Do You Like What I Like?

Here's the article of the day, in the Daily Illini, student newspaper at our nearby Illinois (...it used to be The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, but is now being marketed as simply "Illinois," and....don't ask.)

Here's a Brave New World quote, now:

"I like the First Amendment," said Will Green, graduate student and member of the Graduate Employee's Organization. "And our University doesn't respect that."

And why should it be incumbent on anyone to "like" what you "like," Will? Answer: it shouldn't. Our rights proceed from basic principles antecedent to government, so that government is subsidiary to them, not that government is obliged to "like" or "respect" them. It's perfectly obvious that Will has never moved beyond an elementary school playground level of analysis. No government respects your rights, Will, it can only fear what will happen if it transgresses, and in the meantime, will attempt to get away with whatever it can.

I don't respect you OR your ideas, Will. How do you like that?

Expectations

A blog I subscribe to is Peeve Farm. The guy isn't ever going to write the Great American Novel, but has some interesting things to say, and is pretty much on balance......which is saying a lot on the Internet these days. The other day, I read his comment on what happens after January 20th, and it's pretty much what my wife and I have remarked several times:

"Just remember: when Obama is president, everyone will have jobs, the stock market will rise for four straight years, and there won't be any more hurricanes.... Usually a candidate only has to worry about people holding him to account for his own empty campaign promises. This time, the whole world is signing checks no mortal man's presidency can cash."

Great expectations doesn't begin to describe it.

The Mortgage Debacle Summarized

After reading a few torturous explanations of "what really happened" with the collapse of the housing market and its extended debacle, I confess my attention wandered. Today I ran across this column by the author Orson Scott Card that puts it quite succinctly, and makes everything I've read and viewed fall into place: Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?

res ipse loquitur, indeed.

From the Heart

I haven't posted much on the travesty that has been the presidential campaign. This has been on purpose, added to the fact that I have watched and read as little as possible. What I have seen has convinced me that I no longer have the stomach to make a cognitive statement about what's going on. Maybe next time....but meanwhile, how about a heartfelt wish:

"A plague a' both your houses!"

- Mercutio, Romeo & Juliet Act 3, Scene 1, 90-92

OK, Listen Up!

I've read and listened to one too many pieces about people who refuse to have their children vaccinated because they might get autism. So, if you happen to read this, ONE MORE TIME:

[rant on]

The idea that vaccines, or the preservatives in vaccines, cause autism, or ringworm, or fallen arches, is completely UNPROVEN. Studies done in both the U.S. and Europe have failed to find any significant correlation between vaccination and autism. The hysteria engendered in a world of missing information is just a harbinger of the coming Dark Age. We have become Super Barbarians, who channel surf with the latest technology, the world passes by our faces in a blur, of information about anything there is only a smattering, information incomplete, understanding illusory, enlightenment increasingly in the shadows.

The view that the only risk is measles (as my most recent piece argues) conveniently leaves out all those things that may be prevented by vaccines: diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), etc. And how about polio? Willing to give that a pass? Can you REALLY do that and look in the mirror and call yourself a fit parent?

[rant off]

He lit a match*

I normally don't just link to a comic, even though I enjoy xkcd, but I'll make an exception. this one takes me back to covering the miles of two-lane highway (back when I was little, and most highways were), and finding the Burma-Shave signs a welcome blip in the miles of corn fields. On the other hand, when you're a kid, those miles of corn fields may be your first chance to experience introspection- a pastime of great difficulty in contemporary culture.

*Can you complete it? (Scroll down to the 1959 jingles....)

Worth A Word....

The best comment I've heard on TV for quite a while cam yesterday, courtesy of the new, improved Don Imus show on RFD-TV, by Fox News' economy guy, Charles Payne:

["One of the reasons this market can't bounce back isn't just because of people's opinion of Bush, but because neither of these candidates inspires any confidence that they'll be able to help."]

{I put it in quotes and brackets to denote that it is a paraphrase, because I can't copy things word for word that fast off the toob.}

I am right there with him. Some part of me wishes I wasn't.....but there it is.

The Ivied Inquisitors Strike Again....

I'm not going to delve into the latest witch-hunting indulged in by our supposedly enlightened universities, Nat Hentoff did it better. Who rides to the rescue (besides Hentoff and a few other organizations who are completely principled in their defense of the First Amendment) will be the most interesting outcome of The Case of the Professor Who Cried Wetback. At this point, I wouldn't take 10-1 odds on the ACLU....

While I'm certain that Nat & I could find a great multitude of things to disagree on, he is that rare individual who is able to separate his politics from his principles.