Gee, who woulda thunk:
Roughly one-third of the male fish in British rivers are developing female characteristics, in a frightening trend that could severely upset the ecological balance of the waterways. What's more, the trend could affect humans, with a devastating effect on fertility
And the problem is caused by chemicals that sewage-treatment plants cannot remove. But those chemicals aren't used by farmers as pesticides. The culprits are estrogens, used by millions of women in birth-control pills.
Tests showed the males developed female sex organs and were producing eggs. Such fish also produce less sperm and the sperm that is produced is of low quality. Females may also be affected, producing abnormal eggs.
Previous studies have that cod, trout and flounders are all being feminised.
Well, at least sharks, bass, and catfish are OK--for the time being.
HT: CWN
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Drink the Water, Eat the Fish. EPA is Wrong Again
Twenty years and several bazillion dollars after EPA declares that 'dioxin' is cancer-causing:
Although dubbed "the most dangerous chemical known to man," incredibly this was based entirely on the acute toxicity (poisoning) to a single species of animal -- guinea pigs. In humans incredibly massive doses have never been shown to cause any long-term damage besides severe acne, as was the case with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko in 2004.
...That's because while it's long been accepted that for acute toxicity that "the dose makes the poison" the EPA uses as a rule for all potential carcinogens that if exposure to a rat of something at a level of, say, a quart a day for 30 years is cancer-causing then exposure of a hundredth of a gram a day for one week must also be carcinogenic to humans.
It was this EPA assumption that the National Research Council directly challenged, concluding the "EPA's decision to rely solely on a default linear model lacked adequate scientific support." It said compelling new animal data from the National Toxicology Program -- released after EPA completed its reassessment -- when combined with substantial evidence that dioxin does not damage DNA, is now adequate to justify the use of nonlinear methods for estimating cancer risk at relatively low levels of exposure.
In other words, the EPA can't just choose a formula because it's convenient and serves its political ends. It can't ignore the results of myriad animal and human studies and the determination of how a certain chemical affects human cells in favor of simple mathematics. Nor can it apply that formula because it favors environmentalist groups who make a living by terrifying us into believing that a single molecule of this or that threatens the existence of "peoplekind."
The National Academy of Sciences dropped that little bomb into EPA's beautiful DC offices.
EPA's gross and utter stupidity is documented elsewhere--DDT, anyone?
Let's hope that this pushes a few courageous conservatives to act.
Although dubbed "the most dangerous chemical known to man," incredibly this was based entirely on the acute toxicity (poisoning) to a single species of animal -- guinea pigs. In humans incredibly massive doses have never been shown to cause any long-term damage besides severe acne, as was the case with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko in 2004.
...That's because while it's long been accepted that for acute toxicity that "the dose makes the poison" the EPA uses as a rule for all potential carcinogens that if exposure to a rat of something at a level of, say, a quart a day for 30 years is cancer-causing then exposure of a hundredth of a gram a day for one week must also be carcinogenic to humans.
It was this EPA assumption that the National Research Council directly challenged, concluding the "EPA's decision to rely solely on a default linear model lacked adequate scientific support." It said compelling new animal data from the National Toxicology Program -- released after EPA completed its reassessment -- when combined with substantial evidence that dioxin does not damage DNA, is now adequate to justify the use of nonlinear methods for estimating cancer risk at relatively low levels of exposure.
In other words, the EPA can't just choose a formula because it's convenient and serves its political ends. It can't ignore the results of myriad animal and human studies and the determination of how a certain chemical affects human cells in favor of simple mathematics. Nor can it apply that formula because it favors environmentalist groups who make a living by terrifying us into believing that a single molecule of this or that threatens the existence of "peoplekind."
The National Academy of Sciences dropped that little bomb into EPA's beautiful DC offices.
EPA's gross and utter stupidity is documented elsewhere--DDT, anyone?
Let's hope that this pushes a few courageous conservatives to act.
MORE State Spending
Frank Lassee is unhappy:
...We finished business for the year by approving four state employee contracts. I voted against two of them and here’s why.
For several years, many government employee unions have pushed for pay parity (read as, they want more money). In their minds, public employees are underpaid in comparison to their private sector counterparts and therefore deserve a raise.
Unfortunately, the Legislature played along. Many state employee contracts (including the two I voted against last week) now include salary increases higher than those being offered in the private sector.
...According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, by the end of the 1990’s average state and local employees were collecting nearly 50% more in total compensation (salary and benefits) than the average private sector employee. Local governments were paying 128% more than private businesses to fund health care benefits and 162% more on retirement accounts.
Wisconsin should look at our entire pay and benefits package. It should all be taken into account. We should pay competitively with the private sector, benefits should be included when we decide what we compensate government workers.
...but since there is NO deficit, according to BagManJim, what's to worry?
...We finished business for the year by approving four state employee contracts. I voted against two of them and here’s why.
For several years, many government employee unions have pushed for pay parity (read as, they want more money). In their minds, public employees are underpaid in comparison to their private sector counterparts and therefore deserve a raise.
Unfortunately, the Legislature played along. Many state employee contracts (including the two I voted against last week) now include salary increases higher than those being offered in the private sector.
...According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, by the end of the 1990’s average state and local employees were collecting nearly 50% more in total compensation (salary and benefits) than the average private sector employee. Local governments were paying 128% more than private businesses to fund health care benefits and 162% more on retirement accounts.
Wisconsin should look at our entire pay and benefits package. It should all be taken into account. We should pay competitively with the private sector, benefits should be included when we decide what we compensate government workers.
...but since there is NO deficit, according to BagManJim, what's to worry?
Some History on Immigration
....of the legal sort, that is:
Hampering today’s immigration debate are our misconceptions about the so-called first great migration some 100 years ago, with which today’s immigration is often compared. We envision that first great migration as a time when multitudes of Emma Lazarus’s “tired,” “poor,” and “wretched refuse” of Europe’s shores made their way from destitution to American opportunity
But that... distorts the realities of the first great migration. Though fleeing persecution or economic stagnation in their homelands, that era’s immigrants—Jewish tailors and seamstresses who helped create New York’s garment industry, Italian stonemasons and bricklayers who helped build some of our greatest buildings, German merchants, shopkeepers, and artisans—all brought important skills with them that fit easily into the American economy. Those waves of immigrants—many of them urban dwellers who crossed a continent and an ocean to get here—helped supercharge the workforce at a time when the country was going through a transformative economic expansion that craved new workers, especially in its cities. A 1998 National Research Council report noted “that the newly arriving immigrant nonagricultural work force . . . was (slightly) more skilled than the resident American labor force”: 27 percent of them were skilled laborers, compared with only 17 percent of that era’s native-born workforce.
In other words, these folks came to do jobs that Americans COULD NOT do...
The flood of immigrants, both legal and illegal, from countries with poor, ill-educated populations, has yielded a mismatch between today’s immigrants and the American economy and has left many workers poorly positioned to succeed for the long term. Unlike the immigrants of 100 years ago, whose skills reflected or surpassed those of the native workforce at the time, many of today’s arrivals, particularly the more than half who now come from Central and South America, are farmworkers in their home countries who come here with little education or even basic training in blue-collar occupations like carpentry or machinery.
The difference is clear.
Although open-borders advocates say that these workers are simply taking jobs Americans don’t want, studies show that the immigrants drive down wages of native-born workers and squeeze them out of certain industries. Harvard economists George Borjas and Lawrence Katz, for instance, estimate that low-wage immigration cuts the wages for the average native-born high school dropout by some 8 percent, or more than $1,200 a year.
As to "$3.00 Tomatoes!! $6.00 Carrots!!!" yappaflappa from the ag industry:
Agricultural economists Wallace Huffman and Alan McCunn of Iowa State University have estimated that without illegal workers, the retail cost of fresh produce would increase only about 3 percent in the summer-fall season and less than 2 percent in the winter-spring season, because labor represents only a tiny percent of the retail price of produce ...
There is a LOT more in the linked article.
HT: Jessica
Hampering today’s immigration debate are our misconceptions about the so-called first great migration some 100 years ago, with which today’s immigration is often compared. We envision that first great migration as a time when multitudes of Emma Lazarus’s “tired,” “poor,” and “wretched refuse” of Europe’s shores made their way from destitution to American opportunity
But that... distorts the realities of the first great migration. Though fleeing persecution or economic stagnation in their homelands, that era’s immigrants—Jewish tailors and seamstresses who helped create New York’s garment industry, Italian stonemasons and bricklayers who helped build some of our greatest buildings, German merchants, shopkeepers, and artisans—all brought important skills with them that fit easily into the American economy. Those waves of immigrants—many of them urban dwellers who crossed a continent and an ocean to get here—helped supercharge the workforce at a time when the country was going through a transformative economic expansion that craved new workers, especially in its cities. A 1998 National Research Council report noted “that the newly arriving immigrant nonagricultural work force . . . was (slightly) more skilled than the resident American labor force”: 27 percent of them were skilled laborers, compared with only 17 percent of that era’s native-born workforce.
In other words, these folks came to do jobs that Americans COULD NOT do...
The flood of immigrants, both legal and illegal, from countries with poor, ill-educated populations, has yielded a mismatch between today’s immigrants and the American economy and has left many workers poorly positioned to succeed for the long term. Unlike the immigrants of 100 years ago, whose skills reflected or surpassed those of the native workforce at the time, many of today’s arrivals, particularly the more than half who now come from Central and South America, are farmworkers in their home countries who come here with little education or even basic training in blue-collar occupations like carpentry or machinery.
The difference is clear.
Although open-borders advocates say that these workers are simply taking jobs Americans don’t want, studies show that the immigrants drive down wages of native-born workers and squeeze them out of certain industries. Harvard economists George Borjas and Lawrence Katz, for instance, estimate that low-wage immigration cuts the wages for the average native-born high school dropout by some 8 percent, or more than $1,200 a year.
As to "$3.00 Tomatoes!! $6.00 Carrots!!!" yappaflappa from the ag industry:
Agricultural economists Wallace Huffman and Alan McCunn of Iowa State University have estimated that without illegal workers, the retail cost of fresh produce would increase only about 3 percent in the summer-fall season and less than 2 percent in the winter-spring season, because labor represents only a tiny percent of the retail price of produce ...
There is a LOT more in the linked article.
HT: Jessica
GWB's First Veto
He did the Right Thing.
As to the effects, we turn to the brilliant "Blame Bush!!" blog:
When harvested from a human embryo, stem cells can be a miracle cure for a wide variety of debilitating afflictions, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, diabetes, paralysis, rhuematoid arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, sickle-cell anemia, migraine headaches, erectile dysfunction, Attention Deficit Disorder, excessive body hair, male pattern baldness, problem flatulence, dizziness, numbness, tough, hard-to-remove stains, Helsinki Syndrome, toe jam, indigestion, dyslexia, insomnia, narcolepsy, vertigo, hepatitis, tonsillitis, gingivitis, Vitus Geralitis, chancre sores, the 7-Year Itch, gridlock, and the bizarre mental illness that makes religious conservatives so averse to treating human embryos like crops to be “harvested”. But today, a senate bill that would lift the cruel ban on stem cell research was struck down by the veto-happy dictator, rendering the human embryo completely useless.
As to the effects, we turn to the brilliant "Blame Bush!!" blog:
When harvested from a human embryo, stem cells can be a miracle cure for a wide variety of debilitating afflictions, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, diabetes, paralysis, rhuematoid arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, sickle-cell anemia, migraine headaches, erectile dysfunction, Attention Deficit Disorder, excessive body hair, male pattern baldness, problem flatulence, dizziness, numbness, tough, hard-to-remove stains, Helsinki Syndrome, toe jam, indigestion, dyslexia, insomnia, narcolepsy, vertigo, hepatitis, tonsillitis, gingivitis, Vitus Geralitis, chancre sores, the 7-Year Itch, gridlock, and the bizarre mental illness that makes religious conservatives so averse to treating human embryos like crops to be “harvested”. But today, a senate bill that would lift the cruel ban on stem cell research was struck down by the veto-happy dictator, rendering the human embryo completely useless.
Prioritize!
All I know is what I read in the newspapers:
Softball players who said they witnessed a man shoot a handgun five to seven times into the air in Frontier Park finished the inning and then called police, according to a police report.
In Butler, baseball is important!
Softball players who said they witnessed a man shoot a handgun five to seven times into the air in Frontier Park finished the inning and then called police, according to a police report.
In Butler, baseball is important!
House Strips Courts of Some Authority
The House of Representatives has voted to deny Federal Courts any authority over the question of using the Pledge of Allegiance in schools.
The legislation ...passed 260 to 167. There is a companion Senate bill, but it is unclear whether the Senate will take it up in the current session.
Republicans Mark Green, Tom Petri, Paul Ryan and Jim Sensenbrenner voted for it, while Democrats Tammy Baldwin, Ron Kind, Gwen Moore and Dave Obey voted against it.
Opponents said the legislation, which would bar federal courts from ruling on the constitutional validity of the pledge, would undercut judicial independence and would deny access to federal courts to religious minorities seeking to defend their rights.
"We are making an all-out assault on the Constitution of the United States which, thank God, will fail," said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Pelosi and those of like mind might do well to READ the Constitution--it specifically authorizes Congress to strip the Courts of authority if Congress deems it appropriate. Instead, she demonstrates that the Left, unable to openly legislate their agenda, prefers to 'stealth-bomb,' using the Courts as a shield and foil.
The legislation ...passed 260 to 167. There is a companion Senate bill, but it is unclear whether the Senate will take it up in the current session.
Republicans Mark Green, Tom Petri, Paul Ryan and Jim Sensenbrenner voted for it, while Democrats Tammy Baldwin, Ron Kind, Gwen Moore and Dave Obey voted against it.
Opponents said the legislation, which would bar federal courts from ruling on the constitutional validity of the pledge, would undercut judicial independence and would deny access to federal courts to religious minorities seeking to defend their rights.
