Category: News

In Clayton, it’s:

“We remain convinced that the project to keep Centene’s headquarters in Clayton and generate 800 new jobs is in the best interests of the people of Clayton and the entire region,” [Clayton Mayor Mike] Schoedel said.

You, citizen, might see successful businesses in attractive locations in downtown Clayton, but that’s why you’re not a visionary civic leader ready to strip that land from its owner and award it to a more powerful local corporation. So shut up, and suffer your betters’ whims.

Pope Benedict says:

“The loving eyes of God look on the human being, considered full and complete at its beginning,” Benedict said in his weekly address to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

Ergo, who are we to oppress those little complete human beings and deny them all the rights of full and complete human beings, including the right to vote and to hold drivers’ licenses?

Well, that’s what I take away from this story, with the following quote from Toronto mayor David Miller:

“The U.S. is exporting its problem of violence to the streets of Toronto,” he said.

Well, you export what’s in demand, don’t you?

(Submitted to the Outside the Beltway Traffic Jam.)

It’s supposed to be an op-ed about gender feminism run amok, but Lionel Tiger (seriously) proffers the following metaphor which reflects ill on its creator:

Into this acrimonious climate has whispered a breath of spring air in winter–an extraordinary document that may have surprising impact because of its severe countercultural implications and its almost sweet innocence of purpose. In early November, the New Hampshire Commission on the Status of Men issued its first report (www.nh.gov/csm). The commission was proposed in a 1999 bill by state Rep. David Bickford. The House passed the bill, awarding a budget of $69,561. But months later, the state Senate stripped away funding. The commission was finally established in 2002. According to its report, the Senate’s effort to defund it reflects “the inaction of good people who apparently have been led to believe that legislative activity designed to primarily benefit men is somehow not appropriate politically, financially, or otherwise.”

To the contrary, the commission’s report frontally accepts that there are intrinsic differences in how men and women cope with health, education, responsibility and violence. It concludes that social policies must not begin by denying differences. If you’re running a zoo, know the real nature of your guests. This applies nationally, not only in New Hampshire.

Social policymakers, probably the government and its intelligentsia friends, are running the zoo. That makes you, gentle citizen, an animal for them to cage in Byzantine programs and Gordian knots of regulation.

My Republican Senator, Jim Talent, thinks the Patriot Act requires fighting meth:

A conference report by Senate and House negotiators to extend for four years provisions of the USA Patriot Act includes a comprehensive anti-methamphetamine package restricting the sale of products containing ingredients needed to cook the drug and providing new tools to police and prosecutors to combat dealers.

Sens. Jim Talent, Missouri Republican, and Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, said the Combat Meth Act — together with anti-meth measures championed in the House — were included in the Reauthorization Conference Report filed Thursday.

Yea, verily, I shall not vote for Jim Talent in his re-election bid. And if that elevates the latest incarnation of Carnahanism (Russ, no doubt) to the Senate, who is to blame?

No doubt the Missouri Republicans would put me on that cross.

(Link seen on Instapundit. Click there, little brother; that poor Tennessee law professor needs the traffic.)

Neil Steinberg has the right perspective on the current municipal fad of banning individual breeds of dogs:

After a safety study found that most railway accidents involve the last car of the train, railroads started getting rid of the caboose.

An old joke. But a form of illogic still too often used. Eliminate the thing that seems to cause the problem. Consider the severe, burdensome restrictions — basically a ban — proposed in the City Council against pit bulls. Pit bulls often maul people because pit bulls are a popular, powerful dog that people train to be aggressive. Should they be banned, certain Chicagoans won’t stop wanting mean dogs — they will only shift to another breed that is also powerful and can be trained the same way. Lose the caboose, and the next car in line becomes the last car on the train. Rottweilers will be next, then bull terriers. Soon only pugs will be legal.

Steinberg is an optimist, of course; given how the mandatory non-smoking section in restaurants went to all restaurants and then all municipalities once the anti-smoking agitators got to legislating, why would anti-dog biting agitators leave pugs to kill and maim one person every millenia?

