Coffee

Of all the common luxuries we have that were unavailable to even the Tudor court – central plumbing and heating, the automobile, the lightbulb – the ability to make coffee in the morning is among the ones for which I am most grateful.
I have a drip coffee maker, nothing special, but it provides a bit of civility and pleasure in the course of morning ablutions.
Sure, I enjoy the better things as much as the next person, but without a full-time caretaker, heated pools, high definition TVs, luxury cars would be a maintenance burden.
Bottom line, having a bed to sleep in with no Cobra snakes crawling around on the floor, a roof that doesn’t leak, heat in the winter, electricity to run essentials like the computer and the furnace, reliable transportation, and a coffeemaker are pretty much everything I and probably most of the human race would like to have to be comfortable and productive.

Thank You, Taylor Marsh

Maybe it was an editorial slip-up, but the virulently pro-Obama Huffington Post actually published an objective opinion piece on the devolving race for the Democratic Presidential nomination.
Meanwhile, the party elders continue to embarass themselves with their divided loyalties and public flaunting of negotiations for personal gain.
This whole thing makes one nostalgic for the days when laughing at Bushisms was the political maven’s favorite parlor game.

Anti-Democratic Democrats

I don’t understand how anyone can seriously consider a caucus to be democratically or Constitutionally equivalent to a primary.
In Texas, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, correct? But the caucus vote went to Obamination, as it did in 12 of 13 other states.
A caucus is an exercise in public intimidation where voters “lobby each other”, as opposed to the Constitutional privilege of primary or general election voting, which of course takes place in private.
There have been complaints that the timing and location of caucuses favor more affluent voters who don’t work during the evening, and college students who like to shout at other people, which would certainly explain not only why the Obamacons have been so successful but also the reasons for the appalling tenor of their entries on public blogs.
All in all, the whole thing reeks of back room deals and the vilest kind of social class-based snobbery, wrapped in the sheep’s clothing of racial “tolerance”. If you don’t mind the mixed metaphor.

Obamination

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama, Keith Olbermann and others would have us believe that Black men in America have an exclusive claim on suffering, one that seems to be based primarily on being snubbed by taxi drivers.
Here’s a statistic or two for consideration:
Based on the numbers in 2000, approximately 1/3 of the male prison population was Black, or 791,600 out of 2.1 million.
Assuming that Black Americans are 12% of the population, the number of Black male prisoners was/is roughly 3 times the norm.
Obviously, that’s a lousy statistic, but there are other demographic groups who are over-represented in prison – and by far greater ratios than this. And some of these demographic groups don’t have anyone, let alone hoardes of high-visibility spokespersons and politicians, to make the public even dimly aware of their plight.
There are no statistics on adult prisoners who are adoptees, but consider the following:
According to the book Chosen Children by Lori Carangelo, twenty-five to 35% of the youth in residential treatment centers are adopted. Based on the percentage of adoptees in the general population (2-3%), that’s 12 to 17 times the norm.
Let’s recap that: not 3 times, like the Black male prison population, or even 5 times or 10 times. Twelve to 17 times the norm.
At California-based psychiatric treatment facility Coldwater Canyon Center, 60-85% are adopted – 30 to 40 times the norm.
Besides the obvious trauma suffered by adoptees, including physical and sexual abuse, there is evidence to suggest that a baby’s body produces abnormally high levels of the stress hormone cortisole if the child is separated from its mother. This can cause the type of brain damage that has serious long-term consequences.
I think that trumps not being able to hail a cab.
My point is not to play one-upsmanship games with anyone, but to point out the absurdity of this mess created by a manipulative, nasty old demagogue and his Far Left apologists.
Billions of dollars and probably billions of hours have been invested in trying to correct the obvious wrongs done to Black Americans. Maybe some of that investment has been misguided or inefficient, but the fact that the Obama family lives in a million dollar home and has a combined income in the comfortable 6 figures is proof that at least some African Americans have been able to succeed in the 21st century.
That kind of measurable, demonstrable success is, I submit, the product of hard work, not bitter rhetoric.
It took hard work for Obama to be elected the president of the Harvard Law Review, but a host of other people worked equally hard to raise funds for the scholarship programs that paid for his education at the exclusive Punahou School in Hawaii and the two Ivys, Columbia and Harvard.
And it wouldn’t kill either Wright or Obama to acknowledge that obvious fact and to show a modium of humility and gratitude in the process.

Casino Stories

Until this morning, I would have sworn that the newspaper columns about the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s pursuit of a gambling license were written by the same people who produce 99.9% of the technical books and articles out there (my favorite author Jesse Liberty being the most distinguished exception to that rule).
In other words, the articles have been confusing, contradictory and abominably written.
Finally, though, the Boston Herald’s Casey Ross laid it all down in clear, understandable English.
Thank you, Mr. Ross.
Here are the facts:
There are three proposals on the table.
First, the tribe can bid for a license under the governor’s three-casino plan. The Legislature would have to approve this.
Second: the tribe is pursuing a separate agreement with the governor to allow “unlimited casino gaming”, i.e., slots and gaming tables, at the Middleboro site, in exchange for labor and environmental concessions, revenue sharing with the state, and payment for infrastructure upgrades and other costs. The Legislature would have to approve this agreement.
Finally, the tribe can seek approval from the Dept. of the Interior to put the Middleboro casino site in federal trust, a process that could take a year or more. According to Mr. Ross’s article, this would be a “Class II gaming facility with modified slot machines and limited table games”. In this case, though, the tribe wouldn’t need the Mass. legislature’s approval, and they wouldn’t have to pay for infrastructure upgrades, share revenue with the state, etc.
Got it?

Sometimes, It Takes Very Little

There was snow on the ground when I got up at 4:30. A little while later, it was sleeting, about an hour ago it was raining, and now (8:17 am) it’s not doing much of anything.
I was ecstatic for myself – it’s Saturday and thus, was not required to venture forth – but not envying Peter, who had to drive his entire family to Boston for a conference this morning.