Quote of the Day
You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.
Malcolm Forbes
I Got Polled Today (Re: Next Tuesday's Primary)
I'm a pretty great uncle--in fact "the best uncle in the whole world", according to my then grade-school niece, my middle brother's oldest, whom solemnly attested to what she wrote by printing out her full name (with middle initial, no less, just in case I had her confused with another female Guillemette with the same given name, ranking #3050 in popularity according to a contemporary census).
And then some magic happened: she was now a young woman with a mind of her own, an Obama-Maniac whom had discovered that her once beloved uncle was supporting John McCain and started flaming me via email. Hmmm. Maybe I'm not "the best uncle in the whole world"?
I have had a good role model, my mother's older sibling, a retired priest; I wrote a tribute post about him in late April 2009. In many ways, we're very much alike: we're both very conservative and articulate, natural leaders and administrators. (For instance, he would come into a rundown parish and, without complaint or finger-pointing, systematically turn things around, repairing the infrastructure, expanding facilities (parking), etc. No doubt he learned a lot from my grandfather, whom owned and operated a mom-and-pop grocery; in fact, my uncle in his teens drove the store's truck, making deliveries to customers. He had no political ambitions to advance in the Church's hierarchy; he simply wanted the Church's bureaucrats to leave him alone and let him serve his local parish as pastor, his dream job.) He and I have different personalities: I'm more direct and willing to take up the give and take of the free market of ideas; he's more politically savvy and measured, doesn't like to repeat himself, and is satisfied to make his point, whether or not others agree.
My uncle has a first-rate mind and earned his (post-baccalaureate) licentiate in theology; I believe that he mentioned that lectures and exams were delivered or written in Latin. But for some reason, my uncle has been disinterested in applied mathematics, in particular, statistics. He has always been dismissive of polls, noting that he himself had never been contacted for one. In fact, most people won't in a country with over 308M people. If you have a sufficiently large random sample, the chances you will get results materially different from those of the target population are remote; I've developed a feel for data from having collected and analyzed my own study data.
So today I got a mechanized poll on Tuesday's Presidential primary. And, yes, I listed Mitt Romney as my first choice, Ron Paul as my second.
On the political front, House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) announced his endorsement of Mitt Romney, a cluster of polls all showed Romney with a significant but one-digit lead in Wisconsin, Romney is up to 42% in the GOP daily tracking poll, with his largest lead (I believe) to date over Santorum, 15 points. Rasmussen yesterday showed Romney with a comfortable lead over Santorum in Maryland (as I expected, given the demographics).
Janne and Susan Kouri's First Dance
For the Rest of Their Lives
We remember the tragic case of Christopher Reeve's tragic paralyzing fall. This is a similar story of a star college defensive lineman, an NFL prospect, whom dove head on into a hidden ocean sand-bar, snapping his spinal cord in 2 places. It's the story of a man with an indominable spirit, a woman whom has stood by the man she loves, and an innovative researcher Dr. Susan Harkema at the Frazier Rehabilitation Institute, developer of loco-motor training techniques. (God bless Dr. Harkema and various researchers and technologists seeking to create and make available enabling functionality and techniques to millions of disabled everywhere.) This story is quintessential Americana.
Next Step Fitness is a nonprofit business which seeks to provide affordable access of relevant training and equipment to millions of disabled individuals in centers throughout the United States. For more information on how you can help Janne Kouri achieve his goals, see here.
My Choice For US Senate, Maryland: Daniel Bongino
I really haven't been paying attention to Maryland politics in this blog or even the upcoming primary. Clearly we need to get rid of that progressive empty suit, Ben Cardin, whom didn't get my vote last time around and won't this time: it's unbelievable how any one person can be wrong on every single issue! I almost dread to hear from conservatives outside of Maryland: how can I explain away the facts of Governor O'Malley, Senator Mikulski, and Senator Cardin? It's embarrassing, like being part of a family with two crazy uncles and a crazy aunt...
So over the last few days, I scanned Ballotpedia entries for the major GOP contenders and went to their campaign webpages (if a relevant link was available). I have to say, maybe I should have run: I even have my own gimmick: vote for the guy whose name you're most likely to mispronounce....
I have a pet peeve about campaign websites: I want to see an organizer where I can scan at a glance where a candidate stands on issues, straight talk and brevity, no political spin. I don't want to hear other candidates whine about, say, Bongino refusing to take this or that pledge.
