Concealed Carry Debate

On another blogsite, (Folkbum) there's a discussion of concealed carry. A second blogger, the Shark, kicked in with his own take on the issue.

Clearly, Folkbum's Jay picked a very weak argument--and Tom Sowell tells us why:

The total number of murders in the United States in 1960 was lower than in 1950, 1940, or 1930 -- even though the population was growing and two new states had been added. The murder rate, in proportion to population, in 1960 was half of what it had been in 1934.

Every one of these beneficial trends sharply reversed after liberal notions gained ascendancy during in the 1960s. By 1974, the murder rate had doubled. Even liberal icon Sargent Shriver, head of the agency directing the "war on poverty," admitted that "venereal disease has skyrocketed" even though "we have had more clinics, more pills, and more sex education than ever in history."

While Folkbum argues, in effect, that there is little to fear, thus little which actually requires concealed weapon-carrying, the statistics cited by Sowell would argue differently.

And even though MOST violent crime happens between parties who are acquainted, NOT ALL violent crime happens that way. From today's news (WISN/1130):

A few armed robberies on the east side over the weekend, and police think they are related. Three street robberies happened early Sunday at Fratney and Park Place, Farwell and Bradford, and Oakland and Kenwood. At this point, police do not have a description of the suspects.

and:

A man is in critical condition after being shot on Milwaukee's north side. It happened early Monday near 11th and North. The man was shot in the neck. Police say five or six people tried to rob the man and his friends in the McDonald's parking lot. The suspects sped off on bicycles after the shooting.

One can bet serious money that these incidents were NOT between people 'who knew each other.'

Van Hollen and Domestic Terrorism

Republican Attorney-General candidate JB VanHollen took a beating from the Cognoscenti Class for mentioning the "T" word. (That's "Terrorism" for you young'uns who also can't spell Afghanistan..) In effect, the MSM and JB's opponents all blatted the same line:

"Here in Wisconsin, we have dairy cows, cheese, Packers, high taxes, ...but terrorists? Hell, JB, that sort of critter lives in New Yawk City, or New Jersey, or Hellholes like that. Maybe LA, or SanFran--you know, with the other fruits and nuts.

"NOT HERE. Don't even TALK that way. You'll scare the chilluns, JB, you, you...

"You smokin', JB??"

Well, JB was the US Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin. Maybe, just maybe, he wasn't blowing , or tokin' smoke.

From Counterterrorism Blog:

Steven Emerson was interviewed today on MSNBC about the Canadian jihadist plots and arrests. But his most provocative comments, about investigations underway in the U.S. of Al Qaeda plots, came near the end of the interview...

WITT: What do your sources tell you, Steve? Any kind of a similar scenario, similar plots like this being hatched in the United States or have they been?

EMERSON: I think that the public will be surprised by some of the other indictments that may be issued later this year or early next year. There are various Al Qaeda cases being worked on by the U.S. government- the F.B.I., Department of Justice, Treasury- and these cases have still not been made public, and some of them involve plots against American targets.

OK. Remember that "the Department of Justice" just happens to include U S Attorneys...

Delightful Meet/Greet

The BloggerPicnic (not to be confused with the Bunny Picnic) was nicely attended by nice people (at least the ones we met were nice) and ought to be repeated now and then.

AsianBadger, RealDebate, NeoCon-Tastic, Patrick, Jiblog, Wiggers, SteveEgg--all clumped around the table which happened to be nearest the beer...

Organizer, majordomo, host, and !!I NEED A .50CAL!! SpottedHorse with chilluns plus DerGruppenfuhrer (far and away the more delightful) and the estimable McMahon...

GreenTeam folks were bound and determined to emplace a Greensticker over my PJB logo. Sorry, guys...at my age, that sort of change is not so easy to make.

York? With a BAG? Nope. A paid actor.

Good way to pass time. Thanks, Chris!

New Orleans Fascism To Continue

Why in blazes this swampland is a "destination city" is beyond imagination:

Gun rights activists were up in arms Friday after New Orleans Police Chief Warren Riley said he would confiscate weapons should disaster strike.

In an interview with WWL Radio, Riley said his officers would seize guns from people on the streets if another storm was to hit New Orleans.

“During a circumstance like that, we cannot allow people to walk the street carrying guns…as law enforcement officers we will confiscate the weapon if a person is walking down the street and they may be arrested,” Riley said.

This assumes that 'walking the street' with a weapon demonstrates criminal intent, or is ipso facto criminal activity. What about the possibility that it's your own damn street and you're walking in front of your own house--as part of a neighborhood "block watch" effort?

The National Rifle Association sued the city and forced it to return hundreds of guns, after officers seized them during Katrina. Gun rights activists were once again outraged by Riley's comments.

(If all one reads is MSM, by the way, you might not have known about the NRA's success in this lawsuit...)

”It’s shocking, there's nothing about a police chief's opinion that gives them a super sized authority to throw the constitution out the window,” said NRA Executive Vice-President Wayne Lapierre.

During Katrina, state law gave the chief the authority to take guns during an emergency. Since then lawmakers have re-written the law, making it a crime, one they said the chief was threatening to commit.

“He does not have the right to confiscate their firearms, nobody in this country does, that's why we have a 2nd amendment to our constitution,” said Scalise.

Some folks still think that the 2nd Amendment is written to protect hunters and MAYBE for self-defense, if you have a "Mother, May-I" permission slip.

Does this NOPD Chief resemble Screechin'Shirley Abrahamson, Queen of Hearts?

HT: John Lott

Contrast: Spice Boyzzz v. Jessica

See, pilgrim, SOME things are news, and OTHER things are...well...NOT news.

From Jessica:

If you read mainstream media accounts, you would have no clue that the Milwaukee Police Association showed up at Gov. Doyle's press conference Friday at Milwaukee City Hall on violence. And you'd have no clue that they weren't allowed in the room.

That's right. In a public building at a press conference on giving Milwaukee police more money, reporters were let inside but the nine Milwaukee police officers who showed up were stopped at the door.

Now let us turn to the SpiceBoyzz:

Reynolds, as he had several times in the past, reserved the Firefly Room at the Wauwatosa Public Library for a town hall meeting on May 9. A handful of people showed up, and it was business as usual - until Jennifer Morgan, a former auto mechanic, walked in with her camera.

...Reynolds and Morgan continued their spat as the camera rolled, with the senator repeating that he would not allow filming in the public library and Morgan charging Reynolds didn't believe in the Constitution.

Reynolds allows those who disagree with him to enter the room--and at least speaks with them.

BagManJim? Nope. You can't come in the ROOM, much less debate.

Sounds familiar, eh?

"For the first six months of Jim Doyle's administration, I don't think he even knew the Legislature existed," said Assembly Majority Leader Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem), who is in line to become Assembly speaker next year if Republicans keep control after the November election.

"The governor really had no interest in dealing with the Legislature at all, and hearing or communicating with us at all," Huebsch said. "When there's communication, you have greater success. You don't see the confrontation as much."

Instead of negotiating with legislators, vetoes seem to be Doyle's preferred "mode of communication," Huebsch said.

Kinda makes you think of the Wizard of Oz...BagMan's Alternative Universe--where there is no opposition, largely because he simply won't allow them in his presence.

No Temporizing in Cleveland

Heh.

The New Broom Bishop Richard Lennon gets down to work in less than 2 weeks:

You may know that Archbishop Pila has been succeeded by Richard Lennon, late of the Boston Diocese. It sounds as though there is a crackdown on everything that looks progressive. The letter below is a request for badly needed help.

***
Faced with an enormous challenge, we turn to you, one of our special friends, to ask for help.

For 15 years, FutureChurch has been able to devote maximum resources to our educational and advocacy efforts because our offices have been in very low-cost parish based space.