"We are making an all-out assault on the Constitution of the United States which, thank God, will fail," said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Pelosi and those of like mind might do well to READ the Constitution--it specifically authorizes Congress to strip the Courts of authority if Congress deems it appropriate. Instead, she demonstrates that the Left, unable to openly legislate their agenda, prefers to 'stealth-bomb,' using the Courts as a shield and foil.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Survey Says!!: Sykes, Xoff and Dad29 Not Bloggers
Oh well...it was nice faking it:
Bloggers are a predominantly young group of Internet users
The people they are reading on the online blogs are a young, ethnically diverse group. They are mostly newcomers to writing — often writing about their own experiences. More than half of bloggers are under age 30.
...and politics is NOT the #1 topic--rather, it's their own lives.
So apparently Sykes, Xoff, McMahon, Dad29, and Blosser the Elder (inter alia) are a distinct minority.
Youth was fleeting, eh?
Bloggers are a predominantly young group of Internet users
The people they are reading on the online blogs are a young, ethnically diverse group. They are mostly newcomers to writing — often writing about their own experiences. More than half of bloggers are under age 30.
...and politics is NOT the #1 topic--rather, it's their own lives.
So apparently Sykes, Xoff, McMahon, Dad29, and Blosser the Elder (inter alia) are a distinct minority.
Youth was fleeting, eh?
On Freedom
Blosser quotes Pannenberg:
"The prevailing idea of freedom in our societies today, of course, is the idea that each person has the right to do as he pleases. Freedom is not connected to any notion of the good as constitutive of freedom itself. Because of the incompleteness of human existence in history, any idea of freedom involves the risk of abuse. But it does make a very big difference whether the distinction between the use and abuse of freedom is observed. When it is observed, it is possible to challenge the equation of freedom with license. The ambiguity built into the modern idea of freedom helps us understand secular culture's ambivalence when it comes to values in general, and our cultural nervousness about affirming the contents and standards by which the culture itself is defined. With respect to values and cultural traditions, as with truth claims, a consumerist attitude prevails. Each chooses according to his preferences or perceived needs. The disengagement of the idea of freedom from an idea of the true and the good is the great weakness of secularist societies."
"The prevailing idea of freedom in our societies today, of course, is the idea that each person has the right to do as he pleases. Freedom is not connected to any notion of the good as constitutive of freedom itself. Because of the incompleteness of human existence in history, any idea of freedom involves the risk of abuse. But it does make a very big difference whether the distinction between the use and abuse of freedom is observed. When it is observed, it is possible to challenge the equation of freedom with license. The ambiguity built into the modern idea of freedom helps us understand secular culture's ambivalence when it comes to values in general, and our cultural nervousness about affirming the contents and standards by which the culture itself is defined. With respect to values and cultural traditions, as with truth claims, a consumerist attitude prevails. Each chooses according to his preferences or perceived needs. The disengagement of the idea of freedom from an idea of the true and the good is the great weakness of secularist societies."
There's a great deal more on that post--surveying from Aristotle through Locke.
Who IS the "Militia"?
While we're on the topic of self-defense, the NRA, and the 2nd Amendment (see below post,) another acute observation was made by the NRA's President Sandy Froman, a lovely lady lawyer from San Francisco, in her column in this month's Rifleman.
The very definition of "unorganized militia" (see the Second Amendment) was personified by the group of US citizens headed by Todd Beamer, who gave their lives in defense of the United States on Flight 93.
This "militia" (organized or not) is, as Ms. Froman points out, the entire body of citizens of this country.
Think about that as you ruminate on "gun control."
The very definition of "unorganized militia" (see the Second Amendment) was personified by the group of US citizens headed by Todd Beamer, who gave their lives in defense of the United States on Flight 93.
This "militia" (organized or not) is, as Ms. Froman points out, the entire body of citizens of this country.
Think about that as you ruminate on "gun control."
Eddie Eagle and Your Wife
Was able to spend a pleasant evening listening to a speaker who is very passionate about the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. He's a former (32-year) police officer, and a nationally-recognized armed self-defense trainer.
The attendees' single most interesting common characteristic was that they all appeared to be 'regular' folks. No airs, no haute couture, no diamond-dripping neckwear. The crowd at Summerfest would have been indistinguishable from these people.
Not surprisingly, Green and VanHollen were represented; Bucher showed up in person for the cocktail hour. Kramer, a candidate for the (R)/97th primary, also was there.
So to the headline:
The NRA has long sponsored the Eddie Eagle program. Eddie visits grade-schools and teaches the children what to do if they see an unattended weapon: in brief, 1) STOP! 2) DON'T TOUCH!! 3) LEAVE THE AREA!! and 4) TELL AN ADULT!!!
Sensible, easy to remember, and drilled into the kids' heads.
The very droll speaker, Massad Ayoob, observed that those instructions would be the very same ones your wife would give you if you observed an unattended Delicious Young Thing...
Final takeaway: Dump Doyle!!
The attendees' single most interesting common characteristic was that they all appeared to be 'regular' folks. No airs, no haute couture, no diamond-dripping neckwear. The crowd at Summerfest would have been indistinguishable from these people.
Not surprisingly, Green and VanHollen were represented; Bucher showed up in person for the cocktail hour. Kramer, a candidate for the (R)/97th primary, also was there.
So to the headline:
The NRA has long sponsored the Eddie Eagle program. Eddie visits grade-schools and teaches the children what to do if they see an unattended weapon: in brief, 1) STOP! 2) DON'T TOUCH!! 3) LEAVE THE AREA!! and 4) TELL AN ADULT!!!
Sensible, easy to remember, and drilled into the kids' heads.
The very droll speaker, Massad Ayoob, observed that those instructions would be the very same ones your wife would give you if you observed an unattended Delicious Young Thing...
Final takeaway: Dump Doyle!!
WI Supremes: The Cause of Corruption?
When the WI Supremes, led by Screechin'Shirley, abrogated a Wisconsin constitutional amendment and reversed themselves on the Indian gaming issue, they (in effect) opened a door which leads straight to influence-peddling of the worst sort. They gave sole authority over Indian gaming to one person: the Governor of Wisconsin.
Foolish, stupid, and wrong.
While that particular ruling benefits BagManJim Doyle at this time, (as K Carpenter points out), what is to prevent this massive money-machine from influencing a Republican in the future?
A few million here, a few million there--pretty soon it adds up to real money.
Foolish, stupid, and wrong.
While that particular ruling benefits BagManJim Doyle at this time, (as K Carpenter points out), what is to prevent this massive money-machine from influencing a Republican in the future?
A few million here, a few million there--pretty soon it adds up to real money.
IRS to Whack Churches
Some think this is a good thing.
The Internal Revenue Service has been warning churches and nonprofit organizations that improper campaigning in the upcoming political season could endanger their tax-exempt status.
In notices to more than 15,000 tax-exempt organizations, numerous church denominations and tax preparers, the agency has detailed its new enforcement program, called the Political Activity Compliance Initiative, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
Hmmmmmnnn.
Another way to look at it is this: IRS to Muzzle Churches Which Teach Moral Applications.
Under the regs which IRS intends to apply (largely rammed through by LBJ and his Democratic Congress) some IRS folks will be determining whether a church is "too political." That's not a situation which should be acceptable to a Conservative.
This is not a question of Left/Right. This is a First Amendment question--the operative phrase is "Free Exercise."
The Internal Revenue Service has been warning churches and nonprofit organizations that improper campaigning in the upcoming political season could endanger their tax-exempt status.
In notices to more than 15,000 tax-exempt organizations, numerous church denominations and tax preparers, the agency has detailed its new enforcement program, called the Political Activity Compliance Initiative, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
Hmmmmmnnn.
Another way to look at it is this: IRS to Muzzle Churches Which Teach Moral Applications.
Under the regs which IRS intends to apply (largely rammed through by LBJ and his Democratic Congress) some IRS folks will be determining whether a church is "too political." That's not a situation which should be acceptable to a Conservative.
This is not a question of Left/Right. This is a First Amendment question--the operative phrase is "Free Exercise."
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Gasoline Pricing
NEXT month, note the price of gasoline in Wisconsin at the pump...say after August 15th.
Barrel prices of oil are back down to $73.90, with August-delivery gasoline (regular) at $2.27.
Of course, adding ethanol AND Fed/State taxes will make the price a lot higher than $2.27.
Barrel prices of oil are back down to $73.90, with August-delivery gasoline (regular) at $2.27.
Of course, adding ethanol AND Fed/State taxes will make the price a lot higher than $2.27.
The Vatican, Israel, and Just War
Malkin (quoting Ariana Fellaci) and Morrissey have launched verbal missiles at the Vatican because a Church official reminded Israel of the principles of Just War.
Umnnnnnhhh...the Vatican's reminder is astute and timely, and deserves a bit more respect than it's been given:
The principles:
the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
there must be serious prospects of success;
the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modem means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.
Bainbridge (who practiced international law) has a thought on the application of the fourth part of the principles:
The US Catholic Council of Bishops has specifically argued that "the targeting of civilian infrastructure, which afflicts ordinary citizens long after hostilities have ceased, can amount to making war on noncombatants rather than against opposing armies." It isn't just ivory tower academicians or left-leaning churchmen who take this view. In a 2001 issue of the US my War College's Parameters journal, for example, Brigadier General Ronald S. Mangum raised doubts about whether NATO complied with just war doctrines in deliberately targeting Serbia's civilian infrastructure during the 1999 bombing campaign.
... Proportionality holds that the response to aggression should not be disproportionate to the original aggression. Was the deliberate firebombing of Dresden or Hamburg, say, proportional to the Blitz?
In fact, however, Israel clearly is targeting not just Hezbollah, but also Lebanon's official military, and, most important for our purposes, Lebanon's basic civilian infrastructure. The Beirut airport has been closed by Israeli attacks. Bridges, ports, roads, and power stations are all being targeted.
It is fair to allow for errors, especially given the tactics of Hizbollah--to hide behind civilians. There are also some interesting questions about "state-less" combatants (as GWB knows) which are not easily resolved.
But the Vatican's statement was NOT unreasonable, nor should the Vatican be criticized for doing what Churchmen are supposed to do.
Umnnnnnhhh...the Vatican's reminder is astute and timely, and deserves a bit more respect than it's been given:
The principles:
the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
there must be serious prospects of success;
the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modem means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.
Bainbridge (who practiced international law) has a thought on the application of the fourth part of the principles:
The US Catholic Council of Bishops has specifically argued that "the targeting of civilian infrastructure, which afflicts ordinary citizens long after hostilities have ceased, can amount to making war on noncombatants rather than against opposing armies." It isn't just ivory tower academicians or left-leaning churchmen who take this view. In a 2001 issue of the US my War College's Parameters journal, for example, Brigadier General Ronald S. Mangum raised doubts about whether NATO complied with just war doctrines in deliberately targeting Serbia's civilian infrastructure during the 1999 bombing campaign.
... Proportionality holds that the response to aggression should not be disproportionate to the original aggression. Was the deliberate firebombing of Dresden or Hamburg, say, proportional to the Blitz?
In fact, however, Israel clearly is targeting not just Hezbollah, but also Lebanon's official military, and, most important for our purposes, Lebanon's basic civilian infrastructure. The Beirut airport has been closed by Israeli attacks. Bridges, ports, roads, and power stations are all being targeted.
It is fair to allow for errors, especially given the tactics of Hizbollah--to hide behind civilians. There are also some interesting questions about "state-less" combatants (as GWB knows) which are not easily resolved.
But the Vatican's statement was NOT unreasonable, nor should the Vatican be criticized for doing what Churchmen are supposed to do.
The "End of the World" Scenarios Multiply
As we approach November, the frequency and variety of "TEOTWAWKI" (The End of the World As We Know It) scrivenings become almost oppressive. It's like Hitchcock's "Birds"--more and more of them, closer and closer, louder and louder....
Amazing what could happen with a non-Republican majority in Congress, eh? Oh, I don't like the possibilities; and there certainly will be some odious legislative "accomplishments" were the (D) cabal to become a majority...
Perhaps the most intriguing one is Newt Gingrich's obliquely-presented "World War III Is Here" election campaign strategy. Newt, a pointy-headed glamor-hound who has never shown an interest in anything but electing Republicans, now suggests that the Republicans would do well if they simply define the WOT (and the problems with NK and Iran, inter alia) as "WWIII."
After all, Republicans are better at managing wars successfully than Democrats!
In exquisite irony, Newtie includes 'troubles with Red China/Taiwan' in his laundry list of Things-Which-Make-Up-WWIII. Obviously, he hopes that we are stupid enough to forget that Newt and X42 empowered Red China by ramming MFN/PNTR status for Red China through Congress.
In other words, Newt was responsible for giving PRC the money to become a threat--the threat which he now warns us against. NOW he turns around and tells us that only the Republicans can save us from this threat!
Most of the 4 readers of this blog understand that I cannot support the Democrat agenda, whatever it may be. Fine.
But enough, already, of scaring grannies, women, and children with End-Times hooey.
Amazing what could happen with a non-Republican majority in Congress, eh? Oh, I don't like the possibilities; and there certainly will be some odious legislative "accomplishments" were the (D) cabal to become a majority...
Perhaps the most intriguing one is Newt Gingrich's obliquely-presented "World War III Is Here" election campaign strategy. Newt, a pointy-headed glamor-hound who has never shown an interest in anything but electing Republicans, now suggests that the Republicans would do well if they simply define the WOT (and the problems with NK and Iran, inter alia) as "WWIII."
After all, Republicans are better at managing wars successfully than Democrats!
In exquisite irony, Newtie includes 'troubles with Red China/Taiwan' in his laundry list of Things-Which-Make-Up-WWIII. Obviously, he hopes that we are stupid enough to forget that Newt and X42 empowered Red China by ramming MFN/PNTR status for Red China through Congress.
In other words, Newt was responsible for giving PRC the money to become a threat--the threat which he now warns us against. NOW he turns around and tells us that only the Republicans can save us from this threat!
Most of the 4 readers of this blog understand that I cannot support the Democrat agenda, whatever it may be. Fine.
