Steve

Two quick observations/questions.

Blogging History: Many people wrongly consider that Blogging started on bathroom stall walls. In reality, however, blogging's origins can be traced to cave walls, you modern day Neanderthals.

The Campaign: There's a Blogosphere move that claims that, if re-elected, Bush/Cheney would re-institute the draft. This is illogical. If Kerry were elected, he would have to start the draft again 'cause no one would sign up voluntarily to have him as a Commander-in Chief.

Well, duh, he was drunk. They wanted him to drive?

JS Online: Man accused of having son steer car

Waukesha - A Muskego man was being held in the Waukesha County Jail on Wednesday, accused of having his 6-year-old son steer their car down a freeway from his drunken father's lap, zigzagging at up to 70 mph.

In honor of the Best of the Web's item yesterday on "The Kerry Drag," I give you...the candidates in drag!

Hope you've all eaten already!

The Democrats won this round, but Nader's going to try again.

Here's the issue in a nutshell: Wisconsin has certain criteria for determining who gets on the ballot and who doesn't. One of the criteria for getting on as a candidate for President is: you need nomination signatures from every Congressional district.

Nader's campaign, apparently, got enough signatures, but missed a Congressional district.

The state Elections Board said, well, okay, you can play anyway. The state Democratic Party has filed suit to enforce the rules strictly. They won the other day, but Nader's going to appeal.

The big question is: why was Nader's campaign so incompetent? Is the UN running it? I want him on the ballot, but you've got to follow the rules.

On the other hand, the Elections Board has a long history of making exceptions to their own rules - they like to err on the side of ballot access, just like the Democrats do.

Oh, wait, it's the Dems who want to follow the rules to the letter this time.

Here's the Journal Sentinel story: JS Online: Nader turned away again

And just for fun, here's that paragraph from the Wisconsin State Journal editorial again, opining that Nader should get onto the ballot:

Democrats who have been whining since 2000 about how judges supposedly stole the election from their candidate Al Gore asked a local judge at a hearing Monday to prevent voters from casting a ballot for a candidate at all.

Hey, Todd, what the hell's going on down there? Can't I trust you to handle anything?

JS Online: Voter registration drive comes under scrutiny

Racine - A group that says it has registered 30,000 voters in southeastern Wisconsin could face a criminal investigation because of voter registration applications that may have been filed fraudulently.

Here's a recent column by the Weekly Standard's Stephen F. Hayes, which discusses links between Saddam's regime and international terrorism. The one thing he doesn't mention, which I think is important, is that Saddam paid bounties to the families of suicide bombers.

Here's another story about foreign public opinion on our Presidential race. I don't believe it's the same poll - it cites "surveys and interviews conducted in 20 countries." The other one claimed 35 countries.

The overall conclusion is the same - people in other nations perfer Kerry by wide margins. What I though was interesting were the places where Bush had support, and the reasons for it.

For all the rancor against Bush, he does draw strong support in some parts of the world. He has backers in Israel, for instance, thanks to a strong pro-Israel policy. A recent opinion poll by the Maariv newspaper found that 48 percent of respondents in Israel supported Bush and 29 percent backed Kerry. Bush also has a good reputation in the affluent Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore, whose government largely shares Bush's fears of Islamic extremism.

In East Asia and India, areas that are benefiting from the expansion of world trade, many people view Kerry warily because of criticisms during his campaign of the exporting of American jobs.

One other place where Bush appears somewhat popular is Sudan, particularly in the Darfur region.

Some Sudanese say they wish his interventionist policies would extend to their country. "We could use a regime change," said Halima Huessin, a Sudanese aid worker in Darfur, as she looked out over a gaggle of children covered in flies and men sleeping in thatched huts.

I thought there were plenty of other interesting tidbits in the rather long column. Here's the link again:

Kerry Is Widely Favored Abroad (washingtonpost.com)

Steve-

Back-to-back campaign ads for Kerry, then Feingold. (Ironically placed between an episode of C.S.I. and C.S.I.- New York.) Let the evidence speak for itself.

Kerry: ‘...stop tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas.’
Feingold: ‘...I fought for access to cheaper Canadian drugs for Seniors.’

Technically, I guess shipping ‘jobs’ to Canada is OK ‘cause , geographically speaking, Canada is not ‘overseas’.

In response to the discussion in the comments to this post, Lance suggested that I link to my roundup of the UN Oil for Food investigation. Short version: it was utterly corrupt, with the full knowledge (and possibly cooperation) of UN staffers.
I have two additional points. One, the UN is a cold-war-era institution, and as such is no longer useful in regulating world affairs. Two, member nations protecting their own interests (as Probligo put it) is precisely the reason for that. Had France and Russia, both of whom are implicated in the scandal, stood up to Iraq with us, Saddam might have realized that he couldn't get away with his behavior and relented.

When I read Lance's comment on my site, I didn't immediately realize what 'GJ' was. Same with frequent commenter 'Steve of GJ.' Come on guys, pixels are free. Spell it out.

Keep scrolling, loyal readers. Yeah, all of you. Lots of new posts tonight.

News from the Kerry Campaign in Spring Green:

Kerry wades into high school/middle school politics

Kerry apparently spoke at the River Valley Middle School, which irked some students at the high school.

