Posted on Random Musings

bah humbug…and other christmas musings

it’s that time again–the christmas season. time for my inner scrooge to show its ugly face. those who can truly take the time to enjoy the season are the fortunate ones. there is so much that is great about christmas. its cultural significance and religious importance to us are without question two characteristics that set it apart from all the other holidays, if we actually had the time to pay attention to those things. but we don’t. this is not another one of those let’s get back to basics, give away all of our money, and just celebrate being with family and friends type blog posts. i think that we would all like to believe that that at our core, we are altruistic, selfless good-hearted people, and maybe we are. let’s be honest here, though. we do want nice gifts. we do want our friends and family to spoil us rotten and to spend insane amounts of money on presents for us. it’s easy not to admit this, because it’s the polite thing to do, and we are, after all, not the french (not that there is anything wrong with that).

the significance of christmas has been lost for me for several years now. for those to whom their faith in God is an irreplaceable part of their lives, christmas is about the birth of Christ, and everything else should be less important in the glow of that prism. every year this is repeated by some well-meaning person, but does it really sink in permanently? obviously not.

we get distracted by the same things everyone else does this time of year, and it shouldn’t be this way. this is not to condemn anyone, because i struggle with this too. when you work in a retail environment, there are quite a few things that can get to you that distract you from how cool the whole season is. the cheesy music piped in to some stores sometimes lightens my mood a little bit, but at other times it drives me nuts. sometimes the shoppers are evil and ask stupid questions. sometimes the stress level can rise without much provocation at all from external sources. if only it was just the music that summoned that inner scrooge…

like i said before, christmas is a wonderful concept… sharing quality time with family and friends, eating really good food, maybe going to a candlelight christmas service at church, listening to some christmas CDs, and maybe snagging yourself one of those cool video IPods. because it’s all about the IPODs.

christmas is more than the external stresses, wrapped packages, colored lights, and sparkling trees. it shouldn’t be a time to be depressed or to second-guess everything about our lives. it has so much more to offer us, if only we had the time to see it.

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Posted on Democrats, Republicans

SCOTUS confirmation hearings and democratic hypocrisy

let’s talk about some history here. throughout the whole history of the supreme court’s nomination and confirmation process, the battles over proposed nominees drew no blood and took no captives. this continued through the confirmation hearings of justices ginsburg, breyer, and o’connor. source material for the following history comes from here. (also linked below)

what happened in ginsburg’s hearings has set a precedent for the confirmation hearings of both chief justice roberts and future associate justice alito by restricting the amount of information that nominees will reveal in their confirmation hearings. (don’t expect this to change any time soon…) justice ginsburg was president clinton’s pick for the court in march of ’93. some of the senate republicans such as william cohen of maine did have some ideological concerns with her. here’s the test cohen applied to her nomination, courtesy of HNN. “…Cohen suggested during the hearings that judicial ideology should be used only to determine if the nominee’s philosophy is ‘so extreme that it might call into question the usual confirmation prerequisites of competency and judicial temperament.'”

that’s really the important question the senators should be asking about all potential SCOTUS nominees. is the nominee qualified to sit on the court? another question would be: does he/she have the judicial temperament to apply the law impartially in all cases they may hear on the court, regardless of their ideology? that’s the kind of justice who should be on the court, and i believe that based on his past history and judicial record, judge alito can be this kind of justice.

apparently, cohen and the other republicans found that justice ginsburg’s nomination passed that test. even though she answered a limited number of questions about ideology, this didn’t seem to bother the republicans all that much. she was confirmed by the senate by a vote of 96-3 (with Sen. Hatch being one of the opposing votes) even though the republicans absolutely knew what they were voting for. so much for republican obstructionism in that hearing.

justice breyer is another good example. the republicans, for all intents and purposes, also allowed this justice to be confirmed without much of a fight. they had some concerns about him too, including a lack of commitment to private property rights, his opposition to prayer in public schools and at public schools’ graduation ceremonies, not to mention a possible conflict of interest involving lloyd’s of london investments. even under that long list of concerns, he managed to garner only 9 opposition votes.

then there is o’connor herself. she also had no problem getting confirmed to the court. the vote was 99-0…no significant opposition to her nomination was present in the final vote. even though it was pretty clear what her views were on certain issues, it didn’t keep her from sitting on the supreme court. it’s interesting to note that at the conclusion of her tenure on the court, the following comments were made about her.

from the WaPo:

“We have a living Constitution. Her name is Sandra Day O’Connor, and thank God she’s retiring,” Kevin J. “Seamus” Hasson, founder and president of the conservative Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said yesterday.

