Reinke Faces Life

I listened to some of the hour the other night about Oprah’s school for girls in South Africa. Impressive.

Not to the level of Gandhi or Mother Theresa, but impressive none the less.

I have no idea what it would be like to have such wealth as Oprah. It’s hers and I am sure she earned every dime of it. I would be loathe to criticize anyone whose path I have not traveled. My criticism is like a gnat on a horse. I’ll never accomplish what she has, amass the fortune she has, or be in the position to do something this grand. But blogging allows one the illusion that what one writes is somehow important.

And, there is no doubt that some, all, most of the girls featured have gotten the end of the proverbial stick that no one should have to pick up.

And, I do think she’s right. Education is the road out of poverty.

And, I do think that she’s a classic American liberal of the political left who thinks that she can change the world FOR other people rather than let them do it themselves. That seems egotistical in the extreme and to be condescendingly saying “you’re to weak and stupid to do it on your own”. But that’s “liberal left”. (As opposed to the Classical Liberals of the Enlightenment whose ideas spawned America and gave us the concepts of individual liberty and empowerment.)

OK, so here’s my critique.

Why not the inner city of Chicago?

Now I know she said that she couldn’t find the motivated kids. And, it has to be cheaper to do this in South Africa. And, it makes her a global celebrity. And, I don’t see how it can fail unless the teachers are closet perverts.

But my modest question is why not Chicago?

I’d tackle that by trying to show the poor, disadvantaged, and minority that it’s up to them. They have to grab their bootstraps and pull themselves out of their current mess. Gooferment can’t do it. The taxpayers can’t do it. Oprah can’t do it.

I’d attack the gooferment of the US, Illinois, and Chicago as being the root of all their problems. They have fooled them into thinking that there’s a “White Knight Prince Charming” that is going to ride in and save the day. Oprah could get away with telling them that “no one is coming”. Bill Cosby tried and got excoriated for it. Katrina and NOLA demonstrated it. Maybe she could pull it off?

She’s on the right track with her “education out of poverty”. I’d want her to dismantle the “publik skoolz” as a sham. An illusion that they give any real education. That they were anything more than training grounds for prisons.

If I was Oprah, I’d hit the economics, crime, and welfare. I’d have a new twenty year plan to zero taxes, close the “publik skoolz”, and end the dole. I’d stop prosecuting victimless crimes — drugs, prostitution, and gambling and really go after crimes involving force or fraud.

Would it be traumatic? Yes!

I don’t think it would take twenty years for Chicago to be the shining city.

My only concern would be what would we do with all the lying, pandering, corrupt politicians. Well, they do have Lake Michigan. I’m sure they won’t seek honest employment without a struggle.

And, when this was all done, the people could say “we did it ourselves”. That’s the Spirit of America.

SO to circle back on Oprah’s school, I think she solved an easier problem.

So why not Chicago?

And, after that why girls? We know that boys are getting a terrible shake in today’s skoolz.

The Socialists of the 1920’s wanted a system of creating an uneducated lower class that would be manageable, make good soldiers or factory workers, and capable of being led by their “betters”. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

So, Oprah, why not Chicago? And, why not boys?

http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2007/
cbarchive_20070227.html

Why Do Evangelicals Ignore Ron Paul?
by Chuck Baldwin
February 27, 2007

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Evangelical Christians are already beginning the process of selecting the Republican presidential candidate whom they can anoint as their successor to George W. Bush. Somehow, evangelicals have this deluded idea that President Bush is one of them. How they came to this delusion both fascinates and escapes me. Bush is anything but one of them. However, most evangelicals believe he is, and today it seems that illusion is greater than reality, anyway. Bush proves that more than anyone I have ever known.

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I have made a small contribution to the Ron Paul campaign and I hope he runs.

http://www.ronpaulexplore.com/

Take a look. Anyone who routinely votes “no” on a 414-1 basis gets my vote. (They don’t call him “doctor no” for nothing!)

http://elementaltruths.blogspot.com/2007/
03/sand-and-stone.html

http://tinyurl.com/ysyuko

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We must all strive to write our hurts in the sand and carve our blessings in stone.

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A great lesson!

Reading Professor Williams is always challenging to my thinking.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54464

Democracy: Enemy of liberty
Posted: February 28, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

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Clearly, we need government, and that means there must be collective decision-making.

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Having read Ludwig and Rothfarb, I’m not sure that if I agree with that as formulated.

Government imho only has one claim to a valid existence. It should be to protect us from violence, intimidation, and fraud.

There is an often cited Supreme Court decision (which I can’t remember) that says the government has no specific duty to protect, and can’t be held to account when it or its agents fail miserably. So, that wipes out its claim to legitimacy.

So, do we really need a government. We know we don’t need the gooferment.

Does their have to be an ultimate reservoir of force? Or, is that just an open invitation to corruption?

The free marketplace always clears supply and demand.

And, it does, when allowed to work, that job very efficiently, without “checkers”.

The quality movement has taught us that “checkers” are very expensive and introduce their own set of “errors”.

So, a market, that allows one to vote with their buying decisions or buying abstentions, would be the ultimate “voting mechanism”.

Thus, it is NOT “clearly” apparent to me that we need a government that can oppress us or be the gooferment.

I hope that Professor Williams can instruct me in the error of my thinking without requiring a tuition payment?

ALSO IN:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north511.html

Reflecting on 35 Years of Marriage
by Gary North

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If you have learned any other lessons, send them to me (at gary north –at– gary north dot com).

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Why that was one of my future publications! :-)

http://www.nichegeek.com/
10_unconventional_but_successful_online_homebusiness_ideas

Interesting idea, but fraught with ne’er do wells.

I have been getting a huge surge in readership. WordPress is telling me that I’m getting over a hundred a day readers and over 40 a day “feed-ings” (feed readers). I am truly humbled. Not all of them can be spammers and harvesters? I don’t have that many relatives who need to see if I have taken my meds.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/our_experts/article1362805.ece

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A generation of children brought up in Britain in the Thirties were regularly warned that if they didn’t go to bed on time, and instead stayed up all hours of the night as they did when on holiday in Italy and France, they would end up stunted. Any hope of us achieving the first rugby XV, or growing to a height that would enable us to find useful employment, would be forfeited. We had to eat up our good plain food and have 12 hours’ sleep even when aged 10 or 11, and ten hours during adolescence.

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So that’s what happened to me!

Using multiple platforms is a pia. It really requires thought about everything one does. That’s one advantage of web based applications. Unfortunately we based apps can change (i.e., disappear, morph into someone or something else, or change their operation) that make it not suitable for “production”. Web based apps can lock up your data as well. So to, multiple platforms may not be identical in the various dimensions (i.e., user, platform, application, data, or connectivity). It would seem useful to have each platform monitoring a unique email address. Anything found on one platform could then be transmitted to the others via those email addresses. It’s an insecure medium so encryption is important. And, since the ids should never be used outside the closed community, spam shouldn’t be an issue. Comments?

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-ruleschanges&prov=ap&type=lgns

Scuffing baseball could lead to 10-game suspension for non-pitchers
February 16, 2007

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NEW YORK (AP) — A major league position player who scuffs or defaces a baseball would be ejected and receive an automatic 10-game suspension under changes approved Friday by the sport’s playing rules committee.

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I like baseball. Don’t know why. Not on tv. Not with distractions. But there are somethings I don’t like. Domes.

Or any game with umpires, referee, or judges. It just seems that the politics of human beings gets in the way of the sport. Was it a foul or wasn’t it. Who did what first. And, my particular favorite in bball, the second foul gets called.

I like games where it’s absolute like how far did you throw that caber. a caber is the big heavy Scottish stick that drunken Scotsmen and other celts throw around for fun. No ref. The contestants measure the divot the darn thing leaves. There are no arguments since it’s usually obvious to the naked eye just whose hole is where. That’s my kind of “referee – less” game!

In baseball, the umpire can really screw a player, manager, and team. The sport needs a feedback loop. I don’t know how to construct it. But, I’m tired of seeing games decided by “zebra ball”.

It’s amusing when the technology shows you the exact path of the ball and the umpire’s call doesn’t match the box. You can usually tell when the call is wrong because the TV folks don’t show the box on THOSE pitches. Only on the ones that confirm the umpire on a close call.

Sheesh, like I didn’t notice it was a bad call. It’s dishonest TV reporting.

And, you trust these guys to report news or entertain you?