's second term: North Korea, Syria, Iran and Iran's terrorist proxies. In these areas, the administration's record is one of miscalculation, retreat and failure. Why? By way of explanation, Hayes quotes an unnamed State Department official: "We have gone from a policy of preemption to a policy of preemptive capitulation."
As one might expect, PowerLine's focus is on the Gordian Knot called the Middle East, where there is no initiative which seems to work. I don't think Condi should take the fall for that, because it seems that a 1,000-year history of intransigence (on both, or all three or four, sides) is a lot to overcome in 4 years--or 8.
But opposing the Surge? Bumbling on North Korea?
She coulda done better.
Demand Drops as Price Increases
No surprise here, but the numbers are interesing.
Americans drove less in March 2008, continuing a trend that began last November, according to estimates released today from the Federal Highway Administration....
The FHWA’s “Traffic Volume Trends” report, produced monthly since 1942, shows that estimated vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on all U.S. public roads for March 2008 fell 4.3 percent as compared with March 2007 travel. This is the first time estimated March travel on public roads fell since 1979. At 11 billion miles less in March 2008 than in the previous March, this is the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history.
Maybe spending $Umpty-Zillion on I-94 from Illinois to Milwaukee is ...ill-advised?
HT: Calculated Risk
Americans drove less in March 2008, continuing a trend that began last November, according to estimates released today from the Federal Highway Administration....
The FHWA’s “Traffic Volume Trends” report, produced monthly since 1942, shows that estimated vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on all U.S. public roads for March 2008 fell 4.3 percent as compared with March 2007 travel. This is the first time estimated March travel on public roads fell since 1979. At 11 billion miles less in March 2008 than in the previous March, this is the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history.
Maybe spending $Umpty-Zillion on I-94 from Illinois to Milwaukee is ...ill-advised?
HT: Calculated Risk
It's Just Not FAIR, Herbie!
So...
Gasoline's over $4.00/gallon, food prices are up 12-18% since last year, medical costs continue to escalate....
And Herbie Kohl, Nobody's Senator, votes to give "aid" to farmers earning $5 million/year.
What a maroon he really is.
Gasoline's over $4.00/gallon, food prices are up 12-18% since last year, medical costs continue to escalate....
And Herbie Kohl, Nobody's Senator, votes to give "aid" to farmers earning $5 million/year.
What a maroon he really is.
Friday, May 23, 2008
The Secondary Handgun Market
After you read this post, which is mostly* factual, you tell ME how to fix the 'secondary gun' problem.
It's VERY obvious from reading the post, folks.
* The "gun-show loophole" is a LOT smaller than the article implies.
It's VERY obvious from reading the post, folks.
* The "gun-show loophole" is a LOT smaller than the article implies.
San Francisco vs. Beer
Heh.
The scientifically-inclined Random10 asks a very good question:
How can beer get cold if carbon dioxide traps heat?
This may become a serious problem for the tavern-keepers of San Francisco.
As energy prices soar and the economy stalls, San Francisco bureaucrats provide their solution. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District's board of directors voted 15-1 to impose fees on businesses that emit carbon dioxide.
Any bar which pours a tap beer, or opens a bottle of same, will (by definition) "emit" carbon dioxide.
Obviously, SanFran needs a Tavern League.
The scientifically-inclined Random10 asks a very good question:
How can beer get cold if carbon dioxide traps heat?
This may become a serious problem for the tavern-keepers of San Francisco.
As energy prices soar and the economy stalls, San Francisco bureaucrats provide their solution. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District's board of directors voted 15-1 to impose fees on businesses that emit carbon dioxide.
Any bar which pours a tap beer, or opens a bottle of same, will (by definition) "emit" carbon dioxide.
Obviously, SanFran needs a Tavern League.
P-Mac: Conservative Prophet
Sykes was kind enough to point out the column, run in some foreign country's newspaper. McIlheran objects to Obama's 'greed and gluttony' remarks made in Seattle, and clarifies the likely results of implementing the thoughts.
Here's the first excerpt of interest:
The trouble with saying America eats too much is that we don't have a collective mouth. We have 300 million individual ones, of varying degrees of sinful gluttony. Public policy is too blunt an instrument to redeem them.
The correct safeguard against such personal, individual failings is personal, individual morality, bounded by social expectation, not legal commands. This would be obvious had the left not spent the past two centuries emasculating any extragovernmental institution, especially religion.
Hmmmmmm.....
Buried in the midst of far more elegant writings is this:
Of COURSE "conservatism" recognizes frailty and relativism--but that is not per se "gloomy." It's realistic, and underlines the locus of real problems in the polity: the moral frailty of individuals. That is precisely the reason that Conservatives are wary of Big Gummint: it's not going to resolve failings of individual humans. No way. No how.
Or this, from R R Reno:
...freedom cannot give itself the obligations necessary for its own perfection: the ordered liberty of assent to that which is greater.
And from the same post, this from Deneen, briefly summarizing Aristotle's concept of the ideal polity:
...a proper economy is cognizant of limits to moneymaking in the name of fundamental human goods of which prosperity is a part, but only a part. Those goods include healthy and stable communities which are both formed by culture and in which cultures are maintained and preserved; a sound culture that inculcates central human virtues and that is ably passed on from one generation to the next; a culture that makes and keeps good families; a culture that inculcates the very virtues that will be necessary for a good, humane, and moral economy (one that avoids the abuses that we have recently seen in our financial markets); a culture that strongly emphasizes a sense of gratitude and obligation between generations; a culture that encourages stewardship, conservation and fidelity; and perhaps above all, a culture that reins in and chastens our eternal temptation toward Promethean or sinful self-aggrandizement, that teaches and enforces limits, that calls to our mind our flaws, and that does not allow us to lose sight of our fundamental condition of being dependent upon one another. A further good is our ability to act in concert with one another to achieve and maintain such a culture and polity - citizenship as shared and mutual governance, which goes far beyond our current conception as citizenship as suffrage...
McIlheran, of course, is correct. The second part-of-interest in his column is the prophesy:
But now, in policy we trust. So Mr. Obama thrills his Whole Foods base and spooks everyone else because they suspect he's fixing to have some form of government decide what "too much" is...
And makes a social observation which is Chestertonian to the core:
Mr. Obama's gaffe exposes the default pessimism of his base, emotionally drawn to constraint, whatever the excuse.
Having relegated God to a museum, they now must replace Him, substituting 'rules of the polity' for the 10 Commandments and the Beatitudes.
They will rebuild Nature in their own image and likeness, and with their own rules; a hubris which calls to mind the trusim about "fools rushing in..."
Here's the first excerpt of interest:
The trouble with saying America eats too much is that we don't have a collective mouth. We have 300 million individual ones, of varying degrees of sinful gluttony. Public policy is too blunt an instrument to redeem them.
The correct safeguard against such personal, individual failings is personal, individual morality, bounded by social expectation, not legal commands. This would be obvious had the left not spent the past two centuries emasculating any extragovernmental institution, especially religion.
Hmmmmmm.....
Buried in the midst of far more elegant writings is this:
Of COURSE "conservatism" recognizes frailty and relativism--but that is not per se "gloomy." It's realistic, and underlines the locus of real problems in the polity: the moral frailty of individuals. That is precisely the reason that Conservatives are wary of Big Gummint: it's not going to resolve failings of individual humans. No way. No how.
Or this, from R R Reno:
...freedom cannot give itself the obligations necessary for its own perfection: the ordered liberty of assent to that which is greater.
And from the same post, this from Deneen, briefly summarizing Aristotle's concept of the ideal polity:
...a proper economy is cognizant of limits to moneymaking in the name of fundamental human goods of which prosperity is a part, but only a part. Those goods include healthy and stable communities which are both formed by culture and in which cultures are maintained and preserved; a sound culture that inculcates central human virtues and that is ably passed on from one generation to the next; a culture that makes and keeps good families; a culture that inculcates the very virtues that will be necessary for a good, humane, and moral economy (one that avoids the abuses that we have recently seen in our financial markets); a culture that strongly emphasizes a sense of gratitude and obligation between generations; a culture that encourages stewardship, conservation and fidelity; and perhaps above all, a culture that reins in and chastens our eternal temptation toward Promethean or sinful self-aggrandizement, that teaches and enforces limits, that calls to our mind our flaws, and that does not allow us to lose sight of our fundamental condition of being dependent upon one another. A further good is our ability to act in concert with one another to achieve and maintain such a culture and polity - citizenship as shared and mutual governance, which goes far beyond our current conception as citizenship as suffrage...
McIlheran, of course, is correct. The second part-of-interest in his column is the prophesy:
But now, in policy we trust. So Mr. Obama thrills his Whole Foods base and spooks everyone else because they suspect he's fixing to have some form of government decide what "too much" is...
And makes a social observation which is Chestertonian to the core:
Mr. Obama's gaffe exposes the default pessimism of his base, emotionally drawn to constraint, whatever the excuse.
Having relegated God to a museum, they now must replace Him, substituting 'rules of the polity' for the 10 Commandments and the Beatitudes.
They will rebuild Nature in their own image and likeness, and with their own rules; a hubris which calls to mind the trusim about "fools rushing in..."
Texas v. FLDS: Texas Imitates WI, Flouts Constitution
Seems like those "child protection" folks need a little review-time on the Constitution.
In Texas, just like in Wisconsin, a court slapped down an out-of-control "social services" department.
In a ruling that could torpedo the case against the West Texas polygamist sect, a state appeals court Thursday said authorities had no right to seize more than 440 children in a raid on the splinter group's compound last month.
The Third Court of Appeals in Austin said the state failed to show the youngsters were in any immediate danger, the only grounds in Texas law for taking children from their parents without court action.
It was not clear when the children — now scattered in foster homes across the state — might be returned to their parents. The ruling gave a lower-court judge 10 days to release the youngsters from custody...
..."Evidence that children raised in this particular environment may someday have their physical health and safety threatened is not evidence that the danger is imminent enough to warrant invoking the extreme measure of immediate removal."
The court also said the state was wrong to consider the entire ranch as a single household and to seize all the children on the grounds that some parents in the home might be abusers
Ironic, too, that under the language of a recent SCOCA ruling, the FLDS' un-natural "marital" practices would be perfectly Constitutional. (See dissenting opinion from SCO CA.)
In Texas, just like in Wisconsin, a court slapped down an out-of-control "social services" department.
In a ruling that could torpedo the case against the West Texas polygamist sect, a state appeals court Thursday said authorities had no right to seize more than 440 children in a raid on the splinter group's compound last month.
The Third Court of Appeals in Austin said the state failed to show the youngsters were in any immediate danger, the only grounds in Texas law for taking children from their parents without court action.
It was not clear when the children — now scattered in foster homes across the state — might be returned to their parents. The ruling gave a lower-court judge 10 days to release the youngsters from custody...
..."Evidence that children raised in this particular environment may someday have their physical health and safety threatened is not evidence that the danger is imminent enough to warrant invoking the extreme measure of immediate removal."
The court also said the state was wrong to consider the entire ranch as a single household and to seize all the children on the grounds that some parents in the home might be abusers
Ironic, too, that under the language of a recent SCOCA ruling, the FLDS' un-natural "marital" practices would be perfectly Constitutional. (See dissenting opinion from SCO CA.)
Thursday, May 22, 2008
The ACTUAL Burke
When advocates of same-sex 'marriage' claim to be following Edmund Burke, it's useful to know what Burke actually had to say about matters.
First, the essayist's precis:
For the pseudo-Burkeans, the goals are almost always liberal in nature, based on the modern and very un-Burkean idea that the justice of any society consists of the equal treatment and provision of equal political power to people in very unequal situations, i.e., same sex couples and traditional married couples, foreign immigrants and native citizens, the educated and the uneducated. Burke was no egalitarian. In particular, he argued that it was unhelpful to emphasize our “common humanity” in discussing political matters, because group identities and the associated differences in station demanded different treatment in proportion to those differences:
The legislators who framed the ancient republics knew that their business was too arduous to be accomplished with no better apparatus than the metaphysics of an undergraduate, and the mathematics and arithmetic of an exciseman. They had to do with men, and they were obliged to study human nature. They had to do with citizens, and they were obliged to study the effects of those habits which are communicated by the circumstances of civil life. They were sensible that the operation of this second nature on the first produced a new combination; and thence arose many diversities amongst men, according to their birth, their education, their professions, the periods of their lives, their residence in towns or in the country, their several ways of acquiring and of fixing property, and according to the quality of the property itself — all which rendered them as it were so many different species of animals. From hence they thought themselves obliged to dispose their citizens into such classes, and to place them in such situations in the state, as their peculiar habits might qualify them to fill, and to allot to them such appropriated privileges as might secure to them what their specific occasions required, and which might furnish to each description such force as might protect it in the conflict caused by the diversity of interests that must exist and must contend in all complex society; for the legislator would have been ashamed that the coarse husbandman should well know how to assort and to use his sheep, horses, and oxen, and should have enough of common sense not to abstract and equalize them all into animals without providing for each kind an appropriate food, care, and employment, whilst he, the economist, disposer, and shepherd of his own kindred, subliming himself into an airy metaphysician, was resolved to know nothing of his flocks but as men in general.
Actual egalitarianism springs from brotherhood, which of course, implies God; so the denial of God is the root of the faux-brotherhood "egalitarianism."
And Burke didn't have much good to say about atheists--which he recognized in the French Revolution:
We know, and it is our pride to know, that man is by his constitution a religious animal; that atheism is against, not only our reason, but our instincts; and that it cannot prevail long. But if, in the moment of riot and in a drunken delirium from the hot spirit drawn out of the alembic of hell, which in France is now so furiously boiling, we should uncover our nakedness by throwing off that Christian religion which has hitherto been our boast and comfort, and one great source of civilization amongst us and amongst many other nations, we are apprehensive (being well aware that the mind will not endure a void) that some uncouth, pernicious, and degrading superstition might take place of it.
Well, he was right.
First, the essayist's precis:
For the pseudo-Burkeans, the goals are almost always liberal in nature, based on the modern and very un-Burkean idea that the justice of any society consists of the equal treatment and provision of equal political power to people in very unequal situations, i.e., same sex couples and traditional married couples, foreign immigrants and native citizens, the educated and the uneducated. Burke was no egalitarian. In particular, he argued that it was unhelpful to emphasize our “common humanity” in discussing political matters, because group identities and the associated differences in station demanded different treatment in proportion to those differences:
The legislators who framed the ancient republics knew that their business was too arduous to be accomplished with no better apparatus than the metaphysics of an undergraduate, and the mathematics and arithmetic of an exciseman. They had to do with men, and they were obliged to study human nature. They had to do with citizens, and they were obliged to study the effects of those habits which are communicated by the circumstances of civil life. They were sensible that the operation of this second nature on the first produced a new combination; and thence arose many diversities amongst men, according to their birth, their education, their professions, the periods of their lives, their residence in towns or in the country, their several ways of acquiring and of fixing property, and according to the quality of the property itself — all which rendered them as it were so many different species of animals. From hence they thought themselves obliged to dispose their citizens into such classes, and to place them in such situations in the state, as their peculiar habits might qualify them to fill, and to allot to them such appropriated privileges as might secure to them what their specific occasions required, and which might furnish to each description such force as might protect it in the conflict caused by the diversity of interests that must exist and must contend in all complex society; for the legislator would have been ashamed that the coarse husbandman should well know how to assort and to use his sheep, horses, and oxen, and should have enough of common sense not to abstract and equalize them all into animals without providing for each kind an appropriate food, care, and employment, whilst he, the economist, disposer, and shepherd of his own kindred, subliming himself into an airy metaphysician, was resolved to know nothing of his flocks but as men in general.
Actual egalitarianism springs from brotherhood, which of course, implies God; so the denial of God is the root of the faux-brotherhood "egalitarianism."
And Burke didn't have much good to say about atheists--which he recognized in the French Revolution:
We know, and it is our pride to know, that man is by his constitution a religious animal; that atheism is against, not only our reason, but our instincts; and that it cannot prevail long. But if, in the moment of riot and in a drunken delirium from the hot spirit drawn out of the alembic of hell, which in France is now so furiously boiling, we should uncover our nakedness by throwing off that Christian religion which has hitherto been our boast and comfort, and one great source of civilization amongst us and amongst many other nations, we are apprehensive (being well aware that the mind will not endure a void) that some uncouth, pernicious, and degrading superstition might take place of it.
Well, he was right.
Ryan: "People Are Sick and Tired of That"
Man, was that a dead-on observation!!
Paul Ryan said the above after stating that 'in Washington, there's a lot of finger-pointing...[but] no SOLUTIONS are offered' [to problems]. (Sykes show, 10:20 AM or so...)
Nice to know that someone else understands the term "the Common Good."
UPDATE:
Buried in the middle of a lengthy (and lefty-ish) essay in the New Yorker is indirect affirmation of Ryan's thought:
As long as Bush and his party kept winning elections, however slim the margins, Rove’s declared ambition to create a “permanent majority” seemed like the vision of a tactical genius. But it was built on two illusions: that the conservative era would stretch on indefinitely, and that politics matters more than governing. The first illusion defied history; the second was blown up in Iraq and drowned in New Orleans.
Distilled: Ryan's proposals aim at "governing," rather than "politics."
MORE: (same essay)
Recently, I spoke with a number of conservatives about their movement. The younger ones—say, those under fifty—uniformly subscribe to the reformist version. They are in a state of glowing revulsion at the condition of their political party. Most of them predicted that Republicans will lose the Presidency this year and suffer a rout in Congress. They seemed to feel that these losses would be deserved, and suggested that, if the party wins, it will be—in the words of Rich Lowry, the thirty-nine-year-old editor of National Review—“by default.”
And, vaguely counter-echoing themes we've mentioned before in this blog:
On April 4th, a rainy day in New York, I attended Buckley’s memorial Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral with some two thousand people, an unusually large number of them women in hats and men in bow ties. George W. Rutler, the presiding priest, declared that Buckley’s words helped “crack the walls of an evil empire.” Secular humanism, he said, “builds little hells for man on earth. . . . Communism was worse than a social tyranny because it was a theological heresy.” The service reminded me of the movement’s philosophical origins, in the forties and fifties, in a Catholic sense of alarm at the relativism that was rampant in American life, and an insistence on human frailty. The conservative movement began as a true counterculture; how unlikely that its gloomy creed took hold in America, the optimistic capital of modernity.
Of COURSE "conservatism" recognizes frailty and relativism--but that is not per se "gloomy." It's realistic, and underlines the locus of real problems in the polity: the moral frailty of individuals. That is precisely the reason that Conservatives are wary of Big Gummint: it's not going to resolve failings of individual humans. No way. No how.
Deneen, again:
"citizenship as shared and mutual governance, which goes far beyond our current conception as citizenship as suffrage."
Remember, Deneen began his essay by observing that the size of Gummint has grown concomitant with the growth of the economy:
The growth of Guvment and the scale of the economy increased together, constantly in tandem. It could be argued that this is simultaneously the logic of market capitalism that requires a strong state (of course, a liberal state) in order to expand with firm expectations of stability and enforcement of laws and contracts, and it is the logic of the Constitutional order (modified and interpreted increasingly so along the way), which was designed in significant part to support this economic logic (as Antifederalists saw on their first reading).
Interesting stuff.
Paul Ryan said the above after stating that 'in Washington, there's a lot of finger-pointing...[but] no SOLUTIONS are offered' [to problems]. (Sykes show, 10:20 AM or so...)
Nice to know that someone else understands the term "the Common Good."
UPDATE:
Buried in the middle of a lengthy (and lefty-ish) essay in the New Yorker is indirect affirmation of Ryan's thought:
As long as Bush and his party kept winning elections, however slim the margins, Rove’s declared ambition to create a “permanent majority” seemed like the vision of a tactical genius. But it was built on two illusions: that the conservative era would stretch on indefinitely, and that politics matters more than governing. The first illusion defied history; the second was blown up in Iraq and drowned in New Orleans.
Distilled: Ryan's proposals aim at "governing," rather than "politics."
MORE: (same essay)
Recently, I spoke with a number of conservatives about their movement. The younger ones—say, those under fifty—uniformly subscribe to the reformist version. They are in a state of glowing revulsion at the condition of their political party. Most of them predicted that Republicans will lose the Presidency this year and suffer a rout in Congress. They seemed to feel that these losses would be deserved, and suggested that, if the party wins, it will be—in the words of Rich Lowry, the thirty-nine-year-old editor of National Review—“by default.”
And, vaguely counter-echoing themes we've mentioned before in this blog:
On April 4th, a rainy day in New York, I attended Buckley’s memorial Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral with some two thousand people, an unusually large number of them women in hats and men in bow ties. George W. Rutler, the presiding priest, declared that Buckley’s words helped “crack the walls of an evil empire.” Secular humanism, he said, “builds little hells for man on earth. . . . Communism was worse than a social tyranny because it was a theological heresy.” The service reminded me of the movement’s philosophical origins, in the forties and fifties, in a Catholic sense of alarm at the relativism that was rampant in American life, and an insistence on human frailty. The conservative movement began as a true counterculture; how unlikely that its gloomy creed took hold in America, the optimistic capital of modernity.
Of COURSE "conservatism" recognizes frailty and relativism--but that is not per se "gloomy." It's realistic, and underlines the locus of real problems in the polity: the moral frailty of individuals. That is precisely the reason that Conservatives are wary of Big Gummint: it's not going to resolve failings of individual humans. No way. No how.
Deneen, again:
"citizenship as shared and mutual governance, which goes far beyond our current conception as citizenship as suffrage."
Remember, Deneen began his essay by observing that the size of Gummint has grown concomitant with the growth of the economy:
The growth of Guvment and the scale of the economy increased together, constantly in tandem. It could be argued that this is simultaneously the logic of market capitalism that requires a strong state (of course, a liberal state) in order to expand with firm expectations of stability and enforcement of laws and contracts, and it is the logic of the Constitutional order (modified and interpreted increasingly so along the way), which was designed in significant part to support this economic logic (as Antifederalists saw on their first reading).
Interesting stuff.
Do NOT Embarrass the Wife!
Noted by Vox:
Assemblywoman Francis Allen is facing battery charges for allegedly stabbing her new husband with a steak knife.
The two-term Republican was arrested May 17th after Paul Maineri checked himself into Summerlin hospital claiming Allen attacked him during an argument in the couple's home.
According to the arrest report, Maineri said Allen accused him of embarrassing her in front of friends.
She represents an area near Las Vegas.
Assemblywoman Francis Allen is facing battery charges for allegedly stabbing her new husband with a steak knife.
The two-term Republican was arrested May 17th after Paul Maineri checked himself into Summerlin hospital claiming Allen attacked him during an argument in the couple's home.
According to the arrest report, Maineri said Allen accused him of embarrassing her in front of friends.
She represents an area near Las Vegas.
De-Mythologizing Greenspan
Aside from "Easy Al"'s propensity to pump gazillions of USD's into markets (thus creating three distinct and disastrous "bubbles"), and re-arranging inflation calculations to reflect imaginary 'convenience' numbers (thus on paper lying about actual costs)--there's even MORE to the story, from BigPic:
It's worth noting that the shift in focus from total inflation to core inflation was a Greenspan era "innovation."
A quick excerpt [from a Wharton/Philly Fed study]:
"We find that core inflation, which omits food and energy prices, is less volatile than total inflation, but the reduced volatility comes from omitting the energy components. Several components of the CPI exhibit higher volatility than food prices. And an index that omits food and energy prices demonstrates slightly more volatility than a measure that omits only the energy components and retains the food components...
