Weekend Pundit

Democratic National Convention - Third Night

2008-08-28T02:57:46Z

It's Night Three of the Democratic National Convention and the time of decision has arrived.

It was after I returned home from an errand that my wife informed me Obama was nominated by acclimation after Hillary Clinton interrupted the roll call votes of states to ask the delegations to do so.

I have no doubt 18 million people that voted for her felt disappointed.

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Hillary's speech on the behalf of the New York delegation, and her motion to suspend the convention rules and allow nomination of Barack Obama by acclimation, certainly seemed to bring the party together. But I wonder how many of the die-hard Hillary faithful will actually vote for Obama come November? Some polls suggest 20% or more will not vote for him. That's a substantial number. However it doesn't automatically mean the disaffected will vote for John McCain.

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The headliner tonight was former President Bill Clinton.

I find it interesting he has so drastically changed his tune in regards to Barack Obama's qualifications to sit in the Oval Office. Tonight he praised him to high heaven. Only a few months ago he was slamming him for being so inexperienced.

Bill Clinton did bring up the Republicans claims during the 1992 campaign that Clinton was too inexperienced and too young to be President. Obviously Clinton was not. But Clinton was the governor of Arkansas, the type of office that does give the kind of experience one needs to become President.

Barack Obama has none of that kind of experience. Not one bit. Clinton was a font of experience in comparison to Obama. He's never had to run a state, never had to balance a budget, never had to make the tough decisions of the kind a governor makes. His time in the Illinois and US Senates adds up to less than 6 years. And in all that time he's done little in the way proposing and passing legislation.

That doesn't bode well for one aspiring to the highest office in the land.

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Joe Biden's son gave a rousing introductory speech for his father. I have no idea if he has any political ambitions, but he could certainly follow his father into office. There's some talk that if the Obama/Biden ticket wins in November, Beau Biden could be appointed by the governor of Delaware to fill his father's Senate seat.

Biden praised Hillary Clinton, graciously mentioning that she will continue to make great contributions.

He then accepted the nomination as Vice President, and did it with uncharacteristically few words. (He is known as a talker, being able to use 500 words when 10 will do.) He also made a Freudian slip, talking about the nomination of George Bush, then corrected himself and saying John McCain.

He then got into bashing John McCain, using the phrase "That's not change. That's more of the same!" He talked about some of the votes McCain made, not bothering to mention that in many cases he himself made the same vote.

Basically it was the same liberal tax-and-spend blather, saying black is white, up is down, Left is right and Right is wrong.

Will an Obama administration stand up to Russia as Joe Biden claimed in his speech? Or will they merely make strong sounding noises, yet do nothing? I believe it will be the latter and not the former.

Biden is claiming Obama was right on withdrawing the troops from Iraq, and John McCain was wrong. Biden conveniently forgot to mention that Barack wanted to surrender two years ago when withdrawal meant a bloodbath and the need to return at an even higher cost. Now that conditions have changed in Iraq after the surge, a staged withdrawal makes sense. Yet Biden is claiming Obama was right all along?

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The night closed out with the surprise appearance of Barack Obama after Biden's speech. A nice finishing touch.

Tomorrow night is going to be interesting.

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A closing observation:

My wife was telling me a number of her clients were opining the Republicans shouldn't even bother to hold their convention because the Democrats have blown them out of the water. My words to them: Remember that the Democrats were preaching to the choir, a Democratic choir. Do they really think there won't be similar actions and speeches at the Republican convention?

States And Towns Tightening Their Belts

2008-08-27T23:16:43Z

The upcoming budget season for towns and cities here in the Granite State is going to be a tough one. It will be no less difficult for the state, with the governor calling for department heads to draw up two budgets: one tight, the other tighter. I expect it's not much different in other states, many of which are suffering from the same problems being seen here in New Hampshire.

The word is out across New Hampshire: money is tight and it's going to get worse. Town officials know their residents are having a tough time of it, with much higher fuel and food prices. The last thing the people need is to worry about paying higher property taxes or fees. It comes down to a choice of cutting budgets or raising taxes, and towns are looking very hard to hold the line on spending.

