CriWulf

Resolved

2005-04-01T09:41:00.000-08:00

Well Terri Schiavo died. I don’t know if I feel sad, relieved, or numb. I really don’t know why this has caught the imagination of the country so. After all thousands of people died in the two weeks we watched her die. I heard somewhere that the reason she was so special is that while thousands of other people died she was the only one who starved to death with a 63% approval rating. This brings the whole “culture of death” thing to a head. More thoughts on that later. I just have to sort this thing out in my own head.

Quote for Today

2005-03-23T16:38:00.000-08:00

"[T]he opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what are not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch." – Thomas Jefferson

P.O.D.

2005-03-23T13:26:00.000-08:00

I have not been posting on the Terri Schiavo story because with all that was going on back and forth there did not seem to be much that I could add. Also, like many I was torn between my great love of the concept of federalism and states rights and my belief in the sanctity of innocent human life. Also it is difficult to try and separate the personalities involved from the historical premise that we don’t stick our nose into affairs between a husband and wife. Certainly Terri’s parents and siblings have come across as much more compassionate with their offer to take over the care of her as her husband Michael who wants her in the ground post haste.
In a sworn affidavit, registered nurse Carla Sauer Iyer, who worked at the Palm Garden of Largo Convalescent Center in Largo, Fla., while Terri Schiavo was a patient there, testified: "Throughout my time at Palm Gardens, Michael Schiavo was focused on Terri's death. Michael would say 'When is she going to die?' 'Has she died yet?' and 'When is that bitch gonna die?'"
Now being an insensitive spouse does not automatically preclude one from exercising one’s spousal responsibilities and rights but all things considered Mike Schiavo could use a good PR specialist.
Personally if he sees Terry as just a deceased piece of meat I don’t know why Mike Schiavo does not just have the marriage annulled and let her mom and dad spend the rest of their life taking care of their daughter. It’s no skin off his teeth and then he can go on with his life. It almost seems like he is doing this for spite and if so he is mean to the level of revulsion. In that case I can only feel delight that the odds of my path crossing that of Michael Schiavo are insignificant.
And now let’s get to the extraordinary part of this political quandary.
I think it is pretty obvious why the GOP is so adamant in its attempt to get the feeding tube reattached. As hard as it is for others to understand, we just have this thing for innocent human life. I know, I know, the folks on the left feel that Dubya, Brother Jeb, and the Bible thumpers on Capital Hill are all cynically “playing to their base” or have no clue and are “totally out of the mainstream” of American thought. Well 1) I thought that the object of voting for a candidate was to see your views and values represented in the government and 2) if the GOP is in the process of committing political suicide by rebuking the American public’s views then you would think the left would shut up, stand back, and enjoy the spectacle. I have this sneaky feeling that a bit of projecting is going on here. I think that even the hint of a suggestion that there even was such a thing as innocent human life would send a good part of the Democrat base into full hyperventilation mode. And speaking of ventilation it is amazing amazing how ABC News had to twist and distort there opinion poll to make it appear that Terri was on life sustaining medical equipment when all she needed was food and water.
I know, I know, you can posit that her feeding tube is life sustaining medical equipment but make it broad enough and the Del Taco down the street is my life sustaining medical equipment. The Democrats are frightened that on the one hand if they say that Terri has a right to life, then they will have to imagine the notion that there is a “right to life”. Horrors! If on the other hand they continue this concept that life is only permissible if it does not inconvenience a specific other family member then they run the risk of being designated the “Party of Death”. And trust me I would much rather be the GOP candidate than the POD candidate.
Well perhaps I can be magnanimous. After all the successes Dubya and the neo-cons have had lately in the Middle East perhaps it’s time for our friends on the left to have a success that they can point to with pride. I am sad to say that unless things change quickly Terri will die and Mike Schiavo and the Party of Death will have something to smile over.Sorry for all the grammatical errors but I don’t have time to proofread and I had to blow off steam.

Do the math

2005-03-09T14:33:00.000-08:00

The Democrats state that there is two reasons that the president is wrong proposing personal social security account contributions is that 1 there is no problem with social security and 2 that private accounts will not fix the problem that they say does not exist.
Well they are at least half right. Personal accounts will not save social security because the truth is that nothing will save social security. The reason for the personal savings accounts is to enable young people to have some hope that they will have some form of financial security after retirement because they won’t get any meaningful help from social security. I have heard that the state lottery is nothing more than a tax on people who don’t understand math. Social security is not only a tax on people who don’t understand math; it is also a tax on people who do understand math. The sad fact is that people who do understand math still have to pay under penalty of prison. At least with the lottery there is a small, infinitely, minute, microscopic chance that you will break even. There is mathematically absolutely no chance that a young worker will get back that entire amount that he or she puts into the system.

Way to go Steve

2005-03-03T12:19:00.000-08:00

Bravo Steve Fossett for flying solo around the world without refueling or stopping! Let's take a look at some other records:

