Monday Night Follow-up

on things I haven't posted about yet

so anyway, I was sitting in this all-day Stoopid Business™ meeting on Friday, doodling on graph paper and seething over Justice Stevens' dissenting opinion on the Heller v. DC case and thinking "I should blog about this".

The particular quote from Justice Stevens' opinion that had me all worked up:

The [Supreme] Court would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the Framers made a choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses of weapons.

Yes, John Paul, it is conceivable that the Framers made a choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian activities. Like, duh. That's what the Constitution is all about: guaranteeing individual freedoms and limiting the powers of the government.

'specially the "limiting the powers of the government" part.

As it turns out, Moron Pundit over at doubleplusundead had already done the honors:

Why, it's almost as if the constitution was written entirely to constrain the powers of government and preserve the freedom individuals. Why, when I look at the bill of rights, I notice there are several "limits to the tools available to elected officials' relating to no less than 10 different topics!

He then proceeds to lay it out, chapter and verse. I do so wish I had written that post.

Mike of Cold Fury fame hits up on some of the Heller v. DC fall-out. Did I mention that Mike neither parses word nor suffers fools gladly?

Doesn’t matter to them; they blather disingenuously about “hunting” and “sportsmen” to deflect attention from their desire to see the right of the people to keep and bear arms done away with, by any means necessary. I say again: what part of “shall not be infringed” do you not understand?

Emphasis mine. But you knew that.

doubleplusundead (actual) brings us an L.A.Times piece on the nanny-staters going after the firearms industry and brings some snark and some of the cold, hard light of reality on the subject:

Essentially, they want the government to try and somehow force gun companies themselves to lower the murder rate, then I think they demand a unicorn.

I think I see the game plan here. They want to punish gun companies that see their guns used in crime more frequently, and we all know, common firearms (the ones the Nanny Staters swear they don't want to take away) are the ones used the most in crime....

.....Translation: We can't impose fascist bans and regulation on the public, but we can force you gunmakers to do it for us!

Do go read them all.

Late, tired, etc.

Supply Side Politics: Four Years On

Happy Blog Day!

so anyway, four years ago today, around four in the afternoon, Greg called me from his Stoopid Business™ cube and said "Let's do it.....what do you want to call our blog?"

Four.Years. A lot of water under the bridge. Greg moved on from blogging some time ago, the burdens of daily life as a working family man precluded his continuing the blogging hobby. Blogging is a huge "time-suck", and I completely understand his situation.

But I didn't access the Blogger interface tonight to post some biographical rambling. Blogger does not have the bandwidth to accommodate such a post. Instead, I post tonight to say "Thank You" to everyone who's been along for the ride.

The people I've "met" (metaphorically speaking, you know how the inter-web net-tube thingies are), the things that I have discovered / learned, have enriched my life to no end. I can only hope that over the past four years I've added some value to the lives of others.

I really love this blogging hobby. I love having my very own soap-box to stand on, out on the fringe of the blogosphere town square; and I thank you for reading and commenting and occasionally re-affirming my positions or calling "BullSiht" on my ramblings; thank you.

I wish time would permit me to add the eleventy links supporting what went before, but it's gotten late early again. The assembled multitudes chant "Four More Years", I'm happy to oblige.

Thank you for reading Supply Side Politics 2.0.

Thank you all. So very much.

Some days, the posts just write themselves

today is not that day

so anyway, I've been looking through the stuff that I wanted to blog about over the past week, and realized that there's just no friggin' way I can have a full time job, a full time wife, three full time kids, a full time house / grounds, and a three quarters' time dog and still expect to blog regularly. My "stack of stuff" would take about sixty hours to blog properly, replete with insight and commentary.

So I'll throw the cream out there, without insight, and with little comment. Yeah, it's a "link only" post; you can collect your refund at the door. Where to start?.....

Mike of Cold Fury links to Fred! Thompson's post over at Hot Air. I really miss Fred! Thompson.

Rachel Lucas rants large on the "Gloucester 17" and Ace follows up. It is so good to link to Rachel Lucas again.

Cold Fury goes long on Senator Obama's "Cowboy Diplomacy Alienates US Allies". To excerpt Mike's money quote:

“Dropping a unanimous Security Council condition would simply be interpreted by Iran and America’s allies as unconditional surrender, and America’s friends would view this as confirmation of America’s basic unreliability,” said François Heisbourg, a Paris-based military analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “A hell of a way to start a presidential term.”

Ace riffs on the same vibe

Production Note: It is not possible to blog while eating Cheetos and not have your keyboard (or your pajamas) turn a weird shade of orange.

Other stuff that's out there from the past week:



I've added the "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" link to the sidebar, please do go support.

The Stoopid Business™ resumes operations in exactly eight hours. I must go now. thatisall.

Fathers Day 2008

did you get a tie?

so anyway, Happy Fathers Day for all you Dads out there.

A while back, Al of Cold Fury fame looked at how Dads (and men in general) are treated in our declining culture. A taste:

If you’re into being a man, husband and father for recognition, for thanks, for the gratitude of others, you’re in the wrong line of work. Honestly. It’s your job to provide that to others. You should take satisfaction in a job well done. But if you’re looking to them to emotionally validate you, no offense meant, but you’re a pussy and you probably ought to turn in your balls on your way out of the barber shop next time you go, or, God forbid, find a cigar shop or a saloon if you’re a beauty salon kind of guy.

Yep, it’s nice to be praised and recognized, and it’s proper to respond graciously to it. But don’t go out there looking for it. You aren’t going to find it very often for one thing, and for another, why should you get a Congressional Medal of Honor for just doing your job? It’s immodest to seek praise for simply not being a wanker.

Absolutely.Spot.On.

Elsewhere, Matty O'BlackFive reposts a Fathers Day tribute from 2006. Powerful stuff. To excerpt Matt's excerpt:

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars -- all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

Like Matt of BlackFive fame and Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly, I suck as well. Do go read.

Just because I gotta go there; Ace commemorates the day as only he can. Follow the link thingies and call your therapist.

thatisall

Tim Russert, RIP

too young.....

Tim Russert died today at 58 years of age. Having sworn off TV years ago, I couldn't pick him out of a line-up if you held a pistol to my head; but all I've read over the right wing of the blogosphere over the past several years gives him a fair shake. No "shivers up his leg", so to speak.

Godspeed, Tim.

thatisall

12 June 2008

the Good, and the Fugly

so anyway, I hope your Carbon Belch Day was a smashing success. I fell a little short of my forecasted incremental 186 lbs. of CO2, I'll re-calculate and will advise.

Today was supposed to be A.Good.Day. I present the reason why:



Help us, Zombie Reagan!

For my troubles in searching for the vid that was "just right", I found three YouTube vids of the event that were besmirched by BDS idiots. What the hell is wrong with those people?

Then there's the Supremes "habeas" decision today. And you people wonder why I drink. Ace, who knows the law thing, posted an "off the cuff" analysis that originally quelled my fears, although his subsequent updates prove my fears to be right. I first heard the news via Gabriel Malor's post at AoSHQ; all the cool kids are talking about the decision, like Cold Fury and Four Right Wing Wackos. See also: BlogRoll. If I read any more Volokh, my head will explode....

Twenty-one years from now, I wonder what people will be saying about today's events. Will we be allowed to speak twenty-one years from now?

Almost lost in the shuffle is Victor Davis Hanson's New York Post op/ed today. I first saw it via Ace, again, the "in crowd" is all over it like a bum on a bologna sammich. To excerpt Ace's excerpt:

The wealthier and better-educated seem less concerned about gas prices.

From my informal conversations, I'd go even further: The wealthy, especially political liberals, also like that high-priced gas translates into less burning of fossil fuels by others and will help accelerate research into alternative energies.

But what these elites don't seem to realize is that the energy policies they advocate are paralyzing almost everyone else - and that the truly ethical and environmental solution would require embracing positions long considered anathema to traditional liberalism.

The debate in Congress over more refineries and nuclear-power plants; drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off our coasts; and developing oil shale, tar sands and liquid coal has been a predictable soap opera: Grasping Republicans supposedly wish to enrich energy companies, while idealistic Democrats want only to protect the environment. But those stances, hatched in the days of $1.50-a-gallon gas, should be revisited in light of different moral considerations.

One is fairness to the poor and middle class. Like it or not, radical environmentalism appeals to an elite not all that worried when gas prices rise or electricity rates go up - since fossil-energy use goes down.

