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Monday, February 9, 2015

Miscellany: 2/09/15

Quote of the Day
I am in earnest; 
I will not equivocate; 
I will not excuse; 
I will not retreat a single inch; 
and I will be heard.
William Lloyd Garrison

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Tweet of the Day
Distancing Myself From the Idiots on the Crusades, Inquisition, and Vaccines

First, during the life of the blog, I've been against the anti-vaxxers. The recent spread of measles, largely due to less vaccine-compliant parents, is notable; over the past decade, the total number of cases dwindled to dozens nationwide. Last year it ran up to several hundred (although much of that was from a major outbreak among certain unvaccinated Amish communities) and there's an ongoing breakout stemming from a Disney park in California. Berezow is right to point out that measles can be fatal: nearly 3 million a year globally before widespread vaccination. But where I stopped cold is when he writes "Parents who do not vaccinate their children should go to jail." That's over the top; for example, some children may be poor candidates (health condition) for vaccines, and other approaches, say, social pressure, quarantines and/or school enrollment/foreign travel prerequisites are more preferable. Parents face consequences for their kids catching a disease (besides the obvious medical costs and potentially lethal exposure of the child to a disease, one of the parents may need to take a few days off work to tend for the child). One's child has to become a victim of a disease to spread the disease. I'm not a big fan of putting people in a cage for nonviolent crimes. (One reason I brought up Berezow is because he said something very close to what I wrote recently: "Your family's right to be sick ends where public health begins.")

Second, I have no idea why Obama had this in his prepared remarks for the National Prayer breakfast: "And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.  In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ." This is a flat-out lie. I will agree there were some atrocities, e.g., rape, plunder, murders of civilians, torture, etc., during the Crusades and the Inquisition, but these were not objectives of said operations; and there were atrocities by opposing forces as well. These atrocities violated Church teachings; saying that there were done in the name of Christ makes no more sense than saying Sgt. Bales murdering innocent civilians in Afghanistan was done in the name of Obama. When I myself recently used the Crusades and the Inquisition, my point was to note the inconsistencies of atrocities with foundational Christian teachings, including adherence to the Ten Commandments. My point had more to do with the broad indictment of Islam by many Western Christians; the inference from a few thousand rogue militants to over a billion peace-loving Muslims is grossly unfair. But let's be clear: there is no Christian concept comparable to jihad or religion-centered conquest. Yes, some Christian were willing to accept death--vs. renounce their faith in Christ.

Obama seems to be saying all religions are alike, all have had their own share of dubious wrongdoings. This is rather a shallow and inaccurate generalization, apples and oranges. He seems to be more concerned with validating the propaganda of Islamic fundamentalist militants that, yes, the Crusades were equally evil, etc. It comes across as yet another round of the blame America tour. The Crusades were more motivated by liberating repressed Christians in the Holy Land. But the Christian message is not one of the integration of Church and State. Jesus repeatedly taught His kingdom was not of this world.

Facebook Corner

(Lawrence Reed). "The transportation bill had over $5 billion worth of special local projects and favors attached to it, lamprey-like, by various congresspersons. But this is good, because these projects will CREATE JOBS. See, when the GOVERNMENT spends money, it creates jobs; whereas when the money is left in the hands of TAXPAYERS, God only knows what they do with it. Bake it into pies, probably. Anything to avoid creating jobs" -- humorist Dave Barry, 1992.
The only jobs that "trickle-down" government creates are in the bureaucracy.

(Reason). Kid Rock: "Fiscally, I’m Republican. But the social issues kill me — gay marriage and abortion. It’s like, Come on, man, get off it."
The social conservative whipping boy nonsense is a red herring. Very little federal policy has to do with these issues, which normally come under Tenth Amendment/state responsibility. I will point out that a number of right-libertarians, including myself, are culturally conservative and definitely not libertenes; we may tolerate, but not accept, certain morally dubious choices.
Most Americans are actually Libertarians: fiscally conservative and socially liberal - they just don't realize it yet. http://www.lp.org
You are delusional. More like 9%. http://www.pewresearch.org/2006/04/10/in-search-of-ideologues-in-america/

(Citizens Against Government Waste). WashPo editorial page takes a strong stance in favor of moving forward with the Nevada nuclear waste repository Yucca Mountain. CAGW agrees. Electricity ratepayers were taxed for years to pay for it, and Harry Reid blocked the effort for years. Taxpayers have lost tens of billions in lawsuits over the Department of Energy's failure to abide by the law! Time to begin working on Yucca again. SHARE if you agree!
A better idea would be to recycle the nuclear waste and reuse it. Like pretty much every other country that uses nuclear power. That way we don't even need something like this. We're just wasting the fuel rods by doing this anyway
"IEER found that nuclear reprocessing would actually increase our volume of nuclear waste six fold. IEER also reported that France, which runs the world’s most efficient reprocessing operation, spends about two cents per kilowatt hour more for electricity generated from reprocessed nuclear fuel compared to that generated from fresh fuel. IEEE further reports that the costs to build the breeder plants needed to convert spent nukes into usable fuel would “create intolerable costs and risks.”"

(IPI). BREAKING: Governor Bruce Rauner issues executive order halting collection of “fair share” union dues for employees of state government. Read more: http://illin.is/16LQ3gU
The very concept of a government union is an abomination. Kudos to Gov. Rauner for stopping the plunder of captive non-union members.

Political Humor

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Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Eric Allie via IPI

Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Dusty Springfield (with the Pet Shop Boys), "What Have I Done To Deserve This?". This marks the end of my Dusty series. Next up: James Taylor.

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