Picking a Candidate

Particularly in local and state politics you are asked to support a candidate and you must consider whether you want to write a sizable check. I consider these four factors in this order:

1. Do I agree with this candidate on his principles and stands on the issues. Typically you will not agree with any candidate on all of the issues so you pick the critical issues and judge accordingly. Critical issues change and the critical issues when you voted may change after they are elected.

2. Is their character trustworthy? Do they have the pertinent experience needed? Trust implies competence; the ability to do the right thing or in politics the right principle, and character; the willingness to do the right thing and the commitment. It does no good if they propose the correct stand on the issues if you can not trust them to do what they say.

3. Is it winnable? If the demographics are so slanted against a candidate that they have no chance of winning then why would anyone write a big check? If the positions are so extreme what are the chances of actually winning? It may make for interesting media, and such a candidate sometimes has a moment in the power spotlight as a spoiler. Sometimes they serve to eventually bring some credibility to previously discredited ideas.

4. If you can support a candidate on the first three criteria then the last critical factor is their commitment to winning. Do they have a competent staff, especially when it comes to raising money. Are they going to spend the time necessary to win? No excuses and whining about family commtiments are acceptable. If you are going to take other people's money to run for office you owe them a commitment to win. I have seen credible candidates run lousy poorly staffed campaigns. No matter how competent and correct a candidate may be on the positions he will not likely get elected in a highly cometitive campaign with out a competent staff.

In national campaigns the first two points dominate. These are fulltime politicians and usually have a decent staff. In local elections with less politically experienced candidates the last two factors will critically influence their success. Some local candidates who have full time absorbing jobs and young families feel compelled to run for office without understanding the commitment.

Bias in the Media - Part Deux

The party plants in the Republican debate have strirred some controversy. Why did not CNN do the minimal google check that millions of surfers did within minutes of the obvious 'fixed' questions? Because they did not think to even ask the question. The questions seemed normal to them.

Peggy Noonan notes in the OpinionJournal:

PEGGY NOONAN
Death, Taxes and Mrs. Clinton Only two of them are inevitable.
Friday, November 30, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST

I will never forget that breathtaking moment when, in the CNN/YouTube debate earlier this fall, the woman from Ohio held up a picture and said, "Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama, Mr. Edwards, this is a human fetus. Given a few more months, it will be a baby you could hold in your arms. You all say you're 'for the children.' I would ask you to look America in the eye and tell us how you can support laws to end this life. Thank you."

They were momentarily nonplussed, then awkwardly struggled to answer, to regain lost high ground. One of them, John Edwards I think, finally criticizing the woman for being "manipulative," using "hot images" and indulging in "the politics of personal destruction." The woman then stood in the audience for her follow up. "I beg your pardon, but the literal politics of personal destruction--of destroying a person--is what you stand for."

Oh, I wish I weren't about to say, "Wait, that didn't happen." For of course it did not. Who of our media masters would allow a question so piercing on such a painful and politically incorrect subject?

I thought of this the other night when citizens who turned out to be partisans for Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama and Mr. Edwards asked the Republicans, in debate, would Jesus support the death penalty, do you believe every word of the Bible, and what does the Confederate flag mean to you?

It was a good debate, feisty and revealing. It's not bad that the questions had a certain spin, and played on stereotypes of the GOP. It's just bad that it doesn't quite happen at Democratic debates. Somehow, there, an obscure restraint sets in on the part of news producers.

Benevolent Dictators

I try to avoid the simplistic distinctions between liberal and conservative, but I seem to notice that among my more liberal leaning friends and more openly liberal celebrities there is a tendency to wish for the 'benevolent dictator' form of govenment. In conversations there is this impatience with the American people and democratic system for not supporting their 'obviously correct' stands on gun control, health care, immigration or whatever the important position dejure is.

I think this explains the support of many of Hollywood's left for the likes of a Hugo Chavez who proposes to fight for the poor yet openly suppresses dissent and an open society. It is the story of many a populist 'Evita'. It is possibly the position of some of the candidates on the campaign trail.

The problem with a benevolent dictatorship is that when the dictator is no longer benevolent he is still a dictator. What follows is the mass murder of a Mao and a Stalin or the Balkanization after the demise of a Tito in Yugoslavia. Remember that the Nazis were the National SOCIALIST Party.

A consititutional democracy on the other hand can survive a bad president, particularly with the checks and balances our system has built. Before we deliver power and authority to a position we should ask what if our worst nightmare came into that position; how could that authority be abused.

