I can think of a way that I could support the mosque at Ground Zero.
Since the primary source of funds for this endeavor is Saudi Arabia, it seems to be that building a synagogue in Saudi Arabia's capital city, along with a Catholic cathedral and a Christian megachurch, and disavowing harrassment thereof would be a start.
But what would really convince me would be Teheran signing up for the same three religious edifices and the same disavowal.
What's that you say, don't hold my breath?
I won't, and I don't expect any of it to happen - which is why I say that I might support the mosque at Ground Zero - when pigs fly out of my arse!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Motorcycles
Just heard a guy on TeeVee say "Motorcycling is the most fun you'll ever have" - and he didn't even add "with your clothes on."
And I agree with him. I rode to work today - and grinned all the way in! I can see so much more, have what feels like so much more space to maneuver, and it seems like I'm less rushed. I don't mind moving over to let a nose-to-tail string of cagers (people who travel inside steel cages) pass me at illegal velocities - I just chug along and enjoy the view. It's far less stressful than being in the car, although it might well have been cooler in the car.
The bike I ride is a good commute vehicle - stable, a little heavy but not bad, smooth and has power and torque enough to pass just about anything I want to pass. It isn't a crotch rocket - it's more a cruiser - slow-turning V-twin, single carb, shaft drive - as close to maintenance-free as it gets. It always starts, and doesn't stall easily.
My daily ride to work is 50 miles the round trip. I have route choices, but none has any advantage in terms of time - it takes as long as it takes, and in the morning I stop a few minutes shy of the office for a giant cup of 7-11 coffee with amaretto creamer, a sandwich and a yogurt - which is what gets me through a work day. If I do everything right, the coffee stays upright until I get parked at work - if I don't do everything right, instead of a big cup of coffee I have a plastic bag of coffee - not my favorite thing!
At the end of the day, I go back outside, start the bike, and reverse the process, with a little less pressure as regards time since nobody at home looks at what time I get back in. In the evening I am likely to take short detours and try different heretofore untried routes - mornings are pretty much set on one of three routes, because of the need to be on time.
But the days I ride are typically easier days for me - I arrive more relaxed than on other days, and generally concentrate better. I seem to have more time to think about things before I arrive when I ride in - in the car, more of me is occupied with traffic, planning when I want to make a lane change, looking ahead for traffic chokepoints and such.
Of course, I'm not fond of riding in the rain. Cold is not as bad as rain, and I ride pretty late into the year. Snow is a nono - that should go without saying, although if I were to add a side car, I'd probably ride year-round. I am healthier when I ride when it is cold, and generally don't mind a cold run if it doesn't get to be more than 50 miles or so.
I have been riding now more than 50 years, and don't think I'm likely to give it up any time soon. It's a cheap pleasure, a good mood freshener, and even cheaper than driving the car!
Anyone who wants to sample it should find a Motorcycle Safety Foundation course to take. The courses have motorcycles so you don't have to spend a bunch of money that you might later regret, the instructors are pros who don't have the bad habits that folks like me may have who learned to ride by doing - and you can start on a bike that is a good size for learning, well maintained and not at all finicky.
Motorcycling is fun, it is only dangerous if you let it be, and will make you cheerful.
Try it - you'll like it!
And I agree with him. I rode to work today - and grinned all the way in! I can see so much more, have what feels like so much more space to maneuver, and it seems like I'm less rushed. I don't mind moving over to let a nose-to-tail string of cagers (people who travel inside steel cages) pass me at illegal velocities - I just chug along and enjoy the view. It's far less stressful than being in the car, although it might well have been cooler in the car.
The bike I ride is a good commute vehicle - stable, a little heavy but not bad, smooth and has power and torque enough to pass just about anything I want to pass. It isn't a crotch rocket - it's more a cruiser - slow-turning V-twin, single carb, shaft drive - as close to maintenance-free as it gets. It always starts, and doesn't stall easily.