But enough, already, of scaring grannies, women, and children with End-Times hooey.
Did the Conquistadores Bring Disease to the Aztecs?
Well, they brought smallpox, which was a killer--but not the Big One:
The fevers were contagious, burning, and continuous, all of them pestilential, in most part lethal. The tongue was dry and black. Enormous thirst. Urine of the colors of sea-green, vegetal green, and black, sometimes passing from the greenish color to the pale. Pulse was frequent, fast, small, and weak—sometimes even null. The eyes and the whole body were yellow. This stage was followed by delirium and seizures. Then, hard and painful nodules appeared behind one or both ears along with heartache, chest pain, abdominal pain, tremor, great anxiety, and dysentery. The blood that flowed when cutting a vein had a green color or was very pale, dry, and without serosity. . . . Blood flowed from the ears and in many cases blood truly gushed from the nose. . . . This epidemic attacked mainly young people and seldom the elder ones.
"This was certainly not smallpox," Acuña-Soto says. "If they described something real, then it appeared to be a hemorrhagic fever."
...All types of hemorrhagic viruses share traits. They are extremely simple, composed only of RNA enveloped in a fatty membrane, and they all must develop first in an animal host—often rodents or bats—and are spread by insects such as ticks or mosquitoes. A bite, direct exposure to rodent feces or urine, or indirect exposure through windblown particles can pass the virus to humans. If cocolitzli had been caused by a hemorrhagic virus, Acuña-Soto realized, the Spanish could not have brought it with them. Such diseases do not readily pass from one person to another, so the virus must have been native.
The hemorrhagic fevers occurred in 1545 and 1576--during a rainy year following lengthy droughts, exactly the pattern one would expect.
How long before the La Raza gang revises their "white devils" history to reflect this?
HT: Grim's Hall
The fevers were contagious, burning, and continuous, all of them pestilential, in most part lethal. The tongue was dry and black. Enormous thirst. Urine of the colors of sea-green, vegetal green, and black, sometimes passing from the greenish color to the pale. Pulse was frequent, fast, small, and weak—sometimes even null. The eyes and the whole body were yellow. This stage was followed by delirium and seizures. Then, hard and painful nodules appeared behind one or both ears along with heartache, chest pain, abdominal pain, tremor, great anxiety, and dysentery. The blood that flowed when cutting a vein had a green color or was very pale, dry, and without serosity. . . . Blood flowed from the ears and in many cases blood truly gushed from the nose. . . . This epidemic attacked mainly young people and seldom the elder ones.
"This was certainly not smallpox," Acuña-Soto says. "If they described something real, then it appeared to be a hemorrhagic fever."
...All types of hemorrhagic viruses share traits. They are extremely simple, composed only of RNA enveloped in a fatty membrane, and they all must develop first in an animal host—often rodents or bats—and are spread by insects such as ticks or mosquitoes. A bite, direct exposure to rodent feces or urine, or indirect exposure through windblown particles can pass the virus to humans. If cocolitzli had been caused by a hemorrhagic virus, Acuña-Soto realized, the Spanish could not have brought it with them. Such diseases do not readily pass from one person to another, so the virus must have been native.
The hemorrhagic fevers occurred in 1545 and 1576--during a rainy year following lengthy droughts, exactly the pattern one would expect.
How long before the La Raza gang revises their "white devils" history to reflect this?
HT: Grim's Hall
Monday, July 17, 2006
Terrorism, in Kafka's World
Earlier we posted a few items about "Whopper" Dan Maguire, a traitor to Catholicism and a cancer on the name of Marquette University, to put it politely. Dan is a close friend of Planned Parenthood.
"So What?" you say.
Here's Planned Parenthood's list of Terrorist and Extremist organizations:
American Life League (ALL)
Americans United for Life (AUL)
Christian Coalition
Concerned Women for America (CWA)
Eagle Forum
Family Research Council (FRC)
Feminists for Life of America (FFL)
Focus on the Family
Human Life International (HLI)
Life Dynamics Incorporated (LDI)
Missionaries to the Preborn
National Right to Life Committee (NRLC)
Operation Save America (formerly known as Operation Rescue)
Pro-Life Action League (PLAL)
STOPP International, aka STOPP Planned Parenthood
These organizations can always use contributions!
HT: The Curt Jester
"So What?" you say.
Here's Planned Parenthood's list of Terrorist and Extremist organizations:
American Life League (ALL)
Americans United for Life (AUL)
Christian Coalition
Concerned Women for America (CWA)
Eagle Forum
Family Research Council (FRC)
Feminists for Life of America (FFL)
Focus on the Family
Human Life International (HLI)
Life Dynamics Incorporated (LDI)
Missionaries to the Preborn
National Right to Life Committee (NRLC)
Operation Save America (formerly known as Operation Rescue)
Pro-Life Action League (PLAL)
STOPP International, aka STOPP Planned Parenthood
These organizations can always use contributions!
HT: The Curt Jester
What (Clean) Term Applies to This Whopper?
Here's the quote:
The Israelis know that if the Iraqi or the Iranian army came across the Jordan River, I would personally grab a rifle, get in a ditch, and fight and die."
-- Former US President Bill Clinton, July 31, 2002
Somehow, I don't believe the statement.
HT: Blosser
The Israelis know that if the Iraqi or the Iranian army came across the Jordan River, I would personally grab a rifle, get in a ditch, and fight and die."
-- Former US President Bill Clinton, July 31, 2002
Somehow, I don't believe the statement.
HT: Blosser
The Mythology of Immigration
Heather Mac Donald's City Journal essays are invaluable resources--particularly for those who understand that "common knowledge" may not be fact-based "knowledge."
She offers a number of myth-busters regarding the Immigration Debate which are worthwhile:
On "human rights" of illegal immigrants:
Less than a week before the Library of Congress conference, illegal aliens on the streets of Southern California were making the identical demands: “We just want some respect and human rights,” a Santa Ana protester told the Los Angeles Times. “We’re fighting to give [immigrants] equal rights,” explained a marcher in Riverside, California, holding a “Legalize, Not Terrorize” sign.
This call for “human rights” is a clever one, for it hides its radical status in a rhetorical safe harbor. What, exactly, are the “human rights” that the U.S. is denying illegal aliens? They have unfettered access to free medical care, free education, welfare for their children, free representation in court when they commit crimes, every due-process protection during criminal prosecution that the Constitution guarantees citizens and legal immigrants, the shelter of labor laws, and the miracles of modern industrial society like clean water, the control of infectious diseases (including the ones that they bring with them), and plumbing. The only putative “right” that they lack—and that, of course, is the “human right” to which they and their ambassadors refer—is the right to legal status regardless of illegal entry.
On whether enforcement actually works:
Elite wisdom for decades held that the police cannot affect crime. The social forces pushing criminals to break the law—poverty, racism, addiction—were too powerful; policing could at best try to solve crimes after they happened. New York’s Mayor Giuliani and his first police chief, William Bratton, rejected that fatalism. They empowered the New York Police Department to enforce aggressively laws that had long lain moribund. The targets of the new public-order push complained bitterly that it was unfair to arrest them for marijuana sales and other crimes after years of de facto decriminalization. The NYPD continued its enforcement drive anyway and brought crime down 70 percent in a decade. It turns out that the well-founded fear of getting caught changes behavior.
And as applied to border incursions:
Federal agencies have designated a stretch of the Texas border a zero-tolerance zone for border trespassing since December 6, 2005. Rather than releasing illegal entrants upon capture, the feds jail them for their border crime, then deport them. One Border Patrol agent told the Washington Post that the 51 percent drop in apprehensions since the operation began are “the most dynamic results” he had seen in 19 years on the force.
What about the "family values" of Hispanics? Don't we want more?
If someone proposed a program to boost the number of Americans who lack a high school diploma, have children out of wedlock, sell drugs, steal, or use welfare, he’d be deemed mad. Yet liberalized immigration rules would do just that. The illegitimacy rate among Hispanics is high and rising faster than that of other ethnic groups; their dropout rate is the highest in the country; Hispanic children are joining gangs at younger and younger ages. Academic achievement is abysmal.
Illegitimacy concerns: Without doubt, many Latinos are upwardly mobile. But a significant portion of their children are getting sucked into street life...
Half of all children born to Hispanic Americans in 2002 were illegitimate, twice the rate for American whites and 42 percent higher than the overall American rate.
Literacy Concerns: Nationwide, 53 percent of Hispanics graduate from high school, according to the Manhattan Institute’s Jay Greene—the lowest rate among all ethnic groups
Crime: Open-borders conservatives point to the relatively low crime rate among immigrants to deny any connection between high immigration and crime. But unless we can prevent immigrants from having children, a high level of immigration translates to increased levels of crime. Between the foreign-born generation and their American children, the incarceration rate of Mexican-Americans jumps more than eightfold, resulting in an incarceration rate that is 3.45 times higher than that of whites, according to an analysis of 2000 census data by the pro-immigrant Migration Policy Institute.
Assimilation into US culture: Multicultural cheerleaders argue that assimilation is proceeding apace by pointing to the fact that virtually all third-generation Hispanics can speak English. Even so, linguistic and cultural segregation among Hispanics is increasing. The percentage of Hispanics living in Hispanic enclaves rose from 39 percent in 1990 to 43 percent in 2000, reports Robert Samuelson, and as more and more aliens from Mexico and Central America enter, the size of Spanish-speaking-only areas expands.
As most business-types know, understanding the problem is critical to formulating a solution. Ms. Mac Donald's research SHOULD go a long way toward shaping a Congressional response which utilizes enforcement AND recognizes the national interest--growth, but not a disproportionate increase in crime, illiteracy, and illegitimate children.
She offers a number of myth-busters regarding the Immigration Debate which are worthwhile:
On "human rights" of illegal immigrants:
Less than a week before the Library of Congress conference, illegal aliens on the streets of Southern California were making the identical demands: “We just want some respect and human rights,” a Santa Ana protester told the Los Angeles Times. “We’re fighting to give [immigrants] equal rights,” explained a marcher in Riverside, California, holding a “Legalize, Not Terrorize” sign.
This call for “human rights” is a clever one, for it hides its radical status in a rhetorical safe harbor. What, exactly, are the “human rights” that the U.S. is denying illegal aliens? They have unfettered access to free medical care, free education, welfare for their children, free representation in court when they commit crimes, every due-process protection during criminal prosecution that the Constitution guarantees citizens and legal immigrants, the shelter of labor laws, and the miracles of modern industrial society like clean water, the control of infectious diseases (including the ones that they bring with them), and plumbing. The only putative “right” that they lack—and that, of course, is the “human right” to which they and their ambassadors refer—is the right to legal status regardless of illegal entry.
On whether enforcement actually works:
Elite wisdom for decades held that the police cannot affect crime. The social forces pushing criminals to break the law—poverty, racism, addiction—were too powerful; policing could at best try to solve crimes after they happened. New York’s Mayor Giuliani and his first police chief, William Bratton, rejected that fatalism. They empowered the New York Police Department to enforce aggressively laws that had long lain moribund. The targets of the new public-order push complained bitterly that it was unfair to arrest them for marijuana sales and other crimes after years of de facto decriminalization. The NYPD continued its enforcement drive anyway and brought crime down 70 percent in a decade. It turns out that the well-founded fear of getting caught changes behavior.
And as applied to border incursions:
Federal agencies have designated a stretch of the Texas border a zero-tolerance zone for border trespassing since December 6, 2005. Rather than releasing illegal entrants upon capture, the feds jail them for their border crime, then deport them. One Border Patrol agent told the Washington Post that the 51 percent drop in apprehensions since the operation began are “the most dynamic results” he had seen in 19 years on the force.
What about the "family values" of Hispanics? Don't we want more?
If someone proposed a program to boost the number of Americans who lack a high school diploma, have children out of wedlock, sell drugs, steal, or use welfare, he’d be deemed mad. Yet liberalized immigration rules would do just that. The illegitimacy rate among Hispanics is high and rising faster than that of other ethnic groups; their dropout rate is the highest in the country; Hispanic children are joining gangs at younger and younger ages. Academic achievement is abysmal.
Illegitimacy concerns: Without doubt, many Latinos are upwardly mobile. But a significant portion of their children are getting sucked into street life...
Half of all children born to Hispanic Americans in 2002 were illegitimate, twice the rate for American whites and 42 percent higher than the overall American rate.
Literacy Concerns: Nationwide, 53 percent of Hispanics graduate from high school, according to the Manhattan Institute’s Jay Greene—the lowest rate among all ethnic groups
Crime: Open-borders conservatives point to the relatively low crime rate among immigrants to deny any connection between high immigration and crime. But unless we can prevent immigrants from having children, a high level of immigration translates to increased levels of crime. Between the foreign-born generation and their American children, the incarceration rate of Mexican-Americans jumps more than eightfold, resulting in an incarceration rate that is 3.45 times higher than that of whites, according to an analysis of 2000 census data by the pro-immigrant Migration Policy Institute.
Assimilation into US culture: Multicultural cheerleaders argue that assimilation is proceeding apace by pointing to the fact that virtually all third-generation Hispanics can speak English. Even so, linguistic and cultural segregation among Hispanics is increasing. The percentage of Hispanics living in Hispanic enclaves rose from 39 percent in 1990 to 43 percent in 2000, reports Robert Samuelson, and as more and more aliens from Mexico and Central America enter, the size of Spanish-speaking-only areas expands.
As most business-types know, understanding the problem is critical to formulating a solution. Ms. Mac Donald's research SHOULD go a long way toward shaping a Congressional response which utilizes enforcement AND recognizes the national interest--growth, but not a disproportionate increase in crime, illiteracy, and illegitimate children.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
A Sniper? Really?
This pic is from a NYSlimes series which lionizes the jihadists in Iraq. (Surprise!!)
But I noticed something about the picture which tells me that this guy was either posing or is ineffably stupid. You rifle-shooters out there should pick up on it easily, as well.
Hint: His accuracy WILL vary...
