BoldUlysses.com

Today is Luke’s last day of kindergarten. There’s no way to understate this: He’s undergone a huge transformation in the past year. He’s acquired social skills, made friends, learned to read and write so much better than he was able to, done some amazing artwork and just had a fantastic time. I can count on one hand (maybe even a couple of fingers) the number of times he’s not wanted to go to school in the morning; most times he’s chomping at the bit, excited to get in the car and go. We’re so grateful to his teachers, Mrs Conley and Mrs Upton, as well. They’ve really been understanding, patient and communicative and have helped draw Luke out so much, and have helped us understand him better as well (though he remains an enigma in many ways).

I’m going to attend “Young Authors’ Day” at his school in a little bit. He’s going to read (perform) a story he’s written, to polish off the school year. Looking forward to it.

I was bothered by what I saw of the presidential debate last night. I returned from working for my father-in-law around 9:30 and saw the last few minutes of it. Diane had watched the whole thing and filled me in a bit. My primary issues have to do with the moderator and the substance of the questions. He seemed far too intrusive and would seem like he was about to cut in when the candidates were only a few seconds into their answer. Between that and the “fluffy” nature of many of the questions, we really didn’t get an opportunity to really learn about any of the candidates. The whole event seemed like a dog-and-pony show more than anything else, which was disappointing.

I was impressed with Bachmann, though. I’ve always been impressed with her determination to stick to the principles that inform her positions on bills that come to her desk in Congress, and knowing that (it’s not as if it’s a secret), I’m a little surprised at pundits who seem bewildered by her campaign for president. They say she can’t win the nomination, which is probably true, but given her voting record, the idea of winning or losing above all else certainly doesn’t seem like something she’s constrained by. I respect and admire that, too. Possibly more than any other candidate (at least those with records of public service), she stands for principle above politics. I hope she goes far.

All that said, and this is something Diane regularly gives me grief over, I do hope Rick Perry decides to jump in. If you look at the big picture, I really do think he has the best shot, out of any Republican candidate announced or rumored to announce, of winning the general election. He’s got the charisma and the record, and is “battle-hardened” (to borrow another pundit’s phrase) by winning three (!) Texas gubernatorial elections. There’s just no dirt left to dig up on the guy. The skeletons have been out in the open for ages. His Achilles heel is the fact that he’s yet another governor of Texas, so if he announces a run, expect a nonstop “Bush’s third term” chant by the MSM all the way through, never mind the fact that the ties between the two are not nearly as close as might first appear (Bush endorsed Perry’s opponent in the 2010 Texas governor Republican primany, for instance). He’s not Bush. He’s much more articulate, a better communicator (Bush’s greatest failing) and arguably more fiscally conservative than W. He’s not perfect—no candidate is—but I think he would be a great fit.

I voted in the midterms yesterday. First time I’ve voted in a non-presidential election. Diane early voted on Saturday, and I was going to go this morning but I had to take Luke to school, so I decided to go after work.

It ended up being a good decision, I think. I went for a run this morning and saw people lining up outside the Clemmons Civic Center at 6 a.m., but when I went at 7 p.m., a half-hour before the polls closed, there were only two people ahead of me in line and I didn’t even get to peek at the magazine I’d brought to read. I had printed out a “cheat sheet” for the non-partisan races, and between that and the handout from the conservative gentleman stationed near the entrance to the polling place, I was well-informed, I think. In and out in 15 minutes.

With regard to the election results, I’m pleased but cautious. I told Diane that the disappointment felt by some conservatives over certain “key” races is in large part due to overexpectation. As big as the movement was, the fact that it wasn’t a complete and utter wipeout motivates us to stay engaged and hold the newly-elected candidates feet to the fire. It keeps us from getting complacent. I think I most happy about the pickups in governorships and state legislatures, though. That’s where it all starts; that’s where up-and-coming conservative leaders learn the ropes. Change trickles up, I’m convinced.

Yes folks, this man has won a Nobel Prize. Which is further proof (as if any was needed) that the award is absolutely useless as an indicator of actual merit:

Bear in mind also the lessons of history: social insurance programs tend to start out highly imperfect and incomplete, but get better and more comprehensive as the years go by. […] [Social Security] was improved over time, and it’s now the bedrock of retirement stability for the vast majority of Americans.

That’s the biggest load of garbage I’ve read in a long time. I’d like to put him in a room with Thomas Sowell for 15 minutes and see what happens. My hunch is that he’d reemerge a whimpering, sobbing shell of the man he used to be.

I don’t even know where to start. There are so many liberal euphemisms and redefinitions that it’s almost like all of those have to be cleared out before one can start dismantling the meat of the matter. Just to take the part I quoted, though—if this man had any grasp of actual history, he’d realize that every “social insurance program” has either failed spectacularly in the long run or has morphed and grown (Krugman: “[gotten] better and more comprehensive”) into either a welfare system that destroys personal initiative or some form of totalitarian state that realized that if a little control over people’s lives was nice, a lot was even better. I wonder if Soviet Russia would have defined any of their efforts as “social insurance programs.” It sounds like something we’d hear from the lips of Kim Jong-Il (whose country is neither democratic, nor of the people, nor a republic).