My daily ride to work is 50 miles the round trip. I have route choices, but none has any advantage in terms of time - it takes as long as it takes, and in the morning I stop a few minutes shy of the office for a giant cup of 7-11 coffee with amaretto creamer, a sandwich and a yogurt - which is what gets me through a work day. If I do everything right, the coffee stays upright until I get parked at work - if I don't do everything right, instead of a big cup of coffee I have a plastic bag of coffee - not my favorite thing!
At the end of the day, I go back outside, start the bike, and reverse the process, with a little less pressure as regards time since nobody at home looks at what time I get back in. In the evening I am likely to take short detours and try different heretofore untried routes - mornings are pretty much set on one of three routes, because of the need to be on time.
But the days I ride are typically easier days for me - I arrive more relaxed than on other days, and generally concentrate better. I seem to have more time to think about things before I arrive when I ride in - in the car, more of me is occupied with traffic, planning when I want to make a lane change, looking ahead for traffic chokepoints and such.
Of course, I'm not fond of riding in the rain. Cold is not as bad as rain, and I ride pretty late into the year. Snow is a nono - that should go without saying, although if I were to add a side car, I'd probably ride year-round. I am healthier when I ride when it is cold, and generally don't mind a cold run if it doesn't get to be more than 50 miles or so.
I have been riding now more than 50 years, and don't think I'm likely to give it up any time soon. It's a cheap pleasure, a good mood freshener, and even cheaper than driving the car!
Anyone who wants to sample it should find a Motorcycle Safety Foundation course to take. The courses have motorcycles so you don't have to spend a bunch of money that you might later regret, the instructors are pros who don't have the bad habits that folks like me may have who learned to ride by doing - and you can start on a bike that is a good size for learning, well maintained and not at all finicky.
Motorcycling is fun, it is only dangerous if you let it be, and will make you cheerful.
Try it - you'll like it!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Hyphenated Americans
Understand something - I am an American - a citizen of these United States.
My ancestors came from Germany, Scotland, Ireland, and several other places. They became part of the Great American Dream, and ceased to be German, Scottish or Irish. They became American.
They did not relinquish their various foods, languages, literature, or anything else - all of that continued to live on in their homes, but they became a part of something bigger - and when outside their homes, conversed in English and generally assimilated into the culture of this nation - becoming tolerant of others otherness, and gaining in understanding that there is much to be learned from people not like us - and that valuable things that are learned from such folks can become part of our constantly moving and growing culture. At no time did someone take that American culture, nail it to a wall and say "This is how it is and it cannot change."
I tend to look askance at folks who are hyphenated Americans - German-Americans, Italian-Americans, African-Americans, and suchlike - they place something before the American in what they claim to be - which makes me wonder how anything about their citizenship could be more important than the American part.
We tend to be pretty tolerant - we tend to help new arrivals, show our best faces to folks we do not know, and be rather accepting of others' religious practices. I know of an area where within a block one can find Christians, Jews, Muslims and a Buddhist family - and none is trying to kill or to convert the other; rather they are respectful of the otherness of others and strive to find common ground in order to be better neighbors to one another. It's how Americans are - or rather how they used to be when I was growing up.
It seems that here of late we are getting Balkanized - we are being asked to accept a language other than English, asked to adjust our calendars and our laws to suit one group of folks more than the folks who are already here, and we are being asked to give precedence to folks who will not even deign to follow the rules to join us as immigrants.
This is wrong.
We ought not to care what language folk use at home, whether they sit on the floor or on the roof, nor what they will or will not eat - in someone's home that's how it is. But we ought not to be so prepared to allow someone's home and ancestral culture to be used to tell us that what we have built of a couple of hundred years is no longer valid, and what folks from other places bring is more valid and more useful. After all, if those other places were all that great, how come people are trying so hard to get away from those places to come here?
In Germany, part of the national tax supports churches. We don't do that here.
In Mexico, noncitizens cannot own prime property. We have no such restriction.
