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Back In The Saddle
I’m trying to regain some focus here. There’s nothing quite like being out of commission for awhile to help one lose focus entirely. First there was a week of kidney stone issues. That was followed by yet another week of kidney stone issues, which itself was followed by an uncanny inability to keep any food down whatsoever. Having spent approximately two weeks residing in the parking lot behind a convenience store in Reed City, Michigan, it occurred to me that I may have met the minimum residency requirements to run for mayor of that stately and picturesque town. The staff at the local hospital was kind enough to fetch my prescriptions for me, and my nurse even returned me to my truck after I was discharged. The people were as friendly as any I’ve encountered north of the Mason Dixon and even more friendly than a few I’ve encountered south as well. But it’s probably all for the better that I didn’t run for office, thereby sparing such hospitable folk the tenacious juggernaut of a political organization I have yet to conceive or assemble.
In the meantime, I’ve returned to reasonably good health, and have wandered back onto the road and back onto Ricochet. I’ve missed talking with you! The topics and issues are numerous, as are a few observations I’d like to make. So with your indulgence, here are random thoughts, in random order:
Detroit: I spent a couple of days in the Detroit area, my first time back to the city in at least 2 years. The lack of heavy traffic was startling. Most major cities have major traffic. Driving through Detroit a few days ago was like driving through an average city on a Sunday morning when most people are either asleep or in church. I saw more shuttered businesses, abandoned shopping plazas, gutted buildings, overgrown and abandoned warehouses in that one city than I see in a normal week. Progressives and their union comrades, having had free rein in Detroit, must be very satisfied. The roads there are the worst in the country.
Long Drives: I completed my first hard day of driving since my little health episodes yesterday. I had forgotten what 600 miles in a truck will do to a body that isn’t used to it. At the end of the day, seated in the restaurant, I could still feel the vibrations of the road under my feet.
Food: Tropical fruit on a sick stomach is not a particularly bright idea. Better to have Claire hide it behind one of Dr. Berlinski’s doors with the old Skylark, and spend the rest of your life puzzling over it than to find it and eat it. Saltine crackers, on the other hand, are the food of the gods.
The Republican Field / Debates: Peter asked me to weigh in on this. I missed the last debate, and the one before that. However, having viewed some video clips, I offer a few cursory observations:
Mitt Romney: His vulnerability lies in his own positions that adopt the premises and axioms of the left. He gives the impression that his relationship with the Constitution is strictly platonic. How can he run against the Individual Mandate if he has already embraced it? How can he defend the ideas that are epitomized in the Ryan Plan, for example, if he’s already utilized the rhetoric of the left in assailing Rick Perry’s insistence that Social Security needs serious work? If he is the nominee, this election will be much more difficult than it needs to be.
Rick Perry: And I thought my pain meds zonked me out. He needs some truck stop coffee before these debates. He seems like the kid who gets up to give a book report without having read the book.
Newt Gingrich: Cogent, articulate, persuasive, and thinks deeply enough to challenge the planted axioms of the questions themselves. Too many of these moderators are approaching the Republican field from an almost zoological perspective, as if they were interviewing an alien species. Gingrich is the quickest, most devastating rhetorician in the race and would eviscerate Barack Obama from start to finish. I don’t know if his personal history is too much of an obstacle to overcome, but on policy issues and the ability to keep the left on defense, I’m giving him a hard second look.
Herman Cain: Powerful and compelling. He’s never held office before,…but surveying the wreckage that has been wrought by generations of seasoned career politicians, I’m re-evaluating that criteria. He is an accomplished executive, and a Constitutionalist, the latter category being especially important at this time in our history. The 9 9 9 plan is interesting, though I find it unsettling that he would institute a consumption tax before repealing the 16th Amendment. I’m giving him a hard second look as well.
Ron Paul: Hard nosed Constitutionalist who understands the connection between liberty and responsibility. Too bad his views on foreign policy and national defense are to the left of John Kerry.
Michelle Bachman: She absolutely nailed the answer on how the government greased the skids for the fall of housing market and our overall economic distress. Her’s was a reasoned and well thought out response, which stood in stark contrast to what seemed like desperate attacks on Rick Perry’s vaccine program. I disagreed on the program as well,..but she seemed so shrill at times (to me at least) as to call her general temperament into question.
Rick Santorum: Seems solid on the issues. Good conservative creds as far as I can tell, but there is something,… whiney there. Hard to put my finger on,…but I don’t see “Mr. President” when I watch him.