Those who yearn for the benevolent dictator solution will insist that it is only their dictator that should be handed the power. Long term I wouldmuch rather have a bad leader in a constituional democracy that a good leader in the position of a 'benevolent' dictator.

The Gift of Family

Hyman and Esther Mendel came from Russia to New York in the late 19th century and settled in Atlanta. He sold soft goods from a back pack walking. He was 19. Hyman borrowed money, bought a horse and increased his business enough to soon afford a store front. A few storefronts later H. Mendel and Sons was a successful business and the family was living well. When Hyman passed on in 1954 it was covered on the front page of the Atlanta Journal.

The immigrant couple had eight children. The oldest, Sarah Mendel married Henry Koplin (who was also one of eight children) and bought a business in Macon Georgia in 1919 which became Macon Iron and General Steel. Henry died in 1952 and I was named after him. Sarah lived to nearly 102 and died in 1996. She ate lots of red meat, only drank whole milk (hated that watered down milk) and drank scotch from a water sized tumbler. To the best of my knowledge she never took an aerobics class.

Sarah's brothers and sisters were strong minded, strong willed , highly principled, industrious, and dedicated to family.

Over Thanksgiving we had a reunion of the offspring of Hyman and Esther. Sarah and her seven siblings have all passed on, but over 200 descendents gathered in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic at the Paradisus Resort. Their offspring includes successful entrepreneurs, doctors, dentists, lawyers, accountants, teachers, investors, managers, writers, a movie star, salespeople, philanthropists, students and a bunch of just damn fine people.

I doubt if Esther and Hyman could have foreseen the gift of family they engendered, but I am sure they would have been proud of every family member.

The gift from Esther and Hyman was America’s gain and Russia’s loss.

Brief and Wise

A few quotable randoms from recent readings-

Political Correctness- A doctrine fostered by a delusional minority and the mainstream media, which puts forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end. (forgot the author).

"The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never made up their minds to be good or evil." Hannah Arendt

"We thought we had the answers, it was the questions we had wrong." Bono

"The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance getting something right, there is a 90% probability you'll get it wrong." Andy Rooney

"Computers are like Old Testament Gods: lots of rules and no mercy." - Joseph Cambell

Did The Syrian Nuclear Facility Originate in Iraq?

I have posted a few articles contending there were nuclear weapons development in Iraq. This article in the Jerusalem Post contends that the very early stage facility in Syria taken out by the Israelis a few months ago orginated in Iraq.

I am deeply interested as to why this attack has received such little press. The attack was acknowledged but none of the critical details have been explored at all. Somewhat contrary to this piece John Bolton hypothesized that the North Koreans were the source of the nuclear facility in Syria.

See the article in the Jerusalem Post: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1195127544177&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

an excerpt:

As Loftus summarized, "The gist of the new evidence is this: Roughly one-quarter of Saddam's WMD was destroyed under UN pressure during the early to mid 1990s. Saddam sold approximately another quarter of his weapons stockpile to his Arab neighbors during the mid-to-late-1990's. The Russians insisted on removing another quarter in the last few months before the war. The last remaining WMD, the contents of Saddam's nuclear weapons labs, were still inside Iraq on the day when the coalition forces arrived in 2003. His nuclear weapons equipment was hidden in enormous underwater warehouses beneath the Euphrates River. Saddam's entire nuclear inventory was later stolen from these warehouses right out from under the Americans' noses."

Loftus then cites Israeli sources who claim that the Iraqi nuclear program was transferred to the Deir az Zour province in Syria.

HKO comments

for the new readers, John Loftus's analysis is often quite bold and contrary to consensus. Just because it explains events does not necessarily make it right. On the other hand much of his analysis stands unrefuted and fills a gaping void left by the media.

Here is an older post also about Loftus's analysis of the nuclear capabalities and their disposal. Note that he proposed IN MAY that some of Iraqi's nuclear weapons made its way to Syria (that's when I posted it), the Israeli's attacked the facility in Iraq in September. Interesting, isn't it? http://rebelyid.blogspot.com/2007/05/some-perspectives-on-iraq-debacle-from.html

The Difference Between Legitimate Criticism of Israel and Anti Semitism

Natan Saransky distinguishes legitimate criticism from anti-Semtism by the the three D's:

1. Demonization- when Jews are described as an aside from humanity. When they are collectively held accountable for individual acts, and described with evil 'tendencies.' This is common in the Arab media (see MEMRI connection in Recommended Site below), and sadly on many of our college campuses.

