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November 30, 2004
Bowling for Houston
I drove to Houston last Tuesday in the middle of one of the worst storms I have ever been in. For the first hour or so it was dry, but soon there was a giant cloud ahead of me that was flashing multiple bolts of lightning each second. It was cool to look at from a distance, but the rain and wind were so strong that I was only doing 30-40 mph down I-10 for about an hour of the drive. By thanksgiving the sky was perfectly clear.
I was one of those people who got up at 5 am the day after Thanksgiving to go the mall because my sister-in-law wanted to go. I ended up not buying anything and went home after a few hours to sleep some more and most of the stores I wanted to go to were closed anyway. JC Penny’s gave us one of the smallest snow globes I have ever seen for being one of their first customers of the day. My wife’s high school had an alumni event that night that included laser tag and bowling so I enjoyed going to it this year. Laser tag is one of the only sports I usually win at or at least do very well. My score card said I had the most hits of anyone this time and my accuracy was 60%, but many of the people playing had never played before. I almost broke a hundred points in bowling. I bowl about once a year and I suspect that if you do not bowl more often then that you will always be as bad as I am. The highlight of bowling was when one of the women who had graduated from my wife’s highschool was talking on a cell phone in her left hand while she bowled with her right hand. I think that may top my list of people who do not know when to put the phone away. At least my score was slightly higher than hers.
Posted by Pete at 10:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 29, 2004
Liberals and the UN
The thing I find hardest to understand about liberals and the UN recently is how reluctant many liberals have been to get to the bottom of all the corruption and scandal that has plagued the institution in the past. It was Reagan that forced the UN to reform UNICEF. Without Reagan cutting off funding, UNICEF would probably still be as corrupt as the Oil for Food program was and innocent children would have suffered the most. The recent problems that have plagued the UN have hurt most the people liberals supposedly care the most about with the results of the corruption and unethical behavior being the genocide of minority groups, child prostitution, mass rape, starving and sick children, the funding of repressive ditatorships, etc..
I guess the choice comes down to two possible outcomes for liberals. The first is that they care more about the ideal the UN is supposed to be and are unwilling to face the reality of what it has become. If this continues to occur, then the UN will not be fixed and the innocent and weak will continue to suffer, but no one gets their dreams about what the UN is hurt. Their other choice is to face the music, admit the UN is really incredibly messed up, and try to fix it. This will be very messy, will make a lot of people upset, and may not even work because the rot in the UN is very deep.
I think liberals have their place in society and one of their jobs is to defend the weak and "speak truth to power". Here is their chance to do it.
What steps to take next to fix the UN problem? Glenn Reynolds and many others suggest appointing someone with great integrity and a commitment to freedom and justice (such as Vaclav Havel) chairman of the UN. I think Havel will be a great chairman, but it is going to take a massive effort to fix the problems in the UN and no one man can do it alone.
Posted by Pete at 03:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Phil Gramm
There are rumors that Phil Gramm wants to be the next Treasury Secretary and I think he would be a great choice. Phil Gramm is the ideal Republican in a lot of ways: an old angry cheap guy that is not going to waste any money. That is the main reason God put Republicans on this planet.
My main problem with Bush (and Republicans in general over the past 10 years) has been that he has not done anything to even slow the growth of non-defense oriented government spending. Now Bush never really claimed to be a small government Republican guy, but a lot of the rest of the party did and so far they have yet to actually cut the size of government and are as free with pork and waste as the Democrats were when they ran the country. Considering that most of the federal government budget goes to wealth redistribution (social security, agriculture subsidies, etc.) it should not be too hard cut it or at least stop the growth.
While in the senate Phil Gramm did more than anyone else in the senate to slow the growth of government and to make the government act fiscally responsible. He would be a great choice to help Bush stop spending so much.
Posted by Pete at 03:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 23, 2004
No More Flooding
Today was much calmer than yesterday. There has been hardly any rain and even thouh it was supposed to be raining right now the sky is fairly clear here. The raging river that bisects campus was still going strong, but it had gone about ten feet back from where it was yesterday afternoon when I walked by.
Posted by Pete at 03:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Washington Nationals
So they picked the most boring name they could for the new Washington MLB team. Even the Senators or Grays would have been better than the Nationals. If they ever win the National League Championship, they will be the National League Champion Nationals. That sounds silly and redundant.
Previous related post here.
Posted by Pete at 03:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Dan Rather Quitting
Dan Rather is now officially going to quit his role as anchor for CBS News, but will continue to work for 60 Minutes, which is where he first aired the forged memos slandering Bush.
Jim Gerargty has four descriptions of the reactions to Rather leaving. My reaction is close to his Blogger Reaction Two: "This half-step by CBS is garbage, and they know it. Announcing this the Tuesday before Thanksgiving is comparable to announcing the news late on a Friday afternoon. The internal investigation - which we may never get to see at this rate - probably found that the entire CBS News structure is like the DNC press operations shop, only less accurate and with lower standards, and so this is the Sauronic Eye’s way of sweeping it under the rug. They’re every bit as bad as they were before the memo story ran, they learned nothing from this incident, and they ought to be thanking their lucky stars that an angry mob in pajamas carrying pitchforks and torches doesn’t march down to corporate headquarters like in some black and white monster movie."
Little Green Footballs and Powerline who were both major players in bringing the memo fraud to light say that no one from CBS's "investigation" into this fraud have contacted them. After all it is not like they have anything relevant to say about what happened here.
Dan Rather should be fired for gross incompetance and false reporting. This is not good enough.
Posted by Pete at 03:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 22, 2004
Flooding
A minute ago a national gaurd helicopter (according to the TV) with a rescue basket hanging underneath it just flew past my window on its way to downtown and is now circling my neighborhood. The TV news says it is looking for someone to rescue.
