6 days ago
Friday, February 27, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Baseball, Ray
I just remembered what an awesome movie Field of Dreams was.
"The one constant through all the years Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steam rollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again. People will come Ray, people will most definitely come."
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
More on Bobby Jindal
All this stuff is just cut and pasted. But it was interested reading.
From mydd.com:
"JIM LEHRER: Now that, of course, was Gov. Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, making the Republican response. David, how well do you think he did?
From mydd.com:
"JIM LEHRER: Now that, of course, was Gov. Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, making the Republican response. David, how well do you think he did?
DAVID BROOKS: Uh, not so well. You know, I think Bobby Jindal is a very promising politician, and I oppose the stimulus because I thought it was poorly drafted. But to come up at this moment in history with a stale "government is the problem," "we can't trust the federal government" - it's just a disaster for the Republican Party. The country is in a panic right now. They may not like the way the Democrats have passed the stimulus bill, but that idea that we're just gonna - that government is going to have no role, the federal government has no role in this, that - In a moment when only the federal government is actually big enough to do stuff, to just ignore all that and just say "government is the problem, corruption, earmarks, wasteful spending," it's just a form of nihilism. It's just not where the country is, it's not where the future of the country is. There's an intra-Republican debate. Some people say the Republican Party lost its way because they got too moderate. Some people say they got too weird or too conservative. He thinks they got too moderate, and so he's making that case. I think it's insane, and I just think it's a disaster for the party. I just think it's unfortunate right now."
And of course, the great contemporary philosopher Walter Sobchak:
"Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos."
- The Big Lebowski
Let's Talk About Bobby Jindal's Speech
Just after President Obama finished his address to Congress, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal stepped up to deliver the Republican response to the Obama speech. In effect, it was the Republican Party's chance to state their case to the American people.
In his speech, Jindal used the current debate over issues like the stimulus package and health care to underline key differences between Democratic and Republican ideologies. What Jindal's message boiled down to was this: Democrats want to take power from the people and Republicans want to give power to the people.
Superficially, the argument makes sense. Take the stimulus package as an example. We just spent $787 billion of the taxpayers' money. But they didn't get to decide where the money went, Congress did. Of all the money spent on the stimulus, 50 cents of it might have been directly contributed by me, but I didn't get to decide how that 50 cents was spent.
This argument fails, however, to take into account the fundamental nature of our government. We are not a democracy, at least not technically. For reasons of practicality, true democracy hasn't been used to govern a nation since ancient Greece. If Bobby Jindal thinks the bureaucrat in his Katrina story made government inefficient, it's clear that he would agree that 300 million Americans couldn't possibly debate and sign off on every policy issue. That's why we have a republican system of government. That's republican with a small "r". We are a republic. We elect representatives to advocate for us within government. So, I did indeed have a voice in how my 50 cent contribution to the stimulus was spent. Two United States Senators and One Congressman work for me. I sent them to Washington. Granted, I didn't vote for any of them. I wasn't of voting age when my Senators last stood for election. As for my Congressman, Jim Sensenbrenner, I didn't vote for him last year because I don't believe in his approach to governance. He opposes measures like the stimulus package, I support the stimulus package. But, a majority of my peers in Wisconsin's 5th Congressional District disagree, they support Sensenbrenner. By voting against the stimulus bill, Sensenbrenner was doing more than voicing his opinions, he was voicing the opinions of his constituents to the best of his ability. If he hadn't opposed the stimulus package, he might not be a Congressman two years from now.
In late 2008 when the economy began to do very poorly, Americans responded across the country by electing representatives who, among other things, promised to take action not unlike the stimulus bill. In passing the legislation, our government translated the voice of the people into law.
Jindal therefore misrepresented the distinction between Democrat and Republican. It is not a clash of people vs. government, but a clash of two different theories on how government should be run. The stimulus passed because people wanted it passed. The stimulus passed because at this moment in history, the majority of Americans favor an active domestic government. If the Republican Party wants to gain more control over governing, they can either shift to the political left to garner more votes or wait until the American people swing back to the right.
In his speech, Jindal used the current debate over issues like the stimulus package and health care to underline key differences between Democratic and Republican ideologies. What Jindal's message boiled down to was this: Democrats want to take power from the people and Republicans want to give power to the people.
Superficially, the argument makes sense. Take the stimulus package as an example. We just spent $787 billion of the taxpayers' money. But they didn't get to decide where the money went, Congress did. Of all the money spent on the stimulus, 50 cents of it might have been directly contributed by me, but I didn't get to decide how that 50 cents was spent.
This argument fails, however, to take into account the fundamental nature of our government. We are not a democracy, at least not technically. For reasons of practicality, true democracy hasn't been used to govern a nation since ancient Greece. If Bobby Jindal thinks the bureaucrat in his Katrina story made government inefficient, it's clear that he would agree that 300 million Americans couldn't possibly debate and sign off on every policy issue. That's why we have a republican system of government. That's republican with a small "r". We are a republic. We elect representatives to advocate for us within government. So, I did indeed have a voice in how my 50 cent contribution to the stimulus was spent. Two United States Senators and One Congressman work for me. I sent them to Washington. Granted, I didn't vote for any of them. I wasn't of voting age when my Senators last stood for election. As for my Congressman, Jim Sensenbrenner, I didn't vote for him last year because I don't believe in his approach to governance. He opposes measures like the stimulus package, I support the stimulus package. But, a majority of my peers in Wisconsin's 5th Congressional District disagree, they support Sensenbrenner. By voting against the stimulus bill, Sensenbrenner was doing more than voicing his opinions, he was voicing the opinions of his constituents to the best of his ability. If he hadn't opposed the stimulus package, he might not be a Congressman two years from now.
In late 2008 when the economy began to do very poorly, Americans responded across the country by electing representatives who, among other things, promised to take action not unlike the stimulus bill. In passing the legislation, our government translated the voice of the people into law.
Jindal therefore misrepresented the distinction between Democrat and Republican. It is not a clash of people vs. government, but a clash of two different theories on how government should be run. The stimulus passed because people wanted it passed. The stimulus passed because at this moment in history, the majority of Americans favor an active domestic government. If the Republican Party wants to gain more control over governing, they can either shift to the political left to garner more votes or wait until the American people swing back to the right.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
In case you were unsure....
I guess the economy is getting pretty bad. I mean, when beer is getting hit, we're in for some tough times.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
3:43 AM
This is the scene as I complete 7 hours of work on a 5 page philosophy paper at 3:43 AM. I feel that the image does a splendid job of capturing the moment.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Looking Ahead
I'm beginning to think that California will be the state to watch in 2010. It almost has more contenders than the 2008 Presidential Primaries.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Looking Back
Every couple of months or so for the past couple of years, I have made a point of watching this speech. Tonight, I watched it for the first time since November 4th. I'm putting it up here because I think that looking back, we can now recognize this moment as the most influential event in American politics since, well since I don't know when.
Monday, February 2, 2009
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