As Sen. John Kerry left the town hall meeting Monday at River Valley Middle School, jealousy reigned next door at the high school.

"I thought it was stupid that they went there - none of them can even vote," said senior Alex Radel, 17.

Kerry's people say no slight was intended.

I wonder if anybody from the Kerry campaign realized their detractor couldn't vote, either. Unless his birthday is sometime in the next five weeks, you can call him the irony-laden moron he is and still have four years to win him back for the next election.

And, should the voting age be raised higher than 18? Let's ask Parker Gates:

even those students left behind were talking about Kerry.

"For this hick town, it's a big deal," said senior Parker Gates, 18, who was riffing with friends about Kerry's visit over lunch.

"His wife's been seen walking around," said junior Davon Noltner, 17.

"Is she hot?" asked Gates. (Teresa Heinz Kerry did indeed spend Sunday night in Spring Green, the campaign confirmed.)

I wonder: did the reporter choose the word "riffing?"

Today's NFL Picture of the Week: Three former backups to GBQB Brett Favre, all starting for their respective clubs:





Currently only one, the Redskins' Mark Brunell, has a QB rating of under 90.

These three wunderkinds and their mentor went 1-3 for the weekend. Sigh.

BONUS NFL comments:

It was a little hard trying to decide between MNF's two teams last night. Of course, being the politically correct guy I am, I couldn't really cheer for the Redskins. On the other hand, I very much dislike the Cowboys, and Bill Parcells, and Keyshawn Johnson. What to do?

Then I noticed: Al Johnson plays for the Cowboys!



Well, that's it then. I'll cheer for them.

But wait! John Hall is kicking for the 'Skins!



That would seem to cancel out the Al Johnson effect, although Johnson, as a center, carries more weight (both literally and figuratively) than any kicker.

Aha! Cory Raymer!



Remember him? I had no idea he was still in the league! And playing for the Redskins! Well, that's it, then. I settled in to watch what may well be the only matchup between former Badger centers ever to occur in the annals of the NFL. If only they could have played both ways.

And the team I was cheering for lost. In my defense, they were already down by two scores by the time I decided to cheer for them.

UPDATE: Turns out Dallas has two former Badgers, just like Washington - a second-year running back/kick returner named Erik Bickerstaff. I never heard of the guy.

This was only a matter of time:

BBC NEWS | Health | Dolly scientists' human clone bid

The scientists who cloned Dolly the sheep have formally applied for a licence to clone human embryos to find a cure for motor neurone disease.

If granted, Professor Ian Wilmut's team at Edinburgh's Roslin Institute would clone cells from MND patients to see how the illness develops in an embryo.

Therapeutic cloning for research has been legal in the UK since 2001.

Whether this is successful or not, there will be other such experiments. Sooner or later, somebody will try to produce a clone in order to supply a body part.

As I have yet to come to any personal conclusions about all this, I defer to Star Trek, Deep Space Nine, in which we learned that Federation law gives clones all the rights and protections of naturally produced entities.

Because, as every good Democrat knows, ballot access should be as liberal as possible.

JS Online: Nader kept off ballot, but don't count on it

Circuit Judge Michael Nowakowski granted - until a second hearing today - the state Democratic Party's request to stop Wisconsin's county clerks from immediately printing more than 3 million ballots that include Nader as an independent presidential candidate.

Here's the Wisconsin State Journal editorial on the subject. Money quote:

Democrats who have been whining since 2000 about how judges supposedly stole the election from their candidate Al Gore asked a local judge at a hearing Monday to prevent voters from casting a ballot for a candidate at all.

Karl Rove has long been acknowledged a genius, but is he so smart he could arrange a series of hurricanes to hit Florida? The aftermath of which has given the President's brother, Governor Jed, a job approval rating in the 80% range?

It would seem so.

Dummocrats.com: Latest Marching Orders of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

I know it's abit early, but I just can't help starting the celebration!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa John.

Feliz Cumpleanos, Abuelo Juan.

If you were female,

We all know that

It'd be certain you'd be blonde!

Jack, didja ever wonder how you got be the way you are?

"Professor Burri has an interesting new theory to present, gentlemen. Let us listen objectively, take notes, and weigh his evidence carefully before we give him the big Hoo Hah."

John Kerry is currently in Spring Green, Wisconsin, which is located in the far southwestern corner of the county of which I am the GOP chairman.

(Is that enough clauses for you? Because I could put more in.)

Last paragraph of the Cap Times story:

And while most of the crowd seemed supportive of Kerry, three people dressed in dolphin costumes waited to heckle Kerry while holding signs that read "Flipper" and "Which way to Lambert Field?" the latter a reference to Kerry's recent gaff over the name of Green Bay's Lambeau Field.

Here's the picture that accompanied the story:



Caption: "John Kerry has a beer and watches the Green Bay Packers game Sunday with Dan DiMaggio during an unscheduled stop inside the Main Street Pub and Grill in Mount Horeb."

Notice the mugs. No, not the long horse face, I mean the beer mugs. Kerry's is full. The other guy's is nearly empty.

My question is this: is Kerry already on his second beer?

If so, that guy Dan ought to be ashamed of himself, letting a guy from Massachusetts get ahead of him like that.

