Let's kill jobs, stifle businesses from wanting to build in our community but ensure high wages for the one or two people left with jobs! Then we can all pat ourselves on the back and keep collecting our fat government paychecks!
Chicago is looking to pass a really stupid law that would require "big" employers to give really high wages and benefits to employees of "big" stores. Virtually ensuring that no "big" stores Will want to build in Chicago. Wow, wish I'd thought of that one. Ensure a "living wage" for the few who actually have a job after the shakeout is over. (Blue Crab Boulevard estimates about seven, but that might be optimistic).
Of course, "living wages" cause the death of the jobs people want to ensure. But hey - no matter. It's fashionable right now to spit on the people who actually try to make jobs and such.
So, the wife and kids are away to attend my nephew's graduation from West Point. All I have to do around here is to feed the various pets. I was invited over to my future daughter-in-law's parent's house for a nice lunch, then went over to the shooting range and shot some ammunition up. (Targets fear me!) Then back to the house - to feed the various livestock. Then it's time for me to have a bite to eat.
So, here I am a bachelor for the week. Time for a big ol' steak, right? Time to do all the manly stuff. All the caricatures! Wine, women (oh, yeah - that would get me kicked to the curb, never mind) and song. Manly meals! Steak! Potatoes!
How about a salad?
That's what I just had for dinner. It's very sad, really.
A commenter asked whether I knew what branch of the Army my nephew was going into. I did not, but promised to post when I did. I spoke on the phone to the new lieutenant, he informed me he chose to go into the infantry. He will be part of the Second Infantry Division after he completes his well deserved leave.
Congratulations, Eric. You make us all proud.
Frankly, this is an unfortunate choice of words.
Las Vegas, as the ad campaign likes to remind us, is a place people go to untether themselves from reality — to become, if only for a weekend, anonymous and uncensored. It's odd, then, that Vegas is about to play host to a gathering of ordinary Americans whose objective is precisely the reverse. Next week, 1,000 devotees of the liberal blogging universe — people who know one another only as pseudonyms on a screen, connected by only their running commentaries — will descend on the Riviera Hotel in hopes of affixing names and faces to their online personas. (Emphasis added)
The article is about the Daily Koz Kidz Konvention in Sin City. There will inevitably be commentary about how tethered the Koz Kidz are to begin with.
Just saying.
Gateway Pundit has another link-filled post up about what is going on inside Iran right now. It's looking more and more like things are going to bust loose over there.
Here's a thought. If the Iranian loser nutcase President does not go to the world cup, is that a sign things are unraveling for him? Because he's been pretty coy about whether he'd attend or not.
Just asking.
Today my labor of trying to visit one member of the Fighting 101st each day brought me to a blog which has been kind enough to link me several times. Alexandra at All Things Beautiful has an enormous collection of great works of art posted. She also can write. Today she has a great post up on why trying to block the adoption of English as the official language of the United States is not liberal - it's lunacy. It's a great read.
And the pictures are wonderful.
And thanks for the links, Alexandra.
Mark Steyn isn't exactly thrilled with Congress as a group right now. Rightly so, I suspect.
Of all the many marvelous Ronald Reagan lines, this is my favorite: ''We are a nation that has a government — not the other way around.''
He said it in his inaugural address in 1981, and, despite a Democrat-controlled Congress, he lived it. It sums up his legacy abroad: Across post-Communist Europe, from Lithuania to Bulgaria to Slovenia, governments that had nations have been replaced by nations that have governments.
But it's an important distinction for non-totalitarian states, too. For example, in May 2004 the then-Canadian government proudly announced that in the last month the country had "created" 56,100 new jobs. That's terrific news, isn't it? The old economic engine positively roaring away in top gear. But on closer inspection, of those 56,100 new jobs, 4,200 were self-employed, 8,900 were in private businesses, and the remaining 43,000 were on the public payroll. That's why they call it "creating jobs": 77 percent of new jobs were government jobs, paid for by the poor schlubs working away in the remaining 23 percent; the "good news" was merely an acceleration of the remorseless transfer from the dynamic sector of the economy to the non-dynamic. For too much of its recent history, Canada has been a government that has a nation. And across the pond the European Union is a government that has a continent.