Posted by Pete at 02:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Basketball Brawl
I was mad about the Pistons/Pacers/Fans brawl when I saw it replayed. I agree that the Pacers players acted inappropriately, but I have great sympathy for their situation. Fans should never assault players. When they do and are caught I think a permanent ban from all sporting events should be an appropriate punishment. Some people are talking about taking away the fans season tickets for the season in addition to criminal charges, but that is not nearly enough of a deterrent Once a fan assaults a player, throws something onto the court/field, or steps onto the court/field uninvited, they should never be allowed to attend another NBA, NFL, MLS, MLB, NHL, NCAA, NASCAR game, etc. and if caught at one they should be arrested for trespassing and sent to jail. If the leagues want to stop stuff like this from happening again, that is only solution I see working short of putting a giant net around the field of play. In this case the fan who threw the cup of ice and the fan who rushed onto the court should both also spend time in jail (one for battery the other for trespassing and possibly for assault depending on what he said). So should the ones who threw beer and a chair at players. Stopping the sale of alcohol might help as well, but that is not going to happen. Also, the next time Indiana plays in Detroit, I would be OK if no fans were allowed to attend.
I agree that Artest and Jackson (who went into the stands and attacked fans) should be punished, although I think Artest being suspended for all of this season is a bit much. I think O Neal (who punched the fan who came onto the court) should not be punished. If a fan comes onto a court and starts yelling at a player like that fan did, it is rational for the player to assume he is being attacked because of past events (see the Monica Seles stabbing incident and the assault on the Royals coach in Chicago) and he should be allowed to defend himself. My main problem with the overall punishment was that it was a Pistons player and Pistons fans who started the whole thing, but it is the Pacers who are bearing most of the brunt of the punishment with the suspensions. They overreacted, but they reacted not initiated. Considering that these two teams faced each other in the conference finals last year, this the punishments from this incident could be a net benefit to the Pistons in their chances of winning another championship, which is not the sort of reinforcement these incidents need.
Some related links: Juan Non Volokh thinks commissioner Stern is a coward with fans and blames the fans for the incident. Lennox is really %*&$# mad about it. Here is a summary of the penalties to players. Because of the suspensions Indiana only had six players for their last game. My revious post on fan incivility is here.
UPdate: The Kerry Spot has a long post on the social/political implications of the brawl. Also, is there any chance that people could be prosecuted for incitement to riot in this case? The first cup thrower for instance.
Posted by Pete at 12:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Flood
So most of San Antonio is currently under water. We have not had a big flood for about 2 years and it looks like today may break that streak. The calm stream that usually runs through campus and is normally about three feet deep has gone up to about 30 feet past its normal banks and is now a raging river. The river was still rising as of an hour ago and it only needed to rise about five more feet to start washing out into the parking lot my car was in before I drove away. Normally I can look out my window and see the downtown skyline, but right now I can only see about two hundred feet. I can barely even make out the outline of Alamo Stadium, which is just across the street. I am on high ground now and am safe, but was hoping to drive to Houston Tuesday night and it looks like that may not happen now.
Posted by Pete at 12:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 19, 2004
Slate, Ammo, and Dogs
Slate is quickly becoming my favorite source for liberal slated news. Sure it has a regular line up of liberal pieces, but it tries harder than most other liberal news sources to have balance and at least try to understand groups that liberals often do not try to understand. This week they had this article about someone learning to shoot guns for who started out almost too afraid to touch ammo and by the end realized guns are simply machines. Their article on the marine shooting an unarmed Iraqi was well written and thoughtful, even if I did not agree with some of it. They also have articles that do not seem very politically related at all like today’s article on what to do about dangerous dogs by Jon Katz. I have read two of Katz’s dog books so far and I am always impressed that he sees how important dogs are to human society, but still understands they are not people no matter how much we treat them that way. Slate also hosts writers like Mickey Kaus who while liberal, is not afraid to go his own way on issues like welfare reform or how terrible a candidate Kerry was.
Compare this to liberal magazine Salon, which is pretty much one “Bush is the worst president ever” / ”we are better and smarter than red state voters” article after another. They used to have at least token dissenting authors, but not anymore. Why bother reading these stories when you already know what they will say? Plus Salon makes you sit through adds or pay to watch. A good thoughtful online political oriented magazine (or good blog) should have content that advances a point of view, but also allows for some dissent and has some content that is not very political, but still thoughtful. I think for conservatives National Review Online meets this description well, as do many conservative blogs.
Posted by Pete at 02:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 18, 2004
Are you ready for some football?
Both the Kerry Spot and Buzzmachine have interesting takes on the Mondy Night Football episode earlier this week. Jim Geraghty at the Kerry Spot points out the obvious: When I'm watching a football game, I want to watch the football game.
I felt the same way when watching the world series two years ago. There were constant promos of Fox actors for that show about a pr0n producer that was cancelled after about three episodes. I suspect Fox may have spent more time promoting the show than it did actually airing it. It really detracting from the experience of watching the games. How hard is that for the networks to understand? I watched a lot less of the world series this year.
Jarvis at Buzzmachine thinks this is much ado about nothing and that networks should be allowed to broadcast without FCC restrictions on content. I asked him if he thought this should include full frontal nudity and explicit sex scenes and he not responded to my question yet. I think you can make a well reasoned case that the FCC should allow these things to be broadcast, but if we eliminate FCC regulation of all content as Jarvis advocates having full nudity on broadcast TV is a likely eventual result of the deregulation and he needs to be honest about that.
Posted by Pete at 11:05 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Royalty
Whenever anyone English criticizes the U.S. and its political system, point them to articles like this. England still has a prince who thinks people should not rise above their station in life. Why the English still put up with royalty is beyond me. Kick them out of the palace and make them get real jobs.
Posted by Pete at 10:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Target and the Salvation Army
If you have not heard, Target is not letting Salvation Army bell ringers collect donations in front of its stores this year (see hugh hewitt for more details). I worked for the Salvation Army during the summer of 1998 while I was in college. I was at a mission in the western part of Philadelphia and they gave me a wide variety of tasks. The two men in charge of the mission were both former drug abusers and one was a former gang member who had both turned their lives around through the Salvation Army and were now dedicated to helping people in similar situations.
Most of my activities involved supervising kids at the summer program, but they also included doing door to door mission work where we asked people in the neighborhood how the Salvation Army could help more and talked to them about Jesus. My fellow intern and I are both white and when we walked around the neighborhood people knew we were from the Salvation Army because Salvation Army people were the only white people who ever walked around the neighborhood like that. The Salvation Army also had "Body and Soul" meetings where there would be testimonies and food given out. I do not think I have ever worked with another agency that did as good of a job helping people with both their physical needs and their spiritual needs.
