Mark Byron

Found myself watching the White

Found myself watching the White House Correspondants Dinner on C-SPAN. The president was on his best form, with the topper showing a number of pictures of all the top staff looking through a peep-hole into the Oval Office. The shot of Cheney had his hands just below waist level in front of him. "I hope you're not doing what you look like you're doing."

Drew Carey (without glasses-had laser surgery) was the comedy keynoter and in good form, pointing out that neither Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are Biblical. "Why does Christianity need a mascot to sell the product? They don't have Passover kangaroos or Ramadan roosters?" "I'm not worried about tonight; if I bomb, Saddam will send my heirs a check."

Quotes from memory; I reserver the right to change them to refect an actual quote.

Kingdom Now?--Both Kevin Holtsberry and

Kingdom Now?--Both Kevin Holtsberry and Bryan Preston have sounded off on this Kingdom Now movement. The scary thought to me when I looked at the signatories is that it is headed up by a pastor of a "Vineyard Central" in Ohio. I checked to see if that was part of the national Vineyard Movement and it's there on the Ohio page just as my home church, New Life Vineyard in Midland is on the Michigan page. Note that there are the only Vineyard church on the list.

I gave a read-through of their "95 feces Theses" in which they start out by bashing the generically theistic civil religion and rightly point out that the US isn't truly a Christian nation. They rail against the Ugly American. They ignore a lot of Old Testament verses by saying that “economic wealth is rarely a sign of God's blessing.” They plug for a use of the Jubilee year, where all debts are forgiven, which would throw a monkey wrench into a modern economy. They are anti-interventionist, anti-capitalist, anti-nationalistic and anti-patriotic. It's true that capitalism, nationalism and patriotism can be false gods, but so is the God-flavored Chompskyism that these folks seem to be serving up.

A quick read-through of the groups reads like a who's who of the religious left. Mennonites ( often very economically liberal with a pacifist streak), Sojourners ( godly communal leftists) , lots of places with "peace and justice" (translation-hard left) in the title and not too many evangelical groups other than the Vineyard front-man.

I don't think that these are the same people as the reconstructionist crowd, who seem to be politically hard right. This is more of the hard left, an expression of the anti-establishment hippie ideology of the 1960s given a Christian twist. The reconstructionists seem to be wanting to tweak the government in their direction to enforce their vision of a moral government, while the Kingdom Now bunch seem to be leaning towards an anarchism that would have more in common with the IMF protestors than the Christian Coalition.

[Update 12:30AM 5/5- Louder had chimed in as well, and agreed that it's "Leftist boilerplate... until you get to the bit about "the unborn." That's a little uncommon, but it's not enough to offset the sense that these people are, politically at least, just same-old-same-old." Occasional uses of Yahweh (the more accurate translation from Hebrew of Jehovah) is OK, dwelling on it is a bit weird]

Celibacy and Singleness- The Derb

Celibacy and Singleness- The Derb had a good NRO essay yesterday, given a good historical overview of celibacy. Celibacy has become an current-events issues of late given current problems with the Catholic Church and homosexual/pedophile priests.

My tongue-slightly-in-cheek suggestion of a marriage-friendly American Rite brought out some good commentary on celibacy. Emily Stimpson chimed in with this good post

In our hyper-sexed culture, this is becoming increasingly difficult. So many men and women see the universe through the prism of their own sexual desires, that they are blind to the reality of God and a purpose beyond their own temporal fulfillment. ...

We need our celibate religious to give witness to the world of the battle we all have to fight against the downward pull of human nature and the flesh. Celibates remind us that our human nature is not defined by our sexual nature. And, in their very bodies, they represent the total gift of self to God that we all must make.

The answer to the vocations crisis or the failures of some priest to remain chaste is not to do away with the discipline of celibacy. Rather, the Church needs to redouble its efforts at aiding religious and lay Catholics embrace the gifts of celibacy and chastity according to their station in life. The fact that the whole world is lowering the bar on sexual mores is exactly the reason why the Catholic Church absolutely must not join them.

I figure I had better comment on celibacy while I can write about it as an active practitioner, having only 63 days left of it. Our society is so sex-obsessed that people can't easily grasp the idea of a 30 or 40-year-old virgin. They will assume that if is near impossible to live life without sex. Sex is not a necessity for an individual. It is for a species, but not an individual. That's not to say that I don't have sexual drives, but human intellect guided by the Holy Spirit and our conscience can keep those drives in check.

Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 7 that a single person has the ability to focus on the (hopefully honorable) desires of ones heart without the distraction of having to look after a spouse. A good spouse will have to spend time looking after and nurturing their other half and will have less time to spend on other activities. However, not everyone is cut out to be single. If one's sex drive is so strong as to be distracting and dragging the believer towards sin, then "it is better to marry than to burn with passion."

Also, the built-in fellowship of marriage is another draw for many people. A single life can be lonely and a spouse provides a built-in roomie-buddy. One of my fears, as I got up into my thirties with no prospects for marriage in sight, was the idea of being old and alone, without a family. One of my mom's co-workers is a never-married guy in his early 70s. No kids, no grandkids, no wife, nothing but a dog and a TV to keep him company. That is an example of what I didn't want to see a quarter-century down the line. For the priest or nun, the fellowship of their fellow religious can be a good substitute for family, but the rest of us will struggle with the idea of a lack of emotional as well as sexual intimacy while being single.

Our society, especially for us non-Catholics, doesn't have a good set of role models of mature never-marrieds. You don't see too many healthy people in their late thirties or 40s who haven't been married, especially in a church setting. Most churches are family-oriented, with much of the focus being on parents and children. Those who are single are often a fifth wheel without a good place to fit in within the church structure. Church small groups are frequently couple-oriented, leaving the single person out of place. They also are commonly treated as pre-marrieds, as a lot of focus on single's ministries is on how to find that "special someone God's saving for you." In my case, He waited until I was 39 to bring her into my life, but for many others, there will be no special someone.

The fact that I wound up waiting until I was 40 to get married shouldn't mark me as fatally flawed. It also shouldn't mark me as being homosexual, as anyone of a certain age without a significant other of the opposite sex will be implied to be. Forty-something Steven Den Beste feels the need to point out in his bio "I've never been married, but they tell me that while there's life, there's hope. I'm heterosexual, and my intentions are honorable. I love children." There are quite a few people who were heterosexual and celibate [or at least never married in Den Beste's case] and led productive lives. While I frequently am at odds with their political philosophies, Janet Reno and David Souter are good examples of older, successful, seemingly heterosexual, never-marrieds. [Update 12:30PM-My mental spiel on this predated Bush 43, so I forgot Condi Rice.]

Back when I first started blogging in January, there was a story of an Aussie teen with cancer whose parents set him up with a prostitute so he could experience sex before dying. This got both Kevin and I riled up, for it assumes that life is incomplete without having experienced sex. Life is more than just sex. My recovering-Presbyterian fiancée frequently cites the first part of the Westminster Confession- "The chief end of man is to worship God and to enjoy Him forever." God's given us a fun creation to enjoy while we're in our earthy bodies, but our job is to enjoy Him. Sex is part of that creation, and a good part when enjoyed within marriage. However, there are a lot of other fun parts of creation to keep us happy and content outside of marriage if we let Him lead us to them.

If God wants us in a place where a spouse will get in the way, he'll put enough pleasures and non-sexual intimacies in place to make our singleness bearable. I'm finding that Eileen and I can serve the Lord much better as a team than separately, since we are able to lift each other up through the rough patches. With that mutual support, we seem to have more time and energy to serve Him than before we knew each other. Singleness is not bad, nor is being married. We shouldn't let the sex obsessed secular culture and the marriage-centric church culture get in the way if God truly has a single, celibate life for us as a way to better serve him.

Basketball Thoughts- With last night's

Basketball Thoughts- With last night's blowouts by Boston and the Spurs, all eight of the top seeds advanced to the second round. A sign of parity in the East was that three of the four series (strangely, the top three seeds) went to five games and the other went four games. Four good wars coming up in the second round.

We were watching some of the Spurs game this morning (on tape, past our bedtimes) and my mom (who's become the basketball junkie of the family) was commenting on how mature Tony Parker was at 19. I pointed out how he had been playing pro ball in France in his teens. Given Parker's precocious development, I was thinking that Europe might be an option for Lebron James, the Akron highschooler who'd be a top-five pick, possibly a #1 overall, if the NBA let him skip his senior year. He'd be getting better competition that he'd get playing against Cuyahoga Falls and earning a heck of a lot more money. Turns out that this is an option under discussion, albeit one that Mama James is playing down.

