Does any blog anymore?

It has been (...fingers and toes....carry the one...) about a week past 5 years since I blogged. It's been over a decade since Soren and I thought this was a good idea. 

Does anyone blog anymore?

Probably not. It's all Twitter and such. But Google has kept open this platform. Is that because they are too lazy to shut it down? Am I missing out on a great sub-culture of blogging by hanging out on Facebook and Twitter too much?

Anyway, here I am. I don't know why other than to see if I could remember the passwords. I could...obviously. 

Maybe I'll call up my old friend and we can debate why he's voting for Trump and I'm voting for Jorgensen (look her up!). 

Otherwise, see you in five years. (Other than no one reads this.)

Gallup Doesn't Care Either

Gallup announced yesterday that it was going to step away from "horse race" polling.

Seems Gallup doesn't care anymore either. They, like the politicians, find it hard to engage and connect with survey participants.

I care less and less myself. I don't like the Don. I don't particularly like Carly Fiorina either, but as a part of the entertainment culture wouldn't it be fun to watch her and Hilary running against each other.

Ideologically I'm more Rand Paul then anyone else, but they describe him as tea party. I don't want to be tea party. I want to be libertarian. I want to care about nobody but myself.

No one really does it for me. I, like Gallup, don't really care much anymore.

I Don't Think I'm Republican Anymore

I'm way behind on my local primary races coming up in less than a month.

I wasn't even sure who all was running for Governor or U.S. Senator. So...I researched.

Then it happened. I don't like any of them.

Have I become a liberal? Egad! Have I become a libertarian? Am I that crazy? I know I've drifted from the orthodoxy, but am I left to vote for no one?

Anyway, it seems I've become a bit of an issue man.

Immigration - all for it. Open the doors. We are already keeping globally for labor whether we like it or not. Let them come here and pay taxes.

Gay marriage - bring it on. The government doesn't get to say who or how we love. The government has been promoting families for decades but why does Congress get decide what a family is? They don't. They shouldn't. Leave people alone already!

Death penalty - no thanks. Again, I don't trust the government or it's lawyers or all the money or lack of money.

Abortion - I'm not an activist for pro-life. I'm sort of indifferent. My hackles don't get stirred about baby killing. I don't care. Yes. I don't care. You heard me.

Obamacare - is stupid. Health insurance is stupid. The way we buy health care is stupid. Even with insurance, health care isn't affordable. And we are all still fat and out of shape.

Maybe I am libertarian. Maybe I'm longing for my valley in the remotest of spots to start my own colony of strivers. Where are you John Galt?

My biggest problem is that I once could overlook a few issues for the sake of the ideal of smaller government. However, the Republicans keep growing government just as fast as the Democrats, maybe faster. I can hardly tell the difference between the Bush presidency and the Obama presidency.

All the Republican candidates sound the same. None of them sound like me.

What's a man to do?

Modern Whig Party. Maybe...

 
http://www.modernwhig.org/

Since you started it, here is my prediction.

OK, Atticus, Since you started it, I'll take the bait and give you my predictions. While we agree so often, it is like we are of one mind, it is hard to imagine my disagreeing with you. I do, however, think you are wrong in your conclusion. And as you are inclined to be very defensive about it, I will lay out my argument in short and simple terms.
For starters, of the total of 538 electoral votes available, due to redistricting based on the recent census, if the two parties split the states the same way they did four years ago, the President will lose nearly 20 electoral votes. This would however still give the president the victory.
That said, there are several things that lead me to believe that while it may be a narrow victory, I think the President will go the way of Jimmy Carter. I've given you this reasoning before and you still don't believe me. I'll say it again here one more time so that everyone else can see me make my argument and you will not be able to say, "You never told me that."
I credit the 2008 Obama victory to Steve Jobs, God rest his soul, and his invention, the iPhone. Barack Obama did an excellent job using the new technologies of facebook and twitter four years ago when these were new means of communication and accessible mobily via the also new iPhone. This led to a brand new group of voters who had no experience in politics or reading political propaganda. They took then Senator Obama at his word, listened to the great oratory of the senator from Illinois and turned out in droves to campaign and vote for this amazing man.
While this is what led to his astonishing victory over whoever the pachyderms presented, this has also been the source of his fall from fame. As other politicians, news sources, bloggers and average layperson became familiar not only with how to drink from this new propaganda fount but how to publish, these virgin political junkies started drinking from other fountains. When they realized there was other food to be had, in addition to the candy they had been stoked up on, they started eating meat and vegetable and the same cynicism that pushed them to believe in the Pied Piper led them to doubt. When the snake oil salesman left them with a bottle of artesian well water, they became disillusioned. Even though the Android users would like you to believe that the iPhone addict is a mindless follower of Guru Steve, they are still very much independent thinkers.
As they drank and ate more of this free information and began filtering drivel and attempted to distill the truth, they gradually started leaving the piper and began beating their own drum. Evidence of this is the decline of the prophet Michael Moore, that culminated during the recall in Wisconsin. The state that Barack had just easily won came under siege by these radical leftist fundamentalists. They poured everything they could into the state and the recall wasn't even close.
I will wrap up this annecdotal proposition with this final few pieces of evidence. Millions who voted for the first time in their lives will not vote again for two reasons, they haven't made it a habit to stay informed and vote and they are not motivated to get out and vote the way they were last time. Additionally, you will encounter people all across America who voted for this President the last time who are ashamed that they voted for him and say that they will adamantly, now that they feel more educated, vote against him. You have not heard of a single person who voted for the Elephant in the last election who says they will change and vote for they Mule this time.