What Target has done is stupid, but I do not think intentionally bad. I suspect they were tired of people asking to solicit and they ended up throwing out the one organization they should have made an exception for. Think about the name "Salvation Army" for a minute. If no Salvation Army had ever existed and today someone came up with a name like that for a Christian group, people would freak out. But the Salvation Army is one of the most universally respected Christian organizations in the country because everyone knows it does such a good job taking care of people in need. Hopefully Target will change its mind before the Christmas shopping begins or else a lot of people in need will be forced to go without. That should be worth the annoyances of the old policy.
Posted by Pete at 09:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Gerrymandering and Scalia
A while ago I blogged that it might take the Supreme court to fix the gerrymandering problem. According to this liveblogging report by Letters of Marque, Scalia does not sound like he is to eager to step in. Here is the relevant part:
"Q: Comment on court's role in protecting integrity of political process. E.g. Vlieth. About gerrymandering.
Scalia says: "that's not corruption; that's good old politics." It's nothing new. Not unconstitutional. Fighting corruption is okay if there's a law against it. Nobody thinks that all gerrymanders are bad. Ct. never has a majority to say what criterion of too much gerrymandering is. Nobody willing to say that any political influence is too much. Can't pick a line. Kennedy said, "don't know what the line is, but there should be one." People are "wandering in the wilderness with a lamp" looking for a standard. If there's no discernible intellectual line, this is almost the definition of non-justiciable. If you can come up with a line, he'll sign on."
It sounds like it may be up to individual states to solve the problem. Hopefully they will follow Iowa's example and let a third party do redistricting.
Posted by Pete at 08:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 17, 2004
Grades and Studies
This story on how much (or how little) college students say they study does not surprise me even though it conflicts with some of my experience as a recent undergrad. The story claims that only 11% of college students study for more than 25 hours a week, yet 40% of students report getting mostly A's. I attended a competitive undergraduate university where most weeks I studied for more than 25 hours and my grades were pretty evenly split between A’s and B’s. I studied less than many, if not most, of my fellow students. I was a philosophy and religion double major and those were not the hardest majors work wise.
This biggest surprise for me in graduate school (at a state university) is that it has been easier for me than undergraduate (at a private university) was, both in how hard I had to think and how much work was required. It was not until this semester that I had to start doing work at night and on weekends regularly for grad school, but I had to study at night and on weekends each semester during my undergraduate studies. I have taken 12 hours the last two semesters and had to argue with my advisor to be allowed to take that much. When I tell people I am taking this many hours they often think I am crazy for taking this many hours at once in grad school. Even though I worked harder at my undergraduate classes my GPA at grad school when I graduate is going to be at least .5 higher than my undergrad GPA was at graduation.
I think it mainly depends on what school students are at and what major students are in. I was talking to a history major from a big Texas state university a few years ago who was almost through her junior year and who had never had to write a paper in college. Meanwhile the engineers and math majors I knew at my school had all written papers at least for their common curriculum classes by the end of their freshmen years. I only minored in history and I still had at least one paper for each history class I took. I also wrote more papers per class in my undergraduate studies than I have in my graduate studies. Although the study is not surprising, it would be interesting to see the stats broken down by major, by school (or at least type of school), and by what type of studying the students do.
Posted by Pete at 01:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 16, 2004
Fair Weather Federalism
Instapundit linked to this article and this Hit and Run post about how the left is starting to embrace Federalism, although only because it is convenient not because they believe it is a better system of government. As a Federalist myself this may be a good thing, but I am doubtful that either of the major parties are interested in real federalism. Republicans supposedly were interested in it, but then you have Elizabeth Dole imposing a country wide standard drinking age, George Bush and the No Child Left Behind Act, republican justice departments cracking down on medical pot, etc.. Some actions like the drinking age and No Child Left Behind are technically voluntary for states to comply with because states only lose their federal funding for roads or schools if they go their own way. These are frustrating because in the end these are issues the states should be deciding for themselves. If Texas wants its drinking age to be 18 is it really any of Elizabeth Dole’s (now a Senator from North Carolina) business?
If the issue does not involve interstate activity or some regulation obviously needed on a federal level like weights and measures, for the most part Washington should not worry about it. A lot of issues like gay marriage really should be left to the states. If people in Vermont want gay marriages, then they should be allowed to have them, as long as people in Arizona are not forced to recognize them if they do not want to. A federal law stating it is up to each state would be fine by me and would solve the one legitimately federal issue regarding marriage and that is the issue of having states recognize each other’s marriages. I personally think we would all be better off letting each state decide issues like abortion (which was how it was before Roe v Wade). Let the federal government worry about how to kill terrorists and make France mad and other legitimate Federal issues.
I suspect much of the bitterness that arises in politics in this country arises from when one group tries to impose its will on the rest of the country. This seems to be what happened with Dred Scott and the Civil War with states trying to impose slavery on each other and what happened with abortion when it became a federal issue. Now it is happening with gay marriage and letting each state decide for itself on the issue could avoid a lot of the bitterness and leave a lot more people less dissatisfied. I am slightly opposed to gay marriage (I honestly do not care much about that particular issue as it relates to the government), but if the people of Massachusetts decide they want it that is fine. If some judge in Massachusetts decides that Texas has to recognize gay marriage when the people of Texas clearly do not want to, then I have a problem with it
One reason I live in Texas is that I think the laws here are better than where I lived before, California. Besides obvious differences like taxes there is a general sense in California that the state should be involved in everything. There were dozens of propositions on each California ballot that deal with often trivial issues. One of the last votes I cast while in California was against a proposition banning the consumption of horse meat by humans. Not that I have or ever will eat horse meat, but it was none of the state’s business whether I do or not. This year one of many big issues in California was a proposition to put billions of state dollars into stem cell research. This is despite the fact that California does not have billions of dollars to put into the research and that it has the worst bond rating of any state in the country. Of course both propositions passed. The great thing about federalism is that I get to laugh at California for having such a messed up government. And I am sure there is some Californian laughing at Texas because we put people to death on about a weekly basis or for some other reason. As long as Californians are not stopping me from eating my horse burger here in Texas and we Texans are not executing criminals in California we will all get along just fine.
