Where Are My Keys?

Wondering if our friends on the Left consider this "a ticking time bomb"..

A frequent example in the debate on the use of torture is the ticking time bomb scenario, in which many lives are at stake, a bomb is about to go off, one guy knows where the bomb is, and the only way to get the information is to use torture.

Can (should?) the same scenario be applied to the saber-rattling in North Korea?  If a dictator tells you that he is going to shoot a missile at your Country, has moved people and materials in support of that endeavor, and is acting in every way as if he wants to begin a fight, do you allow him to throw the first punch, and hope you can deflect his blow?

If he is bluffing, you risk angering the World Community.  If he isn't, you risk the lives of your Citizens, amid evidence that you were warned ahead of time.

The bomb is ticking, what do you do, Jack?

Only difference is that today, the threat is real.

I'll be the first to say that i am glad I don't have to make that difficult decision.  There is one man who volunteered (twice) to be in the chair to make tough decisions such as these, and is now sitting in the office that is tasked with making these decisions.

It takes no courage to make easy decisions.  Real courage is on display when some agree with you, and some disagree, you take the best available information on-hand at the time, consult with your inner circle, and choose what path you take.  Lives are at stake.  California is in range.

I recall the Left after the 9/11 attacks blasting Bush for a Presidential Daily Briefingthat suggested bin Laden wanted to hit the US within our borders.  "How could you have missed that!" they yelled over and over.

Is what is happening in North Korea today any different than thatPDB from August of 2001, assuming North Korea follows through on its threat to launch missiles?

I don't want war.  I don't want to proactively harm innocent citizens under the rule of a blood thirsty dictator.  However, if push does come to shove, I would rather the blood be spilledand lives be lost on foreign soil, and not to Americans in the streets of Los Angeles or San Francisco.

What do you do?

Great observation on Thatcher and our current "Leaders"..

Ed Driscoll nails it:

However, it’s yet another example of a related phenomenon, which also effectively lowers the IQ of our would-be Ruling Class. As former CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien routinely demonstrated when faced with issues or people she disagreed with (not the least of which were those defending the Second Amendment), the attitude on the left seems to be, “I don’t understand this; therefore it’s wrong. And because it’s wrong, I’m not willing to educate myself on why someone else might disagree with me, so that I can better defend my own opinion. They’re bad people, I’m a good person, and I wish to stay that way.” They’re not willing to come to grips with what GK Chesterton dubbed a century ago as “The Paradox of the Wall:”

In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”

This paradox rests on the most elementary common sense. The gate or fence did not grow there. It was not set up by somnambulists who built it in their sleep. It is highly improbable that it was put there by escaped lunatics who were for some reason loose in the street. Some person had some reason for thinking it would be a good thing for somebody. And until we know what the reason was, we really cannot judge whether the reason was reasonable.

But obviously, a bad person built that wall (even though he didn’t really build it, as Mr. Obama might say). Therefore, there’s no reason not to smash it and move “Forward.” Or as Ace wrote in January, at the height of this year’s distractionary* freakout by the American left over guns (as opposed to their distractionary freakouts over guns at the beginning of 2011 and 2012):

As I mentioned with regard to Piers Morgan, there is a certain level of pride that attaches to being ignorant of those one considers his inferiors. After all, it’s the natural duty of the simple shopkeeper to know the names of the Great Lords, but it is not the duty of the Great Lords to know the names of the shopkeepers. In fact, it’s the Great Lords’ class obligation to go out of their way not to know the names of the shopkeepers, because this Duty to Know flows in one direction — upwards — and hence ignorance of one’s lessers tends to solidify and reify the assumptions of certain castes being superior to others. It makes certain that everyone understands who’s important, and who’s not.

(I know, I sound like a communist — I can’t help it. I have to agree with Dennis the Peasant — “I mean, class is what it’s all about.” I guess I would say I’m agreeing with the communist critique of the rigid reification of class structures, but I happen to think the communists and their pink fellow travelers have largely captured the upper classes. I guess by my theory they’re so good at this because they’ve spent so long plotting vengeance for the exact same slights (which they largely imagined). In a similar way they’ve gotten quite good at blacklisting and guilt-by-association, eh?)

At any rate, it is your duty to know the values and customs of living of Piers Morgan, but due to his high station (ahem) he is proudly ignorant of yours. As is so often the case in our increasingly dysfunctional and nasty politics — in which certain parties refuse to even admit that their opponents are free citizens entitled to have beliefs at all — the Out-Classes are deemed all-but-officially Beneath Notice.

And because, as a grocer’s daughter herself, Thatcher identified with the shopkeeper, the entrepreneur, and others Beneath Notice, there’s simply no reason for her opponents to understand why she did so.

Read the whole thing.

Paying the price for political showboating..

These new gun laws will do little to curb violence, but Democrats in various States continue to push on, to look tough to voters.  Meanwhile, those actions have consequences to State job and tax bases.

In Colorado, two businesses that manufacture gun accessories are leaving the State, as is a hunting/outdoor television production company.  Funny thing is, the Democrat Governor that signed the new bills into law admits that some of them will be next to impossible to enforce.  We also have morons that write the laws, that don't even understand how guns work, and when clarifying earlier remarks, still gets it wrong.

In Maryland, Beretta is packing up and moving, taking jobs and millions in tax revenue to a friendlier ZIP code.

Gotta love Leftist Logic.

Malice or incompetence?

Great pieceon the state of parenting today, and the public school system.  We are extremely fortunate that we have the means to send the little Duper to a fantasic private school in our area.  Even in that accelerated environment, we see some of the same issues that the author of the linked piece experienced with her kids.

We are very "hands on" with her school and teachers, and still have some battles getting extra work assigned, and reading-level appropriate books given to her.  Our system (Public and Private) definitely teaches to the middle, focusing more on the 80% of the kids in the pack, and less on the top and bottom 10%. 

If you haven't had kids in the school system lately, you'd be surprised how much it has changed since our school days.  Even in the private school sector, it's amazing how the fundamentals are back-burnered, and the embracing of technology is front and center.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's important (and super cool!) for young kids to get their hands on computers to add to their overall education experience, but it shouldn't take away from the basic skills of how to find library books, to write complete (and legible!) sentences, to critically think, to comprehend what they are reading.

Computers and technology are great tools, but should compliment the skills, not overshadow them.  It doesn't surprise me that the kids in NYC that made headlines this past week can't read and write at grade level.  Society has made education less important.  Minority kids are teased for "acting white" if they get good grades.  We are inundated by people in respectable public positions not using proper English (the word "at" used improperly is a big one in our house), and saying things like "thinkin'", instead of "thinking".  You see it all the time, from the local news, to the White House.

We as a Country need to take a long, hard look in the mirror, and decide what We want to be, and what's important to us.

Until we decide that making a viral video on YouTube, or somehow getting onto a reality TV show isn't as important as knowing basic History, Math, Reading Comprehension, and English, we are setting ourselves up for failure in the future.

I listen to Adam Carolla's podcast when I exercise, and he is spot on with his views on bringing back Dignity, with a healthy dose of Shaming mixed in.  Society needs to stop allowing people not to take responsibility-responsibility for your personal health, education, work ethic, etc.

How sad that we went from the Country that defeated Hitler and defended the World, then led the way in innovation and Big Achievement; to the Age of Teen Mom and Real Housewives in about 70 years.

It only took about 5 years to build the Hoover Dam in the 1930's (and completed 2 years ahead of schedule!), with none of the tools, technology, and materials we have available today.  And yet somehow, 12+ years later, the World Trade Center project is still not finished.

I wish the people in this Country could stop arguing about stupid petty differences, and focus our attention on Big Picture Items.  JFK united the Country in a goal of putting the first people on the moon in less than 10 years.  We rallied around that goal, and shared collectively in achieving it.

