Unhealthy hatred

David Limbaugh:

Their unhealthy hatred for Mr. Bush dates back to the 2000 election, which they — irrationally again — believe he stole from Mr. Gore. The fact is, Mr. Gore was trying to steal the election himself and almost succeeded, through one of the most egregious perversions of the rule of law in our nation’s history, by the Florida Supreme Court.

But the real source of their animus is even more basic. They resent him because he represents their expulsion from power over the executive branch, which the Clinton eight-year heyday should have ensured them in perpetuity.

You’ll recall that their “entitlement” to the legislative branch was stolen from them in 1994, which is one of the reasons they consider Newt Gingrich another personification of evil. Adding insult to cumulative injury, they’ve also lost their monopoly on the media over the last 15 years.

Stossel: Damnable pork

John Stossel, on pork in the wake of Katrina:

The government’s responsibility, though, dwarfs anything done by criminals. To start, the federal government invited disaster by offering cheap insurance. That encourages people to build on the coasts. I’m embarrassed to admit I once built a house on a beach in Westhampton, N.Y., because government insurance guaranteed I couldn’t lose. When a storm washed my house away, government paid me for my loss. It would have covered me again and again had I rebuilt. (I sold the land.) Government insurance is truly an insane policy.

Then came the bureaucratic obstacles. While New Orleans hospitals had no electricity, the U.S.S. Bataan sat just off the coast, equipped with six unused operating rooms and hundreds of hospital beds. Its commander said she could do nothing because she hadn’t received a signed authorization. It’s reasonable to worry about getting the armed forces involved in law enforcement, but where’s the threat to the Constitution if, in the middle of a disaster, a Navy doctor saves your life?

[…]

The deadliest government mistake was made by Congress. The Army Corps of Engineers had said it wanted $27 million to strengthen the levees protecting New Orleans. Congress said no, though our can’t-spend-your-money-fast-enough representatives did appropriate more than that for an indoor rain forest in Iowa.

Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, blamed the president. “The president could have funded it,” she said.

Someday, she should read the Constitution. Only Congress can appropriate federal money.

[…]

It’s a reason Americans shouldn’t filter so much money through Washington. Louisianans don’t need Iowa rain forests, and Iowans don’t need levees in Louisiana. Maybe the people who want to live in New Orleans should have to pay (through private enterprise or local taxes) the special costs of its exposed location — or live elsewhere. If all local projects, essential and whimsical, were paid for with local taxes, competition among states and cities would force them to become more efficient.

It’s about time

Tom asked, and Tiff said yes. I confess to being one of those who knew of Tom’s plan ahead of time, but that’s mostly because I’ve been annoying him about it for…well, a while. Though he had described the ring to me, I had not yet seen a photo of it. A fine job, my friend.
Tom’s plans were certainly more romantic than mine, but then my beloved knew it was coming. (Not at the exact moment it came, mind you, but it was something we had been talking about.) I like that the first person to know of their engagement was the park ranger; for us, it was our waitress at dinner an hour or so after I asked.
Having been through the big wedding thing, I proffer this advice to Tiffany, who is already stressing: skip it. Take the money and run. Small, small, small, family and very close friends. I won’t even sniffle over not getting an invitation. (Though an excuse to go to DC/Cali/wherever would be nice.)
Congratulations you two, and may God bless you with a lifetime of happiness together.

If only W would channel Grover

No, mouth-foamers, I am not referring to the muppet.
President Grover Cleveland:

“I find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and the duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit…

The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood.”