In the parts of the Middle East, citizenship is restricted to followers of Muhammed. We have no such rule here.
The USA is a different place from the rest of the world, and the differences are important. I can see no reason to turn it into France if France already exists - folks could simply go there. Of course, they'd have to learn French....
The world is full of socialist nations - those in lover with it could go there, but won't - because there are always things there that are different, be it Language, Laws, Climate, Living conditions, or potential for employment.
This great nation is a unique place - why folks would want to turn it into another place that already exists is beyond me.
Some have told me that there's no equality here - but they don't understand that equality cannot guarantee equal outcomes. We are all born the same way, but we can't all be Ted Kennedy (not that I'd want to be Ted Kennedy.) and we all can't be rich - but the class envy that is being used to justify redistribution of income is obscene. I've had some lucky breaks; so have some other folks I know. Sometimes we get bad breaks - and we can either let it defeat us or rise above it. A lot of our station in life has to do with decisions we ourselves make - and if they are bad decisions, you are not owed the fruits of my labor to bail you out - although I can help if it pleases me to do so.
I've done plenty of stupid things, some of which hurt me rather badly, physically or fiscally. Nobody owes me a bailout - much as I might have liked to be Malcolm S. Forbes, I wasn't - and there is no set of circumstances that permits me to believe that he (or his estate since he's dead now) owes me a bailout from my own foolishness or anything of that nature.
Lots of what happens we ourselves have to own. Your degree in Albanian Studies probably won't make you rich, or even moderately well off - but that study was your choice, so live with it. My occupation did not exist when I exited high school trying to imagine what to do if I ever grew up - I had to change, to adapt, to find opportunity and to work to excel to be noticed. It can be done, but nobody else has to own your errors.
I guess I'm just irritable today - I spent the morning listening to a couple of coworkers harranguing one another about how bad life was, and how much they were owed for having been born.
Americans simply are - they need no excuse, and they need apologize to nobody. It's OK if you don't like me - but it's not OK to threaten my existence because I have friends who are Jews, because I get paid better or because I will not change my views to yours. One of the unique things about Americans is that we understand everyone's belief has the potential to be right, so we tolerate all sorts of various beliefs. This is not easily accepted by those with blinders on who, having seen nothing else cannot conceive of anything being worthwhile that they've not already seen and passed on as good. But those with blinders on are the ones who'll ultimately suffer for their own ignorance, and their own failure to allow themselves to learn from others.
Enough. I'll be back another day.
My ancestors came from Germany, Scotland, Ireland, and several other places. They became part of the Great American Dream, and ceased to be German, Scottish or Irish. They became American.
They did not relinquish their various foods, languages, literature, or anything else - all of that continued to live on in their homes, but they became a part of something bigger - and when outside their homes, conversed in English and generally assimilated into the culture of this nation - becoming tolerant of others otherness, and gaining in understanding that there is much to be learned from people not like us - and that valuable things that are learned from such folks can become part of our constantly moving and growing culture. At no time did someone take that American culture, nail it to a wall and say "This is how it is and it cannot change."
I tend to look askance at folks who are hyphenated Americans - German-Americans, Italian-Americans, African-Americans, and suchlike - they place something before the American in what they claim to be - which makes me wonder how anything about their citizenship could be more important than the American part.
We tend to be pretty tolerant - we tend to help new arrivals, show our best faces to folks we do not know, and be rather accepting of others' religious practices. I know of an area where within a block one can find Christians, Jews, Muslims and a Buddhist family - and none is trying to kill or to convert the other; rather they are respectful of the otherness of others and strive to find common ground in order to be better neighbors to one another. It's how Americans are - or rather how they used to be when I was growing up.
It seems that here of late we are getting Balkanized - we are being asked to accept a language other than English, asked to adjust our calendars and our laws to suit one group of folks more than the folks who are already here, and we are being asked to give precedence to folks who will not even deign to follow the rules to join us as immigrants.
This is wrong.