Give Wisconsin to Romney. Florida also goes Republican as does North Carolina. Both states have seen substantial losses in the democrat to republican ratios. Don't be surprised if Colorado and Iowa both go to Romney. I give Romney Pennsylvania due to the Presidents treatment of fossil fuels industries. I think it will come down to turnout and based on erosion of the base of 2008 Obama supporters and lack of enthusiasm.

Finally, I think the real shocker of the night will be the narrow margin in which the president will win in Illinois. The President won in 2008 by 25% a recent poll in the middle of October had the his lead cut to 7%.

Fearless Election Eve Prediction

Being the sort that I am I'll be riveted to the television and laptop watching each tiny precinct percentage uptick to see what's going to happen.

What do I think will happen? I'm not convinced that the polls are overly biased toward President Obama, but I'm also not yet past the results in Wisconsin recently that were significantly outside the margin of error. If all the state polls are as poorly done as those in Wisconsin were then it'll be a quick and joyful night for Governor Romney. If not, it will be a long night for both.

I'm thinking long night and the tiniest of wins for the incumbent. My electoral college prediction courtesy RealClearPolitics.com's build your own map:

Persecution and Perspective

Last Saturday, during a boring second half of football, my friend Soren reminded me of a time I was making a case for Christians thinking they were persecuted when, in reality, they were just sensitive to criticism. My case being that Christians are the dominant religion of this country, the Republican Party bends over backward for them and, well, they are still in charge (unless one thinks President Obama is a closet Muslim...and Soren might think that). I don't think Soren agrees with me on this point. There was something about Maplethorpe's depiction of Jesus on the cross in a jar of urine and the Christian reaction versus the Muslim fringe insanity about a movie figuratively urinating on the character of Muhammad.

Regardless, this idea of persecution came to mind again yesterday as I was driving back to work. I didn't recocognize the man talking on the radio. Later, they'd say it was Mark Bitman and that didn't help me. He must have been a foodie because he was talking about the idealic Parisian bistro and personal napkins in cubbies. I was interested. Then talk turned to a recent Stanford study suggesting the organic food was no more nutritious than other food.

Mark would go on to say that he thought the study was wrong because it didn't take into account the health benefits of not having pesticides on your food as well as the health of workers in the field and the general sustainability of food production. Of course, what I heard was an attack on food manufacturing. As a man employed for quite some time by one of the country's largest food manufacturers, indeed, in the end of the business with the least glamour and the most persecution from activists, I was offended by his lack of perspective and railing against the industry that keeps everyone fed for the lowest price of any industrialized nation. I was incensed at his narrow understanding of how hungry the world will be when we go organic and crop yields fall dramatcally, livestock die of trivial diseases and food prices soar faster than health care costs.

Then I thought, "Maybe I've lost perspective like Soren and his fellow Christians. Maybe I see attacks where there are none."

It could be that this gentleman had no problem with the food industry. He could have just been a fan of organic. Mind you, his predilection for organic makes it easy for him to dismiss the macroeconomic arguments about organic farming. He also doesn't have my perspective. And I don't have the Christian perspective. I get dozens of industry emails and magazines each month. I see all the urban newspaper editorials decrying lean finely textured beef, gestation crates, processed foods, multibillion dollar food companies and the sorry lot of folks that work for them. I feel the persecution that others may not even notice is happening.

Truth has become murky. It's colored by my feelings about losing my job. Soren's views of Muslim riots is equally filtered by his perspective of a calm, helpful and nonviolent network of Christian churches. The modern world is designed to accomodate whatever truth we choose. Objective truth has been lost. We want everything our own way and when it comes to information, we can filter out everything detestable to us without effort or thought.

A final thought on this point - I watched the Nebraska U.S. Senate election debate between State Senator Deb Fischer and former Senator Bob Kerrey. I don't like Deb Fischer. As you may have guessed from earlier posts, this stems from my distaste for the tea party. This obviously colored my view of the debate. Most striking to me, though, was the twin ideas of Ms. Fischer that we can balance the budget without raising taxes and save Medicare. She wants everything her way and this leaves no room for truth. Medicare cannot be saved without raising taxes. Actually, it can. You can start killing old people. This won't get Ms. Fischer elected though. Tell the senior citizens you'll keep doling out checks. Tell the younger folks you'll lower their taxes. That you can do neither...so what? Deb Fischer will be a US Senator and that's what matters most to Deb Fischer.

Welcome back, dear friends. I wish I could say the time away has left me rested and refreshed. Alas it has not.

While Atticus debates whether he aligns with the Tea Party and whether he will support its candidates, I will ask the question of, ‘Why the Tea Party?’ ‘What relevance does it have?’ and ‘Why now?’ Is it a populist movement? Or is it a revival? Is it the awakening or the dying breath of a great Muse. Let us hope we find more answers than questions.

Soren.