Lolcat of the Week

The lolcat of the week below, more or less, adopts my pessimistic view of life in toto. Enjoy!

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Is Obama Trying to Ban Fishing?

UPDATE (3/10/2010): The Christian Science Monitor has more on the Obama Administration's Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force and its potential plans for our Nation's waterways.

According to CSM, the real concern for anglers rests the President's ties to 'anti-use' organizations, and their presumed representation on the President's Task Force:

But critics still worry about the Obama administration’s ties to environmental groups that espouse “anti-use” policies that put some habitats out of reach even for rod and reel fishermen, who take only 3 percent of America’s landed catch every year.

[Link]

The article adds some extra depth that the ESPN Piece lacked, but it still doesn't really get at the root of the issue: No one knows what the task force will actually recommend to the President. See below for more details.

Pax Plena (3/9/10): The Obama Administration has certainly made some questionable policy choices over its year and a quarter in office. But rumblings about the President’s new Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, and its plans to potentially ban fishing on our Nation’s public waterways absolutely takes the cake.

According to ESPN:

The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.

[Link]

To be clear, neither ESPN nor the White House has specified what exactly the new federal strategy is. The news of the day is that the comment period closed, meaning that the public no longer has the opportunity to weigh-in on the task force's recommendations.

The problem, of course, is that the Administration has given no hint as to how wide the restrictions on fishing are that it is considering. But given the threat of a nuclear Iran, skyrocketing unemployment, and a deficit that seems to expand faster than Joe Biden’s ego, should the pressing issue of this Administration really be to ban/limit recreational fishing?

Politically, the move makes even less sense. In fact, it’s almost as if the President is bent on alienating every slumbering interest group that has yet to oppose him. The monstrosity we are calling health care reform, if rammed through the Senate, would effectively isolate 53% of the American people. Banning fishing on public waterways would not affect nearly so many people, but it might well generate nearly the same level of widespread opposition.

The real political problem is it creates a needless headache for a President that does not need needless headaches. What better way to reinforce the image of Obama as a big-government tyrant, than to…well, act like a big-government tyrant? If it walks like a duck, etc, etc…

More to the point, banning fishing is just bad policy. As the article notes, the science on the scope of overfishing on our public waterways is murky at best. This makes any ban little more than an ill-conceived exercise in conjecture - guesswork with the potential to affect millions of jobs dependent upon the recreational fishing industry.

Apparently, nothing says 'let's create jobs' quite like putting an entire industry out of work.

For Those Who Thought the Oscars Sucked

This video is for you. " A Trailer for Every Academy Award Winning Movie Ever". Enjoy!

A Trailer for Every Academy Award Winning Movie Ever -- powered by Cracked.com

The Modern Persecution Christians

The persecution of Christians almost seems an anachronism, hearkening back to the days of pre-Constantine Rome where the evil Emperor would cheerily send a believer to the lions with a quick thumbs up or down.

Today’s religious persecution is more often described as a form or religious ‘intolerance.’ The ACLU, for instance, has made much hay about the ‘stigmatization’ of Muslim groups by the U.S. Government.

But what one rarely hears discussed, at least until it reaches the headlines, is the quiet persecution of Christians in Muslim-majority nations. Sadly, one such example hit the wires yesterday.

According to the AFP, some 500 Christians were slaughtered by members of the Muslim, Fulani ethnic group near Jos, Nigeria. 

"People were attacked with axes, daggers and cutlasses -- many of them children, the aged and pregnant women."

[Link]

Surprisingly, the news has sparked relatively little outrage.

The CNN “top” headlines featured tornados in Oklahoma (no surprise there), the Oscars, and inexplicably, the long-dead Natalie Wood.  It also featured a lengthy piece on the Christian missionary who was arrested “on suspicion of kidnapping” Haitian orphans.

If one can draw any conclusion about the persecution of modern Christians from CNN, it is that such persecutions are relatively uninteresting. Apparently, 1 Christian, allegedly kidnapping 20 kids in Haiti, is much more attention grabbing than 500 Christians being slaughtered by Muslims in Nigeria. Even the AFP described the martyrdom as a mere “sectarian slaughter.”

There’s no deep point to be made here other than the obvious. But for a Nation such as ours, where fully 76% of the population pledges fealty to the Christian faith, surely the present-day persecution of Christians deserves more coverage than the Oscars.

Mountain Top Blogging

Today's post comes from a fairly novel place. My wife and I joined some friends for a hike up Wasson Peak in the Tucson Mountains.

Like most mountain top experiences, the view of the valley is much better from the top.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Dems Out of Touch on Jobs

Today, the Department of Labor released the latest jobs numbers from last month. Some 36,000 Americans received pink slips according to Government estimates in February.

Democrats reacted to the dire news with a hearty thumbs up!

On the floor of the Senate, Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid said:

"Today is a big day in America. Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good," Reid said Friday on the Senate floor.

[Link]

Lost your job last month? Congratulations! According to Sen. Reid, that's really good news.

Sen. Reid's rhetoric offers zero consolation for the 36,000 Americans who joined the burgeoning ranks of the unemployed. The Democrats gross, political angling only underscores how out of touch Democrats are with the problems facing the American people.

With some 14.9 million Americans out of work, spinning unemployment figures as 'good news' is just crass - even for a partisan such as Reid. Unbelievable.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Heaven Via XKCD

I really, really, really hope that Heaven is a lot like this…

Via xkcd webcomics.