On Hannity, Olbermann, O'Reilly, Schultz, Levin, wd, etc. 1

They see left versus right in their Cheerios. I swear.......And I still don't know what a frigging "moderate extremist" is (other than the fact that it seems to be whatever it is that I happen to be saying, doing, or thinking at any particular moment in time).

On George W. Bush and War Criminality 1

Saddam Hussein attempted genocide on the Kurds. He invaded not just one but two of his neighboring countries. He repressed and brutalized his people to the tune that has rarely been chronicled in recorded history. And he continuously thumbed, with impunity, his nose at the U.N. I guess what I'm trying to say here, people, is that it's not exactly like we invaded Denmark or something....................................................................................................Now, was it necessarily a wise thing for us to have invaded Iraq and attempted to instill democracy there? I would personally (and, yes, vociferously, too) say, no. We had the son of a bitch well contained and could have battered him around as needed. Couple that with the fact that a) Iraq was multi-ethnic pseudo country with intractable hatred and b) Hussein was basically the only buffer that the Sunni countries and Israel had against Iran and, no, no sir, I really don't think that invading Iraq and STAYING was the most prudent of policies....................................................................................................But to site George W. Bush and Tony Blair as war criminals, a designation that I most commonly associate with the likes of Pol Pot, Pinochet, the Third Reich, the Hamidian regimes of Turkey, Milosevic, and even frigging Hussein himself, seems, well, you know what it seems like.

The Karma Continues

Just when you thought that it couldn't get any worse for Randy Edsall and Maryland, boy, oh boy, did it ever. For those of you who didn't see it, Maryland was up 41-14 on N.C. State with just under 6 minutes to go in the third quarter. There wasn't any way in hell that they could blow this one. But blow it majorly the Terrapins did. From that moment onward, N.C. State proceeded to score 42 unanswered points over the next 21 minutes of the game (2 points a minute - extrapolated over a full 60 minute game and they would have scored a sickening 120) and the Maryland season mercifully ended at 2-10 (one of those wins against FCS Towson State, the other against a Miami team that was severely crippled by suspensions). What an absolute, unmitigated nightmare it's been. And to think that the taxpayers of Maryland are paying this Edsall fellow over 2 million dollars a year. Eeeee, huh?

There IS a Double Standard, Damn It

1) Dan Quayle (yes, yes, I know, he's an idiot) misspells potato and it's a federal case. President Obama misspells Syracuse and nobody knows about it.............2) George W. Bush (yes, yes, I know, he's an idiot) mispronounces a word and it's a federal case. President Obama refers to Navy Corpsmen as Navy CORPSEmen and nobody knows about it.............3) George W. Bush doesn't know the leader of some Eastern European country and it's a federal case. President Obama says that the Austrian people speak "Austrian" and nobody knows about it.............4) Sarah Palin (yes, yes, I know, she's an idiot) uses a violent metaphor to make a political point and it's a federal case. President Obama uses a violent metaphor to make a political point and nobody knows about it.............5) Michele Bachmann (yes, yes, I know, she's an idiot) says that the "Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to get rid of slavery" and it's a federal case. President Obama says that he's visited 57 states and nobody knows about it.............6) Sarah Palin says that Paul Revere was actually trying to warn the British that the British were coming and it's a federal case. Chris Matthews says that Herbert Hoover was a hard-core laissez faire capitalist and nobody cares about it.............7) Glenn Beck uses violent imagery to make a political point and it's a federal case. Roland Martin and numerous commentators on Slate.com use violent imagery to a political point and nobody knows about it.............8) Michele Bachmann confuses Concord New Hampshire with Concord Massachusetts and it's a federal case. President Obama says that Hawaii is a part of Asia and nobody knows about it.............9) Etc., etc., etc..

A Retort to My Colleague,The Venerable Truthster 2

I DO choose sides, Truth. Every election I get out and vote for some candidate.....Oh, wait, wait a minute here, you're not saying that I have to choose between the Tea Partiers and the OWS folks, are you? 'Cause if in fact you are......

