I wish I could vote for Sean Duffy, the Ashland County DA running for Wisconsin's 7th congressional district seat held for 40 years by retiring representative David Obey. He is a very appealing candidate with conservative values.
You might remember Duffy from the 1997 Boston season of MTV's The Real World in which he stood out for his normality and lumberjack handsomeness. Duffy is married to Rachel Campos of The Real World: San Francisco and they have six children.
Duffy has a terrific new commercial titled Get America Rolling Again!.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Top 10 Tearjerkers: Songs That Make Men Cry
According to a survey reported by the British tabloid The Sun, here are the top ten songs that make men cry:
In no particular order:
I Just Wasn't Made for These Times - The Beach Boys
Don't Dream It's Over - Crowded House
Just Once in My Life - The Righteous Brothers
The Last Goodbye - Jeff Buckley
Alone Again Or - Arthur Lee and Love
Black - Pearl Jam
This Old Heart of Mine - The Isley Brothers
Monkey Gone to Heaven - The Pixies
A House Is Not a Home - Dionne Warwick
Your Ex-Lover Is Dead - Stars
Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me - The Smiths
A Song for You - Donny Hathaway
No Blue Skies - Lloyd Cole
Daisy Jane - America
God Give Me Strength - Elvis Costello
Cold Morning Light - Todd Rundgren
Miss Texas 1967 - The Colourfield
This Woman's Work - Kate Bush
Pearly Gates - Prefab Sprout
'Til I Die - The Beach Boys
I'm not a guy and I won't limit myself to ten songs when I can pick twenty, but that won't stop me from compiling my own list. Grab a box of tissues and a pint of gelato.1. Everybody Hurts - REM2. Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton3. Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen4. Nothing Compares 2 U - Sinead O'Connor5. With or Without You - U26. Drugs Don't Work - The Verve7. Candle In The Wind - Elton John8. Streets of Philadelphia - Bruce Springsteen9. Unchained Melody - Todd Duncan10. Angels - Robbie Williams
In no particular order:
I Just Wasn't Made for These Times - The Beach Boys
Don't Dream It's Over - Crowded House
Just Once in My Life - The Righteous Brothers
The Last Goodbye - Jeff Buckley
Alone Again Or - Arthur Lee and Love
Black - Pearl Jam
This Old Heart of Mine - The Isley Brothers
Monkey Gone to Heaven - The Pixies
A House Is Not a Home - Dionne Warwick
Your Ex-Lover Is Dead - Stars
Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me - The Smiths
A Song for You - Donny Hathaway
No Blue Skies - Lloyd Cole
Daisy Jane - America
God Give Me Strength - Elvis Costello
Cold Morning Light - Todd Rundgren
Miss Texas 1967 - The Colourfield
This Woman's Work - Kate Bush
Pearly Gates - Prefab Sprout
'Til I Die - The Beach Boys
Monday, September 27, 2010
Orange County Restaurant Week, Take 2
Orange County Restaurant Week is back to give local diners a break and businesses a much needed boost. We are having a record-breaking heatwave, which makes it especially tempting to enter an air conditioned restaurant and leave the cooking to professionals.
You can enjoy a scrumptious lunch for $10 or multi-course dinner for $30. This is a rare opportunity to sample some truly fine dining at world class establishments like the Anaheim White House, Antonello Ristorante, The Catch, Mr. Stox, The Ritz, and Sage. You can stimulate the economy and your tastebuds at the same time!
You can enjoy a scrumptious lunch for $10 or multi-course dinner for $30. This is a rare opportunity to sample some truly fine dining at world class establishments like the Anaheim White House, Antonello Ristorante, The Catch, Mr. Stox, The Ritz, and Sage. You can stimulate the economy and your tastebuds at the same time!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Psst, Establishment! Be Very Afraid of the Tea Party
Many media analysts struggling to contextualize and marginalize the Tea Party movement misunderstand its genesis. By repeatedly describing the rally attendees as almost exclusively white and racist, which is demonstrably false, they are trying to cast the movement as an extreme reaction to a president of color. However, this tea was brewing far longer than Barack Obama has been destroying the economy.
Office holders and other establishmentarians who feel threatened by the movement comprehend at least that the Tea Party rebellion is about power – their power. But they seem to ignore that grassroots anger is a long simmering repudiation of unearned and unelected power. Tea Partiers are not content to merely replace those currently in power. They seek to transform the halls of power until they are accountable to the American people and faithful to the founding principles of our once great nation.
For decades, activist judges have interpreted the law based on their own political and personal preferences – in short, they legislate from the bench, which is not their mandate. Congressmen have enacted laws that defy the will of their constituents and betray the campaign positions on which they were elected. On the great issues of our time – most notably, the economy, health care and illegal immigration – the elites in power are out of touch with the American people who have to live with the consequences of their actions and they are flagrantly disdainful of us.
