Politics and Culture

1. I've heard people criticize Gates by saying that you shouldn't talk back to the police because "police have a gun." Not only isn't that a funny joke, it's an absurd argument. Does anybody think that a cop would shoot a man for being sassy?

2. The real problem with people arguing with police is that order breaks down. I'm a public school teacher. I can't have students decide whether to cuss me out in class. Everything would fall apart.

3. I don't see why whether the lady who called the police described Gates as "black" makes any difference.

4. Just to prove that conversations on race inevitably turn stupid:

Murphy also disputed accounts of her client as a white woman in the traditional sense. "The fact is, she's olive-skinned and of Portuguese descent. You wouldn't look at her and say, necessarily, 'Oh, there's a white woman.' You might think she was Hispanic," Murphy said.

5. In fact, the reason the study and discussion of racial things on campuses, from grammar school to college, has exploded in the past thirty years is because race talk is easy to understand. Even those without any academic talent can understand and comment on it.

6. Yes, Obama: One wrong turn in your life, from an elite private school in Hawaii to Columbia to Harvard to Chicago machine politics to president could have easily turned it into a crack-filled Hell. I think Obama should have been a motivational speaker instead of president:

7. Following Obama's policy of calling patriotic Americans "stupid" and "clinging" and insulting friendly nations while doing what he can to appease our enemies, Obama has shut down the ticker that gave Cubans their only non-Communist-censored news (the equivalent of talk radio in the United States). Good job! Because the reason that Cuba represses its people is that we're too informative.

8. Being consistent isn't too hard. I admire and agree with the Catholic nurse who refused to perform the abortion at Mount Sinai hospital in New York. If I owned a hospital, I wouldn't perform unnecessary abortions or, if abortion weren't against my religion, I wouldn't force doctors or nurses to do them. I don't own a hospital, however. A boss should expect his workers to follow his legal rules and have the ability to fire those who refuse.

9. I've sometimes wondered why I don't have any interest whatsoever in anything Harry Potter. I've tried to read it, but couldn't get past the first chapter. I couldn't finish any of the movies either. I don't hate Harry Potter; it just doesn't grab me. I think I have an answer.

I think back to the biggest Potter fans I've known. They're not little kids- they're middle-aged female librarian and English teacher types. The series is just too feminine.

10. I know why the Obama health care plan is failing: "Let's see: more money, less care and freedom. Ummm, no."

11. You can't blame "special interests" this time, as they all supported the Obama plan, even the insurers. It's been a grass-roots effort, like immigration reform a couple of years back.

12. Michael Vick should absolutely be able to play football. All he did was abuse animals. Plenty of players have abused intrinsically valuable people and are playing. That he's able to play is a good sign for national values.

13. The globa...I mean climate change debate is almost over. Soon, people won't be able to make the claim with a strait face anymore. More counter-evidence here.

Once again, the mainstream has caught up to Asymmetric. This week's National Review declares that gay marriage isn't inevitable:

Why is it OK to kill Osama bin Laden's son without trial, but not OK to put him in prison?

U.S. officials believe Usama bin Laden's son, Saad bin Laden, was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan.

Sources confirmed to FOX News late Wednesday that officials believe the younger bin Laden was killed by hellfire missiles from a U.S. Predator drone strike earlier this year.

I feel sorry for Mr. Gates. He has to endure an evening of humiliation in a police station and all he has to comfort himself are national notoriety; possibly millions of dollars from either the police or, indirectly, from his instant fame; and relevance. Let's face it: academic fields based on victim status like black studies must be struggling to stay hip.

The police were "stupid" for arresting Gates. Perhaps. They should be able to take insults from spoiled, self-important academics in stride.

By the way, on my Cubanocast section, I just finished putting up a song called, "El Negro Bembon." It's about racial profiling. Here it is again (above). Lyrics, below:

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The awesome self-righteousness of librarians or, at least, the American Librarian Association (AMA) never ceases to amaze. They seem to think that they're the guardians of free thought and enlightenment, protectors of the first amendment.

Nonsense.

Citizens vote to fund public libraries because they think it will benefit the community. Citizens don't have to pay for them. Since citizens do, however, they should be able to decide which books the library carries. They can make a children's library or an adult-only library or an all-computer library.

This is not an issue of free speech because the government isn't preventing anybody from reading a book- it's just not paying for those titles that citizens don't want.

The 1st ammendment reads:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Notice that everything is negative: "not prohibit," "not abridge" and not positive, as in: "the government will insure a variety of speech is available in each community."

Now, if the parents were complaining about a private library, that might be different, although even there it's not as simple since cities regulate adult book stores and, until recently, books like Lady Chatterley's Lover were illegal. Child pornography is illegal too.

If librarians really want to have a place where kids can read about the current state of sexual affairs, they can pool their money and open private libraries.

Story here and below:

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1. How does Obama know the health care bill will help if he doesn't even know what's in it? Here.

2. This is because of Obama's management style: He's a delegator, "Go do something about health care, will you?"

3. He does seem to be coming apart. Questioning somebody's motives is the last resort of a scoundrel (and the first resort of a liberal).

In a Rose Garden statement from the White House, Obama said Republicans "who openly announce their intentions to block this reform" would "rather score political points" than confront an ailing health care system that is draining the federal budget while leaving 46 million Americans uninsured.

"Time and again we've heard excuses to delay and defeat reform," Obama said a day after Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele called for blocking health care legislation under debate in Congress.

The president said such tactics "play the politics of the moment instead of putting the interests of the people first."

"Some will try to delay action so that special interests can kill it," Obama said.

OK:

-If Obama didn't want to drain the federal budget, he wouldn't propose a new entitlement that...drains the federal budget by 1 trillion dollars.

-It seems that most of the special interests are for the bill- the AMA, unions, Walmart, ACORN, trial lawyers.

-Can we have a moratorium on saying something is the "politics of..." (personal destruction, fear, etc.)?

Why doesn't Obama debate somebody like Bobby Jindal? Obama's so eloquent and stuff; he's sure to win.

I grew up in the seventies and the glow of space exploration still illuminated the country. I remember making an Apollo 11 plaster wall ornament in school. McDonald's would give away space exploration posters. Today is the fortieth anniversary, and I spent a little time thinking about the argument about whether we should have gone or not. Both arguments make sense to me.

Arguments for the Apollo program:

1. National Pride. Great nations accomplish great things. Just like the pyramids stand today as a testament to Egyptian ingenuity and persistence, the American flag on the moon will remind people that one country accomplished more than others.

2. Man does not live by bread alone. Only the pathetic live to survive. Sure, the space program cost money, but such things inspire people and you can't put a price on that.

3. The effort brought about, directly and indirectly, scientific improvements that have benefited people.

Arguments against the Apollo program:

1. Cost. Similar to how some people criticize religions for building nice Churches, they argue that the billions of dollars spent on the space program could have been saved, or spent on things that would have more directly benefited mankind. The space program is indeed like ancient national projects, where societies squandered their resources on vainglory.

2. Lack of benefit. Besides some rocks, we didn't really benefit from going to the moon. Tang?

3. Puritanism. Similar to the first, pride, whether individual or collective, is a bad human trait.

4. Libertarian argument. Undertakings that don't directly protect the people or serve our national interest should be privately financed.

So, there you have it. I don't know myself where I stand.