GOP Straw Poll

Feel free to participate in the latest GOP On-line Straw Poll.

Don't want to spoil the results, but it appears Fred Thompson, he of "Law & Order" (and the US Senate) is running away with the race.

I suppose it's because Dr. Gregory House hasn't formed an exploratory committee.:

Friday Quickies

....I like Sheryl Crow. I like her music, she's attractive, I think she handled her illness with class, and I feel bad that she got hooked up with the despicable fraud Lance Armstrong. That said, this global warming tour, like the public service announcements many Hollywood-types are making, is ridiculous.

Do I really care? About the environment and our dependence on oil--absolutely--see prior posts.

Do I care about her toilet paper nonsense, confronting Rove, etc..? Nope.

What I thought was interesting was the comment made by her friend, Laurie David--who produced the Gore comeback movie:

"We asked Mr. Rove if he would consider taking a fresh look at the science of global warming. Much to our dismay, he immediately got combative. And it went downhill from there,"

Here's the problem in a nutshell. Naive liberals like Crow and David and the rest of the Hollywood pack lend a feeling of fad and silliness to virtually anything they touch. It's hard for us to take seriously someone who thought they could get Karl Rove to have an epiphany on a complicated, politically-charged, hotly debated issue by talking to him at a cocktail party like he was a just-off-the-bus actress-wannabe, or a Hollywood producer--take your pick.

That was the silliest part of this story--even sillier than the one-toilet paper square mess.

.....Watched about 38 seconds of the Democratic debate last night. I would have watched less, but the chill of disgust that ran up my spine caused me to drop the remote before I could switch it off.

.....If you didn't smile at the video of Stephen Hawking floating weightless, then you need to open up your heart a bit.

.....Am reading Michael Crichton's Next, his novel that weaves in many of the issues we will be facing with gene research and use. Scary, and realistic in its approach to the human reactions to the various situations.

Altering genes, creating mixed species, modifying humans through gene therapy and selection-- it makes my head spin. There are some things that as I contemplate them I can feel my mind getting confused and shutting down.

Infinity gets me.

The size of the Universe is another.

How a global economy actually works.

Why someone would vote Democratic.

Things like that.

.....No excuse for my fellow Massapequan Alec Baldwin and his "pig" comment to his daughter. Still, I don't know how many of us would like to hear the worst we've ever said in anger to a loved one played back on national TV.

I know I wouldn't.

So I tried not to listen to too much about Baldwin's tirade--felt a bit like rubber-necking at a car crash, knowing you could have been in that wreck.

That said, I would pay cash money to hear a tape or two of Hillary ripping into Bill after one of his bimbo-eruptions.

....I heard Baldwin's "apology"by the way. That was the truly repugnant act. First, the only person in the whole world he needed to apologize to was his daughter. He didn't owe one to "us" or the media; it was simply none of our business.

Second, I hate "apologies" that contain the phrase "I apologize to anyone who was offended....". That's just saying, hey, I did nothing wrong--but if YOU have a problem, well then....

Third--think there's a Hollywood rehab for chastising a child too harshly?

.....Richard Gere has an arrest warrant out for kissing an actress at an event in India.

Which means Hillary, who is considering using her husband as an "Ambassador-to-the World" better think twice about sending him to India---if Gere is facing 3 months for just kissing a woman, you know ol' Bill will wind up on death row there.

....And now a quote from the great Theodore Roosevelt:

"Optimism is a good characteristic, but if carried to an excess, it becomes foolishness. We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible; this is not so."

Seventh Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1907

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Anti-Catholicism

Betsy's Page has an excellent post on the rising anti-Catholic outcry following the partial-birth decision.

She artfully weaves in: the disgraceful Rosie O'Donnell; cartoons from today and yesteryear; and a scholarly review, all in a nice readable argument. Take a look.

