Clipmarks | ghgroenewold's clips

Longer school days not the answer.

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:21:22 GMT

clipped by: ghgroenewold

Clip Source: freerangekids.wordpress.com

Hi Readers! Worrying that American students are falling behind their international counterparts, President Obama is floating the idea of longer school days and shorter vacations. This is about as uncreative a solution as a man all about “change” could possibly have come up with.

Really? Who’s to say American kids are lagging because they aren’t spending enough time in school? Maybe it’s because they aren’t spending enough time LEARNING TO DO THINGS ON THEIR OWN! Kids who organize their own games of kickball develop communication skills, compromise, agility. Kids who sit at home with a book develop imagination, smarts. Kids who bake a cake work on their math skills. Kids who babysit develop empathy, and all-important fridge-raiding skills. Kids who look for four-leaf clovers (my one hobby as a young child) develop…the need for glasses. But also patience and a respect for nature.

Pagan Politics

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:54:07 GMT

clipped by: ghgroenewold

Clip Source: mvtabilitie.blogspot.com

The recent involvement of pagans in identity politics--an involvement which people blithely launched themselves into without bothering to work out any coherent theology first--has been a disaster. What has been gained? Pagans now have a jolly pagan oath ("I swear by all that I hold sacred that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth") for bedsheet-wearers too up their own arses to use the secular one. They also have, thanks to the efforts of the Council of British Druid Orders and the Loyal Arthurian Warband, public access to Stonehenge at the summer solstice, so that every matted old hippy and vapid, irresponsible stoner in Britain can roll up to an extremely fragile World Heritage Site and drop litter all over it. Pagan Pride!!

Discount store atheists

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:12:43 GMT

clipped by: ghgroenewold

Clip Source: newhumanist.org.uk

Memories like this constantly inform Eagleton's passionate criticism of the "New Atheists". Whereas he has spent months and even years of his life debating theology with clever believers, the likes of Dawkins and Hitchens suddenly arrive on the scene and sweep away the entire philosophical content of religion with a derisory wave of the hand. Eagleton might now be ready to talk of religion as an allegory and to question along with Dawkins and Hitchens the literal truth of the Bible. But what he can never overlook in his opponents is their failure to ever engage in intellectual debate with the likes of the Dominicans who changed the course of his own life at Cambridge. It is because they never exposed themselves to this type of theological debate that they can now be indicted for having "bought their atheism on the cheap". They are, in the equally scathing words of other Eagleton enthusiasts, nothing more than "discount store atheists" or even "schoolyard atheists".

Ron Paul on Tobacco Prohibition

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:30:04 GMT

clipped by: ghgroenewold

Clip Source: www.house.gov

My objections to the bill are not an endorsement of tobacco. As a physician I understand the adverse health effects of this bad habit. And that is exactly how smoking should be treated – as a bad habit and a personal choice. The way to combat poor choices is through education and information. Other than ensuring that tobacco companies do not engage in force or fraud to market their products, the federal government needs to stay out of the health habits of free people. Regulations for children should be at the state level. Unfortunately, government is using its already overly intrusive financial and regulatory roles in healthcare to establish a justifiable interest in intervening in your personal lifestyle choices as well. We all need to anticipate the level of health freedom that will remain once government manages all health care in this country.

Zille vs. Zuma

Tue, 12 May 2009 20:34:41 GMT

clipped by: ghgroenewold

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

South African opposition leader Helen Zille has been labelled a racist by the governing ANC's Youth League for a lacerating attack on the president.

The Sowetan on Tuesday quoted Ms Zille as saying: "Zuma is a self-confessed womaniser with deeply sexist views, who put all his wives at risk by having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman."

Self-proclaimed polygamist Mr Zuma was acquitted of rape in 2006 when he conceded having unprotected sex with his accuser, an HIV-positive family friend, but said he showered afterwards to prevent infection.

