Monday, February 28, 2011
Shut up and sing
"Justice will come. I'm sure," Shakira told The Associated Press after the award ceremony. "Wherever there is ... a kid, who could be the son or the daughter of a Latino immigrant, who cannot attend a school in the United States of America, that kid should be a concern to all of us and our responsibility."No sweetie. What should be of concern is that he can't attend a school in *his own* country.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Lame hall of fame
I wonder what the reality-based community will make of this - Marcy Kaptur can't tell a reenactment from real life.
Vote her out, so we can stop the Democrats' ongoing Depression reenactment.
Vote her out, so we can stop the Democrats' ongoing Depression reenactment.
Sunday, October 03, 2010
A permanent solution to a temporary problem
When I first heard of the Tyler Clementi suicide I thought it was time for a Singapore style caning of the perps who thought it would be cool to put a webcam on him. As for Tyler Clementi...
I've known more suicides than I care to recall, and a bonus one that only failed because of a major last-minute intervention at an emergency room. Incidentally, that survivor lived another 30+ years.
Thanks loads to all of you. Yeah, your problems ended. And you left a bunch of people behind who wonder what they might have done about it and various other messes. Including, in one case, a mess of blood, skull fragments and brains on the outside of a house. Some kids got to see that, including his own.
Or there was the high school kid I knew who was scared to death after he wrecked the family car. His father was strict - what would he do? As it turned out, he buried his son with the top of his skull blown off.
What could the father have done to deserve that? Should he have gone out and killed himself too?
Yep, some people have terrible diseases. They're helpless, in physical pain beyond what I can imagine, etc. OK, it's your life, do what you want. Having watched someone die from brain cancer, I'm on board with that.
I know someone else who's done time and has had a drug habit. His father had a failed suicide attempt, but all his mother's brothers succeeded (I knew them all). He spent months out of work looking every day at a little boy he couldn't support, and being an ex-con doesn't help his prospects. He doesn't have a gun that I know of, but there's always poison, ropes, knives, gas, electricity, cars, windows, bridges... Gosh, what's he hanging around for?
And then there's someone who's mortified, like Tyler Clementi. Yeah, he sure got his privacy invaded. I can see him being pathologically ticked off, pursuing all kinds of legal relief, and making sure that everyone on earth knew what a snake he roomed with. Or maybe transferring to another school. But suicide?
Am I being hard on him and his family? Maybe, but he's already gone. Let's think of the living - the people who might make a better decision if this were presented as a monumental mistake, and a very cruel trick on everyone who cared about him that went far beyond what was done to him.
It certainly wasn't inevitable. After all, the other guy in the video stream had his privacy invaded too - did he kill himself?
And the perps? They got outed too, in the New York Times and untold links, mortification far beyond anything that happened to Tyler Clementi before he killed himself. Should people back off lest they should kill themselves too? Maybe some people will think twice about playing mean tricks now, but let's not overdo it.
Oh yeah, the ex-con. He finally found a job even in this economy. He's not a model citizen yet, but he knows that I and others will kick his butt with gusto he fouls up again, and he's trying.
Because where there's life, there's hope...
I've known more suicides than I care to recall, and a bonus one that only failed because of a major last-minute intervention at an emergency room. Incidentally, that survivor lived another 30+ years.
Thanks loads to all of you. Yeah, your problems ended. And you left a bunch of people behind who wonder what they might have done about it and various other messes. Including, in one case, a mess of blood, skull fragments and brains on the outside of a house. Some kids got to see that, including his own.
Or there was the high school kid I knew who was scared to death after he wrecked the family car. His father was strict - what would he do? As it turned out, he buried his son with the top of his skull blown off.
What could the father have done to deserve that? Should he have gone out and killed himself too?
Yep, some people have terrible diseases. They're helpless, in physical pain beyond what I can imagine, etc. OK, it's your life, do what you want. Having watched someone die from brain cancer, I'm on board with that.
I know someone else who's done time and has had a drug habit. His father had a failed suicide attempt, but all his mother's brothers succeeded (I knew them all). He spent months out of work looking every day at a little boy he couldn't support, and being an ex-con doesn't help his prospects. He doesn't have a gun that I know of, but there's always poison, ropes, knives, gas, electricity, cars, windows, bridges... Gosh, what's he hanging around for?
