Stupid Republican idea of the day

A committed egalitarian, like a lefty or a liberal, might well have criticisms and suspicions when it comes to affirmative action. But that same comrade would, most likely, offer an alternative, another path to the desired result. If you criticize the solution without offering another solution, you leave open the prospect that you would prefer to keep the problem.

If he has a free-market (Blessings and peace be upon it…) solution that does not involve Big Gummint intevention, I’d be delighted to hear it. It may not be as effective but it would be an easier sell. But it seems that all he cares about is telling us how wrong we are.

And that’s tearing down without building up. Which is a bad thing. I have that on good authority.

G.O.P. Candidates call for no-fly zone

So nobody told them airpower is one of the very few weapons ISIS does not posses? Yeah, let’s stop them from using all those jets and drones ISIS doesn’t even have!

Sheeesh.

Can we define the “desired result”? Is it equality of outcome, or just equality of opportunity?

/me make note. “Buy into stocks for tactical manger scenes.”

Not a SRIOTD. Hillary has jumped in too.

Frankly, I doubt that we can, but you go right ahead on if you want to.

Well, there’s the rub.

A Syrian no-fly zone is a roundabout move against ISIS. It stops the Syrian air force from attacking rebels, who could then attack ISIS (and Assad).

It’s aimed at the Russians, who are going to say, “Who the hell are you to tell us to stop flying over Syria?” Which would be a good question.

“Flying” is about the only way anything gets done, in terms of war, death and destruction in Syria. Without it, ISIS or anyone else for that matter, is basically free to do as they please.

Mike Huckabee: Gay troops are lowering morale in the military to its lowest level ever.

I would guess that the desired result is that education is distributed in the most effective way possible, allowing young people to discover their own abilities and develop them fully. In some cases, pedagogy might be “wasted” on students who might not benefit optimally from it, but in general, learning stuff is a good thing. The most important lesson, IMAO, is the vast extent of how much lies beyond one’s horizon of grasp: everyone should be encouraged to continue to learn stuff.

Does that seem like a reasonable goal (if not actually practicable)?

A twofer:

Texas Agriculture Commissioner wants to slap the next person who wishes him Happy Holidays (I tweeted Happy Holidays to him as well as posting it on his Facebook page)

Representative Mike Pompeo urges the military to disobey Obama orders.

[quote=“Rick_Kitchen, post:26254, topic:490897”]

A twofer:

Texas Agriculture Commissioner wants to slap the next person who wishes him Happy Holidays (I tweeted Happy Holidays to him as well as posting it on his Facebook page)

I feel his pain. I want to slap the next person who plays a Christmas song in a public place.

I did. Bail hearing soon. Girl Scouts be damned, just wasn’t in the mood!

The latest from Ted Cruz.

For the record, I first heard the term from “even bigger Texas Whackjob” Louis Gohmert.

Whoa. I do this all the time, and I am not even Christian (I’m an atheist). Grinch much?

Works for me.

I know that Texas Protestants only count three holidays this time of year, Black Friday (in liturgical terms it begins at sundown on Thanksgiving), Christmas, and New Years Day ;), but as a piss-poor Lutheran but a one-time very good Catholic I did a quick run-through of the holiday season. Advent began 11/29, St Nicholas’s feast day was 12/6, the feast of the Immaculate Conception was 12/8, Christmas is 12/25, St Stephen’s Day is 12/26, the Feast of the Circumcision (I lapsed a long time ago) is 1/1, and Epiphany is 1/6. Then Eastern Rite has some of the dates wrong but because my brother went Russian I have to be aware of them, Jews have Hanukkah, Muslims can’t agree on a day to–or whether to–celebrate the birth of the Prophet but it’s in there somewhere, and then there’s Kwanzaa, if anybody but white elementary schoolteachers still celebrate it.

I think that’s a full plate of Holiday Season, better than a month, to hope people enjoy, and I’m not even including the Wiccansm, Buddhists, Hindus, and everybody else. By limiting it to Merry Christmas, “merry” being an inappropriate emotional response to the birth of our Lord, I feel some people give me a theological poke in they eye, and I don’t like it. :mad:

Um, not hungry, thanks anyway.

But it’s customary, even if you don’t eat, to leave a tip.