Negative Railroad A Collection of Breaks in the Line

November 10th is the birthday of the United States Marine Corps.

As I’ve walked around the blocks in my neighborhood, the houses with proudest flagpoles out front are almost always the homes of Marines. There seems to be something truly special about the USMC culture.

Maybe the best tribute I’ve come across was this comment on a blog (I’ve forgotten which one):

On June 2nd, 2008 at 1:25 am, ChePibe said:

I’ve said it here before, and I’ll say it again:

I’ve never been in the military. The closest I’ve come is working as an intern at a U.S. embassy.

Many Minneapolis democrats had to cast ballots last week without guidance from their DFL overlords. That model of government efficiency, the US Postal Service, was unable to deliver sample-ballot postcards by election day:

The Sample Ballots were completed and sent off for mailing on Thursday October 22nd. The Minneapolis Post Office completed the assemblage of the bulk mailing on October 27th. The target dates for the mailing to be sent out were originally October 25th and 26th—Later than the candidates wanted—but the 27th became the actual date, the first small problem.

You’ve seen the bumper sticker icon for evolution—the fish symbol with feet. As a graphic, it’s great. It conveys a concise message and is easily recognizable. Quite a feat to get that much communication from a handful of lines.

I have come to find it annoying. It seems to be a proud profession of close-mindedness about the origin of man. Evolution is the answer, and if your fish symbol doesn’t have feet coming out of it, you’re some kind of simpleton who isn’t cool enough to laugh at the Bible.

Yes, there are some assumptions prejudices in my description. But it seems apt. Smug people who think they know it all bug me.

The non-customer is always right.

Quoted from: TJIC

Detroit gets all the attention as America’s signature urban failure. But let’s not forget Cleveland:

H/T: Maggie’s Farm

US political culture is at a point of high polarity. Yet, this rampant knee-jerk us-versus-them attitude has not led to more solidarity within each camp.

The lefties are worried that they’re not getting any lefty programs enacted despite their total control of the Federal government. The righties are fighting over which faction has the best chance leading an overthrow of the lefty hegemony.

Steve Sailer has a plan for the righties. It strikes me as brilliant:

I wasn’t a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn’t spring full bloom from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation—from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries.

Quoted from: Ronald Reagan

H/T: Neo-neocon

I understand now. Finally, once and for all, what the purpose of war is. The purpose of war is to destroy myths. The purpose of war is to restore human faith in cause and effect. The purpose of war is remind humankind of its limits. And now I understand how that can be a good thing.

That’s Cobb, riffing on the pretty lies we tell to make us feel like good people. Advertisers create illusions to sell products. Light beer or gallons of cheap body spray do not attract hot girls. But young men want to believe this is so. It’s essentially the same operation when a giant food corporation touts its new organic brand to upper middle class shoppers. Or when a political action group makes believe that computer word games actually help feed starving children.

I have been accused of being a birther. My accusers never seem to understand the established fact that the current President has a long-form birth certificate which he has never revealed to the public. I don’t agree with their high opinion of Barry, so they apparently feel a need to call me bad names.

Funny thing is, I’m not insulted. Others who challenge the facts of Barry’s birth seem more concerned with the conclusions and fallout should we eventually discover that Barack is exactly as African as he seems. I’m not jumping to those conclusions. I want better facts first.

A primary justification for new health care legislation has been the alleged high cost of care in the US. So, why is Congress considering a new tax on insurance premiums?

The House Democratic plan calls for raising income taxes on upper-income people to pay for covering the uninsured. Baucus has instead proposed a tax on high-cost insurance plans worth more than $8,000 for an individual policy and $21,000 for family coverage.

Proponents of the insurance tax, which Obama has endorsed, say it would help to lower health care costs by encouraging people to become more cost-conscious health care consumers.

I regularly mention the illusion of false scarcity. My line usually goes something like, “It’s not a resource problem, it’s a technology problem. The best example is oil. Should Earth ever actually release all its oil for human consumption, any of the several substitues already known could be a viable replacement. Or something new will be found. If we put our minds to it.

What happens when the technology works too well? In Belgium and around the world, milk prices have dropped very low. At the current price, supply exceeds demand. In other words, for $4 per gallon, farmers will make more milk than people are willing to shell out $4 for.

Here it is, the last day of my experiment with extended rememberance. It has been difficult. Life really does get in the way.

Maybe that’s the point. Life should get in the way. Those who sacrificed did so to allow me to follow the path of my life. If I spend too much time looking backward, I stop moving forward.

It calls to mind our mission here at NRR, and the words which inspired it:

A time will come when someone asks you: 'What were you doing about it?' You can't tell them: 'I was just watching it. I was just an innocent bystander.' Let me tell you something: There are no innocent bystanders in this.

Just a passing thought…

Obama has lost his mojo. His Deathcare Plan gets more confusing everyday. He’s showing his belly to real and potential enemies.

The Secretary of State is where…?

3…2…1…bzzzztt.

Should this week-long observance become part of NRR Standard Procedures, day six will always be Constitution Day:

The United States Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and ratified by conventions in each U.S. state in the name of "The People". The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times; the first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights.

I haven’t written much about it on NRR, but a big part of my life over the past few years has been spent walking around my neighborhood as a volunteer crimefighter. It’s not as tough-guy and vigiliante as that sounds. We more or less just find ne’er-do-wells and stand where they can see us until they leave.

It’s not dramatic. Not very often, anyway. We’ve been so successful that there haven’t been many bad guys to annoy. Tonight, we found some. And we pushed them off their our corner.

We had several new people out in our group, and this was the first time they got to see what a handful of dedicated people can do. Even if our presence was short-lived, we were noticed, and we made a difference.

Over the past year I bought two new sets of tires made in China. I chose Chinese-made tires because they were significantly cheaper than other tires. Internet reviews assured me they would perform as well as more expensive ones. Mine have.

Now, the current President wants to deprive all Americans of the opportunity to get good tires at a great price:

It’s four days after the 11th. Is anyone still remembering? If they are, how would we know? Do we need to know? Maybe not.

We took the attacks personally. We can also remember intimately, without sharing or blaring. Just a moment of consciousness, to be aware that some small act today is an exercise liberty.

Following is what I mean by taking the attacks personally. We felt it. It wasn't just a movie. This video was shot from someone's living room in Manhattan. It is hard to watch, but sometimes harder to listen to.

Neo-neocon suggests that the harsh division and partisanship in our politics and culture is a result of 9/11:

It’s not unusual for a trauma—and make no doubt about it, 9/11 was a national trauma—to end up causing divisions. This isn’t just politics, it’s human nature.

One of Iowa’s greatest sons has died. Usually we raise a glass in memory, but in this case, it seems more appropriate to toast with bread.

Norman Borlaug, the man who saved more human lives than anyone else in history, has died at age 95. Borlaug was the Father of the Green Revolution, the dramatic improvement in agricultural productivity that swept the globe in the 1960s.

War is less costly than servitude…the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau.

Quoted from: Jean Dutourd