Toubabou

RNC Chairman Mike Duncan On Why Conservatives Who Want To Sit Out The Election In 2008 Are Making A Big Mistake. - Right Wing News (Conservative News and Views)

The biggest problem with what Mike Duncan says here, is that we aren’t given a credible alternative in McCain. It’s all very well to say that the democrats would ruin the country. In fact, it goes without saying. But that is a reason to vote against them, not a reason to vote for McCain. If the Republican National Committee wants to get their party out of the minority in government, they’ll need to start thinking of reasons for us to vote for them, rather than always trying to scare us into voting against the democrats.

Look at all the programs that were introduced during that period of time that we’ve had trouble managing, that were are expensive, that have caused us to raise taxes.

Well, why have the republicans had so much trouble managing these programs? Because they were willing to raise taxes to pay for them. If the republican party had the courage to stand against the big-government dems, we would have a chance. The party in general, and McCain in glaring particular, have not shown that.

McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, McCain-Lieberman, McCain-Edwards. Any questions?

BBC NEWS | Europe | French euthanasia-row woman dies

The woman said suicide was needed to end her suffering. At this point we can’t say how she died, and it’s possible she found some way of killing herself. (People do, after all, commit suicide without assistance all the time.) However, it strikes me that in the absence of an indication of suicide, the counter to her point has been proven. We just don’t know how long our lives will be, and these medical decisions based upon emotional arguments fall down because they assume that we do know.

We humans need a whole lot more humility in dealing with ourselves than is our custom, because we show ourselves to be ignorant way too often.

The atheist delusion | Review | guardian.co.uk Books

This is a marvelous article exposing many of the flaws in the secularist arguments against religion which have arisen over the last few years. The author is clearly not a theist, yet he is able to see the evils done in the name of Marxist-Leninism as clearly as those done by, say, the Inquisition. Ironically, as he has just pointed out that “liberal values” (in the traditional understanding) are a heritage of Judeo-Christian faith, and has praised the clear-sightedness of Nietzsche in pointing this out, he produces this:

Religion has not gone away. Repressing it is like repressing sex, a self-defeating enterprise. In the 20th century, when it commanded powerful states and mass movements, it helped engender totalitarianism. Today, the result is a climate of hysteria. Not everything in religion is precious or deserving of reverence. There is an inheritance of anthropocentrism, the ugly fantasy that the Earth exists to serve humans, which most secular humanists share. There is the claim of religious authorities, also made by atheist regimes, to decide how people can express their sexuality, control their fertility and end their lives, which should be rejected categorically. Nobody should be allowed to curtail freedom in these ways, and no religion has the right to break the peace.

While, on the one hand, he is arguing that religion is an enduring part of human character, he then goes on to reject religious restraint upon unproductive, unhealthy sexual behaviors, the murder of the unborn and the murder/assisted suicide of the elderly. On what basis? He doesn’t say, but merely states that “no religion has the right”. These ideas of universal rights are also a heritage of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and it is amusing to see a clear perception of this in one area, and a great myopia in another.

Well, this is where I feel like a French learner rather than a teacher. Apparently, the factory of Lenoir-et-Mernier at Bogny-sur-Meuse has closed down. I believe that the company has resources elsewhere, but am not positive about that.

Anyway, the workers feel that they have been cheated by the bosses, and when they complained to the tribunal commercial (Commercial Court), their complaint was rejected. They want money, but for now they’ll settle for a mediator. (Whether they would abide by his decision is another question.)

So, back to the headline. If a mediator isn’t appointed by the end of the day on Friday (which is today, I believe), they will dump 30,000 liters of hydrochloric acid into the Meuse River.

Since the French government doesn’t seem to be prepared to deal with this, a Belgian mayor is going over to talk with the people, to try to talk them out of it.

I suppose the rather messy follow-through on the French Revolution has made the French people kind of squishy on dealing with home-grown terrorism of this sort, but I would hope that in a sane world these people would now be subject to some pretty serious criminal charges based solely on their threat, and unrelated to their seizure of the factory, etc. Of course, even the United States isn’t sane, and the european powers, crippled beneath a half-century of socialism, can’t be expected to rise to this occasion.

It is encouraging to see the anonymous feedback at LeSoir seems to be relatively sane.

The Creation Of A Conservative By Jay Reding - Right Wing News (Conservative News and Views)

This comes very close to my discussion (I don’t remember if it was on this blog) of why I am a conservative. Fundamentally, democracy is not about everyone being equally entitled to rule — rather it is about everyone being equally unsuited to rule. Thus, democracy (or representative democracy, or the separation of powers, if you prefer) should have as its goal the limitation of the amount of political power that any one person or group of people can amass. The alternative view is interestingly called Progressive, and I think it is an appropriate label. Progressives believe in the upward progress of mankind, and therefore in the perfectibility of government. Unfortunately, this view is not born out by history (and is inimical to Christianity), and so a clear-thinking person should reject it.

Boone man guilty of sex assault sentenced to 7 years in prison, deportation - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star

No word on whether he was in the country legally.

BBC NEWS | Africa | Taylor ‘made rebels eat enemies’

The biggest problem with a story of this kind is that it completely ignores the cultural background of the people involved. On the one hand, military cannibalism is a tradition of long standing in many African cultures, as it is horrifying to and dehumanizing of the enemy. On the other hand, there is a tendency in at least some sub-Saharan cultures to believe the absolute worst about an enemy, and to give great credence to the word of an ally. At the same time, honesty is not a virtue in these societies, as honesty has a way of hindering relationships.

Thus, Mr. Marzah could be saying what he’s saying for two reasons:

1. He might be saying it because it’s the truth, and Charles Taylor did, in fact, trade in weapons for diamonds and command the eating of enemies.
2. He might be saying it because he thinks the International Tribunal wants to hear it, or he wants to harm Charles Taylor, or because he committed cannibalism and wants to blame Taylor, or some other reason for which he would lie.

Unfortunately, the Western world is seldom prepared to understand non-Western values, and particularly so among the élites who presume to judge others for crimes against humanity.

I am curious as to whether the charges are true, but I wouldn’t take Mr. Marzah’s word for any of it.

The Jawa Report: New Hoth Ready Burqua

blonde sagacity: Democrats Legislating How You Smell? wcbstv.com - Conn. Student Suspended For Buying Candy In School

Something evident to me, and missing from the commentary at these stories, is that the micromanaging of non-academic behavior by kids at school is not really related to the purposes of a school. If I want my kids not to eat Skittles®, I will keep an eye on that. If I don’t mind them eating a bag of Skittles® every day, how is it the school’s business to interfere? And if I want my kids to smell like the perfume counter at Marshall Field’s, why should the government get involved? From my observation of certain people, heavy scent-wearing seems to be a cultural value for some people. Why should the government become involved in regulating such cultural expression?

The real problem here is that the institutional schools have been surrogate parents for so long, and in such increasing measures, that many people see nothing wrong in having the government legislate little things like this.

To quote the Tick, “No thanks, we’ve got all the government we need!”

RFI - Les shérifs du ciel

There is so much that is amusing in this story, I’m not sure where to begin. First is the accompanying picture, showing a european military policeman, complete with assault rifle, standing on the tarmac in front of a jet. The europeans are nervous about putting armed men on planes, and yet they have men (and women) with select-fire weapons wandering around their cities.

Second is the whole issue of timing. March of 2008 is a great time for the European Parliament to be reacting to the events of September 2001. It is a classic illustration of the incapacity of bureaucracy to respond appropriately to important problems. Rather, the Europeans should throw off their socialist shackles and embrace the responsibility of taking care of their own problems.