Not surprising.

Nobody's getting raises this year, not where I work. Not deans, heads of department, tenured professors, adjuncts, staff, or student help. The economy sucks all over.

I should have run for congress.

At least someone's doing something.

China is putting together an anti-piracy fleet.

The lesson to be taken from this is that it's best to be willing to act with or without U.N./NATO sanction.

Not the only test, but an important one.

I never thought I'd be glad that President-Elect Obama named his opponent Hillary Clinton to his cabinet, but I think she'll be a magnificent Secretary of State, especially given that one of the first tests he'll face will be Russia. And given how blind the Pentagon is about the issue. Anyone can be a threat, and refusing to acknowledge the provocation will only make the Russian government bolder.

And yes, Russia is trying to provoke and control us, just as they attempt to control their own populace. Their gift to Lebanon is likely to destabilize the region just a little--maybe enough to keep Israel from destroying Iran's newly acquired nuclear abilities, maybe not. It will definitely take Israel's attention from other things in the Middle East that they've been watching--like terrorist training facilities in the Gaza Strip and in Syria. With that attention gone, the terrorist organizations have more freedom to move.

And to strike.

While Russia is definitely a test that President-Elect Obama must face--and pass--it's not the only one, or even the most important; however, several other tests' success hinge on this one.

Dear Santa,

This must have been one of the saddest letters ever written to you. I'm sure you'll be glad to know that, unlike twenty years ago, the authorities were called, rather than the abuser.

Put that school counselor on your nice list this year. And the little girl and her sister, too, since they've both suffered enough to make up for however naughty a child can be.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

And there's not really an end in sight. It's nasty all the way across the nation, from California, through the Midwest, all the way out to the Northeast.

And I'm not the only one that sees the global warming hysteria for what it is: several scientists are calling the AP piece I mentioned the other day "horrifically bad." That it "contained sweeping scientific errors"--and yes, they were bad enough that an English professor with only a basic understanding of science could see them.

Update: Las Vegas has had its first snow storm in thirty years. They had to close their airport.

Just because the government declares the crisis "over" or "dealt with" doesn't mean that they're right.

Henry Paulson has stated that no more financial institutions will fail. How does he know that? I thought all their crystal balls were broken.

President Bush said that he sacrificed free-market principles to save the economy. Unfortunately, this heroic action is bound to backfire. It did in FDR's time, and it will now.

The Federal Reserve made a steep rate cut, causing the market to come back up a bit temporarily. I think it's the wrong thing to do, or at least not enough or badly timed. Individual consumer credit debt (which is mostly unsecured) is unlikely to lower their rates in response, given how many are defaulting, and how much difficulties the banking and credit industries are having staying afloat. And the only way out of this deflationary economy is to boost consumer spending while not putting consumers in a worse position of debt.

When President Bush says that he's abandoned free market principles, what he means is that he's been in on the partial nationalizing of the banking industry, as well as a few others. He means that he's agreed to increase regulatory rules on investments and on how businesses may or may not be run by their boards.

The real problem was a lack of oversight, not a lack of regulation as congress has said. That lack of oversight allowed the executives to loot Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That lack of oversight has also allowed massive fraud to be perpetrated on non-mortgage-backed investments as well: the Madoff case victims list is swelling day by day as the investigation continues.

The government can say that this part of the crisis, or that part of the crisis, or the whole entire thing is done all it wants. That doesn't make it true.

Who was the bailout for, anyway?

The auto industry? Nah, they could still just take bankruptcy and reorganize into profitability. The workers? Not so much. It's entirely possible for the auto industry to reorganize and not cut many jobs.

No, the entity that stands to benefit the most is the UAW. After all, they're the ones that refused to negotiate on certain things (like pay cuts in exchange for jobs kept), and killed the bailout.

Not that I'm complaining. I thought it was a bad idea from the start.

Huh.

This is ironic.

Does anyone still doubt that Russia is the same as it ever was?

The Kremlin is no more disposed to permit free speech than it used to be. Not only did it order police to prevent a protest, but the arrest of somewhere between 90 (according to the authorities) and 130 (according to the protesters) went completely unreported in Russia's media.

Russia is rebuilding ties with old Cold War allies, and building ties with new ones. The government has sent ships to Nicaragua, to Cuba, through the Panama Canal, and are involved in war games with Venezuela.

Russia is not serious in its negotiations with us over the missile defense shield that its former satellite nations wish to host, and that we intend to protect Europe from rogue powers in the Middle East (who, incidentally, buy most of their armaments from Russia). They're completely unwilling to see it as anything but aimed at them, and refuse any solution that doesn't remove the missile defense sites. That makes me suspicious of their reasons why they're so worried about a defensive technology.

I'm also suspicious that, if they're not entirely behind the recent snub that Latin America has dealt the United States, they're definitely encouraging it.

The behavior displayed by the New Russia is the same as that displayed by the old USSR during the Cold War. I don't think there's any possible dispute about that.

Damn you, Bandit Six!

It isn't the bird flu (see chapter 3), but this doesn't look good. It's overloading Britain's hospital capacity.

Not only does Bandit Six seem to be right about global cooling (see previous post), but about health care nastiness, too.

Still no explanation

Denver had a record low of fifteen below zero, yesterday, replacing the record of fourteen below set in 1901.

The power's still out in the ice-storm damaged Northeast, with more outages threatened.

North and South Dakota have been hit by vicious blizzard conditions, closing the major interstates.

Symptoms of global cooling in the cycle, right? Not according to some:

When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, global warming was a slow-moving environmental problem that was easy to ignore. Now it is a ticking time bomb that President-elect Barack Obama can't avoid.

...

Scientists are increasingly anxious, talking more often and more urgently about exceeding "tipping points."

"We're out of time," Stanford University biologist Terry Root said. "Things are going extinct."

U.S. emissions have increased by 20 percent since 1992. China has more than doubled its carbon dioxide pollution in that time. World carbon dioxide emissions have grown faster than scientists' worst-case scenarios. Methane, the next most potent greenhouse gas, suddenly is on the rise again and scientists fear that vast amounts of the trapped gas will escape from thawing Arctic permafrost.

So, how do they explain the cool year we've had? How do they explain away the earth's down cycle? They don't, at least, not convincingly.

Mother Nature, of course, is oblivious to the federal government's machinations. Ironically, 2008 is on pace to be a slightly cooler year in a steadily rising temperature trend line. Experts say it's thanks to a La Nina weather variation. While skeptics are already using it as evidence of some kind of cooling trend, it actually illustrates how fast the world is warming.

Our current weather patterns "actually [illustrate] how fast the world is warming"?!? How stupid do they think we are? A simple weather pattern does not explain overall cooler temperatures worldwide. And I think I can explain the Arctic melt that they're so concerned about--maybe not scientifically, but in a way that anyone can understand.

When, in the summer, we start filling swimming pools--or even wading pools--the water is frigid. It takes forever for it to warm up, even in direct sunlight. On the flip side, once it's warm, it takes forever for it to cool down, even with a week-long clouded over sky following a cool front.

I will not deny that the world has been warmer for a few decades. That's a measurable fact. It probably heated up the all of the oceans, like a gigantic swimming pool. It's going to take a while for that pool to cool off--it probably would take a long time even if we were to go into another ice age.

In fact, if I recall my basic, elementary school history and science, most of the worst effects of the ice ages were mitigated by oceanic currents near the coast, and were only really bad in the interiors of large continents.

But worldwide cooler temperatures actually a symptom of anthropogenic global warming? Please.

Another rant.

I could not wait for next week's FFOT thread for this one. I'm still steaming. I'd like to go to the range, but have no one to watch the boy for me.

Yesterday, my other half and I dropped our son off at his grandparents' so that we could go Christmas shopping. Part of that Christmas shopping was for me: since I'd gotten him a CZ-52 for Christmas/birthday last year, he wanted to get me something I'd been drooling over longer than he had the pistol: a Mosin-Nagant rifle. And there was a gun show going on.

