Monday, May 21, 2007

Religidiots

There is such a thing as a religious man.  There is no such thing as a “religious right.”

Matt Drudge is currently running the following headline, "Sin or Sun?  Religious Leaders Urge Action on Warming."

The accompanying story, relates the following:

In an open letter to be published on Tuesday, more than 20 religious groups urged U.S. leaders to limit greenhouse gas emissions and invest in renewable energy sources.

“Global warming is real, it is human-induced and we have the responsibility to act,” says the letter, which will run in Roll Call and the Politico, two Capitol Hill newspapers.

“We are mobilizing a religious force that will persuade our legislators to take immediate action to curb greenhouse gases,” it says.

Fools, all of them, leading those with religious leanings down the path to perdition with the false religion of global warming, banners waving, and their prophet Al Gore spoon feeding the legions of religidiots.

These religidiots, who profess to proclaim the Word of God, who supposedly administer to individuals’ spiritual lives, are only leading their flocks down the super-highway to hell, shoving the plank in their own eyes into the eyes of their congregations.

The disgust I currently am experiencing over this religidiot pronouncement is unmeasurable.

Religious leaders urge action on warming

Posted by John Venlet on 05/21 at 03:22 PM
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Stuck in the Mud - Good

Yesterday evening, I happened to a catch a news blurb which seemed to bemoan the fact that Michigan’s governor, the photogenic one, Jennifer Granholm, had only signed nine new laws into existence this year as of May 20, 2007.  For comparison’s sake, the news report stated that last year at this time the governor had already signed 138 new laws into existence.

The report suggested that Michigan’s current budget crisis, brought on need I remind you, by Michigan’s rampant spending of money it does not have, and overly restrictive business climate, was the major cause of said dearth of new laws.

I say this is great news for Michigan and individual Michiganders.  Each of those laws NOT signed into law probably saved millions of dollars from being further stolen and abused by the state.

Budget Debate Contributes to Slow Legisatlive Start

Posted by John Venlet on 05/21 at 04:06 AM
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Sunday, May 20, 2007

The End of Objective Law

In a recent post on hate crime legislation, I noted George Will’s take on this foolishness.

Today, Edward Cline, writing at The Rule of Reason, also notes George Will’s commentary on the subject, and states the following, which correctly identifies exactly why hate crime legislation is not sound.

The first and most crucial thing to grasp about what can be deemed a “hate crime” is that it is, essentially, a political crime. If this country were still ruled by objective law; if Congress fulfilled its proper role as a protector of individual rights; and if the Supreme Court acted to uphold the legitimate individual rights-based philosophy of the Constitution; then pressure and special interest groups would have no chance of having laws enacted that favored them at the expense of others. In short, they would have no political power to instigate the passage of fiat legislation.

The piece is titled The Genesis of Thought Crime.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/20 at 07:43 AM
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Used Atheists

Atheism, or at least various atheists writing about atheism, has been receiving a fair amount of press, lately.  Hitchens, Dawkins and Harris have all contributed to this current pandemonium over a subject many religious individuals find offensive, or at least too heathenish a subject to discuss or even consider.

How will atheism be used in the future, at least in regards to the political playing field?  The Raving Atheist makes this prediction.

The “using” will become more apparent as the movement fragments. Although at present atheists are largely left-of-center, they will eventually come to inhabit all niches of the political spectrum. The competition among factions will lead to heated debates over the true implications and imperatives of godlessness—and suspicions will arise on all sides that some of those marching under the banner of an unsupervised temporal existence with no afterlife are actually pursuing some more nefarious agenda.

Above taken from a post titled Using It.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/20 at 05:54 AM
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The Etymology of "White Trash"

Derogatory names for various classes of individuals abound, though some of them we cannot utter, today, with the impunity once granted their use.  You know the ones we can’t use, uttered by such individuals as Don Imus describing Rutgers women’s basketball team, or Ann Coulter talking about John Edwards, supposedly no one can utter the perjorative “nigga,” unless you’re a hip hopper or rapper that is, or Al Sharpton, oops scratch Sharpton, he can still use derogatory names with impunity for some reason.

The term “white trash” can still be used today, though, with nary a lifted eyebrow.  Where did this term arise, and when.  It may surprise you.

