A Moment of Clarity

Of course, I am victim to the same disease that all humans are - we feel everyone thinks like us.

Case in point: I am hopelessly riveted to election news and polls. A student came in today, one for whom I had helped request an absentee ballot. He said he had not received it (!), but would just drive home to vote. He then asked me about the state of the race (is it still a toss-up?), and so I confirmed it was close, that most tracking polls show a small Bush lead, and that I predicted a 5-point win by the good guy.

Then he asked why I thought that. As I went into a monologue about the effectiveness of the Republican Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts versus the GOTV efforts by the DemocRAT 527s, I noticed that his eyes glazed over. I then realized that 1) He didn't know the state of the race, 2) he doesn't know what a GOTV campaign is, and 3) he had never heard of MoveOn.org, ACT, or even knew what a 527 was. Keep in mind that this is one of our smartest and most mature students.

Most people are not as tuned in to the race as us political junkies. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I suppose I am better off for knowing it.

Fear of Success

Part of my job is presenting college students with the opportunity to become Army officers after they graduate. This isn't for everyone, and I don't waste my time trying to convince people who are not interested.
What is so weird is how, when many of these kids get to the point where they can sign up, or just after they sign up, they bail. Their reasons are not what you'd think, "I don't want to go to war" or "I don't want the committment". Instead, I get reasons that reflect a fear of success.

"I think I'd rather be an enlisted man."
"I'm confortable being just a sergeant in the National Guard."
"I don't know if I am high-speed enough."
"I can't make good decisions for myself, so I shouldn't be an officer."

They seem terrified that they might do something that no one in their family has ever done, and get out of the financial and cultural hole their family and friends are in, and settle instead for mediocrity.

It is such a weird thing - I fought to get into my college and get my commission as an officer. I never truly considered quitting, although the committment gave me pause once. When a kid says, at the moment of decision, "I might not want to do this", I want to say, "Pound sand! America deserves better!" That line might work for West Point, but the fact is that I have had the opportunity to watch kids who seemed to be pretty weak at the outset mature into sharp graduating cadets who will be great officers. That's why I stick with it.

I changed the comments to allow anonymous post comments - I didn't realize that people had to register to post...not that I think anyone is reading, anyway. I also added Jay Cost's Horserace Blog to my links - he has great statistical analysis and commentary.

MSM Hit Jobs Abound

The NYT and CBS are collaborating to produce yet another hit job on President Bush in an attempt to influence the election. Thankfully, CBS's reputation has been so smeared by the National Guard Memo affair, that it draws less viewers than any other network news. Also, anyone who thinks the NYT is impartial is likely a crack user.

Still, shouldn't it irritate people that these media elites are attempting to claim impartiality while repeatedly being blatantly partisan? Have the Swift Boat Vets ever gotten face time with Dan Rather? Has the New York Times ever checked out an anti-Bush story before it ran (not in this case, obviously)? The Media Research Center has documented that, this year, the media is far more in the bag for one candidate than it ever has been before.

You know, if Air America was running asinine stuff about the President, I wouldn't have a problem with it, because they are proclaimed liberals. However, to this day, CBS, NBC, PBS, ABC, NYT, LAT, WaPo, CNN, etc all claim to be impartial, and are blatantly liberal. They could at least be honest with us as they trash one candidate and not the other.

Piss off the media and re-elect President Bush!

Ranger Challenge

My students were involved in a competition this weekend called 'Ranger Challenge', which is an intense military skills and fitness competition. They ended up playng 16th of 32, which is not bad - but there are a minimum of two scoring mistakes. First, the scorers did not include one of our fitness scores, which reduced our overall score by 10%. Then, on the hand grenade course, a competitor who was not one of ours (with an ABYSMAL score) replaced one of ours, with no way of knowing what ours received. That also likely cost us also 10% of the score for that event. I have to pour over the rest of the packet to see where else it was messed up. Hopefully, we will move up a couple of places.

My boss ticks me off. First, she insists on inserting her ideas into everything, regardless of whether it is needed or not, or whether sucess has already been demonstrated. For example, she decided that someone needed to serve as a 'road guard' while our team was getting ready for the final event - and sent off a piece of equipment with him that we needed right then! Later, when we received our score, she was giggling as she relayed it to me. I wanted to slap her.

