The light went on for me today. It's subtle but oh so clear.
Today's Page-A-Day calendar (daily excerpts from the book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves) has this quote:
The trouble with grammar books is that they are read principally by keen foreigners; meanwhile, native English-speakers who require their help are the last people who will make the effort to buy and read them.
I showed it to my next-desk office buddy, and she mentioned that they're not used by schools either. That's what flipped the light switch on.
The education establishment is dominated by people on the Left. People on the Left value "fairness" above all, with fairness meaning (to them), equal outcomes for everyone. Then-Candidate Obama said as much with his "spread the wealth around" comment to Joe the Plumber.
So what does that say about education?
It says that if America is on the top worldwide, that's not fair. After all, traditionally we have the biggest, best military (well, maybe China has more people in their military, but we're still the best); we have the biggest, most robust economy; we have the best advances in medicines and health care techniques. The Left just can't handle having all that best-itude in one place. They have to "spread the wealth around."
And they've decided to start with education. They don't teach our kids spelling and grammar and punctuation, but instead let them figure it out for themselves eventually. Which doesn't translate well onto the achievement tests.
A while back, my Page-A-Day calendar said that in the UK, by the age of 8 schoolchildren have been taught the three major uses of the comma (in lists, before dialogue, to set off a clause). So I asked my office buddy if her 9 year old has learned any of that. He hasn't. And the teacher is letting him spell things any way he wants to. There's some sort of psychobabble term for letting them keep their self-esteem over their spelling.
It's all part of the agenda. Make American kids do poorly so some other country's kids get a chance to shine. It's only fair.
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
Spilled Milk
Holy cow! Thomas Sowell's column tomorrow raises the issue of the EPA's latest power grab. Yes, it really is about spilled milk.
We all understand why the Environmental Protection Agency was given the power to issue regulations to guard against oil spills, such as that of the Exxon Valdez in Alaska or the more recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But not everyone understands that any power given to any bureaucracy for any purpose can be stretched far beyond that purpose.
In a classic example of this process, the EPA has decided that, since milk contains oil, it has the authority to force farmers to comply with new regulations to file "emergency management" plans to show how they will cope with spilled milk, how farmers will train "first responders" and build "containment facilities" if there is a flood of spilled milk.
Milk has oil? Who knew???
Oh wait. I guess the EPA knew. And now their regulations will raise the price of milk, butter, cheese, yogurt, whipped cream, and ice cream. But it'll be worth it, because we'll be safe from... I'll let Sowell explain:
Does anyone seriously believe that any farmer is going to spill enough milk to compare with the Exxon Valdez oil spill or the BP oil spill?
Do you envision people fleeing their homes, as a flood of milk comes pouring down the mountainside, threatening to wipe out the village below?
It doesn't matter. Once the words are in the law, it makes no difference what the realities are. The bureaucracy has every incentive to stretch the meaning of those words, in order to expand its empire.
A long time ago, probably in the late 1970s, I saw the movie, The King of Hearts. It's set during World War I, when a British army private is sent into a French town to disarm a German bomb, and the Brits speak English, the Germans speak German (with English subtitles), and the French speak French (with English subtitles). But what the hapless private doesn't realize is that right before he entered the town, it was evacuated. Except for the insane asylum, whose inhabitants leave the asylum and pose as the regular townspeople. He has no idea, so he interacts with them as though they're normal.
That sort of thing is delightful to watch on a big screen. Throughout the madness, in the back of your mind you know it will end and you'll be going home where sanity reigns.
But it's distressing to know that the lunatics now have the power to regulate and control, to coerce and punish. If they have the power to regulate milk as though it's crude oil, there's no telling how far the draconian regulations will spread into all areas of our lives.
Stop the madness! (I just wish I knew how.)
We all understand why the Environmental Protection Agency was given the power to issue regulations to guard against oil spills, such as that of the Exxon Valdez in Alaska or the more recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But not everyone understands that any power given to any bureaucracy for any purpose can be stretched far beyond that purpose.
In a classic example of this process, the EPA has decided that, since milk contains oil, it has the authority to force farmers to comply with new regulations to file "emergency management" plans to show how they will cope with spilled milk, how farmers will train "first responders" and build "containment facilities" if there is a flood of spilled milk.
Milk has oil? Who knew???
Oh wait. I guess the EPA knew. And now their regulations will raise the price of milk, butter, cheese, yogurt, whipped cream, and ice cream. But it'll be worth it, because we'll be safe from... I'll let Sowell explain:
Does anyone seriously believe that any farmer is going to spill enough milk to compare with the Exxon Valdez oil spill or the BP oil spill?
Do you envision people fleeing their homes, as a flood of milk comes pouring down the mountainside, threatening to wipe out the village below?
It doesn't matter. Once the words are in the law, it makes no difference what the realities are. The bureaucracy has every incentive to stretch the meaning of those words, in order to expand its empire.
A long time ago, probably in the late 1970s, I saw the movie, The King of Hearts. It's set during World War I, when a British army private is sent into a French town to disarm a German bomb, and the Brits speak English, the Germans speak German (with English subtitles), and the French speak French (with English subtitles). But what the hapless private doesn't realize is that right before he entered the town, it was evacuated. Except for the insane asylum, whose inhabitants leave the asylum and pose as the regular townspeople. He has no idea, so he interacts with them as though they're normal.
That sort of thing is delightful to watch on a big screen. Throughout the madness, in the back of your mind you know it will end and you'll be going home where sanity reigns.
But it's distressing to know that the lunatics now have the power to regulate and control, to coerce and punish. If they have the power to regulate milk as though it's crude oil, there's no telling how far the draconian regulations will spread into all areas of our lives.
Stop the madness! (I just wish I knew how.)