Posted by Pete at 03:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Man Bites Snoop Dogg!
In a truly shocking turn of events, violence breaks out at the Vibe Awards as rapper Snoop Dogg (who was acquitted of murder several years ago) was a about to give a lifetime achievment award to Dr. Dre. One person was stabbed and some witnesses report Dr. Dre was involved in the fight. Suge Knight said, "It's really important that we don't take a negative incident like this and do away with the awards"
In completely unrelated news Dr. Bill Cosby (who unlike Dr. Dre actually has a doctorate degree) is still being criticized by some for "airing African-Americans' dirty laundry in public." Some of Cosby's concerns include parents spending money on overpriced clothes rather than their children's education, children not speaking proper English, and the celebration af black criminality.
Posted by Pete at 10:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Whatever happened to the left?
Hindrocket asks: "Today, the liberals' response to the spread of freedom is one of sour disapproval. They attribute the liberation of 50 million to a weird "neocon" conspiracy. They call President Bush a "liar" when he speaks of his desire to help Arabs and Muslims realize their God-given right to be free.
Whatever happened to the left? When did it give up on the cause of freedom? I don't know. But the American left's abandonment of the cause of liberty is one of the saddest facts of modern history."
If I had to put a date to it it would be 1968, but that misses the point. Not all of the left ever supported freedom in the first place. A good chunk of the left does not want us to be free and never has. Many opposed tyranny, but only if it is a right wing tyranny. They were (are) cool with left wing tyranny like the Soviet Union and Cuba. Today many leftists hate America (left wing tyranny's greatest enemy) more than they love the oppressed. Had France (with Michael Moore taking point) led the liberation of Iraq and had America stayed out of it and if we had the same results in Iraq that we have today, the left would be much more cool with it.
These leftist are distinct from the FDR and JFK style liberals who genuinely opposed all forms of tyranny. But note the pre 1968 date in relation to those two names. Hindrockets original post I linked to above was in response to an Amnesty International flyer equating Republicans with Nazis. That a once respectable group like Amnesty International could put out a flyer like this shows how far the left has fallen, especially since Republicans have freed far more people from tyranny over the past 30 years than any other political group of people on the planet.
Posted by Pete at 09:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 15, 2004
ACLU and Boyscouts
I am not as bothered by the recent decision that military bases will not be sponsoring Boy Scout troops as many others are. I am an eagle scout and spent a good bit of my time as a scout on military bases and being trained by military employees. We camped at the marine base Camp Pendleton, toured aircraft carriers, and received survival training from a Navy Seal at one summer camp. The Boy Scouts is a paramilitary organization and was first set up by Lord Baden Powell partly to train young boys for a military life. Most of how the scouts are set up (ranks, uniforms, patrols, etc.) and what they do (first aid, shooting, hiking, etc.) are pretty obviously military in nature when you think about it. The military should be involved in Boy Scouts since it is a good recruiting and training ground for future soldiers. But helping out and funding individual scout troops are two different things.
The hatred by the left of Boy Scouts is pretty disturbing. Bill Clinton refused to attend the national Jamboree when he was president (the only president ever to refuse). If you recall four years ago the Democrats invited the Boy Scouts to be a color guard at their convention. And then booed them when they came out on stage. The Democrats booed children they had invited to their convention. There is something morally sick about the left and its hatred of the Boy Scouts and I suspect it is because the scouts are unashamed of their support for God, country, and moral values. Even though I think the decision the Pentagon made was correct, I suspect the motivation for the ACLU complaint in the first place was born of this same moral sickness.
Posted by Pete at 08:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
UN and Oil for Food
According to congressional investigators the UN Oil For Food Scandal now is estimated to have illegally funneled over 21.3 billion dollars to Saddam. For all the talk of what the UN could be, it most clearly is not an honest organization and is not willing to enforce its resolutions. Which begs the question of why it should still exist if it is unwilling to enforce the resolutions that pass the security council.
Remember this the next time someone says we had Saddam contained before the war. This is 21.3 billion answers that say Iraq was no where near being contained.
Posted by Pete at 03:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 12, 2004
Episcopalians and Druids
Considering that one of the first actions of Rowan Williams as the current head bishop of the Anglican church was to become an honorary white druid this story should not be surprising: Two Episcopal priests who led Druidic activity will not be suspended, said a bishop, who blamed the local scandal on conservative groups out to destabilize the Episcopal Church USA. (via best of the web)
Posted by Pete at 04:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Kerry Diary
This Newsweek story made the rounds a few days ago. According to Newsweek John Kerry recorded meeting with terrorists in Paris in his diary. I am bothered by the fact that Newsweek chose not to publish this information until after the election was over.
The best part of the story though is John Edwards reaction to it: Edwards was flabbergasted. "Let me get this straight," the senator said. "He met with terrorists? Oh, that's good."
For a brief moment I really felt sympathy for John Edwards.
Posted by Pete at 03:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Magnanimous Victory
I few days a ago I wrte this post in response to the magnaimous defeat post at Barlowfriends. Now there has been the mother of all responses to Barlow posted over at Dean's World and I thought it only fair to link to it as well. I agree with most of what Dean writes, although I seem to hate leftists a lot less than he does. It is probably not possible to be much more blunt than Dean is here and still be civil.
Posted by Pete at 03:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 11, 2004
Liberal Groupthink
This is one of the best articles on liberal groupthink in academia I have read. As someone who spends a lot of time as a student and (hopefully) soon an employee at a university this seems true to my experiences. A few months ago one of my graduate professors assigned an article to read that was so in love with all things diversity (except having conservative viewpoints, that was about the only diversity catagory the author left out) it seemed like the author had never been seriously challanged on this. No argument was made: It assumed that all diversity was good and this was a self evident truth and that the reader automatically accepted this. (Aha! I just found the article: This Trend Called Diversity by Sandra Rios Balderamma; Library Trends; Summer2000, Vol. 49 Issue 1, p194.)
As an undergrdaute there was not as much groupthink, but it depended on what department you were in at my school. My advisor did his graduate work under Robert Nozick so I got more exposure to convservative and libertarian philosophy than most other philosophy majors probably do. I still do not understand why so many liberals and leftists teach this way. My best professors have defended the minority viewpoint and good teachers should at least occasionally make their students defend positions they disagree with. I wrote papers in college arguing in favor of Marxist and other viewpoints I did not necessarily agree with just so I could learn more and challange myself.
Posted by Pete at 07:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
21 Names
Ilana Turgeman. Rachel Aputa. Yocheved Mazoz. Sarah Ben-Shim'on. Yona Sabag. Yafa Cohen. Shoshana Cohen. Michal Sitrok. Malka Amrosy. Aviva Saada. Yocheved Diyi. Yaakov Levi. Yaakov Kabla. Rina Cohen. Ilana Ne'eman. Sarah Madar. Tamar Dahan. Sarah Soper. Lili Morad. David Madar. Yehudit Madar.
Those are the names of the first 21 children Arafat murdered in 1974. He murdered many more after that along with many adults.
Arafat won a nobel peace prize in 1994.
Posted by Pete at 04:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Voting Reforms I Like
If I were a national or state legislator one of my pet issues would be voting reform. Although I am not particularly bothered by the example in this article about a house candidate who won without being on the ballot, I am bothered by gerrymandering and other voting problems. It is one of those situations where it is fairly obvious to me what the solution is, but no one wants to fix all the problems, just the problems that their political opponents are guilty of so nothing gets fixed.
Here is my list of reforms that I think everyone should support no matter your politics.
1. Eliminate gerrymandering and make all congressional districts based primarily on geography. It may take the Supreme Court to enforce this since it seems that neither party is too interested in doing this. Maybe we could double the number of representatives while we are at it to make the races more competetive.
2. Make sure the person voting is allowed to vote (non-felon where relevant, citizen, at least 18, not dead or a cat, etc.) and only allow them to vote once per election. To do this you need to eliminate the practices like same day registration, make sure all states coordinate their voting registrations so that people are not registered to vote in more than one place, and require a state or federal issued photo ID to vote.
3. Have non-partisan third party observers/inspectors. These people will have the tricky job of making sure there is no intimidation and that there are no symbols of any candidate or any other form of campaigning near the poling place. Who will these people be? Maybe people from big accounting firms or some other neutral place.
4. Paper trail. Each electronic vote spits out an encripted (update: see comments) receipt like an ATM that goes into a sealed box. This allows for recounts and lowers the incidents of conspiracy theories when one side loses.
5. For really important elections (like president) just have a sheet of paper with big print for the name of the candidates with huge boxes next to each name. Then give everyone voting a pencil.
This last reform will never happen.
Update: Iowa has solved problem #1 by having a third party do its redistricting. Instapundit thinks this is a big issue now because right now gerrymandering benefits Republicans more than Democrats. I think this could be a winning issue for centrist Democrats and Republicans and do not care who it benefits in the short term. I care more about the long term health of our democracy than I do about who wins any particular election.
Posted by Pete at 03:03 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
November 10, 2004
Bush Did Better Everywhere.
According to this Real Clear Politics chart (via instapundit) Bush got a higher percentage of votes in 2004 than he did in 2000 in every state except for South Dakota and Vermont. Even in New Hampshire, which was the only state for Bush in 2000 and Kerry in 2004, Bush improved. New Hampshire switched to Kerry because of third party voters in 2000 going for Kerry in 2004 not because of a lower percentage of Bush voters.
Posted by Pete at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Climate of Fear Part 12
I forgot to link to this story earlier, but on election day the tires were slahed on 30 vehicles Republicans in Wisconson had rented to transport voters to the polls. The police have arrested several suspects including the son of recently elected Democrat congresswoman Gwen Moore and police want to talk with Michael Pratt, the son of Democrat Marvin Pratt, the former mayor Milwakee. It is really hard for me to take Democrats complaints about stolen elections seriously when it looks like the children of their political leaders are doing stuff like this.
Posted by Pete at 09:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Why I Am Not An Episcopalian Anymore
This corner post is priceless. Rod Dreher received an email celebrating the demise of Christianity in this world and which tried to insult President Bush by calling him our Bible-believing president.
The author of the email: an Episcopal priest. That about sums it up for me.
A few years ago I was talking to my former Episcopal priest who was now at a different Episcopal church and who had recently given a sermon on Jeremiah. He thought it was a good sermon and was telling some of his fellow priests at a meeting about it. They all though he was crazy as none of them had ever done a sermon on anything from the Old Testament. We are talking about close to a dozen other priests each with an average of at least ten years of experience. The Old Testament they said was all about hate and the New Testament all about love after all. No need to ever the study the Old Testament. This past Sunday my pastor was able to give a sermon that quoted from both the Old Testament and the New and the quotes seemed to agree with each other somehow. Amazing.
Posted by Pete at 09:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 09, 2004
Berlin Wall
Today is the fifteenth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. (via instapundit) I went to Berlin and the surrounding area about 4 1/2 years after the wall fell to visit my aunt that lives in Germany (she actually lived in West Berlin during a good bit of the 80's). You could tell just by looking around the city which areas had been communist and which had been free. The free areas had some of the nicest buildings, streets, stores, etc. that I had ever seen. The eastern parts of the city looked like they had been falling apart for years. Then when I went out to the eastern parts of the country you could see even more problems. People in the east were still driving those tiny cars that you could tell had been designed by by a committee of party members. A lot of the teenagers had recently replaced the back seats with huge speakers and were blasting techno as loud as they could. For some reason a techno remix of Somewhere Over The Rainbow was very popular that summer. Yes it was as bad as that sounds.
I spoke almost no German at the time, but most of the West Berliners I met spoke English while the East Germans I met tended to speak Russian. Many of the Easterners I met were interested in learning English. No western Germans were interested in learning Russian. Even then some of the Germans I met were complaining about Turks who moved there and some of the Germans I met were not happy that any foreigners were in their country (including temporary visitors like me). Raus auslanders (foreigners out) was one of the first phrases I learned and I saw some people who I think were actual neo-Nazis.
