Ruminations - 8/24/08
No, I haven't gone away - just doing LOTS of things in a lot of different areas. So, in the spirit of not having any time lately but feel still in the spirit that I still have a bit of a mind to share...
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Sometime, we write Really Really Good Stuff! Sometimes, it is Really Really Deep Thought type stuff. Some of it even gets read.
And sometimes, some of the posts that have gotten the most hits since we've been open have been posts that could be classified as "eh, what the heck?" or "my brain is tired, this is quick" or "man, this is fluff - let's see what happens". And people just keep coming back and back and back. Mine was this (scroll down - you'll know it when you see the bare midriffs).
Well, time for an update:
Same statement - must not stimulate Muslims?
"Malaysian authorities fined organizers of a concert by the chart-topping Pussycat Dolls for allowing the singers to wear skimpy costumes and for their "sexually suggestive routines," a news report said Wednesday." Source
Except for the very few miscreant guys among us in the West, things like this story always have me asking myself - What's the matter, can't Muslim men control themselves?
Yeah, I can be shallow from time to time (but am really wondering how many hits it will get becasue of the subjects).
The question, however, remains valid - how come Muslim men continue to hold the WOMEN accountable but not themselves? Hey, N.O.W. - how come you continue to NOT demonstrate against this in front of mosques? I guess it's only OK to demonstrate at country clubs.....
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Stupid politicians! when are they going to learn that the game has changed with the Internet - you cannot hide, you cannot run, and you just can't make stuff disappear without somebody noticing!
Let the Obama - Biden campaign whitewashing stupid explanations begin!
The Friday evening version of Joe Biden's Wikipedia entry remains firmly ensconced in a Firefox tab on my desktop, so it can be compared to its current form as Obama-Biden's busy bees brush it up. I'm doing comparisons as time allows, and there isn't much of it at the moment.
One thing is quickly obvious -- a whole year has disappeared:
You'll just loooooove what got deleted:
Ha! Go to the link and see what got deleted!
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Rhode Island's Roman Catholic bishop is calling on U.S. authorities to halt mass immigration raids and says agents who refuse to participate in such raids on moral grounds deserve to be treated as conscientious objectors.
Let me see if I understand this - agents voluntarily sign up to enforce our nation's immigration laws. Those laws, like them or not, detail how one comes to live here in the USA (after all, we ARE allowed to make the laws that govern ourselves, right)?
Don't like them? Change them. Until then, follow them. And if you voluntarily joined ICE to enforce the immigration laws and no longer can support them, there is something that you can do:
QUIT.
This Bishop is just, plain, wrong.
"We believe that raids on the immigrant community are unjust, unnecessary, and counterproductive," the bishop's letter says. It urges individual federal agents to consider the morality of their actions and refuse to participate if their conscience dictates.
A spokeswoman for ICE, Paula Grenier, said she could not comment.
Well, I CERTAINLY can! So, Bishop, is it unjust on the part of the illegal alien to break our laws? The Bible is quite clear that governments are appointed by God and therefore, failing to follow (provided the laws do not break His law), is disobedience to God, right?
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has called U.S. immigration policies "morally unacceptable," saying they keep families divided and encourage the exploitation of migrants.
So, Bishops, does this mean that we are to ignore the actions and decisions of parents that put their children at risk? Let's take your argument to one more illogical step - does that mean that I can break another law, desecrating a church (as was recently done to a local Catholic church) - is still be morally acceptable?
No, I didn't think so.
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It has passed a bill to ensure that the vehicles make enough noise to be heard by visually impaired people about to cross a street.
The measure would establish a committee to study the issue and recommend ways the vehicles could make more noise.
Hmm, by expending less energy, we do better. Now, we have to pipe some of that savings into sounding like a regular car? I KNOW! Let's make it a law that all of the Priuses have to sound like the old tyme Ice Cream Trucks with that little jingle they always played in the neighborhoods that thrilled all the kids and made the Moms groan....
The state Department of Motor Vehicles says more than 300,000 of the vehicles are on state roads. Officials say they don't keep statistics on pedestrian accidents involving those vehicles.
Right, let's make a law to raise taxpayer costs before we know if it is problem....just another reason why all State's ought to make their Legislators' pay the same as it is here in NH - $100 / year. Maybe some of the loony ideas would never get hatched.
Oh yeah, that worked well...leave it to politicians who just cannot stop meddling....
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And some times, it is just the stupidity of over-nuanced, moral relativistic journalists that cannot (or refuse to recognize) evil:
Asked what was missing in British coverage, she added: "It may sound odd but the humanity of the Taliban, because the Taliban are a wide, very diverse group of people.
Absurd. Just remember that picture of a woman in a burka that was shot in the back of the head in the soccer field when she was accused of adultery.
Humanity?
Are the Dems getting to repeat the lessons of the Republicans? A condensed version of just a few problems that caused the Great Depression and made it longer and harder.
And it sounds like the Obamessiah is going to show again that he "don't know history" and isn't going to learn:
Lessons Of The Great Depression
Perverse monetary policy was the greatest cause of the Great Depression. But non-monetary missteps were important in making the Depression great, and the same missteps damaged the global economy as well. While many are thinking about the Depression, few seem concerned about replicating these mistakes today. Among them:
• Giving in to protectionism...
Yet again, one party - the Democrats, this time - is cavalier. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is blocking passage of these bilateral agreements. And another ambivalent politician - Sen. Barack Obama - has sent mixed messages to Canada about just how much he wants to roll back the North American Free Trade Agreement.
• Blaming the messenger. Punishing the stock market for the 1929 crash was popular in Washington in the early 1930s...
Today, too, a "Blame the Street" mood prevails. SEC Chairman Chris Cox has criticized "naked shorts," an attack with a legitimate anti-fraud component. But targeting short-selling also generates uncertainty. The investigations of Bear Stearns and Freddie Mac are just the beginning; more prosecutions are likely. Like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which followed Enron's accounting meltdown, this cleanup will send companies and jobs abroad.
• Increasing taxes in a downturn.
Today, Democrats are planning tax increases that make Bill Clinton's hike look mild. The proposals start with lifting the cap on Social Security payroll taxes - an effective increase in the top marginal tax rate of 6.2 percent, or for some 12.4 percent, all by itself. Add in the promised repeal of the Bush tax cuts and you have an additional 4.6 percent increase. Effective top rates approach 50 percent. There are also proposed increases for dividends and capital gains. Taken together, these will make the U.S. economy sluggish and more like that of Europe.
• Assuming bigger government will bring back growth. seemed the only way to sustain America's promise.
New Deal programs did much to alleviate the pain month to month - many found dignity in six months of work at the Works Progress Administration, the Public Works Administration or the Civilian Conservation Corps. But economics is a competition for scarce capital. Such state solutions tended to suppress the creation of long-term private-sector jobs, as did the aggressive Wagner Act for organized labor.
Amity Shlaes is the author of "The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression" and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
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