Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Yeah, Right

First this.

"McCain said he would consider the unorthodox step of running for vice president on the Democratic ticket — in the unlikely event he received such an offer from the presidential candidate."

Later this.

"It’s impossible to imagine the Democratic Party seeking a pro-life, free-trading, non-protectionist, deficit hawk,” the Arizona senator told ABC’s “Good Morning America” during an interview about illegal steroid use. “They’d have to be taking some steroids, I think, in order to let that happen."

Both Kerry and McCain will do or say whatever it takes to rise to power, despite the label of Democrat or Republican.

Here’s the article. Via Drudge.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/10 at 06:42 PM
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Champagne Tastes, Beer Money

When I started earning my own money, picking blueberries all day at the age of ten, which I wouldn’t be able to get away with today if I was ten, I took real pride in my earnings.  It was my money, why shouldn’t I?  I didn’t earn much in those days, 8 bucks a hundred pounds was the going rate, and when I first started picking, I could barely pick a hundred pounds in a six day work week during the summer.

Anway, the money I earned I stashed away.  I wanted to buy a suit so I could look like a sharp dressed man.  Just like my Dad.  The suit I coveted, from a J.C. Penney catalog, was pricey.  If I earned only 8 bucks a week, it was going to take me about six weeks to earn enough to buy.  My Mum suggested something a little less expensive, but I was adamant, I wanted that J.C. Penney suit.  My Dad, overhearing my Mum and I discussing this said, “Honey, that boy has champagne tastes and beer money.  Let him get the suit he wants, but make him pay for it.” Which is exactly what happened.

Why do I bring this up, because I just read a long article titled “How to Get Federal Spending Under Control." The article, in draft form, was written by Brian M. Riedl and is available online via The Heritage Foundation.

Riedl’s article is quite informative and has many, many links embedded throughout, so you could spend alot more time investigating the article than I have so far.

The simple answer, to getting federal spending under control, is of course to cut back.  Unfortunately, unlike the real world, governments look on individuals as a kind of perpetual motion machine.  The individuals are always working and the government is always stealing the individuals’ rewards.  Individuals can’t stop working, so the government doesn’t stop stealing individuals’ money.

The government doesn’t have champagne tastes any longer, though.  It has stolen so much beer money, and the champagne flows so ceaselessly, the government can’t even taste it any longer and is always in search of something “better” to spend it on.  I say have all the professional jobholders earn their beer money out in the blueberry field at 8 bucks per hundred pounds and then see if they’re so willing to have someone else spend their money for them.

Via Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/10 at 11:37 AM
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Good Question

"Wanna know how someone really feels about “protecting public religious displays?” Ask them about reading the Quran aloud at their kids’ schools, or maybe having the football team cast a Wiccan circle on the field before Homecoming."

From Paul Jacob’s Common Sense email update, 3.10.04 titled ""Free to Worship, or Not."

Posted in full by George F. Smith at Strike the Root.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/10 at 10:57 AM
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I'm a Primitive Cowboy Without A Yacht, A Cult or A Brotherhood and The State Isn't My Landlord or N

Do you find any of the words in the title to this post offensive?  I don’t.  Well, did you know some individuals do find certain words in the title offensive?  Here’s Diane Ravitch, writing in the Wall Street Journal.

"In my book “The Language Police,” I gathered a list of more than 500 words that are routinely deleted from textbooks and tests by “bias review committees” employed by publishing companies, state education departments and the federal government. Among the forbidden words are “landlord,” “cowboy,” “brotherhood,” “yacht,” “cult” and “primitive.” Such words are deleted because they are offensive to various groups--feminists, religious conservatives, multiculturalists and ethnic activists, to name a few."

Then there’s this, also written by Diane.

"A college professor informed me that a new textbook in human development includes the following statement: “As a folksinger once sang, how many roads must an individual walk down before you can call them an adult.” The professor was stupefied that someone had made the line gender-neutral and ungrammatical by rewriting Bob Dylan’s folk song “Blowin’ in the Wind,” which had simply asked: “How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?"

