Diversity is the Spice of Life

So says the tag line on the Mizzou Engineer magazine that just arrived in the mail. It made me smile because, of the 8 people pictured on the cover, all were Asians. Four Chinese, 3 Indians and a Jordanian. Well, there's diversity among the Asians.

It's Not Just Me

Trying to keep up with the NSA spying story is frustrating. No one can be pinned down on what exactly we are talking about (except Bush, and everyone ignores him). Does anyone know any actual facts about this program? No, as it turns out:

From a press conference today:

QUESTION: I don't think I've heard any Democrats say that, though this program, in your view appears to be unconstitutional, maybe unlawful, why not say, Halt it now, and come to Congress and ask for the changes, but halt it now? I've not heard any Democrat say: Stop the program.

DURBIN: Well, I have to say, candidly, there are very few members of Congress who know exactly what this program's all about. Other than press descriptions, we don't honestly know what is being done in the name of this program.

I feel better, in that it's not just me. No one knows what's going on. I feel worse, in that elected official are calling for Bush's impeachment over a program they know nothing about. That's just sad.

Update: Upon reflection, it's a good thing that we don't know much. Given that this is a secret national security program, I'm glad no one knows what's what.

Brownback's Mistake

I just heard about the dust-up over Sam Brownback supposedly using an anti-gay slur. Sam Brownback's mistake wasn't that he called gay Swedes "fruit." He didn't. Here's the original quote:

“You look at the social impact of the countries that have engaged in homosexual marriage.” He shakes his head in sorrow, thinking of Sweden, which Christian conservatives believe has been made by “social engineering” into an outer ring of hell. “You’ll know ‘em by their fruits,” Brownback says. He pauses, and an awkward silence fills the room. He was citing scripture — Matthew 7:16 — but he just called gay Swedes “fruits.”

He didn't even mention Sweden. That was the reporter's pithy interpretation. Sam Brownback's mistake seems to be expecting any kind of biblical-literacy from a Rolling Stone reporter. The "fruit" analogy is a pretty common theme among Christians and this isn't the first time Brownback has used it. He recently displayed concern over the fruit being produced by the Republican Congress. I doubt he was referring to homosexuals.

Has this reporter graduated from junior high yet? Giggle, giggle: Sam said 'fruit'. Giggle, giggle.

I'm In The Mood For Cheese

A nice Danish Havarti perhaps. (via LGF)

According to the government of Denmark:

In the early 1970s, Denmark was totally dependent on imported fuel: 94% of the fuel consumption was oil. A mere 20 years later the country was a net exporter of oil and in 1997 the import of energy equalled its exports: Denmark had become self-sufficient in energy.

I wonder if that's why the Saudi's feel so free to target the Danes.

Update: Now Libya has withdrawn it's ambassador from Denmark. Saudia Arabia withdrew theirs last week. This article depicts the Danes patiently trying to explain freedom of speech, Danish law, etc to various Arab governments. Their efforts are wasted. It's not that these governments don't understand the concept of free speech. They just don't like it, and they're trying to bully Denmark into giving it up, too.

Google reveals that this isn't the first time Muslims have freaked out over a cartoon:

Would It Be Selfish To Pray For No War With Iran...

until after we sell our house? For various reasons, we're going to close on the new house before we've even put the old one on the market. Which is fine, as long as people are still buying houses in a few months. Well, if the economy goes to hell in a handbasket, I guess we could always become landlords:(

Google: Just Another Brick in the Firewall*

Don't miss Michelle Malkin's round-ups of the thorough spanking the blogosphere is giving to Google. Example:

Title inspired by Pajamahadin.

It's Davos Time

And you know what that means. Jay Nordlinger's writing his Impromtus from there. Being a non-wonk myself, I enjoy hearing all the quirky little things that go on there

Joel Stein: Wrong and Right

Joel Stein is wrong. It is theoretically possible to be against a war but support the troops. However, one must have supported the troops before the war to have any credibility on the issue. If, like most of the far left, you always thought any person who would wear the uniform of the United States military was either a psychotic baby-killer or an ignorant dupe, then the "but I support the troops" line falls flat. For that crowd, Joel Stein is absolutely correct. For Code Pink or International Answer, or anyone at the DU to claim to support the troops is rank hypocrisy.

