A good Christian man

“It is one of those irreconcilable conflicts that will end only in one way, one or the other must be exterminated . . . . We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to the extermination, men, women and children…The more Indians we can kill this year, the less will have to be killed next year. They all have to be killed or be maintained as a species of paupers.”

“To the petulant and persistent secessionists, why death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better . . . . Until we can repopulate Georgia, it is useless to occupy it, but the utter destruction of its roads, houses, and people will cripple their military resources….The Government of the United States has in North Alabama any and all rights which they choose to enforce in war – to take their lives, their homes, their lands, their everything . . . . war is simply power unrestrained by constitution or compact. We will . . . take every life, every acre of land, every particle of property, everything that to us seems proper…the war will soon assume a turn to extermination not of soldiers alone, that is the least part of the trouble, but the people . . . . There is a class of people, men women, and children, who must be killed or banished . . .”

Since apologizing for slavery has become such a fetish (even though nobody alive was responsible), perhaps we should continue mucking around in the past and try William Tecumseh Sherman for war crimes and genocide.

And speaking of solitary pleasures…

A man near Toledo (where people are bored enough to do such things) was arrested for screwing the umbrella hole on his metal picnic table. Unfortunately for him, it was close enough to a school that he’s been charged with a felony.

If I were judge, I’d sentence him to continue doing what he’s doing…with a wooden table.

Rubbing out library abuse

Breda discusses the, um, pleasures of the public library.

Dealing with public wankers is a difficult problem. If “this library belongs to the taxpayers”, then the perv is entirely within his rights to use “his” property as he sees fit. Since nobody considers that an acceptable outcome, perhaps it isn’t “our” library, just as they aren’t “our” roads, but the State’s. I can, to a certain extent, understand the jaded attitude of the administration. In the world of my parents, this would have been inconceivable. But that’s not this world, and it probably happens way too often. And if there are no other patrons around, there is no problem (except for maybe cleanup….yuck! and librarians chained to a desk who have to witness) On the other hand, I can see problems with the “call the cops first” approach. They aren’t folks I want to overly empower, it’s bad PR, etc.

The ideal solution would be for patrons to police each other. We need more little old ladies with umbrellas to whack their peepees and say “How dare you do that! There are children here!” Or some Haydukes sharing Astroglide containers full of Crazy Glue or capsicum salve.  Or Lorena Bobbitt. We aren’t going to restore public decency from the top down, be the top the librarian or the cop. It’s got to come from peer pressure.

Marc Dann recovers from case of stupids re Limbaugh

Apparently Rush is off the hook in Ohio for Operation Chaos:

In Ohio, party-switchers are supposed to sign a form attesting, under penalty of election falsification — a felony — that they support the principles of the party whose ballot they are obtaining.

But Jennings said it would be difficult to prosecute anyone because they also have constitutionally protected freedom of speech and it’s hard to prove voter intent.

“You can’t just make the assumption that someone is lying,” Jennings said.

It’s even harder to prove that either party of the Duopoly actually has principles to support.

South Park was right about the Loonies

Actual exchange:

Granddaughter Morgan (crying): “You hurt my widdle feewings!”

Grandma and Grandpa: “You’d better behave, or we’ll hurt your widdle ass!“

…and that’s exactly what Canadians should say to gays, Moslems and everyone else who thinks that their “human rights” have been violated if somebody takes a negative view of their group. Of course, they won’t, because Canadians are terminally nice. I suppose that would get me hauled in front of a Human Rights Commission if I said it in Canada.

The undead games at BGSU: dead or undead?

Figuring out just what’s happening here is a little difficult due to the fine standards of journalism upheld by the BG News; they never learned to ask “why”. But evidently Bowling Green State University has banned Nerf guns. This was presented by Taranto as another “campus overreaction to guns” thing, and so it may be. But then there’s this:

Smeltzer said he and group president Peter Geldes were called into a meeting with Associate Dean of Students Jeff Coats to discuss one of the University’s new policies. While in the meeting, the group was told the game was in danger of being canceled due to the number of calls the University received last semester from concerned parents.

Now, if Nerf guns are what parents are complaining about, why talk about banning the games entirely? Could it be that there was a concerted effort by fundamentalists to wipe out the games because of their occult content? if the use of the name “zombie” in this is occult, then I guess playing Cowboys and Indians is a form of applied ethnological research. In any case. it all looks like good clean safe (with or without Nerf guns) fun, and I have to congratulate BGSU on their educational and fundraising successes, given that their administration now has nothing more pressing than this to worry about.

