Who Wants To Stage A Sneeze In?

Teach your children well:

Steve Cuckovich says the practice is disrespectful and disruptive. He's banned saying "bless you" in his high school health class in Vacaville. He even knocked 25 points from one student's grade for saying the phrase in class. Cuckovich says the policy has nothing to do with religion, but says the phrase is just a outdated practice and disrupts class time. "When you sneezed in the old days, they thought you were dispelling evil spirits out of your body," Cuckovich said. "So they were saying, 'god bless you' for getting rid of evil spirits. But today, I said what you're doing doesn't really make any sense anymore."

Yeah, I think if I wanted to make the world a better place, the first thing I'd do is start stamping out the tender little niceties of society, so we could all focus on the war of all against all that makes things so pleasant. Christophobic much?

Ron Paul Should Watch This

Well, he and everyone else. 11 minutes to understand the modern history of "Palestine."

Die, Boomers, Die --Hollywood & Race Edition

Disappointingly, Morgan Freeman made dippy remarks about racist opposition to Obama a little while ago. Now he's been invited to a tea party by one of the movement's original organizers, Ali Akbar. Behold how he reveals the race question to be a sub-set of the Boomer question in an open letter:

I do believe that you are wrong in what you said about the tea party, but I would rather prove it to you than castigate you for your comments.
I also understand that your reflexive comments came from experience. You grew up in a different America than the one that I was blessed to be born into. We both grew up in the south, but I never saw ‘White Only’ signs. I’ve been called a name or two in my three decades, but racism has always been the exception in my life, not the rule, as it probably was in your youth. I understand your suspicion of conservative political movements. It is rooted in pain and fear and memory, and though I never saw the horrors of segregation that you did, we share that cultural heritage.

Akbar has looked to Freeman as a father-figure:

I idolized you as a boy. Growing up without a father, you were one of the strong black men in my life who gave me a model to follow. Each of the characters you played had dignity and confidence. I tried to emulate the strength you projected. While many of my friends headed down the all-too-familiar path of drugs, unwed pregnancies and crime, I’ve striven to live a life with dignity, be an example for my brothers and make my mother proud.

And that makes the stupid comments painful:

Your comments about the tea party have caused me physical pain. You’ve rekindled the old painful paradigm of Uncle Tom – that any black man who votes Republican is some kind of sellout. It’s not true. I work hard, pay my taxes, love Jesus, and I’m good to my family and community. In effect, your comments have stereotyped an entire group of people. And I know in my soul that you must regret that on some level.

He winds up with this:

Mr. Freeman, I’m not asking you to adopt my political views. You’re in your seventies, and a political shift is not in your future. I’m reaching out to you because I want you to think better of your fellow countrymen. Barack Obama is in the White House, and Herman Cain just won the Florida straw poll. America is the land of opportunity for black Americans like never before.
I’m hoping that you’ll come to a tea party in Tennessee — the place of your birth. Really anywhere in the country that works for you; I’ll set it up with the one of the thousands of activists I know around our great country. I’d be delighted to introduce you to good people who will welcome you with open arms, disagree with you, and then feed you some of the best barbeque you’ve ever tasted.
Racism is an ugly thing, but I assure you that it is part of our past, not our present.

Good on 'im, and RTWT.

Is The White House Smarter Than A 5th Grader?

Edit before you laminate, people.

Contemporary Colosseum

A word about "Chaz" Bono being on Dancing With the Stars. Couldn't agree more with Ann Barnhardt's take:

Chastity Bono is Sonny & Cher's daughter who is claiming to be a member of the non-existent category "trans-sexual". She has mutilated her body and is taking male hormones in order to "appear" male. Chastity Bono was sexually abused as a child by her lesbian pedophile nanny for years. She has spoken and written about this openly. This sexual abuse was what caused Chastity Bono to develop serious psychosexual disorders. When lesbianism didn't "cure" her psychological problems, she sunk deeper into mental illness and began this process of self-mutilation. And this won't "cure" her either. My question to you is: ARE YOU ENTERTAINED? By watching and/or passively supporting this monstrous usury of Chastity Bono's childhood trauma and resulting mental illness ARE YOU SUFFICIENTLY ENTERTAINED? Or will you be needing more?

