Tea-Parties and the Splitting of Votes

I like reading about politics. Sad, but true. To me, it's the equivlent of a boxing match where two sides are both fighting unfairly. So it's been interesting for me to see how the Tea-Pot parties (yes, I use plural - see below) are in this race.

The most interesting thing I find is that if the Tea-Parties are not careful they may cause the Republicans to loose more seats in the 2010 elections due to splitting of the conservative vote. If 35% vote democrat, and 23 republican, and 22 tea-parties then the democrat is going to proclaim victory.

I use the term tea-parties as I believe some groups have hijacked the name "Tea-Party" and are using it for their own means, vis-a-vis Fox News(ha!), and the recent supposed National convention they had (and interesting they'll have another for-profit one in Las Vegas later this year).

Tiger Woods was an *ss but the Press needs to Chill

Tiger Woods shouldn't have done what he did - however I'm never one to believe in kicking a man when he's down - (he's got or rather, currently has, a wife for that - (and she should be beating the crap out of him)). However, the press's, a by indirection, the public's obsession with Tiger Woods and his off-course activities is just W.R.O.N.G.

Tiger and his family need time, privacy to figure out how and if they wish to re-assemble their family life. Publishing his name, rumours, inuendo and speculation online does nothing to assist them with that.

"But he's a public figure" - Everyone's a public figure in their 15 minutes of fame. What ever happened to the Golden rule? If we were in the same situation, heaven forbid, we'd want to be given time and space to work the situation out.

This is what society's come to.... Sheesh.

in reference to: Will Tiger Woods quit golf for good? / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

BlackBerry = CrackBerry

I've had a BlackBerry pearl before and enjoyed using it - however being the cheapskate I aspire to be I never enabled the data plan. Recently after my mobile died with a screen glow of death we switched to TMobile and the BlackBerry flip and another model that I'm too lazy to look up the model # for (8530?).

We enabled internet on one due to it being necessary for the Rebate and now I feel like I've been sucked into a bad path. I can't stay away - I can't stop using it - checking it, reading my emails - gasp! - even surifng the web on it.

It seems that I'm always behind the times (yeah!) but I think I understand that the term CrackBerry was about 3-4 years ago.

Hmmm, Wonder if I'd be this way or worse with an iPhone?

CNN Owes me $0.01 x 100

I check the news on a number of websites somewhat frequently. I visit a number of sites to try go get an overall view of what's really going on - including CNN.

Now, I decide to watch one of the videos on CNN for which they never bother posting the actual story text (even though it appears it is syndicated as other news sites are carrying identical copies of the same article - go figure). I click and am greeted with a video player page.

An ad pops up at the beginning - Oh Boy! - 15 seconds of babble. I wait.

I then am able to watch a portion of the video before it stalls completely. Then it recovers, plays, and then stalls again. I never had any stalls during playing of the commercial.

This routinely happens on CNN ... so far I'm guessing about a 100 times. I figure CNN probably makes a penny for a video ad (I'm guessing - don't know the actual value) so...

CNN - you owe me a $1.00 as reimbursement for your ill-gotten gains.

Sticks and Stones

This article is a prime example of what I think is wrong with the Republican party (and most, not all) of their backers : They insult as an attack.

Read the comments in the referenced article and you'll also see that the majority of the Republican leaning commenters (save one) also tend to use insults to make their points.

Can't we all just get along?

in reference to: Limbaugh: Obama 'a child' who doesn't care about troops (view on Google Sidewiki)

The Gun-fight has already started

I would not have recommended to the Republicans to begin casting out their own quite yet - it should have been saved to at least the presidential election but it appears to have already started.

The Republican party appears to be splintering and if they do gain control of the congress (I doubt - but it'd be interesting) - I don't think at this point in time that the leadership would have enough standing to speak as a whole for all of them. It'd be interesting - a majority who can't agree with themselves.

Ah, what fun political times we live in.

in reference to: Republican Scozzafava Endorses Democrat After Exiting N.Y. Congressional Race - FOXNews.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

When you want to find support; find a friend.

I've often marvelled at the self-referencing, self-supporting style of journalism that Fox News utilises. The easiest way to find some support for your arguments is to find someone that agrees with you.

It's much harder to take opposing arguments and discuss rational approaches and solutions. So far, all I've seen of the Republicans is opposition.

The article references opposition to Obama's Afghanistan approach but considering that he hasn't decided what approach he's going to take (pragmatism works in my book , rather than the Bush approach of going by your gutt).

I'm not a anti-republican completely - they do serve as a good balance but the noise and crap that they've generated lately has been overkill.

Sigh.

in reference to: Limbaugh Tells Fox News Dems Trying to 'Steal' Private Sector - FOXNews.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Socialized Health Care - Why I Never ...

Healthcare and Socialism? You shouldn't use the Socialism word ... don't you know it's bad?

I've got news for a lot of people - The Nation's defense is socialised (note : I'm using a lowercase s on purpose as I'm referring to the actual definition - not the supposed it's evil because it's not democracy innuendo).

-ism's are not bad.

Communism, another -ism isn't bad in theory - it's just that absolute power corrupts and hence most communist societies do tend to have wide-spread corruption.

Socialism implemented for a broad swath of a society also has the same issues.

Capitalism, another ism is based upon the aspect of every man working for himself - hence working on the strengths of man's primary self-interest. Yet this too can be taken too far.

The proper mix is a mix of all the ism's. (Communism is more of a dictate of social and economic hierarchy rather than a socail more'). Let people look after their own self interest, as they're inclined to do anyway, per capatalism for the most part -- however certain social aspects should be handled under socialism (defense, health of citizens, education*).

* - By education I mean a broad based education and not one that is based in influencing decision making or critical thinking skills (not like those are taught in today's schools anymore anyway).

Let me know when it's my turn to run the country...