It seems that few pols (in DC or elsewhere) are interested in the people’s business and are instead laser-focused on their own re-election. Which makes them obsessive about raising $$$, which makes them receptive to lobbyists/donors.

Seems to me that requiring large quantities of cash to continue treading water used to be an impediment to getting a security clearance. Perhaps congressfolk are exempted?

I voted for Obama and also consider him a disappointment. I see no reasonable 3rd party or Republican candidate likely to win, so I assume Obama will get a second term. Would be interesting with Hillary as VP; she’s doing a good job as SoS and might reel back in some blue-collar conservative dems that have gone red.

I am toying with the idea of not voting. I have voted since I have been eligible but I am beginning to believe* it is a malignant charade made more malignant by the legitimacy afforded by participating. I’m not there yet but I am listening closely to the arguments…

*in areas where one is in a substantial minority and the electoral college delegates in one’s state are winner-take-all. Instant Runoff Voting would also rekindle my interest.

BTW, got email from one of our A Btry buddies. Pointed him at your blog.

We will not attend all the home owner association meetings, school boards meetings, local tax authority meetings, city counsel meetings, etc., even if we have skin in the game and the outcome will directly impact our lives (and local government is both the least attended and has the most direct impact on us). Neither will we work for minimal personal gain befitting the “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” slogan coined by Marx. As is often the case neatly rendered theory fails before the complexities of reality and the our short sighted, non-maximized and all too human lives.

P.S., We are all midgets standing on the shoulders giants, cribbed from Sir Issac Newton quote, “If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”

I think it was Jefferson who said something to the effect that citizenship (in the “involvement” sense, not the legal sense) requires leisure time. I think your critique is right, and the hurried masses borrow their opinions from folk who are all-too-willing to package/sell the political equivalent of fast food. I do not discount the contributions of disinterest/laziness/ignorance in the mix, though.

Yet Another Quote (don’t I have any ideas of my own?):
“The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in
its milk, on the principle that it is cheaper to do this than to
keep a cow. So it is, but the milk is more likely to be
watered.” Note Books, Samuel Butler. 1912.

Didn’t know about Rand’s board; that’s interesting. I am not opposed to such DIY boards in GENERAL* (“professions” and “certifying boards” being fancier ways to dupe the masses, restrict entry into their job market, and fleece their own players == unions for the educated) but it does seem shady. If it were set up as a non-profit *after* he retired that would be a little better. if it is a vehicle for his own convenience then it is no better than the shell corporations and loophole lawyer parasites.

I think Rand’s aversion to detail is the opposite problem of the GOP’s: he would get in trouble for wanting to cut out whole chunks of the govt (DOE, for example**). It’s the “not in front of the mob” thing again. GOP is averse because they like spending as much as DEMs, just on different things. _Ron_ Paul just says those things; people already think he’s nuts and he just doesn’t care. He is also popular and has been re-elected in his district; Rand doesn’t have that yet. I think it makes him more malleable to the GOP handlers who are likely asking him to STFU a bit and not rock the boat.

* let the market sort it out. If people value the Dr with a certain cert, then they will buy services from him.
** not necessarily my position, although I think the internal logic of Libertarianism requires it

As far as Rand goes, I look to the example of his board certification as an ophthalmologist. He created his own certification board with himself as President and his wife as VP. How very Galtian. There appear to be only 8 physicians nationwide who care to claim certification by Paul’s National Board of Ophthalmology. They use a an internet based exam to offer cheaper and “time limited” certification.

Another bit that sticks in my craw about Rand Paul is the (not unusual) aversion to declaring what he wants to cut in pursuit of deficit reduction. The majority of GOP members of Congress live in a world where basic math and economics don’t exist because they’re politically inconvenient. It amounts to publicly lying, obfuscating and dissembling about what your true goals and motivations are. Or just what a grifter would do. And yes I do apply it to all the self styled deficit hawks out there.

I’m not convinced Rand is a grifter in the classic sense although he seems to lack the gentle good nature of his father. The Aqua Buddha thing worries me because it seems to indicate a lack of dedication to the “no initiation of force” libertarian precept.

Rand’s controversial take on civil rights act was, although _prima facie_ shocking and impolitic, in line with libertarian philosophy. I am reminded of these quotes:

“A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth by accident “- Kinsley.
and
” … It would be better not to discuss these matters too scrupulously, especially in front of the crowd.” Erasmus, “On Free Will.” 1524.

Libertarianism’s greatest weakness is that it (failing to read Erasmus above) assumes all citizens will be willing/able to discuss* prickly dilemmas calmly, rationally, and without tribal alignment. It fails to recognize the primal power of emotion and the pull of conformity.

Put differently (and even more depressingly):
“Plato taught that, however laudable justice may be, one cannot
expect prodigies of virtue from ordinary people.” The Closing of
the American Mind. Allan Bloom, 1987.

* just discuss, not necessarily agree.

BTW, it’s Condy’s opinion I’m most interested in. She’s the one that probably knows most about the Russian situation.

Too bad the right isn’t interested in thoughtful, moderate, talented folks like Rice instead of Palin. Gotta throw red meat to the unwashed masses, I guess.

I don’t think people really get the cramps thing. When I compression fractured those vertabrae at CAS I though the pain was coming from the fracture, but it was actually from the back cramping.

When we got to the hospital (Augsburg?) they slipped in some muscle relaxers and I could get down to the more normal levels of pain associated with a fracture. My cramps finally stopped; hope yours do, too. Had a dilaudid clicker like you.

I’m sending healing thoughts your way; I hope they will keep the sneeze/cough monster away so your back can heal in peace.

I think the problem is obliquely related to Calvin-tinged religiosity.
1. I am right (or “chosen”); god says so.
2. Therefore whatever I do is right.
3. Therefore anything that goes wrong must the the fault of some other, likely less godly, antagonist.

To challenge this is to deny the actor’s pipeline to god. The position is not externally or internally challengeable. I think it’s funny that it’s that same crowd that howls the loudest about Muslim fundamentalists. Fundies hate fundies that play on the other team.

The main hurdle to more widespread of RP’s views or Libertarian views more broadly is they tend to be predicated on “first principles” (_a priori_, if you prefer Kant in your morning coffee) and worked forward. Although this approach is rational and consistent, it is unfamiliar and probably repugnant to the general public. I am vaguely reminded of Camille Paglia’s discussion of the dichotomy of dry Protestant literacy and RC visually-stimulated luxuriance. This was in _Sexual Personae_, maybe? Or Nietzshe’s Apollonian v. Dionysian.

Also see:
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/tx14_paul/MRESurplus.shtml
if you haven’t already. This is more in line with Washington/Cinncinattus (sp?) model I expect from elected servants.

If we aimed the stimulus at struggling homeowners* the Wall Street tranchemongers would be in better shape but not vice versa.

* and, say a solar, wind, or hydrogen infrastructure. Don’t get me started!

I have chronic back pain from degenerative disc disease and arthritis in the spine. Also a bit protrusion into the spinal cord by a bulging disc.

I used to enjoy long backpacking trips in southern Appalachians, mostly along the venerable Appalachian Trail. I was something of a trail rat in my 30s, taking 100+ mile walks with a 40 lb. pack over rough mountainous terrain in 7 or 8 days. I very much enjoyed the physical challenge, the scenery and the long periods of isolation. Me, my pack and a good trial dog alone in best natural beauty east of the Mississippi, that was my idea of a good time.

The first taste of the back problem happened on a weekend trip in 1999. I had a sharp pain the right hip shooting down the leg on the last day. It was 8 miles of agony with each footfall. It went away with some rest. No worries for for 5 or 6 years. It did make the clear point that backpacking wasn’t a good idea. In any case I moved back to Florida and backpacking just wasn’t as fun, too hot and too flat. In about 2005 the pain came back to stay.

I’m looking at surgery, disc replacement. I put it off for as long as possible because the outcomes from the older laminectomy procedures sucked. Hopefully this will work better.

I hope you get your fastball back my friend.

Sixteenth century monks and eighties alt rock go together, don’t they?

Sorry to hear about your struggles with pain. That’s a difficult and wearing road.

My father warned me that 40 was when he no longer felt like superman and became aware of his own slide into decreptitude. I’m definitely feeling it now. Parts get hurt from normal usage. Parts ache for no apparent reason.

I was just at the VA hospital last week getting my shoulder inspected. At this juncture it looks like rotator cuff damage but won’t know for sure until the orthopedic consult gets approved and the MRI gets done. I’ve mostly stopped using that side in the interim.

BTW, if your scenario is related to injury that occurred during service, it might be productive to let the local VA know. The MDs there have been after me to apply for benefits related to the vertebrae-crushing hijinx that occurred at CAS. I haven’t done anything about it yet, but I haven’t ruled it out. They offered me a medical discharge at the time but I was still Gung Ho and all that. Ahhh, youth.

BTW, leave it to you to make allusions to both Rabelais and The Cure in the same post. Well done, sir.