Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
At the beginning of this month I identified what is very likely to be the all-time champion SCIHOWL (Sickest Commercial I’ve Heard Or Watched Lately). Actually, I split it two ways because it was a tie. And the second of the two was that sickening pinko-commie Census commercial:
Little girl asks her mommy what the census is about, and momma gives her this big ol’ speech about how this is the only way they can make it known to Washington that they’re out here, needing their goods and supplies, that they have needs — and get what’s theirs. Get their fair share.
Pure communism. That used to be an evil thing, remember that?
:
The idea that we’re all just out here in the wild frontier…suckling away at a Washington momma-piggy’s teats, fighting over each other for the sustenance. Have to tell our Washington overlords that our tummies are empty, so they can use their infinite wisdom to figure out whether it’s time to raise taxes on the evil rich people again. What the hell is this? Castro’s Cuba?
Now, I do not know if the radio guys read my blog. I’ve always assumed hardly anybody ever does. But how, then, do you explain this glorious tirade of theirs that is being replayed for the weekend as I type these very words.
They’re not covering too much that I didn’t cover, except for one thing. And it’s probably because they’re reading this story over here — about the census officials trying to build trust with the illegal aliens.
What a quandry! The illegal aliens think the census officials are representing some government agency that will get them deported. If I was an illegal alien, I’d probably be suffering from this misconception as well. We have this government full of all these agencies…which is going to pretend to police our border, but actually try like the dickens to avoid doing it. So if this agency finds out you’re here illegally, you can only get away with it if there’s nothing on the record. Garfield the cat plays card games with the mice, so long as owner Jon Arbuckle isn’t watching.
If that other agency finds out you’re here illegally then you don’t have anything to worry about at all, no matter what.
I don’t really know how you explain that to a newcomer to our country.
And I don’t know how you explain this effort to build trust with the illegal alien community, to anyone at all. Let me paraphrase one of the radio guys: We are out of money. We are just flat-out beyond broke. So we are going to…spend money. To send people with clipboards out into the field. So they can find the illegal aliens that are hiding from them. So they can build trust with them…so they can get the illegal aliens their “fair share.”
By C-O-U-N-T-I-N-G them. We’re really burning the midnight oil, to make sure our government is aware of the illegal aliens in the right way, but not in the wrong way. So it knows just barely enough to get the illegal aliens their “fair share” but not enough to give them what they really deserve. Which is a one-way ride out of here.
They’re here to work hard and send money home to their families, and not to hide from authorities because they’re sex criminals? Really? You’ll promise me that, twenty million times? Not knowing a single blessed thing about who or what you’re talking about…which is what words like “undocumented and “illegal” really mean. They mean you don’t know. They mean you’re playing Russian Roulette. So no, you won’t promise me that millions of times, you won’t promise me even once. You’ll just call anyone a racist who might have a suspicious or negative word to say about anyone who isn’t white. That’s as intellectual and as studious as the shouting match ever gets.
I don’t manage my household this way. Never. No sane individual does. You go through some lean times, you don’t say “hey I think the cable company undercharged us, let’s make sure they’re counted so they receive their fair share.” Aw sure, that might make the bottom line even bleaker still, but that’s just the way it’s going to have to be. Got to get everyone their fair share!
This is a practice that would end the very minute it began to be widely discussed, and I think it would be widely discussed if only it had a name. This thing about going out looking for people who might be “eligible”…when the government’s already broke…because it would be just so awful for someone, anywhere, to fail to file a claim when there might be some reading of the rules that would make them eligible. That kind of detective work. “Out of place” doesn’t even begin to describe it. We should come up with a name for it, and then give a fair hearing to the merits and liabilities of it. Maybe it’s appealing to some, but to me it’s just a big black poisonous arachnid, the kind that thrives and survives only in the most concealed and dark places, where large rocks have not been overturned for a very, very long time.
Update: If you need some perspective on exactly how much loot we’re spending, to, uh, get money spent — Cassy’s post is a must-read.
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I’m still working the bugs out of this idea: base Congressional representation on voter turnout in primaries.
I’m in California. We have 53 Congressmen. In the last primary election, the turnout was 40%, so we get cut back to 21 Congressmen, and 40% of Federal funding, and 40% of everything else.
The other Odd Thing about the census is, if it’s really just about counting people, why the heck do they need to ask questions about how you got to work last week? OK, I know they have all sorts of ready answers as to why they need all this info, but I’m not impressed.
The Census people are starting to roll out the bandwagon, putting up posters, handing out information packets, telling us “it’s in our hands”, &c.
- ZZMike | 02/08/2010 @ 03:26That’s an interesting idea. It would likely require an amendment to the Constitution, which seems to imply an active process rather than a passive one. (“The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.”)
- mkfreeberg | 02/08/2010 @ 07:30As usual, I forgot that little detail. It does say, though, “enumeration”, which I take to mean “counting”, not “collecting all sorts of details about people’s lives”. And the 14th amendment says that it’s specifically for “apportioning representatives”. It seems to have cut out the original “… and direct taxes”.
On the other hand, courts haven’t paid that much attention to the Constitution since the late 1700s.
- ZZMike | 02/09/2010 @ 01:48