Stones Cry Out

…at least get your facts straight, both the current and the Biblical ones. Paul Wilson of the Media Research Center obliterates a Huffington Post piece by Domenick Scudera that was trying to take jabs at the Chick-Fil-A situation.

Good morning.

1. Scientific method.
2. Some thoughts on the Olympics. And this too, which raises and interesting question … from what cultural change from the Greeks comes our passion for team vs individual sport?
3. Quiet and clean, the Father’s called it dispassion.
4. An Obamacare conversation recalled …
5. and not unrelated, some anticipation of unanticipated consequences.
6. Let’s see the left thinks voter ID is racist … so, will they admit this is also racism by the same token?
7. And the destruction of one argument against voter ID succinctly put.
8. Shape and selection.
9. Perhaps (as I’ve suggested) to stay in the game TSA needs to move to information tech from search tech. Or more likely a combination of both.
10. Horrors! Global warming and its consequences.
11. As usual, lead with a lie ’cause that’s the road to credibility. Seriously, when it’s very cold … that’s weather. When it’s warm … that’s climate. Consistency is king or can any one say “confirmation bias”?
12. Prototype and what will it cost? Seriously.
13. Finally, a better response to the “what policy” suggestion best should come from the Aurora shooting … not guns, but better mental health care.
14. So, riddle me this, how does that fall into the DHS mandate.
15. Of Syria and intervention.
16. 25% of Americans make over 250k per year? I didn’t know that.
17. Talking of horror, the past, and what to make of it.
18. Worship isn’t about feeling good.
19. Ephraim!

Hugh Hewitt interviewed Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Polls, about some of their recent presidential election poll data. It’s a short interview, but Hugh makes the point that, if the Democrat-to-Republican ratio isn’t close enough to what you’d expect in the upcoming election, then the information is suspect. An excerpt:

HH: Now what I don’t understand this, so educate me on it, if Democrats only had a three point advantage in Florida in the final turnout measurement in 2008, but in your poll they have a nine point turnout advantage, why is that not a source of skepticism for people?

PB: Well, I mean, clearly there will be some people who are skeptics. This is how we’ve always done our polls. Our record is very good in terms of accuracy. Again, remember, we’re asking people what they consider themselves at the time we call them.

HH: But I don’t know how that goes to the issue, Peter, so help me. I’m not being argumentative, I really want to know. Why would guys run a poll with nine percent more Democrats than Republicans when that percentage advantage, I mean, if you’re trying to tell people how the state is going to go, I don’t think this is particularly helpful, because you’ve oversampled Democrats, right?

PB: But we didn’t set out to oversample Democrats. We did our normal, random digit dial way of calling people. And there were, these are likely voters. They had to pass a screen. Because it’s a presidential year, it’s not a particularly heavy screen.

HH: And so if, in fact, you had gotten a hundred Democrats out of a hundred respondents that answered, would you think that poll was reliable?

PB: Probably not at 100 out of 100.

HH: Okay, so if it was 75 out of 100…

PB: Well, I mean…

HH: I mean, when does it become unreliable? You know you’ve just put your foot on the slope, so I’m going to push you down it. When does it become unreliable?

PB: Like the Supreme Court and pornography, you know it when you see it.

"You know it when you see it?" This from a guy who makes his living by hyper-analyzing numbers? Yes, a lot will depend on the actual ratio that turn up on election day, but statistics are adjusted all the time to account for other factors and make all things equal (or as equal as they can be). Why not this factor?

Maybe someone can educate me on this, but just the use of the phrase "you know it when you see it" from a statistician really makes me question the confidence I have in his numbers.

Good morning.

1. Waterless fracking … so now the environmentalists will all be on board, eh?
2. Gender and the military.
3. Tactics and North Korea.
4. Some call Mr Obama a “moderately conservative Democrat” … really?
5. Gaffes and Mr Romney’s foreign trip.
6. Johnny can’t read.
7. So, can you see the Rubicon from here?
8. On liberal Christianity, a discussion noted.
9. Manufacturing and the EU.
10. 63 days remembered.
11. 100 years ago.
12. Twain said there were three kinds of lies, how about three kinds of secrets?

Good morning.

