My modest contribution to the cause of World Peace
(No need to thank me. Your awed silence is thanks enough.)
Imagine there’s no freedom
It’s easy if you try
No place to hide from
Big Brother’s searching eye
Imagine all the people
Living just one way…
Imagine there’s no nations
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to love or stand for
No constitutions too
Imagine all the people
Rocking the boat no more…
You may say I’m a dreamer
I suppose that I might be
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the whole world will think like me
Imagine confiscation
Of private property
We’d all be poor together
Except, of course, for me
Imagine all the people
Doing things my way…
You may say I hate freedom
That I’m against democracy
But it will all be so peaceful
When no one has the right to disagree
The Twilight of Newspapers
NY Times raises prices, could become non-profit to guilt liberals into donating to the cause. In other news dialogue, what will happen to cartoonists when newspapers fold? Doesn’t seem to be a ripe time for a new news organization, a paper, site, or network of some kind? I wish I had a mind for business (at least for a little while).
Storyville Coffee Donates One Month’s Profits to Jusice Mission
Storyville Coffee Company, based in Seattle, Washington, is giving all of its profits for May to the International Justice Mission to help free slaves around the world. Company officials talked to The Christian Post about it:
“The cost of giving everything away for one month felt necessary when we stopped to consider the value of a rescued human life,” explained Ryan Gamble, co-president of Storyville Coffee Company, to The Christian Post.
“At first we considered giving a portion of the profit away, but that didn’t feel right. Then we talked about giving all of the profit away, but that didn’t seem like enough either,” he said. “Ultimately we decided that anything less than everything would not be enough.”
I need to buy some coffee.
Napolitano on Government Power Grabs
You can get Judge Napolitano’s book, A Nation of Sheep, which is his argument against American loss of freedom at BookCloseouts.com for $9.00 for a limited time. It’s also on Amazon here. His latest book, Dred Scott’s Revenge: A Legal History of Race and Freedom in America, looks excellent too. Make sure your library has a copy or three of both books.
I’ve Been Changed, That’s What
Books what changed my life: The Literary Saloon notes Rowan Williams’ selection for life-changing books. Williams is the Archbishop of Canterbury who has overseen the dismantling of the Anglican Church over the past few years.
Yuki 7 and the Seductive Espionage
A book by artist Kevin Dart, focusing on a female espionage world, has an animated trailer to go with it. “A Kiss from Tokyo” is very much like Charlie’s Angels or James Bond without the James. It’s appealing work, though the subject matter could be improved. The book, Seductive Espionage, goes on sale next month.
It’s all food to me
Loren Eaton, at I Saw Lightning Fall, has a great piece today on the importance of reading widely. I concur. I don’t actually do it much, mind you, but I concur.
Speaking of what we wordsmiths like to call omnivorosity, I ate haggis for the first time in my life this past weekend, down in Elk Horn.
Sort of.
If you saw the pictures I posted last night, you may have noticed that there were wedge-shaped tents at the left side of the picture, and circular, pavilion-type tents on the right side.
The tents on the left were proper Viking tents, patterned after specimens found by archaeologists in ship burials.
The pavilions to the right were anachronistic, later medieval things which didn’t properly belong in a Viking camp. They belonged to Renaissance Faire people, whom good Viking reenactors generally look upon with disdain.
But we didn’t disdain these RF people, because they were our source of food.
Continue reading It’s all food to me
Democrats Oppose Free Speech
According to Brian Jennings, Democrats “are going through the backdoor to ‘clarify the public interest obligations‘ of broadcasters as stated by Obama and the Democrats in their 2008 party platform. The FCC on May 7th began hearings to ‘diversify’ media ownership in America.”
As I understand it, they will tell certain radio stations they must sell to someone of racial minority because their market area must have a percentage of minority owned stations. Nevermind qualifications. We must have the appearance of ethnic diversity to have a healthy society.
Locally Owned Sharking
I have recently learned that the headquarters of a large payday check loaning company is just up the road from my hometown. Harper’s has a good article on it and the industry at large. Though the writer may have some bad general ideas (noted at the end) he seems to assess the situation well. People like me, Southern homebuilders making a certain amount of money, who don’t save what they can as they can, are digging themselves into a financial ditch by asking to pay $30 now for the cash in their paycheck coming in a few days. It doesn’t make sense for anyone to spend his check before it comes, especially for a service fee, but I can see the need or desire coming, if one doesn’t save anything. That’s poor judgment, but it’s immoral for lenders to offer the service and encourage them to just roll over their loans until the next check, adding another fee which will be due with the next payday check. It snowballs from there. No, it doesn’t have the same feel as typical loan sharking, but it has the same results. (via Chattarati)