Schoolhouse Rock and Civic Knowledge

Ace of Spades put up an excellent post a few weeks ago about the lack of Civics knowledge in this country.http://ace.mu.nu/archives/318322.php#318322 The best part of the post are the links to the old Schoolhouse Rock videos that just about everyone older than 30 should remember. I fondly remember them from Saturday morning’s when I was kid. Anyway, check out the post and watch the videos too. Here is a great site to go and test your civics knowledge: The BBHQ Great American Civics Quiz. There are 54 questions on the test. I got a 46, I guess I need to study some more.  🙁 Post your score in the comments.

A Balanced Budget Amendment

Here is an excellent piece from the CATO Institute on why the US needs a Balanced Budget Amendment.   It includes this awesome graphic illustrating the way our national debt has grown over the last thirty-years.   After looking at that can anyone doubt that America as a nation needs to quit borrowing money and spending it like a drunk sailor on Liberty?  The issue with America, specifically our government, is that they have gotten addicted to spending money we don’t have.   I have said for years that if I ran my personal accounts like the government does theirs I would be in jail for fraud.   It is … More after the Jump…

A Great One from the WSJ

The First Rule of Liberalism: Government failure always justifies more government. That is one of the best lines I have seen in a while. Thanks to the Best of the Web Team at the Wall Street Journal for coming up with it. It is just about as good as Reagan’s famous nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’

Germany’s Current Strategic Position

At the present time, Germany is in a strategic position unparalleled in its history.   The German state shares no borders with any potential enemies in the near future.   Historically Germany has had to contend with one or more enemies sharing contiguous borders with it and rarely has Germany been able to count on outside help in combating these enemies.   As a continental as opposed to maritime power this situation is unprecedented for Germany with her short coastline and long land borders.   Historically Germany has always shared a border with at least one enemy whether at peace with them or not. The list of historical enemies is … More after the Jump…

Last Shuttle Mission

The last shuttle mission will go up on Friday July 8th. The Mission, STS-135 by Space Shuttle Atlantis will the 135th and final shuttle mission and mark the end of an era at NASA. What is really pathetic is the fact that their is no follow on manned orbiter for the US space program. We, the US, has ceded the lead in space to Russia and China and probably Japan. The president has decreed that henceforth the US will depend on other countries and private companies to put American Astronauts into orbit. That is just pathetic and I cannot understand the logic behind that decision. Everybody should have to observe … More after the Jump…

The American Way of War – My Opinion

The American Way of War was introduced as a concept by Russell Weigley in his book of the same name during the early 1970’s.   Essentially the theory runs that America attempts to totally dominate her enemies in war thus ending the war.   The American method of achieving this during and since World War II has been through the judicious application of firepower; that is, overwhelming force directed against an enemy. American doctrine as it developed during and after World War II stresses the use of maximum force at the point of decision.   This is not much different from other nations doctrine, what makes it different is the … More after the Jump…

Interesting Article in Stars and Stripes

I am probably going to get beat up for posting this but here goes anyway. There was an interesting story (attached to the post here) in last Tuesday’s edition of European Stars and Stripes.   It concerned the lack of black heroes in the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.   Two of the experts they interview for the article are John Sibley Butler, a Vietnam vet and business professor and Tyrone Williams the COO of the non-profit Black Veterans for Social Justice, Inc.. First off, I question the premise of the article in the first place, it makes out that somehow black soldiers are being discriminated against in the … More after the Jump…

WOW, What more can you say to a story like this?

Education officials break down Stockton man’s door I don’t even know what to think about this. Surprise that the DOE has cops or shock that they would use a SWAT team to go after a student loan defaulter. Maybe those guys over at Prison Planet really are onto something. Of course, this could lead to all sorts of jokes about DOE cops toting rulers and detention slips too.

Intriguing question: What happens if Iran develops the bomb?

What happens if Iran develops the bomb? That is a question often asked in the press but never really answered.  A new report from the RAND Corporation seems to suggest that Iran may be in possession of a nuclear warhead within the next eight weeks.  Admittedly, that link is from an Israeli and thus not necessarily objective news source but the original question still stands.  What would the response of the world be to an Iranian announcement that they are now in possession of a nuclear weapon?  I don’t have any great confidence that it would be anything effective.  I foresee much gnashing of teeth in Western capitals, the Chinese … More after the Jump…

Beef with Google Books

Dr Beachcombing over at strange history sent me this post of his through email a few days ago and I decided to link to it. It regards the quality of the scans available for books in the Google Books service.  He takes particular umbrage with the poor quality of some of the Google scans of books they have up and also with the way they use IP mapping to determine if a user can even access the scan in the first place based on the geographic location of their IP Address.  Read his post first, my reply to his email is below: Beach, Sorry, it has taken me a couple … More after the Jump…

I hate Citigroup

I dabble in the stock market and one of the stocks I owned until recently was 5 shares of Citigroup stock.   I picked it up in late 2008 at $6 a share hoping to vulture-like profit share.   In the interests of full disclosure, I bought it before they got any TARP money.   It has since declined even further and sat in my stock portfolio like unwanted cheesecake consistently valued at less than I paid for it.   I decided about a year ago that as soon as it broke even I would sell it and wash my hands of the company I dislike anyway. I dislike Citigroup … More after the Jump…

The Lack of New Posts Lately

I was in the hospital last week after undergoing surgery to fix a herniated disk in my lower back so I have not posted anything until today. I injured my back almost 17 years ago in a Bradley rollover at NTC and it finally got bad enough that surgery was called for, I sincerely hope this fixes it.   Back pain sucks big-time as anyone who has experienced it can no doubt tell you. I did have the chance to get some pretty good drafts written while in the hospital though and I will be polishing those and putting them up over the next few weeks.   Anyway, I will … More after the Jump…

Justin Bieber stop spamming my webpage!!!!

I have gotten at least 500 spam comments from Justin Bieber in the last week.   They look like this(hyperlinks removed): Justin Bieber 0 approved justinbieber24.pl Plomma14372@gmail.com 94.41.92.26 Submitted on 2011/05/01 at 08:57 Kanadyjski wokalista http://www.justinbieber24.pl justin bieber justin bieber – [url=http://www.justinbieber24.pl]justin bieber[/url] – justin bieber justin bieber justin bieber – [url=http://www.justinbieber24.pl]justin bieber[/url] – justin bieber justin bieber justin bieber – [url=http://www.justinbieber24.pl]justin bieber[/url] – justin bieber Kanadyjski wokalista http://www.justinbieber24.pl I just want him to quit spamming my site, his music is bad enough, does he have to be a spammer too?

R2P or not?

R2P means “Responsibity to Protect“, and is the idea that the “International Community” has an obligation to “prevent and stop genocides, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.” This obligation extends regardless of whether or not traditional national interests are at stake. We can see that clearly in the case of the UN sanctioned attacks on Libya over the past five weeks. The question is since the West is bombing Libya to protect and save civilian lives from a government attempting to put down a rebellion, how long until we start bombing Syria since they are doing the same thing as Libya.  The even bigger question to my mind … More after the Jump…