Posted on Random Musings

80’s flashback

is anyone else cheered by the sight of toys we remember from our youth being popular again? i’m not that old…but seeing rubik’s cubes (take the stickers off..it’s easier), cabbage patch kids, and care bears brings back good memories. having said that, life before broadband internet, tricked-out computers and game systems and satellite tv/ radio couldn’t possibly have been as good. it probably wasn’t. but there was something very cool about the primitive computers and game systems. in case we plead intentional amnesia about the decade that was the 80’s…here’s a quick list of “totally rad” and simply awful trends that happened during those years.

Rad(not in any particular order)

  • pretty in pink (classic molly ringwald)
  • the princess bride (many quotable lines)
  • the atari 2600
  • the rubik’s cube
  • tasteful mesh
  • Ronald Reagan
  • the decline of communism
  • the cosby show
  • michael j. fox
  • fishnets

Awful

  • the mohawk (bad idea in any decade)
  • leg warmers and headbands
  • michael jackson’s one glove
  • the overuse of spandex
  • mullets

if you want to relive the decade, try some of these fun links.

http://www.80s.com/

You might be a child of the 80’s if…

http://www.fast-rewind.com/

http://www.80stees.com/

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Posted on Conservatives, Democrats, Liberals, Republicans

wanted: republican rock stars?

the republicans have an image problem. they are perceived as intolerant and shockingly enough, even uncool. we are trying to achieve coolness by hanging around the popular kids (loosely applied term) Giuliani and Governor Arnold. as we all know from our high school days, this hardly ever works. this is almost as ridiculous (but not quite) as Snoop Dogg and Iacocca playing golf together in that Chrysler commercial. should we as republicans reach out to everybody? to a certain extent, yes. but when a party ends up losing their core values by following the crowd, its soul is lost.

i think that republicans (with very few exceptions) care too much about public opinion to stand up for what they believe, especially those running for office. at least the democrats with their wild-eyed maniacal screamer-in-chief howard dean, say what they think and don’t apologize for it. if something is worth fighting for, fight for it. why are we as republicans ashamed of who we are and what we believe? our values are shared by quite a few people in this country. who cares if the Hollywood left or the mainstream media agree with us? why should Barbra Streisand be taken seriously on politics when she knows next to nothing about it? (more on this in a future post)

so to the republican leadership, i suggest this: quit trying to be cool. this isn’t high school. it’s a battle for the hearts and minds of the american electorate. we will win not because of our friendship with rock stars or Hollywood glitterati but because we have ideas that work for the people of this country. we might not end up at the prom with a cheerleader or a football player, but we will still be better off in the long run.

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Posted on Conservatives, Democracy

p.j. o’rourke’s take on the role of government

this linked article is long but it’s a message rarely heard by today’s politicians, whether liberal or conservative. i’ll post a couple quotes from it here, but the whole thing is totally worth reading. here’s the first of two —

“By observing the progress of mankind, we can see that the things that are good for everyone are the things that have increased the accountability of the individual, the respect for the individual and the power of the individual to master his own fate. Judaism gave us laws before which all men, no matter their rank, stood as equals. Christianity taught us that each person has intrinsic worth, Newt Gingrich and Pat Schroeder included. The rise of private enterprise and trade provided a means of achieving wealth and autonomy other than by killing people with broadswords. And the industrial revolution allowed millions of ordinary folks an opportunity to obtain decent houses, food and clothes (albeit with some unfortunate side effects, such as environmental da mage and Albert Gore).”

in America, you succeed or fail by your own hand. if we all came to grips with that concept, we wouldn’t require the government to take care of us. and by the way, it is OUR money that the government takes to finance all these bloated, ineffective social programs. if we truly realized this, we would junk this idealistic bent for the government to provide everything for everybody.

More P.J. —

“Government is an abstract entity. It doesn’t produce anything. It isn’t a business, a factory or a farm. Government can’t create wealth; only individuals can. All government is able to do is move wealth around. In the name of fairness government can take wealth from those who produce it and give wealth to those who don’t. But who’s going to be the big Robin Hood? Who grabs all this stuff and hands it back out? (Remember: even in a freely elected system of government, sooner or later that person is going to be someone you loathe. If you’re a Republican, think about Donna Shalala; if you’re a Democrat, think about Ollie North.)”

capitalism is not a zero-sum game. in the free market, everybody benefits. everybody gets a slice of the pie. the producers of the wealth always end up with more than those who sit on their couch and play xbox all day. the government cannot fix this. that’s just the way it is…and exactly how it should be.

read this brilliant explanation of conservatism for yourself.

