Quote of the Day
Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler.Albert Einstein
Go, Cat Cafe!
My family's first pet was a beautiful white Siamese cat during my primary school days, and my mom probably remembers one incident not very fondly. I was the oldest of 5 or 6 at the time (my baby brother was born while we lived on a Florida base near a strip of forest; I don't recall if he was born at the time of the incident.) I used to aggravate my folks by waking them to ask for permission to watch Saturday morning cartoons at 6 AM. So this one Saturday morning I heard the cat scratching at the door and meowing to be let in. I guess I was surprised she was outside and opened the door and she passed me like a shot. I immediately knew there was something rotten in the state of the house. I smelled something powerful, like I've never smelled before. (I won't keep you in suspense--she apparently got on the wrong side of a skunk.) It wasn't the sound of the TV that got my folks up that morning; I first heard sounds of confusion from the master bedroom, like "What the hell...?" soon followed by "Ronald! How dare you let her in the house smelling like that!"... It wasn't like we had a "one-sniff" test before letting her in the house. The poor cat, which never cared for baths, got a vigorous one....
Obnoxious Anti-Catholic Trolls
I don't print much of the personal attacks I take on Facebook; keep in mind I almost never write on "progressive" pages. I rarely go looking for a fight. What I find are a lot of hit-and-run "progressive" trolls on libertarian sites. Now I admit I can be blunt and don't suffer fools gladly. But I got responses that don't even address my comments; some have targeted one of my beautiful sweetheart grandnieces in a picture with me. Others make snide fat jokes, question my work status, etc. It comes with the territory. When I was a UH teaching fellow, I stumbled across a note of a student fantasizing about my violent death. Sometimes I let some of the negative personal stuff seep through, but really it's almost comical: do they really think I worry about some jerk thinks about me? That I "need" their positive approval?
But I take exception to one troll on a recent Cato Institute piece where they were basically talking about GOP candidates who oppose "gay marriage" committing political suicide.I gave a pithy response, pointing out the hypocrisy of a libertarian supporting Statist trumping of community marriage preferences.
I actually got a significant number of likes, when a repeat troll blasted me with an insult I remembered seeing several weeks back, wishing those of us dinosaur brains should hurry up and die. I pointed out LDS had abandoned their polygamy roots, that the Catholic Church had opposed measures restricting interracial marriages--but always has and always will oppose "gay marriage".
He then goes on an anti-Catholic rant over the pedophilia scandal and goes over the line, suggesting the reason I hadn't revisited the thread recently was that I must have been gone looking for young boys to molest.
First of all, only a tiny fraction of priests have ever been involved in sexual misconduct. I have not studied statistics on perversion, but the statistics I've seen show the probability of perversity no greater among priests than in the general population.I have personally known a numher of priests--my favorite uncle, base chaplains, professors, etc. Next to my Dad, the finest men I'v ever known. As for me, I'm not part of the clergy and don't even think I said I'm Catholic. Not that it's anyone's business, but I'm straight and not in a relationship; my idea of a young woman is in her mid-20's. I never dated a current or former student. Sexual misconduct, especially against children, is an abomination.
Facebook Corner
(National Review). Is it worth it? No.
As a libertarian, I find the institution of slavery a first-order violation of unalienable rights. But I understand the regional resistance against the tyranny of the majority, a hypocritical, different-standards central government.. But the idea of some politically correct fascist imposing his censorship over the rights of others to express themselves is anti-American as its core.
(Libertarians.org). "One of the most common claims that you’ll hear about the Civil War is that it was about states’ rights. And frankly, the historical record just does not bear this out."
Fortunately – though it shouldn't have been necessary in the first place – on June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger announced the total emancipation of slaves. #Juneteenth
Let's point out that Lincoln did not free one million slaves still in the Union with his Emancipation Proclamation, and Lincoln didn't have an issue with West Virgina seceding and joining the Union. There had been serious discussion of buying out the slaves in the decades before secession (and although the issue was on the table during the Lincoln Presidency, it never went anywhere). Plus, the Confederacy, looking for foreign recognition, put slavery on the table: "By December 1864, Davis considered sacrificing slavery in order to enlist recognition and aid from Paris and London; he secretly sent Duncan F. Kenner to Europe with a message that the war was fought solely for "the vindication of our rights to self-government and independence" and that "no sacrifice is too great, save that of honor." The message stated that if the French or British governments made their recognition conditional on anything at all, the Confederacy would consent to such terms."
Let us point out that secession was not simply a Southern concept: the New England Federalists had considered secession during the War of 1812 era.
Anyone who doesn't understand this issue didn't primarily deal with regional differences over Northern protectionist tariffs is in a state of denial. There had been a clash between President Jackson and South Carolina over tariffs. The South was furious that the North's tariff wars came at the expense of their exports and also lowered their living standard. The South saw itself being marginalized by a growing anti-Southern coalition.
Finally, the author's classification of Southern self-defense as an "insurgency" seems an arbitrary distinction that betrayed individual and state rights at the expense of a tyrannical central government.
Marriage and Family
This was a little confusing; I first thought the pilot was the boyfriend. It then looked like the boyfriend in the back popped the question before they got to the field with the large-scale proposal question.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Chip Bok via Townhall |
Dionne Warwick, "Message to Michael"
