Merry Thanksgiving, Donald Rumsfeld.
It should be noted that this award isn't uncomplicated. The Claremont Institute (from what what I understand), far from being a conservative monolith, includes, both in staff and scholars a host of different viewpoints on the Iraq war and Donald Rumsfeld's conduct thereof. Interesting, interesting.
HERE, on an island that might be called Camelot, the winds of democracy have blown in like the waft from a landfill.
Algernon Swinburne, the 19th century poet, called it a "small, sweet world of wave-encompassed wonder."Charming, no? Even more interesting, it's one of the last few places around Europe that still operates on a feudal system.Landownership is divided among 40 "tenants." They are the descendants or successors of the 40 men with muskets recruited by the original seigneur, the ruling lord commissioned to defend the isle against pirates and buccaneers. Government administration is by fiat, with the island administrator, judge, constable and clerk appointed by the current seigneur, a 79-year-old former aeronautical engineer whose family has governed Sark since 1852. Or so it was governed until dips from England decided to move in, and have since protested the sales tithe taken by the seigneur. Anyone who purchases land must pay the seigneur a thirteenth of the sale price. To protest this, and under the guise of being "pro-democracy," the new English idiots have decided to try to upend the antiquated (but functional system) and reduce their tax burden, ignoring the fact that taxes on Sark, all told, are a sliver of what they are on the big island.
Sark has remained pretty much the same for 442 years, since Queen Elizabeth I declared it a noble fiefdom. Transport is by bicycle, horse-and-carriage or Wellington boots. When absolutely necessary, one may resort to one of the island's few tractors. But the neighbors, never frugal with opinions, tend to look up from their gardens and make case-by-case assessments of what constitutes necessity.
No, not the latest scooter craze, I'm talking about segregation in schools. Actually, I'm not really talking about it. Aaron Hanscom is: Consider the case of Mount Diablo High School in Concord, California. Mount Diablo's website states that students will "celebrate diversity by being respectful to all walks of life." In keeping with that ethos, last month the school divided students by ethnicity for separate assemblies. School officials explained that the purpose of segregating the students was to talk about test scores, recognize achievements and celebrate different cultures. Spanish was presumably spoken at the Hispanic assembly because student Ronald Mares said, "When I went to the assembly, I'm Hispanic, but I don't know how to speak Spanish, so I couldn't connect." Freshman Jason Lockett was disappointed with the African-American assembly, at which the words "Black Power" were projected overhead. "It was to compare us and say how much dumber we were than everybody else," Lockett told the Contra Costa Times. Good gravy...this is supposed to be an advance? Political correctness has so turned on itself that it is now advocating segregation?
But it wasn't so long ago that the institution of Black Student Unions on campus was seen as controversial because it would be a kind of tacit segregation. Now, we have Asian and Pacific Islander Associations, the Taiwanese Association, the East Asian Cultures Club, the Hawaiian Islanders Student Organization, and so on...the celebration of diversity has been increasingly exclusive. Follow that to the extreme and you realize that it's not so far-fetched to forbid those other kids to attend your heritage assembly.
Speaking of which, why the hell are they having heritage assemblies anyway? And what about those with Latin American heritage who resent the term Latino? What if they want their own unique Nicaraguan heritage celebration? How dare the school district trample on their unique culture by lumping it together with everyone else south of the border?
Actually, to continue with that thought, and this stream of consciousness I've devolved into, just imagine if, instead of a Danish Day or Oktoberfest, your school had a "European Day." What the hell would that mean? And yet no one bats an eye when you celebrate "Latino Heritage Day." Yeah, as if the struggles and histories of all those little nations to the south are identical. What unbelievable condescension. Whoever cooked that up is a jackass. Welp, I'm swearing. Time to hang up now.
I got a kick out of this description of a movie that's playing at USC, or at least they're having a screening at USC. It's called Mr. Conservative:
This 90-minute profile of Barry Goldwater details his rise from local Arizona businessman to hugely influential U.S. senator with a 30-year career that crescendoed in an ill-fated 1964 run for president. Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater follows that tumultuous year, as well as others in a career that encompassed numerous political and ideological triumphs. Though he never achieved the ultimate prize, Goldwater saw the conservative agenda he had long championed vindicated with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.Okay, so let's look at that list of interviews: Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Walter Cronkite, Al Franken, Helen Thomas, James Carville...do I see a pattern here? Why are the featured interviews about "Mr. Conservative" all bitterly partisan liberals? McCain gets thrown in there because he succeeded Goldwater and, of course, you have to have interviews with the fam, but everyone else is...ahem, not conservative in the slightest. Curious documentary, this. If I had an ounce of energy to do so, I might be able to turn up some further info on who made this, whether there are interviews with other people besides those mentioned, blah blah blah. I don't so let's just throw our hands up in horror at this utterly biased portrayal of the man.
