Tuesday, March 23, 2004

They Just Want to Run With the Big Dogs

"The Clintons, Clarkes, and Carters of the world are themselves the biggest breaches in security. They have no loyalty to the United States of America. Therefore, they weaken the concept of nationhood, and strengthen the global concept of communism."

David Yeagley in a post titled “Who’s the Liar?"

Posted by John Venlet on 03/23 at 07:12 AM
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"Jobs Americans Won't Do"

No, the jobs mentioned in the title do not include washing windows.  The jobs are in retail.

"At a major retail store where I work part time. These are jobs ranging from the stock room to security to commissioned sales in major appliances. And the store can get only a small trickle of job seekers to even apply for these positions. This include six opening for the very job position President George Bush once held—and at the very same national retailer. Of course, an ever increasing majority of the jobs held at the retailer where I work are now taken by folks from outside the country—and wages have dropped steadily for two decades, down several dollars an hour even just in the past couple of years. So count a job the President himself once held as “JOBS AMERICANS WON’T DO” which American businesses can now fill at extremely low wages by shipping in foreign workers under the Presidents plan giving amnesty for illegals—and effectively open borders for lowest bid foreign labor."

From a post by Greg Ransom of PrestoPundit titled “40 Job Openings."

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

When my sons occasionally take a spill on the basketball court, or on a run/hike through the woods, and the injury suffered is somewhat minor, but still painful, I many times tell them to walk it off.  Many times it is sound medical advice since the injury is minor.  I also will say to my kids, “Laugh it off,” for some imagined slight they feel they have suffered.

Laura Kipnis, writing for Slate, thinks laughing it off should possibly be employed in the arena of unwanted sexual advances and relates this advice back to the 20 years ago Wolf/Bloom “incident.” Kipnis’ article is titled “The Anxiety of (Sexual) Influence," and is subtitled "Are onetime “unwanted advances” really a feminist issue?"

Is the answer to the question in the subtitle to the article found within Kipnis’ article?  Possibly.  But even if it isn’t, I found the following comment from Kipnis’ piece worthing posting.

"One of the interesting contradictions of Wolf-and-Jones-style feminism is its apparent thralldom to the phallic mythos it’s also so deeply offended by."

Link also via Arts & Letters Daily.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/23 at 06:17 AM
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Move Over Freud and Jung

“Philosophical Counseling.” There’s one I haven’t heard until today.  What is philosophical counseling?  Here’s what the article says it is all about.

"A controversial new talk therapy, philosophical counseling takes the premise that many of our problems stem from uncertainties about the meaning of life and from faulty logic."

Lord knows that there are many individuals walking around with those problems, but will the solution to those problems come from talking it out with philosophers?  The philosophers think so, and one by the name of Lou Marinoff is in court fighting C.C.N.Y. for the right to practice on campus.

If philosophical counseling isn’t mainstream yet, it can’t be long until it will be, if the following happens.

"Ruben Diaz Jr., New York State assemblyman for the 85th District in the Southeast Bronx, said he believed so strongly that his constituents could use philosophical help that he is pursuing the only thing that can make it affordable: New York State certification of the profession, and the H.M.O. co-pays that certification makes possible. To that end, Diaz has written to the New York State commissioner of education, asking that certified philosophical counselors be recognized under a 2002 law that grants state licensing to marriage-and-family therapy and creative arts therapy."

Via Arts & Letters Daily.

Update: I wonder if the individuals below, will be working with the philosophers above.

“Talk Therapy Helpful for Hypochondriacs, Study Says."

"A type of talk therapy can help hypochondriacs recognize their illnesses are only in their heads, a study said on Tuesday."

Posted by John Venlet on 03/23 at 05:59 AM
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Monday, March 22, 2004

"Superstitious Ritual"

Claire Wolfe has a post up regarding background checks and how everyone seems to be getting onboard with this.  Whoo, Whoooo.  In fact, Claire’s post informs us that you too can check individuals’ backgrounds by picking up the handy dandy background check kit in a box at Sam’s Club. But the main reason I link to this bit of news, is the following line posted by Claire in regards to this.  I laughed out loud.

"But in a larger sense all this checking and screening is no more useful than waving a cross at somebody you think might be a vampire."

The rest of Claire’s comments on this are worth your time also.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/22 at 01:50 PM
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VOPA (Violence of Political Action)

Not so long ago I wouldn’t have understood the validity of the above statement.  Heck, I had to ask a friend what VOPA was an acronym for when I first saw it used.

Here’s a bit of conversation, related by Xenophon, between Pericles and Alcibiades, which explains it rather nicely, I think.  From a post by Roderick T. Long titled "Xenophon on Law and Violence."

Posted by John Venlet on 03/22 at 07:02 AM
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Did the Islamofascists Bomb France?

“Raffarin tipped to go after Socialists, far-right triumph."

Via Google News.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/22 at 06:50 AM
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Monster Propaganda Job

"The department is creating the job to make sure that dramatic portrayals of it are as accurate as possible, spokesman Dennis Murphy said Friday."

The department spoken of in the above quote is the Department of Homeland Security and the statement is, I guess, justification for this.

