Better Banter

The recent speech by Barack Obama which provided some defense of his relationship with The Reverend Jeremiah Wright and association with his church has been dissected down to near-microscopic levels by now. And before tonight, I didn't think there could be anything more to add to the conversation until I read something from almost 20 years ago that really brought the entire controversy into sharp focus for me, and its only indirectly about the race issue. What sparked my thoughts last evening on this subject were the words of Stephen R. Covey, from his 1989 book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: "(Proactivity) means more than merely taking initiative. It means that as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We can subordinate feelings to values. We have the intiative and responsibility to make things happen. Look at the word responsibility - 'response-ability' - the ability to choose yo...

Any number of conservative news outlets have reported stories about the feelings of the Iraqi people about America, but there's always retorts from people like New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who called Iraq "a morass" on The CBS Early Show this morning after recently endorsing Barack Obama for President. It has always incensed me when hatred for the Bush Administration manifests itself with such First Amendment expressions, but never more so then after a conversation I had today with a U.S. government employee working in Iraq that I'd like to share. His name is Jim (he has not given me the authority to share my discussion with him in this forum and so he will remain anonymous) and he is on leave stateside from his job teaching the Iraqi people centuries-old techniques of survival, namely farming and raising chickens. Jim is transported to his field "classrooms" all over the Baghdad area by U.S. military personnel, commuting in tanks, Humvees and heli...

A letter to the editor in the New York Times today laments job discrimination against... ex-cons. Evelyn Malavé of the Legal Action Center points (rightly) to the reduced rate of recidivism among ex-cons who have a job. However, should private citizens and businesses be forced to turn the other cheek, forgive and forget, and put themselves and their families at risk? Even if a company were willing to take such a risk, and let's be fair, it is a risk, what of Evelyn's colleagues in the legal profession? I'm not sure how many "who knew what when" investigations I've seen of school bus drivers with a DUI in their past. The public goes ballistic. What happens when a business knowingly employs someone with a criminal record, and something goes seriously bad? They would be sued to within an inch of their livelihood. One definition of discrimination is "The ability or power to see or make fine distinctions; discernment." Certainly discrimination in this sen...

Watching the Clinton victory speech, and she just said the following (I have a DVR and rewound just to be sure): We're ready to end the war in Iraq and win the war in Afghanistan. Of course, this got sustained applause. Now it's one thing to say you want to end the war. We all want to end the war. But to say it in the same sentence as winning in Afghanistan gives us a glimpse into what she really means, doesn't it? I know, I just voted for her... but it's not like a real vote, right? BTW: Ted Strickland for veep if Hillary gets the nomination. The dems need Ohio, and he gave her quite a rousing intro. He's pretty popular here as well and could definitely make a difference in carrying the state.

Oh, the glory days. I wish I could go back in time to the mythical Ohio of Steve Kroft's yesteryear. It was quite a jet-setting place, apparently: KROFT: Used to be that almost everybody in Ohio and the Midwest took a vacation to Florida, the west coast of Florida in the wintertime, and bought a new Chevy or a Ford or Chrysler every other year. MIKE THRONE: The one that I have has 175,000 miles on it. KROFT: Anybody take a vacation to Florida in the wintertime? SCHOENHOLTZ: No. JOHN ISON: I haven't taken a vacation in five years. Well, I've only lived in Ohio for the past dozen or so years. But apparently I missed that gravy train. I showed the quote to a few natives, and the reaction was, quite naturally, to be insulted. New American cars every other year? Is this a talking point from displaced auto workers? Steve, how do you possibly justify such a comment? You might as well say that before No Child Left Behind, most children were leaving middle school to pursue Ph.D...

It rained cats and dogs today here in Ohio, and after pulling into an empty spot at my polling location this afternoon, I sat in my car for quite some time. Not because of the rain, but because I kept thinking about what I was about to do. As you've surmised, this two-time GWB voter just pulled the D-lever for Hillary Clinton. Now, before I'm discovered by the New York Times, let me explain. I voted for Hillary on a couple of different levels, one cynical, and the other above-the-board. My above-the-board reasoning is this: McCain doesn't need my vote. He will be the nominee. But if we're destined to have a Democrat in the White House, I'd like to weigh in on which one I prefer. I prefer Hillary. But not by much. Further, I will never vote for her in the general election. However, Barack Obama is somehow even scarier. He's a smooth operator, quick on his feet, and has a complicit press following. His minority status will make any GOP attack potentially "rac...