politics distilled january 23, 2008

Just got done watching (over three days) the re-issued Born to Boogie. Remarkable slice of my life up there on the screen. It really was as I saw it in my mind all these years. Am listening to 20th Century Superstar as I write.

My twin is blissfully clueless on things politic, yet discussions come up at work, voting time is within sight, so I am going to distill the political landscape from time to time.

For the uninitiated, I am conservative by nature and independent by registration. I am conservative because I find that competition in an open marketplace is far superior to government-run anything. What’s the best run agency/department/whatever in the federal government? The United States Postal Service. Why? Because they are mandated by their charter to operate at breakeven, and the ultimate judge is the price for the first ounce of a first class letter. Every other federal and state agency/department/whatever is run like an asylum: give them what they need so they shut up and don’t hurt anyone. The problem is that they need more and more all the time.

I think unions suck primarily because they are socialism – just look at their political leanings: bigger government always. More proof? Look at what they did to the public school system. They invented the concept of social promotion – pass the kid to the next grade because he’ll feel badly being left behind. The result is graduating functional illiterates. I heard a teacher complain that No Child Left Behind made her prove competency in every subject. What do you teach? “Special Ed.” You have the kids for every subject? “Yes.” So you want to teach them something for which you cannot establish competency? “But they are spe--.” Smile. Pig.

So onto current politics.

Forget the dems and pubs for a moment. Ralph Nader and Mike Bloomberg are sniffing around the edges as if they may start campaigning. We had Ross Perot a few cycles ago – John Anderson a few cycles before that. Third parties were common until FDR changed the name on the deed for the White House. Let at the historical record: the Socialist party always ran a candidate. After several cycles of FDR, what emerged with the dems and pubs. The Socialists somehow folded into the dems. Seeing other folks raise their hands to join is not new, nor will elect anyone from that ticket – but it could play kingmaker. Ross Perot took enough votes from George the Elder to give Bubba a plurality victory. Mike Bloomberg will do the same thing to Hillary – but I bet he is waiting to enter until it is clear Hillary will be the nominee. I think he detests her, and would love to do to her what Ross did to the Elder.

The dems race is just two people – Hillary and Obama. Hillary’s biggest problem is that her negatives are so high. If we had absolute knowledge, I bet she sets a record every time votes are cast for people that vote against her rather than for her opponent. She is paper thin, she has junk yard dogs surrounding her, and she does everything to fulfill the picture of a candidate rather than the substance. Just look at how quickly the press turned on her following NH. It is clear they detest yet fear her. The best part of watching her campaign is to see Bubba work his old parlor tricks. In the 1990s, they were magic; today they are the fuddy-duddy uncle whom everyone gives the stage to for a few minutes out of past respect.

Hillary's votes are institutional votes: unions, people that believe government should solve all problems, etc. She knows her base – she just said yesterday that government should play a bigger role in the economy. Good lord, lady, can you be more of an open socialist? No one does government-run health-care on this planet that is anywhere comparable to our competitive system. You want to tax away huge profits of oil companies? Then you need to accept that the oil companies were stop making comparable investments. In fact, they will leave American soil in total. They will build gas refineries in South America and Mexico, and ship refined oil up. You think 65% imported oil and about 20% imported gas is a lot? Just go messing with the capitalist society. You cite, monster thighs, that there are 43 million people without insurance in this country. You are either stupid or a liar. You know full well that number is the number of people without private insurance. You know full well that government programs pick up over 80% of those people. You also know that every county in this nation is required to have one hospital that serves every emergency without asking about ability to pay. In fact, they cannot even accept insurance cards until the emergency service has been rendered. Our system works, and mark my words, lady, you will destroy it if you let the government run it.

I have heard first-hand stories about this woman and her treatment of those around her. She is simply not a nice person. She is ruthless, condemning, angry, and walks through life as if she deserves everything. I just cannot consider a person like her to be worthy of a vote. If she were my neighbor, we would not be friends. If she were my coworker, we would not share time outside job requirements.

Obama is an interesting person. Too young to have any clue beyond a vision. Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe Reagan was so good because he was too old to have anything but a vision.

You know what? I’m bored. Onward. Obama another day.

The Brits are going to extract cell stems out of the bone marrow of heart patients, and inject them into the scarred portions of the heart. They figure six months post-injection is a good measurement time. The only problem with the study is that they are going to give an equal number of people placebos. False hope. They already know what will happen with no stem cells added. Why not expand the study to give everyone a chance? Kinda sad.

This is humorous … Algore’s globe-be-toasty science is taking a cold bath lately, so he’s found himself a new position: gay marriage should be legalized across the nation. Quoting the boy, “Gay men and women ought to have the same rights as heterosexual men and women -- to make contracts, to have hospital visiting rights, to join together in marriage, and I don't understand why it is considered by some people to be a threat to heterosexual marriage.” It is considered, Atheist Al, to be against teachings in the Bible. That’s the issue, son. Let’s be clear, ok? And actually, for someone so versed as ignoring data as you, I guess it comes as no surprise that you have ignored the data out of European countries that have approved gay marriage: more children being raised in single-parent homes, more juvenile delinquency, and more drug use. Maybe instead of being a threat to heterosexual marriage, Allie, it can be viewed as a threat to our next generation. What an inconvenient truth, eh?

More another day.