So BO will give his speech from a fake greek temple. I'm not sure why, but the Nazis liked the "greek look" as well.
Power Line: The Temple of Obama
Power Line: The Temple of Obama
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The Poor Economy
Another sign of that "horrible Bush economy". Be nice to have BO and a bunch of Dems in the "turn things around" ... and no doubt be quick to take credit if the direction of that "turn around" is negative.
Household income up, poverty level falls in Colorado - Denver Business Journal:
Household income up, poverty level falls in Colorado - Denver Business Journal:
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - 9:11 AM MDT
Household income up, poverty level falls in Colorado
Denver Business Journal
The median household income of Colorado residents has increased by more than 8 percent since 2004, or four times the national average.
The U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday reported the median income in Colorado has risen to $59,209 (based on a two-year average from 2006-07) from $54,719 (based on a two-year average from 2004-2005).
The 8.2 percent increase is considered statistically significant, according to the Census Bureau.
Nationally, the median income rose by 2 percent during the same period, to $49,901 from $48,934.
During the same period, the percentage of Coloradans -— and Americans as a whole — living in poverty dipped. A family of four earning less than $21,203 a year is considered to be living in poverty.
The percentage of Coloradans in poverty dropped to 9.8 percent during the 2006-07 period from 10.7 percent in 2004-05. Nationally, the poverty figure fell to 12.4 percent from 12.7 percent.
A Fair Summary of Ted Kennedy
Power Line: What To Make of Teddy K?
The Power Line guys cover him perfectly and SUCCINCTLY in my book. I need to work hard on the succinct part!
The Power Line guys cover him perfectly and SUCCINCTLY in my book. I need to work hard on the succinct part!
Monday, August 25, 2008
When the Worst Happens
Not a lot of blog entries lately. Life was very busy, then it compressed to a single focus. In the waning hours of Friday August 15th, our 17 year old niece and her boyfriend were "T-boned" at a gravel intersection in IA. The driver of the 1-ton pickup that hit their little car, is also 17, apparently had been drinking, and ran a stop sign. Her boyfriend was dead at the scene and she was choppered to a trauma center.
We got the call about 3AM Saturday, packed up the family and headed the 5 hours to the hospital. The initial reports were especially grim--not much chance, bleeding from her ear, probably massive brain injury. The next reports were very hopeful, bleeding due to broken jaw, CAT scans looked OK, maybe just a concussion. Shortly after we got there, there was bad news again--her brain had "twisted" and there was damage, but the damage could not be diagnosed. We had to just watch and pray.
A long day at the hospital that Saturday. Lots of emotions-sadness, prayer, hope, despair and even laughter of memories at times. She seemed stable, it looked like a "long haul", we packed up our two boys and headed home, they had work, band camp and other things to do. We recovered some Sunday, worked Monday, and then headed back so that we could cover for her folks at the hospital as they went home for her boyfriends funeral. When we got there, she had been stable and low cranial pressure all day.
Modern life is often about finding out about things you had no idea about. "Cranial pressure" is one of those things. We tend to run about "6" normally, but by bearing down to lift something heavy, we can hit 50-60 for short periods. With a brain injury, "20" is the threshold where treatment is needed. Specific drugs will lower the pressure, but like all drugs, they have trade-offs. They are a short term fix. She went up to 36 Monday night, but the nurse was able to bring her back down under 20. The folks stayed back at home that night and were able to be at her boyfriends funeral Tuesday.
She had surgery on her jaw Tuesday, which went very well. The brain surgeon came in and said that he was optimistic since her pressure was down below 10 and it had always dropped quickly when it went up. He felt that the medical team was "chasing their tail" because of the probe reading the pressures and wanted it taken out. He felt that she was going to "wake up soon". We were elated.
The parents came back in the late afternoon, we conveyed the good news, and they felt her squeeze both of their hands that evening. We were beyond elated, we were ECSTATIC! The storm had been weathered, she was coming back to us. We got together for beers and snacks in the hotel bar that night and didn't want to leave each other. We clung, we laughed, we were relieved. I hope I learned something significant that I can carry on for the rest of my life that night.
You see, in the back of my mind, I ALWAYS doubt (you may pick that up from this blog). If things seem "better", I always wonder. Did they REALLY feel a squeeze? The "dark side" of doubt is never far away from me. It is VERY hard for me to enjoy things that are "still in doubt"--and if we are honest at all, when are most of the earthly important things NOT in doubt? I'm too prone to live my whole life watching, planning, analyzing, studying, intellectualizing and comparing and miss my life while I'm at it. Of course, I've analyzed that too a long time ago--so I try to take that tendency into a account and compensate as well. Like wearing glasses and watching our diet, we can make some level of improvement, but our natural tendencies are never very far away.