Now, we have been asked to move out of the rectory basement that has been our home for 8 years. We must find new space by August 1st and know that we have no choice but to find commercial rental space. Doing so will have a significant impact on our operating budget.

There is no possibility of finding space in another church. Diocesan officials have made no secret of their desire to deny FutureChurch access to church property for our activities – including educational programs and prayer services.

As you know, we are hard at working at expanding our Mary of Magdala celebrations to include a post card campaign to urge that bishops welcome women as proclaimers and preachers of the Gospel. We are also collecting signatures on a letter to Bishop Wuerl, a member of committee drafting the Pope’s Post-Eucharistic Synod with the hope of encouraging the Vatican to adopt meaningful solutions to the priest shortage. We are also moving full speed ahead on our newest advocacy project, Save Our Parish Communities, designed to give Catholic parishioners tools to meet the challenges of maintaining vibrant parishes in a time of fewer priests and closing parishes.

This is the standard agenda, minus explicit reference to homosexual wish-list items.

Next: removal of the "Rainbow Flag" from Diocesan websites. Burning would be fine.

HT: ProEcclesia

Terrorism: Alive and Well in the British Empire

From Powerline:

UPDATE: Details are sketchy, but at least eight people have been arrested in the Toronto area and will be charged with plotting to set off explosives at as-yet-unspecified locations in Ontario. Preliminary reports is that those arrested are Muslims suspected of links to al Qaeda.

FURTHER UPDATE, via Power Line News: Canadian authorities say that 12 male adults and five "youths" have been taken into custody, and three tons of ammonium nitrate, triple the amount used in the Oklahoma City bombing, have been seized.

And from the Mother Country:

London police raided a house where chemical weapons of some kind were apparently being produced. Today comes the chilling news that a chemical suicide vest is believed to be missing:
British police were searching for a "suicide vest" laced with dangerous chemicals after a raid of the alleged bomb factory yielded two suspects but no vest.

Police think the vest has been made and will be set off at a busy bus or train station, or in a crowd watching a World Cup game in a local pub, The Times said.

Watchword: Semper Paratus

Voter ID--The Real Agenda

Yah, it's PERSECUTING the POOR and ELDERLY--that's why the Right-Wing Nutbags want voter ID, yah.

That's Xoff's stand.

Here's why Voter ID may just be a good idea:

Francine Busby, the Democratic candidate in Tuesday’s CA-50 special election has been caught on tape telling a Spanish-speaking audience “You don’t need papers for voting.”

Responding to a question from a translator about how to help her campaign, Francine Busby also told non-English-speaking volunteers that they don’t need to be registered voters to help the campaign.

Even a passing acquaintance with the patois makes it clear: "papers" mean "citizenship documentation." This Democrat scum-bagette wants the Illegal Alien vote, and told them to just show up.

No problemo.

Blanchard: The Way of the Gulag

Brian Blanchard shows his real persona in an attempt to imitate Stalin.

Blanchard has filed a brief with the Dane County Circuit Court to have convicted former Speaker of the Assembly Scott Jensen held in custody pending appeal of his conviction of campaigning with state resources.

Up to this point, I understood that Blanchard was a political tool, and not too competent in hiding his partisan-prosecution games--in other words, a typical Democrat jackass.

Now it's clear that the guy is really a vicious psychopath.

So much for the "bleeding heart" brand of Liberalism, eh? This guy should be made into The Icon of leftists and join his mentor, Josef Stalin; all that remains is to re-name his office Dzerzhinsky Square West.

Vrakas Just Says "No"; Bets Taken at This Window

Good morning, class. Today we demonstrate how you are being slowly bent forward toward the BOHICA position required of all residents of the State of Wisconsin. This lesson: Getting Tax Support of All Arts and Many Parks. This is Level 201. Prerequisite coursework (Overtaxation Principles and Mechanics) has just ended with the death of TPA/TABOR last April. Please pay attention, maintain order, and take good notes. An exam (heh, heh) will follow within the next three years.

To begin: it is reported that Dan Vrakas joined McReynolds (Waukesha and Racine counties, respectively) in describing the Artsy-Tax as a "non-starter."

Good for them. That will be the last of this sort of talk ever reported in the local MSM, unless McReynolds' and Vrakas' names are prefaced by such adjectives as "right-wing," "conservative," or "insulated suburbanites." (Other phrases, such as "Rich Waukesha/Ozaukee/Racine County elected officials may suffice, if artfully done.)

Now, class, look at the non-denial denials emerging from the Greater Milwaukee Committtee and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce:

The group's [Greater Milwaukee Committee] president, Julia Taylor, emphasized that her organization has made no recommendation to raise a regional sales tax. This is true, of course. But the important word "yet" could be added to that quotation, as we shall see. Your class homework assignment will be to look up Julia Taylor's financial track record at the YWCA, by the way.

Taylor, of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, said the situation in Denver is different from that in Milwaukee in key ways. An acute funding crisis for cultural institutions there led to the creation of the cultural tax after a state aid cutoff...

Nicely shaped. Anybody paying attention to the "acute funding crisis" over at the Milwaukee Symphony? The Public Museum? CLASS: this is known as the "setup".

Next, Mr. Sheehy:

"I can only speak for MMAC, but we weren't proposing a seven-county tax for anything," he said. "Of all the possibilities out there, that is one of them."

So what DID MMAC propose? Does Sheehy prefer a DIFFERENT extortion?

But just to make sure the yahoos, nativists, and xenophobic Selfish Suburban Pigs get the idea, Sheehy added a couple of verses from the Apocalypse. (He knows all yahoos read the Bible...)

Sheehy said suburban communities need to determine how much they value institutions in Milwaukee County.

For an example, he said, people in Mequon and Brookfield would want to have a say if Milwaukee County decided to close or make severe financial cuts at the Milwaukee County Zoo, Mitchell Park Domes or Milwaukee Art Museum.

The End of The World Is Nigh. Would you pay $13.50 to prevent it? $22.00? (Please note, class: in the next several months, you will see pictures of CHILDREN at the Zoo, the Domes, and the Museum. Review "It's for The Children, 101" from The Economics of More Taxes.

OK, class. Let's review.

1) Over the last five years, major Milwaukee arts organizations have been having financial difficulties to one degree or another. No surprise; the Art Museum cost a LOT of money that was not budgeted, the Museum was plundered, costs for the MSO (health insurance/rent) have risen. We could go on with other organizations. There IS a problem: not enough revenue for the expenses they incur.

2) When Dan (I'm-Not-Really-a-Conservative) Finley took over the Museum, there was some noise, quickly suppressed, about a tax-based bailout. Sykes discussed it at the time, and we opined that the biggest, nastiest, scratch-spit-and-screech fight would erupt NOT over whether the tax should be imposed--but over the allocation of the money. But the fact remains that Finley brought it up. Do you REALLY suppose that Dan Finley took that job so he could lock the Museum's doors in 5-10 years? (See "Politician Survival 101" with text by Tom Ament, co-authored by Tommy Thompson.)

3) Jill Pelisek is emphatically NOT some 'fringe' crusader socialite ditz. She's a mover and shaker, and she volunteered to be the lightning-rod on this. (See Ancient History 101: and study the chapter entitled SeligStadium. Bud Selig took a lot of heat, too.)

4) The linked article has more non-denial denials than X42 on his best day. And when GMC and MMAC start non-denial denials, things are in motion.

Still making book and taking bets.

Class dismissed.

Additional homework: Begin counting MSM editorials on the topic of "Great Cities Always Have Great Arts," "Children and The Arts," and "Suburban Greed."

We Broke This News--Predator in Brookfield

Yah, we wuz fustest:

http://dad29.blogspot.com/2006/05/predator-on-prowl.html, dated May 23rd.

On June 1st, the Waukesha Freeman ran a 6-graf story about this creep, who was working the Brook Park subdivision in the Town of Brookfield. Same MO--likes young boys, stops his blue RV and asks for help...