Forward to the 4-minute mark and see the little girl whose pain is now considered sport.
Curtsy: American Digest

Bongino For Maryland

MD GOP seems to have rounded up an actually credible candidate to oppose Ben Cardin for his Senate seat. Attends a Catholic church, though there's not a word about social issues on his site that I can find. Crossing my fingers on that, because otherwise he looks whip-smart. A GOP-guy who gets immigration right (finally, someone who says we need to streamline the process for legal immigration and the rest of what he says. He's thought it through).

Check out this interview. Listen to what he says about Baltimore & PG County: very exciting. He's ex-Secret Service:

555 Feet Up

Shamelessly pinched from here.

Engineers rappelled down the Washington monument today, to inspect damage from last month's earthquake. It appears it's pretty damaged. The Parks Service released video of mortar falling on the day of the quake, and apparently the cracks are allowing water damage. Cool description of the assessment process at the link.

More Evidence

Orange County couple threatened with fines for hosting a home Bible study. It's 50 people, so I thought maybe the neighbors thought they were blocking traffic, which would be annoying. But neighbors have actually written in support, saying the couple's not bothering anyone.

The Two Minute Hate Is Underway

Ft. Worth high school student suspended for three days for stating w/n earshot of a teacher that homosexuality is wrong.

That's only the latest in a gathering storm of incidents punishing people not because they intrude on anyone's rights, but because they will not bow in speech and conscience before the great god Sexual License.

Two items. Proposed HHS regulations slated to take effect next year will compel every employer to provide insurance coverage for elective sterilization and abortifacients, both abhorrent to the consciences of practicing Catholics among others.

There is a conscience exemption, but as Christopher Haley points out, it is drawn so narrowly that no actual religious charities qualify. Here's the definition:

a religious employer is one that: (1) has the inculcation of religious values as its purpose; (2) primarily employs persons who share its religious tenets; (3) primarily serves persons who share its religious tenets; and (4) is a non-profit organization under section 6033(a)(1) and section 6033(a)(3)(A)(i) or (iii) of the Code.

You're only religious if your purpose is to teach your religion, employ only members of your religion, and serve only fellow believers. Well, that excludes just about every faith-based charity, the vast majority of which employ whoever's best suited for the job and serve all comers. Do we think Catholic hospitals, which provide 20% of the nation's hospital beds, take only Catholic patients? Or that you have to make the sign of the cross and swear you're not having sex out of wedlock before they'll treat you?

Since service to those in need is as much a mandate of conscience as defense of the dignity of life, this is not a conscience clause, it's a drive-religious-believers-under-the-rocks clause. As Haley says,

this mandate directly and unabashedly lays the groundwork for the creation of a Catholic ghetto. It would force Catholics to serve primarily other Catholics, thus removing the overwhelmingly positive influence of Catholic charities, social services, hospitals, and schools on the broader culture.

This is a bad move for people who need medical care and other help:

The impact of Catholic institutions currently far exceeds the number of Catholics in America; Catholic hospitals, for instance, took well over 100 million visits and admissions in 2009, while there are just over 68 million Catholics in America. The doctors, nurses, and staff at Catholic hospitals are not primarily Catholic, and most importantly, the patients are not primarily Catholic. Catholic Charities USA, one of many Catholic charities, alone served almost 10 million people in 2009; the US Conference of Catholic Bishops oversees the federal program to serve victims of human trafficking and sex slavery; the list goes on—and none of these services “has the inculcation of religious values as its purpose.”

The actions of the administration would drastically reduce the number of people receiving aid from Catholic institutions, effectively forcing more people to go without aid, or to seek aid from state subsidy, thus increasing the tax burden on those who pay for such subsidies, and effectively reducing the role of faith in our communities, while denying many people basic services.

That's not the worst of it. The attack is directly on pro-life Christians, with Catholic institutions being the largest network, but of course the rules will affect every faith-based charity. The real problem is that it's a direct attack on the First Amendment guarantee of free exercise. The rules are crafted by people who think practicing faith means simply going to Church or Synagogue. It does not cross their minds that some people try to put what they hear at Church into practice in their own lives, or how much the societal impulse to help the poor and needy is energized and sustained by religious faith.

Kathleen Sebelius, in league with Planned Parenthood and NARAL, wants to solve the problem of pro-life stubbornness by crushing all before her. But what she's creating is a world in which religious believers are not permitted to serve their communities and no one is allowed to help people outside their own tribe. This is the end of the social contract and the headlong rush into a Hobbesian state of nature where only the state holds back the war of all against all.

