Peggy Noonan @ OpinionJournal.com – Death Taxes and Mrs Clinton

From Rush’s 30 November 2007 Total Stack of Stuff and referenced by e-Royal’s blog, I found that Peggy Noonan has a great piece today at OpinionJournal.com called Death, Taxes, and Mrs Clinton. I found the subheading very catchy: Only two of them are inevitable.

Of course the two inevitable things of her opinion title has to be death and taxes. But, Mr Noonan does address Mrs Bill Clinton inevitable candidacy.

In review, Mrs Bill Clinton thinks she is the inevitable candidate for the Democratic Party. Its done. Its finished. She’s won. In fact, I questioned her arrogance to think it’s all wrap up in my Oh Really blog entry in mid-November. Ms Noonan points out two problems with this dangerous strategy and confirmed my suspicions that problems do exist for Mrs Bill Clinton:

One is that your support is by definition broad but shallow. You have a lot of people, but they won’t crawl over broken glass for you.

…

The second part of the inevitability problem is that once you seem no longer inevitable–once the polls stop rising or start to fall, once that air is out of the balloon and the thing that made everyone fall in line is gone–well, what do you do?

If she falters, what will happen? Well, Ms Noonan asked a Mrs Bill Clinton supporter and got this answer:

The Clinton supporter said, “Well I would love to support Obama if that happens.” It was a standard thing to say, and yet the Clintonite said it awful quick.

Seems that Mrs Bill Clinton does not have this wrapped up after all. In fact, many supporters would be happy if another candidate is nominated.

On another front, e-Royal has good points on the whole PC thing. I suggest you read his post. He is correct that that the PC is always coming from the liberals and the MM. It is also always on their terms. They are right, and the conservatives are always wrong. As conservatives, we need to make sure the truth is told clearly and constantly over the all yelling of the liberal’s PCs. I guess that’s why we have Rush. And why he is so successful. 🙂

Celebrity Endorsements

Obama has Oprah.

Mrs Bill Clinton has Barbara Streisand.

Mr Huckabee has Chuck Norris. (I sure do not want mess with Mr. Norris – check out Mt Dew’s commercial, Payback.)

On the Newsbusters blog site, Richard Newcomb posted a blog entry called “Will Media Report Pat Sajak’s Analysis of Celebrity Endorsement?“. Mr Newcomb is sure right that the media will probably ignore it. I also agree with his statement (emphasis added):

Sajak has a remarkably clear view of the actual role of a celebrity and he appears to be well aware that most celebrities are experts in exactly nothing.

The article is a very interesting take on celebrity endorsements from the host of Wheel of Fortune. You can read Pat Sajak’s article from HumanEvents.com, Celebrities Unqualified to give Endorsements.

I think, you can agree with Mr Sajak on these celebrities endorsements:

Trust me, one’s view of the world isn’t any clearer from the back seat of a limo.

How true.

Blame It on Global Warming

It seems that everything is getting blamed on global warming these days.

Well, in Rush’s Total Stack of Stuff for 29 November 2007, he had a must read link to the American Thinker blog entry by Christopher Alleva entitled “Everything is Caused by Global Warming (600+links)“.

A UK scientist has established a website that has a collection of links ascribing everything under the sun is caused by global warming. In fact, Rush read the entire list on his show today. The scientist name is Dr John Bringell. Here is the stated goal of his site via Chris’ blog entry:

The site’s stated mission is to expose all the “scares, scams, junk, panics and flummery cooked up by the media, politicians, bureaucrats and so-called scientists and others that try to confuse the public with wrong numbers” Professor Brignell’s motto is “Working to Combat Math Hysteria.”

Read the blog entry and check out his site, numberwatch.co.uk – warmlist.

I think he should go one step further. He should also create a site that has everything under the sun caused by global cooling as well. Just use the same links. 😉

Blog Theme Change

One of the great things about Word Press is that you have flexibility in your blog presentation. So in celebration of Christmas, I have updated my blog site to the Vermilion Christmas theme. Stay tune for some future Christmas posts and check out my Christmas card to you.

I will be returning to the Regulus theme next year.

Star Wars November 2007 Novel

 

I recently obtained the latest Del Rey Balantine book in the Star Wars universe, Legacy of the Force Fury by Aaron Allston.

Check my website to see what I am reading, have read, or will be reading in the Star Wars Universe at my website.

Review (Added: 9 December 2007)

Mr Allston, in his final contribution to the series, has brought much more to the forefront on this story arc. More questions arise in this chapter. Jacen has made many enemies and now I wonder who will be the one to face him in the end. Would it be Luke, Ben, Leia, Han, or Jania? The line continues to form by Jacen’s own actions. And somehow a group of Sith play a role. Will they help Jacen survive? Or do they have alternative plans of their own? And who is the teacher Jania plans to seek, a Jedi Master or someone else? In the end, a little happiness is discovered by the Solo family about Tenel Ka’s daughter, Allana.

Thomas Sowell @ Townhall.com – Income Confusion

Prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, Thomas Sowell had two columns regarding recently released statistics on the income parity between the poor and rich. Read the first column here and part two here.

Two government agencies report different results on income between the five income brackets. So, are the rich getting richer? No. Are the poor getting poorer? No.

Why is this? Well, all income earners move between the five income brackets. So, when someone says, “The rich keep getting richer. And poor keep getting poorer”, is not entirely correct. In fact, those in the bottom fifth in 1996 had increased the income by 91% by 2005. While the upper one percent in 1996 saw their income decrease by 24% by 2005.

So, what the politicians and the media keep telling us does not jive with these numbers. Why is this? Because these numbers are based on IRS data following the actual income earner during the 10 year period. Census Bureau numbers do not do that.

In his first part, he confirms what I have thought of politicians in general:

Too many in the media and in politics choose whatever statistics fit their preconceptions.

This is typical of politicians who can never represent the data correctly. It demonstrates that we need to take all reports from the media and politicians with a grain of salt as Mr Sowell concludes in part two of his column (last paragraph):

But that is all the more reason for the rest of us to be aware of what statistics do and do not mean — and beware of those who want us to believe the worst, whether for their own political advantage or because that fits their ideological vision.

Maybe we all should take a refresher course in statistics. 😉

Or hold our media and politicians to a higher standard.

The Litany of Thanksgiving

In observance of Thanksgiving, I thought I would share the Litany of Thanksgiving used at the Thanksgiving Eve Service held 21 November 2007 at Memorial Lutheran Church in Ames, Iowa. The litany was written by late Pastor Richard G. Kapfer. He was the past President of Iowa District West for the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and former Senior Pastor at Memorial while I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. The litany gives thanks for what we have experienced this past year and in our life times. Please enjoy the read and Happy Thanksgiving. (Note: bold face type is spoken by the congregation)

Website Updated

I have updated my personal website by improving the layout and taking advantage of CSS.  Check it out here.

Michelle Malkin – God and Country

Michelle Malkin posted an interesting promotion of a troop movie celebrating America this past weekend.  It is called God and Country. Catch her post here.

The movie can be found at their website here.

This movie will be different than most Hollywood made movie about the Iraq war.  Get your copy today and spread the word.

Mr Whipple Dies

Recognize this face?

Well, this is Dick Wilson portraying Mr Whipple from the Charmin TV commercials (courtesy: FOX News). He pass away today at 91.

He gave us the catch phase: “Please, don’t squeeze the Charmin!”

A cultural icon is gone. He will be missed.

Fox News story here

Yahoo News story here