tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63078962011-04-21T13:01:16.549-05:00The Personal and Political Ramblings of one guy in Texas.Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comBlogger1441100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1123082336768918282005-08-03T10:00:00.000-05:002005-08-03T10:19:44.036-05:00

Let's see if this works this time. Last time I tried typing up my thoughts on the latest Potter, a freakish bolt of lightning caused a power flicker that zapped my document, despite the fact I was certain I'd already hit the save button a time or two.This is not really a review. This is more of a discussion of what I thought, good, bad, and interesting, for Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince.

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1119559982957486852005-06-23T15:51:00.000-05:002005-06-23T15:53:02.960-05:00

Senator;I am writing today to express my outrage over two different events. The first is the proposed amendment that would give Congress the power to prohibit "desecration" of the American flag. Has there really been such an epidemic of this kind of crime that merits the changing of the very foundation of our laws? I am no flag-burner myself. I am a conservative. But because I am a

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1119559820370333452005-06-23T15:49:00.000-05:002005-06-23T15:50:58.366-05:00

This Kind of WarbyT.R. FehrenbachI was wandering through a bookstore when I came upon this book rather prominently displayed. It so happened that only some weeks before I had observed that I knew little of the Korean War, and needed to find a good book on it.I found it. TKOW was originally published in 1963, and my edition was reissued in 2000 for the 50th anniversary of that conflict. While its

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1115736660597648952005-05-10T09:49:00.000-05:002005-05-10T09:51:00.603-05:00

It's a common trope that suburbs tend to be lily-white bastions of cultural anomie. I've tended to suspect that these sorts of tropes came from people who had never lived in suburbs but had heard about them, or were misfits there. But one can be a misfit anywhere. Anyway.Last Thursday I had the opportunity to help out at a track and field day at my son's elementary school. There I saw a Lot

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1115128458747966372005-05-03T08:34:00.000-05:002005-05-03T08:55:14.080-05:00

The great Krugman has long been lauded by left-leaning people as "a prize winning economist." One wonders if they would use that credential if the following were not also true:He is also just about the most reliably anti-Republican partisan person writing a regular column today, occasionally approaching Ann Coulter levels of one-sidedness (though admittedly not hysteria).The other day Bush

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1112122022775586882005-03-29T12:45:00.000-06:002005-03-29T12:47:02.776-06:00

Sailing the Wine Dark Sea;Why the Greeks MatterbyThomas CahillCahill came to most people's attention a few years ago with his book "How the Irish Saved Civilization". However, that was just one of a serious of books he is writing called "the Hinges of History". Sea is his section on the Greeks.There is a tendency to put the ancient Greeks on a (marble) pedestal, visualizing them standing around

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1110901744773714032005-03-15T09:46:00.000-06:002005-03-15T09:49:04.776-06:00

To Rule The Waves;How the British Navy Shaped the Modern WorldByArthur HermanThis is a really good book. Herman traces the history of the Royal Navy from its origins as for-hire groups of merchant ships with a leavening of the King's personal flotilla to the force which kept Napolean and Hitler at bay and exerted British will across the entire world for almost two hundred years.It makes for an

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1108656359129913172005-02-17T09:44:00.000-06:002005-02-17T10:05:59.133-06:00

Finding Darwin's GodByKenneth MillerIt was funny to me to be thinking of how to write this review and then stumbling across none other than National Review Online's resident troglodyte, John Derbyshire, delivering the smackdown on Intelligent Design. Somehow he seemed the last person I had thought would be doing such a thing (though in retrospect it is less surprising).Intelligent Design (or ID)

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1108480375089939142005-02-15T09:02:00.000-06:002005-02-15T09:12:55.093-06:00

It's been a looooong time since my last update, and to the 5-6 of you who care, I apologize for that. I've been having enough trouble keeping up the other blog, much less to put in the work I originally envisioned for this one. But I though I'd give you a heads up on some coming attractions. I have several book reviews lined up for the coming weeks. I've started typing one. The first is

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1106234040373845282005-01-20T09:06:00.000-06:002005-01-20T09:14:00.373-06:00

Iowahawk has posted this hilarious send-up of "Heart of Darkness" (younger folks should think of it as a send-up of the movie "Apocalypse Now". It wouldn't take much to write one going the other way I know, but c'mon its funny. Almost as funny as the NYT's periodic "conservatives in the mist" articles, which this parody was inspired by. Here's a sample: "You Dionne?" said the hulking man in

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1106062287646853742005-01-18T09:20:00.000-06:002005-01-18T09:31:27.646-06:00

Left-liberals really get their knickers in a knot when people impugn their patriotism. And I don't blame them. Some of them, anyway. For example, we may disagree on nearly everything about how to deal with America's problems, but the Southpaw guys and I are both on the side of America. We have flags and we have no problems blowing the living crap out of anyone who thinks they want a piece of

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1105459404773235152005-01-11T09:55:00.000-06:002005-01-11T10:03:24.773-06:00

Last Thursday, we saw one of the more cynical bits of political farce of the 2004 election, in an election that did not lack for cynicism or farce. After Boxer and Conyers did their bit to throw mud on the election, mud which isn't going to make elections in the future any better, but simply serves to validate their loonier constituents and maybe even make things worse in terms of believable

