Right Mind

Go Chicks!

The Dixie Chicks' new album, Taking the Long Way, has debuted at #1 on the charts.

Babies with club feet aborted

Judicial murder for convenience.  From the U.K. Times Online:

MORE than 20 babies have been aborted in advanced pregnancy because scans showed that they had club feet, a deformity readily corrected by surgery or physiotherapy.

According to figures from the Office for National Statistics covering the years from 1996 to 2004, a further four babies were aborted because they had webbed fingers or extra digits, which are also corrected by simple surgery. All the terminations took place late in pregnancy, after 20 weeks.
…
Club foot is one of the most common birth defects in Britain. About one in 1,000 babies is affected, meaning that 600 to 700 infants are born with the condition every year. It results in the feet pointing downwards and inwards, and in severe cases can cause foot deformity and a limp.

However, it is relatively easy to correct and in recent years techniques of splints, plaster casts and boots to set the foot into the correct position have replaced the need for surgery. Club foot is occasionally connected with serious but rare chromosomal defects, although specialists point out that these can also be screened out before birth with additional tests.

Despite the ease with which it can be treated, the perception that club foot is a serious birth defect has remained among some parents and doctors.

“It was strongly suggested that we consider abortion after they found our baby had a club foot,” said David Wildgrove, 41, a computer programmer from Sheffield, whose son Alexander was born in 1996. “I was appalled. We resisted, the problem was treated and he now runs around and plays football with everyone else.”

Gordon bought a donkey

Gordon bought a donkey from an old farmer for £100. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day, but when he drove up he said, "Sorry son, bad news...the donkey is on my truck, but he's dead." Gordon replied, "OK, just give me my money back." The farmer said, "I can't do that. I've already spent it."

Gordon told him to unload the donkey anyway. When the farmer asked what he intended to do with it, Gordon replied, "I'm going to raffle him off." The farmer exclaimed, "But you can't raffle a dead donkey!" But Gordon, with a big smile on his face, said "Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anybody that he's dead."

A month later the farmer saw him again and asked, "What happened with that dead donkey?" Gordon told him, "I raffled it off. I sold 500 tickets at £2 each and made a huge profit" Totally amazed, the farmer asked, "Didn't anyone complain that you'd defrauded them with a dead donkey?" Gordon replied, "The only guy who found out the donkey was dead was the raffle winner when he came to claim his prize. So I gave him his £2 back plus £200 extra, which is double the going value of a donkey, so he thought I was a great guy."

Gordon grew up and eventually became Chancellor of the Exchequer, and no matter how many times he lied or how much money he stole from British voters, as long as he gave them back some of the stolen money, most of them thought he was a great guy.

Does this sound familiar to the USA?

Shared commitment to what kind of diversity?

The University of Oregon Ethnic Studies program is hiring a Visiting Assistant Professor or Instructor in African American, Asian American, Chicana/o-Latina/o, Native American or comparative ethnic studies. This is the job description:

The Ethnic Studies Program invites applications for a visiting assistant professor or instructor position for the 2006-07 academic year in African American, Asian American, Chicana/o-Latina/o, Native American, or comparative ethnic studies. This position, which is conditional on funding and may be renewable for an additional year, may include both undergraduate and graduate teaching. Preference will be given to candidates who will have completed the Ph.D. degree by September 2006. Research funds may be associated with this position. The Ethnic Studies Program presently includes a community of scholars in departments of anthropology, history, international studies, law, literature, philosophy, political science, psychology, sociology, and women's and gender studies. Applications, including a cover letter, curriculum vita, three letters of reference, and a writing sample, should be sent to Director, Ethnic Studies Program, 201 McKenzie Hall, 5268 University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-5268. For full consideration, application materials must be received by June 29, 2006. The University of Oregon is an equal-opportunity, affirmative-action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. We invite applications from qualified candidates who share our commitment to diversity.

Erin O’Connor asks the million dollar question:

That last sentence is intriguingly reminiscent of a loyalty oath. Does Oregon's Ethnic Studies program welcome a range of interpretations of the concept of diversity? Would an applicant who believes that intellectual diversity matters more than demographic diversity have the equal opportunity the advertisement promises?

