Aug. 9, 2001
By JEFF RUSHING, Webmaster
All the talk of Big Corporations being the Anti-Christ by the Left, yet it's the heart of the Leftist movement that drops health care and encourages people to be dependent on the state. Shouldn't be a surprise, though, since they think the government should control most of our lives anyway.
They really don't want the apology, see, what is important to them is that if we agree, then they can hit us with the "Guilt Payments", or more as they put it, compensation from countries that benefited from slavery. The U.S. should stick with its threat to boycott the conference, because we should want no part of the hypocrisy and idiocy that will occur.
I hate to be picky (<-lie), but why don't we just hold elections on the weekend?
Remember the four firemen (actually two men, 30 and 21 years old, and two women aged 18 and 19) who died July 10 fighting a forest fire in Washington state? It turns out that their deaths may have been prevented if not for fish.
How's that? The men and women were sent out to fight a relatively small fire, and called for a helicopter water drop using a river running through the area. Their request was denied by government agencies in order to save rare fish protected under the Endangered Species Act.
By the time water was allowed to be removed 15 hours later a fire burning in the dense pine and fir trees of the Okanogan National Forest had spread unexpectedly. This delay led to the deaths of the firefighters, Rep. Scott McInnis (R-Col.) charged at a congressional hearing.
In an interview with Murmurs.com, a Web site for fans of the band REM, the documentarian says "we're in the dark ages in this country right now" because "we are the only country in the whole world without dominant state-controlled media."
Later on he says: "I don't believe in copyright laws." Of course, when it comes to his work, he turns around and says: "I don't want someone to take my creative work and make a profit on it."
Can't have it both ways, pinko. Everyone wants socialism and winks at anarchy until it affects their pocketbook. One can only imagine how quickly his endorsement of government-controlled media would end at the first sign of his free speech rights being infringed upon.
"Our point is not that the science behind Kyoto is wrong; simply that there is no justification for the hyperbole that gushed out of Bonn. ... That meeting was about means, not ends. Several countries had echoed American concerns that Kyoto was unbalanced: It did not allow states to trade their emissions quotas. ... and many of its provisions did not apply to developing countries. There was a suspicion that, for some in the European Union especially, Kyoto was as much about geopolitical rivalry as about meteorology. ... The United States ... suspected that Kyoto had as much to do with European resentment of ... lower taxes as with the environment. ... The summit nonetheless succeeded in its primary purpose, which was to allow the participants to posture in front of their domestic electorates. Having carefully played down the chances of success, the ministers were able to engage in an orgy of backslapping when they reached agreement. But we must keep a sense of perspective: What has been agreed is at best marginal and at worst an expensive exercise in gesture politics. The world is no safer today than it was on Saturday." (reprinted in USA Today)
- Good science education should prepare students to distinguish the data or testable theories of science from philosophical or religious claims that are made in the name of science.
- Where biological evolution is taught, the curriculum should help students to understand why this subject generates so much continuing controversy, and should prepare students to be informed participants in discussions regarding the subject.
Groups representing science teachers are worried that the above statements (pretty tame, don't you think?) will open the door to, or even encourage, teaching creationism in public schools.
Ooh, heaven forbid this harsh language come true - or should I say they'd like to forbid heaven? As in, from being mentioned at all. Once again, the Left shows that they will do anything under their power to prevent any disseminating viewpoint from being discussed. These folks would be dictators if they could, enforcing their views on people and never allowing anyone to respond. This is pure fascism, folks, and should never be tolerated. And these people teach our children.
Not everyone is happy with the results, though. Namely those special interest groups who promote non-nuclear families.
'These types of reports are not helpful,' said Margaret Creear of Gingerbread, the single-parent support organization. 'Once again it is promoting the nuclear family headed by a heterosexual couple who are married. The reasons for underage pregnancies are much more complex and often to do with social deprivation, not whether your parents are married or not.'
Just remember, if a report is not helpful to the Left's agenda, then it's promoting a lifestyle. If the study is pro-single parent or pro-gay or pro-Hollywood-cause-of-the-week, then you can write it in ink that Creear would be touting the study as the be all to end all of studies on why us sticklers on the nuclear family are out of date and out of touch.
According to London's Sunday Times, the number of firearm offenses in the United Kingdom increased almost 40 percent from 4,903 in 1997 to 6,843 in 2000. U.K. police estimate that there are nearly 300,000 illegal guns in circulation there -- one for every 200 people. According to a survey for the U.K. government's Youth Justice Board, fully 26 percent of high school-age pupils there have carried a weapon for aggressive or defensive purposes in the past year. Comparatively, in the U.S., 14 percent of all high school pupils -- and 21 percent of all boys -- had carried a weapon to school at least once in the past year.
Unfortunately, such statistics will never prove to gun control advocates that they need to worry more about the root causes of violence than the weapons used, but such naiveté is hard to overcome.
"Unfortunately, it appears that faith-based groups will be making a deal with the devil by signing up for federal funds. Today it seems that our Big Brother government invests nothing without strings attached. In this case, the strings may include demands that churches discard some of their most deeply held moral codes." (Dan Slabaugh, USA Today)
Interestingly - or perhaps not - those who support the faith-based initiative are most likely to support government control of other issues, esp. welfare, social security, affirmative action, and the like (namely, issues dominated by the Left).
Bush
Clinton
What taxes do I think would be first on The Taxman's agenda? Payroll taxes. Right now, people earning more than $50,000 a year pay only 64 percent of payroll taxes, but 90 percent of all income taxes. Since payroll taxes are levied against only the first $80,400 of income, you can bet that Geppy will propose increasing this as a way of more "fairly" distributing tax burdens and as a measure under the guise of Social Security reform.
Attention "Fear Factor" producers: I am deathly afraid of beautiful women dresses up as harem girls. I would be terrified if I were asked to confront this fear on your show.
If you combine THE with IRS, it becomes THEIRS.
Those people who act like their cell phone calls are so important are cell phonies.
If anyone from AT&T Broadband is reading this, please pick up the phone. That's me, still on hold.
In view of the violent demonstrations at the recent summit in Genoa, Italy, I recommend that the next meeting be held in Singapore.
Life Lesson No. 8287: All men make mistakes, but married men find out about them sooner.
Life Lesson No. 8279: Never let go of what you've got until you've got hold of something else.
A recent poll of New York City residents found that 80 percent wouldn't want to live anywhere else in the world. Besides, it was reported, that would violate the terms of their parole.
Asking a politician to take a lie detector test is like asking a drunk to take a breath test.
If any corporation established a pension plan on the same pyramid-scheme basis as Social Security, the government would have their directors and officers jailed.
Man, I love my new hands-free cell phone kit. Now I can take notes while I drive and talk on the phone.
Such harassment to Zola and his neighbors is just a small part of how far animal rights activists will go. In Defense of Animals is also planning to target the Coca-Cola Co., spreading leaflets through neighborhoods where low- and midlevel Coke employees live, accusing them of
supporting "atrocities" at Yerkes through Coke's financial support of Emory.
You won't hear about such extremism in the liberal press, though, because such groups have their hearts in the right place, namely the same as those who decide what is news. The tactics used by In Defense of Animals is similar to anti-abortion activists who employed extreme measures against abortion doctors, but since the Leftists in the press disagree with the pro-lifers, they must be labeled as hate-filled and dangerous to society. But no mention of animal rights or environmental extremists who burn down private property because some old trees were cut down.
When one of Zola's neighbors demanded that the group stop attaching fliers to her mailbox, Jean Barnes, who leads 15 "hard-core" animal rights activists in metro Atlanta, thumbed her nose, saying that the woman "missed the entire point. Those are the ones you don't pay attention to. It's way over their heads. I don't know what universe she's in."
And while Barnes won't reveal personal information such as where she works, she and her cohorts have no problem with displaying photos of researchers on her web site, along with their home addresses and phone numbers, as well as names of spouses.
Would Barnes someday deny herself a lifesaving procedure that comes about due to animal research? I doubt it. All you need to know about how these extremists think, is that they would rather use humans as guinea pigs than guinea pigs.