At the height of his power, Goldwater was the symbol of conservatism, denouncing liberals and Communists while advocating limited government, free enterprise, separation of church and state, and a strong defense. But because of his unequivocal opinions, Goldwater was vulnerable to attacks that labeled him pro-war and anti-civil rights. Those perceptions, coupled with John F. Kennedy's death a year before the election, undermined Goldwater's presidential hopes, though he remained a strong and influential Senate voice for 23 more years.
Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater includes interviews with Senators Edward Kennedy, Hillary Rodham Clinton (a onetime "Goldwater Girl") and John McCain; former TV anchorman Walter Cronkite; humorist Al Franken; reporter Helen Thomas; political consultant James Carville; Goldwater's family; and others.
I hate politicians, I hate politicians, I hate politicians, you-should-too!
Especially Trent Lott. You racist old dirtbag.
If you're hip or think you're hip...or have cultivated an image such that other people mistakenly believe you're hip...or even wish you were hip...or were born before 1978, you probably have heard that super-hip phrase, "jump the shark."
For those who don't get a Wired fix, aren't up to date on their smarmy cynical blogs, or are doing worthwhile things with their lives, I appeal to the allmighty Wikigod (what I have taken to calling that grand information dump in the sky, Wikipedia):
The phrase specifically arises from a scene in the hit TV comedy series Happy Days. In the early days of the series, Fonzie had performed a trademark jump on his motorcycle with a ramp over a number of cars - Evel Knievel style. Evel Knievel, at the time had established himself as a real-life motorcycle daredevil and was significant in pop-culture.
In later years of the show, after the high school plot had finished and the college years began, and in an attempt to resurrect the show's run, the writers were challenged to come up with new, fresh stories; they developed a story where Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli, wearing his trademark leather jacket despite the well-known negative effects of salt water on leather, literally jumps over a shark on water skis.
Many have noted the shark episode as the moment when they realized the show was no longer worth watching, considering the scene to be unrealistic and of poor quality, making it impossible to maintain suspension of disbelief. Even before "jumping the shark" was employed as a pop culture term, the episode in question was cited many times as an example of what can happen to otherwise high-quality shows when they stay on the air too long in the face of waning interest. Producer Garry Marshall later admitted that he knew the show had lost something as the crew prepared to shoot the scene. However, as he pointed out in the reunion special that aired on February 3, 2005, Happy Days went on to produce approximately 100 more episodes after the "jumping the shark" episode. During the same special, in response to an audience member's question, Marshall introduced the notorious clip and noted how the show had inspired the term.
Laughing your face off? I laughed, too, once upon a time, before I had heard three quarters of the world's population use this phrase, all trying to outsnark each other.
When politicians break their pledges not to raise taxes, they come up with the darnedest evasions. Take Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who wants to levy new charges on California doctors, hospitals and employers to help pay for his $12 billion health-care plan. "It is not a tax, just a loan, because it does not go for general [expenditures]," he told the Sacramento Bee last Thursday. "It goes back to health care."
A loan? The first reaction of many Californians was: What state office will I be able to go to and get my loan back--perhaps with interest? It's preposterous, for example, to characterize as a "loan" the 4% payroll levy the governor wants to impose on employers who don't offer health benefits. California's gas taxes are dedicated to transportation but no one would call them "gas loans." Property taxes go to local education. Are they not taxes?
Wait, that sounds reasonable...what's the deal? And where's the shark-jumping? And John Fund is a great writer over at the WSJ, right?
Okay, you're right. It's not the article or the author persay that causes the bile to boil, but the subheading: "Has Arnold Schwarzenegger jumped the shark?" The last line repeats the phrase, "Should he reach a point where his about-face on taxes becomes a serious issue, he may find the political floor he's standing on falling precipitously. Or, as they say in Hollywood, the health-care plan may prove to be the moment Mr. Schwarzenegger jumped the shark."
