Then the Republicans (as well as anyone else with common sense) should repeat, repeat, repeat:
...embryonic stem cell research has produced absolutely no major cures or treatements while adult stem cell research (that does not destroy embryos) has produced over 60.
Embryonic SCR, in addition to reminding us of "Dr." Mengele, is damn near useless.
So the question for Darth: Who the Hell is benefitting from this expenditure of taxpayer dollars?
HT: The Triumvirate
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Secular Liberals Fail Charity Test
A new book from Arthur Brooks claims:
...conservatives who practice religion, live in traditional nuclear families and reject the notion that the government should engage in income redistribution are the most generous Americans, by any measure.
Conversely, secular liberals who believe fervently in government entitlement programs give far less to charity. They want everyone’s tax dollars to support charitable causes and are reluctant to write checks to those causes, even when governments don’t provide them with enough money.
And the book has the statistical analysis to back it up.
It's not news. But the proofs were anecdotal, until now.
More at BloggerBeer and at The Warrior
...conservatives who practice religion, live in traditional nuclear families and reject the notion that the government should engage in income redistribution are the most generous Americans, by any measure.
Conversely, secular liberals who believe fervently in government entitlement programs give far less to charity. They want everyone’s tax dollars to support charitable causes and are reluctant to write checks to those causes, even when governments don’t provide them with enough money.
And the book has the statistical analysis to back it up.
It's not news. But the proofs were anecdotal, until now.
More at BloggerBeer and at The Warrior
Milton Friedman on Politicians
More elegant than Will Rogers, I suppose:
"Those of us who are repeatedly frustrated by the failure of elected representatives to fit the deed to the word are asking for a barking cat."
Here's a Rogers offering:
This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.
But a more, ah, satisfying Rogers quote is this one:
There ought to be one day-- just one-- when there is open season on senators.
"Those of us who are repeatedly frustrated by the failure of elected representatives to fit the deed to the word are asking for a barking cat."
Here's a Rogers offering:
This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.
But a more, ah, satisfying Rogers quote is this one:
There ought to be one day-- just one-- when there is open season on senators.
SNL's Competition: The Legislature
It won't be as fast-paced, but this show will be a comic riot:
WisconsinEye has been cleared by the state Department of Administration to begin installing equipment so that C-SPAN-style coverage of state government can begin by mid-May.
Cameras will be installed in the state Senate and Assembly chambers, the Capitol rotunda, the governor's conference room, the attorney general's conference room and the state Supreme Court hearing room. The non-profit network is expected to broadcast legislative sessions, committee hearings, news conferences and other Capitol events over the Internet and on cable TV.
Watch for the Kate Falk Stalk!
WisconsinEye has been cleared by the state Department of Administration to begin installing equipment so that C-SPAN-style coverage of state government can begin by mid-May.
Cameras will be installed in the state Senate and Assembly chambers, the Capitol rotunda, the governor's conference room, the attorney general's conference room and the state Supreme Court hearing room. The non-profit network is expected to broadcast legislative sessions, committee hearings, news conferences and other Capitol events over the Internet and on cable TV.
Watch for the Kate Falk Stalk!
Kate Falk: It's REALLY Time to Concede
Class? What class?
After all, Kate Falk is entitled. She ran as a liberal Democrat. It's a given that she won, right?
Wisconsin attorney general hopeful Kathleen Falk can stop wondering if Waukesha County vote tallies will swing the Nov. 7 election in her favor.
Falk has refused to concede the race [as of 11/16/06] to opponent J.B. Van Hollen because election night returns showed her trailing by fewer than 10,000 votes out of 2 million cast statewide.
S'pose she'll show up that the swearing-in ceremony and elbow JB VanHollen out of the way?
More and more, it's clear that Shakespeare must have met her...
After all, Kate Falk is entitled. She ran as a liberal Democrat. It's a given that she won, right?
Wisconsin attorney general hopeful Kathleen Falk can stop wondering if Waukesha County vote tallies will swing the Nov. 7 election in her favor.
Falk has refused to concede the race [as of 11/16/06] to opponent J.B. Van Hollen because election night returns showed her trailing by fewer than 10,000 votes out of 2 million cast statewide.
S'pose she'll show up that the swearing-in ceremony and elbow JB VanHollen out of the way?
More and more, it's clear that Shakespeare must have met her...
A Few Bucks Extra for Marvin Pratt
Were you 'redlined'? Better speak up now, or your settlement may be gone.
The U.S. attorney in Milwaukee has launched an investigation into the improper distribution of $300,000 worth of settlement money in a landmark redlining case.
According to court documents, trustee Harold B. Jackson wrote checks to himself and others without authorization. Among those who received checks were former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt and longtime NAACP President Felmers Chaney, who each were paid $60,000 earlier this year.
In 1990, the NAACP and seven African-American homeowners sued the insurance company, accusing it of discrimination. ...American Family did not admit wrongdoing but agreed to pay a $16.5 million settlement.
The settlement called for the original named plaintiffs [Pratt among them] to receive $10,000 each. Jackson was not authorized by the court to give them more, nor was he authorized to give any money to Chaney, who was not a plaintiff.
When fewer class members than expected came forward to claim settlements, a "class committee" consisting of the named plaintiffs and others decided it should be put in a trust fund. Money from that fund was to be distributed to a list of 20 approved community groups whose missions support the African-American community.
Although the attorneys who obtained the settlement stated that they have asked Pratt (and others) to return the unauthorized payments, Pratt said that he had not been asked to return the money.
The U.S. attorney in Milwaukee has launched an investigation into the improper distribution of $300,000 worth of settlement money in a landmark redlining case.
According to court documents, trustee Harold B. Jackson wrote checks to himself and others without authorization. Among those who received checks were former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt and longtime NAACP President Felmers Chaney, who each were paid $60,000 earlier this year.
In 1990, the NAACP and seven African-American homeowners sued the insurance company, accusing it of discrimination. ...American Family did not admit wrongdoing but agreed to pay a $16.5 million settlement.
The settlement called for the original named plaintiffs [Pratt among them] to receive $10,000 each. Jackson was not authorized by the court to give them more, nor was he authorized to give any money to Chaney, who was not a plaintiff.
When fewer class members than expected came forward to claim settlements, a "class committee" consisting of the named plaintiffs and others decided it should be put in a trust fund. Money from that fund was to be distributed to a list of 20 approved community groups whose missions support the African-American community.
Although the attorneys who obtained the settlement stated that they have asked Pratt (and others) to return the unauthorized payments, Pratt said that he had not been asked to return the money.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Ratzinger on Liturgical Reform
An excellent lecture given by Dr. Alcuin Reed, linked here. HT: The New Liturgical Movement
Excerpts that the Liturgeists should read (but likely won't) are below. (It would also be useful for priests to read this--especially the pastor who recently left St Sebastian's for a Greendale parish...)
"We must be far more resolute than heretofore in opposing rationalistic relativism, confusing claptrap, and pastoral infantilism. These things degrade the Liturgy to a level of a parish tea party, and the intelligibility of a popular newspaper."
No gentle lamb, he!
"The Liturgical Movement had in fact been attempting...to teach us to understand the Liturgy as a living network of Tradition that had taken concrete form, that cannot be torn apart into little pieces, but that has to be seen and experienced as a living whole. Anyone who, like me, was moved by this perception in the time of the Liturgical Movement on the eve of the Second Vatican Council, can only stand, deeply sorrowing, before the ruins of the very things they were concerned for."
Yes. The 'infantilism' and 'rationalistic relativism' demonstrated by the Modern Manicheans, led by "Bugsy" Bugnini---and aided by a locally-famous Benedictine...
These are brief quotations from a 14-page PDF document.
In the rest of it, Reid hints strongly that B-16's program for "Reform of the Reform" will not only include a wider and more available celebration of the Old Rite (Tridentine) Mass, but a re-Latinization of the New Rite, along with some changes to the Offertory prayers, a reversal of the "versus populum" innovation, and a standardization on Canon I (the Roman Canon.)
Celeriter, Domine! Adjuvanda Nos!!
Excerpts that the Liturgeists should read (but likely won't) are below. (It would also be useful for priests to read this--especially the pastor who recently left St Sebastian's for a Greendale parish...)
"We must be far more resolute than heretofore in opposing rationalistic relativism, confusing claptrap, and pastoral infantilism. These things degrade the Liturgy to a level of a parish tea party, and the intelligibility of a popular newspaper."
No gentle lamb, he!
"The Liturgical Movement had in fact been attempting...to teach us to understand the Liturgy as a living network of Tradition that had taken concrete form, that cannot be torn apart into little pieces, but that has to be seen and experienced as a living whole. Anyone who, like me, was moved by this perception in the time of the Liturgical Movement on the eve of the Second Vatican Council, can only stand, deeply sorrowing, before the ruins of the very things they were concerned for."
Yes. The 'infantilism' and 'rationalistic relativism' demonstrated by the Modern Manicheans, led by "Bugsy" Bugnini---and aided by a locally-famous Benedictine...
These are brief quotations from a 14-page PDF document.
In the rest of it, Reid hints strongly that B-16's program for "Reform of the Reform" will not only include a wider and more available celebration of the Old Rite (Tridentine) Mass, but a re-Latinization of the New Rite, along with some changes to the Offertory prayers, a reversal of the "versus populum" innovation, and a standardization on Canon I (the Roman Canon.)
Celeriter, Domine! Adjuvanda Nos!!
The Friedman Whom the Pubbies Ignored
HT Dreher:
I was googling around tonight for information on the great economist Milton Friedman, who just passed away, and found this passage from an interview he did with Peter Robinson in March of 2000:
Milton Friedman: ...The reason you have a surplus today, in my opinion, the credit for that has to be given overwhelmingly to gridlock.
Peter Robinson: To gridlock?
Milton Friedman: If you had had a Democratic House and Senate, as well as a Democratic president, you would not have a surplus today in my opinion. They would have spent it. Similarly if you had had a Republican president as well as a Republican House and Senate, I doubt that there would have been a surplus today. Because they would either have spent it or had tax reductions.
Peter Robinson: So when President Clinton steps forward to take his bows, you don't applaud at all?
Milton Friedman: Well, I applaud. He provided gridlock.
Yah, hey. Who knows? This might work out well for Wisconsin...
I was googling around tonight for information on the great economist Milton Friedman, who just passed away, and found this passage from an interview he did with Peter Robinson in March of 2000:
Milton Friedman: ...The reason you have a surplus today, in my opinion, the credit for that has to be given overwhelmingly to gridlock.
Peter Robinson: To gridlock?
Milton Friedman: If you had had a Democratic House and Senate, as well as a Democratic president, you would not have a surplus today in my opinion. They would have spent it. Similarly if you had had a Republican president as well as a Republican House and Senate, I doubt that there would have been a surplus today. Because they would either have spent it or had tax reductions.
Peter Robinson: So when President Clinton steps forward to take his bows, you don't applaud at all?
Milton Friedman: Well, I applaud. He provided gridlock.
Yah, hey. Who knows? This might work out well for Wisconsin...
Turnabout: Love It, Conservatives!!
Mitch McConnell, speaking to the Federalist Society:
Senator McConnell pointedly noted [I paraphrase here] that "49 is not a bad number of Senators to have, in a chamber that requires 60 to control [smile]. And I can assure you that our Democratic friends will give President Bush's judicial nominees a floor vote - if they want to get anything done, in a chamber that requires 60 to control. [very big smile and much applause]"
Harry Reid (D-Land Deals) will live to regret his obstreperous obnoxity.
HT: RedState
Senator McConnell pointedly noted [I paraphrase here] that "49 is not a bad number of Senators to have, in a chamber that requires 60 to control [smile]. And I can assure you that our Democratic friends will give President Bush's judicial nominees a floor vote - if they want to get anything done, in a chamber that requires 60 to control. [very big smile and much applause]"
Harry Reid (D-Land Deals) will live to regret his obstreperous obnoxity.
HT: RedState
China Is Our Friend!! Part 49639
Oh, yeah. They're a shining example of...
China has demonstrated that it understands many of its obligations to the 149 other members of the World Trade Organization. ...But China is falling short on its implementation of those new laws and regulations and is failing to adequately enforce laws already on its books. One glaring example: China’s obligation under the WTO to combat the illegal piracy of intellectual property.
While China's economic reformation has brought its population considerable material benefits, the nation has serious and growing economic disparities between rich and poor. It has also lagged in creating full opportunities for its citizens to reach their full potential by continuing to violate basic human rights, workers rights, basic political freedoms, freedom of religion, and freedom of the press.
But it's a great place to buy stuff from. Ask the Waltons.
HT: Random 10
China has demonstrated that it understands many of its obligations to the 149 other members of the World Trade Organization. ...But China is falling short on its implementation of those new laws and regulations and is failing to adequately enforce laws already on its books. One glaring example: China’s obligation under the WTO to combat the illegal piracy of intellectual property.
While China's economic reformation has brought its population considerable material benefits, the nation has serious and growing economic disparities between rich and poor. It has also lagged in creating full opportunities for its citizens to reach their full potential by continuing to violate basic human rights, workers rights, basic political freedoms, freedom of religion, and freedom of the press.
But it's a great place to buy stuff from. Ask the Waltons.
HT: Random 10
The Dems: Only 2 Years' Control?
Perhaps Ms. Pelosi shouldn't plan on a long stay as Speaker-ette:
The ink has barely dried on the bill that was to create a fence along 700 miles of the border between the United States and Mexico. Already the incoming Congressional leadership is apparently discussing the possibility of not constructing that fence that would impede the flow of potential terrorists across the land border that is often crossed by drug traffickers and illegal aliens. Rep. Bennie Thompson, currently ranking member on the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, is seen as the probable new chairman of that critical committee
...He is quoted as saying that perhaps we need to construct a "virtual fence" along the border with Mexico. I have also heard a number of leaders of the incoming Congress claim that they want to make the implementation of the recommendations of the 9-11 Commission their highest priority. Simply stated, you cannot have it both ways.
The bottom line, as articulated by the 9-11 Commission, is that in order for the terrorists to attack our nation, they first needed to be able to enter our nation. The first priority is to prevent that illegal entry in the first place, to prevent terrorists, criminals, gang members, drug traffickers and others who would do us harm from gaining access to our country. This is a basic, yet critical job that must be done effectively.