The Inevitability Issue: I will admit that this one gets my dander up. As I understand it, and admittedly I’ve been out of it for a couple of weeks, Romney can’t seem to get above the mid 20’s in the polls. That means that a decided majority of Republican voters are not supporting him, correct? If the field narrows, and voters whose support is spread across numerous candidates at present coalesce around one or two conservative candidates, I would think his inevitability would be called into question. At any rate, assuming that the voters get to decide this, I think it would be a wonderfully novel idea to let them do just that.
Barack Chavez: Congress, following the will of the people they represent, has chosen not to “pass this bill.” So, the President is ordering the enaction of his bill through the administrative state instead. The man is hostile to the Constitution he swore an oath to uphold and must be defeated at the polls.
Occupy Wall Street: How about occupying the business end of a shower spigot for awhile? How about getting off of other people’s property and discovering the wonders of indoor plumbing? Sniveling about the environment while everyone downwind of your fetid stench is gagging? Are you serious? Businesses are losing money hand over fist because their normal patrons can’t get through the smell and the barricades. The city is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in police overtime alone as it babysits these parasites, and these people have the stupid audacity to protest the productive sector that provides them with their phones, computers, tents, and clothing while being taxed to oblivion to subsidize their unregenerate existence? After the words, “Yes we can,” please add “get a life.”
Iranian Assassination Plot: Would they have tried this if they thought a strong president resided at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?
Uganda: You’ve got to be kidding me. Another war? Seems to me that 100 troops are not a combat force, but rather a trip wire.
MSNBC: Ed Shultz sees the rise of Mr. Cain as proof of Republican racism. Well, at least one thing didn’t change while I was away.
Published in General
Dave, good to have you back! Take care of yourself. We need your salt of the earth good sense here to keep RINO squishes like Rob in line.
Dave,
I think of you as our Will Rodgers and missed your take on what’s been happening. If you’re ever in New Mexico let me know. I’ll buy you a green chili burger, the chicken soup of the West.
Take better care of yourself.
Welcome back! Hope you’re able to get back in the groove of things again.
That makes it unanimous so far. Thanks!
Well, welcome back to the land of the living. So glad to hear you’re feeling well enough to be back behind the wheel.
OWS: Michael Graham in Boston (radio) has said the cost estimate to the city for the little party the Occupods are throwing is over $2 million. He also said permits ( $) were required for their Tea Party there (of course not overnight), but these freeloaders, per the City Council, are different and can stay as long as they please, courtesy of the taxpayers.
Can’t remember where I read this, but a food truck vendor was wandering about at the rally. He was losing a lot of money every day because he couldn’t park his truck. Someone suggested he move his truck down a block – but, he couldn’t as his permit was for that block only. Then someone said, well, on average, food vendors only make between $7,000 and $14,000/year. As if to say, What does it really matter? They really don’t get it, those ungrateful… I’m searching for a word.
Great post, Mr. Carter!
Hi Dave!
We’re back on the same day! (I, too, have been out of commission — or at least off Ricochet — for a good long while.)
I’ve missed you, too.
We’re back on the same day! (I, too, have been out of commission — or at least off Ricochet — for a good long while.)
I’ve missed you, too. ·Oct 14 at 9:08pm
Well, I was wondering in which general direction you had squirmed. Glad to have you back,..and nice to be back too. Thank you!
Thank you sir!
I’m sure the protestors would be confused by your implication that an earned dollar is better than a welfare dollar. They’d probably say it was just the opposite. They’d say the most important thing is having free time, and enough free money to enjoy that free time.
Haven’t read your post yet, but thought I’d welcome you back first. Welcome Back!
We’re back on the same day! (I, too, have been out of commission — or at least off Ricochet — for a good long while.)
I’ve missed you, too. ·Oct 14 at 9:08pm
Welcome back, you, too, MFR.
Cas, thanks. Do you folks have anything similar to this Occupy Wall Street phenomenon where you live?
On Romney- “He gives the impression that his relationship with the Constitution is strictly platonic.” – you’ve nailed him to a tee.
Glad you are better and back with us, Dave!
Forgot to mention that I spoke to Norm again and asked about engines and transmission on that thirteen axle rig hauling 300 tons. Engine: GM 12 Cyl. Transmission, (and you would know more about this than I) a double stick kickin’ 5 and 4, so I guess that’s 20 gears by my arithmetic. Norm went on to say he had some fun shifting that down up when haulin’ that load, but I’m sure you can relate to that better than I can, Dave. I’m guessing it could have been a major splat had Norm missed a shift.
