Imposition of Christiana Law

Are we really still debating the right to choose in the US? Really?

Does life begin at conception?
Have you heard of weasel words? It's when people use a word or phrase that is slightly different than what they mean in order to assert something that is either not factual or not provable. "Life begins at conception" is a perfect example of weasel words. Here's why:

What the statement "life begins at conception" says is that the embryo is alive. To prove that, you only need to prove things such as metabolism, biological function, etc. Easy. An embryo is most certainly, absolutely, incontrovertibly alive. So were the cells that existed before they fused to form it. So is a house plant.

What the statement "life begins at conception" implies, or is used to assert, is that a human life, humanity, with the right to not be murdered unless the state decides otherwise (lacking, however, the right to choose to end itself) begins at conception. And that's a whole other ball of wax isn't it? The belief that humanity begins at conception is just that, a belief.

So?
So probably more than 99% of the US population is opposed to the imposition of Sharia law within the US. It's one of the few things Americans agree on nearly unanimously. Why? Because Americans recognize that it's wrong to impose laws based on religious beliefs instead of laws based on clearly verifiable facts and logic. It's one of the most basic concepts of the US. Americans may disagree over the right of the US to tell other countries what laws they may or may not have, but advocating for a law limiting directed bequests to one third of the estate and requiring the rest to be distributed according to a state formula with female heirs receiving half as much as male heirs within the US, for example, wouldn't go far. That would be the imposition of a belief with no greater interest of the state involved.

So legislating the belief that humanity begins at conception is no different than the imposition of Sharia law.  It is the imposition of a belief with no greater interest of the state involved.

Every woman has the right to choose not to have an abortion if she believes that the life in her womb, however it was conceived and at whatever risk to her own health, should be viewed as a citizen with rights of its own. She does not, however, have the right to believe that on behalf of the woman next door.

The odd thing is that if I pondered the imposition of Christiana Law, I'd have expected the bits about loving your neighbor to be legislated first, paving the way for the total imposition of Christiana Law. Who knew restrictions would come first? As a Christian, I'm offended. There's nothing Christian about the imposition of Christiana Law. Attempting to found laws on the beliefs of a subset of Christians should be as repulsive to the American spirit as the founding of laws on the beliefs of anyone else.

Well Hmmm

Who's writing the script?

I mean.... If someone says, "A rose by any other name...," then anyone decently read has the Shakespeare bell go off immediately. When we watch ten different news anchors parrot a phrase like, "Muslim seminary," we know that writer of The Memo is speaking.

So when two speakers thousands of miles apart utter almost precisely the same words, who's writing the script?

Akin, US: "First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist [and the woman] and not attacking the child."

Van der Staaij [Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij = Political Reformation Party = Anti-Civil Rights, Anti-Choice, Anti-Family-Support, Anti-Interracial-Adoption, Anti-Etc.*], NL: "Volgens SGP-leider Kees van der Staaij is er na een verkrachting maar een ‘hele kleine kans’ dat het slachtoffer zwanger raakt. Mocht dat wel gebeuren, dan is abortus geen optie, zo zei de lijsttrekker van de SGP vanmiddag bij RTL Z." [According to SGP-leader Kees van der Staaij there is, following a rape, only an 'extremely small chance' that the victim will get pregnant. If that happens, then abortion is not an option, says the top candidate from the SGP today on RTL Z (news channel).]

They don't both work for Faux News. They don't both have an interest in US politics, or Dutch politics for that matter. V.d. Staaij is running against the grain of vast majority of the Dutch population, and in the US, half the population will readily say they're opposed to abortion... until the situation is in their lap.

So who's writing the script? Has The Memo spread? What a horrific thought.

Just things that make you say hmmm.

* For the Americans amongst us, the Dutch system is very different. In the US, because there is direct voting for the Executive branch, political leanings are forced into two groups for the sake of survival. In NL, the head of the Executive branch is the first member listed by the party with the most votes in the Second House (Parliament). Because of this, and the coalition system that is used to form the government, political difference is encouraged. A party like the SGP, which represents just 5k (.4%) of the votes, is still taken seriously.

Acceptable Compromises?

It goes a little something like this: "Life begins at conception. Therefore all abortion and some contraception is wrong. Period. But if we say that, there's no way we'll be able to get our platform past the American people. Therefore, in order to get more votes, it's OK to kill children sometimes." 

Have the courage of your convictions, and attempt to establish policies that reflect what you actually think. Then the people will reject you. Oh, you knew that already. Sorry. 

The alternative is that the premise, "Life begins at conception" is NOT what you really think, and you have some other motive for attempting to control women's decisions. Again, have the courage of your convictions, and say so. Then the people will reject you. Oh, you knew that already. Again, sorry.