And then there's someone who's mortified, like Tyler Clementi. Yeah, he sure got his privacy invaded. I can see him being pathologically ticked off, pursuing all kinds of legal relief, and making sure that everyone on earth knew what a snake he roomed with. Or maybe transferring to another school. But suicide?
Am I being hard on him and his family? Maybe, but he's already gone. Let's think of the living - the people who might make a better decision if this were presented as a monumental mistake, and a very cruel trick on everyone who cared about him that went far beyond what was done to him.
It certainly wasn't inevitable. After all, the other guy in the video stream had his privacy invaded too - did he kill himself?
And the perps? They got outed too, in the New York Times and untold links, mortification far beyond anything that happened to Tyler Clementi before he killed himself. Should people back off lest they should kill themselves too? Maybe some people will think twice about playing mean tricks now, but let's not overdo it.
Oh yeah, the ex-con. He finally found a job even in this economy. He's not a model citizen yet, but he knows that I and others will kick his butt with gusto he fouls up again, and he's trying.
Because where there's life, there's hope...
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Plan B
Claudia Rosett has much to say about Imam Feisal. No doubt she could have gone on for much longer, but only had so much space to work with.
The jaw-dropper was this: "How better to commemorate 9/11 than to urge our fellow Muslims, fellow Christians and fellow Jews to follow the fundamental common impulse of our great faith traditions?" How about renouncing terror, stating that it is inconsistent with Islam and thus terrorists are infidels, apologizing to the victims, and using his Ground Zero site as a Victims of Terrorism museum?
The jaw-dropper was this: "How better to commemorate 9/11 than to urge our fellow Muslims, fellow Christians and fellow Jews to follow the fundamental common impulse of our great faith traditions?" How about renouncing terror, stating that it is inconsistent with Islam and thus terrorists are infidels, apologizing to the victims, and using his Ground Zero site as a Victims of Terrorism museum?
Imam: Moving Mosque Could Ignite Violence
Exactly what is it besides getting their way that *doesn't* enrage extremist Muslims?
Of course about now even the tamest observant Muslims must be a little cranky, after almost a month of starving all day for Ramadan. I haven't been around enough Muslims for long enough to know what percent really observe it. I doubt that they're any better at living by their book than other religions are at observing theirs.
But one custom that's really easy to observe is Eid al-Fitr, which is at the end of Ramadan. Yeah, you'd do something special too after spending a month of long summer days without eating during daylight, whether you really observed it or not. It lasts 3 days, and this year those three days happen to include 9/11.
Ramadan and thus Eid al-Fitr are based on a lunar calendar, and thus effectively were scheduled for this year long before 9/11. So there's nothing deliberately provocative about the timing of Eid this year.
Even so, I'm hoping nobody does anything to enrage extremist Americans.
Of course about now even the tamest observant Muslims must be a little cranky, after almost a month of starving all day for Ramadan. I haven't been around enough Muslims for long enough to know what percent really observe it. I doubt that they're any better at living by their book than other religions are at observing theirs.
But one custom that's really easy to observe is Eid al-Fitr, which is at the end of Ramadan. Yeah, you'd do something special too after spending a month of long summer days without eating during daylight, whether you really observed it or not. It lasts 3 days, and this year those three days happen to include 9/11.
Ramadan and thus Eid al-Fitr are based on a lunar calendar, and thus effectively were scheduled for this year long before 9/11. So there's nothing deliberately provocative about the timing of Eid this year.
Even so, I'm hoping nobody does anything to enrage extremist Americans.
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Carnival of Nuclear Energy 17
Back when I started blogging years ago I used to write fairly often about nuclear power. Much has happened in blogging since, and I'm glad to see stuff like Carnival of Nuclear Energy 17.
Link via Glenn Reynolds, whose hit counter surely must start smoking every time I link to him. Especially after I haven't blogged anything for over 8 months - what have you poor people been doing?
Link via Glenn Reynolds, whose hit counter surely must start smoking every time I link to him. Especially after I haven't blogged anything for over 8 months - what have you poor people been doing?
If you think health care costs an arm and a leg...
...consider that this woman didn't take advantage of it, and it cost her an arm and two legs.
Monday, September 06, 2010
Disrespecting the dead
FOXNews.com - Tennessee high school teacher arrested after teens say he held them at gunpoint at cemetery
This story sounds incomplete to me. I'm willing to believe that there are wacko teachers. But I've seen plenty of desecrated cemeteries too.