Refuting the Obvious

If somebody had told me even a month ago that I would be wasting valuable time refuting some idiotic construct called, "moderate extremism", I'd have probably called 9-1-1 on 'em. But here we are, folks, here we are...............................................................................................First off (and as a great many people have already pointed out), it's an oxymoron. You simply cannot be moderate and extreme at the same time. It's ludicrous. And even if you take the leap of faith and say that a person can in fact be extreme in his moderation (moderate and wishy-washy on basically everything), I have absolutely eviscerated any notion that that describes me; the fact that I'm exceedingly liberal on issues such as abortion, gay rights, civil liberties, a progressive income tax, public financing of elections AND exceedingly conservative on issues such as the corporate income tax, drilling in the ANWR, and partially privatizing Social Security. Hell, folks, if anything here, I'm about as unorthodox a blogger as you'll find...................................................................................................And then, of course, there's the really ridiculous stuff. I'm a moderate extremist because I don't think that George W. Bush is a war criminal (yeah, I'm kind of waiting for the International Criminal Court to decide that one - silly me, huh?). I'm a moderate extremist because I don't think that Ronald Reagan is a traitor (both the Congress and a plethora of media sources - the liberal "Village Voice" amongst them - have completely debunked this whole October Surprise conspiracy theory crap). I'm a moderate extremist because I tend to believe the more nonpartisan web-sites ("Politifact", for example) than I do the partisan ones ("Think Progress", for example)...................................................................................................I mean, I could go one here but, seriously, peeps, haven't I already wasted enough of both of our times?

A Tip 1

I'm a big fan of Thai curried dishes (yellow and penang are my personal favorites). The only problem here is that, because these dishes are predominantly made with coconut milk, they also tend to be exceedingly high in saturated fat/cholesterol. One way around this dilemma, folks, is to substitute soy milk for the coconut milk. The soy gives you 90-95% of the flavor AND the nutritional value absolutely skyrockets. Now, you probably wouldn't be able do this in a restaurant, more than likely, but, if you're making the dish at home (either from scratch or from one of those canned paste starter kits), it is definitely an option for you. Check it out.

Say it Often Enough......and, WOW, You're Kiddin'?

Look, folks, I'm not a big fan of Fox News, either (Sean Hannity, Neil Cavuto, and Fox and Friends, especially). But when Politifact says that Jon Stewart's claim that "Fox's viewers are the most consistently misinformed viewers in the country" is false, then what? Do we simply disregard it, as many on a bevy of liberal sites are presently doing? Or, OR, do we take it up a notch and say that Politifact has in fact become PART of the conspiracy, this grandiose right-wing conspiracy? I don't know, folks, what do YOU think that we should do?.......................................................................................................P.S. Obviously there's a third option. The third option would be for all of us to realize that there is more than an ample amount of sorry shit to go around, and that ALL of us should in fact be better consumers of information (skeptical, in other words) Not that this is a theory that will ever take off, of course.

Happy "Turkey"day, Randy

I'm normally not a big believer in Karma, folks. But what has happened this year to Randy Edsall and the University of Maryland football team seems pretty damn close. For those of you who haven't followed it, Mr. Edsall abruptly quit his job (head football coach) at the University of Connecticut at the end of last season's bowl game (the Fiesta Bowl versus Oklahoma), not even having the decency to say goodbye to his players. This, while at the same time, Maryland unceremoniously fired their longtime and respected coach, Ralph Friedgen - this, after he had just been named ACC coach of the year! The fact that this Terps squad is struggling mightily this year, both on the field (a 2-9 record) AND on the recruiting trail (Marchez Coates, the second best defensive back in the state of Maryland recently gave a verbal commitment to N.C. State, for example), seems MORE than a little bit ironic/just to me.................................................................................................P.S. What made the situation even more "comical" was the fact that James Franklin, Maryland's offensive coordinator and "coach in waiting", simply got disgusted waiting and bolted. He's now the head coach at Vanderbilt and even that longtime doormat program is outperforming Maryland; 5 victories and a bushel-full of rock-solid recruits for next year. OOPS!!

Anne Baxter as Queen Nefertiti in "The Ten Commandments"

Uh, yah.

I Knew that They Should Have Hired the Super-Dooper Committee

What would be my answer to the question, "So, what was your initial response when you learned that this so-called "super committee" had fractured?"

Anne Baxter Circa 1949

Yeah, I'll admit it. I'm a little hung up on Anne Baxter lately......You got a problem with that?

