Friday, January 21, 2011

I'm Feeling Nostalgic

I'm watching a public television program about the Tuskegee airmen, and my husband and I are talking about our recent past.

We lived in Pittsburgh during the early 70's - at that time, newsboys hawked papers on the corners of the East Liberty streets (where the University was located).  My husband said, "I didn't realize that the Courier was a Black paper".

I remember the Post-Gazette and the Courier being sold on the streets.  Pittsburgh was the first city I had ever lived in that had street vendors.
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Sunday, January 16, 2011

New Phone

I got a new phone today (Droid) and have been playing with all afternoon.

In't she purty?

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Saturday, January 15, 2011

Catholic Social Justice

The principle of Social Justice, as practiced by the Catholic Church, is often misunderstood.
One of the key principles of Catholic social thought is known as the principle of subsidiarity. This tenet holds that nothing should be done by a larger and more complex organization which can be done as well by a smaller and simpler organization. In other words, any activity which can be performed by a more decentralized entity should be. This principle is a bulwark of limited government and personal freedom. It conflicts with the passion for centralization and bureaucracy characteristic of the Welfare State.
So, that principle is why bulking up the State's taxation system, to forcibly take money from those that have earned it, to give to the poor, is NOT within the limits of charity.

It ain't charity if you act like Robin Hood.  And, despite the presence of Friar Tuck, Robin Hood didn't act like a Christian.

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Texting for Seniors

I was sent this in an email from a very dear friend.  No, it's not PC, but it is funny.
ATD:
At The Doctor's
BFF:
Best Friend Farted
BTW:
 Bring The Wheelchair
BYOT:
 Bring Your Own Teeth
CBM:
Covered By Medicare
CUATSC:
See You At The Senior Center
DWI:
Driving While Incontinent
FWB:
Friend With Beta Blockers
FWIW:
 Forgot Where I Was
FYI:
Found Your Insulin
GGPBL:
Gotta Go, Pacemaker Battery Low!
GHA:
Got Heartburn Again
HGBM:
Had Good BM
IMHO:
 Is My Hearing-Aid On?
LMDO:
Laughing My Dentures Out
LOL:
Living On Lipitor
LWO:
  Lawrence Welk's On
OMMR:
On My Massage Recliner
OMSG:
Oh My! Sorry, Gas.
SGGP:
Sorry, Gotta Go P
TTYL:
 Talk To You Louder
WAITT:
Who Am I Talking To?
WTFA:
Wet The Furniture Again
WTP:
Where's The Prunes?

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Right-Wing News Top 10 Posts

If you go to this link, you'll find one of my favorites, on the ridiculousness of America's wanting to be an Imperial Power.
how the hell did we end up with our fingers in every bowl of soup from Bahrain to Brazil? It's because we're not content to sit around on our behinds while the entire planet collapses without us. If we actually did kick back in our hammocks for a ten-year rest, the Middle East would explode, Taiwan would get swallowed by China and France and Germany would probably be at each other's throats again. Hell, if we took twenty years off it wouldn't surprise me to look at a map and see nothing but a giant swath of China red covering all of Europe, skulls & crossbones covering all of Africa, and nothing but a green patch with the words "Forbidden Zone" where the Middle East used to be. We're the only thing keeping the planet from reverting back to an early 1800's style plunder, war, and rampage philosophy.
If you want to put it in perspective, it's like we're the guy who ended up being the designated driver for the planet. Sure, we'd love to sit back and drink ourselves into a stupor with the rest of the globe but we're responsible for getting as many people home safe and sound as possible. 
Yeah, that's what I think.  If those other nations would, finally, stop trying to commit genocide on their neighbors/ancestral enemies (come on, watch Dr. Phil, and learn how to let go of that grudge), we'd be more than happy never to send another soldier to risk his precious life.

His post on how to decide whether a conspiracy is worth looking into, and which ones are solely for the whack-jobs.

The post that Liberals will HATE - his slant on why Liberals think like they do.
Since liberals tend to support or oppose policies based on how those policies make them feel about themselves, they do very little intellectual examination of whether the policies they advocate work or not. That's because it doesn't matter to them whether the policy is effective or not; it matters whether advocating the policy makes them feel "good" or "bad," "compassionate" or "stingy," "nice" or "mean."
Because of this, liberalism has more in common with religion than it does with other political ideologies like conservatism or libertarianism. Moreover, liberal beliefs are more like religious doctrine than any sort of battle-tested policies that bear up under logic or examination. Although the interpretation of the doctrine that the Left supports may change a bit over time, just as religious doctrine does, it's essentially taken on faith, like scripture.
A surprisingly balanced take on Amway from someone who tried it, and left.  Full disclosure: I've been an Amway distributor for years, and have made money doing it.  I'm not as active at present, due to an insane commute and family illnesses.  I plan to crank up the business as I head toward retirement.

