Anyone can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend,
but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend's success.
Oscar Wilde
Congratulations, Second Lieutenant Renée
Renée is following the footsteps of her mom as an Air Force nurse, representing a third generation of national service (her maternal grandfather and father retired from the Air Force). One of my 9 nieces and my godchild, Renée is a fellow southpaw and military brat, a degreed registered nurse (like her mom, my little sister Diane), and an amazing soccer player. Renée does not necessarily agree with the political musings of her crazy old uncle...Renée is a gift from God, and she is the first of her generation in the family to serve in the military. Knowing extraordinary young people like Renée are serving our military makes me proud and confident in our nation's future.
Follow-Up Odds and Ends
If you go back to my earlier posts, you'll see I made two recent predictions that were right on the money. First, I predicted BP CEO Tony Hayward would be replaced in the near future, and of course earlier this week, BP announced Hayward would leave his post to head up a joint venture between BP and Russia. In a sense I feel bad for him because he is a very talented, intelligent executive whom happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and seemed to have a penchant for doing or saying the wrong things from a public relations standpoint. It reminds me of George W. Bush, whom ended up taking the blame for the fact that the Democratic mayor of New Orleans and governor of Louisiana failed to evacuate New Orleans, as the President urgently requested them to do. Still, leadership requires you to accept responsibility because of the nature of your position, not your personal culpability. Incidentally, this morning marked my third consecutive fill-up at a local BP gas station as I continue my buycott in support of independent retailers serving as scapegoats for the Deepwater Horizon incident.
Second, in an earlier post this week, I mocked Obama's appearance on today's The View, an ABC-TV joint-anchored women's talk show, predicting he would get a question on Ms. Shirley Sherrod and I mocked his following in the wake of 4'9" Snooki, whom stars in a show I've never watched, called Jersey Shore. In fact, apparently both comments were spot on based on prominent clips from the broadcast. What are the odds that anchor Joy Behar would ask Obama for his reaction if Snooki was to run for mayor of Wasilla (Sarah Palin's home town)?
Some Recent Post Follow-Ups
- Shirley Sherrod. I have to say I have mixed feelings about writing about Ms. Sherrod in a critical manner. After all, this woman lost her dad at the hands of a white murderer, whom was never brought to justice. I can readily understand how she would personalize such a tragedy. I've similarly felt strongly about the morally unconscionable injustices done to Japanese Americans during WWII. But Ms. Sherrod has responded to the situation saying that she intends to sue Andrew Breitbart. For what, exactly? Excerpting a part of her speech? You can argue that the clip is not representative of the speech as a whole. But the fact of the matter is that the full speech was available to both NAACP and the White House, and both of the parties did not give Ms. Sherrod due process. So Ms. Sherrod is picking the wrong side to go after; the First Amendment protects Mr. Breitbart. There are no legal or moral requirements for Breitbart to give Ms. Sherrod final edit approval. Breitbart has made his own news, claiming he had been holding on that clip in reserve, waiting for basely charges of Tea Party racism to resurface. Knowing political correctness on racial issues has not reformed over the past several years, Mr. Breitbart's decision to push the issue of double standards on racism led to a predictable result. But husband Charles' rant, “Finally We Must Stop the White Man & His Uncle Tom From Stealing Our Elections" and even conservative columnists like Peggy Noonan calling the Sherrod speech a "teachable moment"? Give me a break... If a white man would ever vocalize in a similar way, we would never be discussing the issue of context. That being said, I'm a problem solver by nature. I know the world isn't fair. I know the characterizations of the Tea Party movement as racist are completely bogus. Mr. Breitbart, you are playing with fire on the race issue. But you had to know what you did would cause a firestorm.
- Earlier this week I discussed the case of 3 Bell, CA managers making a few to several hundred thousand dollars a year. The City Council met, after the story, and slashed four of their own salaries for a part-time position from $100K to $8K a year (and a couple announced they won't seek reelection).
Eric Allie notes the burden of federal empire building by the progressive Democrats is unsustainable. I think what is particularly obnoxious is the way that the progressives argue in an obsoleted Keynesian fashion that government payrolls are intrinsically virtuous, because their workers spend money in the economy (and, of course, the Democrats would have you believe all government workers are teachers in the classroom and cops on the street, not $800K/year city managers in California... Earth to Democrats: ALL workers spend money in the economy. However, the private sector can't print money to sustain a bloated, inefficient bureaucracy.
Musical Interlude: Chart Hits of 2009.
This is the last in my chart hit retrospective. It's getting hard to write these because few melodic pop songs make the charts, and I don't personally care for the dominant hip hop/rap genre. I'll next start an American songbook series.
Kelly Clarkson, "Already Gone"
Jordin Sparks, "Battlefield"
Owl City, "Fireflies"
Rob Thomas, "Her Diamonds"
