For the children
I'm not sure it's safe to let the little darlings go to school at all. Maybe they should all be home-schooled:
Riggs said her 10-year-old daughter went on a school field trip recently and came back sun-burned. Riggs said district policy didn't allow her daughter to bring sunscreen to reapply.
But, NEISD spokeswoman Aubrey Chancellor said sunscreen is considered a medication, something children need a doctor's note to have at school.
"Typically, sunscreen is a toxic substance, and we can't allow toxic things in to be in our schools," Chancellor said.
GINI coefficients
Via Maggie's Farm:
Somebody really should start calling it “Income Diversity”. How could progressives be against it then?
Off Message
Pope Francis:
This culture of wellbeing convinced us it is better not to have children! It’s better! You can go explore the world, go on holiday, you can have a villa in the countryside, you can be carefree [...]What? Marriage has something to do with being fruitful and multiplying? That could have all kinds of consequences!
It might be more comfortable to have a dog, two cats, and the love goes to the two cats and the dog. Then in the end this marriage comes to old age in solitude, with the bitterness of loneliness. It is not fruitful, it does not do what Jesus does with his Church: He makes His Church fruitful.
70 Years Ago
The landings at Normandy are part of one of two major campaigns we will commemorate this month on major anniversaries. This one, far better known to Americans, is of much more recent importance.
Nothing I could say is worthy of the occasion. Remember it, study it, consider what it cost, and honor those who paid the price.
Nothing I could say is worthy of the occasion. Remember it, study it, consider what it cost, and honor those who paid the price.
The premature post-presidency
Matthew Continetti on a day in the life of a president who's given up and now only wants to spend time with like-minded people thinking great thoughts.
I guess if he gets too disillusioned he could always desert.
I guess if he gets too disillusioned he could always desert.
Income inequality
Mark Perry argues that individual income inequality in America has been flat for fifty years; what's changed is household inequality, largely driven by the upsurge in single-parent families.
What if income-redistribution problems only increase the prevalence of single-parent families?
What if income-redistribution problems only increase the prevalence of single-parent families?
Not To Speculate, But...
...maybe his entire leadership chain was full of psychopaths.
I mean, it could be true.
Or maybe it's that 4/25 is an Airborne brigade, and like all paratroopers they volunteered three times for positions of increasing danger -- once for the Army, once for the Infantry, and once for Airborne. Perhaps a group that has self-selected for the honor of a life of danger has a particularly strong disdain for someone who deserts his post.
No, it surely has to be the psychopath thing.
I mean, it could be true.
Or maybe it's that 4/25 is an Airborne brigade, and like all paratroopers they volunteered three times for positions of increasing danger -- once for the Army, once for the Infantry, and once for Airborne. Perhaps a group that has self-selected for the honor of a life of danger has a particularly strong disdain for someone who deserts his post.
No, it surely has to be the psychopath thing.
"Suck it up and salute"
James Taranto is having some trouble with the White House's policy regarding the ideal level of military cooperation with civilian authority. As you've all no doubt read already, the Bergdahl negotiations (as well as rescue initiatives) had stalled for a couple of years in the face of doubts and concerns over the circumstances of Bergdahl's leaving his unit five years ago, but the White House views last week's trade a triumph of the principle that the military should "suck it up and salute." The controversy exposes huge rifts in middle America's views of the military. Taranto quotes a progressive young writer at Salon:
As Taranto notes, Bergdahl failed notably in his duty to suck it up and salute. He also alludes to the failure of our current Secretary of State to do the same while he was in uniform. The progressives have an idea of what makes for an ideal soldier, and it's not much like that of an ordinary American.
Taranto also contrasts the White House's limp ineffectuality in the face of bureaucratic intransigence and incompetence at the HHS or the VA with his ability to cut through red tape and achieve his goals in the Bergdahl trade. It's all about whether he really cares.
The left's blinkered view of military culture is perhaps best summarized by Elias Isquith, a young writer for Salon.com, who yesterday explained the backlash against the Bergdahl deal as follows: "When a member of the military fails to adhere to the far right's rigid formula of what a soldier should be (nationalistic, religious, obedient; conservative) right-wingers . . . come down on them [sic] like a ton of bricks." He cited one example in addition to Bergdahl: John Kerry.What a revealing comment. This Salon writer appears to think that only a nationalistic, religious, obedient, and conservative serviceman would understand why it's wrong to desert in the face of the enemy, perhaps even to give aid and comfort to the enemy in wartime.
As Taranto notes, Bergdahl failed notably in his duty to suck it up and salute. He also alludes to the failure of our current Secretary of State to do the same while he was in uniform. The progressives have an idea of what makes for an ideal soldier, and it's not much like that of an ordinary American.
Taranto also contrasts the White House's limp ineffectuality in the face of bureaucratic intransigence and incompetence at the HHS or the VA with his ability to cut through red tape and achieve his goals in the Bergdahl trade. It's all about whether he really cares.
Hammock practice
I've learned a couple of macrame netting knots, one denser than the other, and am practicing with yarn while I wait for my larger hammock rope supplies to arrive. The two contrasting knots will let me make a pattern on a square grid; something simple and geometrical should stand out well.
The smaller pattern on the bottom right is more of the Clones lace I've been working on for years. It's all about the size of the pixels.
The smaller pattern on the bottom right is more of the Clones lace I've been working on for years. It's all about the size of the pixels.
Doubling down
I guess the White House can't afford another scandal in which Susan Rice is revealed as a shameless liar every time she hits the talk-show circuit, so instead of apologizing for her "honor and distinction" boilerplate they're trying to go on the offensive against critics. White House aides, for instance, are complaining they never expected Bergdahl to be "swift-boated" by his own unit. Are we about to be treated to a spectacle in which the military tries to court-martial him and the White House has his back?
This isn't going to end well. They let the story get out before they started trying to cover it up. Also, I'm not sure that digging up the whole story of swift-boating in 2004 is a good thing for Kerry and his buddies--though admittedly he'll look pretty good compared to Bergdahl.
This isn't going to end well. They let the story get out before they started trying to cover it up. Also, I'm not sure that digging up the whole story of swift-boating in 2004 is a good thing for Kerry and his buddies--though admittedly he'll look pretty good compared to Bergdahl.
Scalp-hunting
It looks as though the Mississippi senate republican primary race for is headed for a runoff between longtime incumbent Cochran and insurgent McDaniel. For many, the race has become about the controversy over Cochran's hospitalized wife and who is most guilty of taking advantage of her pitiable condition. Ace sees it differently:
How establishment is Cochran? Here's longtime House GOP leadership staffer and now self-described bi-partisan "Super Lobbyist" John Feehery reacting to the results last night.
"I guess Mississippi doesn't want Federal money any more. I betcha there are 49 states that will gladly take it."That's exactly the kind of mindset that pervades DC. Politicians are judged on their ability to extract money from you and give it to someone else. Scalp hunting isn't simply ego driven or designed to make people feel good. It's about changing the Republican party.
Could be worse
Ralph Peters urges forbearance:
But pity Ms. Rice. Like the president she serves, she’s a victim of her class. Nobody in the inner circle of Team Obama has served in uniform. It shows. That bit about serving with “honor and distinction” is the sort of perfunctory catch-phrase politicians briefly don as electoral armor. (“At this point in your speech, ma’am, devote one sentence to how much you honor the troops.”)
I actually believe that Ms. Rice was kind of sincere, in her spectacularly oblivious way. In the best Manchurian Candidate manner, she said what she had been programmed to say by her political culture, then she was blindsided by the firestorm she ignited by scratching two flinty words together. At least she didn’t blame Bergdahl’s desertion on a video.
Awwww
The stakes couldn't be higher for the upcoming midterms: the President's very will to serve.
For White House officials, [the realization of high stakes] crystallized during meetings like the one that Obama, humbled and remorseful, hosted in November [2013] with a dozen Democratic senators. . . .
The senators, all facing reelection in 2014, were furious because they had seen their approval numbers nose dive almost overnight, largely because the most tech-savvy administration in history couldn’t develop a health care website that worked. . . .
According to several participants, Begich and his colleagues demanded to know how committed Obama was to fighting for the Senate majority. Obama was known as a fierce competitor when his name was on the ballot, not so much when it was not.
“I don’t really care to be president without the Senate," Obama said, according to attendees . . . .
The price of lying
If you can't be honest with yourself about what a "war" is, you probably lose sight of what an "end of war is"--notably, the difference between losing a war, on the one hand, and accepting an enemy's surrender on the other. President Obama explains that releasing five extremely dangerous Taliban operatives is no big deal, because that's what happens at the end of wars: the captured soldiers go home and beat their swords into ploughshares.