Of course, it could be that Dan is about to finish beer #2, while Kerry is only starting his. That would make more sense, and if I've unfairly smeared Dan by indirectly calling him a girlie man, I apologize.

Regardless of how many he's had, somebody in Kerry's campaign ought to tell him not to gesture with his mug hand. He's going to have some serious sloshage, and wasting perfectly good beer is not the way to win votes in middle Wisconsin.

Thought this was interesting, from the Cap Times:

Political buttons a no-no at UW

In a memo sent to all university employees Monday, UW-Madison Vice Chancellor for Legal and Executive Affairs Melany Newby reminded university employees it is a violation of state law to do political activities while at work. That could be construed to include wearing campaign materials, she said.

If there's any dissent, they don't mention it in the story.

Is Doyle a Clintonite? Steve sure thinks so, and I may have found more evidence of it.

The website WisOpinion.com does a sorta-weekly feature called the Political Stock Report. This week, they've got Jim Doyle listed under "Mixed."

The Dem guv, off on a long-scheduled trade mission to Japan, misses an opportunity to host his prez candidate, John Kerry, as the senator preps in Spring Green for his first debate. The trip's timing also raises questions about how important the prez election is to the first-term guv, given Wisconsin's battleground status and the looming early November election date, which must have been known when the trip was in the works. Why would a good Dem want to be out of the state at this time in any presidential election year?

Why indeed?

Found this on my regular stroll through the internet today. It's an op-ed by one of Saddam's former nuclear engineers, who states unequivocably that Saddam would have had nukes soon if not for the first Gulf War, and could have reinstated the program at any time.

Here's a key passage:

Was Iraq a potential threat to the United States and the world? Threat is always a matter of perception, but our nuclear program could have been reinstituted at the snap of Saddam Hussein's fingers. The sanctions and the lucrative oil-for-food program had served as powerful deterrents, but world events - like Iran's current efforts to step up its nuclear ambitions - might well have changed the situation.

Iraqi scientists had the knowledge and the designs needed to jumpstart the program if necessary. And there is no question that we could have done so very quickly. In the late 1980's, we put together the most efficient covert nuclear program the world has ever seen. In about three years, we gained the ability to enrich uranium and nearly become a nuclear threat; we built an effective centrifuge from scratch, even though we started with no knowledge of centrifuge technology. Had Saddam Hussein ordered it and the world looked the other way, we might have shaved months if not years off our previous efforts.

What do those who continue to make the "there were no WMD" argument say about this?

I'm also going to link to this previous post of mine on a very similar subject. Probligo will like it. I call the UN incompetent.

I don't necessarily mean to open up the debate on embryonic stem-cell research here, but I'm flummoxed by this editorial by Racine Journal Times associate editor Mike Moore. In what I suppose is an open letter to President Bush, Moore writes:

Tell me what I should say to Kevin Granger.

Help me explain to him why he has to pack up from Caledonia and fly to China to have an operation by a doctor he's never met. He has ALS, you see, what most people call Lou Gehrig's disease.

Granger is, apparently, going to China for some sort of treatment.

Actually, Kevin's treatment falls just outside the big debate because these aren't really stem cells. He's having cells from the nose of an aborted baby inserted into his body. They're called olfactory glial cells.

Apparently that minor distinction doesn't free it from the stem cell controversy. Why else wouldn't the treatment be offered in the high-tech U.S. of A.?

Excuse me? Minor distinction?

Moore's closing paragraphs:

He knows this journey to the East is not the cure-all. All he's trying to do is stick around in case somebody makes a real breakthrough.

It might be a longshot, but it's the only bet Kevin Granger can make. For that, our country officially views him as immoral. Can I tell him why? Mr. President, you have a flock of speechwriters. One of them must have something.

Okay, if Moore supports embryonic stem cell research, fine. I disagree, but at least he's got a position. But not understanding the link between that and having "cells from the nose of an aborted baby inserted into his body" strikes me as a little too ignorant.

And that shot about "our contry officially views him as immoral." The official position in our country is that abortion is legal, is it not? And President Bush has put more federal money into stem-cell research, including embryonic stem-cell research, than any of his predecessors.

So "officially" our country would seem to be more on Mr. Granger's side than Moore lets on. Unofficially, yes, I'm going to say that using tissue from an aborted baby in a medical procedure, even when it is necessary to save another person's life, is immoral.

The really wierd part is, Moore says he's more or less in agreement with me on that:

Trust me, Mr. President, abortions make me sick too. My mind won't sugar-coat them, not even when they bring the possibility of life to someone else.

I don't know. Somebody else read this and tell me if I'm wrong.

The Journal Times Online

Surely there's more to it than this.

Yahoo! News - Britain's Prince Harry to Join the Army

The RCB (regular commission board assessment) required the prince to pass a number of interviews and physical tests including completing 50 sit-ups in two minutes.

The average pass rate is about 60 percent.

Couple pictures for you.


A sample of the latest Florida ballot technology.




This was taken in Madison - some work being done on Camp Randall Stadium. As far as I can tell, it isn't photoshopped. The person who sent me this also sent me another one, where they were further along on the next letter (it was the "n" before the "s").

Well, that ought to work.

FOXNews.com - Foxlife - Sinead: I'm Not Crazy

DUBLIN, Ireland — One-time pop sensation Sinead O'Connor (search) was back in the news Friday -- by taking out a full-page ad pleading for people to stop making fun of her.

