Geesh:

Your government at work – elsewhere I’ve heard that the census is hiring people for a couple hours, “firing” them and then re-hiring them, over and over again…thus pumping up the “jobs created” numbers at BLS.

The scope of scandal in this government grows day by day – and we simply must do a full investigation when we get back in power and people must go to jail over this.

The world shrieks in horror over it – mostly because condemning Israel costs nothing and can buy some cheap headlines. Here is my view:

It was clearly a provocation from start to finish. Why?

1. If you want to bring aid to Gaza, Israel has a regular channel for you do to that – pour it in…but the Israelis would like to check and make sure you aren’t also bringing in rocket parts.

2. Gaza is sealed off on the Egyptian side of the border, too. Why wasn’t there a convoy of trucks heading across the Sinai towards Gaza?

3. Why have anyone on the boat except for people absolutely vital to deliver the aid? This wasn’t a pleasure cruise.

The Islamists got what they wanted – people dead at the hands of the IDF. But the responsibility for the deaths must be placed where it belongs – in Islam, not in Israel.

The bottom line for me is this – until there is a church and a synagogue operating openly in Mecca, the Moslem world’s pleas will fall on deaf ears with me. In other words, until I’m no longer considered filth unworthy to be in Islam’s holy city, all Moslem claims about being treated justly and such are just so much nonsense spread about to advance a particular, political agenda.

And so all these shouts for justice in this incident are just so much noise. Be just and then seek justice. Don’t try to use injustice all the time and demand justice in your turn.

Been a long weekend and I just don’t have it in me to write up a good bit for the AM – sorry about that, boys and girls. At any rate, plenty to talk about:

1. Obama’s miserable and increasing failure in the Gulf.

2. Sestak-gate being joined up with Romanoff-gate out of Colorado.

3. The criminal attempt by Israel’s enemies to use civilians as cannon fodder off Gaza.

4. The continuing and deepening financial crisis in the Euro-zone.

5. The bursting of the Chinese real estate bubble.

6. The pending bursting of the Australian and Canadian real estate bubbles.

And so on – have at it.

Just amazing:

At least 22 people were wounded in separate shootings around the city roughly between noon Saturday and noon Sunday, including a man who died this morning after he was shot in the head, Chicago police said.

At a news conference this morning, Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said that nearly half of the shootings appear to be gang-related, including the fatal incident. Weis added that at least two of the other victims have refused to cooperate with police, “which makes the job of our detectives … far more difficult.”

One of the shootings was particularly disturbing because one of the female victims was eight months pregnant, the superintendent said. No one in custody for any of the incidents.

This is what the liberal break down of society brings – social collapse. 22 shootings in 24 hours! No one in custody…just another ho-hum day in Liberal Land.

Tired of the decay of our civilization? Good – but unless you do something about it, it’ll just get worse. No more pussy footing around – morality matters. All battles are, ultimately, religious battles – its not a matter of imposing a morality but of just what morality will be imposed. For 50 years we’ve had liberal morality imposed on us – and look where its got us?

Time to take it all back.

Thanks to loyal reader for the tip:

…Their story is known to all of you. It is the story of the American man at arms. My estimate of him was formed on the battlefields many, many years ago, and has never changed. I regarded him then, as I regard him now, as one of the world’s noblest figures; not only as one of the finest military characters, but also as one of the most stainless.

His name and fame are the birthright of every American citizen. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty, he gave all that mortality can give. He needs no eulogy from me, or from any other man. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy’s breast.

But when I think of his patience under adversity, of his courage under fire, and of his modesty in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration I cannot put into words. He belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. He belongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by his achievements.

In twenty campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation, and that invincible determination which have carved his statue in the hearts of his people.

From one end of the world to the other, he has drained deep the chalice of courage. As I listened to those songs of the glee club, in memory’s eye I could see those staggering columns of the First World War, bending under soggy packs on many a weary march, from dripping dusk to drizzling dawn, slogging ankle deep through mire of shell-pocked roads; to form grimly for the attack, blue-lipped, covered with sludge and mud, chilled by the wind and rain, driving home to their objective, and for many, to the judgment seat of God.

I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death. They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory. Always for them: Duty, Honor, Country. Always their blood, and sweat, and tears, as they saw the way and the light.

– Douglas MacArthur, May 12, 1962

A gigantic soak-the-poor scheme:

Like many middle-class families, Cortney Munna and her mother began the college selection process with a grim determination. They would do whatever they could to get Cortney into the best possible college, and they maintained a blind faith that the investment would be worth it.

Today, however, Ms. Munna, a 26-year-old graduate of New York University, has nearly $100,000 in student loan debt from her four years in college, and affording the full monthly payments would be a struggle…

Now, what did she get her degree in? Medicine? Law? Engineering? Nope, she’s got a degree in religious and women’s studies. If she managed to learn something about religion, then that is a plus – but more than likely she learned some pantheist nonsense and, at any rate, unless she was planning on joining a religious order, that bit of knowledge plus the utterly useless women’s studies garbage qualifies her for precisely nothing.

But I bet the college was selling her a dream of how much money she’d make once she got her degree.

The college made 100 grand. The banks are happy as they can charge interest and she can’t go bankrupt on the debt – they’ve got her forever. Meanwhile, she’s spent some of the most productive years of her life learning stuff she can’t use to make a living unless she’s highly connected to people who could get her a job in the education system, itself where, if she were that lucky, she could spend a career imparting the same, worthless knowledge she’s got to a succession of kids tricked in to thinking that a college degree is the be-all and end-all of existence.

Now, of course, Uncle Sam is going to be in charge of the whole show – financing on the taxpayer’s dime an endless stream of people who’s education is pointless for the advancement of the United States and its people. The colleges will grow still fatter, the favored few who get tenure will continue to pour money in to Democrat coffers and, of course, propagandize for the liberal worldview – so, for the Powers That Be, its a good thing. For everyone else, its a disaster.

College isn’t for everybody. No everybody will need college to get ahead. Not everyone can afford college. Not everyone needs to get their degree in four years. Not everyone needs to go to a prestige university. But the whole student loan system is geared towards an absurd notion that college is for everyone and they should get it done in four years and at the very best university then can possibly get in to.

What should we do? Identify those areas of expertise where we have a shortage – medicine, engineering, etc – and offer college free at the State level for any kid who can past muster on educational qualifications. Do away with student loans, completely. Tell kids who want degrees in women’s studies to pay for it on their own or don’t bother (and it’d be best if they didn’t bother). End this nightmare where rich colleges pile up money by piling up debt on kids suckered in to taking courses of no value.

Originally done up for Veteran’s Day, but it works, every day.

Geesh:

Talk about parental responsibility. The California Senate just passed a bill that could send parents to jail for up to a year if their kids — from kindergarten through eighth grade — miss too much school…

…The bill is the brainchild of San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for attorney general…

The theory, such as it is, goes that since a high proportion of criminals are high school drop outs it is a matter of public safety to keep kids in school until they get a high school diploma. Such is what passes for thought in liberalism.

Never occurs to these idiots that if a child has a poor home life which is allowing him the opportunity to miss a lot of school that putting his parents in jail might not be the optimal solution. But it does allow liberals to pretend they are doing while at the same time increasing the role of the State in the family…for liberals, its a win/win.

For rationality, its a bit of a loss.