Lack of Institutional Control

There's a reason this man is smiling, and it's not the donut.

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/news/story?id=5272615

Jobs FAIL

More good news out of Washington today!

The unemployment rate rose from 9.8 to 10.2 percent in October, and nonfarm
payroll employment continued to decline (-190,000), the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported today. The largest job losses over the month were in con-
struction, manufacturing, and retail trade. (BLS)

That's awesome! Just what we were promised by the President when he signed the Stimulus bill. Let's take a look at what the Obama administration promised us October would look like with the stimulus (DARK BLUE LINE):



Whoops! What happened here? Did the $780 Billion Stimulus have no effect on the economy? Let's see what Obama has to say about that:

Nearly 650,000 jobs have been saved or created under President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan, the government said Friday, and the White House declared the nation on track to meet the president's goal of 3.5 million by the end of next year.

New job numbers from businesses, contractors, state and local governments, nonprofit groups and universities were released, showing 640,329 positions credited to the stimulus, according to the independent federal board monitoring the program's progress. (Yahoo!)

That sounds good. But how did the Obama administration figure out how many jobs were "created or saved"?:

- A review of the latest stimulus reports - which the White House promised would undergo extensive reviews to ensure accuracy - found that more than two-thirds of 14,506 jobs credited to the recovery act by Head Start programs involved pay increases. (Boston Globe)

- An early progress report on President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan overstates by thousands the number of jobs created or saved through the stimulus program, a mistake that White House officials promise will be corrected in future reports.

The government's first accounting of jobs tied to the $787 billion stimulus program claimed more than 30,000 positions paid for with recovery money. But that figure is overstated by least 5,000 jobs, according to an Associated Press review of a sample of stimulus contracts.

The AP review found some counts were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of jobs; some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced. (AP)

- More than $4.7 million in federal stimulus aid so far has been funneled to schools in North Chicago, and state and federal officials say that money has saved the jobs of 473 teachers.

Problem is, the district employs only 290 teachers.

"That other number, I don't know where that came from," said Lauri Hakanen, superintendent of North Chicago Community Unit Schools District 187. (Chicago Tribune)

- The federal government sent Bob Bray $26,174 in stimulus aid to fix a fence and replace the roofs on public apartments in Blooming Grove, Texas, a town of fewer than 900 people outside Dallas. He hired five roofers and an inspector to do the job.

But the number of jobs he reported to the government looked very different — 450 jobs.

"Oh, no," said Bray, who runs the local public housing authority part-time with his wife, Linda, when asked about the discrepancy. He said that he told the government that he had created six jobs but that a federal official told him that wasn't right. So he reported the number of hours the roofers worked instead. The Department of Housing and Urban Development caught the mistake, but he couldn't fix it before the jobs figures were published. "The money was great, but the reports are really confusing," he said. "I've been fighting with it for over a month and a half." (USA Today)

Gosh, It looks like there's been a lot of "rounding up" going on in the Obama administration. Sometimes you have to do that so that numbers aren't too confusing. Math is hard. :/

Maybe this graph will clear things up:

BREAKING NEWS !!1!!@!!

Baby brains

Interesting article about what science is learning about how babies' brains work.

Gopnik argues that, in many respects, babies are more conscious than adults. She compares the experience of being a baby with that of watching a riveting movie, or being a tourist in a foreign city, where even the most mundane activities seem new and exciting. "For a baby, every day is like going to Paris for the first time," Gopnik says. "Just go for a walk with a 2-year-old. You'll quickly realize that they're seeing things you don't even notice."

One thought I had on it is that this confirms my thought that my children shouldn't watch TV at all before age 2 at the earliest, if possible. The whole world should be interesting to them before that time -- I don't want them getting "bored" without TV stimulation too early. I know there are neat little baby videos out there, but I am just going to avoid all of that early on. Too much other stuff for babies to be looking at and absorbing!

Scandalous invitation

The news broke late Friday that President Obama will be Notre Dame's commencement speaker this year. That the nation's preeminent Catholic university would invite the most pro-abortion president we've ever had to give such a prominent address and receive an honorary law degree is astonishing and unjustifiable.

After a weekend with little to no comment from the university -- they must realize how objectionable this whole affair is -- Fr. Jenkins commented yesterday in an interview with the Observer. My take: I'm still as upset as I was on Friday when I heard about it, and a lot of other people are too.  I bet Bishop D'Arcy won't even attend the ceremony.