Don't build the fence. All it takes is one incident, Nancy.
The ink has barely dried on the bill that was to create a fence along 700 miles of the border between the United States and Mexico. Already the incoming Congressional leadership is apparently discussing the possibility of not constructing that fence that would impede the flow of potential terrorists across the land border that is often crossed by drug traffickers and illegal aliens. Rep. Bennie Thompson, currently ranking member on the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, is seen as the probable new chairman of that critical committee
...He is quoted as saying that perhaps we need to construct a "virtual fence" along the border with Mexico. I have also heard a number of leaders of the incoming Congress claim that they want to make the implementation of the recommendations of the 9-11 Commission their highest priority. Simply stated, you cannot have it both ways.
The bottom line, as articulated by the 9-11 Commission, is that in order for the terrorists to attack our nation, they first needed to be able to enter our nation. The first priority is to prevent that illegal entry in the first place, to prevent terrorists, criminals, gang members, drug traffickers and others who would do us harm from gaining access to our country. This is a basic, yet critical job that must be done effectively.
Don't build the fence. All it takes is one incident, Nancy.
Charlie's Column Worth a Read
Most of you have already seen this. Highlights:
The deeper problem for the GOP, according to the polls, was that voters had turned away from them because:
*Republicans failed to deliver on fiscal conservatism
*Republicans failed to be the champion of middle class economics
*Republicans failed to be reformers, particularly on ethical matters
*Republicans became the party of big corporations
When Republicans lost their credibility on taxes and government spending, they were left vulnerabilities to attacks on their motives. "Voters came to believe that we were not solving middle class economic problems like the cost of housing, health care, education, energy and taxes - and they saw not just inaction, but coziness with what they perceive to be the 'villains' of middle class economics -- big corporations."
Gee--only yesterday we posted some other problematic items here. One specific which is common:
This is part of the problem I have talked about for a decade. We can't have the leadership of the party meet in the country club while our voters shop at Fleet Farm. Doesn't happen.
The Pubbie addiction to road-builder dollars (not to mention the FreeTrade silliness) has hurt them again and again with middle-income people and small-business owners. I remain convinced that Michels could have defeated Feingold if he'd simply walked away from some of GWB's globaloney economics positions.
But he didn't and lost. And the 2006 elections are simply a continuation.
The deeper problem for the GOP, according to the polls, was that voters had turned away from them because:
*Republicans failed to deliver on fiscal conservatism
*Republicans failed to be the champion of middle class economics
*Republicans failed to be reformers, particularly on ethical matters
*Republicans became the party of big corporations
When Republicans lost their credibility on taxes and government spending, they were left vulnerabilities to attacks on their motives. "Voters came to believe that we were not solving middle class economic problems like the cost of housing, health care, education, energy and taxes - and they saw not just inaction, but coziness with what they perceive to be the 'villains' of middle class economics -- big corporations."
Gee--only yesterday we posted some other problematic items here. One specific which is common:
This is part of the problem I have talked about for a decade. We can't have the leadership of the party meet in the country club while our voters shop at Fleet Farm. Doesn't happen.
The Pubbie addiction to road-builder dollars (not to mention the FreeTrade silliness) has hurt them again and again with middle-income people and small-business owners. I remain convinced that Michels could have defeated Feingold if he'd simply walked away from some of GWB's globaloney economics positions.
But he didn't and lost. And the 2006 elections are simply a continuation.
BreckBoy Edwards: WallyWorld Hypocrite
Just love this stuff:
Yesterday, a staff person for former Sen. Edwards contacted a Wal-Mart electronics manager in Raleigh, North Carolina to obtain a Sony PlayStation3 on behalf of the Senator's family. Later that night, Sen. Edwards reportedly re-told a homespun story to participants of a United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union-sponsored call about how his son had chided a fellow student for purchasing shoes at Wal-Mart.
So he 1) shops at WallyWorld; 2) tries to "skip the line" by making a management contact instead of waiting; and 3) tells the UFCW that shopping at WallyWorld is a bad thing.
What a guy!
HT: Betsy
Yesterday, a staff person for former Sen. Edwards contacted a Wal-Mart electronics manager in Raleigh, North Carolina to obtain a Sony PlayStation3 on behalf of the Senator's family. Later that night, Sen. Edwards reportedly re-told a homespun story to participants of a United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union-sponsored call about how his son had chided a fellow student for purchasing shoes at Wal-Mart.
So he 1) shops at WallyWorld; 2) tries to "skip the line" by making a management contact instead of waiting; and 3) tells the UFCW that shopping at WallyWorld is a bad thing.
What a guy!
HT: Betsy
USCC Invited to Condemn Pro-Abort Politicians
Well, it's about time that someone tells IRS to go stuff it:
A religious liberties attorney Thursday issued an open challenge to the Internal Revenue Service, daring the tax agency to take church leaders to court for violating restrictions against religious involvement in political campaigns.
Kevin Hasson, founder and chairman of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, reissued a two-year-old offer to church leaders -- the organization would defend them against the IRS for free if they are charged with violating laws that prohibit non-profit, tax-exempt organizations from advocating for or against political candidates.
The USCC's legal counsel has told Catholic churches not to speak up about specific candidates (the abortion issue is pre-eminent) for fear of IRS' involvement. The USCC's position has disturbed some Catholics, to say the least.
USCC's political inclinations are well-known: the organization has often been called 'the Democrat Party at prayer.' This inclination extends back at least to the FDR era, when USCC was known as the National Catholic Welfare Conference.
But only in the last 30 years has the abortion question been on the table--and during that period, USCC's management and staffing has largely been influenced by (now-deceased) Jos. Cardinal Bernardin and his disciples.
Hasson said he believes the restrictions imposed on non-profit, tax-exempt 501(c) 3 organizations should not apply to churches because of the First Amendment freedom of religion.
He said restrictions on church involvement in political campaigning - instituted in 1954 by then Speaker of the House Lyndon Johnson - were never meant to prohibit "political preaching," but instead were only meant to prevent churches from intervening in political campaigns.
As one might expect, the Left reacted:
Elliot Mincberg, vice president and legal director of the liberal People for the American Way, disputed Hasson's argument, saying churches should be treated the same as other non-profit groups in the name of "fundamental fairness and equality."
It's possible that the USCC will 'grow a spine' in the next couple of years. A major re-org of the institution is underway and the Leftward tilt of member-Bishops has noticeably changed.
So--bring it on!!
A religious liberties attorney Thursday issued an open challenge to the Internal Revenue Service, daring the tax agency to take church leaders to court for violating restrictions against religious involvement in political campaigns.
Kevin Hasson, founder and chairman of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, reissued a two-year-old offer to church leaders -- the organization would defend them against the IRS for free if they are charged with violating laws that prohibit non-profit, tax-exempt organizations from advocating for or against political candidates.
The USCC's legal counsel has told Catholic churches not to speak up about specific candidates (the abortion issue is pre-eminent) for fear of IRS' involvement. The USCC's position has disturbed some Catholics, to say the least.
USCC's political inclinations are well-known: the organization has often been called 'the Democrat Party at prayer.' This inclination extends back at least to the FDR era, when USCC was known as the National Catholic Welfare Conference.
But only in the last 30 years has the abortion question been on the table--and during that period, USCC's management and staffing has largely been influenced by (now-deceased) Jos. Cardinal Bernardin and his disciples.
Hasson said he believes the restrictions imposed on non-profit, tax-exempt 501(c) 3 organizations should not apply to churches because of the First Amendment freedom of religion.
He said restrictions on church involvement in political campaigning - instituted in 1954 by then Speaker of the House Lyndon Johnson - were never meant to prohibit "political preaching," but instead were only meant to prevent churches from intervening in political campaigns.
As one might expect, the Left reacted:
Elliot Mincberg, vice president and legal director of the liberal People for the American Way, disputed Hasson's argument, saying churches should be treated the same as other non-profit groups in the name of "fundamental fairness and equality."
It's possible that the USCC will 'grow a spine' in the next couple of years. A major re-org of the institution is underway and the Leftward tilt of member-Bishops has noticeably changed.
So--bring it on!!
Thursday, November 16, 2006
The Religion of Modernity
Anent an earlier post, Benedict XVI's address to Swiss bishops, excerpts:
Modern society is not simply without morality, but it has, so to speak, “discovered” and professes a part of morality that, in the Church’s proclamation over the past few decades and even farther back than that, perhaps hasn’t been presented sufficiently.
These are the great themes of peace, non-violence, justice for all, concern for the poor, and respect for creation.
This has become an ethical complex that, precisely as a political force, has great power and constitutes for many the substitute for religion, or its successor.
In place of religion, which is seen as something metaphysical and otherworldly – and perhaps also as an individualistic thing – the great moral themes enter in as the essential reality that then confers dignity and commitment upon man.
B-16 foes on to say that this 'societal morality' is constructed without a foundation of absolute respect for life--thus we get abortion, ESCR, and other horrific manipulations, all in the name of 'morality.'
The morality of marriage and the family is also situated in this context.
Marriage is being increasingly marginalized. We are familiar with the example of some countries where the law has been modified to define marriage no longer as a bond between a man and a woman, but as a bond between persons. This obviously destroys the essential concept [of marriage], and society, from its very roots, becomes something totally different.
The awareness that sexuality, eros, and marriage as a union between man and woman go together – “The two shall be one flesh,” says Genesis – this awareness is continually weakening. Any sort of bond seems absolutely normal, and this is all presented as a sort of morality of non-discrimination and a form of freedom that is due to man. With this, naturally, the indissolubility of marriage has become an almost utopian idea that appears to be disowned, even by many people in public life. In this way, the family itself is gradually falling apart.
In these areas, therefore, our [the Church's] proclamation clashes with a contrary awareness within society, with a sort of antimorality that bases itself upon a conception of freedom as the ability to choose autonomously and without predefined guidelines, as non-discrimination, and therefore as the approval of any sort of possibility, situating itself as ethically correct by its own authority.
HT: What Does the Prayer Really Say?
Modern society is not simply without morality, but it has, so to speak, “discovered” and professes a part of morality that, in the Church’s proclamation over the past few decades and even farther back than that, perhaps hasn’t been presented sufficiently.
These are the great themes of peace, non-violence, justice for all, concern for the poor, and respect for creation.
This has become an ethical complex that, precisely as a political force, has great power and constitutes for many the substitute for religion, or its successor.
In place of religion, which is seen as something metaphysical and otherworldly – and perhaps also as an individualistic thing – the great moral themes enter in as the essential reality that then confers dignity and commitment upon man.
B-16 foes on to say that this 'societal morality' is constructed without a foundation of absolute respect for life--thus we get abortion, ESCR, and other horrific manipulations, all in the name of 'morality.'
The morality of marriage and the family is also situated in this context.
Marriage is being increasingly marginalized. We are familiar with the example of some countries where the law has been modified to define marriage no longer as a bond between a man and a woman, but as a bond between persons. This obviously destroys the essential concept [of marriage], and society, from its very roots, becomes something totally different.
The awareness that sexuality, eros, and marriage as a union between man and woman go together – “The two shall be one flesh,” says Genesis – this awareness is continually weakening. Any sort of bond seems absolutely normal, and this is all presented as a sort of morality of non-discrimination and a form of freedom that is due to man. With this, naturally, the indissolubility of marriage has become an almost utopian idea that appears to be disowned, even by many people in public life. In this way, the family itself is gradually falling apart.
In these areas, therefore, our [the Church's] proclamation clashes with a contrary awareness within society, with a sort of antimorality that bases itself upon a conception of freedom as the ability to choose autonomously and without predefined guidelines, as non-discrimination, and therefore as the approval of any sort of possibility, situating itself as ethically correct by its own authority.
HT: What Does the Prayer Really Say?
Vatican "Celibacy Meeting" Results
Ho hum.
PRESS OFFICE OF THE HOLY SEE
This morning, Nov. 16, in the Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father presided over one of the periodic meetings of the Heads of Dicasteries of the Roman Curia, for a common reflection.
The participants in the meeting received detailed information about the requests for dispensation from the obligation of celibacy received in recent years, as well as the possibility of readmission to the exercise of ministry from priests who at present find themselves in the conditions prescribed by the Church.
The value of the choice of priestly celibacy according to Catholic tradition was reaffirmed, and the exigency of a solid human and Christian formation was underlined, both for seminarians and for priests already ordained.
There may be a couple of bits and bytes' more info--like what to do about Milingo in specific--but we thought we'd provide this release (11/16, 0930 Rome time) just in case it doesn't make the daily MSM.
PRESS OFFICE OF THE HOLY SEE
This morning, Nov. 16, in the Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father presided over one of the periodic meetings of the Heads of Dicasteries of the Roman Curia, for a common reflection.
The participants in the meeting received detailed information about the requests for dispensation from the obligation of celibacy received in recent years, as well as the possibility of readmission to the exercise of ministry from priests who at present find themselves in the conditions prescribed by the Church.
The value of the choice of priestly celibacy according to Catholic tradition was reaffirmed, and the exigency of a solid human and Christian formation was underlined, both for seminarians and for priests already ordained.
There may be a couple of bits and bytes' more info--like what to do about Milingo in specific--but we thought we'd provide this release (11/16, 0930 Rome time) just in case it doesn't make the daily MSM.
Banks' "Fear": Fair or Not?
Today's JSOnline runs an interesting article. But it's not just about the Banks, and it is NOT a black-and-white issue.
Wisconsin bankers have some misgivings about their relationship with Gov. Jim Doyle's administration and the Democrat-controlled state Senate after an election campaign in which they backed the governor's opponent and were portrayed as tax dodgers.
Particularly perturbing to bankers was a television ad run by Doyle supporters - not the Doyle campaign itself - that brought up their use of Nevada subsidiaries as tax shelters.
But it's not just the Banks. IIRC, a manufacturing firm in East-Central Wisconsin and a retailer have also used Nevada subsidiaries to reduce Wisconsin tax liability.
