Monday, December 6th, 2010
- Bryan Caplan visits the Biltmore estate and marvels at how the average American today lives as well or better than the Vanderbilts did. I noticed the same thing when I visited Biltmore.
- New bill could put the federal government in the business of regulating school bake sales.
- The Mississippi judge who jailed an attorney for not saying the Pledge of Allegiance has apologized and has been reprimanded. Seems like he got off pretty easy.
- California mosque obtains a restraining order against a militant member who went around screaming for people to join the jihad against America. Then they found out he was an FBI informant.
- Off-duty NYPD cops beat a man to death after a road rage incident. Witness accounts contradict the cops’ account. The cops say they were responding after he attacked one of them with a bat. Witnesses (according to an attorney for the victim’s family) say they initiated the violence, then beat him with the bat. Bonus: When the passenger in the man’s car went to obtain the bat after the cops tossed it over a fence, they arrested him for evidence tampering. (NOTE: I revised this item for clarity.)
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TheAgitator.com
Off-duty NYPD cops beat a man to death with a baseball bat after a road rage incident. Witness accounts contradict the cops’ account. Bonus: When the passenger in the man’s car went to obtain the bat after the cops tossed it over a fence, they arrested him for evidence tampering.
I guess this shows up the limits of professional courtesy in the NYPD. It is good to be a cop. And this is New York, things are likely worse elsewhere.
Good point about Biltmore and Vanderbuilt. I just read Jay Gould’s biography and he died in his fifties from TB.
Still, while a laptop certainly gives you far more information than most libraries, there is something special about being in one of those old libaries.
FBI,NSA and CIA operatives acting as agents provocateurs against the American people, Hey Joe say it isn`t so.
The Mosque story is infuriating and embarrassing. Would not be hard to make a case that such efforts violate worshippers 1st Amendment right to free exercise of religion.
the mosque story is consistent with undercover police actions all over the world… no surprises here.
#4 Nick T
But that would involve revealing state secrets and methods in a courtroom.
I’m guessing that the internal investigation will go on just about as long as it takes for the press and the public to forget about the incident. At that point the cops will be cleared by their fellow cops and life will go on as before.
The Pledge of Allegiance is ridiculous. The fact that just about every school and every courtroom STILL loves and recites that bullshit is simply amazing.
The mosque story is typical of cops trying to pad their resumes by suckering some loser into a ‘plot’ which they can then ‘unmask.’
Hey, since informants have been such a rip roaring success in quelling drug use in the U.S., it only stands to reason that law enforcement would enthusiastically embrace such an effective precision tool to foil potential terrorists (which, of course, includes everyone in the country who isn’t a cop).
The Pledge of Allegiance was also written by a proud socialist. That’s something overlooked by many on the right.
Socialism is just the other side of their coin, but it is still their coin.
As much as I enjoy comparing apples to oranges, the gilded Vanderbilts (not the watered down stock of the later years) wouldn’t be wandering around this future in my shoes. They’d be wandering around it in the shoes of a Hilton, Soros, Gates or Oprah even. The ability to wield power, media, commerce and innovation have little to do with the “wonders of stuff” like A/C or TiVo.
As to the mosque informant. There’s a saying, never trust a provocateur, unless it’s your self.
@ #9, if only it were about cops trying to pad their resumes. It’s actually about ensuring the public is in a constant state of anxiety, ensuring the people are ever more docile and willing to give up their liberties. If there aren’t any threats out there then they have to be created.
Mallory Shortway’s mom, Laura, who sends the 17 year old to day prision in Seminole, Florida thinks federal regulation of bake sales is narrow minded. I guess all the other federal regulation of public schools is just fucking peachy. Good thing the NYPD is working off duty bashing open the skulls of drunk drivers. That way little Mallory can get first hand look at open mindedness if she makes it to Macy’s.
That bake sale story is a bit of a reach. I have to say, the more I see from the AP lately, the more biased it seems.
Here was there headline for the vote in the senate this weekend: “Bill blocked to let upper-income tax cuts expire.” Current law is for these tax cuts to expire. The bill Republicans blocked was to extend tax cuts for all income below $250,000 and then also for all income below $1 million.
How a fair news organization could completely reverse reality in its headline baffles me. The fact is, Republicans just blocked a massive tax cut for 98% of Americans.
In the case of this bake sale, the bill is calling for guidelines to be written. Since they have not been written, there’s no telling what they will say. But it also only applies to regular school hours, not sporting events or other after school activities.
Generally if you read their articles, they’re relatively balanced, but their headlines seem to way too often slant things toward the Republican viewpoint.
Allegedly, one of the people in the mosque reported the informant to the FBI. After that, he found himself arrested and brought in under charges of ‘lying on his visa application’.
Matt I are you serious? So if you do not report you get arrested, if you do report you get arrested, and if you join the FBI jihad you get arrested. What are the charges if you stay at home?
