A Couple Items

First, did you hear the interview with a US Senator, I think she's from Fla, with Stephanopoulos over the weekend? He asked her a question about the Senate health bill and she pooh-poohed it, saying no, that's not true, that's not the case. But, he said, holding up a copy of he bill, he was reading directly from the bill. No, she insisted, that's not true. But it's in the bill!?!?! I guess if you lie and deny enough, it becomes the truth? And, of course, we have now turned callling someone a "liar" into a politically incorrect no-no.

Second, did you hear BO talk about Geitner and the work at the Treasury Dept? If it wasn't so serious, it would be laughable, very laughable. BO said he, Geitner, and the Treas Dept couldn't and wouldn't sit back on their laurels, that there was still work to be done. Huh? What laurels? What has been accomplished? What jobs have been saved, with the unemployment rate up to 11% or more nationally and, in Michigan, almost dbld since BO took office? Of course, the White House just makes up numbers and the dutiful media just fall into place, lapping up the information, accurate or not. Sort of like the local newspapers just accepting the word of school districts that everything is just great, that students are learning, etc, despite the fact that student don't know very much (again, have you counted your change at McD's lately?).

Third, I'm just wondering, from out of nowhere, how many more BO appts are tax cheats. No, no, I don't want to hear, "But Bush...." That's one of the stupidest things someone can say to back/support BO and his inept "czars" and other appts. It's like saying, in response to Hitler's numbers of mass murders, "But Stalin and Mao...."

Fourth, in class today, I noted the Detroit Women's League, an org founded in 1930 to help promote doing business with Depression Era black business. The women, started by a handful of Detroiters and spreading to a number of US cities, advocated and promoted buying from businesses that were black-owned, hired black youths, etc. It saved a number of black businesses from bankruptcy in the '30s. One of my students stuttered, something about "racism." I didn't hear the whole thing, but he said "just helping black businesses" was racist. I merely said, "But, then, what whites were going to help the blacks?" He was nonplussed and I was able to move on.

Fifth, a WB org is trying to get people to donate $1 a day to help WB schools keep programs being cut due to state aid reductions. Fine and good, but isn't this a voluntary tax? What pressures are being put on people to give? I guess I don't have a problem with this since it is voluntary except isn't this a band-aid on a gash? What happens next year? The temporary fix allows the schools to avoid the structural changes needed. And, my guess is any reasonable person, not associated with the schools, could walk in and find numerous cost savings, savings that would reach into the 6- and 7-figures. Oh, "but it's for the kids." Yeah, right..... Say something long enough and loud enough and people fall for it as the truth.

Sixth, along the same lines, how about "Climategate?" The purloined or whistle-blower e-mails and memos do a great deal to blow holes in the man-made warming arguments. Who can we trust any more???