Month: June 2006

This is Monday’s open trackback post here at third world county. Link to this post and track back. More below “Thema”.

---

This week I have planned posts on “Mending Walls: Faith, Part 3” and another tentatively titled, “Mending Walls: Public Education—The Carefully Considered Rape of the American Citizen’s Mind.” I suspect the rest of the twc posts this week, apart from those that are crossposts informational or simply for my own amusement, will be themed similarly, influenced by the following comment made by William James in his Dedication Speech for the Shaw Memorial (Robert Gould Shaw), Boston, May 31, 1897:

The deadliest enemies of nations are not their foreign foes; they always dwell within their borders. And from these internal enemies civilization is always in need of being saved. The nation blest above all nations is she in whom the civic genius of the people does the saving day by day, by acts without external picturesqueness; by speaking, writing, voting reasonably; by smiting corruption swiftly; by good temper between parties; by the people knowing true men when they see them, and preferring them as leaders to rabid partisans or empty quacks. Such nations have no need of wars to save them. Their accounts with righteousness are always even; and God’s judgments do not have to overtake them fitfully in bloody spasms and convulsions of the race.

I leave it to my readers to educe the theme.

Rabbit trail: read the whole speech. It’s a reminder of how much better a writer William James was than his brother, Henry.

---

As I said, this is an open trackback post open all day today. Link to this post and then track back. If you want to host your own linkfests, check out

Also note the other fine blogs featuring linkfests at Linkfest Haven.

Or, Early (?) Oldtimers’ Disease Part X

So, I had been walking around looking for a (normail format paperback) book for maybe half an hour. I knew I’d had it in my hands earlier but had no idea where I had put it down.

Took a break. Sharpened a machete and cut down a volunteer elm that had sprung up, hidden within my (good) neighbor’s hedge (which I have kept trimmed for her for the past eleven years, cos it’s an older lady who just doesn’t have that in her yard care repertoire). Back inside, looked for the book some more.

Found it in my hip pocket.

Not enough coffee today. Nope. Not enough at all, at all.

BTDT, have the t-shirt.

This book, Teach Your Dog 100 English Words, should be used as a ready reference by every parent of a young child who wants to have their children grow up to be civilized human beings but doesn’t want to stifle their creativity, initiative or personality.

Really.

And I don’t think it’s too bad for dog owners, either.

Touting the tome at Woman Honor Thyself and TMH’s Bacon Bits.

This is an Open Trackback alliance post, all weekend long. Link to this post and track back. More below.

---

For those of y’all intrigued or puzzled by the question in the post title, don’t expect an overly cryptic or philosophical post. For those of y’all who already think you know what a day is, you’re welcome to read on, cos you’re probably wrong.

Most folks think a day is some arbitrary 24-hour period of time as designated by some anal, obsessive-compulsive dude who looked at the Sun, saw it “come up” in the morning, “go down” in the evening and thought, “Wow! A day has passed! I just have to create a calendar and keep track of these things!”

*feh* Slacker. Anal, obsessive compulsive slacker, but slacker nonetheless.

A day is really that period of time between extended periods of uninterrupted sleep. If it’s 16 hours or 72 hours long: that’s your day, folks.

Slackers, now, real slackers, just walk around asleep alla time, so they don’t really have days…

---

As I said, this is an open trackback post open all weekend long. Link to this post and then track back. If you want to host your own linkfests, check out

Also note the other fine blogs featuring linkfests at Linkfest Haven.

The most common dictionary definition of a tightwad is “miser”.

Vile calumny, I say! A tightwad is one who is regularly able to make at least one complete peanut butter sandwich from a jar others dismiss as being empty. A tightwad would never say, “Who steals my purse steals trash” without first examining the wallet to see if there is any salvageable material.

And more, a tightwad is one who sees the town dump as evidence of the monumental stupidity and waste of his neighbors who lack the ingenuity to see salvageable (or simply repairable) objects of worth and simply toss them out to be destroyed by the elements.

A tightwad, by nature or nurture, is a conservationist, ever exploring new ways to use, re-use, repair, mend, re-engineer and recycle; one who sees the simple wisdom in the old meme, “Waste not; want not.”

Tightwaddery does not exclude spending more for an item of quality as opposed to an item that is poorly made of poor materials, but rather sees the long-term value and ROI in items of quality… even used ones in need of repair.

