December, 2012 archive
The Republican Way 0
Suffering from the agony of defeat, Pennsylvania Republicans want to change the electoral college rules. A nugget from Dick Polman:
What a great deal for the GOP! If the party can’t win fair and square under the existing rules, just change the rules. And in Pennsylvania, they have the power to do it. They hold the gubernatorial office and both state chambers, so what’s to stop them (aside from public scorn)?
The idea that they might change some of their policies, soundly rejected by the polity, is, natch, unthinkable.
Twits on Twitter 0
Holdovers from Feudalism enter the twitterverse.
Great Moments in Misguided Hubris 0
Somehow, I expect that misusing 911 will also turn up in the charges.
When she finally stopped, she was charged with driving while impaired, felony fleeing to elude arrest, driving while license revoked, careless and reckless driving and driving left of center, according to the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office.
Family Matters 0
The kids are arriving. Late, but arriving.
The grandkids survived the plane ride from the Left Coast in wonderfully good form.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Frozen heat:
A worker at Albertsons opened a case of frozen ribs Wednesday and found a handgun and ammunition packed with the meat.
Compromising Positions 0
Amongst all the brou-ha-ha about the phony phiscal cliff, Jay Bookman considers Republican mewling and caterwauling about mean old President Obama is not compromising* enough.
And now they beg for compromise?
It was almost exactly two years ago to the day that Speaker John Boehner made it clear that there would be no compromise in Washington. “I am not going to compromise my principles nor will I compromise the will of the American people,” he told Judy Woodruff of “60 Minutes”.
“You’re afraid of the word?” Woodruff asked.
“I reject the word,” the new speaker said.
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*Compromise. n, fr the Republican. 1. Do what I want. 2. (there is no “2”).
Dedicated to Learning 0
(snip)
“The reality is that the highest-paid presidents are often serving institutions that have great fund-raising success,” Stripling said. “It’s not uncommon to hear board members say that they’re getting an incredible return on their investment. And there’s little question that on most campuses, the president is the fund-raiser-in-chief.”
Why not just pay them commission and stop pretending they are educators?
The findings for public colleges are released in the spring.
QOTD and Light Bloggery 0
Francois de La Rochefoucauld:
The clan is gathering for the memorial service.
What’s Wrong with This Picture 0
Me, grilling lamb chops on the deck in my shirt sleeves (how they got in my shirt sleeves I’ll never know) in December.
Afterthought:
I hope I can put the deck out when I’m done.
Nutshell 0
The Booman sums up Congress’s poll ratings.
A Nation of Immigrants 0
In my local rag, local activist Don Tabor outlines the fundamental racism underlying our immigration laws and argues that, if they want to come, let them.
The quotas essentially excluded Africans and Asians from immigration and limited Hispanics and Eastern and Southern Europeans to the point that in the 1920s and ’30s, legal immigration added less than 0.01 percent a year and has held growth by legal immigration to under 0.5 percent ever since.
In 1965, the blatantly racist quotas were abandoned in favor of more subtly discriminatory “skills-based preferences,” which accomplish pretty much the same results under a veneer of merit.
The capsule description of Mr. Tabor describes him as a Libertarian.* That means I probably disagree with many of his positions.
On this one, though, he’s got it right.
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*Libertarian: a Republican who is ashamed to admit it.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Parent politely.
No charges were filed against Mr. Loughrey, and Cpl. Douglas Maxwell said he doesn’t anticipate doing so.
Mr. Loughrey didn’t know there was a bullet in the handgun chamber.
There really is no excuse for a gun nut’s not knowing his own heat what he is packing is loaded.
None.