Yet to hit the secular press, but big news passed on by Rorate Coeli (his translation of the Italian newspaper original):
The Pope is the 'first among the Patriarchs', Rome is the 'first See', the Church of Rome 'presides in charity'. A joint document of the Catholic Church and of the Orthodox Churches explicitly acknowledges definitively and in an unequivocal way the primacy of the Roman Pontiff, easing the way for the reunification of Catholics and Orthodox, divided by the schism of 1054.
The reserved document is the result of the October meeting at Ravenna, where a Catholic delegation presided by Cardinal Kasper and a pan-Orthodox delegation, guided by Metropolitan Zizioulas, of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, established the bases for a deepening of the questions left to be resolved in order to reestablish unity.
Well, all the Orthodox except the Russians, who left the meeting in a huff.
More here at Fr Z's blog.
A joint commission working to heal the 1,000-year split between the Catholic and Orthodox churches has agreed the Pope has primacy over all bishops but disagrees over just what that authority permits him to do.
"While the fact of primacy at the universal level is accepted by both East and West, there are differences of understanding with regard to the manner in which it is to be exercised, and also with regard to its scriptural and theological foundations," the document continued.
Etc., etc.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Typical Catholic Parish Music
Ah, the Brits. Ever ready with an outstanding turn of phrase, or two...
Damian Thompson:
Actually, I’d say that too much worship has been driven by guitar-strumming, Lib Dem-voting primary school teachers, and that this can have the effect of making you want to put your head in the oven.
Andrew continues: “It’s significant that many Roman Catholic colleagues call themselves ‘pastoral musicians’, which implies an understanding and empathy for real participation by all.”
No it doesn’t: it implies that, in addition to subjecting to the congregation to sub-Baez caterwauling, they also want to “pastor” their victims. My advice to the Mass-goers of Middlesbrough: keep those ear plugs in even after the music stops, just to be on the safe side.
The bad news is that we haven't begun to hear the efforts of the Britney Spears-inspired twitterers, who are still in their early-to-mid teen years. But in 10 years or so, they will obtain their "pastoral musician" positions and proceed to sound like disaffected lovelorn chipmunks who are under the influence of waterboarding--just like their 'model' singer--who by that time will have morphed into an alcohol-cum-coke cloud of disembodied disheveled hair.
Damian Thompson:
Actually, I’d say that too much worship has been driven by guitar-strumming, Lib Dem-voting primary school teachers, and that this can have the effect of making you want to put your head in the oven.
Andrew continues: “It’s significant that many Roman Catholic colleagues call themselves ‘pastoral musicians’, which implies an understanding and empathy for real participation by all.”
No it doesn’t: it implies that, in addition to subjecting to the congregation to sub-Baez caterwauling, they also want to “pastor” their victims. My advice to the Mass-goers of Middlesbrough: keep those ear plugs in even after the music stops, just to be on the safe side.
The bad news is that we haven't begun to hear the efforts of the Britney Spears-inspired twitterers, who are still in their early-to-mid teen years. But in 10 years or so, they will obtain their "pastoral musician" positions and proceed to sound like disaffected lovelorn chipmunks who are under the influence of waterboarding--just like their 'model' singer--who by that time will have morphed into an alcohol-cum-coke cloud of disembodied disheveled hair.
The Declaration of Independence--Re-Written by NeoCons
Heh.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to impose its vision of freedom and democracy on all other peoples, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the supreme station of self-righteous scold and moral engineer to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a grudging respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the imposition.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all human beings are created with an equal desire in their hearts for freedom and democracy, and that they are therefore also endowed by their Creator with an equal entitlement to freedom and democracy; that, in order to secure this freedom and democracy, it is America's God-ordained mission to spread freedom and democracy to all men and women everywhere, regardless of whether they are currently able and willing to institute a government among themselves with its powers derived from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any country falls short of our notion of freedom and democracy, it is the right of the American people endlessly to lecture, chastise, blackmail, and cajole the leaders of that country, pushing them to institute new government, with its foundation laid on such principles and its powers organized in such form, as to us shall seem most likely to effect their freedom and democracy.
But when a long-established pattern of resistance to our counsels, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reject permanently the spread of freedom and democracy, it is our right, it is our duty, to take over such country, and to impose on it new guards for its future freedom and democracy.
It wouldn't take all that much to transmogrify the above into a Democratic Party platform preface. Like this:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one group of naturally-superior, highly-educated former dope-smoking people to impose its vision of freedom and democracy on all other peoples, accompanied by the necessary and extortionate tax, fee, and regulatory schemes, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the supreme station of self-righteous scold and moral engineer to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them (or at least which came as accompaniment to our degrees from the Seven Sisters), a grudging respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the imposition. Or not.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to impose its vision of freedom and democracy on all other peoples, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the supreme station of self-righteous scold and moral engineer to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a grudging respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the imposition.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all human beings are created with an equal desire in their hearts for freedom and democracy, and that they are therefore also endowed by their Creator with an equal entitlement to freedom and democracy; that, in order to secure this freedom and democracy, it is America's God-ordained mission to spread freedom and democracy to all men and women everywhere, regardless of whether they are currently able and willing to institute a government among themselves with its powers derived from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any country falls short of our notion of freedom and democracy, it is the right of the American people endlessly to lecture, chastise, blackmail, and cajole the leaders of that country, pushing them to institute new government, with its foundation laid on such principles and its powers organized in such form, as to us shall seem most likely to effect their freedom and democracy.
But when a long-established pattern of resistance to our counsels, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reject permanently the spread of freedom and democracy, it is our right, it is our duty, to take over such country, and to impose on it new guards for its future freedom and democracy.
It wouldn't take all that much to transmogrify the above into a Democratic Party platform preface. Like this:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one group of naturally-superior, highly-educated former dope-smoking people to impose its vision of freedom and democracy on all other peoples, accompanied by the necessary and extortionate tax, fee, and regulatory schemes, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the supreme station of self-righteous scold and moral engineer to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them (or at least which came as accompaniment to our degrees from the Seven Sisters), a grudging respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the imposition. Or not.
"Pull a Russert"?
Pete DeGaudio posts a piece of a story:
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer has been warned not to focus Thursday’s Dem debate on Hillary. ‘This campaign is about issues, not on who we can bring down and destroy,’ top Clinton insider explains. ‘Blitzer should not go down to the levels of character attack and pull ‘a Russert.” Blitzer is set to moderate debate from Vegas, with questions also being posed by Suzanne Malveaux...
That reference is to Russert's attempt to pin down the Hildebeeste on the question of whether New York State should issue driver's licences to illegals.
Natch, she gave two answers plus a couple of clarifications, none of which actually answered the question.
Oh, well.
In the meantime, Russert is maligned. If anything, he leans Left personally, but he's a damn sharp newsman with a good sense of "fair play."
One wonders why the Hildebeeste thinks she can insult and alienate Russert this early...
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer has been warned not to focus Thursday’s Dem debate on Hillary. ‘This campaign is about issues, not on who we can bring down and destroy,’ top Clinton insider explains. ‘Blitzer should not go down to the levels of character attack and pull ‘a Russert.” Blitzer is set to moderate debate from Vegas, with questions also being posed by Suzanne Malveaux...
That reference is to Russert's attempt to pin down the Hildebeeste on the question of whether New York State should issue driver's licences to illegals.
Natch, she gave two answers plus a couple of clarifications, none of which actually answered the question.
Oh, well.
In the meantime, Russert is maligned. If anything, he leans Left personally, but he's a damn sharp newsman with a good sense of "fair play."
One wonders why the Hildebeeste thinks she can insult and alienate Russert this early...
MPS' Problem: State-Aid "Projection" Dreamers
There's a lengthy article describing the angst of Milwaukee Public Schools Board members (except Blewett, who is clueless) and administrators for their 2009 budget.
But here's a clue to the problems with their 2008 budget:
$7.4 million: That's how much the state will pay MPS for this year under a new fund in the state budget to give additional money to high-poverty districts, particularly MPS. But that is quite a bit less than MPS would have received if ideas backed by either Gov. Jim Doyle or Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett for dealing with the so-called "voucher funding flaw" had been included in the final budget. And that amount covers less than a fifth of the $39.8 million difference in state revenue between what MPS budget-makers projected last spring and what the state budget actually ended up providing.
Thirty-nine point eight million vs. seven point four million.
BIG DIFFERENCE.
Exactly what smoke was filling the room the "projectionists" were working in?
But here's a clue to the problems with their 2008 budget:
$7.4 million: That's how much the state will pay MPS for this year under a new fund in the state budget to give additional money to high-poverty districts, particularly MPS. But that is quite a bit less than MPS would have received if ideas backed by either Gov. Jim Doyle or Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett for dealing with the so-called "voucher funding flaw" had been included in the final budget. And that amount covers less than a fifth of the $39.8 million difference in state revenue between what MPS budget-makers projected last spring and what the state budget actually ended up providing.
Thirty-nine point eight million vs. seven point four million.
BIG DIFFERENCE.
Exactly what smoke was filling the room the "projectionists" were working in?
Illegal Alien Mole in BOTH FBI and CIA
Demonstrating that Government healthcare may be worse than a bad dream, we now turn to the FBI and CIA for lessons in unbelievable moron-icity.
A former FBI special agent and CIA analyst pleaded guilty Tuesday to using her database access privileges to search for information on relatives suspected of having ties to a reputed terrorist group, and who fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship.
In federal court in Detroit Tuesday, Lebanese national Nada Nadim Prouty, 37, pleaded guilty to secretly obtaining information about ongoing FBI national security investigations. She is suspected of passing it on to relatives suspected of having ties to Hezbollah, a group that the U.S. government has classified as a foreign terrorist organization.
Oh...no...that's not all:
Prouty resigned from her job as a midlevel CIA operations officer last week, after working at the agency for three years. According to an official familiar with the investigation, she worked for the National Clandestine Service, which runs covert operations.
And it gets even better:
...the investigation has also uncovered that Prouty fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship, admitting in court documents that she paid a man to marry her in 1990 so she could obtain citizenship after her student visa expired
Just great.
A former FBI special agent and CIA analyst pleaded guilty Tuesday to using her database access privileges to search for information on relatives suspected of having ties to a reputed terrorist group, and who fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship.
In federal court in Detroit Tuesday, Lebanese national Nada Nadim Prouty, 37, pleaded guilty to secretly obtaining information about ongoing FBI national security investigations. She is suspected of passing it on to relatives suspected of having ties to Hezbollah, a group that the U.S. government has classified as a foreign terrorist organization.
Oh...no...that's not all:
Prouty resigned from her job as a midlevel CIA operations officer last week, after working at the agency for three years. According to an official familiar with the investigation, she worked for the National Clandestine Service, which runs covert operations.
And it gets even better:
...the investigation has also uncovered that Prouty fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship, admitting in court documents that she paid a man to marry her in 1990 so she could obtain citizenship after her student visa expired
Just great.
Colorado Moving to Eviscerate Roe
Colorado pro-lifers are moving to de-throne Roe v Wade in that state.
Pro-life activists in Colorado have cleared a major hurdle in preparing an initiative for the 2008 election that would grant personhood to the unborn and create a possible confrontation to the 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling that created abortion rights.
The state Supreme Court has granted permission for supporters of Colorado for Equal Rights to move forward with collecting the estimated 76,000 signatures needed to put the issue on the state election ballot.
It would grant personhood to the unborn from the moment of fertilization, meaning state and local laws protecting any individual life would be applied to the unborn. It targets a loophole U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun created when he wrote the original abortion opinion.
He concluded: "(If the) suggestion of personhood [of the preborn] is established, the [abortion rights] case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the [14th] Amendment."
Georgia is moving in a similar direction.
Pro-life activists in Colorado have cleared a major hurdle in preparing an initiative for the 2008 election that would grant personhood to the unborn and create a possible confrontation to the 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling that created abortion rights.
The state Supreme Court has granted permission for supporters of Colorado for Equal Rights to move forward with collecting the estimated 76,000 signatures needed to put the issue on the state election ballot.
It would grant personhood to the unborn from the moment of fertilization, meaning state and local laws protecting any individual life would be applied to the unborn. It targets a loophole U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun created when he wrote the original abortion opinion.
He concluded: "(If the) suggestion of personhood [of the preborn] is established, the [abortion rights] case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the [14th] Amendment."
Georgia is moving in a similar direction.
Monday, November 12, 2007
China Is Our Friend!! Part 49,531: Your Hard Drive!
This is cute.
Portable hard discs sold locally and produced by US disk-drive manufacturer Seagate Technology have been found to carry Trojan horse viruses that automatically upload to Beijing Web sites anything the computer user saves on the hard disc, the Investigation Bureau said.
Around 1,800 of the portable Maxtor hard discs, produced in Thailand, carried two Trojan horse viruses: autorun.inf and ghost.pif, the bureau under the Ministry of Justice said.
The tainted portable hard disc uploads any information saved on the computer automatically and without the owner’s knowledge to www.nice8.org and www.we168.org, the bureau said.
The affected hard discs are Maxtor Basics 500G discs.
So far, sold only in Taiwan.
Portable hard discs sold locally and produced by US disk-drive manufacturer Seagate Technology have been found to carry Trojan horse viruses that automatically upload to Beijing Web sites anything the computer user saves on the hard disc, the Investigation Bureau said.
Around 1,800 of the portable Maxtor hard discs, produced in Thailand, carried two Trojan horse viruses: autorun.inf and ghost.pif, the bureau under the Ministry of Justice said.
The tainted portable hard disc uploads any information saved on the computer automatically and without the owner’s knowledge to www.nice8.org and www.we168.org, the bureau said.
The affected hard discs are Maxtor Basics 500G discs.
So far, sold only in Taiwan.
News. Not Necessarily Good OR Bad. Just News
Mentioned by TNLM:
According to EWTN (I didn't watch the proceedings), there are two pieces of news on the the proposed music document that had been scheduled to be considered at the Fall USCCB meeting: 1) it has been downgraded from particular law to advisory, which means that it will not have the same binding status and will not require Rome's approval, and 2) it has been otherwise withdrawn because there were 100 pages of proposed changes and there was no way it could be tackled at the USCCB meeting.
The document's contents were not well-known outside USCC circles.