My mom questioned the wisdom of sending a highschool kid alone over to Europe. For the millions he'd earn playing in Europe, he can bring his folks along for the year.

March Archives March 3-9 March

March Archives

March 3-9

March 10-16

March 17-23

March 24-30

March 31-April 6

Quip du jour-"The stock market

Quip du jour-"The stock market has predicted nine of the last five recessions"-anon.

Edifier du jour-"It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you."-Galatians 4:18

Groaner du jour- Two atoms walking down the street
"I think I just lost a electron."
"You sure?"
"I'm positive."

Crusader Rabid-This doesn't put the

Crusader Rabid-This doesn't put the Army in the best of lights. The DoD wants to cancel the Crusader artillery piece, but the Army's has been fighting to keep it, sending talking points behind Rumsfeld's back to Congress on the plusses of the system. Rummy's not chummy with the Crusader fans who have been a wee bit insubordinate, including Army Secretary Thomas White. There could be some heads rolling at the Pentagon before all's said and done.

College and Recessions-Cpt. Clueless has

College and Recessions-Cpt. Clueless has a good rant at the high cost of college tuition, showing a graph that shows tuition increasing when median incomes are decreasing. I might be a biased observer, being 71 days away from being a college professor, but I think Den Beste is off here.

What's actually been going on is that the absolute income of the universities has been rising at a steady rate irrespective of external economic reality. During times of recession, when demand for college educations was down, the universities have responded by raising tuition faster to compensate. So fewer students paid more each resulting in constant income (or rather, constant rise in income). That is, by the way, exactly the opposite of how a free market is supposed to work: when demand is down, prices are supposed to fall to make the product more attractive to the customers. What we're seeing, on the other hand, is the classic signature of price fixing.

In recessions, demand for college education goes up as a stagnant job market make it a good time not to be working as much and getting an education; the oportunity cost of schooling just went down. At the same time, tax revinues to the states fall and budget cuts (or at least freezes) ensue, making the state share of the cost of education go down. Rather than cut expenses, the schools then raise tuition. The schools don't cut expenses, for that would mean laying off friends and having smaller empires to run.

I do agree that the cost of college is too high, both partly due to the light courseload many professors get and partly due the the large, ever-expanding kingdoms that school administrators build. More atheletic facilities, more counciling, more health care, more student affairs budgets, more buildings, more, more, more. There's a lot of fat in most colleges' budgets that doesn't relate to the core function of getting adults a good college education.

Good News and Bad News-The

Good News and Bad News-The April unemployment rate went up to 6%, but the underlying numbers tell an interesting story. There were more net jobs (43,000) created last month, but that job creation was swamped by 565,000 people entering the workforce. Remember that for unemployment statistic purposes, you're only unemployed if you're looking for a job and don't have one. If you're not bothering to look, you're not in the labor market. The improving economy may have brought people who weren't previously looking into the job market.

It's going to make my prediction of lower unemployment by the end of the year harder, but I think this will head back down in short order.

Mideast Peace Conference, Part 4523-

Mideast Peace Conference, Part 4523- A team of the US, Russia, EU and UN are plugging for a big conference on the Middle East. The lead is "Powers Plan Mideast Conference." My suggestion is that the University of Texas' main campus be the site of the event: "Austin hosts Powers' Mideast Conference." For those of us who trust the Palestinians as far as we can throw them, this isn't good news.

However, there's a good sub-story, "Bush Disses Arafat." Dubya may sneak a poison pill into the process by pointing out that Yasser might not be at the table. "He's had some chance to grab the peace and hasn't done so in the past" was the president's line. I don't think anything will come of this, either, but it will buy the US some foreign PR for a while. This conference is a classic case of peacewishing that won't work.

Barcia not seeking reelection-Don't have

Barcia not seeking reelection-Don't have a link as of yet, but one of the pair of two-Democrat house seats in Michigan was setted as Jim Barcia elected to run for the State Senate rather than take on Dale Kildee in the new combined district. The news is on local radio this morning.

[Update 5/4-Here's a link]

I Thought it Was Churches,

I Thought it Was Churches, Not Cities, Who Elected a Primate-The British town of Hartlepool elected Stuart Drummond, who is the local soccer team's mascot, H'Angus the Monkey, mayor. Drummond, running as an independent, is embarrising to the powers-that-be that recently instituted directly-elected mayors; H'Angus has a record of lewd behavior that Howard Stern might appreciate. The Prime Minister's office is keeping a stiff upper lip, stating "It is only to be expected that new faces come to the fore."

