Right As Usual

In response to my previous post, I got an unexpected gift. My first troll. I feel so special! The beginning of his comment: What should we be thanking the troops for? Participation in the criminal wars of the Imperium? Where to begin to comment on this delightful response? Imperium From the Answers.com definition there are several alternative meanings: 1. Absolute rule; supreme power. This definition might be a teeny bit over-the-top. I know that The Dark Lord Cheney yearns for this level of control, but it's difficult to put into place where the proletariat maintains their own gun supplies. 2. A sphere of power or dominion; an empire. A sphere of power might be a more reasonable possibility. After all, we DO hope to influence the emerging republics along democratic (small d) lines. Alas, we not only DON"T have an empire; we apparently don't plan to, either. I say "alas", because I've always hankered after the high s...

Click on the above link to sign a note to the members of the Armed Services (soldiers, sailors, and marines), who are helping to secure our freedom and liberties. The The Politburo Diktat is promoting the thank-you to our troops. Please click on the link, and add your name.

There's luck, and then there's luck. Anna Martinez, 25, has to be one of the luckiest people alive. The pregnant driver called 911 after the accident: "A semi just landed on my car," she shouted. "It flew off the interstate and landed on top of me." The operator had difficulty understanding the situation at first (from The Plain Dealer story). The massive front end of a tractor-trailer truck loomed through a night sky into view through the windshield of Anna Martinez's small car. The big rig hurled toward her at 1 a.m. Tuesday on its plunge from an icy Interstate 71 bridge, about 40 feet above Martinez's Honda Accord on Ohio 176 near the Interstate 90 split. I saw the car on the evening news. I'm amazed that the driver even survived, let alone with only a few scratches and bruises. The semi driver also escaped serious harm.

The Social Security issue, and other concerns related to an aging population have begun to rise to the top of my concerns (this may be an indicator that I'm content that this administration will take care of security - that is, Homeland and Global Security). I'm not the only one whose attention has shifted to aging issues. I found the link to this article on Instapundit . Some eye-opening information from "The Global Baby Bust: ...older citizens consume far more resources than children do. Even after considering the cost of education, a typical child in the United States consumes 28 percent less than the typical working-age adult, whereas elders consume 27 percent more, mostly in health-related expenses. Lord knows we did our part to re-populate the planet - we have three grown children, and one of them has two, with the third on the way in late February or early March. Such fertility came with a price - we were chided about the "irresponsibility" o...

I ran across this gem on Dean's World . A short excerpt: "Well, in wars, just like bar fights, there's two kinds of bystanders. First are those who take sides no matter what the outcome. They have a stake it in... could be family, philosophy, money. Who knows? Then there's those who just sort of naturally glide to the sideline, waiting to see which way the fight tilts. Them? Their most over-powering urge is to look like they came out on the winning side in the end. Both are natural human conditions. You see it everywhere. The stakes determine. Warning! It's very long, but worth the time it takes.

Update Reading this over, I've decided that it's not clear that I am truly filled with horror, not just being snide. I take the murder of 6 million Jews, and a host of other people in WWII seriously. As a child, one of my classmates had a mother with the blue numbered tatoo on her arm. I asked my parents about it, and they explained what had happened during the war (as well as you could explain the incomprehensible). I've been seeing increases in anti-Semitic actions and incidents over the last 3 1/2 years, since I've been using the Web as a primary information source. It's getting harder and harder to understand how anyone can dismiss it all as the work of isolated kooks. But I'm not seeing reports in the MSM. The news is not just being buried, which might be a type of editorial decision that could be defended, but totally absent. Day after day, fluff fills the papers. The Arabic communities have a platform in the MSM, which they speak from a...