They Know How to Party

And you were complaining the holidays just aren't the same anymore. Were they ever? Really? Did Norman Rockwell’s America ever exist? Never mind, that’s another story. This one is about how normal our quiet little celebrations really are. Comparatively speaking, of course. Festivals from around the world will make you wonder why you ever complained that your neighbor uses purple Christmas lights.

Batalla de la Rata Muerta: The Dead Rat Party

I have often thought that the teaching of children that life is happily-ever-after and “yes that’s a wonderful finger painting of a brown blob, dear” may be wrong. Life isn’t like that, right? There are pitfalls, road bumps, and rats. Brown blobs aren’t always made of chocolate.

If you don’t want your kids to have to learn the hard way, then maybe Batalla de la Rata Meurta is the way to go.

This is an annual festival with piñatas. Only half the piñatas don’t have candy. They have a dead rat. Make of it what you will, that’s a life lesson right there.

This is technically the Festival of Saint Pedro Nolasco. But the Dead Rat Party is way more hipster. The rules of the party are that if the piñata in question is of the rat variety and not the mm yummy sweet goodness variety (never the twain should meet cuz everyone knows rats hate sugar), then the “winner” of the rat piñata celebrates by throwing the dead rat at someone. This leads to a sort of dead-rat hot-potato game. Fun for all.

Las Bolas de Feugo: Fire Ball Party

In El Salvador they remember their saint saving them from the demons of an erupting volcano by throwing balls of fire at the demons. (I read once that an eye witness to a plane crash stated that the pilot pulled a can of carb heat out of the glove compartment and sprayed it on the engine. Memory is a funny thing.)

To celebrate, the residents of Nejapa, the town saved by Saint Jeronimo, throw flaming kerosene-soaked rags at each other. Wahoo. They do wear water-soaked gloves. Safety first! And you thought dodge ball was too intense. Wussies.

Bous a la Mar: Sea Bulls

Here’s a little-known fact: Bulls are fairly chill. Sure if they think you are tryin’ to get at their cow they go a lil testosteroney on you. Or if you’re poking things into them. Or… yeah OK there are several ways to piss off a bull.

Anyway, angry bulls can generally be avoided by staying out of the corral. Simple.

Unless you’re at Bous a la Mar. At this party, fun is had by all when you get the bull to chase you… into the sea. It’s kind of like running of the bulls, only the bulls aren’t all that keen on jumping into the water. They only make the big leap into the waves if you make them angry enough. As the bull gets increasingly irritated, he gets less intelligent (like the rest of us) and eventually chases one of his tormentors right into the sea.

I suggest this process would go more quickly if the guys wore thongs. They irritate me instantly.

Lantern Festival: Sounds Nice

Lanterns. In China that means those pretty paper things with candles in them, right?

Usually. But a good festival also has fireworks, unless your village is too poor to afford fireworks. In that case, just throw molten iron at a cold wall. It’s cool. Try it. (No don’t try it.)

Anyway, while in the rest of China fireworks are the order of the day, in Nuanquan this festival starts with the collection of old things made of iron each year, to be melted down for wall throwing. I suppose a cynical person might think that the local blacksmith invented this party as a way of keeping iron circulating since a cast iron pot has a nasty habit of lasting more or less forever. Those Nuanquan guys always had to be different.

Once the iron is melted and the night is dark and the wall is cold, the fun-loving iron smith dons a sheepskin coat and hat (I’m just going to go ahead and assume that these are fire-retardant) and throws ladles full of the molten metal at the wall. The iron shatters into thousands of flaming slivers that bounce back off the wall in beautiful patterns.

As expert molten-iron thrower Wang Fu so eloquently put it, “So long as you’re not afraid to die, it’s OK.”

Festival of Colors: I Can Take It

See all the pretty colors? You very well might if you participate in the festival of colors in India and Nepal. This spring festival celebrates the arrival of spring by painting everything in lovely spring colors. Buildings, people, the ground, but mostly people. Purple-pink-yellow-red-orange people. Fun! (Saw it once after a plate of really spicy Indian food, but that doesn’t count because it wasn’t March and I was asleep.)

In the awake Indian and Nepalese version, people throw these colors all over each other, resulting in a human color explosion that both Mother Nature and the Haight-Castro can envy. I get impatient for spring flowers, too. I’d have to hope they stain and that people show up in bikinis for weeks of interesting tan-line fun. But that’s probably just me.

While the traditional recipe for this festival calls for dyes made of natural herbs [and spices (an American cannot say “herbs” without saying “and spices”)], the reality of the world is that the dyes sometimes include oxidized metals, industrial dyes (Remember when they got rid of that dye in rat poison because it caused cancer?), acids, and other not-natural nor herb nor spice things. Some of these can cause blindness, illness, and irritate the skin.