Cutting Through the Bullshit 2

1) I was recently accused on a liberal blog of "always defending right-wingers". That, folks, is a bald-faced and slanderous lie. Rush Limbaugh - never defended him. Sean Hannity - never defended him. Glenn Beck- never defended him. Michael Savage - never defended him. Laura Ingraham - never defended her. Ann Coulter - never defended her (admitted that she was smart, that's about it). Donald Trump - never defended him. Bill O'Reilly - defended him occasionally, criticized him more. Michele Bachmann - never defended her. Melanie Morgan - never defended her. Brent Bozell - never defended him. Neil Boortz - never defended him. Tammy Bruce - never defended her (was actually banned from her web-site for criticizing Palin). Rick Perry - never defended him. Newt Gingrich - never defended him. Alan Keyes - never defended him (he I've actually ridiculed religiously). Rick Santorum - never defended him. Mike Huckabee - never defended him. Mark Levin - never defended him. Pat Robertson - never defended him. Mitch McConnell - never defended him. Steve King - never defended him. Louie Gohmert - never defended him. Etc., etc., ETC.. I mean, yes, I did defend George W. Bush against charges of war criminality and John McCain and Ronald Reagan against charges of treason. But I did so because I'm an intellectually honest person whose moral yardstick is level, and not because I'm any sort of "right-winger" (the same with some of the piling-on of the Tea Party; Janeane Garofalo's effervescently disgusting summation of them, for example) . Duh.............2) I've said it many times, people. I am IN FAVOR of the top tax rates going back to 39.6%. You would think that that would make me a member in good standing of the 99%ers, no? I don't know. I'm not so sure anymore. Me - I'm kind of getting the impression that they want a hell of a lot more than that; like maybe blowing up the system entirely. Hopefully, I'm wrong here.............3) I don't think that I am.............4) Did you folks see "60 Minutes" last Sunday. They did a story in which it appears that a lot of current (including Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner) and former (including Dennis Hastert) members of the U.S. Congress have made a boat-load of money by using what is essentially insider information. Worse yet, people, it isn't illegal! Yeah, that's right, the same frigging laws that put Martha Stewart in prison simply don't apply to the Congress (yes, they apply to the judicial and executive branches but not to the legislative). Nice, huh?...Hey, maybe the Tea Partiers and the OWS people can get together and try and put a stop to this nonsense. I mean, they do in fact want to make a difference, right (this, I'm saying, instead of simply bitching and moaning, blocking traffic, etc.)?

Anne Baxter's Turn as Sophie in "The Razor's Edge"

What would be my answer to the question, "So, what, in your opinion, is the most under-appreciated Oscar-winning performance in U.S. film history?"

Miscellaneous 102

1) In order to solve a problem, you need to come up with something that is both tangible AND realistic. And, yes, that is why I strongly support Bowles-Simpson, Rivlin-Domenici, and the Gang of 6 - at least as a starting point - for deficit reduction....The fact of the matter here, folks, is that we simply CANNOT appreciably close the deficit with either spending-cuts or revenue enhancements alone. WE HAVE TO DO BOTH, and everybody has to sacrifice, a little. And, I'm telling you, if we did pass something like this, and accompanied it with some sort of regulatory reform (strengthen the good regs, eliminate the crappy ones), too, the markets in fact WOULD respond. Businesses - they have to know that we're serious and passing something like this would show them that we totally are.............2) To repeat, I would also institute a comprehensive regulatory reform package. We have to, folks. The Feds are literally piling on thousands upon thousands of new rules and regs annually (some of them downright silly; the packaging of walnuts, for example), and it is absolutely stifling the creation of new businesses. If I had my druthers, I would go line by line and a) reinforce the good rules and regulations and b) eliminate the bald-faced crap.............3) Hoover and FDR essentially did everything that Keynesian economics prescribes; massive amounts of deficit spending, huge public works initiatives, a palpable loosening of credit, and a heavy emphasis on central planning, and the Great Depression lasted 12 years. Harding did the exact opposite of what Keynesian theory prescribes; major cuts in federal spending, an allowing of the private sector to flourish, and an actual tightening of credit, and the depression of 1921 lasted less than 18 months....Now, this isn't necessarily to say that this proves anything. As I've stated before, economics isn't an area in which controlled experimentation can happen (and, hence, causality inferred). But it is, at the very least, interesting, no?............4) Just to be fair and balanced here, stifling levels of regulation don't just happen under Democratic Presidents. In 2007, for example (the next to last year of the Bush administration), nearly 4,000 (!!) new regulations hit the books that year alone. Thank you, President Bush.

The Irresponsible Wheel Gets the Compassion, I Gather

I've been working in the geriatric field for about eleven years now. And, while most of that time has been spent in the area of therapeutic rec, I have in fact done some case management duty, too. One story, in particular, stands out.................................................................................................It was an 82 year-old woman with various health concerns (respiratory problems, especially) and whose husband lived in a convalescent home (she also had two daughters but they both lived out of state). Her only sources of income were Social Security and rental income from the apartment upstairs..............................................................................................Well, to make a long story short, the people who lived upstairs were absolutely miserable. They partied heavily, trashed not only the apartment but made a mess of the outside as well, and, on top of that, didn't frigging pay their rent, either. The old lady ended up having to take them to court to have them evicted (this, after they fell a good 6-7 months behind on their rent) and it was very stressful...............................................................................................But you know what made it even more outlandish? The judge (and, yes, the people eventually did get evicted) was seemingly more sympathetic to the dysfunctional family (yeah, they had a couple of kids, too) than she was to the poor old lady. I mean, I almost wanted to scream at the guy, "Dude, she's frigging 82 and on oxygen! How's about a little compassion for the real victim here. These people can purchase cigarettes and brewskis every day but they flat-out can't pay ANY of their rent (and, yes, the old gal was very reasonable about it - 'Pay me what you can', she would say and they paid her NOTHING)? Come on, man!"......................................................................................................You see what I'm saying, though? There's really something wrong with the system here.

As Part of an Overall Anti-Poverty Program

I would go into every high school in America and have a counselor tell each student this, "Look, kid, if you want to have a child, fine, have a frigging child. BUT, if you ultimately do have one, it will be YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to provide for that child - not mine, not the other fellow's, and not the government's - YOURS.......Now, will we help you in the case of an emergency? Yes, absolutely. But the help will be of a finite nature and it will also be contingent upon you doing X, Y, and Z....I mean, I'm sorry to be so blunt about it, but it is what it is/a brave new world. The Chinese, the Indians, the South Koreans, the Finns - they're ALL flat-out bearin' down on us. And I'm going to be honest with you here, kid. You CANNOT be an uneducated procreating schmuck anymore. You can't.

The Formula For Avoiding Poverty

1) Stay in school (go to college or at least graduate high school).............2) Don't have a child out of wedlock.............3) Don't have a child until you reach the age of 20.............4) Don't smoke (a two pack a day habit in CT costs $15 dollars a day/$105 a week/$5,460 a year, increases health-care costs, and reduces productivity).............5) Don't drink heavily (for the identical reasons as to why you shouldn't smoke).............6) Learn to defer gratification, in general.............7) Get a second job if necessary................................................................................................P.S. According to a study cited by the March of Dimes, simply doing the first three will reduce your likelihood of living in poverty by a whopping 89% (64% vs. 7%)....It would really be interesting to see how the OWS movement would put its arms around this syndrome.

Where's the Hard-Left's Condemnation of THIS?

Lisa posted this on Sue's blog and it was predictably ignored.............http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/11/17/ows-protesters-chant-follow-those-kids-as-small-children-try-to-go-to-school-on-wall-street/

Cutting Through the Bullshit 1

1) I'm against protectionism NOT because I'm a corporatist. I'm against protectionism because I think that it's bad for the country, bad for the consumer, and bad for the countries whose economies we would possibly be wrecking (never mind the fact that China is one of our possible targets and those folks just happen to be one of our bankers).............2) I'm in favor of eliminating the corporate income tax (on this one, I full agree with Robert Reich) NOT because I'm a corporatist. I'm in favor of eliminating the corporate income tax because I think that it's a clumsy and obfuscatory policy that often hurts middle class people on pensions and whole life policies as much as it does the wealthy. I would MUCH prefer to raise the taxes on upper income individuals and eliminate it on capital.............3) I have never, ever, EVER, said that the rich pay too much in taxes. EVER! IN FACT, folks, under the proposal that I've been putting forth, the rich in this country would pay significantly MORE than they currently do. YES, I DO have a problem with the 60-70-80% rates that the progressives are constantly throwing around lately. But I don't oppose them because I'm a corporatist. I oppose them because I think that they're a) immoral/confiscatory and b) counterproductive (for crying out loud, even John Maynard Keynes once said that there was a point of diminishing returns).............4) As for this 37927 character, yeah, I kind of know who the fellow is. He's this hard-core paranoiac partisan freak who I used to encounter over at Lydia Cornell's blog....THREE, FOUR, YEARS AGO!!!...Let's just say that dude is obviously still harboring.

