What can you say about a guy who has absolutely no chance whatsoever to win his party’s nomination for the presidency but who keeps fighting for respectability anyway? I’m torn between admiring Joe Biden’s spirit and wishing he’d just give up and I’m leaning toward the latter. Like Chris Dodd, Biden’s still out there swinging…
Author: marc
Marc is a software developer, writer, and part-time political know-it-all who currently resides in Texas in the good ol' U.S.A.
Christ not Welcome in Prison
Here’s an example of the sort of ideological boondoggles that today’s polarized, us-against-them power struggles produce on a regular basis here in the old U.S. of A: The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that government support for the InnerChange Freedom Initiative at Newton Correctional Facility — a program operated by Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship Ministries…
Chavez Shot Down
The Venezuelan people emerged victorious after the referendum that would have granted President Hugo Chavez vast powers to further the conversion of the South American nation’s economy into full-fledged socialism. In Caracas, Valencia, Maracaibo and other major cities, large crowds spilled into the streets, shouting, chanting, clapping and waving flags. One man carried a sign proclaiming,…
"Shock Troops" Disavowed
After months of wrangling over Scott Beauchamp’s disturbing little war story entitled “Shock Troops“, The New Republic has acknowledged that it cannot stand behind the facts of the story as printed. The repudiation piece is about 10 times longer than the bit that sparked the controversy, a sure sign that there’s some excuse-making to be…
Be Happy, Be a Republican!
A Gallup poll of over 4000 Americans indicates that Republicans have significantly better mental health than their Democratic counterparts. Various statistical perspectives are graphed as well, all showing Republicans as being significantly healthier. Gallup’s key conclusions: Previous analysis (see Related Items) shows that a number of variables are related to self-reported mental health — including,…
Shove Off, Chavez
Not long ago the NY Times wrote about Hugo Chavez’s “extraordinary experiment” in oil-fueled socialism thusly: In two weeks, Venezuela seems likely to start an extraordinary experiment in centralized, oil-fueled socialism. By law, the workday would be cut to six hours. Street vendors, homemakers and maids would have state-mandated pensions. And President Hugo Chávez would…
A Palestinian State?
The NY Times has a transcript of the speech read by President Bush at Annapolis yesterday here. The key bits: The Palestinian people are blessed with many gifts and talents. They want the opportunity to use those gifts to better their own lives and build a future for their children. They want the dignity that…
Spare the Rod
More silliness from one of the bluest states of them all: The Boston Herald reported that State Rep. Jay Kaufman filed the spanking ban petition at the request of an Arlington, Mass., nurse who wants Massachusetts to become the first state in the country to stop corporal punishment. Personally I don’t really care what the…
Red-lining Black America
Jesse Jackson said today that mortgage companies and other lenders discriminated against black Americans by “profiling” them and that the rash of home mortgage foreclosures could initiate a “sustained depression”. Am I being naive or is what J.J. calls “racial profiling” is more commonly known as “risk assessment”? One of Jackson’s sources is the National Community…
Huckabee’s Religious Roots Showing
Fred Barnes at the Weekly Standard says: The new 30-second ad that Mike Huckabee has put on the air in Iowa represents a quite remarkable step in presidential politics. Maybe my memory betrays me, but I don’t recall a major presidential candidate who made such an unabashed, unambiguous appeal for support on the basis of…