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The Commerce Department reported an advance reading on second-quarter GDP of 1.9%, mildly below the expected 2.3%, but also revised its first-quarter figure to 0.9%, from 1.0%, and cut the fourth-quarter 2007 GDP figure to negative 0.2%, from 0.6%. (See "GDP Lags, Employment Scares.") Labels: economics, media manipulation In 2006, Steve Cohen won Harold Ford’s seat in Memphis in a bitter contested race. Cohen beat Nikki Tinker barely. During the race, Cohen hacked off black ministers for supporting gay rights legislation and opposing school prayer. But what angered people in the district more was that a black congressman could potentially be replaced by not just a white man, but a Jew too. The anti-Semitism has resurfaced this year. Black ministers (started by one who is not even in district) have passed out fliers that say “Steve Cohen and the JEWS HATE Jesus.” Nikki Tinker has refused to denounce the fliers. Last year, some black ministers caused a stir against Cohen because he supported federal hate crimes legislation that included gay rights. Robert Poindexter, one of the angered ministers, gave away the game saying, “He’s not black and he can’t represent me, that’s just the bottom line.” Labels: 2008 presidential candidates In 1981, Morton Grove, Ill., a quiet northern Chicago suburb, made history by becoming the first municipality in the nation to ban the possession of handguns. Twenty-seven years later, Morton Grove has repealed its law, bowing to a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June that affirmed homeowners' right to keep guns for self-defense. It's one of several Illinois communities -- reluctant to spend money on legal fights -- rushing to repeal their gun bans after the court struck down a Washington, D.C., ban, even as cities such as Chicago and San Francisco stand firm. ... Gun rights advocates hailed the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision affirming that individuals have a right to own guns and keep them in their homes for self-defense. The National Rifle Association and others carried their enthusiasm straight to federal court, suing the city of Chicago and Mayor Richard Daley, a vocal supporter of gun control, and the Chicago suburbs of Morton Grove, Evanston and Oak Park. Wilmette, another northern Chicago suburb, voted to repeal its ban. Officials there said they believe they weren't sued by the NRA because the village stopped enforcing its 1989 ban after the high court ruling. "In my mind we had to repeal," said Wilmette Village President Chris Canning, who is also a lawyer. "I knew that our ordinance would not survive constitutional scrutiny." Todd Vandermyde, an NRA lobbyist in Illinois, said communities working to repeal their gun bans simply see the writing on the wall. "Some communities are truly seeing what is contained in the Supreme Court decision and they're reacting appropriately," Vandermyde said. "Others want to spend taxpayer money on some Don Quixote-type quest," he said, referring to Chicago, whose lawyers insist the city's ban will withstand any legal challenges. Labels: gun rights Labels: homosexuality Labels: cars Labels: cars Labels: homosexuality Labels: gun rights Labels: Idaho politics BAGHDAD (AP) — The United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost. Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years. But the Iraqi government and the U.S. now are able to shift focus from mainly combat to mainly building the fragile beginnings of peace — a transition that many found almost unthinkable as recently as one year ago. Despite the occasional bursts of violence, Iraq has reached the point where the insurgents, who once controlled whole cities, no longer have the clout to threaten the viability of the central government. That does not mean the war has ended or that U.S. troops have no role in Iraq. It means the combat phase finally is ending, years past the time when President Bush optimistically declared it had. The new phase focuses on training the Iraqi army and police, restraining the flow of illicit weaponry from Iran, supporting closer links between Baghdad and local governments, pushing the integration of former insurgents into legitimate government jobs and assisting in rebuilding the economy. Scattered battles go on, especially against al-Qaida holdouts north of Baghdad. But organized resistance, with the steady drumbeat of bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and ambushes that once rocked the capital daily, has all but ceased. This amounts to more than a lull in the violence. It reflects a fundamental shift in the outlook for the Sunni minority, which held power under Saddam Hussein. They launched the insurgency five years ago. They now are either sidelined or have switched sides to cooperate with the Americans in return for money and political support. Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told The Associated Press this past week there are early indications that senior leaders of al-Qaida may be considering shifting their main focus from Iraq to the war in Afghanistan. Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told the AP on Thursday that the insurgency as a whole has withered to the point where it is no longer a threat to Iraq's future. "Very clearly, the insurgency is in no position to overthrow the government or, really, even to challenge it," Crocker said. "It's actually almost in no position to try to confront it. By and large, what's left of the insurgency is just trying to hang on." Labels: terrorism Myers is a biologist at the University of Minnesota at Morris who has a national following for Pharyngula, the blog on which he regularly exposes and lambastes efforts by creationists to undermine the teaching of evolution. A few weeks ago, he wrote a blog entry in which he defended a University of Central Florida student who protested the presence of religious groups on his campus by taking a Eucharist — the small wafer blessed in Roman Catholic services and then seen as the body of Christ — and removing it from the service rather than consuming it. Myers, in an entry entitled “It’s a Frackin’ Cracker” — questioned why this was such a big deal. Ever since, Myers and his university have been bombarded by e-mail and other messages attacking him and calling for the university to punish him for insulting Catholic teachings. On Thursday, Myers responded by staging what he called a “great desecration.” For the desecration, he took a communion wafer (sent to him by a supporter in the United Kingdom, who removed it from a church there), and pierced it with a rusty nail. ("I hope Jesus’s tetanus shots are up to date,” Myers quipped on the blog.) He then threw it in the garbage with a banana peel and coffee grounds, symbols of refuse. But to show that he wasn’t picking on Catholics, Myers added to his mixture some ripped out pages of the Koran. As a proud atheist, Myers isn’t a member of a faith that he could desecrate at the same time so he took a text he does cherish — The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins — and tore some pages out and added them to the trash. In a blog posting that describes the attacks he has received and then features a photo of the desecration, Myers finishes with a call to question everything: “Nothing must be held sacred. Question everything,” he writes. “God is not great, Jesus is not your lord, you are not disciples of any charismatic prophet. You are all human beings who must make your way through your life by thinking and learning, and you have the job of advancing humanity’s knowledge by winnowing out the errors of past generations and finding deeper understanding of reality. You will not find wisdom in rituals and sacraments and dogma, which build only self-satisfied ignorance, but you can find truth by looking at your world with fresh eyes and a questioning mind.” Labels: intelligent design The man accused of a mass church shooting this morning was described by his Powell neighbors as a helpful and kind man, but one who had issues with Christianity. Jim D. Adkisson, 58, has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, which killed one and injured eight others. He is being held on $1 million bond. "He had his own sense of belief about religion, that's the impression I got of him," said neighbor Karen Massey. "We were talking one day when my daughter graduated from Bible college, and I told him I was a Christian, then he almost turned angry. "He seemed to get angry at that." According to Massey, Adkisson talked frequently about his parents who "made him go to church all his life ... he was forced to do that."
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Recession?
A common definition of recession is two consecutive quarters of declining GDP. The Democrats and the mainstream media (which are pretty much the same thing) have been screeching about recession in the hopes of scaring the population into voting Democrat. There's just one little problem: we haven't reached that point yet. From July 31, 2008 Forbes:
Now, the concern is that part of why the second quarter growth numbers are still okay was that this was the result of the economic stimulus package. The revision of the 4Q 2007 numbers to a negative is indicative that the economy is slowing, and there is some real danger. But we aren't in a recession. We could be in the future, and it is worth worrying about--but to the extent that media screeching creates public perceptions, it can help to create it. I would ask the media to be responsible, but I might as well ask the sun to not rise tomorrow.
Racism and Anti-Semitism: It's a Southern Democratic Primary!
Tell me, if this were happening in a Republican primary, wouldn't this be front page news all over the country? Black ministers are distributing flyers that say "Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen and the Jews Hate Jesus." And the flyers emphasize that a "black Christian" has to replace Cohen.