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1104768408130798522005-01-03T09:30:00.000-06:002005-01-03T10:06:48.130-06:00

Just haven't had a whole to say that wouldn't take a lot more time than I was willing to put into it. Here are a couple of short takes. Apparently California has a new law restricting the age of those who can use tanning salons. Those under fourteen are prohibited, 14-18 need parental approval. But you can't require parental notification of an underage abortion without all hell breaking loose

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1102436768927413732004-12-07T09:55:00.000-06:002004-12-07T10:26:08.926-06:00

I have been sort-of following with a certain fascination the sites that keep up the myth of the stolen election. They point to this statistical study, or that one, or point to a conspiracy theory that at bottom says that, having gotten these computer programmers to write code to steal votes, the nefarious plotters are now refusing to pay. The sites trying to take a higher tone suggest they just

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1101829908054847852004-11-30T09:48:00.001-06:002004-11-30T09:54:27.636-06:00

The Map That Changed the World; William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology By Simon Winchester This is the story of William Smith, a man from the lower classes with only a basic formal education, who created a map of England that revolutionized our understanding of the earth, and created modern geology. Smith was a coal surveyor and canal-digger, and while engaged in these pursuits he began

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1101137072495420502004-11-22T09:19:00.000-06:002004-11-22T09:24:32.496-06:00

I know Democrats and Liberals are awash with advice from all directions, but in light of the bozos of the Urban Archipelago and numerous other similar writings to be found on both the Left and Right, I'd like to offer something I found the other day. I was reading George Orwell's "The Road to Wigan Pier" the other day (the sort of books that one can randomly pick up in this house is amazing) and

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1100886096092044882004-11-19T11:39:00.000-06:002004-11-19T11:41:36.093-06:00

If you are still worrying about massive vote fraud (as opposed to the sort of low-level stuff that happens somewhere every time) in the recent election, you could do a lot worse than to check out The Mystery Pollster. He sure seems to know his stuff, and can provide very useful and contextual commentary on the various studies "proving" one thing or another. Just go there and keep scrolling down

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1100705001471683382004-11-17T09:18:00.000-06:002004-11-17T09:23:21.470-06:00

Charley Wilson's War by George Crile If this had been an attempt to write Clancy-esqe fiction, the author would have had the manuscript thrown back in his face. As it happens, the entire tale is apparently completely true, yet it would still only take some modest wordsmithing by a Christopher Buckely to turn it into an outrageous bit of farce. It's about the reaction of certain people to the

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1100530292135057342004-11-15T08:46:00.000-06:002004-11-15T08:51:32.136-06:00

I've been toying with this idea for some time now, and I think I need to go ahead and make it official. As a purely political blog, I am just not going to make it. I have too many demands on my time to put in the effort doing it right would require. So I think its time to switch over to something I refer to as the Jammer's Review of Books model. I'll still make commentary from time to time,

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1100227876919511602004-11-11T20:43:00.000-06:002004-11-18T09:39:54.766-06:00

Ghosts of Vesuvius by Charles Pelligrino Charles Pelligrino may be one of the last of the Renaissance Man type of scientist. A paleontologist, biologist, physicist, whatever, he's dug up ruins, written science fiction, dived on the Titanic, and examined the after effects of volcanoes. Along the way he has written several entertaining books about what he has seen. Volcanic effects is what

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1099931901443114012004-11-08T10:35:00.000-06:002004-11-08T10:38:21.443-06:00

I had a nice long book review of Charle's Pellegrino's Ghosts of Vesuvius just waiting for a decent post-election interval, and I accidently deleted it. Oy. I'll try again in a day or two.

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1099583787002232632004-11-04T09:49:00.000-06:002004-11-04T10:17:01.166-06:00

Okay so the election is over. All the way over. Bush wins by around 3 points, with way more votes than anyone has gotten in some time. It was both precisely as close (Ohio) and yet not as close (popular vote) as I had thought. Please realize that I come not to gloat (for reasons that are my own but might surprise you) but just to do what I do, pontificate. Reactions are pretty much predictable,

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1099411194039607522004-11-02T09:38:00.000-06:002004-11-02T13:20:02.996-06:00

Election day. After literally years of campaigning and hundreds of millions of dollars, things seem likely to come down to three or four guys from Ohio trying to decide if they should make it to the booth or have another beer, despite claims from both camps that they expect to win big (big in this case meaning they get over 300 EV's and a 5% popular vote differential). What hath God wrought?

