Month: October 2005

Posted on Random Musings

paradise lost

“I ask you to remember this when weighing out our failings. We are flesh and blood, and not angels after all.”

-stephen lawhead, from the iron lance

i’m tired of all this political wrangling. i’m ready to call a cease-fire in the political battle, at least for today. it’s much easier just to accept the status quo and convince yourself that things can never change in our political system. it requires much less effort to believe that our screams of frustration with that system have been buried in a deep, dark hole, never to see the light of day. life would be so much simpler if i could ignore everything happening right now that disproves this theory, but i can’t do that. the future of this country is too important to me to let it be destroyed from within. we all have a part to play here, and i hope that more people will take advantage of the opportunity we have to influence that future.

it does matter. it absolutely does. but today, i don’t want to fight this battle. i will leave the arguments to those who still have the strength to make them. maybe i will feel differently tomorrow. i hope so. in the meantime, check out the following links to some of my favorite blogs.

WHAT ALEX SAID–And Why We Should Listen–from california conservative
Wake Up, America; It’s Time to Take Our Ball and Go Home–from the great frank j. of IMAO fame. in case you don’t get it…this could be considered satirical.
God is a Republican and Santa Claus is a Democrat–from the division of labour blog, an outstanding explanation by p.j. o’rourke (originally taken from his book parliament of whores). he is so quotable.

more tomorrow. enjoy monday.

Posted on Democrats, Iraq

guess we’ll have to cancel “fitzmas”

vice president cheney’s right-hand man scooter libby was indicted yesterday. all the pundits, bloggers, and various other news people on tv have discussed this story all week, and i don’t really have anything else to add to what has already been said. there may be more to this story than we know, so i will take a wait-and-see attitude until all of the facts come out about this case.

democrats are dismayed that this investigation has currently failed to bring down the source of evil, karl rove. i’m not sure exactly when the democrats decided to start attacking karl rove, but i don’t think it has been a very effective strategy for them. what it comes down to here is that the democrats are content to fight about this peripheral stuff and not debate the issues that are really important to us as americans. the average person in this country may not understand what’s going on with “plamegate” and why they should care about it. they have probably figured out that somebody did something wrong here, but they don’t know what it means exactly.

for the record, anyone who breaks the law should be subject to applicable penalties. it does appear that libby’s in some serious jeopardy here. i don’t minimize that. but for democrats to be celebrating this, ie. the “merry fitzmas” stuff…that’s quite silly and absolutely the wrong strategy. unless they can come up with more evidence than what exists already, there is no “culture of corruption” and that will be a hard sell to make.

i hate giving democrats advice. there’s always a slight chance they might take it. if you want to defeat republicans in elections, then you have to come up with better ideas that you can sell to the voters. if you don’t like the president’s iraq policy, then come up with a better plan and present it to us. better yet, why don’t you help the president out and share your plan with him? after all, we all benefit when iraq is secured,and the sooner the iraqis can do that, the sooner our military can come home. if you think that you could do a more credible job on domestic policy, then make that case to us. i’ve said all that to say this: quit whining about evil republicans and neo-cons, and start engaging in the battle of ideas. that would help your cause a great deal more than the attacks on the president and karl rove.

just my opinion.

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Posted on Democrats, Iraq, Liberals, Moonbats

the official moonbat update

now playing: adding to the noise/switchfoot

in today’s moonbat update: british MP george galloway, al franken, and cindy sheehan.
we shall start today’s update with anti-war agitator george galloway. i’ve said from the very beginning i didn’t trust this guy’s motives in his opposition to the war. there were earlier reports of his involvement in the oil-for-food program that saddam used for his own nefarious purposes. could there be a smoking gun to prove that this was true? chris hitchens seems to think so.
here’s what he said about that in slate:
now to our favorite rush limbaugh fan, otherwise known as al franken. he’s the guy who attempts to lecture republicans about honesty and ethics. it’s good to know that al franken has the same high ethical standards for his employer, air america radio. or not. anyway, al has been a participant in some interesting video footage recently. michelle malkin has the details.
cindy sheehan WILL NOT GO AWAY. she was arrested in d.c. (also from michelle malkin) again yesterday for staging a “die-in” to mourn the deaths of the 2,000 military men and women in iraq. at least that was the stated purpose of this protest. this has stopped being just another war protest a long time ago. if they want to light candles, sing kumbayah with like-minded idealists, build a big ol’ campfire, and make up really stupid anti-war protest songs, fine. this is america. we allow that kind of thing in this country, and frankly, it’s somewhat entertaining to watch the empowered idiots make fools of themselves.
if we want her to go away, we need to stop paying attention to her. in a 24-hour news cycle, it can be difficult to ignore someone like her, but we have to make the attempt. turn off the cameras. stop giving sheehan a platform to bash this country. tuning out cindy sheehan’s crowd at this point is not about silencing honest, open dissent. it is about bringing down the curtain for good on this staged publicity stunt and its band of bad actors and actresses.
i wish the press would try this approach. i have no confidence at all that they will.

