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MJBubba's Posts
The Schoolbuses of Katrina
While we are still chattering about Hurricane Harvey and keeping an eye on Hurricane Irma, I saw a couple of comments that are worth a follow-up post of its own.
You all remember how we watched the flooding in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and how we all saw the fleet of schoolbuses that were inundated instead of serving to evacuate the City. Evidently, those pictures were very memorable, but not nearly as memorable as the actual narrative of events. There is plenty to fault the City of New Orleans for, and especially there fault to be laid at the feet of Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco, but I do not fault them for the schoolbuses.
Evacuating a big city is a huge problem. Especially so for New Orleans, since there are not many highway evacuation routes available. The likelihood is that an evacuation would cause lots of traffic crash deaths and lead to a politician becoming a laughingstock if the hurricane does not turn out to be so damaging as the weather forecasters had made it out to be. Everyone over 50 on the coast remembers occasions when they were told to evacuate, decided not to, and then experienced a bad storm that had not warranted evacuation.
Member Post
Here is a draft letter to my congressman. I would appreciate your editing assistance in order to make my letter more effective: Dear Congressman K., Preview Open
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Trump said something mean. He was bellicose. Awful deranged Trump is going to start a war. His generals need to keep him under control or our deranged President will launch the missiles. I heard that stuff. I heard anti-American peaceniks saying this to Opposition Party Media, and their complaints were met with knowing approval and […]
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Refugee Resettlement Reckoning on Obama Administration
Refugees come to the United States through several legal channels, and this post will focus on only the Refugee Resettlement Program. The Refugee Resettlement Program has its own issues, and is a high-profile element of our immigration policy. We have discussed this before at Ricochet, and it is time for an update. I am posting here to provide some background on Refugee Resettlement, to specifically discuss refugees from Syria, to comment on the program under the Obama Administration, and to document that @JamesOfEngland owes me a beer the next time we cross paths at a meetup.
The Refugee Resettlement Program brought 572,924 refugees to the United States during the Obama Administration (Feb 2, 2009 through Feb 1, 2017). In recent discussions, religion was an issue, so here are some highlights:
- 196,900 were Christians (34%)
- 160,622 were Muslims (28%)
- 47,679 were Hindu (8.3%)
- 38,781 were Buddhist (6.8%)
- 8,381 were categorized as “no religion” (1.5%)
- 249 were Atheist
The Refugee Resettlement Program is operated by the State Department, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. They provide an on-line database, which is the source of the numbers above. Links are in the comments.
Impatience
I saw a comment at Ricochet. I thought it was illustrative, and typical of a frustration I have seen many times in the past month.
I would be more optimistic if more major policies had been implemented (repeal Obamacare, tax reform, big military budget, etc.) and if more appointments had been made to the administration and the judiciary. Many substantial things still need done.
Drinking Lessons
I was a scofflaw. In my state it is against the law to provide alcohol to any person who is under age 21. When my sons were underage, I broke this law on a few occasions. Neither of them ever embraced the binge-drinking culture when they went to college. Teach your kids how to drink.
I saw a story featured in the Google News “spotlight.” It was an article from CNN, a few months ago, titled “Is Drinking with your Kids at Home a Good Idea?” I say, yes it is a very good idea. Your kids need good role models. They need to see that adults can enjoy one drink or two drinks and then stop. They need to learn how to enjoy one drink and then stop.
Modern American youth culture wants to teach them that, when you drink, you are drinking to get drunk. It is all over social media, TV, movies, pop songs, etc. Drunkenness is a laughing matter. Often it is an excuse for bad behavior, such as casual sex, which is frequently blamed on alcohol.