“What are the charges if you stay at home?”
terrorist sloth?
Boyd, if you do not want to say the pledge of alliegence, don’t say it. Ironic that a judge in Mississippi got fired up about refusing to say it, since I recall there were plenty of folks in Mississippi who balked against the Republic and its “indivisibility” in the past.
Okay, the later added “under God” part ruffles those who disagree with it. I have questioned it myself over the years the purpose of the pledge, but pledging to the Republic for “liberty and justice for all” hardly seems something to get your panties in a bunch over. We have never met that goal, but it is still an admirable goal.
And I support anyone opting out.
#18 | K9kevlar
“What are the charges if you stay at home?”
#19 | noseeum
terrorist sloth?
= an obligatory Jihad quota?
Jesus Fucking Christ.
What is this world coming to?
Yes Joe liberty and justice for all is admirable. I personally think world peace and ending all disease would be better. But, we, as americans, IMHO, should just try to get along and keep fucking for virginity. We could aim higher but that is probably against the law.
“This is really about supporting parental choice. Most parents don’t want their kids to use their lunch money to buy junk food. They expect they’ll use their lunch money to buy a balanced school meal.” [So we have to ban bake sales!]
Is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read from a nanny-statist. Radley, maybe you can set up some annual awards for best examples of nanny-statism and have one for quotes that most fundamentally mis-understand freedom, rights, the Constitution etc. You can name it after that buffoon.
Disagree on the Vanderbuilt issue.
Yes, I guess if we look at cars, vaccines, etc., the plebs of today have more than the rich of yore. But seriously, it isn’t just about electronic goodies…What of lesiure – who had more – the working poor (I hate that term) that work 2-3 jobs or Vandy; What about cramped apartment housing vs Vandy’s acres. It is a silly comparison to make and is used to tell everyone to mind their place.
We could also write an article about Salem witch trials and say they used to burn witches…now they get a storefront at the strip mall.
Just a thought.
“Hey, since informants have been such a rip roaring success in quelling drug use in the U.S., it only stands to reason that law enforcement would enthusiastically embrace such an effective precision tool to foil potential terrorists (which, of course, includes everyone in the country who isn’t a cop).”
Why don’t we have FBI Informants penetrating Goldman Sachs
and other billion-dollar institutions built upon deception, and greed?
I don’t see any way someone can pledge allegiance to a piece of cloth. A country? Probably. A person? Sure. An idea? Of course. A friggin’ flag? No way. A decent loyalty oath should at least make sense to someone with an IQ that reaches very far up into the double digits. Of course, loyalty oaths are generally designed to encourage people to put aside reason in favor of blind faith, so semantic precision probably isn’t all that high on the list of minimum requirements.
@ James J.B. | December 6th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
I agree that there was more liesure for the idle rich in those days than the average person enjoys nowadays, however the proportion of ‘idle’ rich vs. the number of rich people who worked their tails off to pile up money is probably about the same today as it was back then. (Cornelius Vanderbilt, the one who made the fortune, was a workaholic.) (And we still have plenty of idle rich today as well.)
OTOH, an average person then would absolutely be astounded at the life of the average person now. Back then, 6 day weeks with 10 hour days were the norm, food was much less varied and fresh, sanitation was abominable, and medical care even worse than that received by George Vanderbilt – who, incidently, died at the age of the average person’s life expectancy at that time.
The Roman Legions had their Eagles, which they would die to defend, and there was a lot of military ‘honor’ built around protecting the Standard in battle, so I see the “I pledge allegiance to the flag…” bit as a direct descendant of that kind of militaristic indoctrination. Perfect training for future
legionairesoops, I meancannon fodderoops again, I meant citizens.Yeah, it’s a mixed bag. Someone like the King of England in 1903 (William VI) was an immensely rich man, and presumably could have all kinds of goodies normal people now can’t afford–unlimited girl or boys to taste, servants to do anything he wanted doing, castles and mansions and horses and ships. But all his money couldn’t buy him the quality of medical care you can get on Medicaid or by walking into an emergency room, or the consumer electronics you can find in every trailer in the trailer park, or an airplane that could reliably and safely take him from London to New York or Paris in a few hours, or any number of other things of that sort.
Dave Krueger@29, I seem to recall a line that goes something like, “…and to the Republic…”
It’s entitled the “Pledge of Allegiance.” To a flag. That fact alone oughta be offensive to anyone who actually believes in the principles of our former Republic.
For me, any Pledge of Allegiance flap comes down to that the “Under God” (which gets so many ACLU knickers so bunched) was inserted long after the original author released it. The hell with any “separation of Church and State” issues, this is an offense against intellectual property. If you are going to require school children to recite poetry, at least have the decency not to edit the poems. If the author had wanted to say “Under God” he would have written “Under God” into the poem in the first place. Don’t put worlds in his mouth.
For one thing, it’s unsanitary…..
Long ago, remember the original hand gesture for the Pledge?