Bankers have been proclaiming their innocence ever since the state Department of Revenue began cracking down in 2003 on the transfer of income-earning bank assets to no-tax states like Nevada. Bankers contend the practice is legal and even had the blessing of state tax collectors - in writing - before Doyle became governor. Banks have been using Nevada subsidiaries for years to shield some of their income from Wisconsin's 7.9% corporate income tax. Before moving assets such as loans and bonds to their Nevada investment subsidiaries, many banks asked for and received letters from the Department of Revenue that they believed served as approval.
Yah. In the case of the manufacturer, it was patents; with the retailer, it was their logo and their "formula" for successful store operations.
"All corporations - everyone - should be paying their fair share. That's what the ad was about," said Michelle McGrorty, [Greater Wisconsin Committee's] executive director. "For me it's just a common sense issue."
Obviously, placing assets in Nevada is not do-able for most of us. Evidently at least a few of the Banks have some reservations, too:
Many banks, hoping to put the issue behind them and avoid future risk, have signed confidential settlements with the Department of Revenue. So far, 175 settlements have generated almost $28 million in back taxes.
As we said, this is not "black-and-white."
Wisconsin bankers have some misgivings about their relationship with Gov. Jim Doyle's administration and the Democrat-controlled state Senate after an election campaign in which they backed the governor's opponent and were portrayed as tax dodgers.
Particularly perturbing to bankers was a television ad run by Doyle supporters - not the Doyle campaign itself - that brought up their use of Nevada subsidiaries as tax shelters.
But it's not just the Banks. IIRC, a manufacturing firm in East-Central Wisconsin and a retailer have also used Nevada subsidiaries to reduce Wisconsin tax liability.
Bankers have been proclaiming their innocence ever since the state Department of Revenue began cracking down in 2003 on the transfer of income-earning bank assets to no-tax states like Nevada. Bankers contend the practice is legal and even had the blessing of state tax collectors - in writing - before Doyle became governor. Banks have been using Nevada subsidiaries for years to shield some of their income from Wisconsin's 7.9% corporate income tax. Before moving assets such as loans and bonds to their Nevada investment subsidiaries, many banks asked for and received letters from the Department of Revenue that they believed served as approval.
Yah. In the case of the manufacturer, it was patents; with the retailer, it was their logo and their "formula" for successful store operations.
"All corporations - everyone - should be paying their fair share. That's what the ad was about," said Michelle McGrorty, [Greater Wisconsin Committee's] executive director. "For me it's just a common sense issue."
Obviously, placing assets in Nevada is not do-able for most of us. Evidently at least a few of the Banks have some reservations, too:
Many banks, hoping to put the issue behind them and avoid future risk, have signed confidential settlements with the Department of Revenue. So far, 175 settlements have generated almost $28 million in back taxes.
As we said, this is not "black-and-white."
What Went Wrong? Interesting Points...
From WiDigest, published by conservatives:
It is interesting what happened to the Democrats under Howard Dean. Many Democrat officeholders ripped Dean for his expenditures to rebuild the grass roots... leaving the party broke just before the election. Guess who was right?
FWIW, the Waukesha County Green campaign manager made it very clear that he was short a large number of volunteeers. Having an organization counts!
The six year slump in the presidents popularity. It seems that there isn't any spunk left in Washington. There aren't any new ideas, we aregoing nowhere in Iraq and nobody seems to know what we are going to do for the next two years. It is not enough to stand up and say "watch out for Nancy Pelosi".
Not only is it insufficient, it is an insult to the intelligence of ANY voter, (R) or (D).
Jim Sensenbrenner brought up a good point, something that nobody else including myself thought of before the elections. These referenda brought out the Reagan democrats to vote against gay marriages and for the death penalty At the same time they decided that they should vote democratic again instead of following the GOP line. They did not accept the GOP platform. This is part of the problem I have talked about for a decade. We can't have the leadership of the party meet in the country club while our voters shop at Fleet Farm. Doesn't happen.
Absolutely true. There are a lot more voters than there are Bank Presidents.
The Iraqi war and referendums at the level of the municipality helped bring out more liberals and the anti-war gang. ...In Wauwatosa it was especially important as the vote was about 12,000 to 9,000 to pull out. Green lost the city by about 1,000 and Reynolds by about 2,000. That referendum was critical.
Very interesting point, in line with the analysis by Sensenbrenner (above.)
Failure to have candidates for key offices reduces the total vote
Herb Kohl may be un-beatable, but that's not an excuse. Of course, with the national Senatorial campaign being run by the RINOs, what's the diff?
It is interesting what happened to the Democrats under Howard Dean. Many Democrat officeholders ripped Dean for his expenditures to rebuild the grass roots... leaving the party broke just before the election. Guess who was right?
FWIW, the Waukesha County Green campaign manager made it very clear that he was short a large number of volunteeers. Having an organization counts!
The six year slump in the presidents popularity. It seems that there isn't any spunk left in Washington. There aren't any new ideas, we aregoing nowhere in Iraq and nobody seems to know what we are going to do for the next two years. It is not enough to stand up and say "watch out for Nancy Pelosi".
Not only is it insufficient, it is an insult to the intelligence of ANY voter, (R) or (D).
Jim Sensenbrenner brought up a good point, something that nobody else including myself thought of before the elections. These referenda brought out the Reagan democrats to vote against gay marriages and for the death penalty At the same time they decided that they should vote democratic again instead of following the GOP line. They did not accept the GOP platform. This is part of the problem I have talked about for a decade. We can't have the leadership of the party meet in the country club while our voters shop at Fleet Farm. Doesn't happen.
Absolutely true. There are a lot more voters than there are Bank Presidents.
The Iraqi war and referendums at the level of the municipality helped bring out more liberals and the anti-war gang. ...In Wauwatosa it was especially important as the vote was about 12,000 to 9,000 to pull out. Green lost the city by about 1,000 and Reynolds by about 2,000. That referendum was critical.
Very interesting point, in line with the analysis by Sensenbrenner (above.)
Failure to have candidates for key offices reduces the total vote
Herb Kohl may be un-beatable, but that's not an excuse. Of course, with the national Senatorial campaign being run by the RINOs, what's the diff?
Fox6 Milwaukee Goes All Global Warming
It had to happen sooner or later. With a 1-hour hole to fill at the 9:00 PM slot, Fox6 Milwaukee made the decision to unleash their Junior Meteorologist, who told us all about how Global Warming will affect Wisconsin.
We got pictures of a relatively-treeless savanna, and were told that the lakes would largely recede or dry up. We're told that deer-hunters will have to go to Canada. And on and on and on and on....
Then the anchor pops back in to advise that 'fewer and fewer scientists disagree with the theory of Global Warming.' Evidently, that's "fair and balanced."
Somehow, they forgot to mention this:
For the second consecutive month, temperatures across the continental United States were cooler-than-average, according to scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. Drought conditions improved in some areas, but large parts of the nation remained in moderate to extreme drought. October ranked as the 12th wettest October when compared with historical precipitation records for the month.
The October 2006 temperature for the contiguous United States (based on preliminary data) was 0.9 degrees F (0.5 degrees C) below the 20th century average of 54.8 degrees F (12.7 degrees C). After a record warm January through August period, this was the second consecutive month of below average temperatures.
The combination of a cooler-than-average September and October dropped the year-to-date national temperature from record warmest to third warmest for the January through October 2006 period. The record warmest January through October occurred in 1934.
So after all these decades of Global Warming, how come is it that the record warmest North American summer was in 1934?
We got pictures of a relatively-treeless savanna, and were told that the lakes would largely recede or dry up. We're told that deer-hunters will have to go to Canada. And on and on and on and on....
Then the anchor pops back in to advise that 'fewer and fewer scientists disagree with the theory of Global Warming.' Evidently, that's "fair and balanced."
Somehow, they forgot to mention this:
For the second consecutive month, temperatures across the continental United States were cooler-than-average, according to scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. Drought conditions improved in some areas, but large parts of the nation remained in moderate to extreme drought. October ranked as the 12th wettest October when compared with historical precipitation records for the month.
The October 2006 temperature for the contiguous United States (based on preliminary data) was 0.9 degrees F (0.5 degrees C) below the 20th century average of 54.8 degrees F (12.7 degrees C). After a record warm January through August period, this was the second consecutive month of below average temperatures.
The combination of a cooler-than-average September and October dropped the year-to-date national temperature from record warmest to third warmest for the January through October 2006 period. The record warmest January through October occurred in 1934.
So after all these decades of Global Warming, how come is it that the record warmest North American summer was in 1934?
SCOWI: The Early Line
HT to GOP3.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court's balance is in play and there are two contenders emerging for the seat of conservative Justice Wilcox.
In one corner, you have Linda Clifford, a Madison lawyer with ties to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, who has already poured $140,000 of her own money into her Supreme Court campaign war chest and collected another $60,000. [A lifelong Democrat, Clifford resigned from the party not long ago but concedes that she’s still a friend and strong supporter of Doyle. Since 1996, she and her husband, Keith Clifford, have donated about $18,000 to his campaign fund.]
Facing her is Washington County Judge Annette Ziegler, a conservative jurist who has little in her campaign account but has access to a lot of cash as a member of the family that launched the investment firm The Ziegler Cos. Inc. “I’m on the more conservative end of the spectrum,” said Ziegler, a 42-year-old former prosecutor who was initially appointed to the bench by then-Gov. Tommy Thompson. “I have a very high regard for Justice Wilcox.”
Although the SpiceBoyzz column from which this is taken is a bit old (3/06,) the campaign war-chests have likely grown a bit. This will be important; one wonders how the campaign messages will be shaped.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court's balance is in play and there are two contenders emerging for the seat of conservative Justice Wilcox.
In one corner, you have Linda Clifford, a Madison lawyer with ties to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, who has already poured $140,000 of her own money into her Supreme Court campaign war chest and collected another $60,000. [A lifelong Democrat, Clifford resigned from the party not long ago but concedes that she’s still a friend and strong supporter of Doyle. Since 1996, she and her husband, Keith Clifford, have donated about $18,000 to his campaign fund.]
Facing her is Washington County Judge Annette Ziegler, a conservative jurist who has little in her campaign account but has access to a lot of cash as a member of the family that launched the investment firm The Ziegler Cos. Inc. “I’m on the more conservative end of the spectrum,” said Ziegler, a 42-year-old former prosecutor who was initially appointed to the bench by then-Gov. Tommy Thompson. “I have a very high regard for Justice Wilcox.”
Although the SpiceBoyzz column from which this is taken is a bit old (3/06,) the campaign war-chests have likely grown a bit. This will be important; one wonders how the campaign messages will be shaped.
Pubbies May Lose ANOTHER Seat in Congress
It ain't over yet, folks.
Despite being outspent nearly 5 to 1, Democrat Larry Kissell has battled to a virtual dead heat with the third richest Congressperson in the country, four-term Republican incumbent Robin Hayes.
...On Friday November 17th, each of the ten North Carolina counties within the eighth congressional district will report their provisional vote totals. The vote will then be certified. If the race is within 1% point at that time (which it will be), the trailing party may request a recount.
It's a North Carolina district in which NAFTA/Free Trade arguments were prominent due to the presence (shrinking) of the textile industry.
Despite being outspent nearly 5 to 1, Democrat Larry Kissell has battled to a virtual dead heat with the third richest Congressperson in the country, four-term Republican incumbent Robin Hayes.
...On Friday November 17th, each of the ten North Carolina counties within the eighth congressional district will report their provisional vote totals. The vote will then be certified. If the race is within 1% point at that time (which it will be), the trailing party may request a recount.
It's a North Carolina district in which NAFTA/Free Trade arguments were prominent due to the presence (shrinking) of the textile industry.
Captain's Quarters in Rebellion
CQ is a very influential blogsite whose author also writes for another (print) national conservative publication.
Commenting on the resurrection of Trent (Pig) Lott, and the prominence of John (Shut Up!!) McCain as we swing towards 2008, he says something startling:
It may be time to take Mark Tapscott's advice, offered over the summer, and look outside the GOP for alternate methods of pursuing conservativism. All we find there is a nest of those who want to manipulate federal power as an engine for their own agendas, instead of reducing its reach and its intrusiveness. We have at least a year to see whether we can be more effective outside the party -- because the Republicans seem intent on proving that we have no place inside it any more.
Although CQ did not mention the Martinez nomination, it's another good reason to look around.
Commenting on the resurrection of Trent (Pig) Lott, and the prominence of John (Shut Up!!) McCain as we swing towards 2008, he says something startling:
It may be time to take Mark Tapscott's advice, offered over the summer, and look outside the GOP for alternate methods of pursuing conservativism. All we find there is a nest of those who want to manipulate federal power as an engine for their own agendas, instead of reducing its reach and its intrusiveness. We have at least a year to see whether we can be more effective outside the party -- because the Republicans seem intent on proving that we have no place inside it any more.
Although CQ did not mention the Martinez nomination, it's another good reason to look around.
Charities Rebound in Milwaukee
Well, taxes or no, the picture in 2005 was pretty good.
Local charities appear to have rebounded from the slump that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and subsequent economic downturn, reporting a $60 million surge in giving - the largest one-year increase ever measured by an annual analysis of area philanthropy.
The 64 bellwether organizations in the Milwaukee area raised $265.5 million in 2005, according to the Report Card on Charitable Giving prepared by the Public Policy Forum. Contributions had dropped from $223.2 million in 2001 to $205 million in 2004, the report states.
That little event in NYC on 9/11 really had its echoes.
Local charities appear to have rebounded from the slump that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and subsequent economic downturn, reporting a $60 million surge in giving - the largest one-year increase ever measured by an annual analysis of area philanthropy.
The 64 bellwether organizations in the Milwaukee area raised $265.5 million in 2005, according to the Report Card on Charitable Giving prepared by the Public Policy Forum. Contributions had dropped from $223.2 million in 2001 to $205 million in 2004, the report states.
That little event in NYC on 9/11 really had its echoes.
GWB Insulting Base Again, with Martinez
Yah. I'm beginning to wonder if the Dems weren't right after all--maybe GWB is the dumbest guy to ever have graduated from college.
With the resignation of Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman, President Bush intends to fill the post with Florida's Mel Martinez, a Hispanic who led the battle in the U.S. Senate for amnesty for illegal aliens.
"Martinez is going to lead the fight for amnesty that Bush could not win when Republicans controlled the Congress," one angry RNC member told the Washington Times' Ralph Hallow.