Monday, January 24, 2011
Hu Disses America (Updated)
I first read about The State Dinner Incident at Power Line over the weekend when Scott Johnson quoted this report from the Epoch Times:
Lang Lang the pianist says he chose it. Chairman Hu Jintao recognized it as soon as he heard it. Patriotic Chinese Internet users were delighted as soon as they saw the videos online. Early morning TV viewers in China knew it would be played an hour or two beforehand. At the White House State dinner on Jan. 19, about six minutes into his set,< v="kroEprEpvtA"> Lang Lang began tapping out a famous anti-American propaganda melody from the Korean War: the theme song to the movie "Battle on Shangganling Mountain."< v="2-aTpkd6-P8">
The film depicts a group of "People's Volunteer Army" soldiers who are first hemmed in at Shanganling (or Triangle Hill) and then, when reinforcements arrive, take up their rifles and counterattack the U.S. military "jackals."
The movie and the tune are widely known among Chinese, and the song has been a leading piece of anti-American propaganda by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for decades. CCP propaganda has always referred to the Korean War as the "movement to resist America and help [North] Korea." The message of the propaganda is that the United States is an enemy—in fighting in the Korean War the United States' real goal was said to be to invade and conquer China. The victory at Triangle Hill was promoted as a victory over imperialists.
The song Lang Lang played describes how beautiful China is and then near the end has this verse, "When friends are here, there is fine wine /But if the jackal comes /What greets it is the hunting rifle." The "jackal" in the song is the United States.
Very nice. So glad we could throw a State Dinner for these charming people.
Today, though, Power Line's John Hinderaker followed up with this, quoting from Jay Nordlinger's post at The Corner providing a fuller descripton of the insult to America:
Last week, I had a note in this space about Lang Lang, who has become a kind of court pianist for President Obama and the Chinese leadership -- the Chinese dictatorship, to put it more bluntly.
He played at the Beijing Olympics. He played at Obama's Nobel ceremony. He played at the White House event for Paul McCartney -- the one at which McCartney made a ridiculous anti-Bush crack, which caused Lang Lang and the Obama crowd to laugh like hyenas. And he played at Obama's state dinner last week for Hu Jintao.
What did he play? Most notably and significantly, he played a famous anti-American propaganda song. Famous in China, that is. Wei Jingsheng, the great Chinese democracy leader, exiled in the United States since 1997, wrote a letter to Congress and Secretary of State Clinton. He said, "I listened to that music with a big shock." Wei explained that the song, "My Country," or "My Motherland," comes from "the best-known Communist propaganda movie about the Korean War," depicting the Chinese army's fight with the Americans. The movie is called The Battle of Triangle Hill. Wei said that the movie is as well-known in China as Gone with the Wind is here.
The song refers to the Americans as "wolves" or "jackals," and says that the Chinese will use weapons to deal with them. Wei commented, "Is that not an insult to the USA to play such . . . music at a state dinner hosted by the US President? No wonder it made Hu Jintao really happy." Yes, no wonder. As Wei pointed out, Hu is not ordinarily given to public emotion, but he emotionally embraced Lang Lang. ...
The Epoch Times quotes a Chinese psychiatrist living in Philadelphia, Yang Jingduan: "In the eyes of all Chinese, this will not be seen as anything other than a big insult to the U.S. It's like insulting you in your face and you don't know it, it's humiliating." In his letter, Wei said that so-called patriotic Chinese -- supporters of the Communist party and the dictatorship -- were ecstatic over "My Motherland" at the White House. One such "patriotic Chinese" exclaimed, "The right place, right time, right song!" (This is a phrase with roots in CCP propaganda, as the Epoch Times article explains.)
Either President Obama knew about the insult and approved - how could he, really, unless some Chinese person told him? - or he sat there and enjoyed the music, oblivious to the import of its meaning. Neither possibility speaks well for our president, his State Department, his advisors, or our nation.
The honor shown to the leader of a human-rights violating, oppressive, communist dictatorship by throwing him a State Dinner is bad enough, but to have that dictator and his loyalists insult our country in the process is beyond the pale. I'm not holding my breath, however, that President Obama will have any response at all. Just more of the same kowtowing to countries that want to destroy us.
Heaven help us all.
Update:
The White House did respond. They "insist[ed]
the song, 'My Motherland,' was no insult to the United States."
Oh. If they say so.
Think about it. When you hear the melody of "America the Beautiful," the lyrics never start running through your head. No. Not at all. And Sunday during communion, when the pianist started playing, "I Stand in Awe of You," my friend sitting next to me and I didn't start singing very softly with the music. No, that was just random squeaking we were doing, not singing the words!
The White House is either stupidly clueless or lying because their lips are moving. This was an insult to America, Hu enjoyed it, the White House is trying to cover it up, and there's no escaping any of that.
Lang Lang the pianist says he chose it. Chairman Hu Jintao recognized it as soon as he heard it. Patriotic Chinese Internet users were delighted as soon as they saw the videos online. Early morning TV viewers in China knew it would be played an hour or two beforehand. At the White House State dinner on Jan. 19, about six minutes into his set,< v="kroEprEpvtA"> Lang Lang began tapping out a famous anti-American propaganda melody from the Korean War: the theme song to the movie "Battle on Shangganling Mountain."< v="2-aTpkd6-P8">
The film depicts a group of "People's Volunteer Army" soldiers who are first hemmed in at Shanganling (or Triangle Hill) and then, when reinforcements arrive, take up their rifles and counterattack the U.S. military "jackals."
The movie and the tune are widely known among Chinese, and the song has been a leading piece of anti-American propaganda by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for decades. CCP propaganda has always referred to the Korean War as the "movement to resist America and help [North] Korea." The message of the propaganda is that the United States is an enemy—in fighting in the Korean War the United States' real goal was said to be to invade and conquer China. The victory at Triangle Hill was promoted as a victory over imperialists.
The song Lang Lang played describes how beautiful China is and then near the end has this verse, "When friends are here, there is fine wine /But if the jackal comes /What greets it is the hunting rifle." The "jackal" in the song is the United States.
Very nice. So glad we could throw a State Dinner for these charming people.
Today, though, Power Line's John Hinderaker followed up with this, quoting from Jay Nordlinger's post at The Corner providing a fuller descripton of the insult to America:
Last week, I had a note in this space about Lang Lang, who has become a kind of court pianist for President Obama and the Chinese leadership -- the Chinese dictatorship, to put it more bluntly.
