The English – Scottish border has historically been the scene of bitter conflict, but today a new battle is being waged by one man armed with an air rifle and a hatred of grey squirrels.
KD, I know you’re not Scottish, but you can join the Coalition forces to stamp out the gray squirrel insurgency. Maybe Surly will loan you his kilt!
In this week’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback on ESPN.com, Gregg Easterbrook (no fan of George W. Bush) writes:
Exaggerating the Case Against Bush Only Lessens the Focus on His Real Faults:
There’s a lot to dislike about the George W. Bush administration — the Iraq war, lack of action on petroleum waste, wiretapping — but in the rush to make Bush seem as bad as possible, the establishment media consistently have distorted his domestic environmental record, which is basically fine. Air, water and toxic pollution have declined since Bush took office; all U.S. environmental indicators except greenhouse gas emissions have been positive for 20 to 30 years, which you’d never know from opening the morning newspaper.A problem is that environmental journalists are genetically programmed to spin all stories as bad news while ignoring progress. A classic example is stories expressing horror and outrage that environmental prosecutions initiated by the EPA or filed by the Justice Department are declining, as they have been since the middle of the Clinton administration. But it’s good that environmental prosecutions are declining — the reason is that pollution is declining! As pollution declines, there are fewer violations to prosecute. If speeding declined, police would write fewer tickets: Would we be glad speeding was declining or express horror over the shocking, shocking reduction in prosecution of speeders?
There the canard was again as the Sunday lead-headline story of The Washington Post: “The Environmental Protection Agency’s pursuit of criminal cases against polluters has dropped off sharply during the Bush administration, with the number of prosecutions, new investigations and total convictions all down by more than a third,” the story began. Of course environmental prosecution is declining, there is less to prosecute every year! The Post’s banner story ran 38 paragraphs but never mentioned that all forms of pollution except greenhouse gases are declining, and because greenhouse-gas emissions are legal, there’s nothing to prosecute. Mention that pollution is in long-term decline, and Sunday’s front-page banner story in The Washington Post goes “poof.”
For the last couple of months I’ve been seeing certain TV commercials showing throngs of consumers moving through coffee shops, delis, newspaper stands in choreographed efficiency as the ultimate receivers of our just-in-time economy until … until some troglodyte tries to pay cash for his bearclaw. Everything comes to a screeching halt and everyone looks at him as if he had just tried to pay with a handful of shells, or asked if anyone had change for a goat. The patrons now jammed up behind him in line scowl, and the cashier sneers at him as she makes a big show of counting out his change. You almost expect her to spit in the poor guy’s palm as she finishes, then bite her thumb at him.
The time-honored tradition of “cash-on-the-barrelhead,” of “in God we trust, all others pay cash,” and “show me the money!” is now the latest target of the commercial and advertising interests that made us feel insecure about our body-odor, bad breath and ring-around-the-collar. You see, the new, cool way to buy is to forget the petty cash and whip out the pretty plastic. It’s fast, it’s easy, and if it’s less than $25 you don’t even have to sign your name!
You owe it to yourself! You owe it to the people in line behind you! And, let’s not forget, you owe it, literally, to the bank that issued you the card! Booya!
The credit card companies and banks want you to use that credit card, not because it makes life simpler for you, but because it makes it simpler for their executives to get their bonuses at the end of the year from all the interest you pay.
“But it’s only a $5 purchase,” you say. That, my friend, is the same kind of thinking that lets you believe you really can get a $500,000 mortgage for just $483 a month (and never mind the small print). No, it’s a really a $6 purchase, if you’re paying a 20% rate on your credit card.
Is that a big deal? Well, up until the first of this year my company had a great, long-standing employee benefit that most of us took for granted: a 25% discount off of our lunch tab at the corporate cafeteria if we showed our company ID. Then they decided to discontinue this benefit. Oh, you should have heard the complaining, and the outrage! (I know, I was one of them). Some people complained that it was an additional burden on their already stretched finances. Personally, I could afford the increase, but found the company’s explanation for the change to be specious. I made up the difference by buying my bottled water at Walmart for .40 and bringing it to work instead of paying $1.35 for it at the cafeteria. (I save money and wreck the environment, so it’s a win-win).
Yet today I see some of those who complained now swiping their credit cards through the reader at the cash (or should I say “credit”) register, now paying 45% more for their lunch than they did this time last year. Now, maybe they’re using their credit card because they don’t have the cash to otherwise afford the bag of chips to accessorize their meal. If so, though, that’s the kind of thinking and behavior that ultimately turns them from consumers into the consumed.
It’s not that I don’t admire efficiency and a fast pass through the lunch line so I can get on with my break. I know who the fast cashiers are in our cafeteria and, admittedly, there have been times I’ve stewed in line as my soup cooled while some lady painstakingly wrote out a check, recorded it in her register and balanced her checkbook before moving on. I also know that we often trade off money for convenience, and even have “convenience stores” dedicated to that. It’s just that now whenever I see those credit card commercials, or see someone using their card for an incidental purchase, I think of the extra charges they are bringing on themselves and it reminds me of an alternate meaning to the phrase, “swipe your card”: the one that means steal, as opposed to a quick pass.
True North? Because in Minnesota it’s not just the mosquitos that get under your skin. Because all the loons don’t stay at the lake — many run for office or write editorials. Because it’s the land of 10,000 lakes and even more taxes, where “conservative” legislators are as elusive as walleye, and put up about as much fight. Because “Minnesota Nice” really isn’t so if you don’t get along with Nanny.
And because ice fishing isn’t as much fun as you might think.
True North. Coming September 1. You betcha.