Nerd Alert, Part 2!

Kerry as C3PO, in today's Best of the Web

And for further nerd-dom - the kind to which even we can never hope to aspire (please note grammatical correctness here) - make sure and scroll all the way down after you click on the link.

Nerd Alert! Hey Todd, check this out:

The Flying Space Monkey Chronicles: The Blogosphere Is Like Voltron

I have noticed something. Namely that the blogoshere is like Voltron.

You remember Voltron, Defender of the Universe, the big, good robot which would form from the five little lion robot vehicles that would go out, form a big sword and then defeat the big mean bad robot. But it would only do so after the 5 weak little lions would fight the big mean robot for a while and get the crap beat out of them.

Ah, nostalgia.

Did I call this? Oh, yes I did!

Johnathan Freedland's column in The Guardian: Still no votes in Leipzig - US policy now affects every citizen on the planet. So we should all have a say in who gets to the White House.

For who could honestly describe the 2004 contest of George Bush and John Kerry as a domestic affair? There's a reason why every newspaper in the world will have the same story on its front page on November 3. This election will be decisive not just for the United States but for the future of the world.

Anyone who doubts it need only look at the last four years. The war against Iraq, the introduction of the new doctrine of pre-emption, the direct challenge to multilateral institutions - chances are, not one of these world-changing developments would have happened under a President Al Gore. It is no exaggeration to say that the actions of a few hundred voters in Florida changed the world.

So perhaps it's time to make a modest proposal. If everyone in the world will be affected by this election, shouldn't everyone in the world have a vote?

Here's my original post, containing my brilliant prediction, and here's an update to that post.

Did you know about this? I didn't know they were doing this!

Yahoo! News - Panel OKs Extension of Tax Cuts.

Not to be juvenile about this, but Yeeeeeeeee-hawwwww!

Now, on to Social Security Reform!

This was interesting, too: this blogger took agricultural data and calculated the number of calories produced in the U.S. His conclusion: we produce nearly 160,000 calories per person, per day - about 80 times what the average (and when I say average, I mean non-Burri) person needs.

Blogger calls himself "The Dead Hand - A shameless act of capitalism by Corey A. Mathers." I found him through Instapundit, I think.

Can anybody vouch for/dispute his numbers or methodology?

Update to my previous post about the Wisconsin Elections Board approving Ralph Nader's inclusion on Wisconsin's November ballot.

I only linked to the actual legal documents earlier. Here's the Journal Sentinel story: JS Online: Elections Board votes to put Nader on the ballot; Democrats might sue.

This was really interesting: an article comparing the Battle of Austerlitz, in which Napoleon Bonaparte defeated a superior Austrian/Russian force in 1805, and John Kerry's campaign. Not being an historian*, I can't vouch for the author's conclusions, but it was an enjoyable read.

Found it at Townhall.com. Here's the link.

And here's an excerpt:

On the eve of the Battle Austerlitz, Napoleon knew that he was badly outnumbered and even more badly outgunned. He had been unable to destroy the Austrian army before it linked up with a huge Russian force. Now, from atop the Pratzen Heights near the town of Austerlitz, the enemy generals looked down upon the bedraggled, exhausted French with contempt, confident that the next day would bring victory. They convened a grand council of war to discuss the broad outlines of their attack. The meeting resembled nothing so much as a dinner-party, and until three o' clock in the morning, the generals debated.

Meanwhile, in Napoleon's campaign tent, there was no debate. The newly-crowned Emperor of France was on his hands and knees on a huge map of the battlefield, quietly shifting small-unit figurines back and forth, devising the trap that was to become the historical masterpiece of his career. As night fell, 193 tactical movement orders issued from Napoleon's headquarters. When the Austrians and Russians awoke the next morning, they thought they were looking at the same battlefield. But unbeknownst to them, the battlefield had become Napoleon's deadly spider web.

Kerry has taken a key page out of the Austro-Russian playbook. According to Democratic strategists, the Kerry campaign has been paralyzed for weeks by a high-level debate over the candidate's message. Even now, at three o' clock in the morning on the day of the battle, they are still debating their strategy. And if that were not bad enough, Kerry recently enlarged the dinner-party by brining several Clinton operatives on board—opinionated and forceful debaters all. The Democrat has had great difficulty coming up with any strategy, and has reacted only by compounding the problem.

*Annoying grammatical note: if we can put a man on the moon, why can't we stop using "an" instead of "a" in front of a noun that starts with "h," which is so obviously a consonant?

I needed a day off, so I just went ahead and beat up on Progressives some more over at Lance Burri today.

Like how I slip a reference to myself in there?

This explains a lot.

Oh yeah. An Elections Board attorney told the Wisconsin Democratic Party to shove it today. Their 40+ page explanation of why Ralph Nader shouldn't be on Wisconsin's ballot? Dissed.

Try to read it all, if you want. If you want a quick nap, that is. Such lengthy, detailed, hair-splitting legalisms. And from the Democrats, too.

Say, aren't they the ones who always whine about "disenfranchisement?"

