I Can’t Stop Wanting to Comment on McPalin!

Governor Palin’s story gets more and more interesting. I’ll leave the following components to speak on their own.

• While Obama belonged to a Church with crazy-uncle Jeremiah Wright saying absurd tenants of liberation theology, particularly in response to 9/11, Sarah Palin belongs to a church with the following statistics:
  1. Gay people are gay because they don’t pray enough to be straight. A faithful person can pray away their gay! Perhaps if enough people pray for the gay, they’ll all become straight!
  2. Prayer will help Alaska firm up its pipeline infrastructure (I do believe God is involved in miraculous things; however, offering up that for a prayer is like offering up “rain on INVESCO Field during Obama’s acceptance” or “please ensure that Enron’s business stays afloat.”
  3. There is active “speaking in tongues”
  
• Palin beats on Obama and McCain for “earmarks” but hired a lobbying firm to help her town of Wasilla. Beyond that, she was for the “Bridge to Nowhere,” and they have her on video about it! Lying and hypocrisy are two words that come to mind.
  
• I’ll leave something more familial off the table, as I’ve already blogged about it. Let’s just say, I don’t have a lot of respect for her attitude towards Sex Education or belief that Abstinence Education is more appropriate, and should fully supplant sex education

McCain McCain – Not so Much – An Open Letter to John McCain

Senator McCain,

Seeing you last night left me asking so many continued questions about you, which remain unanswered. Rather than dally about how Cindy and all of your children are doing, like usual, I’ll cut to the chase.

Senator McCain, we were brothers in arms back in 2000, when you were running against George W. Bush in the primaries. This was at the same time Rove and his henchmen and women were push-polling voters in South Carolina about you fathering a child of a different race. From there, you opposed Bush’s “irresponsible” tax cuts and ran the “Straight Talk Express.”

Here it is eight years later, and you are the nominee for your party! That is quite an impressive accomplishment, based on the difficulty of your primaries. You John, you were able to continue with your “Maverick” branding, which is a good thing for you. On the other hand, seeing your positions of late, I am wondering if you are drank the same Kool-Aid that led the Republican Party to damage its brand of conservativism.

You know that William Buckley, your beloved Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater are all turning in their graves right now, right? Being as irresponsible with the treasury of the United States, as he was with the checking account his parents gave him for Yale—cutting taxes while at war and never seeing a spending bill he didn’t like, we cannot help but see the policies of this current administration as abhorrent.

Of course, flipping that on its head, back when you opposed him, you had something going for you, which was nice. Now, on the other hand, here we are eight years later, with an economy in shambles—that’s never been your strong suit, and you are advocating more of the same?! Senator McCain, you have to understand that continuing down this road of spend and spend and spend, without paying for it, like Daddy’s credit card in New Haven, doesn’t make any sense.

Last night during your speech, I didn’t hear a damn bit of difference. We have arguably the worst president in our history, leaving us in a worse global position than when he started, and during your speech last night, I didn’t even hear you state how you were going to change any of it. Your service as a naval officer was most honorable, as were your years in the Senate. On the other hand, you’re a little too old, as your freshness seems to have left you. Without hearing more how you’ll do something different than follow the horrible plan in which we’re currently wallowing, you’re leaving me no choice but to vote for the other guy. It was funny how you alluded to him and your VP pick—she’s prettier than Romney, called on him directly a few nights ago, but in both cases, it just looked cynical.

Sincerely,

Matt

Drilling, Drilling, Drilling

What is it that makes me laugh? It’s every time I enter a political discussion about why Obama over McCain, those advocating the Republican Party bring up drilling. Drilling is the attempt of the Republican Party to command a wedge issue with the Democrats, those who opposed ANWAR. Drilling is the reason the GOP puts Sarah Palin up on stage, and justifies her being on the ticket. This last Saturday, at my running club, a guy with whom I am a friend mentioned, “if they would have done what Gingrich proposed back in ____, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

Let’s back up for a minute and discuss simple economics. There are two things that affect price, supply and demand. In this case, Supply is the argument for more drilling. The theory being that if there was more oil in the market, it would be worth less per barrel. Okay, in a vacuum, that would be true – ceteris paribus. Of course, what we aren’t in is a vacuum.

What every advocate for drilling fails to mention, when they speak to greater expansion of drilling, is that there has never been such a strong demand for petroleum. China and India, these two little countries in Asia, with a good 35-40% of the Earth’s population, now have middle classes. These two countries’ middle classes now are purchasing cars and driving them. Of course, with their currencies on the incline, and their “demand” for petroleum increased, that throws the market into flux.

As it stands, we have limited petroleum in the United States. Even with further drilling, off shore, right off the beach in California and Florida, or up in ANWAR, our addition to the World Crude Supply would be nominal; therefore, it would do very little to drop the price in petroleum.