In its 2004 statement "Catholics in Political Life," the USCCB advised, "The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions." This should be a no-brainer, but the frequency with which Catholic institutions host such speakers means it needed to be said. Unfortunately, Fr. Jenkins seems to be ignoring the clear meaning and context of this directive in favor of hair-splitting interpretations: The president's honorary degree, he said, "does not, it is not intended to condone or endorse his position on specific issues regarding life. That's not what we're honoring."

So how is he going to make that clear? As the USCCB statement implied, it's hard to separate public honors and accolades of a person from censure of his positions. That's assuming censure even occurs, which I doubt it would here. Fr. Jenkins can tell the alumni and students in the student newspaper that of course we disagree with the President on life issues, but is it likely he's going to say even that much on stage? - much less give any sort of harsh rebuke to the President for causing taxpayers to fund international abortions or destruction of human embryos? Of course not. (You can already tell from Jenkins's comments that he is looking forward to honoring Obama as a "powerful and eloquent" speaker who is "an inspiring leader." Um, sure.)

Even if Catholics could delude themselves, a la Doug Kmiec, before the election that Obama was somehow, despite all evidence to the contrary, really pro-life in practice, there is no way they could think so now. The President has gone out of his way, during a time of economic distress, to allow taxpayer funding for embryonic stem cell research and abortions. He routinely selects pro-choice Catholics (Biden, Daschle, Sebelius) for key positions, including ones that will affect health care in America. And regardless of whether it's likely to end up on his desk, he has said he will sign the Freedom of Choice Act to eliminate all legislative restrictions on abortion. This is morally and ethically wrong, especially to Catholics. Fr. Jenkins doesn't pretend otherwise (I don't doubt he adheres to Catholic teaching on life issues; of course he does); he just thinks hosting Obama will allow us to have a dialogue and engagement with Obama on these issues.

I think this is unlikely, to say the least. I think, instead, the media and public at large will miss any nuanced "dialoguing" that happens on campus in connection with the event, leaving the main narrative perception of the commencement events to be that Notre Dame hosted Obama, and so abortion just must not be that big of issue for the American church today. (Everyone today remembers Mario Cuomo's "personally opposed" debacle in the 80s happened at Notre Dame. Was there "dialogue" on campus at the time? Who knows?) It gives cover to the Pelosis and Bidens of the world who promulgate ludicrous misreadings of Church teaching and continue publically supporting abortion and other moral wrongs in America. It undermines the moral standing and Catholic character of Notre Dame. It's a huge disappointment for anyone who loves the university and cares about its character. For shame, Fr. Jenkins.

(cross-posted with my other blog)

Money for Nothing

Barack Obama was elected on a mandate of change in the November presidential election, and boy has he delivered! After his stern remarks last night in his manufactured press conference, the Democrats (and 3 Republican traitors) did their job this afternoon in passing the stimulus bill.

U.S. Senate Approves $838 Billion Stimulus Package

Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate approved an $838 billion economic stimulus package, clearing the way for negotiations with the House over a compromise plan that President Barack Obama wants lawmakers to send him within days.

The Senate today voted 61 to 37 to approve its measure. The bill provides $293 billion in tax cuts and more than $500 billion in new spending that the legislation’s supporters call critical to preventing the economy from sinking deeper into recession.

After the Senate added $838 billion (with interest!) to the national debt, President Obama's tax-evading treasury secretary Timothy Geithner did his part to destroy the confidence of the American financial system.

Geithner unveils new bank rescue plan

Creating a private-public partnership to take toxic assets off banks' balance sheets. Policymakers believe clearing bank balance sheets of badly deteriorated loans and securities is a prerequisite for restoring the normal flow of credit into the economy. Geithner said the plan will aim initially to use public financing to create as much as $500 billion in private sector buying capacity, with the prospect of an expansion to $1 trillion down the road.

The U.S. stock market processed both actions today with incredible swiftness:

[caption id="attachment_623" align="aligncenter" width="468" caption="-381.99 (4.62%)"][/caption]

This exchange from Arrested Development pretty much sums up today:

Board Member #3: Why should we believe in you?

G.O.B.: For the same reason you should believe a hundred dollar bill is no more than a hundred pennies!

G.O.B.: They approved me unanimously.

Michael: Why wouldn’t they? You’ve only lost them 99 dollars so far.

Global Warming II: The Ice Age

Global warming struck again late last night in Dallas when an ice storm descended on the region, crippling the morning commute and closing all schools in Dallas County and beyond. Thanks to the city's "no salt" policy of road management I enjoyed a leisurely 30 mph commute down Central Expressway. It's clearly better to let inexperienced drivers on ice rather than risk any damage to the precious Texas highways.

Ultra ironic final note: Al Gore is set to testify to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a session called: ADDRESSING GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE:
THE ROAD TO COPENHAGEN

Washington, D.C. has a high of 40 today with a 100% chance of ice pellets. Mr. Gore has an impeccable sense of timing.

The Chicago Way

Change you can't believe in

Among President Obama's first official acts scheduled for tomorrow, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, will be ones destructive of human life.  As promised, he will sign an executive order overturning the Mexico City policy, which was implemented by President Reagan to stop federal funding of international abortions.  President Clinton overturned it his first few days in office, but President Bush had reinstated it.  Now, American taxpayer dollars will once again be used to fund abortions and abortion advocacy abroad.  Anyone who values the rights of the unborn has to feel grieved that we have changed from a president who understands what the culture of life is all about -- who knows that protecting the lives of the innocent and voiceless includes protecting the lives of the unborn -- to one who, far from recognizing the sanctity of human life, will work actively to entrench and expand abortion rights.

Relatedly, President Obama is also planning to reverse Bush's executive order banning federal (taxpayer) funds for embryonic stem cell research, which involves the creation and destruction of human embryos.  Nevermind that such research is immoral, ineffective and unnecessary (adult stem cell research is far more promising and already effective, with no moral issues), and that in this economic climate federal money might better be spent elsewhere.

Finally, Obama told Planned Parenthood last year that the first thing he'd do as president would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which supposedly would codify Roe, but would actually go far beyond that to wipe out all abortion laws in the country: parental notification laws, waiting periods, counseling laws, bans on partial-birth abortion, and so forth.  It would allow taxpayer money to directly fund abortions through Medicaid by eliminating the Hyde Amendment.  And it could threaten the right of conscience for Catholic hospitals and pro-life physicians not to perform abortions.  In short, it's pretty much the most radical pro-abortion legislation we could have, and with a Democratic majority and a committed president, it's going to take tremendous effort on the part of Catholics and other pro-life supporters to fight it.

It's a terrible shame that, even in a year in which the bishops spoke out more than ever about the Church's clear teaching on abortion, around 54% of Catholic voters picked likely the most pro-abortion president we've ever had.  Please pray for the marchers in the annual March for Life in Washington tomorrow, for the defeat of FOCA, and for the conversion of this president to recognize the value of unborn human life.

The Day After the The Day After Tomorrow

[caption id="attachment_473" align="aligncenter" width="468" caption="Climate change"][/caption]

Today is probably not a good day for global warming fanatics. Years of hysterics about melting glaciers and rising oceans look pretty silly on a day like today. And it's only the first day of winter.

Could this be in our near future?

Post Mortem

[caption id="attachment_310" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Baby 20 Weeks"][/caption]

- Barack Obama is the most pro-abortion candidate ever elected.

- He scored a 100% record from NARAL Pro-Choice America.

- He has repeatedly promised to sign the Freedom of Choice Act when he becomes president, which would eliminate all current legal restrictions on abortions in the United States, including states limiting the number of abortion providers and age of consent laws for teenagers.

- Joe Biden has a 75% rating with NARAL Pro-Choice America, but the only blight on his record is voting for the Partial Birth Abortion Ban in 2003.

- Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that Roe v. Wade should be upheld.

- Joe Biden's support of Roe v. Wade, and abortion rights in general, is in direct opposition to Catholic teaching and tradition. He has consistently mis-stated Church teaching and history to rationalize his support of Roe v. Wade.

- 3 Supreme Court Justices are very close to retiring in the next four years. With the current Democratic majority in the Senate, any person chosen by President Obama would easily be confirmed by them and appointed to fill those vacancies.

- President Obama voted against Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Samuel Alito, and has publicly stated he would have voted against Justice Clarence Thomas, the only African-American on the Supreme Court at this moment.

- Between 1973 and 1990, 28 million babies where aborted by their mothers. All of those potential citizens would have been eligible to vote in the election.

