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.

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?

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!

Latest example: a Carl's Jr. Restaurant on DeSoto & Lassen in the Chatsworth. All parking places are marked "20 minutes only".

Perhaps a new standard in fast food. Wait in line 10 minutes, attempt to swallow entire meal whole, call 911 for a Heimlich maneuver, and pay your parking ticket because the paramedics were too slow, or, if more likely, let your heirs pay it because you died.

Maybe not where to eat.

OK, I know. The parking places are marked so that under some obscure local regulation (enacted by the same reality-challenged people who go into politics everywhere), they can toss people out when they want to. But who wants to go someplace where that's on their agenda?

An interesting connection of ideas on the BNP, the left, and their common enemy:

Perhaps the greatest service that religion once rendered to Western civilization was providing the individual with a real or imagined hotline to God. Whether this was simply a conceit or not let us set aside for the moment. For as long as man imagined himself to be sacred and accountable to the Creator he stood at the center of polity. The state was there to serve him and not the reverse. Today he has lost that central place and is no more or less than a collection of curiously animated chemical substances with a market value of less then fifty dollars which the state has deigned to keep alive until some bureaucratic panel decides it is too expensive to do so. Just as Global Warming can be understood at one level as an attempt to bring nature into the purview of politics, it is impossible to understand the Left’s fixation with abortion except as a sacramental affirmation of the state’s power over man. The strident insistence on abortion on demand goes way beyond any conceivable need to prevent backroom abortions, or even an affirmation of a woman’s right to choose. It is really an absolute display of the power of politics over life. Abortion’s principal utility is as a stake driven through the heart of the notion of human sacredness, which once performed, ought to prevent its revival entirely.


"way beyond any conceivable need" -- I grinned at that. But then I took the point: the rhetoric of the pro-choice movement is far beyond what is needed. Why is that?

Making the point graphically that I've tried to make for the past several days.

It needs a labelled point at the right end of the curve: "The Internet."

Source: Indexed.

Not what you'd expect: the ones who are stung here are the corrupt policemen in Odessa Texas.

"KopBusters rented a house in Odessa, Texas and began growing two small Christmas trees under a grow light similar to those used for growing marijuana," claims a release from NeverGetBusted.com "When faced with a suspected marijuana grow, the police usually use illegal FLIR cameras and/or lie on the search warrant affidavit claiming they have probable cause to raid the house. Instead of conducting a proper investigation which usually leads to no probable cause, the Kops lie on the affidavit claiming a confidential informant saw the plants and/or the police could smell marijuana coming from the suspected house."

"The trap was set and less than 24 hours later, the Odessa narcotics unit raided the house only to find KopBuster's attorney waiting under a system of complex gadgetry and spy cameras that streamed online to the KopBuster's secret mobile office nearby.

"The attorney was handcuffed and later released when eleven KopBuster detectives arrived with the media in tow to question the illegal raid. The police refused to give KopBusters the search warrant affidavit which is suspected to contain the lies regarding the probable cause.

"It is not illegal to grow plants under a light in your home but it is illegal to lie on an affidavit and plant drugs on a citizen. This operation was the first of its kind in the history of America. Police sometimes have other police investigating their crimes but the American court system has never dealt with a group of citizens stinging the police. Will the police file charges on the team who took down the corrupt cops? We will keep you posted."

See the videos. Nervy, good reporting: just like I applauded with ACORN. Let's get rid of the bums in government.

It's a mystery to many people: there are local schools with certified teachers provided at taxpayer expense. Why should people in economically straitened circumstances nonetheless opt to home school their kids?

Religious reasons? Not for several couples I know. Why are they doing it, then?

Because the public school system is too dumb, and they don't want their kids revering stupidity. The most popular answer: "Can give the child a better education at home."

One example from this week is this article.

NEWARK, Del. — Finding character witnesses when you are 6 years old is not easy. But there was Zachary Christie last week at a school disciplinary committee hearing with his karate instructor and his mother’s fiancé by his side to vouch for him.

