Fifty Reasons

Here are fifty pretty good reasons to vote for George W. Bush, courtesy of the American Digest.

My Fair Lady

We watched My Fair Lady (1964) on Turner Classic Movies last night. My parents had the soundtrack to that movie when I was growing up, and now I understand why. The music is wonderful, and I could watch Audrey Hepburn's Eliza Doolittle all night long.

My wife and I have long subscribed to conventional wisdom and assumed that Kerry supporters acting more out of antipathy for Bush than affinity for Kerry was a political liability for Kerry.

Last night, however, it occurred to us that this is, in fact, a political strength for Kerry. Look what it's given him.

These people are not invested in John Kerry in any way. As a result, he can do absolutely nothing to alienate them. They don't care about him and can't be disappointed in him. There is no lie too bald-faced, no attack too vicious, no position too vague to deter a Kerry supporter. Because to them, none of this campaign really has anything at all to do with Kerry.

No matter how mendacious, wooden, nasty, or contradictory Kerry becomes, his supporters soldier on because they don't really support him Rather they rally around him simply because he is not Bush.

This dynamic has liberated Kerry from the usual constraints of running for national office. He doesn't have to be likable, inspiring, pleasant, truthful, inspiring, competant,consistent,credible,or positive. Heck, he doesn't even need a platform to satisfy his suppoters. He just has to show up.

New York v. Boston - II

National anthem at Yankee Stadium: A bald eagle, Challenger, flies from center field to home plate. Irish Tenor Ronan Tynan renders the anthem perfectly.

National anthem at Fenway Park: Aging rocker Steven Tyler blows on a harmonica, then blows the lyrics, going directly from "the twilights last gleaming" to "And the rockets red glare." If he hadn't been a cappella, there would have been confusion indeed.

New York v. Boston - I

Yankees win the World Series: fans celebrate with a ticker tape parade down Wall Street.

Red Sox make the World Series: fans celebrate with a riot on Landsdown St, one college student dead.

New York v. Boston - III

Yankees win at home: P.A. system plays the Frank Sinatra classic New York, New York:

Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today
I want to be a part of it - New York, New York
These vagabond shoes, are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it - New York, New York

[...]

These little town blues, are melting away
I'm gonna make a brand new start of it - in old New York
If I can make it there, I'm gonna make it anywhere
It's up to you - New York, New York

Red Sox win at home: P.A. system plays The Standells "classic" Dirty Water:

Yeah, down by the river
Down by the banks of the river Charles (aw, that's what's happenin' baby)
That's where you'll find me
Along with lovers, fuggers, and thieves (aw, but they're cool people)
Well I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston, you're my home (oh, you're the Number One place)

[...]

Well, I love that dirty water (I love it, baby)
I love that dirty water (I love Baw-stun)
I love that dirty water (Have you heard about the Strangler?)
I love that dirty water (I'm the man, I'm the man)
I love that dirty water (Owww!)
I love that dirty water (Come on, come on)

Well that's certainly uplifting. No wonder they riot.

Kerry's Wild Goose Chase

Larry Moore, a real Ohio hunter, has this to say about John Kerry's recent foray into a duck blind:

What John Kerry did is not hunting -- it was killing.

John Kerry did not develop landowner relations. Where were the photos of Kerry thanking the family for permitting him the opportunity to hunt on their land? Where were the photos of John Kerry asking the farmer if he needs help with any chores or offering to share some of the rewards of the hunt? Then he says he is too lazy to carry his own game!

[...]

John Kerry is taking every photo opportunity to convince us that he is a regular guys who loves to hunt. But Kerry is missing the mark with true sportsmen and women of Ohio who understand that hunting is about more than waltzing into a state and killing a couple of animals an sacrifice for your political ambitions.

[...]Far from showing he is a regular guy, Kerry is showing Ohioans he just does not understand these things. His trips afield for photo opportunities are as staged and fake as when he threw someone else's war medals away.