Well, the gun show was a bust. Not that there weren't Mosin-Nagants, just not any that we wanted to buy, or could afford to. There was one that I would have loved to own--a pretty much mint condition sniper variant--but was about $350 out of our price range.

What peeves me is that there was a table full of Nagants, all priced $95-$110, armory refurbished. And each and every one of them had been ruined by the fucktards selling them! The idiots had shot corrosive ammo (most of the ammo for these rifles is the cheap, WWII surplus) through each one, and not cleaned the rifles!

There were several signs that demonstrated that the father-son duo didn't know what they were doing:

1. The bolts were all zip-tied closed.

2. Each and every one of the armory refurbished rifles had been fired, and not cleaned, "to prove they worked."

3. Neither father nor son had ever heard of the Windex trick* to neutralize the corrosive elements in the surplus ammo.

4. They bragged about leaving the rifles dirty! They bragged about leaving guns uncleaned after having fired them! THEY DIDN'T CLEAN THE GUNS!

Y'know, there are reasons why most states have laws against siblings marrying. And the boy proved that those reasons hold true when the laws are ignored: "All the rifles work. I've shot each and every one of them."

Duh. The Mosin-Nagant bolt assembly is one of the simplest and most fool-proof out there. The trigger assembly is the same. When the rifles were turned in to the armory for storage, each one was tested, parts replaced, barrels replaced, and carefully stored to preserve the rifles in brand-new condition. THE RIFLE WILL WORK WHEN UNPACKED AND CLEANED UP. DO NOT fire the rifle to make sure it works. And especially DO NOT FIRE CORROSIVE AMMO THROUGH THE RIFLE AND NEGLECT TO CLEAN IT AFTERWARDS!

God only knows how many rifles they've ruined like this. The barrel of the one we looked at was so pitted that it wouldn't have fired eight inch groups at 100 yards, much less the eight inch groups they're supposed to be able to fire at 800 yards or better.

Stupid fucks. I came this close to beating them with the beautiful, mint-condition rifles they'd ruined.

*The Windex trick is something I learned from a friend who has several war relics that he shoots corrosive surplus ammo through: as soon as you're done shooting, remove the bolt and squirt Windex down the barrel to neutralize the corrosive elements. Then run a dry patch down the barrel, followed with a couple of patches of Hoppe's No. 9. My friend does this every time, and each of his guns is in mint condition, with perfect, mirror-shiny barrels. So is my husband's CZ-52.

Seven deadlies: Sloth

I’ve spent the past few weeks, and will be spending a few more, writing about the seven deadly sins, and their applications in the modern world by those who give lip service to being Christian, and those who declare that sin doesn’t exist. The seven deadly, or serious, sins are wrath, greed, envy, sloth, lust, gluttony, and pride. So far, over the past three weeks, I’ve written about Wrath, Greed, and Envy. This week’s sin is Sloth.

So, what precisely is sloth? In medieval times, it was despair, or a lack of joy—a refusal of one of God’s major gifts. It’s come to mean something different in modern times, however. Today, sloth is apathy of the spirit, or laziness.

How is laziness a sin? We can see this through the parable of the talents in Matthew and Luke. In the story, a man gives three servants money—one gets five talents, one gets two talents, and one gets one. The first and second servants both invest the money, and double it before returning it to their master. The third servant buries the single talent he’s given, claiming he only wanted to keep his master’s money safe from thieves.

Many read this as an endorsement of free enterprise. In some ways, it is: the master is pleased with, praises, and rewards the servants who use the money he left with them to make more, and rebukes and punishes the one who simply hid the money. However, there is another lesson to be learned here: that laziness, or sloth, not only leaves the individual where they started, but can open the door to other sins.

We can see the same sin today illustrated in the same way: with individuals who do not want to work. However, we can also see the same sin illustrated in a more insidious, more damaging instance in the way some parents interact with their children.

Many argue that today’s world requires both spouses to work to make ends meet, that today’s parents are more industrious than ever. That may be true in some parts of their lives; however, it couldn’t be farther from the truth when it comes to raising their children.

Children are investments into the future, yes; they are also a lot of work, and take a lot of time and patience to raise. Many parents, especially when one parent is missing or when both work, simply do not choose to put in the effort required. They bury their one talent by parking their children in front of the television rather than playing with them, by placing them in Head Start rather than teaching them, by depending on public schools to parent their children instead of instilling the moral values that the children will need as adults.

As with the parable of the talents, the parents who don’t parent get back exactly the investment they put in: the child, lacking a strong guiding hand acts out in many ways, some sexual (with some active very early), some violent, some merely rebellious. The parents that refuse to raise their own children are the ones that wind up medicating their children into zombies, that turn their children over to state custody because they can’t control their behavior, that abandon their children in Nebraska because they simply don’t want to be bothered anymore.

The sloth of these parents lead to children that do not care about others, that do not see others as individuals, that cannot empathize with another’s pain. The sloth of these parents open the door to the children’s wrath, greed, envy—is creating a generation of psychologically damaged children that will become psychologically damaged adults.

I don’t understand this sin any more than I do greed or envy. I admit that raising a child is much harder than I thought it would be—and mine is only two months old. I know that the job will get harder, that the investment will take more time and energy in the future. However, I also know that the hard work is well worth it, and the penalties of being slothful in raising my child are far too harsh to risk.

I wish others would consider the penalties of their own laziness before they started ignoring their child’s needs and letting them raise themselves.

Nice to see that someone has some common sense.

Czechoslovakia's president called the EU climate deal a "silly luxury."

I agree, especially considering that global warming is a natural cycle that the earth goes through, that cycle is over (more on that here), and there really is nothing humanity can do to knock that cycle off kilter.

Really, sometimes I think that the "global warming" crisis mongers are nihlists. Other times I'm sure of it.

Now, this is a decision I agree with.

President-elect Obama is offering to place Israel under the nuclear umbrella with Japan; i.e., anybody that wants to nuke Israel is, in effect, nuking us. And we will strike back.

This is, in my opinion, a very good foreign policy decision, considering that they're one of two real allies over there (and the other is not Saudi Arabia). Especially in light that even other Muslim nations fear Iran.

More on global warming...

A couple of cities that don't typically get snow, at least this early, are getting snow.

Houston is getting snow in early December for the first time in 64 years. Temperatures are warm enough that it didn't stick, but it fell fast enough to enchant people.

New Orleans is getting snow for the first time in four years--well, snow, sleet, and freezing rain. Snow has fallen in New Orleans in measurable amounts only 17 times since 1850.

Anyone want to explain how record early snows and record cool temperatures are connected to global warming? I promise I won't slap you. Hard.

A little precocious, aren't they?

Precocious and exhibitionists. A couple of middle schoolers in Florida have been suspended for sex activities in class.

I'm going to say that again: a couple of middle schoolers in Florida have been suspended for sex activities in class.

What happened to the innocence of childhood?

We all know what the answer to this is going to be...

The United States is asking the UN for permission to go after the Somali pirates on land.

The UN disapproves of us hunting pirates in international waters. What makes our government think they'll give us permission (that we don't really need) to hunt the pirates on land?

More threats...

Russia's foreign minister has warned us not to meddle in Moscow's back yard.

I'm willing to stay out of their sphere of influence, if they're willing to follow their own advice in regards to ours.

At least I'm not the only one seeing the provocation for what it is. Here's hoping that the incoming administration has the testicular fortitude to deal with this.

I doubt it, but I can always hope.

Hearing the sounds of a global crisis.

Splat! Treasury notes sell at the lowest rates ever as investors scurry to buy into illusory safety.

Splat! Oil demand falls worldwide. (Although, now that I think of it, it may be a bad sign for the economy, but is probably going to be good for world security in the long run as oil-based tyrannies topple under the pressure of their income vanishing.)

