The Pacific territories have considerable strategic value, particularly Guam. Those on the Atlantic side are not worth the cost of maintaining them.

The perks of being Pres don't last forever, for Obama, maybe less than a year more. Gotta milk the system while you can. What a sleeze.

Chris Christie is off my list for anything except Governor of New Jersey. Once you move beyond state budgets, he has a host of major issue problems, and his in-your-face demeanor may be amusing but will not play well with large portions of the electorate.

As for Bush, I really don't care where he stands on anything because his national prospects are nil in a country suffering from a severe case of Bush fatigue.

Most of the rest need a lot more time to prove themselves. In a best case scenario, a Republican win in 2012 will push their windows of opportunity out to 2020. Eight years should thin the field considerably. If Obama manages reelection and the country somehow avoids DocJay's doom scenario, we will have to make do with whomever hasn't shot himself in the foot multiple times by 2016.

There is also plenty of room for other contenders, hopefully with more to their resumes than their first fifteen minutes of fame.

I can't believe I am the only one so far who has been in all of the lower 48. Where's Dave?

Edit: Same result using the overnight rule.

If people in 2008 had looked at what was known, even then, about Obama and his associates, the antics of the last three and one half years would have brought few surprises. 2012 will be interesting, if only for what it reveals about the American electorate.

The trend antedates Obama. It has been building for fifty years. The only solution that could produce short term change is a radical evisceration of the Federal bureaucracy. This isn't going to happen. The political cost would be unacceptable to legislators whose sole priority is their own perpetuation in office, as well as to the huge masses of constitutents being slopped at the public trough. Worst of all, can you imagine the effect of say a million and a half bureaucrats with no known useful job skills being dumped on the labor market?

Why do I keep getting the strange feeling that Ricochet is becoming an ever more polarized and unfriendly place? If I really want to read personal invective I can go over to SuperTopo for a while.

Thanks for the link. I just checked it out and got some good laughs.

Perhaps we should invite the Saudis to instruct us on effective techniques for maintaining public virtue.

As noted in the preamble to post 54, the subject was hypocrisy, a virtually universal human constant. I will not back off my concluding criticism ("I assume . . .") The generalization is valid. That at least some people may try to rise above their nature is laudable but beside the point. The basic nature remains.

Same for me on all counts, wife included. I lived for more than twenty years up and down the great plains and never got to see one. Saw plenty of aftermath, but the actual storms conscientiously avoided me. This was because I had a political science/meteorology double major in college. The principle is identical to the infamous 'law of grocery store merchandising' under which the store discontinues a product the moment they figure out you like it. Weather is the same way. If you show an interest in something you might as well kiss it off because you're never going to see it. Astronomical events follow the same rule. Lunar eclipse? There will be one large cloud in the sky. Guess where. Similarly, when Minot AFB had a total solar eclipse, SAC launched an alert just before totality. 'THEY' KNOW. It's a conspiracy.

A few additional points.

Regarding the suits mentioned above. The 'said suit' who broached the idea, the 'heavy hitter', was the lead offender. I let it leak out that I had been studying internet traffic and the results were fascinating. I never heard another word about filters. It is amazing how nice people can be when they know you have goods on them.

Regarding porn, I don't care what you do as long as you leave me alone. Your life is your problem.

Regarding Santorum, I agree with GOVICIDE: He seems more worried about saving my soul than protecting my rights.

Regarding the Ricochet spell checker, skepticism may be the preferred American spelling, but it just doesn't look right. I'll stick with scepticism, the preferred spelling  in the rest of the anglophone world.

Lastly, yes, I got up on the wrong side of bed this morning.

There is certainly some hypocrisy embedded in all those positions. You would have to be naïve to think there aren’t those among anti-pornography crusaders who head straight to the “adult” channels when they check into their hotels.

More than just a little. During my IT days, one of the suits obliquely floated the idea of installing internet filters. I thought it was a thoroughly stupid idea, if only because the company was a player in a small and arcane corner of the construction industry and frequented sites researching or ordering items such as screws, nails, studs, and a unbelievable host of other things that would give a content filter fits.  Nevertheless, said suit kept making noises so one day I surreptitiously installed some monitoring software. Lo and behold, who were the major offenders? Three of the five highest ranking suits. By the way, all were staunch Republicans, one of whom fancied himself a heavy hitter in the local and state party.

I assume all people are liars and frauds. I have even gone so far as to accuse my wife of sneaking into voting booths and voting Democrat. Excepting that transgression, scepticism makes life much simpler.

Ditto, for two days now.

One other oddity. It used to be that when you refreshed a page it would return you to the spot you were at when you launched the refresh. Now it returns you to the top of the page every time. Very annoying.

I've driven I-70 a lot. Perhaps before it was just interstate ozone, but it seems to be only in the last couple of years ago that I have begun to notice what appeared to be a fairly new sign. Russell, KS,  which has long proudly proclaimed itself the hometown of Bob Dole, now has a sign similarly claiming Arlen Specter. Every time I pass, I wonder. WHY? Why would anyone want to claim Arlen Specter?

We're a few miles south of the border below Binghamton (Broome County). Since IBM pulled the plug up there, the area has been divided between hordes of welfare cases, a few insular old timers, and more hordes of people from the NY metro area looking for 'gracious country living.' The later are overwhelming Democrats. They are the sort of people who answer "grocery store" when asked where food comes from. They march into the local council meetings in irate droves when a farmer has the temerity to manure his fields and offend those oh so sensitive noses or to demand, DEMAND services comparable to those lavished on them back in the City. They are no different than the noxious Californians who suck up their neighboring state's water, electricity, minerals, and agricultural resources while adamantly refusing to defile their little Eden with the means of producing or processing those commodities, all the while preaching condescendingly to the presumed clods across the borders. They haven't taken over down here - yet. A pox on them all.