I'm so thankful that we had Tuesday night. The stress had been great enough to that point, and the desire for hope was so great that even doubting me gave in and believed. I need that lesson as I look at the abyss-- I so much want to believe, I pray to believe, but like Thomas in the bible I would REALLY like to "touch the saviors wound". Faith in the unseen is always hard for humans--on the other hand, it is what we all have for the next second and the next breath, it is just that we usually don't think about that, so it is the easy form of faith, sometimes called ignorance--and bliss.
We got up early Wednesday to head back home. We stopped up to check on her and her pressure was back up around 30, but they didn't seem panicked about it and since the brain surgeon had indicated that she may just run high, we still felt optimistic and still took off. Three hours later we got that sort of call that makes your guts turn to fiery lead. The pressure had continued to rise. The brain surgeon had been in there and said that this many days post accident it was a very bad sign. They were trying more heroic measures to get it back down, pushing her blood pressure up to try to keep blood going into the brain at even the high cranial pressures. It looked very bad, we turned around and had the longest three hour drive of our lives back to the hospital thinking the "she is gone" call would come at any second.
It was a quiet and sad day. The odds hadn't dropped to zero, but they were under 30% of a decent recovery and falling. Our niece had been a friendly, happy and chubby little girl that had blossomed into a stunning blond cheerleader, superstar on her dance squad, national honor society, and most outgoing and loving "down to earth" girl you could ever meet. Her megawatt smile lit the world around her. We all knew the realities of brain injuries--along with the very real odds of losing her completely were the also high odds of her not having anything for a life. We slipped into saying "was" associated with her name--caught ourselves and were embarrassed, but sadly knew why we were doing it.
The day wore on. She stabilized some, but before we headed to the hotel around midnight, her pressure was up to 80. We knew that was very bad, but at the levels of sleep deprivation we were all at, we still turned in for some sleep and mostly got a little. The call came at 3 and we rushed back over. Her brain stem had ruptured into the spinal column. She was gone, although still on life support for potential organ donation. They had ran her oxygen levels high, shut off the ventilator and waited 10 min to see if there was enough lower level brain function for her to take a breath. There wasn't.
The worst had happened, she was gone.
Numbness, sobbing, disbelief, anger, extreme sadness, clinging to those around us. Death is the giant fact of human life that will always be beyond our physical selves to grasp. Is there more? Will my loved ones and I have our next breath? Nobody in the physical realm really knows anything in the sense that we at least "believe that we know" that repeatable scientific things will "always" be repeatable. Of course, if we are honest about that, we know that the "error of induction" is always a potential. What we think are "stable local conditions" may be some quantum or other dimensional "bubble" that could pop like soap suds in the next second and all our logic, equations and "knowledge" will be as imaginary as the most wispy fairy tale of youth.
We love to think we are "wise, spiritual, well adjusted, stable, rational, scientific, etc", but death tells us that we lack control at the ultimate level at an extreme and very personal way. We, and all those we love will surely die. We have no answers at the level of 2+2=4 and Labor Day is on the first Monday in September to the most significant--and potentially only meaningful question of our lives. Is this all there is? Is there hope for more, and if so, what is the best way to achievement of that hope?
So, 99% of the time we do what humans have done for at least thousands of years. We deny what we don't like to think about. We "change the channel". Some of us choose to believe that there is a heaven that is better than this earthly realm, and we will see our loved ones again. For me personally, that belief is comforting, but way different than "2+2=4"--there is a sense of "rightness" to it that is like seeing a young fawn with it's mother, geese flying south in the fall, the moon traversing the sky or watching waves roll into a rocky seashore. "There is something more" is at some level of feeling that is very hard to put into words, indeed, I strongly suspect that words are an impediment.
Nothing near as potentially sensible as the previous paragraphs really went through my mind for days beyond the death. We needed to get back home to share the grieving process with our sons, so we left around 8 in the morning for the long drive home. We spent the night here in our now completed new bedroom. We had been sleeping there for one week the night of the accident, so the fact that even our own bedroom didn't seem like our own bedroom made the loss of days and location more significant. If we needed one more solid reminder that material possessions and station in life means very little in the face of the truly important things, this certainly provided it.
The next evening, Friday, we went back down to Iowa to be with the parents and friends and to pick up pictures and video for the visitation and tribute. We headed back home Saturday evening and worked until after 3AM on the slide show and video. Back up at 7AM Sunday and on the road to the visitation and funeral. Those that don't believe in their being a human spirit that is beyond the physical may not have seen a beautiful dead 17 year old. The mortician did fine, but without that brimming streaming spirit radiating from those eyes and smile, it just wasn't her.
