You Mean It Isn't All About Obama?

Somehow, I doubt this was an issue during the last administration. As in, I'm confident no one put up a picture of Dubya. Because there would have been someone screaming about the injustice of it all, and the pervasive effort to inflict a totalitarian regime, yada yada yada.

Cheers to the individual with the spine to point this out. And for those who think I'm repelled by the original actions here, I'm actually irritated that Washington and Lincoln's birthdays were ever rolled into one generically labelled holiday. If, in the interest of improving .gov efficiency by making sure that there was only one day off instead of two for the holidays (snort), combining was necessary, it could have at least had the president's names still appended to it.

Speaking of efficiency and the government, it certainly is refreshing to see that our current president, in the interests of drawing attention to the "green" benefits of the porkulus bill, will board Air Force One to fly out to Colorado for the signing of the Great Leap Forward that will save us all from the evil that is capitalism. Of course, when you're dispensing notional dollars like cheap hard candy in a July 4th parade, what does a jet exhaust carbon footprint or the cost of fuel, support services, and local economic disruption for security matter?

There are different standards for the plebes, apparently.

Heh. Hehehehe. Bwahahahah!

I'm not a big fan of McCain. Especially after McCain-Feingold. But he's better than the alternative, not that there's much that could be worse. But I like him, or at least his staff a little better after reading this.

We're about due for a commu... ahh, Democratic presidency, just because most people will vote for change for the sake of change. Me, not so much. Besides, this time it's a choice between a centrist dictator and a lighter version of Pugsley Chavez. I don't see a whole lot of win for me in the next four years, so I say go for the throat, Col. Tigh, and spit his trachea out on the floor. Entertain me. It'll probably be the only thing you could do in the next four years I'd support.

Some Random Thoughts On The 4th

A happy 4th of July to all, especially those who are celebrating it in a filthy, hot, hostile environment. May your 4th be singularly quiet and peaceful, with time to catch up on some sleep, a decent shower, and an above average meal.

Happy Bitter, Religious, Gun-Clinging, Redneck Day

Alternatively known as Patriots' Day to those of us not among the urban elite.

Journalism and Society

Blatantly copied from

Small Dead Animals


Journalism blithely builds bridges for others to use to transport troops into the heartland. It has lost the skill to differentiate behavior that is antithetical to any society. As a surrogate for readers, it chases what it claims to be objectivity so hard it can no longer identify and label misbehavior. It does so because journalism -- and the programs that teach journalists -- can't see what they can't see. When they can't see what they are missing no traction exists to convince them what must be done to recover their purpose.
[...]

Journalism does not see a society at risk. Thucydides, wrote "The History of the Peloponnesian War" 2,400 years ago about the war between Athens and Sparta. Thucydides warning to readers is that just as Athens' weaknesses became its strengths and her strengths became her weaknesses, so do those lessons apply for all nations even today. The great strengths of America have been the roots of her foundation, her liberty, her wealth and her isolation, her unfettered press, her education, and her political processes. These strengths are the weapons turned back against us so long as we fail to recognize our strengths can be double-edged.

Two hundred years of stability have left America believing the freedom citizens enjoy is more permanent than it is. Her liberty is presumed to exist by nature rather then the product of constant vigilance. Her wealth and her isolation have let citizens become complacent. Her education has turned into schooling of easily-tested clichés that supplant honing skills to think. Her unfettered press allows propaganda to be injected unchallenged into every corner of the country into minds unprepared to defend themselves against it. Her political processes have become adversarial, tuned more towards winning power than serving principle. She is, as Athens was, at war with herself as much as with any external enemy, yet does not anticipate the consequences.


We've been starting to pay for this attitude, and I think there's worse to come.