Tell it ain't so - - - Newt is starting to fade

It looks like Newt may be starting to slip.  The GOP better find the Huntsman fast.  Otherwise they are going to find that Romney = Dukakis.  I'm just saying.

Huntsman has a historically conservative record . . . but we know what his mistake was . . . and you all remember watching him get off on the wrong foot.  I know the suspense is killing you, but he acknowledged that be thought that man's activities contributed to Global Warming.  I know, I know, Huntsman crossed the line and the base has yet to forgive him for it completely.   I think they will, eventually, but it may be a bit longer.

Huntsman's ability to actually take a position like could be magic in the general election.  The Global Warming Litmus test has never made a lot of sense to me for a couple of reasons, but, because it is kind of a recognized litmus test.  So Huntsman's ability to actually say something the majority will find reasonable, even at some political cost to himself within the base, he was able to do it.  Further, the guy is obviously very smart and very articulate.

It may be too late, but if the GOP rushes away from Newt, they may have to go to Huntsman.

Someone I'd like to talk about next is Ron Paul.

Trumpapalooza

Donald Donald Donald Donald ... the next you decide to run another episode of the apprentice hold a debate, please make sure that the apprentices candidates are willing to appear on your show.

I still like Trump, but he was not and is not a serious candidate for the Presidency.

So, we are left to decide whether this was true ego or just a poorly over estimated stunt in order to gain publicity.  I am banking on the latter, that it was a stunt gone awry.

Donald, my friend, please call up Sarah P. and arrange a few motivational talks in stadiums away from the cameras for a while.  You guys can look back on your days of glory.

A deeper question is whether the GOP primary process and sideshow nature of the primaries is going to continue long enough to hurt the GOP next November?  Greater minds than I will have to figure it out.  I kind of assume that it will settle down pretty soon once a few candidates run away.  But, this stuff is just too rich to not enjoy.

Meanwhile, Obama is slowly honing his message and act.  Must be making more than a few conservatives crazy with worries right now.

Sleep well my liberal friends, sleep well.

Will the Tea Party elect a Gingrich for Christmas?

Certainly Dr. Suess must be spinning in his grave.  Spray Newt green and add some facial hair, and you can almost see Jim Carrey’s version of the Grinch.  Who else but a Grinch to say that the Palestinians are a made up people and have no claim to the land where they were living.  Of course, at some point, Jerusalem may have been populated entirely by Jewish people.  However, if you are going to use that kind of grounds to expel inhabitants of the land and give it to someone else – then most Americans better start packing because – by Newt’s rules, we’re going to have return the continuous 48 to Native Americans.  I am sure Newt will give his house up first to demonstrate his high ideals (unless may be he is a hypocrite or something).

So who gives us Newt - certainly a much more dangerous candidate that Romney - none other than the world's angriest constituency:  the Tea Party.  They are angry because there exists a government that has the audacity to collect taxes.  Because they are angry they need an angry candidate.  Granted, they tried Rick Perry - but he wasn't ready for prime time.  They tried Bachmann - but she wasn't ready for prime time.  Finally, they figure out that Newt's actually smart enough to make Tea Party politics somehow sound rationale - and he can do angry.  

Bless his soul, though, because Gingrich may actually spare us serial candidate Mitt Romney.  Mitt's seems like a great family guy, but if you've spent the last 6 years running for President and failing, you are not meant to be President.  This also spares us the whole excuse that people don't like Mitt because he is Mormon.  No - he changes his positions like a wind vane and is weak.  What GOP candidate gets whiny about the way he is handled by a Fox reporter?  Really, the interview was too rough?  Aren't you supposed to be man enough to be leader of the free world?

So - take a few minutes to thank the GOP - because they have scored a Christmas hit.  The Grinch (oh I mean the Gingrich) is here for the holidays.  We still got 12 more shopping days to do - let's see what else appears under the tree!

PS - To prove things could get worse for me personally, we had to put down our older dog today.  We had him for 15 years, which is pretty old, but he had dropped from 18 to 14 pounds in about a month.  That can be many things, but nothing we were going to save him from.

PPS - OK - I got some perversely good news:  once I write off my losses for the year I won't owe almost any federal or state taxes.  Meaning, I will possibly be able to get all of my estimates taxes back.  That is like two years of tuition payments for my son's college.  Woo hoo.  (Yes - it also means that I made so little that my write-offs come close to equaling my profits - but I'm trying to be positive).

Commerative Blogging

Admittedly, I found that I have a tendency to make a bold statement or two about planned activities - only to abandon the effort. 

None the less, I will attempt to come back to this blog over the next year as a small tribute to my sister.  She died of a heart attack at the age of 54 in October.  My sister was a somewhat avid reader and supporter this blog, particularly my more extremist political posts.  She lived in Wisconsin where she was active in various left wing political causes, was a fan of the Ed Show, and supporter of numerous liberal organizations, such as the South Poverty Law Center (which I find somewhat annoying).