Today, I make a comment on Twitter on how the weather forecasters suck at their jobs (last week calling for 10" of snow, we got 4"; saying that a storm last night would miss us completely, we got about 6"), and that there is no accountability for poor performance.  Piker spent the better part of 30 minutes telling me how I was wrong, and how weather forecasting isn't an exact science, how if I think I could do better, I should apply for the job, how we should eliminate weather prediction, etc.

When we can't even agree that people who suck at their jobs, suck at their jobs, and somehow turn that into a "since-you-took-a-position-therefore-I-have-to-take-the-opposite-position-no-matter-what-the-topic-is" dialogue, we are doomed long-term as a society.

Sorry for the rant.

This will turn out great..

Seems more and more folks are raiding their 401(k) accountsto pay their bills these days.  It's not a new thing, CNBC also had a story about this back in January:

One in four Americans is raiding their meager retirement savings to pay their monthly bills, according to a new study.

When Amy Shankland's husband, John, was laid off from his job, they tapped into their IRAs to get by. With credit card debt, big medical expenses, and two young sons, the Shanklands had few options.

"We didn't know what to do. It was either bankruptcy or cash in our IRAs," Amy Shankland told NBC News.

The Shanklands are not alone. Americans are borrowing against their 401(k) to pay for non-retirement needs such as mortgages, credit card debt or college tuition, according to a new studyfrom financial advisory firm HelloWallet. That amounts for more than $70 billion in annual withdrawals.

So as the Dow Jones hits record highs, realize that 25% of people with 401(k) accounts are missing out on those rallies, because they pulled their cash to pay off bills.  Personally, I'm happy as all get out to see my retirement balances soar as the Dow skyrockets.  I haven't had to touch my retirement funds, even during a brief period of unemployment last year.

Many others don't feel the same, thanks to the cruddy economy forcing them to make some hard decisions.

So what happens in 25-30 years, when those folks go to retire with a much smaller balance, and the viability of Social Security very much a real issue?

No safety net from a Social Security fund they paid into for their entire working lives, a smaller than expected retirement account, and a house which took an incredible hit in value for at least five years.

Not a pretty picture to look forward to.

Are you paying attention?

Tweleve things happening right now that will affect you in one way or another.

Slippery slope..

We have a situation here in Colorado (since when did we become ground zero for hotbed issues?) involving a 6-year old boy, that identifies himself as a girl, and wants to use the girl's restroom at the local public school.

The school came out and said that the child could use the boy's restroom, the nurse's restroom, or the staff restroom.  The family felt that by forcing the child to use anything except the girl's restroom would stigmatize the child, and open the door for ridicule, shame, and bullying.  They have since begun homeschooling the child, and have filed a suit against the school.

It's interesting to me to see this all unfold. 

On the one hand, if the child walks, talks, thinks, and acts like a girl, what's the harm in letting her use the girls bathroom?  After all, she's only 6, what's the big deal?

On the other hand, what happens when the child is 13, in junior high, and sharing the girl's locker room during gym class?  Is it still okay than?

At some point, we as a society have to decide which group takes priority, The Exceptions or The Norm.  We've made just about everyone a "protected class".  You can't please everyone.  Some will be excluded, and will have to work around the ways of Society.

I personally feel the school has made an effort to accommodate a highly unusual situation, by allowing the child to use bathrooms that are not available to the general student body.  This isn't good enough for the family, because they want their child treated like a little girl.  Problem is, their child isn't female.

I'm all for your personal rights, but what happens to my rights, when yours are forced upon me?  Why do your needs take a higher level of importance than mine?  I understand the parents of the child wanting their kid to feel "normal" and accepted, but what if by doing that, it makes several of the girls in that class/bathroom uncomfortable?  Do the rights of the transgendered child have more weight than those of the "normal" girls?