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Posted on Random Musings

things tucker carlson is right about

“With regard to the costs, single payer health care such as the Canadian system is the most expensive form of insurance in the world. Repeated studies show that in the provinces of Canada, the taxes have been increased disproportionately to pay for the bloated administration of the system. Government-provided health care costs all Canadian 21 cents of every dollar they earn. That means Canadians earning $35,000 in 1999 dollars are paying $7,350 for the government system.”

–from Socialized Medicine Resurrexit–by jeffery miles

on friday’s real time with bill maher, maher and the panel were discussing socialized medicine, and tucker carlson said that health care costs would be more expensive in a country where health care is subsidized by the government. he’s right on this. the above article is a good starting point to debunk the myth that socialized medicine is a cure-all for the american health care system. it even suggests that the health care crisis we think we have in this country is overstated, and makes a convincing case to support that argument. the article is a bit dated, but it is still on point.

while i’m not going to argue that our health care system is without flaws, i believe that it works better than the one in canada. the following articles make the case better than i could. some canadians’ personal experiences with that system may be positive. that’s entirely possible. i just think that canadians could do better than they are now with government-subsidized health care. read now.

A Hard Lesson About Socialized Medicine
Canadians Dissatisfied With Socialized Medicine
Socialized Medicine Leaves a Bad Taste in Patients’ Mouths
Socialized medicine in U.S. is inevitable! –Neil Boortz weighs in!

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Posted on Democracy, Republicans

it’s time to shed the woe-is-me attitude.

“Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it…”

“Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then?”

“The only obligation I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.”

“There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.”

–henry david thoreau, from civil disobedience

my hero. for too long, we have resigned ourselves to a government structure that encourages corruption and wasteful spending. this criticism is not restricted to a single political party. the current system is broken, and it’s up to us to demand changes in that system. i believe that the american people are starting to realize that change is possible, and that we can play a part in the implementation of that change.

why is it that so many people in this country have disconnected from the political process? it is because they have become disillusioned with politicians who make and break big promises to them. it is because they can’t see the difference between republicans and democrats right now. it is also because they have become convinced that there is nothing they can do to change the system. so they give up and vote for the lesser of two evils, for a third party, or for nobody at all.

it’s time to shed the woe-is-me attitude. a democracy such as ours is crippled unless everyone plays a part in its growth and continued evolution. if you don’t like what’s going on in washington, speak up. if you’re tired of excessive government spending and useless regulations on everything, stomp your feet and make some noise (and talk to your congressmen and senators while you are at it). we must demand accountability from our elected officials and hold their feet to the fire on promises they made — but only if they are good policy for the country.

active participation means that we stay engaged in the political process. being an informed voter is important. being an informed citizen and agent of accountability for elected officials is more important. if we do not want our country to be ruled by the whims of small numbers of connected political irritants, we must not stay silent. speak up. there’s no better time than now.

to those already in d.c., we ask you to care more about what we want and need. we require that you ask us, and honestly listen to the answer. if you cannot in good conscience serve us in good faith, then we will support someone else to replace you. that’s a threat, not a promise. think about it. then do the right thing.

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Posted on Baseball

world series picks

the answer is quite simple: domino’s steak fanatic pizza and the fizzy, carbonated beverage (pop, not soda) of your choice. i can’t recommend an alcoholic beverage, since i don’t drink those. 🙂

as for the actual baseball teams involved, it’s a tough call. i have no rooting interest here. on the one hand, you have the chicago white sox, who haven’t won the WS since 1917, and we all know what happened in 1919 with the black sox. their fans have probably been punished long enough for that. then there’s the astros, who have never been to the WS in their entire history. they also have many players who are very easy to like, both for their baseball ability and for their appealing personalities. i would be ok with either team winning the world series.

my overall good feeling about the astros does not extend to roger clemens. he is without question a hall-of-fame pitcher with eye-popping stats. but he’s a jerk. he’s a headhunter. it’s one thing to brush a guy off the plate. that’s part of baseball. but when you intentionally throw at a guy’s head (as i believe clemens has done), there’s no way to excuse that. he’s also the only pitcher on record to throw a broken bat at an opposing batter (piazza). red sox fans have their own memories of “the rocket”. red sox fans remember ’86, where he allegedly asked out of a playoff game that the sox lost.

the astros are a great story. i just can’t swallow this “clemens as conquering hero” storyline. i honestly don’t know who will win the WS. if i was forced to pick a team, i would go with the astros in 6.

read and enjoy this from one of my favorite baseball writers: espn’s jayson stark.

No Yankees or Red Sox? No problem

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Posted on Democrats, Iraq

the plame game

high-ranking bushies karl rove and scooter libby appear to be involved in exposing valerie plame (joe wilson’s wife) as a CIA operative. opponents of this administration are giddy over the prospect of possible indictments of karl rove and scooter libby over this. whether national security was significantly damaged by this disclosure is something we still don’t know. if any laws were broken, appropriate action should be taken.

however, i would caution those who are opposed to the war in iraq not to use joe wilson’s op-ed as credible evidence that we went to war because the adminstration intentionally lied to us. that’s what many people want to believe about this administration–that they “outed” valerie plame because they were mad that joe wilson didn’t agree with their pre-war analysis. they brought up questions about joe wilson because it was justified to do so.

here’s why. further reading below.

