Not good enough for Jihad Cindy

“We were prevented from entering Gaza … by Israeli patrol boats that tracked us for about 30 minutes. They shone their spotlight on us and then all of a sudden they rammed us approximately three times, twice in the front and once in the side,” said former U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney who was aboard the boat.

What’s the matter, Israel? No submarines?

A Pee hack writes about Grammy Sarah

What a lovely opening sentence from the A Pee writer:”The teenage daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose quest for the vice presidency began to go downhill the day she announced the pregnancy, has given birth to a son, a magazine reported Monday.” The insertion of the unnecessary (and untrue) parenthetical opinion leads to an ambiguous sentence structure (was it Sarah or Bristol who was running?). If the writer was important enough to have an opinion worthy of public notice (in violation of Strunk and White’s style rule 17), she should have had a byline, so I would know to whom I should send a copy of “Elements of Style”.

There are a further three paragraphs (out of 13) with extraneous information about people not really part of the story. I have to wonder if this writer would write this lede for a Caroline Kennedy story: “The niece of Sen. Edward Kennedy, whose political career was damaged by an automobile accident at Chappaquiddick MA which led to the death of a young woman, is seeking an appointment as Senator from New York.” Since this is obviously the type of professional MSM style to which all bloggers should aspire, perhaps we should add such a parenthetical to any mention of Princess Caroline. Sauce for the goose, and all…

Stalin: 3rd most popular historical Russian

…assuming that Rossiya state television didn’t use Stalinesque methods of vote-counting. They did, however, control ballot access, which is the new and American way of rigging elections.

The Libertarian Party should take this to heart in considering whether the vote is a functional path to liberty. It’s an appalling choice, but not so bad as could be. #1 was Alexander Nevsky — arguably not so important historically, but he had a major motion picture made about him. And #2 was a real dark horse: Pyotr Stolypin, early 20th c. reformist and anti-leftist Prime Minister. Note that all three were rulers; we’re told that Russia reveres its artists, but where did Pushkin, Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky fall on the list?

The pro-Stalin vote can be seen as reflective of public-school history teaching. The American equivalent would be a vote for Abe Lincoln — not that “Abe Lenin” is comesaurate with Stalin (though the War Between the States was as close as American has come to a Russian WWII experience), but he’s remembered as a soundbite: “Freed the slaves / saved the Union”, and the wrong that he did in the process is dismissed (not to mention debate about whether the Union should have been “saved.”) If Lincoln had ever sunk as low as Stalin, he would still rank as high in a US poll. Racist comments about Russian eagerness for the whip don’t matter; sheeples is sheeples, and we would score no better.

A clear message of change

That’s why the GSA permitted the “change.gov” domain name:

“I am writing to request a waiver from the Internet.gov domain naming conventions as outlined in 41 CFR102-173.90 and register and assign the www.change.gov domain to this office,” he wrote. “I understand that this CFR citation addresses special restrictions on the use and registration of canonical, or category, names in the Internet .gov domain space and that your office previously denied a request from the GSA Presidential Transitional Team to register this domain.”

He continued, “As the executive director of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Project, I believe that a clear message of ‘CHANGE’ is required to effect a successful presidential transition and that establishing the www.change.gov domain is a critical component of this message.”

If that’s  ”a clear message of change”, then it’s a message that government doesn’t have to follow its own rules. I don’t understand how the hell that constitutes “change”, but it’s certainly a clear message about how Obama will rule.

Cruise: Let’s count queers

I guess I’m one of those old-time liberals who believes that government has no business in the bedroom. I also tend to hide my pallor on census forms, defining my race as “human”. So what makes Tom Cruise think that gay people will tell the truth to the census man? And why is it the government’s business anyway? Didn’t Hitler count the Jews first?

My kind of Santas

...covering speed cameras in Tempe AZ.

Reason’s Steve Chapman makes the case for inflation

…and gets his ass handed to him in the comments. And here.

Really, how much lower can that allegedly-libertarian rag go?

Ex-church member to get her fornication advertised

Boy, this seems to be “Religion Day at QatD”

There are so many things screwy about this story, one scarcely knows where to begin. So we’ll begin with the church. There’s a reason that the Catholic Church (the original, the biggest, accept no substitutes) is so big on the sanctity of the confessional. Working with souls and their attachment to sin is a delicate business. When you leave it to lay mentors, they’re apt to overreact and call out the big guns, like the congregation’s gossips and spies. I’m sorry, but somebody who would stake out a house all night has spiritual problems of her own that need fixed before she calls out a sister on her sin. I have to wonder if this guy ever thought to work on or with her desire. Mr. Young could have solved the problem at any point, by marrying her. That he did not do so speaks volumes; either he is using her and has no desire to commit, in which case she can do better, or else he is not free to commit, because he’s still married to somebody else, and she can still do better. In either case, his love and fidelity is suspect. “This is not what you want” is more powerful than “You’re a sinner.” He is “not a member of the church”; indeed, I’d wager that Young is not a Christian at all, which brings us into “unequally yoked with unbelievers” territory. Lastly, since she’s left Grace Community Church for one less anxious to help her with her spiritual problems, making a public spectacle of her is uncalled for. Drop an email to the pastor of her new church, maybe, so he’s aware of the problem…which he probably is now anyway.