Unable to extract an amnesty bill from Denny Hastert and Co. in the House like the McCain-Kennedy bill he supports, Bush is looking to cut a deal with San Francisco Nancy.
Amnesty is to be the Bush legacy, and Martinez is to be the face of the party on the most explosive domestic issue of our era. For that, GOP precinct workers walked the line to hold Congress for the party.
Never mind the fact that Hispanics voted 70% Democratic this last election. Notwithstanding that, even the Dimmies understand that a "comprehensive" (read: amnesty) bill is a Third Rail:
"In the days after the election, Democratic leaders surprised pro-immigration groups by not including the issue on their list of immediate priorities. Experts said the issue is so complicated, so sensitive and so explosive that it could easily blow up in the Democrats' faces and give control of Congress back to Republicans in the next election two years from now. And a number of Democrats who took a hard line on immigration were also elected to Congress." (WaPost)
GWB is notorious for being stubborn, and when fighting terrorists, that's a good thing. Too bad he sees Americans who like secure borders as merely another variant of 'terrorists'.
With the resignation of Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman, President Bush intends to fill the post with Florida's Mel Martinez, a Hispanic who led the battle in the U.S. Senate for amnesty for illegal aliens.
"Martinez is going to lead the fight for amnesty that Bush could not win when Republicans controlled the Congress," one angry RNC member told the Washington Times' Ralph Hallow.
Unable to extract an amnesty bill from Denny Hastert and Co. in the House like the McCain-Kennedy bill he supports, Bush is looking to cut a deal with San Francisco Nancy.
Amnesty is to be the Bush legacy, and Martinez is to be the face of the party on the most explosive domestic issue of our era. For that, GOP precinct workers walked the line to hold Congress for the party.
Never mind the fact that Hispanics voted 70% Democratic this last election. Notwithstanding that, even the Dimmies understand that a "comprehensive" (read: amnesty) bill is a Third Rail:
"In the days after the election, Democratic leaders surprised pro-immigration groups by not including the issue on their list of immediate priorities. Experts said the issue is so complicated, so sensitive and so explosive that it could easily blow up in the Democrats' faces and give control of Congress back to Republicans in the next election two years from now. And a number of Democrats who took a hard line on immigration were also elected to Congress." (WaPost)
GWB is notorious for being stubborn, and when fighting terrorists, that's a good thing. Too bad he sees Americans who like secure borders as merely another variant of 'terrorists'.
Welcome to the Reich!
The Smoking Nazis have taken over a town in California.
Belmont is set to make history by becoming the first city in the nation to ban smoking on its streets and almost everywhere else.
The Belmont City Council voted unanimously last night to pursue a strict law that will prohibit smoking anywhere in the city except for single-family detached residences. Smoking on the street, in a park and even in one’s car will become illegal and police would have the option of handing out tickets if they catch someone
Don't tell the City of Madistan, which would like to be 1st...
Belmont is set to make history by becoming the first city in the nation to ban smoking on its streets and almost everywhere else.
The Belmont City Council voted unanimously last night to pursue a strict law that will prohibit smoking anywhere in the city except for single-family detached residences. Smoking on the street, in a park and even in one’s car will become illegal and police would have the option of handing out tickets if they catch someone
Don't tell the City of Madistan, which would like to be 1st...
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Spending Pig WIS DOT Wants More Money: the Setup
Well, it was a certainty that DOT wanted more money.
Only question: how much, and extracted from what part of your anatomy...
The state Department of Transportation is recommending raising the annual registration fees to $80 for cars, a 46% increase, and hikes of up to 65% for light trucks.
The department also recommends increasing the cost of driver's licenses by $10, from $24 to $34, to cover the cost of new federal requirements to make identification cards more secure.
What if they gave a party and no one came? How long would it take the State Patrol to arrest every single licensed driver in the State? Stop every car?
FU, DarthDoyle.
Having said that, here's how this will work.
DOT's request is exorbitant, and we all know it. Busalacchi did what DarthDoyle told him to do: first, hold off the announcement until after the election; secondly, make the numbers high.
Now Darth and his newfound pal, the Wisconsin Senate, will "moderate" the increases. Then they'll be passed into law. Car registration will be $70.00, D/L's will be $30.00.
By the way, if you're interested in exactly how DOT pisses your money down the drain, be sure to drive out Hy. 151 from Madistan to Iowa some day. Don't worry about getting into a traffic jam.
Only question: how much, and extracted from what part of your anatomy...
The state Department of Transportation is recommending raising the annual registration fees to $80 for cars, a 46% increase, and hikes of up to 65% for light trucks.
The department also recommends increasing the cost of driver's licenses by $10, from $24 to $34, to cover the cost of new federal requirements to make identification cards more secure.
What if they gave a party and no one came? How long would it take the State Patrol to arrest every single licensed driver in the State? Stop every car?
FU, DarthDoyle.
Having said that, here's how this will work.
DOT's request is exorbitant, and we all know it. Busalacchi did what DarthDoyle told him to do: first, hold off the announcement until after the election; secondly, make the numbers high.
Now Darth and his newfound pal, the Wisconsin Senate, will "moderate" the increases. Then they'll be passed into law. Car registration will be $70.00, D/L's will be $30.00.
By the way, if you're interested in exactly how DOT pisses your money down the drain, be sure to drive out Hy. 151 from Madistan to Iowa some day. Don't worry about getting into a traffic jam.
Spending Pig Lott Now Minority Whip
Yah, ol' Trent, who absolutely hates the PorkBusters (for good reason) is #2 in the Pubbie Senate leadership.
Maybe it'll be longer than 2 years in the minority for the Pubbies, who just don't get it...
Maybe it'll be longer than 2 years in the minority for the Pubbies, who just don't get it...
Once Again: The Pill is NOT "Safe"
Chemicals have consequences:
“According to Johnson & Johnson’s third quarter SEC filing for 2006, there are over ‘1,000 claimants who have filed lawsuits or have made claims regarding injuries allegedly due to Ortho Evra.’”
“Serious health problems have been associated with Ortho Evra including fatal and non-fatal blood clots, strokes, heart attacks, and death. From April 2002 to December 2004, over 27,974 ‘adverse effects’ were reported by users of Ortho Evra. Many of the complaints are serious, and the patch is alleged to be responsible for over 23 deaths, including the death of 14 year old Alycia Brown.”
“It’s interesting to find out that the FDA, ‘big pharma’, and medical professionals consider non-fatal and fatal blood clots as ‘acceptable risks’ of oral contraception.... One has to wonder how many women have been told by their OB/GYNs that their potential death from a fatal blood clot is an ‘acceptable risk’ of using hormone based contraceptives?” said Ruben Obregon, President of the No Room for Contraception Campaign.
Whereas energy-consumption in the West should have ZERO 'acceptable risks.'
“According to Johnson & Johnson’s third quarter SEC filing for 2006, there are over ‘1,000 claimants who have filed lawsuits or have made claims regarding injuries allegedly due to Ortho Evra.’”
“Serious health problems have been associated with Ortho Evra including fatal and non-fatal blood clots, strokes, heart attacks, and death. From April 2002 to December 2004, over 27,974 ‘adverse effects’ were reported by users of Ortho Evra. Many of the complaints are serious, and the patch is alleged to be responsible for over 23 deaths, including the death of 14 year old Alycia Brown.”
“It’s interesting to find out that the FDA, ‘big pharma’, and medical professionals consider non-fatal and fatal blood clots as ‘acceptable risks’ of oral contraception.... One has to wonder how many women have been told by their OB/GYNs that their potential death from a fatal blood clot is an ‘acceptable risk’ of using hormone based contraceptives?” said Ruben Obregon, President of the No Room for Contraception Campaign.
Whereas energy-consumption in the West should have ZERO 'acceptable risks.'
The Vatican Meeting is NOT ABOUT "Dropping Celibacy for Priests"
Despite the 9 PM News (Channel 6) and 10 PM News (Channel 4) talking heads' errors, the meeting in Rome is not really to discuss 'dropping celibacy' as a requirement for priests.
The Thursday meeting appears to be a response to Archbishop Milingo’s repeated public calls for a change in the Church’s discipline requiring priestly celibacy. Although the Vatican announced the excommunication of the African archbishop after he presided at the unauthorized episcopal ordination of four married men, Pope Benedict may be anxious to forestall any possibility that Archbishop Milingo could provoke a major schism.
It has to do with one specific case (Milingo) and perhaps 1000 other cases.
The Thursday meeting appears to be a response to Archbishop Milingo’s repeated public calls for a change in the Church’s discipline requiring priestly celibacy. Although the Vatican announced the excommunication of the African archbishop after he presided at the unauthorized episcopal ordination of four married men, Pope Benedict may be anxious to forestall any possibility that Archbishop Milingo could provoke a major schism.
It has to do with one specific case (Milingo) and perhaps 1000 other cases.
Crime, Terrorism, Morals, and the Heresy of the Left
Earlier we mentioned Sheriff Clarke's disappointing endorsement of the concept that 'gun crime is a public-health problem.'
The position is, of course, inane. Clarke is a good guy in general terms, but he swallowed some mighty potent brain-fart material before he spoke on this issue. He was also influenced by some distinctly Leftist reductionism--popular with the Clintons and the intellectualoids of the Left, such as Steve Hargarten, MD. (There are a lot of others, by the way.)
There's a precedent to this, found in the Bill Clinton/Janet Reno approach to terrorism.
The Left, generally, tries to ignore or grossly reduce the moral content of decisions. One can only speculate on the reasons for this; perhaps it's because the Left simply does not wish to recognize morality in general. Perhaps it's because they prefer to think (as did the early heretics, the Manicheans) that men's otherwise-pristine souls are trapped within their evil-inclined eartly bodies. Perhaps it's because of their aversion to Natural Law. It certainly constitutes a denial of the Fall. Whatever the cause, it leads to 'solutions' which are not remedies.
This reductionism is what led X42 to treat terrorism as a 'criminal offense,' rather than as an act of war (albeit an act of a non-State entity.) It's why Clinton refused to pull the trigger when Osama was literally in the sights of a drone over Afghanistan. In other words, instead of treating OBL as what he was (an active enemy of the State,) he wished to reduce him to a 'criminal,' punishable under some portion of the US Code.
Strikes you as fatuous, no?
The smaller-scale application is what we saw this morning (again, earlier proposed by the Clinton Administration): that gun-violence is a 'medical' pathology, not a moral one. In other words, the remedy for random acts of gun-violence and the consequent death-toll and medical costs is some sort of medical protocol instead of criminal charges, trial, conviction, and incarceration.
Same fatuity, different face.
This same theological misunderstanding applies in reverse: where the moral imperative is to treat all men as you would like to be treated, the Left proposes EEOC, No-Smoking Cities, and Handicapped Parking spaces. Where the moral imperative is to respect the persons of others, the Left proposes "sexual harassment" and no-fault divorce. Where the moral imperative is 'good stewardship' of the Earth, the Left proposes Kyoto, the EPA, and DNR.
As GKC so aptly observed, "When you break the Big Laws, all you get is a lot of Little Laws."
GKC was never wrong.
The position is, of course, inane. Clarke is a good guy in general terms, but he swallowed some mighty potent brain-fart material before he spoke on this issue. He was also influenced by some distinctly Leftist reductionism--popular with the Clintons and the intellectualoids of the Left, such as Steve Hargarten, MD. (There are a lot of others, by the way.)
There's a precedent to this, found in the Bill Clinton/Janet Reno approach to terrorism.
The Left, generally, tries to ignore or grossly reduce the moral content of decisions. One can only speculate on the reasons for this; perhaps it's because the Left simply does not wish to recognize morality in general. Perhaps it's because they prefer to think (as did the early heretics, the Manicheans) that men's otherwise-pristine souls are trapped within their evil-inclined eartly bodies. Perhaps it's because of their aversion to Natural Law. It certainly constitutes a denial of the Fall. Whatever the cause, it leads to 'solutions' which are not remedies.
This reductionism is what led X42 to treat terrorism as a 'criminal offense,' rather than as an act of war (albeit an act of a non-State entity.) It's why Clinton refused to pull the trigger when Osama was literally in the sights of a drone over Afghanistan. In other words, instead of treating OBL as what he was (an active enemy of the State,) he wished to reduce him to a 'criminal,' punishable under some portion of the US Code.
Strikes you as fatuous, no?
The smaller-scale application is what we saw this morning (again, earlier proposed by the Clinton Administration): that gun-violence is a 'medical' pathology, not a moral one. In other words, the remedy for random acts of gun-violence and the consequent death-toll and medical costs is some sort of medical protocol instead of criminal charges, trial, conviction, and incarceration.
Same fatuity, different face.
This same theological misunderstanding applies in reverse: where the moral imperative is to treat all men as you would like to be treated, the Left proposes EEOC, No-Smoking Cities, and Handicapped Parking spaces. Where the moral imperative is to respect the persons of others, the Left proposes "sexual harassment" and no-fault divorce. Where the moral imperative is 'good stewardship' of the Earth, the Left proposes Kyoto, the EPA, and DNR.
As GKC so aptly observed, "When you break the Big Laws, all you get is a lot of Little Laws."
GKC was never wrong.
Patriot Act Foils...aaaaahhhh...well.....
I can't tell you, but you can read it here.
I'd like to know which provision of the Patriot Act the US Attorney interpreted for this, because, frankly, that US Attorney is making asses out of a lot of people--those who voted for it, and signed it come to mind...
I'd like to know which provision of the Patriot Act the US Attorney interpreted for this, because, frankly, that US Attorney is making asses out of a lot of people--those who voted for it, and signed it come to mind...
Anti-Gun Mayor, Pal of Bloomberg (NYC)...
Goes on trial for illegally carrying a concealed weapon!
In Jackson, Mississippi, Mayor Frank Melton is scheduled to go on trial for illegally carrying his concealed firearm inside a church, a school, and a park.
We can debate whether or not the law is right, but one thing is certain: Prosecutors believe Melton broke the law.
Melton was one of the first mayors to sign up with Bloomberg's anti-gun group, and he followed his meeting at Gracie Mansion with a call to ban all gun shows in Jackson.
I guess that's enough to keep him in Bloomberg's good graces, because as of this writing, he’s still on the list of mayors fighting for New York-style gun-control laws... even in Mississippi.
