Timidity

Posted on 12 June 2017 by eehines

A group of perpetually-offended atheists, agnostics and freethinkers are threatening to sue a small Wisconsin town because of two welcome signs.

Here’s an example of the signs, which have been up 50 years or more:

The churches extend the welcome, not the town’s government in the name of any church or all of them.

Of what are these folks so terrified? There’s nothing stopping them from putting up their own welcome sign: “Atheists of Oconomowoc Welcome You.” If the town’s government objected to that, only then might there be an actual beef.

This is a preview of Timidity. Read the full post (182 words, 1 image, estimated 44 secs reading time)

A Party’s True Character

Posted on 11 June 2017 by eehines

A Party’s True Character

The Progressive-Democratic Party leader of the time, President Woodrow Wilson, said of segregation, “segregation is not a humiliation but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen.” The Progressive-Democratic Party also is the party of Jim Crow and the Ku Klux Klan.

The Progressive-Democratic Party is the party that made national minimum wage laws for the explicit purpose of keeping blacks on the plantation—literally—instead of migrating north and competing for jobs by being willing to work for less than white union members were.

The Progressive-Democratic Party is the party of racist and sexist affirmative action programs.

This is a preview of A Party’s True Character. Read the full post (523 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

Obstruction of Justice

Posted on 10 June 2017 by eehines

Ex-FBI Director James Comey testified earlier this week before the Senate Intelligence Committee that he was the one who orchestrated the leak of his MFR purportedly describing a one-on-one meeting with President Donald Trump. Comey said he asked a friend (Daniel Richman, a law professor at Columbia University, and a man who should have known better himself) to leak the document and the friend subsequently read it over the phone to a New York Times writer.

This is a preview of Obstruction of Justice. Read the full post (367 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Some Thoughts on the Paris Climate Accord

Posted on 4 June 2017 by eehines

Some information provided by Matthew Dalton in The Wall Street Journal is illuminating, if not in the way he—or the WSJ—might have intended.

The US’s willingness under the Obama administration to propose major emissions reductions and put money on the table helped solidify global consensus behind the deal. It also helped persuade politicians world-wide of the need to seek more ambitious cuts and channel more money into the fight against global warming, officials and experts say.

This is a preview of Some Thoughts on the Paris Climate Accord. Read the full post (560 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

“About That ‘Gutting the Safety Net'”

Posted on 2 June 2017 by eehines

That’s the title of a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Critics are accusing President Trump’s 2018 budget of “gutting the safety net” with cuts to food stamps and disability insurance. In reality, the White House is proposing long-needed reforms that would fix a dysfunctional disability system that traps Americans in dependency.

The editor is right as far as he goes, but he doesn’t go far enough. It isn’t just our social security disability system that is a welfare trap, it’s our entire welfare system.

This is a preview of “About That ‘Gutting the Safety Net'”. Read the full post (263 words, estimated 1:03 mins reading time)

Disingenuosity

Posted on 30 May 2017 by eehines

At the State level, more and more legislatures are succeeding in ceasing to send taxpayer money to Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood recently announced the shuttering of four of its 12 Iowa’s clinics in Iowa [sic] after the Hawkeye state’s Republican-led legislature voted earlier this year to cut funding to clinics that performed abortions. Also last week, the health care nonprofit announced it was closing its only clinic in Wyoming and three of its clinics in New Mexico in what it called a “realignment of resources.”

This is a preview of Disingenuosity. Read the full post (355 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

“Full Responsibility”

Posted on 28 May 2017 by eehines

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said, regarding leaks to the New York Times tabloid and others,

We take full responsibility for that and we obviously regret that that happened. With respect to the release of information inappropriately…certainly we condemn that.

The same sort of questions I’ve put to Hillary Clinton applies here: what are you going to do with that “responsibility” you’ve taken? What concrete actions will you take?

How’re the criminal and civil investigations into the leaks going; what progress are you making in identifying the criminals and the miscreants?

This is a preview of “Full Responsibility”. Read the full post (136 words, estimated 33 secs reading time)

Department of YGTBSM

Posted on 27 May 2017 by eehines

Amtrak has decided to refurbish New York City’s Penn Station, which will involve unavoidable disruption through the summer. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) doesn’t think Amtrak is up to the task, so he’s bringing New York to the rescue.

The state will step up and do it. We don’t own Penn Station but we will step up and we’ll take over construction and we’ll do it with a private construction company or let the Port Authority do it.

So generous. Here’s how the Democrat will execute his generosity.

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When Were They Not?

Posted on 22 May 2017 by eehines

All IT Jobs Are Cybersecurity Jobs Now goes the headline on a recent Wall Street Journal article, and the subhead reads The rise of cyberthreats means that the people once assigned to setting up computers and email servers must now treat security as top priority.

It’s like these folks—both in the IT arena and in the reporting media—have just had an epiphany.

The global “WannaCry” ransomware attack that peaked last week, and has affected at least 200,000 computers in 150 countries, as well as the growing threat of Adylkuzz, another new piece of malware, illustrate a basic problem that will only become more pressing as ever more of our systems become connected: the internet wasn’t designed with security in mind, and dealing with that reality isn’t cheap or easy.

This is a preview of When Were They Not?. Read the full post (423 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Safe Spaces and Clarity of Thought

Posted on 22 May 2017 by eehines

As The Wall Street Journal pointed out in an interview with Northwestern University’s President Morton Schapiro, the University of Chicago’s President Robert Zimmer has a view of the nature of safe spaces and the relationship between them and collegiate education.

incoming freshmen [should expect] to expect discomfort—not safe spaces—on his campus.

Schapiro, instead, wants to coddle his pupils as though they’re still two years old.

Northwestern President Morton Schapiro takes a gentler approach.

He believes that because learning is frequently uncomfortable, students need safe spaces—which for him means places where people who share an identity can retreat, relax, and recoup.

This is a preview of Safe Spaces and Clarity of Thought. Read the full post (318 words, estimated 1:16 mins reading time)

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Tag Archives: responsibilities