There it is. John Fund, God bless his soul, just used "jumped the shark," in the same way one's curmudgeonly grandfather might growl "rotten bebop music," or a spinster (perhaps Maureen Dowd in a few years) might coo, "Would you like to play some tunes on the Victro-, I mean, musical cassette tape?)
Proof, all you insufferably hip people, who are SOOOO bleeding edge when it comes to your phrasology, that you are about as sharp as a hatchet recently used to split rocks.
Oh, and yes, I think Schwarzenegger's "health-care loan" is Bologna...Bologna, Italy.
The face of the insurgency is changing in Iraq and the US is no longer the primary target. Okay, that's not news, but this article has a fascinating in-depth roundup of just what that means, from the very personal perspective of a Guardian reporter who has contacts in the insurgency.
To be frank, I'm not sure how I feel about a reporter maintaining a relationship with insurgents. It makes for incredible reading, but I'm certain that the insights could be had, and far being had by the US military without permitting reporters to make friends with killers.
Okay, well, I talked myself into it. I'm against this whole concept, but the article is gripping nonetheless...
One morning a few weeks ago I sat in a car talking to Rami, a thick-necked former Republican Guard commando who now procures arms for his fellow Sunni insurgents.
Rami was explaining how the insurgency had changed since the first heady days after the US invasion. "I used to attack the Americans when that was the jihad. Now there is no jihad. Go around and see in Adhamiya [the notorious Sunni insurgent area] - all the commanders are sitting sipping coffee; it's only the young kids that are fighting now, and they are not fighting Americans any more, they are just killing Shia. There are kids carrying two guns each and they roam the streets looking for their prey. They will kill for anything, for a gun, for a car and all can be dressed up as jihad."
Things have been a bit link happy here, as of late, and this post is no exception. In fact, I aggregated the interesting links into a link mashup.
In Reason, Katherine Mangu-Ward has a nice profile of the burgeoning private space industry, though her first graf tends toward the dramatic.
Barbed wire surrounded the Bigelow Aerospace compound, set in a stretch of dry, rock-strewn Nevada desert. Las Vegas glittered in the distance, but otherwise the vista had the desolate look of a lunar landscape, with one difference: The summer heat was oppressive—enough to make you long for the cool vacuum of outer space.A "dry desert," eh? Whoulda thunk? And I must agree: when it's steamy outside, I wish I was in a cool vacuum somewhere near the Kuiper Belt (or by "cool vacuum" does she mean this?).
Dear President Carter,The full letter deserves a read, since this is coming from Carter partisans who have worked with him for years.
As members of the Board of Councilors each one of us has been proud to be associated with the Carter Center in its noble struggle to repair the world. However, in light of the publication of your latest book Palestine; Peace Not Apartheid and your subsequent comments made in promoting the book, we can no longer in good conscience continue to serve the Center as members of the Board of Councilors.
...does not count the L.A. Times among its members. Today's Times made for a particularly unsavory side to the French toast and sausage. Let's consider the stories:
Stocks sink on payroll picture:
Oh no! What could have happened? Did unemployment rise? Jobs didn't increase at a healthy clip? How fast is the sky falling? Um, no: "Surprisingly strong job and wage gains reduce hopes for a Fed rate cut." It only gets better:
Stocks and bonds ended the first week of 2007 with sharp losses Friday after a surprising surge in jobs and wages diminished investors' hopes for an interest rate cut.
Bond yields rose sharply after the Labor Department said U.S. employers increased their payrolls by 167,000 people in December and boosted workers' hourly wages by 0.5%. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.5%.
The report suggests that the economy won't be slowing as much as investors anticipated. That should prove positive for stocks in the long run...
Ebocha, Nigeria - Justice Eta, 14 months old, held out his tiny thumb.
An ink spot certified that he had been immunized against polio and measles, thanks to a vaccination drive supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
But polio is not the only threat Justice faces. Almost since birth, he has had respiratory trouble. His neighbors call it "the cough." People blame fumes and soot spewing from flames that tower 300 feet into the air over a nearby oil plant. It is owned by the Italian petroleum giant Eni, whose investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Aboard a Chilean fishing trawler 500 miles offshore, rescued Newport Beach sailor Ken Barnes began recounting over a scratchy radio connection his harrowing three days alone near Cape Horn on his disabled 44-foot ketch.Of, wonderful, you're alive and you only lost your 250,000 dollar boat, a sacrifice apparently you are willing to make. But wait! You're not the only one making sacrifices, Barnesie...