“Her support for separation of church and state was not consistent,” said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of the liberal Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

here you have the predictable conservative response to o’connor and the supreme court rulings she made. may i just take issue with fellow conservatives here for complaining after the fact here? a good time to make an issue out of it would have been before she was confirmed, not after. but i digress…

so barry lynn wasn’t happy with o’connor either. i’m not sure exactly what kind of justice he would ever be totally pleased with. if he wasn’t pleased with john roberts, it’s not hard to predict what he would say about judge alito. in general, i tend to support anybody opposed by barry lynn, just on principle. but i think there are some good arguments to be made for judge alito. it may be true that he shares many of my beliefs and values, but i also believe based on his past rulings that he would apply the law based on precedent and not on ideology.here’s the point. if ideology didn’t keep ginsburg, breyer, and o’connor from being confirmed by the senate, the standard shouldn’t have changed for chief justice roberts or judge alito.

why is it only acceptable to confirm justices who mirror the views of the democrats, regardless of the nominee’s experience or qualifications? if that’s not what the democrats are arguing, perhaps they need to be more clear about what kind of justice they would accept. it doesn’t appear that they would accept someone with a strict interpretation of the constitution under any circumstances, so all this distress and disappointment with the Bush pick doesn’t mean a heck of a lot. they knew what was going to happen, and they will oppose the president in this, just the way they have been doing throughout his presidency.

if there are valid concerns about judge alito’s record, let’s put them on the table. i have no problem with examination of his record and past rulings to try to determine how he might rule on the court. that’s a fair critique to make. if there are logical reasons why judge alito wouldn’t be qualified enough or competent enough to sit on the court, then that’s a legitimate argument not to confirm him. otherwise, the senate should do what they have done in the past and judge ideology in the context of cohen’s test. if justices ginsburg, breyer, and o’connor could pass it, there shouldn’t be any problem with judge alito.

michelle malkin has more specifics on alito here.

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Posted on Random Musings

the wizard of d.c. (a very bad parody)

now playing- over the rainbow
(not that i could improve on l. frank baum or anything… some extreme liberties taken with the book and screenplay here)
the cast
harriet miers as dorothy
george w. bush as the cowardly lion
pat buchanan as the tin man, a.k.a. the heartless republican
harry reid as toto, a little yappy dog
the democrats opposing president bush will for the purposes of this parody be played by munchkins
evil conservatives will be played by the flying monkeys
and starring as the wizard of d.c. (who else?)- kArL rOve!
SCENE 1 (in which we learn that all is controlled by the wizard of d.c. except one important decision):
we see a house inconveniently parked on top of an evil witch. we see someone opening the door of the house, and stepping outside into a foreign land, where everything is suddenly in color and we can now see the difference between good characters and bad characters. the cowardly lion wanted to meet the munchkins (and really, who wouldn’t?) so he appears at the beginning of the scene.
DOROTHY: who am I? how did i get here? i don’t remember buying those red shoes, but they sure don’t match this suit. this is all the cowardly lion’s fault. but i shouldn’t worry…the wizard will fix everything.
now all i have to do is find him.
MUNCHKINS: (singing) follow the yellow brick road. follow, follow, follow, etc
DOROTHY: well that’s a lot of help. where’s my GPS? guess i must have left it back in texas. hey, chewbacca, could you stop crying for just one second and tell me where the right road is?
TOTO: (barking at CL)
CL: (CRYING)
DOROTHY: great. thanks a lot. i should have known better than to invite you to come along on this trip.
oh look…i see a big sign over there. it says, “D.C. this way–beware of flying monkeys”. that’s weird. i’ve always liked monkeys. how scary could they be anyway? let’s go, lion.
(both following the yellow brick road)
they soon come upon a man made of tin who has rusted away for lack of attention. the oil can conveniently located right next to the man restores his ability to move and to speak normally, or at least coherently.
TIN GUY: thank you so much. i was afraid everyone had forgotten about me. i wish i could be grateful enough to support your case to the wizard, but quite frankly, it’s a rather weak case. i would be surprised if he saw you at all.
DOROTHY: so i guess i should ask you NOT to come with us. i don’t need another axe in my back (figuratively speaking of course).
TIN GUY: don’t get me wrong. i’m still coming with you. it’s tough being ignored. opposing you would make me popular with the flying monkeys. and i’m all about primate approval. hey, wasn’t there supposed to be a scarecrow with the two of you?
DOROTHY: he got lost back in the cornfield. but i don’t need him. i don’t need this walking hairball either. i can get to the wizard all by myself.
TIN GUY: not if i have anything to say about it. let’s go.
they skip along the yellow brick road for a while, singing really bad songs and generally annoying the heck out of each other. the cowardly lion tries to speak, but by now no one is paying attention to him. the tin man wisely suggests avoiding the poppy field and the place where the trees throw apples.
they finally reach the gates to the green city, where an oddly dressed gatekeeper blocks their path.
GK: state your business here, ruffians.
DOROTHY: we want to see the wizard.
GK: sure you do. what makes you worthy to see the great and powerful wizard of d.c.?
DOROTHY: well, because i’m a girl. i’m one of the best girls around. that’s what the lion says anyway. i do have some experience talking to other wizards, and they could tell you that i wouldn’t be wasting his time.
GK: that’s it? that’s your whole argument?
TIN GUY: well, i do like those red shoes.
before dorothy could answer the gatekeeper, an army of flying monkeys appears and carries her off to the dark, ugly castle, where she will spend the rest of her life in isolation. thanks to the tin guy tipping off the monkeys, dorothy will never get to see the gatekeeper again. so what happened to the cowardly lion? even without any help from the wizard, he finds his courage and ditches toto.
if you want serious analysis of president bush’s current SCOTUS nominee, judge sam alito jr., you’ll just have to wait until tomorrow. right now…i will simply say that i like the pick very much.

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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. đŸ™‚

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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