Yah--that's the same meeting Tom Barrett attended. Happy to know that Melton didn't pull out his gun to show it off there, eh?
In Jackson, Mississippi, Mayor Frank Melton is scheduled to go on trial for illegally carrying his concealed firearm inside a church, a school, and a park.
We can debate whether or not the law is right, but one thing is certain: Prosecutors believe Melton broke the law.
Melton was one of the first mayors to sign up with Bloomberg's anti-gun group, and he followed his meeting at Gracie Mansion with a call to ban all gun shows in Jackson.
I guess that's enough to keep him in Bloomberg's good graces, because as of this writing, he’s still on the list of mayors fighting for New York-style gun-control laws... even in Mississippi.
Yah--that's the same meeting Tom Barrett attended. Happy to know that Melton didn't pull out his gun to show it off there, eh?
Lebanon: Next to Go
Little Green Footballs thinks Hezbollah's going to take down the Beirut government soon.
As predicted since July 12, (and posted on the Counterterrorism Blog), the aim of Hezbollah’s summer war with Israel, was to provoke a “strike-back” at the Lebanese Government and reshape the balance of power in Lebanon to the advantage of the Teheran-Damascus axis. Nasrallah and his allies across the sectarian divide aimed at shifting the issue of disarming Hezbollah and militias (according to UNSCR 1559) to crumbling the government, which is supposed to implement this disarming process.
...The perceived results of the midterm elections in the U.S. were read as positive by Tehran and its allies, in the sense that it froze vigorous reactions by the U.S. against any Iranian-Syrian move in Lebanon via Hezbollah. The feelings in Tehran and Damascus, have been that if in the next weeks and months a “thrust” takes place in Lebanon to the advantage of the pro-Syrian camp, Washington will be in no position to react or counter. Ahmedinijad and Assad believe (or have been advised to believe) that “lobbies” are moving in Washington and Brussels to restrain any strong deterrence by the U.S. against the “axis.” The theory is that the Bush Administration is too busy “negotiating” with the new leadership in Congress to “dare” a mass move in the Middle East.
...The projected scenario is as follows: Hezbollah and Amal movement ministers will resign from the Government calling for the resignation of the Government. The next move is to have Hezbollah, Amal, and their allies in the Parliament also resign, thus creating “conditions” for what they will coin as new elections and a collapse of the cabinet. Most of these moves have already been accomplished or are on the eve of being implemented. The pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud will declare the Government and the Parliament as “illegitimate,” and call for early legislative elections. The latter, if they take place will be under the smashing influence of Hezbollah’s weapons (a show of force was performed in the summer) and of the cohorts of militias and security agencies. Result: a pro-Syrian-Iranian majority in parliament, followed by the formation of an “axis” government in Lebanon. The rest is easy to predict: A terrorism victory.
That will also be the beginning of the end of Catholicism in Lebanon.
As predicted since July 12, (and posted on the Counterterrorism Blog), the aim of Hezbollah’s summer war with Israel, was to provoke a “strike-back” at the Lebanese Government and reshape the balance of power in Lebanon to the advantage of the Teheran-Damascus axis. Nasrallah and his allies across the sectarian divide aimed at shifting the issue of disarming Hezbollah and militias (according to UNSCR 1559) to crumbling the government, which is supposed to implement this disarming process.
...The perceived results of the midterm elections in the U.S. were read as positive by Tehran and its allies, in the sense that it froze vigorous reactions by the U.S. against any Iranian-Syrian move in Lebanon via Hezbollah. The feelings in Tehran and Damascus, have been that if in the next weeks and months a “thrust” takes place in Lebanon to the advantage of the pro-Syrian camp, Washington will be in no position to react or counter. Ahmedinijad and Assad believe (or have been advised to believe) that “lobbies” are moving in Washington and Brussels to restrain any strong deterrence by the U.S. against the “axis.” The theory is that the Bush Administration is too busy “negotiating” with the new leadership in Congress to “dare” a mass move in the Middle East.
...The projected scenario is as follows: Hezbollah and Amal movement ministers will resign from the Government calling for the resignation of the Government. The next move is to have Hezbollah, Amal, and their allies in the Parliament also resign, thus creating “conditions” for what they will coin as new elections and a collapse of the cabinet. Most of these moves have already been accomplished or are on the eve of being implemented. The pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud will declare the Government and the Parliament as “illegitimate,” and call for early legislative elections. The latter, if they take place will be under the smashing influence of Hezbollah’s weapons (a show of force was performed in the summer) and of the cohorts of militias and security agencies. Result: a pro-Syrian-Iranian majority in parliament, followed by the formation of an “axis” government in Lebanon. The rest is easy to predict: A terrorism victory.
That will also be the beginning of the end of Catholicism in Lebanon.
If You Think Milwaukee's Murder/Shooting Crisis is Bad...
Well, move to Chicago.
See, in Chicago, the Cop Shop has covered up over 80 murders by calling them something else.
At least Mayor Tom Milk-Carton hasn't gone THAT far.
HT: John Lott
See, in Chicago, the Cop Shop has covered up over 80 murders by calling them something else.
At least Mayor Tom Milk-Carton hasn't gone THAT far.
HT: John Lott
Abramoff's Further Testimony--on Dem Senators
Maybe this won't make all the usual news outlets:
Convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff is scheduled to report to federal prison tomorrow, over the objections of federal prosecutors who say they still need his help to pursue leads on officials he allegedly bribed.
Sources close to the investigation say Abramoff has provided information on his dealings with and campaign contributions and gifts to "dozens of members of Congress and staff," including what Abramoff has reportedly described as "six to eight seriously corrupt Democratic senators."
The sources say Abramoff was about to provide information about Bush administration officials, including Karl Rove, "accepting things of value" from Abramoff.
Won't bother me if ALL of them go directly to jail, including Rove, if found guilty.
Convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff is scheduled to report to federal prison tomorrow, over the objections of federal prosecutors who say they still need his help to pursue leads on officials he allegedly bribed.
Sources close to the investigation say Abramoff has provided information on his dealings with and campaign contributions and gifts to "dozens of members of Congress and staff," including what Abramoff has reportedly described as "six to eight seriously corrupt Democratic senators."
The sources say Abramoff was about to provide information about Bush administration officials, including Karl Rove, "accepting things of value" from Abramoff.
Won't bother me if ALL of them go directly to jail, including Rove, if found guilty.
Economic Planning at the Speed of ...Molasses
Public Policy Forum released a report stating (in effect) that Milwaukee's "economic development" expenditures basically pay for pretty tulips, bushes, and sidewalks.
Sheehy, of MMAC, says "not so."
MMAC President Tim Sheehy said the study neglects efforts to groom Milwaukee as the anchor of the southeastern Wisconsin economy under a strategy to create a cohesive seven-county bloc large enough to be globally competitive. That effort, called the Milwaukee 7, seeks strategies to retain, expand and attract industry to the region.
And the City's plan? Why, it'll begin right quick:
Sheehy noted that Milwaukee is at work on a citywide plan, due by 2010,
Maybe there'll be someone around in 2010 to implement the report.
Sheehy, of MMAC, says "not so."
MMAC President Tim Sheehy said the study neglects efforts to groom Milwaukee as the anchor of the southeastern Wisconsin economy under a strategy to create a cohesive seven-county bloc large enough to be globally competitive. That effort, called the Milwaukee 7, seeks strategies to retain, expand and attract industry to the region.
And the City's plan? Why, it'll begin right quick:
Sheehy noted that Milwaukee is at work on a citywide plan, due by 2010,
Maybe there'll be someone around in 2010 to implement the report.
Stadium Tax to Run Forever. We TOLD You So!!
Yah.
...members of the Miller Park stadium board faced a new reality Tuesday: The stadium tax might not end in 2014 as originally anticipated.
Buffeted by changes in demographics and personal income in the five-county region where the 0.1% tax is collected, and the loss of sales-tax revenue when people shop on the Internet, the board is beginning to look at its options.
And it gets worse:
To retire the stadium debt, the district relies largely on the sales-tax revenue, its own investment performance and to some extent its ability to cut its own expenses.
You know--like not paying for repairs & maintenance, or not buying shiny new advertising signage, or BS like that.
"Cut expenses"? Really!
Well, what about all those fancy-Dan projections, made by really expensive consultants, paid for by (guess who?)--and relied upon by "Stick It To 'Em" Thompson in his package of neat deceptions? Huh? What about those, hey?
Berry said sales taxes are largely driven by demographics. If there are more people, and personal income is up, there is more discretionary income and people buy more goods and materials. But in the five-county region, he said, the population has dipped, and personal income in some recent years has dropped. That is at odds with growth in the rest of the state, he said.
Duuuhhhh. $3,500.00 gets you a new HDTV. You want that with or without 5.5% sales tax ($192.50) Repeat: Duuuuhhhhh.
...members of the Miller Park stadium board faced a new reality Tuesday: The stadium tax might not end in 2014 as originally anticipated.
Buffeted by changes in demographics and personal income in the five-county region where the 0.1% tax is collected, and the loss of sales-tax revenue when people shop on the Internet, the board is beginning to look at its options.
And it gets worse:
To retire the stadium debt, the district relies largely on the sales-tax revenue, its own investment performance and to some extent its ability to cut its own expenses.
You know--like not paying for repairs & maintenance, or not buying shiny new advertising signage, or BS like that.
"Cut expenses"? Really!
Well, what about all those fancy-Dan projections, made by really expensive consultants, paid for by (guess who?)--and relied upon by "Stick It To 'Em" Thompson in his package of neat deceptions? Huh? What about those, hey?
Berry said sales taxes are largely driven by demographics. If there are more people, and personal income is up, there is more discretionary income and people buy more goods and materials. But in the five-county region, he said, the population has dipped, and personal income in some recent years has dropped. That is at odds with growth in the rest of the state, he said.
S'pose taxes, taxes, and more taxes might have had some effect on that "population" and their jobs?
In addition, more people apparently are buying more goods and services over the Internet. And in many cases, there is no sales tax paid, Berry said.Duuuhhhh. $3,500.00 gets you a new HDTV. You want that with or without 5.5% sales tax ($192.50) Repeat: Duuuuhhhhh.
Sheriff Clarke's Strange Bedfellow
Now enter from stage Left (not Moonbat, but Lefty) Dr. Steve Hargarten:
Hargarten suggested that Milwaukee and other cities could tackle gun violence by treating it in the same way car crashes were addressed.
They should be made so that no one but the authorized owner can use them. That could be done in a number of ways, such as with electronics that recognize an owner's palm print or with a radio frequency signal, he said.
Of course, reliability is an issue with doodads and gizmos, but that's an argument for another day.
"Once a gun becomes an electronic device, safety features will be huge," he said. "Think of the safety features that have been added to cars."
Right. And think of that Allstate ad in which the company spokesman says that "the driver" is still the single most significant problem with cars...
Also needed are tough measures to limit unauthorized access to guns, said Hargarten, who studies gun violence as a public health issue.
Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. agreed with Hargarten's view of looking at shootings as an illness, calling it "a public health crisis."
I will politely opine that the Sheriff is utterly mad--crazy--wickiwickibonzo if he actually believes this crap.
Murder and mayhem are not polio, nor TB, nor head-lice.
Murder and mayhem are moral failings.
There's no "health issue" here except the health of souls.
Clarke's been seduced by Hargarten's passion and commitment--Steve's an enjoyable guy and he's very persuasive. Too bad he got his religious training from the Jesuits--otherwise he'd understand Moral Theo 101.
(By the way, the "health issue" angle's been tried before, during the Clinton Administration. Besides being an excellent vehicle for getting Federal grants, it's a method by which to side-step settled law on the topic of gun ownership. Think I'm kidding? You recall how another very powerful Western government used "psychiatric disturbances" as a method of imprisoning resisters, don't you??)
Hargarten suggested that Milwaukee and other cities could tackle gun violence by treating it in the same way car crashes were addressed.
They should be made so that no one but the authorized owner can use them. That could be done in a number of ways, such as with electronics that recognize an owner's palm print or with a radio frequency signal, he said.
Of course, reliability is an issue with doodads and gizmos, but that's an argument for another day.
"Once a gun becomes an electronic device, safety features will be huge," he said. "Think of the safety features that have been added to cars."
Right. And think of that Allstate ad in which the company spokesman says that "the driver" is still the single most significant problem with cars...
Also needed are tough measures to limit unauthorized access to guns, said Hargarten, who studies gun violence as a public health issue.
Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. agreed with Hargarten's view of looking at shootings as an illness, calling it "a public health crisis."
I will politely opine that the Sheriff is utterly mad--crazy--wickiwickibonzo if he actually believes this crap.
Murder and mayhem are not polio, nor TB, nor head-lice.
Murder and mayhem are moral failings.
There's no "health issue" here except the health of souls.
Clarke's been seduced by Hargarten's passion and commitment--Steve's an enjoyable guy and he's very persuasive. Too bad he got his religious training from the Jesuits--otherwise he'd understand Moral Theo 101.
(By the way, the "health issue" angle's been tried before, during the Clinton Administration. Besides being an excellent vehicle for getting Federal grants, it's a method by which to side-step settled law on the topic of gun ownership. Think I'm kidding? You recall how another very powerful Western government used "psychiatric disturbances" as a method of imprisoning resisters, don't you??)
The Trouble with Illegals
It's not just a matter of sneaking across the border to make a couple of bucks. Heather MacDonald, an excellent researcher, writes a lengthy article in City Journal.
Nearly half of the children born to Hispanic mothers in the U.S. are born out of wedlock, a proportion that has been increasing rapidly with no signs of slowing down. Given what psychologists and sociologists now know about the much higher likelihood of social pathology among those who grow up in single-mother households, the Hispanic baby boom is certain to produce more juvenile delinquents, more school failure, more welfare use, and more teen pregnancy in the future.
MacDonald writes a bit about the growth of the Hispanic community in the USA.
The Hispanic birthrate is twice as high as that of the rest of the American population. That high fertility rate—even more than unbounded levels of immigration—will fuel the rapid Hispanic population boom in the coming decades. By 2050, the Latino population will have tripled, the Census Bureau projects. One in four Americans will be Hispanic by mid-century, twice the current ratio.
