Plunderbund

An interesting Gallup poll hit the streets recently. Of particular interest is the breakdown by age of the opinion whether entering into war in Iraq was a mistake or not.
Did the United States make a mistake in sending troops to Iraq?
by age
Age:
18-29 Yes - 56% No - 41%
30-39 Yes - 48% No - 50%
40-49 […]

[Note: FUBAR = fucked up beyond all recognition for my non-military friends]
Lt. Col. Paul Yingling, deputy commander of the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment, wrote a scathing indictment of the top brass in an article for Armed Forces Journal. It’s worth a read. In it he makes a couple points I wanted to […]

(I’ve been traveling on business today, and haven’t even fired up my RSS reader. This is my raw opinion, unfiltered by ideas floated on other blogs yet to be read.)
This might seem like an odd thing to say in the face of the worst incident of gun violence in the history of the United […]

I don’t consider myself much of a baseball fan. I don’t obsess over standings and stats. I rarely watch games on TV (tho I will readily admit it’s hard to find a better way to spend a lazy afternoon than drinking beer and munching on peanuts at the ballpark, and can’t wait to […]

Yesterday’s big news (at least, one of the items) seemed to be the dropping of the charges in the Duke lacrosse rape case. Now, I’ve never exactly been sympathetic - these were privileged (read: rich) white kids who have the resources necessary to properly defend themselves against false charges. At the time, I […]

As crazy as that title sounds, it is exactly the argument put forward by some pro-”abstinence-only” folks.
“There are kids who don?t want to know how to put on a condom because they don’t want to have sex,” said Leslee Unruh, president and chief executive of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse, the nation?s largest network of abstinence […]

There’s a reason for the nickname, folks. Matt “Mama’s Boy” Naugle crossed a line, big time, this morning in his efforts to slime Jennifer Brunner (and defend Bennett). I struggled for a long time trying to craft an appropriate response, but in the end I balked because a) I’m not all that gifted […]

Want proof? (Like it’s hard to find…)
Two months ago today, talking about potentially leasing the turnpike out (giving control of a public infrastructure asset to a for-profit company):
The conservatives who would be likely to support this type of plan will be disappointed if they don’t see in the proposal a plan for this money to […]

I have to be honest, I had tempered my expectations going in… and Strickland blew me out of the water. Belt-tightening in excess of Blackwell’s ridiculous spending cap nonsense, a freeze on college tuition, and a real focus on improving the lot of Ohioans living in the bottom half. In addition to killing […]

It seems the “Godzilla Gang” - the annointed ones who get to tell us what is and what isn’t an “important issue” have weighed in on global warming and the action of the National Association of Evangelicals in talking about the moral implications of taking action on global warming:
Leaders of several conservative Christian groups have […]

It’s fascinating, really. This idea that America will always be on top of the world has not been true over the course of our history, nor will it be true going forward. It’s transient, especially if we rest on our laurels. And what’s really interesting is something that is only hinted at […]

Like a lot of you, I recently voted in BSB’s March straw poll- and I surprised myself by voting for Wesley Clark.
I guess I didn’t realize, until that moment, how uninspired I was by the other candidates (i.e. the actual politicians) also vying for the democratic nomination. I also didn’t realize that other people […]

George W. Bush will never get an award from Toastmasters International for his public speaking skills.  But that’s part of his appeal, I suppose, to the American public.   It’s the kind of thing that makes him seem like one of us.
I always thought his speech writers deserved an award though for their ability to compose easy […]

While researching the 2000 presidential election, I came across this great article from the Washington Post…
Silent George W.
by Richard Cohen
Washington Post - June 1, 1999  
Stop the presses!
George W. Bush has taken a position. This most extraordinary and rare turn of events followed the release of a House committee report alleging long-term Chinese espionage and the filching of just […]

I lived in Utah for almost a year- and, from experience, I can tell you that Mormons (i.e. Members of the Church of Latter Day Saints or LDS) are actually pretty nice people.
They don’t push their religion on you and they aren’t judgmental.
If you invite someone out for a drink after work (Mormons don’t […]