President Obama, House Speaker Pelosi, and Majority Leader Reid are not the only politicians to deceive voters, misrepresent their mandate and impose their unelected agenda on an unwilling electorate. However, they chose to do so at one of the most conspicuously perilous moments in American history. Obama ran as a post-racial, post-political moderate, but he is ruling as an old-fashioned big government liberal – and an incompetent, indifferent leader.
Liberalism thrives in the media, academia, judiciary, and government bureaucracy – all unelected institutions of power where practitioners of liberalism rarely if ever have to defend their ideology. Jimmy Carter was the last openly liberal presidential candidate to win and his policies were so discredited after one disastrous term that an entire generation began to call themselves progressives to distance themselves from liberalism. Reagan is attributed with giving liberalism a bad name, but truly the label was self-inflicted by the unpopular programs of Carter and now Obama in action.
Republican voters of a certain age, me included, took the measure of Barack Obama in 2008 and predicted that he would be Jimmy Carter redux. With our prophecy tragically fulfilled, it is tempting to compare the Tea Party coalition of Democrats, Republicans, libertarians and independents to the Reagan Revolution and count the similarities. But there is one fundamental distinction – vive la difference!
Ronald Reagan was dubbed the Great Communicator for his ability to explain his policies and persuade the electorate. He transcended his mentor, William F. Buckley, to become the leader of late 20th century conservatism. Reagan’s presidential accomplishments were impressive and far reaching. In 1980, Reagan ran against the unelected institutions of power and began his first term confronting the air traffic controllers. Despite all of his executive authority and political gifts, he failed to change the entrenched bureaucracy that dominates Washington, D.C. or the Republican Party establishment, which is arrogant and entitled in its own right. By selecting George H.W. Bush as his running mate, Reagan insured that his own conservative agenda would be term-limited. Such are the limits of top-to-bottom leadership.
Yet fans and critics of the citizen revolt still wonder, “How can the Tea Party succeed without a leader?” That question ignores political history and the first Tea Party movement that wrested control of thirteen colonies from the most powerful nation of the 18th century despite the absence of one unifying leader. The question is also a product of the organization chart mentality with mandates emanating from the top down to the bottom.
The political ruling class abused their power to impose their insulated Beltway values on the American people, thus changing our culture incrementally against our will for decades. The players, parties and policies may vary from election year to election year, but the sense of entitlement remains the same.
The Tea Party is a bottom-to-top, side-to-side movement with every citizen as a leader. The agenda is formed at the grassroots level and spreading in every direction throughout fifty states. The Tea Party is redefining the culture and the halls of power by citizen consensus and its policies flow from the will of the people. This is the promise of the movement – and its biggest threat to the status quo.
Office holders and other establishmentarians who feel threatened by the movement comprehend at least that the Tea Party rebellion is about power – their power. But they seem to ignore that grassroots anger is a long simmering repudiation of unearned and unelected power. Tea Partiers are not content to merely replace those currently in power. They seek to transform the halls of power until they are accountable to the American people and faithful to the founding principles of our once great nation.
For decades, activist judges have interpreted the law based on their own political and personal preferences – in short, they legislate from the bench, which is not their mandate. Congressmen have enacted laws that defy the will of their constituents and betray the campaign positions on which they were elected. On the great issues of our time – most notably, the economy, health care and illegal immigration – the elites in power are out of touch with the American people who have to live with the consequences of their actions and they are flagrantly disdainful of us.
President Obama, House Speaker Pelosi, and Majority Leader Reid are not the only politicians to deceive voters, misrepresent their mandate and impose their unelected agenda on an unwilling electorate. However, they chose to do so at one of the most conspicuously perilous moments in American history. Obama ran as a post-racial, post-political moderate, but he is ruling as an old-fashioned big government liberal – and an incompetent, indifferent leader.
Liberalism thrives in the media, academia, judiciary, and government bureaucracy – all unelected institutions of power where practitioners of liberalism rarely if ever have to defend their ideology. Jimmy Carter was the last openly liberal presidential candidate to win and his policies were so discredited after one disastrous term that an entire generation began to call themselves progressives to distance themselves from liberalism. Reagan is attributed with giving liberalism a bad name, but truly the label was self-inflicted by the unpopular programs of Carter and now Obama in action.
Republican voters of a certain age, me included, took the measure of Barack Obama in 2008 and predicted that he would be Jimmy Carter redux. With our prophecy tragically fulfilled, it is tempting to compare the Tea Party coalition of Democrats, Republicans, libertarians and independents to the Reagan Revolution and count the similarities. But there is one fundamental distinction – vive la difference!
Ronald Reagan was dubbed the Great Communicator for his ability to explain his policies and persuade the electorate. He transcended his mentor, William F. Buckley, to become the leader of late 20th century conservatism. Reagan’s presidential accomplishments were impressive and far reaching. In 1980, Reagan ran against the unelected institutions of power and began his first term confronting the air traffic controllers. Despite all of his executive authority and political gifts, he failed to change the entrenched bureaucracy that dominates Washington, D.C. or the Republican Party establishment, which is arrogant and entitled in its own right. By selecting George H.W. Bush as his running mate, Reagan insured that his own conservative agenda would be term-limited. Such are the limits of top-to-bottom leadership.
Yet fans and critics of the citizen revolt still wonder, “How can the Tea Party succeed without a leader?” That question ignores political history and the first Tea Party movement that wrested control of thirteen colonies from the most powerful nation of the 18th century despite the absence of one unifying leader. The question is also a product of the organization chart mentality with mandates emanating from the top down to the bottom.
The political ruling class abused their power to impose their insulated Beltway values on the American people, thus changing our culture incrementally against our will for decades. The players, parties and policies may vary from election year to election year, but the sense of entitlement remains the same.
The Tea Party is a bottom-to-top, side-to-side movement with every citizen as a leader. The agenda is formed at the grassroots level and spreading in every direction throughout fifty states. The Tea Party is redefining the culture and the halls of power by citizen consensus and its policies flow from the will of the people. This is the promise of the movement – and its biggest threat to the status quo.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Solitude Is Bliss by Tame Impala
Tame Impala is a new band from Australia with a sound inspired by psychedelic rock. Solitude Is Bliss is the first single from their debut album, Innerspeaker. Me likey.
Amazon has the import CD for a whopping $41.49 as of this writing, but you can purchase it on iTunes for $9.99.
My favorite lyric:
Oh, yeah. I've felt that way most of my life.
The video is interesting, too, especially the dancing. I trust that no animals were actually harmed in the production.
One of my favorite songs from the 1960s psychedelic era is Open My Eyes by Todd Rundgren's first successful band, Nazz. Enjoy.
Amazon has the import CD for a whopping $41.49 as of this writing, but you can purchase it on iTunes for $9.99.
My favorite lyric:
There's a party in my head
And no one is invited.
Oh, yeah. I've felt that way most of my life.
The video is interesting, too, especially the dancing. I trust that no animals were actually harmed in the production.
One of my favorite songs from the 1960s psychedelic era is Open My Eyes by Todd Rundgren's first successful band, Nazz. Enjoy.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Christine O'Donnell vs. Karl Rove: Statistics Don't Lie
After last Tuesday's primary election victory by Christine O'Donnell over Mike Castle in Delaware's senate race, Karl Rove appeared on the Fox News Channel to offer his analysis. Rove shocked viewers and the blogosphere with his derogatory comments questioning O'Donnell's character.
Since Rove continues to criticize O'Donnell in language usually employed by political opponents, conservatives have been asking whether Rove had a personal stake in the Castle campaign or a grudge against O'Donnell. What we do know is Rove's track record in Delaware.
In the 2000 presidential election, Rove's most famous client, George W. Bush, lost Delaware to Al Gore by a 13.1% margin of victory. In 2004, Bush lost Delaware to John Kerry by a 7.6% margin of victory.
Two days after her primary upset, Rasmussen Reports published poll results showing O'Donnell trailing her Democratic opponent, Chris Coons, by 11%. In short, O'Donnell is beginning her Delaware senate race closer to victory than Bush was at the end of his Rove-guided 2000 presidential campaign in Delaware. If O'Donnell narrows the gap or scores a win, she will have outperformed Rove in Delaware.
Heh.
Since Rove continues to criticize O'Donnell in language usually employed by political opponents, conservatives have been asking whether Rove had a personal stake in the Castle campaign or a grudge against O'Donnell. What we do know is Rove's track record in Delaware.
In the 2000 presidential election, Rove's most famous client, George W. Bush, lost Delaware to Al Gore by a 13.1% margin of victory. In 2004, Bush lost Delaware to John Kerry by a 7.6% margin of victory.
Two days after her primary upset, Rasmussen Reports published poll results showing O'Donnell trailing her Democratic opponent, Chris Coons, by 11%. In short, O'Donnell is beginning her Delaware senate race closer to victory than Bush was at the end of his Rove-guided 2000 presidential campaign in Delaware. If O'Donnell narrows the gap or scores a win, she will have outperformed Rove in Delaware.
Heh.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
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