Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Mea Culpa Lottery Participant - Brown University

"What makes the current reparations movement a fraud, whether at Brown University or in the country at large, is the attempt to depict slavery as something uniquely done to blacks by whites. Reparations advocates are doing this for the same reason that Willie Sutton robbed banks: That’s where the money is."

Thomas Sowell, at Townhall.com, in a piece titled “Rattling the chains" wherein he comments on Brown University’s appointment of an investigative committee to determine the university’s past connections to slavery.

Not that any past reparations movements are any less fraudulent, it’s just that self loathing is the in thing, still.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/24 at 03:03 PM
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That's Putting It Mildly

“‘The ones who sent him are stupid, because the army will give him two slaps and he will tell them who sent him,’ Hosni Abdo said."

From this article about the most recently apprehended suicide bomber, a 16 year old with the alleged understanding of a 12 year old.

This article, in Haaretz, reports that the young man was 14 years old.

Both article links via Drudge.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/24 at 02:51 PM
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Calling in an Air Strike on Your Own Position or All Over a Piece of Paper

Government recognition is often presaged by clamoring for new laws.  The current tempest in regards to homosexual marriage is no exception.  In Oregon, they have not only stopped issuing homosexuals marriage licenses, but heterosexual licenses also. A sort of cease fire, so to say, in this “war” of law and licensing regarding marriage.

I mention this today because of a story in the LA Times regarding a teacher in the Camarillo school disrtict who, on Valentine’s Day, was “married” in San Francisco to his partner of 15 years.  It appears that his “legal marriage,” based on a piece of paper from the government, has caused him to be “outed” to his seventh and eighth grade students, which has led to an investigation, one letter of complaint from a parent, weight and sleep loss, and, I’d bet, talk of trauma counseling for “the kids.”

Judas Priest.  Leave the teacher alone.  Even though the reactions to the “marriage” have been immature, reactionary, and plain stupid, I would hesitate to think that the teacher involved didn’t realize his desire for governmental recognition would call attention to his homosexuality, and, quite possibly, create problems.

The LA Times article is titled “Not So Happily Ever After."

Link via The Obscure Store.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/24 at 08:58 AM
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You're Good Looking, Yeah, Well, You're Fired

“Woman fired for giving a compliment."

Isn’t this supposed to be the other way around?

Via Pat Lynch at Liberty & Power: Group Blog.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/24 at 08:24 AM
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They Sound Like Free Americans to Me

The Globe and Mail has a very interesting piece up on Slab City. The introductory statement to the article.

"Out in the Mojave desert, American fugitives from family or the law have camped out for 40 years in Mad Max-style Slab City. But as DOUG SAUNDERS discovers, they’ve been joined by some unlikely neighbours—sun-seeking Canadians, who have brought along a little peace, order and good . . . well, not government."

Via Jesse Walker at Hit & Run who titled his link to this story “Anarchy in the Mojave."

Posted by John Venlet on 03/24 at 08:04 AM
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Arab Imperialism

How come there’s always a big stink made about alleged U.S. imperialism and wanton disregard for human life, but if it’s Arabs operating, say in the Sudan, laying total waste to a country and the individuals residing within said country, only Nicholas Kristof seems to notice?

Link via PrestoPundit.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/24 at 07:42 AM
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A Note from the Dog

Anchorage to Houston, via Seattle, Rufus, the Airedale, relates the travel tale of his Master’s trip.  There are TSA minions, leaky faucets and erratic, inflight movie screens, a smiling stewardess who inspires fantasy, airport shuttles driven with the alacrity of Philippine Jeepneys and the smell of capitalism.

Read all about it here.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/24 at 07:29 AM
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Blessed Trade

Radley Balko has an interesting piece up at Tech Central Station titled “God and Globalization." Balko’s piece looks at the “interplay between trade and religion,” and where they have taken the world in the past, the present, and could take the world in the future.

One paragraph in the piece struck me as off the mark, though.