Perhaps most important, we find that including PCE inflation when forecasting CPI inflation and including CPI inflation when forecasting PCE inflation significantly improves the accuracy of the forecasting model for horizons up to one year. This suggests that each measure of inflation provides independent information that can be exploited to yield statistically significantly more accurate forecasts."
Al's retirement came far too late...
It's worth noting that the shift in focus from total inflation to core inflation was a Greenspan era "innovation."
A quick excerpt [from a Wharton/Philly Fed study]:
"We find that core inflation, which omits food and energy prices, is less volatile than total inflation, but the reduced volatility comes from omitting the energy components. Several components of the CPI exhibit higher volatility than food prices. And an index that omits food and energy prices demonstrates slightly more volatility than a measure that omits only the energy components and retains the food components...
Perhaps most important, we find that including PCE inflation when forecasting CPI inflation and including CPI inflation when forecasting PCE inflation significantly improves the accuracy of the forecasting model for horizons up to one year. This suggests that each measure of inflation provides independent information that can be exploited to yield statistically significantly more accurate forecasts."
Al's retirement came far too late...
FHA Bailout Required!! CongressCritter Foreclosed
Just in case you wondered why Our Congress "thinks" that the Feds (FHA, Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae) should step in and guarantee all sorts of home mortgages, here's a clue:
The story of the foreclosure of Long Beach Democrat Laura Richardson’s Sacramento home is a tale of a real estate market gone sour. It is also an illustration of how far many candidates will go to seek elected office, even if it means quite literally mortgaging their own financial future.
While being elevated to Congress in a 2007 special election, Richardson apparently stopped making payments on her new Sacramento home, and eventually walked away from it, leaving nearly $600,000 in unpaid loans and fees
Yah.
The Congresscritter denies that the home is in foreclosure.
More here.
The story of the foreclosure of Long Beach Democrat Laura Richardson’s Sacramento home is a tale of a real estate market gone sour. It is also an illustration of how far many candidates will go to seek elected office, even if it means quite literally mortgaging their own financial future.
While being elevated to Congress in a 2007 special election, Richardson apparently stopped making payments on her new Sacramento home, and eventually walked away from it, leaving nearly $600,000 in unpaid loans and fees
Yah.
The Congresscritter denies that the home is in foreclosure.
More here.
GWB: Mousing Out, Again
It's not news that GWBush likes to spend other people's money--and a LOT of it.
So even when he says he doesn't like spending, he's ....spineless?
Quin Hillyer:
...NRO wisely noted several days ago that Bush should take his time before issuing the veto -- he is allowed ten days -- in order to give his allies time to make the case to the public about why his veto ought to be sustained. Bush could have waited until the very end of next week, and vetoed the bill just as Congress was going out of session, giving Congress no time to override his veto before its Memorial Day recess. That way, Bush and conservatives could have had ten days to make their case about why the bill is so gawdawful, and get the public sufficiently upset about the bill that the congressmen would hear about it in no uncertain terms during town meetings. THEN Bush would have had a chance to actually defeat an attempted override vote.
But no. Georgie hit the red-button almost immediately.
...Remember that Bob Novak reported earlier this week the same thing I heard independently, that the president offered only a tepid explanation for his coming veto when he met with GOP House members last week, and that he immediately said he understood that good people like Bob Goodlatte put a lot of work into the bill and he understands if they pass it despite his wishes. And he offered the congressmen no specific reasons, or very very few, why the bill was so bad. That, combined with this hasty veto, tells me the president wants credit for finally taking a real stand against spending, while not really wanting his stand to, well... to stand.
Frustrating is one word to describe this. And it's the only polite word I can find.
So even when he says he doesn't like spending, he's ....spineless?
Quin Hillyer:
...NRO wisely noted several days ago that Bush should take his time before issuing the veto -- he is allowed ten days -- in order to give his allies time to make the case to the public about why his veto ought to be sustained. Bush could have waited until the very end of next week, and vetoed the bill just as Congress was going out of session, giving Congress no time to override his veto before its Memorial Day recess. That way, Bush and conservatives could have had ten days to make their case about why the bill is so gawdawful, and get the public sufficiently upset about the bill that the congressmen would hear about it in no uncertain terms during town meetings. THEN Bush would have had a chance to actually defeat an attempted override vote.
But no. Georgie hit the red-button almost immediately.
...Remember that Bob Novak reported earlier this week the same thing I heard independently, that the president offered only a tepid explanation for his coming veto when he met with GOP House members last week, and that he immediately said he understood that good people like Bob Goodlatte put a lot of work into the bill and he understands if they pass it despite his wishes. And he offered the congressmen no specific reasons, or very very few, why the bill was so bad. That, combined with this hasty veto, tells me the president wants credit for finally taking a real stand against spending, while not really wanting his stand to, well... to stand.
Frustrating is one word to describe this. And it's the only polite word I can find.
State DOJ Picture Becoming Clearer, Maybe
The somewhat foggy and confusing picture of the State's Department of Justice situation is now coming into focus, if one reads between the lines of today's JSOnline story.
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen demoted the state fire marshal Wednesday, saying she had threatened top Department of Justice officials and obstructed an investigation into e-mails she wrote
He also said Carolyn S. Kelly had slowed the release of public records related to the Crandon shooting by an off-duty Forest County sheriff's deputy. For the past 14 years, Kelly headed the unit that investigates arsons and high-profile homicides.
...
Kelly was suspended with pay in January after her boss, James Warren, abruptly retired after Van Hollen said he planned to move him into another job.
There's a lot of silly stuff having to do with a "hit" and "taking out..." I think that's foofoodust which Kelly and her attorney are pumping into the story to make VanHollen look like an idiot.
HERE'S the payoff:
In her e-mails:
• Kelly told agents at least twice to avoid dealing directly with Van Hollen's aides. "I do not want anyone dealing with them on these issues, particularly the situation up north," she wrote, adding that she viewed this as standard protocol.
• Kelly said she was sick in early November and hoped her germs "spread like wildfire" in meetings with Van Hollen's aides.
• She referred to Van Hollen's aides as weasels and sent a picture of a weasel to Warren.
What we see is a classic 'I'm tenured, I've been here 25 years, I'm not going to let some newly-elected twit run this department.....' sort of thing which happens all the time, in private industry and in Gummint bureaucracies.
Usually the entrenched ones survive, in most cases due to inertia and the unwillingness of a change-agent to actually follow through.
Doesn't look like the case here.
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen demoted the state fire marshal Wednesday, saying she had threatened top Department of Justice officials and obstructed an investigation into e-mails she wrote
He also said Carolyn S. Kelly had slowed the release of public records related to the Crandon shooting by an off-duty Forest County sheriff's deputy. For the past 14 years, Kelly headed the unit that investigates arsons and high-profile homicides.
...
Kelly was suspended with pay in January after her boss, James Warren, abruptly retired after Van Hollen said he planned to move him into another job.
There's a lot of silly stuff having to do with a "hit" and "taking out..." I think that's foofoodust which Kelly and her attorney are pumping into the story to make VanHollen look like an idiot.
HERE'S the payoff:
In her e-mails:
• Kelly told agents at least twice to avoid dealing directly with Van Hollen's aides. "I do not want anyone dealing with them on these issues, particularly the situation up north," she wrote, adding that she viewed this as standard protocol.
• Kelly said she was sick in early November and hoped her germs "spread like wildfire" in meetings with Van Hollen's aides.
• She referred to Van Hollen's aides as weasels and sent a picture of a weasel to Warren.
What we see is a classic 'I'm tenured, I've been here 25 years, I'm not going to let some newly-elected twit run this department.....' sort of thing which happens all the time, in private industry and in Gummint bureaucracies.
Usually the entrenched ones survive, in most cases due to inertia and the unwillingness of a change-agent to actually follow through.
Doesn't look like the case here.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
"Don't Ask Don't Tell" --Not Long for the World
It's just a matter of time now.
The Ninth Circuit ruled this morning that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" should be subject to heightened judicial scrutiny (PDF). The ruling was 2-1 (but the 1 concurred in part and dissented only because the majority did not go far enough). This is kind of a big deal.
Usually, the courts easily dismiss challenges to DADT on the theory that the policy doesn't implicate any fundamental rights and so is subject only to rational basis review. That is, so long as the government can provide a rational reason (even if it is the most spurious cover for its true aim), the law will be upheld.
But now the Ninth, relying on Lawrence v. Texas (BTW, for a good time ask Drew how much he loves Lawrence) has found that DADT burdens a "fundamental" constitutional right to engage in private, consensual sexual relations with another adult. Because it burdens a fundamental right, the Ninth says it must pass more exacting scrutiny than rational basis review. Some judicial contortions ensue and though the court doesn't extend strict scrutiny (the heighest level of scrutiny) to homosexuals, it settles on "heightened review."
DADT was in place before Lawrence, of course, but that's irrelevant.
Looks like this bomb will drop about 6 years from now, more or less. Should be interesting how the C-in-C handles it, no?
HT: Ace
The Ninth Circuit ruled this morning that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" should be subject to heightened judicial scrutiny (PDF). The ruling was 2-1 (but the 1 concurred in part and dissented only because the majority did not go far enough). This is kind of a big deal.
Usually, the courts easily dismiss challenges to DADT on the theory that the policy doesn't implicate any fundamental rights and so is subject only to rational basis review. That is, so long as the government can provide a rational reason (even if it is the most spurious cover for its true aim), the law will be upheld.
But now the Ninth, relying on Lawrence v. Texas (BTW, for a good time ask Drew how much he loves Lawrence) has found that DADT burdens a "fundamental" constitutional right to engage in private, consensual sexual relations with another adult. Because it burdens a fundamental right, the Ninth says it must pass more exacting scrutiny than rational basis review. Some judicial contortions ensue and though the court doesn't extend strict scrutiny (the heighest level of scrutiny) to homosexuals, it settles on "heightened review."
DADT was in place before Lawrence, of course, but that's irrelevant.
Looks like this bomb will drop about 6 years from now, more or less. Should be interesting how the C-in-C handles it, no?
HT: Ace
Fairytales Can Come True...
Only 25 years ago, you'd have been given a straitjacket for speculating as follows.
Outside of the privacy of their homes, young girls will be discouraged from imagining one day marrying their prince charming – to do so would be declared "heterosexist," morally equivalent to racist. Rather, they will be told to imagine a prince or a princess. ...
Any advocacy of man-woman marriage alone will be regarded morally as hate speech, and shortly thereafter it will be deemed so in law.
Companies that advertise engagement rings will have to show a man putting a ring on a man's finger – if they show only women fingers, they will be boycotted just as a company having racist ads would be now.
Films that only show man-woman married couples will be regarded as antisocial and as morally irresponsible as films that show people smoking have become.
Traditional Jews and Christians – i.e. those who believe in a divine Scripture – will be marginalized. Already Catholic groups in Massachusetts have abandoned adoption work since they will only allow a child to be adopted by a married couple as the Bible defines it – a man and a woman.
Anyone who advocates marriage between a man and a woman will be morally regarded the same as racist. And soon it will be a hate crime.
Indeed – and this is the ultimate goal of many of the same-sex marriage activists – the terms "male" and "female," "man" and "woman" will gradually lose their significance. ... On the intellectual and cultural left, "male" and "female" are deemed social constructs that have little meaning. ...
Oh, there's plenty of work for the lawyers there.
HT: the Hat
Outside of the privacy of their homes, young girls will be discouraged from imagining one day marrying their prince charming – to do so would be declared "heterosexist," morally equivalent to racist. Rather, they will be told to imagine a prince or a princess. ...
Any advocacy of man-woman marriage alone will be regarded morally as hate speech, and shortly thereafter it will be deemed so in law.
Companies that advertise engagement rings will have to show a man putting a ring on a man's finger – if they show only women fingers, they will be boycotted just as a company having racist ads would be now.
Films that only show man-woman married couples will be regarded as antisocial and as morally irresponsible as films that show people smoking have become.
Traditional Jews and Christians – i.e. those who believe in a divine Scripture – will be marginalized. Already Catholic groups in Massachusetts have abandoned adoption work since they will only allow a child to be adopted by a married couple as the Bible defines it – a man and a woman.
Anyone who advocates marriage between a man and a woman will be morally regarded the same as racist. And soon it will be a hate crime.
Indeed – and this is the ultimate goal of many of the same-sex marriage activists – the terms "male" and "female," "man" and "woman" will gradually lose their significance. ... On the intellectual and cultural left, "male" and "female" are deemed social constructs that have little meaning. ...
Oh, there's plenty of work for the lawyers there.
HT: the Hat
Anent "Freedom"
Another take on "freedom" and art in today's society, mentioning 'obligations,' which of course, are the flip-side of "rights," and which in fact are restraints to the Self.
Culture cannot exist without orthodoxies, because freedom cannot give itself the obligations necessary for its own perfection: the ordered liberty of assent to that which is greater. --RR Reno, First Things
Which follows up nicely on a political-science note from yesterday. Excerpt:
...a proper economy is cognizant of limits to moneymaking in the name of fundamental human goods of which prosperity is a part, but only a part. Those goods include healthy and stable communities which are both formed by culture and in which cultures are maintained and preserved; a sound culture that inculcates central human virtues and that is ably passed on from one generation to the next; a culture that makes and keeps good families; a culture that inculcates the very virtues that will be necessary for a good, humane, and moral economy (one that avoids the abuses that we have recently seen in our financial markets); a culture that strongly emphasizes a sense of gratitude and obligation between generations; a culture that encourages stewardship, conservation and fidelity; and perhaps above all, a culture that reins in and chastens our eternal temptation toward Promethean or sinful self-aggrandizement, that teaches and enforces limits, that calls to our mind our flaws, and that does not allow us to lose sight of our fundamental condition of being dependent upon one another. A further good is our ability to act in concert with one another to achieve and maintain such a culture and polity - citizenship as shared and mutual governance, which goes far beyond our current conception as citizenship as suffrage...
Which also comports with Rick Esenberg's discussion of gay 'marriage': (excerpt)
I distrust rapid changes in marriage brought about by the application of abstractions about equality and individual autonomy.
By no coincidence, it also happens to be tangentially similar to thoughts on art and beauty found here: (Excerpt)
Alasdair McIntyre, in his seminal book After Virtue, described this mode of thinking as emotivism, that is, the collapsing of all moral or qualitative judgments into mere expressions of personal preference. And this kind of thinking is the besetting sin of the post-modern West.
May even be thematic!
Culture cannot exist without orthodoxies, because freedom cannot give itself the obligations necessary for its own perfection: the ordered liberty of assent to that which is greater. --RR Reno, First Things
Which follows up nicely on a political-science note from yesterday. Excerpt:
...a proper economy is cognizant of limits to moneymaking in the name of fundamental human goods of which prosperity is a part, but only a part. Those goods include healthy and stable communities which are both formed by culture and in which cultures are maintained and preserved; a sound culture that inculcates central human virtues and that is ably passed on from one generation to the next; a culture that makes and keeps good families; a culture that inculcates the very virtues that will be necessary for a good, humane, and moral economy (one that avoids the abuses that we have recently seen in our financial markets); a culture that strongly emphasizes a sense of gratitude and obligation between generations; a culture that encourages stewardship, conservation and fidelity; and perhaps above all, a culture that reins in and chastens our eternal temptation toward Promethean or sinful self-aggrandizement, that teaches and enforces limits, that calls to our mind our flaws, and that does not allow us to lose sight of our fundamental condition of being dependent upon one another. A further good is our ability to act in concert with one another to achieve and maintain such a culture and polity - citizenship as shared and mutual governance, which goes far beyond our current conception as citizenship as suffrage...
Which also comports with Rick Esenberg's discussion of gay 'marriage': (excerpt)
I distrust rapid changes in marriage brought about by the application of abstractions about equality and individual autonomy.
By no coincidence, it also happens to be tangentially similar to thoughts on art and beauty found here: (Excerpt)
Alasdair McIntyre, in his seminal book After Virtue, described this mode of thinking as emotivism, that is, the collapsing of all moral or qualitative judgments into mere expressions of personal preference. And this kind of thinking is the besetting sin of the post-modern West.
May even be thematic!
Creative Writing: Careful What You Write!
Reported by the Wall Street Journal, relayed by Vox:
When Steven Barber turned in a short story this semester for his creative-writing class at the University of Virginia's College at Wise, his instructor was alarmed. The 23-year-old student had produced an imagined account of someone on the edge of a violent breakdown, touching on suicide and murder.
"It had to be acted on immediately," says Christopher Scalia, the instructor. He alerted administrators, who reacted swiftly, searching Mr. Barber's dorm room and car. Upon discovering three guns, they had him committed to a psychiatric institution for a weekend. Then they expelled him.
I wonder if they graded the assignment?
When Steven Barber turned in a short story this semester for his creative-writing class at the University of Virginia's College at Wise, his instructor was alarmed. The 23-year-old student had produced an imagined account of someone on the edge of a violent breakdown, touching on suicide and murder.
"It had to be acted on immediately," says Christopher Scalia, the instructor. He alerted administrators, who reacted swiftly, searching Mr. Barber's dorm room and car. Upon discovering three guns, they had him committed to a psychiatric institution for a weekend. Then they expelled him.
I wonder if they graded the assignment?
Oregon: Not an Obama Blowout
Well, yah, Obama won.
But according to CNN, updated at 0650 this morning, it's only 58-to-42.
Hmmmmmnnn.
But according to CNN, updated at 0650 this morning, it's only 58-to-42.
Hmmmmmnnn.
More Lawsuits!!
Gotta love the Endangered Species Act.
Commenting on the polar-bear ruling, Arms (who has spent time in the Government) is not very optimistic about whether common sense will prevail.
...The Secretary's speech sounds like he's trying to evade the inevitable, which is that any action even arguably affecting global warming will require extensive review by Fish and Wildlife Service. Here are the rules in a nutshell:
Any federal action that has any possibility of affecting a species requires a may affect/will not affect initial finding. Note the "may" versus the "will not." Any action that simply "may" affect a species require further analysis.
That takes the form of a biological opinion, done by FWS staff. A biologist/botanist, or a team of them, draws up a detailed study of the species and the effect the action will have on it. The conclusion must find whether the action will jeopardize the species with extiction (note that the term is jeopardize, not a certainty it will do so) or not. They must also map out reasonable alternatives to the action that would have less risk, and lay out modifications to the action that will reduce its impact. This generally requires a lot of study and writing: the biologists must get up to speed on the technical aspects of the action, which lay outside their training. If a jeopardy finding is made, the action is generally blocked. And in any event, the result is subject to challenge by lawsuit. And courts love to grant preliminary injunctions to stop it, since if the result is wrong it can lead to extinction.
Now, put into that mix a formal finding that global warming menaces a listed species. Any federal agency conduct that "may" affect global warming is going to require a biological opinion at the very least, and become a subject of a lawsuit. Oil imports, ethanol, building refineries, mileage ratings of autos, land with growing plants, etc.. The only real exemptions would be for legislation (which is not agency action) and where an agency has absolutely no discretion (down to inability to impose terms and conditions).
And that's just sec. 7(a)(2) of the ESA.
There's also the ambiguous 7(a)(1) which requires agencies to use their powers to "conserve" (i.e., affirmatively try to bring back from endangerment) listed species, and sec. 10 which makes it illegal for anyone (not just a federal agency) to "take" a listed species. I forget now what the regulations say about how much habitat modification is required in order to "take" (kill) members of a species.
Essentially, welcome to years of global warming litigation! I doubt Interior has a tenth of the biologists it's going to need to do the biological opinions, or tenth of the attorneys it will need for the litigation.
Silly me. All I mentioned above was lawsuits. I forgot that the taxpayer will also have to hire more Gummint lawyers and biologists, too.
Commenting on the polar-bear ruling, Arms (who has spent time in the Government) is not very optimistic about whether common sense will prevail.
...The Secretary's speech sounds like he's trying to evade the inevitable, which is that any action even arguably affecting global warming will require extensive review by Fish and Wildlife Service. Here are the rules in a nutshell:
Any federal action that has any possibility of affecting a species requires a may affect/will not affect initial finding. Note the "may" versus the "will not." Any action that simply "may" affect a species require further analysis.
That takes the form of a biological opinion, done by FWS staff. A biologist/botanist, or a team of them, draws up a detailed study of the species and the effect the action will have on it. The conclusion must find whether the action will jeopardize the species with extiction (note that the term is jeopardize, not a certainty it will do so) or not. They must also map out reasonable alternatives to the action that would have less risk, and lay out modifications to the action that will reduce its impact. This generally requires a lot of study and writing: the biologists must get up to speed on the technical aspects of the action, which lay outside their training. If a jeopardy finding is made, the action is generally blocked. And in any event, the result is subject to challenge by lawsuit. And courts love to grant preliminary injunctions to stop it, since if the result is wrong it can lead to extinction.
Now, put into that mix a formal finding that global warming menaces a listed species. Any federal agency conduct that "may" affect global warming is going to require a biological opinion at the very least, and become a subject of a lawsuit. Oil imports, ethanol, building refineries, mileage ratings of autos, land with growing plants, etc.. The only real exemptions would be for legislation (which is not agency action) and where an agency has absolutely no discretion (down to inability to impose terms and conditions).
And that's just sec. 7(a)(2) of the ESA.
There's also the ambiguous 7(a)(1) which requires agencies to use their powers to "conserve" (i.e., affirmatively try to bring back from endangerment) listed species, and sec. 10 which makes it illegal for anyone (not just a federal agency) to "take" a listed species. I forget now what the regulations say about how much habitat modification is required in order to "take" (kill) members of a species.
Essentially, welcome to years of global warming litigation! I doubt Interior has a tenth of the biologists it's going to need to do the biological opinions, or tenth of the attorneys it will need for the litigation.
Silly me. All I mentioned above was lawsuits. I forgot that the taxpayer will also have to hire more Gummint lawyers and biologists, too.
Fed Court Slaps Milwaukee Social Worker
Some folks think this is all a plot by Tommy Thompson (!!), who took campaign donations from the lawfirm representing the school.
(And you thought conspiracy theories were strictly the property of the Right....)
In any case, parental rights have been re-affirmed.
Two children who attended a private Christian school in Wisconsin were illegally strip-searched and had their constitutional rights violated by a state social worker, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled Monday.
In Michael C. v. Gresbach, the court said state worker Dana Gresbach violated the children's Fourth Amendment rights to freedom from unreasonable search when she entered Good Hope Christian Academy in Milwaukee, Wis., had the children pulled from the classrooms and told them to remove their clothing when she suspected the parents of spanking in February 2004.
...When Gresbach entered the school, she handed her business card to Principal Cheryl Reetz and told her she needed to see Ian and Alexis. Reetz asked the social worker if she could call the children's parents, but Gresbach refused to allow it, saying she would contact them at a later time. The principal then asked if she could remain in the room to observe the interview, but she was denied permission to do so.
...Gresbach's behavior is not a one-time incident uncommon among social workers. In Doe v. Carla Heck, the court addressed an eerily similar child abuse investigation where children's rights to freedom from unreasonable search were violated by the same state agency on the premises of another private educational facility.
"The problem almost always arises only in private schools," Crampton said. "Public schools, as agents of the government, routinely roll over and give social workers access to any student they wish to see, provide a room for them, and in short serve up our children on a platter, without bothering to contact parents," he said.
Gresbach claimed she was entitled to qualified immunity because her actions were reasonable under the Fourth Amendment; however, the court disagreed.
"We do not exempt child welfare workers from adhering to basic Fourth Amendment principles under non-exigent circumstances – to do so would be imprudent," the court stated. "… we do not believe that requiring a child welfare caseworker to act in accordance with basic Fourth Amendment principles is an undue burden on the child welfare system, particularly when it is necessary to conduct an examination of a child's body, which is undoubtedly 'frightening, humiliating and intrusive' to the child."
