The Noble Pundit

Quick Links

Arms cache could have leveled house, agents say - OK, so he really believed in his Second Amendment rights. But I really like the name of his road: Trouble Road. So apt in this case.

Venezuela slams ruling barring Cuban doctors - Hallmark of a free society - rule of law. Hallmark of a repressive regime - demonization of opponents. Venezuela is rapidly heading down the latter path.

The new anti-Semitism - The only thing new is Israel as a focal rallying point for the anti-Semites. Other than that, it's the same old evil.

Russia stages mock emergency exercise near N. Korea border - Hmm. Staging a mass refugee drill on the NK border. What do the Russians know and when did they learn it?

This Is Long Overdue

Congress targets frivolous lawsuits

This shouldn't have come down to Congress having to pass laws to rein in an out of control judicial lottery system. Many of the most egregious lawsuits should have been thrown out and lawyer's awards limited by the courts. Had the lawyers and judges shown a little responsibility or restraint then perhaps this kind of measure wouldn't have been needed.

The worst part about this is the precedent it sets. Now that the wall of prohibition has been breached, how far will Congress go in protecting businesses from fair and legitimate lawsuits? Yeah, suing a company for your abdication of personal responsibility is wrong, but will they decide to cap awards on something like the next Ford Pinto? Without the specter of a real lawsuit, based on merit, with real consequences there are some unethical people who may decide that it is cheaper to kill consumers than to build a safe product.

It is truly a bad thing that we are now reduced to the point of calling for limitations on the judiciary. A little restraint could have prevented this.

Raise Your Hand If You're Surprised

Truck used in UN bombing came from Syria.

Now no one has alleged that Syria was in any other way involved. And of course, the truck could have been stolen.

But is anyone really sitting there going "Hmmm. Syria might have played a part. How odd!"? I kind of doubt it. Most likely the reaction was "Syria. OK, I can believe that."

Syria is concerned because they know that they have to watch their step. Hezbollah is a de facto Syrian group. They are already responsible for a fair amount of the violence in Israel. They cannot afford to be linked with terrorism in Iraq.

Unless, of course, the want to be linked up with the Marines.

Is Western Culture Better?

One of the great tenets of the political correctness movement is that culture is a moral equivalence. There can be no culture that is better than another, as to admit such would kill the equivalency that underpins the movement. So it drives the PC crowd nuts when they see an article like this one, which uses factual example to demonstrate that there are some serious, serious moral problems in some other cultures.

Western culture has its flaws, to be certain. But read about the 9 year old rape victim. Read about the 16 year old who is being pressured by her culture to engage in unwanted sexual behavior. Tell me, after reading those two stories, that there isn't a serious weakness in the particular culture. Tell me that Western Culture, which treats women with a respect unheard of in these cultures, is on an equivalent level.

It isn't. Western Culture is superior.

Culture is evolutionary. The good aspects survive and are built on. The poor parts are left to die away.

The evolution of culture is inevitable, but its speed can be affected by the value systems of the society. Western society is open to new ideas and new concepts. We have allowed the Darwinian cultural process to take place.

Iraq and Uganda, where these two stories originated, are both stuck with medieval value systems. As a result they are stuck with inferior cultural mores. They have slowed Darwin down, but eventually the evolutionary process will complete itself. The natural process cannot be stopped, only slowed.

The great fear of the mullahs of Iran, the clerics of Islam, the communists of China, and the warlords of Africa is that their people will learn of and embrace Western culture. Why are they so fearful? Because they know that our culture is superior. They understand that Western culture would destroy their hold on power. Our culture would liberate their people from their feudalism. They fear Western culture because they know that in the fight for the minds of their people, Mickey Mouse is worth one of their armies.

Blue jeans, Coca-Cola, and hip-hop - these are every bit as important weapons in the battle between East and West as all the Abrahms tanks, F-15 fighters, and aircraft carriers. In the military battles our friends and foes will change. But in the cultural battle it is between modernism, as exemplified by the West, and feudalism, as practiced in the East.

Feudalism drains a person of life and will. Modernism speaks to the soul. It allows for personal growth and fulfillment.

Western culture is distinct from Eastern culture. It is better, too.

The Palestinians Want A Cease-Fire!

Oh glorious day! The Palestinian leadership is now attempting to broker a new cease-fire to replace the one that just fell apart. Isn't this wonderful news?

