You Gotta Marvel At These Women
I'm talking about the ones who get pregnant, give birth, and quick-quick don their track shoes, and dash across Manhattan back to the office. (And no, in case you haven't figured it out, I don't mean "marvel" in a good way.)
Yesterday, I got an e-mail from an angry mommy who'd heard me on Bloomberg, on Kathleen Hays' "The Hays Advantage," criticizing parents who take advantage of single co-workers by hightailing it out early to pick up their kids, leaving their single co-workers to finish their work.
They weren't the only ones I criticized. I also laid into bosses who expect their workers to be BlackBerry-able and responsive after working hours. That's stealing -- unless that's the deal of your job, or you're getting paid double-time. And no, I don't approve of stealing the other way around, where people think it's no big deal to nick office supplies from "The Man."
Here's Irate Mommy's first e-mail:
I find your assumptions about people in the workforce with children rude.I for one have spent the first year and a half of my sons life working longer and harder then I can remember..
Meanwhile, I have seen many of my co-workers, who don't have children, run out in the middle of the day for a random doctors appointment, or trip to Bloomingdale's.
I grew up with a good work ethic, and that does not go away now that I have a child.And, there are those who say people with children work harder, because they are more concerned then ever before about
making a living.
I say this in the midst of a busy 10 hour day.. a day in which my single co-worker will be slipping out after 7.5 hours.
You are perpetrating a false perception, and that hurts people like me, working hard to give their family the best she can.
She doesn't say her single co-worker is leaving her work for others. Maybe she's just efficient. If she isn't pulling her weight, chances are she'll be fired. Maybe things have changed in this Obamaconomy, but I suspect employers are less likely to give a parent who slips out early the heave.
Here's the first of my responses to her increasingly snotty e-mails:
It's been my experience that people with children often leave early and leave a great deal of work to their coworkers. Not all, but many.Why is it "rude" to state my experience? What it apparently is is an emotional issue for you.
You might be somebody who stays late despite having children. This doesn't mean many people with children do not take advantage of their coworkers. Just because you don't do this, according to your report, doesn't make it a "false perception."
I find that applying reason rather than responding from knee-jerk emotion and taking things personally helps in situations like this. Best,-Amy
In a P.S. to this e-mail, I asked who was caring for her children when she works 10-hour days, a stay-at-home dad? A nanny?
No answer -- about that alone, but a snide reply with bits like "Sorry you have had such crappy coworkers" and "Perhaps you should expand your circle."
I asked again, who's minding the children:
Again, you didn't respond to my question about who cares for your children when you work 10-hour days. A stay-at-home dad? A nanny?According to you, you don't shove your work off on coworkers. Let's just hope it doesn't mean your children are running a meth lab out of your basement while you're finishing up that 10-hour day.
Curious, I went to Uncle Google.
Well, well, well. As of 5/12/2008, in an online review, this New York City mom listed a 1-year-old son -- who she mentioned in her first e-mail (working longer and harder in the first year and a half of his life). Now, maybe she's widowed and doing the best she can or her husband does stay home with the baby.
Apparently, it's a secret for some reason -- while she rails on at length about the greatitude of parents and how rude I am for suggesting (gasp!) that some slack off and let the office singletons pick up their workload.
When she saw I wasn't going to let that question go unanswered, she send one last e-mail ("end of conversation") and blocked my e-mail (she's also on AOL). Nice try, cupcake. I forwarded the e-mail to my personal address and sent it to her.
Subject: Alkon: a stay-at-home daddy or you neglect baby while bragging about not abusing coworkers?
The e-mail:
So, there's a stay-at-home daddy and you leave the baby -- maybe 2 now, according to google -- with his stay-at-home daddy? If there is no stay-at-home daddy or devoted granny, should you really be congratulating yourself for, apparently, neglecting your child instead of your coworkers?No response still, and I'm guessing she won't answer my next question, either, so I'll just ask it here: "Hey, Lady -- did you take time out to deliver the baby in a hospital or did you just squat and drop him on 47th Street before dashing back to the office?"
Hint for any other mommies who want to play the nines with me: If you are neglecting your children and using it as a selling point for your character, you're doing it with the wrong girl.
Teaching The Soldiers About Islam At Fort Hood
Via a piece by Andy McCarthy at NRO, they've picked as their "all about Islam" teacher Syrian-born author Louay Jafi, from ISNA, a group cited by the Justice Department as an unindicted co-conspirator in the terrorism financing conspiracy. He's a prominent figure in the group writes Rowan Scarborough at Human Events, in a piece titled "FBI Partners With Terrorist Groups":
Safi is a Syrian-born author who advocates Muslim American rights through his directorship of ISNA's Leadership Development Center. He advocates direct talks between Washington and Iran's leaders. He has spoken out against various law enforcement raids on Islamic centers.In a 2003 publication, "Peace and the Limits of War," Safi wrote, "The war against the apostates [non-believers of Islam] is carried out not to force them to accept Islam, but to enforce the Islamic law and maintain order."
He also wrote, "It is up to the Muslim leadership to assess the situation and weigh the circumstances as well as the capacity of the Muslim community before deciding the appropriate type of jihad. At one stage, Muslims may find that jihad, through persuasion or peaceful resistance, is the best and most effective method to achieve just peace." [ACM: Implicitly, this concedes there is a time for violent jihad, too.]
At ISNA's annual convention in Washington in July, one speaker, Imam Warith Deen Umar, criticized Obama for having two Jewish people -- Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod -- in the White House. "Why do this small number of people have control of the world?" he said, according to a IPT transcript. He said the Holocast was punishment for Jews "because they were serially disobedient to Allah."
[Steven] Emerson's group [the Investigative Project on Terrorism] collected literature at the convention approved for distribution by ISNA. It said the pamphlets and books featured "numerous attempts to portray U.S. prosecution of terrorists and terror supporters as anti-Muslim bigotry; dramatic revisionist history that denied attacks by Arab nations and Palestinian terrorists against Israel; anti-Semitic tracts and hyperbolic rants about a genocide and holocaust of Palestinians."
Asked if the FBI should sever ties with ISNA, Emerson said, "ISNA is an unindicted co-conspirator. It's a Muslim Brotherhood group. I think in terms of legitimacy there should be certain expectations of what the group says publicly. If it continues to espouse jihad and anti-Semitism, I think it nullifies it right to have the FBI recognize it."
Here's a little something from a Muslim Brotherhood memo Scarborough quotes from:
"Understanding the role of the Muslim Brother in North America: The process of settlement is a "Civilization-Jihadist Process" with all the word means. The Ikhwan [Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions."
Thanks, Suki!
Oh, The Strain Of It All
I'm feeling rather irritated about having to write this back to an adult woman who e-mailed me for advice:
Note: Please respond COMPREHENSIVELY, and take that extra millisecond to use actual punctuation marks and hit that shift key at the beginning of each sentence. You're getting free advice. Maybe make a little effort? Yes, this means you'll need to capitalize that "i." I'm not your 10-year-old, Hello Kitty-wearing friend.
Gregg got me an iPhone and put me on his plan for two years (very sweet!), and it's a really good deal, this family plan thing. I think it costs close to what I was paying for my phone alone. (Then again, it's not like I'm sitting in public places, yammering on my cell.) If you have somebody in your life you really, really trust never to do dastardly things to you, you might consider bill-sharing.
Rather amusingly, when I was shutting off my old phone and going on Gregg's plan, the woman at ATT had to ask me a whole line of questions. I told her not to bother, that whatever Gregg would do was fine with me; he always has my best interest at heart. She said, no, she had to ask me every question. Yeah, whatever -- I get it. People write to me every day about the sort of partners your company has to legally protect itself from.
And yes, there really was a point when I started writing this blog item. Oh yeah -- Gregg text each other a lot now. It's really fun and romantic and convenient. I sometimes just text to say I've arrived safely, and he kept giving me updates about his plane, and then the next plane they put him on after his first plane just sat there like a big egg on the tarmac in Detroit.
About texting, what I don't do is let myself get sloppy -- spell words wrong and go punctuation-free -- because I don't want it to affect my writing. And if I ever write an e-mail like the one this chick wrote me -- well, somebody take my computers away for a year and give me a stack of legal pads and a quill pen.
Pre-Flight Whole Body Imaging: Privacy Advocates Change Their Tune
A blog item from skatingonstilts about privacy advocates running "for cover now that the cost of their campaigns is clear."
Meanwhile, next thing you know, the terrorists will be swallowing their bomb-making materials like drug mules, and pooping them out (just be sure do it before that final hour on the plane, Achmed!)
So...what's the answer...you have to undergo exploratory surgery to board your flight? And, oh yeah, no more than three ounces of hand lotion in your carry-on!
via Walter Olson
I Hear Rude People
Another smart show. Bloomberg Radio's Kathleen Hays' interview with me will air on Wednesday, December 30, at 10 am PST/1 pm EST.
Listen through Sirius/XM Satellite radio (channels 130 and 129, respectively) or on Bloomberg.com. On the right side of the page, click the green link that says "live radio."
The Pantybomber: The Photos
His panties rather look like the granny panties worn by a 12-year-old girl -- except for the fact that they're a sort of dirty beige instead of pink and flowery. From ABC.com, from a piece by Richard Esposito and Brian Ross. Here.
I was going to have, as Gregg called it, my "art department," make me a Hello Kitty version of the Pantybomber's explosive undies, but Gregg's in Detroit on his laptop and working hard, so use your imagination.
Intro To "The Religion Of Peace"
While there are the Muslim version of Christmas Christians (people who call themselves Muslim but really haven't cracked the Quran), anyone who's read more than 10 pages about Islam knows it's anything but a "religion of peace" -- in keeping with the dictates and behavior of its violent, murderous pedophile "prophet" Mohammed.
Hitchens, on Slate, lays out what we can expect in the coming decades, and probably throughout our lives:
What nobody in authority thinks us grown-up enough to be told is this: We had better get used to being the civilians who are under a relentless and planned assault from the pledged supporters of a wicked theocratic ideology. These people will kill themselves to attack hotels, weddings, buses, subways, cinemas, and trains. They consider Jews, Christians, Hindus, women, homosexuals, and dissident Muslims (to give only the main instances) to be divinely mandated slaughter victims. Our civil aviation is only the most psychologically frightening symbol of a plethora of potential targets. The future murderers will generally not be from refugee camps or slums (though they are being indoctrinated every day in our prisons); they will frequently be from educated backgrounds, and they will often not be from overseas at all. They are already in our suburbs and even in our military. We can expect to take casualties. The battle will go on for the rest of our lives. Those who plan our destruction know what they want, and they are prepared to kill and die for it. Those who don't get the point prefer to whine about "endless war," accidentally speaking the truth about something of which the attempted Christmas bombing over Michigan was only a foretaste. While we fumble with bureaucracy and euphemism, they are flying high.
Why Do They Hate Us?
(From their two million British-pound penthouses?...or maybe four million...saw that figure today.) Victor David Hanson writes on NRO:
For the last eight years, many have patiently tried to suggest that the answer to "Why do they hate us?" does not entail poverty, Western imperialism or colonialism, support for Israel, past provocations, etc. Rather, radical Islam encourages in an Hasan or Mutallab age-old passions like pride, envy, and a sense of inferiority -- all accelerated by instantaneous communications and abetted by continual Western apologetics that on a global level blame Westerners for self-induced misery in many Islamic countries. "They did it" is far easier than looking inward to address tribalism, gender apartheid, statism, autocracy, religious intolerance, and fundamentalism, which in perfect-storm fashion ensure an impoverished -- and resentful and angry -- radical Islamic community while the rest of the world moves merrily on.
One Very Smart Lady
Great human being, too. I'm talking about Dr. Margaret Cochran, who just had me on her radio show -- a super-smart hour that you can listen to here. There's a preamble first, then she talks to me a couple minutes in, for almost an hour. Total pleasure. While I'm eager to promote my book, being on a really smart show like this is life-candy for me.
By the way, a guy who owns a station I was on recently is planning to sell me as a syndicated radio host -- it would be a dream. Working on it!
Oh yeah, and thanks to coming down with not exactly the swine flu, but maybe the goat version, I still sound a bit like Brenda Vaccaro on a bender, but my voice is coming back.
"The System Worked," Said Napolitano
Absurd. Yet, I just heard Homeland Security secretary say those words on CNN.
So, we get felt up at the airport and get our hand lotion taken away so passengers can tackle The Pantybomber before his underwear goes off?
And now the dumbass new airline "security" rules: During the last hour of an international flight, no standing on the aircraft, no blankets or personal items in lap, no touching of carry-on bags, and no restroom visit without an escort.
Of course, not one of these measures would have stopped The Pantybomber.
Memo to terrorists: Fiddle in the restroom with your explosive panties well ahead of landing. Or, if you're running late, tell a flight attendant you simply must go potty, and she'll escort you to the restroom so you can put your explosive device together.
Here's Napolitano flapping her lips in response to ABC's Jake Tapper's tough questions.
She told Tapper the guy was on a "TIDE" list, saying his name had come up somewhere, but no biggie, no trouble for him to get on the plane apparently sans passport...while some guy named something like Johnson, born and raised and attending church regularly somewhere like Ohio, gets asscracked by the TSA every time he flies for being on the watchlist.
But, wait, let's get a little more specific on who we are targeting: the late Ted Kennedy (who did leave Mary-Jo Kopechne to die, but didn't go around wiring explosives into his shoes, clothes, or underpants), and an 80-year-old WWII combat veteran named Fred Hubbell. From a reason article by Jacob Sullum:
On August 2, 2002, a screener at Hartford's Bradley International Airport poked through the wallet of Fred Hubbell, an 80-year-old World War II combat veteran who had already undergone two full searches in that airport that morning. "What do you expect to find in there, a rifle?" the exasperated Hubbell asked. He was then arrested for "causing a public disturbance" and fined $78. Dana Cosgrove, the TSA airport security chief, later justified the arrest on the grounds that "all that the people around him in the waiting room heard was the word rifle."
But, hey, what's really important?
"Once this incident occurred, everything went like clockwork," Nappy told Tapper. "Once the incident occurred, the system worked."
As my Minnesota-born friend and lawyer, Melissa, likes to say: "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining." Does Napolitano think we are *that* dumb?
Let's translate Nappy's words. Yes, "the system worked" -- just like it did on 9/11, before there was much of a "system." They were able to identify Mohammed Atta as a terrorist after he and his co-mass murdering Muslims brought down the World Trade Center with 3,000 innocent mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, boyfriends, girlfriends, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and neighbors in it.
What we have now is merely, in security expert Bruce Schneier's words, security theater -- the perception of safety through all these antics instead of actual safety. There's El Al-level security and there's El Not Even Required To Have A High School Diploma security, the lack of requirements to get a job with the TSA.
Feeling safer yet?
Flying Dumb
Kyle Smith writes in the New York Post about the latest bit of nonthink from the Obama administration, the seemingly random fine to airlines of $27,500 per passenger (or $3.3 million for a plane of $120 passengers) if they keep passengers grounded in their planes for more than three hours:
The normal American process of making a law -- Congress, and all that -- was already under way. West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller was shepherding a bill with similar aims -- but that bill would have faced discussion, and a vote. It's much simpler to just issue a fiat, one that's more draconian than what Rockefeller had in mind. So President Obama brought his sabre down on the airlines.Or did he? Consider all the ways the new policy is a typical Obama administration bungle.
Us-and-them-ism. Airlines are our enemies -- big, evil corporations, right? (Never mind the millions of ordinary Americans who hold stock in them. They're just miserable, selfish capitalists). And frustrated individual passengers are the little guy. Yay, little guy! But how are the airlines supposed to make up the lost revenue from paying these fines? By passing them on to the customer, of course. But don't worry. If airlines are ever placed in financial peril by these fines, you the taxpayer can simply bail them out.
Smite the mosquito with the bazooka-ism. A $27,500 fine per passenger? It would be far cheaper to simply make the flight free for everyone. In which case passengers would burst into cheers at the three-hour mark, like game show contestants.
All Roads Lead to Washingtonism. Does it occur to any administration official that some problems simply can't be solved, at least not right away, and certainly not by decree? If the East Coast gets walloped with a major snowstorm during the Christmas rush, there are going to be serious delays. There is nothing Washington can do about this in the short run. In the long run, maybe more runways and airports could be built, but it's not like LaGuardia is surrounded by empty farmland just waiting to be blessed with an airport expansion.
Did anyone think this through?-ism. Since there isn't anything a pilot can do about bad weather or air-traffic control, the fines won't do anything to reduce delays. Here's what they will do, though: Increase delays. Imagine you're on a plane that's been stuck but is finally fifth in line for takeoff. Oops, the clock says you've been waiting for two hours and fifty minutes. The pilot is forced to taxi back to the gate and dump you -- because he can't risk passing the three-hour mark when airlines have this funny habit of telling their pilots not to rack up too many $3 million fines.
Thanks, kishke!
The Courage Appears To Be The Liquid Variety
Who elected Montana Dem Max Baucus and who plans to re-elect him?
Bacon, Updated
"Good Calories, Bad Calories" author Gary Taubes, who, like Dr. Michael Eades, is very generous with his time in helping people understand the actual evidence-based dietary science (contrasting the "science"-based way most people eat), responded via e-mail about Patrick's experience going low-carb. Taubes' response is on the bottom of this updated blog item.
Cheaper By The After-Christmas Dozen
Home & Garden Markdowns At Amazon
Lucy In Repose
After a long, hard day waiting for me to drop a small piece of food on the floor.
Right Idea, Wrong Fucking Response
Ivana Trump got thrown off a plane after somebody's (or somebodies') brats were running up and down the aisles screaming and she called them "little fuckers" and told other passengers (probably those who told her off) "fuck you." Joe Kemp writes for the NY Daily News:
Trump, 60, became even more belligerent when flight attendants on the New York-bound plane tried to calm her from yelling at the children, officials said."She was so belligerent toward other passengers and crew that the plane returned to the terminal," said Teri Barbera, the PBSO spokeswoman.
Sheriff's deputies asked the socialite and designer to voluntarily exit the plane, but she refused and was escorted off.
Oh, and yes, according to the Sun-Sentinel, she was seated in first class at the time. Apparently, these underparented curs were given the run of the plane.
As I write in my book, I SEE RUDE PEOPLE, the moment you pull out out the "F" word in a public confrontation, you're, well, fucked. But, as I wrote in my recent LA Times op-ed on screaming children on planes, she wasn't wrong in concept -- to expect parents to, you know, actually parent their crotch fruit.
Meet The Pantybomber
Hours after my boyfriend flew into Detroit Metro on a Delta/Northwest flight, Muslim terrorist Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up his own DTW-bound Northwest flight. Andrew Johnson and Emily Dugan profile the poor, disenfranchised fellow in the Independent:
With his wealth, privilege and education at one of Britain's leading universities, Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab had the world at his feet - able to choose from a range of futures in which to make his mark on the world.Instead, the son of one of Nigeria's most important figures opted to make his impact in a very different way, by strapping explosives to his leg - or even possibly implanting them in his thigh - and attempting to blow up a passenger jet as it came in to land over Detroit airport on Christmas Day. The high explosive was identified last night by the FBI as Pentaerythritol (PETN - a major component of Semtex).
