What is This?
"Homeland Security"
Sounds a lot like the "Committee for State Security," doesn't it?
Komiter Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti? (KGB)
I'm not sure whether I'm more unhappy with the creation of the department or the Patriot act giving them unprecedented powers, but both are worrisome.

On Monday my dad, an electrician, fell off a ladder at work and has not been able to walk since without holding onto something he can put his weight on. He says the pain is about equal to that of a hernia he had over a decade ago, but what makes his current injury worse is that it effects muscles that he uses to walk. When we got him home after his fall, walking with him up our driveway, watching him in pain like I have never seen before was the hardest thing I ever remember having to do in my life. My dad is 53 years old, and he has raised my brother and I by himself since my mother died when I was 7. I know perfectly well that he cares about me far more than any living person in this world, and he has always been a better father, mother, and friend than I have ever had any right to expect of anyone. He would honestly rather spend his free time with my brother or I than any of his own friends. I spent 6 and a half hours with him at the VA hospital (my pappy's an ex-Marine from the Vietnam era, though he was stationed on Okinawa and was never sent into combat), staying by his side as long as they let me, and watching him exposed to all manner of indignancies. He has been stuck in bed the last couple of days, lamenting that he's stuck at home while jobs keep piling up for his small electrical business.

So, now you know why I haven't been posting much lately, as opposed to previous occasions where I simply wasn't posting due to my own laziness. Thanks to Fectin for his contributions in keeping the blog more or less up to date (we don't pay him too well at AfD, but we're always glad to hear from him). My dad is still stuck in bed (occasionally crawling short distances around the house), but he is feeling less pain he says, which I am eternally grateful to hear. He was originally expecting he'd be back at work the day after his fall, but that sure as hell didn't happen. I'm hoping he can get back on his feet by early this week. Maybe I can get him to read a P.J. O'Rourke book while he's in bed, or if I can find someone willing to loan a small enough TV to carry to his room (the two TVs in the house are really old and bulky, at least one of them is older than I am), I can hook up my PS2 so he can watch some DVDs.

Anyway, this last week has been hectic as hell. Between what happened to my grandma, my dad's injury, plus two midterms and one 4-page paper in one week, it's been a lot of craziness. To quote my dad from a seperate occasion, several years ago, sometimes it feels like "every laser-guided shit-bomb in the galaxy has our exact coordinates." There's some stuff lately that I've wanted to post on, and I hope I'll get it up here soon. Talk to ya then, gang.