HT: PowerLine
But I noticed something about the picture which tells me that this guy was either posing or is ineffably stupid. You rifle-shooters out there should pick up on it easily, as well.
Hint: His accuracy WILL vary...
HT: PowerLine
Parents: Send YOUR Kid to UW-Madison!
Hell, when UW-Mad employs instructors who think like this, it's obviously a top-flight education:
Barrett on the US Armed Forces: Our troops are “Christian terrorists” occupying Iraq who played “Christian heavy metal death rock” (played what?) prior to the invasion to get their bad terrorist selves pumped up.
Also, he claimed that the Mossad had been caught setting up al-Qaeda cells in “Palestine,” but shortly after that cited a BBC program to support his assertion that al-Qaeda doesn’t really exist.
Daniel Pearle was killed by our own CIA . . . he was getting too close to the truth of 9/11
Videos of captives supposedly being killed by terrorists have actually been faked by a psychological warfare unit linked to Mossad and Western intelligence.
The U.S. government was behind the Oklahoma City bombing
Vice President Cheney “who is the most likely 9/11 suspect is very likely to find himself hanged for treason within the next year”
All of this bolsters the "academic reputation" of UW-Madison how?
HT: The (Very Happy) MARQUETTE Warrior
PS: If I were the admissions officer for ANY OTHER Big 10 school, I'd have The Sayings of UW's Kevin Barrett printed up as part of a mass-mailing to high-school kids.
Barrett on the US Armed Forces: Our troops are “Christian terrorists” occupying Iraq who played “Christian heavy metal death rock” (played what?) prior to the invasion to get their bad terrorist selves pumped up.
Also, he claimed that the Mossad had been caught setting up al-Qaeda cells in “Palestine,” but shortly after that cited a BBC program to support his assertion that al-Qaeda doesn’t really exist.
Daniel Pearle was killed by our own CIA . . . he was getting too close to the truth of 9/11
Videos of captives supposedly being killed by terrorists have actually been faked by a psychological warfare unit linked to Mossad and Western intelligence.
The U.S. government was behind the Oklahoma City bombing
Vice President Cheney “who is the most likely 9/11 suspect is very likely to find himself hanged for treason within the next year”
All of this bolsters the "academic reputation" of UW-Madison how?
HT: The (Very Happy) MARQUETTE Warrior
PS: If I were the admissions officer for ANY OTHER Big 10 school, I'd have The Sayings of UW's Kevin Barrett printed up as part of a mass-mailing to high-school kids.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Republicans Voted FOR it Before Voting AGAINST It
Taking a page from the John Kerry manual, the Senate Republicans, after voting FOR building a fence along the southern border, have largely voted AGAINST funding the damn thing.
"We do a lot of talking. We do a lot of legislating," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Alabama Republican whose amendment to fund the fence was killed on a 71-29 vote. "The things we do often sound very good, but we never quite get there."
Mr. Sessions offered his amendment to authorize $1.8 billion to pay for the fencing that the Senate voted 83-16 to build along high-traffic areas of the border with Mexico. In the same vote on May 17, the Senate also directed 500 miles of vehicle barriers to be built along the border.
But the May vote simply authorized the fencing and vehicle barriers, which on Capitol Hill is a different matter from approving the federal expenditures needed to build it.
...Virtually all Democrats were joined by the chamber's lone independent and 28 Republicans in opposing Mr. Session's amendment to the Homeland Security Appropriations Act. Only two Democrats -- Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Thomas R. Carper of Delaware -- supported funding the fence.
All told, 34 senators -- including most of the Republican leadership -- voted in May to build the fence but yesterday opposed funding it.
So if you STILL send money to the "Republican Senate" Campaign Committee--you've been told in advance how stupid you really are.
"We do a lot of talking. We do a lot of legislating," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Alabama Republican whose amendment to fund the fence was killed on a 71-29 vote. "The things we do often sound very good, but we never quite get there."
Mr. Sessions offered his amendment to authorize $1.8 billion to pay for the fencing that the Senate voted 83-16 to build along high-traffic areas of the border with Mexico. In the same vote on May 17, the Senate also directed 500 miles of vehicle barriers to be built along the border.
But the May vote simply authorized the fencing and vehicle barriers, which on Capitol Hill is a different matter from approving the federal expenditures needed to build it.
...Virtually all Democrats were joined by the chamber's lone independent and 28 Republicans in opposing Mr. Session's amendment to the Homeland Security Appropriations Act. Only two Democrats -- Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Thomas R. Carper of Delaware -- supported funding the fence.
All told, 34 senators -- including most of the Republican leadership -- voted in May to build the fence but yesterday opposed funding it.
So if you STILL send money to the "Republican Senate" Campaign Committee--you've been told in advance how stupid you really are.
Gun-Siezure Prohibition Passed Senate
Y'll recall N'awleans' little trouble with a big wind and lots of water.
During the aftermath, the "law enforcement" types literally ripped a revolver from the hands of a little old lady who had the weapon for self-defense (and defense of her property) because she had remained in the area.
The U S Senate passed an amendment to a bill which would PROHIBIT such siezures during "emergencies."
Here are the Senators who prefer dis-arming little old ladies, your wives and daughters, and you, by force, whenever an "emergency" is declared:
Akaka (D-HI), Boxer (D-CA), Clinton (D-NY), Dodd (D-CT), Durbin (D-IL), Feinstein (D-CA),
Harkin (D-IA), Inouye (D-HI), Kennedy (D-MA), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Levin (D-MI), Menendez (D-NJ), Mikulski (D-MD), Reed (D-RI), Sarbanes (D-MD), Schumer (D-NY).
Even Kohl and Feingold could not support dis-arming by force...
HT: John Lott
During the aftermath, the "law enforcement" types literally ripped a revolver from the hands of a little old lady who had the weapon for self-defense (and defense of her property) because she had remained in the area.
The U S Senate passed an amendment to a bill which would PROHIBIT such siezures during "emergencies."
Here are the Senators who prefer dis-arming little old ladies, your wives and daughters, and you, by force, whenever an "emergency" is declared:
Akaka (D-HI), Boxer (D-CA), Clinton (D-NY), Dodd (D-CT), Durbin (D-IL), Feinstein (D-CA),
Harkin (D-IA), Inouye (D-HI), Kennedy (D-MA), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Levin (D-MI), Menendez (D-NJ), Mikulski (D-MD), Reed (D-RI), Sarbanes (D-MD), Schumer (D-NY).
Even Kohl and Feingold could not support dis-arming by force...
HT: John Lott
Homosex "Marriage" Stomped by 8th Circuit
The State of Nebraska's voters passed a State constitutional amendment to prohibit Homosex "Marriage," by a 70/30 margin. (This is a typical result when such "marriage" is put to voters.)
A dipwad Fed judge voided the vote.
Now a 3-judge panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the dipwad's ruling:
For those of you normal people who were smart enough not to become lawyers, any claim that a law violates the Equal Protection Clause can be subject to various levels of scrutiny. The highest is "strict scrutiny" (used when the law affects those in a "suspect class", which includes race and gender), and the lowest standard the government has to overcome to win an Equal Protection claim is the one used here - "Rational Basis."
This is important because the court declined to place sexual orientation in the same category of race or gender. More importantly, the court did not find that marriage is a "fundamental right."
A dipwad Fed judge voided the vote.
Now a 3-judge panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the dipwad's ruling:
For those of you normal people who were smart enough not to become lawyers, any claim that a law violates the Equal Protection Clause can be subject to various levels of scrutiny. The highest is "strict scrutiny" (used when the law affects those in a "suspect class", which includes race and gender), and the lowest standard the government has to overcome to win an Equal Protection claim is the one used here - "Rational Basis."
This is important because the court declined to place sexual orientation in the same category of race or gender. More importantly, the court did not find that marriage is a "fundamental right."
Hastert & Sensenbrenner: Duets in RINO Key
As mentioned a couple of days ago, Hastert's RINO stripes show clearly when he strongarms the real Conservatives in the House. Sensenbrenner has joined with Hastert a couple of times recently in such efforts: first, the Sanctimonious Yelping-and-Screeching Campaign in defense of a mythological "sacred space" of Congressional offices (the Jefferson mess;) and now, ramming a ridiculous "voting rights" act down the throats of several Southern states.
This "voting rights" act stinks:
For one thing, the bill tries to effectively make an end-run against the Georgia v Ashcroft decision that helped put limits on the enforced racial segregation of voting districts.
What the House bill does is re-establish a form of electoral apartheid, and tries to guarantee election outcomes by assuming that all minority voters have readily identifiable "preferred candidates of choice." The "right" to elect said candidates is then assumed to be sacrosanct.
The great conservative lawyer Ted Olson has criticized this new provision, and Rep. Tom Price of Georgia rightly complained that the provision would try to guarantee "the outcome of elections" rather than "the right of individuals to vote."
In short, the bill in many, many ways is utterly pernicious, and itself makes utterly racist assumptions about how the color of somebody's skin automatically determines their voting preferences.
And remember, the Georgia v. Ashcroft decision that this bill tries to vitiate is a decision that was SUPPORTED by the black, Democratic attorney general of Georgia. As if Denny Hastert from his wrestling coach's bench in Illinois knows more about the needs and rights and concerns of black voters than does the black, Democratic attorney general of Georgia, Thurbert Baker.
Jim Sensenbrenner's term as Chair/Judiciary expires early next year. One might infer that Jim's recent lovey-dovey kootchie-koo act with Hastert, who acts more RINO every year, is in anticipation of some other plum Chairmanship.
Let's hope that when THAT is settled in January, that Sensenbrenner returns to Conservatism.
This "voting rights" act stinks:
For one thing, the bill tries to effectively make an end-run against the Georgia v Ashcroft decision that helped put limits on the enforced racial segregation of voting districts.
What the House bill does is re-establish a form of electoral apartheid, and tries to guarantee election outcomes by assuming that all minority voters have readily identifiable "preferred candidates of choice." The "right" to elect said candidates is then assumed to be sacrosanct.
The great conservative lawyer Ted Olson has criticized this new provision, and Rep. Tom Price of Georgia rightly complained that the provision would try to guarantee "the outcome of elections" rather than "the right of individuals to vote."
In short, the bill in many, many ways is utterly pernicious, and itself makes utterly racist assumptions about how the color of somebody's skin automatically determines their voting preferences.
And remember, the Georgia v. Ashcroft decision that this bill tries to vitiate is a decision that was SUPPORTED by the black, Democratic attorney general of Georgia. As if Denny Hastert from his wrestling coach's bench in Illinois knows more about the needs and rights and concerns of black voters than does the black, Democratic attorney general of Georgia, Thurbert Baker.
Jim Sensenbrenner's term as Chair/Judiciary expires early next year. One might infer that Jim's recent lovey-dovey kootchie-koo act with Hastert, who acts more RINO every year, is in anticipation of some other plum Chairmanship.
Let's hope that when THAT is settled in January, that Sensenbrenner returns to Conservatism.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Charlie Posts A Good One-Liner
Naaah. Not about Screechin'Shirley's continuing Arrogaton-of-Powers March, which now resembles Sherman's walk toward Atlanta. There are no good one-liners about her or her pocket-puppet pals on the Left side of the Wisconsin Supremes.
It's about Prosti-tots--the 12-year-old skank wannabees.
If it’s not for sale, why are you advertising it?
Some of you may actually see an obtuse connection between the Governor's new powers and the prosti-tot line....but you are vicious, cynical, (and correct) observers of BagManJim.
But I'll pick a bone with Charlie, anyway. Here's more of his post:
Simply put: letting a 12 year old dress like a 21 year old puts her in harm’s way, especially since few girls that young really understand what teenage boys are really like.
Why, Charlie, may a 21-year-old dress like a skank? Does the term "virtue" no longer apply due to some clock-based divide? Should 21-year-old women be targets of lust? Why?
Or maybe we should ask if 21-year-olds ARE 'for sale.'
Just sayin'
It's about Prosti-tots--the 12-year-old skank wannabees.
If it’s not for sale, why are you advertising it?
Some of you may actually see an obtuse connection between the Governor's new powers and the prosti-tot line....but you are vicious, cynical, (and correct) observers of BagManJim.
But I'll pick a bone with Charlie, anyway. Here's more of his post:
Simply put: letting a 12 year old dress like a 21 year old puts her in harm’s way, especially since few girls that young really understand what teenage boys are really like.
Why, Charlie, may a 21-year-old dress like a skank? Does the term "virtue" no longer apply due to some clock-based divide? Should 21-year-old women be targets of lust? Why?
Or maybe we should ask if 21-year-olds ARE 'for sale.'
Just sayin'
Completing Jessica's Picture
Jessica's post on the City of Milwaukee's newest venture into the Land of Oz is incomplete.
More accurately, the picture she shows is misleading in the extreme.
See YOUR City fathers have decided to spend $800K to build a steam-heated plaza which will support a bamboo plantation. Perhaps there will be a plaque yapping about Global Warming, or maybe about nostalgia for South Vietnam, or maybe a review of Buck's The Good Earth...who knows?
But one thing we DO know: steam-heated areas in the City attract a form of life NOT depicted in Jessica's picture.
We thought we'd give you a hint:
More accurately, the picture she shows is misleading in the extreme.
See YOUR City fathers have decided to spend $800K to build a steam-heated plaza which will support a bamboo plantation. Perhaps there will be a plaque yapping about Global Warming, or maybe about nostalgia for South Vietnam, or maybe a review of Buck's The Good Earth...who knows?
But one thing we DO know: steam-heated areas in the City attract a form of life NOT depicted in Jessica's picture.
We thought we'd give you a hint:
The Definitive Essay on Anne Coulter's "Plagiarism"
Fortunately, some Web-blogger has summarized the story on Coulter's alleged plagiarism for us:
Determined to find something to attack Coulter for besides her looks, a nonpartisan and incredibly hissy amatuer investigator ran everything she’s ever said or scribbled down since grade school through a state-of-the-art pattern recognition program. What he learned threatened to sour the proudly objective researcher against conservative pundits forever.
