Comments in Perspective on Abp. Dolan

A decidedly Lefty bloglodyte posts the following about Abp. Dolan.

...I had been thinking that perhaps I have been too hard on Dolan in my blog at times. He is not perfect and has made a few big mistakes (i.e. lying about keeping St. Francis Seminary open). But even though he is more conservative, he has not pushed this conservatism done the throats of everyone in Milwaukee. To some extent, the new GIRM (liturgical norms) was only implemented as much as priests and parishioners wanted to implement them. I am not aware of him cracking down on more liberal parishes.

"Wintertime's" syntax and grammar makes one wonder whether he/she is finished with high school--but the content, occasionally, is interesting.

Democrat Sleaze Machine in High Gear

Un-friggin' believable:

How afraid is the Democrat leadership of truly maverick conservative GOP Sen. Tom Coburn, who is waging war with Hapless Harry Reid over binge spending and secrecy?

They’re so afraid of his effectiveness that they are trying to kneecap him with bogus Ethics Committee complaints about his practice of not charging for delivering babies at the Muskogee Regional Medical Center. Coburn continues to serve as an OB/GYN in Oklahoma.

The proper word for the Democrats doing this is not family-friendly.

But perhaps "kneecap" is a term with which Democrats should be more familiar.

HT: Redstates

Obama's Response to Trouble: Racism Charges

I think PowerLine's theory holds water.

What does Obama's latest [race-baiting] play tell us about the current circumstances? I think it tells us that, despite Obama's presidential preening, he senses he may be in trouble. The "world tour" bounce appears to have been a short-hop only, and his pretentiousness and arrogance are beginning to grate even on some in the MSM. The McCain campaign is ridiculing Obama as a celebrity and little more. There's enough truth in this suggestion to make the candidate uncomfortable. He doesn't feel he can ignore the attack, but he also cannot respond with "I am too a man of substance who deserves my celebrity." Hence the whining; hence the race card.

The essay goes on to mention that this is behavior typical of Jackson and Sharpton--meaning that Obama is taking more of their 'territory' as the campaign wears on.

Get A Tuneup and Hot Air!

You can't make this up.

The guy has gone from slightly batty and waaaaayyyyy pretentious to entirely off his rocker.

Save petroleum? No problem, the Obama way!!

Simply inflate your tires to the proper pressure, get regular tune-ups, and the US will save ALL THE OIL THAT WE COULD GET FROM OFFSHORE DRILLING.

That's what he said today, folks.

I've told a few folks that this election is his to lose; frankly, he's losing it--in more ways than one.

Owen has the tape, if you don't believe me (and frankly, I wouldn't blame you for incredulity.)

Chicago Case/Shiller Index

Value of housing in Chicago metro from the peak (Oct '06) to most recent release:

168.60
168.59
168.18
167.65
167.52
167.49
167.04
165.87
165.68
165.94
166.13
165.77
164.42
163.12
161.61
160.03
156.42
153.29
150.33
150.44
150.03

That's an eleven percent decline in the last 19 months. If your home was worth $200K in 2006, it's now about $178K.

Chicago metro is (arguably) the best proxy for Milwaukee, of all the Case/Shiller markets studied.

Paid Sick Leave: Not Just for Milwaukee

From a newsletter:

Sen. Kennedy and Rep. DeLauro reintroduced legislation called the Healthy Families Act (H.R. 1542/S.910), which would require private and public employers with 15 or more employees (for each working day during each of 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year) to provide a minimum of seven paid sick days a year to full-time workers (i.e., working 30 hours per week) to care for the medical needs of themselves or sick family members. The amount of leave would be pro-rated for part-time employees (working less than 30 but at least 20 hours a week, or less than 1,500 but at least 1,000 hours per year). Specifically, the leave could be used to care for the employee's own illness or physical or mental condition, to obtain a medical diagnosis, a related treatment or preventive care and to care for a family member for those same reasons. A family member would be defined as a child, parent, spouse or any other individual related by blood or affinity whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship. Employers would be required to (1) post notice of the availability of paid sick leave and how to file an enforcement action; (2) make, keep, and preserve records on compliance with the Act; and (3) keep health information confidential and separate from personnel files; and (4) not discriminate against, interfere with or deny the employee's right to paid sick leave.

Slightly less generous than the Milwaukee proposal.

In addition, a State-wide referendum on paid-sick-leave will be held in Ohio--terms are approximately similar to those of the Milwaukee initiative.

The Real "Gender Inequality"

Wanna bet that the Feminazis don't talk about this too much?

...men not only fill the ranks of the Harvard mathematics faculty but are also pretty much responsible for all violent crime, perversion, mass murder, and suicide. The “gender gap” in incarceration (93.2% of inmates in the U.S. are male) is vastly larger than any difference between races

On the other hand, that could be remedied by legislation criminalizing bad makeup and excessive bitching.

Or, as Charlie Sykes mentioned yesterday, Screeching-in-Restaurants, and Cougar-behavior.

Need Attention, McCain? Try This!

Planet Moron, back from a 6-month hiatus, thinks Sen. McCain can get attention from the MSM if he:

Get[s] caught on tape speaking to a group of conservative donors in which you try to explain the behavior of journalists, “You go into the news rooms of the New York Times, and like a lot of big city newspapers the jobs are gone and nothing’s replaced them. So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to decaf iced lattes, Pilates classes or antipathy to people who have never done a semester in Europe, or anti-capitalist sentiment or anti-gun sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

As usual, some of the best snark in the 'sphere...

Stupid Client, Stupid Suit, BAD PR

There are such things as stupid clients.

The California Milk Processor Board, owner of the ubiquitous "Got Milk" trademark, sent a cease and desist letter to Alaska artist Barbara Holmes, putting her on notice that the "Got Breastmilk" T-shirts that she created infringe on its trademark. Holmes sold about six of the shirts over two years ago, and has since moved on to other projects.

Holmes is taking the C&D letter seriously, though. She's hired Talkeetna, Alaska, attorney Paul Bratton who has opined that Holmes' work is a parody protected by the Constitution. Bratton's letter to the Processor Board also noted that Holmes' T-shirts make the case for the benefits of breast-feeding and thus may constitute a form of protected speech.

Holmes observed what most of us already know:

"They're two different kind of jugs."

The California Milk Marketers: another case of 'more money than brains.'

HT: Overlawyered

O-and-Savior Reveals Self to House Dems

Noted in the WaPo:

In his closed door meeting with House Democrats this evening, presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama delivered a real zinger. According to a witness, he was waxing lyrical about last week's trip to Europe, when he concluded, "this is the moment, as Nancy [Pelosi] noted, that the world is waiting for."

The 200,000 souls who thronged to his speech in Berlin came not just for him, he told the enthralled audience of congressional representatives.

"I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions," he said.

Others report that Moses and Abraham stood behind Obama as he spoke.

Later, he strictly charged the group not to say anything about this until after his resurrection.

And they then descended from the mount.

HT: Newsbusters

Wisconsin-Born Enemies

Murphy provides tidbits:

A recent piece in The New Yorker traces the history and harmful environmental consequences of the American lawn. It credits two people as the key leaders in raising awareness of the problem: Rachel Carson, author of the watershed book Silent Spring, and Lorrie Otto of Milwaukee, founder of the Wild Ones. The Wild Ones now have chapters in 12 states.

[It may be true that R. Carson is the founding queen of Junk-Science. It is certainly true that banning DDT has led to the horrific return of malaria to SE Asia--and that her "scientific" study of DDT is comparable to AlGore's "science." IOW, folks, it is NOT science...]

Otto is the subject of the First Person profile in the August issue of Milwaukee Magazine (it’s on newsstands or you can order it online). She was a leader in helping push Wisconsin to become the first state to ban DDT back in 1970. [No actual scientists were consulted by Tony Earl & Co.] The Wild Ones promote the use of native plants and wildflowers in American yards, rather than the lawns which are typically supported with a wide range of chemicals, all documented in detail in The New Yorker.

The story reports that lawns are growing at the rate of 600 square miles a year and require two hundred gallons of water per person, per day. It’s a fascinating, but alarming piece.

Does your lawn "alarm" you? Then feel free to substitute the allergenics espoused by Ms. Otto.

And don't be surprised to wake up to the smell of Agent Orange.

Chicago's Continuing Catholic Scandal

Reported by Roeser:

The Rockford, Illinois diocese will not send seminarians to St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein for training. Two upperclassmen propositioned a Rockford youth for homosexual favors. So much for the change that has been promised in archdiocesan public relations pronouncements

We're aware of a few attorneys who will be watching this carefully. Over time, it's possible that they could fund their grandchildrens' collegiate educations.

You know, generation-skipping trusts, and all that...

There's a history here.

The man who ran St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein when it was a hot-house of homosexual excess…and who was quoted in the “Sun-Times” as saying he does not regret ordaining Fr. Dan McCormack, who is now serving time for child abuse…is second in command of the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He is Gerald Kicanas, now bishop of Tucson, having been promoted from Mundelein (as were all others who ran the dissolute institution) to auxiliary bishop of Chicago and then to Tucson. In Tucson, Kicanas led Tucson through the filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization to the point where he ponied up $22 million in settlement for victims of priest child abuse.

Last month Kicanas received an award name for…who else?.. the late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin
... for “efforts in handling the sexual abuse both locally and nationally.”

Yah. The award may have been surreptitiously sponsored by the very same lawyers we mentioned above. After all, they have the money for it...

And just so you pew-sitters know which way the wind is blowing:

Kicanas is slated to become the next president of the U. S. Catholic Conference of Bishops.

The frosting on the cake, so to speak.

Heller, Round 2

Or would it be 'two rounds'--ahhhh, nevermind.

The man who successfully challenged the D.C. handgun ban before the Supreme Court filed a new federal lawsuit this morning, alleging that the District's new gun-registration system is unreasonably burdensome and improperly outlaws most semiautomatic pistols. . . .

...The lawsuit filed today alleges that the District's restrictions are not reasonable.

The city's handgun-registration process is limited almost entirely to revolvers because a D.C. law that bans machine guns includes a broad definition of such weapons, encompassing most semiautomatic pistols

It's obvious that D.C. has a lot of money to spend on its Corporate Counsel's office.

HT: Lott

The Roads Less Traveled

Again in May:

Americans drove 9.6 billion fewer vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) in May 2008 than in May 2007, according to the Federal Highway Administration data. This is the largest drop in VMT for any May ... and is the third-largest monthly drop in the 66 years such data have been recorded.

Three of the largest single-month declines - each topping 9 billion miles - have occurred since December. VMT on all public roads for May 2008 fell 3.7 percent as compared with May 2007 travel, the Secretary added, marking a decline of 29.8 billion miles traveled in the first five months of 2008 than the same period a year earlier.

This continues a seven-month trend that amounts to 40.5 billion fewer miles traveled between November 2007 and May 2008 than the same period a year before, she said.

Next stop? Increasing the fuel tax.

That's because less travel=less fuel used=less fuel-tax revenues=unhappy RoadBuilders.

After all, if we're not USING the roads, then they must be repaired, right?

HT: Calculated Risk

Quo Vadis, Obama, in Afghanistan?

Has Obama thought about what he said regarding Afghanistan? PJB has his doubts.

"We have to be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in," says Barack Obama of the U.S. war in Iraq. Wise counsel.

But is Barack taking his own advice? For he pledges to shift two U.S. combat brigades, 10,000 troops, out of Iraq and into Afghanistan, raising American forces in that country from 33,000 to 43,000.

Why does Barack think a surge of 10,000 troops will succeed in winning a war in which we have failed to prevail after seven years of fighting? How many more troops is he prepared to commit? Is the Obama commitment open-ended?

Remember that Afghanistan, politically, is the rough equivalent of a scatter-diagram--and Pakistan is a sanctuary which has nukes.

The position of C-in-C does not bear cheap promises well.

Fund-Raising Dreams v. Reality

RedState observes a discrepancy of generous proportions.

Q. So, what's going on?

A. The Democrats seem not to have as much money as somebody told us that they have.

Q. Excuse me?

A. Yup. Specifically, the Democratic National Committee. As per the FEC Disclosure form for June, which has finally gone up, they have only $4.53 million in the bank, and raised only $7.59 million last month.

Q. Hold on. Didn't they claim...

A. $22.5 million raised, $20.3 million in the bank? Yup. See here and here. At the time, I accepted the numbers myself, as did everybody else on the planet.

Q. So, why the discrepancy?

A. I don't know.

Might be time to engage some auditors--or cut down the ingress of pizza-and-beer deliveries to DNC's treasurer's office...

WHO "Stands As One", Barack?

PowerLine makes a point that The O-and-Savior ignored.

While Obama was ignoring combat veterans and speechifying to rock-band-dazed Germans (who do, after all, like to stand en masse to listen to messianic-types...) he ran his "one-world" game about the Berlin airlift:

The odds were stacked against success. In the winter, a heavy fog filled the sky above, and many planes were forced to turn back without dropping off the needed supplies. The streets where we stand were filled with hungry families who had no comfort from the cold.

But in the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning. The people of Berlin refused to give up. And on one fall day, hundreds of thousands of Berliners came here, to the Tiergarten, and heard the city's mayor implore the world not to give up on freedom. "There is only one possibility," he said. "For us to stand together united until this battle is won...The people of Berlin have spoken. We have done our duty, and we will keep on doing our duty. People of the world: now do your duty...People of the world, look at Berlin!"

Very nice.

But in fact, the United States of America not only "stood as one" to assist the Berliners--the United States of America WAS "the one" who made it happen.

Not the Soviet Union. Not France. Not Algeria. Not China, nor Brazil, nor Mexico, nor the League of Nations.

The US "stood as one" to deliver the goods, due to the unilateral decision of Harry Truman.

Trail Lawyers: Greed Unbound

One of the bills which the Trial Lawyers will be pushing in Congress will:

...broaden the definition of “disability,” increasing the opportunities to sue for denial of disability benefits or privileges to cover “any [emphasis added] physiological disorder or condition” or “any … emotional or mental illness.” A “disability” could also be claimed merely for “being perceived or treated as having a physical or mental impairment whether or not the individual has an impairment.” In other words, people could sue for disability protections even if they are not actually disabled.

Just to let you know that a Democrat Congress is harmful in more ways than "taxes."

HT: Overlawyered

Going to Church?

Paascal's thoughts on eschatological thought (and the lack thereof):

"The fact that there exist men who are indifferent to the loss of their being and the peril of an eternity of wretchedness is against nature. With everything else they are quite different: they fear the most trifling things, foresee and feel them.... He knows he is going to lose everything through death but feels neither anxiety nor emotion. It is a monstrous thing to see one and the same heart at once so sensitive to minor things and so strangely insensitive to the greatest. It is an incomprehensible spell, a supernatural torpor that points to a supernatural power as its cause." -- Blaise Pascal

Recall that Pascal was a reasonably eminent thinker...

HT: Blosser

"For the Children"--Yah, Right!

The local National Education Ass'n folks call themselves WEAC.

They run ads yapping about 'great schools.' Because, after all, it's all about "the Children."

Not that you'd know that from their laundry-list of resolutions passed at their national convention as reported by Schlafly:

Delegates sported buttons with provocative slogans such as "Gay marriage causes global warming only because we are so hot," (obviously child-centered) "Hate is not a family value," "The Christian right is neither" and "Gay rights are civil rights."

...NEA resolutions cover the waterfront of all sorts of political issues that have nothing to do with improving education for schoolchildren, such as supporting statehood for the District of Columbia, a "single-payer health care plan" (i.e., government run), gun control, ratification of the International Criminal Court Treaty and taking steps "to change activities that contribute to global climate change."

The NEA fiercely opposes any competition for public schools, such as vouchers, tuition tax credits, parental option plans or public support of any kind to nonpublic schools. The NEA strongly opposes designating English as our official language (because not knowing English is "for the children"?)

...The NEA opposes home schooling unless children are taught by state-licensed teachers using a state-approved curriculum. The NEA wants to bar home-schooled students from participating in any extracurricular activities in public schools even though their parents pay school taxes, too.

The NEA wants additional (job-creating) services and programs — such as early childhood education — provided by public schools. NEA resolutions call for "programs in the public schools for children from birth through age 8" and for "mandatory kindergarten with compulsory attendance." (It's "for the children" to rip said children from their homes at the age of 5--at the point of a gun.)

NEA resolutions include all the major feminist goals such as "the right to reproductive freedom" (i.e., abortion on demand), (uhhhnnnhhhh....well, maybe not ALL the children...)

...Diversity is the code word used for pro-gay indoctrination in the classroom.

The NEA's diversity resolution makes clear this means teaching about "sexual orientation" and "gender identification." The NEA demands that "diversity-based curricula" be imposed on preschoolers. (An important part of a 5-year-old's knowledge-base, obviously.)

...The NEA not only favors amnesty for illegal-immigrant students, but also in-state college tuition and financial aid to illegal-immigrant college students (Obviously, there are no children who pay taxes to support this--so it IS 'for the children.')

Perhaps the resolutions included items about teaching actual mathematics (including trigonometry, useful for getting jobs) and actual spelling, syntax, and grammar.

But maybe that would be asking too much "for the children."

HT: Moonbattery

Thanks, Chicago!!

This is a good thing.

Chicago Police will continue to enforce the city's handgun ban and firearm registration laws while lawyers fight the pro-gun lobby in federal court.

..."Chicago's gun ordinance was not invalidated by the . . . decision. Three prior Supreme Court decisions have found that the Second Amendment does not apply to states and municipalities," Georges said. "The decision did not change that case law."

Georges said she's confident that the U.S. District Court will dismiss the gun lobby lawsuit challenging Chicago's existing laws.

"What would happen for it to apply to Chicago is that the district court would have to fail to follow well-established Supreme Court precedent . . . and say that we should be treated like a federal jurisdiction," she said. "That's the difference here. D.C. was considered a federal jurisdiction. . . . We are not."

I smell "incorporation."

HT: Of Arms and the Law

Owen's Good Question

As most of you know, some bozo voided the warranty on his Lawn-Boy by attempting to repair it with a sawed-off shotgun at close range.

He's under arrest, and charged with possession of an illegal weapon. That's a felony.

But he hasn't been convicted yet (it should take a jury about 10 seconds to convict...) and yet, the cops siezed a number of other goods from his home, including a pistol, stun-gun, and some ammo.

Owen asks:

why did the police confiscate the handgun, handgun ammunition, and stun gun?

Yah. Why?

Soccer Lives!!

Judge Foley has his head screwed on straight.

A Milwaukee County judge has kicked out a state agency’s decision requiring the Wisconsin Soccer Association to have unemployment compensation for referees, coaches and trainers, some of whom work only a few games a year.

Earlier this year, the association filed a civil lawsuit challenging a decision by the state’s Labor and Industry Review Commission that the volunteer organization would have to have the insurance. Association leaders said they feared the ruling could be extended to require them to deduct a range of taxes from an official’s pay, including state, local and Social Security taxes.

