The Last Ephor

Random thoughts: Liberals seem wholly unconcerned with cost/benefit analysis for anything other than the US military Conservatives are wholly unconcerned with corporate bailouts. Anyone who supported such bailouts is forever banned from talking about the self correcting market. Liberals resent rich people except for those with the correct politics like George Soros. Liberals seem to think that giving tax cuts to rich people is going to cause them to put it in a huge pile like Scrooge McDuck rather than either spending or investing it (either of which would employ someone). Corollary, if rich people are making money they are taking it away from poor people to do so. How this is so is never explained. It is simply an article of faith. Liberals tell me that health care vital and everyone must be covered so the state should cover everyone. When I ask why more immediate needs like food, clothing or shelter should not be purchased and allocated by the state they don't have an answe...

MAKEUP OF PRIUS OWNERS IN LOS ANGELES

I’ve been thinking of late about Shelley’s poem (sonnet really) Ozymandias. I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said -- "two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert ... near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lips, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, Look on my Works ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away." I’ve always liked the imagery. The narrator doesn’t see the scene he describes. Rather it was related to him but his description is enough for the reader to feel the sand shift beneath his feet. All things pass away. No matter how powerful and omnipresent they are at their zenith...

"You American haters bore me to tears, Ms. Barham. I've dealt with Europeans all my life. I know all about us parvenus from the States who come over here and race around your old Cathedral towns with our cameras and Coca-cola bottles... Brawl in your pubs, paw at your women, and act like we own the world. We over-tip, we talk too loud, we think we can buy anything with a Hershey bar. I've had Germans and Italians tell me how politically ingenuous we are, and perhaps so. But we haven't managed a Hitler or a Mussolini yet. I've had Frenchmen call me a savage because I only took half an hour for lunch. Hell, Ms. Barham, the only reason the French take two hours for lunch is because the service in their restaurants is lousy. The most tedious lot are you British. We crass Americans didn't introduce war into your little island. This war, Ms. Barham to which we Americans are so insensitive, is the result of 2,000 years of European greed, barbarism, superstition, and s...

There's been some talk about gun rights and restrictions on DL. Mike W. and another Dana arguing pro and JadeGold against. Gun control advocates usually say they simply favor "reasonable" restrictions. They want to keep the guns from people who are either incapable of handling them properly (children, mentally ill) or criminals. Frankly, I don't know of anyone who opposes such restrictions. The problem is that JadeGold believes DC's restrictions fall into the zone of "reasonable". They are tantamount to a total ban. No handguns permits have been issued in 30 years. Long guns may be kept in the home provided they are locked and unloaded. They may not be carried in public either. There are no gun stores in DC and zoning laws prohibit them from even existing. This is a de facto if not de jure ban. I made the argument that putting those same restrictions on blogging would be considered a ban on free speech and not "reasonable" restricti...

Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson, 1869-1935 Whenever Richard Cory went down town, We people on the pavement looked at him; He was a gentleman from sole to crown, Clean favored, and imperially slim. And he was always quietly arrayed, And he was always human when he talked; But still he fluttered pulses when he said, “Good-morning,” and he glittered when he walked. And he was rich—yes, richer than a king— And admirably schooled in every grace: In fine, we thought that he was everything To make us wish that we were in his place. So on we worked, and waited for the light, And went without the meat, and cursed the bread; And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, Went home and put a bullet through his head.

A Catholic Case Against Barack . Pat Buchanan writes a column citing reasons for Catholics not to support Obama. (Brief version: He support abortion. A lot.) My question: What Democrat or Obama supporter is going to read, let alone be swayed by, Pat Buchanan?