Which reminds me of this class act. Why there, when there's a much more deserving target here?
This story sounds incomplete to me. I'm willing to believe that there are wacko teachers. But I've seen plenty of desecrated cemeteries too.
Which reminds me of this class act. Why there, when there's a much more deserving target here?
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
I'm not saying I'll never complain again
But I should feel kind of sheepish about it after reading about Martha Mason
Friday, December 18, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Thursday, July 02, 2009
This is why neighbors call them "massholes"
The people of Massachusetts owe it to the rest of the country to throw Barney Frank out. Not just at the next election. Now.
Not content with his role in screwing up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, he wants to grab repaid TARP money for one of his latest housing schemes, as mentioned
here.
I have a better idea. Set up a fund to be used to recall Congressmen. We can start with Frank. Then how about Nancy Pelosi?
Or how about a new tax proposal? We'll calculate how much in taxes each Congressman votes for each year, and we'll fine their campaign funds accordingly. And we'll tax their donors at the rates their candidate would have imposed.
Or better yet, how about a change in the rules such that the House and Senate automatically expel the members who voted for the most spending each fiscal year? We might finally start getting more turnover. And maybe some hope for a change.
Yep, I've had enough. I haven't managed to hit a Tea Party yet. I also missed a local event to notify a RINO that he had no business voting for that "cap and tax" abomination that he couldn't possibly have even read, much less assimilated.
No more.
Not content with his role in screwing up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, he wants to grab repaid TARP money for one of his latest housing schemes, as mentioned
here.
I have a better idea. Set up a fund to be used to recall Congressmen. We can start with Frank. Then how about Nancy Pelosi?
Or how about a new tax proposal? We'll calculate how much in taxes each Congressman votes for each year, and we'll fine their campaign funds accordingly. And we'll tax their donors at the rates their candidate would have imposed.
Or better yet, how about a change in the rules such that the House and Senate automatically expel the members who voted for the most spending each fiscal year? We might finally start getting more turnover. And maybe some hope for a change.
Yep, I've had enough. I haven't managed to hit a Tea Party yet. I also missed a local event to notify a RINO that he had no business voting for that "cap and tax" abomination that he couldn't possibly have even read, much less assimilated.
No more.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Margaret Sanger's nightmare
I guess it's easier to write 1 story than 11 or more, but this is just a tad unbalanced. Someone allegedly fathered 21 kids by "at least 11" different mothers, and it takes until the last paragraph to note that "one has to wonder about the women who chose to have his children".
If that man had never been born, does anyone really think none of this would have happened? But for him, these women would have been virgins?
Is a 29 year old with a minimum wage job so devastatingly attractive to those women that they were simply incapable of resisting? Even though all the women allegedly knew about his large family?
Or was he just a bottom feeder who'd hook up with any loser who wanted her ticket to the govt gravy train?
Gravy train? It's true that many of us wouldn't want to live on govt programs. But I went to school in small towns, and in small towns everybody knows of everybody. Including the trash. I wound up knowing plenty of people that were very pleased to live in ways I wouldn't have chosen. If it takes popping a kid to get benefits they wouldn't have otherwise, then come and get it!
Raising kids is cheap if they're just a means to an end. Just take care of them well enough to keep off the radar of govt family services types, who are probably too busy to investigate much anyway, and it's years of freebies!
Cynical? No, just experienced. I've seen it more times than I care to recall - I can only imagine what social workers see. We can't project our own aspirations on others.
More from the last paragraph: "In the end, the children and the taxpayers of Tennessee will pay for their choices for years to come."
Perhaps the word "choice" wasn't a code word (as in "why didn't the mothers kill them? - we must not have enough abortionists!"). Pardon my suspicions - the pro-abortion types don't seem to address that choosing started long before the pregnancies, and Planned Parenthood makes a lot of money performing abortions.
But even abortion were free and available within 5 minutes, they're missing the point. It's all about having the kids to qualify for benefits.
And the only thing that will stop that is reducing or ending the benefits.
I'm sure Margaret Sanger, exalted saint of Planned Parenthood, would agree.
If that man had never been born, does anyone really think none of this would have happened? But for him, these women would have been virgins?
Is a 29 year old with a minimum wage job so devastatingly attractive to those women that they were simply incapable of resisting? Even though all the women allegedly knew about his large family?
Or was he just a bottom feeder who'd hook up with any loser who wanted her ticket to the govt gravy train?