Swift-Boater Wannabes

Outside of Rudolph Giuliani's NYC fundraiser last evening, a group of so-called 9/11 families protested. Since they are protesting a Republican candidate, they, of course, got some news coverage.

These idiots held signs accusing Rudy of bad leadership-- most saying that since he did "nothing" after the 1993 WTC bombings, the 9/11 deaths were his fault. Democrats hope this group does to Rudy what the Swift-boaters did to Kerry.

I have an opinion about the 9/11 family activists in general, which I'll save for another day. Let me just say this-- the families are right that there was one man, other than bin Laden, of course, who should be held by this country as responsible for failing to act after the 1993 WTC bombings, and it ain't Rudy.

After 1993, Rudy wasn't in charge of the FBI.

Or the CIA.

Or border security.

Or air safety.

Or the armed forces.

Or any other branch of government who could have prevented 9/11. or the bombings in Saudi Arabia, or the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania; or the USS Cole.

Nope, it wasn't Rudy.

It was Hillary's husband, the proposed Ambassador to the World.

Let's not forget that.

Weekend Quickies

Thought I might bring back my old Friday Quickies, one more time:

......NBC can couch it any way it wants-- the networks and cable shows, indeed much of the print and video media, are bottom-feeding lowlifes who make money, to a great extent, off of the blood of others and by selling sex and violence to children. The playing of that Virginia Tech animal's video ensures us that there is a twisted 9 year old somewhere who will blossom into the attention-seeking murderer of 2017.

Several years ago, baseball stopped TV from showing the idiots who ran on the field during the game, and the number of them dropped big-time. I know it's not exactly the same thing, but NBC's running of the video to the extent they did was not necessary-- it was just the perpetuation of the Brittney-Anna Nicole- Imus feeding frenzy they throw at us like red meat. Hey, look!!! Another tragedy, real or imagined, to fill up some time and create HEADLINES!!!

.....If Imus could have hung on a few more days, he'd still have his job. Virginia Tech wiped out Imus, just like Anna Nicole's death wiped out the diaper-wearing astronaut. Not only does our media lack depth and reasoning, it also lacks the attention span of a crack-addicted rat with ADD.

.....After the way he abandoned Imus, I'll never respect Tim Russert again. Others left him to twist in the wind, including Mike Lupica, but Russert probably could have had the most influence if he would have stood up for a man who was supposed to be his friend. Even if Imus wasn't his friend, he sure made Russert a lot of money selling his books, promoting his unwatchable show, and so on. Russert often talks about his Dad, even wrote a book about him, and the values his father taught him. Loyalty apparently wasn't a virtue taught in the Russert home.

.....And, yes, I am also ticked off that NBC cancelled Studio 60. It was a good show, with a great cast and a lot of upside potential.

.....(This next piece is changed from the original I posted-- David made a comment which made me think--and on reflection my original post was ill-conceived--originally I asked the following directly of the Rutgers team--and as David points out in the comment, I was asking the wrong people-- here is the amended observation) Now that Imus has been fired, may I ask a simple question, echoing Apple's old marketing campaign? Those of you who were so outraged that you demanded Imus be fired-- what's on your iPod? Are there "artists" who traffic in misogyny and hate? Any songs with the "n" word, or the "h" word, or the "b" word? I hope not, 'cause long before the "h" stood for "ho" it stood for "hypocrisy".

.....Having used the phrase "I don't recall" about a million times, maybe Alberto Gonzalez needs to resign, not because he bungled himself and this woeful administration into an unnecessary "scandal", but because he has health issues-- his testimony sounded like he has memory loss often associated with certain degenerative neurological conditions.

.....Maybe it's time for we adults to start exercising some parental authority again. On the long list of things that the GOP failed to do in their 6 years of control of the federal government was to roll back some of the idiotic, Hillary Clinton- Children's Defense Fund nonsense that permeates our current culture. Example? The law states that colleges cannot release grades or notify parents of health issues (including mental health issues) of their students because the students are over 18 and therefore not minors.

Yeah? In what world? What percentage of college students are truly independent?

There are a whole host of these laws that make reasonable people scratch their heads. The thing is, they are all made by our government--and thus our government can change them.

.....I can't think of anytime in my adult life where I was legitimately undecided about any political campaign. I know it's early, but I have to tell you, I can't make up my mind between Rudy and John McCain. I go back and forth, almost hourly. And so I have contributed to both, and I now list their websites at the bottom of my links. You are encouraged to visit and donate.

And to help inspire you, please note that this week both Clinton and Obama are meeting with, and courting, Rev. Al.

.....And now a quote from the great Theodore Roosevelt:

Life brings sorrows and joys alike. It is what a man does with them - not what they do to him - that is the true test of his mettle.

Kurt Vonnegut, RIP

In the midst of all of this Imus nonsense, we get the sad word that Kurt Vonnegut has died. I remember reading Vonnegut for the first time in high school, maybe in '75-- not as part of the curriculum, of course, but at the urging of one of my more counter-culture friends.

It felt deliciously subversive.

I've read many of his works-- Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse 5 jump out at me. I remember more some of his phrases, and some of his theories.

One in particular I've shared, with appropriate attribution, deals with the seasons. Vonnegut held that there were really 6 seasons-- January and February were clearly Winter. But he felt March & April were still too nasty to be Spring, but too nice to be Winter-- so he called it Unlocking. May and June were Spring, and July and August clearly Summer, and September and October classic Fall. But he found November and December too cold and blustery to be Fall any longer, but not wintry enough to warrant that title-- so he called in Locking.

As in Nature unlocks before Spring, and locks back down in preparation for Winter.

He will be missed. While his voice has been silenced, he has left us with a body of work that is thoughtful and thought-provoking and, most importantly, accessibly entertaining.

Wonderful reads-- in any season.

Don Imus

I listen to Imus many mornings--not always, but fairly regularly. Been doing so since the '70's.

I'm not defending what he said-- no one can.

But, please. Enough. I watched an hour of morning television today-- it's been wall-to-wall coverage of Imus' remarks.

There hasn't been this kind of blanket coverage since the Pope was on death-watch.

It's ridiculous. We have to listen to Rev. Al (Tawana Brawley) and Jesse (Hymie Town) Jackson lecture us on racism? Please. Imus' show is a comedy show. Live. A live comedy show is always going to generate jokes, good and bad, that stretch, push and sometimes break the envelope. For a good analysis, see Fox's Mile Straka's column.

Should Imus apologize? Yes.

Should he be suspended? Probably.

Should the media focus on something more important (I mean besides any story with an Anna Nicole angle?) Absolutely.

On 9/11 I drove to Court listening to a CD-- so I didn't know what was going on until I arrived around 9:30. Today I often flip on the news, on TV or the radio, for a quick dip-in-- if they are at commercial, or are talking about a nonsense story, I know there isn't anything really important going on, and I go back to entertainment.

Listening to all this Imus nonsense is therefore a bit comforting-- must be a slow news cycle if this is what they're in a feeding frenzy over today.

Thank goodness nothing important is going on for them to report about--like, I don't know--- a war or something.

Is It Half-Full or Half-Empty?

A study was just released that tested the effectiveness of reading and math software in helping elementary school kids:

The study found achievement scores were no higher in classrooms using reading and math software products than in classrooms without the new products.

Researchers looked at elementary and secondary classes in 132 schools. The teachers that participated used more than a dozen software products to help deliver their lessons.

The study has been widely reported with headlines and story lines that stress the negative: that the software is no more effective than "real" teachers.

How about reading it this way: We now have educational software that is just as effective as live teachers.

Education is the only place where the economic benefits of our technology revolution have not been felt. Here on Long Island, the land of the $100,000 per 180-day teacher, even where technology is used, it must be with a teacher present-- the ratio of 20-25 kids per teacher (or less) is inviolate.