Schools (and you) are on notice.

A Picture--MORE than 1000 Words

From The Crescat:

While We're Talking About Australia...

In the post below, Cdl. Pell of Australia helped Bp. Trautman understand Roman communications.

Here's an interesting excerpt about seminary life under Cdl. Pell:

Community prayer life is an important component of the seminary. In Sydney, the seminary has a daily Rule of Life. The men pray the Divine Office together in the chapel for morning, evening and night prayers, along with daily mass. A half hour of meditation is scheduled after morning prayer.

Three-quarters of an hour of Eucharistic Adoration takes place every night and an hour of Eucharistic Adoration each Sunday afternoon. Silence is required after 10:30 p.m. until after morning Mass the next day and all conversations, phone calls, and TV watching have to stop by 10:30pm.

An annual retreat is held for the whole seminary community and days of reflection are set aside during. Seminarians are expected to make a regular confession.

Academic formation is designed to nurture and inspire the personal faith of the seminarian and to presents “unambiguously the truth of the Catholic Church captured in the Scriptures and the Tradition.”It focuses on the formation of a Catholic mind, a heightened moral conscience and a deep knowledge of the Word of God as “living word.”

But the overall goal is “to produce good and holy priests.”

Archaic--almost ante-Deluvian, eh?

Check the RESULTS:

The number of seminarians in Australia has sharply increased in recent years and Church officials are attributing it to effective leadership, challenging spiritual and academic formation and a focus on shaping “good and holy priests,” says an article by Michael Gilchrist in the June issue of AD2000.

The Seminary of the Good Shepherd in Sydney, for example, has 44 seminarians, more than double the number of five years ago. Thirty of these men are in formation for the Archdiocese of Sydney. There are also 18 students at the recently established Redemptoris Mater Seminary run by the Neocatechumenate, a movement in the Church founded in 1968.

The St Charles Seminary in Perth has 20 students this year. Eight new priests were ordained for the archdiocese in December. Numbers have also increased in Melbourne, where there are now 35 seminarians at Corpus Christi. Even the small Diocese of Wagga Wagga has 12 men studying for the priesthood. Gilchrist attributes the increase in Sydney and Melbourne, in part, to Cardinal George Pell, who had served in Melbourne and continues to serve Sydney. A similar increase occurred in Melbourne a few years ago after the cardinal implemented reforms at the seminary.

This is what's called A Plan That Works.

HT: New Liturgical Movement

Cardinal Pell on Translations

Heh.

In an interview with John Allen of NCR, Cardinal Pell of Australia reminds the Whine-Crowd (Bp Trautman, e.g.) of reality:

Where do things stand on the new Order of the Mass?

Basically pretty healthy. It's been approved in Australia, it's been approved in England.

There's a big vote coming up in June in the United States. Do you have any sense of what you think will happen?

I think it'll get through.

If so, are the big battles over?

Experience has taught me that it's always dangerous to claim that. Nevertheless, if it gets through, that represents a significant achievement. I think the approval by Australia and England of the Order of the Mass is also significant.

When do you expect the Order of Mass will be in use?

I'm not sure. I think that we'll probably proceed together. I don't think it will be approved country-by-country piecemeal, because the ambition is to have one Roman Missal for the English-speaking world, with possibly a few local variants. I think that's a very worthy ambition.
What if the American bishops vote to request significant changes? Would the Australians and the English take another look?

I'm not exactly sure. I suspect that there would be informal consultations, and very possibly if the changes weren't too radical the Congregation for Divine Worship would either rule or suggest some compromise. But we're talking hypothetically, because I don't know.

You've seen the recent letter from Cardinal Francis Arinze to Bishop William Skylstad in the United States, warning that any text departing from the principles of Liturgiam Authenticam could not be approved. What do you make of it?

It's just stating what the situation is. It's sometimes useful to be reminded of the basic verities
.
The Vox Clara Commission believes the new text satisfies those principles?

Yes, very much so.

A cynic might suggest the cardinal's letter was intended to influence the upcoming vote of the U.S. bishops.

I'm sure he'd write it for some good purpose!

If this text is eventually approved, are the liturgy wars over?

I'm tempted to say that it would enormously change the balance of things, but I have no doubt there would be isolated and sporadic resistance. We have a big challenge to make the English [texts] powerful modern, appropriate and strong. We don't want to just achieve doctrinal fidelity but have clumsy English. We've got the doctrinal fidelity now. The ICEL translations are coming through beautifully on that score. But I think with some of them, a few of them, the quality is quite uneven.

Including the Order of the Mass?

No, I think the Order of the Mass is OK. I'm looking at other texts that are at a much earlier stage.

HT: Amy

Great Texas Story

Some of you STILL haven't read the LawDogFiles.

This one is short, and a lot of fun.

We should try it up here...

I'll spoil the ending just a bit:

Mr Critter, I want to to listen very closely. I want you to consider this incident not so much as an ass-whipping, but rather as a hint from God that next time you should pay for your beer. Bond stands. Good day."

...and If You Believe THIS...

The Greater Milwaukee Committee issued a presser, going sideways (not backwards.)

A GMC member and volunteer, Jill Pelisek, shared her ideas on a regional tax for cultural institutions similar to the Denver model. Jill has studied and promoted this idea for years, however it is not a recommendation of the GMC Cultural Assets Task Force, the GMC Executive Committee or the Milwaukee 7 Council. The GMC Cultural Assets Task Force is examining the issues of the County Budget and its impact on cultural institutions, transit, parks, and other key services. It will make a series of recommendations to the GMCBoard in September and is looking at many of the underlying cost issues.

Please be assured that as our work together on KRM and on the Milwaukee 7 Council has shown, we would not informally or formally make a regional recommendation without the support and vetting of our regional partners. Mayor Barrett and the other public officials involved in the Milwaukee 7 collaborative have not reviewed or endorsed any regional sales tax proposal."

Fix your eyeballs on the last line. Insert "yet" between "not...reviewed"

I'll be taking bets and establishing a line at the BloggerPicnic/BeerBlowout.

HT: Sykes

The Moonbat Agenda--In Print

You've always KNOWN this is true--but never had the goods. NOW you have the goods:

...the President went up to Pennsylvania to visit a nuclear plant. Well, it appears the the silly folks over at Greenpeace were ready for him, with protesters handing out a Greenpeace fact sheet. Only problem was, Greenpeace apparently forgot to proofread the "fact sheet". And so it said:

"In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world's worst nuclear accident, there have been nearly [FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE]."

That's right -- the actual flyer that they handed out said, "[FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE]."

McIlheran's Good Questions

Patrick comes up with another good observation and some interesting questions:

Mexico is apparently sheltering 20 wanted killers from Milwaukee alone — and you can’t get executed for murder here. Mexico won’t turn over suspects if there’s the danger they’ll be sent to prison for life without parole. Even that’s too much for Mexico, which apparently feels some ambiguity about whether a guy who shoots people to death in a park should spend his life in prison.This is particularly amusing in that some part of our country’s been worried that solutions to our illegal immigration problem might offend our neighbor. Building walls isn’t nice, it has been said. Calling out the National Guard has gotten Mexican officials in a lather. And try to imagine what Mexico’s reaction — and that of the rest of the world — would be if the U.S. dared suggest that Mexico do something to liberalize the dirigiste Third World economy that’s leading millions of its own citizens to flee, unwelcomed, to the neighbors.

If we’re talking neighborliness, one sign of it from Mexico might be to stop serving as a convenient haven for guys who blow away people here. That wouldn’t be too much to ask, would it?

Neither the Waukesha robber/cop-shooter, nor the South Shore Park killer would have been IN the US except for the horribly flaccid border policies of the Federal Government. Perhaps officer Glover would still be alive today (certainly, the man he shot would be alive) if that man had NOT been able to walk across the border.

