SAR #14264

"You are poor, because you have no ambition." Jack MA

Not Taking No For an Answer: One of democracy's problems today is the outright refusal of the losing side to accept the will of the majority. In the US Senate this leads to minority rule. In Scotland, those who lost the referendum now claim that it was meaningless and that the struggle has just begun. Strange, if it had been even 51/49 the other way, they would have been deliriously triumphant.

Question Period: Is the answer to the ‘too big’ problem not more centralization, but less?

Unacceptable Tradeoff: PM Tony Abbott interrupted his campaign to destroy the environment long enough to warn the Aussies that they were going to lose even more of their civil rights, under the guise of external threat: "For some time to come, the delicate balance between freedom and security may have to shift.” I especially like “delicate balance” and “shift”.

Clueless In Congress: Senator Dianne Feinstein says there's no place for violence in the NFL George Will: has a far better grasp of the situation: 'The problem with football is football -- it is merchandising violence' 
 
Reality Check: What with all the demonstrations and the speeches about how 'fixing global warming will spur the economy” it is time for a quick peek at the way things actually are going to play out. Nothing is going to change. The real-world political and economic elites are not going to do a damned thing, for fear that it will cost them some profits. The CO2 load in the atmosphere will more than double before the end of the century and that will push up average global temperatures by about 6 degrees Celsius (11 degrees Fahrenheit). This will lead to all the other bad stuff that is regularly predicted: flooding seas, torrential rains in some areas, record drought in others, species extinction, massive refugee streams and water wars and starvation. That's really what is going to happen. The rest is just a walk in the sun.

First Place: Texas wins first place in petty cluelessness with its refusal to issue a drivers license to a married woman who took her same-sex spouse's name.

Move Along, Nothing To See: FIFA – the soccer folks – at the conclusion of their investigation into charges that they solicited and accepted bribes in awarding the 2018 and 2022 World Cups announced that no corruption had been found and thus there was no need to release the investigative report. This should at least get them a Yellow Card.

Be Careful Out There: Because of the increasing threat to US security by guys in stolen jeeps, the US is going to begin a major overhaul and update of its nuclear weapons. Just in case we have to turn the Iraqi desert into a desert.

Other Names: Larry Summers now, finally, wants the government to undertake a massive stimulus program “major” plan to boost the country’s economic growth by undertaking to repair and rebuild the aging and decrepit US infrastructure, calling it “a major growth strategy”. Anything, as long as it is not called “a stimulus.”

Consider the Possibilities: Wesleyan University has ordered its rape happy fraternities to admit women. Ah, education.

Argue the Affirmative: Alibaba is worth $230 billion. 
 
Porn O'Graph: The 'Ayes' have it.