I just added a link to my sidebar.

Mitch Berg's Shot In The Dark deserves special treatment, among the NARN (Northern Alliance Radio Network) bloggers for the simple reason that he allows comments without a lot of rigamarole.

They all deserve attention. They're all great writers, but Mitch invites us common folk in to visit. I would only ask that you be on your best behavior over there. Observe how the other commenters behave before you track your crap all over the carpet.

Captain Ed allows comments too. He's up next for my blogroll.

I'm not forsaking my old friends, I just think that, like my buddies at Grandpa John's, I should pay attention to my home state. It seems logical to me (I've been wrong before) that I might be able to make my most effective contribution by focussing close to home.

Call it a mid-life crisis if you will.

Did my emails ever get through, Lance?

Last I heard there was some sort of delay.

Anyway, there're more important things afoot. Steve has advice for the lovelorn.

And those who wish they were.

A message from Sharon Harris

President of the Advocates for Self-Government:

Dear friends,

A very important American civic holiday is coming up -- one that far too
many Americans are not aware of.

Perhaps you can help bring it to their attention.

December 15 is "Bill of Rights Day" -- a day to celebrate, honor and renew
support for our precious Bill of Rights.

It was on December 15, 1791 that the Bill of Rights the first ten
amendments to the United States Constitution -- went into effect.

One hundred and fifty years later, in 1941, "Bill of Rights Day" was
officially recognized as a national civic holiday, and has been ever since.

The Bill of Rights is, of course, the great protector of American liberties.
It boldly declares that people have certain inalienable rights that
government cannot abridge -- fundamental rights like freedom of speech,
freedom of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, and more. It also
provides procedures for defending those rights -- such as fair trials and
limits on federal power.

The Bill of Rights doesn't just belong to America. It has inspired freedom
fighters around the world. The Founders viewed their Revolution as the first
blow in a struggle to win liberty for *all* the people of the world -- so
the Bill of Rights is truly a document for everyone.

That's why I hope libertarians and other freedom lovers will use this
upcoming Bill of Rights Day as an opportunity to teach their families,
friends, neighbors and others about our precious heritage.

It's a *great* time for a letter to the editor of your local newspaper,
discussing the vital importance of our Bill of Rights freedoms and calling
for reflection on our heritage -- and urging citizens to speak out against
current calls to sacrifice liberty for (alleged) security.

To help with that, here's a short summary of the Bill of Rights, prepared by
students at Liberty Middle School in Ashley, Virginia. (I've added just a
few words.) While this condensed version doesn't have the majesty, depth and
detail of the entire document, it is short and easy to understand, and may
be useful to you in discussions and letters:

THE BILL OF RIGHTS: First Ten Amendments to the Constitution

1. Freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, right to
assemble peaceably, right to petition the government about grievances.

2. Right to keep and bear arms.

3. Do not have to quarter soldiers during peacetime.

4. No unreasonable searches and seizures.

5. Rights of the accused.

6. Right to a fair trial.

7. Right to a trial by jury in civil cases also.

8. No cruel and unusual punishments.

9. Unenumerated rights go to the people.

10. Reserves all powers not given to the national government to the states
or the people.

All Americans should be familiar with their Bill of Rights freedoms. Sadly,
numerous surveys indicate most are not.

Those of us who love liberty should do our best to correct that.

Happy Bill of Rights Day!

We now return to your regular, scheduled problems.

Mitch Berg writes the deepest and most feeling fisking

I've ever seen. Of Nick Coleman's Pearl Harbor Day article.

"Nickie" deserves to become a dominant meme.

I had a visitor from here

CDR Salamander. A site that looks to be worth keeping an eye on.

I've been taking Minnesota Politics for granted

but these guys haven't: The Taxpayers' League of Minnesota.

I mention them because I brought up the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights in a comment at Lance Burri's. (Whom I would have nominated at the best new blog of 2004 if I knew how. I need to take some essay writing lessons from that guy. I'm pretty much a blurb writer myself. - Do I need to make "blurb" a WOD? -- Yeah, I'm still a suck-up.)

The TABOR, as it's known is in place in Colorado, and it save them from a lot of trouble during the last economic down-turn.