"We'll Do Everything Bush Is Doing But We Won't Be Hitler"

A commentor at Ace of Spades suggests a new Democratic campaign slogan. Sounds about right:

So you think the invasion of Afghanistan was wrong?
Oh no, it was great, but...

So you want Saddam back in power?
On no, we're glad he's gone, but...

So you want to pull the troops out now?
Oh no, we want them to stay, but...

So you don't want to do surveillance of suspected terrorists?
On no, we do, but...

But, but... can't you see he's Hitler!?

Speaking of Moonbats...

Zombie's coverage of the Walk For Life is not to be missed. I'm a bit of an agnostic when it comes to abortion, but it's hard to see how the pro-choicers think they're helping their cause by behaving like thugs. (via Moonbattery)

This Made My Day

RedHunter has the story of how a persistant group of Freepers pulled the rug out from under those appalling Code Pinko's who protest in front of Walter Reed every Friday. (Via Ace)

And I also learned that there's a Tecnorati tag for "Moonbats." How about that?

Passports: Who needs 'em?

Emily at It Comes In Pints? is less than thrilled by Europeans who think they're all that because they can hop on a train and be in another country in 2 hours:

First of all, The United States is big. Really, really big. You can spend your whole life vacationing at points of interest and still not see it all. I've had it with snobbish fucks who romp through three European countries the size of postage stamps and congratulate themselves on their worldly sophistication when they haven't even covered an area one tenth of the size of the state that I live in.

I can testify. Living here in Kansas City, smack-dab in the middle of the county, I can drive due east for 14 hours and still not reach the ocean. I know this, because I just tried it over the holidays.

More Stupid in America

Bookworm linked to this article by John Stossel where he says, among other things:

America spends more on schooling than the vast majority of countries that outscore us on the international tests. But the bureaucrats still blame school failure on lack of funds, and demand more money. In 1985, some of them got their wish. Kansas City, Mo., judge Russell Clark said the city's predominately black schools were not "halfway decent," and he ordered the government to spend billions more. Did the billions improve test scores? Did they hire better teachers, provide better books? Did the students learn anything?

Well, they learned how to waste lots of money.

The bureaucrats renovated school buildings, adding enormous gyms, an Olympic swimming pool, a robotics lab, TV studios, a zoo, a planetarium, and a wildlife sanctuary. They added intense instruction in foreign languages. They spent so much money that when they decided to bring more white kids to the city's schools, they didn't have to resort to busing. Instead, they paid for 120 taxis. Taxis!

What did spending billions more accomplish? The schools got worse. In 2000, five years and $2 billion later, the Kansas City school district failed 11 performance
standards and lost its academic accreditation for the first time in the district's history.

And they still haven't regained it. Living here in Kansas City, I have heard a thing or two about the way the district functions. Here's what I left in Bookworm's comments:

Let me tell you a tale of bureaucracy from the KC school district. I worked with a woman who had her kids in the French foreign language magnet. This is what she told me. The school was a success story. Happy families and high test scores. Well, around 2000, when the district, lost the desegregation money, the district had to reorganize. The administration would not commit to keeping that school open.

This presented the parents with a dilemma. Their kids had been learning French, not English. They would not be able to slip easily into another school. The parents pressed the district for a commitment, to no avail. Finally, they took the initiative and started a charter school.

Well, some administrators were livid. Of course, they kept the school open. It was one of their best. But, because they ignored the concerns of the parents, they lost
half their students and teachers to the charter school.

It didn't have to happen, but they showed no consideration for the parents, who had to think about their kids. Now Kansas City has two French schools.

But here's a little more. White kids from the suburbs were courted like they were star running backs. Instead of wine, women and song, they were plied with advanced placement classes that most natives of the district wouldn't test into. Meanwhile, black kids couldn't get into the school of their choice because that would upset "the balance." Black parents wanted more African-themed schools, but oops... "the balance" had to come first.

Yellowcake: New Goal Posts Established

I just heard an odd little interview on Talk of the Nation (which will be here this evening near the very end of the show). Another document has been released which indicates that Saddam did indeed seek uranium from Nigeria. But there was little likelihood that he would successfully obtain it. And there you have the new goal posts. Sure, Bush was 100% right about Saddam seeking uranium from Nigeria, BUT....

