The Brutal Truth

Mark Kleiman, over at one of my favorite blogs, makes the point most of us were already thinking but hadn't yet dared say out-loud:

This is going to be an uncomfortable post, so let me start with some
disclaimers:

1. I don't think pundits have any business lecturing politicians
about how to lead their private lives.

2. I don't think anybody has any business lecturing anyone else on how to deal with a fatal disease.

3. I think Elizabeth and John Edwards are both displaying admirable fortitude in the
face of horrible fortune.

4. I admire (what I know about) John Edwards. I think he'd be a strong candidate and a good President.

All of that said,Edwards's decision to stay in the race for President strikes me as problematic.

The numbers on Stage IV breast cancer are brutal: it's unlikely that Elizabeth Edwards would survive until the end of her husband's first term. As the husband of a woman dying a painful death (the cancer has spread to bone, and bone pain can be horrible), as a grieving widower, and as a single parent of two young adolescents, he couldn't give his job his undivided attention: unless he had a heart of stone, which he obviously doesn't.

Whether running for President, or becoming President, would be good for John Edwards or his family is their business, and I don't think anyone else should second-guess what is clearly a family choice. But whether he could do the job is our business. I think there's room for doubt.

It's been a while

Well, it's certainly been a while since I've taken blogger out to play, so I thought I'd give you all a little update. Although I'm sure most of you have gone off to other blogs to play with new friends.

I've got some time before election season picks up again, and then it's back to work, but as long as I play nice (and don't say anything that will get me into trouble) I think I can risk a few blog posts and try to relive the glory days.

In the meantime, here's my favorite picture of the day: my nephew, who was born Christmas 05, has turned into quite a cute little toddler.

Life

"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable "

--John Kenneth Galbraith



So, I've been MIA for quite some time and I suppose it warrants an explanation. I've been working in politics for a while now, and up until recently have just been lucky enough to have the luxury of being able to blog without worrying about conflicts of interest or how public statements or my blog might effect a campaign I was working on.

As of January of this year things have changed a bit and I no longer have that luxury. My original intent was that I could still blog about things unrelated or just about more personal stuff. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that the better choice is to just put the thing on hold for a little while, and depending on how things progress in November, perhaps put the whole thing on hold for a long time.

I will probably check in from time to time and let you all know how things are going. In the meantime, feel free to send an email to check in or even just for a good old fashioned debate on politics.

My Jesus Year

Jesus year n. a person’s 33rd year of life.

Categories: English

Etymological Note: From the age that Jesus is said to have been when he died.

Yeah, so I'm 33 today. I've been a big slacker with the blog...work has been occupying most of my time. Thought I would spend the day getting re-acqainted with blogging, I love it and haven't been doing enough of it.

As the story goes, a person's jesus year is supposed to be the year in which you accomplish your goals or some such thing. Most people make the mistake of thinking the jesus year is the year follwing your 33rd birthday. My understanding is that it is a person's 33rd year of life; which obviously means that one's jesus year is the year following the 32nd birthday.

I forgot last year, that the coming year would be my jesus year and hence forgot to pay attention to whatever one should have been paying attention to during the jesus year. That said, I now have the opportunity to reflect upon the past year and offer whatever insight my jesus year has afforded me:

1. Always ask for what you want, the worst that can happen is someone will tell you "no."(caveat: this advice becomes inoperative in the event that the worst that could happen is that you would get fired from your job or go to jail)

2. Almost always tell the truth (almost always, and again, this advice becomes inoperative in the event that termination or jail is likely).

3. Be good to people. Because it's the right thing to do.

4. Know that your parents are proud of you. Because they are and always have been, even if sometimes you weren't sure.

5. Forgive your parents, for whatever it is you think they did.

6. Love your family. They're all you've got.

Alright, that's all the lofty reflection you get from me today...much work to do. I've got a president and an entire republican party to ridicule.

Sorry for the blogging hiatus

Work, work, work...that's all I do.

Seriously, I've been swamped and not feeling any blog inspiration. I think all should be back to normal, but life is about to get real interesting so we'll see.

Gratuitous Ranting

I'm tired of the Olympics. Nothing exciting has happened. Oooh, except that American Lindsay Jacobellis who was favored to win the gold and completely blew it because she was hot dogging. It was one of the great "agony of defeat" moments. But I digress.

I'm tired of the Winter Olympics, the coverage is disrupting my normal MSNBC viewing habits and I'm beginning to get cranky about it. When I get up at 6 in the morning I expect to be able to turn on my television and watch Imus (yes, I know Imus is an asshole, I still watch it, get over it).

I like to be able to tune in and find out what's going on, and I don't want to have to watch CNN to find out. I hate CNN. The Winter Olympics is not more important than the news, and NBC is running all this stuff primetime so why do I have to suffer through it on MSNBC? Annoying.

The one upside of the Winter Olympics, Tucker Carlson continues to make a complete ass of himself on a daily basis while doing the Post-Olympic coverage.

Sorry for the light posting

Blogger has been having, er, issues of some kind.

Snow

Lots of it. Perhaps I'll grab my camera and venture outside today...