"The Homeland Security Department has posted a job for a ‘’liaison to the entertainment industry.’’ The salary could be as high as $136,000, plus benefits."

Yeah, but can I hob nob with the stars?

Via Arthur Silber.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/22 at 06:30 AM
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False Outrage

So, I stop by Drudge this morning and he has emblazoned across the top of the page, in blood red letters, “Hamas Leader Killed in Israel." Drudge also has six additional blood red letter links to other fallout stories on this incident.  Clicking the link to the story, one can find this quote.

"Yussef Haddad, 35, a taxi driver, said he saw the missiles hit Yassin and the bodyguards.

“Their bodies were shattered,” he said."

I’m guessing that Yussef’s statement is supposed to be an expression of outrage.  Hmm, let me see if I have this right.  Sharon targets and kills this Hamas leader and 3 of his henchman or fawning acolytes, and the entire Palestinian population expresses outrage and a taxi driver laments that the “bodies were shattered.” Don’t the Palestinians normally celebrate, profusely, when bodies are shattered.  Well, as long as they are Jew bodies they do.

If you think about this incident a little deeper, shouldn’t the Palestinian’s be celebrating over the Hamas guy’s shattered body.  I mean, isn’t this guy now wallowing in pleasure, he’s a martyr after all, with his 70 doe eyed virgins?

The New York Times leads with this story also.  If it had been a Palestinian blowing up some innocent Jews on a bus would it be a lead story?

Update: More false outrage from Reuters. “Muslim Fury, Western Condemnation at Yassin Killing."

Does this mean killing “leaders” is multiple levels higher of morally wrong than killing innocents?

Posted by John Venlet on 03/22 at 06:08 AM
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Gilgamesh Found?

Archaeologists working in Iraq believe they have found not only the city of Gilgamesh, but also the tomb of the King of Gilgamesh. Though a lot of digging remains to be done to ascertain the validity of this claim, the archaeologists have found tantalizing clues that this may in actuality be the real deal.

Via Fred Lapides.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/22 at 05:59 AM
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Sunday, March 21, 2004

A Slight Disagreement

I’ve been thinking about Rand’s lecture “Faith and Force: The Destroyers of the Modern World." First delivered at Boston College in 1960, the lecture is an excellent discourse in defense of reason and rationality as a means to morality.

I have one slight disagreement with this particular lecture.  I do not think "Faith and Force" are the destroyers.  I think "Irrationally and Force" are the destroyers.

I think faith, standing individually, is innocuous.  Faith cannot harm you unless irrationality and force have replaced reason and rationality in interactions with other individuals.  If individuals claim their faith compels them to force others to conform to a proscribed mode of behavior, it is no longer faith.  It is simply irrationality and force masquerading as faith, with a cudgel in its hand.  Any organized religion which desires to force behavioral change on individuals, because their “faith” tells them to, has descended into moronic madness.  They have given faith over to irrationality and become evil incarnate.

Faith does not require any individual to force their viewpoint on another.  Individuals claiming to preach “faith,” but who in actuality desire to increase their power and influence, do.  And individuals seeking to increase their power and influence, who disguise their designs for power and influence under the veneer of faith, are, I think, the real source of evil in the modern world.  They are encouraging irrationality in place of reason to exercise control.  And though reason would refute there being a “God,” I think that “God,” as Marcus Aurelius wrote, is "pure reason" and faith in that could only be a good thing.  It is being "religious without superstition."

If this battle is to be won, faith is the wrong target.  Aim at irrationality.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/21 at 12:01 PM
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Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

John Kerry and Gomer Pyle.  Separated at birth?

Via LewRockwell.com Blog.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/21 at 08:52 AM
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Here's a Headline That Makes Me Scratch My Head in Wonder

“Saudi Arabia Worried by High Oil Prices."

It must be an image concern.

Via Google News.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/21 at 08:25 AM
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Below the Tax Radar

I’ve mentioned Dave Gross’ experiment in tax resistance previously here. Stopping by Claire Wolfe’s blog this morning, I find she has posted a link to his first annual report. Though he made a bit more money than he expected, so far Gross’ experiment seems to be progressing, in his favor, nicely.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/21 at 08:09 AM
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Sunday Morning Factoid

Have you ever been to a Waffle House? I’ll never forget the first time I wandered into one in the wee hours of the morning while motoring around Ohio.  Don’t ask what I was doing motoring the roads of Ohio in the wee hours of the morning.  As soon as I walked through the door, I was greeted with a “Good Morning” by two or three individual employees.  I like that about Waffle House, and this instant greeting happens in every Waffle House I’ve ever walked into.  Anyway, I enjoy Waffle House and its story.

Last night I heard an interesting story from a friend who works for Coke. The owners of Waffle House signed a contract with Coke, a number of years ago, for eternity.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Waffle House signed a contract to serve Coca Cola products, for eternity.  That’s a long time.

Now, I’m not certain how wise a business decision that is, since I haven’t read the contract, but I admire the owners’ certainty in executing the contract and I enjoy the heck out of their restaurants.  It’s a shame that the closest one to my house is two and a half hours or so away.  Guess I’ll be fixing breakfast myself today.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/21 at 07:30 AM
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