Bush can't sign that bill. He swore to uphold the Constitution. If he goes along with this travesty, he will be forsworn. He will be little better than a scoundrel-Democrat. Thy word is but the vain breath of a common man.
Of course we all know that politics is full of ambiguity and compromise. Even the best of politicians must do some dubious deals to retain the power to do good. But there is nothing ambiguous here. This is bad law, and clearly unconstitutional. And Bush has already said as much. Defending the Constitution is the duty of All branches of government, not just the Supreme Court. Because Congress has betrayed its duty does not excuse the president to do likewise. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I've been trying to make my posts less wide --I'm sure they've been hard to read. But nothing I tried seemed to work. I gave the cell that holds them a narrower width, but my browsers just laughed at me!
Unskilled as I am, I didn't notice that I had added a graphic that was wider than the cell. Browsers expand a cell to hold whatever you put in them. Once that post moved into archives, my text reverted to the width I wanted.
If you are interested in rustic architecture, or just want to see what I'm referring to, that selfish JPEG is here. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
(Joke in 2 parts due to mystery upload glitch. Part 1) A shepherd was tending his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new Jeep Cherokee appeared out of a dust cloud, advanced toward him and stopped. The driver, a 24-year-old young man wearing a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and a YSL tie, leaned out of the window and asked our shepherd, "If I can tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?"
The shepherd looked at the young guy, then at his peacefully grazing flock, and calmly answered, "Sure."
The young man parked his car, whipped out his notebook computer, connected to a cellphone, surfed to a NASA page on the Internet where he called up a GPS satellite navigation system, scanned the area, then opened up a database and some Excel spreadsheets with complex formulas. He finally printed out a 150-page report on his miniaturized printer, turned around to our shepherd and said, "You have here exactly 1,586 sheep!"
(Joke in 2 parts due to mystery upload glitch. Part 2) "Amazing! That's correct! Like I agreed, you can take one of my sheep," said the shepherd.
The shepherd watched the man make a selection and bundle it into his Cherokee. When he was finished the shepherd said, "If I can tell you exactly what your political persuasion is, where you're from and who you work for, will you give me my sheep back?"
"Okay, why not," answered the young man.
"You're a Democrat from Palm Beach and you're working for Jesse Jackson," said the shepherd.
"Wow! That's correct," said the young man. "How did you ever guess that?"
"Easy," answered the shepherd. "Nobody called you, but you showed up here anyway. You want to be paid for providing a solution to a question I already knew the answer to. And, you don't know squat about what you're doing because you just took my dog."
Once again, American taxpayers are struggling to complete their tax returns. They will pay accountants and attorneys some $140 billion this year to generate paperwork to accompany their checks to the IRS. The 46,900-page U.S. Tax Code governs the whole process, with enough loopholes to lasso a light breeze.
Too bad this isn't Russia.
Since January 1, 2001, Russians have enjoyed a 13 percent flat tax. That's right. The once-Communist superpower now stands to the right of publisher Steve Forbes on taxes. The former GOP presidential contender staunchly advocates a 17 percent flat tax.
"Sometimes philosophical seeds fall on interesting ground," Forbes says. "After Marxism, which was the philosophical equivalent of the IRS code, something understandable has obvious appeal."
...This initiative "is establishing the custom of paying taxes in Russia," senior Duma member Dr. Konstantin Remchukov told me over lunch last fall. "It's greatly simplified everything." He says that three years ago, tax revenue equaled 9 to 10 percent of Russian GDP. By last November, that number had grown to 16 percent. This follows the supply-side Laffer Curve: Lower marginal tax rates produce higher revenues as both new and previously concealed economic activities enter the tax base. No wonder Russia's GDP grew 5 percent in 2001...
De Debbil, disguised as my pal Dawson, has been teasing and tempting me with stories about those frabjix new iMacs. I'd love to have one. I offered to swap my soul for one, but 'ol Beelzebub just laughed and said they were back-ordered and he hadn't even yet got one for himself. He had the effrontery to offer me a Compaq! Egad. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"Can anyone seriously argue that the Daschle- Biden-Leahy-Leiberman-Kerry-Wellstone- Clinton-Waxman-Frank-Boxer-Gephardt-Rangell- Hollings-Pelosi-Toricelli-Nadler-Edwards-Levin- trial-lawyers-abortion-absolutists-public-employee-union- NAACP-Streisand-West-Wing-Jackson-Brown- Free-Mumia-suckerfish-and-solar-car-carnival is prepared to lead the defense of this country, and of the West?"--Hugh Hewitt
... Davis' people are apparently under the assumption that it will be easier to run against Simon than against Riordan ...
... This is a political déjà vu. Pat Brown was also sure he could easily beat a Republican candidate who had never held elective office. Brown got his wish when he was able to run against Ronald Reagan.
