May 2005 Archives

SPOILER WARNING...Don't Go Below Unless You've Watched The Finale

So there was a mother that was barred from reading the Bible in her son's elementary school class. She wanted to read it because the school lets children invite a parent to come read the student's favorite book in class as part of "Me Week".

Atrios, of course, comes down smugly on the mother saying there was probably NO WAY that the Bible could be his favorite book and this was just all some plot. What an arrogant prick.

Since I heard the mother interviewed on our local NPR station, she said that she and her son read the book every day and he loves the stories. As a child, who would not love the stories like Joseph, or Daniel in the lion's den, or Noah's ark, etc. They're great stories.

As an English Lit major, I recognize that the Bible is literature as well as scripture, and that it has been the basis for a lot of other stories that we hold as essential reading in the American/English culture.

But he cannot recognize that, and refuses to take the mother's story on its face. Which is a shame. His commentary is a classic example of marginalizing all Christians as lunatics and fanatics. Atriso likes to use the term wingnut to describe partisans on the right, or even libertarians, when they're bordering on lunacy. Maybe for his extreme atheistic views he should admit to wearing the mantle of wingnut today.

[Author's Note] - Commenter Ragdrazi says that Atrios is defending the mother, and I'm overreacting. Maybe I am overreacting a bit. But I don't believe Atrios is defending the mother. I think he's saying that in most cases this would not be a big deal, but in this circumstance he thinks the mother is agitating, and he most certainly did say that he doesn't believe that the Bible is the boy's favorite book. Atrios is still buying into the current liberal myth that people who are Christian are automatically part of the "moral majority" and right-wing. That kind of stereotyping needs to end.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R) from Wisconsin would like to lock you up if you learn of "drug activity" "near" minors and fail to report it to authorities within 24 hours. That'll be a minimum of 3 years and $10,000 please. And that's even if you're a parent...which is good, because obviously you must be a bad parent, and the State will do a much better job raising your kids while you're in jail. Link here.

Hey hey hey, it's that crazy Sensenbrenner again. This time he'd like to do away with FCC regulatory fines...with straight jail time. Janet Jackson's boob? Jail time. Howard Stern? Jail Time. T.O. and that blond lady from Desparate Housewives? Jail Time. He promises this will in no way have a chilling effect on free speech. SUURREE. Link here.

Congress has released the text of the second Patriot Act. Patriot Act II - The Empire Strikes Back. I haven't had much time to review it, but the EFF has some good writeups about it. Link here.

I saw Revenge of the Sith today with Heather. It was as awesome as everyone else has said. It was great in all the ways it should have been, tying the links and threads together into a coherent whole. It seemed, back at the end of episode 2 that there was no way that Lucas could bring it all around and redeem himself...but he did.

I nearly cried at the end it was that good.

Someone shot me this link.

This is NOT worksafe.

To summarize: in Norway, at the end of the 13th grade, right before final exams, the school lets the kids go crazy. It's called 'russ', and the link I've provided is of a girl at her high school who's campaigning to be the president of the russ by stripping on stage in her high school auditorium to Missy Elliot.

The video was leaked to a TV station, which then posted it on its website. A senior minister in Norway objected...that they posted the video. Apparently, this kind of thing has happened before...the stripping on stage that is.

I'm kind of speechless.

I keep seeing promos for Nanny 911 on Fox with these bad kids that keep misbehaving and often, smacking or hitting or throwing things at their parents.

Call me crazy, or worse, but if my son or daughter threw a toy at my wife or hit her, it would be a spanking. For thousands of years people have used corporal punishment with little or no ill effect, and I can't argue with that. I won't argue with that. I view spanking as a valuable tool in my job of raising good humans.

I don't know how they approach spanking on Nanny 911, but I know that many people look down on it these days, I don't care. I've made my choice, and it was mine to make.

Over at atrios.blogspot.com, there's an entry wondering why more small businesses don't support "liberal" ideals, because, in the author's eyes, they're obviously more small business friendly.

The answer is obvious to me. The democratic party has for a long time now (since FDR) supported policies that are very business-unfriendly, pushing an increase in meddlesome agencies like the EPA, OSHA, SEC, SBA, FTC, etc. Maybe they're well-intentioned, but well intentions doesn't cut it. Congress has given these agencies broad discretion to enforce laws with little or no cap on their power. Their fiat rulings are hard to oppose or defy, and when someone does stand up to them, it costs them time and money and often jail time. And their decisions are largely arbitrary, based on nothing more than the person prejudices of the "enforcement officers".

Not only that, Democrats push policies that put a lot of business at a disadvantage by requiring companies to hire minority firms first, rather than seeking out the small businesses that do the best job.