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1098714849867454462004-10-25T09:19:00.000-05:002004-10-25T09:34:09.866-05:00

And I got nothin'. Well, maybe a little. It's nice to live in a non-swing state. Can't imagine what the poor folk of Ohio and Florida are having to put up with right now. I've only had one pre-recorded campaign message come over the phone, and have even manged to not hear many on the radio. Kind of amazing. Granted, Texas is pretty darn Republican these days, even close to Austin, but

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1098196364524219322004-10-19T08:42:00.000-05:002004-10-19T10:03:02.936-05:00

This is almost a week late, but I'm working on more book reviews. Of course Kerry's gratuitous mention of Mary Cheney was a crass bit of political opportunism. It might be a coincidence that it came up in both the Veep debate and this most recent one, but it strikes me as unlikely. We can argue over just what kind of opportunism it was, but that it was opportunism and crass there should be no

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1097849818948732382004-10-15T09:10:00.000-05:002004-10-15T09:16:58.946-05:00

In this post. I'm more of a partisan and less of a libertarian than Steve Green, but its hard not to agree with what he says here.

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1097849304550339672004-10-15T08:59:00.000-05:002004-10-15T09:08:24.550-05:00

Gunpowder -- Alchemy Bombards & Pyrotechnics -- The History of the Explosive the changed the World by Jack Kelly Gunpowder has one of the longer subtitles I've seen outside of a academic paper, but unlike most of those it's not the least bit dull. Coming from that branch of writing that has become quite popular in recent years, the "microhistory" (sparked by the success of Longitude), Kelly

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1097592488629916812004-10-12T09:44:00.000-05:002004-10-12T13:40:16.390-05:00

Not much to say of late. I'm working on two more book reviews, for The Map That Changed The World and Gunpowder. Also been busy writing on my other blog, Homo Domesticus. But nothing ready for publication, unless I get a brilliant idea this afternoon. So check back in a couple of days.

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1096986550664151962004-10-05T09:27:00.000-05:002004-10-05T09:37:36.890-05:00

The Collapse of the Third Republic by William R. Shirer This begins what I hope to be a new regular feature at JammerBlog, book reviews. There are tons of books published every year and you can never get too much info on what good and what's not. Having said that, my first review is actually of a quite old book. Collapse is about the demolition of the French Third Republic in the early days of

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1096986427645525572004-10-05T09:23:00.000-05:002004-10-05T09:27:07.646-05:00

M1K3 once again fails to read my mind correctly. You'd think he would have given up by now, but I suppose he still figures he can do a better job of knowing what I'm saying than I can. This has nothing to do with equating anyone's deeds. The point of the fish shaking hands was that this conflict between religion and science need not be. The fish illustrated that here, in this vehicle at least

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1096900229177522272004-10-04T08:52:00.000-05:002004-10-04T09:30:29.176-05:00

In the comments to this post, M1K3 gets it wrong. As usual, when trying to read my mind, he does a poor job. I get tired of this rigamarole. The post had nothing to do with equating the good and/or evil of science and religion. The point of that post, is that this conflict between science and religion need not be. The point of the fish shaking hands is to illustrate that, and show that here

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1096466241115088652004-09-29T08:12:00.000-05:002004-09-29T08:57:21.116-05:00

I'm walking the dogs this morning and I notice a bumper sticker on one the vehicles parked in a driveway. It shows a grave with a headstone, and the caption reads "Now even Darwin believes." As an actual believing Christian and regular churchgoer, I have to say that sort of thing really irritates me. How many people out there know that ol' Chuck Darwin was a clergyman? And that he struggled a

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1096382136841030632004-09-28T09:19:00.000-05:002004-09-28T09:35:36.843-05:00

I've not had much to say of late. There's only so much time to write something good, and I've been working on some book reviews I intend to post here. But suddenly the War has become a topic, and you have to decide what is going to be the way to go. Do you think Bush has the right idea, only he's messing it up? Do you think Kerry will do it, only better? Or do you think the war in Iraq is

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1095907434617998322004-09-22T20:39:00.000-05:002004-09-22T21:43:54.616-05:00

My friend Mike grumbles about his feeling that liberals are getting unfairly caricatured. Well, that's the thing about political caricature; its pretty much never fair. Take a look at the editorial cartoons sometimes. They can be funny or poignant, but fair is exactly what they aren't. Mike's a good guy, but I suspect he doesn't even notice the conservative caricatures that are present on the

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1095435413482068972004-09-17T10:09:00.000-05:002004-09-17T10:37:25.063-05:00

A quick shout-out to those coming here from my old friend Mike Thomas' site, Rhetoric & Rhythm. I'm assuming all those hits are not just Mike looking for updates at rate that would make Instapundit a bit tired. Speaking of Instapundit, I found something funny over there the other day. I guess I wasn't the only one who remembered those old Bloom County 'toons about Dan Rather. My friend Chris

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1095258951587738622004-09-15T09:02:00.000-05:002004-09-15T09:37:02.996-05:00

How swiftly things change. The dominant meme on the leftward side of the blogosphere (from those who chose to keep on keepin' on, as opposed to those who decided to move quietly away) has been "The memos are real! Real, I tell you!" from the start. Then, as doubts set in, there came a few shadings of "It doesn't matter, there is plenty of other data to prove Bush is a shirker", but a lot of

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1095014655684970912004-09-12T13:23:00.000-05:002004-09-12T13:45:40.156-05:00

In my last post I noted that the story of the election would probably change at least twice before it happened. Last week it managed to do so in the space of 24 hours. I'll not bother with links; if you don't know all about the memo flap by now, you need to read a lot more blogs than this one. Most blogs that have paid attention have almost gotten themselves lost in the details of typefaces and