It's likely these are just giddy-head dreams. Sober chaps like Richard Bennett will read this and snort with derision.
NewsMax reports a Field Poll, which not only puts Conservative Republican Bill Simon ahead of Liberal Republican Riordan, but also ahead of Governor Davis! Could it be so? Surely fortune is but teasing us, so as to dash our hopes all the more cruelly. Thomas Sowell recently wrote:
A victory for William Simon in the general election would be a stunning upset that would reverberate across the country and -- perhaps more important to California Republicans -- energize the grass roots and cause some big Republican donors to open up their checkbooks. That means that the party as a whole would rise from the ashes in California and have a future.
Energize? I can't speak for others, but the very idea makes me want to cackle and rub my hands with mad glee ... _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Bill Quick suspects that Stephanie DuPont, who has been writing Brian Linse's weblog recently, is not what she seems...
...AintNoBadDude lists Kinky Friedman, musician and writer, as one of his friends. Mr. Friedman is the author of several novels, some of which feature the character Stephanie DuPont. Odd coincidence, eh? ..
Via InstaPundit and Ginger Stampley, I read the fascinating article at Corante about:Why Google Loves Weblogs
Reason One: Google Loves the Links in Weblogs
Google loves Links, because they are the very core of its search engine. If page A links to page B, then that makes page B more popular in search results...
Reason Two: Google loves Fresh Content
In roughly August of last year, Google started indexing frequently updated sites much more often...
Also
Blog search engines like Daypop and blogdex are spreading links more quickly.
Daypop and Blogdex both offer Billboard-style lists of the top fresh links in the weblog community. As a result, popular links (often called memes) spread much more quickly... _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
More word notes. Strange things happen when things are named for the first time. Think of the muddle Columbus got us into. If someone says Indians, you have to ask: Dots or feathers? (Perhaps it's time to change the name of one or the other, and just settle this matter. Here, I'll flip a coin. Uh oh, sorry Suman, you now hail from Currystan, or whatever you folks decide to call your subcontinent...)
But often new things get delightful names, just because no one realizes that they will be important later on. The heart of the high tech world is Palo Alto, California. Juan Batista de Anza named it for a tall tree, that's what the name means. And the heart of high tech Palo Alto is Sand Hill Road. Such Anglo-Saxon simplicity. Tolkien would have loved it. And what comes from Palo Alto? Chips! _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"For the line-jumpers and elbow-jabbers in power, 'public service' means never having to say you're sorry for behaving like a royal pain in the ... buttinski." --Michelle Malkin
Jimmy Carter criticized President Bush's use of the phrase axis of evil for Iraq, Iran and North Korea. This is his field. Jimmy Carter was so adept at U.S.-Iranian relations that the Postal Service put his picture on the Hostage Due stamp.-- Argus Hamilton _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I previously ascribed the posting difficulties that have been tormenting me to a problem with BLOGGER.
Turns out, not so! We have a preternatural glitch in our ISDN service. I haven't been able to solve the problem, so I've resorted to brute force -- I've ordered DSL. (as the old craftsman says, Don't force it, use a bigger hammer...) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"Never underestimate the ability of unelected bureaucrats to overturn the expressed will of the people if it threatens their power." --Linda Chavez _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I love the way we form new words or phrases to fill needs. Quantum leap (or Quantum jump) has migrated from physics into daily language. It should be used not for any ordinary movement, but for a leap from one stable condition to another. An electron will move from one quantum level to the next, but there is no in between. Life is often like that; you work and work to master some skill, seem to make no progress at all, then suddenly move up to a higher level of attainment. So the phrase is very useful.
Another good one is sea change. Don't squander it carelessly, but save it for special occasions, for when something looks similar but is actually changed utterly. Full fathom five my father lies; Of his bones are coral made: Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade, but doth suffer a sea-change... _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
You know those stories where someone comes from Abyssinia or Ruritania, and we see our ourselves through their innocent eyes, and our customs seem like utter lunacy? Well, some gal named Stephanie is filling in for Brian Linse, and she seems to be a castaway upon the Blogshore, a girl Friday without a clue, without preconceptions. What does she see? What does she say?IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!! I love it. She's very funny.
So, as I understand it, I'm supposed to find time to read a whole bunch of other people's off the wall opinons and then write about how I agree or disagree with them and do the thingie so people who don't know what I'm talking about can click on it to see what I'm talking about. IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!! and I'm sorry I'm yelling, but if I was to say I agreed with something Natalie Solent said, for instance, would other people write about how Stephanie agreed with Natalie but they disagreed and put things in so you could click on both of us? What does the next person do? Agree with the disagreement on the agreement? Is this some kind of internet click letter?