Of course, Anglos are too busy buying McMansions and matching Bimmer SUV's to actually have children. This impacts the Anglo fertility rate, no? And it is good to remember that the Social Security system desperately needs a lot of young taxpayers. However:
...it’s the fertility surge among unwed Hispanics that should worry policymakers. Hispanic women have the highest unmarried birthrate in the country—over three times that of whites and Asians, and nearly one and a half times that of black women, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
You think that's something? Get this:
The rate of childbirth for Mexican teenagers, who come from by far the largest and fastest-growing immigrant population, greatly outstrips every other group. The Mexican teen birthrate is 93 births per every 1,000 girls, compared with 27 births for every 1,000 white girls, 17 births for every 1,000 Asian girls, and 65 births for every 1,000 black girls. To put these numbers into international perspective, Japan’s teen birthrate is 3.9, Italy’s is 6.9, and France’s is 10.
Many of my acquaintances carry on about the "family values" of Hispanics, and how the Republican Party could capitalize on those values, yada yada yada.
In fact, the worst possible environment for children is a fatherless home (curiously, the only exception is when the father died prematurely.) There's no better way to produce gang-bangers, criminals, and even more illegitimacy.
Nearly half of the children born to Hispanic mothers in the U.S. are born out of wedlock, a proportion that has been increasing rapidly with no signs of slowing down. Given what psychologists and sociologists now know about the much higher likelihood of social pathology among those who grow up in single-mother households, the Hispanic baby boom is certain to produce more juvenile delinquents, more school failure, more welfare use, and more teen pregnancy in the future.
MacDonald writes a bit about the growth of the Hispanic community in the USA.
The Hispanic birthrate is twice as high as that of the rest of the American population. That high fertility rate—even more than unbounded levels of immigration—will fuel the rapid Hispanic population boom in the coming decades. By 2050, the Latino population will have tripled, the Census Bureau projects. One in four Americans will be Hispanic by mid-century, twice the current ratio.
Of course, Anglos are too busy buying McMansions and matching Bimmer SUV's to actually have children. This impacts the Anglo fertility rate, no? And it is good to remember that the Social Security system desperately needs a lot of young taxpayers. However:
...it’s the fertility surge among unwed Hispanics that should worry policymakers. Hispanic women have the highest unmarried birthrate in the country—over three times that of whites and Asians, and nearly one and a half times that of black women, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
You think that's something? Get this:
The rate of childbirth for Mexican teenagers, who come from by far the largest and fastest-growing immigrant population, greatly outstrips every other group. The Mexican teen birthrate is 93 births per every 1,000 girls, compared with 27 births for every 1,000 white girls, 17 births for every 1,000 Asian girls, and 65 births for every 1,000 black girls. To put these numbers into international perspective, Japan’s teen birthrate is 3.9, Italy’s is 6.9, and France’s is 10.
Many of my acquaintances carry on about the "family values" of Hispanics, and how the Republican Party could capitalize on those values, yada yada yada.
In fact, the worst possible environment for children is a fatherless home (curiously, the only exception is when the father died prematurely.) There's no better way to produce gang-bangers, criminals, and even more illegitimacy.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
It's All Sykes' Fault
Bruce Murphy, who occasionally makes a good point:
It was Gard who pushed the Republicans in both legislative houses to attack Gov. Jim Doyle from the moment he took office and repeatedly send him bills he’d already vetoed and had made clear he would continue to oppose. This was not about governing; it was about scoring political points for the next election, and it didn’t work.
I can't disagree too much with the above in general terms. There are specifics which could or should go either way, but there's no question that Gard's style was to load bills with hand grenades for Doyle--and it was Doyle's style to throw the hand grenades right back at Gard.
With base politics in mind, the Republicans made sure the marriage amendment was on the ballot for November, to ensure a big turnout of social conservatives. The turnout happened all right, but some voted for the amendment while voting against Green, rewarding a fiscal conservative like Doyle who had cut the deficit he inherited. Meanwhile, the amendment also triggered a big turnout of college kids and other liberals who overwhelmingly rejected Green
More arguable here. Doyle did not "cut" the deficit--he merely moved it to the next budget. And the chicanery with the highway fund is inexcusable. However, others have commented that when Gard forced the marriage amendment to the November ballot that he cut his own throat.
...The height of this folly was Sykes’ attack on former Republican Gov. Lee Sherman Dreyfus, calling him a RINO for opposing a Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Sykes went further, attacking Dreyfus for raising taxes while serving as governor.
Here Murphy simply goes off the track. Dreyfus' rejection of spending controls was wrong, period. And the tax that Sykes attacked was the infamous "Taxation Without Representation" ever-increasing, never-ending, no-vote gas tax. This was a gaffe comparable with GWB's signing the Campaign Reform act which repealed portions of the 1st Amendment.
There is no doubt that Dreyfus is a moderate Republican.
Yah hey.
Traditional Republicans view Dreyfus with great fondness. Dreyfus and Panzer were exactly the kind of politicians Republicans thought of when touting their “big tent.” The “big tent” philosophy was both an embrace of electoral pragmatism and a rebuke of Democratic political correctness. But the Rove and Gard idea, enforced mercilessly by talk radio, was to make the GOP tent ever smaller. Last week, they achieved their goal.
"Traditional Republicans?" Name a few....oh, never mind. We know who they are.
As to Talk Radio--it's all Charlie's fault, eh?
Exactly WHICH metropolitan area had the largest 2001-2005 percentage job-losses, Bruce?
It was Gard who pushed the Republicans in both legislative houses to attack Gov. Jim Doyle from the moment he took office and repeatedly send him bills he’d already vetoed and had made clear he would continue to oppose. This was not about governing; it was about scoring political points for the next election, and it didn’t work.
I can't disagree too much with the above in general terms. There are specifics which could or should go either way, but there's no question that Gard's style was to load bills with hand grenades for Doyle--and it was Doyle's style to throw the hand grenades right back at Gard.
With base politics in mind, the Republicans made sure the marriage amendment was on the ballot for November, to ensure a big turnout of social conservatives. The turnout happened all right, but some voted for the amendment while voting against Green, rewarding a fiscal conservative like Doyle who had cut the deficit he inherited. Meanwhile, the amendment also triggered a big turnout of college kids and other liberals who overwhelmingly rejected Green
More arguable here. Doyle did not "cut" the deficit--he merely moved it to the next budget. And the chicanery with the highway fund is inexcusable. However, others have commented that when Gard forced the marriage amendment to the November ballot that he cut his own throat.
...The height of this folly was Sykes’ attack on former Republican Gov. Lee Sherman Dreyfus, calling him a RINO for opposing a Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Sykes went further, attacking Dreyfus for raising taxes while serving as governor.
Here Murphy simply goes off the track. Dreyfus' rejection of spending controls was wrong, period. And the tax that Sykes attacked was the infamous "Taxation Without Representation" ever-increasing, never-ending, no-vote gas tax. This was a gaffe comparable with GWB's signing the Campaign Reform act which repealed portions of the 1st Amendment.
There is no doubt that Dreyfus is a moderate Republican.
Yah hey.
Traditional Republicans view Dreyfus with great fondness. Dreyfus and Panzer were exactly the kind of politicians Republicans thought of when touting their “big tent.” The “big tent” philosophy was both an embrace of electoral pragmatism and a rebuke of Democratic political correctness. But the Rove and Gard idea, enforced mercilessly by talk radio, was to make the GOP tent ever smaller. Last week, they achieved their goal.
"Traditional Republicans?" Name a few....oh, never mind. We know who they are.
As to Talk Radio--it's all Charlie's fault, eh?
Exactly WHICH metropolitan area had the largest 2001-2005 percentage job-losses, Bruce?
Elton John--Harbinger?
CourageMan posted a lengthy essay on SirElton's remark that 'all religion should be banned.' Here's an interesting excerpt:
...Sir Elton HASN'T thought these topics through (which isn't particularly damnable in itself), and this is what comes out of a him. Most people, and all non-intellectuals, DON'T think things through -- they absorb what the world around them thinks or tells them they should think, thoughtlessly or with minimal thought. The thoughtless man is a better barometer of his society than the thoughtful man for that very reason. I think a serious persecution of Christians is coming, because sentiments like these are becoming much more commonly expressed as natural and normal than before. While there has always been The Village Atheist around, he has been an exception. Sir Elton indicates TVA might be becoming the norm.
He's not the first to predict a new persecution in recent times. Cdl. George of Chicago mentioned this about 6 months ago.
CourageMan also passes on some comparos between the Pope and SirElton, which are more fun:
...Sir Elton HASN'T thought these topics through (which isn't particularly damnable in itself), and this is what comes out of a him. Most people, and all non-intellectuals, DON'T think things through -- they absorb what the world around them thinks or tells them they should think, thoughtlessly or with minimal thought. The thoughtless man is a better barometer of his society than the thoughtful man for that very reason. I think a serious persecution of Christians is coming, because sentiments like these are becoming much more commonly expressed as natural and normal than before. While there has always been The Village Atheist around, he has been an exception. Sir Elton indicates TVA might be becoming the norm.
He's not the first to predict a new persecution in recent times. Cdl. George of Chicago mentioned this about 6 months ago.
CourageMan also passes on some comparos between the Pope and SirElton, which are more fun:
- About the role of Husserl and phenomenology in Karol Wojtyla's personalist philosophy -- Elton John don't know shit
- The Pope never wrote a song to the World Team Tennis league
- The Pope has the stronger fashion sense, with more modest hats and better Prada shoes
- Everyone knows the pope's born name
- "Deus Caritas Est" is in a real dead language, unlike "Solar Prestige a Gammon"³ And a bit meatier than "Believe"
- Pope doesn't depend on Bernie Taupin to write words for him
- Pope hasn't had a career trajectory that started with Kiki Dee as a duet partner and went on to RuPaul and (on another song) George Michael
Umnnnnhhhh....yah.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Buh Bye, BB Guns
You can't make this stuff up:
You might think that Massachusetts can't become any more anti-gun.
Well, think again. Now there's a proposal to ban BB guns in Massachusetts. Complete with a BB gun amnesty period. And a BB gun buyback program.
Millions of kids have grown up with BB and pellet guns. I don't know of any that were turned into criminals by their Daisy Red Ryder BB gun. But that doesn't matter to the politicians in Massachusetts. They think BB guns are bad, and they want them outlawed.
In fact, these politicians not only plan to ban BB guns in Massachusetts, they're sending letters to Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island to ask those states to do the same. In the words of one of these anti-gun politicians, their goal is to make "New England an area free of pellet guns and BB guns."
So reports LaPierre of the NRA.
I suppose it makes sense. They've banned dodge-ball, a highly dangerous sport which caused the hospitalization, disfigurement or dismembering of millions of children, right? Well, BB guns are at least twice as worse, or more so--even if those millions of injuries were never reported.
This should have been an update to Folkie's list.
You might think that Massachusetts can't become any more anti-gun.
Well, think again. Now there's a proposal to ban BB guns in Massachusetts. Complete with a BB gun amnesty period. And a BB gun buyback program.
Millions of kids have grown up with BB and pellet guns. I don't know of any that were turned into criminals by their Daisy Red Ryder BB gun. But that doesn't matter to the politicians in Massachusetts. They think BB guns are bad, and they want them outlawed.
In fact, these politicians not only plan to ban BB guns in Massachusetts, they're sending letters to Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island to ask those states to do the same. In the words of one of these anti-gun politicians, their goal is to make "New England an area free of pellet guns and BB guns."
So reports LaPierre of the NRA.
I suppose it makes sense. They've banned dodge-ball, a highly dangerous sport which caused the hospitalization, disfigurement or dismembering of millions of children, right? Well, BB guns are at least twice as worse, or more so--even if those millions of injuries were never reported.
This should have been an update to Folkie's list.
On Kneeling for Communion, Community, and the Sacred
From an essay by Anthony Esolen in Crisis Magazine:
...And as you watched the priest and the altar boy come toward you, you’d see others receiving: old ladies, children, carpenters, secretaries, musclemen, strangers and friends, and sometimes enemies. But there you were all together, kneeling, perhaps saying a silent prayer. It’s hard to persist in a grudge against the fellow who is kneeling beside you, and who dare not touch with his hand the body of Christ.
That rail was removed, as so many were, in the assault of the new puritans of the 1970s. Nothing should separate the laymen from the altar; we were to focus on ourselves as a community of faith, rather than on the Eucharist as an object of cultic worship.
Those who instigated the change ...said they wanted to foster the spirit of community among us.
...It may be hard for us American alienists to imagine, but a true community is not exactly chosen. You are born into it; you stumble upon it; it reaches out to get you, and you yield to its embrace.
Now we return to the concept of 'the sacred,' ignored by the Revolutionaries of the '70's and by many today (and unknown by many children and young adults--criminally deprived of this knowledge by the Revolutionaries and their running-dogs.):
It is hard to fathom how we Catholics can have forgotten that a community is defined by what it holds sacred [the definition of culture is drawn from "cult"]—and that it honors the sacred by keeping it separate from common life. The sacred compels distinctions; we stand before it at a reverent distance, that we may better behold its beauty. Without those distinctions, without that distance, we have familiarity but no intimacy. We walk brazenly over the ground that Moses feared to tread, even after he had taken the sandals off his feet.
Sometimes the sacred limits who may or may not see, or hear, or touch—the deep meaning of the veils that women used to wear. Sometimes it may be approached only on certain days, as in the Temple where the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies but once a year, on the Day of Atonement. Sometimes it demands proper attire: Try to go to a traditional black church in America wearing shorts. Sometimes it forbids certain otherwise ordinary actions: You do not walk over the military grave in the town commons. Sometimes it prescribes the extraordinary: gun-salutes, the blare of 50 trumpets. It may cordon the young from the old, or men from women, as at an Orthodox synagogue. In all cases it commands reverence in the form of ritual laws that a people understand and obey. In so doing it organizes them into a community—as there never would have been the Twelve were it not for the One.
OK, I'll drill this again: sacred time, sacred space, sacred language, sacred music...
Now consider how many rules of the sacred we Catholics have tossed aside, and how much we have lost thereby in community. Take away that communion rail. What follows?
