Anders Breivik - "A little learning is a dangerous thing"

Was Anders Breivik a troll?

I’m sorry if that seems a flippant question to ask about a man who killed dozens of Norwegian teenagers, but you can’t read his 1,500-page “manifesto” without being struck by how thoroughly he trawled the web. Whatever the explanation for his murderous actions, this was definitely a brain warped by the blogosphere.

For readers unfamiliar with blogs, I should explain what I mean by “troll”. The word can be used to describe two types of commenters who write underneath published posts. There are simple-minded folk with jokey nicknames who fling insults at each other for hours at a stretch, amusing no one but themselves. My own blog is infested with them.
...
These trolls aren’t confined to the far Left or the far Right: some of the most noxious internet bores turn out to be Liberal Democrats. It’s true that, on the whole, their views tend to be controversial, but the essence of their trolling is their rhetorical style: in particular, an insistence that they know the truth about everything. All they really have in common – apart from an aversion to deodorant – is hysterical omniscience.
...
He knew where to look to find statistics to support his vicious theories. He knew that the far Right can succeed only by exploiting public anger at political correctness and immigration, avoiding the idiocy of neo-Nazism, about which the manifesto is scathing. Above all, he revelled in the special hysteria of the internet, which allows its users to bolt together whatever ideas turn them on, while ruthlessly excluding inconvenient data. (This new hysteria taints even the most trivial internet discourse – you should have seen the way supporters and opponents of vibrato-free Mahler were squawking at each other after Roger Norrington’s Prom on Monday.)

I don’t know why Breivik made the leap from propaganda to mass murder. I don’t think he was mad, in the sense of suffering from psychotic delusions, but there’s no doubt that years spent in the echo chambers of cyberspace can cause psychological damage.

In the months leading up to last Friday’s atrocity, did he join in the internet discussions he read so avidly? Given his verbosity, it’s more than likely. The manifesto is written in the self-righteous, autodidactic style of a troll; it will be interesting to see whether, following Breivik’s arrest, one of the anonymous contributors to Right-wing websites suddenly disappears off the map.

Sounds about right. I actually knew a troll in person. He used to stalk me on the Web after I contributed to an anti-cult Web group. He believed that the government was poisoning us with contrails and a bunch of other paranoid nonsense. My hunch is that Breivik is also some sort of twisted closet case like a child-molester or coprophiliac or something unhealthy like that; not insane but definitely solipsistic, intellectually-challenged and half-educated.

As Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744) wrote in An Essay on Criticism:

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
and drinking largely sobers us again.

No Medicare for ex-pats so Uruguay is out of the question

I thought I'd better check on whether I can get Medicare as an ex-pat. Nope. Of course the Medicare premium is garnished from SS before you even get paid but Medicare will not pay for any health-care outside the USA. And of course Medicare is mandatory. If you chose not to have Medicare, you forfeit your entire SS. Who the hell thought of this? Stalin? It's no wonder that only the very rich can afford to retire outside the USA.

The Norwegian Nazi

John Derbyshire quotes Ralph Peters' “The ‘Eurabia’ Myth":

Peters prophesied that John/Jean/Josef/José/Giuseppe Q. European will eventually get in touch with his inner fascist:

Don’t let Europe’s current round of playing pacifist dress-up fool you: This is the continent that perfected genocide and ethnic cleansing, the happy-go-lucky slice of humanity that brought us such recent hits as the Holocaust and Srebrenica. The historical patterns are clear: When Europeans feel sufficiently threatened — even when the threat’s concocted nonsense — they don’t just react, they over-react with stunning ferocity.

I lived in Europe for 8 years and soon found that, if you scratch a European socialist deep enough, you'll find a national socialist aka Nazi. The Norwegian nutcase may claim to be anti-Hitler but he is an unadulterated racist Nazi.

Uruguay here I come

I just turned 64. It's time for me to retire. I've lived in Africa, Europe and North America. I think I'm ready for another continent. Uruguay here I come.

From the diary of an American ex-pat in Uruguay:

Uruguay has the second greatest reserves of water, per capita, in the world, after Canada.
...
It is at the same relative latitude as the North Carolina Capes - the climate is perfect for me.
...
On average it goes below freezing about 2.5 days/year and above 90F/32C only 6 days per year. As we all know, the Good Lord did not intend fat men in wheelchairs to live where it is hot!
...
Contrary to my impressions from afar, a high percentage of people speak some English. Between their English and my limited Spanish, we do pretty well.
...
Comment on currency symbols: Uruguayans use the $ sign for their Uruguayan Pesos (UYU), which are about 24 to the US Dollar. Consequently, when you see $ on UY websites, it means Pesos, not Dollars. Dollars are usually denominated as U$S.
...
I guess they haven't figured out how to "sock it to the gringos yet"; maybe their culture is such that they never will. Too easy - too normal; I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I can't take it! Waiting for the other hob-nailed boot to drop is killing me! If this keeps up I'm going to have to leave here because of the stress...of waiting for the big "gotcha" that must be out there somewhere.

This morning, the government-owned phone company, Antel, showed up as promised and installed our two additional phone lines: amazing! The only downside is that if you want more than one jack per line, you have to hire a private contractor for the additional jacks. Earlier in the day, a 20-page tabloid size advertising flyer in full color was delivered in the post. It was from the local 24 hour pharmacy chain. It offered the usual gamut of items from lipstick to hemorrhoid treatment. That, plus free dial-up Internet access and even real street addresses is too much to take. The normalcy is killing me. To paraphrase one of my readers, I'm waiting for the "immigration police to kick in my door", or the transplanted Russian Mafia to kidnap Harry, or something, anything that will burst this bubble of seeming normalcy before I get suckered in again.
...
Another difference is the attitude towards time. After living in the West Indies for a while I learned the system there: whatever time frame was promised would really happen in the next higher time unit: 1 minute is really 1 hour, 1 hour is really 1 day, 1 day is really one week, etc.

I also figured out the time rules in Costa Rica: there are none! If someone is really considerate, they will ring you 45 minutes after they were supposed to arrive to cancel or postpone. If they are from the government telecoms, they will set an appointment and never show up; or they will show up out of the blue and expect you to drop everything to accommodate them.

Time here seems to be understood in an Italianate mode: they try to be on time, but sometimes things happen; and when things happen they are very, very sorry and will do better next time: and they do. Thus far, nothing has slipped more than a day - which amazes me. I waited weeks for telephones in Costa Rica and months for broadband. This place may really be "Eisenhower's America in Spanish". ¡Hasta luego!
...
Well, now I'm really annoyed! It is becoming increasingly hard to remain skeptical when everything is working properly. Both ADSL lines are working (all we did to the first line was reposition the wireless router); the housekeeper has been coming in on time and doing a good job (at $2.10/hour inclusive), and we've been able to buy everything we need locally.

On top of that McDonalds delivers, as do the local mom & pop food shops. They seem to have a fleet of kids on motorbikes; and delivery usually takes no more than 10-15 minutes.

Expat Daily News.

The word Uruguay, coming from the Guaraní language, means "river of painted birds":

Translated into English, República Oriental del Uruguay becomes Oriental Republic of Uruguay; The Eastern Republic of Uruguay; or the Republic East of the Uruguay. The last is actually the only correct literal translation (though probably the least common), as it is named after its geographic location to the east of the Uruguay River. Because of the ambiguity in its meaning when translated, the government of Uruguay normally uses simply Uruguay in English.
...
[O]fficially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; Spanish: República Oriental del Uruguay pronounced [reˈpuβlika oɾjenˈtal del uɾuˈɣwai]) is a country located in the south eastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area. An estimated 88% of the population are of European descent.
...
The only documented inhabitants of Uruguay before European colonization of the area were the Charrúa, a small tribe driven south by the Guaraní of Paraguay.

The Spanish arrived in the territory of present-day Uruguay in 1516 but the people's fierce resistance to conquest, combined with the absence of gold and silver, limited their settlement in the region during the 16th and 17th centuries. Uruguay then became a zone of contention between the Spanish and the Portuguese empires. In 1603 the Spanish began to introduce cattle, which became a source of wealth in the region. The first permanent settlement on the territory of present-day Uruguay was founded by the Spanish in 1624 at Soriano on the Río Negro. In 1669–71 the Portuguese built a fort at Colonia del Sacramento. Spanish colonization increased as Spain sought to limit Portugal's expansion of Brazil's frontiers.
...
Colonia del Sacramento, one of Uruguay's oldest European settlements, was founded by the Portuguese in 1680. Montevideo was founded by the Spanish in the early 18th century as a military stronghold. Uruguay won its independence in 1811–28 following a three-way struggle between the claims of Spain, Argentina and Brazil.
...
Montevideo was founded by the Spanish in the early 18th century as a military stronghold. Its natural harbor soon developed into a commercial area competing with Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires. Uruguay's early 19th century history was shaped by ongoing fights between the British, Spanish, Portuguese, and other colonial forces for dominance in the Platine region. In 1806 and 1807 the British army attempted to seize Buenos Aires as part of the Napoleonic Wars. As a result Montevideo was occupied by a British force from February to September 1807.
...
In 1811 José Gervasio Artigas, who became Uruguay's national hero, launched a successful revolution against the Spanish authorities, defeating them on 18 May at the Battle of Las Piedras.
...
This led to the 500 day-long Argentina-Brazil War. Neither side gained the upper hand and in 1828 the Treaty of Montevideo, fostered by the United Kingdom, gave birth to Uruguay as an independent state. The nation's first constitution was adopted on 18 July 1830.
...
Uruguay is one of the most economically developed countries in South America, with a high GDP per capita.
...
Uruguay is rated as the 2nd least corrupt country in Latin America (behind Chile), although Uruguay scores considerably better than Chile on domestic polls of corruption perception. Its political and labour conditions are the highest level of freedom on the continent. It was the highest rated country in Latin America on Legatum's 2010 Prosperity Index. Reader's Digest ranked Uruguay as ninth "Most livable and greenest" country in the world, and first in all the Americas.
...
Uruguay was the first South American country to legalize same-sex and different-sex civil unions at a national level, and to allow gay adoption. Uruguay and Bolivia were the only countries in the Americas which did not go into recession (2 consecutive quarters of retraction) as a result of the Late-2000s financial crisis. Uruguay is reimbursed by the UN for the majority of its military spending, because the majority of its military is deployed as UN Peacekeepers. In 2009, Uruguay became the first nation in the world to provide every school child with a free laptop and wireless internet. Uruguay was the first nation in the Americas to test hemp cultivation.

Uruguay's only land border is with Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, to the north. To the west lie the Uruguay River and to the southwest lies the estuary of Río de la Plata with Argentina only a short commute across the banks of either of these bodies of water, while to the southeast lies the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean. Uruguay, with an area of approximately 176,000 square kilometres (68,000 sq mi

Uruguay's climate is relatively mild. Located entirely within the temperate zone Uruguay has a climate that is fairly uniform nationwide. Seasonal variations are pronounced, but extremes in temperature are rare. As would be expected by its abundance of water, high humidity and fog are common. The absence of mountains, which act as weather barriers, makes all locations vulnerable to high winds and rapid changes in weather as fronts or storms sweep across the country. Both summer and winter weather may vary from day to day with the passing of storm fronts where a hot northerly wind may occasionally be followed by a cold wind (pampero) from the Argentine Pampas.