Go check out the full list of posts.

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Friday, January 14, 2011

March of the Visogoths

Sigh.

I wonder if this is how the remnants of the Roman Empire felt as they saw the Visogoths gathering on the horizon.

I fear we're in for a tough time of it for many years to come.  As many of the civilizations start to crumble (Europe, Russia - assuming that you consider that a civilization, at this point, perhaps the USA), what will be the end result for our children and grandchildren?

What skills will they need?  Where will they get their education?  What rulers will hold sway over their lives?

How can we prepare them to not only survive, but to keep the flame of literacy and culture alive until the dawn of the next Renaissance?

It does look bad:
Abroad, the implications are clear. Russia's economy is now considered an "extreme risk" by the UK risk-assessment group Maplecroft. Criteria include terrorist threats, the rule of law, and the regulatory and business environment.
Street violence was virtually unknown in Russia prior to the 1990s but occasional riots have erupted as Russians feel their way in the evolving political atmosphere. Conciliatory words but harsh reprisals have been the official responses, leading to fears that another period of oppression is imminent in the long history of Russian freezes and thaws.
Bernshtein addresses this eventuality with speculation that order could be restored by "extraordinary measures." Bernshtein half-apologizes for his "neurotic expectations" but says the "polarization of society is too great" to ignore any longer. Today in Russia, he wrote, some people live a life of luxury, like foreigners, and the only reality is "each man for himself."
Further:
History will show December 2010 exploded with gang warfare in the streets of Moscow and with similar outbreaks in St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don and even the southern city of Krasnodar. All observers agreed that the battles involving thousands of young men, ages 15-30, were ethnic-based. And that is only part of the story.
The police estimated six thousand youths in total clashed within a stone's throw of the Kremlin on Manezh Square. From the beginning the motives of the various groups involved were confused. Football club partisans mixed with ethnic Slavs battled North Caucasus immigrants and other groups smashing each other with all manner of weapons from scrap pipe and lumber to costly imported aluminum American baseball bats. Thirty rioters were hospitalized, though there is general agreement that hundreds were injured. One man was confirmed killed by stabbing. Ultimately the police reportedly arrested more than 1,300 people.
 It's not just football toughs.  It's a widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo.

If I were Jewish, and living in either Europe or Russia, I'd be selling everything I had or ever hoped to have to leave - NOW!  Jews are always the football in these games.

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A Great Response to the Accusations of "Angry Rhetoric"

OK, it's definitely snide.  It's over-the-top hyperbole.  It's REALLY funny.
Forget all that stuff we were saying about knives and gunfights and enemies and hanging Joe Lieberman in effigy, killing Henry Hyde, etc.; that was just our typical, high-spirited use of metaphor. Putting aside all the smashed plate-glass windows, the “Days of Rage,” and the photoshopped pictures of %$#@BUSH#$@! as the love child of Dracula and Hitler; we’re just a bunch of pot-smoking, fun-loving pacifist draft-dodgers at heart. This violence thing — we don’t really mean it, and you know it. 
You, on the other hand, could be sitting on the sofa in your living room in your jammies, watching Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm with your dozens of dogs and children, slurping a Shave Ice and snuggling with the old ball and chain you’ve been irrationally tethered to for the past 20 years, and we would know — we would just know — that under the cushions you’ve got an AK-Uzi with 47 rounds in it, locked and loaded and on full automatic, or whatever, and you’re just itching to use it on us or one of our protected minority groups, all of whom you loathe because, after all, you are nothing if not haters.
Read it.

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Thursday, January 13, 2011

What Was To Like, And Dislike, in Obama's Speech

Lest I be accused of cherry-picking the text, I'm taking it (and the video) from the Huffington Post, a VERY left-wing news organization.
I have come here tonight as an American who, like all Americans, kneels to pray with you today and will stand by you tomorrow
Well, to be more honest, he DIDN'T kneel.

He talked about Judge Rolls (appointed by Bush), and, in doing so, may have undercut prosecution of his killer under federal laws - by implying that his presence was off-the-job.
...was on his way back from attending Mass, as he did every day, when he decided to stop by and say hi to his representative.
He mentions several people who were helpful to others in the crisis, including
We are grateful for petite Patricia Maisch, who wrestled away the killer's ammunition, and undoubtedly saved some lives.
Who he didn't mention was several other people who provided help in disarming Loughner.
Maisch, 61, effectively disarmed the shooter as several men pounced on him and threw him to ground. As they struggled to hold him down, Maisch joined the scrum on the ground, clinging to the gunman's ankles.
Maisch and her fellow heroes -- identified as Bill Badger, Roger Sulzgeber and Joseph Zamudio -- stopped the carnage.
Not to diminish her assistance, but she did NOT try to stop the shooter.  She just happened to be near.
She considered trying to run away, she said, but thought that would make her more of a target, so she laid down on the ground. But then something unexpected happened.
"Then he was next to me on the ground," she said. "The gentleman knocked him down.
"I kneeled over him. He was pulling a magazine [to reload] and I grabbed the magazine and secured that. I think the men got the gun, and I was able to get the magazine," she said.
It's just another instance of the media's desire to MAKE THE WOMAN IN THE SITUATION THE BIG HERO.