“The notion that all Jews are responsible for whatever any Jews do is not a Zionist notion. It is an anti-Semitic notion.” Leon Wieseltier

2. Double Standard- When Israel is held strictly accountable for acts or conditions that are openly tolerated or ignored in numerous other countries. By this fact The United Nations is the most noted anti-Semitic agency in the world. Israel is the brunt of a hugely disproportionate number of UN resolutions while countries still practicing slavery, genocide, intolerance of religious and women's rights are the subject of nearly none.

3. Deligitimization- Israel was granted statehood by the United Nations 60 years ago and recognized by all of the major western powers. Yet its very existence is disputed by its neighbors and screamed by the 'anti Zionists' on college campuses and taught in many Middle Eastern schools where there is no Israel on the map. There is no such protest about the origins of Syria, Jordan, Iraq or Saudi Arabia which were also decided by colonial powers a century ago.

“ Old fashioned anti- Semitism was justified in the name of ethnic, Aryan, white purity, superiority and nationalism” while the new anti-Semitism is cast “by politically correct people in the name of anticolonialism, anti-imperialism, antiracism , and pacifism.” Phyllis Chesler

“Israel is the only state in the world today, and the Jews the only people in the world today, that are the object of a standing set of threats from governmental, religious, and terrorist bodies seeking their destruction.” Canadian Minister of Justice and Attorney General Irwin Cotler

from "Will Israel Survive" by Mitchel Bard

Arabs in America

Too many of us tend to confuse Arabs and Muslims.

According to Mitchell G. Bard in "Will Israel Survive?" *

There are 1.2 million Arabs in the US. 38 % are Lebanese, primarily Christians. 6% of Arab Americans are Palestinian (70,000) and fewer than ¼ of Arab Americans are Muslim.

News to me!

* the short answer is yes unless the Iranians get the nukes. Still it is a good book examining and addressing the many threats aginst Israel today.

Your Eyes as Economic Indicators

If the economy is getting weak and consumer spending is threatened you can not discern it on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The sidewalk is so thick that it barely moves. There is a waiting line at the food court in the Water Tower shopping mall. A line stretches down ½ a block to get in a store to buy caramel corn.

In Atlanta on a Saturday you can barely find a parking space at Lennox in Buckhead. While true that these are the upscale side of retail, and may not speak to other shoppers, it is hard to deny your eyes. When you see these retail locations slow down you will know there is trouble.
HKO

Is There Any Shame in Academia?

from
Commentary – November 2007
Books in Review

Academic Protocols
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
By John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt

Review by Bret Stephens

Excerpts by HKO

What their collective labors have demonstrated beyond any doubt is that behind the authors’ conclusions lies a farrago of shoddy or non-existent scholarship and rank intellectual dishonesty.

For example: writing on Israel’s allegedly systematic violations of human rights and its “dwindling moral case” for American sympathy, Mearsheimer and Walt assert that, in the Six-Day War of 1967, Israeli soldiers murdered “hundreds of Egyptian prisoners of war.” The claim is made en passant, asserted casually as an uncontroversial fact. In a footnote, an Israeli journalist named Gaby Bron is cited as the main source.

Years ago, however, the same Gaby Bron, who had been a soldier in the 1967 war, told the historian Michael Oren that the story of this alleged massacre was completely false. “The 150 POW’s were not shot and there were no mass murders,” said Bron. “In fact, we helped the prisoners, gave them water, and in most cases just sent them in the direction of the Suez Canal.”

One charge of atrocity, one fallacious footnote to support it. Now consider the challenge for a reader or reviewer who must wade through not just ‘The Israel Lobby’s’ 355 pages of text but its no fewer than 1,399 footnotes, many of which contain references to multiple sources. The opportunities for intellectual mischief are staggering, and Mearsheimer and Walt rarely miss a chance to take them.

Amid the blizzard of detail, however, one thing stands out: the complete absence of original scholarship. Scarcely any primary source material cited; no first hand interviews; no hint that either Mearsheimer or Walt ever bothered to visit Israel during the course of their researches or so much as spoke to actual member of the “lobby” against which they level heavy charges of working at cross-purposes with vital U.S. interests.

How many readers will notice this travesty of academic standards?