 Comment period on the rules ends September 30th. Protest here. And write your reps to support the bill which will overturn the rules legislatively, if need be.


The head of the bishops' conference sees what's coming, which brings me to the second item. Archbishop Timothy Dolan's just penned a polite but no-holds-barred letter to the President about the administration's attack on religious freedom.

I write with a growing sense of urgency about recent actions taken by your Administration that both escalate the threat to marriage and imperil the religious freedom of those who promote and defend marriage.  This past spring the Justice Department announced that it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court, a decision strongly opposed by the Catholic Bishops of the United States and many others.  Now the Justice Department has shifted from not defending DOMA—which is problem enough, given the duty of the executive branch to enforce even laws it disfavors—to actively attacking DOMA‟s constitutionality.  
...
The Catholic Bishops stand ready to affirm every positive measure taken by you and your Administration to strengthen marriage and the family. We cannot be silent, however, when federal steps harmful to marriage, the laws defending it, and religious freedom continue apace. Attached you will find an analysis prepared by my staff detailing the various executive activities of late that warrant our increasing apprehension.

The letter was sent with an attached legal analysis which enumerates the ways in which the Administration is pushing same sex marriage on all fronts and concludes:

the comprehensive efforts of the federal government—using its formidable moral, economic, and coercive power—to enforce its new legal definition of “marriage” against a resistant Church would, if not reversed, precipitate a systemic national conflict between Church and State, harming both institutions, as well as our Nation as a whole.

Perhaps you think this is mere rhetorical flourish. I respond that quietly the Archbishop of Washington has in a series of discussions been steeling his men against religious persecution and orthodox priests --sensible, reasonable men, not alarmists-- are speaking calmly but openly in dinners with their friends about expecting to end up in jail for their faith. That is chilling talk to hear: this is America! you want to protest. This is meant to be the one nation on earth where a man need never fear to speak his mind nor fear government retribution for it. 

Judging by my facebook page, people don't see this danger. You publicize it, and there are two responses. Yawn, abortion and marriage are not my issues. Or, Yay, stick it to those Christian bigots. There are no pieties about, "First they came for the Catholics..."  or "I hate what you say but will defend your right to say it."  As I like to point out, the "N" in "Never Again" is silent.

Orwell's two-minute hate is upon us. Who will stand up?

Annals of Self-Awareness, 8

At the grocery store just now, a coverline from Spanish Cosmo caught my eye:

Auxilio! Mi madre es una cougar!

Is that not the target audience of Cosmo?

Not An Actual Campaign Theme

Eldest Weed & Rose Among Thorns regaled me just now with their latest collaboration (w/ apologies to Pink Floyd):

We don't need no regulation.
We don't need no price control.
No more attacks on foreign nations.
Barry, leave our cash alone.

Hey! Barry! Leave our cash alone!
...
All in all, it's just another quote from Ron Paul.
All in all, it's just another quote from Ron Paul.

Republicans, They Thirst For Death?

This banner is shamelessly pinched from American Digest, where it is meant to refer the the GOP's uncanny ability to snatch defeat from victory.

Since the last two GOP debates, however, cheers from the crowd at inopportune moments have unleashed the internet meme that Republicans applauded the executions of more than 200 men in Texas and want people without insurance to die.  

Cheering executions in Texas. I was troubled when that happened, although watching the video again, it's a minority of the crowd that applauds the executions --the clapping is muted and dies quickly; the loud applause comes at the end of Perry's remarks, where he states very solemnly that in Texas, if you take a life of one of it citizens, you're going to pay the ultimate price. That seems to be applause not for the deaths per se, but for "law and order."

Maybe you don't see a difference, but I do, even as a death penalty opponent, between "Yay, the bastard fried!" and "If you take a life, you will incur the same penalty on yourself." On second watching, I don't think the crowd was guilty of "Fry 'em!"

What surprises me is that no one has pointed out that Brian Williams' question --how do you sleep at night?-- was absurd, because Texas has an extremely weak Executive, and under the Texas Constitution, the Governor has no power to stay an execution. The most he can do is delay it for 30 days. Do we not remember this same question came up when Bush was Texas Governor?

OK, it doesn't actually surprise me that no one in media wants to point out Brian Williams was asking in utter ignorance (and the commentary at the close of the clip above is self-righteous emotionalism and dead wrong for the same reason), but doesn't the fact that Perry has zero to do with the execution rate in Texas make his answer --sort of taking credit for it-- kind of odd? I gather he supports the death penalty and didn't want to distance himself from the policy, but he should have at least pointed out the law, seems to me.