I've been reading this fascinating explanation of why leftists resist re-thinking their philosophy, despite finding evidence that refutes it. The author of the essay, Edward Feser, provides several possible explanations for the phenonomen. A short excerpt: As the philosopher David Stove has argued, the modern tendency toward hyper-skepticism seems largely to be the result of a massive overgeneralization from a mere handful of cases where common sense turned out to be mistaken. Another philosopher, Michael Levin, has given a name to the peculiar form this error in reasoning has taken in modern thinking: the "skim milk" fallacy, the fallacy of assuming, in the words of Gilbert and Sullivan, that "things are seldom what they seem, skim milk masquerades as cream," so that common sense can in general be presumed to be wrong.

I found this letter (not a real one, alas), on The Diplomad, which I also added to the blogroll. It has to do with the criticisms of the treatment of the Guantanamo prisoners.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog. OK. I know that I'm an idiot, but I finally figured out how Trackback works. Now, I know that there are many who have this all nailed, and think that those of us who haven't used it are complete idiots, but, well, there you are. It's nice not to be an idiot anymore. Although it will take more time to post, since I also have to "ping" references. If someone knows how to automate that, feel free to tell me.

I'm put my ranking on The Truth Laid Bear on the right sidebar. It required me to humble myself. I'd naturally like to think of myself as more important, but, of course, I'm not at this time. I found the link on Baldilocks . If you haven't checked it out, you need to do so.

I re-found a blogger I really enjoy, Fred on Everything , when I saw the reference on Dean's World . This is exactly how I learned to read, except my 2 years older brother taught me. Every day, he went to school. Every day, I dogged his footsteps until he showed me everything he learned that day. As a result, I looked like a baby genius when I entered 1st grade. But he can't take all the credit. My parents always had books around. From comic books, to the Little Golden Books, to the daily paper, I was surrounded by reading material. When I tackled a printed page that contained unfamiliar words, I remember my mother encouraging me to "sound it out". I was never told, "That's too hard for you." If I wanted to read it, I was permitted. In general, it's not that tough to teach a kid to read. Parents need to make the effort to have reading materials around, and set the example by turning off the TV and reading themself. If a parent can...

The always fascinating Dean's World has an interesting question - how do you feel about money, and why? What in your life lead you to your current way of dealing with money? In my case, I was raised by parents made gun-shy by the Depression years. My dad was born in 1922, and his father died in 1929 (good timing!). At one point, his mother was threatened with losing all her children to families who could afford to care for them. In anticipation, she hired a photographer to shoot a picture of all the family (5 children still living at home), so she would have something to remember them by if the state welfare office did manage to take them away. By a small miracle, family members came through at the last minute, and none of them were lost to the state. However, there was a price. My grandmother had to find a job, which she did, in the Viking glass factory. My father and the older children never lived at home again. My father, at different times, lived with: his grandf...

If you're reading this, you didn't follow the directions above. Shame on you! OK, I guess I'll have to explain it to you. I've been reading the Mrs. du Toit Weblog for some time. She doesn't post every day, but when she does, it's worth the wait. Recently, she wrote a message that I needed to hear. It has to do with why many of us feel the need to post our thoughts and opinions. It also has to do with the need to speak the truth - no matter who gets offended. I'm pretty much like most bloggers. I have a few readers, but I'd like to reach a few more. Briefly, I was a part of the team that blogged on Right We Are! , which is no longer in existence. It was hard to re-group after Maripat pulled the plug, although I respected her decision. But the Mrs. really put my, and other's, efforts into perspective. Sure, it would be good for the ego to have a large audience (like the popular Lileks, whose Daily Bleat is widely read ). But ...

LaShawn Barber has some questions for bloggers. How long have you been blogging? About 2 years. Do you believe you’re addicted to blogging? Please explain, and be honest. It is habit-forming, I must confess. (If I decide to use your response, I may have follow-up questions.) Honestly, no. I've stopped thinking I have to post every day, and am willing to let my real life occasionally take priority. Have you ever taken a hiatus? If so, for what reason and how long? Only when extremely constipated. Have you ever thought of giving up your blog? Why or why not? No. My blogs serve different purposes: Technology in Teaching gives me a place to put technology information for teachers in a convenient place that I can reference in workshops. It also serves as a form of advertisement for my training services. My personal family blog is strictly to keep the family up on what's happening. We are geographically distant, but want to keep in touch. Right As Usual s...