Steve Re: 2004 Seminar Series, Waisman Center, UW-Madison

While waiting for an elevator to leave the UW Hospital the other day, I began perusing a nearby bulletin board. One flyer advertising the 2004 Seminar Series at the Waisman Center touted a talk by a professor of Genetics and Psychiatry. My elevator arrived so I did my best Evelyn Wood impression. As I recall, the talk was entitled, ‘Drosophila democratogaster as a Model for Neuronal Function and Dysfunction.’ Its synopsis, as best I can recall stated that, " D. democratogaster has been a breakthrough system for the analyses of arrested development, circadian issue rhythms, and misapplied intercellular pathways. We are using flies to understand the cellular and molecular bases of indoctrination and short term memory misinformation. The development of a well-controlled assay for disassociative behavior, and the application of forward and reverse genetics has led to significant progress in understanding mendacious memory formation and some of its related issues. Recent work on the cellular basis of memory formation has led to the synaptic policy issue tagging hypothesis. We further hypothesize that mutations in this tagging machinery may be responsible for some of the complex psychiatric dysfunctions diagnosed in humans."

I could kick myself for not following up on my idea to merge with Ralston Purina to market ‘Purina Drosophila Chow’. Instead, I invested all my time and money pursuing the invention of the internet. I was two days, two damn days, behind Al Gore and subsequently lost my shirt.

NFL Picture of the Week

This week's pictures honor our older generations!



Vinny Testeverde, who will turn 41 later this year, is the Dallas Cowboys starting QB, and by the way is currently leading the league in passing yards.



Doug Flutie, who will turn 42 next month, might be San Diego's starter while Drew Brees is hurt.

Nice to see those careers keep going. They started when I was in high school.

I hereby coin a new phrase: "the NFL moment." This is the moment at which one becomes older than every current NFL player. Raise your hands now, if you haven't reached yours yet: hmmm, one hand, two...just two? I guess that's it.

Steve Re: Presidential Debates

I think that there should be four debates– the three as originally planned and one with John Kerry by himself. Kerry here could debate his position today against the one he held yesterday.

In the Carter/Reagan debates, Reagan made famous the barb, ‘There you go again!’ Bush could do a similar thing in reference to Kerry’s ‘open-mindedness’.

In Texas we had a saying. ‘Don’t be sooo open-minded that your brains fall out.’

Steve Re: Masobovinoscatological Epistemology & Tropospheric Anserinoflatus (With apologies to Leo Kottke, but not to Al.)

I’m sure glad that I can use my normal speech in Cyberspace. I haven’t been able to speak thusly since I moved back up from South Texas to again mingle with yankees.

It surely has been enjoyable and educational sampling the Blogosphere smorgasbord. Most often, whatever the content, the thought processes show great depth, the logic and use of facts and data are tied together tightly producing essays of tremendous, persuasive merit.

However, upon further review, in depth analysis exposes the architectural design of 100 story skyscrapers lacking feasible plans for a foundation. (‘Rats right, Rorge..’ The new Spacely Sprockets Building is floating in mid-air.) These essays are constructed offering no foundation concerning providence, teleology, the nature of man, or the nature of the universe. These are the questions that heavy hitters such as Plato and Aristotle attempted to tackle. Of the blogoliterati, I usually expect the unstated presuppositions to include exclusion of providence (closed system), mankind and/or chance controlling the direction and definition of the universe (the measure of all things), and the perfectability of Man (blank slate). These are some pretty profound assumptions, and if incorrect, the purported assertions fail. In addition, any inference of good or bad, any moral tenor whatsoever, can only be based on nothing more solid than mere capricious sentiment.

Basing conclusions on modernist/postmodernist sentiments has been brilliantly illustrated by none other than Senator John Kerry. Apparently his sentiments change every day according to his pragmatism. In reality, that is quite honest. Sentiments, no matter how strongly felt, have the substance of goose farts in the wind. Kerry’s erratic ideologies may appear the musings of the fourth stooge, but is directly analogous to the more sophisticated varieties that one may hear or read elsewhere.

Facts, data, and statistics, embellished by rhetoric, erected through a logic empowered by the sentiment de jour forms an ideology. This man-made ideology, bolstered by lawyers, guns, and money, or by the peer pressure exerted by the democracy gods, shoves its religion down the throats of infidels. But, its god has no clothes and is constructed, not even of silver or gold, but of arbitrary sentiments. One thing is for sure. Any ideology that cannot tolerate the authority of God, can learn to tolerate anything else.

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labour to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness-- these firmest props of the duties of Men & citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man ought to respect & to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private & public felicity. Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are instruments of investigation in courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason & experience both forbid us to expect that National Morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." --George Washington’s Farewell Address, Sept. 19, 1796.

And consider Washington’s humility and understanding of human nature: "Though in reviewing the incidents of my Administration, I am unconscious of intentional error. I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend."

PS 127:1 Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.

Live, from the Blogosphere, it's the Lance and Steve Show!

Hey John, how about that picture?

Steve

Rush Limbaugh has been asserting as an undeniable truth that the Clintons, as the Democratic Party Bosses, are indeed working to assure that John Kerry loses this presidential race to George W. Bush in order to allow Hillary to run in 2008. He uses as evidence of this rationale manifestations in three general areas.

1. Kerry’s inept campaign is bolstered in its ineptitude by the addition of Clintonites as Carville, et. al. They are helping to assure that the campaign continues in this ineffective manner.

