Mount Virtus

A log from snowed-in metro Denver…

Have Americans again lost interest in international events? Has too much time passed since 9/11 and the subsequent Afghanistan and Iraq wars so that people think we’ve achieved some sort of detente, normalcy, or new Pax Americana? Have we overcome the naivete – so typical of our nation – regarding threats from abroad and political developments a half a world away?

Many of those who spend lots of time online know that there are dozens of excellent bloggers keeping us regularly attuned to events in Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Afghanistan, North and South Korea, China, and elsewhere. Their work is tremendously appreciated, as I must confess my own tendencies to get absorbed with national and even state and local news stories that keep me from observing the big picture.

Did you realize we just passed the momentous 2nd anniversary of the liberation of Baghdad, of the famous crumbling of the Saddam Hussein statue in Paradise Square? Two years ago! We and our allies – along with the Iraqi people – have experienced significant turbulence in the intervening time, and now only days ago the Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani was sworn in as the first non-Arab president of an Arab country. Remarkable stuff, really. During another week, one where the world wasn’t mourning the loss of a well-loved and important pontiff, perhaps the story would have received better coverage domestically.

In times like these, the songs of Eric Free and his recent album Saddam Insane seem especially needful and poignant. America’s once heightened awareness of the global war against Islamofascist terrorism and its evolution into an ambitious project to import democracy en masse to the Middle East has faded a bit. Eric’s creative musical touches help to bring some of the issues back into focus, with song titles like the “Jacques Chirac Jig” and “Bad Mullah Blues.” They range from light and fun to reflective, but many of the songs convey the messages many Americans could stand to hear at this time.

Check out Eric Free’s serious and less-serious blog pages and test out some of the songs, while you’re there.

It’s a Friday, and I couldn’t resist highlighting this Washington Tims story from yesterday on a new Harris survey that gives some not-so-shocking insights into what women want in their men. Some of the findings (with my comments in italics):

• 75 percent of women said their ideal man buys his grooming products at a grocery store or drugstore, not a salon.
A salon… what’s that?
• 72 percent of women said their ideal man spends his free time doing home-improvement projects.
My wife prefers that I try to fix things when possible but realistically just hopes that I don’t break anything in the process.
• 41 percent of women said their ideal man spends his time watching sports.
Yes, but only once in awhile…
• 47 percent of women said their ideal man spends his money on electronics, compared with 9 percent who answered “designer clothes.”
Quite often I’m not sure I even have discretionary money to spend. But it would be electronics and books. Clothes rarely, if ever, make the top ten.
• 90 percent of women said they prefer low-maintenance, easygoing guys.
I wish I’d known that when I was dating. Nine out of 10 women would have liked me? I had no idea. Doesn’t matter now, anyway, since I found one who is very compatible with my “low-maintenance, easygoing” ways.

Most fortunately, I am happily married to a very understanding woman, who appreciates my “manly” qualities while tolerating – and occasionally even appreciating – my quirks and eccentricities, as well.

But I would have been curious to see the polling result about where blogging fits into the realm of what women want in men. It probably doesn’t show up on the cultural radar screen yet. I can only imagine….

A couple of fine gentlemen from Northern Colorado – who are doing courageous, stand-up work to help parents and taxpayers take back their schools from the corrupt unions and their ties to the bureaucratic educational monopoly – need your help. I’ve written about them before. If nothing else, please take time to read the following letter from one of the two crusaders:

Dear Friends:

My name is Wayne Rutt. Together with Paul Marrick, I have filed a complaint with the Colorado Secretary of State against the Poudre Education Association. This is the teachers union in the Fort Collins school district. The hearing is scheduled for 9:00 AM on May 2, 2005, at 1120 Lincoln Street in Denver.

As outlined in our complaint we believe that the union, directed by their president who is paid as a school district employee using tax money, conducted a political campaign for the election of Bob Bacon. Using teachers, and school resources, during the school day they campaigned at the expense of our children.

(more…)

The Rocky Mountain News highlights a report today that brings tremendous news to those who are invested in and those who enjoy the fruits of Colorado’s economy:

Colorado has cracked America’s Top 10 in job growth just a year after ranking near the bottom – a performance called “a remarkable turnaround” by federal bank regulators.

As you may recall, the lefty snarks at ProgressNow made such a big fuss over Colorado’s recession-period job struggles from 2001 to 2003 after Governor Owens’ State of the State speech in January. Anyone want to posit a theory as to how ProgressNow will explain this latest news development? I’d love to hear your comments. Here are a few I came up with:

At least the results of this survey can’t be as skewed as the recent one touted on ProgressNow.

A happy Thursday to all!

One day after I reported on leftist CSU-Pueblo professor David Sandoval’s e-mail assault against conservative colleague Dan Forsyth, Rocky Mountain News editor has taken both men to task in a piece titled, “Profs acting badly.”