I feel the parents of this child are doing a tremendous disservice to their kid.  Instead of explaining to the child that she is unique, different, and likely to be misunderstood her whole life, and helping the child to learn how to deal with, and overcome that; they are instead acting like this isn't a big deal.  They are letting the child be defined by the hand Life has dealt to her.

I think of Track and Field legend Wilma Rudolph.  Born with Polio, and having to wear leg braces to combat the infantile paralysis she contracted until age 12, Wilma vowed to be a successful athlete.  She went on to win three gold medals in the 1960 Olympics, setting World and Olympic records along the way during her storied career.  Wilma took life's lemons, and made lemonade.

My nephew has Alopecia, a medical condition that causes hair loss in varying degrees from the body.  During his childhood, the kid's head looked like a soccer ball, with tufts of jet-black hair, and patches of bald skin.  His parents didn't treat him differently because of it, they educated him of what he had, and he was fine with it.  People would ask this young kid "What happened to your hair?", expecting to get a reply that featured some sort of accident at home with Dad's clippers, and a 6-year old would say "I have Alopecia.  It makes your hair fall out."  The family came up to Denver for a convention back in the late 90's, and I went to the hotel to splash around in the pool with my nephews.  As the attendees to the conference were staying at the hotel, the pool was full of bald kids.  What used to make spotting Issac easy, was now impossible.  It did make it easier for him to find me in the pool however.  Issac has never been defined as "the bald kid", he's been defined by his personality, his athleticism, and his sense of humor.  He also happens to be bald.

I hope the parents of this young child stop trying so hard to make it "fair" for their child, and focus more on giving their child the tools to better succeed in the World.

Go make some lemonade.

White House now walking back the immediate impact of the sequester..

What the President said a few weeks ago to scare the American People (the second part of the clip):

 

Emergency responders, like the ones who are here today, their ability to help communities respond to and recover from disasters will be degraded. Border Patrol agents will see their hours reduced. FBI agents will be furloughed. Federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go. Air traffic controllers and airport security will see cutbacks, which means more delays in airports across the country. Thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off. Tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find child care for their kids. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose access to primary care and preventive care like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings. This is not an abstraction. People will lose their jobs. The unemployment rate might tick up again.

Sounds pretty bad, doesn't it?  End of the World type stuff.  Act now, or we'll all die!

Here's Obama last night:

This is not a cliff, but it is a tumble downward. It's conceivable that in the first week, the first two weeks, first three weeks, first month, a lot of people may not notice the full impact of the sequester. But this is going to be a big hit on the economy.

Moving the goalposts.  The worst thing that can happen to this Administration in regards to the sequester?

If The People don't notice the cuts, they might be open to even more cuts to unneeded services to lower their taxes.

How brazen of The People to want to keep more of their hard-earned money.

Circling the drain..

Almost half the folks in Detroit don't pay their property taxes, leading to less dollars for police, fire, and street maintenance.  That then causes the folks that are still paying their taxes to wonder what they get for their money:

Nearly half of the owners of Detroit's 305,000 properties failed to pay their tax bills last year, exacerbating a punishing cycle of declining revenues and diminished services for a city in a financial crisis, according to a Detroit News analysis of government records.

The News reviewed more than 200,000 pages of tax documents and found that 47 percent of the city's taxable parcels are delinquent on their 2011 bills. Some $246.5 million in taxes and fees went uncollected, about half of which was due Detroit and the rest to other entities, including Wayne County, Detroit Public Schools and the library.

Delinquency is so pervasive that 77 blocks had only one owner who paid taxes last year, The News found. Many of those who don't pay question why they should in a city that struggles to light its streets or keep police on them.

"Why pay taxes?" asked Fred Phillips, who owes more than $2,600 on his home on an east-side block where five owners paid 2011 taxes. "Why should I send them taxes when they aren't supplying services? It is sickening. … Every time I see the tax bill come, I think about the times we called and nobody came."

