There she goes, my beautiful world
Update: this is a joke. Cpt Hill never said any of this. It was lifted from Col Jessep’s monologue in the film A Few Good Men. It would be an appropriate response to Rick Santorum’s answer to Cpt Hill’s question, but it is entirely fictional. I’d thought it would be obvious, but it seems that quoting a movie that’s almost 20 years old gets lost. I apologize to anyone who earnestly believed these to be Cpt Hill’s words.
Stephen … Read the rest
On Thursday, nine contenders for the GOP nomination for president participated in a televised question-and-answer session hosted by Fox News and Google. As usual, I hesitate to refer to these events as «debates» because they really aren’t debates. There’s not enough time allotted to permit more than a soundbite on each issue and there are few real chances for rebuttal. They are all about the personalities and very little about the principles and issues.
Here is my take on the … Read the rest
Tonight at 6pm Pacific/9pm Eastern time, nine GOP presidential hopefuls will take the stage in a live question and answer session intended to familiarize Americans with the candidates. This will be the seventh so-called debate in the 2012 presidential primary season, and the second to include Governor Gary Johnson, who appeared in the first of these debates back in May but who has not been permitted to participate since. In a surprise (but welcome) decision on … Read the rest
Recently I listened to a Commonwealth Club discussion with Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch titled WWLD: What Would Libertarians Do? Gillespie and Welch are co-editors of Reason magazine, which I’ve never read, but is reputed to have a strong libertarian bent. The topic is of interest to me, as I have mixed feelings about libertarians. In the 1990s I was a registered member of the Libertarian Party. I voted for Harry Browne in the presidential elections of 1996… Read the rest
It’s been a tough couple of months. I’ve been pining away for my Moto Guzzi, which has been in the shop. That means more than just an emotional gap in my life; I’ve been less able to get from place to place and have even resorted to driving four-wheeled vehicles on occasion. That was an exercise in frustration; not only did it take twice as long to get anywhere, it usually took longer to park than it did to drive.
The … Read the rest
Most politicians deserve a little name-calling, but there are two labels — really two variations on the same label — that have become popular lately and really get my goat. They are RINO and DINO: Republican In Name Only and Democrat In Name Only. Even Libertarians call other Libertarians LINOs, Greens have their GINOs, and probably even Independents who get called IINOs even though I have no idea how to pronounce it.
I make an exception for the use of … Read the rest
Over the last week or so I’ve been exploring Google’s new social networking system, Google+ or, as it is affectionately known, g+. At first glance it seems like a direct clone of Facebook with some fancy user interface improvements for organizing your «circles» of contacts. There are also some nice usability improvements, like the ability to edit a comment after it has been posted. Anyone who has ever hit the submit button with a typo still in their message — … Read the rest
As a motorcyclist I’m frequently faced with the claim (sometimes out of concern and other times from judgment) that riding a motorcycle is unsafe. It’s true that a two-wheeled vehicle is inherently less stable than a four-wheeled one, and that riders are more vulnerable to impacts that one would be protected from inside a car. Looking at the statistics one can clearly see that the fatalities-per-million-miles and injuries-per-million-miles are much higher for motorcycles than for automobiles.
Several factors make these … Read the rest
After taking a shot at Rick Santorum about the apparent incongruity between his strict constructionist stance and his zeal for federal restrictions on abortions, I was gratified to see that I wasn’t the only one to notice. The Volokh Conspiracy, one of the best law-oriented blogs out there, today has a post by David Kopel pointing out that Santorum and four other Republican presidential candidates have signed a pledge that states almost in the same breath that they will appoint … Read the rest
I challenge anyone to provide a reputable source for this supposed quote attributed to GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum:
Abortion in any form is wrong, except for my wife. If your wife’s life was at stake and the only thing that could save her was an abortion, well, too bad. Your wife will have to die. It was different with my wife. You see, I love her. I don’t even know your wife’s name.
I call bullshit on this whole … Read the rest