Pumpkin Nights

The Boys on the Bus

Marching band trip.

My Mom is Dying

Time, like an ever rolling stream
Soon bears us all away
We fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

I go to Lancaster tomorrow to visit my mother who is but days from death. On Monday, her feeding tube was removed as she can no longer swallow.

Guns Don't Kill People . . .

People kill people.

FLAGSTAFF, Arizona (AP) -- A man who police believe was shot and killed by his 8-year-old son had consulted a Roman Catholic priest about whether the boy should have a gun and had taught him how to use firearms, the clergyman said.

The Death of Intellectual Conservatism

Andrew Sullivan obits the death of intellectual conservatism and the reason why Repubicans are heading into an endless winter as a weakened, regional, know-nothing power. It is perhaps the reason why the dream ticket in 2012 for so many Republicans is Palin/The Plumber. That would also be the dream ticket of the Democrats.

Trackback

The End of Right Wing Media?

Will Fox News and right wing radio fade away?

I pray not. I attribute to no small part the presence of such folks as O'Reilly, Hannity, Limburgh, and bloggers such as Coulter and Malkin to perhaps 50 electoral votes of the the Democrat's victory. They are tactically necessary to underscore how vacuous are the ideas of modern-day Republicanism. Instead of unfolding a program to solve unemployment, they would much prefer to post a video of Reverand Wright waving his arms. They market irrelevancies and fear mongering. What ever audience they have is less an endorsement of their views than rubber-necking at a train crash. The vital center of our elecorate are neither right or left. The right-wing media scared the moderates leftward and turned conservatives into moderates or liberals.

Long may they thrive.

From 52 to 48 With Love

This is sweet.

Plagerism Checker

Here is a nifty plagerism checker.

It indeed works.

Quisling Liberman's Future

"Sen. Joe Lieberman's affiliation with Democrats was in question after a meeting Thursday with Majority Leader Harry Reid, steamed over the Connecticut independent's high-profile support of John McCain for president."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081107/D949OCKO0.html

"With malice to none", shall we forgive and forget the traitor?

Do we really need Lieberman's vote in the Democratic caucus on bills such as energy and taxes?

Demote him to the Sub-committee of Micronesian Fisheries?

Relinquish him to his Republican friends across the aisle?

Joe is in a tough spot. Like Bush, people from both parties either distrust him or despise him.

philip8 wrote: A successful life is one that is inspired by love and is guided by truth.

Wonderful. Didn't Bertrand Russell say something like this?

Correct.

I paraphased Lord Russell in his chapter "Ethics" from his book Philosophy (1927). The actual quote is: "The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge."

This is more than a Chinese cookie aphorism for Russell. He deduces the principle: Act so as to produce hamonius rather than discordant desires. Given that, Russell says that "it is clear that, if harmonious desires are what we should seek, love is better than hate, since, when two people love each other, both can be satisfied, whereas when they hate each other one at most can achieve the object of his desire. It is obvious also that desire for knowledge is to be encouraged, since the knowledge that a man acuires is not obtained by taking it away from some one else; but a desire for (say) large landed estates can only be satisified in a small minority. Desire for power over other people is a potent source of conflict, and is therefore to be discouraged; a respect for the liberty of others is one of the things that ought to be developed by the right kind of education. The impulse towards personal achievement ought to go into such things as artistic creation or scientific discovery or the promotion of useful intitutions-- in a word, into activities that are creative thather than possessive. Knowledge, which may do positive harm where men's desires coflict (for example, by showing how to make war more deadly), will have only good results where men's desires harmonize, since it tends to show how their comon desires are to be realized.

The conclusion may be summed up in a single phrase: The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge."

However, the irony is that Russell's own personal life was a nine-decade long stew of discordant desires and emotions, resulting in multiple marriages and mistresses and madness and suicides of his granddaughters and son. He, like so many philosophers, loved humanity but hated people.

I cannot say that Bertrand Russell lived a good life.

The Right Wing Sits Shivah

Michelle Malkin urges conservatives to gird their loins.

"There is no time to lick wounds, point fingers, and wallow in post-election mud."

Jeff Flakes blazes a way out of the wilderness.

"I suggest that we return to first principles. "

Tom Delay thinks money is the answer.

"In 2012, Mr. Obama -- whether as an incumbent or a seasoned veteran challenger -- will no doubt raise more than $1 billion for his campaign conglomerate. Conservatism's leading donors must look beyond contributing only to traditional channels like the RNC or campaign committees, and open up to also funding outside organizations that can do what the Democrats' Shadow Party is already doing."

Rich Lowry suggests minimizing social issues in favor of kitchen table concerns.

"The GOP's cultural conservatism is an asset so long as it's not seen as an attempt to distract voters from other issues that they care about, such as the economy. Connecting better on the economy and middle-class pocketbook and quality-of-life issues will go a long way toward alleviating the troubles the GOP had in reaching moderates, suburbanites and even Latinos this year."

Fred Barnes says put on a happy face.

"We've got to be happy warriors," he says. "We've got to stop being the angry white guy party."

The End of the Election

The Republicans are toast.

At nine o'clock, Fox called the election for Obama. Arizona of all places is still too close to call. If McCain's home state goes blue, the Republicans should either hold hands and jump off Camelback Mountain into a deep chasm or go into a more profitable profession such as telemarketing.

I thrilled to the sight of the massive crowds in my old Chicago stomping grounds. This moment could be a turning point for the country, as important as when Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan became president. It is both a mandate for change and a rebuke to one of the worst presidents America has ever had.

The kids in my boys' school voted in the mock elections overwhelmingly for McCain. They're going to have to walk on eggshells to prevent a Republican hissy fit from exploding from their fellow students.

I pondered Karl Rove's characterization that this nation is "center-right". I'm not sure what that even means. It's like saying that the average height of everyone is average-above average. It seems to me that Obama's has expressed ideas that are by now by definition the center, and it is the Republicans that have lost their way. I also think that Obama is smart enough not to make the same mistake that President Clinton made in his first term by trying to unfold a program such as national health care that the nation cannot accept. My guess is that they will want to consolidate and expand their base of power by looking for pragmatic solutions that benefit the majority of Americans, rather than playing to their radical wing.

For better or for worse, however, the Democratic's radical wing doesn't look so radical in view of what has happened in the last eight years. So, I think there will be significant changes, but not the kind of change that appeals to or works for just 50.01 percent of America.

On Perfection

A biography of Walt Disney ended with his death and the ironic remark that finally he (or at least his body) had found perfection. If something is inert, it is devoid of anything more than what it can be, which would have to be an atom. Perhaps the reducability of that atom through fission or fusion in a mushroom cloud is the apotheosis of perfection. It is a grim through that perhaps mankind will only reach perfection by being finally consumed in a sea of nuclear fire.