The Power of the Blogosphere

(h/t Instapundit)

Spread this around far and wide. The internet has a flawless memory, even when the intelligentsia and the old gatekeepers try to distort reality. From OpinionJournal:

The Bend of History

"President Bush sketched an expansive vision last night of what he expects to accomplish by a war in Iraq. Instead of focusing on eliminating weapons of mass destruction, or reducing the threat of terror to the United States, Mr. Bush talked about establishing a 'free and peaceful Iraq' that would serve as a 'dramatic and inspiring example' to the entire Arab and Muslim world, provide a stabilizing influence in the Middle East and even help end the Arab-Israeli conflict."--editorial, New York Times, Feb. 27, 2003
"One prominent neoconservative, Francis Fukuyama, asserts in a new book that the administration embraced democracy as a cornerstone of its policy only after the failure to find unconventional weapons in Iraq. The issue was seized upon to justify the war in retrospect, and then expanded for other countries, he says."--New York Times, March 17, 2006

Editor? What's an editor?

Picking at the Scab

Quote of the week, from Eric S. Raymond:

The trouble with 'tolerance' is that it only works as a cultural compact when all parties are civilized and have in practice largely agreed to abandon the more inconvenient claims of the religions they theoretically profess.

(The title is from a comment I left at a post over at Eternity Road.) (Link broken. - Ed.) Discuss.

Update, 3/18/06: Fran Porretto comments (Link broken. - Ed.) on Eric S. Raymond's post, but misidentifies which portion I quoted "with approval."

Apparently he's still upset with me.

One more update. Og the Neanderpundit links approvingly to Fran's post, and comments:

We're not talking about the things so called christians have done in the past, and I will brook no discussion on that subject.

But we have to discuss that subject, because no one's proven to me that such things can't happen again:

When news of this holocaust of French Protestants reached the world, Catherine de'Medici received the congratulations of all the Catholic powers, and Pope Gregory XIII ordered bonfires lighted and the singing of the Te Deum. Indeed, the Pope's joy was so great that he commanded a gold medal to be minted, with the inscription, "Slaughter [strages] of the Huguenots." He then had Giorgio Vasari paint pictures in the Vatican of "the glorious triumph over a perfidious race."

I suppose Catherine de'Medici and Pope Gregory XIII were "so-called" Christians? Sarah claims that Protestant Christianity is the answer. Perhaps it is, but some of the Protestant sects seem quite content in quoting the Old Testament and holding it up for reverence. The Ten Commandments, for example, which is a rallying point for a lot of American Christians, is from the Book of Exodus. Fran states:

The Book of Deuteronomy is Old Testament, and has no relevance to the Christian New Covenant; the same applies to the bloody commands of the Book of Leviticus.

Are the Ten Commandments still valid, then? A lot of people seem to believe they are. Or is this just another example of where civilized parties have "largely agreed to abandon the more inconvenient claims of the religions they theoretically profess?"

I've made the point that I'm not a biblical scholar, but I'd wager the majority of people who are "so-called christians" aren't either, and never have been.

--

UPDATE:  As of August 6, 2013, due to the herculean efforts of reader John Hardin, the original (rather long) JS-Kit/Echo comment thread for this post (read-only) is available here.

THIS Sh... Err, Stuff Will Never Replace MRE's

I do the grocery shopping. Usually I do it on Saturdays, but this week it was Tuesday. They tell you never to shop for groceries when you're hungry, but I headed for the store on my way home from work. While I had a list, I almost always go up and down the aisles, perusing the shelves. If I see something new and interesting, I've been known to throw one or two in the cart.

This week I found Rice-a-Roni's Express packs:

They were on sale, $1 a bag. I bought three: one "Hearty Beef," one "Golden Chicken," and one "Asian Fried."

I tried one Wednesday night.

Here's what I sent to Rice-a-Roni:

I just tried the Rice-a-Roni Express "Hearty Beef" product.

Ladies and gentlemen, that was just SAD. It smelled like old socks and tasted (yes, I tasted) no better than it smelled.

Whose brilliant idea was this product? It makes military MREs look good by comparison. The product was on sale at my local Albertson's for $1 a package. 10¢ worth was all I could stand.

I love the standard Rice-a-Roni product, but this? It's a "must-avoid."