Letting people without insurance die. A WaPo blogger makes the case that the Ron Paul "death" moment didn't happen -- or at least not as it appears in meme.

The voices that can be heard in the video — perhaps two or three of them — don’t constitute an “audience” reaction. There were 1,100 people in the crowd. The episode is the clumsy work of a few loons or meatheads in the audience.

Those would be the diehard RonPaulians, whom even he finds weird. Let's just say they don't stand for the whole party.

The blogger points out that Paul didn't remotely suggest the hypothetical person should die. While technically true, and I think Ron Paul is innocent of any personal cold-heartedness, the nature of his answer to this and every single question ever asked him makes me wonder why in hell he wants to be President.

In a way, the question posed to Paul about healthcare is the same question posed to Perry about Social Security, and in fact, the only question ever posed by anybody to any Republican: You really think this federal social program is a bad idea? Why do you hate the poor and elderly?

I think every Republican present at the debate (the two Mormons possibly excepted) would agree that a federal program is rarely a good way to help people if you really want to help them, as opposed to control them and/or twist them in the wind of bureaucracy. But where the others simultaneously understand that we have to start from where we are, and have various proposals about how to do that, Paul never has an answer that explains how to get there from here.

Paul's answer to the healthcare question wasn't wrong, just beside the point. He is right that had we not created a culture of dependency on federal programs, we would have found superior, more creative and more responsive solutions at state and local levels, and would probably be a people of nobler character for it. But saying we did it wrong 70 years ago is not the same thing as knowing what we should do about it now.

And for that, Paul, being an uber-Libertarian, has a hands-off policy. He doesn't want to tell you what to do! He won't even tell the die-hard Paulistas they ought to repudiate anti-Semitism and trutherism, because he wants to leave them free. He's not responsible for what they think. Fair enough, but I wonder...why on earth does a man who never wants to tell anyone to do anything, ever, want to be Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief? Is it possible to conceive a person less temperamentally suited to the job?

4th Trimester Abortion Comes to Canada

This ruling is intellectually consistent, I'll give it that.

An Alberta judge has let a woman who strangled her newborn son walk free by arguing that Canada’s absence of a law on abortion signals that Canadians “sympathize” with the mother.

Because Canadians permit abortion, they obviously want infanticide too. The lifesite article blames Peter Singer for popularizing this idea, but Peter Singer has the decency not to actually follow through on anything he says.

Parental Notification, At Last

Parents must be notified before kiddies can order fries or sodas at Darden (Olive Garden) restaurants.

All kids’ meals will automatically come with a side of fruit or vegetables and eight ounces of 1 percent milk unless an adult requests a substitute, Drew Madsen, president and chief operating officer of Orlando, Fla.-based Darden, told The Associated Press.

I was unaware Olive Garden waiters were in the habit of sneaking kids junk food their parents hadn't ordered and weren't paying for, but whatevs.

Kiddies can still get fries even if Mom won't order them. They just have to seek judicial bypass. To order fries without parental consent or notification, Little Jane just has to convince a judge that:

• She is mature and sufficiently well informed about her nutrition options to make the decision without a parent or legal guardian being involved.
• It is not in her best interest for her parent or legal guardian to be notified.
• Notification of a parent or legal guardian could lead to physical, sexual, or emotional abuse.

So...if your mom will yell at you for eating junk food, ask a judge to bypass her authority. No one need ever know.

So Much For Post-Racial Society

Blogger Ann Althouse shot this video at a debate over affirmative action at UW Madison (and Instapundit has an interesting take). I guess I should be pleased that there is a debate, however rough the reaction, and that is the line I am going to try to take with myself in order not to sink into a Dark Mood.

Althouse's commenters take various personal digs at the young lady in the video, and point out flaws in her logic. Try to put that aside for the moment, though. Althouse is right, the anti-affirmative action side is in the awkward position of suggesting to some students' faces that they don't belong there, and that's not a pill that's going to go down easily....there's no telling what effect it has in consciences over time, however. And few people are perfectly eloquent in the spur of the moment when they're angry, so let that slide.

Here's what depresses me. The young lady's "stinging rebuttal" -- and the assumption of most of the room shouting agreement with her, embodied by the young man who cries out, "Think of your children!" is that when whites are the minority, we'll need affirmative action for whites. This is never going to end.