Nothing says spring like a colorful rash.

Entroido: Fire, Dirt and Ants

If there were an award for randomness in festivals, this would be the winner. Like most spring festivals, it involves people going a little crazy. We approve of that. But pick a theme!

The festival of Entroido is celebrated in Galicia as an extended version of Carnival. Those crazy Gauls.

• Peliqueiros: The festival begins with the donning of these costumes, which include a very large hat adorned with a strange picture, a scary mask, a whip, ruffled pants and cowbells.
•  Fire and Dirt: Because this bit is so fun, it’s repeated a few times. On Fridays (Who doesn’t go a little crazy after work on Friday?) leading up to Lent, people run through the streets carrying burning hay torches. Other people throw dirt from their second-story windows. Yeah, I got nothin’. You make sense of it.
• Feast Day: The Saturday before Ash Wednesday, it’s a feast! Dancing, singing, and eating lots of grilled meat are the order of the day. (Can one come to just one day of this festival?)
• S&M: The following day, the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, the peliqueiros line the streets and whip passersby. All in fun, of course. *wink* Afterwards, more fun is had by all when the peliqueiros go from house to house and eat up people’s food. It’s like trick or treat if the trick or treaters had whips.
• Farrapada: The fun-loving Galicians are not done yet! Monday’s party (while the rest of the world is putting the final sequins on their Carnival outfits) is a street fight. The weapons of choice are flour, ash, and balls of dirt filled with biting ants. It’s important to first douse the ants in vinegar. This infuriates them and makes them more bitey. The afternoon sees the entrance of the morena, a guy with a mask holding a cow’s head on a stick, dressed in a tarp. He lifts women’s skirts and tries to scare people. Add in more food and party-type things just for good measure.
• But Wait There’s More: I’m exhausted, but the Galician’s aren’t done yet. There’s still Tuesday before Ash Wednesday dawns and has everyone behaving for a month and a bit. Tuesday evening is celebrated with a satirical distribution of the (imaginary) parts of a donkey. That’s slightly less random than it sounds. The donkey parts are “distributed” in verse that makes reference to events at the previous year’s festival. (Apparently by someone who can remember the previous year’s festival.) If someone lost something, they might get the donkey’s eyes to keep better track of things. Again, no donkey is harmed in the verse-making.

And that concludes the Entroida.                                               

                                       

Whew. I need the length of that festival to rest up after writing about it.

Now don’t you feel normal?

Instant Solution

Chick-fil-A. Hard feelings, yadda yadda. But I have an instant solution!

If an official from every city in America that is not opposed to Civil Rights sends the following letter to Chick-fil-A's president, then the company can be sure of doing business with cities that embrace it and the citizens who embrace Chick-fil-A's president's position can have their chicken. Problem solved!

Here's the letter:

Please ignore Microsoft's grammar checking foolishness. Microsoft is wrong. It can happen.  

Are you still here? You should be talking to your city officials right now!!!

Delaware Evicts Mississippians

This year, Delaware authorities withdrew the residence permits of 1,224 US citizens. In a year's time, this number climbed to over 2,000. The people involved have to leave the state. Under Interstate legislation, a state can decide to expel a person if they pose a burden to the social security system.

Within the US, the free movement of persons applies. However, it is stipulated that people moving to another state should also have the means to pay for their own living.

Since 2004, US states have the right to refuse certain citizens if these should pose "an unreasonable burden" on the state's social security system.

In Delaware, it goes like this: when a citizen has been receiving financial support from the social services for three months, the Delaware Immigration Department looks into the situation. If it turns out that the person in question abuses the system, the Delawarian state can ask them to leave the state. In a year's time, there have been over 2,000 of these cases. Counting from 1 January, there have been 1,224 new cases so far.

It's mostly immigrants from Mississippi who are asked to leave the state. The Mississippians are followed by citizens from Idaho, West Virginia, South Carolina and New Mexico.

Or not. In fact, this is a story about the EU member state Belgium monitoring citizens from other EU countries, published by Flanders News. But how different would the US look if states controlled interstate immigration more strongly than they already do? Maybe something good. Maybe something bad. We'll never know. Except that we get to watch how the EU plays out over time. 

The states were not chosen randomly: Delaware has the highest per capita GDP of the 50 official states of the US at $69,667 per person per year, while Mississippi has the lowest of the same group at $32,967 per year, according to US Government Revenue, as cited by the good folks at the Wiki (followed, as you might guess, by Idaho, West Virginia, South Carolina and New Mexico). 