Uruguay has a largely uniform temperature throughout the year, summer being tempered by winds off the Atlantic, and severe cold in winter is unknown. The heaviest precipitation occurs during the autumn months, although more frequent rainy spells occur in winter. The mean annual precipitation is generally greater than 40 inches (1,000 mm), decreasing with distance from the sea coast, and is relatively evenly distributed throughout the year.

The average temperature for the mid-winter month of July varies from 12 °C (54 °F) at Salto in the northern interior to 9 °C (48 °F) at Montevideo in the south.[5] The midsummer month of January varies from a warm average of 26 °C (79 °F) at Salto to 22 °C (72 °F) at Montevideo.[5] National extreme temperatures at sea level are, Paysandú city 44 °C (111 °F) (20 January 1943) and Melo city −11 °C (12.2 °F) (14 June 1967).
...
Uruguayans are of predominantly European origin with an estimated 88% of the population being of European descent. A 2008 survey by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) of Uruguay requesting the respondent to self-report their predominant ancestry (only one choice was allowed) found that 95.4% reported a predominant white ancestry, 3.4% Black or African, 1.1% Indigenous and 0.1% Asian or Amarillo ("yellow"). Another INE survey, also conducted in 2008, found that 10% reported having some degree of Black/African ancestry, 5.5% partial Indigenous, and 0.3% partial Asian ancestry.

Most Uruguayans of European ancestry are descendants of 19th and 20th century immigrants from Spain and Italy (about one-quarter of the population is of Italian origin)[7] and, to a much lesser degree, from France and Britain. Earlier settlers had migrated from Argentina and Paraguay. Few direct descendants of Uruguay’s indigenous peoples remain, and mestizos account for less than one-tenth of the population. People of African descent make up an even smaller proportion of the total.
...
Uruguay has no official religion, church and state are officially separated and religious freedom is guaranteed. A 2008 survey by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística of Uruguay gave Catholicism as the main religion, with 45.7% of the population, 9.0% are non-Catholic Christians, 0.6% are Animists or Umbandists (an Afro-Brazilian religion) and 0.4% Jewish. 30.1% reported believing in a god, but not belonging to any religion, while 14% were Atheist or Agnostic.
...
Uruguay [is] the most secular country in the Americas. Uruguay's secularization began with the relatively minor role of the church in the colonial era, compared with other parts of the Spanish Empire. The small numbers of Uruguay's Indians and their fierce resistance to proselytism reduced the influence of the ecclesiastical authorities.

After independence [In 1811} anticlerical ideas spread to Uruguay, particularly from France, further eroding the influence of the church. In 1837 civil marriage was recognized and in 1861 the state took over the running of public cemeteries. In 1907 divorce was legalized and in 1909 all religious instruction was banned from state schools.
...
A dense fluvial network covers the country, consisting of four river basins or deltas; the Río de la Plata, the Uruguay River, the Laguna Merín and the Río Negro. The major internal river is the Río Negro ('black river'). Several lagoons are found along the Atlantic coast.

The highest point in the country is the Cerro Catedral whose peak reaches to 514 metres (1,686 ft) AMSL in the Sierra Carapé hill range. To the southwest is the Río de Plata, the estuary of the Uruguay River which forms the western border, and the Paraná River.

Montevideo is the southernmost capital city in the Americas, and the third most southerly in the world (only Canberra and Wellington are further south).
...
From 1963 to 1985 an estimated 320,000 Uruguayans emigrated. By far the most popular destination for Uruguayan emigrants was Argentina followed by the United States, Australia, Spain, Brazil, and Venezuela. In 2009, for the first time in 44 years, the country saw an overall positive influx when comparing immigration to emigration. 3,825 residence permits were awarded in 2009, compared with 1,216 in 2005.[83] 50% of new legal residents come from Argentina and Brazil. A migration law passed in 2008 gives immigrants the same rights and opportunities that nationals have, with the requisite of proving a monthly income of $650.

Metropolitan Montevideo is the only large city and has around 1.3 million inhabitants. The rest of the urban population lives in about 20 towns. Uruguay is less densely populated than Argentina and Brazil
...
Uruguayan Spanish has some modifications due to the considerable number of Italian immigrants. Immigrants used to speak a mixture of Italian and Spanish known as 'cocoliche' and some of the words are still commonly used by the population.
...
The folk and popular music of Uruguay shares not only its gaucho roots with Argentina but also those of the tango. One of the most famous tangos, La Cumparsita (1917), was written by the Uruguayan composer Gerardo Matos Rodríguez.
...
Asado is a popular traditional dish in Uruguay, a kind of barbecued beef.

Beef is fundamental to Uruguayan cuisine and the country is one of the world’s top consumers of red meat per capita. Popular foods include beef platters, steak sandwiches (chivito), pastas, barbecued kidneys and sausages.

Locally produced soft drinks, beer, and wine are commonly served, as is clericó, a mixture of fruit juice and wine.[5] Uruguay and Argentina share a national drink called mate. Grappamiel, made with alcohol and honey, is served in the cold mornings of autumn and winter to warm up the body. Often locals can be seen carrying leather cases containing a thermos of hot water, the traditional hollowed gourd called a mate or guampa, a metal straw called a bombilla, and the dried yerba mate leaves. Sweet treats, including flans with dulce de leche and alfajores (shortbread cookies), are favourites for desserts or afternoon snacks.

Other Uruguayan dishes include: morcilla dulce, a type of blood sausage cooked with ground orange fruit, orange peel and walnuts; milanesa, a breaded veal cutlet similar to the Italian cotoletta; snacks such as olímpicos (club sandwiches), húngaras (spicy sausage in a hot dog roll), and masas surtidas (bite-sized pastries).
...
Motto: Libertad o muerte Spanish for "Liberty or Death".