Also last night, as he was charged by US authorities with trying to blow up an airliner, a surprising picture emerged of the would-be bomber. Abdulmutallab, 23, had lived a gilded life, and, for the three years he studied in London, he stayed in a £2m flat. He was from a very different background to many of the other al-Qa'ida recruits who opt for martyrdom.
His father, Umaru, is the former economics minister of Nigeria. He retired earlier this month as the chairman of the First Bank of Nigeria but is still on the boards of several of Nigeria's biggest firms, including Jaiz International, a holding company for the Islamic Bank. The 70-year-old, who was also educated in London, holds the Commander of the Order of the Niger as well as the Italian Order of Merit.
Dr Mutallab said he was planning to meet with police in Nigeria last night after realising his son had joined the notorious roster of al-Qa'ida terrorists, and is said to have warned the US authorities about his son's extreme views six months ago.
I'll say it yet again: His views, that the dirty infidels must be murdered for Allah, are not extreme at all for a Quran-faithful Muslim. They are utterly in keeping with the dictates of the Quran, which are meant to be taken literally; for example, the Verse of the Sword, commanding Muslims to convert or kill the infidel.
As for tightening security on people like the 70-something nun who got felt up in her habit a while back at Detroit Metro, how about putting the security energy on stopping known threats like this guy? The Independent piece continues:
An official briefing on the attack said the US had known for at least two years that the suspect could have terrorist ties. Abdulmutallab has been on a list that included people with known or suspected contacts or ties to a terrorist or terrorist organisation. The list is maintained by the US National Counterterrorism Center and includes about 550,000 names....Police know that the KLM ticket that Abdulmutallab travelled on was purchased on 16 December, with cash, in Nigeria. The departure airport was changed from Accra to Lagos a short while afterwards. When he took his window seat, number 19A, he had only one piece of hand luggage and none in the hold - unusual for someone who was allegedly planning a two-week stay in Detroit.
El Al would have been all over him -- before the flight. Get this, though, from Hot Air, from a passenger report:
Kurt Haskell of Newport, Mich., who posted an earlier comment about his experience, talked exclusively with MLive.com and confirmed he was on the flight by sending a picture of his boarding pass. He and his wife, Lori, were returning from a safari in Uganda when they boarded the NWA flight on Friday.Haskell said he and his wife were sitting on the ground near their boarding gate in Amsterdam, which is when they saw Mutallab approach the gate with an unidentified man.
Kurt and Lori Haskell are attorneys with Haskell Law Firm in Taylor. Their expertise includes bankruptcy, family law and estate planning.
While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. "The guy said, 'He's from Sudan and we do this all the time.'"
Mutallab is Nigerian. Haskell believes the man may have been trying to garner sympathy for Mutallab's lack of documents by portraying him as a Sudanese refugee.
The ticket agent referred Mutallab and his companion to her manager down the hall, and Haskell didn't see Mutallab again until after he allegedly tried to detonate an explosive on the plane.
Clearly, in TSA-think, the way to remedy this is not to do better on catching the obvious terrorists; it's to make Granny Johnson diaper up before getting on a plane, because she'll no longer be able to get up in the final hour of flight to use the restroom. Or keep a personal item in her lap. Or bring more than one carry-on. And never mind that all of these new measures would have done zippo to stop this particular member of the "religion of peace," had his explosive underpanties been wired by people a little less incompetent.
UPDATE - Just tweeted this:
@amyalkon Let's ridicule those who'd mass-murder 4 Allah. Spread my term 4 Detroit plane terrorist "The Pantybomber" #pantybomber http://bit.ly/51eXQS
Independent via Jay J. Hector
Steyn On What's To Come
Here's what our slimey elected officials have us in for -- by Mark Steyn, on health care "reform":
Whatever one's philosophical objection to the Canadian health system, it is, broadly, fair: Unless you're a cabinet minister or a bigtime hockey player, you'll enjoy the same equality of crappiness and universal lack of access that everybody else does. But, even before it's up-and-running, Pelosi-Reid-Obamacare is an impenetrable thicket of contradictory boondoggles, shameless payoffs, and arbitrary shakedowns.That's why Nebraska's grotesque zombie senator Ben Nelson is the perfect poster boy for the new arrangements, and not just another so-called Blue Dog Democrat spayed into compliance by a massive cash injection. There is no reason on earth why Nebraska should be the only state in this Union to have every dime of its increased Medicare tab picked up by the 49 others. So either that privilege will be extended to all, or to favored others, or its asymmetry will be balanced by other precisely targeted lollipops hither and yon. Whatever happens, it's a dagger at the heart of American federalism, just as the bill's magisterial proclamation that the Independent Medicare Advisory Board can only be abolished by a two-thirds vote of the Senate strikes at one of the most basic principles of a free society -- that no parliament can bind its successors.
These details are obnoxious not merely in and of themselves but because they tell us the truth about where we're headed: Think of the way almost every Big Government project bursts its bodice and winds up bigger and more bloated than its creators allegedly foresaw. In this instance, the stays come pre-loosened, and studded with loopholes. Because the Democrat operators -- the Nancy Pelosis and Barney Franks -- know that what matters is to get something, anything across the river, and then burn the bridge behind you.
My Republican friends often seem to miss the point in this debate: The so-called "public option" is not Page 3,079, Section (f), Clause VII. The entire bill is a public option -- because that's where it leads, remorselessly. The so-called "death panel" is not Page 2,721, Paragraph 19, Sub-section (d), but again the entire bill -- because it inserts the power of the state between you and your doctor, and in effect assumes jurisdiction over your body. As the savvier Dems have always known, once you've crossed the Rubicon, you can endlessly re-reform your health reform until the end of time, and all the stuff you didn't get this go-round will fall into place, and very quickly.
Here, a bright spot -- a piece in the WSJ by Randy Barnett, Nathaniel Stewart, and Todd F. Gaziano on why the personal mandate to buy health insurance is unprecedented and unconstitutional. An excerpt:
A mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of federal action. The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States. An individual mandate would have two features that, in combination, would make it unique. First, it would impose a duty on individuals as members of society. Second, it would require people to purchase a specific service that would be heavily regulated by the federal government.[1]This statement from a 1994 Congressional Budget Office Memorandum remains true today. Yet, all of the leading House and Senate health-care reform bills being debated in Congress require Americans to either secure or purchase health insurance with a particular threshold of coverage, estimated by CBO to cost up to $15,000 per year for a typical family.[2] This personal mandate to enter into a contract with a private health insurance company is enforced through civil and criminal tax penalties in section 501 of the House bill[3] and with a freestanding mandate and equally questionable civil tax penalties in sections 501 and 513 of the pending Senate bill.[4]
The purpose of this compulsory contract, coupled with the arbitrary price ratios and controls, is to require many people to buy artificially high-priced policies to subsidize coverage for others as well as an industry saddled with other government costs and regulations.
...This "personal responsibility" provision of the legislation, more accurately known as the "individual mandate" because it commands all individuals to enter into a contractual relationship with a private insurance company, takes congressional power and control to a striking new level. Its defenders have struggled to justify the mandate by analogizing it to existing federal laws and court decisions, but their efforts do not withstand serious scrutiny. An individual mandate to enter into a contract with or buy a particular product from a private party, with tax penalties to enforce it, is unprecedented-- not just in scope but in kind--and unconstitutional as a matter of first principles and under any reasonable reading of judicial precedents.
TSA Truth Or Rumor?
Henry Blodget tweeted this, based on the experience, hours ago, of an international traveler:
@hblodget New Plane Security Rules: No Electronics, No Getting Up Last Hour, 1 Bag http://bit.ly/5JHony
I left a copy of Blodget's tweet, along with this comment on the TSA's blog (on some cutesy-wootsy happy holidays posting):
Is this true? So...electronics are stolen from bags, but we're going to have to put our phones and laptops in our luggage? And spend hours and hours in the airport (thanks to TSA regulations) and then get on a plane for hours and hours and not be able to do any work?Well, actually, the truth is, we can thank "the religion of peace."
An excerpt from the TSA's blog post, which practically made me physically ill, especially in light of my boyfriend's Delta/Northwest flight into Detroit Metro just hours before:
T'was the night before travel and all through the suitcase, Not an item was stirring not even the toothpaste.The stockings were packed in the bag with great care,
With hopes that they soon would be in the air.
...And fervent wishes that they would not be blown up by Muslim barbarians before they land.
UPDATE - Blodget tweeted:
@hblodget Those new flight restrictions appear to be only on international flights into US, thank goodness http://bit.ly/64W3un (but still...)
The Scariest Blog Post I've Ever Seen
Andrew M. Garland, who comments here most insightfully on economic issues, always shoving the financial and political smoke and mirrors out of the way in a paragraph or two, blogs here, at easyopinions, about the reality of Medicare:
I agree with Don Surber that "Democrats need the trillion-dollar [taxation and spending of] Obamacare to mask the truth that Medicare is a failure."The rush for "healthcare reform" is driven by the fact that Medicare and Medicaid are broke. Democratic politicians are trying to scurry for political cover to avoid blame. They have promised benefits for 30 years that they can't deliver to the current population of baby-boom retirees.
An excerpt from the Medicare Fact List he posted:
Turner and Antos [edited]:•Medicare is going bankrupt, with unfunded promises of $38 trillion (38,000 billion).
•Private payers are subsidizing Medicare. The average family in a private plan pays $1,788 a year to compensate for Medicare/Medicaid underpayments. This is a hidden tax of $89 billion per year on the insured.
•Expansion of entitlement programs threatens our economic security.
•Low administrative costs are a myth. Medicare's administrative expenses would be twice as high if costs for revenue collection, personnel, and enforcement were properly included. Plus, private insurers provide many services that Medicare does not.
•The Medicare model is obsolete, frozen in bureaucratic rules set in 1965.
•Many physicians do not accept new Medicare patients because payment rates are so low. Medicare almost always imposes price-controls to lower costs, rather than promoting innovation and efficiency.
•Medical decisions are made in Washington. Medicare has cut funding for the cancer drug EPO, implantable cardiac defibrillators, and virtual colonoscopies. Providers battle with politicians, while patients and doctors can only watch from the sidelines.
•Medicare does guarantee health coverage, even if not as good as advertised. But, it will not be able to pay all the hospital bills that will come due in eight years.
He writes that by 2020, the combined deficits from Social Security, Medicare, and the prescription drug benefit will consume more than a quarter of all federal income taxes. And by the time college students of today reach retirement age in 2050, the combined deficits, "just to pay benefits currently promised," will consume more than three-quarters of all federal income taxes.
Go read his whole post. This is chilling, and I can't see how our country can survive under the weight of what the idiot Democrats are doing to it to pander to their voters and to provide themselves with cover for their already-broken entitlement programs.
And no, as a fiscal conservative and somebody who can rub two and two together and make four, I'm not a fan of the Republicans, either; I just find them less profligate than the absolutely ridiculously profligate Democrats, who don't understand that there aren't enough rich people to steal from to pay for this government-mismanaged crap.
Hilariously Not Funny
Andrew M. Garland linked to a Hugh Hewitt column in the Washington Examiner, 10 August Recess Questions For Your Congressman, and this was one of the comments below:
jpintx
Aug 3, 2009
I keep thinking of the "Maxine" joke I saw somewhere, like many good jokes it is based on a real situation. Remember when the feds took over the Mustang Ranch (a legal Nevada cathouse) for non payment of taxes? As required by law, they tried running it as an ongoing business in order to recover the taxes due. They ran it at a loss for a while and closed down. "Now, says Maxine, if they can't make money operating slot machines, selling whiskey and running whores, what on earth makes you think they can succeed at running anything."
Into The West And Against The West
The Muslim terrorist who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest flight was first described as a "Nigerian national," but there's this in a Michael Leahy/Spencer S. Hsu story in this morning's WaPo:
The suspect is Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, a federal official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. ABC News and NBC News reported that Abdulmutallab, 23, attends University College London, where he studies engineering.Although not on the TSA's "no-fly" list, Abdulmutallab's name appears to be included in the government's records of terrorism suspects, according to a preliminary review, authorities said.
Abdulmutallab has told federal investigators that he had ties to al-Qaeda and traveled to Yemen to collect the incendiary device and instructions on how to use it, according to a federal counterterrorism official briefed on the case. Authorities have yet to verify the claim, and they expect to conduct several more interviews before they determine whether he is credible, the official said.
Federal authorities have been told that Abdulmutallab allegedly had taped some material to his leg, then used a syringe to mix chemicals with the powder while on the airplane, one official said.
But doing so "caused him to catch on fire," Richelle Keepman, who sat a few rows in front of Abdulmutallab, told WDIV-TV.
Islam is rabidly anti-science, and what a good thing that is, because it seems to have meant that even an engineering student bungled his mass murder for Allah.
Remember, moderate Islam is Islam not practiced correctely -- not practiced according to the Quran, which is meant to be taken literally, and which orders Muslims to convert or kill the infidel (anybody who doesn't believe as Muslims do). Also, murderous pedophile Mohammed's actions are "sunnah" -- to be emulated -- from marrying a child of 6 and having sex with her at 9, to mass murder for his own gain. In other words, Abdulmutallab was just following his religion's orders.
And yes, take it from this atheist, who is no fan of the evidence-free belief in god, but who understands that one form of it is truly dangerous to our western freedoms and our lives. Think about it, as this Muslim terrorist was trying to mass-murder a plane of people, Christians were probably in church or soon on their way to church to hear pastors preach about peace, love, and goodwill toward men; about turning the other cheek; about giving to the poor.
Here, on the other hand, are words from a Muslim cleric, Abu Hamza al-Masri, who knows his Verse of the Sword. He preached in the UK that if Muslims don't have access to major chemical weaponry, they should use "mice poison" against the "kuffar" (that would be those of us who don't believe in Allah):
"We ask Muslims to . . . bleed the enemies of Allah anywhere by any means. You can't do it by nuclear weapon, you have to do it by kitchen knife, no other solution. You can't do it by chemical weapons, you have to do it by mice poison"
Fidelity Isn't Essential?
That may be true for some people, but not for many or most. Even Nena O'Neill, who co-authored the book Open Marriage (which really wasn't about having sex with the neighbors, but just mentioned that as an option for some) later told me in a phone call that she felt it didn't work for most people. I agree.
But some people can manage it, and books like Open Marriage
Recently, Angeline Jolie told Das Neue, a German women's magazine:
"I doubt that fidelity is absolutely essential for a relationship," and added, "It's worse to leave your partner and talk badly about him afterwards."
She also said:
"Neither Brad nor I have ever claimed that living together means to be chained together. We make sure that we never restrict each other."
I think that's a good idea -- not being a couple who does everything together, and who won't go to some event if both partners don't want to go. Since Gregg's idea of a great party is one that's cancelled, I often go alone if it's going to be one of those affairs where there's going to be a lot of journalist chitchat or if there's likely to be a surfeit of Hollyweasels (not that I tend to go to such parties).
I'm happiest if I know he's happy -- in his chair reading about Stalin or watching "Ice Road Truckers." We have lots of fun when we're together, but unless the person or people we're hanging out with are really interesting nerds, Gregg is home and I'm out being chatty.
Kidnapping With A Foreign Flair
This is the horrible and tragic story of a man and his son who were separated for years after the man's Brazilian-born wife was supposedly taking a two-week vacation with their son but kidnapped him instead. From The New York Times piece by Kirk Semple and Meri Galanternick about the five-year battle to bring home 9-year-old Sean Goldman from by his father, David Goldman, of New Jersey:
The father and son were reunited amid a media scrum at the gate of the United States Consulate in Rio de Janeiro. Sean's Brazilian relatives, who had fought against returning him to Mr. Goldman, had refused various offers by the consulate to provide a calmer, more private way of transferring him inside the consular compound, Ms. Apy said.Instead, Sean's Brazilian family chose to deliver him to the door of the compound on foot. About 8:30 a.m. (5:30 a.m. Eastern time), the boy, flanked by his Brazilian stepfather, grandmother and a family lawyer, waded through a throng of reporters, cameramen and bystanders outside the consulate. The boy clutched at his stepfather, João Paulo Lins e Silva.
Mr. Goldman's advisers and American officials criticized the Brazilian family's decision to allow the scene to unfold this way.
"We really wish that had not been done," said Orna Blum, a spokeswoman for the United States Embassy in Brazil.
In a phone interview Thursday morning, Ms. Apy said, "It was contrived, unnecessary and outrageous."
"They wanted an opportunity to create pictures to make it look like there was more trauma than there really was," she added.
The legal battle began in 2004 when Sean's mother, Bruna Bianchi, a native Brazilian who had married Mr. Goldman in 1999, took the boy to Brazil for what was supposed to be a two-week vacation. Soon after arriving, she called Mr. Goldman to say she wanted a divorce and would be remaining in Brazil with Sean.
Mr. Goldman, who now works as a charter fishing boat captain and real estate agent, spent the past five years fighting in American and Brazilian courts for Sean's return.
After Sean's mother died from complications during childbirth in August 2008, her new husband, Mr. Lins e Silva, a well-connected lawyer from a prominent family, insisted that Sean stay with him.
The case reached as high as Brazil's Supreme Court, where the chief judge this week ordered that Sean be returned to Mr. Goldman, upholding a ruling last week by a federal appellate court. A deadline of Thursday morning was set for the change in custody.
This woman should have immediately been punished as a kidnapper -- guilty of a felony -- which is what she was. These out-of-country parental alienations must become a crime, or they will continue.
In separating this child from his father, this woman was guilty of child abuse that will likely scar this kid forever. His dad, like so many dads in horrible situations thanks to laws and courts that tend to side with mothers, rose to the occasion like so many dads I hear from. Just tragic, horrible, and criminal, what he went through.
I'm a pretty tough girl, but I've cried many times reading e-mail from guys who just want to be a dad to their kids, but are dealing with vindictive and evil ex-spouses who use their children as pawns and are supported in that by the courts. Of course, it isn't just men this happens to -- more recently, it's been happening to women who've been serving in the military in Iraq or Afghanistan. No matter whether you were born into the vagina team or the penis team, you shouldn't have your child stolen from you with no penalty for the other partner who's done the kidnapping.
Beware Of The Passive-Aggressive Breakup
It's when one person feels it's over but doesn't want to be the one who breaks up with the other (for whatever reason -- sometimes guilt, sometimes just being a weenie), so they just act like a jerk in hopes of forcing their partner out.
My take: If you're big enough to have a relationship, you should be big enough to say "It's not working," and not try to miserable the other person into being on their way.
Government-Run Health Care Works So Well!