Belgium at $42,630 per person per year has neither the highest nor the lowest per capita GDP in the EU. The highest EU per capita GDP annually award goes to Luxembourg at $108,832, but Luxembourg, with its tiny population, is an outlier in this category; the highest non-outlier is Denmark at $56,147. The lowest annual per capita GDP for a member state is Bulgaria at $6,334. All these numbers are from the Wiki, where they are cited from the International Monetary Fund. The EU, with vastly different economies in member states, generally reports GDP in terms of Purchasing Power Standards. By this calculation, Bulgaria has 45% of the EU average for purchasing power per person, while Luxembourg has 274% of the EU average purchasing power and Netherlands (#2) has 131%. These numbers are reported by Eurostat here. 

For comparison, Eurostat throws in the US and Japan here. They didn't do calculations per US state, but the US as a whole averages out to 148% in 2011, climbing from its low point in 2009 at 146%. Japan is on par with the EU average at 105%. But while the average for the US as a whole is high, the US also tolerates the highest internal income disparity: In Japan and Germany the ratio of pay for CEOs to pay for workers is 11:1 and 12:1, respectively. In the US, that number is 319:1, as reported by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, here.

Just things that make me ponder.

Snapshot

Nearing the end of its epic journey through every corner of the UK, the Olympic Flame began its 70th and last day of travel at the Hampton Court Palace. 

It's been a bad week for Mitt. Always slightly out of step with the public at large, Romney chose to address the NAACP on Wednesday, drawing jeers from the audience for his remarks. In an interview following the speech, Mitt said he had expected to be booed. 

Matthew Pinsent, the UK's gold-medal rowing champion, bore the Flame onto Her Majesty's rowbarge, which the Queen christened Gloriana during her Diamond Jubilee. 

American sources have expressed concern that Assad's government motives for surrounding the city of Aleppo is to deliberately and systematically wipe out the population in that town. This concern has not driven the US government to act unilaterally, perhaps demonstrating some wisdom gained following the disastrous impact of the American decisions in beginning the Iraq war on international relations. 

Deliberately provocative speech? Ah the good old days of the Republican debates when the candidates were tripping over themselves to woo various groups of Americans. Perhaps Mitt's utter rejection by the Jewish community he brown-nosed so basely during the debates hurt his feelings, and he didn't want to risk it again. 

This stately vessel carried the Flame down the Thames, rowed by 16 proud Britons on the long oars. Seven torchbearers carried the flame while on the Queen's barge. Ending today's journey at the Tower Bridge, the Flame will next be seen when it appears at the Opening Ceremony.

The alternative is even more distasteful on Mitt's part, so we'll leave it at that. Mitt was up for another rejection anyway, as Condoleezaa Rice flatly responded to "leaks" to the Drudge Report that Mitt was eyeing her as a running mate by stating, again, that she has no interest in the VP spot.

The UN chief of human rights, Navi Pillay, has issued a plea to all parties to keep the civilian population out of the conflict. William Hague, the British foreign secretary, is said to be "deeply concerned" over the troop movements of the government forces in Syria, describing the situation in Aleppo as an "utterly unacceptable escalation of the conflict."

Your Money is My Money

This brilliant piece is a translation of a Dagblad article that appeared 20 July 2012, written by Frits Bloemendaal [http://byhans.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/jouw-geld-is-mijn-geld/]:

How is it possible that one broker can bring down a bank? That one money trader can bring entire countries to the edge of disaster? And that one director with a penchant for gambling can reduce a corporation with many tens of thousands of homes to beggary?

It happens because it can.

At the tops of businesses, and at the moment in public and semi-public institutions, a culture change has arisen in which self-interest, narcissism and unscrupulousness have become the most normal things in the world. That began around 30 years ago in countries such as the US and England, and spread thereafter to our own regions.

One of the worst examples is the American energy company Enron, where managers set up an enormous fraudulent network and filled their own pockets, with the eventual result of the demise of the billion-dollar company. Many thousands of employees and investors were left destitute. In the Netherlands it began with Aegon, where executives like Kees Storm enriched themselves with options worth billions, while their clients were squeezed dry with extortionate policies.

Since then the examples have piled up. The real estate fraud of the Bouwfunds and the Philips pension funds, laid out in the book De Vastgoedfraude [The Real Estate Fraud] by journalists Vasco van der Boon and Gerben van der Marel, mercilessly exposed the mentality of anyone managing the savings of others. Your money is my money, it comes down to that.

It is so much that I can only skim the surface. But no one takes note.

Theft, or gambling with other people's money, has long since ceased to be taboo in financial institutions. Unscrupulousness and shamelessness are virtues rather than sins. In the play "De Prooi" ["The Prey"], about the collapse of ABN AMRO (also such an example), one of the lead characters says, "At Goldman Sachs they choose people who were teased as children." These people want revenge against the world and show no pity.