(Started 10/11/04, completed in the wee hours of 10/23)
So this past week was an interesting week. First off, Case hosted the VP debates, and that was something else. The best and the worst of both sides came out there. I was at MSNBC's stage for most of the day and night, largely in crowd of Republicans. I got in the early afternoon, and spent a while talking to a LaRouche follower. He was quite convinced he didn't support socialism, while describing a strictly regimented economy. He did seem smarter than the average fanatic though; he'd already decided that the hardcore environmentalist movement was not a particularly intelligent one. Anyway, LaRouche says (as represented by this guy) that we're following a pattern similar to the one which led to the Great Depression. To fix this, we need to heavily regulate the economy. I mentioned the Smoot-McKinley tariff act, and was met with a blank stare. He is probably better than I; he was going to look it up and do research, I just went home, skimmed the literature and scoffed. I stood there talking for an hour or so. It was quite nice to find an intelligent person with convictions opposite my own who wasn't a jackass. But eventually, we had each made our respective positions clear and cordially parted ways. Actually, funny story. For a long time, all the Bush supporters were Case students and all the Kerry supporters were random hippies. Eventually, the Republican shock troops arrived too, but it took longer.
A friend of mine went out and stood with the Republicans with a giant Poland sign. (Yes that is Terry McAuliffe) He had no agenda, it was just fun. Hardball made him take it down because it was "messing up the cameras." Classy work, Matthews.
Hardball was actually not the nicest show; they were somewhat unpleasant to the civilized people early on. Then the Republican zealots showed up. They chanted "Four more years" repeatedly and loudly. The Democrat zealots chanted "Four more weeks" instead, but it didn't work out well for them; it all sounded like one big morass of "four more years." It was sadistically fun to watch Matthews twitch; he looked about to snap at the end. Scarborough was much cooler; he kept laughing and talking to the crowd. Definitely a class act. Unlike the republicans around me and the Revolutionary Communist Party. The showed up with a bullhorn, and annoyed everyone. I think they also brought a dead animal with them, because it started reeking of putrescene when they showed up. The Republicans used their giant signs (same picture as above) to crush someone advertising his website ("See Bush Drunk at wherever it was". The advertiser was a Case student and a staunch Republican though). I was disappointed with them; as an organization they are usually classier than that. By the time the debate rolled around, it was pretty impressive. All the police and sheriffs had lined up in full riot gear. There wasn't a riot, or any sign of violence at all, but it was pretty disorderly and it's better safe than sorry. But then the debate came on, and everyone went to watch on one of several giant screens set up by MTV and CNN and Case, or at the MSNBC sound stage.
I spent a while talking to some higher up from the RNC. He showed up around 4-5 and was still there when I left around 11. He lent me his jacket for a while too. It was cool, he was a nice guy, and explained Halliburton in a way that made a lot of sense. They weren't given the only contract; other companies also got no bid contracts. Basically, there was so much demand (they're rebuilding an entire country) that anyone who looked capable got a contract. Also, Cheney doesn't benefit in any way from Halliburton doing well. He has no stock, no investments, nothing. Incidentally, none of those were the guy's words, just what I gleaned from them. Anyway, he was there promoting flippercam.com, which is not an especially well designed website, but is still kind of fun.
During the debate, Edwards made shit up, and Cheney politely refrained from shooting him in the face. Seriously, Edwards did not show up for his job. If he had been anything other than an elected official, he would have been fired three and a half years ago.
Anyway, some nice points I remembered:
Edwards saying the commission found no direct connection between Iraq and 9/11. Cheney pointed out that they'd also found Iraq to have been aiding and succoring terrorists for years, including ones involved with 9/11.
Edwards saying that the cost of health care was unconscionable. Cheney refrained from doing more than mentioning that some lawsuits were frivolous.
Edwards going off on how he hates gays but supports rights for everyone. Cheney saying that his job was to support the president.
Cheney pointed out only twice and only when it came up that Edwards has done precisely jack as senator. He also did so as politely as possible.
Anyway, there was more, but it all added up to Cheney looking like a class act and an all around good guy, and Edwards like an overblown poser.
Wouldn't it be great if he were more charismatic? Oh well.
Anyway, I stuck around for a while after the debate, and I'm glad I did. There was a young black man holding up a sign for Kerry, Edwards and abortion. I'm not sure how we started talking, but he articulated his views better than anyone I know, though only when asked. The issues he hit on were gun control and abortion. Turned out, he was staunchly opposed to abortion. He felt that criminalizing it was at least as bad though. He also talked about gun control. He felt (and crystallized my opinions on the matter) that there was no reason that anyone who wanted to should be barred from buying a firearm, provided that there was no evidence that they would then be a danger to society. Basically, felons don't get guns, everyone else does. There is nothing inherently abusive about requiring gun licenses, just like as there's nothing wrong with requiring driver's licenses. A basic demonstration of competency, knowledgability and a quick criminal record check, perhaps a $5 processing fee, and off you go.
(Anyone really think this is abusive?)
Anyway, he was a far better speaker than I am. Then the same Republicans tried put the same big signs in front of him, but failed badly. And I gave up and went home.

Well, not quite. But he did have a recent post of his linked to by the awesome Drumwaster.com, which is a true honor indeed. Drumwaster has been generously linking to this blog, since I sent him an e-mail outing a pseudo-righty commentor on his blog (under my real name, Chris D, instead of the Mad Alchemist). Anyway, I imagine most of my readers already read Drumwaster's blog, but if not, why the hell not? Go there now!

This past week my grandma has been in the hospital, where she was diagnosed with lymhpoma. Apparently it is treatable, but she will have to go through chemotherapy. She got to leave the hospital yesterday, and she is now staying at my aunt and uncle's house. While she was away from her home, her house was ransacked by burglars. It takes a special kind of bottom-feeding scum to break in and rob the home of an 87-year-old woman who is in the hospital with cancer. Fucking cretins. Now, my grandma lives in a fairly rundown neighborhood in Cleveland (though she spends at least as much time at my aunt and uncle's house as her own), and family members have tried to pursuade her to move out to a nice suburb for some time, but she refuses to leave the home she grew up in, even if the neighborhood has gone way downhill (She even wants me or my brother to move into her house after she dies. Yeah fucking right! I lived there the first two years of my life, and that's more than enough for me). This is the second time her house has been burglarized that I know of, the last time probably being about a decade or so ago. It deeply disgusts me that there are so many people out there who put so little value on the lives and rights of their fellow man, that they think nothing of violating what belongs to another person, about whom they know nothing, nor do they care. I feel fortunate that my family has only had such assaults on our property, and have never had to go through the murder (though I know people who have) or rape of a loved one, as so many others have. Fuck rehabilitation! Even a three-year-old can distinguish the immorality of such actions. Death is too good for the people who foist this reality on the rest of us. I want to see some public lynchings from time to time, make sure these vermin are more scared of us than we are of them (and we need to do this to some of our politicians every now and then, as well). We need to put the occasional head on a pike, as there probably aren't too many more effective preventive measure to stop future crimes. I want every thief, brute, murderer, terrorist, and rapist to live in fear of us law-abiding people, that we wouldn't think twice about giving them back as good as we get.