1. You didn’t build that goes viral … and I suppose the rejoinder is “yah, so therefore I won’t vote for ‘im”
2. Experts vs algorithm and yet another book to read.
3. Thoughts on voting.
4. The future television.
5. Noted 100th  anniversary of birth, here and here.
6. Consistency is king, from the guy who advocates bigger government and spending in good times and in bad.
7. Examining the “liberals are more intelligent meme”, I especially enjoyed the opening quotes in which the definition of “liberal” fits conservatives better than not.
8. Ethnic ruffles, as an mostly irrelevant aside, I really like singing Serbian liturgical music when we do so.
9. Trumping shooting buddies in the face and skinning moose.
10. So the reformation has rejected monasticism, is this why?

Chilaquiles, from El Farolito, in Placentia, CA.

Chilaquiles is a Mexican dish (American Mexican) which combines fried corn tortillas, eggs, red chili sauce, beans and rice. El Farolito, in old town Placentia*, serves up a spicy version with great flavors. Serving size is large, and the price is very reasonable.

Enjoy!

– image © 2012 A R Lopez

* Placentia, yes that is the name of the city, is derived from Latin, meaning “pleasant place to live”.

Got our last shot at a family summer vacation recently, which is why I’ve been quiet around here. Niagara Falls was wonderful. Thanks for asking. And actually it wasn’t the entire family. My son had marching band camp last week, so my wife stayed here with him for that. Band camp was so early because school starts so early; August 6! And there are some metro Atlanta schools starting this week, in July! Maybe they’re trying to ease us into year-round school.

Over vacation, something of a brouhaha got started around a statement by Chick-fil-a CEO Dan Cathy.

The company invests in Christian growth and ministry through its WinShape Foundation (WinShape.com). The name comes from the idea of shaping people to be winners.

It began as a college scholarship and expanded to a foster care program, an international ministry, and a conference and retreat center modeled after the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove.

"That morphed into a marriage program in conjunction with national marriage ministries," Cathy added.

Some have opposed the company’s support of the traditional family. "Well, guilty as charged," said Cathy when asked about the company’s position.

"We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.

"We operate as a family business … our restaurants are typically led by families; some are single. We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that," Cathy emphasized.

Combine this with previous statements and look at where the Cathy’s give money, and the worst-kept secret of Chick-fil-a was "exposed"; the Cathy’s are against same-sex marriage.

This prompted shock — SHOCK — among a group of big city mayors. Boston mayor Tom Menino:

“There’s no place for discrimination on Boston’s Freedom Trail,” Menino wrote to Cathy in a July 20 letter, “and no place for your company alongside it.”

Los Angeles mayor Edwin Lee:

“Closest #ChickFilA to San Francisco is 40 miles away,” tweeted San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee on July 26, “& I strongly recommend that they not try to come any closer.”

And Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel said something similar.

All this because the CEO of Chick-fil-a has the same position on same-sex marriage that President Obama had up until six months ago.

“I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian — for me — for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God’s in the mix.” – April 17, 2008, while running for president, defining marriage at the Saddleback Presidential Forum.

The previously link Washington Post story also has this addendum.

Since making their initial comments, Boston Mayor Tom Menino and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel have sought to clarify that they do not intend to use city resources to block Chick-fil-A’s permitting efforts on account of CEO Dan Cathy’s political or religious views. They stand by their comments, however, that the stores do not belong in their cities.

So no organization who’s CEO’s personal beliefs don’t line up with the mayor’s is not welcome. This from the "tolerance" brigade? Does anyone on the Left side of the aisle see the irony here?

And if it’s just about same-sex marriage, why this?

After supporting a call to block Chick-fil-A over the religious views of its management, the Chicago mayor welcomed an army of men dispatched to his streets by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, the Chicago Sun Times reported Wednesday.

Islam doesn’t permit same-sex marriage, either. In fact, in Islamic countries, homosexuals are killed. No (honest) Christian is suggesting that be done. If you accuse Christians of having a persecution complex, you must reconcile shunning a Christian-owned business over a widely held Christian belief with welcoming Muslims that have the exact same one.

And this just in: I hear that, in order to faithfully represent the values of Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago, Chick-fil-a will now start murdering people and selling meth. But maybe that’s just a rumor.

Finally, Mike Huckabee has organized a "buy-cott" of Chick-fil-a for tomorrow, August 1st. There’s an official Facebook event page for it that Huckabee started, as well as one that suggests taking a picture of the restaurant you go to in order to show how big the crowds are. I’ll see you there.

Good morning.