Note to OWS

Look, folks, I have nothing against protesting - not even a little bit. IN FACT, I find it to be a very patriotic thing to do and something that makes us unique (just try doing it over in Syria, for example). But, really, do ya' have to frigging SLEEP in the park, accumulate all sorts of garbage there, publicly defecate, etc. (multiple reports of sexual assault, for example)? I mean, it's not as if the park existed simply for you and your indulgences. Other interests, believe it or not, DO exist; the fact that other people may in fact want to recreate there, the fact that the neighborhood businesses are being negatively effected, etc.. And, please, let me also remind you that there are a whole hell of a lot of other ways that you can do to make a difference these days. Organize and be tutors for inner-city kids. Work at a soup-kitchen. Volunteer at a local convalescent home (you're more than welcome to come to mine). Adopt a stretch of a highway or interstate and beautify it. A lot of things - you know, in addition to the protesting.

Dean Wormer to wd

"Being rigidly ideological, seeing absolutely everything in clear-cut dichotomies, falling prey to the most obscene and paranoiac of conspiracy theories, constantly impugning the motivation of people who have the temerity to disagree with you, labeling those people, using hyperbole as if it were a frigging salt-shaker, being the proud possessor of a highly malleable moral compass, defending the indefensible (or at the very least not speaking out against it) exposing oneself to only things that reinforce your paradigm, and listening to movie soundtracks is no way to go through life, son."

So, How Crazy IS That Ronald Reagan-October Surprise Conspiracy Theory

That Ronald Reagan-October Surprise conspiracy theory is SO crazy that even the Village Voice (the frigging Village Voice, people!) thinks that it's lunacy. Yeah, huh? Now THAT, me-buckos, is pure crazy!

In a Nutshell

Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame LIED. And it wasn't just a little bitty white lie, either. Nope. It was a whopper!...According to these two individuals, it was the Vice President's office that sent Mr. Wilson to Niger....and it went along the lines of something like this, "Hey, Stan, we really need to check out that yellow-cake uranium situation in Niger. Any idea as to who we should send there?" "Gee, Dave, I don't know. Somebody from the C.I.A. maybe." Yeah, Stan, that's a good idea. Hey, I got it. Let's send that partisan Democrat, Joe Wilson - you know, the guy who's completely and totally opposed to the Iraq intervention?" "Excellent idea, Dave. Let's run it up the flag-pole and bring it to the Dickster ASAP." "Consider it done, Stan. Hey, we might even get a raise for this!" "Absofrigginglutely!"

A Retort to My Colleague,The Venerable Truthster

If liking tiny-titted chickas like Martina McBride and Naomi Watts makes me a "moderate extremist", then, yes, I wear that handle, and I wear it proudly!

Note to 37927/Cliffy/1138/Bartlebee/anonymous/Some Other Fucking Idiot Whose Handle I've Forgotten

Dude, you come to MY site and spew forth some of the most profane conspiracy theories out there. And then you berate me and insult me when I don't completely buy into them. What, pray tell, kind of a lunatic does something like that? I mean, really. And the fact that you're constantly calling ME, a partisan - a person who even the most casual of observers would readily discern as QUITE unaffiliated (this, as opposed to you, a person who is totally down the line on virtually EVERYTHING!). I gotta be honest with you here, fellow, it's getting kind of creepy. You might want to clean it up a little or move along.

That's a Trick Question, Right? Really?

What would be my answer to the question, "So, which of these two doctrines do you currently prefer, the 'Powell Doctrine' or the 'Rumsfeld Doctrine'?"

Miscellaneous 101

1) Being that it was the Fed (and not the markets) that a) printed money as if they were working for Milton Bradley, b) artificially lowered interest rates to a level that significantly misallocated resources, and c) created what was essentially a bailout culture (Greenspan's nickname actually WAS "Mr. Bailout") on Wall Street, it really is hard to blame Capitalism COMPLETELY for our recent economic calamities.............2) As for regulations in general, yes, I want the food supply inspected. Yes, I want the oil wells inspected. But, I'm telling you here, when you have the founder of Home Depot saying that he couldn't have created his business in today's regulatory climate, that, to me, is a big-time canary in the coal-mine, people............3) In 2008, the state of Maryland passed a special millionaire's tax (a 6.25% rate on all income over a million a year). The following year when all of the returns came in, nearly one in eight of those millionaires magically disappeared. Yeah, it's possible that some of them expired but nearly 13%? Some of them had to havemoved (rich people frequently have two homes and will, when necessary, change their permanent address to the state which has lower taxation). And, while, no, I can't say for sure that the tax increase, and the tax increase alone, prompted these departures, it is at the very least curious. No?............4) Not to be provocative, but have you seen the behavior of some of those miscreants out there in Oakland? My God, if the frigging Tea Partiers had ever acted like that, Chris Matthews and the rest of those clowns over at MSNBC would have had a full-blown kanipshin….I mean, did you see the way that they acted when that ONE neanderthal brought a gun to a rally?............5) Boston College's offense has been struggling literally all season. In fact, folks, if it hadn't have been for their reasonably stout defense, they probably wouldn't have even won the three games that they have. One suggestion that I would put forth (and, granted, there are only two games left) would be to get the ball more to Alexander Amidon. Amidon, a sophomore wide-receiver, is undoubtedly (especially now that running-back and former ACC player of the year, Montel Harris, is out for the season) the most talented individual that BC has on offense. The guy is blazing fast (he's been clocked at under 4.4 in the 40), extremely shifty, and runs the best routes of any player on the team. And, besides, the dude's a nutmegger (a graduate of the Hotchkiss School in Salisbury). For that singular reason alone....

My All-Time Favorite Andy Rooney Segment?

Hm, I think that it would have to be the one where he read on air ALL the lyrics to Michael Jackson's song, "Bad". And, yes, me-bucks, the fact that he executed this task with such a hilarious level of derision (the fact that Mr. Jackson felt the need to only use the same 6-7 words over and over again apparently irked Mr. Rooney; you know, an ACTUAL writer) made it especially memorable indeed. Of course, it wasn't until the very end when Mr. Rooney gave us his ultimate verdict that I totally lost it, "Boy, that was bad. Really bad. Really, really bad. Bad bad bad....."

Speaking of Conspiracy Theories

"Stinnett’s book is dedicated to Congressman John Moss, the author of America’s Freedom of Information Act. According to Stinnett, the answers to the mysteries of Pearl Harbor can be found in the extraordinary number of documents he was able to attain through Freedom of Information Act requests. Cable after cable of decryptions, scores of military messages that America was intercepting, clearly showed that Japanese ships were preparing for war and heading straight for Hawaii. Stinnett, an author, journalist, and World War II veteran, spent sixteen years delving into the National Archives. He poured over more than 200,000 documents, and conducted dozens of interviews. This meticulous research led Stinnet to a firmly held conclusion: FDR knew."............This, folks, from the Independent Institute, the subject matter being Robert Stinnett's controversial book, "Day of Deceit"..................................................................................................P.S. I did not want to go here. I DID NOT. But when start throwing shit against the wall, you have to throw it ALL against the wall, not just the stuff that hurts the other fellow's "team".

Harry Truman on Keynesian Economics

"Nobody can ever convince me that government can spend a dollar that it hasn't got."............As if we really needed another reason to like this guy.

My Political Philosophy - The Essential Elements

1) Both sides have good ideas.............2) Neither side has a monopoly on the truth.............3) Compromise (generally speaking, anyway) isn't a dirty word.............4) Open-mindedness is a superior virtue.............5) The capacity to think outside the box is highly valued.............6) Dogma, certitude, and rigid ideology should always be viewed with suspicion.............7) Country is always more important than party.............8) The worshipping of politicians is something that should be avoided.............9) A spade is a spade is a spade (AKA, the importance of moral consistency).............10) Hyperbole and demonization should always be tools of last resort.............11) The stereotyping of others should be avoided.............12) It is not a bad thing to change your mind.............13) It is a very bad thing to change your mind for political expediency.............14) There are ALWAYS unintended consequences and it is NEVER a zero-sum game.............15) You can never be intelligent until you first learn how to doubt....YOURSELF.............16) Only vote the "party-line" when you absolutely have to............. 17) Be a provocateur , not a nuisance.............18) The act of signing a pledge is an act of cowardice.............18) It is rude to shout a person down (yes, even if that person happens to be Ann Coulter, Tammy Bruce, etc.)............. 19) It is wrong to impugn a person's motivation.............20) Try to seek out politicians who aren't afraid to lose (Paul Tsongas in '92, for example).............21) Just as times and circumstances change, so, too, must our ideas. Just because something may have previously worked....

On Why Progressives Apparently Hate Herbert Hoover

Two reasons, basically.............1) An abject level of ignorance on their part as to what type of President that Mr. Hoover truly was; the fact that the dude rang up unprecedented peacetime deficits, initiated a plethora of high-ticket public-works projects (yeah, Rachel Maddow, it's called the HOOVER DAM - hello!), created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, passed/signed into law the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, and, AND, raised the top income tax rate from 25% to 63% - all of these things to fight the Great Depression, all of these things that principled progressives normally endorse (the fellow was a full-bore Keynesian, for Christ).............2) He has an R in front of his name.