Circuit Judge Christopher Foley, in a written decision issued this week, found that the referees, coaches and trainers were not association employees and that they were not economically dependent on the money they received for their efforts.

That "agency decision" was just one in a series of silly decisions made by LIRC over the last few years.

Happy to see that the judge kicked their position down the stairs.

Archdiocese of Milwaukee Misrepresents on Celibacy?

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has found a gift: a new priest. He's a former Lutheran minister who crossed the Tiber. He's also married and has children.

Abp. Dolan is looking for a position for the fellow who is coming here from Florida.

That's background.

Now the big problem.

Dolan says area Catholics will need catechesis, or religious education - especially in whatever parish Scheip is assigned - and he provides as an attachment a series of questions and answers that the archdiocesan chancery office prepared.

The first question is: "We were always taught that married men could not be ordained Catholic priests. How is it possible that we could have a married Catholic priest here in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee?"

The answer notes that celibacy has never been required of priests in the church's Eastern rite, though it is practiced universally in the West. [More on this below]

"Although it is highly valued, Pope Paul VI states that celibacy 'is not, of course, required by the nature of the priesthood itself.

That is not true.

Paul VI did, indeed, write an instruction on the topic. But here's what he actually said:

17. Virginity undoubtedly, as the Second Vatican Council declared, "is not, of course, required by the nature of the priesthood itself...

Frankly, this is serious. There is a VERY big difference between "virginity" and "celibacy," and this error will give rise to all sorts of problems in "catechesis" downtrack.

By the way, here's Paul VI's sentence following the Archdiocesan mis-quotation:

But at the same time the Council did not hesitate to confirm solemnly the ancient, sacred and providential present law of priestly celibacy

Just how "ancient" is another question entirely.

In an article found here, based on extensive and recent research by Fr. Conchini and Cdl. Stickler, there is an excellent discussion of the topic of celibacy.

Some excerpts:

“To understand the history of celibacy from today's perspective it is necessary to realise that in the West, during the first millennium of the Church, a large number of bishops and priests were married men, something which today is quite exceptional. However, a precondition for married men to receive orders as deacons, priests, or bishops was that after ordination they were required to live perpetual continence or the lex continentiae. They had, with the prior agreement of their spouses, to be prepared to forego conjugal life in the future.]

...Candidates for ordination could not commit themselves to live continence without the prior, express agreement of their spouses, since as a consequence of the sacramental bond they had an inalienable right to conjugal relations.

“Up to recently, the general historical perception held that it was not until the fourth century that the Church articulated a law of celibacy. This view was established by Franz X. Funk...Funk's judgment was erroneous because of basing it on a document that has since been proved to be spurious...Funk made the basic error of dating the origin of celibacy from the first known written law about it, that is from the Council of Elvira

In fact, the Elvira canon concerning celibacy was written in reaction to 'observation in the breach' of the oral tradition, which is described above.

Legislation promulgated by Pope Siricius (386 AD) gives the proper exegesis of the Pauline phrase "married only once..." which is consistent with the rule of celibacy. In addition, this letter and the Council of Carthage (390 AD) claim apostolic origin for the practice.

Further:

...the catechesis of St Cyril of Jerusalem (313- 86) had already affirmed that the discipline of clerical continence was anchored in the example of the Eternal High Priest, a living norm that was more convincing than all other justifications. By linking priestly continence closely to the virginal birth of Christ, in the mind of Cyril it is based on a foundation that goes far beyond mere historical conjecture

And the authors make clear, again, the reason for the 4th Century decrees:

“It is therefore true to say that, during those centuries of crisis for clerical morals, the Church never lost sight of the ancient tradition concerning the law of celibacy. From her memory she constantly affirmed the prohibition of marriage for clerics in major orders and the duty of a vow of perpetual continence for those married before ordination, even at times when these laws were being flagrantly violated.

There's more at the link.

It is also true that John Paul II's exception, cited by Abp. Dolan, is current law--that is, there is no licit objection to the situation of the priest who is the subject of Abp. Dolan's letter.

But there is simply NO WAY to reconcile the difference between "celibacy" and "virginity"--and this statement should be corrected immediately.

Utility Costs

Most of you readers are in the Wisconsin Energies (WE) service area.

Thus, most of you have experienced an increase in your utility costs in the last few months.

It's worse than you think. Like most people, I don't waste energy, and it shows. Since we are down to only a few children here (and one only during summer vacation from college) the hot-water-for-shower load has gone down significantly, as has the electricity for Hair Stuff (dry, curl, un-curl....) and the hot water for laundry. This summer has been fairly cool and dry, so the air has not been used much.

Accordingly, the gas and electric usage has gone down year-to-year.

But the cost? That's gone UP.

So take another look at the Wisconsin Climate Report (excerpts and comments here.) Find the places where the Commission is happy to lay new costs onto the utilities.

Then contemplate your energy bill.

Whence Barack?

An interesting thought from Pertinacious.

...I'm inclined to think that the single most important factor behind the emergence of a candidate like Barack Hussein Obama, as well as the dearth of truly inviting and substantial alternatives, is the final death of the Christian Faith in the public square. This isn't to say that there are not Christians. It is simply to say that the Faith, as a decisively culture-formative force in society, has been eclipsed by other forces: the secular media, the Internet, commercialism, reality TV, and what Herbert Marcuse long ago called "telenewsmagspeak...As G.K. Chesterton once said, "When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing — they believe in anything." Whether Mr. Obama is epistemologically self-conscious about this, I do not know; but I believe he instinctually knows that secularized Americans yearn for a God-substitute, a Messiah, and that he has tapped into this yearning. He wears his mantle with studied audaciously. The irony of the yearning is that it recoils from traditional religion because of its putative anti-intellectualism and repressiveness

Plato, in his Republic, describes the process by which good forms of government are displaced by progresively worse ones. He starts with a government of the wise, which is followed by a government of military virtues (Timocracy), one of self-aggrandizement (Oligarchy). Famously, the last form of government before hitting rock bottom with Tyrrany, for Plato, is Democracy. What Plato fears about Democracy is that it verges toward anarchy and easily permits a man to rise to power on the wings of great promises, who, when elected, turns into a tyrant. The wost result, however, is that when the souls of individual citizens have lost their normative order and orientation, they lose the capacity to understand what has happened to them, because they themselves have become viciously tyrannical, leading them to call evil "good" and good "evil."

Thinking about The O-and-Savior's Berlin pastiche of gossamer, "citizen-of-the-world" surrealistic silliness kinda puts Pertinacious' question into place, no?

Wisconsin Climate Report: Some Considerations

The Wisconsin Climate Report was released yesterday, and it will be controversial. Jim Ott (R-Mequon) has already made a few salient points, but there are other nuggets in the Report's Appendix E which are of interest. (Page reference are from Appendix E pagination.) Following that, we'll look at sections of the main Report. Some of the report is actually funny. Some of it is ludicrous. ALL of it will cost money. A LOT of money. And the Report's assumption is that the State treasury is damn near limitless.


Economic Impacts: Under all of the policy scenario modeling runs, both those with and those without cap and trade policies, the state’s economy, employment and personal disposable income increased over the 2006 to 2024 time period, but at a slightly lower rate of increase than projected under the Reference Case. The TAG had concerns that the REMI runs, including the robust economic forecast, may have been somewhat insensitive in assessing economic impacts (PP 7/8)

IOW, it's possible that the costs will kill off economic growth.

By the way, the Report also observes that Wisconsin might either import or export electricity in the future. If we import it, we pay more but emit less. If we export, we pay less, but emit more--in which case we pay more anyway because our utilities will be required to emit less.


Electricity Demand Growth: Annual electricity demand growth rate is cut in half from two percent in the Reference Case to one percent in under Policy Case 1. This can be attributed to a number of factors including the enhanced energy efficiency policy, and to higher energy prices resulting from the enhanced renewable portfolio standard policy. This reduction in electricity demand results in lower electricity bills in 2024. While the rates that utilities charge customers increase an average of 8 percent above Reference Case in 2024, electricity bills are reduced by between 12 and 15 percent depending on the rate class. The experience of individuals and particular businesses may vary significantly from these projections. (P 8)

Translation: "We're not exactly sure why demand growth is cut by FIFTY PERCENT under our Policy Case 1, and don't be bothered by the EIGHT PERCENT increase in electricity costs, because overall, electric bills will be lower in 2024, but we don't know whether that's because all the businesses left the State, or because all the individuals left the State (your mileage may vary, don't blame us.)"

The Report did use "high-end" estimates for costs of coal, petroleum, and natural gas, which is a credit to them. It is entirely possible that prices will be less than they assume, which will be beneficial to ratepayers. (P 13)

Now back to the main Report itself (Page numbers will correspond with Report page numbers.)


This policy recommends that Wisconsin advocate for a dramatic increase in federal research and development (R&D) spending related to achieving substantial reductions in GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions. At the state level, R&D funding for renewable and other low carbon technologies should be significantly increased to enable Wisconsin to become a leader in these areas. In addition, the state should support R&D of carbon capture and storage technologies in order to achieve, if feasible, rapid development and deployment on a commercial basis of coal plants with this technology. Finally, R&D funding should be provided to enhance Wisconsin’s ability to adopt to climate change, including funding for the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts, a partnership between the UW-Madison and the Department of Natural Resources (P. 38)

That will certainly help the Legislature reduce the State's ~$1 billion structural deficit, no?


...the policy recommends that the state adopt annual targets for reducing electric load and natural gas use through energy efficiency. The targets for 2009 would be to reduce electric load by 0.75% and natural gas use by 0.5% from what they would otherwise be without the energy efficiency and conservation measures. The annual reduction targets would increase gradually until they reach 2% for electric load and 1% for natural gas use in 2015 and each subsequent year. (P. 39)

That happens to be a lot of reduction. The Report calls it "aggressive."

How to get there?

An objective of this effort would be to achieve net zero energy commercial buildings by 2030
and residential buildings by 2040 (P. 41)


This policy recommends that the state set a strong example by taking a number of steps to
reduce its GHG emissions through energy conservation, energy production, building efficiency,
transportation use, and purchasing policies (P. 41)

You think that means the Capitol's heat and a/c will be turned off? The Governor's Mansion? The UW-System's? Or that the Governor will use a Prius instead of an SUV?

They have other ideas.

..requires rental properties to install energy efficient lighting in common areas and all mounted fixtures (other than fixtures controlled by dimmer switches and fixtures in appliances). It also would require exit lights to use light emitting diode bulbs (LEDs).

...proposes legislation to create state appliance/equipment efficiency standards based on a model bill developed by the Appliance Standards Awareness Project...[including] new commercial and
industrial boilers, new residential furnaces and furnace fans, and compact audio equipment...
state should request a waiver of the existing federal standard for commercial boilers and
residential furnaces in order to adopt higher standards (PP. 40/41)

Compact AUDIO equipment?


Liquid propane gas (LPG) and fuel oil make up 17% of fossil fuel use in Wisconsin’s residential sector and are also used in large quantities in the commercial, industrial, and agricultural sectors, but these fuels are not covered by the existing Focus on Energy program. This policy recommends legislation to provide for a fee on non-regulated fuels to fund Focus on Energy conservation and energy efficiency programs for consumers of these fuels (P. 42)

So LPG and heating-oil customers will pay more to use the stuff.


This policy calls for a legislative study committee to consider the need for, and nature of,
potential mandatory, minimum energy efficiency standards triggered by specific events (e.g.
point of sale) for existing single-family home and multi-family rental units to complement
voluntary energy efficiency programs for these sectors (P.43)

Selling your home or investment property? You'll pay for the "efficiency upgrades" from the proceeds of the sale. That cap-gain just disappeared, folks. Re-arrange your retirement program immediately.


This policy calls for a major state-sponsored energy efficient housing retrofit and
rehabilitation program for existing housing stock in lower income areas (urban and rural), funded in large part by allowance fees and auction revenues from a cap and trade program (P.43)

So either the cap-and-trade program will be very lucrative (that is to say, expensive for the buyers of credits) OR the "large part" will be small--meaning that GP Revenues will be funding these retrofits.

And, of course, the Report has expensive thoughts about the fake "problem" of CO2:

This policy recommends that the Public Service Commission and the DNR convene a special commission to explore the potential for geologic carbon sequestration for CO2 produced by Wisconsin’s electricity generation fleet (P.43)

They'll pipe the emissions underground, or pipe them to other States to put them underground (!!)

And we'll windmill the blazes out of the Great Lakes!!


This policy recommends that the state, through the relevant state agencies, convene a
study group to look at the technical and economic potential for developing wind energy on Lake
Michigan and Lake Superior

Another electricity cost-enhancement is buried in here.

This policy recommends that the PSCW reopen the current Strategic Energy Assessment,
with all utilities subject to the SEA required by October 15, 2008 to file comprehensive GHG
emissions inventories using recognized standards. In conjunction with these filings, each utility
would: (i) identify the actions currently being taken or planned to be taken during the next three
years that will reduce its GHG emissions, showing estimated reductions, costs and other relevant information; and, (ii) identify other actions that are not included in its current actions or plans that could be undertaken by it during this period to further reduce its GHG emissions, and
identify the potential emissions reductions available, the associated costs and any other relevant
information. (P.44)

Reality time, folks. The utilities will NOT pay for these studies. YOU will. How many folks will WEenergies add to the staff to come up with this stuff? Who knows? But WEenergies does NOT care--it's a pass-through cost.


This proposal would increase the state’s RPS [Renewable Portfolio Sources] in current law to 10% by 2013, 20% by 2020 and 25% by 2025. Of the required 20% by 2020 and 25% by 2025, minimums of 6% by 2020 and 10% by 2025 would have to come from Wisconsin-based renewables (P.45)

That means we'll be burning trees, corn (!!), silage, weeds, and dried excrements. In addition, the report hints that we will be connecting cow-butts to pipelines leading to electricity-generation facilities. Maybe even deer- and bear-butts!! Invest NOW in hose-makers!!


...renewable energy and renewable resources in the existing RPS law would be expanded to include the thermal portion of Wisconsin cogeneration projects fired with biomass, as well as biogas produced in Wisconsin that is put in the gas pipeline system, solar water heating and other verifiable renewable applications that displace fossil fuel use (P.45)

Gas from contented cows!!

If you happen to buy your own windmill, you could do very well:

Utilities would be required to enter into long term, fixed price contracts to purchase all of the electricity produced by customer-owned renewable generation systems at favorable rates. The policy recommends that these advanced renewable tariffs should be based upon the specific production costs of each particular generation technology, include a return comparable to the utilities’ allowed returns, and be fixed over a period of time that allows for full recovery of capital costs (P.47)

Folks, these rather generous terms are enough to make Gary Grunau slobber spit all over the office. I'll remind you that the utilities DO NOT CARE what those "favorable rates" are--because the utilities will NOT PAY the costs--YOU will, dear reader.

The "new nukes" policy is hogwash.

The proposed policy would not mandate or encourage new nuclear plant construction, but would modify the current requirements as follows: (i) A new Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) provision would be added requiring that the proposed nuclear plant must be built to meet Wisconsin needs at a cost that is reasonable and advantageous to customers in comparison with available alternatives, taking account of emission reductions benefits. If such a nuclear plant is a plant to be built and owned by a party other than a Wisconsin utility, the output would need to be sold to Wisconsin utilities to meet the needs requirement. In any event, any new nuclear plant, regardless of any changes in ownership or operational responsibility during the life of the plant, would be subject to regulation by the PSCW on a basis that is comparable to the regulation that would apply to such a plant if owned and operated by a Wisconsin public utility. (ii) The current requirement of a federally licensed or foreign nuclear waste disposal facility would be replaced with a requirement that to obtain a CPCN the PSCW must find the nuclear waste plan for the plant is economic, reasonable, stringent, and in the public interest, given the safety and other risks presented by such waste. (iii) The proposed CPCN requirements for a nuclear plant would apply to any proposed nuclear unit regardless of size and include any replacement of any existing nuclear unit. (iv) In addition to the existing right of the PSCW to apply for extension of the 180-day time limit to act on a CPCN, an additional extension could be sought by the PSCW in the case of a nuclear plant for a reasonable,
but defined period (P.48)

"Economic, reasonable, stringent, and in the public interest, given...."---any 5th grader could drive a truck through the holes in that language. Nukes? Fuggeddaboutit.

Now as to your car:

This policy recommends that Wisconsin join with other states that have adopted
California rules that set mandatory minimum GHG emission standards for passenger vehicles (P.49)

What about cutting your lawn, boating, 4-wheeling?

This policy recommends adopting voluntary and mandatory emission reduction measures
to reduce GHG emissions from off-road sources related to construction, agricultural,
lawn/garden care, recreational and industrial/commercial sectors (P.50)

Driving your semi-, or any OTHER truck?

The task force recommends regulation to limit truck idling at depots, over night rest areas
and other long-term parking circumstances. The rule would limit idling to a maximum five
minutes except when trucks are on the roadway during traffic, there are temperature extremes,
medical needs require engine power, powering equipment is needed to unload freight, engines
are required to idle to regenerate emission filtration devices or required maintenance procedures are conducted. Efficient trucks with 2007 or newer engines will be exempt (P.51)

Bundle up, Teamsters. It will be cold out there. In the alternative, you might want to get naked when it's hot. Trust me, "temperature extremes" can be defined in very interesting ways.

Here's another GP Revenue drain, combined with a property-tax increase:

This policy recommends legislation to reduce consumption of non-renewable motor
fuels. This legislation would require that by 2012, 25% of the delivery vehicles, light trucks, and
passenger vehicles operated by the state and its largest cities have Plug-in Hybrid Electric
Vehicle (PHEV) drive trains. The state would provide grants to the affected municipalities to
offset 50% of the incremental cost of purchasing PHEV vehicles compared to conventional
vehicles of the same make and model (P.51)

And Jimmy Carter redux:

This policy recommends strict enforcement of the existing 65 mph highway speed limit, a
study of potential future speed limit reductions, and support and recognition for voluntary speed
reduction policies by businesses and other organizations

"Reducing speed limits" translates to "increasing the semi-truck fleet numbers"--as was proven by the Carter flop. Buy stock in Kenworth.


This policy recommends education and incentives for the purchase of hybrid electric
vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs) including
encouraging businesses to allocate favorable parking for these vehicles and by providing rebates
or state-tax credits (P.52)

IOW, taxpayers will subsidize folks who buy hybrids/plug-ins. Grind down the lower-end taxpayers a bit more!!

Another reference to fake-pollution here:

This policy suggests legislation with regulatory implementation and enforcement to
develop a low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) for fuel providers on a sales-weighted average. The
standard would be developed by measuring CO2-equivalent grams per unit of fuel energy (P.52)


Providers could meet the standard by blending ethanol (corn/cellulosic) with gasoline, blending biodiesel with diesel (P.53)

Starve a few Mexicans. Who cares??

We hope you like to walk.