Here's their response:

We're so sorry that you didn't enjoy Rice-A-Roni Express Hearty Beef.

Our objective, pure and simple, is to make high-quality products that our consumers will choose again and again. We appreciate your input and will use your comments as we continuously work to improve our products. Please accept our sincere apologies. Your comments and the information that you provided are valuable to us. We are sending out an adjustment for your purchase via the U.S. Postal Service.

Michele
Quaker Consumer Response

They're going to send me 90¢?

UPDATE: No, they sent me this:

I was not aware that Pepsico owned all those brands, in addition to Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC, not to mention Tropicana and Gatorade.

This is Why I'm a Member of the NRA

Aside from the fact that they do more for the shooting sports (attracting new shooters, protecting shooting ranges, being the governing body for many competitions, training, match sponsorship, etc.) than any other group I know of, they're the 800lb. gorilla of gun-rights legislation. Most recently, the NRA was instrumental in the passage of the Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.

For those unfamiliar, this law was written to protect gun manufacturers and distributors against nuisance lawsuits brought by anti-gun-rights forces who sought to kill the industry by bleeding it to death in the courts - or by scoring a victory with a judge willing to legislate from the bench. These lawsuits were brought in many states, and often made it to the appeals court level before being thrown out. Here are some opinions from such dismissals:

In the view of this Court, the City’s complaint is an improper attempt to have this Court substitute its judgment for that of the legislature, which this Court is neither inclined nor empowered to do.

In substance, the City and its Mayor opt to engage in efforts at arbitrary social reform by invoking the process of the Judicial Branch of Government, where apparently the City perceives, but fails to allege, irreversible failures in the appropriate Legislative Branch(s) of Government….The City should not be permitted to invoke the jurisdiction of this Court to overlay or supplement existing civil and criminal ‘gun’ statutes and processes (either state and federal) by means of a series of judicial fiats which, when taken together, would only create a body of 'judge made gun laws'. – Special Judge James J. Richards, Lake Superior Court, County of Lake, City of Gary v. Smith & Wesson, Cause No. 45D05-005-CT-243, slip op. 7 (Ind. Super. Ct. Jan. 12, 2001).

--

The County's request that the trial court use its injunctive powers to mandate redesign of firearms and declare that the appellees' business methods create a public nuisance, is an attempt to regulate firearms and ammunition through the medium of the judiciary…. The County's frustration cannot be alleviated through litigation as the judiciary is not empowered to 'enact' regulatory measures in the guise of injunctive relief. The power to legislate belongs not to the judicial branch of government but to the legislative branch. – Judge J.J. Fletcher, District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District, Penelas v. Arms Technology, Inc., 778 So.2d 1042, 1045

--

Although this public nuisance lawsuit is brought by the Attorney General on behalf of the State of New York - while the Hamilton action was one initiated by private parties for negligent marketing - both were brought against handgun manufacturers and sellers. Plaintiffs attempt here to widen the range of common-law public nuisance claims in order to reach the legal handgun industry will not itself, if successful, engender a limitless number of public nuisance lawsuits by individuals against these particular defendants, as was a stated concern in Hamilton (96 NY2d at 233). However, giving a green light to a common-law public nuisance cause of action today will, in our judgment, likely open the courthouse doors to a flood of limitless, similar theories of public nuisance, not only against these defendants, but also against a wide and varied array of other commercial and manufacturing enterprises and activities.

All a creative mind would need to do is construct a scenario describing a known or perceived harm of a sort that can somehow be said to relate back to the way a company or an industry makes, markets and/or sells its non-defective, lawful product or service, and a public nuisance claim would be conceived and a lawsuit born. A variety of such lawsuits would leave the starting gate to be welcomed into the legal arena to run their cumbersome course, their vast cost and tenuous reasoning notwithstanding. Indeed, such lawsuits employed to address a host of societal problems would be invited into the courthouse whether the problems they target are real or perceived; whether the problems are in some way caused by, or perhaps merely preceded by, the defendants completely lawful business practices; regardless of the remoteness of their actual cause or of their foreseeability; and regardless of the existence, remoteness, nature and extent of any intervening causes between defendants lawful commercial conduct and the alleged harm. - from the appeals court decision upholding the dismissal of New York v. Sturm Ruger et. al.