Splat! Oil prices fall.

Splat! Another industry is at least partially nationalized to prevent it from going under.

I'm not the only one seeing that deflation is a probability, not a possibility. I'm not the only one that sees shades of Roosevelt's New Deal in the current economic crisis, although I hope the government intervention planned doesn't stretch things out as long. I'm not interested in who's at fault for the current difficulties except in preventing them from destroying the economy again, once it's stablized.

The sounds I'm hearing aren't of the sky falling. They're the sounds of a world-wide shitstorm beginning.

Is this also the result of anthropogenic global warming?

California's about to be hit by some very cold weather.

I say again: the next idiot that mentions the concept that humanity's solely at fault for all the catestrophic global warming that's (not) going on all around us all the time is going to get bitch slapped.

Update: I can't reach these idiots for their promised bitch slap. However, they've proved Heinlein's ideas about the "everybody knows/agrees" on something means that the only consensus is amongst the ignoramuses (ignorami?) that use that argument.

Memories fade. History repeats.

Sixty-seven years ago, yesterday, marks the first large-scale attack on the United States since our little tiffs with Britain in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Japan planned and carried out a massive attack on what they saw as a threat to their dominance of the Pacific Ocean: the United States Navy.

Sixty-seven years ago, yesterday, marks the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. We had done nothing to provoke it, and the Japanese gave us no hint that they were planning it. They simply, quietly, positioned their ships to launch the planes.

Sixty-seven years ago, yesterday, between 7:55 and 10:00, the Japanese overflew Hawaii, first targeting airfields to prevent us from being able to fight back with more than land- and ship-based anti-aircraft guns, then targeting our naval vessels sitting at rest in Pearl Harbor.

Sixty-seven years ago, yesterday, the Japanese pulled us into World War II with 2,042 seamen, marines, Army personnel, and civilians killed in the attack, with another 1,238 military personnel wounded. Eighteen ships were either sunk or severely damaged. One hundred sixty-one planes were destroyed, with another 102 damaged.

Our then-president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, asked Congress to declare war the very next morning in one of the most stirring speeches in American history. The entire text is reproduced from George Mason University’s website:

Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation, and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our secretary of state a formal reply to a recent American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Japanese government has deliberately sought to deceive the
United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American
lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday the Japanese government also launched as attack against Malaya.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.

Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Wake Island.

And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As commander in chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us. . .

Of course, we won the war. And then we forgot. Not quite sixty years later, we paid for that forgetfulness in mostly civilian blood on an even more reprehensible attack on civilian-only targets, using civilian mass-transit infrastructure: September 11, 2001’s attack.

It hasn’t even taken us ten years to mostly forget that attack. I have little hope that the next attack on American soil will not be as much worse than the second as the second was than the first.

As the title of this page states: memories fade. History repeats.

A short-sighted error

As I've said before, I teach part time at a small Midwestern university. Recently, my state has asked its public universities to cut their budgets by up to 25%. My university's president has worked on at least that level of budget cuts for the past semester that he's been with us anyway, because that's how much over budget our spending has been. From simple solutions, such as turning off office, classroom, and hall lights when there's no one there, and shutting down computer labs after hours, to larger sacrifices, like a freeze on wage increases, there have been a whole lot of common sense changes made.

However.

Recently, he decided that it was in the university's best interests to place a moratorium on all spending for travel and conferences for professors and students. He also decided to place a moratorium on hiring new people.

This includes replacing professors who've retired or left for greener pastures.

While these two freezes make sense on a purely budgetary perspective, they are incredibly short sighted. The first, taking away travel funds, sends the message to prospective students that this isn't the university to come to--especially if they want to travel--because it doesn't take student needs into consideration. It also gives other universities a tool to help drive down our enrollment further, and to lure away current and prospective faculty (see? we give you money for travel while our competitor doesn't).

The second, the hiring freeze, makes an even more dangerous, short-sighted, error: though our enrollment is currently down, the economy is bad, and getting worse. People are losing jobs left and right, and since many companies are tightening their belts for the coming difficulties, will not easily find another position, if they can find anything at all. What do people do if they lose their jobs and can't find another? They go to school.

We don't have enough full-time professors to maintain the level of non-majors classes in most of our departments without the recent losses we've had (professors quitting, retiring, and dying have left us three short in the English department alone). Our majors classes suffer--many that were on two year rotations in the past have gone to three year rotations, without a concomitant increase in upper division majors classes. We have to offer a specific number of non-majors classes to fulfill the core requirements for all students, and that number doesn't drop with enrollment numbers.

When the economy tanks further, enrollment starts to rise, and we simply don't have the faculty we need to man the classrooms, we're looking at a disaster.

Talk about your nasty agendas...

First, Planned Parenthood comes under fire for the racially targeted donations it accepts to fund abortions. Now, they're under fire for coaching teens to lie about the ages of sex partners to avoid the sex abuse reporting regulations, and for coaching teens in how to skirt the parental notification laws some states have.

This really tells me that their entire agenda has nothing to do with helping women in tight spots; rather, their entire agenda is all about killing babies--unlimited abortion on demand. If it were otherwise, they wouldn't take money from people specifically targeted at aborting black babies. If it were otherwise, they wouldn't have a problem with reporting a 13-year-old girl's abortion of a 30-year-old man's baby to the authorities.

Granted, both of the situations were only stings, but the interesting thing about such operations is that they reveal the truth about situations. We have no idea how many real, identical donations Planned Parenthood has accepted for the one sting that publicized the willingness to accept racially-motivated donations. Nor do we have any idea how many little girls were coached in how to lie about the age of their sex partner for the sting that revealed that they do.

Envy

“Thou shalt not covet…”

I’m dedicating the next several Friday Philosophy posts to the Seven Deadly, or mortal, sins. Those are, in no particular order, wrath, greed, pride, lust, gluttony, sloth, and envy. I’ve already covered wrath and greed. This week’s post will discuss envy: what it is, why it’s one of the deadly sins, and it’s emergence in American culture (and others) through class warfare.

What is envy? Many confuse envy and jealousy, believing that the two terms are interchangeable. Nothing could be farther from the truth: jealousy is the fear that you’ll lose something you already have, while envy is the resentment of something that someone else has that you don’t. Many times, envy is a product of a lack of belief in one’s own talents and abilities.

Envy is, perhaps, one of the more destructive of the seven deadly sins. The resentment of what another has, whether it’s his or her home, wealth, talents, or happiness, is often based in a belief that, no matter what you do, you can’t have anything even close to similar. This belief often leads to the destructive desire to ruin what that person has. That selfish desire to destroy what the individual envies often leads into dishonest, hurtful behavior in other areas of life, and the emotion often comes between the envious individual and his or her relationship with his or her family members, friends, and with God.

If someone has a happy marriage, the person who envies that happy marriage will attempt to sow discord, by starting rumors, or by trying to change the attitudes of one or both spouses. If someone envies a talent, they start spreading rumors about the talented individual, attempting to bring them down to the same level the envious person feels they’re at. If someone envies another’s home, they often try to interfere with home ownership, through odd rulings in homeowners’ associations, or occasionally through fraudulent tax or real-estate sales value assessments.

If someone envies another’s income, they go to the government.

The forced redistribution of wealth that the government does when it collects taxes on the rich and hands out “earned income tax credits” and welfare to the poor is based in envy: politicians campaign on the idea of taking “unfair distributions of wealth,” and making them fair. This Robin Hood version of politics works because politicians have tried, with greater and greater amounts of success, to tell people that they can’t make it out of the poverty they’re in, leading people to believe that they cannot earn what they wish to have. That belief breeds resentment toward those who do work, and do earn a higher income and standard of living. The resentment is what gets politicians elected: they promise to “punish the rich,” while tap-dancing around actually defining what “rich” is.

