In regard to political economy, this requires special emphasis: man has to work and produce in order to support his life. He has to support his life by his own effort and by the guidance of his own mind. If he cannot dispose of the product of his effort, he cannot dispose of his effort; if he cannot dispose of his effort, he cannot dispose of his life. Without property rights, no other rights can be practical.
Ayn Rand: What is Capitalism – 1965
Great interview of former UNSCOM inspector Bill Tierney, in which, among other things, he explains how the Iraqis routinely ran off with incriminating documents under the noses of the inspection teams:
Continue reading
Is it just me, or is anyone else noticing that, now that the ‘Fitzmas’ of the left is over, the Rovester seems to be playing at 11?
I mean, we have the White House site poking holes in the NYT’s and the WaPo’s printed cowpies, the RNC producing videos of Congressional Democrats flapping their lips about the potential danger of Iraq and, best of all, Bush, Cheney and a number of other high ranking Repubs re-growing a pair and hitting back with the facts and attempting to stop what they have correctly labeled “The Re-Writing of History”.
Kos seems to think so. Possibly making him right for the first time in his blogging career.
The actualization of the Goebbels “If you repeat a lie� quote by the Dems is a bit frightening, but understandable considering the Bush Administration’s utter lack of resistance to it while the whole Plame-lie BS was going on. But even now that it seems that they have their balls back, I think that they are missing one key point that they are not, and should, push the hell out of:
The Democrats cannot produce one factual reference to any actual piece of intel that Bush saw in his dailys that the Senate Intelligence Committee didn’t.
If the Dems want to say that Bush tricked them by manipulating intel the SIC saw or by hiding certain pieces of it, they need to produce some evidence front and center; tell them to put up or shut up.
Why should the Repubs push this? Because the Dems can’t do it, and they know they can’t.
The Dem blogs tell their readers that the fact that they cannot produce this evidence is of no matter, Bush just lied. The readers belly up to the bar and drink their lemming juice and just believe it.
This supposition that Rove in back in business again is hopefully not just wishful thinking on my part after reading this post on the Libby indictment over at Judicious Asininity
Libby’s defense team can do the job that Fitzgerald should have done. They can find out who leaked to which reporter and when. They might even call Joe Wilson and his wife to the stand and expose all his lies under oath.
The Repubs would be fools not to at least attempt to subpoena the Wilson-Plame’s.
And not only is Rove not a fool, he now has an axe to grind for them taking him off his game.
Git-R-Done Rover!
I’m having an odd week.
After having a week off and then working mondo-hours last week, this one is actually somewhat normal and that is throwing me off.
I think it is just me finally getting used to daylight savings time. The time switch was made while I was on vacation, and then last week I started earlier than usual so that I could get caught back up and also to help cover for someone else’s vacation, so I got to arrive at work while the sun was still up. Then this Monday, I had to turn my headlights on to pull out of my driveway.
Strange Days.
And strange days call for strange music.
This week has seen a steady rotation of Peter Gabriel, ABBA, The American Grafitti soundtrack, along with half a dozen do-wop mix discs I burned a while back and today’s band.
I’m sure most of you have heard of Bjork. If not, put on your boots and parka and tell your wife Nanooka that you’re taking the sled into town.
Here’s her discography. Start at the beginning.
The band that gained her worldwide attention was The Sugarcubes. They were nearly the only thing to come out of Iceland during the 80’s.
Today’s tunage came from their debut album, Life’s Too Good and is just about the most normal tune on there. I chose it because I don’t want to weird you all out. It’s Thursday and if your week is going well so far, you stand a good chance to have a normal weekend.
Enjoy!
So your kid talks back to you, gets horrible grades and sometimes doesn’t even show up to school. What is a parent to do?
Tasha Henderson got tired of her 14-year-old daughter’s poor grades, her chronic lateness to class and her talking back to her teachers, so she decided to teach the girl a lesson.
She made Coretha stand at a busy Oklahoma City intersection Nov. 4 with a cardboard sign that read: “I don’t do my homework and I act up in school, so my parents are preparing me for my future. Will work for food.”
Some local folks are just about shitting their pants after hearing about this,
“The parents of that girl need more education than she does if they can’t see that the worst scenario in this case is to kill their daughter psychologically,” Suzanne Ball said in a letter to The Oklahoman.
Mz. Ball is an idiot. She cannot seem to see that it is the worst case scenario/prospect of Mrs. Henderson’s daughter’s previous behavior actually could kill her physically, turning her into a statistic.
How odd that Mz. Ball would that a childs present psychological well being is more important than her future physical well being? I would lay money down that Mrs. Henderson’s child turns out more respectful and probably more successful than Mz. Ball’s child/ren.
Or maybe I already knew some of this and forgot.
The First Navy Jack is generally flown only by the oldest ship in the fleet.
I did not know that.
The Kitty Hawk is the oldest and has been since 1998.
I don’t think I knew that.
However, in 2002 all ships were ordered to fly the Jack for the duration of the War on Terror.
I’m pretty sure I knew that.
Head on over to Murdoc’s for links and one kick ass pic of the Kitty Hawk.
The two greatest values to be gained from social existence are: knowledge and trade. Man is the only species that can transmit and expand his store of knowledge from generation to generation: the knowledge potentially available to man is greater than any one man could possibly begin to acquire in his own lifespan; every man gains an incalculable benefit from the knowledge of others. The second great benefit is the division of labor: it enables a man to devote his effort to a particular field of work and to trade with others who specialize in other fields. This form of cooperation allows all men who take part in it to achieve a greater knowledge, skill and productive return on their effort than they could achieve if each had to produce everything he needs, on a desert island or on a self-sustaining farm.
Ayn Rand: The Objectivist Ethics, The Nature of Government – 1963
Homemade Gyros and Henry’s Special Dark Lager for breakfast!
Wifey surprised me when I came home from work this morning.
Mmmm, tasty.
Gyros remind me of a story that is one of those that should never be published on the internet as it could be used as evidence at a later date.
Our good man from the south (of Washington), Rivrdog, is off today to attempt to qualify for Law Enforcement Safety Act of 2004.
The LESA is basically a nationwide CCW. Something I hope gets popular among LEOs and catches on so as to get it enacted for folks like myself.
Head on over to the dog’s digs and wish him luck!
I’m expecting this to be on the top of the news for at least the rest of this week.
A federal plan to cancel housing aid for hurricane victims is “a cruel injustice” to thousands of refugees in Washington state, Gov. Christine Gregoire said Tuesday.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to halt payments for hotel rooms on Dec. 1 for most refugees of the year’s two devastating hurricanes, Katrina and Rita.
What, it has been three months. Hadn’t these people figured out that the free money would go away sometime? Did they not get jobs?
They traveled about as far away from Louisiana as they could and still stay in the continental US, did they think we’d just let them lounge about for the rest of their lives?
Sorry folks, but you had two weeks after Katrina to figure out where you were going and you chose Washington. You then had 10 more weeks to get settled in and gainfully employed. What’s the problem here?
But at least I get a little comic relief from Barely Governor Gregiore:
Gregoire said state and local officials were given no warning the payments would stop next month.
Hey Chrissy, consider this a warning!
And don’t you dare give one red cent of my tax money to these people!