No. It’s very quiet, even when it comes to Obama supporters, who where vociferous after the election. You can hardly tell who’s in his camp up here now. Oh! how the mighty have fallen, eh?
I have ten forward gears to play with, and if you miss one while down shifting on a steep incline, your day gets really bad really quick. The problem is that you are losing speed so rapidly due to the weight, and you can only get into specific gears at very specific speeds. You must anticipate the speed you will be at by the time you shift, and yet the shifting process requires you to bump the rpm’s up between 1200 and 1400 before it will go into gear. Mess it up, and you just lost another 10 mph, which means a different gear, etc. Poor Norm and those 20 gears. What a vocabulary builder that process must be.
Dave,
I see you are no worse for wear with your latest post. Some very memorable lines too, and I think Plato would concur with your Romney reference. Welcome back, we’ve missed you, and Western Civilization has missed you.
No. It’s very quiet, even when it comes to Obama supporters, who where vociferous after the election. You can hardly tell who’s in his camp up here now. Oh! how the mighty have fallen, eh? ·Oct 14 at 9:41pm
What a happy harbinger of hope that would be.
Good to see you back and in health. Great post. Been away myself and nice to have something uplifting for the day.
Have to ponder if the OWS folks should be cited for health violations and fined. Perhaps sentenced to community service or something productive for the public good. Just old school thinking.
Dave, another thing I just remembered, and this will show you how different Vancouver is from your average American big city, there was a big demonstration in East Vancouver in defense of the “safe injection” site. The safe injection site is where our junkies go to get fresh kits and shoot. Being Canada’s busiest port, Vancouver is lousy with heroin. The stuff is sold fresh off the boats and is usually not stepped on, so the paramedics on the East Side come equipped to every call with an OD kit to revive users unused to the purity of the product. On the East Side the EMT’s assume all call outs are overdose or drug related. It is all but impossible to close the safe injection site, a prospect I am of two minds on. That is the extent of the demonstrating around here over the last little while.
I see you are no worse for wear with your latest post. Some very memorable lines too, and I think Plato would concur with your Romney reference. Welcome back, we’ve missed you, and Western Civilization has missed you. ·Oct 14 at 9:51pm
Thank you. I’ve missed Western Civilization too. But Detroit is in the rear view mirror now.
Have they considered moving the safe injection site to the morgue? Sort of a “one-stop shopping” experience perhaps?
Welcome back, Dave. We missed you. Badly, man. Two notes on your notes:
1. “The people were as friendly as any I’ve encountered north of the Mason Dixon line.” Would you care to let this life-long Yankee know just how much actual praise you intend to convey in that sentence?
2. Romney “gives the impression that his relationship with the Constitution is strictly platonic.” Lord, you did it again, making me laugh out loud. As I said, we missed you.
Hey, Dave, glad to see you back!
We’ve now got Occupy Walnut Creek (Calif.) – described by its organizers as “the 1 percent joining the 99 percent.” Of course, the protesters out here can only manage a couple of hours at a time….
As opposed to Mr. Obama’s relationship with the Constitution, which is strictly erotic. I’ll leave the imagery up to your own imagination. Back to you, Dave.
Great post, Dave!
I should explain my two minds comment. The conservative in me sees the direct relationship between ease and use. So I am definitely not for “ease.” Still when you see panhandlers being shepherded by Vancouver cops with Kaposi’s Sarcoma sores up and down their arms, you have a tendency to sympathize with the city’s establishment of a safe injection site, if for no other reason than public health. I would add that it took some legal gymnastics to get the enabling legislation to comply with Canada’s Criminal Code. And yes you are right, the distance from the safe injection site to the morgue is metaphorically at least very short, something a close friend of mine is desperately struggling with, even as I write this, in regard to one of his close relatives, who is addicted and has already cost him $100,000.
LIKE!
Welcome back, Midge!
Dave, you know that Schultz is always up to the task and he just never disappoints. The rest of your summary is pitch perfect.
Peter, I intended my observation as heartfelt and sincere praise. Interestingly to me at least, there are parts of the north country (Maine, New Hampshire, upstate New York) where the people are just as friendly as you please. They stand in stark contrast, I would add, to some of the major metropolitan areas where I generally see the greatest concentration of middle fingers this side of a proctologist convention. No sir, my praise was genuine. Now that I think on it, I wonder if it is more of a rural versus urban phenomenon?