Politics and Culture

1. They say that deaths happen in "threes." Well, Farrah, Michael, and now pitchman, Billy Mays. R.I.P.

2. On Michael: Who would have thunk that Michael would have ended up poorer than Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon?

3. Funny Michael Jackson joke: Farrah Faucet goes to heaven. God asks her for one wish, since she was such a nice person. She says, "I wish it was a less dangerous world for children."

4. I feel a responsibility to point stuff out, lest people lose their minds over Jackson or forget the inexcusable harm he's done.

5. Politicians should never confirm people's worst fears. Why do some fear Democrats? Job killing excursions into loony land. Well, now we have Cap and Trade. It is something that makes everybody's life a little worse, except for the greenly positioned, for no good reason. Indispensable Heritage has why Obama's numbers are wrong here and more here.

6. Think of Cap and Trade as a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to Al Gore.

7. Why don't rich liberals- Warren Buffet, George Soros, David Geffen, Steve Jobs, et al.- need our money to invest in supposedly sure-fire green tech? Because only the government can guarantee them a profit. Why? Because it's a dumb idea.

8. In an uncharitable, semi-devious way that I'm not at all proud of, I'm kind of glad Cap n' Trade passed. Millions of people will lose jobs, and we should feel sorry for them, but the inevitable decrease of revenue will diminish the chance that government will expand while the increase in misery will hasten a return to sanity, as many conservatives predicted would happen if Obama won. I was not one of those advocating the "Carter scenario," by the way.

9. (I still would have voted against it because I'm not totally motivated by Schadenfreudian hatred. My superego would have grabbed me by the lapels and shaken some sense into me before the vote)

10. Besides, the Carter scenario wasn't a complete success. We still have the education department, don't we?

11. Have you ever talked to a liberal that sounds quite conservative and sensible and then doesn't, when they find out that you're a conservative? I had this experience on Friday after my high school graduation ceremony. The wife of a teacher agreed with me that money is not the answer in education, that the current generation is degenerating in morals and values, etc..

12. Once I told her that my parents were Cuban, however, the gears in her head turned and she figured out that I was a conservative. She then said that she hates how conservatives call liberals "unpatriotic" and was sure that Bush lied about Iraq.

13. By the way, the two valedictorians and most of the honor students were girls, continuing a trend. More on this later.