2012 Elections - Presidential Edition

My absentee ballot is already in.

I voted for Mitt Romney.  I voted that way for a few good reasons.

I really would have preferred to vote for Gary Johnson.  But due to vagaries in Michigan's election laws, Mr. Johnson's appearance on the Michigan GOP primary ballot made him ineligible to run in the general election as anything other than a write-in candidate.  So the value of voting for Mr. Johnson went way down.

The three issues that matter most to me are fiscal responsibility, the U.S. Supreme Court, and national defense; specifically winning the War on Terror against Al Qa'ida, Ansar al Islam, and their fellow travelers.  While Mr. Romney is not perfect on either of these issues, he is better than the alternatives.

Gary Johnson wants to bring the troops home before the war is won.  That's called surrendering.  It is the wrong course of action.

While I was surprisingly pleased with Mr. Obama's continuing prosecution of the War on Terror during his first couple of years in office, he has continued to demonstrate that he really does not believe that we are in a war.  Either that or, he doesn't believe that winning this war matters.

Mr. Obama's response to the recent, planned terrorist attack against our facilities in Benghazi, Libya seem to represent his distilled perspective.  When he could have responded, he didn't.  Instead, is swallowed the terrorists' propaganda and regurgitated it for American consumption.

That is not the sort of leadership that I can support.

On the economic front, it is crystal clear to me that Mr. Obama does not know how anything about real world economics.  He knows how he wishes economics works, but he knows nothing about how economics actually work.  His continuing threats to increase income taxes have needlessly slowed our recovery.  While some of his stimulus spending was worthwhile, a lot of it was not.  Finally, the significant tax increases that are coming next year due to the ACA will put a further damper on the economy.

I would add that Mr. Obama has been a pretty good "friend" of Wall Street.  He elevated "corporatism" or "corporate-capitalism" far beyond anything Mr. Bush did.

That doesn't make Mr. Bush "good"... just not as bad in that category.  "Too big to fail" is a problem.  We need to stop using privatizing profits while we leave losses to the public budget.

Mr. Obama had an opportunity to do something about the structural problems with our federal budget.  Specifically, Medicare and Social Security (along with other social spending) are crippling the federal government.  They need to be reformed.  Fixing our spending problem would have gone a long way towards creating a strong recovery.

Instead, he created even larger structural problems for the federal budget.

The final issue is the Supreme Court.  As above, I don't think Mr. Romney is going to nominate great Supreme Court justices.  I think Mr. Obama has and will continue to nominate lousy ones.

I believe that the U.S. Constitution is our "social contract".  It empowers the federal government to undertake certain actions.  It leaves any other powers with the states or with the people.  It also guarantees individual liberty.  The entire purpose behind the words in the Constitution was to place limits on the size and scope of the federal government.

As I was reading on a legal blog last week, conservative justices and judges have continually given a comfort and counsel to libertarian leaning law students.  They accept those students as clerks, thereby giving them invaluable experiences.  And while they have not ruled in favor of the Constitution over "precedent", they are not hostile to the concept.

Left wing justices and judges have been continually hostile to libertarian leading law students.  They never accept them as clerks.  They rarely listen to their thoughts.  Left wing justices and judges have a history of ignoring the plain language of our Constitution and instead seeking extra-Constitutional "guidance" when writing their rulings.

So while conservative judges are unlikely to support the plain language of the Ninth Amendment regarding gay marriage, they are equally unlikely to support the next power grab that comes out of Congress and/or the administration when it comes to further nationalizing parts of our economy.

So I voted for Mitt.  Not because he is a great candidate.  Just because he will do less harm than the other options.  Had Gary Johnson been on the Michigan ballot, I might very well have voted for him as he would have been correct on two out of the three issues that I care most about.

Not exactly one of the great electoral moments in my life.

2012 Election - Michigan Ballot Edition

I'm done voting this year.  I think absentee voting will be a big part of my future as the hassle is a whole lot less.

For those not interested in Michigan politics, have a nice day and move on to something pleasant.  'Cause this is gonna get thick.

We have six proposals on the ballot this year.  Most of them seek to amend the Michigan Constitution.  The proposals, and my thoughts follow.

A Scary Future

I'm not certain which is worse.  The fact that robots are quickly developing problem solving skills, or that this laboratory work is ahead to the technology used in this novel that I have rolling around in my head.  When you can't out dream scientists, you have a problem.

Apologia

Surprisingly, I did not bother to watch any of the Presidential debates.  Quite frankly, I won't be voting for Mr. Obama and my political junkie genes must be fading.  Add to that the fact that none of my issues will be seriously debated and the candidates that I want to hear, Gary Johnson chief among them, were excluded from the event.

One example of a personal issue that will be safely ignored is the global implications of America's "War on Drugs".  While the US deals with an array of mafiosi, gang bangers, and other reprobates, nations throughout Central and South America deal with the private armies of drug dealers that undermine the ability of those nations to foster civilization and progress.  Decades of failed drug policies have funded drug dealer backed dictatorships in response to America's demand for drugs and motivated other dictatorships that rise in response to America's demand for drug policy compliance.  This problem is compounded when you remember that the Taliban uses money raised from the sale of heroin products to fund their efforts to oppress or re-oppress vast swaths of the Middle East.

Money fuels these tragedies.  Drugs have such a high "street value" precisely because their are illegal.  Legalizing, regulating (and taxing) currently illegal substances would be the best way to foster civilization and progress among our friends and allies within the western hemisphere and to de-fund our Jihadist enemies.

But of course, Central and South America barely got the briefest of mentions.  The foreign policy implications of our failed War on Drugs were simply never on the table for discussion.

The flotsam and jetsam that follows from these debates can be entertaining.  The most recent bit to float my way has to do with whether or not Mr. Obama ever apologized on behalf of the US during his post election tour of the world.

The fact is that he never used the words "apology" or "apologized".

The other fact is that those are about the only words of atonement and humility he didn't use.  Those that followed the tour at the time widely noted his various pronouncements that were aimed at effectively saying "we in the US should learn our place".  Jennifer Rubin has linky article on the subject.  Follow her links for more.

This is an issue where I significantly differ from Mr. Obama.

The blood and treasure of the United States liberated over 15 million Afghanis from the oppressive imposition of Sharia law by the Taliban.  We gave them a chance to step out of the stone age and take a few steps forward.  Should we apologize?

The blood and treasure of the United States liberated roughly 30 million Iraqis from the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.  We not only gave them a chance at have an Iraqi version of democracy, they accepted the opportunity and still hold competitive elections to this day.  How long they are able to hold their democracy may be a function of meddling by the mullahs in Iran, but Iraq has an opportunity at democracy and freedom while it lasts.  Should we apologize?

