The Tennessee Federalist Student

Ouch! (and Darn!)

2009-04-04T18:39:00.002-04:00

As I noted before, the great and grand hope of President Obama would be that EUROPE WOULD LIKE US AGAIN! Now, I stand by my statements that it doesn't matter what Europe, or anyone else thinks, but it would have at least been nice if he could get them to, you know, stand beside us and fight a little or something. But it was not to be:

Barack Obama made an impassioned plea to America’s allies to send more
troops to Afghanistan, warning that failure to do so would leave Europe
vulnerable to more terrorist atrocities.
But though he continued to dazzle
Europeans on his debut international tour, the Continent’s leaders turned their
backs on the US President.

Gordon Brown was the only one to offer substantial help. He offered to
send several hundred extra British soldiers to provide security during the
August election, but even that fell short of the thousands of combat troops that
the US was hoping to prise from the Prime Minister.
Just two other allies
made firm offers of troops. Belgium offered to send 35 military trainers and
Spain offered 12. Mr Obama’s host, Nicolas Sarkozy, refused his request.

Poor Barack pulled out all the stops to convince them to do more. He tried hope:

The derisory response threatened to tarnish Mr Obama’s European tour, which
yesterday included a spellbinding performance in Strasbourg in which he offered
the world a vision of a future free of nuclear weapons.

He tried lecturing:

Mr Obama – who has pledged 21,000 more troops to combat the growing insurgency
and is under pressure from generals to supply up to 10,000 more – used the eve
of Nato’s 60th anniversary summit to declare bluntly that it was time for allies
to do their share. “Europe should not simply expect the United States to
shoulder that burden alone,” he said. “This is a joint problem it requires a
joint effort.”

He even tried outright threats:

He said that failing to support the US surge would leave Europe open to a fresh
terrorist offensive. “It is probably more likely that al-Qaeda would be able to
launch a serious terrorist attack on Europe than on the United States because of
proximity,” he said.

But, alas, no more help from our friends abroad than when that detestible, mentally retarded, chimpy, cowboy (spits on the ground in disgust) was in office. This must be Bush's fault, somehow.

Amazing lack of reading comphrehension

2009-03-31T11:47:00.002-04:00

Tennessee has a bill up for hearing that would allow professors to carry guns on campus. Here's what the second paragraph of the article says:

State Rep. Stacey Campfield’s proposal, scheduled for a hearing Wednesday before
a House Judiciary subcommittee, would allow any full-time faculty and staff
member with a valid permit to bring a handgun onto their public college campus.

Got that? "full time faculty and staff member with a valid permit." Not really a difficult concept, not complicated with legalese, pretty simple use of words.

So, for whatever self-hating masochistic reasons, I have to go and read the comments. Lets have a look-see, shall we?

I am trained to take out an armed person, others are not. There will be an
accident of the worse magnitude if bill is passed. College students are not
trained in armed combat, how to space themselves, how to ensure that they only
shoot the intended target, how to shoot under pressure, when to shoot and not to
shoot.

Every student should be issued an .44 Mag during registration. It would
require only a small increase in tuition fees but think of the safety aspect.
Wonderful idea!!!

I just see alot more dead kids and teachers in our future because guns
are being made so accessible to be everywhere. There'll be shootings over
parking places, looking at girlfriends' wrong, or other minor petty
annoyances.

Now this is one of the most stupid things I have heard in a while,
armed (KIDS) on our colleges campus. just what's with you people

Look kids are going to get guns anyway. It is irresponsible not to
teach them how to protect themselves while using guns.

Seriously now:Have you ever BEEN to college? Lived in a dorm? Do you
really think it's a good idea to arm everyone there? Do you know how many kids
are drinking? How much emotion? How many breakups? Fist fights? Kids living for the first time away from the authority they've had all their lives: their
parents? Do we really want them to have deadly weapons, too? Do you REALLY think that gun crime and injury would go DOWN if you gave all the college students guns? Are you INSANE?

That's out of 36 comments (and there are several others that seriously imply, but don't specifically state, that they understood it to apply to college students (who are not, for the record, "kids", particularly if they have carry permits, which are issued over age 21)).

Anyhow, I support the measure, but doubt it would do a lick of good, given that maybe2 professors on campus would actually make use of it. But hey, if some nut-job comes in blazing, I'd sure hope that I was in one of those professors' classrooms.

By the way, I had the opportunity to meet Stacey Campfield (the proponent of this bill) when he graciously came to speak at an event sponsored by our Federalist Society. I was really impressed with his willingness to discuss and debate his ideas, and he was more than happy to invite tough questions from the students. He is known for being a bit on the extra-conservative side, so a few of the more liberal students discussed staging a protest. Notice that I say discussed; they didn't actually do it, nor did they even bother to show up to ask him questions or see what he had to say.

I think "didn't think" is the important part of that statement

2009-02-10T10:24:00.002-05:00

John V. Santore, former Obama campaign organizer and congressional speechwriter, writes: "Obama isn't who I didn't think he was. But he might be." (HT Nealz Nuze)

You can certainly read the whole thing, but don't expect to make any sense out of it. Here's my favorite part:

But ultimately, my true faith was in the man himself. He is different, I
thought. He's had a unique upbringing. He's worldly and uncharacteristically
educated. And I simply could not imagine that a black man in America would ever
be able to fall in line with the same old group of people and policies. His
personal experiences would be too different to allow that to happen.

Because Black People, you know, they're not like us. They're different, man.

So it turns out Bill Gates is kind of an Asshole . . .

2009-02-06T12:54:00.004-05:00

From The Daily Mail:

Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of Microsoft and a renowned philanthropist, let loose a swarm of mosquitoes at a technology conference in California to highlight the dangers of malaria.

‘Malaria is spread by mosquitoes,’ the Microsoft founder yelled at a well-heeled crowd at a technology conference in California.

’I brought some,’ he added. ‘Here, I’ll let them roam around – there is no reason only poor people should be infected.’
He let the shocked audience sweat for a minute or so before assuring them that the freed insects were malaria- free.

But that didn’t satisfy all the attendees.

‘That’s it. I am not sitting up front anymore,’ eBay founder Pierre Omidyar said

Seriously? What a jerk. If I were there, I'm sure that I would have known, obviously, that they weren't infected mosquitoes, but I would have still been pissed! Mosquitoes are gross, and they bite, and it itches. Plus, mosquitoes are attracted to some people more than others, and one of those people is me- I can slather myself in OFF and only be outside for a few minutes, and I'll still come back with bite after bite, while they completely ignore my husband.

How much pain and suffering is an intentionally inflicted mosquito bite worth? In some jurisdictions, punitive damages can be based on the defendant's net worth, you know.

Anyway, the point that I wanted to make is that Bill could do a lot more for poor people in Africa if he just used his clout to get DDT policies changed. Heck, with his cash, he could probably just go over there and start releasing it in remote locations and see what happens. But no, I'm sure scaring and guilt-tripping rich people is a lot more fun.

Googling Mountaintop Removal

2009-01-14T11:21:00.004-05:00

My friend Sam is riding his bike for mountaintop removal. Err, well, for stopping it, at least. He started riding last week and plans to visit a number of mining towns and gather a petition to end it, which he will deliver to someone in D.C. for the inauguration.

No, I don’t really get it either. I think he might be getting class credit out of the deal, but I’d pretty much sooner graduate late than freeze my tuckus off on a bike from here ‘till the 20th. Now, Sam’s a bit of a liberal moonbat (he won’t mind me saying that- he thinks I’m loony, too), but when he told me about it, I had to admit that I didn’t know enough to form an opinion about his position on mountain top removal. So I’m trying to learn something, here.

Well, my initial Google search turned up a lot of what I'm thinking of as "Sam style" sites, of the hippy "stop it now!" variety. While these might be informative, I want to explore all of the bases here. My suspicion is that, while this might be associated with some environmental damage, it’s probably also associated with a lot of desperately needed employment, so most the residents affected are probably all for it. Of course, those folks are probably too busy actually earning a living to go out and start a blog about it, so there’s that.

Well, Appalachian Voices does note that this form of mining actually reduces the number of workers needed to do the mining, but I doubt that matters to much if the companies are able to produce more. Otherwise, this site’s pretty hysterical (lead quote: "It's like having a gun held on you with the hammer back and not knowing when the man's gonna pull the trigger."), so it’s probably not really the balanced set of facts I’m looking for. But I peruse their “Myths and Facts” section just be sure.

Some of these just plain don’t make sense. For example:

Myth: Mountaintop removal mining improves local economies.Fact: Tourism pumps
far more money into West Virginia economy each year than does the coal
industry.Source: Citizens Coal
Council
Fact: Surface mining (which includes MTR mining), accounts
for only 1.2% of jobs in WV and brings in just 2.6% of the state’s total
revenues. The counties where surface mining predominates are some of the still
poorest counties in the country.Source: 2002 economic census data;

Be that as it may, those don’t refute an argument that this improves local economies in any way. I also note some questionable sourcing:

The Appalachian Highlands are characterized by some of the best and most diverse
forest habitats in the world. Current reclamation practices are unable to
restore native mixed hardwood forests, but rather replace these ecosystems with
fields of non-native grasses. These changes in habitat may significantly impact
neotropical bird populations, native salamander populations and other sensitive
species.Source: Trial Lawyers for
Public Justice

Not exactly established scientists, there. Moving on:

National Geographic tells a story of a family that had been in the area for generations, but moved because of the dust and explosions. However, when you look closer you realize that this this was before the "mountaintop removal" started, so I’m not sure what the point is. That all coal mining is bad so we shouldn’t have any coal? Sorry NatGeo, not going to buy that one.

NatGeo has some more details about job reduction:

Seems that what once required 125,000 workers can now be accomplished with 19,000. But isn’t this the case with all manufacturing/labor type jobs as technology advances? I’m not sure that keeping jobs is the goal for people like Sam. The story goes on to tell some truly sad tales about family dying from various lung ailments, but, again, there’s no indication that these problems have changed at all since the development of mountain top removal mining (in fact, several of the dates cited go back far before the development of it), so again, unless we’re looking to stop all coal mining, this is not making me hate mountaintop removal.

Flooding is discussed, but not in any way that would allow anybody to judge the mining company’s culpability:

The issue of flooding also evokes conflicting views. Raney sees no connection
between mountaintop mining and floods. "Science doesn't bear that out," he told
me during an interview in his Charleston office. "What causes flooding is too
much water falling in too short a time."
Yet a study by federal regulators,
obtained by the Charleston Gazette through the Freedom of Information Act,
predicted that one valley fill at the Hobet 21 mine could increase peak runoff
flow by as much as 42 percent.
Vivian Stockman, a project coordinator with the
Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition in Huntington, contends that 12 West
Virginians have died since 2001 because of floods related to mountaintop mining.
"Old-timers will tell you property that has been in their families for
generations never flooded severely until mining began upstream," Stockman
says."It's common sense. Denuded landscapes don't hold water the way forests
do."

(would it have been so hard to pull some records or newspaper archives and check this out, NatGeo?)

The question of what is to be done with the used land is interesting:

It was not the intent of Smackra, of course, to allow coal companies to walk
away from their surface mines and leave them denuded. Stripped mountainsides,
the law declared, must be restored to their "approximate original contour" and
stabilized with grasses and shrubs, and, if possible, trees. But putting the
entire top of a topped-off mountain back together again was an altogether
different—and more expensive—matter. So mountaintop mines were given a blanket
exemption from this requirement with the understanding that, in lieu of
contoured restoration, the resulting plateau would be put to some beneficial
public use. Coal boosters claimed the sites would create West Virginia's own
Field of Dreams, seeding housing, schools, recreational facilities, and jobs
galore. In most cases it didn't work out that way. The most common "use" turned
out to be pastureland (in a region ill-suited for livestock production) or what
the industry and its regulators like to identify as fish and wildlife
habitat.

"The coal companies have stripped off hundreds of thousands of
acres," says Joe Lovett, an attorney for the Appalachian Center for the Economy
and the Environment, "but they're putting less than one percent of it into
productive use."

Yet the industry should get some credit for what it's
managed to accomplish in post-mining land use over the years. It's provided a
number of West Virginia counties with the flat, buildable space to accommodate
two high schools, two "premier" golf courses, a regional jail, a county airport,
a 985-acre complex for the Federal Bureau of Investigation near Clarksburg, an
aquaculture facility, and a hardwood-flooring plant in Mingo County that now
employs 250 workers.

"Economically, we were dying on the vine," said Mike
Whitt, executive director of the Mingo County Redevelopment Authority, as we
toured the 40-million-dollar flooring plant, financed by grants from federal,
state, and local governments and by private investors. "So we got OPM —other
people's money—to get the job done. Without the infrastructure to create jobs,
you're out of the game."

There’s also some discussion of reforestation of the area, but with skepticism. Sam’s main complaint when he stated the problem to me was that this was impacting people’s culture and way of life. The NatGeo article hits this as well :

Standing in the doorway of the Mountain Watch office on the main street of
Whitesville, I listened to Judy Bonds reminisce about the way it was 50 years
ago when she was a child. "I used to swim in the Coal River then," she said,
"but now it's so full of silt that the water barely comes up to your knees. It
breaks my heart. I look at my grandson, and I see that he's the last generation
that will hunt and fish in these mountains and dig for ginseng, and actually
know mayapple when he sees it. These mountains are in our soul. And you know
what? That's what they're stealing from us. They're stealing our soul."

Maybe I’m just not as sensitive to these geographic links because I’ve moved around a lot, but the thing is, things do change. If I said that my neighborhood isn’t the same as it used to be, it used to be that everyone was one religion and the children all had a mommy who was home all day and a daddy who worked, the liberals would be all over me, and rightfully so. Things change. Mountains aren’t one’s soul. One’s soul comes from the things one accomplishes and the people one embraces, not from a place. I’m sorry that you can’t swim or hunt or fish there, but there are dozens of other places that you can. I’m still not convinced. More to come.

'[We] Don't Even Bother Raising Our Hands Any More...'

2009-01-14T11:18:00.001-05:00

Guy Benson, at National Review Online, has some interesting information about Obama's "press conferences":

As I watched President Bush's final tango with reporters this morning, I
was reminded of how Chicago Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin described President-elect Obama's press conferences thus far:

"As ferociously as we march like villagers with torches against
Blagojevich, we have been, in the true spirit of the Bizarro universe, the polar
opposite with the president-elect. Deferential, eager to please, prepared to
keep a careful distance.
The Obama news conferences tell that story, making
one yearn for the return of the always-irritating Sam Donaldson to awaken the
slumbering press to the notion that decorum isn't all it's cracked up to
be.

