what if?

Yeah? So?

This a.m., I sent out an email to the evil political email group with Drudge's link to John Kerry's statement to the effect that if student's didn't do well in school, they might have to go to Iraq.

Heh heh heh.

I received a comment back from the president of a liberal fundraising company:  "Yeah?  So?  And your point is....?"

Way too many liberals believe just this.  They believe that the only people who serve in the military are the ones who can't make it anywhere else.  The ones who are either too stupid to get into college - or too dumb to stay there - or, perhaps not quite that dumb, but lacking the funds and hoping to get some scholarships after school. These liberals cannot conceive that people with other choices in life, with intelligence and options, would actually choose to serve our nation in war.

As the Captain says....  do we truly want someone like this heading up our military?  You would think that the veil is lifted with this sound bite.  Yet, I'm sure that our MSM will find some way to spin the truth out of it.

The Best of Intentions

And the worst results.

Those who urged the passage of McCain-Feingold had noble pursuits; get power and Big Money out of politics.  Let the voices of "the people" shine through.

Unfortunately, by preventing political speech in one of the most crucial times for speech to be allowed, McCain-Feingold has actually fostered much of what it was crafted to prevent.  That it stomped on our free speech rights in the process was a sideline bonus.

The Captain has all the gory details....

Lake Geneva

Wisconsin that is, not Switzerland.

I'm here for a bridge tournament.  Had a slow, ugly start, but now have gained steam and doing OK. 

Blogging should resume after daylight savings time kicks in!

Have a great weekend--

A Matter of Perspective

Particularly in a political season such as this one, the propaganda is so thick, you can cut it.  Iraq?  A quagmire killing over 650,000 to the Democrats; a noble experiment meeting current trauma to the Republicans.  The economy?  Humming along at record pace to the Republicans; keeping Americans in a constant struggle to the Democrats.

Where is the truth?

Sometimes the truth is difficult to discover.  Sometimes, the truth is whatever you believe it to be.

Boon or Bane?

Our nation's population has climbed over the three hundred million mark.  Something to celebrate?  Or something over which we ought to gnash our teeth?

The Wall Street Journal highlights that often, such questions are a matter of perspective.

At bottom, the debate over population revolves around a single question: Are human beings a burden, or a resource? The former view is embodied by the Ehrlich and Nixon quotes above. More bodies mean more mouths to feed, house and provide for. At a certain point, in this perspective, you run out of stuff.

The latter view holds that people don't just consume things. They make them too. More bodies means more minds, more innovation, more dynamism and more progress.

Kosher Rap?

Kinda.  Mark French at Uppity Music introduces us to the Abayudaya, a Jewish sect in Uganda.

Do listen to the music; truly distinct.

Tag; You're It!

According to the news, this phrase from my youth may soon become something unknown to future generations.  Apparently the danger in running around a playground and tagging another kid is too high; a school outside of Boston, in addition to some others in the nation, have banned the hideous activity of "tag."

Of course, in part we have our litigious society to blame.  Read just a week or two's worth of tales at Overlawyered, if you wish to send your eyeballs rolling back into your head.

I think in addition, though, we have this fiction of an utterly safe world to blame for the death of tag.  Some believe that if we simply ban all that has some danger inherent in it, we can all be "safe" and free from troubles.

If only it were so.  To a large degree, it is facing danger, problems, competition, failure and more as a child that trains us to deal with what we'll meet as we become adults.  If we gain the skills we need to problem solve and adjust to pain as a child, we'll know how to do it as an adult.  (Well, at least in theory we'll have some experience!)  If we do not, we rate to flounder.

My friend Bill has returned!  And he expounds further on this topic.

Surfing Treasure

Can't remember how I found this, but an excellent (though very dated) interview with Milton Friedman.  Is the great economist a conservative?  A liberal?  You be the judge.

HEFFNER: Then why do we call you a conservative?

FRIEDMAN: Because I'm not. Because I'm a liberal. I want people to take thought about their condition and to recognize that the maintenance of a free society is a very difficult and complicated thing. And it requires a self-denying ordinance of the most extreme kind. It requires a willingness to put up with temporary evils on the basis of the subtle and sophisticated understanding that if you step in to try to do them, you not only may make them -- to do something about them -- you not only may make them worse, but you will spread your tentacles and get bad results elsewhere.

What's Right - and Wrong - with Politics Today

Ed Koch explains.

While I believe that the Democratic party is capable of accommodating the left and right wing, I believe that when either wing takes over the party, our party suffers. It happened in the 1970s when George McGovern and his supporters took over the party and began its destruction. When Bill Clinton and his moderate political philosophy came to the fore, the party made a comeback.

But the Clinton years are long gone and the radical left has again taken control of the Democratic Party, as reflected in the election of Howard Dean to the chairmanship of the party. The most recent exhibition of the power of the radical left wing of the party was its ability to defeat Senator Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut primary. Most distressing was the Democrats’ abandonment of Lieberman after he chose to continue to run as an independent. Stalwart Democrats, people I support, like Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Chris Dodd and others, walked away from Lieberman. They believe that they and Lieberman were bound by the primary results. That is simply not true. There is no law, party rule or ethical principle that prohibits a candidate from attempting to win as an independent. What’s more, Lieberman is not only the incumbent, but he is also a recent Democratic Party candidate for vice president. He stated that should he win, he will be part of the Democratic Party Caucus in the U.S. Senate.

