Vox Popoli

MM doesn’t want Big Brother’s protective fist:

I read your article, “Stay single, young man!”. I have only been introduced to the Libertarian mindset within the past two years and I must say, I agree with much of it. I am very curious as to what the legal (or any other) implications, or possible repercussions, are if I were to take the “unlegalized” (for lack of a better term) marriage route. It is my firm belief that government has no place in marriage, and I do not welcome its interference into mine. I would really appreciate any information you could send my way and also your own wisdom concerning the matter at hand. I am a young lady who wants the most God-honoring marriage possible, and this is one area I’ve been pondering about for quite some time. Thanks for addressing it!!

I’m no lawyer and I’m not in the mood to consider legalities for fun today – had enough of that over the last few days in my real job – so if anyone is up for playing out this scenario, have at it.

Most financial commentators are excited about yesterday’s sizable rally in the equity markets, thinking it a sign that the Bull has returned. Of course, since most financial commentators are credulous fools with no sense of history, they are completely wrong.

It may be counterintuitive, but sharp, powerful rallies are actually a very bad sign for the stock market. Consider that since May 1, 2002, there have been 30 days wherein the Dow closed at a 2 percent gain or more, including yesterday. 12 of those big rally days occurred in the 113 trading days from May 1 to October 10, 2002, when the Dow went from 10,059.63 to 7,181.87, losing almost a third of its value, a big rally ratio of 10.62 percent.

Of the other 18 that occurred in almost three years of post-October recovery, five occurred within the first eight days of the intermediate-term October 10 low, with six more in the next three months. These 18 big rally days have been amassed in 637 trading days, for a big rally ratio of 2.83 percent.

Furthermore, the average big rally when the trend is down is 3.6 percent, whereas the up-trand big rally averages only 2.29 percent if one excludes the first two days of the rebound. Therefore, unless yesterday’s performance is followed and surpassed by larger rallies over the next week, one must conclude that yesterday’s big day is a powerful confirmation that the bear market has resumed and it is time to exit your long positions.

In summary, big rally days cannot be considered indicative of bull markets or intermediate-term recoveries, except at the immediate beginning when they occur in rapid progression.

There’s been a lot of email like this today, thanks to the Lew Rockwell link. Note to PR’s kids – don’t make a big deal about your parents’ 50th anniversary!

Could I perhaps comment on your article ‘Stay Single Young Man’. Sadly I am not a young man and have been married for probably longer than you have been alive. However, your sentiments and message are something I emphatically support. I feel desperate for young men and want them so much not to make the same mistake as I did. Those I meet I try to warn but it is a uphill task. All I can do is to tell them and you that there is nothing in marriage for a man. You might ask why I did it. My answer is that it was not my idea. I was just maneuvered and coerced into what was expected without wanting it at all. Men are easily manipulated when they are in their twenties and suffering from being sexually charged.

Being married is like having your own private torturer. It is the death of your very self as you become no more than a wage earner put to the task of supporting a womans dreams. Of course the man always fails – forever condemned for being inadequate in only providing ninety percent of what is being demanded.

I know that not all marriages turn out like this, but it is important for young men to understand that many do. Also, the changes our society has undergone has greatly improved the chances that you will never be capable of providing the woman you marry with the happiness she believes is hers by right.

This quote which purports to be from a woman’s discussion forum may help demonstrate that your expectations and hers are unlikely to be in perfect alignment: “My second husband and I were pregnant and happy. He has 3 children from a prior marriage, and all seemed peaceful. His ex wife, upon learning he was having a child with me engaged an attorney and upped the child support to the point where half of his income after taxes is being paid to her.

Now, instead of being able to stay home with my new daughter, I will have to go to work to support her. And if it ever goes bad in my marriage, I will receive very little support…. This is what I am thinking. Maybe just cash out now, sell the house at some point, and let him pay until the inheritance hits. In the meantime, I can remarry, after a little “playtime”. I do feel like he promised me happiness and now it is all just sadness and I have to work.

Notice that he didn’t actually promise her happiness, but the mere feeling that he did is rationalization for a divorce. This guy can certainly pick them, can’t he! So, cheer up, PR, it quite obviously could be worse.

The New York Times reports on what they’re learning in the public schools:

harges filed yesterday against a math teacher in Brooklyn were the latest in a string of five cases said to have involved criminal or inappropriate behavior by school employees that have stunned parents and school officials.

The teacher, Joanna Hernandez, 27, surrendered to face misdemeanor charges of kissing one of her students, a 15-year-old boy, in an empty classroom at Intermediate School 55 in Brownsville during school hours, the police said.

How very shocking! Again! The inability of parents to pay any attention whatsoever to what’s going on in their children’s schools is astounding. The great appreciation expressed by those living in a wealthy Minneapolis neighborhood for a new school in their area – none of them actually know anything about the curriculum, but the brick is pretty and the teachers are all SO very nice – was not even dented when one of the school’s most highly regarded teachers was recently arrested for attempted murder.

This isn’t denial, it’s indifference. I don’t know how I can put this any more plainly. If your child is in a public school for any reason except your poverty,you’re either clueless or uncaring. And no, you almost surely don’t love your child as much as those who are willing to put them ahead of the leased BMW, the new Toyota minivan or the twice-yearly vacations.

A Hitchhiker’s review, courtesy of the OC:

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie is bad. Really bad. You just won’t believe how vastly, staggeringly, jaw-droppingly bad it is. I mean, you might think that The Phantom Menace was a hopelessly misguided attempt to reinvent a much-loved franchise by people who, though well-intentioned, completely failed to understand what made the original popular – but that’s just peanuts to the Hitchhiker’s movie. Listen.

And so on…

It’s bad on a big scale because enormous swathes of the story have been dispensed with – most of the Guide entries, whole scenes – or changed beyond all recognition. And it is bad on a small scale because many, many wonderful lines have been cut or in some cases actually rewritten to make them less funny. Whatever your favourite line from Hitchhiker’s, there’s a good chance that it won’t be in the film. Even if it’s really well-known, widely-quoted, much-loved, very funny – it will probably be absent from the movie. Or if it is there, it might have been changed.

I cannot even describe how deeply I loathe Hollywood. The baseless arrogance of those cretinous idiots who think they can tell a story better than the master storytellers is just sickening.

Thank God for Peter Jackson. He alone has proved himself worthy of his source material.

So, we got our first robot this week. If you think marriage was in trouble thanks to homosexual nuptuals, well, Western civilization hasn’t seen anything yet. This fat, oversized frisbee does a better job of vaccuuming a room than I’d expected; if it isn’t necessarily up to female expectations of housecleanliness, well, neither am I.

A little bit of preparation goes a long way, and even if it has a tough time with the larger dust bunnies – which in all fairness should more rightly be designated mutant dust hares on steroids – as Space Bunny pointed out, the ease of letting Roomba do her little robot dance means that they’re less likely to build up in the first place.

Even if it didn’t work, the entertainment value is surprisingly high, especially if you factor in the inclusion of an increasingly alarmed 95-pound Ridgeback among the spectators. But it does work, and I’m now eagerly anticipating the inevitable introduction of Moppa, a Roomba companion with soap-and-water functionality.

We actually have a household robot. How cool is that!

I can’t believe I haven’t commented on this yet. Probably because the boys have been talking of nothing else for the last two weeks. And speaking of the only NFL quarterback more overrated than Donovan McNabb, is there anything better to have come out of this offseason than the Ron Mexico saga? I think not.

I’m putting Ron Mexico on my Vikings jersey this year to go with my funky new Vikings socks. I’m logging on to every stupid web site as Ron Mexico from now on. I may write my next novel as “Ron Mexico”. I’m changing my name, Space Bunny’s name and my dog’s name to Ron Mexico, Ronda Mexico and Ronaldinho Mexico.

Ron Mexico is cool, and by cool, I mean totally sweet!

Man, oh man, the boys in the MFL are going to beat this one into the ground until a little man in China turns to his wife and says: “What is that geyser? And who is Ron Mexico?” I CANNOT wait!

Ron Mexico. Oh, where is Phil Hartman when you need him? YES!

Regular readers may recall my theory that while Rush Limbaugh was right about Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles being overrated, he was wrong as to why. It’s not possible for McNabb to be overrated simply because he’s black, since Daunte Culpepper of the Vikings is STILL underrated despite his monster season last year.

Yes, the Eagles beat the Vikings in the playoffs, but consider what would have happened had the defenses been reversed.

I argued then that the real reason is that players, especially quarterbacks, from the NFC East are always overrated, because that’s the division that the New York and Washington media follow. As proof of this concept, I offer Don Banks’ Sports Illustrated column on team-by-team needs.

One guess as to which division pops up first….

Remember how I mentioned that you can usually tell what Ms Michelle Malkin is going to write about ahead of time? Well, I happened to read her column for the first time in months and I was simply shocked to see her come out strongly against forcing oral sex on handicapped schoolgirls. Be sure to tune in next week when she takes ferocious stands against gassing Jews and stealing candy from babies.

But like most neoconservatives, MSM doesn’t actually have anything to say on the issue. She simply recounts a specific example of what is not exactly a new problem – bad things happen in public schools – without ever coming within a gun-free zone’s range of the logical conclusion recommended by the estimable Fred Reed, namely, free the kids, raze the architectural monstrosities and issue hunting licenses on educators.

Never fear. In about fifteen years, we can expect this ever-timely faux conservative to discover the hot new phenomenon of homeschooling.

German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the strict defender of Catholic orthodoxy for the past 23 years, was elected Pope on Tuesday despite a widespread assumption he was too old and divisive to win election.

He took the name Benedict XVI, a cardinal announced to crowds in St. Peter’s Square after white smoke from the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel chimney and the pealing of bells from St. Peter’s Basilica announced that a new pope had been chosen….

Ratzinger’s stern leadership of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the modern successor to the Inquisition, delighted conservative Catholics but upset moderates and other Christians whose churches he described as deficient.

And his three most powerful weapons are…