But even town officials are feeling the effects of higher oil prices, with the cost of heating fuel, gasoline, diesel, and asphalt going up. Even if the overall town budgets do not increase, the towns will need to change priorities, shifting funds from other programs and departments in order to cover the increased energy costs. Some towns will defer maintenance on roads or other infrastructure for a year, hoping energy prices will fall or that the economy will recover sufficiently to take the strain off of the individual taxpayer's budgets.

One challenge both the state and the towns will have to meet is declining revenues. Revenues from building permits and vehicle registrations have fallen off as the economy has tightened, meaning even more work needed for the budgeting process.

At the state level, revenue projections from the last bloated budget were woefully optimistic, with the revenue shortfall expected to be $200 million by the end of the biennium. (The state of New Hampshire runs under a two-year budget.) With the drop in revenues from the same decrease in vehicle registrations, as well as fuel taxes, cigarette taxes, and a host of other user fees and business taxes, the state must tighten its belt, too. The governor ordered some spending cuts to reduce that shortfall, but more cuts will be needed to erase the rest of the deficit even if those cuts are made for the upcoming two-year budget. At this point raising taxes would be a non-starter, particularly if state legislators want to be re-elected this November.

Some hard choices will need to be made.

At the state level, rolling back the outrageous 17.5% budget increase of the present budget would be a good start. Much of the state revenue shortfall can be blamed on the oversized budget and the unrealistic revenue estimates used to justify the increases. (The revenue projections for 2007-2008 were unrealistic even without the big boost in energy prices and softening economy, so the blame cannot be laid entirely on those two issues.)

At the town and city level, the choices will be harder. The effects of budget cuts and tax increases are felt and seen in very shortly after they take effect. When budgets are cut oft times they lead to lay offs of town employees, reduction in overtime, reduction of office hours, cutbacks in extracurricular activities at the schools, loss of tutors and teaching assistants, and so on. Tax increases, particularly during troublesome economic times, leads to loss of homes by taxpayers unable to pay their property taxes. Businesses will defer paying their property taxes in order to offset increase costs and decreasing income in other areas. This leaves the towns in the lurch because revenues fall off even more. It's a Catch-22, with everyone in town caught in between. The town budgeting process will have to balance the two needs, perhaps erring on the side of caution and making painful cuts to town spending. But it's something everyone can understand, something most of us have had to do with our own budgets when money is tight. Non-essentials, the want-to-haves, are put aside to meet needs. And so it must go with town spending. It's going to be interesting times around here for the next few months.

Now if we could only get the federal government to do the same thing.

Democratic National Convention - Second Night

2008-08-27T02:04:53Z

We've survived the first night of the Democratic National Convention, the only high points being speeches by Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama. Let's see what the Democrats have in store for us tonight.

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Tonight's headliner? The big speech delivered by Hillary Clinton.

There's no doubt this isn't the speech she was hoping to be making at the convention.

The question about her speech has got to be this: Will it be what she says, or how she says it that will be remembered?

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Is this 1992 all over again?

Apparently the state of the US economy is the number one issue of the campaign at this point, with the war in Iraq being a distant second. Can Obama win based upon economic issues just as Bill Clinton did 16 years ago, even though the economy isn't nearly as bad as the media and the campaign rhetoric make it out to be?

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There was a slew of speakers tearing into John McCain during today's convention session. That in and of itself is no surprise. But at least they could have been original rather than reading from the same script.

As far as they're concerned John McCain isn't enough of a Democrat because he supported some of George Bush's moves in regards to the War on Terror, the economy, and energy policy. He's guilty of being a Bush clone because he's a Republican!

I wasn't aware John McCain was supposed to be running against Obama as a Democrat.

Someone inform the media!!

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After a video paying tribute to Hillary Clinton, she was introduced by her daughter, Chelsea. Call it a rhyme, an echo of last night's headliner, Michelle Obama.

The video was well done, no doubt about it.

I wish I could say her rhetoric was as well done. At least she let everyone know that she's proud. She said it often enough.

