On Ann Althouse's blog this morning, I read:

George Carlin was on Tim Russert's CNBC show this weekend, promoting his book "When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops." The show ended with Russert asking Carlin "Do you vote?" Carlin answered:

No, I don't. No. I voted up to McGovern. I feel, actually, a little purer, a little more detached emotionally from it. I really have no stake. If you dropped me from an airplane, I would come down left of center, because I believe more in humans than I do in property. But in terms of the minor machinations and the way they put these things together, I've no interest.

If you dropped me from an airplane, I think I would come down slightly right of center because I believe more in humans being encouraged to stand on their own two feet than I do humans being coddled and suckled by a bloated welfare state.

I believe that I would come down fairly right of center because although I believe in letting people live their own lives as they choose, I do believe that there is a minimum morality that needs to be maintained lest we destroy ourselves as a functional society.

I believe that I come down firmly right of center because I believe that we need a strong military that takes an active interest in removing threats to our nation before they materialize.

Leaving George Carlin's single statement behind and making a broader observation about socially liberal and socially conservative arguments... it is sadly funny how the arguments between left and right never truly meet each other head on... they sort of mesh like gears, just missing each other, neither side agreeing to the other's definition of a given thing. With no such point of agreement to begin from, it ends up being more like barking dogs at the end of their leashes than people trying to come to terms with others who don't think like they do.

The field of genetics are exploding all over the headlines.

From Michael Cummins:

Some time ago, Yorktown Technologies created a new species of fish in the laboratory, a type of fluorescent Zebrafish. Their ultimate goal is to create a variant that glows only in the presence of toxins and pollutants to help identify spills, leaks and the like. In the mean time, they are selling their fluorescent fish to the public, calling it Glo-Fish. The proceeds go to the lab that is nearly finished with the toxin-detecting fish.

The fish will benefit mankind. Have we gone too far? How far is too far? Where is the ethical line in the sand?

From Michael Cummins:

Recently it was revealed that a scientist at the University of Florida has used rat brain cells to create a kind of a brain-in-a-petri dish. They have used this rudimentary brain, or "neural network", to control an F-22 simulator, hoping that such biological neural networks can help mankind perform complicated machinery, such as planes, prosthetic limbs, etc. Certainly, it will help us to better understand how our own brains work.

The brain-in-a-dish can benefit mankind. Have we gone too far? How far is too far? Where is the ethical line in the sand?

From Rick Weiss of the Washington Post:

In Minnesota, pigs are being born with human blood in their veins.

In Nevada, there are sheep whose livers and hearts are largely human.

In California, mice peer from their cages with human brain cells firing inside their skulls.

These are not outcasts from "The Island of Dr. Moreau," the 1896 novel by H.G. Wells in which a rogue doctor develops creatures that are part animal and part human. They are real creations of real scientists, stretching the boundaries of stem cell research.

Biologists call these hybrid animals chimeras, after the mythical Greek creature with a lion's head, a goat's body and a serpent's tail. They are the products of experiments in which human stem cells were added to developing animal fetuses.

Being able to harvest human organs from animals designed to grow them will benefit mankind. Have we gone too far? How far is too far? Where is the ethical line in the sand?

In an ongoing, topic jumping discussion with conservative thinking friend Pat Hurley and liberally minded Jeffery Cross... the topic du jour is government waste.

by Michael Cummins:

I'm all for targeting waste in government, and I agree that the DoD is full of pork. Let's not forget yet another pork supermarket: the DoE.

I realize that the wheels like to stay greased, but we should be able to reduce some of the more vulgar effrontery.

So as private citizens, what can we do to promote wiser spending habits? Are there any states in the union with decent working models to follow? Tennessee is showing us that Hillary/Kerry-Care is a costly failure. California is showing us that capping contingency fees helps keep costs down. Are there any states to emulate when it comes to keeping contractor costs within reasonable limits?

by Pat Hurley

Nobody implied that a strong military must be wasteful, abusive or inefficient. But, sadly, that is the nature of government. I don't like it, I wish that it weren't, but it is. Hey, remember that five TRILLION dollars America spent on Great Society programs that were guaranteed to wipe out poverty? Where's our bang for the buck? What do we have to show for FIVE TRILLION dollars of spending? Nothing... except worse poverty, more dependency, worse schools, and horribly broken family structures in the inner cities. Where's your outrage about that colossal waste and its devastating effects on black Americans?! That kind of spending makes military waste look like pocket change.