Are there any Minnesota bloggers who want to engage in a little give and take on this issue? I know the Northern Alliance is all for it - the Taxpayers' League pays for their web-streaming after all, but I'd like to see some fleshing out of the debate. Let's put some meat on these bones!

Have you checked out Tony Pierce yet?

Blogger News (Does this work to get you there?) bills him as Tony the Blogger. tonypierce.com + busblog is what comes up on the button. He's got a book out called How To Blog.

His Kwanzaa post is well worth reading.

Takin' it to the blogosphere...

Speaking of things everyone is talking about,

John Rogers of The Therapy Sessions and Lance Burri both have good discussions about what we should do about Social Security.

Well kids, let me tell ya...

I didn't mean it. David Strom is an SOB.

No I'm kidding. For some reason I feel embarassed that I was channeling the same spirit of hero-worship at him last night that Strom was directing at Walter Williams Saturday. For which he should be made fun of. [...of fun made...made of fun... Oh, forget it!] As should I.

Though they're both heroes worthy of emulation if you ask me.

Anyway, that's not what I came here to say.

I didn't do a post on Pearl Harbor Day because I was too busy reading everybody else's.

Now, I like to read anarchists, or rather, anarcho-capitalists, because they're a fiery lot and I have more than a little sympathy for their positions. I believe the government should butt out of a lot of things they're up to and that a lot of the problems of today are the result of government screw-ups in the past, many of which continue. The Open Door Policy, forcing foreign governments to trade with us, most notably Japan and China, doesn't appear to have worked out well, for instance. It's very interesting that the country that appeared to have reacted most positively to having their door kicked open, Japan, is the one that ended up causing the most trouble.

All of which brings me to Sixty-Three Years of Lies, by Anthony Gregory at Strike the Root:

Sixty-three years ago, on December 7, 1941 , more than three hundred Japanese planes descended upon Pearl Harbor in a horrendous surprise attack. Or, at least it was a surprise for the American servicemen and civilians who resided at the base, some 2,400 of whom perished in the terrible onslaught.

I'm putting his links in so that you see he has them.

Despite the difficulties confronted by historians and others who attempted to reveal that Franklin Roosevelt likely had foreknowledge of these attacks, the case is fairly solid now. Robert Stinnett's groundbreaking book, Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor, contains the best argument and evidence, so far. The US government had broken the codes necessary to learn of an imminent threat, and FDR had pursued a deliberate policy of provoking the Japanese – cutting off their oil supply, assisting their enemies in China, ignoring their diplomatic attempts to ensure peace with the United States, and placing US military personnel in harm's way near Japan – in order to get them to fire the first shot and open a backdoor into a war against Germany. Others have compellingly argued that the US government also wanted to exert US global dominance in the Pacific, which it feared would be undercut by the Japanese.

Here's my quibble: you never hear any of these people, here or at Anti-War.com, justify the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945. (The Chinese date it from Japan's takeover of Manchuria in 1931.) If I'm not mistaken, Stinnett understood that Roosevelt could see the crap hitting the fan in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific and took the actions needed to get involved before it was too late.

The Open Door Policy and the Versailles Treaty may have been to blame in the end, but the world would not have been a better place had we let the Nazis, Fascists and Japanese Imperialists take over.

Ooh, I think I'm in love!

Department of Education must be abolished

By Devvy Kidd.

Good intro by Steve.

Well, all right [note "all right" - two words] since it consists entirely of a quote, here:

The federal Department of Education must be booted out of the states. Public schools must return to educating children with the basics and stop all social engineering and communitarian indoctrination. To continue down the same path of tossing trillions of dollars at the federal Department of Education is to guarantee transforming America's precious children into the "New Communist Man." We the people must stop this madness.

And while we're on a "Thank you, sir! May I have another?" roll, here's her first paragraph:

The federal Department of Education was made a part of the president's Cabinet by new world order facilitator Jimmy Carter. Prior to that, America had the finest education system in the world. In 1980, Ronald Reagan promised that, if elected, he would get this unconstitutional department abolished.

Since I'm so strangely inclined to give you pictures of women that turn me on, here you go:

The Hotmail people apparently want this announced

First they gave me it, and now they've told me about it three times. Maybe if I post their email they'll quit bugging me about it. (Fat chance!)

