And Still I Persist

Rudy Giuliani has just released what he calls his ‘Twelve Commitments to the American People’ [link updated]:

1. I will keep America on offense in the Terrorists’ War on Us.
2. I will end illegal immigration, secure our borders, and identify every non-citizen in our nation.
3. I will restore fiscal discipline and cut wasteful Washington spending.
4. I will cut taxes and reform the tax code.
5. I will impose accountability on Washington.
6. I will lead America towards energy independence.
7. I will give Americans more control over, and access to, healthcare with affordable and portable free-market solutions.
8. I will increase adoptions, decrease abortions, and protect the quality of life for our children.
9. I will reform the legal system and appoint strict constructionist judges.
10. I will ensure that every community in America is prepared for terrorist attacks and natural disasters.
11. will provide access to a quality education to every child in America by giving real school choice to parents.
12. I will expand America’s involvement in the global economy and strengthen our reputation around the world.

It’s a pity that the current Administration as well as both parties in Congress have lost sight of many, if not most, of these priorities. ..bruce..

[UPDATED 06/15/07 - 0741 MDT]

Here’s a fascinating article from the (U.K.) Daily Mail on how children”lost” the right to roam over a few generations:

When George Thomas was eight he walked everywhere.

It was 1926 and his parents were unable to afford the fare for a tram, let alone the cost of a bike and he regularly walked six miles to his favourite fishing haunt without adult supervision.

Fast forward to 2007 and Mr Thomas’s eight-year-old great-grandson Edward enjoys none of that freedom.

He is driven the few minutes to school, is taken by car to a safe place to ride his bike and can roam no more than 300 yards from home.

Be sure to look at the map in the article. And now back to the original posting.

==========================

I bought a copy of The Dangerous Book for Boys a few months back after Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) called attention to it. I bought it in part to support the authors for having written such a great book, but mostly for my Colorado-based grandsons (Ashton, who’s almost 8, and eventually Raiden and Ethan). It is an outstanding book, and my only complaint is: it’s too short. (I suspect, however, Vol. II is already being written.)

Well, Ashton has started looking through the book, and while a lot of the text is over his head, he is becoming intrigued by the projects. We had to explain that we don’t have an appropriate tree for a tree house, so now he’s looking at the go-kart. And the crystals. And the homemade battery (quarters and tinfoil). And I couldn’t be more tickled. When I run out in a little while, I’m stopping by Radio Shack to pick up some supplies.

Somewhere around age 8 or 9, I received a chemistry set. This was back in the pre-liability/pre-nannyism era, so it came with glass (glass!) test tubes and an alcohol lamp (for heating things up! over an open flame!) and lots of interesting chemicals. My sister Lorraine and I both got a lot of mileage out of the set, mostly doing random mixings and heatings in an effort to get an interesting reaction. (She once got the bottom of a test tube to explode, though in a relatively mild fashion; I was jealous.)

I think this is where my geek nature first emerged. I would save up allowance and wander the streets of La Mesa looking for empty soda bottles to return for deposit. I’d then take my hard-earned cash and go down to a little hobby store in downtown La Mesa that sold (among other things) chemicals and chemistry equipment. I would look carefully over the Erlenmeyer flasks, test tubes, rubber stoppers, glass and plastic piping, heating stands, test tube holders and other incredibly cool stuff — not to mention the wide assortment of chemicals and other materials — count my pocketful of change, and decide which to buy.

Even now, some 45 years later, I can remember how I drank in the sense of possibilities and the clean beauty of all that glassware and piping. And, of course, it amazes me what a nine- or ten-year-old kid was able to buy over the counter. I am glad to see a move back, however modest, towards letting kids be kids — with the risks that involves.

And I hope to have a chemistry set here the next time Ashton stays with us. In the meantime, buy the book for your own sons, grandsons, nephews or sons of friends. And then go check out the United Nuclear website for cool stuff for yourself.