Jeff's Note: I won't have a Briefing next week due to my New England vacation, thus this week's is full of goodies to keep you at your seat for at least a fortnight (bathroom breaks are optional, but recommended). So here's the super-sized Briefing:
I hate the month of August. It's such a tease. Maybe this loathing dates back to dreading the impending coming of the school year, or maybe it's because I'm tired of the weather being at a constant 105 degrees heat index. Or, it's that there are no holidays to celebrate. Maybe it stems from the baseball season taking a break before the stretch run of September, or knowing that football season still has a month to go (which also indicates that the temperatures will start to cool off down the road). Or maybe it's a combination of all these things. I hate being teased.
Pundits wonder why Americans are so ignorant of important issues this summer, like stem cell research or patients' rights. Well, if the media would spend more time talking about the issues and discussing the differences instead of polling people about why they don't know anything, the public would be better served.
Stanford University, one of the nation's wealthiest private universities (with an $8.6 billion endowment), is canceling its HMO contract to cut costs and has advised its students with families to consider going on welfare to get health insurance for their dependents.
While still practicing slavery on the continent, and being largely responsible for selling other Africans into slavery - not to mention the fact that it was Western nations who finally abolished the practice first - African negotiators to the upcoming World Conference Against Racism are demanding an apology from former slave-trading nations.
Pres. Bush has endorsed a report on election changes from a commission chaired by former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. One of the proposals is to make Election Day a federal holiday.
From the "People in Glass Houses Shouldn't Throw Stones" department: Former Pres. Carter saying that he's "disappointed in almost everything" Bush has done in his first six months in office.
We have a prime example of the inanity of government and the dangers of environmentalism that puts the lives of endangered species above humans.
Remember Michael Moore, the fat guy who always wears a cap, and you might have found funny as he chided corporations?
For those who listen to Europeans for their opinions, I present dissent of the Kyoto Treaty from the Daily Telegraph, London, in an editorial:
How come, according to elites living in L.A. and N.Y., the only way for people to "broaden their horizons" is to move to L.A. or N.Y.? You think they'd ever entertain the notion of broadening their own horizons with a move to the heartland, like Des Moines?
Seems some liberal teachers are upset that in Pres. Bush's education bill is an amendment, 91-8, to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that states:
A survey of 2,000 teenagers aged 13-15 released last week in England said that teenagers who come from stable homes with married parents are much less likely to have underage sex and unwanted pregnancies. Leaders of the Lords and Commons Family and Child Protection Group say that the findings for the first time make a direct link between the teenager's family environment and his or her attitude to sex.
"Let us, for a moment, take the sex-education pushers at their word: If you teach a child how to use a condom, you're promoting safety -- not usage. Why, then, doesn't the same logic apply to guns?" - Syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin.
The majority of gun control advocates never admit it, but what they eventually seek is to abolish the system of allowing legal firearms in this country, writing off the Second Amendment as an ancient policy. In the United Kingdom and Australia their mission was accomplished in the late 1990s. But while crime fell dramatically during the decade in the U.S. and most of the rest of the world, it has remained steady in the U.K. and Down Under.
I have very serious doubts about the faith-based initiative of Pres. Bush. In large part it arises from a distrust of government's greedy hands, as I pointed out with the dead firefighters earlier.
The latest Gallup Poll favorability ratings for the current and most recent office holder of the White House:
Favorable 62%
Unfavorable 36%
Favorable 48%
Unfavorable 50%
Did you catch this from The Taxman, Class Warlord Dick Gephardt last week? As he droned on about Democratic plans to takeover the House in next fall's elections, one of the items on the top of his list should they win a majority is to raise income taxes. Yep. They plan on reversing Bush's tax cut, although only for 'the rich' of course, those in the top 30 percent of income earners, since as a Democrat his main goal is to redistribute wealth under the guise of 'fairness.'
The latest Vents from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Before Stuart Zola, the new director of the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center at Emory University, had even begun his new job, a group called In Defense of Animals had already attached a flier on every mailbox near his new home. On the flier was a photo of a monkey in restraints, screaming as a human hand peeled back its scalp, saying: "Read what your neighbor Stuart Zola . . . does to animals in the laboratory."
Homer quote: "Remember that postcard Grandpa sent us from Florida of that alligator biting that woman's bottom? That's right, we all thought it was hilarious. But it turns out we were wrong. That alligator was sexually harassing that woman."
Random site: Webby Awards -- Visit this year's winners of the Best of the Web
Batman's words of wisdom: "Good, even though it's sometimes sidetracked, always, repeat: always triumphs over evil."