The Happy Carpenter

"The moral hazard of the new media is clear," says columnist Jim Pinkerton, an aide to President George H.W. Bush.

I for one am getting a little sick & tired of Bush-41 officials and advisors coming out of the closet to criticize Bush-43.  I didn't vote to reelect Bush-41 because I thought he was too much of an establishment statist.  During the Clinton years, I said in the future history would lump Bush-41 in with President Clinton rather than President Reagan.  And I still say so.  Here's the rest of the quote I put in the title:

"The moral hazard of the new media is clear," says columnist Jim Pinkerton, an aide to President George H.W. Bush. "They can turn any discussion into a donnybrook, and any nomination into Armageddon."

What a bombastic blowhard.  The moral hazard of the new media my ass.  The 41ers were always afraid to fight, to take it to the mat.  Always too eager for realpolitik at the expense of principle and backbone, of which they showed damn little of either.  Witness their waiting 5-1/2 years to go public with the criticism of W-43 -- they were too scared to voice their supposedly deeply held convictions until the President's approval ratings dropped low.  Typical Old Repubicans.  Good riddance.

And Frankie, that goes double for Brent Scowcraft.

"The moral hazard of the new media is clear," says columnist Jim Pinkerton, an aide to President George H.W. Bush.

I for one am getting a little sick & tired of Bush-41 officials and advisors coming out of the closet to criticize Bush-43.  I didn't vote to reelect Bush-41 because I thought he was too much of an establishment statist.  During the Clinton years, I said in the future history would lump Bush-41 in with President Clinton rather than President Reagan.  And I still say so.  Here's the rest of the quote I put in the title:

"The moral hazard of the new media is clear," says columnist Jim Pinkerton, an aide to President George H.W. Bush. "They can turn any discussion into a donnybrook, and any nomination into Armageddon."

What a bombastic blowhard.  The moral hazard of the new media my ass.  The 41ers were always afraid to fight, to take it to the mat.  Always too eager for realpolitik at the expense of principle and backbone, of which they showed damn little of either.  Witness their waiting 5-1/2 years to go public with the criticism of W-43 -- they were too scared to voice their supposedly deeply held convictions until the President's approval ratings dropped low.  Typical Old Repubicans.  Good riddance.

And Frankie, that goes double for Brent Scowcraft.

Looter, the new celebrity, is everywhere

I'm not the only one who sees the Golden Age we're living in

At a Halloween party the other night, one of the other guests said something about how he wanted to start a business but he was so worried about the economy and the world we live in.  I looked at him like he had three heads.  "What are you talking about?", I said diplomatically.  "Everything is great!"  Then it was his turn to see my three heads. 

But I am not alone.  The news, as presented by the Old Media, remains relentlessly negative.  While a lot of that is due to their desire to ruin President Bush and the conservatives, much of it is also the old media dictum "if it bleeds, it leads."  The cumulative reporting of disaster after disaster after bombing after scandal has an effect on people, but if you look around the world and take just a little step back for perspective, then you see a different picture.  Shribman from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes:

So -- and this will surprise you, because it sure shocked me -- happy days are here again.

We're living in an era of tranquility. Peace reigns. Sympathy and trust abounding, if you know what I mean. Look skyward: The moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars.

I know this not because I have been taking drugs, or watching a revival of "Hair," but because I just looked through a report from the Liu Institute for Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia. Its conclusion -- that the world is an ever more peaceful place -- is downright startling, coming as it does as we mark the 2,000th American death in Iraq, as the Pentagon is reviving its long-discredited Vietnam practice of releasing enemy body counts, and as there are new stirrings of insurrection in Afghanistan...

Be that as it may, this study, funded in part by the governments of Canada, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Great Britain, argues that the world is a pretty safe place right now. Armed conflicts are down by more than 40 percent, and the 25 armed secessionist conflicts under way last year represent the lowest number in three decades. International crises are down by more than 70 percent in 20 years; the number of refugees is down by 45 percent in a decade. Even genocides are down by 80 percent. My guess is that your doctor didn't have this kind of report for you the last time you went for your routine annual physical....

Plus it doesn't hurt that there are more than four times as many democracies sprinkled across the globe in 2005 than there were in 1946. Globalization, so reviled on the left, at the very least has created an economic interdependence that depends on stability, the diplomatic and economic greatest victim of any war. And for all the criticism on the right of the United Nations and other international agencies, these organizations almost certainly deserve credit for acting as a brake on conflict....

Of course we still have to worry about ethnic and nationalist resentments that smolder like the Centralia fire; indeed, some of them even predate the Centralia fire, which began in the first year of John F. Kennedy's presidency. We still have to worry about terrorism; our own experience and common sense dictate that.

