If you're looking for comfort food, try a diner. We'll vigorously discuss anything and everything, and when the dust settles, maybe we'll have made a little sense along the way. Remember, if it isn't blogged, it hasn't happened. E-mail me at UpDownBlog@aol.com

 
Bless Me Father, For I Have Blogged

Online confession? We'll maybe it will cut down on the molestation!
posted by Chris at 12:07 AM

 
Ariana, You Ignorant Slut

Everyones favorite wack-a-doo, Ariana Huffington, has put out obscene ads claiming that anyone that drives an SUV supports terrorism. I guess her dons at Oxford didn't teach her anything about logic. The 9-11 hijackers used bank accounts too--should we therefore ban banking as a result? I've never been impressed with Ariana's writing and opinions and this solidifies my opinion.
posted by Chris at 12:01 AM

 
2002-- The (Belated) Wrap-up

In my personal life, I thought 2002 was a decent year--no major events save my surprise birthday party, but also thnkfully, no tragedies or major complications. The world, however, continued to be screwed up. I look forward to keeping this blog going so I can have a really good review of the 2003 next year.
posted by Chris at 11:09 AM

 
Bloated

After two plus weeks of holiday indulgence, I've just about had it. Back in SF, I will spurn almost all food and alcoholic beverages and try to cleanse the toxicity from my system!
posted by Chris at 11:05 AM

 
I Heard I'm Going First Class!

Well folks, I will be flying home to NYC tomorrow and I don't know how often I'll be able to blog. I wanted to do some year end wrap-up, like Esquire's Dubious Achievement Awards, or something but I don't know if I'll be able to find thr time. 2002 has been a blur. Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

He Did The Right Thing!

No, he din't buy drinks for everyone, but Trent Lott announced he will not be majority leader for the next Congress and will also not resign his Senate seat. Now if he would just manumit his slaves, he's hit a Grand Slam! Just Kidding!
posted by Chris at 12:57 AM

 
I Am The Warrior

'Twas my first time at a Golden State Warrior's game and wouldn't youy know it, they lost by 2 points at the buzzer in overtime. And then a great fight broke out, including some guys in the stands. I've convinced that the NBA is a group of thugs.
posted by Chris at 12:42 AM

 
He Just Had To Put His 2 Cents In

Of course, it was only a matter of time before Bill Clinton weighed in on the Lott affair. The Democrats smell blood, but I'm not so sure--I think they are going to overreach and show themselves to be for a leftwing reverse racism. Remember, it was the conservative bloggers that brought Lott's comments to the national forefront (someday, maybe this little journal will too!). And remember, the KKK was a Democratic organization.
posted by Chris at 8:59 PM

 
We Can Rebuild Them, We Have The Technology

I'm glad to see the new proposals for the World Trade Center site have a little more oomph to them than the previous proposals. While mindful of the 3,000 that lost their lives at their site, we can't allow terrorist scumbags to think they can keep us from building skyscrapers. While it's is presumptious for me to speak for the dead, I just can't believe that the businessmen, fireman, and cops who died there would want us to mawkishy dwell on the death that occured that day in lieu of the tremendous heroism that so many exhibited. Every time I go home to my native city, I feel a twinge of grief when looking at the broken Manhattan skyline and I will never forgive those bastards for what they did. But bringing the tallest building in the world back to New York City will go a long way in healing a still grieving city and nation.
posted by Chris at 8:52 PM

 
Mary, Mary, Why Ya Buggin?

Mary Matalin is leaving her position as VP Cheney's PR advisor. Mickey Kaus reports that she wanted to slide into Karen Hughes spot but that Bush doesn't like her. I agree with Kausfiles take--W. want sto keep at arms distance anyone associated with running his father's 1992 campaign. And it would probably be a good idea to not let Pat Buchanan anywhere near the 2004 convention, which I'm hoping will be in NYC.
posted by Chris at 8:30 PM

 
Now That Gore is Scratched, How Do We Handicap This Horse Race?

Gore wisely pulled a Richard Nixon and decided that the next presidential race after a loss was not his to win as George W. Bush, War Leader, is impossible to beat by an increasingly leftward lurching Democratic Party. I also think that if Gore ran, he would have to face up to how inept the Clinton administration was in counterterrorism and foreign policy (the Carter deal with N. Korea for example). And yes, I know about the parallels to Gulf War I and the 1992 election but this is different. I think we forget how divided the country was on going to war with Iraq in 1991---remember how many prominent Senators opposed it. 9/11 was something completely different. All but the really kooky left know this is a war and that the enemy will try to hit us again. So I think W. can get a pass on the economy if the GOP Congress can hold down spending and he can be seen as at least doing something, about the economy, unlike his father who was seen as out of touch.

It will be a prmary between Kerry and Edwards with Kerry getting the nomination. Davis will not run--Enron is yesterday's news and his mismanagement of the power crisis can't all be blamed on Kenny Boy. Here in California, Davis is still very unpopular--he only won reelection because Simon was an inept first time candidate with little real political experience. Harold Ford is too young and too unknown to be on the ticket but he is a rising star. Dems will be hurt by Al Sharpton and campaign finance reform.
posted by Chris at 4:25 PM

 
No More Gore?