--

Knives are sharp, bowling balls are heavy, bullets cause puncture wounds in flesh. The law has long recognized that obvious dangers are an excluded class. Were we to decide otherwise, we would open a Pandora's box.

The city could sue the manufacturers of matches for arson, or automobile manufacturers for traffic accidents, or breweries for drunken driving. Guns are dangerous. When someone pulls the trigger, whether intentionally or by accident, a properly functioning gun is going to discharge, and someone may be killed. The risks of guns are open and obvious.

We hold that the trial court properly dismissed the city's complaint. The city's claims are too remote and seek derivatively what should be claimed only by citizens directly injured by firearms. The city cannot recover municipal costs. We overrule its assignment of error and affirm the judgment of the trial court. - Judge Ralph Winkler, Ohio 1st District Court of Appeals in the decision upholding dismissal of Cincinnati's lawsuit.

That last one is my favorite. However, getting to this point was expensive for the defendants. The plaintiffs, of course, were on the taxpayer's dime, and we all know those pockets are bottomless.

Well, on Monday U.S. District Judge Audrey B. Collins threw out the lawsuit brought by the city of Los Angeles against Glock based on the passage of the Lawful Commerce in Arms Act:

Judge tosses gun suit
New federal law protects makers

LOS ANGELES - A new ban on lawsuits against gun makers caused a Los Angeles judge to toss out negligence claims the family of a slain mail carrier filed against Glock and a gun distributor, court papers showed Friday.

Monterey Park resident Joseph Ileto was gunned down by white supremacist Buford Furrow, who came upon the Philippines-born letter carrier as he was delivering mail in Chatsworth on Aug. 10, 1999.

Shortly before shooting Ileto, Furrow opened fire at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, wounding three children, a receptionist and a teenage camp counselor.

In a federal suit filed in May 2001, Ileto's family accused Glock of creating an illegal secondary market for its guns, and of being a public nuisance.

The family also accused Glock of failing to heed a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives list of gun distributors and dealers who supply guns used in crimes.

Last October, Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which bars suits against firearms companies by the victims of shootings.

In a court hearing on Monday, U.S. District Judge Audrey B. Collins said the law applies retroactively to the suit filed by the mail carrier's family.

In a two-sentence order made available Friday, Collins officially granted Glock and distributor RSR Group's motion for judgment in their favor in the case.

One for the good guys, right? But there's this:

It appears the family's case can move forward against the maker of Norinco guns, China North Industries Corp., because the law only applies to firearm companies that were federally licensed. China North was not licensed, according to a lawyer for the family.

The attorney for the family could not be immediately reached to comment on the judge's ruling.

I'm sure they're huddled with the Brady Bunch's lawyers. Good luck on collecting from the Chinese government, which owns China North and every other gun manufacturer on the mainland.

Furrow, a former mental patient with a second-degree assault conviction on his record, had six guns in his possession at the time of the shooting, including a Glock 9 mm handgun, a Norinco short-barreled rifle and a Bushmaster rifle.

He reportedly got around his record by purchasing at least one of the 9 mm weapons at a gun show in Washington state.

Furrow is serving a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole. In February 2003, he was ordered to pay $175,000 to Ileto's family.

This week's ruling in the suit over Ileto's death is only the latest step in the case's long history.

In 2003, a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel overturned a lower court's decision to toss out the Ileto family's suit.

So he used the eeeevil gunshow loophole to buy "at least" one gun. Did he buy them ALL "off paper" through want-ads? Or was he able to buy from a licensed dealer by lying on the Form 4473 and passing the background check? Was he ever one of the hundreds of thousands of people we're told are "stopped" by the background check, but are never apprehended? Never even pursued?

And note, it was the 9th Circus that reinstated the suit after it was originally dismissed - dismissed probably with language very much like that I've quoted above.

But here's the thing I think most people don't know: Furrow's 9mm Glock came from a police department. We can all trust the Violence Policy Center, right? Here it is, straight from their site:

The Glock pistol that self-proclaimed racist Buford Furrow used to kill a Los Angeles postal worker illustrates the deadly consequences of the Austrian gun company's hyper-aggressive marketing to U.S. police, according to the Violence Policy Center. The Model 26, 9mm semiautomatic "pocket rocket" was sold first to the Cosmopolis, Wash., police department, which resold it to a civilian dealer.

You can read the whole press release where they try to blame Glock for Furrow's actions, but the key is that the gun came originally from a police department.