But maybe in all of that we also have one fewer thing to worry about: the big-time international war. Next month, when you are sitting around the table counting your blessings, add this one. Your ancestors couldn't count it among theirs.

I've been saying this since the Berlin Wall came down, and I see no reason to change my opinion.  Everything's great.  If you're among the majority who are worried, ask yourself this:  Would you feel differently if the price of gas was still $1.99 at the pump, and Katrina, Rita, and Wilma has spun harmlessly into the North Atlantic?  If so, don't you think the United States of America can overcome a little heavy weather and one economic stumbling block?

Have a little faith, people.  Step back, and smell the coffee.

Hard ball thinking from Baseball Crank

The Baseball Crank is spot-on with his thinking about Supreme Court nominees, political in- and out-fighting, and Sun Tsu:

Every Supreme Court nomination, like every executive nomination and every piece of legislation supported by the White House, is a potential battle. That battle, like all battles, is fought on two fronts. The field of battle is in Congress, in this case the Senate: the President needs 50 votes plus the Vice President to confirm the nominee, and needs either 60 votes for cloture to prevent any filibuster or 50 votes to trigger the so-called "nuclear option" and eliminate the filibuster forever. The conditions of that battle, however, can be dictated by success or failure in mustering public opinion: the President may need to move public opinion in favor of the nomination to get wavering Senators to support confirmation, cloture or the "nuclear option"; at a minimum, he needs to avoid having adverse public opinion cause potential supporters to defect. Thus, each nomination must be crafted with an eye towards both fields of battle - the Senate and the public.

Because the public's view can influence that of the Senate, picking a nominee based on perceived acceptability to the Senate without regard to public reaction risks the classic problem of quagmire, where conditions in the field deteriorate if the battle is protracted because lack of support on the home front makes it impossible to keep all the President's troops in the field. A second corollary is that "the public" includes all those forces outside government that influence elected officials - the voting public, the activists who do party-building and get out the vote work, the donors who finance party politics, and the pundits (including bloggers) who take steps large and small to move public opinion. No nomination will win the unanimous approval of all these groups, but all have their roles in the process.

Best Halloween costume ever

Looter, the new celebrity, is everywhere

Vitamin Sea has some funny stuff

It seems she hates to cook dinner.  That will naturally lead to this.  Be sure to read down to the future interview of her daughters.  LOL!

Looter, the new celebrity, is everywhere

Letter from a friend

He requested anonymity, so he'll get it.  Nevertheless, well done friend.

Pedro,

I too recently buried a dear friend who died of alcoholism.  His liver finally gave out as we all stood around saying “I did not know that his problem was this bad”.  What could we not see? – A problem is a problem!  Adding irony to the story; eleven years ago my friend saved my life.  I had reached bottom with my problem; my doctor said that I did not have much time left.  Dire warning in hand I still continued with my little problem.

One evening while discussing my problem with my now deceased friend, he took pitty on me and saved me.  Had my friend not intervened I would have died in a few months – what a hero my friend was coming to my rescue.  Disregarding his own welfare he bravely stood up and did what had to be done.  Those faithful words still linger in the air after eleven long years. – “Dude you have a problem”.  That one small act of caring, led to my finding help that evening and starting down the road to recovery.

Eleven years later – problem contained.  Not solved, or gone; just reduced to a manageable size.  I have gotten married, had a child, bought a house, and started a business.  Problem contained.  However, I am constantly haunted by the ghosts of lost time, broken promises, lost relationships, and missed opportunities.  For fifteen years my problem consumed my life to exclusion of all else.  A fifteen year black hole in the prime of my youth.  That is an expensive problem.

My friend’s death brought to life a new ghost.  The ghost of “why me”.  Why was I spared and not my friend who so heroically saved me?  To bury this ghost I called his mother today.  Unfortunately telling her my storied really did not benefit either one of us.  So, in desperation to bury the ‘why me” ghost I drove to the location of the “shake and bake” where I spent 5 days.  I knew that I must have been spared so that I could share my story with others with similar problems.  So, yes, find the detox center  and warn others not to follow down the same path.  Heroically stand up as my friend did eleven years ago and save other lost wretches!  That is the reason my life was spared;  I will bury this ghost.

As I pulled into the parking lot, the demolition crew was just getting to work.  The detox center had just been closed.  I was too late.  Oh no it’s the ghost of missed opportunity again!  What does it all mean?  What is the meaning of life?  Why me?

Maybe.  Just maybe.  If you think that you have a problem – DUDE YOU HAVE A PROBLEM.

One ghost down.

*Pedro maybe you could post this.

Dude, you have a lot to be proud of.

PS -- If you die, can I have your table saw?