And if Social Security is “the bedrock of retirement stability for the vast majority of Americans,” we’re in serious trouble. Any individual (not just any economist) who has worked their way into at least the lower middle class has a pretty good notion that to rely on Social Security to provide for them in retirement would be the biggest mistake of their financial lives. The system’s going to go bankrupt in a matter of years, and even if it weren’t, the eventual payouts would generate the kind of standard of living that would make the Projects seem like luxury condos.

Unbelievable that this kind of tripe is allowed to be taken seriously in this country. The Gray Lady fell out of my good graces long ago, and this just reconfirms the status quo.

I feel a weird sense of similarity between my emotions about our family’s financial state and my impression of the current political landscape.

The car purchase referenced a few posts down fell through—not because of any reluctance on the part of the seller; rather, what little sense I had in the whole affair prevailed upon me to get a local 6er enthusiast to do a pre-purchase inspection before committing to buy the car and flying out to Texas (yes, that Texas) to pick it up and drive it home. The car was a wreck. The paint job looked good in pictures but in person was terrible, the engine bay was a mess, the seats were okay but the rest of the interior was slipshod, the rims were trashed and the rear valence was missing from the bumper conversion. Needless to say, I passed. However, we’d already been approved for the loan and the money was just sitting in our account—something that can be a recipe for disaster if not checked.

My natural propensity toward researching and investigating potential car purchases has run wild for the past couple of days, but now I’m finally coming around. The loan money will be repaid and car projects relegated to a future time. It felt profoundly irresponsible of me to be consider burdening our family with more debt, considering:

1. Our first priority, financially, is a house purchase. We need to save all the money we can, and work on our credit. Extra debt may not derail those efforts, but it’ll make them more challenging.
2. I can’t afford to get distracted any farther from my family by a car. By the grace of God, with the E24 purchase a good balance has been struck between car hobby time and family time, and the process of another car purchase would threaten to upset that balance, if not do it outright.
3. It’s Christmas and birthday season. Car purchases always involve incidentals here and there, money we’ll need to help out in an already tight season.
4. And maybe the biggest reason: There’s an unrestored 1972 Datsun 240Z sitting in my parents’ garage. It’s mine; my dad bought it new in 1972 and gave me the keys when I graduated from college. I can’t sell it; it’s been in the family for almost 40 years. It needs restoration, and I can’t devote all my attention to some new car and let the Z languish. Just can’t happen. That project takes precedence. So while my daily driver can be fun and interesting, I have to look at the big picture.

The connection with my impression of the political scene is tenuous, I’ll admit. Congress and the administration, among many, many other faults and wrong ideas, have completely lost sight of the big picture with the health care nonsense. They’re making very foolish decisions with our money in a time when the financial position of the country is incredibly precarious. Our family financial situation isn’t bad, but it’s never the wrong time to make wise money choices, and at the moment, taking risks isn’t one of them.

Doctor Zero hits another home run. Notable excerpts:

Many of the GOP’s boneheaded mistakes come from exactly the same source as the Democrats’ boneheaded mistakes: the tendency to believe the media action line about themselves. This produces arrogance in the Democrats, while the Republicans are like awkward, lovestruck teenagers – terrified the slightest bit of confident self-expression will blow their chances with the cute moderate in the pink sweater seated beside them in homeroom class. They suffer beneath the same irony that crushes every awkward teenager, since confident self-expression is exactly what is needed to connect with the object of their affections… assuming they’re not obsessing over someone they never had a chance with anyway.

and

A moderate Republican is someone who lives in a state of perpetual surprise as he ponders the monthly bills for nanny-state government. What’s the point of electing people who are guaranteed to spend the rest of their political careers complaining about how they’ve been played for fools?

He ends with:

A successful Republican Party doesn’t have to be ideologically rigid, but it should insist on candidates who possess an intellectual foundation of conservative theory, and the ability to explain it at least as well as the thousands of people posting comments on conservative blogs.

Absolutely true. Diane and I discuss this regularly: We’re baffled by the resistance of some conservatives to educating themselves about not only the political but also the philsophical foundations of their worldview. It’s an implicit denial that there can be rational and intellectual consistency, integrity in one’s worldview. Kant’s epistemological divisions have made such profound inroads in our thinking. That’s a subject for another time, though—for now, it’d be enough if more elected conservatives could articulate their principles with lucidity, and stand by them.

I’m hopeful about the gubernatorial and NY-23 elections today. With respect to the Virginia race, McDonnell looks pretty good, and I told Ross and Diane that although it’s weird, if he’s elected, it will feel good to have a solid conservative if not in our own state, at least in the one next door. It’s the next best thing, in a manner of speaking.

The NJ race is more complicated. It’s tighter to begin with, and the GOP candidate isn’t as staunchly conservative as his counterpart in VA. Not only that, but his running mate is pro-choice, which indicates a willingness on the part of the candidate to waver on that all-important issue. And of course, ACORN has loosed their thugs on the populace, engaging in increasingly brazen voter fraud. Somehow this organization it still running wild while under federal investigation on a number of counts? Insanity. I’m hoping the election goes well, but as Patten writes:

Republicans haven’t forgotten the prolonged Minnesota recount battle that ended with Democrat Al Franken being awarded the victory over GOP incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman. The bitter lesson drawn by many Republicans: Once officials in a heavily Democratic state declare a race close enough for a recount, all bets are off.

We shall see.