This policy recommends regulatory action and state funding to reduce vehicle miles
traveled (VMT) by individuals. The recommendations include: (i) providing special
transportation funding for areas zoned for traditional neighborhood design, (ii) including safety
provisions for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit vehicles in road projects along and across
corridors being improved, (iii) requiring a VMT and GHG analysis for new developments that
will receive state economic development assistance and for projects to expand state roadway
capacity, (iv) developing a model parking ordinance that reconsiders mandatory minimum
requirements for retailers and increases pricing of street parking, incorporating parking standards based on technology and market changes, such as small parking spaces for microcars, (v) establishing multimodal accessibility as the highest goal for the state to ensure walking and
biking accessibility, (vi) considering VMT generated by applicant facilities as a major factor in
state economic development funding decisions, giving projects with low levels of VMT per
employee preference over those that increase VMT, (vii) considering VMT generated by
Wisconsin to be a higher priority on rehabilitation of existing infrastructure over adding new
lane-miles (fix-it-first) for funding purposes, and (vii) encouraging the Wisconsin Department of
Commerce to develop incentives for local governments to allow compact development and
redevelopment.

There are all kinds of "Smart Development" ideas in that graf which are inimical to suburbs and ex-urbs. But if you read that stuff carefully, you also find that "economic development" efforts will look at parking spaces--the more required, the less the State wants them.

So if you're going to build a 2,000-employee factory about halfway from Jefferson to Milwaukee, your development will be DIS-favored, compared with building it smack-dab in the middle of Milwaukee, or any other municipality with bus, rail, or bike-paths.

Or unless your workers can simply walk to the factory.

And it gets even more interesting.


This policy recommends legislation to reduce GHG emissions through establishing three
programs for public and private transit alternatives: Intercity Rail, Transit Trust Fund and a
Regional Transit Authority. The policy also recommends a voluntary Travel Demand
Management (TDM) policy for employers with more than 100 employees. The Intercity Rail
initiative would advance the proposed Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison high speed rail
improvements to Eau Claire and the Twin Cities by increasing the non-federal share to a level
that will provide greater leverage to access limited federal funding, up to $120 million. The
Transit Trust Fund would provide local units of government with up to a 50% state match for
local rail projects, such as the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee and Dane 2020 rail options. The
Regional Transit Authority initiative would allow local units of government to fund transit
operations through a local sales tax of up to one half cent to help transit systems account for
inflation. The voluntary TDM policy would promote commute trip reduction programs for
employees to reduce single-occupant vehicle use for workplace travel. Key elements of the TDM
program would include providing incentives for alternate modes, considering parking supply
constrictions, tailoring support and incentives suited for specific work sites, combining programs
that inform employees of commuting options and making a range of commuting alternatives
available (pp 54/55)

You might want to read that again. First off, is there ANY money left in the Transportation Fund?? Taxes for KRM, taxes for Dane 2020, taxes for buses, light rail--and if you employ more than 100 people, you will be "advised" by State bureaucrats.

Meaning: hire another couple of HR desk-jockeys to plan your employees' trips to/from work.

Buy a farm. It will be profitable, no matter what you do.

This policy recommends legislation to increase the availability and use of renewable
biomass and biofuels for electricity, heat and transportation by (i) creating an Energy Crop
Reserve Program that would provide incentive payments to landowners for growing perennial
grasses and energy crops, targeting land previously enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve
Program (CRP), (ii) providing financial support to biomass producers for the purchase of new
equipment and technology needed to harvest, process and transport biomass feedstocks, also
replace older equipment or introduce more energy efficient equipment, resulting in further
reduction of carbon emissions, (iii) providing financial support to reduce risk and uncertainty for
biomass producers and (iv) providing support for biomass aggregators and infrastructure such as transportation, storage and processing. Such support may include development of biomass
harvesting and classification deadlines, pilot projects, promotion of commodity markets and
exchanges, outreach to producers and users and grants to cooperatives. (P.55)

Of course, if you choose to live off the taxpayers' largesse, you don't want to employ more than 99 people--otherwise, you'll have to "aggregate" and "farm" where there are sidewalks, bike-paths, and busses.

Schools should be located on farms. Dairy farms are ideal.

To establish the state as a leader in the use of biomass, the policy recommends: (i)
utilizing solid/liquid/gaseous fuels derived from biomass to provide 25% of the energy needs for
state owned or occupied facilities by 2025, (ii) providing incentives to school districts that use
biomass for heat or electricity by excluding the capital cost of biomass systems, fuel,
maintenance, and any purchase cost of heat or electricity from revenue limits under the school
aid formula and (iii) excluding the cost of biomass systems, fuel, maintenance and any purchase
cost of heat or energy from biomass from municipal and county levy limits (P.56)

The way this is shaping up, I think there will only be 68 actual tax-PAYERS remaining in the State. All the rest will be tax-TAKERS.

Buy a tree-farm

This policy recommends enhancement of existing state programs, and increased
education and assistance, to encourage afforestation and reforestation to decrease GHG
emissions through terrestrial carbon sequestration. Enhancement of state programs will provide
additional incentives for landowners. These changes may require legislative rule changes, fiscal
measures, or manual code adjustments. (P.56)

Cow-Fart-Reduction

This policy recommends improvement of animal health through better nutrition. For example, healthier cows stay in the herd longer and fewer replacements are needed, resulting in lower methane emissions. The task force recommends promoting management intensive grazing
at existing grazed animal operations to increase soil fertility, plant vigor and quality, and
providing financial incentives to producers to increase use of animal nutritionists to promote a
high level of livestock health and productivity

Cow-Fart Utilization

This policy recommendation seeks to increase the capture and use of animal methane for
electricity or heat and to reduce current methane emissions. (WTF??) Several policy options are suggested: (i) establish a cap-and-trade program to increase demand for electricity and biogas from digesters, (ii) establish a voluntary consumer payment program for electricity or biogas produced from manure, (iii) grant a tax credit for production of electricity or biogas from manure, (iv) grant a tax credit for investments in manure digesters or lagoon covers, (v) provide a state subsidy for digester capital costs, interest costs, or to cover risk incurred by private lenders for digester projects, (vi) create a state fund for incentives for utilities to pay a higher rate for electricity or biogas supplied from manure digesters, and (vii) fund research to increase the economic viability of manure digesters and other waste-to-energy systems and efficiently bring waste-to-energy systems to market through farmer-owned cooperatives (P. 59/60)

Less farts? More poop? Buy cow-manure futures!!

Become an Energy Inspector!! Or Buy Certain Kinds of Stuff!!

They include: (i) cash grants for conducting comprehensive energy audits,
implementing corresponding conservation and efficiency measures, or purchasing replacement or retrofit equipment that is more energy efficient; (ii) refundable tax credits for the purchase of
equipment or other capital expenditures that will result in quantifiable energy savings and
manufacturing transition tax credits to assist companies that redesign production facilities to
produce new, cutting-age technologies with fewer GHG emissions; (iii) low-interest or nointerest
loans for large capital expenditures intended to reduce energy consumption; (iv) fast
track permitting for retrofit and/or equipment replacement projects that would otherwise proceed on a traditional permitting path, if the equipment will result in energy efficiency or conservation savings; and (v) industrial development bonds targeted to businesses that do any of the following: begin manufacturing energy efficient fixtures, metering equipment or appliances, or begin manufacturing renewable energy products or components; install renewable power generators in their facilities; or begin manufacturing component parts for renewable fuel or hybrid/flex-fuel vehicle operations; or transition from manufacturing traditional vehicles to
manufacturing hybrids, advanced diesel, flex-fuel and other advanced drive train vehicles and
related components

I see a lot of existing Wisconsin businesses in that list--who will now be getting tax-favored treatment, courtesy of ordinary citizens (the 58 who remain actually paying taxes...)

I quit here.

You want more? Read the report yourself. Go ahead. I dare you.

Obama: Gaffe After Gaffe After...Part 389

You'd think that with 300+ "foreign policy advisers" that ONE of them might actually know something.

He goes to Berlin and tells the crowd that 'there are walls'--and specifies 'walls' between the US and Europe.

Wrong:

To say that somehow there is a wall in NATO that's running somewhere down the Atlantic shows Senator Obama's inexperience when it comes to understanding where we are.

Then he has a brilliant idea!

He has these kind of message-tested, poll-tested things like, we should, Barack Obama will make sure we take -- he'll negotiate with the Russians to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert. It's a great idea: it was done 20 years ago.

(Quotes are from Rep. Heather Wilson, R-NM, whose credits include [bio: high honors Air Force Academy grad, Rhodes Scholar] and service at NATO headquarters.)

HT: NewsBusters

Obama Has Transition Team in Place

Maybe we should just skip all that foolishness in November.

As Marc Ambinder reported this morning, the Obama campaign is putting together a post-campaign "transition team" to ease Obama from candidate to executive. Several Obama staffers confirmed to Ambinder that the campaign has begun transitional planning, though a formal announcement will not be made until the fall.

I mean, who needs more Flori-DUH jokes? Who really wants to sit up half the night listening to Talking Heads? And why pay for all that fuss and muss--poll workers, machines, ballots?

"Feel-Good" Testing from the Feds

Here's a nugget which was buried in the middle of an article.

Hyde’s team coded the difficulty levels of the No Child Left Behind exam questions, and found that all 10 states had absolutely no questions requiring strategic or critical thinking.

“It’s something I think is worth worrying about,” Halpern said. “We’re going for more minimal standards than excellent standards.”

“Teachers are teaching to the test and the test items are not very complex or involved,” said Ellis, a former high school teacher herself. “This has terrible ramifications for students trying to understand math concepts.”

At some point in time, we'll recognize that the GWB program should be called "No Child Very Educated."

Jerry Bott: Common Sense on Favre

It was refreshing to listen to Jerry Bott's discourse on the DramaFest at Lambeau.

Short version: Ted Thompson has been around football for a long time and he's pretty sharp.

So when Ted Thompson makes the judgment that Brett Favre is no longer 'the guy' for the team's future, Thompson's probably right.

His analogy was also dead-on: when you're asked to start a talk-radio show, do you consult with: A) bloggers; B) newspaper writers; C) neurosurgeons; or D) other successful talk-show hosts?

It is no co-incidence that Bott has a managerial position at WISN, by the way.

Latin Mass Supporter

The name sorta jumps out at you...

One of the people who signed a petition asking England's Bishops for more Extraordinary Rite Masses (the Old Rite), was

Bianca Jagger, a devout practising Catholic, is well-known as a radical human rights activist; but she also regularly attends Latin Mass at the London Oratory and wishes to see the provision of the Old Rite extended throughout the world

HT: Fr. Z

Kmiec Denied Communion: Chapter Two

This is almost 'inside baseball,' but it's hot stuff in RC circles.

I'll let Roeser tell the story--he's really good at that.

Roger Cardinal Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, has called the priest who refused to give Communion to pro-Obama Catholic Douglas Kmiec, on the carpet. As many who read this site know, Kmiec, law dean of Pepperdine University, has been dining out with the mainstream media through self-generated publicity since a priest turned him down for Communion because of Kmiec’s support of Obama who not only is pro-abortion but killed the Born Live bill in the Illinois legislature.

...Kmiec who parlayed great legal expertise into a top Justice Department job under Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, was passed over for the Supreme Court by both administrations. He surfaced first as a supporter of Mitt Romney for president but when Romney pulled out, changed direction and endorsed Obama. Some of his old law colleagues at Notre Dame law school and Catholic U say the switch was due to his driving ambition to go to the Court...

After announcing his support of Obama, Kmiec was the featured speaker at a dinner of Catholic CEOs in Ventura, California, near Pepperdine. But at Mass prior to the dinner, the celebrant refused to give him Communion. A line following Kmiec stood waiting as the lawyer-professor said, “I think you’re making a mistake, Father” to which the priest said “I don’t think so.” Kmiec’s wife ran sobbing from the church which caused other wives to whimper sympathetically--but Kmiec turned the refusal into a favorable story about himself with the mainstream media by disclosing it to E. J. Dionne, a pro-abort Catholic columnist for “The Washington Post.”

...On NPR Kmiec was interviewed and portrayed himself as a kind of Thomas More in reverse, being pilloried because of his support for Obama. Now Los Angeles’ liberal prelate has written to the priest summoning him to the chancery to explain his action. Like the late Joseph Cardinal Benardin whom he venerated, Mahony has linked pro-life with other non-related liberal actions. Bernardin performed a signal work for liberal Democrats when he devised, with true Machiavellian savvy, the concept of the “seamless garment.” ...

Fr. Bryan Hehir a staffer at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, took the biblical notation and made it a liberal crusade. He concocted the theory that he could weaken the strength of the anti-abortion injunction by tying it to a host of liberal goals and calling the entire linkage “seamless.” He took (a) nuclear freeze and (b) anti-death penalty and fused them with (c) pro-life. Ergo: Democratic presidential and congressional candidates could claim a “pro-life” score of 2 out of 3.

...Roger Mahony, tall, stoop-shouldered with a face adorned by a perpetually glistening anchor-man smile, switched the formula. Since nuclear freeze was off the table, he added immigration rights in addition to anti-death penalty. This fit his immediate political needs since he needed to distract the media from sexual abuse of children in Los Angeles by embracing a cause liberals would rally to.

...Using Bernardin’s “seamless garment” with pro-illegal immigration as a pretext, Mahony vowed a campaign of civil disobedience in 2005 against the Sensenbrenner-King immigration bill in the archdiocese’s 288 parishes which dealt with illegal enforcement only.

Thus the prelate who decided what immigration law he will reject and instructs his flock to disregard is out to punish the priest who concentrated on his right to deny the Eucharist to one who espouses not just abortion but who endorses a candidate who has denied dying babies nutrition and medical care.

...From his august $150,000 throne can Roger the Dodger excoriate those who are unfeeling about illegal immigrants’ rights. It is to this enormous palisade that Roger the Dodger…a Prince of the Church… called the errant priest who dared to deny Communion to a defector who is hustling Catholic votes for Barack Obama.

You ask: is this Church divine?

It has to be--to survive people like Roger the Dodger as it has so many others before even Thomas Cranmer.

There's a lot more at the link, but you get the idea.

Even the NYTimes Can't Take Gorebasms

Believe it or not, Andy Revkin, the science reporter for the NYTimes fisked Al's "No More Carbon Sources" speech...

AlGore: Scientists with access to data from Navy submarines traversing underneath the North polar ice cap have warned that there is now a 75 percent chance that within five years the entire ice cap will completely disappear during the summer months. This will further increase the melting pressure on Greenland. According to experts, the Jakobshavn glacier, one of Greenland’s largest, is moving at a faster rate than ever before, losing 20 million tons of ice every day, equivalent to the amount of water used every year by the residents of New York City.

NYTimes: I have a post coming shortly on the latest update from the world’s leading teams of sea ice experts, showing this year’s retreat is unlikely to match last year’s, while the long-term trend is still heading toward ever less summer ice. I’ll try to find out where the sub data came from. Only one group I know of has posited an ice-free Arctic Ocean in summers by 2013. On Greenland, the picture is far more complex than the way it is portrayed here. Other glaciers have slowed and, overall — as I’ve written here recently — new studies show no fresh signs of imminent destabilization of the ice.]

AlGore: There seem to be more tornadoes than in living memory, longer droughts, bigger downpours and record floods

NYTimes: why mention tornadoes? There’s been no evidence of an increase in dangerous tornadoes since careful records have been kept (great graphic at this link). It’s really no different stressing “strange” weather in a push for limiting greenhouse gases than doing so to fight the same policy shift. Remember all the yelling about global cooling because of cool global temperatures recently?]

AlGore: Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years. This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative.

NYTimes: ...it would be hard to find experts immersed in the challenges of generating, storing and distributing electricity at large scale who could chart an achievable or affordable 10-year path to doing this. Joe Romm at ClimateProgress.org said a more realistic ambitious goal would be 50-percent renewable electricity sources by 2020. And of course “affordable” is a word dependent entirely on public attitudes,

AlGore: A few years ago, it would not have been possible to issue such a challenge. But here’s what’s changed: the sharp cost reductions now beginning to take place in solar, wind, and geothermal power – coupled with the recent dramatic price increases for oil and coal – have radically changed the economics of energy.

NYTimes: The price differential between renewable energy sources and coal burning is shifting, but a 10-year transformation is hard to foresee given the incredibly small base from which solar is growing (see the solar link in the previous annotation) and the long timeline for boosting geothermal generation, among other issues. An Energy Department review of geothermal sources last year said we might be able to generate as much electricity by 2050 that way as is now produced with nuclear plants. But currently nuclear generation is less than 20 percent of the national electricity pie. Sure, that might be accelerated, but 10 years?]

Etc., etc.

And the NYT's reporter was being very gentle compared to others.

Pubbie Fundraisers

In the last couple of days, both the Republican National Committee and the Republican Senate Campaign Committee assigned a couple of pleasant young chipmunks to call here asking for money.

They started off with the usual Doomsday Scenario crap...

....and that's as far as they got, before I politely but firmly advised them that they were wasting their time.

Maybe if they were the Conservative National Committee.....?

But that would mean that they are not Republicans.

Did Mitch McConnell Grow a Spine?

Reported by The Hill and passed along by Morrissey:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has laid down the gauntlet to Majority Leader Harry Reid on energy, according to The Hill. Following the efforts of Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint, the Republican caucus has promised to obstruct any bills not pertaining to energy until the Senate votes on removing the remaining restrictions on off-shore drilling

...which would include the Most Massive Bailout in history, too...

The Middle East Trip--No Poll-Bump? You're RACIST!

So the O-and-Savior goes all over the Middle East, gets pix and several dozen MSM tongue-baths, but there's no poll-bump.

Time magazine has it figured out.

The emerging conventional wisdom seems to be that the trip is a bit too grand, too...presumptuous and voters are wary of that. (And presumption, of course, always comes with the subterranean tinge of racism.) Maybe so

Got that? The trip is presumptuous, because voters are RACIST. Can't abide the possibility that some black fellow is ....traveling....or something like that.

Or maybe it's just presumptuous--beginning with the O-and-Savior's erasing the US flag from the 757 and substituting his "O" trademark on the plane's tail.

Thank God that Time magazine is here to diagnose our ills.

HT: RedState

Obama: Gaffe After Gaffe After....

Here's a new one to add to the pile, after '57 States', 'Civilian Security Corps', '10,000 Died in Kansas Tornadoes', 'Arkansas is nearby Kentucky', ....

Speaking in Israel, Obama says:

Now, in terms of knowing my commitments, you don't have to just look at my words, you can look at my deeds. Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, which is my committee, a bill to call for divestment from Iran, as a way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don't obtain a nuclear weapon.

Really?

Here's the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs committee roster:

Umnnhhhh.....lemmeessee, heah, ahhhh....Dodd, Menendez, Schumer, Reed, Akaka.......

Well, maybe he's listed as a Republican?

Shelby, Enzi, Dole.......

Not there either.

Obviously, the Teleprompter broke.

HT: PowerLine

So About John Edwards...