I found the following on Common Sense and Wonder , one of my daily reads. to avoid running into the UN, we must go out to where the quake and tsunami actually hit. As we come up on two weeks since the disaster struck, the UN is still not to be seen where it counts -- except when holding well-staged press events The full post is here. The trouble with continuing to support the UN is that: It gives money to people who do not share our sense of vision for world leadership It keeps us from getting the oversight necessary to keep an eye on how the money is spent It provides employment for Liberals Without a Clue It provides a forum for those dedicated to eliminating freedom It gives legitamacy to scoundrels, thieves, dictators, and fools

The winter fashion in Cleveland is distinctive. Not for Cleveland the jauntily perched berets, Cat-in-the-Hat stovepipes, or other trendy headgear. In the middle of a Cleveland winter, only one thing matters: Is as much of my head covered as possible? Particularly the ears. Cleveland winters are different. We seldom have the long, unbroken freezing temperatures that create blinding white mounds of snow seen in Fargo (the movie). Such winters, however cold, are relatively dry. Cleveland, on the other hand, cycles between huge snowstorms that paralyze the city for a few days, followed by unseasonably warm spells that melt that accumulation, followed by freezing rain and ice. Not necessarily in that order. Those cycles begin sometime in late November, and continue until sometime in March (sometimes April). As a result, our weather forecasters are all professional meteorologists, not cute blondes that giggle. When we wake up, we need to know what the day will be like. A good...

The holidays are over, and I'm back to subbing. I won't be able to access the blog until the evening, so any posting will have to be done at night.

It's really not something I talk about much, but I really LIKE Dennis Kucinich. He's been my councilman, my mayor, and my congressman. In all these ways, he has been professional, courteous, responsive to my needs, and a general really good guy. Although I may not always agree with his stances, I respect his personal and public integrity. In Red Line Rants , he is quoted as saying: "It's like playing for the Cleveland Browns and having a brother who plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers. You wish good things for your brother, but you want to win," said Dennis Kucinich, on being friends with Rep. Steve LaTourette.

I found a reference to Lefties as Puritan Moralizers on Pajama Pundit . An excerpt - The Left: have evolved into the most uptight, anti-rational, superstitious and piously moralistic bunch since the Puritans walked the wild forests of America You'll find the full comment on Tim Blair's blog . Read it - it's priceless.

I was directed to this site selling "Che" onesies (they're a one-piece garment for babies. Talk about "red diaper babies!" I learned about the site at The National Review's Jay Nordlinger. I have some experience with die-hard leftys. I went to First College, a small, experimental part of Cleveland State University. It was designed by a small group of Sixties radicals. It was meant to provide a counterpoint to the faceless bureaucratic experience that college had become by that time. In that respect, First College worked. The students were part of the governance of the college from the beginning, through the First College Assembly. The professors' offices were located in the midst of the classrooms, which made interactions a daily event. Although they had strong political convictions (as evidenced by the cartoons covering office windows), what they gave their students was a good and well-rounded education. Writing was the core of the cur...

It really is amazing how the change of year inspires us to begin making resolutions. I just this weekend decided to take losing weight (mass, actually) a priority. It was probably the old video we were watching of our wedding and first years of marriage. I can't believe that, at the time, I thought I was hideously fat. Little did I know what the future held. I've been thinking about the future of this blog, and the focus I wanted to bring to my posting. Obviously politics will be a feature, but I think I'll be doing more cultural and social commentary. The situation in Southeast Asia is a huge concern. First, there's the unbelievable loss of life. As in most tragedies, the very young and the very old have taken a disproportionate hit. Second, the UN seems more concerned about taking credit for the aid offers than in alleviating the suffering. And, selfishly, I worry about the political and social disruption the crisis will cause, and how it will affec...