Congratulations, Iraq. from the mind of Unknown.

"I walked forward to my station, cast my vote and then headed to the box, where I wanted to stand as long as I could, then I moved to mark my finger with ink, I dipped it deep as if I was poking the eyes of all the world's tyrants.
I put the paper in the box and with it, there were tears that I couldn't hold; I was trembling with joy and I felt like I wanted to hug the box but the supervisor smiled at me and said "brother, would you please move ahead, the people are waiting for their turn".
-Mohammed and Omar of Iraq the Model

Freedom took a step forward today. Regardless of how complicated staging a vote is in a country such as Iraq, regardless of the statistics behind the election, regardless of who wins... Freedom prevailed today. I feel lucky to be alive and be able to witness so many people tasting for the first time a freedom that my friends and family and I take for granted on a daily basis.

Where are the cries today of 'No blood for OIL!' and 'Bush Lied' from people other than Mr. Chappaquidick and our favorite French looking Vietnam War hero. It doesn't take much decency and logic at all to see how great of a day today is.

Watch out Iran. Watch out Syria. Watch out Egypt. Watch out N. Korea. A force much stronger than the United States' Military is coming to town... Freedom is on a roll.

Welcome to the club, great people of Iraq. Your joy and enthusiasm displayed today has reminded me of how great of a world we live in. The next time I vote, I will be thinking of you... and possibly dipping my finger in a bottle of blue ink.

I Have 'Scores' of Toes! from the mind of Unknown.

If I were to say I had 'scores' of friends... how many would you assume I have?

If I were to say that I have scores of baseball caps in my baseball cap collection... how many would you think I have?

If you were to ask me how many episodes of Seinfeld I've seen... and I replied 'scores!'... how many would you think I've seen?

So, when I opened my MSNBC email this morning to see the headline "Baghdad bomb wounds scores"... I was thinking "uh-oh... another big one!" But, as I read on... well... just see for yourself.



(note: Arrow comes from me, not MSNBC.)

I just had a hard time believing that 'scores' could be a word that properly conveys the number of 'at least 10'. Sure, if X>10, then it is possible for X=80, which would be four score. I just had a hard time believing that this was a accurate representation.

So, I went to dictionary.com and peeked around. This is what I found.



(note: Masking is mine, not Dictionary.com.)

So, I had to wade through all of those first 5 definitions to get to the one pertinent to this subject, which describes a 'score' as 20 units. Even if you take #7, I would assume that if one score is 20, then the plural of score would be more than 20... Abe Lincoln definitely governed more than 47 years after the forefathers did what they did.

Sure, I know that this is nitpicking, but it deals with the standard that the MSM employs today. (Or perhaps the lack...) I just think I would get laughed at if I said I had scores of baseball caps in my collection and people found out it was less than a dozen. This is just a gross exaggeration of the reality of the situation.

On a more serious note, isn't it pretty amazing that these attacks are happening now and people aren't getting killed in each of them? Doesn't that mean that things are working? Sure, it's unfortunate that people are being injured, possibly permanently, but they still have their life and they will still get to experience the freedom that comes with the impending democracy. To me, this is a success story, but the Media just doesn't want to portray that image.

Oh well. Just be sure to take your liberalism goggles. You don't want any of that crap to actually reach your eyes.

Global Warming = More Snow??? from the mind of Unknown.

As a skier, if one of the effects of global warming is lower temperatures and more snow... then I say "Bring It On!!" It seems odd to me that if we are getting warmer and warmer, why are we breaking all cold temp records and winter storm records? Riddle me that!

Here is an interesting screenshot from Drudge. Look at the two headlines. (I didn't want to embed the image in the main blog page because of it's size, it's an entire screen's worth. It is absolutely positively safe for work. Click away, my friends...) This is almost as bad as a former VP being the keynote speaker at a global warming conference on the coldest day in decades....

Well, enjoy the pic. It ain't much, but it might be worth a laugh or two.

A Flying Money Pit... from the mind of Unknown.

Airbus is using it's anti-competitive EU muscle to bring out a new behemoth...

