Posts

Showing posts from 2010

Amanda Knox Indicted for Slander by Italian Court - ABC News

for Americans who want America to be more like Europe: Amanda Knox Indicted for Slander by Italian Court - ABC News : "American student Amanda Knox was indicted for a second time by an Italian court today, this time for allegedly slandering Italian police for saying they were abusive when they interrogated her for the murder of her roommate. - Sent using Google Toolbar" Europe has a lot of great things, it has some problems too...

bavink: Catholic righteousness by good works preferable to protestant righteousness by good doctrine

Open Mic at the iMonk Cafe: “Mere Christianity” Christians | internetmonk.com : "Chaplain Mike says: January 3, 2010 at 8:45 pm The following quote from Herman Bavinck, Reformed theologian, showed up on Boar’s Head Tavern recently: [W]e must remind ourselves that the Catholic righteousness by good works is vastly preferable to a protestant righteousness by good doctrine. At least righteousness by good works benefits one’s neighbor, whereas righteousness by good doctrine only produces lovelessness and pride. Furthermore, we must not blind ourselves to the tremendous faith, genuine repentence, complete surrender and the fervent love for God and neighbor evident in the lives and work of many Catholic Christians. The Christian life is so rich that it develops its full glory not just in a single form or within the walls of one church. Now there’s a truly Reformed guy who gets it. - Sent using Google Toolbar" Not sure if I agree, but if he said it, I want to think about it.

I remain cautioinsly optimistic: comment to WSJ: Another Threat to Economy: Boomers Cutting Back - WSJ.com

Another Threat to Economy: Boomers Cutting Back - WSJ.com : "* 2 hours ago * Richard Stave wrote: As a boomer and survivor of many poorly executed plans hatched by all forms of self-interested parties I would like to remain pragmatically optimistic. There were never enough desks, books, teachers or educational resources yet somehow I learned. There were never enough jobs to accommodate our numbers yet I learned how to accept lower compensation to make room for people from all walks of life while competing in a global marketplace. ... (I disagree with the last two paragaphs of the full article, though)

The Puffington Host | The New Republic | Ariana is a media entrepreneur

The Puffington Host | The New Republic : "06/01/2009 - 2:00pm EDT | teppy (user comment) The politics of PuffHo is secondary to the celebrity appeal: it has much more in common with the old 'Entertainment Tonight' fluff TV show than with TNR or The Nation. Arianna's not really a political activist; she's a media entrepreneur. Her political stands are just publicity vehicles for her core product, which is The Arianna Persona. [insert white space here] The reason that her latest product marketing campaign has succeeded so brilliantly is that it fuses, in almost ideal form, the two forces that drive a large part of consumer traffic in online media: celebrity gossip + ideological tribalism. Arianna understood, as Jan Wenner did with Rolling Stone and maybe JFK Jr did with his 1990s ... view full comment The politics of PuffHo is secondary to the celebrity appeal: it has much more in common with the old 'Entertainment Tonight' fluff TV show than with TNR or The

Stephens: From WikiLeaks to the Killing Fields - WSJ.com

Stephens: From WikiLeaks to the Killing Fields - WSJ.com : "The Cambodian genocide is especially worth recalling today not only for what it was, but for the public debates in the West that immediately preceded it. 'The greatest gift our country can give to the Cambodian people is peace, not guns,' said then-congressman, now senator, Chris Dodd, by way of making the case against the Ford administration's bid to extend military assistance to the pro-American government of Lon Nol. In the New York Times, Sydney Schanberg reported from Cambodia that 'it is difficult to imagine how [Cambodian] lives could be anything but better with the Americans gone.' Mr. Schanberg added that 'it would be tendentious to forecast [genocide] as a national policy under a Communist government once the war is over.' - Sent using Google Toolbar"