1. Pastoring is personal.
2. You didn’t build that, err, those … meets the homily.
3. For the Ms Palin fans.
4. I’m mystified by what is meant by the last sentence of this post.
5. A bumper sticker appreciated.
6. I guess the Midwest is not the only place with drought.
7. Of Mr Muller and BEST … a response from someone whose looked at the numbers.
8. Regarding the second link …. uhm, hello? Men’s and women’s gymnastics have two shared and 6 non-shared events. Duh. If women gymnasts were doing pommel horse and rings … the top gymnasts would look a lot more like the men.
9. A libertarian surprised by Mr Romney?
10. More on Mr Romney here.
11. Of outsourcing and wages and the end result … (pretty!).
12. There are patents as protection and the abuse of IP (witness Apple/Samsung/Motorola/Oracle et al). But hey, you can pretend black and white never mix.
13. A coda for my little post on Mr Obama’s post Aurora gun vs reform choice of words.
14. What reform needs to address, that is the causes of these: here and here.
15. It’s just one war.
16. To keep in remind when discussing the Chick-fil-A kerfuffle.
17. Cthulhu goes to Damascus.
18. Faint praise for the President.
19. Politics, Marxism and the Olympics opening ceremonies.
20. Back history and a Wisconsin Congressmen often in the news.

Good morning.

1. An interesting variant on “you didn’t build that” (or those?).
2. That diversity trump card.
3. Syria.
4. The evil ellipsis.
5. Hmmm.
6. Give an inch, a mile taken.
7. A truly amazing bird-whacker.
8. High security … or not.
9. Distaff and tandoori.
10. About those assault rifles, whatever they are. Does “assault” as an adjective mean gas powered semi-auto?
11. OK, so it’s been 10 years. So kill it already.
12. Wonder if there’s a market for that over here?
13. Johnny, err, Mr Krugman can’t read.
14. Smacking the most hated tech firm.
15. A much needed rant.
16. Apparently the person commenting on “bad tactics/strategy” missed the whole “you’re suicidal” scenes.
17. Mr Romney’s humor.
18. Kafka-esque, what government aspires to be.
19. Secret and safe.

The breakfast burrito, at the Miraloma Cafe, in Anaheim, CA.

The Miraloma Cafe is a surprise sitting at the edge of an industrial area in Anaheim. Their breakfast burrito was another surprise – nicely priced and tasty, complete with eggs, potatoes, cheese, bacon (or ham, sausage), and salsa. One big plus – it’s not greasy. Definitely a winner.

Enjoy!

Good morning.

1. Apparently the model driven economists like Mr Krugman hasn’t figured out how to factor in psychology and regulatory uncertainty … therefore it doesn’t exist.
2. Training the spine via repetition.
3. Watching time pass.
4. Christian and gay, but not gay Christian.
5. Information and Colorado.
6. That’s because Mr Obama, being such an avid student of history, realizes how good “bread and circuses” was for Rome. Or perhaps it was essential for Rome in its transition from Republic to Imperial.
7. More grist for that mill.
8. Banking, interest, and time.
9. Economics and unintended consequences of laws.
10. Heh. Grad students have an unreasonable reaction to free cookies, it’s true.
11. Chicago and Chick-Fil-A … and the only reasonable response.
12. Null and theory.
13. Maxfield Parrish without the semi-clothed nymphs.
14. Measured gun laws.
15. Expunging history … is this the lesson from how the Holocaust is remembered (and Holodomor/Katyn is forgotten)?
16. To keep an eye on.

Orange County former Assistant Sheriff, convicted tax-evader, paid $948,000
From the Orange County Register,

Jaramillo was convicted of tax evasion and other charges in state and federal courts. A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling in February 2011 set aside Jaramillo’s guilty plea on corruption charges, which forced U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford to modify his 2009 sentence of Jaramillo for his guilty pleas to income tax evasion and corruption charges.

But his boss, the former Sheriff Mike Carona, wasn’t exactly the cream of the crop either.

Carona is serving 5 1/2 years in a federal facility, while Jaramillo was released to a halfway house Oct. 13 after spending 22 months in a federal prison and several months in the halfway house.

Carona fired Jaramillo on March 17, 2004, when the two had a falling-out over several issues dating back to Carona’s request to have Jaramillo try to persuade Orange County prosecutors to take it easy on the son of former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl. Greg Haidl and two other young men were later convicted for sexually assaulting an unconscious girl. The boys were 17 at the time of the attack and the victim was 16.

