Mount Virtus

With his usual eloquence and wit, the venerable Mark Steyn on National Review Online makes a terrific point about the connection between centralized state spending & power and bizarre behavior by politicians:

The real bubble is a consequence of big government. The more the citizenry expect from the state, the more our political class will depend on ever more swollen Gulf Emir–sized retinues of staffers hovering at the elbow to steer you from one corner of the fishbowl to another 24/7. “Why are politicians so weird?” a reader asked me after the Sanford press conference. But the majority of people willing to live like this will, almost by definition, be deeply weird. So big government more or less guarantees rule by creeps and misfits. It’s just a question of how well they disguise it. Writing about Michael Jackson a few years ago, I suggested that today’s A-list celebs were the equivalent of Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria or the loopier Ottoman sultans, the ones it wasn’t safe to leave alone with sharp implements. But, as Christopher Hitchens says, politics is showbusiness for ugly people. And a celebrified political culture will inevitably throw up its share of tatty karaoke versions of Britney and Jacko.

After this past week, it’s easy to be reminded that Americans have gotten a raw deal, one they unfortunately all too often continue to enable. I like Steyn’s solution: “Burst the Bubble” of big government.

I like to visit Fox News from time to time, because the site tends to feature some unusual stories that may or may not go unnoticed. But this one I read today really struck me as something almost too bizarre and incomprehensible for your run-of-the-mill supermarket tabloid:

Brooke Greenberg continues to baffle her family and doctors.

At 16-years-old, Brooke weighs 16 pounds and stands 2 feet, 6 inches tall, MyFOXChicago reported. She can’t speak, but she can express frustration and happiness.

In other words, Brooke’s body and mind are that of a toddler.

According to the story, the Maryland girl has her original baby teeth and the bones of a 10-year-old. All three of her sisters are normal. Doctors are “baffled” but hypothesize that Brooke has a growth-inhibiting genetic mutation.

For some reason, what came to mind when I read this story were Hamlet’s words to his young best friend after Horatio first saw the King’s ghost:

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

How this very special girl’s life will unfold and what the rest of us might learn from her are mysteries for now. Still, there are more things than I have dreamt of.

Update, 1:00 PM: Not surprisingly, as Politico reports, there is more to the story: With news of the affair and bizarre cover-up, down goes Sanford. Very sad.

Republican South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford did what? For eccentricity’s sake, I almost want to hear someone uncover more to the story than the governor of a state dashing off to South America on a whim without telling anyone.

Or maybe we’re just left to wonder why his staff told the media he really was hiking along the Appalachian trail (and may have “flat out lied” about the Argentina story).

To think, just last week I was musing about a possible presidential candidate to support for 2012, and Mark Sanford by default rose to the top of the unofficial and utterly inconsequential list. Now, perhaps, not so much. I’m not exactly sure what the public’s threshold for strange behavior in a potential commander-in-chief is.

When Democrat Colorado Governor Bill Ritter takes week-long international jaunts, he does so during crucial budget debates or travels first class on the taxpayers’ dime. But at least Ritter let people know where he was going.

Simply weird.

As a Michigan-born expatriate, I’m fascinated by today’s news in the Denver Post that a wolverine has been sighted in the wild here in Colorado for the first time in 90 years:

Bob Inman, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Yellowstone Wolverine Program, said the animal, tagged M56 and fitted with a radio collar in December, went on the move in April.

He traveled from Grand Teton National Park, crossing busy Interstate 80 in southern Wyoming, to reach timberline in the mountains of northern Colorado.

That leaves approximately the same number of wolverines in Colorado as in the so-called “Wolverine State”. One was spotted in Michigan about five years ago, the first in well over a century.

That’s why — even though I tend to cheer for the University of Michigan football and basketball teams — I prefer the more suitable nomenclature of “Great Lakes State” for the land of my birth. Maybe even the wolverines understand that Michigan is a great place to be from.

Remember all the pomp and circumstance of four months ago when President Barack Obama flew out here to Denver to sign the “stimulus” bill? The legislation that had to be rushed through? The legislation that was supposed to prevent “irreversible decline” in our economy?

While anyone with decent sense knew the “stimulus” was long-term poison, I can’t say I anticipated how badly it would flounder even in the short-term. The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Hans Bader put together a well-documented Open Market blog post noting that public opinion clearly favors canceling the $787 billion spending spree.

How many of them have watched this unforgettable video?

A few days ago, Mr. Bob posted up the now well-circulated graphic showing how doing nothing would have been better for our nation’s employment situation than the so-called “stimulus”. Yet the Obama administration and fellow Democrat leaders steering the ship of state are convinced the problem is that government isn’t spending the money quickly enough.

God save us. Stand strong, sons of liberty. Get off the sidelines, and get involved.

I am relieved to learn that U.S. Senate candidate Cleve Tidwell was not posting bizarre online comments himself.

As Mr. Tidwell joins us for tonight’s Blog Talk Radio show, I hope to hear what the campaign learned from this episode. I also hope today’s revelation marks the end of the online astroturfing.

