Quote of the Day
The 'Inside-Out' approach to personal and self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self with your paradigms, your character, and your motives. The inside-out approach says that private victories precede public victories, that making and keeping promises to ourselves precedes making and keeping promises to others. It says it is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves.
Stephen Covey
Earlier Post Today
I posted my choice for my tongue-in-cheek 2011 Jackass of the Year; did you guess my choice? Not very many pageviews, which surprised me. It's possible readers who haven't read previous posts in this annual feature have misjudged the nature of the post. Anyone who reads my political humor feature knows that I love to play games with words. The fact is, a jackass is a male donkey, and the donkey is a symbol of the Democratic Party. Of course, I am aware of the fact that it is often used as a slang meaning "a stupid person; fool", but my use is not meant to insult but rather serve as a double entendre, signifying a particularly contemptible Democratic partisan.
I have written about education in a number of commentaries over the life of this blog, and I spent most of this post talking about education from the perspective of my experience as a former educator. Although I didn't mention it in the post, I go beyond most conservatives (maybe even some libertarians) in terms of abolishing the Department of Education (beyond educational measures and statistics): I would prefer privatization of education, with means-tested subsidies.
As Far As I'm Concerned, Gingrich Is Done
The first thing you should notice is that when Gingrich is appearing on "Think Progress", a left-wing media operation, for his criticism of Romney, something is dreadfully wrong. This goes beyond McCain's inexcusable use of class warfare arguments in fighting the early Bush tax cuts. Mitt Romney made a valid point: Gingrich had made money from Freddie Mac, a GSE (according to Bloomberg, $1.6M).that went bankrupt; in fact, Gingrich was advising them years after an accounting scandal had resulted in reform efforts supported by President Bush and John McCain. Does anybody seriiously think that a former history professor (whom specialized not in AMERICAN history, but EUROPEAN history) was making that kind of money for his advice? It was all about his connections from 20 years in the House and GOP leadership. This guy, as I quoted the other day, suggested that Congressional reforms of the GSE's were misguided literally within months of the GSE's collapsing into bankruptcy. The GSE's were the ultimate crony capitalists, using special federal discounted loans, not available to their private-sector competitor, to grow from below 10% market share in the 1960's to the dominant presence in their market.
"Think Progress" was delighted to the defensive Gingrich's demand that Romney give back the money he made at Bain Capital. How Gingrich, a professional politician who has praised Alexander Hamilton and Teddy Roosevelt (both whom favored a strong federal government and were supportive of economic policies contrary to the free market) and supported industrial policy and a national health care mandate, won the support of the Tea Party is beyond me. If you read Romney's background, among other things, he turned around his parent company (Bain & Company) for the token salary of $1 and, among other things, got rid of the company's executives, including the founder.
Boehner and House Majority Killing 2-Month Payroll Tax Holiday Extension: Thumbs DONW!
This may sound like I've abandoned my principles and in the eyes of fellow libertarian-conservatives, but I hinted my position in yesterday's post. No, the point I'm trying to get across is NOT that their position is wrong, but it's VERY BAD POLITICS. It would be one thing if the Senate had passed the 2-month extension on a party-line basis, but for better or worse, it got carried by a BIPARTISAN vote.
CNN reported today that over the past month, Obama has GAINED 5 points in his approval ratings (and GOD KNOWS it's NOT from doing a good job) and the Dems have remained stable with an increasing lead over declining Republican fortunes.
I am a problem solving pragmatist. I can only do so much with the hand I've been given. Right now the Dems are making gains among independents and moderates buying into Obama's rhetoric. I want to win the war, not just the battle, and if I have to sacrifice a 2-month "pawn" in order to win a sweep in next fall's election, I'm willing to do it. I fear Boehner and his House colleagues are playing right into Obama's hands.
Political Humor
The latest Remy parody: Grandma Got Indefinitely Detained (A Very TSA Christmas). (For Remy's reason.tv Youtube video playlist, see here.)
Musical Interlude: Nostalgic/Instrumental Christmas
Waitresses, "Christmas Wrapping". I'm definitely NOT a rap fan, but I find this 30-year-old song a breath of fresh air (and I love the brass).
