The one thing we can never get enough of is
love.
And the one thing we can never give enough of is
love.
Henry Miller
Arlen "Benedict Arnold" Specter Dead
I have mentioned in this blog I had been a registered Democrat until the disrespectful Senate hearings on Reagan SCOTUS nominee Robert Bork (I have since disagreed with Bork on things like the Ninth Amendment)
Abortion, restricted in common law at least by the 13th century and explicitly regulated by states as early as 1840 in Maine, was known during ancient Greece and Rome; never mind known during the times of the Founding Fathers. I disagree that violence against a preborn child, any more than a born baby or other young child; an arbitrary point of protection ("[before ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle's obsolete criterion of the quickening, i.e., when the mother can feel the baby move], an infant’s heart begins beating at five weeks or that at eight weeks brain waves can be measured or that at 12 weeks the child can and does cry and sometimes sucks his thumb") and morally unacceptable distinction based on a point in a child's stage of development is, is a privacy concern. I can agree to a general right of privacy in sexual behavior and family planning (until the fact of conception, the child having DNA distinct from his or her mother), but there is also a parent's responsibility for his or her child's life and development.
Arlen Specter, a nominal Republican Senator from Pennsylvania, played a key role in sabotaging a brilliant jurist's confirmation process, and years later stood proudly by it as almost like a badge of honor. I generally support a President's discretion in nominating qualified jurists: I would not have chosen Kagan, but I did not oppose her. I did oppose Sotomayor for her role in the Ricci case and certain disqualifying statements and judgment, e.g., the self-superior 'wise Latina' and the unconscionable admission of legislating from the bench.
I have always been a "big tent" guy and have been supportive of moderate Republicans like Mike Castle, Scott Brown, Giuliani, Powell, Pataki, and the Maine senators (GOP moderates tend to be fiscal conservatives and sympathetic to small business concerns with government burden.)
However, Specter's decision to jump parties and give the Senate Dems a filibuster-proof majority principally as a matter of putting his political survival or ambition above principle and constituents (unlikely to win renomination as a Republican after 30 years, opposed by conservatives). I was not disappointed when he ended up losing the subsequent Dem primary in 2010, forcing his retirement.
When I think of Specter, I think of his general election support by conservatives in 2004 being betrayed by his sellout votes on the stimulus, ObamaCare and Dodd N. Frankenstein.
I do offer my thoughts and prayers to his surviving family and friends for the man, but I will not be a hypocrite by praising his legacy as a career politician
France Literally on the Highway To Hell
As if a punitive, counterproductive 75% upper income tax rate isn't bad enough, the French Socialists are undermining the integrity of both marriage and the family by replacing the terms of mother and father with gender-neutral substitutes, setting the stage for same-gender parent adoptions. This is undermining both traditional marriage and family, and I expect unintended consequences.
Morgan Freeman Obama Ad : Morning in America/
Chevy Super Bowl Ad Redux?
"Every president inherits challenges, few have faced so many. Four years later our enemies have been brought to justice. Our heroes are coming home. Assembly lines are humming again—there are still challenges to meet, children to educate, a middle class to rebuild but the last thing we should do is turn back now."Talk about lipstick on a pig--still I give them credit for finally running an ad not an attack ad on Romney.and trying to make one on Obama's record. Just a few notes:
- The idea that Obama faced unprecedented challenges is much exaggerated. Reagan faced stagflation--high inflation, high unemployment; George W. Bush took office just after the Nasdaq meltdown and ensuing recession and of course faced 9/11 and the economic tsunami on his watch. Hoover had to cope with the 1929 crash. Harding took office in the post-WWI depression. Nixon took office with Vietnam in full force with casualties dwarfing those in the Gulf region. I could go on. But the real issues involving liquidity were handled by the Fed on Bush's watch, not Obama's. Ford faced the aftermath of the Watergate scandal. Unlike Nixon and Reagan, Obama had a super majority of his party in control of Congress and near zero interest rates his whole term. The recession also ended in his fifth month in office. In fact, this claim is just a rephrasing of Obama's disingenuous excuses.
- How many times is Obama going to spike the football after the UBL killing? The groundwork for the locating of UBL was intelligence gathered during the Bush Administration. But more importantly, has Obama located and brought the terrorists behind the murderous attack on the Benghazi consulate to justice yet?
- Obama had little to do with the Iraq withdrawal, Obama has NOT routed the Taliban and the majority of Afghanistan casualties has occurred on his watch. he has vastly expanded the scope of US drone strikes and meddling (including north Africa and Yemen)
- Ford and foreign car companies with American plants did not require a taxpayer bailout or a rigged crony interest bankruptcy process
- Education is a state/local, not federal priority
- A thriving middle-class benefits from economic growth policies, opposed by Obama for ideological reasons.
Political Humor
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| Coutesy of Dick Morris and Clayton Liotta. |
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
The Four Tops, "It's the Same Old Song/Just Walk Away, Renée"