The press corps, most of us, don't even bother raising our hands any
more to ask questions because Obama always has before him a list of
correspondents who've been advised they will be called upon that day."

Troubling indeed.

Also posted at Unfair Doctrine.

'[We] Don't Even Bother Raising Our Hands Any More...'

2009-01-14T11:18:00.000-05:00

Guy Benson, at National Review Online, has some interesting information about Obama's "press conferences":

As I watched President Bush's final tango with reporters this morning, I
was reminded of how Chicago Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin described President-elect Obama's press conferences thus far:

"As ferociously as we march like villagers with torches against
Blagojevich, we have been, in the true spirit of the Bizarro universe, the polar
opposite with the president-elect. Deferential, eager to please, prepared to
keep a careful distance.
The Obama news conferences tell that story, making
one yearn for the return of the always-irritating Sam Donaldson to awaken the
slumbering press to the notion that decorum isn't all it's cracked up to
be.

The press corps, most of us, don't even bother raising our hands any
more to ask questions because Obama always has before him a list of
correspondents who've been advised they will be called upon that day."

Troubling indeed.

Also posted at Unfair Doctrine.

Julius Genachowski to head FCC

2009-01-14T11:09:00.003-05:00

News reports say that Obama has selected his former Harvard Law School classmate Julius Genachowski to head the FCC.

Here's his bio, according to the Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Genachowski, 46 years old, is a former Harvard Law School classmate of Mr.
Obama. He previously worked at the FCC during the Clinton administration. More
recently, he co-founded LaunchBox Digital, a Washington, D.C.-based venture
capital firm. He worked at Barry Diller's IAC/InterActive Corp. in various
executive positions for eight years after leaving the FCC.

Curiously, I can't seem to find anything that indicates his position on the "Fairness Doctrine." Apparently, I'm not the only one:

Interesting. According to a Google News search, none of the articles on Julius
Genachowski, Obama's pick to head the Federal Communications Commission, mention
the Fairness Doctrine. The issue has been mentioned in the online comments
section underneath several news stories, but no one on the FCC or Obama
administration beat has had Genachowski's position regarding that
issue on their radar.
Also posted at Unfair Doctrine.

Blogging Atlas Shrugged

2009-01-09T17:42:00.002-05:00

One of my goals for the winter break was to finally get around to reading Atlas Shrugged. The blogosphere has been increasingly full of discussions about the book, its implications, and, notably, “going John Galt,” so, although I had picked up the basic premises through these discussions, I felt left out for not having read the actual book.

My collegue Akal's recommendation a few months ago sealed the deal, and I had to read it. It is certainly a compelling book. I had assumed that John Galt would be a main character and that the story would trace his development, but not only am I yet to meet Mr. Galt (other than through very vague references), I was pleasantly surprised to find a female lead, Dagny Taggert, who instantly reminds me of myself in oh so many ways.

One of the first things that I’m noticing about the book is that it is dialogue heavy, and many of these sections are written in curious and somewhat maddeningly illogical exchanges that frequently remind me (somewhat oddly) of Catch-22. For example (I’m cutting extensively because Rand is nothing if not wordy):

[Eddie Willers] looked at James Taggert and said, “It’s the Rio Norte
Line.” He noticed Taggert’s glance moving down to a corner of the
desk. “We’ve had another wreck.”
“Railroad accidents happen everyday. Did you have to bother me about that?”
“You know what I’m saying, Jim. The Rio Norte is done for. That track is
shot. Down the whole line.”
“We are getting a new track.”
Eddie Willers continued as if there had been no answer: “That track is
shot. It’s no use trying to run trains down there. People are giving
up trying to use them.”
“There is not a railroad in the country, it seems to me, that doesn’t have a few
branches running at a deficit. We’re not the only ones. It’s a
national condition – a temporary national condition.”
Eddie stood looking at him silently. . . . “What do you want?” snapped Taggert.
“I just came
to tell you something that you had to know, because somebody had to tell
you.”
“That we’ve had another accident?”
“That we can’t give up the Rio Norte Line.” . .
. “Who’s thinking of giving up the Rio Norte Line?” he asked. “There’s never been a question of giving it up. I resent you saying it. I resent it very
much.”
“But we haven’t met a schedule for the last six months. We haven’t
completed a run without some sort of breakdown, major or minor. We’re
losing all our shippers, one after another. How long can we last?”
“You’re a pessimist, Eddie. You lack faith. That’s what undermines the moral of an organization.”
“You mean that nothing’s going to be done about the Rio Norte Line?”
“I haven’t said that at all. Just as soon as we get the new
track--”
“Jim, there isn’t going to be any new track. . . I’ve spoken with Orren
Boyle.” . . .
“What did you bother him for? I believe the first order of rail wasn’t due for delivery until next month.”
“And before that, it was due for delivery three months ago.”
“Unforeseen circumstances. Absolutely beyond Orren’s
control.”
“And before that, it was due six months earlier. Jim, we have been waiting for Associated Steel to deliver that rail for thirteen months.”
“What do you want me to do? I can’t run Orren Boyle’s
business.”
“I want you to understand that we can’t wait.”
. . .
“Well, what do you want me to do?”
“That’s for you to decide.”
“Well, whatever else you say, there’s one thing you’re not going to mention next – and that’s Rearden Steel.”
Eddie did not answer at once, then said quietly, “All right, Jim, I won’t mention it.”
“Orren is my friend. . . . I resent your attitude. Orren Boyle will deliver that rail just as soon as it’s humanly possible. So long as he can’t deliver it,
nobody can blame us.”

I’m also particularly drawn to Rand’s use of the word “adequately,” which she repeats over and over. Businesses and workers do not believe that they have to be the best, or even good, only “adequate.” They do not believe that they should have to compete as long as their performance is “adequate.” It’s similar to the adage about how most workers work only hard enough to not get fired, and most businesses pay only enough to keep the workers from quitting.

Similarly, she constantly returns to the theme of blame. “As long as . . . nobody can blame us.” Going above and beyond, doing extra, working and innovating around unforeseen circumstances are not even considered. If you’ve ever seen the Fox show House, there is one episode which calls out this attitude quite brillantly, “3 Stories.” In this episode, the ever misanthropic Dr. House is asked to lecture a medical class. He tells them 3 stories about various patients with leg ailaments, and asks them to attempt to diagnose and suggest treatments for these patients. “Student # 1” constantly objects that they can’t be blamed, or that they didn’t know certain things about the patients, as if believing that the disease

Dude . . . . Not cool.

2009-01-09T17:40:00.000-05:00

Protester Calls for Jews to 'Go Back to the Oven' at Anti-Israel Demonstration.

Most Sexist Ad of the Year?

2009-01-06T13:26:00.000-05:00

Tennessee Guerrilla Women has the story on TGW's pick for the number one sexist ad of the year, an ad for shoes by Dolce and Gabbana.

I can't seem to copy it for this post, so you can look at it here:

Hmm, it's a static picture, so it's pretty hard to tell what's going on there, but my first thought was a sexy dance, not rape.

Even if it was sexual, what clues do we have that this is against her will? I mean, it's not what I would choose, but just because it's somewhat unconventional sex (with voyeurs, if that's what it is) certainly doesn't make it rape.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm having a hard time believing that "rape," or even something like "dominance" was on the mind of the people shooting this scene. I wish people would understand that when you call everything "rape" like this, you really de-legitimize the real problems out there.

I used to live in New Jersey, and you know what, it kind of sucks

2009-01-06T12:56:00.003-05:00

And now there's this:

NEWARK, N.J. - Some business owners in this crime-plagued city say recent
enforcement of a 1966 ordinance banning some types of barbed wire and razor wire is making Newark more attractive - to thieves.

Burglaries are up 17 percent from 2007 through
November in Newark, which has a young, charismatic mayor who has vowed to help
the city rebound from decades of official inaction, incompetence and
criminality.The city is aggressively courting new investment and
development, but people who have been ordered to downgrade their fences say
officials are worried more about aesthetics than security.

John DeSantis, owner of a lot used by an auto-repair business in Newark's West Ward, says his property has been the site of more than a dozen burglaries
since the summer, when the city forced him to remove razor wire on top
of the 7-foot-tall fence that surrounds the lot.

(bolding mine) But at least theives won't get hurt!

DeSantis said he was surprised when a city official told him that the ordinance was being enforced to prevent passers-by or anyone climbing the fence from being injured by the barbed wire.

Umm, last I checked, the only way that a "passer by" can get injured on barbed wire is when that person tries to climb it, say, to go somewhere that person isn't allowed.

Quick quiz- Which political party has a deadlock hold on New Jersey?

Is new DNC chair Tim Kaine really even a democrat?

2009-01-06T12:46:00.004-05:00

According to Tennessee Guerilla Women,

President-elect Obama has chosen anti choice,
pro abstinence education, anti
embryonic stem cell research, anti labor, anti
union, anti
same-sex marriage and anti civil union Tim Kaine to chair the DNC

.

Hmm, how interesting.

What's Wrong With Women Today, Part II

2009-01-04T14:09:00.006-05:00

So I was perusing SHAMblog some more (I just found it, and it intrigues me, and classes haven't started back yet), and came across this discussion about an article from Working Mother Magazine, which has suggested that 91% of working mothers may suffer from depression. Now, the first thing that strikes me is that, if 91% of people doing something as normal as working and being a mother suffer from an illness which is supposed to be debilitating, maybe, just maybe, the criteria for that illness are being set just a little bit too low. Perhaps the normal ups and downs of life are not actually depression, is what I'm saying. (The only acceptable alternate would be that, if it makes 91% of mothers sick to do so, then mothers shouldn't be working, but I'm having trouble buying that one.) (To be fair, as SHAMblog points out, the article in question actually states one in 5 working women is depressed, a number which is still outrageously high in my opinion, but doesn't shed light on the number for working mothers.)

Anyway, I click over to the article, and the absolute first thing that I notice is the name of the feature: "Focus on You." Because, really, that's what motherhood is all about, isn't it? You? I mean, back when fathers were usually the sole breadwinners, they were always focused on themselves, weren't they? Never working overtime to be better providers, never taking care of the family? Right?

What's Wrong With Women Today

2009-01-04T13:40:00.005-05:00

Steve Salerno at SHAMblog discusses one of Oprah's many deranged guest's ("life coach" Marcus Buckingham) step by step guide to life, which he describes thusly:

1. You are the best judge of your strengths. Don't focus so much on
feedback from others. Focus on what makes you feel good about you.
2. If your child comes home from school with 2 As, a B, a C, and an F, most
parents will concentrate on the F, because that's where we think help is needed.
Wrong. We should focus most of our energy on validating the As. Put the emphasis
where the strength is.
3. You have to do what you really want to do, because otherwise, though you
may be outwardly successful, you will feel like an inner failure.
4. If you're doing things because you think "no one else will do
them"...you should stop.

Now, SB does an excellent job at pointing out several reasons why this advice is completely moronic and would cause the breakdown of society as we know it (including some very insightful references to American Idol), so, if for some reason you can't figure that much out for yourself, read the whole thing.

Here's my concern. For some reason that I have never understood, women like Oprah. From what I hear, quite a lot of them, and they like her quite a bit. Men, not so much (God bless 'em).

And according to Mr. Salerno:

And yet women in Oprah's audience are crying. Crying! They are crying at
the brilliance of this Brit-inflected window into their tormented souls.

Because for many women (at least, women of the Oprah worshiping variety), isn't it always about them, and their tortured soles, and their dreams, which must be followed, and their needs and desires, and most importantly, feelings?

Isn't this why women are initiating divorces at middle age, blindsiding their husbands and families, rather than making any attempt to work out their problems? Isn't this why working in a women-centered office can be so frustrating (if you've actually done that, you'll know what I'm talking about)?

I think that if I were a man, and had to be married to one of these types of women, I'd have a new respect for homosexuality.

WSJ: HGTV to blame for housing bubble

2009-01-04T13:08:00.003-05:00

Writes Jim Sollisch:

So now we know what happens when too many people who have too few assets
buy too much house with the help of too many risky mortgage products and too
little oversight. And while there's plenty of blame to go around -- unethical
mortgage brokers, greedy bankers and irresponsible homeowners -- one culprit
continues to get off scot-free: HGTV.

That's right. The cable network HGTV is the real villain of the economic
meltdown. As the viewership reached a critical mass over the past decade -- HGTV
is now broadcast into 91 million homes -- homeowners began experiencing deep
angst. Suddenly no one but the most slovenly and unambitious were satisfied with
their houses. It didn't matter if you lived in an apartment or a gated
community, one episode of "House Hunters" or "What's My House Worth?" and you
were convinced you needed more. More square feet. More granite. More stainless
steel appliances. More landscaping. More media rooms. More style. You deserved
it.

If you had any doubts about your ability to afford such luxuries, all you
had to do was look at the 20-something couple in the latest episode choosing
between three houses. Should they go for the fixer-upper, priced at $425,000? Or
the one with the pool for $550,000? What about the one with room to grow for
$675,000?

"How much money can these people possibly make?" I shout at my wife before
wrestling the remote from her house-hungry little hand and switching it to the
nearest sports program. "The guy can barely string together two
sentences!"

Ironically, here in good old East Tennessee, most of these shows make me feel just great about what I have. I don't watch them with any regularity, but my favorite when I get the chance is Sell This House on A&E (not, HGTV, but same diff, I'm sure).

In this show, the outrageously adorable Tanya and Roger fix up a tiny and ugly house into something, well, somewhat nicer, usually for around $500 and 2 days work. What gets me, however, is that these houses, particularly those on the east or west coasts, are usually about 1/2 the size of my 5 year old, cathedral ceiling-ed East Tennessee suburban, and are outdated and old, with low ceilings, tiny windows, and ugly everything. And they cost 2-3 times as much as mine! It's a freakin' miracle, I say!

Huffington Post: {Man-made climate change] is the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of humankind.

2009-01-04T11:54:00.005-05:00

Yes, you read that right. The Huffington Post has published an article not only questioning, but outright denying man-made global warming. The Huffington Post! I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't read it with my own eyes!

You are probably wondering whether President-elect Obama owes the world an
apology for his actions regarding global warming. The answer is, not yet.
There is one person, however, who does. You have probably guessed his name:
Al Gore. Mr. Gore has stated, regarding climate change, that "the science is
in."
Well, he is absolutely right about that, except for one tiny thing. It
is the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of
humankind.

So, kudos to you, Ariana, and the rest of the HuffPo staff. I've never thought of HP as the type of place that did much to encourage alternative points of view, so I'm glad to either 1) be proven wrong, or 2) see a change in direction. I certainly hope that other politically inclined blogs, particularly the major ones like HP, will follow suit.