According to EWTN (I didn't watch the proceedings), there are two pieces of news on the the proposed music document that had been scheduled to be considered at the Fall USCCB meeting: 1) it has been downgraded from particular law to advisory, which means that it will not have the same binding status and will not require Rome's approval, and 2) it has been otherwise withdrawn because there were 100 pages of proposed changes and there was no way it could be tackled at the USCCB meeting.
The document's contents were not well-known outside USCC circles.
The Bologna School: So 1960's, Man...
Finally, it's in the open.
The secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrant and Itinerant Ministries, Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, said Vatican Council II is a “synthesis between tradition and renewal” and is not open to free interpretations, such as the ones proposed by the Bologna School initiated by Giuseppe Alberigo.
“Vatican II was a great event, a synthesis between tradition and renewal that is not a break with the past in the creation of a new Church,” the archbishop said during a speech on the Catholic Church in the 20th century in the city of Ancona.
He said the members of the School of Bologna have been very successful in “monopolizing and imposing one interpretation” of Vatican II that goes beyond what John XXIII and Paul VI imagined, even so far as to propose “a Copernican revolution, the passing to…another Catholicism.”
About damn time.
HT: TNLM
The secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrant and Itinerant Ministries, Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, said Vatican Council II is a “synthesis between tradition and renewal” and is not open to free interpretations, such as the ones proposed by the Bologna School initiated by Giuseppe Alberigo.
“Vatican II was a great event, a synthesis between tradition and renewal that is not a break with the past in the creation of a new Church,” the archbishop said during a speech on the Catholic Church in the 20th century in the city of Ancona.
He said the members of the School of Bologna have been very successful in “monopolizing and imposing one interpretation” of Vatican II that goes beyond what John XXIII and Paul VI imagined, even so far as to propose “a Copernican revolution, the passing to…another Catholicism.”
About damn time.
HT: TNLM
To Our Veterans
A quote:
‘Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own. And take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind.’
That is all.
‘Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own. And take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind.’
That is all.
"Cop-Killer" Assault Rifles?
Any time a police officer is killed in the line of duty it's a bad thing.
Making it worse are the vague claims that "assault rifles" are used for cop-killing. What's worse about that is that "assault rifles" are not really a factor.
In 2006, 46 police officers were killed in the line of duty. Thirty six of them were murdered with pistols. It’s interesting that the .40 S&W is the largest category. Are criminals carrying this more or do .40 S&W rounds have more likelihood to penetrate soft body armor?
The number of officers killed with a rifle were eight. Of those, four were with what would normally be classified as an “assault weapon” caliber. That’s about 8.6% of officer killings.
Four LEOs killed by "assault weapon"-caliber rifles. What does Brady Campaign (et al) claim?
We’ve all heard the VPC/Brady statistics that claimed 20% officers were killed with an assault weapon.
They lie because they thought nobody would look it up.
They were wrong.
HT: Of Arms and the Law
Making it worse are the vague claims that "assault rifles" are used for cop-killing. What's worse about that is that "assault rifles" are not really a factor.
In 2006, 46 police officers were killed in the line of duty. Thirty six of them were murdered with pistols. It’s interesting that the .40 S&W is the largest category. Are criminals carrying this more or do .40 S&W rounds have more likelihood to penetrate soft body armor?
The number of officers killed with a rifle were eight. Of those, four were with what would normally be classified as an “assault weapon” caliber. That’s about 8.6% of officer killings.
Four LEOs killed by "assault weapon"-caliber rifles. What does Brady Campaign (et al) claim?
We’ve all heard the VPC/Brady statistics that claimed 20% officers were killed with an assault weapon.
They lie because they thought nobody would look it up.
They were wrong.
HT: Of Arms and the Law
Repeal "Biofuels" Requirements
Jim Sensenbrenner should consider this carefully--it's pointed out by Nick and The Warrior, and it's of substantial interest.
Swaziland is in the grip of a famine and receiving emergency food aid. Forty per cent of its people are facing acute food shortages. So what has the government decided to export? Biofuel made from one of its staple crops, cassava. The government has allocated several thousand hectares of farmland to ethanol production in the district of Lavumisa, which happens to be the place worst hit by drought. It would surely be quicker and more humane to refine the Swazi people and put them in our tanks.
The article mentions wheat, rice, cassava, and corn.
Even when the price of food was low, 850 million people went hungry because they could not afford to buy it. With every increment in the price of flour or grain, several million more are pushed below the breadline.
(An elegant turn of phrase, that.)
If you count only the immediate carbon costs of planting and processing biofuels, they appear to reduce greenhouse gases. When you look at the total impacts, you find they cause more warming than petroleum
A recent study by the Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen shows that the official estimates have ignored the contribution of nitrogen fertilisers. They generate a greenhouse gas - nitrous oxide - that is 296 times as powerful as CO2. These emissions alone ensure that ethanol from maize causes between 0.9 and 1.5 times as much warming as petrol, while rapeseed oil (the source of more than 80% of the world’s biodiesel) generates 1-1.7 times the impact of diesel. This is before you account for the changes in land use.
Last year the research group LMC International estimated that if the British and European target of a 5% contribution from biofuels were to be adopted by the rest of the world, the global acreage of cultivated land would expand by 15%.
...which increase would be a good thing, were the product to be used to alleviate hunger.
The cynic might congratulate the Population Control bunch (Rockefeller, et al) for their brilliant triumph--in order to "save the world," they have arranged for the starvation of a hundred million people (give or take a couple.)
All it took was three elements: the Big Lie that 'global warming' is caused largely by man burning petroleum; the Big Lie that burning food as fuel would cure this; and the Big Regulation preventing nuclear and drilling for petroleum reserves within/offshore the USA.
Swaziland is in the grip of a famine and receiving emergency food aid. Forty per cent of its people are facing acute food shortages. So what has the government decided to export? Biofuel made from one of its staple crops, cassava. The government has allocated several thousand hectares of farmland to ethanol production in the district of Lavumisa, which happens to be the place worst hit by drought. It would surely be quicker and more humane to refine the Swazi people and put them in our tanks.
The article mentions wheat, rice, cassava, and corn.
Even when the price of food was low, 850 million people went hungry because they could not afford to buy it. With every increment in the price of flour or grain, several million more are pushed below the breadline.
(An elegant turn of phrase, that.)
If you count only the immediate carbon costs of planting and processing biofuels, they appear to reduce greenhouse gases. When you look at the total impacts, you find they cause more warming than petroleum
A recent study by the Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen shows that the official estimates have ignored the contribution of nitrogen fertilisers. They generate a greenhouse gas - nitrous oxide - that is 296 times as powerful as CO2. These emissions alone ensure that ethanol from maize causes between 0.9 and 1.5 times as much warming as petrol, while rapeseed oil (the source of more than 80% of the world’s biodiesel) generates 1-1.7 times the impact of diesel. This is before you account for the changes in land use.
Last year the research group LMC International estimated that if the British and European target of a 5% contribution from biofuels were to be adopted by the rest of the world, the global acreage of cultivated land would expand by 15%.
...which increase would be a good thing, were the product to be used to alleviate hunger.
The cynic might congratulate the Population Control bunch (Rockefeller, et al) for their brilliant triumph--in order to "save the world," they have arranged for the starvation of a hundred million people (give or take a couple.)
All it took was three elements: the Big Lie that 'global warming' is caused largely by man burning petroleum; the Big Lie that burning food as fuel would cure this; and the Big Regulation preventing nuclear and drilling for petroleum reserves within/offshore the USA.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
A Flashback to PACKER Football
For about 15 minutes there, mid-1stQ to mid-2ndQ, it was NFL Packer football.
4 yards and a cloud of dust, 3 yards and a cloud of dust, short pass, 1st down.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Pound defenders into dust.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Never blogged this, but said it a few times last year. McCarthy is another Vince Lombardi.
4 yards and a cloud of dust, 3 yards and a cloud of dust, short pass, 1st down.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Pound defenders into dust.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Never blogged this, but said it a few times last year. McCarthy is another Vince Lombardi.
Elderly Drivers
Channel 6 (Fox) ran an item last night highlighting problems with older drivers.
And there ARE some problems.
Twice in the last 30 days, I've left rubber on the road braking to avoid T-boning older (and I MEAN "older") women drivers--both in Wauwatosa, by the way--who pulled out of a side street in front of me as I was cruising down North Ave., an arterial.
One of them would have paid a lot, because she was driving a late-model Mercedes Benz...
And there ARE some problems.
Twice in the last 30 days, I've left rubber on the road braking to avoid T-boning older (and I MEAN "older") women drivers--both in Wauwatosa, by the way--who pulled out of a side street in front of me as I was cruising down North Ave., an arterial.
One of them would have paid a lot, because she was driving a late-model Mercedes Benz...
Vitamin C: You Don't Know What You're Getting...China Is Our Friend!! #48,256
I didn't know this.
Most U.S. consumers are aware that Chinese products dominate the shelves of most retail stores, but few realize the dominance extends to vitamins and drugs. Fully 90 percent of all the vitamin C sold in America comes from the communist trade giant. This near-monopoly control of the vitamin-C market caused the Wall Street Journal to dub China the “OPEC of vitamin C,” and like the oil cartel it has been accused of price fixing. In 2001, China’s four largest producers met to form a consortium, and shortly thereafter began a series of price manipulations undercutting U.S. and European competitors. Volatile prices induced American companies, which were operating in a very different regulatory environment than that existing in Communist China, to file anti-trust suits. In the end the suits hardly mattered; the last U.S. vitamin-C plant closed in 2006.
China has since captured much of the world’s pharmaceutical market, producing 70 percent of the world’s penicillin, 50 percent of its aspirin, and most of its vitamins.
That's why there's such a variety of flavors: date-rape flavored, lead-flavored, diethylene glycol-flavored, melamine-flavored--the list is almost endless.
Didn't know that your "sunshine supplement" was coming from Red China?
...five years ago President Bush signed into law the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act, which included a provision establishing the requirement for country-of-origin labeling for beef, lamb, pork, seafood, perishable agricultural commodities, and peanuts. Republicans, prodded by retailers who claim the provision is burdensome, delayed implementation.
President Bush, supported by a Republican majority, effectively nullified the provision by delaying its implementation until September 2008.
Umnnnhhh...by the way, PRChina is not an "ally" of the USA; it has been very clear that we are an enemy. So what?
The ease with which the Chinese are now able to flood our market with substandard and highly dangerous consumer and food products gives rise to the question — how hard would it be to use the current import system to introduce harmful elements into the food supply as an asymmetrical warfare technique?
That answer is obvious.
Most U.S. consumers are aware that Chinese products dominate the shelves of most retail stores, but few realize the dominance extends to vitamins and drugs. Fully 90 percent of all the vitamin C sold in America comes from the communist trade giant. This near-monopoly control of the vitamin-C market caused the Wall Street Journal to dub China the “OPEC of vitamin C,” and like the oil cartel it has been accused of price fixing. In 2001, China’s four largest producers met to form a consortium, and shortly thereafter began a series of price manipulations undercutting U.S. and European competitors. Volatile prices induced American companies, which were operating in a very different regulatory environment than that existing in Communist China, to file anti-trust suits. In the end the suits hardly mattered; the last U.S. vitamin-C plant closed in 2006.
China has since captured much of the world’s pharmaceutical market, producing 70 percent of the world’s penicillin, 50 percent of its aspirin, and most of its vitamins.
That's why there's such a variety of flavors: date-rape flavored, lead-flavored, diethylene glycol-flavored, melamine-flavored--the list is almost endless.
Didn't know that your "sunshine supplement" was coming from Red China?
...five years ago President Bush signed into law the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act, which included a provision establishing the requirement for country-of-origin labeling for beef, lamb, pork, seafood, perishable agricultural commodities, and peanuts. Republicans, prodded by retailers who claim the provision is burdensome, delayed implementation.
President Bush, supported by a Republican majority, effectively nullified the provision by delaying its implementation until September 2008.
Umnnnhhh...by the way, PRChina is not an "ally" of the USA; it has been very clear that we are an enemy. So what?
The ease with which the Chinese are now able to flood our market with substandard and highly dangerous consumer and food products gives rise to the question — how hard would it be to use the current import system to introduce harmful elements into the food supply as an asymmetrical warfare technique?
That answer is obvious.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Don't Like the NeoCons? Here's Another Reason, Maybe
A bit paleo-libertarian for my tastes, but worth considering.
While discussing Atty-Gen'l Mukasey's nomination process, "Maximos" notes Mukasey's citation of Berns.
...the burden of the latter's [Walter Berns] scholarly efforts, as evidenced by his book,Making Patriots, is to demonstrate that the civic virtues are not natural, but inculcated positively by the integrative actions of political authority (government, in a sense, constitutes the nation; and the liberal anthropology of acquisitive instincts and affects is presupposed as a true description of human nature), and have as their object the temporal extension of a reign of propositionalist abstractions.
It is on behalf of these - liberty, equality, and probably the free movement of capital ("All to capital we surrender") instead of fraternity - that citizens are expected to sacrifice. In other words, Berns is a neoconservative extraordinaire, believing that the very nature of politics entails the conditioning of the populace to manifest fealty toward etiolated ideals, and a subsequent disciplining of that populace to accept and embrace sacrifice for the extension of those ideals and the institutions that embody them. Such sacrifices will be offered on behalf of both domestic and foreign endeavours, since propositionalism effaces the distinction between the two spheres; the neoconservative wars on behalf of democratic capitalism are the implementation of this ideology.
Of course, that would position Abraham Lincoln as a "NeoCon," which has implications for those who thought that the Podhoretz cohort was the most ancient of the group.
A similar argument has been made, by the way, about the nature of "public schools," --and is supportable when reviewing the writings of Dewey (et al) on that topic. That argument is that the "public schools" are instituted to homogenize and inculcate the little folks who may have immigrated recently, or may (even worse) be subject to such influences as the Pope.
At the same time, a counter-case can be made for simple patriotism in the case of both domestic and foreign endeavors (if one stipulates that the 'domestic' part of patriotism includes fraternitas but not necessarily 'capital.') Certainly, if the nation is subject to attack, 'patriotism' plays a far larger role than "conditioning the populace to manifest fealty..."
