The tragic Newt Gingrich

I've really been trying to bite my tongue.

But I can't. I just read this from a deranged Newt supporter:

"I don't care a bit if he had one wife or 21 wives and 21 girlfriends, and you shouldn't care, either. What I do care about is a guy who can lead this country..."

That's an ironic development from a group of people who seem to be suspicious of Mormon politicians -- you know, with that sect's history of polygamy. But it doesn't matter apparently, as long as you are a louse with the trappings of a southern gentleman.

Let's just say that "conservatives" have come a long way since the Clinton era. Perhaps you all need a crash course on how personal integrity DOES affect capacity for leadership. How is this even up for dispute? No one with an understanding of leadership would deny that first and foremost, integrity is critical for real leadership.

Suggested reading: "The American Leadership Tradition," by Marvin Olasky. Tolle Lege! Yes, there's a tragic chapter on Clington and an updated edition should definitely include a similar chapter on Newt Gingrich.

There, I was able to post this without telling you who I will vote for. Let's just say my inclination has not changed from the beginning of the campaign and probably won't till the end of it.

Communication squared

So I'm definitely not among the average user of communication electronics. Neither is the coworker with whom I discussed this recently-released statistic: Cellular/wireless plans/devices in the U.S. now outnumber the population they serve.

"Connected devices with wireless subscriptions rose to 327.6 million in the second quarter, according to a new report from wireless industry association CTIA. That represents a 9% increase since the same period last year. The U.S. population currently clocks in at 312.4 million, the U.S. Census Bureau said."

And you thought population was growing fast.
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Corporations are people, my friend

"...any time you tax a corporation or a business, you're taxing people at one place or another, so we can't pretend that somehow, there's an entity out there made of steel and concrete and it's going to pay money to the government."
-Mitt Romney

Just when plenty of well-meaning conservatives are jumping on various shallow bandwagons (too many names to name), Mitt Romney starts to seriously impress. He impressed me at the end of his campaign last time round and this time, he as done a much better job of not trying to pander to whoever his audience is. He let loose in Iowa (find the full video and watch it) and is now taking flack for telling the truth about taxes and deficit spending, stating the obvious "Corporations are people, my friend."
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Happy Unthanksgiving

My how the times do change!

It couldn't have been more than 8-10 years ago when Black Friday was probably some obscure date in history... Maybe it was the day someone invented some horrible weapon or something. Or maybe it was some stock market crash we all forgot about.
But now, here we are in the twenty-first century, undoing something officially started in the nineteenth century when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the final Thursday in November as an official day of Thanksgiving while still in the midst of a bloody civil war. Only FDR tried to change it since then, moving it up a week, thinking it would boost the economy. That proposal went down in flames, so little did people like the holiday tampered with.
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Didier's supreme denial

I have to say I was actually impressed by this batch of election-related analysis. Peter Callighan, columnist for the Tacoma News Tribune, seems to be a keen (and refreshingly cynical) observer of both the Washington electorate, as well as the candidates running. A few days ago, he wrote this piece about Didier's list of demands for Dino Rossi to "earn" his support.

It's funny. See I thought Rossi thrashing the field on election day was what should have earned Didier's support. Instead, as Callighan points out, Didier has revealed a streak of supreme arrogance: Read more »

Up in smoke

The Democratic National Committee sent out a press release this morning, criticizing the U.S. Senate candidate Dino Rossi for his condemnation of Michael Morgan, a pyschology professor at WSU Vancouver, who received a $148,438 federal grant of "stimulus" money, in order to "study the interaction of opioids and cannabinoids to see if it could produce more effective pain relief."

The email, headlined "FAIL" uses a jarring set of logic to prove that the money spent on the project, which was originally condemned by anti-pork Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., actually is meant to stimulate the economy:Read more »

Wasting his time or ours

"The logic that they can persuade us to negotiate through sanctions is just a failure,"
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — Monday, 26 July, 2010



Did Saddam ever taunt us like this? I mean, the argument from appeasers and co. has always been that sanctions equal an effective means of getting someone's attention. Then you have Russia saying (convincingly) they will only drive them away from the table. Similarly you have China sabotaging efforts to bring North Korea to talks. Read more »

'The Game of Death'

The wise of this world will never understand.

A while ago, I heard about this and fully intended to post about it. Considering the months that have intervened, perhaps its old news to some. This french "game show" was a new twist on an old experiment which was designed to test the limits of human decency.

(Unsuspecting contestants) were urged on by a baying studio audience and a well-known TV hostess to give electric shocks, up to fatal levels, to an unseen, screaming contestant if he gave the wrong answer to a question.

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