Let’s All Take In the Big Picture

Day by Day has been on top of the Brit clothed Move-On ad, but now he’s analyzing Dean’s long-term strategy.

Harry Hutton reports from Medellin, where he points out quite cheerfully the murder rate has dropped from 3,450 in 2002 to a mere 812 this year, which “is still safer than going over the Niagara Falls in a barrel.” Of course, as he points out, life on death row (2% death rate) is a good deal safer than as a street dealer (7% death rate).

We can thank Muir & Hutton for context; it helps us with the big decisions.

Musings Prompted by Rummel’s & Lex’s Posts

A few years ago, a man wanted by the police in Houston ran from his house, holding his toddler as shield. As I remember, in the end he was captured; but, sure enough, no one shot at him for fear of hitting the child. He seemed at once unnatural and uncivilized. Naturally, we think, we protect our own. And civilization teaches us to protect the weak. Of course, it is also a natural desire to get out of bad situations unscathed. But he counted on others valuing the life of his child more than he did himself – that seems incredible opportunism; it relies on others’ civilized behavior leveraged by his own barbarism, others’ automatic protection of the weak while he is absorbed in the great I. Fortunately, we can count on civilization. Others would hold fire, want to rescue the child—indeed, “do the right thing.” And, I suspect, if they didn’t, they would be scorned by society. As well they should be.

Read more

Pearl Harbor

On 8 December, Vice Admiral William F. Halsey brought his Enterprise task force into Pearl Harbor, where the enormity of the destruction shocked all hands. Halsey’s comment, “Before we’re through with ’em, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell!”, probably represented a universal feeling, not just in the Fleet, but in virtually the entire Nation.

(From this excellent page.)

Of the hundreds of Americans who died that day, let us at least remember one of them by name today. This is the Medal of Honor citation of Chief Radioman Thomas James Reeves:

For distinguished conduct in the line of his profession, extraordinary courage and disregard of his own safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, by Japanese Forces on 7 December 1941. After the mechanized ammunition hoists were put out of action in the U.S.S. California, REEVES, on his own initiative, in a burning passageway, assisted in the maintenance of an ammunition supply by hand to the antiaircraft guns until he was overcome by smoke and fire, which resulted in his death.

Chief Radioman Reeves, like most Americans, had no idea that a war was going to start that morning. He responded to the violence coming out of a clear blue sky with courage and focus on the necessary task.

Remember him and all the others who died fighting against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan with gratitude. It was not a “good war”, but it was a hard and necessary war.

Remember Pearl Harbor.

God Bless America.

Walmart to save France

Good article:

The French have effectively banned McJobs by requiring employers to be more generous. The unfortunate result is not middle class comfort for all. Often, it’s no jobs.

Companies That Can’t Fire Don’t Hire

The reason has to do with an economic concept called “marginal product of labor”, which is a fancy way of saying that firms will not voluntarily pay you more than you’re worth. If Wal-Mart believes that you add $5.15 an hour to the bottom line by stocking shelves, and you demand $8, the manager will politely point to the exit. If you don’t have any skills that are worth more than $5.15 an hour to some other employer, you won’t use that exit. You’ll take what Wal-Mart is offering. McJobs tend to pay workers what they’re worth, which, sad though it may be, is not always a living wage.

The French alternative — admittedly oversimplified — is to require that firms pay low-skilled workers more, whether their productivity justifies it or not. If an employee adds $5.15 an hour worth of value to a firm, the government might require the firm to pay him $10. As you can imagine, firms are not keen on paying someone $10 an hour for $5.15 worth of work, not even in France. The best business decision in that case is to hire no one at all.

The Rhetoric is Getting Kinda Thick

A special Congressional hearing was held today to determine if the slow response in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was due to racism.

The evacuees who gave testimony got pretty intense when describing their ordeal. They said that American troops aimed guns at young girl’s heads, living in temporary shelters was deadly, and that they’re victims of a crime as big as the Holocaust.

Uh huh. The US government set up death camps and shoveled millions of black residents into the ovens. Got it.

That surely happened because, if it didn’t, then the people who testified are nothing but a bunch of jerks who are trying to game the system for their own gain.

I’ve seen a great deal of this hysterical crap over the past few years, particularly from the Left. What they can’t seem to understand is that comparing having to go hungry for a day or two to actual genocide isn’t impressive or compelling. They can claim that they’re the biggest victims in the world all they want, most of us can tell what real vicitmization and genocide really looks like.

Something tells me that they’re not going to shut up, though. Not while they’re being invited to Washington to speak in front of a Congressional committee.

(Cross posted at Hell in a Handbasket.)