So why wasn't that department just as liable as Glock? Why wasn't it a party to the lawsuit? Glock sold the gun to the department, the department sold the gun to a licensed dealer, the dealer sold it to someone (apparently not Furrow), and Furrow bought it from someone down the food chain. Glock was at least four steps up the chain of possession, but it's their fault this wacko got a Model 26 and five other weapons?

That law HAD to be passed. I, for one, am glad for the NRA, because without them, it never would have been.

Annoyingly Slow to Load?.

Has the blog been annoying slow to load today? First Blogsnot has an outage this morning from 9:00 to 9:40, and now (apparently) Technorati is gumming up the works.

If it's not Blogsnot, it's Technorati. If it's not Technorati, it's Haloscan.

You know, if I actually PAYED for this site, I'd have some room to complain. (Well, I do pay for Haloscan, but it's a pittance.)

Sorry about the sluggishness. Hopefully things will improve.

Edited to add:

Damn, that was prescient. Blogsnot crashed again at about 6:30PM and, as I write this, is STILL down (7:45AM Friday). I can post, but nobody can access my blog. If you're reading this, they must have finally gotten it fixed.

I Think They Blinked...

Here's a news release from the Second Amendment Foundation, which is currently engaged in a lawsuit against the City of New Orleans for the illegal gun confiscations that occurred in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:

New Orleans Admits to SAF Attorneys They Have Seized Guns

BELLEVUE, Wash., March 15 /U.S. Newswire/ --

In a stunning reversal, the City of New Orleans revealed today to attorneys representing the Second Amendment Foundation and National Rifle Association that they do have a stockpile of firearms seized from private citizens in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The disclosure came as attorneys for both sides were preparing for a hearing in federal court on a motion filed earlier by SAF and NRA to hold the city in contempt. Plaintiffs' attorneys traveled to a location within the New Orleans city limits where they viewed more than 1,000 firearms that were being stored.

"This is a very significant event," said attorney Dan Holliday, who represents NRA and SAF in an on-going lawsuit seeking to enjoin the city from seizing privately-owned firearms.

"We're almost in disbelief," admitted SAF Founder Alan Gottlieb. "For months, the city has maintained it did not have any guns in its possession that had been taken from people following the hurricane. Now our attorneys have seen the proof that New Orleans was less than honest with the court."

Under an agreement with the court, the hearing on the contempt motion has been continued for two weeks, the attorneys said. During that time, according to Holliday and fellow attorney Stephen Halbrook, the city will establish a process by which the lawful owners of those firearms can recover their guns.

"While we are stunned at this complete reversal on the city's part," Gottlieb said, "the important immediate issue is making sure gun owners get their property back. We're glad that the city is going to move swiftly to make that possible, and naturally we will do whatever is necessary to make this happen.

"What happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was an outrage," Gottlieb observed. "Equally disturbing is the fact that it apparently took a motion for contempt to force the city to admit what it had been denying for the past five months.

I wonder if they've got Patricia Konie's .38? Anybody got an update on her lawsuit? Nothing on Google news.

Perhaps Justice Ginsburg Should Arm Herself?.

Justice Ginsburg Reveals Details of Threat

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she and former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor have been the targets of death threats from the "irrational fringe" of society, people apparently spurred by Republican criticism of the high court.

Ginsburg revealed in a speech in South Africa last month that she and O'Connor were threatened a year ago by someone who called on the Internet for the immediate "patriotic" killing of the justices.

Security concerns among judges have been growing.

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter joked earlier this year that Justice John Paul Stevens should be poisoned. Over the past few months O'Connor has complained that criticism, mainly by Republicans, has threatened judicial independence to deal with difficult issues like gay marriage.

As AR15.com contributor gardenWeasel put it, "She's not losing any sleep over it."

What, nobody ever threatened Scalia and/or Thomas?

Here's Another One, Local This Time.

Armed woman sends robber fleeing

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.08.2006

A robber got some spare change and a scare when he threatened a woman in Midtown on Monday morning. The 56-year-old woman was walking near East Fort Lowell Road and North Country Club Road when a man dressed in black approached her and demanded money, said Officer Dallas Wilson, a Tucson Police Department spokesman. The robber implied he had a gun, so the woman complied with his order and gave him $1.50, hoping he would leave, Wilson said. Then, thinking her life was in danger, she drew a Smith & Wesson revolver and pointed it at the robber, who ran away. The woman — whose name was not released by police — had a concealed-weapon permit, Wilson said. "She was in fear for her life and she defended herself appropriately," he said. Police have no suspects in the case. For more information on concealed-weapon permits, visit the Arizona Department of Public Safety's Web site at www.dps.state.az.us/ccw.

Adding the contact info for the DPS's CCW site was a nice touch.

Another Story You'll Never Hear Coming from the UK.
or "Why a Firearm is the Best Defense"

Cumberland Co. Mother Shoots Home Intruder, Authorities Say

EUREKA SPRINGS, N.C. -- An armed intruder confronted with a pregnant Cumberland County mother Tuesday afternoon, allegedly trying to rob her home. The incident ended in a shootout that left the invader dead.

Detectives say 23-year-old Crystal Strickland -- 9 months pregnant and mother of two small children -- acted in self defense

"He broke into the apartment, she ran into the back bedroom where there were some children in the apartment to defend them, and when he entered into the bedroom area, shots were fired,” said Debbie Tanner with the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office.

Strickland told authorities she did not know the armed man. Her two young girls were taking a nap when the violent encounter happened. The 3-year-old said she wasn't scared.

"I didn't get hurt," she said.

Residents in the area said they have noticed a pattern of break-ins -- five in the last month, and most occurring in broad daylight.

"My house got robbed, the side door got kicked in,” said neighbor Shawn Kilbourne. “They took some small things, including a pistol."

Kilbourne suspects the recent break-ins are related. He said if an armed man busted through his family's door, he would do the same thing his neighbor did.

Investigators are still trying to determine the identity of the home intruder. Detectives say that the case is still under investigation and when that when it is complete it will be turned over the district attorney who decide whether to file charges.

What other weapon makes a nine-month pregnant woman the physical equal of a healthy male?

Good job, Ms. Strickland. Hopefully the DA isn't a transplant from New Jersey.

Best of Me Symphony #120.

It's up at Gary Cruse's Owner's Manual - and I have an entry this week: Reasonable People from December. The Symphony is "hosted" by W.B. Yeats, and oddly enough the snippet of poetry selected to go along with my piece I used as the opening of an earlier, related essay, True Believers. The poem is The Second Coming:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Good choice, that.

Give the rest of the Symphony contributors a read. All of the posts are at least 60 days old, and have seasoned with age.

Movie Recommendation.

It's probably been a couple of months since my wife and I went to a movie. We just got back from one I can enthusiastically recommend - World's Fastest Indian, starring Sir Anthony Hopkins in one of his best performances (IMHO). Hollywood doesn't make feel-good movies much anymore, they'd rather shove political correctness down your throat. This is a feel-good movie, (loosely) based on a true story. (Really, this time. No fantasy horse-race that never happened.)

It's been out for a while, surviving on word-of-mouth. I can't remember even seeing a TV ad for it.

Go see it, you'll enjoy it. I promise.

A Strongly Recommended Read.

In association with Birthrates below, I recommend you read Fran Porretto's piece Gender Wars: The Battle of the Bulge for another aspect on the topic of declining birthrates.

Excerpt:

No, you're not imagining the tone of disapproval in the above. Miss Hirshman definitely takes the Simone de Beauvoir attitude toward free choice: women who choose to be homemakers and mothers are choosing wrongly. By their free choices -- by opting for traditional women's roles rather than some alternative in the market economy -- they're helping to derail feminism. And the advance of feminism, we must remember, is what really counts, not the happiness of women or the well-being of their children.

That ought to pique your interest...

Jumped the Gun a Bit (so to Speak).

My wife and I got our taxes done today. Between the home refinance, medical expenses, and various and sundry other incidentals, our "non-interest-bearing payroll savings plan" bore considerably more fruit than I had expected. In celebration, I got to buy another firearm!

One of my more recent purchases was my S&W Model 25 Mountain Gun, chambered in .45 Colt. I've wanted a companion lever gun chambered in the same round. I got it today.