African National Congress spokesperson Jessie Duarte said in a statement: "Even by Zille's standards of personal invective, this latest attack is an unprecedented example of Zuma-hate. Zille's outburst is deeply offensive and should be roundly condemned."

The ANC Youth League then waded in with a statement threatening to take militant action against Ms Zille if she continued to talk "hogwash".

Tags: zuma, anc

The art of rhetoric

Fri, 08 May 2009 03:58:46 GMT

clipped by: ghgroenewold

Clip Source: www.spectator.co.uk

And, even more critically, the right from the wrong. This was the source of Plato’s objections. Any fool could learn to speak persuasively, he argued. The big issue was, what was he being persuasive about? A rhêtor who could persuade citizens to do what was bad for them was a disaster. Platonic examples conjure up images of a rhêtor convinced that a horse was a donkey persuading the Assembly to send the cavalry into battle on a troop of donkeys, and small boys being persuaded to condemn a doctor because he gave them medicines they did not like.

Plato was, as usual, right. The silky rhêtor was not a figure to be taken at his word. Neither should Obama, nor Brown nor Cameron nor Mandela, nor any of the rest of them. Reflect that the 20th century’s most effective rhêtor was possibly Hitler — an absurd figure to us, but not to those who listened to him. He knew exactly what they wanted to hear.

Obama's reverse shock doctrine

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:42:55 GMT

clipped by: ghgroenewold

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Naomi Klein made waves two years ago with her book The Shock Doctrine, in which she claimed that conservative governments use crises to ram through free-market policies. As she put it in an interview: "The Shock Doctrine is a political strategy that the Republican right has been perfecting over the past 35 years to use for various different kinds of shocks. They could be wars, natural disasters, economic crises, anything that sends a society into a state of shock to push through what economists call 'economic shock therapy' – rapid-fire, pro-corporate policies that they couldn't get through if people weren't in a state of fear and panic."

And that's just what we're seeing today – only in reverse.

State will pay for Octuplets

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:46:40 GMT

clipped by: ghgroenewold
clipper's remarks: These children should be seized. Deliberately having yourself impregnated with octuplets, while unemployed, single and on the dole, is clearly a sign of some kind of mental instability. The doctor responsible should be punished.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

LOS ANGELES – A big share of the financial burden of raising Nadya Suleman's 14 children could fall on the shoulders of California's taxpayers, compounding the public furor in a state already billions of dollars in the red.

Even before the 33-year-old single, unemployed mother gave birth to octuplets last month, she had been caring for her six other children with the help of $490 a month in food stamps, plus Social Security disability payments for three of the youngsters. The public aid will almost certainly be increased with the new additions to her family.

Also, the hospital where the octuplets are expected to spend seven to 12 weeks has requested reimbursement from Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program, for care of the premature babies, according to the Los Angeles Times. The cost has not been disclosed.

Word of the public assistance has stoked the furor over Suleman's decision to have so many children by having embryos implanted in her womb.

We don't need no stinking First Amendment

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:32:22 GMT

clipped by: ghgroenewold

Clip Source: suncoastpinellas.tbo.com

CLEARWATER - Herb Quintero, who has long thought the fish mural painted on the side of his tackle shop was a work of art, had until Monday to cover it up.

And he did – with a copy of the First Amendment.

His act of defiance is the latest chapter in his fight with the city's code department, which views the mural as a business sign for Quintero's tackle shop, the Complete Angler, 705 N. Fort Harrison Ave.

"It's not a sign; it's art," he said. "Therefore it shouldn't fall under the guidelines."

Meanwhile, the city's legal department is looking to see what, if anything, it can do about the First Amendment banner.

Buchanan on Bush's last press conference

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:54:36 GMT

clipped by: ghgroenewold

Clip Source: www.chroniclesmagazine.org

With his public approval where Harry Truman’s stood when he left office, George W. Bush gave his last press conference yesterday.