Her organs helped 11 people, including saving the life of a baby that got half her liver--had she died at the scene or not lasted those 5 days in the hospital, that would not have been possible. Our "unanswered" prayers were someone else's miracle. I believe that a major part of the wattage of that smile was an inner faith that didn't need any more "work" at 17, where mine could use a lot of patches at 51. I don't claim to have a clue of the plans of an infinitely powerful God who is beyond our material world. One of the theories of quantum computing is called the "many worlds" or "multiverse" theory, developed by a guy named Hugh Everett. Under that theory, the "quantum strangeness" isn't strange at all (or it is very strange). Every "decision" at even very small levels "forks" a completely different copy of the entire universe -- our consciousness just happens to be in one of them.
So on the path that everyone reading this blog is on, she didn't make it through the accident. On another she did, on yet another the accident never happened -- and on and on to what would seem to us to be infinity. Strange? Sure, but only about the same level of strangeness of some of the other theories of why quantum effects work as they do. I believe that strange attempted explanation is far less strange than what God is really up to, and my niece is with God laughing about the simplicity and ultimate rightness of it all at some level that is so beyond our imagining that the totality of all our earthly existences will seem of less significance than a raindrop in the ocean when we see the truth.
The memorial service at the high school on Sunday night was precious. Over a thousand people, some good music, some good words, comfort, togetherness, celebration of a life that was very well lived, but oh so short. The funeral at the very conservative church that our nieces family attended was difficult for those of us not used to that approach from youth. I was struck that in a church with no words or ornamentation, the only words visible at the front the church were on two speakers -- "Bose". No love, no hope, no truth, no peace, no faith, no joy, not even the cross or Christ. Only "Bose".
I know they mean well, and their traditions are hugely important to them, but the tone of that service was so much not my niece. Her life SHOUTED **JOY** in gigantic pink letters and she positively radiated love to people in her daily life. It was easy to see the fruits of the spirit in her. Their minister may not be able to provide assurance that our niece is with Jesus, but 10 minutes of time with her when she was alive was more than enough for a Christian not captive to the tradition, form, practice and regulations of a very unusual sect to have assurance of all the words NOT present at the front of that church.
So, now we go on. I had been saving vacation for end of the summer, and I decided that I really needed the time off, so I took it. I didn't "do" much -- read, thought, slept, caught up on the mundane things around home that had slid while we were away. Tomorrow I return to work and "normal life", although I suspect with some priority change. Will it be permanent? I have no idea -- I know way too well how strong our tendency to "return to the mean" of our lives is. In some ways, that is good -- in others, we need to change to improve. I pray that I can do that.
We got the call about 3AM Saturday, packed up the family and headed the 5 hours to the hospital. The initial reports were especially grim--not much chance, bleeding from her ear, probably massive brain injury. The next reports were very hopeful, bleeding due to broken jaw, CAT scans looked OK, maybe just a concussion. Shortly after we got there, there was bad news again--her brain had "twisted" and there was damage, but the damage could not be diagnosed. We had to just watch and pray.
A long day at the hospital that Saturday. Lots of emotions-sadness, prayer, hope, despair and even laughter of memories at times. She seemed stable, it looked like a "long haul", we packed up our two boys and headed home, they had work, band camp and other things to do. We recovered some Sunday, worked Monday, and then headed back so that we could cover for her folks at the hospital as they went home for her boyfriends funeral. When we got there, she had been stable and low cranial pressure all day.
Modern life is often about finding out about things you had no idea about. "Cranial pressure" is one of those things. We tend to run about "6" normally, but by bearing down to lift something heavy, we can hit 50-60 for short periods. With a brain injury, "20" is the threshold where treatment is needed. Specific drugs will lower the pressure, but like all drugs, they have trade-offs. They are a short term fix. She went up to 36 Monday night, but the nurse was able to bring her back down under 20. The folks stayed back at home that night and were able to be at her boyfriends funeral Tuesday.
She had surgery on her jaw Tuesday, which went very well. The brain surgeon came in and said that he was optimistic since her pressure was down below 10 and it had always dropped quickly when it went up. He felt that the medical team was "chasing their tail" because of the probe reading the pressures and wanted it taken out. He felt that she was going to "wake up soon". We were elated.
The parents came back in the late afternoon, we conveyed the good news, and they felt her squeeze both of their hands that evening. We were beyond elated, we were ECSTATIC! The storm had been weathered, she was coming back to us. We got together for beers and snacks in the hotel bar that night and didn't want to leave each other. We clung, we laughed, we were relieved. I hope I learned something significant that I can carry on for the rest of my life that night.