We went to what my wife refers to as "Caveman's Warehouse" - the local Sportman's Warehouse that opened (very) near my house recently. Back at the gun counter, I asked if they had any lever guns chambered in .45LC. The counterman handed me a very nice Henry Big Boy, but it was about $650, which is more than I was willing to pay. Then he said, "I think there's a Winchester 94 in the back. Let me go look." Sure enough, there was. A manager, he said, had his eye on it, but hadn't put it on layaway. It was a "Legacy" version, with a 24" barrel, curved pistol grip, etc. In fact, it looks just like this:

(Click for super-size.) It has an MSRP of $497. Caveman's Warehouse wanted $399.

It came home with me! Looks like I bought my BAG day gun a month early. Or my birthday present a couple of days late.

Oops!

Too Much of a Good Thing.

Quote of the day:

I was reminded of a lecture I once attended by the authors of The 60-Minute Orgasm. An attentive older woman in the front row asked, "Do you have anything at around five minutes?"

- Roger Ebert in his review of The Libertine

Birthrates.

(Sorry for the absolute dearth of posting. I've been busy, and just as absolutely devoid of interest or inspiration. This threatens to continue, but I've got one short post in me today. This one.)

A lot of ink and pixels have been spent recently on the topic of declining birth rates in the Western world - the whys and the wherefores. I admit, I'm a (non-)contributor. I married into "instant family." My wife had a teenager by a previous marriage, and we are both happy with just one. She divorced when her daughter was five, and had no interest in repeating the motherhood experience, and I was never keen on the idea of kids to begin with. (Grandkids are OK. You get to hand them back once you've finished spoiling them.)

I'm your typical American materialistic, selfish sonofabitch.

A post today over at AR15.com caught my attention, though. It illustrates graphically one reason for the decline in birthrates here, anyway:

Cost Of Raising A Baby

My wife and I were on the computer trying to see how much we would spend on the first year of our baby's life.

Not counting the medical bill for the delivery, I came up with $18,000 for the first 12 months while my wife came up with $16,000. This includes diapers, formula, clothes, baby sitter, nanny, etc.

Hate to see the numbers for 18 years

Various comments, excerpted:

You assume that the childbirth will be normal. My second son showed up two months early and spent a month in neonatal ICU. Bill from hospital: about 80K. Careflight for the wife: about 8k (which is not covered by insurance). If male, insurance doesn't cover circumcision.
You assume also that your child will have no allergies, such as milk or normal formula or even breastmilk. Price ProSobee or some of the other soy based formulas.
Most professional daycares charge upwards of $150/week for infant care.
What if she has twins?
Recalculate.

--

$600 a month with part time day care and medical expenses.

--

Two biggest expenses are nanny at $720/mo and health insurance at $280/mo.
Thank God he has no medical problems.

--

daycare = 1100/month

why- cause having the wife not work would put us in the poor house.

why- cause we like actually living in a house...

--

I was in this boat 8-months ago when my son was born, we where both working full time good jobs, $20+ an hour. I decided I wanted my son to be raised by his mother, not a stranger, she wanted to continue working some. We agreed that he would go to day care twice a week and she could work two days a week. Luckly she is very good at what she does and they where glad to have her, some places would have let her go.

Anyways her are my expenses:

Diapers $40 a month
Formula $120 a month
Daycare two days a week $352
Ins. $130
Clothing ect. $20
$572 monthly, however if I include my wifes loss in pay it would be $3,200 more a month.
$6,864 yearly in cost
$38,400 in lost pay.

All the comments are not negative, and I've edited out the uniform "It's worth it" addenda to these comments, but the fact remains: If you're middle-class in this country, having a kid is a major financial burden because of the way we choose to live.

As an aside, I work with two guys with large families. One had six kids naturally. His wife stays at home and homeschools. He makes a reasonable income, but raising six kids on his pay cannot be easy. The other has adopted five. His wife also stays home. His income is better, but I doubt he earns what I do (could be wrong about that) and I'd be hard-pressed to pay for that many.

I imagine this situation is true in most Western nations. If you're already poor, whether you live in an impoverished country or not, squirting out another kid doesn't add that much financial burden. In a wealthy, materialistic society, for those with a middle income or higher it does, because we choose for it to. In a welfare society, most of those extra expenses the poor would experience will be offset by government largesse. For the middle classes, they get to carry the burden of designer baby clothes and nannies (and medical insurance) on their own.