Heck no!

HT: Critical Mass

National/International News of Interest

The following national/international news may be of interest:

• Pedophilia update:
• Pedophilia Party Launched in Netherlands
• Part of "Charity, Freedom, and Diversity" -- Promotes Legalization of Child Porn, Bestiality
• Ford Motor Company Supports Homosexual Polygamy
• 1,000,000 Sex Crimes by Illegal Immigrants -- Study
• Costa Rica: Supreme Court Says No to Same-Sexed "Marriage"
• James Bowman: A Questioning Look at Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth"
• Double Amputee Iraq War Vet Suing Michael Moore: $85M
• Missing Boy in Rockies Found After 4 Days
• Cal Thomas: "Amnesty" Republicans Court Disaster for Party, Country
• Iran Military Prepares for Invasion by U.S.
• David Limbaugh: Beltway GOPers v. Conservatives on Immigration
• Michelle Malkin: Murtha's Rush to Pin Murder on Marines
• BBC: Java Quake Toll Passes 5,800
• Quin Hillyer: How About "Ex-Speaker Dennis Hastert"?
• Scientist: I Don't Talk to Creationists
• Policeman Shot 5 Times in Violent Mexican Border City

HT: Pearcey Report

Gov. Risch Staff Appointments

Pope's passive rhetoric

From John Leo's blog over at U.S. News & World Report:.  

Some bloggers, including Eric Muller at "Is That Legal?" are unhappy about the pope's remarks at Auschwitz.

The critics have a point. The pope mentioned all the nationalities and religions of people who were killed at the camp. The subliminal effect of this kind of listing is to imply that all were equally victimized, which was hardly the case. Though people from many nations were killed, only one people, the Jews, were marked for extinction. The pope mentioned only two victims by name, both Roman Catholics, Maximilian Kolbe, a heroic Polish priest, and Edith Stein, a Jew who converted to Catholicism. But instead of reminding us that some Catholics died, the pope might have lamented that it was a heavily Catholic and overwhelmingly Christian nation that unleashed the horror. But instead of stressing Christian complicity, the pope used a bit of telltale passive rhetoric confining blame to Nazis. He called himself "a son of that people over which a ring of criminals rose to power by false promises of future greatness and the recovery of the nation's honor."

The same kind of rhetoric tends to pop up in the many Vatican apologies to Jews. One of the best of these statements, "Memory and Reconciliation" (2000), acknowledged that the behavior of Christians leading up to the Holocaust "was not that which might have been expected from Christ's followers." But it talked about "the suffering endured by the people of Israel" rather than about Christians who helped the Nazis impose that suffering. It correctly pointed out that Nazism was a "pagan ideology" but neglected to mention that centuries of anti-Semitism set the stage for the Holocaust. The Vatican has tried mightily to come to terms with the virtual collapse of Catholic moral witness during World War II. But the pope's visit to Auschwitz was a sadly missed opportunity to speak bluntly about Christian failure.

Displaying aligned time series

Aleks writes:

The excellent Infosthetics blog, which usually focuses at the intersection between information and art, today linked to this Timeline of Trends and Events ranging from 18th century to now and includes projections of the future for a number of variables: political power, economic development, wars, ecology and environment. I have always been impressed by such integrative attempts, for example the synchronoptical summaries of world history, or Karl Hartig's charts.

Although you might find the display cluttered, the wealth of information is worth it. Of course, it would be nice to have an interactive system for zooming into such time series, aligning them, reordering them, superimposing different time series, and so on. It is just a question of time. Moreover, with the abundance of data, our ability to model many kinds of it, the future of history may lie in statistical-graphical summarization."

HT: Alpha and Omega

Kentucky Wrestles With Religious Dates in Classrooms

Kentucky is wrestling with BC/AD verses BCE/CE dating in textbooks.

See Kentucky Wrestles With Religious Dates in Classrooms

Kentucky's state school board has apparently resolved a spat over historical date references in social studies classes, but not before the state's governor, facing an uphill re-election bid, seized on the issue.