Mearsheimer and Walt note that Sayyid Qutb, the spiritual godfather of Al Qaeda, was hostile to the United States because he saw it as a corrupt and licentious society and also because of US support for Israel. Leave aside the inconvenient fact that Qutb was executed by Nasser in 1966, before the U.S. became Israel’s primary patron.

HKO comments-
Like so many anti Semites from intellectual and academic corners, they too are subject to believing what they want to believe and filtering facts to self justify preordained conclusions. The author noted that their rage at the “mayhem being committed in the Middle East” and the president they deemed responsible may explain why they “lost their sense of balance and slipped into conspiracy-mongering.”

Still this does not excuse the shoddy research and pathetic misinformation from two noted academics. They and the institutions they represent should be ashamed.

The Rage Against Political Discourse

In the OpinionJournal PETER BERKOWITZ wrote of the destructive power of rage in politics in a great piece called

The Insanity of Bush Hatred http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010861

He demonstrates how the rage against Bush sacrifices basic facts and reason to reach the preordained conclusions of even, hell- especially, the most educated and intellectual among us.

The media feeds this destructive tendency. In my opinion such rage partially explains the ridiculous ant-Semitic assertions of Jimmy Carter and the academically shameful work of Mearsheimer and Walt's "The Israel Lobby".

This 'rage' throughout centuries of history has replaced reason and facts with hatred and oppression. It has infected some of our greatest minds who otherwsie claim the noblest of intention. Ralph Peters noted that hatred does not need a reason, only an excuse. Often this rage is that excuse.

There is much to criticize in the Bush administration, but the tone of so much of it is ridiculous and pathetically shallow. It is dangerous to our political discourse.

Watered Down Judicial Confirmations

Headed to the airport I weas listening to the news and heard that Ted Kennedy was against the confirmation of Mukasey as Attorney General because the appointee would not take a definitive position on whether waterboarding was actually torture.

Waterboarding Ted contended was a form of 'controlled drowning'.

At least he is addressing a subject on which he has some experience.

On a more serious note, judicial confirmations should be made on qualifications and commitment to the constitution and the rule of law; not isolated litmus tests on how they would rule on cases they have not heard. Our judiciary hearings are a farce.

Making Voting Easier is Not Making it Better

The push to get out the vote by making voting easier (using the internet) or bribing people to vote is often pushed by the more liberal side of our political debate, assuming that all of the young non voters would vote for their party; they just do not believe that the non voters may actually support lower taxes and smaller government rather than universal (read 'free') health insurance. Accoding to research this isn't true. The non voters are evenly split among conservative and liberal

I agree with the article that voting should be made harder rather than easier. A basic test of citizenship should be required to vote. Of course this will not happen. It will be deemed racist or discriminatory, even if it isn't, and the two sides would never agree on what should be required on such a test.

There should be more to voting than the ability to fog a mirror, and it seems that many voters do not even meet this qualification.

Read the rest of the article from National Review by Jonah Goldberg:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=N2MwNjE0YjAyZTcwMTYxMjc1YmVkMDc2MTFiODE5NTU=

How Many Shirts Can You Wear at One Time?

The reason the superwealthy are often so liberal is often a question of scale; if you make a billion dollars a year, whether the tax rate is 30% or 40% is irrelevant. You will have to make do with a $600 million net rather than a $700 million disposable income. How many shirts can you wear at one time? How many 30,000 square foot mansions can you sleep in?

The effect of the estate tax is strongly anti family, even if it only attacks relatively wealthy families. People who run the family business, whether it is a farm, a scrap yard, or an investment pool often see the capital asset not as their personal asset but as an asset that must be preserved for following generations much as it was preserved for them. Wealth building is not always an act that occurs in a single generation.

A high estate tax causes the wealthy to either spend the money while they are alive rather than give it to the government, causing even more ostentatious and conspicuous consumption. It causes money to be spent of complicated trusts and insurance policies rather than more productive assets. It penalizes illiquidity and risk taking, causing productive assets to be liquidated to pay taxes.

The American economy no longer exists in a vacuum. High estate taxes will encourage the wealthy to seek to live in a country without a predatory stance on their wealth. John Templeton became a Bahama citizen so that he could give his wealth to Christian charities rather than the U.S. government. (Yes, many of the wealthy want to give the money away, but want a say in who gets it.) To try and restrict this capital flow, as one Georgia Congressman suggested, would possibly destroy our dominance as the safest haven for capital in the world.