Dear MSN® Hotmail® Member:

Congratulations on your storage upgrade from 2MB to 250MB!

As a valued MSN Hotmail Member, you have been specially selected to receive a special storage upgrade - at no cost to you. We've increased the storage capacity of your Hotmail account from 2MB to 250MB and increased your attachment size from 1MB to 10MB .

So what does this mean for you?

Well, now you can store even more emails and share larger attachments such as photos, music and video clips and more. Please note, you don't have to take any action - we have taken care of upgrading your account for you. Your storage meter should now read 250MB.

Take a look at the table to the right to see how we've upgraded your Hotmail Account.

We'd like to thank you for being a valued MSN Hotmail Member and enjoy your increased storage!

Thank you,

MSN Hotmail Member Services

Walter Williams was on Taxpayer's League Live

last Saturday! [There's a button for livestreaming at the above link. Unless it's between 9:00 and 11:00 AM CST when you read this, it's not on now, dummy.] David Strom and Margaret Martin (President and First Lady of the Minnesota Taxpayer's League) interviewed Williams about his history growing up in South Philadelphia (where his mother warned him not to be like that silly Bill Cosby). I only regretted that they didn't delve into economics more, though they did some of that. Although, since I was raking my yard at the time (getting my last sunburn of the year on the last sunny, 40+ degree day of the year) maybe I was a bit distracted.

Come to think of it, their show is in the morning. I was babysitting the kids then while my wife was working out. I was raking while the Northern Alliance guys and Dave Thompson were competing for my attention in the afternoon. I hate that, but it would be worse if one or the other of them weren't on at all.

The NARN guys will be covering for Hugh Hewitt tonight. I don't think they'll be up against Dave, but who knows.

Eminem Is Right

A long essay I ran across via NRO's Corner examining pop music shows that "kid's today" aren't as stupid as many people make them out to be:

Blink-182's top-40 hit in 2001, "Stay Together for the Kids," is perhaps their best-known song (though not the only one) about broken homes. "What stupid poem could fix this home," the narrator wonders, adding, "I'd read it every day."


Reflecting on the particular passion with which that song was embraced by fans, Blink-182's Tom DeLonge told an interviewer, "We get e-mails about 'Stay Together,' kid after kid after kid saying, 'I know exactly what you're talking about! That song is about my life!' And you know what? That sucks. You look at statistics that 50 percent of parents get divorced, and you're going to get a pretty large group of kids who are pissed off and who don't agree with what their parents have done." Similarly, singer/bassist Mark Hoppus remarked to another interviewer curious about the band's emotional resonance, "Divorce is such a normal thing today and hardly anybody ever thinks how the kids feel about it or how they are taking it, but in the U.S. about half of all the kids go through it. They witness how their parents drift apart and all that."

Not to sound Pollyanna-ish (though I just caught the end of Pollyanna on PBS the other day, and it's not as stupid as it's made out to be either) but it looks to me like a sign that things are about to get better.

I know you all come here

for the brilliant discussion of Neuroscience, but Todd's got some good stuff over at Mister Pterodactyl.

(I think 'pterodactyl' refers to the meter in tif's poetry.)

Ah, Satire!

'Twas awhile before Channaramakwanzmas:

GL refers to "garage logic". Follow the links to learn more about that. It's a conservative talk radio show.

Morghanne Q.E. Wolfe-Slattery, Euphorian

'Twas awhile before Channaramakwanzmas

and all through the sustainable community,

not a Euphorian was thinking of anything but pure equity.

My current life partner and the developing persons all three

Had removed our helmets and were drinking ginkobiloba tea.

We-as a team had just done the dishes,

With dish soap organic-to not hurt the fishes.

When suddenly I felt the dwelling unit shake

I knew by the sound-Santa had made a mistake!

I ran through the yard,

where there was no sign of Christmas at all

Said come down-where-s your helmet-you'll certainly fall!

You've made a mistake-this community's P.C.

Nowhere here will you find a Christmas tree.

We celebrate the all-inclusive Euphorian holiday

Channaramakwanzmas offends no one-no how- no way!

Please leave here now-you are not welcome here

Unless you free those poor repressed reindeer

And the elves-while you're at it...overworked, underpaid

And Mrs. Claus-is she anymore than your maid?

