The Truth About Cattle Grazing: done correctly, it can help restore the land.
Two Funny Things and a Lot of Unfunny Ones about Racism: Let’s get rid of the Mexicans, and Who translated this for you? There’s a movement afoot to pass laws that violate the 14th Amendment on the grounds that not everyone born here has parents that are really not American enough. By not American enough, they generally mean “brown.” There are a number of problems with this, aside from Constitutional issues (funny how some people only like the Constitution some of the time). First, you might end up with people who can’t prove they were born anywhere because the law denies them a birth certificate. Second, you might end up with people who are effectively not citizens of any nation, because they weren’t born in the country of their parent’s citizenship. Third and finally, who gets to decide what constitutes “American enough”? At least “born in U.S.” is a simple to apply measure.
More on Friday’s lousy employment report: Good, bad, and ugly. Really ugly.
Obligatory Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Items: Woo, recapturing a whole 10,500 barrels a day. Really interesting that a BP exec managed to dump a third of his company stock a month before the disaster. You would think they could find a cable tie to keep stuff out of the way on the equipment BP is using a mile below the surface. Harry Reid thinks BP should pay for the clean-up (more on Harry come Tuesday with the Nevada Primaries, probably over on TMV). And on BP’s spill “plan”.
Civil Forfeiture Must Go: Guy sells truck on a payment plan. Truck gets seized by the cops. Cops don’t care that guy still has title and is owed money on said truck. Somehow I bet GMAC doesn’t have this problem.
And it’s only June 6: 22% of states have passed new abortion restrictions and 81 bank failures so far this year.
Speaking of the Banks: 6 made $51,000,000,000 last year; the other 980 lost money.
While we’re on the topic of making money: Just the threat of Federal enforcement makes companies want to restate their earnings.
How Laws are Really Made: Most people of my generation were taught that it works something like this, but the truth is a bit more complicated.
Run Sarah Run!: Ten reasons she should just keep doing the speaking circuit and stay the heck off the ballots.
Two Medical Items: Did you know that if enough doctors decide “No, that isn’t enough money for that procedure and we won’t take that insurance anymore,” the Government can decide they are in violation of anti-trust laws? And scroll down for a breakdown of infant mortality rates in developed nations, compared to health care spending per capita and military spending as a percentage of GDP. The United States has a shameful showing.
And Finally, Japanfilter: Fireflies.
Interesting item about Birt Certificates. True story. During WWII my dad needed a copy of his. He had been born here, as had many generations of our family. Unfortunately the Court House in the city where he was born had been destroyed by fire, along with all the records! He WAS able to get the required document. I shudder to think what would happen these days! Dad would be on his way back to France!
Imagine the plight of everyone born in New Orleans.
One thing to note about the infant mortality statistics is that different countries define “infant mortality” differently. The US counts any baby born alive, at any age of gestation, as a live birth. So a premie born at 21 weeks who dies 2 hours later counts as an infant death. Many countries don’t count premies who die as “infant deaths” but rather as miscarriages or still births. Likewise there are some countries who count an infant who dies within 24 hours of birth as a still birth. For a good discussion, see: http://tarheelred.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/infant-mortality-rate/. The US may still have work to do, but the IMR really isn’t a valid statistic for comparison.