Zachary’s offense? Taking a camping utensil that can serve as a knife, fork and spoon to school. He was so excited about recently joining the Cub Scouts that he wanted to use it at lunch. School officials concluded that he had violated their zero-tolerance policy on weapons, and Zachary was suspended and now faces 45 days in the district’s reform school.

You'd think this was an isolated case, wouldn't you? Sadly, it isn't. It's one of an embarrassment of riches scattered across the land.

All of these zero-tolerance rules are wrong. I know that many were invented by the school district to get around lawyers for parents who sue because young homicidal Henry was choking a schoolmate for the second time that day and was suspended, and the lawyer wants to portray Henry as a deeply misunderstood saint. I understand that lawyers and judges are temperamentally brain-damaged and can't understand reality. But here's the point: just because they are, doesn't mean that we should shape reality into forms that they CAN understand. The schools are not here to teach the judges and lawyers. They quit learning years ago. They are not here to teach the parents whose view of the school is that it's a free babysitting service to get Henry out of the house.

Along those lines, would you care to listen to a favorite message, from a school district in Austrailia?




Sounds like the right approach to me.

UPDATE: It never rains but it pours.

As mentioned before, lengthy disclosures degrade, rather than improve decision making.

Today's example: New York City's new law requiring calorie counts on chain restaurant menu boards.

Did it make a difference in what people ordered?

.... only about half the respondents even noticed the calorie counts and only 15% said they influenced their choice. But the receipts told an even more dismal story: overall, people actually purchased more calories after the law went into effect.




The full study correctly notes that the increases were not statistically significant: so a correct report should properly say that the disclosures had "no effect" rather than a "bad effect".

From an absolutely marvelous photography blog. Evidently, the bloggers are planning to publish a book with these and other wildlife photos from the mid-Atlantic states: I'd suggest that it's worth looking for.

Sa Nuit D'ete (Nocturnes) by Lauridsen is a haunting, unexpectedly powerful choral work. I enjoy it. Proverb (1995) by Steve Reich illustrates his essential weakness: he composes by coming up with a concept, rather than a visual or auditory line: what a small thought to fill 11 minutes. Igor Stravinsky I've listened to enough to think he's over-rated at the moment. And "Three Songs from Statuesque (2005) by Jake Heggie is a pleasure to listen to, with funny moments (Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman 1932 being my favorite.)

An interesting short piece from someone I enjoy arguing with.

In one of the funniest articles he's written, A N Wilson says what's wrong with the Sony Walkman, and calls it "the gadget that helped break Britain."

For those of us who liked getting on a bus or a train and overhearing, or even taking part in, conversations, there is something a bit bleak about the dozens of private solitudes which nowadays clamber aboard.

It apparently hasn't occured to him that many of them are listening to the music from the walkman, ipod, or whatever in preference to listening to him. But I suspect they prefer their music to his conversation.

I'll bet you think that's impossible, right? Bank of America is a large bank, and the government wouldn't simply threaten them with being fired to get them to lose shareholders' money?

Not according to the Attorney General of New York: they were supposed to lose money on the Merrill Lynch buyout or be fired.

What was missing, of course, was a good reason why the pension funds that hold BofA stock should have to take the hit: they have older people to look after, who need the money they were promised.

Governmental compassion on display. We're in the best of hands.

You've probably seen them: ads promising that you'll get program x/product y/facecream z "and just pay the shipping". Have you wondered what's going on?

There are several levels of what's going on: first, with the economy going downhill, people aren't showing up at their usual sources of disinformation, and advertisers want to reach them. Odd as it sounds, this is the harmless version of what's going on: they're subsidizing something in an effort to build a mailing list, or "e-mailing" list. You may notice that suddenly your inbox gets lots of stuff you didn't anticipate: that list of addresses can be sold and re-sold to other advertisers, and they're happy to give you a try. You might even agree that it's harmless until your inbox reaches the stratosphere: "You have mail" turns out to mean another 300. Since this morning. It's another way to realize that your time has value, and that perhaps that offer wasn't as good as you thought it was.

