Next Time Some Fool Calls Palin Stupid Remind Them of This Comment

I'd hope most 5th graders would know basic civics better than your average Democratic U.S. senator. If Sarah Palin had made this comment it would be the lead story on MSNBC all week. Since this nonsense was uttered by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) no one will hear about it on ABC, NBC, CBS or CNN. The fact that some percentage of the population still gets their filtered news primarily from those networks is why it is important to note the bias in mainstream news.



In case any liberals are reading this post and don't understand Schumer's ignorance, the three branches of our government are Executive, Legislative and Judicial.

UPDATE: Not really an update, more of an "And Another Thing." We require that applicants for most government jobs take a civil service exam. Why don't we require candidates for federal office take an exam. Is delivering mail that much more important than writing our laws?

Proof Exercize Isn't Good for You Afterall - Jack LaLanne Edition

Jack LaLanne, the fitness guru who inspired television viewers to trim down, eat well and pump iron for decades before diet and exercise became a national obsession, died Sunday. He was 96. LaLanne used to joke that he couldn't die because it would ruin his image. Hope he was wrong on that count.

Jack LaLanne - Rest in Peace

First Major Mistake of the 2012 Election Cycle

I realize the year 2011 has just begun, but Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) has provided us with a revealing sound bite that should be played at every opportunity in the 2012 election ads:

Clyburn called for the Transportation Security Administration, which administers airport security checkpoints, to interact “a little better” with the Capitol Hill Police.

“We’ve had some incidents where TSA authorities think that congresspeople should be treated like everybody else,” he said. “Well, the fact of the matter is, we are held to a higher standard in so many other areas, and I think we need to take a hard look at exactly how the TSA interact with members of Congress.”

Nothing quite shows the arrogance of congress as clearly as a complaint about being treated like those miserable wretches known as citizens (or considered subjects to Clyburn). Now, I won't pretend to be confident that we can unseat Clyburn as he is a longtime fixture in the House from a very safe district. However, some of his more vulnerable colleagues have to be aware his remarks will used to paint them as equally arrogant.

We do NOT need to take legislative action to further protect members of congress in response to the Arizona attack. We have been a country for over two hundred years and the shooting of Rep. Giffords is one the only shootings of a sitting member of congress. We are a nation of over three hundred million people and statistically odds are some of them are nuts. More special treatment and privileges for our pampered ruling class is not a proper action to take at this time.

Sargent Shriver - Rest in Peace

R. Sargent Shriver passed away today at 95 years old. He has suffered from Alzheimer for that last few years and has been a widower since his wife died two years ago.

While he was an in-law to the Kennedy's, Shriver should not just be lumped in with them and dismissed. By all accounts, Shriver was a good and decent man. He was the first director of the Peace Corps and his heart was in the right place as the leader of LBJ's misguided "War on Poverty."

It is easily forgotten that he was a candidate for national office. He was George McGovern's running mate in 1972 and ran on his own in 1976 but was an afterthought in the primaries and quickly dropped out of the race. He was the last pro-life candidate on a Democrat national ticket.

Sargent Shriver - Rest in Peace

Haste Makes Awful Legislation - Tucson Edition

I understand the more common saying is "Haste Makes Waste." However, our congress has shown time and again the haste make for awful legislation. Often the worst abuses from our government comes in response to tragedies or disasters. Egotistical politicians feel that if they don't do something - anything then they are not doing their job. Problem is bad things do happen. You could never pass a law that will ensure nothing bad will happen. In the wake of the recent shootings in Arizona one of my concerns was what sort of nonsense would congress come up with in response to this event. I expected a renewed call for gun control. I expected some would call for full time security for congress critters. Our Washington DC overlords did not disappoint as there has been various silly ideas bandied about in the last few days. Rep. Peter King (R-NY) takes the cake with his stupid proposal:

New York Republican Rep. Peter King said Tuesday that he will introduce legislation to ban the carrying of any firearm within 1,000 feet of what he described as “high-profile government officials.”

What!?! Not only would his stupid idea be impossible to follow or enforce, but it also would have done nothing to stop the crime it was in response to. Would that nut have stayed 1,000 feet away from the congressman just because of a law. Well, considering that the law against murder did not stop him from murdering several people I doubt new law saying stay away from the VIP's with a weapon would stop him either.

It does seem like our "friends" in DC are taking this shooting a lot more seriously than they take most mass shootings. Are they saying it is worse to shoot one of them than to shoot a regular citizen (known to congress as subjects). I deplore what that nut did in Arizona. However, if I have to choose between having the people scared of the government or the government scared of the people . . . . it is a pretty easy choice.

UPDATE:

Since I wrote this piece yesterday critical of Rep. King ridiculous legislative proposal, Chris Moody of the Daily Caller wrote a column titled "Washington’s top five most ridiculous reactions to the Arizona shooting
. Click the link.

Along the lines of stupid responses, Jonathan Last noticed that it didn't make much sense for President Obama to send the Director of the FBI to visit Arizona and then . . . . . . have the FBI set up a dedicated task force on the case involving “hundreds of FBI agents.” Don't get me wrong, this was a horrendous crime. However, the criminal was caught immediately after committing the crime.* Last makes a valid point that the FBI has finite resources and tying up "hundreds of agents" on this essentially solved case means they are not doing whatever they would have otherwise. Additionally, considering our federal deficit and growing debt it appears that decisions continue to be made with no regard for cost. Basically, we spent millions to get a task force to the scene so the administration could pretend to be doing something.