Ah, but what if studies show that kids can learn basic material using software, with teachers providing supplemental help? What if we move to a day when teachers provide very small group, or even individual, instruction, but for a much larger group of kids, simply because the basics are being delivered through technology?

Wouldn't we then see a day where teachers are paid even more, but where districts can instruct children with less teachers?

Business does this every day. When I was a teenager, instruction for my telemarketing job at Sears was done "live". Just a few years later, my training for a new position was done by video, with a manager simply answering any questions. A much better use of his time. Now, I understand training at most companies is done by interactive programs over the Internet.

Our kids are part of the technology revolution. To make them spend hours sitting in a boring classroom, listening to a teacher drone on, when we could be delivering the knowledge they need in so many better ways is more than a shame--it's a crime.

CNN's caption to the study was "No benefit going high-tech". It should have been: "High-tech matches live instruction".

This is my post for The Carnival of Education, hosted by one of my oldest friends in the blogosphere, The Education Wonks--the best education site on the 'Net, by the way. Check out the Carnival!

Thank You, Nancy Pelosi

I admit to being a discouraged Republican. One of the nice things about blogging is that when I say I've been disappointed with W, I can point to posts I did years ago which support that statement-- I didn't start carping about his incompetence only when his popularity hit bottom. See here, for example.

Still, I want to thank Nancy Pelosi and her fellow travelers for reminding me why I have been a Republican my entire adult life.

1) Her absolutely blundering, amateurish virtually treasonous trip to Syria, combined with the guaranteed-to-cost-American-lives vote to set a withdrawal date reinforced my core belief that these people are unfit to conduct foreign policy. That, by the way, is not a defense of Bush/Cheney by any means. It is just that in my lifetime, quite simply, liberals have been generally wrong on virtually every foreign policy issue: getting us into Vietnam; the failure to enforce the Vietnamese peace treaty, thus allowing millions to die; the fight against communism, including El Salvador & Nicaragua; the unilateral disarmament movement; the entire Clintonian ostrich policy; the Carter/Clinton North Korea "deal"; the failure to act in Bosnia; and on and on.

Bush bungled Afghanistan and Iraq, I grant you. But there is a difference in knowing the right course, and failing, and not knowing the right course at all.

2) The ERA is being discussed again. The ERA??? Am I missing something? When it was defeated the first two or three times, dire consequences were predicted. That it comes alive again when the Speaker of the House is a woman, the leading Presidential candidate is a woman, over half of the students in graduate schools and colleges are women, etc., etc., is truly startling and bizarre. What world are these people living in?

3) The Equal Pay Act: Hillary and others are again raising the spectre of the need for a national act which would somehow balance earnings among men and women. Past plans have included some nonsense about a federal board that would "equalize" pay among jobs-- supposedly putting secretaries on par with carpenters, or some such nonsense.

Do women, by and large, earn less than men? Yes. The Census Bureau tells us the average woman earns about 77% of what the average male worker makes.

Is that a problem?

No. Please, will the adults who are interested in more than pandering to idiots stop this lunacy?

Women earn less, on average for many reasons: they choose jobs that earn less but provide different perqs (like less danger, less travel, shorter hours,etc.); many choose to take time off to raise families; etc. We all know that if a woman is doing the same job as a man, with the same experience, etc. and she is paid less, there are literally thousands of lawyers just waiting to jump on that case.

The war over equal pay for equal work has long been won. What many liberals decry is that in many American families it is still the woman who serves as caretaker, and thus "sacrifices" her position in the economy. The only way to combat this "problem" is by wholesale Federal legislation and an enormous bureaucracy which would decree wages in individual job categories, pay people to stay home with their kids, etc.

I can't sign on for that.

Thus three quick reminders, all in about a week, why I think that people like Nancy Pelosi are now, as ever, wrong on the issues and dangerous to the country's future.