Right As Usual

I've been thinking about this subject for some time. First, some admissions: Getting pregnant was NEVER a problem for me.  I had 3 kids in four years.  Coulda done more, but I was really getting tired of birthin' In my younger years, I did follow the crowd and use contraception.  Never had to consider an abortion, which I thank God for.  Some things, it was just a mercy I hadn't been in a position to have to decide upon - I don't know that I'd have decided in a good way. There have been days my kids drove me crazy.  Well, the same is true of my husband.  But, I never wished they hadn't been born. I never had to wrestle with the conflicts between a strong desire to have children, and the ethical problems that lay within that decision. In high school, we all read "Brave New World" and "1984" (funny, seldom do kids read either these days.  1984 is too uncomfortably close to the near-worship of our current leader. And, Brave New World, with...

I've long been a fan of Francis W. Porretto's writing, both his blogs and his fiction.   Please, consider adding his blog to your list of frequently checked sites. How to work with Liberals/Leftists?  He has some good advice: Compromise is potentially constructive only when it's strictly about means: i.e., when the two sides angling toward a compromise sincerely agree on the end to be sought, and are both willing to allow that they might be wrong about what means would best serve that end. Under those conditions, everyone involved will be watching the outcome and judging the means applied by that standard alone. When the ends are opposed to one another, compromise must disserve one or the other.  It cannot be any other way. If your end is political liberty -- the maximum possible freedom from coercion or constraint for peaceable persons -- there's absolutely no reason to "dialogue" with persons whose end is an expansion of State power. Compromising with statis...

Here's a link to a THOROUGH summary of the events of 9/11/12. I'll continue blogging on this issue in the future. WHY is it important?   Here's a link to Neil Young singing about ANOTHER 4 dead.               They didn't have to die.                       Oh, well, is that SUCH a big deal?  As Madam Secretary Clinton <s>said</s> yelled, "What difference, at this point, does it make?"                        

Honestly, you'd think that one of the requirements for people working in government today is a COMPLETE IGNORANCE of the Constitution! There seems to be no other way to explain this boneheaded decision: FCC to "monitor" news broadcasts for bias Even more EXCITING, the firm that the FCC is looking at to conduct the study of the media, specializes in "social welfare". Here's a link to the actual proposal.   I'm not that concerned about them looking at what they call "Critical Information Needs" - that's examining the actual content, and comparing it to how well it matches what the public has a need to know (assuming, perhaps unrealistically, that our Leftist government minions can fairly judge that) - but, that the major focus of the study seems to be on "perceived" needs. Whose perception is going to take precedence?  Leftists?  Minorities (including transgender, transexual, bi-, undecided, Arab-heritage - the RIGHT kind, the Musli...

A recent review of books about Ulysses S Grant made me wonder. Too often, history is written by supporters of the leading party.  In present day, history taught in schools is SOLIDLY controlled by Liberal/Leftist teachers, and written to reflect that slant. Therefore, what children learn is: Washington, Jefferson, and almost all of the other WHITE Founding Fathers were racist, sexist, and, generally, Bad Guys.  The ONLY reason for the "3/5ths" clause in the Constitution is that they ALL Hated Black People. After those early days, the only presidents worth mentioning are Andrew Jackson (man of the people), Abraham Lincoln (we won't mention his party affiliation, but we LOVE him because he abused the Constitution to keep the Union together), Teddy Roosevelt (another unmentionable party, but not REALLY - he was a Progressive!  Which is a Wonderful Thing!), and Wilson (REALLY smart - an honest-to-God PhD - and we LOVE his League of Nations idea, which only failed because ...

Check out XKCD to see the graphic - REALLY cool.

This is a GREAT post on PJ Media.  The comments alone are worth reading.

.... even though it's been DECISIVELY voted down when put to the people? This article has an explanation that makes sense , given that the LACK of support for SSM is so large. Here's how it works: An AVAILABILITY CASCADE is a self-reinforcing process of collective belief formation by which an expressed perception triggers a chain reaction that give the perception increasing plausibility through its rising availability in public discourse. The driving mechanism involves a combination of informational and reputational motives: Individuals endorse the perception partly by learning from the apparent beliefs of others and partly by distorting their public responses in the interest of maintaining social acceptance. Availability entrepreneurs -- activists who manipulate the content of public discourse -- strive to trigger availability cascades likely to advance their agendas (" Availability Cascades and Risk Regulation ," Timur Kuran and Cass Sunstein, Stanford Law Review, 1...

"at the Southern plant, a starting worker earns $19.50 an hour without a union, while his counterpart working in Michigan earns only $15.50 an hour. So wages do not compel a worker to support unionization. The foreign- owned plants, it seems, pay better than the American auto manufacturers." And, they would, if unionized, have to pay dues to that union.  A good part of union dues go to pay for political activity that the union ELITE/Progressives favor - even though a sizable percentage of their membership opposes their positions. Read the rest, at Commonsense & Wonder.

I found this on National Review (see article at link) . If you're thinking of buying it, would you help me by using this link to do so? If, like me, you use Amazon, you can start your search with the sidebar widget at the right.  By clicking on the title (where it says Click HERE), you can direct a small portion of money to help support this blog - it comes out of Amazon's portion, and doesn't increase your purchase price one bit.  

I, like so many in the South, have been largely snow-bound for days.  Without the many snowplows,, de-icing substances, and, even, snow shovels (I had to explain what they were to my students on Tuesday - they'd literally never seen one), it's taken quite a while to begin clearing up the mess that the recent snowstorm dumped on us.  Power is out in many places (not our area, thank God - although we DO have a gas-powered generator - AND plenty of gas).  Crews are working non-stop to restore it - if you see a crew in your area, bring them out hot coffee and cocoa, would you? I've had plenty of time to catch up on current news, political issues, and various sundry pursuits.  I'm totally caught up on sleep.  I would have done more housework, but I burnt my hand rather badly, trying to make a white sauce.  There is schoolwork, grading and planning, but I just don't feel like it yet. So, I'll be blogging today.  I have some ideas that I'd like to flesh out, some i...

I'm off work, due to snow (it's a laughable amount to a Yankee transplant, but it causes serious problems for a part of the country that doesn't have the materials, equipment, or expertise to deal with it).   I've decided to get back in the saddle, and add my voice to those that are passionate about changing our country BACK to: Less government - not just BETTER government, but LESS Better schools - I'm strongly of the belief that Conservatives need to start writing alternative curriculum, with the state standards in mind (although they need to get embedded in the State Boards of Education, to be able to influence the standards, as well). TRUE civility in public life - which ALSO includes the freedom to get into the dirt, if attacked by a pig.  No holding to a higher standard Conservatives, while allowing Leftists to go for the gonads. Creation/Expansion of HONEST media.  There needs to be Conservative channels on TV/Cable, as well as Conservative Packages. ...

The Guiding Principles that have been proposed are: NO path to citizenship - instead, the illegally-present people will have their status changed to legal resident, or citizen-but-without-voting-rights.  This would be a LEGAL status, but NOT citizenship. I can just see the follow-up headlines:   How can those cruel, heartless, Republicans keep these LEGAL people in 2nd-class citizenship status?   Allowing this "legal but non-citizen status" is only a ploy - it will not last until the ink is dry on the agreement. Not to mention the issue of people who are NOT eligible voting in many cities already.   Now, why is that a CITY problem?  Because voter fraud is harder to get away with in the smaller towns, unless it's a town with a university in it. These now-legal residents would learn English, learn about American legal system, and gradually become part of our society - no longer "in the shadows". Probably a silly question - if they are "living in the...