We were able to effectively bully Syria out of Lebanon a few years back.  Primarily because they saw that we were unafraid to spend our blood and treasure in defense of human rights and individual liberty.  The best way to keep U.S. Marines out of your cities is to not meddle in your neighbor's affairs.  Should we apologize to the Lebanese?

We spent some treasure and little blood helping the Libyans turn out Muammar Gaddafi's oppressive regime.  While I do have questions about our use (or non-use) of force in that conflict, I generally support our efforts....led by Mr. Obama....to foster individual liberty and democracy in that country.  It is my understanding that while the Libyans would have appreciated more support from us, they are grateful for the assistance that we did provide.  The recent terrorist attack on our Libyan consulate was not representative of Libyan sentiments.  Should we apologize to them for our recent assistance?

The punditry will bat this issue back and forth quibbling over whether the use of some variation of "apology" is required to make Mr. Obama's apology tour an "Apology Tour".  For my money, he sought to denigrate our past efforts and leadership on the world stage under the theory that reducing our leadership role would somehow transmute our enemies into friends.

As our ambassador to Libya briefly learned a couple months ago, that theory is misguided.  To put it politely.

Your Neighborhood Quilter

Alright, y'all.  I need a little help figuring out how to assemble a quilt.  The options are below.  Let me know what you think in the comments.

This is the basic block.  It is roughly 21" x 21".

Option 1 - Everything pointed the same way.

Option 2 - Inboard pointed in, Outboard pointed out.

Option 3 - 4 Pack in/out

Option 4 - 4 Pack windmill

Option 5 - Small windmills

I will have the full story after the quilt is assembled and it the recipient has it.

Around World - A Round World

A small curiosity that I found on Columbus Day.  Most people of Columbus' day did not believe the world was flat.

Historians say there is no doubt that the educated in Columbus’s day knew quite well that the Earth was not flat but round. In fact, this was known many centuries earlier.

As early as the sixth century B.C., Pythagoras — and later Aristotle and Euclid — wrote about the Earth as a sphere. Ptolemy wrote “Geography” at the height of the Roman Empire, 1,300 years before Columbus sailed, and considered the idea of a round planet as fact.

“Geography” became a standard reference, and Columbus himself owned a copy. For him, the big question was not the shape of the Earth but the size of the ocean he wanted to cross.

Which is quite different from the rhetorical cudgel that gets used these days when one dissents from a majority point of view.

Skateboarder vs. Deer?

About 30 years ago, I would have been very interested in this sport.  Although I would have worn elbow and knee pads.

I also would have glued deer horns on my helmet to reduce the chances of this happening. And yes, I read the article.  I don't care what it says.  Every time I've had deer horns installed, the deer have frozen in place until I passed.

Other things happen when the horns are not installed.

Oh....The Humanity

I had a chat with a friend of mine the other day.  Folks that know me, either know him or have heard of him.  Such is the high esteem in which I hold him.

He is a veteran of Desert Storm.  His uniform contains some serious fruit salad. 

A decade or so after that conflict, he entered the healthcare field as a paramedic.  There are lots of stories to tell there.

But the comment that made us pause was the moment self realization that he had begun to care about people...again.

The irony here is that while he wore our nation's uniform, he was charged with being a living implement of mayhem, destruction, and death among our enemies.  Yet during that time, he possessed a significant sense of caring and compassion for other humans.

Years later, that sense of compassion was severely undermined by his near decade long experience as a paramedic.  When most people would have assumed that he would have cared the most for others, he found that sense of compassion slipping away.

Spend a little time reading The Most Interesting Ambulance Crew In The World on Facebook.  Paramedics and EMTs spend waayyy too much time servicing people that could either drive to a hospital, wait to see their doctor in the morning (and yes they have doctor's), or just need a little better sense of perspective.

My friend tells stories....lots of stories...that are just as bad and many that are worse.  The one that comes first to mind is the run to a home where a teenage girl was undergoing a severe emotional crisis...because of a bad haircut.  And her parents called EMS.

Double, Double, Boil, And Bubble

For those that have been following the news, we had the dot-com bubble, then the housing bubble, and now we have the education bubble.  The education bubble is the government subsidized debt that students (and their parents) acquire in pursuit of a college/university degree.  The primary problem is that we have too many former students carrying more debt than their incomes can support.

While there are a lot of issues in the education bubble to unpack and explore, one big issue is the type of degrees that colleges and universities are selling.  Altruistic issues aside, colleges and universities are businesses that get paid up front based on the theoretic economic benefits that their products can create throughout a person's life.

Unfortunately, some people graduate from college and still cannot get a job that is worth having.  One list of collegiate majors suggests ten careers where borrowing money to fund the necessary educations is foolish.

• Anthropology
• Fine Arts
• Film and Photography
• Philosophy and Religious Studies
• Graphic Design
• Studio Arts
• Liberal Arts
• Drama and Theater Arts
• Sociology
• English

I'm not sure of the best way to resolve the impending economic crash due to education related debt.  I do think that colleges are behaving in precisely the same manner as more traditional businesses; particularly businesses that specialize in investing such as Goldman Sachs or Countrywide.  They are most certainly not advising students about the logical conclusions of accumulating large amounts of debt while not simultaneously acquiring a degree that will enable the repayment of that debt.

Were we talking about any other industry, the howls of outrage would be deafening.

Now I can hear other howls right now.  I am not being "anti-education".  People should still go to college.

But they should be aware of their choices.  If you have a college fund and can afford to spend $200,000+ on an Ivy League BA in sociology, then have a great time!  But if you are borrowing money to get the same degree, then perhaps you ought to consider a local community college for the first two years before transferring to a more affordable four year school.

The flip side of that coin is that colleges and universities should be providing the sort of detailed counseling that will give accurate information to prospective students.  As of a few years ago, the standard collegiate sales technique was to say that possessing a level of education (associates, bachelors, masters, doctorate) was worth "X" amount of additional income over a person's lifetime...on average.  What they did not do was to break down the different fields of study so that the prospective student knew that the average BA in fine arts was using the phrase "would you like fries with that, sir" in their current employment while the average BS in engineering was earning three to four times (or more) what burger flippers earn.

I have felt less slimy after talking to certain used car salesmen.

This is not a problem that is solely limited to the "squishy" fields of study.  The Blogfather continues chronicle our nation's over-production of lawyers.  Law schools continue to heavily solicit students for their programs while knowing full well that a significant portion of those students will not be able to find jobs in their career field.

Again, the less slimy feeling and used car salesmen come into play.

Fixing the problem seems pretty straightforward.  Colleges and universities should be required to publish detailed and accurate average earnings information for their graduates broken down by field of study.  An accurate description of the jobs held by those graduates should be included.

And loans given to students should be conditional upon the college or university rebating a portion of the tuition received if a graduating student does not find work that pays enough for them to repay those loans.  Institutions of higher learning need to have "some skin in the game".

