Sunday, July 13, 2008Pennsylvania Democrats Use Taxpayer Money for Fundraising - Corruption Probe UnderwayPennsylvania Democrats including Mike Veon were allegedly using government offices for fundraising and giving taxpayer funded bonuses to aides based on how much money they raised. Here's the story, found at Instapundit. 
posted by gbarto at 3:53 PM
Tuesday, July 08, 2008A short essay in the manner of those writers who find their every observation fascinating or Why You Should Leave the Dog Poo on the Ground The other day, when I was at my local Barnes and Noble, I stopped into the restroom. There was already someone at the urinal and I was on the edge of going into the first stall when he flushed and retreated. I stepped toward the urinal and was surprised to see a water bottle sitting on the floor next to the urinal. I almost said, “Sir, you left your water bottle.” Then I thought, who would want a water bottle that’s been sitting on the floor by the urinal in a Barnes and Noble restroom. I sure wouldn’t. I took a quick downward glance, saw that the bottle was empty and got on with my business. It occurred to me as I left that the person behind me might have wondered in turn if I realized that I had forgotten my water bottle. It is quite possible that the Bay Area economy will fall another one or two percent with all the time wasted by people who have to pause and think about whether to ask the person who just left if he realizes he’s forgotten his water bottle. I wonder, myself, just what the bottle was doing there. It wasn’t lying on the floor, rolling around. It had been placed there. I’m curious what kind of person carefully places an empty water bottle neatly on the ground so that it won’t roll away but doesn’t carry it three feet around the corner to the trash can. Did someone finish off the bottle while going to the john? Was somebody producing a specimen for a friend’s urine test but chickened out? Or did some guy realize he was one hand short when he went to unbutton and so he stooped down, placed the bottle on the floor and took care of business? I know I wouldn’t have wanted to stoop in front of that urinal. But that’s just me. Looking back, I think I should have retrieved the bottle and thrown it away myself. But I didn’t want to touch a water bottle that had been sitting on the floor beside the urinal in the restroom at the local Barnes and Noble. It occurred to me that one of the homeless people who collects bottles would probably get it and I was glad it was them, not me. For me, it might have been gross, but for them it would be part of the daily rounds. It wouldn’t even be necessary to go through the trash to get it. Later that day, I took my dog for a walk along the local trail. He did his business along the way, though not in the restroom at the local Barnes and Noble. Being a good dog owner, I pulled out a plastic bag from the roll attached to my dog’s leash and undertook the task at hand. It was messier, of course, than retrieving a water bottle from beside the urinal on the floor of the men’s room at the local Barnes and Noble, but he’s my dog and I knew where he’d been. Mercifully, some thirty steps later, we came upon a trash can and I dropped the plastic baggy in and noticed one or two soda cans and a water bottle were also contained therein. And among them was my proud puppy’s effort in a little plastic baggy. And then I realized it was no big deal at all to pick up a water bottle standing by the urinal on the floor of the men’s room at the local Barnes and Noble. I also realized that however unsanitary it might seem to some people, for members of the homeless community it’s a very nice thing indeed to leave your dog’s doo on the ground.
posted by gbarto at 11:44 PM
Thursday, July 03, 2008Comment of the Day, over at Ann Althouse's blog:Foobarista said...John Kerry in 2004: I was for it before I was against it. Barack Hussein Obama in 2008: I was for it before I was for it.
posted by gbarto at 5:20 PM
Saturday, June 28, 2008Gallup (via Instapundit) reports that a majority of the people believe:1. The government should focus on growing the economy, not income redistribution. 2. The government is doing more, not less, than it should. Ronald Reagan: 1. A rising tide lifts all boats. 2. Government isn't the solution, it's the problem. Now if only we could find a Republican who wants to win one for the Gipper.
posted by gbarto at 10:47 AM
Sunday, June 22, 2008Instapundit points to this story about housing costs in San Francisco and the exodus of the middle class. Says the article, San Francisco has gotten too expensive for all but the rich to live there.I think that if you want to live in SF and can afford to, that's fine. And if you can't afford to live in SF, well, that's how life goes. What I find interesting, though, is that the leftist rich of San Francisco simultaneously price the guy who makes their Starbucks out of the housing market and laud $4.50/gallon gas as a great way to keep people from driving so much. And then they claim to be for the little guy. For what it's worth, I was in the City yesterday. I love to go up to visit the nice shops off Union Square, the restaurants in North Beach and the eclectic shops you find when you get out of the financial district. But I wouldn't want to live there: While SF screws its middle class, they assuage their rich liberal guilt by making it a mecca for the homeless. It wouldn't count as a trip to San Francisco if you didn't see at least one crazy having a fight with himself, but I don't need that to be part of my everyday landscape.
posted by gbarto at 11:03 AM
Sunday, June 15, 2008You mean there are legal immigrants too?To hear the media cover immigration, you'd get the sense that the United States has slammed the door in the faces of a world that wants to come here, so if there are illegal immigrants here, what could you expect? What you could expect, of course, is that those illegal immigrants would try to come here legally. Here's another angle on illegal immigration, though: Do illegal immigrants take away job opportunities from legal immigrants? The Foreign Language Blog has some anecdotal evidence that indeed they do: It seems in the wake of the federal raids on the Swift meat-packing plants, wherein some 300 illegally-employed workers were arrested from the Cactus, TX branch, other, legal, immigrant groups have been coming from around the country to take their places, lured by relatively high wages ($12/hr. starting) and low cost of living...So the next time you hear the sob story of some illegal immigrant who was just trying to make a better life, take some time to think of the story of another immigrant, someone who waited in line, filled out the forms and played by the rules and ask yourself, Do we want to honor this person's efforts to come here the right way? Or do we want to tell those whose actions indicate they view living in our land as a privilege to be won, not a right to be seized, that they are chumps? Just sayin'.
