Sunday, October 31, 2004

A Light Cultural Note

May I say that I thoroughly enjoyed this article by Cathy Seipp at NRO. I must say that she and I share the same addiction -- this article was previously titled "The WB is My Crack". It has since been retitled The Wonderful World of the WB, but the sentiments endorsed in it are quite similar to my own.

Between Everwood, Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill, Jack and Bobby, and my household's never-ending obsession with all things Buffy/Angel, I must say that I understand her viewpoint completely. If it wasn't for Scrubs, Arrested Development, Lost, Alias, The OC and HBO, we would never leave the channel. Man, we watch too much TV! But I digress...
Election Round-Up

God willing within the next three days, we will know who will be our president for the next four years. Regular visitors to the site will not by surprised by my endorsement in any way, shape, or form. George W. Bush is the candidate whose policies and positions most closely match up with my beliefs. I hope to find time for a detailed endorsement tomorrow, but I offer up some of the most apt and fitting election commentary to fill your time until then.

Two clear reasons to believe that this war is not over -- Azzam the "American" tape and Memri's translations of the Osama Bin Laden tape's threats (about which the "objective" press has been strangely silent).

Anticipatory Retaliation on well-known Iraqi bloggers' presidential endorsements. One guess as to which way they lean? Alaa of the Mesopotamian has a particularly good endorsement an poses the following question,
"My apology to the half of America who may disagree; and I address them with respect and fondness, but with pain in the heart. Do you really want to give satisfaction to the be-headers, kidnappers and child murderers; and the perpetrators of 9/11? Do you want to hear their savage shouts of victory? This is no reflection on the merit of your man. He may indeed be a paragon of virtue, but that does not change one little bit anything about the situation."


For those of you who cannot decide which way you want to vote, may I offer an alternative? A quick run-down of the Libertarian platform. At this point in time, I cannot consider myself a large-L Libertarian for two reasons: 1) I perceive the party as too isolationist and short-sighted with regards to world affairs, specifically the war on terror 2) I believe in a small amount of government regulation and sponsorship of education, transportation, et cetera. However if you are still undecided and feel like you are up a creek in terms of choices this year, I believe it presents a viable alternative.

Mark Steyn on his predictions and an ultimatum in the Spectator.
With friends like these...

If I was a political candidate, I would try to run away screaming in the other direction if this domestic-violence loving, racist, homophobic ignoramus tried to endorse me. Michele over at A Small Victory has up a great discussion of the Left's open embrace of Eminem now that he has endorsed their man.

P.S. The article also explores the quick dismissal of Curt Schilling's Friday GMA endorsement of Bush, which made one of my despondent Cardinal fan relatives hate the Boston Red Sox quite a bit less Friday morning.

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Assorted Notes

First of all, another apology for the infrequent nature of my posts lately. Let the record show that a 40 hour work week and 2/3 full courseload of graduate work do not leave much time or energy for blogging pursuits. I'm not going to discuss shutting down the blog or anything, but I am going to concede that posting may be much less frequent for the next, oh, four years or so at this rate. So after a pretty draining day of work and classes I'm just going to throw up a few assorted thoughts on the political fray, since it's that time of year and all.

Deroy Murdock has an interesting piece over at National Review, directing readers to the website husseinandterror.com to read all about the evidence linking Sadaam to terrorists that for some reason the White House has chosen not showcase: copies of checks given to Palestinian suicide bombers, terrorists traveling on Iraqi diplomatic passports, providing safe haven and the like. Just found it interesting reading material given the mainstream media's frequent assertion that there are not between the Hussein regime and terror.

Drudge has a headline flash that Cheney got a flu shot. So? The guy's 63 and has had three heart attacks, a quadruple bypass, and an artery stint. Isn't he exactly the type of person that we've been told should receive this shot during the shortage? A shortage that never would have come about if American drug companies weren't litigated out of producing such vaccines years ago.

Wall Street Journal -- interesting run-down on how the Kerrys managed to pay only 12.4% of their income to federal taxes last year. Not that I'm saying people should not take advantage of the tax breaks provided to them...I just find the "rich aren't paying enough" class-warfare mantra pretty ironic coming from the richest US presidential candidate ever who paid that little in taxes last year. Stephen Moore of the Club for Growth notes that the Geoge W. and Laura Bush with about 1/10 of that income paid over 30% last year.

Monday's Lileks Bleat on Day After Tomorrow and Bush's faith in relation to his policy.

That's all for now. Not enough brainpower to formulate any further thoughts this evening. Adieu.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Just in case you didn't know...

My slimeball suspicions about John Kerry were confirmed tonight when he opportunistically dragged Mary Cheney out again in front of the crowd on the issue of gay marriage. It was almost as if he was dangling it out there -- "Hey religious right, did you know that Dick Cheney has a gay daughter? If not, vote for me!" There was just something altogether creepy and opportunistic about the whole response. Even people who agree with Kerry on the gay marriage issue, I would think that remark bothered all but the most partisan ideologues.

