civil truth's blog
Posted at 8:58pm on Jul. 5, 2008 Google & day-care: a parable for our times
By civil truth
The New York Times carried an article today about the turbulent waters that Google has fallen into regarding its in-house day-care program, which it has discovered is getting too expensive compared with the fees it has been assessing its employees.
The NYT author titled his article On Day Care, Google Makes a Rare Fumble, presumably on the basis that Google had overriden the findings of its focus groups and had upset its employees by planning to sharply increase the prices it charges its employees for day care.
Actually, (although this is not the author's intent) this story is a parable for the education sector and/or a parable for one-payer healthcare/Medicare.
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Posted at 2:54am on Jul. 4, 2008 Fourth of July Tribute 2008
By civil truth
-inscription on the Iwo Jima Monument
Three of the six Marines in this photograph died in later fighting on Iwo Jima. A fourth lived the rest of his life a broken man, wracked by survivor guilt. Overall, 6,825 Marines perished in the battle. [Source]
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Posted at 1:03pm on Jul. 3, 2008 More thoughts on the Initiative process
By civil truth
Blue Collar Muse has written a very thoughtful post concerning the current debate in Connecticut over convening a Constitutional convention and the efforts to introduce an initiative process.
I started to write a comment, but it got so long that I thought it better to turn it into a diary.
Having lived some twenty-five years now in an initiative state, I must say that I have mixed feelings regarding the wisdom of having an initiative process.
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Posted at 12:49pm on Jun. 21, 2008 The other half of the Hillary voter equation: character and other intangibles
By civil truth
Susannah has written an excellent blog earlier today How to Reach Out to Clinton Voters Using Specific Issues that follows up on the excellent comment to a blog several days ago titled Hi--I'm a Clinton Democrat Now Supporting McCain.
However, especially when dealing with an opponent whose campaign rests on image rather than substance, we need to engage Hillary voters not only at the rational level regarding issues, but we also need to engage at the emotional level regarding the intangibles, since this level can be as powerful or even more powerful in driving voting behavior. This will be critical for electoral success.
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Posted at 6:06pm on Jun. 19, 2008 Judge usurps role of teen parenting
By civil truth
Just when you think the nanny state lawyers and judges up in Canada can't find more areas to stick their noses in where they don't belong comes this newest gem: 12-Year-Old Grounded for Too Much Internet Use Gets Punishment Overturned in Court.
You read that right, as the news story relates:
A Quebec Superior Court judge has overturned a father's punishment for his daughter in which the father denied her permission to attend a school trip. Her offense was to disobey her father's instructions to stay off the internet by continuing to utilize online chat sites and posting posting "inappropriate" pictures of herself online using a friend's computer. Her behavior was the culmination of a history of disciplinary problems.
However, the judge in her infinitely superior wisdom decided the father's punishment was too severe.
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Posted at 5:48pm on Jun. 16, 2008 Dancing with the Devil: government versus the environment
By civil truth
Todays Wall Street Journal features a fascinating article by Mary Anastasia O'Grady that brought to my attention for the first time the two-faced game that government plays with environmentalism with regards to natural resources development.
In her article, titled Why Brazil Isn't Ashamed to Exploit Its Oil, the author provides a number of examples to defend the following thesis:
I have another theory. And mine fits the pattern of resource development – or lack thereof – all over the Western Hemisphere. It comes down to this: Where government has the property right, restrictions on development tend to be low. But when the private sector is the owner, environmental concerns blossom.
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Posted at 4:34pm on May 26, 2008 The fruit of one man's campaign to honor our troops
By civil truth
I spotted this Wall Street Journal article today Protesting the Antiwar Protestors highlighting the Chester County [PA] Victory Movement, which began nine months ago as one man's protest at the Chester County Courthouse against anti-war protesters and has now become a weekly presence to challenge the anti-war group that has regularly protested there since 2003. Here's a video of their May 3, 2008 action.
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Posted at 12:12pm on May 23, 2008 Sen Obama, here's what it means to ignore one's enemies
By civil truth
In a recent RS post, MarkI skewers Sen. Obama's lastest dictat on talking to our enemies.
The only phrase missing from Sen. Obama's declaration is his declaring that all previous statements are now inoperative. But then again, surely we've heard and know that Messiah means never having to be held accountable to the same standards as other political leaders. (Sound vaguely familiar?)
Among Sen. Obama's disturbingly illogical and dangerous blather, what was most absurd and fatally misguided was the following sentence:
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Posted at 7:39pm on Mar. 30, 2008 The Democratic Party platform delineated in seven comics panels
By civil truth
Today's edition of the comic strip Pearls before Swine contains the most concise précis of the program of the Democratic Party that I've seen to date.
Since I couldn't copy it here, you'll have to follow this link to read the original comic.
However, I've copied the essential dialog here below:
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Posted at 7:27pm on Mar. 29, 2008 A book title that needs no text
By civil truth
Today's top story is the eagerly-awaited announcement of the winner of The Bookseller's Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year.
The winner, by a large voting margin, was a self-help book by the title:
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Posted at 2:36am on Mar. 23, 2008 Seven Stanzas at Easter
By civil truth
Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.
It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His flesh: ours.
The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that-pierced-died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.
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Posted at 6:42pm on Mar. 12, 2008 Survivor: Campaign 2008? or PC: The Next Generation?
By civil truth
With Geraldine Ferraro's forced departure from the Clinton campaign (other others have reported), we appear to be entering a new phase in American politics, where reality TV threatens to merge with political campaigns.
In ye olde days (perhaps a year ago or more), political advisors who mispoke got assigned to purgatory where they had to work off their miscue with requisite apologies and perhaps absolution from key party figures. This, of course is the established routine for celebrity mishaps, e.g. Mel Gibson.
But now the rules have changed: no longer does purgatory suffice; now nothing but complete perdition will satisfy the blood lust of the audience.
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Posted at 11:36am on Mar. 12, 2008 The link between Albany Mar '08 and Denver Aug '08
By civil truth
Maureen Dowd in one of her more reasonably argued articles this morning came up with this gem of a lead:
Just when I thought my head would explode from trying to figure out delegate math, I’m hit with call-girl math.
The arithmetic of procuring a prostitute who is both experienced and inspirational is even more complicated than the arithmetic of procuring a president who is both experienced and inspirational.
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Posted at 7:48pm on Mar. 11, 2008 More on Sinbad and the campaign
By civil truth
Following the Washington Post link on Moe's RedHot post Sure, Sinbad, why not? Everybody else's chimed in by now, Sinbad had some harrowing tales of this war zone - well, perhaps not quite so harrowing:
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Posted at 8:42pm on Feb. 29, 2008 A most ingenious paradox
By civil truth
In honor of leap day in this bisextile day...
From the Pirates of Penzance or The Slave to Duty
Background: Frederic learns that he had been mistakenly apprenticed to a band of pirates because his nursemaid misheard Frederic's father when he told her to apprentice him to a sea pilot. As one who has always done his duty, Frederic faithfully stays in his apprenticeship up to the day he reaches age 21, at which point, believing he has fulfilled his contract with the pirates, he leaves the band and joins a nearby army that is charged with capturing these very pirates. He soon ends up face to face with the pirate band, including his nursemaid Ruth (who had joined the pirate band and now carries a torch for him) and the pirate King:
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