Politics
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Tuesday links
- Iraq vets take lemons and make…. something.
- Delphine LaLurie – very creepy
- Time management
- I do believe I’ll be building these bookshelves
- Ron Paul – comic book president
- Putting Bush on Mt Rushmore – be sure to read this one from Scott Adams
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The next Reagan
Via Yglesias, comes this Mike Huckabee ad
I think I’m the first to point out that he’s the first candidate to good natured and likable on the stump, which is quite a bit of a change from the rest of the crowd. Clever ad too.
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A good example of why liberals scare me
Check out this diavlog with Paul Krugman and Mario Cuomo; it’s a detailed explanation of how the government should run your life, from health care to your job, and most things in between.
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Four changes if I were king of America
I’ve made them non-political, strictly symbolic. They are
- The national anthem shall be changed to America the Beautiful; an accessible song with a solid melody and natural meter; and the Star Spangled Banner will be consigned to history, where it will be of much interest to our eventual tone-deaf robot overlords
- Daylight Savings Time shall be abolished. Trying to fool the sun sets a bad example for children and weakens our moral fiber
- Calvin Coolidge shall be worked into Presidents Day somehow. We’re long overdue for rewarding people who do their job quietly, with no drama
- We shall come up with a simple way to properly fold the US Flag that does not require two people
What would y’all do?
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Three interesting things
- There are more World of Warcraft players than there are farmers (from Paul Krugman via MR)
- The reason the average car produces X many tons of CO2 (a figure I always found fishy) is due to the fact that the carbon bonds with oxygen already existing in the air, which never occurred to me until I read this article. The majority of the actual mass (the O2) comes mostly from the existing air.
- John Edwards, still not popular! It says good things about America, and the Democratic party that he’s doing well. I suppose the Republican alternative to him is Tom Tancredo.
- From this BloggingHeads.tv – “John Kerry was a Democrat’s idea of what the Republicans like”. The Republicans seem to be making the same desperate mistake with Giuliani right now.
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Obama gets interesting
Firstly he has stopped wearing American Flag pins. While to some degree the president serves a double role as chief executive and president of the fan club I think this is a good thing. There’s nothing more hollow than a red Aids ribbon or the yellow “Live Strong” wristbands. It’s good to have someone running that doesn’t find meaning in 17 pieces of flair. That doesn’t mean his ideas are any good, but there’s more to loving America than wrapping oneself in internal marketing.
Secondly he apparently has a serious person as his chief economic adviser. All in all a good sign for him. Not that I’ll be voting for him, but he’s at least showing signs of being interesting, which he hasn’t up to now.
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Rep. Jack Kingston provides a stirring indictment
Of himself in this case. From the AJC
But Rep. Jack Kingston is making no apologies for being the House champion for Georgia when it comes to snagging federal dollars for his home state and his home district around Savannah.
In the current spending bills working their way through Congress for the new fiscal year, which begins next month, Kingston is sponsoring or co-sponsoring earmarks estimated at $83 million, more than any other Georgian in the House.
Despite being a conservative Republican, Kingston argues that snagging programs and projects is a time-honored tradition for Georgia lawmakers.
I suppose they’re going to lose a few more rounds. It’s always time for term limits.
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Advice on seeming Reaganesque
Since all of the Republicans candidates for president are trying to be the next Ronald Reagan, why not run on his platform? Just cross out the parts about the Soviet Union, and presto! It’s not like much of his domestic agenda got enacted. We still have the departments of Energy, Education and so on. Government is still the problem after all…
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Scary quote of the day
From the AJC article Clayton may seek records on all renters
“This is not to say Big Brother is watching,” he insisted. “It says Big Brother is helping.”
It’s not the most intrusive thing that could happen, but bear in mind that in the past 10 years we (the Atlanta Metro Area) have had
- 1 Mayor in jailed on corruption charges
- 1 political assassination of a sheriff
- 1 ex-sheriff convicted of said assassination, along with several deputies
- 1 police shooting of an 87 year old woman based on a perjured warrant
- The creation of a “Tupac Shakur Arts Center” funded by the taxpayers
- Cynthia McKinney’s entire political career
And we should give the government more power?
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Quick Friday roundup
- E-Snailer – Write a letter on the internet
- High Trust Societies
- Fair and Balanced Radio – by Radley Balco
- Better and better car batteries. From Wired. We probably need at least one generation more of advancement before plug-in hybrids are feasible.