Saturday, December 8, 2007

Romney, Giuliani and Clinton Losing Support

Look what is happening here in the polls. People are saying that they are sick of the same old connected people running things. Outsiders like Huckabee and Paul and semi-outsiders like Obama are making a charge. The more the Club for Growth and the WSJ criticize Huckabee and Ron Paul, the better they seem to do in the polls.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/national-primary.html

Friday, December 7, 2007

Mormon Romney

Jack Tapper makes an excellent point here about GOP candidate George Romney's "freedom of religion" speech and how Romney is missing the point:

"His stupid unease on this point is shown by his demagogic attack on the straw man "religion of secularism," when, actually, his main and most cynical critic is a moon-faced true believer and anti-Darwin pulpit-puncher from Arkansas who doesn't seem to know the difference between being born again and born yesterday."
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2007/12/mitt-moroni.html

Indeed, it is the secularists who have generally been willing to ignore people's religion as candidates as long as they don't make religion part of the race, as opposed to the issues. What people like Romney want to do is bash non-believers and secularists, while all the while saying "don't you dare try to bring my religion into this. Unfair!"

Unless I no longer understand evangelicals, they will never, ever support a Mormon. Not only do they consider Mormonism a cult, the Mormons are just a little to successful at converting both heathen and other Christians to the point of being considered competition, not to mention that the New Jerusalem is in Israel and not Missouri, in their estimation.

Romney has had it. But on the positive side, at least he wasn't brainwashed like his dad.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

NFL Officiating

What a surprise! The NFL thinks its officials make no mistakes. Due to its poor rule choices and its semi-pro referees and short schedule, officiating decides the results in the NFL more than in any other major sport. The Ravens-Patriots game Monday night may have been one of the worst officiated 4th quarters that I have ever seen.

Speaking of integrity, the NFL hires "journalists" to do post-game commentary on its network after games. How critical can someone be when they are an actual employee of a league that is known for allowing near-zero dissent. I

I was watching the NFL Network after the Ravens game(disclosure: I live in Maryland but I am a Redskins fan) and boy, do they have some impact journalists on there.

Question example: What do you think the Patriots were thinking on that last drive?

Talking head: We sure are glad we have Tom Brady as our quarterback.

Yeah, that's right.

All those 300 lb. guys who are out there slugging each other in the head on the front line were silently muttering to themselves, "I sure am glad we have Tom Brady, I sure am glad we have Tom Brady, instead of "count on four, count on four, count on four...."

http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2007/12/05/head-nfl-ref-on-official-who-called-ravens-samari-rolle-boy/

Police Offer to Help Group Change their Message or Else

Authorities in Gwinnett County have dropped a misdemeanor criminal charge against an anti-abortion activist who was arrested for driving a truck emblazoned with images of aborted fetuses.

Gwinnett County Solicitor Rosanna Szabo said she "administratively dismissed" the disorderly conduct charge against Robert Dean Roethlisberger Jr.On the day after Thanksgiving, Roethlisberger drove a truck with banners displaying images of aborted fetuses, including a bloody and headless torso. Roethlisberger works for Operation Rescue, a national anti-abortion organization.

Roethlisberger, 44, of Belton, Mo., had been charged under a provision of Georgia law that makes it a crime to use "obscene and vulgar or profane language" in the presence of a person under age 14.

In making her decision to drop the charge, Szabo said, "I have reviewed the evidence and law in this case, and concluded that the physical display of the images in question — as shocking and offensive as they are — does not constitute 'obscene and vulgar or profane language' as specifically prohibited by this statute."

This was a pretty outrageous violation of the 1st Amendment by the Gwinnet police and the article does not make clear that such actions by the police are illegal under the U.S. Constitution regardless of what the Georgia statute may say.

Why the arresting officer's name is not mentioned is beyond me, as is the absurdity of the quote by Cpl. Spellman, which makes clear that the Gwinnett police intended to violate Roethisberger's constitutional rights.

I do not support Operation Rescue but we do not need Cpl. Spellman of the Gwinnett Police telling them how to convey their group's message.

http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2007/12/04/abortion_1205_web.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13

A Lawyer Did That

After having discussions with friends and former professors, I have lately been especially disappointed with the treatment of the legal profession, not by the media so much, as by the Republican Party. A constant refrain from the GOP seems to be that there are too many lawyers in the United States.

One Republican candidate for the Senate from Colorado by the name of Peter Coors, once even made the charge that there are too many lawyers in the United States Senate. One has to wonder whether the chief lawmaking body in the United States could actually have too many people who studied law as opposed to being say, bug sprayers like Tom DeLay, but to many Republicans the proposition would seem self-evident. Doesn't it say in the Bible, "First kill all the lawyers"?

Accordingly, I have decided to try to highlight some of the positives of the profession and some of society's heroes who have studied law.

I don't mean this to stand in contravention to the fact that there are nauseating and corrupt individuals who either practice law or who carry law degrees, or as a defense of state bar associations who spend most of their time implementing practices which make legal fees more expensive for the average person.

But many of the greatest people have been lawyers and the rigorous study of law and philosophy can in fact promote those qualities which make men great. The study of law when implemented well by a good school melds the practicality of most learned professions with the acquisition of knowledge sought in the humanities.

Today, I will recognize the esteemed F.A. Hayek, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics in 1974 and author of the seminal work of political theory, The Constitution of Liberty.