You see, in the back of my mind, I ALWAYS doubt (you may pick that up from this blog). If things seem "better", I always wonder. Did they REALLY feel a squeeze? The "dark side" of doubt is never far away from me. It is VERY hard for me to enjoy things that are "still in doubt"--and if we are honest at all, when are most of the earthly important things NOT in doubt? I'm too prone to live my whole life watching, planning, analyzing, studying, intellectualizing and comparing and miss my life while I'm at it. Of course, I've analyzed that too a long time ago--so I try to take that tendency into a account and compensate as well. Like wearing glasses and watching our diet, we can make some level of improvement, but our natural tendencies are never very far away.
I'm so thankful that we had Tuesday night. The stress had been great enough to that point, and the desire for hope was so great that even doubting me gave in and believed. I need that lesson as I look at the abyss-- I so much want to believe, I pray to believe, but like Thomas in the bible I would REALLY like to "touch the saviors wound". Faith in the unseen is always hard for humans--on the other hand, it is what we all have for the next second and the next breath, it is just that we usually don't think about that, so it is the easy form of faith, sometimes called ignorance--and bliss.
We got up early Wednesday to head back home. We stopped up to check on her and her pressure was back up around 30, but they didn't seem panicked about it and since the brain surgeon had indicated that she may just run high, we still felt optimistic and still took off. Three hours later we got that sort of call that makes your guts turn to fiery lead. The pressure had continued to rise. The brain surgeon had been in there and said that this many days post accident it was a very bad sign. They were trying more heroic measures to get it back down, pushing her blood pressure up to try to keep blood going into the brain at even the high cranial pressures. It looked very bad, we turned around and had the longest three hour drive of our lives back to the hospital thinking the "she is gone" call would come at any second.
It was a quiet and sad day. The odds hadn't dropped to zero, but they were under 30% of a decent recovery and falling. Our niece had been a friendly, happy and chubby little girl that had blossomed into a stunning blond cheerleader, superstar on her dance squad, national honor society, and most outgoing and loving "down to earth" girl you could ever meet. Her megawatt smile lit the world around her. We all knew the realities of brain injuries--along with the very real odds of losing her completely were the also high odds of her not having anything for a life. We slipped into saying "was" associated with her name--caught ourselves and were embarrassed, but sadly knew why we were doing it.
The day wore on. She stabilized some, but before we headed to the hotel around midnight, her pressure was up to 80. We knew that was very bad, but at the levels of sleep deprivation we were all at, we still turned in for some sleep and mostly got a little. The call came at 3 and we rushed back over. Her brain stem had ruptured into the spinal column. She was gone, although still on life support for potential organ donation. They had ran her oxygen levels high, shut off the ventilator and waited 10 min to see if there was enough lower level brain function for her to take a breath. There wasn't.
The worst had happened, she was gone.
Numbness, sobbing, disbelief, anger, extreme sadness, clinging to those around us. Death is the giant fact of human life that will always be beyond our physical selves to grasp. Is there more? Will my loved ones and I have our next breath? Nobody in the physical realm really knows anything in the sense that we at least "believe that we know" that repeatable scientific things will "always" be repeatable. Of course, if we are honest about that, we know that the "error of induction" is always a potential. What we think are "stable local conditions" may be some quantum or other dimensional "bubble" that could pop like soap suds in the next second and all our logic, equations and "knowledge" will be as imaginary as the most wispy fairy tale of youth.
We love to think we are "wise, spiritual, well adjusted, stable, rational, scientific, etc", but death tells us that we lack control at the ultimate level at an extreme and very personal way. We, and all those we love will surely die. We have no answers at the level of 2+2=4 and Labor Day is on the first Monday in September to the most significant--and potentially only meaningful question of our lives. Is this all there is? Is there hope for more, and if so, what is the best way to achievement of that hope?
So, 99% of the time we do what humans have done for at least thousands of years. We deny what we don't like to think about. We "change the channel". Some of us choose to believe that there is a heaven that is better than this earthly realm, and we will see our loved ones again. For me personally, that belief is comforting, but way different than "2+2=4"--there is a sense of "rightness" to it that is like seeing a young fawn with it's mother, geese flying south in the fall, the moon traversing the sky or watching waves roll into a rocky seashore. "There is something more" is at some level of feeling that is very hard to put into words, indeed, I strongly suspect that words are an impediment.
Nothing near as potentially sensible as the previous paragraphs really went through my mind for days beyond the death. We needed to get back home to share the grieving process with our sons, so we left around 8 in the morning for the long drive home. We spent the night here in our now completed new bedroom. We had been sleeping there for one week the night of the accident, so the fact that even our own bedroom didn't seem like our own bedroom made the loss of days and location more significant. If we needed one more solid reminder that material possessions and station in life means very little in the face of the truly important things, this certainly provided it.