Most likely the dirt came from the Clinton campaign, and most likely the tipsters were paid for their info.

But, you know, there's pictures, and lotsa witnesses.

So when will this get the Henry Hyde treatment from the MSM?

Vice Presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards was caught visiting his mistress and secret love child at 2:40 this morning in a Los Angeles hotel by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.

The married ex-senator from North Carolina - whose wife Elizabeth continues to battle cancer -- met with his mistress, blonde divorcée Rielle Hunter, at the Beverly Hilton on Monday night, July 21 - and the NATIONAL ENQUIRER was there! He didn't leave until early the next morning.

Natch, there's a non-denial denial from Edwards, who has NOT instituted suit against the Enquirer.

The Crooks at Fannie Mae

Yesterday we mentioned the bi-partisan rackets and thugs of Fannie/Freddie.

Today we are reminded of the identity of one of the prominent players--who was made rich by virtue of Fannie's earnings-manipulations.

Jamie Gorelick, attorney-at-law, builder of "the Wall", and sanctimonious snot.

How did that work again? Oh, yeah:

The magnitude of Fannie's machinations is stunning, and in two key areas in particular they deserve to be better understood. By improperly delaying the recognition of income, it created a cookie jar of reserves. And by improperly classifying certain derivatives, it was able to spread out losses over many years instead of recognizing them immediately

...The target EPS for maximum payout was $3.23 and Fannie reported exactly . . . $3.2309. This bull's-eye was worth $1.932 million to then-CEO James Johnson, $1.19 million to then-CEO-designate Franklin Raines, and $779,625 to then-Vice Chairman Jamie Gorelick.

Nice reward from Bubba Clinton for her work in protecting terrorists all around the world, no?

Pawlenty? Meh

Pawlenty, despite the fervent tongue-bath of the late-afternoon RadioMouth in Milwaukee, is not going to make Conservatives happy.

He's a tree-hugger and anti-driller, and has a Huckabee-like economic outlook.

Another Yawn-candidate.

Feingold: The Lying Liar Lies Again

You have to admit that Russ has chutzpah--he puts his lies in print before 300,000 readers (or so) of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Too bad for Rusty that the JS also asked for a response from someone who actually knows something about the topic at hand.

So the fun begins.

Rusty, the Lying Liar: While the oil companies have tens of millions of acres of federal lands under lease, only a quarter of that land is actually producing oil. I thought I’d start out by asking these executives why that was. The oil executives had no explanation.

Erin Roth, Truth-Squad Leader: First of all, the term "oil" lease is a misnomer. It should be called an "access lease to determine whether oil is present."

Oil companies pay the government for a lease. These leases are not indefinite...they do expire. The companies are not allowed to determine the viability of a property until they actually have the lease. Once they have access, they undertake tests to determine if oil is present. If it is, they then have to determine if it is economically feasible to extract it.

...if the oil sits under 2,000 feet of granite, it probably isn't worth drilling for, even at $150 a barrel. If drilling is feasible, then the government must grant a permit, which does not always happen.

Rusty, the Lying Liar: More than 100 billion barrels of oil and gas resources are currently available on federal lands already leased or available for leasing by oil companies. (See above "feasible" and "permits required.")

• Between 1999 and 2007, the federal government increased the number of drilling permits by 361%. While the Bureau of Land Management issued 28,776 permits to drill on public land in the last four years, wells have not been drilled on over a third (9,822). (See above "feasible" and "Permits required." Also see "capital--derived from PROFITS--required")

Rusty, the Lying Liar: The truth is that current federal law allows oil companies to sit on leases for the entire length of the lease term, which is typically 10 years, and there are no requirements that they develop the lands

Erin, the Truth Squad Leader: No matter what occurs on the property, the government still receives billions of dollars in lease payments from oil companies, even if the land is dry

Rusty, the Lying Liar: After all, the quickest way to produce more oil is to develop lands already under lease since exploration is underway, leases and many drilling permits are ready to go and the infrastructure, including miles and miles of pipeline, is already in place (Like off the coast of California, Rusty, where the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS BANNED EXTRACTION and where the derricks are already in place? And, by the way, "permits are ready to go" is weasel-wording for "not yet issued," Rusty. Even 5th graders understand that one.)

Erin, the Truth Squad Leader: Every step of the way, huge amounts of time are needed to obtain the series of permits that allow this development. In short, leases are not "idle" while all the preparatory work goes on.

Rusty, the Lying Liar: I support responsible efforts to increase domestic production. (We know that "responsible" means only what you say it means, on that particular day, Rusty. By the way, Rusty, what have you done for nuclear power lately??)

Erin, the Truth Squad Leader: What should not be lost in this debate is the inescapable fact that access to additional federal lands is crucial to expanding available supplies

Rusty, the Lying Liar: Congress must provide the leadership to break the stranglehold that oil has over the lives of our citizens and our economy

Either that, Rusty, you Lying Liar, or the citizens will provide a stranglehold on Congressional throats. At least some Senators will then stop lying with every breath.

HT: Sykes

Porn-Peeper Teacher Still Fired

The Appeals Court issued a unanimous ruling in the case of Zellner, formerly employed by the Cedarburg school district, and a very committed WEAC member.

The state Court of Appeals today upheld the firing of former Cedarburg teacher Robert Zellner, saying that his viewing of pornography on his school computer during off hours constituted immoral behavior and that immoral behavior is a basis for overturning an arbitrator's decision.

After the Cedarburg School Board fired Zellner in January 2006, he appealed to an arbitrator. The arbitrator ruled in his favor, saying Zellner should have been punished but not fired. Arbitrator's rulings generally are binding, but the case went to court after the School Board refused the arbitrator's order to rehire Zellner.

When Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Joseph McCormack upheld the School Board's decision on immorality grounds, Zellner appealed. In April, the appeals court asked the Supreme Court to take the case directly, saying it presented a legal issue that the high court should decide. But the Supreme Court refused to take the case, leaving it to the appeals court to decide.

In upholding the circuit judge's ruling, the appeals court said in today's ruling that Wisconsin has a strong public policy against immoral conduct in schools and that a judge can overturn an arbitrator's ruling that violates strong public policy.

The Waukesha-based appellate panel cited a statutory definition of immoral conduct as behavior "that is contrary to commonly accepted moral or ethical standards and that endangers the health, safety, welfare or education of any pupil." The appeals judges wrote that "protection of children and the promotion of a safe education environment is a clear and compelling public policy."

Makes sense to me, both as parent and taxpayer.

Zellner's defense is the porn-peeper version of the "five-second rule," which in this case involves 67 seconds.

Blogroll Addition

Unlike some others, (EGGSTER!!!) I add few--very few--blogs to the right-roll.

This young lady's work is spectacular. She can write, in English, (REAL English), and she can write exceptionally well. The snark is always gently humorous--and graceful.

Take her out for a spin.

Rome to Lambeth: You're in Bad Shape

This is not your typical "church-speak" stuff.

...from Cardinal Dias's address to the conference yesterday evening:

"Much is spoken today of diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. By analogy, their symptoms can, at times, be found even in our own Christian communities. For example, when we live myopically in the fleeting present, oblivious of our past heritage and apostolic traditions, we could well be suffering from spiritual Alzheimer's. And when we behave in a disorderly manner, going whimsically our own way without any co-ordination with the head or the other members of our community, it could be ecclesial Parkinson's."

Damian Thompson, from whose blog the above was extracted, comments:

The comments by Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for Evangelisation, must count as one of the rudest things a Vatican prelate has said to Anglicans since the dawn of the ecumenical era.

It can mean only one thing: Rome - and therefore the Pope - has given up on the Anglican Communion.

Umnnhhhh....yah. At some point in time, somebody had to say it; the Lefty Anglicans have walked out into the pond WAY beyond where the stones support them.

I don't usually get into discussions of other religions' difficulties--because the Roman Catholic Church provides plenty of fodder all by itself, and as an RC, that's (kinda) my business.

Here, of course, we have a confluence, where Rome spoke to the Anglicans.

Sorry to have to blog about it, but it cannot be avoided, as Cdl. Dias has signaled.

More "Racism" Slurs

So the word "thug" is now a racist appellation in Milwaukee, eh?

Well, there's a corresponding, but not identical, example from Canada.

Recently, an abortionist named Morgenthaler was awarded the Order of Canada (!!) which caused quite a stir; some prior recipients of the award returned their medals in protest; the Catholic Bishops went ballistic (in their erudite way), and pro-lifers generally are restive.

Following the reaction, a LeftyWonzo Canadian defends the award by playing the race-card.

Many years ago, Montreal Gazette cartoonist Terry Mosher, aka Aislin, published a cartoon that pictured Henry Morgentaler beside a handsome, waspish doctor with an Anglo-Saxon name and posited the question: Do you think if Henry Morgentaler looked like this, there would be this fuss?

We may never know how the debate on abortion might have unfolded if its leading proponent looked like George Clooney. Aislin, also named to the Order in 2003, made his point brilliantly, tacitly alluding to an unfortunate thread of anti-Semitism that also circulates about Morgentaler and his practice.

Of course, there is no "anti-Semitism" involved in the criticism--either of Morgenthaler, or of the twits who made the decision to give a Medal to a bloodthirsty baby-killer.

But apparently, the Left's new meme is to invoke racism no matter the underlying facts.

HT: Ignatius Scoop

Rice Admits Volte-Face on Foreign Policy

First Things notes that Condi Rice admits that the Administration made a change in US foreign policy. It went all Wilsonian (over the serious and repeated objections of folks like PJ Buchanan, for example.)

“We recognize that democratic state building is now an urgent component of our national interest,” writes Rice. “And in the broader Middle East, we recognize that freedom and democracy are the only ideas that can, over time, lead to just and lasting stability, especially in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

As is well known, the Bush doctrine represents a remarkable about-face for an administration that initially swore off “nation-building.” Its repudiation of decades of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East—stability at the cost of freedom—has been no less astonishing

Yah. And the objections voiced in the essay is the best-known of them:

...the document leaves probing questions about America’s democracy agenda unanswered. Can a self-declared Islamic state, for example, support the political doctrines of equality, pluralism, and individual freedom? How can the United States promote democratic reform in societies that have little or no experience with these ideals?

Rice admits that "democratizing" is a challenge.

She admits that democratic development is “never fast or easy” and that “few nations begin the democratic journey with a democratic culture.” Instead, they must create and sustain it over time “through the hard, daily struggle to make good laws, build democratic institutions, tolerate differences, resolve them peacefully, and share power justly.”

OK. It's difficult even where it is established.

Of course, Rice was not exactly.....comprehensive.

What she doesn’t say, what the Bush administration has mostly failed to explain to the American people, is the fearsome difficulty—and the terrible frailty—of this task in states ravaged by despotic governments and religious extremism

"Bad habits are hard to break," like your Mom said, but writ large, I guess.

The essayist then reminds us of certain Machiavellian principles about leadership--that is, that the postulate is not 'whether' a leader should act morally, but 'WHEN' he should. Well....

The nut of the New Policy's dilemma is here:

“Our current course is certainly difficult, but let us not romanticize the old bargains of the Middle East—for they yielded neither justice nor stability.” True enough. But what sacrifices ought to be required from the American people to sustain these partnerships?

A question which has not been asked of Obama, by the way--but which McCain has (more or less) answered with his "100 years" remark.

Jos. Loconte, the essay's author, won't answer the question either. He does think that "Christian Realism" may provide some guidance.

Are we faced, then, with a choice between Machiavellian cynicism and democratic idealism? Perhaps what’s needed is a revival of “Christian realism”—a hopefulness about the influence of American democratic values on the world stage, tempered by a severe realism about the moral ambiguity of human nature and human societies. Christian realism came of age in the 1930s, as American theologians such as Reinhold Niebuhr rejected liberal schemes of appeasement in the face of fascist aggression. “Some of the greatest perils to democracy arise from the fanaticism of moral idealists who are not conscious of the corruption of self-interest in their professed ideals,” warned Niebuhr

Heh. Leaving aside facile snarks about 'Congressmen meeting their morning mirrors', what Niebuhr was endorsing was action to take out one A. Hitler. Not a bad thing, you understand, but are we talking about Perpetual War here? Eastasia?

Damn.

Buddhist? Christian?

G K Chesterton, with the observation abilities of George Carlin.

NO two ideals could be more opposite than a Christian saint in a Gothic cathedral and a Buddhist saint in a Chinese temple. The opposition exists at every point; but perhaps the shortest statement of it is that the Buddhist saint always has his eyes shut, while the Christian saint always has them very wide open.

The Buddhist saint always has a very sleek and harmonious body, but his eyes are heavy and sealed with sleep. The medieval saint's body is wasted to its crazy bones, but his eyes are frightfully alive. There cannot be any real community of spirit between forces that produced symbols so different as that.

Granted that both images are extravagances, are perversions of the pure creed, it must be a real divergence which could produce such opposite extravagances. The Buddhist is looking with peculiar intentness inwards. The Christian is staring with a frantic intentness outwards.

QED

HT: VeniSancte

The Rackets and Thugs: Fannie and Freddie

Paul Gigot hits a grand-slam.

...it illustrates the perverse nature of Fannie and Freddie that has made them such a relentless and untouchable political force. Their unique clout derives from a combination of liberal ideology and private profit. Fannie has been able to purchase political immunity for decades by disguising its vast profit-making machine in the cloak of "affordable housing." To be more precise, Fan and Fred have been protected by an alliance of Capitol Hill and Wall Street, of Barney Frank and Angelo Mozilo.

In fact, Fan/Fred have purchased the loyalty of all the players who count. There is no better prototype for G K Chesterton's "Hudge/Gudge" duo than these crooks.

And there's more. Gigot's editorialists were on to the Fan/Fred scams back in 2003--and paid the price, as did others who asked questions.

...Freddie's accounting fiasco became public in 2003, while Fannie's accounting blew up in 2004. Mr. Raines was forced to resign, and a report by regulator James Lockhart discovered that Fannie had rigged its earnings in a way that allowed it to pay huge bonuses to Mr. Raines and other executives.

Such a debacle after so much denial would have sunk any normal financial company, but once again Fan and Fred could fall back on their political protection. In the wake of Freddie's implosion, Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns of Florida held one hearing on its accounting practices and scheduled more in early 2004.

He was soon told that not only could he hold no more hearings, but House Speaker Dennis Hastert was stripping his subcommittee of jurisdiction over Fan and Fred's accounting and giving it to Mike Oxley's Financial Services Committee. "It was because of all their lobbying work," explains Mr. Stearns today, in epic understatement. Mr. Oxley proceeded to let Barney Frank (D., Mass.), then in the minority, roll all over him and protect the companies from stronger regulatory oversight. Mr. Oxley, who has since retired, was the featured guest at no fewer than 19 Fannie-sponsored fund-raisers.

Hastert, the Land-Deal King of South BumF&^%, Ill. Imagine that!! Not only was he a witless twerp; he was complicit.

And it gets close to home, too:

Or consider the experience of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, one of the GOP's bright young lights who decided in the 1990s that Fan and Fred needed more supervision. As he held town hall meetings in his district, he soon noticed a man in a well-tailored suit hanging out amid the John Deere caps and street clothes. Mr. Ryan was being stalked by a Fannie lobbyist monitoring his every word.

On another occasion, he was invited to a meeting with the Democratic mayor of Racine, which is in his district, though he wasn't sure why. When he arrived, Mr. Ryan discovered that both he and the mayor had been invited separately -- not by each other, but by a Fannie lobbyist who proceeded to tell them about the great things Fannie did for home ownership in Racine.

When none of that deterred Mr. Ryan, Fannie played rougher. It called every mortgage holder in his district, claiming (falsely) that Mr. Ryan wanted to raise the cost of their mortgage and asking if Fannie could tell the congressman to stop on their behalf. He received some 6,000 telegrams. When Mr. Ryan finally left Financial Services for a seat on Ways and Means, which doesn't oversee Fannie, he received a personal note from Mr. Raines congratulating him. "He meant good riddance," says Mr. Ryan

Now Gigot makes it plain, joining Tim Carney (author of The Big Ripoff) in his indictment.

...about half of the implicit taxpayer subsidy for Fan and Fred is pocketed by shareholders and management. According to the Federal Reserve, the half that goes to homeowners adds up to a mere seven basis points on mortgages. In return for this, Fannie was able to pay no fewer than 21 of its executives more than $1 million in 2002, and in 2003 Mr. Raines pocketed more than $20 million. Fannie's left-wing defenders are underwriters of crony capitalism, not affordable housing

It bears repeating, but I will edit Gigot's remark slightly to include such cretins as Hastert:

Fannie's left-wing defenders are underwriters of crony capitalism, not affordable housing.

The abiding lesson here is what happens when you combine private profit with government power. You create political monsters that are protected both by journalists on the left and pseudo-capitalists on Wall Street, by liberal Democrats and country-club Republicans

If you think that this story is significant, it is. And the reason has nothing whatsoever to do with mortages, gross overcompensation, fraudulent accounting, foreclosures, or taxpayer-financing of all of the above.

The reason the story is significant is this:

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are prototypes for what Gummint Health Care will be.

Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it.

HT: FoxPolitics

Understanding the Bank Bailout

Most of us could add that we did not contribute $150K to any Jesse Jackson shakedown dinners.

HT: BigPic

"Kill Deer" or "Stun Bunny"--Your Choice

Neat.

A gun that fires variable speed bullets and which can be set to kill, wound or just inflict a bruise is being built by a US toy manufacturer. The weapon is based on technology used to propel toy rockets.

...The new weapon, called the Variable Velocity Weapon System or VWS, lets the soldier to use the same rifle for crowd control and combat, by altering the muzzle velocity. It could be loaded with "rubber bullets" designed only to deliver blunt impacts on a person, full-speed lethal rounds or projectiles somewhere between the two.

Send a warning or send "good-bye."

HT: Lott

L'Homage a Headless

Stolen from Clay Cramer, posted for the local science guy.


The Thermodynamics Song
(tune: Battle Hymn of the Republic)

Heat content and fugacity revolved within his brain,
Like molecules and atoms that you never have to name,
And logarithmic functions that revolved within his dreams,
And partial molar quantities devouring chocolate creams.

(chorus)

Glory, glory, dear old thermo,
Glory, glory, dear old thermo,
Glory, glory, dear old thermo,
We'll pass you by and by.

They asked him on the final if a mole of any gas,
In a bottle with a membrane through which hydrogen could pass,
Were compressed to half its volume, what its entropy would be,
If two thirds of delta sigma equals half of delta phi.

(chorus)

He said he guessed the entropy would have to equal four,
Unless the second law might bring it up a couple more,
It might be almost seven if the Carnot law applied,
And it maybe might be zero if the delta T should slide.

(chorus)

The professor read the paper with a corrugated brow,
For he knew he had to grade it but he didn't quite know how,
And then an inspiration from his cerebellum smote,
And he grabbed his trusty fountain pen and this is what he wrote.