Posted on Baseball

memo to T.O. and Gary Sheffield–shut up and play ball!

i am not a philadelphia eagles fan. if i were one, i would be sick of the constant whining of terrell owens. he is one of the many examples in sports today of talented athletes who think they are special enough to treat other people like dirt or to flame them in the media. it’s a joke. all of us want to make more money in our jobs. that’s understandable, except that the ink is barely dry on t.o.’s current contract. is he underpaid in his current deal? maybe. but he has only himself and his agent to blame for signing it in the first place. the eagles are exactly right in this case to take a hard line on owens and his idiocy.

as far as gary sheffield and his comments about the yankees are concerned, what the heck did he expect in new york? a team with a-rod and the overrated derek jeter will never give gary sheffield top billing, sorry. grow up, sheff. get with the long-forgotten team concept. they need you to help them stay in the playoff hunt and you’re not helping the cause.

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Posted on Liberals

air america’s bumper sticker contest and the naral ad against john roberts

i support air america’s right to exist. the marketplace of ideas should be open to every point of view, whether you agree with it or not. but air america has the inconvenient problem of promoting generally unpopular ideas on their radio network. this doesn’t help ad sales or ratings very much. if you don’t have either of these, like hannity and rush do, it’s hard to make a profit in radio. if a liberal radio network can be financially self-supporting like the conservatives mentioned above, we should welcome them to the debate. now serious questions have been raised about air america’s finances and these should be investigated just like any other company would be.

for those of us who disagree ideologically with air america, here’s a blog with some rather interesting proposals for air america’s bumper sticker contest.

Here’s my favorite.

ok. that’s rather cruel. i’m sure they are more popular than that tagline would suggest. i admit to listening to the rachel maddow show via podcast. but they need more listeners than they have, obviously.

on to another topic of the day somewhat related to my previous point about air america. should we, as conservatives, apply pressure to the networks not to show the naral ad against supreme court nominee john roberts? it accuses judge roberts of supporting abortion clinic bombers and excusing their behavior. it is totally inaccurate, based on his comments regarding that case. it is a dishonest ad. it reeks of poor taste and desperation by naral and other bush opponents.

even keeping that in mind, i still say let the people decide. let them see the ad. conservatives can put up their ads, liberals can put up theirs, and we’ll have the brawl everybody expected. the american people are smart enough to see through the lies once they have all the facts. you don’t legitimately win an argument by gagging the opposition, no matter who it is. until we have a “good taste” clause in network ad contracts, there’s no legitimate way to block this ad.

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Posted on Iraq

more on the UN oil-for-food disaster

we need to keep this story out there to emphasize the importance of UN reform. the average american may not see this as a major issue up there with the domestic ones (the economy, border security, etc), but it is. here’s why. it is the failure of the UN to handle its own responsibilities that has required the US to get involved in all these international incidents. the UN refuses to enforce its own resolutions, and allows dictators to get away with despicable acts against their people. not just iraq. rwanda. bosnia. there are many more examples of the UN dropping the ball. the point is that the UN as it’s currently constructed cannot do all the things we expect it to do. it needs to be reformed. maybe john bolton is the guy who can help bring this about. i hope so.

here are a few related links to the oil-for food story.
British MP denies oil-for-food charges
Q&A: Oil-for-food scandal
UN report deals serious damage
UN veteran fired over oil scandal

the UN should be held accountable for its mistakes. if no other country is willing to do it, the US should lead the way here, because it is in our best interest.

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Posted on Iraq, Moonbats, Tony Blair

britain’s hard left vs. tony blair

it must be rather difficult to make policy and help to fight a war when loud voices in your own party call you a terrorist. but this is nothing new for UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. former labour mp(member of parliament) and current respect mp george galloway pulled no punches in his remarks to the bbc. here’s what he said.

“It’s not the Muslims who are the terrorists. The biggest terrorists are Bush, and Blair, and Berlusconi, and Aznar, but it is definitely not a clash of civilizations. George Bush doesn’t have any civilization, he doesn’t represent any civilization.”