That Ain’t White

Via Arts & Letters Daily.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/20 at 04:52 AM
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Friday, May 18, 2007

Florida Reading Problems

Not only do some Floridians have trouble reading and understanding how to correctly execute a political ballot, requiring state intervention, via the courts, to clarify a vote, apparently some Floridians in Destin, Florida have trouble reading and understanding bathroom signs, which also required state intervention.

Like the dollar bills hanging from the ceiling or the signature drink the Irish Wake, the craftily worded signs on the bathroom doors are part of the charm of McGuires’s Irish Pub.

It takes some careful attention to the fine print to end up in right bathroom, but it’s all in good fun, said General Manager Billy Martin.

“We’re not trying to be malicious,” Martin said. “It’s an Irish joke kind of thing.”

For those who haven’t seen them, the gist is the men’s room sign has large print that reads “Ladies” and smaller text clarifying they shouldn’t go in there because it’s the men’s room — vice-versa for the other bathroom.

But not everyone sees the humor, and the signs have been removed by order of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

The agency threatened McGuire’s with closure for a six-word violation — “Lack of signage properly designating bathrooms.”

The problem, here, wasn’t a lack of signage, but a lack of reading comprehension, and a sense of humor.

State forces McGuire’s to remove ‘joke’ restroom signs

Via The Obscure Store.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/18 at 11:11 AM
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Laws for Short and Fat People in Massachusetts

It appears that the State of Massachusetts has more problems than just issues with dogs. They are now attempting to craft legislation to protect the rights of short and fat people.

Ellen Frankel stands just 4-foot-8 inches tall, a size that allowed larger co-workers to playfully scoop her up at the office and make remarks about her height. Some even patted her on the head.
Lawmakers are considering complaints such as hers as they review a bill that would make Massachusetts just the second state to bar discrimination based on height or weight.

Just the second state to craft such a law, hey?  A dubious distinction at best.  I wonder if songs such as Randy Newman’s Short People, will run afoul of the height and weight police in Massachusetts?

While I agree with the comment made by Jeanne Toomb, as noted in the article linked below, that individuals, no matter what their height or weight, “deserve to be treated as human beings,” this should not require legislation to enact.

Todd Domke sums it up rather well.

‘’We might as well add colorblind, left-handed, allergic-to-cashews, and get it over with,’’ Domke said.

Short, fat people may get rights

Posted by John Venlet on 05/18 at 07:28 AM
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Learning from Historic Travels in Islamic Lands

The Claremont Institute has an interesting piece available for reading online titled Encountering Islam.

The piece is written by Algis Valiunas, is a semi critique of Edward Said’s writing, and it provides a concise overview of lessons learned in Muslim lands by some of the more well known travelers of that part of the world.  Works written by men such as Chateaubriand, Edward Lane, Gustave Flaubert, Richard F. Burton, Charles Doughty, T.E. Lawrence, Alexis de Tocqueville, John Lloyd Stephens, Mark Twain, and Robert Byron.  Lessons we can still learn from.

The piece is long, just over 6900 words, so it will take a bit of your time to read, but it is well worth your time.  An excerpt from towards the end of Valiunas’ piece.

Someone who reads only Edward Said—and he is a sainted authority among leftist academics today—may come away convinced that his argument is true. But to read in the travel literature he disparages is to see how wrong he is. The travelers’ tales do not originate in malevolent prejudice or issue in gross distortion; rather they are drawn from carefully observed reality. A great variety of writers see many different things; but more importantly, they see some of the same things over and over again, not because of the Orientalists’ engrained turn of mind, but because those things are striking and significant and true. The travel literature overwhelmingly shows Islam recoiling from the Western touch, perhaps in part out of legitimate fear that it might be transformed into an alien shape with all the West’s deformities, and to a great degree out of blind hatred inculcated over centuries of prejudice and ignorance. In any case, the Orientalists’ writings testify to the deep roots of the modern Islamist fighting creed, in which Islamic purity must be preserved from Western, liberal, modernizing pollution.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/18 at 05:44 AM
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Count Me Out of the "Next Social Contract"

Writing in the Washington Post, Reid Cramer and Ray Boshara suggest that the next president should engineer a new social contract.