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1094742513268633392004-09-09T10:00:00.000-05:002004-09-09T10:08:33.266-05:00

So I'm reading my wife's book (which suffers a bit from "Academic Writing syndrome", but that's what academic publishers want so don't count that as real criticism. No one who wrote the Chester FAQ should be accused of inability to write informally), which is about how to teach argument, why that is a good idea, and why people are not doing terribly well at it these days. And while I'm pretty

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1094564339536469722004-09-07T08:17:00.000-05:002004-09-07T08:38:59.536-05:00

Dave Fried in this quickie points to an AP story and says flat-out that Arnold S. lied in his speech. I suggest you take a gander over here or over here and reconsider. Pay particular attention to what Arnold actually said vs. what the accusation is. You might have to follow a link or two to get it all, but the basic thrust is that the historians say Arnold wasn't born in the Soviet sector of

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1094132947974074222004-09-02T08:16:00.000-05:002004-09-02T09:04:32.413-05:00

...volleyed and thund'rd". This may be my one post dedicated to events of the two political conventions. I'm not certain, but I think the last time I watched an entire convention speech might have been Ann Richards' famous savaging of Bush the elder, which featured the memorable line "he was born with a silver foot in his mouth" way back in '88. Conventions with all their pre-packaged pablum,

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1093526184006039302004-08-26T07:57:00.000-05:002004-08-26T08:44:35.916-05:00

It's sort of funny to see M!EK go all Inspector Renault on me in the comments to my post on Kerry's Vietnam troubles. Granted, my examples were not perhaps the best in the world (the Moore one in particular), but anyone willing to trot over to FactCheck.Org can find plenty on both sides. I know few people as cynical as M!EK, yet he seems to have swallowed the idea that while the Swifties

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1093377308629968202004-08-24T14:51:00.000-05:002004-08-24T14:55:08.630-05:00

If this pans out its too rich. Apparently, some guy wrote a story for Harper's magazine that said this (I got it from Reason Online): The speeches in Madison Square Garden affirmed the great truths now routinely preached from the pulpits of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal--government the problem, not the solution; the social contract a dead letter; the free market the answer to every

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1092966736679057042004-08-19T20:50:00.000-05:002004-08-19T20:56:10.776-05:00

I've started another blog, one about my life as a stay-at home dad. It's called Homo Domesticus. Cruise on over and check it out. I'll probably update it a bit more often than this one.

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1092922365485904142004-08-19T07:54:00.000-05:002004-08-19T08:32:45.493-05:00

There's no shortage of people trying to claim that the media is somehow biased against them and for the other side. The more fair-minded allow that this is not a conspiracy or even conscious on the part of the reporters and writers involved. And really, if you're looking for it, its not hard to find what you see as examples. Among the right-wing bloggers, the current case in point is the complete

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1092750540356242842004-08-17T08:11:00.000-05:002004-08-17T10:50:53.910-05:00

Well, school's back in session. My son's, that is. So now, I have more time of my own in order to blog and do whatever. It never fails to amaze me how hard it is to get things done with a little one around. I'm not enough of a hard-ass, I reckon. I suppose I shouldn't complain. It'll seem like only a week has passed between "Dad, can you play?" and "Dad, can I borrow the car?" Damn you, Harry

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1092238013027287872004-08-11T10:22:00.000-05:002004-08-11T10:26:53.026-05:00

Not much blogging lately, and its not like there isn't stuff to talk about (Plame, Iraq, jobs, Cambodia, etc.). But I've been kinda busy doing the last bits of summer we can do, before Jake and Trish head back to their different sorts of school. Next week things should start to get more regular, we'll see.

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1091545577008521872004-08-03T09:50:00.000-05:002004-08-03T10:06:17.006-05:00

Four years ago (or thereabouts, it seems much longer than that) I sat down and tried to create a coherent document that described my political beliefs. It was part philosophy, part practical. To an extent, I also hoped that putting down my policy ideas would give me a window on the philosophical underpinnings. I never finished it, but I dusted it off the other day and was surprised by how well it

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1091158307333886052004-07-29T22:12:00.000-05:002004-07-29T22:31:47.333-05:00

Found this on Andrew Sullivan's blog.  Written by an American living in Norway, it goes a good way towards blowing the lid off the idea that Americans are uniquely parochial and ignorant.  Take this example: Nothing remotely approaching this breadth of news and opinion is available in a country like Norway. Purportedly to strengthen journalistic diversity (which, in the ludicrous words of a

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1090595943631639132004-07-23T10:12:00.000-05:002004-07-23T10:19:03.633-05:00

A short one as I continue to recover from my vacation... Well, the Republicans (with Bush's no doubt full consent) have gone completely bonkers over the gay marriage thing.  For details, you can go read Andrew Sullivan.  However, I also remain convinced that the Dem ticket of the two Johns is just as bad, in its own indecisively left-liberal, wishy washy way.  If ever there was a need for an

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1090459328019272622004-07-21T20:05:00.000-05:002004-07-21T20:22:08.020-05:00

I'm sure everyone is relieved to learn that I'm back from the bowels of LA, in sunny SoCal.  It was fun, it was tiring, it was expensive (even with Trish's dad picking up several meals and letting us crash at his house for several days), but its always nice to be home.  While there, I read no mail, looked at no newspapers (other than headlines read through vending machines), watched no TV, nor

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1089649467132215172004-07-12T11:13:00.000-05:002004-07-12T11:24:27.133-05:00

Leaving tomorrow on a vacation to sunny LA. Seeing the Mouse, Universal maybe, the father-in-law for sure (we get to stay at his place on the Palos Verdes Peninsula), and the beach. No blogging until we get back and for a few days after, obviously. Parting shot: Joe Wilson has turned out to be something of a putz.