Of course, on the other hand, maybe my optimism is misplaced. Roger Simon, more cynically, but perhaps more realistically, says:

Why now, you ask? Because “These late eclipses of the sun and moon portend
no good to us,” as My Lord
Gloucester opined?

Well, close. Perhaps it’s because with the economy in the tank, there is
little My Lord Obama can do about anthropogenic global warming, so it is best
left off the table or hastened off the scene. If the Lord of Gore is
slighted in the process, so be it. He’s last year’s news. And, as we
all know, his movie sucked anyway.

Take a closer look at the last 2 paragraphs of the HuffPo piece (before the P.S.):

Again, Mr. Gore, I accept your apology.

And, Mr. Obama, though I voted for you for a thousand times a thousand
reasons, I hope never to need one from you.

Principled statement of one's opinion of the science, or permission to President Obama to change course without argument from the left? You be the judge.

"Ditch the Bible. Just Do as Barack Does"

2009-01-04T11:37:00.002-05:00

Michelle Malkin carries stories from the Washington Post about parents using a "what would Barack Obama do"? approach to encourage their children to do everything from read to brush their teeth.

You could call it Obama discipline or Obama etiquette, and it goes
something like this:

Get up! Do you think Obama would have slept late and not made it to school
on time?

Why don't you guys share? Don't you think Obama would want you to share?

How much did you read? Obama would have finished the book by now.

Do you think Obama would sneak cigarettes? (Oops.)

Well, if teenagers still rebel like I remember them, I sense a whole slew of up and coming Republicans.

Hey guys, Let's use the economic problems to institute national healthcare!

2008-12-13T11:53:00.000-05:00

I'm watching Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday interview Senators Corker (R-TN) and Stabenow (D-MI).

Stabenow just stated that the big three union employees are actually making less than their competitors, but the difference is in healthcare benefits. She then said:

"Then we need to join with our president elect and have real healthcare reform."

Wallace did not give Corker a chance to immediently respond, but he looked pretty mad. Volkswagon is currently building a plant in Corker's hometown (my hometown of Chattanooga, the city couldn't be happier). Do those employees get universal healthcare? I don't think so.

Why Ban Tasers?

2008-12-12T22:37:00.004-05:00

Eugene Volokh, at The Volokh Conspiracy (why can't I come up with a cool blog name like that, I ask you?) notes that a number of jurisdictions have banned the personal possession of tasers, and asks if there is any good reason for it.

Now, the jurisdictions that he gives are the usual suspects (Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, plus Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.), so this is probably not an issue here in freedom loving Tennessee. I've sometimes thought about getting a taser to carry around campus (about once or twice a week when I get those emails warning about another robbery/mugging/assault that took place on the very route that I walk every day to get from the law school to the parking lot. But, of course, I shouldn't worry, campus is a super safe gun free zone!)

According to Charles Krauthammer, the Real Barack Obama cares little about foreign policy or economics, and seeks power to "transform"

2008-12-12T20:57:00.003-05:00

Krauthammer says:

As Obama revealingly said just last week, "This painful crisis also
provides us with an opportunity to transform our economy to improve the lives of
ordinary people." Transformation is his mission. Crisis provides the
opportunity. The election provides him the power.

According to Krauthammer, the Bush administration has already laid the groundwork for a New Deal style federal interventionism, and the bailouts already in place will result in "undreamed of amounts of money at Obama's disposal."

It begins with a near $1 trillion stimulus package. This is where Obama
will show himself ideologically. It is his one great opportunity to plant the
seeds for everything he cares about: a new green economy, universal health care,
a labor resurgence, government as benevolent private-sector "partner." The first
hint came yesterday, when Obama claimed, "If we want to overcome our economic
challenges, we must also finally address our health care challenge" -- the
perfect non sequitur that gives carte blanche to whatever health-care reform and
spending the Obama team dreams up. It is the community organizer's ultimate
dream.

Read the whole thing. My only complaint is that it provides little guidance as to what this change will be. Obama has been nothing if not unpredicatable from the start, and right now, I have no idea what "change" means.

Has Atlas Shrugged All Over The Country?

2008-12-12T20:32:00.003-05:00

C. Edmund Wright, at the American Thinker, says yes.

Like many business owners, we are no longer willing to take all of the
financial and legal risks and put up with all of the aggravation of owning and
running a business. Not with the prospects of even higher taxes, more
regulation, more litigation and more emboldened bureaucrats on the
horizon. Like others we know, we are getting out while the getting is,
well, tolerable. Many who aren't getting out are scaling back.

. . .

It is no secret that owners circulated endless emails leading up to
election day discussing lay off plans were Obama to win. Entrepreneurs
instinctively understand the danger posed by larger liberal majorities in power.
The risk-reward equation and fierce independence spirit of start up businesses
are anathema to the class warfare, equality of outcome and spread the wealth
mentality of the left.
We have very little appetite to have our lives
run by elected or un-elected officials like Barney Frank and Jamie Gorelick. We
have no appetite to be taxed even more by the likes of Charlie Rangel. These
clowns destroyed Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and our entire economy as a result.
Congress, by their own admission, cannot even run their own damned dining room
with a captive customer base! Some of them refuse to pay their own tax
burden. Why in the world would we subject ourselves to their ilk armed with the
unchecked powers of the Oval Office and both houses of congress and a massive
army of bureaucrats?
We got into business to be independent. We will get out
for the same reason.
The fact that Obama is not in office yet is irrelevant.
Businesses must see "around the corner" and plan accordingly. Rightly or
wrongly, business owners see a huge anti-business shift in motion and they are
making preparations NOW. We do not want to have business illiterates like Chris
Dodd dictate our decisions from the comfort of his home made possible by a quid
pro quo Countrywide mortgage.

As someone who's currently job hunting, I sure hope they're getting it out of their systems now.

Daniel B. Klein asks "What Should Liberals Liberalize?"

2008-12-12T20:06:00.003-05:00

He suggests school choice, immigration, international trade, ag subsidies, drug prohibitions, occupational licensing, minimum wage, the FDA, and several others.

This, of course, assumes that liberals seek, you know, freedom.

2008-12-05T19:26:00.003-05:00

Michelle Malkin is taking on the Obama Birth Certificate crowd. Here, she basically accuses them of being no different from the 9-11 truthers and the nutjobs who still believe that Sarah Palin faked her last pregnancy.

The plain truth will never mollify a Truther. There’s always a convoluted
excuse – some inconsequential discrepancy to seize on, some photographic
“evidence” to magnify into a blur of meaningless pixels – that will rationalize
irrationality. Palin could produce Trig’s umbilical cord and it still wouldn’t
be enough.

Alas, Trutherism thrives on both the left and right. Which brings us to the spate of lawsuits challenging President-elect Barack Obama’s U.S. citizenship. On Friday, the
U.S. Supreme Court considers one of those suits filed by New Jersey citizen Leo
Donofrio, who maintains that Obama is not a “natural born citizen” because
his father held British citizenship.

There may be a seed of a legitimate constitutional issue to explore here (how is the citizenship requirement enforced for presidential candidates, anyway?) And at least Donofrio concedes that Obama was born in Hawaii. But a dangerously large segment of the birth certificate hunters have lurched into rabid Truther territory. The most
prominent crusader against Obama’s American citizenship claim, lawyer Philip
Berg (who, not coincidentally, is also a prominent 9/11 Truther), disputes that Obama was born in Hawaii and claims that Obama’s paternal grandmother told him she saw Obama born in Kenya.

I can't help but agree. There has been nothing about this controversy that has rung true to me in the least, and the people who cling tenaciously to it do themselves, and (by association) anyone who opposes Obama a great disservice by undermining the legitimacy of any real criticism that may be had.

But Michelle brings up an interesting side note. There may be a seed of a legitimate constitutional issue here, after all. Nobody has ever established what the constitution means by "natural born citizen," and maybe we need to know this.

So I'm thinking that this really opens the door to legitimate debate on whether the natural born citizen, whatever it means, really ought to be there at all. Think about it. Let's say that Obama really was born in another country, but his parents moved him here shortly thereafter. Now, obviously he would have had to have committed some fraud to cover that up, which we would have a legitimate problem with, but other than that, how would the place of his birth, the place that he wouldn't even remember, have any impact on his actual abilities to serve as president? The fact that he lived in Indonesia for a time that he actually does remember, in fact, a time during which he was forming his personality and learning about the world, is not held against him. Can you think of one legitimate reason that his birthplace is actually important, other than the strict rule of law?

A person has absolutely no choice in the question of where he or she is born. Let's do away with the restriction on where a person is born and look at how they have lived, instead.

$1.85

2008-11-18T12:14:00.001-05:00

Gas is $1.85 a gallon at several stations in my neighborhood. One dollar and eighty-five cents! There were tears, people.

A very sad story . . . and a very sad reaction

2008-11-14T19:40:00.004-05:00

CNN's Ruben Navarrette, Jr. discusses a terrible story about a group of teenage boys in Patchougue, NY, who allegedly decided to go "beaner jumping."

The bullies found 37-year-old Marcello Lucero, who was attacked, beaten and stabbed to death. The alleged assailants include Jeffrey Conroy, Jordan Dasch, Anthony Hartford, Nicholas Hausch, Jose Pacheco, and Kevin Shea, all 17, and Christopher Overton, 16.
As the person who authorities allege stabbed Lucero, Conroy is charged with first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime. The others are charged with first-degree gang assault.
According to Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer, all seven "admitted their involvement ... in this crime." They pleaded not guilty in court. Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Nancy Clifford said the suspects wanted to "find some Mexicans to ---- up."

Now, this is inexplicably, undeniably a terrible story. But Mr. Navarrette doesn't really blame the boys. Nor does he blame a culture that glamorized violence and thuggish behavior. Nor does he venture into their family situation or gang associations or psychiatric medications. No, Mr. Navarrette strongly implies that the cause of this is the immigration debate.

Nor should we tolerate an immigration debate that turned anti-Hispanic and that some now blame for incidents like such as this.
In 2006, the last year for which statistics are available, Hispanics were -- according to the FBI -- the No. 1 victim of hate crimes motivated by ethnicity or national origin, representing 62.8 percent of the victims of such crimes.
When tragedy strikes, there are always those who look for someone to blame. In Suffolk County, local activists are blaming public officials who have crusaded against illegal immigration to score political points with their constituents.
The anti-immigrant atmosphere was something even the presidential candidates talked about. Earlier this year, Barack Obama pointed to comments by radio and television hosts critical of immigration. "A certain segment has basically been feeding a kind of xenophobia," he told supporters at a Palm Beach, Florida, fundraiser, tying that sentiment to an increase in hate crimes against Hispanics.
In an interview just before the election, Sen. John McCain told me that there have always been those who stoke fears that American culture and the English language are on their way out.

Do you hear that? "Nor should we tolerate the immigration debate . . ." A discussion of the laws of country, and whether or how they should be enforced, is simply not tolerable if it may carry the blame for "hate."

I would almost guarantee that these teenage thugs had virtually no real awareness of the debate that has gone on in this country about illegal aliens. Their use of the word "beaner," in fact, is one that I would bet that they picked up from Carlos Mencia on Comedy Central. They were simply looking for some way to take their aggression out, thought up a good excuse, and Marcello Lucero, sadly, was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It's things like this that lead to censorship and all sorts of other freedom erosion's, folks. People that think that we must change what we "tolerate," for the good of society. Better to just let the government handle it; if we plebeians discuss it, well, someone could get hurt.

Don't worry kids, you can still blame everything bad that ever happens to you ever on racism

2008-11-11T12:14:00.002-05:00

Well, this is a relief. For a moment there, I was afraid that the Obama election meant that we were a post-racial society, and a black man can achieve anything that a white man can, even the nation's highest office. Apparently, according to Timothy Noah at Slate, my fears are unfounded:

But in a more complex and indirect way, the stubborn refusal of a majority of whites to vote Democratic is all about race. Take a look at this chart. The alignment of whites with the Republican Party hasn't made it impossible for Democrats to win presidential elections, but it has made it fairly difficult. For the past 40 years, whites have made up 74 percent to somewhere north of 90 percent of all voters. Jimmy Carter got elected president by narrowing to four percentage points the gap between whites voting Republican and whites voting Democratic. Bill Clinton did it by narrowing the gap to a remarkable 2 percent. I don't think it's a coincidence that both men drew some appeal simply from being white Southerners. The South is where the GOP holds its tightest grip on the white vote.

So, at least South still equals racist, even with a black president. Jesse Jackson will be so relieved.

A New Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome

2008-11-06T20:44:00.003-05:00

This is hilarious. I hope it helps ease the pain:

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Obama Campaign Workers Upset About Not Getting Paid All That They Earned

2008-11-06T11:02:00.003-05:00

I guess that we can safely assume that most of these folks have never earned (or even seen) an actual paycheck:

"Still that's not right. I'm disappointed. I'm glad for the president, but I'm disappointed in this system," said Diane Jefferson, temporary campaign worker.

"It should have been $480. It's $230," said Imani Sankofa.

"They gave us $10 an hour. So we added it. I added up all the hours so it was supposed to be at least $120. All I get is $90," said Charles Martin.

"I worked nine hours a day for 4 days and got paid half of what I should have earned," said Randall Waldon.

But I thought that we were supposed to be getting over the simplistic notions about keeping money that we earn!

Welcome to the real-world kids, welcome to the real world.

BIggest Post-Election Stock Drop in History

2008-11-06T08:53:00.002-05:00

From Bloomberg News (via Instapundit):

The stock market posted its biggest plunge following a presidential election as reports on jobs and service industries stoked concern the economy will worsen even as President-elect Barack Obama tries to stimulate growth.

Hang on to that hope and change kids! Pretty soon, it may be all that you've got.

Non-presidential things to watch today

2008-11-04T09:22:00.003-05:00

1. What will California do with proposition 8 (state constitutional amendment on gay marriage)? They say that as California goes, so goes the nation. The few other states that have enacted gay marriage haven't seemed to have much of an effect on the nation as a whole, but I think that California will be different. (For the record, I support gay marriage, but I don't like the idea of it being imposed by the courts- though I haven't read the CA constitution or opinion, so I'm not sure whether it was a leap or not)

2. Will Massachusetts do away with its state income tax? The other states that have no income tax are all well known for having at least some conservative/libertarian streaks (Tennessee, Florida, Texas, Alaska, Nevada). Massachusetts, aka Tax-achusetts, would be the first solidly blue state to make such a move. Could this be a good sign for supporters of the Fair Tax?