First successful heavier-than-air machine flight. (Orville Wright)
First airplane maneuvers. (Orville Wright)
First airplane flight over half an hour. (Orville Wright)
First airplane fatality. (Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge) You take the bad with the good.
First International Aviation Competition Winner. (Glenn Curtiss, Gordon Bennett Cup)
First flight from shipboard. (Lt. Eugene Ely, USN)
First parachute jump from a powered airplane. (Albert Berry)
First transatlantic flight. (The NC-4, one of four Curtiss flying boats commanded by Lt. Comdr. Albert C. Read)
First free-fall parachute jump. (Leslie Irvin)
First round-the-world flight. (Four Douglas Cruiser biplanes under command of Maj. Frederick Martin)
First polar flight - North Pole. (Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd)
First solo nonstop transatlantic flight. (Charles Lindbergh)
First transatlantic passenger. (Charles A. Levine)
First of the endurance record (150 hr. 40 min) – First in-flight refueling. (Maj. Carl Spaatz in command and Capt. Ira Eaker as chief pilot)
First blind flight. (No it wasn’t Stevie Wonder, it was James H. Doolittle taking off and landing on instruments only)
First South Pole flight. (Comdr. Richard E. Byrd) I guess he was a bipolar kind of guy.
First nonstop transpacific flight. (Hugh Herndon and Clyde Pangborn)
First woman's transatlantic solo. (Amelia Earhart)
First round-the-world solo. (Wiley Post)
First piloted supersonic flight in an airplane. (Capt. Charles E. Yeager)
First round-the-world nonstop flight. (Capt. James Gallagher)
First nonstop transatlantic jet flight. (Col. David C. Schilling)
First solo across North Pole. (Charles F. Blair Jr.)
First transatlantic helicopter flight. (Capt. Vincent H. McGovern and 1st Lt. Harold W. Moore)
First transcontinental round trip in same day. (Lt. John M. Conroy)
First round-the-world nonstop jet plane flight. (Maj. Gen. Archie J. Old, Jr.)
First successful human-powered aircraft. (Paul MacCready)
First successful transatlantic balloon flight. (Ben Abruzzo, Larry Newman, and Maxie Anderson)
First nonstop transcontinental balloon flight, (Maxie and Kris Anderson)
First solo transatlantic balloon flight. (Joe W. Kittinger) I served with this guy before he was shot down.
First nonstop flight around the world without refueling. (Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager)
First solo transpacific balloon flight. (Steve Fossett)
First solo nonstop round-the-world balloon flight. (Steve Fossett)

Want to know what these all have in common? Yup, they are all American. OK before you get your knickers in a bunch, I will be the first to agree that aviation owes much to non American flyers and engineers. I am only making the observation that the lion’s share of inventions and advances have been made by Americans and if you include fellow Anglophones, and members of the coalition on the willing, the UK and Australia the remaining aeronautic pathfinders shrivels even more.
Why is this? No it’s not the water.
Bill Whittle knows and so can you. Check it out at Trinity part 1 and Trinity part 2.

Vox Blogoli 2.2

2005-02-25T10:57:00.000-08:00

It is pretty obvious that the first Justice that President Bush will be replacing is Chief Justice Rehnquist. I believe that Justice Rehnquist only stayed on to be sure that his replacement would be made by a republican and that he would be able to swear in one more commander-in chief. Job done on both counts.
So this is where it gets interesting for the democrats. Justice Rehnquist is a solid conservative. That means that his replacement, whether from an existing justice or a new nominee, can be just as conservative without changing the flavor of the court.
This is the way I think it will play out. Justice Rehnquist steps down and President Bush goes to his conservative bench of Justices Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas. My money is on Justice Thomas. He is the younger of the two and in this post Lewinsky world Anita Hill is about a dated as a Ross Perot campaign button. Also after nominating the first black Secretary of State and the first black woman Secretary of State, how about the first black Chief Justice. Unfortunately Barbara Boxer is not on the Senate Judiciary Committee so we won’t be able to see the profound lack of grey matter she exhibited at the confirmation hearing of Condi Rice. I am constantly amazed that my beloved Senator Boxer has the IQ to digest food. Well hopefully we can get her on some of the Sunday news shows. We can only hope.
Back to the court. Because this is a zero sum ideology game the president should use this opportunity to put a solid conservative like Judge Michael Luttig on the court. The democrats will scream but replacing a conservative with a conservative leaves them little to do but puff and fume. The real challenge will be if Justice Sandra Day O’Connor or Justice John Paul Stevens retire. Justice O’Connor has been a weather vane and has usually been the 5th vote on 5-4 decisions. If she could be replaced by a solid conservative woman like California Supreme Court Justice Janice R. Brown would be wonderful. She is also a great success story of an African American woman growing up in the segregated south. She would be a dream come true and make the 5-4 split permanently center right.
As for Justice Stevens even a moderate appointment would be an improvement. Appointed by President Ford he turned out to be Ford’s Edsel. A solid activist liberal the democrats will fight to the death to keep his seat a solid left wing slot. If the republicans go for the “nuclear option” it will probably be then.

Hello Hugh Hewitt fans. Make yourself at home.

Social insecurity

2005-02-23T10:49:00.000-08:00

Thomas Sowell brought up a point in the social security debate that I had not thought of. Increasing the social security withholding tax today would actually increase the burden on our children and grandchildren down the road. I know that sounds counter intuitive but this is how it works.
As you probably know the social security administration takes in more money in taxes than it sends out in benefit checks. That has been the way it has been from the time it was first crated. It is expected to be this way until around 2017 when benefit payments will exceed social security tax receipts. This excess money can’t be just put away in a so-called “locked box” because that would remove that money from circulation causing the economy to slow down due to deflation. The government is precluded by statute to loan or invest the excess cash in the private economy. The only entity it can loan it to is itself. Therefore the federal government buys bonds from the social security administration equaling the amount of the excess tax received. It then takes this money and puts it into the general fund to be spent on roads, schools, and aircraft carriers. That returns the money back into circulation and the economy keeps humming along.
The problem is that in 2017, or there abouts, the amount of money going out in benefit checks will exceed the amount of money coming in in payroll taxes. At that time the social security administration will start demanding the federal government start paying back all of the money that it borrowed from FDR until now when it bought those bonds. That means that it must take the money that it was planning to spend on roads, schools, and aircraft carriers and send it to the social security administration instead. That means that if our children and grandchildren still want to have said roads, schools, and aircraft carriers, then they will have to pay more of their income in taxes and less on things like food, housing, and clothing. You may say that we should pay the benefits, pay for the roads, and still allow our grandkids to feed their families by just printing more money. Well if too little money in circulation is bad, then too much money in circulation is horrendous. Germany in the 1920 tried to pay off the billions of dollars of reparations owed after World War I and still pay for schools, roads, and such by printing more money. The hyper-inflation that resulted caused the value of the Mark to decrease to the point where a postage stamp cost more than a million Marks (I have several of that denomination in my stamp collection).
We are heading for a train wreck.
Increasing taxes now would just increase the amount of bonds that our children and grandchildren will have to eventually pay off with interest. Either we increase taxes, decrease benefits, or get out of the retirement business altogether and have the people be responsible for investing toward their own retirement. I can’t see any other option. If you can, then let me know. If you disagree with partial privatization, then great! But you had better have a better idea. Doing nothing is not an option.