Inquiring minds will be left to wonder who the campaign volunteer was who had access to Mr. Tidwell’s private email address and “might have stepped over the line”.

Today is a perfect occasion to show off my predilection for recalling and recounting trivial information. Today is the first anniversary of giving up my wristwatch. Or more appropriately, of my last watch giving up the ghost. From age 7 to age 31 I wore some kind of wristwatch on my left arm. When the last one broke, I decided to see what it would be like to give up the instant time-telling habit cold turkey.

The good news is I have gone a whole year without a timepiece on my arm. Of course, having a cell phone that keeps track of time sure helps. But I never would have thought it would be so easy to live life wristwatch-free.

Now back to your regularly scheduled broadcasting of truly important news and commentary.

Here’s a good bit of important advice to candidates for major political office that apparently isn’t self-evident to all — Don’t go posting comments online under a false identity:

Cleve Tidwell was posing as someone named “Craig Platon” and posting about how “he gave me and everyone else that waited in line all the time we needed and seemed only interested in what I had to say.” He also describes himself as a “warm individual.” This is a little narcissistic even for a would-be politician.

It is troubling to say the least that a candidate for United States Senate has no apparent ethical qualms with posting as imaginary people supporting himself. Simply posting under a psuedonym [sic] and dropping a comment saying something positive about himself would be bad enough, but posting this elaborate backstory is downright bizarre. [link added]

(more…)

On this Memorial Day, I can’t think to do any better than point you back to last year’s remembrance:

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine.

Today, pay your respects to a fallen soldier, sailor, airman, Marine – and to their loved ones still with us. And don’t forget to thank the troops you meet for their service to us all. Happy Memorial Day!

Otherwise, I defer to this Saturday Wall Street Journal column by Peggy Noonan (H/T Steve Meyer) on the need to renew American fascination with the military hero. (more…)

It’s been a couple weeks since my last update on the baseball season for Civil Sense.

A great piece in yesterday’s Detroit News recounts the amazing feat of the 1984 Tigers’ 35-5 start. A quarter century later, this year’s Detroit squad is nowhere near the caliber of dominance of the franchise’s last world champions.

But the Tigers — winners of six straight — are like their 1984 predecessors in that they are in first place at the 40-game mark of the season. In this case, 8.5 games ahead of the Cleveland Indians.

Happy Friday!

Less than 3 minutes is all it takes for this excellent visual explanation of the rate of our mounting national debt (H/T Gene Kinsey):

Brought to you by the same guy who cleverly explained Barack Obama’s proposed spending “cuts” in terms of pennies and large containers of water. I hope he keeps these coming.

For the record, I’m not comfortable with any rate of speed going westward at this point. Rather than drag-racing to Los Angeles, I’d be happy to see us hitchhiking back to the Big Apple (metaphorically speaking, that is).

A clear sign that I’m not talking enough to people around the office (or someone is just keeping secrets from me) … I learn that the Independence Institute is courting a famous speaker for our summertime Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms Party by reading a Bill Husted column in the Denver Post:

Institute boss Jon Caldara says he’s this close to closing the deal to have Plumber (a.k.a. Samuel Wurzelbacher) as the speaker. [Joe the] Plumber would join a distinguished roster of former speakers, which includes Christopher Hitchens and Fred Barnes. Westword named the party the “Best Place to See a Drunk Conservative.”

One problem. Joe the Plumber announced last week that he was quitting the Republican Party because he is outraged by GOP spending.

“Well, I agree with him on that,” says Caldara. “It would just be fun to have him there.”

Short of landing center stage for Sarah Palin herself, Joe The Plumber would be one of the best possible gets for this year’s ATF.

It’s official: Baby Virtus has verbally acknowledged her “da-da”. Today was worthy of a big smile! Unfortunately, it came more than a week after she started saying “mama”. But I can’t complain too much … her big sister said “da-da” first. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s Me 1, The Lovely Mrs. Virtus 1.

Perhaps, though, Baby Virtus will follow in big sister’s footsteps some day, and proclaim me “superdaddy”. Of course, it’s been a long time since I’ve heard that one, too. But having two happy, healthy, smart, beautiful, growing girls in the house means lots of joy and lots of surprises.

Last week, columnist Jay Ambrose did a fine job swatting down the swine flu hysteria. The Wall Street Journal’s Bret Stephens chipped in with the swine-flu hysteria contest winner a couple days ago:

Of course the winner of the contest is Mr. Biden, since he lacks even the excuse of a self-interested motive. But standing right behind the vice president is a legion of heavily credentialed panic proliferators.

These are the people whose terrifying forecasts you last heard during the avian flu panic of 2005 (deaths to date: 257, according to the World Health Organization) and the SARS panic of 2002-2003 (774 deaths). By contrast, garden-variety flus typically kill upwards of 30,000 Americans a year.