So how did the Red Sox defy history and vanquish the Yankees? Well, it took two extra-innings victories and this:

The Red Sox training staff thought of various ways to keep the tendon in place. Special high top shoes didn't work, and they hit upon the idea of sewing skin in Schilling's leg to the tissue underneath, creating a wall that would keep the tendon in place.

Oh. My. Goodness. That explains the blood oozing into Schilling's sock, shown close-up ad-infinitum in game 6. The stitches have since been removed, but Schilling and the Sox are ready to do it again.

If Schilling pitches again, (the sutures) would be put back in. Epstein said there was no problem repeating the procedure a couple more times.

It's Schilling's world, the rest of us men just live in it.

Schadenfreude

My Yankees lost to the Red Sox and will not win the World Series for the fourth consecutive year (so much for the dominance of the "evil empire").

The interesting thing to me has been the parade of co-workers coming by my desk expecting to find me miserable. And they seem almost disapointed to find me as cheerful as I am most every day.

These are not Red Sox fans, mind you, or even baseball fans. These are just people that want to stop by and throw a little salt into what they think might be an open wound. Very strange, because they are, for the most part, otherwise sweet and kind people.

I guess schadenfreude is largely inescapable. For my part, I am happy the Yanks were thoroughly spanked in game 7, so I don't have to spend the winter bemoaning the lack of a timely hit or clutch strike out.

PC Halloween

Here's an illustration of how far the politically correct crowd is prepared to take out public schools:

PUYALLUP, Wash., Oct. 21, 2004 -- A Washington state school district is canceling its annual Halloween celebration, and the explanation has some parents baffled.

[...]

The district said Halloween celebrations and children dressed in Halloween costumes might be offensive to real witches.

"Witches with pointy noses and things like that are not respective (sic) symbols of the Wiccan religion and so we want to be respectful of that," (spokeswoman) Hansen said.

Who knew witches were so sensitive that they would find offense in the behavior of small children?

Great Moments in Socialized Medicine

If you're planning a trip to Warsaw, better get a clean bill of health before you go, because you're not going to want to make a trip to the hospital over there.

WARSAW, Poland -- Prosecutors have charged two doctors and two ambulance workers with murder for letting patients die or killing them outright in order to collect kickbacks from funeral homes, officials said Wednesday.

[...]

The two doctors were charged with a total of 14 counts of negligent homicide for allegedly letting patients die and taking money from undertakers, prosecutors said.

A 35-year-old ambulance crew member is accused of killing four patients with injections of a muscle relaxant and informing funeral homes of the deaths in exchange for a total of least $6,200, prosecutors said.

Strangely, the article concludes that this kind of abuse is simultaneously the result of too much government involvement and too little:

State officials have acknowledged the system is prone to corruption. They blame low pay for government-employed medical workers and a lack of laws regulating intense competition among funeral homes.

Enrollment at Norfolk State University has dropped 10%, the Virginian Pilot breathlessly reports. Why? They were asked to actually pay their tuition.

Last month, the university ejected nearly 500 students who had either not paid last year’s bills or had failed to make arrangements to pay tuition this fall.

So, who's fault is that? Implicitly, according to the political scientists, it's President Bush's:

Rudolph Wilson, the chairman of the political science department, said the problem is not Norfolk State’s policies, but the economy.

“Surely, the disadvantage of having students unable to attend classes because of their inability to pay tuition is a reflection of the general status of poverty in society,” he said.

A thorough reading of the article, however, notes some problems at NSU are not economically related.

He also pointed to bad publicity in the past year, principally the killing of a nonstudent by another nonstudent outside the student center last November.

Nothing like a little on-campus murder to dampen student spirit.

For reasons I have been unable to decipher, my Mother's computer is unable to display my old template in a readable fashion. Over the next week or so I will be testing some new templates, so there are apt to be some visual changes around the Pool until things get resolved with dear old Mom.

Dispatch from the Religion of Peace

From a Washignton Times piece:

Guards at al-Kindi University in Baghdad last week arrested a man carrying nearly 10 pounds of TNT in a bag.