Salon.com | Accent the negative : "It's utter nonsense for Hillary to imply that the alleged 18 million form a solid, lardlike block sworn to her, as in some fascist regime, and that if they aren't 'heard' at the convention, they will swarm like lemmings to the edge of a cliff and fling themselves off." Well, one can always hope I guess.... More: "Hillary is setting feminism back -- defining women as petulant brats driven by emotion rather than logic and fair play." This woman is brutal. There are some more hits up top about Republicans (talk radio really): "A tap-dancing Rockette line of mutually contradictory Obamas has been trotted out to scare the public -- the secret Muslim traitor; the radical leftist with a bag of bombs; the snobby, out-of-touch elitist; the magical Messiah with healing hands; the Peter Pan naif who can't sharpen a pencil. But here's the bad news -- it's working. " She's right, of course. Sadly, th...

American Thinker commits and act of overt journalism that trumps literally anything I've read about campaign financing in memory. The post is entitled Obama's Foreign Donors: The media averts its eyes . Read the whole thing. Then print it and give a copy to everyone you see for the next 3 months. The MSM (and certainly the partisans at DL and DW) have been very quick to cry foul when there are the faintest whiffs of impropriety (much less illegality) in McCain's donations. If only they applied the same rigor to The One. They won't, of course, because Obama is running for President of the World. He is so beloved by all that mere financing regulations should not prevent foreigners from sending their love (in the form of cash) to him. Look, these are oil company executives we're talking about. They're sophisticated foreigners who understand just how important this election is and if they're donating to Him they have to be smarter than Rethuglikkans any...

The Rielle Hunter scandal: where did Andrew Young get his money? This whole thing reeks from start to finish. I have zero hope that the MSM will pursue this further. As far as they're concerned, he copped to the affair which ended his career and anything more would be piling on. He is, after all, one of the "good" guys.

Gateway Pundit: SPUN GOLD--- CHINA BUSTED Scrubbing Internet of Articles That Show Gymnasts Are Too Young To Compete! (Updated!) In related news Bill Belichick has accepted a position as coach of China's newly minted NFL franchise the Shanghai Dragons. (Updated to fix spelling error. )

LOL Bush is funny. Both my readers know that I'm no Bush basher but I do love LOL Cats.

For I am Archery! You Are Archery You are a bit of a traditionalist. You like old fashioned things with deep traditions. You also like to see the result of your accomplishments right in front of you. If practice makes perfect, that's fine by you. You like to practice a skill. What Olympic Sport Are You?

The images of the 140 blind and sighted athletes from 37 countries revealed that Paralympic athletes blind from birth struck the same triumphant stance as sighted Olympic athletes. Since the blind athletes could not have learned the victory dance by watching others, the scientists concluded that the behavior was innate.

In my last post I was lamenting the fact that I cannot get into anything approximating a substantive discussion with people who do not share the same opinions and views that I do. Over at DelawareLiberal, I waded into the fray about corporations and profits with a question: "Please explain how you will tax corporations and not have them pass that cost on to consumers." Makes sense, no? My point is that any tax on corporations turns them into tax collecting agents not taxpayers. To a business, taxes are simply overhead like the cost of raw materials that have to be recouped from customers. Given that the DL crowd has a visceral hatred for corporations (despite the fact that they all seem to work for them) I should have known that there would be no explanations forthcoming. Jason responded with: Duffy asks… Please explain how you will tax corporations and not have them pass that cost on to consumers. Easy. They might not make $11 billion dollars in profit one quarter. ...

Dear Reader(s), Why do you come here? That is; Which posts, if any, do you like to read? I ask b/c I started this thing so I could engage in something approximating a dialog w/ people who do not share my viewpoint. I've been singularly unable to spawn any sort of discussion on virtually anything. I do occasionally get comments but they're usually of the "hang in there" types when I'm whining about how difficult things are. I hope this doesn't sound like complaining about a lack of comments but I'm more puzzled than anything else. I also intended this as a forum for me to figure out some sort of coherent (hopefully) political and social philosophy for myself by examining not just what I believe but why I believe it. I've not done that largely due to time constraints and the fact that there are so many others doing it better than I could. Perhaps I need to re-examine my reasons for blogging. The political discourse thing is clearly not happening ...