The man hasn't made one presidential decision yet. Not one decision impacting the nation as a whole. And yet we have people downright worshiping him:



(hat-tip: Emperor Dan)

SNL sums it up well. Fay actually used Palin's own words verbatim in several parts of this skit.

Immature? A bit. But apparently so is Drudge, where I found the photo.

In honor of one of my favorite jurists, John Marshall, who was born on this date in 1755, I present to you some of his quotes:

"It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. . . . If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each. . . . This is of the very essence of judicial duty." - Marbury v. Madison

"The power to tax involves the power to destroy." - McCulloch v. Maryland

"The people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their own will, and lives only by their will." - Cohens v. Virginia

1. Obama's envisions an activist Supreme Court that applies its own aspirations rather than the text of the document. As do his supporters. McCain has pledged to appoint textualists to the Court.

2. Obama wants to raise taxes on corporations and small businesses, which would harm the economy and still raise the burden on the middle class and the poor. McCain has pledged to lower those taxes.

3. This one's big: according to a high-ranking Iraqi official, Barack Obama asked them to delay the agreement that led to the just announced reduction of U.S. troops in that nation--to delay the cut until after the election. This contradicts Obama's stated position that he wants to bring the troops home more quickly and earlier than Bush and McCain. Once this story is more publicized, might the public view this as a political tactic by Obama that keeps more American troops at risk? If so, Obama's candidacy is in trouble.

The numbers do not lie. See for yourself here.

Despite receiving repeated death threats, Paul McCartney has refused to cancel a planned concert in Israel celebrating that nation's 60th anniversary.

Freedom depends on all of us choosing to stand up and to not bow to extremism.

Real life always wins out with the comically strange: 'Naked man walking dog Tasered by Tallahassee police'

The best thing is the man's reason: "Allah told me to watch a Bruce Willis movie and walk the dog."

Well, I guess there are worse things the guy could have claimed Allah ordered him to do.

Why is it that SNL and The Daily Show provide more meaningful reporting and commentary on politics than FoxNews and MSNBC ("the Obama channel")??

Obviously a matter close to my heart. Here are a few stories that give a hint at the GOP's (and all Americans') evolving attitudes towards gay people and towards gay issues.

First we have an interesting anecdotal post B. Daniel Blatt, one of the bloggers on the site GayPatriot:

"Since coming to the Xcel Center, I am using this opportunity to see how Republicans react to an openly gay man in their midst."

Blatt characterized his "test" as having positive results, him being well-received by the politicians he introduced himself to.

Second, we have a NYTimes poll of Republican National Convention delegates. The poll reveals that 49% of these delegates support either gay marriage (6%) or gay civil unions (43%). On the other hand, 46% believe there should be no legal recognition for gay unions. Considering this is a poll of the most hardcore of party activists, I find these numbers a bit encouraging. The numbers ten years ago would surely have looked much different.

In past posts, I've looked at polls of America's younger generations and found the results promising, with younger people favoring legal recognition of gay couples and supporting more restrictions on abortion, two positions that many would like us to think incompatible or contradictory.

Finally, and perhaps a bit startling, we have a Zogby poll that says that a majority of Americans could support an openly gay president:

"...1,089 likely voters [were asked] if they would support an openly gay president, U.S. senator, vice president or cabinet-level secretary if they believed the individual was the most qualified person for the job. Sixty-five percent of survey participants indicated that they “strongly” or “somewhat” agree they could support the presidential candidate."

Now I'd take this poll with a grain of salt. The question, which stated that the gay candidate was the "most qualified" was a bit loaded. The real question, I think, is how many Americans would be willing to believe that a gay candidate is, in fact, the most qualified. Bias, in other words, often acts on a level that most people are unwilling to recognize or admit.

Here's an example of why we must always challenge assumptions:

"Research conducted by a team of North American scientists shows our solar system is special, contrary to the accepted theory that it is an average planetary system," says Iddo Genuth in an article published in Science Magazine. See the Slashdot post on it here.

According to the research, solar systems are much more likely to either not form planets at all or to form planets than acquire highly elliptical orbits.

You'll often here some scientists and philosophers make the claim that the sheer number of solar systems in the universe ensures that life must exist somewhere else outside of planet Earth.

I have always argued that this argument is specious, because while the number of solar systems is truly massive, we do not know with any certainty how unlikely the odds are of a given solar system containing planets capable of sustaining life.

In other words, if those odds are sufficiently minuscule, then even the massive number of solar systems in existence would not be enough to support an assumption that life must exist elsewhere.

Anyways, random food for thought.

John McCain and other Republicans as the GOP convention spoke of the ills of big intrusive government. Here is yet one small but insidious example: red light cameras.

New studies confirm earlier studies that show that red light cameras do not improve safety in intersections, and actually increase accidents somewhat.

But new cities continue to add these cameras. The cities do see a raise in revenue raised off tickets from these cameras. So these city governments are putting their want of revenue over the safety of their citizens. Sad.

In this day, terms like honor, sacrifice, and courage are too often ignored or given empty recognition. John McCain, despite how you feel about his political policies, exemplifies these virtues and animates them at a time when our younger generations most need it.

For those of you who missed it:

Some of Romney's speech is typical convention bluster. But he also provides an excellent primer on economic conservatism towards the speech's middle: the role of individual ingenuity versus the role of government. It's a must see for that reason.



Money quotes:

"Liberals would replace opportunity with dependency on government largesse. They grow government and raise taxes to put more people on Medicaid, to take work requirements out of welfare, and to grow the ranks of those who pay no taxes at all. Dependency is death to initiative, risk-taking and opportunity.

It is time to stop the spread of government dependency to fight it like the poison it is!"

"Democrats want to use the slowdown as an excuse to do what their special interests are always begging for: higher taxes, bigger government and less trade with other nations.

It's the same path Europe took a few decades ago. It leads to moribund growth and double-digit unemployment.

The right course is the one championed by Ronald Reagan 30 years ago, and by John McCain today. It is to rein in government spending and to lower taxes, for taking a weed whacker to excessive regulation and mandates, for putting a stop to tort windfalls, and to stand up to the tyrannosaurus appetite of government unions!"

Excellent. Particularly his defense of economic conservatism.



Money quote from Fred Thompson: "A man who never quits, is never defeated."