(And you thought conspiracy theories were strictly the property of the Right....)
In any case, parental rights have been re-affirmed.
Two children who attended a private Christian school in Wisconsin were illegally strip-searched and had their constitutional rights violated by a state social worker, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled Monday.
In Michael C. v. Gresbach, the court said state worker Dana Gresbach violated the children's Fourth Amendment rights to freedom from unreasonable search when she entered Good Hope Christian Academy in Milwaukee, Wis., had the children pulled from the classrooms and told them to remove their clothing when she suspected the parents of spanking in February 2004.
...When Gresbach entered the school, she handed her business card to Principal Cheryl Reetz and told her she needed to see Ian and Alexis. Reetz asked the social worker if she could call the children's parents, but Gresbach refused to allow it, saying she would contact them at a later time. The principal then asked if she could remain in the room to observe the interview, but she was denied permission to do so.
...Gresbach's behavior is not a one-time incident uncommon among social workers. In Doe v. Carla Heck, the court addressed an eerily similar child abuse investigation where children's rights to freedom from unreasonable search were violated by the same state agency on the premises of another private educational facility.
"The problem almost always arises only in private schools," Crampton said. "Public schools, as agents of the government, routinely roll over and give social workers access to any student they wish to see, provide a room for them, and in short serve up our children on a platter, without bothering to contact parents," he said.
Gresbach claimed she was entitled to qualified immunity because her actions were reasonable under the Fourth Amendment; however, the court disagreed.
"We do not exempt child welfare workers from adhering to basic Fourth Amendment principles under non-exigent circumstances – to do so would be imprudent," the court stated. "… we do not believe that requiring a child welfare caseworker to act in accordance with basic Fourth Amendment principles is an undue burden on the child welfare system, particularly when it is necessary to conduct an examination of a child's body, which is undoubtedly 'frightening, humiliating and intrusive' to the child."
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Iraqi Geography and "Losing" the War
Ace on the MSM's theme-meme du jour--that of painting victories as defeats.
...the American media laments each and every American "defeat"... but careful readers will note that the "Zone of Quagmire" seems to be radiating farther and farther out from US power centers and closer and closer to the heart of Al Qaeda/insurgent/Sadrist control.
We began by losing in Fallujah so badly our troops now say there are weeks that go by without hearing a gun shot. It's quiet there now... Too quiet.
We then lost Baghdad catastrophically. You can tell we lost because there are so few reports of mortar attacks hitting the Green Zone. The enemy won there by moving further and further out from the city. You know -- surrounding us.
We then lost in Basra so dreadfully it apparently simply vanished from the map entirely, perhaps sucked into another dimension through an interplanar vortex.
Next up we lost in Sadr's last bastion of power -- the slum he's named for -- which you can see by fact that the Iraqi Army is now patrolling the streets and conducts house-to-house searches for weapons. But we lost, because two concessions were made to the Sadrists -- "light weapons" (pistols, rifles) could be kept, one per person, and no US troops would accompany the IA. That last point really stung us, because you know our boys are heartbroken that the IA gets the glamor duty of patrolling this slum. Glory denied; a brilliant psyops tactic to crush the spirits of our troops.
And now we're losing in Mosul, of course.
It's a funny thing -- we keep "losing" by successively moving into the enemy's next-most-dear bastion and taking it for our own.
Meanwhile, they "melt into the shadows," thereby defeating us, because of course they always wanted to be in the shadows anyhow; it was just their bad luck to have wound up in non-shadowy major urban centers. They were sort of trapped there, victims of circumstances, but always had their eyes set on that rich shadowy utopia out in the hinterlands and deserts.
In a way, we did them a favor by finally encouraging them to move to where their hearts had always been from the start.
So neener-neener, we still lose.
Next, the MSM will be reporting that the US Forces are "surrounded" by AlQ forces in Paris, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Somalia, and (on the western front) Detroit.
Hopeless situation.
...the American media laments each and every American "defeat"... but careful readers will note that the "Zone of Quagmire" seems to be radiating farther and farther out from US power centers and closer and closer to the heart of Al Qaeda/insurgent/Sadrist control.
We began by losing in Fallujah so badly our troops now say there are weeks that go by without hearing a gun shot. It's quiet there now... Too quiet.
We then lost Baghdad catastrophically. You can tell we lost because there are so few reports of mortar attacks hitting the Green Zone. The enemy won there by moving further and further out from the city. You know -- surrounding us.
We then lost in Basra so dreadfully it apparently simply vanished from the map entirely, perhaps sucked into another dimension through an interplanar vortex.
Next up we lost in Sadr's last bastion of power -- the slum he's named for -- which you can see by fact that the Iraqi Army is now patrolling the streets and conducts house-to-house searches for weapons. But we lost, because two concessions were made to the Sadrists -- "light weapons" (pistols, rifles) could be kept, one per person, and no US troops would accompany the IA. That last point really stung us, because you know our boys are heartbroken that the IA gets the glamor duty of patrolling this slum. Glory denied; a brilliant psyops tactic to crush the spirits of our troops.
And now we're losing in Mosul, of course.
It's a funny thing -- we keep "losing" by successively moving into the enemy's next-most-dear bastion and taking it for our own.
Meanwhile, they "melt into the shadows," thereby defeating us, because of course they always wanted to be in the shadows anyhow; it was just their bad luck to have wound up in non-shadowy major urban centers. They were sort of trapped there, victims of circumstances, but always had their eyes set on that rich shadowy utopia out in the hinterlands and deserts.
In a way, we did them a favor by finally encouraging them to move to where their hearts had always been from the start.
So neener-neener, we still lose.
Next, the MSM will be reporting that the US Forces are "surrounded" by AlQ forces in Paris, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Somalia, and (on the western front) Detroit.
Hopeless situation.
For Senator Kennedy
Apparently the brain tumor is malignant. It is not clear whether this is the "aggressive" or not-so-"aggressive" type.
There are a lot of reasons to pray for the Senator.
Choose the one you feel best with, and pray.
There are a lot of reasons to pray for the Senator.
Choose the one you feel best with, and pray.
More Aristotle--On Polities
A reminder of societal objectives from the old dead Greek guy.
The essayist, Patrick Deneen, is a PolySci prof at Georgetown.
...sharing the view of Aristotle that a proper economy is cognizant of limits to moneymaking in the name of fundamental human goods of which prosperity is a part, but only a part. Those goods include healthy and stable communities which are both formed by culture and in which cultures are maintained and preserved; a sound culture that inculcates central human virtues and that is ably passed on from one generation to the next; a culture that makes and keeps good families; a culture that inculcates the very virtues that will be necessary for a good, humane, and moral economy (one that avoids the abuses that we have recently seen in our financial markets); a culture that strongly emphasizes a sense of gratitude and obligation between generations; a culture that encourages stewardship, conservation and fidelity; and perhaps above all, a culture that reins in and chastens our eternal temptation toward Promethean or sinful self-aggrandizement, that teaches and enforces limits, that calls to our mind our flaws, and that does not allow us to lose sight of our fundamental condition of being dependent upon one another. A further good is our ability to act in concert with one another to achieve and maintain such a culture and polity - citizenship as shared and mutual governance, which goes far beyond our current conception as citizenship as suffrage.
So--which Party currently runs America? Or better put, which Party orients the polity?
This general form of a polity is a legitimate end of guvment, but it is one that is now largely rejected in our own society in the name of individual liberation from such culture - on the Right, in the name of economic liberty and unlimited growth, and on the Left, in the name of personal autonomy. Because we are so often engaged in the discrete political battles of our day - and I wouldn't suggest that they don't matter, for they do - nevertheless, we easily lose sight of the deeper similarities between our two main Parties, parties that are both defenders of what John Stuart Mill indicated was actually one Party - the Party of Progress.
Mill didn't have much use for the other guys, today's Burkeans:
In our current society there are few defenders of what he identified as the other Party, the Party of Tradition. Mill was a severe critic of this latter Party, inasmuch as it discouraged what he called "experiments in living" and the obstruction of our experience of ourselves as "progressive beings." The Party of Tradition, he suggested, held the view that humanity had a certain kind of nature and end, and thereby sought in various instances to limit or restrict activities that it viewed as contradictory to that nature and end. He was particularly scornful toward traditional religion that sought to restrain our acquiescence to our appetites: he viewed "Calvinism" as pessimistic and restrictive.
...and since Mill's 'Calvinism' died about 100 years ago with the Lambeth Conference, it's likely that Mill's spleen would be vented at the Roman Catholic Church today.
And the effect of this Party of Progress?
...we are not truly capable as a society of debating over legitimate ends, because very few of us are even able to articulate any alternatives.
There is a legitimate debate to be had. It cannot be had, however, because we are largely incapable of considering whether "liberty" as we currently define it (largely the absence of restraint) is even debatable
Properly, "liberty" is the freedom to do what is right...
Were that debate to be advanced, it's entirely possible that Gummint could recede:
...what is at issue is not "guvment" vs. our liberty, but a different conception of liberty altogether - one in which, ultimately, we govern ourselves by governing our appetites, and in so doing become ourselves a government, a democracy of citizens (not "consumers") enacting laws that we impose upon ourselves with an appropriate and chastened acceptance of limits and humility
(I was with him until he mentioned 'humility.')
But in reality, as "progress" of the Left or Right strains at bounds, Gummint grows to counter the strain--preventing a hernia, more or less.
So--is this a re-work of the "nominalism" thing, or the "relativity" thing?
Yes. The Party of Progress must define Ends; and those Ends are not necessarily the Ends which Aristotle (and Aquinas, and others such as Hawthorne and Melville, Orestes Brownson, Henry Adams, Jonathan Edwards, Santayana and Royce, the Southern Agrarians, Russell Kirk, Richard Weaver, Christopher Lasch, Alasdair MacIntyre and Wendell Berry) defined. Therefore by definition they are either 'relative' or 'nominalistic' ends, when viewed against the 'ends' of Santayana and Kirk, e.g.
One may argue that the Ends of the Burkeans are not the best ends. But the argument should be about the Ends, and it's an argument which will not be undertaken so long as the Party of Progress is hegemonic.
The essayist, Patrick Deneen, is a PolySci prof at Georgetown.
...sharing the view of Aristotle that a proper economy is cognizant of limits to moneymaking in the name of fundamental human goods of which prosperity is a part, but only a part. Those goods include healthy and stable communities which are both formed by culture and in which cultures are maintained and preserved; a sound culture that inculcates central human virtues and that is ably passed on from one generation to the next; a culture that makes and keeps good families; a culture that inculcates the very virtues that will be necessary for a good, humane, and moral economy (one that avoids the abuses that we have recently seen in our financial markets); a culture that strongly emphasizes a sense of gratitude and obligation between generations; a culture that encourages stewardship, conservation and fidelity; and perhaps above all, a culture that reins in and chastens our eternal temptation toward Promethean or sinful self-aggrandizement, that teaches and enforces limits, that calls to our mind our flaws, and that does not allow us to lose sight of our fundamental condition of being dependent upon one another. A further good is our ability to act in concert with one another to achieve and maintain such a culture and polity - citizenship as shared and mutual governance, which goes far beyond our current conception as citizenship as suffrage.
So--which Party currently runs America? Or better put, which Party orients the polity?
This general form of a polity is a legitimate end of guvment, but it is one that is now largely rejected in our own society in the name of individual liberation from such culture - on the Right, in the name of economic liberty and unlimited growth, and on the Left, in the name of personal autonomy. Because we are so often engaged in the discrete political battles of our day - and I wouldn't suggest that they don't matter, for they do - nevertheless, we easily lose sight of the deeper similarities between our two main Parties, parties that are both defenders of what John Stuart Mill indicated was actually one Party - the Party of Progress.
Mill didn't have much use for the other guys, today's Burkeans:
In our current society there are few defenders of what he identified as the other Party, the Party of Tradition. Mill was a severe critic of this latter Party, inasmuch as it discouraged what he called "experiments in living" and the obstruction of our experience of ourselves as "progressive beings." The Party of Tradition, he suggested, held the view that humanity had a certain kind of nature and end, and thereby sought in various instances to limit or restrict activities that it viewed as contradictory to that nature and end. He was particularly scornful toward traditional religion that sought to restrain our acquiescence to our appetites: he viewed "Calvinism" as pessimistic and restrictive.
...and since Mill's 'Calvinism' died about 100 years ago with the Lambeth Conference, it's likely that Mill's spleen would be vented at the Roman Catholic Church today.
And the effect of this Party of Progress?
...we are not truly capable as a society of debating over legitimate ends, because very few of us are even able to articulate any alternatives.
There is a legitimate debate to be had. It cannot be had, however, because we are largely incapable of considering whether "liberty" as we currently define it (largely the absence of restraint) is even debatable
Properly, "liberty" is the freedom to do what is right...
Were that debate to be advanced, it's entirely possible that Gummint could recede:
...what is at issue is not "guvment" vs. our liberty, but a different conception of liberty altogether - one in which, ultimately, we govern ourselves by governing our appetites, and in so doing become ourselves a government, a democracy of citizens (not "consumers") enacting laws that we impose upon ourselves with an appropriate and chastened acceptance of limits and humility
(I was with him until he mentioned 'humility.')
But in reality, as "progress" of the Left or Right strains at bounds, Gummint grows to counter the strain--preventing a hernia, more or less.
So--is this a re-work of the "nominalism" thing, or the "relativity" thing?
Yes. The Party of Progress must define Ends; and those Ends are not necessarily the Ends which Aristotle (and Aquinas, and others such as Hawthorne and Melville, Orestes Brownson, Henry Adams, Jonathan Edwards, Santayana and Royce, the Southern Agrarians, Russell Kirk, Richard Weaver, Christopher Lasch, Alasdair MacIntyre and Wendell Berry) defined. Therefore by definition they are either 'relative' or 'nominalistic' ends, when viewed against the 'ends' of Santayana and Kirk, e.g.
One may argue that the Ends of the Burkeans are not the best ends. But the argument should be about the Ends, and it's an argument which will not be undertaken so long as the Party of Progress is hegemonic.
Self-Defense for ME--But Not for Thee!
The term "PIG"--denoting "party-in-government" comes to mind.
Essentially, Chicago imposed handgun registration, a requirement to re-register annually, and a ban on all new registrations. Over the years, a number of people have forgotten to renew their registration, and been informed that they cannot reinstate it due to the handgun registration ban, and thus lost their guns.
Now, a Chicago Alderman who voted for those rules let HIS OWN handgun registration expire. So he's quietly introduced a proposal to create a 30 day amnesty during which handguns can be registered, but only if (1) they were previously registered and (2) the registration expired during a certain time period, which strangely spans when his registration expired
Some Chicagoans are More Equal than others.
HT: Of Arms
Essentially, Chicago imposed handgun registration, a requirement to re-register annually, and a ban on all new registrations. Over the years, a number of people have forgotten to renew their registration, and been informed that they cannot reinstate it due to the handgun registration ban, and thus lost their guns.
Now, a Chicago Alderman who voted for those rules let HIS OWN handgun registration expire. So he's quietly introduced a proposal to create a 30 day amnesty during which handguns can be registered, but only if (1) they were previously registered and (2) the registration expired during a certain time period, which strangely spans when his registration expired
Some Chicagoans are More Equal than others.
HT: Of Arms
NBC vs. The Actualities
NBC, well-known for fiction (see GM light-truck saddle-tanks, e.g.) is still creating it.
Here is a transcript of the interview in question via Newsbusters, the White House release of the full interview, and Bush's Knesset speech. [Marc Ambinder reprints the White House letter.]
Gillespie objected to "both initial questions"; here is the first as presented by NBC:
RICHARD ENGEL: Good morning, Meredith. I started by asking the President about his controversial comments he made in Israel, which Democratic candidates interpreted as a political attack. You said that negotiating with Iran is pointless and then you went further. You're saying, you said that it was appeasement. Were you referring to Senator Barack Obama? He certainly thought you were.
GEORGE W. BUSH: You know, my policies haven't changed, but evidently, the political calendar has.
Left on the cutting room floor was this:
People need to read the speech. You didn't get it exactly right, either. What I said was is that we need to take the words of people seriously. And when, you know, a leader of Iran says that they want to destroy Israel, you've got to take those words seriously. And if you don't take them seriously, then it harkens back to a day when we didn't take other words seriously. It was fitting that I talked about not taking the words of Adolph Hitler seriously on the floor of the Knesset. But I also talked about the need to defend Israel, the need to not negotiate with the likes of al Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas. And the need to make sure Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon.
But I also talked about a vision of what's possible in the Middle East.
So Bush did in fact dispute Engel's characterization of the speech. Here is the next question as presented by NBC:
ENGEL: Negotiations with Iran. Is that appeasement? Is that like appeasing Adolf Hitler?
BUSH: No my, my, my position, Richard, all along, has been that if the Iranians verifiably suspend their enrichment, which will be a key, key measure to stop them from gaining the know-how to build a weapon, then they can come to the table and the United States will be at the table.
Omitted:
...then they can come to the table, and the United States will be at the table. That's been a position of my administration for gosh, I can't remember how many years, but it's a clear position. We've stated it over and over again.
But I've also said that if they choose not to do that -- verifiably suspend -- we will continue to rally the world to isolate the Iranians. And it is having an effect inside their country. There's a better way forward for the Iranian people than to be isolated. And their leaders just need to make better choices.
So did Bush attack Obama? Hardly. Did he articulate a negotiating stance? Definitely.
Should NBC be awarded a Pulitzer for 'Creating Fiction'?
You be the judge.
HT: JustOneMinute
Here is a transcript of the interview in question via Newsbusters, the White House release of the full interview, and Bush's Knesset speech. [Marc Ambinder reprints the White House letter.]
Gillespie objected to "both initial questions"; here is the first as presented by NBC:
RICHARD ENGEL: Good morning, Meredith. I started by asking the President about his controversial comments he made in Israel, which Democratic candidates interpreted as a political attack. You said that negotiating with Iran is pointless and then you went further. You're saying, you said that it was appeasement. Were you referring to Senator Barack Obama? He certainly thought you were.
GEORGE W. BUSH: You know, my policies haven't changed, but evidently, the political calendar has.
Left on the cutting room floor was this:
People need to read the speech. You didn't get it exactly right, either. What I said was is that we need to take the words of people seriously. And when, you know, a leader of Iran says that they want to destroy Israel, you've got to take those words seriously. And if you don't take them seriously, then it harkens back to a day when we didn't take other words seriously. It was fitting that I talked about not taking the words of Adolph Hitler seriously on the floor of the Knesset. But I also talked about the need to defend Israel, the need to not negotiate with the likes of al Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas. And the need to make sure Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon.
But I also talked about a vision of what's possible in the Middle East.
So Bush did in fact dispute Engel's characterization of the speech. Here is the next question as presented by NBC:
ENGEL: Negotiations with Iran. Is that appeasement? Is that like appeasing Adolf Hitler?
BUSH: No my, my, my position, Richard, all along, has been that if the Iranians verifiably suspend their enrichment, which will be a key, key measure to stop them from gaining the know-how to build a weapon, then they can come to the table and the United States will be at the table.
Omitted:
...then they can come to the table, and the United States will be at the table. That's been a position of my administration for gosh, I can't remember how many years, but it's a clear position. We've stated it over and over again.
But I've also said that if they choose not to do that -- verifiably suspend -- we will continue to rally the world to isolate the Iranians. And it is having an effect inside their country. There's a better way forward for the Iranian people than to be isolated. And their leaders just need to make better choices.
So did Bush attack Obama? Hardly. Did he articulate a negotiating stance? Definitely.
Should NBC be awarded a Pulitzer for 'Creating Fiction'?
You be the judge.
HT: JustOneMinute
Insight: Cities, Suburbs, and Kids
Just One Minute has a take on city/suburban living which parallels mine.
My question - is it unreasonable to wonder whether the low European birth rates can be tied to their living arrangements? I have lived in Manhattan with two kids, and in the suburbs with more than two. Trust me, or try it for yourself - the suburbs are easier to manage when lots of kids are in the picture.
Or try this simple census survey - how many couples can you think of that met in the cities, had children, and moved to the suburbs? Now, how many couples have kids in the suburbs and then move with them into the city? Hmm...
I'm not saying it can't be done. I'm just noting that the evidence from Europe might suggest that small cars and limited space might be better suited to small families; it seems to be a point that a top-notch, objective economist like Krugman would at least want to address.
Of COURSE there are exceptions, which the LeftyWonks will be happy to raise as "norms."
But it is not merely high property-taxes which impel young families to move to the 'burbs,' nor "racism." It is, in the wonderful German term invented just for this debate, 'lebensraum.'
My question - is it unreasonable to wonder whether the low European birth rates can be tied to their living arrangements? I have lived in Manhattan with two kids, and in the suburbs with more than two. Trust me, or try it for yourself - the suburbs are easier to manage when lots of kids are in the picture.
Or try this simple census survey - how many couples can you think of that met in the cities, had children, and moved to the suburbs? Now, how many couples have kids in the suburbs and then move with them into the city? Hmm...
I'm not saying it can't be done. I'm just noting that the evidence from Europe might suggest that small cars and limited space might be better suited to small families; it seems to be a point that a top-notch, objective economist like Krugman would at least want to address.
Of COURSE there are exceptions, which the LeftyWonks will be happy to raise as "norms."
But it is not merely high property-taxes which impel young families to move to the 'burbs,' nor "racism." It is, in the wonderful German term invented just for this debate, 'lebensraum.'
Kohl and Feingold: Big Pig Spenders
Although there is little hope that Nobody's Senator and the Panderer (Kohl and Feingold, respectively) will support the veto of the President, they should be reminded that the Farm Bill is NOT a net benefit to Wisconsin residents.
Pathetic. Craven. Irresponsible. Unprincipled. Those and similar adjectives apply to every member of Congress who voted for the bloated, anti-consumer piece of legislative corruption known as the Food and Energy Conservative Act of 2008 a k a as “the farm bill.” President Bush has promised to veto the bill. To put it plainly, everybody in Congress who votes to override the coming Bush veto should be retired come November because they will have voted for a measure that is nothing more -- or less -- than a $300 billion giveaway of the taxpayers’ hard-earned money. This is especially true for conservative Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats who brag about their fiscal rectitude.
Here's Your Senators' version of "helping middle Americans"
...columnist Tim Carney described how the bill increases subsidies for domestic sugar growers that, combined with restrictions on imported sugar, will drive up U.S. food prices substantially -- and, even worse, how it provides for the government to buy “excess” sugar at high prices, then re-sell it to ethanol facilities at as little as one-tenth the price.
...it will continue to give subsidies to millionaires who actually live in Manhattan and who might not even use their “farmland” for food crops. (Those subsidies will come from tax dollars confiscated from millions of working families of four making, say, $35,000. How is that fair?)
And there are several dozen "poor farmers" in Wisconsin who have taken in MILLIONS of subsidy-dollars over the last few years, as well.
It's worth a call. And it's worth haranguing Nobody's and The Panderer about when they show up in the State.
Pathetic. Craven. Irresponsible. Unprincipled. Those and similar adjectives apply to every member of Congress who voted for the bloated, anti-consumer piece of legislative corruption known as the Food and Energy Conservative Act of 2008 a k a as “the farm bill.” President Bush has promised to veto the bill. To put it plainly, everybody in Congress who votes to override the coming Bush veto should be retired come November because they will have voted for a measure that is nothing more -- or less -- than a $300 billion giveaway of the taxpayers’ hard-earned money. This is especially true for conservative Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats who brag about their fiscal rectitude.