The interviewee did mention that the seeking itself was troubling, but he didn't say why and it wasn't pursued. The interview didn't touch on Bush's whole point, which was that the seeking showed clearly that Saddam had not given up his WMD programs and was, in fact, actively pursuing nuclear weapons.

Competition: You Gotta Love It

I was checking out the web site for our new town and discovered that they have two, TWO, cable providers to choose from. We only have one here on the Missouri side. I've checked then out a few times in the past, but always decided against it because to get Fox News you had to get the most expensive package. I don't know whether I'd even like Fox News, but I want to be the one to decide. I don't like being roped into things. I figured if they ever got around to offering me more choices, I'd consider their service.

Well, guess what? Not only does the second provider offer cheaper service, the first provider has lowered their prices and put Fox News on the standard tier of channels even on the Missouri side, where there is still no competition. I suppose there would be armed revolt if Kansans were offered a better deal than Missourians.

What you find in the rafters after 20 years.

We were pulling all the junk out of the rafters in the basement when we made an interesting discovery. Mostly, the previous owners had stuck old curtain rods up there. But, apparently, that's also where the man had stashed his girlie magazines. And yes, I checked the dates to make sure they weren't Brian's. They were 20 plus years old.

Go Organic?

Here's an article from Consumer Reports on which foods are worth buying organic and which are not. Mia is on a big apple jag right now, so I've been inspired to look for organic ones. Target sometimes carries them, but they didn't have any last time.

For the time impaired:

Worth It: Apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, red raspberries, spinach, and strawberries.

Not Worth It: Asparagus, avocados, bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet corn, kiwi, mangos, onions, papaya, pineapples, and sweet peas.

(Via A Constrained Vision)

Stupid in America

I watched John Stossel's Stupid in America. Well, I live in Kansas City, so I wasn't surprised to hear that lots money doesn't help kids do better. The Kansas City school district, while improving, failed to regain its accreditation this year.

But socialist Europe has more school choice than we do? Really? Or is it just Belgium? If France does it, we should be able to get the Democrats on board.

"Fake But Accurate" Goes Mainstream

I never heard of James Frey or his memoir, A Million Little Pieces, before this flap about his "embellishment" of his life story. But yesterday's Talk of the Nation had an editor and an author on to discuss the story. Both guests panned Frey for betraying his readers' trust by, not to put too fine a point on it, lying. But most callers defended him. Well, it was a moving story. Well, it helped people see what addiction is all about. And so on. The guests politely tried pointing out that his story is not what addiction is all about, because it never happened. He made it up. That's great if you're writing a novel, but if you say "Hey this really happened to me" and it didn't, then that is a lie.

I thought this was especially interesting in light of neo-Neocon's recent post on lies. She says:

So the new definition of a lie has become: something that fooled me. Something that I heard and thought was true, and then discovered wasn't true. It made me angry to be jerked around like that. So it's a lie.

Such a listener lacks awareness of any need to ascertain the state of mind of the speaker in order to define an utterance as a lie--it is simply irrelevant; it does not compute in the equation. In fact, the so-called liar is actually often either mistaken, misinformed by others, in denial, or deluded. But that doesn't matter to a listener who hears everything only in terms of him/herself and how something makes him/her feel.

The Frey situation is the reverse. I liked the book, it was powerful, it helped me, I agree with it. Therefore it is not a lie. It could have happened. It's fake, but accurate

The Junk Man Cometh

We now have a 30 foot dumpster in the driveway. I was worried it wouldn't hold all our junk (we inherited quite a lot when we bought this place) but I think it will do the trick. The man who delivered it is even interested in buying our old car.

Ahh! We bought a house!

The two most indecisive people in the world bought a house in less than a week. Amazing. It took us months to find the house we are in now. I just figured we'd be looking all spring. But we had some very specific requirements and there just weren't too many houses that met them.

Varifrank reviews "State of War"

and isn't too impressed:

so far its a condensed cream of "East Coast Intellectual Bush Hatred" laid lightly across a bed of foreign service officer dissention, followed by a green-with-envy salad covered in a light vinagarette of Georgetown party circuit smarm.

His final review is here, including this stab at a psychological profile of the leaker:

Things are going along well until a colleague, an old timer who has been left out of the operation becomes aware of what’s been going on with your program. He cares not for the security of the nation, but for the size of the budget of his department and his career and since you and your team have been getting results, you are now also getting the budget, the attention and of course the recognition and promotions to go along with it.