We obscure the ground of our union, Christ. So does our vision blur as we hastily draw too near to what surpasses our comprehension. We cannot see the whole Vine, so we turn to a few of the branches—or treat the Vine as if He were but a branch. We shunt His tent to the side, relocating it in a cloakroom, as if it were a tacky armchair of Grandpa’s that no longer matches our decor, but that we haven’t yet made up our minds to get rid of. The space between ourselves and the sacred is breached, not by the grace of Christ who gives Himself to us in the Eucharist, but by ourselves, heedlessly.
Brings to mind the term "my space;" only a few are allowed (or brought) so close to our bodies without explicit permission--those who intrude without it will find us moving further away...
On the dropping of the Communion fast (from wakening to reception at Mass):
The result weakened the bonds of community. As the scholar Eamon Duffy has pointed out, for at least one morning every week the Catholic felt a hint of the hunger his poorer brothers might feel every day.
On what George Weigel mocked as "Ascension Thursday Sunday":
Or consider the holy days of obligation. What true American would want to celebrate the Fifth of July?
On the buildings themselves--those which remain un-Revolutionized, anyway:
So it is with those mountainous symbols—with all the vertiginous heights of art and liturgy; the strangeness of a girl’s veil, the variegated light streaming from a stained-glass St. Patrick, blessing a rough shepherd who kneels on the green land before him; the pelican hymned in the ancient tongue; the purple of Lent; the hoods over the crowd of saints in Passiontide; the red days and fish on the calendar; the hushed places where no one goes, the objects no one touches; the sunburst monstrance, held by the priest beneath the folds of his garment; the Host within it, familiar and faraway, simple and incomprehensible; the water poured upon the child’s head, with his wail echoing to the silent trumpeting angels above.
These things knit the knot of community among us.
The first time my (then)-5-year-old daughter walked into St. Anthony's on 9th/Mitchell, she remarked to her mother "Mom, this place is beautiful!!" She could only compare to St. Mary/Elm Grove at the time...
She articulated in only a few words what Esolen eloquently essays.
...And as you watched the priest and the altar boy come toward you, you’d see others receiving: old ladies, children, carpenters, secretaries, musclemen, strangers and friends, and sometimes enemies. But there you were all together, kneeling, perhaps saying a silent prayer. It’s hard to persist in a grudge against the fellow who is kneeling beside you, and who dare not touch with his hand the body of Christ.
That rail was removed, as so many were, in the assault of the new puritans of the 1970s. Nothing should separate the laymen from the altar; we were to focus on ourselves as a community of faith, rather than on the Eucharist as an object of cultic worship.
Those who instigated the change ...said they wanted to foster the spirit of community among us.
...It may be hard for us American alienists to imagine, but a true community is not exactly chosen. You are born into it; you stumble upon it; it reaches out to get you, and you yield to its embrace.
Now we return to the concept of 'the sacred,' ignored by the Revolutionaries of the '70's and by many today (and unknown by many children and young adults--criminally deprived of this knowledge by the Revolutionaries and their running-dogs.):
It is hard to fathom how we Catholics can have forgotten that a community is defined by what it holds sacred [the definition of culture is drawn from "cult"]—and that it honors the sacred by keeping it separate from common life. The sacred compels distinctions; we stand before it at a reverent distance, that we may better behold its beauty. Without those distinctions, without that distance, we have familiarity but no intimacy. We walk brazenly over the ground that Moses feared to tread, even after he had taken the sandals off his feet.
Sometimes the sacred limits who may or may not see, or hear, or touch—the deep meaning of the veils that women used to wear. Sometimes it may be approached only on certain days, as in the Temple where the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies but once a year, on the Day of Atonement. Sometimes it demands proper attire: Try to go to a traditional black church in America wearing shorts. Sometimes it forbids certain otherwise ordinary actions: You do not walk over the military grave in the town commons. Sometimes it prescribes the extraordinary: gun-salutes, the blare of 50 trumpets. It may cordon the young from the old, or men from women, as at an Orthodox synagogue. In all cases it commands reverence in the form of ritual laws that a people understand and obey. In so doing it organizes them into a community—as there never would have been the Twelve were it not for the One.
OK, I'll drill this again: sacred time, sacred space, sacred language, sacred music...
Now consider how many rules of the sacred we Catholics have tossed aside, and how much we have lost thereby in community. Take away that communion rail. What follows?
We obscure the ground of our union, Christ. So does our vision blur as we hastily draw too near to what surpasses our comprehension. We cannot see the whole Vine, so we turn to a few of the branches—or treat the Vine as if He were but a branch. We shunt His tent to the side, relocating it in a cloakroom, as if it were a tacky armchair of Grandpa’s that no longer matches our decor, but that we haven’t yet made up our minds to get rid of. The space between ourselves and the sacred is breached, not by the grace of Christ who gives Himself to us in the Eucharist, but by ourselves, heedlessly.
Brings to mind the term "my space;" only a few are allowed (or brought) so close to our bodies without explicit permission--those who intrude without it will find us moving further away...
On the dropping of the Communion fast (from wakening to reception at Mass):
The result weakened the bonds of community. As the scholar Eamon Duffy has pointed out, for at least one morning every week the Catholic felt a hint of the hunger his poorer brothers might feel every day.
On what George Weigel mocked as "Ascension Thursday Sunday":
Or consider the holy days of obligation. What true American would want to celebrate the Fifth of July?
On the buildings themselves--those which remain un-Revolutionized, anyway:
So it is with those mountainous symbols—with all the vertiginous heights of art and liturgy; the strangeness of a girl’s veil, the variegated light streaming from a stained-glass St. Patrick, blessing a rough shepherd who kneels on the green land before him; the pelican hymned in the ancient tongue; the purple of Lent; the hoods over the crowd of saints in Passiontide; the red days and fish on the calendar; the hushed places where no one goes, the objects no one touches; the sunburst monstrance, held by the priest beneath the folds of his garment; the Host within it, familiar and faraway, simple and incomprehensible; the water poured upon the child’s head, with his wail echoing to the silent trumpeting angels above.
These things knit the knot of community among us.
The first time my (then)-5-year-old daughter walked into St. Anthony's on 9th/Mitchell, she remarked to her mother "Mom, this place is beautiful!!" She could only compare to St. Mary/Elm Grove at the time...
She articulated in only a few words what Esolen eloquently essays.
Almost Musical Terms
You should look carefully at the capitalized terms. Some are not what they seem at first!
ALLREGRETTO: When you're 16 measures into the piece and realize you took too fast a tempo
ANGUS DEI: To play with a divinely beefy tone
A PATELLA: Accompanied by knee-slapping
APPOLOGGIATURA: A composition that you regret playing
APPROXIMATURA: A series of notes not intended by the composer, yet played with an "I meant to do that" attitude
APPROXIMENTO: A musical entrance that is somewhere in the vicinity of the correct pitch
CACOUGHANY: A composition incorporating many people with chest colds
CORAL SYMPHONY: A large, multi-movement work from Beethoven's Caribbean Period
DILL PICCOLINI: An exceedingly small wind instrument that plays only sour notes
FERMANTRA: A note held over and over and over and over and . . .
FERMOOTA: A note of dubious value held for indefinite length
FIDDLER CRABS: Grumpy string players
FLUTE FLIES: Those tiny mosquitoes that bother musicians on outdoor gigs
FRUGALHORN: A sensible and inexpensive brass instrument
GAUL BLATTER: A French horn player
GREGORIAN CHAMP: The title bestowed upon the monk who can hold a note the longest
GROUND HOG: Someone who takes control of the repeated bassline and won't let anyone else play it
PLACEBO DOMINGO: A faux tenor
SCHMALZANDO: A sudden burst of music from the Guy Lombardo band
THE RIGHT OF STRINGS: Manifesto of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Violists
SPRITZICATO: An indication to string instruments to produce a bright and bubbly sound
TEMPO TANTRUM: What an elementary school orchestra is having when it's not following the conductor (also common in municipal bands and community orchestras)
TROUBLE CLEF: Any clef one can't read: e.g., alto clef for pianists
VESUVIOSO: An indication to build up to a fiery conclusion
VIBRATTO: Child prodigy son of the concertmaster
AN-DANTE: A tempo that's infernally slow
ANTIPHONAL: Referring to the prohibition of cell phones in the concert hall
BAR LINE: What musicians form after the concert
BASSO CONTINUO: When musicians are still fishing long after the legal season has ended
BEN SOSTENUTO: First cousin of the second trombonist
CADENZA: Something that happens when you forget what the composer wrote
CANTABILE: To achieve a complaining sound, as if you have a sour stomach
COL LEGNO: An indication to cellists to hold on tight with their lower extremities
CON SORDINO: An indication to string players to bow in a slashing, rapier motion
ESPRESSIVO: Used to indicate permission to take a coffee break
L'ISTESSO TEMPO: An indication to play listlessly; e.g., as if youdon't care
MAESTRO: A person who, standing in front of the orchestra and/orchorus, is able to follow them precisely
OPERA BUFFA: A musical stage production performed by nudists
PASTORALE: The beverage to drink in the country when listening to Beethoven with a member of the clergy
PESANTE: An effect distinctly non-upper-class
PISSICATO: Too much coffee -- time to take a break
RUBATO: A cross between a rhubarb and a tomato
STRINGENDO: An unpleasant effect produced by the violin section when it doesn't use vibrato
VIBRATO: A device to assist female performers who have trouble when the music is marked "con espressivo"
Stolen from ChristusVincit
ALLREGRETTO: When you're 16 measures into the piece and realize you took too fast a tempo
ANGUS DEI: To play with a divinely beefy tone
A PATELLA: Accompanied by knee-slapping
APPOLOGGIATURA: A composition that you regret playing
APPROXIMATURA: A series of notes not intended by the composer, yet played with an "I meant to do that" attitude
APPROXIMENTO: A musical entrance that is somewhere in the vicinity of the correct pitch
CACOUGHANY: A composition incorporating many people with chest colds
CORAL SYMPHONY: A large, multi-movement work from Beethoven's Caribbean Period
DILL PICCOLINI: An exceedingly small wind instrument that plays only sour notes
FERMANTRA: A note held over and over and over and over and . . .
FERMOOTA: A note of dubious value held for indefinite length
FIDDLER CRABS: Grumpy string players
FLUTE FLIES: Those tiny mosquitoes that bother musicians on outdoor gigs
FRUGALHORN: A sensible and inexpensive brass instrument
GAUL BLATTER: A French horn player
GREGORIAN CHAMP: The title bestowed upon the monk who can hold a note the longest
GROUND HOG: Someone who takes control of the repeated bassline and won't let anyone else play it
PLACEBO DOMINGO: A faux tenor
SCHMALZANDO: A sudden burst of music from the Guy Lombardo band
THE RIGHT OF STRINGS: Manifesto of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Violists
SPRITZICATO: An indication to string instruments to produce a bright and bubbly sound
TEMPO TANTRUM: What an elementary school orchestra is having when it's not following the conductor (also common in municipal bands and community orchestras)
TROUBLE CLEF: Any clef one can't read: e.g., alto clef for pianists
VESUVIOSO: An indication to build up to a fiery conclusion
VIBRATTO: Child prodigy son of the concertmaster
AN-DANTE: A tempo that's infernally slow
ANTIPHONAL: Referring to the prohibition of cell phones in the concert hall
BAR LINE: What musicians form after the concert
BASSO CONTINUO: When musicians are still fishing long after the legal season has ended
BEN SOSTENUTO: First cousin of the second trombonist
CADENZA: Something that happens when you forget what the composer wrote
CANTABILE: To achieve a complaining sound, as if you have a sour stomach
COL LEGNO: An indication to cellists to hold on tight with their lower extremities
CON SORDINO: An indication to string players to bow in a slashing, rapier motion
ESPRESSIVO: Used to indicate permission to take a coffee break
L'ISTESSO TEMPO: An indication to play listlessly; e.g., as if youdon't care
MAESTRO: A person who, standing in front of the orchestra and/orchorus, is able to follow them precisely
OPERA BUFFA: A musical stage production performed by nudists
PASTORALE: The beverage to drink in the country when listening to Beethoven with a member of the clergy
PESANTE: An effect distinctly non-upper-class
PISSICATO: Too much coffee -- time to take a break
RUBATO: A cross between a rhubarb and a tomato
STRINGENDO: An unpleasant effect produced by the violin section when it doesn't use vibrato
VIBRATO: A device to assist female performers who have trouble when the music is marked "con espressivo"
Stolen from ChristusVincit
Gibbon's History--A Warning
“In the end more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free.” —Edward Gibbon
Today's PatriotPost.
Today's PatriotPost.
Folkbum Goes Out on a Limb--But Not Far Enough
It's safe to say that Jay Bullock does not like Pat McIlheran's opinions.
But Folkie is taking his dislikes and building a castle on what should be called a very sandy foundation in this post. He asserts that the recent election:
1) Proves that conservative ideas are wrong;
2) Shows that using intel assets to monitor AlQuaeda overseas phone calls is wrong;
3) Proves that illegal immigration is fine-and-dandy with Americans;
4) Demonstrates that an amendment to limit State and local spending is wrong;
5) Shows that excessive Estate Taxing is just fine;
6) Mandates the continuing validity of Roe v Wade; and
7) Shows that taxpayers WANT to finance the campaigns of politicians.
Hell, Jay--that's hardly a comprehensive list.
Here are some other mandates and proofs contained in the election's results:
1) Wisconsin weather should moderate, with rain only at night, and temps between 50-80 degrees;
2) All public employees should receive a 60% boost in income and a 100% increase in pensions, immediately, with "20-and-out" retirement plans and free lifetime healthcare;
3) All conservative radio and newspaper figures should be exported to the South Pole;
4) All living US citizens' resumes should be examined and those whose backgrounds or inclinations are in disfavor should either self-immolate or be executed;
5) All parking spaces should be reserved for the handicapped;
6) All earned and un-earned income in excess of $100K/year (of non-public-servant citizens) of Wisconsin should be confiscated by the State;
7) There will be no smoking. Anywhere. Ever.;
8) The Republican caucus rooms and offices in the Legislature will be moved to Hurley and they will no longer have telephones, computers, or electricity; and
9) The First, Second, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments to the US Constitution shall be repealed forthwith.
You can get those results by examining the exit-polls, Jay. Work on it for a while.