When I told Germans I was from California most (especially the young ones) were very excited and made comments like beach party and surfer! For the most part I said, sure I go to the beach all the time. I even told them I saw Hollywood celebrities every once in a while. Both of these statements were true enough. I saw sections of the Berlin Wall that were still standing and that reminded me how we lucked out twice in the past century. We could have lost the cold war and we could have lost WWII. The parts of the wall still standing today are proof of that.
Posted by Pete at 02:09 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Advice for Dems
Instapundit linked to this post over at BarlowFriendz where he says he (a liberal) will try to take the other side seriously the next four years. So I left him this advice (this is what I really believe the Democrats need to do, not like this):
1. Get serious about defense. You have not nominated anyone who was a serious candidate in this area since LBJ. This was ok in the 90's when no one cared about defense, but it is not anymore. Nominating someone who made a carreer in the senate voting to cut intelligence and defense spending and who voted against the first gulf war and can not make up his mind about the current war is not going to cut it. Unfortunately for you there are not many people in your party who fit this criteria, but there are some. And related to this: always be opposed to fascism and terrorism even when Republicans oppose it too.
2. Get some new ideas and some vision. Besides having a very bold foreign policy vision, Bush is also pushing an ownership society. This 27 year old is glad that I may get to invest and own my money that otherwise would go to the government. What exactly were the Democrats new ideas and vision this year? That Kerry served in Vietnam? That he wasn't Bush? Not good enough. That fact that the Vietnam War was a central issue in this campaign for Democrats even though it ended over 30 years ago does not bode well for your party's vision of the future. It ended several years before I was born. Have I made my point?
3. Stop with all the conspiracy and Bush=Hitler crap. Accept that you lost. If you must worry about stolen elections make sure your worry is bipartisan and try to affect solutions that eliminate ALL voting fraud and intimidation. I disliked Clinton a lot, but when my Clinton hating friends blamed him for murders and stuff I told them to shut up and that they sounded insane. It is time for you to tell some members of your party to shut up as well because they sound insane.
4. Do not make lame excuses about why your side lost other than that people rejected your message. That is almost always the reason why parties lose elections. Not because the message did not get out etc. Work on your message (what was it again this time? Oh, that your guy was not Bush) and maybe you will have a chance in two or four years.
Posted by Pete at 09:19 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
November 08, 2004
Bush Magic
Why did George W. Bush win the election? Evil magic of course. (Via best of the web) I think the original poster to the thread was serious, but it is so hard to tell sometimes. Anyways, it looks like the Republican party has lost the much sought after pagan vote for good.
Posted by Pete at 02:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 07, 2004
Climate of Fear Part 11
San Fransisco State University is not a safe places to be if you are a Republican or Jewish. There have been repeated attacks against Jews there over the past few years for which the attackers were not punished. And this week Republicans were attacked by a mob on election day for supporting Bush. When the victims asked campus police for protection they were told they would not arrest the attackers and should leave instead.
At this point I do not think there is any reason to treat this university as a serious place of higher learning as it does not protect minority view points or even minority safety. Maybe it is time for them to lose their status as an accredited university.
Previous Climate of Fear post.
Posted by Pete at 07:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 06, 2004
Climate of Fear Part 10
And so it continues. This time in North Carolina as people unhappy with the election outcome break into a Republican office, vandalize it, and burn stuff.
Previous Climate of Fear post.
Posted by Pete at 08:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 05, 2004
Predictions Part 2
According to this my prediction of the final vote percenteges was still pretty close. I predicted 51% Bush - 47% Kerry - 2% other. According to Yahoo! News with 91% of precincts reporting it is now 52% Bush - 47% Kerry - 1% other. That is a 5% point difference between Bush and Kerry with Bush getting 4,669,283 more votes tahn Kerry so far. I think Yahoo! will keep updating this as more precincts report.
Posted by Pete at 02:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Post Election Signs
Most of the election yard signs that were up on Monday are gone now. I saw more Kerry than Bush signs around my part of town this year even though Bush carried my county. The Kerry website is still up. I wonder how long sites like the kerry spot will stay up now that it is over? Have Kerry supporters began taking off bumper stickers yet ot will they hold on to them out of a dislike of Bush like Gore supporters did? I am not planning to take off my W'04 sticker any time soon.
Even though lots of campaign veterans say these signs and stickers matter, it is hard to convince me of that even though there is a lot of evidence I am wrong. Same thing with GOTV stuff and commercials and phone calls for the candidates. Most of the evidence points to the fact that this stuff works, but it is so far from the reason why I (and most of the people I know who vote) would ever vote for anything it is hard for me to accept this.
Posted by Pete at 12:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
When the Man Comes Around
Here is one of the more popular montages about Bush among conservatives on the web recently. I have seen it linked to on many onther conservative websites. To any liberals reading this, what is your reaction to things like this? Are you amazed that anyone could like it? Do you understand why anyone could think this about Bush and the world?
Posted by Pete at 09:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bobby Jindal
One of the most under reported and most interesting stories of this election is Bobby Jindal being elected to congress in Louisiana. This guy was almost elected governor at age 31 two years ago and in two years will be old enough to run for the Senate. He is an example of a case where age does not seem to correlate to skill as a leader.
Posted by Pete at 08:58 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Stupid or Evil?
I have mixed reactions to the leftist screeds of the past few days. It is fun to read people this wrong being this frustrated and angry, but scrary since they honestly believe everyone who disagrees with them is stupid or evil. Here is a lovely example from Salon.com:
I am sick to my stomach, literally sick. I hate this man, this president. And what I hate most of all, I suppose, is that I am sharing a country with nearly 60 million people who look at this disaster of an administration, and think it's a good thing. Us intellectual liberal types aren't supposed to say it, but let's pretend I'm Ann Coulter for the left: How fucking stupid are those people? And why in God's name should I, and my children, be punished because they're so fucking stupid?
Or as the London Daily Mirror put it: How can 59,054,087 people be so dumb?
Here is another Salon reader who thinks Bush is a monkey, that the people who voted for him are stupid, and is glad for the death and suffering Bush will cause: The vacuous, simplistic, thimble-deep "majority" that reelected this trained monkey and his henchmen/corporate backers, ah, I mean "administration," will get what they deserve, free and clear. Let the body bags keep rolling from the Middle East, let health care get hollowed out, let the evisceration of the middle class roll on unabated, let civil liberties get erased in name of "moral values," whatever the fuck that is.
Here is a comment by a reader in a different Salon article from today ironically about the liberal echo chamber saying that Bush supporters are not rational: These people did not make rational judgments, and you are not going to get any insights into their minds that you would not get from reading a magazine article.
And here is a lovely quote from the Guardian once again comparing Bush to Hitler: "Ach," says Oliver James, the clinical psychologist. "I was too depressed to even speak this morning. I thought of my late mother, who read Mein Kampf when it came out in the 1930s and thought, 'Why doesn't anyone see where this is leading?'"
For what I think is an example of a wise response that could help us all I recommend the Backseat Philosopher (via instapundit) who lists several reasons why the Democrats have problems and areas they need to work on: Our error is that we Democrats are far less understanding than we think we are. Our version of understanding the other side is to look at them from a psychological point of view while being completely unwilling to take their arguments seriously.
Posted by Pete at 07:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 04, 2004
Pictures of the Day
This is why I will never live in San Fransisco. San Fransiscans upset with Bush being reelected show their unhappiness by swearing a lot, attacking police officers, and setting stuff on fire. (via LGF) One of the best parts of a Bush victory is that people like this are really upset today.
Posted by Pete at 04:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Concession and Kids
I am glad that Kerry has as much class as Nixon and spared us a repeat of 2000. I was not sure he had it in him after Edwards comments on election night and from what I read he had people like Edwards telling him to fight on even after it was obvious he had lost. For whatever reason he made the right choice.
I listened to a good chunck of his speach as I was driving home and the only thing I did not like about it was his mention of children giving him money. Lileks agrees and puts it this way: then there’s the odd riff about the kids who gave him money for his campaign. I never understood the appeal of this meme. Kids don’t know anything about politics; they’re just reflections of their parents’ desires, and the idea of little kids handing piggy banks to a guy who’s married to a billion dollars seems unseemly.
I do not know if they are a reflection of their parents desires. I liked Reagan and Bush when I was in elementary and middle school and i kow my mom at least did not. But even though in reflection I think I was right, at the time it would have been foolish for the Republicans to put me on the convention stage to give a speach like the democrats did with a kid this year since I did not know anything and adults should not have listened to my views about politics. Adults teach kids about these things, not the other way around. And if I were Kerry I would have refused the money the kids gave him and if I had accepted it I would be too ashamed to admit it. Kerry is talking about taking money from freaking six year olds! I wonder how these kids will react to his loiss now?
I can support kids with cool W shaped hair though just because it is funny.
Posted by Pete at 08:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Blue Speck
Here is a pdf of how the different counties voted in this election. I am pretty sure the little blue speck in the heart of Texas is Travis county where Austin is. I thought Bexar county where I live and where San Antonio is would be a blue speck also. It looks like from a quick read of this map the only big urban areas bush won were San Antonio and Dallas/Ft. worth.
Posted by Pete at 08:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Reason and Revelation
Over at Reason they are quoting from the book of Revelations about John Kerry: Because Kerry was neither hot nor cold, America spewed him out.
Posted by Pete at 07:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 03, 2004
Predictions
I predicted in this post that it would be Bush 51% Kerry 47% in the popular vote and Bush 308 Kerry 240 in the electoral college. It looks like I was almost right on in the popular vote and off by about a dozen votes in the electoral college.
Posted by Pete at 09:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Gerrymandering
As much as I am glad that the Republicans picked up 5 seats in the house, I am not glad that they did it through Gerrymandering.
Posted by Pete at 08:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Top Ten Recommendations
In the spirit of bipartisanship I offer the following suggestions to the democrats in light of what looks like their recent loss at the polls. (Kerry please have as much class as Nixon!) I composed these yesterday afternoon, but they are true today. If they follow these I am sure they will have much better results in the elections four years from now.
Top Ten Suggestions for Democrats and the Next Presidential Election:
10. Run someone from Taxachusetts, I mean Massachusetts, or another North Eastern state. Americans love people from that part of the country and it is not like all the winning candidates since 1964 have come from either the South or California.
9. Run a pretty boy inexperienced candidate for VP like Quayle or Edwards instead of an experienced policy guy like Cheney or H. W. Bush. We care more about having a handsome guy with good hair one heartbeat away from the presidency than we do someone who actually might make a good president.
8. Change positions. Having only one position on vital issues like the war in Iraq is boring and Americans do not like boring. At the very least have four different contradictory positions on at least one major issue, but go for as many as possible.
7. Pessimism. Whether on war or the economy Americans love pessimists
6. Make sure your guys resume is unimpressive. You would not want your candidate to have written any important legislation over the course of his 20 year career in the senate or have other impressive accomplishments, that might distract from his unlikable personality.
5. His personality needs to be unlikeable. We do not want to have elections decided by which candidate you would like to have at your home for dinner, so make sure you get a guy no one particularly wants to listen to or have around.
4. Bring up your opponents children when no one asks about them. America loves a good fight especially if it involves bringing up members of your opponents family.
3. Knee jerk pacifism and anti military sentiment. Whether it’s voting against the first gulf war, supporting dramatic cuts to our nation’s intelligence budget, or calling our troops war criminals while they are held in P.O.W. camps, Americans always love people who always love pacifism.
2. Bow down to France. Defending our nations sovereignty means just extra worries and decision making and who likes that? Americans do not that is for sure. And if at all possible nominate someone who speaks French and brags about secret endorsements from foreign leaders next time.
1. Most important of all: bring up Vietnam a lot since there is nothing Americans like talking about, debating, and remembering more than Vietnam.
Posted by Pete at 01:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Time for Bed?
It looks like a lot of other bloggers from Dangerous Dan to the Kerry Spot are giving up for the night. Wusses. Arnold is on Fox! How can you go to bed! This election is like digital crack for people like me and there is a good chance our supply will be pretty low for the next few months. Better smoke it while you can.
