Ben Stein on Oil, Whining, and being an American

Paul W. Smith filled in for Rush today- interesting interview with Ben Stein. It's an audio soundbite about 20 minutes- not sure how long it will be available at the website-they usually don't stick around over a day or two.

Reading For Liberals

My Mother-In-Law gave me this book a few weeks ago upon her return from the liberal inundated state of Minnesota. This book illustrates the absurdness of many liberal core postures. What a nightmare it is...

Jets are neat

In a recent conversation cool stuff like jets and guns were mentioned. I have the pleasure of living in a city where some of our military’s A-10's are based out of so I get to see them fly over my house a few times a day, watch them from the second floor of the gym window (its right in the flight path) as I work out, pretty cool.
We also have this intersection by the airport right at the end of the runway - sort of like Wayne's World minus the Gremlin, cheesy hair and phrases. It’s a lot of fun to be waiting for the light to turn green and see the jets fly out. When W was in town last fall I happened to be sitting there when Air Force One took off - pretty cool. Yesterday I was approaching the intersection and an A-10 took off and I could see the second following down the runway and of course had to roll down the window to get the full effect of the jet taking off and some Radiohead cranked on the radio - just a cool experience I am glad to have the opportunity to experience...

Say What?

I guess I started looking at blogs last fall - specifically friends from college and prior - and was a little confused by some of the comments that didn’t seem to completely mesh when compared to opinions/conversations back in the days spent in E-town. I began to wonder if/how much I really knew all the people from that stage of my life…Maybe they had changed – maybe I had changed. I imagine a little bit of both.

I know I have changed quite a bit in my political, social, and fiscal views since that time. After leaving the stage and influences of college life, after leaving a position with lesser personal responsibility of an employee to now being the employer I have been allowed a far more intensified weight of personal financial responsibility and a working knowledge and relationship with the system of capitalism at a point in life probably earlier than nearly all the folks I used to and/or still do hang out with in the 20 something crowd. The key word in the last sentence regarding knowledge of the system of capitalism is the word working. Sure 5 years ago in college I could tell you all about capitalism, socialism, mixed economic systems etc. and had a theoretical knowledge and even a knowledge that would occasionally dip below the surface to momentarily present a condition that would allow a brief working knowledge of free enterprise. This being one example of many experiences and gained real world working knowledge that places me on the conservative side of the line as that is the only reasonable place I can allow myself to stand having a clear conscience and an I.Q. of above 75.

Back to the question that spurred this post “are you forming an opinion of me based purely on my comments on this blog?” The answer is no but rather modifying as accurately as they (blogs/posts) can (?) how I understand yours and other’s opinions on various things.

I began my blog in response to blogs I am/was reading. To present discussions/commentaries on issues or aspects of issues not fully brought to light in the most accurate, informed, or in a manner that does not set well with me. I know that there are people reading the same blogs but not commenting on subjects and opinions that they may not have agreed with, that’s their right and mine is to comment as I see appropriate. I do like to post on some lighter subjects such as baseball and solid chocolate fish.

Regarding posting and commenting in response to comments on my blog and others, I do them in a spirit that is not malicious or with intention to make attacks on character but rather to give a little poke here or a poke there – to spur on a discussion that may open insight to the reality of what we have to work with here – its easy to be idealistic, its far more challenging to have a thought through and feasible response to handling a given situation. Some responses to my comments have attempted to construct a wall or line to allow for positions to be taken as republican and democrat. That’s not an issue I deal with but rather conservative and liberal. Are most republicans conservative? – I would imagine. Are most democrats liberal? – I would imagine. I’m more interested in the response to issues rather than suggesting alignment with a political party. There are some things I may agree with some democrats about and some things that I may disagree with some republicans about, I try to make my decisions based on the most factual condition of a situation not based on what party, person, or emotion endorses it.

Point being I post and comment to present a view in the circle of blogs I read that isn’t always represented and/or to promote struggling with positions that may not have been arrived at using a wide or deep enough scope of knowledge. I’m not suggesting I am a ‘know it all’ by any means rather possibly a unique perspective given the audience. We’re not all going to agree but then again 10 years ago I didn’t agree with a lot of things I agreed with five years ago and five years ago I didn’t agree with a lot of things I agree with now. The goal is constant improvement.

Decisions and positions

This post is a continuation of a discussion on panoramae.blogspot.com....

I understand how one arrives at the position of #2 regarding the analogy of handguns:killing people as an intended use– let’s use an example.
Bono runs/does an anti-gun rant/video as part of "Bullet the Blue Sky."
Now I think that he and this message is a perfect reflection of the position of the anti-gun discussion. To understand his position we need to ask ourselves - Where did he grow up/live? A big city. - Under what conditions? IRA havoc...
Where did I grow up/live? Rural Kansas and now Idaho - Under what conditions? Definitely not dealing with terrorism first hand.

So what?
The fact is a gun has a different intended use and stigma dependent upon one's surroundings and conditions. To not agree would be blind to the reality of a given situation.

I understand that we probably agree on many aspects of gun control and probably many other subjects as well.

What concerns me is WHO is making these decisions and easily accepted arguments on issues like gun control.
An example specific to my area has been the situation of wolves as an endangered/protected species. Anyone who knows the dynamic of a wolf - its tendencies, and how overwhelmingly prevalent they are in the backcountry here - knows they are not and should not be an endangered/protected species - in this area. I'm not saying go kill them all - that would be pretty ignorant rather they should not be on the endangered/protected list - they aren’t anymore thanks to the management of them being handed over to state gov. as opposed to the previous federal management. Guess who has a hunting season on them this year? Yep you guessed - an animal that has been federally managed and has become a nuisance. One may say, “well they were here first” – the flaw of that statement is that it does not acknowledge the reality of the current situation which believe it or not we really have to work with.
But let’s look at who was making all of these decisions at the federal level of wolf management - people from Massachusetts, New York, LA, etc. How many of these people have first hand experience with Idaho? – How about the rural and backcountry areas?

The people making the calls or having these voices suggesting what our stance should be on issues and most often special interest issues are so disconnected from the specifics that generalizations are the mantras and sadly so easily accepted out of society’s lack of knowledge, a purely emotional response, and/or laziness.

Please understand that I am discussing an issue bigger than gun management, wolf management, etc – and is why I am discussing the smaller issues to get at a central issue – the acceptance of information, creation of a position, and its defense without using all the real information and personal research and study on the validity of the position.