Let's review for a moment. Hamas and its cronies agree to a "hudna," and temporarily stop their attacks on Israel. Israel continues to hunt down the very terrorists who have shown absolutely no respect for cease-fires or human life. Israel is successful. Hamas & friends break the "hudna" to retaliate. Israel rightly responds to the reescalation of violence. The terrorist leadership begins trying to negotiate a new cease-fire in which they receive "guarantees from Israel that it will cooperate."

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but it wasn't a suicidal Jew that blew up a bus full of Muslims on their way home from the mosque. And even when the Palestinians have been attempting to provoke the Israelis, the responses have been less than lethal. The Palestinians are killing the Israelis, literally. The Israelis are retaliating by injuring, not killing - injuring, Palestinians who are trying to kill them by any means available (including throwing rocks).

"We want a hudna (truce) between the whole Palestinian Authority and Israel, that Israel commit itself to as much as we do," Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath told reporters.

Umm. No you don't. You don't want Israel to be as committed as the PA. Do you really want the IDF to act independently, like Fatah does? Do you want the Israelis to create a paramilitary group like Hamas that also operates outside the control of the government? I think not.

As long as the double standard continues, they will be no peace. It is not right, it is not fair, and it is not acting in good faith to break the cease-fire and then call for a new one when the heat comes down, blaming Israel for the failure the whole time.

If the Palestinian leadership really wants a cease-fire, they need to "have a discussion" Mafia-style with the leadership of Hamas, Fatah, Hezbollah, and all the other loon groups.

If they really want peace, they'll start by cleaning their own house.

No Sympathy Here

So if you're driving along with no valid driver's license and a cop pulls you over, what can reasonably be expected to happen? Get a ticket, maybe go to jail, and you will almost certainly have your car impounded. This is pretty much normal everywhere that I'm aware of.

But in California, some Hispanics are complaining because the undocumented immigrants (also known as illegal aliens) are having their vehicles get impounded when the cops pull them over. They complain that they have to have documentation in order to get a license.

Of course! If you're here illegally why should the state grant you the privilege of driving legally? Obeying of the law is not an a la carte option. You have to obey them all. It isn't right to ignore the immigration laws while complaining about not being able to drive legally.

And if you get busted for driving without a license, whatever the reason for not having it, you have to have a reasonable expectation of paying a penalty, which includes the impounding of your car.

This isn't a racial matter. It's a matter of law enforcement. If the city is really "99.9% Hispanic" doesn't it kind of follow logically that the vast majority of people stopped and/or arrested will be Hispanics. Doesn't really matter what the race of the cops is. With that many Hispanics, they're going to be the most commonly detained.

If there was a real racial issue at play here, I might feel differently. But I have absolutely no sympathy for the argument that undocumented immigrants are having their cars impounded simply because they're Hispanic. I don't buy it. Their cars are being impounded because they're acting in an illegal manner.

Crying racism when it doesn't exist = crying wolf.

Britain Is Our "Lone Supporter?"

OK, why are we back screwing around with the UN again? The organization in general, and France in particular, is ticked about our being even somewhat successful in Iraq, and is now trying to condition a multi-national force on a surrender of American control in post-war Iraq.

Now weren't they the ones screaming for a multi-national force to begin with? Are Annan and Chirac upset that they didn't get to ride in a glorious triumph? We're offering what they wanted and now it isn't good enough.

Why would we want to cede any real control over to the UN? So that they can create a new "oil-for-food" program? So that French and Russian oil companies can get back those contracts that they paid so much in bribes for?

Rebuilding in Iraq is not, and has never been pitched as, an easy process. It is going to take time and effort; blood and sweat. But our (meaning the US and Britain, primarily) efforts are focused towards actually improving the lot of the Iraqi people.

Can we unequivocally say the same about Chirac or Annan? I don't believe so.

Oh yeah, someone needs to tell the Thai's that they're not supposed to be helping us. It might make them look like they're supporting our efforts. (This is actually a very good thing and a credit to the Thai people and the Thai government. It looks like they understand the concept of "humanitarian" better than Annan, Chirac or any of the other "leaders" at the UN.)

