Showing newest 71 of 115 posts from August 2008. Show older posts
Showing newest 71 of 115 posts from August 2008. Show older posts
Friday, August 29, 2008
Terrible story from the UK
If you let your husband run an escort service, and use your police position to collect debts from his customers, should you really be surprised when he murders you for the life insurance money? By what shared moral code could you condemn such a killing? Clearly, you have both thrown Judeo-Christian norms, and Muslim norms, and Natural Law out the window.
http://tinyurl.com/5crpvmhttp://tinyurl.com/5o7e9j
http://tinyurl.com/6x9gql
What do Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden and porn star Jenna Jameson have in common?
The media considers them all to be "devout Catholics."
http://culture11.com/blogs/ladyblog/2008/08/27/porn-again-catholic/
http://culture11.com/blogs/ladyblog/2008/08/27/porn-again-catholic/
"Where are they now" story of the baby on the Nirvana album cover
Life is always better and more interesting in another place or another time. Life doesn't suck, it's just that my life sucks because I have to be here and live now. That's the problem. Also, in the future life will not suck because progress will continue to make the world better, until eventually, it will be totally better.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92833535
Life in general isn't quite as "cool" as it was when he jumped naked in the pool in the early '90s, though, he says. These days, his peers are too stuck on the Internet and video games. Ironically, he yearns for the era that gave Kurt Cobain, the lead singer for Nirvana, so much angst.
These days, Elden says, his peers concentrate on "playing Rock Band on Xbox, like, that's not a real band! That's the difference between the '90s and kids nowadays; kids in the '90s would actually go out and make a [real] band!"
"… he yearns for the era that gave Kurt Cobain, the lead singer for Nirvana, so much angst."
So far, Obama's convention bounce is miniscule
From Rasmussen:
· Obama’s pre-convention lead of three points has increased by a point. That’s something John Kerry failed to accomplish. His polling numbers peaked just before the convention in 2004.
· But, Obama is still below his biggest lead of the year—six points—which he achieved with the bounce from his Berlin speech and surrounding hoopla.
· Obama has gained three percentage points compared to a week ago.
Michelle got a 7 point bounce in favorability
I'm surprised it was only 7 points. I thought she knocked the ball out of the park in her speech.
---------------------------------------------------------
From Rasmussen:
Obama, whose controversial comments earlier in the campaign, made her the focus of much media scrutiny, now is viewed favorably by 55% of voters and unfavorably by only 36%. Two weeks ago, the wife of the Democratic Presidential nominee, was viewed favorably by 48% and unfavorably by 43%.
Krauthammer nails down a lingering feeling about Obama
Witnesses To His Ability?
Washington Post , by Charles Krauthammer
Great take from Kevin Williamson at NRO
Let's take a moment to review the record: Hillary Clinton was an obscure lawyer of modest accomplishment who happened to be married to the most successful politician of her generation. Her rise came in graduated advances that reliably followed her husband's election to higher office. She presided over the biggest policy fiasco of his presidency, significantly diminishing his efficacy and helped to hand over Congress to the opposition in the process. In spite of being abused and publicly humiliated by the man, she rode his coattails until she was able to get herself elected to the Senate to represent a state in which she had never resided, based entirely on the fact that she is the wife of somebody important and popular.
Sarah Palin didn't ride anybody's coattails into the governor's office. Her husband isn't an influential politician — he's a fisherman and semi-pro snowmobile racer. To compare Gov. Palin to Sen. Clinton is to do a disservice to Gov. Palin.
If anything, it makes more sense to compare Palin to Bill Clinton: the governor of a lightly populated state with a backward and corrupt political culture, arguably short on experience, from humble origins, but youthful and appealing, and, more important, willing to resist entrenched party interests from time to time. That's a more sensible and less sexist comparison.
Why the others weren't picked to be McCain's VP
One little thing that this commentator didn't (wouldn't?) mention is that Romney is a Mormon and that is a big negative in certain demographic tranches of the Republican base. It may not be right, but Romney is never going to be a big vote getter in the Republican party at a national level. I really like the guy, but his dreams of being President are just that. He would be an excellent pick for Secretary of the Treasury though.
All of Christianity is contained in the definition of "weeds"
I was watering the tomato plants and basil plant and pulling weeds with my 3 year old son a couple of weeks ago. He was happily yanking up weeds and using his little lopper cutters to chop weeds when he started to chop down the little basil plant. I said, "No no no! That's our basil plant. Don't chop that." He asked, "Why is that not a weed?" What a great question. I had to think about that for a second. I said, "Well, it is sort of a weed. But it's a weed we like. We can use it for cooking. We want to keep that one and get rid of all the other weeds around it."
That little incident got me thinking. I pondered whether there is some other difference between plants and weeds. I wondered how I would define the word "weed." "Weeds are plants we don't want" was the best I could do. Finally, I went to the dictionary. And there it was, just as I suspected.
weed
n. A plant considered undesirable, unattractive, or troublesome, especially one growing where it is not wanted, as in a garden.
n. A plant considered undesirable, unattractive, or troublesome, especially one growing where it is not wanted, as in a garden.
The only difference between weeds and plants is whether the gardener wants them to grow in his garden. How similar that sounds to the pro-choice position that the woman must have the ability to choose whether to allow a new life to continue growing. "It's my body!" "It's my garden!" How sad it is that we look at new human lives the same way we look at weeds. They only have value if we want them. They are only entitled to live if we say so. By positing ourselves as "the Gardner" (i.e. the decision maker over human life), we are reducing human life to the status of weeds. And we are arrogating to ourselves the status of gods. Christianity is a call to take ourselves out of the decisionmaking position and let God make the decisions. To see each other not as weeds but as infinitely valuable beings that need to be nurtured, saved, and preserved to adorn God's garden, where we are all wanted. The easiest way to let God make the decisions is to follow the rules he has already made clear to us. Just avoiding actions that are obviously sinful and avoiding breaking rules that are well documented and clear will keep us on the right path 90% of the time.
Last night's late night comic jokes
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
Barack Obama has accepted the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. He gave his acceptance speech on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech. And just two days after Hillary Clinton gave her “I Had a Dream!” speech.
They had a Mount Olympus backdrop with columns on it . . . a little over the top. Like when they introduced him as “Barack — son of Zeus!” That seemed over the top.
Last night, during his speech, Bill Clinton promised to do everything he could to help Barack Obama win the election. Hillary said, “That’s nice — but you know Bill . . . keeping promises is not his strong suit.”
According to the New York Post, a delegate at the convention received information packets with three separate warmings not to drink too much, because alcohol has a much greater effect at higher altitudes. I guess they didn’t want anyone getting drunk and accidentally sleeping with John Edwards again.
Late Show Top Ten
Top Ten Surprises in Barack Obama's Democratic National Convention Address
10. Delivered speech in a bright orange pantsuit
9. Wants to change October to "Barack-tober"
8. Most of speech was devoted to his Labor Day barbecue cole slaw recipe
7. Outlined plan for America, then took calls about the Broncos defense
6. Kept saying to John Kerry, "Hey, why the long face?"
5. Twelve-and-a-half minutes of, "Testing-one-two"
4. Performed hilarious ventriloquist act with Dennis Kucinich on his lap
3. Promised to make Pluto a state
2. Plans to bring peace to Lo and Audrina on "The Hills"
1. Also pronounces "nuclear," "nucular"
Late Show with David Letterman
Last night Barack Obama was officially nominated Democratic candidate for president of the United States. I think things are starting to look bad for Hillary.
Bill Clinton spoke last night. He’s a powerful orator. But this was sort of sad . . . in the middle of Clinton’s speech, wandering out on stage, was John McCain in his bathrobe.
I like John McCain. He looks like the guy who turns his business over to his son, but still shows up once a week.
John McCain has finally decided on his choice for vice president. The only question now is, from which house will he make the announcement?
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Political experts says that John McCain is going to try to steal attention away from the Democrats tonight by leaking the name of his running mate. Experts say there’s a pretty good chance McCain will leak something else too.
Last night at the convention, Bill and Hillary Clinton were in the elevator together when it got struck between floors for five minutes. A spokesman called it a minor technical glitch, while Bill Clinton called it, “My own personal hell.”
Today, both John McCain and Michael Jackson will celebrate their birthday. So it will be the birthday of an old white guy and John McCain.
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
Rerun
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
The Democratic National Convention is over. Oprah was there. She actually owns Colorado. She bought it a couple of months ago.
I guess she was able to take a couple of days off from her job.
Al Gore was there, too. It was good to see Al Gore. With all this talk about global warming, and all he does for the environment, I’d forgotten how boring he is.
The night’s big event was Obama’s speech, in front of 75,000 enthusiastic supporters and eight confused Broncos season ticket holders. They thought maybe the football season started early.
Obama's patriotism
Haunted by suggestions he is not patriotic, Obama tried to confront them by directly declaring his love for America and pledging to defend it, with force if necessary. That he finds it necessary at this late stage to make such basic claims for a potential commander in chief shows he knows the issue is hurting him among voters.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Obama's nasty tactics for dealing with those who don't agree with him
If they oppose the O, call them up and shout them down. Who cares if they
are telling the truth? Who cares about refuting their assertions point by
point? Just shout them down.
are telling the truth? Who cares about refuting their assertions point by
point? Just shout them down.
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/08/obama_campaign_confr
onts_wgn_r.html
Clear enough?
Bishop Aquila also addressed the issue of Catholics who support “so-called abortion rights.” These Catholics, he said, “support a false right, promote a culture of death, and are guided by the ‘father of lies’ rather than by the light and truth of Jesus Christ.”
Aquila also stressed that Catholics who support these “rights” have “placed himself or herself outside of visible unity with the Church and thus should refrain from receiving Holy Communion” out of respect for the teaching of Jesus Christ and the Church.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
I hesitate to link to Mark Shea because of his oft times snippy tone, but this is interesting
The battle between good and evil creates strange bedfellows.
http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1962&Itemid=48
Here's another example. How can NOW claim to represent the interests of women while simultaneously supporting a serial harasser of women and rapist and felon like Bill Clinton? How can NOW shout about the injustice done to rape victims whose stories are not believed while refusing to believe the many women who claim to have been mistreated by Bill Clinton?
Yikes, the D convention is fraught with tension
I kind of feel sorry for Obama after reading this. Being stuck in an endless fight with the Clintons is no way to live.
High Anxiety in the Mile High City
DENVER
I’ve been to a lot of conventions, and there’s always something gratifyingly weird that happens.
Dan Quayle acting like a Dancing Hamster. Teresa Heinz Kerry reprising Blanche DuBois. Dick Morris getting nabbed triangulating between a hooker and toes.
But this Democratic convention has a vibe so weird and jittery, so at odds with the early thrilling, fairy dust feel of the Obama revolution, that I had to consult Mike Murphy, the peppery Republican strategist and former McCain guru.
“What is that feeling in the air?” I asked him.
“Submerged hate,” he promptly replied.
There were a lot of bitter Clinton associates, fund-raisers and supporters wandering the halls, spewing vindictiveness, complaining of slights, scheming about Hillary’s roll call and plotting trouble, with some in the Clinton coterie dissing Obama by planning early departures, before the nominee even speaks.
At a press conference with New York reporters on Monday, Hillary looked as if she were straining at the bit to announce her 2012 exploratory committee.
“Remember, 18 million people voted for me, 18 million people, give or take, voted for Barack,” she said, while making a faux pro-Obama point. She keeps acting as if her delegates are out of her control, when she’s been privately egging on people to keep her dream alive as long as possible, no matter what the cost to Obama.
Hillary also said she was happy about the choice of Joe Biden because he added “intensity” to the ticket. Ouch.
...
Ed Rendell, the governor of Pennsylvania, compared Obama to the passive-aggressive Adlai Stevenson and told The Washington Post that Obama gives six-minute answers and “is not exactly the easiest guy in the world to identify with.”
At a meeting of the Democratic women’s caucus Tuesday, 74-year-old Carol Anderson of Vancouver, Wash., a former Hillary volunteer, stood in the back of the room in a Hillary T-shirt and hat signed by Hillary and “Nobama” button and booed every time any of the women speakers mentioned Obama’s name.
She’s voting for McCain and had nothing nice to say about the Obamas. What about the kids, I asked. “Adorable,” she agreed. Well, I said, Michelle raised them.
“I think Michelle's mother raises them,” Anderson shot back, adding: “I wonder if Michelle would give the Queen one of her little knuckle punches?”
Bill’s pals said he was still gnawing at his many grievances against the younger version of himself he has to praise Wednesday night; the latest one being that the Obama folks, like all winners, wanted control over Bill’s speech, so that he did not give a paean to himself and his economic record, which is what he wanted to do, because he was incensed that Obama said a couple critical things about his administration during a heated campaign.
Finally, Obama had to give in on Monday and say he would allow the ex-president to do exactly as he likes, which is what he usually does anyhow.
Finally! Here come the bishops on the issue of abortion
As my two year old likes to say, "To the rescue!"
Chinese names assigned to Olympians
You Say Phelps,
China Officials
Say Feierpusi
10,000 Olympians
Awarded New Names;
China Officials
Say Feierpusi
10,000 Olympians
Awarded New Names;
By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER
BEIJING -- To the rest of the world, he's Michael Phelps, the American
swimmer who snagged eight gold medals. But for most Chinese here, he's
Maikeer Feierpusi.
Like all of the other approximately 10,000 athletes competing in these games
who aren't Chinese to begin with, Mr. Phelps has been assigned a Chinese
name. The names are used to introduce the athletes to a vast domestic
audience for whom Western names are just so much Greek.
The job of coming up with all those names falls to the seven members of the
Xinhua News Agency's Proper Names Translation office. "One nation, one
person, one name!" declares Li Chun, the director of the team referred to
respectfully by his colleagues as "professor."
Assigning Chinese names is no easy task. Because Chinese has no alphabet,
each syllable must be approximated with a character. And since every
character has a meaning, translators must also seek to avoid those
characters with negative or weird connotations.
The characters in Feierpusi (pronounced "fay are poo suh"), for example,
could be read to mean "luxurious," a pronoun for "you," "common" and "this,"
although they don't communicate any specific meaning when combined. Women
tend to receive more feminine characters; men, more masculine ones.
