The Daily Sabbatical

My daddy told me “Americans can do anything!”

In what has got to be a very complicated metaphor, Rep. Sid Miller is proposing a bill to allow people to go up in a helicopter and gun down wild hogs.  There is some concern that something might go wrong if this plan were implemented, but I just don’t see how that could be.  The report at the Huffington Post is really quite funny.

According to The USA Today:

A new study finds that certain brain functions of some low-income 9- and 10-year-olds pale in comparison with those of wealthy children and that the difference is almost equivalent to the damage from a stroke.

This from a study to be published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience this year.  This raises some important questions in political philosophy, and should cause us to seriously question certain free market conceptions of justice that presume a level playing field.  It’s too early to know what these results really mean, but this is an area that certainly deserves some attention.

I’m not saying the Republicans are stealing the election: it looks like this probably hurts everyone equally. But this is complete bullshit.

Think Tonk posts an excellent clip. John Woo, Wes Anderson and Kevin Smith direct McCain ads. Excellent.

The word is out: even conservatives are beginning to bemoan Senator McCain’s choice of a vice-presidential candidate. They no doubt feel betrayed. I know I do. Even though I am a strong supporter of Barack Obama, when McCain won the primary I was relieved. Sure, he offered the best chance for a Republican victory, but who cares? He seemed a very tolerable downside. He seemed reasonably moderate, very experienced, full of integrity, and honest. So, even if he won, at least it would be a huge step up from the disaster of the Bush years.
And then came Palin.
Suddenly the downside is very, very far down. Suddenly I see a future where I pine for the Bush years. This is not sexism: McCain could have chosen any number of women on the hill or elsewhere in the country who would have been shining examples of intellect and expertise. But he chose someone he barely knew, who had barely moved into the governorship of the least densely populated state in the nation, and who has all of a communications degree from the University of Idaho. Yes, she is very right wing, and no, I don’t like that. But that is plainly not the issue. Hell, I think I’d even prefer Ann Coulter!
McCain threw a political Hail Mary, sacrificing the country in the bargain. Despite all the fawning over the P.O.W.’s patriotism, this is so far from patriotic as to almost be treasonous.

As an end to this diatribe, I’ll simply post this video from CNN.

“Question the least little thing in their speeches and they will go on like bronze bowls that keep ringing for a long time after they have been struck and prolong the sound indefinitely unless you dampen them.”
                                  —Socrates (Plato’s Protagoras)