Journalist Joris Luyendijk, who writes a column about London's financial world for the British newspaper The Guardian, recently quoted a psychologist who coaches banking sector executives. The owners of the banks, he says, are looking for "a psycopath" to transform the organization into "a merciless, money-making and soul-stealing organization." That is the secret of their wealth.

That exploitation has become the norm has everything to do with the nearly boundless freedom of the financial sector.

For years, no one dared to place obstacles in the way of the money machine. Precisely in a sector where so much money literally is up for grabs, there is very strong control needed: checks and balances. Only in the last few years has that realization begun to dawn, but that took a banking crisis that cost the Dutch people alone some 200 billion euro in stalled economic growth.

Whether politicians have the ability to turn the management culture the right way is the question, because for the time being the countries are still dancing to the pipes of the financial sector, and not the other way around.

A Scold for Holland, Too (Among Other Things)

As part of a few international communities on the "interwebs," I routinely have the opportunity to hear people talking smack about my first country, the US. The US in the international community is like the kid with crutches, braces, and red hair who is loved by the teachers and has nothing to say to other children: an easy target. As Anthony Bourdain recently mentioned on No Reservations, "I get tired of my country being the bad example."

Having left said country for one more suited to my own nature (yayy Holland), I'm often one of the bashers and as anyone who's read my blogs knows, I'm a big fan of the Netherlands. (I'm looking for the +1 button on the Dam.)

So it was with astonishment that I listened to a self-professed intelligent Spanish woman explain how all the problems in Spain, Italy and Greece are the result of retirees from the north. [In case you're American and haven't been informed, Greece, Spain and Italy are having financial problems which have been brought to light by the EU's refusal to allow its member countries to rack up and continue to sustain huge national debts.]

Since my conversation with the Spanish woman left me completely baffled, it was up to my Dutch friend to explain to me that the southern countries (read: warm), as a favorite retirement location for English, Dutch, German, etc. old people, have taken to blaming their multi-billion euro debts on the fact that people from the north retire there. Apparently, these retirees are rumored in those countries to show up penniless and without means of support on their doorsteps and then of course the poor southern countries have to spend all their money on feeding and housing the poor old people.

When it was mentioned to the Spanish woman that all of the northern countries (Holland, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, etc. all have a history of similar social programs) continue to pay retirement to and to insure their retirees no matter where they wander off to live, she simply said with complete confidence, "No they don't." She defended this statement as being her opinion. But enough about her and her lack of logic; she's not the point.

The point is that it cuts both ways. Yes this is me taking Holland to task. As ridiculous as you know such assertions by the populace of the south to be, the assertions by a handful of idiots (with their accompanying nods from the TV-watchers in the bars) that every ill in Holland is caused by the "massive" influx of population from the east is equally ignorant and lacking any basis in fact. (In fact the hiccups of all the European economies can largely be traced back to those wonderful worthless loans that the American banks bundled and sold as ordinary securities, ensuring that when they went down and started an economic crisis it will cost no less than a decade to fully recover from, they would take the rest of the world down with them. And their ability to do that can be traced back to trickle-down economics and the policies of deregulation. Why would we need to keep an eye on people who hold the country's welfare in their greedy little hands? How quickly we forget.)

But back to my story! The US came to a point in its history where there were irreconcilable disagreements over the policies and practices of the north and the south. They settled it at gunpoint. Europe won't do that, as membership in the European Union is a privilege, but it does cause concern about the new Chinese neighbors that northern Europe's going to have if it plays out without resolution and China eventually forecloses on its loans.

Don't laugh, Americans: The Chinese own $1 trillion of the US too.

WTH

Today's blog probably belongs on "WTH" (wherever that may be) rather than on the Daily Wot. At any rate:
* Austerity. It's the present in some parts of Europe. It's a subtle present and less-subtle future in the US. What's it mean? Essentially, that when the rich abuse the system and bleed a country a dry (such as in Greece where a handful of families possess the wealth to solve the entire country's debt crisis), the regular people bring the country back into balance by giving up a myriad of government services that their taxes are supposed to pay for.

Why? Because although most of the money ends up in the hands of the richest rich, it's more difficult to trace that cash flow because it's generally in the form of taxes avoided and income exported from the country. The only cash flow that can be readily traced and is obvious to everyman is money spent on education and families. Money spent on prisons and weapons are sacred cows. What's left to cut? Humanity. Now why would people protest or fight against that?

* Socialism. For our less-politically-savvy friends, COMMUNISM and SOCIALISM are not the same thing. Not even remotely. Not even a little bit. So when people wish to dismiss socialism as evil, pointing to the failure of the Soviet Union (that would be a COMMUNIST state) only reveals your own ignorance; it doesn't help your case. Want to point at socialist states? Finland, Sweden, England, Holland, Australia.... (It's a long list of countries that you probably like.)

