Archive for September, 2009

This one goes to 11

Posted: September 22, 2009 by datechguy in local stuff, personal
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My city is a small city of 35,000, as you might know, we have a gang problem (we have become a drug hub over the last couple of decades just as we were a trade and manufacturing hub in the 19th century) and the violence that comes with it problem, our budget is in trouble, it’s so bad that to save money streetlights are turned off at night all over the place. And we pay I believe the 3rd highest electric rates in the entire country (Thanks Unitil!) It is a mess.

So naturally we should do whatever we can to avoid spending money when it isn’t necessary.

Which brings us to today’s primary election…..

In Fitchburg we have 6 ward counselors and 5 “at large” counselors. Under the rules of the town if more than 10 people run for the “at large” seats a primary has to be held to bring the total back down to 10 before the general election.

We have 11 people running.

On the plus side it’s nice to see so many people interested in getting involved to turn things around, and it will be the first vote ever that my son casts. That is a right of passage into the rights and responsibilities of American democracy and republican government (and by “republican I of course mean the system of government not the party). UPDATE Both he and I thought he registered at the DMV but he’s not on the list, so he will go to city hall and have to wait for the general election in November.

On the other hand we are going to the expense of a city wide primary election to shave ONE STUPID NAME off the ballot when we can’t even afford to keep our streetlights on.

Can’t anybody play this game? What would Rush Limbaugh Honorary Lizzardoid say? Now that the kid can vote I hope he votes for smarter people than we have.

One banning I’d support

Posted: September 21, 2009 by datechguy in personal
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About 6 years ago I used to work near the Hebert Candy factory. They had premium chocolate and make your own sundaes.

Once in a while we would take the kids there, everybody had a good time and the stuff was absolutely wonderful.

Hebert’s also made most of the bars that the kids would sell at fundraisers. They were pretty good and unfortunately helped me maintain the waistline I have today.

A few years ago they sold off the fund raising part of the business, but kept control of the main Chocolate operation.

Saturday the wife and the youngest had a Mom and son day. There were gone for hours and one of the stops included the Candy Mansion. When they came home late in the evening the were bearing candy corn for him (his favorite) and some Genuine Hebert Chocolate for me.

I hadn’t had it in a while and as sucker for any type of Chocolate I happily took one.

It was simply AWFUL!. It was inferior to the “store brand” chocolate offered in the local supermarket and not in the same planet let alone the same league as a Cadbury bar. If they were selling stuff like this a decade ago I would be twenty pounds lighter.

I may be proudly banned from Little green footballs but let me say this to Charles: If Hebert’s chocolate every declares themselves “proudly banned from lgf”, you should be the proud one.

I’ve got to say I’m really torn on the Rifqa business…

Posted: September 21, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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…and the events of the last month haven’t made me less torn.

There are many basic things here, all are important and none of it makes this easy:

A parents right to raise their children as they see fit.

The right to practice Religion without fear.

The long history of Honor Killing in Islam

The fact that this particular Christian sect seems shall we say, odd

If they are able to take the kid because they don’t like a religion then it is a precedent that can be used on other religions that can be a disaster.

If they return her and these people ARE fundamentalists this girl is likely dead.

I feel for the parents if they are telling the truth, in one sense, no matter what happens, they lose, if they lose custody, they lose, if they gain custody, their girl doesn’t trust them, so they lose.

I feel for Rifaq no matter what, if she is wrong than she is being used and her life is unlikly to be normal, if she is not then she is obliged to live in fear even IF she wins her case. After all the various fatwa’s linked by Pam Geller don’t specify the family has to kill her, any believing Muslim can.

And it’s a WHOLE lot easier to kill a single girl once the publicity has died down that it is to fire off a bomb, and her eye makes it a whole lot harder to hide her from potential assassins, from heavy duty radicals to devout fundamentalist members of her extended family back home coming here to “restore family honor.”

There is only one solution as far as I can see, here is what I would do:

Many times in the courts people accused are allowed to be tried as adults. I think Rifqa has to be given adult status 10 months early and allowed to make her own decision. I really don’t like this but I can’t see a better solution. It’s a horrible precedent as I’ve said but that’s where the situation leaves me.

All of this breast beating comes down the one simple fact that prevents this from being a simple custody case. It is the elephant in the room that we ignore officially:

Radical Islamic fundamentalism is NOT compatible with Western Civilization in general and American democracy in particular.

There are no two ways around it. This is the source for the war on terror, the problems in England and Europe and the whole kit and caboodle. Why is this simple truth not voiced officially? Likely because of a second basic truth.

There is absolutely no constitutional way to address this issue. Furthermore any amendment or extra constitutional method to get around it will damage America worse than the problem itself.

So what can we do? Since the only acceptable solution is reform of Islam and that has to be done within Islam. We can only do what we can.

Aggressively enforce existing law.

Be vigilant in cases of suspected terror.

Closely watch groups that preach it in the same way we keep an eye on the Klan and the Militia movement

Fight Islamic terror abroad using every and give aid to those that encourage reform

And when we have tough cases like this, handle them on a case by case basis.

Question: What would have happened if Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski

Posted: September 21, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news, war
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…was in charge of Iraqi airspace in 1981?

Answer: Either George Bush would have been fighting a Nuclear Iraq ten years later OR

Saddam would be in power and in charge of Kuwait (and maybe Saudi Arabia) as we speak.

And that is the Best case Scenario!

Exit question: If Carter had won in 1980 and retained Brzezinski would the same result as above have taken place even without airspace control? In fact would we be talking about the upcoming 20th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall? Inquiring minds like Rush Limbaugh honorary lizzardoid want to know!

(Sorry Mika I know it’s your dad but that’s just the way it is.)

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