HT: What's Wrong With the World
While discussing Atty-Gen'l Mukasey's nomination process, "Maximos" notes Mukasey's citation of Berns.
...the burden of the latter's [Walter Berns] scholarly efforts, as evidenced by his book,Making Patriots, is to demonstrate that the civic virtues are not natural, but inculcated positively by the integrative actions of political authority (government, in a sense, constitutes the nation; and the liberal anthropology of acquisitive instincts and affects is presupposed as a true description of human nature), and have as their object the temporal extension of a reign of propositionalist abstractions.
It is on behalf of these - liberty, equality, and probably the free movement of capital ("All to capital we surrender") instead of fraternity - that citizens are expected to sacrifice. In other words, Berns is a neoconservative extraordinaire, believing that the very nature of politics entails the conditioning of the populace to manifest fealty toward etiolated ideals, and a subsequent disciplining of that populace to accept and embrace sacrifice for the extension of those ideals and the institutions that embody them. Such sacrifices will be offered on behalf of both domestic and foreign endeavours, since propositionalism effaces the distinction between the two spheres; the neoconservative wars on behalf of democratic capitalism are the implementation of this ideology.
Of course, that would position Abraham Lincoln as a "NeoCon," which has implications for those who thought that the Podhoretz cohort was the most ancient of the group.
A similar argument has been made, by the way, about the nature of "public schools," --and is supportable when reviewing the writings of Dewey (et al) on that topic. That argument is that the "public schools" are instituted to homogenize and inculcate the little folks who may have immigrated recently, or may (even worse) be subject to such influences as the Pope.
At the same time, a counter-case can be made for simple patriotism in the case of both domestic and foreign endeavors (if one stipulates that the 'domestic' part of patriotism includes fraternitas but not necessarily 'capital.') Certainly, if the nation is subject to attack, 'patriotism' plays a far larger role than "conditioning the populace to manifest fealty..."
HT: What's Wrong With the World
Bernanke: Shoveling Greenspan's ....Offal
HT Big Picture
"The Bernanke Economic Cycle" by Tim Iacono
1) Federal Reserve cuts interest rates
2) Equity markets surge
3) Dollar decline accelerates
4) The price of oil and gold soar
5) Treasury reiterates "strong dollar policy"
6) Housing market problems get worse
7) Credit market problems get worse
8) Dollar decline accelerates
9) The price of oil and gold soar
10) Federal Reserve talks tough on inflation <----- YESTERDAY
11) Treasury reiterates "strong dollar policy"<----- YESTERDAY
12) Equity markets plunge <------------ YOU ARE HERE
13) Go to step 1
Oh, by the way: the Dow dropped 600 points between Tuesday and Friday this week.
"The Bernanke Economic Cycle" by Tim Iacono
1) Federal Reserve cuts interest rates
2) Equity markets surge
3) Dollar decline accelerates
4) The price of oil and gold soar
5) Treasury reiterates "strong dollar policy"
6) Housing market problems get worse
7) Credit market problems get worse
8) Dollar decline accelerates
9) The price of oil and gold soar
10) Federal Reserve talks tough on inflation <----- YESTERDAY
11) Treasury reiterates "strong dollar policy"<----- YESTERDAY
12) Equity markets plunge <------------ YOU ARE HERE
13) Go to step 1
Oh, by the way: the Dow dropped 600 points between Tuesday and Friday this week.
The "Mandate" Democrat Congress?
Rove's political-wonk geekiness, but hey, this is interesting:
According to Rove, "They won the House by 85,961 votes out of over 80 million cast and the Senate by a mere 3,562 out of over 62 million cast." I did the math: That's six one-thousandths of one per cent.
Over-friggin'-whelming, no?
According to Rove, "They won the House by 85,961 votes out of over 80 million cast and the Senate by a mere 3,562 out of over 62 million cast." I did the math: That's six one-thousandths of one per cent.
Over-friggin'-whelming, no?
Ruuudeee!! Should Get the Illegal Alien Vote, Too!
Pat Robertson and the Illegal Aliens--not to mention the "Declare War on the Entire Middle East" gang.
Rudy-backers, all.
Given that, and Ruuuudeeee's statist attitude toward gun ownership, (the 2A should not be operative in "large cities...")--how the Hell is this guy given serious consideration?
As to the illegals:
New York City’s sanctuary policy was created in 1989 by Mayor Ed Koch and upheld by every mayor succeeding him.
When Congress enacted immigration reform laws that forbade local governments from barring employees from cooperating with the INS, Mayor Rudy Giuliani filed suit against the feds in 1997. He was rebuffed by two lower courts, which ruled that the sanctuary order amounted to special treatment for illegal aliens and were nothing more than an unlawful effort to flaunt federal enforcement efforts against illegal aliens. In January 2000, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal, but Giuliani vowed to ignore the law.
So let's make it clear: Ruuuudeeee! has a "selective obedience" policy toward Federal immigration laws.
THIS is the guy being boomed by a local RadioGuy for the (R) nomination?
Rudy-backers, all.
Given that, and Ruuuudeeee's statist attitude toward gun ownership, (the 2A should not be operative in "large cities...")--how the Hell is this guy given serious consideration?
As to the illegals:
New York City’s sanctuary policy was created in 1989 by Mayor Ed Koch and upheld by every mayor succeeding him.
When Congress enacted immigration reform laws that forbade local governments from barring employees from cooperating with the INS, Mayor Rudy Giuliani filed suit against the feds in 1997. He was rebuffed by two lower courts, which ruled that the sanctuary order amounted to special treatment for illegal aliens and were nothing more than an unlawful effort to flaunt federal enforcement efforts against illegal aliens. In January 2000, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal, but Giuliani vowed to ignore the law.
So let's make it clear: Ruuuudeeee! has a "selective obedience" policy toward Federal immigration laws.
THIS is the guy being boomed by a local RadioGuy for the (R) nomination?
The REAL Story of the LA "Counterfieit" Raids
While CAIR manipulates the MSM into running stories about "discrimination," the real story on the Los Angeles counterfeit-clothing raids is found at CounterTerrorism Blog.
...While on the surface it doesn't appear to be terrorism-related, our sources say Operation Bell Bottoms targeted a "classic case of terrorism financing," with the defendants smuggling profits from selling dope and counterfeit goods in L.A. back to Iran-backed Shiite terror group Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon.
Appearances make it seem different:
Because information linking the gang to Hezbollah came from classified intelligence, the alleged ringleader and "his siblings and associates" face criminal charges instead of a terror rap
The story also mentions the Mexican Mafia involvement.
...While on the surface it doesn't appear to be terrorism-related, our sources say Operation Bell Bottoms targeted a "classic case of terrorism financing," with the defendants smuggling profits from selling dope and counterfeit goods in L.A. back to Iran-backed Shiite terror group Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon.
Appearances make it seem different:
Because information linking the gang to Hezbollah came from classified intelligence, the alleged ringleader and "his siblings and associates" face criminal charges instead of a terror rap
The story also mentions the Mexican Mafia involvement.
Levitt Files Chapter XI--Historical Name in Homebuilding
It's a Chapter XI reorganization, meaning that the firm may emerge, but...
Levitt Corp (NYSE:LEV - News) home-building unit Levitt & Sons said on Friday that it had filed for bankruptcy protection, reflecting the badly battered Florida market.
...Levitt & Sons is ranked as the 50th-largest U.S. home builder by trade publication BuilderOnline.
Levitt first made its mark in Long Island, New York, where after World War II, Abraham Levitt and his company built huge tracts of affordable homes for returning veterans ready to start families. Levittowns in Long Island and Pennsylvania are named after him
With 60 or so years in biz and what amounts to a 'historical monument' in Long Island, it would be sad to see them disappear entirely.
Levitt Corp (NYSE:LEV - News) home-building unit Levitt & Sons said on Friday that it had filed for bankruptcy protection, reflecting the badly battered Florida market.
...Levitt & Sons is ranked as the 50th-largest U.S. home builder by trade publication BuilderOnline.
Levitt first made its mark in Long Island, New York, where after World War II, Abraham Levitt and his company built huge tracts of affordable homes for returning veterans ready to start families. Levittowns in Long Island and Pennsylvania are named after him
With 60 or so years in biz and what amounts to a 'historical monument' in Long Island, it would be sad to see them disappear entirely.
Party In Government: More Theft in Wisconsin
To refresh your memories:
The "Party In Government" (PIG party) includes Democrats and Republicans who vote for the interests of Large Government--that is, not for the Common Good, nor for the interests of taxpayers.
Not only did the PIG steal $200 million from the MD's of Wisconsin (and, indirectly, sick people who visit those MD's); they are also stealing from municipalities (and, indirectly, taxpayers) by raiding the Recycling Fund.
According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the Recycling Fund was established in 1989 specifically to pay for grants to municipal and county recycling programs, help administer those programs and enforce the state's recycling regulations.
Pretty clear language, no?
The fund's revenue comes from a recycling surcharge and a recycling tipping fee charged for each ton of trash dumped in a Wisconsin landfill.
If you put trash or recycling at the curb, YOU are paying for this.
...While the total amount of recycling grants has been frozen at $24.5 million since the 1999-2000 fiscal year, the fund has built up a surplus that has drawn the attention of legislative budget writers.
In the last state budget bill, $33 million was transferred out of the Recycling Fund to the general fund and the Conservation Fund for other uses over a two-year period.
The current biennial budget bill, signed by Doyle last month, makes allocations from the Recycling Fund of $4 million for a soybean crushing facility in Evansville, $22 million for renewable energy grants and loans to be distributed through the Department of Commerce and $4.5 million to pay for shipping to other states PCB-contaminated sediment resulting from a cleanup of the Fox River.
PIG STINK ALERT: Evansville is represented by Brett Davis (R) and J Erpenbach (D).
You'd think that the PIGS had enough with that.
Think again!!
PIG TAX INCREASE ALERT: The budget bill also increased the revenue flowing into the fund by $9 million with an increase from $3 to $4 per ton in the state-imposed tipping fee on garbage placed in landfills in Wisconsin.
Not only do the PIGs steal the money, they then raise the taxes so they can steal MORE money in future budgets.
It's becoming more and more tempting to reach out and slap Legislators when they're lurking near our children, isn't it? They're not the sort one wants around to warp our childrens' minds.
The "Party In Government" (PIG party) includes Democrats and Republicans who vote for the interests of Large Government--that is, not for the Common Good, nor for the interests of taxpayers.
Not only did the PIG steal $200 million from the MD's of Wisconsin (and, indirectly, sick people who visit those MD's); they are also stealing from municipalities (and, indirectly, taxpayers) by raiding the Recycling Fund.
According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the Recycling Fund was established in 1989 specifically to pay for grants to municipal and county recycling programs, help administer those programs and enforce the state's recycling regulations.
Pretty clear language, no?
The fund's revenue comes from a recycling surcharge and a recycling tipping fee charged for each ton of trash dumped in a Wisconsin landfill.
If you put trash or recycling at the curb, YOU are paying for this.
...While the total amount of recycling grants has been frozen at $24.5 million since the 1999-2000 fiscal year, the fund has built up a surplus that has drawn the attention of legislative budget writers.
In the last state budget bill, $33 million was transferred out of the Recycling Fund to the general fund and the Conservation Fund for other uses over a two-year period.
The current biennial budget bill, signed by Doyle last month, makes allocations from the Recycling Fund of $4 million for a soybean crushing facility in Evansville, $22 million for renewable energy grants and loans to be distributed through the Department of Commerce and $4.5 million to pay for shipping to other states PCB-contaminated sediment resulting from a cleanup of the Fox River.
PIG STINK ALERT: Evansville is represented by Brett Davis (R) and J Erpenbach (D).
You'd think that the PIGS had enough with that.
Think again!!
PIG TAX INCREASE ALERT: The budget bill also increased the revenue flowing into the fund by $9 million with an increase from $3 to $4 per ton in the state-imposed tipping fee on garbage placed in landfills in Wisconsin.
Not only do the PIGs steal the money, they then raise the taxes so they can steal MORE money in future budgets.
It's becoming more and more tempting to reach out and slap Legislators when they're lurking near our children, isn't it? They're not the sort one wants around to warp our childrens' minds.
Friday, November 09, 2007
Kudos to Abp O'Brien of Baltimore
Only a few weeks into office, and the Archbishop starts zapping the termites:
Baltimore's new Roman Catholic archbishop removed a priest who was pastor of three South Baltimore parishes for offenses that include officiating at a funeral Mass with an Episcopal priest, which violates canon law.
Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien personally ordered the Rev. Ray Martin, who has led the Catholic Community of South Baltimore for five years, to resign from the three churches and sign a statement yesterday apologizing for "bringing scandal to the church."
Martin led the funeral Mass on Oct. 15 for Locust Point activist Ann Shirley Doda at Our Lady of Good Counsel with several clergy, including the Rev. Annette Chappell, the pastor of the Episcopal Church of the Redemption in Locust Point, Martin said.
Sean Caine, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, said this was one example of repeated administrative and liturgical offenses Martin had committed in more than a year."
An exemplary move, as it were...
Baltimore's new Roman Catholic archbishop removed a priest who was pastor of three South Baltimore parishes for offenses that include officiating at a funeral Mass with an Episcopal priest, which violates canon law.
Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien personally ordered the Rev. Ray Martin, who has led the Catholic Community of South Baltimore for five years, to resign from the three churches and sign a statement yesterday apologizing for "bringing scandal to the church."
Martin led the funeral Mass on Oct. 15 for Locust Point activist Ann Shirley Doda at Our Lady of Good Counsel with several clergy, including the Rev. Annette Chappell, the pastor of the Episcopal Church of the Redemption in Locust Point, Martin said.
Sean Caine, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, said this was one example of repeated administrative and liturgical offenses Martin had committed in more than a year."
An exemplary move, as it were...
Tennessee: The Regime Cracks Down
See, once you spend a lotta money you HAVE to get the revenues.
Not only does the State of Tennessee intend to spy on folks shopping for cigarettes in neighboring States (to avoid the confiscatory new cig-tax)--
the State now sees a revenue-threat in the Grandpa Crowd.
