One-of-a-kind

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, important events took place and Dave Barry catalogued them all in the Miami Herald, kinda. Note ye well that the event of the year took place way back 11 months ago in January, when Big Hair bestrode the colossus of T.V. to rage against Big Mouth. Barry quips,

2007 - January... As the debate over Iraq intensifie[d], the eyes of a worried nation turn to another trouble spot: New York City, where Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell are locked in a bitter high-stakes battle to determine who is the bigger horse's ass.

An event that could take place only in America.

Of course, you are reading his newspaper column on the web and this blog. The decrease in newspaper circulation and increase in internet news reading was a story not noted by him. Then again, he is a humorist. More credit to this blog or here.

My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger. We made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all. -- Ronald Regan Farewell Address to the Nation --

Into the Wilderness

In Pakistan the political party of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan People's Party (PPP), is choosing a path to political obscurity. The party members voted to have her 19 yr.-old son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, run the party in the eventual future. They also approved of having her husband operate for the next few years. The Washington Post explains,

Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, whose reputation has long been tainted by corruption charges, will run the party for at least the next several years.

Voting on emotion, the PPP loses any influence that they might have had. Even National Review echoes this sentiment in its State of Doubt editorial,

But a bold and effective civilian politician from the current opposition parties is also needed to provide the democratic legitimacy and mass support for such boldness.

No such figure is on the scene — Nawaz Sharif is neither popular nor strong enough to do the job even if he were willing to do so. Bhutto had crowded out strong rivals in her own party (and her own family too).

If in the upcoming elections the Pakistani voters choose a leader based on traumatic emotions, Buhtto's PPP will hold the levers of power in a state controlled by other mightier political factions. The government will run on auto-pilot, and the PPP will only think that they are in control. The end result is that our own national security is compromised in the short run.

My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger. We made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all. -- Ronald Regan Farewell Address to the Nation --

Good Cameras & Bad

My mother uses a Nikon Coolpix 5600, 5.1 mp with a 3x zoom that takes mediuim quality pictures and uses rechargeable AA Energizer batteries that very rarely wear out. I keep hearing that the square batteries are better and last longer. I don't like the delay between pressing the picture button and the actual film exposure.

We have a Sony 7.2 mp DSC-S650, 3x zoom, with 1000 ISO .Any opinion? More info forthcoming...

My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger. We made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all. -- Ronald Regan Farewell Address to the Nation --

What a Year

After a 10 month hiatus, I return and low and behold, the influence of this blog only magnifies with time.

1) Giuliani's campaign is tanking ten months after the post stripped bare the pseudo pro-life credentials of America's mayor. US News and World reports that he is not even contensting in IA, NH or MI, but is waiting to put all his eggs in SC and the Super Tuesday of Feb 5. They write

As for Giuliani, he is playing down the importance of Iowa and New Hampshire, where he lags badly. He is counting on Florida to give him momentum on January 29, a week before the megaprimary day of February 5. Giuliani's strategy has always been based on his winning a number of the big states that day, including New York, New Jersey, and California, and emerging on top of the delegate tally.

A strategy that focuses on regaining the Big Mo' after a month of bad election returns, will seriously damage to his chances. Mortimer B. Zuckerman, Editor-in-Chief of US News & World Report, extrapolates on that sentiment in his December 23 column, where he pontificates about the 'US Grant of 9/11',

Giuliani has long led the national polls, [but] His campaign has been seriously weakened recently as the media focus shifted to his personal life. He is hoping to survive the early primaries and then do well in Florida and Michigan before hitting the big-state primaries of February 5.

2) Instapundit now offers RSS feeds, which are available in IE7 format. I lay claim to having sent the e-mail that wore down his defenses. Just like voting, Nag 'em early 'n' nag 'em often.

My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger. We made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all. -- Ronald Regan Farewell Address to the Nation --

A Freudian Campaign

On my Christmas trip back home, I trekked through Iowa and near I-80 saw a John Edwards campaign sign that seemed quite Freudian.

It said http://johnedwardsob.com/. I thought that went beyond the line and was quite offensive, until I got closer and realized it was a campaign slogan that directed me to this website. Humorous.

My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger. We made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all. -- Ronald Regan Farewell Address to the Nation --

Iowa's worth - while or less- caucus

Over at the Washington Post's blog Right Matters, renowned conservative and pro-life commentator Ramesh Ponnuru criticizes the Iowa caucus for not representing American in terms of cultural make-up (mainly Caucasian farmers), numbers participation (only 7% of available voters), accuracy (they picked Reagan in '80), and cost-of-living (ethanol).

My response is to shrug the shoulders rather than rebut his argument or justify the rules of the DNC in Iowa. I write

Think of Iowa as the play-in game during "March Madness." The 64th and 65th best teams of NCAA, Division I, men's basketball compete for the chance to be decimated by the supposedly best team in the country. The winner of this 1/2-round has no conceivable hope of advancing past the 'real' 1st round. They simply play first because those are the rules.

Iowa is 1st because inertia dictates it, not because representation dictates it.

He has a point about the overall worthlessness of having Iowa go first, but so do the other responders that no real alternative exists to replacing Iowa with a better option.

My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger. We made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all. -- Ronald Regan Farewell Address to the Nation --