But let me make a piercing point here, while most assuredly not condoning government waste of any kind. At least, where the military is concerned, we have a lot to show for all of the money we've spent. Ready? Here we go... ... ... the B-1 bomber, the B-2 bomber, the Apache helicopter, the M1A1 Abrams tank, the M-16 rifle, night vision technology, FLIR (forward looking infra-red) technology, the F-22 Raptor fighter jet, Nimitz Class and George H.W. Bush class Super Aircraft Carriers, Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers, Trident Submarines, Patriot missles, Sidewinder missles, MOAB (mother of all bombs), the F-14 Tomcat Navy fighter jet, AWACS, and on and on and on and on and on and on. Is there waste in the Pentagon? You bet there is and I'm not happy about it and I want that to change. But you cannot deny that so much of the money spent by the Pentagon has produced an amazing array of deadly weapons that keep our enemies in check and our country safe. Name another government entity that has produced so many tremendous results?

Outrage over waste is exactly right. But please show me some balance, some even-handedness in your outrage.

by Jeffery Cross

There is only one question here to be answered..... How much of TAXPAYERS money would be saved if Republicans ran the military "like a business" as they want to do government in general?

Hipocracy drives me nuts. You've heard me say before... I'm all cutting wasteful programs that don't bring value to Americans.

The point of the article was not about just waste..... but the amount! And the repetitive nature of abuse and the abusers. What fires me up is that we have these politicians on these crusades to lower taxes and to "keep more dollars in Americans pockets" and they turn a blind eye to what is consistently the single largest source of waste and abuse of government funds according not to Jeff Cross, but from the Congressional Budget Office!!! The military is the 800 pound gorilla in the room when it comes to waste. There have been a million books written of the subject over the years. It amazes me when intelligent people imply that a strong military must be wasteful, abusive and inefficient!

In April, President Bush signed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004.

President George W. Bush:

...The Unborn Victims of Violence Act provides that, under federal law, any person who causes death or injury to a child in the womb shall be charged with a separate offense, in addition to any charges relating to the mother. As of today, the law of our nation will acknowledge the plain fact that crimes of violence against a pregnant woman often have two victims. And therefore, in those cases, there are two offenses to be punished. Under this law, those who direct violence toward a pregnant woman will answer for the full extent of the harm they have done, and for all the crimes they have committed....

This afternoon, Scott Peterson was found guilty of not only murdering his wife, but her unborn child as well.

He was convicted of one count of first-degree murder for killing his wife, Laci, and one count of second-degree murder in the death of the son she was carrying.

My question now is this... With the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 and now the 2nd degree murder of an unborn child on the books, how does this affect Roe vs. Wade and the rights of a mother to have an abortion? Are we now on thin ice? Or did the "Laci Law" and the guilty verdict carefully sidestep the issue with legalese?

As I discover more, I'll update this post...

Hat Tip to LaShawn Barber

Wendy and I saw the Incredibles this weekend; a great film, and now one of my favorites of all time.

For your viewing enjoyment, I present a picture of both the INCREDIBLES and the UNCREDIBLES!

...I'm just watching some of the reactions from the left as they come to terms with their loss to an opponent who ran on a moral platform.

Check these out. Be warned, profanity ahead.

Jane Smiley of MSN's Slate

I grew up in Missouri and most of my family voted for Bush, so I am going to be the one to say it: The election results reflect the decision of the right wing to cultivate and exploit ignorance in the citizenry. I suppose the good news is that 55 million Americans have evaded the ignorance-inducing machine. But 58 million have not. (Well, almost 58 million—my relatives are not ignorant, they are just greedy and full of classic Republican feelings of superiority.)

Ignorance and bloodlust have a long tradition in the United States, especially in the red states. There used to be a kind of hand-to-hand fight on the frontier called a "knock-down-drag-out," where any kind of gouging, biting, or maiming was considered fair. The ancestors of today's red-state voters used to stand around cheering and betting on these fights. When the forces of red and blue encountered one another head-on for the first time in Kansas Territory in 1856, the red forces from Missouri, who had been coveting Indian land across the Missouri River since 1820, entered Kansas and stole the territorial election. The red news media of the day made a practice of inflammatory lying—declaring that the blue folks had shot and killed red folks whom everyone knew were walking around. The worst civilian massacre in American history took place in Lawrence, Kan., in 1862—Quantrill's raid. The red forces, known then as the slave-power, pulled 265 unarmed men from their beds on a Sunday morning and slaughtered them in front of their wives and children. The error that progressives have consistently committed over the years is to underestimate the vitality of ignorance in America. Listen to what the red state citizens say about themselves, the songs they write, and the sermons they flock to. They know who they are—they are full of original sin and they have a taste for violence. The blue state citizens make the Rousseauvian mistake of thinking humans are essentially good, and so they never realize when they are about to be slugged from behind.