Police in Tennessee broke up a local poker came they say was run by 82-year-old World Series of Poker vet Paul McKinney. McKinney and 15 others were arrested (one on a charge of possessing moonshine). Scary photo of police-seized contraband poker chips here.
Paul McKinney and the others were sitting around a table playing poker Friday night when the raid occurred, police said. Authorities said they seized cash, playing cards and poker chips, as well as betting slips for the weekend's sporting events.
Not all that different from the Wisconsin Revenooers' decision to collect income tax from Green Bay folks who rented parking spaces on their lawns for Packer games (later rescinded...)
Not only does the State of Tennessee intend to spy on folks shopping for cigarettes in neighboring States (to avoid the confiscatory new cig-tax)--
the State now sees a revenue-threat in the Grandpa Crowd.
Police in Tennessee broke up a local poker came they say was run by 82-year-old World Series of Poker vet Paul McKinney. McKinney and 15 others were arrested (one on a charge of possessing moonshine). Scary photo of police-seized contraband poker chips here.
Paul McKinney and the others were sitting around a table playing poker Friday night when the raid occurred, police said. Authorities said they seized cash, playing cards and poker chips, as well as betting slips for the weekend's sporting events.
Not all that different from the Wisconsin Revenooers' decision to collect income tax from Green Bay folks who rented parking spaces on their lawns for Packer games (later rescinded...)
"Big Ten" Network Mimics NFL Network Greed
It's not enough for the Big Ten that their States' taxpayers send tens of millions of tax dollars to the schools every year at the point of a gun. Whatever millions they're getting is just not enough for them.
So they, mimicing the NFL, have decided that they are going to get more, and are selling their TV rights to the "Big 10" Network--which will give them more money than they're getting from other sports-casting or commercial networks.
Well, at least the NFL isn't taking the money at the point of a gun, in most cases.
But let there be no doubt about this: it's all about the money, and all about getting more money.
But then there are the laughable spinners:
Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications, two major cable carriers in Wisconsin, are reporting they have lost thousands of cable subscribers, a development some tie to consumers upset that they can't get the Big Ten Network and the NFL Network
Really?
"The impact of not having the NFL Network or the Big Ten Network has been non-existent," said Alex Dudley, a Time Warner spokesman in New York.
Anita Lamont, a Charter Communications spokesman, echoed that comment, saying her firm had not seen a loss of customers due solely to people unhappy about not being able to purchase the two sports networks.
Eventually, the JS report gets to the facts:
Time Warner Cable said Wednesday it had lost 83,000 subscribers in the three months ended Sept. 30, and another 57,000 in the three months prior. Time Warner has about 600,000 households in eastern Wisconsin
So the "Big Ten" and "NFL" channels, which only had an impact on televised Wisconsin and Packers games in the last 2 weeks, have caused 83K losses in the last FISCAL QUARTER?
What a crock.
Richard Greenfield, a cable television analyst with Pali Research, said this week that "while the pain inflicted on the cable industry for not carrying the Big Ten Network during college football season has been moderate, we believe the pain is set to reach a whole new level as college basketball season tips off in November."
Unfortunately, Mr. Greenfield could not be reached for further comment on this utterly inane pronouncement.
One more thing: competition is good. Time Warner has had a virtual monopoly, and it's nice to see them getting stung.
Charter is a whole different story; they are known for absolutely horrible customer "service" and absolutely clueless field installations teams.
So they, mimicing the NFL, have decided that they are going to get more, and are selling their TV rights to the "Big 10" Network--which will give them more money than they're getting from other sports-casting or commercial networks.
Well, at least the NFL isn't taking the money at the point of a gun, in most cases.
But let there be no doubt about this: it's all about the money, and all about getting more money.
But then there are the laughable spinners:
Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications, two major cable carriers in Wisconsin, are reporting they have lost thousands of cable subscribers, a development some tie to consumers upset that they can't get the Big Ten Network and the NFL Network
Really?
"The impact of not having the NFL Network or the Big Ten Network has been non-existent," said Alex Dudley, a Time Warner spokesman in New York.
Anita Lamont, a Charter Communications spokesman, echoed that comment, saying her firm had not seen a loss of customers due solely to people unhappy about not being able to purchase the two sports networks.
Eventually, the JS report gets to the facts:
Time Warner Cable said Wednesday it had lost 83,000 subscribers in the three months ended Sept. 30, and another 57,000 in the three months prior. Time Warner has about 600,000 households in eastern Wisconsin
So the "Big Ten" and "NFL" channels, which only had an impact on televised Wisconsin and Packers games in the last 2 weeks, have caused 83K losses in the last FISCAL QUARTER?
What a crock.
Richard Greenfield, a cable television analyst with Pali Research, said this week that "while the pain inflicted on the cable industry for not carrying the Big Ten Network during college football season has been moderate, we believe the pain is set to reach a whole new level as college basketball season tips off in November."
Unfortunately, Mr. Greenfield could not be reached for further comment on this utterly inane pronouncement.
One more thing: competition is good. Time Warner has had a virtual monopoly, and it's nice to see them getting stung.
Charter is a whole different story; they are known for absolutely horrible customer "service" and absolutely clueless field installations teams.
Recycled Neocons Find Home with Rudy
While Rudy Giuliani may be just dandy for some, he has collected an interesting bunch as "foreign policy advisers." And their writings are....ah....aggressive....to say the least.
Team leader is Charles Hill, a co-signer of the Sept. 20, 2001, neocon ultimatum to Bush, nine days after 9/11, warning the president if he did not attack Iraq, his failure to do so "will constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender to the war on international terrorism."
Well, I've never thought that the Iraq move was malum in se; it served a few good purposes.
But there's more:
According to the New York Times, another key Rudy adviser is Daniel Pipes, "who has called for profiling Muslims at airports and scrutinizing American Muslims in law enforcement, the military and the diplomatic corps." Another is AEI's Michael Rubin, "who has written in favor of revoking the United States' ban on assassinations."
And then there's the Tin God of the neocon movement:
Norman Podhoretz [who has written that] [t]he "regimes that richly deserve to be overthrown ... should extend to Syria and Lebanon and Libya, as well as 'friends' of America like the Saudi royal family and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, along with the Palestinian Authority." After toppling them all, wrote Podhoretz, as he mocked the "timorous ... incorrigibly cautious Colin Powell," let's find "the stomach to impose a new political culture on the defeated."
Well, that ought to keep the US Armed Forces busy for a while, no? First, knock off virtually every regime in the Middle East; then "impose a new political culture" on them.
This 'EastAsia' campaign may be charming to Podhoretz.
He should conduct it in person.
Team leader is Charles Hill, a co-signer of the Sept. 20, 2001, neocon ultimatum to Bush, nine days after 9/11, warning the president if he did not attack Iraq, his failure to do so "will constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender to the war on international terrorism."
Well, I've never thought that the Iraq move was malum in se; it served a few good purposes.
But there's more:
According to the New York Times, another key Rudy adviser is Daniel Pipes, "who has called for profiling Muslims at airports and scrutinizing American Muslims in law enforcement, the military and the diplomatic corps." Another is AEI's Michael Rubin, "who has written in favor of revoking the United States' ban on assassinations."
And then there's the Tin God of the neocon movement:
Norman Podhoretz [who has written that] [t]he "regimes that richly deserve to be overthrown ... should extend to Syria and Lebanon and Libya, as well as 'friends' of America like the Saudi royal family and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, along with the Palestinian Authority." After toppling them all, wrote Podhoretz, as he mocked the "timorous ... incorrigibly cautious Colin Powell," let's find "the stomach to impose a new political culture on the defeated."
Well, that ought to keep the US Armed Forces busy for a while, no? First, knock off virtually every regime in the Middle East; then "impose a new political culture" on them.
This 'EastAsia' campaign may be charming to Podhoretz.
He should conduct it in person.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
For You Who Sell to WallyWorld
Heh.
Sitting in a windowless conference room surrounded by the remote-control toy Ferraris and Mercedes he sells the world over, factory owner Kuma Gu summed up what it's like to manufacture products for American consumers these days.
"A lot of Chinese companies have a saying," he said between drags on a cigarette. "Do you want to kill yourself? Then do business with Wal-Mart."
Depending on timing, WallyWorld may not have even paid the invoice before you hang yourself.
Sitting in a windowless conference room surrounded by the remote-control toy Ferraris and Mercedes he sells the world over, factory owner Kuma Gu summed up what it's like to manufacture products for American consumers these days.
"A lot of Chinese companies have a saying," he said between drags on a cigarette. "Do you want to kill yourself? Then do business with Wal-Mart."
Depending on timing, WallyWorld may not have even paid the invoice before you hang yourself.
Dallas, Milwaukee, and the Care Bear Stare
Dreher, bedeviled with an Editorial Board position in Dallas, connects those dots for us.
He quotes from Julian Sanchez:
For those of you who didn't grow up (or have small children) in the 80s, the reference at the close of the previous post is to the cartoon Care Bears. The Care Bear Stare was a sort of deus ex machina the magical furballs could employ when faced with some insuperable obstacle: They'd line up together and emit a glowing manifestation of their boundless caring, which seemed capable of solving just about any problem.
Got it?
Good. Now to Dreher:
Examples of The Care Bear Stare, anybody? I'll give you a recurrent one from my line of work. On our editorial board, we are often meditating on the woebegone condition of the local, state and national public schools. It falls to Your Curmudgeonly Working Boy to point out that what ails the schools chiefly are problems not fixable by the spending of more money or the devising of new schemes, programs or initiatives. Nobody wants to hear this, and I don't really blame them. Who wants to be told over and over again, "That won't work"? And it's true that I don't have a clear idea of what would work, at least not within the law (e.g., if teens are troublemakers and don't want to be at school, why should the good kids and their teachers be held hostage by the bad kids? Kick them out, I say. But you can't do that legally. See what I mean?). Anyway, this is unacceptable because it entails the dispiriting idea that some problems can't be fixed, at least not without a radical change. So we go forward putting our hope in this new tax, or new administrator, or new program that won't leave any children behind, confident that if we only apply sufficient caring to the problem of failing public schools, we can turn them around. The failure of this strategy is taken by many as evidence that society didn't care enough.
Sadly, the practical equivalent of 'the Care Bear Stare' happens to be money.
Dreher doesn't really have a resolution, but he can define the problem, to an extent:
Admittedly, it's hard to find a sensible middle ground between Care Bear-ism and Cynicism. It's the space between the kind of optimism that refuses to deal with reality of limits, and the kind of pessimism that refuses to deal with the reality of possibility -- that is, the fact that positive change can happen, that nothing is fated. Between Care Bear-ism and Cynicism lies Realism. I think American culture and politics are far more subject to rampant Care Bear-ism than Cynicism. It's what happens when idealism is not tempered by a tragic sensibility.
He's right, of course. Care Bear-ism is part of The Myth of Progress which is part-and-parcel of the entrails of Social Darwinism; the "redemption myth" which forgets that the first requirement for redemption is ASKING for redemption, rather than shunning it.
He quotes from Julian Sanchez:
For those of you who didn't grow up (or have small children) in the 80s, the reference at the close of the previous post is to the cartoon Care Bears. The Care Bear Stare was a sort of deus ex machina the magical furballs could employ when faced with some insuperable obstacle: They'd line up together and emit a glowing manifestation of their boundless caring, which seemed capable of solving just about any problem.
Got it?
Good. Now to Dreher:
Examples of The Care Bear Stare, anybody? I'll give you a recurrent one from my line of work. On our editorial board, we are often meditating on the woebegone condition of the local, state and national public schools. It falls to Your Curmudgeonly Working Boy to point out that what ails the schools chiefly are problems not fixable by the spending of more money or the devising of new schemes, programs or initiatives. Nobody wants to hear this, and I don't really blame them. Who wants to be told over and over again, "That won't work"? And it's true that I don't have a clear idea of what would work, at least not within the law (e.g., if teens are troublemakers and don't want to be at school, why should the good kids and their teachers be held hostage by the bad kids? Kick them out, I say. But you can't do that legally. See what I mean?). Anyway, this is unacceptable because it entails the dispiriting idea that some problems can't be fixed, at least not without a radical change. So we go forward putting our hope in this new tax, or new administrator, or new program that won't leave any children behind, confident that if we only apply sufficient caring to the problem of failing public schools, we can turn them around. The failure of this strategy is taken by many as evidence that society didn't care enough.
Sadly, the practical equivalent of 'the Care Bear Stare' happens to be money.
Dreher doesn't really have a resolution, but he can define the problem, to an extent:
Admittedly, it's hard to find a sensible middle ground between Care Bear-ism and Cynicism. It's the space between the kind of optimism that refuses to deal with reality of limits, and the kind of pessimism that refuses to deal with the reality of possibility -- that is, the fact that positive change can happen, that nothing is fated. Between Care Bear-ism and Cynicism lies Realism. I think American culture and politics are far more subject to rampant Care Bear-ism than Cynicism. It's what happens when idealism is not tempered by a tragic sensibility.
He's right, of course. Care Bear-ism is part of The Myth of Progress which is part-and-parcel of the entrails of Social Darwinism; the "redemption myth" which forgets that the first requirement for redemption is ASKING for redemption, rather than shunning it.
Another Pic the MSM Has Not Run
Yup. Those are Muslims assisting the Catholic who is putting the cross back on the cupola of St. James' church in Baghdad.
May as well see it here (or other blogsites.) It won't run in the MSM.
Tom Barrett: Lost in Space
You might have heard that there were two shooting incidents on the near south side of Milwaukee a couple of nights ago.
Two police officers were hurt; one is still hospitalized.
Naturally, Milwaukee's Mayor raised an issue of major importance:
The mayor said he hoped Tuesday's shootings might spur debate at both the state and national level about the availability and legality of large-capacity magazines.
It was that "availability" which caused ....exactly ....what, Tommy? Did it cause the shootings? Did it cause the drug-dealing? Did it cause the gangs?
Tell us, Tommy!
Two police officers were hurt; one is still hospitalized.
Naturally, Milwaukee's Mayor raised an issue of major importance:
The mayor said he hoped Tuesday's shootings might spur debate at both the state and national level about the availability and legality of large-capacity magazines.
It was that "availability" which caused ....exactly ....what, Tommy? Did it cause the shootings? Did it cause the drug-dealing? Did it cause the gangs?