While their countrymen tumble and dive for fame, the translation office's
members take satisfaction from less-visible achievements. Li Zhenjie, who
has been translating names for 18 years, says she noticed from the Olympic
rolls that the Belarusian name Siarhei and the Russian name Sergey are
actually pronounced roughly the same. Thanks to her, Siarheis and Sergeys,
which used to have two different translations, are now both known as Xie er
gai (pronounced a bit like "she are guy").
The office grasps the seriousness of its role. Left in the hands of an
imprudent translator, name creation can cause a heap of trouble. In the
1920s, beverage giant Coca-Cola Co. famously encountered this problem when
shopkeepers created characters to identify the soda. Depending on dialect,
the literal translations ranged from "bite the wax tadpole" to "female horse
stuffed with wax." Today, Coke's Chinese name Kokou Kole means "delicious"
and "enjoyable."
Sprint loses case over early termination fees in cell phone contracts
California Judge Terminates Sprint's Reviled Cancellation Fees
By Jeff Meisner
E-Commerce Times
07/30/08 3:30 PM PT
Sprint Nextel customers are cheering a California judge's court
order that ends the wireless carrier's practice of charging early
termination fees for dropping services before a contract expires. Sprint
will now have to pay back -- or stop trying to collect -- a total of nearly
$73 million in the unpopular charges. Though the ruling applies only to
California, it could have a far-ranging impact.
A judge in California ruled that it is illegal for Sprint to charge
so-called early termination fees when customers discontinue their wireless
phone service.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Bonnie Sabraw ruled in a
class-action lawsuit on Monday that Sprint must reimburse its customers in
California US$18.2 million it collected in early termination fees. Sabraw
also told the carrier to discontinue its efforts to collect another $54.7
million in early termination fees from about 2 million Californians.
"We're disappointed, but this is a tentative decision and we are
focusing now on our response to the court," Sprint Nextel spokesperson
Matthew Sullivan told the E-Commerce Times.
Next Step in Legal Process Unclear
It's unclear whether Sabraw's decision will stand or be overturned
by a higher court, said Charles Golvin, a wireless telecom analyst with
Forrester Research.
The suit against Sprint Nextel is not the first of its kind. Verizon
Wireless settled a similar suit a few weeks ago.
"I'm a little surprised Sprint didn't take a similar tack," Golvin
said. "One of the big problems they're having is customer satisfaction,
especially amongst Nextel customers. Of course, they're also struggling
financially."
The lawsuit could add to already-existing pressure on Congress and
federal regulators to step into the fray over early termination fees, Golvin
said.
Some carriers have already adopted a proactive approach to dealing
with the early termination fee issue. T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon Wireless
prorate customers' early termination fees based on how long they've been
with each carrier.
In other words, a customer who stays with a carrier longer would pay
proportionately lower early termination fees.
CTIA Actively Lobbying FCC
The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association
<http://www.ctia.org/> has already petitioned the FCC for a ruling to
determine whether early termination fees are rates or fees, said CTIA
spokesperson John Walls.
"Federal law today says states cannot regulate in the areas of rates
charged by a company or entry into a market by a company," Walls told the
E-Commerce Times, "and we feel strongly that early termination fees are part
of the rate structure for wireless service."
CTIA believes that early termination fees should be considered part
of a carrier's overall rate, reasoning that mobile subscribers enjoy the
benefit of the lowest-possible service rate for a specific period of time in
exchange for signing a long-term contract. In addition, consumers benefit
from being able to purchase a heavily subsidized handset, Walls said.
Obama causing many black Americans to think about what it means to be black
Excerpts from the WSJ:
Severin Mahirwe, a Columbia junior who left Rwanda with his parents when he
was four, says he is glad Sen. Obama "isn't a black American. It exposes
people to the fact that being black is a lot more than people assume.... The
fact that the first black nominee for president is Barack Obama shows being
black can be many different things."
Black immigrants, on the whole, fare far better economically than
native-born blacks. A quarter of foreign-born blacks have bachelor's
degrees, vs. 16% of those born in America, according to the 2007 study by
researchers at Princeton and Penn. The median income for African-immigrant
households is over $45,000, vs. $41,000 for black Caribbean-immigrant
households and just under $36,000 for U.S.-born black households. Black
immigrant children are more likely than native-born black children to be
raised in two-parent homes.
Immigrant blacks fare better for many of the same reasons as other
immigrants: They're often a self-selected, highly motivated group. (Sen.
Obama's father was an economist who came to the U.S. to attend graduate
school.) The growing prominence of black immigrants is prompting some to
favor the term "black" as more accurate, and inclusive, than
"African-American."
But the growing diversity of blacks in America, epitomized by Sen. Obama,
also breeds tension.
"I have definitely heard parents and friends who are Rwandan tell me, 'You
don't want to associate with African-Americans. They are lazy. They have bad
habits,' " says Mr. Mahirwe, the Columbia student. "And I am friends with
African-Americans who will say, 'Look at those Africans. They take our jobs.
They think they are better than us.' "
Some black immigrants criticize American-born blacks for what they see as
too much emphasis on race.
"My brother and sister are from Kenya. They have lived here for 30 years and
are American citizens," says Pat Echessa-Kariuki, a 44-year-old teacher from
Nairobi who is visiting Vermont at the Bread Loaf summer teaching institute.
"They feel more comfortable hanging out with white people than
African-Americans. They feel African-Americans are angry all the time. I
have an African-American friend and everything she talks about is race."
She turns to Prudence Carter, a Stanford sociologist and an
African-American. "You talk about race all the time," she says. "I don't
understand that."
Ms. Carter, 38, shakes her head sadly. "On the one hand it's beautiful we
are diverse," she says. "But can we become so fragmented that we don't share
anything?"
One area where that fragmentation has been developing for decades is class.
Sen. Obama was a member of the upper middle class even before he entered
politics. His path to success through Harvard Law School and Hyde Park in
Chicago highlights the growing economic and cultural gap between the black
poor and the black middle class.
Sixty percent of blacks say the values of poor and middle-class blacks have
diverged in the past decade. A 2007 Pew Research survey showing this also
found that almost 40% of blacks said the values of poor and middle-class
blacks have diverged so much that blacks can no longer be thought of as a
single race.
...
Chet Whye, a New York business consultant and Obama supporter, recalls being
in Harlem and trying to buy an issue of Ebony magazine with a cover story on
"Black Cool" and a photo of Sen. Obama impeccably dressed in a suit and tie,
wearing sunglasses. He couldn't find a copy; the magazine was sold out.
Asked about the Obama effect, Mr. Whye, who is 52, smiles and points to
himself: "Blue tie, dark suit, trying to lose the weight. And I am not the
only one."
Yet even as they bask in the senator's success, some middle-class blacks
remain uneasy about their own choices and wonder whether they have distanced
themselves too much from poor blacks. They worry that Mr. Obama's success --
what many call being a "good black" -- could feed negative stereotypes among
whites about blacks who don't succeed or who act in a more confrontational
manner.
"Playing the role of the nonthreatening black works for me; I went to
boarding school and Kenyon College and I have a master's degree," says
Princess Hogue, 37, a social worker from Newark. "But we know within
ourselves the compromises we made" by not speaking out at times.
