Right On

Read.

And recall.

Farther.

Farther.

And farther.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Our Official Theme Song

Stamp Your Feet, Donna Summer (Janiak Extended Edit Remix)

The Power of Delegation

I've not been in a bloggy-updatey mood lately, so when news arrived of rather pointless Internet taunts from someone of which I've never heard before, it could have created some minor ennui.

Fortunately, John over at GayPatriot covers my reaction to the news quite nicely, and Famous Author Rob Byrnes manages the rejoinder with both style and flair.

Blogging by outsourcing. It's the new wave.

Easily Handled

Read it.

At the Broward Democratic Party's monthly meeting Tuesday night, it started right at the beginning — with the invocation, delivered by Mike Moskowitz, the state committeeman for the county.

He called for a "blessing on the elk and moose in Alaska who have been decimated by Sarah Barracuda" and included a prayer that Palin doesn't turn her sights on the squirrels in Washington, D.C.

"We pray that her journey takes her across the bridge to nowhere," he said.

One wonders if they're familiar with Matthew 6:5.

It's Now Official....

if you don't want to vote for Obama, it's because you're a racist.

Hat tip to Ace of Spades HQ, which has the weekly race card update.

Looks Like I Left Just In Time

Witness the latest example of stunning educational brilliance.

The policy allowing failed test scores to be thrown out is just one of several changes to the grading policy that went into effect at the start of this school year.

Other grading policies include:

• For elementary and middle school students, only homework grades "that raise a student's average" will be recorded.

• Students must be given one opportunity to turn in homework assignments that weren't finished on time.

• Parents must be contacted before a teacher records a zero in the grade book.

Of course, this is all done with what could be loosely termed "good intentions".

The new policies were put in place because Dallas has one of the highest dropout rates in the state of Texas.

A small committee of administrators and teachers wrote the new grading policy. The goal, they say, is to keep kids in school and prevent them from getting discouraged and dropping out.

"What we're really interested in is 'Are the children learning?' and if they're not, we need intervention immediately. This system does that," said Jerome Garza, a district school board trustee.

Evidently under the theory that children will get smarter merely by your inflating their grades and ignoring their bad work.

Basic rule of thumb, Mr. Garza: mistakes that are ignored invariably are repeated. When your poor dear cherubs reach the working world, people are not going to be amused by their belief that, if they are late to work, it means that the starting time is wrong and needs to be moved backwards.

If someone does not have the skills or education to receive a high school diploma, they should not get one. When it comes to educational standards, you should be raising the students to them, instead of the exact opposite.

But then again, what can we expect, when you and yours on the committee who drafted this abomination think that 48% attendance constitutes full participation?

Narcissism and Nitwits

A toxic combination if ever there was one.

The Harvey Milk Club political action committee held its endorsement meeting at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center on Market Street the other day - and from the sound of things, it was a real head spinner.

The lemony cake on the snack table was laced with marijuana, courtesy of the Access of Love cannabis collective.

It wasn't long before a number of unsuspecting attendees began feeling the effects. When finally told of the secret ingredient, one gentleman angrily demanded an explanation from club leaders.

"It's my birthday," shouted the guest who had brought the cannabis confection.

Oh really? So for your birthday you get to give people drugs without telling them? Ever think that might, you know, cause a problem?

Added irony: why did they leave off the "LGBT Democratic" that lies between "Harvey Milk" and "Club"?

Self-Inflicted Wounds, Anyone?

Obama seems to have come to another one of his magical revelations this morning: raising taxes hurts the economy.

No worries, people; as you notice farther down in the article, that's not going to stop him from doing it or anything.

And Speaking of Dim Bulbs......

Gabriel Malor over at Ace of Spades HQ tells it like it is.

That's the sort of thing that justifies the description "religious wingnut". There are grounds to argue that the ban on churches that claim tax-exempt status carrying out political advocacy is very, very selectively-applied, but to challenge the ban itself is stupid, for a very simple reason: the Constitution guarantees religious freedom, not governmental endorsement.

Clue, Please!

For a state that practically worships the compact fluorescent, we still have a lot of dim bulbs in California.

For example, one of the headlines in today's Chronicle:

Palin's Record On Race a Blank Sheet

Yeah, it's not like her husband is of Native descent or anything.

Yes, That's Quite a Crisis, Isn't It?

This article, even though it certainly wasn't intended to be, is one of the best meta-expositions of the whole mentality and circumstance that created the national mortgage crisis.

It comes in two lovely parts.

1) Six paragraphs excoriating Wachovia for allegedly not working with distressed buyers to modify their mortgages by Obama money-laundering organization ACORN and others, only to be undone by the seventh:

No group or individual, however, could point to any statistical evidence that Wachovia was less likely to modify troubled mortgages than any other large lender.

2) A profile of one of the "typical borrowers" to whom Wachovia is allegedly being so mean.