Feelings, nothing more than feelings.

2005-02-22T16:07:00.000-08:00

Dennis Pregar has some observations on the roll of “feelings” in the liberal outlook of the world.

This is sick

2005-02-17T14:06:00.000-08:00

If this turns out to be true that an Iraqi was tortured and died by the CIA then I am furious. We need to find out who did it and more importantly who authorized it and lock them up so deeply in the bowels of Leavenworth Prison that they will have to pipe air down to them.

She gets it

2005-02-17T09:05:00.000-08:00

Peggy Noonan is out with a great piece on the blogosphere. I love her writing. She gets it. She lists several truths about this new journalism. One agrees with my post that sometime, someone will make a mistake by getting something wrong but that the blogosphere is self correcting.
It is not true that there are no controls. It is not true that the
blogosphere is the Wild West. What governs members of the blogosphere is what
governs to some degree members of the MSM, and that is the desire for status and
respect. In the blogosphere you lose both if you put forward as fact information
that is incorrect, specious or cooked. You lose status and respect if your take
on a story that is patently stupid. You lose status and respect if you are
unprofessional or deliberately misleading. And once you've lost a sufficient
amount of status and respect, none of the other bloggers link to you anymore or
raise your name in their arguments. And you're over. The great correcting
mechanism for people on the Web is people on the Web.
Of interest is a list of predictions that she makes on what the future holds for blogging. The last prediction is eerie. It foresees the blogs being part of the recovery following a disaster or, God forbid terrorist attack.
Finally, someday in America the next big bad thing is going to happen, and
lines are going to go down, and darkness is going to descend, and the instant
communication we now enjoy is going to be compromised. People in one part of the
country are going to wonder how people in another part are doing. Little by
little lines are going to come up, and people are going to log on, and they're
going to get the best, most comprehensive, and ultimately, just because it's
there, most heartening information from . . . some lone blogger out there. And
then another. They're going to do some big work down the road.

Like I said eerie, but she gets it.

Chicken doves

2005-02-15T14:38:00.000-08:00

Douglas Kern has a hilarious take on who has the right to make decisions on war and peace. It demonstrates the absurdity of the chicken hawk name calling. Bye the way before you ask I did serve in Vietnam and not once have I told someone who did not serve in a war that their opinion was irrelevant. America doesn’t work that way.

Time to close the book

2005-02-15T10:11:00.000-08:00

Wow! Eason Jordan stepped down. Big deal? Yup it is! How do I know? Because the MSM is screaming to low hell. There is a palpable fear detected in the pages of the MSM (for all you non blog folks this means "main stream media"). That would include broadcast and print businesses that make billions of dollars protecting us from businesses that make billions of dollars.
The headline is....... (in case they just thawed you out of a glacier after a millennial sleep) ........ the head of CNN news resigned after an off hand remark...... in front of a room full of reporters........ with pads and pencils.............. with a camera recording...........he made an off the record statement that the US military was tracking, shooting, and for all I know, skinning and dressing, reporters in Iraq and other places. OK so I was joking about the skinning and dressing stuff.
The MSM was at its whit’s end trying to understand how a leader of the media base could step down because of a bunch of “bible-thumping knuckledraggers”. Well s#it happens.
The day when you can make outrageous and scurrilous statements with the belief that no one is going to notice is over. And that goes for Trent Lott as well as Eason Jordan.
The great fear is that the same hubris that seeped into the MSM will also seep into the blogesphere. As you may remember, during the Watergate scandal great work was done by the MSM in the form of Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein. And for that we owe them a debt of gratitude. The problem was that from that point on every journalist saw themselves as the next Woodward or Bernstein and “gotcha” journalism was born. If blogers become nothing more than attack dogs looking for raw meat then they will drag every other bloger down with them. The worst thing will be when someone gets sloppy and gets his facts wrong. And when that happens (because it will happen) I hope that his fellow blogers come down on him like a ton of bricks. The blogesphere must be self regulating. And like the MSM it is nothing without its credibility.

He said what?

2005-02-11T16:06:00.000-08:00

Benedictblog reports that the following statement took place on the Charlie Rose show. Teddy Kennedy was talking about outsourcing when he made the following statement:

KENNEDY: I think we have to understand now that we`re facing a very different challenge, and that is the issue of globalization, and we`re either going to get run out of town with the rush towards lower wages and outsourcing, or we`re going to embrace it and say, we are going to equip every citizen in this nation with the ability to be able to deal with the problems of globalization, and in that way ensure we`re going to have the strongest economy in the next 20 and 30 years, and we will have a national security that will be second to none. And we, I think, are pretty much dead in the water.

