Looking for the Vol Abroad?

It’s all over here.

I’m just opening a Word Press account ’cause everybody else is.

Them internet searches

Somebody just came to my blog from the search term

Inducing cat labor

Don’t be messin’ around with that. Just don’t.

Why I move right – but could never vote Republican

In accordance with the old truism, I’ve moved right – I’ve become more conservative – as I’ve gotten older. This is partly the natural cleaving to the old ways, it’s partly getting an MA in Economics from the University of Tennessee, and it’s a lot about moving to the UK and seeing the consequences of a true welfare state. You talk about dependency culture – whooo-weee, daaaang – there are generations of people here who don’t have the foggiest about work.

So in Mitt Romney’s withdrawal speech (full transcript from the NYT) there were some things I agreed with:

Dependency is death to initiative, risk-taking and opportunity. Dependency is culture killing. It’s a drug. We’ve got to fight it like the poison it is.

Yep. I agree. It is a poison. A poison that rots the soul.

But he goes on in that mean spirited Republican way which just sickens me. Sickens me with its mantle of “personal responsibility” – which is just a slick cover for tight-fistedness, for I-got-mine-so-screw-you, and most shamefully for sticking their noses in the trough of public goods that they like (highways, infrastructure, business tax credits and subsidies, policing and defense) and turning off the tap for other social goods that they have access to privately ( i.e. health care) despite the fact that this approach is actually economically inefficient and delivers poorer outcomes overall.

Now, some people think we won that battle when we reformed welfare. But the liberals haven’t given up.

At every turn, they tried to substitute government largess for individual responsibility. They fight to strip work requirements from welfare, to put more people on Medicaid, and remove more and more people from having to pay any income tax whatsoever.

And the crowd cheered and the band played on.

Is this the latest sick, selfish Republican mantra? Make sure that poor folk don’t have access to health care? Make sure the low paid pay through the nose but get rid of taxes on unearned income (e.g. capital gains, estate taxes)?

One thing I’ve learned about a dependency culture in the UK is that you want to make the transition into working as easy and rewarding as possible. One truth about universal health care that the Selfish-right don’t want you to know is that it actually encourages economic activity and entrepreneurs. In the US, some people get caught in the trap of losing health benefits when they start to earn too much money. In the US, people are stuck with dead end jobs or denied the opportunity to go out on their own because they must cling to their employer provided health care.

In the UK, the non-working have every incentive not to work (at least in the short run) as they lose benefits pound for pound as they start earning (which doesn’t take into account that leisure does have value) and they come into a rather punitive and regressive tax system. My tax burden is far lower now than it was when I was barely scraping by (though of course I am paying far more overall – it annoys, but it doesn’t hurt now.)

The point is, of course, that everyone has to start somewhere. And unless you’re the privileged child of wealth, the place you start is at a very low wage job. You work your way up. And you should be rewarded for trading a life of penurious leisure for penurious labor by keeping as much of your wage as possible when you’re at that rough, rotten bottom rung of the economic ladder.

It’s not as if the low-paid don’t pay taxes. They pay a lot of tax (proportionately). They pay taxes on goods and services. They are almost certainly paying other payroll taxes (FICA in the US, National Insurance in the UK). And they can’t escape the taxman with sheltered income and offshore accounts.

I believe in the hand up, not the handout. But forcing the poor to hand-over disproportionately, making their precarious situation all the more tottering is just wrong.

Sharia in the UK?

The Arch-freakin’-Bishop of Canterbury* is saying that sharia law in the UK is inevitable? Holy-effin’-moly! Where’s your convictions man? I’m nearly (but not quite) struck speechless.

In one breath the Archbishop says

Nobody in their right mind would want to see in this country the kind of inhumanity that has sometimes been associated with the practice of the law in some Islamic states: the extreme punishments, the attitudes to women,”

Well, yes, I would certainly agree with that. But then he goes on to say:

“But there are ways of looking at marital disputes, for example, which provide an alternative to the divorce courts as we understand them.”

Arrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Sorry I couldn’t come up with something more eloquent, but I did say I was nearly struck dumb with the stupidity of it all.)

Doesn’t he get it? Doesn’t he understand? Enforcing sharia based decisions in matters of family law – and especially in matters of divorce – is exactly what underlines the barbaric attitudes to women.

There’s nothing to stop two parties coming to an agreement based on sharia and abiding by it under current UK law. Women – in case of separation, do you want to hand over custody of your children? Do you want to have a “mosque-based” marriage in which you have no rights when it comes to property? Hey, fine by me. Do what you want.

But no way, no how should British courts be enforcing such decisions or routing women of Muslim origin into sharia based civil court hearings. That’s what a tandem system of sharia law for Muslims would mean.

It’s wrong.

Equality before the law. One law for everyone. We may not always get it, but we must always , always aspire to it.

_________
*head honcho bishop in the Church of England

UPDATE: At Harry’s Place, just as one would have expected there’s a discussion about this. They call for the sacking of the Archbishop and the disestablishment of the Church of England. No need. When the head of the CoE calls for sharia law – the church done been disestablished.

Romney drops out

Mitt Romney drops out. The best I can say about him is that had he won, I reckon he wouldn’t have been the total disaster that that crazy McCain would be.

They’re still doing it.

Looks like they had quite a shindig going on in London for Democrats Abroad where I could have cast a ballot. Didn’t make it because my dad and brother were visiting, but the news coverage made me kinda sad I missed out.

But I’m so grateful for the opportunity to cast my ballot online in the DA Global Primary. Come November, I’ll vote in my home state. Hillary won there last night without my vote and this fall she’ll win in Tennessee with my vote.

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My brother backs Obama. Tsk, tsk. But he also voted for Nader in 2000, so I think we know how politically wise he is.

Obama could still win and as a good Dem, I’ll vote for him, but I tell you I hope he cuts out the backsniping bullshit pronto. That’s not helping anyone.

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I’ve noticed the Hillary Clinton coverage is all spun negative. They’re still doing it. In one sentence it’s all “Hillary wins more delegates…” in the next it’s all “Hillary is struggling, Hillary is losing her advantage…” blah, blah, blah.

Hello, people – she’s winning. WTF?

The Tennessee Guerilla Women have a good low down on the misogyny and last night’s coverage.

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But you know the weird press coverage is not just about misogyny. John Edwards couldn’t have got 30 seconds if he were the man biting a dog. And poor old Mitt Romney had been winning until the media anointed that crazy McCain. And Huckabee? Well, he’s getting good coverage, cause he’s winning in the snake handling states. (Yeah, I know…. I’m bad.)

With friends (and MPs) like these…

There’s a big furore here over the potential bugging of a conversation between an MP and his friend and constituent. This MP happens to be my MP. This constituent lives within easy walking distance from my house. That is he lives there when he’s not in jail – on terror charges.

Sadiq Khan is at the center of a controversy about whether his jailhouse conversation with Babar Ahmad should have been taped without his knowledge. Doubtless, all of Mr Ahmad’s conversations are bugged (except probably privileged conversations with his lawyer) – given that he is, in fact, a terror suspect awaiting extradition to America. It’s all so very complicated why he’s to stand trial in the US and not in the UK. But what appears to not be in dispute is that the man helped raise money for the Taliban.

He raised money for them, but this wasn’t a crime in the UK at the time he was doing it because the Taliban wasn’t a proscribed organisation at the time. Not that we didn’t know they were nasty pre-9/11, just that they weren’t outlawed.

From the Washington Post:

In late 1996, while a 22-year-o.ld undergraduate at Imperial College in London, Ahmad launched a Web site dedicated to promoting Islamic fighters in Bosnia, Chechnya and Afghanistan, according to U.S. federal prosecutors. Dubbed Azzam.com, in honor of Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian who served as bin Laden’s spiritual mentor, the Web site rapidly became a prominent and influential English-language platform for Islamic militants.

…snip…

“It was the very first real al Qaeda Web site,” said Evan Kohlmann, a New York-based terrorism researcher who has tracked Azzam.com since the late 1990s. “It taught an entire generation about jihad. Even in its nascency, it was professional. It wasn’t technically sophisticated, but it was professional looking, definitely more professional than any other jihadi Web sites out there.”

…snip…

According to a U.S. indictment filed in October, Ahmad used Azzam.com to
solicit donations for Chechen rebels and the Taliban, and arranged for the
training and transportation of Islamic fighters. Among the specific charges is
one alleging that Azzam.com posted messages in early 2001 containing specific
instructions for supporters to deliver cash payments of up to $20,000 to
Taliban officials in Pakistan

And I blogged about this two and a half years ago (post has links to US extradition request).

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Now, Sadiq Khan, MP feels aggrieved because there is an established convention that MPs’ conversations won’t be bugged. I guess I can understand that, though it was Mr Ahmad and not Mr Khan who was the explicit subject of surveillance.

But in news story after news story Babar Ahmad is listed as both a constituent and a friend. They did grow up in the same area, so childhood friends they may be – and I’m sure we all had playmates who turned out not as well as might be hoped. But Mr Khan should consider whether he really wants friends like Mr Ahmad. And Tooting constituents should consider whether we want an MP with friends like that.

It’s like groundhog day

If I’m not mistaken, tomorrow is Groundhog Day. In Britain that has no resonance. At least no weather predicting resonance. Instead when folks here say “It’s like Groundhog Day,” they’re not saying today will be a bellweather for the next six weeks, they’re saying “It’s like deja vu – all over again.” It means that the same [stupid] thing happens again and again and again. Based purely on that film.

And each and every year, when I say “Hey, I think it’s Groundhog Day,” they say “Is that for real?”

And I explain about the weather predicting abilities of Punxsatawney Phil and how we’ll have six more weeks of winter – or not. I have to do it every year. It’s like Groundhog Day deja vu all over again.

Funnily enough the origin of Groundhog Day is not some kooky American nonsense, but rather is steeped in European superstition – Candlemas Day -which falls midway between Winter and Spring Solstice according to a Groundhog Day history page. Or as they used to say in England:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Winter has another flight.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Winter will not come again.

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I’m preempting the Pennsylvanian rodent and guessing that there will be six more weeks of winter. Blehhh.