It's not a question of whether illegals are criminals. The question is why the Hell there are illegals in the first place.

24 Hours Later, Where's Vrakas?

Figuring that Waukesha County Executive Vrakas would issue a press release strongly denouncing the "7-County-Tax" idea, I waited until now to ask. Since nothing appeared in the JSOnline, it's time to ask:

Where's Vrakas?

A little too much Memorial Day sunshine? Perhaps he's not read the papers? Did he fall into the Fox River?

Or did Dan (not-really-a-conservative) Finley put a MasterLock on Vrakas' press-release-generating-machine?

Best speak up, Mr. Vrakas. Inquiring minds want to know...

The Rules of Men

This is not new, but bears repeating.

Women, learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

Birthdays, Valentines, and Anniversaries are not considered by us to be opportunities to see if we can find the perfect present . . . . again!

Sometimes we are not thinking about you. Live with it.

Sunday = sports. It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.

Don't cut your hair. Ever. Long hair is always more attractive than short hair. One of the big reasons guys fear getting married is that married women always cut their hair, and by then you're stuck with her.

Ask for what you want. Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

We don't remember dates. . . .Period!!

Most guys own three pairs of shoes - tops. What makes you think we'd be any good at choosing which pair, out of thirty, would look good with your dress?

Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

A headache that lasts for 17 months is a problem. See a doctor.

Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days.

If you won't dress like the Victoria's Secret girls, don't expect us to act like soap opera guys.

If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us. We've been tricked before!!

If something we said can be interpreted two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

Let us ogle. We are going to look anyway; it's genetic.

You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

Christopher Columbus did not need directions, and neither do we.

The relationship is never going to be like it was the first two months we were going out. Get over it. And quit whining to your girlfriends.

ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

We are not mind readers and we never will be. Our lack of mind-reading ability is not proof of how little we care about you.

If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," we will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, expect an answer you don't want to hear.

Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as navel lint, the shotgun formation, new guns, hunting stories, idiots-we-met-at-the-office, or monster trucks.

Foreign films are best left to foreigners. (Unless it's Bruce Lee or some war flick where it doesn't really matter what they're saying anyway.)

BEER is as exciting for us as handbags are for you.

Thank you for reading this; Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight, but did you know, it's like camping.

- Howard Daughters

HT: Bonfire of the Vanities

The Pope, Auschwitz, and Deicide

While visiting Auschwitz, Pope Benedict made the following observation:

“Deep down, those vicious criminals [the Nazis], by wiping out this people [the Jews], wanted to kill the God who called Abraham, who spoke on Sinai and laid down principles to serve as a guide for mankind, principles that are eternally valid. If this people, by its very existence, was a witness to the God who spoke to humanity and took us to himself, then that God finally had to die and power had to belong to man alone—to those men, who thought that by force they had made themselves masters of the world. By destroying Israel, they ultimately wanted to tear up the taproot of the Christian faith and to replace it with a faith of their own invention: faith in the rule of man, the rule of the powerful."

Like many others on reading this, I thought that it was an interesting insight, but...you know, 'how could that be possible?'--after all, the implication here is that not only the Jews, but the Catholics and Lutherans would be exterminated.

Well, maybe that WAS the plan. A commenter at Bettnet's thread on the topic lays out the plan:

I invite you and your readers to consider William Shirer’s “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”, acknowledged by many as the definitive history of the Third Reich. On pages 332-333 of his book (Paperback, Fawcett Crest, 1960), Mr. Shirer tells us of the Nazis’ plan to set up the “National Reich Church”. A 30-point program for this Church was in fact prepared by Nazi-ideologist Alfred Rosenberg, who was, as Mr. Shirer tells us, an outspoken pagan. Among the more chilling items in that program are these, which are mentioned by Mr. Shirer:

1. The National Reich Church of Germany categorically claims the exclusive right and the exclusive power to control all churches within the borders of the Reich ...

5. The National Church is determined to exterminate irrevocably ... the strange and foreign Christian faiths imported into Germany in the ill-omened year 800.

7. The National Church has no scribes, pastors, chaplains or priests, but National Reich orators are to speak in them.

13. The National Church demands immediate cessation of the publishing and dissemination of the Bible in Germany ...

14. The National Church declares that to it, and therefore to the German nation, it has been decided that the Fuehrer’s Mein Kampf is the greatest of all documents. It ... not only contains the greatest but it embodies the purest and truest ethics for the present and future life of our nation.

18. The National Church will clear away from its altars all crucifixes, Bibles and pictures of saints.

19. On the altars there must be nothing but Mein Kampf (to the German nation and therefore to God the most sacred book) and to the left of the altar a sword.

30. On the day of its foundation, the Christian Cross must be removed from all churches, cathedrals and chapels ... and it must be superseded by the only unconquerable symbol, the swastika.

This plan, to wipe out the God of Israel, and replace Him and His word with the State and the scribbling of a demented Austrian, has adherents today, not only in countries still dominated by the Communists, but in the West, including the US. The removal of God from the public square and the replacement with purely secular "ideals" and "morals" is ongoing and pervasive.

Pope Benedict has made it one of his priorities to 're-evangelize' Europe, and by extension, the West as a whole; it is a logical outgrowth of JPII's role in the demolition of the USSR's Communist regime. Benedict has clearly indicated that the West is becoming "God-less," and to him, this is a very significant problem; because the State[s] will step in to fill the void.

Shirer's documentation of the Nazi program is a timely and useful reminder of the reality.

YOU Owe $6500.00

That's your family's share of the State of Wisconsin's debt.

Not your city's debt; not your County's debt; not your School system's debt--just the State's debt.

HT: Frank Lassee

Tax for Parks, Tax for Arts, Tax, Tax, Tax

Tim Sheehy, fresh from his defeat on electric choochoo trains, seeks revenge:

A small, new multicounty sales tax should be considered to support regional cultural attractions, representatives of two leading business and civic organizations said Wednesday.

...Main beneficiaries of a regional cultural tax could include the Milwaukee County Zoo, Milwaukee Art Museum, the Mitchell Park Domes and other major institutions that draw many patrons from beyond Milwaukee County, said Jill Pelisek, chairwoman of a Greater Milwaukee Committee study group on the future of Milwaukee County parks.

...Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce President Tim Sheehy also urged a limited regional funding approach, starting with regional assets that already receive some Milwaukee County tax levy support. Those include the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, the zoo, the Milwaukee Public Museum and a variety of smaller organizations.

This is not a surprise. Dan Finley floated this concept, or one similar to it, when he came onstream at the Museum. Most likely Finley took the position with the understanding that new tax support would be forthcoming.

Given that Sheehy and Pelisek (wife of the attorney who rammed SeligStadium through) are now on the record with the proposal, we can assume that a number of other local potentates are also on board, and it's merely a matter of acquiring Legislative approval.

That will be an interesting process to watch.

The "Mind" of the Left; Racism Projection

Xoff, head honcho of a shadowy Leftist interest group electioneering for BagmanJim, shows his intellectual prowess.

Yup. He goes right to the name-calling.

Some of us happen to think that there is a legitimate interest in the immigration status of criminals--particularly murderers. The Left doesn't want to think about that. We could conclude that the Left merely doesn't want to think in the first place. That's possible.

A better possibility is that the Left has an interest in burying information which is pertinent, especially as the House and Senate meet to (perhaps) write immigration legislation.

Sure wouldn't want ALL the facts out there, would we?

Xoff's post demonstrates the psychological affliction of Projection. He, like other members of the Left, think in terms of race because they are busy assembling blocs of races for political purposes.

On the other hand, Americans think in terms of the nation as a whole. National interest, public interest--stuff like that.