That's why Obama is chomping at the bit to force so much more of it on us. In The New York Times, Nicholas Confessore writes about how well Medicaid has been working in New York State:
New York's Medicaid system, the state's largest single expense, lost at least $92 million to improper payments, billing errors and poor recordkeeping during the last five years, according to several audits released Tuesday by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.In one instance, a Medicaid recipient in Poughkeepsie was provided with $300 round-trip daily taxi service to visit her child in a long-term care facility in Albany, which cost the state roughly $196,000 before the authorization was revoked.
One of the three audits revealed that the State Department of Health made at least $53 million in improper payments for nearly 26,000 people who had improperly been assigned two Medicaid identification numbers by local social service agencies, apparently in error. Another found that an incorrect reimbursement rate entered into the Health Department's claims system had resulted in $20.3 million in improper payments.
At least $1.2 million was paid out incorrectly for neonatal services or for transportation services not covered by Medicaid, according to Mr. DiNapoli.
Don't fix what's broken -- spread the brokenness around! (Because we have such a vast Federal budget surplus.)
Where's Daddy?
No mention of any such person in this tragic story of a woman with four children -- one of whom, a 3-year-old, wandered around her New York apartment building and up to the roof, and then fell to her death. Sarah Armaghan, Wil Cruz, and Corky Siemaszko write for the New York Daily News:
Kyrah's mom, 35-year-old Nefertiti Martin, who has three other children, moved into a top-floor apartment in the 21-unit building on Park Place just a few days ago, police said.Residents said Martin's kids often played in the stairwell.
"It's like a playground for them," said Donato Cabrera, 56.
At 12:45 p.m., Kyrah was caught on videotape climbing the stairs up "to the roof door," Kelly said.
"It shows the baby leaving the apartment by herself," he said. "The roof is alarmed. Baby opens the roof door and sets off the alarm."
Then Kyrah vanishes from view.
Kyrah's mom was apparently sleeping when the girl sneaked out and was not roused by the alarm. The first she learned that something was terribly wrong was when police knocked at her door, neighbors said.
"She looked sleepy," neighbor J.R. Sharpe said. "They just woke her up."
Turns out the girl's family had been homeless. According to the NYPost:
The girl and her family, clients of the Department of Homeless Services, recently moved into the building. The agency refers some clients there for temporary, emergency housing, though the privately-owned building also houses permanent tenants.
Where's Daddy, and why is nobody, in any of the papers asking that or commenting on that? Has single motherhood become that "normal" that we forget to see it as tragic and terrible? (It is terrible for the kids, who studies show do worse in life, across the board, when they do not live in an intact family with both of their birth or from-birth parents, in the case of adopted children.)
Hilarious Rude Person Of The Day
I had a medical appointment at Kaiser's lab, then I bopped over to my favorite Starbucks. I was looking at some cute felt bags they were selling and thinking some fond thoughts about Paris (the little card on the thing was partly in French, for sale in Canada), when a big loud woman in purple started shouting on her cell phone.
I'm tempted to say something biting in these situations, but that's not helpful (the goal is to get the cur to put a sock in it, not get snippy), so I moved into her eyeline, cracked as much of a smile as I could, and said, "Would you mind keeping it down?"
Well, yes, big loud woman did. Mind, that is, keeping it down. She did quiet down, but thought she'd dismiss me with the clever remark, "Now I need my privacy!"
Hint: This is why some of us restrict our loud, stressful phone conversations to the home.
Next rudewad: a woman shouting into her phone while waiting to order coffee. I could hear her loud and clear straight across the place.
Nice Starbucks employee at cash register: "What can I get for you?"
She interrupts her call to bark her order at the employee. (No, "Hi, hello, how are you," or any sort of acknowledgment that that's a human being behind the register.)
Sorry about that!" (she says to her caller about the interruption).
What can he (the nice Starbucks employee get for her)? Well, unfortunately, they don't sell manners, so I guess she'll have to make do with a latte.
Before I got to Starbucks, one of the nice lab ladies at Kaiser was telling me how much they hate the cell phone shouters, but they can't say anything or people will go upstairs and complain to management about them...so they just suck it up.
I guess it is one way to get faster service: Be such an objectionable boor they can't wait to get you out the door. I prefer a different strategy: Smile, say hello, and compliment people on their outfits, smile or hair. (I flirt with everyone -- man, woman, or dog.)
Don't Be Takin' His Bacon
I'm with the kid.
Lady is, like so many Americans, under the mistaken impression that bacon is bad for you. I eat it every day. Last time my blood pressure was checked (last week, when I went for a physical), it was 111 over 64. From eating bacon, eggs, sausage, cheese, hamburgers, chicken with the skin on it, and green vegetables swimming in butter. I eat dessert about once every week and a half, and have maybe two or three glasses of wine a week.
The dietary science that's based in evidence, not just passed-down hearsay, says sugar is what's really toxic, and carbohydrates, including starchy carbohydrates, are what causes the insulin reaction that puts on fat. Oh, and apple juice? In terms of the detriment to your health, you may as well drink a nice cold bottle of sugary Coke, the kind made with actual table sugar that they sell at Costco and some other places.
UPDATE: Gary Taubes e-mailed me:
Hey Amy, I was reading Mike Eades's blog which got me to your blog and the interaction with this guy Patrick who thinks I'm a buffoon. You know he's right that he doesn't need any diet studies to tell him what works for him. That is the beauty of dieting for weight loss. One thing I agree with him on 100 percent.On the other hand, his experience with Atkins is known in the business as the Atkins flu. He's got all the classic symptoms and it is (apparently) caused by sodium depletion. I forget the details of the science -- something about the sodium depletion causing potassium wasting which in turn interferes with nitrogen metabolism (and yes, I don't know what this means either) -- but it explains all the side-effects he experienced, the constipation, light-headedness, enervation, etc.
And it can (apparently) be handled completely by drinking two cups of not-low-sodium chicken broth a day. I say apparently because I never had it myself and no one, of course, has ever bothered to do a clinical trial to test it because, well, they don't test anything meaningful in this business.
Anyway, this is something Steve Phinney of U.C. Davis figured out. Phinney's been working with and studying these diets since the late 70s.
Mike Eades also figured it out independently and used to recommend to his patients that they eat a dill pickle everyday or drink the pickle juice. Eric Westman prescribes the broth with the Atkins diet at his clinic at Duke (having learned about it from Phinney) and swears by it.
The point being if you have Patrick's e-mail address, you might pass this on to him if he wants to try it again.
I'm assuming there's a reason why he was trying Atkins despite biking six miles a day to work, and if it was his weight, he might be willing to try again with the broth. Salting food excessively will also do it, but the broth also adds back the fluid that he's losing.
The new Atkins book (co-written by Westman, Phinney and Volek of U.Conn), which comes out in the spring, will discuss it and I'll mention it briefly in GCBC Lite.
Pray For Reason
I'm a big old atheist but I manage to appreciate when religious people say they're praying for me (silly behavior, since there's no evidence there's a god, yet very sweet). If somebody wishes me merry Christmas or tells me they'll be praying for me, I simply smile and say thank you. I get that their goal isn't tying me up, drugging me, and forcibly converting me to their religion, but being nice.
Somebody's a little slow to realize this in the UK, because a teacher got fired for offering to pray for a sick pupil during a home mentoring visit. Okay, kids are impressionable and all that, but if you're a parent who teaches your child to be rational, isn't the answer telling your kid why people believe in god and why it's irrational to do so? If the lady is a good math tutor, but a silly thinker about automotive transmissions, and you're having her tutor you in math, not car repair...can't you just let it be at "Thanks, we won't be having any of that religion stuff"?
Nigel Bunyon writes in the Telegraph:
Mrs Jones, of Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, said she lost her job shortly after making her sixth visit to the GCSE Maths student."I told the girl and her mother that there were people praying for them, and I asked the child if I could pray for her.
"She looked at her mother, who said: `We come from a family who do not believe` so I did not pray."
Mrs Jones thought she left the family's home on good terms but hours later was summoned to a meeting with her superiors.
"You could feel the tension in the air," she said. "I was so frightened I could hardly breathe.
"I had never experienced anything like this before. I had a faultless record stretching back 20 years and yet was left a total wreck."
She was told the mother had complained that both she and her daughter were distressed by her testimony about miracles and her offer of saying a prayer. As a result they no longer wanted her as a tutor in their home.
"Obviously if I had known she was upset when I had first mentioned my testimony I would never have brought it up again. But I had no idea.
"I don't push my beliefs down other people's throats, and I apologise for any unintentional distress I may have caused.
"I was told I had been an exemplary maths teacher, but my services were no longer required. As I had no contract, they could tell me to go just like that.
Give Me Some Good Old Secular Ethics
A priest says stealing is okay as long as you're robbing big business. From CNN:
Tim Jones, parish priest of St Lawrence and St Hilda, told his congregation in York, northern England: "My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift."Jones, who according to the church Web site previously worked in Corinth, Mississippi, made his comments about what he regarded as acceptable behavior by those in need when they were desperate.
In a transcript of his sermon published in the local newspaper, "The Press," Jones said: "I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither.
"I would ask that they do not steal from small family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices."
Hitchens uses Wright to mop the floor on how thinking one has divine permission encourages people to behave badly. Here's the whole thing from Bloggingheads:
The truth is, we have evolved morality -- and Hitchens talks about this in the piece about "a certain degree of reciprocity, altruism, and mutual aid" as part of our evolved adaptations. Hitchens' comment that "Children have an innate sense of fairness," is another example. These adaptations make it possible for us to live among each other. At root of manners, by the way, is empathy: thinking how would it affect you if I do such and such and caring about that.
My own evolved adaptations against violent behavior, plus the constraints of the computer screen, keep me from reaching through it and wanting to throttle the grating Robert Wright. It's a high price -- but still worth it -- for hearing Hitchens on the issue.
The Lie That Ruined His Life
A teen girl lied about her age, and the kid who had sex with her is now labeled a sex offender, and can't get a job or see his young daughter. As Lenore Skenazy wrote on Twitter: "Who's sick? An 18 y.o. who has sex with a girl he thinks is 16? Or a country that labels him a sex offender?"
The laws need to be changed so consensual sex between a couple of horny teenagers isn't treated the same as a pedophile preying on children. I read or hear a few stories like this a month. Enough is enough is enough is enough. This is where you need legislators who aren't just about pandering for votes to take the initiative to make a righteous change in the law.
Everybody's Equal Here, Except For The Special People
Some people, writes the WSJ, are more special than lots of other people when it comes to health care "reform":
White House budget director Peter Orszag has claimed that the bill's 40% excise tax on high-cost insurance plans is key to reducing health costs. Yet the Senate Majority Leader's new version specifically exempts "individuals whose primary work is longshore work." That would be the longshoremen's union, which has negotiated very costly insurance benefits. The well-connected dock workers join other union interests such as miners, electrical linemen, EMTs, construction workers, some farmers, fishermen, foresters, early retirees and others who are absolved from this tax.In other words, controlling insurance costs is enormously important, unless your very costly insurance is provided by an important Democratic constituency.
The Reid bill also gives a pass on the excise tax to the 17 states with the highest health costs. This provision applied to only 10 states in a prior version, but other Senators made a fuss. So controlling health costs is enormously important, except in the places where health costs need the most control.
Naturally, the Secretary of Health and Human Services will decide how to measure "costs" and therefore which 17 states qualify. (Prediction: Swing states that voted for Mr. Obama in 2008 or have powerful Democratic Senators.)
Who pays for all this? Well, are you a longshoreman, an electrical lineman, a forester, or a member of one of the other special interest groups?
Meanwhile, here's Michigan's Senator Carl Levin paying back Blue Cross for all those campaign contributions. S.A. Miller writes in the Washington Times:
Among the changes Senate Democratic leaders made to the massive health care package unveiled Saturday was giving nonprofit health insurance companies a limited exemption from the excise tax levied on insurers, a revision pushed by Sen. Carl Levin, who is a major recipient of campaign contributions from mega-nonprofit Blue Cross Blue Shield.The excise tax, or fee, on health insurance companies was expected to bring in $6.7 billion to help pay for the nearly $1 trillion bill, but the exemption for nonprofits won by Mr. Levin, Michigan Democrat, could cut the revenue by as much as half.
It was unclear Saturday how the exemption would affect the cost of the bill or how many nonprofits would qualify for the exemption, attained by spending a high enough percentage of revenue on health services. However, the language appeared to clearly protect Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan from the fee.
...Mr. Levin's top campaign contributor from 2005 into the 2010 election cycles was Blue Cross Blue Shield, with total contributions of $48,000 from its employees and its political action committee, according to campaign finance data from OpenSecrets.org.
Money well-spent, Blue Cross Blue Shield!
Nat Hentoff On American Under Obama
John M. Whitehead interviews the former Village Voice columnist for Rutherford.org, and hears that Obama is, in Hentoff's words, "possibly the most dangerous and destructive president we have ever had."
A few words of biography on Hentoff:
Nat Hentoff has had a life well spent, one chock full of controversy fueled by his passion for the protection of civil liberties and human rights. Hentoff is known as a civil libertarian, free speech activist, anti-death penalty advocate, pro-lifer and not uncommon critic of the ideological left.
And a bit from the interview:
JW: Do you think Obama is shallow?NH: It's much worse than that. Obama has little, if any, principles except to aggrandize and make himself more and more important. You see that in his foreign policy. Obama lacks a backbone--both a constitutional backbone and a personal backbone. This is a man who is causing us and will cause us a great deal of harm constitutionally and personally. I say personally because I am 84 years old, and this is the first administration that has scared me in terms of my lifespan.
JW: But he is praised for his charisma and great smile. He can make people believe things just by his personality.
NH: That was a positive factor in his election. A good many people voted for Obama, and I'm not only talking about the black vote. A lot of people voted for Obama because of our history of racial discrimination in this country. They felt good even though they didn't really know much about him and may have had some doubts. But at least they showed the world we could elect a black president. And that is still part of what he is riding on. Except that, too, is diminishing. In the recent Virginia election, the black vote diminished. Now why was that? I think a lot of black folks are wondering what this guy is really going to do, not only for them but for the country. If the country is injured, they will be injured. That may be sinking in.
JW: One of the highest unemployment rates in the country is among African-Americans.
NH: Not only that, the general unemployment rate is going to continue for a long time and for all of us. I have never heard so many heart-wrenching stories of all kinds of people all across the economic spectrum. As usual, the people who are poorest--the blacks, Hispanics and disabled people--are going to suffer more than anyone else under the Obama administration. This is a dishonest administration, because it is becoming clear that the unemployment statistics of the Obama administration are not believable. I can't think of a single area where Obama is not destructive.
Christmas In Paris
Galeries Lafayette, Paris.
Thanks, I'll take a pair of these, to go.
P.S. Those are extremely comfortable, even with the heel. That's the good news. The bad news? They're only $687 at the current exchange rate. The dollar is, sadly, à la poubelle (in the trash can). Happily, it's still worlds better than Zimbabwe's. There, a posted sign in a toilet warned Zimbabwean dollars should not be used as toilet paper, lest they clog the plumbing.
Photo by Emily Tarr
People Can Be So Disappointing
There was a big to-do over an incident in D.C., painted in a blog item in reason as a "snowball fight" where an officer drew a gun on the people involved. Turns out the people there were actually throwing snowballs at moving vehicles; Hummers, especially.
Nick Gillespie writes:
Around 2.30PM on Saturday, December 19, residents at the intersection of 14th and U Streets NW started throwing snowballs at passing Hummers.One of the cars pelted was driven by a plainclothes police officer identified only as Det. Baylor. Baylor got out of his car and brandished his gun at the crowd.
Reason.tv's Dan Hayes was on the scene, capturing the tense confrontation between police and citizens who chanted "Don't bring a gun to a snowball fight!"
Everybody was all up in arms that an officer, whose moving vehicle was hit by a snowball, apparently drew his gun on the snowball throwing mob. (In the video I saw, all I spotted was what looked to be a walkie talkie.) There's all sorts of yammering (into the hundreds of comments) about police brutality, and very few people acknowledging how dangerous it is (and rude) to throw snowballs at cars.
Is it just that I'm from Michigan, and used to winter driving (and kind of afraid of it)? Somebody once threw a snowball at a car I was driving and I was so startled, I nearly ran off the road. It's dangerous. If it's thrown at the windshield it can break it (if there are rocks packed into it) or obscure the driver's vision. This is a several-ton (or many-ton) motor vehicle, traversing snowy streets in the middle of a snowstorm. Startling a driver or obscuring the driver's vision can have serious (or even deadly) consequences.
And then, on a libertarian blog -- one I'm usually pretty much in agreement with (see the reason ad on the side of my blog) -- it's surprising how cavalier many of the commenters were about property rights. Do people not get that a hard-packed snowball can damage a car?
Here's an embed of the video:
Ventura County Reporter Interview
Editor Michael Sullivan did a nice Q&A with me about the ideas behind my book, I SEE RUDE PEOPLE: One woman's battle to beat some manners into impolite society. An excerpt:
Are people ruder than ever? Actually, I say in my book that rudeness is the human condition. It only seems like we're ruder than ever because our vast, transient modern society lacks the checks and balances on rudeness that we've had for centuries. I pulled together a lot of research, and found that it seems we live in societies too big for our brains. A British anthropologist named Robin Dunbar worked out that the human brain seems capable of having meaningful interactions with about 150 people, on average. This would be the maximum number of people in the small, tribal societies we evolved in. We wouldn't have had a capacity for dealing with strangers, yet we're around strangers almost constantly these days, and with a stranger, anything can go. With people you know, even if you're a bad person, you have to behave well because you have a continuing association. You need them and they need you. In my book, I ask people not only to refuse to be victimized by the rude, but to make an effort to treat strangers like neighbors -- in the smallest ways -- and maybe, just maybe, our daily lives will feel a little less like one big wrestling smackdown.
I'll be on the radio tonight in Ventura on KKZZ am at 5:30 Pacific Time, taking love advice questions. You can listen live at this link, and they'll give out a call-in number.
Sitting On Santa's Bench
Here's one for my friend Lenore Skenazy over at FreeRangeKids, from Mark Steyn, on pedophilia paranoia. I mean, for sure, check Santa out before you hire him, but this is ridiculous:
When was the last time you saw a child sit upon a Santa's knee? Rod Liddle in the British Spectator reports that at a top London department store Santa sits at one end of the bench while a large "X" directs the moppet to a place down the other end, well out of arm's reach. For even Santa Claus is just another pedophile in waiting. Naughty or nice? Who really knows? Best not to take any chances. That's another way societies seize up - by obsessing on phantom threats rather than real ones.
Here in the U.S., reports Lenore, border guards are watching out for terrorists with hand-held nuclear devices chocolate Kinder Surprise eggs, with a Crackerjacks-like prize inside (photo at the link below). From a story at Canada.com:
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission determined years ago the product did not meet the small-parts requirement for toys for children under the age of three, creating a choking and aspiration hazard in young kids.As a result, Kinder Surprise eggs are banned for sale and import into the U.S.