On abortion:
I am loathe to declare anyone not human. Declaring people subhuman by intelligence is vile. Declaring people subhuman because of deformation or brain damage is wrong. Deciding humanity based on parentage or ethnicity is reprehensible.
Declaring that some group is not human has been morally bankrupting every time anyone has tried it before.
As such I am very reluctant to declare that a person is a person because they have not developed sufficiently yet. This reluctancy makes it difficult for me to support abortion with any real enthusiasm. If, for example, pregnancy involved marmots instead of babies, there would be no question in my mind: an elective procedure is just that, and none of my business, and I would strongly support that.
There are subtleties to this. I do recognize that there are situations where not everyone involved can be saved, some of which involve pregnancy. This is regretable, but not really something to dwell on.
Also, I support people I know and love, not someone who may someday be a person. Call it hypocritical, but I consider supporting my friends an overriding perogative.

Vodkapundit - It's How You Play the Game

This one's nice.

The following is the text of an e-mail that was forwarded to me:

JUST ONE QUESTION

The United States has been hit tremendously, especially the state of Florida with hurricanes, and another is headed towards them.
They have thousands still without electricty.
They have looting.
They have people who have lost their homes and everything they have.

What other COUNTRY has offered to help?

If this were Iraq, South America, Mexico, any other place in this universe, the American's would be stepping in to help. They would be sending food, clothing, medicine, and everything the people would need.

Who is offering to help the United States other than their adjoining states?

Think about it.

Okay, yeah, sorry I've been neglecting you guys. I've been doing super-secret things that are very important. Very important! Very important indeed.

I've been meaning to say something about Kerry insulting Allawi during his visit to our country. I just think that this was such a monumentally stupid move on his part, and really should have been addressed more. This man wants to be president, come January, and by extension, he wants to inherit the current situation in Iraq. Now, he is insulting the new prime minister of that nation? But the worst part is not what Kerry himself said, but that someone on Kerry's campaign stuff publicly called Allawi a puppet of the Bush administration! How bad does that have to sound to people in Iraq, the ones who might have faith that their new government is going to bring them a better future, to be told by Americans, Americans in positions of leadership no less, that their current administration is just a U.S. puppet regime? If Kerry's criticisms (and those of his staff) during the entirety of his campaign have the effect on average Iraqis that he wants them to have on Americans, then he is going to be creating one big fucking mess for his administration to inherit (and to those who already think Iraq is a worse mess than it was before Saddam's removal, you can't possibly think Kerry's rhetoric can possibly be helping things). I guess him stating during the big debate that he wants to give nuclear fuel to Iran is just the cherry on top of this big ol' heap of crap. I imagine that Kerry and his gang are hoping that Allawi is not reelected, come Iraq's elections in January.

I give up. I'm posting this now before I forget about it.
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The only thing I've changed about this is the spacing, because being emailed messed it up. Oh, and I removed the headers (which matched the "written by"). Everything seems to check out about it. I've emailed the author ~3 days ago, but not gotten a response yet. Anyway, this is too excellent a description of why I hate Edwards to not post it.
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written by: btnicholson@mindspring.com

I'd like to introduce you to my neighbor. I'm from Raleigh, North Carolina, and for several years I've lived around the corner from Vice Presidential Candidate John Edwards. My neighbor John has been in the news a good deal lately, but it's hard to tell about the man himself from the coverage. Maybe I can help you get to know him better.

Even several years ago, before he was elevated to the national stage, my neighbor John didn't socialize much with other neighbors. He didn't gather with other neighbors at the Fourth of July and he didn't come out to the sledding hills to watch the kids play after a snow. My neighbor John preferred to jog through the neighborhood by himself. There's no sidewalk on Alleghany Drive, John's street in Raleigh, and if you drove past him as he was jogging on the road and didn't slow down enough for his taste he'd flip you the bird. Even after he became a U.S. Senator, he'd still come home to Raleigh every once in a while, would still jog through the neighborhood, and would still flip the occasional bird to passing cars. He last showed me his middle finger about four years ago. Since then, my neighbor John is rarely in town. When he is home, though, we in the neighborhood all know it. My neighbor John invited reporters from TV, radio, and print news organizations to come to his house in January 2003 for the announcement of his Presidential bid. He didn't want any news vans parked on his property -- in fact, he made sure all the cameras and reporters waited in the street at the bottom of his driveway. That way everyone could get good footage of him strolling down the driveway to make his announcement, young children in tow. The news vans drove into the yards of John's neighbors and parked there. I heard two families ended up re-sodding their damaged yards, and John never apologized to anyone, much less offered any compensation. The family across the street from my neighbor John has since put up posts at their property line to try to keep that sort of thing from happening again.
The appearance was good for my neighbor John. Nobody else seems to matter to him.

