You mean to tell me this blog has been in a coma since 2014?

It's not so much that I have not had anything to say, but rather, like so many others, social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Snapchat, TicTok, Vine (RIP Vine 2013-2017), Periscope, Kiwi, WhatsApp, etc. have become the places to offer opinion and healthy debate and discourse.
I kid.
They are largely cesspools of trollery and bigotry, with the occasional cute baby or cat video to sooth the mind.
Further, bloggers have largely gone the audio/video route rather than this old-fashioned typing of words upon a screen.
Anyway, let us get to the point of this post.  This semester among other courses, I'm teaching New Media Production at Pennsylvania Highlands Community College.
This is a setup for a bonus question on the course final exam.
Let us have a discussion of social media and blogging in general (whether written, spoken, or shared visually).  For any of my students in the New Media Production class, commenting here will result in some bonus points on your final.

Sarah Palin

A thick layer of dust enshrouds this blog.
It's not that there's nothing to say. In fact quite the opposite. But others are saying it so much better than I.

Here's a new blog offering up one perspective on the Alaska governor's decision to step aside.

The MSM and the Beltway insiders are incapable of comprehending how somebody might wish to effect change without the trappings of insider power.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Credit where credit is due

Finally, I have an opportunity to say something nice about Obama.
Not the President.
First Lady Michelle Obama offered some good advice to students in one of D.C.'s under performing schools. The details here.

(Huge h/t to Betsy Newmark)
(Photo from the White House collection)

My new favorite blog

Barack Obama's Teleprompter's Blog

Reflections from the hard drive of the machine that enables the voice of the Leader of the Free World

And somehow, some will be offended.
Too bad.


(h/t Gina Cobb)

Is it really a jar of mayo?

There are so many urgent matters taking our time these days. A nasty recession (but not the worst since the Depression - but keep talking it down,) the rise of socialism, the man made global warming myth, I could go on.
However, today there are bigger fish to fry. And after frying, slathering them in tartar sauce. But tartar sauce made with mayonnaise or with a revolting substitute.
Like me, Christopher Taylor at Word Around the Net is a purist when it comes to condiments.

Miracle Whip is one of those nasty fifties products that was marketed with dozens of recipes that James Lileks loves to mock. It is the same sort of bastard demon child of real food as Sandwich Spread and Spam.

Some people, dump this industrial waste into recipes such as cole slaw to get that nasty sweet assault on your senses.

His full article may be enjoyed by clicking here. Come back when you're finished, if you don't mind.

I'll wait.




Oh, you're back. Thanks. Let me pick up where Mr. Taylor left off.
Miracle Whip is an abomination.
Because several misguided members of our extended family suffer from the delusion that this pitiful substitute condiment tastes good, my dear wife makes two types of potato salad for family gatherings. One version is made with pure, delicious mayonnaise (Hellmann's of course) - while the other is slathered in that toxic waste called Miracle Whip. Invariably, the bowl of good potato salad is emptied first.
Similar family feuds also erupt over butter and substitute spreads (yes, I'm looking at you, yellow container. And I can and do believe it's not butter!)
For so many things in our society, the pale imitation has been marketed so well, that it is often preferred over the real deal.
Come to think of it, that might explain why we have the president we do.

We're here to help

This old yarn has been around awhile. I needed a good chuckle; this delivered:

A cowboy named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in California when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.

The driver, a distinguished looking man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, “If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, Will you give me a calf?”

Bud looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, “Sure, Why not?”

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg , Germany .

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses an MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, “You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.”

“That’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,” says Bud.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then the Bud says to the young man, “Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?”

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, “Okay, why not?”

“You’re a Congressman for the U.S. Government”, says Bud.

“Wow! That’s correct,” says the yuppie, “but how did you guess that?”

“No guessing required.” answered the cowboy. “You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don’t know a thing about cows…this is a herd of sheep. .

Now give me back my dog.

(h/t Duncan at And Rightly So!)

Hello world. I'm here.

I haven't had much to say; still trying to digest the reality of the election.
Although, either way we would have a Democrat in the White House. So there's that.
Also, I don't think BO would approve of my views:

I'm an embarrassment to Barack!


I only scored 15 on the Obama Test

(h/t Cassy Fiano)

Class act

"Tonight — tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama — whether they supported me or Senator Obama.

I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.

Americans never quit. We never surrender.

We never hide from history. We make history." -- John McCain, November 3, 2008.


God bless America.

(h/t Deacon Greg)

Vote!

Update: 10:30 PM
So much for my prognostication skills. The Obama Machine did a stellar job of getting out the urban and youth vote. Much higher turnout that I would have thought. Overall turnout seems extremely high - and despite the outcome, that is a good thing for our nation. We will survive four years of BO, but I suspect it is not going to be pretty.

And John Murtha has no intention of going quietly into the long goodnight. With just over a quarter of the votes counted, the controversial Democrat is pulling away with a landslide victory over challenger Bill Russell. I picked the winner, but missed badly on the margin.