And while the immediate controversy over the use of B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, Latin for "in the year of the Lord") may have subsided, related fights over the proper role of religion in public schools appear to be far from settled.

Earlier this year, staff at the Kentucky Department of Education proposed substituting C.E. (Common Era) for A.D. and B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) for B.C. in draft curriculum guidelines for high school and middle school social studies classes.

The common B.C./A.D. system is based on the supposed year of Christ's birth — a date posited by the monk Dionysius Exiguus in the year 525. Years after Christ's birth go up; those before it are counted backwards.

The proposal quickly came under attack from a conservative group, the Family Foundation of Kentucky, which accused state officials of trying to strip religious references from the state's public schools.

In April, the statewide education board restored A.D. and B.C. to the guidelines, but only after including both systems — B.C./B.C.E. and A.D./C.E. The school board is expected to take final action in June on the voluntary guidelines, which spell out key concepts students are expected to master in all grades and subjects.

The state at war with the nation

WND has Pat Buchanan’s latest assessment of today’s GOP. This is a must-read for die-hard Republicans.

Public Schools

The war against Christianity continues to rage in public schools. At La France Elementary School  in Anderson, South Carolina, officials placed teaching assistant Jean Byce on paid leave for admitting her belief in Jesus to a student who asked her about her faith. North Carolina parents were incensed when their first-grade daughter came home with a pro-homosexual book from the school library. in the book, King & King, a prince declines romantic involvement with a number of princesses in favor of a relationship with Prince lee. The two end up getting married and kissing. the school’s principal dismissed the parent’s complaints, saying, “What might be inappropriate for one family, in another family is a totally acceptable thing.”

From David Limbaugh’s Persecution: How Liberals are Waging War against Christianity, Perennial, 2004, p. )

Senate Immigration Bill Stupendously Bad

From the Idaho Values Alliance:

The immigration bill passed by the Senate last week (supported by Sen. Craig, opposed by Sen. Crapo), is a spectacularly bad piece of legislation, and appears to show an utter tone deafness on the part of the president and Senate Republicans to the prevailing sentiment of the American people.

 

Not only does the bill grant amnesty and a guaranteed path to citizenship for law breakers, it actually awards rights and privileges to illegals that U.S. citizens do not enjoy. According to Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, here are just some of the problems with the bill.

 

Illegal aliens must pay their back taxes, which sounds reasonable until you discover that they only have to pay back taxes for three of the last five years, and get a complete pass on the other two. If an American citizen were to do the same - pick any two of the last five years and refuse to pay taxes for those years - that citizen would wind up in jail. As Sen. Grassley said, "The bill would treat lawbreakers better than the American people."

 

Also, the federal government will fine illegals only $2,000, which they would not be required to pay until the end of the adjudication process, which could take as long as 8 years.

 

Further, the federal government is not allowed to use the information provided on an amnesty application for any purpose other than adjudicating the petition, even if the applicant confesses he is related to Osama Bin Laden. Our Senate has passed a bill that would outlaw the use of information supplied by illegal aliens for national security purposes.

 

If a federal agent does in fact use application information for some other purpose, such as national security, he is subject, not to a $2,000 fine, but to a $10,000 fine. In other words, law enforcement officers in the United States have greater legal exposure under this bill than illegal aliens.

 

Employers of illegals receive a blanket pardon for any tax cheating they have done by not paying withholding taxes, thus receiving amnesty themselves for something that would send an employer of American citizens to jail.

 

Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation concludes that the bill, due to generous provisions for immediate and extended family members, will virtually guarantee U.S. admission to an additional 60 million (yes, 60 million) immigrants.

 

According to Rector, this bill represents the largest expansion of welfare in the last 35 years, and would be a financial catastrophe. Illegals will be eligible for the earned income credit, which will wind up costing ordinary taxpayers $29 billion over the next ten years. Other social costs will burden taxpayers to the tune of $50 to $60 billion dollars every year for at least the next decade.

 

Illegals will not be required to submit to screening for communicable diseases. This will only exacerbate the resurgence we are seeing in tuberculosis, leprosy, dengue fever and other exotic diseases which had been virtually eliminated from the American populace.