She claims George Bush's leadership has failed over the past eight years. I guess she has a short memory. All one needs to do is remember September 11th, rousting of the Taliban out of Afghanistan, chasing Obama bin Laden into Waziristan and making him nothing more than a tinny voice heard every once in a blue moon when an audio tape could be smuggled out of the mountains where bin Laden hides. I certainly don't call that a failure.

She laid out a lot of plans for a Democrat-dominated government - the House, the Senate, and the White House - implying that all would be cured once that day came. The lame would walk, the blind would see, the ignorant made smart, our enemies made to melt away, the economy would magically heal itself, oil would flow from every faucet, our teachers made powerful, our children indoctrinated, global warming reversed to bring on a new Ice Age, partisanship eliminated by eliminating political opponents, make the government the provider of all things and the controller of all our lives. After all, we aren't capable of making decisions for ourselves.

Yeah, and pigs will fly.

She also slammed John McCain, making it appear he is nothing more than George Bush in other clothing. I think McCain's voting record says otherwise.

She mentioned our country has been around for 232 years. I fear that if the Democrats get their way, America will likely become unrecognizable, and our freedoms and our economy will fade away. We will likely become more and more like Europe and something unique will have died, and done so to the adulating cries of "Obama! Obama! Obama!"

She used every cliché in the book.

No surprise there.

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And so the second night of the convention comes to a close.

Democratic National Convention - First Night

2008-08-25T23:17:25Z

First, I am not claiming to be unbiased in my reporting on the Democratic National Convention in Denver. While I will report on some of the speeches and activities taking place there, I will also be offering my opinions about them as well. I will do my best to separate the two such that anyone reading my posts will be able to differentiate the two. But I'm not perfect, so please bear with me. If I get it wrong, feel free to tell me. The only thing I ask is that anyone doing so be polite. Invective/expletive laden comments will be ignored and deleted. Period.

Second, I will not be covering every minute of the convention. I have a life that requires me to go out and earn a living in order to pay a mortgage, bills, and web hosting fees, as well as a family that requires my attention, including helping my son get ready to enter high school in a couple of days. Get used to it.

With those caveats in mind, Let's get started.

Note: Newer entries are at the bottom.

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A report on this evening's ABC News Tonight brings up one of the paradoxes of the Convention: Obama has promised he will not take money from Washington lobbyists, yet it is many of those lobbyists and the corporations/industries they represent paying for much of the convention costs. As the report states, it is a loophole in the law that allows corporations and their lobbyists to donate money to a nominee.

I have no doubt we'll see exactly the same thing for the Republican convention as well.

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Why is it that just about everyone making a speech about Barack Obama at this point (7:30PM EDT) focus so much on the fact that he was raised by a single mother? Is this supposed to give him some kind of street cred?

I wouldn't mind it so much if it wasn't brought up by just about every speaker. I have little doubt the convention delegates will soon tire of it as well.

"Alright already! We know he was raised by a single mom! Give it a rest, willya?"

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There's lots of mid to late 1970's R&B music filling interludes between speakers. Aretha Franklin, War, and Earth, Wind & Fire, just a name few of the covers being performed. I've got nothing against R&B, being a fan from way back. I only hope they aren't sending a message that Obama wants to take us back to those days. You know, the days of Jimmuh Carter, high unemployment, deep recession, oil embargos, and hostage crises.

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During one of the early Q&A sessions, it seems all the answers started the same way: "We won't do it like Bush did. Obama will do it better." And then the answers would address the specific question. One of the most common questions dealt with health care and the answer was always some variation of universal health care funded by the government. Questions about jobs drew answers about trade and how Obama would make sure no more jobs would go overseas.

My question about the last part: How will he prevent that? Will we see a return of the Smoot-Hawley Tarriff Act? Will he abrogate NAFTA?

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Senator Ted Kennedy spoke a few moments ago (around 10 PM EDT), showing little ill effect from his brain tumor and treatments. He hasn't lost his oratorical touch, bringing the delegates to their feet, cheering "Teddy! Teddy! Teddy!"

He brought up one of his favorite subjects, universal health care, something he's championed for decades. He reminded us about the triumphs of his brother JFK, and pointed out that an American flag still stands on the moon, one of JFK's legacies. He also made mention about Obama's promise to not get our armed forces involved "in a mistake."