Posted by Pete at 01:38 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
DU Threats
Why we should still be worried even though it looks like bush won. This post and many others like it at Democratic Underground (too many websites and Apple Wine Product to keep track of where I found this link think either Dangerous Dan or the Corner). Many Bush haters will not take this election result peacefully. I think we should take statements like: I will fight these thugs in the streets; The revolution starts tonight; Something tells me I may get in a fist-fight tomorrow...Well, only until I pick up a club or something; etc. very seriously. That combined with the many statements that most Americans are idiots/brainwashed or Kerry really won do not bode well. I hope there are not riots or assassination attempts, but I would not be surprised if there are.
Edwards just came on TV. Says he will fight for every vote!? That is it. Please not another Florida. Please for the sake of our nation and the democratic experiment have as much class as Nixon.
Posted by Pete at 01:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Dem Panic Watch
Mickey Kaus is another liberal I read a lot and can respect. He had a regular feature this year called Dem panic watch aboiut how it was always time for Democrats to panic because they had nominated Kerry. He really does not like Kerry and was not happy when he won the nomination. I think it might be time for panic now.
It is not too late for them Dems to pull a Torricelli! Oh wait, maybe it is.
Update: I forgot, Kerry is a good closer!
Posted by Pete at 12:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Buzzmachine and the Death Penalty
I usually like Jeff Jarvis and Buzzmachine. He is a liberal I can read on a regular basis and still respect even when I disagree. I suspect he meant this comment to be a criticism because he does not like the death penalty:
As if in tribute, Texas executes a man tonight.
Although I am not a huge fan of the death penalty I am a huge fan of Texas and actions like this remind me why. If you are going to have the death penalty you need to use it and in Texas we for sure use it.
Posted by Pete at 12:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 02, 2004
Wine Recommendations
Vodkapundit had wine recommendations for todays election. My price range is a bit lower so I recommend Boone's Farm Fuzzy Navel a Flavored Apple Wine Product. I bought a 25.4 oz bottle for $1.99 a few weeks ago and will have it finished off by the end of the night. Fox just called OHIO for BUSH!!! Take another drink! I may go watch CBS just to get the look on Rather's face.
Posted by Pete at 11:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A Kerry Landslide?
Thanks to this post on AndrewSullivan.com we know about Kerry's landslide today. He also has observations about NRO and panic here. I think this proves once and for how overly excitable Sullivan is.
Posted by Pete at 11:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Election?
Apparently there is some sort of "election" going on today for something. I have not heard anything about it yet so I think I need to go investigate and find out what all the hubbub is about and who is running.
Posted by Pete at 05:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Long Voting Lines
This corner entry by Jonah Goldberg got me to thinking that maybe making people vote after waiting in long lines is a good idea. If you have to wait all day to vote you can only vote once or twice, thus lowering the chance of fraud by people going from precinct to precinct and voting in each one, which is not difficult to do in states like Minnesota.
This year was my longest wait to vote ever and I only had to wait about ten or fifteen minutes so I might disagree if it happened to me.
Posted by Pete at 11:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Let us not be like the Dutch
The Dutch have not been doing well recently. First a Dutch politician who was critical of intolerance in Islam, Pim Fortuyn, was assinated (his killer said he did it for muslims) and now it appears that a muslim has murdered a Dutch film maker for criticizing Islam. This is why I post the climate of fear postings. It has happened hear before and can happen hear again and almost did the other day when someone attempted to assasinate congresswoman Kathleen Harris (R-Florida). Even today in Wisconsin tires were slashed on 30 Republican rented vehicles preventing them from taking voters to vote for Bush.
Posted by Pete at 09:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Osama and Will
I watched the movie Osama yesterday about the girl in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime who had to dress as boy in order for her family not to starve. President Bush recommended that people watch this movie to see what life was like under the Taliban since it is based on a true story and from my conversations with people who have been in Afghanistan the past few years and from what I have read it seems accurate. It was very well acted and directed and, alhtough depressing, it is good to know that because of the U.S. military it is no longer the reality in Afghanistan at least.
Stories like this make me wonder about some people in the world. I was reading a letter to the editor in Salon this morning that said people should not worry too much who wins the election and that progressives need to not get so upset because:
If you're progressive liberal, aren't violence and war obsolete?
The writer was trying to make another point, but there are people out there who still honestly believe this. It is statements like this that make it so hard for me to understand where modern leftists are coming from. Their world is a world run by rules based on their will not rules based on how the world is. If they will that violence and war are obsolete, then that removes the necessity of us ever having to use war or violence. The only problem is that the world is not run by will as much as these modern day Schopenhauers will it to be so. Individuals are run by will, but by their will not anyone else's will. The problem with willing war and violence to be obsolete is that war and violence are always going to exist as long as there is life no matter what you will. The Taliban were never going to lay down their arms by willing them to because they have wills of their own and guns to back up their will. Neither was Saddam or Hamas or Fascist Germany or Imperial Japan or Imperial England in 1776 going to lay down their arms voluntarily. The only way to get them to lay down their arms was to either kill them or kill enough of their confederates to scare them into laying down their arms. Willing them to do so does not work. I think this sucks and will it to be otherwise, but war is and always will be the way of the world and I, and we as a society, must accept that reality.
Posted by Pete at 08:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 01, 2004
My Guess
Everyone else is guessing what the final result will be: Here is mine:
Popular Vote: Bush 51% Kerry 47% Other 2%.
Final EC Vote: Bush 308 Kerry: 240
Swing States: Bush gets Hawaii, Wisconsin, Oregon, Iowa, Ohio, Florida, West Virginia, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Missouri, Arkansas, and one Maine vote.
Kerry gets Washington, New Jersey, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and two Maine votes.
Hopefully I am wrong and Bush gets 52% and 339 to Kerry’s 46% and 199.
Posted by Pete at 05:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Climate of Fear Part 9
Now Democrat teachers are physically attacking Republican students for being Republicans(via the corner). Thankfully they have a written confession from the teacher and the victim of the assault will be pressing charges.
Previous Climate of Fear posting.
Posted by Pete at 10:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack