Wednesday, February 27, 2008

The BIG issue in Ohio

jobs going overseas, NAFTA and GATT, plants closing, massive layoffs. Now here Republicans don't have any edge whatsoever although of course as has been amply pointed out in our blogs McCain ain't your typical conservative so maybe he can feel their pain but the issue naturally is a winner for any Democrat. Repubs are perfectly fine with the NWO (New World Order) stuff and they tend to belittle and disparage those who disagree with them...but I like Beth's point in her blog today about how most of us are going for McCain reluctantly whereas Obama excites real passion on his side. I used the analogy that for our side it's like going out with someone who you're not exactly crazy about like bothering some overharried secretary at work 'cause you're lonely as opposed to someone you really dig, who you're on the same page with, the connection (pizzaz, sizzle) in other words your dream date (I'm just chock full of the metaphors lately). Imagine an Obama-ite saying he ain't much but he's the best we have! Now I don't share Obama's political philosophy of course but he does excite me, like Stacy's mom he has it going on, turn gay for a day, have his baby,

dunno.

Hey brother, can you spare a couple of hundred?

Now I didn't know this but they were talking about panhandlers on the radio the other day and apparently alot of them are raking in the big bucks, sometimes $300 in a single day! Now I'm not overly judgemental about the homeless, there but for the grace of God. I know Sean and Rush take the position one should never be without a place to live, that they don't want to work. Wanting to work, that's a poor framing of the issue. Like Beth and I were talking the other day and we both agreed who exactly loves to work anyway? ain't the issue but they may have a point that they've stretched to an overgeneralization. You never really read or hear about some homeless guy having to be talked down from a bridge 'cause he's been out of a job for a couple years, maybe that's Sean's point, as long as they have a soup kitchen to go to and a place to sleep maybe they prefer it to your 9-5, dunno but I don't want to lose my compassionate conservative edge either...

Monday, February 25, 2008

GERALDO should just...

...get back inside Al Capone's vault and lock the door. Says there's no way the GOP will get the Hispanic vote, they're gonna go for the Dems 'cause of the illegal immigration issue. OK, let's explain this one again. Geraldo & co. bring up a chair and get a cup of coffee, class is now in session.

The difference between rights and privileges

(be quiet there in the back) "OK, so you've broken some law, a law, you didn't kill anyone or rob a bank, but you've committed a crime nevertheless, so what are we to do about it? The illegal alien has broken the LAW, violated our immigration policy and there are a myriad political views on the best way to handle this but if we allow you to stay and in effect we have (even conservatives like Sean Hannity) because we haven't deported you yet, then this is what is known as a privilege but you really have no absolute right to be here. Shakespeare said sometimes justice needs to be tempered by mercy but that's for us to decide, you cannot arrogantly demand a right for yourself that doesn't exist...OK, this is just a short class to get us started, to lay the proper legal bedrock for a sensible discussion of this controversial topic. We'll continue this at 9 sharp tomorrow morning so have a good day."

GERALDO (whispering): "This teacher sounds like a gran pendejo."

"WHAT?!?, you know I took a little Latin in the high school. If you can't control yourself..."

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Karma and the Christian faith

Daniel Ruwe's excellent blog about religion got me thinking about faith in general. Pope Benedict said once about mainly the Eastern religions, I believe this was when he was still a cardinal, that the Christian faith is naturally and far superior to these systems based on good and bad karma. You see if I'm a Christian and have wronged somebody else or they have wronged me we can simply ask for each other's forgiveness and move on with our lives, we don't have to get stuck in that karmic rut. Beth and I once had this debate, maybe it started at some forum, I forget, but it was about forgiving and forgetting. My position, simply forgive and forget, her position you can forgive someone without forgetting. I think I understand her point better, it's like if a husband strays and his wife forgives him she will always remember the fact, the original act, if she had moral "amnesia" about it all this would hardly keep him in line. At any rate no karma to deal with, ain't that a bargain?