Above all, tightwads are not swayed by labels, advertising or brand names. Or the opinions of folks who see dumpster diving as something that is somehow repellant. After all, repairing and re-using items others would discard is, as I’ve indicated, a hallmark of tightwaddery. After rescuing some thousands of dollars worth of computer and electronic equipment, furniture, furnishings and appliances from dumpsters over the years–and repairing and putting them to good use myself or giving them away for others who needed them–I sometimes laugh at the folks who are so brainwashed they think they have neither the time or ability to repair their broken things (or that doing so is beneath tghem somehow) that they will instead waste money (which is after all their time in another form) going down to WallyWorld or K-Mugger or some such to buy something to replace the repairable object… something that will likely be less durable than what they are replacing, made by slave labor in China and contributing to the erosion of U.S. manufacturing capabilities.

So, I’m kinda glad I’m a tightwad. Even if it does mean my garage is sometimes a tad messy… *heh*

Sadly, sometimes a discarded item is not repairable, but… once three or four unworking printers, for example, have been stripped of all usable parts to make one serviceable printer, I no longer feel quite so bad discarding the unusable parts… (though I do almost always keep screws, rollers, wheels, whatever might be useful building something entirely new. :-)). And yeh, I do have several jars of bent nails I have not yet straightened. But I’ll get to ’em someday. And there’ll always be more, too.

(Straightening used nails with a hammer and a small anvil is something that can be a relaxing activity, kinda using the body doing a repetitive task to allow some meditation time. Try things like that. Very relaxing. Picked that one up from my tightwad grandfather. :-))

It may seem like a foreign idea in these advertising/consumption-driven days, but what can you “Use up; wear out; make do; do without”?

Part 1 of “Mending Walls: Faith” dealt very briefly with a missing meme in today’s society: faith as a bilateral covenant of trusting obedience/providence and protection. It’s a meme that has been present in every stable and flourishing society the West (and even much of the early Middle East) has produced for millennia, and its lack has profound implications for us today.

But before we very, very briefly approach those implications, I’d like to select just a few, by no means exhaustive, examples of what the lack of that meme has produced in our society.

Continue reading “Mending Walls: Faith, Part 2”

Today’s FairTax screed is from Terry Dillard of The Right Track

---

As I see it, the main problem with the Income Tax is that it is virtually impossible to enforce completely and fairly. Compliance with the Income Tax depends on taxpayer truthfulness, which generally is motivated either by a) good character, or b) fear of an IRS audit. With the FairTax, the tax is collected when the money is spent, from everyone, with greatly reduced opportunities for non-compliance by the public.

For instance, what about the criminal element in our country? Have you ever heard of the Mafia? Or the drug dealer? Do you think that these people report 100% of their income? Of course not! They get out of paying a huge percentage of their actual tax bill by the simple expedient of not reporting all of their income. But these same individuals still have to pay utility bills, purchase prescription drugs, visit doctors, and buy food. And if they believe in the “high life” of new cars, fancy clothes and jewelry, and new homes, they’re going to pay more than “Joe Six-pack” who chooses to drive a used car, or purchase a home that’s not brand new.

And it’s not just individuals who are managing to avoid paying taxes these days. Everyone in America has heard of the rush to move American companies “offshore”, whether in whole or in part. Think about it — have you ever seen an American-flagged commercial vessel? Oh sure, we’ve got our warships, but what about commercial boats that carry cargo or cruise passengers? Most of these are flying the flag of Liberia or Panama — low-tax nations.

In the mid-1950s, about 33% of all income taxes collected were paid by American corporations. Today that number is down to approximately 10%. From “The FairTax Book” by Boortz and Linder:

“That plunge is a major factor in our recent soaring deficits. Indeed, international corporations are essentially “voluntary” taxpayers today, paying only that amount in taxes that they believe will avoid attracting embarrassing news coverage. These corporations believe that our draconian tax structures make their actions necessary. The OFCs [offshore financial centers, or banks – TD] make their plans feasible” [Emphasis added – TD]

Boortz and Linder make the point that if we eliminated all taxes on capital and labor, (which the FairTax does), the United States would become the world’s tax haven.

We have the most stable economy, the most liquid and trusted markets, and the highest rates of labor productivity in the world — and the trillions of dollars in those OFCs would flow back home to the United States for the very reason they found themselves offshore to start with.

And we’re not just talking about American businesses coming home, we’re talking about wooing corporations based in other countries into America. Think of the economic benefits! More productivity, lower unemployment, higher wages, and all occurring within a tax system that allows you at least partly to choose whether to pay taxes! Buy it new, pay a tax, buy it used and don’t!

