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Now, here’s The Gouge!

First up, our quick-and-dirty analysis of the 2nd debate; Romney reminded us of Ghostbusters, as, in a fashion similar to their efforts in the Hotel Sedgewick….

This despite Candy Crowley’s patent attempts to save the President’s bacon, particularly on Fast & Furious and Benghazi.

Bottom line: Romney 2, The Obamao 0.

Moving on, coming soon to a country near you, particularly if the Dims have anything to say about it, News From the Great White North, courtesy of The New Media Journal and LifeNews.com:

Catholic Schools Told They Can’t Teach Abortion is Wrong

 

On Wednesday, Ontario’s Minister of Education rocked Ontario taxpayers, sending a shockwave across Canada, and even beyond our borders, with an announcement that can only be described as “totalitarian.” Laurel Broten, Minister of Education told reporters that under its new anti-bullying law, Bill 13, The Accepting Schools Act, Catholic schools would no longer be permitted to teach that abortion is wrong.

A transcript of the remarks from Premier McGuinty’s office to LifeSiteNews quoted Minister Broten:

“We do not allow and we’re very clear with the passage of Bill 13 that Catholic teachings cannot be taught in our schools that violates human rights and which brings a lack of acceptance to participation in schools,” she said.

“I don’t think that there is a contrast or a conflict between choosing a Catholic education for your children and supporting a woman’s right to choose,” she added.

Asked for clarification she said again: “Bill 13 has in it a clear indication of ensuring that our schools are safe, accepting places for all our students. That includes of LGBTQ students. That includes young girls in our school. Bill 13 is about tackling misogyny, taking away a woman’s right to choose could arguably be one of the most misogynistic actions that one could take.”…

Already Toronto Cardinal Thomas Collins has affirmed that Catholic schools are protected in their pro-life teaching by Section 93 of the Canadian Constitution.

Editor’s Note: Progressives despise the thought that the State does not grant rights to its “subjects.” This is why the concept of Natural Law, embedded in and inseparable from the US Constitution, is so incredibly important. It is also why the US Constitution is one that limits and not empowers, government. Progressives hate that fact as well, which is why they insist that the US Constitution is a “living document” and the Declaration of Independence means nothing more than the listed grievances.

Which shouldn’t surprise, coming from Canada, a country which already terms as hate speech any sermon characterizing homosexuality as a sin, i.e., as God sees it.

For any inquiring minds wondering how the Constitution of Canada deals with freedom of religion and speech/expression, Section 2 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms does indeed list both as “fundamental freedoms”. 

However, Section 1 allows Parliament or the provincial legislatures to enact laws that place certain kinds of limited restrictions on the freedoms listed under Section 2, while also permitting them to be temporarily curtailed by a simple majority vote in any of Canada’s 11 different jurisdictions.

C’est la vie, ,mon ami!

In a related item, here’s a follow-up to yesterday’s entry detailing the Florida State Board of Ed’s measure establishing different standards for math and reading achievement based on face, courtesy of Speed Mach and the President of France:

French president pushing homework ban as part of ed reforms

 

Sacre bleu!  We are doing the surrendering yet again!

How do you think this would go over in the United States? French President François Hollande has said he will end homework as part of a series of reforms to overhaul the country’s education system. And the reason he wants to ban homework? He doesn’t think it is fair that some kids get help from their parents at home while children who come from disadvantaged families don’t. It’s an issue that goes well beyond France, and has been part of the reason that some Americans oppose homework too.

Hollande’s reform plans include increasing the number of teachers, moving the school week from four days to 4 1/2 days, overhauling the curriculum and taking steps to cut down on absenteeism. “Education is priority,” Hollande was quoted as saying by France24.com at Paris’s Sorbonne University last week. “An education program is, by definition, a societal program. Work should be done at school, rather than at home,” as a way to ensure that students who have no help at home are not disadvantaged.