Don't ask the Wiki. The first header in the Wiki article on "List of socialist countries" is "Socialist states espousing communism". WTH? Those would be communist states, not socialist states. And their list does not include the states with socialist systems, such as England, Finland, Sweden, Holland, Canada... ETC!!!!!!!! sheesh (In the Wiki's favor, the page has a ton of complaints for inaccuracy.) How much do I love articles titled, "Why Socialism Failed" when countries we love (like those mentioned above) are still socialist and thriving! This is the same tactic used by enemies of the populist Occupy movement in the US: Pretend it has failed and maybe it will just go away.

* Pakistan. WTH is wrong with you? You cannot simultaneously claim that you did not know that bin Laden was in your country and charge the man who gave up his location with treason! You just can't. 'Cuz you know that robot guy, Data? The one from Star Trek who could handle subtlties of illogical humanity without blowing his circuits? Even HIS head would blow up at the logic of those two arguments. Either you supported that #@%^#^@$, in which case the US bombs you back into the Dark Ages, or you didn't, in which case the good doctor did nothing against your country. Your pick.

* Obama. OK I love you 99% of the time. But I have issues with this whole drone killing thing. It's what I would expect of a Republican president, not of you. I get that you're in a tough, complex spot. That was made obvious by the failure of your attempt to close Gitmo. You signed a Presidential Order to close it and... it's not closed. So there are CLEARLY complications in those international policies that have not been shared with the public. But still... I just have trouble swallowing how right-wing you are on some areas of human rights. You're tougher than I can possibly envision Romney being on the Middle East, and how scary is that?

I have more rants, but I'm going to stop now because there are only so many things one can rant about at one time without sounding rabid.

Dear American Men--

The next time you are in a room with more than 2 women of childbearing age (this may not happen frequently for some of you), look right, look left, look forward: it is extremely likely that one of the three women in the room has had an abortion.

We don't bring it up at dinner. We will often deny it when asked. But yeah... we want sex as much as you do and want a child with every sexual partner we have as little as you do. Go figure. It's almost like men and women aren't that different after all.

I do not believe that the majority of you are thoughtless pricks. Yes, I mean that in the derogatory sense of penile comparison applied to personality. Anyway, you're not. Mostly, you're pretty good guys! You do give a crap when the people you care about are hurting. You do work your butts off to do, alongside your co-parent, the best you can for the kids you have. You do think for more than 2 seconds about birth control before putting part A into slot B. But not much more than 2 seconds. Just like women don't think about it in that moment for more than 2.5 seconds either. So why don't they take the pill? Well why don't you. There IS a pill for men, you know. Oh it has side effects. Welcome to our world.

Here's where it gets messy. When part A and slot B are not ... properly treated... well hell. What are we gonna name it? Is that really the way children should come into the world?

And my sense is that you guys, as great as you are, kinda sorta secretly (apparently at the moment not so secretly if you happen to be a State Legislator or Rush) blame the woman if it does come to "What are we gonna name it?" Contraception is HER job. (Except that we're not going to require private insurance plans to actually pay for that.)

And while I'm trying REALLY hard not to rant here... seriously?

How many of you take active responsibility for contraception? Do you? *eyes the male person who might be reading this*

Tell ya what: If your religious beliefs bar abortion, then you pay for every child you have some part into bringing into this world. AND ... yeah that's it. No shoving your beliefs down other people's throats.

I won't make your wife/girlfriend/mistress/hooker have an abortion if you don't take away my right have one.

Or anyone else's. I get that you ("you" being the nutsos I'm actually addressing and not the 90% of you who are actually sane but powerless) feel it's murder. Other people feel it's murder when you eat a steak. Does it give you pause? Didn't think so.

Because you feel their opinion is baseless. Good morning. Other people feel your opinion is baseless. How about thinking about how to figure out a way for as many people as possible to live by their own standards instead of shoving yours down... up... you get the picture.

Don't Land Or I'll Shoot

"Alas, poor Yorick Astro! I knew him [not], Horatio Dear Reader, [yet he was] a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath bore me fleas on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorr'd in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it."

Worthy of Shakespeare it is, even bastardized.

You may or may not know that the Dutch currently have an astronaut on the International Space Station, orbiting some 350km above the planet's surface. Apparently this event has proven inspirational to more than the budding scientists in the country.

At the old-new year change festivities, which in Netherlands include the explosion of massive amounts of fireworks, two 20-year-old youngsters tied a mouse to a firework--to send him to space? The youngsters are not forthcoming on their reasons. They were discovered before the unfortunate rodent was sent into the ether, but the mouse died a few days after the incident. No worries, the Dutch take animal cruelty seriously and the hooligans will get their punishment.