Is This Tough Enough

How would you like to run 10 miles?  And work your way through 75 obstacles?  In a gas mask just to up the challenge?

Todd Love did that.

But hold on.  There's more.

He had a hard time running.  He left his legs in Afghanistan.  And climbing is a bit of a pain as his left hand is still there as well.

At Dallas Park, Love even joked about his injury. He said: 'I was up front with the minesweepers searching for explosives and I found them. I guess that’s the easiest way to put it.

Sort of puts life in a little better perspective.

Book Recomendation - Pyongyang

One of the positive aspects of shopping a local store is the ability to see all the things you do not plan on buying.  And then sometimes you do anyways.

We have a great comic book shop in town; Nostalgia, Ink.  They sell comic books, graphic novels, and all sorts of gaming essentials.

On one visit, I happened across "Pyongyang - A Journey in North Korea" by Guy Delisle.  This book tells the story of Mr. Delisle's time in North Korea working as an animator.  I think it is more correct to suggest that he was an animation supervisor as he made sure that the grunts that were doing all the real animation work produced art that was marketable in the west.

Just about every page contains a political or cultural anachronism.  One random example would be when his North Korean minder told him he would have to turn down his jazz as it could have a bad influence on "the others".  Mr. Delisle was working alone in a room with the door shut.

Another passage talks about the curious lack of any handicapped people walking on the city streets.  His minder and his driver cheerfully accept this as appropriate without questioning why how that condition could come to exist.

Mr. Delisle spent a fair portion of his non-working time trying to purposefully be non-subversive.

He also passed a copy of George Orwell's infamous "1984" to his minder.  Apparently, he didn't like science fiction.

As regular readers know, I have a mild interest in politics.  I've read a fair number criticisms of American Presidents that suggest that each in turn is some sort of "Dear Leader"; someone to be followed unquestioningly.  I believe I will find those assertions to be politically tone deaf...if not totally stone deaf...in the future. 

Read the book to find out why.

Shameless

As part of the fallout from the 9/11/2012 terrorist attacks, we had yet another example of the utter fecklessness of Mr. Obama's administration with respect to its sworn duty to protect and defend individual liberty.  In specific, the freedom of speech; including the right to make confrontational, offensive, and what some might consider blasphemous statements about any religion.

The Blogfather has the core of the issue precisely right.

“Just after midnight Saturday morning, authorities descended on the Cerritos home of the man believed to be the filmmaker behind the anti-Muslim movie that has sparked protests and rioting in the Muslim world.”

When taking office, the President does not swear to create jobs. He does not swear to “grow the economy.” He does not swear to institute “fairness.” The only oath the President takes is this one:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

By sending — literally — brownshirted enforcers to engage in — literally — a midnight knock at the door of a man for the non-crime of embarrassing the President of the United States and his administration, President Obama violated that oath. You can try to pretty this up (It’s just about possible probation violations! Sure.), or make excuses or draw distinctions, but that’s what’s happened. It is a betrayal of his duties as President, and a disgrace.

Where are the voices concerned with civil liberties?  Where are the people that reject any limits on speech that criticizes religious abuses?  Where are the people that bristle at any suggestion that they moderate their tone in the service of civility?

A few years back such folks could readily be found having a case of the vapors over the suggestion of by a Whitehouse₍₁₎ press secretary that people ought to carefully consider the words they use.

But now that real live police have yanked a real live film maker out of his home, these folks are strangely quiet.

The phrase "Have you no sense of decency" has been sadly used, abused, folded, spindled, and mutilated to the point where it has lost any power it might once have possessed to call attention to uniquely offensive actions by government officials.  We are a shameless nation.  And we are poorer for it.

₍₁₎ I had yet to use the word "Whitehouse" on this computer.  The spell-checker suggested other options.  The last one was "whorehouse".  Amusing.

And just in case, it would have been amusing if this had happened 5 years ago, or 5 months₍₂₎ from now when someone not named Barack Obama was in the Oval Office.

₍₂₎ A guy can hope, can't he?

An Endless World?

XKCD had a great comic a couple days ago.  I'm not sure that it will link up well here, so just go there and check it out.

In Flight

I traveled to Greenville, SC last week on business.  Air travel being what it is these days, I did not take one of my more capable cameras along.  However I did have one on my cell phone.

The airport in Greenville is home to a couple interesting scultures.

"Boy Aviator" by Dennis Smith, Photo by Dann Todd

  "Snow Geese" by Jim Dolan, photo by Dann Todd

  "Snow Geese" by Jim Dolan, photo by Dann Todd

The camera on my cell phone obviously did a poor job with the back lighting, but you can still get an impression of the total installation.

Leaving...On A Jet Plane

Marines...that is.

Johnny Depp Is Coming Home

Apparently, he is ill inclined to pay his fair share of taxes...in France.  Now that France is governed by Socialists that really mean it, tax rates on their 1% are climbing.

The natural result?  The predictable result?  The rich are looking for other places to live.

One illustrative example would be Johnny Depp.  He is apparently headed back to the U.S. in order to avoid paying higher taxes in France.

The more pedestrian sorts of top earners (captains of industry and finance) are also looking for the exits for similar reasons.

Attempting to punish success causes successful people to leave?  Who knew!

What Qualifications?

What are the qualifications for serving in the United States Congress?  50% of the vote plus 1.

Shouldn't they be a little higher?  Case in point, US Representative Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) who believes that Dutch slaverholders existed in Brooklyn in 1898

That would be Brooklyn, NY, U.S.A.

Add to that, Steven Colbert posed the theoretic question about using a time machine to go back in time to 1898 and what would Ms. Clarke have to say to the people of Brooklyn. Apparently, Ms. Clarke is not a big fan of science fiction as she was unclear on the concept of taking modern knowledge into the past and applying it for some benefit.

Once the whole concept of time travel was mostly cleared up, and the Dutch slave holding menace of 1898 had been hashed through, she was given another shot at suggesting a message that she would carry to the people of Brooklyn in 1898.

Her best shot?  Brooklyn is a great place.

The Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918?  She didn't see any reason to warn people about it.

The crash on Wall Street of 1929?  She thinks history should take its course unimpeded.

The sinking of the Titanic?  Let it happen.

Adolf Hitler?  Nope....well on second thought, there might be a reason to let folks know what is in their future.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

It seems like every party has more than their fair share of under-qualified candidates.  And they get elected!

Book Recommendation - Mother Of Lies

A while back, I recommended "Children of Chaos" by Dave Duncan.  "Mother of Lies" is the conclusion to the story. 

Mr. Duncan concludes his tale is a most satisfying fashion.  I won't give too much away.

One of the things that he does so well is to convey the duality, the paradoxes, and the many ironies that populate the human condition.  For example, consider the pantheon he creates.

Ucrists...worshipers of the god Ucr...obtain great skill at accumulating wealth.  The price they pay is that they can never know real happiness.  How many times do we see people confusing the acquisition of lucre for the pursuit of happiness?

