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    Monday, November 25, 2013

    JFK, blah, blah, blah

    Last week marked the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination.

    Yes, it was a big deal that an American president was murdered.

    But, 50 years out, do we still have to persist in the mythology that surrounds this event?

    The Left (who might have a hard time accepting JFK as a Democrat these days) has even tried to re-write history to claim that the right wing element in Dallas was responsible for JFK's death (although an avowed Communist killed him), but, of more annoyance to me are the people who try to say ridiculous stuff like:

    • "America lost its 'innocence' that day."   We were only 18 years removed from the end of WW2, and 10 from Korea.  Had the brushes with Hitler and the action in Korea not erased our innocence by 1963?
    • "It changed the course of events."  Exactly how?  I wish the people who say this (who usually want to act like JFK's death led directly to the Civil Rights movement) would explain.  Seems the three biggest things to happen in the 60's were the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and the Moon Landing.  I'd posit that ALL of these had their die cast before November 1963, and LBJ was being forced by politics (not JFK's death) to carry through on all of them.
    • "He was such a great president."  His legacy is helped by his death, since he never had to actually fight for anything, or serve as a lame duck.  In all honesty, his term was just too short.  You really need to judge him and LBJ together, and when we go there, I thing we find it's a little more average.
    That's all.

    Saturday, November 23, 2013

    Debating Abortion

    One of my co-workers (a Mormon, no less) just discovered the existence of Peter Singer.

    You may remember Mr Singer.  He's the Princeton "Bioethicist" who argues that abortion should be legal due to sentience and thus, infanticide should also be legal.  You have to appreciate the chutzpah of people like Singer. At least they're honest that they think certain people have no right to live, and they're perfectly happy to choose which of us fall into that category. 

    I'll return to that later.

    This article is about how you argue with those who want to ensure that abortion remains "safe, legal, and rare." And by that, they mean, "available at any time, for any reason."

    Get them to agree with a central premise, that life begins at conception.  Leftists like to think of themselves as "science" followers, so throw a little science at them.  Ask them, in the last 40 years, in which direction has science been moving with respect to "life." I've got news for them, it's all towards conception, not the other way.  Eventually, these crazy scientists are going to be able to completely shepherd a baby from conception to "birth" outside the womb.  What are you going to argue as the beginning of that process then?  Get them to agree to that and all you're arguing about is timing. You'll ultimately win that argument.

    Most abortionists, even if they agree with the conception arguments are going to dismiss it as immaterial to the debate.  We call these people Godless, but, for fun, how do you debate those who have already crossed this Rubicon? 

    Leftists like to think they're superior to us because they're for Affirmative Action and standing up for minorities.  So, appeal to their better instincts.  Remind them that the initial proponents of abortion were eugenicists like Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, who saw abortion as a way to cleanse society of the less desirable among us.  People Sanger felt were inferior, like Blacks and other ethnic minorities.  It's people like Sanger who eventually morphed into Nazi's.  Ask your Leftist protagonist how it feels to run in that company?

    Are they still standing?

    Liberals hate evil corporations, right? Their entire lives are devoted to protecting the little guy from the ravages of capitalism. Give them a little education in the abortion industry.  This is a multi-billion dollar industry, protected by lobbyists and industry groups just like any other big business.  Furthermore, this industry is pushing to retain a system that promotes a completely unnatural act, all to line the pockets of big corporations and evil rich doctors who participate in this industry.  Do these people really care about that patient or do they only care about the paycheck? Ask your. Liberal friend.  Should our tax dollars be subsidizing this industry? Isn't this just more Corporate Welfare dressed up as something else?

    The next time you see some Planned Parenthood talking head wailing about protecting a woman's "right" to choose, remember that this person is a lobbyist for a big business who stands to lose millions of dollars each year if this industry fades away.

    My favorite argument with these nitwits is the "control" of a woman's body issue.  The caricature of the conservative is of some madman standing in your bedroom telling you what you can and can't do in there.  That's exactly what it is, a caricature.  They like to paint us as interested in preventing women from making this life changing choice because of male patriarchy or some crazy religious devotion.  Guilty on the latter.  Own it.

