Archive for October 2004
Bush Should Apologize (when hell freezes over)
It's hard to believe the whole left-liberal insistence that women, in particular, are offended by the President's refusal to apologize. The myth being propagated is that the President is reminding women of a trait they dislike in their own husbands. But if -- as we were told -- women were charmed throughout the '90's by a skirt-chasing, promise-breaking, smooth-talking southern President who left a string of maligned or abandoned women in his wake, it's hard to believe that they are holding their Presidents to the same standards to which they hold their husbands. Carol Platt Liebau, commenting on a post by Keith Burgess-Jackson that explains the hidden, unsubstantiated premise underlying calls for Bush to identify his mistakes, or to apologize for them.
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Martha Stewart (again)
Now that we're all safer as Martha Stewart sits behind bars in federal prison, here's one last bit on what a rotten example of ego-justice it is. This is a short excerpt from Harry Browne's Journal, which I'll quote in its entirety. October 11, 2004 Martha Stewart one last time: I recently received the following email: I have just read your article on the internet regarding Martha Stewart's guilty verdict. While I do agree that this 5 month sentence may be unfair (it should have been more like a fine and community service), the law does say that insider trading is a crime. Her mistake was in lying about it, and that is wrong too. Haven't all of us made a mistake and then lied to cover it up only to discover that the lie made things worse? That is what happened to her. We all should remember what our parents told us, which is to fess up to our mistakes and take responsibility for ourselves. I too have made some mistakes worse with a lie, but I alone paid the consequence and learned from those experiences. Just because her offense didn't harm anyone else does not mean that she...
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Then, and Now
Here's a look at what the sport of hang gliding looked like back in the mid-70s, and now, 30 years later. I'll leave it to readers to guess which photos go in which era.
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The Party of Peace, Love, and Harmony
See here.
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John Kerry: Civil Libertarian
Flying from a conference in Chicago back home to San Jose, California yesterday was a good opportunity to catch up on some reading. So, I read the October print edition of Reason cover-to-cover that had been sitting on my desk at home untouched for several weeks. By now, they have the October online edition up (they always delay the free online edition, for obvious reasons). I’d bet that the article titled John Kerry’s Dark Record on Civil Liberties would be a little bit of a surprise to a lot of people. Most people tend to think of liberal 60s hippie war protesters as pretty “solid” in terms of civil liberties, but that’s only because they don’t stop to think about it very much. When you stop to think about it, you realize they’re statist collectivists, and so civil liberties is absolutely the farthest thing from their mind. So, they should not be at all surprised to learn that: This isn’t the first time Kerry and Ashcroft have been at odds over civil liberties. In the 1990s, government proposals to restrict encryption inspired a national debate. Then as now, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and electronic privacy groups locked horns...
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Tax Cuts for the Wealthy
I don't suppose there's anything that so makes we want to spew choice obscenities than to hear the tripe about how recent tax cuts (i.e., stealing less of your money) benefit primarily the wealthy. It's depressing, too, because I understand that if Kerry and other dems are saying it, then they're doing so because it finds an audience somewhere, and how can you not get depressed in realizing that people so dumb actually exist and are commonplace? Forget for a moment the classic leftie argument for redistribution where those with more income pay more, and in reverse, they should, according to the argument, get less back. That, at least, is an honest argument in the sense that the facts of the matter are being acknowledged. No, I'm talking about the current pack of lies that seeks to make people believe that the most recent tax cuts are at the expense of those of more modest means. Those who swallow this foolery are so dumb that attempting an explanation of the thing has always been far beyond my ability. But, today, I got a silly little thing in email that just might do the trick, even for those of modest intellectual...
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Chicago Marathon
Turns out the Hilton Hotel I've been at in downtown Chicago for the last three days was just a few yards down from the starting line of the Chicago Marathon, which took place this morning. 40,000 people subjecting themselves to 26 miles of agony.
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Beach Destinations
That's Ohio Beach, right off Michigan Avenue's "Magnificent Mile," yesterday afternoon. I never once in my life thought 'beach' when I thought of Chicago.
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In Chicago
Attending a conference of State 'regulators', who, for some inexplicable reason, believe they know better how to serve my company's clients than I do. Consequently, they're all busy drafting legislation to clamp down on this industry. I'm sure they all feel very important.
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Menkenesque
I can across this 'adorable' Ronald Reagan quote this morning that struck me as quite in the style of H.L. Mencken: It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first. I posted this Mencken tribute back in January with a few quotes, so you can see for yourself if you agree with my assessment.
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Cool, if it Works…
Ok, if this works, there should be a title to this post, a picture of my office displayed somewhere, and the body text you're reading. Got an hp6315 which is a PDA, phone, and camera all wrapped into one, which I'm trying to post with via email and attached photo. It has wireless data access via GPRS and built-in Wi-Fi. Cool, to say the least.
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The Fruits of Ignorance
Counting the time leading up to the 2000 presidential election, it’s now five years or so that I’ve been observing disparaging remarks about Bush’s intelligence. He’s dumb, an idiot, and so on. Never mind that he has an impressive academic record by any standard; or, that he successfully piloted air force fighter jets; or, that he has experienced success in business; or, that he managed to become the governor of Texas; or, that he managed to become President of the United States. He’s often inarticulate, and that’s enough. He’s an idiot. I’ve never for one second, for instance, found much of anything to like about The Liar or his pathetic, opportunist wife; but I’ve never, for one second, suggested that they’re anything but intelligent. To make such a wildly outrageous claim would, I think, say a lot more about my state of mind than theirs. I think they’re amoral and often immoral to a breathtaking degree as master political opportunists, but that says nothing about the state of their grey matter. It goes to their spirit, of which I see next to nothing wholesome and good. People make such charges against Bush, and a lot of other more-or-less conservatives for...
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