This reflex-namecalling of the Left will become prominent as the Marriage Amendment moves to center-stage here in Wisconsin. Opponents of Queer Marriage will be termed "homophobes." That makes them just like House members who oppose Amnesty; or thinking individuals who simply like to have ALL the facts at hand before rendering a judgment.

Shock! The Killer's an Illegal

WISN/1130 reports the news (but not the surprise) that the South Shore Park shooter is an illegal.

S'pose amnesty will apply?

...and Da WINNAH!!

...c'est moi!!

MKE Online's Blog of the Week winner, 5/18/06!

Thanks!

Straw Buyers

Whenever one buys a handgun through a dealer, which is the vast majority of purchases, one of the questions on the REQUIRED FORM is "Are you purchasing this weapon for (on belhalf of) another person?"

The question is aimed at Straw Buyers--those who have a clean record, and the cash, required to purchase a weapon, but who may be then transferring it to an individual who does NOT have a clean record, and is unable to purchase weapons from dealers.

The last time this issue arose, I visited Badger and asked a few questions. The answers were exactly the same as they are today.

Beatovic said his store on S. 43rd St. isn't part of the problem. He said he often testifies in court cases, opens his records to detectives and frequently calls police to arrest people trying to buy guns illegally.

"We are not the bad guys, damn it. I don't care what those numbers say," he said.

Badger could change its inventory mix and sell weapons whose list prices exceed, say, $500.00, such as H&K, Springfield Armory, Beretta, S&W, Glock...but that sort of policy flies in the face of realities; for openers, those list prices generally apply only to new-in-box pistols. What about used guns? They would be giving away that marketplace to other retailers, and bear in mind that gun shops are a lot like car dealerships--the real profits are in the used-items sales (and parts and accessories, such as bullets, targets, etc.)

Badger could also refuse to sell guns to certain "types" of people, and lose a hell of a large lawsuit for discriminatory practice. Not a good idea. Beyond that, what about the folks who ARE law-abiding types and who simply want self-protection?

Ester Hodges comes to mind.

A retired construction worker, she was quick to call police when trouble erupted on her 4300 block of W. Garfield St., making repeated efforts to have one particular house declared a nuisance.

When the police hosted a community action meeting last month, she was in attendance, vocal as ever.

...Hodges got her gun, which she kept for protection. Shortly afterward, a fight broke out. By the time it was over, Hodges had been shot in the stomach.

On Sunday, Hodges was in the intensive care unit of Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital in Wauwatosa while police investigated.

What shall Badger tell Ester (and the hundreds of others like her)? "Tough cookies?" "Run away?" "Lay back and enjoy it?" "Renew your Health Insurance?"

Badger sells legitimately, but some of their customers are liars. Maybe Tom Barrett, with his Congressional experience, can help Badger in discerning who's lying.

But I doubt it.

Don't Like Illegal Immigration? You May Be a Skinhead

The Washington DC 'elite' gang simply does not like people who oppose illegal immigration. Various members of the wine-and-brie crowd have described opponents of illegal immigration as 'yahoos,' 'nativists,' and 'vigilantes.'

That's nothing. Time magazine is loading the guns now t0 call those opponents the neo-Nazis.

...protest illegal immigration, and it becomes an occasion for the media to find every faction and fraction of the Klan and the Nazis. Time's Jeffrey Ressner became this week's publicity agent for liberal "anti-hate" groups. The headline was "Rousing the Zealots: Neo-Nazis, white supremacists and militiamen are revivified by the furor over illegal immigration."

And which Lefty bunch is feeding Time this line?

"The immigration furor has been critical to the growth we've seen" in hate groups, says Mark Potok, head of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Ressner added: "In addition to white supremacists, the immigration debate seems to have reinvigorated members of the antigovernment militias of the 1990s.

Surprise, surprise.

Wisdom

From EveTushnet:

When the serpent tempts Eve, she doesn't turn to God. She doesn't even run! She thinks she can face down the Devil by herself, by the power of her reason and will. And so she fails. Don't ever get in a staring contest with the Devil.

South Shore Park--An Illegal Alien?

Not much is publicly-known about the South Shore Park attempted-massacre, yet.

One question of interest: was the shooter an Illegal Alien?

UPDATE

Sykes mentions that HIS sources in the Cop Shop advise "the shooter is headed for a Foreign Country."

Hmmmmmmmmmm.........

Levin Blasts Kristol

Bill Kristol, whose crinkly (or smarmy) smile occasionally makes the FoxNews discussions with Brit Hume, is a controversial character.

Mark Levin presents two divergent views of the Immigration Issue--one from an Indiana congressman, the other from Kristol.

It's fair to say that Levin is not too impressed with Kristol's blessing of the Senate's S2611 abomination:

Certain Republican elites think they have the pulse of the conservative movement, but they don’t. In fact, many of them have never been active in the conservative movement. They often throw around Ronald Reagan’s name, having never campaigned for him in either 1976 or 1980, as if they share both his ideology and courage. They don’t realize that they’ve become part of the Republican establishment that Reagan fought most of his political life. And they look down on talk radio (except when they’re trying to hawk their books) because they look down on the grassroots. Talk radio is far more engaged with and responsive to the conservative base than those holed up in office buildings writing for others who are holed up in office buildings. And so the intensity of opposition from conservatives and many, many other Americans to the cynical ethnic pandering and dangerous open-borders viewpoint by the administration and the Senate is condescendingly dismissed as coming from a bunch of “yahoos.” (Here .) They arrogantly attack the very people whose views they claim to represent.

I am reminded of Savage's description of certain NeoCons: "red-diaper babies"...

GKChesterton: Truth, Pity, Governments, and Fanatics

Gilbert! magazine is a semi-scholarly publication issued six times/year; it's the magazine of the American Chesterton Society. The April/May issue has some articles of interest which seem to be related.

"The real evil of our social estate is not so much that nothing is being done for the people; a great deal is being done. The real evil is that nothing (literally, nothing) is being done by the people.
...they have no organ by which to control government. It is easy enough to say that the costermonger can vote; but what for? He is allowed at rare intervals to vote for one of two highly disputable theories of some very distant question...

...But this is the great curse of modern reform; we merrily spread the habits of wealth, and call them the necessities of civilization. (GKC, 3/12/10)

While the excerpted essay was written about divorce (some British Government commission was conducting hearings on that topic at the time,) the thoughts apply in other venues--we could talk about the WI Supreme Court's derogation of "lawful purpose" in preventing self-defense for those who do not live in comfortable suburbs, for example.

Reviewing a book, Catholic Worker Movement: Intellectual and Spiritual Origins (Paulist Press, M & L Zwick, co-authors,) Dale Ahlquist compares GKChesterton with Dorothy Day.

Day is viewed with suspicion by both the Left and the Right; by the Left because in the end she foreswore Communism, and by the Right because at one time she had been sympathetic with Communism. In the end, Dorothy Day was a Catholic, which earned her the disdain of both the Left AND the Right.

"In the case of conservatives, what has hurt Dorothy Day is her spotty past...which she deeply regretted. But...what happens before one's conversion must never be forgiven. This helps conservatives turn a blind eye toward the unseemly conditions of the poor...in Chesterton's words, 'their Truth is pitiless.'

"In the case of liberals, what has hurt Dorothy Day is what happened after her death. Some of the Catholic Worker houses she founded...have neglected the "Catholic" part...Their strength is mere activism...abortion has been the preferred method of dealing with crisis pregnancy, and Catholic moral teachings...on homosexuality is studiously ignored. ...'their Pity is untruthful.'"

It is true today, as well...

Were the above comments all the magazine contained, it would be worth the $5.50 price. But in addition, Fr. James Schall, S.J., contributes an article on "Fanaticism" which serves, in a way, as a capstone.

Fr. Schall tells us that he was looking for a Tolstoy book, and found an essay on Tolstoy by GKC in the process. In the essay, Chesterton mentioned "Enthusiasm," "...which meant, in the eighteenth century, the condition of a lunatic, and in ancient Greece, the presence of a god."