If someone envies his neighbor’s income and directly steals his money, it’s called either theft or robbery (depending on how they do it), and they go to jail. If they have the government do it for them, it’s called welfare, and they get a check in the mail every month.

Again, this isn’t one of the sins that I really understand. I’ve come a long way from where in society I was born. I’ve earned my way through hard work. I’m relatively content with my life, and if I weren’t, I’d simply try harder to fix what’s wrong, rather than decide to pee in someone else’s dessert.

Not for long...

Our POTUS-elect has been warned about Iran's approaching nuclear capability; however, by the time he takes office, it could no longer be an issue.

I've said it before: I'm glad someone has the testicular fortitude to stand up and smack down the local bullies.

Wow. Um...I knew that people were worried, but this is terrifying.

A neighborhood in Milwaukee has lost enough confidence in the dollar that they've invented and are using their own currency.

It's the media's fault that this is happening. Their attitude of "If it bleeds, it leads," is publishing story after story about how the economy is tanking, jobs are being cut, and the dollar is weakening. (Thank God they're too historically illiterate to point out the current dangers of deflation, or it would be worse.)

They need to quit reporting on what's wrong, and start focusing on the efforts to fix the economy, no matter how misguided and doomed to failure those efforts are.

Stop spending more than you earn, trust your bank (or at least the FDIC insurance), don't sell your stock, and for God's sake, please don't devalue our currency by ceasing to use it, even temporarily and locally.

Enough, already!

The President-elect is a legal, natural-born citizen of the United States! So was his opponent!

Hawaii was, at the time of President Elect Obama's birth, a United States territory. He was born to a citizen of the United States (his mother). Ergo, he is a citizen.

John McCain was born in Panama. To United States citizens. While area in question in Panama was a territory belonging to the United States. Ergo, he is a citizen.

Both cases were reviewed during the campaign. Had either man not been judged a natural-born United States citizen, he would not have been allowed to run.

Let it the fuck go, people! We lost this one. And we'll likely win the next one, if we can just find a good, truly and completely conservative (at least on fiscal and foreign policy matters) candidate.

I think I'm going to faint.

A city beaureaucrat shows common sense: an armed populace makes the criminal element think twice about attempting to victimize their neighbors. If criminals are sure that many people carry guns, but don't know who specifically does, they're not going to chance attacking anyone for fear they'll be shot.

The cop quoted in the story who says that carrying guns "is not a recipe for a less violent community" obviously is too busy having a snit at the implication that the police can't protect the entire city of St. Louis to do anything but parrot the anti-gun propoganda pushed in larger cities.

I call this particular city leader, Alderman Charles Quincy Troupe of St. Louis, a hero.

Can't tolerate them. Can't hang them. What then?

Well, according to international law, should we encounter pirates in international waters, we can engage them with any type of force we choose. International law and the U.N. discourage ships and ships' crews from carrying weapons, however. So what do we do?

How about seeding the area with UAVs armed with Hellfire missiles? It avoids the whole "you shouldn't carry guns on your ships because guns are bad" argument.

On the other hand, it does have us policing things we shouldn't have to. There are times when I think Kipling was bitter toward his own government, rather than racist (as he has been read by post-modern anti-imperialist literary theorists because of this piece, which seems, in my opinion, to have the most anger. I think he went native--but that's a post for another time, and only if you're interested in reading it). Oh, yes, Kipling was bitter about the British army being expected to police the world--and I can understand and sympathize.

Grasping at straws

This is pitiful. The Clintons are so power hungry that Bill Clinton, the former POTUS, is considering taking his wife's senate seat once she takes her cabinet position.

Can they be any more ridiculous?

Do as I say, not as I do.

Condoleeza Rice is telling Europe to stand firm and make sure the Soviet Union--sorry, Russia--faces consequences for what it's done to Georgia. At the same time, the United States is softening on its own position on making Russia face consequences.

This illustrates two things: first, the United States' foreign policy has become ever more hypocritical.

Second, that our foreign relations needs a shot of Viagra to keep from going limp when it needs to stay firm.

Anyone doubt that we've headed back into another cold war?

Russia, in a blazing display of paranoia, has decided to upgrade their missiles to dodge the missile defense screen technology that the United States is deploying to defend Europe against irresponsible, irrational regimes in the Middle East.

The missile defense screen is not now, and has not ever been, intended to block Russian missiles. Even if it were designed to block Russian missiles, how is blocking a (possibly) nuclear-tipped ICBM missile, giving the two nations enough time to a) determine whether it was a purposeful launch, accident, or rogue agent, or b) change their minds and set up talks, a bad thing?

Only an aggressively imperialist nation would consider it so.

He's right, you know.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake states that our current economic difficulties bear "no comparison" to the Great Depression of the 1930s. He claims that there is an "order of magnitude difference," that the 1930s Depression was a "world-wide depression" ended by a war.

Hmm. Worldwide economic issues? Check.

Long-term recession? Check.

Banks failing? Check. Multiple times.

Stock market tanking? Oh, yes.

I will, however, agree that our issues bear "no comparison" to the Great Depression, and that there's an "order of magnitude difference." I do believe that, since this is the government's fault, in many ways, that the government interference will do nothing but make the current downturn far longer and deeper than the first Depression.

I know I don't like this.

Intelligence agencies predict that we'll see a nuclear terrorist attack within the next five years or so.

I agree. I agree that preventing this from happening is, or should be, a huge priority for the incoming administration. However.

This scares me. Having 20,000 troops stationed inside the United States for "homeland security" scares the bejesus out of me.

The government--no matter who's running it--has taken more and more power unto itself in the last couple of decades. Though there are those of us who believe that the government has, and has had since before WWII, too much power. There are those of us who speak against it. And there will be those of us who fear what the government--a government which has increasingly ignored the Constitution and Bill of Rights--might wish to do, and might decide to do, with the troops in country. And should the government choose to use the troops to silence opposition, there is nothing any civilian, or group of civilians, could do against the most superbly trained fighting force in the world.

"Homeland security" indeed.

The government wants to de-fund missile defense for this?

The Pentagon just announced that they're funding research to create robots that are incapable of committing war crimes. Clearly, they need to read more science fiction. Most speculative fiction that deals with robotics focuses on what can too easily go wrong: the robots determine that their own survival trumps that of their creators; that they can best serve their creators by making them happy, and the only human that doesn't complain is a dead one; or that they're tired of serving an inferior master. The list goes on. And on.

Seriously, the only stories I've read where the robots do not mean harm to the humans that created them are Keith Laumer's Bolo series, or Asimov's Robot short stories.

So much for the non-proliferation pacts...

We signed treaties with Russia a long time ago, promising to not aid other nations in acquiring nuclear weapons. Though Russia will protest that the nuclear plants they're going to help Venezuela build, and that they've nearly finished in Iran, are only for civilian use, we know, and the rest of the world knows, that these irresponsible, irrational regimes will not use them simply for civilian electricity generation.

After all, reverse engineering from civilian use to military is far easier than developing the technology in the first place.

Not a woman?!?

God is laughing at this idiot.

(Bonus points to whoever places the post title's quote.)

Seven deadlies: Greed

Perhaps one of the most misquoted bible verses is “Money is the root of all evil.” That’s the misquote, by the way; the actual quote reads that "the love of money is the root of all evil."

I’m dedicating the next several Friday Philosophy posts to the Seven Deadly, or mortal, sins. Those are, in no particular order, wrath, greed, pride, lust, gluttony, sloth, and envy. Last week, we covered wrath. This week’s post will discuss greed, the difference between greed and simply earning a living, what places it amongst the mortal sins, and its manifestation in the modern world.

There is a huge difference between greed and simply wanting to have enough to support yourself and your family comfortably and being greedy. That difference is that one type of person wants comfort and security, and the other wants the wealth, and the power that wealth brings, simply for its own sake. The individual who isn’t greedy might acquire wealth anyway, but will usually donate some to charity, will invest in the community, will invest in small businesses, will otherwise act to help create jobs that help others. In other words, money is a means to an end.