----------
Do it.


Predictions:
McCain takes PA, VA, OH, FL. Tops 330 Electoral votes.
Murtha takes PA 12th by <>
Keith Obamarman melts down live on MSNBC.
That is all.

Sarahcuda

There's plenty of reaction to Governor Palin's speech:

Betsy's Page offers us not one, not two, not three, but four posts reflecting on the Sarah Palin speech, and reaction to it.

Mr. William Teach at the Pirate's Cove is on top of all things Palin. I love this quote:

"…this feels like when Plaxico caught the game winning catch in the Superbowl. It's like when Arnott scored the Stanley Cup Winner in 2000 for the Devils. When Kirk Gibson yanked one out of the park for the Dodgers. I mean, I feel that good. The best one is when Jeff Friesen scored in game seven to put the Devs up 2-0. Sarah Barracuda is that good."

Pirate's Cove also provides us with video linky goodness, Governor Palin on the Global Warming scam, and links us to a treatise on redneck beauty queens.

Patterico reports on the surprising CBS News analysis of the Palin speech (a "thumbs up.)

Melissa Clouthier has been in "all Palin, all the time" mode for the past several days. She offers thoughtful posts on sexism, media bias, the Left's full-blown panic, and much more. You best just go and browse the entire site.

Kathy at Cake Eater Chronicles lives in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and has been offering daily reports and photos from the convention. Her analysis mirror's mine,

"I don't know what else to say but, WOW, did Sarah Palin knock it out of the park. BOOM. Out of the park. Across the street. Knocking out a street lamp."

For a perfect balance of sense and sensibility, one must visit the Anchoress. As usual, she offers a rich, balanced linkfest. Her liveblog of the speech is also worth the read, particularly if you did not watch it live.

Here's Atilla Girl's take,

"I really think she struck a balance, there. She killed 'em. Softly."

Over at the American Princess, Emily discusses how she reacted to the speech, and the surprising response from the MSM.

Gina Cobb liveblogged, posted a lengthy essay on what we can expect from the BO camp and the MSM (yeah, I know, redundant) in the next sixty days, and links to a funny but NSFW (for rough language) comedy sketch on how Senator McCain selected his running mate.

And finally, Deacon Greg posted an interesting read yesterday before the speech that's worth reading, especially in light of Governor Palin's performance last night.

Next we must see how she handles the media (past performance indicates they will also become barracuda chow,) and how well she does in the VP debate against Sen. Biden.

And we wrap up with some music…

GOP VP Surprise

Or so it would appear.
Update: 10:50 AM EDT 8/29/2008
Confirmed!
This is a game changer.

2nd Update: 1:00 PM EDT 8/29/2008
Just as she has been in the few earlier media appearances I've seen, Sarah Palin was poised, confident, and articulate during her remarks at the Dayton VP rally.
This has now become a very interesting campaign.
Governor Palin brings an odd quality to the campaign rhetoric: common sense. It worked for Ronald Reagan, and I think has the potential to give the Republicans a shot at a landslide victory in November. Why? Because her message is about something, not about making us feel all warm and tingly inside.

Want more? All Palin, all the time here at the "Draft Sarah Palin" blog.
And all the regular suspects over there in the blogroll on the right side of the page are all full of OMFG happiness. Go ahead, check them out.

Music for the occasion:

That New Yorker cover

There's been much written about the kerfuffle over the cover art of this week's New Yorker magazine. Among the best is this from the Libertarian Lawyer, E.M. Zanotti, a/k/a The American Princess. Here's an excerpt:

Obama, who is pretentious enough for ten subscriptions to the New Yorker, seems incredibly desperate to condemn the magazine, though. No one reads it. I guarantee no one outside of Manhattan, most major cities and other regions already thoroughly converted to Obamamania will ever purchase it, and a week from now the New Yorker will be back to putting cubist renderings of national landmarks on its cover. So why care so much? Why shoot a publication willing to lick Obama's loafers until they shine right in the knee?

Although it is the MSM that has placed BO on the messianic pedestal, they will be unable to resist the temptation to pull him back down, because they can. This is going to be an election campaign to remember.

Parlez vous en français, “I can say WTF I want”

BO [please genuflect at His name] continues his quest to devalue the English language. This from Marketwatch:

At a town hall meeting in Georgia this morning, presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama told an audience that, "you need to make sure that your child can speak Spanish." Speaking in Powder Springs, Ga., the Illinois Senator said that the nation's chief priority should not be for immigrants to learn English, but for American children to learn Spanish.

Just yesterday he chided Americans traveling abroad for making use of the fact that English is the most-spoken language on the planet and is the de facto common language of international commerce.

Okay Senator BO, tell me, how do you say in Spanish, “Die in a fire you MFing piss poor excuse for a community organizer?”

Just asking.

For a more thoughtful perspective, Dr. Melissa has just what your brain needs.

I for one welcome our Robot Overlords!