Tell us, Tommy!
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
What IS 'the Holy Grail'?
From First Things, a very interesting thought.
Fr. Sergius Bulgakov, an émigré from Soviet Russia who became dean of the Russian Orthodox seminary in Paris [speculates, with foundation] ...that the myth of the Grail is nevertheless trying to tell us something. It “expresses precisely the idea that, even though the Lord ascended in His honorable flesh to heaven, the world received His holy relic in the blood and water flowed out of His side.”
The vessel which caught the blood of Christ, Bulgakov proposes, was not a cup. It was that span of weary earth lying at the foot of the cross. “The life of the flesh is in the blood” (Lev. 17:11), and our Lord’s lifeblood soaked into the dry and rocky soil of that graveyard outside the city gates. His blood was hidden there in the ground, and, in Bulgakov’s lovely image, thereby consecrated that ground, all ground, the entirety of material creation.
“The whole world is the chalice of the Holy Grail,” Bulgakov writes. “The Holy Grail is inaccessible to veneration; in its holiness it is hidden in the world from the world. However, it exists in the world as an invisible power. . . . [It] is not offered for communion but abides in the world as the mysterious holiness of the world, as the power of life, as the fire in which the world will be transfigured into a new heaven and new earth.”
Fits with Cdl. Ratzinger's contention that at the moment of Christ's death on the cross, when the veil of the Temple was ripped, that worship became cosmic--not confined to the Temple.
Fr. Sergius Bulgakov, an émigré from Soviet Russia who became dean of the Russian Orthodox seminary in Paris [speculates, with foundation] ...that the myth of the Grail is nevertheless trying to tell us something. It “expresses precisely the idea that, even though the Lord ascended in His honorable flesh to heaven, the world received His holy relic in the blood and water flowed out of His side.”
The vessel which caught the blood of Christ, Bulgakov proposes, was not a cup. It was that span of weary earth lying at the foot of the cross. “The life of the flesh is in the blood” (Lev. 17:11), and our Lord’s lifeblood soaked into the dry and rocky soil of that graveyard outside the city gates. His blood was hidden there in the ground, and, in Bulgakov’s lovely image, thereby consecrated that ground, all ground, the entirety of material creation.
“The whole world is the chalice of the Holy Grail,” Bulgakov writes. “The Holy Grail is inaccessible to veneration; in its holiness it is hidden in the world from the world. However, it exists in the world as an invisible power. . . . [It] is not offered for communion but abides in the world as the mysterious holiness of the world, as the power of life, as the fire in which the world will be transfigured into a new heaven and new earth.”
Fits with Cdl. Ratzinger's contention that at the moment of Christ's death on the cross, when the veil of the Temple was ripped, that worship became cosmic--not confined to the Temple.
St. Stanislaus to Become Oratory
Another brief note on the Old Rite (Extraordinary Use) community in Milwaukee.
The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest announced that H.E. Timothy Dolan intends to create St. Stan's as an oratory staffed by ICK priests in the future.
Beginning the 2nd Sunday of Advent, ICK priests will be offering the Mass regularly (every two weeks) until roughly June of 2008. After the ordination of a number of new ICK priests occurs in June, the Order will anounce permanent cadre for the Oratory.
The Oratory will remain a canonical part of St. Anthony's Parish.
The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest announced that H.E. Timothy Dolan intends to create St. Stan's as an oratory staffed by ICK priests in the future.
Beginning the 2nd Sunday of Advent, ICK priests will be offering the Mass regularly (every two weeks) until roughly June of 2008. After the ordination of a number of new ICK priests occurs in June, the Order will anounce permanent cadre for the Oratory.
The Oratory will remain a canonical part of St. Anthony's Parish.
Impeach Cheney? Yes, No: Baldwin
Gotta hand it to Tammy Baldwin (D-LaLaLand), who follows the great Democrat tradition of voting FOR something before voting AGAINST it.
When it was politically convenient (that is, when the resolution to impeach the Vice-President was apparently failing,) Baldwin voted FOR the impeachment.
However, when it became apparent that the resolution could pass, Baldwin voted AGAINST the impeachment.
This is what we call a 'switch.'
HT: Malkin
When it was politically convenient (that is, when the resolution to impeach the Vice-President was apparently failing,) Baldwin voted FOR the impeachment.
However, when it became apparent that the resolution could pass, Baldwin voted AGAINST the impeachment.
This is what we call a 'switch.'
HT: Malkin
On Thompson's Federalism
Clay Cramer and I agree on this--but he wrote it first.
...Thompson, of course, wants judges to do their job--which isn't finding a right to same-sex marriage or abortion hiding inside the Fourteenth Amendment.
I know that there are religious conservatives who aren't happy with Thompson for these reasons. But my view on this very simple. Freedom of state governments to make their own decisions (unless clearly contrary to the state or federal constitution) is a fundamental conservative principle. Sometimes the results are unfortunate (Oregon's euthanasia law, California's medical marijuana law). But I would rather have 50 states making their own decisions, even if the results are sometimes flawed or stupid, than have the federal government impose its will. A government strong enough to impose one morality is strong enough to impose one immorality.
Or to put in more direct terms: a federal government with authority to prohibit the state legislatures from recognizing same-sex marriage also has authority to require state legislatures to recognize same-sex marriage. A federal government with authority to ban abortion in every state also has authority to require every state to allow and fund abortion.
Which is another way of saying that it's a helluvalot easier to influence your legislator in Madistan than the one you sent to DC.
Or, as I've said before, if you want to elect a "savior-President," you're in the wrong country.
And, by the way, that particular theory-of-Presidents (saviors) has been pimped by both the Republicans and the Democrats, albeit more by the Dems (since Roosevelt or so...)
...Thompson, of course, wants judges to do their job--which isn't finding a right to same-sex marriage or abortion hiding inside the Fourteenth Amendment.
I know that there are religious conservatives who aren't happy with Thompson for these reasons. But my view on this very simple. Freedom of state governments to make their own decisions (unless clearly contrary to the state or federal constitution) is a fundamental conservative principle. Sometimes the results are unfortunate (Oregon's euthanasia law, California's medical marijuana law). But I would rather have 50 states making their own decisions, even if the results are sometimes flawed or stupid, than have the federal government impose its will. A government strong enough to impose one morality is strong enough to impose one immorality.
Or to put in more direct terms: a federal government with authority to prohibit the state legislatures from recognizing same-sex marriage also has authority to require state legislatures to recognize same-sex marriage. A federal government with authority to ban abortion in every state also has authority to require every state to allow and fund abortion.
Which is another way of saying that it's a helluvalot easier to influence your legislator in Madistan than the one you sent to DC.
Or, as I've said before, if you want to elect a "savior-President," you're in the wrong country.
And, by the way, that particular theory-of-Presidents (saviors) has been pimped by both the Republicans and the Democrats, albeit more by the Dems (since Roosevelt or so...)
Radio Mouth Wrong
A certain Milwaukee-area radio commentator has blown another "prediction"--big-time.
He was wrong about the Elmbrook school referendum, which lost by a large margin.
And wrong, wrong, wrong, about the West Bend referendum, which ALSO lost by a large margin.
Get new sources.
He was wrong about the Elmbrook school referendum, which lost by a large margin.
And wrong, wrong, wrong, about the West Bend referendum, which ALSO lost by a large margin.
Get new sources.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Live by the Mortgage, Die...
Holy smoke.
General Motors Corp. said late Tuesday it will record a third-quarter non-cash charge of $39 billion because of accounting standards related to its deferred tax assets in the U.S., Canada and Germany. The company said the money is needed to establish a valuation allowance in part to compansate for unanticipated losses at GMAC Financial Services.
GMAC does two things: it finances new cars, and it writes home mortgages.
You know them as DiTech.com...
General Motors Corp. said late Tuesday it will record a third-quarter non-cash charge of $39 billion because of accounting standards related to its deferred tax assets in the U.S., Canada and Germany. The company said the money is needed to establish a valuation allowance in part to compansate for unanticipated losses at GMAC Financial Services.
GMAC does two things: it finances new cars, and it writes home mortgages.
You know them as DiTech.com...
Notice Anything Here?
I'll give you a hint: this is the first Papal Mass celebrated with the service of the NEW Papal M.C., Mgr. GUIDO Marini.
Note 6 candles breadth-wise across the altar, and a substantial crucifix right where the celebrant can see it at all times. The candlesticks are pretty substantial too, but proportionate to the altar and crucifix.
Obviously, "seeing the people" is derogated...
HT: New Lit Movement
Music for the Mass; a More Sophisticated Take
As you might expect from a Stanford professor and long-time practitioner of sacred music, this requires a bit more sophistication to understand.
Asking the question "What music [not text] is right for the Mass?", Professor Mahrt first sets the table with what we've learned from the Chant.
A second level of speaking of liturgical action is to speak of the discrete liturgical actions—each individual part of the liturgy is an action: a procession, a reading, a litany, etc. In the high Mass sung in Gregorian chant—sanctioned by the council as the “normative” liturgy—each of these actions has its own musical shape. It is not just that each is accompanied by its own music, but the music is an integral part of each action and serves to differentiate that action from the others.
Therefore, the “choice” of the music which sets these actions is crucial.
That should awaken an "A-HA" reaction from most people.
A fundamental difficulty in Musicam Sacram is that it allowed alius cantus aptus, other suitable music, to replace the proper chants of the Mass, and in practice, this has driven out the propers of the Mass. It must be acknowledged that this kind of substitution had been prepared by a common practice before the council—the requirement of singing the texts proper to the Mass was minimally fulfilled by singing each proper part to psalm tones.
While this is a pragmatic solution, especially with "parking-lot" considerations,
...something essential is missing—they are all the same; an introit is sung in exactly the same way as an alleluia, despite the remarkable difference in liturgical function, a difference which the music of Gregorian melodies makes clear.
A similar argument applies even more emphatically in the case of “songs” sung at Mass from the common hymnals currently in use. Take a specific case in point. A question and answer column in a national Catholic weekly recently addressed a question: is it suitable to sing “Let There Be Peace on Earth” at Mass?
The answer from the columnist was 'yes,' it's just fine. The sentiment in the text is nice.
No mention of its music. In fact, the melody is not in the style of a patriotic song, but rather of a Broadway musical—a show tune! There is nothing wrong with it in its own place, but it is sheer entertainment music, participating in stereotyped and clichéd formulae, representing limited emotions suited to limited dramatic situations, stroking the listener with a tune that does little more than confirm his own unreflective response to that part of the show.
Thus, not exactly a fulfillment of Pius X's mandate that the music should "sanctify and edify the people...and...lift their minds and hearts to God."
...this is functional music, but the function does not transcend the limits of the genre, does not lift the listener’s awareness to any higher purpose. I am saying this about the music and not the text, and this is precisely my point; even when music sets a significant text, the music itself carries particular meaning and value. In the case of a song for Mass in the style of a Broadway tune, and in the case of setting all the propers of the Mass to the same psalm tone or a brief office chant, the music has contributed only a modicum of real value.
Mahrt's point is that the Mass is a 'unity,' and that all its elements must contribute to the whole.
...a higher purpose should be the goal—to sing the Mass in in a way that makes it unambiguous that each of its parts serves its own distinct role, and contributes to a multi-layered sacred action, an integral part of the transcendent action of Christ himself.
Examine again the Chant's lessons. Apply them.
Asking the question "What music [not text] is right for the Mass?", Professor Mahrt first sets the table with what we've learned from the Chant.
A second level of speaking of liturgical action is to speak of the discrete liturgical actions—each individual part of the liturgy is an action: a procession, a reading, a litany, etc. In the high Mass sung in Gregorian chant—sanctioned by the council as the “normative” liturgy—each of these actions has its own musical shape. It is not just that each is accompanied by its own music, but the music is an integral part of each action and serves to differentiate that action from the others.
Therefore, the “choice” of the music which sets these actions is crucial.
That should awaken an "A-HA" reaction from most people.
A fundamental difficulty in Musicam Sacram is that it allowed alius cantus aptus, other suitable music, to replace the proper chants of the Mass, and in practice, this has driven out the propers of the Mass. It must be acknowledged that this kind of substitution had been prepared by a common practice before the council—the requirement of singing the texts proper to the Mass was minimally fulfilled by singing each proper part to psalm tones.
While this is a pragmatic solution, especially with "parking-lot" considerations,
...something essential is missing—they are all the same; an introit is sung in exactly the same way as an alleluia, despite the remarkable difference in liturgical function, a difference which the music of Gregorian melodies makes clear.
A similar argument applies even more emphatically in the case of “songs” sung at Mass from the common hymnals currently in use. Take a specific case in point. A question and answer column in a national Catholic weekly recently addressed a question: is it suitable to sing “Let There Be Peace on Earth” at Mass?
The answer from the columnist was 'yes,' it's just fine. The sentiment in the text is nice.
No mention of its music. In fact, the melody is not in the style of a patriotic song, but rather of a Broadway musical—a show tune! There is nothing wrong with it in its own place, but it is sheer entertainment music, participating in stereotyped and clichéd formulae, representing limited emotions suited to limited dramatic situations, stroking the listener with a tune that does little more than confirm his own unreflective response to that part of the show.
Thus, not exactly a fulfillment of Pius X's mandate that the music should "sanctify and edify the people...and...lift their minds and hearts to God."
...this is functional music, but the function does not transcend the limits of the genre, does not lift the listener’s awareness to any higher purpose. I am saying this about the music and not the text, and this is precisely my point; even when music sets a significant text, the music itself carries particular meaning and value. In the case of a song for Mass in the style of a Broadway tune, and in the case of setting all the propers of the Mass to the same psalm tone or a brief office chant, the music has contributed only a modicum of real value.
Mahrt's point is that the Mass is a 'unity,' and that all its elements must contribute to the whole.
...a higher purpose should be the goal—to sing the Mass in in a way that makes it unambiguous that each of its parts serves its own distinct role, and contributes to a multi-layered sacred action, an integral part of the transcendent action of Christ himself.
Examine again the Chant's lessons. Apply them.
Choir Rehearsal: SATB, and Take-Downs
Miscellaneous choir functions in Palmdale, CA.