Here's Your Senators' version of "helping middle Americans"
...columnist Tim Carney described how the bill increases subsidies for domestic sugar growers that, combined with restrictions on imported sugar, will drive up U.S. food prices substantially -- and, even worse, how it provides for the government to buy “excess” sugar at high prices, then re-sell it to ethanol facilities at as little as one-tenth the price.
...it will continue to give subsidies to millionaires who actually live in Manhattan and who might not even use their “farmland” for food crops. (Those subsidies will come from tax dollars confiscated from millions of working families of four making, say, $35,000. How is that fair?)
And there are several dozen "poor farmers" in Wisconsin who have taken in MILLIONS of subsidy-dollars over the last few years, as well.
It's worth a call. And it's worth haranguing Nobody's and The Panderer about when they show up in the State.
Rules Are Rules: Screw You!
Charlie Sykes has a regular feature which centers around the idiotic application of rules by clueless (and spineless) bureaucrats.
And there's never a lack of material. Today we learn that SE Wisconsin residents will continue to pay lots of extra money for gasoline--and that SE Wisconsin industrial development will be hampered for quite some time.
Southeastern Wisconsin will continue to remain in violation of federal ozone pollution standards, the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday.
The reason: A single air monitor in Kenosha County, less than a mile from the Illinois border, narrowly violated ozone limits between 2005 and 2007.
A legacy of the region's substandard air was the creation of the vehicle inspection program and a mandate to use reformulated gas.
Companies have also been required to operate under more restrictive regulations than the rest of the state.
And yes, indeed, it gets worse:
But the region's ongoing ozone troubles also show that counties near Lake Michigan continue to grapple with periods of unhealthy air, and more reductions will have to be found when ozone standards get stricter.
The fact of the matter is that this stuff is coming to us from Illinois, along with the threats regularly driving on Wisconsin roads.
The Chiwaukee Prairie monitor is used by Wisconsin and Illinois. Mostof the ozone comes from Illinois, the DNR says
(And most of the higher-level pollution immigrates to Wisconsin from utilities in Ohio and steel-mills in Northern Indiana, by the way...)
The Enlightened Bureaucracy made its decision based on a somewhat slim margin:
The results from last year and from high ozone levels in 2005, when pollutants pushed northward from Illinois, set the three-year ozone average for Kenosha County to 85 parts per billion, according to the DNR.
The current federal standard is 84.
It will be a while before Wisconsin reaches whatever the EPA and litigant-EnviroWackos determine is the "perfect" ozone concentration, of course.
Might NEVER happen, either. Hope you like the costs!
And there's never a lack of material. Today we learn that SE Wisconsin residents will continue to pay lots of extra money for gasoline--and that SE Wisconsin industrial development will be hampered for quite some time.
Southeastern Wisconsin will continue to remain in violation of federal ozone pollution standards, the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday.
The reason: A single air monitor in Kenosha County, less than a mile from the Illinois border, narrowly violated ozone limits between 2005 and 2007.
A legacy of the region's substandard air was the creation of the vehicle inspection program and a mandate to use reformulated gas.
Companies have also been required to operate under more restrictive regulations than the rest of the state.
And yes, indeed, it gets worse:
But the region's ongoing ozone troubles also show that counties near Lake Michigan continue to grapple with periods of unhealthy air, and more reductions will have to be found when ozone standards get stricter.
The fact of the matter is that this stuff is coming to us from Illinois, along with the threats regularly driving on Wisconsin roads.
The Chiwaukee Prairie monitor is used by Wisconsin and Illinois. Mostof the ozone comes from Illinois, the DNR says
(And most of the higher-level pollution immigrates to Wisconsin from utilities in Ohio and steel-mills in Northern Indiana, by the way...)
The Enlightened Bureaucracy made its decision based on a somewhat slim margin:
The results from last year and from high ozone levels in 2005, when pollutants pushed northward from Illinois, set the three-year ozone average for Kenosha County to 85 parts per billion, according to the DNR.
The current federal standard is 84.
It will be a while before Wisconsin reaches whatever the EPA and litigant-EnviroWackos determine is the "perfect" ozone concentration, of course.
Might NEVER happen, either. Hope you like the costs!
Monday, May 19, 2008
TN Board of Ed: Please, No Competition!
I am not making this up.
Recently, the Tennessee State Board of Education ruled diplomas issued to home-schooled students from religious based schools were invalid as proof of the successful completion of High School should it be presented for employment purposes for a job for which state law requires a diploma. You read that right. According to the State Board of Education, all diplomas are equal but some diplomas are more equal than others.
The Board's logic? "We don't know what home-schooled kids learned."
Well, according to RedState, we DO know a few comparative figures (from 1998.)
In the year homeschoolers averaged 22.8 and the national average was 21.0, Tennessee's students scored just 19.8, a full 3 points below home schoolers. This put Tennessee ahead of only North and South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana and Washington DC. (Note: Louisiana recently began a 'no-holds-barred' school choice program. Most likely TN will slip another notch in the very near future.)
Hell, Gomer, I can figure this out. The TN Board is trying not to be totally embarrassed.
Recently, the Tennessee State Board of Education ruled diplomas issued to home-schooled students from religious based schools were invalid as proof of the successful completion of High School should it be presented for employment purposes for a job for which state law requires a diploma. You read that right. According to the State Board of Education, all diplomas are equal but some diplomas are more equal than others.
The Board's logic? "We don't know what home-schooled kids learned."
Well, according to RedState, we DO know a few comparative figures (from 1998.)
In the year homeschoolers averaged 22.8 and the national average was 21.0, Tennessee's students scored just 19.8, a full 3 points below home schoolers. This put Tennessee ahead of only North and South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana and Washington DC. (Note: Louisiana recently began a 'no-holds-barred' school choice program. Most likely TN will slip another notch in the very near future.)
Hell, Gomer, I can figure this out. The TN Board is trying not to be totally embarrassed.
Jebby Joke
Have you heard the one about the young man who was sitting in church for hours praying fervently when approached by a priest who asked,
'May I help you, my son ?'
said -
'Father, I am making a novena for a Lexus' and the priest asked, '
What is a Lexus my son ?'
The young man explained it was a high end car, the priest said he did not pray for material things and it was getting late so if he wanted to continue to pray he could go down the street to the Jesuit parish, they were open late.
The young man again became deep in prayer and a Jesuit came out and asked,
'May I help you, my son ?'
and the young man again explained that he was making a novena for a Lexus
- - - the Jesuit asked, 'What is a novena, my son ?
HT: Gerald
'May I help you, my son ?'
said -
'Father, I am making a novena for a Lexus' and the priest asked, '
What is a Lexus my son ?'
The young man explained it was a high end car, the priest said he did not pray for material things and it was getting late so if he wanted to continue to pray he could go down the street to the Jesuit parish, they were open late.
The young man again became deep in prayer and a Jesuit came out and asked,
'May I help you, my son ?'
and the young man again explained that he was making a novena for a Lexus
- - - the Jesuit asked, 'What is a novena, my son ?
HT: Gerald
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Alisadaire McIntyre, Gay "Marriage," and Church Music
A couple of essays on widely disparate topics happen to address the same philosophical minefield.
Dreher on gay "marriage" wherein he demonstrates that he is not an optimist.
It is astonishing, though, how quickly gay marriage went from being something as unthinkable by most people as legalized polygamy is today, to being considered a constitutional right by high courts, and accepted by roughly half the populace...
...So it is with the institution of marriage. Gay marriage is and is not a sudden shift in the meaning of marriage. It started with the Reformation. The reason I think gay marriage cannot be stopped, only delayed, is because it is only the latest manifestation of deep social trends in the West going back centuries. These currents run so deep in our civilization they carry us all along without many of us being aware of how far from shore we're receding
He quotes Carle C. Zimmerman and adduces Richard Weaver on the origins of the phenomenon:
In an interesting parallel with Richard Weaver's contention that the West sowed the seeds for its own destruction in the 13th century with the victory of nominalism over Thomism, Zimmerman says the process of the family's decay began at the same time, for the same reason.
It had a firm beginning with the rise of nationalism and the Protestant conception that the family bond was holy but not a sacrament. [A logical follow-on to the rejection of the priesthood.] It led through the philosophical conception of the eighteenth century that the family was a union based upon private contract with only incidental, but necessary, civil implications. The nineteenth and early-twentieth-century schools of family sociology, with their consistently negative attitudes toward the binding and displeasing aspects of the family unit, were but the wholesale development of centuries of previous thought which in a smaller way had the same attitude toward familism.
Thus modern thinking about the family, other than the scholasticism of the Christian [Catholic] church, has been largely a product of the Reformation and has attributed to the family all those elements of nominalism and contractualism so prevalent in institutional thinking since that period. Just as John Locke, J.J. Rousseau, Thomas Paine, and a number of the Founding Fathers of our own nation could hold that the social compact -- government -- if it became unsatisfactory to the body of the people could be abolished for a new form, so the developing school of family negationists could hold that unsatisfactory family types had been, are being, and will continue to be abolished.
Which is related to an essay on "Beauty" in church music from Fr. Rob. Johannsen. Here Fr. J. quotes the prototypical parishioner on the question of 'what music to use for Mass.'
Well, Father, you like all that classical music and chant, and the traditional hymns, and that's fine for you. But I [we] like [insert musical genre here], and, after all, it's all for God's praise. One kind of music is just as good as another.
What's wrong with that? McIntyre had a response.
Alasdair McIntyre, in his seminal book After Virtue, described this mode of thinking as emotivism, that is, the collapsing of all moral or qualitative judgments into mere expressions of personal preference. And this kind of thinking is the besetting sin of the post-modern West.
In fact, "emotivism" is the son of nominalism.
And McIntyre could well have used the term "besOtting" instead of "besEtting."
What is missing in the thinking illustrated above is any sense that the liturgy, and the music of the liturgy, has any objective quality whatsoever
We can emplace that into the debate above, substituting the word "beauty" for "liturgy" and arrive at the following:
"What is missing in the thinking....is any sense that BEAUTY has any objective quality whatsoever."
The important term, of course, is objective, which is not part of McIntyre's "emotivism."
Thus, the liturgy has an objective nature to which we more or less perfectly conform ourselves. [As does marriage.] The Church expresses her appreciation of this objectivity by holding up certain forms or expressions as models which we are urged to adopt and which have been treated as sources or starting points for development which is "organic", that is, which always respects and makes reference to the model. In the area of music, the Church has held up chant and polyphony as those models.
The post-conciliar period has seen, in many if not most sectors of the Church, a loss of a sense of the objective nature of the liturgy. With the liturgy coming to be seen, as Pope Benedict has written, as the outlet for personal "creativity", the liturgy became something expressing not that which is universal and objective, but private and subjective.
Just as "marriage" has become an expression which is private and subjective since the (deficient) understanding that it is a "private contract" between "two individuals" became the operative predicate. That understanding germinated from the Nominalism of the Protestant Revolution in the 1500's, which is the burden of Dreher's thesis.
Thus Fr. J's paragraph about music for worship also (mutatis mutandis) describes the blindlings promoting and espousing gay "marriage."
Aristotle taught that the ability to make correct judgments was about more than simply amassing the necessary data. It involves the training and formation of the person in virtue, so that he has the kind of mind and soul that can apprehend the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. These three Transcendentals have a moral quality, and the inculcation of moral excellence and the ability to make right moral judgments requires, as the ancients taught, and as the Church continues to teach, the proper formation of the mind and soul.
Such 'proper formation' is necessarily based on objective reality, or that which is True. Aristotle and Aquinas taught that knowledge of the Truth is simply conforming one's mind to reality.
Dreher also covered the question of "how can Dan and Bill's 'marriage' hurt YOUR marriage,' which, of course, is a red herring of the first water. Here, Fr. J. answers that question but in the context of liturgy and music:
...what has happened in large part is that extra-liturgical forms and even sometimes texts, many of which come from the dominant mass culture, have been imposed on the liturgy from without. And this has obscured the meaning and nature of the liturgy. It has led to confusion and a weakening of faith. A people that has been led to believe that the liturgy is whatever Father Feelgood or Sister Liturgist make it this week is not a people who will necessarily be able to properly apprehend truth or beauty when they encounter it. The moral equipment that they need to do this has been damaged, and it needs to be repaired.
Dreher's parallel:
I think the most common, and superficially common-sensical, questions that comes up in discussions of this issue is, "How does Jill and Jane's marriage hurt Jack and Diane's?" The idea is that unless you can demonstrate that a gay marriage directly harms traditional marriage, there is no rational objection to gay marriage.
But this is a shallow way to look at it. We all share the same moral ecology. You may as well ask why it should have mattered to the people of Amherst, Mass., if some rich white people in Charleston, SC, owned slaves. Don't believe in slavery? Don't buy one. Similarly, why should it matter to the people of Manhattan if the people of Topeka wish to forbid a woman there to have an abortion? Or, conversely, why do the people of Topeka care if women in New York City choose to abort their unborn children? Don't believe in abortion? Don't have one.
Some issues are so morally consequential as to affect the moral ecology of an entire society.
And that's all one can say. There are no micro-analytics to which one can refer in answering the question--there are only macro-analytics, and they don't show up in 60 minutes-less-commercials which satisfy the typical American mind.
They show up over 50- or 100- year spans, when the results are endemic and horrifying.
HT: Aristotle
Dreher on gay "marriage" wherein he demonstrates that he is not an optimist.
It is astonishing, though, how quickly gay marriage went from being something as unthinkable by most people as legalized polygamy is today, to being considered a constitutional right by high courts, and accepted by roughly half the populace...
...So it is with the institution of marriage. Gay marriage is and is not a sudden shift in the meaning of marriage. It started with the Reformation. The reason I think gay marriage cannot be stopped, only delayed, is because it is only the latest manifestation of deep social trends in the West going back centuries. These currents run so deep in our civilization they carry us all along without many of us being aware of how far from shore we're receding
He quotes Carle C. Zimmerman and adduces Richard Weaver on the origins of the phenomenon:
In an interesting parallel with Richard Weaver's contention that the West sowed the seeds for its own destruction in the 13th century with the victory of nominalism over Thomism, Zimmerman says the process of the family's decay began at the same time, for the same reason.
It had a firm beginning with the rise of nationalism and the Protestant conception that the family bond was holy but not a sacrament. [A logical follow-on to the rejection of the priesthood.] It led through the philosophical conception of the eighteenth century that the family was a union based upon private contract with only incidental, but necessary, civil implications. The nineteenth and early-twentieth-century schools of family sociology, with their consistently negative attitudes toward the binding and displeasing aspects of the family unit, were but the wholesale development of centuries of previous thought which in a smaller way had the same attitude toward familism.
Thus modern thinking about the family, other than the scholasticism of the Christian [Catholic] church, has been largely a product of the Reformation and has attributed to the family all those elements of nominalism and contractualism so prevalent in institutional thinking since that period. Just as John Locke, J.J. Rousseau, Thomas Paine, and a number of the Founding Fathers of our own nation could hold that the social compact -- government -- if it became unsatisfactory to the body of the people could be abolished for a new form, so the developing school of family negationists could hold that unsatisfactory family types had been, are being, and will continue to be abolished.
Which is related to an essay on "Beauty" in church music from Fr. Rob. Johannsen. Here Fr. J. quotes the prototypical parishioner on the question of 'what music to use for Mass.'
Well, Father, you like all that classical music and chant, and the traditional hymns, and that's fine for you. But I [we] like [insert musical genre here], and, after all, it's all for God's praise. One kind of music is just as good as another.
What's wrong with that? McIntyre had a response.
Alasdair McIntyre, in his seminal book After Virtue, described this mode of thinking as emotivism, that is, the collapsing of all moral or qualitative judgments into mere expressions of personal preference. And this kind of thinking is the besetting sin of the post-modern West.
In fact, "emotivism" is the son of nominalism.
And McIntyre could well have used the term "besOtting" instead of "besEtting."
What is missing in the thinking illustrated above is any sense that the liturgy, and the music of the liturgy, has any objective quality whatsoever
We can emplace that into the debate above, substituting the word "beauty" for "liturgy" and arrive at the following:
"What is missing in the thinking....is any sense that BEAUTY has any objective quality whatsoever."
The important term, of course, is objective, which is not part of McIntyre's "emotivism."
Thus, the liturgy has an objective nature to which we more or less perfectly conform ourselves. [As does marriage.] The Church expresses her appreciation of this objectivity by holding up certain forms or expressions as models which we are urged to adopt and which have been treated as sources or starting points for development which is "organic", that is, which always respects and makes reference to the model. In the area of music, the Church has held up chant and polyphony as those models.
The post-conciliar period has seen, in many if not most sectors of the Church, a loss of a sense of the objective nature of the liturgy. With the liturgy coming to be seen, as Pope Benedict has written, as the outlet for personal "creativity", the liturgy became something expressing not that which is universal and objective, but private and subjective.
Just as "marriage" has become an expression which is private and subjective since the (deficient) understanding that it is a "private contract" between "two individuals" became the operative predicate. That understanding germinated from the Nominalism of the Protestant Revolution in the 1500's, which is the burden of Dreher's thesis.
Thus Fr. J's paragraph about music for worship also (mutatis mutandis) describes the blindlings promoting and espousing gay "marriage."
Aristotle taught that the ability to make correct judgments was about more than simply amassing the necessary data. It involves the training and formation of the person in virtue, so that he has the kind of mind and soul that can apprehend the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. These three Transcendentals have a moral quality, and the inculcation of moral excellence and the ability to make right moral judgments requires, as the ancients taught, and as the Church continues to teach, the proper formation of the mind and soul.
Such 'proper formation' is necessarily based on objective reality, or that which is True. Aristotle and Aquinas taught that knowledge of the Truth is simply conforming one's mind to reality.
Dreher also covered the question of "how can Dan and Bill's 'marriage' hurt YOUR marriage,' which, of course, is a red herring of the first water. Here, Fr. J. answers that question but in the context of liturgy and music:
...what has happened in large part is that extra-liturgical forms and even sometimes texts, many of which come from the dominant mass culture, have been imposed on the liturgy from without. And this has obscured the meaning and nature of the liturgy. It has led to confusion and a weakening of faith. A people that has been led to believe that the liturgy is whatever Father Feelgood or Sister Liturgist make it this week is not a people who will necessarily be able to properly apprehend truth or beauty when they encounter it. The moral equipment that they need to do this has been damaged, and it needs to be repaired.
Dreher's parallel:
I think the most common, and superficially common-sensical, questions that comes up in discussions of this issue is, "How does Jill and Jane's marriage hurt Jack and Diane's?" The idea is that unless you can demonstrate that a gay marriage directly harms traditional marriage, there is no rational objection to gay marriage.
But this is a shallow way to look at it. We all share the same moral ecology. You may as well ask why it should have mattered to the people of Amherst, Mass., if some rich white people in Charleston, SC, owned slaves. Don't believe in slavery? Don't buy one. Similarly, why should it matter to the people of Manhattan if the people of Topeka wish to forbid a woman there to have an abortion? Or, conversely, why do the people of Topeka care if women in New York City choose to abort their unborn children? Don't believe in abortion? Don't have one.
Some issues are so morally consequential as to affect the moral ecology of an entire society.
And that's all one can say. There are no micro-analytics to which one can refer in answering the question--there are only macro-analytics, and they don't show up in 60 minutes-less-commercials which satisfy the typical American mind.
They show up over 50- or 100- year spans, when the results are endemic and horrifying.
HT: Aristotle
NO Homosexuals in Seminaries!
That's clear, to most people--but not necessarily to Rectors.
Well, it's been said again.
In reference to the Document of the Congregation for Catholic Education, ‘Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders‘, published by the aforementioned Dicastery on 4 November 2005, and in consequence of numerous requests for clarification which have reached the Apostolic See, it state[s] precisely that the dispositions contained in said Instruction are in force for all the houses of formation for the priesthood, including those which [juridically] depend on the Dicasteries for Oriental Churches, for the Evangelization of Peoples, and for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
The Supreme Pontiff, on the 8th day of April of the year of the Lord of 2008 approved this clarification.
That should clearly draw the line over which 'angels fear to tread,' (also known as the line over which 'fools rush.')
Here's the pertinent excerpt from the 2005 document (Congregation for Education):
In the light of such teaching, this Dicastery, in accord with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, believes it necessary to state clearly that the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question[9], cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called "gay culture"
All we ask for is obedience...
HT: WDTPRS
Well, it's been said again.
In reference to the Document of the Congregation for Catholic Education, ‘Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders‘, published by the aforementioned Dicastery on 4 November 2005, and in consequence of numerous requests for clarification which have reached the Apostolic See, it state[s] precisely that the dispositions contained in said Instruction are in force for all the houses of formation for the priesthood, including those which [juridically] depend on the Dicasteries for Oriental Churches, for the Evangelization of Peoples, and for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
The Supreme Pontiff, on the 8th day of April of the year of the Lord of 2008 approved this clarification.
That should clearly draw the line over which 'angels fear to tread,' (also known as the line over which 'fools rush.')
Here's the pertinent excerpt from the 2005 document (Congregation for Education):
In the light of such teaching, this Dicastery, in accord with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, believes it necessary to state clearly that the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question[9], cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called "gay culture"
All we ask for is obedience...
HT: WDTPRS
A Guideline on Politics
A fellow named Ortega y Gosset defines history as
"The eternal struggle between paralytics and epileptics."
I think that's about politics. Or, if you like a finer point, it's about "judicial temperaments."
"The eternal struggle between paralytics and epileptics."
I think that's about politics. Or, if you like a finer point, it's about "judicial temperaments."
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Van Hollen: A Silly Idea
JB Van Hollen has been a bit controversial since his election to AG/Wisconsin.
Evidently that's not going to change soon. He opened his mouth at the Republican State convention and promptly inserted one size 12:
He also pledged to work for legislation that would allow retired police officers to carry concealed weapons
Nope.
Either ALL law-abiding citizens get concealed-carry, or none, JB.
Retired cops aren't "more equal" than others--at least not in the real world.
Evidently that's not going to change soon. He opened his mouth at the Republican State convention and promptly inserted one size 12:
He also pledged to work for legislation that would allow retired police officers to carry concealed weapons
Nope.
Either ALL law-abiding citizens get concealed-carry, or none, JB.
Retired cops aren't "more equal" than others--at least not in the real world.
Mikey Huebsch Gets the Woodshed--In Public
Jim Sensenbrenner, who did the RIGHT THING regarding Corn-A-Hole, puts Mikey Huebsch (and Robin Vos, another slime-turtle) in the woodshed at the Pubbie convention:
“Unfortunately, Speaker Huebsch decided to push it [the budget repair bill] through the Assembly. And he did so in a manner which does not fix the problems of overtaxing, and replaces transportation fees with more state borrowing - exactly the same move which helped destroy the Republican brand. Everyone can see this is a political shell game that simply postpones the hard decisions.
Sometimes, leadership consists of saying “NO” to bad policies, rather than going along to get along.”
Kudos to the Congressman for remaining civil.
Sensenbrenner COULD have added that Huebsch's pansy-ass "repair" bill allowed Jim Doyle to outfox Republicans--because Doyle found $250 million in spending cuts that Mikey boy couldn't.
"Leadership," my ass, Mikey.
HT: Owen
“Unfortunately, Speaker Huebsch decided to push it [the budget repair bill] through the Assembly. And he did so in a manner which does not fix the problems of overtaxing, and replaces transportation fees with more state borrowing - exactly the same move which helped destroy the Republican brand. Everyone can see this is a political shell game that simply postpones the hard decisions.
