New nadirs of inanity

Vicad poll questions in last couple of days have included, 'Do you think small town festivals should stay small?' and 'Do you like Chinese food?' Beat those for dumb.

Czech Heritage Month

It was noted in the Vicad in a little two- or three-paragraph piece that this is Czech Heritage Month. Meanwhile, we are beat to death with Spanish Heritage Month stories every morning, generally featuring a vato-on-the-street interview about how the interviewee keeps alive Spanish heritage by eating tacos. A frequent correspondent writes, 'I had to go to VPL to find out October is Czech Heritage Month. I demand equal time! Where are the Czech Heritage Profiles, the kolache recipes, the Tarok instructions?' Meanwhile the paper continues to work itself into a lather about the brave new UHV being a Hispanic-serving institution and thus being eligible for some kind of gummint gravy. Is there a grant program for Slav-serving institutions? The paper notes that one of the advantages of UHV will be staffers who can speak Spanish to incoming students. I wonder if a student preparing to undertake putatively college-level work shouldn't be fluent in English?
Along the same line, Ghris Gobbler blogs that the guy who draws the Baldo cartoons was a better speaker than Jim Lehrer of the PBS News Hour. Yeah, right. Vicad's all excited about the Baldo artist being here. As I recall, when the paper's readers voted on which comic strips to cut, Baldo was voted off the island. The paper kept it on regardless and keeps it in a premier spot on the page. Don't take this republic of readers thing too seriously. If it's not what the editors have in mind, it's not happening.

COLA and inflation

If you pay attention, you've noticed all sorts of things going up in price or down in size or both. My fifty-cent can of sardines is up by eight cents, 16%. A can of tuna in water now has about two tablespoons of tuna and the rest is water. People complain that a half gallon of ice cream no longer contains a half gallon. The pic above makes the point. Someone remarks that it's deflation in things we don't buy and inflation in things we must have. Yahoo News reports that there will be no cost-of-living raise in Social Security payments in 2011. 'It would mark only the second year without an increase since automatic adjustments for inflation were adopted in 1975. The first year was this year.' And no doubt the third year will be year after next. Read the entire no-COLA story here. Of course, everyone's getting well off the stock market, so these small price rises don't matter.

What the pols have lost sight of

Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, "The makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness. They recognized the significance of man's spiritual nature, of his feelings, and of his intellect. ... They sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions and their sensations. They conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone – the most comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by civilized men. To protect that right, every unjustifiable intrusion by the government upon the privacy of the individual, whatever the means employed, must be deemed a violation of the Fourth Amendment." Left and right both seem impelled to meddle with people's personal affairs in one way or another. Not leaving people alone sins against the original intent of the writers of the Constitution. Imposing governmental will on people's religious practices, thought, speech, or personal preferences is evil.

i wanna be on his jury ...

From the LATimes: 'Police say a 45-year-old Memphis man angry over two teens' sagging pants shot one in the buttocks during an argument.' Read all here. Perhaps a little extreme, but still ... I'd do some jury nullifying.

Visitors

The Girl, bless her, spent the weekend down with us, bringing, of course, granddaughter Lily Jane. This is Lily on the nice little playscape down by the seawall. She's fumbling for a twistgrip to make the thing go faster faster faster.

Your national future going down the pipes

Look at this vid on Zero Hedge of U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson questioning the Federal Reserve Bank Inspector General about auditing practices at the Fed. It's scary.
And here's Grayson on foreclosures: