Month: March 2008

It looks like we are finally going to have the long awaited discussion (when did it ever stop) of race in this country and Obama’s spiritual mentor is going to lead it. Not necessarily in the direction he intended. His mentor comes with a mind set which says that poverty is caused by some (white)…

Everybody wants to be first. It’s an American tradition. Right now, there are a lot of “firsts” going around, and the Democratic Party seems to be engaged in a historic struggle over not so much who is first, but over who has the right (an entitlement, as it were) to be first. Technically, Barack Obama…

After dithering about for a day or so Elliot Spitzer will soon be the former governor of New York. I think if Hillary had not been running as a Senator from NY with baggage, he might have held on. He got caught in a power squeeze. And dragging his wife on stage (see picture at…

While I love and defend the free market system, one of the things I most hate about it is that because of the constantly changing nature and range of products for sale, there’s no way to evaluate what you’re buying until after you’ve bought it, and worst of all, there’s no guarantee that something you…

Yesterday, I opined that what’s happening to Eliot Spitzer couldn’t be happening to a nicer guy. That’s because he’s part and parcel of the system that did and does to people the very things that are now likely to be done to him. Roger Kimball (via Glenn Reynolds) questioned whether Spitzer is a genuine hypocrite,…

Why do some “ladies” get paid thousands an hour for sex services? Supply and demand. It is not just about sex. It is also a social occasion. You might actually want to have a conversation with the lady between “jumps”. Now how many upper middle class well educated good looking ladies do you find who…

There’s not much I could add to the clamor surrounding Eliott Spitzer’s call girl capers, other than to say that it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Hell, I might as well just quote myself. Spitzer is a control freak par excellence: Spitzer has a long history as a control freak, whether it’s constantly messing…

We all have obsessions. I’m as guilty as the next person of having mine. But I try not to become too obsessed politically, lest I develop that disease of hyper-obsession known as “activism.” I had my fill of activism and activists when I was in Berkeley, and I know the creature well. Not only can…

In an earlier post I attempted to apply some of my grandfather’s wisdom to today’s political mudslinging — especially his advice to my father to “never get in a peeing contest with a skunk, because you’ll smell like him.” I figured, if the scandal-saturated Clintons are like skunks, then the more Barack Obama reduces himself…

This morning I read something nice about blogging — that it — along with Google, Starbucks, domain names, Spam (the meat, not the digital junk), professional wrestling, lingerie and teenagers — may be a recession proof industry. I like that, as I’d hate to think that “the economy” and what it allegedly is going to…

In today’s Inquirer, Temple University Math professor John Allen Paulos offers a somewhat utopian proposal to move the world towards “heaven on Earth“: …candidly recognizing the absence of any good logical arguments for God’s existence, giving up on divine allies and advocates as well as taskmasters and tormentors, and prizing a humane, reasonable and brave…

My grandfather used to advise my father when he was a boy, “Never get in a peeing contest with a skunk, because you’ll smell like him.” And my decent, well-meaning father passed along that wisdom to me — along with the following, seemingly contradictory bit of wisdom: “Always stand up to a bully.” Juxtaposing these…

I saw the Chambers Brothers do this live at the Fillmore. If you were there with me and my friend Ed Herny, how did you like the magic cookies? Inspired by a discussion of the latest McCain commercial at Althouse. HT Instapundit

Suppose there was trouble in the hood. Suppose you were the head Code Pinker. Who would you call? Who else? You call the Marines. Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin, who can turn the air blue when shouting chants against American Marines called out for the Marines in front of Marine Recruiting offices in Berkeley yesterday.…

“There’s no such thing as normality in sex.” So says Vancouver sex therapist David McKenzie, in a generally stodgy Globe and Mail piece about how much time people spend having sex. Don’t expect me to contradict an expert!

Former Weather Underground leader Bill Ayers (recently in the news for his Obama connections) has a “funny” sense of humor, and apparently no regrets about setting bombs: ”I don’t regret setting bombs,” Bill Ayers said. ”I feel we didn’t do enough.” Mr. Ayers, who spent the 1970’s as a fugitive in the Weather Underground, was…

When I clicked on Glenn Reynolds’ link to a CBS story titled “Obama’s Rezko Ties Escape National Radar” I found myself drawn to a comparison made by the Clinton campaign to the press coverage of the Norman Hsu fugitive felon/campaign contribution affair, described as much more vast in scope and breadth than that devoted to…

The Bussard Fusion Ram Jet has its own song. It might go well as an introduction to the Bussard Fusion Reactor. Cross Posted at Power and Control

….could this election get any wackier? Tom Maguire wants to know. (Via Glenn Reynolds, who calls McCain the Unity Candidate.) Tell you what. The front page of today’s Inquirer promises “an absolute zoo,” as the election is coming to Pennsylvania, ready or not. The problem is, Pennsylvania is where I live, and I don’t think…

I’m still recovering what’s left of my sanity from the shock of the last few days, which can best be described as an aggravation of my post traumatic Clinton stress disorder. Let me try to explain what I have tried to explain before. I have a serious, serious problem with putting the Clintons back in…