Sometimes, leadership consists of saying “NO” to bad policies, rather than going along to get along.”
Kudos to the Congressman for remaining civil.
Sensenbrenner COULD have added that Huebsch's pansy-ass "repair" bill allowed Jim Doyle to outfox Republicans--because Doyle found $250 million in spending cuts that Mikey boy couldn't.
"Leadership," my ass, Mikey.
HT: Owen
Illegals and ID Theft
The ID theft thingie has a distinctive pattern.
Seeking access to jobs, credit, and driver’s licenses, many undocumented aliens are using the personal data of real Americans on forged documents. The immigrants’ identity theft has become so pervasive that the need to combat it is “a disturbing front in the war against illegal immigration,” according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The FTC’s latest statistics help show why. The top five states in terms of reported identity theft in 2007 all have large immigrant populations—the border states of Arizona, California, and Texas, as well as Florida and Nevada.
The identies stolen are those of children.
Identity Theft 911 estimates that in Arizona alone, some 1.57 million people, or a quarter of the state’s population, have been victims over the last six years. About one-fifth are children—whose Social Security numbers are especially valuable targets, since the kids usually aren’t employed, making discovery of the fraud less likely.
One theory on the methodology:
...health-care employees with access to children’s files are working for organized gangs that trade in illegal documents and are willing to pay richly for the data. “We have a major problem with workers in medical offices stealing patients’ identities, selling them and making a direct profit,” Sergeant James Bracke of the Phoenix Police Department told authors of the Arizona report. The gangs can afford these bribes because identity theft has become such a big business. In Phoenix, “coyotes,” the smugglers who lead illegal immigrants over our borders, have created a network of phony-document producers and safe houses where undocumented workers can wait until they get their fraudulent papers.
Another reason to close the borders. Of course, that solution is far too simple for Washington to understand, and will be fought tooth-and-nail by Queen Nancy.
Seeking access to jobs, credit, and driver’s licenses, many undocumented aliens are using the personal data of real Americans on forged documents. The immigrants’ identity theft has become so pervasive that the need to combat it is “a disturbing front in the war against illegal immigration,” according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The FTC’s latest statistics help show why. The top five states in terms of reported identity theft in 2007 all have large immigrant populations—the border states of Arizona, California, and Texas, as well as Florida and Nevada.
The identies stolen are those of children.
Identity Theft 911 estimates that in Arizona alone, some 1.57 million people, or a quarter of the state’s population, have been victims over the last six years. About one-fifth are children—whose Social Security numbers are especially valuable targets, since the kids usually aren’t employed, making discovery of the fraud less likely.
One theory on the methodology:
...health-care employees with access to children’s files are working for organized gangs that trade in illegal documents and are willing to pay richly for the data. “We have a major problem with workers in medical offices stealing patients’ identities, selling them and making a direct profit,” Sergeant James Bracke of the Phoenix Police Department told authors of the Arizona report. The gangs can afford these bribes because identity theft has become such a big business. In Phoenix, “coyotes,” the smugglers who lead illegal immigrants over our borders, have created a network of phony-document producers and safe houses where undocumented workers can wait until they get their fraudulent papers.
Another reason to close the borders. Of course, that solution is far too simple for Washington to understand, and will be fought tooth-and-nail by Queen Nancy.
Whale-Fin Tech
Creation-technology.
When biologist Frank Fish spied a figurine of a humpback whale in a Boston gift shop and noticed the pointy bumps along its fins, he said, "That has to be wrong."
But when the shop manager produced a photograph that showed the leading edge of the long fins was indeed serrated like the teeth on a saw, Dr. Fish was intrigued and decided to investigate.
He discovered that these bumps, called tubercles, are this creature's secret weapon, allowing a whale the size of a school bus to make tight turns and capture prey with astonishing agility
Fish, a biology professor at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, is now using this technology perfected by nature to produce fans with serrated blades that use 20 percent less electricity than traditional models. This finding contradicts conventional designs that strive for the smoothest possible edges.
...experiments revealed that significant drag occurs at a much steeper angle on the humpback fin than it does on a sleek flipper. Each tubercle redirects and channels air over the flipper, creating a sort of whirling vortex that actually improves lift, Fish says.
...Envira-North Systems, Canada's largest supplier of industrial ceiling fans, with 75 percent of the market, recently licensed the design for a new line of fans that measure up to 24 feet in diameter.
"There was a 20 percent drop in energy use, a significant drop in noise decibels, and overall distribution of air was more even," says Envira-North CEO Monica Bowden. The increased efficiency also means the new fans will have five blades instead of 10, making them cheaper to manufacture
I expect that AB will be interested in this, too.
When biologist Frank Fish spied a figurine of a humpback whale in a Boston gift shop and noticed the pointy bumps along its fins, he said, "That has to be wrong."
But when the shop manager produced a photograph that showed the leading edge of the long fins was indeed serrated like the teeth on a saw, Dr. Fish was intrigued and decided to investigate.
He discovered that these bumps, called tubercles, are this creature's secret weapon, allowing a whale the size of a school bus to make tight turns and capture prey with astonishing agility
Fish, a biology professor at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, is now using this technology perfected by nature to produce fans with serrated blades that use 20 percent less electricity than traditional models. This finding contradicts conventional designs that strive for the smoothest possible edges.
...experiments revealed that significant drag occurs at a much steeper angle on the humpback fin than it does on a sleek flipper. Each tubercle redirects and channels air over the flipper, creating a sort of whirling vortex that actually improves lift, Fish says.
...Envira-North Systems, Canada's largest supplier of industrial ceiling fans, with 75 percent of the market, recently licensed the design for a new line of fans that measure up to 24 feet in diameter.
"There was a 20 percent drop in energy use, a significant drop in noise decibels, and overall distribution of air was more even," says Envira-North CEO Monica Bowden. The increased efficiency also means the new fans will have five blades instead of 10, making them cheaper to manufacture
I expect that AB will be interested in this, too.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Flying Cow-Chip Warning
No Runny Eggs interviews Back-and-Forthright Vos, the "pledge" taker who forgot all about that when he voted to raise taxes (twice) a couple of days ago.
Warning. The BS will discolor your screen.
Warning. The BS will discolor your screen.
Mississippi Loss: Who Should Take the Fall?
Noonan:
The Bush White House, faced with the series of losses from 2005 through '08, has long claimed the problem is Republicans on the Hill and running for office. They have scandals, bad personalities, don't stand for anything. That's why Republicans are losing: because they're losers.
All true enough!
But this week a House Republican said publicly what many say privately, that there is another truth. "Members and pundits . . . fail to understand the deep seated antipathy toward the president, the war, gas prices, the economy, foreclosures," said Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia in a 20-page memo to House GOP leaders.
Well, yah, sorta.
It is the height of irony that GWBush is being blasted, in a way. Think about it: we elect a "leader" (slim margins or thick) and he leads --spending money like a drunken sailor, aggrandizing the Federal Government, initiating Corn-A-Hole requirements, signing clearly questionable legislation (McPain-Feinie)...
And he gets blasted by a Lefty Republican like Davis.
Could Bush have changed the price of petroleum? Could Bush have eliminated the fraud and speculation driving the foreclosures? Be serious. Of course he couldn't have done that--at least, not single-handedly.
Rush Limbaugh and many others (Sykes, Sensenbrenner,) have hacked through the jungle and laid a nice roadway for a President who COULD have balanced the budget by spending less; who COULD have pushed back at Greenspan's monetary profligacy; who COULD have vetoed "No Child"; who COULD have better articulated an 'end game' for Iraq.
No, Ms. Noonan and Mr. Davis--it's not GWBush who should take the fall. Those who are culpable are the figures Ms. Noonan described earlier in her essay:
Most party leaders in Washington are stupid – detached, played out, stuck in the wisdom they learned when they were coming up, in '78 or '82 or '94. Whatever they learned then, they think pertains now. In politics especially, the first lesson sticks. For Richard Nixon, everything came back to Alger Hiss.
They are also – Hill leaders, lobbyists, party speakers – successful, well-connected, busy and rich. They never guessed, back in '86, how government would pay off! They didn't know they'd stay! They came to make a difference and wound up with their butts in the butter. But affluence detaches, and in time skews thinking. It gives you the illusion you're safe, and that everyone else is. A party can lose its gut this way.
Many are ambivalent, deep inside, about the decisions made the past seven years in the White House. But they've publicly supported it so long they think they . . . support it. They get confused. Late at night they toss and turn in the antique mahogany sleigh bed in the carpeted house in McLean and try to remember what it is they really do think, and what those thoughts imply.
One thinks of Hastert, Fred Barnes, Trent Lott...the folks who put the "stupid" in the Stupid Party.
The Bush White House, faced with the series of losses from 2005 through '08, has long claimed the problem is Republicans on the Hill and running for office. They have scandals, bad personalities, don't stand for anything. That's why Republicans are losing: because they're losers.
All true enough!
But this week a House Republican said publicly what many say privately, that there is another truth. "Members and pundits . . . fail to understand the deep seated antipathy toward the president, the war, gas prices, the economy, foreclosures," said Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia in a 20-page memo to House GOP leaders.
Well, yah, sorta.
It is the height of irony that GWBush is being blasted, in a way. Think about it: we elect a "leader" (slim margins or thick) and he leads --spending money like a drunken sailor, aggrandizing the Federal Government, initiating Corn-A-Hole requirements, signing clearly questionable legislation (McPain-Feinie)...
And he gets blasted by a Lefty Republican like Davis.
Could Bush have changed the price of petroleum? Could Bush have eliminated the fraud and speculation driving the foreclosures? Be serious. Of course he couldn't have done that--at least, not single-handedly.
Rush Limbaugh and many others (Sykes, Sensenbrenner,) have hacked through the jungle and laid a nice roadway for a President who COULD have balanced the budget by spending less; who COULD have pushed back at Greenspan's monetary profligacy; who COULD have vetoed "No Child"; who COULD have better articulated an 'end game' for Iraq.
No, Ms. Noonan and Mr. Davis--it's not GWBush who should take the fall. Those who are culpable are the figures Ms. Noonan described earlier in her essay:
Most party leaders in Washington are stupid – detached, played out, stuck in the wisdom they learned when they were coming up, in '78 or '82 or '94. Whatever they learned then, they think pertains now. In politics especially, the first lesson sticks. For Richard Nixon, everything came back to Alger Hiss.
They are also – Hill leaders, lobbyists, party speakers – successful, well-connected, busy and rich. They never guessed, back in '86, how government would pay off! They didn't know they'd stay! They came to make a difference and wound up with their butts in the butter. But affluence detaches, and in time skews thinking. It gives you the illusion you're safe, and that everyone else is. A party can lose its gut this way.
Many are ambivalent, deep inside, about the decisions made the past seven years in the White House. But they've publicly supported it so long they think they . . . support it. They get confused. Late at night they toss and turn in the antique mahogany sleigh bed in the carpeted house in McLean and try to remember what it is they really do think, and what those thoughts imply.
One thinks of Hastert, Fred Barnes, Trent Lott...the folks who put the "stupid" in the Stupid Party.
How to Talk to "Republicans" Who Voted for the Budget "Repair"
Heh.
Several Tories actually voted against Churchill on one occasion. His chief whip in Parliament spoke thus to one of them:
"And I can tell you this, you utterly contemptible little shit. On every morning that you wake up for the rest of your life you will be ashamed of what you did last night."
Gotta love those Brits.
Several Tories actually voted against Churchill on one occasion. His chief whip in Parliament spoke thus to one of them:
"And I can tell you this, you utterly contemptible little shit. On every morning that you wake up for the rest of your life you will be ashamed of what you did last night."
Gotta love those Brits.
Economic Storm Signals? The Eye of the Hurricane?
There are a number of folks who are trying to 'blow sunshine up your a%%' regarding the economic situation in the US.
Maybe they are right, and all the nasties of the sub-prime/scratch-and-dent/nuclear-waste loans are out of the system. I tend to believe that the loan "crisis" is overblown, but not done and over with. However, the Banks are not out of the woods: "Discount-window" Bank borrowings continue to increase, now running at $14Bn/day. That's not real good.
Maybe that's the right take.
On the other hand, we give you Kasriel of Northern Trust.
There seems to be sentiment developing that the U.S. has weathered the worst of the current cyclical economic storm and blue skies are ahead. We disagree. Any blue skies you see are likely to be short lived. The economy is in the relative calm of the eye of the business-cycle hurricane. The mortgage credit problems are not over. And credit problems in other sectors are just beginning as the housing recession spreads to the rest of the economy. When the economy recovers from the current recession, perhaps in the first half of 2009, that recovery is likely to be muted as financial institutions are still rebuilding their capital and, therefore, will not be able to extend much credit to the private sector
...
Real private final domestic sales – i.e., the sum of personal consumption expenditures and private fixed investment expenditures – contracted at an annualized rate of 1.0% in the first quarter, which was the largest contraction since the fourth quarter of 1991
...
In the 12 months ended April, the BLS reported that nonfarm payrolls increased by 381,000. However, the birth/death adjustment has added 787,000 new nonfarm payroll jobs in this 12-month period. So, net of the birth/death adjustment, nonfarm payrolls would have declined by 406,000
Good news from Kasriel? Sure:
...This lack of credit creation also would be expected to temper the rate of inflation going forward. We continue to expect energy prices to recede as growth in the global demand for it slows. Indeed, U.S. demand for physical volumes of imported energy products has been contracting for about two years
Well, yah, except for the Fed's fiddling and frickackulating:
If a central bank engineers negative inflation-adjusted interest rates when other central banks are maintaining positive inflation-adjusted interest rates, the currency of the economy with negative inflation-adjusted interest rates will depreciate against the others, all else the same. And a depreciating currency usually is accompanied by higher inflation. There are signs that the depreciation of the dollar in recent years is inducing faster price increases of imported consumer goods and those faster import price increases are beginning to be passed on by retailers
You've already seen some of that--but it was "fiscal"--i.e., flooding the market with USDs, rather than interest-rate-manipulation driven.
Best case? Sluggish economy, holding its own but barely, price-deflation in energy and housing countered by price inflation in commodities, including food.
Cross your fingers, folks.
HT: Calculated Risk
Maybe they are right, and all the nasties of the sub-prime/scratch-and-dent/nuclear-waste loans are out of the system. I tend to believe that the loan "crisis" is overblown, but not done and over with. However, the Banks are not out of the woods: "Discount-window" Bank borrowings continue to increase, now running at $14Bn/day. That's not real good.
Maybe that's the right take.
On the other hand, we give you Kasriel of Northern Trust.
There seems to be sentiment developing that the U.S. has weathered the worst of the current cyclical economic storm and blue skies are ahead. We disagree. Any blue skies you see are likely to be short lived. The economy is in the relative calm of the eye of the business-cycle hurricane. The mortgage credit problems are not over. And credit problems in other sectors are just beginning as the housing recession spreads to the rest of the economy. When the economy recovers from the current recession, perhaps in the first half of 2009, that recovery is likely to be muted as financial institutions are still rebuilding their capital and, therefore, will not be able to extend much credit to the private sector
...
Real private final domestic sales – i.e., the sum of personal consumption expenditures and private fixed investment expenditures – contracted at an annualized rate of 1.0% in the first quarter, which was the largest contraction since the fourth quarter of 1991
...
In the 12 months ended April, the BLS reported that nonfarm payrolls increased by 381,000. However, the birth/death adjustment has added 787,000 new nonfarm payroll jobs in this 12-month period. So, net of the birth/death adjustment, nonfarm payrolls would have declined by 406,000
Good news from Kasriel? Sure:
...This lack of credit creation also would be expected to temper the rate of inflation going forward. We continue to expect energy prices to recede as growth in the global demand for it slows. Indeed, U.S. demand for physical volumes of imported energy products has been contracting for about two years
Well, yah, except for the Fed's fiddling and frickackulating:
If a central bank engineers negative inflation-adjusted interest rates when other central banks are maintaining positive inflation-adjusted interest rates, the currency of the economy with negative inflation-adjusted interest rates will depreciate against the others, all else the same. And a depreciating currency usually is accompanied by higher inflation. There are signs that the depreciation of the dollar in recent years is inducing faster price increases of imported consumer goods and those faster import price increases are beginning to be passed on by retailers
You've already seen some of that--but it was "fiscal"--i.e., flooding the market with USDs, rather than interest-rate-manipulation driven.
Best case? Sluggish economy, holding its own but barely, price-deflation in energy and housing countered by price inflation in commodities, including food.
Cross your fingers, folks.
HT: Calculated Risk
10 Liars
Ten Legislators who promised "no new taxes" and then voted for new taxes:
Rep. Garey Bies (R-Sister Bay)
Rep. Don Friske (R-Merrill)
Rep. Eugene Hahn (R-Cambria)
Rep. J.A. "Doc" Hines (R-Oxford)
Rep. Mark Honadel (R-South Milwaukee)
Rep. Terry Musser (R-Black River Falls)
Rep. Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford)
Rep. Robin Vos (R-Racine)
Rep. Steve Wieckert (R-Appleton)
Rep. Jeff Wood (R-Chippewa Falls)
The two in red are quitting the Assembly. The others should be spit upon.
HT: Owen
Rep. Garey Bies (R-Sister Bay)
Rep. Don Friske (R-Merrill)
Rep. Eugene Hahn (R-Cambria)
Rep. J.A. "Doc" Hines (R-Oxford)
Rep. Mark Honadel (R-South Milwaukee)
Rep. Terry Musser (R-Black River Falls)
Rep. Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford)
Rep. Robin Vos (R-Racine)
Rep. Steve Wieckert (R-Appleton)
Rep. Jeff Wood (R-Chippewa Falls)
The two in red are quitting the Assembly. The others should be spit upon.
HT: Owen
Thursday, May 15, 2008
On Pipe Organs and Pseudo-Dionysius
From B-16's allocution of yesterday:
It is interesting that this Pseudo-Dionysius has dared to use just this thought [of a deified cosmos] to show the truth of Christ; to transform this polytheistic universe into a cosmos created by God, into the harmony of the cosmos of God where all the forces are praise of God, and to show this great harmony, this symphony of the universe ranging from seraphs, the angels and archangels, to man and all creatures which together reflect the beauty of God and are praise to God. Thus he transformed the polytheistic image into a praise of the Creator and of his creature. We can in this way discover the essential characteristics of his thought: it is first and foremost a cosmic praise. The whole creation speaks of God and is a praise of God. The creature being a praise of God, the theology of Pseudo-Dionysius becomes a liturgical theology: God is found above all in praising Him, not only reflecting; and the liturgy is not something constructed by us, something invented to produce a religious experience during a certain period of time; it is singing with the choir of creatures and entering into the cosmic reality itself. And so the liturgy, apparently only ecclesiastical, becomes wide and large, becomes the union of ourselves with the language of all creatures. He [Pseudo-Dionysius] says: one cannot talk about God in an abstract way; talking about God is always - he uses the Greek word - a "hymnein", a singing for God with the great song of the creatures, which is reflected and concretized in the liturgical praise.
It is interesting that this Pseudo-Dionysius has dared to use just this thought [of a deified cosmos] to show the truth of Christ; to transform this polytheistic universe into a cosmos created by God, into the harmony of the cosmos of God where all the forces are praise of God, and to show this great harmony, this symphony of the universe ranging from seraphs, the angels and archangels, to man and all creatures which together reflect the beauty of God and are praise to God. Thus he transformed the polytheistic image into a praise of the Creator and of his creature. We can in this way discover the essential characteristics of his thought: it is first and foremost a cosmic praise. The whole creation speaks of God and is a praise of God. The creature being a praise of God, the theology of Pseudo-Dionysius becomes a liturgical theology: God is found above all in praising Him, not only reflecting; and the liturgy is not something constructed by us, something invented to produce a religious experience during a certain period of time; it is singing with the choir of creatures and entering into the cosmic reality itself. And so the liturgy, apparently only ecclesiastical, becomes wide and large, becomes the union of ourselves with the language of all creatures. He [Pseudo-Dionysius] says: one cannot talk about God in an abstract way; talking about God is always - he uses the Greek word - a "hymnein", a singing for God with the great song of the creatures, which is reflected and concretized in the liturgical praise.
This happens to be the theology behind the liturgical use of the pipe organ, as well. The "King of Instruments" is capable, through its variegated colors and sounds, of replicating 'the choir of creatures' and 'their language[s]' in praise of God. It is not merely incidental that the pipe organ sounds by virtue of wind (pneumos)--a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
In other words, the pipe organ is not something developed for entertainment in whorehouses, as a certain ex-Archbishop of Milwaukee was fond of saying...
SCO CA Pemits Gay "Marriage"
Breaking:
The bans against gay marriage in California have been overturned by the state's Supreme Court
See opinion here.
HT: The Digital Hairshirt
The bans against gay marriage in California have been overturned by the state's Supreme Court
See opinion here.
HT: The Digital Hairshirt
John McPain--Less and Less Desirable
Besides McCain's previous "Problem-Positions", such as his willingness to squelch political speech, his back-and-forthright position(s) on ESCR, his open-borders/no-holds-barred immigration position, his inane and mindless "cap-and-trade" proposal, and his apparent bellicosity--advocating the overthrow of the Myanmar thugs through US armed intervention...
He falls into the Big Gummint Boyzzz group.
"For all the problems we face, if you ask Americans what frustrates them most about Washington, they will tell you they don’t think we’re capable of serving the public interest before our personal and partisan ambitions; that we fight for ourselves and not for them
"...Their patience is at an end for politicians who value ambition over principle, and for partisanship that is less a contest of ide as than an uncivil brawl over the spoils of power. They want to change not only the policies and institutions that have failed the American people"
So far, so good. Admirable, in fact.
Here begins the southward turn:
If I am elected President, I will work with anyone who sincerely wants to get this country moving again. I will listen to any idea that is offered in good faith and intended to help solve our problems, not make them worse. I will seek the counsel of members of Congress from both parties in forming government policy before I ask them to support it. I will ask Democrats to serve in my administration. My administration will set a new standard for transparency and accountability...
If I’m elected President, the era of the permanent campaign will end. The era of problem solving will begin. I promise you, from the day I am sworn into office until the last hour of my presidency, I will work with anyone, of either party, to make this country safe, prosperous and proud.
Now I happen to be one of the Americans who is disgusted by the pettiness demonstrated by (among others) Chvala and Gard--not to mention Reid, Pelosi, and Gingrich.
But McCain's speech would be a helluvalot more comforting if it included the word "principles" someplace, wouldn't it?
He falls into the Big Gummint Boyzzz group.
"For all the problems we face, if you ask Americans what frustrates them most about Washington, they will tell you they don’t think we’re capable of serving the public interest before our personal and partisan ambitions; that we fight for ourselves and not for them
"...Their patience is at an end for politicians who value ambition over principle, and for partisanship that is less a contest of ide as than an uncivil brawl over the spoils of power. They want to change not only the policies and institutions that have failed the American people"
So far, so good. Admirable, in fact.
Here begins the southward turn:
If I am elected President, I will work with anyone who sincerely wants to get this country moving again. I will listen to any idea that is offered in good faith and intended to help solve our problems, not make them worse. I will seek the counsel of members of Congress from both parties in forming government policy before I ask them to support it. I will ask Democrats to serve in my administration. My administration will set a new standard for transparency and accountability...
If I’m elected President, the era of the permanent campaign will end. The era of problem solving will begin. I promise you, from the day I am sworn into office until the last hour of my presidency, I will work with anyone, of either party, to make this country safe, prosperous and proud.