For the greedy individual, however, money is an end unto itself. They might invest, but only to make more money, and they’ll look for the investments with the highest short term yields. They don’t donate to charity, they don’t invest in their community, and will often act in ways that hurt others (fraud, theft, etc.)

It’s this acting against others that places greed into the mortal sins territory. Once again, Thomas Aquinas’s idea that what makes a sin a mortal sin comes into play: the individual is turning his back on God in favor of his vice. And this vice leads directly into other sins, just as the other mortal sins do.

The current economic meltdown was directly caused by greed. No, I’m not going to beat up on our free market economy. Capitalism might not be perfect, but it’s the best thing going, and I’m not an anti-capitalist. No, it wasn’t the free market economy causing greed that’s led us into a downward spiral. Instead, it’s the greed of a few individuals that has damaged our economy.

The CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are excellent illustrations of the mortal sin of greed. These two individuals engaged in creative bookkeeping to make it seem that the companies were far more successful than they actually were, and to hide the issues that homeowners were coming to face. These two individuals took advantage of the average American’s desire to have a home to cheat people out of their money—investors in hedge funds and individuals who wanted to own a home but didn’t have the money for the down payment, rich and poor, alike. They did it not because they wanted their companies to grow and provide more jobs but because they wanted to collect bonuses that were more than twice the amount of their multi-million dollar yearly salaries.

And now that their CEOs’ greed-driven dishonesty has been revealed, the companies that support almost half the market and most of the banking industry are imploding, taking much of our economy with them.

This is one of the sins that I just don’t understand. I don’t see the appeal of money for its own sake. I grew up poor enough that, yeah, I’m a little nervous about being able to pay all of my bills, and probably don’t turn loose of money as easily as I should. However. The only thing I’m interested in is the comfort and security that enough can bring. It’s clear from watching our media darlings that too much brings as much discomfort and insecurity as too little. That would be the main reason I don’t understand the appeal of greed to so many. Especially when one considers the consequences of greed-driven actions.

Umm...I don't know that I like this...

The United States and Iraq have reached an agreement about our troops leaving their country. The agreement sets up a clear timetable that gives us a deadline of three years to be out.

It's good that they feel secure enough to want to take over their own defense and security, their own law enforcement. Policing and defending the world was not what our army was set up to do. In fact, the Founding Fathers would have kittens over the idea that the nation they created kept a standing army in the first place.

However.

Announcing the timetable to all and sundry falls under what is known as a bad idea. All al Qaeda has to do is wait for us to leave. The Iraqi army and police force cannot stand up to them with the training and cultural habits they have.

And as al Qaeda moves back into Iraq, we will face the same dance with the same partner over the same issue as last time. This time, however, I do not doubt that the attacks will be worse, and the damage longer lasting.

That's not saying that I think Iraq would willingly host al Qaeda. No, the people of Iraq would not want that terrorist group using their country for a home base, intimidating the people around them and killing the ones they couldn't intimidate, any more than most of the people of Afghanistan want the Taliban in power. Unfortunately, in that area, as in our own inner cities and other tribal cultures, the ones with the most guns and most willingness to use violence are the ones that hold the power.

Those who hold with the rule of law cannot stand in the face of that kind of ruthlessness here in the United States. It may be different over in the Middle East.

I pray, for the sake of the people over there, that it will be different.

Thanksgiving

According to national legend, the first Thanksgiving was not long after the first religious colony was established, and was celebrated by the Pilgrims and the Indians alike. Celebrated on and off by various presidents' individual, one time proclamations, Lincoln declared it a national holiday to be celebrated each year in 1863.

Each year, we as a nation feast and give thanks for the blessings we've received during the previous year, and we as a nation have much to be thankful for. First and foremost, we can be thankful that almost every individual in the entire nation has, at least on this day, plenty to eat. We can be thankful for the traditions of family that this nation was built on. We can be thankful for the relative safety that Americans live and celebrate in.

Individually, my spouse and I are thankful for our family--our parents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, cousins--and for our son. Mostly for our son, though, this year. He came eight weeks early, and spent his first five weeks in the NICU, but is home with us, now. We're thankful for his health, for his growth, and for the fact that he seems to have taken no ill effects (other than being small for his unadjusted age) from deciding to come early. We're thankful for steady jobs, and for having the foresight to have paid off our debt two years ago. We're thankful for the small savings account that will let us pay cash for the deductible for the baby's hospital stay.

Actually, we have so very many things to be thankful for that it's hard to pick some to share. What are you thankful for this year?

And the Baghdad Bob Press Release Award of the Year goes to...

Syria!

We've known for a while that they host terrorist training camps and shelter terrorist networks. We've known for a while that they're behind about half of the terrorist attacks in Iraq, and that they sponsor a lot of the terrorists that Israel deals with.

Well, they just denied that the host and shelter terrorists, and that they're interfering in Iraq, just like Sadam Hussein's press secretery denied that American troops were entering Baghdad, despite video showing that our tanks were tearing around the cityscape behind him.

Proof that NATO has passed its expiration date

World shipping leaders have called for one good way to cut the piracy around Somalia: blockade the coast to prevent the pirates from making it out of the national waters.

NATO has, of course, rejected the idea.

Makes me wonder if some of those millions the Somali pirates have already made has been funneled into member nations' pockets.

The party of compassion

This illustrates the Orwellian level of doublethink endemic in all politics. Basically, the city of New York has passed and is enforcing regulations putting churches out of the business of charity; specifically, sheltering the homeless. Kind of has to be government or nothing, with the way modern churches are funded.

This is more subtle concerning, as it does, the arguments of the rights of the newly-conceived to life, and of the potential benefits of medical research using aborted fetuses.

However well intentioned the research, though, the facts remain: someone lost his or her life to fuel research that, when used, causes cancer 100% of the time. Adult, placental, and umbilical chord blood stem cell research have already yielded cures and have the potential to yield more, without the ethical debate that embryonic stem cell research necessitates.

Seven Deadlies: Wrath

Since mankind first believed in the gods or God, depending on who was doing the believing, we have had the concept of sin. Large sins, or small sins, each religion has penalties for sinning against the gods or God which vary by the religion as much as the concept of what is sinful behavior. Since I’m Christian, the God I follow is the God of the Hebrews and Muslims, since God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the same. The sins are, for the most part, the same amongst the three religions; however, Christianity, especially certain segments of it, separate sin into categories of commission and omission, and of venial and mortal. There are other divisions, but the main one that interests me is that last: mortal sin, also known as the deadly sins.

Thomas Aquinas, one of the main philosophers of the Catholic Church, defined mortal sins as “something said, done or desired contrary to the eternal law, or a thought, word, or deed contrary to the eternal law.” The Catholic Encyclopedia online further clarifies that as “an aversion from God” caused by a “preference given to a mutable good.”

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be dealing with the seven deadly sins, and their applications in the modern world by those who give lip service to being Christian, and those who declare that sin doesn’t exist.

The seven deadly, or serious, sins are wrath, greed, envy, sloth, lust, gluttony, and pride. This week’s sin I plan to discuss is Wrath.

What is wrath? Anger, yes, but is it a sin? The Bible, in whatever edition you choose to read it, details the wrath of God falling upon those who sin against him. Read that way, no, not all anger is a sin. What makes wrath one of the deadly sins, if not all anger is sinful? Once again, we’ll turn to the Catholic Encyclopedia for the answer:

“…if one desire the taking of vengeance in any way whatever contrary to the order of reason, for instance if he desire the punishment of one who has not deserved it, or beyond his deserts, or again contrary to the order prescribed by law, or not for the due end, namely the maintaining of justice and the correction of defaults, then the desire of anger will be sinful, and this is called sinful anger.