According to John Barrie, a Professym of Indigenous Norwegian Prophylactic Juggling at the University of Berkeley, most of the words Coulter uses in her books and columns have been used before, by other writers, and occasionally in the same sequences. In many cases, these sequences are hardly coincidental. As Barrie discovered, Coulter would often take someone else’s words, replace them with her own, shuffle them around, and sometimes go so far as to change the entire sentence structure around to conceal her crime. That’s plagiarism, folks, and leave it up to conservatives to turn it into something dirty.
The same blogger sums up Anne's output as follows:
You don’t have to read any of Ann Coulter's columns or books to know what a hate-fueled orgy of lies, half-truths, and lies they are. I can’t even begin to describe every single lie that she has put to pen in her entire career. Her lies are more abundant than the stars, more plentiful than zits at a Daily Kos convention. Let’s face it: She’s a lying liar who lies.
Actually, precisely that train of "thought" has been used by a Milwaukee blogger to describe Coulter's work on Joseph McCarthy, the most significant patriot EVER to go to the Senate from Wisconsin.
Determined to find something to attack Coulter for besides her looks, a nonpartisan and incredibly hissy amatuer investigator ran everything she’s ever said or scribbled down since grade school through a state-of-the-art pattern recognition program. What he learned threatened to sour the proudly objective researcher against conservative pundits forever.
According to John Barrie, a Professym of Indigenous Norwegian Prophylactic Juggling at the University of Berkeley, most of the words Coulter uses in her books and columns have been used before, by other writers, and occasionally in the same sequences. In many cases, these sequences are hardly coincidental. As Barrie discovered, Coulter would often take someone else’s words, replace them with her own, shuffle them around, and sometimes go so far as to change the entire sentence structure around to conceal her crime. That’s plagiarism, folks, and leave it up to conservatives to turn it into something dirty.
The same blogger sums up Anne's output as follows:
You don’t have to read any of Ann Coulter's columns or books to know what a hate-fueled orgy of lies, half-truths, and lies they are. I can’t even begin to describe every single lie that she has put to pen in her entire career. Her lies are more abundant than the stars, more plentiful than zits at a Daily Kos convention. Let’s face it: She’s a lying liar who lies.
Actually, precisely that train of "thought" has been used by a Milwaukee blogger to describe Coulter's work on Joseph McCarthy, the most significant patriot EVER to go to the Senate from Wisconsin.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Omnipotence
The modern Project of Omnipotence has a great deal to do with 'positivism,' --which should sound familiar to those who have read this brief critique of "positive law" regarding the Homosex "Marriage" amendment.
The manipulation of life through Embryonic Stem-Cell Research is another expression of positivism:
Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, raised the alarm in face of a technology that regards man as a being who can be easily manipulated.
Bishop Crepaldi had the opportunity to explain -- from the point of view of the social teaching of the Church -- the role of humanity in relation to the "technical nakedness," out of which nihilism expresses itself.
The prelate referred to the temptation to manipulate embryos, warning that the main danger for society and culture is the "'technification' of spheres of life that, so considered, instead of being governed by man elude him to the point that his power is transformed into impotence."
That's a very circuitous and elegant way to say "Don't Screw with Mother Nature...or she may bite you in the ass."
According to the dicastery's secretary, "the dream of Prometheus or, to be closer in time, of Francis Bacon, wanting to place in man's hands the secret of omnipotence, in fact, leaves those hands bare, handing man over to technology which becomes the anonymous nakedness of mere action."
Taking up what Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote in his work "Introduction to Christianity," the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace recalled that positivism, according to which "what one knows how to do can also be done" results in the "dictatorship of technology."
On the contrary, the proper approach:
...Recalling John Paul II's words in the Message for the 1990 World Day of Peace, "nature understood as creation is a vocation." Bishop Crepaldi added that "things are not just things, but also the meanings that link them among themselves."
"For man this order becomes normative in the moral sense. On one hand, nature is a 'gift' and on the other it is a 'design' which has been entrusted to man so that he will collaborate in its realization."
In other words, taking the 'esse' as a given helps us understand. One cannot manipulate esse without consequences. This particular theme was best demonstrated in the Frankenstein story; it is not necessarily mythological in the sense that it may be prophetic.
(Source: Zenit "New Dictatorship")
The manipulation of life through Embryonic Stem-Cell Research is another expression of positivism:
Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, raised the alarm in face of a technology that regards man as a being who can be easily manipulated.
Bishop Crepaldi had the opportunity to explain -- from the point of view of the social teaching of the Church -- the role of humanity in relation to the "technical nakedness," out of which nihilism expresses itself.
The prelate referred to the temptation to manipulate embryos, warning that the main danger for society and culture is the "'technification' of spheres of life that, so considered, instead of being governed by man elude him to the point that his power is transformed into impotence."
That's a very circuitous and elegant way to say "Don't Screw with Mother Nature...or she may bite you in the ass."
According to the dicastery's secretary, "the dream of Prometheus or, to be closer in time, of Francis Bacon, wanting to place in man's hands the secret of omnipotence, in fact, leaves those hands bare, handing man over to technology which becomes the anonymous nakedness of mere action."
Taking up what Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote in his work "Introduction to Christianity," the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace recalled that positivism, according to which "what one knows how to do can also be done" results in the "dictatorship of technology."
On the contrary, the proper approach:
...Recalling John Paul II's words in the Message for the 1990 World Day of Peace, "nature understood as creation is a vocation." Bishop Crepaldi added that "things are not just things, but also the meanings that link them among themselves."
"For man this order becomes normative in the moral sense. On one hand, nature is a 'gift' and on the other it is a 'design' which has been entrusted to man so that he will collaborate in its realization."
In other words, taking the 'esse' as a given helps us understand. One cannot manipulate esse without consequences. This particular theme was best demonstrated in the Frankenstein story; it is not necessarily mythological in the sense that it may be prophetic.
(Source: Zenit "New Dictatorship")
"Free Trade" Re-Examined
Stephen Roach is MorganStanley's global economist. The following is excerpted from his paper published at the MorganStanley economic forum. This is a slightly long read, but Roach proposes a carefully-balanced solution to a very significant problem--which is being ignored like The Man Behind the Tree by Congress.
While military success might be necessary to guarantee political freedom, cross-border economic battles are complicated by the co-dependencies of international trade and capital flows. One party’s defensive action can easily be viewed as an offensive threat by another - triggering a sequence of responses and counter-responses that can lead to trade wars and protectionism. Such is the case today, with the mounting tensions of globalization pushing the world uncomfortably close to the slippery slope of protectionism. What can be done to arrest this dangerous trend?
...In my opinion, this question can best be addressed through the lens of an increasingly precarious US-China trade relationship - quite possibly the most important bilateral economic relationship in the world. In essence, it boils down to today’s global hegemon versus what could well be the hegemon of the future.
...This simple contrast between supply- and demand-directed growth unlocks many of the important implications that have been key in driving a wedge between these two powerful economies.
That’s especially the case with respect to saving disparities. Lacking in support from self-sustaining internal demand - especially private consumption - China has the highest saving rate of any major economy in the world. Lacking in support from domestic income generation, America’s consumption binge has been accompanied by the lowest saving rate in the world. In 2005, China’s gross national saving rate was close to 50% - about four times the 13% rate in the US.
And, of course, the comparisons are even more worrisome when calculated in net terms - after stripping out the depreciation of worn-out capacity. On that basis, the US net national saving rate effectively fell to “zero” in the second half of 2005. Without any net saving, America has no choice other than to import surplus saving from abroad - and run massive current account and trade deficits to attract that capital.
What then is the mechanism by which macro tensions between China and the US are transmitted into the political arena? In my view, that’s where the global labor arbitrage comes into play. By our calculations, in 2004, average hourly compensation in Chinese manufacturing stood at only 3% of comparable pay rates in the US. And that’s after allowing for double-digit manufacturing wage inflation in China of about 12% per annum since 1999.
...It’s not just that a saving-short America is sourcing an increasing portion of demand from a low-wage Chinese economy. It’s that US real wages have been nearly stagnant for nearly a decade - rising at slightly less than a 1% average annual rate since 1995. Near-stagnation in real wages is an especially bitter pill to swallow in that it has occurred in the context of around 3% productivity growth over the same period. Consequently, the global labor arbitrage appears to be operating mainly through the price channel (real wages) rather than through quantities (hiring) - an outcome that tempers concerns over job security but heightens the angst over income insecurity.
(This also happens to be the principal source of angst over increases in health costs, gasoline prices, AND tax-burden in the United States.)
I’ve simplified the story a lot to get to the punch line - that the “win-win” theories of globalization are in real trouble. The basic conclusion of Ricardian comparative advantage that all economists are taught to worship from birth holds that trade liberalization not only brings poor workers from the developing world into the global economic equation (win #1), but workers in the developed world then benefit by buying low-cost, high-quality goods from the developing world (win #2).
The theory breaks down because of a new disruptive technology - in this case, the Internet - that dramatically accelerates both the speed and scope of worker displacement in the developed world.
...I had the honor of sharing the podium with two of the giants of modern trade theory - Paul Samuelson of MIT, who basically developed the modern-day version of the theory of comparative advantage, and William Baumol of NYU and Princeton, who led the way in exploring the ramifications of nontradable services.
Both of these gentlemen cautioned strongly against dismissing the plight of today’s generation of trade-displaced workers in the developed world. Samuelson stressed that in an earlier era of globalization, from 1880 to 1914, a comparable burst of innovation - in this case, the advent of the factory assembly line - lowered the standard of living for many workers in the US. “I am not here to be an optimist or a pessimist,” Samuelson stated matter-of-factly, “but a realist.” He concluded that it’s pretty clear a theory is in trouble when it fails the simplest of reality tests. “Displaced workers who have lost their jobs forever - be they blue or white-collar - draw no consolation from the theoretical conjecture of the win-win trap of the globalization advocates.”
In the spirit of a “Samuelson realist,” I would offer three basic guidelines to get the US-China relationship - and the globalization debate - back on track.
One, admit there is a problem - that courtesy of IT-enabled globalization, worker displacement and wage compression in the developed world is in uncharted territory. The rich industrialized economies need to respond by investing in human capital, educational reform, and basic research.
Two, the developing world needs to be engaged, not disenfranchised. Completion of the Doha round of trade liberalization is essential, as is compliance with new and rigorous standards of intellectual property protection - the residue of comparative advantage in the developed world.
Three, macro policies need to be realigned. The US must adopt a pro-saving policy - (it's time to look VERY hard at Paul Ryan's Social Security reform, --or reducing the "mortgage interest" deduction) facing up to structural budget deficits and the pro-consumption biases of the tax code and a bubble-prone central bank; such an approach would tilt national saving to the upside - reducing the risk of increasingly contentious current-account and trade deficits. China, for its part, must deliver on the pro-consumption intent of its newly enacted 11th Five-Year Plan; that approach would reduce its excess saving and temper the destabilizing impacts of its trade and current account surpluses.
...US-China trade tensions are a microcosm of what’s wrong with globalization. Neither side is facing up to the global ramifications of its economic aspirations. America’s excess consumption is placing an enormous burden on the rest of the world. China’s excess production is doing precisely the same. Painfully, history tells us that bilateral fixes cannot be imposed on a multilateral world. Economies that defend themselves on a bilateral basis ignore the darkest lessons of history at great peril.
The "peril" was likened to setting up a village at the foot of an active volcano, or in the path of an impending landslide.
While military success might be necessary to guarantee political freedom, cross-border economic battles are complicated by the co-dependencies of international trade and capital flows. One party’s defensive action can easily be viewed as an offensive threat by another - triggering a sequence of responses and counter-responses that can lead to trade wars and protectionism. Such is the case today, with the mounting tensions of globalization pushing the world uncomfortably close to the slippery slope of protectionism. What can be done to arrest this dangerous trend?
...In my opinion, this question can best be addressed through the lens of an increasingly precarious US-China trade relationship - quite possibly the most important bilateral economic relationship in the world. In essence, it boils down to today’s global hegemon versus what could well be the hegemon of the future.
...This simple contrast between supply- and demand-directed growth unlocks many of the important implications that have been key in driving a wedge between these two powerful economies.
That’s especially the case with respect to saving disparities. Lacking in support from self-sustaining internal demand - especially private consumption - China has the highest saving rate of any major economy in the world. Lacking in support from domestic income generation, America’s consumption binge has been accompanied by the lowest saving rate in the world. In 2005, China’s gross national saving rate was close to 50% - about four times the 13% rate in the US.
And, of course, the comparisons are even more worrisome when calculated in net terms - after stripping out the depreciation of worn-out capacity. On that basis, the US net national saving rate effectively fell to “zero” in the second half of 2005. Without any net saving, America has no choice other than to import surplus saving from abroad - and run massive current account and trade deficits to attract that capital.
What then is the mechanism by which macro tensions between China and the US are transmitted into the political arena? In my view, that’s where the global labor arbitrage comes into play. By our calculations, in 2004, average hourly compensation in Chinese manufacturing stood at only 3% of comparable pay rates in the US. And that’s after allowing for double-digit manufacturing wage inflation in China of about 12% per annum since 1999.
...It’s not just that a saving-short America is sourcing an increasing portion of demand from a low-wage Chinese economy. It’s that US real wages have been nearly stagnant for nearly a decade - rising at slightly less than a 1% average annual rate since 1995. Near-stagnation in real wages is an especially bitter pill to swallow in that it has occurred in the context of around 3% productivity growth over the same period. Consequently, the global labor arbitrage appears to be operating mainly through the price channel (real wages) rather than through quantities (hiring) - an outcome that tempers concerns over job security but heightens the angst over income insecurity.
(This also happens to be the principal source of angst over increases in health costs, gasoline prices, AND tax-burden in the United States.)
I’ve simplified the story a lot to get to the punch line - that the “win-win” theories of globalization are in real trouble. The basic conclusion of Ricardian comparative advantage that all economists are taught to worship from birth holds that trade liberalization not only brings poor workers from the developing world into the global economic equation (win #1), but workers in the developed world then benefit by buying low-cost, high-quality goods from the developing world (win #2).