Susan Fallis, a communications professor at Saint Mary's College in Moraga, so far seems to fall into the "get the loans off the books" camp of Wachovia customers. In 2004, she sold the Santa Cruz parking lot her father bought in the 1960s for his mobile home business. She reinvested the approximately $3 million into 20 single-family houses in and around Reno, with a 40 percent down payment on each one.

Sixteen of the loans were Pick-a-Payment mortgages from Wachovia. Because Reno rents dropped as her minimum payments climbed, she is now losing about $7,000 per month. She has asked Wachovia to temporarily lower the interest rate on her loans by less than two percentage points, without asking for any adjustment on the loan principal. The change would enable her to break even, but company representatives have told her allowing it "would require a complete reversal in corporate policy," she said.

If Wachovia doesn't allow any modifications, Fallis expects she will have no choice but to default in the next few months. She said everyone loses in that scenario: Wachovia has to sell 16 homes at a loss, 16 families have to vacate their rental properties and her family loses wealth accrued over more than a generation.

"It's absolutely insane," she said. "I'm about ready to become the Cindy Sheehan of real estate; this is just making me so angry."

Lady, if you want to know the freaking problem, look in the mirror. You bought not one, not two, but twenty houses, leveraged yourself to the hilt to do it, and did so without even thinking that, "Oh, if I can't rent these houses for full price, I'll not be able to pay for them".

So let's see; we have "community organizations" who use taxpayer dollars to pay for political campaigns trying to keep people who leveraged themselves to the hilt to pay for a small village worth of houses from taking any kind of loss for making what can only be described as very risky decisions.

Well, Whaddya Know......

What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03) created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Existentialism Your life is guided by the concept of Existentialism: You choose the meaning and purpose of your life. “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.” “It is up to you to give [life] a meaning.” --Jean-Paul Sartre “It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the Truth.” --Blaise Pascal More info at Arocoun's Wikipedia User Page... Divine Command 95% Existentialism 95% Utilitarianism 70% Hedonism 65% Kantianism 50% Justice (Fairness) 35% Strong Egoism 30% Apathy 20% Nihilism 0%

I think the key, though, is in looking at the distribution of the other philosophies within that.

(h/t Brother QJ and Brother His Majesty, Queen of East Whitetrashistan and South Ossetia)

The New Democrat Loyalty Test: Play Barbie

Shorter Jamie Lee Curtis: "I'm just a normal, everyday woman to whom people can relate, so obviously I'm too stupid to run this country and need smart men to tell me what to do."

Personally, I've always thought she was quite witty and clever, and certainly smart and capable enough to run for office, but if she wants to tear her own intelligence and competence down for the sake of her party's attacks, that's her business.

It's a shame that such a bright woman can be so browbeaten down that she would be willing to do this to herself, though.

The New York Times Is Run By Halfwits

Strike that....not halfwits, just dumb Obama partisans who really think they can cover up and spin for their master in the age of high-speed connectivity.

Exhibit A: their front-page handwringing article about how John McCain did not "thoroughly vet" Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for his vice-presidential nominee, quoting several Alaska political figures who claim that they and their "contacts" knew nothing about it.

When you look deeper, though, these local luminaries include:

1) Lyda Green, a Republican and current President of the state Senate -- who has regularly butted heads with Palin and is in the process of "retiring", both because one of Palin's allies is set to kick her butt in the November election AND because she was receiving campaign contributions from VECO -- the same company connected with indicted Senator Ted Stevens.

2) Representative Gail Phillips, who Palin also has butted heads with and ran against in Palin's unsuccessful 2002 bid for lieutenant governor.

3) State Senator Hollis French, the Democrat who is pushing the ethics investigation against Palin

And last, but certainly not least:

4) Randy Ruederich, the Republican Party state chair for Alaska, who was required to pay $12,000 in fines for ethics violations after Palin blew the whistle on him.

Gee, wonder why McCain didn't bother calling any of them or their supporters?

The reason the Times thinks they can get away with this is, of course, their Obama-esque belief that everyone outside their circle is ignorant and stupid; therefore, a little media spin, and away goes Palin.

Idiots.

And In Regards to the Democrats.....

read and learn what their most vociferous supporters apparently are doing.

In particular, take note of this.

SEIU spokeswoman Michelle Ringuette said the union "is going to be looking very closely" into allegations this week that the local leadership retaliated against some staff members when they refused to sign a letter in support of Freeman.

A small number of staffers were transferred to positions far from their homes, and about 10 had their union cellphone service terminated after balking at signing the letter, according to three workers who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisal.

To think, people were wondering why the unions were so eager to get rid of secret ballot elections.

Probably because, in a secret ballot, no one really knows who voted which way -- versus cards, which the union itself collects and thus can use to determine who still needs "convincing".

But then again, how else could the unions channel millions of dollars annually to Democrat candidates, especially when they're doing that instead of funding the worker pensions they promised?

In Regards to Sarah Palin......

The Anchoress says it and details it best.

Update: Plus Beldar.