Which current member of the Republican Party's creme de la creme could utter that Reagan line and mean it? Take the speaker of the House, J. Dennis Hastert. Last week, something very unusual happened: There was a story out of Washington that didn't reflect badly on the Republican Party's competence or self-discipline. It was about a Democrat! Fellow from Louisiana called William Jefferson. Corruption investigation. Don't worry, if you're too distracted by "American Idol," it's not hard to follow, you just need to know one little visual image: According to an FBI affidavit, this Democrat congressman was caught on video taking a hundred-grand bribe from a government informer and then storing it in his freezer. That's what the scandal's supposed to be: Democrat Icecapades of 2006. All the GOP had to do was keep out of the way and let Jefferson and his Dem defenders skate across the thin ice like Tonya Harding with her lumpy tights full of used twenties. It was a perfect story: No Republicans need be harmed in the making of this scandal.
Believe it or not, it gets better from there. Go read it.
In today's Opinion Journal, Robert Turner has some excellent advice for Congress: "There is an election coming up in five months, and legislators who wish to survive it might wish to step back and permit the FBI to do its job."
That's really the gist of it. I have been warning for some time now that the "culture of corruption" meme was very dangerous to both parties. Why? Because there is more than enough dirt to go around for both parties.
One might expect that others in Congress would be grateful that a scoundrel in their midst has apparently been caught red-handed. But there is obviously a more fundamental issue here, as House Speaker Dennis Hastert quickly joined forces with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, not to commend the FBI for its outstanding work, but to vehemently denounce its actions on the theory that members of Congress are above the law.
Specifically, they accused the FBI of violating the constitutional principle of separation of powers and the "Speech or Debate" clause of the Constitution. House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner has scheduled hearings for Tuesday on this "profoundly disturbing constitutional question."
This particular argument is, frankly, insane for both parties. By trying to set themselves above the law, they do not increase their standing with the public. Period. Quite the opposite. Given the reported resignation threats by the three top officials in the DOJ, it looks increasingly like the Congress has something to hide. I suspect there is quite a lot going on behind the scenes right now. I also suspect there will be a couple of big bombshells rather soon.
In a small town in the Midwest.
Flags
Civil War Monument
Marc over at USS Neverdock has caught the BBC in an outright fabrication. He's got the numbers and the citations to prove it.
Now for the bombshell. Remember all those numbers and dates from the first BBC report? Over 1000 deserted since the Iraq war began in 2003. That's over 1000 in 3 years or about 330 per year during the Iraq war.
Guess how many deserted in 1999, when there was no war going on? The BBC reports:
"There were nearly 2,000 recorded cases of desertion last year [1999]..."
Read that again. 2000 in just one year!!
And why did they desert?
"…some of which were spurred on by mistreatment or bullying by army superiors."
So, Army desertions have plummeted from 2000 a year during peace time, to 330 during a time of war.
But that doesn't stop the BBC from fabricating a story that the British Army is almost in revolt over Iraq. And they use some interesting people to bolster their claim.
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence from military personnel that they are demoralised by the continuing conflict in Iraq and the fact that, despite their best efforts, there's little improvement in the situation there.
Really? I've just given you evidence that Army desertions have plummeted from peace time records to war lows. Dispite claiming to have "plenty of anecdotal evidence" what does the BBC give us as their proof?
Ben Griffin was a member of the elite SAS. He told his commanding officer, earlier this year, that he was not prepared to return to Iraq because he said he saw American forces carrying out what he thought were illegal acts.
The BBC goes on to give Griffin plenty of air time. But note, Griffin never states what those alleged illegal acts were. He just didn't like the American troops.
Why did the BBC choose Griffin as their spokesman? Well, he was in, not just the Army, but the SAS, he served in Iraq and refuses to go back. Perfect for the BBC. Ah, but it gets better.
