Courage of Convictions

I've received a number of comments in the last few days from "Anonymous".  I don't have much regard for someone who lacks the courage to identify him- or herself.  My profile is out there for anyone to see, so if you see fit to comment on my postings, please have the courage to put at least a pseudonym on your comments.  I won't try to destroy you or say untrue things about you - I'm not a liberal!

I won't bother to address all of the comments; most of them were the usual criticisms of Republicans, big oil, etc.  If Anonymous offered any alternative solutions, they were few and far between. 

As Obama is fond of saying, let me be clear.  I am in favor of all forms of alternative energy, including nuclear.  The reality, however, is that we need oil and gas right now and the other sources of energy are not available for use today.  Solar and wind energy won't run our cars, planes and other forms of transportation.  There are literally hundreds of different products that are petroleum-based, from plastics to medical products.  Are  you willing to dispense with all of these modern (and sometimes life-saving) products? 

Anonymous accused me of having no imagination and stealing the title of my blog from Jon Stewart.  I don't watch Stewart and so was unaware until this morning that the name of his rally he's sponsoring is "Rally to Restore Sanity".  My blog has been around a lot longer than Jon Stewart's plans for a rally; maybe he was inspired by the title of my blog!

I will freely admit that I listen to Fox News.  I would bet that Anonymous and others who feel Fox News isn't trustworthy have never even watched a Fox newscast.  Don't point to Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity as examples of bias.  They are not newscasters; they're commentators and there's a difference.  They are paid to give their opinions and, yes, Fox does lean to the right, sometimes heavily, in their commentators.  I would challenge you to watch a Fox newscast - that would be Bret Baier and Shepard Smith - and see for yourself that they do indeed just report the news without a slant to influence opinion.  They even report news that isn't favorable to conservatives, whereas CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC et. al often fail to report what doesn't favor Democrats.  There's a reason that Fox News' ratings are so high. 

One other point I'd like to make is that when one makes generalized comments about large groups of people, e.g., Republicans always do this, Democrats always do that, blacks are like this, whites are like that, you're automatically wrong. There is no group on earth that is completely homogeneous, so don't fall into the trap of claiming that we're all alike. 

I don't fancy myself as a political commentator, nor do I have aspirations to such.  I started this blog simply to blow off steam after the election of 2008 - writing makes me feel better.  So, Anonymous, my suggestions are to quit attacking me personally, have the courage to identify yourself, offer some real alternative solutions if you don't like mine, and, oh, one final thing - learn to spell correctly!

The Mean Season

With the election nearing, the political ads and rhetoric are often over the top.  In a recent debate, Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas accused her Republican opponent, John Boozman, of having voted in Congress to allow a father who had raped his daughter to sue the doctor who performed an abortion on the daughter he had raped.  The only problem is that Mr. Boozman had no idea what she was talking about and when challenged, she couldn't back up her ugly accusation. 

The ad by Florida Democratic representative Alan Grayson is one of the most shameful, despicable things I've ever seen a politician do.  This is the ad that takes a quotation from his opponent, Daniel Webster, completely out of context, which makes it seem totally different from the original quotation in its entirety. He then compares Mr. Webster to the  Taliban!  No, nothing over the top about that.  Mr. Grayson should be ashamed, but he seems to have no sense of shame at all and I can't imagine why anyone would consider voting for someone so devoid of character. 

The Democrats can't really run on their legislative "accomplishments".  They managed to pass a lot of new laws, but the only problem is that the majority of Americans didn't want those laws.  They now can do nothing but resort to name-calling and outright lies to divert attention from the damage they're doing to the economy and the country as a whole.