More:

A search in the BG News suggests that “guns” are exactly the problem…that, and people running around doing the unexpected. It’s interesting that 2 of the most supportive messages for “the right to bear Nerf arms” come from the Women’s Studies dept….not a source I would expect. On the other hand, I see more sheep than can be found in the Ohio State ag department.

I couldn’t find anything in the Sentinal-Tribune or the Toledo Blade (keywords: “Nerf” or “undead”).

Fred Rogers he isn’t

I’ve raved quite a bit about our neighbors, and indeed, in general a very fine lot they are. But there’s one — and we’ll leave his name out of this, because he’s the sort who would look himself up in a search engine — who is a Good Old Boy. Oh, we get along well enough, but I know what he is, and that any agreements I make are likely to be with a can of Budweiser instead of him. I pretty much live and let live.

But yesterday, I heard a most distressing story. Apparently, according to another neighbor who witnessed the whole thing, GOB left his full trash can outside instead of in his barn (I call that “bait”) and had a live trap next to it. There was a cat caught in it; by the description, it sounded like Sassy or Pretty Girl, Jamie’s old cats that we took on as barn cats but that have gone pretty much feral. And the son of the resident trollop was beating the cat to death with a club as GOB looked on approvingly from the house, giving directions and encouragement.

Now, first, he does have the right to do something about invading cats. It’s his property. It might not be a wise or neighborly thing to do. They’re cats, after all; they don’t obey my rules, let alone his. And I didn’t seize his chickens when they were free-ranging on the wife’s hostas; I put up an electric line, and they eventually learned to stay away. But he can make them go away, preferably to an animal shelter, though kitty heaven is not out of line.

But anyone who would use a leg trap instead of a live trap for a cat is just a sadist. And having used a leg trap, the cat could have been put out of misery with a single .22 shot. And the trap could have been dragged away to do the whole business somewhere else than in front of the big-hearted animal-loving neighbor’s window. No, they were having fun! As they probably did with our missing Reggie.

I actually discussed dropping a dime (There’s an outdated metaphor!) on the guy, but Rusty pointed out that it would make trouble for the other neighbor, who should be the one to do it if anyone did. I suppose if anyone is more exercised about this than I am, they could figure out the perp.

The bright side (for us, not him) is that his house is in foreclosure. No, he wasn’t stupid, just egregiously optimistic. He has a better mortgage rate than we do, and a fairly modest debt. But he signed on for a 15 year with his (now ex-) wife. With a 30, he would have been OK, or if his wife was working and they were still married. But his monthly payment is not one I would take on, and I’m pretty sure I make more than he does. I don’t see any way he’ll get out of this, especially since he had his woods logged to build his barn. I don’t know if he’s upside-down on the place; Zillow says not, but in my experience the folks at Zillow have a lot in common with the folks at High Times. Anyway, we may be rid of a cat-torturer soon.

Paging Neal Boortz

Similarly, if libertarians should ever call for reducing or abolishing taxes in some particular area, that call must never be accompanied by advocating the increase of taxation in some other area. Thus, we might well conclude that the most tyrannical and destructive tax in the modern world is the income tax, and therefore that first priority should be given to abolishing that form of tax. But the call for drastic reduction or abolition of the income tax must never be coupled with advocating a higher tax in some other area (e.g., a sales tax), for that indeed would be employing a means contradictory to the ultimate goal of tax abolition. Libertarians must, in short, hack away at the state wherever and whenever they can, rolling back or eliminating state activity in whatever area possible

—Murray Rothbard, Strategies for a Libertarian Victory

The price of dollars is falling

For folks like my dad, who like to blame the eevul greedy oil companies, here’s some interesting comparisons:

2006 Now %change

1 barrel oil 1 barrel oil

$75 $105 40

232 zlotys 236.25 zlotys 1.7

.125 oz gold .111 oz gold -12.6

6 oz silver 5.77 oz silver -3.99

.0682 oz platinum .0525 oz platinum -30

It looks like oil is actually getting cheaper. Now, if I could only get Case to pay me in gold…

FL to allow guns in workers’ cars?

Look, I’m as sympathetic to businesses complaining about their eroding rights as anyone. But when it comes to Florida’s new gun bill, they’re just wrong. Do employers have the right to search cars parked in their lot? Does having four wheels on company land make the car company property? Of course not! So why shouldn’t employees keep guns in their cars? If this were about a right to carry into the workplace, I’d be the first one to speak against it. That’s a market issue: companies that ban guns should be paying more or having trouble getting qualified help…or just possibly finding it easier, if the most qualified help are wusses.