If an American makes a billion dollars on a stock portfolio he is supposed to give 50% to the government when he dies according to Warren Buffet. Yet if a Saudi prince (or some other foreign national) makes a billion dollars on the same portfolio he keeps it all. Does this seem right to Mr. Buffet? Capital will go where it is respected.

Warren Buffet owns insurance companies who benefit from estate planning to avoid taxes. He buys successful business that often face the liquidation decision to generate liquidity to pay estate taxes. Perhaps his stance in favor of estate taxes is self serving, perhaps not. It is not in the best interest of the economy or the families who have spent generations creating wealth.

Class warefare is no more appealing when proposed by the wealthiest among us.

HKO

The Income Inequality Myth

from the Opinion Journal

Movin' On Up
A Treasury study refutes populist hokum about "income inequality."
Tuesday, November 13, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST

The Treasury study examined a huge sample of 96,700 income tax returns from 1996 and 2005 for Americans over the age of 25. The study tracks what happened to these tax filers over this 10-year period. One of the notable, and reassuring, findings is that nearly 58% of filers who were in the poorest income group in 1996 had moved into a higher income category by 2005. Nearly 25% jumped into the middle or upper-middle income groups, and 5.3% made it all the way to the highest quintile.

Of those in the second lowest income quintile, nearly 50% moved into the middle quintile or higher, and only 17% moved down. This is a stunning show of upward mobility, meaning that more than half of all lower-income Americans in 1996 had moved up the income scale in only 10 years.

Also encouraging is the fact that the after-inflation median income of all tax filers increased by an impressive 24% over the same period. Two of every three workers had a real income gain--which contradicts the Huckabee-Edwards-Lou Dobbs spin about stagnant incomes.

The Treasury study found that those tax filers who were in the poorest income quintile in 1996 saw a near doubling of their incomes (90.5%) over the subsequent decade. Those in the highest quintile, on the other hand, saw only modest income gains (10%). The nearby table tells the story, which is that the poorer an individual or household was in 1996 the greater the percentage income gain after 10 years.

Only one income group experienced an absolute decline in real income--the richest 1% in 1996. Those households lost 25.8% of their income.

for the complete article: http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010855

NASA Doubts Global Warming

from www.foxnews.com

Perfectly Natural

Many global warming activists point to changes in the arctic icecap as proof of the dangerous effects of man-made global warming. Now a report from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says those changes are in fact the result of natural ocean circulation patterns. A team of scientists used satellite and deep-sea pressure gauge data to monitor ocean patterns.

Says team leader James Morison of the University of Washington's Polar Science Center — "Our study confirms many changes seen in upper Arctic Ocean circulation in the 1990s were mostly decadal in nature, rather than trends caused by global warming."

It's a Small World - Maybe Not

The "It's a Small World After All" ride at Disneyland will be shut down for a rehab. One of the problems is that the boats originally from the New York World's Fair in 1964-65 can not handle the 200 pound adults . The new boats will have a deeper flume and be more buoyant.

from : http://www.miceage.com/allutz/al100907c.htm

Quite simply, the boats weren't designed to handle multiple adults weighing more than 200 pounds, and they now routinely bottom out in the shallow flume and get stuck. The Imagineers who designed the unique flume ride system for the World's Fair assumed that adult men would average 175 pounds, and adult women would average 135 pounds. Needless to say, those 1960's statistics are hopelessly out of date in today's world. This same issue creates similar problems on the drops at Pirates of the Caribbean, or even on the older dark rides like Pinocchio or Alice In Wonderland as the more heavily loaded cars try to keep up their pace throughout the ride. But at it's a small world, the weight related problems happen more frequently.

Will Ron Paul Accept Support from Hate Groups?

I have expressed some concern over the association from the hate groups of the far right to Ron Paul's campaign. I gave him the benefit of the doubt in his intent or willingness to attract this element.

This article in American Thinker (see recommended sites) does an incredibly thorough job of documenting his ties to these vicious groups, and his reluctance to distance or disavow his relationship with them.

It is a bit long but worth noting: http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/11/the_ron_paul_campaign_and_its.html

Politics makes strange bedfellows: the peace freaks in San Francisco and the neo nazi racists share a common preferred candidate.

The BIG Republican Tent

Did you ever think you would see the far left San Francisco peace marchers support a Republican candidate? Check them out at:
http://www.zombietime.com/sf_anti-war_rally_oct_27_2007/the_republican_anti-war_march/

I could not help but think that Ron Paul running as THE antiwar candidate has effectively neutered the Democratic far left. Who would have predicted this?