Democrats wish to reinstate the inheritence tax, which would unduly burden the children of entrepeneurs who would inherit their family's successful businesses.

And Democrats wish to increase taxes on the very same upwardly mobile entrepeneurs who are making money because apparently the money they earn in due reward for their hard work isn't really their's after all. It now somehow belongs to society, and government, who thinks it knows better how to spend that money.

Small business people don't like the Democrats, and so called "liberal" ideas because they represent the worst kind of interventionist meddlesome government that makes the lives of small business owners harder. They impede the best efforts of those working the hardest to make a good life for themselves.

That's why most small businessmen throw their lot behind the Republican party.

Of course, that is not without its own peril, as the Republicans would like to be able to control what people can and cannot buy. Republicans actively seek to reward larger businesses with laws granting them government-enforced monopolies that are unassailable in court. And they still wish to tax people for useless agencies, though not to the extent of the Democrats.

Any questions?

I ran across this in my RSS aggregator. Anyone know if this is on the level? Are more and more soldiers going AWOL?

Kansas wishes to change the definition of science to allow it include discussions of intelligent design in science class.

I'm all for people having their own beliefs, and I'm definitely fine with them passing their values on to their children. As a taxpayer (grudgingly) I don't believe that a discussion of "intelligent design" belongs in publically funded classrooms.

Now, if you want to remove your child from the public school system and home school them and include intelligent design, fine. Send them to a private Christian academy that teaches intelligent design, okay. Hell, I don't care if you just pull your kids out of school and don't teach them at all. That's your call as a parent. Where I get prickly is where you wish to take a personal matter like your faith, and force it on my children.

So I had to go pick someone up at the airport on Tuesday after work. I planned on taking the R1 train out of Suburban Station since SEPTA runs a train straight into the airport. When I get down into the platform I find out that they've somehow lost all power to their overhead lines. This means that all of the trains are not running.

I head over to the customer service desk and I stand as I listen to the employees explain "No, we don't know when we'll have power restored" and "No, your roundtrip ticket is not valid on the bus, you'll have to pay for the bus as well". I ask them how to get to the airport and find out that I have to take the subway down to near the stadiums, get out and wait for a bus. So I take my laptop bag and all of my things and head into South Philly. My heavy laptop bag. It felt like it weighed a ton.

Two hours later I'm finally pulling into the airport after a long and scenic (and vaguely smelly) tour of South Philly. It was not without its highlights. I was enthralled with the sight of the Sunoco Oil Refinery, and there was some really nice little neighborhoods that we passed through, great old Victorian houses and little gardens. But it was just the long time waiting at each stop and the whole inconvience of it all.

If I had wanted to take two hours to get to the airport, I would have let my wife drive down with the kids and handle it. What a goddamn pain. The worst of it is that something happens like they lose all power and everyone at SEPTA acts like they have no responsibility to their customers and that they shouldn't be held responsible for events "beyond their control".

A good private company would not treat their customers that way and would have worked to mitigate their customer's pain. I hate SEPTA.

So I saw this article referenced on Eschaton this morning and went to read it. Kevin Drum said in his article

"Union power in the private sector began to wane in the 1970s, and it's not a coincidence that this was exactly the same time that middle class wages began to stagnate, CEO pay began to skyrocket, and income inequality began increasing inexorably."

I haven't seen a stagnation of middle class wages, but that's only my perception. More importantly, I find the comment to be troubling because Kevin Drum doesn't provide any information to back up his claim. I'd like to see some economic data that backs up that assertion.

What I will say is that based on what I've been reading in Henry Hazlitt's "Economics In One Lesson" unions do little to impact the real wages of their employees, and often reduce the real purchasing power of many people across the economy and drives the prices of goods up.

I can summarize Hazlitt's arguments if anyone's interested, but I'd recommend you pick up his book instead, since he did a fine job writing it.

So, a young man working in a custard shop in North Carolina puts his finger too deep into the mixing machine making soft-serve and loses it down to the first knuckle.

Soon after, in the confusion, a customer gets some soft-serve that has the finger in it. Said customer, Mr. Asshole...I mean, Clarence Stowers, decided, even though it was only 30 minutes since the finger was lost, that he WOULD NOT RETURN THE FINGER so it could be reattached at the hospital. This despite the fact that the shop manager asked him to return it. No, instead, he took it home and froze it, where he only shows it to the media and his lawyer. He claims he is greatly upset and debilitated. He also wants the finger tested for "all the diseases that are out here now".

It's obvious that Clarence Asshole Stowers is in a litigous mood, and is MORE concerned with bilking a small custard stand of money rather than helping the poor man who lost his finger.

So, if I were the young man, I myself, would suddenly feel very litigious. And for every dollar he might get from the custard stand, I'd demand two dollars back.

More details of the story can be found here.