This week, a state-appointed review team concluded the city can't fix its financial problems. Any emergency manager appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder would have to grapple with a broken property tax system. The city's share of uncollected taxes last year was $131 million — an amount equal to 12 percent of Detroit's general fund budget.

Check out this passage, and see if it reminds you of anything else:

Detroit relies on a shrinking sliver of businesses and neighborhoods to pay the bulk of the bills. The three casinos, General Motors Corp., DTE Energy, Chrysler Group LLC and Marathon Petroleum Corp. paid 19 percent of collected property taxes. Five city neighborhoods, most of them downtown and along the river, paid 15 percent of the city's taxes and represent only 2 percent of the city's total parcels.

 

That makes me think about taxes in general in this great Country.  How a few at the top pay the lion's share of the overall tax burden.

Wealthy Americans earn about 50 percent of all income but pay nearly 70 percent of the federal tax burden, according to the latest analysis Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office — though the agency said the very richest have seen their share of taxes fall the last few years.

CBO looked at 2007 through 2009 and found the bottom 20 percent of American earners paid just three-tenths of a percent of the total tax burden, while the richest 20 percent paid 67.9 percent of taxes.

The top 1 percent, who President Obama has made a target during the presidential campaign, earns 13.4 percent of all pre-tax income, but paid 22.3 percent of taxes in 2009, CBO said.

So in Detroit today, 2% of the neighborhoods pay 15% of the taxes; America in general, 50% of the citizens pay 70% of the taxes.  We're seeing first-hand how that is failing in Motown, how long before the COuntry follows suit?

Why pay taxes anymore? 

 

 

Leadership is no longer the responsibility of the Leader..

Mark Steyn has a great observation of the SOTU:

The president gives a performance, extremely animatedly, head swiveling from left-side prompter to right-side prompter, continually urging action now: “Let’s start right away. We can get this done. . . . We can fix this. . . . Now is the time to do it. Now is the time to get it done.” And at the end of the speech, nothing gets done, and nothing gets fixed, and, after a few days’ shadowboxing between admirers and detractors willing to pretend it’s some sort of serious legislative agenda, every single word of it is forgotten until the next one.

In that sense, like Beyoncé lip-synching the National Anthem at the inauguration, the State of the Union embodies the decay of America’s political institutions into a simulacrum of responsible government rather than the real thing, and a simulacrum ever more divorced from the real issues facing the country. “Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion,” said the president. Really? Who knew? “Now we need to finish the job.” Just one more push is all it’ll take.

...

Take, for example, the “goal” Obama “issued”: “Let’s cut in half the energy wasted by our homes and businesses over the next 20 years.” What does that even mean? How would you even know when you’ve accomplished that “goal”? What percentage of energy used by my home and business is “wasted”? In what sense? Who says? Who determines that? Is it 37 percent? Twenty-three percent? So we’re going to cut it down to 18.5 per cent or 11.5 percent by 2033, is that the “goal”?

Barack Obama is not the first president to “issue” “goals.” John F. Kennedy also did, although he was more mindful of the constitutional niceties:

“This nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”

That’s a goal! No wiggle room. A monkey on the moon won’t count, nor an unmanned drone. We need an actual living American standing on the surface of the moon holding Old Glory by December 31, 1969.

Whoever’s writing Obama’s speeches these days either has a tin ear — you don’t “issue” goals, you set them — or he has a very refined sense of the ersatz nature of contemporary political discourse. Old-school monarchs issued “edicts.” One thinks of King Charles the Bald in his Edict of Pistres in a.d. 864, announcing among other things that henceforth selling a horse to a Viking would be punishable by death. No doubt the odd equine transaction slipped through the regulatory net, but historians seem to agree that the sale of mounts to Norsemen certainly diminished. And more to the point his courtiers would have thought Charles the Bald was an even bigger schmuck than they already did if, instead of an edict, he was issuing a new goal to reduce the sale of horses to Vikings by 50 percent by the year 884.

Read the whole thing.