Uruguay has the same population as Oregon (3.5 million) but is smaller: 68,037 sq mi. (Oregon is 96,000 sq mi.)

FAQs.

Uruguay has a large (and wealthy) expat community.

Expat forum on Immigration requirements.

Investing: Ease of Doing Business rank is 114 out of 183 countries, with Standard and Poor’ currency risk rating of BB-.

I haven't yet checked out commercial real estate.

Land in Uruguay is not cheap. The average price for a hectare (2.7 acres) of farmland in Uruguay during 2010 increased 13% and reached 2,650 US dollars.

There are some bargains (gambles?) Winery Plus Vineyards (12 Acres) $50,000.

42 acres for $155,000 with two buildings.

50 inches of rain a year spread throughout the year!

Estancias (cattle ranches):

Please view our current listings here farmland for sale Uruguay. An Estancia in Uruguay could be an alternative for you if the following aspects attract you :

- owning land that has real agricultural potential (as opposed to southern Europe where agriculture is hardly viable once subsedies stop)
- temperate climate, not tropical, but with distinct seasons, reverse to the northern hemisphere. Roughly a mediterranian climate with more summer rain.
- Rural estates with stately mediterranian, late 1800s, architecture (patio with well/cistern, wrough iron, high ceilings), elements you would expect from a historic cortijo in Andalucia. One needs patience to find one in Uruguay though.

Panagea estancia - pics of a real ranch.

Or maybe a polo ranch?

[T]he Polo heartland, a heaven for raising horses with mild climate and natural pasture year round.

Distance to Polo locations like Buenos Aires, Montevideo/Carrasco, Punta del Este is in the 1-3h drive range.

Or a hotel like ESTANCIA PARADA ARTEAGA.

One of the Easiest Countries to Gain Residency and Citizenship:

The income requirement is fulfilled by proving that you have a yearly income of at least US$6,000.
...
Uruguay does not require that you own property or have investments in the country, in order to grant residency. On the other hand, owning property does not eliminate the income requirement.

Punta del Este:

Just a one-hour flight from Buenos Aires, Punta del Este and surrounds are full of pristine Atlantic beaches, bronzed beauties, and great food.

Estancias for sale.

45% of the population lives in Montevideo. 70% of the population lives in the cities on the south coast such as Montevideo, Punta del Este and Piriopolis which remind me a lot of Durban in South Africa where I was born and raised.

Great amateur non-tourist pics here.

Anders Behring Breivik: Norway's McVeigh?

From the Daily Mail:

Police have said the Norwegian terror attacks do not appear to be linked to Islamist terrorism.

The 32-year-old Norwegian man arrested for gunning down children on the holiday island of Utoya has been named locally as Anders Behring Breivik.

Described as 6ft tall and blond, he is reported to have arrived on the island of Utoya and opened fire after beckoning several young people over in his native Norwegian tongue.

Reports suggest he was also seen loitering around the site of the bomb blast in Oslo two hours before the island incident.

From his Facebook page:

Director at Breivik Geofarm

Religion - Christian

Politics - Conservative

Sports - Hunting

Music - Classical

Books

William James

Consequences of Pragmatism

On Liberty

Nineteen Eighty-Four

The Trial

War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy)

The Iliad and the Odyssey

Critique of Pure Reason

The Prince

The Wealth of Nations

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

First Folio (Shakespeare)

Leviathan (Hobbes)

The Prince (Niccolò Machiavelli)

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

The Republic by Plato

Movies

Gladiator

300

Dogville

Television

Caprica

True Blood

Stargate Universe

Dexter

The Shield

Activities

Founding and developing organizations

Reading and Writing

Interests

Socializing

Traveling

Freemasonry

Working

Gaming

Partying

Fitness

He already has a Wikipedia page:

Anders Behring Breivik (born 13 February 1979) is suspected of being the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks. On 22 July 2011, he allegedly approached a Labour Party youth camp, posing as a police officer. He then proceeded to open fire on the 13 to 25 year old youth present, reportedly killing at least 10. He has also been linked with the bomb blast that took place approximately two hours earlier, and is now in police custody.

Behring studied at the Oslo Commerce School, and is described by newspaper Verdens Gang as Conservative and nationalist. He is also described as a one-time freemason. He expresses his sympathies for Winston Churchill and Norwegian anti-nazi World War II hero Max Manus on his alleged Facebook profile. He owns the company Breivik Geofarm.

PS I just went back to his FB page to confirm that he played World of War (or some such teenage crap like that) but the page has since been removed. I had a hunch that might happen which is why I copied and pasted so much from it. That was quick.

Top pic from his Facebook page; bottom pic, of him in his masonry drag, from the Daily Mail:

First job

Zoë Pollock has been posting emails from her readers about their "Lessons Learned On The Job":

This week readers remembered some of their first jobs and how it changed them.

Some of my favorites:

[M]y first job during high school was working at the Burger King near where I lived... It was the 1970's, also known as the age of total ugliness, and I wore a paper hat and a brown and orange striped polyester short sleeved tunic (with a plastic name tag, of course.) It was hot, greasy work but I loved that job.