Four on the floor

Our team had to do something in our fourth game of the fall season that it hadn’t had to do in the first three games: come from behind to take the win. Our foes from Faith Lutheran played a solid game and took an early six-run lead. It wasn’t until the end of the second inning that we were able to tie things up, but Faith Lutheran kept extending their lead. Our defense eventually was able to hold their scoring while our offense caught up.
Getting the last at-bat as the home team helped us immensely. Going in to the bottom of the fifth, the score was tied 12-12. Heather led off, and when the throw to first was flubbed, she was able to take second. Kevin was next up, and the game ended on a walk-off bunt/error. Kevin wasn’t trying to bunt, mind you, that’s just the way it turned out. The pitcher flubbed the throw to first, and Heather rounded third to score and end the game.
I only played half the game, due to the number of guys who showed up, and only got one at-bat. I made it count, however, getting my first extra-base hit of the season, a double, and scoring a run when Dave moved from second to home. Fielding was a mixed performance. I had some great catches, including a line drive and foul pop-up I had to hustle to snag, but had just as many flubbed grounders. It was just one of those games.

So we’re even rewriting sports history right now

Attention Steve Levy and the rest of ESPN’s anchors:
USC did not win the national championship in 2003.
USC did not win the national championship in 2003.
USC did
not
win
the national championship in 2003.
The Trojans did not play in the BCS national championship game for the 2003 season. The BCS was created to determine a single national champion. For 2003, that national champion is LSU.
USC is not a two-time defending national champion. If you continue to insist they are, then I expect you to also refer to Auburn as a current defending national champion.

Professional protesters

No, they don’t have anything better to do.
The Federalist Patriot, 05-38 Digest:

To those in the know, this Saturday is “S24” (i.e., 24 September), when over one thousand leftwing groups will descend on Washington for a “war protest.” (Is it just us, or are these self-indulgent Angry Left minions being somewhat overshadowed by events in the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast?)

A cameraman filming the first arriving buses caught something he’d missed before: He’d seen many of the protestors at hundreds of previous protests. “They’re professional protesters!” he surmised.

Indeed these events are well-scripted productions rather than the spontaneous uprisings, CBS reports. “S24” is being produced by United for Peace and Justice (UPJ) and International Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER). ANSWER has close ties to the Marxist Workers World Party, Free Palestine Alliance, U.S.-Mexico Solidarity Foundation, Muslim Student Association of the U.S. and Canada, Code Pink, and, of course, MoveOn.

Other “notables” at the protest include Punks for Peace, Queer to the Left, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and Historians Against the War.

Scholar John J. Tierney declares the nucleus of the protesters is “ideologically very hard-core left;… anti-West, anti-capitalism and anti-American political culture. [They] cover a whole host of revolutionary causes, literally everywhere.”
Enterprising bus drivers should have turned south, and delivered these senseless mouth-foamers to the Gulf coast. Then again, not knowing how to do anything other than blather utter falsehoods and mindless propaganda, the protesters likely aren’t any good for helping with relief efforts.

Someone call the exterminator

“I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.” –Thomas Jefferson

Bye-bye TrackBack

I’ve disabled TrackBack on this blog and on Godblog. Two reasons have brought about this change. First, the TrackBack spammers have gotten out of control. SpamLookup is heading them all off at the pass, and none are getting published (thanks, moderation pref), but it’s taking up too much of my time to moderate them to Junk status and delete.
Second, I can count on one hand the number of folks who have trackbacked to Retrophisch, and on two hands the number of times they have done so. I sincerely appreciate these, but for the two handfuls of legitimate pings I’m getting, it’s not worth keeping open and dealing with the spam. Godblog’s managed only a single trackback, so the same logic applies.
This will not prevent me from giving trackback love to those who deserve it. Comments are still open and their use encouraged.

Cute, but not that cute

Something amusing I read in RD, courtesy of BizRate Research:

56% of women and 41% of men say their pets are more affectionate than their partners.
Our cats and dog can be pretty affectionate, but I would hesitate to say more so than my wife. She may feel differently about me.
45% of women say their pets are cuter than their partners; 24% of men feel the same way.
Our male cat, Zane, who is an all-grey short-hair, is gorgeous. My wife keeps insisting I should find a pet model agent for him. Our other cat and the dog are cute, but I would honestly say they don’t compare to Zane.
But the animals being cuter than my wife? I’m not stupid. (Contrary to what you might think…)