"Part of me has my fist clenched under the table," says Dawn Jefferson, a
31-year-old who teaches at a predominantly white private school outside
Washington, D.C. "There is this feeling that black confrontational behavior
won't be so acceptable. We have to all play the game now."
Even Sen. Obama's personal choices -- his marriage to Michelle Obama and
active involvement raising his two daughters -- are coming under scrutiny
and prompting discussions among blacks. Almost as electrifying to many black
women as his presidential run is the prominence of his wife and their public
relationship. In conversations, many wonder why there aren't more men like
Sen. Obama in their lives.
From 1950 to 2000, the percentage of black women and girls 15 and over who
are married declined to about 36% from 62%, according to census data. Among
white females, the decline was far less, to about 57% from 66%. Over the
same 50 years, the percentage of black women who had never been married
doubled, to about 42% from 21%.
Angering many black women is the perceived tendency of some successful black
men to marry white women or lighter-skinned blacks. "Obama could have easily
chosen a white woman," says Adrienne Dixon, an education professor at Ohio
State University in Columbus and 40-year-old mother of two teenagers. "The
fact that he didn't says a lot. It's important for my boys to see a love
relationship that doesn't depend on skin types. They see they don't have to
be with a light-skinned black woman to be successful."
Helen Credle, who works at Boston's Urban League, goes further. "I wouldn't
give a damn about him if it wasn't for Michelle," she says.
Peggy Noonan on Obama's comments on abortion at Saddleback
As I watched I thought: How about "Let the baby live"? Don't parse it. Just
"Let the baby live."
"Let the baby live."
As to the question when human life begins, the answer to which is above Mr.
Obama's pay grade, oh, let's go on a little tear. You know why they call it
birth control? Because it's meant to stop a birth from happening nine months
later. We know when life begins. Everyone who ever bought a pack of condoms
knows when life begins.
To put it another way, with conception something begins. What do you think
it is? A car? A 1948 Buick?
In a bit of sad irony
47-year-old author of "100 Things to Do Before You Die" dies
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080826/ap_on_en_ot/obit_freeman
Well, at least Obama is not trying to be a rock star
With is faux Greek temple and 80,000 screaming fans. Very staid. Wouldn't want to be over the top.
Wow. Pelosi is actually having a theological argument with the Bishops.
She is now citing St. Augustine (out of context and erroneously) to argue with the bishops about whether the Church has always condemned abortion. Talk about hubris.
If you don't listen to the teaching of the Bishops, can you still claim to be Catholic? What a bizarre lady.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
My new blogger hero
You want the truth? Here it is. This might be the only site on the web that out-truth-forwards Truthalicious.
Nancy Pelosi to Protesters: Can we drill your brains?
Answer: No. Too late. They've already been born.
How Obama intentionally misunderstands pro-life arguments
At Saddleback, Senator Obama expressed his "respect" for the views of consistent pro-lifers because their conviction that "life begins at conception ... is a core issue of faith" for those voters. This, however, is another dodge. Yes, for some pro-lifers, obedience to religious authority is the source of their conviction. Yet to suggest, as Obama did, that the pro-life position rests on private (and thus inherently undebatable) religious intuitions is to have missed virtually the entirety of the substantive pro-life argument since 1973. Pro-lifers of both parties—some of them agnostic and atheists—have made genuinely public arguments, based on scientific knowledge, reason and democratic political theory. Judging from the evidence to date, the Democratic candidate for president has yet to engage those arguments seriously.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Words of wisdom from "ardent Catholic" Nancy Pelosi
Look at these gems. It's time for a call from her bishop. Geez.
http://catholic-mom.blogspot.com/2008/08/paging-archbishop-niederauer.html
Friday, August 22, 2008
Obama to cut manned space flight? Nooooo!!!!! Don't do it, O!
| Perhaps it was growing up seeing planetarium shows all the time at my father's planetarium. Perhaps it was being an avid "hard science fiction" fan, cutting my teeth on Heinlein and Azimov before moving on to more recent writers like Niven and Flynn. Or maybe it was that my favorite TV viewing as a child was endlessly rewatching a PBS series called Space Flight. Whatever planted the seed, I've always been a fan of the manned space program. Although it's increasingly become someone no one pays attention to, in the long run our development of space technology will probably be looked back on as one of the key inflection points in human history. Not all people see it that way, however. I recall writing a letter in support of NASA funding to one of our state senators (Diane Feinstein, as I recall) back when I was in high school and getting back a rather huffy reply from her office saying that the senator did not believe we should be wasting money on space when we still hadn't solved all our problems here on earth. Well, I hate to break to to those still nurturing a Rousseauian view of human nature, but all evidence suggests that we will never have "solved all our problems here on earth." We are the problem. As long as humans are around, we'll fight wars with each other and compete and deny each other food and perpetuate injustices and so on. According to this article I ran into the other day, Senator Obama apparently thinking something along the lines of Senator Feinstein on this issue. He plans to remove most of the funding from the already rather poorly funded Moon/Mars program which Bush authorized, and plans to use the savings to fund a nationwide pre-K education program. Why single out the space budget to cut for this program? “NASA is no longer associated with inspiration,” Obama told a campaign rally audience in March.I doubt there are many people out there making their decisions about the presidential election based on space policy, but for me at least, theis helps fill in a little bit the image of Obama that I already had: a "hope" that not really aimed at very much beyond looking good and funding more of the same. A hope without a goal. A hope without a future. |
Why full time daycare for tiny tykes is sub-optimal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121936615766562189.html?mod=todays_us_opinion
Protect Our Kids from Preschool
By SHIKHA DALMIA and LISA SNELL
August 22, 2008; Page A15
August 22, 2008; Page A15
Barack Obama says he believes in universal preschool and if he's elected president he'll pump "billions of dollars into early childhood education." Universal preschool is now second only to universal health care on the liberal policy wish list. Democratic governors across the country -- including in Illinois, Arizona, Massachusetts and Virginia -- have made a major push to fund universal preschool in their states.
But is strapping a backpack on all 4-year-olds and sending them to preschool good for them? Not according to available evidence.
"Advocates and supporters of universal preschool often use existing research for purely political purposes," says James Heckman, a University of Chicago Noble laureate in economics whose work Mr. Obama and preschool activists routinely cite. "But the solid evidence for the effectiveness of early interventions is limited to those conducted on disadvantaged populations."
Mr. Obama asserted in the Las Vegas debate on Jan. 15 that every dollar spent on preschool will produce a 10-fold return by improving academic performance, which will supposedly lower juvenile delinquency and welfare use -- and raise wages and tax contributions. Such claims are wildly exaggerated at best.
In the last half-century, U.S. preschool attendance has gone up to nearly 70% from 16%. But fourth-grade reading, science, and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) -- the nation's report card -- have remained virtually stagnant since the early 1970s.
Preschool activists at the Pew Charitable Trust and Pre-K Now -- two major organizations pushing universal preschool -- refuse to take this evidence seriously. The private preschool market, they insist, is just glorified day care. Not so with quality, government-funded preschools with credentialed teachers and standardized curriculum. But the results from Oklahoma and Georgia -- both of which implemented universal preschool a decade or more ago -- paint an equally dismal picture.