(chorus)

As you have guessed the entropy, so I must guess your grade,
Though the second law won't raise it to the mark you might have made,
It might have been a hundred if your guesses had been good,
But I think it must be zero 'till they're rightly understood.

(final chorus)

Glory, glory, dear old thermo,
Glory, glory, dear old thermo,
Glory, glory, dear old thermo,
We'll try again next year.

Reminds me of another Engine-house (DeltaDeltaDelta) ditty which cannot be posted here.

The Guilt of the Anti-Gun Newspapermen

Wonder why the NYTimes is so anti-gun?

It's a guilt complex.

I've read that the New York Times ordered up some Gatling guns to protect the newspaper during the New York City Draft Riots, during the Civil War, when enraged antiwar protesters upset about the draft murdered hundreds (some say, thousands) of blacks, burning down black orphanages with the children inside. A few years back, an acquaintance who invited me to speak at Columbia University told me that he had actually seen a photograph of a Gatling gun on the roof of the New York Times building. I was a bit skeptical, but I now have considerable evidence that the Gatling gun was on the roof only because the strafing run hadn't yet been invented.

All the following sources agree that the New York Times had Gatling guns set up to deal with rioters; using the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms to protect the First Amendment right of a free (non-smoldering) press. ...

(Clay Cramer)

Them's some powerful weapons...

The Afghan "Surge"

A month or so ago, we attended a wedding and during the reception spoke with two active-duty military types.

They both remarked that 'the buildup was on' in Afghanistan at that time.

It's likely, then, that the Afghan troop-buildup had been going on for about 90-120 days, meaning that it was planned 180 days ago or so.

We learned in the last few days that The O-and-Savior, while campaigning in Iraq, thinks that an Afghan buildup should be executed.

Well, good, Obama. I'm sure that's noted someplace.

More on "We're Taking Him Out" Silliness from GWB

The OTHER McCain notes that John McCain has little use for GWB's silly attitude, and supplies history.

The possibility of defeat is among the reasons why war should be avoided if possible. I am reminded of Nicias, the Athenian general who argued against undertaking the fateful Sicilian expedition in the Pelopponesian War but who, once the decision was made to undertake the expedition, insisted that it be made with all available force. Athens could afford the expedition, but could not afford defeat.

John McCain has indicated his disdain of Bush's jocular "f--- Saddam, we're taking him out" attitude -- an attitude he says the president manifested a year before the invasion. But McCain has steadfastly insisted that, if we were going to fight in Iraq, we make the fight full-strength. Fight to win, or don't fight at all.

Bush's decision was made long, long before the Administration began its propaganda campaign; but Rummy's "Lean-War" stupidity damn near made Iraq into another Vietnam.

At least it can be said that Bush owned up and fixed the problem with the surge.

AmEx Warns

You can take your signals from the Administration, or you can take your signals from actual in-the-trenches businesses.

Like M&I Bank, American Express is conservative in its lending practices. And like M&I, it's taking hits and sending signals.

“The severe decline in home prices and the marked rise in oil prices have had a fundamental impact on consumer budgets and behavior. Not just as it relates to mortgages and home-related spending, but also across the full spectrum of the consumer economy

...as I showed you on the slide package, we saw our credit deteriorate in June beyond our expectations as the write-off rates rose and roll rates within the portfolio deteriorated versus prior months

...we now believe the economic weakness in the US will likely worsen throughout the remainder of the year and negatively impact credit and business trend ... we now expect that our lending write-off rate in the third and fourth quarter will be higher than June levels.”

So far, not particularly exceptionable, except that AmEx is adjusting their earnings projections mid-year.

But this statement is a bit jarring:

"... this fallout was evident across all consumer segments, even our longer-term super prime card members.”

Keep your head down, folks.

HT: Calculated Risk

Killing Choice by a Thousand Cuts

Owen picked this up last night.

WEAC supports legislation to hold private and religious voucher schools to the same standards as public schools, including:

Minimum hours of instruction; background checks on teachers.

Those two items are not particularly controversial.

The rest of their demands are simply contentious or polemical, and designed to increase the costs of Choice education or impugn Choice schools without evidence of harm. (Surprise!!!)

Licensure of all instructional staff; grade advancement, high school graduation, attendance and parental involvement requirements and standards; administration of required state standardized tests and testing required under the so-called “No Child Left Behind” law, including public reporting requirements; prohibition of forced religious activity; nondiscrimination standards; enforcement by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) of rules and regulations;
certified reading specialists and reading programs.

Requiring "licensing" of faculty is no different than the big-business tactic of demanding "regulation" of business. It's designed to push out the small guys, generally by requiring cost additions. Good principals know who good teachers are; they hire them. They also fire bad ones, regularly. Imparting knowledge does not require magic, and it certainly does not require "School of Education" pixie-dust.

"Parental involvement" standards? Really! What might THEY be?

"Standardized testing" is another cost-imposition. You want tests? How about acceptance into high-schools, or colleges? Those are tests which actually measure achievement.

What's a "forced" religious activity? What are "non-discrimination" standards? These bullets are pure polemic; one is supposed to infer that the Little Darlings are being brainwashed, or that there is active 'discrimination.' If WEAC thinks that is the case, they should cite verifiable instances.

"Certified reading....." is another cost-addition which, by the way, hasn't exactly pushed MPS' scores to the top of any achievement lists. Why force it on schools which are successful?

The Choice program was created to provide education which is NOT defined by WEAC and State bureaucrats (I know that's redundant.) Allowing WEAC to define the playing field contradicts the purpose.

It's not 'the children' WEAC cares about. Never forget that.

Editing for Obama

Who's in the tank for The O-and-Savior?

Here's the JSOnline headline:

Guard veterans back Obama over McCain

It takes about 45 seconds to read the story and realize that the accurate headline would be:

TWO Guard veterans back Obama over McCain.

Obviously it's a slow news day for Steve Walters, who couldn't find this story even though Owen Robinson had it last night. I mean, when the state teacher's union is attempting to kill off the Choice program, it sounds like news to me. But not to Walters, nor to his editors.

Wonder why circulation continues to drop like a rock?

Aborting Planned Parenthood in South Dakota

Maybe there were 'technical problems.' But the abortuary was closed.

A state law that requires abortionists to inform women – before an abortion – that the procedure "will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being" apparently has done what no other pro-life protest has been able to accomplish – the closure of Planned Parenthood's abortion facility.


...pro-life protesters gathered from several different organizations at the Sioux Falls Planned Parenthood business, as did several women who apparently had appointments.

However, a spokesman for the protest groups said no abortionists arrived and the women left after being counseled by the pro-lifer sidewalk counselors.

"I think Planned Parenthood cannot figure out a way not to comply with the law,"


South Dakota's legislation is specific.


The new law requires abortionists to explain to women that:

The abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being;

The pregnant woman has an existing relationship with that unborn human being and that the relationship enjoys protection under the United States Constitution and under the laws of South Dakota;

That by having an abortion, her existing relationship and her existing constitutional rights with regards to that relationship will be terminated;

A description of all known medical risks of the procedure including depression and related psychological stress and increased risk of suicide


Previously, pro-lifers lost a battle over a state law which would have banned abortions outright. This legislation, upheld by the 8th Circuit, is the pro-life response to that defeat.


Some Leggie ought to start the ball rolling in Wisconsin.

Punch a Perv Who Feels Up Your Kid, Go to Jail

Massachusetts is beginning to look like England. And that's not good.

Police said the suspect, an elderly janitor at Market Basket, allegedly reached under a bathroom stall partition and touched the boy’s calf while the child was standing on a bucket June 1.

The boy’s enraged father, who police said saw it happen, allegedly flung open the adjacent stall and punched the janitor, giving him a cut on his lip and a welt on the middle of his head

The employee, Valerio Rodriguez, 71, of Providence, allegedly told police through a translator “that he was wrong for touching the little boy.”

...Rodriguez was charged with indecent assault June 1, but he was not arrested. He was suspended from his job on July 6 and is scheduled to be arraigned in court on July 29. Police also charged Beatrice with assault for hitting Rodriguez, saying “they sympathized with him but would have preferred he had waited for police to arrive.” His arraignment is July 31.

If there were ever a case for jury nullification, this is it.

But for unmitigated stone-headed stupidity, the town's police chief Pacheco takes the cake. Recall that the pervert was NOT arrested when the incident occurred.

“It is unfortunate that there appears to be some type of public assumption that the police stopped a father from protecting his son and let a child molester go, that is absolutely not true,” Pacheco wrote in a prepared statement.

And while the father claims the incident was an outright sexual assault, there was an arguable dispute on the facts as the elderly man who could only speak through an interpreter, said he was “just joking around,” he said. He said his officers used their discretion not to arrest the man right away because the reason for an arrest is to protect the public by stopping the crime or similar ones from continuing and to ensure the parties will appear in court.

Hey--dipwad--the old pervert ADMITTED that he felt up the kid. "Joking" or otherwise, the father had a prima facie cause to smack the perv into the next county.

HT: Malkin

Obama's Mouth---Again

The guy just cannot help himself.

Here he 'splains why he's going around the world.

"(T)he objective of this trip was to have substantive discussions with people like President Karzai or Prime Minister Maliki or President Sarkozy or others who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to 10 years.

And it's important for me to have a relationship with them early, that I start listening to them now, getting a sense of what their interests and concerns are."

Let's forget about the grammar ("with" gets the objective case "whom.")

Let's concentrate on the 22nd Amendment, or just adding 4+4.

Of course, with his Civilian Security Force in place, maybe it WILL be 10 years--und you vill LIKE it!!

HT: Ace

It Ain't CO2, Folks

Now that the EPA is gearing up to eradicate warm-blooded breathers and the entire carbon-based sector of the world's economy (which I remind you is ALL of the economy,) we learn that they are chasing the wrong tail.

Sorta like the Pentagon's habit of 'fighting the last war.'

...since 1999 new evidence has seriously weakened the case that carbon emissions are the main cause of global warming, and by 2007 the evidence was pretty conclusive that carbon played only a minor role and was not the main cause of the recent global warming. As Lord Keynes famously said, "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"

1. The greenhouse signature is missing

2. There is no evidence to support the idea that carbon emissions cause significant global warming. None.

3. The satellites that measure the world's temperature all say that the warming trend ended in 2001, and that the temperature has dropped about 0.6C in the past year (to the temperature of 1980).

4. The new ice cores show that in the past six global warmings over the past half a million years, the temperature rises occurred on average 800 years before the accompanying rise in atmospheric carbon

That's from a guy who was a "greenhouse-chaser." a Ph.D consultant in Australia.

HT: Prosqutor

Nixon's Dirtiest Trick

Most people know that Dick Nixon was unprincipled. This post will demonstrate how a lack of principles can grow into a very dangerous cancer, indeed.

The WSJ sounds the alarm about Nixon's dirtiest trick: creating the Environmental Protection Agency, which he did as a sop to the Hard Left occupying Congress and the MSM. The Hard Left is still with us, in the same places, although it has metastacized into other places, including the UN and scientific-"research" contractors.

Following a SCOTUS decision that allowed EPA to treat your exhalation (CO2) as a "pollutant," the EPA loosed its Joker-esque proposals.

Justice Antonin Scalia noted in his dissent that under the Court's "pollutant" standard "everything airborne, from Frisbees to flatulence, qualifies," which the EPA appears to have taken literally. It is alarmed by "enteric fermentation in domestic livestock" -- that is, er, their "emissions." A farm with over 25 cows would exceed the EPA's proposed carbon limits. So would 500 acres of crops, due to harvesting and processing machinery.

The EPA would regulate "farm tractors" too, plus "lawn and garden equipment." For example, it "could require a different unit of measure [for carbon emissions] tied to the machine's mission or output -- such as grams per kilogram of cuttings from a 'standard' lawn for lawnmowers."

The EPA didn't neglect planes and trains either, down to rules for how aircraft can taxi on the runway. Guidelines are proposed for boat design such as hulls and propellers. "Innovative strategies for reducing hull friction include coatings with textures similar to marine animals," the authors chirp

New or modified buildings that went over the emissions limits would have to obtain EPA permits. This would cover power plants, manufacturers, etc. But it would also include "large office and residential buildings, hotels, large retail establishments and similar facilities" -- like schools and hospitals.

You want the short version? Here it is:

"We expect that the entire country would be in nonattainment."

And, of course, Congress will evade responsibility for the costs.

The EPA thinks it can levy a carbon tax too, as long as it's called a "fee." In other words, the EPA wants to impose via regulatory ukase what Congress hasn't been able to enact via democratic debate.

That's why the global warmists have so much invested in the EPA's final ruling, which will come in the next Administration. Any climate tax involves arguments about costs and benefits; voting to raise energy prices is not conducive to re-election. But if liberals can outsource their policies to the EPA, they can take credit while avoiding any accountability for the huge economic costs they impose

This 588-page document is, without a doubt, the single most aggressive proposal for regulation of human activity ever proposed in the USA. It is comparable to any "Five Year Plan" of Chairman Mao in its scope.

And it is inspired by precisely the same fallacy: that humans are secondary to some other entity. With Mao, it was The State.

With EPA, it is The Ecology.

HT: Moonbattery

Obama's "Civilian Security Force" Explained (?)

The fact remains that when The O-and-Savior is off-script, he blunders--sometimes seriously.

But not to fear. Folkbum 'splains it all for you, quoting The O himself.

...we still have a national security apparatus on the civilian side in the way the State Department is structured and [Agency for International Development] and all these various agencies. That hearkens back to the Cold War. And we need that wing of our national security apparatus to carry its weight.

Sure. That's the ticket!!

The "Civilian Security Forces" are actually State, AID, and possibly the Peace Corps.

Perhaps a few of you out there have better or longer memories than I do--but I cannot recall, EVER, using the term "security force" as a descriptor of State or AID.

EVER.

There's a reason for that, too. Diplomats and social workers usually don't carry arms.

Nice try, Jay. Like I said in your combox, I'm perfectly happy to grant you that The O-and-Savior is a complete moron when he's off-script.

But go ahead and vote him into the Presidency. Maybe then he will actually say what he means.

Another Voice Talent Gone: Jo Stafford

Some of you will be old enough to remember Jo Stafford.

If you're not, then you should listen to this, her best-seller, which was a song sung to soldiers serving overseas.

Absolutely brilliant singing. Every well-known rule of vocal singing is followed to a "T", especially the rule that 'text rules.' And she's so good that you don't notice she's following the rules.

Instead, she OWNS the rules.

Just like Fitzgerald, and Sinatra, and a very few others.

HT: Powerline

Stupid We Aren't...

The New York Times, quoted by Clay Cramer:

Limbaugh’s audience is often underestimated by critics who don’t listen to the show (only 3 percent of his audience identify themselves as “liberal,” according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People and the Press). Recently, Pew reported that, on a series of “news knowledge questions,” Limbaugh’s “Dittoheads” — the defiantly self-mocking term for his faithful, supposedly brainwashed, audience — scored higher than NPR listeners. The study found that “readers of newsmagazines, political magazines and business magazines, listeners of Rush Limbaugh and NPR and viewers of the Daily Show and C-SPAN are also much more likely than the average person to have a college degree.”

No surprise, if you listen to NPR (as I do, occasionally.) Their news segments are wordy (thus, boring) and because of the wordiness, limited in scope.

Rebel Priest to Address Rebel "Catholics"

What a treat.

Marek Bozek, native of Poland, will be in Brookfield to spread a bit of poison--claiming, of course, that he is impelled to do so by 'speaking truth to power'.

Where have we heard that before??

Bozek, 33, the pastor of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, will reflect on that in a talk titled “The Odyssey of Joseph the Dreamer: A Reflection on Those Who Care to Dream” at a Voice of the Faithful reform group meeting open to the public at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Calvary Lutheran Church, 1750 N. Calhoun Road, Brookfield.

Co-incidentally, that church is very close to St John Vianney Catholic church, which had scheduled, then UN-scheduled, a talk endorsing "gay marriage" by a Milwaukee priest, Fr B Massingale.

Bozek is excommunicated, and Benedict XVI is now considering laicizing him--that is, he could be reduced to layman status.

Fortunately for the Church in St. Louis, Abp. Burke ex-communicated the guy and his congregation--and that action was confirmed by the Vatican, to no one's surprise.

At any rate, he'll deliver the usual "rusty cutting-edge of the 1960's" song and dance.

The reflection is directed to the people who have been disappointed with the direction of the Roman Catholic Church today, especially to the people who remember the zeal and the joy of the Vatican II council... The question was, should I follow my conscience or should I be obedient to the authority who demands of me something contrary to my conscience, contrary to all the reasons why I became a priest... When people reject many parts of Catholic discipline — like contraception, or the issue of divorce, or of married priests, or of women priests, or of gay or lesbian couples — more Catholics become underground Catholics. They do not recognize the regime, but they still identify themselves as Catholics

Oh, yah. Vatican II was supposed to ...what? Make artificial contraception, serial marriage, poncho-ladies, and gay "marriage" licit? Damn. I can't find one single word in the documents which says that.

Given what we know about "Voice of the Faithful," it's no surprise that they invited Bozek.

From Deal Hudson, in Crisis magazine:

Voice of the Faithful is simply another group of dissenters, plain and simple. It parades under the false guise of being centrist, apolitical, and faithful to the Magisterium. Even readers of CRISIS have been drawn to its message. And why not? It seems harmless enough on the surface, and a lot of well-intentioned people are joining up. But make no mistake; VOTF is a wolf in sheep's clothing. And it's using this tragedy in our Church to advance its own political and theological agenda

...many of those associated with its leadership are involved with other dissenting groups, like Call to Action (www.cta-usa.org), CORPUS, and We Are the Church (http://www.we-are-church.org/).

...Nowhere are problems with VOTF clearer than in its document on change, titled "Discerning the Spirit: A Guide for Renewing and Restructuring the Catholic Church." The guide refers to our Church's "clerical culture" that is noted for its "power and secrecy...isolation from the laity...ignorance of the human body and sex, a mindset that degrades women and marriage, [and] a spiritually distorted, psychologically troubled view of celibacy." Here, the argument quickly devolves from a real problem seen in the current scandal -- clericalism -- to a misinterpretation of Church teaching on women, marriage, and celibacy. These are then lumped together so that if a person accepts the first claim, he must automatically accept the second. A typical bait-and-switch technique

And they harp about Vatican II, choosing VERY carefully which parts of the documents they will cite.

The [Voice of the Faithful] guide also relies heavily on the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium to support VOTF's push for a more "democratic" Catholic Church. It quotes the following passage in support of greater lay governance in the Church: "Thus every layman, by virtue of the very gifts bestowed upon him, is at the same time a witness and a living instrument of the mission of the Church herself" (LG §33). However, lay involvement is quite a different thing from the kind of "democratic" Church that VOTF so desperately wants. The establishment of a democratic Church was not the intent of Vatican II, as a later passage in Lumen Gentium explains: "The laity should promptly accept in Christian obedience what is decided by the pastors who, as teachers and rulers of the Church, represent Christ" (LG §37).

Hudson sums it up:

There have always been dissenting groups in the Church, and VOTF isn't saying anything new. The real problem is its patent dishonesty: It claims to be faithful to the Magisterium while rejecting the teachings of the Catholic Church. Claiming that it's "faithful" doesn't make it so. Nor can Voice of the Faithful be considered in any way the voice of the one true Church

Yah, well. No surprise that the meeting will be held in a Lutheran facility.

G K Chesterton on Common Sense

GKC's line saying that 'when a man stops believing in God he doesn't believe in nothing, he believes in anything' is actually NOT from GKC.

Insight Scoop reminds us that the line is actually: "The first effect of not believing in God, is that you lose your common sense." (This brings to mind AlGore's request to 'eliminate carbon-fueled energy sources in the next 50 years', but never mind...)

Expanding on that a bit, we have more GKC:

In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox.

There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."

This paradox rests on the most elementary common sense. The gate or fence did not grow there. It was not set up by somnambulists who built it in their sleep. It is highly improbable that it was put there by escaped lunatics who were for some reason loose in the street. Some person had some reason for thinking it would be a good thing for somebody. And until we know what the reason was, we really cannot judge whether the reason was reasonable.

It is extremely probable that we have overlooked some whole aspect of the question, if something set up by human beings like ourselves seems to be entirely meaningless and mysterious. There are reformers who get over this difficulty by assuming that all their fathers were fools; but if that be so, we can only say that folly appears to be a hereditary disease.

But the truth is that nobody has any business to destroy a social institution until he has really seen it as an historical institution. If he knows how it arose, and what purposes it was supposed to serve, he may really be able to say that they were bad purposes, or that they have since become bad purposes, or that they are purposes which are no longer served. But if he simply stares at the thing as a senseless monstrosity that has somehow sprung up in his path, it is he and not the traditionalist who is suffering from an illusion.

Worth knowing and understanding.

The Iraq Invasion: Decided in March, 2002

Interesting, and not yet denied.

Bush unexpectedly stuck his head in the door. "Are you all talking about Iraq?" the President asked, his voice tinged with schoolyard bravado. Before McCain and the others in the room could do more than nod, Bush waved his hand dismissively.

"F--- Saddam," he said. "We're taking him out." And then he left

(The Other McCain quotes Time magazine, which described a meeting between Condi Rice, John McCain, and another Senator, taking place in March, 2002.)

Leave aside the girly-talk descriptive phrase about GWB's "voice," which is de rigeur for most of the MSM hacks.

Which, if true, means that the "case" for taking out SH was made after the decision was made...

Which would explain the palpable thin-ness of the "case", and why the "case" morphed through about 3 different iterations.

The disappointment grows, except for the NeoCon warmongers. It will be fun to watch Bill Kristol spin this one, won't it?

The 14th Will Cover the 2nd

The good news, folks, is that Wisconsin's ban on CCW will certainly end.

Those of you who live in California, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, and a few other places where there is no right to keep and bear arms--good news. I'm doing research in support of the lawsuits against Chicago and San Francisco to get the Second Amendment applied to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment's "privileges and immunities" clause. Right now, I'm digging through newspapers and books of the 1830-1870 period--and the volume of stuff that explicitly recognizes that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms is just staggering.

What's even more entertaining is the astonishing diversity of those saying this. Democrats (although they aren't quite prepared to include black people, for obvious reasons--just like today!) Republican National Platforms. Abolitionists are saying it. Apologists for the slave holders are saying it. Black newspapers are saying it. White newspapers are saying it.

The fun is just beginning. Remember that when the Chicago suit gets to the 5th Circuit, that decision will be binding on Wisconsin. It may cost a few more bucks to enforce the decision here, but...

HT: Clay Cramer

Plotting "Regional Authorities," Chapter 39

The push toward "regional transportation authorities" is far from dead. The action moved out of SE Wisconsin (temporarily), but ....

Fair warning, folks.

A new legislative study committee with members from Rock County soon will begin looking at a way to unite local governments to create transportation options.

Sen. Judy Robson, D-Beloit, is the committee’s vice chairwoman...

Robson, (here also known as Nurse Rached) is a 100%-certified Lefty who was heavily involved in the push to create a state health insurance takeover. In addition, she is 100% behind anything that Planned Parenthood wants.

The committee is supposed to consider:
-- How a regional transportation authority would be created.
-- What kinds of funding mechanisms would be allowed.
-- How representation would be determined.
-- The types of transportation services a regional transportation authority could be authorized to administer.

Yes, taxing authority is one of the possibilities for the regional transortation authorities, Dicks said

"Possibility" my.....ahhhh.....foot. This will be another MMSD, or MATC scam, where un-elected folks simply take what they want from the taxpayer.

You've been warned.

Feel Less Burdened Today?

If it seems that your steps are a bit more springy today, there's a reason.

July 16 was Cost of Government Day – that day of the year when average Americans finish paying off their share of federal, state, and local taxes and the cost of complying with regulations.

“Finally, starting today, you are working for yourself and no longer for Uncle Sam,” said Brian Riedl, senior policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

This year, Cost of Government Day occurred four days later than last year because of increasing tax burdens, but also higher regulatory costs, according to Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), which released its annual Cost of Government Day report at a Washington news conference on Wednesday.

You can be confident that, in Wisconsin, the date is later than July 16th--but take heart! The time is near!!

On the other hand, if nothing changes, things will get worse:

“Not surprisingly, Cost of Government Day continues to move away from Independence Day and closer to Halloween.”

Yah, well, if it gets that far, there may be a bunch of warlocks and witches found in ditches--all "accidentally" killed, of course.

Sullivan (D-Tosa): 65 "Sick" Hours/Year Is Too Much?

Seems that a Democrat leggie thinks 65 sick-hours/year is too much.

State employees on average use 65 hours - or a week and a half - of sick leave each year. Lawmakers said they believe that is higher than the private sector and want to see a further analysis of the issue.

"I don't think I've used 65 hours of sick time in my entire working career," said Sen. Jim Sullivan (D-Wauwatosa). "If I'm running a business or state agency and someone were to call in sick and they weren't, then they're lying to the boss. They should be disciplined."

Apparently Sullivan is not keeping up with Lefty demands--and he will soon either backtrack or otherwise put his thoughts into a memory hole.

In case you need a reminder:

The coalition of just over 40 groups wants Common Council to pass legislation that would require the city’s employers to offer employees an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.

Which just happens to work out to ~65 "sick" hours/year.

Sullivan just tossed a grenade into the legislative agenda of 9-to-5, folks. He won't get away with it.

I'll Need Bail Money

Racine will make my wife into a jailbird.

The [Racine] ordinance also has mandates about signs advertising rummage sales. Residents are only allowed to put up two signs per sale, and the signs must be removed by 8 a.m. the day after the sale is complete.In addition, the signs can be placed on the resident’s property or neighbor’s property with permission, but may not be placed on public property, according to the ordinance. That includes light poles, directional signs and street medians.

TWO SIGNS??

You're crazy.

HT: Kevin

T Boone Pickens: "Make Me Richer!!"

Having purchased about a zillion dollars worth of airtime for commercials, T Boone Pickens' face and voice are becoming familiar.

But that down-home Texas-good-ol'-boy act shouldn't fool you.

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens has flooded the airwaves with irritating ads, repeating the mindless Democrat talking point that "we can't drill our way out" of our energy problems and calling on the government to spend massive amounts of money literally tilting at windmills, as if it were even remotely possible that they could replace fossil fuels

There are two problems with windmills. First, there is (currently) no way to move the electricity from West Texas to either coast--or for that matter, to damn near anyplace else. THAT'S why he's pressuring you to pressure D.C. to put up the transmission lines.

Second problem: wind-power, by its nature, is fickle. Conventional power is NOT fickle. And since the country expects and uses 24x7 power at ~120 volts, "fickle" is not acceptable. The obvious: store the power in batteries and release it when needed.

Not so easy. See, there are no, zero, zip, nada, batteries nearly equal to the task. Not even close.

Back to the Good Ol' Boy:

Billionaire Pickens' pocketbook could benefit from a sizable public investment in a nationwide transmission network he proposes for wind power. His Mesa Power has invested $2 billion in a wind farm in the Texas panhandle northeast of Amarillo. The record purchase of 685 turbines from General Electric Co. produces enough electricity to power 300,000 U.S. homes. Pickens has plans to spend $10 billion by 2011 on capacity roughly equal to four modern nuclear plants.

The electricity will make its way to Dallas or San Antonio along the route of another project, a water pipeline. Pickens' Mesa Water owns the right to draw 65 billion gallons a year from beneath Texas scrubland and move it, alongside his wind-produced power, some 250 miles toward north-central Texas.

And Pickens' argument that wind should replace natural gas as a source of 22 percent of the nation's electricity dovetails with his Clean Fuel Technologies, the largest operator of natural gas fueling stations for vehicles.

Another thing that Pickens doesn't mention: the tax credits he harvests with his "wind-power" scheme...

And you thought the only tax gimmicks were for Big Oil!!

HT: Moonbattery

Will the Daley Machine Rehabilitate Tom Barrett?

Maybe Tom Barrett will look a helluvalot better than the Daley Machine.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Wednesday raised the possibility of bringing in state troopers or even the Illinois National Guard to help Chicago combat a recent increase in violent crime — an offer that Mayor Richard Daley didn’t know was coming.

Appearing at signing ceremony for a bill that toughens the penalty for adults who provide guns to minors, Blagojevich said “violent crime in the city of Chicago is out of control.”

“I’m offering resources of the state to the city to work in a constructive way with Mayor Daley to do everything we can possibly do to help … stop this violence,” said the governor…

…The governor’s comments come at a time when violent crime has spiked in Chicago. This spring, for example, nine people were killed in 36 shootings during a weekend and Chicago Public Schools officials say more than two dozen students have been killed by gunfire since last September.

Daley canned the old Police Chief over some internal-affairs scandals, and brought in an ex-FBI desk jockey to replace him--a move which has been criticized by at least one prominent Chicago-area conservative.

It's entirely possible that Barrett's hire of Ed Flynn will prove to be far better.

Grim Cuts to the Chase

Grim, the sanguine Southern Democrat, makes this simple. Even bureaucrats can understand what he's saying here.

The view of diplomacy that has come to dominate the West is one of quasi-law: the point of negotiations is to create regulations and bodies to enforce those regulations. That mindset has an honorable history, and attempts to mitigate the worst tragedies in human history; but it also creates new problems.

For one thing, it should be obvious at this point that the international "enforcement" mechanisms are broken -- or, rather, that they were always illusions. The legalist model tries to treat relations between states as we treat relations between people within a state, but that concept cannot work. There is no similar way to punish a state, as our systems of law punish individuals.

...The traditional "enforcement mechanism" in international relations was war. This is not because our ancestors were barbarians, but because it is the only system that works. Engagement and diplomacy are good things, but they must always be braided together with the threat of war if agreements are not kept

It would be un-nuanced to reduce his essay to "too many lawyers, not enough cops," but it would not be a gross reductionism.

M&I in Tombstone...

Arizona is not healthy for M&I Bank. Taken from the conference call notes:

...As of quarter end we had had $661 million in construction and development loans on nonperforming status representing 63% of our total nonperforming loans. ... [O]f these nonperforming construction and development loans, two-thirds are in the Arizona , west coast of Florida , and correspondent businesses.

...M&I has $2.3 billion in residential land loans to individuals and developers. $1.5 billion, or 66%, are located in Arizona . The bulk of the Arizona loans, nearly 70%, are in Maricopa County . ... LTVs are approximately 115%. Residential land accounts for $219 million of nonperforming loans of which 55% are based in our Arizona business unit.

On the individual mortgages, it is NOT "sub-prime" problems:

...we maintained our underwriting discipline through the cycle, have never originated subprime loans, and have avoided many of the more risky loan products. Nonetheless, during the quarter, our nonperforming residential loans have increased to $21 million, or 2.1% of the portfolio. Within the residential portfolio, we have seen some deterioration in many of our markets with the Arizona market being most notable.

What the hell. Arizona doesn't have much water, either. Close up the bank, operate the trust company only down there.

HT: Calculated Risk

Planned Parenthood Wants Status of "Religion"

Seems as though Planned Barrenhood saw the handwriting on the wall. And in this case, that phrase is particularly apropos. Mene, mene, tekel upharsin.....

...proposed regulations by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) would make sure federal money would not go to "support morally coercive or discriminatory practices or policies in violation of federal law."

The new rules would require hospitals, clinics, researchers, medical schools, and even state and local governments who receive funding under federal health care programs to guarantee they will not discriminate against hiring doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals who have moral objections to abortion and abortifacient birth control

("Abortifacient birth control" is also called "Plan B," an item with which Abp. Dolan is quite familiar. Wisconsin law requires ALL hospitals, doctors, and nurses to administer "Plan B" in cases of rape.)

Back to the story. PP, with $300++ million in taxpayer funding at stake, went nuts.

Planned Parenthood has launched a frenzied campaign to quash the regulations, claiming that as a recipient of federal tax dollars - $336.7 million from government grants and contracts - they would be required not to discriminate against pro-life nurses who apply for a job.

"The rule would also require entities that receive family planning funding, like Planned Parenthood, to certify that we will not refuse to hire nurses and other providers who object to abortion and even certain types of birth control," the abortion provider states on its website.

In effect, Planned Parenthood would like to claim a First Amendment "religious" exception to the rule. That is to say, the Worshippers of Moloch (Molochites? Molochians?) would prefer not to hire pro-lifers.

Even worse, to the Molochites:

One nightmare scenario for PP is that "crisis pregnancy centers" run by "anti-choice zealots" will "receive a massive influx of our tax dollars to expand their deceptive operations and to attract hundreds of thousands of women who think they'll be getting medical care but instead will receive a large dose of anti-choice ideology."

By the way, the regulation proposal contains language which points to Wisconsin's recent legislation.

A copy of the memo obtained by Reuters indicates the HSS is worried about state laws mandating that health care providers violate their consciences on abortion or lose their jobs or grant money.

"Despite the fact that several conscience statutes protecting health care entities from discrimination have been in existence for decades, recent events suggest the public and people in the health care industry are largely uninformed of the protections," states the draft

Connecticut was named. They could have added Wisconsin.

Deep Inside Baseball: Fannie and Freddie

Novak names the names and asks a good question.

...there were Bush officials who urged drastic reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But, according to internal government sources, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson objected because it would look “too political.”

[Paulson] structured the bailout and was on the phone last weekend encouraging leading investment bankers to buy Freddie Mac bonds. Financial consultant Lawrence Lindsey, President George W. Bush’s former national economic director, told clients Sunday, “Surely things are somewhat amiss when a country’s finance minister plays bond salesman for a supposedly privately owned company.”

But hey!! Goldman, Sachs appreciated Paulson's efforts.

...Baker, Hagel and Sen. Richard Shelby, ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, were rare members of committees with jurisdiction who took the issue seriously. The powerhouse Democratic overseers of the banking committees -- Rep. Barney Frank, Sen. Christopher Dodd and Sen. Chuck Schumer -- protected Fannie and Freddie.

Paulson certainly knows who his friends are:

Tuesday’s hearing was more than an hour old when Hagel became the first senator to ask whether the well-paid officials and directors of the mortgage companies should be held accountable for the crisis. “I’m not looking for scapegoats,” Paulson replied.

Right-O, Henry. That "resignation" stuff is only for suckas.

After all, this is only about $300 billion or so in potential taxpayer liabilites.

Disappearing Obama "Domestic Security" Speech

It is officially "disappeared"--the most curious paragraph from an O-and-Savior speech of July 2 in Colorado Springs.

Here are the paragraphs leading to the "disappeared" text:

We'll send more college graduates to teach and mentor our young people. We'll call on Americans to join an Energy Corps to conduct renewable energy and environmental cleanup projects in their neighborhoods. We'll enlist veterans to help other vets find jobs and support, and to be there for our military families. And we'll also grow our Foreign Service, open consulates that have been shuttered, and double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011 to renew our diplomacy.

And we'll use technology to connect people to service. We'll expand USA Freedom Corps to create an online network where Americans can browse opportunities to volunteer. You'll be able to search by category, time commitment, and skill sets; you'll be able to rate service opportunities, build service networks, and create your own service pages to track your hours and activities. This will empower more Americans to craft their own service agenda, and make their own change from the bottom up

So far, standard Democrat 'make-work' stuff. Echoes of Clinton's "AmeriCorps".

But then Obama went on with this curious paragraph:

"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

A "civilian" "national-security force"? As powerful as the military? As well-funded?

Fred caught that, and a most interesting discussion followed. Obama's words could be interpreted benignly--as a stupid off-script remark. OR they could be interpreted in a far different way, as a call to establish an American Stasi.

In the combox, the Reliable Lefty Folkbum managed to make it worse:

"...the Peace Corps actually has a lot to do with national security. The Corps members do not just go out and build aquifers and whatnot. They are goodwill ambassadors...The same for domestic service: The stronger, healthier, smarter, more energy independent we are, the better we will be able to face the as-yet unseen challenges of the next century..."

So Folkbum would have this "domestic security force" be concerned with 'health,' 'schooling,' and 'energy use.' Another way to put it is that the "security force" will enforce the ObamaState's requirements for 'healthy living,' 'energy allocations,' and 'proper education.'

To be sure, Folkbum immediately invoked Godwin when Stasi was mentioned, demonstrating that Folkbum, a teacher, can toss anachronisms as fast as anyone...

Curious omission, no?

Prophesy for Me---

You remember those words from one of the Passions...

The Catholic Church did a little of that prophesying. One specific instance, paraphrased here:

...a general lowering of moral standards throughout society; a rise in infidelity; a lessening of respect for women by men; and the coercive use of reproductive technologies by governments

...in Humanae Vitae, the encyclical which re-affirmed the Church's stance against artificial contraception.

That was in 1968.

Well, folks, that worked out exactly as advertised--four for four.

THAT batting average should tell you something.

G K Chesteron on Women and Men

Two GKC quotes today!! The one immediately following this post is from Chesterton & Friends.

This one is from VeniSancte:

IT is true that all sensible women think all studious men mad. It is true, for the matter of that, all women of any kind think all men of any kind mad. But they do not put it in telegrams any more than they wire to you that grass is green or God all-merciful. These things are truisms and often private ones at that.

--Club of Queer Trades

G K Chesterton on New Ideas

Short, pithy, useful.

“Nine out of ten of what we call new ideas are simply old mistakes."

Doyle: Idiotic Comments, Again

Not only did Jimbo respond to the massive flood-fraud story with a "....S&^% happens" shrug, he repeats simpleton idiocies about petroleum prices.

I don't know if he actually believes this crap, or whether he thinks that if he says it often enough, OTHERS will believe it.

Either way, he should resign for massive ethical failure of nerve.

Interview with the Appleton paper:

Q) Everyone is feeling the pinch of record gasoline prices. Is there anything the state can do to ease the burden?