Moore Is Becoming Less

Back on July 3, I first discussed the adventures of Judge Roy Moore and his Ten Commandments monument. I said at that time that if the rulings went against him, he was obligated to comply ("But as a judge, he should also respect the rule of law. If and when the game is up, he needs to either remove or modify the monument.").

Judge Moore, however, has taken a different tact. He has chosen to defy the order. And now, he has been suspended.

I still believe that the Ten Commandments should be acceptable, but the decision was no more mine than it was Judge Moore's. The courts have ruled that the monument needs to go, and the Supreme Court has refused to hear the case.

It's time for them to go.

Judge Moore, as an official of the court, should know more than the average Joe the importance of obeying the directives of the court. Our society is based on a trust that everyone is playing by the same rules and is subject to the same penalties. If Judge Moore sets a precedent of willfully ignoring the directives of the court because he doesn't agree with them, he puts that glue of trust at risk.

The game is over. It's time to graciously admit defeat and move on.

Change needs to be effected through working within the system, not by challenging and ignoring it.

Quick Links

Hamas 'Committed' To Cease-Fire 'Detour' on Mythical Road Map To Peace or Hamas Abandons Truce After Israeli Strike? - It's amazing how a little spin can completely alter the conlusions of the article. The Road Map is a sham. Israel needs to expose it for what it is and quit playing this deadly game which they will always lose in the PR arena.

Imron rues straying from Islam - Gee, maybe he didn't really want to be a martyr, it was just that all the cool kids were doing it. Throw in the Archangel Gabriel and a healthy dose of jihad misinterpretation and, well, you can understand why he's sorry.

Free Trade Floods US With Imported Food - I just don't know what to say about this one. It just seems to me like overboard protectionism.

Your Daily Offensive Image

This has got to be about the most offensive propaganda to have been brought out since Josef Goebbels. A celebration of the the murder of 3000 people.

The website that has published the image isn't exactly much better. The image above in found under "events", which is just under "jihad" on the left hand side of the image.

If anyone is interested in the contact information for the ISPs in question, it can be found here.

One Cost Of Illegal Immigration

Yesterday, I came across an article discussing some of the social impacts of illegal immigration. Today, I came across this article which discusses the cost of educating illegals.

Over seven billion dollars per year. That is a huge number and a significant one.

That's seven billion dollars of our, US citizens, money that is going for the benefit of those who are breaking the law. That's seven billion dollars of additional foreign aid. That's seven billion dollars we can't spend on our own children or our own defense or anything that might benefit us.

Seven billion dollars.

Once before I had stated an opinion that there was a moral argument for educating the children of illegal immigrants. But seven billion dollars worth? Even assuming that this is overstated by a factor of two, it's still an outrageous amount.

We have to tighten the borders. This is getting ridiculous.

Taking Out The Trash

Robert Prather over at Insults Unpunished has a posting about replacing the current income tax code with a transaction tax.

I've mentioned before that I would really like to watch our current tax system go away. It has got to be one of the biggest messes every devised by man.

The transaction tax is an interesting and successful concept. The Europeans have been using it for years - they call it the VAT or Value Added Tax.

Now, for a moment, ignore the negative connotations of the European version of the VAT. The concept is brilliant. It is applied equally to everyone with their contributions based on their consumption of goods or use of services. And because it would tax all factors of production, it would be as close to fair as we could realistically get.

I just have one small problem with the transaction tax idea. It's the same one I have with the European VAT and the same one I have with the current withholding system in the US.

The true cost of the tax becomes hidden.

Think about it for a minute. Every time a transaction takes place, a little tax is taken. The seller is simply going to raise his prices just enough to offset the new cost. With each transaction that takes place, that passed on cost grows, but it becomes built into the price rather than added on afterwards. The actual cost of the tax becomes hidden.

And because it is hidden, people don't react the same to an increase in the rate. Why are US sales taxes generally capped at less than 10% while the VAT in Europe runs around 17%?

It's because in the US we see exactly how much we're paying in tax when we purchase an item. An increase in the sales tax rate translates directly into a larger number at the bottom of every receipt we get. Because we can see the cost to us of the tax, we are more likely to fight arbitrary increases.

In Europe, on the other hand, you don't really now how much of the price of an item is tax. Is it 17%, or was some part of the item taxed somewhere earlier in the production process which created a passed on cost? There's no breakdown on the price tag of the item telling you how much is actual cost and how much is VAT. You don't know. You're operating in the dark and it's hard to distinguish inflationary price increases from small tax increases.