They don't think racial equality and fairness is a possibility or even a moral standard for which to strive. These students are not looking for a just society, they are assuming perpetual race warfare and a coming turn of the tables. The assumption is whites will never give them a fair shake, and they've no sense of obligation to give whites a fair shake. There is no equality, only power games. They laughed at the very idea of judging people for the content of their character!

That's enlightening for me. I thought we were all agreed that we should strive for a colorblind society, that affirmative action was on the course of ultimate extinction, and the real debate was over when: when will we agree that the playing field is leveled?

It has not occurred to any of these people that there will ever be a level playing field, nor do they care to strive for one. They have abandoned all hope for and commitment to justice, and they are not attached in any way to the fundamental moral sentiment of the republic: All men are created equal and endowed by their creator with inalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Not to be dire, but we know what Lincoln said, quoting his Master, about the house divided. We cannot remain free if our citizens no longer believe in the ideal of freedom.

Saddam Glad He's Gone

Blockbuster piece at NRO this morning on Saddam's WMD.

When American tanks smashed into Baghdad, Saddam had already completed construction of an anthrax production facility, which was a week away from going live. If it had been permitted to go into production, this one facility could have produced ten tons of weaponized anthrax a year. Experts estimate that anthrax spores that infect the skin will kill 50 percent of untreated victims. Inhaled anthrax will kill 100 percent of untreated victims and 50 percent of those receiving immediate treatment. That means that a mere 1 percent of Saddam’s annual production (200 pounds) sprayed by crop-duster over New York City would have killed upwards of three million people.

There's more about the mobile weapons labs hidden in a mosque, the "public health laboratory," and a supposedly innocuous drug company.

Investigators also found two labs that appeared to be producing animal vaccines. However, according to investigators, all of the equipment was “dual use . . . and easily diverted to produce smallpox or other pathogenic viruses.” Another nearby lab was busily working on cowpox vaccines, with the exact same equipment necessary to create smallpox. One should note that even a thimbleful of smallpox germs would be enough to kill tens of millions. Smallpox, placed in the hands of a terrorist group and released at a sporting event, would devastate a large swath of the United States.

Well, ok, but that's a big "if," right?  Why should we think the worst?

It should be noted that each of these facilities was staffed or often visited by persons previously identified by the U.N. as being associated with Saddam’s pre–Desert Storm WMD programs. One facility, often visited by Dr. Rihab Rashid Taha al-Azawi, better known to Western intelligence as Dr. Germ, maintained, according to investigators, a “small” capacity for production of organic agents. When it comes to smallpox, a “small” capacity is all one needs to create global havoc.

There's much more, but my take-away has less to do with my opinion of the war and more to do with public health. During the 9/11 anthrax scare --still not really explained-- we learned we didn't have enough Cipro for a public health emergency. So, whatever became of the smallpox vaccine stockpile we started working on then? And shouldn't there be a Cipro stockpile as well?

Broccoli Headed Brits

This evening I am feeling even gloomier about civilization than Mark Steyn. It began last evening when Mr. W. was reading me something he'd written about Jeffrey Sachs and the happiness quotient (it's in a new book). We were having fun mocking the return of Jeremy Bentham, but then I happened to run across this post at Secondhand Smoke and learned there's a movement afoot to have the government monitor --and try to provide-- your personal happiness.Even then I could still laugh because Peter Singer was behind it, and in spite of his having an Ethics chair at Princeton, no one really takes him seriously, least of all himself.

But lo and behold, David Cameron's government is taking a quarterly "happiness" survey.

Starting next month, the government will pose the following questions and ask people to respond on a scale of zero to 10: How happy did you feel yesterday? How anxious did you feel yesterday? How satisfied are you with your life nowadays? To what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile? Scarcely extraordinary, but Andrew Oswald, a happiness economics expert at the University of Warwick, suggested the questions were a good start, although he would have added, “How well have you been sleeping?” — an important mental health indicator — and “How pressurized do you feel your time is?”

Just a wee bit more:

The important thing, he argues, it to shift “from the concept of financial prosperity to the idea of emotional prosperity.” Perhaps that’s the 21st-century indicator we need: gross emotional prosperity, or G.E.P…Clearly, happynomics is no precise science, and how the happiness index will link to policy remains to be seen. But the idea is to put value on things that don’t have price tags…

No it isn't. The purpose is to 1) plant the idea that the function of government is to make you happy and 2) collect a database that suggests people who are unhappy with the government are mentally ill. How could you not be happy? We're giving you everything you need to be so!

Think it's not about spying on citizens? Submitted for your approval: The Daily Mail reports that the government has collected a database of more than 20,000 children -- ages 3 to 11-- who have uttered "racist" comments. It's supposedly part of an anti-bullying campaign, but know what counts as a racist comment? A little kid calling another one a "broccoli head."

Yeah, I can see how no child could ever recover from that. Why don't they just have the children turn their parents in while they're at it? I like how Britain is going after the three-year-olds, but has little to say about looters in the street. I liked the old-fashioned government program against bullying that was known as the cop.

As Peter Kirsanow reports at that link, the U.S. Dept. of Education is considering the same policy. Because playground discipline is a function of the federal government. And taking your kids from you if they happen to call another child "broccoli head" will be the next move.

Who Said This? Volume 5

It's been awhile since we had a round of Who Said This (no googling allowed!): Paul Krugman, in his textbook, Macroeconomics

Public policy designed to help workers who lose their jobs can lead to structural unemployment as an unintended side effect. . . . In other countries, particularly in Europe, benefits are more generous and last longer. The drawback to this generosity is that it reduces a worker’s incentive to quickly find a new job. Generous unemployment benefits in some European countries are widely believed to be one of the main causes of “Eurosclerosis,” the persistent high unemployment that affects a number of European countries.

Scroll over the white space just past the colon to find out!

I Find Your Lack of Bad Faith Disturbing

Only a decade after everyone else, I'm finally working my way through McCullough's John Adams.

Have just finished the account of Adams' time in France trying to win French naval support for the Revolution. I'm absolutely charmed by his impressions of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Voltaire  --and Benjamin Franklin, of course. It's also nice to hear a more balanced account of Adams, who tends to come off as an old prude in a lot of histories: which characterization, it turns out, is not really fair. He loved the French and France, adored the theater and opera, and both he and Abigail could roll with a bawdy remark or a double entendre when the occasion called for it. 

Enjoyed this mordant observation of McCullough's, regarding the French Foreign Minister:

Vergennes found Adams' unquestioned integrity unsettling.

Heh.

Floyd Is King

The Heir Apparent is an absolutely delightful evening of comic theater: an ingenious set, beautiful costumes, muscular direction, an ensemble cast with no weak links, and Floyd King, the consummate clown, outdoes himself. Mr. W. and I laughed all evening.

What I really want to praise, however, is the script, "adapted" from a play by Jean-Francois Regnard, who was sort of the Johnson to Moliere's Shakespeare in French theater. I use the scare quotes because what playwright David Ives has actually done is more like co-write an entirely new play.

Regnard was known for his comedies written entirely in verse. From the liner notes:

Regnard's verse has been called "ballets de paroles"..... Plays such as The Heir Apparent exhibit a veritable litany of verse tactics -- clever stichomythic exchanges, internal rhymes and rhymed refrains, alliterative and assonant passages hurtling along at a breakneck speed. These ping-pong games of words echo the similarly headlong pace of the stage action, which brims with clockwork reversals, roundabouts and unexpected resolutions. The overall effect of a Regnard play is one of ecstatic freedom paired with intense discipline.....

That's Regnard, but it is equally what David Ives has achieved in English with this adaptation. What a treat for anyone who loves wordplay and loves the English language! It's no fluke, either, I was equally impressed with his similar treatment of the script for The Liar last season. The cast makes the most of the script with spot on timing --the rhymes never get in the way-- but it's Ives I came away impressed with. What a talent!

Planned Parenthood Is Your Couch Bum

Simcha Fisher is a little ticked off at the President for restoring Planned Parenthood funding after New Hampshire cut it off. Strong temptation to quote the whole thing, but will highlight just her description of Planned Parenthood. You should RTWT for her mordant description of the Obama Presidency, though.

It had become public knowledge that Planned Parenthood routinely lies and exploits women and routinely commits financial fraud.
We heard from their own employees that most of the services they provide to Medicaid patients can easily be found elsewhere.
And with high unemployment and foreclosure rates, it kind of chafed to learn that NH Planned Parenthood CEO Steve Trombley rakes in $250,000 a year to head a non-profit, taxpayer-funded organization.

