"I'm in a hurry to get things done..."
I'm really running late today so I'll leave you with a few quick things:
1) With the announcement that he won't seek reelection as governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney fueled speculation that he'll run for president in 2008. This article scratches the surface in showing why.
2) Elections in Iraq appears to be very successful thus far. A recent poll shows broad optimism in Iraq: Despite the daily violence there, most living conditions are rated positively, seven in 10 Iraqis say their own lives are going well, and nearly two-thirds expect things to improve in the year ahead... Surprisingly, given the insurgents' attacks on Iraqi civilians, more than six in 10 Iraqis feel very safe in their own neighborhoods, up sharply from just 40 percent in a poll in June 2004. And 61 percent say local security is good - up from 49 percent in the first ABC News poll in Iraq in February 2004... Average household incomes have soared by 60 percent in the last 20 months (to $263 a month), 70 percent of Iraqis rate their own economic situation positively, and consumer goods are sweeping the country. In early 2004, 6 percent of Iraqi households had cell phones; now it's 62 percent. Ownership of satellite dishes has nearly tripled, and many more families now own air conditioners (58 percent, up from 44 percent), cars, washing machines and kitchen appliances.
A friend of mine returning from Iraq said sarcastically, "Y'know, while I was over there I thought we were winning. It wasn't until I got home that I realized that the war was unwinnable." This, of course, was in reference to Howard Dean's foolish comments. The fact is, we're winning the war and Iraqis are better off for it. So are Americans. So is the world.
3) Reports of God’s death have been greatly exaggerated.
4) A while back I posted someone's argument that there are three judicial positions on abortion. In short, the radical-left view is that the Constitution contains an implied "right" to unregulated access to abortion for any reason (Roe v. Wade gave us this), the radical-right view is that the Constitution's right to life ("...government shall not deprive anyone of life or liberty without due process of the law...") includes a right for unborn children, therefore all (or most) abortions must be illegal, and the centrist view is that the Constitution says nothing on the issue of abortion, leaving the issue up to the state (or federal) legislatures. I'm a centrist.
Likewise, I think there are three views concerning homosexuality and marriage. The radical-left view is that we must redefine marriage to mean something that it has never meant in the history of the world, in any culture, in order to cater to the sexual desires of a small minority. The homophobic right view is that the government should prevent homosexuals from living together or having sex through anti-sodomy laws. The centrist view is that consenting adults should be allowed to do as they please in the privacy of their homes but that marriage should not be radically redefined. Is this so crazy?
5) People are saying that "King Kong" is racist. Stupid, I know. Movie reviewer David Edelstein, writing in SLATE, notes the "implicit racism of KING KONG - the implication that Kong stands for the black man brought in chains from a dark island (full of murderous primitive pagans) and with a penchant for skinny white blondes." Now is it more likely that the people who originally wrote "King Kong" were secretly racists writing a movie about black people or that they thought a lot of people would pay to see a giant gorilla run wild in Manhattan? Use Occam's Razor.
6) In an article on the Christmas madness we seem to encounter every year, Jonah Goldberg made an astute observation: "Liberals use the state to impose their morality all the time, and they get away with it because their faith isn’t called a religion." How many times have you (Mr. or Miss Conservative) been told "you can't do that because it would violate the separation of church and state" when arguing against abortion, redefining marriage, putting up a creche or menorah, displaying the Ten Commandments, etc. Admittedly, some things in that list are explicitly religious but *none* constitute "establishing" a religion. Meanwhile, the liberal religion (which loves peace, equality, redistribution of wages, unregulated abortions, gay marriage, and furry animals) is imposed on us regularly. We need to change the terms of the debate...
1) With the announcement that he won't seek reelection as governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney fueled speculation that he'll run for president in 2008. This article scratches the surface in showing why.
2) Elections in Iraq appears to be very successful thus far. A recent poll shows broad optimism in Iraq: Despite the daily violence there, most living conditions are rated positively, seven in 10 Iraqis say their own lives are going well, and nearly two-thirds expect things to improve in the year ahead... Surprisingly, given the insurgents' attacks on Iraqi civilians, more than six in 10 Iraqis feel very safe in their own neighborhoods, up sharply from just 40 percent in a poll in June 2004. And 61 percent say local security is good - up from 49 percent in the first ABC News poll in Iraq in February 2004... Average household incomes have soared by 60 percent in the last 20 months (to $263 a month), 70 percent of Iraqis rate their own economic situation positively, and consumer goods are sweeping the country. In early 2004, 6 percent of Iraqi households had cell phones; now it's 62 percent. Ownership of satellite dishes has nearly tripled, and many more families now own air conditioners (58 percent, up from 44 percent), cars, washing machines and kitchen appliances.
A friend of mine returning from Iraq said sarcastically, "Y'know, while I was over there I thought we were winning. It wasn't until I got home that I realized that the war was unwinnable." This, of course, was in reference to Howard Dean's foolish comments. The fact is, we're winning the war and Iraqis are better off for it. So are Americans. So is the world.
3) Reports of God’s death have been greatly exaggerated.
4) A while back I posted someone's argument that there are three judicial positions on abortion. In short, the radical-left view is that the Constitution contains an implied "right" to unregulated access to abortion for any reason (Roe v. Wade gave us this), the radical-right view is that the Constitution's right to life ("...government shall not deprive anyone of life or liberty without due process of the law...") includes a right for unborn children, therefore all (or most) abortions must be illegal, and the centrist view is that the Constitution says nothing on the issue of abortion, leaving the issue up to the state (or federal) legislatures. I'm a centrist.
Likewise, I think there are three views concerning homosexuality and marriage. The radical-left view is that we must redefine marriage to mean something that it has never meant in the history of the world, in any culture, in order to cater to the sexual desires of a small minority. The homophobic right view is that the government should prevent homosexuals from living together or having sex through anti-sodomy laws. The centrist view is that consenting adults should be allowed to do as they please in the privacy of their homes but that marriage should not be radically redefined. Is this so crazy?
5) People are saying that "King Kong" is racist. Stupid, I know. Movie reviewer David Edelstein, writing in SLATE, notes the "implicit racism of KING KONG - the implication that Kong stands for the black man brought in chains from a dark island (full of murderous primitive pagans) and with a penchant for skinny white blondes." Now is it more likely that the people who originally wrote "King Kong" were secretly racists writing a movie about black people or that they thought a lot of people would pay to see a giant gorilla run wild in Manhattan? Use Occam's Razor.
6) In an article on the Christmas madness we seem to encounter every year, Jonah Goldberg made an astute observation: "Liberals use the state to impose their morality all the time, and they get away with it because their faith isn’t called a religion." How many times have you (Mr. or Miss Conservative) been told "you can't do that because it would violate the separation of church and state" when arguing against abortion, redefining marriage, putting up a creche or menorah, displaying the Ten Commandments, etc. Admittedly, some things in that list are explicitly religious but *none* constitute "establishing" a religion. Meanwhile, the liberal religion (which loves peace, equality, redistribution of wages, unregulated abortions, gay marriage, and furry animals) is imposed on us regularly. We need to change the terms of the debate...