| FPB writes:You may have heard about the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (which actually has nothing to do with the EU, although I have no doubt that its decision was welcomed by parliament and commission) to order the crucifixes to be removed from all Italian classrooms. What you will not have heard is the response to this decision. The country appears to have clenched itself like a fist, and the general feeling appears to be that if the eminent and learned judges want the image of the Crucified removed from our schools, they can bloody well do it themselves - and face the consequences.
The European court wished to rob them of their history and their culture, on the ground that Italy is not Europe, and Italy responds, correctly, that Europe is not Italy. It is ironic that a country so in favor of the European project is robbed in this way: it almost seems a deliberate flouting. Read the whole essay. | |
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| From the BBC, proof that God can be kind to men despite our many flaws. For those drinking little - less than a shot of vodka a day for instance - the risk [of heart attack -- ed.] was reduced by 35%. And for those who drank anything from three shots to more than 11 shots each day, the risk worked out an average of 50% less.
Sounds good to me. Sadly, it doesn't work out as well for women, but then SOMEBODY has to be sober enough to get me home and make reasonable decisions. Also on the down side, someone at the FDA will get wind of this and decide that drinks can only come by prescription, and organized crime & government will get their usual synergistic boost out of the silliness. Either that, or they will decide that, in line with the decreasing care afforded to people over 55, they won't allow drinking either. And with that thought, I need a drink. | |
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| It is one of the odd parts of the Christmas Season -- the name of the "major shopping day" going in is "Black Friday". The name, of course, is shared with a major financial scandal. A friend who works in retailing said "It's the day we hope to sell enough to get out of the red for the year and back in the black." That would mean that they were facing annual losses until the volume of this day pushed the chain into profit -- a pretty glum forecast. Amazon's own "Black Friday" sale will start on MONDAY of next week -- because the day is successful enough that even the Internet doesn't have the capacity to record the sales. I'm guessing that more people will be shopping on the net this year just so they have time to consider whether Uncle Fred will actually WANT a motorized scale model of the crash of the Hindenburg with hydrogen gas supply extra. What do you think? | |
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| From Bloomberg: In a bid to sustain the recovery, Congress passed and the administration signed a bill last week to extend jobless benefits and incentives for first-time homebuyers, adding a provision that also made funds available to current owners. Is Congress really suggesting that if I'm out of a job, I need to buy a house??? It's time to replace this whole crowd. | |
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As usual, I don't remember watching this: on the 9th, I spent the day traveling to get to a meeting of the Negotiated Acquisitions Committee in St. Louis, MO. I arrived early in the morning, got my luggage, and took a cab to the hotel, hoping to get a couple hours of shuteye before the meeting opened. I asked the cabbie, "So what's up? Any interesting news?" He looked at me like I was a Martian, and handed me the paper, which had an article describing the wall's fall. I read, and said, "This is really wonderful! Let's hope it goes further!" He looked at me in the mirror a moment again, and said, "Do you really think it will?" I said, "Yes, I think it's the beginning of the crumbling of the walls of the world's largest prison." He said, "I was a defector. I worked as a translator for the KGB in Greece -- and I still have a wife and son in the USSR. I haven't seen them in years. Do you think that they will have a chance to get out?" I said, "Watch for it. There will come a time that they will be able to get out. Tell them to take advantage of it, and move when they can."
He was crying. I offered to pay him for the paper, and he declined, but I did leave a rather large tip when we got to the hotel. I hope it worked out for him and his family.
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| Prime Minister Rudd, of New Zealand, has decided that climate change skeptics are holding the world to ransom.
Speaking at the Lowy Institute yesterday, Mr Rudd divided the opponents of climate change action into three groups - science sceptics, those who paid lip service to the science but opposed taking action, and the ''wait for others'' group of blockers. He said all were ''quite literally holding the world to ransom'' by provoking fear campaigns in every country they could and blocking or delaying legislation where they could, ''with the objective of slowing and, if possible, destroying the momentum towards a global deal''.