- Since 1973, it is estimated that 49,915,603 million babies have been aborted in the United States alone.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:S.2020:

http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/elections/statements/obama.html

http://www.nrlc.org/Factsheets/FS03_AbortionintheUS.pdf

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121901817146948231.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

Change

It is true that a man (a silly man) might make change itself his object or ideal. But as an ideal, change itself becomes unchangeable. If the change-worshipper wishes to estimate his own progress, he must be sternly loyal to the ideal of change; he must not begin to flirt gaily with the ideal of monotony. Progress itself cannot progress. It is worth remark, in passing, that when Tennyson, in a wild and rather weak manner, welcomed the idea of infinite alteration in society, he instinctively took a metaphor which suggests an imprisoned tedium. He wrote--

"Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change."

He thought of change itself as an unchangeable groove; and so it is. Change is about the narrowest and hardest groove that a man can get into.

The main point here, however, is that this idea of a fundamental alteration in the standard is one of the things that make thought about the past or future simply impossible. The theory of a complete change of standards in human history does not merely deprive us of the pleasure of honouring our fathers; it deprives us even of the more modern and aristocratic pleasure of despising them.

- G.K Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Palinized

Since last Friday, when John McCain selected Alaska governer Sarah Palin as his running mate, Kim & I have been waiting to hear her speak at the convention. We were rooting for her even before the media started ripping apart every aspect of her personal life and smearing her with unsubstaniated rumors and innuendo. Gov. Palin's speech last night amplified our enthusiam for her selection as the Republican vice-presidential nominee. I think we've both experienced (Kim more personally) the absolute contempt in which conservative women are held by liberals. They are considered traitors for not whole-heartedly co-signing the Democrats' platform of absolute abortion rights and are sneered at whenever they champion the cause of domestic motherhood over professional success. Gov. Palin's nomination and speech last night went a long way in destroying the Democrats' myth that their philosophy and policies are the only way for women to advance in the world. Below are some highlights from the speech picked out by conservative blogger Bob McCarty.

“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”




“I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.”




“But here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion - I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country. Americans expect us to go to Washington for the right reasons, and not just to mingle with the right people.”




“That luxury jet was over the top. I put it on eBay.”




“…we Americans need to produce more of our own oil and gas. And take it from a gal who knows the North Slope of Alaska: we’ve got lots of both.”




“But listening to (Barack Obama) speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform - not even in the state senate.”




“This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word “victory” except when he’s talking about his own campaign.”




“Victory in Iraq is finally in sight … (Barack Obama) wants to forfeit.”




“Terrorist states are seeking new-clear weapons without delay … (Barack Obama) wants to meet them without preconditions.”




“Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America … (Barack Obama’s) worried that someone won’t read them their rights?”




“Government is too big … (Barack Obama) wants to grow it.”




“Congress spends too much … (Barack Obama) promises more.”




“Taxes are too high … (Barack Obama) wants to raise them. His tax increases are the fine print in his economic plan, and let me be specific.”




“And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change. They’re the ones whose names appear on laws and landmark reforms, not just on buttons and banners, or on self-designed presidential seals.”




“(Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid) said, quote, ‘I can’t stand John McCain.’ Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps no accolade we hear this week is better proof that we’ve chosen the right man.”




“My fellow citizens, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of ‘personal discovery.’ This world of threats and dangers is not just a community, and it doesn’t just need an organizer.”




“There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you … in places where winning means survival and defeat means death … and that man is John McCain.”




"It’s a long way from the fear and pain and squalor of a six-by-four cell in Hanoi to the Oval Office. But if Senator McCain is elected president, that is the journey he will have made.”




“It’s the journey of an upright and honorable man - the kind of fellow whose name you will find on war memorials in small towns across this country, only he was among those who came home.”




“As the story is told, ‘When McCain shuffled back from torturous interrogations, he would turn toward Moe’s door and flash a grin and thumbs up” - as if to say, ‘We’re going to pull through this.’ My fellow Americans, that is the kind of man America needs to see us through these next four years.”

http://bobmccarty.com/2008/09/03/sarah-palins-top-20-jabs-at-the-democrats/

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* One final note: In her speech, Gov. Palin told the tale of another POW who was held in the same prison as John McMain during the war. His name was Tom Moe. He's an ND man. Below is a link to his account of his experience in Vietnam in the Winter 1995 edition of Notre Dame Magazine. An absolute must read.

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http://www.nd.edu/~ndmag/moew95.html

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