Some people think John Kerry called American soldiers terrorists, but that’s a stretch. He did, however, say that Iraqi troops should be terrorizing the Iraqi people. Here’s one of the only transcriptions of the comments from last week’s Face the Nation that I could find:

There is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the — of — of — of — historical customs, religious customs, whether you like it or not. Iraqis should be doing that.

Let’s replace the relative pronound that with its antecedent, and Kerry says:

Iraqis should be oing into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the — of — of — of — historical customs, religious customs, whether you like it or not.

Perhaps in Kerry’s world, Iraq was better off with Saddam, since under his rule, Iraqis were doing just that.

So is this Alito guy confirmed yet, or what?

No? How come criminals have the right to a speedy trial, but nominees to the freaking courts don’t have the right to a speedy confirmation vote?

(Professor Bainbridge has more on the latest ginned-up controversy from Alito’s past.)

For those of you who don’t want to read Neil Steinberg’s columns, allow me to summarize today’s:

1. Blackberry users are rude, and the law should outlaw rudeness.

   Of course, Some of us live outside the urban media world and its satellites in Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., and California and can’t think of a single person who uses Blackberry rudely or otherwise. We can at the issue abstractly and recognize the dangers inherent in the patent process as made concrete through this case and realize that its precedent and example of government intrusion into industry and our lives far exceeds our own pet peeves.

2. Thrivent for Lutherans is whacky in conception, but cool.

   As I (your host, Brian J.) am married to a card-carrying Lutheran, I hope it’s also lucrative.

3. Illegal immigrants aren’t as bad as people who think illegal immigrants are bad.

   To quote the maestro:

   I wrote them back — every one, until I got tired of it — asking what other international laws are being broken that they are hot and excited about? Or is it just this one? See, to me, that is where the racism comes in. Nobody in the world writes TOO MANY MANGOS are ENTERING THIS COUNTRY in VIOLATION OF THE FRUIT IMPORT QUOTAS.

   It’s not international law. It’s United States law, which is more important. Also, we who oppose illegal immigration often think prevention of unchecked border crossing is more important than the legislation slathered on by protectionists who care about limiting the import of Canadian wood or the environmentalists who care to limit the import of shelled pets from Costa Rica. But some of us conservatarians are bothered by the hobgoblins of foolish, consistent prioritization.

If you, gentle reader, will read on, you’ll see I’ve posted thrice this evening; why should I not deserve a column in a daily?

Crikey, how ungrateful can one man be? After all, Steinberg once called the author of MfBJN as a “genuis”, or at least might have said something I posted was “genuis” once. Ungrateful, perhaps, but I prefer to consider myself the sole remaining paladin of Bob Greene, whom Steinberg routinely snarks in his columns.

Boys hurt on bikes sue Wal-Mart, importer: Marin trial to focus on wheel clasp used on millions of cycles:

He and eight other boys from around the nation are suing retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which sold the bikes, and a San Rafael company that imported them from China. A trial in the case begins Monday in a Marin County courtroom, and the youths are expected to testify about smashing their faces into pavement after the front wheels came loose.

The lawsuit asserts that the so-called quick-release devices on the front wheels malfunctioned when the bikes hit bumps. The clasps, used on millions of bicycles, are designed to hold the front-wheel axle to the frame and allow the wheel to be easily removed for repairs or transport.

The boys and their parents also claim that Wal-Mart conspired with Dynacraft BSC Inc. of San Rafael and Carl Warren & Co., which investigated complaints for the importer, to cover up the defects.

Nine kids fell off of their bikes, and it’s the fault of the bikes….although millions have been sold and none have been recalled or otherwise cited officially for safety concerns.

When I was a child, we used to take our old Kent bikes down the side of a freeway embankment past some electrical transmission towers at high rates of speed. I’d like to think it was skill, but it was probably also a large amount of luck that kept me from serious injury. But assuming I had come to harm, in the early 1980s and even though we were poor, we wouldn’t have sued for recompense. What a pity, as it offered such lucrative targets:

• The Federal government, for building overpasses where children had access to the steep embankments.
• Kent, for making bicycles without frictional inertial dampening systems that limited us to sissy speeds.
• The power company, for not putting bumpers on the legs of its transmission towers.
• The City of Milwaukee, for not replacing dirt and grass with a comfortable poly-foam of some sort.