Worshipers of Eriander know love and lust in all it's forms.  Yet the price they pay is to never be loved by another.

Nastrarians possess great affinity for animals.  Yet the apparent price they pay is their ability to relate to other humans.

Worshipers of Anziel can produce great works of inspiring art.  The price they pay is that they lack the ability to manage the money earned through commissions and are forever poor.

The one disappointing element of this pair of books is that the story is told via exceptional characters.  The four main protagonists are a sort of royalty.  So too are many of the other characters both good and evil.  While there are most certainly characters of common origin found within the story,  It hinges most often upon...the 1%...to use an well worn phrase.

In any case, if you took my advice and read the first book, then by all means read the second.  The endings are well worth the effort.

This was my first time reading a book via my beloved bride's Kindle.  I found the experience to be most enjoyable.  The Kindle is not only less cumbersome than a dead tree book, the case we bought allows me to set it on our bed so that I can read without actually holding it.  Most convenient!

My wife had already downloaded several games that were quite fun to play.  Shopping with it was seamless.

I look forward to my next experience with the Kindle!

  

Being A Dad

I can manage all four of these thoughts in one head.  I can usually avoid saying them all at the same time.

Fortunately...or unfortunately, I don't know which...I've yet to have this issue with any of our kids.  However, we have sent two nephews overseas in the military due in some small part to my prior service.  And my little brother is on his fourth combat tour.  This time in the 'Stan.  Yes, the reserves still deploy.

He and I have talked at length about enlisting/re-enlisting and the reasons why people remain in the service.  I am simultaneously humbled, honored, and made jealous by his continued service to our country.

I have some combination of the above running through my head every time we talk.

Federal Employment

A great deal of hay was made recently regarding government employment and Mr. Obama's affect thereof.

The only category of government employment that Mr. Obama controls is those employees of the federal government.  So how has he affected total federal employment?

 

As anyone can see, it has gone up over the last few years.  The increase has been from 4,206,000 employees in 2008 to 4,443,000 in 2010.  I didn't find numbers for 2012.

Pie by thumb, I'd call that about a 5% increase.

Honored Allies

We pause to honor our Australian allies.  They lost five soldiers in Afghanistan last week.

Australia has fought alongside the U.S. in every modern war in which we have been involved.  They have been staunch allies in the fight for freedom.

Australian plans to begin withdrawing troops once the Afghan battalion is fully trained, as early as next year. Gillard said the latest bloodshed would not speed up that timeline.

"Our strategy is well defined, our strategy is constant. And we cannot allow even the most grievous of losses to change our strategy," Gillard said. "We are there for a purpose and we will see that purpose through."  

And they fight until the end.

Scalzi Blogs About...

Careful, folks.  A fair ramble lies ahead.

Author John Scalzi has been touted by the Blogfather as being a latter day Robert Heinlein.  I am partial to Mr. Heinlein's work, so I began following Mr. Scalzi's blog some time ago.

I still have yet to read any of his sci-fi.  "The Old Man's War" is sitting on the kitchen table.  Soon....

Back to his blog, he recently announced that his publisher had put a whole bunch of e-books on sale.  He even included a nifty link.

Lo and behold, what do I find?  Books by Peter V. Brett.  Also books by Robert Silverberg!  I've been reading Mr. Silverberg's work for almost 40 years.

The sale is good for the entire month of September.  If you use an e-reader, like the Kindle, then you might find some good reading in your future.

Back to Mr. Scalzi's blog again, but finding it was a bit of queer luck.  Glenn Reynolds leans pretty heavily toward the libertarian end of things.  At least, within the American political scale, he is a much of a libertarian as Barack Obama is a socialist.  Which is to say that he's not in the perceived center of American politics, but he ain't exactly way out on the fringe either.

Mr. Scalzi's politics tend to lean towards the left; not unreasonably so.  And yet Mr. Reynolds repeatedly plugs just about anything that Mr. Scalzi puts on paper.

I believe the line is firmly drawn at any works on paper that Mr. Scalzi might create in his bathroom.

Mr. Scalzi's blog is well worth your time.  I get it via my email.  He is pretty reader friendly when it comes to naming his entries.  His book recommendations are clearly marked.  I don't have time to read three books a week...although I do try....so I can skip those without reading.

Or at least, I should ignore his recommendations.  But I can't when it involves Neal Peart of Rush!

I am doomed....


Mr. Scalzi has discussed any number of interesting issues over the last couple of months.  One series in particular was about perceptions of presence and when a person steps over the line from friendly into seriously creepy behavior. 

He also touched on Todd Akin in some interesting and and also some predicatable ways.

Mr. Scalzi swings a mighty Mallet of Loving Correction.  So the comments on his blog are more polite than others.  [grumble...I could do the same thing but I don't get enough comments to swing a dead cat, much less a MoLC, at....grumble]

Having rambled on for a bit, you might wonder where all this is going.  Well, you are already there.  Lots of good reading.  Civil exchanges of ideas.  Go forth and be satiated!

Sexual Harassment In The Bush Administration

Why didn't we hear more?  Oopsie!  Wrong label!

As the Blogfather has sagely observed, this sort of thing gets less media play when the Democrats are in the White House.

Amazing Grace Indeed

Spreading peace where e'er they go.

This version works too.

Wishing you all the best on Patriot's Day, 2012.  Never forget the price that was paid for our freedom.

Ride It Like Luke!

A nifty looking contraption, no?  More on the story here.

I Needed That

There is a list of "tear jerker" stories involving pets/animals dying.

But I guess I really needed this one...and this one.  Man, I miss my puppies.

None For You, You're....

Giving Birth!

At least, that is the desired outcome of a policy established by the UK's NHS.

Family doctors are being told to try to talk women out of having Caesareans and very strong painkillers during birth to save the NHS money.

...

Caesareans cost the NHS around £1,200 a time while epidurals - anaesthetic injections into the spine - are around £200.

The Blogfather had the best retort:

I don’t remember this from the dancing NHS tribute at the Olympics. 

Disappearing Voters

Slate recently published a story about disappearing voters in Milwaukee, WI.

Sixty percent of Milwaukee’s black voters have disappeared.

Democrats have feared for years that one of the particular challenges of running campaigns in 2012 would be simply locating their voters.  The party’s constituencies (young people, immigrants, minorities) tend to be among the most mobile demographic groups.  And as NPR speculated this week in an analysis of battleground-state foreclosure figures, the housing crisis will likely only have made things more difficult for Democrats looking for their supporters.

The focus on the story is on how our tough economic times have caused people to move frequently.  And while I will readily admit that people losing their homes or people moving frequently due to rent issues has to be a big problem, I also want to suggest that there may be another factor in play.

Fraudulent voting causing names and addresses to appear in voter rolls that cannot be confirmed in person.