Now, there’s Hancock. Since she brought it up to her mentor, she apparently had some inkling that this was wrong. I doubt however, in the light of what followed, that she felt a lot of guilt; I wouldn’t be surprised if the context was “How do I get my boyfriend to marry me?” Since she was dealing with a layperson, she should have known that he didn’t have the same legal obligation to shut his mouth. We’re dealing as much with heresy as lust here; I suspect that Hancock believes that, “this can’t be wrong, because it feels so right.” She doesn’t want to sacrifice for her faith. I understand, believe me, I do; I was at war for years with Mr. Tetragrammaton over this stuff, and I’m the last person qualified to judge her desire. But the essence of sacrifice is to give up something good to get something better; as long as she was with Young, she wasn’t going to get married. Maybe she was spooked by her divorce…but that goes back to the heresy issue.

So, she gets creeped out by GCC getting into her business, and what does she do? She goes to the press! Now the entire world knows that she’s “the church harlot”, which is a big price to pay for making her former church look bad. Her kids and friends (who were going to be told in church), her new church, total strangers like me… we all know, so what’s Grace going to do? Sure, maybe they have lurid details (and whose fault is that?) But she’s already showed her ass, so what can they do, really? Worse, she’s exposed herself as a idiot (look at that pic…and is that a lip stud?)

Her church will do what it will do, so will she, life will go on. Pray for her, and him, and Grace Community Church. God has ways of pulling out deus-ex-machina happy endings (has something to do with His being a “deus”) and given that this story is more face than tragedy, that would be fitting.

Blame Ohio for high salt prices

ODOT has done an analysis of why road salt is so scarce and expensive this winter. And it’s not all a matter of high energy prices and low stockpiles:

In the report, ODOT Director James Beasley points to bidding behaviors by Morton Salt and Cargill Incorporated in which “the two firms created county-by-county monopolies.” Both companies operate mines beneath Lake Erie and other Great Lakes.
But Beasley also is careful to spell out how Ohio statutes, passed in 1983 under House Bill 271, stifle competition.
The laws mandate ODOT buy salt from Ohio producers when two or more in-state suppliers exist and stipulate either Morton or Cargill win any Ohio county when both firms submit a bid for selling Ohio-mined salt.
“Price savings that might result from competition are not realized under this statute,” the report states. “When the bids for road salt were received from Ohio suppliers, no ODOT county received more than one bid. Because each county received only one bid from either firm, Morton and Cargill never competed head to head against one another.”

My Commie readers (if there are any) would say, “They’re colluding in restraint of trade.” Well, yes. But they doubtless colluded to get this law, and the state is a partner in the collusion. Any deals they make about bidding are just frosting on the cake. Then there’s this:

Further complicating the price issue were “minimum-maximum” regulations in ODOT salt contracts. The contracts require Morton and Cargill to mine and provide a maximum amount of salt to communities, but those contracted communities may only be required to buy, at minimum, one-third of the salt produced.

There’s a cost to store salt that might or might not be needed, and that cost needs to be passed on to the consumer. The certainty of having salt available might or might not justify the cost, but it is a legitimate cost.

What would Hayduke do?

As a prank, students from local high schools have been taking advantage of the county’s Speed Camera Program in order to exact revenge on people who they believe have wronged them in the past, including other students and even teachers.
Students from Richard Montgomery High School dubbed the prank the Speed Camera “Pimping” game, according to a parent of a student enrolled at one of the high schools.
Originating from Wootton High School, the parent said, students duplicate the license plates by printing plate numbers on glossy photo paper, using fonts from certain websites that “mimic” those on Maryland license plates. They tape the duplicate plate over the existing plate on the back of their car and purposefully speed through a speed camera, the parent said. The victim then receives a citation in the mail days later.

Now, it is clearly deeply immoral to sic the state’s guns on innocent victims, and this must stop. However:

“I hope the public at large will complain loudly enough that local Montgomery County government officials will change their policy of using these cameras for monetary gain,” the parent said. “The practice of sending speeding tickets to faceless recipients without any type of verification is unwarranted and an exploitation of our rights.”

Clearly, “Mongomery County government officials” are not innocent. Just sayin’.

UPDATE: They’ve figured out what to do in Australia.