Now I happen to be one of the Americans who is disgusted by the pettiness demonstrated by (among others) Chvala and Gard--not to mention Reid, Pelosi, and Gingrich.
But McCain's speech would be a helluvalot more comforting if it included the word "principles" someplace, wouldn't it?
Is Paul Ryan Making a Big Mistake?
Cong. Paul Ryan has been flogging his co-sponsorship of HR 5515, an illegal-immigration act.
But there are some real problems with that proposal. Perhaps Ryan doesn't know about them--in the alternative, if he DOES know about them, he should be ashamed of himself.
From Human Events:
As always when dealing with the political class growing ever more distant from the populace it rules, the NEVA devil is in the details. For all of its noble goals, hidden in the voluminous wording of this legislation is the true agenda of its sponsors, to wit, the section on preemption, Section 101(b)(2)(A), which reduced to simple language* would preempt and ban any and all state or local law for immigration-related issues enacted to impose employer fines or sanctions, or would forbid any laws requiring employers to verify work status or identity for work authorization. It would also prevent any unit of government from verifying status of renters, determining eligibility for receipt of benefits, enrollment in school, obtaining a business or other license, or conducting a background check.
Hmmmmm.....
For one example, the control of business licenses is now one of the few areas not preempted. It is one of the few tools still left to states and local governments to fight the presence and hiring of illegal workers, and the award of benefits and welfare. NEVA would take even those tools away. Having abdicated its own responsibilities on immigration enforcement, the Congress is apparently on a search-and-destroy mission for any lower elected body that might actually want to follow the rule of law and provide the protection for its citizens that the federal government seems incapable and unwilling to provide
"We're here from the Government to he'p you...."
But it gets even worse:
...For example, it only applies to new workers applying for positions after the date of enactment. It ignores the tens of millions of illegal workers already in the country. There is no requirement to “re-verify” workers already employed, even if they are not entitled to work, or even to be, in the United States. Once enacted, no further inquiry would be made of those here illegally unless they apply for a new job.
"Ally ally oxen-free!!!"
The Act also requires that an employer actually hire the worker before he checks the NEVA system on eligibility
Anyone who has been involved with HR or employment activities realizes that this provision is a nuclear bomb.
It will be interesting to hear Ryan defend the bill against these charges.
Of course, that supposes that someone will actually ASK him....
HT: Grim
But there are some real problems with that proposal. Perhaps Ryan doesn't know about them--in the alternative, if he DOES know about them, he should be ashamed of himself.
From Human Events:
As always when dealing with the political class growing ever more distant from the populace it rules, the NEVA devil is in the details. For all of its noble goals, hidden in the voluminous wording of this legislation is the true agenda of its sponsors, to wit, the section on preemption, Section 101(b)(2)(A), which reduced to simple language* would preempt and ban any and all state or local law for immigration-related issues enacted to impose employer fines or sanctions, or would forbid any laws requiring employers to verify work status or identity for work authorization. It would also prevent any unit of government from verifying status of renters, determining eligibility for receipt of benefits, enrollment in school, obtaining a business or other license, or conducting a background check.
Hmmmmm.....
For one example, the control of business licenses is now one of the few areas not preempted. It is one of the few tools still left to states and local governments to fight the presence and hiring of illegal workers, and the award of benefits and welfare. NEVA would take even those tools away. Having abdicated its own responsibilities on immigration enforcement, the Congress is apparently on a search-and-destroy mission for any lower elected body that might actually want to follow the rule of law and provide the protection for its citizens that the federal government seems incapable and unwilling to provide
"We're here from the Government to he'p you...."
But it gets even worse:
...For example, it only applies to new workers applying for positions after the date of enactment. It ignores the tens of millions of illegal workers already in the country. There is no requirement to “re-verify” workers already employed, even if they are not entitled to work, or even to be, in the United States. Once enacted, no further inquiry would be made of those here illegally unless they apply for a new job.
"Ally ally oxen-free!!!"
The Act also requires that an employer actually hire the worker before he checks the NEVA system on eligibility
Anyone who has been involved with HR or employment activities realizes that this provision is a nuclear bomb.
It will be interesting to hear Ryan defend the bill against these charges.
Of course, that supposes that someone will actually ASK him....
HT: Grim
More Money? No Problem!!
Just take it at the point of a gun.
Here is a list of the WCTC Board members who voted to take MORE tax money:
Joan Jenstead, Michael Jakus, Marilyn Grainger, Paul Strobel, Ronald Bertieri, Pauline Jaske, Richard Brandt.
The comedy routine, as reported by the Milwaukee JS:
WCTC officials said they need more property tax revenue next year to pay for faculty positions in business management, health care and other areas with high student demand.
Note well: they Board did NOT require the Administration to drop faculty positions in areas of little or no demand. Thus we are indirectly advised that ALL WCTC programs are "in demand."
Kaylen Betzig, vice president of administrative services, said the college also faces higher operating costs for retiree pensions, motor vehicle fuel and other operating expenses.
"Costs all over are going up," she said.
"Obviously, we want them to come here," she said.
Maybe it's obvious to you. But it's not so obvious that WCTC should enter a bidding war for students by giving away taxpayers' money.
HT: Owen
Here is a list of the WCTC Board members who voted to take MORE tax money:
Joan Jenstead, Michael Jakus, Marilyn Grainger, Paul Strobel, Ronald Bertieri, Pauline Jaske, Richard Brandt.
The comedy routine, as reported by the Milwaukee JS:
WCTC officials said they need more property tax revenue next year to pay for faculty positions in business management, health care and other areas with high student demand.
Note well: they Board did NOT require the Administration to drop faculty positions in areas of little or no demand. Thus we are indirectly advised that ALL WCTC programs are "in demand."
Kaylen Betzig, vice president of administrative services, said the college also faces higher operating costs for retiree pensions, motor vehicle fuel and other operating expenses.
"Costs all over are going up," she said.
Yes, Kaylen. Especially when "public servants" cannot control their appetites for mo'MONEY.
Without the recommended tax increase, Betzig said, WCTC would be ill-equipped to meet student needs and would run the risk of relegating students to waiting lists in popular areas, if not losing them to other schools."Obviously, we want them to come here," she said.
Maybe it's obvious to you. But it's not so obvious that WCTC should enter a bidding war for students by giving away taxpayers' money.
HT: Owen
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Republican Jackasses
...that would be those Rs who voted FOR the budget "repair" bill today.
Albers, Ballweg, Bies, Davis, Friske, Gottlieb, Hahn, Hines, HONADEL, JESKEWITZ, Kerkman, Kestell, Meyer, Montgomery, Murtha, Moulton, Mursau, Musser, Nerison, Ott (NOT Jim Ott), Petrowski, Rhoades, Stone, Suder, Tauchen, Townsend, Van Roy, VOS, Wieckert, Williams, Wood, and the Jackass-in-Chief, the Speaker.
Bump them real hard while they're holding cocktails at the Convention.
Don't offer to pay for the cleaning--because THEY cleaned YOU out...
Albers, Ballweg, Bies, Davis, Friske, Gottlieb, Hahn, Hines, HONADEL, JESKEWITZ, Kerkman, Kestell, Meyer, Montgomery, Murtha, Moulton, Mursau, Musser, Nerison, Ott (NOT Jim Ott), Petrowski, Rhoades, Stone, Suder, Tauchen, Townsend, Van Roy, VOS, Wieckert, Williams, Wood, and the Jackass-in-Chief, the Speaker.
Bump them real hard while they're holding cocktails at the Convention.
Don't offer to pay for the cleaning--because THEY cleaned YOU out...
Republican? Democrat?
Even Chesterton, a jolly old elf, figured it out...
NOW, I have not lost my ideals in the least my faith in fundamentals is exactly what it always was. What I have lost is my old childlike faith in practical politics. I am still as much concerned as ever about the Battle of Armageddon; but I am not so much concerned about the General Election. As a babe I leapt up on my mother's knee at the mere mention of it.
No; the vision is always solid and reliable. The vision is always a fact. It is the reality that is often a fraud.
As much as I ever did, I believe in Liberalism. But there was a rosy time of
innocence when I believed in Liberals.
And GKC didn't have the Wisconsin "budget repair" bill to bolster that cynicism...
NOW, I have not lost my ideals in the least my faith in fundamentals is exactly what it always was. What I have lost is my old childlike faith in practical politics. I am still as much concerned as ever about the Battle of Armageddon; but I am not so much concerned about the General Election. As a babe I leapt up on my mother's knee at the mere mention of it.
No; the vision is always solid and reliable. The vision is always a fact. It is the reality that is often a fraud.
As much as I ever did, I believe in Liberalism. But there was a rosy time of
innocence when I believed in Liberals.
And GKC didn't have the Wisconsin "budget repair" bill to bolster that cynicism...
Republican? Conservative?
A good line from the OTHER McCain:
Conservatives are like a battered wife in an abusive relationship with the GOP, except that we can't even get a restraining order.
And he doesn't even live in Wisconsin...
Conservatives are like a battered wife in an abusive relationship with the GOP, except that we can't even get a restraining order.
And he doesn't even live in Wisconsin...
CPI: Just Not True. Wisconsin Parallel
Quick note, from Big Picture, on the CPI release:
From the CPI report, “In April, the index for petroleum-based energy fell 1.6%, offsetting a 2.5% increase in the index for energy services. The transportation index declined 0.7% in April, reflecting a 2.0% decrease in the index for gasoline.” And to top it off, the index of commodity prices rose just 0.1%.
Huh? Gasoline prices rose by about 10% in April. Virtually every index of commodity prices is near all-time highs (and up about 30% since the beginning of the year). I’m not sure what the BLS is smoking here, but it must be pretty strong stuff.
Hell, that's no different than the budget "remedy" which is before the Assembly today.
From the CPI report, “In April, the index for petroleum-based energy fell 1.6%, offsetting a 2.5% increase in the index for energy services. The transportation index declined 0.7% in April, reflecting a 2.0% decrease in the index for gasoline.” And to top it off, the index of commodity prices rose just 0.1%.
Huh? Gasoline prices rose by about 10% in April. Virtually every index of commodity prices is near all-time highs (and up about 30% since the beginning of the year). I’m not sure what the BLS is smoking here, but it must be pretty strong stuff.
Hell, that's no different than the budget "remedy" which is before the Assembly today.
Legislature's Tagline
This should be branded into the forehead of every Legislator who votes for the "Budget Remedy"
WARNING:
This Legislator Does Not Use Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
And then they should be placed in manacles and chains, and paraded through the State.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
McCain's Hammer
The old saw that 'to a man with a hammer, all problems are nails' may be apropos for Sen. McCain. Here the American Spectator blogsite quotes an AP story on the Senator:
Meanwhile, when campaigning in New Hampshire that month – hardly a place in which getting tough on Burma would seem to be a hot political issue, he assailed the regime.
The AP reported:
The Arizona Republican blasted the "military thugs" in Burma who are attempting to maintain their junta despite protests of Buddhist monks.
He also said "we should make the Chinese pay a price" for supporting the regime.
I remember participating on a blogger call in September in which McCain opened up his remarks with a heated tirade on the Burmese regime, and said "it's time for strong action against these thugs."
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Senator would seem to have ambitions for American hegemony which are quite far-reaching.
Not that long ago, some conservatives were blasting Bill Clinton for using the US military as a 'global cop shop.' They were right, of course. This country's armed forces are not cops, nor does the Constitution allow the President to figuratively saunter about the planet swinging a billy-club. Regardless, we still have troops in the Balkans, as well as Germany, Korea, and the Middle East.
I don't know if I like what McCain is saying...
Meanwhile, when campaigning in New Hampshire that month – hardly a place in which getting tough on Burma would seem to be a hot political issue, he assailed the regime.
The AP reported:
The Arizona Republican blasted the "military thugs" in Burma who are attempting to maintain their junta despite protests of Buddhist monks.
He also said "we should make the Chinese pay a price" for supporting the regime.
I remember participating on a blogger call in September in which McCain opened up his remarks with a heated tirade on the Burmese regime, and said "it's time for strong action against these thugs."
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Senator would seem to have ambitions for American hegemony which are quite far-reaching.
Not that long ago, some conservatives were blasting Bill Clinton for using the US military as a 'global cop shop.' They were right, of course. This country's armed forces are not cops, nor does the Constitution allow the President to figuratively saunter about the planet swinging a billy-club. Regardless, we still have troops in the Balkans, as well as Germany, Korea, and the Middle East.
I don't know if I like what McCain is saying...
G K Chesterton on the Military
What does he have to say for soldiers and their leaders?
SOLDIERS have many faults, but they have one redeeming merit: they are never worshippers of Force. Soldiers more than any other men are taught severely and systematically that might is not right. The fact is obvious: the might is in the hundred men who obey. The right (or what is held to be right) is in the one man who commands them. They learn to obey symbols, arbitrary things, stripes on an arm, buttons on a coat, a title, a flag. These may be artificial things; they may be unreasonable things; they may, if you will, be wicked things: but they are not weak things. They are not Force, and they do not look like Force. They are parts of an idea, of the idea of discipline; if you will, of the idea of tyranny; but still an idea. No soldier could possibly say that his own bayonets were his authority. No soldier could possibly say that he came in the name of his own bayonets.
.... I do not, as I have said, underrate the evils that really do arise from militarism and the military ethic. It tends to give people wooden faces and sometimes wooden heads. It tends, moreover (both through its specialization and through its constant obedience), to a certain loss of real independence and strength of character. This has almost always been found when people made the mistake of turning the soldier into a statesman, under the mistaken impression that be was a strong man. The Duke of Wellington, for instance, was a strong soldier and therefore a weak statesman. But the soldier is always, by the nature of things, loyal to something. And as long as one is loyal to something one can never be a worshipper of mere force. For mere force, violence in the abstract, is the enemy of anything we love. To love anything is to see it at once under lowering skies of danger. Loyalty implies loyalty in misfortune; and when a soldier has accepted any nation's uniform he has already accepted its defeat.
Interesting thoughts.
HT: VeniSancte
SOLDIERS have many faults, but they have one redeeming merit: they are never worshippers of Force. Soldiers more than any other men are taught severely and systematically that might is not right. The fact is obvious: the might is in the hundred men who obey. The right (or what is held to be right) is in the one man who commands them. They learn to obey symbols, arbitrary things, stripes on an arm, buttons on a coat, a title, a flag. These may be artificial things; they may be unreasonable things; they may, if you will, be wicked things: but they are not weak things. They are not Force, and they do not look like Force. They are parts of an idea, of the idea of discipline; if you will, of the idea of tyranny; but still an idea. No soldier could possibly say that his own bayonets were his authority. No soldier could possibly say that he came in the name of his own bayonets.
.... I do not, as I have said, underrate the evils that really do arise from militarism and the military ethic. It tends to give people wooden faces and sometimes wooden heads. It tends, moreover (both through its specialization and through its constant obedience), to a certain loss of real independence and strength of character. This has almost always been found when people made the mistake of turning the soldier into a statesman, under the mistaken impression that be was a strong man. The Duke of Wellington, for instance, was a strong soldier and therefore a weak statesman. But the soldier is always, by the nature of things, loyal to something. And as long as one is loyal to something one can never be a worshipper of mere force. For mere force, violence in the abstract, is the enemy of anything we love. To love anything is to see it at once under lowering skies of danger. Loyalty implies loyalty in misfortune; and when a soldier has accepted any nation's uniform he has already accepted its defeat.
Interesting thoughts.
HT: VeniSancte
How Much Food in YOUR CPI?
Interesting difference, quoted in BigPicture:
"In the U.S. counts food as only 8% of the CPI index. Whereas, it counts for about 10% in the United Kingdom, about 15% in the rest of Europe and more than 18% in Japan."
So do they eat more in the UK? Japan?
BigPic also points to a NYTimes chart indicating that food is 15% of household expense.
"In the U.S. counts food as only 8% of the CPI index. Whereas, it counts for about 10% in the United Kingdom, about 15% in the rest of Europe and more than 18% in Japan."
So do they eat more in the UK? Japan?
BigPic also points to a NYTimes chart indicating that food is 15% of household expense.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Something Wrong With This Picture?
Found in the JS's 'watch' column:
Kagen, an Appleton Democrat, was onboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Washington to Minneapolis, the first leg of his trip to Wisconsin, when a woman fainted on the plane.
....
But Kagen, who has been a doctor for about three decades, responded quickly.
"He took her blood pressure, told her to lie down and kept her calm," Rubin said
Unless the airlines are carrying BP sleeves (??!??), one wonders how Dr. K. "took the blood pressure."
Kagen, an Appleton Democrat, was onboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Washington to Minneapolis, the first leg of his trip to Wisconsin, when a woman fainted on the plane.
....
But Kagen, who has been a doctor for about three decades, responded quickly.
"He took her blood pressure, told her to lie down and kept her calm," Rubin said
Unless the airlines are carrying BP sleeves (??!??), one wonders how Dr. K. "took the blood pressure."
The LIES About the Budget Deal: Channel 12
Just watched Channel 12's news.
All the lies about the budget deal are in their report...
1) "Reduce spending by $69 million."
Nope. While the spending was in the budget, none of it has been spent, nor will anyone lose their State jobs.
2) "No tax increases."
Nope. The deal provides for locals to tax certain retirement homes (not allowed until now.)
3) "Closes a tax loophole."
Nope. It creates a NEW TAX BURDEN for WallyWorld (and perhaps other entities). This is, in fact, a tax increase, just like what the retirement homes will face.
4) Channel 12's report mentioned only ONE of the TWO $125million "delays." The one they did NOT mention was the first one in my post below.
5) The report also failed to mention that State residents will lose $80 MILLION DOLLARS on the re-financed cigarette bonds AND assume the risk-of-failure of the tobacco companies.
6) The report failed to mention that the drivers' license fee increase will be fraudulently diverted to other purposes. Of course, it isn't "Fraud" because the State Legislature SAYS it isn't fraud. Nice, eh?
The lies, the spin, and the bullshit. Too bad even experienced reporters (Wainscott) bought that stuff.
All the lies about the budget deal are in their report...
1) "Reduce spending by $69 million."
Nope. While the spending was in the budget, none of it has been spent, nor will anyone lose their State jobs.
2) "No tax increases."
Nope. The deal provides for locals to tax certain retirement homes (not allowed until now.)
3) "Closes a tax loophole."
Nope. It creates a NEW TAX BURDEN for WallyWorld (and perhaps other entities). This is, in fact, a tax increase, just like what the retirement homes will face.
4) Channel 12's report mentioned only ONE of the TWO $125million "delays." The one they did NOT mention was the first one in my post below.
5) The report also failed to mention that State residents will lose $80 MILLION DOLLARS on the re-financed cigarette bonds AND assume the risk-of-failure of the tobacco companies.
6) The report failed to mention that the drivers' license fee increase will be fraudulently diverted to other purposes. Of course, it isn't "Fraud" because the State Legislature SAYS it isn't fraud. Nice, eh?
The lies, the spin, and the bullshit. Too bad even experienced reporters (Wainscott) bought that stuff.
The State Budget: From Bad to Much, Much Worse
First thing you should know is that the $650MM problem was "reduced" to only $525MM by simply NOT paying $125MM in State debt, which will be rolled over for payment in the next biennium. So we begin with a problem, if you intend to be around Wisconsin and paying taxes 3 years from now.
We also have another "beginning" problem: the assumption that revenue-projections from taxes are going to hold up. If the current credit-crisis works its way down a bit further the State could be in trouble. Similarly, on the spending side, if the price of petroleum holds at its current levels, the State's budget for asphalt and motor fuel is pure fantasy.
But it gets worse.
The "remedy" found another $125MM to roll into the next biennium by delaying school-aid payments.
The "remedy" drains another $66MM from the rainy-day fund and spends it.
The "remedy" (by fiat: Presto! Change-o!) reduces the required cash-on-hand required balance by another $40MM.
The "remedy" pisses away $4+MM which should be used for "Real ID". No real ID this biennium, folks. Oh, and by the way--the "remedy" would also put nails in the REAL ID coffin by prohibiting expenditure of the other $21+MM budgeted for that purpose.
There IS a seeming reduction in spending of $69MM--but it's money that the State is not obligated to spend, nor HAS the State spent the money--so it's "money we really didn't have to spend in the first damn place" which will be called "spending reduction."
(That, folks, is like budgeting in Marcy 2008 for your 2009 vacation and then cancelling the budget item in June 2008....you didn't spend the money!!)
THEN...
They will spend $50MM on roads, by issuing MORE DEBT. So they took out $50MM (above) and then re-spent it--but like the first item, it's going to be more debt for the NEXT biennium...
AND...
They will push $25MM in County roadbuilding/maintenance from THIS biennium to the NEXT biennium. The potholes will have grandchildren, and the taxpayers will have MORE debt.
The State will allow locals to tax elder-housing (targets: Lutheran Home, Villa Clement, and the Congregational Home, among others.)
(A minor point: in order to effect some administrative changes in retired-police-and-fire health insurance pay, the State authorizes THREE positions--at a cost of $100K/year/position. Nice work if you can get it, folks...)
(Another minor point: the "remedy" will force all school districts which offer 4-year-old kindergarten to offer it to ALL 4-year-olds, not just some. Do you see footprints of WEAC?)
Then there's the re-financing of the tobacco deal.
Way back when, McCallum patched HIS leaky budget by selling the State's tobacco revenues. (That is something he should not put on his resume, folks...)
At any rate, the tobacco companies paid the State and the State then made its payments on the bonds issued to give McCallum the money he needed.
NOW the State wants to re-fi that deal and extend its annual debt payments another 12 years. But in order to do that at a better interest rate, the STATE will guarantee the payments--where before, the bond-holders had assumed the risk that the tobacco companies would pay, now the State TAXPAYERS assume that risk.
$200 million or so this year, yes--but then, if RJR or Marlboro goes BK, guess who pays? (Hint: get a mirror and look square into it...)
And to top it off, the net present value of the income from the settlements is REDUCED by $80MM or so over the next 30 years. The "remedy" puts you on the hook and cleans $80MM from your pockets for the privilege.
What a country! What a State!!
The "remedy" will also spend an additional $18.5MM or so by putting child-care providers on retainer instead of paying them for services actually delivered. In other words, the State will pay providers based on "expected" child attendance, rather than ACTUAL attendance.
Then there's the WallyWorld tax hike. The State will hit up WallyWorld for $18MM or so by dis-allowing rents/lease payments to "related entities." There are a lot of highly technical provisions in the legislation--but it's entirely possible that this provision will affect a lot more entities than just WallyWorld. In any case, this is a sop to the UFCW and deserves separate consideration--if it deserves consideration at all.
Finally...
Under the Old Budget, the State would have $52MM in the bank as of the close of the budget year. Under the "remedy," the State would have only $1.5MM in the bank. Hell, that's a ROUNDING error. We could still be overdrawn--not to mention the nuclear-bombs left for the next biennial Charade and Smoke/Mirrors game.
Speaker Huebsch should simply resign. This is abominable, disgraceful, and immoral. This is the kind of crap that would place any private-sector employee in Club Fed for fraud.
Now it's LEGAL?
We also have another "beginning" problem: the assumption that revenue-projections from taxes are going to hold up. If the current credit-crisis works its way down a bit further the State could be in trouble. Similarly, on the spending side, if the price of petroleum holds at its current levels, the State's budget for asphalt and motor fuel is pure fantasy.
But it gets worse.
The "remedy" found another $125MM to roll into the next biennium by delaying school-aid payments.
The "remedy" drains another $66MM from the rainy-day fund and spends it.
The "remedy" (by fiat: Presto! Change-o!) reduces the required cash-on-hand required balance by another $40MM.
