He was 30 years ago one of the ideological firebrands of the Reagan Administration. As its Assistant Treasury Secretary, was the actual author of the Reagan Administration’s centerpiece Kemp-Roth tax bill, and was also the author of the book The Supply-Side Revolution.
But in a party that often gives them lip service and then the bus, he made the mistake of actually taking seriously his libertarian principles of civil liberties at home and anti-intervention abroad. Thus in the Bush years he began to move away from the Republican Party leadership, including many of his former colleagues.
A 31-year-old Chiba man was arrested after cops found 550 grams of stimulant drugs with a street value of approximately ¥50 million hidden inside noodle containers in his home and in an apartment in Tokyo.
A Fukushima woman was busted for pocketing a ¥300,000 gift from the local government that was meant for her mother on the occasion of the older woman’s 100th birthday. Mom was, in fact, deceased.
The MPD busted a 41-year-old Tokyo man and a 31-year-old Chiba man for stealing 220 motorcycles and scooters and selling them to a Ghanaian accomplice, who allegedly smuggled them to Africa.
Sentence of the Week: “Police turned over to prosecutors Wednesday their case against a 21-year-old man who walked naked on a street in Yokohama last month and a 22-year-old woman who ordered him to do so” (via The Japan Times).
This writer has other commitments early this evening, so if someone could kindly post an opening comment for ponies on my behalf, I would be most appreciative. Please check back later this evening for additional commentary about the video above, additional photo images and more music.
The above video provides a somewhat oblique hint regarding the title of this week’s selection and is also a very memorable scene from one of the greatest films of the twentieth century.
I apologize for being away last week; Translator was a bit under the weather. Not really ill, but feeling poorly enough that I could not have monitored comments for the hours that I always promise after publication. I would rather post nothing at all than not be available to respond to comments, because I respect my readers and know that the comments are usually the most interesting part of the post.
Tonight we shall discuss the final spinoff of Star Trek that appeared on TeeVee. Enterprise (after the first couple of seasons renamed Star Trek: Enterprise) is, in my opinion, held in much lower esteem than it should be. I always liked it, but since SyFy has been running it, I have come to appreciate it even more. It sort of lost its way halfway into the run, but the final season more than made up for it.
Two weeks ago, I asked whether or not the Obama administration’s Department of Justice under Eric Holder would seek to thwart the ruling of Judge Virginia Phillips, when she ruled on 9/9/10 that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the military’s antiqued discharge policy used against gay people, was unconstitutional. The lawsuit was brought by the Log Cabin Republicans, who won the ruling on the grounds of freedom of speech, freedom of association, and the ability to petition the government for the redress of grievances- the good, old fashioned stuff.
Since then, the Democrats in the Senate made another one of their feeble, half hearted attempts at accomplishing something meaningful and legally correct, and of course, failed, after 3 of their alleged Dem caucus bailed on them during a cloture vote to get an amendment to get rid of DADT tucked into the latest DOD spending bill for FY 2011.
Judge Phillips said in her ruling that she intended to issue an injunction to stop enforcement of DADT, yesterday, the Obama Administration’s Dept of Justice Filed An Objection to Overturning DADT, and even said that the Judge would be overstepping her bounds if she did it.
“A court should not compel the executive to implement an immediate cessation of the 17-year-old policy without regard for any effect such an abrupt change might have on the military’s operations, particularly at a time when the military is engaged in combat operations and other demanding military activities around the globe,” federal attorneys said in their objection.
Department of Justice officials declined to comment further.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs tried to pretend this was not backpedaling on that fierce advocacy for equal rights that was mentioned in the 2008 campaign. Instead he tried to blame Congress, via an email, sent to the Associated Press. Odd that he said “this clearly shows why Congress must end this policy.” Because Congress is thought of as the House, and the House has its act together on this and would vote for it. It’s the Senate, and more specifically a Democratic Majority Senate that is at fault, that has decided a man or a woman in some states gets to have 2 and 2/3 Senators, while the rest of the country only gets 1 and 1/3 Senator, every time they insist on a 60 vote majority to decide any procedure.
One potential solution to this would be for every person in the military who this policy impacts to immediately declare themselves a member of the Log Cabin Republicans, since Judge Phillips could limit the injunction to them and not upset Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice….. too much during an election season. I’m not recruiting for them, but it looks like President Obama is confused about that equal protection under the law Konstitooshunal bipartisanshipthingee again. I would love to see the Judge smack down more doofus crap from any administration who is telling her that the military members have to belong to the Republican Party to have equal protection, wouldn’t you ?
And of course,
Back in April in CA at the Boxer fundraiser
Back in April at the White House
Last year in DC , Oct 2009
They say that this country is free, and they say that this country is equal, It is not equal if it is “some times”
Aside from the legal and moral issues, since this is the height of campaign season, and the President is running around the country doing million dollar fundraisers for some of these Senatorial candidates, let’s say what they fear the most:
Don’t Equalize, Don’t Pay to Play.
Because there is nothing more obnoxious that watching the current spectacle of the Senate Democrat’s Villain Rotation being used as an extortion tool.
I was scouting for something to write about/discuss a couple of nights ago and I ran across a few reviews of a new movie that is making the rounds in less than usual venues. Funded in part by The E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, That All May Freely Serve (TAMFS), The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, The Arlington Cultural Arts Council, The Open Meadows Foundation the movie was produced and directed by Alice Dungan Bouvrie of Mineral King Productions and is entitled Thy Will Be Done, which we of course recognize as a phrase from The Lord’s Prayer.
Personally I might have preferred a quote from Shakespeare.
This above all: to thine own self be true.
–Polonius to his son Laertes, Hamlet, Act I, Scene 3, line 82
That is, after all, what the story seems to be about for me.
I was scouting for something to write about/discuss a couple of nights ago and I ran across a few reviews of a new movie that is making the rounds in less than usual venues. Funded in part by The E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, That All May Freely Serve (TAMFS), The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, The Arlington Cultural Arts Council, The Open Meadows Foundation the movie was produced and directed by