RedState reports:
And Andrew Sullivan is telling a similar story.
Look, I can agree that there might be good reasons for Tennesseeans to send someone who isn't so liberal to Washington. But injecting anti-Semitism and racism into the contest is so utterly wrong--and so utterly Democratic.
This Is Encouraging
RealClearPolitics average of recent national polls shows that Obama's lead over McCain is now only 2.4%--which is probably not statistically significant, since several of the polls have sample sizes of 1003 or less. The largest sample sizes (and therefore with the smallest margin of error) are the Rasmussen poll done 7/27 through 7/29, which has Obama up 2.0%, and the Gallup Tracking poll done the same dates, which has Obama up 4.0%.
Now, if McCain would actually run some serious ads, we might see this turn around. Once we hit the 60 day deadline imposed by the moronic McCain-Feingold Act, independent campaign expenditures will start--and I'm hoping that Obama's numbers will start to fall.
They're Running Scared!
From July 30, 2008 Law.com:
Keep in mind that if every city with such a ban repealed it, we would have a more difficult time in court. You have to have an actual controversy--an actual legal dispute--to get the Supreme Court to make a decision. I'm glad that Chicago is being obstinate about this--it will just make it easier to get the Second Amendment incorporated against the states.
What Qualifies as "Public Indecency" In San Francisco?
Americans For Truth About Homosexuality has some unpleasant and definitely not worksafe pictures of what goes on in public streets in San Francisco these days--not just public nudity (which AFTAH has at least blacked out), but what appears to be a very unhygenic sex act taking place that, shall we say, explains the need for a booth visible in another picture offering hepatitis vaccination.
The police were there--they were just told to keep the public nudity and sex acts confined to the public streets that were part of the "Up Your Alley" public festival.
Yeah, yeah, I know, most homosexuals aren't this sick. But when you pass laws saying that there's nothing wrong with homosexuality, you don't get to pick and choose which homosexuals are going to be moving into your town because you told them that it was okay.
So, what still qualifies as public indecency in San Francisco? It certainly doesn't include public nudity. It doesn't include a guy putting his tongue somewhere that the sun doesn't shine. But as I mentioned last year, when a Christian group held a rally in San Francisco, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution condemning them.
I used to wonder why some Christians insisted that homosexuality, while no worse of a sin than any others, seems to be especially destructive to a society. I don't wonder anymore, when sickness like this is tolerated in public streets--while a Christian rally deserves official condemnation.
UPDATE: Zombietime has a far more detailed collection of pictures--and it was far worse than the examples above. Far worse. You can go for the fuzzed out version, or the fully obscene and gross version when you get there.
More About The Aptera
I mentioned the Aptera yesterday as an example of a truly futuristic looking car. A reader tells me:You need to change the label from 'cars' to 'motorcycles'. The Aptera is designed, built and registered as a motorcycle so as to avoid all those nasty federal crash worthiness requirements. No crash stuff means less mass and a lower startup cost since there is no need to submit finished product for destructive testing.
It struck me as I was going through the National Automobile Museum a few weeks back that many of the early cars were surprisingly small and light, and that if you built a car this light today, with modern engines and transmissions, they would probably be capable of exceptional gas mileage. Even using fairly sophisticated materials, they might be reasonably cheap just because there's not much material there. The Aptera is that same approach.
I confess that I am not thrilled at the idea of driving a thousand pound car--even if was made of carbon fiber composite, and was therefore very strong--because of the mass of the existing vehicles on the road. On the other hand, if it was fast and maneuverable enough, you might think of it as an overgrown motorcycle, and figure that you have to pay a lot of attention to the idiots on the road.
Another reader points me to a car from the 1960s that was probably just too advanced in its stylng for its time--and looks like something that George Jetson's kids might have taken to school: the Peel Trident.
