February 4, 2010, I'm not QUITE dead...
For those wondering, "Hey TD... why the radio silence?" The short answer is that my lengthy run of luck that unsupported Movable Type 2.64 would remain viable for the rest of my time on God's green Earth (or at least God's green Blogosphere) came to an end, with an "upgrade" to the servers on my (now former) host company. Thanks to the magic of my friends at Blog Consulting, we're back on Movable Type Pro... which, hopefully, will now keep up with our new and improved server.
Obviously, for those who missed my commentary on the state of the union, the loss of the Kennedy family Senate seat, or the sudden loss of nerve associated with trying Ron Jeremy Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian trial in Manhattan, or of course, Rahm Emmanuel's use of "R-word," thereby hopelessly disturbing the sensibilities of the Kennedy Shriver family owners of the "Special Olympics" ... as I write this a few days after Groundhog Day... let me just say... I got nothin'.
I'll just refer you over to "Who is IOZ?" for this rather intelligent commentary on the intelligent observation of others that the United States's adoption of a "summary liquidation of enemies of the state" doctrine... is "radical" only in our mindset of the idea of America... in the actual history of the extraordinarily tainted actual America... it's just less of a big deal than all that. Maybe that's the perspective we need: what's old is new again... the old problems weren't so radically different from the new ones... none of us peons really had too much to say about the big picture, and it's really just about how to best live our lives on our own terms... perhaps we can individually try to make this a better world, but understand that it's always an uphill battle, and the owners of the planet, with names like Goldman and Sacks, Kennedy and Shriver, and so forth... well, they own the place... we just live here.
So... while we can be rightly offended at the humongous disappointment that my college classmate the President has been thus far... what the hell did we expect? He's never had a real job before, for God's sake (and I'll keep saying it: senator IS NOT A REAL JOB.) And hence, he has failed to realize that paying the price for principles-- if he has any, which remains highly dubious-- is necessary for long-term viability. The fact is-- selling out on civil liberties, GTMO, torture, state secrets, etc., allows the public to RIGHTLY regard him as a worthless pushover-- which is the REAL reason he and the worthless pushovers in his worthless political party, despite current large majorities, may well lose those large majorities in the very next election. Fortunately, we have some precedent: the President's stated favorite politican (that would be Ronald Reagan) had a bad first year or two, but turned it around by standing for things he believed in (I happen not to believe in them, but that's another matter). But the people admired his cojones. If the current President wants to stand for something-- and he can stand for, oh, the rule of law or something... then popularity and public support to do other less important things, such as health care reform, will follow. If not... it's going to be a long three years... and it's only going to be three more years. (Although, the President's first year has told us in terms heretofore thought unimaginable that the identity of the occupant of the Oval Office is not quite as important as we thought anyway; somehow, the interests of the powerful at the expense of the less powerful continues unabated regardless.)