On the horizon of military technology: Drones that “decide” on their own whom to kill: One afternoon last fall at Fort Benning, Ga., two model-size planes took off, climbed to 800 and 1,000 feet, and began criss-crossing the military base in search of an orange, green and blue tarp. The automated, unpiloted planes worked on their own, with no human guidance, no hand on any control. After 20 minutes, one of the aircraft, carrying a computer that processed images from… Read more
The most popular politician in America. . .
September 21, 2011 By Gene Veith 26 Comments
. . .is Hillary Clinton: The most popular national political figure in America today is one who was rejected by her own party three years ago: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Nearly two-thirds of Americans hold a favorable view of her and one-third are suffering a form of buyer’s remorse, saying the U.S. would be better off now if she had become president in 2008 instead of Barack Obama. . . . While 34 percent say things would be better… Read more
More on the great Ponzi scheme
September 21, 2011 By Gene Veith 38 Comments
Charles Krauthammer explains in detail why Social Security is indeed a Ponzi scheme, as we discussed here in an earlier post: “In a Ponzi scheme, the people who invest early get their money out with dividends. But these dividends don’t come from any profitable or productive activity — they consist entirely of money paid in by later participants. This cannot go on forever because at some point there just aren’t enough new investors to support the earlier entrants.” This is… Read more
Evil eyes
September 20, 2011 By Gene Veith 28 Comments
As you will have noticed, I am interested in language, idioms, figures of speech, and imagery. Our pastor’s sermon, which is worth reading in its entirety, looked at a Biblical expression that is usually translated away. Rev. Douthwaite was preaching on Matthew 20:1-16, the parable about how the laborers were all getting paid the same, even though some worked longer than others, and told the Master that he was being unfair: Am I not allowed to do what I choose… Read more
Taxes & government manipulation
September 20, 2011 By Gene Veith 126 Comments
The Washington Post has a big story about tax breaks. As President Obama and congressional Republicans argue over how to rewrite the U.S. tax code, the debate has revolved around “loopholes” for corporate jets and ending “carve-outs” for well-heeled special interests. But if the goal is debt reduction, that’s not where the money is. Broad tax breaks granted to millions of families at all income levels dwarf the corporate giveaways. Over the past two years, largely because of these popular… Read more
Liberals and their language
September 20, 2011 By Gene Veith 14 Comments
George Will, picking up on some themes we have blogged about here, notes not only the ineffectualness of liberal solutions to our economic woes, but how they are running away from their own language: In societies governed by persuasion, politics is mostly talk, so liberals’ impoverishment of their vocabulary matters. Having damaged liberalism’s reputation, they call themselves progressives. Having made the federal government’s pretensions absurd, they have resurrected a supposed synonym for the government, the “federal family.” Having made federal… Read more
Divorce on grounds of Alzheimer’s
September 19, 2011 By Gene Veith 194 Comments
So what all is disturbing about this? Pat Robertson advised a viewer of yesterday’s 700 Club to avoid putting a “guilt trip” on those who want to divorce a spouse with Alzheimer’s. During the show’s advice segment, a viewer asked Robertson how she should address a friend who was dating another woman “because his wife as he knows her is gone.” Robertson said he would not fault anyone for doing this. He then went further by saying it would be… Read more
A Palestinian state
September 19, 2011 By Gene Veith 48 Comments
Have you noticed that the Republican presidential candidates are saying almost nothing about foreign policy, despite the huge problems overseas and the current administration’s bungling of so many of them? And now the Palestinians have gone to the UN on Friday, seeking that body’s ratification of a Palestinian state: The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, says he will go ahead with a request to the United Nations Security Council to recognise what amounts to a unilateral declaration of independence, despite warnings… Read more
College football reshuffling
September 19, 2011 By Gene Veith 16 Comments
Well, my team, the Oklahoma Sooners, ranked #1, beat the highest rated team on their schedule, #5 Florida State, making me think they are for real. OU has had a habit of losing games like this–early in the season, on the road, pre-mature hype–but this time, though it was a very hard-fought and exciting game, there was no choking, no appearance of disorganized panic when things got hard, just relentless football that ground out a 10 point victory. But now… Read more
“See how dumb I am” moments
September 16, 2011 By Gene Veith 108 Comments
Jennifer Rubin is a conservative. But she is sick and tired of Republican candidates and office holders who flaunt their ignorance and celebrate unintelligence: Republicans have sometimes mistaken anti-elitism with anti-smarts. Put differently, Republicans should not have contempt for the voters or for ideas, lest they be judged unworthy of serving in office. It’s one thing to heap scorn on liberal elites who parrot unsupportable leftist dogma or who show contempt for ordinary Americans’ values; it’s quite another to celebrate… Read more
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