On the road again
Bookworm on Nov 25 2009 at 9:32 am | Filed under: Open Threads, Watcher of Weasels
I’m going to be in travel mode all day today, as we head off to spend Thanksgiving with the in-laws. (And one of the first things for which I give thanks every year is just how much I like my in-laws. Imagine how grim the annual holiday would be if I didn’t.)
This trip means blogging will be spotty, at best. Please use this as an open thread.
Also, if you want some good stuff to read, I can highly recommend this week’s Watcher’s Council nominations:
Council Submissions
- Mere Rhetoric - Obama: We’re Giving Iran More Time Because Of Their “Unsettled Political Situation”
- Joshuapundit - Navy SEALS Face Court martial – For Capturing Wanted Terrorist
- Right Truth- Bible verse attributed to Barack Obama
- Bookworm Room - Being a contrarian and NOT buying (or being) green
- The Provocateur - The Put Back Amendment
- The Colossus of Rhodey - Hard to argue? Not really
- The Razor - The Weak Horse Named Obama
- Rhymes With Right - A question I’ve been raising
- The Glittering Eye - The Green and the Black
- Soccer Dad - Clinton’s faulty memory, part ii
Non-Council Submissions
- Submitted By: The Watcher – Ken Blackwell/American Spectator Blog- Welcome Back Carter
- Submitted By: Soccer Dad – Daled Amos - State Department: Obama Administration has accomplished more than 8 years of Bush
- Submitted By: Joshuapundit – Robin of Berkeley/American Thinker - The Wilding of Sarah Palin
- Submitted By: Right Truth – the Chessler Chronicles - Why is America still allied with Saudi Arabia?
- Submitted By: Bookworm Room – The Strata-Sphere - Alarmist hide truth about (lack of ) global warming
- Submitted By: The Provocateur – HSA Scoop - The only real solution to health care reform
- Submitted By: The Colossus of Rhodey – Edge - 36 Arguments for the existence of God
- Submitted By: The Razor – Sultan Knish - Obama goes Mao
- Submitted By: Rhymes With Right – Quin Hilyer/ the American Spectator Blog - Justice Depart ment Recusal List
- Submitted By: The Glittering Eye – New Atlanticist - Obama and Afghanistan: No good choices
- Submitted By: Mere Rhetoric – Freaknomics - Shovel ready or ready to shovel?
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So, on that note, my family’s Happy Thanksgiving wishes to yours, Book…and I will make a very special note of Thanksgiving for the Bookworm Room Salon tomorrow with a raised glass of bubbly. Cheers.
November 26th
Beginning at 3 a.m. more than 500,000 text messages will be released to the public from September 11, 2001. They will be released in 5 minute intervals. I have no idea of what they will reveal. I only know that for those of us giving ‘thanks’ tomorrow – once again, this Thanksgiving like all the others since, someone is absent from the table.
http://911.wikileaks.org/files/messages_2001_09_11-18_20_2001_09_11-18_24.html#1672
A Happy – and a safe! – Thanksgiving!
Feast and football. That’s what many of us think about at Thanksgiving. Most people identify the origin of the holiday with the Pilgrims’ first bountiful harvest. But few understand how the Pilgrims actually solved their chronic food shortages.
Many people believe that after suffering through a severe winter, the Pilgrims’ food shortages were resolved the following spring when the Native Americans taught them to plant corn and a Thanksgiving celebration resulted. In fact, the pilgrims continued to face chronic food shortages for three years until the harvest of 1623. Bad weather or lack of farming knowledge did not cause the pilgrims’ shortages. Bad economic incentives did.
In 1620 Plymouth Plantation was founded with a system of communal property rights. Food and supplies were held in common and then distributed based on equality and need as determined by Plantation officials. People received the same rations whether or not they contributed to producing the food, and residents were forbidden from producing their own food. Governor William Bradford, in his 1647 history, Of Plymouth Plantation, wrote that this system was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. The problem was that young men, that were most able and fit for labour, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense. Because of the poor incentives, little food was produced.
Faced with potential starvation in the spring of 1623, the colony decided to implement a new economic system. Every family was assigned a private parcel of land. They could then keep all they grew for themselves, but now they alone were responsible for feeding themselves. While not a complete private property system, the move away from communal ownership had dramatic results.
This change, Bradford wrote, had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been. Giving people economic incentives changed their behavior. Once the new system of property rights was in place, the women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability.
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2378
Have a thankful Thanksgiving.
Once a community organizer, always a community organizer.
The President’s Office of Legal Counsel has issued a fatwah (sometimes know as a legal opinion) that ACORN can continue to receive government funding despite the recent congressional ban.
The OLC decided the ban only applies to future contracts, not to existing ones. Someone needs to let Treasury know that instead of sending checks to ACORN Headquarters c/o New Orleans, future checks should be addressed to ACORN c/o Leavenworth.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/11/justice-department-questions-retroactive-ban-on-federal-funds-to-acorn.html
Will common sense ever return to Washington? I think that’s what Americans deserately want.
It’s not so much whether the decisions are skewed to the left or right so much as the fact they are devoid of any common sense!
What a screwed up system that continues to send checks to the corrupt for doing exactly what they were illegally doing and placing a question mark on future payments.
The days of Al Capone and the mafia didn’t disappear – they just changed their tactics, became politicians, got elected and are now running the mob from DC!