But a paradox is that most environmentalists think of themselves as egalitarians. So, instead of objecting to the view of a derrick from the California hills above the Santa Barbara coast, shouldn't a liberal estate owner instead console himself that the offshore pumping will help a nearby farm worker or carpenter get to work without going broke?

Go read everything. We'll talk again soon.

Update on the Follow Up

more passport news

so anyway, our "go-to" guy for Department of State news, Consul-At-Arms has more passport news: Driving to Canada? Time to Get a Passport. US Citizenship Has to be Proven; No Longer Just for Air Travelers.

To excerpt CAA's excerpt:

So, if Aunt Sophie's been bugging you to visit her in Canada and you're looking to cave next year. Don't wait until the last minute to apply for that passport. It can take four to six weeks -- or longer if there's a crush of applications. Expedited service is available for an additional fee.

Yesterday, I noted the fact that I renewed my passport in two week's time, and that a co-worker had a one week turn-around on new passports for his wife and kids.

Yes, I understand that the plural of "anecdote" is not data. I'm just offering up some real world observations.

we'll have words again soon

Follow Up On "Passport-gate"

better late than never, right?

so anyway, I've been meaning to follow up on passport related issues for quite a while now, but I've been, you know, busy.

But I'm following up now. When we last visited this issue, I had my passport renewal all packaged up and ready to go. As I said at the time:

I have the DS-82 all filled out, the photos ready, the check written, and my passport all stuffed into the requisite padded envelope, ready to go to the Post Office. I should get it in the mail on Monday or, with the way my life works, sometime between Monday and Flag Day.

As it turns out, I managed to send the thing in on Easter Monday, 24 March 2008. Hey, sometimes the blind squirrel finds the acorn, right?

I received my spankin' new passport on Friday, 4 April 2008. We're talking a "ten business day" turn-around. OutStanding!

But it gets even better. Our Stoopid Business™ department's CAD Guy sent in new passport applications for his children (ages 1 and 3), as well as his (I believe, don't quote me) dual-citizenship wife, and had the passports in hand in one week! Hokey Smokes, BatMan! A week! The applications were mailed on 27 May 2008, the passports received on 3 June 2008.

If it adds to the calculations, my Passport renewal was mailed from a suburb of The Peoples Republic of Ann Arbor; CAD Guy's stuff was sent from a suburb of Detroit (Rock City)

I freely admit that I'm often the first one to point out the inefficiencies of our government. The State Department's Passport operation (Consular Affairs?) is doing it right.

Next week, I'll actually sign my crispy new Passport, unless I'm distracted by something. It's a joke, I signed it the day it arrived

Do yourself a favor: do go read Consul-At-Arms excellent primer on all things passport. You'll be glad you did.

thatisall

Busy Monday

it's been a good blogging day

so anyway, I started taking notes this morning when I read Slublog's post over at Ace Of Spades HQ. Wow. I usually heap scorn and derision upon Saturn drivers, but I'm granting Slublog special dispensation on this one.

Yeah, it's that good. A snippet:

These oil prices are cutting deeply into the pocketbooks of ordinary Americans, and your administration is letting the Democrats block increased production instead of using the bully pulpit to push for more domestic drilling. It's time to stop being meek, stop allowing the Democrats to block progress and start throwing punches on behalf of the American people.

If you want to be known as the president who helped elect a socialist, keep doing nothing....

Mike of Cold Fury fame riffs on the same vibe. As per his usual, Mike parses not words nor does he suffer fools gladly. Do go read, post haste.

The other one that all the cool kids are quoting today is Kim du Toit's post on the whole unemployment rate vs. minimum wage thingie. I first saw it via Ragin' Dave's post over at Four Right Wing Wackos. Again, Mike at Cold Fury runs with it:

“It wasn’t Bush, it wasn’t greedy corporations, or free trade, or history’s most over-predicted recession. It was not the oil companies, income inequality, or the excesses of cowboy capitalism. None of these things caused the unemployment rate to jump a half a percentage point in one month.

Ask yourself a few questions: Why did unemployment surge at a time when unemployment compensation claims are historically low? More to the point, how could unemployment spike this much without a coinciding spike in corporate lay-offs? The answer to all of these questions is same: because very few people lost jobs last month. This huge jump in the size of the unemployed comes from new entrants to the economy—hundreds of thousands of them. In short, well over 600,000 people who were not job seekers in April became job seekers in May. And who starts looking for work at the end of Spring? That’s right—students. Hundreds of thousands of students are looking for work right now, and they’re not finding it.

