Mugger to mugging victim: It's YOUR fault.
Wasting no time in pointing up the tensions between Washington and Mexico City, Mr. Calderón also urged Mr. Bush to move more aggressively to create a temporary-worker program. Such a program would decriminalize the millions of Mexicans and others who enter the United States illegally to fill low-paying jobs.
I haven't visited our Daily Rants for a while, and yesterday's raised a good point:
Why do people buy dogs, only to leave them outside all the time and rarely, if ever, interact with them?
I've seen several dogs get that level of inattention in my neighborhood over the years. Even when it's not criminal -- weather too cold or too hot, chain too short, etc. -- it tells us everything we need to know about the people involved.
Gen. Pace hasn't apologized for his remarks about "homosexual acts" and shouldn't have to. He was expressing his personal opinion based on his religious beliefs, an opinion shared by many in this country and probably most in the military. It doesn't advance the debate to trumpet outrage instead of arguing with him.
But I do disagree with a premise of his position:
Hillary says they're baaack!
WASHINGTON (AP) - Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton told Democrats Tuesday the "vast, right-wing conspiracy" is back, using a phrase she once coined to describe partisan criticism.
Speaking to Democratic municipal officials, the New York senator used the term to hammer Republicans on election irregularities.
After all the furor over two sixth-graders engaging in sexual activity in an Indianapolis school -- apparently while teacher was being distracted -- it's nice to know that schools in Fort Wayne are taking "precautions to stop sex in schools." But these seem to involve "behavior codes" prohbiting sex in schools, not to mention kissing, hugging and all that other stuff that might lead to sex.
You've heard about hobos. Before they were called the homeless, you see, these cats would just ride the rails, man, hop on that train and go . . . always some adventure somewhere down the line, a hot meal or two for chopping a little wood.
I hate to come back with collectivism in education so soon, but it's making inroads in Indiana:
Is there a song that's so affected you that it's always stayed with you? "The Dutchman" by Chicago songwriter Michael Smith is that song for me. I first heard it performed by one of those traveling, semi-professional folksingers at a small place in Michigan City. It seemed to me the one of the saddest, most moving things I had ever heard. Every time I went out and heard a new singer, and request time came, I'd ask for that song. I've since heard it covered by any number of artists, and I have a few of them in my collection.
Another fine university puts its research dollars into exploring the obvious:
When it comes to your long-term happiness, it's worse to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, at least according to a review article by Michigan State University psychologist Richard Lucas.
[. . .]
But divorce, he found, could plunge you permanently into the emotional dumps. So could losing your job.
If they ever have a contest for the stupidest criminal in America, the winner will probably be one of these guys:
FISHERS, Ind. -- An Indianapolis man was arrested last week on suspicion of soliciting sex from someone he thought was a 15-year-old girl on the Internet.
It's nice to occasionally have a bad neighbor, the kind who, just being there, guarantees you'll never have the worst-looking house or yard. Illinois performs that service for Indiana:
And does it make sense to talk about relative crookedness of states, how Illinois is slimier than Minnesota?
Oddly enough, the governmental honesty of different states can be measured and compared -- sort of.
Not many people are buying the FBI's explanations for misusing the Patriot Act. They think, reasonably, that so many lapses might indicate an attitude problem rather than simple procedural errors:
There's an interesting back-and-forth in the comments of this Fort Wayne Observed post about mayoral candidate Matt Kelty wanting to fight SOBs -- sexually oriented businesses. I'm not sure how important this issue is, given all that will be on the next mayor's plate.
WASHINGTON - For all the policy blueprints churned out by presidential campaigns, there is this indisputable fact: People care less about issues than they do about a candidate's character.
A new Associated Press-Ipsos poll says 55 percent of those surveyed consider honesty, integrity and other values of character the most important qualities they look for in a presidential candidate.
McDonald's is testing a bigger burger, which should get the obesity crowd buzzing:
The Chicago Tribune said the new Third Pounder is currently available only in about 600 restaurant locations in Southern California. At one-third of a pound, the burger is the biggest on the McDonald's menu at outlets where it is being tested.
It is also the most expensive sandwich, priced at $3.99, the paper said.
Check out this list of the 51 best magazines ever. As always with such lists, it's highly subjective, and we are invited to agree or disagree with the choices, but it's a fun read. The top 10: Esquire, The New Yorker, Life, Playboy, The New York Times Magazine, Mad, Spy, Wired, Andy Warhol's Interview and Colors. Some are listed just for specific time frames. Mad, for example, is said to have been one of the best only from 1955 through 1992.
Got problems with stray dogs? Perhaps your neighborhood has a noisy squirrel or a pesky racoon. Well, count your lucky stars. My brother took this photo at a neighbor's just a few miles from where he lives in Hill Country, Texas. He notes that the stray cat was on the deck, watching the children play on the kitchen floor.
Good lord, Congress has actually gone and cut pork-barrel spending:
It's been a lean winter on Capitol Hill. A moratorium on the insertion of pork-barrel projects into spending bills
Private property is bad because "ownership" results in an unequal distribution of power, which frustrates efforts to act communally for the public good. That is the collectivist drivel being taught in a school in Seattle.