Some thoughts on the Sean Bell case

I've given the background to this tragic case many times in my blogging and it's easy enough to google. I was never into the whole bachelor party scene but that's just me. Re strip joints there are upscale ones and seedy ones, I'm not advertising for them but you do have men who go to these places not to relax and have a good time, they get some watered-down whiskey under their belts and before you know it there's a stabbing on the sidewalk. Happened once outside a place in Yonkers here and another incident in a "gentlemen's club" in Mt. Vernon once. Now the one Sean Bell and his friends went to on that fateful night was known for rampant drugs, guns and prostitution and the four officers in Queens who are about to go on trial for taking Mr. Bell's life were there because of the type of place it was. Moral of the story and as insensitive as this may sound Sean Bell was not in a good place, wrong place at the wrong time, and I'm sure the young woman whom he was going to marry that day knows this in her heart of hearts. I'm also more than a little tired of all the cop-bashing out there and personally have grown more pro-cop over the years, I most often give them the benefit of the doubt in these complicated cases. We'll see what happens but this case bothered me from Day One.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

The speech Rudy never gave

I still say that there is almost a poetic requirement that the Mayor of 9/11 be the One to continue and eventually win the War on Terror but most people don't seem to agree with this script, Life need not be that artistic I guess but Rudy's big mistake was this. He courted his party's conservative base way too late in the game, if you're going to woo you have to get your application in early otherwise you're transparent, maybe a bit frenzied and not at all sincere. He should have laid the groundwork a year or two ago with a major speech or two soley on the Life Issues as in, "Upon further reflection I've come to the conclusion that the abortion issue lends itself best to some kind of legislative solution which Roe vs. Wade pre-empted. How can the Supreme Court, any Supreme Court, act like a bunch of OB-GYNs and dictate to the nation as a whole that aborting the fetus is legal up to the 3rd month or the 6th or even up until birth? You can even have some choicers who believe early abortions are ok but who are against some of the later mid-term ones still allowed by the Court. The late Harry Blackmun, who wrote the majority opinion in Roe, endlessly complicated the issue and for this reason I've adjusted my earlier pro-choice views. Federalism is the best way of dealing with this contentious and highly emotional issue."

If he had done this early enough some of us might even have gotten a faint whiff of sincerity in the man, we all reserve the right to change or modify or calibrate our views over time and it would have showed that he gave further thought to the issue. It's just a hunch but I think most conservatives would more than gladly put up with a true pro-choice federalist in office.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Look at it this way Beth

Let's say after all the delegates have been counted Hillary is no longer a factor, it all comes down to Obama vs. McCain, the youth vote seems a little more motivated this time around, a little MTV Get Out the Vote action. They can really dig that Obama may be into the Crouching Tiger Emerging from the Sea position whereas McCain is strictly missionary at a quarter past 6 only once a week, MacDaddy might want the War to go on for another 20 years or so and some future Republican administration may want us to learn how to use a rifle or AK-47 and head overseas, this might seriously cut into our MySpace and YouTube time, they have soccer Moms you know, a large slice of the women's vote and they may not want an empty chair at the dinner table every night, Obama is our answer to Clinton Fatigue~~~

~~~the GOP will have learned a valuable and hard lesson (or will it? after all this is the party that once put up Bob Dole as its standard-bearer).

Monday, February 18, 2008

Are you a...

...bang your head against the wall type of conservative? Used to listen to Sean Hannity for awhile but stopped, I understand he's for the War and all but I was worried there for awhile, he's one of those Ann Coulter type conservatives who can't seem to accept the fact that there's so many different kinds of political views out there let's just accept it and live with each other, doesn't mean you have to lose your passion though, just keep it in perspective. Take Coulter's books, of course her first one was funny, forget the title but it probably went along the lines of Liberals are Stupid and We're All Good but she's churned out like 10 books now and the formula never changes. I myself, being older in Life now, gotta watch the high blood pressure, hating is so yesterday which is why I have Laura Ingraham linked up to my blog. Passionate and conservative, highly intelligent and yet she can totally disagree with a big-time lib and yet say "but we still like them." She's the type of rightie you might accidentally catch in the Mall one day having a cup of java with Al Franken in the Food Court. Dunno, I'm just tired of banging my head against the wall my whole life. I don't want Hill as president but I'm with Beth on this one, the Sun will still rise the next day and we'll all go about our everyday lives.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Seems we're living in the Golden Age of Psychos

Well not a few months don't go by before there's another one, this time at some college in Illinois, seems some erstwhile bright and normal student hid behind a curtain onstage during a geology lecture and shot and killed five students and injured several others before taking his own life. Now whenever this happens you will duly note how the meds are to blame or, more specifically the fact that the person stopped taking his meds. Well if a pill is the only thing holding this person's life together then God help us all, he ain't living right. Vast majority of people who are mentally ill are not dangerous or violent although they can be annoying at times point being if you have a strong moral code and compass to begin with you can go bonkers but only up to a point. You may walk into a road and babble to everyone, tell everyone at work that they're conspiring to get rid of you but there are limits to your madness, the Good Lord gave you free will, if you're against killing to begin with maybe they'll just put you away in a nice home overlooking a lake somewhere for a time. Our friend Britney may do all kinds of whacked out things but she hasn't pulled a Columbine or VA Tech yet, my guess is her moral code is still there although frayed around the edges. Now I'm not against medical progress by any stretch but methinks they're pushing pills on society. You don't have to agree with me though, that's a'ight.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Fat Acceptance

I am sympathetic with the whole Fat Acceptance Movement. I don't make fat jokes and if you're in that category you don't need people constantly reminding you of your state, as if you didn't know. BUT it ain't good for your health in the long-term.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

THE major difference between libs and conservatives...


...it seems to me is that true dyed-in-the-wool liberals, not that they are pro-criminal, they're just far more sympathetic and empathetic to the criminal type when they get caught, they better have their 3 square meals a day and it better be healthy and they gotta have time for gym and cable tv. Nowhere is this better illustrated than with the issue of waterboarding. O'Reilly would love to do it himself if possible but libs wouldn't even play dunk the terrorist, say have a terror suspect with vital info sit on the seat above a 1/2 tank full of water and have Alan Colmes and Keith Olbermann and the Ole Grey Lady editorial board take turns throwing apples at the bullseye. Not that they would want or hope for this to happen but a real lib is perfectly content to have an American city go up in smithereens if it means the only way we can prevent it is to waterboard the bastard 24-style and prevent the attack. Libs never liked 24 anyway, they're more the Donahue and Oprah types. Conservatives have a fondness for Dirty Harry and Charles Bronson movies. So where do I fall on this one? well I just love the scene in the original Harry movie where the sniper is holding the school bus hostage and Det. Callahan jumps from an overpass onto the top of the bus and.....

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Subprime musings

Michelle Malkin has finally touched on the subprime mortgage meltdown in two recent columns and I've been asking myself why I didn't bash her in my blog the next day as your typical conservative lacking compassion. Well I considered her points carefully that oftentimes it's the would be homeowner with delusions of grandeur that's the problem here, not that there aren't any predatory lenders out there. I went back over my own situation with credit cards. Overall I have a good credit history but for a few years there I was living well beyond my means, had to have this and that and it caught up with me, maxed out and needed help paying 'em off. That's behind me now but I have made a personal decision in my life, I don't have them and I don't use them anymore, cash and checks for everything. It's all about personal responsibility and wise decision-making. I learned my lesson, will these people out of their "homes" learn theirs?

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

File this under what was I thinking?

You may have heard. A branch of the ACLU has come out for Sen. Larry Craig, not so much in his denial but that toilet sex is protected, as long as the door is closed, gosh, people have "a reasonable expectation of privacy." So you have the runs or the cramps or your kid ain't feelin' too well,

gotta wait buddy

there's constitutionally protected activities going on in them thar stalls, you can put a cork in it and read a newspaper, they'll probably be done in a couple minutes anyway,

must be a penumbra of a penumbra or emantion from Roe, ah the spirit of Blackmun!

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Morose thoughts

Like why can't they scientifically prove once and for all time that there's life after death then we wouldn't have to worry (and for those of you who say you don't give it a second thought it's in the back of your mental attic somewhere next to the ice skates and the Flexible Flyer). Then again in some cases there may be some who would still have to worry, sorry I brought it up. BTW I'm not the least bit afraid of dead people, live people on the other hand.....

Spontaneous Human Combustion

"uh, this is z's mother. He's not coming in today, he spontaneously human combusted last night."

Friday, February 01, 2008

Why I'm not your typical conservative right-wing Republican

First off I'm registered as an Independent not as a Republican. Although my bedrock philosophy is one of conservatism in every old-fashioned sense of the term, no globaloney, I am of the mind that the retirement age should actually be lowered instead of raised, let's say 55. Not gonna happen and all you economic conservatives out there will scold me for wanting to bust the national piggy bank and they're probably right but it's an ideal, it's what I feel in my heart. You've devoted say 20 or 25 years of your life to pure hardcore work, that should be enough and have a nice life. As well I feel if you as a conservative are really serious about doing something about the illegals either deport 'em all or regularize most of them, don't just talk about building a bigger and better fence. I've already made my position known. In theory anyway I am not against the idea of labor unions although I know there are drawbacks which cons like Linda Chavez and George Will are only too happy to point out. I am not just for lowering taxes, that's easy talk, but am for eliminating the income tax entirely and replacing it with a national sales tax. I'm not a dove but I'm not a hawk either. I am a conservative with an independent mind and God bless and have a nice day.