A) ...what's really at issue are these oil companies that are making the biggest profits in the history of the world. ...Why can't the oil companies give us a break? But they won't, because they want to make as much profit as they can

Compared to what, Jimbo? They made a 10% nominal net pretax (approx.) Not really a big deal. And, by the way, the SHAREHOLDERS of the oil companies expect those profits. You may remember some of them: the Wisconsin State Retirement funds; mutual-fund holders; they're called US citizens, Jimbo.

Kudos to the newspaper, which noted that Jimbo forgot all about the State's super-large gasoline tax:

Q) Would the state consider a break or holiday on the motor fuel tax it charges to help out motorists?

A) Well, the problem with that is twofold. There's no reason for me to believe that the gas companies would pass the savings on. We could take off our gas tax, but I believe the oil companies simply would make more profits. They would continue to price gasoline at the same level. Second, we need those funds to make sure we have good roads and that our bridges are secure.

I would tell you that Doyle suffers from recto-cranial inversion complex, but that's far too kind. As to "good roads...and secure bridges," ---OK--he gets a partial credit.

The "S&^% happens" mentality emerges again, though. He can't help himself:

The big problem with a gasoline tax holiday, which (Sen. John) McCain (of Arizona) talked about, is that it would only save families on average about 30 cents a day or $30 a month. I think the oil companies simply would continue to charge the same price and pocket the additional profit.

That's the FEDERAL gas tax (18.4 cents/gal). The STATE's gas tax of 30.9 cents/gallon is 167% of the Fed tax. So the "average family" in Wisconsin could save FIFTY dollars/month if the Wisconsin gas tax were eliminated.

But what the Hell--$50.00/month is "S^%$ happens" money to Diamond Jim, just like $8 million or so in fraudulent flood aid.

HT: FoxPolitics

They're Just Kids

What jumped out at me from the heroin story in today's JS:

Marlana J. Socha, 20, Thomas A. Brinkman, 19, Eric A. Russell, 19, Bryant Abkes-Knight, 18, Leroy K. Rushing, 21, and Michelle M. Turner, 20.

Overall, only eight of the twenty-seven charged were over the age of 25.

Not that long ago, The Man With the Golden Arm kinda left the impression that H-addicts were mostly in their late 20's, with some who had survived (somehow) into their 50's.

Things are changing, no?

Lefty Republican Loses in GA.

Signs of the times, which a certain Presidential candidate is too old to read.

RedState-endorsed Congressman Paul Broun, Jr. (R-GA), elected in 2007 to fill the rest of the late Rep. Charlie Norwood's term, faced an all-out assault from his own party this primary season in the form of business-as-usual, big-government Republican Barry Fleming.

Fleming has been attacking Broun from the left on fiscal policy, Constitutional authority, and social issues for months. Today, primary voters in Georgia's 10th Congressional District got to have their say in which brand of Republicanism they favored -- the big-government kind that attacks conservatives and seeks to be little other than Democrat-lite, or the small-government, personal freedom-advocating kind that fights for the core conservative beliefs of freedom, choice, and limited government.

Today, the voters in Georgia's 10th CD sent an overwhelming message about which brand of Republicanism they favor, nominating Broun the District's GOP standard bearer by a staggering 71-29 margin .

Seven to Three. Hooooboy.

HT: RedStates

How Much Sick Leave at MPS?

Owen's thread on the "Sick Leave Gift" referendum is here.

The Reliable Lefty, Folkbum, provides a shocking bit of information in the combox:

This vote will not change MPS’s sick leave policy. If the resolution goes to voters and it passes, it will not change MPS’s sick leave policy.

The referendum question will provide that all employers in the City of Milwaukee WILL:

...offer employees an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked

according to a story written by G. Pabst of the Milwaukee JS.

That amounts to ~70 hours/year of sick-leave--just under two 40-hour weeks--for a full-time employee.

Not a bad plan, folks.

Simple Solution for the Petroleum Problem

Well, I thought about this for....oh....a minute, and have now figured out the intermediate-term solution to the petroleum problem.

And it's simple:

All those who do NOT want to drill should simply stop driving cars.

And stop flying around the country campaigning.

And stop using their home and office air-conditioning.

And refuse to purchase anything with ANY plastic components.

So if the Obama/Feinie/Kagen crowd is about 40% of the population, that means that we could reduce domestic petroleum consumption by about 40%, right?

According to the Reliable Lefty (Folkbum) that means that we'd be consuming less than 2.5 billion bbls/year in the USA--or only 1/6th of current global demand.

Straight-line reduction in price-per-bbl should be around $25.00.

By executive order, Jim Doyle should require that NO State-owned vehicles will use air conditioning, and that all State workers should take the bus to commute back-and-forth from Madistan to Milwaukee or other job-assignments. (For example, the DoCorrections chief should bus it from Madison to Waupun and Taycheedah).

Local Democrats such as Tom Barrett could order that the police cars also disable their a/c units and he could turn off the City Hall air conditioners. Not "down," Tom. OFF.

Or they could choose to be hypocrites, I suppose.

Wanna bet?

Numerology

No, I'm not becoming a numerologist, but here's a neat story about Dreher's brother-in-law.

A few months ago, my sister Ruthie ran a race in Baton Rouge. The number she was assigned was 709. Weeks later, Mike mailed home for her scrapbook the number he'd been assigned in a race he competed in in Iraq. It too was 709.

What an incredible coincidence, my sister thought. "That means he's going to come home on July 9," said my mother.

Which was rather unlikely, given that Mike and his men weren't scheduled to leave Iraq till August. Still, my mother was sure of it. She believed that was a sign.

Last week, Ruthie got a phone call from Mike. His unit, which had already transferred to Kuwait, had departed unexpectedly early. He was phoning from Maine. He was back in the United States, safe.

Of course, it was July 9.

Back, mind you, with a Broze Star.

Aquinas vs. Sacred Music

Interesting post here. The author read Tracy Rowland's Ratzinger's Faith.

The second problematic aspect of the Thomist tradition in regard to liturgy, according to Ratzinger, has to do with a pragmatic understanding of the role of music in liturgy. This understanding of liturgical music goes back to Thomas himself. It is not just a product of his later followers. In question 91, article 2, of his Summa Theologica, Thomas said that it is justifiable to use music in liturgy because “the minds of the weak are more effectively summoned to piety” by it. Ratzinger (according to Rowland) takes this to mean that, for Thomas, church music has nothing more than a pedagogical function and is subject to the standards of utility: it is reduced to its utilitarian function - it must be a popular form of music and usefulness for instruction. In fact, Karl Rahner and Herbert Vorgrimler had used this very notion of Thomas’s to defend the replacement of “sacred music” with “utility music” (folk music, pop music, etc.).

I suppose that it's really gebrauchtmusik that TA favored.

As you might guess, Papa Ratzinger doesn't agree wholeheartedly.

The movement of spiritualization in creation is understood properly as bringing creation into the mode of being of the Holy Spirit and its consequent transformation, exemplified in the crucified and resurrected Christ. In this sense, the taking up of music into the liturgy must be its taking up into the Spirit, a transformation which implies both death and resurrection. That is why the Church has had to be critical of all ethnic music; it could not be allowed untransformed into the sanctuary. The cultic music of pagan religions has a different status in human existence from the music which glorifies God in creation. Through rhythm and melody themselves, pagan music often endeavors to elicit ecstasy of the senses, but without elevating the sense into the spirit; on the contrary, it attempts to swallow up the spirit in the senses as a means of release. This imbalance toward the senses recurs in modern popular music: the ‘God found here, the salvation of man identified here, is quite different from the God of the Christian faith.

Not too different than his critique of rock music, by the way--but he was much more harsh in his judgment of that stuff than this 'ethnic' music to which he refers--which includes 'folk' and to an extent, all hymnody.

Interestingly, Rowland, in her concluding chapter, shows that John Paul II and Benedict XVI, for all of their profound sympathies with one another, differ on precisely this issue. John Paul II took a more pragmatic, Thomist view of Christianity in relation to the culture: because beauty did not have the same importance for him as it does for Benedict. Benedict takes a more Augustinian view (I would broaden the category and refer to it as a more “Christian Platonist” view).

CosmosLiturgy wonders whether Thomists make bad liturgists...

And provides the answer to his own question (see the combox):

Ratzinger never bought into “Thomism” precisely for the reasons that you state: its penchant to detach philosophy from theology and to absorb itself in a post-Enlightenment, rationalist dialectic.

This penchant among Thomists was embodied in Karl Rahner and is precisely why Ratzinger once famously said that he realized, around the time of the Council, that he and Rahner lived in different mental universes

....which is to say, "some of them would be horrible."

Thompson v. Favre, Chapter 365

The entire argument for bringing Favre back to the Packers as a starter this year is based on the belief that the Packers, WITH Favre, will get to the Super Bowl.

...and that without him, they will not.

Really, folks? Do you REALLY believe that the Pack's going to the SB if only....just....if only Brett plays?

Or do you kinda WISH that to be the case, and then RATIONALIZE your way to bringing Favre back?

Only the late-afternoon RadioMouth knows.

Safety First!

A 25-year-old man is in serious condition at University Hospital after a nearly 10,000-pound electron microscope fell on him late this morning, pinning him to the ground, according to Cincinnati firefighters.

The man was pinned under the microscope on the loading dock at the Taft North building of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

Yup.

HT: The Agitator

The Feingold/Kagen BS About Offshore Drilling

Both Al-Rusty and Allergy Kagen are running an elaborate non-truth about offshore drilling past Wisconsin voters in hopes that nobody will notice.

The lie: "The Oil Companies have 68 million offshore acres under lease and they aren't using them. Why should they have more?"

Here's the more precise version of the artful dodge: “If we extrapolate from today’s production rates on federal land and waters, we can estimate that the 68 million acres of leased but currently inactive federal land and waters could produce an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day.” Note the highlighted word, folks.

"Extrapolation," of course, makes a fatal assumption: that "all else is equal." Here's how the extrapolation plays out in the alleged minds of Feinie and Kagen:

Roughly 23 million acres of federal land are producing 1.6 million barrels each day today.

Roughly 3 times as many federal acres - about 68 million - are leased to oil companies, but are not currently producing oil or gas.

Therefore, the United States could be producing 3 times as much oil - or an additional 4.8 million barrels per day - if the lease holders for the non-producing federal lands started producing oil today.

Voila!! It's the Oil Companies' fault.

Reality, of course, is a bit different. The fact that the oil companies leased the land does NOT mean that there's oil there. It only means that the oil companies wanted to EXPLORE the land, based on the POSSIBILITY that there is oil there. If it's not, the acres remain leased regardless.

The result of Congressional bans on exploration?

The United States’ dependence on foreign sources of energy is intensified by federal government restrictions on oil and natural gas production in certain energy-rich locations here at home. These policies have closed about half the waters in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas exploration. Most of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) on the East and West coasts is off limits to energy exploration, and lack of infrastructure and opposition to Alaska’s OCS has forestalled access to the area’s enormous energy potential.

The U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) estimates that more than 16 billion barrels of oil and nearly 60 trillion cubic feet of natural gas are inaccessible as a result of the moratoria. This estimate is considered extremely conservative by most petroleum experts because, historically, oil discoveries are not made until one is allowed to look.

Only the Democrats in Congress are preventing exploration of US territory.

Ask Feinie and Kagen why.

Straw Man: Planned Parenthood?

Most interesting circuit of money here.

Ed Morrissey, quoted by the Other McCain:

[Planned Parenthood] got over $15 million [in federal taxpayer funding] in 2007 while garnering more than a billion dollars in revenues from their operations. In return, its national PAC has already raised over $250,000 for the 2008 cycle and spent $200,000 of it, and 97% of it goes to Democrats. That makes their earmarks look a lot like strawman redistribution of tax money back to the Democratic Party.

Straw Man or no, the circle points directly to the Party of Death. Still wonder why I use the moniker "DarthDoyle"?

Tony Snow and Tim Russert: The MSM Lacuna

Many people know that Tony Snow was a Roman Catholic.

But you wouldn't know it by reading the (well-deserved) testimonials to Snow on his death. ProEcclesia sums it up, quoting other blogs:

Tony Snow, journalist and aide to two presidents, died on Saturday at the age of 53. As with the death last month of beloved journalist Tim Russert, friends and fans are grieving the loss. Like Russert, Snow was a devoted family man with a strong Christian faith. I thought most obituaries of Russert did a good job of including religion in their tributes

While the New York Times and the Washington Post found room to include Snow’s salary at his White House job, neither of them mentioned his strong religious views that were so integral to his outlook on life. The New York Times, along with the Associated Press and Washington Post, made somewhat odd digs in their obituaries about Snow’s supposed problem with facts during his press secretary stint.

(Etc., etc.)

Then he asks the obvious question:

Is it really all that surprising? Can we not think of anything that might account for the inconsistency in how the media reported on the deaths of 2 of America's finest newsmen who also happened to be animated by their devout Catholic faith?

Most of you can get this with only one guess.

Kudos to Fox6 for Flood Fraud Story

Last night, Fox6 ran a fairly long segment on the massive fraud in Milwaukee over "flood benefits."

The segment would have made Ripley proud. Fox6 interviewed "victims" who had no substantial damage (wet couch-cusions, e.g.), "victims" who lied about power outages, and "victims" who "needed food" but were wearing Louis Vitton shades.

And these damn fools ACTUALLY WENT ON CAMERA and provided their names and addresses.

The story took pains to be accurate (Corey Hose rocks, folks!!) about the reason for the abuse and fraud, and left DarthDoyle looking like a complete ass.

Milwaukee's DA is on the hook here, and the story made that clear, too.

Altogether, an A++ for the team.

Like Murders? Keep Abortion Legal

The stats work was done by John Lott, mostly to correct the egregious stupidity of "Freakonomics." But the conclusions are interesting regardless.

To understand why abortion might not cut crime, one should first consider how dramatically it changed sexual relationships. Once abortion became widely available, people engaged in much more premarital sex, and also took less care in using contraceptives...All of these outcomes — more out-of-wedlock births, fewer adoptions than expected, and less pressure on men “to do the right thing” — led to a sharp increase in single-parent families

...No matter how much they want their children, single parents tend to devote less attention to them than married couples do. Single parents are less likely than married parents to read to their children or take them on excursions, and more likely to feel angry at their children or to feel that they are burdensome. Children raised out of wedlock have more social and developmental problems than children of married couples by almost any measure — from grades to school expulsion to disease. Unsurprisingly, children from unmarried families are also more likely to become criminals [see any of the Rockford Institute's publications during the 1980's, e.g. for verification.]

Unfortunately for those who argue that abortion reduces crime, Donahue and Levitt’s [Freakonomics] research suffered from methodological flaws. As The Economist noted, “Donohue and Levitt did not run the test that they thought they had.” Work by two economists at the Boston Federal Reserve, Christopher Foote and Christopher Goetz, found that, when the test was run correctly, it indicated that abortion actually increases violent crime.

The “abortion decreases crime” theory runs into even more problems when the population is analyzed by age group...Deregulating abortion would then [have] reduce[d] criminality first among age groups born after the abortion laws changed, when the “unwanted,” crime-prone elements began to be weeded out. Yet when we look at the declining murder rate during the 1990s, we find that this is not the case at all. Instead, murder rates began falling first among an older generation — those over 26 — born before Roe. It was only later that criminality among those born after Roe began to decline

Legalizing abortion increased crime. Those born in the four years after Roe were much more likely to commit murder than those born in the four years prior. This was especially true when they were in their “criminal prime,”...

Even if abortion did lower crime by culling out “unwanted” children (a conclusion derived from flawed statistics), this effect would be greatly outweighed by the rise in crime associated with the greater incidence of single-parent families that also follows from abortion liberalization. In short, more abortions have brought more crime

(Quoted by The Papist from a Fox News essay.)

Maybe Planned Parenthood should donate its $300MM/year in profits to the States for the purpose of building more prisons. After all, they are the proximate cause...

Thompson: The Right Play Call with Favre

Anyone who is familiar with the American corporate culture can appreciate the agony of Ted Thompson.

The parallel is obvious.

When a Company got into trouble with stagnant or declining market share, or with profits, a new CEO was generally brought in. As night follows day, a number of the "old guard" Company officers were replaced by 'the new crowd,' people who would implement the new CEO's strategic vision.

Sometimes, the "old guard" were regarded as superstars--but they would eventually be replaced, or if not kicked out, would be sidelined with a staff assignment where they could retain some prestige (and retirement benefits) without being able to affect the new direction.

So it went in Green Bay.

Thompson was brought into a troubled franchise and told to fix it. In his vision, a super-QB, while an asset, was not necessarily the ONLY asset of the team; after all, there are 22 players on the field.

And the story played out from there.

Favre didn't like the last chapter of the story, I guess. So he decided to play games with Thompson, jacking him around about the retirement(s).

As it turns out, Thompson will eat some crow, but he'll share the repast with Favre.

"Sure, you're welcome, Brett!! But you'll be second-string."

Thompson got it right.

The Era of Favre is over, guys. He's 40-something. One freight-train hit from a D-lineman and he'll never walk again. I don't think that his replacement (what's his name again?) is nearly as impervious to hits as was Favre--but that's why Green Bay drafted TWO quarterbacks.

Man up, Brett. Take Thompson's deal and be a southern gentleman about it.

Actualities of Court Appointments--and SCOWI

Althouse discovers that the reality was exposed in an old essay from the NYTimes.

President Ford's appointment of John Paul Stevens to the United States Supreme Court continues and underlines the striking contrast between Republican and Democratic policies on Supreme Court selections.

Republican Presidents have consistently considered the Court as a law court, members of which should have past experience on lower Federal or state courts. Democratic Presidents have seen the Court as a policy court, and have consistently appointed to it men from public life with substantial experience

And she goes on to comment:

Can you image the uproar if Barack Obama echoed Pritchett's views today?

The O-and-Savior will never say that, at least in those words. But he has come close to it:

“In those 5 percent of cases, you’ve got to look at what is in the justice’s heart, what’s their broader vision of what America should be."

...discounting the effects by stating that the "heart" decisions are only "5%".

Yah, well, Roe was only ONE case, as was Brown, as was Dred Scott. For that matter, Heller was just ONE case.

And the Ziegler and Gableman elections were certainly decided on similar grounds.

Safer Than Hospitalization: Drilling for Oil

Something that the MoonbatGreenWeenies don't want circulated.

Since 1975, drilling in the Exclusive Economic Zone (within 200 miles of the U.S. coast) has had a 99.999% safety record, according to the Energy Information Administration, which reports that "only .001 percent of the oil produced has been spilled."

Thanks to technological advances, large spills are rare. Most spills are tiny, only a few feet in diameter. Large tanker spills, such as the Exxon Valdez in 1989, are so infrequent they account for a very small fraction of the oil that winds up in the sea.

A joint study by NASA and the Smithsonian Institution, examining several decades' worth of data, found that more oil seeps into the ocean naturally than from accidents involving tankers and offshore drilling. Natural seepage from underwater oil deposits leaks an average of 62 million gallons a year; offshore drilling, on the other hand, accounted for only 15 million gallons, the smallest source of oil leaking into the oceans.

