Right As Usual

 I read this story on the Catholic Church's response to the sexual abuse crisis with relief. Why relief?  Because the American bishops released their annual national audit of all charges in the last year. It reports that there were 398 new allegations in the entire United States last year. Six of them were from current minors; the rest were older incidents only now being reported. Over 70% of alleged offenders are already deceased, suspended from ministry, or dismissed from the priesthood. In a Church of some 60 million Catholics, aggressive action has seen the problem reduced to six cases of alleged current abuse. That did not make the news. That's what Pope Benedict has done.  He's been criticized for his actions, but it appears that agressive weeding-out of the perps and removal of enforcement responsibility from the bishops has had a significant effect. Share

Let's start with the always-wonderful Mark Steyn: Is America set for decline? It’s been a grand run. The country’s been the leading economic power since it overtook Britain in the 1880s. That’s impressive. Nevertheless, over the course of that century and a quarter, Detroit went from the world’s industrial powerhouse to an urban wasteland, and the once-golden state of California atrophied into a land of government run by the government for the government. What happens when the policies that brought ruin to Detroit and sclerosis to California become the basis for the nation at large? Strictly on the numbers, the United States is in the express lane to Declinistan: unsustainable entitlements, the remorseless governmentalization of the economy and individual liberty, and a centralization of power that will cripple a nation of this size. Decline is the way to bet. But what will ensure it is if the American people accept decline as a price worth paying for European social democracy. ...

I'm on a break.  I've been working hard for most of 8 hours, and will be working at least 3 more after that.  I've made major progress with cleaning and organizing (I fell dreadfully behind in the push to get work graded).  I could use one of these days at the end of every grading period. I just finished scheduling the remainder of the required standards - as usual, we have too little time, and too many standards.  Honestly, I have never found a state education board that could resist shoving everything but the kitchen sink in the standards.  This is one of those areas where Less is More. Generally, I love teaching.  I love my subject (science), and find the students to be interesting.  It's a challenge to find out what keeps some of them from learning, and help them to do so. I always enjoy meeting the parents of my students.  They are generally wonderful people with a very tough job - raising good kids.  I wouldn't trade places with t...

There's a great photo from the National Review. I know it's a sad testimony to my love of political wrangling, but this is tremendous fun.  That flag was flown by Republican members. There is a story about racial name-calling of Congressional members by a "mob" - IF TRUE - and I doubt it, there is NO video to match the accusation - it would be a shame on those individuals. HOWEVER, my suspicion is that it's a total hoax, just like previous accusations, which were proven to be made up.  The original accusation gets air play, the retraction doesn't. Share

Let me get this straight. - …we’re going to pass a health care plan written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn’t read it but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president that also hasn’t read it, and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that’s nearly broke. What could possibly go wrong? Share

Michelle Malkin has an update on the Health Care Dance of Hope. Read the comments - priceless. Meanwhile, Fox News is asking "When we gonna see the bill?" As of Thursday afternoon, the final version of the bill had not yet been posted to a congressional Web site and the highly touted Congressional Budget Office cost estimates were still listed only as "preliminary."  That means the 72-hour window Democrats are promising to give the public to review the language has not actually started. Only after the bill is posted to the House Rules Committee Web site does that clock start ticking.  CNN even admits they haven't had the time to read the details of the cost estimate.   It's a big pdf. From the Washington Post, via MSNBC, Rep. Jason  Altmire  has met with President Obama twice this month and received a phone call from Air Force One. Two planes circled his western Pennsylvania district, trailing banners urging him to vote against the health-care bill....

I realize that the following may seem to be over-concern to some of my readers.  I don't agree.  I'm old enough that when I took 9th grade Civics, my teacher actually considered it his job to TEACH the meaning of the documents that our nation was organized under.  As a result, we read the entire Declaration of Independence and US Constitution - and had to be able to explain what the various parts meant. Was I in an Honors or AP course?  No.  Just the kind of activity that every 14 year-old is capable of, if he/she is properly taught. So THIS disturbs me greatly. If this is done, this will create the greatest Constitutional crisis since the Civil War. It would be 100 times worse than Watergate. ...It would be government by fiat... meaning there would be no law... the mere discussion by officials in this government is such a grotesque violation of the actual legislative function of Congress [that it] puts us... at the brink. At the brink . This is why we...

Just heard from my sister - she is improving, but very slowly.  The radiation treatments have finished, but she is still experiencing pain, sores, and fatigue. I've been too busy to blog.  That hasn't happened in a long time.  Most of my energy, right now, is dedicated to work, writing an article for a science magazine, and getting my taxes in order.  On the positive side, I'm nearly caught up at work, making progress on the article, and, although I can hardly believe it, beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel in the tax area. Some of that energy has been drained by my sister's illness - I've been quite worried about her.  Some of it may be caused by a mid-life crisis thing - I've been re-thinking my priorities lately, and may make some personal/work changes in the near future. My fellow citizens seem to be doing a decent job keeping on top of politics; I think I can safely take a short break from obsessing over the republic's state.  I...