Secondly, the order of reason in regard to anger may be considered in relation to the mode of being angry, namely that the movement of anger should not be immoderately fierce…”

In other words, if the person is irrationally angry, and takes vengeance upon those who do not deserve it in ways that are illegal (and, indeed, because the individual willfully refuses to see truth in the matter, and willfully refuses to consider the law of the land sufficient or even as having jurisdiction over the matter), he or she is committing a mortal sin.

The current actions of the gay activist movement in California is sliding from justifiable and commendable anger over a perceived inequality of treatment into the mortal sin of intemperate wrath. How did I get there? “Ye shall know them by their fruits.”

What have they done? They’ve vandalized churches, beat up little old ladies, sent hoax anthrax to Mormon temples. They’ve protested loudly and violently, blocking members of the media from interviewing the victims of their violence. They’re demonstrating the hollow nature of their professed dedication to multiculturalism through racist epithets thrown at the 70% of the African-Americans who were Proposition 8 supporters and their complete lack of respect toward all who do not share their opinions.

I will fully admit that wrath is the mortal sin I’m most prone to. It’s hard to fight it—not impossible, just difficult. The difficulty lies in fighting off the lower parts of your own nature. However difficult that fight is, though, it’s worth the struggle. It’s the fight to be better than your nature that separates human from animal.

Some people don’t bother. Some people let their own worse natures dictate their behavior. When that worse nature steps between them and whatever face of God they follow, that’s when righteous anger turns to the deadly sin of wrath.

Crow's cages would work.

The world is still confused about what to do about the situation in the Gulf of Aden. The best solution merchant fleets can come up with is to avoid the problem.

And there is no doubt that the Somali pirates are a problem.

Update: Now, that's what I'm talking about!

Umm...duh.

US Intel agencies project that the United States' days as a superpower are numbered: our global influence will wane by 2025.

Not surprising. We're not responding to provocations like we should be. The world is coming to see us as nothing more than a paper tiger, and I doubt the incoming administration will do anything to demonstrate that, like Teddy Roosevelt suggested, we still carry a big stick.

Not something to celebrate, stupid.

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, released a statement today, celebrating what he sees as the collapse of the "arrogant powers" that stand in his way to becoming a nuclear power.

What a stupid thing to do. Who buys Iran's oil? Who controls a good portion of the airspace between Israel and Iran?

In this case, at least, I believe Stratfor's analysis is wrong, despite Friedman's sound reasoning: I think that it is very likely that Israel will launch an air attack against Iran's nuclear sites within the next sixty days, during President Bush's lame duck period, but before Obama comes into office. Were it not that Iran had just finished enriching enough uranium for a bomb, he probably would have been right; however, I think that Israel's caution and fierce desire to continue to exist will drive them to do the impossible successfully.

Can they at least kiss us first?

I'd really prefer to be kissed, at least, before the government screws me. Since the Democrats now have control of congress as well as the White House, I don't think we can hold out for dinner and dancing.

Seriously, though. The current problems with the market stem from government interference in the mortgage industry (i.e., you will make that loan, or you're racist, and we'll put you out of business). What makes them think they can do better with our 401(k) plans?

Gah. Just because something's "not fair" doesn't mean you can throw fits until it goes away.

I can't say it better than this. Or this.

There is something fundamentally wrong when there are large segments of the so-called adult population screaming "not fair!" Especially when accompanied by temper tantrums worthy of toddlers, and an unspoken assumption that the grownups (i.e., government and judiciary) fix those mean ol' bullies that make things unfair.

Adults know that life is fundamentally unfair, and deal. Children throw fits, screaming, "not fair!" Which do these gay activists strike you as being?

Update: Just because the baby throws a fit doesn't mean the adults (or who the baby sees as the adults) should give in to the demands.

Damn.

I hope Putin doesn't realize what Medevev obviously does: you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

Of course, this is something we all knew (or should have).

Stop the presses! President-elect Obama is likely to face terrorist (or should we call them freedom fighters?) threats early in his term!

Indeed. History demonstrates that, for the past nearly three decades, almost every president has been tested with attacks. Some had more success than others in handling and deterring subsequent attacks.

Carter had the hostage situation with Iran, though that wasn't early in his single term. Clinton faced several attacks--the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, the downing of a Blackhawk in Somalia, the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in a Yemeni harbor near the end of his second term, to name a few. George W. Bush had the biggest, nastiest, most significant terrorist attack to date happen in the first nine months of his first term.

Let's take a look at potential trouble spots.

The Middle East

Potential areas in the Middle East that could cause difficulties for our POTUS-elect include Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, the Gaza Strip in Israel, and pretty definitely Somalia.

Iran's insistence on developing nuclear capability in the face of oil prices dropping could change Iran's potential trouble status, though. If the current government's insistence continues in the face of economic downturn that could, perhaps, be worse for Iran's single-export economy than others, it could see a revolution. Such could end with the radical Islamofacists taken out of power, and a more reasonable, moderate, and sane government taking its place.

Afghanistan with its tribal cultures and its unsecured border with neighboring, equally tribal Pakistan, will continue to be a trouble spot, requiring US military intervention to prevent the hostile Islamofacist Taliban government from re-taking the country from its citizens. Oh, and of course, the failure to catch Osama bin Laden hasn't helped stabilize the region, either. The upside to that is that he's worried about his security, and thus, less likely to come out of hiding any time soon.

Syria and Iraq are connected in potential trouble. With Iraq's military's difficulty in closing the border with Syria, insurgents continue to sneak into Iraq to attack US and coalition forces, as well as Iraqi military and civilian targets. Recently, Syria has begun to purchase arms from Russia, making them even more dangerous to Israel. Their danger to us is that they host terrorist training camps on their soil, and might be willing to provide terrorists with WMD.

The Gaza Strip in Israel is a problem, obviously for Israel, less so for us. The Gaza Strip also hosts terrorists, both in training camps and simply hiding from capture or elimination.

Somalia will simply offer the same issues and choices the Barbary Coast did to Jefferson. And Obama is no Jefferson. Honestly, none of our current cast of congress critters are.

That's not even taking into consideration the idea that Obama might have once been, or been born into, Islam. I'm not saying that he was, or that he wasn't. It's not important. What is important about the idea--whether it's myth or fact--is how the radical Islamofacists will view dealing with country whose chief executive officer and commander in chief has committed Islam's greatest sin: converting away from the Muslim religion. No doubt this will spark trouble, probably both in diplomacy and increased violence.

Russia

Russia, with its current behaviors, would challenge any POTUS. We've been too distracted, although with good reason, for the past eight years to pay attention to the resurgence of the Russian economy, or notice its renewed imperialistic aggression. We're facing another cold war, with the same tactics--proxies, belligerence masked with diplomacy, escalations of incidents that are borderline (do we respond or ignore this? And I'd bet the current POTUS-elect will choose to ignore the incidents) that build each on the one before--with an eye toward replacing the US as a world-dominating superpower.

And Russia would dominate the world, too, were we to allow it. We tend to let peoples and countries go their own way, so long as they don't start fights. Russia, historically, doesn't.

Here at home

I'm deeply saddened to see that blatant, violent racism is alive and well in the United States. Though we're more color-blind than many European nations, and far better than Australia, some of the threats that our new POTUS-elect come from our own psycho nutjobs who would like to see him dead for daring to be the first black man elected to the highest office in the nation. Once again, I say thank God for the skills of the Secret Service in preserving the President's life.

I'm also deeply saddened that said psycho nutjobs, as well as the P.C. Police, have made it difficult for those who aren't racist to express a political opinion without being accused of being racist, and a danger to the POTUS-elect. The old fart who expressed himself on his own property wasn't necessarily being racist so much as he was expressing outrage at the difference in the way the Obama effigy and Palin effigy were treated, both by officials and the media. I believe this because he named a whole bunch of white congress critters along with the new POTUS-elect on the sign in question. Honestly, this could distract the Secret Service from a real threat to Obama's safety.