Gravy train? It's true that many of us wouldn't want to live on govt programs. But I went to school in small towns, and in small towns everybody knows of everybody. Including the trash. I wound up knowing plenty of people that were very pleased to live in ways I wouldn't have chosen. If it takes popping a kid to get benefits they wouldn't have otherwise, then come and get it!
Raising kids is cheap if they're just a means to an end. Just take care of them well enough to keep off the radar of govt family services types, who are probably too busy to investigate much anyway, and it's years of freebies!
Cynical? No, just experienced. I've seen it more times than I care to recall - I can only imagine what social workers see. We can't project our own aspirations on others.
More from the last paragraph: "In the end, the children and the taxpayers of Tennessee will pay for their choices for years to come."
Perhaps the word "choice" wasn't a code word (as in "why didn't the mothers kill them? - we must not have enough abortionists!"). Pardon my suspicions - the pro-abortion types don't seem to address that choosing started long before the pregnancies, and Planned Parenthood makes a lot of money performing abortions.
But even abortion were free and available within 5 minutes, they're missing the point. It's all about having the kids to qualify for benefits.
And the only thing that will stop that is reducing or ending the benefits.
I'm sure Margaret Sanger, exalted saint of Planned Parenthood, would agree.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Remedial education
Cue "I Will Survive" - Contessa Brewer has been called "slutty" in public and lived to tell. Which apparently explains her incredulity at anyone, such as Sarah Palin, objecting to such a characterization. It's just comedy!
Maybe that's not an issue on the left. But I don't recall anyone on the left calling Bill Clinton or Nina Burleigh slutty. At least if they'd called Clinton slutty they could say they weren't being sexist. (and if he doesn't merit this, what does it take?)
I know nothing of Contessa Brewer's conduct, and I'm only quoting her from a video above. But somehow it wouldn't bother me a bit if Googling "slutty" showed Contessa Brewer at the top of the list.
Maybe that's not an issue on the left. But I don't recall anyone on the left calling Bill Clinton or Nina Burleigh slutty. At least if they'd called Clinton slutty they could say they weren't being sexist. (and if he doesn't merit this, what does it take?)
I know nothing of Contessa Brewer's conduct, and I'm only quoting her from a video above. But somehow it wouldn't bother me a bit if Googling "slutty" showed Contessa Brewer at the top of the list.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Andrew Sullivan must really miss all those fact checkers from his days as a journalist. The latest folly is from his claims that Winston Churchill didn't condone torture. Here is one site calling BS: there are many more.
But it gets better. Our Churchill also gassed Kurds with mustard gas.
Maybe next we'll hear that gassing isn't torture. Maybe if it kills people fast enough...
But no:
Too bad Barack Obama bought Sullivan's nonsense. And now, having sold the CIA down the river, he might have to pay a price for that.
But it gets better. Our Churchill also gassed Kurds with mustard gas.
Maybe next we'll hear that gassing isn't torture. Maybe if it kills people fast enough...
But no:
Too bad Barack Obama bought Sullivan's nonsense. And now, having sold the CIA down the river, he might have to pay a price for that.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Coming soon to a health provider near you
Setting: doctor's office.
Receptionist: Sorry sir, you have no health insurance.
Patient: What do you mean? Barack Obama socialized medicine, we're all covered now.
Receptionist: Yes, but you didn't make your health insurance payments.
Patient: What payments? It's free!
Receptionist: My records show that you haven't made donations to the Democrats.
Far fetched? I sure hope so. But to suggest that govt controlled health care won't be influenced by politics is impossibly naive.
Hey, I'm not dogmatic. But I think that people who would give the govt more responsibilities would do well should insist that we get rid of the existing corruption and improve the performance of existing functions first. Is there something partisan about that?
Receptionist: Sorry sir, you have no health insurance.
Patient: What do you mean? Barack Obama socialized medicine, we're all covered now.
Receptionist: Yes, but you didn't make your health insurance payments.
Patient: What payments? It's free!
Receptionist: My records show that you haven't made donations to the Democrats.
Far fetched? I sure hope so. But to suggest that govt controlled health care won't be influenced by politics is impossibly naive.
Hey, I'm not dogmatic. But I think that people who would give the govt more responsibilities would do well should insist that we get rid of the existing corruption and improve the performance of existing functions first. Is there something partisan about that?
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