After years of work, after all the "sucking up" to political appointees after every election, he’s about to be lapped by “the new kids” who are violating every rule you followed in the previous 10 years when you had the project. He decides he can’t compete with these rules and the culture that comes with it and the results that are expected, so he decides to even the game in the only way he can.

He decides to have lunch with a friend; a friend who just happens to work for the New York Times.

Career Opportunity

Artist paints with her breasts:

The mother of two, from Tasmania, who is happy to describe herself as a big
woman, works at the kitchen table rather than at an easel, reports the Mercury
newspaper.

She said: "I either apply the paint to my breasts and lean on to
the canvas or apply the paint to the canvas and then lean into it to spread the
paint.

Sounds like the perfect job for a stay-at-home mom. Do you think there's a market for this in Kansas City? (Via Ex-DonkeyBlog)

Well, At Least He Has A Sense Of Humor

For all my dissing of Robert Reich, at least he doesn't take himself too seriously. I just saw the skit he did with Conan O'Brien. Pretty funny.

What a 10 foot snowfall looks like

Japan has already suffered 71 deaths from this storm.

House Hunting

That's what we've been up to recently. Yesterday we saw 7 houses. Our eyes were glazed over by the time we got to the last one, but we found a likely candidate. It's not in that snobby suburb I blogged about earlier. We couldn't quite afford the houses we liked there. But it is in the soccer-mom capital of the Kansas City metro in a neighborhood of moderate snobbiness.

What is it with liberals and dictatorship?

By happenstance, I often hear Robert Reich's NPR commentary while I'm in the car. I'm always a little surprised when the announcers mention at the end that he was Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor. He seems so impossibly wrong all the time. How did he get to be Secretary of Labor?

Yesterday, he talked about China and how fab it was that a country didn't have to be a democracy to have a successful capitalist economy. (Reich's commentaries are not available from NPR, but transcripts are eventually available on Reich's site. Yesterday's is not up as of this writing) It struck me as the height of foolishness when I heard it. Democracy may not be required for a thriving economy, but civil liberty, enforced by rule of law, is. And how many countries have leaderships that abide by the rule of law without at least a little democracy? I can't think of any dictatorships that aren't hopelessly corrupt. And the long-term economic performance of such countries isn't so hot either.

Of course, Reich knows this. Here's his commentary from 2 weeks ago:

Economic freedom and civil liberty -- the two are inseparable. And both are threatened by unaccountable power that refuses to be confined by the rule of law. As they did centuries ago when confronting monarchs who claimed unbridled power to rule as they wished, business leaders must come to the defense of liberty.

Oh, but wait. He was talking about the Bushitler regime in that commentary. Apparently, business needs to be rescued from the Bush monarchy, but is doing just fine in the Chinese Communists dictatorship. There are thousands of such examples of liberals making excuses for communist regimes, but I'm still surprised by them. How many times can a guy apparently as smart as Reich be fooled by the "OK, this time we've got it figured out" promises of communists? The number seems limitless.

What prompted this post was reading this (via Instapundit) by Rebecca MacKinnon:

It’s actually not uncommon in China for people in one company to actively “tattle” on their rivals and get them into political trouble in order to gain a competitive business advantage. I saw it happen several times in the media and entertainment worlds when I was living and working in Beijing. This is one reason the communist party will stick around longer than many outsiders think. Businesses get greedy and try to manipulate the authoritarian system to their advantage, rather than working together to make the whole thing more fair, accountable, and transparent.

You mean people might game the system to increase their competitive advantage? And an authoritarian system might be more interested in holding onto power than promoting competition? Don't tell Reich. He'll be so disappointed.

Update: More on China's faux capitalism here.

Successful Christmas Gifts

If you will be visiting a house full of nine-year-old boys and their fathers, consider bringing a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. If you aren't familiar with Harry Potter, I will tell you that one of the things Harry discovers in the wizard world is a jelly bean that can be any flavor, from spaghetti to dirt. While Harry has to pop one in his mouth to discover the flavor, the Jelly Belly Candy Company has helpfully labeled its beans.

From the not too terrible Ear Wax to the truly atrocious (so I'm told) Vomit, my male relatives could not wait to try the next disgusting flavor. We laughed ourselves silly for 15 minutes.
Definitely one of the most successful Christmas gifts ever.