 

Under this bill, aliens can only be fired for "just cause", and thus will have greater protection for employment than most American citizens, who are "at will" employees and can be fired for any number of reasons.

 

To make matters worse, the bill guarantees illegals access to a taxpayer funded arbitration process, which includes a taxpayer-funded lawyer, for any alien who feels he was let go for something other than "just cause."

 

And finally, the bill allows states to charge in-state tuition to amnestees, a privilege denied to ordinary, out of state Americans.

 

The good news is that leaders in the House seem determined not to capitulate on these matters, and are intent on securing our borders as a first, and if necessary, independent step.

 

HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE - Immigration Bill Is Worse Than You Think

 

Idaho Values Alliance: Illegal Immigration: Can America Afford the Cost?

Picture Overlooking Los Angeles

My buddy, Gary, went to the top of the Griffith Park hills overlooking Los Angeles the other day and snapped this picture…

Judge Says Convicted Child Molester Too Short For Prison

District Judge Kristine Cecava of Cheyenne County in Nebraska is at the center of controversy for saying that a man convicted of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old child is too short to go to prison so she has sentenced him to 10 years of probation.

In Vermont, after the Governor called for Cashman's resignation and prosecutors asked for a reconsideration of the sentence imposed, Cashman resentenced Mark Hulett, 34, to 3 to 10 years in prison for two counts of aggravated sexual assault and a lessor charge.

Richard W. Thompson, 50, who stands 5-foot-1, has been convicted of two counts of sexually assaulting a minor. Cecava said that although she felt his crimes deserved a long sentence, she thought his height would place him at risk in the prison system.

She said she was going "to try and put together" a sentence for him and deemed for the first four months of his probation, he will be electronically monitored. He cannot be alone with someone under the age of 18 or date or live with a woman whose has children under 18. He cannot have any pornography in his possession. According the judicial order, if he violates any of the terms of his probation, he must serve 30 days of jail each year of his probation.

It's a shame the judge is more concerned with the perpetrator's interests than the 12-year-old victim's.

Life or death vote

This November South Dakota may hold the nation’s first popular vote on the issue of abortion in over 30 years if at least 16,728 signatures on a petition are verified by the state’s secretary of state. In a stark departure from the lawsuit-oriented strategies usually employed by the pro-abortion lobby, the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, a group that opposes the state’s new abortion ban passed by the Legislature claims to have gathered enough signatures to “refer” the law to the fall election ballot. A valid petition would set the stage for one of the most vital issue-centered elections in memory.

Via Greg Jones

Whistle-blowers not protected

The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that public workers who make allegations of misconduct in official reports and in work-related statements may be disciplined for their speech without violating First Amendment protections. The 5-to-4 decision was handed down in the case of Richard Ceballos, a supervising district attorney in Los Angeles who raised questions in a memo about whether a deputy sheriff had lied to obtain a search warrant. Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy noted, "When public employees make statements pursuant to their official duties, [they] are not speaking as citizens for First Amendment purposes, and the Constitution does not insulate their communications from employer discipline."

Also via Joe Carter.

Defender of which faith?

In a 1994 interview, Prince Charles expressed a wish to become "Defender of Faith" rather than "Defender of the Faith”, the title held by all British monarchs since Henry VIII. But Anglican Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, says that the differences between the faiths made it impossible to defend all of them and that Charles would be obliged to take an oath to defend the Christian church if he succeeded to the throne. "The basis for British society is Christian constitutionally,” said the Bishop. All our values come ultimately from the Bible. People of other faiths recognize this and they are not often the ones asking for a multi-faith mish-mash. They recognize the value of Britain being a Christian country.”

Via Joe Carter

Four Challenges/Opportunities for the New Treasury Secretary

A recent poll of interest from the Gallup Organization:

Newly nominated Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will face four challenges/opportunities when confirmed by the Senate:

• The American public's confidence in the economy is very low;
• these more negative attitudes appear to be driven more by the low price of gas than anything else;
• there is some positive news in terms of the public's more optimistic view of the job market; and
• some of the economic negativity is political, with Democrats essentially unwilling to give the Bush administration credit for anything positive.