"Any discussion of trade and globalization’s influence on religion will share many characteristics of the debate over globalization and culture. Religion, after all, is a pretty determinant factor in gleaning the identity of a given culture. Trade opponents argue that developing cultures don’t have the means to compete with overpowering western influence, and so trade and globalization have led to a kind of “Coca-Cola-fication” of places like Africa and South and Central Asia. The West moves in and imposes its culture before the developing countries in those regions ever had an opportunity to forge a culture of their own."

Specifically, what I find off the mark, are the words which I have put into bold type.  I do not necessarily think that the West “imposes” its culture on developing countries.  I think that individuals within developing countries suck up Western culture like sponges because they have been denied so much for so long.  Additionally, stating that developing countries have Western culture imposed on them prior to having “an oppotunity to forge a culture of the own,” is simply false.  Developing countries have had cultures of their own for centuries.  Its just that the cultures developed in these developing countries were extremely lacking in developing wisdom, reason, freedom and trade. 

Posted by John Venlet on 03/24 at 07:00 AM
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If the Palestinians Are Weeds, The Israelis Are A Spray Bottle of Roundup

In an article titled “The Fear Factor—Palestinians want us to forget that they’re human," Bret Stephens, editor in chief of the Jerusalem Post, wonders,

"Are Palestinians weeds? It would seem many people think they are. Following Israel’s assassination early yesterday morning of Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of Hamas,the gist of international reaction was that the strike would bring new converts to the Islamist cause and incite a fresh wave of terrorist violence against Israel. In other words, Palestinians are weeds: Mowing them down, as it were, only has the effect of making them grow back stronger and faster."

Stephens answers his own question further into the article.

"But of course Palestinians aren’t weeds. They’re human. They think in terms of costs and benefits, they calculate the odds, they respond more or less rationally to incentives and disincentives. And what makes us afraid can also make them afraid."

Stephens piece was written, of course, in response to all the brouhaha surrounding the recent demise of Yassin, paragon of benignity that he was.

Though the weed metaphor may be “trite,” the Roundup metaphor is rather accurate.

Link to Wall Street Journal article via Nicholas Provenzo at The Rule of Reason.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/24 at 06:30 AM
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Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Is This Thing On?

You know how when you go to some function or talk and, invariably, the speaker will begin speaking and no one can hear a word that is said.  The speaker will tap the microphone, fiddle with a switch or a cord, or repeat, mantra like, “Testing, 1, 2, 3, testing,” or, “Is this thing on?” until someone messes with the volume control and sends feedback screeching into your ears.  I’m kind of wondering about this myself today, but not about microphones, about this.

“Federal welfare rolls dropping"

That link is from the Chicago Tribune.

“Despite the Sluggish Economy, Welfare Rolls Actually Shrank"

That link is from the New York Times.

“Welfare reform: Sustained triumph"

That link is from The Post & Courier in Charleston.

Isn’t this good news?  Is this thing on?

All of the links require registration, or, you can use nytimesoops as a login name, and nytimes as a password at each individual site.  Please, remember to log out.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/23 at 02:07 PM
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A Navy in Name Only

When I review my journals, penned during my time in the U.S. Navy submarine service, I note almost more entries posted at sea than in port.  Weekly ops, WestPac deployments, monthly ops, special ops, sound trials, torpedo exercises, and drills, drills, drills.  The entries penned while in port tell of repairs to this, that, or the other thing, and a run to sea to test the repairs, with the key repair personnel onboard as an incentive to guarantee good workmanship.

Russia’s navy can only dream of this, now.  In an article titled “Russia’s rusting navy," published by BBC News, you can learn of the almost comedic litany of errors which has overtaken the, at one time, largest naval fleet in the world.  A couple of the recent problems suffered by Russian sailors.

"A nuclear submarine was to fire two liquid-fuelled intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), but both got stuck in their silos.

The next day, a sister ship succeeded in firing a missile - but it exploded soon after take-off."

Need I say “Not good.” Or this.

"Theft also remains endemic.

Russian TV reported last year that warships and submarines of the northern fleet were being routinely robbed of vital components, including telecommunication circuit boards, air regeneration filters and even torpedoes."