posted by gbarto at 11:37 PM
Sunday, June 08, 2008Mickey Kaus flags a snooty Timesman whining that his Starbucks experience isn't special enough:Rewards are nice, but recognition is better. So if I'm one of Starbucks's best customers, I want to have elite status, as I do on American Airlines. I want shorter lines, better freebies... - Ron Lieber, NYTSome years ago, I lived in Tours for about a month. On my second day there, I found a café where I could get two croissants and a Coke for 18 francs. I paid each day with 20 francs, dropping the remaining two in the tip jar. My fifth day I was running late and was in a mess of a line for the lunch rush. I'd pulled out my twenty francs and had been waiting in line about one minute when one of the cashiers came from behind the counter and handed me an ice-cold Coke and a sack with two croissants. I said Merci and gave her my twenty francs. She said Merci and wished me a good day. A damned sight better than any experience I've had with American Airlines, I'd add. In most of the restaurants and cafés I frequent, I know a fair percentage of the staff by name. And they know me. I'm consistent in my habits and always glad to swap a few pleasantries. And mostly I have what Lieber's talking about. Shorter lines... as with my experience in Tours. Better freebies? I'm nice to people for the pleasant experience - on both accounts - but when there's a question about remembering to ring up an extra or not, it tends to go my way. A tip to Ron Lieber: If you're a regular patron, drop the stuck-up, "I'm entitled" shtick and treat your baristas like real people. You'll be surprised how quickly you become an "elite" member, and you won't even need a card.
posted by gbarto at 10:51 PM
Saturday, June 07, 2008In which we channel Rodney Dangerfield:I get no respect. When I was a kid, my folks said us kids liked the packaging better than the presents so they gave my sister a cardboard box - and me a plastic bag. (if confused, look at the warning label on the closest plastic bag to hand)
posted by gbarto at 9:27 AM
Thursday, June 05, 2008Precisely:It is Rush, not me, who has repeatedly mused that he would prefer to see Republicans lose this election if McCain were nominated. So who is the advocate of "surrender" here? And since Obama has pledged early and unconditional withdrawal from Iraq, it’s not just an election that Limbaugh equably contemplates losing – it is a war. - David FrumRobert Heinlein said you should always vote because while there would rarely be something you wanted to vote for, there would always be someone or something you wanted to vote against. I can see not wanting to vote for McCain. I'm far from enthusiastic. But given the chance to vote against a man whose friends think 9/11 was our fault, who thinks the rantings of Reverend Wright were fine for his children's hearing and his own contemplation, who thinks our God and our Second Amendment protections are cheesy artifacts of a pre-Obama world to soon be superseded... How can you not vote against that?
posted by gbarto at 11:20 AM
Thursday, May 29, 2008How not to deal with a child with Asperger'sJoanne Jacobs has a write-up on a novel new method for classroom discipline: peer humiliation meets Survivor: Five-year-old Alex Barton was voted out of kindergarten class by his fellow students in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Before the vote, his teacher told classmates to say what they didn’t like about Alex: He was labeled “disgusting” and “annoying.” They voted 14 to 2 to kick him out of class.There's a bit more to the story, however. From the story linked in the block quote above: Barton said her son is in the process of being diagnosed with Aspberger's, a type of high-functioning autism. Alex began the testing process in February for an official diagnosis under the suggestion of Morningside Principal Marsha Cully.And then there's this, from a follow-up story: "Portillo said she did this as she felt that if (Alex) heard from his classmates how his behavior affected them that it would make a bigger difference to him, rather than just hearing it from adults," according to a report released Thursday morning from the Port St. Lucie Police Department.To summarize: There appears to have been a problem that needed addressing. Steps were being taken to address it. In the mean time, this poor kid was caught in an environment where he didn't know how to function and his poor fellow students were caught in an environment where they didn't know how to function with him. Neither did the teacher. The state's attorney's office has decided not to bring charges of emotional abuse. However, the teacher has been reassigned to a desk job pending further investigation. This seems about right to me. On the one hand, kindergarten teachers shouldn't be criminally liable for not knowing how to handle a child with Asperger's in the context of teaching 16 other kids. On the other hand, the teacher's approach would be questionable in dealing with a class clown known to have a healthy ego. It seems highly unlikely that anything that came up in her meetings with parents and school officials would suggest it was a good idea in dealing with someone who didn't know how to process social situations appropriately. Growing up, I had severe lactose intolerance (still do). An astonishing number of people understood when I told them this and were quick to find something for me if the other kids were having pizza or ice cream. But I ran across a few people who couldn't believe a child didn't drink milk and would try to convince me that one slice of pizza wouldn't hurt anything. They meant well, but they stood to do me a fair amount of harm. I think that's the case with this teacher: She wanted to make the child understand for his own good, and she wanted to alleviate the other children's situations for their own good. But she didn't know what she was doing, and she didn't show adequate curiosity in finding out before she decided to play child psychologist. As a result, a kid with Asperger's has been pushed about four steps further back in his journey to maybe one day pass for normal, and a bunch of his classmates have learned that if someone is odd, you get together to make him go away. Not a shining moment for our educational system. For human and humane perspectives on autism and Asperger's, check out The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time  (autism) and Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's .
posted by gbarto at 8:25 AM
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