I happily accept any credit he gives on the subject, though I think he's overstating my influence. I recognize that I come from the side of the debate that invokes logic more often. But still, you'd think that he would have figured out which side is demanding money. | |
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| It's an interesting idea, despite the fact that every Washingtonian I know has, upon entering the District, ceased to have any original ideas. Why not write your Congressman? Well, mine is Henry Waxman. His website feedback form routinely hangs whenever I try and enter things -- but then, he's not much on feedback from constituents, being a national figure and all. | |
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|  I'll keep posting this. I want different results, guys: do you suppose we ought to be doing something different than we are? | |
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| As it turns out, it depends a lot on who you want to count. The key numbers are in table A-12 of the Bureau of Labor Statistics release.Let's spend a moment with those definitions, using the rationales of the people who created them:
U-1 Persons unemployed 15 weeks or longer, as a percent of the
civilian labor force.
U-2 Job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs, as a
percent of the civilian labor force
U-3 Total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor
force (official unemployment rate)
U-4 Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of
the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers.
U-5 Total unemployed, plus discouraged workers, plus all other
marginally attached workers, as a percent of the civilian
labor force plus all marginally attached workers
U-6 Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers,
plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a
percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally
attached workers.
NOTE: Marginally attached workers are persons who currently
are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they
want and are available for a job and have looked for work
sometime in the recent past. Discouraged workers, a subset of
the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason
for not looking currently for a job. Persons employed part
time for economic reasons are those who want and are available
for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time
schedule. For more information, see "BLS introduces new
range of alternative unemployment measures," in the October
1995 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. Updated population
controls are introduced annually with the release of January
data.
So what is our unemployment in September?
5.4 (U-1)
6.8 (U-2)
9.8 (U-3) (official)
10.2 (U-4)
11.1 (U-5)
17.0 (U-6) (comprehensive)UPDATE:
5.7 (U-1)
6.9 (U-2)
10.2 (U-3) (official)
10.7 (U-4)
11.6 (U-5)
17.5 (U-6) (comprehensive) | |
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He's not entitled to be there, he's not entitled to read them, he's not entitled to take them. This is a violation of the defendant's rights.
What do you want to bet that the Arizona judge won't be able to draw that conclusion?
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| It's always interesting to see how modern culture is viewed, knowing that a variety of viewpoints is out there. It is even more important, after seeing, to discriminate between worthwhile and inferior views, cultures, and thoughts. Engage!
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| P G Wodehouse said it best: "It is no use telling me that there are bad aunts and good aunts. At the core, they are all alike. Sooner or later, out pops the cloven hoof." In this case, it's leftists, and the same moral applies. Code Pink is calling for unlawful kidnapping in the guise of justice: at a fundraiser for Obama, no less. They are, sadly, serious about doing things in a way that they are not serious about facts. This is self-dramatizing silliness. | |
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| The General Staff system was borrowed widely from Germany. Not that it helped them win WWI, but it sounded impressive. Its key flaw is that you get a lot of bright people in a room with too much time on their hands and not enough interaction with others. So the American general staff, for example, War Plan Red was actually designed for a war with England. In the late 1920s, American military strategists developed plans for a war with Japan (code name Orange), Germany (Black), Mexico (Green) and England (Red). The Americans imagined a conflict between the United States (Blue) and England over international trade: "The war aim of RED in a war with BLUE is conceived to be the definite elimination of BLUE as an important economic and commercial rival."
In the event of war, the American planners figured that England would use Canada (Crimson) -- then a quasi-pseudo-semi-independent British dominion -- as a launching pad for "a direct invasion of BLUE territory." That invasion might come overland, with British and Canadian troops attacking Buffalo, Detroit and Albany. Or it might come by sea, with amphibious landings on various American beaches -- including Rehoboth and Ocean City, both of which were identified by the planners as "excellent" sites for a Brit beachhead. The plans are copiable for $0.15/page in the archives. I think they'd make good prank material. | |
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