The theory breaks down because of a new disruptive technology - in this case, the Internet - that dramatically accelerates both the speed and scope of worker displacement in the developed world.
...I had the honor of sharing the podium with two of the giants of modern trade theory - Paul Samuelson of MIT, who basically developed the modern-day version of the theory of comparative advantage, and William Baumol of NYU and Princeton, who led the way in exploring the ramifications of nontradable services.
Both of these gentlemen cautioned strongly against dismissing the plight of today’s generation of trade-displaced workers in the developed world. Samuelson stressed that in an earlier era of globalization, from 1880 to 1914, a comparable burst of innovation - in this case, the advent of the factory assembly line - lowered the standard of living for many workers in the US. “I am not here to be an optimist or a pessimist,” Samuelson stated matter-of-factly, “but a realist.” He concluded that it’s pretty clear a theory is in trouble when it fails the simplest of reality tests. “Displaced workers who have lost their jobs forever - be they blue or white-collar - draw no consolation from the theoretical conjecture of the win-win trap of the globalization advocates.”
In the spirit of a “Samuelson realist,” I would offer three basic guidelines to get the US-China relationship - and the globalization debate - back on track.
One, admit there is a problem - that courtesy of IT-enabled globalization, worker displacement and wage compression in the developed world is in uncharted territory. The rich industrialized economies need to respond by investing in human capital, educational reform, and basic research.
Two, the developing world needs to be engaged, not disenfranchised. Completion of the Doha round of trade liberalization is essential, as is compliance with new and rigorous standards of intellectual property protection - the residue of comparative advantage in the developed world.
Three, macro policies need to be realigned. The US must adopt a pro-saving policy - (it's time to look VERY hard at Paul Ryan's Social Security reform, --or reducing the "mortgage interest" deduction) facing up to structural budget deficits and the pro-consumption biases of the tax code and a bubble-prone central bank; such an approach would tilt national saving to the upside - reducing the risk of increasingly contentious current-account and trade deficits. China, for its part, must deliver on the pro-consumption intent of its newly enacted 11th Five-Year Plan; that approach would reduce its excess saving and temper the destabilizing impacts of its trade and current account surpluses.
...US-China trade tensions are a microcosm of what’s wrong with globalization. Neither side is facing up to the global ramifications of its economic aspirations. America’s excess consumption is placing an enormous burden on the rest of the world. China’s excess production is doing precisely the same. Painfully, history tells us that bilateral fixes cannot be imposed on a multilateral world. Economies that defend themselves on a bilateral basis ignore the darkest lessons of history at great peril.
The "peril" was likened to setting up a village at the foot of an active volcano, or in the path of an impending landslide.
New Lyrics for Summertime Harvest
Most of you know the tune. Here are some seasonally-adjusted lyrics, of particular use for zucchini-growers:
Amazing Squash! How huge the yield
That must be canned by me!
I made some bread, some mashed, some soup,
But more squash now I see
'Twas squash that taught my heart to fear,
How many can I cook?
I was peeved!
How precious did that sweet bread appear,
The hour I first believed!
Through many squash borers, droughts, and blight,
I have already come;
'Tis squash that has brought me safe thus far,
And squash lead me home.
When I've been picking 10,000 years
In the Bright shining sun
I've no more ways to share God's squash
Than When I'd first begun.
HT: The Ironic Catholic
Amazing Squash! How huge the yield
That must be canned by me!
I made some bread, some mashed, some soup,
But more squash now I see
'Twas squash that taught my heart to fear,
How many can I cook?
I was peeved!
How precious did that sweet bread appear,
The hour I first believed!
Through many squash borers, droughts, and blight,
I have already come;
'Tis squash that has brought me safe thus far,
And squash lead me home.
When I've been picking 10,000 years
In the Bright shining sun
I've no more ways to share God's squash
Than When I'd first begun.
HT: The Ironic Catholic
The Regularization of SSPX Is At Hand
Of course, SSPX must accept the offer from Rome.
All is ready for the agreement between the Holy See and the Fraternity Saint Pius X, founded by the "rebel" Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. The Vatican forwarded several weeks ago precise propositions to reach peace [a peaceful solution] and the reentrance of the Lefbvrists into full communion with Rome.
The negotiations, begun in 2000, have, as is well known, accelerated after the election of Benedict XVI, who, last August received the superior of the Traditionalists, Bishop Bernard Fellay, at Castelgandolfo.
However, from Menzingen, where the head of the Lefebvrists resides, no affirmative signal has so far arrived. Exactly two days ago, the same bishop Fellay was reconfirmed at the helm of the Fraternity, by the General Chapter, for the next twelve years. He had guided it since 1994.
As his "first and second assistants" Father Niklaus Pfluger and Father Marco Nely were elected. The first belongs to the harder line, while the second belongs to the more moderate wing.
It is possible that, in the past period, with the knowledge that his term was nearing its end, Fellay would have hesitated. Now, however, precise signals are expected in the Vatican. The terms of agreement include the acceptance of the theological agreement already agreed in 1988 by Archbishop Lefebvre and the then Cardinal Ratzinger, the lift of the excommunications decreed by the Holy See after the illegitimate ordination of four bishops by the same Lefebvre, and a canonical structure, similar to that of the military ordinariat, which allows the Fraternity Saint Pius X to preserve its seminaries and to incardinate [its own] priests.
Simultaneously to the agreement, the Holy See will announce a kind of liberalization of the pre-Conciliar Missal of Saint Pius V -- a measure very much expected also by Traditionalists in communion with Rome.
This will be a significant "plus"--if it comes about. It will also call for a great deal of attitudinal change on the part of the hard-line Lefebvrists, as well as hard-line Lefties in the Church.
Oremus.
All is ready for the agreement between the Holy See and the Fraternity Saint Pius X, founded by the "rebel" Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. The Vatican forwarded several weeks ago precise propositions to reach peace [a peaceful solution] and the reentrance of the Lefbvrists into full communion with Rome.
The negotiations, begun in 2000, have, as is well known, accelerated after the election of Benedict XVI, who, last August received the superior of the Traditionalists, Bishop Bernard Fellay, at Castelgandolfo.
However, from Menzingen, where the head of the Lefebvrists resides, no affirmative signal has so far arrived. Exactly two days ago, the same bishop Fellay was reconfirmed at the helm of the Fraternity, by the General Chapter, for the next twelve years. He had guided it since 1994.
As his "first and second assistants" Father Niklaus Pfluger and Father Marco Nely were elected. The first belongs to the harder line, while the second belongs to the more moderate wing.
It is possible that, in the past period, with the knowledge that his term was nearing its end, Fellay would have hesitated. Now, however, precise signals are expected in the Vatican. The terms of agreement include the acceptance of the theological agreement already agreed in 1988 by Archbishop Lefebvre and the then Cardinal Ratzinger, the lift of the excommunications decreed by the Holy See after the illegitimate ordination of four bishops by the same Lefebvre, and a canonical structure, similar to that of the military ordinariat, which allows the Fraternity Saint Pius X to preserve its seminaries and to incardinate [its own] priests.
Simultaneously to the agreement, the Holy See will announce a kind of liberalization of the pre-Conciliar Missal of Saint Pius V -- a measure very much expected also by Traditionalists in communion with Rome.
This will be a significant "plus"--if it comes about. It will also call for a great deal of attitudinal change on the part of the hard-line Lefebvrists, as well as hard-line Lefties in the Church.
Oremus.
To Tolerate? Or Not To Tolerate? It IS the Question
From an esssay on the topic of "Tolerance" by Fr. Thomas Williams, LC:
If tolerance is a virtue, it is a decidedly modern one. It appears in none of the classical treatments of the virtues: not in Plato, not in Seneca, not even in Aristotle’s extensive list of the virtues of the good citizen in his Nichomachean Ethics. Indulgence of evil, in the absence of an overriding reason for doing so, has never been considered virtuous. Even today, indiscriminate tolerance would not be allowed. A public official tolerant of child abuse or tax evasion would hardly be considered a virtuous official.
The closer one examines tolerance and tries to apply it across the board, the more obvious it becomes that it’s simply insufficient as a principle to govern society. Even if it were possible to achieve total tolerance, it would be exceedingly undesirable and counterproductive to do so. In his play Saint Joan, George Bernard Shaw wrote, “We may prate of toleration as we will; but society must always draw a line somewhere between allowable conduct and insanity or crime.”
Moreover, as a virtue, tolerance seems to have distanced itself so far from its etymological roots as to have become another word altogether. Thus the virtue of “tolerance” no longer implies the act of “toleration,” but rather a general attitude of permissiveness and openness to diversity. A tolerant person will not tolerate all things, but only those things considered tolerable by the reigning cultural milieu. Tolerance therefore now has two radically incompatible meanings that create space for serious misunderstandings and abuse.
....and we all know WHO makes up the "reigning cultural milieu," eh?
Tolerance and intolerance have no objective referent, but rather can be applied arbitrarily. Thus the accusation of intolerance has become a weapon against those whose standards for tolerance differ from one’s own, and our criteria for tolerance depend on our subjective convictions or prejudices. Thus Voltaire was able to defend the actions of the Roman Empire in persecuting Christians and blamed the Christians themselves for their martyrdom because they failed to keep their religion to themselves. He avers that the death of Christians was a consequence of their own intolerance toward Rome, and not the other way around. Such sophistry is part and parcel of many of today’s debates on tolerance, and flows from the ambivalence of the term.
HT: Insight Scoop
If tolerance is a virtue, it is a decidedly modern one. It appears in none of the classical treatments of the virtues: not in Plato, not in Seneca, not even in Aristotle’s extensive list of the virtues of the good citizen in his Nichomachean Ethics. Indulgence of evil, in the absence of an overriding reason for doing so, has never been considered virtuous. Even today, indiscriminate tolerance would not be allowed. A public official tolerant of child abuse or tax evasion would hardly be considered a virtuous official.
The closer one examines tolerance and tries to apply it across the board, the more obvious it becomes that it’s simply insufficient as a principle to govern society. Even if it were possible to achieve total tolerance, it would be exceedingly undesirable and counterproductive to do so. In his play Saint Joan, George Bernard Shaw wrote, “We may prate of toleration as we will; but society must always draw a line somewhere between allowable conduct and insanity or crime.”
Moreover, as a virtue, tolerance seems to have distanced itself so far from its etymological roots as to have become another word altogether. Thus the virtue of “tolerance” no longer implies the act of “toleration,” but rather a general attitude of permissiveness and openness to diversity. A tolerant person will not tolerate all things, but only those things considered tolerable by the reigning cultural milieu. Tolerance therefore now has two radically incompatible meanings that create space for serious misunderstandings and abuse.
....and we all know WHO makes up the "reigning cultural milieu," eh?
Tolerance and intolerance have no objective referent, but rather can be applied arbitrarily. Thus the accusation of intolerance has become a weapon against those whose standards for tolerance differ from one’s own, and our criteria for tolerance depend on our subjective convictions or prejudices. Thus Voltaire was able to defend the actions of the Roman Empire in persecuting Christians and blamed the Christians themselves for their martyrdom because they failed to keep their religion to themselves. He avers that the death of Christians was a consequence of their own intolerance toward Rome, and not the other way around. Such sophistry is part and parcel of many of today’s debates on tolerance, and flows from the ambivalence of the term.
HT: Insight Scoop
The Holmes Folks are Right-On Parents!!
Some parents know how to parent:
The buzz is that Tom Cruise will marry the mother of his daughter Suri in late July or early August in a Scientology ceremony to be performed by church leader David Miscavige.
What’s more, Holmes’ parents, devout Catholics Martin and Kathleen, intend to skip the actual ceremony, a “friend” of Cruise reportedly told Life & Style Weekly.
A spokesman for the couple denies the story, but the mag quotes a “family friend” as saying, that Martin and Kathleen Holmes are “not happy” with their daughter’s “choice of where to marry.” Martin Holmes allegedly told the friend, “Katie can have a proper Catholic wedding her whole family will gladly be a part of.”
Katie Holmes initially wanted a Catholic wedding, but “realized she’d never win the argument about having a Catholic wedding,” a Holmes family friend reportedly told the mag. “She knows that if she had rejected Scientology, her relationship with Tom could’ve ended.”
Too bad, Katie, but you made your bed. Nighty-night.
The buzz is that Tom Cruise will marry the mother of his daughter Suri in late July or early August in a Scientology ceremony to be performed by church leader David Miscavige.
What’s more, Holmes’ parents, devout Catholics Martin and Kathleen, intend to skip the actual ceremony, a “friend” of Cruise reportedly told Life & Style Weekly.
A spokesman for the couple denies the story, but the mag quotes a “family friend” as saying, that Martin and Kathleen Holmes are “not happy” with their daughter’s “choice of where to marry.” Martin Holmes allegedly told the friend, “Katie can have a proper Catholic wedding her whole family will gladly be a part of.”
Katie Holmes initially wanted a Catholic wedding, but “realized she’d never win the argument about having a Catholic wedding,” a Holmes family friend reportedly told the mag. “She knows that if she had rejected Scientology, her relationship with Tom could’ve ended.”
Too bad, Katie, but you made your bed. Nighty-night.
US Department of Labor: Jobs You CANNOT Do
One wonders who the United States' DoL thinks is paying their salaries:
Most of us in the computer industry are aware that discrimination againstU.S. workers is widespread. There are many companies that simply do not hire U.S. workers in favor of foreign guestworkers.
In the past this practice of discrimination has taken place under cover. We knew who these companies were and did not bother applying. They knew that if they received a resume from a U.S. worker that it was probably a test.
The practice of "H-1B only" hiring has become so established that employers now feel free to engage in it openly. Over the past few weeks I have found over 1,500 "H-1B only" ads from over 350 employers.
...Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, discrimination based upon immigration status is illegal. ...