That was true for George Washington, that was true for Abraham Lincoln, that was true for FDR.I'm trying to remember. Wasn't there something different about the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World War II? It'll come to me.
Best Thing To Do With Death, is Ride Off From It
Two in a week is rough country. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Can A Sitting Federal Judge...?
I'm told the answer to that question is always "Yes." But how about a state "Civil Rights Commission?"
Also, if we made it we made it with peanuts and coconut -- somehow that 'nut allergy' thing got misplaced too. Have to throw the thing out. Didn't realize until this morning. But we'll make another one, as soon as we can get past this huge back-order. Maybe next March? Soon as we can, promise.
Did we turn any wedding cake business away last quarter? Heavens no! But you know, we have problems with our distributors. They're out of state, and they don't like providing flour for gay wedding cakes. We just had to accept their offer to be our sole source of flour because their prices were so good, even though we regret these contractual stipulations. That leaves us with a contractual obligation to these out-of-state businesses not to violate their ethical standards. Now, we aren't asserting any such conscience ourselves -- heavens no! Heavens no! No, it's just a contract -- oddly enough, written to be adjudicated according to Mississippi state law. Not sure how that got in there. Anyway, you can talk to the Mississippi courts about it if it bothers you.
Quarterly sensitivity training? Absolutely. I can't tell you how much that improves the attitude toward thetargets objects subjects of sensitivity. It works great in the Army!
At this point, I'd have a hard time not sympathizing with outright bigots, if these were those. The government has overstepped its bounds. It's asking for whatever it gets here. There are lots of ways to resist an order without violating it.
Baker forced to make gay wedding cakes, undergo sensitivity training, after losing lawsuit.Oh, gee, we forgot to make the cake. Somehow the order got lost. Clerical error, probably that guy who left last month to move to Egypt. Major US ally, Egypt. Great friend of America. You're cool with Muslims, right?
Also, if we made it we made it with peanuts and coconut -- somehow that 'nut allergy' thing got misplaced too. Have to throw the thing out. Didn't realize until this morning. But we'll make another one, as soon as we can get past this huge back-order. Maybe next March? Soon as we can, promise.
Did we turn any wedding cake business away last quarter? Heavens no! But you know, we have problems with our distributors. They're out of state, and they don't like providing flour for gay wedding cakes. We just had to accept their offer to be our sole source of flour because their prices were so good, even though we regret these contractual stipulations. That leaves us with a contractual obligation to these out-of-state businesses not to violate their ethical standards. Now, we aren't asserting any such conscience ourselves -- heavens no! Heavens no! No, it's just a contract -- oddly enough, written to be adjudicated according to Mississippi state law. Not sure how that got in there. Anyway, you can talk to the Mississippi courts about it if it bothers you.
Quarterly sensitivity training? Absolutely. I can't tell you how much that improves the attitude toward the
At this point, I'd have a hard time not sympathizing with outright bigots, if these were those. The government has overstepped its bounds. It's asking for whatever it gets here. There are lots of ways to resist an order without violating it.
Dear Slate Magazine: Don't Tax Beer
This was a bad idea in 1875 or 1919, and it's not gotten better with age.
Recently, Derek Thompson of the Atlantic riffed on new research from the marketing professors Caleb Warren and Margaret C. Thompson, who argue that “coolness” is “a measured violation of malign expectations.” Instead of simply warning young people of the dangers of drunkenness, we need to make binge drinking seem mainstream and thus lame. This will be extremely difficult because, as I’ve learned to my detriment, being drunk can be quite fun—until you wet the bed or start murdering people.Even after that, if they're pansy beer-banners.
Curious
A routine request in Florida for public records regarding the use of a surveillance tool known as stingray took an extraordinary turn Tuesday when federal authorities seized the documents before police could release them....I would think the courts would have some questions about that principle!
The government has long asserted it doesn’t need a probable-cause warrant to use stingrays because the device doesn’t collect the content of phone calls and text messages, but instead operates like pen-registers and trap-and-traces, collecting the equivalent of header information. The ACLU and others argue that the devices are more invasive than a trap-and-trace.
Recently, the Sarasota police department revealed it had used stingrays at least 200 times since 2010 without telling a judge because the device’s manufacturer made it sign a non-disclosure agreement that police claim prevented them from telling the courts.
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