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My apologies for the complete absence of posts on this blog for the past month. My advance New Year’s resolution is to visit it much more often. And thanks to you who have stopped by, weighed in and debated with one another. There is not much better than a good argument that sticks to the issue and doesn’t get personal; and one of the best ways to learn new things and how to defend your point of view is to have a good argument with those who see the world differently.
So, thanks again, and keep stopping in.
Now to today’s item on how I see one piece of our little corner of the world:
Why am I not surprised that, among the numerous perks in their current contract, the Massachusetts State Police get a 2.5 raise simply for passing the physical fitness test given every two years. That’s right - a bonus for being in good enough shape to do the job they were hired to do. Does this mean I get a 2.5 percent salary bump for passing a typing test every two years?
Our governor, Deval Patrick, said before he was elected that he was going to eliminate unnecessary spending by combing through the budget. What he really needs to do is comb through union contracts.
How about this: If you don’t pass the test, you get fired.

Brief thoughts after the Palin-Biden set-to in St. Louis.
I wonder if Sarah Palin’s last name was really Paling at one time, and the family just decided to drop the “g” because, y’know, they weren’t usin’ it anyway. By the end of the debate, I was likin’ some of what she was sayin’, but I was just wonderin’ if some of the schoolin’ up there in Alaska oughta include some trainin’ in how people should be talkin’ to one another.
Attractive, bright, confident, but a little too “Fargo.” Good thing Biden doesn’t have a “g” on the end of his name.
Which brings us to Joe Biden. Articulate and well informed in the minutia of Washington, as expected, although half the time I was blinded by that dazzling row of teeth.
The most important thing I thought he said - although it didn’t make any of the highlight clips I saw afterward - was on taxes. In defending Barack Obama’s income redistribution plan, he said, “Where I come from, that’s called fairness.”
Well, Joe, maybe it is now, but where you come from it used to be called socialism, especially when the rich already pay the vast majority of taxes. It is still socialism, no matter what you call it. It’s just another way of saying “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” According to that philosophy, if some people have more money than other people, it’s not fair. If some people are having trouble paying a mortgage, government’s role is not to promote economic growth so that everybody has a better chance to pay their mortgages through their own efforts. No, it is to take money from wealthier people and give it to those having trouble, without even asking why they’re having trouble. It can never be their own fault. Even to ask the question violates their “dignity.”
If they are elected, and succeed in imposing this twisted version of “compassion” on the country, the promise of America will dim. Immigrants have flocked to America because of its promise of independence and opportunity. Obama/Biden won’t say it, but that promise is being changed to: If you work hard and succeed, we will punish you by taking the fruits of your success away from you. And we will give it to somebody else who we have decided is more deserving of it. And for those of you who fail, don’t worry - we’ll reward you.
As I’ve said before, the best thing to be in their administration will be a victim. Welcome to the Dependent States of America.

So, did you hear what that Alaska hockey mom ditz, Republican vp candidate Sarah Palin said this past week? In an interview with CBS anchor Katie Couric, talking about the economic meltdown, she said, “Part of what a leader does is to instill confidence, is demonstrate that he or she knows what they’re talking about and communicates to people. If you listen to me and follow what I’m suggesting, we can fix this. When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on television and didn’t just talk about the princes of greed, you know, he said, look, here’s what happened …”
This is supposed to demonstrate that she knows what she’s talking about?? I mean, can you believe it? She’s so dumb she didn’t know Herbert Hoover was the president in 1929 when the market crashed. So dumb she didn’t know that FDR wasn’t even elected until 1932. So dumb she didn’t know there was no TV around for another decade.
And this woman wants to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. Why isn’t the mainstream media screaming about this, airing that clip 24/7??
Oh, uh, sorry. That’s right. It wasn’t Sarah Palin who said that. It was Joe Biden. Democratic vp candidate, here. Long-time, very experienced, allegedly intelligent member of Congress. Must have just been a little slip. No big deal. Not worth talking about or airing the clip any more. Not scary for him to be a heartbeat away …

Memo to the everyone-is-special, everyone-gets-a-trophy, everything-gets-posted-on-the-refrigerator defenders of community organizers: Cool the faux outrage.
There’s so much crying going on here I’m afraid the members of the Democratic grievance industry are going to rust out the floors of their luxury hybrids. The skin is getting so thin that we’re starting to see the blue blood underneath. Sarah Palin is so mean. She’s so sarcastic. She not only mocked - she TRASHED community organizers in her speech before the Republican National Convention. Waaaahhh!
Oh, please. The GOP vice presidential nominee did no such thing. If she did, then the Barack Obama campaign has been just as mean, just as nasty in trashing small-town mayors. Should all the Republicans start crying as well? Do Democrats think the mayors who go to work each day in cities of less than 10,000 people are worthless?
Of course not. The point, which the citizens of Obamistan fail to grasp, or perhaps don’t want to grasp, is that Palin’s comment about community organizers was in response to constant criticism of her - that as a former small-town mayor and now governor of a sparsely populated state, she isn’t qualified to be a heartbeat from the presidency.
That’s a fair issue for Democrats to raise. But it is equally fair for her to ask if a community organizer who then spent a couple of years in the U.S. Senate is qualified not just to be a heartbeat away, but actually to be president. Her point is that her experience compares rather favorably to his.
It’s not about whether community organizing is good or bad. That ought to be obvious. The fact that it apparently isn’t ought to embarrass the Obama campaign.

Gee, glad to see how intensely concerned our junior U.S. Senator John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, is about doing his job in the Senate.
With just eight weeks to go before the state Democratic primary election, Kerry’s opponent, Gloucester attorney Edward O’Reilly, is trying to get the senator to agree to a series of debates | 23 in all. Read about it here.
But Kerry, through campaign manager Roger Lau, says he can’t even think about debates until he knows when the Senate will recess. That generally happens sometime in August, but who knows exactly when?
All this attention to duty is commendable, I guess. But, I seem to recall that when Kerry was running for the big job - POTUS - he wasn’t at all concerned about whether the Senate was in recess or not.
I don’t blame Kerry for blowing off O’Reilly. Like any incumbent, he doesn’t want to give a challenger any free face time. He doesn’t want to be seen on the same stage with him - the challenger has everything to gain and Kerry would have nothing to gain, and perhaps a lot to lose.
But it would be nice if he, or his surrogates, would just be honest about it, and not try to cloak it in some kind of faux statesmanship. If Kerry wanted to debate, you can bet he would - recess or no recess.
Here’s a guess: O’Reilly will be lucky to get one debate.