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1089130758407216782004-07-06T10:21:00.000-05:002004-07-07T09:59:58.946-05:00

Here's one the Good Reverend might appreciate. Our church is in the process of calling a new pastor, our old one having moved on to a new congregation. Calling (which actually has important distinctions from "hiring" that would take too long to explain) a new pastor is, as you can guess, a fairly complex and long process. Six months would be pretty fast. A year is common. So one thing you do

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1088690359546768102004-07-01T08:58:00.000-05:002004-07-01T09:12:30.546-05:00

Dave Fried replies to my Potter post with a short one of his own. And in reading it I realize I may have left some false impressions. As Dave notes, much of the conflict from the overall story, which will span the planned 7 books, will lie within Harry. And indeed, I think this is a good thing. When much younger, I read the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson. For

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1088522470523640602004-06-29T09:45:00.000-05:002004-06-29T10:21:10.523-05:00

Last week I took my son to the latest Harry Potter movie. Much better than the second one, much much better than the first. But almost too much for a 6-year old. I had suspected as much, and my little one was wanting to leave at the very scary climactic part near the end (if you've seen it or read the book, you know what I mean). I had worried about that part, and only the fact that a friend

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1088004469277898092004-06-23T10:22:00.000-05:002004-06-23T10:27:49.276-05:00

Lately I've been reading The Radical Center. On the days I didn't think of myself as a conservative, I liked to style myself a member of the radical moderates, so they've got me interested from the title aspect at the very least. At least one of their early points is how poorly the true political desires of Americans are served by the two major parties. Gee, where have heard that one before?

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1087829604636472742004-06-21T09:48:00.000-05:002004-06-21T09:53:24.636-05:00

More on estate taxes in a couple of days (or tonight, who knows?), but first a matter of great cultural importance. I don't get NASCAR. It's not that I don't get aspects of it; fast cars, racing, gearheads, element of danger etc., etc. What I don't get is the whole thing put together. I went to the local IMAX with my 6-year old son to see the NASCAR "documentary" (in 3D! As an aside, the

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1087313413522715542004-06-15T09:33:00.000-05:002004-06-15T10:30:13.523-05:00

Dave Fried is opining that there's no good argument against an estate tax, which of course is just silly. Are their good arguments for it? The primary purpose of taxes (at least in my world) is to generate revenue for the operations of government. And it must be seen by the people being taxed as reasonably fair, or the widespread cheating will undermine its effectiveness. So any tax that does

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1087230439997316552004-06-14T10:13:00.000-05:002004-06-14T11:27:19.996-05:00

Having survived a week of helping out with Vacation Bible School, Lutheran-style, I am back at the blog. Oddly enough, I know I'll have less time to blog because of taking care of Jake full-time, instead of just after school. This may mean I'll do a lot less political stuff. A good politics post takes a lot of time before you can even get to the writing of the post. So this may turn into more

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1086273604604144582004-06-03T09:18:00.000-05:002004-06-03T09:40:04.603-05:00

Actually, turns out next week is the week I'm helping out at Vacation Bible School; but blogging is lighter than usual for a reason I did not expect. With Jacob out of school, we no longer need to get him and us up at 6am; I've spent the last week or so sleeping in to the absolutely decadent hour of 7am. This leaves me a an hour to hour and a half less time in the morning to devote to this

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1085666507047661132004-05-27T08:55:00.000-05:002004-05-27T09:01:47.046-05:00

Today is my son's last day of school for the year. Amazing to see him go from struggling to read simple words to basically reading. And not just "see spot run" stuff, either. He's grown and changed a lot, but still wants to be hugged. That can't go more than another year or two, I guess. He'll need less minding then, which will be nice, but I know I'm going to miss that totally

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1085581824634583862004-05-26T09:13:00.000-05:002004-05-26T09:30:24.636-05:00

I was reading an article the other day that referred to "self-appointed moralists". Are self-appointed moralists much worse than the appointed kind? How do you measure that? I hate the idea of "self-appointed" being used as some sort scare term. Because its more of the typical "my guys are okay, but yours are scum (in this case, self-appointed scum)" meme that you can find everywhere in

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1085493297064460572004-05-25T08:07:00.000-05:002004-05-25T08:54:57.063-05:00