"I really haven't had a chance to put this whole experience in perspective," Barnes said from aboard the Polar Pesca I, a 200-foot boat carrying a 35-member crew. "I'm just taking one step at a time. I knew the risks.
"I'm feeling fine," he added. "It's always nice to see that the sailing and ocean community is one. They saved my life."
A duty officer posted at the Chilean navy's office in Punta Arenas noticed Barnes' distress signal at 9 p.m. Tuesday local time (4 p.m. PST). Valenzuela ordered both the Polar Pesca I and a 570-feet Spanish cargo ship named Algarve to head toward him. The rescuers faced financial losses because of the detour — the fishing boat's load of cod spoiled during the search, and the cargo vessel lost $50,000 a day, Valenzuela said.Way to go Barnes. You're a real American hero and adventurer. I hope you kicked whatever midlife crisis you were going through because you just cost a bunch of Chilean fisherman another quarter of a million dollars, and, hey, they're not getting a dime. Way to go, bub.
"It was a sacrifice, but someday someone will be making the sacrifice for them," Valenzuela said, noting that neither vessel would be compensated.
Hey, had your morning coffee yet? Good, be prepared for it to come back up, because Radley Balko's out to get your bile rising:
It is something of a clichéd tradition for a columnist to write a year-end or New Year column that makes exaggerated, sometimes humorous predictions for the next 12 months.Whoops, that doesn't sound so bad. What are the predictions, after all? Here's a choice sampling:
I wrote such a column at about this time last year, with "predictions" that reflected the continuing, creeping influence of government in our lives. Unfortunately, the state of civil liberties and both economic and personal freedom haven't improved much over the past year. So I figure it's time for another round of unlikely predictions as to what we might expect from our government in 2007.
--In a scenario straight out of George Orwell's "1984," several local governments will begin to encourage children to turn in their parents when the parents fail to abide by building and property code violations, such as mowing the grass, properly sorting recyclables, and similar mundanities.Ooo, that doesn't sound good. But those aren't even the heavy hitters Balko writes up.
--Now that the federal government has made online gambling a crime, some state government will take things even further, and make writing about online gambling a crime.
--Not content with micromanaging parents when it comes to bicycle helmets, car seats and any number of laws and regulations, some state legislator will get the idea that we should make kids who play soccer wear helmets.
If you're anything like me, you probably don't have a lot of respect for politicians. Hell, if you walk on two legs and bananas aren't your favorite food, then you almost certainly hate politicians as a breed. Sure, there are exceptions: some are honest, smart, and virtuous. Like...um...that guy from...well, I'm sure you can think of one or two. Regardless, the fact is politicians really mostly are a notch above cockroaches on the evolutionary totem pole (just as disgusting, able to live in filth, but unable to survive nuclear winter...okay, maybe they're one notch below). As if you needed further proof, I just came across this article at work (which, by the way, reminds me every day how much the non-profit world needs some real competition).
A choice gem:
10. Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY)Of course, I could have told you that the idiots in office are dwindling into senility. I personally attended a number of committee hearings, two summers ago, and had to endure Robert "I left my brain with the Grand Wizard" Byrd speaking. The man is MAD. Off his rocker. Loopy. Nuts, bonkers, demented, a kook, daffy, wacky, and weird. He started off talking about how some bill was important to his hickstate, er home state, of West Virginia, then devoled into babble that his preacher had told him upon his adult baptism a half century earlier. In one breath, he claimed that he had been in the Senate since 1947, then turned around and said, "Having served in this Senate since 1952..."
Bunning is a Hall of Fame pitcher who, during his eight years in office, has shown "little interest in legislation that doesn't concern baseball," writes Time magazine. And Kentucky doesn't even have a major-league baseball team. His campaign style is so completely unhinged that political observers openly speculated in 2004 that the then-73-year-old was suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's. "His is a tragic case of descent into senility," says one Hill staffer, "except without the 'descent' bit." To scotch the rumors, Bunning was forced to hold a press conference and offer up doctor's reports.
