Stun Guns or Hot Sauce -- A Comparative Study on Child Discipline

Miami-Dade County police used a stun gun on a 6-year-old boy in his principal's office because he was wielding a piece of glass and threatening to hurt himself. Go ahead -- read that again. It won't sound any better. The boy was shocked with 50,000 volts on October 20 at Kelsey Pharr Elementary School.
Is it just me, or couldn't they have just grabbed the kid? Was he an abnormally large 6-year-old? They had two freakin' cops there, and they had to Taser a child?

Should this child reattempt his actions, Lisa Whelchel ("Blair Warner" from The Facts of Life) might suggest using hot sauce on the child's tounge (to be fair, she does say to use a "tiny bit") as a deterrent to future bad behavior. Paul McIlhenny, president and CEO of the McIlhenny Co., (which produces Tabasco hot sauce), has said he views the practice as "strange and scary" and "abusive."

Moore Plans Sequel -- Fact-Checkers at the Ready

Michael Moore, in his continual effort at self-promotion, announced that he is planning a sequel to his film Fahrenheit 9/11 (a title at which Fahrenheit 451 author Ray Bradbury bristled). "Fifty-one percent of the American people lacked information and we want to educate and enlighten them," said Moore.

Such a statement would presume that Mr. Moore actually does present factual documentaries, rather than the carefully phrased insinuations and conclusions that make up his films. Don't believe your friendly neighborhood CNB? Go to Spinsanity, a great site in the same vein as Factcheck.org, which has done a great job of objectively examining (and debunking) the statements made and conclusions presented by Moore in his films (as opposed to the tripe like Celsius 41.11, which suffers from the same deceptive half-truths as Moore's products).

The funny thing is, as CNB posts have shown (check out those archives), Bush has provided plenty of material, so Moore does not have to stretch the truth to make a legitimate case against the Bush Administration and its policies (even conservatives do that). In the words of Phil Hartman's Frank Sinatra, you don't have to work blue.

It is possible that Moore will see the light and play it factually straight in this sequel (or in his upcoming HMO-bashing film), but his track record seems to make that unlikely. Unfortunately, CNB projects that more disinformation will continue, providing the shaky basis for ever-increasing numbers of posts on crazy-ass-liberal websites.

Ugh.

Ashcroft out -- Gonzales in (is this out of the frying pan and into the fire?)

US Atty. Gen. John "Lemme see what books you read" Ashcroft (who we shouldn't forget lost a Senate election to a dead man -- let the eagle soar, indeed) resigned. While civil libertarians across the US would seem to be rejoicing, they are confused as to whether the suggested replacement, White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales, will be much better.

On the one hand, Judge Gonzales got a reputation, including his couple of years on the Texas Supreme Court, from some conservatives of not agreeing with them on key social policy issues — abortion and affirmative action. (Which is odd, in that Gonzales successfully argued for White House in opposition to the University of Michigan program -- he just did not push for an end to affirmative action.)

However, this is also the guy who fought to keep the details of VP Cheney's clandestine energy commission meetings secret, defended the administration's right to detain terrorism suspects indefinitely without formal charges, and to deny terrorism suspects them access to counsel or to protection from the court system.

His Jan. 25, 2002 memo to Pres. Bush stated that "As you have said, the war against terrorism is a new kind of war. The nature of the new war places a high premium on other factors, such as the ability to quickly obtain information from captured terrorists and their sponsors in order to avoid further atrocities against American civilians." He added, "In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions." (Emphasis added) Many have tied this to the abuses at Abu Ghraib, which appear to have fallen out of notice since those damned Scott Peterson jurors keep making news.

Thus, it is not yet clear if those cherishing civil liberties should breathe a sigh of relief, or if they should remain on their oxygen tanks.

Garbled Crap II

In the tradition of the first Garbled Crap, here is a semi-organized list of some random thoughts.

1. No more talking about the South. Any time anyone talks about the South, it becomes insulting, no matter what side it is on. The Right says that the Democrats need to understand the South and the "moral values" voting, while the Left says that the South can keep their alleged "values" if that means antiquated ideas of propriety. Southerners generally have some regional idiosyncrasies, (just like Midwesterners or Northeasterners for instance), but that is it. Not all Southerners are Bible-banging, NASCAR-worshipping, cousin-marrying, three-teeth-having idiots (as the Left is saying) -- nor are all Southerners Bible-revering, traditional-values-holding, truth-valuing salts of the Earth (as the Right is saying). For crying out loud, both the Left and Right are patronizing Southerners by talking about them as if they were some comatose relatives who couldn't hear you discussing them. It's kind of like comparing someone's intelligence to their appearance ("you're smarter than you look") -- no matter what you say, it sounds pejorative (even saying "you are just as smart as you look" sounds bad). On top of all that, don't you think the South is going to get a collective big head if folks keep giving them all this credit? See #2, below, for related stuff.
2. The religious right does not get credit for the Bush victory. Bush got 8 million more votes than in the last go-round, while best estimates of registered "evangelical Christian voters" who did not vote in 2000 is put at 4 million. Thus, a whole lot more people voted for Bush than just the evangelicals, like folks who think (for reasons I don't understand and have asked my moderate Republican friends to help me understand) Bush will keep us safer, or will do a better job on the economy. See #3, below.
3. "Moral values" votes were not the issue the media thinks they were. Nationally, 22%of voters polled said "moral values" was the "issue that mattered most" in deciding how to vote for president. However, 20% of voters said "economy and jobs" was the issue that mattered most to them. (a) With only a 2% difference, that seems to show (like the 3% "mandate") an overblown conclusion concerning these alleged "moral values." You'd have thought that 89% cited the ambiguous reason of "moral values." (b) These numbers come from exit polling, which seems like it might have some problems with accuracy (just ask John Kerry).
4. No more giving advice to the Democrats. Everyone and their dog has been giving advice to the Democrats, like "learn the values of the South." Kerry lost by 3% to a guy who had an approval rating of 90% (!!) after 9-11 . Terry McAuliffe will be gone soon (hello Howard Dean? That would make Mrs. CNB happy), and, outside of those doggoned Red States down south, the Dems actually gained a Senate seat. Thus, while I am all in favor of the Dems doing better in Congressional elections, I think the death knell is sounded a bit too soon.

That's all for now. Sorry for the stream of consciousness, but them's the breaks. Comments are always welcome.

Voting for Class President was not this difficult

If you lean left, as the most of the CNB readers (enough to be plural, thank you) do, you have likely heard lots about voting irregularities. Cuyahoga County, Ohio has a results site set up that appears to show some of these problems -- a look at the difference in registered voters (760) and the ballots cast (8882) in Highland Hills Village certainly seems odd, to put it mildly. That might be a mere typgraphical error, but it occurred in several other precincts. There are many more examples all throughout the news in several states, some caught and some being worked out.

This is not some crazy conspiracy CNB is suggesting (like soooooo many others), just that it seems stupid that we cannot vote without some sort of crazy crap going on. The Onion got it right on this.

Mrs. CNB strikes again

Mrs. CNB took her political break, but it did not last long. She has opened a diary at Daily Kos (which, technically, makes her a traitor).

For your socially liberal fix, go to http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/11/7/123324/126