Despite the four-day school week, elementary school children in France spend more hours a year in school than many other developed countries because students are there all day, starting at 8:30 a.m. and ending at 4:30 p.m., with some kids staying even later.

It’s not clear where the money to hire thousands more teachers will come from, but, the Associated Press reported, Education Minister Vincent Peillon will have to figure out how to implement the reforms. One option is to shorten summer vacation, though, such a move isn’t likely to be popular because it is practically sacrosanct in France.

It’s perfect Liberal illogic; satisfy the lowest common denominator by bringing everyone else down to their level….excepting of course government bureaucrats, academics and the ruling elite.  If some live in slop, don’t improve their condition; force everyone else to live in similar circumstances.  After all, if everyone is less educated, it can only improve France’s competitive position in the global econo….er,….never mind.

It’s the same tortured thinking that had a Portland school board asking Bill Meisen’s son why he’d brought steak to school when not all of his schoolmates could afford steak, this despite the fact he’d been expelled for bringing a knife to school with which to cut it.

As we’ve said before, educated idiots.

Next up, Conn Carroll offers his observations as….

Obama throws Hillary under the bus

 

When the topic is other people, President Obama is all about holding leaders accountable. This past July, Obama told ABC News:

Well, here’s what I know, we were just talking about responsibility and as president of the United States, it’s pretty clear to me that I’m responsible for folks who are working in the federal government and you know, Harry Truman said the buck stops with you.

At the time, Obama was referring to actions taken by Bain Capital after Mitt Romney left to run the 2002 Winter Olympics. But when it comes to his own administration’s actions, Obama has been quick to blame others. Just look at his constant buck passing on the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal.

Then, yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took Obama’s blame shifting to a new level. In an interview with CNN in Peru, Clinton said she was responsible for the inadequate security provided to the U.S. mission in Benghazi: “I’m in charge of the State Department’s 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts. The president and the vice president wouldn’t be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals. They’re the ones who weigh all of the threats and the risks and the needs and make a considered decision.”

Contrast this statement with the one Clinton made to Obama during the 2008 primary: “Being President means being both CEO and COO of one of the largest and most complex organizations in the world. … The buck stops in the Oval Office.”

It is almost certain that CNN’s Candy Crowley will ask Obama how much of the blame he deserves for the death of the U.S. Ambassador and three other Americans in Libya on September 11th. Will he continue to blame YouTube videos and plead ignorance as his spokesman and vice president have done? Or will he finally take responsibility for his own failed leadership? Millions of undecided women will be watching the debate tonight. They already know that Obama pushed Clinton aside to become president. How will they feel about him letting her take the blame for what is ultimately his responsibility?

For more on the subject, we turn to Carol Platt Liebau and her thoughts on Hillary assuming “responsibility” for Benghazi:

Never Count a Clinton Out

 

Oh, my, this is priceless.  From Peru, Hillary Clinton has “taken responsibility” for Benghazi.  No doubt, on its face, the act would seem to be a heroic effort to take the heat off the President and Vice President as the election nears.  But with the Clintons, nothing is ever as it seems.  Keep in mind that:

She did this the night before a real make-or-break debate for the President;

By doing it she made Obama and Biden look small and cowardly for seeking to throw her under the bus, thereby elevating her stature while diminishing theirs;

She did nothing to reduce the pressure on the President and Veep to take responsibility — in fact, she increased it;

She ensured Libya and her move would be a major topic at the must-win debate for Obama tomorrow night (eliminating any possibility that extensive discussion of foreign affairs and Benghazi would be deferred for the foreign policy debate);

She raised the question — which now may be put to Obama — of whether she should be fired.  If she is asked, of course she may answer demurely that she serves at the pleasure of the President. In any case, he is now hamstrung; if he answers “yes,” she should be fired, he infuriates a lot of Dems — and potentially a lot of women, but if he answers “no,” he risks seeming insufficiently upset about what happened to the independents;

She makes the best of a bad situation for herself.  Of course she is responsible for what happened — at least she salvages some respect for her leadership by at least being willing to admit it (denying it wouldn’t help her at all anyway in 2016 if she chooses to run).