He echoed some of Obama's sentiments, saying we are the United States.

There was little he said that surprised me, though I have to comment upon his next to the last statement.

It must be great to be prescient, knowing in advance what will and won't be a mistake. I didn't realize this was one of Obama's talents. It usually only in hindsight we see what actions were mistakes, and which were not.

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After showing a film about Michelle Obama made by the DNC, narrated by her mother, and an introduction by her brother, she made her keynote speech to the delegates on this, the opening night of the convention.

My first impression? She's a much better speaker than either Teddy Kennedy or her husband.

She mentioned Barack's being brought up by a single mother, and by his grandparents. I knew that was inevitable. But it didn't sound cheesy like it did when brought up the speakers preceding her. At least not the first time she mentioned it. She delved into Barack's history and the work he did leading up to his decision to run for President, working to make him sound almost Lincolnesque.

She did manage to work in some praise for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, though only in passing.

She also managed to create entire classes of victims, implying nothing good can come from working hard unless Obama makes it happen. Does she mean to say that unless Obama is elected that we'll see the breadlines return like those seen during the Great Depression? It sounded like it to me.

She did manage to wrap up her speech on the right note, trying to link all the various groups supporting Obama's run for the White House.

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And so ends the first night of the Democratic Convention.

And So It Begins....

2008-08-25T13:39:46Z

The 2008 Democratic Convention in Denver begins in a few hours and already opinions are flying fast and furious about Obama, his Veep choice, Hillary, and the love affair that the MSM and the Hollywood illuminati have with the presumptive Democratic nominee. The party's barely started and already I'm staring to feel a bit overloaded and weary. All I can do is hope the actuality of the convention will be far more interesting and entertaining than the hype from both sides.

I am also looking forward to seeing the post-convention polls, as I wonder whether the usual post-convention "bump" will materialize or be a non-event much like the polls following Obama's running mate selection.

Stay tuned....

Thoughts On A Sunday

2008-08-25T03:32:15Z

It's been a busy day here at Weekend Pundit, meaning this will be a rather brief edition of Thoughts On A Sunday.

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It was BeezleBub's last day working full time at the farm this summer. As school starts Wednesday and his normal day off is Monday, it didn't seem prudent for him to work Tuesday as he'll be busy enough getting ready for school. He'll still put in a full day on Saturdays until the after the farm stand closes the weekend before Halloween.

As he told me the other day, he's looking forward to starting school so he "can get some rest."

That's my boy!

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Now that the 2008 Summer Olympics Games have come to a close, we can start paying attention to a real circus - the upcoming Democratic Convention in Denver.

I'll be blogging about the convention for Weekend Pundit and Dodgeblogium, the latter to provide some Yankee insight into the convention for the British readers of Andrew Ian Dodge's blog.

This is something I did for the New Hampshire Primary and Andrew asked me to comment upon the conventions as well.

As I wrote to Andrew when responding to his request, "I have a feeling the Democratic Convention will be quite...umm...dramatic."

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And speaking of the convention, it hasn't even started, yet there are already anti-war protests. One of those protesting is Cindy Sheehan. She is so yesterday and so pathetic.

There are plenty of Gold Star Mothers I know that would give her a run for her money, particularly since she wouldn't be able to claim some kind of moral superiority over them because they lost children to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, too.

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A post-veep announcement poll shows there's been no bounce for Obama, with the presidential race remaining a dead heat.

That's got to be encouraging for McCain.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where school starts soon enough, politics follows close behind, and we're still hoping for another two months of boating.

Obama Chooses

2008-08-24T03:42:57Z

Obama announced his selection of running mate early Saturday morning. I must admit some surprise.

While Joe Biden does have the experience Barack Obama does not, I find it puzzling Obama would choose someone who's been one of his biggest critics during the primary season. Even with Obama's claims he wanted someone who would challenge him, I wouldn't think he'd choose someone that made some interesting charges about the Illinois senator's lack of experience and numerous gaffes. Or that he'd choose someone who claimed there's was no way he'd settle for the vice presidential slot. Yet he chose Biden, and Biden accepted.

