Bolton; A Passing Thought

In watching the John Bolton Confirmation hearings last night, a direct comparison leaps out at me;

For decades the democrats have remained silent as the corrupt collection of tinpot dictators that is the UN attacked the America continuously.

Now, someone gets appointed to the UN ambassador post that is critical of the UN, and the Democrats don’t like it.

Whose side are the Democrats on, anyway?

Outside The Beltway notes that Andrea Dworkin died today at age 59.

Dworkin was in fact the inspiration for the statement that Feminism was designed so as to allow ugly women the run of society. She certainly played that role to the hilt.

Like James, I will not fawn over her at her passing. Like I said regarding Henke’s complaints about Hitchens the other day; If someone was a bastard in their life, I have no problem with saying so. This woman had and deserved nothing but my utter and complete contempt.

There’s no real poliical lean in this week’s Bit’s Bit

(Other than rather in the writing, I’m a straight white guy with a wife and Kids, I suppose… it may be a measure of our situation, that such things would be a political measure… but in any case…)

Sometimes, to recharge one’s batteries, the best getaway is one of only a few hours. with that in mind, I offer, this week’s Bit’s Bit: Of Herons… and of life

North Alabama, NY— My wife likes Herons and waterfowl. Blue Herons, particulalry.
And, after her mother passing on a couple weeks ago, now, my wife needed a break, rather badly. Those are the two great truths that bring us here this weekend.

It’s Sunday night, about 18:00hrs as this is written, and we’re sitting in a parking area on the western fringes of Cayuga Marsh, out along SR77, north and somewhat west of Batavia, at the very edge of the huge Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge.

Springtime, you see, has never been her favorite time of year, at least since I met her. She lost her father, before I met her… and it was around this time of year, and now her mother, as well…. within a few weeks of each other, in the measure of the rolling year. So it is that while I’ve always regarded spring as my reminder that the world is refreshed, and a return for me to sanity, after the long, harsh winters this place can dish out, she tends to regard spring as a time to be reminded of a sad event… Well, now it’s TWO sad events… in her life.

I’ve never said much to her about this, but I do understand it.

For years, now, whenever we get the chance, we’ve been going to places out along the Lake Ontario Parkway, and to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge , and various wetlands around our area…. being on the south shore of Lake Ontario does have it’s advantages. We’ve even gone to other places, like for example our trip to Bombay hook down along the Deleware shoreline last October. We did a run to the Bay of Fundy a few years ago, too. (We’re already making plans to go back Bombay Hook, even if, due to the price of fuel, it ends up being the only place we go over the summer.)

Frankly, I’d have much preferred spending the day running to Montezuma, or even to the Delaware Shore. But we can’t. Money and time, those two elements that will be the death of us all, eventually, intrude once again and prevent us from going. Because I’m “On Call” this weekend, we can’t even get much more than an hour out of the city, so even Montezuma, being about an hour and a half out, is out of the question for today.

The time since the end of January, when my mother in law started suffering with health concerns, has been hard on my wife, and it’s been going on pretty much without relief. There’s a sad sinking feeling you get when someone you love is going though such problems; You’d like to help, but it’s out of your hands.

Today, however, everything lined up. The weather’s wonderful, the birds are in plenty, and the cellphone is mercifully silent.

So….for this day, then, we’ll be content and indeed well served, to simply sit here on the hard wood benches and watch the continuous parade of Blue Herons flying overhead, the Coots and the Seagulls the ducks the geese and all the other birds, that give a concert every night about this time. It’s cool enough that there’s no bugs to speak of, with a refreshing breeze coming up off the water. It’s warm enough, though, to remind one of the coming summer which isn’t all that far off.

In the midst of all of this, I can feel the tension slipping away from my wife. And, in the doing, myself, as well. You see….until I sat here, I hadn’t realized how her suffering with all this, had affected ME.

After a couple of hours, we get back into BitsBox, and head south to the CSX Buffalo Mainline, so the kids can see a train or two before we head home. It’s not been easy on them, either. But as we drive there, I see something… and it gives me pause to be reminded how little I’ve seen of it of late… and how much I’ve missed and needed it…. A smile on the face of the beautiful woman in the passenger’s seat.

Yes, the life we’re going back to, is hard, at least in the emotional sense… and it will be for a while for us, yet. There’s some fairly large wounds to heal, and that takes time.  But there is an end in sight… fuzzy, but there.

And, maybe, just maybe, the trick to this is reminding ourselves of the things like renewal, and life goes on, and beauty remains, by getting her… getting US…. close to where it’s happening.

The one sure sign that both LGF and Glenn have made it… Kos has decided to target them both with harassment.

OK, I wouldn’t put much past Kos… but this is low even for him.

Interesting discussion going on over at one of my regular haunts… Outside The Beltway . The speculation is that Rudy Guiliani will run for President.