Whenever I read words such as “new social contract,” I immediately check to ensure that my wallet is still in my pocket, and that my arms are close at hand.

The first five paragraphs of Cramer and Boshara’s piece, for the most part, provide advice to the ever growing crowd of presidential wannabes, noting this presidential race as a “historic moment,” since no incumbents are running.  Though there may not be any past presidents, or vice presidents running for high office, I’d say that the field of candidates is littered with incumbents, anyway, representing merely the status quo.  But I am disgressing from what I desire to discuss in this post.

After the first five paragraphs, Cramer and Boshara begin to describe the “next social contract,” and initially one could be inclined to think that, hey, this makes sense.

We suspect Americans will be able to agree that going forward we need policies that are designed to encourage entrepreneurship and risk-taking, promote long-term growth and wealth creation, and encourage individuals and families...

After the word “families,” though, Cramer and Boshara’s proposal totally breaks down.

”...not as employees, but as citizens. This is why the next social contract must be citizen-based, lifelong, and supportive of families and economic growth. Taken together, these principles offer a vision for the kind of society we should aspire to become, serving as the social and political glue which binds people together in a cohesive collective.

Making the social contract citizen-based means that benefits aimed at individuals should flow directly to them rather than through employers or other intermediaries, and they should be fully portable so that eligibility is not contingent on where you work, where you live or what communities you belong to. Moreover, the next social contract should extend throughout the life course, supporting families as they raise young children. Currently, we seem to have socialized old age and privatized care of the very young. A better approach would be to begin at birth by guaranteeing health care, pre-school and asset accounts for all children. And we should adopt policies that help families balance their work and family responsibilities through, for instance, greater access to flex-time and family income insurance. Furthermore, the goal of the next social contract should not be to eliminate poverty through as-of-right income transfers, but to ensure that everyone is given a stake in our shared prosperity through broad-based asset ownership.

Yeah, a “better approach” is to turn individuals into state dependents at birth, rather than simply at old age, and let’s stop “as-of-right income transfers,” and simply redistribute assets instead.

Count me out.

The Next Social Contract

Posted by John Venlet on 05/18 at 04:31 AM
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Thursday, May 17, 2007

Mommy, Ron Paul Isn't Playing Fair

Kids can be so whiny, crying for their mommies when things aren’t going their way, and so can Republicans, evidently.

Ron Paul’s message, articulated in the recent debates, seems to have the Republicans all in a dither and attempting to have him barred from future GOP debates.  The most recent Republican to crybaby about Ron Paul is the State of Michigan’s GOP chairman, Saul Anuzis.

Michigan party chairman Saul Anuzis said he will circulate a petition among Republican National Committee members to ban Paul from more debates.

I guess the Republicans don’t really want to debate, but simply continue the status quo.

Michigan GOP leader wants Paul barred from future debates

Posted by John Venlet on 05/17 at 11:46 AM
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"Modern Indulgences"

I do the majority of my yard work by hand, eschewing gas powered tools like leaf blowers, edging tools, snow blowers, and such, not because I’m overly wrought by fears of global warming, but because I dislike the noise.  I wonder if I can market my non-mechanized yard work, which is environmentally friendly, as carbon offsets to maybe Al Gore’s indulgence trading company Generation Investment Management? My prices are relatively reasonable.

Victor Davis Hansen applies his pen to the subject of carbon offset indulgences, I mean trading, in a piece titled The New Penance doesn’t Offset Much. From Hansen’s piece.

In other words, “offsets” is merely a euphemism for words like cynicism and hypocrisy. So by all means help save the planet, worry about the poor, establish charities. Just spare us the medieval idea that such penance ever excuses your own excess.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/17 at 05:22 AM
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"I'm Melting, I'm Melting"

So said the wicked witch of the East, in L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, and this also is being said about an area in Antarctica.  Take a look at the alarmist headlines which proclaim “vast regions,” “huge snow melt,” “California-sized area of Antarctica,” etcetera, etcetera.

Upon reading the articles, you’ll find that some areas of snow DID indeed melt in Antarctica in the year 2005, but, you’ll also find that the areas mentioned, re-froze, as reported in the NYT.

