The Party of Know!

One of the current frustrations is the tendency of some Democrats and others of a leftwards inclination to characterize the GOP and others opposed to the health care bills specifically and unbridled government generally as being the "party of no".  The former is attempting to convert reasonable rebuttals of "your proposed legislation is unsuitable" into "there is no piece of legislation that you can propose that we would find suitable".  The former is a reasonable position as acknowledge by Mr. Obama.  The latter is a misrepresentation.....which Mr. Obama has unfortunately used more than once.

As small "L" libertarian, I am frequently accused of being opposed to any government spending.  Megan McArdle....soon to be added to my blog roll....offers an excellent rebuttal to such flawed thinking.

I mean, it makes a certain amount of sense, insofar as I am one of the internet's leading advocates for getting rid of the police and fire departments, cutting spending on education, and eliminating street lights . . .

Oh, wait a minute, that was one of those anarcho-capitalists I once met at a cocktail party. 

She concludes with:

If you can't understand why a libertarian is against your program, start with the possibility that they might not think it is a true public good.  That way you don't need to jump straight to the ludicrous conclusion that opposing your new boondoggle means they logically must also want to rip down the guard rails on the highway.

Agreed.

And before someone asks, I have no idea what a "depratment" might be, but I am certain that it is uncomfortable and may not be suitable for women, children, and small flighted animals.  Thanks for pointing it out.

He's Learning

Either one of Mr. Obama's handlers is slipping, or perhaps he's beginning to listen to people outside of the Presidential bubble.

The last thing I will say, though -- let me say this about health care and the health care debate, because I think it also bears on a whole lot of other issues. If you look at the package that we've presented -- and there's some stray cats and dogs that got in there that we were eliminating, we were in the process of eliminating. For example, we said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your -- if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you're not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge. [emphasis added]

 It seems that even Mr. Obama understands that the Tea Party folks have actually read the bill and have a legitimate basis for their protest.  Now let's see if that understanding spawns any different behavior.

Welcome

The day has come.  It arrived before I wanted it to, but not as soon as I had originally thought.

The day has come when I must abandon my old blog and create something new.  There are two primary reasons for this change.  The first is that Haloscan will be shutting down soon.  Haloscan was the service I used to gather and present comments on my old blog.  I expect all those tens of comments to die an arduous death when Haloscan finally shuts down their servers.

The second reason for closing my old blog is that the software I used to create it is no longer supported.  Fahim Farook has moved on to other platforms and doesn't have the time to continue developing his very fine Blog program.  I am deeply grateful to Fahim for creating Blog and offering it to the world at no cost.  I fully enjoyed the control that I was able to exert over how my thoughts were presented based on my below average knowledge of HTML and style sheets.

But the day has come, and the old blog is done.  A new blog begins.

I have tried to retain many of the elements of my old blog; the blog roll, the daily comics reading list, the list of quilts, a brief tribute to Capt. Ketchie.

I am somewhat excited to finally be able to use some of the more popular Blogger tools.  However, in setting up this blog, I have been somewhat saddened to find that you still have to be smarter than the software you are using.  In some cases I am.  In others.....

Please feel free to look around.  I hope to have enough content that you will come back willingly and often.