Abigail Adams, just after the War of Independence, was on ship with an annoying Scotsman, who harped on the importance of aristocratic rank and title.
... I have felt a disposition to quarrel with him several times, but have restrained myself, and only observed mildly that merit, not titles gave a man preeminence in our country, that I did not doubt it was a mortifying circumstance to the British nobility to find themselves so often conquered by mechanics and mere husbandmen -- but that we esteemed it our glory to draw characters not only into the field, but into the senate, and believed no one would deny but what they had shone in both. All our passengers enjoyed this conversation.
One of the crew told her of being a prisoner in England during the war. He and others escaped to Holland, where John Adams helped them with money from his own pocket. Conditions for American prisoners were usually barbarous, and often fatal.
I heard Ward Connerly on the radio this morning. He was the man behind Prop 209, which ended racial preferences at the Univ. of California. (Of course I won't be surprised if they've started giving preferences for rhythm, or basketball skills.)
Now he's collecting signatures to put the California Racial Privacy Initiative on the ballot. It will prevent California State and local governments from asking for your race and ethnic origin. It's about time.
I don't support this sort of thing, by the way, to hurt minorities, but to vex the caterpillers. All this racial hoop-jumping is only intended to keep government fat and the people lean. Anyway, around here us nordic types are the minority... _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Your post on Apple is so true it is pathetic. Apple advertising (bar the 84' avert) has always been fairly rubbish. They never brag that most magazines are done on Macs. I know of several PC magazines that are written on Macs! Never mind the amount of other creative work: like movies (well Pixar doh), music (the remixing/Dolby 5.1 of Queen's Night at Opera) and lots of books and magazines. Apple is very good at advertising to these people, but very bad at telling other potential customers about who uses their machines. Striking as it seems, Apple is crap at bragging about themselves. This has been a source of frustration for me since '85, even more so since I have been a mac journalist circa'90.
Actually I think their advertising is good on the feeling/emotions/style side. But if you want information to use for a buying decision, they're a catastrophe. They take the same cutsy ads that are possibly appropriate for general interest mags, and run them in places like Macworld. People read Macworld and other computer mags because they are hungry for information! And Apple spends zillions printing glossy pictures with maybe 3 lines of text. Stupid.
And this at the same time that Apple is complaining that people are misinformed! For instance, megaherz numbers are not comparable -- the PowerPC chips used in Macs run much faster than Intel chips with the same mz. This has been a public relations disaster for Apple, but they never consider using their advertising to spread the truth. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"Is campaign spending too high? No. In 2000, all campaigns -- including state and local elections and ballot referendums -- cost about $3.9 billion.... This is less than four one-hundredths of 1 percent of our national income. It's less than Americans spend annually on flowers ($6.6 billion in 1997)." -- Robert J. Samuelson
[ post in two parts due to Blogger problems. this is part 1 ]
I just read Rich Karlgaard on Paul Krugman in the March 4 FORBES. Lovely, charmin' stuff. Perhaps the best I've read:
"One feels for Krugman. Three years ago he told a London interviewer he envied the life of John Maynard Keynes. Awful times -- wars, plagues and depressions -- spur nervous world leaders to reach out for wise men like Keynes. The worse the economy got in the 1930's, the more Keynes bestrode Parliament like a colossus ...
... You can understand how badly Krugman has pined for economic meteors to strike. For most of his career he has cooled his heels in the Ivies. Picture a tightly wound chap raging somewhere on the other side of the Hudson. He is forced to watch one capitalistic grand-slam after another ..."
[ post split into 2 parts because of Blogger problems. This is part 2 ]
"...This is how Krugman spent the 1990's, bitterly enduring and waiting for capitalism's crack, and his Keynesian hour. Waiting? Our Little Lord Keynes was rooting for it. Who could read Krugman's The return of Depression Economics, or The Age of Diminished Expectations Without detecting his hopeful tone?
... At last the hour arrives. A bona fide synchronous global recession -- the first in 30 years. Panic in the markets. Pandemonium under the hot Senate lights ... The death of Davos Man. Calls for reregulation ... Yes, the world now awaits its savior, its new Keynes. But where is our man? Where is Paul Krugman? Tainted by Enron lucre. A measly $50,000! A mere pottage. How Shakespearian. How biblical. How rich!"
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Posted
8:43 AM I'm going crazy. blogger will post a short post, but the long one I want to post just vanishes...
... I have felt a disposition to quarrel with him several times, but have restrained myself, and only observed mildly that merit, not titles gave a man preeminence in our country, that I did not doubt it was a mortifying circumstance to the British nobility to find themselves so often conquered by mechanics and mere husbandmen -- but that we esteemed it our glory to draw characters not only into the field, but into the senate, and believed no one would deny but what they had shone in both. All our passengers enjoyed this conversation.