Health Canada has a different take on the product, available in Canada since 1975 and especially popular at Easter and Christmas, when the Ferrero Group manufactures themed treats.
The Kinder Surprise, deriving its name from the German word for children, has always been legal here because Health Canada has determined the tiny toy inside is not likely to be used by children under three years of age.
As a result, "the requirements for small components do not apply to the product," Health Canada said in a statement.
Health Canada determined infants and toddlers don't use the tiny trinket inside the Kinder egg based on a number of factors, including the manual dexterity required to open the plastic egg that holds the toy and the complexity of the toy design itself.
The toys, smaller than the size of an eraser, could be a 3-D puzzle, have multiple small pieces or small stickers for application.
Meanwhile, the outer wrapping on the product carries the international choking hazard symbol for toys. There's also a warning in bold that reads: "Toy not suitable for children under three years. Small parts might be swallowed or inhaled. Adult supervision recommended."
Formerly known as "parenting."
By the way, I've seen these Kinder eggs on sale in France and in Europe for years, and I don't believe there's been any epidemic of choking 3-year-olds there.
Scummy, Scummy, Scummy
They bribed their way to Nelson's vote on health care "reform," according to a piece by Scott Gottlieb on The Enterprise Blog (see my italics below):
The Department of Defense Appropriations bill that the Senate passed yesterday freezes Medicare physician payment rates for January and February of 2010 at 2009 levels, returning to a scheduled 21% cut to reimbursement rates that doctors are set to take on March 1, 2010 because of the broken scheme that is used to set their reimbursement rates. Presumably the Democrats plan to pass a separate bill sometime early next year to plug that looming cut.But then, why did they strip out even the 0.5% increase to physicians from the current bill? As a result of that provision, physician fees between now and next spring will remain flat from 2009 rates even as medical costs have risen.
Democratic leaders probably needed the extra money in order to secure the vote of Senator Nelson. To wit, included in the final legislation is a provision that puts the federal government on the hook for paying for the Medicaid costs of all new beneficiaries in Nebraska, forever. That dandy surely factored heavily in Senator Nelson's calculations.
Sleazebags.
via Insty
Who's Afraid Of The Big, Bad Lobbyist?
That would be Harry Reid, the man who removed the "Botax" on elective cosmetic surgery amid pressure from doctors (and their strong lobbying groups) and stuck a 10 percent tax on indoor tanning. Clever, since the "tanning lobby" probably doesn't exist, or barely exists as part of some group struggling to represent the interests of small business owners. Janet Adamy writes in the WSJ:
The tanning tax is part of a last-minute package of amendments that are expected to be included in the final bill. It grants an exception for "phototherapy" services that are performed by licensed medical professionals.
Obama administration to small business: "As long as you've spent this much time bent over, you may as well assume the position permanently, huh?"
A Kid Without A Chance
The L.A. Department of Children and Family Services endangers children to keep them out of foster care -- giving them back twice and maybe more to abusive and unfit parents.
"There are risks," says the subhead over the LA Times piece by Garrett Therolf. No kidding. Especially when the baby mama's motivation becomes clear, as by this statement by the then crack-using, tricking Darlene Compton. When they came to take her child away after she went back on drugs, her big question:
"What will happen to my check?"
The story opens on her Alcoholics Anonymous meeting:
As Darlene Compton spoke on a November evening, her toddler son wandered the linoleum floor of the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting hall in South Los Angeles. Fussing as the night session entered its third hour, he smiled fleetingly when the recovering addicts handed him candies and a Twinkie."I'm the alcoholic who doesn't like dealing with my son sometimes, but it's not his fault he's here. It's my fault."
Descending from the podium after a few minutes, she grabbed the boy's arm. "Shut. Your. Mouth," she told him, her long, manicured fingernail pressing his shoulder. They retreated to a bathroom whose walls barely muffled her yelling. He let out a wail.
It has often been uncomfortable for each, but 41-year-old Darlene Compton and 23-month-old Jontay are together again.
How heartwarming.
Here's more on the cash and prizes for reuniting a seriously unfit mother with her biological offspring:
When social workers reunited Darlene Compton and Jontay in May, they knew she had been off crack cocaine for just six months and had a history of failed alcohol and drug recoveries. She'd engaged in prostitution, hadn't had a regular job in 10 years and displayed a sometimes vicious temper, according to internal records and interviews.Since 1999, they had received 13 calls from people concerned about her parenting, records show. Over the years, all five of her children either had been removed from her care by social workers or taken in by relatives.
But with Jontay, Compton was swiftly given another chance -- with fewer obstacles and more services than in the past.
Upfront, the department is paying hundreds of dollars to address her many needs. It bought the bunk beds and a dresser for her son's bedroom. It pays a child-care provider who picks up Jontay each morning shortly after dawn and drops him off at 1:30 in the afternoon. It pays the teacher who picks up Compton for parenting and anger management classes and has bought the bus pass that takes her to job training classes.
Because her son moved back in, Compton also qualified for other benefits: a $1,404 federal housing voucher, a $367 food stamp benefit and a $328 welfare check.
"I'm blessed," Compton told her AA group that night.
I think I'm going to be violently ill.
For happier endings in the future -- ones that don't involve children brought into the world by women like Darlene Compton -- there's the nonprofit Project Prevention:
Project Prevention offers cash incentives to women that are addicted to drugs and/or alcohol to use long-term or permanent birth control.Our mission is to reduce the number of substance exposed births to zero.
Because every baby deserves a sober start!
Here's a letter of endorsement to Project Prevention from a woman who had crack babies:
And these wonderful protesters say, "Let the addicted woman/man keep reproducing at will!!!" I guess not too many of them have been around drug exposed children. What's funny is, that my children are first generation crack babies. Their behavior is unpredictable, violent and definitely anti-social. They are not at fault, they have been born that way. When they are not "going off" they are smart, loveable kids, but more often than not, they are off on a tangent. My children aren't the only ones, and to a certain extent they were lucky. I know of other addicts who babies were born horribly deformed, with AIDS or HIV positive, flat out and out hopelessly retarded, and physically disabled.I'm not saying that these babies don't have a right to exist. I love my babies as best I can, from a distance. When you think of the long-term costs escalating behind pregnant addicts.....? Look at the infant intensive care costs, the special education costs, the court costs, the shuffling of the poor baby through the system, the loss of brain-power potential, the lack of emotional stability of the drug exposed child. Some say that I'm being too harsh, but I have a right to speak on this subject, because me and mine are LIVING THE NIGHTMARE DAILY!!!
I wish someone would have tied my tubes back then or installed an IUD in me, by hook or by crook.
Al Qaeda Reaches Out To The Ladies
Mark Schone reports on ABC.com that Zawahiri's wife Omaima Hassan published a statement on Islamic websites encouraging women to mass murder in the name of Islam.
Of course, she's just recommending what is commanded of Muslims in the Quran, in The Verse of the Sword. Also, while the actions of people written about in the Jewish and Christian Bible are not meant to be emulated by believers of those religions, anything the child-molesting, warring thug Mohammed did is "sunnah," to be emulated by Muslims. So, the truth is, there is no such thing as "moderate Islam," only Islam that isn't practiced according to Islam's dictates.
Schone reveals that Hassan is quite the faithful Muslim:
In the seven-page letter, after assuring friends and family that she and her husband are safe and well, Hassan outlines the ways in which women can assist their men with jihad. Hassan suggests that women work side by side in defending Islam with their men, but underlines that the most important role for women is to support male mujahideen by caring for their children."Jihad is an obligation for every man and woman," wrote Hassan, "but the way of fighting is not easy for women."
"Our main role -- that I ask God to accept from us -- is to preserve the mujahideen in their sons, and homes, and their confidentiality, and to help them raise/develop their children in the best way."
But Hassan also suggests that women can become suicide bombers, which she refers to as "martyrdom missions."
Hassan also urges women to wear hijabs, or head coverings, and to ignore Western media. Zawahiri, an Egyptian-born doctor, is a polygamist who has had at least four wives, two of them widows. Fundamentalist Islamic doctrine allows men to have up to four wives at one time.
How Accidental Are Accidental Pregnancies?
If you aren't 11, or running around in a loincloth in the bush in Africa, you know how babies are made: Sperm, meet Egg, and have at it!
I heard social worker and researcher Melissa Spohn present at the last Human Behavior And Evolution Society Conference I went to at UC/Fullerton. Here's a bit from Psychology Today on her findings; basically, what many of you probably suspect, that to hang on to the right guy, women will let themselves get knocked up:
Some of the women admitted that they had not used birth control with guys who had appealing characteristics. To determine whether such behavior is widespread, Spohn surveyed nearly 400 women at two community colleges. More than a third of women said they had risked pregnancy in the past with men who had attractive qualities--such as commitment to the relationship, good financial prospects or the desire for a family--but hadn't discussed the possibility of pregnancy with their partner.
Winter Is Hell
Scary Tactics
In the WSJ, Tom Coburn, a doctor and a Republican senator from Oklahoma warns that the health care bill will reduce quality of life and life spans for patients:
My 25 years as a practicing physician have shown me what happens when government attempts to practice medicine: Doctors respond to government coercion instead of patient cues, and patients die prematurely. Even if the public option is eliminated from the bill, these onerous rationing provisions will remain intact....Additionally, the Reid bill depends on the recommendations of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in no fewer than 14 places. This task force was responsible for advising women under 50 to not undergo annual mammograms. The administration claims the task force recommendations do not carry the force of law, but the Reid bill itself contradicts them in section 2713. The bill explicitly states, on page 17, that health insurance plans "shall provide coverage for" services approved by the task force. This chilling provision represents the government stepping between doctors and patients. When the government asserts the power to provide care, it also asserts the power to deny care.
...But the most fundamental flaw of the Reid bill is best captured by the story of one my patients I'll call Sheila. When Sheila came to me at the age of 33 with a lump in her breast, traditional tests like a mammogram under the standard of care indicated she had a cyst and nothing more. Because I knew her medical history, I wasn't convinced. I aspirated the cyst and discovered she had a highly malignant form of breast cancer. Sheila fought a heroic battle against breast cancer and enjoyed 12 good years with her family before succumbing to the disease.
If I had been practicing under the Reid bill, the government would have likely told me I couldn't have done the test that discovered Sheila's cancer because it wasn't approved under CER. Under the Reid bill, Sheila may have lived another year instead of 12, and her daughters would have missed a decade with their mom.
The bottom line is that under the Reid bill the majority of America's patients might be fine. But some will be like Sheila--patients whose lives hang in the balance and require the care of a doctor who understands the science and art of medicine, and can make decisions without government interference.
Doogie Hoser
Henry Blodget at The Business Insider talks, in a short video that's worth a viewing, about how Citigroup and Tim Geithner have found a new way to hose us. It's taxpayer last!
As much as we'd like to keep blaming Citi, it's our government that's really the problem. Citi's just doing what any business would do under the circumstances--ask for the moon. Tim Geithner, unfortunately, keeps giving it to them.
We saved all the big banks and what did we get? There's a term for this in NewYorkese: "bupkes." There's another term in NewYorkese: "Bend ovuh!"
Shame As Punishment
The two Pennsylvania women stole gift cards from a 9-year-old at Walmart, and got a bit of creative punishment -- holding up signs in public admitting what they did. The signs read, "I stole from a 9 year-old on her birthday! Don't steal or this could happen to you!" and they held them for four hours outside the courthouse.
From the Daily Mail (where there are photos at the link):
Tina Griekspoor, 35, and her 56-year-old mother Evelyn Border had been facing jail for the despicable theft from the girl who had been celebrating her special day.But in a bizarre plea bargain agreed with a judge, both women agreed to hold up shame signs admitting their crimes in outside a courthouse in exchange for no time behind bars.
I like it until the "no time behind bars" part. I think shame and punishment -- the kind with jail time -- should be the happy ending to their crime.
Where Tiger Went Wrong
People keep asking me what I think, so I'll blog it: Tiger needed to figure out that he was into having lots of skanky hos before he married the nice Swedish woman and made babies.
It's fine if you don't want commitment or kiddies. George Clooney is a guy who seems to do that right -- apparently making it plain to the ladies that he's good for a couple of turns or a couple of years of turns around the block on the bike, and that's it.
You Bought A Plane Ticket And They Really Couldn't Care Less
"You," in this case, happens to be Craig Ferguson, and he was on an overbooked Continental flight out of Nashville. About the overbooking, an airline employee said "We're doing that all the time." No kidding. And I bet the plane was really overfat. Funny segment by Craig Ferguson, who also notes that he gets in trouble with the P.C. police if ever he does a Japanese accent, but Scottish or French accents are A-OK.
Love this guy, love his show, wish he were on earlier. (Been trying to get to bed at a reasonable hour because I write better at 5 a.m. than I do at 3 p.m.)
via Consumerist
It's Your Values That Make The Difference
Where do you draw the line? That's the question in a question I'm working on now for my column. Woman, now 40, was having an affair with a guy and (whoops!) got pregnant. I should add that I believe that "accidental" pregnancies are not so accidental. If you, like me, really, really don't want to have a child, you get an IUD and maybe even use some other method of birth control on top of it. But, maybe you think it would be cute to have a kid, or the kid would cement the relationship (force the man to stick around in a committed way). And this man did marry the woman afterward.
The issue: She, all along, was the sexual initiator and now sex has dried up entirely. No sex for two years. She has a 5-year-old boy, and her friends are telling her "Leave, kids are resilient."
Nice.
I know from the studies I read that kids from broken homes have THE worst outcomes.
And this kid has a loving dad, and adores his dad, and does not have a home life that is filled with conflict. Mommy just isn't getting her rocks off.
This comes down to a question of values. Me? I don't personally believe in marriage (been with my boyfriend for seven years, and the only aisle we want to walk down is the kind on planes on our fun trips together). I'm also not really a kid person, and beyond that, I'm impatient and self-involved. Not a person who should be a mom, although I do have a few kids I am just apeshit over -- just sent Sergeant Heather's autistic son another letter from the elephants (asking him if he has monkeys in his backyard, too, and saying he's the only little boy they're friends with. Whoops, time for their mud bath, gotta run!)
Anyway, as I was saying, this comes down to a question of values: I don't think you get to smash the kid's intact family up because mommy chose badly.
Mommy can try to get Daddy to a therapist to try to unpack why he won't have sex with her -- and even pulled away and said she was "in his space" when she tried to kiss him. Mommy can try to get Daddy to agree to a sexually open relationship. But, I'm for the delivery room through dorm room parenting plan. You use the diaphragm as a frisbee, you're in for 21 years of providing an intact and loving family environment for the kid, even if you aren't getting any hot loving from the one you made him with.
Your thoughts?
Rules Are For The Little People
(Everyone but Senator Chuck Schumer.) Ann Schroeder Mullins writes at Politico, who referred to a flight attendant as a "bitch" after she told him to turn off his phone before takeoff:
Schumer and his seatmate, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), were chatting on their phones before takeoff when an announcement indicated that it was time to turn off the phones.Both senators kept talking.
According to the GOP aide, a flight attendant then approached Schumer and told him the entire plane was waiting on him to shut down his phone.
Schumer asked if he could finish his conversation. When the flight attendant said "no," Schumer ended his call but continued to argue his case.
He said he was entitled to keep his phone on until the cabin door was closed. The flight attendant said he was obliged to turn it off whenever a flight attendant asked.
"He argued with her about the rule," the source said. "She said she doesn't make the rules, she just follows them."
When the flight attendant walked away, the witness says Schumer turned to Gillibrand and uttered the B-word. "The senator made an off-the-cuff comment under his breath that he shouldn't have made, and he regrets it," Schumer spokesman Brian Fallon told Shenanigans.
Translation: The Senator showed what a tiny little person, entitled creep, and giant boor he is, and "he regrets it."
Thanks, Robin!
Not Exactly Chester The Molester
Radley Balko blogged at reason about a man nabbed by the cops while playing hoops in his mom's driveway. Whoops, seems her house is less than 400 feet from a school, and he's a dangerous pedophile. Or, uh, er, something like that.
Actually, it turns out he was a horny teenager who had sex with his two-years-younger girlfriend, and then got deemed a "sex offender," as is happening more and more to horny teenagers across the country.
And no, he's not some gold-star good boy. He stole some video games, in addition to having sex with his willing 15-year-old girlfriend when he was 17 -- but nobody here is intimating that he's some kiddie diddler. Lee Higgins writes about Matthew Freeman for the Ann Arbor News:
Freeman told the trooper he was on the Michigan Sex Offender Registry because he had "sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend when he was 17." He also said his girlfriend's mother got "upset with him and pressed charges."The trooper aimed a laser gun at the school building and determined Freeman was living 326 feet away, the report said, breaking the law.
Freeman, 23, is charged with a school safety zone residency violation, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. He was arraigned Dec. 4 and is scheduled to return to court Friday.
"I'm outside sweating hard, playing basketball, working on my drills," he said. "I ain't looking at no kids. I can't even go outside and play basketball on my own hoop?"
Washtenaw County Chief Deputy Assistant Prosecutor Steve Hiller said he couldn't comment on Freeman's case because it's pending. But prosecutors take into account the facts and circumstances surrounding each case, Hiller said.
"We view these as public safety issues," Hiller said. "That's the paramount concern we have when dealing with sex offender registry cases. This particular law is in place to protect children, so that's obviously a very serious matter."
Excuse me, but how are children being protected when the cops are busy going after hoops-shooting small-time thieves instead of the actual pedophiles?
On AirTalk Today From 2:30-3 p.m., Pacific Time
Patt Morrison will be interviewing me on KPCC, 89.3 fm, on AirTalk, on Southern California Public Radio. Hope you all tune in! Here's a link to the streamed show.
Prepare To Sell Your Great-Grandchildren To The Chinese
We keep electing increasingly profligate spenders. From the WSJ:
George W. Bush approved gigantic spending increases for Medicare and bailouts. He also sponsored the first ineffective "stimulus" in February 2008--consisting of $168 billion in tax rebates and spending that depleted federal revenues in return for no economic lift.Democrats ridiculed Mr. Bush as "the most fiscally irresponsible President in history," but then they saw him and raised. They took an $800 billion deficit and made it $1.4 trillion in 2009 and perhaps that high again in 2010. In 10 months they have approved more than $1 trillion in spending that has saved union public jobs but has done little to assist private job creation. Still to come is the multitrillion-dollar health bill and another $100 billion to $200 billion "jobs" bill.
...Mr. Obama and his allies in Congress have ... increased the budget by 50% and financed the spending with IOUs.
...This year debt will hit 61% of GDP, heading to 68% soon even by the White House's optimistic estimates.
...By the way, today's spending and debt totals don't account for the higher debt-servicing costs that are sure to come. The President's own budget office forecasts that annual interest payments by 2019 will be $774 billion, which will be more than the federal government will spend that year on national defense, education, transportation--in fact, all nondefense discretionary programs.
If you can do simple math -- like, if you can add -- how can you be anything but terrified of what's to come?