The lead plantiff in this case says he cannot absorb information like he used to. Hell, I don’t absorb information like I used to, either. But, on the bright side for this young man, he’s certainly absorbing the litigious lotto lessons of his environment well enough.

How would it have benefitted the psyche of certain segments of the population if the National Weather Service had indulged Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and had hurricanes Keisha and Reanne hammered the Gulf Coast this year?

Sure, it was a deer, but it had big fangs:

A St. Louis police officer fatally shot a deer on Sunday evening after it had apparently wandered from the Mississippi River to the construction area of the new Busch Stadium, authorities said.

WHITE HOUSE PLAN IF SADDAM FOUND ‘NOT GUILTY’ (Drudge flash, so pardon me when it goes dark in the next 20 minutes):

Senior Bush administration officials have considered the unthinkable: What if Saddam Hussein is found not guilty in his trial?

“There will be more charges filed against him, and more charges after that, if needed… he has committed tremendous crimes,” a top Bush source explained last week from Washington.

We at MfBJN speculated on this possibility: What If Saddam Hussein Goes O.J.?:

At that point, Iraqi prosecutors can levy additional charges against Saddam Hussein, demonstrating that the rule of law as practiced in the West means that prosecutors can continue prosecuting and persecuting the accused with a plethora of laws and violations until such time as the target is found guilty or until the target is a broken and bankrupted person.

A fine beacon of rule of law, indeed.

What, no moonbat conspiracy theories to fit this fact?

With an improved trade environment and financing tools, Iraq has become the second largest buyer of U.S. wheat.

That, my friends, is agricultural imperialism at its worst: we’re making the Middle East a dumping ground for our cheap, efficiently produced foodstuffs. Wouldn’t it be better just to let them starve?

Coming from, of all things, the Macy’s Day Parade, we have this stunning display of unAmericanism:

During its live coverage of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, NBC did not tell viewers that a giant balloon had caught on a street lamp and injured two sisters.

…

Sarah and Mary Chamberlain, 11 and 26, were hit by the debris. Sarah needed nine stitches to her head, and Mary, who uses a wheelchair, suffered a bump on her forehead.

Their father, Stephen Chamberlain, called it a freak accident and said the family didn’t plan to sue. He said his daughters are looking forward to the special VIP seating Macy’s offered them for next year’s parade.

But that’s free money, and someone (else) has to pay! What is this country coming to?

The War On Animal Abuse:

U.S. troops found two cheetah cubs _ one of them blinded _ being forced to fight each other for the amusement of jeering children in this dusty, forgotten village.

The soldiers of the U.S. counterterrorism task force for the Horn of Africa were in the region carrying out humanitarian work when they came across the three-month-old cheetahs “performing” at a restaurant run by Mohamed Hudle. The Djibouti-based task force provides intelligence-gathering help to countries in the region, tries to bolster cooperation and border protection, and mounts humanitarian projects aimed at improving the U.S. military’s image among Muslims.

The troops provided medical treatment to the blinded cub, fed them both and tried to persuade Mohamed to hand them over to wildlife officials. They contacted U.S.-based cheetah experts as well as Ethiopian authorities.

Expending treasure and the blood of American troops to liberate the oppressed in the Middle East, feh. But dying to save cute widdle animals?

Keen insight from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch‘s Sylvester Brown:

I’m convinced there isn’t a politician around today with the chutzpah to challenge the powerful Bush machine.

There should be. Especially now that President George W. Bush’s administration is besieged with allegations and scandal. Critics claim the president manipulated evidence in a rush to war while key members of his administration are under investigations for spitefully blowing the cover of a CIA agent. Then there’s the fact that more than 2,000 soldiers have died in a war that (according to recent polls) more than 60 percent of Americans feel has been mishandled. Heck, members of his own party are even circling wagons of self-preservation.

Must be that Muthra, Reid, Pelosi, Kennedy, Kerry, Leahy, ad al and et absurdum, just lack chutzpah. No, they’ve got chutzpah. Perhaps they just lack moxie.

Or their simplistic rhetorical backfilling falls upon American ears who understand principles or lack thereof.