The whole family made it over to Keegan’s Saturday night for a lovely evening with many of our fellow bloggers from the Minnesota Organization of Bloggers. I didn’t wear a Hawaiian shirt, despite Kevin and Ben’s attempts at peer pressure which didn’t work because, well, they’d have to be my peers. Anyway, since a picture is worth a thousand words, here’s about a month’s worth (at my recent pace) of blogging:
While this post might give you the impression that all I did all evening was run around and take pictures, that would not be correct. I spent the evening talking with the folks shown above and many others, including John and his wife from Roosh Five and Jeff Kouba from Peace Like a River and Truth vs. the Machine. The photos were taken by Ben from Hammerswing with my camera, however. I’ve emailed a lot of the images to him for him to post so you might want to check over at his blog in the next couple of days to see what he has added.
Tonight normally would have been my night for going to Keegan’s for trivia, but I’m holding off on that (and the delicious cheeseburger and potato wedges) until Saturday night and the MOB’s grand summer event.
I expect the entire Night Writer blogging consortium (Reverend Mother, Mall Diva and Tiger Lilly) to be there as well so I’ll be easy to spot. Not because I’ll be wearing a Hawaiian shirt, but because I’ll be the guy surrounded by beautiful women. Unless, of course, I actually do wear a Hawaiian shirt, in which case my wife will come nowhere near me and the Mall Diva will likely just stay in the car. Tiger Lilly would probably come in, but mainly for the possibility of carrot cake.
See you there!
Most folks can recall the references to God in the opening paragraph of the Declaration of Independence; you know the parts about “the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them” and all men being “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” You might be surprised, however, to know that this wasn’t the last reference — in what some today would have you believe is a “secular” document — to a Divine interest in the affairs at hand. The last paragraph also establishes a spiritual foundation:
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
Via The Kool-Aid Report, I’ve been able to determine the Motion Picture Association of America rating for this blog:
This is kind of problematic, since a 13-year-old is a regular contributor to this site. Analysis provided by the evaluation tool indicates:
This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
gay (7x) dead (6x) punch (2x) breast (1x)
Hmmm…most of those “gay” words probably came in a post I did a few weeks ago about certain cars now being perceived as “gay.” Similarly, “dead” was no doubt prominent in my last post about cockroaches (Heavens – it’s a good thing that word didn’t appear on the “restricted” list). I have no idea where “punch” might have been used, but I know I used the word “breast” in a poem posted for Mother’s Day — and it was used in its maternal sense. There can be no question of this fact, because I don’t use the word “breast” here; I typically prefer terms such as “gazongas” or “ba-ZOOMS”. (Just kidding, Mom).
Just to be safe I think I need to announce that no one can read this blog unless accompanied by a sense of humor.
“Justice to my readers compels me to admit that I write because I have nothing to do;
justice to myself induces me to add that I will cease to write the moment I have nothing to say.”
— Charles Caleb Colton
You see, that “nothing to do part” is kind of essential for regular blogging and a missing element in my schedule of late. That should not be construed, however, as an indication that I’ve run out of things to say.
Regardless of what the sporadic posting might indicate, and in case anyone was wondering, I’m not hanging up the blog or going on official hiatus; the past two weeks have just been monumentally busy, and last Friday was a week’s worth all by itself. I have three major events occurring in three different parts of the country that I’m trying to coordinate and all three have crucial deadlines this coming week (to tag-team with the crucial deadlines related to these events that had to be met last week). On top of that I have two newsletters to edit, a new direct-mail campaign that’s about to drop, and several other projects vying for attention that I would love to give a lick and a promise to if I could only summon the spit to do so. Oh, and I’ve also been interviewing candidates to fill the vacant position on my staff so I DON’T HAVE TO WORK SO FREAKIN’ HARD! Meanwhile, my personal schedule of activities and duties away from the office has barely abated as well.
So, how’s it going with you?
Ah well, one of the big events will be over and done with (for good or ill) on June 11. Another one goes off June 15-17, and if the flaming, rotating hoops I’ve had to jump through so far on that little number are any indication, the last few days leading up to that event are going to be beauties. After that things will get back more or less to normal, if I can remember what that looks like.
Memorial Day Weekend wasn’t much of a holiday for me, as I brought the laptop and all the tons of things that can be stored on it home. There are occupational hazards with doing things like that. That Saturday I was taking a break to do my chores and bent down to snatch a couple of handfuls of laundry to put them in the washing machine. When I straightened up it suddenly felt as if I’d been tasered in the back. Bilateral back spasms shot across my back about a third of the way down, to the point where I had to make a conscious effort to breathe. The initial burst subsided, but the twinges and aches (and occasional breathlessness) continued throughout the long weekend. I discovered I was particularly sore when I sat in my recliner with my laptop in its place and my head inclined toward the screen. Hey, it’s not loading 16 tons of number 9 coal or getting black lung disease, but work can be hard sometimes.
During this crunch time it’s not only been hard to find the time to write, it’s been hard to find the time to browse my favorite blogs and news sites. This has the effect of dampening the stimulation that usually leads to better blog-posts (or at least better researched ones). In the gap I’ve spun out more personal observations on things going on in and around my life since I don’t have to think much about these. It’s kind of fun, but I fear I’m drifting toward what a guest on Hugh Hewitt’s show a couple of weeks ago described as a “thumb suck” blog; all navel-gazing and domestic details.
Now, I enjoy a good thumb suck blog as much (or more) as the next guy. Some of my favorites could fall into that derogatory-sounding category, and blogs like Lileks and Cathy In the Wright helped me make up my mind about getting into blogging. That may well be my true calling. Still, I’d like to think I can sneak the hammer in from time to time, thumbs-be-damned.
Soon, I hope.