Looks like there probably was a wedding at that site attacked by US forces in Iraq. Of course, it looks like there might also have been more than a wedding out there too. The only certainty is another tragedy. I got an email from the propetier of Lying in Ponds. Note the lack of a link. It seems some domain name weirdness has essentially shut him down for a while. He hopes to get back in

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1085062115277939942004-05-20T08:15:00.000-05:002004-05-20T09:08:35.276-05:00

This is pretty funny, especially if you've ever played a Real-Time Strategy game. I think its funnier if you're a hawk, and I think he loses it near the end (it was probably asking too much NOT to bring in Col. Jessup), but its still good. Chris in the comments on the Hersh piece below points out that Newsweek has the same story. Well, a lot of people also had the "attack is stalled the troops

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1084976501243473512004-05-19T08:38:00.000-05:002004-05-20T21:02:49.006-05:00

Seymour Hersh of My Lai fame wrote this long and scary article about how the Abu Ghraib abuses are part of a wider black ops program that plays fast and loose with Geneva Protections and other rules in order to get results about terrorists and their cohorts. Its one of those scary but sometimes maybe necessary sorts of things, and Hersh says it was authorized from the top. Thing is, he says, it

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1084932706234354342004-05-18T20:33:00.000-05:002004-05-18T21:11:46.233-05:00

Its kind of scary when a simple psychological idea can describe so many of your reactions to a tee. Check out this post and the attendant comments for an example of what is called "in-group, out-group behavior". Its the sort of thing that is obvious when you hear about it. Put simply, people who are in your in-group always get the benefit of the doubt. People from the out group do not. If

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1084556577553797182004-05-14T12:40:00.000-05:002004-05-18T21:15:43.876-05:00

In light of the horrible prison story, I suppose we can take some small solaces. The investigation was announced in January. The report had been sent up the chain of command, and had been signed by Gen. Abazaid on April 30. The initial suspensions had already taken place. The first courts-martial was ready to go. All of this before the pictures had appeared in the media. We are better than

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1084556080598293372004-05-14T12:32:00.000-05:002004-05-14T12:39:45.363-05:00

The horror of the Abu Ghraib story has of course, several levels. The first being the simple human reaction to inhumanity. After that, you get the political reaction, which is...well, less than edifying. And this should not be surprising. There had to be a political reaction, and you knew that some people were going to use the horror to attack the administration in the most lurid and

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1084369140902037562004-05-12T07:57:00.000-05:002004-05-12T08:39:00.903-05:00

A series of semi-connected observations based upon current events and books I've been exposed to recently. I'm about done with "Hitler's Willing Executioners". A very dense book, I must confess to skimming a page here and there. Nevertheless, despite some resonable complaints about certain points, I think the author does a good job of making his case that "ordinary" Germans did indeed know

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1083944277900703182004-05-07T10:36:00.000-05:002004-05-07T10:42:25.700-05:00

If you're in the Austin area, we are currenty fostering a 10-month old terrier/yellow lab mix. He's about 30 pounds or so, has his shots, and is very friendly and cute. He's good with our dogs, and with kids. Free to a good home. Drop me an email.

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1083944153434735952004-05-07T10:32:00.000-05:002004-05-07T10:40:21.263-05:00

April was good, even for manufacturing. If job growth continues at this pace, the Prez may be at a net zero for job growth by election day. Which ain't good, but it beats being negative. But more importantly, it will allow him to point to positive trends, and will probably result in the brouhaha over outsourcing dying a deserved death.

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1083943882403192882004-05-07T09:43:00.000-05:002004-05-07T10:35:50.280-05:00

I had a good post on this Rall thing yesterday that was destroyed by technical difficulties. And if you don't know what the Rall thing, is, you need to read a lot more blogs, m'kay? Just saying. So, Andrew Sullivan was looking for Lefty bloggers that were willing to express their disgust. And he found some, which apparently cheered him considerably. And before you complain, he has from time

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1083596133000785292004-05-03T09:39:00.000-05:002004-05-03T10:14:04.936-05:00

Okay, not the most appealing post title in the world, but I'm in a hurry. Recently on Southpaw, there was a discussion about...well, were they really being one-sided or was it simply legitimately expressed anger, and was I in fact hypocritical. Perhaps someone else might characterize the terms differently. I'll confess that what I perceive as "meanness" (for lack of a better term) is a button

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1083382776361423802004-04-30T22:38:00.000-05:002004-04-30T22:43:55.233-05:00

I should get into slap-fights with Chris and Bubba more often, seeing as how it got me a lot more page-views than in, like, forever.

