many interesting topics to discuss here. there’s the ann coulter – john edwards feud.  scooter libby might have to serve some jail time. the inexcusable state of affairs with government-run military hospitals like walter reed is something we need to look into.

ann coulter is who she is, but she’s getting to sheehan-land with her outrageous statements. she can say whatever she wants. no one is silencing her. of course there is a little room for interpretation in the entire context of her statements about john edwards, but at some point, we on the right have to decide that we won’t financially support flame-throwing. that’s not what we are about as conservatives, and it hurts our credibility. john edwards will be fine. i’m not worried that ann coulter can permanently damage his candidacy with anything she says about him.  he might even get some more campaign donations out of the whole dust-up.

the scooter libby trial was an attempt to find out whether the bush administration lied to get the country into war with iraq. they may have convicted libby on obstruction charges, but fitzgerald failed to prove the left’s main argument in getting his conviction. this trial wasn’t even about scooter libby. for the left, it was about trying to implicate rove, president bush, and vice president cheney in a massive deception of the american people in the run-up to the war in iraq. this attempt failed. i’m not saying that libby did nothing wrong, but he wasn’t convicted for outing valerie plame, which was supposed to be the unforgivable sin that prompted this case. why are we talking about libby’s credibility and totally ignoring the fact that joe wilson also lied about his finding in niger? hmm.

i agree with the left on very few occasions. this i think that we should all agree on: we must take better care of our military men and women who are injured in the field of battle. if we are going to ask them to lay their lives on the line for this country, they deserve to have the best care we can provide. this kind of care cannot be found in government-run hospitals such as walter reed. it is not a failure of medical personnel. it is a failure of bureaucracy. we should have kept a closer eye on this, and we need to make some changes so that this kind of neglect doesn’t happen in the future.

links:

patrick ruffini opines on what to look for in our ’08 candidates.

according to real clear politics, rudy giuliani didn’t support the 1996 welfare reform bill, even though he did implement massive reforms in new york city.

some non-binding satire from frank j at imao.

i don’t know if there is anything left to say about the Christmas holiday that hasn’t been already said. there are those who wish to bash consumerism, materialism, and the american desire to spend insane amounts of money on gifts for each other when there is still so much poverty and need in the world. it’s an old story line, and even though there is always room to make a deeper sacrifice to help those in need, we should always be grateful for what we have. for those who believe in God, we can take another opportunity to thank Him for providing for us, and for being everything that we need. Christmas is a great time to reflect on the past year — the things we have gained, and even what we have lost.

in this life, nothing is ever permanent. everything is temporary. material things get scratched and damaged. relationships and friendships begin and end too soon. wasn’t it the bard who said that it was better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all? the sentiment is true. if you risk nothing, you gain nothing. sometimes you win. sometimes you don’t. sometimes you just have to accept that a friendship is over, no matter how much you love that person, and even though you still don’t understand the reasons for it.

maybe none of this makes sense to anyone but me, but it’s something i had to write.

i would also like to thank my current sparring buddies residing here and here for their kind support, and also to a former blogger and duke basketball fan who keeps this conservative honest.

to my former sparring buddy…thanks for the wild ride and the good times. i have no regrets, and i hope you don’t either. i’m sure you will forgive me someday. happy christmas to you.

to everyone else…Merry Christmas!

apparently not.  there were some server problems, so that took the blog down for most of the day. i would like to apologize to my handful of fans who were probably looking for some new posts.  fear not.  new posts are on the way.  please stand by. 🙂

it has become a tradition in the blogosphere to note milestone posts or blog anniversaries…and i’m all about keeping up with these traditions. so this is the official announcement of the one year anniversary of this blog. thanks to everyone who has commented here. i appreciate it very much.

here’s how this whole thing started:
(from random musings on live 8)

perhaps we have lost our ability to believe in something bigger than ourselves. we can easily lose sight of the bigger picture when we get bogged down in the details. we look at the fortunate fools who still believe and trust in the power of a big dream, and we are envious. we are envious because we used to be where they are. we know better now. we are smarter, too smart to believe, to dream, or to act like our lives mean something. here’s to the ones who haven’t become jaded and cynical enough to settle for being ordinary. dreamers with a plan can change the world. we have seen it throughout history. we can’t all be singers, or actors, or people with a great big stage to influence huge crowds of people. but we all have a part to play. we all can make a difference where we are.

here’s a few more of my favorite posts from the past year(will open in new window):

• wanted: republican rock stars
• oppressed minority groups
• my take on the emmys last night
• it’s all the president’s fault
• it’s time to shed the woe-is-me attitude
• president bush: hard-core neo-con
• maybe the world would be better off…
• feeding the beast
• illegals and the rest of us
• you can’t always get what you want

coming up… thoughts on lamont/lieberman, baseball prediction revisions, and more on the plame affair that wasn’t. stay tuned. 🙂

relax. i’m not talking about this blog. it’s still going to be around to annoy my misguided friends on the left, unfortunately for them.  one of my favorite political bloggers is officially calling it quits.  a few of you may know the british guy i’m referring to, who wrote that little blog known as the cognoscenti. i have enjoyed reading his work in the past, even though i passionately disagreed with just about everything he had to say. i wish him well and hope that he changes his mind about blogging someday.  if you have enjoyed that blog as much as i did, stop by and leave him a comment. thanks. 

more politics to come.

it is time to say goodbye to one of the best shows on TV (in my opinion anyway), ALIAS. rumor has it that someone will die in this final episode. of course there also were rumors that vaughn (or whatever his real name is now) was dead, and we all know how that turned out.

if j.j. has decided to kill off a character, i have one final request. PLEASE LET IT BE SLOANE! at least with the other evil characters, they never pretended that they were otherwise. he killed his own daughter. he betrayed sydney and APO. you can’t end this series without killing sloane.

goodbye ALIAS…a great series suffering a premature death.

if you tuned in for the political stuff, check back tomorrow. 🙂

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