Via Google News.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/23 at 01:17 PM
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Thanks?

I cannot quite understand being thankful for having something returned that was taken by force.

"STIMULATING THE ECONOMY: We got our tax refund recently—much larger than it would have been, thanks to the tax cuts and particularly the abolition of the marriage penalty—and while some of the money has gone to the college account, it has also funded some home improvements: a new gas grill (not as fancy as these luxury models advertised on Bill Hobbs’ site but it has 6 burners!), new blinds for the upstairs, etc. The Insta-Wife remains quite enthusiastic about President Bush. I wonder if this effect is widespread?

UPDATE: Here’s a similar account, and reader Nicholas Sylvain emails:


I had a very similar reaction. Upon completing my return, and being surprised at a substantially larger than expected refund, I thanked George Bush & promptly paid off my student loans and bought season tickets to the local minor league hockey team."

Via InstaPundit.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/23 at 08:54 AM
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An Old Subject of Interest

Located a new blog, well, new to me, today after doing the Technorati link thing.  The blog is called Somewhere Over the Rainbough and the post of interest, to me anyway, is titled “The Pitfalls of Faith" which is somewhat related to my post the other day titled “A Slight Disagreement," a short post where I critiqued Rand’s lecture "Faith and Force: The Destroyers of the Modern World."

The poster, Rainbough, previously was a believer in God, but now tends to atheism.  The conclusion of Rainbough’s post.

"I would not call faith “blindfolded fear,” though I think that for many that is effectively what faith has become. Those rational christians whom I respect and would consider friends and collegues do not hold their faith due to fear, nor would they refuse to question their beliefs out of fear; but because questioning them would seem to be contrary to the nature of faith. I do not call on them to question the existence of God, but rather to question the interpretations of their beliefs, and of the teachings of Jesus that they have adopted. I do not think that such a thing is contrary to the nature of faith, nor that it would weaken it, but rather that it would lead you to broadening your horizons about the depth of meaning within the christian ideas, the diversity of ideas, and to a better understanding of the true meaning of Christ’s work and teachings. If you find that you have adopted ideas that are undermining your own life and efforts which were never professed by Christ nor by the ancient Israelites, then such an exploration would only serve to enhance your faith and your relationship with God. If there is a God (and I do not suspect their is) then it follows that it was he who gave you a brain, and a mind; surely he meant for you to use them. If not in the exploration of the ideas you profess to believe in, if not for the purpose of broadening your own understanding, and strengthening your faith, then for what?"

I cannot argue with that.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/23 at 08:06 AM
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Moslems and Catholics Joining Hands? or A Terror Preventitive?

"A bloc of more than 50 Islamic states, backed by the Vatican, sought today to halt U.N. efforts to extend spousal benefits to partners of some gay employees."

From a Washington Post article titled “Spousal Benefits for Gays at U.N. Challenged."

Duncan Frissell, The Technoptimist, comment on these doings.

"I mean, if we’re supposed to surrender to these people, to find out what upsets them, and to change our policies to conform to their desires then I guess we’ll just have to give up this whole gay marriage thing. We wouldn’t want to upset them would we?"

Heaven forbid we upset the Moslems, especially if they’re teaming up with the Vatican.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/23 at 07:51 AM
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We're Sorry, You May Not Protect Yourself

If I were employed in a somewhat risky position, say guarding known killers and such, I’d do my best to ensure my own safety.  It appears Canada doesn’t feel this way about self preservation for individuals employed in just such an endeavor.

"Corrections Canada won’t let guards at maximum security prisons wear stab-proof vests because it sends a confrontational “signal” to prisoners. “If you have that kind of presence symbolized by (a stab-proof vest), you’re sending a signal to the prisoner that you consider him to be a dangerous person,” said Tim Krause."

I wonder if the Canadian prison system would consider a Mr. Rogers’ approach to the incarcerated?  Now, where are my felt slippers, and please remember to keep your voices down.

Via Jon Henke at Questions and Observations in a post titled “Things are stupid all over..."

Posted by John Venlet on 03/23 at 07:23 AM
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