It just isn't true...

...that Bush and his administration can't work with Muslims...you just need the right issue...say executing queers. Today the always self-righteous US of A stands alone among Western nations in refusing to sign a declaration presented Thursday at the United Nations calling for worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality. Thus Dubya gets to stand arm and arm with such models of democracy and human rights as his buddy Ahmadinejad in Iran, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Bangladesh, UAE, Yemen and of course the Saudis who all proudly offer the death penalty to adults for their consensual sexual activity.

The photo above shows the 2005 execution of 2 Iranian youths "convicted" of homosexuality.

Of course in the proud tradition of American legal reasoning, US opposition was carefully constructed in terms of "federal and states rights" issues rather than, god-forbid, opposition to homosexuality itself. The text of the declaration is available here. "66 of the United Nations' 192 member countries signed the declaration, including every member of the European Union and every major Western nation except the United States...." American Exceptionalism still lives....

Rescuing masculinity with a coyote carcass

I thought these kinds of pics were only available by flipping to the back pages of a 1924 Nebraska Game and Parks magazine or rifling through grandpa's old desk drawers, pics from a time when people with overflowing stringers and hides could reassure themselves with the seemingly infinte resources of the West and the comforting sermons of preachers reminding them of their God-given right to subdue and have dominion over "every living thing that moveth upon the earth..."

Fortunately we can still find a few of of these rifle-toting relics today, as we learn from the Scottsbluff Star-Herald's "Sports" page recently. Pictured are part of the "winning team" who "bagged 13 coyotes" over the day and a half event. We aren't told how many coyotes total were killed by the 18 teams competing. "Ties were broken by the total weight of the team's coyotes." To jazz things up a bit, prizes were given for the "smallest coyote" and the "mangiest coyote." I wonder if we ran a "mangiest human" contest now and then what the results would be...

Shame on Cabela's for being associated with this crude throwback event. Even ethical hunters should be shocked at this kind of display (although bloody and often ineffective predator control has been a staple of the taxpayer-funded Welfare West for some time) (see similar overview here; for a contrary view go here).

Tradition

The Fox Files: Evil Unions

Recently I've developed the self-masochistic habit of tuning my Sirius towards the right-end of the political dial...most notably "Sirius Patriot" and "Fox." Accordingly, I'll be sharing selected gems of conservative thinking from time to time here on the blog, along with possible responses.

The auto bailout is of course of topic of much conservative discussion. Most con talk show hosts and callers are against it. Almost all heap the most blame upon the unions, and those "untrained welders making $70/hour," etc. "What on earth are we getting for that $70/hour!!!" they bray.

Well of course welders aren't "untrained." More importantly, we seldom hear about those folks at the other end of the salary spectrum. Let's do a little math on GM CEO Rick Wagoner--the lowest-paid of the Big 3 I believe--who last received a base pay of 1.6 million and total compensation of 14.4 million. Divide that by, say, 2500 hours of work (50/hours week x 50 weeks, which may be overly generous), and that's $5760/hour (82 times the "welder rate"). For Ford CEO Alan Mulally's 21.7 total compensation, that's $8680/hour (124 times the "welder rate").

And despite these princely sums, these CEO geniuses still haven't managed to do one simple thing: help create a car that makes it into the top 10 of resale value lists. There are certainly abuses with a union system that could use some fixing, but share that blame equally. Or maybe more accurately, share it 82 times over...

Airport to Nowhere

Ya'll can't throw a cowchip very far around these parts without hitting someone ready with a lecture about how "government is the problem" or that our tax dollars "shouldn't be going to all those congressional projects" or that government should just "get out of the way" and let the Rugged Individualist handle things like they used to in the "government-less" good 'ol West (except for the parts about the federally-funded transcontintental railroad, the federal army, the federal land surveys, the federal land-giveaway programs, the federal water/irrigation projects, the federal road and highway projects, etc.)

Where are all those cowboy libertarians when it comes to airport or Heartland Express funding? A recent Scottsbluff Star-Herald story explained that officials with Western Nebraska Regional Airport "might have to be inventive this year in order to meet the required 10,000 boardings needed to receive $1 million in federal assistance."

You know, whenever I hear the word "inventive" outside the context of people who actually invent things, I translate that into one of following: phony, dishonest, fake, false, bogus, spurious or sham. I think about the "accounting" at Enron or Bush's pre-9/11 intelligence or the flimsiest of lousy legal arguments attempting to help the losing client.

I think phony works just fine here. The "possiblities" listed to meet the 10,000 boardings requirement include a phony flight from Scottsbluff to Alliance, Nebraska, a distance of about 70 miles (55-minute driving time). This is only slightly less phony than a previous "solution," a flight (if memory serves) between Scottsbluff and Torrington, WY, a distance of only 32 miles (25-30 minutes driving time). Maybe we could start some shuttles between Scottsbluff and Gering or Mitchell or Morrill?

If you don't like the 10,000 number, change the law. But presumably someone thinks that number means something in terms of actual free market viability of airline service worthy of Joe the Plumber's taxpayer support. According to the free market religion so frequently praised by the anti-government acolytes--typically in response to suggestions that the government help people unlikely to be using the Airport (e.g. debate over public housing)--if you can't make it in the all-important crucible of the free market, then Adam Smith's invisible hand smacks your sorry ass into the dustbin of history. Henry Ford felt no sympathy for the buggy-whip maker..

Clearly this airport isn't meeting this test. If the test is unfair, legally change it. But please don't come up with phony and sham ways to "meet" the test. And if you do, please don't go around lecturing people or other congressional districts about the free market, minimal government, congressional "pork" etc.

An interrogator speaks

This recent editorial in the Washington Post has been making a splash. Among other things, the author (self-described as having "led an interrogations team assigned to a Special Operations task force in Iraq in 2006") argues, among other things, that the number of US military personnel likely killed as a consequence of US torture policy is at least as great as those killed on 9/11. So if US torture is being defended as a way to "save American lives," he insists, that calculus must not be including US military personnel. A good read, and great ammunition for those debates where pro-torturists try to frame the debate in a way that puts everyone in the military in the position of supporting the policy...

Paper or plastic? Recycling and grocery bags

I have wondered for some time whether there was a real difference between "paper or plastic" in terms of environmental impact. Well I finally dug around for answer. And yes I know the best answer is "neither" since reusable bags are a far better alternative than using new ones of either type. But if for some reason you don't have reusables available, plastic (at least the ones that are labeled #2 HDPE recyclable) are the far better choice compared to paper, as explained here. Although this source begins by stating that it is basically a draw between the two, if you read on you see that plastic beats paper in every category but rate of recycling, which in my view doesn't directly impact the environmental impact.

Mmmmm....shellfish (and Jack Black as Jesus)

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die