Politics and other nightmares

Both Democratic and Republican presidents have engaged in this annual Thanksgiving farce, so I'm not being political when I say it's a cynical reminder of the worst in politics, pretending one thing when the reality is quite something else and even getting school kids to go along with the hypocrisy. What about the millions of turkeys that weren't pardoned? You gotta love PETA, though:

Here's your word for the day: innumeracy. It's the mathematical equivalent of illiteracy, and it helps explain how the federal budget has grown to such monstrous proportions. An agency's funding is proposed to be increased by, say, $100 million, but then the increase is reduced to $50 million. Opponents decry a "50 percent cut in funding," and the press uncritically echoes it, never mind that what we really have is a $50 million increase in funding.

Intelligent design has been roundly -- and rightly -- criticized for being bad science. David Darlington at In the Agora makes the valid point that it is also bad religion (or at least incomplete theology):

The god of Intelligent Design is not even an identifiably Christian god. Any religion that posits the existence of a supernatural creator-being can fit under its umbrella. At best, Intelligent Design represents a warmed-over deism, with an eternal watchmaker god.

Judge Robert Bork wasn't actually the first Supreme Court nominee to be Borked -- rejected by the Senate because of an effective smear campaign. It was Clement F. Haynsworth, way back in 1969. And Sen. Birch Bayh, father of Sen. Evan Bayh, had a major role. All things considered (including his desire to woo moderate Democrats), it will be interesting to see whether the junior Bayh follows the party line on Samuel Alito or goes his own way.

Yesterday I went off on the people who seem to want a theocracy in the United States. It seems only fair to also say a word or two about the nuts on the other side. Michael Newdow, the pest who has been trying to get the Pledge of Allegiance banned on account of the "under God" phrase, is now going after "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency.

Oh, yeah, Al Gore would have been a good president:

In in interview with Australia's The Age, the 2000 Democratic presidential nominee and former senator drew parallels between those who dispute global warming, and its investment implications, with Neville Chamberlain and others who wanted to appease the Nazis before World War II.

Just when you think you've seen every possible inappropriate use of the Hitler analogy . . .

"Why do we need townships?" is a fair question. The answer is porbably a little more complicated than either township advocates or detractors will admit:

These kids today, I tell ya: If they're not into drugs or sex, they're out trying to find some other way to get in trouble:

Sessions, who turned 18 on Sept. 22, ran as a write-in candidate because he was too young to get on the ballot in the spring. The young politician used $700 from a summer job to fund his door-to-door campaign in Hillsdale, Mich., a town of about 9,000.

It took Mort Kondracke until now to figure this out?

If Washington, D.C., politicians were serious about fiscal discipline, especially to prepare for the baby boom retirement crisis, they'd raise taxes and cut spending. But they aren't serious.

As the debate on budget reconciliation right now shows, Republicans are trying to cut spending some and cut taxes more. Democrats want to raise taxes some and spend a lot more. And the twain shall never meet.

A couple of days ago, I linked to a thoughtful essay about the Republicans' need to reshape their philosophical approach. It's hard to find something similar for Democrats, since they don't even have a philosophy these days except "Bush bad." At least some people are starting to realize that:

It would be a shame if the Democrats' quest for something to say produced only focus-group driven sloganeering and mush.