2. John Edwards is seldom out there conspicuously. Some say that they don’t want him to show up the colorless Kerry, but others say that the Clintonites do not want him to gain too much popularity so that he may become a viable Democratic challenger to Hillary in the future.

3. MoveOn.Org and other 527's are further splintering minority coalitions away from Kerry supporters by drawing off funds that may normally be directed toward encouraging minority support. It is supposed that Hillary can come in in four years to rebuild the coalition to her own benefit.

I don’t know about all this, but it doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibilities. If anything it would still only be an adjunct to Lance’s undeniable truth concerning this campaign– ‘John Kerry is such a Goober.’

(Lance, fix your darn time & date on your posts. Now I have to change my time to get my posting after yours.) (You Republicans will do anything to be on top.)

I'm taking on the progressives over at lanceburri.blogspot today. One thing I'd like to flesh out a little more is the letter. Some group called United Progressives for Victory is calling on Naderites to vote for Kerry, instead. Some of their reasoning:

A second Bush term will demolish our already-weakened environmental and consumer protections, decimate our public education system and civil liberties, eliminate a woman's right to choose and medical privacy, ship millions more jobs overseas, and drain programs that help the poor and working families to give tax breaks to the very richest among us...

Conservatives understand power and they want to keep it. They will continue to use whatever means are necessary...

We cannot let the right wing win. We cannot let our democracy be stolen again.

Plenty of usual suspects among the signers: unions, students, environmentalists, a pair of way-lefty Assemblymen, and the Mayor of Madison. And...

...our very own Attorney General, Peg Lautenschlager.

I'd like to ask her, or hear a reporter ask her, does she really believe the contents of that letter?

Does she really believe the election was "stolen?" If so, isn't it her duty to enforce the law? Shouldn't she file suit somehow?

No matter. I'm sure she'll realize her mistake after reading Grandpa John.

Nice metaphor in this Dick Morris column:

"John Kerry's recent shakeup of his campaign illus trates his larger problem: He is playing a simple game of checkers, while President Bush is playing a subtle game of chess."

Do you know what a metaphor is?

Yahoo! News - U.S. Weapons Inspector: Iraq Had No WMD

Only the infrastructure to make as much as he wanted, I guess.

The upside to this is that, well, the U.N. really must be as incompetent as I think they are. Their inspectors claim to have destroyed tons of weapons and delivery vehicles for those weapons. Here's their report - just keep paging down for the numbers.

Why didn't I think of this?

Investment banker Michael Mahan spent nearly $25,000 buying tickets for two games against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium next month.

He figured it was a worthwhile investment, because Bonds' 700th home run ball will fetch a much higher price.

But the Giants' slugger has already hit his 699th home run and is likely to reach the milestone any day now. So Mahan is reselling the tickets -- at a considerable profit.

Glad they could be so specific.

Yahoo! News - Ivan Insurance Losses May Hit $4 to $10B

Annoying grammatical note: that headline actually means Ivan's damage could be as low as $4, or as high as $10,000,000,000. They did better in the actual story.

Bumper Stickers:

"What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about?"

"Unless you change your course, you will end up where you're headed."

Steve

The old adage has it that everyone has his 15 minutes of fame. Some dress like Batman and scale the Royal Residence, some create world records by eating hot dogs.

I now stand to claim my minutes, so join with me in the celebration. Others may do foolish things to earn headlines, but not me. With no thought for my own safety, I took direct steps to make the world a better place.

Yesterday, UW-Rock County hosted a soccer match with UW-Baraboo. During the first half I approached the visiting section and began touting a member of their own community. I told them that if they ever should see a certain name on any ballot to place their vote there. I stated that that man's name was Lance Burri and that he would make Baraboo, Sauk County, Wisconsin, the USA, and the world a safer, smarter place.

Lance, you may get up to 4 more votes in your next race because of my courage.

The fame was fabulous while it lasted! Thank yew, thank yew very much.

Thoughts on the primary elections later. For now, the NFL Picture of the Week:



Ron Dayne scores! He had 13 carries for 45 yards and one touchdown in the Giants' loss to Philly on Sunday.

Well, to judge by my predictions tonight, I think turnout must have been very, very average.

In an incomparable show of professional courage, I post highly generalized predictions about today's primary elections while the returns are already coming in over at the tastefully named Lance Burri Dot Blogspot.

Bloggers hoping to become fabulously wealthy may have a long wait

Dammit!

Excerpts from a letter dated March 3, 1933, written by J. Kerrimeister to A. Schwinehundt, translated into English.

"Yah, I am running to be elected to the next session of the Reichstag. Concerning the ‘Jewish problem’... I am personally opposed to the extermination of the Jews, but honoring the rulings of the Volksgemeinschaft Courts, I would not abrogate the Motherland’s right to choose."

Thoughts on the Packer game:

If the Panthers have the best defensive line in the league (which is all I heard about them leading up to the game), then the Packers really, really have the best offensive line.

Did anybody else see Bubba Franks put a move on a guy after a catch in the third quarter? That's kind of a new thing for him, isn't it?

Too bad about Grady Jackson - out 6 weeks with a dislocated kneecap, I heard. He had completely collapsed the middle of the line on the play when he got hurt. Shades of Gilbert Brown.

