Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The Humpty Dumpty Presidency

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a big fall.

All the king's horses, and all the king's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again.

"...rarely has a candidate’s entire world view been so abruptly refuted in the first year of a presidency..."

It's enough, you know, almost to conclude that the Left, and Democrats, are wrong about what they think they know, isn't it?

(If only Leftists and Democrats entertained that thought as a possibility...)




If You've Lost Maureen Dowd..?

...See folks, it isn't just me!:

...We seemed to still be behind the curve and reactive, patting down grannies and 5-year-olds, confiscating snow globes and lip glosses...

In the words of Ed Morrissey, "Be sure to read Dowd’s entire column, a sentence I thought I’d never write..."





Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The Democrats' 'Recovery'

Can't help but get a little chuckle from Democratic 'sympathist' Steve Rosenthal's prescription for Democratic 'recovery' before their imminent 2010 electoral disaster. Read it here:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/31035.html

My take on his 'suggestions':

  • Stop whining. We agree right off the top. Any political party heard to be in full whine will largely be ignored. We all want to believe our own whines are more important than anyone else's. Thus, if the Democrats whine that we just don't understand all the wonderful things they intend for us with their higher taxes, health-care overhaul, energy-use deterrents, and apparent disdain for our intelligence, understand that we just don't want to hear it! We're too busy trying to make ends meet!
  • Remember how big you won in 2008. Sorry, Steve, there's just no way to make this one play for you. Democrats -- and President Obama, in particular -- won in 2008 by lying to us! You downplayed the left-tilted agenda you had planned, pretended to be moderates, and sold us down the river once you were invested in power. If you think now 'owning' all those intrusive, government mandates is going to provide enough lipstick to cover that pig slop, you just go right ahead and make the 25% of the electorate who are true believers in the Social Democrat experiment your "permanent majority"! You might want to refigure your math, though.
  • Don't be spooked by 2009... Instead, get organized in Congress and on the ground to move the Obama change agenda. What the voters said in the 2009 elections is that it's not about Obama or Congress; it's not about Democrats or Republicans. It is about us: real people with real problems that we want addressed. The frustration voiced by independents and Obama surge voters in 2009 should be of real concern. These voters are still looking for change to happen and will keep voting for change — regardless of party — or not voting at all, until something real happens. In the 2008 election, what mattered most to voters was the candidate's ability to "bring change," and the 34 percent of voters who cited this quality in exit polls nationally voted 89 percent for Obama...Listening to these "change" voters (or as a Republican acquaintance of mine calls them, "fix it" voters), it is clear they are frustrated, stressed and just want things in the country to get back on track. They are not interested in political expediency. Independents, Democratic base voters and the Obama surge voters want action, and they want the change they voted for in 2008. They want to see real leadership, not legislative gridlock. They don't want their elected officials to go back to the days of legislating "small things" (school uniforms come to mind). To win them back — to engage them at all in 2010 — Democrats need to pass real health care reform, then move aggressively on a jobs, jobs, jobs (it cannot be said enough) program with strong workers' rights. Do as candidate Obama said: Put people to work immediately to fix our schools, rebuild our transportation infrastructure and invest in green technology, energy efficiency and create more green jobs. Oh, please, please, PLEASE, do all of this! I quoted this almost in its entirety because it is so evidentiary of all the mis-interpretations Democrats make about their 'mandate'. Going back to my last point about the 25% or so of hard-Left voters who will support Obama and the Democrats in any case because Republicans/Conservatives are evil, ignorant, racist, misogynist, misanthropic cave-dwellers -- well, you're going to tickle them to death if you do all the things (if you can even manage to define them recognizably) recommended above.  But, I find it truly astonishing that leading Democrats apparently don't understand that they will, by doing so, alienate to some degree virtually every one of the remaining 75% of the hunter-gatherer/provider (for families and employees) types residing in their ignorant appreciation of the abundance of the past 200+ years of American self-reliance, capitalism, and personal freedom. To paraphrase a famous insouciance: We don't need no stinkin' mandates!
  • Put Obama on the ballot in 2010 for African-Americans, Hispanics, single women and young voters. The Democratic base is not energized...Which Obama? The inscrutable one a majority of mostly liberal and independent-moderate votes elected a year ago because they thought his actions would echo his promises and words, or the one who has attempted to govern according to his statist sympathies? If it's the former -- well, you just spent several hundred words explaining why this is a non-starter with your 25% base. If you're expecting the latter -- good luck with that! If we have a do-over of the 2008 race, it'll be a LOT harder to fool a majority of voters into believing Obama's Democratic Party is anything but the left-most majority this country has ever elected. I don't think we'd do it again.
  • Build it, and they will come. Organization is critical in midterm elections. The party with the superior infrastructure to persuade and turn out voters will win. Yep. And motivation is the foundation upon which organization is built. You might respect and accept the likes of MoveOn.org, and ACORN, as partners in participation, but the general public has, shall we say, moved on. Those groups have already motivated everyone they're likely to motivate. The rest of us just don't trust them to put anyone but themselves first. Hasn't happened yet, anyway! As for labor, well...it's not for nothin' that the major, national unions have seen growth only in the public sector. Union bosses and organizations have become little more than another level of bureaucracy to most of their subjects -- I mean, workers. Thus the affinity between statist government and union leadership: they represent pretty much the same structure, and pursue pretty much the same goals -- namely, more power for themselves. If you think the Obama Administration's abrogation of long-standing bankruptcy laws in order to invest General Motors and Chrysler went over popularly, you probably don't realize we all understand this was a sop to labor unions. Well, you're wrong, we do -- and few of us like a bully, especially one so fearsome as intimidates with the power of government behind it. Think of our votes as pebbles, and the ballot box as a slingshot, aimed smack at Goliath! If Democrats truly believe this is their moment to remake America, they are unknowingly past their high tide -- because there is nowhere near a solid majority of us who believe in our hearts that we've lived all these years in an America that requires remaking.