I don't know if this gamble will help or hurt Obama's chances. I'd like to think he's managed to shoot himself in the foot with his choice, taking on someone with his own set of well documented foibles and mis-steps, some which prevented him from becoming the Presidential nominee more than once. He's also managed to piss off a large block of potential supporters by selecting someone from the Old Guard of the Democratic Party and not someone 'new', and specifically not someone female, as many Hillary Clinton supporters had hoped. To paraphrase the old Knight Templar in Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, "He has chosen poorly."

If nothing else it will give John McCain's campaign plenty of fodder to use against Obama, painting him as not capable of making good, sound choices. It's quite possible Obama has just lost the election, even before the convention in Denver. McCain can seal Obama's fate with a good selection of his own. It will be interesting to see if McCain will make smart choice for his running mate.

Tax Revolt Season Is Upon Us

2008-08-23T03:40:21Z

It seems to be the season of tax revolts around the nation, with one taxpayer group working hard to repeal the Massachusetts income tax. Now another tax revolt is brewing in neighboring Connecticut, where education costs are eating up more tax dollars at a rate far above that of inflation.

Both states are as blue as can be, yet the taxpayers have had just about enough of the profligate spending in each state, with little sign the respective legislatures or governors will curb spending and lessen the tax burden on the residents.

In Connecticut, a state with one of the highest overall tax burdens, education costs are rising far too fast and the taxpayers aren't getting their money's worth. In the past 25 years the student population in the Nutmeg State has grown about 10%, but costs have almost tripled during that time. A state income tax was imposed to help lessen the burden of local property taxes and the state sales tax, which at one point was over 8%. While the sales tax dropped, property taxes continued to rise.

It was the triple whammy of quickly rising property taxes and the double hit of state income and sales taxes that forced the WP Parents sell off their retirement home in Connecticut and relocate to New Hampshire. Too much of their retirement income was being eaten up by the taxes they were paying and it no longer made sense for them to remain there. A home that had been in our family for over three generations was lost because local and state spending was out of control. My parents weren't the only ones forced into taking such actions, nor will they be the last.

A look at the West Coast, specifically California, shows a similar situation, where state and local spending is outstripping the ability of the taxpayers to fund it all. State spending is seriously out of balance, with a deficit of $15 billion and no state budget as of yet, and a proposal by Governor Schwarzenegger to boost the state sales tax. One thing California can least afford is raising taxes at a time when everyone is struggling with making ends meet. This can only fuel a tax revolt.

There are tax cap referendums in Nevada and Florida, where the people have also had enough of the endless tax increases with little to show for all the money those states are collecting.

Even here in New Hampshire the taxpayers have watched the state legislature boost spending by 17.5% while failing to fund the budget increase, seriously inflating revenue estimates to justify the increased spending. The taxpayers aren't in the mood to fund such a bloated budget when they're still dealing with tax increases in their own towns and cities.

The conditions for a tax revolt are ripe. And it's about time the tax-and-spend politicians from both parties realize that...or they may need to start looking for new jobs after November.

An Outside View Of The US Presidential Elections

2008-08-22T01:59:25Z

Received via e-mail:

An interesting view of the upcoming Presidential elections in the US from our cousins in Ireland...a point to ponder regardless of your political affiliations.

We, in Ireland, can't figure out why you people are even bothering to hold an election in the United States.

On one side, you had a pants wearing female lawyer, married to another lawyer who can't seem to keep his pants on, who just lost a long and heated primary against a lawyer, who goes to the wrong church, who is married to yet another lawyer, who doesn't even like the country her husband wants to run!

Now...On the other side, you have a nice old war hero whose name starts with the appropriate 'Mc' terminology, married to a good looking younger woman who owns a beer distributorship!!

What in God's name are ye' lads thinkin' o'er in the colonies?!

Indeed.

The Watermelon Agenda

2008-08-20T02:59:04Z

Why is it this does not surprise me?

With calls for more alternative energy sources, in many cases mandated by state laws, the so-called environmentalists are fighting tooth and nail to make sure that those alternative energy sources will not see the light of day.