Obama would like us to temper what we say,
only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to the challenges of our nation
Well, which is it - civil, or honest?  Because there are times and situations when you can't have both.  When they conflict, I choose honesty.  Even if it hurts.


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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

It Has To Start With Each of US

Let's begin by saying that we can disagree without flinging hate around.  ALL of us.  We are capable of it.

When I was a kid, discussing politics with friends, neighbors, and family was common.  Although occasionally the discussion would get heated, nobody died, was assaulted, or even refused to speak to each other ever again.

That changed in the 1960's - and I'm ashamed to say, that although I was not one who shouted down speakers, I did little to stop those who did.  That's really when the politics of hate began (at least, in public).

It's an Alinksy tactic (and, before, a tactic of the Communist Left - the Old Left).

If you don't know Alinsky, I suggest that you learn more about him,  He is the man that developed most of the strategies of the current Left, and a hero to Hillary Clinton (she was offered a job with him after graduation from law school).

CORRECTION to the above - she was offered a job with Alinsky BEFORE law school.

Alinsky also had a pernicious effect on the Catholic Left, although few in that group know it.

For more information about the Alinsky Effect, go to this link.

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What FR#$%^'NG Climate of Hate?

I enjoyed this - it's an illustrated primer of the REAL history of the "climate of hate" - and it WELL precedes the current crime.

I urge everyone to see it - and soak up visually just how vicious the liberals are, when they want to be.  The important thing to remember is that this hate is NOT coming from a fringe - it is coming from open, organized groups, highlighted on the news (as "funny", "cutting edge", and "speaking truth to power"), and NOT condemned by the MSM.

















While you're looking around, check out this site.  The money quote:
When one crazed or ideologically obsessed gunman named Jared Loughner  starts shooting in Arizona, people condemn him and start bemoaning the state of their society. How about a place with ten million people like that who are treated as heroes? 

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Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The Year-End Round-up From Dave Barry

I loved this; it caused me to laugh out loud.  A brief excerpt:
Every poll shows that the major concerns of the American people are federal spending, the exploding deficit, and — above all — jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs: This is what the public is worried about. In a word, the big issue is: jobs. So the Obama administration, displaying the keen awareness that has become its trademark, decides to focus like a laser on: health-care reform.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/01/v-fullstory/1992746/dave-barrys-2010-year-in-review.html#ixzz1AjeEu5vI

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What I Think About the "Right-Wing Forces Must Have Caused That Guy to Go Nuts and Shoot Someone"

As usual, Ace has the goods

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Monday, January 10, 2011

"These People Must Be Crazy"

This link is about the recent tragedy in Pakistan, where a decent man, who wanted to pardon a Christian who'd been (wrongly) accused of blasphemy, was killed - and the man who did it was greeted on his release with flowers and praise.

Here's an alternative explanation to the story. These people are crazy. They live in a world that most Europeans left behind when Hieronymus Bosch hung up his paintbrushes -- a world that most contemporary American leave behind somewhere around first grade. I remember well the panic we all felt that year trying to escape some particularly unpopular girl's "cooties." After another year, however, the terror subsided. We began to lead rational lives. Not so in the great Islamic Republic. The phobias, irrational fears, superstitions, and delusions that most cultures would ascribe to madness are part of daily life. The place is a lunatic asylum. Thank god they live on the other side of the world. But of course, as 9/11 showed, that's not really true anymore. And they do have a nuclear weapon, too -- think of that.
We are not to blame for Pakistan. As Iraqis have gone on killing each other for the last five years, it was always possible to say that we set the ball rolling by invading in the first place. But Pakistan is sui generis. These people are not rejecting colonialism, they are rejecting civilization. Sunnis kill Shi'ia, Shi'ia kill Sunnis, and Sunnis and Shi'ia combine to kill Suffi. Then they all get together and murder Christians or someone who can speak English or whoever else happens to be at hand. Me and my cousin against the world.
I think we should finish whatever the hell it is we are doing in Afghanistan but then get the hell out. Forget about this "nation-building." These people are incapable of holding a wedding or a funeral without somebody blowing himself up and taking half the crowd with him. Maybe in some other century we can sit down and talk about a peaceful future. For now, I say let them broil in their own inferno.
I hate to just give up on the prospect of civilizing people, but it may be time to, lest they take them down with us.

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Sunday, January 09, 2011

Frugality - A Lost Virtue

I teach in a school, and am constantly reminded that frugality is becoming a lost virtue.  This article reminded me of the extent to which that quality formerly reached.

In my own life, I waste money all the time - most of us do.  We buy snacks we don't need (and add to our weight problems), splurge on  toys and entertainment, pay too much because we're in too big a hurry to bargain-hunt, buy convenience foods, and incur charges for doing all that on credit.

It's sloppy money management.  And, although I do make an effort to watch my spending, I'm guilty of wasting money in many ways.

When I hear people talk about how broke they are, and how "someone" needs to give them money, I do question their need, if they have cable, ready-made snacks, junk food, and cell phones in their house.

BTW, all of the above are LUXURIES.

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Friday, January 07, 2011

This is What Will Cause Us to Trust Muslims as "People of Peace"

Egypt has Muslims willing to offer themselves as human shields to protect the Coptic people at Mass.

Well done - they have reached out in a way that will lead us to begin to heal and trust them.

What a beautiful story.

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The Tootsie Rules

I have some advice for the new Freshmen Congress – particularly those that have an “R” after their name.

You can't afford to make any ethical mistakes. Any. For, you know that the “D” people will be out to cut you down – especially those of you who show any promise of performing at a higher level.

So, with that in mind, I'm suggesting that you follow my Tootsie Rules (so named, due to the MANY careers derailed after fooling around with a Tootsie).


  1. Don't fool around – with either amateurs OR professionals. If your sex life sucks, either live a chaste life, or, WHEN caught (you WILL be caught, you know), admit everything outright. Admit you're a dog. Admit you've failed your marriage. Admit you've fallen short of your own ethical standard. Then, either:
    1. Let your wife divorce you – be prepared to give up just about everything, financial and otherwise.
    2. From that point on, actually stay celibate – use a testosterone inhibitor, if you have to – or, surgically cut the offending member off. OK, that last is a little drastic, but if you're a serial adulter, accept you need help – a LOT of it.
    3. Quit. Leave Washington. Don't run for office again. For your sins against the party, plan on raising money – LOTS of it – for a long time to come.
  2. Don't employ family members or anyone you're financially indebted to. Even if they're good.
  3. Did I mention – don't fool around?
  4. If you employ anyone, pay the appropriate taxes/insurance/Social Security. If you have to, employ a service, and subcontract it all out. The same goes for the rest of your family.
  5. That fooling around thing – it doesn't matter when gender you and your paramour are. Don't do it.
  6. Pay your taxes. On time. In full.
  7. All interpersonal contact counts. Even if SOME people don't consider it sex.
  8. Remember, you work for the people who elected you, not the campaign donors.
  9. It also means no fooling around when you're out of the country – ESPECIALLY when you're out of the country.
  10. If you say you're against spending money, that also means for your district. No exceptions. You can only get money for something that will benefit more Americans than the ones in your district. Don't take the implicit bribe of earmarks.
  11. If you weren't clean about your intimate past before, don't let the leadership discover it with the rest of the country – WHEN it hits the front page. And it will.
  12. Don't get so sloppy that you depend on the staffers to feed you the truth about proposed legislation. When they're briefing you, have a copy in front of you, and mark it up. If you find that a staffer can't be trusted to follow your agenda, but have their own, fire them. And, let the leadership know why, so they can warn any other member against hiring them.
  13. Don't flirt via text, email, or phone (particularly not mobile phones). Don't drink in public – save it for home. Don't hang out with the drinkers or playahs. If your wife can't accompany you on trips, take your mother-in-law (unless you find her particularly attractive).

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Monday, January 03, 2011

Why Andrew Traver Should NOT Be the Head of BATF

Kevin D. Williamson has a cogent take-down of ALL the reasons that Traver is not the man to head the BATF - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

He also argues that the agency should be eliminated - personally, I like the idea.  It's functions could be taken over by the FBI, and the agents could be re-assigned to either FBI, ICE, TSA, or other agency - or, if the agent's record indicates it, released to the open job market.

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Saturday, January 01, 2011

Joan Didion's Political Fictions

Surprisingly readable, and fascinating in the aspects that haven't been covered by the traditional media.  I've been reading an electronic copy from the online public library (BTW, a great way to read books.  The downside is that the choices are OVERWHELMINGLY liberal - VERY few conservative books, no matter how high on the best-seller lists).

Joan takes a look at the way that politics is covered in election years.  She points out that coverage is driven by the electronic media - TV, cable, and the like, so much so, that the print reporters and the convention delegates are treated as "extras" in the show that elections have become.

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Lies of the Left

This COULD be a lengthy post. But, I'll try to winnow it down to a reasonable length. The CA Parent Bribery 'Scandal' - the 1...