3. What will happen to John Murtha? I'm all for a long time congress member getting kicked out, and that it is for showing his true colors in such an obnoxious fashion only makes it more delightful!

4. What will happen to Ted Stevens? See above, re: long time congress member getting kicked out. I hate to lose another Republican given what we're facing right now, but I'm really not a fan of Stevens and I'm pretty glad to see him get what he deserves.

I Support Barack Obama

2008-11-04T08:45:00.004-05:00

Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t want Obama to win this one today. I cast my vote proudly for McCain-Palin, and I wish that I could have done more. I have very low expectations for an Obama presidency. But if he is going to win this thing tonight, and I think that he will, he will be president of my country, the greatest country that has ever been, the country that has given me and my family amazing opportunities, the country that I thank God every night that I am allowed to be a part of. I think that the leaders of this country deserve respect.

The American people are not perfect, and they have not always made the best choices. Such is a risk that you take with a democratic republic. In the face of this new presidency, we must remain vigilant that our freedoms do not expire, we must viciously protect our freedoms of economic opportunity and entrepreneurship, freedoms of expression, freedoms to defend ourselves, even our rights to just make bad decisions. We must viciously defend ourselves against accusations of selfishness for not wanting to from those that fail to do even the minimum without government coercion. We must be aware of those who hide from criticism behind accusations of racism. But these are things that we should always do. Government is a power that is always larger than you; even if that power is wielded by those with whom you agree, it can still be abused, and it will be.

But, if Barack Obama is to be my country’s president, I support him. I will remain vigilant; I will speak out when I think that he is wrong, as I have about Presidents Bush and Clinton before him, but I will also try to give him credit when I think that he is right. I will continue to criticize his supporters, if I think that they have crossed a line, but I will give him, and his office, my respect. If I see supporters on my side attempting to echo the immature behavior of the out of power party of the last 8 years, the name calling, the assassination fantasies, the ridiculous accusations, I will speak out. President Obama is far, far from my choice, but he is not my enemy.

So, when is spellcheck going to start recognizing Barack Obama?

2008-10-28T09:24:00.001-04:00

I can keep typing it over and over: Barack Obama, Barack, Obama, . . . surely by now he must be the most blogged about name out there these days. Get with the program, spellchecking programs!

"Don't mind queer eye for the white supremacist guy up there."

2008-10-28T09:21:00.002-04:00

Jules Crittenden sees a lot of androgyny in the recently arrested Obama assassination plotting skinheads.

Here's an example of how freedom of speech should work

2008-10-28T09:16:00.001-04:00

Some idiot in West Hollywood is, I'm sure, quite proud of his Halloween display, which includes a mannequin dressed as Sarah Palin hanging from a noose, and a mannequin dressed as John McCain in a flaming chimney. He calls it "art" and "within the spirit of Halloween."

I don't think that this is funny. I don't think that this is decent, moral, creative, thought-provoking, clever, or in any way helpful to our national discourse. I don't think that it is art. And I don't think that you ought to give a rat's ass what I think.

The fact is, while I have seen several commentators denounce this as twisted or nonsensical, I am happy to say that I am yet to see anyone call for any action to be taken other than denouncement. Freedom of speech includes the freedom to say what others don't like; and I'll support this moron's right to say what I don't like.

Just ask yourself- would it go the same way if the "artist" had been a Republican supporter?

How Dare You Ask a Difficult Question!

2008-10-27T11:23:00.004-04:00

So, some local reporter in Orlando had the audacity to ask Joe Biden some fairly pushy questions the other day. (You can see the full video, as well as links to some comments, at Instapundit.)

West wondered about Sen. Barack Obama's comment, to Joe the Plumber, about spreading the wealth. She quoted Karl Marx and asked how Obama isn't being a Marxist with the "spreading the wealth" comment.

"Are you joking?" said Biden, who is Obama's running mate. "No," West said.

West later asked Biden about his comments that Obama could be tested early on as president. She wondered if the Delaware senator was saying America's days as the world's leading power were over.

"I don't know who's writing your questions," Biden shot back.

The Obama campaign's response: You will get no more access to us. None.

Biden so disliked West's line of questioning that the Obama campaign canceled a WFTV interview with Jill Biden, the candidate's wife.

"This cancellation is non-negotiable, and further opportunities for your station to interview with this campaign are unlikely, at best for the duration of the remaining days until the election," wrote Laura K. McGinnis, Central Florida communications director for the Obama campaign.

McGinnis said the Biden cancellation was "a result of her husband's experience yesterday during the satellite interview with Barbara West."

Now, I'm sure that the campaign members can interview or not with whomever they choose, and it really wouldn't bother me too much if they just canceled the interview with Jill. After all, she's just a spouse, and, by the standards of this campaign, a pretty boring one at that. (Quick, name one thing about Jill Biden other than the fact that her husband's on the VP ticket . . . yeah, that's what I thought.)

But the blanket "No Interview For You" statement should give us a major pause. True, there's no real "free speech" issue here- the First Amendment was certainly not violated, as I said, the campaign members can interview with whomever they want. But I think that we need to think about how the members of this campaign feel about people who ask tough questions. Will the Obama presidency limit their interviews to only those who they know will be friendly? Will those that dare to step out of line and ask tough questions about administration policy get punished by having their access cut off? Will this cause a chilling effect where journalists dare not risk asking any questions that might offend? Is this the kind of America that you want?

(Also posted at Unfair Doctrine)

On Obama's NPR "Socialist Bombshell"

2008-10-27T10:33:00.008-04:00

The transcript comes from, and audio is available at, Hot Air:

If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court. I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed people, so that now I would have the right to vote. I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order as long as I could pay for it I’d be o.k. But, the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society.

To that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn’t that radical. It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, at least as its been interpreted and Warren Court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can’t do to you. Says what the Federal government can’t do to you, but doesn’t say what the Federal government or State government must do on your behalf, and that hasn’t shifted and one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was, um, because the civil rights movement became so court focused I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change. In some ways we still suffer from that. …

I’m not optimistic about bringing about major redistributive change through the courts. You know, the institution just isn’t structured that way.

OK, so a lot of commentators are calling this a pretty big deal, but I'm not sure that I'm impressed.

There's nothing here that we didn't know about Obama already if we have been paying the least amount of attention.

Here's the problem- if you haven't been paying enough attention (or have been willfully ignorant of the signs up to now), you're not going to be swayed by anything here. This is a typical "early Obama" answer (by early, I mean before about September of this year- with Obama, there's not a whole lot of late). It meanders about and doesn't really say anything at all specific.

There are two things here that ought to scare the pants off of those of us who fear socialism:

1) Obama strongly implies that he thinks that the Supreme Court's role should, or at least acceptably could, include wealth redistribution (as well as "economic justice," whatever that means). This almost certainly means that the justices that he would appoint, if given full reign by a supportive Congress and still moonstruck press, will make Justices Bryer and Ginsberg look like Pat freakin' Robertson. And those justices will be around for decades. But the problem is, he doesn't ever come right out and say that that is what he supports. There's no sound bite that says this that can be used and echoed.

Look, I don't want us to be in a world where you have to have a sound bite, but we are where we are. Particularly for someone who is still impressionable at this point in the game. You have to have something that can be packaged and grabbed onto, and that's just not here.

2) He imples that the Supreme Court should be, or at least acceptably could be, "set up" in a way that would bring "major redistributive change." He doesn't say for sure what that would be, but the surrounding statements strongly imply that a) that change would involve "break[ing] free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution," and b) that going beyond the constitution would be a good thing (as he stated then that he was "not optimistic" that this would happen- surely he was not envisioning personally appointing justices at the time).

Now, if you already understand that Obama is a socialist, then you didn't have to go through that logical process to get there from here. But, if you already understand Obama is a socialist, you aren't who we need to be talking to right now. The only reason that things like "Joe the Plumber" and "McCain has 7 houses" work is because they are easy to grasp and easy to repeat. This isn't. So it won't help.

Look, the fact of the matter, and I think that this current election shows it, is that most people just don't fear socialism in the form that Obama presents it. We have next to no economic education, and there is little to no understanding that redistribution has to come from somewhere. I have spoken to a number of people that I would have called well educated and informed and am shocked to find out how little they know about the Constitution- even fellow law students want judges that will do what is "right" or "fair" (of course, always in the their estimation), rather than what the Constitution says (and almost as many of them are on my side of the political spectrum as not, I'm sorry to report).

I wish it were different. I'll try to raise my kids to think differently, and I'll try to spread the word through this blog and my general discussions, but the fact of the matter is, most people just won't get it.

Update: Jennifer Rubin and Glenn Reynolds also think that this is no surprise from Obama

So, I just got back from early voting . . .

2008-10-25T21:06:00.006-04:00

Ok, so first off, you know that the line had to be about 97% McCain/Palin (I went to the small mall in Hixson, an older suburb of Chattanooga, TN- super middle class, suburbia, family oriented, etc, etc. Secondly, it was early voting- there were maybe 6 people there under 60, and at least half of them were housewives who brought their kids). But who do I get behind me? An ultra-liberal, ultra-poorly informed, loud talking, old man, gay couple.* Really! I have absolutely no idea how this happened.

So, from the moment they got behind me, the one started to remind the other that he must not forget to vote for Obama. The first time I thought that he was joking. But apparently not, apparently the fellow really needed reminding. The way I figure it, if you need reminding of who to vote for, you probably aren't prepared enough to vote. (yeah, he was older, and I'm sorry if he had some sort of dementia or something, but that doesn't disprove my point). Anyway, from there they started to discuss "the Catholics" as in, "the Catholics are going to vote for McCain because they're against abortion." That was the first time that I wanted to turn around. I mean really? Did these fellows not realize that first of all "the Catholics" actually more often tend to lean Democrat? Maybe they've not heard of that obscure political family known as the Kennedys? Were they not aware that one of "the Catholics" was on the Democratic ticket? I'm guessing not, because they made "the Catholics" the topic of the next several minutes of conversation.

The topic (logically) continued to abortion. Then I got to hear all about how if I don't want an abortion I shouldn't have one, but why shouldn't there be a choice. That was the second time I wanted to turn around. Really, as an actual women, the concern is not that a woman will have an abortion- it's that an innocent kid will get aborted. Poor kid, not bad woman. These geniuses went on to demonstrate their nuanced understanding of the issues by complaining that the Republicans wanted to put us back into "olden times" and that they complained about "these Islamic countries" when look at us, we are the ones who want to oppress women.

That was the third time that I wanted to turn around. Because really, what's being required to have four witnesses to prove a rape or risk a death sentence for adultery, or 10 year old child brides? Clearly, Republicans are much worse.

Anyway, they went on to wealth envy about how much has been spent on Sarah Palin's wardrobe (clearly a more important issue that the rampent voter registration fraud or Obama's faulty fundraising). I managed to make it through the line and happily cast my vote.

* I should add that I take no issue with the old man gay couple part- it just colors the story up a bit. It's the loud liberalism that I had trouble with. Of course, maybe if they just got married . . .

Crazy or not so much? Steven M. Warshawsky is quite sure that McCain is winning

2008-10-25T20:47:00.003-04:00

He makes his case here. He brings up some thought provoking points. For example:

Well, there is another story out there that the MSM refuses to address. A huge story. One that could, and I think will, significantly affect the outcome of this race. I'm referring to the widespread phenomenon of registered Democrats openly supporting John McCain. There are numerous "Democrats for McCain" type organizations. There are numerous websites and blogs written by Democrats touting McCain's candidacy. There are pro-McCain grassroots efforts being led by Democrats. And we all know friends or relatives who are Democrats, who voted for John Kerry in 2004, and who are no fans of President Bush - but who are going to vote for John McCain this year.

I actually can't say that I know any of these people. I mean, sure, I wish I did. I'd probably buy them a beer. And I'm sure that I know a few people who are still making their minds up, who will probably end up checking the McCain box. But I can't think of a single person who admits that he or she voted for Kerry last time, but will vote for McCain this go 'round. But hey, I'm a college student- maybe the real world is different.

Another statement that gave me pause:

There is nothing remotely similar to this taking place among Republicans. (No, Christopher Buckley endorsing Obama is not the same thing at all.)

Really? Him, and Colon Powell, and a number of others who have jumped ship on McCain? I agree that it's somewhat different, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's not the same thing at all.

That it's just going to get more and more interesting I have no doubt. But I am far from convinced that Mr. Warshawsky won't be eating his words come 11/5.

Student Suspended for Anti-Obama T-Shirt

2008-10-25T14:40:00.001-04:00

Michael P. Stafford, Esq., at The Delaware Employment Law Blog, has an interesting story about a 5th grader who had the audacity to wear a tee-shirt to school with the slogan “Obama is a terrorist’s best friend.”

The free-speech rights of a student is the topic of the day in Colorado, where a 5th grader has been suspended for wearing a tee-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “Obama is a terrorist’s best friend.” The student’s family claims that his First Amendment right to free speech is being trampled. Conspicuously absent from news coverage of this developing story is any detailed description of the tee-shirt causing “substantial disruption” to the school.

Did the school administration make the correct decision in suspending this youngster?
Under well-established Supreme Court precedent, public school administrators may regulate student speech protected by the First Amendment only in three circumstances: (1) when the speech is substantially disruptive; (2) when the speech bears the imprimatur of the school (such as in a school newspaper or yearbook), or; (3) when the speech is lewd or plainly offensive. In particular, under Tinker v. Des Moines, 393 U.S. 503 (1969), student speech may be regulated only if the school has a well-founded expectation that the speech will cause substantial disruption of the school’s operations or interference with the rights of others. The expectation of disruption must be a specific and significant fear of disruption, not just some remote apprehension of disturbance. In this regard, speech is not disruptive merely because it causes offense or hurt feelings in listeners.

Moreover, any regulation of student speech must also be “content neutral.” In Tinker, which involved students wearing black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam war, the Supreme Court observed that the school had singled out the anti-war black armbands for prohibition but had not forbidden other controversial or political symbols. As many courts have noted in a variety of contexts, restrictions on speech because of its message or content are presumed to be unconstitutional.

I think that Mr. Stafford is just a little bit off on his interpretation here, because he leaves off any discussion of last year’s Moorse v. Frederick (aka, the “bong hits 4 Jesus case”), where the US Supreme Court muddied the waters a little bit on the Tinker test that Stafford cites. (The Court found that the student’s rights were not violated when he was punished for waving a banner on the sidelines of a parade that the students were watching which read “bong hits 4 Jesus”.) However, the Court in Moorse focused overwhelmingly on the school’s “compeling interest” in discouraging illegal drug use, which the majority interpreted this banner as promoting.

