Posts Tagged ‘economy’

Q: What is the only way of getting a book written by editors of the Nation purchased by the general public?

Posted: October 22, 2009 by datechguy in oddities, opinion/news
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A: Why deception of course.

It’s a high complement to Sarah Palin and a perfect illustration of the weakness of the left in the marketplace of ideas. How else can the ideas of the left advance if not by deception?

Update: Captain Ed agrees completely in substance to wit:

Would “the most honest account” have to be wrapped in a deceptive cover, intended to confuse consumers into buying the wrong book? If it doesn’t start out with an honest approach, why should we trust that the same people who made that decision will be honest inside the covers? For an answer to that, we only need see the list of essayists included in this rehash of old Palin-opposing material, who include such straight-arrow observers as Amanda Marcotte, Max Blumenthal, Eve Ensler, and Jane Hamsher. Hamsher made her biggest political splash when she put Joe Lieberman in blackface during his re-election campaign. Marcotte got fired from the Edwards campaign for her vilification of religious believers in language bad enough to actually embarrass Edwards — and given Edwards’ history, that’s saying something indeed.

Alas he does not link, how dare he not hang on my every word! Doesn’t he know I’m a techie typing from the corner of my couch? (;c)

I must confess I have been thinking more along the lines of

Posted: October 22, 2009 by datechguy in catholic
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Father Tim:

For many of the Anglicans who have petitioned for an arrangement whereby they can come into full communion, the primary issue is not the ordination of women or of gays but that of authority. For the Church to function properly in accordance with the will of Christ, there must ultimately be a primatial see with real universal jurisdiction. The arrangements offered by the Holy See are courageous and to be welcomed. They show yet again the determination of Pope Benedict XVI to promote unity within the Church without insisting on uniformity of rites or customs. The Holy See’s provision of the new arrangements is a historic landmark for genuine Christian Unity as envisaged by Vatican II understood genuinely as in continuity with the tradition of the Church.

But when it comes to the idea of a “mass” (no pun intended) defection of priests from the Anglican communion to the Catholic church Fr. Z brings up a critical point that I just plain didn’t think of via the Times:

But any serving clergyman would face a marked loss of income.

A job as a clergyman in the Church of England comes with a stipend of £22,250 and free accommodation. Catholic priests earn about £8,000, paid by their parish and sometimes topped up by a diocese.

In terms of dollars that is about $33k vs $12k. If you are a married Anglican Priest that is a significant chunk of change when you are supporting a family.

I don’t know if that stipend extends to C of E clergy in Africa but if so that might be pretty big sort of like the Jizya tax persuading people to convert to islam.

Remember that the unlike political matters such as the ny-23 race the church thinks in terms of decades and centuries, that’s what happens when your focus is on eternity so anything that happens will happen in its own time.

Fuzzy Wuzzy has an issue…

Posted: October 17, 2009 by datechguy in Uncategorized
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…that is if he wants one:

Community leaders gathered at the Montachusett Regional Planning office on Friday to talk about the importance of reaching the “hard to count” population living in the area, including low-income residents and illegal immigrants, in the upcoming 2010 census.

Oh we are going to count illegals in the census? The story is titled:

Low-income, illegals must be counted, say local leaders

the mayor’s position?

Wong said she, or a representative from her office, will be part of this year’s Complete Census Count Committee, to provide census workers with relevant information on city demographics, in order to be sure as many people as possible are surveyed.

I think it would be very interesting to see if the mayor directly says that illegal immigrants could be counted rather than deported. Mr. Ford the head of the Minority Coalition in Fitchburg reaction was predictable:

“You’re a human being in that town that affects everybody else’s style of living,” said Ford. “It doesn’t make sense not to count them.”

Yes you do effects peoples style of living, you siphon tax dollars and services from local state and federal government that could be used for oh I don’t know Turning on the street lights. There’s are different words you can use to describe illegal actions to secure tax money from taxpayers. The word I’d use is: “fraud”.

We have a large amount of drug dealers and gangs here in Fitchburg too, they also affect people’s style of living. They provide police hours, a desired service, they spend money in hardware stores for spraypaint, perhaps we shouldn’t arrest them either.

At least one Fitchburg pol sees some trouble with this:

(State Rep)DiNatale said asking illegal immigrants to participate in the census in order to increase federal funding for the population creates a bit of a conflict for him.

Someone needs to ask the mayor directly if she supports counting illegals locally, if she says yes then there is a ready made issue for candidate Michael “Fuzzy” Voisine.

Mayor Wong is considered up and coming in the local democratic party. A few months ago I said the following:

Right now I’m leaning toward the incumbent but it isn’t a clear cut choice for me. The Mayor is a highly educated person who has a lot of theory behind her and is a very hard worker, but Fuzzy has the actual practical experience in real life that is vital on the local level.

If this is the sign of what we’ll be seeing as she rises then I guess my vote is becoming more clear but not in the direction it once was.

She’s not just on facebook, Palin says Drill…

Posted: October 16, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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…at NRO:

We rely on petroleum for much more than just powering our vehicles: It is essential in everything from jet fuel to petrochemicals, plastics to fertilizers, pesticides to pharmaceuticals. Ac­cord­ing to the Energy Information Ad­min­is­tra­tion, our total domestic petroleum consumption last year was 19.5 million barrels per day (bpd). Motor gasoline and diesel fuel accounted for less than 13 million bpd of that. Meanwhile, we produced only 4.95 million bpd of domestic crude. In other words, even if we ran all our vehicles on something else (which won’t happen anytime soon), we would still have to depend on imported oil. And we’ll continue that dependence until we develop our own oil resources to their fullest extent.

To pretend we can do without oil is to marry a fantasy. With the weak dollar the need to use our own resources is even more urgent. Not to mention the jobs it produces during a time of very high unemployment. She concludes thusly:

Alternative sources of energy are part of the answer, but only part. There’s no getting around the fact that we still need to “drill, baby, drill!” And if those in D.C. say otherwise, we need to tell them: “Yes, we can!”

Like the daily beast says, she’s not going anywhere.

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