Oh, they make all of the appropriate noise about making the move away from the use of fossil fuels, particularly coal, for generating electricity. But once plans for wind farms or solar electric facilities are proposed, those same environmentalists then protest against the power lines needed to get that power to the consumers.

So what is their real agenda?

To control the populace by controlling access to the sources of energy.

In other words, the liberal push for alternatives has the look of a huge bait-and-switch. Washington responds to the climate change panic with multibillion-dollar taxpayer subsidies for supposedly clean tech. But then when those incentives start to have an effect in the real world, the same greens who favor the subsidies say build the turbines or towers somewhere else. The only energy sources they seem to like are the ones we don't have.

They give with one hand and take away with the other.

How Low Can They Go?

2008-08-19T03:30:00Z

It's interesting that Republicans and Democrats have a different definition of the term "Swift boating".

To the Democrats it's the attempt to smear an opponent with innuendo and straw man arguments.

To the Republicans it's calling into question claims made by an opponent when veterans that served with that opponent debunk claims he made both during Congressional hearings in 1971 and during his presidential campaign.

During the 2004 Presidential race a number of US Navy veterans that served with Democratic candidate John Kerry on swift boats in Vietnam disputed claims he made, including his memories of being in Cambodia quite some time before President Nixon authorized US military personnel to pursue NVA regulars and the remnants of the Viet Cong into countries bordering North and South Vietnam. They disputed claims about how he received his three Purple Hearts. One of those vets was a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. So, who would you believe?

In 2008 the Democrats are trying to turn the tables on the Republican candidate, John McCain, by making claims he plagiarized an incident that he recounts took place while being help as a POW in North Vietnam, saying the scene came right out of Gulag Archipelago by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn.. The problem with the Democrats' claim? It's untrue.

First, McCain had a number of other POWs that backed up his claim. Second, Gulag Archipelago wasn't published until 1973. The POWs recall McCain had related his tale in 1970, and other POWs had related the same kind of incident as McCain. So, who would you believe?

Thoughts On A Sunday

2008-08-18T03:14:42Z

It looks like summer has returned, at least for the next few days or so. It figures. There's only a week and half before BeezleBub goes back to school. We have plans to make the most of our mutual day off tomorrow, with as much time out on the lake as we can possibly squeeze in.

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I caught Chris Matthews this morning while waiting for BeezleBub to get ready for work.

Matthews brought up an interesting point about Barack Obama's campaign: He's running against George Bush and not John McCain. Even an NBC/WSJ poll shows many of Obama's supporters believe he's running on an "I'm not George Bush" platform. The problem is that he's supposed to be running against JohnMcCain.

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John McCain has turned Obama's campaign slogan ("Change we can believe in!") against him, stating change in and of itself isn't good if it's the wrong kind of change, and that Obama is offering nothing but the wrong kind of change, and too much of it too quickly.

McCain says he's also for change, but for change that will revive the economy, not send it down the tubes as Obama's proposals will certainly accomplish.

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John Stossel tackles job discrimination, specifically age discrimination.

Most everyone says anti-discrimination laws are good laws, especially those that protect older workers.

But they're not.

It's one thing if someone is fired merely because of their age (sometimes triggered by the fact they get paid more for a particular job than someone far youger), but what if they're fired merely because their position no longer meets the need of the employer? Should the anti-discrimination laws protect someone under those circumstances? Of course not. But to hear some folks talk, you'd think that no one over a certain age should be fired for any reason because "it's discrimination."

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It seems the ink is barely dry on the cease fire agreement between Georgia and Russia before Russia shows its true stripes and continues to spread its forces through more territory in Georgia. Despite claims that they're there to ensure order in the separatists provinces in Georgia, it's really about control of natural resources.

Georgia has pipelines that carry oil and natural gas from Azerbaijan to the Black Sea that bypass Russia. Putin doesn't like that because it means he can't control the energy supplies to the rest of Europe, meaning he can't control Europe. The answer? Create a situation in Georgia to "protect ethnic Russians" allowimg Russia to seize those oil and natural gas facilities, and hence, control of the flow of energy in to Europe.

