Apparently, it takes more than a village

Somebody, please, explain to me why this is the government’s job:

Clinton proposes $5,000 “baby bonds”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton proposed on Friday giving every baby born in the United States $5,000 to start an account to use for paying for college.

Seriously – this goes waaaay beyond pandering. There so many practical problems with this idea (what if the whelp doesn’t go to college?  what if the child dies? what if the child really needs it for something else?) before we even get to the question of Hillary!’s sanity.

Best reference EVAR!

From Star Trek Weekend over at The National Review:

“In some ways, it’s strange to think that so many conservatives — and, as evidenced here today, so many conservative pundits — are also science-fiction fans, and even stranger to find that they’re fans of a show as vigorously liberal as Star Trek.  Last I heard, conservatives were supposed to stand athwart history yelling “stop!,” not peer into the future drooling “cool.” “

Peter Suderman, I bow to you.

And people wonder why taxes are high

I like to think I’m a logical, reasonable kind of guy.  Sometime, though, I read a news story and have to wonder, “What the hell were they thinking?”  In today’s Indianapolis Star, there is an article reporting the city’s plan to limit the number of take-home cars that are given to city employees.

I can understand that it makes sense for public safety personnel to have city-provided cars.  I can even understand that personnel who are required to do inspections and such may warrant city-provided cars.  And then there’s that head-scratching moment:

The city and county own about 3,000 vehicles in all, including 231 take-home vehicles driven by city employees ranging from building inspectors and road engineers to a Public Works spokeswoman and the city’s Latino affairs director.

Why in the name of the Flying Spaghetti Monster does the city’s Latino affairs director need to have the city provide him/her with a car, gas and maintenance on a 24/7 basis?  Are there late-night emergency Cinco de Mayo parties that require official city representation?  (and let’s not get started on why the city needs a “Latino affairs director” in the first place.)

The Broncos come to town

The Young Master and I are going to his first pro football game this Sunday.  The Broncos think they have a chance.  This seems appropriate:

GO COLTS!

I’m not the only one!

My wife thinks I’m insane.  Notwithstanding the fact that I am, the particular neurosis in this case is my inability to get rid of books.  I have books everywhere – on the nightstand, in the nightstand, in the attic, in the guest room, on my bookshelf, on The Young Master’s bookshelf, and elsewhere.  To me, giving away book is akin to losing a friend.  I just can’t bring myself to do it.

It’s nice to know that others share my neurosis.  Orson Scott Card, one of the great writers of our time, confesses the same affection.  In his periodic column, “Uncle Orson Reviews Everything,” in relating an encounter with  airline traveler who intentionally abandoned  book on an airplane, he notes:

To me it was as unthinkable as discarding a pet — though not quite at the level of, say, drowning kittens. But all my life I’ve regarded books as precious things. I acquired and hoarded them like a literary miser from the time I was in fourth grade and used to skip lunch so I could order more books from TAB (the “Teen Age Book Club” by Scholastic).

Perhaps we can form a support group.

My Little Corner

Hi, and welcome to my little corner of the sky. Blogging will be sporadic and random, so check back occasionally and see if I’ve done anything interesting. To give you a little insight on what you might find here, consider this: I’ve always been the type of person who thought that the glass was half full, not half empty. Of course, it’s half full of poison, but half full is half full…

Book I’m reading now: George R. R. Martin’s A Clash of Kings.