...we allege that H-1B dependent employers are not recruiting U.S. workers in "Good Faith". So far we have not had much success with complaints to the Department of Labor. For our first attempt we sent copies of 130 advertisements from a single employer. The Department of Labor responded that this was not sufficient evidence to investigate.
If 130 ads stating the company prefers H-1B holders or that only H-1Bholders can apply is not sufficient evidence to even investigate, what is?
Cute, eh?
Evidently Ms. Chao at DoL has a new category in the making: "Jobs Americans Will Not Be ALLOWED to Do"--conveniently enforced by the US Department of Labor.
(Source: ZaZona.com newsletter)
Most of us in the computer industry are aware that discrimination againstU.S. workers is widespread. There are many companies that simply do not hire U.S. workers in favor of foreign guestworkers.
In the past this practice of discrimination has taken place under cover. We knew who these companies were and did not bother applying. They knew that if they received a resume from a U.S. worker that it was probably a test.
The practice of "H-1B only" hiring has become so established that employers now feel free to engage in it openly. Over the past few weeks I have found over 1,500 "H-1B only" ads from over 350 employers.
...Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, discrimination based upon immigration status is illegal. ...
...we allege that H-1B dependent employers are not recruiting U.S. workers in "Good Faith". So far we have not had much success with complaints to the Department of Labor. For our first attempt we sent copies of 130 advertisements from a single employer. The Department of Labor responded that this was not sufficient evidence to investigate.
If 130 ads stating the company prefers H-1B holders or that only H-1Bholders can apply is not sufficient evidence to even investigate, what is?
Cute, eh?
Evidently Ms. Chao at DoL has a new category in the making: "Jobs Americans Will Not Be ALLOWED to Do"--conveniently enforced by the US Department of Labor.
(Source: ZaZona.com newsletter)
D.C. Crime
Today, class, we will discuss criminal activity in D.C. conducted OUTSIDE of Congressional offices:
While Florida crime rates are dropping, the District of Columbia has declared a crime emergency "Alan Senitt, was attacked in the Georgetown area on Sunday, his throat was slit and police say the attackers attempted to rape his companion. It was the 13th homicide in the city this month. Robberies are up 14 percent, and armed assaults have jumped 18 percent in the past 30 days."
D.C., like Wisconsin, bans concealed-carry.
Of course, there's no connection between increasing criminal assaults, robberies, and rapes and the fact that law-abiding citizens are defenseless...
None.
While Florida crime rates are dropping, the District of Columbia has declared a crime emergency "Alan Senitt, was attacked in the Georgetown area on Sunday, his throat was slit and police say the attackers attempted to rape his companion. It was the 13th homicide in the city this month. Robberies are up 14 percent, and armed assaults have jumped 18 percent in the past 30 days."
D.C., like Wisconsin, bans concealed-carry.
Of course, there's no connection between increasing criminal assaults, robberies, and rapes and the fact that law-abiding citizens are defenseless...
None.
Blogger Secret Code
In a generally hilarious rip of some lawyer's attempt at insightful 'humor,' Jib answers a question:
44. What's the maximum amount of time you'd want to spend alone with Dick Cheney?
Jib: Depends on when my wife expects me home for "The Taxpayer."
"The Taxpayer" is NOT a movie, nor a TV show.
And stodgy Lutherans don't really DO that sort of thing, do they, Jib?
44. What's the maximum amount of time you'd want to spend alone with Dick Cheney?
Jib: Depends on when my wife expects me home for "The Taxpayer."
"The Taxpayer" is NOT a movie, nor a TV show.
And stodgy Lutherans don't really DO that sort of thing, do they, Jib?
Restless Base, GWB??
You'll see this cartoon on a number of blogs. This one is not as gentle as most.
We note that GWB did not bring up Illegal Immigration while in Wisconsin. Maybe he's learned his lesson after getting a big fat ZERO at the fund-raiser in D.C. a couple of weeks ago.
We note that GWB did not bring up Illegal Immigration while in Wisconsin. Maybe he's learned his lesson after getting a big fat ZERO at the fund-raiser in D.C. a couple of weeks ago.
CDC: Docs WILL Screen Everyone for AIDS
"Would you like an AIDS test with that?"
...the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to release... guidelines this summer that would expand HIV screening to all adults in the United States.
If this happens, it means that just about anybody over the age of 13 could be asked by their doctor, "Would you like an HIV test?"
At least 25 percent of Americans infected with HIV are unaware of their status, according to the CDC.
...the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to release... guidelines this summer that would expand HIV screening to all adults in the United States.
If this happens, it means that just about anybody over the age of 13 could be asked by their doctor, "Would you like an HIV test?"
At least 25 percent of Americans infected with HIV are unaware of their status, according to the CDC.
Morning Sickness? Cut Out the Booze
See, it's just a matter of taking care of baby:
...morning sickness is positively correlated with intake of sugars and sweeteners, stimulants such as caffeine, vegetables, meats, milk and eggs, and negatively related to cereals and pulses.
Morning sickness is usually accompanied by food aversions, most commonly to meats, fish, poultry and eggs - the foods that were more likely to carry harmful microorganisms and parasites before modern refrigeration and food-handling processes. Caffeine drinks and alcohol are also disliked by many pregnant women.
...morning sickness is positively correlated with intake of sugars and sweeteners, stimulants such as caffeine, vegetables, meats, milk and eggs, and negatively related to cereals and pulses.
Morning sickness is usually accompanied by food aversions, most commonly to meats, fish, poultry and eggs - the foods that were more likely to carry harmful microorganisms and parasites before modern refrigeration and food-handling processes. Caffeine drinks and alcohol are also disliked by many pregnant women.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Starts Good, Gets Bad
Here's the headline from the subscriber email:
IRS Headquarters Will Remain Closed for Months;
Then comes the bad news:
Tax Administration Operations Continue As Employees Relocate
And then, the REST of the story:
The Internal Revenue Service and General Services Administration announced today initial findings from GSAs flood damage report on the IRSs Headquarters Building at 1111 Constitution Ave. NW. According to the GSA assessment, complete building restoration wont be complete until about the first of the year due to extensive damage the buildings infrastructure sustained during last months heavy rainfall.
The IRS and GSA are also developing plans for a possible phased-in return of employees to the building over the course of the fall.
The lengthy delay reflects the heavy damage sustained during the record rainfall. Critical parts of the buildings electrical system and heating and air conditioning systems were destroyed or heavily damaged during the record rainfall. The equipment is located in the buildings subbasement, which was submerged in more than 20 feet of water.
And just to quash your hopes:
A review is currently underway to determine what steps need to be taken to ensure this type of damage would not occur again in a comparable storm.
No matter the message from the heavens, IRS will continue.
I knew that, but...
IRS Headquarters Will Remain Closed for Months;
Then comes the bad news:
Tax Administration Operations Continue As Employees Relocate
And then, the REST of the story:
The Internal Revenue Service and General Services Administration announced today initial findings from GSAs flood damage report on the IRSs Headquarters Building at 1111 Constitution Ave. NW. According to the GSA assessment, complete building restoration wont be complete until about the first of the year due to extensive damage the buildings infrastructure sustained during last months heavy rainfall.
The IRS and GSA are also developing plans for a possible phased-in return of employees to the building over the course of the fall.
The lengthy delay reflects the heavy damage sustained during the record rainfall. Critical parts of the buildings electrical system and heating and air conditioning systems were destroyed or heavily damaged during the record rainfall. The equipment is located in the buildings subbasement, which was submerged in more than 20 feet of water.
And just to quash your hopes:
A review is currently underway to determine what steps need to be taken to ensure this type of damage would not occur again in a comparable storm.
No matter the message from the heavens, IRS will continue.
I knew that, but...
Dorothy Sayers and The Inferno
Thoughts which make one say "Hmmmm"
"That the Inferno is a picture of human society in a state of sin and corruption, everybody will readily agree. And since we are today fairly well convinced that society is in a bad way and not necessarily evolving in the direction of perfectibility, we find it easy enough to recognise the various stages by which the deep of corruption is reached.
Futility; lack of a living faith; the drift into loose morality, greedy consumption, financial irresponsibility, and uncontrolled bad temper; a self-opinionated and obstinate individualism; violence, sterility, and lack of reverence for life and property including one's own; the exploitation of sex, the debasing of language by advertisement and propaganda, the commercialising of religion, the pandering to superstition and the conditioning of people's minds by mass-hysteria and 'spell-binding' of all kinds, venality and string-pulling in public affairs, hypocrisy, dishonesty in material things, intellectual dishonesty, the fomenting of discord (class against class, nation against nation) for what one can get out of it, the falsification and destruction of all the means of communication; the exploitation of the lowest and stupidest mass-emotions; treachery even to the fundamentals of kinship, country, the chosen friend, and the sworn allegiance: these are the all-too-recognisable stages that lead to the cold death of society and the extinguishing of all civilised relations."
Schumacher, A Guide for the Perplexed, quoting Dorothy Sayers).
I suppose one should re-read Dante.
HT: The Truth of Things, a Green Bay blogger.
"That the Inferno is a picture of human society in a state of sin and corruption, everybody will readily agree. And since we are today fairly well convinced that society is in a bad way and not necessarily evolving in the direction of perfectibility, we find it easy enough to recognise the various stages by which the deep of corruption is reached.
Futility; lack of a living faith; the drift into loose morality, greedy consumption, financial irresponsibility, and uncontrolled bad temper; a self-opinionated and obstinate individualism; violence, sterility, and lack of reverence for life and property including one's own; the exploitation of sex, the debasing of language by advertisement and propaganda, the commercialising of religion, the pandering to superstition and the conditioning of people's minds by mass-hysteria and 'spell-binding' of all kinds, venality and string-pulling in public affairs, hypocrisy, dishonesty in material things, intellectual dishonesty, the fomenting of discord (class against class, nation against nation) for what one can get out of it, the falsification and destruction of all the means of communication; the exploitation of the lowest and stupidest mass-emotions; treachery even to the fundamentals of kinship, country, the chosen friend, and the sworn allegiance: these are the all-too-recognisable stages that lead to the cold death of society and the extinguishing of all civilised relations."
Schumacher, A Guide for the Perplexed, quoting Dorothy Sayers).
I suppose one should re-read Dante.
HT: The Truth of Things, a Green Bay blogger.
Flying Nuns
The Sisters of St. Joseph certainly get around.
Yesterday, convening in Milwaukee, they were protesting GWBush--NOT because GWBush is sorta squishy on abortion; but because GWBush is NOT squishy on terrorists and their sponsors (e.g. Saddam Hussein.)
About 150 protesters gathered outside the hotel, many criticizing Bush for the war in Iraq. About 100 nuns from the Sisters of St. Joseph picketed and sang for peace outside the hotel before Bush arrived.
"We hope people who see this will understand we need a country that's more compassionate," said Sister Virginia Webb of St. Paul, Minn
But in addition, the Sisters of St. Joseph were also represented at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, MN--on Pentecost--
Brigid McDonald, a Sister of St. Joseph for 53 years, was shocked when she, along with others wearing rainbow-colored sashes in solidarity with Dignity Twin Cities, Catholic Rainbow Parents, the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities, and Rainbow Sash Alliance, were denied Communion.
The JSOnline reports that only about 150 of these nuns managed to gather "for compassion."
Yesterday, convening in Milwaukee, they were protesting GWBush--NOT because GWBush is sorta squishy on abortion; but because GWBush is NOT squishy on terrorists and their sponsors (e.g. Saddam Hussein.)
About 150 protesters gathered outside the hotel, many criticizing Bush for the war in Iraq. About 100 nuns from the Sisters of St. Joseph picketed and sang for peace outside the hotel before Bush arrived.
"We hope people who see this will understand we need a country that's more compassionate," said Sister Virginia Webb of St. Paul, Minn
But in addition, the Sisters of St. Joseph were also represented at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, MN--on Pentecost--
Brigid McDonald, a Sister of St. Joseph for 53 years, was shocked when she, along with others wearing rainbow-colored sashes in solidarity with Dignity Twin Cities, Catholic Rainbow Parents, the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities, and Rainbow Sash Alliance, were denied Communion.
The JSOnline reports that only about 150 of these nuns managed to gather "for compassion."
Want Peace? Carry a Gun
Certainly is the case in Florida. CCW and "castle doctrine" laws have had an impact on the crime rate:
Well, the Palm Beach Post reports that Florida's crime rates have fallen to the lowest level since 1971. "A telephone message left for comment after hours with the The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington, D.C. was not immediately returned."
You can get the report, in pdf format, here. It shows that, even though the state's population is growing, total homicides fell by 6.9%, and firearm homicides by 6.1%.
It may be a while before Brady Center is able to spin THOSE numbers.
HT: Of Arms and the Law
Well, the Palm Beach Post reports that Florida's crime rates have fallen to the lowest level since 1971. "A telephone message left for comment after hours with the The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington, D.C. was not immediately returned."
You can get the report, in pdf format, here. It shows that, even though the state's population is growing, total homicides fell by 6.9%, and firearm homicides by 6.1%.
It may be a while before Brady Center is able to spin THOSE numbers.
HT: Of Arms and the Law
Immigration Control: Stage Two
Once the southern border is sealed properly, there's another small problem to solve:
A special visa program that allows churches to bring thousands of foreign religious workers into the country each year is riddled with fraud, an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security investigation has found.
The probe found numerous instances in which groups in the United States falsely claimed to be churches, and visa applicants lied about their religious vocations in order to get into the country .
More than a third of the visas examined by investigators were based on fraudulent information.
A report on the investigation, obtained by the Globe, said that instances of fraud were particularly high among applicants from predominantly Muslim countries, and the report raised concerns about potential terrorism risks.
I think we can afford to cancel the "special" program for, say, 20 years or so...
HT: Malkin
A special visa program that allows churches to bring thousands of foreign religious workers into the country each year is riddled with fraud, an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security investigation has found.
The probe found numerous instances in which groups in the United States falsely claimed to be churches, and visa applicants lied about their religious vocations in order to get into the country .
More than a third of the visas examined by investigators were based on fraudulent information.