Both the Panthers' turnovers were unforced: an interception off a bumbled pass, and a fumbled handoff before any contact. Take those away, and it's a whole different ballgame.

Of course, I hate it when people say "if you take that away..." You can't take it away. It happened. And if you can't give the Packers credit for forcing those turnovers, you also have to give them credit for not coughing the ball up themselves.

If the season were to end today, the Detroit Lions would win the NFC North Division due to their superior division record.

I hope they go back to enforcing pass interference the old way.

Say, do you suppose Gilbert Brown is available? Just for six weeks or so?

Ahman Green ran for 119 yards, putting him just shy of the 2000 yard pace (125 ypg). Last year, Ahman ran for 1883 yards - 117 short of 2000. If he'd averaged only 7.4 more yards per game, he'd have gotten across the line.

Yes, the blitzes were exciting. I'm not a big fan of the 8-man blitz. I like a four man rush, with the occasional fifth blitzer. On the other hand, Ricky Proehl's big catch came on a play when the Packers only rushed 3 (and still got some pressure).

You can't win them all unless you win the first one.

Looks like Adam West has lost some weight.

Yahoo! News - 'Batman' Protester Scales Royal Residence


So, what do you think, are people looking at this guy's issue with a new-found respect?

More importantly, how many conversations did he have with people inside the palace, while he was climbing his batrope?

Boy is there a lot of great stuff over at Dummocrats.com today. Click over and take a look. I may have to add a link to them over at (gratuitous self-aggrandizement DELETED).

Just keep scrolling down. Steve, there's a tinfoil hat reference for you. Then: comparing the Middle East to the Big Ten (Plus One). And, remember Baghdad Bob? Looks like he found a new gig.

Do any of you guys wear pajamas? Apparently, if we want to be serious bloggers, we have to wear pajamas.

Don't forget, it's Mock the Vikings Day. Just like every day.

There are a few writers who make me despair of ever being really great.

Jonah Goldberg isn't always one of them, but in this column about John Kerry's wildly fluctuating positions, he writes something I think is quite profound:

"Now, it's in the nature of all politicians to want to be liked by as many people as possible. What distinguishes a statesman from the common run, however, is what he is willing to be disliked for."

Everybody write that down.

James Lileks is another one, although I frequently just skim his columns and blog, because the subject matter doesn't interest me (how many times can we read about him playing dolls with Gnat, anyway?), his writing is simply outstanding.

Here's an excerpt of his column of Friday, September 10, about the CBS mis-story on President Bush's National Guard service, and the resulting chaos:

"Blogs haven’t toppled old media. The foundations of Old Media were rotten already. The new media came along at the right time. Put it this way: you’ve see films of old buildings detonated by precision demolitionists. First you see the puffs of smoke – then the building just hangs there for a second, even though every column that held it up has been severed. We’ve been living in that second for years, waiting for the next frame. Well, here it is. Roll tape. Down she goes. And when the dust settles we will be right back where we were 100 years ago, with dozens of fiercely competitive media outlets throwing elbows to earn your pennies."

That's just really good writing. Ah, despair, my old companion.

But, you know, everybody talks about these guys. They're famous, in certain circles, anyway. I have one example of really outstanding and original writing (as far as I know, anyway) from a not-quite-so-famous writer. Our buddy Al found a real gem in a long post, written by the tastefully named Owen, of Boots & Sabers. Here's the link to the post. Here's the part Al really liked:

No one has a right to live in constant order, so the state of disorder does not actually violate anyone's rights.

Scientists Look Around, See No Evidence, Conclude No Life Anywhere Other Than Earth.

I'm being sarcastic, of course. Still, I think it takes a kind of faith to continue believing we'll find other Earth-like planets, as the scientists in this story clearly believe, much less other planets capable of sustaining life. We have exactly one piece of evidence: our own solar system. One, out of how many millions of stars? I wonder what the margin of error on that poll is.

I might add that I have faith that there are other Earth-like planets, that some of those do contain life, and intelligent life, and that, if polled, they will prefer John F. Kerry over George W. Bush.

If you're interested, here's a great, but very long, article on the subject of other planets. Very very interesting.

When clothes go out of style, you stop wearing them. With certain exceptions, of course, like my post-1960s-psychadelic patterened tie, and John's entire wardrobe.

So here's a question: what happens when tattoos go out of style?

In general, I don't trust polls, especially this far out from the actual election. I always enjoy looking at the different ones, though, and their different results, and wondering how their methodologies differ, to give those different results.

Case in point: two polls taken right after the Republican National Convention put Bush ahead by 11 points, while Zogby later said it was more like 2 points.

I usually enjoy reading Dick Morris, and this column, in which he considers the polling differences, is no exception.

Morris concludes that the actual difference is closer to 11 than to 2. Here's the important part:

"Some polling firms treat party affiliation as a demographic constant and, when they find that their sample has too many Republicans, they weight down each Republican interview and assign an extra weight to each Democratic response.

But other polling firms - and I - disagree. We feel that political party is not a demographic, like gender or race or age. If the survey finds more Republicans than usual, we think it's because the country has become more Republican, so we treat the result as a indicator of national mood, not of statistical error. "

Is Jim Doyle a Clintonite?

Steve thinks so!