Here’s the full context of his remarks , taking on more than just the war in Iraq.

mr. galloway’s hands are far from clean, considering his possible link to the UN oil-for-food scandal. future posts will link to some articles relating to this. his remarks are ridiculous by their very premise that accidently killing civilians is the same as targeting civilians and doing it on purpose. tony blair and george w. bush are not terrorists. this kind of rhetoric only hurts his argument against the war in iraq and mideast peace negotiations in general. intelligent people should denounce this kind of heated rhetoric and work toward a resolution to the war in iraq that will allow iraq to be a free and an independent country.

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Posted on Random Musings

moment of silence for peter jennings

Former ABC network news anchor Peter Jennings finally succumbed to cancer. Network news won’t be the same without him. Whatever anyone may think of his political leanings, he seemed to be a genuinely good person. So for that reason, he will be missed. Read about it here on FNC’s website. If you prefer a different news source, here are the links to it on CNN and MSNBC . It’s worth noting that the story is from the AP on all three sites…so there’s really no difference on this story.

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Posted on Random Musings

libertarians – proponents of anarchy?

civilized societies have laws and restrictions on self-destructive behavior. this is a good thing. a permissive society is a society in chaos. it denies that moral absolutes exist.it cannot successfully function when individual rights always supercede those of the community as a whole. i’m not talking about property rights or the 2nd amendment. you should have the right to own property without worrying about government giving it to private developers to build a strip mall. guns are ok for law-abiding citizens to have. (although i would have to think about why a law-abiding citizen would need an UZI, but i digress…)

i’ve said all this to make this point — we shouldn’t encourage people in self-destructive behavior. this is what we would be doing if drugs and prostitution were legalized. in communities where there is drug dealing and prostitution, those communities are negatively affected. what we are talking about is not simply some misguided individual making bad choices for himself/herself. others are affected by those bad choices.

prostitution exists because men think they can’t control themselves. more often than not, they are cheating on their wives or girlfriends. and what about the women that are paid to perform this “service”? let’s not kid ourselves. most of the time, it doesn’t end like “pretty woman”. doesn’t anybody care about these women? i’m guessing that most prostitutes would rather be in a different career track, but they convince themselves that they could never succeed in any other profession. that’s very sad. the women deserve better and the men should be ashamed that they use women this way.

in the same way, legalizing drugs would be just as detrimental to society. what happened when abortion was legalized? more abortions happened. are abortions totally safe? no. complications happen sometimes. you can’t make the case that legalizing drugs makes them safer. it just makes them easier to buy and sell.

think about the implications of allowing people to wander around in a drug-induced haze. there is no good reason to take illegal drugs. none. if they’re lucky, they will only end up getting fired from their jobs. in a worst case scenario, these people will end up driving motor vehicles and causing accidents. as far as controlling drugs and prostitution by legalizing it, how is Amsterdam doing with that anyway?

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Posted on George W. Bush

abortion and the U.S. supreme court

once again a president of the united states has the historic opportunity to appoint a justice to the u.s. supreme court. this is an important choice because the supreme court can make rulings affecting all of us. we shall see which partisans are right with their views on bush’s pick.

the main issue on each group’s mind is abortion, specificially roe v. wade, which legalized abortion in the first place. the potential to change this decision motivates each group. i would like to see roe v. wade overturned. life has value and abortion cheapens that value. unfortunately, i don’t believe it will be overturned, regardless of how many supreme court justices bush appoints. there are too many obstacles to overcome to completely outlaw abortion.

what we can do is take small steps, such as parental notification, to help teens think twice about making this decision. we need to encourage parents to get involved in their kids’ lives. having a parent around to give advice on situations their daughters/sons face is key to heading off future problems. yes, even in the best of circumstances, kids screw up. but having an involved parent could short-circuit disaster in many cases.

it’s wrong to kill babies. it’s also wrong to bomb clinics or take the law into your hands to kill abortionists. bombing clinics and killing abortionists in cold blood is not acceptable in a civilized society. civilized societies have laws. the way to affect change is to make the case for a change in those laws.

here’s the question though — if abortion becomes illegal, how will that be enforced? punish the clinics without a doubt. but how about the young women who get these abortions? what would you do with them? it doesn’t seem like throwing them in jail would be the right thing to do. we need to think through the implications of overturning roe v. wade before trying to do it.

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