It's nothing but theft writ large by an authoritarian kleptocrat that will allow no competition.

(Before you write, I know Putin is no longer President of Russia, but Prime Minister. However, President Medvedev is nothing but a figurehead, a puppet for Putin to control. Medvedev may speak the words, but they were written by Putin.)

But it's quite possible Putin's move on Georgia has backfired on him. It has also been suggested that in order to prevent Russia's use of the "ethnic Russian" excuse, it would be cheaper for Eastern European nations to pay the ethnic Russians in their countries to return to Russia than to spend money to defend themselves from Russian incursions.

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Dennis Prager explains why he is not a liberal.

The following is a list of beliefs that I hold. Nearly every one of them was a liberal position until the late 1960s. Not one of them is now.

- I believe that the bigger government gets and the more powerful the state becomes, the greater the threat to individual liberty and the greater the likelihood that evil will ensue. In the 20th century, the powerful state, not religion, was the greatest purveyor of evil in the world.

- I believe that the United States of America, from its inception, has been based on the Judeo-Christian value system, not secular Enlightenment values alone, and therefore the secularization of American society will lead to the collapse of America as a great country.

- I believe that the American military has done more to preserve and foster goodness and liberty on Earth than all the artists and professors in America put together.

- I believe that the trial lawyers associations and teachers unions, the greatest donors to the Democratic Party, have done great harm to American life -- far more than, let us say, oil companies and pharmaceutical companies, the targets of liberal opprobrium.

And those are only a few of the reasons he lists for not being a liberal. I happen to agree with every single one.

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Will the four-day work week become more common? Unlike the mandated 35-hour workweek in France, this is something that businesses in the US have been considering in an effort to reduce energy usage and decrease the commuting costs for their employees. Some businesses also see the move as a way to retain existing employees as well as attracting new ones.

The hours worked during the week will remain the same, meaning four 10-hour workdays, but that doesn't seem to be an issue with many workers.

I know I'm more than willing to make that kind of change, my employer having experimented with that kind of schedule during summer months a few years ago. It made for a great summer with more leisure time available without the need to burn vacation time to enjoy it. And while my commute to work isn't all that long - 8 miles one way - plenty of my fellow employees commute quite some distance would be able to cut that commute by 20% each week, meaning more of their money stays in their pockets. That's one heck of an incentive.

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Ace of Spades believes John McCain had it all over Barack Obama at Saddleback. To quote Drew, "If I were Obama and his people, I'd be trying to figure out how to get out of the debates. The two of them just aren't in the same league."

That's not news to me.

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The AEGIS weapons system, consisting of the AEGIS radar and Standard Missile series of anti-aircraft/anti-missile interceptors has undergone continuous development since the late 1970's. I worked on some of the radar subsystems and SM-2 guidance subsystems when I was employed by Raytheon. Even then the system was awesome. Today it's even more so, with the ability to intercept sub-orbital warheads and low altitude satellites, giving it the means to provide greater protection to carrier battle groups as well as naval ships operating in littoral waters during close to shore/amphibious operations.

That's a capability we only dreamed about way back when.

(H/T Instapundit)

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer weather has returned, boating is now possible, and where many of us still have lawns that badly need mowing.

My View On The Veepstakes

2008-08-17T04:08:07Z

With the Democratic Party Convention a little over a week away, the hype about the Veepstakes is approaching a fever pitch. While Senator Obama has remained mum about possible running mates, the media has certainly been having a field day, taking odds on who Obama might pick.

On the other hand, the media seems barely interested at this point about who John McCain will pick as his running mate. An informal, non-scientific poll over at Instapundit shows Sarah Palin as the frontrunner for the vice-presidential slot, with Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson showing second and third, respectively.

While Obama's choice may not be all that important (I figure there's no way he'll pick Hillary, for obvious reasons), McCain's choice will be vitally important, because it will make or break his run for the Oval Office. He has to choose someone that can actually replace him should he be unable to continue to hold the office of President. Let's face it, he's no spring chicken. Also, the true conservatives in the GOP only grudgingly support McCain, mainly because he's anything but a conservative in their eyes. McCain can capture the moderate voters in both parties all by himself, but he needs someone with the conservative credentials that will pull in the conservatives of the party while not turning off the moderates and the undecideds. That narrows his choices.