An Epic Fail

As relieved as we all are that Friday's Christmas-Day bomber destroyed nothing but his underwear and, perhaps, his reproductive capacity, we all (that includes you, President Obama!) need to realize that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab's terrorist failings are no consolation for the fact that had he been competent at his chosen craft, nearly 300 passengers -- most of them Americans -- on Flight 253 would be dead at this moment. Irrevocably, permanently dead! As with Richard Reid before him, we got lucky!

But, to make matters worse, Matullab's presence of that flight turns out to be not just the result of neglect and 'lost-in-the-shuffle' bureaucracy, but human failure of operatives who knew about him, had consciousness of his threat, and responsibility to deter it, and STILL failed to act:

http://www.nationalreview.com/onthenews/?q=MjVhZTE3ZWUwOTVkYzFhZWE1NGQzZjZiZDE4OTE0Yjc=

Credit the president with acknowledging the "systemic failure" of the CIA and other intelligence agencies' futility in interdicting this known, would-be assassin before he could directly threaten his chosen targets, Americans. The only acceptable response is the termination of employment of whomever had ultimate responsibility to assure that names, faces, passports and manifests align -- right up to Director of Intelligence Dennis Blair and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Remember when the media and political opposition held President Bush's feet to the fire following his "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job!" statement to FEMA director Michael Brown's response to Hurricane Katrina? The backlash was so severe President Bush's approval rating never recovered. But that, at least, was a natural disaster, not of the "man-made disaster" ilk named by Secretary "Big Sis".  The current Democratic president and Congress would have us believe there's no problem we can't fix if we just pass the right law or redirect the proper resources. In other words, they promise that any man-made situation can be perfected.

Under those circumstances, they should fully expect a failure to take responsibility for and solve 'man-made disasters' such as this potential one a perfect storm much more consequential than Katrina.



Monday, December 28, 2009

After Terror With Its Pants On Fire...

http://biggovernment.com/2009/12/28/monday-open-thread-vacay-edition/

...Does anybody else get the impression that this guy wants to 'be PRESIDENT!', but doesn't really want to 'BE president'?


Sunday, December 27, 2009

Iran

Irony could be defined, I think, by those caught by surprise by history.

The protesters in Iran -- where almost 70% of the population is under the age of 35 (meaning they don't remember the relationship between the U.S. and the Shah from personal experience) -- are at least in the game toward overthrowing the current, hierarchical, theocratic regime:


http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-12-27/could-the-mullahs-fall-this-time/full

 

(Frankly, I'll feel more confident when Michael Ledeen predicts it.)

The irony comes from the fact that Iran's theocracy hates us today because we opted to support -- or, at least, not oppose -- the Shah when Khomeini returned from exile in the late-'70s. Today, any future Iranian government might choose to hate us because we did nothing to promote the Islamists' fall outside of empty rhetoric and belated condemnation.



Coincidences are useless; I'm suspicious...

Call me a conspiracist, if you will, but I find it disturbing that yet another Nigerian (Muslim? Will they tell us?) passenger -- deemed harmless this time -- on the exact, same flight that the Christmas-Day bomber targeted from Amsterdam to Detroit, was arrested upon arrival for being 'unruly':

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/report_flight_crew_requests_emergency_j9ZlOCtnHrNePzruDQfxoI

It sure sounds a lot like testing responses, to me. I'd assume al-Qaida is about to step up suicide missions directly against the U.S., if I were the Obama Administration (and I wanted to remain relevant!).

And, please -- let's not pull more Grandmas from the security line for pat-downs, okay? Again, it ain't coincidence that all these actual and would-be bombers are Muslims from, you know, Muslim countries!

We all chuckle at and tut-tut cliches, too. But cliches become such because they have been so often true! Stop treating 'profiling' like a distasteful cliche -- it works!


Update: Uh-huh!

http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/80201152.html

What would be the point of videotaping the 'performance' if the guy was going to kill the videotaper, too, anyway? As noted above, seems like an effort to gauge response via a trial run.