The police review of irregular voting in the 2004 election clearly indicates that there were hundreds of votes cast that could not be reliably tied back to a legal Wisconsin resident.  One district attorney pegs the number of questionable votes as closer to 4,600.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found myriad voting problems occurred in Milwaukee and other parts of the state in the 2004 election, the one later investigated by the Milwaukee police and state and federal prosecutors.

Three of the newspaper’s findings provide some perspective:

1. In Milwaukee, there was a discrepancy between the ballot count and the number of people listed as having voted of about 7,000.

(Investigators were later able to whittle the discrepancy to 4,600 votes, or 1.67 percent of the 277,000 votes cast in the city.)

2. Some 1,300 on-site voter registrations in Milwaukee could not be processed for a variety of reasons, including missing addresses and missing names. More than 140 of those who voted listed addresses outside the city.

3. At least 278 cases statewide where felons may have improperly voted, though the number was likely considerably higher, since only a partial review of those who voted was possible.

The Journal Sentinel reports prompted a joint federal-state investigation in 2005. Those investigators found more than 200 cases of felons voting illegally in Milwaukee and at least 100 cases of double voting in the 2004 election, numbers that echoed the newspaper’s findings.

About a dozen cases of voter fraud were pursued, with mixed results, but then-U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic concluded there had been no findings of widespread fraud.

Then-Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann said in June 2005 he was troubled by the 4,600-vote discrepancy that remained, suggesting that questions will linger about whether systematic fraud occurred in the city.

"I have a reservation about those 4,600 votes," he said.

This apparently is a continuing problem in Wisconsin.

Just another reason for us to undertake comprehensive elections reform to ensure that every legitimate voters gets a chance to vote, and that there their vote is counted while at the same time preventing illegitimate votes from being cast.

[just....erg -Ed.]

An Elevator Into The Sky

One of the bigger initiatives currently in vogue among technology geeks is the idea of a space elevator.  The short version is that a cable would be suspended form a satellite in geosynchronous orbit.  The cable would be attached to the earth near the equator.  The satellite would be a sort of counter weight that would maintain tension on the cable.

And then a "climber" would climb the cable into space.

One of the primary obstacles to space exploration and exploitation is the expense of getting things into space.  Current costs to get one pound of anything into space exceed US$11,000.  The hope is that a space elevator will cut those costs to closer to US$100 per pound.

One of the early companies to research the technology required to construct such a system has announced that they want to build a space elevator....for the moon!  We need to get back to the moon at some point and having an easy way to get people and equipment onto the moon as well as back off of it would certainly be a good step in the right direction.

And if we can build such a system for the moon and eventually for Earth, what is to stop us from doing the same thing on Mars?

For us science fiction geeks, life is good.

Independent Expenditures

Everyone's favorite punching bag, Karl Rove, recently spoke about a number of topics while at a breakfast during the GOP convention.  The one thing that I think was interesting was his take on independent campaign expenditures.

Rove, who is heading the powerhouse outside spending group Crossroads GPS, defended the use of outside money in elections.

“The Democrats have been doing it for years and I got sick and tired of fighting with one hand behind my back,” he said. “I don’t remember this angst when Americans Coming Together, funded George Soros and five of his pals, were beating up Bush.

I don’t remember anybody writing a frantic editorial in the pages of the New York Times when the NAACP voter fund announced it received a $14 million contribution form an anonymous donor in order to run an ad attacking President Bush as a racial bigot.”

That's really the problem these days, isn't it?  The GOP is fine with anything the GOP does but screams bloody murder if the Dems try anything similar.  The reverse is equally true.

Mr. Rove had some other thoughts that are worth your time as well.

Why We Fight

And why we should not leave the war until it is won.

Insurgents beheaded 17 civilians in a Taliban-controlled area of southern Afghanistan, apparently because they attended a dance party that flouted the extreme brand of Islam embraced by the militants, officials said Monday.

...

The victims were part of a large group that had gathered late Sunday in Helmand province's Musa Qala district for a celebration involving music and dancing, said district government chief Neyamatullah Khan. He said the Taliban slaughtered them to show their disapproval of the event.

The last time we prematurely abandoned as war, over two million innocent civilians were slaughtered in southeast Asia by communists.  How many innocent Afghans, Persians, and Arabs will die if we abandon the Middle East to intolerant Islamic extremists that seek to rule that part of the world?

Aren't those innocent civilians worth saving?  Or are we a "I've got mine, Jack" nation when it comes to individual freedom?

Book Recommandation - Children of Chaos

As with most stories that I tell, first I have to tell you this story so you will understand the one I really want to tell.

Dave Duncan is an outstanding SFF writer.  He creates fantastic worlds complete with unique religions, magics, mythologies, and moral codes.  While I'm certain that he puts a lot of work into the back story of each world, his books make it seem an effortless act of creation on his part.

I first ran into Mr. Duncan's work while reading his "Tales of the King's Blades" series.  His "Chronicles of the King‘s Blades" were also wonderful reads.  These series are placed in a world where the monarchs of one kingdom are protected by Blades.  These Blades are recruited as youngsters and educated at a sort of monastery where they learn not only how to read and write, but also how to swing a sword to deadly ends.  "Graduation" consists of being magically bound to protect the person that plunges a sword in the graduate's chest.

Typically, this is the king.  Although he is known to provide such protection to other important people in his kingdom.

From that moment on, the Blade is compelled to protect that person.  Failing in that task results in a rage driving the Blade into suicide or madness.  Sometimes both.

Within that framework, Mr. Duncan creates at least four different sub-cultures.  One based on Czarist Russia.  One based on Aztec sun worship.  One that is Polynesian.  And of course one that has a western (i.e. middle ages Europe) feel to it.

Really good stuff.

So it was with that background that I picked up his "Children of Chaos" at the local library.

The world in this book is perceived by its inhabitants as having twelve distinct sides; a dodecahedron.  The name of the world naturally is "Dodec".  They believe that in wandering their world, they travel "over the edge" to an adjacent "face".  Mr. Duncan makes the apt point in his preface that it has not been a terribly long time since most of humanity considered our world to be flat.

The pantheon of dodec includes eleven gods and goddesses.  Which would seem a little odd in that the world has twelve sides.

There is a twelfth goddess named Xaran that represents death.  It seems that humanity is inclined to deny death where ever it is found.

In this world it is possible for a person to dedicate themselves to a single god or goddess.  Doing so requires some sort of sacrifice.  For example, disciples of Eriander, the androgynous god/goddess of sex and madness, obtain a powerful, enhanced sex appeal.  However the price for this gift is that they can never be truly loved.  They are masters of engaging in sex.  But no one will ever see them as anything more than an object of sexual desire.

The story centers around a group dedicated to the war god Weru.  They are called Werists.  It isn't a coincident that those names are close to the prefix "were" that we use in terms like "werewolf".  Werists gain the ability to change into a "battleform" that is obviously modeled after some sort of human-beast hybrid.

Werists had traveled to conquer an adjoining face.  At one city, they offer peace to the city's doge; a sort of elected king-for-life.  In exchange, they take his young children as hostages.

"Children of Chaos" is about those children after they have become adults, their attempts to escape the Werists, and the people that either help or hinder them along the way.

As with Dave Duncan's other works, this book is a ton of fun.  He has prepared a fully formed world and brought characters to life on the page.  What a wonderful read.

Bias Acknowledged

The ombudsman for the NYTimes recently penned a column about what he has discovered over his two years in that position.  The whole column is worth a read.  However, he makes a couple of points that support the larger contention about the perspective of the NYTimes.

The first is that the Times....their occasionally valiant ombudsman aside...rarely sees where they may have erred in their reporting.

The Times is hardly transparent. A reader still has to work very hard to find any Times policies online (though some are tucked away there), and there is still no place where Times editors speak on the issues. As for humility, well, The Times is Lake Wobegon on steroids (everybody’s way above average). I don’t remember many autopsies in which, as we assembled over the body, anyone conceded that maybe this could have been done differently.

Emphasis in the original.

The second of Mr. Wilson's more interesting observations relates to (gasp) bias.

I also noted two years ago that I had taken up the public editor duties believing “there is no conspiracy” and that The Times’s output was too vast and complex to be dictated by any Wizard of Oz-like individual or cabal. I still believe that, but also see that the hive on Eighth Avenue is powerfully shaped by a culture of like minds — a phenomenon, I believe, that is more easily recognized from without than from within. 

When The Times covers a national presidential campaign, I have found that the lead editors and reporters are disciplined about enforcing fairness and balance, and usually succeed in doing so. Across the paper’s many departments, though, so many share a kind of political and cultural progressivism — for lack of a better term — that this worldview virtually bleeds through the fabric of The Times. 

As a result, developments like the Occupy movement and gay marriage seem almost to erupt in The Times, overloved and undermanaged, more like causes than news subjects.

This isn't exactly earth shattering news to those of us that don't work for or uncritically believe everything in the New York Times.

The story also notes the credibility of the times among Republicans has dropped relative to Fox News.  It is also noted that the credibility of Fox News among Democrats relative to the NYTimes is almost precisely inverse of that measured among Republicans.

This isn't progress.

Part of being able to have a common debate of the issues is being able to have a common basis for that debate.  When the media effectively chooses sides in their news reporting, they undermine our ability to conduct a civil discourse on current events.

An examples would be claiming that the "science is settled" with respect to global warming.  Ummm...it ain't.

Another example might be consistently reporting about potential effects of raising taxes on the budget deficit without concomitantly reporting about potential effects of cutting spending.  Or at least discussing those cuts in a manner that doesn't suggest that proponents of cuts are some sort of ghoul looking to feast on the dead.

I have maintained for many years that the rise of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News was the direct result of the media failing to publish "all the news that's fit to print".  Perhaps the Times will discover this before they turn into the next Village Voice.

Yea Verily Yea

They guys that performed this routine, they were from an American Legion Post in my hometown.

Folks that are old enough may remember them from one of their eight appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show.  You can read more about them here.

Disclose What?

Former journalist and current commentator Campbell Brown recently offered some thoughts regarding the need to fully disclose any potential conflicts of interest for things that she writes these days.  Her bit of honesty was revealing, refreshing, and pretty damn funny.  I think she is inimitable.

So in the interest of full disclosure, let me share a few more potential conflicts (that are mostly with my husband). Hopefully this will satisfy those who believe I am his ideological twin. For the deeply offended, contact info below.

Dan likes the Jets. But we all know that Eli Manning is inimitable. (Jets fans can reach me at @campbell_brown via Twitter. Tom Brady fans, you can look up inimitable on dictionary.com).

Dan works in finance. I think the financial industry is EVIL, with the exception of my husband. (Goldman Sachs—see above Twitter handle.)

I support Simpson-Bowles. Dan is opposed to tax increases during an economic downturn. But we are working on this one in couples counseling. (Grover Norquist, please call Dan directly. He has some influence with me except when he doesn’t.)

Dan wants to try for a girl. I think two boys are enough. (See couples counseling.)

Dan is obviously voting for Romney. I supported Obama in 2008. This year I am voting for…

Some things we should be able to keep to ourselves.

Conscription Vs Volunteers

I also think there are prices too high to pay to save the United States. Conscription is one of them. Conscription is slavery, and I don't think that any people or nation has a right to save itself at the price of slavery for anyone, no matter what name it is called. We have had the draft for twenty years now; I think this is shameful. If a country can't save itself through the volunteer service of its own free people, then I say : Let the damned thing go down the drain!

- Robert Heinlein, Guest of Honor Speech at the 29th World Science Fiction Convention

American conscription died about a year after Mr. Heinlein uttered the above.  I am sure that this is utterly coincidental.

The truth is Mr. Heinlein's speech has been verified ever since.  American men and women, along with men and women from around the world, have volunteered to defend America from the forces of tyranny for nearly 40 years. We will never be without a national defense as long as we remain a nation with ideals worth defending.

So What Changed?

One of the facts about our federal budget is that federal revenues have remained pretty consistent at about 18% of GDP.  I didn't realize exactly how consistent that was!

Pretty much, revenue as a percentage of GDP hasn't changed since 1950.  Yet today we face some pretty serious budgetary challenges.  So what changed?

Spending.

Back in the 1950s, we fought global communism and won.  We sent men to the moon, and brought 'em back, too!  We built a national highway system.  We were able to be a real force for good in the world.

Today, military spending is the lowest it has been ever!

Now a reasonable discussion of spending priorities ought to leave many options open.  But one thing that should be crystal clear is that those options are being limited by our fantastic growth in social spending.

Sikh Temple Shooting...

...and how the media gleefully reported any military connection as if it were the single most important aspect of the story.  I know the is fake, but it perfectly encapsulates today's media.

The news desks of CNN, CBS, Fox News, and numerous other media outlets across the world reacted with glee today at the revelation that a mass-shooting gunman has military experience.

...

Prepping graphics reels with mixes of Army basic training and the Oklahoma City bombing, the media was truly excited to mold a narrative of a troubled veteran with PTSD shooting people because the Army made him a "cold-blooded killer."

"Right now, I’m working on pulling up his military records," said Davis Smith, a reporter with the New York Times. "I already pulled up something that said he fired a pistol and a rifle in Army basic training. Law enforcement says he used a pistol in the shooting, so it’s quite obvious that the military created this monster."

...

"During that period, we were at the height of the Bosnian War," said Martin Evans. "We were bombing villages and had troops overseas. It just must have been too much for him."

The shooter’s records so far do not show deployments to Bosnia, but when asked for clarification, Evans had to cut the TDB interview short so he could seek out a fake veteran to talk about the dangers of PTSD.

...

Graphics are already being distributed across the AP Newswire of his boot camp photo from 20 years ago for use in tonight’s stories - with the caption "Solder’s Extremely Delayed PTSD Results In Domestic Terrorism."

I would added a "humor" tag, but some times even the humour isn't funny.

Book Recommendation - Everything We Miss

Do you ever wonder what is happening when you aren't looking?  Do you suppose that tress might pull their roots out of the ground and begin dancing the moment that you look away?

How many times have you passed by a shrub so intent on your destination that you fail to notice the surprise...or horror...hidden by its leaves?  How many times have you wanted to talk to someone but hung up the phone instead of dialing?  How many times did they do the same?  Was it ever at the same time?

Luke Pearson has created a series of vignettes that suggest that more is going on around us than we routinely care to perceive.  He pushes the idea of "If I only...." so that the reader might consider a larger possibilities than the limited set that most of us perceive.

Mr. Pearson's "Everything We Miss" is certainly worth the time to read, and then the time to consider.

A Hole In One....Er Two!

For those that may have missed it, kudos to Condi Rice and Darla Moore for being named the first female members of the Augusta National Golf Club.  I think congratulations are in order for Augusta as well for admitting two such deserving individuals and for doing it on Augusta's schedule rather the responding to the vocal protests of a few years back.

It is important to do the right thing.  It is also important to do it the right way.  They took their time to find the right people that belonged in that organization.

While some Augusta traditions were...well...vile, others were certainly worth upholding.

What Media Bias?

Courtesy of the Blogfather:

TWEET OF THE DAY: Republican makes a gaffe, @WashingtonPost reports it for a week. Obama makes one, they assume it’s PhotoShop.

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

One of the things I really lament is the decades long decline in civility in our political process.  Almost everyone expresses....and I'm hoping they really don't believe it....a deep loathing and contempt for their opponents that in another venue might be considered dehumanizing.

Sadly, the decline continues as the modicum of respect that politicians had for one another continues to crumble.

Presidential candidates have traditionally kept a low profile during their opponent's nominating celebration, but Democrats are throwing those rules out the window in an attempt to spoil Mitt Romney’s coronation as the GOP nominee.

...

"Traditionally, there was a kind of courtesy extended to the party having the convention — the [other] party would basically stay out of the public eye," said Ross Baker, political scientist at Rutgers University.

But that "gentlemen's agreement," Baker said, has been largely abandoned as "a consequence of the polarization of American politics." He characterized the old tradition as a "quaint code of etiquette" destined to become a "remnant of the 20th century."

The Blogfather has the best response from the story lede.

"Bucking protocol, President Obama and the Democrats are planning a full-scale assault on Republicans next week during their convention."

"Wait, “assault?” That sounds kinda violent."

Ah yes.  The language of hate from a party that rarely flinches at such things...unless they come from Republican.

I know that others may have a different perspective, but I am unsurprised to find the Democrats as the first to break with this tradition.  While the GOP is certainly guilty of playing dirty, the pioneers along the way have almost uniformly been Democrats.

Can't Read Or Won't Read

Those appear to the be the only options left for Paul Krugman. 

Newsweek recently published a piece by Niall Ferguson in which Mr. Ferguson makes the case that Mr. Obama has not earned consideration for re-election this November.  It is an interesting piece.

The NYTimes resident out-of-this-world economist cum opinionator, Paul Krugman took a few moments out of his day to suggest that Mr. Ferguson was factually challenged.  Mr. Krugman asserted that the ACA would provide a net reduction in the deficit.

Mr. Ferguson had the temerity to respond with facts and...gasp...math!  The bottom line for my valued readers is that the CBO report on the impact of the ACA indicates that the net effect of that law will be to increase the deficit by over $1 trillion over the next decade.

The only way that the ACA might have a less deleterious effect on the budget would be if it somehow managed to reduce the rate of inflation for Medicare expenditures from the 4% that is typical of the last 20 years to something much closer to 2%.  How it might do so at a time when the baby boomers are swelling the ranks of our nation's seasoned citizens is a bit of a mystery.

One option might include the use of magic wands.

Others include rationing of care or tax increases that are as fantastic as Mr. Krugman.  His fabulist inability to have an adult conversation using commonly known facts is one prime reason why I avoid Mr. Krugman's work.

Unconsionable! The USS Jane Fonda?

There are times when things go just a little too far!  Such as the naming of US warships.

Both the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars issued a joint statement today condemning the U.S. Navy over the launch of its newest warship, the USS Jane Fonda.

...

The ship’s name, which had been kept under wraps until right before the launch, was revealed yesterday at a star-studded event presided over by Ms. Fonda.

Ms. Fonda made a statement prior to the launch, saying, "I dedicate this ship to the brave men who fought and died in Vietnam, especially those in the 66th Viet Cong Regiment."

A New View

Please take a moment to check out the awesome art here.

Numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, and 9 really caught my eye.  Number 8 made me think of the wanderings of Bilbo Baggins in "The Hobbit".  Number 11 must have been a huge challenge! 

Not A River, Or A Stream, Or A Creek

Just a brook.  Or more accurately Brooke.

I love that photo.

This little love sponge came to us via a mildly circuitous route.

Book Recommendation - The Vampire Earth

Keeping with my preference in reading material, I have recently finished "Winter Duty" which is a book from The Vampire Earth series by E.E. Knight.  "Winter Duty" presents a modest change of pace in The Vampire Earth series.

The series focuses on the life of protagonist David Valentine who lives in a post-apocalyptic world courtesy of the alien Kurians.  The Kurians consume the human aura for sustenance.  But they don't do so personally.  They send their Reapers to do the nasty work of "harvesting" humans.  The Reapers are fed by human blood.  They channel aura to their Kurian puppet masters.

The Kurians brought other species along as well for a variety of reasons.

David Valentine begins the series as a teen when is town is ripped apart by Reapers.  He ends up joining with the resistance army and demonstrates a strong aptitude for tactics....and killing.  Eventually, he is offered a chance to meet a Lifeweaver; cousins of the Kurians that decline to consume aura and are allied with the human resistance.

At that point, things get interesting.  I won't spoil it from there.

Sadly, there is not a great deal of variety to the books in this series.  David will throw himself in too deeply and his friends rescue him.  His friends end up held prisoner and David has to rescue them.  A new alien creature will be introduced and David will have to find a way to either defeat it, or co-opt it to the cause of the human resistance.  Sometimes it is a tale of "touch choices".  Sometimes it is all of the above.

"Winter Duty" has the feel of a pause in the middle of a larger story.  By comparison, consider the part of the story where the Hobbits visit Tom Bombadil and Goldberry.  While not integral to the overall storyline, the passage does help further define the Hobbits, their world, and the task ahead.

Throughout the series, there have been twists and turns.  "Winter Duty" strongly advances the intrigue of Kurian spies that have infiltrated the resistance army.  It is as if David Valentine now knows enough about the skills needed to find and kill the aliens, but still has not figured out how to discover the traitors in his midst.

These are beer and pretzel books; not necessarily the most mentally fulfilling reading, but they are certainly filling and enjoyable.  E.E. Knight spins a good yarn.

Start at the "Way of the Wolf" and move on from there.

Where We Were, Where We Are

The blogfather routinely publishes this chart for obvious reasons.

Click for the original.

I've heard the obvious rejoinder..."well they didn't know how bad Bush had made things"....far too many times.  Bullshit.

If they didn't know how bad it was, then they were obviously not competent to take the job.

I can clearly recall the CBO saying that the recession would only last to the end of 2009 at the worst if we did NOT pass the stimulus bill.  The economy would work things out and we would recover, just as we always have.

Instead, we got an orgy of spending and debt, followed by an expensive national health care bill driving us further into debt, followed by further threats to regulate and tax the very people with the means to create much needed jobs which retarded investment.  There are good reasons to understand why our recovery has been so anemic.  Mr. Obama and the Democrats have done everything in their power to undermine it.

There were some productive elements of the stimulus bill.  The highway construction and repair elements have been very productive.  Obviously the unemployment extensions were worthwhile.  But the rest was just a waste of time and money.

This is why Mr. Obama needs to go.  He has no idea how to create wealth.  He only knows how to consume it.

Who Me?

Just in case there are any doubts about bias within the NBC news media, check out the latest innovation on MSNBC:  Lean Forward.

For those not in the know, "Foward" is this year's campaign slogan for Mr. Obama's campaign.  It is a term that has a lengthy history in socialist groups and governments.

That isn't to say that Mr. Obama is the second coming of Joseph Stalin or Adolf Hitler.  He is however further to the left than is prudent for a free country that wants to remain free.

And which way does NBC apparently "Lean"?

"Forward".

Not Really Progressive

So tragedy occurs.  A loved one dies in an accident caused by an under-insured driver.  One might expect their insurance company to honor the policy they wrote.  The policy the loved one paid good money for.

One does not expect the insurance company to send lawyers to act on behalf of the person that caused the accident.

Progressive released a statement saying that ”Progressive did not serve as the attorney for the defendant” in my sister’s case. I am not a lawyer, but this is what I observed in the courtroom during my sister’s trial:

At the beginning of the trial on Monday, August 6th, an attorney identified himself as Jeffrey R. Moffat and stated that he worked for Progressive Advanced Insurance Company. He then sat next to the defendant. During the trial, both in and out of the courtroom, he conferred with the defendant. He gave an opening statement to the jury, in which he proposed the idea that the defendant should not be found negligent in the case. He cross-examined the plaintiff’s witnesses. On direct examination, he questioned all of the defense’s witnesses. He made objections on behalf of the defendant, and he was a party to the argument of all of the objections heard in the case. After all of the witnesses had been called, he stood before the jury and gave a closing argument, in which he argued that my sister was responsible for the accident that killed her, and that the jury should not decide that the defendant was negligent.

I am comfortable characterizing this as a legal defense.

Sometimes, companies earn a black eye.  It appears that in the case of the Progressive insurance company, this is one of those times.

It Just Gets Worse

Some time ago, I noted that there were a large number of questionable votes cast in the 2008 race for Senator in Minnesota.  Norm Coleman lost the race by 312 votes.  At the time, GOP election monitors had found 341 convicted felons that had voted illegally in that election in violation of that state's laws.

I was wrong.  The actual number of felons that had voted in that election was 1,099.  Of that number, 177 people have been convicted of vote fraud.

Not registration.  Casting a fraudulent ballot.

Now that election really mattered.  Al Franken was the 60th Democratic vote in the U.S. Senate.  No Al Franken, no PPACA/Obamacare.

At least, there would have been some real negotiations over the issue instead of having it rammed down our throats.

We must secure the ballot box against fraudulent/illegal ballots.  It is the most important [issue] facing America today.  Without confidence in the elections process, there can be no "consent of the governed".

Follow That Money

It is interesting to note that our Congresscritters are frequently more wealthy than the rest of us. On average.  And the margin isn't what I would call small.

Despite some small discussion of limiting investments made by Congresscritters to prevent a sort of insider trading, there are not significant rules against such things.  While we know how some of them acquired their wealth, others are a bit confounding.

For example, consider Sen. Harry Reid.  His most recent report indicates that his net worth is north of $10 million.  Yet he has never held a private sector job.  His employment history is entirely with the government either as a hired employee, appointed official, or elected official.  None of those jobs pays enough for someone to accrue that kind of money.

So where did it come from?  Given the interest in trolling through Mitt Romney's tax returns for legal methods used to reduce his tax bill, shouldn't we be more interested in how all of our Congresscritters may be using their positions to inform their investing choices?

Conflicting Volleyball

I have been more than a little conflicted lately about the opportunity to watch women's beach volleyball at the Olympics.

I used to be a middle-of-the-road amateur volleyball player.  The skill and strategy that goes into the sport is fantastic.  So now I really enjoy watching the sport.  The Olympics are a fantastic opportunity to watch some of the world's premier volleyball players on both sand and wood courts.

The problem comes in when you consider the uniform requirements for the young women playing beach volleyball. They don't leave a lot to the imagination.

The women wear a "tankini"-style top, which is part tank top, part bikini top, with briefs, or a one-piece uniform. The two-piece women's top must be designed with deep, cutaway armholes on the stomach, back and upper chest. The briefs should be cut toward the leg on an upward angle. The maximum side width allowed is 7 cm. The one-piece must consist of an open back and upper chest. Players from the same team must wear uniforms that are identical.

...

Upper body wear for both men and women in Olympic beach volleyball must fit closely to the body. The men's shorts should not be a baggy fit and have to be a minimum of 15 cm higher than the kneecap.

I don't mind the view.  It is the lack of choice that bothers me.  It is almost as if they are telling the great athletes that they can only compete if they are willing to show off a little skin.

That perspective seems to be supported when you consider how news reports might look different if the accompanying photos were similar to those shot for women's beach volleyball.

Covers

Rather than just rip off the whole post, I'll point you towards Scott Stantis' entry with covers of the song "Somebody I used to know."  The first and third videos are great.

For different reasons, but still great.

Occupation

Many apologies to my 2.3 regular readers for the lack of activity hereabouts.  We've had a few issues to deal with around the ranch lately.  My queue of links to discuss continues to fill, but it never quite seems to make it here.

Perhaps instead of an apology, I ought to say "you're welcome"?

We hope to have more for you soon.