A 2006 analysis by Education Week found that Oklahoma and Georgia were among the 10 states that had made the least progress on NAEP. Oklahoma, in fact, lost ground after it embraced universal preschool: In 1992 its fourth and eighth graders tested one point above the national average in math. Now they are several points below. Ditto for reading. Georgia's universal preschool program has made virtually no difference to its fourth-grade reading scores. And a study of Tennessee's preschool program released just this week by the nonpartisan Strategic Research Group found no statistical difference in the performance of preschool versus nonpreschool kids on any subject after the first grade.
What about Head Start, the 40-year-old, federal preschool program for low-income kids? Studies by the Department of Health and Human Services have repeatedly found that although Head Start kids post initial gains on IQ and other cognitive measures, in later years they become indistinguishable from non-Head Start kids.
Why don't preschool gains stick? Possibly because the K-12 system is too dysfunctional to maintain them. More likely, because early education in general is not so crucial to the long-term intellectual growth of children. Finland offers strong evidence for this view. Its kids consistently outperform their global peers in reading, math and science on international assessments even though they don't begin formal education until they are 7. Subsidized preschool is available for parents who opt for it, but only when their kids turn 6.
If anything, preschool may do lasting damage to many children. A 2005 analysis by researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, found that kindergartners with 15 or more hours of preschool every week were less motivated and more aggressive in class. Likewise, Canada's C.D. Howe Institute found a higher incidence of anxiety, hyperactivity and poor social skills among kids in Quebec after universal preschool.
The only preschool programs that seem to do more good than harm are very intense interventions targeted toward severely disadvantaged kids. A 1960s program in Ypsilanti, Mich., a 1970s program in Chapel Hill, N.C., and a 1980s program in Chicago, Ill., all report a net positive effect on adult crime, earnings, wealth and welfare dependence for participants. But the kids in the Michigan program had low IQs and all came from very poor families, often with parents who were drug addicts and neglectful.
Even so, the economic gains of these programs are grossly exaggerated. For instance, Prof. Heckman calculated that the Michigan program produced a 16-cent return on every dollar spent -- not even remotely close to the $10 return that Mr. Obama and his fellow advocates bandy about.
Our understanding of the effects of preschool is still very much in its infancy. But one inescapable conclusion from the existing research is that it is not for everyone. Kids with loving and attentive parents -- the vast majority -- might well be better off spending more time at home than away in their formative years. The last thing that public policy should do is spend vast new sums of taxpayer dollars to incentivize a premature separation between toddlers and parents.
Yet that is precisely what Mr. Obama would do. His "Zero-to-Five" plan would increase federal outlays for early education by $10 billion -- about 50% of total government spending on preschool -- and hand block grants to states to implement universal preschool. This will make the government the dominant source of funding in the early education marketplace, vastly outpacing private spending.
If Mr. Obama is serious about helping children, he should begin by fixing what is clearly broken: the K-12 system. The best way of doing that is by building on programs with a proven record of success. Many of these involve giving parents control over their own education dollars so that they have options other than dysfunctional public schools. The Obamas send their daughters to a private school whose annual fee in middle school runs around $20,000. Other parents deserve such choices too -- not promises of subsidized preschool that they may not want and that may be bad for their kids.
Ms. Dalmia is senior analyst and Ms. Snell is director of education policy at the Reason Foundation.
Interesting comment from a Russian soldier
From the Russian front (thereabouts), Michael Totten writes the latest. Most interesting quote:
The Russian soldiers called [my husband] and asked where he was going, if he was going to the American side.”
“The Russians said this to him?” I said.
“My husband said he was going to see his family,” she said. “And the Russians said again, ‘Are you going to the American side?’”
“So the Russians view you as the American side, even though there are no Americans here.”
“Yes,” she said. “Because our way is for democracy.”
Senator John McCain may have overstated things a bit when, shortly after the war started, he said, “We are all Georgians now.” But apparently even rank-and-file Russian soldiers view the Georgians and Americans as allies.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Obama on Time cover again this month - 7th time in a year
But, remember, it's Fox news that is biased.
Interesting fact about Merkel
Ms. Merkel is the first German leader to grow up in Communist East Germany, an experience that left her instinctively suspicious of Russian power, unlike many politicians from Germany's capitalist West who have long tried to act as a diplomatic bridge between Washington and Moscow.
An old story retold - The state seizes Church property in Vietnam
The Church is always growing in wealth through gifts of the faithful. And the Church is a good steward and, thus, inevitably accumulates land, beautiful buildings, and art.
The State can only restrain itself from theft for so long.
This story has been playing out all around the world for thousands of years.
The Thought Police are Coming
You can't be a practicing Christian and be a doctor in California. Why?
Because of gay rights, of course.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=218780
Because of gay rights, of course.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=218780
More gay rights. Referendum? Vote by the people? Doesn't matter. You
need gay rights.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=220084
One woman's story of becoming a Poor Clare cloistered nun
Looking at the pictures of her life before convent, you might not guess she would become a nun!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
I just found out about LOLcats. Apparently I'm the last one.
[Insert prayer to St. Michael the Archangel here.]
25 Reasons You Might Be A Liberal
These excerpts are quite amusing:
http://cartagodelenda.blogspot.com/2008/08/25-reasons-you-might-be-liberal.html
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Interesting that this Chinese guy associates Bush with pro-freedom rhetoric
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121910362320051399.html?mod=todays_us_opinion
"I've petitioned at all the places I could," says the elder sister Wang Yuping, when I chat with them in a public park. Each time a suspected plainclothes policeman saunters by, she sits up straighter and says, "I'm not afraid. I'm just telling you the truth." This is a brave attitude: In October 2006 the sisters' complaints landed them in jail for 10 days.
The younger sister dismisses Olympics "protest parks" as completely fake. The rights group Chinese Human-Rights Defenders reported eight cases of the detention or disappearance of people who applied for permits to voice their dissent in Olympic protest zones. The older sister asks, "Where are the common people supposed to turn?"
Mr. Dong tried to seek help outside the system. The morning I met him at church, he was there to present Mr. Bush with an open letter describing his wife's arrest. In the end, security was so tight he didn't even shake the president's hand.
"I've heard what he has said," Mr. Dong says, referring to Mr. Bush's remarks on human rights. "Freedom is a right that people are born with." As he speaks, he eyes the policemen camped out by his house.
Tell me again why we support Saudi Arabia?
Oh right. It's the oil.
Anyone for nuclear energy?
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=72273
Monday, August 18, 2008
Sad but interesting story of "Korea's Mata Hari"
Interesting that her son became a theologian. He really has a lot to forgive from a bunch of different sides.
Where are the war protesters?
From a Letter to the Editor of the Wall St. Journal:
Where are all the war protesters now that Valdimir Putin and the Russian army are overrunning Georgia? Don't they want peace for the people of Georgia? Probably 80% of them couldn't find Georgia on a map. Their hero, John Lennon, sang of a world without war or money or religion. Perhaps all those George Bush haters should imagine a world without the U.S. and someone with the guts to stand up to people like Mr. Putin politically and militarily. We can have peace for ourselves and the world, but only peace through strength, not change you can believe in.
Michael J. Krause
Homewood, Ill.
Friday, August 15, 2008
The African Front in WWI
What an interesting book.