This ain't over yet:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2785733.ece

Is Janet Napolitano the new "Brownie"?


Monday, December 21, 2009

Just wondering...

...why, even if the CBO figure of $132 billion over 10 years is accurate (which it most assuredly is NOT -- most of the savings figured in won't actually materialize) from our soon-to-be-new, nationalized health care, it's such a big victory? In a year which has seen c. trillion-dollar programs such as TARP and the pseudo-stimulus, that works out to $13.2 billion a year. In other words, it's piffle!

That's more than a little like dropping a penny in a child's piggy bank while you sneak a 10-dollar bill out the bottom, and expecting to be congratulated for your generosity as a 'giver'!


Sunday, December 20, 2009

The REAL Global-Warming Agenda

Today's 'watermelon' environmentalist (you know: green on the outside, but red on the inside!) is virtually always an anti-capitalist, anti-democratic statist (and Al Gore is a Democrat which, more and more, amounts to the same thing). This is not coincidence, but consequence: the Modern Left has adopted environmentalism, global warming and climate change as the vehicles by which to destroy Western democracy, and redistribute wealth to the so-called developing world (we call 'development' in an egg something else: rotting!).

They are beyond parody, and out of the reach of irony, in their belief that the West's wealth will remain and continue once they've achieved that goal. Because, of course, the failed history of Soviet-style collectivism that has died almost everywhere it's been tried -- and continues to fail even where it has survived, a la Cuba -- demonstrates with clarity that ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit suffocates without the motive and goal of personal profit. Now, that profit can come in the form of money, acclaim, or personal satisfaction, but it's beyond proven that those benefits accrue in the West's capitalist societies, and wither where the state claims all those benefits to itself.

On the other hand, how can one blame Bangladesh, Nigeria, et al, from seeking the shortcut of rescue by the forced distribution of someone else's assets after failing to husband any of their own virtually since existence? Pretty hard to figure, though, how turning the West into another Russia is going to result in anything but a disastrous and petty, universal plutocracy. I guess that would be a good thing for the would-be plutocrats, though. Hence, the efforts in the West to subdue populist democracy before the citizenry identifies their statist goasl.


Climate Change (Sigh!)

A couple of thoughts about global-warm(onger)ing, which seem obvious to anyone with a lick of sense -- which seems to leave out the modern, liberal anarchist:

  • It's not secret that 'global warming' has been going on for some time, or the Ice Age glaciers, for example, would still be covering half of North America. And, of course, some global cooling must have occurred before that to form those glaciers. All of which would seem to point to the fact that (drum roll, please!) EARTH'S CLIMATE CHANGES. Naturally. I lived through the "New Ice Age" warnings of the mid-'70s, so am amused that many of the same alarmists now are alarmists again, but at 180 degrees.
  • Is all of this -- or any of this -- man-made, and therefore man-preventable? That IS, of course, the Kyoto/Copenhagen argument. Obviously, the folks who think they know this for sure sure don't want to compare analyses with anyone who expresses any doubt. Again, this is emblematic of today's modern, liberal mind-set: "If we can't persuade you with our arguments, you must be a small-minded idiot incapable of reason, because if you won't simply accept our conclusions, you're being unreasonable. Don't be so stupid I have to explain things to you!" Because, you know, they can't. It's all Post-Modern emotionalism internalized, with nothing to do with rational thought. 
  • Finally, even if we were to conclude that humanity has caused the ice caps to melt, how does one predict the consequences -- particularly the unintended ones -- of returning our 'carbon footprint' to early-20th Century levels (and, understand, that IS what the stated goals amount to!)? Have we learned nothing about unintended consequences from all the centuries of recovering from them? I think there's an awfully good chance that even should we get the diagnosis right, we'd foul up the treatment. We're not nearly as smart as we are conceited. That's another symptom of the modern Left!


Thursday, December 10, 2009

Zero Population Growth, blah, blah!..

Well, since Canada's National Post won't let me post this in their comments about single-child, one-world regulation because it's too long, I'll post it here instead:

This isn't even an old argument, but an ancient one. It wasn't all that many decades ago that 6 billion people were considered 'unsustainable' for Earth by the so-called experts. But then, you know, along come the Norman Borlaugs and his like. It's ironic to think that you also cut in half the likelihood of such genius, too, when you cut the population in half.
It takes only a single flight over the western half of the North American continent to realize the world is nowhere near over-populated. And I'm not talking about supplanting food-producing regions with people, either. I'm thinking of all the absolutely empty, unused space. Is the National Post suggesting that we can dream of colonizing the moon or Mars, but not the Rocky Mountains?
At least until we take the profit motive away from entrepreneurs -- which DOES seem to be the latest trend, however stupid it is! -- I'm pretty confident that we'll figure out how to feed/water/house/employ the growing millions, even at current population growth, for a fair spell yet.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Well, so much for regularity...