He played at the Beijing Olympics. He played at Obama's Nobel ceremony. He played at the White House event for Paul McCartney -- the one at which McCartney made a ridiculous anti-Bush crack, which caused Lang Lang and the Obama crowd to laugh like hyenas. And he played at Obama's state dinner last week for Hu Jintao.
What did he play? Most notably and significantly, he played a famous anti-American propaganda song. Famous in China, that is. Wei Jingsheng, the great Chinese democracy leader, exiled in the United States since 1997, wrote a letter to Congress and Secretary of State Clinton. He said, "I listened to that music with a big shock." Wei explained that the song, "My Country," or "My Motherland," comes from "the best-known Communist propaganda movie about the Korean War," depicting the Chinese army's fight with the Americans. The movie is called The Battle of Triangle Hill. Wei said that the movie is as well-known in China as Gone with the Wind is here.
The song refers to the Americans as "wolves" or "jackals," and says that the Chinese will use weapons to deal with them. Wei commented, "Is that not an insult to the USA to play such . . . music at a state dinner hosted by the US President? No wonder it made Hu Jintao really happy." Yes, no wonder. As Wei pointed out, Hu is not ordinarily given to public emotion, but he emotionally embraced Lang Lang. ...
The Epoch Times quotes a Chinese psychiatrist living in Philadelphia, Yang Jingduan: "In the eyes of all Chinese, this will not be seen as anything other than a big insult to the U.S. It's like insulting you in your face and you don't know it, it's humiliating." In his letter, Wei said that so-called patriotic Chinese -- supporters of the Communist party and the dictatorship -- were ecstatic over "My Motherland" at the White House. One such "patriotic Chinese" exclaimed, "The right place, right time, right song!" (This is a phrase with roots in CCP propaganda, as the Epoch Times article explains.)
Either President Obama knew about the insult and approved - how could he, really, unless some Chinese person told him? - or he sat there and enjoyed the music, oblivious to the import of its meaning. Neither possibility speaks well for our president, his State Department, his advisors, or our nation.
The honor shown to the leader of a human-rights violating, oppressive, communist dictatorship by throwing him a State Dinner is bad enough, but to have that dictator and his loyalists insult our country in the process is beyond the pale. I'm not holding my breath, however, that President Obama will have any response at all. Just more of the same kowtowing to countries that want to destroy us.
Heaven help us all.
Update:
The White House did respond. They "insist[ed]
the song, 'My Motherland,' was no insult to the United States."
Oh. If they say so.
Think about it. When you hear the melody of "America the Beautiful," the lyrics never start running through your head. No. Not at all. And Sunday during communion, when the pianist started playing, "I Stand in Awe of You," my friend sitting next to me and I didn't start singing very softly with the music. No, that was just random squeaking we were doing, not singing the words!
The White House is either stupidly clueless or lying because their lips are moving. This was an insult to America, Hu enjoyed it, the White House is trying to cover it up, and there's no escaping any of that.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Debating Obamacare
In Congress they're debating the repeal of Obamacare. At the same time, a milestone in the national "debate" has been reached. Over half of the states are involved in lawsuits to escape Obamacare. One of the regular commenters at Michelle Malkin's blog, 123upnorth, a Canadian, had this to say about Canadacare, which is where Obamacare would take us:
I realize the constiutional argument is strong and should be fought and won. However, I want to implore Americans to fight the battle against healthcare not only on a consitutional basis, but based upon the grounds that the quality of healthcare within a publicly-mandated system will S.U.C.K. beyond explanation, whether or not the constiution allows for it.
I live in Canada and regularly have to travel to America for healthcare. In Canada, people don’t have adequate quality of health services, nor do they have access to it. For example, approximately 15% of Canadians are without proper access to a family doctor. The majority of patients, once referred to a specialist, wait anywhere from 3 to 6 months to see the specialist.
After waiting for a specialist, a patient then has to go on a waiting list to get diagnostics, then wait for a follow up appointment with the specialist, at which time the patient will be instructed as to whether other tests are needed. If surgery is scheduled after the first round of tests, the wait for this too can be extensive. Because of the extensive waiting times, patients become more sick than otherwise would be the case if they were seen faster and their chances of beating their ailments is reduced.
In the end, to go through the process of seeking help and getting full treatment, the duration can often exceed one year. And that is if everything goes well. If tests are inconclusive, if a patient needs a second opinion etc., the total duration can exceed 18 to 24 months.
Even more depressing is the fact that we don’t get to choose specialists for the most part because each family doctor only works with a few specialists in each field of treatment in their geographical region. Because there is such a shortage of family doctors, you can’t switch between them to get access to another group of specialists. If you receive inferior treatment from the specialist you are directed to, it is much harder to go elsewhere and get the needed referral.
Lastly, because there is no incentive for doctors and specialist to invest in better medical treatment technologies, advancements that are introduced in the ‘for profit’ system in America and elsewhere aren’t made available to Canadians because they don’t have to be made available. Think about it, why would a public system that has a monopoly ever invest in doing things better if they are the only option for patients?
A public system is a death trap and the only players in the trap that can side-step it and get adequate treatment are members of the privelaged class that have the connections to do so. You can already see evidence of this with all the wiavers that are being granted.
Commenter bjc added this to the conversation:
I am from Canada, with many family members still there, and all that 123 says is factual; It was deplorable 15 to 20 years ago, and worse so now; My parents have no good options to maintaining quality of life under such a system; It has been painful to watch them suffer in a supposedly first world country!
I realize the House doesn't have the power to completely repeal Obamacare at this time, but they do have the power to defund its implementation. I pray the Republicans in the House have what it takes to actually do it.
I realize the constiutional argument is strong and should be fought and won. However, I want to implore Americans to fight the battle against healthcare not only on a consitutional basis, but based upon the grounds that the quality of healthcare within a publicly-mandated system will S.U.C.K. beyond explanation, whether or not the constiution allows for it.
I live in Canada and regularly have to travel to America for healthcare. In Canada, people don’t have adequate quality of health services, nor do they have access to it. For example, approximately 15% of Canadians are without proper access to a family doctor. The majority of patients, once referred to a specialist, wait anywhere from 3 to 6 months to see the specialist.