Leave the poor woman alone. She's doing the best she can to publicly come to terms with her sexuality, decide on her beliefs, and live her life. (Which incidentally I might add involves serving as director of vice-presidential operations for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign). She doesn't need to be trotted out as ammunition against her father. Kerry's desparate appeal made me wince when I first heard it, and apparently I am not alone. The post-debate analysis on both MSNBC and FoxNews has said that was the most negative polling moment of the debate with both their groups of swing voters. Nice to know the people of America still have some common sense.

I haven't watched much of the debate yet as I had class part of the night and some other urgent matter demanding my attention. However, I saw enough to know that President Bush seemed to be having a great night. He looked strong and confident. He may never be the most eloquent public speaker, but I thought he had great answers for every question thrown at him tonight. (BTW, who wrote those questions? Bias central -- had me longing for the town hall against). Kerry looked and sounded timid, defensive and as if he didn't want to be there.

Mark my words though -- I think he may regret that Mary Cheney comment. Guess we'll have to wait and see how the spin doctors play it off tomorrow, but it left me with an extremely unpleasant taste in my mouth.

Amended 9:50 pm: Mary Beth Cahill is already on FoxNews doing damage control for Kerry's Mary Cheney comment. The Corner reports that she said Mary is "fair game"? Who are these people? Not the sort I would be friends with, that's for darn sure.

Liberal outlets and ideologues will still try to spin this, no doubt. If I was in the Kerry camp though, I'd be more than a little nervous tonight.

Amended 10:15 pm: Michelle Malkin already has up a post with a very similar take on the Mary Cheney comment. She brings up an intersting point -- first she asks if any of these people have talked to Mary Cheney and closes by saying "If they haven't talked to her, they should shut up, leave her alone, and defend their incoherent position on gay marriage without hiding behind the vice president's daughter."

Friday, October 08, 2004

Closing statement

So "JFK" asked me to look into my heart and what I believe? The first thing that came to mind? I believe you are a slimeball.

I only saw the last 40 minutes (which the NRO line is was when Bush found his voice), but I think Bush is kicking tail. Go counter the DNC spin attacks and hit the MSNBC website and every other site around to vote that Bush won the debate. (This is just as justified as Terry McAuliffe's DNC spin mail commands, so take it as you will).

P.S. (Updated 10:15 CST) I just saw Andrea Mitchell claiming that the president came to play tonight and clearly contested Kerry on every issue. When that's the line MSLIB is spouting, I think the GOP has had a good night. Detailed analysis to follow, but I am feeling better about this election than I have been in a good ten days or so. Keep up the thougtfhul, common sense analysis of the conservative positions on the issues GWB!

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

Overdue congratulations

Must be sent tonight out to Kevin Holtsberry on his recent stint as the unofficial National Review swing-state liason. His fourth (fifth?) article appeared on the site today summing up the race for Ohio. Congrats and may your freelancing continue on after the election!

Kevin's old political blog was one of the sites that spurred me to set up my own site. His writing style has just always spoken to me. He burnt out on his political/personal site about six months ago, but his new blog Collected Miscellany is a great place to get up to date on the latest books out there.

Monday, October 04, 2004

Updates

Finally updated the blogroll -- a few weeks overdue. First of all, I am adding Yoni Cohen's College Ball blog to my blogroll, as my favorite sports season of the year will be kicking off within a month or so. The Illini are poised to make a prime run, and I have almost recovered the heartbreak I suffered in the nosebleed section of the Georgia Dome last year. (Sports Illustrated if you are listening, please refrain from putting the boys in orange on your cover and mentioning an NCAA title. You've done enough this year, as most Cub fans will agree).

Another new addition to the blogroll is the Central Illinois Expats category. This area will include links to those who at one point or another have resided south of I-80 and north of I-72. Unlike folks from Chicago who consider everything south of I-80 Southern Illinois, those of us from the area would contend that Southern Illinois starts just south of Taylorville. Anyhow, this category will include blogs with a broader range of perspectives on politics and faith than you might usually see on my blog roll. (Inner Monologues and Fiat provide running commentaries on two very different seminary experiences). While I may disagree with some of their poltiical viewpoints on occasion (regularly with the left-wing conspiracy theory talk, cough cough Iowa Wine Guy), I know them to be good people and wish them the best of luck with their blog endeavors.

Final point for Central Illinoisans accessing the blog, has anyone noticed their DSL connections slowing dramatically in the last couple months? Just curious. We've contemplated making the switch to cable, but we may be moving in the near future and hesitant to sink money into it or sign a contract right now.