Category: Uncategorized
My New Favorite Quote of the Campaign
In the Libertarian Reason Magazine by David Weigel:
McCain’s goading Obama to make this trip stands tall and proud as one of the dumbest blunders of the campaign. He couldn’t have helped the Democrat more if he’d challenged him to a slam dunk contest.
Biden
Here’s the interview that brought me over to the Biden for VP camp. I love his tough-minded approach.
Get over it!
But there is no easy way these folks can vent their anger at Chris Matthews. So they are taking their revenge on people without health care, women who need abortions, and others who they (if they supported Hillary) must think will be harmed by a Republican victory in the fall. That’ll show ’em.
Please, God, don’t let us do it again.
John Templeton
“I grew up as a Presbyterian,” he told Business Week in 2005. “Presbyterians thought the Methodists were wrong. Catholics thought all Protestants were wrong. The Jews thought the Christians were wrong. So what I am financing is humility. I want people to realize you shouldn’t think you know it all.
I wonder where he is right now?
McCain’s Economic Team
So the joke runs deeper than McCain claiming that a man who literally speaks for him doesn’t speak for him. It shows there’s policy chaos in McCainland. After all, here’s a campaign–led by a candidate who once said he didn’t know much about the economy–that has one top economic adviser essentially blaming another top economic adviser for economic woes that the second top economic adviser won’t acknowledge. Really makes one yearn for a McCain administration, doesn’t it?
McCain’s Management Style
As the former McCain advisor puts it, ‘McCain’s style is, call everyone into a room, say you guys work it out, and then turn off the lights. And then throw in a knife.’ The question going forward for Murphy — or anyone, for that matter, who wants to run the McCain campaign — seems to be whether he can grab that knife before somebody else does.
Scalia’s Hypocrisy
But I also hope this decision opens people’s eyes to the fact that judicial activism is now a habit of the right, not the left, and that “originalism” is too often a sophisticated cover for ideological decision-making by conservative judges.
Riverdance
As often happens when I blog while traveling, the trip ended before my blogging ended. So, I’ll try to catch up quickly.
After traveling back from Galway, we re-entered the warm bosom of the Saunders household in Dublin on Saturday. John had arranged for us to see Riverdance that evening. He warned us that the best he could get were some “obstructed view” seats. Right. Turns out we were in the Presidential Box, right next to the stage. There was about 15% of the stage that we couldn’t see, but the proximity was extraordinary, as you’ll see from the following clip. It’s a bit long and I had some “buffering issues” when I played it. But gives a good sense of the show.
As it happens, John and Jean Saunders are very close friends with the creators of Riverdance. The producer, Moya Doherty, worked with Jean many years ago and they’ve remained close. John’s contribution to Riverdance was apparently his comment when the idea was presented to him, “Nobody’s going to want to set for two hours watching Irish dancing.” The rest, as they say, is history.
Here’s the clip. The occasion clapping shadows are my wife, Rita, and daughter, Bridget.
Galway
This was our destination after crossing the Shannon, the home of Declan Ganley. I didn’t mention his name in a previous post out of concerns for his privacy and security. Then Danny got into a discussion with a local florist in which he mentioned that he was staying with the Ganleys and the florist said, “Oh, they have a marvelous home.” So, clearly, where they live is no big secret.
Declan made his fortune in the telecommunications business. He bought this home when he was 26 years old. As mentioned below, it was once owned by the singer, Donovan. Declan has gained recent fame through his leadership of the campaign in Ireland that succeeded in persuading the Irish voters to vote no in the recent referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
He’s a tremendous host, a brilliant reconteur and an all around great guy. The video below shows the house from the front and back. It also shows our bedroom (which also had Al Gore as a guest), as well as the “snooker room,” where the men retired after dinner to discuss politics. Also shown is the indoor pool and both families (except for me) sitting at brunch.
It was a delightful and memorable visit.