You might also have a vague memory of the “mad cow” panic that gripped the world in the 1990s. In his 1997 book “Deadly Feasts,” Richard Rhodes warned that the human variant of mad cow, known as vCJD, might kill as many as 500,000 people a year in Britain alone. So far, total confirmed cases world-wide run to around 150.

Has anyone ever heard of the Boy Who Cried Wolf? This graphic makes a telling point:

It’s probably an exaggeration. The green sliver is probably too big, but the creators had to make it visible to complete the effect.

Not to pick on the Boulder Daily Camera, but this story is just one example of how the hysteria contagion is about as disturbing as the spread of the H1N1 strain itself.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming…

While we’re killing time waiting for newly selected U.S. Senator Michael Bennet to make up his mind on the union card-check bill, we can entertain ourselves with a good, old-fashioned nickname debate.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has started a video campaign (watch below the fold) to label Colorado’s junior senator as “Back ‘N’ Forth Bennet”: (more…)

Monday morning — The world of Colorado politics is quiet … too quiet. About 9 days left in the legislative session, and some version of Senate Bill 228 is still lurking out there. Will Democrats really rush ahead with this taxpayer-unfriendly idea?

In other random news, Ken Buck is in the U.S. Senate fray. Immigration almost certainly figures to be a hot-button issue in the primary, if not the general election itself. But what does it all mean, with incumbent appointee Michael Bennet’s apparent weakness among Hispanic voters?

In other words, it’s simply too quiet out here.

It’s quite often the subtle bias in the dominant liberal media that can make a significant difference. Witness yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle piece on a California ballot initiative to impose tax-and-spending limitations on state government.

Writer John Wildermuth quotes from two Colorado sources to establish views on our own state’s experience with the stronger Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights limit (emphases added):

“Nobody disagrees that (the cap) kept government spending lower,” said Carol Hedges, a senior fiscal analyst for the nonpartisan Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute, which opposes the state’s budget cap. “But supporters don’t like to talk about the human cost of keeping government smaller.”

…

Across the nation, anti-tax advocates, small government activists and fiscal conservatives pointed to Colorado as an example of how less is more when it comes to taxes and government spending.

“What spending limits do is force politicians to make tough choices about priorities sooner, rather than later, when the state’s in a financial crisis,” said Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute in Denver, a free-market think tank.

Here’s my beef, and it’s with only one word in the story: Why call the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute — an outsourced arm of the “progressive” Democratic machine — nonpartisan? Since it’s accurate only in the most technical sense, but in reality far more misleading to the uninitiated reader, why include it as a descriptor?

If the writer is going to use the adjective nonpartisan for CFPI, why not also use it to describe the Independence Institute? (Full disclosure: The Institute is my full-time employer.) It would be at least as true. But I’ll argue that the word nonpartisan should have been dropped altogether, as it only affords an undeserved degree of credibility.

Having cited Carol Hedges as the primary source, and a “nonpartisan” one at that, the story rolls downhill a lot closer to a predetermined conclusion than an objective story should.

Does anyone still wonder why newspapers are going out of business?

So yesterday I receive this verbatim email message from a mysterious “Victorila Rasheem” (all errors of spelling and syntax preserved):

I think taht your website should do a think on Cleve Tidwell. Most say that he has the support of most if not all of the major donors in the state. Also much of the grassroots is excited for him and is backing him to be the senator for colorado. I do not know if Dick Wadhams found him or not but if he did it was a good find because he is a good candidaet and wiill win. He is a very good speaker and will be at most events when he is senator because he will represent people in Colorado. Also, he has not spoken with the press so whatever you might hear if anything is probably just their way of trying to create a story or gossip. He has wonderful friends in the news media and when the time is right he will discuss with them. He is a very busy man but he will get the job done because that is his way.

The source of the email message was “coloradovoterinthesenaterace@gmail.com” — a real random coincidence if ever there was one. Read the message carefully, and you’ll understand how bizarre and far-fetched and meaningless are the claims contained therein.

Guess I just should be thankful that it wasn’t an email from Mr. Tidwell’s Nigerian benefactor asking for a $1,000 campaign contribution to be delivered to a foreign post office box. But following on the heels of another Colorado blogger’s experience with spam from Cleve Tidwell supporters, I shouldn’t be too surprised by the development.

If the true origin of this message was from a Tidwell supporter, all I can say is thank you for attempting to insult my intelligence. I briefly met Mr. Tidwell in person once and heard him testify twice at the state legislature, and such tactics doubtless are not helping his cause. Perhaps he might even publicly disavow them.

To me, except for the mystery of who could possibly have such a motive, it makes more sense that this email is part of a scheme by someone trying to undermine Mr. Tidwell’s nascent quasi-candidacy. Because it’s closer to the actual effect.

The main reason I’m posting this for public eyes to see is in hopes of tracking down other messages from “coloradovoterinthesenaterace@gmail.com”, and hopefully put the silly mystery to rest before I pursue writing anything more about Cleve Tidwell here. If you too have been contacted by this shadowy Gmail account, please feel free to post a comment or drop a line.