It Would Actually Be Funny IF....

So, just how massive has this "vast right-wing conspiracy" gotten? If you listen to the people on the opposite end of the political spectrum (i.e., those on the hard-core/extremist left), you'd probably come to the conclusion that it's gotten humongous. So, who's the latest to be put into this "esteemed" position? Try (and, yes, please, you really need to be sitting for this one) the 1993 Democratic Congress.................................................................................................Yeah, that's right, people, the Democratic Congress is now a part of this evil cabal in that they (supposedly) tried to protect Ronald Reagan from charges that he somehow brokered a deal with Iran that had them not release the hostages until after the 1980 elections (I believe that there was also something about Reagan being the Loch Ness Monster but that one didn't get nearly as far). Never mind that the evidence was full of holes and that a number of the witnesses had apparently committed perjury (this, not according to me but to then chairman, Lee Hamilton - a person of high integrity and with a still spotless record). Nope, none of that seems to matter to these individuals - their hatred of Mr. Reagan that so all-consuming.......................................................................................................P.S. As for their paranoiac insistence that "government investigations" and a free press never lead to anything substantive, they've obviously never heard of Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, Alger Hiss, Andrew Johnson, Thomas Dodd, Adam Clayton Powell, Oliver North, Abe Fortas, Frank Brasco, Francis Shoemaker, Albert Fall, Wilbur Mills, John C. McDonald, etc., etc. (hell, folks, even frigging Bill Clinton). I mean, it's kind of like I alluded to in the title there, it would actually be funny IF....

The Forgotten/Compressed Recession

People tend to forget. This country also had a depression in 1920 and 21. And, while, no, it wasn't quite as devastating as the Great Depression of a decade later, it wasn't exactly a walk in the park, either.......................................................................................................Here are some of the numbers, people. The unemployment rate crested at 11.7% in 1921. GNP declined by 6.9%. There was an 18% DEflation rate and a 36.8% drop in wholesale prices. The stock market plummeted by whopping 47% and profits decreased by 75%. Add to that the fact that there was a near tripling of business failures and, yeah, all in all, it was a pretty nasty economic downturn........................................................................................................So, what, pray tell, did the government do in response to it? Well, it basically did two things. a) The Harding administration/Congress slashed Federal spending by a humongous 65%. And b) the Fed RAISED its discount rate to a then record high of 7%. They basically did the exact opposite of FDR, Bush 2, and Obama, in other words.........................................................................................................So, just how successful was this approach? Well, at least according to the unemployment figures, it was extremely successful. The unemployment rates of 1922 and 1923 were 6.7% and 2.4% respectively. Quite a bit different from the rates of the 1930s and today, no?

A Call to Freer Thinking

Throw off the ideological straight-jackets, folks. The country's imploding, and the very last thing that it needs right now is dogma, more dogma, idiots like Sean Hannity and Ed Schultz making total fools out of themselves NIGHTLY, etc.................................................................................................I mean, just take a look at this whole global-warming debate. You got people on one side who say that global-warming doesn't exist, PERIOD, and that the whole thing is nothing but a hoax/fabrication. This, and on the other side, you have people who not only say that it exists but that it represents Armageddon next week (yes, I'm exaggerating), and that we should be spending trillions in order to prevent it. It's (the two silly extremes bickering over it) almost like frigging romper room, for Christ..............................................................................................................And then there's the whole thing with the budget situation. The Simpson-Bowles debt commission AND the Domenici-Rivlin plan have both put forth very credible proposals on reducing the country's burgeoning debt/deficits. But each of these very serious proposals....ARE JUST SITTING THERE. The liberals don't like them because they address the damned Holy Grail; entitlement programs, and the conservatives don't like them because they also have the audacity to address revenues. I mean, it's almost as if the two sides (the Republicans more so, perhaps) are bound and determined to take the country....I don't know, somewhere, and it isn't good.