It was a fresh start with people my age but not with all the baggage from my own school - no more outcast, as long as I worked hard I got respect and I got paid. And when you are young and feel trapped, money is freedom. OK I couldn't permanently flee the Island on the wages of a part-time job at Burger King but in a way my job at Burger King was my sanctuary from the turmoil in my teenage life...and I got paid!
...
After leaving college with a History degree and an overall lack of motivation I found myself working as a beer deliveryman for six years in Buffalo, NY. I had to lug cases and kegs of beer into some of the nastiest bars, restaurants and convenience stores around (try doing that in four feet of snow when it's two degrees outside). I was robbed more than once, my back ached daily and I spent hour after hour listening to people ask for "free samples." I hated every single day of my life during that time but look back on it now and really appreciate what that job did for me. The thought of spending the next 30 years on a beer truck made me get off my ass and go back to school to earn my teacher certification certificate. Whenever I hear a fellow teacher complain about how hard teaching is I just have to laugh. Compared to delivering 100 cases of 40 oz. malt liquor into the basement of a filthy neighborhood convenience store, teaching high school students in an air-conditioned room is a snap.
...
My first job was at McDonald's. My boss was a former drill sergeant, and he had some strong ideas about how things would be done. Every surface had to shine. No fingerprints anywhere. Everyone shared the jobs no one wanted: cleaning the bathrooms and picking up the trash on the lot. And women were not allowed to cook the burgers; grilling was a man's job. Other than that last nonsense, he gave me a great work ethic, and I never forgot what he taught me about self-respect: "You don't have to be proud of your job, but you must always be proud of your work."
...
Ten days before Christmas, I had the flu. I called my assistant manager only to learn that she also had the flu and therefore I was trumped on calling out sick. I got to the store and learned that the two clerks scheduled to work with me were also sick. I called around frantically and got one replacement to come in a couple of hours after we opened. By ten in the morning the small store was overflowing with people, the phone was ringing off the hook and I was alone. And that was when the people of Roxborough taught me a thing or two about decency and community.

First a woman that wanted her books gift-wrapped asked if she could just come behind the counter and do it herself rather than trouble me. Of course, I said. She was there for thirty minutes as she wrapped books for other customers, too. Other customers started helping each other find books they were looking for. The retired guys that always browsed the magazine rack while their wives ran errands elsewhere in the shopping center started joking around with customers to lighten the mood. One of them brought me a coffee. Around one in the afternoon one of my sick clerks stopped in after picking up antibiotics for his pneumonia at the pharmacy next door, looked around, and just put on his apron and started working. That whole day, no one complained, ever. It really might have been the best day I’ve had at any job in my life.
...
Back in college, I worked as a coat-man in a four-star restaurant in Washington, DC. The most interesting thing I learned is that I could predict - with a fair degree of accuracy - how much of a tip I would get, based on a person's coat. If the person had a regular jacket, they would always give a $1-2 dollar tip, without fail. But, if the woman had on a fur coat, one of two things would happen. About four out of every five of them would give no tip at all, regardless of the level of service. But the fifth one would give not only a $10 tip, but a big smile and a short conversation. A good chunk of those people would comment on how they remember working a similar job back when they were younger or in college.

So, lesson learned: If I ever make enough money to get my wife a fur coat, I'm also going to make sure my daughter works a customer service job to start. And I'll always tip the coat-guy.
...
But when I grew up and read biographies of successful people, they all said the same thing. Each one worked a different job -- waiter, car repairman, short order cook, paper delivery, day laborer, whatever. And each of these guys insisted that this is really the best education a young person could have and recommends that for everyone.

That's when it hit me -- it isn't the job that teaches you anything. After all, there are plenty of people who are or were waiters who never learned a damn thing from their job. It's whether you bothered to learn from whatever job you might have: Successful people learn lessons where ever they are. That's the difference.

Sadly most teens can't get these kinds of minimum-wage jobs anymore. Savvy businessmen are hiring seniors instead.

My first job, at the age of nine, was stamping envelopes in the local post office during the Christmas holidays. No, there were no machines to cancel stamps in those days. My palm ached constantly during the first week.

"I'm so sorry," said my mom.

"Grow up," said my dad.

I plodded on and was surprised that the pain went away.

On Christmas Eve I got my first paycheck which my dad asked to borrow - no doubt to pay off his gambling debts - and never repaid.

But it set me up for life.

There's nothing so certain as death and taxes

Several famous authors have uttered lines to this effect. The first was Daniel Defoe, in The Political History of the Devil, 1726:

"Things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believed."

Benjamin Franklin used the form we are currently more familiar with, in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy, 1789 (which was re-printed in The Works of Benjamin Franklin, 1817):

"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

Ryan Anderson:

The NRO web briefing and Yuval Levin draw our attention to today’s column by David Brooks. And rightly so. As Yuval points out, our modern pursuit of health as “the primary good” is making it almost impossible to prevent it “from overwhelming every other good” and bankrupting us in the process.

But there is an unsettling oddity about Brooks’ column. He opens by uncritically praising Dudley Clendinen’s essay, “The Good Short Life,” in The Times’s Sunday Review section. And he closes by recommending three other essays:

. . . let me provide links to three other essays, which offer other perspectives on why we should accept the finitude of life and the naturalness of death. They are: “Born Toward Dying,” by Richard John Neuhaus, “L’Chaim and Its Limits: Why Not Immortality?” by Leon Kass and “Thinking About Aging,” by Gilbert Meilaender.

But all three of these authors would firmly reject the central argument advanced by Clendinen: that his life will soon no longer be worth living:

I have a plan. If I get pneumonia, I’ll let it snuff me out. If not, there are those other ways. I just have to act while my hands still work: the gun, narcotics, sharp blades, a plastic bag, a fast car, over-the-counter drugs, oleander tea (the polite Southern way), carbon monoxide, even helium. That would give me a really funny voice at the end.

I have found the way. Not a gun. A way that’s quiet and calm.

I've come close to death three or four times and, according to the bible, I've only got another 6 years before I kick the bucket at the allotted span of three score and ten. So I'm getting a bit more sanguine about death every day.

It has also become clear to me that "dialectical materialism" (as Marx termed communism/socialism) is based on a fear of death - actually a fear of reality in all it's forms. Hence the fallacy that food, housing and "health-care" are rights along with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - as well as handsome husbands, obedient children, fluffy pets and gardens full of flowers, butterflies, rainbows and unicorns.

America is a state of mind

Gordon S. Wood :

For us Americans, the words of the Declaration have become central to our sense of nationhood. Because the United States is composed of so many immigrants and so many different races and ethnicities, we can never assume our identity as a matter of course. The nation has had to be invented. At the end of the Declaration, the members of the Continental Congress could only “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” There was nothing else but themselves that they could dedicate themselves to—no patria, no fatherland, no nation as yet. In comparison with the 235 year-old United States, many states in the world today are new, some of them created within fairly recent past. Yet many of these states, new as they may be, are under-girded by peoples who had a pre-existing sense of their ethnicity, their nationality. In the case of the United States, the process was reversed: We Americans were a state before we were a nation, and much of our history has been an effort to define that nationality.

Akim Reinhardt on patriotism:

As I’ve written elsewhere, I have never been one to make a show out of patriotism. It makes me uneasy. And much of that attitude I inherited from my father, which is perhaps ironic because in many ways he fits the profile of someone who would be likely to beat his chest while waving a flag. ... For my father, reality is streaked with a deep pride that comes from many generations of living in, believing in, and fighting and dying for the United States of America. What that has instilled within him is a quiet confidence about the nation, as opposed to an insecurity that needs to frequently and publicly assert itself.

I understand and sympathize. Who was it who said religion should be worn inside like underwear not outside on one's sleeve? I don't like public displays of religion but I actually enjoy public displays of patriotism even if the Declaration is my religion.

Ann Coulter: "How The Liberal Mob Is Endangering America"

I just saw her on the TV saying that she is sick of the Casey Anthony trial - as any sane person would be. I can't find a quote on the net but I paraphrase: "There should be a TV channel just for white trash; how they murder and rape each other and all that other crap that they do."

She sounded just like I did in my rant about white trash on welfare at the dinner table tonight.

When I was Googling to find her exact quote I came across these juicy quotes.

From HuffPo:

The conservative commentator raised some eyebrows in a new interview with "The Insider" co-host Kevin Frazier.

"I find it a little baffling when Americans get so gaga-eyed over a princess. In particular Lady Di, who was just this anorexic, bulimic narcissist," Coulter said.

Coulter, who was promoting her new book "Demonic: How The Liberal Mob Is Endangering America", has professed contempt for Diana and the Royal Family before.

In April, Coulter appeared on "The O'Reilly Factor" to call the late princess a "nitwit hussy" and said of the Royal Wedding: "It's totally embarrassing Americans cared about that."

She also said she was specifically going to be on a plane to France so she wouldn't have to watch William and Kate's nuptials.

Coulter did admit on her "Fox News" appearance that she looked up Kate Middleton and said, "She seems like a lovely woman, I feel sorry for the life she's signed on to."

If Ann were less skinny, less blond and less female, I'd marry her tomorrow.

From The View with Joy Behar:

HIRSCHHORN: In other words, the internet searches were in March. And then Caylee goes missing in June.

BEHAR: So? You`re planning. You`re planning.

LUDWIG: She used it as an informal babysitter. And maybe it went awry.

HIRSCHHORN: But the question, Joy, is what was the tipping point? What put her over the edge?

BEHAR: Ok.

LUDWIG: If there was a tipping point.

BEHAR: We`re covering this case every day. So maybe we`ll find out some truth tomorrow.

Thanks, guys, we`ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BEHAR: In her new book, Ann Coulter likens liberals to an angry mob trampling all over the countryside. That`s funny. Last time I saw a mob of liberals they were in Woodstock and they were passed out in the grass. The book is called "Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America." And Ann Coulter joins me now. So the mob, huh?

ANN COULTER, AUTHOR: The mob.

BEHAR: The demonic liberals. Well, you know, I`m Italian and I`m a liberal. Does that mean I belong to two mobs?

COULTER: Well, that`s why I didn`t call the book "Mob." It took me forever to come up with the title, because "Mob" would really be a great title. The other great title I really wanted for it because I start with a scene from the Bible where Jesus drives the demons out of -- out of a possessed man, and he says, Jesus says to the possessed man, what is your name? Speaking to the demon. And the demon responds, my name is Legion. So Legion would have been a great title, but I thought only Christians would understand that.

BEHAR: Legion.

COULTER: And "Mob" would sound like I`m talking about the mob.

BEHAR: No, Legion sounds like you`re talking about the American Legion.

COULTER: Right. Right. French Foreign Legion.

BEHAR: Yes.

COULTER: The idea is that liberals are a mob, they have the psychological characteristics of the mob --

BEHAR: How?

COULTER: Sometimes launching out into actual literal mobs. And mobs are always bad things.

BEHAR: But you know, I said to you when you were on "The View" the other day that the Tea Party is more of a mob than the liberals.

COULTER: No.

BEHAR: I don`t see the mob. You know, I --

COULTER: Well, look, just today you had -- was it today or yesterday? The union protesters in Wisconsin are disrupting Special Olympics so that they can protest the Republican governor.

BEHAR: I see. So a mob to you is a group of protesters.

COULTER: No, no, no, no. The first like third of the book is on the psychological mob. And that more has to do with how liberals argue, how they easily accept contradictions, how they create messiahs -- Obama, Clinton, JFK, RFK --

BEHAR: What about the Republican Party? They seem to create saints. Ronald Reagan.