The Republicans have a very large tent this year. Could the Republican Convention possibly resemble the infamous 1968 Democratic Convention?

tips to Blond Sagacity..... again. she has a great site- see it at the referred list at the bottom left.

Muslims Against Sharia

Quite a relief to see efforts of Moderate Muslims to reform Islam. Ultimately the answer to Muslim fanatics must come from their fellow Mulsims.

Check this out: http://www.reformislam.org/

Tips to Blond Sagacity

One Screen View of Global Incidents

This is really an interesting resource: a map showing all terrorist and suspicious incidents around the world updated every 360 seconds.

Check it out : http://www.globalincidentmap.com/home.php

tips to Marty Carter

Soldier Dogs

from http://www.opinionjournal.com/ 11/13/07

There's a new lease on life for the dogs of war: For Veteran's day, SPCA International kicked off a program to repatriate the Iraqi pets that have become adored companions of American troops serving in Iraq. Inspiring the effort was a story the group learned of one flea-bitten and starved puppy named Charlie. The "size of a potato," he was rescued during a routine patrol and gradually brought from the edge of extinction by a diet of MREs. He's now the official Charlie Company mascot.

The plan, called Operation Baghdad Pups (http://oj1.opinionjournal.com/redir3/8nFIpTDAD!www.baghdadpups.com), aims to make sure "no buddy gets left behind," despite obstructionist military regulations and a cost estimated at $4000 per dog. The bond between soldiers and their faithful friends, of course, is legendary: A dog named "Stubby" received the rank of sergeant in WWI and at least three dogs were recognized for valor in WWII. These days, there's even a United States War Dogs Association to honor the memory of man's best friend in peace and war.

The Founder of the Weather Channel Comments on Global Warming

John Coleman, the founder of the Weather Channel comments:

"I do not oppose environmentalism. I do not oppose the political positions of either party. However, Global Warming, i.e. Climate Change, is not about environmentalism or politics. It is not a religion. It is not something you “believe in.” It is science; the science of meteorology. This is my field of life-long expertise. And I am telling you Global Warming is a non-event, a manufactured crisis and a total scam. I say this knowing you probably won’t believe a me, a mere TV weatherman, challenging a Nobel Prize, Academy Award and Emmy Award winning former Vice President of United States. So be it. "

"I have read dozens of scientific papers. I have talked with numerous scientists. I have studied. I have thought about it. I know I am correct. There is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril. I am incensed by the incredible media glamour, the politically correct silliness and rude dismissal of counter arguments by the high priest of Global Warming. "

for the rest of John Coleman's comments: http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog/comments_about_global_warming/

tips to Blond Sagacity

Dumb Laws

Another great site for eclectic isomniacs- Dumblaws at http://www.dumblaws.com/

a few samples:

in Georgia:

All sex toys are banned

It is illegal to use profanity in front of a dead body which lies in a funeral home or in a coroners office.

Donkeys may not be kept in bathtubs.

Tips to Blond Sagacity

What's In A Zip Code?

What can your zip code tell you?

A lot- check it out at http://zipskinny.com/

A Choice for Taxpayers

from the OpinionJournal.com

Give Tax Filers the Freedom to Choose

Voters want change, but Republicans seem bereft of new ideas. That's why a tax restructuring proposal by Reps. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Jeb Hensarling of Texas suddenly seems to be gaining support on Capitol Hill.

Called "The Taxpayer Choice Act," the bill provides a GOP counterproposal to Democratic House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel's trillion-dollar tax hike, itself offered as a solution to the runaway alternative minimum tax. As Mr. Ryan tells me, "We can't beat something with nothing, which is why we introduced the Choice Act."

It works like this: The AMT would be repealed, protecting 20 million middle-class Americans from paying it next year. An optional postcard tax return would be created with two rates: 10% on income up to $100,000 and 25% on income above. The first $40,000 of income for a family would be tax free, but most deductions would be eliminated.

Presto. This solves the political problem of most flat-tax proposals -- the reluctance of voters to give up tax deductions they savor. Filers would have a choice of the postcard return or continuing to comply with the current code, and would be expected to figure out over time that they are better off with a flatter, simpler tax return. The plan is winning accolades from people like Jack Kemp, Steve Forbes, and Bob Novak.