Yes, I realize that some familiar readers may think I need practice brevity myself (yes, I think I can have a tendency to overexplain; I think it comes from teaching on the university level for 8 years to a heterogeneous group of students, whom sometimes weren't aware of the fact that I had answered the same question 5 minutes earlier.) But I do work at organizing my prose, streamlining my text, and identifying salient takeaways and unambiguous conclusions (I think hits to my readership several days back shows that perhaps I'm making my points a little too clear.)
What I'm trying to get at is sometimes I had to wade across a website only to discover, for instance, one candidate whom started talking about tariffs (on Chinese goods, I believe). The populist tries to spin his position by explaining Chinese trade was manipulated trade, not free: some free trade is "more equal". I have zero tolerance for sham rationalizations of protectionism. This is rather like a young man explaining to his steady girlfriend that he's still a virgin (well, except that one time, but it doesn't really count due to its brevity... ) We are so done, buddy. China is our third biggest customer, the only bigger customers being, naturally, our NAFTA partners, Canada and Mexico. In fact, I would like to see an Americas-wide free trade zone--and the more free zones, the better. I want more goods and services sold to China, not a mutually destructive trade war.
It didn't take long for me to narrow my choices to two candidates: Richard Douglas (in fact, I got a robocall earlier today with former UN ambassador John Bolton's recorded endorsement of Douglas) and Daniel Bongino. And it's fairly clear that these are the two heavyweights in the race based on newspaper columns, endorsements, and other candidate attacks. Richard Douglas has significant foreign service experience and is the clear choice of what others would call mainstream or establishment Republicans; he has won the endorsement of former Governor Ehrlich, Illinois US Senator Mark Kirk (currently rehabilitating from a recent stroke), and John Bolton, among others. Bongino is a former Secret Service agent whom has some solid Tea Party support (Senator Mike Lee and Congressman Walsh, among others)
Let me say that I would vote for a red dog as a GOP Senate nominee before I would vote for incumbent Ben "Empty Suit" Cardin. But my choice of Bongino over Douglas shouldn't surprise anyone whom read my post earlier this month over "breaking up with John McCain". I see Douglas running a McCain-like campaign; McCain, as you recall, ran a campaign largely based on his military and foreign policy expertise. Before the economic tsunami, I may very well have supported Douglas if he was running in 2008. McCain was caught flat-footed, with limited expertise on the economy. How many times must we hear Carville's voice from the 1992 election saying "It's the economy, stupid!" When I went to the Douglas website today, I found the big issue being discussed, in the context of Pope Benedict's visit to Cuba, is trying to get the Vatican's cooperation in interceding on behalf of an imprisoned Marylander. A local newspaper editorial confirms my unease: "For example, on how to improve the economy, his website states: 'The key to success is willpower, focus, courage and leadership. I offer all four. Mr. Cardin does not.'" Okay, when I'm washing my clothes, I don't particularly care for the spin cycle... If I wanted empty rhetoric, I would vote for a Democrat.
Bongino demonstrates a very good grasp of economic issues, largely consistent with this blog: serious entitlement reform, streamlined taxes and pro-growth investment policies, reforming local school monopolies, developing Maryland's natural gas resources and otherwise opening up revenue sources and relevant citizen access to natural resources. He once protected the life of an ungrateful President Obama; he now has a higher calling: protecting the unalienable rights of his fellow citizens from the stealth forced march Ben Cardin and other irresponsible progressive Democrats are leading on the road to serfdom.
Reason's March Nanny of the Month
Um, is Mayor Bloomberg sufficiently licensed to be a Big Little Nanny? (This is a libertarian inside joke...) Doesn't this crackdown on fat, salt and fiber to save the hungry from eating the wrong food sound like an army which liberates a town by destroying it (and the people whom live there)?
You See, Barack Obama is President #44,
So "Gen44" Means That Obama Owns a Generation...
(Well, They Are Certainly Indentured
Because of His Profligate Spending...)
You Know That Government Motors Car
Running On Heavily Subsidized E85?
It's Heading Down the Road to Serfdom
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
Little River Band, "The Other Guy". This marks the end of my Little River Band retrospective. My next post will kick off my Doobie Brothers series.