Kennedy Challenged Him For a Reason

Jimmy Carter is a good and decent man. And, no, not everything bad that happened during his time in office was totally his fault. But the facts are the facts, folks. Jimmy Carter's Presidency was NOT a successful one. I mean, just take a look at the economic numbers, for Christ. By January, 1980, the unemployment rate was 7.1%, the inflation rate was 13.9%, and the prime interest rate was pushing 16% (and, please, keep in mind, this is only the rate that the "good" customers get and even this went up to 20% by April of 1980). Add to that the long gas lines, the Iranian hostage situation, the botched attempt to free the hostages and, yeah, you can really see why Mr. Carter's face will never, ever, EVER, appear on Mount Rushmore..........................................................................................P.S. Obviously Mr. Carter deserves a lot of credit for his brokering of a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. That, folks, was probably his greatest accomplishment as President. That, and he also deserves a lot of credit for some of his post Presidential initiatives; Habitat for Humanity, in particular.

Two More Divisive Little "Gems" From Ann Coulter

1) On Herman Cain - "Our blacks are better than your blacks." 2) On Mayor Bloomberg (and the fact that he opted against dispersing the OWS protesters in New York City) - "Mayor Bloomberg has never been a very manly man."................................................................................................Look, I get it, people. She's trying to be provocative and get people to buy her books, pay more attention to her, etc.. Hell, I can even relate to it a little - being a provocateur myself. But, I ask you here, is there even an envelope for her to push any longer? I mean, really.

Pundits on the Far-Right that I Loathe

Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter (she actually kind of amuses me but, whatever), Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Mark Levin (kind of a shame 'cause he's smart), Ollie North, Tracy Byrnes (some nasty chick on the Fox Business channel), Brent Bozell, Bill Kristol, Liz Cheney, Mike Huckabee (and, no, I don't care how affable he is), Karl Rove, John Bolton, Monica Crowley, Melanie Morgan, Neil Boortz, Janet Parshall

Pundits on the Far-Left that I Loathe

Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz, Michael Moore, Mike Malloy, Randi Rhodes, Markos Moulitsas, Chris Hayes, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Eric Alterman, Naomi Klein, Cornell Belcher, Paul Begala (he's borderline - more of a weasel than anything), Joan Walsh, Amy Goodman

Dean Wormer's (Free) Advice to Alan Keyes

"Yo, bra (yes, I did spice it up a little), spouting polysyllabic gibberish, feigning outrage, and foaming at the mouth is no way to go through life, son.".......................................................................................P.S. Needless to say, this advice of Mr. Wormer's wasn't heeded.

Thomas E. Woods on the Idiocy of "War-Time Prosperity"

"If spending on munitions really makes a country wealthy, the United States and Japan should do the following: Each should seek to build the most spectacular naval fleet in history, an enormous armada of gigantic, powerful, technologically advanced ships. The two fleets should then meet in the Pacific. Naturally, since they would want to avoid the loss of life that accompanies war, all naval personnel would be evacuated from the ships. At that point the U.S. and Japan would sink each other's fleets. They could then celebrate how much richer they had made themselves by devoting labor, steel, and countless other inputs to the production of things that would wind up at the bottom of the ocean."................................................................................................P.S. I would also add a question to this wonderful piece of irreverence. If in fact it WAS WW2 that got us out of the Great Depression, why then isn't it the case that the two conflicts (three, if you count Libya, four, if you count Pakistan, five, if you count Yemen, six, if you......) of today haven't produced a similar miracle? It's like, what, the sons a' bitches aren't big enough?

The "Devil" is in the Details

One of my main issues with extremists is their penchant to oversimplify. These individuals are constantly taking complex social, political, economic, and historical topics and reducing them; good versus evil, right versus wrong, effective versus ineffective (this one via the shameless utilization of cherry-picking), etc...............................................................................................Take, for example, the hard-core progressives' assessment of Ronald Reagan. Instead of simply saying that Mr. Reagan was a flawed man/President and/or holding the fellow responsible for specific events/problems (ballooning deficits, the Iran-Contra affair, Lebanon, etc.), these individuals have transformed the former President into this most monstrously evil of dark villains. It's absolutely ludicrous..........................................................................................................I mean, yes, Reagan DID make mistakes. Nobody of even a remotely fair mind would argue that. But the fellow also markedly reduced a) interest rates, b) inflation, and c) unemployment. That, I'm saying, and the fellow also brokered a landmark arms-control agreement with Gorbachev. The left, in my opinion, should at least be able to recognize this....................................................................................................P.S. And, yes, to be fair and balanced here, the same could also be said about what the right often does to FDR. Instead of giving the dude credit for things such as the bank holiday, his loosening up of international trade, the fact that some of the public works projects were actually useful, and, especially, his leadership during WW2, they're constantly demonizing him as some sort of pinko (this by focusing only on such boneheaded things as the NRA, etc.). This probably needs to stop, too.