Jeffrey Quick's Blog

Entries in the Category "politics"

Academics for Ron Paul

There's a nice list of faculty supporting Ron Paul here. I'd join, but I don't see any librarians, and maybe they want "real" academics. There's a nice selection of Ohio profs, but from Case only Dr. Peirce. Anyone else want to sign up?

Missing women

It began with Lady Liberty, whose normally-active webpage went into suspended animation in May. I'd met Liberty through a Usenet flirtation, and had met her in person several times, the last with my wife. We weren't particularly close, and I hadn't viewed her site for awhile, so it was a surprise when I noticed it several months ago. I wasn't particularly alarmed, because she said she'd been on vacation, and I knew she was trying to get escape velocity to go out West. Maybe she'd established something there, came back to wrap things up, and then went back. Or...maybe "chucklehead", her ex, decided to do something not-nice. Certainly it wasn't like her to just let things dangle.

Then there was the retirement of Claire Wolfe. That was not left to dangle; she explained very clearly what she was doing, and why, on her blog and on theclairefiles.com (now thementalmilitia.com). We'd never met; I'd given her a few tips on playing recorder, and she had some kind words for my music. But for all her legendary stature (is it Claire Wolfe Time yet?), she always seemed like family. I was in denial about this a bit, and went to her blog, hoping to find another post...but she's let her web-hosting account expire. (The content is mirrored here.)

Now, in a time when governments claim the right to disappear people, it should be more than obvious that people have the right to disappear themselves. I have no rights to anyone's time, or to demand that they never change. And at least (unlike The Artist Formerly Known As Lady Liberty) I know that The Artist Formerly Known As Claire Wolfe is doing fine. But damnit, I miss them. And a world where semipublic figures just drop out of sight is a scary place, even if they drop out for the best of reasons. But I echo Wendy McElroy's blessings (Mac, don't YOU drop out now!)

The radical atheist left cleans up Venezuela

Tax 'em to death: alcohol, tobacco, luxury cars, artwork. Make sure a poor man can't buy a beer on the street.

The president has a long list of other "New Man" recommendations: don't douse foods with too much hot sauce, exercise regularly, eat low-cholesterol foods, respect speed limits. He also wants parents to stop buying Barbie dolls — and breast jobs — for their daughters.

The question on every Alabaman's mind: can the New Socialist Man buy sex toys?

The personal, the political

"The personal is political."

There's a good old slogan from the '60s. I'm not sure just what it was originally intended to signify...probably that one's personal whims and desires are grist for the political mill, worthy of having laws made over them. But if true, it follows (because of the "is of identity" - and don't go Clintonian on me here) that the political is personal, that any political act that affects me negatively is a personal wrong committed by the legislators who voted for the law. They don't get to hide behind "the will of the people" because "the people" don't exist, only individuals who benefit or are harmed by any particular legislative act.

Continue reading "The personal, the political"

How Che became a fashion statement

"Che Guevara has become a brand. And the brand's logo is the image, which represents change. It has becomes the icon of the outside thinker, at whatever level - whether it is anti-war, pro-green or anti-globalisation," she says.

Outside thinker?! The man who fought to establish the ultimate Establishment, which is well on its way to being established?

As time went on, the meaning and the man represented by the image became separated in the western context, Ms Ziff explains.

It began to be used as a decoration for products from tissues to underwear. Unilever even brought out a Che version of the Magnum ice cream in Australia - flavoured with cherry and guava.

And people are out there worrying about Indian blankets with swastikas on them?

Actually, this is a fascinating story, naming all the people who were responsible for creating the Che Brand: Alberto Korda (the original photographer), Jim Fitzpatrick (who turned it into a graphic), and even Jean-Paul Sartre (who may have given the photo to Dutch anarchists.) But what's missing...perhaps too hot for the Beeb...is a real examination of how the face of a political terrorist became acceptable causal wear, and what that means for us as a society.

UPDATE 10/10 - Capitalist exploitation of Che might be acceptable, but the Guevara family draws the line at Islamist exploitation.

UPDATE 10/16 - And Humberto Fontova (the one-man anti-Che lobby) tells the story about the guy who should have been on all those Che shirts.

One way to get a politician's attention

Said Ward last month, “If this (zone change) doesn’t go through, I lose my home, I lose my shop, I lose everything I got.”

After Thursday’s 5-7 vote was cast, Ward stood and walked steadily toward the council.

“Johnny (Piper), I know I can’t speak,” Ward said over the mayor, who was telling Ward the public comment period had ended.

“Y’all have put me under,” Ward said, pulling out a small silver handgun. “I’m out of here.”

A gunshot punctuated his sentence, and Ward fell at the feet of those sitting in the first row.

My take on this is a little different from Beck's. In one sense, Ward was seeking an unearned value, by having his house declared more valuable so that he could secure the loan he needed. Yet his house was worth less solely because of the artificial market distortion of zoning. It would be interesting to know just what reasons the council majority had to refuse his request, besides that they could, or to know if zoning had been imposed before or after he got the house. Yet Billy's main point stands:

A nation of people bred now to everything but freedom will generally find it unimaginable that a man might simply have enough of the mortal indignity of so-called "public servants" arbitrarily deciding on the terms and conditions of his life, as if it is theirs, and not his.

And if it's not your life, but somebody else's, and there is no way to get it back, it's not totally unreasonable to take your life, so they can't have it. Not my choice or yours, maybe, but not the choice of a madman either.