One big virtue of the Taxpayer Choice Act, which was first suggested on the pages of the Wall Street Journal in the mid 1990s, is that it provides a mechanism to hold federal taxes steady as a share of the economy at their historical rate of between 18% and 19%. The plan would slam the brakes on a series of tax hikes baked in the cake of the current tax code. The first of these is the AMT, which will hit 30 million filers by 2010. The second is the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. Under current law, taxes as a share of GDP would go to nearly 23% by 2040. Democrats, if they win everything in November 2008, wouldn't have to legislate new taxes -- the biggest tax hikes in history are already on automatic pilot. How convenient for Hillary.

These Writers Are Not On Strike

Staged on ABCNews
writer fill-in for the Hollywood strikers.
By Michelle Malkin

On Monday, the local Fox affiliate in Birmingham, Ala., blew the whistle on an ABC News sting operation intended to elicit bigoted responses from local residents. The national ABC News program Primetime Live hired actors to pose as same-sex couples and engage in public displays of affection on a park bench. Birmingham police department sources told the Fox affiliate about the social experiment; a local merchant spotted an RV where the ABC crew was stationed. The merchant was told “ABC was working on a week-long project to see how people would react . . . A FOX6 news reporter approached the RV and talked with an ‘actor’ who said, ‘Yes, we are working for ABC News.’”

Welcome to Media Theatrics 101. Instead of simply interviewing folks in the South or staking out real gay couples, ABC News thinks it’s fair and objective to stage-manage social experiments and call it journalism.

for the rest of the story : http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=Y2I3ODI4NzUzMjZlZWNjMWM5NTRjNTRlMDNjODQ2YTQ=

Palestinians Seek Israeli Citizenship

Last update - 16:20 07/11/2007
Israel reports jump in Jerusalem Arabs seeking Israeli citizenship
By The Associated Press

The number of East Jerusalem residents seeking Israeli citizenship has risen sharply in recent months, an Israeli official said Wednesday, as talk of a possible re-division of the city gains momentum. The Interior Ministry has received hundreds of applications for citizenship from Arab residents of East Jerusalem over the past few months, instead of the average of several dozen, said ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad. Hadad was unable to provide specific figures but said there has been an increase of hundreds.

The trend appears to stem from Palestinian fears that they could lose Israeli social benefits, such as health care or welfare payments, if their neighborhoods are shifted to Palestinian control in the future.

HKO notes- I guess the appeal of law and order and a functioning society is irrelevant

DOG !

Didn't I see Duane 'Dog' Chapman in a GEICO ad?

Randoms Part I

A third of Tiawanese funeral processions include a stripper.

The face of a penny can hold thirty drops of water.

Edgar Allen Poe and Timothy Leary were both kicked out of West Point.

Reindeer like to eat bananas.

I must end on this one:

Lorne Green had one of his nipples bitten off by an alligator while hosting an episode of Lorne Green's Wild Kingdom.

from the Book of Useless Information by Noel Botham

Fashion Confusion

My Wife (The Domestic Goddess) has relentlessly commented on the out-of-fashion state of my favorite jeans; the 10 year old Eddie Bauers that I am addicted to. So I went to Nordstroms at Phipps in Atlanta to update my jeans and become a little more fashion concious.

I splurged and bought a couple of pairs of jeans that cost more than most of the slacks I wear to work and to occasions where I add a jacket and tie. I work at a steel warehouse, fab shop, and scrap yard so I do not like to wear expensive pants to work, but I need to wear something better than jeans for meetings and lunch at the City Club.

So now I have jeans that are too expensive to wear to work. I wear my dress slacks to work and change into my jeans at home so I won't mess them up.

I am confused.

Small Business Theft

In the last week I must have heard three stories about small business people robbed by people who worked for them. Over the years I have heard this story a dozen times. I am not referring to stealing merchandise, this is white collar crime, ususally women. The lady who writes the checks or approves the bills uses company funds to go on a personal spending spree.

Ususally this is a small business with a single person who handles all of the accounting functions. It is hard for the owners to conceive that this trusted person would stoop so low to steal from her employer. Yet a few simple steps would have prevented this in every case.

1. Only you should open the bank statement. Review the checks and be sure you recognize all of the vendors, and that the signature is yours. In fact you may want to have the bank statement sent to your home, so no one else has the chance to interfere. You may also want to use an outside accounting firm to balance your statement.

2. The same procedure should apply to credit card statements if your employees use company credit cards.

3. If you are in a business that deposits cash then either a) you deposit the cash or b) you check the deposit slip from the bank.