Mark's BCS Tournament Proposal

 The announcement of a trio of new bowls for next season reminded me to throw out my modest proposal for BCS reform.

(1) Turn the four BCS bowls into the quarterfinals of a national tournament. Keep the remaining bowls, since they don't play into the national title anyway. They're the NIT for football.

(2) Seed the teams 1-8,2-7,3-6,4-5. Where possible given the seeding, place the teams in their traditional bowl spot (i.e. placing the Southeast Champ in the Sugar Bowl, the PAC 10 or Big 10 champ in the Rose).

(3) Seeding will be based on something like the current BCS model. I'm open to tweaking, but the general model's OK.

(4) The six power-conference (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big Twelve, Pac 10, Southeast) champs get automatic bids and the two highest ranked remaining teams get the at-large bids. The bowls don't get to choose a 11th ranked Notre Dame over a 7th ranked Directional State for the ratings and good-traveling alumni.

(5) An exception to #4-any undefeated team gets an automatic bid. Call this the Marshall-Tulane rule. OK, I have degrees from two MAC schools (BS CMU, Ph.D. Kent State); I have a soft spot for the mid-majors.  If there are three undefeated teams outside of the power conferences, the top two ranked ones go.

[Update 10/31/2007-Since I wrote this, the new BCS rule for mid-majors would be a good replacement-they get in if they're in the top 12 or the top 16 but better than one of the automatic bids. An undefeated mid-major will usually meet those specs (this year, Hawaii is on that bubble, currently 14th but likely to pass a few X-and-2 teams {Georgia, VT, Michigan} as they go X-and-3 by the end of the season) and this rule allows for them to have a tough loss and still get a bid.

I could imagine, say a Bowling Green, who played Ohio State tough but lost 31-27 and then ran the MAC and made it to 14th, being able to use the new rule.]

(6) Play three of the four bowls on New Years Day as a triple-header (Fiesta 1PM, Rose 4:30PM, Orange 8PM) and put the fourth (I'll suggest the Sugar) on New Years Eve.
All the other New Years Day bowls will move to other days.

(7) Play the semifinals the Saturday of the NFL conference finals, usually the third Saturday in January, at two pre-determined neutral sites. Tampa and St. Louis for starters?

(8) Play the finals the next Saturday at a pre-determined neutral site. RCA Dome in Indy for starters?

This will raise revenue, since sports fans will lean towards watching all seven of the games. The bowls will have more revenue than the old system ,since each of the four games is a factor in the national title. Right now, the typical fan might watch the title game and the game that his favorite conference champ is in, but the other two games will have lower ratings since they're just a football game.

The plan gives a clear champion. It changes the bubble equation so that teams #9 and #10 are griping about being left out, not teams #3 and #4.

The one downside is that it will extend the season a game for four teams and by two games for a pair of teams. This is happening at the beginning of a semester rather than at towards the end where the Final Four play five or six games over three weeks. That seems a reasonable price to pay for the advantages of the tourney.

Pistons on to Second Round-It

Pistons on to Second Round-It sure wasn't pretty, but the Pistons got past a very game Toronto club, 85-82. That was with Stackhouse being held to five points. Corliss Williamson had 23 and Jon of Arc added 12 off the bench to help salvage a win.
When the Raptors get Vince Carter back, this will truly be a team to contend with. Keon Clark has come of age as a near-All-Star caliber power forward, and MoPete has stepped up his game to the level he played at with MSU.

Whoever wins tomorrow's Boston-Philly game will be a hard matchup for the Pistons. They need to get Stackhouse to find his touch or else they will not get out of the second round in one piece.

A Policy Review on the Drug Wars

Vodka Pundit responded to a suggestion of mine for constructive suggestions on the Drug War.

So how do we make things better, in a way that promotes freedom, rather than detracts from it?

How about legalizing a couple of non physically-addictive "weekend drugs," such as pot and ecstasy, on the booze & smokes model? Sure, some kids will still get them -- but they do now, too, same as booze and cigarettes. Let's not be Utopian mirror-images of the Libertarian Party. Between pot and X, most of your drug users are happy, and there's no need for them to do crimes to get a fix.