So yes, I do foresee a whole host of threat possibilities that Obama will have to face. However, I'm certain that McCain, or any of the other primary candidates, would have faced most of the same.

How do you catch an intelligent critter in a trap?

I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.

--Benjamin Franklin

One classic raccoon trap involves drilling a hole in a log, driving nails into the log next to the hole at an angle that brings the points out into the hole, pointing toward the bottom, and putting something shiny at the bottom. Don’t drive the nails in too far, though; you want enough room for the raccoon to reach in and get the piece of shiny, but not pull the shiny out. The nails should catch on a closed paw, not an open one. The raccoon can get loose—all he has to do is let go of the shiny.

This trap works every time. Raccoons don’t let go of the shiny.

Welfare works pretty similarly. There are individuals that, if they were promised a living just for breathing, told that they deserved a certain standard of living no matter how unwilling to work for it they were, would do anything for that piece of shiny: jump through any hoop, reach down into any hole.

The trap doesn’t work every time, just most of the time. And unfortunately, it’s the next generation that gets caught on the nails.

How does that happen? Two ways. First, you have individuals, like those I grew up with, that see their own baby-making equipment as an income source: they have a baby, the government supports them and their child with income, food, and medical insurance (more on that later). Second, you have individuals who either grew up in those homes and don’t fully realize that there is another way of life, or they have no idea how to go about reaching for prosperity. Depending on the neighborhood and/or school district, they may know how to reach for prosperity, but don’t have the tools—social skills or educational. And often, children born to the first type become the second.

The first type of individual who gets caught on the nails of the trap uses her own uterus for income. She gets pregnant, usually without a husband, sometimes without even anything more than just a baby-daddy sperm donor, has a baby, rides the government benefits until her part of the medical insurance runs out. Lather, rinse, repeat. With each child, she gets free medical care and a slowly increasing income. Many times, she spends this entirely on herself. There is a term for this: welfare queen.

This type of individual was criticized as a myth by those opposed to welfare reform. I can attest, from personal experience observing many of my high school acquaintances and their families (often single mothers that, if they did work, worked at truck stops and bars, and neglected their children), that welfare queens do exist. From my time living in a low-income housing district, I can tell you that it's not as rare as opponents to reform would have you believe. Much of the time, the daughter was only following in the mother’s footsteps. She doesn’t necessarily see anything else as a viable option, or if she does, can’t escape because without the guidance she needs, she gets pregnant early, and gets caught on the nails.

The second type of individual is often a child of the first type: children who grow up to depend on the government simply because a) they don’t fully realize that they can get out of the trap, b) they know that there is a way, but don’t know how to find it, or c) they know there is a way out, have a vague idea how to go about it, but don’t have the social or educational tools necessary to bend or break the nails holding them fast.

The worst part of this second type of second generation victims of welfare is that, not only are there very few people telling them that it’s possible to escape, but the majority is telling them that they can’t. They can’t do it. Because of the color of their skin, their sex, their parent’s or parents’ education level, they cannot make it on their own. They must have the assistance of their benevolent government to be able to live.

So, rather than Franklin’s take on how to help those born into or who’ve sunk into poverty, we help them live comfortably in their trap. Glenn Beck says it quite well:

He knew if you made poverty more comfortable, there's a lot of people that would be like, you know what, I'm just going to kick back here. I'm just going to -- you know what I -- I'm going to sit back and, you know, let the state give me a candle, you know…

Instead what happens is we enslave people in poverty because we give people everything, we make it easy for them to live in poverty and at the same time -- it's the combination of the two -- at the same time the leaders will say, "You can't make it, you can't make it." …

Make people comfortable in poverty and then tell them that
they'll never get out and you are going to be the king of the world.

Indeed.

If this is true, we're all in deep trouble.

Kanye West, in a surprising burst of humility, let it be known that he thinks he's the voice of this generation.

I certainly hope not--if he is the voice of even a small part of this generation, we can look forward to true misogyny coming back with the coming of age and into political power of the generation he claims to speak for. We can look forward to the United States' average citizen becoming more selfish, and more arrogant, but more ignorant, and less able to defend him/herself from a power hungry government, and an envious world.

And heaven help the rest of us.

Update: The man himself proves my point.

Oh, for Heaven's sake! Grow up!

Seriously. This escalation of temper tantrum throwing really reminds me of a spoiled rotten toddler. These people need to be spanked, and not in a fun way.

This isn't surprising.

Parents are racing to abandon their teenage children under Nebraska's safe haven law before it's re-written to permit only new parents to abandon their newborns up to a few days old.

While this is terribly sad, it's not really surprising. People have been looking for ways to avoid the consequences of their actions since Adam blamed Eve for handing him the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Parents have been so shitty for the past two decades or so that it's really not surprising that they want rid of the spoiled monsters they themselves created.

The law was not written to allow parents to abandon children that they screwed up. It was written to allow parents who, after a few days, realize that if they attempt to parent the child they created through their irresponsibility (in many cases), they'll screw the child up through indifference and neglect, or outright physical abuse.

As a new parent myself, I can understand the frantic terror that the idea of that kind of responsibility can raise. I also think that the opportunity to see the wonder of the world through the eyes of your child is the most incredible blessing that a person could be given.

I also think that those who abandon children older than a few days or weeks should be neutered.

This really isn't all we should be concerned about.

According to the Associated Press, we're starting to get really frustrated over the problems we're having with Russia over the missile defense shield that we're placing in Europe to protect it against the Islamofacists who would love to nuke us, but can only reach Europe.

We shouldn't be frustrated.  We should be concerned.  Even Europe is concerned.  Then again, we could argue that that's because Russia is placing missiles on its border with Poland.  Americans who don't remember the cold war are likely making that argument as we speak.

What do they think Russia is doing in its negotiations, arms sales, and war games with Venezuela?  And again, with Cuba?

There are others in the useful idiot category that will squawk that Russia isn't the old communist USSR, that its government has changed for the better, toward Western ideals.  

Western nations don't direct their police forces to crush social unrest caused by worries over the economic crisis growing worldwide, a move that smacks of the old KGB (which, in itself, isn't surprising--Medevev is, after all, Putin's ventriloquist's dummy).

We shouldn't be frustrated that we can't come to an agreement about the missile defense shield.  We should be downright nervous.

Well, what else did they expect?

I know this is old news, but a defense of marriage amendment was passed in California last Tuesday, banning gay marriage.  It passed, yes, but by a narrow enough margin to suggest something to me:

Changing laws by judicial fiat, as gay marriage came about, brings out the rebelliousness in the American people.  I think that many of those who voted for the gay marriage ban in California would have voted to pass a law, had the whole issue not been removed from their hands by activist judges.  

Honestly, this gives me hope for the majority.

The vocal minority, on the other hand, is up to their usual tricks: protest, boycott, and if those tactics don't work, get noisier until it does work.

Does this remind anyone of a toddler in a grocery store?

Civic Responsibility

There's a discussion going on on another blog that I read that I felt I needed to respond to this week. The first individual to comment said "This socialist bastard is not my president and never will be. May he fail in everything he attempts and leave office in four years as a broken man."

I understand the sentiment; however, I could not disagree more. I elucidated some of my reasons in my response to that individual on the comments thread, but did not by any means mention every objection I had to that particular individual's wish.

Let's start with the obvious: there will likely be those among the Republican party that doubt Obama's landslide. I'm not sure, given all the reports of voter fraud in practically every state, with practically every case related to groups that supported Obama's campaign, that they're wrong. I do not, however, advocate a close investigation of the whole election.

Why? Simple: no matter what people think of the outcome, no matter how angry or cheated we feel, we cannot undermine the duly elected president. We cannot undermine the people's faith in the system.