I hadn't realized it had been 6 weeks since I'd posted here, even if I am seemingly, simply talking to myself. Nonetheless, it illustrates even to me how hectic my schedule has been.  Halloween weekend included a Friday-night school (where I teach) carnival; the following weekend was a round-trip drive to Natchez, MS via the Natchez Trace (one-way) http://picasaweb.google.com/tsousley62/NatchezTrace; the middle November weekend was the last round of 'in-season' yard work; Thanksgiving weekend; and now today.

I've come to understand fatigue better when I don't even get the weekends off!

During that time, however, a new fascination has come into focus: driving around the Mid-South has crossed my paths with a significant number of 3-wheeler, or trike, motorcycles. With the long 'riding season' here, it seems like a pretty attractive way of touring. Trouble is, I know next to nothing about motorcycles, not having been on one in about 40 years. Factory-built ones only come via Harley-Davidson, and are mucho pricy http://www.harley-davidson.com/en_US/Content/Pages/2010_Motorcycles/2010_motorcycles.html?locale=en_US&bmLocale=en_US#/model/flhtcutg. It may become one of those pipe dreams that never comes true, but I'll bite, I think, should an affordable, reliable one make itself available.



Sunday, October 25, 2009

A (Dropped) Penny For Your Thoughts...

Is the penny starting to drop for mainstream media journalists? ABC's Jake Tapper has broken ranks to question the Obama Administration's ostracism of Fox News over ideological differences and political criticisms.

Has it finally dawned on the left-leaning media that liberal Democrats -- and left-wingers, in general -- suffer badly from self-absorbed certainty? They are so sure they're right that any dissent is necessarily malignant, hindering them from exercising their superior ideas and intellects to our betterment. Who cares if there's a 200+-year history and tradition of political faction in this country -- it's US now, and just let US rule!

Gotta admit, it's an attitude that's much easier to practice than having to persuade with reasoned argument -- especially when your reasons and arguments are so weak! It's just that it's -- if I may paraphrase an Obamanoid -- you know, un-American.



Saturday, October 17, 2009

"...If not now, when?"

An important rejoinder from Roger Simon, following up the weak excuse by Obama media guru Anita Dunn's quoting Mao Tse-Tung as a 'favorite' political operative:

http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerkimball/2009/10/17/the-maoist-explains-herself-egg-face-at-the-white-house/

My favorite lines are: "...Like his radical friends — Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Van Jones, Anita Dunn — Barack Obama wishes to transform the United States according to a model whose basic shape was supplied by the utopian schemes of the 1960s. That’s why Anita Dunn said that Mao was one of the thinkers she most often turned to for wisdom about big-think political problems. It’s not that she admires his penchant for industrial strength homicide: rather, she admires his success at fomenting an egalitarian revolution. It’s not what we bargained for when we elected Barack Obama. But that’s what we’ve got. The question is how much worse will things have to get before the penny drops?.."

As for me, I'm in for a penny AND a pound -- but, alas, I realized what we were getting BEFORE the revolution, so my agreement isn't worth much. I voted for the pretty brunette (who also happens to be a pretty sharp conservative!) nobody likes. I already knew Obama was the left-most presidential candidate we've ever had!


Friday, October 9, 2009

We Kept No Territory...

There is, I see, one glimmer of hope that the Nobel Prize conspicuously awarded to President Obama can actually benefit American interests: if he goes to Oslo in December and makes a convincing case that the U.S. that fought two wars in Europe for peace in the last century without claiming territory; which freed the territorial Philippines and Cuba after gaining their possession; which turned Germany and Japan into allies after bombing them to submission to conclude their dynastic tendancies of WWII; is to be appreciated for its generosity to the world in war and peace, and is unique in its liberal attitude toward the sovereignty of others.

Alas, I don't think that Obama has either the mindset nor eloquence (I'm not as enamored with his verbal pabulum as others seem to be) to pull it off...


Cy Young Award?..

By the way, I figure since President Obama actually DID throw out the first pitch at the All-Star game wearing a White Sox jacket, he's a shoo-in for the American League Cy Young Award.

And, compared to the Nobel Peace Prize, he'll deserve it!


Nobel Laureate (Or Is That 'Lariat', As In Tied To a Failing Policy?)

Well, great -- that's just what we needed for President Obama: incentive to continue selling U.S. interests down the river in order to receive international accolades! He's likely to give away BOTH Jerusalem AND Afghanistan now!


Sunday, October 4, 2009

Lot of folks out there trying to explain away the continued popularity of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin:

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2009/10/04/rogue-warriors/

It's really pretty easy to figure out, it's just hard to accommodate it into their "it's about me and my philosophy" meme.  You see, the Obama coalition was made up of about 25% of the political populace which is truly left-wing/Liberal (like he is!); about 15% that were just plain fed up with the GOP and Bush's lack of adherence either to fiscal discipline or neo-isolationism, and wanted to punish them/him; and the remainder folks who were enamored by the fact of electing a black president. Almost ALL of the 47%-48% of the voting populace who voted McCain truly ARE believers in limited government and personal freedom, and didn't have anyone else for whom to vote.

