Rodent Regatta

In no order whatsoever are the following ruminations:

More people are issuing dares in traffic. It’s not the least bit unusual to have someone turn in front of you daring you to somehow violate all laws of physics that say an automobile driving at the speed limit can be stopped by a competent driver in ten feet or less.

More and more cars are being sold in Memphis that apparently lack turn signals.

Textpattern 4.0.4 was released this morning. I’m impressed that all prior sites work, but can now avail themselves of all the new features in the product.

Crime is up. Election day is near. Some world leaders are daring the rest of the world to do something about their contempt for all authority.

We’ve now got over 300,000,000 folks in this country.

IBM has just announced outstanding third quarter results.

• 5 years since 9-11-2001
• 6 years since 10-12-2000
• 8 years since 8-7-1998
• 10 years since 6-25-1996
• 13 years since 2-26-1993
• 21 years since 10-8-1985
• 23 years since 10-23-1983
• 34 years since 9-5-1972

There’s more. Bali, London and Madrid. And, countless more.

Is it just me or is Chris Matthews among the most unskilled, rude and pompous interviewers in all media? I’m just sayin…

How timely that the branches of our government have chosen to fight amongst themselves on this Memorial Day weekend. For me, the play-by-play announcer, color commentator and referee who One hundred percent turnover of Congress in the next three elections!can call this game correctly is Glenn Reynolds. The links are here, here, here and here, and they lead to all manner of insight into this separation of powers crisis. Once you’ve read those (and the included links), take a look at these: 1—2—3—4—5—6—7—8—9—My gosh; just keep reading this stuff.

Our veterans didn’t fight because we’re entitled to our opinions. They fought for the rights, privileges and the rule of law derived from our Constitution. No one is above the law—not me—not you—not Hastert—not Jefferson—not Boxer—not Pelosi—none of them.

I’d like to see a movement in this country that calls for all 535 members of Congress to be replaced during the next three elections. That’s a hundred percent turnover! Make sure that no more than a fourth of them are lawyers, too. Then, require the newly-elected to operate under a balanced budget equal to 75% of our current budget. Sure—it sounds naive, but give me a better idea!

College textbooks cost too much. Even timeless books of literature, calculus and basic chemistry cost too much. Move into a study of computer science, microbiology or biomedical engineering and the books, which sometimes take a year or more to get to print, are out of date before they are a professor’s required text, and…they cost too much.Also a story about an angry Hispanic lacrosse player who vanished from a cruise ship during Bush’s low poll numbers

The “simple” in the title of this article refers to this question which you’ve read here before:

How much of an American citizen’s income should be paid to the government in taxes?

Nevermind the debate about what those taxes will be used to pay for. The question is how much is enough? In Memphis, TN we pay almost ten percent in state and local sales tax. We pay city property taxes. We pay county property taxes. We pay for car tags and driver’s licenses. We pay many other taxes.

Send a child to a state-run university and either you or your government subsidize the cost of that education. The only question is a trick, “who pays the greater share of the student’s education cost?” Answer: You paid 100% of the cost. The government has no money it didn’t receive from you.

Readers still with me at this point will enjoy an essay titled Tuition Soars Due to Knowledge Shortfall by Anne Coulter. Though one of her clever, obscure asides, here’s the quote that captures:

The two big topics on CNN last week were (1) high gas prices and (2) the high cost of college tuition. (Also a story about an angry Hispanic lacrosse player who vanished from a cruise ship during Bush’s low poll numbers.)