Americans at Odds Over Gay Rights

A recent poll of interest from the Gallup Organization:

Americans unquestionably believe that homosexual men and women should have equal job opportunities, but a much smaller majority says homosexuality is an acceptable alternative lifestyle; in fact, fewer than half consider it morally acceptable. Along with other groups, younger adults (those under 40 years old) are widely tolerant of these positions, signaling a possible cultural shift in progress.

Send a Brick

Chris Muir is playing with the “Send a Brick” movement.

Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

We'll get blamed eventually

The following letter to the editor appeared in today’s Lewiston Tribune:

Just a quick response to Bill Johns' letter to the Tribune (May 29). Bill, you have some great points, but I would like to point out one really serious thing of late that you left out. We Republicans have also caused smog around one of Saturn's moons. This was reported and shown in a photo in the Tribune a couple of weeks ago.

Surprisingly, the comments under the photo didn't directly blame us conservatives for the smog around that moon, but I'm sure it will come back to us sooner or later. If Hillary wins, my wife and I are planning on relocating to the other moon without the smog. We figure it will take a lot of hearty Republicans living there for a while until we screw that one up too.

Mark Vuchetich, Lewiston

Tests find bird flu kills in Indonesia

From the Associated Press:

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Preliminary tests have found that bird flu has killed another person in Indonesia, as the country struggles to get a grip on a spike in cases, a local health official said Wednesday.

The latest victim was a 15-year-old boy from West Java who was rushed to a hospital in Bandung on Monday and died a day later, said Hariyadi Wibisono, director of communicable disease control at the Ministry of Health.

Local tests came back positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus, but the specimens have been sent to a World Health Organization laboratory in Hong Kong for confirmation, he said.

The boy, from the town of Tasikmalaya, had a history of contact with poultry, he said.

He is the third recent victim from West Java. Last week, a 10-year-old girl and her 18-year-old brother who lived in another village died after being infected with the virus. Sick and dead birds were reported near their home. The WHO has confirmed those results, bringing Indonesia's toll to 36. 

Former Marine Fends Off Atlanta Robbers With Pocket Knife

Don’t mess with a Marine.

ATLANTA — A former Marine used a pocket knife to fend off a group of would-be robbers, killing one and wounding another, police said.

Thomas Autry, who authorities said will not be charged, had been walking home from his job waiting tables Monday night when four people got out of a car and chased him, Atlanta police detective Danny Stephens said.

One of the attackers had a shotgun and another had a pistol, Stephens said.

The suspects caught up with Autry, who yelled for help and pulled a knife out of his backpack. He kicked the shotgun out of one of the attacker's hands and stabbed both a 17-year-old girl who jumped on him and a man who also attacked him.

The suspects fled in their car but police found them later at a hospital where the girl was pronounced dead. The man stabbed in the incident was in critical condition, Stephens said.

Autry's attackers will face robbery and aggravated assault charges and are suspected in other robberies over the past week, Stephen said.

Stephens credited Autry's military training with helping him fend off the group.

"I would say he had to do what he had to do to stop the threat," Stephens said. "You can tell his training kicked in and he knew what to do."

Autry, 36, suffered a cut to his hand and a bruise on his chest, Stephens said.

Wind Farms Popping Up All Over the Northwest

From Northwest Public Radio:

The region’s wind farms can power 250 thousand homes for a year. The number of homes powered by wind energy would double when the turbines start to spin at the new farms.

Rachel Shimshak directs an alternative energy policy group. She says utilities are attracted to wind because it’s an energy source that’s cheap after the up-front construction cost.

Shimshak: It’s a good, cost-effective resource, and especially over the long term because wind power has no volatility to it. It’s something that you pay for and can plan on over the life of the project.

Utilities are also attracted by the tax breaks they get from the federal government. The current subsidy expires next year, which might explain the rush. Shimshak says that a permanent tax incentive would go far to encourage stable growth of alternative power.