UPDATE: Another reader points out that the Aptera website discusses this vehicle safety standards question:In fact, Aptera is a motorcycle manufacturer registered with DOT and CA DMV. This means, among other things, that we are able to issue VIN's. Our 'world identifier number' is '5WT', so all of our VIN's begin with '5WT'. Knowing the public perception of motorcycle safety, we made the decision to make safety a fundamental part of the design of our vehicles. For example, the Typ-1 roof is designed to EXCEED rollover strength requirements spelled out in FMVSS 216 for passenger vehicles. The doors EXCEED the strength requirement spelled out in FMVSS 214. We decided not just to meet many of the specs for passenger vehicles, which are set above and beyond the requirements for motorcycles, but we chose to exceed them whenever possible.
They aren't required to meet those standards, and they don't say that they meet all of them--just that they try to exceed them "whenever possible."
A friend points me to the Isetta, one of the early post-World War II "microcars."
Urine Tests
An interesting comment that came in from a reader: Like a lot of folks in this state, I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to get that paycheck, I am required to pass a random urine test with which I have no problem. What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don't have to pass a urine test. Shouldn't one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them? Please understand, I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do , on the other hand, have a problem with helping someone sitting on their [rear], doing drugs, while I work. . . . Can you imagine how much money the state would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check?
First of all, remember that "public assistance check" is something of a misnomer. Back in 1995, after Republicans took control of Congress, the old system of welfare was substantially revised. General Assistance (which was never very widespread or generous) largely went away. Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), which was widespread, open-ended, but not particularly generous, was replaced with Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF), which imposes significant limitations on its recipients--and it is not open-ended.
I know that there was a significant problem with AFDC. I had a distant cousin who ended up on AFDC, off and on, for many years. I asked her once how many AFDC recipients she knew where the core problem was her situation--a husband who never let work get in the way of his drug habit. She told me that every AFDC recipient she knew was in that category. She indicated that in about half of these homes, the mother managed to get food and rent paid out of the AFDC check, and whatever was left was spent on alcohol or pot. The other half of the homes that she saw, drugs came first; if there was anything left over, the mother would be able to feed the kids.
As I understand it, TANF has fundamentally changed the equation. There are obligations on TANF recipients to get training for a job, and there is a limited time during which one is eligible. In spite of the enormous whining from liberals about the suffering that the AFDC to TANF transformation was going to cause--it actually worked out surprisingly well. I suspect that there are still TANF recipients in the same drug-funded madness that my cousin was in--but I also suspect that simply ending the open-ended nature of the program probably changed things a bit. It would be interesting to see if TANF recipients are as deeply enmeshed in the drug culture as AFDC recipients used to be.
And I Thought The Prius Was a Bit Weird
This Aptera looks like something that George Jetson would have driven.
Just Like The Rest of Us, Right?
American Family Association has been promoting a boycott of McDonald's because of their involvement with the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, sponsorship of the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade, and the statement of a McDonald's spokesman that opposition to same-sex marriage is based on hatred. AFA has a web page up with some photographs that they say are from the most recent San Francisco Gay Pride Parade--and they are definitely not worksafe. They may not be lunchsafe.
Now, it is possible that these photographs aren't what AFA claims that they are--but if you go to any of a number of collections of photographs of the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade, AFA's photographs aren't at all hard to believe. Not every person marching in the parade is naked, or almost naked. Not every person is doing their best to appear like a freak. There are some that look like they want to be taken seriously as people, not as a circus sideshow (and my guess is that the more unusual ones tend to get photographed).
Still: what does it say about "being gay" that so many people feel it is appropriate to dress and behave in a manner that conforms to the worst stereotypes of homosexuality? Imagine if the NAACP sponsored a parade in which black men all dressed like Superfly, or worse, were portrayed as rapists. Even if there were blacks who thought that this was funny, or clever satire, they would find themselves marching pretty alone--because most blacks in America abhor these vicious stereotypes.
I'll believe the "homosexuals are just like the rest of us except for who they love" when gay pride parades stop being freak shows.
Heller II
Just because the Supreme Court has spoken, doesn't mean that the District of Columbia will obey the law. Here is the complaint filed against D.C.'s continued efforts to avoid obeying the law. Back in 1963, Democratic Governor George Wallace of Alabama gave a rather famous speech defying the Supreme Court:I say . . . segregation today . . . segregation tomorrow . . . segregation forever.
D.C. is a bit more circumspect, but their regulations are effectively, "gun bans today... gun bans tomorrow... gun bans forever."
All Larrys Are Alike, I Guess
Larry LaRocco is the Democratic nominee running after Senator Larry Craig's seat. So what happened when someone printed up campaign buttons for LaRocco, hoping that some of the Obamamessiah magic would rub off? They put a picture of Obama next to a picture of a Larry--Larry Craig! The amusing details can be found at the July 27, 2008 Idaho Statesman.
I Guess The War in Iraq Has Been Won
At least, if Associated Press is admitting it. See this July 26, 2008 account:
At this rate, even the Democrats will be willing to admit in, oh, perhaps ten or fifteen years.
My, Wasn't This Mature
From July 28, 2008 Inside Higher Education:
Professor Myers certainly does know how to upset people! As one of the comments over at Inside Higher Education points out:I don’t quite get why Myers is going after the Catholics, if his issue is evolution. (It’s rather like invading Iraq, if you’re mad at al-Qaeda).
Yup. Because the Catholic Church, as near as I can tell, has embraced evolution without any great problem. Christian critics of Evolution as the True Faith assert that much of what drives the ferocious attacks on Intelligent Design is not science, but a ferocious atheism that uses evolution merely as a tool. Myers' behavior seems to be confirming that claim--that his desire to attack religion is more important than his support for evolution, a scientific theory.
What's Wrong With This Picture? Knoxville Church Shooting
WBIR channel 10 reported yesterday that neighbors of the killer:A neighbor told 10News Adkisson described himself as a "Confederate" and a "believer in the old South." She says Adkisson self-identified in this way to her on more than one occasion, but that she didn't know what he meant by it.
At this morning's press conference, the police chief indicated that from a letter found in the killer's home:
1. He had been unemployed since 2006. (He had an associate's degree in mechanical engineering.)
2. He blamed liberals and gays for his inability to get a job--hence, his decision to attack the Tennessee Valley Unitarian-Universalist church.
3. He was upset about his food stamps being reduced.
4. His criminal record was two DUI convictions, one in California, and one in Tennessee.
5. He thought that he was having trouble getting a job because of his age.
This guy sounds like a mass of contradictions. You know, most rational people who hate liberalism aren't taking food stamps (a liberal program) or whining about age discrimination (a liberal concern). And somehow, blaming gays for his inability to get a job seems a bit bizarre to me--especially in mechanical engineering. There are some occupations that are stereotypically gay, but mechanical engineering isn't one of them.
This guy does seem pretty atypical, in many respects. The vast majority of murderers have one or both of the following characteristics:
1. Substantial violent crime histories before committing murder.
2. Histories of severe mental illness that was inadequately treated, or often not treated at all.
Murderers with just a couple of DUI convictions, and who have managed to get to such an advanced age without a violent criminal history, are pretty unusual.
According to the police chief's news conference this morning, he was planning to kill people until the police arrived and killed him--and had brought 78 rounds of shotgun ammunition with him. The police were there three minutes after the 911 call--excellent performance. But by then members of the church had overpowered this guy. Remember: when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
If I correctly heard what the police chief said, it appears that the killer only managed to fire three rounds before he was disarmed. It would appear that this guy wasn't smart enough to figure out how to position himself to do what he claimed he intended to do. Be glad that he wasn't terribly smart (which might better explain his employment problem than blaming liberals and gays).
It would also appear that the shotgun was purchased from a pawn shop a month in advance of this incident, demonstrating that a waiting period wouldn't have helped.
UPDATE: A bit more detail, just adding to the mass of contradictions, from the July 27, 2008 Knoxville News:
