First Principles

Well, no big surprises.  He made the same promises that he made a year ago, and the only difference is that now we can be even more sure he won’t keep any of them.
The big takeaway from me on this was just how unserious this speech was. 

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Yes, I know it’s been a few weeks.  No, I haven’t decided that individual liberty is overrated, nor have I developed a new-found belief that government bureaucrats are qualified to centrally manage an economy.  Really.
It’s mostly owing to a ton of new responsibilities at work.  But I’ve also been working with a great bunch of [...]

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In all the commentary on the John Ensign adultery debacle, there’s a tremendous lack of common sense or honesty, replaced instead by the kind of tribalism sourced from the same “logic” that makes Vikings fans think Brett Favre actually sucks (unless he decides to play for the Vikings).
It’s understandable.  Conservatives want to rally around their [...]

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Six years ago, the Democratic governor had overspent and over-borrowed and overextended entitlements in his State, and predictably, had broken the back of its finances.  In the resulting circus of a recall election (which I admit being very excited about) complete with porn stars and midgets, only one serious candidate emerged who proposed conservative solutions [...]

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Recent events such as the defection of Arlen Specter has amplified the calls of (mostly liberals) for the Republicans to move left if they want to remain relevant.  The argument goes that Republicans have shifted hard right since the Big Tent days of Reagan, and are now seeking to purge anyone from their ranks who [...]

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Yesterday in the RGJ, there was a piece by local columnist David Jacobs snarkily noting that neither George Bush nor Congressional Republicans (back when they held majorities) were all that fiscally conservative.  He further suggested that lack of economic smarts helped cause the economic problems we have now.
He’s right.
So why, then, would he endorse the [...]

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One tool that always comes up in political discussions by nerds like me (and my great commenters) that attempt to define and pin down political philosophies is some kind of chart.  I tend not to like them, because I think they tend to do a poor job explaining the relationships between various philosophies.  But if [...]

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So Ted Stevens has lost his Senate seat in Alaska, bringing the Democrats that much closer to a veto-proof supermajority.
Good.

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Tonight we went to the second-to-last last stump speech of the McCain-Palin campaign, held here in Reno with the Alaska governor.  I went to the last one, too, but this one was different.  It was bigger, more serious, and more hopeful – no matter who wins tomorrow.
When we arrived, there were thousands of people waiting [...]

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The Paulestineans’ antics last weekend at the Nevada State GOP Convention have really left me thinking that they are more than just irritating oddballs, but are actually threat to conservatism in America, at least in the short term. Like the Jihadists who would rather blow themselves up than compromise with their neighbors or engage in [...]

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