I can't believe that Senater Kennedy would use the phrase dead in the water. But he did. Priceless.

45 Years of Progress

2005-02-11T13:27:00.000-08:00

Last Month the people of Cuba celebrated 45 years of socialist bliss. In celebration I think it is a good idea to look back and note the accomplishments of la revolución. If we look back to the bad old days of the 1950s, we see that the main exports, indeed just about the only exports were sugar and tobacco. Now thanks to 45 years of enlightened centralized planning, development and education the exports now consist of sugar and tobacco. I know, I know that the first thing out of the moths of all the Castro apologists is that the American embargo has precluded trade with the United States. And that if we would only trade with el presidente Castro then paradise would return to that splendid isle.
An aside for a minute. If we did open trade with Castro, would all his lefty apologists show their support and solidarity with the Cuban workers by egging their kids on to eat more sugar and smoke more tobacco? Just wondering. End of aside.
First off, I think the trade embargo is stupid. I think it serves Castro by giving him something to blame the failures of socialism. Second, even though we don’t trade with Cuba does not mean that nobody does. Go into a tobacconist shop outside of the US and you will see boxes of cigars that would give the American Cancer and American Heart Associations a stroke. You can even order them on line (although as a confirmed non smoker I would not advise it for health reasons). The whole point is that after 45 years of enlightened rule by del padre Fidel the off shore prison we call Cuba is still a suffering squalid dump.
Hey Fidel! Take a hint from the none too dear but still departed Yasir Arafat, Take a dirt nap.

Dance dance joy joy

2005-02-11T09:54:00.000-08:00

Today is one year before the winter Olympics at Turin. I have to admit that the "true" and indeed original Olympics are the summer Olympics. Let's face it. Nobody in the Olympics games of ancient Greece was wearing skis. OK, I do have to admit that I do like to see swimming and gymnastics. But I have to say that there is something special about the winter Olympics. I have always loved the down hill and slalom not to forget the ski jump (go Eddie Eagle). But most importantly my wife turned me on to "figure" skating. I put quotes around "figure" because they don't do figures anymore.
Before the 1990s the jumping spinning music and dancing that everyone believes is figure skating there was something else. It was....... (Breathless anticipation)........ Figure Skating!
I hate to break it to those of the Tania Harding generation but there was once a time when skaters spent hours upon hours slowly skating across a finely polished piece of ice etching with the blades of their skates’ patterns on the ice that would be measured to the centimeter. It was school figures. Precise exacting and above all boring.
That is why you don't see it today. It did not take too long for Olympic officials to notice that that the, shall we say it the, jumping spinning music and dancing part of "figure" skating was taking place in large arenas filled with thousands of screaming fans and the "figures" part of the skating competition was held at 6:00 in the morning with an audience of......judges and not much else.
Well obviously it was determined that the figure part of "figure" skating needed to head off into the sunset. And so it was. I am still in mourning.
Well 'nuff said. I still look forward to what's left of "figure" skating. If nothing else it will be interesting to see the new judging system in use.
The new judging system came into place in the last winter Olympics when the French judge showed European solidarity by agreeing to vote for the Russian skaters no matter what. The problem was that the Canadian teem was demonstratively better. As you may remember, the scandal was exposed and the gold medal was split between the two teams. I guess in spite of the subjective judging it is a sport bello even if you don’t know the difference between a triple loop and a sit spin. I am looking forward to it.

Off the record????

2005-02-10T08:38:00.000-08:00

The latest from Davos on the Eason Jordan mess is that the World Economic Forum is not going to release the video tape of Mr. Jordan's remarks that the American military targeted and killed journalists. The stated reason is that this panel in front of an audience of reporters, being recorded by a camera crew, open to the public with people milling in and out. Was off the record!
The question I want to ask is....... (Pregnant pause).......if the event was "off the record”......... (Another pregnant pause)........then why was it recorded?
Take your time. I will be honest, after 7 hours, I still can't think of a reason. You may say that they wanted to preserve the moment but not the words? Perhaps they plan to take the tape and put it into a time capsule to be opened 100 years in the future?
If they wanted to keep their conversation secret then why not just meet in a hotel room. Indeed if you wanted to have great minds share great thoughts in perfect confidence why have it take place in an international forum in front of leaders of the international press and national governmental leaders?
Come on. “Off the record” my arse.

A posting with teeth in it

2005-02-09T16:34:00.000-08:00

Well here I am watching "The Amazing Race" and you are getting real-time blog reports. Stooopiiid! I mean I like Amazing Race but the end of this one is weird. They are trying to get a woman to eat 2 slices of pizza. How hard can that be? Maybe it is really bad pizzaa. OK the team we were rooting for did not win but sh#t happens.
Well life and love is always a challenge.
My oldest granddaughter (age5) called me tonight to inform me that she is now is shedding teeth. I am now having an event that I can clearly remember that my granddaughter can share with me.
Cuz I do remember when I was in the process of discharging my milk teeth. Now my granddaughter is doing the same 48 years later.
Wow, do I feel old? No I don't. I feel that am sharing, talking, and connecting with someone who will live to see the next century. You can’t feel old when you are talking to the 22nd century.

Easonquddick

2005-02-08T10:04:00.000-08:00

Why do they call it Easongate? I think that Easonquiddick is much more appropriate seeing that Ted and Jordan have so much ideology in common.

Eason Jordan

2005-02-08T07:57:00.000-08:00

I suppose I should comment on CNN vice president Eason Jordan’s comments that the U.S. military tortured and killed journalists. I guess the only two options are one that he is right. In that case he should come forward with his evidence so that the military personnel responsible can be brought to justice. The second option is that he is lying and trying to give credibility and support to those who want to do harm to our troops. In that case he should be thrown out on his ear with the rest of the garbage.

WMDs and Halliburton

2005-02-04T09:14:00.000-08:00

My good friend Fred Smith (if he will forgive me calling him that) has put forward the idea that the Iraq invasion was all about non existent WMDs and that the real reason is that all conservatives own Halliburton stock. If so then you must think that things are rather sad in our country clubs. You see the last two years while we occupied Iraq, Halliburton has lost money with negative net income [that’s what the parentheses mean]. Of course we are much smarter than that. What we do is cook the books and just send a monthly check to all registered Republicans. (Why should W and Karl have all the fun?)
As for WMDs being the only reason to invade Iraq, a quick browse of the resolution giving the president authorization would show that there were numerous reasons other than WMD. Personally, I believe that the major reason was to bring freedom and hope for the future to a part of the world that needed it badly. Young men that have a stake in their lives and hope for a better tomorrow don’t fly airplanes into buildings.

Where for art ya Pinocchio?

2005-02-04T08:28:00.000-08:00

What a fun time to be alive. I will be celebrating my grandson's birthday this weekend. My gosh he is already 3! I am blessed by 9 grandchildren so you can be sure I know my way around a Toys'R'Us store.
Man the have some cool stuff in there. Remote control this and electronic riding that. They have dolls that replicate every bodily function save the one that would produce more dolls. Sad to say, I am sure a doll that does is just around the corner.
But sad to say in all the mountains of mirth, scads of scooters, and bunches of bikes, they have no puppets. Now I am not talking about hand puppets, finger puppets, nor those street theater protest puppets parading around the 6 o'clock news. I am talking about string supported, Pinocchio resembling, sound of music showcasing, marionette type puppet. I wonder why. Is it because dancing dolls are out of vogue? Are there liability concerns of having little ones getting tangled in the strings?
I am open for any ideas.

ARGH!!!!!!

2005-02-02T09:20:00.000-08:00

The vote is done. I love it. I am confused by one thing. Why are Senators Kennedy and Kerry not happy? Indeed I think I know. To be fair, I don't think that Uncle Ted and Mr. Heinz think the people of Iraq are bad. I just think that they don't care about the people of Iraq at all.
After all I think that Uncle Ted is a racist and a bigot.
Michael Weisskopf is a dick.
I am watching him on Fox and all I can say is.....
Michael Weisskopf is a dick.
Who ever said that Fox is right wing doesn't watch Fox.
On my ride home I listen to my local Air America station so I know bias.
Michael Weisskopf is a dick.
The reporter asked him if the election was valid. Michael Weisskopf is a dick.
How could you do anything but support the first free election of a people who have lived under the boot of a tyrant for over 30 years? Call their votes illegitimate?
Michael Weisskopf is a dick.

Warning

2005-01-31T16:42:00.000-08:00

If you are an anti-war lefty that is easily offended by reality, then do not read the latest from John Podhoretz in the New York Post.

What a wonderful day.

2005-01-30T10:47:00.000-08:00

I have been glued to the news on the great turnout of the Iraqi vote. This is the beginning of the end of the kind of despotism in the Middle East. Could it also be the end of hopelessness in the lives of young Middle Eastern men? I hope so. Perhaps enough so they will start to look to life rather than death. One can only hope.

Boycott Shmoycott

2005-01-25T13:30:00.000-08:00

I am really excited about the election this weekend in Iraq. That’s right excited. You might think I need a check-up form the neck up if you have been listening to the MSM but what do they know?
For weeks I have been hearing that the Sunni voters are going to boycott the election and therefore a government of only the Shiites and Kurds will lack legitimacy. It is further proffered that the result of this self imposed exile by the Sunnis will lead to civil war.
Well as far as civil war, 1) what do you think is going on now? And 2) any civil war will be a resounding loss to the Sunnis. Remember that while the Sunni have little to gain from a representative government the Shiites and Kurds have everything to gain. I may be naive but I have to believe that the 80% of the country represented by the Shiites and Kurds will know that they own the government and will fight like hell to keep it. Will it be bloody? Most births are. But I think it will be short. The Sunnis know that they can’t win militarily. Most don’t want to remain on the outside of political power. In the end the Baathist Dead Enders will be pushed aside by their fellow Sunnis and be replaced by those who want to work within the system.

Peggy Noonan on the MSM

2005-01-13T13:21:00.000-08:00

Man is this woman smart. Check out her latest on the changing face of information exchange. As usual, she is right on.
The Rathergate Report is a watershed event in American journalism not
because it changes things on its own but because it makes unavoidably clear
a change that has already occurred. And that is that the mainstream media's
monopoly on information is over.

She continues:

Now anyone can take to the parapet and announce the news. This will make for
a certain amount of confusion. But better that than one-party rule and one-party
thought. Only 20 years ago, when you were enraged at what you felt was the
unfairness of a story, or a bias on the part of the storyteller, you could do
this about it: nothing. You could write a letter.
When I worked at CBS a generation ago I used to receive those letters. Sometimes we read them, and sometimes we answered them, but not always. Now if you see such a report and are enraged you can do something about it: You can argue in public on a blog or on TV, you can put forth information that counters the information in the report.
You can have a voice. You can change the story. You can bring down a news
division. Is this improvement? Oh yes it is.

Smart and thoughtful. Read it all.

Where Goeth the Party of FDR? Part III

2005-01-13T09:56:00.000-08:00

As noted in the two previous posts of "Where goeth the party of FDR?" here and here , the Democratic Party faces a watershed moment in its life. A need to make a break from the past and to rethink what it must stand for as it struggles to prevent its becoming a permanent loyal opposition. As stated before, the party can't move too close to the Republican Party and become something like "GOP light". Nor can they just move to the center and become a watered down version of themselves. You can't inspire people with a "We still believe in these ideals, just not as much anymore". No, the Demos have to stand for something the Republicans don't that will attract new followers without abandoning their base.
So if you don't mind a little advice from this died in the wool, Bush supporting, GOP guy, here it goes.

The Democratic Party needs to become the party of FEDERALISM.

Yup, that's it. That's the ticket.
What's federalism?

fed·er·al·ism
n.

A system of government in which power is divided between a central authority and constituent political units.
Advocacy of such a system of government.
Federalism The doctrine of the Federalist Party.

Got that?
Alright, perhaps this will help.
Nobody has described federalism better than Jonah Goldberg:

For years I've been ranting that federalism is the greatest system ever conceived to maximize human happiness.
The analogy I always use with college audiences is dorms. Imagine you've got ten dorms on a campus and a student population divided up into the usual collations: stoners, partiers, jocks, and so forth on one side, and study geeks, exchange students and, no offense, nerdy Mennonites on the other. A purely democratic system where all students get to decide dorm policy could result in the tyranny of 51 percent of the students over 49 percent of the students. The party-hardy crowd could pass a policy permitting loud music and keg parties at all hours of the night. Or if the more
academically rigorous coalition won, they could ban "fun" of any kind, ever. Similarly, if the administration imposed its own policy from above, you could have a system that makes no one happy.
But, if you allowed each individual dorm to vote for its own policies, you could have a system where some dorms operate like scholarly monasteries and other dorms are more fun than a pool party at James Caan's house. Theoretically, 100 percent of the students could live the way they want. Maximized human happiness!

Well the same thing goes for individual states.
When Hugh Grant was arrested for being "presidential" with Divine Brown, his failure was not just legal but geographical. You see, while California had decided to prohibit his activity, if he had done the same thing in a Nevada brothel he would have never been bothered.
So can states decide to do anything they want? Yes, pretty much. The constitution states in the 10th amendment:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

So because the constitution doesn't mention sex for cash it is up to each individual state to determine its legality.
OK so what does this have to do with the Democratic Party?
The answer is that prostitution is not the only thing not mentioned in the constitution. Things like heath care, abortion, educational funding, environmental law, and millions of other things as well. Sure the Congress can pass a law concerning these things, but that is not what the constitution states. The only thing that can "delegate" or "prohibit" something is the constitution.
If you are a Democrat, I am willing to guess that you believe that the government should provide "free" medical coverage as in Canada. While I personally believe that this is a mistake, that is a discussion for another time. The fact is that you have about as much chance in getting socialized medicine passed in the present Congress and signed by the present President as I have of growing hair. [Please refer to this picture and you will agree that the chance is quite small] But you would probably have a much better chance getting it enacted in a Massachusetts or New York State. I can envision a program that would provide health care coverage to anyone with a state ID card, all others must pay cash. The payoff would be that if it were successfully, (I am biting my lip and fighting back the tears) people in other states would copy the program. And who would they look to to implement this? Not the GOP.
Attention all you Roe V Wade fans! Federalism works for "social progressive" too.
Are you old enough to remember divorce Court on TV? Wonder why it is no longer on? When I was a boy in the early '60s I loved to read the yearly information please almanac. It had information about anything. One of its pages was a chart showing the grounds for divorce for all the states. Adultery was usually accepted by all. Mental abuse was accepted by some but not all as was "lack of affection". Non support was common but the period differed. Each state had a mixture of all of the reasons and you had to prove it in court. Private eyes did a land office business following a wayward spouse around in order to photographs of some impropriety or other.
Then one year a single state (I think it was California) replaced its list with and asterisk. At the bottom of the page was a note stating "* irreconcilable Differences". That was all that was written.
If you go to a recent almanac you will no longer see a page listing grounds for divorce. There is no reason. While each state still has different divorce laws, they all have some form of irreconcilable differences. The idea spread from state to state and now is universal. And it happened with out a sound.
imagine for a moment what would have happened if someone had sued his or her state demanding "divorce on demand". Imagine that they took it to the Supreme Court. Finally imagine that they prevailed and the Supreme Court decided that states no longer could prevent people from getting a divorce on demand by calming irreconcilable differences. Can you imagine the dust up?
The Supreme Court would have been attacked as anti-Marriage and anti-family. To this day, years later, condemnations of the cheapening of Marriage would be heard from pulpits across the land while other groups would be yelling to "preserve a couples right to choose".
Social change has to come from the people through the states, not from above. Federalism.

Take an hour to read some good stuff

2005-01-12T14:58:00.000-08:00

A great commentary by Norman Podhoretz. "The War Against World War IV" is a long read but a must read. The guy is brilliant.

The end of the AMMP

2005-01-12T11:05:00.000-08:00

Interesting stuff from Howard Fineman. I never looked at the "mainstream media" this way. I am not sure that all the pieces fit in Howard's characterization, but it does make you think. And that is what is important.

Peggy's two bits

2005-01-06T13:28:00.000-08:00

As I am in the process of getting the third installment of "Where goeth the party of FDR" Peggy Noonan has come forward with her latest suggestion. I don't agree with all she proposes but as usual she is thought provoking.