Second, service providers have noticed that you're paying something, shipping costs, and giving them a credit card. You will find that some of these have authorizations to charge your credit card money each month for the privilege of access to their information. Some credit card companies are sharp enough to catch these, and will notify you at the first statement -- but most won't. As a matter of fairness, they will give you a difficult to execute procedure for canceling the ongoing charge (calling an 800 number that rings 50 times only to yield to a voice advising you, in Spanish, that the mailbox is full is one I've seen). Some of these will involve making a "support request" at an associated website: and they can always say they didn't get it. It really doesn't improve when whatever you ordered arrives: you've just validated a mailing address, and you're back on the solicitation lists you thought you were off of, and there will be a notice inside detailing one of the barely-working methods of canceling the account. Slimier, arguably providing service for value, but not in my book.

Some sites are offering premiums like laptops -- but only if you recommend ten friends. And this leads to the noise in the equation: if you want the laptop, and you provide ten friends, you're engaging in the same kind of thing that the post office used to ban as "chain letter fraud". It doesn't take too many levels of "refer 10 people" to exceed the population of the country. So something interesting has developed: a market in "being a friend" for referral purposes. There are websites dedicated to posting the offers and allowing acceptances for groups of temporary friends, all of whom agree to fill out the information on the site, pay shipping, and otherwise look like a genuine referral in return for cash. The poster gets the laptop, or xbox, or whatever premium the site offers, (note that paying 10 people $20 each not only covers their shipping costs and gives them walking around money, but also gets you a laptop for $200 -- not bad.), and friend-for-pay cancels the service after ten days or so to look like s/he meant to check out their service and changed his/er mind.

This "noise" has another name: fraud. The friend-for-pay is engaging in a conspiracy to defraud the marketer of the benefits of his scheme for getting his valuable address list by helping clutter it up with unmarketable junk, and sending off laptops to people who haven't cooperated in good faith. I'm sure the FTC, or Department of Consumer Affairs or some other local government entity, is starting to look out for some of these things (and I'm sure that Google and other companies that engage in giveaways should be more interested in their bottom line). If they aren't, of course, just pass this on. I'll pay shipping.... (OK, kidding)

Several years ago, I learned that one of the ways to make bad plays funny was to add "On Ice!" to the title -- which turned out to work for good plays, too (Death of a Salesman On Ice! promised such wonderful comedic possiblity). Today, thanks to the Fast & Furious movie franchise and its dedicated band of reviewers, I got the cinematic equivalent:

Here is a secret I discovered with some friends a couple of years back: putting Tokyo Drift after inappropriate movie titles is a joke that never gets old. Citizen Kane: Tokyo Drift! Wendy and Lucy: Tokyo Drift! Breakin' 3: Tokyo Drift!

Eugene Novikov's reviews seldom disappoint, even when the movies he is reviewing do: one more quote to send you hunting through Google for "Eugene Novikov" "film blather":

Among other things, it taught me that "nothing really matters unless you have a code." Paul Walker speaks that line maybe halfway through the film, his face a tumult of emotions like boredom, mild confusion and the munchies.

Why read the blogs when you have Name of Prestigious Newspaper Here?

Perhaps because you'll know what's going on before the readers of the paper.

You Know This Guy We Haven't Told You About? Well, He's Not Going to Be Important! During the Trent Lott scandal, if I remember right, there was speculation that the blogosphere would really have arrived when a high public official suddenly resigned over an Web-borne scandal without the scandal being mentioned in the respectable mainstream press--so if you had only read the New York Times or Washington Post you'd have no idea why this person quit or what the scandal was until he or she was gone. Poof! Killed by ninja blogs.** Well (without regard to the merits of the dispute), the Charles Freeman withdrawal is close to that case, no? WaPo apparently printed its first news story on the controversy the day it ended--i.e. when Freeman withdrew. Ditto the New York Times. ... What does this event signify? Not to be too portentous, but it signifies you can no longer be a well-informed citizen if you just read the Times and Post print editions. You have to go online.