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1083333234881735152004-04-30T08:28:00.000-05:002004-04-30T08:59:38.293-05:00

Means that John Kerry has had a very bad two weeks. Much worse, I suspect, than many of us here had thought. Hence, this speech of Sen. Frank Lautenberg's, via Hugh Hewitt. If you're an ABB type person, this is just some lovely red meat, and of course, true, brilliant, brave, etc. etc. Kerry himself has gone from saying (back in February) that he was not going to attack anyone for their

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1083075226393416252004-04-27T09:07:00.000-05:002004-04-27T09:18:00.763-05:00

Trish got into a fender-bender yesterday. Actually, more than a bender I think this qualifies as a minor accident. Everyone is fine (except my truck), BTW. It happened less than a mile from the house. Trish had taken off to get some medicine for the cat (and I was grumpy because it was my mistake the vet was about to close, and I was sure she was going play the martyr on me for going to get

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1082991552574432142004-04-26T09:29:00.000-05:002004-04-26T10:05:08.390-05:00

Remember that old Twisted Sister video, where the Animal House guy screams at the kid "WHAT DO WANNA DO WITH YOUR LIFE?" and the kid says "I wanna rock"? I wish I had such an easy answer. You may or may not recall that I'm unemployed, and, thanks to some lucky breaks I had only a little bit to do with (but not nothing) we are in a situation where, theoretically, I could just retire. The

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1082846376459375772004-04-24T17:38:00.000-05:002004-04-24T17:43:46.793-05:00

Had some trouble posting my Michigan law post below -- but I didn't realize until now just how messed up that all was! Sorry for the mess that was so hard to read, it should be cleaned up now.

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1082774572130986852004-04-23T21:42:00.000-05:002004-04-23T21:52:35.450-05:00

I have to confess a certain unease regarding some kinds of anti-discrimination law. I mean, why should it be the business of the government who I hire or sell my stuff to? It's an amazing level of intrusion. Nevertheless, I don't think there was a better or quicker way to break the stranglehold of segregation which once existed in this country. The Libertarian argument of how people are

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1082383211870577662004-04-19T08:53:00.000-05:002004-04-20T08:59:08.233-05:00

Much has been made of the loss of manufacturing jobs this economic downturn. The phrase "hollowing out" has been floated around a bit in reference to America's industrial base. I began to wonder if that were, in fact true. Were manufacturing jobs really going away? And here I mean as a long-term whole; certainly many have recently lost jobs for cyclical reasons, and factories do close for

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1082255179533273552004-04-17T21:23:00.000-05:002004-04-17T21:30:20.640-05:00

My PC still works (though I've had my troubles getting its kinks ironed out). I'm also working on a post that isn't long enough for the time its taken, but I hope will be informative. I take a look at manufacturing job trends and try to sort out fact from fiction. I hope to have it out there on Monday, finally.

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1081718348182784092004-04-11T15:52:00.000-05:002004-04-11T16:23:00.843-05:00

Okay, that was interesting. Actually, getting the revamped computer going wasn't that bad. I'm not completely done yet, either (need to make a disk image and put it on the nice big 120GB drive), but getting things back to a clean boot was the important part. Hardware was not a problem (more or less; read on). Everything I plugged in worked when I hit the power button. It was a huge relief to

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1081431406146917252004-04-08T08:27:00.000-05:002004-04-08T08:40:34.170-05:00

I've dithered long enough. My old PC is starting to hang up on boot about 1/3 of the time. I just hope its my old hard drive flaking, and not some degenerative disease of software that will be carried over on the image I created. Meantime, its a pain the butt dealing with my case and motherboard. The connections aren't exactly the same of course, and the manuals are a bit on the thing side.

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1081430829814536412004-04-08T08:06:00.000-05:002004-04-08T08:30:57.920-05:00

Well, things have gotten pretty damn messy in Iraq the past week. The military and administration people are acting sanguine, the press and the Left are gloomy, and the Truth is probably somewhere in the middle of these extremes. Where is that point? This is vitally important, but its hard to tell right now. The situation is fluid and confused, at least from over here. So is this Tet (

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1081258481775897682004-04-06T08:28:00.000-05:002004-04-06T08:38:26.936-05:00

In April of 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear reactor suffered a catostrophic accident that resulted in a lot of deaths and a large area being rendered unfit for human habitation. This set of pages (which I found on Oxblog) was created by a biker who sometimes travels through the area, and it chronicles some of the sights. I find it quite...fascinating I guess. I'm not sure the proper word, but its

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1081258071128864482004-04-06T08:21:00.000-05:002004-04-06T08:31:36.403-05:00

Oy, massive thunderstorm greets my new year. But I get to sleep in a little bit (normally, I get up and get Jake ready for school Tue-Thur) and have some bacon for breakfast in place of cold cereal. But with no sign of the bus after 10 minutes I elected to drive Jake to school. Oh, and of course, Hubert breaks a claw and will need to go to the vet for a bit of bandage. Then I get to clean up

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1081176701487958852004-04-05T08:55:00.000-05:002004-04-05T09:55:25.106-05:00

Includes self-indulgent pap like this. If you haven't noticed the unfortunate warts and imperfections of America until the Opposition gets into office, you'd best lay off the hack poetry. And if you really think you're being oppressed and people are starting to fix elections on you, I would suggest reading up on Daley's Chicago, and then Shirer's _Rise and Fall of the Third Reich_. That's

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1081173183114662572004-04-05T08:49:00.000-05:002004-04-05T08:56:46.653-05:00

Is the title of a book by a fellow named Dave Eddie. In it, he describes his life as a househusband following the birth of his child. It's an interesting read, and now and then things he said struck a chord. Especially the part about cooking. I've started creating the weekly menus around here, in addition to doing the shopping. I've even done more of the cooking. It can be kinda fun. Now