Congress is to blame.

As usual, I may add. Kim attributes the spot-on rant to one Jerry Bowyer of PatriotPost.org.

It's gotten late early again and I must go. We'll have words again soon.

Speaking of Technology

I may never sleep again

so anyway, there has been a Bill Whittle sighting. He's "bill-boarding" things to come, and just generally catching up.

In reading Whittle's post, I discovered the E!3 Gazette, where like-minded fans of Eject!Eject!Eject! meet to discuss things going on. Here's where my troubles start, and "technology" comes in.

The E!3 Gazette crew is posting links to James Burke's Connections series of television programs. Connections has long been a favorite of mine, and to see it again is an opportunity that I just can not miss.

It's like crack for the brain; you take that first hit, and the next thing you know you're queueing up episode 3 of the first series at 11:14 PM, knowing full well that you have a Stoopid Business™ meeting at 7:00 AM.

I may never sleep again. There's so much good stuff out there.

thatisall

Wow! It's like Technology

or something

so anyway, I've finally managed to start figuring out how the radio audio system works on my first new car. It plays .mp3s! I am totally gobsmacked.

So, I start ripping some disks (or whatever the kids call "burning disks" these days. Please remember, I am not "hip". I'm relatively new to the whole .mp3 thingy). Do you have any idea how much siht you can put on a disk in the .mp3 format? With the 6-disk system, I figure I can have every rock and roll song that ever charted from 1967 to 1978 and then some. I think I can load up so much music that I can drive to the freakin' Moon and not hear the same song twice. Gobsmacked, I tell you.

But that's not why I stopped in to post tonight. In all my "ripping" frenzy, I happened to glance at the liner notes of Alan Jackson's Don't Rock the Jukebox (yes, I'm into the country CDs. All the blues, rock, and classical stuff got burned days ago).

Jackson's liner notes tell me that "We Only Have 10 Years To Save Our Planet", with helpful tips such as "Carpool", "Recycle", "Turn off lights", "Buy environmentally sound products", "Love and Respect All Life", and my personal favorite "Pressure Political Leaders".

We only have ten years! Keep in mind that Don't Rock the Jukebox was released in 1991. So, according to Mr.Jackson's liner notes, the planet Earth ceased to exist seven years ago.

In a way, he's right: the world as we knew it ceased to exist seven years ago, come September.

more soon.

Sure to be a classic

I should read my own damn blogroll more often

so anyway, our old pal InsoluBlog has posted an epic rant. I can not even fathom what to excerpt from his post as a teaser, so you'll just have to go there your own self and read the whole thing.

I need an anchor, too. Go read, and you will understand.

thatisall

Tuesday, 03 June 2008

yeah, it's that "Tuesday" thing again

so anyway, you need to mark next Thursday on your calendars. Via S.Weasel, a reminder that Thursday, 12 June 2008 is Carbon Belch Day

Yeah, I know, it's like so last Thursday; I've been busy, m'kay? I also saw mention of the event at Cold Fury and Thayrone has been all over it on the local radio. I have a family and a job, you know. That I can blog it at all is an accomplishment....

S.Weasel prefaces her "Carbon Belch Day" reminder with some well-deserved jabs at Pope Prius I (that's Albert Gore, Jr. to the uninitiated) and his daddy. Well played; good stuff, that.

Whilst you're at it, make sure you hit the Weasel Times & Stoat Intelligencer's entry for today (which is actually yesterday, 'cause you're reading this at work on Wednesday, but you know what I mean) which addressed the Lieberman-Warner legislation that is being debated in Congress even as I type!

Holy Siht, Batman! It's after MidNight! Again! I have a Stoopid Business™ meeting at 7:00 AM. doG, I hope the supplier brings bagels or something.....

I gotta go now. More soon.

Bo Diddley, RIP

It's gonna be a long week

so anyway, rock and roll icon Bo Diddley died today at age 79. The world is a lesser place for his passing. As my brother Thayrone mentioned this afternoon on his "On the Edge with Thayrone" talk show; everything that musically came after Bo Diddley was influenced by Bo Diddley.

So, if you'll excuse me; I've got "You Can't Judge a Book by It's Cover" queued up on the trusty MP3 player and the volume turned up to eleven. Again.

we'll have words again soon, although you may have to speak up.