After waiting for a specialist, a patient then has to go on a waiting list to get diagnostics, then wait for a follow up appointment with the specialist, at which time the patient will be instructed as to whether other tests are needed. If surgery is scheduled after the first round of tests, the wait for this too can be extensive. Because of the extensive waiting times, patients become more sick than otherwise would be the case if they were seen faster and their chances of beating their ailments is reduced.
In the end, to go through the process of seeking help and getting full treatment, the duration can often exceed one year. And that is if everything goes well. If tests are inconclusive, if a patient needs a second opinion etc., the total duration can exceed 18 to 24 months.
Even more depressing is the fact that we don’t get to choose specialists for the most part because each family doctor only works with a few specialists in each field of treatment in their geographical region. Because there is such a shortage of family doctors, you can’t switch between them to get access to another group of specialists. If you receive inferior treatment from the specialist you are directed to, it is much harder to go elsewhere and get the needed referral.
Lastly, because there is no incentive for doctors and specialist to invest in better medical treatment technologies, advancements that are introduced in the ‘for profit’ system in America and elsewhere aren’t made available to Canadians because they don’t have to be made available. Think about it, why would a public system that has a monopoly ever invest in doing things better if they are the only option for patients?
A public system is a death trap and the only players in the trap that can side-step it and get adequate treatment are members of the privelaged class that have the connections to do so. You can already see evidence of this with all the wiavers that are being granted.
Commenter bjc added this to the conversation:
I am from Canada, with many family members still there, and all that 123 says is factual; It was deplorable 15 to 20 years ago, and worse so now; My parents have no good options to maintaining quality of life under such a system; It has been painful to watch them suffer in a supposedly first world country!
I realize the House doesn't have the power to completely repeal Obamacare at this time, but they do have the power to defund its implementation. I pray the Republicans in the House have what it takes to actually do it.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
What's With the Motorcycles?
I have a friend (no, it's not me) who has been on the online dating sites like eHarmony or Christian Mingle or something, and she gets matched with different men (because that's how it works).
Every. Single. One. Of. Her. Matches. Had a profile that said how much he loved riding his motorcycle. These are men in their sixties.
She's been matched to about ten motorcycle-riding men now. And my friend HATES motorcycles!
So what's up with men in their sixties and motorcycles? Is it senile dementia? Help me understand!
Every. Single. One. Of. Her. Matches. Had a profile that said how much he loved riding his motorcycle. These are men in their sixties.
She's been matched to about ten motorcycle-riding men now. And my friend HATES motorcycles!
So what's up with men in their sixties and motorcycles? Is it senile dementia? Help me understand!
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Brood of Vipers Falsify Autism Research
Power Line posted today on this CNN report of a story in the British Medical Journal.
CNN describes it this way:
A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines was an "elaborate fraud" that has done long-lasting damage to public health, a leading medical publication reported Wednesday.
An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible.
"It's one thing to have a bad study, a study full of error, and for the authors then to admit that they made errors," Fiona Godlee, BMJ's editor-in-chief, told CNN. "But in this case, we have a very different picture of what seems to be a deliberate attempt to create an impression that there was a link by falsifying the data."
Britain stripped Wakefield of his medical license in May.
Why on earth would a physician, a medical researcher, falsify data? Power Line's John Hinderaker explains:
There is a lot of blame to go around here; the media deserve some of it for repeating fraudulent claims uncritically. But the genesis of the hoax had a straightforward motive: money. Plaintiffs' lawyers who hoped to make a fortune by suing the manufacturers of vaccines funded the fraudulent research...
Most people don't realize it, but many of the scientific "studies" that have given rise to consumer hysteria and product liability litigation have been funded by plaintiffs' lawyers. The strategy has worked, I believe, more often than not. It is disturbing to understand that scientists can be bought; that, in fact, it is often not particularly difficult to buy them.
The misdirection caused false hope and false anger. And it resulted in a lot of unvaccinated children as well, followed by an increase in measles cases both in Britain and the US. Autism research, meanwhile, may have found more promising avenues if efforts hadn't been sent in the wrong direction by Wakefield's study.
It's repulsive that plaintiffs' lawers have been funding bogus "studies" for their own gain, but it's even more repulsive that there are "scientists" willing to go along.
CNN describes it this way:
A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines was an "elaborate fraud" that has done long-lasting damage to public health, a leading medical publication reported Wednesday.
An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible.
"It's one thing to have a bad study, a study full of error, and for the authors then to admit that they made errors," Fiona Godlee, BMJ's editor-in-chief, told CNN. "But in this case, we have a very different picture of what seems to be a deliberate attempt to create an impression that there was a link by falsifying the data."
Britain stripped Wakefield of his medical license in May.
Why on earth would a physician, a medical researcher, falsify data? Power Line's John Hinderaker explains:
There is a lot of blame to go around here; the media deserve some of it for repeating fraudulent claims uncritically. But the genesis of the hoax had a straightforward motive: money. Plaintiffs' lawyers who hoped to make a fortune by suing the manufacturers of vaccines funded the fraudulent research...
Most people don't realize it, but many of the scientific "studies" that have given rise to consumer hysteria and product liability litigation have been funded by plaintiffs' lawyers. The strategy has worked, I believe, more often than not. It is disturbing to understand that scientists can be bought; that, in fact, it is often not particularly difficult to buy them.
The misdirection caused false hope and false anger. And it resulted in a lot of unvaccinated children as well, followed by an increase in measles cases both in Britain and the US. Autism research, meanwhile, may have found more promising avenues if efforts hadn't been sent in the wrong direction by Wakefield's study.
It's repulsive that plaintiffs' lawers have been funding bogus "studies" for their own gain, but it's even more repulsive that there are "scientists" willing to go along.
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Eclipse
If you subscribe to Spaceweather.com's email news, you've already been told about this.
In the Sultanate of Oman, Thierry Legault managed to capture the partial eclipse of the sun - at the same time the International Space Station was in transit across the sun.
Amazing photo!
In the Sultanate of Oman, Thierry Legault managed to capture the partial eclipse of the sun - at the same time the International Space Station was in transit across the sun.
Amazing photo!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Waking Up (Updated)
You know in the movie, Casablanca, early on when they're in Rick's club and the Nazis start singing their Nazi German song and then the French people stand up and sing La Marseillaise and the camera focuses on the pretty young French woman... that scene, right?
Well, this morning when my alarm went off, I got up and smacked the snooze button and crawled back in bed. And while I was snoozing, I was vaguely aware of my roommate (who has the day off) getting up, and then I heard the sound of a lot of water running, like she had turned on the shower, which is what I do as soon as I get up after I'm done hitting the snooze button. Well, that water noise got me jolted out of bed one minute before the alarm went off again, and I found my roomie in the kitchen with the faucet running and not in the bathroom starting a shower, thank goodness. I didn't want to be late for work.
But La Marseillaise was running through my head, and I had these flickers of images of the pretty young French woman singing, and I don't know why, except I must have been dreaming about the movie when the water noise woke me up, only I don't know why I'd be dreaming that because last night we'd been discussing which movie we want to see tonight, and Casablanca was definitely not on the list.
I'm not sure what it means. Maybe I have a battle to fight in the coming year, a war for freedom. Perhaps victory begins with a song...
Update:
Here's the clip from Casablanca.
I leave it to you to decide how the symbolism of the two groups of singers applies to today's world.
Well, this morning when my alarm went off, I got up and smacked the snooze button and crawled back in bed. And while I was snoozing, I was vaguely aware of my roommate (who has the day off) getting up, and then I heard the sound of a lot of water running, like she had turned on the shower, which is what I do as soon as I get up after I'm done hitting the snooze button. Well, that water noise got me jolted out of bed one minute before the alarm went off again, and I found my roomie in the kitchen with the faucet running and not in the bathroom starting a shower, thank goodness. I didn't want to be late for work.
But La Marseillaise was running through my head, and I had these flickers of images of the pretty young French woman singing, and I don't know why, except I must have been dreaming about the movie when the water noise woke me up, only I don't know why I'd be dreaming that because last night we'd been discussing which movie we want to see tonight, and Casablanca was definitely not on the list.
I'm not sure what it means. Maybe I have a battle to fight in the coming year, a war for freedom. Perhaps victory begins with a song...
Update:
Here's the clip from Casablanca.
I leave it to you to decide how the symbolism of the two groups of singers applies to today's world.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
O Holy Night
This is my favorite Christmas song. I blogged about it four years ago. It was written by a Frenchman, and the literal-ish translation from the French goes this way:
Christian midnight
It is the solemn hour
When the God-Man
Has descended unto us
To erase original sin
And by His Father stop corruption
The entire world trembles with hope
For this night that gives it a Savior
People to your knees
Await your Deliverance
Noel, Noel
Here is your Redeemer
Noel, Noel
Here is your Redeemer
You can listen to it in English. My daughter's friend who loves Josh Groban (and actually met him!), this is for you:
And for all of you, may your Christmas be blessedly filled with time spent with loved ones.
P.S. Happy 24th birthday to my baby girl!
Christian midnight
It is the solemn hour
When the God-Man
Has descended unto us
To erase original sin
And by His Father stop corruption
The entire world trembles with hope
For this night that gives it a Savior
People to your knees
Await your Deliverance
Noel, Noel
Here is your Redeemer
Noel, Noel
Here is your Redeemer
You can listen to it in English. My daughter's friend who loves Josh Groban (and actually met him!), this is for you:
And for all of you, may your Christmas be blessedly filled with time spent with loved ones.
P.S. Happy 24th birthday to my baby girl!
Friday, December 24, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
I've Been Shopping
If I could work my will, every fool who goes about with "Happy Holidays" on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart!
My apologies to Charles Dickens.
So what holiday could they possibly be wishing me to be happy for? Let's see...
Hannukah is over.
And all the Muslim holidays are over until February.
I suppose there's Kwanzaa, but one look at my pasty-white face would tell them that one's not very likely.
So that leaves the federal holiday that falls on December 25th every year, which somewhere along the way became a Really Bad Word that we must not name in public for fear of offending people who get the day off, even if they don't celebrate it. What's that one called?
Bueller...?
My apologies to Charles Dickens.
So what holiday could they possibly be wishing me to be happy for? Let's see...
Hannukah is over.
And all the Muslim holidays are over until February.
I suppose there's Kwanzaa, but one look at my pasty-white face would tell them that one's not very likely.
So that leaves the federal holiday that falls on December 25th every year, which somewhere along the way became a Really Bad Word that we must not name in public for fear of offending people who get the day off, even if they don't celebrate it. What's that one called?
Bueller...?
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Weekly Republican Radio Message
It doesn't make much sense to me that they have a video for a radio address, but I guess that's one of the reasons I'm not a mover and shaker in the political world.
Krisi Noem is the newly elected Representative from South Dakota (one of those sparsely populated states that have more Senators than Representatives), and she was picked to give the weekly radio address for the GOP. I like what she had to say.
Krisi Noem is the newly elected Representative from South Dakota (one of those sparsely populated states that have more Senators than Representatives), and she was picked to give the weekly radio address for the GOP. I like what she had to say.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Quote of the Day
"There is something wrong in a government where they who do the most have the least. There is something wrong when honesty wears a rag, and rascality a robe; when the loving, the tender, eat a crust, while the infamous sit at banquets."
--Robert G. Ingersoll
--Robert G. Ingersoll
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
White House Wants To Hear From You
But only if you're 21 years old or YOUNGER.
Some commenter on some opinion column I was reading at lunchtime had a link to something on the White House website, and while I was reading it, I saw a headline over on the right. It said, "Your Chance to be Heard at the United Nations Security Council."
Cool! I like giving my opinion, so I followed the link and found this instead:
Are you 21 or younger? Keep reading.
Bummer! If I were more obedient, I would have stopped there. But I didn't.
The United States is setting the agenda for the United Nations Security Council during the month of December, and Ambassador Susan Rice wants to bring your voice into one of the world’s most important decision-making bodies. From December 2-14, you have a chance to call attention to an issue that you care about. What’s the most vital challenge to international peace and security facing your generation? Send your answer in a one-minute video or in written form to youth@state.gov, keeping your submission to fewer than 250 words. If selected, your answer will become a topic of debate at an innovative Security Council event that will be hosted by Ambassador Rice and broadcast live on December 21 at www.un.org/webcast.
This is pretty annoying on its face. The US ambassador to the UN wants to know what incredibly immature people think. But they don't give a rip about the thoughts of people who have worked for a living or raised a family or built a business from scratch or grown the food that feeds the world. No, grown-ups don't matter to the movers and shakers in the Obama administration.
So they don't want my opinion? Fine. They can have my kids' opinions. Except that at 23 and 25, my kids are way too old!
It gets worse. If you listen to Rice's video, it says more than just what's written. Here's a transcript of the opening:
On December 21st, the US is going to lead an important event in the UN Security Council, and today I want to ask for your help and participation. As you know, the UN Security Council works to resolve conflicts and pursue global peace and security, and we always have a very full agenda. But this month we're doing something a little bit different. No matter who you are, no matter where in the world you're from, if you're 21 years old or younger, we want YOU to tell us what issue is most important to you. You have the greatest stake in the future, and your voices deserve to be heard. So the question I'm posing to you is this: What is the most vital challenge to international peace and security facing your generation? Tell the UN Security Council what issue YOU believe deserves more attention and explain why it's important.
The rest of the video gives information on how to submit your Important Issues for them to consider.
It hurts. The US wants to represent the entire world's youths, not just American youths. It wants to plumb the depths of minds that believe the most pressing issues are things such as, "Um... Like, I think iTunes downloads should be free. And, yeah, college should be free too. Yeah."
It's maddening to read stuff like this and have it confirmed that the adults left DC in January of 2009, and the perpetual adolescents are now in charge.
Get the US and our cash out of the UN, put Ambassador Rice on 99 weeks of unemployment, and send the entire United Nations packing for some third-world backwater where it belongs. Then maybe we can sell the UN building and use the proceeds to apply as a the first drop in the bucket towards paying down the national debt.
Some commenter on some opinion column I was reading at lunchtime had a link to something on the White House website, and while I was reading it, I saw a headline over on the right. It said, "Your Chance to be Heard at the United Nations Security Council."
Cool! I like giving my opinion, so I followed the link and found this instead:
Are you 21 or younger? Keep reading.
Bummer! If I were more obedient, I would have stopped there. But I didn't.
The United States is setting the agenda for the United Nations Security Council during the month of December, and Ambassador Susan Rice wants to bring your voice into one of the world’s most important decision-making bodies. From December 2-14, you have a chance to call attention to an issue that you care about. What’s the most vital challenge to international peace and security facing your generation? Send your answer in a one-minute video or in written form to youth@state.gov, keeping your submission to fewer than 250 words. If selected, your answer will become a topic of debate at an innovative Security Council event that will be hosted by Ambassador Rice and broadcast live on December 21 at www.un.org/webcast.
This is pretty annoying on its face. The US ambassador to the UN wants to know what incredibly immature people think. But they don't give a rip about the thoughts of people who have worked for a living or raised a family or built a business from scratch or grown the food that feeds the world. No, grown-ups don't matter to the movers and shakers in the Obama administration.
So they don't want my opinion? Fine. They can have my kids' opinions. Except that at 23 and 25, my kids are way too old!
It gets worse. If you listen to Rice's video, it says more than just what's written. Here's a transcript of the opening:
On December 21st, the US is going to lead an important event in the UN Security Council, and today I want to ask for your help and participation. As you know, the UN Security Council works to resolve conflicts and pursue global peace and security, and we always have a very full agenda. But this month we're doing something a little bit different. No matter who you are, no matter where in the world you're from, if you're 21 years old or younger, we want YOU to tell us what issue is most important to you. You have the greatest stake in the future, and your voices deserve to be heard. So the question I'm posing to you is this: What is the most vital challenge to international peace and security facing your generation? Tell the UN Security Council what issue YOU believe deserves more attention and explain why it's important.
The rest of the video gives information on how to submit your Important Issues for them to consider.
It hurts. The US wants to represent the entire world's youths, not just American youths. It wants to plumb the depths of minds that believe the most pressing issues are things such as, "Um... Like, I think iTunes downloads should be free. And, yeah, college should be free too. Yeah."
It's maddening to read stuff like this and have it confirmed that the adults left DC in January of 2009, and the perpetual adolescents are now in charge.
Get the US and our cash out of the UN, put Ambassador Rice on 99 weeks of unemployment, and send the entire United Nations packing for some third-world backwater where it belongs. Then maybe we can sell the UN building and use the proceeds to apply as a the first drop in the bucket towards paying down the national debt.
Saturday, December 04, 2010
Reflections
Having the roommate that I have has been very enlightening. She and I are so VERY different, and those differences have caused me to reflect on the way I'm wired and my upbringing and the effects these things have had in my life.
I've blogged already about sorters and stuffers. My movie-going friend in the post is now my roomie, and I addressed the issue again in this post as it relates to the kitchen.
My roommate goes to bed early because she has to get up way before dawn to go to work. She even gets up early on weekends. I don't get that, but she says it's because she's had to have this schedule for so long it's part of her nature now.
On the other hand, I like to stay up late and love to sleep in in the morning. I don't get to sleep in on weekdays, and I've had this schedule forever too, but it hasn't made me wake up early on my own. In high school I used to stay up reading until 2:00 or 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, especially in the summer, so I believe night-owlness is hard-wired. It's certainly not anything my parents encouraged me to do!
This early bird/night owl difference works for my roommate and me, though, because we almost never need the shower at the same time.
Another difference is our learning styles, although I think "learning styles" is a misnomer, because even when we're not learning, we still use our styles. I mentioned before that I'm visual and auditory, but that post was about the auditory side. Here at home, it's the visual side that comes out.
My roommate is NOT visual. Oh sure, she has her sense of vision, but she doesn't seem to see much. I notice the difference between us the most in the kitchen. My roomie leaves doors open. I've told her that sometimes I feel like Vanna White as I go through the kitchen reaching up and then down to shut cabinet doors and drawers. There have been some mornings after she's left for work and I get up before dark, that I've found a faint glow of light coming from the kitchen. It means she left the microwave door open again.
I find it entertaining. One day I even counted the open items I shut: 6. I reported that number to her. And yet I'm sure that she can't begin to understand why I would even care about doors being left open and food items out of order and pictures that aren't straight. Those things aren't important at all. It's just that I feel peace when things are in order, and I feel stressed at the sight of chaos.
Another thing I've realized is how much of what I do is because I hear my mom's voice in my head. Washing dishes by hand is one of those times.
My roommate likes to wash dishes by hand. I don't get that. When I moved in, her diswasher was broken and had been for some time. If it had been my house, I would have had a repairman over in a heartbeat or had a new dishwasher installed yesterday. Not her, but with two people's dishes to wash, she finally decided that a functional dishwasher was a good idea. Hallelujah!
But there are some items that still need to be washed by hand. The stainless steel frying pans are that way, and because I have a fried egg as part of my breakfast every day, I wash that pan almost daily (sometimes my roomie gets to it first). I've discovered myself doing that finger motion my mother instilled in me when I was a girl having to take turns doing dishes with my sister. My mom would run her fingers around the "clean" dishes and pans, and if she found any residual food that I'd missed, back it went into the dish water for me to do it RIGHT this time.
I mentioned to my roommate about remembering my mom's dishwashing demands, and she said when her mother found food stuck to the clean dishes, her mom would empty the cupboards of every pot, pan, plate, and cup and make her wash everything. Starting when my roommate was 7. Yikes!
When I look at what my roommate suffered as a child at the hands of various family members (this is just the tip of the iceberg), and when I look at the wonderful woman she is now, I am amazed. God has done an incredible work in her.
I am a visual, purse-sorting night owl, and she is a non-visual, purse-stuffing, warm, generous early bird. We get along just fine, and I am truly proud to call her friend.
I've blogged already about sorters and stuffers. My movie-going friend in the post is now my roomie, and I addressed the issue again in this post as it relates to the kitchen.
My roommate goes to bed early because she has to get up way before dawn to go to work. She even gets up early on weekends. I don't get that, but she says it's because she's had to have this schedule for so long it's part of her nature now.
On the other hand, I like to stay up late and love to sleep in in the morning. I don't get to sleep in on weekdays, and I've had this schedule forever too, but it hasn't made me wake up early on my own. In high school I used to stay up reading until 2:00 or 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, especially in the summer, so I believe night-owlness is hard-wired. It's certainly not anything my parents encouraged me to do!
This early bird/night owl difference works for my roommate and me, though, because we almost never need the shower at the same time.
Another difference is our learning styles, although I think "learning styles" is a misnomer, because even when we're not learning, we still use our styles. I mentioned before that I'm visual and auditory, but that post was about the auditory side. Here at home, it's the visual side that comes out.
My roommate is NOT visual. Oh sure, she has her sense of vision, but she doesn't seem to see much. I notice the difference between us the most in the kitchen. My roomie leaves doors open. I've told her that sometimes I feel like Vanna White as I go through the kitchen reaching up and then down to shut cabinet doors and drawers. There have been some mornings after she's left for work and I get up before dark, that I've found a faint glow of light coming from the kitchen. It means she left the microwave door open again.
I find it entertaining. One day I even counted the open items I shut: 6. I reported that number to her. And yet I'm sure that she can't begin to understand why I would even care about doors being left open and food items out of order and pictures that aren't straight. Those things aren't important at all. It's just that I feel peace when things are in order, and I feel stressed at the sight of chaos.
Another thing I've realized is how much of what I do is because I hear my mom's voice in my head. Washing dishes by hand is one of those times.
My roommate likes to wash dishes by hand. I don't get that. When I moved in, her diswasher was broken and had been for some time. If it had been my house, I would have had a repairman over in a heartbeat or had a new dishwasher installed yesterday. Not her, but with two people's dishes to wash, she finally decided that a functional dishwasher was a good idea. Hallelujah!
But there are some items that still need to be washed by hand. The stainless steel frying pans are that way, and because I have a fried egg as part of my breakfast every day, I wash that pan almost daily (sometimes my roomie gets to it first). I've discovered myself doing that finger motion my mother instilled in me when I was a girl having to take turns doing dishes with my sister. My mom would run her fingers around the "clean" dishes and pans, and if she found any residual food that I'd missed, back it went into the dish water for me to do it RIGHT this time.
I mentioned to my roommate about remembering my mom's dishwashing demands, and she said when her mother found food stuck to the clean dishes, her mom would empty the cupboards of every pot, pan, plate, and cup and make her wash everything. Starting when my roommate was 7. Yikes!
When I look at what my roommate suffered as a child at the hands of various family members (this is just the tip of the iceberg), and when I look at the wonderful woman she is now, I am amazed. God has done an incredible work in her.
I am a visual, purse-sorting night owl, and she is a non-visual, purse-stuffing, warm, generous early bird. We get along just fine, and I am truly proud to call her friend.
Copy Cat Crimes Continue
Mob rule. Disturbing the peace. Anarchy. They're running rampant, and there's nothing you can do to stop them when they strike near you.
First it was rogue dancing interrupting commuters in Europe.
Then a 650-member choir disrupted shoppers at Macy's in Philadelphia.
And now the copy cats are at it, singing the same song. In a food court, no less. How is a person to eat?
Bah! Humbug, I say.
No, I mean, PLEASE do it near me!
First it was rogue dancing interrupting commuters in Europe.
Then a 650-member choir disrupted shoppers at Macy's in Philadelphia.
And now the copy cats are at it, singing the same song. In a food court, no less. How is a person to eat?
Bah! Humbug, I say.
No, I mean, PLEASE do it near me!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Vulcan Terrorist Attacks Portland
A Vulcan terrorist was caught Friday in an attempted attack on Portland's Christmas tree lighting ceremony. Disguising himself as a Somali native, the Vulcan took pains to cover the pointy tips of his ears, but he neglected to also disguise his eyebrows, a mistake that tipped off authorities to his true origins.
The attack didn't go through as planned due to undercover efforts by Romulans, who substituted a non-functioning detonator into the bomb-making supplies provided to the terrorist. The Obama administration has been unwilling to speculate as to a possible motive.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Nancy Pelosi Has Dementia
Or maybe it's schizophrenia, because the woman is seriously delusional. Her column in USA Today yesterday is proof positive.
President Obama and this Congress were job creators from Day One, saving the country from the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression. The Recovery Act created or saved more than 3 million jobs, and America is moving forward. October marks the 10th straight month of private sector job growth.
Congressional experts have called the 111th Congress the most productive Congress in a half-century. Our Democratic members took tough votes to support America's working families, putting the American people before politics and thinking of the next generation, not the next election.
Pelosi goes on to list the Democrats' "accomplishments." They passed Wall Street Reform so those bad apples in the Big Apple won't "cause joblessness." As though it's not Congressional recklessness causing the joblessness in the country.
And they passed a bill that lets small businesses borrow money that they'll have to pay back from the revenues that they're not getting because people aren't buying because the economy is in the toilet because of Congressional recklessness (I mean, Congressional "accomplishments").
We made the largest investment in student aid in our nation's history, reducing the cost of loans to families and reducing the deficit.
Pelosi thinks we don't know that an "investment" by Congress is really your money that they taxed so they can spend (and spend and spend) it on sending somebody else's kids to college when you can't even afford to send your own kids to the local junior college. How that reduces the deficit is beyond me.
We achieved more progress over the last four years for our veterans and military families than any time since the passage of the original GI Bill in 1944. And we did all of this while restoring fiscal discipline to the Congress by making the pay-as-you-go rules the law of the land.
Usually when the word, "progress," comes out of the mouth of a politician, it's a bad thing. But I'm not really sure what kind of progress they inflicted on our military and veterans. But let's assume that this time it's a good thing. Notice that she goes back four years, not just the last two. Could it be that President Obama hasn't been progressive for our military? Could it be that President Bush was beneficial? Could it be that the Democrats want to take credit for anything good that happened during the last two years of the Bush Administration but want to place all the blame for the bad things on Bush? Pelosi's got a lot of nerve on that one.
But the one that really frosts my chaps is the part about "restoring fiscal discipline" by passing pay-as-you-go rules. Riiiiight! They waived the Pay-Go rules for the Stimulus bill and used some neat tricks and carved out plenty of exceptions, so that the federal debt limit is over $12 trillion and the deficit for fiscal year 2009 was $1.42 trillion. If that's "fiscal discipline," I'd hate to see what happens when Congress runs amok with our money.
So now, after two years of shutting Republicans out of the decision-making process, the Democrats suddenly want to "work together" with Republicans. In fact, they "welcome Republican ideas about job creation." How truly selfless of them. Because Pelosi assures us that she and her fellow Democrats are fighting for us - the people - for our jobs, for the economy, and for the middle class.
And she thinks we're going to believe that. Like I said, Nancy Pelosi is demented.
President Obama and this Congress were job creators from Day One, saving the country from the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression. The Recovery Act created or saved more than 3 million jobs, and America is moving forward. October marks the 10th straight month of private sector job growth.
Congressional experts have called the 111th Congress the most productive Congress in a half-century. Our Democratic members took tough votes to support America's working families, putting the American people before politics and thinking of the next generation, not the next election.
Pelosi goes on to list the Democrats' "accomplishments." They passed Wall Street Reform so those bad apples in the Big Apple won't "cause joblessness." As though it's not Congressional recklessness causing the joblessness in the country.
And they passed a bill that lets small businesses borrow money that they'll have to pay back from the revenues that they're not getting because people aren't buying because the economy is in the toilet because of Congressional recklessness (I mean, Congressional "accomplishments").
We made the largest investment in student aid in our nation's history, reducing the cost of loans to families and reducing the deficit.
Pelosi thinks we don't know that an "investment" by Congress is really your money that they taxed so they can spend (and spend and spend) it on sending somebody else's kids to college when you can't even afford to send your own kids to the local junior college. How that reduces the deficit is beyond me.
We achieved more progress over the last four years for our veterans and military families than any time since the passage of the original GI Bill in 1944. And we did all of this while restoring fiscal discipline to the Congress by making the pay-as-you-go rules the law of the land.
Usually when the word, "progress," comes out of the mouth of a politician, it's a bad thing. But I'm not really sure what kind of progress they inflicted on our military and veterans. But let's assume that this time it's a good thing. Notice that she goes back four years, not just the last two. Could it be that President Obama hasn't been progressive for our military? Could it be that President Bush was beneficial? Could it be that the Democrats want to take credit for anything good that happened during the last two years of the Bush Administration but want to place all the blame for the bad things on Bush? Pelosi's got a lot of nerve on that one.
But the one that really frosts my chaps is the part about "restoring fiscal discipline" by passing pay-as-you-go rules. Riiiiight! They waived the Pay-Go rules for the Stimulus bill and used some neat tricks and carved out plenty of exceptions, so that the federal debt limit is over $12 trillion and the deficit for fiscal year 2009 was $1.42 trillion. If that's "fiscal discipline," I'd hate to see what happens when Congress runs amok with our money.
So now, after two years of shutting Republicans out of the decision-making process, the Democrats suddenly want to "work together" with Republicans. In fact, they "welcome Republican ideas about job creation." How truly selfless of them. Because Pelosi assures us that she and her fellow Democrats are fighting for us - the people - for our jobs, for the economy, and for the middle class.
And she thinks we're going to believe that. Like I said, Nancy Pelosi is demented.
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Election Results (Updated)
I was hoping that California would finally wake up and smell the manure and get rid of it. But apparently not. State offices are going to a straight Democratic ticket with just under 50% of the precincts reporting.
If the results continue this way, we're so screwed.
Update (Wednesday):
They did, and we are.
If the results continue this way, we're so screwed.
Update (Wednesday):
They did, and we are.
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