Mr. Atkins, do not mingle with other passengers

We flew to Oakland Airport, were ready for a beer,
The airport man 'e up an' sez, "there's no deplaning here.
Behind the baggage trailers, that's where you'll leave the plane."
I gets into the plane again an' mutters, half-insane:

O it's GI this, an' GI that, an' "GI, go away";
But it's ``Thank you, Mister Joseph,'' when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it's ``Thank you, Mr. Joseph,'' when the band begins to play.

(with thanks to Rudyard Kipling)

This test will not be graded

I know better than to take a stand on this one. But I have to ask questions. Do the blind have a right to force people to drive cars that make noise? Do people have a right to breathe clean air? Does one right override another? Do people have a right to streets free of unnecessary noise, even if it inconveniences the blind? If the blind have a right to noisy cars, do the deaf have a right to cars with flashing lights?

Justify your answers using any cogent theory of rights.

Knock 'em all down, let God sort 'em out

Cleveland tore down an empty century home on the city's East Side last month after a bank spent more than $19,000 to fix it up.

On the near West Side, a crew last May knocked down an empty two-family house after Councilman Brian Cummins e-mailed the Building Department asking that it be taken off the wrecking list. A prospective buyer had already fixed the garage and rewired the house.

In June, a crew demolished a Revere Avenue house that the Union Miles Development Corp. and another nonprofit development group, Neighborhood Progress Inc. wanted to renovate.

Frank Ford of Neighborhood Progress said the nonprofit persuaded the lender that owned the property to drop the price from $49,000 to less than $10,000.

Before the deal could go through, the house vanished.

Yep, gotta destroy blight. That's the ticket.

Who would move into a city with such a cavalier disregard for property rights?

It used to be enough to kiss babies...

...now you have to offer them each $5K in order to be elected:

"I like the idea of giving every baby born in America a $5,000 account that will grow over time, so that when that young person turns 18 if they have finished high school they will be able to access it to go to college or maybe they will be able to make that downpayment on their first home," she said.

OK, Hillary, you go first. You can afford to gift a few more children than I can. Oh wait...you want to take the money from the children in order to give it to them. I see...

And from her adoring audience, our local embarrassment:

"I think it's a wonderful idea," said Rep. Stephanie Stubbs Jones, an Ohio Democrat who attended the event and has already endorsed Clinton. "Every child born in the United States today owes $27,000 on the national debt, why not let them come get $5,000 to grow until their 18?"

Uh, because then they'd owe $32K on the national debt? Really I don't know who is a bigger idiot, Tubbs Jones or Devlin Barrett, who couldn't get her name right or find the contraction for they are.

UPDATE: Taranto presents the same answer to the Tubbs-Jones question as I did, minus the insults descriptors constantly and casually used on George W. Bush. Boortz has a good description of the likely devolution of the Hillary 5K.

UPDATE 2: Apparently the American people don't like this idea much more than I do.

The Tanja Nijmeijer comedy hour

The Columbian army caught her with her pants down...literally...and captured her diary. So how does a nice middle-class Dutch girl join a Marxist terror organization?

Now 23, she visited Colombia in 2000 as part of a Danish tour aimed at exploring Marxist experiments in South America. Her diary says she returned in 2002 and joined FARC.

Yep, send some impressionable kid out there. Sweet 16 and just been FARCed. As soon as she was of legal age, back she went...for life in a live-action pornographic sitcom:

"The chief has fallen for a girl with big tits," Nijmeijer reports in a Nov. 2, 2006, entry. "But it appears she brought some venereal disease with her. The chief says the government sent her in order to infect and weaken the rebel leaders."

It's got to suck to be her right now.

Alan Keyes again?!

Oh, puh-LEAZE! After two crash-and-burn candidacies, he wants to try again? Who does he think he is, the black Harold Stassen?

"lowlife" to demand resignation over a DUI

Let's see...when a senator gets caught looking for anonymous gay sex, he should resign. But if a drunken state representative evades police at speeds of up to 100 mph, (an act that could endanger far more people) that's a different matter.

Naifeh said he was aware of “naysayers” who were attempting to turn Briley’s situation to partisan advantage.

“I think that’s pretty lowlife. I have absolutely no use for those people,” said Naifeh.

I guess it depends on which party you're a member of.

Larry Craig digs deeper

Let me start by saying that Sen. Craig should not have resigned over his PeeWee Big Adventure in Minneapolis. That case should have been decided by Republican primary voters. Idaho is not Massachusetts, but voters there seem perfectly comfortable in returning Barney Frank to office, so who knows what they'd do in Brokeback Country? And if it was wrong to impeach Bill Clinton over sexually harassing his employees, it should be equally wrong to evict a senator for sexually harassing a plainclothes officer. If, as the Democrats claimed, it's "all about the BJ", then Craig is home free, since he didn't even get one. (Yes, I know, it was about lying under oath about a BJ, but let me accept the liberal argument here.) And if (per my gay friends) "a mouth is a mouth", then certainly he deserves the same legal protections.

Resigning over pusillanimity, on the other hand, sounds like a better idea every day. Now we have hints that Craig might not resign after all, because his lawyers say that his arrest was unconstitutional, as he was on his way to the Senate:

"The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the United States. They shall in all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place."

OK, so Article I/6 isn't the sexiest part of the Constitution, but Larry swore to uphold it. If he forgot that passage was in there, what other contents is he in ignorance of? And surely he either forgot or was ignorant, or he would have made that argument to Sgt. Karsnia. Moreover, since the Senate is ever mindful and protective of its prerogatives, it should be standing solidly behind him. The problem is that "Sen. Craig" wasn't arrested. Some pervert was arrested, who turned out to be Sen. Craig. The purpose of that bit of the Constitution was to keep the several states from mucking with the legislative process by arresting legislators who would vote contrary to its interests. There's no evidence that Karsnia had any intent to influence legislation. Now, it may be well to adopt an absolutist interpretation of I/6, given the number of trivial laws on the books that could be used to detain a legislator. But I don't think it would fly with the American people to let Craig off scot-free on I/6 grounds.

But the most pathetic statement is the claim from Craig's people that they are going to "clear his good name." This shows a real confusion between morals and law. It is now impossible to clear Craig's name. The only way to do that would to have been to prevail on the facts in a trial by jury. If he convinced a jury that he wasn't out for some cheap stress relief, his name would be cleared. Instead, he pled guilty, either because his name was unclearable or because he couldn't be bothered at that moment to clear it. This caused a change in venue to The Court of Public Opinion, which has so far greeted Craig's testimony with howls of derision. Even if acquitted on the Constitutional technicality, he would stand convicted of being a pervert and a coward, and somebody incapable of making a decision. OK, Larry, you resigned...so resign already, for the good of your party, the republic, and to save the last white crumb in the burnt toast of your career.

You got the T-shirt, now buy the hair

MIAMI — A former CIA operative and Cuban exile plans to auction what he says is a lock of Che Guevara's hair, snipped before the Argentinean revolutionary and friend of Fidel Castro was buried in 1967.

It's the next best thing to filling your backyard pool with formaldehyde and floating Lenin in there. Build yourself a reliquary from the gold teeth of dead capitalists, and keep it safe.

Too bad the families of some of Che's victims didn't get to collect similar mementos of their loved ones.

The right to vote

Sen. Bill Nelson has a fine whine going about the Democrats refusing to count the votes in Florida's moved-up primary. Of course, he blames the Republican Florida legislature. And he has a point, to the extent that the Republicans have not come forward to disqualify Republican votes.

But there's this "right to vote" nonsense:

Four decades ago, our nation belatedly enacted a law to guarantee every U.S. citizen an equal right to vote.

First of all, there's no general right to vote for President. It's not Constitutionally mandated that presidential electors be chosen by popular vote. In fact, given how much they've mucked up the process in the past, I'm surprised that Florida hasn't decided to choose its electors via the legislature, as many states did originally.

There's even less a right to vote in a party primary. 'Scuse me, but to vote for MY party's candidate, I have to pay my dues, get named as a delegate, and go to the national convention, which is not cheap. Have MY voting rights been violated? Or how's this: the state of Ohio says I'm a Republican, because that's the primary I vote in (I can cause more trouble that way.) So are my voting rights violated because I can't also vote in the Democratic primary, given that I'm not either party, and might well vote for either party's candidates in the general election? Political parties are private organizations, and the government has no business holding elections for a private organization, and still less business writing those private organizations into the ballot access laws. And if the Democratic Party has so violated principle, why doesn't Nelson quit the Democratic Party?

It's good to see that the commentors are no more sympathetic than I am.

A Paw full of money for Hillary

The Paws are working-class Chinese-Americans who live in a single-story lime-green refinanced house near the San Francisco airport. Paw Paw is a postman, Maw Paw is a homemaker..evidently taking care of their 4 adult children who live there. They're mostly registered nonpartisan, and are sporadic voters. But in 2004, they saw the light! They gave big to John Kerry, and now even bigger to Hillary Clinton. Isn't it great when children of immigrants finally throw themselves body and soul into the American political process, and give until it hurts?

Some racists have wondered whether a certain Norman Hsu who allegedy used to live there has given the Paws money to give to, well, the same candidates that Hsu has been contributing to. It's totally unfair to think that the Paws would do such a thing. They probably just think that Hsu knows something...something the Paws would rather that anyone else not know. Chinese money has always been important to the Clintons, and the Clintons have responded in kind. And anybody who finds fault with that is a racist. Of course.

I agree with Black on Black Crime on something??

They're rallying to show support for Michael Vick, who they say should get probation as a first-time offender.

Now, I think dogfighting is sleazy and disgusting. I wouldn't participate, and for the Falcons to give him the heave-ho is perfectly appropriate. But...why should it be criminal? If we give the state the right to legislate against people fighting their dogs, we've given them the right to prescribe how people will care for their livestock...or whether they will even HAVE livestock. Joel Salatin hammers this connection (particularly about raw milk vs. the drug laws) in his new book, Everything I want to do is illegal (which I'll be reviewing here when I'm done). But notice that BOBC can't make the principled connection: they're arguing that the punishment is too severe, rather than that it's not a legitimate government function. I suspect they really don't want to go there, given how many of the probably benefit from illegitimate use of government.

"A more fair distribution of the sunrise"

Cindy Sheehan's buddy Mr. Chavez has moved Venezuela's time back by half an hour, joining such renowned and trendy places as Newfoundland...all "for the children", who won't have to go to school in the dark. He couldn't just change school time, could he?

John Edwards, pick up the clue phone

"I'm going to be honest with you -- I don't know a lot about Cuba's healthcare system," Edwards, D-N.C., said at an event in Oskaloosa, Iowa. "Is it a government-run system?"

This was 3 days after he said he'd watched Michael Moore's Sicko.

I guess the important question for Edwards is: can you sue the Cuban system for malpractice?

Your neighbor can figure out how you voted

Thanks to Ohio's open records law, you can get a list of poll sign-ins (in order) and a time-stamped record of who voted.As James Moyer of Columbus (if it's the one I know, a great guy)figured out, you can merge the two lists, and figure out how individuals voted.

This shouldn't be hard to fix. All we need is for Preacher Man to issue an Executive Order voiding that part of Ohio law, and preventing voting records from being made public. I mean, they're going to steal the elections anyway, so why do we need to check?

Preacher Man don't need no steenkin' bill.

I guess that Gov. Strickland decided that he didn't need a bill to ban those evil gambling machines, that he could do it all with an executive order. Hey, aren't those the things that get Democrats all in a lather when W. uses them?

Well, Ohio, that's what you get when you vote in a clergyman.

Ron Jeremy: making a list and checking it twice.

You know, it's just possible that some newspaper might hire somebody who is under legal working age. Not likely, but some hot homeschool kid, hey, ya never know. So why shouldn't the Federal government have a comprehensive database of journalists? For the children, you know?

My wife asks, "How do I get on the list?" She thinks that every woman in the country should get herself registered as a porn actress, just to gum up the works.

Thank you, Mr. Beck.

British and American rights: un mot.

From email:

An Englishman wrote:

I have no knowledge of the US rights,

They're the ones the British used to have, but forgot to write down. We Americans wrote them down, but forgot how to read. So we're very much in the same boat.

"Rigid formalism"

That's what San Fran supervisor Gerardo Sandoval called it when 3rd-generation Chinese-American Ed Jew voted against a hate speech resolution against Michael Savage, on First Amendment grounds. And it is a First Amendment issue. The Board of Supervisors members can say anything they want individually. When they act as a Board, if they're condemning somebody's speech, they're suppressing it, even if they don't have a law to beat the speaker with...because, don't worry, they'll find one. Which would be kind of ironic, given that Savage's "hate speech" seems to be "I want the government to enforce the law." I'm appalled that only one out of ten supervisors broke ranks on this. I've got to wonder if Jew's "rigid formalism" extends to the rest of the Constitution...the 2nd Amendment, for instance.

Rove: who cares?

OK, I haven't said anything about Karl Rove, because he really doesn't matter. Nobody has seen the President wandering around with a Celsius-room-temperature IQ because "his brain" has left him. Reactions here have been muted, but then our favorite adjunct-professor-of-moonbattery hasn't been in. I really don't see anything changing.

Richard Viguerie thinks that Rove mattered, but not the way they do at the Kos. He blames Rove for everything leftish that Bush did, for playing the conservative base like a cheap violin. If he's right, then the DUmmies should be sad that he's going, as he did so much to elect Clinton femme.

The unmentionable candidate

I finally found out who #5 in the Iowa straw poll was, with 9.1% of the vote. I knew all Sunday that Ron Paul didn't make the Big 3 (at least, after Diebold got done with him), but I had to wait to read Vox Day's blog to know who # 4 and 5 were.

There's an entertaining eyewitness account from "farmer Tom" in the comments, including this:

On the other hand, if you have big bucks, Romany had them, then all you had to do to win was get the bodies, warm breathing but unthinking bodies to vote. Romany had buses from every one of the 99 counties in Iowa and large counties had more than one. He had also rented over a hundred golf carts. His strategy was very simple, get as many old geezers as you can, give them a free ride to Ames, don't make them walk from the parking to the event, feed them the best food in town, Hickory Park Barbecue, then carry their stuffed, portly ass over to the voting machine. Along with this plan, never mention change in any other than rhetorical fashion, so mr and mrs geezer think the SS and medicare checks will keep coming, and ta da you gots yourself a winner.

This sounds so much like the Republican I'm closest to (who voted Bush in the primaries). It's a bit unfair to call them "unthinking" -- they've thought through exactly what's best for them. The barbecue is just a foretaste of the Big Gravy Train to come. the Eucharist of Socialist Salvation.

Sure, I'm disappointed that Paul didn't do better. But he's still in the game, to the extent that the media allow him to be.

Hillary's poster child for the housing bubble

Here is the sad tale of Kristi Schofield, who just lost her home.

Both Jim Geraghty and Billy Beck focus on these folks not appearing to have a clue as to what an adjustable rate mortgage is. Ok, granted, that's inexcusable. But let's look at the beginning. The initial payment on the ARM was $2400. Assuming half of income (not half of take-home) went to housing (a pretty damn lean budget), service on this loan would require an annual family income of $58,000. How many $58K jobs are out there? I've never made that much. Our first year of marriage, when Rusty was still at WCI, we made more than that. But if something had happened to either of us, we wouldn't have been able to keep up payments. So at their lowest payment, they were buying a rich man's house. Now, under the same givens, they need to be making $144K. But from the beginning, they were living beyond their means. It wasn't some accident of the housing market. And these are the people Hillary wants to bail out: gamblers. Why doesn't she just go to Vegas and hand out taxpayer money?

Kristi wrote in to Geraghty, but hasn't yet given permission to publish, so maybe we'll get the other side of the story. But the numbers don't lie.

NYC Council bitched off

The New York City Council, which drew national headlines when it passed a symbolic citywide ban earlier this year on the use of the so-called n-word, has turned its linguistic (and legislative) lance toward a different slur: bitch.

The term is hateful and deeply sexist, said Councilwoman Darlene Mealy of Brooklyn, who has introduced a measure against the word, saying it creates “a paradigm of shame and indignity” for all women.

Reactions have not been universally positive:

They may not have been the kinds of reaction that Ms. Mealy, a Detroit-born former transit worker serving her first term, was expecting. “They buried the n-word, but what about the other words that really affect women, such as ‘b,’ and ‘ho’? That’s a vile attack on our womanhood,” Ms. Mealy said in a telephone interview. “In listening to my other colleagues, that they say that to their wives or their friends, we have gotten really complacent with it.”

Having grown up in Michigan, I can tell you that Detroit is an unsung nexus of insanity. Just what does this bitch lady think she's doing in passing an unenforceable law? I'd like to see the NYC cops go to a rap concert and start making arrests. Does she think she will change attitudes towards women by symbolic or even effective acts? If people can't use the b-word, they'll use the c-word (which of course is "chienne"). This is clearly an attempt at establishing thoughtcrime.

Scott Jordan of Individual-Sovereignty@yahoogroups.com, who alerted me to this, says "It's just in time for Hillary". But we don't need to protect the junior senator from New York from such aspersions. Since Bill is such a notorious horndog, it therefore follows that Hillary must be a bitch. Do you really want to contemplate the alternative?

God love the Italians

Can you imagine a Republican saying this?:

So politicians in the UDC do not make love? Of course, I recognize Christian values. But what has that got to do with going with a prostitute? It is a personal matter. This affair has nothing to do with family values. I cannot be branded a bad father and a bad husband simply because after five or six days away from home, an occasion presented itself.

That was Cosimo Mele, 50, (now former) Christian Democrat UDC MP, caught with 2 hos and a bag of blow.

I can't praise what he did. But a wise woman once said to me, "If you ain't proud, don't be it." I don't see a lot of shame there.

EEEvul Branson and Rutan

Here's a prime moonbat screed for you. Apparently, private space travel is a bad thing because, when the feces hits the rotary air mover, they'll be up there, and the poor folks will be down here. Forget for a moment that any survival is better for mankind than no survival, or that space travel in currently dependent on earth support. It's bad because poor people can't afford it. By which standard we all ought to be walking.

And this is the kind of thinking that gets you a doctorate in history from Yale?

And speaking of PETA,

Why don't they say something about China's mistreatment of Tibetan animal lovers?

At the edge of the parade ground a friend helped Zhouma to put on her many layers of heavy ceremonial robes, including a chuba decorated with otter skin. “We have to wear this because we are dancing. But people who aren’t performing don’t do so.” By way of explanation, and in an oblique reference to the Dalai Lama, she added: “He said we shouldn’t.” Any government official or state employee who does not don his fur at the five-day festival would be sacked, Tibetan sources said.

Dancers and performers taking part in the opening ceremonies faced stiff fines if they appeared without a skin trim. Mostly students and nomads, they have been paid 50 yuan a day to take part in training and will lose it if they leave their furs at home.

PETA bitches about Cleveland Zoo

...because too many animals have died there.

PETA is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to levy "harsh penalties" against the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo after a 1-year-old kangaroo was struck by a zoo train Tuesday....

In May, a female wolf was killed by other members of her pack. In 2005, three wallabies died after eating a corpse flower, a toxic plant that was placed in their enclosure by a zoo employee; a Grant's zebra died from a ruptured aorta after being kicked by another zebra; and a gorilla died after he was anesthetized for an examination. In 2003, a lion died after being attacked by another lion.

Let's see, of 6 incidents, half were animal-on-animal attacks. Just how responsible are zoo employees for these? Since animals are people too, maybe we should be administering the same punishment to the wolves, lion, and zebra that we do to humans who murder: put 'em down. And if that's not acceptable, it's because people are animals too, in which case it's perfectly appropriate for me to rip Debbie Leahy's throat out with my teeth. As for the rest: do gorillas generally die under anesthesia? Should we quit administering it and just chain 'em down and cut 'em open? Do you know what a corpse flower is, or that it's toxic to wallabies? Should everyone know that? That leaves us the train incident..and the driver has been fired and the train shut down until a fence can be built. So tell me, just how was Cleveland Zoo negligent?

Wisconsin Democrats Commies to pass single-payer health care?

I missed this debate on my visit to DDR-West. I must have been too busy making music or otherwise having a productive life. But apparently the Republican House is the only thing keeping Wisconsin from providing quality health care to every citizen committing economic suicide:

Democrats who run the Wisconsin Senate have dropped the Washington pretense of incremental health-care reform and moved directly to passing a plan to insure every resident under the age of 65 in the state. And, wow, is "free" health care expensive. The plan would cost an estimated $15.2 billion, or $3 billion more than the state currently collects in all income, sales and corporate income taxes. It represents an average of $510 a month in higher taxes for every Wisconsin worker.

Employees and businesses would pay for the plan by sharing the cost of a new 14.5% employment tax on wages. Wisconsin businesses would have to compete with out-of-state businesses and foreign rivals while shouldering a 29.8% combined federal-state payroll tax, nearly double the 15.3% payroll tax paid by non-Wisconsin firms for Social Security and Medicare combined.

This employment tax is on top of the $1 billion grab bag of other levies that Democratic Governor Jim Doyle proposed and the tax-happy Senate has also approved, including a $1.25 a pack increase in the cigarette tax, a 10% hike in the corporate tax, and new fees on cars, trucks, hospitals, real estate transactions, oil companies and dry cleaners. In all, the tax burden in the Badger State could rise to 20% of family income, which is slightly more than the average federal tax burden...As if that's not enough, the health plan includes a tax escalator clause allowing an additional 1.5 percentage point payroll tax to finance higher outlays in the future. This could bring the payroll tax to 16%. One reason to expect costs to soar is that the state may become a mecca for the unemployed, uninsured and sick from all over North America. The legislation doesn't require that you have a job in Wisconsin to qualify, merely that you live in the state for at least 12 months. Cheesehead nation could expect to attract health-care free-riders while losing productive workers who leave for less-taxing climes.

Wasn't John Galt's last known employer in Wisconsin, or somewhere near there?

I suppose Mano Singham is shopping for his cheesehead hat even as I type this.

UPDATE 8/9: John Stossel encourages Wisconsin to go for it, so we can see socialism in practice, and adds this data point:

Does it never occur to the progressives that the legislature's intrusion into private contracts is one reason health care and health insurance are expensive now? The average annual health-insurance premium for a family in Wisconsin is $4,462 partly because Wisconsin imposes 29 mandates on health insurers: Every policy must cover chiropractors, dentists, genetic testing, etc. Think chiropractors are quacks? Too bad. You still must pay them to treat people in your state.

Want to buy insurance from another state, like nearby Michigan, where an average policy costs less? Too bad. It's against the law to buy across state lines. Your state's Big Brother knows best.

Sheehan vs. the income tax.

The Democrats are the party of slavery and were the party that started every war in the 20th century, except the other Bush debacle. The Federal Reserve, permanent federal income taxes, not one but two World Wars, Japanese concentration camps, and not one but two atom bombs dropped on the innocent citizens of Japan – all brought to us via the Democrats.

Yep, that's Crazy Aunt Cindy.It's really refreshing to hear her come out against the Fed and the income tax...maybe she's been listening to old Ron Paul speeches. But for the woman who snuggled with Hugo Chavez, the woman who was the former darling of the Left to renounce their favorite tool of income redistribution beggars belief. Is she coming to her senses, or has she just found a new brand of nuts?

LBJ, radio, and corruption

Here's a nice tale on how the late Lady Bird Johnson, with help from hubby,used the power of the FCC to become a broadcasting tycoon. And at the time, the FCC was close to being abolished...a move LBJ prevented .. which to my mind was a worse sin than Vietnam.

"Dry 'til 21" not saving lives.

Hmmm...apparently, forcing the states to raise the minimum drinking age to 21 really didn't save lives.

Housing policy: pot, kettle, black

This Commie slags Bush for allowing high-risk mortgages in order to create more Republicans, and not doing enough to help borrowers, then turns around and supports all kinds of neo-New Deal intervention in the housing market...in order to create more Democrats.

It's not that he can't conceive of a government which doesn't take on the job of housing its citizens, because he cites the bad old days of half down and 10 years. But it doesn't occur to him that the last time we had a free market in mortgages, the country was on the gold standard, and that in today's inflationary environment, there'd be a lot more mortgage money competing for a home. And gods forbid that in today's instant-gratification world, people actually save for a house, that people buy a house that fits their income, or that "the rich" be allowed to pass on houses without estate tax.

A better idea in Wisconsin

Heard on the local radio: a Republican legislator wants to cut funding to the University of Wisconsin Law School, because there are enough lawyers in WI. It's actually about the middle of the pack in lawyers per capita. The governor thinks its a ridiculous idea. I dunno; if there are enough, why should the state subsidize more? Or subsidize even if there aren't?

Back to our usual topic?

I suppose there are readers who miss the pungent political commentary here. Well, tough. I haven't had time for surfing, or TV, and if I don't see it in the top of the paper sticking out of the coin box, I don't know about it.

I did have an interesting breakfast conversation though, with a Canadian freelance violinist who credits Canadian healthcare with making her freelance career possible. I never thought of that as a surreptitious arts subsidy. But then, her mother is on a waiting list for a nursing home. But oh gosh, the American system is so horrible... I wasn't argumentative, but I'm sure I rolled my eyes a few many times. Had another guy last night raving over Fats Moore's latest movie. But I'd had enough Belgian ale to not be argumentative (I'm a mellow drunk, not a mean one.)

Off to try to get some practice in before tonight's concert.

Lovely! Another private law!

From a Repugnican yet, proposed on the courthouse steps with little Emily's grieving parents in tow.

The screwup pharmacist has already been punished. Suddenly we need excessive training for technicians just to cover a pharmacist's butt?

"If it saves one child's life..." Humbug!

Poor felons are more equal than others

“Nonviolent offenders should not be serving hard time in our prisons. They need to be diverted from our prison system.!” --Hillary Clinton.

Unless their name is Scooter Libby, of course.

Hat tip to Taranto.

Oh, and by the way, Mme. Clinton... if Libby should do time for lying under oath to a federal grand jury, when's your hubby going to report for his?

PETA vs. Michael Moore

This is too good...PETA busting Michael Moore for being a pig-eating pig. It's so much fun when the Left forms a circular firing squad. Now Moore needs to make a movie about animal rights, full of his usual truthfulness.

Peter Mehlman, psychic

You could argue that even the world's worst fascist dictators at least meant well. They honestly thought were doing good things for their countries by suppressing blacks/eliminating Jews/eradicating free enterprise/repressing individual thought/killing off rivals/invading neighbors, etc. Only the Saudi royal family is driven by the same motives as Bush, but they were already entrenched. Bush set a new precedent. He came into office with the attitude of "I'm so tired of the public good. What about my good? What about my rich friends' good?"

How can anyone not see it? It's not that their policies have been misguided or haven't played out right. They. Don't. Even. Mean. Well.

Wow! Mehlman can not only look into Bush's mind and examine his motives, but into the minds of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, the Emperor Boukassa and the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld.

This isn't even moral equivalence. It's a statement that the above worthies are the moral superiors of Bush.

There are a lot of countries now being run by well-meaning tyrants. If Bush is that horrible, why doesn't Mehlman emigrate to one?

Jodi Rell, go to Hell

Connecticut’s governor, a cancer survivor, vetoed a bill that would have allowed people with certain serious illnesses to use marijuana, saying it was fraught with problems and sent a mixed message to children.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell said Tuesday that she struggled with the decision.

Of course, you could have let doctors and patients struggle with the decision...after all it's their struggle.

What's wrong with California?

Back in 1909, California progressives enacted a eugenics program which resulted in the forced sterilization of 19,000 people. Oliver Wendell Holmes, reviewing the case of the “socially inadequate” Carrie Bell, in the landmark Buck v Bell, concluded that “her welfare and that of society will be promoted by her sterilization.” That makes the California eugenics statute a “nanny law.” In light of that misstep alone, you would think that Californians would be eager to enact legislation which severely curtailed the powers of their own government, and meted out harsh penalties to overbearing moralists. But the opposite is true.

And here's a summary of how they're still "fixing" things.

Thanks to rightwingprof.

Race over the top

So what's more appalling: to say (if he said it) that a particular AIDS victim "deserved what he got", or to say that the politician who said that should be "removed from office" and "not be allowed to serve on any committee with appropriations"? (By what power or under what law?)

You know, Mr. Rajner, that's why we have elections. If the voters think Rep. Hays is a big enough jerk, they'll remove him. Keep your powder dry until the campaign.

200 years for a FOIA request

ONDCP assistant general counsel Daniel Petersen, in a marginally literate letter, told Tom Angell of Students for Sensible Drug Policy that he could expect an answer to his FOIA denial appeal "by June 22, 2207".

It was a typo, of course, but aren't we paying these people to be accurate? Worse, when Angell went public with the letter, Petersen made a threatening phone call. Rather abusive behavior from the holder of a job for which there is no constitutional warrant, wouldn't you say?

Border bars are hurting

It didn't take a graduate degree in economics to predict that bars along the MI, IN, and PA borders would be hurting, and that bars on the other side would be booming, as the result of Ohio's smoking ban. It's just another case of moralism trumping people's livelihoods, just like Hope Taft's war against the pre-made Jello shot guy. But this time it's the sacred will of da peepul that Debbie Longley's hours be cut by 3/5. Suck it up, Deb; this is democracy.

And in related news, the university's Smoking Task Force Group sent out a link for a survey at surveymonkey.com. Given that most smoking at Case is legally out of control of the University anyway, I don't know what they were looking for...maybe encouragement to make campus smoking even more restrictive. (Expel anyone caught smoking in a dorm room! Yeah, that's the ticket!) I doubt they were really interested in anyone's opinion, because the message was sent from a no-reply address, and the survey link just defaulted to www.surveymonkey.com. At least we've been warned that there's a Trash Force at work.

More on the Rev's fight against evil gambling machines

Rev. Gov. Strickland is so anxious to ban video gambling that he's willing to see the bill attached to the must-pass state budget. But oh no, this isn't about gambling. "Ethically run enterprises" like the state lottery are OK. Evidently it's all about "the will of the people". So, if "da peepul" voted to load all Methodist ministers into boxcars and ship them to West Virginia, Ted would be down with that?

OSU: more sense than Case

Our flagship state university decided that it just wasn't prudent to raise $4M to host a partisan political event. At least Case is a private university, not directly dependent on public looted money, so if the former management wanted to spend big on currying favor with the ruling class, it was their own business. Maybe they learned from our experience...but it's still humbling for "cow college" to have better sense than us.

There's a reason Ohio went Democratic

...and it was largely because of moralism. Ken Blackwell was way too connected to the Religious Right, to the loons who've lobbied to close down the stripper bars. Worse, he was none too scrupulous about democratic process. So the state went for Strickland. Not me; I voted for Peirce. I am very hesitant to vote for anyone who has ever parked a "Rev." in front of his name.

And I was right. Ted is a moralist too. I always suspected that his campaign against bringing in food for meetings was as much about gluttony as the budget. Now he and his sidekick Marc Dann are going against the evils of gambling...specifically, mechanical "games of skill" with cash payouts, and instant video horseracing. He's oh so careful not to hurt Cedar Point and chuck E. Cheese...but Ted, isn't that where the gaming industry hooks 'em early? And if gambling is such a problem for Ohio, why are you going against the little private guys? Why aren't you campaigning to end the state lottery?

MASShole lobbies for john doors to open outwards

BOSTON -- If Bellingham resident Douglas Flavin has his way, all public bathroom doors in Massachusetts will open outward, not inward.

The Legislature's Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight reviewed the bill Wednesday. State Rep. James Vallee (D-Franklin) filed the bill on Flavin's behalf.

"[Think] how easy it would be to prevent germs and disease," Flavin's wife Tracy told BostonNow. "If state residents could open bathroom doors with a knee or elbow instead of a handle."

Flavin also claimed it would prevent litter resulting from people protecting their hands with paper towels.

A representative for the state Department of Public Safety told the newspaper that the state building code does not specify the direction public bathroom doors must open.

There are actually people who open stall doors with paper towels?? Look, they have sinks with germicidal soap for a reason, and if you can refrain from picking your nose before you get to the basin, you should be home free. Besides, people's hands are full of germs before they enter the stall, and they'll leave them on the handle of an outward-opening door.

This story leaves more questions than it answers though:

1. What's Flavin's problem? Is he immunocompromised? Is he a doctor or bacteriologist and can show how many illnesses will be prevented? Or is he just a neurotic whiner?

2. Does the bill control new construction only, or must all stall doors be retrofitted to open outwards? And how will the cost of this compare to the cost of the illnesses avoided?

Well, research time...here it is:

HOUSE . . . . . . . No. 3258 By Mr. Vallee of Franklin (by request), petition of Douglas Flavin for legislation to require that doors to public toilets be constructed to open outwards. State Administration and Regulatory Oversight.

Chapter 111 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 33 the following section:—
Section 33A. The entrance door to all rooms containing toilets or water closets available to the public or to persons engaged in the production or service of food shall open outwards.

That's it. That's all. It's apparently the bathroom owner's job to fix it, but there are no penalties stated for not doing so.

Vallee seems fairly sane, for a politician. He's a military reservist, so he can't be that divorced from reality. I suspect that the way this went down is that Flavin harassed him to the breaking point, so he submitted a lame, badly-written excuse of a bill, figuring that he'd be a laughingstock but that Flavin would be ten times the laughingstock.

My boss' take: "Some people just shouldn't use public restrooms. Is that okay?"

"Well...Depends."

Cut the power!

"There is an overarching lack of trust in anybody with power," said Democratic strategist Stephanie Cutter. "It's not just President Bush. It's Congress. It's our CEOs. It's Hollywood. It's Wall Street. There's just an overwhelming lack of trust with authority and the people who have it."

So the solution attempted by both parties is to find a candidate with authenticity, who appears honest, with the thought that somebody can apply power and still be trustworthy. They don't get it. We don't trust power, period, because it corrupts. There is only one candidate for President who has renounced the use of power, and he's been trashed by the media and the Republican Party. Saying (like Edwards) that you were wrong about the war, while offering the electorate the usual stolen goods, is not going to convince people that you can be trusted with power.

Oh boy, the Joo-haters just found my blog!

Apparently, sometime during the past 24 hours, a certain group of people have found this post and posted comments. Supposedly the link came from TheBirdman.org, but I didn't find it over there (not that I spent a huge time looking). Ah, what to do? Shall I approve the posts, edit them, or what? Well, I'll take on the substantive one, from appollonian:

This above-noted "Libertarian" is just another moralist-Pharisaist, most probably Jew, not worthy of any serious notation/response

But you're responding, aren't you? Do you always do things unworthy of das Herrenvolk? For the record, even though with my beard and curly hair I have passed for Jewish (particularly among Lubavitchers and anti-Semitic African-Americans), my ancestors for as far back as I am aware have been Gentile. I can't absolutely rule out being Jewish under a "one drop rule", but then, neither can you.

For again, obvious problem for original blog entry/post is all the brainless question-begging and presumption: WHAT IS MORAL?--and there is no basis, hence definition, but as for Immanuel Kant, "hey, we just feel like we want there to be 'morality,' so therefore we declare not only 'morality' to exist, but we think it's so cool be be 'moral' as we feel that 'space-kadet glow' as we pretend to 'moralism.'" It just makes me feel so "good" and "cool," u see, as I pretend to be "moral"--especially in everyone elses' faces--so these people imagine unto themselves. Moralists are just people with inferiority complex--moralism then makes them feel good, see.

OK. You don't believe that morality exists. Then I guess it's OK with you for me to use you for target practice. After all, it's just my desires against yours.

(2) "Rights" are properly matter of social contract and agreement--as so excellently and definitively laid down by Thomas Hobbes in "Leviathan." Jews then never had any "rights" in Germany (or anywhere), being mere recipients of German charity, the poor German volk too unwitting of Jew anti-humanity.

If rights are contractual, they don't exist, except as privileges; they can be renegotiated at the drop of a trigger. And even if they are contractual, then Jews would have had rights in Israel, as they could contract for them there. Fortunately, you realize that you can't cut Jews out of human rights unless you first cut them out of humanity. That exposes your game.

So much for Jews, anti-human filth, scum, and the murderers of Christ, who affirm such Christ murder in their filthy book, Talmud.

So why would they kill one of their own?

CONCLUSION: Thus we see the empty arguments of original poster falling like confetti through the air--as there's no substance whatsover, the argument consisting of nothing more than subjectivistic wishful thinking (as regarding "moralism")

Not at all. Basically, the only hit you scored on my argument is the claim that morality has no objective existence (a claim that 99.9% of humanity soundly rejects). Let's accept that argument for a moment, and rephrase my main point: Would you like it if thugs with guns forced you into a boxcar and took you to another home? Did Hitler have benign intent toward the Jews? If not, how relevant is the actual scale and success of the Endlosung to its moral evaluation?

Terrorist caught with his pants down.

Terror leader arrested having car sex near Arafat's grave

Israeli forces raid jeep of longtime wanted militant caught in compromising position

This is beyond comment, I think.