At any rate, the mouse, nicknamed Astro, has now been stuffed and is being put on display at the Fries Natuurmuseum in Leeuwarden. Eww. (My gorge rises at it.)

But what actually made this a Daily Wot topic was the casual mention of the company Astro is now keeping at the Fries Natuurmuseum. Among other exhibits, he's joining the Domino Sparrow. Now this is the event you really need to try to get a clear picture of in your head.

Domino Day was an annual event in Holland from 1998 to 2009. Each event combined the efforts of domino-chain experts to try to break the standing record for the number of dominoes falling in a single chain-reaction event. In 2005, this event was set up in Leeuwarden. Yes, the same town as the Natuurmuseum. Four million dominoes stood waiting for their big day, just four days away, as the experts continued working on the setup. Each attempt at the record involved around 4.5 million dominoes (4.8 million in 2009) precisely placed to hopefully be triggered in one huge domino fall.

The Domino Sparrow was curious. Finding a way into the building (birds do that from time to time), the Domino Sparrow appears to have appreciated the pattern on the floor made by all the standing dominoes. So much so that he decided to land on some of the dominoes, triggering a fall that eventually took down 23,000 dominoes. No further damage was done because the dominoes are arranged in sections with gaps that are kept in place until immediately before the event begins, and the shouting and efforts to catch the bird kept him from landing again.

The Frisan Expo Center called in animal experts, who called in a hunter, who spent several hours attempting to catch the sparrow with nets and sticks. Eight hours after the sparrow entered the building, he was shot.

It's probably my own dysfuntion, but the only thing I could think of was, "Damn that guy must have been a really good shot."

As the sparrow in question was a member of an endangered species, the shooter was fined. Animal rights' groups were outraged and a bounty was placed on the dominoes. The domino event went on as planned, the bounty stood uncollected (thanks to heightened security by the Expo Center) and the Domino Sparrow's stuffed body was put on display in the Natuurmuseum in Rotterdam until 2007. It's now housed in the Natuurmuseum in Leeuwarden.

Animal rights debates aside, I really had a time trying to wrap my head around the tension in the room when the people setting up these dominoes have invested thousands of man-hours and they realized there's a bird in the room and then the bird actually lands on the dominoes and they begin to fall. I freak out if dinner doesn't turn out the way I wanted it to. I'd have lost my entire mind.

Today's lessons: Mice cannot get to space on fireworks. And don't touch the Dutch dominoes; they'll shoot you.

Lexington Commons Cleared of Hoodlums

Posted by: ThomasHutchinson

The radical Pat Henry complains today of the treatment of the scum assembled yesterday on the public square in Lexington. In case you've not heard the real story yet, a group of miscreants were stockpiling weapons for a planned terrorist attack on our loyal sons doing their duty in the Colonies. A number of these thugs camped out near the stockpile. When the peacekeeping troops learned of the illegal arms and discovered the unlicensed assembly, they declared this an unlawful assembly and ordered the group to disperse. They were met with violence and were forced to restore order. Some infiltrators posing as the local press were likewise cleared out of the way. Henry claims that the authorities attacked the assembled scoundrels without provocation, but reports from our boys on the line assert clearly that it was the illegally assembled criminals who fired the first shot.

Henry would have you believe that these radicals are our own citizens, protesting the "tyranny" of the austerity measures that must be implemented in order to pay the costs of defending the Colonies from the French and the savages. The fact of the matter is that a small group of the defeated French in the northern Colonies have fled south and are inciting violence among the loyal, hardworking populace. It was plain and simply a disgraceful disregard of law and order that has been put right.

The young soldier injured in yesterday's police action is being transported to New York for treatment and rehabilitation, and I would like to personally assure the loyal, peace-loving colonists whom I have the pleasure to govern that Brittania will not turn her back on you. You are safe from those who would occupy the Colonies in your place.

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[-] GeorgeIII

First! And before anyone else lays claim to them: I see what you did there; Rule 34; and, Keeping Order: You're Doing it Wrong.

[-] LordFrederickNorth

The problem, Mr. Hutchinson, Sir, is that you yourself made the choice to allow these scumbags the freedom to protest in the first place. It is on your shoulders, therefore, when they destroy public and private property. It is you who have condoned their attacks on public workers who are charged with defending citizens and crown property paid for by taxpayers.

This is what Progressive leadership looks like. Social dignity is dead and any sense of decency the Colonies once had has been buried with it.

Progressives want to destroy our country and turn us into a savage hellhole.

You, Sir, should be tried as a traitor who works against the King and seeks to undermine his power.

(Perhaps we can find a nice room in the Tower for you to serve your sentence there, because you need to be segregated from young, impressionable minds.)

[-] ToryForever

Can't spell Populist without "P-U-S" or Colonial without "C-O-N"!