A 65-year-old man armed with a gun terrorized a Catholic church before Sunday evening services, shouting profanities, assaulting a priest who tried to calm him and making threats as choir members held him down.
"OK, choir, on three....!!
HT: Cosmos
A 65-year-old man armed with a gun terrorized a Catholic church before Sunday evening services, shouting profanities, assaulting a priest who tried to calm him and making threats as choir members held him down.
"OK, choir, on three....!!
HT: Cosmos
On Modernity
From G K Chesterton, of course:
WHAT we are looking at is not the boyhood of free thought: it is the old age and ultimate dissolution of free thought.
It is vain for bishops and pious big wigs to discuss what things will happen if wild scepticism runs its course. It has run its course. It is vain for eloquent atheists to talk of the great truths that will be revealed if once we see free thought begin. We have seen it end. It has no more questions to ask; it has questioned itself.
You cannot call up any wilder vision than a city in which men ask themselves if they have any selves. You cannot fancy a more sceptical world than that in which men doubt if there is a world.
WHAT we are looking at is not the boyhood of free thought: it is the old age and ultimate dissolution of free thought.
It is vain for bishops and pious big wigs to discuss what things will happen if wild scepticism runs its course. It has run its course. It is vain for eloquent atheists to talk of the great truths that will be revealed if once we see free thought begin. We have seen it end. It has no more questions to ask; it has questioned itself.
You cannot call up any wilder vision than a city in which men ask themselves if they have any selves. You cannot fancy a more sceptical world than that in which men doubt if there is a world.
Fred Thompson's Principles
The link is now at the top of the "blogroll" pile, titled "Fred's Principles."
Here's the text:
Individual Liberty . As Jefferson spelled out in the Declaration of Independence, our basic rights come from God, not from government, and that among these inalienable rights is the right to liberty. We must allow individuals to lead their lives with minimal government interference.
Personal Responsibility . The corollary to liberty is responsibility. No society can succeed and thrive for any duration unless free people act in a responsible way. All of us must take responsibility for our actions and strive to improve our own lives and to contribute to building a better society.
Free Markets . Free people are best equipped to order their own affairs, and the common interest benefits from and is improved by the aggregate success of all. We must reform our tax system, encourage investment, support entrepreneurial spirit, open markets abroad to American goods, and minimize burdensome government regulations to continue to expand the economy and bring increased wealth to all Americans.
Limited Government . Government must be strong enough to protect us, competent enough to provide basic government services, but limited by the delineated powers in the Constitution.
Federalism . Our Constitution innovatively guarantees our liberties by spreading power among the three branches of the federal government, and between the federal government and the states. In considering any action by the government, we must always ask two questions: is the government better equipped than the private sector to perform the task and, if so, what level of government (federal or state) ought to do it. Washington is not the seat of all wisdom. (More on Federalism)
Protecting our Country . The first responsibility of the federal government is to protect the nation and the American people. There is no more important task. We must have a strong and effective military, capable intelligence services, and a vigorous law enforcement and homeland security capacity.
Traditional American Values . A healthy society is predicated on belief in God; respect for all life; strong families centered on the institution of marriage—the union of a man and a woman; and self-respect and tolerance of others. While we are all free to live our lives in the pursuit of our own happiness, the government has a responsibility to respect the right of parents to raise their children and to promote the values that produce the strongest society.
The Rule of Law . We protect our liberty, secure our rights, and promote a just and stable society through the rule of law. We owe to ourselves and our fellow citizens our own adherence to the rules, but tough law enforcement and punishment for those who do not. A free and independent judiciary that interprets the law by adhering strictly to legal text and respects its limited role in our system of government is essential to our security and freedom, and we need judges who understand that role if we are to preserve our republic and freedom.
Conserving Our Nation’s Resources . Each of us is put on Earth for a limited period of time. We must always strive to ensure that the resources we use to lead our lives are here for future generations to enjoy and use as well.
The key graf is entitled "Federalism" and conveniently was highlighted in red.
Here's the text:
Individual Liberty . As Jefferson spelled out in the Declaration of Independence, our basic rights come from God, not from government, and that among these inalienable rights is the right to liberty. We must allow individuals to lead their lives with minimal government interference.
Personal Responsibility . The corollary to liberty is responsibility. No society can succeed and thrive for any duration unless free people act in a responsible way. All of us must take responsibility for our actions and strive to improve our own lives and to contribute to building a better society.
Free Markets . Free people are best equipped to order their own affairs, and the common interest benefits from and is improved by the aggregate success of all. We must reform our tax system, encourage investment, support entrepreneurial spirit, open markets abroad to American goods, and minimize burdensome government regulations to continue to expand the economy and bring increased wealth to all Americans.
Limited Government . Government must be strong enough to protect us, competent enough to provide basic government services, but limited by the delineated powers in the Constitution.
Federalism . Our Constitution innovatively guarantees our liberties by spreading power among the three branches of the federal government, and between the federal government and the states. In considering any action by the government, we must always ask two questions: is the government better equipped than the private sector to perform the task and, if so, what level of government (federal or state) ought to do it. Washington is not the seat of all wisdom. (More on Federalism)
Protecting our Country . The first responsibility of the federal government is to protect the nation and the American people. There is no more important task. We must have a strong and effective military, capable intelligence services, and a vigorous law enforcement and homeland security capacity.
Traditional American Values . A healthy society is predicated on belief in God; respect for all life; strong families centered on the institution of marriage—the union of a man and a woman; and self-respect and tolerance of others. While we are all free to live our lives in the pursuit of our own happiness, the government has a responsibility to respect the right of parents to raise their children and to promote the values that produce the strongest society.
The Rule of Law . We protect our liberty, secure our rights, and promote a just and stable society through the rule of law. We owe to ourselves and our fellow citizens our own adherence to the rules, but tough law enforcement and punishment for those who do not. A free and independent judiciary that interprets the law by adhering strictly to legal text and respects its limited role in our system of government is essential to our security and freedom, and we need judges who understand that role if we are to preserve our republic and freedom.
Conserving Our Nation’s Resources . Each of us is put on Earth for a limited period of time. We must always strive to ensure that the resources we use to lead our lives are here for future generations to enjoy and use as well.
The key graf is entitled "Federalism" and conveniently was highlighted in red.
McIlheran Just Following Eichmann's Lead
This will call for a full-scale 'Whitney Gould-ing' at 4th and State...
In a typical "truthiness"-filled post, Mathias of Pundit Nation shows us how people like P-Mac are really just....
The insight made by Hannah Arendt in her book Eichmann in Jerusalem was not only that Adolf Eichmann’s own evil seemed to come from a person who seemed so banal. It was also that Eichmann represented the sort of everyman that had to exist for the Nazis to exercise total control over German life. Hitler didn’t owe his power to the loyalty of his fanatics, but to the acquiescence of the regular German citizen—the ordinary citizens who were only too happy to turn away from the truth, even as greater and greater evils were perpetrated against his neighbors.
The predicate?
As one of only a couple hundred individuals around the country who makes a living as a newspaper columnist, McIlheran’s views are given wide distribution. When he responds to news that his government tortures individuals who are being detained without trial with a joke and folksy shrug, it has an impact. From his perch, he has the opportunity to make torture seem, well, just kind of a normal part of everyday American life, while those who are opposed to it might just be, well, un-American
Go that? Since P-Mac is 'widely distributed' and shrugs off "torture" (really, water-boarding, which is NOT 'torture,') he is comparable to Eichmann, who as we all know, was a close friend of you-know-who.
The requisite disclaimer:
Am I saying that McIlheran is Eichmann? No, but I think he needs to examine which other countries have allowed torture and determine if they have governments he thinks the US wants to be associated with historically.
Shall we believe Mathias, or our lying eyes?
Here's a question for Mikie:
Let's grant ad arguendam that waterboarding is torture. Since we know that Constitutional rights actually do NOT apply to non-citizens or illegal combatants, you obviously rest your case on the proposition that the Natural Law militates against torture--a position which is eminently defensible, by the way.
So, Mikey, now that you've agreed that the Natural Law is so important, when are you going to apply the Natural Law's principles in the case of....oh, say....abortion?
Hmmmmmm?
In a typical "truthiness"-filled post, Mathias of Pundit Nation shows us how people like P-Mac are really just....
The insight made by Hannah Arendt in her book Eichmann in Jerusalem was not only that Adolf Eichmann’s own evil seemed to come from a person who seemed so banal. It was also that Eichmann represented the sort of everyman that had to exist for the Nazis to exercise total control over German life. Hitler didn’t owe his power to the loyalty of his fanatics, but to the acquiescence of the regular German citizen—the ordinary citizens who were only too happy to turn away from the truth, even as greater and greater evils were perpetrated against his neighbors.
The predicate?
As one of only a couple hundred individuals around the country who makes a living as a newspaper columnist, McIlheran’s views are given wide distribution. When he responds to news that his government tortures individuals who are being detained without trial with a joke and folksy shrug, it has an impact. From his perch, he has the opportunity to make torture seem, well, just kind of a normal part of everyday American life, while those who are opposed to it might just be, well, un-American
Go that? Since P-Mac is 'widely distributed' and shrugs off "torture" (really, water-boarding, which is NOT 'torture,') he is comparable to Eichmann, who as we all know, was a close friend of you-know-who.
The requisite disclaimer:
Am I saying that McIlheran is Eichmann? No, but I think he needs to examine which other countries have allowed torture and determine if they have governments he thinks the US wants to be associated with historically.
Shall we believe Mathias, or our lying eyes?
Here's a question for Mikie:
Let's grant ad arguendam that waterboarding is torture. Since we know that Constitutional rights actually do NOT apply to non-citizens or illegal combatants, you obviously rest your case on the proposition that the Natural Law militates against torture--a position which is eminently defensible, by the way.
So, Mikey, now that you've agreed that the Natural Law is so important, when are you going to apply the Natural Law's principles in the case of....oh, say....abortion?
Hmmmmmm?
Public Mood Over Armed Robberies Souring?
This from Richmond, VA.:
An ice cream parlor manager who pursued and fatally shot a man who robbed his store Sept. 6 will not stand trial.
A Richmond grand jury today declined to indict 21-year-old David Fielding in connection with the shooting of Jerome Davis at the Baskin Robbins ice cream store in the 6900 block of Forest Hill Avenue in South Richmond.
Fielding, 21, a VCU art student, fired 11 shots at Davis, who had entered the store waving a weapon and demanded money. Two of the shots struck Davis, 43, one of them in the back, fatally wounding him.
The Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney's office this morning presented evidence for a charge of reckless discharge of a firearm. The five-member panel could have indicted Fielding on either a felony or misdemeanor category of the offense, but instead returned no true bill. At least four grand jurors most vote for indictment for a true bill to be returned.
Notice that the armed robber was leaving the scene when he was killed.
The action of Fielding is a big-time "no-no"--shooting someone who is no longer a clear and present danger to one's life is not condoned by any responsible gun-owner.
But the grand jury thought otherwise.
Is it anecdotal, or a sign that the times are changing?
HT: Of Arms and the Law
An ice cream parlor manager who pursued and fatally shot a man who robbed his store Sept. 6 will not stand trial.
A Richmond grand jury today declined to indict 21-year-old David Fielding in connection with the shooting of Jerome Davis at the Baskin Robbins ice cream store in the 6900 block of Forest Hill Avenue in South Richmond.
Fielding, 21, a VCU art student, fired 11 shots at Davis, who had entered the store waving a weapon and demanded money. Two of the shots struck Davis, 43, one of them in the back, fatally wounding him.
The Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney's office this morning presented evidence for a charge of reckless discharge of a firearm. The five-member panel could have indicted Fielding on either a felony or misdemeanor category of the offense, but instead returned no true bill. At least four grand jurors most vote for indictment for a true bill to be returned.
Notice that the armed robber was leaving the scene when he was killed.
The action of Fielding is a big-time "no-no"--shooting someone who is no longer a clear and present danger to one's life is not condoned by any responsible gun-owner.
But the grand jury thought otherwise.
Is it anecdotal, or a sign that the times are changing?
HT: Of Arms and the Law
Diamant, Clarke: Get a Clue
Last night's "I-Team" brief was inspired by the Sheriffs Deputies' Union.
Surprise!! The 911 switchboard operators are overworked!!
Sheriff Clarke simply denied it, and a 911 operator stood there and chatted with Channel 4's Diamant about the situation (not answering calls, was she...?)
Sadly, neither Diamant nor Clarke brought up 'best practices' or 'standards.'
How many calls is "too many calls"?
You'll never know if you watch this.
Surprise!! The 911 switchboard operators are overworked!!
Sheriff Clarke simply denied it, and a 911 operator stood there and chatted with Channel 4's Diamant about the situation (not answering calls, was she...?)
Sadly, neither Diamant nor Clarke brought up 'best practices' or 'standards.'
How many calls is "too many calls"?
You'll never know if you watch this.
Learning from Pakistan
Ol' Musharraf may be a bad guy, but not ALL bad:
Legions of baton-wielding police clashed with lawyers to squash protests against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Monday.
Lawyers attempted to stage rallies in major cities on Monday, but were beaten and arrested.
Let's order the popcorn to go with the video.
Legions of baton-wielding police clashed with lawyers to squash protests against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Monday.
Lawyers attempted to stage rallies in major cities on Monday, but were beaten and arrested.
Let's order the popcorn to go with the video.
Vinehout: Gimme DSL, Cable AND Healthcare
Ms. Vinehout, a Wisconsin State senator with a serious FIB complex, not only wants state-run healthcare; she also wants subsidies to obtain cable service or DSL (maybe T-1???) for her area.
"We have a huge difference between access to technology in rural areas and urban areas," said Vinehout, who said the only options available to her Alma farm are dial-up service or installing a satellite dish.
So she wants "Big Telecomm" (actually, RATEPAYERS) to pop for $75 million in subsidies.
And she wants even MORE money sent to the local gummints: 6% instead of the current 5%.
Jeff Plale doesn't like her ideas.
"We have a huge difference between access to technology in rural areas and urban areas," said Vinehout, who said the only options available to her Alma farm are dial-up service or installing a satellite dish.
So she wants "Big Telecomm" (actually, RATEPAYERS) to pop for $75 million in subsidies.
And she wants even MORE money sent to the local gummints: 6% instead of the current 5%.
