Category: Politics

A former classmate of mine, a doctor of rhetoric at a state university, posts a clever quip from a colleague:

“I have come to the conclusion that, if Dems get control, they pass laws requiring seat belts for cats. If Reps get control, they pass laws prohibiting unions. I’ll take the seat belt laws for cats.”

Sadly, this is in true.

When the Democrats have unfettered control of Congress and the presidency, they seek to compel citizens’ behavior in increasingly silly, minute, and trivial ways.

When Republicans have unfettered control of Congress, they seek to remove compulsory participation in self-perpetuating organizations without whose membership, citizens cannot hold certain jobs.

Sadly, the analogy isn’t true; six years of Republican control brought us an expansion of Medicare, No Child Left Behind, and BCRA instead of any decrease in Federalization.

I need to start a whole series called Arguing on Facebook to highlight how unreasonable even the most educated liberals in my circle are.

The Other McCain identifies someone I’d rather see as the Republican nominee than Sarah Palin: Charles Krauthammer.

Sarah Silverman, apparently a comedienne of some sort, expresses a basic misunderstanding of marriage in an interview with USA Today Weekend:

Are you interested in ever getting married? [Her last relationship was with talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel.]

I’m interested in having and finding that person for life, but marriage is barbaric. I wouldn’t be a part of it, especially now. Why would anyone want government involved in their love? I think it’s a disgusting club to be in where people who love people of the same sex aren’t allowed.

That’s strange sentiment from someone who mentions her religion earlier in the interview. But perhaps, to the hippy dippy East Coast liberal Jews (her characterization of her household, not my anti-Semitism, thanks), it’s the government’s world and we’re just living in it.

I mean, marriage is a religious and traditional institution sanctioned by the government. Someone with a religious or traditional bent would probably think first of the sanctity of the ceremony, the relationship of the two people in the marriage and their deity, et cetera and et cetera.

Nah, it’s a government thing, and opposing it because the government doesn’t let gay people do it is the hippy dippy liberal thing to do. So Ms. Silverman won’t be crushing any wine glasses because 1)She protests and 2)She must think of marriage as a licensing thing and a JOP thing (Justice of the Peace thing, not misspelled JAP thing, come on).

I’m scoring a conservative trifecta here, I suspect. I’m talking about gay marriage and about a Jewish woman’s characterization thereof. It’s not often one can be homophobic, misogynist, and anti-semitic in one post. Ha! Just kidding. Conservatives do it all the time whenever they use any noun!

A new set of Internet greeting cards for Valentine’s Day from the GOP:

That’s something that could catch on. At the very least, it looks like someone over there is Web savvy.

(Originally seen at Bungalow Bill’s, but it’s everywhere now.)

Congratulations to Scott Brown for winning the Senate seat in Massachusetts.

He seems likeable enough; Bookworm calls him a rising star. He’s plugged into how to work the Internet, he can make the skies rain money, and he’s pretty and speaks well.

Let’s not run him for President in 2012.

Because we know that the career path of State Senator -> Senator for less than a term does not yield a good President, even if he’s on our side.

Also, I’m still a Palinsky.

The Springfield News-Leader has a sensational headline: Court sides with sex offenders.

The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with two sex offenders, ruling they cannot be barred from handing out Halloween candy and living within 1,000 feet of schools and child care centers because those restrictions weren’t in place when they were convicted.

Missouri enacted the sex offender restrictions in 2008 and 2004, respectively, several years after either man was convicted. Citing a provision in the state constitution that bars retroactive laws, a divided Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that it would be unconstitutional to force the men to comply.

Huh. Ex post facto laws are unconstitutional. You mean the legislature cannot make my actions yesterday illegal tomorrow and punish me for obeying the law at the time I did something?

Oh, these sex offenders are the current devils against whom any action is proper. I believe that sex offenders are currently the vanguard of the concept of rule of law. Because face it, most people in the mob of our society would bring back crucifixion for these guys if they could. And then it would be crucifixion for lesser crimes. And lesser crimes still.

You know the tea party people, the ones who take off of work to travel to Washington, D.C., to protest? The ones who skip lunches to march in front of their Congressional representatives offices? The ones who show up on Saturday because they don’t like health control reform?

How do you think they’ll like it that the Senate Republican leadership gave in a little early so everyone could go home early for Christmas?

The Senate will still be in session Christmas Eve day, but Democrats and Republicans have agreed to give health care reform a final vote starting at 8 a.m. — 11 hours earlier than originally scheduled. Majority Leader Harry’s Reid’s announcement means that the Senate will be able to finish its business in time for many senators and staffers to get home for the Christmas holiday.

Do you think that will endear the GOP leaders who like their jobs and their perks and their chances to go home early with people who want to fight this thing tooth and nail, all the way?

I think not.

More at Ace of Spades HQ.

The GOP leadership better start thinking about how to show the tea party people that they, too, are serious about principles.

Taking to the streets, smashing things up:

Police have forced back hundreds of protesters who tried to break through a perimeter fence at the UN climate summit venue in Copenhagen.

The Bella Centre, where the conference is taking place, has now been shut off, says the BBC’s Sarah Mukherjee.

When conservatives take to the streets, Democrats in office characterize them as violent mobs. When leftists take to the streets, they are violent mobs.

But as long as Democrats think that television makes the reality, the cognitive dissonance will ring.

You remember this chart?

Click for full size

You know what I think?

A hint from RSMcCain:

Hate to tell Harry Reid, but Danny Tarkanian is running for Senate. He’s beating Harry in the polls.

That’s a lot of new plum government jobs to be had. Coincidentally, it looks as a large number of legislators will hit the job market in 2010. Or is it not coincidence?

How does a couple not on the guest list bypass White House security to get into the premises to mingle with the President and all the President’s men? However does one get through a tight net composed of the Secret Service, the military, and “You asked for miracles, Theo, I give you the FBI”?

By being swarthy, communicating with terrorists, and arguing for Jihad when told they’re not on the list. Same as everyone else.

Somehow, this thought was more wry and amusing before I wrote it. Sorry.

On the national scale, the Republican Party and rightwing commentators say that proper health care reform would include allowing insurance parties to sell across state lines and eliminating state mandates for coverage.

On the state scale, Republican state legislators push for more mandates:

“We know if we pass legislation, we will give these children a better shot,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Glendale, said Sunday at a rally supporting legislation requiring insurance companies to cover therapy for children with autism.

The Republican Party is a large, diverse organization. But sometimes I wonder if it has any core principles. Less government mandating does not seem to be a common bond.

Full disclosure: Senator Schmitt represents my district and is actually part of my township party club.