Reading things like this makes me want to go on a cussing tirade.  Sh*t, p*ss, motherf**ker, g*ddamned a**holes dumber than a box of hammers anyway.

Ravitch’s article is titled “You Can’t Say That."

Linked via Daniel Medley at Lobowalk.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/10 at 10:21 AM
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Keep Your Stick on the Ice

No, this post is not about the Red Green Show. It’s about the Bertuzzi incident during a recent Canucks and Avalanche hockey match hosted by the Canucks.

I, myself, am not a big hockey fan.  Basketball is the game I’ll watch and at that, I prefer highschool and college ball.  But, in the couple dozen games I’ve watched on the teevee in my life, I’ve always wondered why certain skaters want to beat the shit out of each other from time to time.

Billy Beck casts his gaze on this recent Bertuzzi viciousness and has a few words to share here, here, and here. Billy’s posts were in response to this post from Colby Cosh.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/10 at 09:54 AM
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Liar, Liar Pants on Fire

Though the above phrase, common in my younger days, would be frowned on by the dogooders pushing “No Name-Calling Week," I think the phrase should be taught to every child and uttered by the children in any instance where they perceive their peers are lying.

It might do more to prevent this. From the linked article.

"The background search firm ADP Screening and Selection Services, in a 2003 study, found that more than 50 percent of the people on whom it conducted employment and education checks had submitted false information, compared with about 40 percent in 2002."

Via Diana Hseih.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/10 at 04:42 AM
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Is It These White Guys Fault?

David Yeagley lances the Janet Jackson controversy repurcussions.

"Janet Jackson is not going to be prosecuted for indecent exposure before millions of children across America. She isn’t even accused--despite the fact that state laws prohibit such behavior.

Instead, the outrage was directed at the TV stations (CBS, MTV), the NFL, and the entertainment industry. Those are all created by and run by “middle aged” white men. They are targeted as the whoremongers in this case, targeted by other powerful white men. Black woman Janet is as innocent as the media can make her. It wasn’t her fault. It was their fault. It was white people’s fault."

Yeagley’s post is titled Black Woman Up.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/10 at 04:34 AM
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Story of My Life, It Seems, Embodied in A Quote

When I look at my old report cards, which my Mum so kindly retained over the years, one particular comment appears on all of them.  Starting in the third grade.  John is a great student, blah, blah, blah, but he has a tendency to always question authority or pursue his own way.  Every report card seems to state this in one way or another.  Hmm.  Well, at least I seem to have started emulating some fairly heavyweight individuals at a young age.

"We ought never to allow ourselves to be persuaded of the truth of anything unless on the evidence of our own reason."

Rene Descartes

Quote borrowed from Russell Whitaker at Survival Arts.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/10 at 04:20 AM
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Is That a Promise or a Threat?

When I was a rabblerousing teenager, still living at home, my Mum, at times, had a difficult time dealing with me.  Two particular incidents involving my Mum stay with me.  One, during the summer of 1975, when I was pushing the envelope of my mother’s patience, and my Dad just happened to overhear me disrepecting her.  It is one of the few times my Dad manhandled me.  It isn’t that, that stays with me.  It is these words.  My Dad said, “I don’t care how you speak to me, but you will, John, treat your Mother with respect.  If you don’t, John, you’ll be out on your ass so fast you won’t know which way to turn.” My Dad wasn’t kidding.

The second incident’s catalyst also involved my Mum and my disrespect for her in 1978.  This time my oldest brother “corrected” my lack of respect by cold cocking me at 6:45 A.M. as I attempted to walk by him at the lumberyard where I worked.  As he had informed me he would do if I didn’t straighten up and fly right.

You see, those were promises made good by my Dad and my brother, to me, for not respecting my Mum.  They weren’t threats.

This morning I read about Karen DeCoster receiving email threats from one Jeffrey Sandor Orling Architect employee.  What a dick, threatening a woman.  I’d like to tell Orling that I would kick his ass for just such conduct, but I think Karen has the situation well in hand. If she doesn’t, and requires additional assistance, may I be the first to state that I would willingly stand by her side.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/10 at 03:54 AM
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