COULTER: The closest one, which is the one I looked at, and this is more of a whitewashed memories now, would be Ronald Reagan. But A, it`s based on his record, not before he`s even done anything and just says hope and change, and oh, I`m having sex dreams about him.

BEHAR: But you know, I think that`s so unfair -- so unfair to Obama because Obama came in with a big problem from the Bush years. And you have to admit it. Admit it.

COULTER: No, but what I`m saying --

BEHAR: Admit it, Ann. Come on. Admit it.

(CROSSTALK)

BEHAR: Just admit that one thing and I`ll let you talk the rest of the time.

COULTER: No, because you`re going to trick me into talking about the economy again, and once again we`ll drive away the viewers.

BEHAR: I don`t want to talk about the economy. It`s too boring.

COULTER: But that`s not what I`m talking about, whether he inherited a problem. What I`m saying is, he hadn`t done anything yet. The love for Reagan, to the extent you`d call it love, is based on an eight-year record, not on a presidential campaign, point one.

But point two, as I describe in the book, I went through Lexis Nexis throughout the eight years of the Reagan administration. Reagan wasn`t even the most popular conservative his first year in office. His favorite newspaper, my newspaper, "Human Events," was attacking him so much that the "Washington Post" reported that Reagan met the editors and said, well, I`m still reading you guys but I`m liking it a lot less.

(CROSSTALK)

COULTER: Liberals drink Obama`s bathwater.

BEHAR: That`s so ridiculous.

COULTER: There have been articles about how women are having sex dreams about Bill Clinton. They are having -- in the "New York Times," Judith Warner, having sex dreams about Obama. And don`t act surprised by that.

BEHAR: So what? So what`s wrong with that?

COULTER: I promise you I am not having sex dreams about Dwight Eisenhower.

BEHAR: Yes, but I had them about President Taft.

(LAUGHTER)

BEHAR: You know how fat he was, President Taft? They had to make a special bathtub for him. Did you know that?

COULTER: Yes, I did.

BEHAR: You don`t want any fat guys in the White House.

COULTER: No, no, no, it`s part of what makes me think that a Chris Christie 2012 presidency could --

BEHAR: I know you love him, don`t you?

COULTER: Yes, I do.

BEHAR: I asked you on "The View --"

COULTER: He could use the Taft bathtub.

BEHAR: I asked you on "The View" if you were a chubby chaser because you love Christie so much. But you know, New Jersey`s starting to turn on him. He cut the education budget so severely. What, is he going to have Snooki as secretary of state when he`s president? Come on, nobody will be able to read anymore in New Jersey.

COULTER: He`s not going to have Snooki as the secretary of state. That is a mob technique of making up some story that has nothing to do with the facts.

BEHAR: Wait a second. As if you don`t. Give me a god -- give me a break here.

(CROSSTALK)

BEHAR: You make up so many things in this book. You make up so many things--

COULTER: Like what?

BEHAR: I`m plugging it while I`m yelling at you.

COULTER: Thank you. Good work.

BEHAR: That`s the kind of girl I am. I`m so nice.

COULTER: Thank you.

BEHAR: I mean, other things I found (ph) out (ph). Tea Party violence.

COULTER: Right.

BEHAR: A brick was thrown through the window of the district office of Democratic Representative Louise Slaughter in Niagara Falls.

COULTER: I remember that. They don`t know who did it.

BEHAR: Oh, who did it. Not the Democrats. Not the liberals. She`s a Democrat.

COULTER: OK, but in the cases I give of liberals, for example, biting off a finger of a Tea Partier, there are eyewitnesses, they know who we`re looking for. When Kenneth Gladmey (ph) was beaten up at the Tea Party in St. Louis, they were six arrests. They were all SEIU guys. Just because a Democrat has a brick thrown through a window, there are a lot of bricks thrown through Republican congressional windows.

BEHAR: This is one of my favorites, though.

COULTER: We need a suspect or an actual arrest.

BEHAR: OK. Whatever. This is good. Representative James Clyburn said he received a fax with an image of a noose. I thought it said moose. I thought Sarah Palin must have sent it. But it says noose. That wasn`t nice. Somebody cut the gas line --

COULTER: But you don`t know who did it.

BEHAR: Oh, it`s all around the same time that they were protesting Obamacare.

COULTER: Oddly enough they`ve never actually traced such an attack back --

BEHAR: Oh, if it walks like a duck and it talks like a duck --

COULTER: No, no, no, no. In fact, I would say after all of the many, many false accusations of racism from Tawanna Brawley up to Duke lacrosse to claims that conservatives were yelling the N word 15 times at Democrats, all of them turning out to be false, I don`t believe the noose was sent by a conservative. I think you start with the presumption these days that the racist act is a hoax, and then, you know, if you produce proof, I`ll change my mind.

BEHAR: The thing that you do, Ann, is that you find what will support your argument and then you write a book about it.

COULTER: Well, of course I find what supports my argument.

BEHAR: You don`t have two points of view on the situation. No, you do not.

COULTER: No, I disagree. Look, I told you, I considered your point, which I think is the best point that can be made of whom conservatives would at all come close to worshiping like a messiah the way liberals worship Clinton, Obama, Hillary --

BEHAR: But it`s such a--

COULTER: I looked at it. I went through -- look, it takes me a week to go through eight years of Nexis to see how Reagan was being written about. And it`s simply not true. He was not treated as some sort of idol. It was always conservatives angry at him.

BEHAR: So it`s after the fact he`s being canonized now.

COULTER: Not that much.

BEHAR: Oh, come on, you cannot turn on a conservative personality (ph) on television without them quoting Ronald Reagan did this, did this, and did this. Even his son doesn`t canonize him the way Fox TV does.

COULTER: Look, some conservatives may have some mob attributes in a small way.

BEHAR: Oh, boy, what a concession.