Schall goes on to reference Josef Pieper's take on the word 'enthusiasm' ---in the Platonic/Greek sense of "having our world open to more than nature or our own constructions," and then Schall mentions Ronald Knox's application of the term to "movements that went beyond the normal, something that could undermine any social or religious order."

"Chesterton, for his part, sees...utter logical consistency, the meticulous carrying out of a principle...[as] what is wrong..."

"Already for a half century before his time, Chesterton noted something that is very common today, namely the view that religion is the origin of 'Fanaticism.' ...The irony of this view, however, is that getting rid of religion will not get rid of Fanaticism. Scientists and politicians, Chesterton thought, are just as capable of being 'Fanatics,' as priests, maybe more so.

"[In the case Tolstoy mentions, the Doukhnabors] 'A sect of men starts with no theology at all, but with the simple doctrine that we ought to love our neighbor and use no force against him, and they end in thinking that it is wicked to carry a leather handbag or to ride in a horse-driven cart.'

"Of Tolstoy, ...'A great modern writer who erases theology altogether, denies the validity of Scripture and the Churches alike, forms a purely ethical theory that love should be the instrument of reform, and ends by maintaining that we have no right to strike a man if he is torturing a child before our very eyes.'

Both of these examples of real Fanaticism remain with us today.

"'Fanaticism has nothing at all to do with religion,' Chesterton affirms.

'[Tolstoy] is not a mystic and therefore he has a tendency to go mad.'

"This passage recalls Chesterton's discussion of the Maniac...a man with one idea according to which he sees all else in a distorted light. 'Men talk of the extravagances and frenzies that have been produced by mysticism; they are a mere drop in the bucket. In the main, and from the beginning of time, mysticism has kept men sane.'

"[Chesterton] chastised the Augustinians and Platonists for their withdrawal from things to contemplate The One as if they could not also find The One through particular things which after all, originated in The One.

"'The thing that has driven them mad (that is, the Fanatics) was logic.'...The only thing that has kept the race of men from the mad extremes...has been mysticism--the belief that logic is misleading, and that things are not what they seem.'"

Schall concludes: "Common sense does not eschew logic as such. But it does see that at the origin of things is a Reality Whose ways are not our ways. This is what the mystic also sees. It is the Fanatic who does not see this limitation, but chooses to follow the logic of his position even when it leads him to absurdity. Things are, and can be known. But likewise, things "are not what they seem." We did not create them and must be prepared to find in them more than we could imagine."

One hestitates to refer to this issue of Gilbert! as "thematic." But the excerpts assembled above, taken together, speak a loosely-unified message: that "Truth deficient in Pity," or "Pity deficient in Truth" are both Fanaticisms, as is Government without the mysteriously mystic input of the People.

Worth Repeating/Hat Tip To McMahon

Stolen from Tom McMahon's blogspot:


An old Indian Chief sat in his hut on the reservation, smoking a ceremonial pipe and eyeing two U. S. Government officials sent to interview him. "Chief Two Eagles" asked one Official, "You have observed the white man for 90 years. You've seen his wars and his technological advances. You've seen his progress, and the damage he's done." The Chief nodded in agreement.
The Official continued, "Considering all these events, in your opinion, where did the white man go wrong?"

The Chief stared at the Government Officials for over a minute and then calmly replied, "When white man found the land, Indians were running it. No taxes. No debt. Plenty buffalo. Plenty beaver. Women did all the work. Medicine man free. Indian man spent all day hunting and fishing, all night having sex."

Then the Chief leaned back and smiled, "Only white man dumb enough to think he could improve system like that."

Lots more worth reading over there, too...

Poster for Screechin'Shirley, Queen of Hearts

For the Chief Justice of the WI Supremes, this poster.



Mommy Shirley, May I? Pretty Please??

There are other excellent posters at the link, and even more where they came from (linked in the blogpost.)

She Did What? WHERE??

In the Police Reports section:

A 46-year-old woman was given a ticket alleging disorderly conduct in the 14700 block of W. Capitol Drive at 3:30 p.m. May 16. She was observed urinating on the side of the road.

Not the run-of-the-mill police call.

Xoff Can't Explain This

Our favorite lefty spinner, Xoff, just KNOWS that the locus of evil in the modern world (after the Republicans) is the NRA. They have guns; they USE the guns.

But the 54,000 (NRA's own tally) attendees at their annual convention have left town.

So what's to account for this headline in the Milwaukee JS?

2 killed, 9 injured in weekend shootings (5/28/06)

Lies, Damned Lies, and Engineering Grads

Everyone "just KNOWS" the numbers:

"Last year more than 600,000 engineers graduated from institutions ofhigher education in China," the report stated. "In India the figure was 350,000. In America, it was about 70,000." To dramatize the seriousness of the issue, the academies titled the 543-page report"Rising Above the Gathering Storm," an allusion to Winston Churchill's book "The Gathering Storm," about events leading up toWorld War II.

That's what the Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy, a joint group from the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and Institute of Medicine (which, with the NationalResearch Council, are collectively known as the National Academies) [said.]

Naturally, given this lofty pedigree, the statistics then materialized in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and on many Web sites. While Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman did not use these specific numbers in his 2005 bestseller, "The World Is Flat," he did write that Asian universities currently produce eight times as many bachelor's degrees in engineering as U.S. universities do.

Well, after a LOT of "further review" by the WSJ, the Christian Science Monitor, and others, it turns out that the numbers are simply false.

After an exhaustive study, researchers at Duke University also pummeled the numbers. In a December 2005 analysis, "Framing the Engineering Outsourcing Debate," they reported that the United States annually produces 137,437 engineers with at least a bachelor's degree while India produces 112,000 and China 351,537. That's more U.S. degrees per million residents than in either other nation.

(Gerald Bracey via Norm Matloff)

Esenberg Slays Screechin'Shirley, Queen of Hearts

You may have noticed that I didn't think too highly of Screechin'Shirley's asinine "ruling" on concealed weapons.

Esenberg, in a more refined way, makes the same point:

Given our constitution's guarantee of the right to keep and bear arms, you might ask, how can this be?

The answer lies in the creativity of clever lawyers, with which our judiciary is well populated. Rather than give full force and effect to the constitution's recognition of a right to bear arms for "any other lawful purpose," a majority of the justices have read the litany of specific reasons for the right to bear arms (i.e., for "security, defense," etc.) as restrictions on the right.

The threshold for the reasonable need of a concealed weapon for security purposes seems very high. The court hasn't said that you basically have to be a store owner in Little Beirut with the convocation of street gangs from the 1979 street noir classic "The Warriors" being re-enacted outside your window, but one does get the sense that unless you've recently had a drive-by, you are not yet in enough danger.

What I am suggesting is that the state Supreme Court has taken what is specified in our constitution as a right and turned it into a privilege. It has not done so by a technical application of lawyerly skills that only trained professionals could understand (and of which, therefore, can be the only critics) but by a cramped and less than obvious reading of a fairly simple English sentence.

To repeat: the Court has so ruled. Now let THEM enforce it.

Hastert's "Immunity," Bush's "Seal" and Gonzales

Well, the fun's just beginning.

Hastert and Boehner (along with the alleged criminal Jefferson) and the Twit of the Senate, Frist, claim that Congressional offices are off-limits to Executive Branch investigators during a criminal investigation, regardless of blessing by a Court.

Yah.

So Bush, ever ready to prostitute himself and the REST of this country to anyone who says "OWIE!! That Hurts!!", orders the evidence sealed (and kept on Funk & Wagnall's porch, we presume.) He ordered the boys to take a Time Out so the AG and Hastert can settle down.

But that may not be the whole story. Apparently GWB first thought that those nasty FBI bullies should give the evidence back to the alleged criminal.