It is this hiding of the actual impact of a tax that bugs me with the current withholding system. Many people don't realize that that line on their paycheck that says "federal tax withheld" represents their money, not the governments. I've heard too many people saying, "well, it's not my money anyways" That's not true. It is your money.

The first step in overhauling our tax system needs to be the elimination of the withholding system. Make people write a check to the Feds every April 15. That alone will almost certainly provide the necessary support among the people to make the change happen.

But then I would still favor a sales tax on consumption over a transaction tax because of its openness in the real cost. A NST would show on the bottom of each receipt, just like a State sales tax. And since it is only charged to the end user, you can feel very confident in knowing the real amount of tax you pay each and every time you pay it.

The transaction tax lacks that openness. That makes it much more susceptible to political manipulation.

Neither system is perfect, but they're both a damn site better than the current screwed up system.

Quick Links

Doctors Call for National Health Insurance - I don't have health insurance, but I would rather be in my current situation than to have Socialized medical care. Better to live in bankruptcy than to die in red tape.

Egyptian Sues for 'Mrs. Taliban' Remark - Woud be interesting to hear the rest of the story (why was she really fired, etc.), but I could see the claim of a hostile work environment.

Jerusalem Night Out - Powerful first person account of last night. It really makes you wonder how much longer Israel will tolerate the sham of the Road Map.

Temple Mount reopened to Jewish visitors - Should read Jewish and Christian, but no matter. It's about time. Going atop the Temple Mount was one of the highest highlights of my trip to Israel.

Electric terrorists? - A positive spin on three of the darkest minutes since 9/11.

California An Apartheid State?

Illegal Immigration Turning Calif. Into 'Apartheid State,' Expert Warns

OK, the expert is Victor Davis Hanson and I don't really disagree with the premise that California is, in effect - not in a legal sense, becoming an apartheid state. Pretty much any border state is going to be in a similar situation. California just has the problem, like every other problem, on a much larger scale.

Now the effect is that of apartheid, but is it really? I don't think so.

Apartheid is defined by Merriam Webster as "racial segregation; specifically : a policy of segregation and political and economic discrimination against non-European groups in the Republic of So. Africa" or "Separation, Segregation."

The reason I don't believe that California is apartheid is that to say it is is to ignore that the segregated are segregated by choice. They chose to come here illegally. There is no policy to segregate Mexicans living in California legally. There is only a policy to remove those living in the state illegally.

Now the effect of INS and deportation is to force the illegals to live in segregated societies where they can provide for their common good. So while the official policy is not one of apartheid, there isn't much difference between illegal Mexicans in California and blacks under Jim Crow. Except that the Mexicans are there by choice.

Should we be concerned about the formation of an apartheid state in California (or Texas or New Mexico or Florida or Arizona or any other state)? We should. But not because it reflects some great racial inequality flaw in us. Rather we should be concerned because it exposes just how bad the problem of illegal immigration has become.

It shows that INS needs to do more. It shows that the Border Patrol needs help. It shows that our government is failing us in their duty to protect the intangible that is American citizenship.

Being an American citizen should mean more than just being able to carry a US passport. Yet we continue to allow the institution to be cheapened by granting the benefits without requiring any of the duties and responsibilities associated with it.

The formation of the "apartheid state" is our warning. The question is: are we listening?

Sorry 'Bout Yesterday

Sorry about the lack of posting yesterday. I had to make an emergency trip down to Sebastian and didn't get back until late. Plus, by the time I got back, I wasn't exactly in the mood for writing anything.

On the way back, I stopped by parents house and had an interesting conversation with my father. He had read the post about my job fair experience and how I saw the internet changing the job market. He pointed out that there was another explanation for the dearth of middle management jobs nowadays: demographics. It's a point that has some validity.

When I first hired on as a broker, in one of the first training classes they told us that stockbrokers really had about 25 more years in which to make any real money. Reason being that in 25 years a significant portion of the wealth holding portion of society will be reaching retirement age and most will pull their money out of the stock market. And the demographics of the baby boomer generation do point towards that outcome.

My dad pointed out that there is also one other effect of baby boomers: they have led to an unnatural efficiency in the workplace.

