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Thursday, August 21, 2014

Miscellany: 8/21/14

Quote of the Day
When you want to test the depths of a stream, don't use both feet.
Chinese Proverb

Disputed Quotation of the Day
Albert Shanker (1928-1997), former president of the American Federation of Teachers ... "When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children."
Image of the Day




Tweet of the Day
Observation of the Day

I don't know how I was unaware of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge until fairly recently. Of course, as a baseball fan, I'm well aware of Lou Gehrig's disease. The first thing I thought of when I started seeing clips of challenges, including 3 of my grandnieces, is that my former students would have paid good money to douse me in ice water....
Some Tongue-in-Cheek Humor
(No, I don't support waterboarding.)
Via Libertarian Republic


McCrum vs. Rick Perry: Prosecutory Arrogance Run Amok

Karl Rove does an excellent job summarizing the case here. As always, I have an interest in my native state where I attended high school, earned all 4 college degrees and worked both in academia and professionally. The bottom line is that McCrum is trying to prosecute Perry over a budget veto in combination with his preceding relevant comments. As Rove points out, Perry did not lose his right to political speech in public office and his use of the veto is a legitimate authority under the Texas constitution; the Texas legislature has the ability to override his veto or even impeach the governor if it feels Perry has abused his authority. But trying to criminalize a governor's exercise of his veto authority? This is a court dismissal waiting to happen. In the unlikely event this would ever set a precedent, the courts could find themselves refereeing any budget cut decision.

The background to the story was a year ago tax day, Travis County District Attorney, Rosemary Lehmberg, who is in charge of  the state's Public Integrity Unit, was arrested on DWI. Perry pressed for her to resign, promising to replace her with a fellow Democrat. She refused, even when he threatened to veto the Public Integrity Unit's budget unless she stepped aside. Perry carried through on his threat. A judge appointed McCrum as a special prosecutor in response to a left-wing group complaint, and McCrum has indicted Perry on counts of  "abuse of official capacity" (veto) and "coercion of public servant" (pressure on Lehmberg to resign). As Rove points out, this is the third time in the last 20 years or so that the Dems have gone after a prominent state Republican (former Sen. Hutchinson and Congressman DeLay, both exonerated).

I think I've just found the next 2 nominees for my annual mock JOTY competition.





Facebook Corner

(continuation of a Tom Woods thread, where he took a shot at Mitt Romney while wishing Ron Paul a happy birthday; I took exception, and there were a handful of trolls determined to have the last word)
"Ad hominem abuse (also called personal abuse or personal attacks) usually involves insulting or belittling one's opponent in order to invalidate his or her argument, but can also involve pointing out factual but ostensible character flaws or actions which are irrelevant to the opponent's argument. This tactic is logically fallacious because insults and even true negative facts about the opponent's personal character have nothing to do with the logical merits of the opponent's arguments or assertions."

 Look at Woods' original statement: he called Romney a "phony".

 Yes, if you oppose liberty to migrate, it's a slippery slope. You trust in Big INS? I'm simply pointing out is Woods' devotion to Ron Paul (with whom, by the way, he has a contract to deliver, as he repeats in a self-pitying, tiresome manner, homeschooling videos) is rather hypocritical, for someone who dares to point out "phonies".

 I have many political differences with both Romney and Ron Paul. I'm also not an AnCap like Tom Woods, who is praising Ron Paul who is not an AnCap. I was defending a decent man, a brilliant executive, whom Tom Woods pathetically and without intellectual integrity used as a straw man. It was totally unnecessary.

 Ask me if I care what a bunch of Woods trolls think about me for calling out Woods on his lack of professionalism.

 One more comment here: some of the trolls are mocking my decision to drop Woods' podcast. I think Woods' pretentious self-promotion is ludicrous: "I am fascinated by the phenomenon of, "I have learned and benefited from you a great deal, but because of one social media post I am shunning you forever!" No good work, given away every day and for free, goes unpunished." Woods is using the podcast to endlessly promote his speaking tours and his and/or Paul's commercial education portals, not to mention his own books and now a reader subscription business. I have my own truly free blog, where I'm not plugging anything personal; I was promoting Woods in my blog. I don't have that wide a readership that Woods will likely ever feel losing my endorsement, but there are unintended consequences to Woods' behaving badly.

(IPI). Basic workplace representation is one of the main reasons that workers join unions. But a review of union spending reports exposed that representation made up less than half of all spending for three of Illinois’ most influential union groups.
1980 I earned $12.72 per hour, now 34 years later, you say $8.00 per hour is too much?
Union troll, ask the millions who can't find work at any price. You exploit legally sanctioned privileges as a corrupt government-protected monopoly. You benefit from fewer competing workers due to economically illiterate, perverse policies.
 Let's go back to the 1920s!!!
Let's go back to the Gilded Age, when we didn't need counterproductive public policy or unions to see high economic growth, rising wages and standard of living, lessening consumer inequality and we had a dollar that was stable, if not appreciating.

(Jeff Tucker). Writing now on the death of minarchism
Still trying to write the Great American novel?

Political Cartoon
//Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via US News
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Billy Joel, "We Didn't Start the Fire"

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