Conservative Musings

Quote of the Day

"It actually upsets me.  I am a plumber, and just a plumber, and here Barack Obama or John McCain, I mean these guys are going to deal with some serious issues coming up shortly. The media's worried about whether I paid my taxes, they're worried about any number of silly things that have nothing to do with America. They really don't. I asked a question. When you can't ask a question to your leaders anymore, that gets scary. That bothers me." - "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbache, on Fox New Channel's Huckabee show.

Reminds me of a story....maybe you've heard it.  A candidate for president goes campaigning door-to-door.  He stops by one house, where the owner is out front.  He starts up a conversation with the homeowner.  The homeowner asks a question.  The candidate answers it.

That, simply put, is the whole story here.  Nothing earth shattering here.  Happens in every election across America, in any year.  But because of the specifics of the question and the answer, now the liberal side of America is demonizing the questioner. 

The important thing to get out of this dialogue is the candidate's answer:

Mr. Obama said, "It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody that is behind you, that they have a chance for success, too. I think that when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

Any thoughts as to how that is going to happen?  Can you say "higher taxes"?  Consider, also, that this makes not the American people but the American government as the referee as to how much income is too much.  A whole new beauracracy dedicated to channeling money from one group of people to another.

So just how much income is too much?  If this is put in place, what incentive does anyone have to go out and work harder to make more money?  Just sit back in your recliner and let "the one" take care of you.

-Colonel Steve

Who and Who Is Not for McCain/Palin

Last nights speech by Governor Sarah Palin was carried by 6 television networks.  Last week's speech by Senator Barack Obama was carried by 10 television networks.  So 4 TV networks seemed NOT to be on the RNC's side.

Barack Obama had 38.37 million watchers of his speech.  Sarah had 37.24 million watchers of her speech, in spite of the lack of 4 TV networks.  That tells me people were just as seriously interested in her thoughts as his. 

They are both unique stand outs, being that neither are the typical white male cadidate.  That part of the attraction will wane away.  After all the scrutiny that Sarah has gone thru, many have seen that she is just like us common folk.  Not elite by any means.

Cool.

-Colonel Steve

General Hammond / Don S. Davis

It's sad to hear that on June 29th, Don S. Davis, who portrayed General George Hammond, passed away.  His Air Force General portrayal always impressed me.  A strict, in command leader who always made sure his folks were brought home.

(HT: Blackfive)

-Colonel Steve

Will They Be Missed....Again?

First, it was the recent writers' strike that stopped production in Hollywood.  Now on it's heels comes a possible actors' strike.

No wonder my Netflix queue is full of oldies.

-Colonel Steve

Next Stargate SG-1 Movie

July 29th is the release date for Stargate - Continuum.  Nice thing about the High Def format wars being over, this is the first Stargate release to go Blu-ray.

(HT: Instapundit & Armchair Commentary).

-Colonel Steve

Around The News Today

Susan Sarandon has stated that, if Senator John McCain is elected, she will move to either Italy or Canada.  My vote is to help her plan her move.  Anyone see some sort of movie star watch list for this election, I'd sure love to know.

Speaking of watch lists, John Fund at the Wall Street Journal speaks of Barack Obama's history of gaffes.  He is sure making enough of them for someone to have a watch list going for the gaffes.  Could be a full time job.

We've got computers being trained to read our minds.  Sure would help some of us men.  Finally, we could do those things our wives assumed we could do.

Closer to home, the University of Louisville's Rauch Planetarium is running the show "The Planets", narrated by Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway on "Star Trek: Voyager"). 

-Colonel Steve

Unsurprising Ratings

Fox News Channel (FNC) has continued their high ratings thru the month of May 2008.  This ups its #1 position in total day and primetime ratings to 77 consecutive months (6 years and 5 months).

Still wondering how long it takes the liberal media to get a clue.

-Colonel Steve

Latest Netflix Offering

Netflix is now offering a TV top box to watch movies on TV.  This is designed as an extension of their instant watch offering, that streams movies and tv shows to your computer.

As much as I love watching the instant offering from Netflix, I am going to have to seriously consider picking up one.  At $99.99, I consider it a bargain.  Although Netflix does not offer instant watching of real recent movies, I still consider it a very good competitor to cable's offerings.  Probably because I already use it alot.

-Colonel Steve

Obama's Kentucky Excuse

Here's some of Obama's excuses for, as he predicts, losing Kentucky tomorrow.

(He) blamed Fox News for disseminating "rumors" about him and said that that and e-mails filled with misinformation that have been "systematically" dispersed have hurt him in Kentucky.

“Part of it is because there have been these e-mails that have been sent out very systematically, presumably by various political opponents, although I don’t know who,” he said. “And there are a lot of voters who get their news from Fox News. Fox has been pumping up rumors about my religious beliefs or my patriotism or what have you since the beginning of the campaign.”

E-mails?  As a Kentuckian, I seem to have missed those.  Fox News starting rumors on his patriotism and religion?  As a public figure, I thought he'd be used to news reporting by now.  I'd say the only truth he had in his whole comment was on the "lot of voters who get their news from Fox News."  See some of their ratings here.  Being top dog on the cable news industry means just that - lots of voters getting news from them.  But Barack, look at the bright side - it's the CONSERVATIVES who watch that channel, remember?  Not the liberals voting for you.

I used to think this college educated candidate only flunked geography.  Current Affairs and Media might have been other subjects he slept through.

(HT: Little Green Footballs)

-Colonel Steve

A-La-Carte!

I read the blog entry by Insight Communications CEO Michael Willner about offering cable networks on an a-la-carte basis.  I appreciate his willingness to talk about the issue, but I do not agree with him.

Here's my recent experience with Insight Cable:  I wanted to add the Boomerang network for my child.  However, to get the Boomerang network I had to add this large array of channels (the "Digital Standard" package), most of which I would never watch.  I was okay with this because there were a couple of other channels, such as ESPN-U, I thought it would be useful to have. 

After I ordered the package, I was scrolling through the shows that were being offered on some of these new channels and saw some things on one channel, LOGO, that brought me up short.  I fully expect there will be individual shows on some channels that I will object to.  I don't like it but I can live with it.  However, this channel's whole existence is intended to undermine traditional morality.  I could not pay for this, even a small amount.

So, since I could not pay for Boomerang a-la-carte, I canceled my subscription to Digital Standard and Insight lost some business.  I am not completely opposed to the bundling of channels -- but the bundles should make sense.  I should not have to buy adult-themed channels to get children's channels.

--Red