* Disclaimer: If you are a lawyer, or journalist or just the sort of person to get all worked about semantics then please feel free to pretend that I used the word "allegedly" at various points in the above post.

Feminism Explained

(H/T KISP)

Slippery Slope? What Slippery Slope?

Next time someone on the left asserts that the idea of a slippery slope is just a boogie man of the imagination of conservatives trying to slow progress, think of this:

Transgender People Also Demand Right to Serve in Military

National Bad Reporting Day

It wasn't noted on my wall calendar, but apparently today was National Bad Reporting Day.

Around noon today an Arizona congressman was holding an event to meet with constituents and a nut shot her and quite a few other people. What followed was a textbook example of lousy journalism in action. Whether out of a competitive desire to be first or out of reflexive assumptions based on inherent biases reporting and commenting the rest of the days was inaccurate at best and intentionally false and misleading at its worst.

The number of people shot went from five to eleven to ten within a half hour. Last number I heard was eighteen. Hey, get it that counting is hard - like math. Here is an idea if you don't know the correct answer say something vague, such as several, a bunch, dozens, etc.

Worse than getting the number wrong was reporting that the congressman, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was deceased when she was still alive. NPR and several other outlets reported she had died. A few hours later I'm in my car hearing a doctor talk about being optimistic about her chances after surgery. Dead or alive is a pretty deal to get wrong. How many of her friends and family heard the incorrect report of her dying?

The last part of the lousy reporting/commenting was the rush to speculate on the motivation for the criminal to attack the congressman and others in the crowd. Rep. Giffords is a Democrat so immediately those on the left decided it must be a right wing tea party activist motivated by the rhetoric of Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck and Sarah Palin. Unfortunately, for those attempting to advance that nonsense, the killer appears to have been a leftist Obama supporter who probably has never listened to Limbaugh's show. Disgusting.

Prayers go out for those shot and their families.

Condemnation goes out for those who rushed to use this crime for political gain and for those in the media who enable that action.

Last point on this issue: When a Muslim Army officer yelled Alluh Akbar shot a bunch of people at Fort Hood all of the media was quick to say it wrong to rush to judgment about what might motivate him to do such an act. They are terrified of the idea of identifying Islamic radicalism even when it's obvious. No evidence is necessary to connect a crazed shooter with tea party folks mostly concerned with government spending. What made it even less likely that the shooter was a right winger is the fact that Rep Giffords is a relatively conservative Democrat. She is pro-life, for greater border security and recently voted for someone besides Nancy Pelosi to lead the House Dems.

Breaking News: Robbie Alomar and Bert Blyleven Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

Congratulations to two very deserving new members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Robbie Alomar who had three of his best seasons with the Indians was elected with 90% of the vote on his second time on the ballot. Bert Blyleven who played for Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Texas, Cleveland and the California Angels was finally elected on his 14th time on the ballot.

Alomar was considered one of the greatest second basemen in baseball history. Tremendous in the field with his glove work and dangerous offensively both at the plate and on the base paths.

Blyleven is 5th all time in strikeouts and 9th in shutouts with 60. Voters initially failed to warm to Blylevens career due to a less than eye popping winning percentage and a lack of understanding on the writers part that wins are more correctly a team stat than an individual one. A pitchers job is to limit the number of runs the opposition scores by keeping them off the bases. When measuring his effectiveness at performing that job, Blyleven is clearly one the top 20 starting pitchers all time and clearly deserving of this honor.

Former Red Barry Larkin made considerable progress towards eventual election by garnering 62% of the vote. With Alomar and Blyleven off the ballot and no great players among next years new candidates, Larkin has a chance to be inducted next year.

Very disappointed with Jeff Bagwell's poor showing. Bagwell was an absolutely fantastic hitter and a great base runner. It can be argued that prior to Albert Pujols coming along Bagwell was the best National League first baseman ever.

Breaking News: Cleveland Browns fire Head Coach Mangini

News just out of Berea is that Mike Holmgren has fired Eric Mangini as Browns coach.

The Browns finished ugly losing their last four games including getting trounced by the Steelers in the season finale. Despite the awful finish I saw signs of improvement. In 2009 they hardly seemed competitive until the last month of the season. This season the only two blowouts were the two losses to Pittsburgh.

I thought there was a chance they could bring Mangini back with some changes to his coaching staff. No matter what the decision was going to be with Mangini it was clear that offensive coordinator Brian Daboll was not going to be retained. Some of the other coaches have a chance to stay.

Obviously, there is still a talent gap between the Browns and the top teams. Making things worse were the ankle injuries suffered by the quarterbacks. Starter Jake DelHomme and his backup Senaca Wallace both incurred ankle injuries forcing the team to play rookie Colt McCoy sooner than desired and then McCoy also went out for several games with an ankle injury of his own. Another injury that really hurt was a knee injury to LB Scott Fujita. Fujita was a leader on defense. This team is not that far away, but must have another good draft to close the talent gap. Good teams become great when they have the depth of talent to weather injuries.