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1080926425005125002004-04-02T11:15:00.000-06:002004-04-02T11:24:05.030-06:00

I'm expecting no fewer the three FedEx packages today (normal expectations == 0), and they just dropped off two. I couldn't catch the guy before he drove off. One was a package for Trish I didn't know about (in our house there are three certainties in life: Death, Taxes, and the Weekly Amazon Order for Trish). The other was for someone else. I called it in and the nice Indian-sounding (or it

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1080919495398059312004-04-02T08:56:00.000-06:002004-04-02T09:28:35.340-06:00

The jobs report for March is out and is very good. 308,000 jobs were created, almost triple what the analysts were expecting. Even manufacturing appeared to gain jobs, and the figures for January and February were also revised upward (I heard this on NPR this morning). The unemployment rate stayed about the same, though weekly jobless claims dropped off, suggesting large numbers of people

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1080830900945346882004-04-01T08:34:00.000-06:002004-04-01T08:53:07.920-06:00

We've known for a while that Hubert, the big black Great Dane, has back problems. He's been on Deramaxx (essentially doggie ibuprofen) for a year and a half. It's gotten worse of late, and the x-rays basically prove it. We could have an MRI done to find out more, but that costs $2k, and there's just no way to justify that. So anyway, the regular vet feels this is beyond them. So yesterday

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1080830006715332592004-04-01T08:24:00.000-06:002004-04-01T08:37:05.030-06:00

Y'know, I said I was going to try an exploration of how one deals with politics and their religious beliefs. I have to confess that my heart isn't in it, despite the fact that I think its an important topic. My muse is silent. The intention was to avoid being in snark-mode on a full-time basis, to generate some light instead spending all my time as a critic. Well, that's not working out as

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1080659421719090592004-03-30T08:29:00.000-06:002004-03-30T09:15:00.123-06:00

The first part of the famed Lemon Test states that the statute in question must have a "secular legislative purpose". Okay, fine. But how do we determine the level of secularism? And does the motivation of the group making the proposal matter? I have always held that all laws are ultimately based upon moral judgments. People have tried to dissuade me from that viewpoint, because (IMO) they

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1080573409496875252004-03-29T08:48:00.000-06:002004-03-29T09:20:23.950-06:00

I've often thought a it would make a good Adult Sunday School class or three to discuss the difficult trick of dealing with religion and politics/government. It can be less straightforward than you think. Teachers leading kids in prayers at school? Obviously, no (despite demagogues attempts by the Right to argue otherwise). But how about Pell Grants being used to study engineering at Texas

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1080228585400907662004-03-25T08:46:00.000-06:002004-03-25T09:37:10.496-06:00

Donald Sensing has a post up which deals with many of the issues I've been trying to look at over the last couple of days. In it he says You remember the old saying, "It's hard to remember that your job is to drain the swamp when you're up to your waist in alligators." The "it was a diversion" side wants to do nothing, really, except kill alligators, as long as they appear. The other side says

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1080142755447211462004-03-24T08:44:00.000-06:002004-03-24T09:44:11.513-06:00

Yesterday I tried to describe some very basic differences between people who regard the War on Terror as a "real" war and those who do not. As I was thinking about how to proceed last night, it occurred to me that the question that should apply to the situation is not "Is this a war?" but "Should it be a war?" I can't say for certain, but I suspect for most folks in these camps (including

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1080070893071043742004-03-23T13:40:00.000-06:002004-03-23T13:44:59.216-06:00

Had a triple-post going there for a while. I can see why I might have had an extra, but a double-extra? Interesting. Anyway, should be fixed now.

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1080053885441093362004-03-23T08:19:00.002-06:002004-03-23T09:35:10.483-06:00

Forget Red vs. Blue. Since 9/11, the real great divide is between those people who feel that the struggle against fundamentalist Islamic terror is a war and those who do not. Certainly there are subdivisions (such as liberal hawks who agree that there is a war on, but that Bush is handling it badly -- the folks over at The New Republic fall in that camp), but lets stick to the big picture.

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1079536629730536442004-03-17T08:57:00.000-06:002004-03-17T09:22:09.263-06:00

Okay, its supposed to be spring break. I was supposed to be at the San Antonio Zoo. But yesterday I spent pretty much all day in bed with a killer of a virus. No gastrointestinal distress fortunately, but it didn't need any. I think the ear thermometer had me at 104.6 at one point. I also had chills, aches, a headache, and felt as if I'd been rode hard and put up wet. My temp had slowly

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1079369802925420402004-03-15T10:53:00.000-06:002004-03-15T10:59:57.733-06:00

So very light blogging this week.

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6307896.post-1079017690418616782004-03-11T08:30:00.000-06:002004-03-11T09:14:17.466-06:00

I think my last post may have confused some people. At least, the 2-3 who commented on it, amongst the half-dozen or so of you that read this. I'm not trying to defend the excesses (and there are many) of the Republicans. I'm just pointing out that all of my alternatives are frankly rather poor in terms of what matters to me. I'm really not sure how to make that more clear without going into

Jammerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03455574122882664561noreply@blogger.com