Jenny Gets One Right

I have not had a lot of praise for Governor Granholm and she deserves very little but she did get it right on an issue that affects the Great Lakes State very much.

The Great Lakes themselves.

If we understand presidential candidate Bill Richardson correctly, he wants some of our water for the parched west. Understandable but not doable.

The water levels of our great inland freshwater seas are lower than they have been in nearly a century this is not showing any signs of reversing. Further reduction in water levels by artificial means would only accelerate this.

The west needs to find other ways to get water. They do need water but they need to find another source that is local. Here's an idea. Offer an X-prize, say 10 million tax free, to the person who can come up with an environmentally friendly way to bring water to these areas. The profit motive can always be counted on.

Governor Granholm said "Hell No!" She got one right.

Richardson now says he was misunderstood, but I don't see any other possible explanation of what he said.

Kiddie Costumes

Last year I noted on this blog a bizarre costume that was being worn by a young teen-ager in this area and in the comments gave the story behind it, but there is new problem today.

Sexy costumes.

They have always existed for adults and older teens but for kids?

CNN and Fox News both feel that this is inappropriate and I have to agree. There is enough pedophilia in the world that we don't need to encourage it.


The above outfit is - - maybe - - ok for a teen-ager or young adult woman but for a pre-adolescent girl it is totally uncalled for, and this is one of the tamer ones. I'm not even sure what the costume is supposed to represent other than total decadence. I have an uneasy feeling about even posting this picture because it's somewhat offensive to me but will do so. Where are this little girl's parents? Probably at the bank.

Note: after considering a bit more I deleted the picture as it can be misconstrued but it can be seen here.

Whatever happened to fairy tale characters, ugly old witches, and ghosts?

I must be old-fashioned.

Childhood is disappearing.

Obviously Never Read the Book

So scientists are saying that 100,000 years from now the human race will have split into two species, a superior race of intelligent, beautiful people and a race of low intelligence goblin-like servitors.

They compare this to the eloi and the morlocks of HG Wells' The Time Machine. Not a very good comparison really. He describes the Eloi as In the 1895 book, the human race has evolved into two distinct species, the highly intelligent and wealthy Eloi and the frightening, animalistic Morlock who are destined to work underground to keep the Eloi happy It may have been that way in the older version of the movies, but in the book both species had badly declined and were only semi-intelligent and considerably smaller than present day humans.

Actually it reminds me more of the beautiful and intelligent alphas from Huxley's Brave New World where people were intentionally bred into castes with the lowest being the "simian appearing, moronic" epsilons who did the most menial of tasks and were considered below all others.

As far as being two species goes, if they can easily interbreed they are still the same species just like a Great Dane and a Chihuahua are both Canis lupus familiaris which is a subspecies of the wolf. They are both dogs and they are the same species but they look very little alike. They can interbreed put I hope for the females sake that the Chihuahua is the male.

Genius has limits but Stupidity?

How Smart is This?




Miraculously getting diesel from a rock after a medium hits it with a rod. Now most people would be skeptical and even those inclined to believe would at least take a look around, but the all knowing Robert Mugabe, the Marxist dictator of Zimbabwe, paid her handsomely for the magic rock. What do we have?

Even the enlightened far left as represented by Mr. Mugabe is made up of a bunch of superstitious fools. (I do believe in miracles but consider them to be rare and for a specific purpose and trust no one planning to make money off of one).

She's in jail and Mugabe's looking real smart right now.

snicker, snicker, snicker.

My Thoughts on Medicine

There is a lot of discussion about our nation's "need" for a nationalized medical system. Now I certainly disagree with that idea and seeing the failures of Canada's and Britain's systems I feel justified in being very skeptical of socialized medicine in America.

However we do need to make some changes.

Part of the problem is that when it's through the government people tend to believe it's free (when fact it isn't) so people go hog-wild and get everything they can (which also explains why insurance premiums are beyond the reach of so many people.). You could control that through rationing but that would not work either as one serious and legitimate problem could cost more than dozens of small bogus problems.

Part of what I think we need to do is break the medical requirements down into several subsections and deal with each one separately.

1) Routine Medical Care: Physicals, minor illnesses, vaccinations, and over the counter drugs. These people should pay out of their own pockets, so far as they are able. The best way to deal with this might be a tax credit for all expenditures over a certain percentage of your income (say over half a percent or one percent of your annual income.). Doctors doing charity work and free clinics could also help.

2) Emergencies. This should be handled as an insurance with state or private charity helping those who cannot afford it.