We ought not to care what language folk use at home, whether they sit on the floor or on the roof, nor what they will or will not eat - in someone's home that's how it is. But we ought not to be so prepared to allow someone's home and ancestral culture to be used to tell us that what we have built of a couple of hundred years is no longer valid, and what folks from other places bring is more valid and more useful. After all, if those other places were all that great, how come people are trying so hard to get away from those places to come here?
In Germany, part of the national tax supports churches. We don't do that here.
In Mexico, noncitizens cannot own prime property. We have no such restriction.
In the parts of the Middle East, citizenship is restricted to followers of Muhammed. We have no such rule here.
The USA is a different place from the rest of the world, and the differences are important. I can see no reason to turn it into France if France already exists - folks could simply go there. Of course, they'd have to learn French....
The world is full of socialist nations - those in lover with it could go there, but won't - because there are always things there that are different, be it Language, Laws, Climate, Living conditions, or potential for employment.
This great nation is a unique place - why folks would want to turn it into another place that already exists is beyond me.
Some have told me that there's no equality here - but they don't understand that equality cannot guarantee equal outcomes. We are all born the same way, but we can't all be Ted Kennedy (not that I'd want to be Ted Kennedy.) and we all can't be rich - but the class envy that is being used to justify redistribution of income is obscene. I've had some lucky breaks; so have some other folks I know. Sometimes we get bad breaks - and we can either let it defeat us or rise above it. A lot of our station in life has to do with decisions we ourselves make - and if they are bad decisions, you are not owed the fruits of my labor to bail you out - although I can help if it pleases me to do so.
I've done plenty of stupid things, some of which hurt me rather badly, physically or fiscally. Nobody owes me a bailout - much as I might have liked to be Malcolm S. Forbes, I wasn't - and there is no set of circumstances that permits me to believe that he (or his estate since he's dead now) owes me a bailout from my own foolishness or anything of that nature.
Lots of what happens we ourselves have to own. Your degree in Albanian Studies probably won't make you rich, or even moderately well off - but that study was your choice, so live with it. My occupation did not exist when I exited high school trying to imagine what to do if I ever grew up - I had to change, to adapt, to find opportunity and to work to excel to be noticed. It can be done, but nobody else has to own your errors.
I guess I'm just irritable today - I spent the morning listening to a couple of coworkers harranguing one another about how bad life was, and how much they were owed for having been born.
Americans simply are - they need no excuse, and they need apologize to nobody. It's OK if you don't like me - but it's not OK to threaten my existence because I have friends who are Jews, because I get paid better or because I will not change my views to yours. One of the unique things about Americans is that we understand everyone's belief has the potential to be right, so we tolerate all sorts of various beliefs. This is not easily accepted by those with blinders on who, having seen nothing else cannot conceive of anything being worthwhile that they've not already seen and passed on as good. But those with blinders on are the ones who'll ultimately suffer for their own ignorance, and their own failure to allow themselves to learn from others.
Enough. I'll be back another day.
Mosques at Ground Zero
I do not want to see one built, not now, not ever. It is said that Muslims are peace-loving peoples, and that what has been done by angry Muslim men is a travesty. Why do we not hear the highest Muslim authorities disavowing this activity? Our president is apologizing all over the world for our slights real or imagined - why has no Muslim authority or nation apologized for this massive affront?
It was not the Christians, the Jews, the Buddhists, the Taoists, the Hindi or any of thousands of others who so desecrated that place, and I for one am not interested in permitting the glorification on that site of the actions by the heirarchy of the group that created the devastation but has yet to acknowledge any complicity or even the wrongness in the actions.
No mosque at Ground Zero.
It was not the Christians, the Jews, the Buddhists, the Taoists, the Hindi or any of thousands of others who so desecrated that place, and I for one am not interested in permitting the glorification on that site of the actions by the heirarchy of the group that created the devastation but has yet to acknowledge any complicity or even the wrongness in the actions.
No mosque at Ground Zero.