Another case of a faculty member unrepentantly out of line (and maybe soon to enjoy the spotlight – do the news pages and TV cameras have room for both Churchill AND Sandoval?). Another case of university administrators hamstrung by tenure.

Hat tip to Real Clear Politics.

The results from across the country keep pouring in: Kansas yesterday approved a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between one man and one woman with 70 percent in favor, a typical result and one that closely matches a virtually unreported CNN/USAToday/Gallup poll from last weekend showing 68 percent of Americans holding that view.

Early reports from yesterday indicate that voter turnout in the most populated areas of The Jayhawk State was brisk.

Similar reports appeared this morning:

The issue appeared to bring out more voters than usual for a spring election. State officials said spring off-year elections generally produce a turnout in the 10 percent to 20 percent range. Johnson County reported a turnout of 29 percent.

Developing story from CSU-Pueblo. Stay tuned…

It appears that Dr. Dan Forsyth – the professor cleared of charges accusing him of creating a “racially hostile environment” in his classroom for holding conservative views on immigration – has not experienced the last of trouble.

Credible sources indicate that a liberal faculty colleague of Forsyth has widely disseminated a threatening e-mail around campus. The author of the e-mail, Chicano Studies Professor David Sandoval, declared his efforts to bring radical activists in to Pueblo to “address the bigotry done” by Forsyth. The message continues: “My prediction is that before it is over there will be physical violence on this campus….” Sandoval’s e-mail also invoked the radical concept of Aztlan, an extremist ethnic separatist movement which calls for the violent overthrow of the United States government in the Southwest and the creation of a new Hispanic homeland.

Ronald Applbaum, president of CSU-Pueblo, has been alerted to the threat. My hope is that the situation is resolved justly and peacefully, with proper concern for campus safety and a rational university dialogue.

Nothing profound or thought-provoking or informative to say, no blog or news story I’ve found to which I want to link. Cold and rainy outside. Seems like the perfect occasion for a blog holiday. No posts ’till Wednesday – unless, of course, something profound or thought-provoking or informative changes my mind.

It’s days like this I miss being a sports editor. Without the broadsheet pages on which to print my thoughts, I hope you will kindly forbear as I indulge in a bit of nostalgia.

We Detroit Tigers’ fans have been in the doghouse for more than a decade. It’s been a long, dry, painful spell for those loyal to the Olde English D – especially long to someone like me who was a junior in high school the last time the Tigs finished a season with more wins than losses, a prepubescent 5th grader the last time they went to the playoffs, and a mere 7 years old during that magical 1984 World Series run that seems like ancient history now.

In 2002, hope that a true turnaround was coming started to take shape as Detroit hired Dave Dombrowski as general manager, then brought my childhood baseball hero Alan Trammell on board to take the helm in the dugout. After the 2003 debacle, when the franchise appeared to hit rock-bottom (an embarrassing 43 victory total), Tigers owner Mike Ilitch made a serious pledge to open up his pocketbook and build a winning team again.

Fan optimism took a giant step forward with a revitalized offensive lineup stepping up in 2004. And now with an improved bullpen and maturing pitching rotation in 2005, Tigertown is believing what not long ago seemed like a distant delusional dream: our boys in blue have a serious chance not only to break .500 but also to play for a pennant. Sure, the Tigers aren’t the favorites in the American League Central (give that justly, but grudgingly, to the Minnesota Twins), but a highly plausible case at last can be made that meaningful late September baseball games could be played this year in Motown.

The Detroit Tigers kicked off the 2005 season this afternoon with a convincing and confident statement: we are for real again, and we are ready to pull this storied franchise out of its pathetic malaise. Sure, it was the lowly Kansas City Royals they defeated. But the Tigers beat them in resounding fashion, 11-2, showing that they aren’t in the Royals’ lowly class any more. Twenty-two year old phenom Jeremy Bonderman looked every bit like the ace and Cy Young contender he will soon become, with seven dominant innings; and Dmitri Young slapped around Royals pitchers, going 4-for-4 with three home runs and five RBIs.

The record Comerica Park crowd was on Cloud 9 today. The baseball season is long, and there will be ups and downs. But that old feeling has started to return: enthusiasm is soaring, and the voices of cynics are lightly regarded.

This could be the most enjoyable summer in The Motor City in many years.

My first opinion column ever to appear in the Rocky Mountain News runs this morning in the Speakout section: “Don’t pay teachers for days on strike.”

With the labor dispute heating up between Denver Public Schools and the teachers’ union, you’ll want to get the taxpayer-friendly perspective on the issue. All right, all right. Even if the subject doesn’t interest you in the least, you could at least humor me by following the link.

A new Zogby poll released contrasts with the findings of earlier national surveys on the Terri Schiavo case. When the questions were asked in a way more reflective of the actual situation, the true complexities of the case and the American majority’s clearer moral sensibilities emerge.

