I’m running
Who asked?
I’ll announce by July 1 if I am going to run”
Did you announce when you were going to announce if you are going to run?
I may run
Me too
I might not run
Same thing
My family doesn’t want me to run
Who does?
The polls say I should run
Who knows better than 348 people out in Wyoming?
I never thought of running before
Sure
I don’t know if I can raise the money to run
Why is that, do you think?
My health is good
What better reason to run?
My health is not great
Better run soon
I don’t know who else is running
Anything else you don’t know?
A lot of good people are running
Is that a Yes or a No?
Maybe I shouldn’t run
Now you’re talking
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
GENIUSES AT WORK
Now here comes the sophisticated analyses by the political intelligentsia, academia and think tankers, of the "legality" of our killing of Bin Laden:
On one side:
"The raid was conducted in a manner consistent with the laws of war"
"He wasn't armed but he put up resistance"
"He didn't hold up his hands and surrender"
"The U.S. gave OBL the possibility to surrender, but he refused"
On the other side:
"He was not moving at the time he was initially shot"
"Were arresting officers in fear of their lives?"
"Was it lawful for one country to conduct a raid in another country?"
"Bin Laden was shot shortly after he had eaten breakfast and the food was not fully digested, no doubt causing him undue and unnecessary and unlawful indigestion before his death"
"The bullet that killed him was made in Mexico and that country had not been consulted about, nor had it approved, our use of that bullet in this international murder"
"Bin Laden was killed on Tuesday, and in that region of the world, the Goddess Tushi, after whom the day is named, is a symbol of pleasure and delight"
Good arguments all for our elimination of the man who had declared war on America, attacked us, and in every waking moment, plotted, orchestrated and directed his plan to kill us all. What could we have been thinking?
And, Mr. President, I trust you were kidding, talking tongue in cheek, when you said your reason not to release the picture of our dead enemy was that it would inflame anti-U.S. feelings around the world. What you should have said was: "Attack us and we will destroy you with unremitting and unparallelled force," and then dropped pictures of it in every town and hamlet in the anti-American regions of the world." Never took "Bullying 101" did you?
On one side:
"The raid was conducted in a manner consistent with the laws of war"
"He wasn't armed but he put up resistance"
"He didn't hold up his hands and surrender"
"The U.S. gave OBL the possibility to surrender, but he refused"
On the other side:
"He was not moving at the time he was initially shot"
"Were arresting officers in fear of their lives?"
"Was it lawful for one country to conduct a raid in another country?"
"Bin Laden was shot shortly after he had eaten breakfast and the food was not fully digested, no doubt causing him undue and unnecessary and unlawful indigestion before his death"
"The bullet that killed him was made in Mexico and that country had not been consulted about, nor had it approved, our use of that bullet in this international murder"
"Bin Laden was killed on Tuesday, and in that region of the world, the Goddess Tushi, after whom the day is named, is a symbol of pleasure and delight"
Good arguments all for our elimination of the man who had declared war on America, attacked us, and in every waking moment, plotted, orchestrated and directed his plan to kill us all. What could we have been thinking?
And, Mr. President, I trust you were kidding, talking tongue in cheek, when you said your reason not to release the picture of our dead enemy was that it would inflame anti-U.S. feelings around the world. What you should have said was: "Attack us and we will destroy you with unremitting and unparallelled force," and then dropped pictures of it in every town and hamlet in the anti-American regions of the world." Never took "Bullying 101" did you?
Monday, May 2, 2011
STILL A TRAGEDY
Any reference to the killing of Bin Laden as an American victory, triumph, or achievement is an absurdity and insulting to the thousands of Americans Bin Laden killed, and their families. It took 10 years for the most powerful, technologically sophisticated country in world history to locate and remove this one, weak, hapless, enemy...while he continued his destructive ends.
And what I sense will likely be the characterizing of this event as a political success for the President and the Democratic party is an abomination and reprehensible.