This should make Mitt Romney one of the last people McCain should choose, because too many in the GOP see him as a RINO (a Republican In Name Only), trying to wear the mantle of a conservative. But all anyone has to do is look at his record as governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to see he's no conservative. What proof do I have? That's easy: RomneyCare.

One thing McCain should do is choose someone not already in Congress. That pretty much leaves those holding office as a governor, or that formerly held office at state or federal level. That person will also have to have 'street cred' as an effective conservative that knows how to get things done. That narrows the field even more.

McCain must choose wisely. Frankly, by choosing Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, former US Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee, or Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, he'll have a pretty good shot at being able to move into the White House next January.

Oww, Oww, Oww, Oww, OWW!!!!!!

2008-08-15T01:48:39Z

All I can say is "Oww!!"

Is A College Degree Really Worth It?

2008-08-14T03:47:30Z

This is something I've believed for a long time: for most people college is a waste of time.

Imagine that America had no system of post-secondary education, and you were a member of a task force assigned to create one from scratch. One of your colleagues submits this proposal:

First, we will set up a single goal to represent educational success, which will take four years to achieve no matter what is being taught. We will attach an economic reward to it that seldom has anything to do with what has been learned. We will urge large numbers of people who do not possess adequate ability to try to achieve the goal, wait until they have spent a lot of time and money, and then deny it to them. We will stigmatize everyone who doesn't meet the goal. We will call the goal a "BA."

You would conclude that your colleague was cruel, not to say insane. But that's the system we have in place.

Outside a handful of majors -- engineering and some of the sciences -- a bachelor's degree tells an employer nothing except that the applicant has a certain amount of intellectual ability and perseverance. Even a degree in a vocational major like business administration can mean anything from a solid base of knowledge to four years of barely remembered gut courses.

The solution is not better degrees, but no degrees. Young people entering the job market should have a known, trusted measure of their qualifications they can carry into job interviews. That measure should express what they know, not where they learned it or how long it took them. They need a certification, not a degree.

The CPA exam is one example used to illustrate how certification would serve much better than a degree. Anyone can take the CPA exam. Anyone passing it has proven they know what they're doing. Plenty of people with degrees in Accounting, even from prestigious institutions of higher learning, fail the CPA exam. The degree doesn't mean you know your supposed area of expertise. Certification does.

I've known plenty of people with engineering degrees incapable of designing or analyzing designs worth a darn, and plenty of people without engineering degrees that were the best damn engineers I've ever had the privilege of knowing or working with. Engineering has something similar to the CPA called PE, or Professional Engineer. Like the CPA exam, it is a standardized exam that certifies the engineer is indeed a master in their field. It is not an easy exam to pass. If you pass it, you've proven you know your subject and can add the coveted P.E. after their name. (In case you're wondering, I have not taken the PE. I'm pretty decent engineer and I make a good living from it, but I doubt I'd pass it the first ten or twenty times I take it.)

There are plenty of people out there with college degrees that, once they have them, end up working so far outside their field of study it seems the degrees they have aren't worth they paid to get them. It's like the old joke that goes something like this:

The scientist asks "What laws of nature define why this happens and can I recreate it?"

The engineer asks, "How can I make this work?"

The marketer asks, "How many of these can I sell and for what kind of profit margin?"

The person with the BA in English asks "Do you want fries with that?"

Yes, it's silly, overblown, and does not reflect reality...or at least it didn't only a few decades or so ago. So many people have degrees they spent four years and a lot of money to obtain, yet they haven't necessarily opened the doors to success that so many of us have been told will open once we have a degree. In reality, the degrees mean nothing. It's what you know. It doesn't matter how you came about that knowledge or experience, only that you have it. That should be the real criteria for so many of the so-called professional jobs out there. Certification is one way to prove that you do have that knowledge and/or experience.

Is it likely changing to certification rather than a degree will ever come to be? I doubt it. But it is something worth thinking about. And it might save a lot of people four years worth of time and money that could be better used to actually learn what it is they need to know.