In that light, Palin has a base of about 48% of the American voting public, while the Obamans can claim maybe 25% solidly. (The rest are available for conversion.) The fact that the media is monolithically pro-Obama is the only reason anyone even wonders why Palin is popular. She speaks to and for the largest number of us.


Thursday, October 1, 2009

This is what you lose...

 ...when you cut defense spending to the bone:

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2009/09/seal-rescue.html

Good to keep in mind the U.S. military does many things besides fight, and does all of them (including fighting!) better than almost anyone else in the world.

If anyone knows President Obama, pass the word, would ya? He doesn't seem to know...


Wednesday, September 30, 2009

The Ubiquity of Ignorance Posing as Wisdom

See Harold Meyerson today in the WaPo:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/29/AR2009092903001.html

This is not even serious argument! Hell, I'm no economist, but I AM sympathetic to free-market thinking -- and even I knew the current economic disaster was inevitable!

I mean, what exactly did Meyerson and his Keynesians THINK was going to happen after Bill Clinton inflated the currency prior to 1996 to get re-elected, did it again in 2000 to (unsuccessfully) get Al Gore elected (under the cover of 'Y2K' pseudo-silliness), and GWB repeated the money growth through 8 years of national crises and re-election campaigns? Eventually, the house of cards topples, especially when Congressional 'leaders' (read here: Frank, Dodd, Pelosi/Reid) take steps to legislatively deny reality by mandating fiscal laxity they then fail to oversee!

Please note I didn't mention any (small-c) conservatives here (no, GWB is NOT a conservative!). And, yet, Meyerson, et al, universally blame conservative economists for the liberals' economic failures! The MSM today isn't the Fourth Estate anymore, it's the Fifth Dimension -- where a liberal Utopia heals all imagined wounds without ever coming in contact with reality!



Sunday, September 27, 2009

The Diminution of America

Things that will not end well:

  • Either Israel will attack the Iranian nuclear sites, or Iran will threaten and/or use nuclear weapons against Israel;
  • Democrats WILL pass some sort of health-care 'reform' which will NOT benefit folks who already have health insurance (it won't save any money, either!);
  • Import tariffs and protectionism will undermine the World Trade Organization, and cause higher consumer prices for Americans, while their own government is stealthily increasing their own taxes via carbon- and value-added levies.
  • Federal spending mandates will virtually guarantee that local and state governments pare back taxes and services to a point that basic necessities go begging locally, or increase local/state taxes so that household budgets go unbalanced;
  • The coming 'revolution' by citizens over local vs. central/federal government will determine whether or not the U.S.A. is a nation in decline. It's a toss-up, at this point.




Friday, September 11, 2009

A long life to all...

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327241.300-secrets-of-the-centenarians-life-begins-at-100.html?full=true
It's worth noting here, I think, that absent the U.S.'s inflated -- because of the care given pre-mature deliveries, et al -- infant mortality rate, our average life span is significantly diminished statistically.
Suffice it to say, however, that if you've reached your first birthday, you stand to live longer than anyone else on Earth if you're an American citizen. (At least until ObamaCare becomes law!)

Mozel tov!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

A Random (though long-standing) thought...

...how about instead of nationalizing health care, we abolish health insurance? That way everyone, you know, just pays for the services he/she uses.

Yeah, silly -- I know. Too much like the rest of life. And no opportunity for graft.



Friday, September 4, 2009

Would I rather be in the middle?..

Apparently, I live on the edge of both wrath and lust:

http://www.wired.com/culture/education/magazine/17-09/st_sinmaps

Could not being in the middle of the latter explain the former?

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Obama Sinking...

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

It's because he's black, you know. Count on it! (No way, I mean, could it be because he's exactly the inexperienced, left-wing, near-Socialist cipher that naysayers cautioned about for much of the last two years. Really, c'mon!)

Saturday, August 29, 2009

It's a black thing, and it ain't racist!..

If President Obama were Ted Kennedy, of course, he wouldn't be president today. Kennedy was waaayyy too liberal for mainstream Americans, and President Obama is at least his equal, Left-ward-wise.

So, what are we to make of all the charges of racism regarding anti-Obamacare activism: http://www.breitbart.tv/la-rep-obamacare-opponents-want-to-destroy-first-president-who-looks-like-me/

Well, not much. If the charges of racism were true, Obama would never have been elected, just as Kennedy never was elected. In fact, a strong case can be made that Obama is president BECAUSE he is black, and that assuaged Liberal/moderate 'guilt' over past social injustice.

So, where does the divide fall between Obama/racist rhetoric and classical self-interest? Well, predictably, I know a number of otherwise Liberal blacks who don't wish to give up their health benefits to a federal adminstrator.  Are they 'racists' against Obama?

I suspect Rep. Watson will soon learn, to her regret, that personal benefit trumps racial identity. But, that shouldn't surprise a Congressman/woman one bit, since self-interest --and re-election -- is his/her sole concern.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Post-Racialism?

So, apparently, the definition of 'post-racial' in America is allowing Blacks to screw up without consequence?..:

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/08/24/2009-08-24_gov_david_paterson_tells_blogger_he_is_victim_of_orchestrated_campaign_because_o.html

Democratic Intelligence

Look, here's the thing that Leftist activists don't want to acknowledge, but must consider before making any progress (not that I'm rooting for that, mind you!): the general public is smarter than either/both Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi.

I dare say that the atomic weight of the Congressional 'leadership' has never been lower! (Certainly not in my lifetime, which includes Lyndon Johnson, Sam Rayburn,  John McCormack, Howard Baker, Tip O'Neill, Newt Gingrich, and Dick Armey.)

Reid and Pelosi belong on some county commission somewhere, not in the United States Congress! And yet, Democrats have chosen them as 'leaders'! Incredible.

The Bourbon Pantry

Well, a sort of reckoning has arrived, bourbon-wise (or not-so-wise): I can no longer afford to 'chase' the burgeoning prices of collectible and sought-after bottlings, many of which I've already sampled, luckily, and maybe even have an example or two still on the shelf.

Don't cry for me, though, Jack Daniel's! I've been profligate enough in past spending that -- even after a couple of years of selling and drinking down the 'stock' -- I still have some quite decent bottles left. Hence, the reckoning. I've long advised others to drink up and not hoard hard-to-find or defunct bottlings of whisk(e)y as collectibles, no different than a 1916d "Mercury" dime or '21 Chateau d'Yquem Sauternes. Whiskey's for drinkin', I'd say! Well, the time has come for me to put up or shut up (not that I've ever stinted when opening bottles, but usually that was for an 'audience' of appreciative fellow-tipplers). Am I really going to open that $150 bottle of Rittenhouse 21yo rye just to make Manhattans for myself?

Maybe. My hope is that I may still attend or host enough whiskey gatherings that such special bottles might yet be enjoyed by attentive aficianados. But, if not, then know that I shall open the best I have for the least of these palates.

So, when the time comes for me to open my last bottle of Evan Williams 7yo Black-label, don't expect me to make a trip to the liquor store in order to avoid it!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

"Easy for him to say..."

Standard Mark Steyn bull's-eye hilarity here:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTAxYzFjODdiN2E3OWUyNzY1MDU1ODM1ZjZjYmY3YjM=

As Steyn hints, Americans' overall life-expentancy is hindered by the number of surviving premature babies which later die, creating a misleadingly high infant-mortality rate in the U.S. But, once out of infancy, Americans live longer than just about everybody.

This is why we think we have a failing health-care system that commands overhaul?

 

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

On Pondering Health Care

I have good health-care insurance, fully paid (for myself only -- but I have no dependents) -- at least, for now -- by my employer. I'm happy with it, and it has paid something around a half-million dollars for my medical services over the past quarter-century. I realize some are not so lucky.

On the other hand, the 47 million "Americans" widely reported to have no health insurance include:

  • 5.2 million illegal immigrants;
  • 5 million legal immigrants;
  • 9 million Americans who earn $75,000 or more annually;
  • 9.7 million who are eligible for government health programs;
  • 6 million who are eligible for employee-based health plans, but voluntarily demur (many of these are young and healthy, and have few health-care costs);
  • 12 million without affordable health-care options.

It's only the last group that is truly uninsured. The others either are not the responsibility of the U.S. government; have the means to pay for their own health-care costs; receive government health-care benefits already; or voluntarily do without insurance available to them. So, it's only c. 2% of the U.S. populace which really has a stake in the current health-care 'reform' debate.

Most of us have discovered from personal experience that tinkering with something that is near-perfect, or even just acceptable, more often makes it less so than brings it closer to perfection. There is no reason to believe that federal bureaucrats will necessarily translate Congressional legislation into a net gain regarding health care, even if motives and intentions are pristinely pure (which I don't think is the case!).

Still, I suspect that the large Democratic majority in Congress will not allow the issue to pass without government meddling. Democratic leadership will whip their members into a positive vote on health-care reform. But, given the likelihood that unintended (and some wholly intended), negative consequences will accompany such passage, it will be a Pyrrhic victory so damaging it may duplicate the cost to Democrats that the Clinton Administration's attempt at health-care reform caused: the 1994 loss of control of the House of Representative, from which Madame Pelosi's current Leftist radicalism emanates and holds sway.

Not many of us trust the steadfastness of the GOP regarding fiscal responsibility after its abrogation of the 1994 "Contract With America" that led its revival. Still, when the demonstrable choice comes down to whom can we trust? vs. whom can we survive?, the American electorate will not commit political suicide.

Monday, August 10, 2009

On Wings of Buzzards

The longer and more I ponder former President Clinton's "rescue" of two female journalists held hostage (once you decide North Korea has an illegitimate government, they are little more than terrorists holding hostages) by Kim Jong Il's regime, the less I like it -- and the more I'm sure we gave up a bit of United States sovereignty in order to achieve it.

These two Al Gore employees are hardly the only American political prisoners in the world. Will Clinton now go to Waziristan to parley with the Taliban over their 'POW'? How about Tehran and the three tourists who stupidly traipsed across the oft-unmarked border between Iraq and Iran?

No, Clinton won't go to those places, because he'd be an obvious representative of the U.S. government there. In Korea, he could play-act sole allegiance to his former VP Gore. And, yet, does anyone doubt that the NORKs leeched a humiliating 'payment' from the U.S. government in exchange for releasing the journalists? After all, the whole episode's purpose for Kim was to humiliate his 'oppressor' in non-proliferation matters. Be sure he thinks he did! It will be interesting to note how long it takes for the details to surface, and how damaging they are to U.S. policy once they're known. (I'd bet AFTER the 2012 presidential elections, if possible.)

Anyway, I can't help but wish the Korean prisoners had been rescued in a Perot-type operation such as the Texas billionaire propogated for his employees in Iran in 1979:

http://www.amazon.com/Wings-Eagles-Ken-Follett/dp/0451213092/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249953977&sr=1-1

Ironically, I have little use for H. Ross Perot. As much as I might admire his business acumen, I hold him almost entirely responsible for the Clintons' rise to national prominence with his third-party candidacies, especially in 1992. But, credit where it was due: Perot himself was present inside the Iranian prison when his company's employees, led by former Green Beret "Bull" Simon, flawlessly invaded Iran and rescued their fellow workers about the same time the Carter Administration was scratching an ill-advised mission in the Iranian desert, with eight servicemen's lives lost.

History is full of ironies -- it might have been Perot-birthed Clinton who signalled the end of America's heroic era by performing so publicly what Perot accomplished in private.

We seem to be giving over private to public on a routine basis these days, don't we?

Saturday, August 8, 2009

End of Life Counseling a la Democrats

deleted (while I figure out how to link directly to specific posts elsewhere, instead of entire 'blogs)




Friday, August 7, 2009

Democrats Projecting?..

There are lots of Democratic accusations bandied about currently of Nazi, Brownshirt, and thuggish tactics in the pushback over Congressional health-care usurpation plans. And, they're right to point them out activities. Now, they should stop using them!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Let the Democrats take the blame

President Obama has given the so-called Senate "Gang of Six" a pep talk to keep seeking a bi-partisan bill giving him what he wants for health 'reform': entree to a single-payer system down the road (no, of course he didn't say that! But you and I both KNOW that's what he means!). But, along with it, Axlerod -- the Chicago lieutenant/consigliere -- suggests that while bi-partisanship is in everybody's "best interest", a bill WILL BE passed with Democratic votes alone if necessary.

Well, I say, let 'em go at it! A year, two years, five years and/or 25 years down the road, we're not going to like it, so let's let the Democrats 'own' it!

I mean, in how many countries does single-payer health care have to fail before we learn a lesson? Jeesh! And in how many countries does it have to continue failing before we realize that once we go there, we can't go back?

New respect for Glenn Reynolds!!!

Man, how does the InstaPundit do it? Day after day, in addition to being a full-time law professor at a major university, Glenn manages to pore over and encapsulate -- with brief, witty, pithy commentary -- major news items of each day.

I'm finding it hard to get back to post anything of substance here even once a week. And I spent 25 years meeting a deadline!

Anyway, hat's off, and I'll just have to suck it up and do better. (Ya know, maybe it's the occasional island vacation he photo-blogs about that keep him fresh. Hmmm?..)

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Equilibrium

I don't think much about the so-called 'birther' movement -- who claim President Obama is illegitimately elected because he wasn't really born in the U.S. -- but I also can't for the life of me understand why the president doesn't simply instruct the State of Hawaii to publish his original birth certificate. Does he think this continued foolishness somehow weakens political opponents? Not serious ones, I'd say!

On the other hand, even without validating the nut-jobs' argument, why IS it so unreasonable to require presidential candidates to submit a birth certificate with their candidacy, since I have to submit one to get a passport? Some bureaucrat somewhere apparently doesn't think I'm a citizen, either, unless I provide evidence. Should it be easier to become a presidential candidate (which, by the way, almost requires SOME foreign travel!) than to become a common, international traveler?

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Skippy wants to teach, but won't learn

According to AP, Hah-vad professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. wants his recent run-in with law enforcement to be a lesson to us all about racial profiling:

"I am pleased that (President Obama), too, is eager to use my experience as a teaching moment, and if meeting Sergeant Crowley for a beer with the president will further that end, then I would be happy to oblige."

Now, if only he realized he's to be the student, as HE was the one doing the racial profiling!..

Friday, July 24, 2009

Bourbon: Older is better!

