September 27, 2012

The Polls Are Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!!

So say the Republicans. Maybe. Some sensible people think so.

So do some people who aren't sensible. According to them, it's a conspiracy involving the media, the pollsters, and the Democratic Party. They haven't yet folded in Putin and Ahmadinejad, but there are weeks to go until the election.

Will Mitt Romney take join Tom Dewey's place in history?

Afterthought. And what about the prediction markets? If the polls are wrong, you'd expect some participants to recognize it.

Ya Think?


Republicans wonder why they're not blowing out the Democrats given the Obama record.

I just went to an up and coming conservative blog, Legal Insurrection, at which I comment regularly. Scrolling down the front page yielded pieces critical of Tammy Baldwin, Democrat candidate for Senator; Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democrat candidate for Senator; and Barack Obama, incumbent Democrat candidate for President. Not a favorable word about their opponents.

Maybe, just maybe, this is part of the GOP's problem.

September 24, 2012

We Are All Pauline Kael Now

Right and Left are in their cocoons, unable to visualize anything but victory, actul or stolen. It's like reading about two different countries. It's like the two branches of a Schrödinger's cat scenario.

September 22, 2012

Peggy Noonan

The notion crossed my mind that Peggy Noonan is the Right's Maureen Dowd, but it seemed too frivolous to post. Then I read this and this.

Response to Ann Romney

My impression of Ann Romney has been favorable, but this distinctly rubs me the wrong way:
During an interview early this evening with Radio Iowa, Mrs. Romney directly addressed her fellow Republicans who’ve criticized her husband.

“Stop it. This is hard. You want to try it? Get in the ring,” she said. “This is hard and, you know, it’s an important thing that we’re doing right now and it’s an important election and it is time for all Americans to realize how significant this election is and how lucky we are to have someone with Mitt’s qualifications and experience and know-how to be able to have the opportunity to run this country.”
Lady, a lot of people did get in the ring, and your husband used his financial advantage to crush them with carpet-bombed negative advertising.

(Yes, most of those people were worse than Romney, but my point remains.)

September 19, 2012

An Obvious Question, Now That I Think of It

Do any influential bloggers receive support from superPACs?

September 17, 2012

Immigration

After watching the riots wrt Innocence of Muslims, I wonder if explicit endorsement of the Bill of Rights should be required of immigrants. Perhaps a sign like Behead All Those Who Insult the Prophet should be grounds for deportation. Maybe revocation of permanent residency or naturalization should be an option wrt egregious violations of the aforementioned endorsement.

The foregoing is off the top of my head, not a considered opinion. I am dubious about increasing the distinction between naturalized and natural-born citizens; citizenship should be citizenship.

September 14, 2012

Obama Gains at Intrade

As I write, Obama has 2:1 odds at Intrade. He has been moving up steadily despite the Mideast, jobless claims, gas prices, and Romney bouncing back on Rasmussen. Why?

1. Intrade is being gamed by Obama supporters with deep pockets.

2. Intrade speculators are wrong.

3. Intrade speculators expect Romney to lose the debates.

4. Intrade speculators believe the debates will be rigged so Romney loses.

5. Intrade speculators expect an October surprise that will get Obama reelected.

6. Intrade speculators correctly recognize that this is no longer a country which dumped Jimmy Carter for Ronald Reagan, or maybe they correctly recognize that Mitt Romney is no Ronald Reagan.

Update 20120915: A week ago, Powerline touched on this here and here, as did Andy McCarthy.

Update 20120917: Patrick Caddell unloads on Romney here. The New Republic's William Galston does so here. The base is not happy.

For that matter, as he criticized the administration for the deaths in Libya, what the hell was he thinking during those smirks? A bigger image is here.

And what genius decided to exclude Sarah Palin and Michael Steele from the GOP convention?

Update 20121009. More Caddell here.

My Gut (Not Considered) Reaction

Oderint dum metuant.

Update 20120915: Where is the outrage at the Stevens murder? Why isn't Death to America being met with Death to Savages? What's wrong with us?

(The first two questions are wrt popular sentiment, not government policy.)

Afterthought 20120920. After 911 I thought that The Battle Hymn of the Republic would ave been a healthier reaction than the widespread America the Beautiful. I still think so.

Addendum 20130817. Sarah Hoyt, here and here, says that the Battle Hymn was taught in her children's CO school after 9/11. It didn't seem that way to me in MA.

September 11, 2012

September 8, 2012

The Apollo Program

This was posted before Neil Armstrong's death:
Whoever said that we went to the Moon a half-century early may have had a point. Apollo was a tour de force, but only now is the tech infrastructure emerging to repeat it sustainably, affordably, and profitably.

Though IMHO it may take additional decades of biology before humans can reside off-planet (and return).
Osteoparosis develops in orbit. Afaik not even animal breeding has been tested in non-terrestrial gravity.

This too:
Though there is no substitute for boots on the ground, in my reflective moments our planetary fly-by's seem more praiseworthy than Apollo.

Hegel and American Exceptionalism

In college my assigned reading included parts of H's Philosophy of History. I remember hardly any of it except the statement that when a country formulates a model of its place in history, its leading role is drawing to an end.

It's something to keep in mind when viewing the chest-beating, especially on the Right, about American exceptionalism and about how we are the only country ever founded on an idea. It's especially something to keep in mind given the blatant discrepancy between such rhetoric and the country's performance.

September 4, 2012

On Homosexuality Gayness

I've been meaning to post the following, and finally did it at Dinocrat:
No one expects the Diversity Inquisition!

Imagine what they would do to someone who complained how the meaning of ‘gay’ has been changed. Their response to a complaint that the meaning has been ‘perverted’ is too gruesome to contemplate.

NB: I am deeply dubious when custodians of the mainstream culture change a fairly common word because of usage within a small minority. I have no problem with, and it’s none of my business, how members of such a minority label themselves within their community.