The next evening, Friday, we went back down to Iowa to be with the parents and friends and to pick up pictures and video for the visitation and tribute. We headed back home Saturday evening and worked until after 3AM on the slide show and video. Back up at 7AM Sunday and on the road to the visitation and funeral. Those that don't believe in their being a human spirit that is beyond the physical may not have seen a beautiful dead 17 year old. The mortician did fine, but without that brimming streaming spirit radiating from those eyes and smile, it just wasn't her.
Her organs helped 11 people, including saving the life of a baby that got half her liver--had she died at the scene or not lasted those 5 days in the hospital, that would not have been possible. Our "unanswered" prayers were someone else's miracle. I believe that a major part of the wattage of that smile was an inner faith that didn't need any more "work" at 17, where mine could use a lot of patches at 51. I don't claim to have a clue of the plans of an infinitely powerful God who is beyond our material world. One of the theories of quantum computing is called the "many worlds" or "multiverse" theory, developed by a guy named Hugh Everett. Under that theory, the "quantum strangeness" isn't strange at all (or it is very strange). Every "decision" at even very small levels "forks" a completely different copy of the entire universe -- our consciousness just happens to be in one of them.
So on the path that everyone reading this blog is on, she didn't make it through the accident. On another she did, on yet another the accident never happened -- and on and on to what would seem to us to be infinity. Strange? Sure, but only about the same level of strangeness of some of the other theories of why quantum effects work as they do. I believe that strange attempted explanation is far less strange than what God is really up to, and my niece is with God laughing about the simplicity and ultimate rightness of it all at some level that is so beyond our imagining that the totality of all our earthly existences will seem of less significance than a raindrop in the ocean when we see the truth.
The memorial service at the high school on Sunday night was precious. Over a thousand people, some good music, some good words, comfort, togetherness, celebration of a life that was very well lived, but oh so short. The funeral at the very conservative church that our nieces family attended was difficult for those of us not used to that approach from youth. I was struck that in a church with no words or ornamentation, the only words visible at the front the church were on two speakers -- "Bose". No love, no hope, no truth, no peace, no faith, no joy, not even the cross or Christ. Only "Bose".
I know they mean well, and their traditions are hugely important to them, but the tone of that service was so much not my niece. Her life SHOUTED **JOY** in gigantic pink letters and she positively radiated love to people in her daily life. It was easy to see the fruits of the spirit in her. Their minister may not be able to provide assurance that our niece is with Jesus, but 10 minutes of time with her when she was alive was more than enough for a Christian not captive to the tradition, form, practice and regulations of a very unusual sect to have assurance of all the words NOT present at the front of that church.
So, now we go on. I had been saving vacation for end of the summer, and I decided that I really needed the time off, so I took it. I didn't "do" much -- read, thought, slept, caught up on the mundane things around home that had slid while we were away. Tomorrow I return to work and "normal life", although I suspect with some priority change. Will it be permanent? I have no idea -- I know way too well how strong our tendency to "return to the mean" of our lives is. In some ways, that is good -- in others, we need to change to improve. I pray that I can do that.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Racist BO?
Obama on Clarence Thomas - WSJ.com
S
So you need less experience to be a President than a Supreme Court Justice? BO seems to think that white conservatives are preferable to black conservatives -- at least THEY are "qualified". So what IS "racist" again?
S
o let's see. By the time he was nominated, Clarence Thomas had worked in the Missouri Attorney General's office, served as an Assistant Secretary of Education, run the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and sat for a year on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the nation's second most prominent court. Since his "elevation" to the High Court in 1991, he has also shown himself to be a principled and scholarly jurist.
Meanwhile, as he bids to be America's Commander in Chief, Mr. Obama isn't yet four years out of the Illinois state Senate, has never held a hearing of note of his U.S. Senate subcommittee, and had an unremarkable record as both a "community organizer" and law school lecturer. Justice Thomas's judicial credentials compare favorably to Mr. Obama's Presidential résumé by any measure. And when it comes to rising from difficult circumstances, Justice Thomas's rural Georgian upbringing makes Mr. Obama's story look like easy street.
So you need less experience to be a President than a Supreme Court Justice? BO seems to think that white conservatives are preferable to black conservatives -- at least THEY are "qualified". So what IS "racist" again?
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Why Isn't It "Farenheit 911ed"?
CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Campaign says McCain didn’t hear question on attack book « - Blogs from CNN.com
So the MSM is worried about BO being "Swift Boated". Why were they not worried about Bush being "Farenheit 9-11ed" when Michael Moore put out his rumor and innuendo plus outright propaganda film in June of 2004?
So the MSM is worried about BO being "Swift Boated". Why were they not worried about Bush being "Farenheit 9-11ed" when Michael Moore put out his rumor and innuendo plus outright propaganda film in June of 2004?
Friday, August 15, 2008
So Was Kerry an Elitist?
CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Labor organization looks to paint McCain as elitist « - Blogs from CNN.com
It is very interesting how the lefty brain thinks. I don't really mind EITHER Kerry or McCain being worth 100's of millions because they married rich ladies. I married over my head as well-I'd sure hate to have married the woman that I deserve!
I don't particularly like Kerry having 800 Million and then trying to make sure that I never get in the low single digit millions through taxes and anti-business policy, but my problem isn't that HE has the $800 million. That it just fine. Why is it OK for him to have it, but bad for me to have 1 or 2 million?
So do you suspect that this labor org thought that Kerry was "elitist"? Bush is worth a lot less than either Kerry or McCain ... I'm SURE that they must have strongly supported HIM, because I think it is pretty hard for anyone to call Bush "elitist"!!
My definition of elitist is about thought, not money. It is the contention by the MSM, hollywood, artists and many university professors that they have figured out the "truth" that is superior to what religion, history, religion or in many cases even science possesses. They are "in the know" on whatever the popular position of the day is, and to be on the other side of their vaunted views is to be part of the "unwashed masses" ... the kind of people that still "cling to religion and guns".
People with money are RARELY "elitist" ... although many leading Democrats are the exception to that rule.
It is very interesting how the lefty brain thinks. I don't really mind EITHER Kerry or McCain being worth 100's of millions because they married rich ladies. I married over my head as well-I'd sure hate to have married the woman that I deserve!
I don't particularly like Kerry having 800 Million and then trying to make sure that I never get in the low single digit millions through taxes and anti-business policy, but my problem isn't that HE has the $800 million. That it just fine. Why is it OK for him to have it, but bad for me to have 1 or 2 million?
So do you suspect that this labor org thought that Kerry was "elitist"? Bush is worth a lot less than either Kerry or McCain ... I'm SURE that they must have strongly supported HIM, because I think it is pretty hard for anyone to call Bush "elitist"!!
My definition of elitist is about thought, not money. It is the contention by the MSM, hollywood, artists and many university professors that they have figured out the "truth" that is superior to what religion, history, religion or in many cases even science possesses. They are "in the know" on whatever the popular position of the day is, and to be on the other side of their vaunted views is to be part of the "unwashed masses" ... the kind of people that still "cling to religion and guns".
People with money are RARELY "elitist" ... although many leading Democrats are the exception to that rule.
Jaws Not Put off By BO?
David Kahane on Hillary Clinton on National Review Online
This one is really well done, good to see that NRO lives on with only the ghost of Buckley to help it.
Couple of teasers-but it all needs to be read to get full humor:
This one is really well done, good to see that NRO lives on with only the ghost of Buckley to help it.
Couple of teasers-but it all needs to be read to get full humor:
The trip all culminated, of course, in the great speech at the Siegessäule in Berlin (which poor New York Times columnist Bob Herbert mistook for both the Washington Monument and the Leaning Tower of Pisa), which sent 200,000 Germans into paroxysms of ecstasy not seen since Leni Riefenstahl was toting a camera. Nobody feels more like a citizen of the world than the Germans, especially when they’re hungry and don’t have time to phone ahead to Paris or Rome forIt is so sad that the "MSM humor squad" doesn't find BO and company funny. Yes, yes -- pain, pestilence, economic decline and death by terrorists will require a "sophisticated wit", but HEY, we aren't there yet! The likely future is all the more reason to enjoy the today we have to our very fullest!!
reservations.
So it was three cheers for BO Jr., and then it was off to Hawaii, where he could revisit the scenes of his youth as a poor half-black sharecropper, or a pampered half-white kid attending the tony Punahou School, or some combination of both, while a leggy Paris Hilton in a bikini was making goo-goo eyes at John McCain and proposing the most perfectly sensible energy policy anyone ever heard. Do both? Now that’s bipartisanship.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Is BO Just an MSM Wish?
RealClearPolitics - Articles - Breaking the Press
I'm not ready to buy this yet, but BO hasn't been trouncing McCain in the polls. People DO tend to actually operate by "narratives" rather than clouds of media "facts".
My problem is that I REALLY have "left fatigue". I understand it will still be YEARS before they take an responsibility for anything (and then only because eventually they realize they HAVE TO or their isn't much reason to have them in power), even though they have now owned both houses of congress for a full "active cyle" (1.5 years ... new congress focuses on "the people's business" for the year immediately after election and most of the spring cycle of election year-they are just trying to get re-elected now).
Given the Bush weakness, they have been in the drivers seat for two years and we are starting to see results already--higher fuel prices, slumping economy, bigger deficits. Since Bush is still in the WH, the MSM is perfectly willing to blame him for everything, and no doubt will do so for at least two more years.
One nice thing though is that even moderate good news will start to be reported as such and attributed to BO / Democrats the very day he takes office. It will be nice to hear about places that jobs are increasing, drops in fuel prices, new technologies that could be hopeful for the future, etc. For someone that cares about life more than politics, good news is GOOD ... no matter who is in the WH. That will be at least one immediate good thing of BO in the WH.
But if McCain should win, the negativity will certainly get completely out of hand as if it hasn't already!
I'm not ready to buy this yet, but BO hasn't been trouncing McCain in the polls. People DO tend to actually operate by "narratives" rather than clouds of media "facts".
My problem is that I REALLY have "left fatigue". I understand it will still be YEARS before they take an responsibility for anything (and then only because eventually they realize they HAVE TO or their isn't much reason to have them in power), even though they have now owned both houses of congress for a full "active cyle" (1.5 years ... new congress focuses on "the people's business" for the year immediately after election and most of the spring cycle of election year-they are just trying to get re-elected now).
Given the Bush weakness, they have been in the drivers seat for two years and we are starting to see results already--higher fuel prices, slumping economy, bigger deficits. Since Bush is still in the WH, the MSM is perfectly willing to blame him for everything, and no doubt will do so for at least two more years.
One nice thing though is that even moderate good news will start to be reported as such and attributed to BO / Democrats the very day he takes office. It will be nice to hear about places that jobs are increasing, drops in fuel prices, new technologies that could be hopeful for the future, etc. For someone that cares about life more than politics, good news is GOOD ... no matter who is in the WH. That will be at least one immediate good thing of BO in the WH.
But if McCain should win, the negativity will certainly get completely out of hand as if it hasn't already!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
The Galbraith Effect
RealClearPolitics - Articles - The Galbraith Effect?
Thomas Sowell is a very intelligent man that also happens to be black. He talks about John Kenneth Galbraith giving a blow-away superb lecture to open a semester, but then how he just kept giving that very same, very general lecture, and the students drifted away. Could that be the case for BO?
Essentially, all BO ever had was "one great speech". Hope-change-future-new-not Bush-end the war. Popular with a whole bunch of folks, especially on the left, but there never has been any "there there". Yes, "soaking the rich" sounds like fun to many, but it is "fun" like killing the golden goose is fun. It tends to be a very short lived variety of fun.
BO doesn't care about this unless it hurts his election chances, so he and the MSM will push like crazy to be sure that he gets elected. BUT, the polls don't seem to be following what the MSM would expect for the "perfect candidate with all the money".
Maybe voters don't actually like the prospect of a true empty suit in the White House when it is still a very dangerous world without any gaurentees of future economic or other success.
Thomas Sowell is a very intelligent man that also happens to be black. He talks about John Kenneth Galbraith giving a blow-away superb lecture to open a semester, but then how he just kept giving that very same, very general lecture, and the students drifted away. Could that be the case for BO?
Essentially, all BO ever had was "one great speech". Hope-change-future-new-not Bush-end the war. Popular with a whole bunch of folks, especially on the left, but there never has been any "there there". Yes, "soaking the rich" sounds like fun to many, but it is "fun" like killing the golden goose is fun. It tends to be a very short lived variety of fun.
BO doesn't care about this unless it hurts his election chances, so he and the MSM will push like crazy to be sure that he gets elected. BUT, the polls don't seem to be following what the MSM would expect for the "perfect candidate with all the money".
Maybe voters don't actually like the prospect of a true empty suit in the White House when it is still a very dangerous world without any gaurentees of future economic or other success.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Democrats and Sex
Power Line: What goes around. . .
I suspect that very few liberals and Democrats actually have any fixed opinions on sexual morality. On one hand they want to go out of their way to criminalize at least heterosexual interactions in the work area, on the other hand, when one of their own (Clinton for example) is accused, they see that as "unimportant".
Here is my "guess" at what they may generally believe:
I suspect that very few liberals and Democrats actually have any fixed opinions on sexual morality. On one hand they want to go out of their way to criminalize at least heterosexual interactions in the work area, on the other hand, when one of their own (Clinton for example) is accused, they see that as "unimportant".
Here is my "guess" at what they may generally believe:
- Whatever a Democrat does sexually is just fine. If they "get caught", the media and other Democrats ought to ignore it as much as possible for as long as possible.
- Anything even related to sex for a Republican (as in Limbaugh/Viagra) ought to be "outed" in whatever form possible as early as possible with an indication of "hypocrisy". Since Republicans claim to have moral standards on issues like trust, truth, honesty, etc, ANY evidence that they are "less than perfect" is completely fair game. (BTW, they need not even be "elected" ... Bill Bennett was a juicy target on his gambling even though he was no longer holding any public office).