We can no longer afford business as usual, which means we can no longer afford to elect the Democrats, the party of really bloated government, or the Republicans, the party that talks small government, but is just for smaller big government than the Democrats.
Unfortunately, it seems the electorate is an ass. (And P.S. Doesn't Obama look like a movie star with those glistening abs in the Hawaiian surf?)
If I Were Queen
Okay, so I'm a bit of a fashion fundamentalist. While I appreciate any person with a sense of personal style, I do have a few pet peeves. If I were dictating the fashion laws of the land, here are three laws (or, at least, strong suggestions) that occurred to me when Gregg and I were out Saturday night:
1. No newsboy hats unless you are an actual newsboy (living and working in 1922). Worst newsboy hat I've ever seen had purple lurex threads woven through the tweed. At least it was on a woman.
2. Avoid maternity-style tops unless you have something due besides the electric bill or your term paper. Got a little extra around the middle? Try for one of those blousy tops that gives the illusion of a waist. Guys like waists.
3. Avoid Christmas sweaters at all cost. If you have one, burn it, so you can ensure that you will never be drunk enough to put it on. Oh, sorry -- considering what they're usually made of, make that "melt it in a well-ventilated area."
4. Men should not wear classic-cut blazers with stuff silkscreened on them. They are frightening.
Feel free to add to the list. Or snarl at me for making it.
"Why James Chartrand Wears Women's Underpants"
This would seem to be an extension of my fashion fundamentalism post just above, but it's not.
@petitedov suggested I take a look at this blog item at the link below, which turned out to be by a woman who says she got more writing jobs when she stuck a man's name on her work. Is that true, or did she simply get a break and improve her writing, and did this coincide with sticking a man's name on her pieces?
I've generally gotten paid well for my articles and column -- and kept rights others give away as a matter of course -- because I...put Andrew Alkon on my pieces? Nope. Because I'm a good negotiator.
Here's an excerpt from the woman's blog item, titled the same name as my header above:
Understand, I hadn't advertised more effectively or used social media -- I hadn't figured that part out yet. I was applying in the same places. I was using the same methods. Even the work was the same.In fact, everything was the same.
Except for the name.
The answer was plain. Without really thinking much about it, I tried an experiment when I chose my new pseudonym:
I became a man (in name only)
Taking a man's name opened up a new world. It helped me earn double and triple the income of my true name, with the same work and service.
No hassles. Higher acceptance. And gratifying respect for my talents and round-the-clock work ethic.
Business opportunities fell into my lap. People asked for my advice, and they thanked me for it, too.
Did I quit promoting my own name? Hell yeah.
Eventually, I had earned enough income and credibility to get a mortgage, and I bought a tiny, modest house for me and my kids in a quiet town near my mum. It was the first home of my life I could truly call my own, paid for by long hours and hard work. Paid for by my own sweat and tears, at the tender age of 37.
Goldman Cap-And-Trade?
Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression -- from tech stocks to high gas prices -- and they're set to do it again, claims Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone. A number of financial journalists have problems with his blaming it all on Goldman Sachs (see below), but this part is interesting, and probably not wrong:
...The new game in town, the next bubble, is in carbon credits -- a booming trillion dollar market that barely even exists yet, but will if the Democratic Party that it gave $4,452,585 to in the last election manages to push into existence a groundbreaking new commodities bubble, disguised as an "environmental plan," called cap-and-trade....Well, you might say, who cares? If cap-and-trade succeeds, won't we all be saved from the catastrophe of global warming? Maybe -- but capandtrade, as envisioned by Goldman, is really just a carbon tax structured so that private interests collect the revenues. Instead of simply imposing a fixed government levy on carbon pollution and forcing unclean energy producers to pay for the mess they make, cap-and-trade will allow a small tribe of greedy-as-hell Wall Street swine to turn yet another commodities market into a private tax collection scheme. This is worse than the bailout: It allows the bank to seize taxpayer money before it's even collected.
...Cap-and-trade is going to happen. Or, if it doesn't, something like it will. The moral is the same as for all the other bubbles that Goldman helped create, from 1929 to 2009. In almost every case, the very same bank that behaved recklessly for years, weighing down the system with toxic loans and predatory debt, and accomplishing nothing but massive bonuses for a few bosses, has been rewarded with mountains of virtually free money and government guarantees -- while the actual victims in this mess, ordinary taxpayers, are the ones paying for it.
The commodities-market casino that is cap-and-trade is well-explained by Taibbi at the link. But, Taibbi did a shoddy job in great-evil-izing Goldman, argues Heidi N. Moore at BigMoney.com, who says many firms are responsible for the wrongs he tags Goldman Sachs with. The Atlantic's Megan McArdle also rips Taibbi's piece:
He seems to deliberately eschew understanding his subjects, because only corrupt, pointy-headed financial journalists who have been co-opted by the system do that. And Matt Taibbi is here to save you from those pointy headed elites.Taibbi is a gifted narrative journalist, whose verbal talents I greatly admire. But financial meltdowns don't offer villains, for the simple reason that no one person or even one group is powerful enough to take down a whole system. Confronted with this, Taibbi doesn't back away from the narrative form, or apply it to smaller questions where it is more appropriate, as William Cohan did in House of Cards. Instead, he grabs whoever's nearest to hand and builds them up into a gigantic straw villian, which he proceeds to bash with a handful of recently acquired technical terms that he clearly doesn't quite understand. It's not that everything he says is wrong, but the bits that are true aren't interesting, and the bits that are interesting aren't true.
If The Feds Won't Enforce Immigration Laws, Ohio Will
They've revoked the vehicle registration of anyone who can't prove they are a legal U.S. resident, writes Randy Ludlow in the Columbus Dispatch:
Beginning early Wednesday, it will be illegal for thousands of immigrants to drive Ohio's roads. The BMV is canceling their vehicle registrations for failing to prove they are legal U.S. residents.Police can stop those driving with revoked registrations and issue tickets and seize license plates. Drivers who cannot provide adequate identification risk going to jail, with undocumented immigrants potentially facing deportation.
Browning ruled that there was no evidence of "unjustifiable harm" to immigrants and that BMV had a compelling public-safety interest in canceling the questioned registrations.
The state is properly enforcing registration laws and the agency is not demanding anything different from Latinos than is demanded from all Ohioans who register vehicles, Browning found.
...Investigators' findings suggest that thousands of vehicles may have been registered fraudulently through so-called "runners" -- legal U.S. residents who collected fees from undocumented immigrants to register vehicles on their behalf.
BMV changes to weed out fraudulent registrations began on Aug. 24. The reforms were delayed for more than a year after former Public Safety Director Henry Guzman met with Latino business owners and then asked for improvements to the policy.
"Improvements" in the policy, such as looking the other way like the Feds do? If you're a U.S. citizen, it's a little disturbing if you're on the side of lawbreaking...lawbreaking which costs Californians an estimated $10.5 billion yearly, in health care, schooling, and incarceration costs for illegal immigrants.
Manhattan Institute fellow Heather Mac Donald testified before Congress:
--A confidential California Department of Justice study reported in 1995 that 60 percent of the 20,000-strong 18th Street Gang in southern California is illegal; police officers say the proportion is actually much greater. The bloody gang collaborates with the Mexican Mafia, the dominant force in California prisons, on complex drug-distribution schemes, extortion, and drive-by assassinations. It commits an assault or robbery every day in L.A. County. The gang has grown dramatically over the last two decades by recruiting recently arrived youngsters, most of them illegal, from Central America and Mexico.-- The L.A. County Sheriff reported in 2000 that 23% of inmates in county jails were deportable, according to the New York Times.
--The leadership of the Columbia Lil' Cycos gang, which uses murder and racketeering to control the drug market around Los Angeles's MacArthur Park, was about 60 percent illegal in 2002. Francisco Martinez, a Mexican Mafia member and an illegal alien, controlled the gang from prison, while serving time for felonious reentry following deportation.
-- In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide in the first half of 2004 (which totaled 1,200 to 1,500) targeted illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) were for illegal aliens.
...The idea that sanctuary laws are "pro-immigrant" is perhaps the greatest myth of all. Keeping illegal criminals in the community subjects all immigrants to the thrall of crime and impedes economic growth in immigrant communities.
Dr. Helen's Show On "The End Of The Rude"
Boys in the studio said we did a very interesting show. I hope you'll watch -- it's Dr. Helen interviewing me about my just-published book, I See Rude People: One woman's battle to beat some manners into impolite society
Close Call
An apparent good Samaritan, who took a drunk girl in out of the rain and gave her a bed in his house, got accused of rape, and convicted, too, despite a lack of evidence that he'd had any sexual contact with her. His conviction was just overturned. Again, we need to have prosecution of those who falsely accuse people of crimes, or there is no deterrent to it.
Imagine how this man's life has been upended by this prosecution. How much it cost him, in time, money, psychic energy, friends, respect of people who know him, and more. Chances are, much of that can never be replaced.
via Deirdre
Dr. Eades' Incredible Cooking Machine
Gregg and I have become friends with Dr. Michael Eades, who, with his wife Dr. Mary Dan Eades, are two of the very, very few practitioners out there of truly evidence-based dietary medicine. Their books include The Protein Power Lifeplan
Their blog, proteinpower.com, is a great compliment to the wonderful investigative work of Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories
Not only do the Eades help people eat more healthily, they're about to help them do it much more tastily.
Julia Moskin writes in The New York Times of an incredible machine, the Sous Vide, that the Eades have engineered (and priced) for home use. Theirs is the $449 Sous Vide Supreme (typically $1,500 and up in restaurant sous vide machines). Moskin reports:
ONCE you sous vide, you never go back.That, at least, is the chant of a global pantheon of chefs -- like Heston Blumenthal, Joël Robuchon, Ferran Adrià, and Tetsuya Wakuda -- who have made this low, slow cooking method the standard in the last decade.
And last month, Fritz Cloninger, a technical writer in Jersey City, joined that elite company with a pork chop and a SousVide Supreme, the first self-contained sous-vide machine for home cooks, which has just come on the market priced at $449.
"My wife thought I was crazy to get this thing, but already she doesn't want to eat anything else," Mr. Cloninger said last week. "I even made a hamburger in it this morning."
Sous vide combines the gentle, steady heat of poaching and an airtight seal, as in traditional methods of cooking in clay. "The food literally stews in its own juices: no air, no water, no evaporation," said Wesley Genovart, the chef at Degustation, a restaurant in the East Village, who has experimented with sous-viding everything from carrots to crème brûlée.
Until now, home cooks wanting to try the method have had to improvise, with solutions from low-tech (a stockpot and a handful of ice cubes) to high (a chamber sealer and an immersion circulator, generating about $1,500 in start-up costs). But there seems to be an audience, however small, for an easier and cheaper way. The first 500 SousVide Supreme machines sold out via the Internet before shipping in November, according to the manufacturers. More are on the way, available for order online now, and scheduled to reach Sur la Table warehouses in January.
For on-the-ground-in-the-kitchen experience (since I am about as domestic as my friend Dr. Helen, who once made Glenn salmon with ice crystals inside (yum!) early on when they were dating), here's Diana Hsieh writing about cooking with the Sous Vide Supreme for a week. And here is Fritz Cloninger's post on it.
Once Upon A Time, There Was A Health Care "Reform" Experiment...
Turns out hoping for change is they best they've got in the health care "reform" department of the Obama administration, starting with the fairy tale they're telling about better quality care for everyone at lower costs. (That's so unbelievable, it's insulting.) From the WSJ:
As Obama budget director Peter Orszag put it at a revealing media breakfast earlier this month, the Senate bill does everything the experts recommend to "get at the underlying drivers of health-care costs." While he admitted that "we don't know enough" to produce results right away, the key is to encourage "continuous improvement" through pilot programs and demonstration projects. Cost containment will actually take "years to decades," Mr. Orszag conceded.The torch was then passed to Ron Brownstein of the Atlantic Monthly, David Leonhardt of the New York Times and editorial writers for the New England Journal of Medicine, among others. Last week the New Yorker ran a 5,000-word apologia from Atul Gawande, who likewise owned up to the fact that there is "no master plan for dealing with the problem of soaring medical costs," only "a battery of small scale experiments." Keep in mind, this is an argument in favor of ObamaCare.
They might have piped up earlier: What they're finally admitting is that all the grandiose talk about "bending the curve" used for months to sell ObamaCare really comes down to their hope that bureaucratic improvisation will make a difference over the long term. Yet the liabilities of the greatest social spending program in American history will be added to the budget almost immediately, and what happens if Mr. Orszag's technocratic revolution doesn't work as promised? Or rather, when it doesn't?
In short, we're all screwed, bigtime. And probably irretrievably, once the rush-rush health care "reform" is enacted, surely setting in motion all sorts of unforseen and ugly stuff. Oops!
A comment from Jonathan Murray at the WSJ:
Look, I know this is hard for leftists to understand, but supply and demand is factual. You cannot expand supply for something through taxpayer subsidy--housing, college, or healthcare--and lower prices, unless supply expands accordingly. Also required to lower costs is the freedom for companies to innovate to deliver products and services in different ways, at different costs. That's because in free markets, increasing demand usually leads to increases in productivity and lower prices.Alternatively, when the Feds use taxpayer money to strongarm their way into a market, they destroy market forces, whether they think so or not. The market structure in place becomes ossified, innovation falls by the wayside in the quest for government largess (economists call it "rent") and taxpayers end up holding the bill. This is exactly what happened in housing, is in the process of happening in higher education, and happens already in heathcare but will happen much more if the Obamination of Obamacare becomes law.
Oh, The Aesthetics Of It All
The downstairs neighbor has an ongoing pounding over her head from the stamping running of the upstairs neighbors' 2-year-old, and the upstairs neighbors are complaining that rugging up their place would be unattractive. Poor dears. Imagine that, the lady downstairs has a problem with repetitive pounding on her ceiling.
From The Ethicist in The New York Times, the question:
My wife, 2-year-old daughter and I live in a small second-floor condo. The single woman living below us objects to the noise our daughter makes, particularly when she runs down our hallway. That downstairs neighbor asked us to install carpeting, at least a runner in the hall. Our lease calls for carpets on a fixed percentage of the floors, but we prefer hardwood floors. We installed some carpets, but adding more would not look right. Besides, virtually all of our neighbors ignore that lease provision. Must we install the hallway runner? NAME WITHHELD, SAN FRANCISCO
Name withheld? Why, because you don't wish to publicize what rude, selfish jerks you are? The Ethicist's answer was as milquetoasty as usual, but basically correct, as to whether they should install the hallway runner:
You must. Your duties to your neighbor, both legal and ethical, trump your right to enjoy even the most magnificent hardwood. Even oak. Even teak. Perhaps your confusion arises from misunderstanding Franklin Roosevelt, who spoke of the four freedoms, not the floor freedoms.You signed your lease in good faith. That some people ignore some of its dictates doesn't erase your obligations. Such lapses can be tolerated when no harm results. But in your case, harm has occurred, and your neighbor has asked you to do no more than what you have formally agreed to. Unless you can come up with a mutually acceptable compromise -- get your daughter some soft-soled slippers? swaddle her in Bubble Wrap? -- you must carpet your hallway.
UPDATE: The family installed the hallway runner, bringing its carpet coverage to what the lease specified. The neighbor remains discontented and has asked for yet more carpets and "quiet hours" when the 2-year-old would be kept from running, perhaps with a powerful sedative, if I understand this last demand, and I do not.
In short, because you have reproduced and dislike rugs, you don't get to disrupt another person's thoughts, sleep, reading, or their general peaceful enjoyment of their home. A pity these people will probably pass on their sense of willful inconsideration to their daughter -- and, in fact, already seem to be.
Really, Why Do You Oppose Gay Marriage?
Deborah Solomon interviews U of Chicago philosopher Martha Nussbaum for The New York Times Magazine. Nussbaum sees right through the excuse that gay marriage will somehow do damage to straight marriages:
Your inquiries have lately revolved around the politics of physical revulsion, which you see as the subtext for opposition to same-sex marriage. What is it that makes people think that a same-sex couple living next door would defile or taint their own marriage when they don't think that, let's say, some flaky heterosexual living next door would taint their marriage? At some level, disgust is still operating.
Sorry if you think it's weird that Brian and Steve want to marry, but they -- and their children -- deserve the same rights and protections as heterosexual couples and their children.
Robert Wright Debates Christopher Hitchens
Wright actually blame Hassan's Ft. Hood massacre, in the name of Islam, on American policy. Here is the five-minute version, with just that bit above and Hitchens' response, at Bloggingheads.
And here's the entire thing, first on foreign policy, and then on religion:
One Of The Smartest Radio Shows I've Done
Ed Morrissey and Mitch Berg's out of Minneapolis. I'm on at the 31 minute mark, just slide the cursor forward if you want to skip to my part. You'll hear that I'm still a little hoarse! Sergeant Heather says: "You sound like Bacall! The reality: Bird calls. But, I'm doing better thanks to the massive humidifier Gregg got me, plus sleeping lots, and manage to squeak out all the words. Here's the link: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/3006224
Calling Pseudoscience "Nanopharmacology" Doesn't Make It Science-Based
Homeopathy crapthink gets the top position on Sunday at the HuffPo Living section.
Here's Orac on the bullshit behind homeopathy. Here. And here. And here.
Housing Market Welfare
The way the government is propping up the home market, artificially inflating prices, is keeping the next generation of buyers out of home ownership, writes Tim Cavanaugh at reason:
No major newspaper seriously questions the truism that foreclosures destroy neighborhoods. No news network doubts that "troubled borrowers" are overwhelmingly good Americans who have been set back by a job loss or medical emergency. And what kind of anti-American Shylock would claim that you shouldn't give bad borrowers government-backed loan modifications, cutting their mortgage payments by 20 percent?The interesting new wrinkle on those old, false arguments is that real estate interventionists no longer pretend they have any real goal other than keeping house prices inflated.
...Life support is expensive. When that troubled borrower gets a 20 percent haircut, his bank has to take a loss, and the bank is compensated for the loss by you, through the $50 billion Home Affordable Modification Program. The Treasury Department has paid more than $100 billion to allow the failed government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to keep on guaranteeing questionable loans. Fannie and Freddie, in turn, have been expanding rather than reducing their loan portfolios--the opposite of what you're supposed to do when you've got an unmanageable debt load.
...Meanwhile, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, "unemployment" and "illness" account for just 9 percent and 6 percent, respectively, of overall defaults. "Excessive obligations"--which in English means you bought more house than you could afford--causes twice as many defaults as unemployment. And the shockingly high rate of re- defaults on modified loans--more than 60 percent in some classes-- argues strongly against loan modification as a public interest.
More to the point, keeping real estate inflated is not an abstract public choice experiment, in which the benefits are concentrated and the costs distributed. The policy has a very discernable victim class: would-be home buyers, whose interests are served not by tax credits or massive debt commitments but by lower asking prices. Perversely, foreclosures are the highest they've ever been in American history, yet it's harder than ever to buy a house. According to the National Association of Realtors, the median down payment by first-time buyers, even after a three-year, debt-driven economic shock, is just 4 percent. One-third of homes are still being purchased with no money down. As we learned (or thought we learned) in 2006, numbers like these are a recipe for cascading misfortunes. Renters should be angrier than ever.