Talk:Abortion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion claims "The frequency of abortions is, however, similar whether or not access is restricted.[4]" I added to the Talk section about the page: Talk:Abortion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia : "'After 1973, legalization of abortion led to an approximately tenfold increase in the total number of abortions, though there is some dispute over the prelegalization statistics.[62]'. from Wikipedia article Abortion_in_the_United_States#Effects_of_legalization It is also a fact that the supply of children available for adoption basically disappeared after abortion was legalized, leading to adoption from other countries (sorry no cite but is easy to confirm). There may be third world countries were corruption is widespread where abortion laws (and many other laws) are ineffective. They should not be confused with countries with effective law enforcement where legalization makes a vast difference in availability and safety. (talk) 06:52, 11 Jul

is the world left wing?

another way of putting it would be that there is a lot of conservativism in the world. Catholics , Muslims and most everybody in non-Western countries, except the elites, are socially conservative on sex, pornography, roles of women, traditional families. Europeans, esp. Germans, want less stimulus spending that the US does. Divorce rates are lower in most countries than the US. Germany requires counseling before an abortion. There are less protections for criminal defendants in most countries than the US. Most countries have stricter immigration policies than the US. there is no corporation income tax in Germany. Most countries regulate business more than the US, but but then they give back to business in subsidies and protection. When was the last time you heard of a strike against Airbus, Volkswagen or Toyota? Government and labor in most countries believe their great corporations have to be successful for their countries to survive global competition. in reference to: "Of cour

What's wrong with fairness | The Economist

What's wrong with the idea of fairness in reference to: "Yet the fact that everybody believes in fairness is a clue to what’s wrong with the notion. Like that other warm-blanket word, “community”, it signals limp thinking. What exactly is “fair” about restricting trade, for instance? Or “unfair” about letting successful people in business or other fields enjoy the fruits of their enterprise without punitive taxes?" - Bad language: Against fairness | The Economist ( view on Google Sidewiki )

The Economist comes out against fairness

Bad language: Against fairness | The Economist : "Yet the fact that everybody believes in fairness is a clue to what’s wrong with the notion. Like that other warm-blanket word, “community”, it signals limp thinking. What exactly is “fair” about restricting trade, for instance? Or “unfair” about letting successful people in business or other fields enjoy the fruits of their enterprise without punitive taxes? “Fairness” suits Britain’s coalition government so well not just because its meanings are all positive, but also because—like views within the coalition—they are wide-ranging. To one lot of people, fairness means establishing the same rules for everybody, playing by them, and letting the best man win and the winner take all. To another, it means making sure that everybody gets equal shares. Those two meanings are not just different: they are opposite. They represent a choice that has to be made between freedom and equality. Yet so slippery—and thus convenient to politicians—is

Animals killing members of their own speicies

A couple of things I've seen recently have made me aware this is more common that I thought. At the Sand Diego Wild Animal Park, they said that while male lions often live 30 years in captivity, they seldom live more than 10 years in the wild, because of injuries caused in fights with other males, among other things. And a Nature episode about monkeys said a certain species in S America (Capuchin?) often battle each other in groups for the best feeding areas. More are killed by other monkeys of the same kind than by any predator. Reason for pessimism about the possibility of educating the aggressiveness out of man.

James T Butts effect on Santa Monica

says it was good assume she is talking about homeless people harrassing. Gilleigh McLain When James T. Butts, Jr., came to Santa Monica as our new Police Chief, the city was a living nightmare. And worse our city government was telling us that it was the "new normal" and we should just get used to it. Somehow a small group recognized the potential for this young new Chief to listen to and help the people ...of Santa Monica. And he did both. In but a few short years, he transformed our city for the better. He transformed our police department for the better. I shudder to think what my city would be like now, had he never been our Chief. I am green with envy that Inglewood has the opportunity to have this extraordinary man be Mayor. I can only wish Santa Monica had the same opportunity. Good luck good people of Inglewood. in reference to: "When James T. Butts, Jr., came to Santa Monica as our new Police Chief, the citywas a living nightmare. And worse our city government

fix 'autofill not available' google toolbar

fix 'autofill not available' google toolbar in reference to: "I figured out a much better fix. Deleting GoogleToolbarData in my existing profile dir fixed the issue (~/.mozilla/firefox/1emy5h7h.default/GoogleToolbarData). The only data I lost from my profile was my customized Google Toolbar setup itself (e.g. it went back to defaults and thought it had just been upgraded)." - I download the Toolbar, but nothing appears on the screen. - Toolbar Help ( view on Google Sidewiki )

FDR's kind of upper class-landed, merchant

Just to give another view-- - Landed gentry- do nothing for their money, just collect rents from farmers , unlike industrialists who create a manufacturing business, or financiers who identify promising businesses and risk their capital investing in them them. - Merchant seafarers - liberals today would call them 'globalizers', buying goods for very low prices where labor is very cheap and selling them for huge profits elsewhere. in reference to: "Both the Roosevelts and the Delanos were prosperous merchant families who had derived much of their fortunes from seafaring. As a landowner with a Hudson River estate, a man from a family that moved easily in the Edith Wharton universe of Knickerbocker society, Roosevelt approached economic problems with different preconceptions from those of the industrialist or the financier on the make." - The FDR Years: On Roosevelt and His Legacy ( view on Google Sidewiki )

The press loved FDR

He was skillful handling them, practiced Dale Carnegie techniques to get them on his side, genuinely good to them in giving them stories. If reporters were 60 percent for the New Deal, Clapper reckoned, they were 90 percent for Roosevelt personally.[36] Nothing wrong with what he did, but the result was far from an adversarial relationship with power that the press today says is proper. in reference to: The FDR Years: On Roosevelt and His Legacy ( view on Google Sidewiki )

Conservative George Will on FDR:

Key quality was optimism. in reference to: "On the centennial of FDR's birth, George Will wrote: Anyone who contemplates this century without shivering probably does not understand what is going on. But Franklin Roosevelt was, an aide said, like the fairy-tale prince who did not know how to shiver. Something was missing in FDR. ...But what FDR lacked made him great. He lacked the capacity even to imagine that things might end up badly." - The FDR Years: On Roosevelt and His Legacy ( view on Google Sidewiki )

Lethal force justified to preserve law and order

OAS body raises concerns over Jamaica as death toll rises - CNN.com "Case law of the Inter-American System of Human Rights has made it clear that agents of the State have the obligation to enforce the law and maintain order even when the process involves, in some cases, death or bodily injury as a result of the proportional use of force. "Furthermore, the force used must not be excessive. When excessive force is used, personal integrity is not respected, and all loss of life that results is arbitrary. The IACHR urges the State of Jamaica to adopt all necessary measures to guarantee the right to life, integrity, and security of all persons."

can a country or region ignore the markets

As long as you are in a separate country from the Greeks or French. If you are in the same country, the majority can vote to take your money for their own use. Watch out for 'ever closer union'. in reference to: "In the long term, you cannot operate against the markets (because you need their money), they just evaluate how you work and then decide whether tehy should trust you with their investment." - The euro crisis: Europe's 750 billion euro bazooka | The Economist ( view on Google Sidewiki )

The euro crisis: Europe's 750 billion euro bazooka | The Economist

The euro crisis: Europe's 750 billion euro bazooka | The Economist eutonicus wrote: May 10th 2010 4:44 GMT Marie Claude: - Chère amie: 1. I like France and I am a big fan if the German-French "axis" (part of my family is french). But in some policy fields, we simply disagree - first and foremost economic policy. And as long a France doesn't deliver significantly better results than e.g. Germany (and it never has), we will rather follow our own model than yours. 2. "Self-centered" are a) those who live beyond their means and expect those who don't to subsidy them and, worse, b) those countries that join a Union, break the rules on purpose and in the end expect those whose trust they broke to bail them out. 3. So France has more "the sense of the world realities than Germany"? Very funny! Where I live and work (in Poland, for a German company, btw), I don't even see French people -hardly ever in business, seldom as tourists. And this is the b

Straight Talk on the Verizon network.

I have Straight Talk on the Verizon network. Bought it at Walmart and it's an amazing deal. The Samsung Finesse is a very cool smartphone and paying only $45 a month for unlimited everything is the best deal going! Who needs an iPhone? LOL!! in reference to: "I have Straight Talk on the Verizon network. Bought it at Walmart and it's an amazing deal. The Samsung Finesse is a very cool smartphone and paying only $45 a month for unlimited everything is the best deal going!Who needs an iPhone? LOL!!" - Smart Shopping: Whose smartphone plans are cheapest? ( view on Google Sidewiki )

Krugman sidesteps Greek problem

Interesting article . He manages to say nothing bad about Greece, Europe, the Euro. The only bad things he says are the United States, George Bush, and especially Bush's tax cut. He says vaguely that Greek costs and prices got far out of line. The cost of what? Olive oil? Or labor? You don't have to be super-conservative to see that Greece shows that unions and government benefits CAN go too far. in reference to: "During the good years, when capital was flooding in, Greek costs and prices got far out of line with the rest of Europe. If Greece still had its own currency, it could restore competitiveness through devaluation" - Op-Ed Columnist - We’re Not Greece - NYTimes.com ( view on Google Sidewiki )

ad covered whole page

ad covered whole page in reference to: "ules and Asset ...Michigan Medicaid eligibility nursing home - Medicaid asset protection with ... Now, could any rational person argue that $149 is too much to pay to learn ...www.medicaidhelp.com/mi/ - Cached - Similar" - michigan nursing home paying - Google Search ( view on Google Sidewiki )

cuts are bad, increases are nothing

Note lots of negative headlines about cuts in the years when there are cuts (2008-2010) but no positive headlines in the years when budgets when up (the word increase does not even appear) 2002-2007. in reference to: California Budget Project ( view on Google Sidewiki )

This product is no longer being actively developed - 2006

This product is no longer being actively developed - 2006 in reference to: "JSEclipse :: Edit JavaScript with ease." - eclipse javascript - Google Search ( view on Google Sidewiki )

a sub-$200 ARM-powered laptop will bring many more millions of new users to the Internet

Google Open Sources Skia Graphics Engine : "It may only take a (South) Asian to appreciate that a sub-$200 ARM-powered laptop (with Android with the OS, and Chrome as the browser) together with a sub-$100 mobile handset (also with Android as the OS) will bring many more millions of new users to the Internet. And hence of direct or indirect benefit to Google."

How to remove XP Security Tool 2010

worked for me in reference to: "How to remove XP Security Tool 2010" - How to remove XP Security Tool 2010 | My Anti Spyware ( view on Google Sidewiki )

Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy

Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy cartoon - Do Dems support our liberal values and interests?

graph comparing US SP500, US small cap, European, Asian, and REIT performance

gspc = sp500 rmz = msci reit index naesx = vanguard small cap index fund in reference to: VANGUARD EUROPEAN STOCK INDEX F Fund Chart - Yahoo! Finance ( view on Google Sidewiki )

Wholesale internet prices decline globally; vary sharply across regions: CommsUpdate : TeleGeography Research

Maybe the US internet backbone isn't so bad? Wholesale internet prices decline globally; vary sharply across regions: CommsUpdate : TeleGeography Research : "Wholesale internet prices decline globally; vary sharply across regions CommsUpdate Image While the world is growing ever more interconnected, new data from TeleGeography’s IP Transit Pricing Service reveals that the price of wholesale internet access (IP transit) continues to vary dramatically around the world. Median monthly IP transit prices for 1,000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) ports in major US and European cities ranged from USD10 to USD14 per Mbps in Q2 2008. IP transit prices in Asia remain far higher than in the US and Europe. Prices for GigE ports in major Asian cities in Q2 2008 ranged from USD30 per Mbps month in Seoul to USD45 per Mbps per month in Tokyo. IP transit service in Latin America is even more expensive, with median GigE port prices ranging from USD73 per month in Buenos Aires to USD86 per month in