Monday, February 04, 2008

Around the World Wide Web 49

I heard a rumor there was some kind of football game on Sunday.

I performed Oliver Twist and The Pickwick Papers at the Riverside Dickens Festival over the weekend. It is gratifying to act with so many talented young people. (Well, I must confess, it is most gratifying to walk onstage and show them how to do it right.)

Now, without a moment to catch my breath, I begin rehearsing Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which will be performed in repertory.

1. If you think conservatives will stay home instead of voting for McCain, read the pieces that are already working on conservatives, explaining whey they must vote for a big government Republican. Pieces by:

John Hawkins

Michael Medved

Don Surber

Debra Saunders

Robert Robb

This is just the beginning. I'm sure there are many more in circulation already.

2. Michael D. Tanner assesses McCain. He makes some good points on McCain's statism. He also points out where McCain is good, such as on free trade.

3. Hillary Clinton's latest:

WASHINGTON - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday she might be willing to garnish the wages of workers who refuse to buy health insurance to achieve coverage for all Americans.

Garnish the wages? This reminds me of her statement about taking the profits of oil companies. Her concept of the government's role in the economy has no limits. The state can take whatever Hillary Clinton wants it to take.

4. Jeff Jacoby reminds us about Reagan, the man all Republican candidates claim to resemble:

Conservatives bristle at the thought of a Republican president who might raise income and payroll taxes. Or enlarge the federal government instead of shrinking it. Or appoint Supreme Court justices who are anything but strict constructionists. Or grant a blanket amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.

Now, I don't believe that a President McCain would do any of those things. But President Reagan did all of them. Reagan also provided arms to the Khomeini theocracy in Iran, presided over skyrocketing budget deficits, and ordered US troops to cut and run in the face of Islamist terror in the Middle East. McCain would be unlikely to commit any of those sins, either.

Rush Limbaugh loved to deride President Clinton for placing "symbolism over substance." Ironically, the conservatism of Rush's hero, President Reagan was in large part symbolism over substance.

5. Bill Quick makes the case against McCain. The immigration bill doesn't bother me, but the other points are good. Quick leaves out McCain's worship of sacrifice and his desire for a national service for young people, which frightens me more than anything else on that list. He also leaves out McCain-Lieberman:

The 2003 bill mandated a reduction in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to 2000 levels by 2010, and cuts to 1990 levels by 2016. In essence, the bill called for implementation of "Kyoto-lite" energy restrictions on the U.S. economy.

So, as bad as Quick shows McCain is, the Senator is substantially worse.

6. A Petition in Support of the U.S. Marine Corps Against the 29 January 2008 Resolutions of the Berkeley City Council

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