Imagine a yard sale outside the biggest, fanciest house in town. You get there early, eager to buy cool stuff cheap. But every time you see something you like, a police officer comes along with a Sharpie, crosses out the price, and writes in another number that's two or three times higher. Scale that up a bit, and you have the Obama housing plan.
What Hanukah Really Celebrates
Backwardness, primitivism, and irrationality, writes Hitchens on Slate:
Jewish orthodoxy possesses the interesting feature of naming and combating the idea of the apikoros or "Epicurean"--the intellectual renegade who prefers Athens to Jerusalem and the schools of philosophy to the grim old routines of the Torah. About a century and a half before the alleged birth of the supposed Jesus of Nazareth (another event that receives semiofficial recognition at this time of the year), the Greek or Epicurean style had begun to gain immense ground among the Jews of Syria and Palestine. The Seleucid Empire, an inheritance of Alexander the Great--Alexander still being a popular name among Jews--had weaned many people away from the sacrifices, the circumcisions, the belief in a special relationship with God, and the other reactionary manifestations of an ancient and cruel faith. I quote Rabbi Michael Lerner, an allegedly liberal spokesman for Judaism who nonetheless knows what he hates:Along with Greek science and military prowess came a whole culture that celebrated beauty both in art and in the human body, presented the world with the triumph of rational thought in the works of Plato and Aristotle, and rejoiced in the complexities of life presented in the theater of Aeschylus, Euripides and Aristophanes.But away with all that, says Lerner. Let us instead celebrate the Maccabean peasants who wanted to destroy Hellenism and restore what he actually calls "oldtime religion." His excuse for preferring fundamentalist thuggery to secularism and philosophy is that Hellenism was "imperialistic," but the Hasmonean regime that resulted from the Maccabean revolt soon became exorbitantly corrupt, vicious, and divided, and encouraged the Roman annexation of Judea. Had it not been for this no-less imperial event, we would never have had to hear of Jesus of Nazareth or his sect--which was a plagiarism from fundamentalist Judaism--and the Jewish people would never have been accused of being deicidal "Christ killers." Thus, to celebrate Hanukkah is to celebrate not just the triumph of tribal Jewish backwardness but also the accidental birth of Judaism's bastard child in the shape of Christianity. You might think that masochism could do no more. Except that it always can. Without the precedents of Orthodox Judaism and Roman Christianity, on which it is based and from which it is borrowed, there would be no Islam, either. Every Jew who honors the Hanukkah holiday because it gives his child an excuse to mingle the dreidel with the Christmas tree and the sleigh (neither of these absurd symbols having the least thing to do with Palestine two millenniums past) is celebrating the making of a series of rods for his own back. And this is not just a disaster for the Jews. When the fanatics of Palestine won that victory, and when Judaism repudiated Athens for Jerusalem, the development of the whole of humanity was terribly retarded.
JoanneLovesScience Loved "I SEE RUDE PEOPLE"
Very pleased and amused by the review by Joanne Manaster Of JoanneLovesScience.com -- especially by the talking Barbie in front of the Periodic Table at the beginning.
Shame Is Dead
A bunch of gleeful renters are chronicled in a piece over at the WSJ -- a piece by by Mark Whitehouse called "American Dream 2: Default, Then Rent."
Yes, they walked away from their mortgages, and thanks to the housing market, they're able to rent opulent places for a song...freeing up their cash to use on...other things:
Ms. Richey and her family made the move to Club Rancho Drive in August, when she was already several months behind on the mortgage. With Mr. Robbins's help, she recently sold the house on Caspian Drive for $195,000, money that the bank will accept to settle the $430,000 mortgage debt. She's also considering walking away from the mortgages on her two rental properties.Showing a visitor the personal touches in her new home, including a $1,800 dining set she bought with some of her newly available income, she notes the advantages of being a renter rather than an owner.
"You take a risk for the American dream," she says. "I don't have to worry about paying property tax, homeowners' insurance, the landscaping, cleaning the pool or any repairs."
Others on Ms. Richey's block have made similar moves. Mr. Fernandez, the firefighter, moved into 3139 in July, after stopping the $4,800 monthly payments on the home he owned around the corner on Champion Way.
Mr. Fernandez says he made four attempts to modify the larger of the two mortgages on his home, which add up to $423,000. Ultimately, he was offered a monthly payment that, together with back taxes, was higher than what he had been paying. Today he's working to partially reimburse his lenders, IndyMac Bank (now OneWest Bank) and American First Credit Union, by selling the home, which he expects to fetch about $300,000.
...With an income of about $8,300 a month and a rent of $2,200, Mr. Fernandez says he now has the wherewithal to do things he couldn't when he was stretching to pay the mortgage. He recently went to concerts by Rob Thomas and Mat Kearney. He also kept his black BMW 6 Series coupe, which has payments of about $700 a month.
"I don't know if I'll buy another house again, because it's such a huge headache," he says.
Excuse me if I'm being naive, but is firefighting such a lucrative career that firefighters can afford $5,000 house payments (on a home complete with a custom putting green) and $700 car payments? And with this guy's apparent $100K income, if that's true, why couldn't he pay?
You've gotta love how he says buying a house is "such a huge headache." Headache for whom? As Whitehouse wrote earlier in the piece, "Swelling defaults could also mean more losses for taxpayers through bank bailouts."
Hey, Fernandez, enjoy the new pad!
Bank Of America Bends America Over Again
Henry Blodget writes at BusinessInsider:
Bank of America raised $19 billion of new equity. It paid the government $45 billion of TARP funds back. To make up the difference, it borrowed $26 billion of new funds from the Fed (at a subsidized rate, no less).And taxpayers are on the hook every bit as much with the Fed loans to Bank of America as they were for the TARP capital. The only thing that has changed is that taxpayers don't have any control anymore. Bank of America can now take that money and do whatever it wants with it, including paying out tremendous bonuses for making stupid loans.
If you're a customer, they may be bending you over right now for identity thieves.
Read in my book how Bank of America allowed identity thieves to cornhole my bank account on SEVEN separate occasions at banks across the country. Nary a bank card or a PIN number was demanded. Nary a signature check was done. No, it seems, because Bank of America didn't pay the money to connect computers at all their branches across the country, they just accept the most easily forged piece of identification out there, the driver's license, and then they just...HOPE it's you.
I've spent two years BEGGING the bank watchdog, the Comptroller of the Currency, to do something about this. I get form letters back, I call and call and call, and nothing is done. I reported it to the House Finance Committee, the Senate Banking Committee, Jerry Brown's office, Andrew Cuomo's office, the FBI, and the Federal Reserve.
Nothing.
Don't count on government to protect you. I sure don't. But I thought maybe I could goad somebody in government, somebody in the watchdog business, into doing their job. Wrong. (Well, I intend to continue working on it.)
Oh, and if you're new around here, and have yet to read my book, the upshot of my identity theft? Bank of America fired me as a customer for complaining that they failed their fiduciary duty to me...in the wake of bragging to the press that they have "multiple layers of security."
Cool!
As I write in the book, that apparently meant asking the thieves if wanted my money in tens, twenties or hundreds.
Mohammad Is Indefensible
Terrific post over at a blog called Staring at the View, about the man behind Islam, whose actions (sunnah) are supposed to be emulated by Muslims. An excerpt:
I've reached the conclusion that Muslims face an impossible task. Simply put, their entire faith rests upon defending a man - Muhammad - who is indefensible.Wafa Sultan expressed it best when she said, "It is impossible that a man who did the things Muhammad did could be a prophet of God."
It is impossible that a man in his mid-50's could engage in sexual intercourse with a nine-year-old child, possibly damaging her physically so that she never became pregnant, and be a prophet of God.
It is impossible that a man could finance his religious and political community by robbing the trade caravans that passed through his area on their annual trips between Arabia and Syria, and be a prophet of God.
...It is impossible that a man could call other men to follow him, and then watch them die one after the other in the battles he instigated to build his empire while giving them promises of the sensual Paradise that awaited them, and be a prophet of God.
It is impossible that a man could behead 800 Jewish men who had lived in his city for centuries for the simple reason they refused to accept him as their leader, and be a prophet of God.
It is impossible that a man could trade the Jewish wives and daughters of the men he had just beheaded for weapons and horses, and be a prophet of God.
It is impossible that a man could be so fearful of criticism that he would send a man at night to kill the mother of a nursing child because of the poems she had written against him, and be a prophet of God.
It is impossible that a man could sentence a woman to death by having her limbs attached to camels that moved in opposite direction pulling her apart, then behead her and parade her severed head throuth Medina, and be a prophet of God.
The list goes on. Islam, practiced according to the Quran (which is supposed to be taken literally) is not a religion of peace, because the Quran is not a book of peace, and Mohammad was certainly anything but a man of peace.
Turn the other cheek? That's Jesus stuff. Here, from IslamMonitor, are a few examples of the difference:
Jesus taught that the MEEK will inherit the earth. [Beatitudes Matt 5:2-12]
Mohammed taught that through TERROR you will inherit the earth. [Bukhari 4.220]Jesus made those who were blind to see. [Luke 18:35-43]
Mohammed put out eyes to make men blind. [Bukhari 8.794]Jesus made those who were lame to walk. [Matt 9:2-8]
Mohammed cut off feet to make men lame. [Bukhari 8.794]Jesus healed withered hands. [Matt 12:9-13]
Mohammed cut off hands. [Bukhari 8.795]Jesus saved an adulterous woman from stoning. [John 8:1]
Mohammed stoned women for adultery. [Muslim 17.4194]
I'm an atheist, as I see no evidence there is a god, but I see plenty of evidence that Islam, correctly practiced (as directed by the Quran) is a religion that endangers western freedoms and democracy and the lives of anyone who doesn't believe in Allah.
"If You Aren't With Us, You're Evil"
Brian Doherty writes in reason about the "progressive" approach to dissent on healthcare:
Their increasingly shrill reaction to the debate has revealed a disturbing strain of American political thought that cannot comprehend how anyone could disagree with a big-government solution to health care without being evil, stupid, insane, or all three. Faced with the infuriating complication of democratic dissent, advocates of greater government involvement in health care, including some federal officials, have unleashed a vicious campaign against a sizable political minority.For many, the Obama administration botched reform from the get-go by ruling out one longstanding progressive goal: a universal "single payer" system, in which the government spends every health care dollar, instead of the current 50 percent, with no competitive market in medical insurance at all. "In the real world," declared the incendiary Rolling Stone columnist Matt Taibbi, who combines Hunter Thompson-style invective with policy wonkery, "nothing except a single-payer system makes any sense." Having to live in our allegedly nonsensical world has driven single-payer enthusiasts mad.
Their consolation prize was supposed to be a "public option," a government-run insurance plan that all Americans could buy into (not just the elderly and poor, as with existing Medicare and Medicaid), theoretically outcompeting private insurers on both cost containment and care quality. But when the on-again, off-again public option appeared (prematurely, it turned out) to have died in the fall, it was, Taibbi wrote in October, "the moment when our government lost us for good. It was that bad."
It isn't just journalists saying this stuff. Madam Pelosi, writes Doherty, called health insurers "immoral ...villains" -- while backing plans to force every American to buy insurance from them. Harry Reid called citizens "evil mongers" for speaking out against the health care legislation.
Doherty continues:
The odd debate reveals something disturbing about how American progressives, in and out of power, view politics. After eight years of what they perceived as illegitimate, dangerous, and idiotic government, it was time for their set of sweeping solutions, so inarguably right, to be enacted. The attitude is disturbingly illiberal: They know the proper solution to a problem, a solution that involves commanding the resources and liberty of the entire country. Anyone who objects or obstructs is dangerous and deserves to be ignored, shouted down, marginalized, even deported. There are decent, smart, independent thinkers who want to make sure all Americans should live and be well. Then there are those, wallowing in their own greedy crapulence, who, because either their pockets or their heads are filled with the filthy detritus of insurance industry cash and lies, want Americans to die. That second group, it should go without saying, scarcely deserves a place at the table of American democracy.This tarring of the minority is not limited to progressives. From a perspective of political "realism," the conservative writer James Pinkerton suggested in October at Fox News' website that libertarian-leaning voices in the debate need to realize that government management of huge parts of the health care economy are so universally popular that it's a waste of time and brain power to even talk about opposing them. Such voices should back Republican proposals for big-government solutions and show "respect for the majority," he concluded.
Barb Oakley, Science Pimp
My good friend, engineering prof Barb Oakley, doesn't dress like a typical pimp -- no huge shades indoors, no diamond insets on her teeth spelling out "Newton." But, she gets invited to come to Washington to be one every year -- a pimp for teaching science and math, but not in the way kids can learn it best. She blogs on Psychology Today:
I'm expected to join a small legion of volunteers to beg my senators and representatives to spend tax money on a program called the Math and Science Partnerships. This program is supposed to help improve how math and science is taught in this country. What could be wrong with that?...Narrow intellectual gatekeeping is omnipresent in academia. Want to know why the government wastes hundreds of millions of dollars on math and science programs that never seem to improve the test scores of American students?[3] Part of the reason for this is that today's K-12 educators--unlike educators in other high-scoring countries of the world--refuse to acknowledge evidence that memorization plays an important role in mastering mathematics. Any proposed program that supports memorization is deemed to be against "creativity" by today's intellectual gatekeepers in K-12 education, including those behind the Math and Science Partnerships. As one NSF program director told me: "We hear about success stories with practice and repetition-based programs like Kumon Mathematics. But I'll be frank with you--you'll never get anything like that funded. We don't believe in it." Instead the intellectual leadership in education encourages enormously expensive pimping programs that put America even further behind the international learning curve.
This echoes the fight against English immersion -- shown to be the best way for Hispanic, non-English-speaking kids to get ahead -- that another friend of mine, Heather Mac Donald, writes about on City Journal:
The Oceanside school district, on the Pacific coast north of San Diego, became the emblem for the new English immersion. Superintendent Kenneth Noonan, a former bilingual teacher himself and cofounder of the California Association of Bilingual Education, had opposed Prop. 227, but once it passed, he determined that Oceanside would follow the law to the letter. He applied the criteria for granting bilingual waivers strictly and ended up creating no Spanish-taught classes. He then sat back with considerable trepidation and waited. "Trained bilingual teachers started calling me," he says. "'You've got to see what's happening down here,' they said. I thought: 'I guess it's true, the sky has fallen.' " But when Noonan visited their classrooms, he found that these new converts to immersion were "glowing with a sense of success."The first four months were difficult, Noonan recalls, but then the students took off. Second-grade test scores in reading rose nearly 100 percent in two years--with the average student moving from California's 13th percentile to its 24th--after staying flat for years. These accomplishments didn't stop protesters from holding candlelight vigils outside the Oceanside school board's offices and from filing federal and state civil rights complaints challenging the district's strict waiver policies. Those complaints were eventually rejected.
...And the transformation in the classroom has to be seen to be believed. It is extraordinary, for example, to observe elementary school teachers in Santa Ana, once a bastion of bilingual education, talking to their young Hispanic students exclusively in English about the Great Wall of China. It is just as extraordinary to see those students eagerly raising their hands to read English workbooks aloud in class. The main sign that the students are not native English speakers is an occasional reminder about past-tense formation or the pronunciation of word endings, but plenty of English-only speakers in the state need such assistance, too. Schools are not universally following the time frame set out in Prop. 227: a year of separate instruction in English followed by integration with English-only students. In some schools, English learners remain cloistered for a longer period. But regardless of classroom composition, English learners are being taught "overwhelmingly in English," which is the most important goal of 227.
Self-esteem seems fine. "I didn't know how to speak English in first grade," says a husky fourth-grade boy at Adams Elementary School in Santa Ana. "I just figured out at the end of the year and talked all English." The boy's classmates, who are sitting next to him at a picnic table under a pepper tree for lunch, jostle to get in on the interview. They are fluent in schoolyard insults. "He's a special ed!" one boy says of another. "I am not a special ed, you liar!" retorts the target. The fifth-grade girls at a table nearby complain that the boys are lazy. A slender girl has recently arrived from Mexico. Her translator for that day, a tiny blue-eyed girl named Lily, drapes her arm lovingly around the new immigrant and will sit next to her in all their classes, explaining what the teacher is saying. The pair and their fellow pupils amble back into the school after lunch, any signs of psychological distress well concealed. No one reports unhappiness at speaking English in class; on the contrary, they brag that it's easy.
Passports Are Harder To Forge
Unfortunately, that's not true of the documents it takes to get one:
Since 2007, the U.S. State Department has been issuing high-tech "e-passports," which contain computer chips carrying biometric data to prevent forgery. Unfortunately, according to a March report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), getting one of these supersecure passports under false pretenses isn't particularly difficult for anyone with even basic forgery skills.A GAO investigator managed to obtain four genuine U.S. passports using fake names and fraudulent documents. In one case, he used the Social Security number of a man who had died in 1965. In another, he used the Social Security number of a fictitious 5-year-old child created for a previous investigation, along with an ID showing that he was 53 years old. The investigator then used one of the fake passports to buy a plane ticket, obtain a boarding pass, and make it through a security checkpoint at a major U.S. airport. (When presented with the results of the GAO investigation, the State Department agreed that there was a "major vulnerability" in the passport issuance process and agreed to study the matter.)
via Schneier
So, Amy Alkon, How Were YOU Raised?!
In the wake of my LA Times op-ed on screaming children on planes and the people who "parent" them (published in papers almost from here to Dubai, including papers across Australia...and garnering hate mail from all of those places), many people wanted to know what I was like as a child; or, more specifically, how I was parented.
I do describe my childhood in the piece: Raised by parents I refer to as "loving fascists." I wrote that, when I was a kid, I believed that I could flap my arms and fly, but the idea that I could ever be loud in a public place or kick the back of somebody's seat in a movie theater did not exist for me in what was possible in the known universe.
Here's a little something I cut from the "The Underparented Child" chapter of my book before publication (went and searched for it in an earlier version of the manuscript):
I asked my dad whether my two sisters and I ever threw screaming fits as children. He said "No, not after you were little babies," and added, "We always talked to you girls as adults, and expected you to act like adults when we took you to restaurants or other adult places. You were children, so you didn't always do the right thing. But, we'd say, 'Girls, that's not done here,' and you'd listen."
Welcome to the lost art of parenting!
For more on how I behaved and why, I again went to the source. And sorry for not posting this sooner. Been sick. It was all I could do for a week to hang my hoarse head over the massive humidifier Gregg got me in hopes of helping me get my voice back.
My dad wrote:
Wednesday, November 25, 2009Hi Honey,
After you called Mother this morning, I went through our photo albums looking at the numerous pictures of you and your sisters as little girls. I really got a "kick" out of it. Mother said you wanted my comments on how we handled you from a conduct standpoint as little girls.
First of all, we never ever punished you or spanked you. You were lovingly raised and taught rightful procedure at every opportunity. Loving instruction and not discipline was the name of the game.
We were conscious of your conduct at all times and would tell you in the nicest manner if there was something you were doing that was not correct or polite or might reflect on you in a negative sense.
Our purpose was and is never to hurt you but to improve you in any way that we can ----and still is.
Your loving Papa
Basically, there was a certain level of civilized and considerate behavior expected of us. My parents made that expectation completely clear, and we really didn't conceive of ourselves having any other choice but to meet it.
This has a positive affect on me even today. This past week, I was sick as hell, slept for days, and couldn't speak. (My editorial assistant and Gregg found this hilarious. They'd talk and I'd type back on Skype.) But, sick as I was, I finished my column, to the usual level of quality, and sent it out on time. I always tell papers (in case they don't get the column because it's in their spam folder), "If I'm not in a coma or dead, you'll get the column."
Thanks, Mom and Dad!
Forget Who's At Fault; Sue The Deepest Pockets
It's truly horrible that this woman's mother was killed after her car was hit by a driver talking on his cell phone, but blame lies with that driver, not the cell phone manufacturer or the wireless company that provided his service. Yet, that's who she's suing.
Matt Richtel writes in The New York Times about the suit brought by the woman, 35-year-old Jennifer Smith:
"This is a compelling type of legal claim," said Kenneth A. Bamberger, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. "It deals with the widespread use of a product we now know is involved in significant risk and deals with the ultimate question of who should contribute in minimizing the risk."The lawsuit, filed in October, involves a crash in Oklahoma City on Sept. 3, 2008. Ms. Smith's mother, Linda Doyle, 61, died after her Toyota Rav4 was hit by a Ford pickup driven by Christopher Hill. Mr. Hill, then 20, told the police he was so distracted by a cellphone call that he ran a red light at 45 miles an hour, hitting Ms. Doyle's car as it crossed in front of him.
Mr. Hill was talking on a Samsung UpStage phone on the Sprint Nextel service. Samsung declined to comment. Sprint Nextel said that it "rejects the claims of negligence" in the suit and that it includes safety messages on packaging and user manuals, on its Web site and in its advertising.
I'm so sorry for Smith's going through, but suing the manufacturer and wireless company is like suing a gun manufacturer when a person is murdered with a handgun -- or suing a mascara manufacturer when you're rear-ended by a woman applying makeup behind the wheel.
Of course, it isn't appliance direction booklets (which maybe aren't even read) that keep people from negligent behavior, but caring enough about other human beings to take adequate care when, say, speeding down the road in a several-ton vehicle.
via Overlawyered
The Politburo, American-Style
From the WSJ, William McGurn writes in a piece titled, "My Big Fat Government Takeover - Rule by the best and the brightest," about the misplaced faith in Big Government and the smartypants hotshots most likely to have it:
Some mistakes are so big that only smart people are tempted to make them. One is the faith in Big Government.We'll see that in full force today, when Barack Obama gives another major address on the economy. On the generalities, there won't be much real disagreement. But at a time when many claim to see no difference between the two political parties, President Obama and his Democratic allies are making one distinction paramount: their operating assumption that bigger government is better government.
Many of the people in the Obama administration, the president included, enjoy all the credentials we associate with the best and the brightest: the right schools, the good grades, the successful careers. Alas, whether it be allocating health care or defining the kind of jobs the economy ought to create, the policies they favor suggest a strong belief that they know what's best not just for themselves, but for everyone else too.
Of course, the kind of people who are apt to push for government-imposed solutions are those who are also apt to believe they will be the ones imposing decisions, not the ones who have to live with decisions imposed by others. Sometimes that's because they enjoy the wealth that gives them escape hatches unavailable to the less affluent, such as their ability to ensure that their own children never have to set foot in a public school. Mostly, however, their trust in government reflects their confidence that they have all the answers and that it's government's job to enforce them.
Anybody with any real-world experience has experienced that bureaucracy doesn't make things better -- except for the bureaucrats.
While we're at it, don't be too quick to think of the Republicans as the party of small government. They just say they are, and they just happen to be the party of less big government than the Democrats.
UPDATE: Why the kleptocracy could very well be leading to America's collapse, by Dr. Mark W. Henderson at visandvandals.org:
Decades of so-called "progressive" thought have led us to abandon the limited-government, constitutional republic established by our founding fathers. In the name of putting more power into the hands of "the people," the government has arrogated sweeping powers.There is a famous passage (possibly cobbled together from several separate statements and authors) that explains democracy's fatal flaw, the inherently self-destructive element that caused our founding fathers to distrust democracy (google "James Madison on democracy" for more):
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.Crude, majoritarian democracy (as in, "there are more of us than there are of you, so we're going to redistribute your wealth") inevitably undermines the harmony of society. A free market, as competitive as it is, is based on peaceful, voluntary cooperation. When commerce is free and unfettered by government interference, both sides to a transaction normally gain, thereby promoting social harmony.
...Many Americans have been taught to believe that they are entitled to a share of other people's property, even if they have contributed nothing of value to society themselves and have made poor choices. The other social "contract" is the traditional implicit promise of America: namely, that if you work hard, you are entitled to the fruits of your labor.
When a financial crackup occurs, those who have been taught to depend on government will demand continued government benefits. If government fails to provide them, those demands could turn violent. On the other hand, if government moves to confiscate a significant chunk of whatever wealth remains in the hands of an already-hurting middle class, then millions of peaceful, law-abiding, hard-working Americans may finally reach the breaking point and rebel, as our forebears did in the 1770s, against a government viewed as abusive and oppressive.
Just Hand Out Fistfuls Of Cash
Andrew Malcolm blogs at the LAT, based on a piece by James Pethokoukis over at Reuters, that each new job the stimulus spending paid for cost $246,436:
Total compensation earned by the average American payroll employee during the month of October would be $59,867 on an annualized basis, Pethokoukis reports. That's only 24% of the nearly quarter-million-dollars it costs the federal government to create that spot.Had Obama and Biden simply handed out 60-grand as a year's salary, they could have paid for 2.6 million jobs, four times as many as they've actually created. That's the kind of disastrous return on investment that could cost a banker his bonus.
On the other hand, simply handing out the dough to nearly 3 million people would have drastically curtailed the nation's 2009 production of ribbon-cutting photo ops in congressional districts across the land.
Why Switzerland Has The Lowest Crime Rate In The World
There's more to Switzerland than mountains, chocolate, and bank accounts. Very interesting video.
via Insty
Understanding What Went Wrong On Wall Street
A friend who knows the finance end of things, who always has good recommendations, suggested reading this book, Charles Gasparino's The Sellout: How Three Decades of Wall Street Greed and Government Mismanagement Destroyed the Global Financial System
Combine it with my book, I See Rude People: One woman's battle to beat some manners into impolite society
An Abortion Story
It's not all black and white. From truthout, by Amanda Mueller, a Catholic couple's painful decision:
As painful was it was for the Andersons to hear that this child they wanted so badly might not live even after the surgeries intended to repair damage, they were forced to make a decision that not only challenged their personal strength, but where they fit into their Catholic faith.After a frank discussion with their specialist, they decided that not only did the quality of life of their unborn child need to be questioned, but the life expectancy even if surgeries were successful. There were no guarantees and one day, one month or one year could be added to the life of their child, but not much more than that. After discussing every option available to them, the decision to visit Dr. George Tiller's office in Kansas to have a late-term abortion was made. Both Andersons sunk into a depression, feeling as if they were losing both their child and their religion.
"We are Catholic. We are supposed to be against abortion, but the church teaches mercy as well. The church examines quality of life. It isn't a black and white issue as so many like to make it," Robert says, looking away while fondling with his fingers the golden crucifix he wears around his neck.
As they packed their car to travel to Wichita, Kansas, members of their parish came, trying to talk them out of their decision. Unable to deal with the confrontation, Gail admits she almost called the trip off at the last minute, unsure of how she would be able to sit next to these women in mass. These were the same women she had gathered with outside of a clinic that performed abortions in Metairie, Louisiana, once a month, coming together, praying for the souls of the unborn babies; for the souls of those making this choice. They traveled in silence, both trying to come to terms with their own perceived failures in the choice they were making.
via ifeminists
The Crime Of Teaching Yoga Without State Intervention
Virginia's unconstitutional regulation of yoga teacher training:
The marketplace should be the judge. If you're a terrible yoga teacher, nobody will study with you, and no other teachers will want to study with whomever you studied with.
Is it just me, or is more and more being criminalized, or at least being made illegal these days?
"Some Nightmare America Ruled By Con Men In $2,000 Suits"
Ben Stein had a good piece on CBS Sunday Morning about taxpayer welfare to Wall Street and the bonuses Wall Street is about to pay out. An excerpt:
Thanks largely to government policies where the Fed lends money to the big banks at 25 hundredths of a point, then taxpayers borrow it back at 3.5 percent, thanks to the easy money gushing out of the Fed-easy money for the Big Boys (not for you), Wall Street is planning to pay bonuses to its executives on a par with what they paid in 2007 . . . before the crash . . . before the rest of America was pauperized.Just one huge investment bank called Goldman Sachs was bailed out in many lavish ways by both the Bush and Obama administrations. Now they plan to pay themselves bonuses of roughly $20 billion for the holidays
This is not a fantasy. This is really happening.
Surely, is not the America we are sending our children to fight and die for in Iraq and Afghanistan . . . surely, is not the America our grandfathers and fathers fought for at Normandy and Iwo Jima?
This is some nightmare America, ruled by con men in $2,000 suits.
I love capitalism, and have many friends on Wall Street. But this is just plain shameful.
America, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."
The Best Of Intentions
The emperor has no taste.
Brad Pitt gave New Orleans some ugly-ass houses. Now, I'm no priss about modern architecture. I like some of it a lot, but I've been to New Orleans and the hideous and self-consciously busy houses Brad Pitt had some architecture firms build there don't fit in at all. Check out the photos at The New York Times article by Fred A. Bernstein. Bernstein writes:
James Dart, a Manhattan-based architect who was born and raised in New Orleans, described the houses as "alien, sometimes even insulting," adding, "the biggest problem is that they are not grounded in the history of New Orleans architecture." But, like other architects I spoke to, he expressed admiration for Mr. Pitt. "He deserves a great deal of credit," Mr. Dart said, adding that Mr. Pitt had "done more for New Orleans" than any government agency.Jennifer Pearl, a broker who has several houses for sale in the Lower Ninth, has a practical view. "Brad has the very best intentions," she said. "However, had he come here with houses that looked like what had been here before, he probably could have had four times, five times as many houses up by now."
Another issue with the houses (except for Mr. Mayne's) is their elevation: to protect them from future floods, they have been built on stilts that turn their front porches into catwalks. The goal of porches is to create a sense of community, and that's hard to do when neighbors and passersby are literally overshadowed.
"It's like New York -- you know, the skyscrapers," said Ms. LeBlanc, who lives in a single-story house next to one of the much larger Make It Right creations, like a Mini Cooper boxed in by SUVs. "And there are going to be more," she added.
Virgina Postrel writes about the Times article:
The piece suggests, rather gently, that the actor has made a common mistake: giving what pleases him rather than what the recipient wants. The displaced residents of the Ninth Ward would like comfortable, inexpensive, and quickly available houses. Pitt prefers cutting-edge architecture. Residents are grateful for his generosity and good wishes, but their gratitude is tinged with regret for what might have been if he'd heeded their desires.
Free Speech Taking Its Last Breaths In Europe
Maybe people here in America who take our right to free speech for granted would think twice if they knew what passes for it in Canada and other places we consider free western democracies.
Incredible interview reprinted in English on Jihadwatch with Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, by S.M. Steinitz, for profil (Austria's equivalent to "Time" magazine and "Der Spiegel") on the charges of "hate" speech against her for speaking the truth about the dangers to free democratic western societies from the creep of Islam. An excerpt:
Mrs. Sabaditsch-Wolff, are you afraid of Muslims?No, I am afraid of political Islam, which is massively gaining influence in Europe. That is what I am against.
What is your goal?
I want to preserve Europe and its democratic and secular values.
What bothers you about the Islamic way of life?
Islamic doctrine discriminates against women and non-Muslims. Islamic law, or shariah, cannot be reconciled with democratic principles and universal human rights.
...You are accused of making the following statements, among others: "Muslims rape children because of their religion", or "Mohammed enjoyed contact with children." Why the polemics?
This is a clever strategy. You and all the others who are now crying wolf are locked in a choice of words. As a result you are able to maneuver yourselves away from the main point. It is a fact that Mohammed married a six-year-old at the age of 56. To this day men in Islamic countries view this as legitimizing marriage to a minor, thereby causing rape and life-long trauma. This is the problem we need to address, and not how circumscribe this bitter reality.
Are you afraid that these customs will become part of Europe?
There are groups who have this goal. In every Islamic system you find that human rights of young girls are in grave danger. Look at Saudi Arabia. Look at the former socialist South Yemen. When Khomeini came to power he lowered the minimum age for girls to get married to nine years.
You are being accused of Islamophobia. Does this bother you?
A phobia is an irrational fear. My worries are not irrational, but justified. One of these days our politicians will have to recognize this fact. People like me are not right-wing xenophobes.
...But isn't the referendum on the minaret ban in Switzerland also a step backwards?
The result of the referendum is the best proof that politicians should finally take the Islamization of Europe seriously.
What do you think about the reaction from the Islamic world regarding the referendum?
The Islamic world leads in discrimination against religious minorities. Christians are persecuted and discriminated against in all Islamic countries. You have to remember that the Christian culture is not one that immigrated or is foreign; it is indigenous. There is a complete ban on building churches in Turkey. And now Erdogan speaks of discrimination against Muslims in Switzerland? Where are Muslims being discriminated against in Switzerland? The European elite allows the Islamic countries to walk all over themselves while bowing down to them.
Read the whole thing at the link.
Today's "I See Rude People" Quote
Just love the name of the column -- John Wilcock's "The Column of Lasting Insignificance." Here's the quote he pulled from my book, I SEE RUDE PEOPLE: One woman's battle to beat some manners into impolite society:
"An aggressive lack of consideration for others is spreading across the country (and) although people are quick to blame rampant rudeness on advances in technology, the truth is, rudeness is the human condition...We modern humans are a bunch of self-involved jerks, the same as generations of humans before us. We're guided by quaint Stone Age brains suited to manage social interactions within a small tribe--yet we're living in endlessly sprawling areas that would more accurately be called 'stranger-hoods' than neighborhoods."
--flame-haired syndicated advice columnist Amy Alkon in her book I See Rude People.
Obama Talks Limp On Afghanistan
Steyn in the OCReg on Obama's "We'll be out by July 2011" speech:
If you happen to live in Kabul or Jalalabad, Ghurian or Kandahar, then a U.S. presidential speech about Afghanistan is, indeed, about Afghanistan. If you live anywhere else on the planet, a U.S. presidential speech about Afghanistan is really about America - about American will, American purpose, American energy. How quickly the bright new dawn fades to the gray morning after. In Europe, the long-awaited unveiling of this most thoughtful of presidents' deliberations got mixed reviews - some bad, some brutal. Der Spiegel called it "half-hearted," The Guardian called it "desperate." And those are his friends....So what do you think Obama's speech did for the enemy's will? He basically told 'em: We can only stick another 19 months, so all you gotta do is hang in there for 20. And in an astonishingly vulgar line even by the standards of this White House's crass speechwriters, he justified his announcement of an exit date by saying it was "because the nation that I'm most interested in building is our own." Or, as Frank Sinatra once observed, "It's Very Nice To Go Trav'ling/But it's so much nicer ... to come home":
"It's very nice to just wander the camel route to Iraq. ... But it's so much nicer, yes, it's oh so nice to wander back."
As I said, Obama's speech is only about Afghanistan if you're in Afghanistan. If you're in Moscow or Tehran, Pyongyang or Caracas, it's about America. And what it told them is that, if you're a local strongman with regional ambitions, or a rogue state going nuclear, or a mischief-making kleptocracy dusting off old tsarist dreams, this president is not going to be pressing your reset button. Strange how an allegedly compelling speaker is unable to fake even perfunctory determination and resilience. Strange, too, how all the sophisticated nuances of post-Bush foreign policy "realism" seem so unreal when you're up there trying to sell them as a coherent strategy. Go back half-a-decade, to when the administration was threatening to shove democracy down the throats of every two-bit basket case whether they want it or not. Democratizing the planet is, in a Council of Foreign Relations sense, "unrealistic," but talking it up is a very realistic way of messing with the dictators' heads. A pipsqueak like Boy Assad sleeps far more soundly today than he did back when he thought Bush meant it, and so did the demonstrators threatening his local enforcers in Lebanon.
Is Foie Gras Torture?
Sara DiGregorio investigates the biggest duck farm in the country, Hudson Valley Foie Gras. An excerpt from her very interesting piece:
The woman sat on the stool, put the wooden divider in the middle of the pen, and reached for the first bird. She positioned the bird's body under her leg, eased the tube down the bird's throat, and poured a cupful of feed into the funnel above. A rotating auger spins in the funnel to make sure all of it goes down the pipe, but the food is delivered by gravity. The birds did not relish being grabbed, but the actual process with the tube didn't seem to bother them much. They sat with the tube down their throat for a very short period of time-about 10 to 15 seconds-without struggling or showing sign of distress. The whole process-pick up, position, feed, and release-took about 30 seconds. I watched the birds closely as they walked away from the feeding. Each waddled calmly away, looking unfazed: no breathing problems, no vomiting, and no trouble walking. Their feathers were fairly clean, and I didn't see any lesions on their feet or bodies.But these ducks were only on their 12th day of force-feeding, so I asked to see the ducks on their 21st day again-this time, to pay more attention to the details of the feeding. We went back up to the area where we had started from. Some of the cages that were full when we saw them earlier were now half-empty, because some ducks actually go to slaughter earlier than the 22nd day. The feeder feels the base of each duck's esophagus (sometimes called a "pseudo-crop"), where feed is held that has yet to be digested. Birds that haven't digested the last feeding are marked with blue chalk and not fed. If they still haven't digested by the next feeding, they're not fed yet again and are marked with pink chalk and taken with the next batch to be slaughtered.
The birds on their 21st day of feeding appeared very much like the ones at 12 days, but were fatter and had dirtier feathers. The birds are bathed on the second and 10th days of feeding, but Henley said the farm was working with its animal-welfare consultants to find a way to keep the birds' feathers cleaner and thus prevent sores. These birds' reactions to the force-feeding were indistinguishable from those of the 12th-day birds. I looked for the signs that I'd been told would show me that the birds were desperately ill, but these birds, on their 21st day, were not having trouble walking or breathing, they weren't having seizures, and they weren't comatose.
I was at the farm for five hours, all told. I saw thousands of ducks, but not a drop of duck vomit. I didn't see an animal that was having a hard time breathing or walking, or a duck with a bloodied beak or blown-open esophagus. I did see one dead duck. And now I was going to see many more, as I went to the area where they are slaughtered.