3) Chronic Problems and 4) Catastrophic Problems. These are the two budget killers. Most people don't have catastrophic problems so again it can be handled through insurances.

Chronic problems is what I have no idea about. Some are relatively inexpensive but there are diseases whose medical bill can be many, many dollars a day for life. We could limit the profits of drug companies but all that would accomplish is squanching research as the profit motive seems to be the best motivator for new drugs. This is a hard one and I don't see a solution to it.

If we let the government simply take over, the results would be that people would use more and more of it (cuz it's free!) while the costs would go higher and higher (as the bureaucrats rake in their cut) but because Doctors and Nurses would make less and less, fewer and fewer would enter those professions resulting in the same mess they have in Canada and Britain where people die waiting for a doctor for routine medical care.

We need an answer and the first step is to somehow contain costs.

UPDATE: 10/28 Check out the roaring success of Britain's nationalized health plan.

Michael Moore!? Where are you!? Comments please?

Thank You Daily Kos

One thing about the Daily Kos is that they are not afraid to say what they think.

The Jihadists say that the War on Terror will end if America if converts to Islam

I for one don't think so.

Some Kossacks think it's a good idea.

All in all, converting to Islam would be a small price to pay for an end to the killing and maiming of our sons and daughters, not to mention the billions of dollars we could put to better use than fighting this perpetual war.

H/T Sheik Yer Mami's comments at Jihad Watch

In other words "We surrender. We'll do anything! Please don't hurt us!"

I would feel better about this if I thought it was tongue in cheek but I fear the writer is serious.

Even some of the nuts over there think it's a dumb idea.

A Person Did It

So part, if not all, of the big fires in California are arson?

Everyone who lost a home in that fire should be given a baseball bat and one good swing at the [expletive deleted](s) who did it.

My question is why would anyone want to do it?

A dirty trick?

Make Bush are Arnie look bad?

terrorism?

Mad at the girlfriend (boyfriend)?

Just plain stupidity?

Who knows.

Changing Security From Time to Time

My computer anti-virus program expires in January and I will replacing it with another one. It has been a very good system and I have no complaints about it at all, but I had something surprise me today.

My old anti-spyware system expired a few days ago and I replaced it today. It was still in my system when I ran the new system and it gave surprising results. My old system had been compromised and now had an unwanted little tidbit right inside of it. I had been wondering why it was running constantly for the last few weeks, eating up massive CPU and Memory, slowing my computer way down, and at times stopping it entirely while it did whatever it was doing. Now I understand why.

Still not certain I downloaded and ran another spyware hunting system and it spotted the same problem in the same file (but the two two detectors did not have any problems with each other.). That was pretty clever creating a spyware thingy that hid right inside your protection from spyware.

I may stick with AVG anyway because it has been good for me. I'll just reload it from scratch so that the old program is gone completely.

Also there are numerous bogus protection systems. The number of them amazed me. (Mine was legit but somehow got compromised.)

Intolerable but Tolerated

When the Catholic Church ran into legal, moral and PR problems because of Pedophile priests the news was all over it. It involved hypocrisy in the church and therefore was fit for the news. Now I agree but I also see a double standard.

When I was a senior in High School we had one female teacher, fresh from college, not particularly pretty but not exactly homely either, who gave gonorrhea to several of my classmates. It was something of a scandal within our school, but it never got a lot of attention beyond the borders of our school district. She wasn't even disciplined, at least as far as I know and taught for several more years. (Now admittedly the boys were 17 and 18 but even so, that is an inappropriate relationship between teacher and student.)

It seems like we are constantly hearing about students in Jr. High and even later elementary school being seduced by teachers and it's good that their being prosecuted, but . . .

"From my own experience — this could get me in trouble — I think every single school district in the nation has at least one perpetrator. At least one," says Mary Jo McGrath, a California lawyer who has spent 30 years investigating abuse and misconduct in schools. "It doesn't matter if it's urban or rural or suburban."

I am concerned because it's being treated as isolated problems instead of troubling national trend and an institutional problem, which it is. We need to look at all of our schools and take a close look at the people who are teaching them. We need a data base of teachers who have been fired or disciplined for sexual relations with minors and children and the schools need to pay attention to them.

I notice that the teacher's unions, who were all over the pedophile priests and rightly so, are strangely silent on this sexual abuse. You begin to wonder if they were really upset because children were abused or if this was simply an opportunity to attack the hated Christian Church. The hypocrites who abused their church position and those who protected them deserve to be punished, and now it's time to turn the same eye to public education where the vast majority of American Children are and where the danger of abuse is far greater.