Marijuana I could live with, as it has relatively few short-term medical effects. It doesn't kill people in and of itself; you don't see people dying of pot overdoses. You do see people dying from ecstasy. If you can get a legal version that doesn't have the lethal bad trips, you'd have a case.

But we still have our tiny minority of hardcore users to think about. Why not make cocaine and heroin by doctor's prescription? Doctors, in the interest of their patients, would want to move them off those dangerous drugs and onto methadone or into a 12-step program. Also, the trafficking would be removed from street thugs, and kids wanting to experiment would still have their less-harmful pot and X to play with.

We already do some of that for heroin with methadone treatment. I don’t know of a safe form of cocaine that would wean people off the drug without frying their brains in the process. A larger focus should be made of getting the drug user off drugs rather than just putting them in prison. A comprehensive rehab process, including addressing any psychological problems that may lead to their use of the hard drugs, would seem to be better than prison time for most drug users.

While we’re on the topic of 12-step, I’ll put in a plug for groups like Teen Challenge, who has a “faith-based” system who’s “higher power” isn’t a generic deity but the God of the Bible, whose Son died for the druggie and whose Holy Spirit is there to guide them through the rehab process. It’s not for everyone, since not everyone’s going to be comfortable with that evangelical take, but strong antidotal evidence (yes, the formal statistical studies aren’t there yet) shows that it works better than secular or generic-12-step rehab programs. I’ll trade some controlled prescriptions for addicts for a thumbs up for government help for the people who choose the spiritual-based rehab.

Harder drugs would be stigmatized, because only "weaklings who need a scrip" would be able to get them easily. Such is the hope. Not a perfect system -- it's as ripe for abuse as Vicoden or Valium prescriptions.

But it's still a big improvement over the current Drug War, which tramples our rights and keeps criminals rich.

I haven’t seen my rights trampled, but a lot of the money-laundering laws could be eased if the illegal drug trade went away. A lot of our police man-hours and a lot of money on jails is spent on cracking down on drugs. Quite a few conservatives, including William Buckley, are on the side of ending the Drug War. There’s room for conversation in this area that both conservatives and libertarians can live with.

Quip du jour-"The next new

Quip du jour-"The next new bowl game-the Toilet Bowl at Flushing Meadows."-anon.

Edifier du jour-"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."-Galatians 3:28-29.

Front Page Haiku

Twenty-eight bowl games?
Are you above .500?
You're in a bowl, guys!

Good news for the Tories-Local

Good news for the Tories-Local elections were held in Britain today, and the Conservatives outpolled Labour 35-33 with the Liberal Democrats getting 27%. The BBC lead was that the nativist British National Party elected a pair of local council members, but the big story to me was the strong showing by the Tories.

Could we be looking at a coalition government after the next elections in 2006? If those numbers hold, it's likely neither Labour or the Tories will get a majority of the seats. It will be interesting to see if the transition be made to have the Liberal Democrats move to the left of Labour, as Blair has positioned the party as more of a center-left party which was the LD's old domain. Labour still has the institutional backing of the labor unions, and the LDs would be hard-pressed to move away from their bourgeois roots. LD leader Charles Kennedy ducked the issue last year, saying that they were more "progressive than Labour" but not to the left of Labour. If Blair plays more to the center and ticks off his more socialist labor-union mates in the party, the LDs will have to think about playing to the left to pick up that vote.

The other thing to look at is the issue of the EU. The British public doesn't like the Euro but are resigned to it. If Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith can make the case against the Euro and point out that Blair is wobbly on the Euro, it could score points with swing voters. Will it be enough to get the Tories a pure majority in parliament? If not, do you have a center-left LD-Labour coalition or a center-right Labour-Conservative combination? Unfortunately, we have four years to wait for an answer.

Justice Served in the Meadowlands-That

Justice Served in the Meadowlands-That was a thriller game 5, as the Nets got past Indiana 120-109 in 20T. It didn't come any more dramatic than the close of regulation, when Reggie Miller knocked down a long three at the buzzer to tie it up. Oops, upon futher review, he let it go just after the buzzer, but no instant replay. Reggie then forced a second OT with a driving dunk. Kidd showed why he's the east's MVP with a gutty 31-point show. One heck of a barn-burner.

Go to go watch the rest of the Piston's game.

