Steve Fischer's Random Blog

Category: Politics

  • Parole and Police killings

    I’m generally one to understand the complexities of the decision to allow parole. It shouldn’t be used for cheap political shots. So I would be in favor of reserving judgment on Mike Huckabee’s decision to allow out on parole the guy (serving 108 years for five felonies) who recently killed four police officers.

    But this article makes an interesting point:

    Huckabee says this “horrible and tragic event” should not be politicized. But it is his party that has honed such attacks into a dark art. This is a prison of their making, and they wasted little time getting back to it, even now that the offender is one of their own . Michelle Malkin’s Web site Monday showed a picture of Clemmons, with a tag line: “Huckabee’s Willie Horton II.”

    Back in 1988, when it came to light that Willie Horton committed fresh crimes while out on a weekend furlough program backed by then-Gov. Mike Dukakis of Massachusetts, Republicans used it to help destroy Dukakis the presidential candidate. It may even have cost him the election.

    “The only question is whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his hand or without it,” said a gleeful Roger Ailes, then a media consultant to Republicans.

    Ailes now runs Fox News. If they decide to hold the politician accountable for early release of a violent felon linked now to a death of four police officers, they know where to find him – in studio, as a Fox News host.

    On this topic Bill O’Reilly called Huckabee a “stand-up guy”. Sure, you work for the same (fair and balanced) network…

  • No Amnesty. No, Amnesty…

    Politics is fascinating. Lou Dobbs made a living bashing illegal immigrants on CNN. He apparently was just kidding. Now that he’s considering a run for political office he’s apparently realized that there are a lot of Latino voters…

  • Yottabytes? Lotta bytes?…

    What’s a yottabyte? I may sound like the beginning of a Marx Brothers joke, but it’s actually how much data the NSA is planning on storing…

  • Lame

    No, not me for not posting in ages (ok, maybe that is lame).

    Yale Press is publishing a book called “Cartoons that Shook the World” about the Danish cartoons about the prophet Muhammad that cause such uproar. It is supposed to be a scholarly discussion of the issues.

    But Yale Press decided to omit the actual cartoons.

    Excuse me? How can you publish a book about the cartoons and not show them? Egads. Yale self-censored to prevent possible uproar, thus giving extremists a victory.

    Lame.

  • News Flash

    This just in, corruption in New Jersey.

    OK, not news…

  • NY Politics

    New York state has been trying very hard to achieve the status as having the most dysfunctional state politics. There’s heavy competition, but when the state starts wanting Elliot Spitzer back, you know you’re in bad shape.

    Recent opening paragraph from the NY Times:

    Recent events have crystallized the difference between Tehran and Albany. In one place, political developments are being shaped in part by Twitter. In the other, they are shaped by twits.

  • Mixed Feelings

    Since my wife is a broker, she often gets taken out by the big insurance carriers. Part of doing business, she gets some very nice dinners out of it.

    But last night she got taken out by folks from AIG. To a very nice place. Good food, good drinks. Aren’t we currently bailing out AIG? And if so, doesn’t that mean my tax dollars paid for that night out?

    Serious mixed feelings….

  • Fact checking, overrated?

    I can’t even think of how often I’ve read an article that was obviously (at least to me) wrong. Science articles in particular because how many journalists really understand science?

    This is just one example. I actually like George Will even though I often disagree with him. He actually is a huge baseball fan and is in favor of the DH (a rare opinion that I agree with – have you watched  pitchers bat?).

    But apparently George Will’s articles are not that well checked. Gee, I’m so surprised…

  • Where have I been?

    OK, I’ll admit it. I’ve been a blogging slacker. And I’m unemployed so you’d think I’d have tons of time.

    In an attempt to catch up, this will be a fairly random posting.

    Fist of all, what have I been up to? Hmm. Not telling. There are some things going on that might work out or might not and for now my answer is no comment. I do not currently have a job, I am not currently making any money, I am strangely busy and having fun. Create whatever rumor you like based on those minimal facts. You are unlikely to be correct.