What is that saying about power and corruption?

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Santa Ana City Councilman exposing himself
From the Orange County Register,

A former executive with the county government and current Santa Ana councilman lured female employees who reported to him into his office, where he groped them and exposed himself, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said at a news conference Tuesday.

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Orange County’s CEO resigns amidst Councilman’s arrest – gets $270,000 severance
Again, from the Orange County Register (do we see a trend here?),

Tom Mauk agreed Thursday to resign as the county’s highest non-elected official, the latest executive departure since former O.C. Public Works manager Carlos Bustamante was charged with 12 felonies for alleged sexual abuse of female employees.

Mauk will receive about $270,000 in severance payments, said John Moorlach, chairman of the county’s Board of Supervisors. That includes 10 months of pay and 410 hours of accrued vacation time and is a bit less than Mauk would have been entitled to under his contract if he’d been fired, Moorlach said.

And you wonder why we distrust government?

###

Well, I suppose a shotgun could be considered a type of ‘super-soaker’

###

Election Fraud!!! At a high school?
No, it wasn’t in Chicago.

Scenario:

1. High school students running for office in ASB election.
2. Student # 1 wins the election.
3. Later, student # 2 hacks into the school’s database and discovers that the ASB Faculty Adviser rigged the election, and that student # 3 actually won.
4. Faculty Adviser resigns as adviser yet continues to teach.
5. Student # 2 is immediately given a 5 day suspension for hacking into the school’s database.
6. Student body is, rightfully so, very ticked off.

From the article,

But Troy students remain outraged by the school’s handling of the matter, noting that while Bigham received a five-day suspension immediately after coming forward with allegations of ASB election fraud on April 23, Redmond continued teaching the ASB leadership class for the remainder of the school year.

“The implications of what I did vs. what she did are not on par with each other,” said Bigham, 17, of Buena Park, who was stripped of his post as ASB secretary after exposing the scandal. “I feel changing the results of an election has far more gravity than finding out by whatever means that someone did that.”

Change. You can believe in.

So, did Mr Obama use the Colorado shooting to set the stage for policy changes:

Every day, in fact, every day and a half, the number of young people we lose to violence is about the same as the number of people we lost in that movie theater. For every Columbine or Virginia Tech, there are dozens gunned down on the streets of Chicago and Atlanta, here in New Orleans. For every Tucson or Aurora, there’s daily heartbreak over young Americans shot in Milwaukee or Cleveland.

Hmm. Which policy? Restrict guns or reinforce traditional marriage? Which is more likely a root cause, restrictions on guns or broken families and single/absent parents? The latter is more likely the cause, the former the more likely policy in mind.

Black man # 1 incorrectly thinks the 2nd Amendment is all about providing the opportunity to go hunting and shooting and, more importantly, that weapons such as AK-47s should only be in the hands of soldiers and not criminals (one has to wonder if citizens are then equated with criminals?).

Black man # 2 correctly notes that the 2nd Amendment is all about being the citizen’s last defense against tyranny (and, that would tend to equate citizens as soldiers).

The sorry thing is, black man # 1 is supposed to be a constitutional professor.

Bonus Footnote:  Watch Suzanna Hupp school Texas Legislators on the 2nd Amendment

Good morning.

1. Wow, so many stupid thing said in one post, the mind boggles. How about, “and Democrats do not believe all firearms should be confiscated. It should be obvious that this is paranoid delusion.” …  Hello? Chicago? New York? Duh. And secondly, do people stockpile emergency food/water? Do those new people do that? Is there financial instability? Is that noticed by our blogger, … nope.
2. Gangs woke up and realized that urban landscapes do not fill the universe (and see the above).
3. More on complexity and Rome’s fall.
4. A list.
5. OK OK, I agree it’s dumb but, really, who doesn’t bring their own reading material when traveling?
6. The first part of the advice is good for helping anyone anywhere for any reason.
7. Was it a generation ago that the KKK marched in Chicago … d’ya think they’d be allowed today? (and no, I don’t think the two are equivalent).
8. A word for the day.
9. Contrastives and fried chicken. Let me ask you, “do you support traditional marriage?” (and remind you if you don’t you support the fall of your civilization)
10. Weed me.
11. Boards, trucks, and cement.