I don't suppose that I have to tell you these are from Berkely, California. Do I?

Paul Krugman of the New York Times:

President Bush isn't a conservative. He's a radical - the leader of a coalition that deeply dislikes America as it is. Part of that coalition wants to tear down the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt, eviscerating Social Security and, eventually, Medicare. Another part wants to break down the barriers between church and state. And thanks to a heavy turnout by evangelical Christians, Mr. Bush has four more years to advance that radical agenda.

James Wolcott, contributing editor to Vanity Fair

The election was a victory for George Bush and Rovianism, a victory for Grover Norquist. It was also a victory for Osama Bin Laden. I don't believe for a moment Bin Laden was trying to sway voters to Kerry with his taped address. This was the outcome he wanted, a gift from us to him: an unapologetic Christian Crusader in the White House whose reelection giving lie to the notion that Abu Ghraib was an aberration and that the deaths of thousands of Iraqi civilians weigh upon America's conscience. This morning America could not look more like a grinning aggressor to the Arab world, an aggressor with fresh marching orders.

But there's bitter clarity to knowing the worst. My wife has forbade me from going into the same depressive funk after this election that I did 9/11--"I couldn't take another 9 months of that again"--and I'm not depressed, being filled with far too much healthy loathing for millions of my fellow Americans to let myself droop. I do have a column that is (over)due, so blogging will be light until the weekend, when the statue of Jesus will be installed on the White House lawn.

Eric Alterman with MSN's Slate

Let’s face it. It’s not Kerry’s fault. It’s not Nader’s fault (this time). It’s not the media’s fault (though they do bear a heavy responsibility for much of what ails our political system). It’s not “our” fault either. The problem is just this: Slightly more than half of the citizens of this country simply do not care about what those of us in the “reality-based community” say or believe about anything.

They don’t care that Iraq is turning into murderous quicksand and a killing field for our children. They don’t care that the Bush presidency has made us less safe by creating more terrorists, inspiring more anti-American hatred and refusing to engage in the hard work that would be necessary to make a meaningful dent in our myriad vulnerabilities at home. They don’t care that he has mortgaged our children’s future to give trillions to the wealthiest among us. They don’t care that the economy continues to hemorrhage well-paying jobs and replace them with Wal-Mart; that the number without health insurance is over forty million and rising. They don’t care that Medicare premiums are rising to fund the coffers of pharmaceutical companies. They don’t care that the air they breathe and the water they drink is being slowly poisoned and though they call themselves conservatives, they even don’t care that the size of the government and its share of our national income has increased by roughly a quarter in just four years. This is not a world of rational debate and issue preference.

It’s one of “them” and “us.” He’s one of “them” and not one of “us” and that’s all they care about.

There are sooooooo many more examples out there. I don't have that much time in the day.

I'm glad I am not a party to this kind of hatred.

If you have not yet read Tammy Bruce's book, The Death of Right and Wrong, you really need to.

From Germany's Spiegel Online: (I can't believe they listed Michael Moore, ugh!)

Germans love bashing the United States. But one German newspaper has decided to take another tack. Here are 100 reasons to love America.

John Kerry has conceded and more than ever Germans are perplexed about America. One Berlin daily, the Tageszeitung, offers a fun reprieve from an otherwise gruelling political marathon. Here's its list of 100 permanent and decidedly non-political things that make America great.

Cheerleaders
Jazz
Johnny Cash
Air Conditioning
Halloween
White teeth
Jeans
National parks
Fishing
Motels
Indian summer
Hot dogs
"Are you ok?"