This has to stop being treated as an individual problem with bad teachers. It is an institutional problem with public education and it's time to put a stop to it. We need the means to identify and remove pedovore teachers from the class room. If they want to be trusted with the children of this nation they must be worthy of that trust.

Few Little Things

Work
Work is not the greatest but it pays the bills. I am seeing a lot of life in the employees now including a few things I'd rather not see (like a guy mooning his supervisor). I got a phone call from a prospective employer which will pay over two dollars an hour more than I was getting at my previous job but this is far from certain.

Friends
When I was in my teens there was a couple about 10-15 yrs older than my parents who became pretty much adopted grandparents to me and my brothers and were as much part of my family as my blood relatives if not more so. They died years ago but they had a couple of sons who were like uncles to me. Saw one of them today for the first time since his mother died years ago. We just sat, ate, talked, caught up, and joked. He was only around for a few hours but it really does one good to see old friends that you haven't seen in years.

Clinton
Around here very few people seem to like her or want her for president. A lot of people who dislike Bush seem to hate her even more. Can't say I blame them.

Too Soon

I love Star Trek in about all of its incarnations but I'm not sure if I'm ready to have the old crew of the original series back played by new actors.

For most programs 40 years is plenty for a remake, but Shatner, Nimoy, etc have played these characters up until very recently.



Captain Kirk???????

Must Be Getting Old

I've got a few posts percolating in the back of my mind but just don't seem to have the time or will.

Just to let you know I'm still around here is a series of pictures that will show you how to tell if you have problems with foot odor.


Have a good evening.

China's Mad

China's mad
And I'm glad!

I do not share the religious beliefs of the Dalai Lama but I find him to be an intelligent, honest, thoughtful and decent man. (The thought that he is somehow divine is absurd but it has been hammered into him from his earliest childhood.)

Our president and congress have both honored him (and while I would not reverence him I would treat him with sincere respect). China is having a little fit that we are honoring a separatist. Well what if we are. Tibet was invaded and conquered and has no meaningful self-rule. The Dalai Lama is the rightful ruler of that nation by long-held tradition.

If China does not like it, that's too bad. Bush has bent over backwards to please the Chinese (much farther than he should have) and Clinton was in China's pay - - which was his real crime while in office. Morally speaking, we owe China nothing (except some money) and if they get mad at us too bad. China has no right to tell us what to do. If we upset them, well they upset us at Tian'anmen Square.

We know each other, and we have developed, I think, a very close friendship - something like a reunion of one family," the Dalai Lama said, speaking of Bush.

Some Thoughts on Robin Hood

Concerning the last post, yeah I know - - - it's been a while, Robin Hood is a semi-mythical character based on a real bandit/freedom-fighter (depends on how you look at it.)

Robbed the rich huh?

In those days the rich were the government and they got rich through taxes and the poor were poor because they were overtaxed.

You might say:

The Robin Hood of legend stole from the tax-collectors and gave it back to the tax payers.

Those who complained about "Reaganhood" who stole from the poor and gave to rich need to rethink the Robin Hood myth.

Yes I know the real Robert of Loxley was a bandit and probably not the hero he was made out to be. But if he was exactly as the legend then he is a hero of the right who brought about the first tax-refund because of over-taxation.

Made Me Think of a Few Things

I think there is something to be said about the mindset of some people in this cartoon. Otherwise I will let it pass without comment.

Before You Become an American

The American Thinker is one of the most intelligent, honest, and logical sites on the net and I usually read everything offered on it. Best of all is that it challenges the conventional wisdom of the MSM with logic and facts rather than emotional screeds.

Today it has another interesting and thought provoking article on multi-culturalism and the melting pot ideology vs the mosaic ideology. It offers the following about Australia.

Australia has, again, set an example for other western nations on embracing traditional Western values rather than apologizing for them as so many on the left would have it. The Australian Treasurer Peter Costello has sharply criticized "mushy misguided multiculturalism", going on to state, "Before entering a mosque visitors are asked to take off their shoes. This is a sign of respect. If you have a strong objection to walking in your socks don't enter the mosque. Before becoming an Australian you will be asked to subscribe to certain values. If you have strong objection to those values don't come to Australia."

Shouldn't America adopt the same attitude toward those who want to come here? Why is it that immigrants can come to America and we expect nothing of them but they demand of us? It does not matter what country they come from or what their culture is. My Swedish grandparents had to give up a few traditions to become Americans and so must these people.

If you object to the traditional values of America, don't come here to live.

Declaration Rethought.

We hold these relative truths to be absolute.

