William Reardon’s Blog

You know you’re screwed when even the crazies figure out the blazingly obvious before you do.

Walking down Lake, I passed one of the increasingly common LaRouche informational tables. They had several signs plastered, including one stating “Bush is not a Republican. He’s an idiot.”

There’s an idea… attack just the individual instead of the entire party. With that, you might, I don’t know, get Republicans to vote your way. Crazy idea, eh?

Had I not already known that LaRouche was absolutely fucking nuts, I might have stopped and talk to them.

Thank God he’s a Democrat.

Discovery Channel is running a program on the Greatest American. Out of , five remain for an American Idol style vote of who will be number one.

Here are the candidates in alphabetical order:

Benjamin Franklin
Martin Luther King Jr.
Abraham Lincoln
Ronald Reagan
George Washington

My top pick? Nope, not Reagan. In fact here’s how I’d rank them:

Benjamin Franklin
Abraham Lincoln
George Washington
Martin Luther King Jr.
Ronald Reagan

Yep, Benjamin Franklin would be my #1. There simply wouldn’t be a United States without him.

How would you rank them?

This is one the fundamental problems with the Constitution as a “living document.” While everyone (well, maybe not the Libertarians) sees the value of emiment domain for the construction of things such as roads, it’s pretty obvious our founding fathers weren’t thinking you could demolish someone’s house to build an office building.

It baffles me how the Right continues to be painted as puppets of corporations, with the implication that the Left somehow is less so. E.g., Bush’s energy task force was painted as satan for getting input from Enron, yet almost no mention of Clinton’s having done the same thing.

Add to the list this ruling.

Case of kids kicked out of home shocks prosecutor

MARSHFIELD, Mo. — A mother and her live-in boyfriend are charged with child endangerment after investigators say they kicked her two kids out of the house. The investigation began after a passerby found a 12-year-old boy and his 6-year-old sister walking along Highway CC near Niangua.

The kids were dragging suitcases, shopping bags and garbage bags full of clothing. They were about a quarter of a mile from their home, scared, crying and hungry.

“Thank the good Lord this was someone that wasn’t going to hurt children,” said Webster County Prosecuting Attorney Cynthia Black, praising the man who picked up the kids.

Police say the children said their mom, Roxanna Osborne, woke them up and told them to pack and leave immediately. The kids say their mother gave them $5 and went back to sleep.

“The children also told deputies that their mom and her boyfriend used drugs in their home. They described in shocking detail the pipes and drugs they used,” said Black. “They also referred to some spoons with burn spots on them, and spoons with burn spots typically refer to meth use.”

A detective’s probable cause statement filed with the charge also outlines accusations of abuse. The kids told officers they were burned with cigarettes, hit with belts and verbally abused. The kids also said they are afraid that, if their mother and her boyfriend get sent to jail, she will kill them.

Osborne and Timmy Young face two charges each of child endangerment. The prosecutor thinks what the mother did is unbelievable.

“We see lots of nasty things and we expect to see nasty things, but this is one of the ugliest things and one of the saddest things because a 6-year-old and a 12-year-old were so very, very upset and distraught,” said Black.

The kids are physically fine and are now in the custody of a relative but Black said they are obviously traumatized. Officers arrested Osborne and Young at their home.

This is the second time in a little more than a year that Young has been charged with child endangerment. He was arrested and pleaded guilty in May 2004 for using a chainsaw to smash the windows of a van belonging to the woman who was then his girlfriend — while her three children were inside.

Osborne and Young are jailed in lieu of $200,000 bond each. They are scheduled to be in court next Wednesday.

Black said she likely will file more charges against both in Webster County. In addition, evidence in Young’s case has been handed over to the U.S. attorney’s office for possible federal charges.

Orson Scott Card is my hero.

Now that Newsweek is saying the desecration of the Qur’an never happened, are we going to get apologies from the asshats who desecrated our flag in response?

Well written piece by Jonah Goldberg, What is a Conservative?, in the online edition of the National Review.

My favorite quote:

This is one reason why I did not like it when President Bush said his favorite political philosopher was Jesus Christ. I don’t mind at all a president who has a personal relationship with Jesus. It’s just that I don’t think Jesus is going to have useful advice about how to fix Social Security.

On the flight back today I finished reading a good article on Scalia in the New Yorker. It’s slightly biased against him in some of the language, but by and large, presents a pretty fair picture. There’s a Q&A with the author, but the article itself doesn’t seem to be online. Check it out if you can.

There seems to be an upward tick in coverage of Scalia, probably not too surprising considering Rehnquist’s failing health & talk of him being a possible replacement as Chief Justice. (If Bush nominates Thomas instead, so help me, I’ll be that much closer to not voting for him again.)

Reading the aritcle, I was surprised to find out that he’s close friends with Ginsburg. That in of itself is a microcosm of why I like him so much. Far from a partisian hack, Scalia sticks to his views and is unwilling to bend them to get the result he personally would like. He feels strongly that the Court should not assume powers of the Legislative branch by creating new interpretations of existing laws. How often do you find a member of our government seeking to limit their powers?

I’d promised myself I woudn’t write anything more about politics for a long while, but I saw the following and felt the need to pass it along:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/yesthattom/263480.html

Not surprisingly, I don’t agree with a lot of general politics there, but several excellent points. Most notably:

”How could people be so stupid as to vote for Bush?”

* I can’t tell you how much I hate that meme. People aren’t stupid for voting for Bush. celticdragonfly said it best here. I’ve heard many people say, “It only turns people off to say such things” but she is the the first person I’ve seen put it clearly into words that explain the why. The type of personality that would propagate that meme is the same personality that won’t change their behavior unless they know the “why”. Thanks to Laura for writing that article.

And that’s from a guy who did helluva a lot more to help the Democrats win than you did.

Very well said Laura. Thanks for writing it as well.