Aspirin
Basketball
Hollywood
Obesity
Horsepower
Bookstore-cafes
Non-smokers
Risk taking
Open doors
Tolerance for all foreigners
Anti-smoker discrimination
Sports Illustrated
Optimism
Olympic medal count
The mail
Political party conventions
Research
Blues
Late Night Shows
Press conferences
Hustler
Bike helmets for adults
Plastic surgery
Pancakes
Sidewalks free of dog crap
Politeness
Immigration
Steaks
Foreign reporting of The New York Times
Football rules
Patriotism
Second chances
Women in leadership positions
Not being shoved aside in the elevator
The ability to get excited
Orange juice
Equal rights in the workplace
Cool T-shirts
Bagels
John Updike
Slogans at leftist demonstrations
Skyscrapers
Home shopping channels
Campaigns against American companies
Refrigerators with ice machines
The ability to remember the first names of people one has only met once
Women's soccer
Self-confidence
Street musicians
Hydrogen-powered Hummers
The size of pizzas
Viagra
Space, lots of space
White socks in tennis shoes
Fog in San Francisco
Jack Kerouac
Taxes
Californian oranges
Corpses with cement boots that stand on the bottom of the Hudson River
Microsoft
"Pursuit of Happiness" in the Constitution
Dish washers
"Coffee"
Neil Armstrong's footprints
Lawyers
Harley Davidson
National Rifle Association
Beer in brown paper bags
Speed limits on the highway
Foreign trade deficit
Michael Moore
Star Wars
Lower gas prices than in Europe
Homer Simpson
The Dollar
Burgers at Sabrina's and breakfast at Carman's in Philadelphia
Hip Hop videos
Starbucks
"I love you dad!"
Fidel Castro
Free refills
Monster trucks
Barbara Streisand
Cornflakes
The sky over Idaho
Martin Luther King
Graceland
The music charts

I doubt that this will be a great blow to spammers around the world. I think it is a fruitless exercise, myself... but it is emotionally gratifying. I loved it when AOL raffled off the confiscated spammer's Porsche.

We will only be able to effectively battle this with better and more accountable architecture, protocols and accountability. I worry about the solution as much as the disease though, for with such control comes the opportunity to censor, to tax...

In the current day and age where the quality of information brokerage defines success and those who impede the flow of ideas become dead wood... I don't think that the world will suffer such a Pyrrhic victory.

A brother and sister who sent junk e-mail to millions of America Online customers were convicted Wednesday in the nation's first felony prosecution of Internet spam distributors.

Jurors recommended that Jeremy Jaynes be sentenced to nine years in prison and fined Jessica DeGroot $7,500 after convicting them of three counts each of sending e-mails with fraudulent and untraceable routing information.

Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore applauded the convictions and called Virginia's anti-spam law the toughest in America.

"Spam is a nuisance to millions of Americans, but it is also a major problem for businesses large and small because the thousands of unwanted e-mails create havoc as they attempt to conduct business," Kilgore said in a statement.

Senator Kerry, I want to thank you for gracefully conceding this election. There remained a dim light of hope for many of your most ardent supporters, but I believe it would have been a pyrrhic victory... sacrificing, I believe, much more than we could afford to lose.

Thank you. I look forward to the possibility of America leaving some of the vitriol of the election behind us that we may get down to the hard, rewarding work of Democracy.

Here is to hoping that our nation can come together again and move forward with efficient, effective compromise.

Looking specifically at the Florida 2004 Election results on a county per county basis, if you were to omit Broward and West Palm Beach counties, Florida is actually a fairly solid Republican state.

If the GOP spends the next 4 years courting Broward and West Palm Beach effectively, without ignoring the rest of the state, I believe they can increase their margins in 2008 by 75,000 or more votes.

Back in early August I made a Voodoo Prognosis about the election that doesn't seem so far fetched even as we approach midnight on election day. Looking at the numbers this evening, if all the colored states stay the same color on Drudge's map, then Bush will win 296-242 by my count. Here's another voodoo chart for you.

If we lose Florida and keep the other 4 pink states?

269-269.

I can hear them screaming now if that happens.

Update (0013hrs): Ooops, I put Nevada in as a red state. What is happening out there? I thought Nevada was red. :( They gave such a great hoo-rah at the RNC... That makes it 291-247 assuming Alaska is red and Hawai'i is blue...

Hey Florida! Keep it up!

Let the games begin!

My mother was not allowed to vote today because someone had already submitted an absentee ballot in her name.

I wonder who they could have voted for !!??!!

She is at the polling place now trying to get it straightened out so she can actually user her own vote.

The sad thing is, my father is in the hospital now, and will not be able to vote. (Hey, some things you can't plan around).

I wonder if someone has submitted an absentee ballot in HIS name as well?

At least Wendy and I got our votes in today. We went just after 10:00am, when we thought most people would have been at work. There were a decent number of people there, but the poll workers were efficient and polite. They moved people through with a military precision. Kudos to the pollworkers in precinct 62R, Broward County, Florida!