    To get in shape, I’ve been trying to get into swimming. We belong to a new YMCA with a nice Olympic sized pool. I take Danielle there, but when I’m with her I basically stand around trying to teach her to swim. My running tends to slack off in the winter (between the cold and the dark I am just not motivated) so swimming seemed like a good approach for someone with some free time (though lately not as much).

    So I’m still a fairly lame swimmer, but I’m to the point where I can do 20-30 minutes of lap swimming at an easy pace with no breaks. It is really good exercise. The strange thing is that as a runner I expect to be sore after a workout, but swimming is so low impact that I’m not. So I feel like I didn’t work that hard. Until I walk home. Then I realize that I’m exhausted.

    What else? Football season has been interesting but not so great. My Packers are just beat up and lame. I’ve been following the Jets as a Favre fan, but they are all over the place. I’ll root for the Giants if they aren’t playing the Packers, but they are starting to show major problems.

    The past few years have taught me (as a Knicks fan) to not pay much attention to the NBA. This year the Knicks are actually watchable, though they are clearly laying the groundwork for 2010.

    Normally I’d be gearing up for college hoops, but Indiana is going to be so bad this year. I like their new coach but he has a couple years of rebuilding to do. I’ll be doing a pool for March Madness so if you are interested enter your information here.

    It will be a mild Christmas this year as we try to be frugal, but we’ll do the usual. We always go to my wife’s sister’s place for Christmas morning. That’s a good, casual Christmas day. Close family, minimal stress, fun with the kids.

    The girls are doing great. Danielle just turned 6 and Victoria just turned 2. Victoria has started to (occasionally) use the potty which is awesome. She has a while to go before she’s doing it for real, but I can see the end of Pampers forever.

    Victoria is a piece of work. In many ways she is the total opposite of Danielle. Dan is a typical first child. Generally well behaved, smart  (OK, I’m biased), a bit shy, always wants her parents.

    Tori gets into everything she shouldn’t. Just today she managed to get to the power strip with the plugs for cable/phone/cable modem/router and turn everything off. I think she’s smart like Dan, but at 2 it’s hard to tell. But shy? Forget about it. If I’m staying in the apartment and a random stranger is going outside, she’s going with the random stranger.

    Danielle is starting to read on her own which is huge fun. She’s really into it and will try to read every book we have. You realize how wacky many English words are when you are helping someone learn to read. When she sees a word like “right” telling her to “sound it out” just isn’t that effective.

    My mom’s Alzheimer’s is a bit worse. She’s to the point now where she forgets words so often her sentences are total gibberish. It’s hard being far away because talking to her on the phone is largely pointless. She was given hospice care a few months back which is supposed to mean that she has 6 months or less, but I think she’s going to be around a while. Which is somewhat ironic because I know that she wouldn’t want to stick around in her condition. Probably the hardest thing this fall was not being able to discuss the election with her. My mom was a hugely political person and extremely liberal. She probably would have voted for Hillary in the primary to try to elect a woman, but she would have been incredibly happy to see the first black president elected. Sad that she has no clue.

    But otherwise our family’s health is good. My wife’s brother (who smoked like a chimney) had a mild heart attack and then had triple bypass. That turned out to be the best possible thing because now he’s quit smoking, is exercising and is really turning his health around.

    2008 was definitely a challenging year, but 2009 should be much better. I am definitely looking forward to the new year.

    And I’ll try to blog a bit more…

    Random links:

    Cool astronomy pictures

    Might only be funny if you’ve been in NYC cabs…

    A tremendous "year in pictures" page. The last surfing picture is amazing, but there’s something about #23. It looks like a bunch of guys at a park until you look close and realize they are shooting bows and arrows.

    And finally, I’ve said this before, but the best Christmas album ever…

  • Brain Death Controversy

    Here is a very well reasoned discussion of the brain death controversies that occasionally arise. I have a bit of compassion for these cases because my father died in a car accident. He was on life support for two days while they tried to stabilize him. But it became clear that his injuries were too great and that his brain had stopped.

    It was an easy decision for us to stop life support because we had discussed this and my father’s views were very clear. He always felt if his brain was gone, he was gone, and I feel the same way.

    But not everyone discusses this up front, and different religions have different things to say on the topic. So I agree with the article, which basically says that it needs to be established up front that it is a medical decision.