The conclusion is obvious: the MoonbatGreenWeenie Left, now joined at the hip with Pelosi and Reid, have only one interest: keeping petroleum as expensive as possible. Maybe it will win an election.

But maybe the consequences for them will not be as pretty as they would like.

HT: John Lott

Fannie/Freddie Default: Who Loses?

I didn't know this either.

The top five foreign holders of Freddie and Fannie long-term debt are China, Japan, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, and Belgium. In total foreign investors hold over $1.3 trillion in these agency bonds, according to the U.S. Treasury’s most recent “Report on Foreign Portfolio Holdings of U.S. Securities.”

OK. Let 'em crash. Who's going to miss Luxembourg?

(Wanna bet that the "Cayman Islands" are merely tax-dodgers' accounts in street name?)

Effecting Change: Forget the (R) Model

Some interesting observations from a fellow who crawled into the belly of the beast.

...While participating in Democratic campaigns, Campus Progress and the activists that work with it are building a force independent of partisan efforts—but not irrelevant to it. They understand that the role of activists is to push politicians towards an independently defined agenda rather than serving as cannon fodder

Hence, a common concern of many activists was how to avoid being “co-opted” by the Democratic establishment—even if that establishment is headed by the most liberal candidate in American history. Similarly, a comment during the civil rights panel about how any movement needs a “militant resistance” was met not with nervous glances but agreement to what all perceived to be an obvious point

And in contrast, we have the (R) model:

...the majority of young CPAC attendees believed the purpose of political action was wearing a suit and preparing for a career. It is the difference between activists and politicos. Many Beltway conservatives are not activists and despise those who engage in protests or think of political alternatives beyond voting for Team Red. A mainstream conservative organization awarding young activists for direct action is simply unconceivable. Conservative organizations systematically funnel them into the dead end of Republican business as usual. Culture is largely ignored.

The result is a youth “movement” that is actually less committed and effective than the older conservative grassroots. Campus Progress is building activists and the campus Right is building politicians and politicos.

Well.

Maybe some actual Conservative activists should trash Obey's offices, eh? But not until they've called the Stevens Point Daily Rag-and-Rumorer (or whatever it's called) to get pix.

Markey (D-LaLaLand): Global Warming: BlackHawk Down

This will become another chapter in the psychosis-diagnostics manual.

A top Democrat told high school students gathered at the U.S. Capitol Thursday that climate change caused Hurricane Katrina and the conflict in Darfur, which led to the “black hawk down” battle between U.S. troops and Somali rebels.

Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House (Select) Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee, also equated the drive for global warming legislation with the drive for women’s suffrage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

...“In Somalia back in 1993, climate change, according to 11 three- and four-star generals, resulted in a drought which led to famine,” said Markey. “That famine translated to international aid we sent in to Somalia, which then led to the U.S. having to send in forces to separate all the groups that were fighting over the aid, which led to Black Hawk Down. There was this scene where we have all of our American troops under fire because they have been put into the middle of this terrible situation,” he added.

Frankly, I think Kevin Barrett should take note, and add it to his platform.

IndyMac Fails

The regulators took over IndyMac. This $32Bn failure is the largest in 'thrift' history.

Some blame Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for opening his big mouth and talking about IndyMac's troubles.

The Death Penalty: Fine Points in Theology

An interesting discussion here.

No, I'm not advocating the DP, although if someone wants to, that's fine.

...Flannery notes that the Catechism cites two sentences from Thomas Aquinas in support of its statement: “The legitimate defense of persons and societies is not an exception to the prohibition against the murder of the innocent that constitutes intentional killing.” Those two sentences are the classic invocation of the principles of double effect, “The act of self-defense can have a double effect: the preservation of one’s own life, and the killing of the aggressor,” and “Nothing prevents one act from having two effects, of which one is within the intention, the other beside the intention.”

However, Flannery points out, “Aquinas does not resolve the issue of public self-defense by appeal to a double-effect.” That argument he reserves for private self-defense. His justification for the exercise of lethal force by the sovereign (state) is otherwise, and directly contrary to what the Catechism suggests (and follows directly, in Aquinas’ writings, upon the two sentences quoted therein): “But as it is illicit to take a man’s life, except for the public authority acting for the common good…it is illicit for a man to intend killing a man in self-defense, except for such as have public authority….” Flannery thus concludes, and it is hard to see how he could be mistaken: “Aquinas says as clearly as one could want that a public authority can legitimately intend to kill a person who threatens the well-being of society.”

In other words, the principle of double-effect, relevant to individual killing in self-defense, is not relevant to the question of killing by the state. The state, and its officers, may, licitly, intend to kill. While a man may kill when he himself is threatened; the sovereign may do it “for the common good,” including “redressing disorder.”

Here is how Flannery puts it, speaking first about just war: “In a secondary sense…killing in war is according to natural law. Given the conditions of life in an imperfect world, a nation that defends itself by means of intentional killings can be acting in a perfectly natural – that is to say, ethical – way. But in the primary sense of what is natural, all killing is unnatural….We can say similar things with respect to capital punishment. Throughout the history of the Church, Catholic philosophers and theologians have said that capital punishment is licit. But they have done this without ever denying that, in a more abstract sense, any such killing goes against what is favored even by nature.”

Personally, I like life-imprisonment. But there's the argument, for those who wish to make it.

See, There's "Hate" and Then There's "Not Hate"

From the land of fruits and nuts:


Those who oppose homosexuality for religious reasons are participating in "hate," according to an official for McDonald's, the worldwide purveyor of Big Macs and Happy Meals.

"Hatred has no place in our culture," corporate spokesman Bill Whitman told the Washington Post in response to a campaign by the American Family Association for a boycott of the burger-and-fries outlets because of the corporation's advocacy for the homosexual lifestyle.

Got that? Boycotting MickeyD's is "hate."

Of course, there's "not Hate" boycotting.

Leaders of the gay and lesbian community, along with their union allies, plan to boycott the Manchester Grand Hyatt because its owner, Doug Manchester, has contributed $125,000 to an initiative to ban same-sex marriage.

...Karger said his group wants Manchester and other prominent donors to Proposition 8 to have to pay a business loss for their actions.

"We want to make it a little uncomfortable for people to donate," he said.

Certainly something that the CEO of Epic Systems would understand, right?

The Spin Is In on "Sing To The Lord"

About 6 months ago, the USCC released its revision of Music in Catholic Worship, bringing forth a document that actually acknowledges the writings of the Second Vatican Council on the topic of music. That document was called Sing To The Lord.

Sing to the Lord is .....aahhhhh....an improvement over MCW, (which doesn't say all that much.) But the Oregon Catholic Press (OCP), which makes a lot of money on its liturgy & 'music' pamphlets and books, manages to review STTL and spin like a Democrat politician.

Fortunately, there is a clear-eyed and rational church musician who spotted the silliness.

From OCP's review with parenthetical insertions from Chironomo, we read:

“In Section II (The Church at Prayer) attention is focused on those who have significant roles in the celebration of the liturgy. After mentioning ordained ministers (for 3 pages !) the document stresses (for 1 page) the role of the Gathered Liturgical Assembly, the entire people present at a celebration. Only then does it address ( for 5 ½ pages!) ministers of liturgical music as such, highlighting the various individual ministerial responsibilities. Perhaps this may not seem of great significance, but I do not agree. Sing to The Lord clearly emphasizes that music ministers are servants of the assembly, a concept that is not always understood or appreciated.”

Chiro comments:

To begin with, since when is something 'mentioned' for 3 pages, 'addressed' for 5 ½ pages, but 'stressed' for 1 page? Wouldn’t we ordinarily say that those topics to which more space is given are being stressed?

I'd say that the reviewer is 'stressed' to make his point--in favor of OCP's spin.

For REAL upside-down cake, though, that "servants of the assembly" highlight is priceless.

STTL's language?

Choir members,... are servants of the Liturgy and members of the gathered assembly.

The director of music ministries fosters the active participation of the liturgical assembly in singing; coordinates the preparation of music to be sung at various liturgical celebrations; and promotes the ministries of choirs, psalmists, cantors, organists, and all who serve the Liturgy.

Umnnnnhhh....yah. Musta been a typo, eh?

The reviewer also managed to entirely omit any reference to Latin, which WAS mentioned, clearly, in STTL.

He goes on to mis-prioritize other items--such as the role of the choir, the importance of listening as a means of actual participation, and submerges the singing-role of the priest.

(Might I add that both STTL and the review mis-use the term "minister." ONLY those who are ordained are "ministers" in the Catholic church--but that's a discussion for another day...)

Then we learn, to our disappointment, that this review was written by....a BISHOP!

"By the waters of Babylon,....we wept..."

SCOWI: No Tax Due from Menasha

In a very, very, very important ruling, SCOWI agreed with Menasha Corp regarding the taxability of certain software.

The state Supreme Court ruled today that state government illegally collected sales taxes on customized computer software - a decision that could cost state government $265 million in refunds and interest it doesn't have.

...Writing for the court, Justice Annette Ziegler said the three-member Tax Appeals Commission was created as "the final authority for hearing and determination of all questions of law and fact" on taxation issues. The commission's decision in the Menasha case had been reversed by a Dane County judge.

...The case was a test of the definition of customized software under Wisconsin law. Customized software is not subject to sales tax, whereas off-the-shelf programs, such as those sold in boxes at retail outlets, are.

Exactly where to draw the line between the two categories long has been a point of contention between the state Department of Revenue and the Wisconsin business community.

The case decided Friday was seen as a test to answer that question. Specifically, it involved a companywide, multi-million dollar software package installed by the Menasha in the 1990s. Menasha, based in Neenah, is a privately held company that has sales of more than $900 million annually making packaging at plants across the United States. It spent considerable time and money modifying the software, leading it to argue that the program had been customized and was therefore tax exempt.

So?

The decision worsened the state's budget picture significantly, because future spending commitments exceed revenues by more than $800 million - before today's ruling, which could cost an additional $265 million

Now we'll see the Republicans "borrow" more from the 2009-2011 budget, because they simply will NOT reduce spending.

The Strategy: Win the Election. Tactic: High Priced Gasoline

The daft yapping about "leased acreage" and "10 years to fruition" coming from the Moonbats (Pelosi, Feingold, and Kagen, inter alia) are merely tactics used to achieve the strategic goal: winning the fall elections.

If there is a truism, it is that Americans vote their pocketbooks.

And when the pocketbook is in pain, the President's party usually loses.

All that the Moonbats have to do, therefore, is to prolong the agony of the citizens over the price of gasoline. They think, based on history, that this will effect the goal: defeating the (R) Party in November.

And there are dupes out there who actually assist in the propaganda campaign. Whether through Party loyalty or through total inability to think is irrelevant. They are dupes.

Al Gore and Baloney

This should suffice as a warning to the AlGore followers; intelligent non-followers already know about him.

I did not have the pleasure of knowing Mr. Russert, but I was fortunate enough to meet once here in Macon. He spoke at Mercer University, and I was able to chat with him briefly at that event...

A friend of mine, who was also part of this conversation, asked Mr. Russert, “Who is the most difficult person you’ve ever interviewed?”

Without blinking, Russert said: “Al Gore. He never gives a straight answer to any of my questions.”

Needless to say, I enjoyed that answer quite a bit.

The quotation is from Feddie (Southern Appeal).

Corn-A-Holing the Corn-A-Holers

Here's the Schadenfreude post-of-the-day, and you will love it.

Headless:

Considering the relative price of corn versus oil and also that the subsidy on ethanol does not increase with increasing corn prices, it may be possible for corn to become too expensive to sell ethanol for a profit.

And he quotes a report:

...operating ethanol plants are feeling the pain of declining profitability if not outright losses. The astronomical price of crude oil has caused gasoline and ethanol price to rise, but corn price has risen even more on a percentage basis. Some smaller plants, plus a few larger plants that were having trouble with financing arrangements, have already shut down. A recent article reported that 16 ethanol plants either were in bankruptcy or were preparing to file for bankruptcy.

The downside? Once again, Your Government (Wisconsin) at work:

The issue for states where mandated ethanol is sold, is that ethanol prices will be forced to rise to make it profitable. Consider it another tax imposed by a government that sells public policy to the highest bidder, in this case to corn producers.

So if I am a radio station selling airtime to the Corn-A-Holers, I'd get a quick D&B credit report--or get cash up front.

History Stuff, Again

McMahon has a fascinating item about GE Computers (!)--yes, there were such things--but it's not the hardware that's of interest.

Multics was the first OS to promote remote terminal access for all computing, have the computer run continuously, use an internal file system, structure the management of the machine, accommodate large and small users equally well, utilize dynamic linking and manage multi-level memory — in short, do what computers should do.

More:

The seminal program of the 1970’s and one of the most important software packages ever developed, VisiCalc, was developed on a Multics machine by Bob Frankston

IBM won the battle, obviously--GE has scrubbed any mention of its own computers from its website and online history.

Also of note: IBM's primordial manufacturing package (BOMP) was developed right here in Milwaukee by a number of entities cooperating. Among them were Grede Foundries, Allis-Chalmers, Allen-Bradley, and Arthur Anderson, the CPA firm. That package was enhanced and became DBOMP, and is still the model for 'static' manufacturing systems.

Now it's apparent why GE X-Ray did not participate, eh?

TSA Denies "Shock Bracelet" Story

Malkin updates on yesterday's ....ahh....shocking news.

...the Department of Homeland Security’s Science & Technology Directorate nor TSA have been pursuing shock bracelets for airline passengers as alleged by the Washington Times Blog

...This all originated from a meeting held two years ago with a private company representative (not Lamberd) who proposed bracelet technology in response to the TSA’s desire to find less-than-lethal means to detain an apprehended suspect.

...This concept was never funded or supported by the DHS or TSA and hasn’t even been discussed for two years. The letter circulating throughout the blogosphere from Paul Ruwaldt was not addressed to Lamberd and merely states the DHS was interested in learning more about the technology. Neither side followed up.

DHS/TSA does NOT support the asserted use and has not pursued the development of such technology.

OK. But as Malkin notes, there is a line in the TSA letter which is ambiguous, to say the least:

In addition, it is conceivable to envision a use to improve air security, on passenger planes

...assuming that there will be passengers. Given the fuel price/ticket price problems we've seen, that might not be a valid assumption.

GOP3 Has Good News About Green Bay Bishop

The folks at GOP3 relay some very positive things about the new Bishop of Green Bay.

...Bishop Ricken has placed emphasis on youth outreach, including support for SPARK magazine and conservative Wyoming Catholic College and the Wyoming School for Catholic Thought. He’s been a guest several times on EWTN and he welcomed a cloistered Carmelite community. He’s also got a great record on inspiring vocations, which is often the sign of successful orthodoxy. He’s a supporter of NFP and the Theology of the Body.

This will be very good for Green Bay's Catholic population.

Stupid Does As Stupid Is...

Noted by Clay Cramer.

A Potter Valley woman wounded herself and a man July 3 while attempting to kill mice with a .44-caliber Magnum revolver, according to the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.

The woman, 43, had drawn the gun from a holster under her left arm, intending to shoot mice scurrying across the floor of a small travel trailer on Highway 20 in Potter Valley, according to the Sheriff's Office.

The revolver instead slipped from her hand and fired as it struck the floor, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Cramer suggests that this woman should never again be allowed to possess firearms.

Who could disagree?

On a serious note, it appears that her .44 is quite old, and she SHOULD have had the hammer on an EMPTY chamber--which is a safety practice drilled into all handgun-owners.

Some pay attention.

It's also apparent that this woman may have lost an IQ contest with any of her intended targets; firing a .44Mag inside a residence is decidedly stupid, unless it is purely self-defense. Magnum rounds tend to go wherever they want to go, sort of like the 800-pound gorillas.

Finally, there are very few people on Earth who could actually KO a mouse with a six-gun. Mice don't "sit pretty" for target practice.

What a maroon.

Bear, Lehman, and Fannie Mae?

Ominous.

Chances are increasing that the U.S. may need to bail out Fannie Mae and the smaller Freddie Mac, former St. Louis Federal Reserve President William Poole said in an interview. Freddie Mac owed $5.2 billion more than its assets were worth in the first quarter, making it insolvent under fair value accounting rules, he said. The fair value of Fannie Mae's assets fell 66 percent to $12.2 billion, data provided by the Washington-based company show, and may be negative next quarter, Poole said.

``Congress ought to recognize that these firms are insolvent, that it is allowing these firms to continue to exist as bastions of privilege, financed by the taxpayer,'' Poole, 71, who left the Fed in March, said in an interview

If the Feds move to guarantee certain portions of debt from Fannie/Freddie, it is entirely likely that the value of the USD will drop even further.

How's that for ruining your breakfast?

HT: Calculated Risk

Jesse Jackson v. Obama

Personally, I think Jackson jumped the shark with his remarks.

There's a reason for that: Obama has displaced Jackson. Made him irrelevant. Jesse's history, although he will continue to prosper with his race-baiting and corporate extortion rackets for a while.

The Corn-A-Hole Lies

You've noticed advertisements on the Wonders of Getting Corn-A-Holed lately. Among other things, those ads forget to mention this fact:

We are currently destroying 25% of all the corn in America in order to make just enough expensive low-quality motor fuel to replace 0.6% of global oil.

The ads also yap that you are Corn-A-Holed with 'industrial-grade' corn--typically used only for feeding cattle and pigs. So: not to worry!! Unless you're a cow or a pig, you're not missing a thing!!

They do NOT mention that corn grows on "acreage." And when "acreage" is used to Corn-A-Hole you, it is NOT used to grow corn which you (and a billion or so OTHER humans) can eat.

By the way, John McCain opposes Corn-A-Holing you and the rest of the world.

Obama? The O-and-Savior thinks Corn-A-Holing his countrymen is just fine, thanks. But we knew that already.

Helms' Right-Wing Employee

As the usual race-baiting continues in Jesse Helms' obituaries, we also learn that Helms didn't like overly-conservative policy advisers.

Helms was for integration; he was simply against "movements." He would later hire James Meredith, who was the first black to attend the University of Mississippi -- with the assistance of federal troops. By 1989, Meredith's views had come around to those of Helms, not the other way around.

After years of reading and studying and attending law school at Columbia University, Meredith concluded that blacks had been better off when they worked for themselves and not for white liberals. ... Meredith claimed Helms fired him as domestic policy adviser after a year because he was too right-wing for Helms.

Meredith's big mouth earned him notice.

Liberals discount Helms' hiring of Meredith on the grounds that Meredith had wandered off the reservation. (Blacks are allowed to have only one set of political views.)

Oh, well. That explains the fact that Meredith has not been touted as a Role Model for blacks.

USCC's Preferred Translation

The Jester has found archived documents from Bp Trautman's files specifying translations that HE, the Bishop, would prefer.

Pops Composer Schutte's Method

Noted by an actual composer: