Sunday, November 30, 2008

Muslims Ban Yoga



Malaysian Islamic leaders have issued a ruling against Muslims practicing yoga. They recognize its Hindu essence and claim that Islam should meet all of its adherents needs. If only more Christians realized the Hindu nature of yoga and relied exclusively on Christian spiritual practices.

And, by the way, the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend. Nor should yoga be legally proscribed. Freedom of religion means the right to chose a false religion, the right to be wrong.

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Local Politics



Ron Paul's campaign for liberty advocates that libertarian-minded individuals get involved in local politics. I was curious whether I could get involved in any meaningful fashion at the local level. So I started googling what my local community board is doing and I just noticed this:

"[CB12] also supported the Department of Housing’s request to rehabilitate a threestory building at 567 W. 183rd St. into nine transitional housing units for newly released, male and female homeless exconvicts who are diagnosed with AIDS."

from (http://manhattantimesnews.com/covers/Archives/2008/Vol9N48.pdf).

Now I am left wondering what kind of crimes these people committed. (I'm also so not staying in this neighborhood when the lease is up.) I'm comforted by the fact that I am not a small woman. I'm no putting any faith (anytime soon) in the idea that any government program rehabilitated anyone.

The leftist lunacy doesn't stop with the government programs for convicts. On page 3 of the pdf I linked, there are photos of MTA employees with signs asking for no cutbacks on transit and asking for tax increases on the rich. Here's a choice quote:

“We should be informing our union members and mobilizing them to get out on the streets and make sure that transit knows in no uncertain terms that we’re not going to tolerate layoffs,” he said.



Of course the above enraged me. Unions saying they won't tolerate lay-offs and ex-convicts living down the street from me is not so wonderful. I couldn't imagine picketing my day job and saying things like, "I'm not gonna tolerate lay-offs." I guess it works for government employees and unions, though.

Unions and convicts -- so what, you say? Well, it gets worse: CB12 has its sights on funding more projects with government money. They apparently have a list of 50+ government spending items, but have prioritized seniors this year. The local government is interested in using tax payer dollars to take care of seniors:

“I see that our senior issues are going up,” he said. In the rankings, tallied and
released after the board’s Nov. 18 general meeting, it seems the community board agreed with him. The 47-member body ranked “increase funding for quality home care services for the elderly” as the number one expense item and “funds to expand and improve the physical structure of senior centers” as the number one capital expenditure. The second most important issue involved the police. Increasing the number of police officers at the 33rd and 34th Police Precincts, was the number two expense item, while providing them with cars and bicycles and vans was the
number two capital expenditure requested by the board."


I'm left wondering what will happen to the seniors once the government funding dries up completely over the next 3-5 years. Does making these people dependent on local government even make sense?

Every few weeks I see flyers from my district rep and CB12 about increased this or that, but they still have not prevented the local graffiti taggers from mucking up the paintings and murals they spent money on this summer in the subway tunnels. My neighborhood looks as ghetto and worthless as it did before that expenditure.

The Manhattan Times is a rag about the sob stories of poor people who want to tax the rich and pass new government programs every year. There's no way anyone with any reasonable, taxable income would possibly want to subject themselves to this big government stupidity. Living in North Manhattan is a form of financial suicide. (A good example of this is how Bloomberg arbitrarily changed his policy on property tax rebates this year.)

So, back to Ron Paul's point about local involvement:

Perhaps, as a young person in 'transition', I may not want to commit to my particular local government. It seems as if the best option is to find a place with a government I like, and then actively protect the system in place. I honestly doubt I could convince CB12 to stop spending on police, seniors, and ex-convicts. The big-government mentality seems too deeply ingrained in the festering pile of crap that North Manhattan is.

North Manhattan could probably use a giant fire, like the one that took out Chicago in 1871, to fix its problems.

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Concerns for gun owners



All over the country, gun stores are seeing sales jump in response to Barack Obama's election. Gun enthusiasts...never comfortable with Obama's stated laisse faire policy on guns....are saying 'I told you so' now that the election is over and it's clear that Dems will control both houses of Congress and the presidency. The biggest concern to many: the assault weapons ban put in during the Clinton administration and allowed to expire after G. W. Bush became president.

So what's the truth about Obama's policy towards gun ownership?

Factcheck.org published a good rundown during the campaign, citing NRA propaganda that made all sorts of outlandish claims about what could happen to gun laws. Most of the claims are debunked, but the report does link to an early Obama policy agenda sheet on Urban Policy that does promise to make the assault weapon ban permanent, close the 'gun show loophole' and make all weapons childproof.

This policy sheet has been seized on by anti-gun law activists and linked to from several reports being emailed to gun owners around the country. Some bloggers are concerned that a copy of the Urban Policy report was posted on the Change.gov site, then removed or "quickly disappeared down the memory hole after staff realized their plans had been revealed just a bit too soon." according to one blogger. Lots of reaction indicates a huge disappointment in Obama's claims during the campaign that he would respect Second Amendment rights.

And who cares about assault weapons, anyway? Any gun owner who has a semi-automatic weapon, including former military weapons like AKs and ARs, popular with gun collectors and recreational shooters. I can say from experience that this includes lots of normal law-abiding citizens who love their guns and enjoy owning guns that the U.S. military uses, and find lots of enjoyment in them.

Here's a summary of the ban and list of affected weapons, from the Salt Lake Tribune. A bill to renew of the ban was introduced in Congress this past spring, so it's quite clear a new Congress will probably face a renwal bill in the coming session. Would President Obama sign this legislation? Most likely.....

PS, I hate guns. But I love some gun owners and feel their concern.

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Why Blogs Were Invented.



Matthew Yglesias says

I never wrote anything this dumb and always — always — regarded Steven den Beste as a fool.


and his commenters use the thread to prove him wrong.

Brutally.

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Evil or Stupid? The Jury's Still Out.



Putz admits to sleeping through the 2004 GOP convention:

ZELL MILLER CROSSES PARTY LINES AND endorses Saxby Chambliss.


If you click through -- I don't recommend it -- you'll see that Putz has encouraged his readers to donate to the Chambliss campaign. I hope he clarifies who, exactly, he's soliciting donations from: "our folks," or, um, blacks.

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CSL's latest flame



Chua Soi Lek, the newly-elected MCA deputy president, had gotten himself into another controversy, it seems. This time with some young Malay graduates who grouped under the Gabungan Graduan Melayu Muda, the same body that dragged the Penang state government to court over the multilingual road sign.
GGMM president Khairul Azam Aziz said he and supporters will march from the LRT station at Ampang Park at 3 pm to the Wisma MCA, where he hopes to deliver a notice of demand to CSL.
"We want Dr Chua to apologize openly to the Malays for his statement that ketuanan Melayu is not longer relevant," Azam said here.
GGMM plans to take Chua to court on Wednesday if he fails to apologize.

Right-wing Umno blogger Big Dog says MCA should take stern action against CSL, here.



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HP convention latest



Over at Olly's.

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Chye and Jo and RPK On Riz Khan's Show



Learned (via Facebook, where else?) that you can catch Kee Thuan Chye on "Riz Khan Live" on Wed (Dec 3) at 10pm (1400 GMT) on Al Jazeera, Ch 513 (Astro). He will be talking about culture and politics and the ISA with Raja Petra Kamarudin and Jo Kukathas.

Unmissable, I'd say!

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Former Obama staffer to run Teague's office



Harry Teague, the 2nd Congressional District representative-elect, has hired the man who ran Barack Obama’s campaign in New Mexico, Adrian Saenz, to be chief of staff for his congressional office.

“I am excited to have Adrian on board,” Teague said in a news release. “His experience working on Capitol Hill makes him a valuable asset in advocating for the issues important to New Mexican families: jobs, health care, energy independence and education. His strong ties to the Southwest, and New Mexico in particular, mean that he has a good sense of the needs of people here in New Mexico struggling to make ends meet in these tough economic times.”

Saenz has worked on several campaigns in New Mexico, most recently for Obama. He has more than seven years of Capitol Hill experience, most recently serving as chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-Texas.



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Buddhism, Nondualism, Christianity: Preliminary Thoughts on Love and Ontology



During a lecture today, something came to me. Theravade Buddhist ontology (that of original Buddhism) teaches that there are no substances, only attributes that arise and pass away ceaselessly. This makes personhood (with its enduring self: a continuent) impossible. If personhood is impossible on this ontology, so then is love, since love requires a lover a loving and a loved (a triadic arrangement by necessity).

On the other hand, nondualistic ontology (that of Advaita Vedanta Hinduism and Zen Buddhism) affirms that there is a substance (Brahman), but that this substance has no qualities or attributes: Nirguna Brahman. So, there is purportedly a Universal Self, but lacking any determinable nature, since there are no qualities. (Keith Yandell rightly argues that the idea is incoheren; if something exists it must have at least some qualities or features of its existence.) But a substance with no qualities cannot allow for persons either, since there is but one substance (no pluralisty; all is one) and that substance cannot be considered personal. If it were personal, it would have the qualities of personality. If nondualism disallows persons, it excludes love as well.

Thus, both Buddhism and nondualism evacuate reality of persons and love, each in its own way: attributes without substance (Buddhism: all is many) or substance without attributes (nondualism: all is one).

Christianity asserts that God is one substance in three persons (one and many). God possesses both essence and attributes. God is personal, even tri-personal (without being tri-theistic). Love, therefore, has an ontological rootage and explanation. "God so loved the world..." (John 3:16).

Therefore:

1. If love is real and valuable, a worldview should be able to explain or account for it and not eliminate it. This is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for the truth of a worldview.

2. Neither original Buddhism nor nondualism can fulfill (1)

3. Therefore, both original Buddhism and nondualism are false.

4. Christianity, however, can account for the reality of love, based on the very character of God as love.

5. Therfore, Christianity fulfills (1) and passes a necessary test for the truth of a worldview.

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Saturday, November 29, 2008

Anti energy drinks hit Houston market



Houston Chronicle:

First came Red Bull and Monster Energy, giving a high-octane boost to late-night parties and study sessions.

Now the anti-energy drinks have arrived, carbonated beverages that promise to help you "slow your roll" or "lean with it."

But with their hip-hop-inspired advertising campaigns, Drank and Purple Stuff are generating a buzz that is anything but chill.

"I am very concerned about the marketing," said Ronald Peters, a University of Texas-Houston School of Public Health professor. Peters has researched the phenomenon of mixing codeine syrup with soft drinks or alcohol, a concoction that is believed to have factored in the deaths of three local rap stars.

"Sippin' syrup" is believed to have originated in Houston and it remains a common topic for Southern rappers. "Drank," "purple stuff" and "lean" are street terms for the illicit mixture.

Peters said he worries the new canned beverages could be a gateway for youth who want to experience the slowed-down effect of cough-syrup abuse. He called the products a step in the wrong direction and criticized them as "one of the most asinine things I have ever seen."

The Rev. Michael P. Williams, pastor of Joy Baptist Tabernacle Church in the Third Ward, said the Drank and Purple Stuff ad campaigns recall a troubling history of marketing such products as cigarettes and malt liquor in African-American communities. He said the companies that promote products like this shun "moral responsibility" and perpetuate harmful caricatures.

"These products are deliberately marketed in inner-city communities, where there is already some form of pathology that exists to begin with," Williams said. "Crime, poverty ... these things are exacerbated by these kind of investments."

Drank's creator, Peter Bianchi of Houston, defended his product and denied targeting consumers in specific neighborhoods.

"We have been doing well in white, middle-class neighborhoods, too," Bianchi said, citing strong sales in suburban Friendswood. He said Drank, which launched in Houston and was made available online in October, is now sold in Austin and Dallas, as well as communities in Missouri, New York and Connecticut.

Drank's Web site says those using the product include rappers, professionals, students and insomniacs. A MySpace page dedicated to the beverage shows smiling black youth brandishing the bottle and plays a tune by rapper Lil Wayne: Me and My Drank (which refers to the real thing).

Several calls to the company that makes Purple Stuff were not returned.

At three gasoline stations in mostly black or Hispanic neighborhoods — in Missouri City, Galena Park and Third Ward — clerks reported the drinks were popular among youth coming from clubs on the weekends. At the Spec's in downtown Houston, a representative said the drink has been "selling well."

But at two stations in predominantly Anglo neighborhoods — one in far west Houston and the other in Katy's Cinco Ranch — clerks had not heard of Drank or Purple Stuff.

...

I did not realize this target market needed to be more laid back.

Since I have never tried the energy drinks listed, it is a pretty safe bet I will not try the anti energy drinks.

I am also not ready for the Boost which is marketed to the older generation. Before my Mom went into the nursing home she would drink a mixture of Boost and Dr. Pepper in the mornings to get her moving. It seemed to work. She was monitored by in home nurses and she showed no ill effects.

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Big Tent Attempts to Rehabilitate Himself.



John's commenters, hilariously vicious, say "thanks, but no thanks":


Was that really Armando up there? Wow, I haven’t been this choked up since Rocky’s big speech at the end of Rocky IV.



Undeterred, Big Tent executes a reach-around and pats himself on the back.

Classy.

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Mr. Faith-Based's Sordid (Recent) Past.



As G. would probably agree, it's nice that whatever parasite fed off Joe Klein's cerebral cortex for the first six years of the Bush administration is now, presumably, gone. But the sad fact is that Klein was unforgivably late to the party. Let's not forget that the following exchange with Hugh Hewitt is from April of 2006:

JK: No, no. Hugh, in the past year, I've stood for the following things. I've taken the following positions. I agreed with the President on social security reform. I supported his two Supreme Court nominees, and I support, even though I opposed this war, I support staying the course in Iraq, and doing whatever we have to do in order to stabilize the region.

HH: All right. There are two critical aspects...

JK: So where do you put me on the spectrum?

HH: I'm going to put you as an old liberal with some hope of coming around.

JK: You know, I keep on getting hammered by the left.

HH: Oh, I know, but they're crazy now, Joe, as you write in this book. That's what's so wonderful about it. Your descriptions of the Democratic Party made me chuckle. It's lost. It's off the cliff.

JK: It made me cry.

[...]

JK: Well, you know, I also run in the kind of faith based circle. In fact, one of Bush's nicknames for me is Mr. Faith Based.

HH: Well, that's good.

JK: And at the very end of the book, I acknowledge Bill Bennett as giving the best advice on how to judge a presidential candidate.

HH: At a Christian Coalition meeting. Yeah, it's a great anecdote.

JK: And Bill's a good friend of mine. But I've kind of got to give these guys cover. You don't want to be praised by what you call a traditional liberal, do you?

[...]

JK: But can I just say this about the President? You were saying this before the break. Let me say that of all the major politicians I've covered in presidential politics in the last two or three times around, he is the most likely to stick with an issue, even if the polls are bad, and to govern from the gut as you said. I don't always agree with the decisions that he makes, but I think he is an honorable man, and when I've criticized him, I've tried to criticize him on the substance, and certainly not on his personality, because I really like the guy.


It's true that in June of '07, Klein appeared to cut his ties with Hewitt, but this was less of a divorce than a trial separation. Earlier this year, Klein again took to the airwaves, and the results were nothing short of pathetic:

HH: The gay and lesbian community up in arms over his relationship with James Meeks, who is very, in the words that they use, very homophobic. Does that sort of an attack from a traditional Democratic interest group bother you?

JK: No. I mean, really, I’ll tell you, bother me? I mean, the things I’m interested in are the big ones. I’m interested in foreign policy, national security, an alternative energy plan, the economy, those sort of things.

HH: Gay rights don’t matter?

JK: …And on those issues. That’s where I think that this campaign can go. You know, Hugh, we have a big choice this year.

HH: But do gay rights matter, Joe?

JK: No, I mean, I don’t think that they matter nearly as much as this other stuff.



Charming.



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Bill Ayers is Back: Book Tour and NPR



William Ayers is back in the spotlight. There is no surprise there. He was told to shut up until after the election. Now, he is promoting a new book--and NPR is there spin it up on "Morning Edition" today.

They mention that he was "a member of the Weather Underground." That's it. Well, what did said group stand for? This: the destruction of the American government. That's all. What did said group do" This: bomb buildings (among other nefarious activities) in the hope of accomplishing the destruction of the American government. Ayers has never repented of this. In fact, he said publicly he wished he "had done more."

Yet he is presented as a Professor and an expert in urban education. This is how tenured radicals (who avoided jail time) continue the Marxist revolution. They now work within the system to bring down the system. (Read Antonio Gramsci on that.) Ayers, given the American penchant for historical and political myopia, has been given a free ticket. Oh, NPR says he "circled around" tough questions at the first stop of his book tour. In response to his activism in the 1960s, he said: "Sorry, but I lived through the sixties." Ignoramuses laughed at that. No, Professor (God help us) Ayers, you were the apotheosis of everything terrible, horrible, and miserable about the sixties: the anti-Americanism, the Marxism, the wanton violence, the rooting for the Communists to win in Viet Nam (they did, thanks to you).

Welcome to Obama-land, America. I, for one, will not accept it. I will fight it with the truth. So should you.

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Good stuff



Europeana is a just-released Web site that is a repository for information from archives all over Europe, including "digitised books, films, paintings, newspapers, sounds and archives from Europe’s greatest collections."...
Unfortunately the demand has exceeded server supply and the site is now down and being retooled to re-open in 'mid-December'. A development site is still up, in English only.

Measuring Worth gives you 'six ways to measure the relative value of a U.S. dollar amount, 1774-present.'

Policy Archive, a 'a comprehensive digital library of public policy research containing over 16,000 documents'.

The Bivings Report gives us The Top 10 Best Newspaper Websites. The Washington Post and New York Times, no surprise, but how about two Tennessee newspapers?

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A bad trip to AA meeting



Daily Mail:

When a wealthy businessman's wife got lost in her Mercedes on the way to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, she did not stop to ask for directions.

Instead she stopped at a supermarket, bought two bottles of wine and promptly downed them.

When police pulled her over for erratic driving Jane Hofmann was so drunk she could not turn off the engine.

Experienced officers described her as the most intoxicated driver they had ever come across and she was found to be five times over the drink drive limit.

Hofmann narrowly escaped jail after pleading guilty to drink-driving.

...

It is safe to say she fell off the wagon big time. How did she ind the supermarket?

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The last time VAT was cut



This article is a blast from the past. It is from the Times in 1974 - the last time VAT was cut.

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1st credit crunch in 80BC



Guardian:

Politicians searching for historical precedents for the current financial turmoil should start looking a bit further back after an Oxford University historian discovered what he believes is the world's first credit crunch in 88BC.

The good news is that Philip Kay knows how the Romans got themselves into financial bother. The bad news is no one knows how they got themselves out of it.

"The essential similarity between what happened 21 centuries ago and what is happening in today's UK economy is that a massive increase in monetary liquidity culminated with problems in another country causing a credit crisis at home. In both cases distance and over-optimism obscured the risk," said Kay, a supernumerary fellow at Wolfson College.

The monetary historian is giving a lecture today in which he will reveal how Cicero, the Roman orator, gave a speech in 66BC in which he alluded to the credit crunch. Cicero was arguing that Pompey the Great should be given military command against Mithridates VI, king of Pontus on the Black sea coast of what is now Turkey. He reminded his audience of events in 88BC, when the same Mithridates invaded the Roman province of Asia, on the western coast of Turkey. Cicero claimed the invasion caused the loss of so much Roman money that credit was destroyed in Rome itself.

The orator told his audience: "Defend the republic from this danger and believe me when I tell you - what you see for yourselves - that this system of monies, which operates at Rome in the Forum, is bound up in, and is linked with, those Asian monies; the loss of one inevitably undermines the other and causes its collapse."

...

We do know they overcame the problem and went on to 100s of years of prosperity. More proof that storms never last.




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Friday, November 28, 2008

Even our cities are no longer safe



I was just about to run up to the pub to watch Forest v Norwich, when I find out that there is Stupid Game international on TV starting now.

As this is a big city, I suppose that there is a small chance that there won't be enough inbreeds and sheepshaggers there to overrule me on my viewing choice. But I'm not betting on it.

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Washington should this, Washington should that...



From Why Detroit Can't Keep Up

"Government -- or, more precisely, governments -- can help only if they grasp the way manufacturing companies work. The shakiest firms will need a tariff regime that permits an auto group to import components from the country where they are designed or most competitively produced. (The European Union's trade rules were a huge help in making it possible for Skoda to acquire components from VW Group companies, including the Spanish firm SEAT.) Federal and state governments should help jump-start a grid for electric cars, as Israel is doing. Most important, perhaps, Washington should move to stimulate innovation in entrepreneurial companies along the whole supply chain -- companies aspiring to provide new generations of components. "


The guy who wrote the above article is a complete idiot. Governments can only help if they grasp the way manufacturing companies work? What on earth -- Do we go to the polls to elect officials based on how they understand manufacturing? In that case, why don't we get politicians from the ranks of industrial engineering and operations research departments in various universities? It'd be one thing if we could dismiss this guy's article based on the simple fact that, hey, Washington has no clue how manufacturing works. Except, this no-talent-ass-clown keeps on going with lots of examples of government intervention in the marketplace.

How about Washington just do nothing? Where do these morons in the Washington Post get the idea that the government had the authority to tax us and then give it to for-profit corporations? And then not give those who were taxed ownership?

Washington should buy me a new yacht, because then I'd have a nice place to go and innovate so that I can come up with new products based on fancy R&D that other people pay for.

Does no one in Washington see how completely and totally unethical it is to rob from successful business people to give to a failed industry plagued with labor problems and engineering challenges? Or the fact that this a tremendous misallocation of resources?

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What's next for political junkies?



What a great week. The world changed in one day--and it was a good thing, for a change.

And, I am exhausted. I feel like I have an emotional hangover, both from the thrill of victory and the fact that I have been a political junkie throughout this very long election season. For people like me, who have become accustomed to obsessively refreshing our screens on fivethirtyeight.com, CNN.com and The Huffington Post, there is a hole in our lives--and perhaps the empty nature of our media obsession has been revealed. It's one thing to keep up with the news of the day, but I admit that checking those sites every hour to see whether something has changed was not necessarily productive. I ended up feeling like a lab rat obsessively pressing a lever to get a periodic reward. (NPR had a good segment about "election addicts going cold turkey" today on Morning Edition.)

The good news is that there is an opportunity to fill up this space with something truly meaningful. I have added many new book recommendations to the new edition Mojo Mom and three are particularly relevant to this situation:

The Lifelong Activist: How to Change the World Without Losing Your Way by Hillary Rettig

I love finding books that aren't directly about motherhood, yet speak to Mojo Moms. The Lifelong Activist is one of my favorites because the challenges of motherhood are similar to the demanding, often unrewarded efforts of activists. Hillary Rettig's book addresses the issues of avoiding burnout and building a sustainable life--themes that resonate at the core of my work as well.

The Lifelong Activist has an amazing annotated reference list, something I truly admire (and consider a worthy obsession). Rettig's book led me to my next recommended resource.

The Soft Addiction Solution: Break Free of the Seemingly Harmless Habits That Keep You from the Life You Want by Judith Wright.

This book is spot-on for media junkies who realize they are truly addicted. Wright helps people identify and replace time-wasting habits such as television watching, shopping and online browsing. She uses a great forumula, "the math of MORE," to add more life, more meaning, more focus on your true priorities to help end the "soft addictions." Her approach does not feel like deprivation, it feels like growth and reward. I am in the process of re-reading and implementing her suggestions because now that my new book is almost done, and the election is over, I want to fully take advantages of the opportunity to keep moving forward with my life, rather than letting bad habits chip away at my time.

The One-Life Solution: Reclaim Your Personal Life While Achieving Greater Professional Success by Dr. Henry Cloud

This is a business success book that realizes that each of us has one life, so a holistic approach is needed. I really like this book because Cloud talks about how setting up sensible boundaries in our lives actually gives us more freedom by keeping us on track with what we need to be doing. Cloud's book is very readable and inspired a lot of A-HA moments on my part. It's refreshing to read a work-life balance book written by a man for a change.

Finally, one more book I have recommended for a long time: The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.

I believe that being a Mom is being an artist--no matter what other job titles you hold. Julia Cameron's classic program for "blocked creatives" can help you get your mojo fired up again.

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Harry Callahan on privacy



"Well, I'm all broken up over that man's rights!"

This sums it all up nicely:
"This isn’t some bastardised version of Pastor Niemoller’s famous speech, which as I recall did not in fact begin “first they came for the fascists”!"


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Sober Reflections



Our Ed Blum has some of the best post-election analysis I've read in an essay at Religion Dispatches. It should be required reading for Obama supporters and detractors. Striking a Niebuhrian tone (in my mind, at least), Blum compares this year's "day of Jubilee" to that experienced at the end of the Civil War:

When we think of Obama as "savior-elect," we court trouble. When we forget history we weaken our own resolve; mysteries can be dangerous and days of Jubilee do not always end with eras of sublimity.

You can hear more of Ed's thoughts by listening to a San Diego NPR panel.

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A password to safety in Mumbai



CNN:

Carol Mackoff and her family were rescued Friday morning after being trapped in their rooms in the Taj Mahal Hotel for more than 40 hours.

"They informed us the final assault was beginning and we got a call from the colonel of the [Indian] army, and he said we will give you a password and if we come to the door and give it to you, come quietly with us," Mackoff said. "That's exactly what happened."

Mackoff, her husband, sister and friend were on a three-week trip to India.

"In the beginning, we heard shots and we didn't know what was happening," she told CNN by phone. "We saw men running down our hallway and we could see through the peephole in the door -- we could see guns in their hands."

The Chicago, Illinois, resident said the attackers rang their doorbell twice, but she and her family didn't answer.

"We locked every possible lock on the door and put heavy suitcases against it," she said. "When the explosions started and smoke filled the hallways we put towels at the bottom of the door."

While she was trapped, Mackoff exchanged text messages with the U.S. Consulate, which coordinated the rescue with the Indian Army. The four were told the exact time they would be rescued.

...


The Mackoffs were pretty smart in how they handled the situation. Uning text messages avoided having a conversation overheard. The apparently survived on mini bar goodies and nuts they had brought with them. The Indian Army rescue effort that saved them appears to have been well planned and executed.

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Sunday Silliness



Fun With Easily Mispronounced URL's :
(all comments come from the site)

therapistfinder.com


penisland.net -"...we exist to make sure you get the exact pen you want, a pen that is as unique as you are."

powergenitalia.com - the Italian power company, of course.

expertsexchange.com - Now changed to Experts-Exchange.com.

whorepresents.com - trying to find a gift for that special "someone"? Whoreprents is "a quick reference guide to & for representatives"....

molestationnursery.com

thepenismightier.com - this used to be an alternate URL for webauthor.com

mp3shits.com - they sell mp3's...hits.

lumbermansexchange.com - Lumberman's Exchange, Now defunct

fagray.com - F.A. Gray - Paint & Wallpaper

mofo.com - Morrison & Foerster legal firm.

mypenisland.com - this ones obviously intentional from viewing the site.

truckersexpress.com - Truckers Express: A specialized Heavy Haul industry leader.

speedofart.com

gotahoe.com

apetit.com - Looks like they sell food products. I can't read the language and I'm pretty sure they can't read English.

askandy.com - Say it fast.

ipanywhere.com - A software development company or... do they pee anywhere?

askart.com - The American Artists Bluebook - However, depending on how you pronounce the domain name, it can sound like 'AssCart.com'

helpmypenisstuck.com - Is your pen stuck or your penis?

regalcock.com - A fomer Canadian Parliamentarian website.

dickslumber.com - Dick's Lumber hardware store

wausaufestivalofarts.org - The annual Festival o' Farts is one of our largest local events!

gasheating.co.uk


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Obama got 6.5m donations



The Obama campaign definitely tapped into a lot of ordinary Americans' desire for change. According to Ezra Klein his campaign got $500m from 6.5m small donations . It is difficult to imagine something like that happening in a British election!

However, of course, the fact that parties get free Party Political Broadcasts in elections and can't buy TV time helps reduce the cost of our elections compared to the ridiculously expensive ones in the US.

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The Crude Liberty Fetishists Movement



A movement has been formed with Henry Porter at it's head. They're doing a conference. They have a blog. It's all happening. Speakers include Iain Dale, David Elstein (the most committed and cynical campaigner against Public Service Broadcasting) and Dominic Grieve. 'Partners' include the Centre for Policy Studies and the Campaign for an English Parliament.

Oddly, you would have thought that Conor Gearty would have been asked to speak. Gearty is easily the most credible writer that I've found on the subject of civil liberties and he has a very good recent book to plug. For him, the whole question is inseparable from that of Representative Democracy - he sees the right to vote (and the right to vote within the context of Representative Democracy) as the core civil liberty. It is a liberty that is not especially valued by many (perhaps most?) of the speakers and partners of that conference.

Looking at that list of speakers, in almost every case, they have been flaky on that particular subject at some point. I would plot most of these people on the wrong side of the 'direct democracy / representative democracy' axis (or - following that link, dangerously high on the idealist/cynic scale).

Here's Gearty a while ago in The Guardian. I was going to selectively cut-and-paste a few choice sentences from it, but really, everyone who is thinking of going to that conference should read the whole thing - and hang around a bookshop long enough to get the gist of Conor's excellent book.

This fetishisation of individual liberties - one that works, at least in part,in opposition to Representative Democracy - needs to be opposed a good deal more that it is being at the moment.

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Thursday, November 27, 2008

The Visible Church: Historiography of African American Religion Since Raboteau



Paul Harvey

A few weeks ago I blogged about the wonderful AAR session devoted to a 30th anniversary retrospective of Albert Raboteau's Slave Religion. I now wish that, prior to this event, I had been alerted to the recent article by Sylvia Frey, which Rebecca Goetz has just brought to my attention:

I just read a fantastic lit review in the March 2008 Slavery and Abolition by Sylvia Frey: "The Visible Church: HIstoriography of African American Religion since Raboteau." I highly recommend it.

Indeed, this is a state of the art piece, synthesizing the historiography of religious expressions in the African diaspora from the 1440s to the eve of the American Civil War. It does not cover the period since emancipation, so the title is a bit misleading, but the substance of the piece is an indispensable overview of the last generation of work on the religious expressions of enslaved peoples in the Western Hemisphere. It's not online presently, will be I think after a one-year embargo, but I was able to get it inter-library loaned electronically. So, ordered it last night, received it by PDF this morning. Sometimes progress is good!

The article focuses on placing the study of "slave religion" in its full Atlantic context, noting especially works such as John Thornton's Africa and Africans and Linda Heywood's Central Africans and the Cultural Transformations in the American Diaspora (I was totally unfamiliar with Heywood -- got to get that for our library immediately!). Also, as is true of much of this new work, Catholicism plays a much more central role in African American religious history than appeared in an earlier generation of work, in Brazil and the Carribean of course but in North America as well.

Frey concludes: "It is fair to conclude by noting that more sophisticated methodologies developed since the publication of Raboteau's Slave Religion have advanced the historiography to such a level that what was largely invisible about African influence in the making of the Atlantic religious universe is now increasingly visible."

The full reference: Sylvia R. Frey, "The Visible Church: Historiography of African American Religion Since Raboteau," SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 29 (March 2008): 83-110.

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Thanksgiving



With sincere apologies to Brian Shields, the thing I like best about Thanksgiving is the way my house smells all day. (I am allowed to use more spices, Brian, although I have to stay away from the ones that set off hyper-allergic reactions in my son.)

This is an interesting season, because so many Americans have been sold on the idea that we are standing on the brink of a catastrophe. I can get on the net and see lists of stores I should not buy gift certificates from, because they probably won't be in business next year to redeem them. I can watch the unemployment statistics rise, see Czar Paulson running around like a turkey with his head chopped off (and his neck stuffed up his ass with the giblets package), tossing out hundreds of billions of dollars to everybody except the taxpayers who generated it.

I can read kavips, who has decided that this is the last Thanksgiving before ... the Blackness.

I can open up the Snooze Journal, as I have for the past few days, to find yet another state government organization proclaiming that the world will end if spending has to be balanced against receipts. Yesterday it was the Department of Education and the Court System, today it's DelDot. Funny, I've never actually been sure what DelDot does with the money--certainly doesn't seem to be keeping roads in repair.

And I can watch President-elect Obama doing exactly what I would be doing in his place, at least in a rhetorical sense, which is making dire enough predictions about how bad it is all going to get before it gets better. Part of this is realism, but another huge chunk is your typical politician trying to ensure that if the economy still stinks 18 months into his administration you don't blame him.

[As much as I disagree with many of his policies, I will say it's nice to have somebody back in the White House who at least knows how to give a damn speech.]

Don't get me wrong: there are going to be some tough times ahead. As a culture we've been living beyond our means in a credit bubble for too long, and eventually, eventually, the Reaper had to show up at the door. [Obama should be happy that the skeleton appeared before he was elected. Whew. Dodged a bullet on that one.]

In those tough times, people are going to get hurt--economically, psychologically, and physically. But since that happens everyday around the world while we're not paying attention, maybe it's not necessarily a bad thing to be reminded that the USA is not immune.

I look at my children, however, and I think: this is a chance for them that I never had in my lifetime.

The Great Depression, followed by World War Two, gave us the Greatest Generation.

There's going to be plenty of economic hardship and--unfortunately--military conflict over the next 5-8 years. My twins are just about the age my Dad was when the Depression broke out. It made so many aspects of his character, he told me, far better than they otherwise would have been.

Those of us in our 50s, 60s, and up are not going to be the Greatest Generation of this story. That role has been reserved for our children and grandchildren. They are the ones who will redefine America, as America gets redefined anew every 3-4 generations. For my conservative friends who are afraid that somehow progressives and liberals will turn this country into France or Sweden while we're not looking, don't worry....

This country, like Russia, like India, and like China, is too big, too rambling, and too diverse to follow any model of society or economics that works for a State with only a fraction of our scale and population. Our children will turn this country into what America needs to be to thrive and grow in the 21st Century, and I am not worried about entrusting the future to them.

But this is a Thanksgiving post, and I should tell you what we are thankful for, here at hacienda Newton.

We're thankful that my wife is recovering from three-level spinal fusion, that the doctors are dealing with the residual referred nerve pain, and that she will be able to go back work in January.

We're thankful that my son is responding to the blood pressure medications meant to help him deal with Adolescent Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

We're thankful that my eldest daughter finally landed a full-time job with benefits, and that it is in a position that's not going to go away very quickly even if the economy continues to tank [and it doesn't hurt that the company she now works for is listed as one of the "Ten best companies in Pennsylvania to work for"].

We're thankful that my younger daughter is once again making good grades in Algebra. There was this rocky period of about two weeks when the teacher wanted her to drop back into an easier class, but she said, "No, Dad, if you'll help me I can do this." And she has. Some of the determination she learned this year as a 12 year-old fighting to become the starting goalie on a 14 year-old soccer team has translated into the rest of her life.

We're thankful that my grandson has a great kindergarten teacher, who has helped tease out the reading disabilities we knew he'd have (ain't genetics wonderful) and has gotten him into an early intervention program.

We're thankful that, when our income took a big hit with my wife's temporary disability, I was able to find a second job to supplement things, and that it is something I actually like doing.

We're especially thankful that, about six months before the nation's current financial rough ride started in earnest, we took stock, saw it coming, and made the tough decisions to get our own financial house in order. I realize now that it is a blessing to make tough choices on your own timetable rather than one imposed from the outside.

There is a future ahead of us, and it is as bright as our children are willing to build and sacrifice to make it.

Some of them will excel, and some of them will fall. As a country, and as individual families, we will tend our wounded, bury our dead, and just keep going.

That's what we do. Somewhere (I think it was in the 1990s, but it could have been earlier or later), that essential of the American character sort of slipped out of focus, and we concentrated more on the things that did not matter, the things we could buy instead of the things we could be.

That's ending, now. At least I hope so.

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That Sounds Like a Terrible Idea



The International Association of Independent Tanker Owners thinks that a blockade of Somali ports would be more effective against pirates than shipping escort. The European Community Shipowners Association thinks that air and cruise missile attacks on pirate bases would be even more effective. And the Russians, apparently, believe that direct land-based attacks on pirate strongholds are necessary:
NATO, the European Union and others should launch land operations against bases of Somali pirates in coordination with Russia, the Russian ambassador to NATO said on Wednesday.

Dmitry Rogozin said the view of Russian experts was that naval action alone, even involving a large fleet of a powerful nation, would not be enough to defeat the pirates, given Somalia's geo-strategic position.

"So it is up to NATO, the EU and other major stakeholders to conduct not a sea operation, but in fact a land coastal operation to eradicate the bases of pirates on the ground," he said.

Let's take these in reverse order. The idea of a NATO/EU/Russian invasion of Somalia (which is what ground based attacks would amount to) strikes me as crazy. David Axe:
Please recall that the last time Western troops had a large presence in Somalia, in 1993, 18 Americans and hundreds of Somalis died in a brutal gun battle. And much of the bloodshed in Somalia today is an outgrowth of a brutal Ethiopian occupation. Somalia is not the kind of place you invade lightly, and certainly not just to kill a few pirates.

I'm also less than convinced by the airstrike option. Pirates may have offices and known operation centers like everyone else, but I doubt that much organizational capital is tied up in fixed land infrastructure; rather, I suspect that the capital is in ships, human expertise, and organizational/tribal loyalties, the last two of which cannot be easily destroyed with cruise missiles. Striking pirate motherships in port might make some sense, if you could reliably differentiate them from normal shipping. But any such strike would run the risk of civilian casualties, and the piracy problem just isn't serious enough to take gambles like that.

I don't know about the close blockade concept; my hunch is that there are too many points of egress on the Somali coast and too few ships to carry out a full blockade. A close blockade would also put naval vessels at risk of attack from small boats; it's very unlikely that we'd see suicide attacks off Somalia, but I expect that the various navies would be too paranoid about the idea to actually go for it.

Axe gets it right, I think:
Ending piracy means encouraging Somalis to establish law and order on their own territory, while deterring pirates with naval patrols in international waters. An armed invasion would be counter-productive, by exacerbating the present nationalist insurgency and prolonging the country’s instability.


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Al Qaeda threat to New York subways, trains?



CNN:

Federal authorities have received a "plausible but unsubstantiated" report that al Qaeda may have discussed targeting transit systems in or around New York City, the Department of Homeland Security said.

"These discussions reportedly involved the use of suicide bombers or explosives" on subway or passenger rail trains, according to a joint DHS and FBI statement issued Tuesday.

"We have no specific details to confirm that this plot has developed beyond aspirational planning, but we are issuing this warning out of concern that such an attack could possibly be conducted during the forthcoming holiday season," the statement said.

The uncorroborated information indicates al Qaeda may have discussed in late September targeting New York transit systems, DHS spokeswoman Laura Keener said. She said the memo was issued as a precaution so that local officials could make decisions appropriate for their areas.

...


Do you think we might have picked up the information about this threat through intercepts of enemy communications? That is my guess.

It could be just an attempt to discourage travel over the holidays. Human bomb attacks on subways don't have the same impact as flying planes into buildings. They certainly had a minimal effect when they were tried in London. As a terror weapon they just don't seem to have enough bang for the buck to make a difference in a war.

For all those who wanted to require warrants before we listen to enemy communications, would ou prefer that we ignore this warning? Would you feel safer if we missed it because we did not happen to have a warrant for the ones making the threat?

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Asia 21 Society Conference in Tokyo



I'm now in Tokyo for a 3 day conference - Asia 21 Young Leaders Initiative Summit - and should be back in Parliament on Monday morning. For those who are trying to reach me - my Malaysian number is incapacitated as I do not own a 3G phone (other systems don't work here, unfortunately).

For any urgent matters, please email me (I still get to check periodically) or call/sms the Damansara Service Centre Hotline 016-2208867.

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Some Strategies under Obama



Constructive activities to oppose the Obama regime

1. Pray and fast for mercy for America.
2. Contribute to and volunteer for organizations that counsel women to keep their unborn children and who help them once the children are born. It is unlikely we can do too much to stop the supply of abortions under Obama, but we can work to slow the demand. To keep up with policy issues, consult National Right to Life.
3. Do all you can to stop The Freedom of Choice Act. Write, call, visit members of congress. This will probably come up soon in the Obama regime.
4. Prepare for a major economic recession, if not depression. I am not a financial adviser, but do not assume the economy will look much like it did under Bush.
5. Prepare for more terrorist attacks. They will likely hit US soil again under Obama, since he is weak on national defense and homeland security (as is nearly the entire US left). Store food and necessities. Prepare your soul under God.
6. Oppose attempts to create a so-called Fairness Doctrine, that would allow the government to control the content of media presentations. This denies the First Amendment and is meant to censure conservative viewpoints. Expect it under Obama.
7. Teach and preach biblical principles for civil government. These are being lost, as the last election demonstrated. Start with Francis Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto.
8. Oppose draconian expansions of civil government under the label of "compassion" and the like.
9. Prepare yourself for hard, crushing times, perhaps unlike any previously in American history. This means radical depedence on God, a willingness to take up our cross and not compromise the faith given once for all to the saints. These conditions may also require more support among church members. When the crunch comes, the church must be a place of radical care, godly resistance, and compassion. On this, see Francis Schaeffer, The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century.

Of course, I hope I am wrong in these dire predictions. I do not claim to foretell the future, but only to warn those with ears to hear.


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The War Is Over...



And we won.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- The U.S. military says two American troops have been killed after coming under small-arms fire while distributing humanitarian aid in northern Iraq.

A senior U.S. military official in Iraq says preliminary reports indicate that the shooter was wearing an Iraqi army uniform and opened fire from a distance.



Well, I'm sure it will be a comfort to their families that wingnuts have not only declared victory but have already begun the festivities.



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What would today's Mail say about Kindertransport if such a thing occurred again?



The Enemies of Reason has a good article thinking about what today's Daily Mail would say about something like Kindertransport. They , with the benefit of hindsight, commemorate it now in anniversary articles. But, if a project like that took place today, they would be the first to complain about refugee children.

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Detumescence in One Easy Step.



Katie, preznit-fer-life of the Pantload fancub, pretty much ensures that the ways of wingnut women will remain unknowable:

Yes, the phrase "Mr. Gorbachev,tear down this wall!" puts me in the mood.


Other things that put Katie "in the mood":

-- the "good parts" of Hotel Rwanda
-- dead kittens
-- Hugh Hewitt in a tank top

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InstaBitching.



Old meme:

"[The media's] Bush-hatred trump their patriotism."


New meme:

"[The media's] in the tank for Obama."


There's just no pleasing Putz!

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Outrage



Krugman on the Citigroup bailout. Or perhaps "weak, arbitrary, [and] incomprehensible" is the better phrase. The fact that Citigroup's shareholders are apparently not even going to get much of a haircut (let alone the wipeout that should be the no-questions-asked starting point for any bailout of this magnitude) is particularly appalling. Is there some sort of "Queens's only skyscraper" exemption to representing taxpayer interests that I'm unaware of?

And, of course, this provides stark evidence about how much damage Bush will be able to do in his last lame duck months.

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Released from Police Bail




The above is a 7 minute video shot by BK on the night of the his own arrest.

As you would probably have read in the online news reports yesterday, those who were arrested on 10th November for the peaceful candlelight vigil to protest against the Internal Security Act as well as to commemorate the 1st anniversary of the BERSIH rally, have all been released from police bail, after reporting ourselves to the PJ police station yesterday morning.

As the officer-in-charge stated, "we'll call you if you get charged". Otherwise, we don't have to report back to the police station. ;-)

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Some bad results for Hugo Chavez in the Venezuelan local elections



The Independent reports that the opposition to Hugo Chavez's PSUV has won the governorship of Caracas. This suggests that the fall in the price of oil and, perhaps, disillusionment and apathy among some government supporters has meant the PSUV has declined in popularity since its high-water mark.

The PSUV still looks on course to win 17 of the 23 states in Venezuela. This is better than governments in Britain normally get in local elections!

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Here's a good reason not to bail out GM ....



... because GM wants to send a billion bucks of it to Brazil.

From the Latin American Herald [with h/t Last Free Voice]:

General Motors plans to invest $1 billion in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market, said the beleaguered car maker.

According to the president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, Jaime Ardila, the funding will come from the package of financial aid that the manufacturer will receive from the U.S. government and will be used to "complete the renovation of the line of products up to 2012."


Yeah, as kavips likes to say, Congress Saves The World, huh?

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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The Palinization of Wingnuttia.



So, when The Bible says that marriage between two men is unholy, that's theologically sound. But manna from heaven? Totally implausible!

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Dispute over the leadership of the French Socialist Party



Agnes Poirer has an article on the Guardian website about the dispute over the leadership of the French Socialist Party. Martine Aubrey appears to be ahead - but Segoline Royal is challenging the results.

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The NHS and the US healthcare system



This article reports on how the NHS works better than the US system by looking at a couple of individual cases of childhood leukemia - one here and one in the US.

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An Anti-Federalist Project, thanks to the USMC



Master Sergeant Donald F. Kampe, USMC, reads this blog, and I am damn proud of that.

We disagree on lots of things, especially foreign policy in general and Iraq in specific. I'd venture to say that he is where I was several years ago (intellectually but not geographically speaking), there is probably room for movement on both sides.

Here are a few snippets of what Don has written to me:

Damn, I miss the Articles of Confederation as well!!!

I just got done reading a John Stossel piece and it reminded me about how in the movie the patriot Marin said that 3000 men 1 mile away could trample a man's rights just as well as 1 man 3000 miles away. That started me on the train of thought that we have now pushed the presidency to the point of he is King and can solve all and rules all. Seems to me that I read somewhere that some people called that a long time ago, that if the Constitution were passed that it would come to where we are now. Those being the Anti-Federalist. Scary when you read their writings and see who well they predicted the outcome. As flawed as they all were, we haven't a politician now that could come close, they were true statesmen and yes they had their own interests at heart no doubt, but most of them put their money and neck out there, not today. There are many things that you and I agree on and some we don't though we can disagree in a civilized manner and though I won't change my mind, I can understand your position and respect it. If you and I can do that why can't our leaders do that? Just a random thought but I figured you would get a laugh and maybe it would stimulate some writing for you.


Yeah, Don, it did stimulate some writing. I had been working with George Donnelly on and off regarding the idea of a Libertarian Contract with America, and in the Boston Tea Party I have been floating the concept of a Gallatin Project think-tank for Libertarian candidates.

But what I'm thinking now that we have take the original concept of the Anti-Federalist Papers and use that to reframe the political discourse in a most public, most provocative way.

No, it doesn't quite make sense, but at heart I think I am an intuitive rather than a logical guy.

So, Donald, when it comes, remember that you're at least partly to blame.

And, oh yeah, much as it hurts an old Army guy to say this .... Semper Fi

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The Important News



Congratulations to Henry Burris and the Calgary Stampeders on winning North America's most important football championship...

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The best thing about the Denver Nuggets



From reader Taylor comes this boner-popping video.



Slow motion and silicone. A match made in Heaven!

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A Good Definition of Insanity.



When you seem to believe that a teevee character can "channel" an actual, albeit cartoonish, human being, as opposed to the inverse.

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Explainer



A nice economic stats explainer here.



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The video that angered the left





Zieglers was trying to make the point about media malpractice and is planning a film which will include this clip. But the angry left thought he was attacking them and making fun of them. Amanda Carpenter gives some examples of the printable invective he received after the clip went viral. Ziegler also commissioned a Zogby poll that got the lefts shorts in a wad.

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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Made up 'rights' and the status quo



NY Times Editorial:

The approval of Proposition 8 in California, a constitutional change designed to prohibit marriage between couples of the same sex, was not just a defeat for fairness. It raised serious legal questions about the validity of using the Election Day initiative process to obliterate an existing right for a targeted minority.

These deeper questions were largely lost during the expensive campaign by proponents of Proposition 8. Essentially, in their rush to enshrine bigotry in the State Constitution, they circumvented the procedure specified in that same document for making such a serious change. Now, the state’s top court, which has agreed to hear the legal challenge to Proposition 8, has the unpleasant duty of tossing out a voter-approved ballot measure.

The case turns on whether Proposition 8 is a constitutional amendment, requiring only approval by a bare majority of voters, or a more far-reaching constitutional revision, requiring a two-step process: either a constitutional convention or a two-thirds vote of the State Legislature followed by voter ratification. The court, which has struck down several measures before, should not lightly overturn the will of the people. But it has not confronted a revision this far-reaching in terms of upsetting basic rights and the state’s constitutional structure.

...
Wait a minute.

I think the editorial board of the Times has stood logic on its head. The so called "existing right" had existed only a matter of weeks after it was made up by the California Supreme Court. The proposition was an attempt to return to the status quo as it has been for billions of years. It makes more sense for the proponents of gay marriage to have presented a proposition to get what they wanted rather than using the courts to by-pass democratic change.

I don't think gay marriage is all that important, but then I am not a gay person wanting to get married. I am not a gay person at all. I really have not met many gays who expressed a desire to get married. Those who do appear to be a minority of a group that is already a pretty small minority. They may have a yearning for seeing their life style accepted as normal but so do the polygamist.

The conduct of the disappointed gays has been reprehensible. Throwing a tantrum is not endearing and it is not likely to change minds which should be their objective if they want to change the law.

For the Times to pretend that gay marriage in California was a settled issue explains why there has been a slip in credibility for the media.

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