    Remind these people that their side is all about control of your body.  They want to tell you how much soda you can drink, how many trans fats you can eat, how much nicotine you can smoke, what additives go into your food, what radiation makes your food tastier and safer, what preservatives make your food last longer, what temperature your steak can be cooked to at your favorite steakhouse (for those who would allow you to consume red meat at all), and which drugs you are allowed to get high on.  They've taken control of the health care system now, I can't wait to see what else they're going to say we can and can't do to ourselves. The ONLY thing they don't want to regulate and control is a woman's womb.  Pretty much every other body part is in play for them.  But, DONT TOUCH MY VAGINA!

    Let's face it, you're largely debating idiots here.  Few of them will have the cojones to take the Singer position and admit that they believe certain people (as Randy Newman reminds us in "Short People") "got no reason to live." 

    At least with those, you can simply say they have a different moral compass, and while they'll rot in Hell for it, you can respect them on Earth.

    Climate Change God

    I am weary of Leftists who blame every single weather event on "climate change." 

    While some in the climate change industry clearly have something ($) to gain from attempts to link severe weather to long term climate trends, the typical Lefty instead has a cultish devotion to the Church of Climate Change.

    In that regard, are they really any different from the Religious, who find the Hand of God in every natural disaster? They're each looking for some order in the sea of randomness that is weather, and both have about the same chance of being able to prove their religion is correct while they live.

    At least the Religious person will be rewarded with an answer to their question upon their death, while the Lefty Cult member will have to trudge through his life dealing with being wrong with no reward at then end.

    Saturday, November 9, 2013

    Keith Law: hypocrite lefty

    If you're a hard core baseball stat head, you know Keith Law.  He's a former front office guy for Toronto, who now writes and does analysis on prospects (mostly) for ESPN.  He's entertaining, hosts a weekly podcast, and contributes to ESPN's baseball coverage.  I recommend his stuff to you, but you'll largely need an Insider account to access it.

    Law's also a lefty, which he revealed to me in his tweets during the 2012 election cycle.  For a brilliant guy, he made one tweet making fun of Romney using the MSNBC intelligence level comment about "women full of binders" to disparage Romney.  

    I unfollowed him at that time, because, quite honestly, I don't follow Keith Law to hear his political opinions.  A guy who has 400,000 followers on twitter, largely due to his baseball background, should probably stay away from politics, lest it instantly go to 200,000.

    But, I like Keith's baseball analysis and when the formerly great "Baseball Today" podcast went away, I switched to his weekly, "Behind the Dish" podcast, which I still commend to you.

    On a recent podcast, Law said he wanted to stay away from politics but wanted to get this one thing out there that he found offensive.  

    He related that after St. Louis beat LA in the NLCS, some people (Cardinal fans?) were enjoying the fact that St Louis won because they play "the right way," and hey tweeted that and, apparently disparaging things about Dodger players and Los Angeles.

    Now, I might point out to any idiot who attributed LA's loss to not playing "the right way" that you don't make it to the final 4 in any sport if you're playing the "wrong" way and that person should re-evaluate what they understand "right" and "wrong" to be and to shut up until they understand.

    But, instead of telling these idiots to buzz off, Law decided to ascribe motives to them which he couldn't possibly know, but which we typically see in liberals when they want to engage in some simple stereotyping of the right and reinforce their own inflated self-worth. Law decided they meant "The White Way" and let's face it, since they're from that Red enclave in Missouri which opposes gay marriage (unlike his former domicile of Massachusetts) they must be.......(you guessed it) RACISTS, who are just angry at the influx of Latin players into the American pastime. 

    Leftist Law thus neatly claims to be apolitical, gets in some trashing of an entire part of the country, while engaging in the same simple generalizations that he tells us he finds so distasteful. 
     



    Sunday, November 3, 2013

    WaPo: How OCare Website Failed

    Having been involved in large IT projects, this is a classic case of doing pretty much everything wrong. 

    In addition to a horrid policy and a premise that is doomed, it is being led by people incapable of managing it.

    Let's see, they can't lead this or the country,  sounds about right.