And a lightbulb went off in the minds of NH voters.  It was kind of like the moment when mom and dad realize that their son’s college friend, who’s been crashing on the couch for the last eight months, can afford an iPhone, a motorcycle, and a $70 pair of jeans, but somehow never manages to scrape up enough cash to pitch in for the rent.  He smokes pot and brings home skeezy girlfriends, and they’re fairly sure he has fleas.

And mom and dad ask each other, “Remind me why we’re putting up with this?”

So they put their foot down.  They cut him off.  The NH Executive Council voted 2-3 not to renew Planned Parenthood’s $1.8 million contract—enough is enough!  When there’s not enough money to cover the basics, responsible voters turn a fishy eye on the dead weight in the budget.
Remember, whenever someone criticizes Planned Parenthood, they immediately set up a howl of protest: “Abortion?  What abortion?  That’s just a tiny piece of the pie!  We’re not about abortion.  We’re about pelvic exams and education—that’s why we’re really here.”
So when their funding was cut, they proved their dedication to all things not-abortion by immediately stripping away all of their services . . . except for abortion.

Attitudes

Pool photo by Kristoffer Tripplaar

Yesterday was not the day to notice it, but this pool photo from the 9/11 memorial in New York seems telling to me. The Grey Lady's accompanying story is interesting too, for the contrast between the editorial position (Bush as loser, who didn't get Osama, dwarfed by Obama, who did) and that of the crowd (which cheered Bush).

We Will Never Forget What They Did Here

"American Pieta," Shannon Stapleton (Reuters)

President Bush at the dedication of Flight 93 Memorial last night (get your kleenex).

Go here, click "complete file" and watch this interview with Major Heather Penney, one of the jet pilots sent to intercept Flight 93 had Todd Beamer and his confreres not changed things up. Fast forward to about the 20 minute mark and listen to her tell you they had no missiles aboard (no time to mount them), so they were going to ram the plane. (Curtsy: American Digest). So much heroism from so many quarters.

To my Venerable Brother

The Most Reverend Timothy M. Dolan

President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

On this day my thoughts turn to the somber events of September 11, 2001, when so many innocent lives were lost in the brutal assault on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the further attacks in Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. I join you in commending the thousands of victims to the infinite mercy of Almighty God and in asking our heavenly Father to continue to console those who mourn the loss of loved ones.

The tragedy of that day is compounded by the perpetrators' claim to be acting in God's name. Once again, it must be unequivocally stated that no circumstances can ever justify acts of terrorism. Every human life is precious in God's sight and no effort should be spared in the attempt to promote throughout the world a genuine respect for the inalienable rights and dignity of individuals and peoples everywhere.

The American people are to be commended for the courage and generosity that they showed in the rescue operations and for their resilience in moving forward with hope and confidence. It is my fervent prayer that a firm commitment to justice and a global culture of solidarity will help rid the world of the grievances that so often give rise to acts of violence and will create the conditions for greater peace and prosperity, offering a brighter and more secure future.

With these sentiments, I extend my most affectionate greetings to you, your brother Bishops and all those entrusted to your pastoral care, and I gladly impart my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of peace and serenity in the Lord,

From the Vatican, September 11, 2011 

         

Iconic photos of the day. Islam showed itself that day; so did Catholicism.

Lead, Mr. President

There will be a lot of politicization of 9/11 over the next few days and in some ways I regret adding to it. But this must be said. It beggars belief that the President could call for a restoration of national unity but not be able to utter the name of his predecessor who led so nobly --as everyone agreed at the time-- on that terrible day and its aftermath.

A little leadership, a little grace. That's all I'm asking.

Another Reason To Hate Pink

I'm going to be forced to go "crunchy" simply because it's hard to buy any products at the grocery store these days without those damned pink ribbons on them.

The program itself irks me before we even think about the cause. I don't want to spend more money on a product so the company can give to charity. I'd rather keep my money and give to my own causes.

I won't give to the Susan G. Komen Foundation because it gives to Planned Parenthood. Especially dumb since PP's prime product is abortion and abortion is a risk factor for the breast cancer SGK wants to cure.

But if I used to think the group was just misguided and ignorant, I now think it looks more and more like a racket. It spends your pink dollars not only on abortion, but on suing mom & pop fundraising operations for trademark infringement.

"It happened to my family," said Roxanne Donovan, whose sister runs Kites for a Cure, a family kite-flying event that raises money for lung cancer research. "They came after us ferociously with a big law firm. They said they own 'cure' in a name and we had to stop using it, even though we were raising money for an entirely different cause."
Donovan's sister, Mary Ann Tighe, said the Komen foundation sent her a letter asking her to stop using the phrase "for a cure" in their title and to never use the color pink in conjunction with their fundraising.