Men of Teal Heading to

Men of Teal Heading to the Big Easy-They'd barely cleaned up the uniforms from Tuesday's game four win over Orlando when the NBA relocation committee OKed moving the Hornets to New Orleans. It'll be interesting how the Charlotte fans react to their lame-duck status in the second round.

Too Busy Not To Pray-

Too Busy Not To Pray- See hand slapping forehead. DOINK! I waited until 3:00 to mention the National Day of Prayer today. In most towns, there was a prayer session at City Hall around noon. This is a good day, even though we should be doing so anyway, to pray for our nation and the world. There are a truckload of things to pray for, but here's a few that come to mind.

>>> The Catholic Church could use a health dose of our prayers to get past The Scandal and the institutionalism and liberalism that helped create the problems.

>>> Our nation needs a good dose for a return to the community spirit we say post-9/11. God has a truckload of foul-weather friends. An improvement in our moral climate, bringing people to their knees and acknowledge that God, not themselves or the Constitution, is in charge.

>>> For a conversion of spirit in the Islamic countries. That 10-40 window that missiologists talk about isn't just woofing. If somehow, the Gospel could get a foothold in these countries, a lot of the communitarian culture of death could be lessened.

>>> For a spiritual retaking of Europe for Christ. Europe has become a post-Christian territory. We need to send missionaries and prayers for revival there, not Africa. A lot of the dreck that is happening there is due to the moral vacuum.

>>> For a softening of hearts in the Beijing government to allow the Church to flourish over there.

In Search of Deep Throat-John

In Search of Deep Throat-John Dean has a e-book due out shortly that will supposedly reveal who Deep Throat was. Ben notes there are only four people that know who Deep Throat is. Woodward, Bernstein, Bradley and Deep Throat himself. Woodstein has said that they won't reveal who Deep Throat is until Deep Throat is dead. Well, last I heard, Deep Throat is dead.

This is a Job For

This is a Job For (TA-DA-TA-DA) Cyberrat! The interesting news of yesterday was of being able to create a "ratbot" that was able to be directed at a distance by electronically messing with the rat's pleasure sensors. A microcam will allow the controller to see where the rat is going. This will allow some interesting applications, as they coax the rat into areas that human's can't go and have a built-in ATV to go over rough terrain that conventional robots might not be up to.

Lots of applications for this, but many of them look like the come out of bad Sci-Fi if applied to humans.

MSNBC-The Bill and Phil Network?-

MSNBC-The Bill and Phil Network?- The FPOTUS is reported to be talking to NBC about a non-political talk-show.

The Times said Clinton is not interested in a political talk show because of potential conflicts of interest with his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. But it would remain to be seen whether he would dive into more traditional daytime fare like celebrity interviews, "boot camps" for troubled teens or beauty makeovers.

Combine the last two for the Big He and you get Booty Camp.

Shanley Busted-"N@MBLA priest" Paul Shanley

Shanley Busted-"N@MBLA priest" Paul Shanley was arrested today in San Diego and will likely be extradited to Massachusettes for rape charges from his days there. About time.

P/E Ratios- Douglas Turnbull has

P/E Ratios- Douglas Turnbull has a piece on high P/E ratios and chalks it up to increased demand for stocks. On individual stocks, a high-P/E is typically characteristic of a company anticipated to grow in the future, either due to foreseen high profits in the future or low profits at the present. The earnings of firms is down, as the last-years earning are typically used, and last year's mini-recession has dragged down profits.

There are four long-term factors that will increase demand; lower tax rates, lower interest rates, lower expected inflation and a stable political system. As tax rates have been reduced, not only has the economy rebounded but it will increase the "take-home-pay" on investments, thus increasing the demand for investments in general and stocks in particular. Low taxes also effect economic growth, thus adding to the amount of the earnings.

Lower interest rates make stocks look more attractive, as a dollar of income from either bonds or stock will be worth more. The lower taxes helps to create the low interest rate environment, as does low expectations of inflation.

Much of the last half century was marred by high inflation, especially the 1970, where single-digit PE weren't uncommon. Low inflation will make future income worth more, thus raising stock prices.

A stable political system that is unlikely to raise taxes dramatically is another positive. The fight isn't whether to raise taxes or hold the line, it's to cut taxes or hold the line. This will increase the security that the current tax system or something better will be in place, thus lowering the risk of future income and thus increasing its value.