UPDATE (1233hrs): I spoke with Mom again. The poll workers told her that not only did someone request an absentee ballot under her name, they even turned it in. They are making her contest the vote, gave her some paperwork. Mom is completely disenchanted. I'm going to see what we can do about this.

Another great essay by Bill over at Eject!Eject!Eject!

It really deserves to be read in its entirety. Don't forget to click forward to get the rest!

A FINAL THOUGHT BEFORE THE SHOW

On Tuesday, Americans will choose between the conservative hawk from Texas, and the conservative hawk from Massachusetts. Both are running on a platform to strengthen the military and track down terrorists wherever they may live. Draw your own conclusions about who has the most convincing track record in this regard.

I have tried to make clear the reasons I have, and continue to support, President Bush. Despite his many faults, he seems to understand that the only nations serious about this fight are already in the field at our side. We have recovered from budget deficits before. We have been debating abortion and gay rights and all the other lifestyle issues for decades, and these debates will not go away if John Kerry is elected.

I will be able to live with a Kerry Presidency. But what tortures me is the thought that this country is no longer capable of doing hard, dirty work -- that we have reached the point where nothing difficult is attainable because the cost is something less than free.

I believe, from a reading of the history and the very words of the leaders of North Vietnam, that John Kerry was instrumental in convincing them that if they were able to hang on and inflict enough American casualties, eventually we would tire and go home.

I further believe that history shows that the Ayatollah Khomeini had our number in this regard, and I regard the start of this current conflict as the day they overran the US Embassy in Tehran, to which our response was...what?

The murdering, beheading savages who are trying to steal victory from defeat in the American ballot box have seen these lessons of Vietnam, and Iran, and Somalia, and they are -- and have openly said they are -- doing their best to kill as many Americans as they can to win this election for the man they certainly seem to fear less. That tells me something.

We now discover from MEMRI (link here) in a more precise interpretation of Osama bin Laden's recent tape that he was in fact saying that those American states that do not mess with him will be safe, and the implication, of course, is that those that do -- by voting for Bush -- face his retaliation.

Whether or not you are willing to bargain your safety with this man is up to your own individual conscience. Personally, the idea disgusts me, and I think the reason the press has --shockingly! -- declined to mention this is because they know that despite Michael Moore, this is not Spain. I believe the idea of bin Laden dictating American politics is enough to ensure a Bush win. Read the article at MEMRI and draw your own conclusion.

President Bush has already done much to re-program our mortal enemies assumptions about our determination to finish what we start, no matter the cost. Three dangerous enemies have fallen during his watch -- Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. The first two were predicted to cause American streets to run red with blood as the Jihadists took their vengeance upon us. In the three years since 9/11, there have been no terrorist attacks on this country. That is a record to be proud of, and one that deserves the reward of my vote, at least.

I want to finish this fight, now. I don't think our children should have to worry about this five or ten or twenty years from now, when Iran or North Korea has had a chance to spread some nuclear largesse around. I believe a badly wounded enemy is more dangerous than a dead one. I want this fight to be over so that the country can afford to elect someone who panders to everyone and speaks French and can undo all this animosity from Europe with a few well-placed toasts and a conciliatory speech at the UN. The time for that is when this thing is over.

There is much to dislike, and even some to despise, about the current American President. But he means to finish this fight, and by that, I believe he means to finish it by winning.

Afghanistan did not go to the warlords. It went to the polls. There were not one million refugees. Iraq did not produce 10,000 US casualties in house-to-house fighting, nor did it splinter into 3-way civil war as so many predicted. In three months, Iraqis will also go to the polls, and they, by all accounts, will continue their widespread support for secular candidates and repudiation of the extremists that are fighting so hard to terrorize and dishearten them. But the Iraqis are not terrorized. They are signing on for their army and police forces in the face of great danger. We owe those brave men and women something better than "wrong war, wrong place and wrong time."

This is failure?

Not by my standards, it isn't.

So I promised you a final thought, and everything above this point is mere preamble to it. Here it is:

People are telling you that Tuesday will be the most important election of your lives.

That is not true.

The most important election of your lives was held on Tuesday, November 7th, 2000. You just didn't know it. Neither did I.

What happened on that day led to one man being in the White House these past four years, rather than the other one. Whether he has done enough to keep us safe, even if he should lose on Tuesday, remains to be seen. But the fact remains that George W. Bush was Commander in Chief and President when we needed him the most.

I made a mistake when I cast my vote for Al Gore in the most important election of my lifetime. I won't make that mistake again on Tuesday.