Amen to this

In Houston the voters are the real HEROes

gay "rights" and the socially liberal agenda in general advance because the courts do an end run around the people and impose them

Here's an idea:  An Article V convention can add recall and referendum to the ballot.  If something like "gay rights" gets implemented in the courts, it can be shot down, and the judges removed from office.

 Here's a thought:  If the Constitution and Bill of Rights are to survive, it must be defended by the people themselves.  The political class won't do it.  The political class is actually the enemy of the Constitution.  The Constitution was expressly written in order to restrain politicians.  That's why they don't like it.

We are all spoiled rotten

Just watching the extra features that come with the DVD Revenge of the Sith.  I've had this DVD for years, but never watched these extra features before now.  It does give you an appreciation of what goes into one of these films.  It is a reminder that these things are not cheap.  It cost millions of dollars to make that movie.  It took a lot of technical skill.  All the same, my criticism of the film remains, although I am somewhat humbled by the enormity of the enterprise that produced it.  We are all spoiled, because we expect that.  But to produce it is not something that should be taken for granted.

Although it is humbling to consider how much it took to produce the film, it is also discouraging to consider how much of that was wasted in producing a somewhat flawed product.  The flaws are always remembered more than the quality.  Think of it this way:  you buy a luxury auto, and it has the slightest imperfection in it, you are likely to be incensed.  Never mind that the vehicle is state of the art in many ways, that imperfection is likely to gain more attention that the wizardry that went into the making of the vehicle itself.

It is also discouraging to consider that this blog cannot be first class because it cannot command the money that it would take into to make it into what people take for granted.  Just to produce one post like this could take hours.  Yet it can be read in a minute or less.  Try to get an audience on your own efforts alone is an exercise in futility, I am beginning to suspect.

Dick Morris: Carson cannot win

He gives a number of reasons, among which is their debating styles.  He says that Hillary would eat him alive.  One reason that he gave was that Carson said that he would not have used force after 911.  Morris claims that comment pretty much disqualifies Carson.

But that is what the leftists proposed back then.  Why would they vote for Hillary?  Are these people really that cynical?  I do not know, but out of dislike, I am tempted to say that they would vote for Hillary no matter what.

However, I agree with Morris that something had to be done militarily.  The question is what and how.

I agree with Carson that an optimal response would include energy independence.  But Morris says that this is being achieved anyway.  Morris is wrong.  Fracking is a good thing, in my opinion.  But it is not immune to market forces.  Saudi Arabia is still the low cost producer.  Fracking does not change that.  Therefore, Carson has to show why he can overcome that advantage.

Morris is unconvincing, but so is everyone else.  Nobody in politics has come up with a solution to the energy problem.

Star Wars, Episode III

I've always had a problem with this episode.  I don't really believe Anakin could turn that easily to the dark side.  It turns out that the deleted scenes show more of the plot that could have made the story a bit more believable.  There were a couple, maybe three scenes, in which Padme was conferring with the budding Rebel Alliance.  Instead of showing the lovey dovey stuff in the beginning, they could have shown the rift developing between them.  A lot of that first part of the movie could have been cut out, because it was way too lengthy, and didn't add anything to the development of the story.

I've wondered, then and now, if the episode wasn't a shot at the Bush Administration, which was in office at the  time of the release.  If you watch it now, it could just as easily be against the Obama regime.  Were the scenes cut out to keep the politics out?  Then why keep some of them, and not all of them?

The story was about how the Empire was born.  The same kind of thing is developing for real right now in our own government.  Too much power is invested in the presidency, and in the Courts.

The Congress should act to regain its powers.

Perhaps a return to sanity?

It may be a bit of wishful thinking here.  The outcome of the Houston election has me feeling a bit more optimistic than I was yesterday at this time.

When I read the news, one word pops up into my mind--- insanity.  You have a professor who shreds the Constitution, and calls it "oppressive" as justification.  Just exactly what this fellow had in mind as a replacement wasn't mentioned in the headline.  Nor could it be.  The Constitution is the organizing document for an entire nation.  If you get rid of it, you must have something to replace it.  Just exactly what is that?  Anarchy?  Dictatorship?  That's nuts.

That's two things.  The third thing is the markets.  There's nothing real there.  It has gone into cloud cuckoo land.  If you can't normalize rates because the market will crash, then what does that mean?  It doesn't mean prosperity has returned, but that is what is being reported.  Nuts.

Of course, you've got catastrophe in foreign policy.  The Middle East has gone berserk.  The refugees are spilling into Europe, and they are being welcomed by another leftist guided polity that is almost as crazy as the Mohammedans.   The left admires Europe so much that they want us to be more like them.  For the last nearly 7 years, we have been moving in that direction.  Not looking good.

Houston: an island of sanity in an insane world?  How long can it last?  Outgoing mayor and lesbian Annise Parker says Houston will be punished for its vote yesterday.  Who will do the punishing?  You ought to ask that question if you get the chance.

Pareto Principle in politics

After the defeat of homosexual lobby in Houston yesterday, I was reminded of the so-called 80-20 principle, and I thought it might have a counterpart in politics.  Newt Gingrich liked to talk about getting 80 percent on an issue as a campaign strategy. The margin of victory was not that high in this election, but what if it could be?  This is thinking like Gingrich.

Gingrich could not pull it off in 2012, but that is because he could not find a way.  What way, then?  It could come from finding a way to link a lot of conservative issues together in such a way as to give the kind of result seen in Houston.

The left has gained a lot of ground this way.  They do it through trickery.  The  average person does not support the madness that so often typifies the left wing agenda.  The failed ordinance in Houston is an example of the madness that was decidedly shot down.  If you can show the madness is not just isolated to this issue, but the entire left wing agenda, you could have the makings of a landslide.  That is what Gingrich was after.

Markets are in a manic phase

Looks like the markets are headed to new highs.  There's not any reason for it except for the easy money policy of the Fed.  The GDP numbers weren't all that good, or so I hear.  Job numbers aren't that good, either.  In fact, the numbers are bad enough to keep the interest rate increases down.  It's that kind of news that drives the markets.  Then, political spinmeisters point to the markets as evidence of a good economy.  If it is so good, then why doesn't the Fed normalize rates?  The answer is that they can't.  Eventually, something has to give.

The markets are going up only because the Fed is blowing bubbles.  That's all they've got.