Airbus to Unveil Largest Passenger Jet

Look at the last paragraph. Couldn't we just put seats in an An-124 and beat that record? If that won't work, let's revive the 225 and beat them that way.

To Give, Or Not To Give... from the mind of Zeke_Wilkins.

Some interesting thoughts by John Derbyshire on giving aid to Tsunami victims can be found at National Review (here). I'm glad I'm not the only one who has had similar thoughts. Colin Powell recently warned against sending too much money too fast, a possibility I think is more of an inevitability. As Derbyshire points out,

"Our charitable impulses are mediated by, well, our media. We see an orphaned child or a weeping mother on our TV screen, and are moved to pity. Nothing the least bit wrong with that; but the world is full of orphaned children and weeping mothers who never make it to the nightly news."

It just seems a little askew when celebrity-types try to play up their humanitarian role by donating and raising funds for the cause of the month when there were millions dying horrific deaths before the Tsunami that Hollywood has ignored.

A Hotdog Post from the mind of Zeke_Wilkins.

For those of you not familiar with Zeke Speak, a "hotdog" anything is usually an ungodly mixture of things; in this case opinions, observations and such.

Yes, Washington recount!
Up here in Washington we've had a vote, two recounts, court opinions and hopefully we'll have a revote. Felons, illegal aliens and the deceased turned out in droves to support Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Christine Gregoire. So much so that in heavily democratic King County it is reported that 1200 more votes were cast than the total number of registered voters on the county rolls. Some argue that the millions of dollars needed to fund a revote is too high a cost. I argue the opposite: it is money well spent. A revote would settle the election and bring to the forefront the integrity of our system by affecting the pocketbooks of the citizenry; and that is what will really put pressure on the government and both political parties to maintain the honesty and integrity of the system. Hell hath no fury like a populace that has to pay to clean up the mess of a high-profile government snafu.

Libertarian Radicalism
A week or so ago I was listening to a libertarian guest on Sean Hannity's show. The guest was stating that no one should pay taxes, they should be completely voluntary. When asked by Sean how would roads be built and maintained, etc., the guest just reiterated that taxes should really be voluntary contributions. Now, I could be classified as libertarian in some respects (definitely not all), and I know that some on this website have libertarian leanings. But the guest on Hannity's show displayed a trait that I have belittled the radical left for having. That trait is the naive belief in the inherent goodness of people and the possibility of utopia.

The Founding Fathers and most conservatives are astute enough to know that not all is right with the human race. Human government from time to time must use force to promote the greater good. It is so with taxes: leave it to voluntary contribution to provide infrastructure and secure the common defense and very little will be accomplished. The heavy burden of admitting this fact is to walk a fine line between collective good and government abuse. The conservative creedo can be summed up as "as much as needed, and not a penny more". In order to determine what needs to be funded and how much should be raised through taxes we must have a clear picture of the function of government: to provide for the common defense against foreign and domestic enemies, and to preserve the union. It is though these key insights that we can (and must) justify the government's power to levy taxes, and at the same time set rigid limits on that taxation. Alternatives, including the idea of voluntary contribution proposed by radical libertarians, would be (and are) disasterous.

A Tale of Two Worlds, or "Schizophrenic Zeke"
I've always enjoyed pursuing an education. I've also always known the joy and value of "working with your hands". When I went first to college, and then to graduate school I felt an increasing sense that though I talked like an academic, often thought like an academic, and enjoyed the academic lifestyle I was secretly not like them. I had working-class blood in my veins. I did not have an aversion to do manual labor and come home at the end of the day exhausted and sore. I did not have nearly the contempt towards those who made a living doing dirty and unglorified jobs as did my academic peers.

Now that I have graduated with a Masters degree and have bills to pay while I try to start up my career, I find myself working at a hardware store doing exactly the kind of job I saw academics look down on with contempt. For the most part I fit in well. I work hard, talk rough and get along with the other employees. And yet, I feel this increasing sense that though I talk like a laborer and often think like a laborer, I'm secretly not like them. I find myself trapped in the netherealm between the working-class and the academic elite; able to speak both languages, but completely comfortable as neither.