[UPDATED: 06/12/07 - 2316 MDT]

Stumbled across this list detailing what it was like to be born and grow up before the 1980s. A few examples:

• We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
• No one was able to reach us all day, and we were O.K.
• We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
• We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD’s, no surround-sound, CD’s or iPods! No cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms…….

Read the whole list. ..bruce..

[UPDATED 06/13/07 - 0908 MDT]

Here’s another satisfied customer:

Some might wonder why a book like this is controversial at all. It really shouldn’t be, but our educational system over the last twenty or thirty years has been built on the conceit that boys and girls are basically interchangeable. The fact that this is blatantly untrue to anyone who spends five minutes with an actual child is ignored. If a good feminist ever has a moment of doubt and begins to think that the sexes are different, she at least acknowledges that the differences are a bad thing. If girls are quieter and less violent, then boys should be made to be like them. If a boy has a warrior spirit, it should be discouraged.

Buy the book. And hat tip to Instapundit for the link for this review. ..bruce..

No, you can’t make stuff like this up. According to the Wall Street Journal, Macy’s has decided to cancel their plans to build fake homes inside many of their flagship stores. These houses were part of a marketing push around Martha Stewart (MSO) products being carried at these stores.

These plans were shelved due to sharp declines in the housing market, and new homes furnishings. Rumor in the majority of the media is that these “sharp declines” in housing are not spilling over into other areas of the economy… except retailers, automakers and other businesses that make money by selling things to people.

Rumor has it that national homebuilder KB Homes had been tapped to construct these houses in Macy’s. I guess even fake housing was in a bubble, and is weakening now.

Frequent readers of this Blog know that I have been using a new kind of software to help track hidden aspects of the business cycle, both for our customers and for my own interests. The working theory here is that the data you can get from government and industry reporting agencies are no longer inherently honest - that they are perhaps a bit cooked to lessen the down side and the up side. Not because of some vast Illuminati / Freemason conspiracy, but because it makes good business and political sense for them to do so. That was one reason for creating systems like Hardtack - to report the numbers and let you make up your own mind if they are good or bad for you and your families.

We have already reported on the housing market, and the mortgage melt down in what has been called “Sub Prime”, and the next shoe to drop being “Alt-A”, typically high value loans or other situations that took it outside the conforming funding limits. While these future trends will provide a nasty drag on an otherwise good economy, the real rot lies with a fundamental re-training and re-conditioning of the US consumer over the past decade or so. To put it bluntly - consumers no longer spend according to their income, but according to their credit lines.

This has lead to an enormous expansion in consumer credit, and most families no longer budget to spend the amount they make minus a percentage set aside for savings. Rather they look at how much the can afford to spend each month servicing debt, and they spend until they run out of debt service money.

(more…)

One of the persistent myths with which the barking moonbat left comforts itself is that the military largely comprises low-IQ, knuckle-dragging grunts wearing tattoos that say “Kill them all…” without the “…and let God sort them out” punchline, men and women who lack any understanding of history, culture, or context.

I wonder if any of said moonbats owns, much less had read, even a single book on the required reading list set forth by Lt. General James Mattis for all Marines and Sailors deploying to the USCENTCOM Area of Responsibility, with the list growing ever longer as you rise in rank and with additional reading depending upon your specific area of deployment. To quote Lt. Gen. Mattis:

Commander’s Intent: The Global War on Terrorism is a long war, and as such we need to continue our preparation to be engaged in all aspects of this war. For our current fights the MARCENT Reading List provides a collection of readings to be read dependent upon your grade and how long you have before deploying. Whether part of a unit or an individual augment, my intent is to prepare you for the operational, tactical, cultural and environmental factors affecting your specific fight. This reading list is not all inclusive and your local command may require you to accomplish other tasks in preparation for deployment as well. All of these actions will ensure we send educated, well-trained and properly prepared Marines into the fight. Turn-to, get it done, you and your Marines will be better for your efforts.

I’m embarrassed to say that I only own a half a dozen or so of the books on the list.

My son Jon will be heading over to Iraq in February or so; he’s got some serious reading ahead of him. Me, too.

Hat tip to Jules Crittenden. ..bruce..