COULTER: No, no, no, no. But like I say, we admire him for his record. It`s not that we want to have sex with him or drink his bathwater. And the other point is often Reagan is brought up because you`re contrasting him with the candidates we`re dealing with now.

BEHAR: This other thing --

COULTER: And it`s to say --

(CROSSTALK)

BEHAR: This other thing you said about Obama, people want to sleep him and President Clinton. Who would you rather? President Clinton or Mitch McConnell? Tell the truth.

COULTER: I actually think that -- I`ve never understood the thing with Bill Clinton. I think he is a butterball--

BEHAR: So you`d actually rather sleep with Mitch McConnell?

COULTER: No, that isn`t my choice.

(CROSSTALK)

COULTER: The two that I think are about the same are Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton. I find them equally unsexual.

BEHAR: Oh, no. Wait a second.

COULTER: I find each of them saltpeter.

BEHAR: Newt Gingrich looks like Chucky.

COULTER: Yes, as does chubby Bill Clinton, whose greatest moments on the football field involved a saxophone. He was locked in his gym locker throughout high school. Those are always the politicians who cheat, by the way.

BEHAR: No, but Clinton has a certain side about him that`s kind of sexy. I can see it.

COULTER: Oh, and you told me you don`t create messiahs.

BEHAR: No, he`s not a messiah. He`s just a sex object.

COULTER: I promise you, no conservative would say that even about Reagan. And he was a movie star.

BEHAR: Well, he wasn`t that sexy though.

COULTER: My point is being proved.

BEHAR: I thought George Bush Jr. had some sex appeal. How do you like that? Stopped in her tracks.

COULTER: I promise you conservatives were not having sex dreams about him.

BEHAR: Well, maybe I do. You say that liberals belittle their opponents. But then you --

COULTER: No, no.

BEHAR: Yes, that`s what you say.

COULTER: No, I don`t. Because I belittle my opponents. I promise you I`ll cop to that. I ridicule them. No, what I say, and it`s not me, I`m ghosting Gustave Le Bon, the father of groupthink, describing--

BEHAR: Who?

COULTER: Gustave Le Bon.

BEHAR: Did you date him?

COULTER: He wrote this in 1896, and I`m old but I`m not that old. No, when he goes through -- that`s the first like third of the book, using his description of groupthink characteristics, the mob psychology, and comparing it to today`s liberals.

No, what he says is a mob will very quickly go from infatuation to hatred. They turn their leaders into messiahs. And they turn those they disagree with into enemies. That`s not -- you don`t belittle an enemy. You create hatred for an enemy.

BEHAR: I guess I see a mobster like Sharron Angle to me was a mobster. She`s provocative. She will cause a mob to--

COULTER: Sharron Angle, like so many things that get talked about in the mainstream media, I`m trying to think how to put this, Sharron Angle --

BEHAR: You know what she did? Let me tell you what she did to me.

COULTER: Wait.

(CROSSTALK)

COULTER: This point will be interesting to you. Sharron Angle, Sarah Palin, and the birthers are talked about more on the liberal networks than on the conservative networks.

BEHAR: Because they don`t want to go there on the conservative networks because they know they`re talking about some mental midgets over there.

COULTER: Whereas you all -- you all dis the great Chris Christie, ignore him, talk about that one little helicopter thing.

BEHAR: Oh, you mean -- where is he now, at a buffet? OK. Her book is called "Demonic: How the Liberals" -- that was wrong of me.

COULTER: I hope so.

BEHAR: I take it back. "The Liberal Mob is Endangering America." How about Ann Coulter is endangering America? We`ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

If was stuck with Behar on a desert island, I'd seriously consider using her as fishing bait - keep her alive tied to a coconut tree while I snipped hook-sized pieces off her. Live bait always works better. What a hideous harpy!

From Ann's website:

Of all the details surrounding the liberal mob attack on Glenn Beck and his family in New York's Bryant Park last Monday night, one element stands out. "No, it won't be like that, Dad," his daughter said when Beck questioned the wisdom of attending a free, outdoor movie showing in a New York park.

People who have never been set upon by a mob of liberals have absolutely no idea what it's like to be a publicly recognizable conservative. Even your friends will constantly be telling you: "Oh, it will be fine. Don't worry. Nothing will happen. This place isn't like that."

Liberals are not like most Americans. They are the biggest pussies on Earth, city-bred weaklings who didn't play a sport and have never been in a fight in their entire lives. Their mothers made excuses for them when they threw tantrums and spent way too much time praising them during toilet training.

I could draw a mug shot of every one of Beck's tormentors, and I wasn't there.

Beck and his family would have been fine at an outdoor rap concert. They would have been fine at a sporting event. They would have been fine at any paid event, mostly because people who work for the government and live in rent-controlled apartments would be too cheap to attend.

Only a sad leftist with a crappy job could be so brimming with self-righteousness to harangue a complete stranger in public.

A liberal's idea of being a bad-ass is to say vicious things to a conservative public figure who can't afford to strike back. Getting in a stranger's face and hurling insults at him, knowing full well he has too much at risk to deck you, is like baiting a bear chained to a wall.

They are not only exploiting our lawsuit-mad culture, they are exploiting other people's manners. I know I'll be safe because this person has better manners than I do.

These brave-hearts know exactly what they can get away with. They assault a conservative only when it's a sucker-punch, they outnumber him, or he can't fight back for reasons of law or decorum.

I'm not a Beck fan. I'm just not a TV/radio talking-heads fan. They're all semi-educated and have come late to the truth. I just don't have the patience for their half-baked ideas...but there's no doubting that he's a decent man.

Ann, however, is a different kettle of fish. She's actually educated and she's funny as hell. I love her to bits.