But as long as the nation is obsessed with historic milestones, is no one going to remark on what a great country it is where a mentally retarded woman can become speaker of the house?
-Ann Coulter
http://townhall.com/columnists/AnnCoulter/2009/02/25/the_cal_ripken_president

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry.

Bobby Jindal 2012?

Bobby Jindal should not run for President in 2012. First of all he doesn't have a chance. He' d be seen as the republicans trying to out Obama Obama, and Obama is just way too good of an Obama for that too happen. His base is way too dedicated, and would never vote for someone who is as dedicated to women not getting abortions as Jindal. Jindal was interesting and everything I read says that he is a policy wiz, but I don't think that that would help him against the Obamaniacs. I also don't think that Republicans (old white people) are as prone to hero worship. The Republicans best bet is to put up a more moderate who can give the party a bit of a facelift or really run on a single issue (FairTax? Social Security PRA's? undoing whatever Obama does to healthcare?) that will leave the Republicans as a more united and viable party going into 2014 midterms and 2016 Presidential election.

Secondly, home boy just isn't ready. He, much like the rest of the Republicans, wasn't sure where he was. This was his chance to explode onto the National stage like Obama did at the '04 Convention. Granted, Jindal is far better known than Obama was and the venues are completely different, but this was his big introduction to the country, and he just didn't have a message to drive home. It was the perfect opportunity for a "Sorry, about that guy you just had for 8 years, that's not who we really are. But Obama is a f***ing idiot too. We don't want to spend all of your money. We want to give it back to you. Oh yeah, I'm not a neocon." Jindal says all of those things, presents an actual plan on health care and states a vision for Iraq that includes getting out sooner rather than later (2 years? great. 30 months? whatever) and he's the new policy leader of the party.

I'm not sure who else is there. I don't think the Republicans have an actual chance to win an election until 2016, so there is a long time before it matters. I think Romney might be the right man to fall on his sword but do some image make over in '12, especially if he could negotiate flip-flopping one more time and go back to the social stances that got him elected governor of Massachusetts. Then, we find a Reagan or Gingrich type ideologue for 2016 and we can work on fixing Social Security and shrinking government a little bit, if it still exists.

I wonder if Ron Paul will run again in 2012. That would be nice. And amusing.
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edit:

this is hilarious: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/24/bobby-jindal-or-kenneth-f_n_169693.html

PBO's address to congress

PBO looks presidential. He's explaining to us why he is bailing out banks with the mortgage rescue plan. He's thorough and explaining his version of how the problem started , why we need the rescue, where the money will go and what it will do. I'm impressed. The address is just technical enough. I disagree with him on the extent to which government is the solution, rather than the problem, but he's focused and he's smart.

darkness on the edge of town

I spent the last 42 minutes and 55 seconds primarily lying on the floor with no shirt on, all the lights off, and Bruce Springsteen blasting. It was quite wonderful. I think I'm going to do it more often.

Darkness on the Edge of Town is a "4 corners album" meaning that both sides of the album would start loud and upbeat and stick-i- to-the-manish and descend into a mournfulish ballad. It's a great way to make a feeling stick with the listener for a longtime. Darkness is a much more desperate album than Born to Run. Born to Run was absolutely Springsteen's last chance to make it big, and so I think he had to do what producers wanted a little bit. There is absolutely desperation in a song like "backstreets", but not like he has in "Badlands" or "Racing in the Street." In Darkness, you feel like Bruce is really struggling to be who he wants to be, like he's trying to define himself. "Poor man wanna be rich, rich man wanna be king, and the king ain't satisfied till he rules everything. Let's go out tonight, find out what i've got.

I don't really know what if I'm concluding anything here other than that I want to spend more time lying on the floor listening to loud music with the lights off. At home, I'd occasionally take another lap around maynard before going home, keeping the music up and thinking about little more than not getting in an accident. A good amount of time doing nothing constructive, losing ourselves, is imporant. It helps me reflect so that i can better understand myself, and i think understanding what's inward is important for working with the outward.

Possibly the least put together blog post eva. (yes, eva). I didn't really say anything other than that i should spend more time listening to bruce springsteen with my shirt off. sorry, but that's all I have right now.

Gone 4 Good... we hope

Brett Favre retired from the Jets today, essentially admitting that he wasn't that good anymore. Good for him.

Everyday, Michael makes up words that no man has spoken before...

In my New Testament class today, we were going through 1 Corinthians. Studying it as a complete work in context reveals it as a far more interesting letter than I'd ever realized. Anyway, towards the end, we got to the whole part about the body of Christ and the ears accepting eyes and head accepting feet. The relevance of this passage is that in many cases, the poor did not have many rights of the rich, in some cases including taking communion. I could probably explain this better, but when she started talking about parts going against each other, all I could think of was Michael Scott:
DON'T CUT OFF YOUR NOSE TO SPIDERFACE

I might actually write about some thoughts on Corinth later. Very interesting book.

Typo of the century

The House's $819 stimulus bill passed without a single Republican vote nearly two weeks ago.
-CNN

Executive Pay Limits

So P.B.O. won't let companies who accept government bail-out money pay executives more than 500K (http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/04/obama.executive.pay/index.html). I'm not really sure how I feel about this. on the most basic level, Great! we won't be giving government money to people that screwed up these companies and cost tax payers a lot of money. I feel like any self-respecting CEO probably has enough in savings that he can take a $1 a year salary or at least make what he pays his average employee. The second thought is from the conspiracy theorist in me who is scared that this might discourage these companies from taking Federal Funds. I don't think this will happen for a couple of reasons: If the shareholders and board of governors of a company thought that this was happening, the CEO would likely be on the curb right away; anyone who is a CEO also has a lot invested in his companies stocks that he'd probably be taking a huge financial hit on that route if he did not do what was best for his employees. My third thought, which does seem extremely dangerous, is this: Are we discouraging competent people from going to work for these banks or other companies?

Consider Entrepreneur A, the founder of company X to take over. In 15 years, Company X has grown into a major corporation worth 650 Million dollars, employs 10,000 people, and has continued to turn a profit in these tough times (If those numbers that I just pulled out of the air are completely unreasonable, S my D. The point is that the company is successful). Entrepreneur A is making 4.7 million dollars, a salary that the board of directors has rewarded him with for continuing to deliver a profit and make a lot of money for a lot of people. Citigroup sees the good work that Mr. A has done with his start up, thinks that he would be a good person to be their COO, and offers him the job with a salary of... 500 K and stock options that will vest in 10 or 15 years. Is there a good chance that he would perform excellently? Yeah! Is he going to take a $4.2 Million pay cut? Probably not.

That example was pure speculation based on nothing besides the fact that there are people who do do good work and are compensated extremely well for it. I totally understand Obama not wanting incompetent executives getting rich. That's obvious, and a lender should have some say in the business practices of it's borrowers. However, I think he needed to be more thoughtful about the implications that this has on prospective employees that might fix these companies

whoever is in charge of advertising for the office is brilliant. They advertised it as guest starring Jack Black, Jessica Alba, and some old lady. They then have some of the characters watching a movie including those people. Genius. Also, they roast Michael and Kelly would rather kiss Voldemort.