So what's with his decison not to run in '04? My guess is that he is calculating that '04 is not going to be a Democratic year, much like Richard Nixon decided that there was no way the GOP would in in '64 after the Kennedy assasination. You heard it here first--Al will run in '08.
posted by Chris at 1:34 PM

 
I Wonder Why They Put The South So Far South?

Unfortunately, there is a lingering sentiment among Southerners that the Confederacy really won the Civil War (oops, sorry, I mena the War Between the States). Southerers love to talk about how the war was all about freedom loving people fighting the tyranny of higher tariff's and how the South Will Rise Again, yada, yada, yada. And yet they completely ignore slavery as having anything the least bit to do with it. If I had time to do a history Ph.D, I think it would be interesting to research how the Confederacy still influences Southern and American political life--witness the naming of US Army bases after confederate generals, (weren't these guys traitors?) the battle over state flags that incorporate the Stars and Bars, etc.
posted by Chris at 1:31 PM

 
The Big Trent of the GOP

I hope we invade Iraq soon so we can keep this guy off the front pages and the blogs. Too bad nobody resigns anymore--I think since Clinton, nobody feels that they have to pay any price for their mistakes. So now he's gonna stick it out, and will likely, as David Frum suggested, make all sorts of concessions to Democrats.
posted by Chris at 12:37 PM

 
Live From New York, It's Al Gore!

Gotta admit that Al was pretty funny on last night's SNL, As posted before, I think SNL has become completely unfunny, but last night was at least a reprieve. What made the show funny is that the skits all played to Gore's personality--c'mon, Gore and Lieberman in the hot tub doing a goof on The Bachelor? Classic! And Stuart Smalley counseling Gore on his "Shame Spiral?"--fantastic! For some reasons, liberals I love to hate are really, really funny on SNL--remember Jesse "The Question is Moot?" Jackson (Who Keeps the Car? I keep the Car! Why? The question is moot!).
posted by Chris at 12:31 PM

 
Take My Daughters, Please!

I don't think Slate Magazine's Explainer has it quite right about the Bible containing no mention of "sodomy" amongst the residents of Sodom. Genesis 19: 4-11 talks about how the residents of Sodom wanted to have sex with the angels that Lot was hiding--in fact, Lot offers his virgin daughters to them instead! In later Biblical books like Isaiah, Ezekial, and Jeremiah, the account of Sodom's demise changed to general sinfulness, neglect of the poor, etc. Just wanted to clear that up!
posted by Chris at 11:13 PM

 
Scrutinizing Scruton

British Philisopher Roger Scruton had a piece in yesterday's Wall Street Journal about conservatism being more a temperament than a philosophy. Like a lot of Scruton's pieces I have read, he almost gets it right but then loses it somewhere. First off, he doesn't understand the concept of rights, although most people on the left do not either. Rights per se have not caused an erosion of responsibility---rather it is the improper use of the term "right" as synonym for "desire" that's caused the problems of the welfare state.

Scuton goes on: "At the heart of every conservative endeavor is the effort to conserve a historically given community. In any conflict the conservative is the one who sides with "us" against "them"--not knowing, but trusting. He is the one who looks for the good in the institutions, customs and habits that he has inherited. He is the one who seeks to defend and perpetuate an instinctive sense of loyalty, and who is therefore suspicious of experiments and innovations that put loyalty at risk. So defined, conservatism is less a philosophy than a temperament..."

This piece does conservatism a great disservice because he cannot really answer why there ought to be a conservative temperament and not a liberal one. Without a grounding in philosophy, Scruton will have no answer except to appeal to the past, religion or culture, all of which are vague terms that mean different things to different people. Should a conserative be for segregation because that's how it was in the past? (If you're Trent Lott, maybe you are!) Can an atheist or agnostic be a conservative? Rather than "temperament," conservatism can best be grounded in a theory of rights, although certainly not the welfare state "rights" that Scruton rightly considers as having fostered a culture of dependency

I think Scruton needs to reevaluate his defense of conservatism---it does much more harm than good. Tacitus speaks about how conservatism is such a big tent that people with widely varying views on subjects like race and different philosophical grounding. Ayn Rand ( I knew I would mention her in this blog one day!) did not think conservatves had an integrated philosophy, i.e. one that developed its politics from it's metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics, other than a vague religous base. Maybe this is the reason that conservatism is seen by Scruton as just a temperament, which again begs the question, why a conservative temperament than a liberal one.




posted by Chris at 9:59 PM

 
I want My Juman Rights, Like Zhou Prezident Yimmy Carter Says

Carter's been a failure as both a president and an ex-president, Nobel Peace Prize or Not. Too bad he didn't threaten to do to Iran what George Bush is going to do to Iraq--maybe this whole Islamic Fundamentalist thing would have been nipped in the bud.
posted by Chris at 9:37 PM