Anyone who watched the Clintons throughout the ’90’s know that both of them are willing to evade accountability and responsibility to a virtually unbelievable degree if they perceive that doing so is to their political advantage.  It wasn’t that she was worn down.  Hillary must have realized that by doing what she did, she at least takes some steps to salvage her own credibility — while simultaneously heaving Obama and Biden under the bus they were aiming toward her.

Nicely played, no?

As Best of the Web notes in today’s Money Quote, blogger Jeryl Bier surfed the White House website and learned the following which illustrate the point rather dramatically:

““The last time the words ‘I take responsibility’ appear on the website is July 6, 2011, in the transcript of the president’s Twitter Town Hall. By contrast, during that same time period, the phrase ‘got us into this mess in the first place’ appears 86 times,” almost always referring to someone else.“

Meanwhile, the obfuscation continues:

Susan Rice: No, My Comments About the Video Weren’t Influenced by Obama Campaign

 

Yeah….

After all, it’s not like Rice serves at the pleasure of the President….

….along with Valerie Jarrett, David Axelrod and David Plouffe.

Turning now from the ridiculous to the sublime, Thomas Sowell’s latest installment of….

Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene

 

Not since the days of slavery have there been so many people who feel entitled to what other people have produced as there are in the modern welfare state, whether in Western Europe or on this side of the Atlantic.

Economist Edward Lazear has cut through all of Barack Obama’s claims about “creating jobs” with one plain and inescapable fact — “there hasn’t been one day during the entire Obama presidency when as many Americans were working as on the day President Bush left office.” Whatever number of jobs were created during the Obama administration, more have been lost.

How are children supposed to learn to act like adults, when so much of what they see on television shows adults acting like children?

The know-it-all smirks and condescending laughs of Vice President Joe Biden, when Congressman Paul Ryan was speaking during their debate, were a little much from an administration presiding over economic woes at home and disasters overseas — and being caught in lies about both. Like Barack Obama, Joe Biden has all the clever tricks of a politician and none of the wisdom of a statesman.

If you truly believe in the brotherhood of man, then you must believe that blacks are just as capable of being racists as whites are.

One of the most foolish, and most dangerous, things one can do is to take love for granted, instead of nurturing it and safeguarding it as the prize jewel of one’s life.

Whenever you hear people talking about “a living Constitution,” almost invariably they are people who are in the process of slowly killing it by “interpreting” its restrictions on government out of existence.

Do either Barack Obama or his followers have any idea how many countries during the 20th century set out to “spread the wealth” — and ended up spreading poverty instead? At some point, you have to turn from rhetoric, theories and ideologies to facts.

I am so old that I can remember when liberals were liberal — instead of being intolerant of anything and anybody that is not politically correct.

Whatever happened to Julie Banderas of the Fox News Channel? She had brains, looks, wit and personality. Has she met with foul play? Or has some zillionaire married her and taken her off to his own private island?

The question to be asked of people in the media, and that they should ask themselves, should be: “Is your first loyalty to your audience or to your ideology?” The same question should be asked of educators, especially those who see themselves as “agents of social change,” even though that is not the job description under which they have been hired and paid.

People who complain about “negative” campaign ads miss the point. It is perfectly legitimate to criticize your opponent. The question is whether the ads are about serious things that matter to the future of this country, and whether they are telling the truth or lying.

If you believe Barack Obama and others who oppose what they call “tax cuts for the rich,” you might want to consider what the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said: “You are entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts.” If you want to see some documented facts about tax rates and tax revenues, there is a box titled “Tax Cuts” on my web site (www.tsowell.com). Click on it.

In baseball, switch hitters are said to have an advantage. But the highest lifetime batting average by a switch hitter (.319 by Frankie Frisch) is more than 30 points lower than the highest batting average for either left-handed hitters or right-handed hitters. The highest batting average in a season by a switch hitter (.365 by Mickey Mantle) is more than 50 points lower.

If there is ever a Hall of Fame for confidence men, Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff will have to take a back seat to Barack Obama. Obama is the gold standard — or, perhaps more appropriately, the brass standard.

I have never known a word to become absolute dogma, without a speck of evidence, the way “diversity” has.

On the Lighter Side….

Then there’s these two gems from Tom Bakke….

as well as a couple more rather astute observations on the VP debate from Balls Cotton:

And in another sordid story ripped from the pages of the Crime Blotter, courtesy of Bill Meisen, we learn….

Police Reports Detail Cleveland Bus Uppercut

Driver told cops he hit woman after she spit on him

 

The Cleveland bus driver who delivered an uppercut to an unruly female passenger told cops that he struck the woman after she grabbed his throat and spit in his face as he was driving, according to police reports. Artis Hughes, 59, was interviewed by officers shortly after the September 18 confrontation with Shi’dea Lane, 25, on a Greater ClevelandRegional Transit Authority (RTA) bus.

Video of the fight (see below) went viral online this week, prompting RTA officials to suspend Hughes, a 22-year veteran, and characterize his behavior as “absolutely unacceptable.”

When cops responded to the stopped bus around 4 PM, Hughes and three passengers described Lane as the incident’s aggressor. Hughes told cops that Lane initially boarded the bus without paying, claiming, “I left my bookbag.” Hughes said that after Lane, a restaurant employee, eventually paid her fare, she told him, “You a Bitch and Your Momma’s a Bitch Too!” She also reportedly stated, “Keep talking about me and I will spit on you!”

In a written statement, Hughes recalled that Lane “grabbed me in the throat and spit on me in the face.” In response, the driver said he stopped the bus, “and I protected myself.” The Hughes statement does not reveal that he hit Lane squarely in the jaw with a bolo punch that knocked her to the ground.

One witness told cops that a “drunk” Lane “got on the bus fliping out” and “started talking crazy” to Hughes. After spitting on Hughes, the witness wrote in a statement, the driver “did what he had to do.”

A second witness wrote that Lane was “loud and obnoxious” from the start, and spit on Hughes and “started hitting him.” The witness added, “That’s when he hit her back.” A third witness described Lane as “drunk” and reported that “she hit him and he jumped out of his seat and started fighting her.” (How many witnesses offering nearly identical testimony does it take in Cleveland?!?)

When first interviewed by cops, Hughes said he was willing to prosecute Lane. But a week after the incident, he called a police detective to report that he “did not wish to pursue prosecution of the female suspect.” He subsequently signed a “Refuse to Prosecute Form.”

According to her Facebook page, Lane, the mother of a four-year-old girl, loves “2 go to church,” (Yeah, so does Obama….when he’s not golfing.) and considers herself “a people person.”  In a May posting, Lane wrote that she was trying to get “famous and rich,” and referred to “being shot and stabbed in ma face,” which “prolly messed me up from tryin to model.”

Seven years ago, Lane was shot four times during a robbery at the home of a male friend. During the bus fight, Lane’s injuries from the stabbing prompted Hughes to comment, “Look like somebody done sliced your face up.”

Finally, we’ll call it a night with another tragic tale of good people inexplicably gone bad, and news all is apparently not well in the once-Golden State as….

California Inmates Stage Hunger Strike

 

To borrow a phrase from the immortal Inspector Harry Callahan….

We’re no Occam….and as those of you who know us, we don’t like razors; but it seems to us the simplest answer would be to let ’em strike.  After all, wouldn’t fewer inmates not only alleviate prison overcrowding, but decrease California’s crime rate as well?!?

Problem solved!

Magoo