Sociologists have noted that societies tend to reduce their birthrates with increasing average wealth, Paul Ehrlich's Population Bomb notwithstanding. I submit this is the reason why. It has nothing (or at least not much) to do with a lack of hope or the belief in a bleak future, and almost everything to do with a conscious economic decision. The poor can reproduce without much repercussion. The middle class cannot - not if they want to maintain or even improve upon the life to which they've become accustomed.

The problem is, as others have noted, our system pretty much requires at least a zero-growth birthrate to sustain it. In many countries, they aren't keeping up with even that. The result has been an influx of immigrants from (relatively) impoverished nations to fill the vacuum, and these immigrants do breed. And they aren't assimilating into the host cultures.

And this does not bode well for the near future.

Something to Think About.

War of the Worlds - William S. Lind

I found this at AR15.com. A pullquote to pique your interest:

There is one element of the real Brave New World Huxley missed, and that is ideology. At the heart of the West’s assault on itself, on traditional, Christian, Western culture, is the ideology of cultural Marxism, the civilizational IED planted by Gramsci, Lukacs, and the Frankfurt School. Known most commonly as political correctness or multiculturalism, cultural Marxism holds sway over all Western elites; to deny or contravene it (without groveling apologies) is to cease instantly to be a member of the elite. It has already made vast progress toward its goals of “negation” of Western culture and the “transvaluation of all values” (stolen from Nietzsche), which means simply that the old sins become virtues and the old virtues, sins. Buggery is a fine, normal, high-principled thing, but for God’s sake, don’t smoke.

As summarized by the guy who found it, our choices are:

'If it feels good, do it.'

'as-Salamu- 'Alaikum'

'When in the Course of Human Events.....'

Quite succinct. Give it a read. I'm interested in your comments.

Irony Alert! Irony Alert!

Submitted for your review:

Rachel Corrie Pancake Breakfast

The Rachel Corrie Memorial Committee of Victoria Invites you to a pancake breakfast at Denny's Restaurant Sunday March 12 , 2006 10 am.

The Public is invited to a memorial pancake breakfast at Denny's Restaurant on Douglas Street near Finlayson, 10 am, Sunday March 12, 2006 to celebrate the life and untimely death of Rachel Corrie, Peace Activist with the International Solidarity Movement.

There will be a reading of selections from Ms. Corrie's letters and diary, followed by a ceremony at Topaz Park, where a stone cairn will be erected in her honour.

Attendees are encouraged to wear their keffiahs, and to dress in black.

No weapons, drugs, or alcohol please.

For those of you with a short memory, Ms. Corrie was the young woman who was protesting the Israeli policy of knocking down the homes of the families of Palestinian terrorists. She died under an Israeli Caterpillar bulldozer.

Some of the comments at the Indymedia site:

Pancake Breakfast
by DK • Sunday March 05, 2006 at 12:38 PM

I know that Corrie got flattened like a pancake by a Killdozer, but is this real? this seems way way way too funny to be real.

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by Che • Sunday March 05, 2006 at 02:05 PM

I saw it in Monday magazine and posted at UVIC and Caosun

Leave your AK-47's at home. No need to startle The little leaguers and soccer players who will be sharing the park at the same time.

I guess it's OK to burn tires though.

--

by Spirit of the Wolf • Sunday March 05, 2006 at 09:38 PM

Can I get strawberries and strawberry syrup on those pancakes?

A very fitting tribute visually :D

There's more. There's much more.

Well, I Just Had a Great Weekend.

Didn't blog a thing, though. Sorry.

As far as the Angel Shamaya incident is concerned, I wish him the best of luck, and an even better attorney. I predict it will get uglier and a lot more expensive.

Only 89%?!?.

I need to turn in my "Gun Nut" card!

NRA Member You are 89% of a gun nut!

You have excellent skills in weapons handling. I could definetly trust you to cover my back. Matter of fact, you're probably packing right now!

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 82% on knowledge

Link: The Gun Nut Test written by slayer1am on Ok Cupid

Try the test yourself.

Busy, Busy.

Sorry for the lack of posting. I've been ridiculously busy, so not too enthused about writing when I get home.

It's not my intention to do long thought-pieces interspersed with days of nothing, but that's how it's been recently. Having said that, I'm working on another patented long, extended, drawn-out, verbose, super-sized philosophical dissertation. Maybe Saturday?

In between, hopefully I'll have something(s) short and pithy.

But don't count on it.