I dunno.  Oh, sure, I’d vote for him over Hillary Clinton… and let’s not kid ourselves, that’s what this comes down to, barring any major developments…. (Which I may have later today) but the question is how well he’d do outside the Northeast.

Truth to tell, I think he’d do better than the press is willing to admit.

Dean’s World has been blogging for three years, already?

In terms of Blogs, that’s forever, man….

Hmm. ‘course, now, come June, it’ll be two years for Bit’sBlog, now that I think of it.

Anyway, stop by and give the boy his props.

Apparently the stuff Gomery tried to hide was, as I expected, only the tip of a rather large ‘berg. Captain’s Quarters Says there’s more… FARRRRRRR more.

Heh.

What the beep was this dude smoking?

OK, a slower day than usual.

Having just come back from a trip through The Keystone State, I’ve been considering a rather unique part of the American cultural landscape.

The Amish.

Some thoughts come to mind about the Amish.

However;

Do these conditions apply to some the political spectrum, as well, I wonder? To whom… to what group or groups, would all of these points within the political spectrum, apply?

Pull up a stool, Kiddies, while Uncle Bit gives you a story of cause and effect.

Here’s the picture; Quick-stop chain decides they wanna be poliically correct, and starts posting signs saying concealed weapons carriers, regardless of whether they are permitted or not, are not to be in the store.

Well, the signs are up… not even dry yet… and they’ve got five armed hold-up incidents.Rivrdog has the details.

Blithering idiots…..

The Moody Blues fan in me cannot resist a blog called Eternity Road.

That aside, there’s some real content there.

Libertarians, for all their faults, are fascinated by logical structures such as these. If they sometimes attempt to over-apply them, this is a risk inherent in the nature of their orientation toward theory. It can be curbed by the appeal to experience and evidence. By providing conservatives with first principles — properly bounded within their domains of applicability — and logic that can be used to defend conservatives’ values, libertarians do the conservative movement a service it can get from no one else.

The conversation between libertarians and conservatives has been fruitful and immensely constructive for precisely this reason. Conservatives have gotten better at defending their positions than ever before, because they use libertarian principles, approaches to the discovery of principles, and human nature-based reasoning more often than ever before. Conversely, libertarians are (slowly) learning the requisite humility and willingness to admit to error as conservatives confront them on those subjects where libertarian principles have been erroneously applied

And there it is, Gang. There’s learning to be done on both sides of that fence.

WaPo says;

Under provisions of President Bush’s 2006 budget proposal favored by Congress, the TSA will lose its signature programs in the reorganization of Homeland Security. The agency will probably become just a manager of airport security screeners — a responsibility that itself could diminish as private screening companies increasingly seek a comeback at U.S. airports

Now, just a short time ago, I suggested that I’ve been in support of the President and the majority of the Republicans because I see them as sharing the goal of reducing government.

Do you suppose the elimination of a $20bn government agency, once the need for it is no longer, qualifies? If you consider that connection overblown given that it was Bush who created the thing in the first place… I can see the argument, but consider it this way; when was the last time you saw a government program go away at the end of it’s usefulness?

Jon Last over at Galley Slaves asks a question I’m sure some would rather he hadn’t…

If John Paul II had done everything exactly the same way during his papacy but had embraced gay marriage, do you think Andrew Sullivan would still consider him a “failure”?

Sounds rather like Mr. Last has that walking one-note-samba called “Sullivan” pegged.

I’ll tell you the simple truth, here….

Had Pope John-Paul II come out for gassing the Jews, and Nuking the Arabs, and openly embraced Michial “NAMBLA” Jackson as a leader in the Pedo movement that all of his Priests should be emulating, but had also embraced ‘gay marriage’ Sullivan would have called his papalcy a resounding success, and the Pope a ‘leader for the ages’.

Captain’s Quarters reports that:

Justice John Gomery has lifted the publication ban on Jean Brault’s testimony, allowing the Canadian media to finally report the testimony to the Canadian public. As CTV demonstrates in its data-dump format, the facts as presented by CQ’s source stand up very well against the revelations possible now that the media has been unleashed

True.

But I d have to relate a little bit of friction here. I’ve seen a few poeple… bloggers, mostly, including a few right-siders… raise the argument that
rulings that ban publication of such matters in the mainstream, such as Gomery’s have the effect of ensuring that bad information gets to the people.

A comparison, however, of what Ed’s been posting, and what’s showing up in the Canadian press blows that one out of the water. The info Ed’s been posting was all too accurate.

Two thoughts occur based on that;

1: That keeping accurate info away from the people is the very intent of such rulings.

2: The very concept that the sole source of accurate information is the Mainstream media is laughable on it’s face, as Ed’s posts prove, and such arguments are likely spread by people seeking to mainstain control on the flow of information.

Such rulings have no place in a free society.