Let’s take it from the “Liberal” side of the fence, and talk about conservation of the resource. What if we all used less gas, well, that would help our pocket books, but it would do little to change the price of gas:
“Oil consumption, for example, has been falling in rich countries for over two years. Goldman Sachs expects them to use 500,000 fewer barrels a day (b/d) this year than last. But it reckons that decline will be more than offset by an increase of 1.3m b/d in emerging markets. It predicts China’s demand for oil will grow by 5%.” (Endurance test, Economist, August 21st, 2008)

Folks, no matter how much we drill in addition to that which we do not already drill—in the areas oil companies already can drill, we are not going to cut the price of oil for you and me at the pump. Gas is going to stay expensive, and the Republicans are going to continue to talk about more drilling. Of course, stock holders of Exxon Mobile, et al, gain more value, as do the executives’ salaries increase, when we increase drilling, it has little effect on our price at the pump, while reducing our environmental safety – to drilling I say, “Supply and Demand – it is demand affecting price, not a lack of supply.”

Young Professionals

Today, I was at Boise Young Professionals, which was interesting. I decided to try out the first luncheon, to see if I had interest. I do, to some extent, so I will probably bone up and join. It’s a nice young professionals organization, which is interesting. I am working hard on keeping an open mind towards it, like most things along those lines, which I find a bit pretentious.

Above and beyond that, what was interesting was during their speaker’s main topic. The speaker initially was putting some folks on the spot, which was entertaining, and then he asked a voluntary question from a volunteer about a great business mentor one has had, and what they did. You get the picture.

I didn’t mention Ditto by name, but I raised my hand for the microphone, and mentioned his being an Idaho Vandal*. I went on to speak about how Ditto was a terrific communicator, but not just in speaking or writing, rather he was a great listener. His skills really involved honing in on someone’s ideas and synthesizing them into something quite successful.

The speaker as he took the microphone complimented me on the side, with the mic away.

It’s amazing how some can affect us in little ways, which come up during instances such as that one. Of course, there are great folks in all of our lives, but what is most spectacular is recalling what it was that made them so special, and how it helped make their lives great. Dear friends are about as good as it gets.






*there was an earlier discussion between the Vandals and the BSU Broncos, which is a standing debate here in Boise. It wasn’t anything of substance, except that it was a topic to which most could relate, there in the crowd.

“Attacking” Sarah Palin’s Daughter

I received a text today from a dear friend, one supporting McCain. This friend is a great person, and a very astute individual. As we support opposite sides of this race, we’ve been known to taunt one another via both email and text messages. Today, I received a text from him, giving me grief for stooping low to “attack” Palin’s teenage daughter.

Not knowing whether the text was predicated off of what I shot to him yesterday via text or yesterday’s blog, I wanted to clarify something. In the event I didn’t state this clearly in my blog yesterday, my issue is not with an impregnated teen, or giving her grief. It’s that she comes from a family with a mother espousing a reduction in sex education in favor of abstinence education.

Governor Palin is an advocate of abstinence education, which is something I find too naïve and unrealistic to supplant informative sex education. It’s unrealistic and naïve, and in Palin’s advocacy of it; seemingly, she must have diluted herself into believing that her kids weren’t engaged in sexual activity. That’s just it, isn’t it?

The religious-right have always diluted their policy positions predicated on the instruction of values, which will keep teens from having sex or getting into drugs. Of course, for adults these same values mean full and gainful employment, passing these things on to children, and abstinence from substance abuse and anti-social behavior. Moreover, these values are also predicated on a divorce-free family, a stay-at-home mother and an SUV in the garage. Okay, perhaps the SUV is taking it a bit far, but is it?

The religious right’s promulgating this idea of their “values” saving civilization from itself are all well and good, so long as they do not preach hate or discrimination against those who perhaps have “alternative” lifestyles. Of course, we know better than this, right?

I just cannot yet square how and why we should take these folks seriously. Their policies do not work for them, in their own families, nor have they proven them elsewhere. For this daughter of Sarah Palin’s, a teen, she has the benefit of a mother who is the governor of her state. What about all of the underprivileged teenage women without good sex education or family support? What about these young women? They are told by the Right to have their children, and put them up for adoption, if they cannot afford to tend to them.
Of course, in the meantime, they might not have the health insurance to provide them healthy and good obstetrics. Beyond that, if they choose to keep their child, they would then need to support them, but receive grief from our society for needing assistance (not from the government, per se, but from those that lambaste “welfare moms). Lastly, when the kid is being brought up underprivileged, she or he is more prone to anti-social behavior, and on and on.