National/International News of Interest

The following national/international news may be of interest:

• Vegas Free Boxing Tickets:
• Vegas Watch: Free Boxing Tickets for Reid the Regulator ...
• AP: Senator Defends Tickets ...
• Poll: Approval Rating at 48%
• Homosexual update
• Fact Check: "Gay" Students and Suicide -- Are Straight Kids to Blame?
• Pro-Homosexual Childcare Challenged in Sydney
• NY Court to Hear Same-Sex "Marriage" Argument
• Students Rampage Over World Cup TV Sets
• "X-Men" Opening Surpasses "Da Vinci"
• Philip Sherwell: Sexual Violence Against Women, in the Name of Islam
• Exposing Jesse MacBeth: A Phony Soldier's Hurtful Story
• Wounded CBS Reporter in Critical Condition -- AP
• WWI Soldier at 110 Among Last Survivors of an Era -- BGlobe
• Dixie Chicks Ridicule Country Music (reg)

HT: Pearcey Report

American Indian remains scheduled for ritual reburial

From the Seattle PI:

The remains of nearly 150 American Indians studied and stored at the University of Idaho and Washington State University are scheduled for a ritual reburial next month.

Nevada to keep billions as part of deal on Kempthorne confirmation

Details from Betsy Z. Russell's blog An Eye on Boise. Russell is a staff writer with the Spokesman Review.

Nevada newspapers and the Associated Press are reporting that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Friday that he brokered a deal in which the White House promised to back away from trying to tap into millions of dollars from sales of public land in southern Nevada, in exchange for Democratic support for former Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne’s confirmation as the new Secretary of the Interior.

Nothing like horse-trading with our former governor…

QotD: Price Controls

"A government that sets out to abolish market prices is inevitably driven toward the abolition of private property; it has to recognize that there is no middle way between the system of private property in the means of production combined with free contract, and the system of common ownership of the means of production, or socialism. It is gradually forced toward compulsory production, universal obligation to labor, rationing of consumption, and, finally, official regulation of the whole of production and consumption."

 

—The Theory of Money and Credit

Are Unions Required for Higher Wages?

Today’s Moscow-Pullman Daily News has a long article about Travis Meyer bringing a water pump to farmers in Africa.

That’s a worthy and worthwhile thing to do, and I applaud his efforts. However, it doesn’t really fix the underlying problems.

Coincidentally, Donald J. Boudreaux (Chair of the Department of Economics, George Mason University) has a recent letter to the editor to the New York Times that addresses the root causes of the poverty in Africa:

25 June 2005

Editor, The New York Times
229 W. 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036-3959

To the Editor:

Contrary to Jeffrey Sachs’s suggestion (“Four Easy Pieces,” June 25), Africans’ poverty isn’t caused by lack of resources. Instead, Africa’s lack of resources and failure to develop both result from too little security of property rights, commerce, and freedom.

Far from fixing this problem, foreign “aid” worsens it. According to Kenya’s James Shikwati, “aid” promotes (among other evils) graft and dependency, overlarge bureaucracies, and the corrosion of indigenous democratic institutions.

Africans are poor because they are governed by liars, thieves, and tyrants. Showering more $$$ on these governments – even if they pinky-promise to reform – only rewards their chicanery and tyranny.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Department of Economics
George Mason University

Are Unions Required for Higher Wages?

A letter to the editor from Donald J. Boudreaux, Chair of the Department of Economics, George Mason University:

11 June 2005

Editor, The Washington Times

Dear Editor:

Victor Davis Hanson worries that immigrants depress American wages (“A Debate Going Nowhere,” June 11) because the availability of immigrant labor means that “poorer American workers cannot organize.” This concern is naive.

The evidence runs against the claim that unionization is necessary to raise worker pay. For the past 45 years, the percentage of workers organized by labor unions has steadily fallen while worker compensation has risen. In 1960, 37 percent of the private workforce was unionized; today this figure is 7.9 percent. Despite this substantial drop in union membership, real average hourly compensation (wages and benefits) earned by non-supervisory private-sector workers is today at an all time high – estimated conservatively to be about 34% greater than in 1960.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Department of Economics
George Mason University