Weekend’s photos post
I’m posting here few pictures that I took today while we had friends over for cookout. I’m pretty proud with the results, I guess it is thanks to the good food, wine and the great company.
More pictures can be found here.
Along Rockland Lake
I didn’t write here for few days, the job search consumed my energy and I didn’t feel like writing. In the mean time here is a picture I captured yesterday when I was walking a long Rockland Lake.
I love walking along the lake - its relaxing and great for concentrating.
Rogel @ August 20, 2008
Ronie’s first time in Day Care
Today I took Ronie to visit, and to get use too, the day care she going to attend this year. I remembered how hard was it with Tseela, and how long it took her to adjust and to enjoy going to day care - and I was afraid that this is going to repeat itself with Ronie. But to my surprise after about five minutes of sadness she was perfectly OK. The only time that she cried was when she was forced to go home…
Few more pictures, mostly because I was forced to go away, can be found here.
Rogel @ August 14, 2008
The increasing threat of national service
There is one theme rising above all others in this election cycle that really worries me. It isn’t the prospect of higher taxes and it isn’t the likelihood of the continuos irrational foreign policy and the complete blindness in the way we confront the radical terrorism and it isn’t the fear of deep recession. The issue that really makes me worried is the new call for national service and the notion that both, McCain and Obama, will welcome such development.
Don’t mistake the calls for national service with campaign populism, it isn’t. It is rooted deeply in both candidates core ideology and it is pushed by very broad and influential organizations. Wrap in a package of highly ideological and promises organizations, like the Time Magazine, lobbying , and preparing the public opinion, for enslaving broad portion of the population.
It is a unique moment for the idea of national service. You have two presidential candidates who believe deeply in service and who have made it part of their core message to voters. You have millions of Americans who are yearning to be more involved in the world and in their communities. You have corporations and businesses that are making civic engagement a key part of their mission.
Last September, our cover story “The Case for National Service” caused an outpouring of interest in and support for citizen service across the country. This year, in addition to publishing another issue on the idea of service, we are convening–along with the Carnegie Corporation of New York and with presenters AARP and Target–a national bipartisan summit in New York City that will bring together hundreds of leading Americans to plan and lay out a bold blueprint on citizen service. The event will start on the evening of Sept. 11–that solemn anniversary seemed an appropriate time to launch this effort–and the meeting itself will occur the next day, Sept. 12. The summit will also be the first major public event for ServiceNation, a national campaign of more than 100 organizations–ranging from AARP to the National Council of La Raza and Habitat for Humanity–that collectively represent some 100 million Americans. My co-chairs at the summit will be Alma Powell, Caroline Kennedy, Carnegie president Vartan Gregorian and AARP CEO Bill Novelli. The summit will be opened by New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, who himself is an exemplar of citizen service, and will be closed by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is the first governor to create a cabinet post to oversee service and volunteering.
The great American promise to protect “Life Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness” is being in direct attack since national service is neither life and liberty nor the pursuit of happiness. In a big push to eradicate the American promise those organization calling for to transform the American society to a big labour camp with forced labor prisoners as a condition for citizenship, which is their right by nature.
There is one hope, however, that despite the growing popularity and the willingness of many americans to put their head under the harness of slavery this idea will not pass. The only hope is that the supreme court will not allow legislation that is, by its nature, in direct contradiction to the 13th amendment:
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Rogel @ August 12, 2008
It isn’t about social justice
Obama’s promise to eliminate the federal income tax on earning of $50,000 or less for senior citizens has drawn obvious criticism:
If you’re a senior citizen and make less than $50,000 a year, Barack Obama has a deal for you: the rest of your life free of federal income tax.
Sounds appealing, right? Maybe to many seniors. But tax policy experts in Washington are giving it bad reviews. They see it as another subsidy for senior citizens, who already get federal help through Social Security and Medicare and often have economic advantages over other demographic groups.
Seniors typically have paid off their mortgages. Many have investments and usually don’t pay taxes on their Social Security benefits. The kids are usually grown, so they’re not saddled with day care or college costs.
“The odds are the retired folks - they’re getting pensions, they’re getting Social Security, they have investment assets, they own a house - so … they’re better off than somebody who is 30 or 40 years younger who’s trying to buy a house (and) trying to start saving,” said Clint Stretch, managing principal of tax policy for Deloitte Tax.
While the criticism makes sense - economically and morally - it failed to address the main issue on hand. This proposal has nothing to do with social justice, nor with wise tax policy and have everything to do with pandering potential voters. After all older voters votes in higher percentage than younger voters and bribing them, while pretending to care about social justice, is practical. And since Obama didn’t care about social justice, morality or any of those unimportant things, his proposal needs to be evaluated for what it intended to achieve - get the votes.
The question of how to limit the power of senior citizens, or any other large interest group, from robbing the rest of us is completely different topic.
Via tjic
Rogel @ August 12, 2008
Typical story
Government and its infinite wisdom Comments
It is always baffle me why people suggesting that the government will take more responsibilities where it use to, or at least should have been, handled better by private competing entities. But we often have to confront the fallacy that the government can do something better, or that by removing artificially the profit factor the service level will be magically improved. Stories about the stupidity and complete lack of efficiency of government’s services, like the one told by Megan McArdle, are not the exception but the more common description of what one should expect:
At the age of nineteen, way back in 1992, I purchased a beer in a Philadelphia bar.
[...]
The problem, you see, is that at the time of my conviction, I did not have a Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Driver’s License. Indeed, I had no driver’s license at all, being one of those benighted city people who get their first driver’s license at the age of 23. The laws of the State of Pennsylvania, however, say that the Department of Transportation is entitled to suspend the driver’s license of anyone arrested for underaged drinking. And the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is, apparently, determined to exercise this privilege. Thus, the spectacle of a 35 year old woman being informed that she is about to have her driver’s license suspended for underaged drinking.
To add insult to injury, I am expected to fill out a form and, at my own expense, mail it to the DOT in order to commence this suspension.
This would be funny and mildly annoying if it were not for the fact that until they clear the suspension, I cannot get a DC driver’s license, because states are required to scan for violations from other states before they issue a new license. (No word on how I got one out of the State of New York). And until I get a DC driver’s license, I cannot register the car I just bought. The DMV here, after much wrangling, gave me temporary tags, but it looks like I’m going to have to garage the thing for three months unless the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania relents. Which, at this time, they show no evidence of doing.
This is a story we all familiar with - a government agency that has no profit incentive, and is by nature a monopoly, doesn’t get punished by the consumers and has very little incentives to become more efficient, or to provide better service. And yet, despite any evidence for the contrary and any logical argument, people keeps wants more services for “Free”.
Rogel @ August 11, 2008