But Folkie is taking his dislikes and building a castle on what should be called a very sandy foundation in this post. He asserts that the recent election:
1) Proves that conservative ideas are wrong;
2) Shows that using intel assets to monitor AlQuaeda overseas phone calls is wrong;
3) Proves that illegal immigration is fine-and-dandy with Americans;
4) Demonstrates that an amendment to limit State and local spending is wrong;
5) Shows that excessive Estate Taxing is just fine;
6) Mandates the continuing validity of Roe v Wade; and
7) Shows that taxpayers WANT to finance the campaigns of politicians.
Hell, Jay--that's hardly a comprehensive list.
Here are some other mandates and proofs contained in the election's results:
1) Wisconsin weather should moderate, with rain only at night, and temps between 50-80 degrees;
2) All public employees should receive a 60% boost in income and a 100% increase in pensions, immediately, with "20-and-out" retirement plans and free lifetime healthcare;
3) All conservative radio and newspaper figures should be exported to the South Pole;
4) All living US citizens' resumes should be examined and those whose backgrounds or inclinations are in disfavor should either self-immolate or be executed;
5) All parking spaces should be reserved for the handicapped;
6) All earned and un-earned income in excess of $100K/year (of non-public-servant citizens) of Wisconsin should be confiscated by the State;
7) There will be no smoking. Anywhere. Ever.;
8) The Republican caucus rooms and offices in the Legislature will be moved to Hurley and they will no longer have telephones, computers, or electricity; and
9) The First, Second, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments to the US Constitution shall be repealed forthwith.
You can get those results by examining the exit-polls, Jay. Work on it for a while.
JSOnline's Dan Benson: Doesn't Get It
Evidently Mr. Benson was assigned to write a story for those who understand Dr. Suess (but not much more than that.)
When you read a newspaper article, note the Tone and Content of the last few graphs. In most cases, the T&C indicates that the article is coming to a Conclusion With Which All Should Agree. In some few cases, the last graphs present facts which are very significant and which someone wants buried.
In this article, we have the "Conclusion With Which All Should Agree" formula:
Stability in the tax rate is the key, Hartford Mayor Scott Henke said.
"The tax rate is the easiest barometer for a local official to use," Henke said. "If your rate is stable, your community is in a stable financial situation. If they go up and down, the taxpayers are in a peak and valley situation."
Henke said his goal is to keep the tax rate within 5 cents - up or down - year to year.
With the real estate market beginning to flatten, local officials who have touted low tax rates as a measure of their effectiveness may have a hard time explaining higher rates in years to come, Berry said.
"They're setting the stage to be criticized, perhaps unfairly. They could freeze their budget and the rate would still have to go up," Berry said. "It's going to happen because of what's happening in the real estate market."
Oh, yes, there's the mandatory 'naysayer' quote:
Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas in September hailed his 2007 budget as the "most significant tax decrease" in the county since it adopted a county executive form of government 15 years ago, despite a $3 million spending increase and a $1.2 million increase in the total tax levy.
The proposed tax rate, however, is $1.83 per $1,000 of equalized value, down from $1.97 this year. That means the owner of a $250,000 house would save about $35 on the tax bill from the previous year.
"(Vrakas) is calling it a tax decrease because the impact on some homeowners is that their tax bill may go down a couple bucks," said Christine Lufter, president of the Waukesha Taxpayers League.
Focusing on tax rates is "the most deceptive way of selling a budget. It's not an indicator of government efficiency," she said.
Obviously, Lufter's position is correct. Vrakas' pronouncement is a lie.
But now that we've gone through that nasty patch, we can go to our conclusion (above)--that a "stable rate" is a "good thing."
It's particularly good for politicians who enjoy spending a lot of Someone Else's Money. Too bad the JS reporter doesn't get that.
When you read a newspaper article, note the Tone and Content of the last few graphs. In most cases, the T&C indicates that the article is coming to a Conclusion With Which All Should Agree. In some few cases, the last graphs present facts which are very significant and which someone wants buried.
In this article, we have the "Conclusion With Which All Should Agree" formula:
Stability in the tax rate is the key, Hartford Mayor Scott Henke said.
"The tax rate is the easiest barometer for a local official to use," Henke said. "If your rate is stable, your community is in a stable financial situation. If they go up and down, the taxpayers are in a peak and valley situation."
Henke said his goal is to keep the tax rate within 5 cents - up or down - year to year.
With the real estate market beginning to flatten, local officials who have touted low tax rates as a measure of their effectiveness may have a hard time explaining higher rates in years to come, Berry said.
"They're setting the stage to be criticized, perhaps unfairly. They could freeze their budget and the rate would still have to go up," Berry said. "It's going to happen because of what's happening in the real estate market."
Oh, yes, there's the mandatory 'naysayer' quote:
Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas in September hailed his 2007 budget as the "most significant tax decrease" in the county since it adopted a county executive form of government 15 years ago, despite a $3 million spending increase and a $1.2 million increase in the total tax levy.
The proposed tax rate, however, is $1.83 per $1,000 of equalized value, down from $1.97 this year. That means the owner of a $250,000 house would save about $35 on the tax bill from the previous year.
"(Vrakas) is calling it a tax decrease because the impact on some homeowners is that their tax bill may go down a couple bucks," said Christine Lufter, president of the Waukesha Taxpayers League.
Focusing on tax rates is "the most deceptive way of selling a budget. It's not an indicator of government efficiency," she said.
Obviously, Lufter's position is correct. Vrakas' pronouncement is a lie.
But now that we've gone through that nasty patch, we can go to our conclusion (above)--that a "stable rate" is a "good thing."
It's particularly good for politicians who enjoy spending a lot of Someone Else's Money. Too bad the JS reporter doesn't get that.
On-Line Real-Time Crime Busting
Yah, so Wauwatosa's cop-shop has a genuinely 21st-century technology onstream.
Internet-based cameras are nothing new. But Wauwatosa police believe they are the first law-enforcement agency in Wisconsin to link them to their dispatch computers, allowing dispatchers and patrol officers to see what's going on inside an address en route to a 911 call.
"If there's a robbery with a gun, the dispatcher can send that image to the squad," said Wauwatosa police Capt. Jeff Reit, who has spearheaded the department's technology advances. "In a fire, we can see if it's flames or smoke."
For those of you who enjoy irony of the first water, get this:
Owner Linda Burg isn't expecting trouble at the Little Read Book store at 7603 W. State St. But she, and the police, are ready if it shows.
Burg and the Wauwatosa Police Department are testing a new camera and surveillance system that lets the shopkeeper check in from anywhere, anytime over the Internet...
Heh. She's bright--the name of the store (pronounced correctly) tells you a lot about the nature of the books she sells there. Yup. Lefty. REALLY Lefty. So all that "personal privacy and freedom" stuff...where'd that go?
Internet-based cameras are nothing new. But Wauwatosa police believe they are the first law-enforcement agency in Wisconsin to link them to their dispatch computers, allowing dispatchers and patrol officers to see what's going on inside an address en route to a 911 call.
"If there's a robbery with a gun, the dispatcher can send that image to the squad," said Wauwatosa police Capt. Jeff Reit, who has spearheaded the department's technology advances. "In a fire, we can see if it's flames or smoke."
For those of you who enjoy irony of the first water, get this:
Owner Linda Burg isn't expecting trouble at the Little Read Book store at 7603 W. State St. But she, and the police, are ready if it shows.
Burg and the Wauwatosa Police Department are testing a new camera and surveillance system that lets the shopkeeper check in from anywhere, anytime over the Internet...
Heh. She's bright--the name of the store (pronounced correctly) tells you a lot about the nature of the books she sells there. Yup. Lefty. REALLY Lefty. So all that "personal privacy and freedom" stuff...where'd that go?
China Is Our Friend!! Part 385946
Gingrich and Clinton declared PRChina a "Most Favored Nation."
So PRChina went out and bought itself a present:
A Chinese submarine stalked a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group in the Pacific last month and surfaced within firing range of its torpedoes and missiles before being detected, The Washington Times has learned.
That means PRC has pretty damn good cavitation-suppression technology--not to mention really good bearing and gear smarts.
The surprise encounter highlights China's continuing efforts to prepare for a future conflict with the U.S., despite Pentagon efforts to try to boost relations with Beijing's communist-ruled military.
The submarine encounter with the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying warships also is an embarrassment to the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Adm. William J. Fallon, who is engaged in an ambitious military exchange program with China aimed at improving relations between the two nations' militaries.
And it turns out that Admiral Fallon is a disciple of the Jimmuh Carter/Billy Clinton school of dipso-diplomacy:
...military intelligence officials said Adm. Fallon has restricted U.S. intelligence-gathering activities against China, fearing that disclosure of the activities would upset relations with Beijing. The restrictions are hindering efforts to know more about China's military buildup, the officials said.
Pentagon intelligence officials say China's military buildup in recent years has produced large numbers of submarines and surface ships, seeking to control larger portions of international waters in Asia, a move U.S. officials fear could restrict the flow of oil from the Middle East to Asia in the future.
Really? Not that long ago, we were told by the D.C. crowd that 'China doesn't have a Navy.' Maybe all those WalMart dollars are going someplace?
The Pentagon's latest annual report on Chinese military power stated that China is investing heavily in weapons designed "to interdict, at long ranges, aircraft carrier and expeditionary strike groups that might deploy to the western Pacific."
One guess which '...carrier and ...strike groups' those might be.
The son of a friend of ours graduated from Annapolis and took a duty-assignment in the Pacific a few years ago. I'll have to find him and have a conversation, no?
Malkin's contributors from the Submarine Service are not too worried.
So PRChina went out and bought itself a present:
A Chinese submarine stalked a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group in the Pacific last month and surfaced within firing range of its torpedoes and missiles before being detected, The Washington Times has learned.
That means PRC has pretty damn good cavitation-suppression technology--not to mention really good bearing and gear smarts.
The surprise encounter highlights China's continuing efforts to prepare for a future conflict with the U.S., despite Pentagon efforts to try to boost relations with Beijing's communist-ruled military.
The submarine encounter with the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying warships also is an embarrassment to the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Adm. William J. Fallon, who is engaged in an ambitious military exchange program with China aimed at improving relations between the two nations' militaries.
And it turns out that Admiral Fallon is a disciple of the Jimmuh Carter/Billy Clinton school of dipso-diplomacy:
...military intelligence officials said Adm. Fallon has restricted U.S. intelligence-gathering activities against China, fearing that disclosure of the activities would upset relations with Beijing. The restrictions are hindering efforts to know more about China's military buildup, the officials said.
Pentagon intelligence officials say China's military buildup in recent years has produced large numbers of submarines and surface ships, seeking to control larger portions of international waters in Asia, a move U.S. officials fear could restrict the flow of oil from the Middle East to Asia in the future.
Really? Not that long ago, we were told by the D.C. crowd that 'China doesn't have a Navy.' Maybe all those WalMart dollars are going someplace?
The Pentagon's latest annual report on Chinese military power stated that China is investing heavily in weapons designed "to interdict, at long ranges, aircraft carrier and expeditionary strike groups that might deploy to the western Pacific."
One guess which '...carrier and ...strike groups' those might be.
The son of a friend of ours graduated from Annapolis and took a duty-assignment in the Pacific a few years ago. I'll have to find him and have a conversation, no?
Malkin's contributors from the Submarine Service are not too worried.
Religious Utilitarian Minimalism
Another short essay on the absence of "smells and bells" with a familiar theme:
Paul VI’s idea that the church could move “as far as possible” in the direction of Calvinist-style worship without detriment to Catholic souls so long as the traditional orthodoxy slept between the covers of the Catechism, is a conception essentially “angelist”. It’s shared by a great many Catholics today, in whom a tenuous, theoretical orthodoxy coexists with indifference, if not aversion, to the traditional formulations of faith and worship. This is evident in a kind of crass “validitareanism”, which prides itself in emancipation from anything beyond the bare requirements of sacramental validity. “Oh, I don’t need all that…God doesn’t care about all that…”
The author goes on to demonstrate how one might proceed...
Point A - God isn't concerned about that
Point B - That's trivial - God doesn't care...
Point C - Come on - I don't think God minds very much...
These were all pretty minor things...
...We've established a principle: that we can construct, reconstruct or discard according to our own perceived needs, without detriment to anything theoretically "essential". We've also started to alter somewhat the way our religious practice and beliefs look and "feel", because all those little minor changes of "unimportant" things, taken together, add up to something suggesting a real shift.
And, of course, the result:
By now we're well on the way to re-constructing a truly “spiritual” religion entirely in our own image and likeness; but what was once, in our dim, distant and superstitious past something that brought to life the vision of Isaias or St John in the Apocalypse now consists largely of being read at by middle-class people in nice knitwear. Where did everybody go?
(This article is excerpted from an email sent by a friend who did not include the name of the author...)
Paul VI’s idea that the church could move “as far as possible” in the direction of Calvinist-style worship without detriment to Catholic souls so long as the traditional orthodoxy slept between the covers of the Catechism, is a conception essentially “angelist”. It’s shared by a great many Catholics today, in whom a tenuous, theoretical orthodoxy coexists with indifference, if not aversion, to the traditional formulations of faith and worship. This is evident in a kind of crass “validitareanism”, which prides itself in emancipation from anything beyond the bare requirements of sacramental validity. “Oh, I don’t need all that…God doesn’t care about all that…”
The author goes on to demonstrate how one might proceed...
Point A - God isn't concerned about that
Point B - That's trivial - God doesn't care...
Point C - Come on - I don't think God minds very much...
These were all pretty minor things...
...We've established a principle: that we can construct, reconstruct or discard according to our own perceived needs, without detriment to anything theoretically "essential". We've also started to alter somewhat the way our religious practice and beliefs look and "feel", because all those little minor changes of "unimportant" things, taken together, add up to something suggesting a real shift.
And, of course, the result:
By now we're well on the way to re-constructing a truly “spiritual” religion entirely in our own image and likeness; but what was once, in our dim, distant and superstitious past something that brought to life the vision of Isaias or St John in the Apocalypse now consists largely of being read at by middle-class people in nice knitwear. Where did everybody go?
(This article is excerpted from an email sent by a friend who did not include the name of the author...)
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