4. Insist that your accounting people take their vacations. An accounting or office person who can not afford to "let the work get behind" is a red flag.

5. When you sign checks have the supporting documentation, invoices etc attached to the check.

6. Occasionally check the receipts and be sure they are kosher. One enterprise I am affiliated with had a high level person go to extravegant lengths to falsify receipts for plane fares and hotels for trips that were never taken.

To me a person who would steal from a person who provides them a job and a paycheck is about one level above a child molester. But it is common and few owners suspect the perpetrator until a lot of money is missing. It is often not recoverable.

and
7. Prosecute them. Get it on their record. Do the rest of the work force a favor and stop passing these thieves on to the next employer. You do check criminal records, don't you?

Strange Bedfellows

From OpinionJournal.com

Move over, Bill Clinton. Ron Paul may be our first libertarian "black" presidential candidate (not counting Alan Keyes, who is black without the quotation marks). Recent polls show the Texas Congressman beating the entire GOP field in his ability to attract African American voters. In a general election contest with Hillary Clinton, Mr. Paul would get a whopping 33% of the black vote -- not a win exactly but well ahead of the roughly 10% President Bush received from black voters in the 2004 election.

Mr. Paul was one of only three Republican candidates to attend Tavis Smiley's All American Forum debate back in September -- a turnout that should have been an embarrassment to the GOP. At that forum, he received a warm response for his call for "repeal of most of federal laws on drugs and the unfairness of how blacks are treated with these drug laws" (a position notably endorsed by another attendee, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee).

from hko
ironically Ron Paul also seems to be the preferred candidate for the looney right, the racist and antisemitic. Politics does make strange bedfellows.

check out this article from American Thinker: http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/11/is_ron_paul_pandering_to_the_p.html

Ron Moran astutely points out that the 'paranoid' Ron Paul is pandering to will be uncontrollable and destructive to his campaign, which is only attracting a small segment of the total voters.

Economic Incentive for Peace in Israel

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita is a special advisor to the CIA and other ogananizations, and is a noted accurate predictor of political trends, chairman of New York University's Department of Poltics, and a recent author.

In a recent article he suggested a unique solution to peace in Israel. Land for peace, he noted, will never be successful. In a conflict model any action from either party will reduce the pressure for a counter measure from the other.

He recommended a sharing of the tourist revenue with the Palestinians. Tourism is a big source of income in Israel and it could be for the Palestinians as well. By sharing the tourism revenue it gives an economic incentive for the Palestinians to reduce violence.

I question whether this will counter the intense hatred and anti semitism taught to the Palestininan youth. Unfortunately there are many who would be willing to suffer as long as they could inflict greater suffering on the Jews and Israelis. Still, it is an interesting idea.

Uninformed and Misinformed

Not the News
The elite media’s coverage of Iraq is a fiasco.

By Clifford D. May

Mark Twain famously said “if you don’t read the newspapers you are uninformed — if you do read the newspapers you are misinformed.” Today, those who rely on the elite media for news of Iraq suffer from both disabilities.

Start with lack of information: The average news consumer probably has no clue that Gen. David Petreaus’ new strategy has crippled al Qaeda in Iraq, that Americans and Iraqis are now fighting side-by-side against both Sunni and Shia extremists, and that the elimination of terrorist safe havens and weapons caches has improved security for average Iraqis in parts of the country that a few months ago were snake pits.

As for misinformation, how many people still believe that guards in Guantanamo flushed Korans down the toilet, that U.S. Marines committed a massacre at Haditha, and that American soldiers ridicule women disfigured by bombs, run over puppies for sport and desecrate graves for a laugh? All of this was reported in such mainstream publications as Newsweek and The New Republic. None of it is true.

Meanwhile, the barbarous violence committed by al Qaeda and the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq is scarcely noted. For example, here’s a story you probably have neither read nor heard: On Oct. 28 in a village ten miles southwest of Baqubah, U.S. infantrymen came upon a prison run by al Qaeda. In it, according to military spokesmen, they found a hostage, bruised, battered, dehydrated, and tied to the ceiling, his arms injured because of the way they were twisted behind his back.

for the rest of this story: http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=YjlkMzA1YWY0ZGUxMmVmNmZiNGU4ZWRjOWI3NTU5MjM=

hko notes- American GI casualties are at a two year low- where is the story? Accusations against Americans are given front page coverage and then proven false. Horrendous actions from Al Qaeda are ignored. If our media was intending to mislead they could not be any more effective.