Whereupon Gonzales and Mueller (FBI) told GlobaloneyGeorge that they would resign, immediately, were he to so order.

Let's have a poll here: is LAURA Bush running this country?

Hastert Dumps ALL OVER Cheney & Bush: Novak

Denny Hastert's recent hissy-fit over "Congressional Immunity" may be personal, not professional.

Here's an interesting tidbit not reported by the MSM (surprise...)

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, a 64-year-old ex-high school wrestling coach, ordinarily is not a shouter. But according to Capitol Hill sources, he engaged in a high decibel rant last week when he met with Vice President Dick Cheney. The speaker was enraged by the sacking of his friend and former colleague, Porter Goss.

Hastert was so vituperative that a private session with President George W. Bush in the living quarters of the White House was scheduled immediately (although Hastert aides said the meeting had been planned previously). The speaker toned down his volume on the hallowed ground and did more listening than talking. But the president did not slake Hastert's wrath over the abrupt sacking of Goss as CIA director.

That wrath reflects the feeling in the House Republican cloakroom that Goss, who gave up a safe congressional seat from Florida for a thankless cleanup mission at the CIA, is being made a scapegoat for the government's intelligence mess. But Hastert's discontent goes beyond the CIA. The GOP mood on Capitol Hill, particularly the House, is poisonous. With pessimism rising over a contemplated loss of their majority in the 2006 elections, Republican lawmakers blame their parlous condition on Bush's performance.

...

Correctly or not, the treatment of Goss has caused speculation in Congress that Bush is making a peace offering to his critics at Langley. A president waging a global war against terror can hardly function with an intelligence agency whose employees make off-the-record speeches against his policies, contribute to his political opponents and leak secrets to the news media. Was getting rid of Goss the equivalent of a white flag of surrender?

Such interpretations suggest that there is basically non-communication between Bush and fellow Republicans in Congress.

Well, no kidding!! Tony Snow's stupid "speeding ticket" remarks would be ONE hint...

Se, NON Puede, Jim

Jim Sensenbrenner thinks that he can negotiate a reconciliation between the House and Senate versions of Immigration reform.

Good luck, Jim.

Hagel-Martinez (S2611) is best described as a Monster-Government-Enabling-Bill; it's a politically-driven pig of a bill which does NOT achieve border security. It DOES, however, grant amnesty, establish rights for immigrants which exceed the rights of current US citizens--and IS blessed by none other than Ted Kennedy and Jimmuh Carter.

It will be interesting to watch Sensenbrenner's strategy unfold; but my suspicion accords with Limbaugh's: Immigration Reform is dead, dead, dead this year.

BagManJim Doyle--What A Jack...

Doyle is earning another soubriquet: "Dr. No!"

NO! to sensible pier legislation.

"We're not going after anyone's piers. . . . My executive order is consistent with the compromise we worked out," Doyle said We'll see, eh?

NO! to Health Savings Account tax incentives.

Doyle vetoed the bill on health savings accounts, as he has before, on the grounds that it helped the wealthy at the expense of low- and middle-income families Pure crap, Jimbo. HSA's will be established for "low- and middle-income families" when Wisconsin tax law comports with Federal tax law. Already there are several thousand UFCW members with HRA's (yes, the plan is different from an HSA.) Jimbo--meet the 21st Century...

NO! to requiring citizenship papers to obtain State benefits.

Wisconsin law is already clear that they cannot receive benefits, [Doyle] said, and a federal law taking effect July 1 will require both identification and documentation of citizenship from those seeking benefits. Then I'm sure that your State employees will carefully observe the law, right?

NO! to Legislative input on casinos (which will set up a bidding-war with campaign contributions.)

Doyle said the bill ran counter to federal law, even though some states give their legislatures a voice in siting casinos. When Doyle was attorney general, he supported legislative oversight of casinos. Pure, unadulterated self-interest. I know. Blanchard's in your pocket. Not to worry.

NO! to reporting the results of his "efficiency drive" in State Gummint.

Doyle called the report unnecessary Which means that your "savings" claims are likely BS.

January's Inauguration Day looks SOOOOO good...

Tony Snow on Speed

Poor Tony. He has to come up with witticisms and analogies to make the case for S2611 (Hagel-Martinez.)

But he'll have to do better than this:

The White House on Friday said a Senate bill that would grant legal status to illegal immigrants is analogous to a traffic law that allows a speeder to pay a fine and continue driving.

"If you had a traffic ticket and you paid it, you're not forever a speeder, are you?" White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said in response to questions from The Examiner.

Uhhh---Tony---did White House Counsel advise you that civil and criminal law are interchangeable? If so, you have a malpractice claim.

You just made Jim Sensenbrenner's case: it IS AMNESTY. "Not forever" is a key phrase, Tony.

Lamentations

Sent by a close relative:

My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning. My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat it raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in icepack coolers, but I can't remember getting e.coli .

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then. The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system.

We all took gym, not PE... and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now.. Flunking gym was not an option... even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention. We must have had horribly damaged psyches.

What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything. I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.

I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations.

Oh yeah... and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed!

We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of Mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked. Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.

We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either because if we did, we got our butt spanked there and then we got butt spanked again when we got home. I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off. Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house. Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck.

To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known that? We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes? We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac! How did we ever survive?

By my count, at least half of the changes articulated above are the result of ambulance-chasers and/or Mommy-May-I Legislators.

In 20 years, parents will have to explain "McDonald's" and "Burger King" to their tykes, too.

Jim Doyle Screws the Taxpayers--Again!

Pretty soon he'll run out of new ways to clean Wisconsin taxpayers--or perhaps drive all the taxpayers OUT of the State. The 7-county Milwaukee area saw a net outflow of wealth recently; no reason that the rest of the State should be different.

THIS time, BagManJim decided that applicants for Wisconsin social services do NOT have to demonstrate that they are citizens of the USA. Just walk in and get bennies!! No Problem-o!!

We're absolutely sure that various church-based charities would provide, if necessary--so why should the State?

Because it's only taxpayer money, that's why.

Thanks, BagMan. What'll you be doing in January, anyway?

First Things

C S Lewis, via Laudator Temporis Acti:

The sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal, or two friends talking over a pint of beer, or a man alone reading a book that interests him; and . . . all economics, politics, laws, armies, and institutions, save insofar as they prolong and multiply such scenes, are a mere ploughing of the sand and sowing of the ocean, a meaningless vanity and vexation of the spirit.

Sometimes it's good to be reminded of wisdom.

Memorial Day

Arlington National Cemetery, Winter (HT Malkin.)

Be slowly lifted up, thou long black arm,

Great gun towering toward Heaven, about to curse,

Reach at that Arrogance which needs thy harm,

And beat it down before its sins grow worse;

But when thy spell be cast complete and whole,

May God curse thee, and cut thee from our soul!

(Wilfred Owen)

Rayburn Office Building--Well Equipped!!

A "shots fired" report came from the Rayburn Office Building of the US House of Representatives this morning. No one hurt as of posting time...

MOST interesting part of the story was that the ROB has a "firing range" in a sub-basement level.

Next time you visit your Congresscritter, ask if you, too, can use the range--or if that's reserved for Powdered Princelings Who Are Immune From Criminal Investigations.

Jessica's New Direction?

Jessica McBride is pretty good at picking apart the local MSM's reporting, and has a solid grasp of the REST of the social malaise. But on her blogsite this morning, we see the (below) picture of a "Bean Soup" evidently concocted from a recipe linked under the picture.


Is this some sort of subliminal signal? (Can we be more alliterative?) Is Jessica migrating to nutrition and condimental issues?

Where's OUR Jessica??

A Two-fer

SOME residents in Milwaukee have quite a deal going in their Aldermanic representation:

Two for One.

