Lost Kos

Who has the time? Life is just too short. My precious, precious moments, painstakingly gathered together in a neat heap before me, and I should scatter them hither and yon at the tugging of some mere whim? I hardly think so. And yet ... yet...

So I broke down and read something by this Kos fellow from that weblog site on the internet. Now he works for Newsweek, so I read something of his. It seems to be in English, which is good. I'm fluent in only one other language, and it's not a common one.

I'd hoped for something of substance. Well, some months ago I looked at Huffington's weblog internet site on the net. Life has proved a profound disappointment to me. It has made me cynical. I am consumed with bitterness. Where, where shall I find comfort? What peace is there, for poor Jack H?

Kos, my sad second-rate hack, if it were possible, I'd be disappointed with you as well. "Bush," you say, "can boast of an unwinnable quagmire in Iraq, a decimated housing market, economic instability and a collapsing dollar, a dysfunctional health-care system, a still-devastated Gulf Coast, a wealth gap of a scope unseen since the Great Depression and a pervasive and disturbing image of America as a hapless, blundering giant, rather than a beacon of freedom and morality in the world."

And your point is?

Does Kos know what a quagmire is? Must be a city boy, thinking it has something to do with chewing gum on a subway seat. Consult, dear lad, one of the more recent issues of some news periodical, that you may more responsibly inform your opinion as to the situation in Iraq. Housing markets? Yes, there is a decline. Some would call it a market correction. But that has to do with free enterprise, and you wouldn't understand. Fortunately there are government housing projects to fill the need, right? The Left is ripe with solutions. Economic Instability and a Collapsing Imperialist Dollar? Yep, it's the first time ever that the dollar has declined in value. Run for the hills. The end is nigh. Maybe you'll suggest a Five Year Plan to save our economy and The Planet. The Dysfunctional Health-Care System: seventy percent of all American disease is preventable. But maybe a solution that involves personal responsibility is too draconian. Damn those draconian Republicans. As for the Still-Devastated Gulf Coast, well ... I've been too obvious already. Fill in your own sarcastic blurb about how Bush failed to control the weather.

What a meat-grinder.

"Yet despite this dismal rap sheet, Republicans refuse to distance themselves too far from Bush and his record lest they take a hit from the fringe voters who still support his presidency." Oh, that's the reason. Thanks for telling me why I do things, Kos. I was wondering. Yer a pal. And that's not at all like what the Dhems are doing, with ... with YOU! "Time and again, GOP leaders have forgone sensible and popular policies in favor of catering to a shrinking and increasingly isolated base." Yeah, "shrinking" -- like yer balls. Haw haw.

"Sensible" and "popular" programs, like "the wildly popular" SCHIP expansion, the veto of which is "denying health care to millions of needy kids." Well, as I say, I'm not a policy wonk. Seems like the big Republican objection is who gets defined as "needy". Seems like the Dems want to include some pretty well-off people. Seems like children are the way to shoehorn us into a socialist state, if we let it. Seems like to the lefties parents should hardly be responsible at all for their kids, either in authority or in finances. It's a package deal, I guess. If you let the government pay for your kids, the government gets to call the shots about how they're raised. Fair enough. As long as we have a choice. But the more government there is, the less choice. Y'see the problem? So much for "sensible."

As for popular, I bothered to be a little wonkish. Is SCHIP "wildly popular"? The very author of one such wildly popular poll made a few salient observations:

A poster on Democratic Underground says he initially went on the Daily Kos to ask the people there to vote [on SCHIP]. Right before he did that, he writes, the poll tally was:

• Expand it: 20.71%
• Modify it somewhat, but not greatly: 31.07%
• Eliminate the program: 39.81%
• Not sure/no opinion: 8.41%

Now that the "please go vote" posts have been at these two liberal websites for a day or so, the tally is:

• Expand it: 61.63%
• Modify it somewhat, but not greatly: 12.24%
• Eliminate the program: 23.04%
• Not sure/no opinion: 3.09%

Make of it what you will.

The Daily Kos. Hm. Now why does that name sound familiar?

We all do it. Select evidence to demonstrate the strength of our position. The more honest of us take pains to insure that our evidence is technically valid. And we acknowledge the points of the opposition, and address them. Because as much as we just love to seem right, some of us want actually to be right. That does take a fair bit of courage. So why bother. We'll let the government have courage for us.

To "stand any chance of winning next year, Republicans must pray for a national amnesia to erase the previous eight years from the minds of voters. But amnesia only happens in soap operas -- and that's why Democrats will win in 2008. As long as Democratic candidates remind voters that the Republican platform and Bush's record are one and the same, victory will be assured."

I'm fine with what he says. Not the amnesia part -- the remembering part. And not the Dhemocrat victory part, the reminding part. Dhemocrats and victory ... why do those two words seem so odd, together? Huh. I guess I'm not fine with what he says. I guess I think he's wrong on every one of his positions -- both assumptions and conclusions. The man is my South Star.

I'm only three paragraphs into his effort. At this rate we'll be here forever. And if so, what then of my lush, precious moments? Wasted! All wasted! Alas for my moments. I don't suppose I should read Kos anymore. Time is too, too precious. Newsweek just lost another reader. You'd think they weren't capitalists.


J