Politicians and pundits are quick to rail against the migration of American jobs to other countries where labor is less expensive. But what about the jobs now being done by workers who demand no paid time off, no sick leave, no pension benefits, and no overtime?
Watch out Sarah Conner, the robots are here! Are we doomed? Drew Carey opines over at Reason.TV. (h/t to Allison Kasic at IWF's Inkwell)




Photo © 2005 Robert Armstrong and blatantly used without permission

DO NOT CALL E-V-E-R!

Great news for those of us who do not enjoy calls from telemarkerters!

"The Federal Communications Commission has amended its rules to

require telemarketers to honor registrations with the National Do-Not-Call Registry indefinitely.

The previous rules provided that registrations would expire after five years."

If you change your number you will have to reenroll, but otherwise, it's one and done. Unfortunately, some other loopholes remain, for example the DNC Registry does not apply to solicitations by political groups and candidates (however did they miss that one?) or to certain charitable organizations.

Supremes - Some things you never get used to

Much has been written and said about the Supreme Court decision giving terror suspects detained at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility the right to challenge their status in Federal Court.
One of the most well reasoned discussions comes to us from the smart, vivacious, and fashionable Emily Zanotti, who offers lines like this, "The three dissenting judges went all Ike Turner on the majority opinion. "
Click on over to the American Princess and enjoy. Then come on back.

I suspect that in coming years, much as history will eventually count George W. Bush as one of this nation's best Presidents, we will look back on this decision and recognize the delicacy with with the Court attempted to balance the various needs of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches.
Can’t say I agree with the ruling, but I begin to grasp the logic. And I give kudos to Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Thomas in their strongly worded dissents.

Climate change consensus

I'm in Philadelphia today where the temperature is preparing to soar to 99°.
Must be global warming, right?
Oh, wait, it's snowing today in Washington and Idaho. Must be global cooling, right?
Here's a link to an interesting article on the real scientific consensus regarding global warming over at Pirates Cove.

Who will McCain choose for VP

Hello there. Long time no blog.
Still busy at work, the golf game is improving, and [insert another lame excuse here].

Now that the Dems have BO - attention shifts to the second banana. My guess is he'll select a woman not named Hillary. If he were to select the New York Senator, he and Michelle would be well served to sleep with one eye open.
On the GOP side, McCain appears to have done a decent job of positioning himself in the center of the political spectrum. A younger (not hard to do), conservative would be an ideal choice. I've written here before of my growing fascination with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. I think she's still a considerable long shot , but she would turn the race in November on it's ear.
Here's a video clip put together by a couple grassroots organizations promoting Gov. Palin.



(h/t Adam Brinkley at Draft Sarah Palin for Vice President)

Quote of the day

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873)

h/t The Quotations Page

So, did you miss me?

Having wrapped up another major writing assignment at work (and it seems with another one looming in the next couple of days,) this seems as good a time as any to offer some words of wisdom.
There's no meter or rhyme to this post, but let's get started.

The presidential campaign remains a hot topic on the intraweb tubes. One thing that keeps nagging at the back of my mind is the huge concern that the Democratic party have decided on a candidate before the convention. The convention system was established in the first place as the method of selection, but in recent decades it has devolved to little more than a formality. I'm showing my age here, but I distinctly recall watching the 1964 Democratic and Republican conventions on TV. Back then coverage was nearly gavel to gavel. That year the Republican nomination was still an open question. The biggest question in my 12-year-old mind was, why did San Francisco have a Cow Palace, and why did the GOP select that site for their convention?

Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater was the presumptive nominee, but many moderate and liberal-leaning Republicans (we would call them RINOs today) opposed his conservative views. His main opposition had come from New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, whose candidacy was scuttled by an ill-timed divorce. Pennsylvania Governor Bill Scranton came on as a reluctant replacement for Happy Rockefeller. Scranton's half-hearted campaign reminds me today of the effort Fred Thompson gave in his brief run for the White House. In any event, it was too little, too late and Senator Goldwater won the nomination. The Democrats had no such political intrigue at there convention, coming less than a year after President Kennedy's assassination. Lyndon Johnson as the incumbent faced no serious opposition, and he went on to easily defeat Goldwater in November.

My point here is not that the GOP had a contentious convention and lost the election. There was little that would have prevented LBJ's election. The importance of the contested convention was that it gave both the left and right wings of the party an opportunity to duke it out and to decided whether the GOP would remain anchored in conservative values, or would become Democrat-lite under RINO leadership. It was democracy in action, and live on TV. (Okay, the real action happened behind the scenes, but still...)

Now the MSM pundits are so concerned that delegates at this year's Democratic convention might actually have to think and make actual decisions about the future of their party. If that is such a bad idea, then why not just do away with the conventions, schedule a national primary and be done with it?

On another note, it's beginning to look as though vice presidential candidates may play a larger than usual role in this year's election. Elephantman of the Draft Sarah Palin site obviously has a dog in this fight, but he points us to an interesting veepstakes polll at Congressional Quarterly. It's an exercise in bracketology. Check it out.

That's all for now. Keep those comments coming.