Congress
Several years back, a mistake was made by Congress.
Originally, the House of Representatives was intended to be the representation for the people. Theoretically, it still is, although I believe it's more an old boys club, where the primary purpose of the inhabitants is to stay there by promising whatever folks want to be promised, usually at someone else's expense.
The Senate, however, was intended to be representation for the various states - and Senators were chosen by the legislators of the various states - insuring that the interests of those states were represented, and that no state was more equal than any other state. Since we are not a pure democracy, but a constitutional representative republic, the states have a responsibility to the voters of their own representatives in whatever bodies the states hold to be legislative - and the state as a body has responsibility to itself and to its inhabitants at the federal level to have the interests of the state represented when legislation is being made that affects the state as a corporate body. Senators were to be answerable to the state legislatures, not to the states' individual voters.
By making senators popularly elected we have effectively removed from them any responsibility to represent the state as a corporate entity - they now depend on their popularity with Joe SixPax to get elected rather than the works they have done in behalf of the state legislature. The interests of the states are thereby not being served.
I think that this is wrong, and I think it should be reversed. What it represents at present is an excuse for states to ignore whatever duties they may have, to defer to the Federal Government in all matters and, ultimately, to create for all of us one huge Federal state, which we will all hate.
My opinion, folks.
Originally, the House of Representatives was intended to be the representation for the people. Theoretically, it still is, although I believe it's more an old boys club, where the primary purpose of the inhabitants is to stay there by promising whatever folks want to be promised, usually at someone else's expense.
The Senate, however, was intended to be representation for the various states - and Senators were chosen by the legislators of the various states - insuring that the interests of those states were represented, and that no state was more equal than any other state. Since we are not a pure democracy, but a constitutional representative republic, the states have a responsibility to the voters of their own representatives in whatever bodies the states hold to be legislative - and the state as a body has responsibility to itself and to its inhabitants at the federal level to have the interests of the state represented when legislation is being made that affects the state as a corporate body. Senators were to be answerable to the state legislatures, not to the states' individual voters.
By making senators popularly elected we have effectively removed from them any responsibility to represent the state as a corporate entity - they now depend on their popularity with Joe SixPax to get elected rather than the works they have done in behalf of the state legislature. The interests of the states are thereby not being served.
I think that this is wrong, and I think it should be reversed. What it represents at present is an excuse for states to ignore whatever duties they may have, to defer to the Federal Government in all matters and, ultimately, to create for all of us one huge Federal state, which we will all hate.
My opinion, folks.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Rights
This particular rant is a long time coming, but (IMHO) relevant.
There's a bunch of discussion today about rights, legisation of and about rights, and the granting of rights.
Let's understand one thing - rights aren't granted, they simply are. Anything a government, organization or person grants to you is at best a privilege, subject to removal. Rights preexist governments.
Rights cannot be legislated - if they could, they could be legislated away. If what you may do can be legislated away by your government, you are not a citizen, you're a subject whose very life exists at the whim of someone else.
The Constitution does not either create or legislate rights. What it does is to recognize that rights exist, and they existed before its writing and acceptance.
Congress cannot grant you a right. The President cannot grant you a right. Not even the Constitution can grant you a right, although it can and does recognize rights that already exist.
Anything granted is at best a privilege - and they can be taken away.
Pay attention - this is important, because people who want to tell you what to do will try to convince you that they are creating new rights for you, and they're not - they're creating privileged groups - and theise groups can become non-privileged just as soon as they start to become uppity.
There's a bunch of discussion today about rights, legisation of and about rights, and the granting of rights.
Let's understand one thing - rights aren't granted, they simply are. Anything a government, organization or person grants to you is at best a privilege, subject to removal. Rights preexist governments.
Rights cannot be legislated - if they could, they could be legislated away. If what you may do can be legislated away by your government, you are not a citizen, you're a subject whose very life exists at the whim of someone else.