They get a guy with two names, two Social Security numbers, two drivers' licenses, at least two close-personal-friends-of-the-female-persuasion---

All for the price of one.

BONUS: the rest of the Greater Milwaukee area gets free entertainment!!

Aurora Inflation Generator Coming Soon

Some judge ruled that (in effect) Aurora may build its new Health-Care-Cost-Inflation-Building in Oconomowoc.

Think that sentence is a bit inflammatory? Then run these numbers through your calculator, Shirley:

Original proposed cost: $85MM (2001)

Cost quoted today: $166MM (2006)

Change in cost: $81MM+

Annual Aurora Inflation of Hospital Building Cost: 19.058%

State Employees: We Make Up For It In Cost

Here's a cute line:

The state's work force is already among the leanest in the country, said Cathy Rought, spokeswoman for American Federation of Teachers-Wisconsin. Census figures show that nationally there are 70 residents for each state employee, and in Wisconsin there are 79 people for each state employee, she said.

OK. But Cathy, Wisconsin's cost-per-State-employee is near the highest in the universe--that's the problem.

Spanish-American War Debt Paid; IRS To Quit Collecting Tax

Yup.

That's today's good news.

The Internal Revenue Service today announced that it will stop collecting the federal excise tax on long-distance telephone service.

The tax on telephone services was first imposed in 1898. The current rate is 3% of the charges billed for these services. The IRS announcement follows decisions in five federal appeals courts holding that the tax does not apply to long-distance service as it is billed today.

(It took FIVE appeals rulings to get these guys off the dime, as it were...)

Taxpayers will be eligible to file for refunds of all excise tax they have paid on long-distance service billed to them after Feb. 28, 2003. Interest will be paid on these refunds.

Taxpayers will claim this refund on their 2006 tax returns. In order to minimize burden, the IRS expects to announce soon a simplified method that individuals may use.

So taxpayers wont have to spend time digging through old telephone bills, were designing a straightforward process that taxpayers may use when they file their tax returns next year, said IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson. Claiming a refund will be simple and fair.

The IRS announcement does not affect the federal excise tax on local telephone service, which remains in effect. Likewise, various state and local taxes and fees paid by telephone customers are also unaffected.

Source: IRS Email Listserver

Rush Gets the Snow Job

Tony Snow was interviewed on the Limbaugh program today. It would be interesting to know who thought who was the spider, or fly...

Limbaugh certainly did not give Snow a free pass on the Senate's "Immigration" bill; he was quite aggressive in mentioning its flaws. On the other hand, Rush didn't have all the numbers handy, I suppose.

Snow absolutely ACED Rush on the "employers of illegals" question. Limbaugh mentioned that enforcement simply has been lax, at best, to date. Snow gave him some runaround about "reading the papers and noticing all the companies which have been raided" lately.

Yah, Tony. About TWO have been in the papers. Snow simply ignores the fact that enforcement numbers are down by 90+% since Simpson-Mazzoli was passed, and Rush didn't have the numbers.

What was really cute was that Snow told Rush that 'employer enforcement' would occur because one private enterprise would tattle on another (who may/may not be employing illegals.) Really, Tony?

As Jessica points out, INS doesn't even bother to pick up an illegal when he's listed in the phone book and clearly ID'd as an illegal.

Tony also stated that the President wants to put the National Guard on the border "in two weeks." Well, two weeks have passed since GWB put the proposal on the table, and we don't see 6,000 troops down there.

Snow also yapped about how the President wants to increase the Border Patrol's numbers, conveniently forgetting that the President, when given the money by Congress specifically for that purpose, did not spend it.

Yah, Tony. Snow job it was.

Abp Weakland STILL At It

...dissent, that is.

Sadly, Abp Weakland was asked to speak at the recent priests' gathering out in Lake Geneva (or wherever resort.)

As the acutely observant "Mike" points out, ol' Rembert still manages to sow his seeds:

There is but one Christ. Paul is upset with the Corinthians where one says he is baptized by Apollo, another says he is baptized by Paul. He finds that kind of designation divisive. (Is it wise today to say - as I heard someone say the other day on EWTN - I am a Pope-John-Paul-II Catholic?) quoth Rembert.

Like Mike, I ask whether the term "in union with the Pope" is familiar to Rembert...

Or how about this one:

Besides, argued Weakland, the church can reinterpret the meaning of the sacraments over the ages. When confirmation got out of the original sequence in the fourth century, he asked, "could this not have been under the guidance of the Spirit? Could this not have been an enrichment of our sacramental system and a logical evolution?"

Yah, maybe. And maybe it's JUST as logical to move Confirmation back to where it was. Moreover, the imprecision of the phrase "...can reinterpret the meaning of the Sacraments..." is serious. The Church cannot change the meaning of the Sacraments, although there is some room for changes in emphasis. Thus the migration of Confirmation from co-incident-with-Baptism to around the age of 12, then around the age of 16 (as is current here in 2006.)

But if the meaning does not change, why not change the age of administration?

Weakland is attempting, once again, to guide his successor's actions, because there is a significant effort on the part of laypeople to move the typical age of Confirmation back toward 12 years or so--it was under Weakland that the age moved up to 16.

There's more at Get Up, and Get Moving.

UW-System's Baloney

You've all read the story already--the UW System is going "diverse" by one method or the other.

This may have an effect on academically-qualified white folks:

McKellips [a UW spokestwit] was quoted as saying that “people have become accustomed to knowing that they’ll be accepted. That comfort is going to go away.”

Let's turn that phrase a bit:

Dad29 was quoted as saying that "UW has become accustomed to knowing they'll get all the tax money they want. That comfort is going away."

We could, for openers, eliminate the entire "diversity" office at UW System.

Madness in Michigan: No More "America" in School

You can't make this stuff up:

In perhaps a well-intentioned, but pernicious example of political correctness, the Michigan Department of Education is attempting to ban the "America" and "American" from our public schools. Even though the word "America" appears in the department's own civics and government benchmarks, the department's style protocol for the Michigan Education Assessment Program requires that "America" and "Americans" be expunged from our testing and grade level expectations. Last week, the department ordered that our hard-working teachers not utter the words.

We're all 'North Americans'

The Department of Education asserts that "Americans" includes Mexicans, Canadians and others in the Western Hemisphere, so referring to U.S. residents as Americans is inappropriate. In the department's view, "America" happens to include South, Central and North America. Accordingly, when referring to the colonial period, the state bureaucracy requires teachers to refer to "the colonies of North America" or "North Americans." After the American Revolution, the nation is called the United States (not of America).

HT: Clayton Cramer

Priorities in Law Enforcement

Decisionmaking 101 for Gummint Twerps:

In order to secure a bunch of taxpayer money (Federal grants), Our Mommies in state/local jurisdictions are arresting taxpayers for not wearing seat belts while driving. Horrors!! Shock!! (And, we add, a big waste of time for all involved.)

On the other hand, [n]either local nor federal authorities, meanwhile, expect to seek out J. Carmen Navarrete for being here illegally, they said Tuesday.

There's no MONEY in deporting illegals. There IS money in harassing taxpayers.

QED

Keg Lift-Und-Schlepp-Em Buys Her Next Job

Un-friggin' believable!!

On second thought--maybe not.

Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager has taken money directly from a state settlement with a pharmaceutical company and has given it in the form of grants to a bunch of health care organizations…

[T]he largest grant, ($50K!!!!) some five times larger than the grants for well established health care companies like Covenant and Race for the Cure, went to Wisconsin Citizen Action...

Excuse me for asking, but what does WiCitAct have to do with "health care?" When did this bunch of maggot-infested dope-smoking hippie wonzos EVER get involved with health care (other than, perhaps, self-admistering ampicillin to remedy...ah...you know.)

Looks like Peggy read the tea leaves in her polling. Wanna guess where she's working after November?

HT: BadgerBlogger