These Liberal Leftie Community Organizers (including the forenamed Patrick Henry) are a disaster in the making... no sane company will invest in ships and cargo they risk losing to the insane Colonials... Bye Bye trade with the civilized world... hello misery!

They allow anarchy and trouble makers more freedom to trash the rights of law-abiding citizens... This is NOT what our Country nor our Magna Carta allows...

WE NEED THE AUTHORITIES TO UPHOLD THE LAW!

[-] LordGeorgeGermain

First, we should all start RIGHT NOW, continually repeating the mantra that when the Colonies are next attacked - NO TROOP SUPPORT FROM US! We must put them on notice right now that we will never be open to the argument that if the Colonies fall to enemy hands it will hurt the entire nation. We cannot possibly allow them to hold the entire nation hostage to their passive aggressive populist failed social and economic policies. When the Colonies go down - let them fall. We can take them back from their conquerors and then make THEM all pay for it.

Second, we have allowed covertly populist people like the OP to permeate our nation gradually for the last decades. They have infested our government, our schools and universities, and our court system. They breed with savages and call the offspring citizens. We need to take back our nation and make sure that it continues to be run as the King and God intend. That's why the sun shall never set on the Empire.

In order to take our nation back from these liberal vermin we will have to take strong measures like, not hiring them, not purchasing their raw materials, and not allowing them into our civic and social associations and institutions. Unless we strike back at them with strong economic and social measures and root them out of our entire society, they will continue to work towards the disintegration of our nation. It's a simple choice - we either root them out or we go down. It would be nice if we could simply pacify them, however, that will never work. We need to shun them at every turn in the road and discriminate against them at every opportunity we possibly can.

 [-] EarlOfSandwich

This is why the Colonies will eventually be lost. It's absolutely impossible for decent people to live in a nation with this many populists. Impossible.

[-] ColonelThomasFletchall

I live in the Colonies and you should really be monitoring the imprints out here - because they have nothing but propaganda in praise of the troublemakers and the terrorists - nothing but praise. They have people purposely picked out to interview to say they are so happy that riots have started to happen and they are so happy people are all waking up to the evil Monarchy, of which there is barely a sign to be seen these Colonials have been left so much to their own devices - yet they are still blaming the King and anyone not an anti-Monarchist - saying in local speeches and imprints that it's just wonderful that the Lexington terrorism is happening and thank goodness everyone is waking up and will start rioting more and more - until they finally get the fully populist government control over everything and anything, which to them is success. Just as example of how far they control things, go to the Virginia Colonial Government's own reports and look up some of the laws they have on the books. Go to Lexington and try not to see savages dealt with as citizens, try to avoid some rabble-rouser speechifying for the popular vote, try not to see the King's own likeness allowed to weather like a common tavern sign. And the local imprints here, well they're saying just the opposite of this nationally visited blog. They have eveyrday common folk, all brainwashed by decades of progressive propaganda, believing that the Lexington riot was the best thing ever, since baked bread. Trust me. In this area of the Colonies, it's going to get worse. It's an establishment of populism here on British soil, a complete take-over that is fully in control and at all levels - city, county and colony. They own and control it all.

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A note from me, the blogger: Sadly, I didn't make these rants up. I only translated them through context from 2011 (it's 2012 now but these comments were posted to a blog in late 2011) to the morning of April 20, 1775, after the Minute Men in Lexington had been thoroughly trounced by the British forces in the opening battle of the American War for Independence. Of course, in my version of 1775, there are clearly such things as electronic blogs. But not TV. Pfffft. It worked in my head, get over it. Interesting note: How many of you were given the impression in school that the War for Independence followed the Declaration of Independence? The war began nearly a year before the Declaration. Things that make me say, "Hmmmm." 


As an aside, I did, in the course of my research, discover a fascinating note in an entry of the Wiki: Eight psychological characteristics of the American Colonialists who supported King George III over Independence:

• Psychologically they were older, better established, and resisted innovation.

• They felt that resistance to the Crown—the legitimate government—was morally wrong.

• They were alienated when the Patriots resorted to violence, such as burning houses and tarring and feathering.

• They wanted to take a middle-of-the road position and were angry when forced by the Patriots to declare their opposition.

• They had a long-standing sentimental attachment to Britain (often with business and family links).

• They were procrastinators who realized that independence was bound to come some day, but wanted to postpone the moment.

• They were rightly cautious and afraid of the anarchy stemming from mob rule, which did cost many their property and security after the revolution.

• Some say they were pessimists who lacked the confidence in the future displayed by the Patriots, while others point to the memory and dreadful experience of many Scottish immigrants who had already seen or paid the price of rebellion in dispossession and clearance from their prior homeland.