The Constitution does not either create or legislate rights. What it does is to recognize that rights exist, and they existed before its writing and acceptance.
Congress cannot grant you a right. The President cannot grant you a right. Not even the Constitution can grant you a right, although it can and does recognize rights that already exist.
Anything granted is at best a privilege - and they can be taken away.
Pay attention - this is important, because people who want to tell you what to do will try to convince you that they are creating new rights for you, and they're not - they're creating privileged groups - and theise groups can become non-privileged just as soon as they start to become uppity.
Illegal Immigrants
A more meaningless juxtaposition of words I have never seen.
Think about it - Immigrants are people from other nations who get in line, obey the rules, jump through the hoops that this nation requires for immigrant status. Immigrants are de jure and defacto legal.
Illegal Aliens are folks from other nations who just bust in and take what they want, secure in the knowledge that we'll put up with it. Well, I know too many who stood in like and are still standing in line that have more potential to be of benefit to this great nation, Folks who jump the line and don't obey the rules should be run out of town on a rail. More members of the criminal class we do not need - and an illegal alien, because it refuses to follow the rules is a criminal.
It's pretty simple to me. I'm sorry that Mexico feels that we are being discriminatory by insisting on a set of immigration rules far less draconian than those which Mexico imposes on outsiders who would live there. Furthermore, I am astounded that the Mexican Government has the stones to complain that our returning their illegals is putting a strain on their infrastructure - that is not our fault!
I'm gonna have more to say, but this is probably enough for tonight. I have a bunch backed up since February - and some of it ain't pretty!
Think about it - Immigrants are people from other nations who get in line, obey the rules, jump through the hoops that this nation requires for immigrant status. Immigrants are de jure and defacto legal.
Illegal Aliens are folks from other nations who just bust in and take what they want, secure in the knowledge that we'll put up with it. Well, I know too many who stood in like and are still standing in line that have more potential to be of benefit to this great nation, Folks who jump the line and don't obey the rules should be run out of town on a rail. More members of the criminal class we do not need - and an illegal alien, because it refuses to follow the rules is a criminal.
It's pretty simple to me. I'm sorry that Mexico feels that we are being discriminatory by insisting on a set of immigration rules far less draconian than those which Mexico imposes on outsiders who would live there. Furthermore, I am astounded that the Mexican Government has the stones to complain that our returning their illegals is putting a strain on their infrastructure - that is not our fault!
I'm gonna have more to say, but this is probably enough for tonight. I have a bunch backed up since February - and some of it ain't pretty!
Arizona
I've been thinking about all the hooraw about Arizona's law with respect to illegal aliens.
I know how to make sure that there can be no charges of profiling.
Just make sure that everyone who interacts with police at any time are asked for papers. If everyone has to do it, there can be no discrimination. I am accustomed to being asked for ID in a traffic stop, and I'm a native-born old fat bearded white guy - no profiling there, although I do ride a motorcycle, so maybe I can make a case for profiling after all? I guess not - more damn trouble than it is worth.
I think Eric Holder needs replaced with someone who can read who doesn't hate white folks.
But that's just my opinion, folks. Meanwhile, I applaud Arizona, and regret that I work for a city that can't meet its obligation to its inhabitants but does advertise itself as a Sanctuary City - no damn wonder they can't pay their bills!
I know how to make sure that there can be no charges of profiling.
Just make sure that everyone who interacts with police at any time are asked for papers. If everyone has to do it, there can be no discrimination. I am accustomed to being asked for ID in a traffic stop, and I'm a native-born old fat bearded white guy - no profiling there, although I do ride a motorcycle, so maybe I can make a case for profiling after all? I guess not - more damn trouble than it is worth.
I think Eric Holder needs replaced with someone who can read who doesn't hate white folks.
But that's just my opinion, folks. Meanwhile, I applaud Arizona, and regret that I work for a city that can't meet its obligation to its inhabitants but does advertise itself as a Sanctuary City - no damn wonder they can't pay their bills!
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