A report on the investigation, obtained by the Globe, said that instances of fraud were particularly high among applicants from predominantly Muslim countries, and the report raised concerns about potential terrorism risks.
I think we can afford to cancel the "special" program for, say, 20 years or so...
HT: Malkin
Hacker-War Games?
Nothing to see here. Move along. China is our friend.
The State Department is recovering from large-scale computer break-ins worldwide over the past several weeks that appeared to target its headquarters and offices dealing with China and North Korea, The Associated Press has learned.
Investigators believe hackers stole sensitive U.S. information and passwords and implanted backdoors in unclassified government computers to allow them to return at will, said U.S. officials familiar with the hacking.
Tracing the origin of such break-ins is difficult. But employees told AP the hackers appeared to hit computers especially hard at headquarters and inside the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, which coordinates diplomacy in countries including China, the Koreas and Japan. In the tense weeks preceding North Korea's missile tests, that bureau lost its Internet connectivity for several days.
China's government was considered by experts a chief suspect in computer break-ins at the Defense Department and other U.S. agencies disclosed last summer. But China also is home to a large number of insecure computers and networks that hackers in other countries could use to disguise their locations and launch attacks.
The Pentagon warned earlier this year that China's army is emphasizing hacking as an offensive weapon.
State also took out SSL.
The State Department is recovering from large-scale computer break-ins worldwide over the past several weeks that appeared to target its headquarters and offices dealing with China and North Korea, The Associated Press has learned.
Investigators believe hackers stole sensitive U.S. information and passwords and implanted backdoors in unclassified government computers to allow them to return at will, said U.S. officials familiar with the hacking.
Tracing the origin of such break-ins is difficult. But employees told AP the hackers appeared to hit computers especially hard at headquarters and inside the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, which coordinates diplomacy in countries including China, the Koreas and Japan. In the tense weeks preceding North Korea's missile tests, that bureau lost its Internet connectivity for several days.
China's government was considered by experts a chief suspect in computer break-ins at the Defense Department and other U.S. agencies disclosed last summer. But China also is home to a large number of insecure computers and networks that hackers in other countries could use to disguise their locations and launch attacks.
The Pentagon warned earlier this year that China's army is emphasizing hacking as an offensive weapon.
State also took out SSL.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Abp. Dolan Sneaks One In for the Good Guys
It's widely reported that the Archdiocese of Milwaukee was sending its Catholic Herald newspaper to every registered Catholic family in the Archdiocese to announce the impending financial problems expected following resolution of a lawsuit for pedophile-damages in California.
Sure enough, mine arrived yesterday. Nice to notice that the Herald's format is now just like that of Human Events...imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, you know.
What was NOT reported was the other major content of the special edition:
1) A strong and unequivocal argument for amending the Wisconsin Constitution to BAN GAY MARRIAGE; and
2) A strong argument to BAN the DEATH PENALTY, also through Constitional amendment.
See, it's not really all about sex.
Sure enough, mine arrived yesterday. Nice to notice that the Herald's format is now just like that of Human Events...imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, you know.
What was NOT reported was the other major content of the special edition:
1) A strong and unequivocal argument for amending the Wisconsin Constitution to BAN GAY MARRIAGE; and
2) A strong argument to BAN the DEATH PENALTY, also through Constitional amendment.
See, it's not really all about sex.
Jess McBride: The Tinfoil Hat is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
Jessica demonstrates that she practices what she teaches, and asks a few questions.
If you pay Wisconsin income taxes, you will NOT like the answers.
The Tinfoil Barrett speech on Saturday, July 7th, was sponsored by the UW-Madison Sociology Department's Havens Center. This center gets $100,000+/year in State tax support. The event, formerly known as "RadFest" is paid for largely through registrations and some donations.
As you might infer from the moniker "RadFest" this little confab's themes are not exactly in line with Middle America's values. You just PAY for it, shut up and go away.
Discussions, workshops, and lectures:
...ways to fight the domination of the right wing on the air waves; the current political and legal climate regarding reproductive rights, focusing on rebuilding an effective movement through grassroots victories and access-based local initiatives; ...[t]his majority has not found the means, yet, to wrest control of the federal government from reactionary neo-conservative political forces. This session will focus on the strategy and tactics needed to overcome this problem; various counter-military recruiting strategies, including youth organizing, tabling in schools and the community, school board policy and non-violent civil disobedience; Voting for Peace, Banning Wal-Mart, and More; the political context of the anti-immigrant movement as a backlash against the gains of the Civil Rights Movement.
Yah, hey! ILLEGAL immigration is a Civil Rights affair.
"Clueless" Walsh, President of the Regents, UW-System, has yet to comment.
If you pay Wisconsin income taxes, you will NOT like the answers.
The Tinfoil Barrett speech on Saturday, July 7th, was sponsored by the UW-Madison Sociology Department's Havens Center. This center gets $100,000+/year in State tax support. The event, formerly known as "RadFest" is paid for largely through registrations and some donations.
As you might infer from the moniker "RadFest" this little confab's themes are not exactly in line with Middle America's values. You just PAY for it, shut up and go away.
Discussions, workshops, and lectures:
...ways to fight the domination of the right wing on the air waves; the current political and legal climate regarding reproductive rights, focusing on rebuilding an effective movement through grassroots victories and access-based local initiatives; ...[t]his majority has not found the means, yet, to wrest control of the federal government from reactionary neo-conservative political forces. This session will focus on the strategy and tactics needed to overcome this problem; various counter-military recruiting strategies, including youth organizing, tabling in schools and the community, school board policy and non-violent civil disobedience; Voting for Peace, Banning Wal-Mart, and More; the political context of the anti-immigrant movement as a backlash against the gains of the Civil Rights Movement.
Yah, hey! ILLEGAL immigration is a Civil Rights affair.
"Clueless" Walsh, President of the Regents, UW-System, has yet to comment.
Hastert's, Sensenbrenner's Argument Invalid
In the case of William Jefferson, (D) LA., a Federal judge has ruled that Congressional slime are NOT exempt from typical criminal evidentiary process:
A federal judge on Monday upheld the FBI's unprecedented raid of a congressional office, saying that barring searches of lawmakers' offices would turn Capitol Hill into "a taxpayer-subsidized sanctuary for crime."
One is tempted to comment on the last phrase of that paragraph...
Why in blazes Jim Sensenbrenner jumped into that stinking mess to defend the "sacred space" of a Congressional office in this case is beyond me. Hastert doesn't strike me as a particularly bright guy--he's more a Daley-Democrat-methods character, except for his (R) tag.
But Jim--WHAT were you THINKING?
A federal judge on Monday upheld the FBI's unprecedented raid of a congressional office, saying that barring searches of lawmakers' offices would turn Capitol Hill into "a taxpayer-subsidized sanctuary for crime."
One is tempted to comment on the last phrase of that paragraph...
Why in blazes Jim Sensenbrenner jumped into that stinking mess to defend the "sacred space" of a Congressional office in this case is beyond me. Hastert doesn't strike me as a particularly bright guy--he's more a Daley-Democrat-methods character, except for his (R) tag.
But Jim--WHAT were you THINKING?
Hillary and Bill's Pay-for-Play, Part 3,568
Captain's Quarters summarizes it nicely:
Yesterday, I wrote about the obvious quid pro quo between Bill Clinton's presidential pardon of Edgar and Vonna Jo Gregory and the loans given to Hillary Clinton's brother, Anthony Rodham, starting two months later
United Shows [the Gregorys' firm] started issuing a series of loans to Rodham that eventually totalled $107,000, loans for which they never demanded payment and which Rodham never paid on his own. It was not until United Shows went into receivership that the loans came to light
...Rodham was not the only recipient of the Gregorys' largesse. In fact, a search at Open Secrets shows that the Gregorys had sent $10,000 to Hillary's Senate campaign, about half of which came before the pardon
At least with the Clintons, pay-to-play schemes don't hit the press within 60 days. BagManJim's campaign people ought to emulate the X42/Hildebeeste playbook.
Yesterday, I wrote about the obvious quid pro quo between Bill Clinton's presidential pardon of Edgar and Vonna Jo Gregory and the loans given to Hillary Clinton's brother, Anthony Rodham, starting two months later
United Shows [the Gregorys' firm] started issuing a series of loans to Rodham that eventually totalled $107,000, loans for which they never demanded payment and which Rodham never paid on his own. It was not until United Shows went into receivership that the loans came to light
...Rodham was not the only recipient of the Gregorys' largesse. In fact, a search at Open Secrets shows that the Gregorys had sent $10,000 to Hillary's Senate campaign, about half of which came before the pardon
At least with the Clintons, pay-to-play schemes don't hit the press within 60 days. BagManJim's campaign people ought to emulate the X42/Hildebeeste playbook.
Porn and Polymorphous Pervert...Horse and Carriage
Yah.
One of the Great Unmentioneds midst conservatives is the fact that porn has deleterious effects. Affirming that fact generally leads to contentious debates, because some vocal and influential conservatives seem to value "free expression" very highly. On top of that, those same conservatives are not willing to concede that viewing porn leads to problematic acting out in many cases.
Tell it to Tony Balistreri's victims:
In sometimes graphic detail, an 18-year-old man testified Monday about how former Pewaukee Ald. Anthony C. Balistreri introduced him to pornography when he was 11 or 12, plied him with alcohol to ease his inhibitions and ultimately sexually assaulted him.
He testified that Balistreri performed oral sex on him at a motel in Portage where they were staying during a hunting trip. He said Balistreri sodomized him ...
But Tony was an equal-opportunity porn addict:
Balistreri, now of Burlington, was charged in March with taking nude photos of the girl in 2002, encouraging the child to have sex with boys her age during the same period and with having sex with the now-17-year-old girl in February while free on bail on earlier charges and awaiting trial.
And Tony didn't seem to discriminate by age, either:
In another criminal complaint, Balistreri is charged with 10 counts of possessing child pornography.
Thinking conservatives ought to re-shape their "harmless diversion" theory, and do so quickly.
One of the Great Unmentioneds midst conservatives is the fact that porn has deleterious effects. Affirming that fact generally leads to contentious debates, because some vocal and influential conservatives seem to value "free expression" very highly. On top of that, those same conservatives are not willing to concede that viewing porn leads to problematic acting out in many cases.
Tell it to Tony Balistreri's victims:
In sometimes graphic detail, an 18-year-old man testified Monday about how former Pewaukee Ald. Anthony C. Balistreri introduced him to pornography when he was 11 or 12, plied him with alcohol to ease his inhibitions and ultimately sexually assaulted him.
He testified that Balistreri performed oral sex on him at a motel in Portage where they were staying during a hunting trip. He said Balistreri sodomized him ...
But Tony was an equal-opportunity porn addict:
Balistreri, now of Burlington, was charged in March with taking nude photos of the girl in 2002, encouraging the child to have sex with boys her age during the same period and with having sex with the now-17-year-old girl in February while free on bail on earlier charges and awaiting trial.
And Tony didn't seem to discriminate by age, either:
In another criminal complaint, Balistreri is charged with 10 counts of possessing child pornography.
Thinking conservatives ought to re-shape their "harmless diversion" theory, and do so quickly.
UW: Wear Your Tinfoil Hat Here, With Pride!
The UW-Madison folks will not bend to Fascist, McCarthy-ite, Hitlerian pressures exercised by Neanderthal hicks such as BagManJim Doyle (D), Steve Nass (R), or Charlie Sykes.
Nosirreee!!
...after conducting a 10-day review of Barrett's past teaching and his plans for a fall class on Islam, Provost Patrick Farrell determined that Barrett was fit to teach and that the alternative theory on 9-11 had a place in the classroom when taught along with other viewpoints.
Farrell said academic freedom demanded the decision and that it would have been a mistake for the university to succumb to outside pressure.
For his part, [Kevin] Barrett said he was "very pleased" by the decision. He said students in his fall course, "Islam: Religion and Culture," would spend one week studying a variety of viewpoints on the 9-11 attacks, including the theory that "9-11 was probably an American operation to launch a war on Islam countries."
Board of Regents President ["Clueless Dave"] David Walsh, who has defended Barrett, agreed. He complimented Farrell for "balancing the issues regarding academic freedom with the assurance that there will be open dialogue" in the classroom.
Barrett's "theories" were analyzed by The Warrior--and it is clear that Tinfoil Barrett's position is factually-challenged, to say the least.
The UW is attempting to attract more out-of-state students. Evidently David Walsh and his subordinates think that this is accomplished by retaining faculty which is out of its mind. Think about that as you examine your State income-tax payment column next April.
..and The Badger is REALLY unhappy. His pique will be costly to UW, as he is a major supporter. Of course, they'll make it up in tax dollars if they feel like it...
Nosirreee!!
...after conducting a 10-day review of Barrett's past teaching and his plans for a fall class on Islam, Provost Patrick Farrell determined that Barrett was fit to teach and that the alternative theory on 9-11 had a place in the classroom when taught along with other viewpoints.
Farrell said academic freedom demanded the decision and that it would have been a mistake for the university to succumb to outside pressure.
For his part, [Kevin] Barrett said he was "very pleased" by the decision. He said students in his fall course, "Islam: Religion and Culture," would spend one week studying a variety of viewpoints on the 9-11 attacks, including the theory that "9-11 was probably an American operation to launch a war on Islam countries."
Board of Regents President ["Clueless Dave"] David Walsh, who has defended Barrett, agreed. He complimented Farrell for "balancing the issues regarding academic freedom with the assurance that there will be open dialogue" in the classroom.
Barrett's "theories" were analyzed by The Warrior--and it is clear that Tinfoil Barrett's position is factually-challenged, to say the least.
The UW is attempting to attract more out-of-state students. Evidently David Walsh and his subordinates think that this is accomplished by retaining faculty which is out of its mind. Think about that as you examine your State income-tax payment column next April.
..and The Badger is REALLY unhappy. His pique will be costly to UW, as he is a major supporter. Of course, they'll make it up in tax dollars if they feel like it...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