Our new leadership team has no personal investment in the success of this program, and they make it pretty clear that things will be done their way, and they don't care if we are successful. That makes it very hard to come to work and be motivated.

On the up side, Bush is up 8 in today's TIPP tracking poll. 4 more years!

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

...or, another reason why academia is not worth a spit.

My advisor called me last night and told me that rumors have been running amok that link me to a girl in one of my classes. Never mind that such an act of stupidity would ruin my current career and future career, and that I love my wife, my kids, and Jesus. I suspect there are two reasons this has happened. One, college professors and graduate students don't have real jobs (i.e. production demand), so they have time on their hands to gossip. Two, I am one of two conservatives in the department - even though I bury my politics. The other girl (not this one) is pretty much ostracized.

The girl I am linked with happened to be the only person in that class that I really knew, and hence, talk to more than the other students...about baseball. She is a Red Sox fan, not to mention a ridiculously left-leaning liberal. I mock her team, and feign indifference to her praising of Howard Dean. I have never been in a room alone with her, and have only spoken on the phone to her maybe twice - both school related. Mrs. Hammer thinks I might have brought it on myself - 'cause I am dead sexy. Additionally, my professor in yesterday's thread is the head 'gossip queen' of the department, and she is no fan of mine.

The solution is obvious - I cannot call, email or text message this girl, ever again. I'll talk to her in class, but that's it. My personal and professional reputation are too important to jeopardize. It's sad that you can't be nice to someone who isn't overweight or hideous and not be marked as 'chasing' them. Note that the fat girl I talk to all the time in my other class has not been linked to me, further exposing this crap for what it is.

That all said, Mason-Dixon has released a bunch of poll results for states that look good for GWB. Here is the link:

www.dalythoughts.com


Root around there to see the 'red' swing state numbers, too.

College Professors

I have two graduate classes I am taking this semester. One is taught by a communist, the other by someone who tries to keep her political views quiet...until today.

Here is the assignment I received:

As of Sunday, the current polls in the Presidential rates suggest that although more people feel that John Kerry won all three debates, 52% of Americans feel he would do a better job on healthcare than Bush (who is polling at 37-42% on this issue), 50% feel Kerry would do a better job on education than Bush (who is polling at 43% on this issue), 57% of Americans feel Kerry is easily able to handle the job of commander in chief (bold mine - this question has never ben asked this way, I guarantee. Easily handle the job? I missed the poll with that one),and even Bush's hometown newspaper (the Iconoclast) has endorsed Kerry, Bush actually seems to be either even or ahead by as much as 4% overall. Given what you know about the kinds of messages that the two candidates are using in their campaign, and the audiences they are targeting, why do you beleive Bush is doing so well in the overall polls inspite of the other information?

She's in the bag for Kerry. This was accentuated almost immediately afterward, when she said, "People who are high in need for cognition (i.e. smart people) don't respond well to emotional pitches. You won't find many of them in Bush's camp."

Translation - people who vote for Bush are idiots.

Academics, as a whole, are arrogant leftists who eat out of the government hand, and hence, want bigger government. They do not deserve our respect. Ph.D. means "I was someone's coffee boy for a year", not that they are any smarter than you.


PS - I know I was wrong on the Yanks. Stop telling me.

Voter Fraud

This is really concerning me. False voter registrations are being produced for cash and drugs. 46,000 people double registered in NY and FL. Candidates at the polls handing out example ballots for people to follow. Instruction by a certain party to claim that voter intimidation is occurring, even if none actually has.

And you can guess which party is behind ALL of these.

DemocRATS.

The party that will do anything to steal the election, including lying to seniors (Bush will take your Social Security away), lying to college-age adults (Bush will draft you) and lying to everyone (Bush is keeping you form getting your flu shot).

The Democratic Party - the party of dishonesty.

They're Killin' Me

The Yankees, that is. Look, I don't mind watching a 5 hour baseball game - as long as we win. If we're going to lose, 9 innings is plenty, thank you very much.

Thankfully, tonight Yanks win. My bold predicition. Cache it.

Deportations Redux

I have managed to figure out how to post the pictures of the first Hammertime deportees.




I will pay for you to leave the country, if you promise never to return.

