Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from January 2, 2011
5 Pieces of Advice For President Obama (Political) 5. Give the Republicans everything they want on the domestic policy front, while issuing cheap, symbolic, rhetorical slams from here until November, 2012. Among your true believers, you'll be a spineless, unprincipled worm, but in winning presidential politics, it's called, "pivoting." 4. Maybe hiring another dude from Chicago as your next Chief of Staff wasn't the best way to dispel the opinion on the right that your real talent lies in cronyism. If you absolutely owe him a favor, bury him (in the bureaucracy, that is) somewhere with a ton of money. I won't say a word, Mr. President. I'm here for you. 3. Because Iraq has already said that the end of 2011 will be the end of our combat mission there, definitely do keep this promise. Your left flank called; they wanted to know where you are keeping Anti-War Candidate Obama. Moreover, does anyone even know what the *&@! we are actually doing in Afghanista
The 5 Best Things About Today 5. Prayer. 4. Talking with my buddy Jason Ford Smyth. 3. The fact that I read what I regard as the most beautiful word in English in the Wikipedia article on Richard Dawkins . Bonus points if you guess or remember my favorite word. 2. That today is today. Think of it for a moment: We all could have died in our sleep last night. For some of us, to die is gain. But some, not at all. 1. That Part V of my series, "The Woods" is written, and Part VI should be written today.
Almighty God, Lord and Giver of Life, we praise You for our lives, made as we are in Your own image. So much did You love us, you sent your Son to redeem us, and you keep us and teach us by your Holy Spirit. Yet we suffer greatly, and we do not see as you see. We do not understand. If we said that we did, we would forget the place you have given us, and we would dishonor your holy Name. Instead, grant us many graces to endure well, to not lose heart, to weep as those who know your goodness. Be patient when we forget. Bring us those who know when to speak and when to be silent. Lord Jesus Christ, the Scriptures say of you, "Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." Mighty God and Prince of Peace, we ask that you would carry our afflictions in a special way now. We know that you suffer with us, and you are inviting us to suffer with you. Just as it appeared hopeless in the dark hour of your death, so it may appear now. And we also remember how you wept at the de
In contrast to the feckless, inane, dismissive stupidity from E. J. Dionne I referenced yesterday, Peter Beinart is exactly spot-on. And this is why the Tea Party has a chance to not be co-opted by the Republicans. (Full disclosure: I am of the opinion that Peter Beinart, while often wrong, says something interesting or useful 86.9% of the time.) Anyway, the issue of foreign intervention is not going anywhere, and any serious discussion of national financial solvency must by necessity include the possibility of major cuts in defense spending. However, before the Republicans tie me up and burn me at the stake Latimer-style, (ahem) I would point out that entitlements (Medicare, Social Security) have an even bigger share, depending on how you look at it. If the Democrats were any better than the spineless invertebrates on the ocean floor, (that is, consistent with the application of their ideological outlook and flow of policies) they'd man up and impose a means-test for both, but es
I was watching one of my favorite shows the other day, and the characters paid homage to one of the worst songs in pop history. No, everything Britney Spears has ever recorded is vastly superior to this idiotic slime. Yes, I said it. And I mean it. The sick, twisted part of it all is that the artist (justly, probably) and his former band define popular music itself. But the song that inspires me to want to punch someone in the face every time is "Imagine," by John Lennon. This 4-minute bucket of dog-piddle is the reason we have a culture-war in the first place, and not that this is a good thing. If you attended university in the US any time in the last forty years or so, you know the grubby guy with the crappy goatee who is always blathering about "corporate interests" or some such? This is his favorite song. Ditto, Marxist college professor. I don't even have to think war is a good idea to think, "You'd have to be a first-class buffoon to believe that&
E.J. Dionne is a terrible columnist. Not only does he represent the institutionalized "left" in our country (as close to completely insane, wrong, and backward as you can get right now) but he doesn't even argue such a case with nice words. At least with Buckley, Krauthammer, and heck, even Mark Steyn, I enjoy reading them even when I disagree. And I do. But this: "Thus the new majority will open the next Congress with a full reading of the Constitution and establish a rule requiring that every new bill contain a statement citing the constitutional authority behind it. My first response was to scoff at this obvious sop to the tea party movement. One can imagine that the rule's primary practical result will be the creation of a small new House bureaucracy responsible for churning out constitutional justifications for whatever gets introduced. But on reflection, I offer the Republicans two cheers for their fealty to their professed ideals. We badly need a full-sca