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Earl Aagaard’s opinions about everything that interests him. Og also enjoys gardening, travel, reading, woodbutchery, and lots of other stuff.

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Wednesday, September 21, 2005

ANOTHER NOMINATION FOR “COURAGE IN THE FACE OF COMMUNITY PRESSURE”

GOOD INTENTIONS AREN’T ENOUGH.  At least, that’s what John McWhorter, today’s candidate. tells us.  LBJ’s Great Society had wonderful intentions - to rid the U.S. of poverty in a single generation.  The results were not what was expected.

What Katrina stripped bare, then, was not white supremacy, but that culture matters — even if what created the culture was misguided white benevolence. Social scientists neglect that before the 1960s poor blacks knew plenty of economic downturns and plenty more racism.

But before the 1960s the kinds of behaviour so common among the blacks stranded in the Superdome, possibly including multiple rapes, was a fringe phenomenon. Only after the 1960s did it become a community norm.

READ the whole thing….

Posted by Earl on 09/21 at 02:42 PM
Miscellany • COURAGE AWARDS • Politics • Domestic • Comments •

THE BEST EDUCATION IS DONE AT HOME…..BUT WHAT DO HOME-SCHOOLERS *READ*?

Well, it varies a bit according to the political commitments of the parents…but there are remarkable similarities, as well. 

Though there is plenty of crossover, Wilder and Henty appeal to slightly different crowds. Liberals and secularists may be wary of Henty’s God-talk and manlier-than-thou chivalry, while the most religious Christians would consider Wilder insufficiently pious. But what’s more interesting is what these two authors—and their readerships—have in common: a preference for long books, often parts of a series, consumed with a leisure that public-school curricula don’t allow; an emphasis on narratives, which children like, divorced from contemporary politics, which surely can wait; and a powerful sense that children are major players in the world, the kind of people, perhaps, who deserve better than large classrooms and who may grow up more likely to write books than to be told which ones to read.

READ the whole thing….

Posted by Earl on 09/21 at 12:40 PM
Comments •

*WHO* WASN’T PREPARED WHEN DISASTER STRUCK?  WHO…....?

When it comes right down to it, my libertarian tendencies were reinforced by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  (By the way, you can FIND OUT if YOU are libertarian, too by taking a simple quiz.) 

Despite the ravings of the German Chancellor, what is needed is NOT more and bigger Government!! 

Listen, for example, to volunteers who prepared 92 boats to help evacuate people from the rooftops of New Orleans. They were ultimately kept out by Federal Emergency Management Agency bureaucrats because, among other things, they didn’t have life preservers. Or listen to the volunteers who organized 100 doctors to treat 400 sick people at a converted Baton Rouge warehouse—until they, too, were told by the government to shut down, reopen and then shut down again. Or to the hundreds of firefighters who, according to the New York Times, responded to a nationwide call for help and were then “held by the federal agency in Atlanta for days of training on community relations and sexual harassment,” while women were raped and lives were lost in New Orleans. Compare their frustration to the joy experienced by 8-year-olds across the country, washing cars for the Red Cross.

Continue reading

Posted by Earl on 09/21 at 12:19 PM
Comments •

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES MAY NOT HAVE BEEN PREPARED FOR HURRICANE KATRINA, BUT SOMOENE WAS!!

Would you believe WAL-MART?  Yep.  They had a plan, they had resources, they had competent people on the job, and although liberal America thinks it’s an awful company, the “real people” in Louisiana beg to differ…....

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Posted by Earl on 09/21 at 11:35 AM
Comments •

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

SO…..HOW ARE THE ROBERTS FOR SUPREME COURT HEARINGS GOING…...?

WARNING:  Some may be offended by the frank nature of material on the link provided.

About as you might expect, actually:

FEINSTEIN: I told you to answer in your own words, Judge Roberts. Check the transcript.

ROBERTS: You most certainly did not. You presented me a series of questions, each having two binary choices—

FEINSTEIN: “Use your own words” was in the penumbras and emanations of my question, Judge Roberts. Or are you saying you don’t believe in penumbras and emanations now as well? I don’t think the American people would stand for a justice who doesn’t believe in penumbras and emanations, especially in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

ROBERTS: I, uhhh…

(Charles Schumer and Pat Leahy giggle like schoolgirls)

ROBERTS: I just don’t think your accusation is fair.

FEINSTEIN: That’s enough out of you, Judge Roberts. Or should I say—Herr Judge Doktor Roberts?

For a real laugh, READ the whole thing.  Just remember to empty your bladder, first!

Posted by Earl on 09/14 at 09:15 AM
Comments •

Saturday, September 10, 2005

HEROES OF THE NEW ORLEANS HURRICANE…..

Are you surprised to find out it’s a couple of those eeeeeeeeeevil corporations we hear lambasted all the time by certain voices in our country?

Yep!  Looking ahead and making plans.  Getting what is needed into place at the right time.  All those things that private (competitive) firms are so good at. 

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Posted by Earl on 09/10 at 07:36 PM
Miscellany • Politics • Comments •

Friday, September 09, 2005

HAVE THEY REACHED *YOUR* PERSONAL “YUCK” THRESHOLD, YET?

Really not? 

BRITISH scientists have been given permission to create human embryos that will have three genetic parents….The decision to approve the procedure on appeal, after two previous applications were rejected, is controversial because it could eventually lead to the birth of children who carry genes from two mothers and a father.

“Controversial”?  Do tell…...

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Posted by Earl on 09/09 at 09:03 PM
Science • Miscellany • Religion • Politics • Life Issues • Comments •
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