The past few years have been pretty tough:  my Mother died at the beginning of 2010, my business has shrunk from 25 employees to 15, my Father was diagnosed with Parkinson's, moved to be closer to us, and now is in the dying; and my sister passed away.  My Father has stopped eating very much, developed a bad wound, and mentally is often significantly disoriented.  Those are the bigger things, but there have been other defeats and insults along the way.

In any event, as I shrink down some of my efforts, I will try to take a little bit of that time to write.  Now that the world has been prematurely deprived on my sister's liberal outrage, I feel that she would have wanted me to express a little for her.


While  I am admittedly a bit beaten down, I hate to be a whiner.  I have numerous things to be thankful for, which is part of slowed down my blogging in the first place.  My kids have been gems - one a freshman at George Washington, a daughter who has good grades and is getting recruited to play lacrosse in college, and a wonderful middle school student.  My wife remains amazing.  Our dog Baxter is destroying significantly fewer things than he did previously.  I still have a business and a job (even though I did lose a lot of money this year).

So, what does the future hold?  Hopefully a better balance between the good and the bad. 

Peace to everyone!

Reagan's 100th B-day - Who's legacy

Reagan's 100th birthday just passed by. There was various articles on his legacy. It led me to feel that Reagan doesn't really have a legacy of his own. Even during the Presidency, I had the feeling that people imposed their ideals of him on him, regardless of whether they migth be his ideals.

After his departure, there almost immediately began an effort to get things named after him, such as National Airport in Washington DC.

Airline bad luck or ... MLK Day ... Wake County Schools

Air Luck?

I am on the road - writing from Silver Springs MD. I was supposed to fly up from NC today in order to be ready for a meeting tomorrow morning. Surprise - for the 2nd time in a row - my flight couldn't make it and I ended up driving. So .... all future trips will be by car and I have $1,100 in flight credits to use from non-refundable tickets.

MLK Day passed generally peacefully. It finally raised itself to national attention, but a GOP school board is ending school busing for diversity - setting up a re-segregation of parts of the school system. Wake County is home of Raleigh, the capital of NC. North Carolina has been a fast growing area in recent years and Wake County has benefit from one of the more successful public school systems in the country.

So - you might ask - why fix what isn't broken?

Good question - no good answer. However, leave it to the Colbert Report to provide some insight to the workings of Tedesco (a GOP wanker):

Word of the day is disintegration.

These guys are a special piece of work. They recently decided they wouldn't seek accreditation for the school district because they didn't want to share information with the accreditation organization. They also hired General Tata to take over running the school system. Meanwhile agitators are trying to make it so that all people can vote for any of the school board members. The GOP has a 4-3 advantage and it not necessarily a majority rule because of the districts. (However, I am not sure that is really the issue at all and I don't really have an opinion about their process because I don't know how it came to be - though the board is clearly legitimately elected under their rules.... this ain't Florida after all).

Later gator.

3 Weeks and more

Wow - it has been a long time without a post. Happy New Year Everyone! Merry Christmas! Tres Reyes! and whatever else I missed.

Things are going OK - I guess. Kind of odd and intense. I am not sleeping quite enough.

The Destroyer (Baxter) has continued to grow even bigger. His large square pit bull head hold massive powerful jaws that render everything to small shreds. Naturally this dog is not to be trusted - though he seems good natured.

Christmas passed pretty well. I got 6 things, two of which I bought myself.

We passed my the anniversary of my Mom's death due to heart failure just after the start of the year. Things remain so rentlessly busy that it doesn't leave much time to reflection.

Michigan got trounced by Mississippi State ending Rich Rod's reign. Brady Hoke is in and it seems like a better fit. We'll see.

Anyway, I've spent the last month or so feverishly working on a website. I'll probably have to pay someone to make me a decent template, but that hasn't stopped me from creating the SQL templates and edit screens for databases. I locked up a domain name, but I won't attempt to put it online until I get it farther along. I have learned a lot about PHP, MySQL, Apache, and a bit of new form options. Once I get the website going, I'll probably start making a Web/EDC system for clinical trials. I wrote one using SAS and SAS/Intrnet. However, this can be much better and development will much easier.

It still amazes me all the things you can get for free on the web. The fact that you can download the Apache web-server, PHP, and MySQL for free and be working on a fully functional database driven website is mind boggling. I am just running the website off a desktop in my house and working on a laptop most of the time, editing the files on a shared drive.

This is a long term project. I suspect it will be about 2 more months to bring it on line. If I get it up, I'll post the link here.

Business is a bit down and slow right now. I thought we had outlasted the recession, but the recession has caught up with us. I hope that it heats us before we have to layoff anyone else. That is kind of depressing. We have a lot of our money in business related property that we would lose if things go real far south. That would do a lot to destroy retirement. So, for my kids sake as well as my own, I hope that doesn't happen.

The NC-Va Tech is almost over. Both teams haven't been exactly an example of greatness.... but UNC may be able to pull it out.

Peace everyone.