Americans are fighting and continue to be killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and a host of other regions of the world. Contrary to political garbage-talk, we have no business being in those countries, they pose no immediate threat to us, we have no responsibility to dictate in any way what happens there. Our enlarging of the Gunfight at the OK Corral to world scope is not OK.
From any and every perspective, Bin Laden was a tragedy for the U.S. His removal from the landscape is of course positive...but it fills not one empty chair.
And what I sense will likely be the characterizing of this event as a political success for the President and the Democratic party is an abomination and reprehensible.
Americans are fighting and continue to be killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and a host of other regions of the world. Contrary to political garbage-talk, we have no business being in those countries, they pose no immediate threat to us, we have no responsibility to dictate in any way what happens there. Our enlarging of the Gunfight at the OK Corral to world scope is not OK.
From any and every perspective, Bin Laden was a tragedy for the U.S. His removal from the landscape is of course positive...but it fills not one empty chair.
Friday, April 29, 2011
ORDER, ORDER!
In a review of the movie based on Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", the comment was made that Miss Rand was opposed to "natural law". Not so.
Early man must have marveled at the order in the Universe. The sun rose, traversed the sky, and set. Over and over again. The seasons came and went. The harvest was gathered, and renewed. Life begat new life, which begat new life. There was order everywhere.
Our distant ancestors were also, no doubt, baffled by the order they perceived. Without science to guide them, the order was incomprehensible, unexplainable, to them. And where did the flowing streams, the schools of fish, the mountains and clouds, come from? And most importantly to them, where did they come from?
It is not in the least surprising that our original forefathers the world over answered these questions, and many more, in one word: God. The Creator (of all order), the Almighty (the power to produce all order), the First Cause (of all order). All questions answered.
Miss Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, at the heart of the new movie, is rooted in the recognition that it is the nature (order) of man and the world in which he lives that is the only proper standard to apply to all philosophic questions... including: What is the proper code of morality for man? What is the only political system suited to man? How does man find happiness and fulfillment?
What Miss Rand was opposed to was the understandable but unreasoned ancient anthropomorphizing of the source of order. Science has since taught us what caveman did not and could not have known...and what the nature of our reasoning mind can learn.
To those who still feel the humanizing need, may I introduce you to Mother Nature.
Early man must have marveled at the order in the Universe. The sun rose, traversed the sky, and set. Over and over again. The seasons came and went. The harvest was gathered, and renewed. Life begat new life, which begat new life. There was order everywhere.
Our distant ancestors were also, no doubt, baffled by the order they perceived. Without science to guide them, the order was incomprehensible, unexplainable, to them. And where did the flowing streams, the schools of fish, the mountains and clouds, come from? And most importantly to them, where did they come from?
It is not in the least surprising that our original forefathers the world over answered these questions, and many more, in one word: God. The Creator (of all order), the Almighty (the power to produce all order), the First Cause (of all order). All questions answered.
Miss Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, at the heart of the new movie, is rooted in the recognition that it is the nature (order) of man and the world in which he lives that is the only proper standard to apply to all philosophic questions... including: What is the proper code of morality for man? What is the only political system suited to man? How does man find happiness and fulfillment?
What Miss Rand was opposed to was the understandable but unreasoned ancient anthropomorphizing of the source of order. Science has since taught us what caveman did not and could not have known...and what the nature of our reasoning mind can learn.
To those who still feel the humanizing need, may I introduce you to Mother Nature.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
ROYAL NONSENSE
How I deplore the mindless fawning over, and reverence extended toward,royalty again with the pending wedding of William and Kate. I cannot and will not refer to them as Prince or Princess.
Royalty is code wording for majesty, high and honorable descent, upper class... abhorrent concepts that are the enemy of the American dedication to equality, and repugnant to the memory of every soldier who died to preserve it.
William/Kate is not the wedding of the century...that will be reserved for my children, and yours and yours.
