It looks obvious

Tseela had a lot of fun last night - her friend Shiri from Israel came for a visit and they had a sleep over party. Shiri and Tseela were born around the same time, the birth due date was actually the same but Tseela came a little bit earlier while Shiri took her time, and grew up together while her parents lived in NYC. It is very nice to see how the girls maintain their friendship despite the big geographical distance.

For those interested, more pictures are available here.

I got my new camera, and I’m trying to learn how to produce acceptable pictures. The only thing I can say about the quality of pictures I’m able to generate is that I’m improving. Here is one picture, of Ronie, that I actually like:

And yes, I like B&W pictures

One thing that you learn serving in the Israeli army, and I believe in many other armies as well, is that the best type of leadership is leadership by example. If you want your subordinate to do something you have to do it yourself. I also believe it apply when educating children, and it is one of the main reasons I quitted smoking few years ago. This is a measure I also apply to professional busy bodies, are they swallowing the same pill to want to force on me. If the answer is no I know that the person is, at the very least, intellectually dishonest.

Obviously many of these people can explain why they should be exempt from the same measures they want to force on other. But these reasoning is a mere excuse for being morally wrong. Those who think that they entitled for more, simply because they are, are nothing but hypocrites. The list is obviously long but I hope that the Minnesota voters will not add another will not add another one to it this november.

Al Franken is famous advocate for social causes, such as universal health care, and he obviously thinks that he should be a Senator to force the wealthier people to pay higher share to fund these causes. He also think that he is exempt from the madison he want to force on others, simply because he is Al Franken:

We’ve covered the tax and legal compliance problems of Minnesota Democratic Senatorial candidate Al Franken over the past few weeks. First came the revelation of his failure to pay workers’ compensation insurance in New York. Then came the revelation of his failure to file corporate tax returns in California. This week it was revealed that Franken owes $70,000 in back taxes in 17 states.

The numbers involved in the last incident are striking. Observers naturally want to know if Franken’s tax problems result from an oversight or something more serious, and whether they are confined to the period acknowledged so far (2003-2006). Franken has refused to release his tax returns and filed for an extension on his 2007 return.

I’m sure we can do without him “leading” us, right?.

Isn’t he a little bit late?

President Bush told Neil Cavuto of Fox News on Friday, “Fiscal conservatism is one of my defining issues for the remaining months.”

I guess the next thing he will be saying, trying to save his awful legacy, is that he is against “nation building”….

I have to admit that this news is rather surprising:

Bahrain’s state news agency says that King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa issued a royal decree appointing a female Jewish lawmaker to the post of ambassador.

[...]

Nono is the first Jewish woman in the Shura Council, which includes a
Christian woman among its 11 female legislators. All its members are appointed by the king. The elected 40-member lower house has only one woman lawmaker.

She replaced her cousin Ibrahim Nono, who held the seat in parliament for four years. A businesswoman who lives both in Bahrain and London, Nono also is the first Jewish woman to head a local rights organization, the Bahrain Human Rights Watch.

My wife bought me a new camera as a birthday present so I gave my old one to Tseela. Tseela start showing interest in taking pictures by herself for a while now and she was very happy to get my old camera. I created a new set in Flickr for her photos, so if you are interested in see the development of her skills you are welcome to follow. Here is her first attempt, it isn’t bad at all:

This is a great story about a young person that might made the problem of plastic trash much more manageable. I hope that he will make lots of money from this, he surely deserve it.

Plastic takes thousands of years to decompose — but 16-year-old science fair contestant Daniel Burd made it happen in just three months.

[...]

Burd says this should be easy on an industrial scale: all that’s needed is a fermenter, a growth medium and plastic, and the bacteria themselves provide most of the energy by producing heat as they eat. The only waste is water and a bit of carbon dioxide.

It is interesting to note that the solution emerge from the, basically, inexpensive work of private initiative while the public money was invested in developing programs and regulations that will restrict the use of available less expensive materials. I already feel sorry for those who need to find another excuse for doomsday prophecies that will enable them to tell everybody what not to do

In today’s WSJ David Boaz challenges Obama’s and McCain’s claim that Individuals should submit themselves for the needs of the collective. Aside from the obvious hypocrisy involved in such claims David Boaz argue that:

But hypocrisy is not the biggest issue. The real issue is that Messrs. Obama and McCain are telling us Americans that our normal lives are not good enough, that pursuing our own happiness is “self-indulgence,” that building a business is “chasing after our money culture,” that working to provide a better life for our families is a “narrow concern.”

They’re wrong. Every human life counts. Your life counts. You have a right to live it as you choose, to follow your bliss. You have a right to seek satisfaction in accomplishment. And if you chase after the almighty dollar, you just might find that you are led, as if by an invisible hand, to do things that improve the lives of others.

I always had the impression that the only things you can find in Idaho are potatoes, and a Potato Commission, But I was wrong. Apparently Idaho has also a strong core of individual liberty and it demonstrated it in yesterday’s Primaries.

I know that it doesn’t mean anything for these elections. And I also know that it will be mistake to try to give to much importance to the fact that 30% of the GOP voters yesterday voted against the party presumptive nominee because it can be explained by low interest in primaries that are already decided. However it is always nice to see that 24% of primaries voters express their desire to see stronger wing of libertarianism in the GOP, and I thing it will be a mistake to dismiss this phenomena.

Guns don’t kill people, Doctors do!