Page 2: Politicians are boring
Nov 22nd
One thing was abundantly clear on this year’s cruise – politicians are pretty boring. Everything out of their mouths sounds like a recycled stump speech, written to offend no one and inform even fewer people. I’ve been a fan of Fred Thompson forever, but I can’t believe he didn’t put himself to sleep with his recent NRO performance. On Sunday Jay Nordlinger interviewed both he and Governor John Sununu and I can’t remember a thing either one said. Later in the trip Tim Pawlenty joined us and seemed to drone on and on as well. Others say he got better in the second half, I was probably snoozing by then. Later in the cruise I suggested we have a politician free cruise next year. Many others agreed. I go on the cruises to learn things I don’t know. Politicians are rarely willing to be that revealing.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Saturday night I sat down at dinner and a few minutes later SE Cupp and her friend James sat down next to me. It was about 3 minutes before we realized we had grown up in the same town 27 years apart. We actually lived about a quarter mile from each other, practically in different centuries, but still that was fun.
SE is an interesting woman and very accomplished for her mere 32 years. She has written 2 books: Why You’re Wrong About the Right and Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity.
The most fascinating thing to me about SE, as her book title suggests, she is a huge defender of religion, particularly against the liberal media, and she is an atheist. Since I struggle with the concept of God and am also a protector of religion I was fascinated by her struggle. She would like to believe but is not there yet. I asked why an atheist and not an agnostic and she shook her head and shrugged. I understood.
NRO Cruise recap, page 1.
Nov 21st
I’m lucky enough to have just returned from my 5th NRO cruise, which was great, like all the others I have been on.
The weather was good, and the water blue but the consensus is that the cruising part really doesn’t matter. We are all sick of the Caribbean but where else can you go in November? A room in a heated cave might be suitable as long as we have the speakers and our fellow cruisers to spend the week with. And at this point, I have no idea who I appreciate more – the scores of people who after spending 5 vacations in a row with, I now consider good friends , or the speakers who more often than not, tell me something I don’t know.
Most everyone, famous and not, agrees that the world is ending, there is little hope, and it was fun while it lasted. It’s hard to see a way out, and harder to see the person who will get us there.
Jim Geraghty said it best Saturday morning when he told Caro and I that should we lose the 2012 election, the post-election cruise will just keep going and never return to port.
Home again, home again, Jiggity-jig*
Nov 21st
This year’s NRO “post election” cruise was great as always. I’ve lots to say about it, but first I need to catch up at work. Stay tuned.
*In the comments Daddy hands me my hat on the “jiggedly” jig spelling. So just for him I have forsaken coining a whole new word and changed it to the same old one.
Harrumph!
Revenge served on black ice
Nov 4th
Howie Carr takes down Massachusetts Lieutenent Governor Tim Murray in today’s Herald – you know the newspaper that is “not sold in Worcester” according to Mr. Murray.
Murray was on an early morning jaunt to somewhere the other day. He said he was inspecting storm damage, but since he was on his way home more than an hour before daylight, it’s tough to imagine what exactly he was looking for. Unfortunately he hit some black ice and totaled his taxpayer-paid-for car. No injuries, which is hard to believe when you see the damage, and very good news.
Howie has no love lost for Tim, and neither do I. A few years ago the Lt Governor came to speak at my weekly Rotary meeting. He told us what a great job he and Governor Patrick were doing and then took questions. I asked him about taxes, and he told me they were planning to raise the sales tax (which they did). I asked if other taxes were also going up and he scowled at me and barked that he couldn’t know everything!
Now if you have ever heard my radio show, you know I have this annoying habit of sort of grunting my displeasure. It comes out a bit like an “ugh” and is pretty much reflexive. So when Murray was asked another question by someone else and gave a similar non-responsive answer, an “ugh” escaped from my throat. Unfortunately it escaped at the precise moment the room went silent.
I was simply mortified and immediately apologized profusely. Rather than accept my apology and say something like “I see we have found the republican in the room”, Murray glared at me, and then dressed me down. At that point I figured I deserved it, and wallowed in my embarrassment. When Murray got up to leave I also got up and apologized to him, again. He was simply as nasty as can be. I was not to be forgiven by his Lieutenantness, and he was going to make sure I was shown my place.
It took me several days and the kind words of others in the room, to get over it. To some, he was the one out of line. Regardless, there was no reason to humiliate me, something he seemed to take great pleasure in doing. He was a small petty man, and I’ve never quite forgotten it.
So count me in the group who wants to know where exactly his Lieutenantness was really coming from when heading home at 5 AM in the morning. What was he doing; who was he with? Does his wife know?
Perhaps it is time to reap what you sow.
OWS, the Tea Party, and the government double standard.
Oct 28th
When I organized the first Sturbridge Tea Party rally a year ago, I was surprised at all the bureaucratic hoops I had to jump through. I needed permits, insurance and government approval, all at a substantial cost, all due by some arbitrary deadline. If more than X amount of people were expected to attend I needed to anticipate that so I could pay for more porta-potties. No food was allowed unless it was okayed in advance by the Board of Health. I was limited to when (and where) I could post signs. I had to make sure people didn’t park here, or stand there, or make too much noise, etc etc etc. I was lucky because the Sturbridge Police were helpful not obstructionist. But it certainly was costly and time consuming to exercise my right of free speech. I expect this was the case all over the country for every tea party rally.
Not so for the OWS crowd. The laws just don’t apply to them. They got no permits, no insurance and the government supplies their porta-potties. They play drums all night, disturb the neighbors and refuse to leave when told. They aren’t paying for the police, we are. No one is inspecting their food, or telling them when to leave, or anything else for that matter.
Some of the tea parties are striking back:
RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia tea party group is demanding a refund of about $8,000 from the city of Richmond, claiming it was unfairly charged for rallies while Occupy protesters have used the same space for several weeks for free.
The political organization is sending the city an invoice for the charges incurred for three rallies held in Kanawha Plaza over the past three years. The Occupy protesters have been camped in the plaza since Oct. 15.
Richmond Tea Party spokeswoman Colleen Owens says it’s not fair that her group had to pay fees for permits, portable toilets, police and emergency personnel. The group also had to purchase a $1 million insurance policy.
Tea party groups in Charlottesville, Va., Atlanta and Washington, D.C., have raised similar complaints.
IF OWS decides to come to Sturbridge, I’ll be right there with them. Meanwhile could someone please explain to the democrat mayors and governors in this country what “equality under the law” means.
Tea partiers take great pride in making sure every place they gather is cleaner when they leave it than when they arrived. The OWS crowd defecates on police cars and trash public property with abandon.
Once again people who are out there demanding that the government act like their nanny are getting a pass from the government. While those of us who play by the rules have to pay the bill.