If people from other countries could vote in our election, according to this report, Kerry would win in a landslide.

The poll of 34,330 people older than 15 from all regions of the world found that the majority or plurality of people from 32 countries prefer Kerry to Bush.

According to the poll, Bush beats Kerry only in Nigeria, Poland, and the Philippines.

At first glance this seems like an awfully silly thing to report. Kind of like wondering how good the Packers would have been in the early 1990s if they'd drafted Barry Sanders* instead of Tony Mandarich. It's moot. They didn't draft Sanders, and people in other countries can't vote in our elections.

Taking a longer view, though, I wonder how long it will be before someone seriously suggests that the citizens of other nations should be allowed to vote in the U.S. presidential election.

The arguments: the U.S. is so powerful, so wealthy, we consume so much, stick our noses into everything. Our actions have far-reaching consequences not just for us alone, but for the entire world. Thus, everyone should have a voice in the direction U.S. policy takes.

If this was a really well-read blog, I bet somebody would link us to something from the UN or another such useless group, suggesting this very thing.

*which I quite clearly advised them to do at the time.

50 Reasons "Lord of the Rings" Sucks

The same guy who wrote this also did a quantitative analysis of three trilogies - Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and the Matrix - and concluded that Lord of the Rings is the best trilogy ever. Unless you take into account that Star Wars is actually two trilogies, in which case it wins. Unless, I assume, you take into account that the final movie hasn't been released yet, so we don't know if it's any good. If it really stinks, it may bring the average of the other five down.

Steve Re: Band-Aids vs. Cures

‘Tis another presidential election year and the rhetoric of crisis fills the air like debris in a tornado. There is a good measure of truth in the criticisms leveled. There are valid reasons to question the direction of individual policies as well as the overall status of our nation and its future. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Libertarians, Greens, et. al., are all putting forth proposals to cure what ails us and lead us onto a successful path.

Many look back to the founding of this country to gain insights into the solid building blocks of wisdom in our history that brought us the strength and progress that we enjoy today but perhaps are losing. (Many also look to the deep intellects of late night talk show hosts, actors, and musicians.) Since these look through the distorted and filtered lenses of modernist/post-modernist philosophies they feel that, as engineers, they can reconstruct a successful culture today by applying techniques and methods used in the past. Some desire tinkering by a scientific/intellectual/political elite to build a womb-to-tomb utopia. Some opt for greater individual freedoms to allow the basic goodness of man to naturally flow toward a better society. However, individual humans and their cultures cannot be used as concrete and steel to be engineered into a sound structure. Neither are they born of high enough character to be allowed total freedom in activity.

Our modernist/post-modernist colored glasses have somehow determined that we live in a closed universe. There can be no input from anything above and beyond the universe. Therefore, man, the measure of all things, the captain of his soul, determines all. The cultural results are tyranny or anarchy quashed by eventual tyranny.

Our nation’s founders were either Christians or operating under Christian auspices and worked under these presuppositions. Any attempts to duplicate or continue their successes without this foundation are futile.

"When the religion of a people is destroyed, doubt gets hold of the highest portions of the intellect, and half paralyzes all the rest of its powers. Every man accustoms himself to entertain none but confused and changing notions on the subjects most interesting to his fellow-creatures and himself. His opinions are ill-defended and easily abandoned: and, despairing of ever resolving by himself the hardest problems of the destiny of man, he ignobly submits to think no more about them. Such a condition cannot but enervate the soul, relax the springs of the will, and prepare a people for servitude. Nor does it only happen, in such a case, that they allow their freedom to be wrested from them; they frequently themselves surrender it. When there is no longer any principle of authority in religion any more than in politics, men are speedily frightened at the aspect of this unbounded independence. The constant agitation of all surrounding things alarms and exhausts them. As everything is at sea in the sphere of the intellect, they determine at least that the mechanism of society should be firm and fixed; and as they cannot resume their ancient belief, they assume a master." (Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Book 1, Chapter 5.)

Steve Re: Captions

#1. Grown in Iowa by people who know what corn is supposed to taste like.

#2. "Billy, you run an out. Joey, you run a post. Kerry, you cut left in front of the speeding Chevy."

#3. Now just which one is the tackling dummy again?

#4. Hmmm, here's an article about John Rocker. Things have sure changed since he was here.

There's always room for another France joke, but I find it really interesting how this AP story takes a quote like this...

"'He talks about leading a more sensitive war on terror, as though Al-Qaeda will be impressed with our softer side,' Cheney said."

...and interprets it as a shot at France. Could it be that AP sees the joke, too?

Cheney praises Kerry!

Here's an excerpt from a recent Cheney speech:

"As a conservative, I believe in getting government off the backs of the people. When I look at John Kerry's two decades in the Senate, I'm pleased to see that he sponsors almost no legislation, and rarely shows up for votes or committee meetings. Sen. Kerry has been a living example of less government, and for that I praise him."

Anybody wanna do some more captions?


"Gentlemen, this is a corn cob" (although he really ought to be wearing thick horn rimmed glasses when he says that - and let's see if our one reader from Minnesota gets that reference)



Let's see you catch this one, Nancy.



(in thick, generic Eastern European accent) "I did not tell you to get up!"


And, my favorite...


"How was the ride home, dear?" "Nice and quiet."