Which brings up another point: How many of you don't read Kausfiles?

A category: the annoyingly true.

As with most history, it doesn't do much to describe what goes on in the world today, other than provide an entertaining narrative gloss.

In other words, biology without darwinism is still biology, and the experiments conducted would not be that different.

The above, from a respected biologist, confirms that the dustup over evolution is a proxy for something else.

It's the something else everyone is concerned with.

Read the article.

That's the quick summary of this speech by Havel, which was not politely received by the European Parliament (a body which doesn't care if it insults heads of state is an interesting choice to speak at, but I applaud Havel's courage).

Interesting quote:


The present decision making system of the European Union is different from a classic parliamentary democracy, tested and proven by history. In a normal parliamentary system, part of the MPs support the government and part support the opposition. In the European parliament, this arrangement has been missing. Here, only one single alternative is being promoted and those who dare thinking about a different option are labelled as enemies of the European integration. Not so long ago, in our part of Europe we lived in a political system that permitted no alternatives and therefore also no parliamentary opposition. It was through this experience that we learned the bitter lesson that with no opposition, there is no freedom. That is why political alternatives must exist.

And not only that. The relationship between a citizen of one or another member state and a representative of the Union is not a standard relationship between a voter and a politician, representing him or her. There is also a great distance (not only in a geographical sense) between citizens and Union representatives, which is much greater than it is the case inside the member countries. This distance is often described as the democratic deficit, the loss of democratic accountability, the decision making of the unelected – but selected – ones, as bureaucratisation of decision making etc. The proposals to change the current state of affairs – included in the rejected European Constitution or in the not much different Lisbon Treaty – would make this defect even worse.

Since there is no European demos – and no European nation – this defect cannot be solved by strengthening the role of the European parliament either. This would, on the contrary, make the problem worse and lead to an even greater alienation between the citizens of the European countries and Union institutions. The solution will be neither to add fuel to the “melting pot” of the present type of European integration, nor to suppress the role of member states in the name of a new multicultural and multinational European civil society. These are attempts that have failed every time in the past, because they did not reflect the spontaneous historical development.

I fear that the attempts to speed up and deepen integration and to move decisions about the lives of the citizens of the member countries up to the European level can have effects that will endanger all the positive things achieved in Europe in the last half a century. Let us not underestimate the fears of the citizens of many member countries, who are afraid, that their problems are again decided elsewhere and without them, and that their ability to influence these decisions is very limited. So far, the European Union has been successful, partly thanks to the fact that the vote of each member country had the same weight and thus could not be ignored. Let us not allow a situation where the citizens of member countries would live their lives with a resigned feeling that the EU project is not their own; that it is developing differently than they would wish, that they are only forced to accept it. We would very easily and very soon slip back to the times that we hoped belonged to history.


Read the whole thing. Rather important to the project of Europe.

Veterans' Day, Who Needs It? The school district has decided to ditch the holiday because "students don't understand it."

My suggestion? Ditch school. If they can't be bothered to explain things, you're not getting an education anyway.

It's not nice to point out things that are unfavorable to us. You might get an unfavorable impression. That appears to be the thought behind this protest.

Ok, here goes. If you're resigned to staying where you are, and not persuading people to help change their circumstances, if you are not pestering the government (locally, provincially, and nationally) to change the things that can be changed (from public health, to building codes, to training programs for jobs), then, while I recognize your dignity as a human being, I don't respect you. If you are working at those things, then you're too busy to be bothered by things that you are overcoming. So the protest sets you, not the studio, not the author, in an unfavorable light.

Was that clear enough?

Pocket Obama, the book for everyone to read daily as they acquire the key knowledge of America under the new administration.

Or the silliest joke this week.

Periodically, I get called a hypocrite by one person or another because I don't always live up to my own standards. It has proved impossible to explain to people the difference between "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" and machiavellian plotting to deceive.

I wonder if people would understand a different perspective on hypocrisy: it is aspirational. Check out this article.