Fighting and dying for no reason certainly sucks, but I would rather have
been risking my life in Africa than in the trenches at Marne.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
Far From Flanders Fields
While trench warfare raged in Europe, the combatants fought on another
continent -- at great cost By TOM NAGORSKI August 9, 2008
World War I: The African Front
By Edward Paice
Pegasus, 488 pages, $35
Scan a map of Africa drawn in the spring of 1914 and you'll find a portrait
of European colonialism, stark as can be. Here is German East Africa, three
times the size of Germany itself, bordered to the northeast by a
similar-sized swath called British East Africa. Germany and Britain hold
other sizable pockets south of the Sahara, while Spain and France claim
lands in the north and west. You have Portuguese East Africa and Portuguese
West Africa and in the continent's midsection the remnants of the brutally
ruled Congo of Belgium's King Leopold. One can grow weary searching for an
independent African nation. Liberia and Abyssinia are the only ones.
The spring of 1914 was of course the last season of tranquility before World
War I. Though Britain and Germany, and their allies, devoted the
preponderance of attention and armaments to the war in Europe, they spent
great sums of blood and money in a theater thousands of miles south of
Flanders fields. The result, as Edward Paice writes in "World War I: The
African Front," was a "maelstrom which radically altered the lives of
millions of Africans and would result in a complete redrawing of the map of
colonial Africa."
Mr. Paice has produced a richly detailed history of those four years. It is
a story of imperial hubris on a colossal scale and an authoritative account
of a huge and often overlooked part of the war. (Just how overlooked? I
recently consulted a respected, 450-page history of World War I; Africa gets
a mere 3½ pages.)
When Britain and Germany went to war in August 1914, neither seemed
interested in an African fight -- nor were they particularly well prepared
for one. To the British War Office, according to Mr. Paice, the African
Front was "never anything more than an extreme nuisance, a fiendish and
remote war that drained British money, shipping tonnage and men from the
'main shows.' "
Combatants and distant observers alike believed that the early battles in
Africa were skirmishes only and that hostilities would be finished by
Christmas. And yet the two sides moved clumsily to all-out war, and other
colonial powers were drawn in. Four years later, that "nuisance" had cost
Germany and Britain more than 100,000 men. Another 100,000 African
conscripts had perished. Damage to the continent's landscape was
incalculable.
How did it happen? The initial motives were not complicated. Britain wished
to counter the threat to its shipping lanes posed by German naval bases in
Africa. Both London and Berlin were keen to protect their colonial holdings,
the Germans dreaming of a "second fatherland" on African soil. Ultimately
all were playing for advantage in what Mr. Paice calls the "post-war
carve-up of Africa."
The British stumbled early on. At Tanga, near the foot of Kilimanjaro, they
suffered one of their "most ignominious defeats ever" despite an eightfold
advantage in manpower. Battlefield reports from Tanga stunned the home
office. Mr. Paice quotes from the red-ink scrawls on one dispatch: "This
makes very bad reading." The winner at Tanga was the German Col. Paul von
Lettow-Vorbeck, an expert tactician and the kaiser's top commander in East
Africa.
Time and again in the next four years, von Lettow-Vorbeck played the
ferocious underdog, beating back Allied incursions or slipping away just as
his men seemed fatally cornered. "Von Lettow-Fallback," the British tabbed
him, but they did so in admiration. That the Germans resisted British
attacks so well, and prolonged the African campaign as long as they did,
owed a great deal to their cunning commander.
The continent itself is a character in Mr. Paice's book -- with Mother
Nature throwing countless enemies at both German and British soldiers. Men
battled malaria, tick fever and other torments brought "by all the flying
pests of the Congo." They also endured unrelenting heat and monsoon rains,
sunburn and sunstroke, and battles with sharks and crocodiles, lions and
hippos. One marvels, reading "The African Front," how soldiers had any
energy left for war.
EXCERPT
"The preceding two decades had witnessed a process of colonial expansion as
rapid, unseemly, and fraught with rivalry as any that the world had ever
known; and by the mid 1890s it was evident that 'the stew pan of Africa was
simmering and liable to froth over at any moment'."
Mr. Paice brings a pointillist's eye to his story. No engagement is missed;
no military detail is too small to mention. "The African Front" is
exhaustive and as such will stand as a must-read for students of the African
campaign. But it is exhausting, too. At times Mr. Paice's narrative bogs
down in thickets of information -- about weaponry, casualty counts and troop
formations. So we get sentences like this one: "Northey's right wing,
consisting of columns led by Colonel Hawthorn (1/KAR), and Colonel Rodger
and Major Flindt of the 2nd South African Rifles were to attack Ipiana
(twenty-five miles north of Karonga), Luwiwa (fifteen miles north-east of
Fife), and Igamba (a dozen miles north-east of Fort Hill) respectively."
"The African Front" does include a glossary, a list of "dramatis personae"
and 14 pages of maps, but I wish I hadn't felt the need to consult them so
often, just to figure out where I was or whom I was reading about.
Mr. Paice is better when he retreats from the battlefield to examine
larger-scale events and themes. The German effort to foment an anti-British
jihad among East Africa's Muslims is particularly interesting. It was a
clumsy, over-the-top operation that backfired, with the Germans feeling so
menaced that one commander wondered in a communiqué whether "it is possible
to make regulations prohibiting Islam altogether."
[Photo]
Mr. Paice also recounts the remarkable feats of engineering that were needed
to resupply the armies, though much of the work was done by sheer physical
labor: Transporting a single ton of supplies to British troops 450 miles
from a railhead in Northern Rhodesia required 16,500 native carriers, Mr.
Paice reports, "for the simple reason that 14,000 men were required to carry
the food for the 2,500 who carried the troops' supplies." There are deeply
affecting stories about the neglect of Africans who worked, fought and died
for both sides. Mr. Paice shows that the British at least felt some remorse;
among the accounts of German combatants, he finds an "apparent absence of
any vestige of guilt."
The end of the African campaign came with a whimper. In November 1918, the
British had difficulty tracking down von Lettow-Vorbeck to inform him that
the Great War was over. In retrospect, this much is certain: No catalog of
"good" or "just" wars should include the 1914-18 campaigns in Africa. On the
hot, dank African battlefield, almost nothing was gained and much was
squandered. It is hard to escape the conclusion that the continent --
already humbled by colonizers -- served as a brutal playing field for a
meaningless imperial contest. Germany lost its African colonies -- but that
was because it lost the broader war, not because of any battles on African
soil. British colonial administrator Charles Dundas has the last word in Mr.
Paice's book, and he gets the final say here as well: "In a sense it all
seemed so futile."
Mr. Nagorski, a senior producer at ABC News, is the author of "Miracles on
the Water: The Heroic Survivors of a World War II U-Boat Attack."
Has the NYT, or anyone, ever published anything more vile, callous, and evil?
I hope that baby enjoyed her New Year's Eve and slept well on her second to last night on earth.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/magazine/16lives-t.html?_r=2&ref=magazine&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Staying Home
It’s New Year’s Eve a few years back: candles are lighted in Emily’s “cozy one-bedroom” apartment, iTunes shifts seamlessly from the Magnetic Fields to Maria Callas to Nina Simone, and although we love to look out her second-story windows at the packs of people clamoring between bars and parties, and although we half-made plans to go to bars and parties ourselves, there’s no way we’re going out. The abortion is scheduled for two days from now, and we’re holing up.
We don’t, however, want to cancel the holiday altogether. Emily found a recipe for Chinese dumplings — pork (we use Gimme Lean soy mush), green cabbage, green onions, soy sauce and sesame oil, wrapped up in little purselike pastries. They’re eaten on the Chinese New Year, Emily says, in order to bring good fortune. Good fortune for our childless year.
She’s in the kitchen fussing over who knows what and has left me at the gray Formica dining-living-room table to wrap dumpling after dumpling after dumpling. First I put a tablespoon of the “meat” in the center of the pastry circle, flat in my left hand, then I dip my right index finger in a bowl of water to dab around the pastry’s circumference. Before this thin layer of water dries, I have to fold the circle over and pinch it shut. On a plate to my right are pastries mangled by my suddenly giant, sticky fingers.
“Make sure it’s completely sealed!” Emily keeps half-singing, half-yelling from the kitchen.
“What?!” I pretend not to hear every time.
“Make sure it’s — yooou heard me!”
If the dumpling isn’t sealed tight, it falls apart in the boiling water. I know, I know. I’ve been told many times, and in case I forget, it’s printed on the instructions right in front of me. If only we had always been this fastidious with precaution.
“Emily!”
“What!”
“What happens if the dumpling isn’t sealed?!”
She leans out to shoot me that mock-sour expression I love.
Over the course of the evening, a few friends call. Each time I say something like, “You know, we were going to go out, but Emily’s just not feeling well.”
This is true. She has been nauseated for almost a month. I tell them, “We’re just going to stay in and stay warm.”
Emily listens carefully from the other room. The abortion is no one’s business but ours, we’ve decided.
“But listen, have a good time.”
We’re adults, we’ve decided. We became pregnant alone, made our decision alone and will face the aftermath alone.
“And happy new year!”
I don’t feel as if I’m lying, not really, until one friend calls back and says he and his girlfriend would be happy to bring their Champagne over to Emily’s. What friends! I tell him to hold on, put the phone down and walk into the kitchen. Emily’s silence is enough of an answer. I walk back to the phone.
“Yeah, she’s not so much in the mood to see people,” I say. “She’s got stomach issues.”
I’m still not really lying, I think.
“Plus, we’d hate for you to catch it.”
The stupidest lie ever. After this I turn off my phone.
The dumplings are delicious. Dipped in a mix of soy sauce, Shaoxing vinegar, ginger and a dab of spicy-hot “rooster sauce” (from the bottle with the rooster on it), each one is like a little explosion of tangy and salty, but smooth and warm, too. I eat 10,000 of them. So does Emily. A few fall apart in the boiling water, “but that’s to be expected,” Emily says — forgivingly, I think.
At midnight we’re thankful for the partygoers who haven’t reached their destinations. Shouts of “Happy new year!” come up to us from the rolling party on the sidewalk. I take our Champagne to the window and pop it; we kiss, toasting, “To us.”
Emily has only a sip. She doesn’t want to drink while pregnant. “It’s just not something you do,” she says. Even though the pregnancy is scheduled to be terminated in two days, there’s still something — someone? — inside of her she doesn’t want to hurt. I’m utterly baffled but mask it with a respectful, if distant, “O.K.” I don’t want to ruin the mood. I just tell myself that we could never see this situation the same way, and that even what we decide together we’ll have to experience separately. That’s that.
We do the dishes, blow out the candles, put a teaspoon handle down the Champagne bottle’s neck (to keep the carbonation — it seems to work) and put the bottle in the fridge, brush our teeth, climb into bed and have unprotected sex.
“I’m not going to get more pregnant,” Emily says.
I’ve never felt pleasure more guiltily.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Doing Business in France, Germany and Italy
Interesting insights on doing business in Europe.
Outlet Stores? The Gall!
By MATTHEW KAMINSKI
Le Deal
By J. Byrne Murphy
(St. Martin's, 295 pages, $26.95)
We first meet J. Byrne Murphy in the early 1990s. The real-estate development firm he works for falls victim to the S&L crisis, and he finds himself in desperate need of a job. Along comes an idea that sends him across the Atlantic: MacArthurGlen, a pioneer of retail outlets in the U.S., wants to try out its franchise in Europe.
The Continent is home to great luxury brands, but it has none of those out-of-the-way "outlet malls" -- so familiar to American suburbanites -- that allow retailers to clear their stocks and give consumers big names at a huge discount. Surely Europeans will flock to outlet malls, too, if given the chance. At least that is Mr. Murphy's reasoning, and he is a young, can-do American straight from central casting.
"Le Deal" is Mr. Murphy's picaresque memoir of a decade of dealmaking in Europe, most memorably in France, as he tries to scout out commercial sites, partner with local developers, meet the demands of politicians and bureaucrats, and generally bring a fresh idea to a place not exactly ready for it. It is a tale fraught with frustration and filled with insight.
In London, a high-end retailer hints at the trouble to come. "Surely, you're joking," he says to Mr. Murphy when he hears of the outlet-mall idea. One simply "doesn't do" that sort of thing in Europe, he says. Mr. Murphy hears such comments a lot in the course of his business travels. In France, a real-estate consultant tells him that outlet malls "will not work here." Days after Mr. Murphy moves his family to Paris, the French prime minister announces a moratorium on the construction of retail developments anywhere in France. At the time, a surge in supermarkets was hurting the business of long-time shop owners.
Like other new arrivals in a foreign country, Mr. Murphy struggles with the basics -- like getting a residency permit (his only comes through years later, after he has moved to London) and opening a bank account. But "Le Deal" is not an update on "An American in Paris." Mr. Murphy's job takes him deeper into the French bush than most Americans will ever go. He travels from town to town looking for the best spots for his "outlet centers." Along the way, he repeatedly mispronounces Nike in French, rendering the name in a way that suggests fornication instead of sportswear.
To a naïve outsider, a new mall nearby a far-flung French town would seem to be a desirable thing, promising jobs, tax revenues and products that residents might want to buy. But merely to broach the possibility, Mr. Murphy found in his travels, required him to participate in "le minuet," an intricate supplicatory dance with a town mayor or local official.
An amiable chat about everything but the matter at hand would begin at an administerial office, typically in the late morning, over a glass or two of the local vintage. The "meeting" would then move to a restaurant for a long lunch, during which more of the good stuff would be poured, accompanying several courses. Finally a moment would come between cheese and dessert for the making of a formal pitch. (To raise something so base as business any time earlier would be uncouth.) "Unfortunately," Mr. Murphy confesses, describing his early minuet days, "by the time the great moment arrived I was word-slurring, lazy-eyed, nonlistening drunk." Eventually he learned to keep his head after several glasses of wine, a useful skill on any continent. He learned, too, about the Cartesian way of thinking -- studying a problem for a long time and declining to act on it.
Politicians cause Mr. Murphy the biggest headaches. They put one obstacle after another in his way. It takes years for him to get a green light for his first big retail center -- in Troyes, about 90 miles southeast of Paris. "In France," Mr. Murphy writes, "the emphasis is always on job preservation, and not job creation."
In short, it is more rational, from the French politician's point of view, to protect small retailers or established guilds than to open up opportunities. After all, the potential workers at new stores -- let alone would-be customers -- aren't organized. They are not about to march in the streets or kill off re-election hopes. And yet when the mall in Troyes finally opens -- what do you know? -- it's a success. The French, it turns out, are not that different from Americans: For a bargain, they will travel long distances and stand in line for hours.