Many of the baby boomers are now reaching 20 - 25 years on the job. For a large chunk of them, they have been working in the middle ranks of the business community for years. As a result, companies have a much, much higher ratio of experienced to inexperienced workers than they have in the past. This has led to reduced training and supervisory needs, which has led to an unnaturally high rate of efficiency.

And for right now, that's great. But in the next decade or so, most all of that experience will be retiring and the following generation (read: mine) won't have the experience in real positions of authority or decision making and eventually we will likely end up in a period of unnatural inefficiency as we get up to speed.

Interesting to muse on, but I got to keep it behind me as I find this new job. I can do better than this thing I got now.

Quick Links

Islam and Intellectual Terrorism - Another look at the foundations of Islam

Soldiers of an Islamist New World Order - And who says that the new music isn't offensive?

The War is Over; The Jihad Isn’t - An examination of some of the deeper reasons why jihadists are going into Iraq and the west.

Airport Security: One If By Land, None If By Sea - Scroll down to find the article. When I worked for the airlines, the airport was responsilble for the perimeter security, not the rent-a-cops they had. So unless they had a major change (and one that I haven't noticed), then it was probably the Port Authority that dropped the ball here. TSA is a massive waste of resources, but blame needs to be placed where it's due.

Palestinian Airlines to resume operations after year-long hiatus - Oh, boy.

'How to be Gay' course draws fire at Michigan - It is stuff like this that sabotages the gay movement every time they get a head of steam going. "How to be gay?" This is as much a waste of taxpayer funds as a course on "How to be hetero" would be.

Job Hunting

So I leave work early today to go over and look for a new job at a job fair downtown. The best phrase I can think of to describe it is: disappointing. The first one of these things I went to coming out a college a few years ago had a couple hundred companies (2 typed pages in magnifying glass size print). This one had 28. The entire exhibitor list, plus all of the local colleges, save UCF, was on one typed page that was in type big enough to be read by the nearly blind.

Not that the job market is bad around here. I just saw a middle age guy in a suit and carrying a resume (which tells me he has more than a "got out of high school alive" education) getting excited about a $7.65/hour part-time pool tech job with no benefits. But I have got to find something. The job I'm in now doesn't cut it in any way, shape, or form.

One of the jobs I did apply for was as an advertising account rep with the paper. So on the way home (I have to meet with the plumber this afternoon, so I made it a long one by going to the job fair), I indulged in a bit of solo role-playing. Don't ask me why, but for whatever reason, when I'm driving alone, I role play what conversations might go like and I start to work on overcoming various objections or problems before they ever come up.

So today, as I'm puttering along, I'm role-playing a conversation about advertising with a friend who owns a store locally. And as I'm going along, I start trying to pitch how the internet would work into a comprehensive sales plan and to make it understandable, for both good and bad points, to a small business owner who doesn't particularly care for technology.

And then it hits me.

When the internet first really hit the scene, people raved about how it was going to put traditional retailers out of business. Bricks were out; clicks were in. The came the dot bust and suddenly bricks were back and the internet was put back on the back burner.

But I think a lot of people, myself included (Yeah, I know. I'm late to the party again.), missed the true revolution the internet created. It wasn't on a macro, or enterprise, level. Instead, the revolution was on the level of the individual.

Most big companies survived the internet threat without a real problem. They were able to restructure and to counter the threat. They streamlined and went on with life.

But at the level of the individual, the internet took out whole swaths of the employment realm. The restructuring and streamlining of the big companies in response to the internet for the most part wiped out the middle management as we know it. The ability of email and multimedia to transmit vast quantities of manipulative data lets the higher ups create their own middle management reports in minutes.

The result is a very flat organization with lots of low wage people at the bottom and a few high wage people at the top with almost no one in between. Yet our colleges and universities business schools continue to train students to enter the workforce in a middle management capacity.

The end result is the chaos I witnessed today. Individuals have not adjusted to the new paradigm. Middle management, the "home" many were hoping to fit into in the workplace, doesn't really exist today. Companies are driven by the market to provide the same or better services at lower prices. At the same time, they're driving the market to demand those lower prices by really only hiring for the lower wage positions. The cycle of lower, lower, lower has begun.

Eventually, as companies readjust to the new quantity of information available, they will eventually grow back into needing the middle management types again. Until then, this is going to be a really tough job market for me.