Tag: Blithe Spirit

Jefferson on another wall

T. Jefferson quoted in other context than the old favorite in a letter about “wall of separation,” here warning about “domiciliary vexation” (!):

“At home, fellow citizens, you best know whether we have done well or ill. The suppression of unnecessary offices, of useless establishments and expenses, enabled us to discontinue our internal taxes. These covering our land with officers, and opening our doors to their intrusions, had already begun that process of domiciliary vexation which, once entered, is scarcely to be restrained from reaching successively every article of produce and property.”

Unnecessary offices, eh?  Useless establishments and expenses, eh?  Covering our land with officers . . . opening our doors to their intrusions, eh? 

That, fellow citizens, is domiciliary vexation.  We must guard against it, eh?

This Catholic did not watch his back

Chancery blokes are credibly accused of axing a pro-life program manager who ran athwart the politically correct and politically connected in the archdiocese of Chicago.  His friends aim to help.
 

Sent: Sunday, April 17, 2011 9:53 AM

Subject: Benefit Dinner for Rey Flores and Family with a talk by Joe Scheidler
Dear Friends,
 
Rey Flores lost his job as Chicago Director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development as a result of the reforms he was making to insure that funds were going to organizations that conform to the teaching of the Church.  He has not been able to find employment since that time and he has a family of five young children to support.  This benefit dinner has been planned to assist the family through a difficult time.
 
Please feel free to forward this notice to your own e-mail list.  Note the options for attending the dinner or donating at the bottom of the invitation.
 
Mary Anne Hackett
 
     
 
Catholic Citizens of Illinois

Pro_life Action League

Present

Benefit Dinner for Rey Flores and Family

Pro-Life Action League founder

Joe Scheidler

will speak on

“Peace in the Pro-Life Movement:
Focusing on the Goal of Defending Life”

Thursday, May 19
7:00pm – 10:00pm
Blue Star Wine Bar
1209 N. Noble St, Chicago, IL

This benefit helps to alleviate the hardship Rey Flores’s family is experiencing during a difficult time of unemployment. More info:

www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/nov/10111201.html

www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive/ldn/2010/aug/10080609

www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive/ldn/2009/nov/09111612

To purchase a ticket or donate visit:

reyfloresfamilybenefit.eventbrite.com

to donate or pay by check, call Nick at 312-952-4855



Catholic Citizens of Illinois
Pro_life Action League
Students for Life of IllinoisCatholic VoteBlue Star Wine Bar
Rey Flores is an experienced consultant who has worked in promotion, marketing, and advertising both inside and outside the Catholic Church. He is bilingual and can do marketing in English and Spanish. He is currently job searching and available for work. Rey lives in the Chicago south suburbs with his wife and five children.

Join us for an enjoyable evening on

Thursday, May 19 · 7:00pm – 10:00pm

at the Blue Star Wine Bar

Blue Star Wine bar

View Larger Map

 
     

Trouble ahead for school teachers

Will technology do for schools (teachers) what it did for newspapers (news people)?

“In the final analysis, what technology requires is a substitution of technology for human labor. Computers will do a lot of what teachers do now.” Jumping forward in his chair, he lights up: “Technology is cheap. Labor is really expensive. Education has always been very labor intensive, so if our education system can substitute technology for labor and still provide kids with high quality education, then great!”

It does this everywhere.  I got a computer etc. in the ’80s because it was that or hire a typist because I needed clean copy for clients and editors.  (My newspaper had closed down, I no longer had a copy desk to clean things up, etc.)  Was huge initial outlay I couldn’t afford.  But necessary.

My newspaper, an evening sheet, was done in partly (largely?) by TV, in the ’70s.  What’s to come, therefore, for teachers, many of whom will be priced out of the market, like bicycle-factory workers when that boom went bust early in the 20th century?

Trade deficit be damned, full speed to free trade

You probably think we’re bad off when we import more than we export.  Of course I do, you say.  It’s better to sell more than you buy, right?  Money in the pocket and all that, including more jobs for more Americans.  You are wrong, says this guy from Cato Institute, via Carpe Diem blog, w/hat tip to Newsalert:

“The time to reform the prevailing doctrine of the trade balance is long overdue. The goal of U.S. trade policy should not be to maximize exports and minimize imports in a misbegotten quest for “balanced trade.” The goal should be to maximize the freedom of Americans to buy and sell in global markets for mutual gain, whatever the mix of goods, services, and assets we freely choose to trade.”

How so?

“What the past 30 years show is that the U.S. economy exhibits no sign of suffering during periods when the trade deficit is expanding. To the contrary, the U.S. economy grew more than three times faster during periods when the trade deficit was expanding as a share of GDP compared to those in which it was shrinking (see chart above, click to enlarge):

The chart above?  Here ’tis, below:

trade deficit good

The more the deficit, the better.  Who’d a-thunk it?

Our debt bomb

This be the argument in support of spending cuts, or the first part of it:

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Republicans should not “play chicken with the economy.” The administration wants a prompt vote to raise the federal debt ceiling quickly. Carney went on to say, “The consequences of not raising the debt ceiling would be Armageddon-like in terms of the economy.”

But then again, if the federal debt limit keeps getting raised without any real new spending-limitation rules, Armageddon for the economy may come just as quickly. . .

Thus Larry Kudlow, as good a guru as any in this matter.

more more more here

The second part being expected revenues increase because of lower tax rates . . . .

Closed system openly opposed

A class size experiment in the United States f...
They keep trying things in school.

Revolutionary thinking about schooling:

“Our tightly controlled educational system mocks the promise of democracy. With a closed educational system we simply cannot have an open political system. The current situation allows the government and big business to manufacture and maintain our culture for us, and in turn, control remains in the hands of the experts and institutions. The ability to change this situation is in the hands of the individuals and families who understand why change is necessary.”

From Helen Hegener, co-publisher of Home Education Magazine.