You see, Griffin is on tour with the Communist led Stop the War Coalition. Appearing in places like Wandsworth and Swindon where he appeared along side momma moonbat Sheehan and the cast of the anti-war elite.
Read the whole thing - it's pretty damning.
I don't know, I never looked. That's a really, really old joke, but makes a good lead-in to this article. Brothel owners in Australia are petitioning for an exemption from an indoor smoking ban - in the interest of safety, of course.
Newspapers reported on Sunday that the Australian Adult Entertainment Industry had written to Victoria state officials seeking an exemption to laws which ban smoking in workplaces for fear they will drive prostitutes back onto the street.
"People smoke when they drink, and people smoke when they fornicate," the industry group's William Albon was quoted as saying by Australian Associated Press.
The brothel owners claim the ban may force prostitutes out onto the street, putting them in danger.
The death toll from the earthquake in Java yesterday has risen to over 4,000. It is still feared that there may be an eruption from Mount Merapi. For those who are not aware, this is the same area where Krakatoa (also known as Krakatau) erupted in 1883. It did so after repeated seismic activity in the months leading up to the cataclysmic eruption.
The magnitude-6.3 quake struck early Saturday and injured thousands more in the heart of densely populated Java island, in the country's worst disaster since the 2004 tsunami. It also triggered fears that a nearby rumbling volcano would erupt and caused serious damage to the world-famous 9th century Prambanan temple.
The disaster zone stretched across hundreds of square miles of mostly farming communities in Yogyakarta province. The worst devastation was in the town of Bantul, where more than 2,700 people were killed and 80 percent of the homes were flattened.
Aid is already starting to flow into the area with more pledged.
UPDATE: Sorry, I should have linked my earlier post.
Agam finally put up a picture and a post explaining the why's and wherefore's of Wai's. Essentially, it's the Thai equivalent of a hat tip. Except you don't need a hat. Agam and I have been exchanging emails for a while now.
So, now you know Wai!
Al Gore tells the New York Times he's all over politics now and doesn't want to run for President again.
"Why should I run for office?" Mr. Gore asked, the impatience evident in his voice. "I have no interest in running for office. I have run for office. I have run four national campaigns. I have found other ways to serve my country, and I am enjoying them."
After a period in which he had worn out his welcome in some quarters, these have been days of some vindication for Mr. Gore, the Tennessee Democrat who likes to introduce himself as "the man who used to be the next president of the United States," a melancholy reference to his defeat — a characterization he might be inclined to dispute — by President Bush in 2000.
And maybe he's telling the truth, although I notice he's not exactly saying a definitive "no" here. I think the reality comes out a bit further into the article:
Yet Mr. Gore has told friends that as much as he wants to be president, his pride, image and legacy — think the defining first clause in his eventual biography — could not absorb another race in which he lost again, or really lost. What that means is that Mr. Gore would only run, his associates said, if he was absolutely confident that he could win.
Mr. Gore is nothing if not a realist, not lured by this interlude in which he is more Democratic hero than goat, his friends said. (My emphasis)
That's really what it comes down to, I think. He'd run if he knew he would win. But he can't risk another defeat. I don't believe he's really over politics, though.
In hopes of quelling unrest in East Timor, the Australian government has begun sending troops into the tiny country. The UN, meanwhile, is fleeing. The unrest appears to be between people from the eastern part of the country and those from the western. The withdrawal of East Timorese police has led to the formation of vigilante groups.
Timorese and longtime foreign residents said the formation of these vigilante groups in the last two days had instilled a sense of terror among Dili residents unparalleled since the widespread militia killings in 1999 that followed East Timor's vote for independence from Indonesia.
But even as fear gripped this port city, the ferocious gun battles that accounted for most of the two dozen deaths recorded this week began to ebb. Doctors at Dili's main hospital reported no new fatalities, saying the majority of injuries treated in the emergency room were from small arrows.
Hopefully the Australians can calm the situation. But the East Timorese must get their collective act together and come to terms with one another. Otherwise you'll get to a point where there will be sub-partitions of sub-partitions of tiny countries.