I'm sipping some bourbon tonight, as I am wont to do.

When I mix, as is often the case these days, I mix rye-flavored bourbon and straight rye with (diet) ginger ale, and wheat-flavored bourbon with (diet) cola. But, I often sip my whiskey "neat" -- no ice, nada, nothing but a glass -- before blending.

I opened from my 'bunker' a bottle of Old Heaven Hill Bottled In Bond (BIB) from (via bottle markings and strip-stamp seal) circa 1984 two nights ago. It is fabulous. So much so, that I am hesitant to mix it with ginger ale. So, today I went and bought some more modern OHHBIB (bottled c. 2004). Thus, these are the same whiskey, 20 years apart. Before mixing the latter bottle tonight, of course, I tasted it neat. Two things stood out:

  • 1) Heaven Hill does a remarkable job of straight-lining their taste profile over decades. This is obviously the same whiskey;
  • 2) the older bottle, almost certainly barreled at a lower proof (in c. 1980) than the modern bottle (barreled approx. 2000), has a richer, more refined finish. It is marginally better whiskey, though both are perfect for the way in which I use them -- as mixer.

Thus, confirmed again a thesis I have argued during my several years of bourbon appreciation: if a specific brand spans a significant number of years till today, older versions of it are better.

There are a multitude of exceptional-quality, and exceptional-value bourbons today -- my friend Chuck Cowdery, who literally wrote the book on bourbon ("Bourbon, Straight"), would claim today is bourbon's 'golden age' -- but bourbons which have a pedigree spanning, say, decades, were better before than they are now.

The good news is that they ain't bad now!

Rushed and ugly

NRO's Rich Lowry debates himself about whether or not it would be better for critics if the House of Representatives passes a health-care bill before their August recess, or not.

Pass a bill, I argue. To use one of Lowry's phrases, the passage of the particular form of health-care 'reform' that essentially is health-care overhaul that Democrats propose, they must do it "rushed and ugly" -- like the stimulus. If folks have a chance to learn what's in it, they will overwhelmingly reject it. The failure of the stimulus -- passed under similar circumstances to little avail, so far -- has made the public wary of such shenanigans. Still, it's the Dems' only hope...

New school year started

Sorry about the slow posting, but a new school year began this week -- if only for teachers -- and I've been swamped trying to both keep up with the new house and getting ready for a new classroom.

Hoping (not promising, though!) to do better...

Monday, July 20, 2009

Time Passes

When I was a kid in the '60s, the World War I veterans headed up almost every parade in my hometown. It awed me that they were honoring their service from as many as 50 years before! Of course, today even World War II veterans (which includes my late father) are even farther removed from their service.

It is almost incomprehensible, then, that a handful of WWI veterans remain alive -- though one less, with the passing of the world's oldest resident last week, Henry Allingham, in England:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090718/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_obit_oldest_man

There remains just a single American WWI veteran, Frank Buckles, who lied about his age to enlist in 1917. At 108, he lives today in Charlestown, W. Va.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Buckles

Send me to the moon

I was 12 years old when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon the day before my Mom's 44th birthday in 1969. Joe Dendel had spend the night before at my house, and we watched the telecast together on our black-and-white television.

I had caught Holy Hell from my older brother, Tom, for writing a story about dogs in space and self-propelled, personal rocket backpacks while in grade school. Of course, spacedog Laika was an early pioneer (and victim) of the Soviet space program; and, shuttle astronauts have been using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) -- nyah, nyah, Tom! -- for years now. But I remain astounded and ashamed that we haven't been back to the moon for more than 30 years, and don't have the technical capacity to return today even if we had the will.

Were the pioneers -- Von Braun, Glenn, Armstrong, Kraft -- that much ahead of their times, or are we that unimaginative today?

What have we been doing for 40 years?!

Why should you care who I am?

I'm 52 years old with 49 years of professional experience! The math is obvious -- either I'm a prodigy, or a master of multi-tasking.

Truth to tell, it may be both. I DO have a genius IQ, and my ACT (back in pre-dumbed-down 1973) composite score was 30, but I also have quarter-century stints in TWO DIFFERENT professions: journalism (full-time and part-time for 25 years) and public education (beginning 25th year this week!). In short, I've been expressing my opinion publicly -- either for publication or impressing young minds -- for a long time. I wrote my first published news story in 1976, the same year I (mistakenly!) voted for Jimmy Carter for president. I taught my first classroom (and their progeny since) in 1985 (by which time I'd whole-heartedly adapted to Ronald Reagan in 1984, after a flirtation with Libertarian Ed Clark in 1980).

So, you see, both my professional life and political views have undergone examination and re-examination, only to wind up becoming pretty stable in my latter years.

My goal, of course (wanting to be a self-respecting blogger) is to earn a link from Glenn Reynolds' InstaPundit. I bet I will -- someday! In the meantime, you're in on the ground floor. Pat yourself on the back. Now, let's go make waves...