It's just not a nice company anymore, yet try to find a product without the pink! 

Hard To Get Good Goons

Here's the most amusing reflection on the various confrontations between states and their public union employees I've come across. Glenn Reynolds observes:

Although there have been some violent incidents and death threats, overall, despite the talk from many right-leaning pundits about "union goons," the actual danger posed by the union members appears to have been very small by labor-historical standards. Apparently, you just can't get good goons nowadays.

Men forged in the fire of dangerous labor are an entirely different animal than men forged in the crucible of government bureaucracy.

When people who are used to dealing with cave-ins, or ladles of molten metal, hit the streets, they're putting those traits to work in an environment that's probably less dangerous than the one they work in every day. That makes them pretty formidable.
In fact, it made them so formidable that they were able to put together unions solid enough to send the industries they depended on overseas, where labor was more tractable, because the bosses weren't willing to face the headache of trying to get rid of the unions, and couldn't afford to pay the wages the unions, with their toughness, had managed to extract.

Public employees, on the the other hand...

When the public employees of, say, Wisconsin hit the streets, it looked more like a bunch of disgruntled DMV clerks and graduate teaching assistants, because, well, that's what it was.
[snip]
America's DMV clerks aren't known for toughness and dedication on the job, and it would be asking a lot to expect them to display such characteristics for the first time when they're off the job.

Heh! 

Photo credit

Captain America

Labor Day weekend was a weekend of labor primarily in the Weed household, but it required some sort of last hurrah to bid Summer vacation farewell, and only Captain America fit the bill of a movie wholesome enough for the kids, not too stupid for the adults, and as yet unseen by any of us.

I regret letting rumors that the "America" facet of the Captain would be downplayed keep us away all summer, since they proved completely unwarranted and this is a nearly perfect comic book film, with the dual caveats: 1) I never read Captain America or Avengers comic books as a kid, so haven't the foggiest whether it's true to the story and 2) I said "comic book film," so I am assuming you can suspend your disbelief that there was a worse Nazi than Hitler, who acquired occult powers and, in the 1940s, weapons technology beyond what we can dream of even today.

If you can will yourself not to think too hard about the premise, it's a thoroughly fun romp in which Americans and their allies are unreservedly the good guys and truth, justice and the American way...oh, wait, that's the wrong superhero... courage, loyalty, humility, self-sacrifice, decency and nobility carry the day.

Nice script. They take the time to develop characters before the action kicks in, and there's a gentle humor that is genuinely funny. It's a non-post-modern film: no camp, no ironic distance. I can't tell you how refreshing that is.  There's a fun and appealing cast with some of my favorite character actors as both good and bad guys. Nothing really surprising, but wholesome good fun, with no sly political agenda. A summer blockbuster that doesn't hate Americans? Imagine!

As is traditional, the Weedlet reviews, which being the spontaneous responses of my kids to the flick while out of earshot of one another:

Youngest Weed (7): Really, really good! But a little confusing.
Middle Weed (10): Awesome! (And indeed this was pretty much made for him.)
Rose Among Thorns (the girl, 12): (shrugging) It was okay. I enjoyed it.
Eldest Weed (14): Loved it. I like that for once the Americans were the good guys and they didn't try to pull the stunt of making us either the bad guys, or the ambiguously good guys because the other side has its points, too. Also, they didn't toss in a stupid love scene where it would make no sense.

As a bonus I'll throw in Mr. W's review, which I assure you is his absolute highest praise for a flick of this genre:

It could have been worse.

W Plays Golf, Too

So moving to hear this Iraq vet talk about Bush, but more moving to hear Bush talk about the country. Draw your own contrasts with a certain other person.

9-11 Memorial: What's the Point?

Here's a non-rhetorical question: what is the point of Mayor Bloomberg's 9-11 memorial?

Clergy are excluded, so it's not about praying for the dead and their families.
First responders are excluded, so it's not about honoring their courage and sacrifice so as to encourage those traits.
Secular memorial services are usually a celebration of the life that's past, with friends and family exchanging funny or poignant memories. There are far too many deceased and no one knows them intimately enough for that.

So what exactly is this event going to be? A celebration of victimhood? If there's another answer, please suggest it.