The financial climate's more favorable than it was a quarter century ago. There are some additional factors (401Ks, lower transaction costs) that can factor into the rise in P/Es, but there's more than irrational exuberance driving the high P/Es.

Engergy Summit- Just Tap the

Engergy Summit- Just Tap the Gasbags- The G-8 energy minister's are meeting in Detroit today, and I get a chuckle out of this thought-"The Bush administration wants American companies to track and reduce their greenhouse gas output voluntarily." Yes, and grizzly bears use Forest Service toilets voluntarily. They even remember to flush! The best thing to come of this confab would be to corner the Russian minister and say "Keep the crude coming, comrade!" All the talk about renewable energy's nice, but mostly window dressing. It will come, but mostly at the market's pace.

I somehow can't take Energy Sec. (and my former senator) Spence Abraham seriously. Maybe is because of the neighbor I had as a preschooler. His name was Spencer but he had a bit of a speech problem (as did I, I had problems with thaying sethes and not turning them into th's as a early-el kid) and his name came out Spenc-o.

Histories of Cars and Whuppins-

Histories of Cars and Whuppins- William Sulik provides a history of Biblical mototized transportaiton. I had heard of the Fury and Accord, but Joshua's "aftermarket slip-on muffler" was new to me.

Possumblog took off with my quesiton on the history of the "Can-of-Whupin'" and traced it back into antiquity. I was first suprised at the historic detail, but looking back, I can see where my references to Yorktown and Mohammad got his estimable creatitivy rolling.

Snipe Hunt-What the heck, one

Snipe Hunt-What the heck, one more deeplink, need to blog this one anyway.

There's a new British-led push to corner some al Qaeda guys happening along the Afghan-Pakistan border. They've named it Operation Snipe. That's just ripe for blogging. With the success (or lack thereof) of past endeavors in this area, hunting for Osama's boys is something of a snipe hunt.

For those of you who haven't heard of a snipe hunt, it's a traditional prank pulled on a newbie camper to take the unsuspecting fool on a "snipe hunt" at dusk or thereabouts. There are no snipes to be hunted, but the naïf will be led by the nose looking for the non-existent snipe until the pranksters have had sufficient fun at the naïf 's expense.

Mr. Concussion to Replace Mr.

Mr. Concussion to Replace Mr. Bam- Troy Aikan's slated to join Cris Collinsworth in replacing John Madden as the A-team Fox colorman. It looks to be worse than Cris Collinsworth alone as a colorman, as I don't see Aikman being a colorful colorman. Somehow, I'm picturing a Dandy Don without any humor, just a laid-back Texas boy. I hope I'm wrong.

That's my deeplink for the day. The DMN makes you register to get anything that's not on their front page, and I'm not giving them that pleasure. The Gray Lady, yes, but not them.

Peacemakers or Peacewishers

How many times have you been in throw-shoe-at-TV mode after a clueless peacenik cites "Blessed are the peacemakers" from Matthew 5:9? It has to be the one of the most overused passage in the Bible in political discourse. I hear John Kerry use it this morning on the way into work.

I found myself reflecting on the word. Peacemaker. How often do the "peace activists" actually achieve peace? Not often, since the bad guys of the world aren't going to play nice as the peaceniks want. These people are peacewishers, not peacemakers. They want peace to happen but aren't ready to do the things that would bring about peace.

In a domestic drama, the peacewisher stands back shouting "You two stop that!" while the peacemaker steps between the fighters and says "OK! Break it up!" The peacemaker may even have to cold-cock the most belligerent of the parties before order is restored.

Translated to world affairs, a peacemaker may have to get physically involved, get dirty and crack some heads if needed in order to separate a pair of warring factions. Peacemaking is an active verb.

This will be opposed from both ends of the spectrum. Some liberals won't want us to take sides (moral relativism) and are afraid of using force to settle anything. Some conservatives will oppose getting involved if there's no "Compelling National Interest" involved. But if we are to run the country in a godly manner, shouldn't we use our military for good where feasible?

Yes, we can't be everyplace at once and we can't solve every problem. But we can pick our spots and step in to improve things where merited. Some problems do not lend themselves to diplomacy, where there aren't two parties that have a possible mutually acceptable range of outcome. In those cases, if military force will help and the good done by stepping in outweighs the bad done by fighting, we should ignore the foolishness on the left and the self-centeredness on the right and step in.