Our president, whether or not we agree with his policies and his decisions, is faced with ensuring the worldwide interests of the United States. He must negotiate treaties with nations both friendly and hostile. He must be able to call on the troops that he nominally commands. He must be the first line of defense between the average citizen and those who would do harm to the average citizen. That isn't a small job. And if he fails too badly in any of them, the United States as we know it will be in serious danger of being attacked and perhaps destroyed by her enemies. If we undermine our president, we lessen his effectiveness and enhance his chances of failing us badly when we need him most.

Our system, while far from perfect, is still the best in the world. Every two (House of Representatives), four (President and governors), and six (Senate) years, we host what amounts to a bloodless, orderly rebellion--we vote some scoundrels out, and new ones in. We the people believe in this system; ergo, the system works. When enough cease to believe in the system as it was written and still (mostly) works, the system fails. It's done it once before, in 1861. The low ball casualty estimate from the first Civil War sits at about 618,000 dead and wounded. There might have been, probably were, more.

I say first Civil War because, if the people's confidence in the system of electing new leaders and the peaceful transition of power fails too badly, we will face another. And any Civil War fought today would be far bloodier, and would take far longer to recover from--if we could recover as a nation at all.

Our nation does not ask much from us, as individual citizens. First, it asks that, if we are called up to serve on a jury, we go. Second, it asks us to exercise our right to choose our leaders and vote in the elections of local, state, and national government officials. Third, and last, it asks us to permit the peaceful transition of power from one elected government to the next, and to support, or at least not undermine, the leaders that we the people elect.

Sometimes supporting the government is harder than others. I admit that. There are times when the people, either a majority or a large minority, cannot support the policies of the government. Fair enough: there are methods by which we can reject the policies that we do not agree with.

That said, we still must be careful to avoid actively undermining our leaders. That way lies both chaos and treason. And never doubt that, though the party currently in power resisted the old fashioned idea of prosecuting treason when their own were charged with it (mostly unofficially), they will not hesitate to charge any who commit treason against them.

It is our civic responsibility to vote. It is our civic responsibility to voice dissent. It is our civic responsibility to support, or at least not undermine, the government elect.

I voted. I voice my opinions when they disagree with the majority's. I refuse to undermine the President elect, though he was not my preference.

Did you vote? If you didn't, and don't fulfill your civic responsibilities, don't bitch when the policies passed into laws aren't what you'd like to see.

Putin's puppet to step down?

Russia's President Medevev has proposed, and gotten passed, an amendment to Russia's constitution, lengthening the presidential term to six years. Medevev will also probably step down to allow the puppeteer to rule from in front of the curtain. This will allow Putin, when he regains the presidency, another 12 years, during at least four of which America will have a president who wants to negotiate peace without the superior firepower to back it up, for fear that having the firepower will be seen as a provocation.

While I will concede that it could be seen as a provocation, we have the ability to take it far past provocation into deterrence. That's what Regan did in the face of the "evil empire." And, thanks to Regan's policies, the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s in the attempt to keep up technologically, using a command economy.

And we need to step up military spending on technology now--Russia's already beginning the game of oneupsmanship, placing missiles to counter the anti-missile shield we're placing in Europe to block irrational Middle Eastern nations' abilities to hit Europe with nuclear weapons. They're also the ones instigating the provocation by playing in our back yard.

We need to respond to these provocations--and we have to be prepared, and be seen to be prepared, to respond with more than words. I do not say we should not negotiate; however, we need to show that we have the ability to back that militarily before Russia will take us seriously.

I'm praying--hard--that our new president sees that necessity.

Not Wednesday, at least, but not much better.

There's already been 2012 presidential candidate discussion going on amongst conservatives. One of my favorite new blogs is already making suggestions about who they'd like to see run.

I have one thing to say:

OH PLEASE, NOT YET!!! THE LAST ONE JUST STOPPED!!!

I need time to recover from the two year long presidential race that just ended. I don't want to ever face another one even that long. Four years is way too long.

And I'm too tired of it to post a friendly FO on the FFOT blog.

Don't worry. We won't.

Iran is issuing warnings to us not to violate their airspace. They don't have to worry about that. Not now. A new president has been elected, one who'd rather negotiate than act to protect those who elected him. I will not comment on whether I think that policy is wise, or not. I'm not in the hotseat. I can't know. History will be the judge of the new President's policies.

Barack Obama has, however, made history simply by being elected. Despite the misunderstood quote about Bill Clinton being the United States' first black president, we actually have now elected one.

Celebrations are going on, both in the United States and worldwide.

The only people who aren't happy with the way this race turned out are conservatives who fear for the well-being of their country.

Oh, and the racist idiots that can't see past the color of his skin to the color of his politics (red). There have already been numerous plots to kill him.

While I'd rather not have had him as president, I will be praying that his Secret Service agents are better than the nutjobs gunning for him. I don't want to see him joining the same club of assassinated government officials and presidents as Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy.

And this is why we haven't won yet.

According to the AP, back in June, an Afghani police chief and regional governor aided a Taliban attack on our troops. The insurgents had the full support of both the local government and the local villages.

This is why we haven't won, and won't win, in Afghanistan. The entire region is factioned by tribes. What we need to do is set them fighting each other, withdraw, and let what happens, happen--until they start supporting those who attack us again.

Otherwise, we're going to wind up like Kipling's "Young British Soldier":

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.

Oh, God. Not again. Not already.

Some are speculating that the 2012 election will start Wednesday morning.

Oh, hell no. No. We've suffered through two years of this crap. No. No more.

I propose a law: campaigning shall not begin for any election until January 1 of the election year. The candidates may not announce publicly until Halloween the previous year, and may not do more than announce before January 1 of the election year.

I DO NOT WANT TO SEE ANY MORE MULTI-YEAR PRESIDENTIAL RACES!!! I'm so sick of this one I could puke.

Predictions

The United States' intelligence chief has predicted that we'll be seeing a lot more armed conflict in the coming years. That was a tough one to predict.

The Soviet Union--er, Russia--is showing more and more aggressive tendencies toward their neighbors/former satellites. They're also instigating difficulties with us in our own hemisphere with their games with Communist-leaning South American countries, and with arms sales both here and in the Middle East.

The Middle East is cooling off in some places, heating up in others.

To top it all off, the continuing economic problems currently plaguing us are destabilizing economies worldwide, many far worse than what we're facing. And with an unstable economy, conflict becomes far more likely as people get restless, nervous, and unhappy, and more belligerent people elect more belligerent governments.

Lovely. Here are some of my predictions: watch for a catastrophic terrorist attack on our shores after the election. It doesn't matter who's elected--it will happen. Also, watch for some serious deflation to begin making itself known, and for a whole lot of jobs to disappear as it becomes impractical for businesses to continue to employ people in a goods-surplus environment, especially after the minimum wage increase. Also, look for a major shift in parties in power in the next two years as people get sick of it all.

Some predictions--like probable war, terrorist attacks, a worsening economy, and voters deciding to see if the other party can fix the problems--are easy to make. Others, like where the attack will happen, are impossible.

What is wrong with people?

I've been seeing more and more stories of child abuse in the news, lately. I'm not sure if it's a sudden uptick, or if I'm just noticing it more, now that I have one of my own.

Some of the cases are horrible abuses that demonstrate why a promiscuous lifestyle is more dangerous to children than they are the women involved, like this one, where the mother's boyfriend burned and beat her toddler, a little boy, over the course of two hours. Another case that had my jaw hitting the floor involved a woman throwing her four year old daughter into traffic after beating the little girl.

I had a ... rather bad childhood. A lot of it was, yes, because of an abusive parent; however, the rest was because of government interference in the home of the non-abusive parent. It takes a lot to get me to say that government interference is warranted.

However, in these cases, and in cases like these, government interference is warranted. I think a closer eye should be kept on the homes of single mothers who have never been married. It's those children who are in the most danger of being harmed or killed.

And in the cases where children are harmed or killed in the care of a boyfriend, I think the mother should be prosecuted far more harshly than the perpetrator for placing her child in danger.