The FairTax Blogburst is jointly produced by Terry of The Right Track Blog and Jonathan of Publius Rendezvous. If you would like to host the weekly postings on your blog, please e-mail Terry. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll.

TD

---

Tb-posted @ Diane’s Stuff OTA Wednesday

Yep, it’s that time of week again. Show me how smart you are. Link me (to this post) with your best shot and track back. More after the IQ-destructor below…

---

Click this link and watch the video. If simply watching it doesn’t subtract 3-IQ points from your brainpower, then the guys who made the video are smarter than you are. And we all know that’s not possible…

🙂

(It reminded me of a school district administrator explaining why it was the sensible thing to do to break the law by comingling classroom instruction funds and construction funds. “Wow! He sher do know lotsa big words, don’t he, Ma?”)

---

As I said, this is an open trackback post. Link to this post and then track back. If you want to host your own linkfests, check out

Also note the other fine blogs featuring linkfests at Linkfest Haven.

Oh, and Lyn, at Bloggin’ Outloud, has some great tips and links for tracking back in this post. (As Lyn pointed out in comments, I meant this post.)

This is an open trackbacks post. Link to this post and track back. After yesterday’s resounding success with SPAM “poetry” for Academia Nut Fruitcakes, here’s some more “creative genius” (and I almost typed that with a straight face, I did. Almost.) More below the brilliant poetry following…

---

Thanks to Angel at Woman Honor Thyself (although she may delist me from her blogroll for saying it :-)), the bit of genius below sprang full blown from my forehead:

Anyone recall the Burma Shave signs of the 50s? Each line of a 5/6-line piece of doggerel (usually ending in line six with “Burma Shave”) was on a separate small roadside sign, so that reading them was simple time-lapse roadside entertainment.

An example:

“He tried
To cross
As fast train neared
Death didn’t draft him
He volunteered
Burma-Shave”

Updated for today?

“He tried
To cross
Undercover
Got shot dead
He’ll not recover
Guarded Borders.”

---

As I said, this is an open trackback post. Link to this post and then track back. If you want to host your own linkfests, check out

Also note the other fine blogs featuring linkfests at Linkfest Haven.

(The Neverending Post–updates edited in. *heh*)

Well, my weekend break for silliness mixed with seriousness is over… for now. Time for a Guard the Borders post. Since the gals at Euphoric Reality are “off” for a bit, my humble offering will have to suffice.

Start your week off by visiting NumbersUSA. I would suggest, though, that instead of sending the form faxes and emails that NumbersUSA offers, instead you take their form faxes and emails and use them as templates and examples to write your OWN faxes and emails. Then send them to YOUR congresscritters—your representative and senators—as appropriate. Send words of encouragement to your congresscritters if they are working (and have worked) to limit immigration and deny amnesty to alien invaders. Send (polite) excoriations to your congresscritters if they have voted the Quisling Ticket on thse issues.

But make the faxes and emails your own, in your own voice. Masses of form letters do have an impact, but I have been told by experienced pols that similar masses of individual letters, emails and faxes that are not part of an organized camplaign can have far more impact.

And call. Call the White House (202-456-1111) and express your displeasure with President Bush’s stance of appeasing a foreign aggressor invading our country with its masses of unwanted underemployed illiterates. Yeh, that’s our good friend Mexico. And express even greater displeasure with the administrations unconscionably lax approach to enforcing the law… and our borders.

Now, despite the fact that at first blush it may not seem applicable to our border/immigration issues (it is) this poignant plea from a British immigrant from Nigeria bemoaning the denigration of British culture by multiculturalists. (h.t. Intergalactic Source of Truth)

It amazed me greatly after the July bombing that the majority of the media and British, white public were so shocked that ‘our’ own people could do this. I certainly was not shocked. What this part of the country needs to realise is because of the promotion of multiculturalism, THERE IS NO LONGER AN ‘US’. There now exist separate identities living under the umbrella of Britain/United Kingdom, but who certainly do not view themselves as British.

Yeh, and here? Viva la raza, baby… The face of “multiculturalism” in the USA:

(Gee, the picture even leans left. I wonder why?)

And this in from Grunt Doc (via The Other Side of Kim):

Hubris

Senior Citizen from Mexico is brought in by a relative, accompanied by CT scans, ultrasound reports and the announcement “(loved one) needs a surgery”.

Well, this was worked up in Mexico, didn’t they want to do the surgery there?

“Yes, but… “

Read the rest at the link, but be warned: put breakables out of easy reach and take your BP meds first.

Noted at Committees of Correspondence, Bloggin’ Outloud