Balmy air, with a temperature of up to 41 degrees in some places, persisted across three broad swathes of West Antarctica long enough to leave a distinctive signature of melting, a layer of ice in the snow that cloaks the vast ice sheets of the frozen continent. The layer formed the same way a crust of ice can form in a yard in winter when a warm day and then a freezing night follow a snowfall, the scientists said.

Additionally, note the use of the word “melting,” and consider that most individuals, upon reading the word “melting,” interpret its meaning as “to disappear as if by dissolving,” like the wicked witch of the East, as Merriam-Webster defines the word (see 2.b), rather than understanding that the “melting,” as happened in Antarctica in 2005 and so breathlessly reported by the media, was simply an alteration of the snow (see the primary definition (1.) of melting in the Merriam-Webster link).

And last but not least, note the comment buried at the end of almost every news article I read regarding this “melting” of Antarctica.

It is too soon to know whether the warm spell was a fluke or a portent, Dr. Nghiem said.

A “fluke or a portent?” For the global warming alarmist faithful, the Antarctica story is a portent, and Dr. Nghiem is the prophet.

Quote above taken from the New York Times story titled Analysis Finds Large Antarctic Area Has Melted.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/17 at 04:19 AM
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Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Evangelical Wrongs

The death of Jerry Falwell has sprung forth a vertiable potpourri of opinions regarding what the man was, or wasn’t, and he definitely was not an evangelical.  A fundamentalist blowhard, yes, but an evangelical, no, no, no!

I have no issue with individuals who want to assume an evangelical role, as long as they realize that there are other individuals who do not want to listen to their proselytizing.

Unfortunately, some evangelicals are confused about the role they play.  Instead of bringing their message to individuals, to be accepted, or, declined, they believe their role is to legislate, as expressed here.

The new breed of evangelical leader does not have the temperament of a protester. He is a consummate professional who speaks in modulated terms and knows his way around Washington. “We evangelicals have learned to collaborate, to cross the aisles and religious barriers or whatever, in order to pass bills,” Rich Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals, is quoted as saying in the new book “Believers."

What Mr. Cizik states, above, is an evangelical wrong.  Evangelism’s role is not to pass laws, lobby, or harrass, its role is to share a message of faith in the Creator and then to step away and allow each and every individual to make their own choice.

Rick Cizik quote taken from a Washington Post piece on Falwell titled For New Generation of Evangelicals, Falwell Was Old News.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/16 at 07:35 AM
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Free Will

Is there such a thing as free will?  I think there is, and a new study seems to suggest that fruit flies have free will.

A spark of free will may exist in even the tiny brain of the humble fruit fly, based on new findings that could shed light on the nature and evolution of free will in humans.

Proponents of determinism, some would say hard determinism, may, inevitably, take issue with the fruit fly study’s hypothesis, but that is their free choice, as far as I am concerned.

The subject matter of free will is varied, dense, and has been hotly debated over time immemorial.  Feel free to delve into it yourselves.

Study hints that fruit flies have free will

Posted by John Venlet on 05/16 at 07:11 AM
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Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Bled Dry

Earlier today, I posted a short note titled “The Next Special Interest Group,” wherein I cast a baleful eye at special interest groups in general, and noted their constant begging from the state’s coffers.  Of course, the state’s coffers are merely an illusion, as the monies in the state’s coffers is not actually the state’s money, but your money and my money.

Well, how deep will the state continue to dig to keep their illusory coffers full?  Deep, believe you me.

Government grew under Clinton, and grew even faster under his successor. Government is so big today that more than half the population gets a major part of its income from the state.

So says a study by economist Gary Shilling. Shilling, a Springfield, N.J., consultant and forecaster, says the portion of Americans feeding substantially at the public trough stands at 52.6 percent. In 2000, it was 49.4. It seems unbelievable that in 1950, only 28.3 percent of Americans lived off the taxpayers. Shilling projects 60 percent by 2040.

Does it not bother every true American that currently 52.6 percent of individuals live off of your work and earnings rather than earning a living for themselves?  It sure as hell bothers me.  Are you going to allow yourself to be bled dry?

Quote above taken from a John Stossel piece titled The Public Trough Is Bigger Than Ever

Linked via the blog Dissecting Leftism.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/15 at 12:43 PM
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