The point is simple, because not every teen mother has the benefit of having a family with her parents together, and a boyfriend marrying her, they should not all be subjected to education that clearly does not equip them with the tools to avoid unwanted pregnancy. So I am clear, it’s not to the detriment of this young woman being pregnant. It’s to the stupid naivety of her mother and her mother’s party. To make a simple cliché, they should practice what they preach, and for her daughter, while she might not agree with her mother, clearly she wasn’t in a household where she felt comfortable asking for a prescription for birth control—same story. Maybe Sarah Palin can learn from her daughter, and provide her other children with birth control, rather than leaving them without, rushing into shotgun weddings (as Palin is a big NRA member, maybe it’s a 7mm wedding…)

Let’s See, Other Thoughts from this past Labor Day Weekend

It’s interesting, when talking to an old friend on the phone today, who went to LA for the weekend, what one can state about their weekends, respectively. While one summarizes their weekend’s past itinerary and what it was that was notable; thinking back over this past weekend, much of it was rather standard. I ran my “long run” on Saturday, which this week involved a mere 12 miles. From there, I went over to Java and played around a bit on an Economist, or something. Then I went to the CoOp to buy a few meat dishes for a colleague, her husband and I to eat at dinner on Saturday. Normally, I would prepare those things myself, but since I was taking the dishes to her house, along with some of my risotto, I felt like taking the easy way out, what with their already being packaged.

Dinner was nice, and it was interesting, as my colleague’s husband is a well informed financial professional. Jim’s perspective on today’s issues and the real estate market were quite interesting. My colleague had surgery on her hip, but seems to be doing much better, now that her surgery is several weeks behind her. Her spirit seemed quite up, which is what one hopes; prior her surgery, one could tell she was in pain.

Following from that was Sunday, which was nice. I went to church, like usual, and enjoyed spending time with my friend Betty, and the rest of the women with whom I sit. Betty and I, like usual, went for coffee afterward, and I met a nice women as we were leaving coffee. From there, I went to prepare for a marvelous Built to Spill show for Sunday evening.
Built to Spill played my favorite album of theirs, “Perfect from Now On.” It was masterfully performed, and I left pleased that I was in attendance. I adore Built to Spill, and living here in their hometown, I am delighted when I get to see them, with so many that no something more intimate about them.

Beyond that, yesterday was a nice day of rest. I went to Java—undoubtedly, you’re detecting a pattern, and I made some new friends. Right now, not that this is necessarily uncommon for me, I am in the friend-making business. Moving to a new city can be challenging, and Boise, being a smaller city doesn’t have nearly as much churn; therefore, culturally, the people, while friendly, are not as accustomed to having new folks integrated into their social circles. That is by no means a rule, but is something I have, from time-to-time, experienced.

Waking up this morning, with everyone else in the States off yesterday, was just so nice. It was nicer than vacation, largely because it wasn’t as though there was too much in the way of work being done while I was out. That’s always nice and refreshing, not to come back to a plethora of already started work.
That was it, a great Labor Day weekend.

Keeping Families "Off Limits"

I respect Obama for stating that the campaigns should keep one another’s families off limits—they should. I note that, having watched Karl Rove state on Fox that Obama was going after Cindy McCain, when he made fun of McCain not knowing how many homes they owned. Hey Karl, Cindy’s name wasn’t mentioned once, and to infer from Obama, acknowledging McCain not knowing how many homes he owned, an attack on Cindy, that’s what we call a non sequitur.

Okay, sorry for going a bit tangential. Here’s the gist of where I am going. Governor Palin, being an advocate of Religious-Right "birth control through abstinence," watches her argument crumble with a child having a child while still in high school out of wedlock. Right now, Palin cannot stand on a stage, in an auditorium, in Congress, or in a high school gymnasium speaking about waiting until marriage or until one has graduated from high school.

Governor Palin as VP and McCain as a President would be an administration against sex education, speaking in favor of abstinence education. As a student, in both Jr High and High School, I never sat through a safe sex discussion without someone mentioning abstinence being the only 100% effective prevention of pregnancy and STD’s. With that, a proper education on various means of birth and disease control, following a statement on abstinence, should be the standard with which sex education is provided. To preach abstinence education supplanting comprehensive sex education, for Governor Palin, would now be hypocritical.

That’s the point – while I think we should keep the families off limits, Bristol Palin is proof that her mother’s platform is ineffective and unrealistic. In my opinion, while Obama and Biden should take the high ground, the public should be mindful of what that approach to birth control provides, in a wealthy and successful family. Let us not forget that Bristol Palin is by no means an underprivileged young woman in a rural setting or the inner-city, with less of a chance to successfully raise her child. In my humble opinion, this is quite relevant, and calls into question the GOP’s platform on health education and birth control.