In Germany, Mr. Murphy faces similar resistance from the political class. He meets the premier of Lower Saxony, a certain Gerhard Schroeder (the future German chancellor), who studies MacArthurGlen's plans for an outlet center. Over cigars, Mr. Schroeder tells Mr. Murphy and his American colleagues: "I'll kill it. I will have to." He persuades them to withdraw a pending bid for a mall site by promising, privately, that he'll back them after he gets through an upcoming election. But after the election, naturally, he reneges. In Italy, Mr. Murphy finds the challenge to be no less difficult though of a slightly different character: He must maneuver around mafia-types and Italy's nonfunctional state to get a shopping center open.
"Le Deal" ends happily, however. MacArthurGlen has 11 centers in Europe now, employing 8,000 people and boasting a billion dollars in annual sales. "We had not only created a new concept and a new company in Europe," Mr. Murphy writes triumphantly, "but in fact created a new multibillion-dollar industry." So what did he learn? There is no "Europe," he says. There is instead "a collection of economically competing regions." In most of them a no-can-do attitude is all too prevalent, blocking entrepreneurship and protecting entrenched interests. But perseverance can pay off. As Mr. Murphy shows in his entertaining chronicle, it is possible, even in the Old World, to close "le deal" and make something new.
So long, Right to Jury Trial. It was nice to know you!
Plaintiffs' Lawyers Fight Restrictions
On Product-Liability Suits
By ALICIA MUNDY
WASHINGTON -- Since 2001, the Bush administration has steadily whittled away the ability of consumers and other groups to sue corporations for damages related to their products.
Now plaintiffs' lawyers are fighting back by raising money to battle a Supreme Court case and to support candidates seen as sympathetic to their cause in the November congressional elections.
At stake are billions of dollars in potential product-liability lawsuits. Some corporations are already getting tough in settlement talks. Judges have put on hold some cases, including three involving GlaxoSmithKline PLC's antidepressant Paxil, pending a Supreme Court ruling.
"It is a war," said Houston attorney Ed Blizzard, a member of the plaintiffs' lawyers task force to fight regulations that pre-empt plaintiffs' right to sue.
The Supreme Court case, Wyeth v. Levine, which is to be heard Nov. 3, could affect lawsuits involving products such as cars, toys and flammable mattresses.
Corporate defense lawyers are also girding for battle. A spokesman for the Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform said, "Pre-emption will be one of the top issues in Congress next year, and we'll be focusing significant resources on it."
Trial lawyers are expected to be heavily outspent. The chamber, which has helped drive the pre-emption and tort-reform campaign, intends to raise $40 million for political candidates this year.
The Bush administration has over the past few years circumvented Capitol Hill by weakening regulatory agencies' safety rules and adding introductions, called preambles, to public-safety regulations that effectively prohibit plaintiffs from suing at the state level, where safety standards can be tougher than those at the federal level.
Pre-empting plaintiffs' right to sue will come under the microscope in the Wyeth case. The case centers on Diana Levine, a professional guitarist who lost an arm to gangrene after a receiving a shot to treat a migraine headache in 2000.
Ms. Levine won $6.8 million in her lawsuit against Wyeth, which makes the antinausea drug, phenergan, that was given to her. A Vermont jury and that state's Supreme Court found that Wyeth hadn't sufficiently warned the public and doctors about the drug's dangers if improperly injected.
Wyeth has argued that the company is protected because the Food and Drug Administration had approved its label. The government is supporting Wyeth's position, on behalf of the FDA.
Trial lawyers are so concerned about the case that in April they quietly pushed out Public Citizen, the advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader, as the attorneys for Ms. Levine, and replaced them with a legal team led by nationally known Supreme Court litigator David Frederick.
Public Citizen attorney Brian Wolfman said, "I have thought from the start that we would win this case at the Supreme Court, and I am working very hard toward that end."
Members of the trial lawyers' lobby, the American Association for Justice, are financing Mr. Frederick's fees and producing amicus briefs.
The fallback plan for trial lawyers and consumer advocates is to persuade Congress and the White House to pass laws guaranteeing the right to sue. To that end, they are backing select congressional candidates who support the issue.
In mid-July, corporate attorneys representing drug companies and plaintiffs lawyers met for their respective annual conventions blocks away from each other in Philadelphia. A focus for both sides was the Wyeth case.
Company defense attorneys at the Drug and Device Makers Preemption Conference were upbeat. "Diana Levine is a very sympathetic plaintiff," said an attendee, but he said he thinks the Supreme Court will side with the defense bar.
The Bush administration has denied that it has a broad program aimed at pre-empting plaintiffs' right to sue. But it has tapped tort-reform supporters as legal advisers in several agencies.
Jay Lefkowitz, a former deputy counsel at the Office of Management and Budget under the Bush administration, said, "Product-liability lawsuits challenge FDA sovereignty, undercut having one label standard, increase costs and render drugs much less safe." Mr. Lefkowitz helped recruit Dan Troy to work as the FDA's top lawyer from 2001 to 2004. "Dan promoted a more-robust pre-emption agenda," Mr. Lefkowitz said.
The FDA began filing numerous legal briefs in state and federal courts favoring pre-emption, though it had previously supported plaintiffs' suits.
Mr. Troy, who was recently named general counsel for GlaxoSmithKline, declined to comment.
"This is back door tort reform," said Mr. Blizzard. "The administration is using bureaucrats to do what they can't in any legislature."
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About Me
- TeamTruthalicious
- This is a group blog by a small number of Catholic lawyers, and their spouses, and a few random friends. Some of the friends are plain vanilla, non-Catholic Christians. All of the posters are Pro-Life. Politically, we lean right, but we have a token Democrat or two in the mix from time to time. We live in various parts of the Western United States. We don't do formatting. We are too busy.
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2010
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March
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- Worldly fulfillment
- Another Chesterton Quote
- Molesting and Abusing Teachers - Still On The Payr...
- Wow, good thing this kid knew how to dial 911!
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- When Saturday Night Live Turns On The Democrats, T...
- Majestic
- How Islam Rationalizes Sex Slaves and Other Sins
- Atheist group urges college students to exchange B...
- Rogue wave - scary stuff
- Pro-Life Professor Takes on Berkeley Students
- Archbishop Dolan in da house!
- The new F-35 fighter is amazing
- Great story from 40 Days for Life
- George Bernard Shaw - strange dude
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- Cool thing in New York City
- Great quote from Archbishop Chaput
- Amazing story - WWII rescue
- Christian villiagers murdered
- Saintly Quotes
- Interesting tweet
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- Abortion clinic 911 calls - "no lights or sirens, ...
- Great Point To Be Considered By Protestants Who Ad...
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- Another Sad Story From North Korea
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- 10 years old and divorced
- The CCHD - an ongoing Catholic scandal
- Unbelievable - Catholic Priests Running a Pro-Gay ...
- Shame on you, teachers unions
- Sometimes, you can understand how people of other ...
- A story from the current 40 Days For Life campaign...
- Godzilla
- Michelle Malkin was a trending topic on Wowd.com f...
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February
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