And the upshot:
Personally, I would avoid foie gras from the producers in France and Canada that use individual cages. The fact that some industrial farms elsewhere are making foie gras in inhumane ways doesn't mean that all foie gras production is inhumane. You can buy humanely raised chicken, or you can buy chicken that's had a nasty, brutal life. The same goes for foie gras.If I had seen with my own eyes that Hudson Valley produced foie gras by abusing ducks, this article would have turned out very differently. But that just wasn't the case.
via Dr. Eades (good to follow on Twitter at @DrEades)
Living On Less
You'd think that's what would happen if Daddy loses his job. Not if Mommy and Daddy are divorced. Robert Franklin, Esq. blogs at GlennSacks.com:
John Nelson went from six-figure-earning software exectutive to unemployed overnight. But his $2,200 child support payment didn't change that quickly. It took a year for him to get a hearing, and when he finally did, the judge increased his obligation. By that time he had gotten a job as a science teacher, but the newly-upped child support obligation meant that he took home a grand total of $58 per week. Read about it here (WFTV, 11/9/09).The judge, Julian Piggotte's attitude was you "can afford it; figure it out." Then she discovered that she had a conflict of interest in Nelson's case and withdrew.
His ex-wife sees the situation this way:
"Our lives go on. The kids still have lunches, they still go to school, and they still have field trips."That's true. And if she and John were still together, the kids would need to be fed and go to school, but their standard of living would drop along with that of their parents. That's what happens when parents lose their jobs - parents and children live on less. They all manage the best they can. It's one of the sometimes-harsh realities of daily life.Only if the parents are divorced does the concept arise that the children's lives must in no way change due to a parent's loss of income. It's as if Judge Piggotte lives in a fantasy world in which children must and do remain unaffected when their father loses his job. Indeed, it's the same fantasy world in which an adult can live on $58 per week.
Yeah, Innappropriate, But Grounds For Firing?
Ryan Haraughty, an eighth grade science teacher made, not really a dirty joke, but a dirty allusion in class -- by accident, it sounds like -- and got fired for it for creating a "sexually hostile environment," after a parent complained.
From Fox4KC:
Haraughty says that the charges that led to his dismissal are based on a single incident, when he drew a map of the United States to help explain how the jet stream works."I drew Florida out of proportion," said Haraughty. "The kids jump all over stuff like that, 'Oh Mr. Haraughty, Florida is all wrong. OK, whatever, not thinking, I said, 'Florida got excited.' And right after, I'm thinking, you know, but I decided I'm not going to dwell on it."
But one parent did dwell on the incident, and complained to the school. And now Haraughty is out of a job and his students left without a teacher.
"He pushes people, he works with you to make sure you do better at school," said former student Kayalie Stabler. "He can be your friend and he can be your teacher."
That sentiment was shared by dozens of students who protested on Tuesday at the Middle School, and hundreds of people who showed up to support hims at the school board meeting on Monday night, where Haraughty was fired on the grounds that he created a sexually hostile environment at school.
Now, if there's some pattern of the guy being inappropriate in class, and he's been warned, okay. But, that doesn't seem to be the case.
My pal, Lenore Skenazy, over at FreeRangeKids, blogs about the idiocy of this, "Can Hearing One Dirty Joke Ruin A Kid?":
Ironically, it's quite possible that this child did move on. But having told mom or dad about the incident, the parent did not. That's because some parents are not only convinced that they can control their child's every experience, they are also convinced that if they don't control it all - that if their kid gets a B when he should have gotten a B+, say, or gets picked last for tag, or sees a movie that's too grown-up, or hears a joke that's shocking, or eventually doesn't get into the "right" college - all bets are off. The kid is hurt, perhaps irreparably.I still remember my friend's 80-year-old grandmother telling me about the time some guy called her and her sister over to his car, and showed them the real world version of the science teacher's drawing of Florida. "We still giggle about that," she said.
Giggle? She didn't consider the experience traumatizing. It didn't become the defining moment of her life. It was a weird and obviously memorable event. But it did not throw her off forever.
We forget how resilient kids are. In fact, we tend to emphasize the potentially terrible consequences of every untoward event (this is a country addicted to TV talk shows, after all). Fearing the worst, we attempt to engineer every moment, forgetting that one of the things that makes kids resilient is dealing with some difficulties.
One R-rated joke by a great science teacher is not going to ruin any kid's life. Growing up with a parent who thinks it will - that's another story.
Growing up without a great science teacher -- that's another story, too.
Nice Review Of My Book In The American Spectator
Thanks, Martin, for spotting it. It's by Christopher Orlet. An excerpt:
As far as Alkon is concerned, over-indulgent parents, cell phone loudmouths, dinner-time telemarketers (I would add leaf blower operators and motorcyclists with the loud pipes) are petty thieves. They are not just inconsiderate and rude, they are privacy muggers and bush league socio-paths, who steal our time and our peace of mind. And, for that, they should be invoiced for time wasted. Worse, they have hordes of enablers who rush to their defense, telling us to "deal," or "give 'em a break," or "if you don't like it, go to the library!" It's like the entire nation has Stockholm Syndrome, Alkon says, "where the hostage goes all cuddly on their kidnappers."Naturally, the Advice Goddess has a solution, one that is equal parts "pay it forward" and corrective justice: treat strangers like neighbors, but do not be impassive victims of rude behavior. Alkon even suggests following the French example of correcting other people's bratty children in public. Confrontation, however, is not always an option. One must pick one's fights, which usually means confronting only old ladies and moms and businessmen. "I...make it my business to just suck it up whenever somebody barking into a cell phone is wearing one of those gangland shower caps or looks like they might be armed," she writes.
Civilization does not come naturally to us, says Alkon. We have to aspire to it. To help us out, Alkon offers one little piece of advice that will make getting along with strangers a lot easier: It [comes] down to this: Your right to have loud, dull cell phone conversations [or to bring your screaming child on a plane] ends where the rest of our ears begin." Let's hope the inconsiderate bastards are listening.
The Narrative Got Him
Thomas Friedman, in The New York Times, asks what was behind Major Hasan's mass murder, and concludes it was "The Narrative":
The Narrative is the cocktail of half-truths, propaganda and outright lies about America that have taken hold in the Arab-Muslim world since 9/11. Propagated by jihadist Web sites, mosque preachers, Arab intellectuals, satellite news stations and books -- and tacitly endorsed by some Arab regimes -- this narrative posits that America has declared war on Islam, as part of a grand "American-Crusader-Zionist conspiracy" to keep Muslims down.Yes, after two decades in which U.S. foreign policy has been largely dedicated to rescuing Muslims or trying to help free them from tyranny -- in Bosnia, Darfur, Kuwait, Somalia, Lebanon, Kurdistan, post-earthquake Pakistan, post-tsunami Indonesia, Iraq and Afghanistan -- a narrative that says America is dedicated to keeping Muslims down is thriving.
Although most of the Muslims being killed today are being killed by jihadist suicide bombers in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Indonesia, you'd never know it from listening to their world. The dominant narrative there is that 9/11 was a kind of fraud: America's unprovoked onslaught on Islam is the real story, and the Muslims are the real victims -- of U.S. perfidy.
Have no doubt: we punched a fist into the Arab/Muslim world after 9/11, partly to send a message of deterrence, but primarily to destroy two tyrannical regimes -- the Taliban and the Baathists -- and to work with Afghans and Iraqis to build a different kind of politics. In the process, we did some stupid and bad things. But for every Abu Ghraib, our soldiers and diplomats perpetrated a million acts of kindness aimed at giving Arabs and Muslims a better chance to succeed with modernity and to elect their own leaders.
Death On The Dole
Australian Muslim cleric with seven children, on welfare for 19 years, was, at the same time, plotting the death of the Australians paying his way:
Advice Goddess Free Swim
A little something different today, until I can put up some blog items -- you pick the topic. But, remember, one link per comment, if you post a link, so you won't get eaten by my spam filter.
Oh, and for starters, here's a link to a mention in an LA Times blog item of a notion I had about making a marriage license more like a driver's license:
As for ending marriages, I'd be open to some tinkering with the "till death do us part" system that results in too many expensive, drawn-out divorce battles. In 2007, Amy Alkon (whose recent Times Op-Ed article on unruly children in airplanes spent a good chunk of time on our "most viewed" and "most e-mailed" lists) suggested that marriage contracts ought to be more like driver's licenses: Every few years, couples would have to renew them. An intriguing idea, but a practical one?
An excerpt from that blog item of mine:
What's wrong with seven-year marriages if that's what people want? Personally, I don't believe in marriage, and I think living together is uncivilized, and kills your sex life. In my advice column, I've recommended that a marriage license be more like a driver's license -- renewable if you don't scream at your spouse too much, or start withholding sex. Why would that be a bad idea?And P.S. For people with kids, I think there should be a "delivery room through dorm room" plan, with an option to renew.
And a message for nitwit Mitt: What France does have, which is pretty damn smart, is a registered partner agreement (the PACS -- pacte civil de solidarité) for people like me who don't want to get married, but would still like the right to visit their partner in the hospital and continue living in their apartment after the partner dies, just to name a couple of examples.
Pedophilia And Child Abduction Have Company
Wave-ophilia?
An elderly Nova Scotia couple were accused of child attempted child abduction for...incredibly...waving at a kid on a bike. From the Chronicle Herald:
Patsy McCara said it all began when they went to buy groceries and spotted a little boy on a bike outside a Sobeys store.She said her husband waved at the child as they drove past.
"We parked and both got out of our truck. My husband went into the tobacco shop and I went into Sobeys and picked up several articles," she said in an interview.
When she returned to their truck, an RCMP cruiser was parked immediately behind the vehicle and her husband was seated inside.
A stunned Patsy said she was told to sit in the truck and wait. A few minutes later, she said, four other RCMP cars had surrounded the vehicle.
"It was embarrassing," she said.
"We were right in front of Sobeys and people were coming and going, looking at us like we'd done something really drastic. And all he'd done was wave at a child."
They were taken by RCMP to the Pictou detachment, locked in separate interrogation rooms and questioned extensively.
RCMP Sgt. Phil Oliver said the investigation stemmed from a complaint of an attempted abduction.
And waving is one of the top 10 signs a kidnapping has taken place?
via ifeminists
A Student Of Islam
Like me, in the wake of the murder of 3,000 people on 9/11 in the name of Islam, Jon Anderson started looking into what Islam was really about. He writes in The Daily News Record of a class he enrolled in, Introduction to Islam:
It wasn't until working on the final research paper that I began to develop a conviction that Islam was a harmful ideology. I set out to discover if militant jihad was a part of Islamic doctrine. I determined to base my findings on Islamic scripture, not on the acts of terrorists. I discovered that "jihad" could correctly be interpreted as "a personal struggle" in certain places in Islamic scripture; however, "warfare" was much more often the intended meaning of the term.In contrast to Biblical commands to conquer, which were isolated to a specific region in Israel's history, Koranic commands to engage in warfare are universal and are to continue until Islam is the only religion. Examples include: "Make war on them until idolatry does not exist any longer and Allah's religion reigns universally" (8:39). "Kill the unbelievers wherever ye find them, capture and besiege them and prepare for them every kind of ambush" (9:5). "Fight against them! Allah shall punish them, at your hands and give you victory over them..." (9:14). "Wage war on the people of the Book, who ... do not accept the religion of Islam" (9:29). "Fight the unbelievers in your surroundings, and let them find harshness in you" (9:123). "Those who follow Muhammad are merciless for the unbelievers but kind to each other" (48:29). "Truly Allah loves those who fight in His cause in battle array... " (61:4).
Self-study in more recent years has only increased my conviction. My frustration with the national press is at an all-time high for its near blackout on the doctrines of Islam. More problematic is the media's ignorance concerning Islamic advocacy groups that engage in deception to further the cause of jihad. After the Fort Hood massacre, leaders of CAIR (Council of American-Islamic Relations) made appearances on all the major news networks. Invariably, CAIR's message is one of shock and strong condemnation of the violence. This is followed by a portrayal of Muslims as the victim of hostility.
In January of this year, the FBI severed all ties with CAIR due to evidence revealing close ties between its leaders and Hamas. More recently, evidence stemming from a six-month non-government undercover investigation was made public in the book, "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that's Conspiring to Islamize America." Documents prove that CAIR has fully supported the international jihad against the United States, having the goal of transforming American society through terrorist activities, fraud, and infiltration of our political and intelligence organizations. Some members of Congress are calling for a full congressional investigation.
This Is Your Brain On Political Correctness
In Macleans, Steyn points out that Muslim mass murderer Hasan was the perp, but political correctness was his enabler -- every step of the way.
Major Hasan couldn't have been more straightforward about who and what he was. An army psychiatrist, he put "SoA"--i.e., "Soldier of Allah"--on his business card. At the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, he was reprimanded for trying to persuade patients to convert to Islam and fellow pupils objected to his constant "anti-American propaganda," but, as the Associated Press reported, "a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim student kept officers from filing a formal written complaint."This is your brain on political correctness.
As the writer Barry Rubin pointed out, Major Hasan was the first mass murderer in U.S. history to give a PowerPoint presentation outlining the rationale for the crime he was about to commit. And he gave the presentation to a roomful of fellow army psychiatrists and doctors. Some of whom glanced queasily at their colleagues, but none of whom actually spoke up. And, when the question of whether then-Captain Hasan was, in fact, "psychotic," the policy committee at Walter Reed Army Medical Center worried "how would it look if we kick out one of the few Muslim residents."
This is your brain on political correctness.
So instead he got promoted to major and shipped to Fort Hood. And barely had he got to Texas when he started making idle chit-chat praising the jihadist murderer of two soldiers outside a recruitment centre in Little Rock. "This is what Muslims should do, stand up to the aggressors," Major Hasan told his superior officer, Colonel Terry Lee. "People should strap bombs on themselves and go into Times Square."
In less enlightened times, Colonel Lee would have concluded that, being in favour of the murder of his comrades, Major Hasan was objectively on the side of the enemy. But instead he merely cautioned the major against saying things that might give people the wrong impression. Which is to say, the right impression.
This is your brain on political correctness.
"You need to lock it up, major," advised the colonel.
But, of course, he didn't. He could pretty much say what he wanted--infidels should have their throats cut, for example. Meanwhile, the only ones who felt any "need to lock it up" were his fellow psychiatrists, his patients, his teachers at the Uniformed Services University, officials at Walter Reed, and the brass at Fort Hood. So they locked it up for years, and now 14 people are dead.
Can You Have A Black Mayor In Boise?
You can't if white people there care more about skin color than anything else, because the black population in the last census was just .8 percent: 1,437 black people to 171,204 white people.
In the last election, as a California fiscal conservative who's socially libertarian and a "personal responsibilitarian," I voted my politics -- or as close as I could get to them -- by casting my lot with the libertarians and voting for a guy I typically call "the execrable loser Bob Barr."
If I voted based on skin color, I would have voted for Obama. I think that, in such a short time after Jim Crow Laws and separate drinking fountains, that it's really cool that we have a black president.
But, I find voting for a black president -- or a woman president or any president but the best possible candidate (or the least odious candidate) -- to be racist and sexist.
I would find it really creepy if some mostly white town had some citizen come out at election time and say, "No way can a white town have a black mayor!"
I found it equally creepy to hear what political strategist Tom Houck said in a WaPo article by Erinn Haines about the white woman running for mayor of Atlanta, a city approximately 57 percent black in 2007:
"Atlanta is a black city, a symbol to the world," Houck said. "Putting Mary's face on that picture would be hard for a lot of people to stomach."
Seven Stories Obama Doesn't Want Told
A John F. Harris piece on Politico. Here's one:
He thinks he's playing with Monopoly moneyEconomists and business leaders from across the ideological spectrum were urging the new president on last winter when he signed onto more than a trillion in stimulus spending and bank and auto bailouts during his first weeks in office. Many, though far from all, of these same people now agree that these actions helped avert an even worse financial catastrophe.
Along the way, however, it is clear Obama underestimated the political consequences that flow from the perception that he is a profligate spender. He also misjudged the anger in middle America about bailouts with weak and sporadic public explanations of why he believed they were necessary.
The flight of independents away from Democrats last summer -- the trend that recently hammered Democrats in off-year elections in Virginia -- coincided with what polls show was alarm among these voters about undisciplined big government and runaway spending. The likely passage of a health care reform package criticized as weak on cost-control will compound the problem.
Obama understands the political peril, and his team is signaling that he will use the 2010 State of the Union address to emphasize fiscal discipline. The political challenge, however, is an even bigger substantive challenge--since the most convincing way to project fiscal discipline would be actually to impose spending reductions that would cramp his own agenda and that of congressional Democrats.
The biggest problem is acting like the country has big pots of money on every corner to spend on increasing the political capital of its elected officials...I mean, on very, very valid social programs like ACORN, which help women running international prostitution rings get their business going.
Here's a bit of another:
People used to make fun of Bill Clinton's misty-eyed, raspy-voiced claims that, "I feel your pain."The reality, however, is that Clinton's dozen years as governor before becoming president really did leave him with a vivid sense of the concrete human dimensions of policy. He did not view programs as abstractions -- he viewed them in terms of actual people he knew by name.
Obama, a legislator and law professor, is fluent in describing the nuances of problems. But his intellectuality has contributed to a growing critique that decisions are detached from rock-bottom principles.
And like too many university professors, it seems he's good in lecturing on problems, but if his Senate record tells us anything, he's not so hot at actually doing anything about him.
Hey, most of you in this country voted for the best rock star running. Thanks so much.
A Night As A Hamster
A takeoff on A Day In Hollywood/A Night In The Ukraine? No, a French theme hotel. From Reuters:
It's a unique concept according to its creators, a hotel in the French town of Nantes is offering the chance for people to become a hamster.For 99 euros ($148.10) a night, you can eat hamster grain, run in a giant wheel and sleep in hay stacks in what is called the "Hamster Villa."
Maud and Sebastien are the first ones to experience how hamsters live, not afraid at the thought of sleeping in hay or feeding on a hamster fountain and special grain.
...However, the price is soon to go up as today's hamsters need, according to the owners, Wifi and a giant TV screen.
You've got to see the pictures at the link.
Weirdest theme thing or event you've been to?
Richard Dawkins Reads His Hate Mail
The last one is really funny.
Ass Backward
The former Miss Argentina, a 38-year-old mother of twins, ignored the fact that all surgery comes with risks, and died of a pulmonary embolism after undergoing surgery to get a more pert ass, reports The Telegraph:
A close friend, Roberto Piazza, said the procedure involved injections and the liquid "went to her lungs and brain.""A woman who had everything lost her life to have a slightly firmer behind," he said.
Black Friday On Chilly Tuesday
Five dollar magazine subscriptions again at Amazon. My neighbors' little boy has been loving the $5 Popular Science subscription I got him. Now there's that and more at this Amazon link
