Down with the Asses; Bring on the Frogs!

I've tried to use constraint in this blog; while I'm willing to comment on political matters, I prefer to visit less controversial topics. However, the latest bit of legislative chicanery to emerge from the Democratic Congress has so piqued me that I feel compelled to comment. The so-called supplemental funding bill passed by the House and Senate is such an outrageous affront to the common-sense of the voter as to beggar belief.

The Democrats rode into town on a tidal wave of frustration over government largesse and corruption scandals. No one was as frustrated with what the Republican majority had become as me. The GOP deserved to lose. They deserve to be discontent. They deserve to be sweating 2008. However, the Dems believe that they rode into town as a posse on white steeds ready to stand up for Justice and the American way. Instead they are standing up for foolishness and the French Ideal.

President Bush has requested funding in the neighborhood of $100 billion for the war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Democrats took this request and sprang into action. The action mostly entailed acrobatic contortions that would make any yoga master proud. Unable to unify their caucus behind any coherent position, they instead set about to slice down the middle and create the worst piece of legislation to see the light of day since Mrs. Bill Clinton proposed socializing our health system. OK, maybe it is simply the worst legislation since the last farm bill. In any event it is atrocious.

In order to win the slimmest majority possible in the House of Representatives, and a mere plurality in the Senate, Democrat leadership had to load in some $40 billion in absurd pork to literally buy the votes of reluctant members of their majority. The resulting legislation calls for funding the troops, funding peanut storage and other pork give-aways, and requiring our troops to retreat by March 2008. In a display which we can only imagine was meant to seem indignant, the corpse-like Harry Reid insisted that "not another drop of American blood should be spilt in Iraq." Wow, so we need to devote another year to a hopeless cause that isn't worth fighting for. Not only has everyone who has fought, died, or been injured to date done so in vane, so will the poor thousands of souls who do so in the next year!

The duplicity of this act is impossible to ignore. The war is lost, but we will fund it. No one should die for this cause, but we'll let them go on dying for another year or so. Democrats will stop spending on pork, unless its needed to buy votes. Democrats will end corruption, unless your vote is for purchase.

The Democrats have taken little more than 2 months to prove their moral bankruptcy in governance. Given the choice between duplicitous Democrats who try to have their cake and eat it too, and the French who can be counted on for taking the position of surrender, I'll take the Frogs. At least they are unapologetic for where they stand, and what they believe in.

For more detail on my views on the Iraq War, see my article here

Nanny-State Nonsense

Various state's have varying schedules for the meeting of their legislative bodies. In ND our legislature meets for three months on odd numbered years, and we have recently been blessed with this biennial conclave. In other states their citizen legislators are full-time functionaries. Regardless, Defeners of Democracy and Keepers of the Purse have been in full swing recently, as evidenced by reports of the ever-encroaching Nanny-State. These Defenders of Virtue have once again set their lives to undermining ours.

In California--always rich fodder for such things--a law was introduced to ban spanking of any kind. Apparently it not only takes a village to raise a child, it takes a state assembly. In Texas parents risked misdemeanor charges and a significant fine for failing to turn up to parent-teacher conferences. In Florida children have been threatened with failing grades if their parents refuse to show up for a mandatory viewing of An Inconvenient Truth.

Meanwhile in North Dakota we've taken one step forward and one step back. The legislature has finally decided that a 19th century law prohibiting cohabitation might be a bit of Victorian flim-flam after all-- it took the last 8 years of failed attempts to finally undo this prudish nonsense. But, not to appear too devoted to liberty, the same state senator--MY state senator-- who pushed to end this ban has recently gone on the record in support of outlawing tanning beds! Smoking bans--which I reject ideologically, but love biologically--apparently aren't going far enough, we need to stop second-hand bronzing.

On the national level several politicians are calling for relief on so-called sub-prime mortgages. Certain of our fellow citizens borrowed outrages sums of money for over-valued real estate on non-existent credit. Surprise! Some of them aren't able to make their payments. Keeping up with the Jones' is good while it lasts, but when it all comes crashing down, Mrs. Bill Clinton is there to demand something be done to help these poor, down-on-their luck fools. Surely some Republican cabal--I'm sorry, I mean vast right wing conspiracy-- is out to make them poor!

Why are people so afraid to tell their politicians to butt out of their lives? Why do legislators and Congressmen feel so compelled to tell us all how to live every last detail of our lives? Are we really that in need of coddling? If Johnny is passing history with 102%, should his parents be called away to consult with the teacher on pain of imprisonment? When will the insanity of all this dawn on the masses?

As for me, I've stocked up on V8 in a clever profit-making scheme. When the best legal minds finally get around to passing a law that forces us to eat our vegetables, I'll avoid the rush and the spike in prices.

Powder Junky

I was too old when I learned to ski: at least 15. Compared to the crop of "ski-wees" aged 3-6 who would whiz by with no regard for their elders, I felt completely impotent. To make matters worse I graduated at the bottom of my first ski class. This thoroughly new and distressing experience-- having the instructor single me out for my special needs rather than my special abilities-- nearly resulted in a stillborn skiing career. Nevertheless, I redoubled my commitment to that which was at first challenging, and I determined to succeed.

Today I cannot imagine a world in which I did not have an annual ski trip to look forward to. Unfortunately life has kept me an uncomfortable distance from ski country. This past weekend was one of those rare and precious experiences that make the balance of the year tolerable. Having braved blizzard conditions to get to Glendive, I caught Big Sky Airlines to Bozeman in time to hit the slopes Saturday morning. As I buckled up my ski boots and secured myself in the bindings, 344 days of trouble and stress melted away like snowflakes under the blazing sun.

As I cruised down the mountain side sucking in fresh Montana air and enjoying the serenity of silence as the wind gently whistled through the pines. As I forgot the drudgery of life. As I LIVed. I couldn't help cast my glance across the sun drenched Gallatin range and give thanks for this incredible world. My ski trips are an essential part of the maintenance of my sanity. On the side of a mountain, carving tracks in the snow, I feel closer to God and to myself than in any other pursuit. For me this diversion is poetry in motion, and the reason to persevere for another 344 days.