Bush’s “16 Words” on Iraq & Uranium: He May Have Been Wrong But He Wasn’t Lying–from factcheck.org.
Joseph Wilson Speaks at S.F. State–from california conservative. must read this.
Joe Wilson’s Credibility Problem–from frontpagemag.com…background on plamegate.
Another Media Distortion: Joe Wilson Didn’t Uncover Forgeries and Didn’t “Debunk” Much of Anything –from the weekly standard blog.
The Honorable Mr. Wilson–from NRO
Anomalies— also from NRO

so if the left is hoping that indictments in plamegate will lead to the proof that bush lied about iraq, they may very well be disappointed. once again…if they have better proof that bush lied, let’s see it.

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Posted on Random Musings

the war on poverty

“Too many journalists seem unable to break free of their old assumptions, even when new evidence should cause some new thinking. Three articles in the Sept. 22 edition of the Washington Post endorsed the view that giving more money to poor people and poor countries can solve the problem of domestic and global poverty. It’s remarkable that so many smart people in our society are unaffected by the evidence that such transfer programs just don’t work.”

from Time for New Thinking About Poverty by David Boaz

read the whole article at the cato institute website. it has become conventional wisdom that throwing money at poverty would help to eradicate it. if only the U.S. wasn’t so “stingy” with our foreign aid, africa wouldn’t be suffering today. if only we cared more and sent more money to poor, depressed areas in this country, we could save the people from living in depressed neighborhoods or on the street. in fact, what we had always believed about poverty is wrong, as the rest of the article points out.

  • we have spent over $10 billion(counting $3 billion in food stamps and other federal aid) in louisiana trying to fight poverty. how has that worked out? not well. we have seen the evidence of this.
  • this article even suggests that there is a relationship between government dependence on welfare and illegitimacy rates. they make a convincing case here.
  • we have spent over $1 trillion on foreign aid. according to boaz:

    “Government-to-government aid has tended to strengthen governments in poor countries at the expense of business and individuals and has made governments increasingly dependent on their rich lenders. Few countries have “graduated” from aid to self-sufficiency. After all that aid, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research study, sub-Saharan Africa is actually poorer than it was 30 years ago.”

why is that? it’s a distribution problem for some of those poor countries. some of these governments cannot be trusted to pass the aid along to their citizens instead of lining their own pockets. even when the money actually gets to the people, it doesn’t improve their lives simply by being there. this is true especially in this country. people with jobs are less likely to get caught in the cycle of poverty. that’s the right approach here: encouraging the creation of more jobs, not writing more big checks that ensure dependence on the government.

it’s worth the experiment. the current approach doesn’t appear to be working very well.

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Posted on Random Musings

stupid human news of the week

welcome to today’s edition of stupid human news.

Oh, heavens! Thug sues God –good luck with that. no lawyer would take THIS case.
Police: Former bar employee stole six-pack marked ‘busted’–this guy’s a real risk-taker.
Man Parked Near Police Headquarters Has Meth On Him–but not as much as this guy.

Memphis Police Bust Illegal “Drug Store” in a Home–that’s guaranteed to happen when there is a sign outside of the home that says “crack house”.

from the good idea/bad idea file:
After Burger King Crash, Man Parks, Eats— bad idea. it’s so much easier to get arrested that way.
Woman returns bag of full of cash to Dunkin’ Donuts–$771 worth. good for her.

that should be enough linkage to keep you busy. 🙂 serious stuff returns tomorrow at the regularly scheduled time.

Posted on Moonbats

the new enemies list

the inspiration for this post came from p.j. o’rourke, the unofficial muse of this blog. he had the original idea behind bernie goldberg’s 100 people who are screwing up america. i have a few names/groups that i would like to add. they may or may not be original additions. feel free to add names to this list. i only ask that you stick to people you don’t know personally.

louis farrakan– conspiracy theorist and race agitator. if he really wants to help african-americans and other minorities, he needs to ditch the tin-foil hat, and encourage less dependence on government checks and government programs.

cindy sheehan– she has become the story. any reasonable, rational debate over the war in iraq becomes lost in sheehan’s irrational, unhinged rhetoric, and that of her supporters.

the ACLU– they started out as defenders of freedom and individual rights, and have become a haven for child molestors and those who wish to totally remove faith and religion from public life.

air america radio:

  • for giving springer and randi rhodes 3 hours each and rachel maddow/kent jones only 1 hour

bill belichick:
for ditching former browns QB bernie kosar for vinny testaverde.

  • for suddenly becoming a genius when he got to new england.
  • for being a total jerk as the browns’ head coach.
art modell:
for ditching cleveland and taking the good browns players we had left just to line his own pocket.vinny testaverde–for replacing bernie kosar and for throwing the ball to the opposing team. (it’s amazing the guy still has a job in pro football)

the sports talking heads who anoint head coaches/managers as geniuses after only 1 world championship win. just stop it.

any other suggestions?

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