- Sexual harassment is a weapon to be used on Republicans (Clarence Thomas, Bob Packwood, etc), but "forgiven" in Democrats (Bill Clinton).
- Same sex activity is another anti-Republican weapon -- Foley / Craig lately, course it is fine for Democrats, Frank / Gary Studds. One of the KEYS to being a liberal is that INconsistency is a VIRTUE!
Monday, August 11, 2008
Iraq Budget Surplus?
Why do we have such a hard time hearing good news from Baghdad? - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine
I'm starting to think that Slate has folks that realize that even if one has a liberal bent, being reality based can be a good thing. The link to the NYT story is amazing, one would think that it was BAD news that Iraq has a budget surplus, they are selling oil, and their gravediggers are unemployed! Well, I suppose if less than a year ago you were reporting with confidence that the surge was a failure, Iraq was in civil war, and the situation was militarily hopeless, and it REALLY was more important for you to be "right" than for millions of people to be saved from murder and the US to be spared a terrorist base worse than Afghanistan ever was, then I guess it would be "bad news".
I especially liked this paragraph:
Don't expect most liberals to do any navel gazing about how they might have been wrong and what it might say about them to feel bad as lives are saved and US safety is obviously improved. There is NOTHING more important to a liberal than believing that they are intellectually superior, so it just isn't going to happen.
I'm starting to think that Slate has folks that realize that even if one has a liberal bent, being reality based can be a good thing. The link to the NYT story is amazing, one would think that it was BAD news that Iraq has a budget surplus, they are selling oil, and their gravediggers are unemployed! Well, I suppose if less than a year ago you were reporting with confidence that the surge was a failure, Iraq was in civil war, and the situation was militarily hopeless, and it REALLY was more important for you to be "right" than for millions of people to be saved from murder and the US to be spared a terrorist base worse than Afghanistan ever was, then I guess it would be "bad news".
I especially liked this paragraph:
It is in no spirit of revenge that I remind you that, as little as a
year ago, the whole of smart liberal opinion believed that the
dissolution of Baathism and militarism had been a mistake, that Iraq
itself was a bottomless pit of wasted dollars and pointless casualties,
and that the only option was to withdraw as fast as possible and let
the inevitable civil war burn itself out. To the left of that liberal
consensus, people of the caliber and quality of Michael Moore were describing
the nihilist "insurgents" as the moral equivalent of the Minutemen, and
to the right of the same consensus, people like Pat Buchanan were
hinting that we had been cheated into the whole enterprise by a certain
minority whose collective name began with the letter J.
Don't expect most liberals to do any navel gazing about how they might have been wrong and what it might say about them to feel bad as lives are saved and US safety is obviously improved. There is NOTHING more important to a liberal than believing that they are intellectually superior, so it just isn't going to happen.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Last Word On Edwards
Power Line: My last word on the Edwards affair
I like the way the Power Line guys closed this one out, and I hope the rest of the conservative bloggers and media do the same. Edwards has come out and admitted his affair and admitted the damage that he did. He DID NOT break any laws, he has been brought low by human frailty, he admitted it, NOW it is time to move on.
Contrast that with Clinton, he LIED UNDER OATH in a sexual harrassment case!!! He NEVER admitted he lied under oath, because that was clearly perjury and one would assume that he would HAVE to be removed from office. The fact that he was not removed from office shows that the US is biased for the left and against the right ... or more precisely that the people on the right enforce their values even when the enforcement has to happen on one of their own, where the left does not.
Contrast that with Teddy Kennedy who has NEVER come clean on what really happened at Chappaquiddick. Again, the people of Massachusets have failed to remove a stain from the US Senate for reasons that are very hard to fathom and make one strongly question the ability of our system to operate with justice.
There is no need at all to behave like liberals and kick a man when he is down and I applaud Power Line!
I like the way the Power Line guys closed this one out, and I hope the rest of the conservative bloggers and media do the same. Edwards has come out and admitted his affair and admitted the damage that he did. He DID NOT break any laws, he has been brought low by human frailty, he admitted it, NOW it is time to move on.
Contrast that with Clinton, he LIED UNDER OATH in a sexual harrassment case!!! He NEVER admitted he lied under oath, because that was clearly perjury and one would assume that he would HAVE to be removed from office. The fact that he was not removed from office shows that the US is biased for the left and against the right ... or more precisely that the people on the right enforce their values even when the enforcement has to happen on one of their own, where the left does not.
Contrast that with Teddy Kennedy who has NEVER come clean on what really happened at Chappaquiddick. Again, the people of Massachusets have failed to remove a stain from the US Senate for reasons that are very hard to fathom and make one strongly question the ability of our system to operate with justice.
There is no need at all to behave like liberals and kick a man when he is down and I applaud Power Line!
Saturday, August 09, 2008
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