That all people are exactly the same (except for liberal entertainers, liberal teachers, liberal journalists, and liberal politicians who actually are better than others) and are guaranteed by the state certain absolute rights.

that amongst these are free medical care, free food, free housing, free education (properly applied), freedom from being offended (unless you are a straight, male, white or Christian in which case you don't matter), freedom from responsibility, and freedom from work.

that governments are instituted amongst people to make sure that all wealth is properly distributed and that progressive policy is enacted.

deriving their powers from the fact that they are more enlightened than the unwashed masses.

That when any government fails to properly redistribute wealth and/or advance progressive causes it is the right of the enlightened to destroy that government by any means possible.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

Let us not forget.

The Lesser of Two Evils

So Dobson will support a 3rd party candidate rather than McCain.

Now to be honest, McCain is not my first choice. I have not had my first choice on the ballot since Reagan was in the White House.

However in politics you have to make choices and compromises and the lesser of two evils may be a great deal better than the greater of two evils.

The above may be a joke that no sane person would take seriously, yet it does say something. (Not even the greatest fool in the world would want ol' squid jowls for president.) Sometimes we select the lesser evil simply because the greater evil is far too much to tolerate while we can live with the lesser evil.

Besides, are McCain, Guiliani etc. truly evil or just flawed men? A well thought out and well written article by the American Thinker shows that even our greatest presidents were flawed. They were human. If we are looking for a perfect man to be president well I can think of a retort given to a young lady describing the man she was looking for to marry.

I knew a man like that once. He was crucified two thousand years ago.

There has only been one perfect man in history and He was crucified.

The article points out that the most sanctimonious president (Jimmy Carter) was a total disaster for this country, while decent but flawed men were the onces who led us through hard times. Even King David, whom God Himself praised as a truly great king, was a badly flawed human.

As far as Hillary's healthcare etc. (assuming she truly cares and is not simply grabbing for power by any means possible) goes I remember another proverb:

The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

Obama Needs A Clue

"Here's what I'll say as president: 'America seeks a world in which there are no nuclear weapons,'" Obama said.

Yeah right.

Then only civilized nations will obey it as Islamic and Socialist nations believe that international law exists only to restrain the United States so they will be allowed to have them.

It's the same as gun control.

They have yet to find a rational response to When guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns.

It will be When nuclear weapons are outlawed only outlaw nations will have nukes.

Tired

I can't believe how tired I am lately. Being unemployed for 3 months and semi-employed for 3 mos before that must have really made me fat and lazy. (Well not fat, but lazy!) I am only working 9.5 hours a day, which not that long ago I thought nothing of, but now it seems to exhaust me. I guess I'll just have to get used to it again.

And perhaps blog, and visit blogs, a bit more consistently.

Not the Right Answer

The state government was shut down for just a few hours while the politicians and bureaucrats tidied up the mess they had made.

They plan to cut 440 Million from the budget which is a start, but raised about three times that amount in new taxes. Jenny (our beloved governor) calls it "1 dollar per person per week" in new taxes. Let's see! With Michigan's population that would be less than half a billion dollars but the new taxes are over a billion in revenues.

Already people are mad! I have not heard a good thing said about Governor Granholm in several days. Right now in this state she is probably less popular than President Bush.

It's a solution that does not face reality. We need to make deep budget cuts and get more for every tax dollar the state collects. We need to lay-off a lot of redundant bureaucrats and replace many of them with ones who understand that they have to work for their money like everyone else. We have way too much dead-weight in the bureaucracy.

The legislature and the governor's mansion both need to take pay and benefit cuts.

Michigan was a rich state 40 years ago, but is now a poor state. We are now in the condition that Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama were in two generations ago and we have to face that fact. GM, Ford and Chrysler no longer flush tons of cash into the state economy and probably never will again. We need a whole new model for our state economy. We need to be able to say "Come to Michigan and make a profit" to businessmen and mean it. That means low overhead and low labor costs which means a total remake of our mindset. Until that happens Michigan will just keep getting poorer and poorer.

We have a lot going for us if we look at it. We have more miles of coastline than any of the 48 "continental" states. We have more varied natural resources than any state east of the Mississippi. We have minerals, oil, metals, natural gas, farm and forest products. We can be and should be a rich state but we need to start thinking in a whole new paradigm. The auto industry spoiled us and now it's time to start over.

On the other hand we are a model of what happens when people expect too much from the state and expect the state and the wealthy to take care of us. We are a warning to the entire nation not to let that happen.

There is hope. This video, narrated by native Michigander and actor Jeff Daniels, shows that we have potential and everything shown here is good, but is not enough. We need more and we need to do more of what is shown here.