UPDATE: To move from my ranting about this to a hilarious mocking, see Tim Blair at
http://timblair.spleenville.com/archives/007772.php

Political Hilarity

Mrs. Hammer has a friend who is sharp as a knife, who wrote the following expose on politics. I suppose this exposes me for the Republican I (currently) am.

Top 24 things you MUST believe to be a Democrat.

1. Drug addiction is a disease that should be treated with compassion and understanding...unless the addict is a Conservative talk show host.
2. The United States should be subservient to the United Nations. Our highest authority is not God and the U.S. Constitution, but a collective of tinpot dictators (and their appeasers) and the U.N. charter.
3. Government should relax drug laws regardless of the potential for abuse, but should pass new and unConstitutional anti-gun laws because of the potential for abuse.
4. Calls for increased security after a terrorist attack are "political opportunism," but calls for more gun control after a criminal's spree killing is "a logical solution."
5. "It Takes a Village" means everything you want it to mean...except creeping socialist government involvement in the nuclear family.
6. Disarming innocent, law-abiding citizens helps protect them from evil, lawless terrorists and other thugs.
7. Slowly killing an unborn innocent by tearing it apart limb from limb is good. Slowly killing an innocent disabled woman by starving her to death is good. Quickly killing terrorists, convicted murderers and rapists is BAD.
8. Every religion should be respected and promoted in public schools the name of diversity, so long as that religion isn't Christianity.
9. The best way to support our troops is to criticize their every move. This will let them know they're thought of often.
10. Sexual harassment, groping and drug use are degenerate if you're the governor of California, but it's okay if you're the President of the United States.
11. Sex education should be required so that teens can make informed choices about sex, but gun education should be banned because it will turn those same teens into maniacal mass-murderers.
12. Minorities are blameless for the hatred of the racist; women are blameless for the hatred of the rapist; but America is entirely at fault for the hatred of Islamofascists.
13. Poverty is the cause of all terrorism...which is why the leaders of al Qaeda are typically U.S.-educated and were raised in wealth and luxury.
14. The Patriot Act is a horrific compromise of Constitutional rights, but anti-Second Amendment laws and Franklin Roosevelt's Presidential Order 9066 must be regarded "reasonable precautions."
15. We should unquestioningly honor the wishes of our age-old allies, even when said allies no longer act like our allies and have vested economic interests in propping up our enemies.
16. Socialized medicine is the ideal. Nevermind all those people who spend every dime they have to get to the United States so they can get quality medical care...that their nation's socialized medical community can't provide.
17. Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky and Natalie Maines are perfectly qualified to criticize our leadership, but Arnold Schwarzenegger, Charlton Heston, and Dennis Miller are just ignorant political hacks.
18. John Lott's research on how gun ownership reduces crime is junk science, but Michael Bellesiles is still an authority on why gun control is good (even though he was forced to resign from Emory due to research misconduct over his book "Arming America").
19. Bush's toppling the Saddam regime was a "diversion," but Clinton's lobbing a couple of cruise missiles at Iraq in the thick of the Lewinsky sex scandal was "sending a message."
20. A president who lies under oath is okay, but a president who references sixteen words from an allies' intelligence report should be dragged through the streets naked.
21. Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning Second Amendment rights and shopping the courts for judges sympathetic to causes that wouldn't pass in any legislature.
22. "The People" in the First Amendment means The People; "the People" in the Fourth Amendment means The People; "the People" in the Ninth Amendment means The People; "the People" in the Tenth Amendment means The People; but "the People" in the Second Amendment (ratified in 1791) means the National Guard (created by an Act of Congress in 1903).
23. You support a woman's "right to choose" to kill her unborn child, but don't believe that same woman is competent enough to homeschool the children she bears.
24. It was unncessary to fight the Germans during WW2, when it was Japan that attacked us.
Andrea

First group to go

Well, I found the first shots of people who need to leave the country. Unfortunately, I can't get into my other web space, and the pics can't get posted here until at least Monday. Until then, check out these LOSERS at http://powerlineblog.com/archives/008201.php and http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13185_Moonbats_Weep_Apologize_Grovel#comments . I'll get my own up shortly.

Contempt. That's all I have for these jokers.

Discipline

By my reckoning, the most important aspect of a succesful blog is not humor, character, comunication, logic, entertainment value, technical issues, or even decency. It is discipline - the discipline to regularly update the blog. We'll see if we have it...