The "remedy" pisses away $4+MM which should be used for "Real ID". No real ID this biennium, folks. Oh, and by the way--the "remedy" would also put nails in the REAL ID coffin by prohibiting expenditure of the other $21+MM budgeted for that purpose.
There IS a seeming reduction in spending of $69MM--but it's money that the State is not obligated to spend, nor HAS the State spent the money--so it's "money we really didn't have to spend in the first damn place" which will be called "spending reduction."
(That, folks, is like budgeting in Marcy 2008 for your 2009 vacation and then cancelling the budget item in June 2008....you didn't spend the money!!)
THEN...
They will spend $50MM on roads, by issuing MORE DEBT. So they took out $50MM (above) and then re-spent it--but like the first item, it's going to be more debt for the NEXT biennium...
AND...
They will push $25MM in County roadbuilding/maintenance from THIS biennium to the NEXT biennium. The potholes will have grandchildren, and the taxpayers will have MORE debt.
The State will allow locals to tax elder-housing (targets: Lutheran Home, Villa Clement, and the Congregational Home, among others.)
(A minor point: in order to effect some administrative changes in retired-police-and-fire health insurance pay, the State authorizes THREE positions--at a cost of $100K/year/position. Nice work if you can get it, folks...)
(Another minor point: the "remedy" will force all school districts which offer 4-year-old kindergarten to offer it to ALL 4-year-olds, not just some. Do you see footprints of WEAC?)
Then there's the re-financing of the tobacco deal.
Way back when, McCallum patched HIS leaky budget by selling the State's tobacco revenues. (That is something he should not put on his resume, folks...)
At any rate, the tobacco companies paid the State and the State then made its payments on the bonds issued to give McCallum the money he needed.
NOW the State wants to re-fi that deal and extend its annual debt payments another 12 years. But in order to do that at a better interest rate, the STATE will guarantee the payments--where before, the bond-holders had assumed the risk that the tobacco companies would pay, now the State TAXPAYERS assume that risk.
$200 million or so this year, yes--but then, if RJR or Marlboro goes BK, guess who pays? (Hint: get a mirror and look square into it...)
And to top it off, the net present value of the income from the settlements is REDUCED by $80MM or so over the next 30 years. The "remedy" puts you on the hook and cleans $80MM from your pockets for the privilege.
What a country! What a State!!
The "remedy" will also spend an additional $18.5MM or so by putting child-care providers on retainer instead of paying them for services actually delivered. In other words, the State will pay providers based on "expected" child attendance, rather than ACTUAL attendance.
Then there's the WallyWorld tax hike. The State will hit up WallyWorld for $18MM or so by dis-allowing rents/lease payments to "related entities." There are a lot of highly technical provisions in the legislation--but it's entirely possible that this provision will affect a lot more entities than just WallyWorld. In any case, this is a sop to the UFCW and deserves separate consideration--if it deserves consideration at all.
Finally...
Under the Old Budget, the State would have $52MM in the bank as of the close of the budget year. Under the "remedy," the State would have only $1.5MM in the bank. Hell, that's a ROUNDING error. We could still be overdrawn--not to mention the nuclear-bombs left for the next biennial Charade and Smoke/Mirrors game.
Speaker Huebsch should simply resign. This is abominable, disgraceful, and immoral. This is the kind of crap that would place any private-sector employee in Club Fed for fraud.
Now it's LEGAL?
Oil Price: The Iran Factor?
Vox takes it a step further.
We mentioned that Iran may experience the tender love of cruise missiles in the near future.
Raimondo observes:
The markets sense it, too, which is why the price of oil keeps climbing to record levels.
Frankly, while I think that Raimondo has three toes over the 'loony line' (read his linked post and form your own opinion), there's a lot to be said for the theory that oil is "war priced."
Belling has been confused (as am I) about the 'straight-line' increases in spot bbl pricing. That simply doesn't happen (albeit there are exceptions.)
So get your Persian rugs early, folks.
We mentioned that Iran may experience the tender love of cruise missiles in the near future.
Raimondo observes:
The markets sense it, too, which is why the price of oil keeps climbing to record levels.
Frankly, while I think that Raimondo has three toes over the 'loony line' (read his linked post and form your own opinion), there's a lot to be said for the theory that oil is "war priced."
Belling has been confused (as am I) about the 'straight-line' increases in spot bbl pricing. That simply doesn't happen (albeit there are exceptions.)
So get your Persian rugs early, folks.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Yoo Hoo!!! Abp. Dolan!!!
We note that Governor Doyle has never met an abortion restriction that he favors....
The latest pro-choice Catholic politician called out in this year's edition of the "Communion Wars" is Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
Backed by the bishops of the state, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City publicized his request that Sebelius refrain from the Eucharist in his weekly column for today's edition of the archdiocesan newspaper, The Leaven
Of course, there are always Legislative proponents of "Plan B," some of whom claim Catholicism as their faith.
HT: Feddie
The latest pro-choice Catholic politician called out in this year's edition of the "Communion Wars" is Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
Backed by the bishops of the state, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City publicized his request that Sebelius refrain from the Eucharist in his weekly column for today's edition of the archdiocesan newspaper, The Leaven
Of course, there are always Legislative proponents of "Plan B," some of whom claim Catholicism as their faith.
HT: Feddie
The RIGHT Way to Do Gas-Tax Holiday
Unlike some who think that adding to the national debt is just fine, Paul Ryan actually can add and subtract.
Wisconsin’s 1st District Congressman Paul Ryan introduced legislation today that would impose a one-year earmark moratorium and strengthen the paychecks of American families. With the savings from this break in pork-barrel spending, Congress would provide some relief at the pump this summer and make much needed investments in our nation’s infrastructure. “The Gas Tax Relief and Earmark Moratorium Act of 2008” was unveiled at today’s Joint Hearing before the House Budget Committee and House Transportation Committee, which focused on financing infrastructure investments.
...With the revenues saved from the earmark moratorium, his bill would replenish the Highway Trust Fund, a critical source of funding aimed to strengthen our nation’s infrastructure. The Gas Tax Relief and Earmark Moratorium Act would go a step further by shoring up the fund’s projected shortfall for the coming fiscal year.
This is called "responsible governing."
HT: Stepping Right Up
Wisconsin’s 1st District Congressman Paul Ryan introduced legislation today that would impose a one-year earmark moratorium and strengthen the paychecks of American families. With the savings from this break in pork-barrel spending, Congress would provide some relief at the pump this summer and make much needed investments in our nation’s infrastructure. “The Gas Tax Relief and Earmark Moratorium Act of 2008” was unveiled at today’s Joint Hearing before the House Budget Committee and House Transportation Committee, which focused on financing infrastructure investments.
...With the revenues saved from the earmark moratorium, his bill would replenish the Highway Trust Fund, a critical source of funding aimed to strengthen our nation’s infrastructure. The Gas Tax Relief and Earmark Moratorium Act would go a step further by shoring up the fund’s projected shortfall for the coming fiscal year.
This is called "responsible governing."
HT: Stepping Right Up
Obama's Intense Campaign in 60 States
(Above is Obama's new lapel-pin, HT Ace of Spades.)
Must be a helluva campaign.
Obama tells us that he's been in 57 States and has "one left to go," but staff tells him that he cannot go to Alaska or Hawaii.
So if he gets to the "one left to go," and two remain un-visited, Obama is telling us that the US of A has 60 States.
He must be counting Palestine. No embittered Bible-quoting types there, although there are a LOT of gun-owners.
Hmmmmm.
Obama tells us that he's been in 57 States and has "one left to go," but staff tells him that he cannot go to Alaska or Hawaii.
So if he gets to the "one left to go," and two remain un-visited, Obama is telling us that the US of A has 60 States.
He must be counting Palestine. No embittered Bible-quoting types there, although there are a LOT of gun-owners.
Hmmmmm.
First Amendment for All, Including Churches
This should be interesting, and a slam-dunk.
Christian pastors should stop censoring themselves in fear of an "unconstitutional" 1954 provision in the IRS code that has threatened to eliminate their church tax-exempt status if they speak out against positions held by political candidates, urges a leading legal alliance.
The Alliance Defense Fund today announced a new initiative that will challenge the IRS ban on political comment from churches and their pastors.
...Before 1954, churches freely evaluated the politicians of the day on moral issues without fear of retribution.
That year, Democratic Sen. Lyndon Johnson amended the tax code to add the threat of IRS action against churches if their pastors mentioned the positions of specific candidates from the pulpit, the ADF said.
...the prosecution of such limits has been based on religion, because the same restrictions do not apply to other tax-exempt groups, including civil leagues; labor, agricultural, or horticultural associations; business leagues; chambers of commerce; real estate boards; boards of trade; and other groups
It's about time churches regained the right held by the AFSCME and WMC, no?
Christian pastors should stop censoring themselves in fear of an "unconstitutional" 1954 provision in the IRS code that has threatened to eliminate their church tax-exempt status if they speak out against positions held by political candidates, urges a leading legal alliance.
The Alliance Defense Fund today announced a new initiative that will challenge the IRS ban on political comment from churches and their pastors.
...Before 1954, churches freely evaluated the politicians of the day on moral issues without fear of retribution.
That year, Democratic Sen. Lyndon Johnson amended the tax code to add the threat of IRS action against churches if their pastors mentioned the positions of specific candidates from the pulpit, the ADF said.
...the prosecution of such limits has been based on religion, because the same restrictions do not apply to other tax-exempt groups, including civil leagues; labor, agricultural, or horticultural associations; business leagues; chambers of commerce; real estate boards; boards of trade; and other groups
It's about time churches regained the right held by the AFSCME and WMC, no?
Friday, May 09, 2008
Lock and Load?
Maybe you'll read this Saturday or Sunday. Then again, maybe not.
There is considerable speculation and buzz in Washington today suggesting that the National Security Council has agreed in principle to proceed with plans to attack an Iranian al-Qods-run camp that is believed to be training Iraqi militants. The camp that will be targeted is one of several located near Tehran. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was the only senior official urging delay in taking any offensive action. The decision to go ahead with plans to attack Iran is the direct result of concerns being expressed over the deteriorating situation in Lebanon, where Iranian ally Hezbollah appears to have gained the upper hand against government forces and might be able to dominate the fractious political situation. The White House contacted the Iranian government directly yesterday through a channel provided by the leadership of the Kurdish region in Iraq, which has traditionally had close ties to Tehran. The US demanded that Iran admit that it has been interfering in Iraq and also commit itself to taking steps to end the support of various militant groups. There was also a warning about interfering in Lebanon. The Iranian government reportedly responded quickly, restating its position that it would not discuss the matter until the US ceases its own meddling employing Iranian dissident groups. The perceived Iranian intransigence coupled with the Lebanese situation convinced the White House that some sort of unambiguous signal has to be sent to the Iranian leadership, presumably in the form of cruise missiles. It is to be presumed that the attack will be as “pinpoint” and limited as possible, intended to target only al-Qods and avoid civilian casualties. The decision to proceed with plans for an attack is not final. The President will still have to give the order to launch after all preparations are made.
---Phil Giraldi, American Conservative.
There is considerable speculation and buzz in Washington today suggesting that the National Security Council has agreed in principle to proceed with plans to attack an Iranian al-Qods-run camp that is believed to be training Iraqi militants. The camp that will be targeted is one of several located near Tehran. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was the only senior official urging delay in taking any offensive action. The decision to go ahead with plans to attack Iran is the direct result of concerns being expressed over the deteriorating situation in Lebanon, where Iranian ally Hezbollah appears to have gained the upper hand against government forces and might be able to dominate the fractious political situation. The White House contacted the Iranian government directly yesterday through a channel provided by the leadership of the Kurdish region in Iraq, which has traditionally had close ties to Tehran. The US demanded that Iran admit that it has been interfering in Iraq and also commit itself to taking steps to end the support of various militant groups. There was also a warning about interfering in Lebanon. The Iranian government reportedly responded quickly, restating its position that it would not discuss the matter until the US ceases its own meddling employing Iranian dissident groups. The perceived Iranian intransigence coupled with the Lebanese situation convinced the White House that some sort of unambiguous signal has to be sent to the Iranian leadership, presumably in the form of cruise missiles. It is to be presumed that the attack will be as “pinpoint” and limited as possible, intended to target only al-Qods and avoid civilian casualties. The decision to proceed with plans for an attack is not final. The President will still have to give the order to launch after all preparations are made.
---Phil Giraldi, American Conservative.
About "Devout"
One of the other tired and inane MSM memes is to insert the qualifier "devout" before the adjective "Catholic." It's generally a setup, like using scare quotes. Proof? Ever see the word used as a qualifier of "Methodist"? "Baptist"? "Jehovah's Witness"?
Mark Shea:
Is everybody (or at least every Catholic) devout? It would appear so, judging from MSM and blogosphere usage of the term. So, for instance, it turns out Michael Moore is a "devout Catholic" despite the fact that he holds some rather important aspects of the Church's teaching in contempt and tells absurd lies in order to score political points.
..."Yes, Jenna Jameson's work in XXX films is controversial, but she is a devout Catholic." Message: Only a Pharisee could express skepticism about the term "devout" here or state the fact that Jesus never said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin some more!"
Similarly, if you are a politician whose devotion to the sacrament of abortion is so extreme that you cannot even muster the gumption to oppose sticking scissors in a newborn's brain, all you need do is have yourself photographed wearing ashes and follow it up with stern blaring about the Primacy of Conscience. Say something like, "My oath privately between me and God was defined in the Catholic church by Pius XXIII and Pope Paul VI in the Vatican II." That way, you can equate doing whatever the hell you like with fidelity to the Tradition! You're devout!
But I can't help having the sensation that this is not what's happening with the word "devout." It's not a word so much used by Catholics as about them. [True.] Indeed, the paradox of the word is that those who use it to describe themselves are almost invariably either rotters, former Catholics, or both. There's something strange about a person who announces "I am devout!" just as there is something either creepy or laughable about a person who announces (in a serious, not flippant manner) "I am humble!" Really devout people are too busy living life to go around reminding everybody they are "devout."
It is helpful to remember the etymology: "Devout" is from Latin "devotus," ="to vow."
Avowed Catholics do not ever, ever, shilly-shally on abortion, nor ESCR, nor gay "marriage."
Keep it in mind...
Mark Shea:
Is everybody (or at least every Catholic) devout? It would appear so, judging from MSM and blogosphere usage of the term. So, for instance, it turns out Michael Moore is a "devout Catholic" despite the fact that he holds some rather important aspects of the Church's teaching in contempt and tells absurd lies in order to score political points.
..."Yes, Jenna Jameson's work in XXX films is controversial, but she is a devout Catholic." Message: Only a Pharisee could express skepticism about the term "devout" here or state the fact that Jesus never said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin some more!"
Similarly, if you are a politician whose devotion to the sacrament of abortion is so extreme that you cannot even muster the gumption to oppose sticking scissors in a newborn's brain, all you need do is have yourself photographed wearing ashes and follow it up with stern blaring about the Primacy of Conscience. Say something like, "My oath privately between me and God was defined in the Catholic church by Pius XXIII and Pope Paul VI in the Vatican II." That way, you can equate doing whatever the hell you like with fidelity to the Tradition! You're devout!
But I can't help having the sensation that this is not what's happening with the word "devout." It's not a word so much used by Catholics as about them. [True.] Indeed, the paradox of the word is that those who use it to describe themselves are almost invariably either rotters, former Catholics, or both. There's something strange about a person who announces "I am devout!" just as there is something either creepy or laughable about a person who announces (in a serious, not flippant manner) "I am humble!" Really devout people are too busy living life to go around reminding everybody they are "devout."
It is helpful to remember the etymology: "Devout" is from Latin "devotus," ="to vow."
Avowed Catholics do not ever, ever, shilly-shally on abortion, nor ESCR, nor gay "marriage."
Keep it in mind...
The Problem With "Retraining"
There is a standard response from the Glitterati (and not-so-Glitterati--see G W Bush, e.g.) to those who object that their jobs are being offshored.
That response is "Get re-trained, get a degree, become part of the New Society" --or whatever they call it these days.
Really? Then perhaps the Atlantic's latest issue will be of interest. Or perhaps not.
Dreher quotes "Professor X," who writes an essay in the Atlantic--a fellow who teaches at two small Northeastern Colleges--both of them 'last resort' institutions. (You know the sort--there are at least two in the Milwaukee area.)
There seems, as is often the case in colleges, to be a huge gulf between academia and reality. No one is thinking about the larger implications, let alone the morality, of admitting so many students to classes they cannot possibly pass. The colleges and the students and I are bobbing up and down in a great wave of societal forces -- social optimism on a large scale, the sense of college as both a universal right and a need, financial necessity on the part of the colleges and the students alike, the desire to maintain high academic standards while admitting marginal students -- that have coalesced into a mini-tsunami of difficulty.
Dreher goes on to ask the right questions.
Prof. X says the whole system, premised on a false egalitarianism, is to blame here. One key question this excellent essay raises by implication is this: if quite a lot of Americans are incapable of doing college work, what does that do to the Thomas Friedmanesque understanding that in order to compete in a flattened, globalized world, US laborers are simply going to have to get retrained and better educated? What if there are natural limits to their ability to expand their cognitive skills? What then?
Re-train for what? Pharmacy? Brain Surgery? Hell, these folks cannot write a 5-page essay including footnotes...
The supposition... is the belief that cognition, and improving cognitive skills, is simply a matter of running people through a diploma mill -- and the conviction that anybody who wants to succeed in school badly enough can
The converse, of course, is to examine the actual abilities of many 'college graduates' we see these days. It amounts to a denial of reality by many people. See also my post on high school problems here.
I happen to know a number of teachers, all of whom are of good heart--and many of which cannot spell, cannot write a sentence, and cannot distinguish in argumentation. But they are "degreed," therefore Worthy.
One doesn't have to go too far to encounter college grads (or college students) who cannot make change without a register-calculator.
Who are we kidding?
That response is "Get re-trained, get a degree, become part of the New Society" --or whatever they call it these days.
Really? Then perhaps the Atlantic's latest issue will be of interest. Or perhaps not.
Dreher quotes "Professor X," who writes an essay in the Atlantic--a fellow who teaches at two small Northeastern Colleges--both of them 'last resort' institutions. (You know the sort--there are at least two in the Milwaukee area.)
There seems, as is often the case in colleges, to be a huge gulf between academia and reality. No one is thinking about the larger implications, let alone the morality, of admitting so many students to classes they cannot possibly pass. The colleges and the students and I are bobbing up and down in a great wave of societal forces -- social optimism on a large scale, the sense of college as both a universal right and a need, financial necessity on the part of the colleges and the students alike, the desire to maintain high academic standards while admitting marginal students -- that have coalesced into a mini-tsunami of difficulty.
Dreher goes on to ask the right questions.
Prof. X says the whole system, premised on a false egalitarianism, is to blame here. One key question this excellent essay raises by implication is this: if quite a lot of Americans are incapable of doing college work, what does that do to the Thomas Friedmanesque understanding that in order to compete in a flattened, globalized world, US laborers are simply going to have to get retrained and better educated? What if there are natural limits to their ability to expand their cognitive skills? What then?
Re-train for what? Pharmacy? Brain Surgery? Hell, these folks cannot write a 5-page essay including footnotes...
The supposition... is the belief that cognition, and improving cognitive skills, is simply a matter of running people through a diploma mill -- and the conviction that anybody who wants to succeed in school badly enough can
The converse, of course, is to examine the actual abilities of many 'college graduates' we see these days. It amounts to a denial of reality by many people. See also my post on high school problems here.
I happen to know a number of teachers, all of whom are of good heart--and many of which cannot spell, cannot write a sentence, and cannot distinguish in argumentation. But they are "degreed," therefore Worthy.
One doesn't have to go too far to encounter college grads (or college students) who cannot make change without a register-calculator.
Who are we kidding?
G K Chesterton on Bill Maher
Of course GKC had something to say about that affair.
IT is not by any means self-evident upon the face of it that an institution like the liberty of speech is right or just. It is not natural or obvious to let a man utter follies and abominations which you believe to be bad for mankind any more than it is natural or obvious to let a man dig up a part of the public road, or infect half a town with typhoid fever.
The theory of free speech, that truth is so much larger and stranger and more many-sided than we know of, that it is very much better at all costs to hear every one's account of it, is a theory which has been justified upon the whole by experiment, but which remains a very daring and even a very surprising theory.
It is really one of the great discoveries of the modern time but once admitted, it is a principle that does not merely affect politics, but philosophy, ethics, and finally, poetry.
--Browning
HT: VeniSancte
IT is not by any means self-evident upon the face of it that an institution like the liberty of speech is right or just. It is not natural or obvious to let a man utter follies and abominations which you believe to be bad for mankind any more than it is natural or obvious to let a man dig up a part of the public road, or infect half a town with typhoid fever.
The theory of free speech, that truth is so much larger and stranger and more many-sided than we know of, that it is very much better at all costs to hear every one's account of it, is a theory which has been justified upon the whole by experiment, but which remains a very daring and even a very surprising theory.
It is really one of the great discoveries of the modern time but once admitted, it is a principle that does not merely affect politics, but philosophy, ethics, and finally, poetry.
--Browning
HT: VeniSancte
"Your Cellphone Told Us Where You Are....and With Whom"
Oh, yes, it CAN.
A service called World Tracker lets you use data from cell phone towers and GPS systems to pinpoint anyone’s exact whereabouts, any time — as long as they’ve got their phone on them.
All you have to do is log on to the web site and enter the target phone number. The site sends a single text message to the phone that requires one response for confirmation. Once the response is sent, you are locked in to their location and can track them step-by-step. The response is only required the first time the phone is contacted, so you can imagine how easily it could be handled without the phone’s owner even knowing.
Once connected, the service shows you the exact location of the phone by the minute, conveniently pinpointed on a Google Map. So far, the service is only available in the UK, but the company has indicated plans to expand its service to other countries soon.
Doesn't say anything at all about "on/off" functionality on the target phone, either, does it?
And just in case you're involved in...ah...conversations which you'd like to keep...very private, it gets worse:
Dozens of programs are available that’ll turn any cell phone into a high-tech, long-range listening device. And the scariest part? They run virtually undetectable to the average eye.
Take, for example, Flexispy. The service promises to let you “catch cheating wives or cheating husbands” and even “bug meeting rooms.” Its tools use a phone’s microphone to let you hear essentially any conversations within earshot. Once the program is installed, all you have to do is dial a number to tap into the phone’s mic and hear everything going on. The phone won’t even ring, and its owner will have no idea you are virtually there at his side.
It ain't just Jules Verne any more, folks.
HT: Schneier
A service called World Tracker lets you use data from cell phone towers and GPS systems to pinpoint anyone’s exact whereabouts, any time — as long as they’ve got their phone on them.
All you have to do is log on to the web site and enter the target phone number. The site sends a single text message to the phone that requires one response for confirmation. Once the response is sent, you are locked in to their location and can track them step-by-step. The response is only required the first time the phone is contacted, so you can imagine how easily it could be handled without the phone’s owner even knowing.
Once connected, the service shows you the exact location of the phone by the minute, conveniently pinpointed on a Google Map. So far, the service is only available in the UK, but the company has indicated plans to expand its service to other countries soon.
Doesn't say anything at all about "on/off" functionality on the target phone, either, does it?
And just in case you're involved in...ah...conversations which you'd like to keep...very private, it gets worse:
Dozens of programs are available that’ll turn any cell phone into a high-tech, long-range listening device. And the scariest part? They run virtually undetectable to the average eye.
