James R. Rummel

I am a self defense instructor who lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Obvious

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There’s vending machines in many schools across the United States. The kids can buy sodas, candy, chips. The school gets a cut of the profits. Works out well for everyone concerned.

Lately, though, school administrators have been worried about public pressure. Parents have been complaining about the high calorie snacks that the kids have been buying while at school. They wanted the selection to be changed to a more healthy mix. (Why this is the school’s problem instead of an example of lax parental supervision is something I can’t answer.)

So the schools got rid of the really tasty stuff and replaced it with, I dunno, organic fruit and soy energy bars. You know, stuff that no one buys for the taste.

And the obvious happened. The kids stopped buying stuff from the school vending machines.

Now the schools are upset. The money they got from the sales of all that sugary stuff has dried up. In some areas the loss is staggering, with schools in the San Fernando Valley losing $100,000 USD a month from soda sales alone! (There can’t be that many paper routes, so the parents there must really pass the cash out every morning. I wonder if they’ll adopt?)

Supporters of the junk food bans say that they knew that there was going to be a loss in revenue for awhile, but that sales would pick up eventually. I suppose they figure the kids will get used to the crappy taste or something. Looks like they aren’t parents who ever had to convince a child to eat their carrots.

Good News for Conservatives

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In the last election, the Democrats had exactly what they said they needed to win. They spent more money per candidate than the Republicans in the Presidential and Senate races, they managed to motivate youthful voters in great numbers, and the national media was so biased that they were actually willing to fight for an obvious fraud if it meant damaging the Republicans.

Yet they still lost the Presidential election, as well as some more seats in both the House and the Senate.

I think one of the main reasons for this incredibly poor showing were the loud, bitter groups that the Democrats courted as a big part of their support. I think most Conservatives would agree with that.

I just came across this news item, which reports that MoveOn.org, the odious Left-wing organization that saw nothing wrong with comparing Bush with Hitler, is trying to re-invent itself.

How are they going to survive after they’ve failed so completely in getting their candidate elected? By expanding the list of issues that they want to become involved with. (The article is very well written, and should be read all the way through.)

I was very curious to see how the mid-term elections were going to come out in 2006. If the Democrats didn’t change their message (Republicans are murdering Fascists), and if they didn’t change the way they presented it (BUSHITLER!), then I figured that they were going to lose even more seats in Congress.

But if MoveOn manages to expand and keep at the forefront of Democratic politics, then I don’t have any doubt as to the outcome.

UPDATE
Fellow Columbus, Ohio blogger Citizen Keith has sent me an Email, pointing out that the ads which compared Bush to Hitler weren’t endorsed by MoveOn.org. Instead they were merely two of 1,500 ads that were submitted and placed on MoveOn’s website during a contest , and they were removed due to complaints. So far, MoveOn hasn’t ever directly compared Bush to Hitler.

I’ve Got a Question for my Readers

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This news item says that the US State Department has endorsed the Senate probe of the Oil for Food scandel.

I’m uncertain what this means since I didn’t think that the Senate needed approval to investigate something. It would appear that it’s an indication of approval instead of a formal go-ahead, sort of like an athlete who endorses a product that they don’t really use. (“I’m not a Senator, but I pretend to be one in my office at Foggy Bottom!”) If this is so, then I suppose it’s a message that no one from State will try and obstruct the investigation.

Maybe the authors of The Diplomad can clear this up for me.

Waste of my Time

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There’s some sort of conference going on in Egypt right now. It’s supposed to be all about Iraq and nothing but. Predictably, though, the subject of Israel and the Palestinians was the only thing anyone wanted to talk about.

That’s what you get when you invite Arab dignitaries to any sort of “international conference.” They’ll start spouting off about Israel so no one will ask them about their own governments’ failings. We’ve seen it happen at the United Nations so many times that I doubt any of the delegates have written a new speech in 20 years.

France sent along envoys to the do, whuppty-freakin’-ding-dong. It’s not like they’ve been really supportive of our efforts in Iraq, or that they’ve even refrained from trying anything they could think of to stop us. The only thing that the presence of French delegates at the conference tells me is that the buffets in the executive dining hall must have been pretty well stocked.

Now France says that they want to help end violence in Iraq. A reasonable person would think that they’d send troops, help pay for efforts to hunt down terrorists, start pressuring Syria and Iran in order to slow down the flow of support for terrorism. I mean, what else would make a difference?

But France isn’t talking about doing any of that. Instead they want the Iraqi interim government to hold a big rally with the various political groups forming in Iraq. It would help voter turnout, they said. (They just say “meetings,” but I figure that you should do it right and have a big ol’ political rally with vendors selling T-shirts and overpriced convention food and rousing speeches and everything.)

Thank a lot, France! Democracy is saved due to your quick thinking and keen insight into the problem of forming new liberal democracies! After all, they have all that experience in forming democracies. They’re on their, what, 5th or 6th democratic government since the late 18th Century while we’re struggling along with the original?

Next time they should just have McDonald’s cater these affairs. I bet it would increase the signal-to-noise ratio something fierce.

Empathy

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A reader left a comment and a link at this post, where I talk about how a friend of mine named Charles is dying of cancer after an active life spent as a sportsman. The link was to this news story, which talks about an incident where a man wearing hunting gear was asked to leave private land. The trespasser opened fire on the owner and his guests who were there at the time. 5 people are dead, and three others are wounded.

What did my anonymous reader want to say about this terrible act of murder?

“I say give ´em all the guns they want.”

I’ve seen this attitude before, most recently amongst supporters of England’s ban on fox hunting. The rhetoric can get pretty thick, with people who want to ban hunting comparing it to rape or serial killing. When innocent human beings are murdered while taking part in the sport, they can’t help but let their satisfaction show through childish gloating.

Considering the post where he left his comment, the only thing I can say is that my reader is very wise to remain nameless. I’m sure that he would come up 2nd best if compared to Charles in any way, and no one wants to be humiliated.