Where Goeth the Party of FDR? Part II

2005-01-04T15:44:00.000-08:00

This is the second installment of “Where goeth the party of FDR?” If you missed the first part go here.
The premise of this installment was first brought forward by Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal November 8 2002. The midterm election had just taken place and had not gone well for the party of FDR. You can read the entire article here . The piece began with the following:

Every party has a reason for being. The Republican Party was formed in the mid-19th century to achieve a specific historical goal: the end of slavery. From there it became the party of Lincoln, the party that saved the Republic and, ultimately, the party that gave a natural home to those who felt enslaved by big government, high taxes, big regulation.
The Democratic Party had a reason for being too. For the past 100 years it has seen itself as the party of the little guy. It was the natural home of those who felt we must use government to help people in need. The Democrats would take the money of the rich and create with it programs that would ease the lives of the poor and distressed. That is why the Democratic Party existed. It is why it conceived and fought for a national retirement system for the elderly, and later for free medical care for the poor. It is why it fought too for civil rights, and for equality for all who felt they had not been given equal treatment, from ethnic and religious
minorities to women. Those are the things it stood for a 100 years.
Now jump to 2002, to four days ago. The Democrats took a hard hit. In an off-year election in which the opposition is headed by a sitting president who lost the
popular vote by half a million votes in 2000, and whose administration is presiding over recession and war, the Democrats should have cleaned up. At the very least they should have lost nothing. And yet they lost almost everything. They lost Massachusetts to a Mormon! They lost Maryland with a Kennedy! The president and his party picked up support from one end of the country to the other, and the Democrats lost their one national power base, the Senate. Now they have only the media. That's a lot, but Paula Zahn is not a state, at least not yet, and she doesn't get a vote in the Senate.
It is a disaster for the Democrats. It has entered the history books. It has launched furious soul-searching. The good news. Relieved of the demands of leadership and spurred by loss, the Democrats now have time to decide what to do. This is good. Thinking is good.
The argument as many Democrats frame it so far is: Should we tack left, or should we fight it out in the center for the center? But that is essentially an argument about how to win. The bigger question, the one that really rose Tuesday night and demands an answer, is this: What is the Democratic Party's reason for being? Here is the Democrats' problem: They have achieved every major goal they sought in the past 100 years. The party is losing because it won.
They got Social Security. They got Medicare and Medicaid, with the help of some Republicans. They got civil rights with the help of a lot of Republicans. They supported equality for women, and women are equal. (How many were elected the other night? So many it wasn't a story, really, because it's a 30-year trend that just keeps growing.)
They got the New Deal, and they got the Great Society. They got the welfare state. And you can argue they have been undone by their success.

So that’s it? The Democrats have succeeded themselves out of a job? Perhaps so.
Think about it. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 took place in 1964 (Duh). That is now over 40 years ago. A 20 year old black man looking for a job in 1964 has been protected from discrimination on the job or in school ever since. That young black man is now over 60 and is much more concerned about retirement than job discrimination. (Yes I know that discrimination can still take place but for over 40 years it has been illegal. The Civil Rights Act changed such discrimination from a moral or social problem into a law enforcement problem). As far as women’s rights evidently the New York Times believes that the hottest issue is allowing extremely rich women golfers play with extremely rich male golfers in Georgia. Finally, getting to the Democratic support of the little guy, the little guy isn’t so little anymore.
The grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the dust bowl refugees that drove their model Ts out of the Midwest and South are still driving over the desert but now they are going to Las Vegas. The average union member was working at a physically demanding and possibly dangerous manufacturing job in the 1930s. Today, that average union member works at a government job protected by volumes of OSHA regulations covering everything from carpal tunnel syndrome to hot water temperature in the restroom.
These are all good things that the Democratic Party has given birth to. Unfortunately she has not been pregnant for over 40 years.
Because of this the party has become more and more hard-line conservative. Words like “New Frontier” and “New Deal” are replaced by “preserve” women’s rights, “protect” Social Security, and don’t “turn back the clock” on civil rights. These are words that describe almost a bunker mentality. The fact is that while the parties may disagree on how to prevent a Social Security collapse or to give a prescription drug benefit, nobody is trying to remove Social Security or Medicare. Women are no less likely to be doctors, lawyers, politicians, or business owners during a GOP administration and black churches are no more flammable.
Unfortunately for the Democratic Party the “little guy” doesn’t believe that just because Bush is in the Whitehouse and Schwarzenegger is in Sacramento that the SUV is going to “POOF” change into a Model T to drive him back to Oklahoma.
So to all you Democrats, “Good Job”! Give yourselves a pat on the back. You have made your country better than you found it. Now you have to stand for something new. New ideas and new goals.
What should the Democratic Party stand for? War on terror, smaller government, lower taxes, property rights? Nope; it can’t just be the same things the Republicans stand for. That would send you the way of the Wigs.
Do I have a suggestion of a value you could stand for? A reason for being as an alternative to the GOP?
See you next post.

Deep Thoughts

2004-12-31T13:02:00.000-08:00

Lileks has a great bleat today on beauty. Check it out.

Where Goeth The Party of FDR?