He denounced protectionism, as he has with dismissive contempt since he went to New Hampshire a decade ago. But nowhere in his defense of free trade was there any explanation for how Middle America lost 3 million manufacturing jobs in his first term and a million more in the last year.

Someone once defined tragedy as what happens when a beautiful theory collides with a fact. And this is what has happened every time a great empire—be it the Spanish, British or American—embraced free trade as its salvation.

Like Woodrow Wilson before him, Bush appears to believe that the nobility of his goals—expanding freedom and bringing an end to tyranny in our world—validates and will sanctify his decisions.

Like Wilson, he is a utopian. He fails to understand that idealism has its delusions and disasters.

TSA's new uniforms

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 04:45:23 GMT

clipped by: ghgroenewold

Clip Source: www.lewrockwell.com

And He hath seen our oppression under the wicked Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and hath smitten its malefactors with a plague. Yes, the TSA’s vaunted new uniforms apparently cause "skin rashes, …runny or bloody noses, lightheadedness [sic], red eyes, and swollen and cracked lips." Or at least that’s what the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) claims. It "estimate[s]" that 200 or 300 "workers" [sic for "stand-ins at the security theater"] have complained of such symptoms.

We are on the road to ruin.

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:34:22 GMT

clipped by: ghgroenewold
clipper's remarks: I can't say I agree with Buchanan on everything, but his commentaries on the state of our economy seem often to be spot on.

Clip Source: buchanan.org

Bush and Obama are competing to shovel out trillions of dollars, so we can return to the good times of yesterday.

But wasn’t yesterday the root cause of today? Didn’t saving nothing and spending more than we earn, purchasing what we cannot afford in cars, consumer goods and houses, buying far more from abroad than we sell abroad — didn’t that cause this crisis and crash?

A family man in America’s condition, awash in debt, spending more than he makes, would cut back consumption, find a second job and get out of debt. Or declare bankruptcy, accept the shame and humiliation, change his wastrel ways and start anew.

Is it different for a nation?

Mass murder

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:18:49 GMT

clipped by: ghgroenewold

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Ex-South African President Thabo Mbeki's decision to block medication to HIV patients is estimated to have cost the lives of 330,000 people.

CT screws Bob Barr

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:10:55 GMT

clipped by: ghgroenewold
clipper's remarks: I'm not a fan of Bob Barr, but I think he clearly should be on the ballot. This sort of thing is all too typical given the culture of corruption in this state.

Clip Source: www.courant.com

"To allow a candidate for the highest national office to be unlawfully excluded from an election because it would inconvenience state workers or interfere with bureaucratic procedures goes beyond the pale. Throw the machines in the river, and allow democracy and justice to take precedent over technology. If the state of Connecticut maintains a level of incompetence so great that they cannot print ballots before the election, I encourage them to look to private industry and call Kinko's."

Barr's campaign claims the state screwed up its review of 12,000 signatures the campaign turned in to meet the 7,500-signature requirement to get on the ballot. Connecticut elections officials had ruled that Barr fell short of the mark because the state had to reject hundreds of signatures that allegedly had insufficient information.

Nobel bias

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:07:01 GMT

clipped by: ghgroenewold

Clip Source: www.slate.com

Horace Engdahl, the academy's permanent secretary, made that clear this week when he told the Associated Press that American writers are simply not up to Nobel standards. "The U.S. is too isolated, too insular," Engdahl decreed. "They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature. That ignorance is restraining."

All of these criticisms are, of course, true. But the real scandal of Engdahl's comments is not that they revealed a secret bias on the part of the Swedish Academy. It is that Engdahl made official what has long been obvious to anyone paying attention: The Nobel committee has no clue about American literature. America should respond not by imploring the committee for a fairer hearing but by seceding, once and for all, from the sham that the Nobel Prize for literature has become

Nothing gives the lie to Engdahl's claim of European superiority more effectively than a glance at the Nobel Prize winners of the last decade or so.