"The terrorist admitted that he belongs to an Islamic group," university security chief Sameer al-Sumaidai said. "When we asked him about the one who sent him, he replied, 'It is God who sends me.' "

Pamphlets found on campus declared: "If the boy students don't separate from the girl students, we will explode the college. Any girl student who does not wear a veil, we will burn her face with chemicals."

At Mustansiriya University, a bomb exploded earlier this month in the college of sciences, injuring two students, one seriously.

The explosion occurred shortly after pamphlets also appeared on that campus demanding that men and women students be separated and that women abandon Western clothing and cover their heads when in public.

Two days later, student Rana Fuad was abducted as she was leaving the campus. Within an hour, the young woman, still dressed in blue jeans, was found unconscious at the college gate.

Via Cassandra at I love Jet Noise (which has become a daily "must read") comes this hilarious graphic.

Slackers for Kerry

Here is some uplifting rhetoric from the Democrat camp:

[Bush is pursuing] the states' rights ideology, in contrast to the Union; the embrace of [former Confederate President] Jefferson Davis rather than Abraham Lincoln. They intend to have their ideology protected by law. They intend to push the ideology of the Confederacy and continue to challenge the vision of the Union. - Jesse Jackson
"I have a feeling that slackers are going to rise up in this election. I believe it, I have seen it all over this country. The slacker motto is: "Sleep till noon, drink beer, vote Kerry November 2. Pick nose, pick butt, pick Kerry." Slackers of the world, unite! - Michael Moore

Now that's inspirational.

Kerry and Edwards will say ANYTHING to get elected

He's not even above exploiting the death of Christopher Reeve:

SANTA FE, United States (AFP) - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry hailed Christopher Reeve as "America's hero" and vowed to drive on the dead Superman actor's crusade for stem-cell research. [...]
Kerry said the last time he heard from Reeve was on Saturday, when the actor left a message on his cellphone, enthused by the Massachusetts senator's decision to raise stem-cell research in Friday's second presidential debate.

Meanwhile, in the New York Times we read this:

Mr. Combs said that Mr. Reeve fell into a coma on Saturday. The wound had become severely infected, and the infection spread through his body.

Are we supposed to believe that, with an infection racing through his blood, just before slipping into a coma from which he would never awake, Christopher Reeve picked up the phone and called John Kerry???

Edwards, for his part, made this statement: "When John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk. Get up out of that wheelchair and walk again." Delusions of deity?

Imputed Income

I picked up Ric Edelman's book The New Rules of Money at a thrift store over the weekend. Edelman has some ideas that are contrary to conventional wisdom, including never buy a "starter" home, always carry the maximum mortgage and never pay it off, and don't invest in index funds. The most interesting item to me, however, was this: Never participate in college tuition prepayment plans. Why? The answer demonstrates the immorality of our tax code:

Here's how it works: Say you prepay tuition by making a lump sum payment of $10,000. This means your child can attend college in the future without paying tuition when he or she enrolls. But say the true cost of tuition at that time is $50,000. According to the law, you have a $40,000 profit, and it's now considered taxable income.Edelman doesn't say why this is income and not a capital gain - Ed)

This is a form of "imputed income," and it is the left's next big ticket into your wallet (once they're done with the Alternative Minimum Tax - but that's another post).

More on the magic of imputed income as it pertains to child support here, as it pertains to home ownership here (scroll down), and as it relates to company cars and other perks here.

AP Headlines

From today's AP:

Bush Rhetoric Becoming More Aggressive
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- President Bush is launching a focus on Western battlegrounds with no sign that the biting rhetoric he has aimed at Democratic challenger John Kerry in recent days is as aggressive as it's going to get.

Kerry Vows to Fight for Middle Class
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry promised to work for the middle class and energy independence, as he landed in this closely divided southwestern state to prepare for the last presidential debate.

No media bias there.

The draft is back!

John Kerry is right. There is a plan to reinstitute the draft. He has it!