Jeff Plale doesn't like her ideas.
Monday, November 05, 2007
On the Old Rite, Its Opponents, and Circuses
Cdl. Ranjith of the Congregation for Divine Worship, speaking about the Motu Proprio:
"There have been positive reactions and, it’s pointless to deny it, criticisms and oppositing positions, also on the part of theologians, liturgists, priests, Bishops, and even Cardinals. Frankly, I don’t understand this distancing from, and, let’s just say it, rebellion against the Pope. I invite all, above all shepherds, to obey the Pope, who is the Successor of Peter. Bishops, in particular, swore loyaly to the Pontiff: they must be consistent and faithful to their commitment."
Opposition is strong in Europe, and exists in the USA.
...on the part of some dioceses, even interpretative documents which inexplicably aim at putting limits on the Pope’s Motu Proprio. Behind these actions there are hidden, on one hand, prejudices of an ideological kind and, on the other hand, pride, one of the gravest sins. I repeat: I call on everyone to obey the Pope. If the Holy father decided he had to issue the Motu Proprio, he had his reasons which I share entirely."
It constantly amazes me that Bishops and priests thumb their nose at the Pope and then expect the laity to jump at their own commands or suggestions. As though your basic church-goer doesn't see right through that ...
On some of the usual made-for-TV Masses in parishes:
Holy Mass is sacrifice, gift, mystery, independently of the priest celebrating it. It is important, nay rather, fundamental that the priest step aside: the protagonist of the Mass is Christ. So I really don’t understand these Eucharistic celebrations turned into shows with dances, songs or applause, as frequently happens with the Novus Ordo. ...I’m against dances and applause during Masses, which aren’t a circus or stadium.
But, but, but.....that's what they do at ELMBROOK Church!!!
And as to Latin:
As for Latin, I would underscore that it was never been abolished and, what is more, that it secures the universality of the Church.
Yup.
HT: Fr. Z.
"There have been positive reactions and, it’s pointless to deny it, criticisms and oppositing positions, also on the part of theologians, liturgists, priests, Bishops, and even Cardinals. Frankly, I don’t understand this distancing from, and, let’s just say it, rebellion against the Pope. I invite all, above all shepherds, to obey the Pope, who is the Successor of Peter. Bishops, in particular, swore loyaly to the Pontiff: they must be consistent and faithful to their commitment."
Opposition is strong in Europe, and exists in the USA.
...on the part of some dioceses, even interpretative documents which inexplicably aim at putting limits on the Pope’s Motu Proprio. Behind these actions there are hidden, on one hand, prejudices of an ideological kind and, on the other hand, pride, one of the gravest sins. I repeat: I call on everyone to obey the Pope. If the Holy father decided he had to issue the Motu Proprio, he had his reasons which I share entirely."
It constantly amazes me that Bishops and priests thumb their nose at the Pope and then expect the laity to jump at their own commands or suggestions. As though your basic church-goer doesn't see right through that ...
On some of the usual made-for-TV Masses in parishes:
Holy Mass is sacrifice, gift, mystery, independently of the priest celebrating it. It is important, nay rather, fundamental that the priest step aside: the protagonist of the Mass is Christ. So I really don’t understand these Eucharistic celebrations turned into shows with dances, songs or applause, as frequently happens with the Novus Ordo. ...I’m against dances and applause during Masses, which aren’t a circus or stadium.
But, but, but.....that's what they do at ELMBROOK Church!!!
And as to Latin:
As for Latin, I would underscore that it was never been abolished and, what is more, that it secures the universality of the Church.
Yup.
HT: Fr. Z.
Inflation? WHAT Inflation?
This chart excludes food and energy. Perhaps you notice a spike on the right-hand side?
The Federal inflation-watchers don't see it. Some Big Name Radio Guys don't see it.
So it is not there!
HT: The Big Picture
Silly, Sillier, and the Stupid Public
Ms. Gould, the local dilettante, returns.
Let's stipulate that Eckhart G. Grohmann is a generous man. The Milwaukee industrialist has given millions of dollars to the Milwaukee School of Engineering and donated his vast "Man at Work" collection of artwork to the school, along with a building to house it.
Damn nice of you to stipulate that, Whitney.
It's that largess, and MSOE's vital role in the community, that make it awkward to criticize the museum.
Awkward, yes.
Daunting? Hell, no!
Those shortcomings start with the building itself: a remade garage and former check-processing facility now capped with a heavy, Kaiserkopf dome and a ring of monumental bronze statuary perched along the roofline. The effect is rather like Old World Berlin as reinterpreted by Walt Disney
Really!!! Who cares, aside from Ms. Gould? Did she prefer the "Cadillac-dealer-garage" look which was near the original, or the "check-processing" look overlaid by the Federal Reserve? And is Ms. Gould going to engage a battle against ALL the 'kaiserkopf' domes in the entire City of Milwaukee?
That's the "silly" part of her non-apology.
Then we have the Reprise of Part One:
...one of the artists most heavily represented in the collection, with 81 works, is Erich Mercker (1891-1973), who was commissioned by the Third Reich to record its muscular infrastructure
...At least two other artists in the collection also had Nazi ties
In fact, almost every ethnic German living in Germany during the Third Reich had "Nazi ties," willingly or not. Does Ms. Gould want Bayer Aspirin to print notices of their cooperation with Hitler on all their aspirin tablets? Or just the bottles? Should Volkswagen Beetles have swastikas painted over their hoods? What about all those ex-Nazi engineers, like Werner Von Braun, who created and managed US rocketry and ballistic-missile programs?
You'd never know any of this from visiting the museum.
Maybe because Grohmann did NOT want a memorial to Hitler?
Well, yes, in fact. It was NOT a memorial to Hitler nor any other politician, good or evil:
The new Grohmann Museum, at 1000 N. Broadway, is home to some 700 paintings, sculptures and other art objects celebrating physical labor from the 16th century onward.
Ms. Gould's monomaniacal fixation continues:
There are no swastikas, no storm troopers in these paintings. But very little supporting information, either. The label for a 1940 Mercker painting of quarry workers, for example, alludes to the Chancellery connection without even mentioning Hitler; many of Mercker's other works are undated and also lack context...
...some of the figures portrayed in paintings from the war years likely were slave laborers.
"Slave labor," yes. Like the Pyramids, the cotton fields of the South, and a good deal of current output from Communist China. (For that matter, a lot of Roman (now Italian) infrastructure, and infrastructure of the Middle East.)
But again, the POINT was to highlight labor, thus indirectly showcasing the value of MSOE and other colleges of engineering which have endeavored to reduce labor-input through invention. Is this so hard to understand?
But let's move on to "sillier:"
But the lack of documentation for a great many works there is troubling. And the museum's failure to rectify this situation, by adding professional curators or art historians to its staff, is astonishing.
...I'm not urging that the Nazi-era works be censored, rather that the museum acquire the expertise to research and disclose the lineage of all its holdings, so that viewers can judge them intelligently.
...which remark leaves little doubt about Ms. Gould's statist mindset. Oh, yes, Mr. Grohmann, you are generous. It is your museum. It is, in fact, in private hands, and managed accordingly.
But how DARE you not hire "professional curators or art historians" (at your expense, of course) for this project?
After all, the public is (how shall we put this delicately)....pretty damn stupid, and without professional curators or art historians, they'll view this collection as if it were some 700 paintings, sculptures and other art objects celebrating physical labor from the 16th century onward.
It goes without saying that Ms. Gould's next remark has no relationship whatsoever to all the foregoing:
I love music, but that doesn't qualify me to be a symphony conductor.
And when was the last time that the conductor of the MSO condescendingly told the audience the politics of Lizst? Beethoven? Mozart? Wagner? Bach? And which member of that audience stood up and DEMANDED to KNOW those inclinations?
Pish-posh.
Go back to flogging Blue Shirts.
P.S.: The Shark agrees with Ms. Gould in one small regard. I don't concur, but hey--the Shark's a good read no matter.
Let's stipulate that Eckhart G. Grohmann is a generous man. The Milwaukee industrialist has given millions of dollars to the Milwaukee School of Engineering and donated his vast "Man at Work" collection of artwork to the school, along with a building to house it.
Damn nice of you to stipulate that, Whitney.
It's that largess, and MSOE's vital role in the community, that make it awkward to criticize the museum.
Awkward, yes.
Daunting? Hell, no!
Those shortcomings start with the building itself: a remade garage and former check-processing facility now capped with a heavy, Kaiserkopf dome and a ring of monumental bronze statuary perched along the roofline. The effect is rather like Old World Berlin as reinterpreted by Walt Disney
Really!!! Who cares, aside from Ms. Gould? Did she prefer the "Cadillac-dealer-garage" look which was near the original, or the "check-processing" look overlaid by the Federal Reserve? And is Ms. Gould going to engage a battle against ALL the 'kaiserkopf' domes in the entire City of Milwaukee?
That's the "silly" part of her non-apology.
Then we have the Reprise of Part One:
...one of the artists most heavily represented in the collection, with 81 works, is Erich Mercker (1891-1973), who was commissioned by the Third Reich to record its muscular infrastructure
...At least two other artists in the collection also had Nazi ties
In fact, almost every ethnic German living in Germany during the Third Reich had "Nazi ties," willingly or not. Does Ms. Gould want Bayer Aspirin to print notices of their cooperation with Hitler on all their aspirin tablets? Or just the bottles? Should Volkswagen Beetles have swastikas painted over their hoods? What about all those ex-Nazi engineers, like Werner Von Braun, who created and managed US rocketry and ballistic-missile programs?
You'd never know any of this from visiting the museum.
Maybe because Grohmann did NOT want a memorial to Hitler?
Well, yes, in fact. It was NOT a memorial to Hitler nor any other politician, good or evil:
The new Grohmann Museum, at 1000 N. Broadway, is home to some 700 paintings, sculptures and other art objects celebrating physical labor from the 16th century onward.
Ms. Gould's monomaniacal fixation continues:
There are no swastikas, no storm troopers in these paintings. But very little supporting information, either. The label for a 1940 Mercker painting of quarry workers, for example, alludes to the Chancellery connection without even mentioning Hitler; many of Mercker's other works are undated and also lack context...
...some of the figures portrayed in paintings from the war years likely were slave laborers.
"Slave labor," yes. Like the Pyramids, the cotton fields of the South, and a good deal of current output from Communist China. (For that matter, a lot of Roman (now Italian) infrastructure, and infrastructure of the Middle East.)
But again, the POINT was to highlight labor, thus indirectly showcasing the value of MSOE and other colleges of engineering which have endeavored to reduce labor-input through invention. Is this so hard to understand?
But let's move on to "sillier:"
But the lack of documentation for a great many works there is troubling. And the museum's failure to rectify this situation, by adding professional curators or art historians to its staff, is astonishing.
...I'm not urging that the Nazi-era works be censored, rather that the museum acquire the expertise to research and disclose the lineage of all its holdings, so that viewers can judge them intelligently.
...which remark leaves little doubt about Ms. Gould's statist mindset. Oh, yes, Mr. Grohmann, you are generous. It is your museum. It is, in fact, in private hands, and managed accordingly.
But how DARE you not hire "professional curators or art historians" (at your expense, of course) for this project?
After all, the public is (how shall we put this delicately)....pretty damn stupid, and without professional curators or art historians, they'll view this collection as if it were some 700 paintings, sculptures and other art objects celebrating physical labor from the 16th century onward.
It goes without saying that Ms. Gould's next remark has no relationship whatsoever to all the foregoing:
I love music, but that doesn't qualify me to be a symphony conductor.
And when was the last time that the conductor of the MSO condescendingly told the audience the politics of Lizst? Beethoven? Mozart? Wagner? Bach? And which member of that audience stood up and DEMANDED to KNOW those inclinations?
Pish-posh.
Go back to flogging Blue Shirts.
P.S.: The Shark agrees with Ms. Gould in one small regard. I don't concur, but hey--the Shark's a good read no matter.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
The Smell in Sheboygan is NOT a Paper-Plant
No, folks, it just gets more and more interesting, as Alan Eisenberg seems to be a good pal of Mayor (Sieg!! Heil!!) Perez.
Texasholdem brings us more:
...although Mayor Perez’s official city biography has erased his existence prior to coming to Sheboygan, we here at THEB have learned that Perez was at one time the City Manager of Crystal City, Tex., before being fired for reasons that are unknown … yet
Perez, a Crystal City native, may also have connections to Jose Angel Gutierrez , the founder of the racist La Raza Unida Party, the Hispanic separatist/superiority group working to establish the Aztalan state out of the current southwestern United States. Gutierrez founded La Raza — which translates to “The Race” — while Perez was still in high school in Crystal City and there may be connections between the two men.
Seems that LaRaza virtually RAN Crystal City until the late 1980's, according to Wikipedia.
Who'd-a-thunk it? Sheboygan, for crying out loud...
Texasholdem brings us more:
...although Mayor Perez’s official city biography has erased his existence prior to coming to Sheboygan, we here at THEB have learned that Perez was at one time the City Manager of Crystal City, Tex., before being fired for reasons that are unknown … yet
Perez, a Crystal City native, may also have connections to Jose Angel Gutierrez , the founder of the racist La Raza Unida Party, the Hispanic separatist/superiority group working to establish the Aztalan state out of the current southwestern United States. Gutierrez founded La Raza — which translates to “The Race” — while Perez was still in high school in Crystal City and there may be connections between the two men.
Seems that LaRaza virtually RAN Crystal City until the late 1980's, according to Wikipedia.
Who'd-a-thunk it? Sheboygan, for crying out loud...
Lies, Damn Lies, and the Associated Press
You've heard the AP company line:
People decisively favor letting their public schools provide birth control to students, but they also voice misgivings that divide them along generational, income and racial lines, a poll showed.
Sixty-seven percent support giving contraceptives to students, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll.
About as many — 62 percent — said they believe providing birth control reduces the number of teenage pregnancies
Uh-huh.
So here are some ACTUAL poll results from that very poll AP celebrates (heavy lifting from Sweetness and Light blog):
Q: Which would you prefer for the public schools in your community:
Provide birth control only to the students who have the consent of their parents: 37%
Provide birth control to all students who want it: 30%
Not provide to any student: 30%
So 67% of the respondents would NOT provide 'the Pill' or provide it ONLY if PARENTS consented.