Hint :Sieg Heil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bellamy_salute_1.jpg
The fact that they include other things in the list of items they want people to pledge allegiance to, doesn’t make pledging allegiance to the flag any less nonsensical.
#28 Aresen
My point wasn’t about rich v. poor. I just think it’s absurd to say that all you average sloafs – well, be thankful you never lived in a mansion a long time ago. I just think it is a silly idea and indicative of the shallow analysis that the media places on such topics. Maybe Vandy was an honest many that paid his workers fairly, maybe he was a criminal that used below board means to acquire his wealth, maybe we could talk of how some of his luxuries have now filtered to the commoners – ok fine. But the story as presented in a 3 paragraph “analysis” is to say the poor/middle class of today have it better that the man that had the largest house in the US – is a bit much don’t you think.
Not sure if Vandy was a hard worker or not – doesn’t matter to me – I know a lot of well to do types that want to tell you they work long hours – they do – as do I – it’s just different – I work long days – but I am in court, I drive to court, walk outside, eat a lunch, etc. Though I have stress – worry about clients, winning for them etc., my body isn’t shot when I end the day. Heck I even have lesiure time to go lift weights.
Yet there are people who go to work in a factory and work as long as I do but don’t get the perks that I have. My dad worked in a factory his whole life – he would work in an enviorment that I am glad he and my mom pushed their son(s) to study hard and that I don’t have to face that work day.
My own philosophy is that I am thankful for what I have. I wouldn’t trade places with anyone – not Vandy, the trumps, Kennedeys, Bushes, or anyone else. I also don’t measure my successes by what others have – but what I can do. I do not tell others that I work a lot – usually I say I am busy and change the subject -as I feel it is impolite to tell others how hard I work (My teacher friends obviously believe the contrary)
There is a great movie, The Edge, where the protagonist Charles says, among other great quotes, Never feel sorry for a man that owns a plane.
Just a thought… have at me guys.
And on the topic of NYPD cops…
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131852449
What is it about NYPD cops and sodomy?
Rad – what’s with the up or downs not going through? Is it just on my computer or a general problem. It’s been for probably a couple of weeks now at least.
We can always modify the pledge to the one Delta used in Animal House.
There is always this one too if it turns you on.
@ Laura Victoria | December 6th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
The karma buttons are not working for anybody.
Apparently Radley installed an upgrade. Which worked as well as most upgrades do. ;)
Didn’t Glenn Greenwald recently have an article about the FBI catching a new terrorist? Their method involved putting him on the no-fly list and forcing him to loose an out of state job. So now unemployed and not allowed to move, they then offered him money to join the jihad. They then offered him money to plant a bomb. They then built him a bomb. They then talked him through all the best plans for planting the bomb and then allowed him to choose the best plan so they could catch “a terrorist mastermind”. They then lost all the tapes relevant to an entrapment defense.
This is how we “catch” domestic terrorists, we make them. I used to here the conspiracy nuts talking about how the CIA did the Oklahoma City Bombing or some such other incident and think it was ridiculous. But now it seems that in a few short years some federal agency is just going to blow something up and not even bother to blame it on a patsy. I guess it would make the security theater more thrilling if there were terrorists “at large” instead of in custody.
#41 random guy, great post! If I were to name a poster of the week it would be you, you’ve been on fire lately!
Dave Kruger if you start them young enough all things are possible. The pledge is nothing. At my local grocery the cash register shows pictures of the change. I had 35 cents coming back but the gal had to call a manager because she was out of quarters. She could not give me three dimes and a nickle because the screen showed one dime and one quarter. Loyalty oaths may encourage people to put aside reason in favor of blind faith, but cops in school force people to put aside thought in favor of authority.
I believe there is an old rule of thumb which applies here: To a first approximation, the guy in the room talking about blowing stuff up and bringing on the revolution is usually working for the FBI.
Dang! Albatross, you wrote what I was thinking! Oh, and this has been going on for a long time. I believe that car bomb that blew up the Math Research Center at the U. of Wisconsin back in the late sixties-early seventies was provoked by the FBI.
There was definitely some Fed involvement before the Oklahoma City bombing. I think their idea was to encourage it and then rush in at the last moment and bust the guy. Of course, they screwed up. That is a charitable interpretation. The ATF guys all coincidentally stayed home that day.
Concur on the Socialist-Pwog roots of the Pledge. They made me learn it by heart before I was old enough to understand what they were doing. The “one nation, indivisible” part particularly chaps my ass, seeing that the proudest boast i can make of my family is that all four of my great grandfathers served honorably against the United States of America, one of them losing an eyeball at Chancellorsville.
One thing I wish more people would appreciate is that the only reason we have many of the things we now consider necessities is that some people were able to afford them when they were extravagant luxuries. If it weren’t for rich people, electric lighting, indoor plumbing, central heating, and telephones, now available to basically everyone in the U.S., wouldn’t be available to anyone.