Archive for the ‘opinion/news’ Category

The Half way point or the Quarter Marker

Posted: January 21, 2011 by datechguy in opinion/news
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Today begins either the second half of the Obama presidency or the end of the first quarter of the Obama presidency.

There are people on the right and the left who think both ways in terms of what is going to happen. Given my years of blogging and following politics I can definitely say this:

Who knows?

Two years ago this president was riding above the clouds, two months ago his party got pounded at the polls. Consider:

We have no idea what new crises will arise.

We don’t know how the republican congress is going to govern.

We don’t know who will win the battle between the tea party wing and the establishment wing of the party.

We don’t know how the democratic senate will act.

We don’t know if Iran will get the bomb…

…or how Israel will react

We don’t know what North Korea will do…

…or China….

…or Russia..

We don’t know if the president will govern in order to get re-elected…

…or to advance his beliefs

We don’t know the results of the Economic crisis in Greece…

Or Spain…

Or Ireland…

Or Portugal.

And we don’t know how the war will go and if the president will continue to try to win it.

None of these things are known and in fact there wasn’t a lot we knew two years ago. So what DO we know?

Only two things really, one that we already did two years ago and one we did not:

We’ve always known you can’t outlaw the business cycle, you can only mess it up a bit. That is and always was true.

What we DO know now that we didn’t before is how the president governs and how he acts in a crisis.

Two years ago a vast majority of the public (and the Nobel committee) projected their hopes on this president based only on what they felt having no idea how he would govern.

Now we have seen him in action. We know exactly how he has governed in a crisis. No person making a judgment in a democratic primary or in the general election in 2012 has any excuse for deceiving themselves.

Well Maybe Andrew Sullivan, don’t forget he thought the president deserved the Nobel Peace Prize when he was awarded it.

Past performance is not guarantee of future actions but it’s what we have, and we should judge accordingly.

Oh and one final thing we do know, the next two years won’t be boring.

Update: I hope you didn’t miss this at Nice Deb

Update 2: Stacy gives another example of how things can change in year.

Update 3: Instalanche via update! Thanks Glenn. Ironically this ‘Lanche brings to mind a post from December 2009 when Charles Johnson was 233 Instalanche’s up on me. It really illustrates Stacy’s point on how things change.

I’m official for CPAC

Posted: January 20, 2011 by datechguy in blogs, DaTechGuy on DaRadio, special events
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DaTechGuy back at CPAC

I am once again going to be a credentialed blogger at CPAC. it will be an opportunity to catch up with all the folks I met last year, interview a bunch more people, touch base with potential guests and hopefully suggest to potential advertisers that Glenn Reynolds evaluation of my radio show is spot on:

Given that it’s a 50,000 watt station that blankets New England — including New Hampshire — I would have expected that a show reaching so many bloggers and Tea Party types would be running national political ads, but either (1) it’s too early for those yet, or (2) those advertisers just haven’t caught on yet. If not, they’re missing out, I think.

And of course if anyone is in a position to kick in and give a hand to defray the costs this year DaTipJar is right here.

Americans United for Life on “Fighting the bloody Lot”

Posted: January 20, 2011 by datechguy in abortion, opinion/news
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Speaking of Fighting the Bloody Lot on Abortion the Americans United for Life came out with its state rankings on the protection of life today:

Americans United for Life State Ranking 2011

Some details from AUL:

In our analysis, we look beyond the mere existence of a law to the actual substance and practical effect of the law. Using this state-specific information and taking into account the unique political realities of each state, we have also identified key opportunities for each state in 2011 and beyond.

In addition when they say “life” they don’t just mean Abortion, from their release:

Arizona benefited from a highly-successful legislative session in which it became one of the first states to opt-out of the federal abortion-mandate (contained in the new health care law) as well as prohibiting human cloning, destructive embryo research, and the creation of human-animal hybrids.

Meanwhile Washington remains a beautiful state to the eye but a poor place for life:

For the second year in a row, Washington is the least “life friendly” state. Washington surpassed California as the least pro-life state following its approval of a ballot initiative permitting assisted suicide in November 2008. Moreover, as a result of the adoption of a state Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), Washington lacks the most basic protections for women considering abortion.

Both demographics and science will continue to help the cause of life as time goes by, but until the day of realization comes the Americans United for Life will keep up the fight.

“We’re fighting the bloody Lot”

Posted: January 20, 2011 by datechguy in abortion, culture, opinion/news
Tags: , , , , ,

You might have noticed my deafening silence on the brutal story out of Philly concerning an abortion doctor who takes his job rather…zealously.

The left is pointing out, correctly that even under the current abortion laws this doctors actions would be illegal in 50 states.

So as a very Catholic anti-abortion guy where is my post full of outrage? There isn’t one.

To me this is no different from the thousands of abortions that are done every day. To me, the outrage isn’t that this doctor is out there, the outrage is that hundreds of others are killing children every day and are considered pillars of the community as Roxeanne said:

When Ruth Bader Ginsburg writes that partial-birth abortion (performed by delivering the baby in the breech position, stabbing it in the head with scissors with the neck lodged in the cervix, suctioning its brains out, and then delivering the corpse that had been alive moments earlier) is a constitutional right, she sanctions the murder of babies who have already been born – because those babies are no more human, no more special, than the ones who are fair targets.emphasis mine

It brings to mind a scene from the Great Escape:

Ramsey: I have to point out one thing to you, Roger. No matter how unsatisfactory this camp may be, the high command have left us in the hands of the Luftwaffe, not the Gestapo and the SS.

Bartlett: Look, sir, you talk about the high command of the Luftwaffe, then the SS and the Gestapo. To me they’re the same. We’re fighting the bloody lot. There’s only one way to put it, sir. They are the common enemies of everyone who believes in freedom.

To me there is no difference between this guy and the folks in Worcester who do Abortion legally with support from the government and our friends on the left. It’s important to prosecute this man to the fullest extent of the law but as Bob Belvedere says:

For the past one hundred years there has been a stealth revolution occurring in America and one of the fallouts of this silent and insidious upheaval has been the deaths of millions of babies.

Until we stop that revolution or help our friends on the left understand what they are doing it will not stop.

Abortion is the third pillar of the three great American evils that the democratic party has supported. The first was Slavery, the second was Jim Crow and the third is Abortion (Ironically all three target blacks and/or minorities). The day will come when people shake their heads wondering what folks were thinking for abortion in the same way they do on the others.

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