Hmmmmmm.
Now here's an interesting co-incidence:
Q: Are you a parent of a school-age child, or not?
Yes: 37%
No: 63%
Well, well, well. By the way, the poll over-sampled Democrats, too.
HT: Malkin
People decisively favor letting their public schools provide birth control to students, but they also voice misgivings that divide them along generational, income and racial lines, a poll showed.
Sixty-seven percent support giving contraceptives to students, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll.
About as many — 62 percent — said they believe providing birth control reduces the number of teenage pregnancies
Uh-huh.
So here are some ACTUAL poll results from that very poll AP celebrates (heavy lifting from Sweetness and Light blog):
Q: Which would you prefer for the public schools in your community:
Provide birth control only to the students who have the consent of their parents: 37%
Provide birth control to all students who want it: 30%
Not provide to any student: 30%
So 67% of the respondents would NOT provide 'the Pill' or provide it ONLY if PARENTS consented.
Hmmmmmm.
Now here's an interesting co-incidence:
Q: Are you a parent of a school-age child, or not?
Yes: 37%
No: 63%
Well, well, well. By the way, the poll over-sampled Democrats, too.
HT: Malkin
The Riposte for Jay, or G K Chesterton's Wisdom
Folkie's managed to gin up a lengthy comment column on a post wherein he declines to answer the question "how much is TOO much" taxation.
We found a riposte today at Just One Minute:
"Give a man a fish, get his vote today; legislate his entitlement to fish hand-outs, get his vote forever"
...which cuts both ways--at both the nanny-State and its corollary, the "entitled" corporations (see: "licensing." "regulation" and other such rent-seeking masquerades.)
Of course, G K Chesterton already knew about both those evils and called them "Hudge" and "Gudge"--the Nanny State and the Big Corporation, respectively.
We found a riposte today at Just One Minute:
"Give a man a fish, get his vote today; legislate his entitlement to fish hand-outs, get his vote forever"
...which cuts both ways--at both the nanny-State and its corollary, the "entitled" corporations (see: "licensing." "regulation" and other such rent-seeking masquerades.)
Of course, G K Chesterton already knew about both those evils and called them "Hudge" and "Gudge"--the Nanny State and the Big Corporation, respectively.
Hildebeeste's Straw Donors and Human Trafficking
Of course, HRC has no knowledge of all this.
The three tenement addresses of missing donors highlighted by the L.A. Times fit in a box roughly 100 by 200 yards within a neighborhood, inside Manhattan’s Chinatown, heavily populated by immigrants from the Fujian Province of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). Fuzhou is the province’s main city.
The “International Crime Threat Assessment” (Dec. 2000), generated by a U.S. Government interagency working group made up of several federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, stated that, “Fujian Province is a major base for operations for criminal brokers known as ’snakeheads’ who, using contacts around the world, orchestrate the movement of illegal Chinese immigrants to the United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Australia.” A map of Fujian Province is featured on the cover of an August 2004 report entitled “Characteristics of Chinese Human Smugglers” issued by the U.S. Department of Justice.
"Snakeheads." Illegal immigraion. Human trafficking. Big money. PRC.
Gotta love those Clinton Campaign donors.
The three tenement addresses of missing donors highlighted by the L.A. Times fit in a box roughly 100 by 200 yards within a neighborhood, inside Manhattan’s Chinatown, heavily populated by immigrants from the Fujian Province of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). Fuzhou is the province’s main city.
The “International Crime Threat Assessment” (Dec. 2000), generated by a U.S. Government interagency working group made up of several federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, stated that, “Fujian Province is a major base for operations for criminal brokers known as ’snakeheads’ who, using contacts around the world, orchestrate the movement of illegal Chinese immigrants to the United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Australia.” A map of Fujian Province is featured on the cover of an August 2004 report entitled “Characteristics of Chinese Human Smugglers” issued by the U.S. Department of Justice.
"Snakeheads." Illegal immigraion. Human trafficking. Big money. PRC.
Gotta love those Clinton Campaign donors.
Barbaric School System
Easily the most perverse comment of the week...
Jennifer Morales, MPS Board member, after voting to screw City of Milwaukee residents through accounting gimmickry:
"My overriding sense tonight is just anger. We live in a society that is so barbaric that it says you have to choose between the needs of your children and the needs of your senior citizens."
Umnnhhh....Jennifer....the tax-takers have the guns. Grannies don't.
Jennifer Morales, MPS Board member, after voting to screw City of Milwaukee residents through accounting gimmickry:
"My overriding sense tonight is just anger. We live in a society that is so barbaric that it says you have to choose between the needs of your children and the needs of your senior citizens."
Umnnhhh....Jennifer....the tax-takers have the guns. Grannies don't.
Friday, November 02, 2007
DPI Tries to Out-Do MPS Board; May Succeed (in Court)
McIlheran points to a jaw-dropping news report written by an incompetent adult.
On Tuesday of this week, in a Waukesha courtroom, the state governmental agency responsible for our public schools and a labor union came before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and pleaded with the judges to keep parents out of public schools.
According to the Department of Public Instruction and the state teachers' union, parents are the problem. And these bureaucracies know just how to fix it. They want to keep parents, and indeed anyone without a teaching license, out of Wisconsin public schools. Of course WEAC, the state teachers' union, likes that idea. Licenses mean dues. Dues mean power.
DPI likes it because ........well, could it be just because WEAC does?
Maybe the author is merely an 'incompetent, unlicensed adult,' but she is certainly perceptive, eh?
DPI alleges that parents are too involved in their own children's education.
That's right.
They argue parents are too involved.
I've always thought parental involvement in a child's education was agood thing. What do I know? I don't have a teacher's license.
Neither did Socrates. Maybe it was a DPI fore-runner who ordered up the hemlock cocktail for him...
I heard lawyers for DPI and WEAC call parents incompetent. I heard them say that unlicensed adults should not perform any teaching function whatsoever in public schools. The attorney for DPI, a deputy attorney general, actually said parents were not even capable of recognizing a teachable moment.
Now that's an argument the Department of Justice can be proud of. Unlicensed adults is code for what I am. A parent.
I think I heard JBVanHollen faint.
DPI and WEAC['s]....attorneys admitted in court that academic achievement at WIVA is not relevant. They want to put a stop to all this 'non-licensed' activity in public schools.
The temptation to mention teacher-student, ahhhh....."unlicensed" activities....oh, never mind.
Superintendent Burmaster called an expert panel on virtual schools in 2005. They agreed on rules and standard practices to insure quality.
She has never acted on the recommendations of her panel or even made them public. Maybe she didn't like what the experts had to say because the panel embraced the concept of public education via online technology, using teachers from remote locations.
Never forget that Burmaster's position is entirely due to WEAC political activity. It ain't competence that got her elected.
So happens the K-8 school our chilluns attended is practically overrun with "involved incompetent adults"--parents--at all hours of the day. "Involved incompetents" teach a variety of subjects, coach extra-curriculars (some semi-academic) and also impart knowledge of music.
The graduates of that little school have been accepted to Marquette High, Brookfield Academy, Catholic Memorial--you know, selective, real-live high schools. After that, they've gone to Purdue, UW-Madison, U of Chicago, U of Dallas, Marquette U., Ripon, and other selective colleges.
Not only do I KNOW "incompetent, unlicensed adults"--I R 1, 2!!
You GO, Rose!!!!
On Tuesday of this week, in a Waukesha courtroom, the state governmental agency responsible for our public schools and a labor union came before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and pleaded with the judges to keep parents out of public schools.
According to the Department of Public Instruction and the state teachers' union, parents are the problem. And these bureaucracies know just how to fix it. They want to keep parents, and indeed anyone without a teaching license, out of Wisconsin public schools. Of course WEAC, the state teachers' union, likes that idea. Licenses mean dues. Dues mean power.
DPI likes it because ........well, could it be just because WEAC does?
Maybe the author is merely an 'incompetent, unlicensed adult,' but she is certainly perceptive, eh?
DPI alleges that parents are too involved in their own children's education.
That's right.
They argue parents are too involved.
I've always thought parental involvement in a child's education was agood thing. What do I know? I don't have a teacher's license.
Neither did Socrates. Maybe it was a DPI fore-runner who ordered up the hemlock cocktail for him...
I heard lawyers for DPI and WEAC call parents incompetent. I heard them say that unlicensed adults should not perform any teaching function whatsoever in public schools. The attorney for DPI, a deputy attorney general, actually said parents were not even capable of recognizing a teachable moment.
Now that's an argument the Department of Justice can be proud of. Unlicensed adults is code for what I am. A parent.
I think I heard JBVanHollen faint.
DPI and WEAC['s]....attorneys admitted in court that academic achievement at WIVA is not relevant. They want to put a stop to all this 'non-licensed' activity in public schools.
The temptation to mention teacher-student, ahhhh....."unlicensed" activities....oh, never mind.
Superintendent Burmaster called an expert panel on virtual schools in 2005. They agreed on rules and standard practices to insure quality.
She has never acted on the recommendations of her panel or even made them public. Maybe she didn't like what the experts had to say because the panel embraced the concept of public education via online technology, using teachers from remote locations.
Never forget that Burmaster's position is entirely due to WEAC political activity. It ain't competence that got her elected.
So happens the K-8 school our chilluns attended is practically overrun with "involved incompetent adults"--parents--at all hours of the day. "Involved incompetents" teach a variety of subjects, coach extra-curriculars (some semi-academic) and also impart knowledge of music.
The graduates of that little school have been accepted to Marquette High, Brookfield Academy, Catholic Memorial--you know, selective, real-live high schools. After that, they've gone to Purdue, UW-Madison, U of Chicago, U of Dallas, Marquette U., Ripon, and other selective colleges.
Not only do I KNOW "incompetent, unlicensed adults"--I R 1, 2!!
You GO, Rose!!!!
Wisconsin Blog Nominees!!
No Runny reports that the following were award-nominees:
TTLB Best of the Top 501-1000 - The American Mind
TTLB Best of the Top 1751-2500 - A Blog For All
TTLB Best of the Top 2501-3500 - Boots and Sabers
TTLB Best of the Top 6751-8500 - Wigderson Library and Pub
Congrats!!
TTLB Best of the Top 501-1000 - The American Mind
TTLB Best of the Top 1751-2500 - A Blog For All
TTLB Best of the Top 2501-3500 - Boots and Sabers
TTLB Best of the Top 6751-8500 - Wigderson Library and Pub
Congrats!!
WI Senators: "Yes" on SCHIP
I thought Feingold (D-AlQuaeda) would have the common sense...but he didn't.
He joined Kohl (D-Nobody) and voted FOR the monstrously bloated SCHIP program, ensuring the right to free health-care for families earning up to $87,000.
Oh, yeah.
HT: Malkin
He joined Kohl (D-Nobody) and voted FOR the monstrously bloated SCHIP program, ensuring the right to free health-care for families earning up to $87,000.
Oh, yeah.
HT: Malkin
The Seamy, Slimy Side of Pork
The Captain tells us more about John Murtha's favorite charity (!!!), Concurrent Technologies.
Yup, it is an IRS-classified "charity."
Murtha's responsible for about $110 million of the "charity's" $176 million in Federal grants--which is the vast majority of its $250 million annual revenues.
Add a suicide, a whiff of 'buying off' Federal appointees...
Yup, it is an IRS-classified "charity."
Murtha's responsible for about $110 million of the "charity's" $176 million in Federal grants--which is the vast majority of its $250 million annual revenues.
Add a suicide, a whiff of 'buying off' Federal appointees...
MPS Board to Taxpayers: "Screw YOU, Fools!"
Unbelievable.
After several hundred people showed up to protest a 16%+ tax increase, the MPS Board decided:
1) To spend all the money, anyway, and
2) To reduce the tax increase by deferring pension and debt reductions until NEXT year.
So as a State taxpayer, I won't have to take a hit until the 2009 tax year.
Wow.
After several hundred people showed up to protest a 16%+ tax increase, the MPS Board decided:
1) To spend all the money, anyway, and
2) To reduce the tax increase by deferring pension and debt reductions until NEXT year.
So as a State taxpayer, I won't have to take a hit until the 2009 tax year.
Wow.
Thursday, November 01, 2007
WI Greenhouse Gas Reduction to 1990 Levels!
The State Senate now embarks on its Quixote-quests, under the new Rad-Left leadership.
A Senate committee today recommended a bill that would require the state Department of Natural Resources to adopt rules cutting back on the emission of greenhouse gases by 2011.
Under the bill, the DNR would have to determine the amount of greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming, that was being emitted by Wisconsin-based companies and industries in 1990. The deadline to set that limit would be January 2009.
It would set the greenhouse emission limit in the year 2020 to the 1990 level, and require DNR to implement rules to achieve that target by 2011
No problem. Industry and commerce can dial back "greenhouse gas emissions" by about 30 years--by leaving.
So did Barrett and Doyle tell Coors/Molson the plan?
A Senate committee today recommended a bill that would require the state Department of Natural Resources to adopt rules cutting back on the emission of greenhouse gases by 2011.
Under the bill, the DNR would have to determine the amount of greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming, that was being emitted by Wisconsin-based companies and industries in 1990. The deadline to set that limit would be January 2009.
It would set the greenhouse emission limit in the year 2020 to the 1990 level, and require DNR to implement rules to achieve that target by 2011
No problem. Industry and commerce can dial back "greenhouse gas emissions" by about 30 years--by leaving.
So did Barrett and Doyle tell Coors/Molson the plan?
Personal Consumption: Rising?
A lot has been made of a reported 3% rise in Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) reported yesterday.
More should be made of the inflation-adjustment to PCE, which is 8/10ths of 1%--astoundingly low, given the dramatic increases in the price of fuel in the last quarter.
That adjustment has an impact on GDP, reported at 3.9%, but more likely between 1% and 1.9%.
HT: The Big Picture
More should be made of the inflation-adjustment to PCE, which is 8/10ths of 1%--astoundingly low, given the dramatic increases in the price of fuel in the last quarter.
That adjustment has an impact on GDP, reported at 3.9%, but more likely between 1% and 1.9%.
HT: The Big Picture
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