Since then, when my neighbor comes home (as he did July10, to be interviewed with John Kerry for "60 Minutes"), Raleigh police officers block off the street. Those of us who live near him end up coming and going to and from our homes on a circuitous route, on a bad, unsurfaced road. Forsyth Street has been closed to through traffic, except when my neighbor is in town, because the road has been ripped up for installation of new gas and sewer lines. My neighbor's street is a public, city-maintained street, and it is the best way to get to homes just north of his. If my neighbor is around, though, apparently none of the rest of us can use the street at all.
It's good for my neighbor John. Nobody else seems to matter to him.

My neighbor John has been a very successful trial lawyer, but his practice of law sometimes seems more like extortion. A friend of mine is a doctor in Raleigh. He recently spoke with another doctor, an anesthesiologist, who was named in a suit filed by my neighbor John. Apparently a surgeon at a local hospital had made a mistake, and my neighbor John represented the injured patient. Not only did my neighbor John sue the doctor who made the mistake, but also sued the hospital and a string of others, including the anesthesiologist. There was no problem with the anesthesia -- the anesthesiologist had done absolutely nothing wrong. His attorney said so in a meeting with my neighbor John. John's neighborly response was that he couldn't care less if the doctor had done nothing wrong. That wasn't the point. The point was that clients come to my neighbor John because of his record of success an d his reputation for thoroughness. Every defendant in a suit he files pays, regardless of whether they are actually guilty or not. My neighbor John demanded a settlement of $250,000, and said his firm was willing to spend $2 million to get it. The doctor's insurance company promptly paid the $250,000. The rate of growth in North Carolina's medical malpractice insurance rates is among the highest in the nation. The total cost of health care rises with those rates. My neighbor John's slimy extortion is part of the reason. Forget about right or wrong, guilt or innocence.
My neighbor John did what was best for himself. Nobody else seemed to matter.

My neighbor John may be a trial lawyer, but in front of juries he also claims to be something of a psychic. You see, my neighbor John specializes in cases involving the death or serious injury of children. He claims to receive messages from dead or brain-damaged children, and the messages are much clearer and more specific than those received by the famous "psychic" who nearly shares my neighbor's name. When a child has been killed or is otherwise unable to speak for him or herself, my neighbor John says he has the ability to "channel" that child. He tells juries he feels the child inside him, and that he has messages from that child, which he relays to jury members. He tells juries about the car-accident death of his own son, Wade, and speculates that he may have received the ability to "feel" the souls of dead or injured children because of the close relationship he still feels with his son. It sounds hokey and! more than a little creepy, but it seems to play well with juries, and results in very high jury awards. These awards have made my neighbor extremely wealthy. He's so wealthy that he created a corporation of which he is the only member, and pays himself most of his earnings as corporate dividends, not as salary or wages. Medicare taxes are not levied on dividend income, so my neighbor has avoided paying $600,000 into the Medicare system since 1995 by setting up this tax shelter. But he says others aren't paying their fair share of Medicare taxes.
It's good for my neighbor John, and nobody else seems to matter.

My neighbor made a lot of promises on his way to the Senate. He promised strong support for our military, but then voted against body armor, combat pay, and better health care for our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. He promised to support traditional North Carolina values, but then voted to the left of Ted Kennedy on partial-birth abortion, taxes, property rights, and a host of other issues. We in North Carolina feel betrayed. My neighbor John figuratively gave his constituents the middle finger while he ingratiated himself to Tom Daschle and the rest of the Democratic Party leadership. My neighbor announced many months ago that he would not seek re-election, because he knows he's unpopular in North Carolina and would lose by a huge margin. According to a poll released this week, when the Kerry/Edwards ticket was announced, support for Kerry in North Carolina went down, not up.

We North Carolinians know John Edwards. We've been betrayed by him, and we do not support him. But as he broke his promises to us, he gained favor with the Democratic Party leadership. Now he's a political star. I guess turning his back on the people he claims to represent has worked out well for my neighbor, John Edwards. Nobody else seems to matter.

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