Musings from Brian J. Noggle
Saturday, September 12, 2009
 
Automobile Use Is Corruption
That's what the prosecutors indicate here:
    Police in Coatesville say they stopped a white SUV being driven by a young girl on Sunday afternoon. Authorities say 30-year-old Lakisha Hogue was in the passenger seat when they stopped the vehicle. According to police documents, Hogue was laughing and said she was teaching the girl to drive. Hogue is charged with endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of a minor and other charges.
Meanwhile, they've charged the child for driving without a license, endangering the welfare of the child (itself), and other charges.

Seriously, can't the prosecutors limit themselves to just one crime for one actus reus anymore?

Rhetorical question. Of course they cannot.

Meanwhile, keep this in mind that when you're teaching your children to drive, you're violating all these laws unless there's a written exception for children with learner's permits in the actual statutes. Which, of course, there's not.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:54 AM   0 comments
Thursday, September 10, 2009
 
Is India Not An Advanced Democracy, Or Are The President's Speechwriters Ignorant?
President Obama's remarks last night:
    We are the only democracy -- the only advanced democracy on Earth -- the only wealthy nation -- that allows such hardship for millions of its people.
Question: Does India not count as a democracy or a suitably advanced democracy? Does it suit this characterization because it has hundreds of millions whose health care is not provided by the government? Or does the President's speechwriters ignorant of things non-European?


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:24 AM   1 comments
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
 
Book Report: Private Edition by Macfadden Publishing (1950)
Let's face it, looking at the cover of this book, a cheap black binding with only the words "Private Edition" underlined in pink cursive, one gets the sense that this might be a certain type of book. When one reads the first line of the first story, "As I fastened my dress--the soft, pretty one of pongee that I made especially for Dad's arrival...", one might think, Holy pongee, it is that kind of book!.

But one might then remember that this is a Macfadden Publishing collection from its old True Confessions style magazines. Instead of hardboiled morality plays featuring violence and stoic codes, we get gushy melodramas about how to deal with moral failings of the heart and lovelife. Unfortunately, many of them deal with contrived and rather silly "failings." In the first, a woman's hopes of a good marriage to a loving man are almost lost when it's discovered that his first wife, presumed dead, is alive, so the protagonist is not really his wife. She shuns the husband then, fearing a scandal. Or another woman calls off a marriage and enters a life of charitable service--because her mother was a shoplifter!

The book isn't a very good read, and it is most interesting as a historical document possibly offering insight into the mind of a young woman in the years after the war. These were her concerns, these were the parables to show her how not to get into trouble and how to find redemption if she got into trouble. Or at least these were the concerns peddled to her by Macfadden Publishing. Given that it made Macfadden himself rich, he must have touched someone and convinced them to buy these stories.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:36 AM   0 comments
Monday, September 07, 2009
 
What Does The Federal Government Manufacture?
President Obama to Appoint Ron Bloom Manufacturing Czar:
    In Cincinnati tomorrow, President Obama will announce that he's appointing Ron Bloom his Senior Counselor for Manufacturing Policy, White House sources tell ABC News.

    Bloom is currently Senior Advisor to Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner as a member of the President’s Task Force on the Automotive Industry, named to that position in February. He will remain in that position even while he takes on his new task.
Now, if only it would take over some industries to counsel. More, I mean.

I know what T.V. means when he says that there are too many kooks on the right spouting off zany theories of despotism and whatnot. Hey, I'm right up there with them. But it would be nice if the Federal government would not do so many things that look like foreshadowing.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:02 AM   0 comments
 
It Might Be About Race
Obama’s approval rating drops among whites:
    After a summer of health care battles and sliding approval ratings for President Barack Obama, the White House is facing a troubling new trend: The voters losing faith in the president are the ones he had worked hardest to attract.

    New surveys show steep declines in Obama's approval ratings among whites, including Democrats and independents, who were crucial elements of the diverse coalition that helped elect the country’s first black president.
The article poses its own push-poll style point, that whites are abandoning Obama--because of race? However, it would be just as sound to ask, "Are blacks sticking with Obama because he's black?"

- posted by Brian J. @ 7:50 AM   0 comments
To say Noggle, one first must be able to say the "Nah."