Take, for example, Flexispy. The service promises to let you “catch cheating wives or cheating husbands” and even “bug meeting rooms.” Its tools use a phone’s microphone to let you hear essentially any conversations within earshot. Once the program is installed, all you have to do is dial a number to tap into the phone’s mic and hear everything going on. The phone won’t even ring, and its owner will have no idea you are virtually there at his side.
It ain't just Jules Verne any more, folks.
HT: Schneier
Sieze the Car of the DUI? No.
This may be a landmark--Mathias, a prosecutor (or two) and I agree that siezure of a DUI's vehicle is not a matter of justice.
Mathias:
As awful as the crash that killed Jennifer Bukoksy, her daughters, and left a family friend critically injured was, a proposal to seize cars owned by third-offense alcohol and drug-impaired drivers won’t prevent such crashes in the future, and would have an unfair impact on their families.
I admit the idea sounds appealing, but cars are not just used by the individuals whose names are on the title. Cars take children to school, families to the grocery store, and spouses to work. Such a law would pose an even greater hardship on families living in rural areas where public transportation options are spotty to non-existent
Mathias' combox, indirectly quoting Brad Schimel, Waukesha County DA:
Waukesha DA Brad Schimel told the Journal Sentinel that seizures are difficult to administer, raises costs for local communities, and just doesn’t prevent these drivers from getting behind the wheel again anyway
Prosqtor, an ADA in Winnebago County (who was a Milwaukee County ADA until recently):
There is a possibility of vehicle seizure on 3rd and subsequent OWIs now, but it's rarely used. For one, there's often a lien on the vehicle, making seizure and title transfer difficult (Is Milwaukee County going to pay off liens to have a clear title for a seizure?); also, where would the county/city/town place the seized mid-80's Cutlass Classics taken from drunks?
I think they're on the right track about increasing the penalties; the real solution, however, may be to sentence people to closer to the maximum. Minimum sentences did nothing to stem the flow of drugs through our communities, and were eventually replaced; similarly, pedophiles don't stop their behavior because there's a 25 (or 5) year mandatory minimum for what they're about to do.
There's a RadioRanter who does early-AM time in Milwaukee who is absolutely in love with the idea of "siezure." Listening to his rant this morning confirmed my suspicion that siezure is not really a "justice" issue--it's a "revenge" item.
Let's go with Prosqutor's idea. Go max on the sentencing (and increase the sentence's years, while we're at it, in the new legislation.)
Leave the cars to rust with their OTHER owners: the spouse.
Mathias:
As awful as the crash that killed Jennifer Bukoksy, her daughters, and left a family friend critically injured was, a proposal to seize cars owned by third-offense alcohol and drug-impaired drivers won’t prevent such crashes in the future, and would have an unfair impact on their families.
I admit the idea sounds appealing, but cars are not just used by the individuals whose names are on the title. Cars take children to school, families to the grocery store, and spouses to work. Such a law would pose an even greater hardship on families living in rural areas where public transportation options are spotty to non-existent
Mathias' combox, indirectly quoting Brad Schimel, Waukesha County DA:
Waukesha DA Brad Schimel told the Journal Sentinel that seizures are difficult to administer, raises costs for local communities, and just doesn’t prevent these drivers from getting behind the wheel again anyway
Prosqtor, an ADA in Winnebago County (who was a Milwaukee County ADA until recently):
There is a possibility of vehicle seizure on 3rd and subsequent OWIs now, but it's rarely used. For one, there's often a lien on the vehicle, making seizure and title transfer difficult (Is Milwaukee County going to pay off liens to have a clear title for a seizure?); also, where would the county/city/town place the seized mid-80's Cutlass Classics taken from drunks?
I think they're on the right track about increasing the penalties; the real solution, however, may be to sentence people to closer to the maximum. Minimum sentences did nothing to stem the flow of drugs through our communities, and were eventually replaced; similarly, pedophiles don't stop their behavior because there's a 25 (or 5) year mandatory minimum for what they're about to do.
There's a RadioRanter who does early-AM time in Milwaukee who is absolutely in love with the idea of "siezure." Listening to his rant this morning confirmed my suspicion that siezure is not really a "justice" issue--it's a "revenge" item.
Let's go with Prosqutor's idea. Go max on the sentencing (and increase the sentence's years, while we're at it, in the new legislation.)
Leave the cars to rust with their OTHER owners: the spouse.
The Narcs in Atlanta
One hopes that this sort of crap is limited to Atlanta.
A former Atlanta police officer testified Thursday that narcotics officers routinely lied under oath when seeking search warrants, a practice that led to police killing a 92-year-old woman.
Former Detective Gregg Junnier told a Fulton County jury that detectives would tell judges that they had verified their informants had bought cocaine from dealers by searching them for drugs before the buy took place.
"I have never seen anyone searched before they go into the house, I’ve never seen that done, even though officers always swear to it," Junnier said. "It’s done that way in 90 percent of the warrants that are written."
But it wasn’t just lies to get the warrant to search Kathryn Johnston’s home that made Junnier uneasy, he said. He had an inkling something was wrong when he and Officer Jason R. Smith were leading the narcotics team to the front door. He said the northwest Atlanta house differed from the informant’s description.
"I said, ‘Man, this doesn’t look right,’ and he said, ‘I know,’ " Junnier testified. " ‘I said what do you want to do.’ He said, ‘Hit it.’"
A minute later, Johnston was lying on her floor, dying.
[...]
He said the chance to seize a kilo (2.2 pounds) of cocaine also drove the officers, who normally made arrests for much smaller amounts.
In the raid, police fired 39 shots. Junnier was shot in the face, chest and leg. Two other officers were also wounded. Investigators determined Johnston had fired one round from a revolver; the officers were shot in their own crossfire.
Junnier described entering Johnston’s house: "She was still alive. She was gasping for air. I heard … the order to cuff her."
Later that day, he said, the cover-up began.
HT: The Agitator
A former Atlanta police officer testified Thursday that narcotics officers routinely lied under oath when seeking search warrants, a practice that led to police killing a 92-year-old woman.
Former Detective Gregg Junnier told a Fulton County jury that detectives would tell judges that they had verified their informants had bought cocaine from dealers by searching them for drugs before the buy took place.
"I have never seen anyone searched before they go into the house, I’ve never seen that done, even though officers always swear to it," Junnier said. "It’s done that way in 90 percent of the warrants that are written."
But it wasn’t just lies to get the warrant to search Kathryn Johnston’s home that made Junnier uneasy, he said. He had an inkling something was wrong when he and Officer Jason R. Smith were leading the narcotics team to the front door. He said the northwest Atlanta house differed from the informant’s description.
"I said, ‘Man, this doesn’t look right,’ and he said, ‘I know,’ " Junnier testified. " ‘I said what do you want to do.’ He said, ‘Hit it.’"
A minute later, Johnston was lying on her floor, dying.
[...]
He said the chance to seize a kilo (2.2 pounds) of cocaine also drove the officers, who normally made arrests for much smaller amounts.
In the raid, police fired 39 shots. Junnier was shot in the face, chest and leg. Two other officers were also wounded. Investigators determined Johnston had fired one round from a revolver; the officers were shot in their own crossfire.
Junnier described entering Johnston’s house: "She was still alive. She was gasping for air. I heard … the order to cuff her."
Later that day, he said, the cover-up began.
HT: The Agitator
Mystery Quotation About MS-NBC
Here's the story. YOUR assignment, should you accept, is to guess the identity of the person who made the statement. This tape will NOT self-destruct in 30 seconds....
The [deleted] points to MSNBC hosts Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann as culprits. Though he says he personally likes the men, citing a 25-year-old friendship with Matthews, he thinks their shows are deplorably one-sided.
[Deleted] says he takes no issue with Matthews and Olbermann being [deleted]. His problem, he says, is that they offer no counterpoint
“It has become a completely shameless, one-sided, personal attack-oriented evening network. The great news organization [helmed] by Brian Williams portrays itself as fair and balanced. …
(Editorial deletions provided to enhance your gaming experience.....)
Give up?
See Newsbusters.
The [deleted] points to MSNBC hosts Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann as culprits. Though he says he personally likes the men, citing a 25-year-old friendship with Matthews, he thinks their shows are deplorably one-sided.
[Deleted] says he takes no issue with Matthews and Olbermann being [deleted]. His problem, he says, is that they offer no counterpoint
“It has become a completely shameless, one-sided, personal attack-oriented evening network. The great news organization [helmed] by Brian Williams portrays itself as fair and balanced. …
(Editorial deletions provided to enhance your gaming experience.....)
Give up?
See Newsbusters.
CHICAGO Paper Exposes State of Wis Corruption?
Why a CHICAGO newspaper runs this before it shows up in the Milwaukee papers?
Politics improperly influenced the decision to hire a top state lawyer after former Gov. Tony Earl helped a friend's nephew get the job, a hearing examiner has concluded. The tainted hiring cost taxpayers $346,000 in recent legal settlements paid to two qualified internal candidates passed over for the job as the state's top unemployment insurance lawyer, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press under the state open records law.
Seems that Earl left a close pal in DWD, who engineered this hire, ignoring darn near every process safeguard in sight. One big one:
Bergan broke department policy when he did not perform reference checks on LaRocque. Other panelists wanted to find out why he was let go from CUNA Mutual Group in 2002 and was leaving his current job at a law firm.
Wonder if that $350K was budgeted?
HT: Owen
Politics improperly influenced the decision to hire a top state lawyer after former Gov. Tony Earl helped a friend's nephew get the job, a hearing examiner has concluded. The tainted hiring cost taxpayers $346,000 in recent legal settlements paid to two qualified internal candidates passed over for the job as the state's top unemployment insurance lawyer, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press under the state open records law.
Seems that Earl left a close pal in DWD, who engineered this hire, ignoring darn near every process safeguard in sight. One big one:
Bergan broke department policy when he did not perform reference checks on LaRocque. Other panelists wanted to find out why he was let go from CUNA Mutual Group in 2002 and was leaving his current job at a law firm.
Wonder if that $350K was budgeted?
HT: Owen
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Build Trucks! Schneider Lowers the Limit
Schneider Trucking just announced that their rigs will be limited to 60 MPH on the highways, to save fuel.
OK.
But imagine the roads as a conveyor belt moving X pounds of goods. If one slows the conveyor belt, the only way to move the same amount of goods in the same time period is to increase the number of carriers moving goods.
Voila! More trucks, more trailers.
OK.
But imagine the roads as a conveyor belt moving X pounds of goods. If one slows the conveyor belt, the only way to move the same amount of goods in the same time period is to increase the number of carriers moving goods.
Voila! More trucks, more trailers.
"...Where Every Child Is Above Average..."
Well, that landis not YOUR land...nor mine. Dreher quotes Charles Murray:
The good news is that educational romanticism is surely teetering on the edge of collapse. I am optimistic for three reasons. First, the data keep piling up. It takes a while for empiricism to discredit cherished beliefs, but No Child Left Behind may prove to have done us a favor by putting so much emphasis on test scores and thereby focusing attention on how hard it is to budge those scores. Second, we no longer live in a romantic age. Educational romanticism was born of forces that have lost most of their power, and façades collapse when the motives for maintaining those façades weaken. Third, hardly anybody really believes in educational romanticism even now. No one but the most starry-eyed denies in private the reality of differences in intellectual ability that we are powerless to change with K-12 education. People are unwilling to talk about those differences in public, but it is a classic emperor’s-clothes scenario waiting for someone to point out the obvious...
...The fourth-grader who has trouble sounding out simple words and his classmate who is reading A Tale of Two Cities for fun sit in the same classroom day after miserable day, the one so frustrated by tasks he cannot do and the other so bored that both are near tears. The eighth-grader who cannot make sense of algebra but has an almost mystical knack with machines is told to stick with the college prep track, because to be a success in life he must go to college and get a B.A. The senior with terrific SAT scores gets away with turning in rubbish on his term papers because to make special demands on the gifted would be elitist. They are all products of an educational system that cannot make itself talk openly about the implications of diverse educational limits.
The obvious fact (to all except the money-suckers who depend on "education" to make a living, or the "starry-eyed" who are living on a different planet, founded by Rousseau...):
Murray argues that research decisively shows that with the rare exception of the worst urban schools, family environment is the only thing that really moves test scores one way or another. Otherwise, they're fairly fixed.
Dreher natters on about meritocracy, aristocracy, and "what to do about this."
For openers, we could acknowledge that ALL work, honorably done, is good.
...It is surely better to live in truth than dwell in the therapeutic fiction that all kids are capable of being above average in school, or that everyone should go to college...
The good news is that educational romanticism is surely teetering on the edge of collapse. I am optimistic for three reasons. First, the data keep piling up. It takes a while for empiricism to discredit cherished beliefs, but No Child Left Behind may prove to have done us a favor by putting so much emphasis on test scores and thereby focusing attention on how hard it is to budge those scores. Second, we no longer live in a romantic age. Educational romanticism was born of forces that have lost most of their power, and façades collapse when the motives for maintaining those façades weaken. Third, hardly anybody really believes in educational romanticism even now. No one but the most starry-eyed denies in private the reality of differences in intellectual ability that we are powerless to change with K-12 education. People are unwilling to talk about those differences in public, but it is a classic emperor’s-clothes scenario waiting for someone to point out the obvious...
...The fourth-grader who has trouble sounding out simple words and his classmate who is reading A Tale of Two Cities for fun sit in the same classroom day after miserable day, the one so frustrated by tasks he cannot do and the other so bored that both are near tears. The eighth-grader who cannot make sense of algebra but has an almost mystical knack with machines is told to stick with the college prep track, because to be a success in life he must go to college and get a B.A. The senior with terrific SAT scores gets away with turning in rubbish on his term papers because to make special demands on the gifted would be elitist. They are all products of an educational system that cannot make itself talk openly about the implications of diverse educational limits.
The obvious fact (to all except the money-suckers who depend on "education" to make a living, or the "starry-eyed" who are living on a different planet, founded by Rousseau...):
Murray argues that research decisively shows that with the rare exception of the worst urban schools, family environment is the only thing that really moves test scores one way or another. Otherwise, they're fairly fixed.
Dreher natters on about meritocracy, aristocracy, and "what to do about this."
For openers, we could acknowledge that ALL work, honorably done, is good.
...It is surely better to live in truth than dwell in the therapeutic fiction that all kids are capable of being above average in school, or that everyone should go to college...
Sulphur, Says Headless
Our local scientific-sort, Headless, identifies sulphur as the culprit in the warm/cool cycle.
Following World War II, the economies of the West grew rapidly, fueled by coal and petroleum that dirtied the atmosphere. So dirty, in fact, that drastic measures were taken to clean up the air. Laws were passed that mandated catalytic converters, low sulfur coal and fossil power plant smokestack scrubbers. Clean air followed. But other nations, such as China and India, got into the act, fueling their economic growth with coal and petroleum, which dirtied the air again late in the 20th Century.
He supports the theory with data and charts, and relates it to the volcanic activity in the early 1600's (causing the Little Ice Age), etc.
(Caution: Headless is a nuker, thus looks askance at coal-fired generation.)
Following World War II, the economies of the West grew rapidly, fueled by coal and petroleum that dirtied the atmosphere. So dirty, in fact, that drastic measures were taken to clean up the air. Laws were passed that mandated catalytic converters, low sulfur coal and fossil power plant smokestack scrubbers. Clean air followed. But other nations, such as China and India, got into the act, fueling their economic growth with coal and petroleum, which dirtied the air again late in the 20th Century.
He supports the theory with data and charts, and relates it to the volcanic activity in the early 1600's (causing the Little Ice Age), etc.
(Caution: Headless is a nuker, thus looks askance at coal-fired generation.)
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Rush Failed. The Hildebeeste Is Out
From "the Other McCain," quoting Lawrence O'Donnell of HuffPo:"
A senior campaign official and Clinton confidante has told me that there will be a Democratic nominee by June 15. He could not bring himself to say the words "Hillary will drop out by June 15," but that is clearly what he meant. I kept saying, "So, Hillary will drop out by June 15," and he kept saying, "We will have a nominee by June 15." . . . The Clinton campaign has not lost its grip on reality.
Oh, well. One dragon vanquished, one to go.
A senior campaign official and Clinton confidante has told me that there will be a Democratic nominee by June 15. He could not bring himself to say the words "Hillary will drop out by June 15," but that is clearly what he meant. I kept saying, "So, Hillary will drop out by June 15," and he kept saying, "We will have a nominee by June 15." . . . The Clinton campaign has not lost its grip on reality.
Oh, well. One dragon vanquished, one to go.
Shirley Denies She Exists
Wiggy found a doozy, from Screechin'Shirley, the "Mommy, May I?" judge.
The polls show that activist judge has no meaning to anyone. Nobody knows what activist judge means when they say it, and for the listener it doesn't have any meaning. When you say somebody's an activist judge, what you're really saying is I don't like that particular opinion. I think the people who use it think it's a slur and it will ultimately take on their connotation.
That from the Condescending One who ignores Wisconsin's 25th Amendment while prescribing precisely when, where, and under what circumstances one may actually defend themselves.
Actually, Shirley, when you look in Webster's under "Activist Judge," they have your picture instead of text.
The polls show that activist judge has no meaning to anyone. Nobody knows what activist judge means when they say it, and for the listener it doesn't have any meaning. When you say somebody's an activist judge, what you're really saying is I don't like that particular opinion. I think the people who use it think it's a slur and it will ultimately take on their connotation.
That from the Condescending One who ignores Wisconsin's 25th Amendment while prescribing precisely when, where, and under what circumstances one may actually defend themselves.
Actually, Shirley, when you look in Webster's under "Activist Judge," they have your picture instead of text.
Dave Obey: Screw the Troops (Again...)
Ol' Davey, a pretend-"Catholic," shows more of his colors.
After a flurry of last-minute number changes, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.) unveiled a three-step process Tuesday for the House consideration of an emergency $183.7 billion wartime spending bill, possibly as early as this week.
...Regarding Iraq, the bill is expected to call for the administration to immediately begin a withdrawal with the goal of removing troops in Iraq from a combat role by December 31, 2009
That last provision will, of course, draw a veto from the C-in-C, (or get stripped out in the Senate), meaning that Dave Obey is threatening the payroll of active-duty troops.
I can't believe that THIS cretin actually represents Stevens Point.
HT: Redstate
After a flurry of last-minute number changes, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.) unveiled a three-step process Tuesday for the House consideration of an emergency $183.7 billion wartime spending bill, possibly as early as this week.
...Regarding Iraq, the bill is expected to call for the administration to immediately begin a withdrawal with the goal of removing troops in Iraq from a combat role by December 31, 2009
That last provision will, of course, draw a veto from the C-in-C, (or get stripped out in the Senate), meaning that Dave Obey is threatening the payroll of active-duty troops.
I can't believe that THIS cretin actually represents Stevens Point.
HT: Redstate
Malchine Ethanol Money
Followup on our recent post regarding Mr. (and Mrs.) Malchine, Corn-A-Holers and farmers, and recipients of over $800,000.00 in Federal crop subsidies...
(By the way, that $800K does NOT include Federal subsidies for Badger State Ethanol, the Malchines' investment, nor does it include any tax credits for same.)
Seems they like to cover the bases.
There's the matter of the $500.00 contribution to DarthDoyle from Doris Malchine. That one was the subject of a complaint filing--Mrs. Malchine didn't fill in all the blanks on her donation card.
Malchine & wife also contributed to Lazich, Gunderson, Brett Davis, Turner, McCormick, Gard, and Vos.
Owen wondered why DarthDoyle won't let go of Big Corn. Binversie suggested that the Farm Bureau could make life difficult for Jimbo if he crossed them.
I suggest that there are a lot of rabbits running for cover...
And the rabbits dined well on the lettuce during election years.
(By the way, that $800K does NOT include Federal subsidies for Badger State Ethanol, the Malchines' investment, nor does it include any tax credits for same.)
Seems they like to cover the bases.
There's the matter of the $500.00 contribution to DarthDoyle from Doris Malchine. That one was the subject of a complaint filing--Mrs. Malchine didn't fill in all the blanks on her donation card.
Malchine & wife also contributed to Lazich, Gunderson, Brett Davis, Turner, McCormick, Gard, and Vos.
Owen wondered why DarthDoyle won't let go of Big Corn. Binversie suggested that the Farm Bureau could make life difficult for Jimbo if he crossed them.
I suggest that there are a lot of rabbits running for cover...
And the rabbits dined well on the lettuce during election years.
What's Feingold's Price?
Maybe Rusty's looking for a new job.
From the Spectator blog:
The true believers among superdelegates committed long ago; now it's a patronage auction for the crafty wheeler-dealers
Hmmmmmm.
From the Spectator blog:
The true believers among superdelegates committed long ago; now it's a patronage auction for the crafty wheeler-dealers
Hmmmmmm.
Mr.Linebarger of Milwaukee
Little-known fact.
"Cordwainer Smith" is the pen-name of a well-respected science-fiction author. (The Dead Lady of Clown Town, Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons, etc.)
His real name was Paul Linebarger, Ph.D., a Milwaukee native, godson of Sun Yat-sen, professor of Asiatic studies at Duke and Johns Hopkins, Colonel of the Army, spook, and author of Psychological Warfare, THE standard text on the topic, still used today at US military academies.
I have no idea whether Linebarger Terrace is named for him.
"Cordwainer Smith" is the pen-name of a well-respected science-fiction author. (The Dead Lady of Clown Town, Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons, etc.)
His real name was Paul Linebarger, Ph.D., a Milwaukee native, godson of Sun Yat-sen, professor of Asiatic studies at Duke and Johns Hopkins, Colonel of the Army, spook, and author of Psychological Warfare, THE standard text on the topic, still used today at US military academies.
I have no idea whether Linebarger Terrace is named for him.
Zachary's Law
Mark Benson may well give the State of Wisconsin's residents a gift: a tough, no-nonsense DUI law.
Two years ago, I had occasion to visit with Rep. Mark Gundrum on the issue of Wisconsin's joke-DUI law, which provides for little (if any) jail-time for repeat offenders. Stories of 5, 6, 7, and more DUI convictions followed by 3 years in prison (or Huber in/out) are and were all too common.
At that time, the Legislature was re-doing the law. The new law passed.
Obviously, THAT was ineffective. But that will be between the Leggies and their consciences, I guess.
(There were no citizens with pitchforks and torches making loud and persistent noises about .....whatever.)
Now, there's an online petition for new legislation which offers judges like Lee Dreyfus, Jr., NO alternatives, NO 'escape' provisions--and puts repeat DUI offenders off the road, period.
Sykes covered it, and Patrick is hosting the petition.
Let's see if Zachary's Law gets enacted by our Leggies. It is, of course, too late for the Bukowskys, but there are 4 million OTHER Wisconsin residents at risk.
Two years ago, I had occasion to visit with Rep. Mark Gundrum on the issue of Wisconsin's joke-DUI law, which provides for little (if any) jail-time for repeat offenders. Stories of 5, 6, 7, and more DUI convictions followed by 3 years in prison (or Huber in/out) are and were all too common.
At that time, the Legislature was re-doing the law. The new law passed.
Obviously, THAT was ineffective. But that will be between the Leggies and their consciences, I guess.
(There were no citizens with pitchforks and torches making loud and persistent noises about .....whatever.)
Now, there's an online petition for new legislation which offers judges like Lee Dreyfus, Jr., NO alternatives, NO 'escape' provisions--and puts repeat DUI offenders off the road, period.
Sykes covered it, and Patrick is hosting the petition.
Let's see if Zachary's Law gets enacted by our Leggies. It is, of course, too late for the Bukowskys, but there are 4 million OTHER Wisconsin residents at risk.