On September 11th, 2001, America experienced the most terrible and deadly attack in its history. John Kerry believes we need to think big and do better and get more young Americans serving the nation.

As part of his 100 day plan to change America, John Kerry will propose a comprehensive service plan that includes requiring mandatory service for high school students and four years of college tuition in exchange for two years of national service.

Hat tip: Cold Fury

More Democratic Madness

The Democrats have gone on a literal rampage:

Shots fired into Knox Bush/Cheney headquarters According to Knoxville Police Department (KPD) officers on the scene Tuesday, it is believed that the two separate shots were fired from a car sometime between 6:30 am and 7:15 am.

Shot fired at GOP Headquarters in Huntington Witnesses tell police that someone fired a shot at the Republican Headquarters office at 1402 4th Avenue around 10:30pm Thursday night.

Bush's state headquarters for re-election burglarized The Washington state headquarters for the president's re-election campaign was broken into last night, and police are investigating the theft of three computers from the Bellevue office.

Protestors Ransack Bush/Cheney Headquarters In Orlando Local 6 News reported that several people from the group of 100 Orlando protestors face possible assault charges after the group forced their way inside the Republican headquarters office.

If the Democrats think this kind of behavior will elicit anything other than scorn and derision, they are even farther gone than I had thought.

Via TYSK

CBS Says Probe Results Unlikely Until After Election

This is rich:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An external review of how CBS News came to use disputed documents in a report on President Bush's military record will probably not be concluded until after the November election so as not to interfere with the presidential race, a top executive said on Tuesday.

So it appears CBS has no problem airing a phony story that might interfere with an election in one direction, but let someone investigate CBS' motives and actions and that has to be suppressed because it might impact the election in the opposite direction. Can these yo-yos get any more transparent?

Last night Bill O'Reilly had a fascinating interview with Andrew Apostolou, Director of Research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

Apostolou pointed out, in response to criticism of the U.S. not having enough "boots on the ground" at the fall of Baghdad, that 60,000 troops had been warplanned to come down from the north, but were diverted by Turkey and hence not available.

He also noted that in not sending large numbers of troops through the northern segment of Iraq, we didn't have the opportunity to fully engage the enemy in the north (including the Sunni triangle) during combat operations, and it is they we are fighting as an insurgency now. Very thought provoking, and a point I haven't seen made elsewhere.

Apostolou's blog is here.

They wouldn't have had these problems in Norfolk

Over the past several years, the relocation of the Montreal Expos has generated a lot of publicity as MLB owners wavered between several cities, with Washington, DC and Norfolk, VA both among the frontrunners. Washington eventually sealed the deal when they came up with a stadium plan slightly better financially than the one Norfolk had in place.

Apparently, however, DC officials have created a problem for themselves: the proposed stadium site is currently occupied by a string of gay bars and shops.

Leaders of the District's homosexual community say they will use their political clout to save a homosexual nightclub mecca that is likely to be razed to make room for a Major League Baseball stadium in Southeast. [...]

"We do have a concern that the NIMBYs and the puritans who routinely object to other people being able to choose adult entertainment will make it difficult for those businesses, if displaced, to find a new location," said Richard J. Rosendall, vice president for political affairs for the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, D.C.

Okay, so anyone who doesn't want a bunch of sexually oriented businesses in his neighborhood is derided as a "NIMBY" and a "puritan." And what sort of businesses might that be? A list of those that currently occupy the stadium sight include "...Glorious Health & Amusement (an X-rated homosexual movie house and video store), the female impersonator revue at Ziegfields, the nude stage show at the Follies and bars featuring nude male dancers, such as Wet, Secrets and La Cage Aux Follies..." Yeah only a puritan wouldn't want to be next door to those delightful-sounding businesses.

While reading Betsy's Page, it came to my attention that Blogger was requiring my occasional reader to register before posting comments. Knowing how much I loathe registering anywhere, I have changed to the Haloscan system. This both removes the burden of registration and fulfills a long-ago suggestion from Interested-Participant that I provide Trackback capabilities.