Interestingly, the people of Connecticut in a recent poll voiced support for Lieberman who, as we went to press, was 10 points ahead. Last week, I campaigned with Lieberman at Grand Central Station. Hundreds of Connecticut-bound commuters stood in line to shake his hand before boarding their trains. Only two people yelled at me for supporting the Senator.

Both parties need to realize that Democrats and Republicans should not be two nations at war with one another.  Once an election is over, they should work together.  Kudos to people like Ed Koch for doing their part to highlight this.

Early Halloween Greetings

A friend sent this to me (a Democrat friend, no less!)  Kinda cute; I pass it on to you.

If Gerry Studds Were a Republican

Here are the headlines we'd be seeing.

Hat tip:  Gay Patriot.

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

For the socialists stopping by what if?

Enjoy!

"God Is Dead"

That, and other Nietzsche quotes, paired with "Family Circus" cartoons.

Life is weird.  Deal with it.

All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.

Toss Up

When it comes to morally challenged individuals, I'm a non-denominational believer.  Somehow, I do not think that a propensity toward supporting more or less government is the clincher as to whether you are or are not a cheat.

Jay Tea at Wizbang agrees, yet points out a distinction between Democrats and Republicans.

It appears that scumbags are pretty evenly distributed, but one side seems a bit better at getting rid of them (Foley, Duke Cunningham)-- while the other tends to pooh-pooh their peccadilloes (Mel Reynolds and Sandy Berger, just to name two) and go blithely on with life.

The Democrats tend to talk a lot about "the culture of corruption." Maybe their expertise is based on keeping the corrupt ones around, so they can study them better.

How about instead of continuing to point fingers at the other side being evil, we focus more on getting the bad apples out and attempting to do something positive in government?

Come Again?

Whatever you may think of the mismanagement of the Foley fiasco in Congress by higher ups, I guarantee you it utterly pales in contrast to this.

Many in this gray, insular city are at a loss to explain why Diane Cherchio West was allowed to continue working in the public school system for two decades after she was caught in 1980 kissing and groping a 13-year-old student at an eighth-grade dance.

Why, after her promotion to guidance counselor at Bayonne High School, no one alerted social services, school officials or the police when she became pregnant by an 11th grader she supervised, Steven West, and married him upon his graduation in 1985.

Or why, when that baby, Steven Jr., grew to be a teenager, no one balked as his 15-year-old friend moved in with Ms. West, who then seduced the friend with Scooby-Doo boxer shorts and evening jaunts to sports bars and used her school authority to rearrange his classes around their secret trysts.

It was not until 2001, when relatives of the boy, Christopher Castlegrande, filed a complaint with the police of statutory rape against Ms. West, that she left her $74,000-a-year job and lost her unfettered access to Bayonne High School’s students.

No wonder our children is not learning.....  Unbelievable!

The Impossible Dream

He's black, born dirt poor from Ethiopia, and running for congress in the Fourth District of MN.  Another Muslim?  Another Nation of Islam supporter?

Nope.

Meet Obi Sium, Republican candidate for congress.  Run, Obi, Run!

"Almost everybody was telling me that I have no chance of winning," said Sium. "The conventional wisdom is that I cannot win, to be blunt.

"But I don't feel like a sacrificial lamb. No one forced me to run."

Sium became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1982 after leaving the African nation of Eritrea in 1973. If he wins, Sium said, he would be the first African-born person in Congress.

"I am an immigrant who has overcome a lot in life," said Sium, 65, a retired water resources engineer with the state Department of Natural Resources who lives in Oakdale.

"What seems insurmountable to some people to me is just another challenge. Nothing is impossible, just challenging."

New Poll Numbers Out

Craig Westover gave me my chuckle of the evening.  (Sometimes it is good to apply a bit of humor to an unfortunate topic.)

Anecdotal evidence in recent days has suggested that Americans are increasingly concerned about receiving unwanted electronic communications from a Republican lawmaker, but the new poll, conducted by the University of Minnesota's Opinion Research Institute, offers a measure of just how deep those concerns run.

When asked to name their number one fear, 8% said "losing my job to outsourcing," 10% said "not being able to afford to fill up my car with gas," 14% said "North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il blowing up the world with a nuclear weapon," while a whopping 65% said "being instant-messaged by a horny Republican."

P.S.  For any Lefties who wander by, this is satire.  Just wanted you to know.

Hold Your Nose and Vote

Sorta seems that way these days, eh?

What Jay Tea at Wizbang bemoans could be me wailing, almost word for word.  Thanks for doing the heavy lifting, Jay Tea!

The Myth of Objectivity

This morning, I read King's post at SCCU Scholars about Eric Black and "confirmation bias."  I thank King for the link; after reading through my thoughts of that time, I see I have not changed my viewpoint. 

While reading the interview that King links between Eric and Hugh Hewitt, however, I found something with which I very much disagree.  That is the notion that reporters should stay mum about their political and philosophical beliefs.  The interview:

Money and Morality

More on how free markets ultimately deliver better care for people than mandated morality.

But if we let markets work, there would be fewer people at risk of death.

In every other market, innovation, driven by the profit motive, improves access to life-giving, life-enhancing devices, products and services.

People often say that medicine or some other good is too important to be left to the marketplace.

The opposite is true. Medicine is too important to be left outside the marketplace.