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Contact address cm44134 at gmail dot com blogs I read on a far too regular basis
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Wednesday, October 30, 2002
Yahoo! News - Ventura Upset Over Wellstone Service I don't normally like to engage in cheap psychobabble, but it certainly seems like something is wrong with a woman who cries at a memorial service, not because someone died, but because someone suggests a political point of view. Her husband used to prance around in a feather boa. I think she can stand to hear for a few minutes that Liberals are not evil. Salon.com News | Idiocy of the week I hope this is the regular title of Andrew Sullivan's column on Salon. Rapper Jam Master Jay, part of Run DMC, killed in shooting Condolences to the family of Jam Master Jay. Run DMC may not have had the staying power of a huge rock act, but they did a lot to introduce suburban kids to the world of rap and hip hop music. For that they will always be remembered. Thanks to Atrios for the link. I never expect to agree with Instapundit, but this is a outrage. Slamming Paul Wellstone's family and friends for the way they choose to memorialize him is outrageous. The memorial service was a celebration of the life of Paul Wellstone, and few have lived more fully or joyously. Right-wingers are up in arms because it seemed more like a political rally than a funeral. What better tribute could there be to Paul Wellstone than to spend a liitle less time eulogizing and a little more time organizing? To Instapundit I can only say what my mother says. This is a blot in your copy book. Tuesday, October 29, 2002
South Carolina Politics Rule! From Tapped: I really like a politician who can fight back, but I wish Sanders could do it without sinking to Graham's level. Ok, I have decided to restart my blogging activities. I crashed my whole archive so I retrieved what I could and attached it below so that you could see what some of my earlier thoughts were. I will try to be more attentive in the future. U.S. Court Votes to Bar Pledge of Allegiance (washingtonpost.com) I just can't get worked up over this. If the phrase "under God" hadn't been added in 1954, it might be different. This has always been one of the things about our society that I didn't necessarily approve of, but couldn't bring myself to care about. Maybe now we can start wondering why our money says "In God We Trust" on it. After that we can tackle the question that has bothered me since early childhood. In a free society where all men are created equal, why are we legally required to stand in court to honor judges? As an extension, we can wonder why the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, a man who is supposed to be the chief arbiter of what is fair and just, gets so worked up over females who wear pants. Nothing like a little capricious and arbitrary sexism to open your eyes. I feel bad for all the people who have lost their jobs or their savings in the recent market debacles, but at least we can hope that this convinces the average voter that government assured Social Security benefits are just fine, thank you. People will probably be a lot less eager to invest that money themselves. At least until the accounting industry stops running the SEC. Saturday, June 15, 2002
href="http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/06/15/barr.defamation.ap/index.html">CNN.com - GOP congressman sues Clinton, Carville, Flynt Two stories in a row out of Atlanta, this can't be good. Anyway, when this story first broke I didn't catch that Larry Flynt was included. That just makes it so much more ridiculous. Having seen Bob Barr on television many times, I am perfectly willing to testify in court that Larry Flynt would have absolutely no need for confidential FBI files to embarass him. All that is required is to shine a light on his hypocritical, small-minded ideas. One last thought, won't this lawsuit take important time away from Barr's quest to have everything in the country named after Ronald Reagan, no matter the cost? Friday, June 14, 2002
I was watching the href="http://www.atlantabraves.com/">Atlanta Braves game tonight and href="http://alt.superstation.com/Sports/Story/0,9001,25|89|92|2162,00.html">Pete van Wieren of TBS had the gall to say that the reason players are not arrested for illegal steroid use is that the players are legally prescribed the steroids to help them heal from injuries. Now, I know there are quite a few celebrity-enabling doctors out there, but I am reasonably sure most, if not all, would balk at prescribing the amount of steroids Ken Caminiti admitted to taking. I guess I am a purist, but it pains me to see the integrity of the game diminished by the talk of steroids and amphetamines in baseball. Wednesday, June 12, 2002
Homeland Security I am reserving final judgment on the idea of a homeland security department in the federal government, but my initial impression is not good. A massive reorganization of government would be difficult with a huge budget, but doing it on a shoestring, as has been suggested by the Bush administration, is going to be impossible. Saying a > $30 billion dollar budget is a shoestring may seem ridiculous, but the proposed budget is not all it is cracked up to be. Most of that money is already allocated to the shifting organizations and what little extra there is was “stolen” from other areas. For example, $1.2 billion is taken from the $1.5 billion Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory budget, with only 324 people being moved . Now, I have worked at LLNL and I can tell you that of the >8000 people working there, a significant fraction have no place in homeland security. In addition, a large fraction of the employees currently work at supporting our nuclear arsenal. It will be difficult to do this with very little budget. Obviously, Congress will have to appropriate new money and then the Bush administration will be able to blame them for increasing the deficit. I guess we already knew this was all about politics anyway. href="http://www.prospect.org/webfeatures/2002/06/tapped-s-06-10.html">Tapped does a pretty good job debunking the White House Trashing story. To make a long story short, there was damage, but not more than expected. I think the real controversy here is the GAO report that probably cost 10 times the amount of the damage to prepare. Also interesting that Bush White House staffers have keyboards that cost $75. Even fancy keyboards can be had for $40. Maybe they could hire Al Gore to teach them to eliminate waste. Rampant Illegal Drug Use I don't really understand how the story of the widespread use of illegal drugs in baseball has not created a huge furor. Forgetting for second steroids, what about amphetamines? Aren't they beyond the pale, as it were? It is one thing to rationalize steroid use as "just a way to put on muscle". It is another thing entirely to suggest that third baseman John Doe is walking out on the field all cranked up on speed. The players union suggests that drug testing would be a violation of the players' privacy. That's a weak argument against testing for steroids, but when the average locker room apparently contains more speed than a convention of long-haul truckers, it seems ridiculous to suggest that it is a privacy issue. This just may be the lever that allows the owners to demand drug testing as part of the new collective-bargaining agreement. I hope that some industrious prosecutor looks into this a little further. |