Here, I would say that the school might make a similar argument- in fact, it would probably focus on “hate speech” or something similar. However, does the school have a compeling interest in discouraging discussion about the associations of prominant political figures? I think not.

(Also published at Unfair Doctrine)

What can gay marriage proponants learn from social conservatives?

2008-10-24T14:08:00.002-04:00

A lot, according to Gay Patriot. For example, he points to a study done by "The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association" (who knew such an organization existed?) which indicates that same-sex couples lead longer and happier lives.

More advocates of gay marriage should do as the authors of this report have done–and consider the social conservative defense of traditional marriage. Kudos to them for treating gay marriage as more than a gimmick in the campaign for “equality,” but instead as an meaningful institution which benefits those who undertake its obligations.

I agree. The benefits of a traditional, stable, long term marriage are too immense to count. I cannot imagine that they would not be similar for homosexual couples in similar relationships.

"I’d rather lose an election than lose my bearings."

2008-10-24T11:12:00.002-04:00

Says Charles Krauthammer, on why he's not jumping ship on McCain.

First, I’ll have no truck with the phony case ginned up to rationalize voting for the most liberal and inexperienced presidential nominee in living memory. The “erratic” temperament issue, for example. As if McCain’s risky and unsuccessful but in no way irrational attempt to tactically maneuver his way through the economic tsunami that came crashing down a month ago renders unfit for office a man who demonstrated the most admirable equanimity and courage in the face of unimaginable pressures as a prisoner of war, and who later steadily navigated innumerable challenges and setbacks, not the least of which was the collapse of his campaign just a year ago.

McCain the “erratic” is a cheap Obama talking point. The 40-year record testifies to McCain the stalwart.

Nor will I countenance the “dirty campaign” pretense. The double standard here is stunning. Obama ran a scurrilous Spanish-language ad falsely associating McCain with anti-Hispanic slurs. Another ad falsely claimed McCain supports “cutting Social Security benefits in half.” And for months Democrats insisted that McCain sought 100 years of war in Iraq.

McCain’s critics are offended that he raised the issue of William Ayers. What’s astonishing is that Obama was himself not offended by William Ayers.

. . .

The case for McCain is straightforward. The financial crisis has made us forget, or just blindly deny, how dangerous the world out there is. We have a generations-long struggle with Islamic jihadism. An apocalyptic, soon-to-be-nuclear Iran. A nuclear-armed Pakistan in danger of fragmentation. A rising Russia pushing the limits of revanchism. Plus the sure-to-come Falklands-like surprise popping out of nowhere.

Blasphemous much?

2008-10-22T12:02:00.001-04:00

Courtesy of NRO:

Votive Early, Votive Often [Mark Steyn]
A reader took this picture today at a street fair at Hayes and Octavia in San Francisco, of all places:

"there are really only two ways to interpret the Constitution -- try to discern as best we can what the framers intended or make it up."

2008-10-21T09:33:00.006-04:00

No matter how ingenious, imaginative or artfully put, unless interpretive methodologies are tied to the original intent of the framers, they have no more basis in the Constitution than the latest football scores. To be sure, even the most conscientious effort to adhere to the original intent of the framers of our Constitution is flawed, as all methodologies and human institutions are; but at least originalism has the advantage of being legitimate and, I might add, impartial.

Says Justice Clarence Thomas. Ladies and gentlemen, it simply doesn't get any better than that.

Update: Ann Althouse disagrees:

You just conceded that "even most conscientious effort to adhere to the original intent of the framers of our Constitution is flawed," so why do you -- in the same sentence -- call it impartial? With such incoherence showing so plainly on the surface of your remarks, why should we trust your labyrinthine exegesis of the documents from the 18th century?

But, is "impartial" necessarily the complete opposite of "flawed"? I don't think so at all. It seems to me that Justice Thomas is saying that although it has its flaws, it is impartial and that is one of the reasons that it is the best- it screens out partiality.

Update 2: I just started reading the comments, and 3 out of Ann's first 4 agree with me.

Stacey Campfield Speaks!

2008-10-20T15:58:00.002-04:00

Today, State Rep. Stacey Campfield, Dist. 18-Knoxville (R), came to speak at Tennessee. The first thing that grabbed my attention was the difference between his reputation and the persona he displayed today. It was remarkably pragmatic at times. As a man who has only been in the General Assembly since 2005, he seems to have already learned a lot about politics.
Gun legislation was a hot topic of the day. Campfield's personal belief seems to be that any responsible adult should be able to carry a firearm when they aren't drunk. But the legislation he has proposed is more tempered in its approach. The two major gun bills he's introduced involve higher-ed professors carrying firearms on campus and anyone to be able to carry in state parks (assuming they can meet federal regulatory and state carry permit requirements). As opposed to a free-for-all approach to gun carrying, the legislation is designed to actually win over a few votes. Whether or not it actually does so remains to be seen.
Rep. Campfield has already had to choose his battles. He has sought middle ground on gun issues. He knows that law already on the books are hard to change. There are two sides to the bailout. Solutions to immigration problems will not be easy or popular. And sometimes trying to change one piece of a regulatory scheme opens up pandora's box for the myriad other problems in the overall regulation.
The issues facing Tennessee today are plentiful. In only one hour, Rep. Campfield and the Federalist students were able to touch on a number of them, but so many more remain. We talked about illegal immigration. There's one piece of the puzzle. We also talked about being a low-tax state and being attractive to outsiders. Which leads to the question: who do we deal with a large influx of residents, both legal and illegal? And how far can we trust government to go in dealing with growth?
Bring on your comments!

“I asked a question. When you can’t ask a question to your leaders anymore, that gets scary. That bothers me.” — Joe Wurzelbacher

2008-10-19T19:35:00.001-04:00

There's a really, really important new blog out there tracking threats to our freedom of speech, a topic I've become increasingly concerned about of late. http://www.unfairdoctrine.org/

Altas is Shrugging

2008-10-19T00:02:00.006-04:00

Buckle your seat-belts: The world of "Atlas Shrugged" is here.

I've excerpted a brief description of the book's plot for those who haven't read it. Following is a link to an article of a sad reality which, depending on this election, may become all too common.

..."Atlas Shrugged" Plot:

The theme of Atlas Shrugged is the role of the mind in man's life and, consequently, presentation of a new morality- the morality of rational self-interest.[4]

The main conflicts of the book surround the decision of the "men of the mind" to go on strike, refusing to contribute their inventions, art, business leadership, scientific research, or new ideas of any kind to the rest of the world. Society, they believe, hampers them by interfering with their work and underpays them by confiscating the profits and dignity they have rightfully earned. The peaceful cohesiveness of the world disintegrates, lacking those individuals whose productive work comes from mental effort. The strikers believe that they are crucial to a society that exploits them, denying them freedom or failing to acknowledge their right to self-interest, and the gradual collapse of civilization is triggered by their strike.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Companies_in_Atlas_Shrugged

_________________________

..."Atlas Shrugged" Reality:

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/daily-brief/2008/10/17/hedge-fund-manager-goodbye-and-f-you

Deborah Taylor Tate Speaks!

2008-10-13T23:23:00.002-04:00

So, if you didn't make it out to hear Ms. Tate speak about her commission at the FCC, you missed out on a good time. She is well-spoken, yet down-to-Earth. She also said a few things that might be of interest to Federalists:

--One of her main themes as FCC Commissioner is "regulatory humility." This is her own version of laissez-faire regulation. Rather than try to dictate what's best for an industry, Ms. Tate first brings attention to a problem, then let's the key industry players have first crack at trying to remedy and regulate themselves.

--My favorite quote of the night: "You have to give the markets room to operate." Only this way can businesses compete, which breeds innovation, cost efficiencies, and meaningful self-regulation.

--I was intrigued/worried by the fluidity of authority between the various federal agencies. She seemed to describe an ebb and flow to the jurisdictional boundaries between such agencies as the FCC, the FTC, DOJ, etc. For instance, lately, the FCC has been moving away from certain commercial regulation, while keeping a close eye on antitrust/anti-competitive behavior.
Overall, it was a good event. And the catered dinner was incredible...

Is it really that hard to eat on $25 a week

2008-10-09T10:39:00.002-04:00

Some folks in Illinois tried to eat on $25 a week to understand the plight of the food stamp-users. And then they whined about how hard it was.

Listen folks, my first year in college (98-99), I lived on $27 per week. Not ate, lived on that money (which I made babysitting for a family near the school). My scholarship covered rent, utilities, tuition, and books, so we'll ignore those expenses, and my parents were generous enough to cover liability insurance on my $400 dollar car, but everything else came out of that babysitting money. We're talking food, clothing (well, that kind of grungy look was still in, so thrift stores got a lot of my business there), gas, household items, makeup (again, relied on the grungy look), entertainment, booze (it was college, after all), and anything else that happened to come up.

I ate a lot of tuna fish, macaroni and cheese, ramen noodles, eggs, and generic everything, but I always had plenty. Yes, I very rarely had good quality meat (the occasional chicken breast when they were on sale), but it's hard to cook good quality meat for one in a college student's kitchen, anyway. (Plain Spaghetti-Os were something like 50 cents a can; the ones with meatballs were a dollar and a few cents, so I used to get both and combine them, that way I could get 4 meals with meat.) And I rarely had treats like sodas or ice cream. But I got by just fine. (And now, am a fabulous cook!) These people can, too.

Debate Time!

2008-10-07T20:48:00.034-04:00

OK, now for the debate. McCain has traditionally had the advantage in townhalls, but anything can happen right now. Will McCain continue to swing hard like he has been this week? Will the townhall format be destroyed by ringers? We shall see.

9:00- OK, now we get to see why Obama has refused to do townhall-style debates up to now.

9:06- McCain: "Now, I have a plan . . ." Good way to start.

9:10- Did anyone else notice that McCain is left-handed? Have we ever had a left-handed president before? I've always noticed that left handed people are more creative- is that a good explanation for the whole Maverick thing.

9:12- "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I'll bet that you've never even heard of them before this crisis." I'm not sure whether Oliver is amused or insulted.

9:18- Fox has a weird split screen going on, with the speaking candidate in the top right hand corner, and the listening candidate in the lower left. Obama is turned full body towards McCain while he speaks.

9:34- Obama says that Washington needs to lead by example on spending so that consumers will follow suit. Yes, I wasn't sure if I should buy that flat-screen TV on my credit card, but then I said "Hey, what would Congress do?"

9:19: Theresa asks: "How can we trust either of you with our money?" Obama's answer: "Oh, yeah, well Bush was worse." McCain: "I've been a reformer!" Correct answer: "You can't, but it's not like you've got a lot of choices here, honey. What are you gonna do about it, vote third party. Hah!"

9:27- Tom Brokaw keeps asking them to keep within the time limit, but doesn't seem willing to do anything about it but nag.

9:22- McCain tells Theresa to check the watchdog groups, they all say Obama is the most liberal big spender. I don't know why that seems like such an interesting tactic to me.

9:24-hehe- TPM says: "We're told this audience was selected to be a cross-section of the local community. But is it not obvious that it's weighted to bald men?"

9:25- McCain seems to be having a difficult time talking about how he's work across the aisle- he keeps stumbling over words. This is odd for him, because its the same talking points we've heard from him a hundred times before.

9:38- Obama wants to respond, but Tom Brokow smacks him down. GO TOM!

9:46- The computer caught on because it was a better way to do things, like, well, compute. Green energy just seems to be about feeling superior to others.

9:48- Hah- we should really start referring to Obama as "that one."

9:50- One of the most commonly asked questions of Obama is whether Healthcare should be a commodity? Really?

9:54- "Senator Obama will fine you." How has this not been a campaign commercial yet?

9:56- Tom asks: "Is healthcare a right, privilege, or responsibility?" Is there any good answer to that? Obama says "right"- so others are obligated to provide it if you choose not to do so for yourself?

10:04- Tom Brokow's defining the "Obama doctrine," right up front. You hear that, future vice presidential candidates? No confusion next time.

10:07: Hehe- Jac says: "9:55 - Tom Brokaw asks: "Is health care in America a privilege, a right, or a responsibility?" Are single-word multiple-choice answers in a presidential debate simplistic, patronizing, or ridiculous?"

10:09: Poor Katie asking about Pakistani sovereignty. She looks really really nervous. And Obama just plants himself right in front of her and stares at her the entire time that he answers the question.

10:11- Obama looks really unnatural when he says that we will kill Bin Laden. Like it's really difficult for him to say.

10:13- Oh, Brokow went down this time. I take back my prior "go tom."

10:16- I hate when politcians say that they know how to do something that the government has been trying to do all along. Well, if you know how so well, tell somebody why dontcha?

10:21- Obama's response on Russia is completely incoherent. Wait, did Obama just say that the Bush policies are making us more safe? I don't understand him at all here.

10:30- "What don't you know, and how will you learn it?" Well, I don't know why anyone thought that that was a clever enough question to make the cut.

10:32- Obama says that there are young people that have the grades and the will and the drive to go to college but don't have the money. I'd like to meet just one person who has all of those things, but financial difficulties prevent him or her from going to college. Any college. While working part-time. I was one of those students; my parents gave me nothing for college. But with a little grades, will, and drive, I managed just fine.

10:34- I think that the last question should have just been "What would you like to talk about, and what would you like to say about it?" Would have been the same result, most likely.

The End. On the whole, a pretty good debate, but nothing exciting at all. McCain threw out a lot of insults, but none of them really led to sparks.

When I was eight years old . . .

2008-10-06T14:24:00.003-04:00

Neil Boortz makes, I think, an exceptionally good point about the argument that Ayres’ activities don’t matter because they happened when Obama was 8 year old:

While we're at it, I'm getting tired of this asinine argument that Ayers threw
his bombs when Obama was only eight-years-old and that this somehow excuses
Obama for any friendship the two may have had. Actually ... this makes the
situation worse. It is not as if a friend of Obama's went off the deep end and
started planting bombs. This man's record was there when Obama found him. It was
not a question of what Ayers might become ... it was the fact of what he already
was, an unrepentant terrorist, when Obama embraced him. An 80-year-old could use
this mindlessly stupid "but I was only eight years old" argument to excuse a
friendship with Hitler today.

Right on. For more, see this (by way of instapundit): "Obama was indeed only eight in early 1970. I was only nine then, the year Ayers’s Weathermen tried to murder me."

FCC Commissioner Coming to UT!!

2008-10-06T12:24:00.003-04:00

On Monday, October 13, FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate will be speaking to the Tennessee College of Law. This will take place in Room 132 of the Law School at 6:00 pm.

While the Federalist Society is not sponsoring the event, this could still be a great thing for Federalists. The FCC is always a hotbed of debate and controversy at the intersection of freedom of speech, decency, and fairness. This is a great chance to ask questions on all these hot-button topics.

Most importantly, the event will be catered.

So show up and bring your concerns to this great event!

What does size have to do with presidency?

2008-10-06T12:02:00.004-04:00

Ann Althouse has a link to a very interesting chart comparing recent candidates.

The answer: we like them tall and not too thin. In all of the races where the shorter candidate won, he was stockier than the tall guy (think GWB and John Kerry).

So, what do we have here- Obama is tall, but very thin (at 6 foot 1 1/2 and 180 lbs), but McCain is very small, (5 foot 7, 165 lbs).

Is anyone else shocked that McCain is that short? My husband is 5'8", and I think of him as a pretty little guy (which I like, quite a lot). But I've always thought of McCain as pretty tall. He seems tall. And, maybe because he's skinny, and young, but I always thought Obama seemed somewhat short.

Does perceived size matter?

Once again, any criticism whatsoever of Obama is racism

2008-10-06T09:48:00.003-04:00

According to the AP, by way of Hot Air:

“Our opponent … is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so
imperfect, imperfect enough, that he’s palling around with terrorists who would
target their own country,” Palin told a group of donors in Englewood, Colo. A
deliberate attempt to smear Obama, McCain’s ticket-mate echoed the line at three
separate events Saturday.
“This is not a man who sees America like you and I
see America,” she said. “We see America as a force of good in this world. We see
an America of exceptionalism.”…
Palin’s words avoid repulsing voters with
overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a
black presidential nominee “palling around” with terrorists while assuring a
predominantly white audience that he doesn’t see their America?

If you ask me, the McCain camp should try to milk this all they can. The more people see this "If you dare question me, I will label you a racist" sort of politics, the less they will trust Obama.

Kudos to president of the LA branch of NOW

2008-10-06T09:07:00.002-04:00

Shelley Mandel complements Sarah Palin: "America, this is what a feminist looks like."

Why Does Joe Biden Hate the Obama Campaign?

2008-09-23T10:27:00.003-04:00

Obama Campaign ad "terrible":

In light of several negative ads put out by both campaigns, CBS’s Katie Couric asked Biden if he is disappointed with the tone of campaign, noting the Obama ad that derides McCain for admitting he doesn’t know how to use a computer.

"I thought that was terrible, by the way," Biden replied.

"Why'd you do it then?” responded Couric.

"I didn't know we did it,” Biden answered, “and if I'd had anything to do with it, we would have never done it.”

At the end of the ad a picture of Biden with Obama is displayed as Obama says “…and I approve this message.” Couric pointed out that – as with every campaign ad – Obama did approve it.

“I don't think anything was intentional about that,” said Biden. “They were trying to make another point.”

Well, it was, but even so, you're not supposed to say that.

Three hours after the interview aired, the Delaware senator tried to walk back the comments in a statement saying he had never seen the ad, that he was merely reacting to reports in the press and he knew there was nothing intentionally personal in it.

Oh, wel that's better, then.

What's the Plan?

2008-09-18T10:48:00.004-04:00

William Galston has some strong words for Barack Obama:

I'll get right to the point: You are in danger of squandering an election most of us thought was unlosable. The reason is simple: on the electorate’s most important concern – the economy -- you have no clear message, and John McCain has filled the void with his own.

But just yesterday my liberal friend told me all about Obama's reponse to yesterday's economic problems, a great six point plan for the economy. (He didn't know what the points were, but still, it was great.) So, what are those six points?

So, I googled "obama six point plan economy" I got some notes about a Bush six point plan from 2003, and an article from last March with an Obama six point economic plan. The only recent reference I could find was this:

Obama reiterated a six-point economic plan affecting Wall Street that included more oversight, transparency and streamlining of regulatory agencies, cracking down on market manipulation, and regulating institutions for "what they do, not for what they are."

Sounds pretty standard to me. What's McCain's economic plan? His site says:

John McCain has a comprehensive economic plan that will create millions of good American jobs, ensure our nation's energy security, get the government's budget and spending practices in order, and bring relief to American consumers. Read each of the sections below to learn how the McCain Economic Plan will help bring reform, prosperity and peace to America.

It goes on to outline plans for: workplace flexibility (I'm all for this, but not sure what the government's role in it can be without mandates), lower taxes on gas, government reform, support for small businesses, lowering barriers to trade, simpler taxes, etc. Again, sounds fine enough, but pretty standard.

What does Barack Obama's site say about his economic plan? (Off topic, but the first thing that I notice is that BarackObama.com takes me to a site where I have to register my name and contact information. I search around and low on the screen and very small is the button that allows me to skip this step- annoying. Moreover, his site is fancy and full of pictures of him and Biden bathed in heavenly light, and it is slow!). His plans involve basically what we have heard before- middle class tax cuts, windfall profits taxes, something about a Job and Growth Fund that I can't quite figure out, simplify tax filings, etc. Here's an interesting one: eliminate taxes on seniors making over $50,000/year. I can't quite follow that one- how much do seniors making that little pay in the first place? It can't be much, if anything at all. And even so, I would think that a family w/ kids in that pay range is probably better suited for needing such a tax break. Anyway, it goes on and on (and on and on). I didn't see any mention of a 6 point plan, though.

So, on the whole, I can see what Mr. Galston was saying- thereis no coherent message here. Unlike McCain's site, there is no summary and point by point issue, just pages of information that I can't imagine anybody sitting down and reading just out of curiosity.

2008-09-18T10:30:00.005-04:00

Regardless of who will be our next president, it looks like we need to prepare for some pretty serious economic turmoil. See this video-report from The Onion: "Economists Warn Anti-Bush Merchandise Market Close to Collapse."

McCain Lies?

2008-09-17T08:51:00.003-04:00

Ann Althouse, who voted Obama in the primaries, takes a look at Byron York's defense of McCain's allegations about Obama's support for comprehensive sex education for little kids.

Read the whole thing, but take note, Obama does not come out looking good.

More Obama Camp Attempts to Shut Down Dissent

2008-09-17T08:24:00.003-04:00

Here. Note that his side was offered the chance to respond, and refused.

What will become of the First Amendment under an Obama Administration?

If McCain Wins

2008-09-16T10:45:00.001-04:00

As things begin to look better and better for McCain, I’m actually starting to get worried about the reactions that will follow if McCain does pull this one off. If he loses, oh, well, I don’t think that people on the right will be all that distraught- they’ll make a big deal about it, they’ll complain about it, but they’ll move on. Conservatives don’t put all of their trust in the government or worship their candidates, as a general rule, so the idea of having one that they dislike is tolerable to say the least. But, if McCain wins, as Russ Smith puts it:

I have no clue if or when that could happen, but I do have an opinion of what will follow in this country if McCain pulls off what so recently seemed the miraculous feat of becoming the country’s 44th president. Voter fraud, conspiracy, “sleazevertisements” (the preferred term of many left-wing bloggers), disenfranchised voters, the return of redneck chic; those will be the immediate cries of Democrats who thought the election was in the bag. Once again, scores of celebrities will claim they’re moving abroad (and inevitably won’t). And then the depression will kick in hard.

Silly and irrational as all of the Bush 2000 election rhetoric wound up being, I do think that it really hurt the country that so many people were so tied up in hatred of everything that he stood for the entire two terms. Had liberals not been able to tie themselves up emotionally in the idea that Bush’s entire presidency was illegitimate and unfairly won, then I think that the country would not have been so divided, and perhaps we could be in a better place, in terms of world support and the war efforts.

Here, if McCain wins, even if it is decisively, there are already too many ready made arguments (racism, redneck-ism, etc) that liberals can cling to in the same way that they have during the Bush presidency, and they are so tied up in Barack our savior that many simply cannot believe that he could lose this election on the merits. And the crying, and fussing, and gnashing of the teeth will be nearly intolerable.

Finally, Tucker Carlson, the witty veteran of cable television shows, who’s been mercilessly and unfairly maligned by left-wingers, expressed an opinion that’s close to my own. “Even those who supported Hillary in the primaries will scold the rest of us for voting against a black man. They’ll be shrill and self-righteous, more even than usual, and they’ll never stop. It’s almost enough to make you want to vote for Obama, just so we won’t have to hear them.”

Tucker’s a card, but you can’t argue that a McCain win, for liberals, will be the political equivalent of Black Friday back in 1929.

Stupidest Sarah Palin comment thus far: "Her greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman."

2008-09-12T09:12:00.004-04:00

This has to get the award for the most outrageous Sarah Palin comment of the political season.

Her greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman. The Republican
party's cynical calculation that because she has a womb and makes lots and lots
of babies (and drives them to school! wow!) she speaks for the women of America,
and will capture their hearts and their votes, has driven thousands of real
women to take to their computers in outrage. She does not speak for women; she
has no sympathy for the problems of other women, particularly working class
women.

Apparently, in Wendy Doninger's world, when the a baby is born, and they ask the usual "boy or girl" question, about half the time the answer will be, "Well, it has a vagina, but we'll have to wait until it forms a coherent stance on abortion to be sure, so you'd better just call it Jamie or Robin for now."

Update: couldn't resist- her picture- if that's a woman, well, can we just create a third sex for me, Palin, and the other hot right wing chicks?

More on the Pig comment: Is any insult to a woman automatically sexist?

2008-09-11T16:13:00.002-04:00

Instapundit did a poll asking whether the Lipstick remark was "a deliberate sexist smear" or "an inadvertent gaffe."

Can I think that Obama was referring to Palin as the pig (the referrence to the old fish later certainly appears to be McCain, after all), without thinking that it's sexist? Does "pig" have a special function as a sexist remark?

If we believe that it was to refer to Palin (and he's not just an idiot for not thinking of the obvious connection with the word lipstick), then I'm going to go with it was just a plain, stupid, insult. That doesn't make it any better in my book- it's juvenile and crude, but not neccessarily sexist.

Hah!

2008-09-11T12:02:00.001-04:00

Obama's electorial map

Oh please, oh please!

2008-09-11T11:57:00.003-04:00

Democrats threatening to shut down government over oil drilling debate:

The chairman of the House Democratic Caucus said Tuesday that House Republican
Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) would be the “author” of a government shutdown if
President Bush followed Blunt’s advice and vetoed any bill extending the federal
moratoria on new offshore oil drilling and shale-oil development. The moratoria
are currently set to expire on Sept. 30. “If Mr. Blunt’s recommendation to
the president is for a veto to force that, he’d be the author of the shutdown of
the government,” Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Democratic
Caucus, said at a House Democratic leadership press conference attended by House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

If the democrats really go through with this, I predict a republican landslide.

On 9/11

2008-09-11T11:20:00.000-04:00

The History Channel is running a retrospective on 9/11 tonight. I’m recording it. As I look back over the last 7 years, it’s hard to believe that it was so long ago, but also, so short. So much as changed in my life since 2001. I was a newlywed, and a college student who didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life. The highest job that I had reached was waitress, and I had never even considered the idea of law school.

As I look back, I think that I have forgotten a lot of the true, unbearable absurdity of that day. The dazed look around campus as I walked to class knowing that things are different now. The voice of my history professor, explaining that he couldn’t lecture that day, because this was going to be big, big, bigger than Pearl Harbor, he didn’t know what it would mean. Attempting to find some normalcy as I watched the news with some of my classmates while we stuffed envelopes for the Honor’s program, a promise to help that I had made seemingly a century ago.

I think that in a lot of ways, the human mind tries to gloss over these things and forget them. I think that its easier that way, to not dwell on the bad. And I’m not sure that I want to remember, to relive. But then, I think that in some ways it’s necessary. I think that it’s more human to remember, to not lose touch with what happened, and why. If I forget, then I am nothing, and I can do nothing to make it better.

I've been trying to give Obama the benefit of the doubt on the "lipstick on a pig" comment

2008-09-11T09:08:00.002-04:00

(which can be found at Instapundit, Melissa Clouthier, Powerline, Althouse, Ace of Spades, or Hot Air.) After all, it is a common expression, and it made some sense in the context that he used it, but Rachel Lucas makes a darn good point:

Obama says it’s a common expression. Yes, yes it is. We all know that, and we
also all know that Palin’s “lipstick” line was hugely publicized and that Obama
good and goddamn well knew it too.
Obama is supposed to be a genius. A
whip-smart man of brilliance. A masterful wordsmith with soaring verbal and
intellectual skills.
The way I see it, you have precisely two possibilities
here, with a dependent conclusion for each:
(1) He did use it as a snide
reference to Palin. Which means he’s a dickhead.
or
(2) He did not use it
as a snide reference to Palin. Which means he’s not half as smart as his
superfans want to believe. If he didn’t know how it would be construed, then he
is RETARDED when it comes to nuance and anticipating political moves and all
that happy horseshit.

I simply can't argue with this one. I just can't.

To the arguement that it's a common expression (which, by the way, is it? Seems like it's a common expression that you would read in early 20th century literature about people who work on farms all day-how often does this phrase get used from someone who doesn't work around pigs on a regular basis? When was the last time you heard this phrase in general conversation? In general conversation from someone younger than, say, John McCain?), Rachel goes on to point out:

Which, of course, so is “that’s the pot calling the kettle black.” I’m
pretty sure that if John McCain used that Very! Common! Expression! in reference
to Obama, it would actually make the entire internet physically explode.

WTF?!

2008-09-11T08:51:00.002-04:00

Joe Biden, you are an odd, odd man.

BOSTON -- Joe Biden said Wednesday that Hillary Clinton might have been a
better choice for the Democratic ticket.
Biden was defending Clinton after a
questioner at a fund-raiser said he was glad she wasn't selected as Barack
Obama's running mate.
''Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified
than I am to be vice president of the United States,'' Biden said. ''She is
qualified to be president of the United States of America. She is easily
qualified to be vice president of the United States of America, and quite
frankly, might've been a better pick than me.''
Clinton lost to Obama in the
party primary and some of her backers have resisted embracing Obama. AP

Of course, Obama knew that when he picked you, so what does that make him?

Issues I'm to the left of Barack Obama on

2008-09-10T11:28:00.002-04:00

I'll be the first to admit that the anti-gay statements are a big motivator, but I definitely think that the trend (can you call avoiding a topic a trend?) of liberatarianism on the gay issues is a good one.

This is just sad

2008-09-10T09:12:00.003-04:00

Slate asks for dreams about Sarah Palin.

Would anyone in the world dare to admit to dreams about Barack Obama having a friendly beer with Osama, or shining your shoes and eating watermelon? Then why is it OK to discuss (and solicit) dreams about Mrs. Palin "as a scolding, ominous figure," urging one's "young son to kill Palin with a string bean," or about "a fashion show [where] Palin served her creme fraiche on little scooped corn chips?"

Peaceful protests for better schools: "Very selfish" says Chicago mayor

2008-09-10T09:04:00.003-04:00

Paul Tough of Slate Magazine writes: (you might have to scroll down)

An unusual act of civil disobedience last week in Chicago: To protest inequities
in Illinois' system of school financing, James Meeks, a Baptist minister and
state senator, organized a boycott of the first day of school by 1,400 Chicago
public-school students, almost all of whom were black. The twist: That morning,
he bused them all to Northfield, a wealthy, mostly white Chicago suburb,
to the lavish campus of New Trier
Township High School, a public school with four orchestras, a rowing club, a
course in "kinetic wellness," and AP classes in French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Latin, and Chinese. You know, your basic American public school. The Chicago kids lined up and tried to enroll for classes—symbolically, at least.
To their credit, the administrators at New Trier, as well as a few parents and students, welcomed the visitors with signs, snacks, and cool drinks. Every Chicago student who took part in the protest was invited to register at the school, but none of them will in fact be able to enroll because of New Trier's residency requirements. No
house in the suburbs, no spot in the school.Mayor Daley fulminated,
calling Meeks's protest "very selfish." But it was a peaceful demonstration and
by all accounts a successful one ("This is civil disobedience at its finest,"
one New Trier parent said).
As the Chicago Tribune reported:
"At issue is how much money schools spend per student. In a funding system
fueled largely by local property taxes, New Trier Township spent nearly $17,000
per student in 2005-06 ... while Chicago Public Schools spent an estimated
$10,400 per pupil."It's one of those basic facts of American educational life
that seem inevitable and yet impossible at the same time. On the one hand, of
course the wealthy burghers of Northfield are going to spend more on their
public schools than the poor residents of inner-city Chicago. On the other hand:
We're really going to send rich white kids to excellent, well-funded public
schools and send poor black kids to substandard, poorly funded public schools?
That's our plan for fixing public education in America?

Unfortunately, Mr. Tough focuses more on the money spent than on the actual way to fix it, the big V word (vouchers), but the point is clear. And Mayor Daley is threatened.

Kudos, by the way, to the New Tryer folks who offered their support.

"She has basically ignored social issues, period," said Gregg Erickson, an economist and columnist for the Alaska Budget Report

2008-09-08T10:11:00.001-04:00

Yet another reason why I love Sarah Palin.

It's a bad time to be Barack Obama

2008-09-06T09:05:00.003-04:00

From Hot Air:

With both Rasmussen and Gallup showing Barack Obama moving backwards even before the Republican Convention dropped its balloons on Andrea Mitchell, one can excuse the Democratic nominee for hearing footsteps. How desperate has he gotten? Looks like he’s playing the race card once again:

“I know that I’m not your typical presidential candidate,” Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told executives and employees of the Schott glass company Friday afternoon, “and I just want to be honest with you. I know that.”
“And I know that the temptation is to say, ‘You know what? …The guy hasn’t been there that long in Washington.,’ You know, ‘he’s got funny name,’ You know, ‘we’re not sure about him,’” Obama continued. “And that’s what the Republicans, when they say, ‘This isn’t about issues, it’s about personalities,’ what they’re really saying is, ‘We’re going to try to scare people about Barack. So we’re going to say that you know, maybe he’s got Muslim connections or we’re going to say that, you know, he hangs out with radicals or he’s not patriotic.’

Once again, Obama has resorted to a smear campaign against the McCain campaign. They have never –never — even hinted that Obama has “Muslim connections”. They have never made even a slight attempt to make his race an issue, despite this fourth repeat of this particular smear. Neither has the RNC nor any mainstream Republicans. In fact, the McCain campaign let go one staffer who only Twittered a link to a Jeremiah Wright video earlier this year.
If Obama wants to argue that some misdirected bloggers have made these kind of
attacks, he might have a point. But by that standard, the Democrats have
attacked Bristol Palin, smeared Sarah Palin about the maternity of her youngest
child, and questioned the mental capacity of John McCain. If Obama wants
to start making these kinds of accusations, then maybe he ought to get his own
house in order first.

More on Palin and Sexism

2008-09-05T18:24:00.003-04:00

From The Volokh Conspiracy:
Daddies, Mommies, Politicians and Double Standards:

I was driving my baby daughter Eden to her four-month doctor
appointment this morning, when I heard reporter Anne Korblut of the Washington
Post on The Diane Rehm show defending the media's coverage of Sarah Palin and
her family. She said something along the lines of, "If Barack Obama had a
four-month-old special needs baby, and a seventeen year-old pregnant daughter,
I'd be the first to ask whether this is the right time for him to be running for
president."
Balderdash! Obama has two daughters, one born in 1998, the other
in 2001. Even if we acknowledge that mommies tend to do more of the parenting
than daddies, can we all agree that little girls need their daddies, and that
fathering little girls creates some moral obligation to spend time with them?
Good.
Since January 2005, Obama's family has lived in Chicago, while he
initially spent much of his time in D.C. working as a Senator, and then, since
last Spring, he has spent almost all of his time on the road campaigning. I'd be
surprised if he's seen his kids more than once a month during campaign
season.
Does this make Obama a less-than-ideal father? You bet it does. But
he's not running for Father of the Year, he's running for president. So it's
entirely proper that this has NOT been a political issue.
Enter Sarah Palin.
If any reporter, Anne Kornblut or otherwise, has asked Obama how he feels about
not participating in the raising of his children on a day-to-day basis, or what
will happen when he's president if one his girls is sick in the middle of the
night and is calling for daddy (as people have asked about Palin), I've missed
it.
I agree that it's hypocritical of the "traditional values" crowd to
suddenly lionize Palin, when they've been arguing for years that a mother's
place is with her small children. (Dr. Laura, to her credit, has been consistent
on this, and is duly critical of the Palin pick.)
But for the media to claim
that there's no double-standard in how they treat Palin's family obligations and
how they treat Obama's (or other male politicians, for that matter) just can't
withstand scrutiny. Either it's okay to delegate one's parenting
responsibilities to pursue political ambitions, or it's not.

I do disagree on one point: maybe some traditionalists think that it should be the woman that stays home, but I'll bet that most just want someone to stay home. Surely in the White House, Todd would stay home with the kids at least most of the time, so I don't see a problem there.

And moreover, John Edwards' wife is dying. If he had become president (and we're putting aside the issue of the affair, since we didn't know anything about it at the time), there is a good chance that she would have died while he was in office. They have two small children, who would have no mother at all in this case (and would surely be pretty distraught to boot). But I never heard anyone, anyone discuss or dare to ask what would happen in that case- whether Edwards would be too distracted to pursue his duties. Why? Because Edwards has a penis.

Running the speeches through the word cloud

2008-09-05T17:56:00.002-04:00

This is just really neat.

Obama Agrees that the Surge Has Done A Lot of Good

2008-09-05T17:47:00.003-04:00

This is really a good thing. As I've said before, I really want Obama to make good decisions. At least he has opened his eyes to the reality on the ground. Of course, as Instapundit points out:

“I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated,” Obama
said while refusing to retract his initial opposition to the surge. “I’ve
already said it’s succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.”
Actually, I think it succeeded in ways that John McCain anticipated. And General Petraeus, who was mocked by Obama-supporting MoveOn as "General Betrayus."

Ironically, when thing began, I was in full support of whoever won the GOP ticket (well, except Ron Paul) almost entirely because of how important I felt that completing the war was to this country, and how dangerous and dumb it would be to pull out. Now, it is looking more and more like it won't matter one bit on that front who wins this thing.

Forget what's between your legs, it just doesn't matter anymore

2008-09-05T17:27:00.004-04:00

According to N.O.W., all women must think alike:

A spokeswoman for the National Organization for Women, noting Palin’s opposition
to abortion rights and support of other parts of the social conservative agenda,
told Politico, “She's more a conservative man than she is a woman on women's
issues. Very disappointing."

First, I am so sick of this "women's issues" crap. Just say abortion and get it done with. Don't act like your vagina gives you some special monopoly on certain issues.

Second of all, does this person really think that being a woman means that you must agree with everything that she says? Wasn't the point of feminism originally to allow women to have choices and opportunity? Now, it's just "do what I say, think how I think, or you're not really one of us."

Fortunately, I think that most women who would dare to go against the NOW ideology are tough enough that this sort of insult is just silly and pitiful. Things like this really say a lot more about the speaker than they do about Sarah Palin. But it's still sad.

You know, back when I was a kid, I used to always think that I was going to grow up to be a feminist and join NOW. I just thought that that was the coolest thing ever- fight sexism! Yeah! Girls rule! Then I grew the hell up. Then I realized that feminists are generally nothing more than sad, pathetic people who are threatened by independent thought. The National Organization for Women has nothing whatsoever to do with women, it is only about liberalism.

Agonizing Decision?

2008-09-04T14:40:00.004-04:00

Phyllis Chestler is extraordinarily melodramatic about her voting decision. A vote for a McCain and women lose their freedom, or a vote for Obama and the terrorists win:

Thus, here are some wrenching bottom lines: Do we vote to keep abortion legal and to stop the anti-Choice conservatives from taking over the Supreme Court–or do we vote to make sure that the American military is allowed to stop the Islamic fundamentalist terrorists in their tracks? Can we really achieve both goals by voting for one candidate? If not, then what is the more pressing priority? For ourselves, for our country, for the world at this moment in history?

If American women retain the right to choose whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term–in my view, a prerequisite to female human freedom, what does this mean if the jihadists bomb the country back to the seventh century? If the jihadists triumph, American women will be forced to convert to Islam, to wear veils or burqas (body bags), and risk being stoned to death, hung, or honor murdered if they want to choose their own husbands, attend college, dress like modern American girls do, or convert to another non-Islamic religion.

Look, I care a lot about this presidential election, but I realize that it's less important than I'm making it- Roe v. Wade is unlikely to be overturned even with a McCain presidency, and even if it is, most states still have abortion rights of their own- it is not an all or nothing by any means. Moreover, even if abortion were to be outlawed across the land, this is not, as Ms. Chestler puts it, damaging to a "prerequisite to female human freedom." This is, in fact, the worst, most insulting type of defense of abortion- it requires 2 conclusions, both of which are demeaning to women and life itself- first, that women have no choice at all in the matters leading up to getting pregnant, and second, that carrying a child is a violation of your human freedom (a horrible thing), rather than a small miracle of human life (although it does bring to mind Obama's "punished with a baby" comment).

On the same side, if Obama wins, the Islamic terrorists don't automatically win, too. Yes, I think that there would be more danger, but the American people are tough, and I find it hard to beleive that, if by some horrible serious of events, terrorists were able to assert some form of control, we would not put up with it. We have refused to put up with far less. Furthermore, as we sometimes forget, Obama is an American, too, and he will do what he can to stand up to this. Yes, I think that he'd make some mistakes, and I think that those mistakes would increase the risk of an attack or similar, but I still think that he will avoid doing anything that would put us in the sort of position that Ms. Chestler describes.

When push comes to shove, not much is going to change, regardless of who gets elected, and change will come gradually, and we will have plenty of checks in place to prevent either man from making such a dramatic impact.

Yet another reason to vote McCain

2008-09-04T12:01:00.001-04:00

From the republican party's platform:

The new document says the U.S. “will pay a fair, but not disproportionate,
share of dues” to the U.N., and “will never support a U.N.-imposed tax.”

So, where's that in the democratic platform?

Liberals live in the stone age on gender roles

2008-09-04T10:57:00.000-04:00

I am really, really feeling disheartened on the ridiculous attacks against Sarah Palin. I don’t think that John McCain or anyone else could have anticipated the amount of attention these non-scandals would get, especially in the face of the real scandels involved in Barack Obama’s history. But even more disappointing are the number of critics of her for daring to be ambitious in the face of motherhood. Even from supposedly liberal female members of my own law school, I am hearing that she simply does not have the time to leave her responsibilities as a mother. Her husband’s role is completely overlooked.

One of the main objectives of my lawyer-like pursuits is that it would allow my husband and I to have a comfortable lifestyle on one income, so that he can stay home and raise children while I earn our living. We have decided that this would be the best way to raise a family based on our relative talents, personalities, and education. With a legal education, and hard work and ambition, I have always believed, I can rise to a high career level while our children still get full time parenting. There is no reason at all to believe that Mr. Palin is not just as capable a parent as Ms. Palin, yet she is the one that is faulted for being ambitious.

I hate the statements that say “you wouldn’t say that if it were a man,” but here, I think that it is true. I’ve never heard this sort of comments about a man. To hear such narrow minded, stone-aged views from supposed progressives is very disheartening.

See this:

And these are the snippets of the burgeoning Palin legend that dominated the
conversations we had over the weekend, at baby showers and backyard barbecues,
as they may have yours. Privately, the women we encountered sat in judgment of
Palin. Some were outraged that the mother of a special-needs baby accepted the
vice presidential nomination. Others were affronted at that outrage. Like it or
not, in whispers and sometimes shouts, this is what women do when they talk to
each other: We worry over our own choices and their effect on our families;
compare ourselves to other women; and then approve, or shrug, or condemn.

Men don’t worry about these things?

It's not about choice

2008-09-03T18:17:00.002-04:00

Pro-"choice" is never really about choice It’s about do as I say. Guess what, the baby is there, it’s not about Bristol’s happiness anymore, it’s about taking care of the kid. Personally, I would prefer that the first choice in these cases would be adoption to a nice family, but I understand that this is a rare choice, so it’s hard to fault anyone for not taking it. If not, young Bristol and her fellow have a responsibility to grow up a little early and do what they can for him or her. That’s just the way it is.

Decisions

2008-08-27T09:28:00.001-04:00

Just about every McCain supporting commentator that I’ve seen has had a response to Obama’s VP pick of something along the line of “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” But I’ve got to say, I’m really pretty disappointed. Sure, from a strategic perspective, it’s a great pick (for those who don’t support BO), but we aren’t opposing teams here, we’re all for America. Barack Obama has a very good chance of becoming the next US. President, and, regardless of whether or not I want him there, if that happens, I wholeheartedly plan to support him (not necessarily support his policies or decisions, but I will respect him and the office that he holds). I want him to make good decisions. This was quite possibly the most important decision that he will make throughout this election, and it was not good. If he is to become the president of the United States, I would like to see more evidence that he can make good decisions.

Obama and Free Speach

2008-08-27T09:22:00.001-04:00

I don’t know this paper very well, so maybe this is off, but it’s certainly worth considering. Apparently an independent group developed a television ad about Obama’s relationship with weather underground bomber Bill Ayres, who has a history of bombing government buildings and a few years ago stated that he was not the least bit sorry and feels that they did not do enough.

According to the DC Examiner:

Obama’s campaign has encouraged supporters to flood television stations with
protests whenever they see the ad. Nothing wrong with that, but the other thrust
of the Obama response was to ask the Justice Department to intervene to stop
further airing of the ad. That’s where Obama crossed the line and raised a
question of fundamental importance — does he or does he not believe the First
Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech?

Now, if the information was libelous, I could see trying to get the law involved, but there is no real indication of this, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

The Obama campaign describes the ad as “false, despicable and outrageous,”
according to The Associated Press. If the ad is false, the Obama campaign
should have no trouble refuting it, which would likely be sufficient to
persuade stations to decline the ad. Yet we’ve seen no such
refutation.

If it is false, he should state what is false about it. But he has not, leading me to believe that there is nothing demonstrably false stated in this ad.

I want Barack Obama to be a good candidate, I really do. This is not a sport where one side benefits if the other screws up, this is a real decision about who will make vital decisions that will affect the entire world. Things like this scare me.

Obama's VP

2008-08-21T08:32:00.002-04:00

So, Obama will announce his VP pick tonight, most likely. The conventional wisdom seems to be that he will pick Joe Biden. I do not think that this is a very good idea. It seems to me that this would 1) be an admission of his own lack of experience, particularly in foreign policy, by making it appear that even he knew that he had to balance the ticket; 2) be asking for trouble from all of Biden's past and future gaffes (he's sure to make a few more given this kind of national attention); 3) really hurt Obama's chances with the disaffected youth vot by completely undermining Obama's selling points of change and post-partisanship.

We'll see what happens

The Georgian President Speaks

2008-08-11T21:27:00.001-04:00

here:

"If Georgia falls, this will also mean the fall of the West in the entire
former Soviet Union and beyond," he wrote. "Leaders in neighboring states --
whether in Ukraine, in other Caucasian states or in Central Asia -- will have to
consider whether the price of freedom and independence is indeed too high."

I’m very concerned.

Additionally: I think its too soon to accuse the world of anticipatory capitulation- yet, but don’t think that I don’t expect it.

Waterboarding on Display

2008-08-11T21:24:00.002-04:00

Seems to me that this sort of thing is likely to be counterproductive (to the artist’s goals) -

Seems like seeing it would take some of the mystery away to make it seem "not that bad" (like desensitization), and the fact that the artists themselves are willing to do it just reinforces that it's not quite worth getting too worked up about.

Death threats and other thoughts

2008-08-11T21:22:00.000-04:00

Interesting story here about CNN and CBS running a story about a nutjob who wanted to kill Obama, but editing out the part where he also wanted to kill Bush.

I was at dinner the other day with a friend who’s a bit of an uber-liberal- in a discussion about the Supreme Court, he asserted that he would like to shoot a certain outspoken conservative Supreme Court justice in the head, and at another time, he asserted that he would like to run over a prominent radio talk show host with a truck. Now, I know that he was mostly joking, and I’m sure that if he actually had an opportunity to do something like that, he wouldn’t take it, but I have to say, I don’t know any conservative-types who would make similar statements about democrats. None. For example, when Senator Kennedy got sick, every person who I heard discuss it said something nice about him and indicated that they hoped he would be OK- I remember hearing the same when former President Clinton had heart surgery.

Why is this sort of language acceptable to the left, who generally claim to be more peaceable, than the right? Is this just anger over being out of power? Extended Bush Derangement Syndrome? Or do I only listen to smart, emotionally controlled conservatives? I don’t know.

That also got me thinking- if I had the opportunity to stop someone who was attempting to assassinate, say, Barak Obama, I would certainly take it. I probably wouldn’t take that opportunity if they were attempting to shoot, say, Kim Jong-Il, one of the Castros, or Hugo Chavez, but are there any politicians (or other public figures) here in the states who I would be OK with letting an assassination happen? I can’t think of any (barring, of course, some nut who was an immediate threat to others, like a bomber).

Obama gets rick-rolled!

2008-08-11T19:30:00.001-04:00

Enjoy some good, clear, non-mean spirited candidate fun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65I0HNvTDH4

The Humor Campaign

2008-08-10T11:44:00.001-04:00

A discussion of McCain’s “Humor Campaign”

Will it work? It’s hard to say. I’m thinking that it’s pretty much unprecedented in presidential elections, but it’s certainly grabbed a lot of attention during what is traditionally a very slow period in the presidential race, and people do appreciate a sense of humor (I think that John Kerry’s tendency to take himself far too seriously certainly worked against him last time, and we all remember the wooden Al Gore.) Of course, Bob Dole is a very funny guy (I doubt that he does the late night shows anymore, but when he did, they were a riot), but I don’t think that he ever attempted to capitalize on that during his campaign.

Plus, there’s this:

The laugh-laced attacks have offered Democrats an unappealing set of options:
Respond to the substance of the criticism and look humorless -- or play along,
and risk permanent laughingstock.

I think that Dems have risked appearing humorless a lot lately, pretty much since they got the reputation of having to make everything PC, so this might really play to that.

Charlie Foxtrot: Finally a War to Protest

2008-08-10T09:44:00.000-04:00

Charlie Foxtrot: Finally a War to Protest

Look, I'll give the peace at any pricers some time to get their outrage going about Russia's invasion of Georgia, but I'm not holding my breath to wait for them.

News Flash: UN Security Council Ineffective!!

2008-08-09T13:19:00.003-04:00

What, aren't you surprised?

From http://thoseshirts.com/imaoun.html

World veto

2008-08-09T12:37:00.000-04:00

Read this article about whether Obama (or other Democrat) supreme court appointees might lead to an American criminal justice system becoming subject to world veto.

Arbitrary Windfall Profits

2008-08-09T12:31:00.001-04:00

Wall Street Journal looks at what is, and what isn’t, a windfall profit that democrats would like to tax. Of course, if you don’t want to think any deeper than “Oil companies are evil” and “corporate America is greedy,” this probably isn’t for you.

“The point is that what constitutes an abnormal profit is
entirely arbitrary. It is in the eye of the political beholder, who is usually
looking to soak some unpopular business. In other words, a windfall is nothing
more than a profit earned by a business that some politician dislikes. And a tax
on that profit is merely a form of politically motivated expropriation. . .

It's what politicians do in Venezuela, not in a free
country.”

Of course, if you don’t want to think any deeper than “Oil companies are evil” and “corporate America is greedy,” this probably isn’t for you.

Edwards admits to affair

2008-08-09T11:08:00.001-04:00

I actually have pretty much thought that they should have left this alone- why torture poor Elizabeth when the guy’s really not much of a public official these days. Of course, hypothetical president Obama could have given him some role, and then it might be proper, but I just never saw the idea of him getting a major role all that likely. Either way, I call scum on him.

Question, though: why is it OK for Bill Clinton to speak at the convention, but not John Edwards?

Shocking

2008-08-05T22:07:00.001-04:00

Kids meals are too high in calories. Really? Who doesn’t know this? Jeeze people, learn how to cook- it’s really not that hard. Just find a recipe and follow it. There are dozens out there that are easy, cheap, and healthy, you can find just about anything online. And I can almost promise you that 99% of even the simplest meals are going to taste better than the slop that they serve at fast food resturants.

Seriously, if you don’t know what to make, email me and ask- I will be happy to point you in a direction that is far, far better than fast food.

AIDS in America

2008-08-03T10:44:00.002-04:00

OK, I just can’t bring myself to get worked up about AIDs in the US- whatever demographic group it’s currently affecting the worst. AIDS in Africa- sure, that’a big, big problem- and there are a lot of other problems (crippling poverty, lack of medical resources, cultural issues involving female submission and prostitution, lack of prenatal care to prevent transmission from pregnant women to babies, etc) that make it a whole heck of a lot worse. But here in the US- I’m sorry, no. You simply cannot tell me that most people, even if they’re poor, or female, or black, or gay, don’t know how it’s transmitted and how you can avoid it. You can get free condoms on pretty much every block, especially in the poorer neighborhoods. (My college roommates used to take the extras from the health dept and turn them into water balloons.) And thanks to Medicaid, those with it can get the very best treatment available, even if they don’t have the income or insurance. I’m sorry, there are a lot more problems in the world that are far, far more worth my worry.

Who's happier?

2008-08-02T15:49:00.002-04:00

I was watching CNN the other morning, and they ran this story, describing that a new study that found that men were happier than women later in life, although women were happier earlier in life. The host wanted to know, why are middle aged women less happy? She read a few emails responding to this question on air, which all disparaged men and blamed them for any problems that these poor, unhappy middle aged women might have. The host cheered them on, laughing and screaming “I love it!” about the anti-male comments.

If you ask me, we should be a lot more concerned about unhappy young men- they are in their prime educational years, productive years, and child creating years. How they choose to live their lives with regards to education, career, marriage, and childrearing have huge implications for the rest of their lives and for society in general. Not to mention the fact that young men are by far the most likely to commit crimes, exspecially violent crimes (thus creating a danger for society in general). Compared to that, I’m really not all that concerned about a bunch of middle aged women who aren’t fulfilled.

The audacity of the fact that too many people have already used the phrase "the audacity of Obama" for me to use it here

2008-08-02T11:53:00.004-04:00

One of my goals for the summer was to read Barack Obama’s books, just to try to get to know what he is all about a little better. (I was also planning to read at least something by McCain, but I’m quickly running out of summer- but I feel like McCain doesn’t have much mystery to him, anyway) I finished The Audacity of Hope a little while ago, but it didn’t make a big impression on me. He was already involved in politics at the time, and I thought that it pretty much read like, well, like he was running for public office. An extended version of here’s my stand on this and that, if you will.

Hope was a little flat, but it was well enough written, so I had really been looking forward to Dreams from My Father. I hoped that that would give me some real insight- Obama, raw and exposed! I have to say, I’m pretty disappointed. First off, it’s not very well written. It rambles and doesn’t follow a linear pattern that makes much sense or comes to much of a logical conclusion. Second, it is incredibly self-focused. He was around my age at the time that he wrote it, and pretty much fresh out of law school, but he seems to think that by that point, he had already lived a great and important life, with so many significant experiences. Ok, sure, his life was probably more interesting than most- racial mix, lived abroad, kind of a screwed up family situation, that sort of thing. But it’s hardly the stuff of excitement. I’ve certainly known plenty of people in my own life just as interesting as the Obama from Dreams.

Third, and perhaps most grating to me is how much of the book just doesn’t ring true. Now, I’m sure that most of us have already heard of the flat out untruths in the book, such as the silly story that he told about the Life magazine article that suddenly made him aware of race, but turned out to just plan never have existed. The thing is, this book is full of things that, while not factually impossible, just aren’t beleivable, because things just don’t happen like that. For example, this story reminds me of a young adult fiction story that Teaches A Valuable Lesson about accepting people who are different:

There was one other child in my class, though , who reminded me of a different
sort of pain. Her name was Coretta, and before my arrival she had been the
only black person in our grade. She was plump and dark and didn’t seem to
have many friends. From the first day, we avoided each other but watched
from a distance, as if direct contact would only remind us more keenly of our
isolation.
Finally, during recess one hot, cloudless day, we found ourselves
occupying the same corner of the playground. I don’t remember what we said
to each other, but I remember that suddenly she was chasing me around the jungle
gyms and swings. She was laughing brightly, and I teased her and dodged
this way and that, until she finally caught me and we fell to the ground
breathless. When I looked up, I saw a group of children,
faceless before the glare of the sun, pointing down at us.
“Corretta
has a boyfriend! Corretta has a boyfriend!”
The chants grew louder as a few
more kids circled us.
“She’s not my g-girlfriend,” I stammered.
I looked to Corretta for some assistance, but she just stood there looking down
at the ground.
“Corretta’s got a boyfriend! Why don’t you kiss
her, mister boyfriend?”
“I’m not her boyfriend!” I shouted. I
ran up to Corretta and gave her a slight shove; she staggered back and looked up
at me, but still said nothing. “Leave me alone!” I shouted again.
And suddenly Corretta was running, faster and faster, until she disappeared from
sight. Appreciateive laughs rose around me. Then the bell rang, and
the teachers appeared to round us back into class.
For the rest of the
afternoon, I was haunted by the look on Corretta’s face just before she had
started to run: her disappointment, and the accusation. I wanted to
explain to her somehow that it had been nothing personal; I’d just never had a
girlfriend before and saw no particular need to have one now. But I didn’t
even know if that was true. I knew only that it was too late for
explanations, that somehow I’d been tested and found wanting; and whenever I
snuck a glance at Corretta’s desk, I would see her with her head bent over her
work, appearing as if nothing had happened, pulled into herself and asking no
favors.

Or another story, where, as he tells it, when he heard his coach use the word “nigger*,” then brush it off by explaining that “there are black people, and there are niggers. Those guys were niggers.” Obama claims next that his response was “There are white folks, and then there are ignorant motherfuckers like you.”

Now, really? I mean, I’m sure that that was the response that he wanted to give, later, when he thought of it. I’m sure that's the response that you would have him give if you were writing a movie and he was the hero. But at the actual time, unprepared and under stress? No, nobody, not even the great Obama, comes up with a comeback response like that. It just doesn’t happen.

* No, I'm not going to call it "the N word" like we're in second grade. It's just a word, get over it.

No fast food for you!

2008-07-31T18:46:00.003-04:00

LA is banning fast food resturants in poor neighborhoods.

If you have very limited skills, and no experience, one place that is always, always hiring is McDonalds. But I guess that's not an option now if you live in a poor neighborhood in LA. Better that people be out of work than make their own food choices, I guess.

the liberatarian's dilemma

2008-07-30T21:08:00.004-04:00

I have problems with this:

After her oncologist prescribed a cancer drug that would cost $4,000 a
month, the newspaper reported, "Wagner was notified that the Oregon Health
Plan
wouldn't cover the treatment, but that it would cover palliative,
or
comfort,
care, including, if she chose, doctor-assisted suicide."

Now, in theory, I support Oregon's assisted suicide law, like to good little liberatarian I am. "What right does the government have to decide whether a rational adult wants to take his or her life?" I ask.

But here's the thing- there is always someone who has an interest in gradma kicking the bucket- whether it's the beneficiaries of her estate, or the government who's footing the medical bills, or the family who just doesn't want to be bothered with it all.

I usually try to solve these problems by trying to weigh the negative impact on freedom against the negative impact to society by allowing the activity. I'm coming up with a blank here- I just don't know. Any thoughts?