2004-12-29T18:14:00.000-08:00

Among the most important things to come out of the election in November, is the feeling that the Democratic Party is in total disarray. Indeed when you look at the demographics of the situation, it is difficult to disagree. While the solid blue states of the northeast and pacific west will continue to be democratic (and I am not positive that Oregon and Washington may not be more purple than blue) it is expected that after the census of 2010 between 5 and 7 congressional seats will be moving from the northeast to sunnier climates. Of further interest, not only would this signify a loss of 6 from the Rustbelt and a gain of 6 in the Sunbelt, they would most probably be going to the faster growing counties. Why this is important is that 97 of the 100 fastest growing counties went for Bush in the last election. Furthermore, because this transfer involves both subtraction and addition, it is possible that the gap between Republicans and Democrats in the house could widen not by 6 but 12 from this transfer alone.
On the Senate side the problem is even greater. While the population numbers nation wide between blue and red states are within 3% or so, most Democratic voters are concentrated in a few very populous states. The states with smaller populations tend to be more Republican and a quick look at a map shows that there are a lot of them. With each of the states getting two senators regardless of population you can see the challenge the party of FDR faces. It will only get worse. A good number of Democratic senators come from red states like North Dakota and West Virginia. They were reelected due to what may be called the Byrd effect. Robert Byrd was elected to the senate in 1958 from West Virginia due to the support of the coal miners of the UMW. While the economy and culture of West Virginia has changed over the years from a strong union state to a state with a more diversified economy Robert Byrd has continued to represent them. This is due to his seniority in the senate appropriations committee. One man’s pork is another man’s freeway so West Virginia is dotted with such projects as the Robert Byrd Federal Building, or the Robert Byrd Highway. Robert Byrd is up for reelection in 2006 and he has stated that will run. Undoubtedly he will be reelected by a large margin. The problem for the senate Democrats is that when Senator Byrd takes the oath of office in 2007 he will be just turning 90 years old. Obviously it is not long before the Robert Byrd Highway will become the Robert Byrd Memorial Highway. And unlike the replacement of Republican Strom Thurmond by another Republican in South Carolina it will be much more difficult for the Democrats to do the same in, increasingly red, West Virginia. Include the close reelections of such long time Democratic senators as Ben Nelson of Nebraska or Tim Johnson of South Dakota and things do concern me.
Yes I did say that this concerns me! It concerns me greatly. For while I am a Republican, and a very partisan one at that, it is not healthy for one party to gain such dominance in Washington.
In my next post I will give my humble opinion on how the party of FDR got to perpetual minority status and how it can get back into the game in a big way. And no it is not to act more Republican because as Truman said, “If you give the voters a choice between a Republican and a Republican they will choose a Republican every time”.
See you next post.

2004-12-29T15:01:00.000-08:00

Thar' He is! Hope I didn't scare the horses.

Welcome

2004-12-28T16:29:00.000-08:00

Welcome to all who view this site. The great experiment is under construction but I will attempt to post as much as I can in the interim.
Your humble servant is a person with opinions on everything. Some of the opinions may even hold water. I rely on your comments to keep me in line.
Things of a political nature will certainly be discussed. As for labels, I am sure that everyone considers their beliefs to be grounded in sound reasoning and if not viewed as moderate, they should be. I suppose that I am no different but I am realistic enough to accept that I may be a bit right of center. For example I am a firm believer in a woman's right to choose, as long as we are talking about a choice between a revolver and a semi-automatic pistol. As for abortion, I see nothing wrong with it, as long as it doesn't threaten the health of the baby.
There, I feel much more moderate already.

Where to Give

2004-12-28T09:37:00.000-08:00

I want to urge everyone to give to World Vision Online Donations: Emergency Aid. This is the best way we can get the help where it is needed most with the least delay.
Thank you for giving what you can.

Christmas Songs

2004-12-28T09:01:00.000-08:00

I hope your Christmas was as enjoyable as mine. One thing that I don’t regret is that the holyday music is off the radio. We have a station in Sacramento that plays nothing but Christmas music starting before Thanksgiving. Unfortunately that is my wife’s favorite station. I think if I had to listen to Burl Ives sing Holly-Jolly-Christmas one more time I would end up cleaning out my ear wax with a .357 magnum.
I used to wonder why, in our inclusive and multicultural society, we only have Christmas music. Mark Steyn has the answer;

“There are very few good Hannukah songs, never mind Kwanza or the Islamic festivals of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. The reason for the dearth of Hanukkah songs is that for most of the last century the big-time musical Jews were too busy cranking out Christmas songs - Irving Berlin wrote “White Christmas”, Mel Torme wrote “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting on an open fire)”, Mitchell Parish “Sleigh Ride” Jerry Herman “We Need A Little Christmas”, Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” and “The Christmas Waltz”, Johnny Marks “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer”, “Have A Holly Jolly Christmas”, “Rockin’ Around The Christmas” Tree and a zillion others. As far as I know, the only Christian to offer to return the compliment was the stiff-necked Mormon Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah (whose “Come To The Manger” has been recorded by Donny Osmond). Senator Hatch confirmed to me during his short-lived Presidential campaign in 1999 that he was working on a Hanukkah song. I don’t know whether he’s finished it, but I would have to say on balance that, musically speaking, the Christians got the better end of this deal. – Mark Steyn”

Well thanks to Mark, now you know.

More thoughts

2004-12-28T08:40:00.000-08:00

I was sitting with my wife watching the pictures of the disaster in Asia. We live in such a cocoon of safety that deludes us into believing that all people live as we do with the expectation that others are standing by to prevent bad things from impacting us or come to our aid if those bad things do happen. (Oops run-on sentence).
I think that we tend to assume that this is the way things are meant to be. When something happens to upset this we assume that someone is to blame. We run out of flu shot vaccine and we want someone's scalp. No matter that the mere existence of this substance has enabled us to avoid the deaths of millions of people. Instead it is a screw-up a conspiracy of the drug companies. In reality history consists of parents burying children not the other way around.
People are still floating back into land.
Big thought: poor people don't buy insurance. Sad. Sue the lawyers for negligence for not suing something somewhere before this happened.
Wow! Some people with the brain of a golf ball are wondering if this was caused by global warming. The label "dumb shit" drops to the level of complement after this. Statements like this would make a slug blush.

What a loss

2004-12-27T16:44:00.000-08:00

You have to shake your head at the loss caused by the earthquake/Tsunami in South Asia. Crushing.