Gas Can Follies
I have a little can for gasoline. I use it to fuel my lawnmower. Recently the spout broke. I fixed it with duct tape, of course. And, of course, the duct tape only held up for a few months. The can itself is over 30 years old, and I have the idea that, since plastic deteriorates over time, it probably will need replacing within the next decade or two. I also thought that a cheap plastic gas can with a nice pouring spout would not cost very much more than a purchase of a replacement spout. So while I was out on Saturday morning I stopped by Autozone to pick up a new gas can. And, modern American life being what it is, I now have a story to post at Ricochet.
First, while my old can holds 2.5 gallons, the cans on the shelf all came only in two or five gallon size, so if I keep a little can it will mean more trips to refill the can. I don’t want to fool with the larger can, so I picked up one of the two-gallon cans and carried it to the counter. While waiting for the cashier to fire up his cash register (he had been in the back and so had to log in), I took a look at the new can. I unscrewed the cap and pulled out the pour spout, and started to install it for immediate use. The pour spout looked funny, and the cashier saw me giving it a close inspection. He said “You haven’t seen one of those before.”
“Nope.” Said I. “It looks like a new and improved safety pour.”
Member Post
Secretary of Interior Zinke sent letters to a bunch of top managers in the Department of the Interior. The letters advise them of upcoming reassignments. I hope some of them will be reassigned into unemployment. The Washington Post has the story. So far, no other mass media have reported this. Preview Open
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Last week Gallup released a poll of religiosity. They ranked the states by the percentage of respondents that they deemed to be “very religious.” Also, Pew Research Center released a new religious attitudes survey. The “Religion Guy” Richard Ostling looked over the polls and wrote up his recommendations to the National Democratic Committee on how […]
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We pray. Christians pray to the triune G-d. This post is one in a series on Christian prayer, and how we learn to pray from the Lord’s Prayer. Today we come to the “petition” where we ask our Heavenly Father for stuff. We cannot help but be self-centered in wanting stuff, but as we learn […]
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After a three-week delay, I am continuing my series on Christian prayer. Christians pray to G-d, and we learn how to pray from the Bible and from fellow Christians. Sometimes we even borrow from non-Christian sources. Our chief source is generally the Lord’s Prayer, because that is where Jesus taught His Disciples to pray. Here […]
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I don’t read or listen to Jonah Goldberg podcasts, but I heard him on the radio this morning. He was on “Morning Edition” (yes, I listen to NPR). He was on an “analysis” segment about the story of Russian Hackers and the way they “hacked” our presidential election to help Donald J. Trump win the […]
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Atheists of Ricochet: Are all differences between the theistic religions trivial ? Preview Open
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Clueless Jonah
Trashing Kevin Williamson
This post is to criticize Kevin Williamson for a recent column at National Review.
There was a previous post that was undertaken by another Ricochet member, in which he criticized Kevin Williamson for the same column. That post became to heated with emotional responses and unhelpful rhetoric. Factiousness emerged. Hopefully we can do better and consider the column on its merits at this post. The column is deserving of criticism.
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Guys, it is time for a Ricochet vocabulary lesson. “Nard” was recently cited by a middle-aged American man as one of those antique words that nobody knows anymore. This only served to show that he is clueless. Nard is a word that is known to Christians and to most well-read women. So for the benefit […]
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We are reviewing orthodox Christian teachings on how to pray by examining the Lord’s Prayer. In this week’s lesson we consider what it means to pray for G-d’s Kingdom to come. G-d’s kingdom is everything. He made the universe and everything in it. He made us and we belong to Him. So, why do we […]
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Ricochet member benwood91 asked “why wouldn’t Russia want Hillary to be president?” I think it is more productive to turn the question into a positive construction: “Why did Putin favor Trump?” Preview Open
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A bomb in the side chapel at the Cathedral in Cairo killed 25, wounded 49. This is probably early to avoid the extra security that is planned for Christmas. Preview Open
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We are reviewing orthodox Christian teachings on how to pray by examining the Lord’s Prayer. Here is the Lord’s Prayer, from Matthew, Chapter 6: 9 Pray then like this: Preview Open
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