No one with intellectual honesty can say with a straight face that Zogby is part of the vast right-wing conspiracy. But the Democrat-leaning pollster demonstrated the simple effectiveness of asking specific and relevant questions.

Here are some key findings, as reported by Life News, the first suggesting popular approval for erring on the side of life:

The Zogby poll found that, if a person becomes incapacitated and has not expressed their preference for medical treatment, as in Terri’s case, 43 percent say “the law presume that the person wants to live, even if the person is receiving food and water through a tube” while just 30 percent disagree.

(more…)

Jennifer Harper of The Washington Times reports on a CNN/USAToday/Gallup poll released yesterday regarding public sentiment on the issue of same-sex marriages:

When asked whether they thought same-sex “marriages” should be recognized by the law as valid and come with the same rights as traditional marriages, 68 percent of the respondents in the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll said they should not.

Twenty-eight percent said same-sex “marriages” should be valid and 4 percent had no opinion. The survey of 443 adults was conducted March 18 to 20.

A similar poll by Gallup last year found that 55 percent thought homosexual “marriages” should not be valid, while 42 percent said they should be recognized.

In addition, 466 adults were asked in the same time period what marital arrangements they thought should be recognized for homosexual couples.

The poll found that 20 percent favored same-sex “marriage,” 27 percent said civil unions, and 45 percent said “neither.”

When asked whether they favored a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as “between a man and a woman,” 57 percent said yes, while 37 percent were opposed.

Last year, 48 percent favored the amendment and 46 percent opposed it.

I have found no other reference to the poll – not on the websites of CNN, USAToday, or Gallup. Multiple searches on Yahoo! News came up empty. Finally, with the help of Google News, I found a tiny UPI article that mentioned the survey. Nothing else. But hey, if I were a member of the liberal media elite, I’d quietly release the results on a Friday to let it be mercifully killed by the news cycle. Not if we can bring attention to it.

The culturally conservative trendline bears out in America’s quiet heartland, as Kansans prepare to vote on a defense of marriage amendment this coming Tuesday, while the Minnesota House passed a similar measure to send to its states’ voters, pending Senate approval.

Meanwhile, for some inexplicable reason, a Republican state legislator in our backyard (Colorado, for you out-of-staters) thinks that this argument is the winner to promote a traditional marriage proposal:

Another co-sponsor, Rep. Jim Welker, R-Loveland, said he feared for future legislation if the “Pandora’s box” of same-sex marriage were opened.

“Where do you draw the line?” he said. “A year and a half ago a lady in India married her dog.”

Welker was referring to the marriage of a 9-year-old girl who married a stray dog in 2003 as part of a ritual to ward off an evil spell.

Welker’s ill-conjured remark handed a giant talking point to the opposition, whose leadership wasted no time in responding:

“We’re talking about the budget, and they’re talking about bestiality,” said House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver.

The marriage measure will most likely die, notwithstanding attempts to evoke fears of imminent human-animal nuptials. Can we get another co-sponsor, please?

Jared has already done a terrific job of highlighting the most recent advocacy of Denver’s lefty online community ProgressNow, so I don’t need to devote any extra time rehashing their claims that he has so effectively and articulately refuted.

On their website, ProgressNow is touting its sponsored online poll showing 98 percent in favor of Governor Bill Owens signing HB1042, the measure that would require all medical facilities (including religious hospitals with deep pro-life convictions) to provide “emergency contraceptives” to rape victims. Jared highlights well the idiocy of their self-selecting survey, but it only becomes more absurd when you read the way ProgressNow words the question:

Should Governor Owens allow victims of rape to receive information to avoid an unwanted pregnancy? [emphasis added]

In other breaking news (contact the media!), when asked if the Colorado legislature should pass a bill that would allow consumers to shop somewhere other than Wal-Mart, 98 percent of self-described “liberal progressives” expressed their support…. Whoops – fell off my chair laughing!! Thanks, ProgressNow….

Oh, and regarding the contents of this post, 100 percent of Mount Virtus writers, editors and contributors agreed wholeheartedly with the opinions expressed on this site.

My essay, “Reflections on the Suffering and Death of Terri Schiavo,” has been posted at Sharper Iron. The essay is personal, philosophical, spiritual, contemplative, and I hope you get a chance to read it. Thanks, Jason, for the opportunity to post it to your site.

But even now in Terri’s passing, our eyes are being focused on larger moral, cultural, and political debates to come. Read Bill Sammon’s piece in today’s Washington Times on the powerful resurgence of the pro-life movement in its crusade to reform the judiciary. The secular liberal political and media establishments looked at this case through radically different eyes than many religiously-motivated and spiritually-attuned fundamentalists, evangelicals, Catholics, and Jews in this country. Even though the fault lines in the Terri Schiavo debate didn’t fall strictly along the traditional conservative/liberal lines, look for the rift between the two factions only to widen.

More on this to come as the days and weeks roll on.