Santa looked at me then and said-seemly frayed

What-s this Euphorian holiday you nuts have made?

Hold on-Santa said-you can't do this to me!

The GLers will stop you-they’ll set Christmas free



This is not how it goes-my Euphorian friends

So I must insist that this story now ends!!!



Happy Channaramakwanzmas!

The world is full of links today.

I've been all over the frickin' blogosphere. Here's a recommendation: check out all the top people on Wizbang's Blog Awards. Check out the top two in each category to make sure you're ready for next year's contest.

But LibertyBob, maybe you shouldn't. You're too good as you are, you don't need any influences you aren't already suffering from. [I believe that ending sentences with prepositions is an ur-English thing to do.]

This is important: conservatives, libertarians, liberals and "liberals", need to consider this analysis of the last election and the history of modern liberalism. Imagine a Lyle Wagner flair in that last anouncement.

Key point: dump the commies. Of course they forgot that insisting that you're not a commie, while insisting upon all the commies' policy prescriptions, doesn't exempt you from the label "commie".

By the way, this is not a complete waste of LifeForce(tm) [How do you do that (TM) thing again, LB?], though you may be tempted to think so when you first see it. Very entertaining. I'm seriously trying to write a post, while this thing loads and plays in fits and starts.

That's a ringing endorsement from a Minnesotan, so I'd listen up! [Coach talk is not quite un-Minnesotan. We recognize (quietly--no need to make enemies) the need for corporal punishment.]

Interesting post on dreams

at Teleologic Blog. One (I think, the main) paragraph among many:

Some consider this loose making of connections to be a random process, in which case dreams would be basically meaningless. The Contemporary Theory of Dreaming holds that the process is not random, however, and that it is instead guided by the emotions of the dreamer. When one clear-cut emotion is present, dreams are often very simple. Thus people who experience trauma--such as an escape from a burning building, an attack or a rape--often have a dream something like, "I was on the beach and was swept away by a tidal wave." This case is paradigmatic. It is obvious that the dreamer is not dreaming about the actual traumatic event, but is instead picturing the emotion, "I am terrified. I am overwhelmed." When the emotional state is less clear, or when there are several emotions or concerns at once, the dream becomes more complicated. We have statistics showing that such intense dreams are indeed more frequent and more intense after trauma. In fact, the intensity of the central dream imagery, which can be rated reliably, appears to be a measure of the emotional arousal of the dreamer.

LibertyBob would probably like it that I think evolution is a factor here. Dreams enhance our survivability (or whatever). We think of things in dreams to try out in real life, though that doesn't negate his present-oriented explanation of what occurs.

When Rosie was a baby, I once dreamed that I was holding her, having just received a diagnosis of mouth cancer from the doctor, and I was thinking that the very best I could offer her was a Dad with a severely misshapen face. I immediately jumped out of bed and flushed my Skoal down the toilet, and that dream has been the main backing for avoiding snoose to this day.

Sittin' here bloggin' in my Dad's cowboy hat...

Oh, you want a picture? Where's that...

Oh! Right there!

/>

My neck hurts after that wild digression. Who do I sue? [Whom]

How late to the dance am I on this parody of Gilbert and Sullivan doing Xena. (Ooh! That doesn't sound right!)

In case you didn't run across it when I indirectly linked it here.

....
I've been dialoging with Blogger a bit over problems with my archives. The problems only arise when I try to backtrack visitors here. Suddenly my screen gets filled with crap that looks like seventeen layers of chainlink fence when I try to follow the links that brought them to me. No solutions yet.

Whoops! Forgot to pay the ISP bill.

I thought the wife had paid it and she thought I had paid it.

I've taken care of it now, but....

Here's a froe, for when you're feeling froward(ly?):

/>

Sort of slippin' in a little WOD action:
fro-ward (frwrd, -rd)
adj.
Stubbornly contrary and disobedient; obstinate.

froward-ly adv.
froward-ness n.
...
Story of my life.

Dagnab it! Let me get that crap out of there.

There!

I still don't know what to do about that Image Shack deal, though. Maybe I'll just delete that stuff.

That's better.

Now, that's funny!

Mister Rogers' neighborhood.

Lance, in particular, needs to share child-management techniques with this guy.

And don't miss his Thanksgiving post.