And no, Americans' celebration of this event is not innocent...it implants in the minds of the young the insidious specialty of some and the bestowing of totally unearned and undeserved honors to them purely on the basis of ancestry or marriage.
Shame!
Royalty is code wording for majesty, high and honorable descent, upper class... abhorrent concepts that are the enemy of the American dedication to equality, and repugnant to the memory of every soldier who died to preserve it.
William/Kate is not the wedding of the century...that will be reserved for my children, and yours and yours.
And no, Americans' celebration of this event is not innocent...it implants in the minds of the young the insidious specialty of some and the bestowing of totally unearned and undeserved honors to them purely on the basis of ancestry or marriage.
Shame!
Monday, April 18, 2011
THE ILL PILL
I have designed a new pill...actually 7 new pills. Each pill will give you one of the following ailments for 1 day:
alzheimers, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, autism, pancreatic cancer, parkinsons, multiple sclerosi. Other pills are being worked on.
No politician voting on any issue affecting those diseases, no politician voting on any expenditure bill of any sort, no politician giving his opinion about any expenditure bill in Congress, in public, on television, may lawfully do so without first taking the pill that produces the illness(es) affected.
When the President speaks about sending millions and billions of dollars to help the Libyan or Egyptian people, or any other people around the world, he must first sequentially take all 7 pills...so that he can begin to know and experience first hand the craving needs of the American people whose money he is giving away. Right now, he has not a clue. The funds he proposes to give away ought AND MUST first be given to drug research companies to be utilized to find cures for these afflicting ailments, diseases, conditions. And, yes, those cures should then be given to the Libyan and Egyptian people and to all the peoples of the world.
There is an old Chinese saying to the effect "You cannot really know my plight until you have walked a mile in my shoes".
Or one day, Mr. President...just one day.
alzheimers, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, autism, pancreatic cancer, parkinsons, multiple sclerosi. Other pills are being worked on.
No politician voting on any issue affecting those diseases, no politician voting on any expenditure bill of any sort, no politician giving his opinion about any expenditure bill in Congress, in public, on television, may lawfully do so without first taking the pill that produces the illness(es) affected.
When the President speaks about sending millions and billions of dollars to help the Libyan or Egyptian people, or any other people around the world, he must first sequentially take all 7 pills...so that he can begin to know and experience first hand the craving needs of the American people whose money he is giving away. Right now, he has not a clue. The funds he proposes to give away ought AND MUST first be given to drug research companies to be utilized to find cures for these afflicting ailments, diseases, conditions. And, yes, those cures should then be given to the Libyan and Egyptian people and to all the peoples of the world.
There is an old Chinese saying to the effect "You cannot really know my plight until you have walked a mile in my shoes".
Or one day, Mr. President...just one day.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
GOODNESS THE MEASURE
It has traditionally been believed that happiness is derived from the attainment of values, most commonly identified as tangible goods. And there is certainly a measure of truth to that belief. But the new toaster, the shining new car, the exquisitely furnished home, do not bring enduring happiness on their own. Their impact is muted and/or short-lived unless they are coupled with the primary value: recognizing the glory of life.
Benevolence, compassion, kindness, concern, are not mere social graces, manners and niceties. They are not mere acts of religious tenets. They rest on, and reflect, the deepest conviction, persuasion, and affirmation, They cannot be bought in a store, they cannot be gifted to another. Each of us must must come to own them on our own, through our own quiet reflection on the grandiosity, the majesty, the nobility, of life itself.
It is goodness not goods that measure a man and his ultimate bounty.
Benevolence, compassion, kindness, concern, are not mere social graces, manners and niceties. They are not mere acts of religious tenets. They rest on, and reflect, the deepest conviction, persuasion, and affirmation, They cannot be bought in a store, they cannot be gifted to another. Each of us must must come to own them on our own, through our own quiet reflection on the grandiosity, the majesty, the nobility, of life itself.
It is goodness not goods that measure a man and his ultimate bounty.
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