Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Hooray for free enterprise! Hooray for Brooks Johnson!*
Not everyone thinks that free enterprise and the free market are the best way to run the world, but those who don't are just plain wrong. Of course it's not a perfect system, there is no perfect system, but it has taken America from being a colony to being among the best places on this planet (IMHO) in a paltry 200 years.
So. Why don't we use that principle to fix what we think is wrong with the world, instead of making people angry & letting people shoot at the kids that were supposed to be our future. There are about 27 million people in Iraq (which is about twice the geographic area of Idaho), 40% of them under 15-years-old. We are approaching the point where we will have expended $300,000,000,000 in our efforts there, or about $10,000 per Iraqi. In a country where a doctor might have a salary of $150/month, don't you think we might have fared better to simply "buy" the people into achieving our goal, whatever it was, by offering them $10,000 each to shut up & sit down?
*Mr Johnson is the only child of a US Congressperson serving active duty in Iraq. All of our other leaders' children are obviously too busy to volunteer.
Not everyone thinks that free enterprise and the free market are the best way to run the world, but those who don't are just plain wrong. Of course it's not a perfect system, there is no perfect system, but it has taken America from being a colony to being among the best places on this planet (IMHO) in a paltry 200 years.
So. Why don't we use that principle to fix what we think is wrong with the world, instead of making people angry & letting people shoot at the kids that were supposed to be our future. There are about 27 million people in Iraq (which is about twice the geographic area of Idaho), 40% of them under 15-years-old. We are approaching the point where we will have expended $300,000,000,000 in our efforts there, or about $10,000 per Iraqi. In a country where a doctor might have a salary of $150/month, don't you think we might have fared better to simply "buy" the people into achieving our goal, whatever it was, by offering them $10,000 each to shut up & sit down?
*Mr Johnson is the only child of a US Congressperson serving active duty in Iraq. All of our other leaders' children are obviously too busy to volunteer.
Monday, June 19, 2006
Hooray for insensitivity! Hooray for C students!
I certainly did not mean for this blog to turn into an assault on the Bush clan, really I didn't. Though I am no Republican, I'm hardly a real Democrat, either, but really, out of 300 million people the best you Americans could do was W? A few days ago, without too much fanfare, this fellow truly outdid all his previous transgressions by taunting a blind man* for wearing dark sunglasses!
Way to go, leader of the Free World!
*Full disclosure, our intrepid leader asked Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times, direct quote, "Are you going to ask that question with shades on? I'm interested in the shade look, seriously, there's no sun!" Mr Wallsten is partly blind as a result of macular degeneration, and consequently wears sunglasses all the time to protect his eyes from glare. I guess he forgot to bring a note from his optometrist for the President.
(Just in case you think I'm some wacky liberal inventing a story, here's the ACTUAL VIDEO of Bush Lite taunting the blind man!...Coming soon, "kick the beggar", after all, what these poor people really need is a swift kick in the pants...) W taunts the blind guy
BORN ON THIS DATE: Mr Charles Spurgeon, who famously said "When you see a fellow with a great deal of religion displayed in his shop window, you may depend upon it, he keeps a very small stock of it within"
DIED ON THIS DATE: Sir James Barry, 1937, who said "I know not, sir, whether Bacon wrote the works of Shakespeare, but if he did not it seems to me that he missed the opportunity of his life."
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I certainly did not mean for this blog to turn into an assault on the Bush clan, really I didn't. Though I am no Republican, I'm hardly a real Democrat, either, but really, out of 300 million people the best you Americans could do was W? A few days ago, without too much fanfare, this fellow truly outdid all his previous transgressions by taunting a blind man* for wearing dark sunglasses!
Way to go, leader of the Free World!
*Full disclosure, our intrepid leader asked Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times, direct quote, "Are you going to ask that question with shades on? I'm interested in the shade look, seriously, there's no sun!" Mr Wallsten is partly blind as a result of macular degeneration, and consequently wears sunglasses all the time to protect his eyes from glare. I guess he forgot to bring a note from his optometrist for the President.
(Just in case you think I'm some wacky liberal inventing a story, here's the ACTUAL VIDEO of Bush Lite taunting the blind man!...Coming soon, "kick the beggar", after all, what these poor people really need is a swift kick in the pants...) W taunts the blind guy
BORN ON THIS DATE: Mr Charles Spurgeon, who famously said "When you see a fellow with a great deal of religion displayed in his shop window, you may depend upon it, he keeps a very small stock of it within"
DIED ON THIS DATE: Sir James Barry, 1937, who said "I know not, sir, whether Bacon wrote the works of Shakespeare, but if he did not it seems to me that he missed the opportunity of his life."
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Sunday, June 18, 2006
Hooray for Dads!
Who else is gonna teach you how to tie a bowline knot,
skin a squirrel, hock a loogie , shave , tip your first cow , or write your name in the snow without a stick?
And Hooray for Balance!
While Jeb Bush might be anti-choice when it comes to a woman's right to choose, he is pro-choice when it comes to helmets, helping repeal the Florida motorcycle helmet law six years ago. This pre-emptive move has helped increase the motorcycle fatalities in his state by more than ten-fold that short time, which would have helped offset the population increase had his wishes regarding abortion also become law.
BORN ON THIS DATE: Isabella Rossillini, 1952
DIED ON THIS DATE: Ethel Barrymore, 1959, who said "The best time to make friends is before you need them.
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Who else is gonna teach you how to tie a bowline knot,
skin a squirrel, hock a loogie , shave , tip your first cow , or write your name in the snow without a stick?
And Hooray for Balance!
While Jeb Bush might be anti-choice when it comes to a woman's right to choose, he is pro-choice when it comes to helmets, helping repeal the Florida motorcycle helmet law six years ago. This pre-emptive move has helped increase the motorcycle fatalities in his state by more than ten-fold that short time, which would have helped offset the population increase had his wishes regarding abortion also become law.
BORN ON THIS DATE: Isabella Rossillini, 1952
DIED ON THIS DATE: Ethel Barrymore, 1959, who said "The best time to make friends is before you need them.
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