{"id":8447,"date":"2005-11-14T16:04:43","date_gmt":"2005-11-14T23:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/11\/14\/politics-politics-politics.html"},"modified":"2005-11-14T16:04:43","modified_gmt":"2005-11-14T23:04:43","slug":"politics_politi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/11\/14\/politics_politi.html","title":{"rendered":"Politics, politics, politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

I remain largely burnt out to political discussions here, at least for the most part. That’s largely because the signal to noise ratio out there on anything worth considering has gotten so low that it’s almost impossible to do any intelligent research on practically any matter. I find my stomach turned by folks like Tom DeLay and Bill Frist, yet Nancy Pelosi’s voice makes me feel like jabbing knitting needles into my ears and Harry Reid isn’t much better. All that the leadership on either side of the aisle seems to have in common is the desire to screech that anything that emanates fro the other <\/em>side is likely to trigger the End of the American Dream and the Betrayal of Our Most Cherished Ideals (if not the Untimely Heat Death of the Universe).<\/p>\n

Take that Alito nomination. My gut instinct is that I don’t particularly care for the policy outcomes of a number of his decisions, but that those decisions are driven not by political ideology but by an intellect and judicial philosophy which are largely respected in most legal circles (which, along with his pleasant demeanor, sets him apart from his alleged mentor, Scalia). I’d rather have someone who appears to respect precedent and has a coherent and considered judicial philosophy than someone who decides things the way I want but on a crappy basis (little good can come from that in the long run), and I know I’m not likely to see anyone I’m particularly thrilled with being nominated by the current Administration, but every time I try to do some serious research into the matter, I’m revulsed by the smug hosannas being paeaned by the Right and appalled by the ad hominem<\/em> attacks and apocalyptic rhetoric on the Left, most of which on both sides have more to do with public policy than jurisprudence, and … <\/p>\n

… well, it’s just easier and less ulcer-inducing to instead natter on about City of Villains, or “Which Pokemon Are You?,” or Christmas lists, or what a nut Pat Robertson is.<\/p>\n

Which is a crying shame, if y’ask me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remain largely burnt out to political discussions here, at least for the most part. That’s largely because the signal to noise ratio out there on anything worth considering has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":136809,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/06\/22\/stars.html","url_meta":{"origin":8447,"position":0},"title":"Stars","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 22-Jun-18 12:05am","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/twitter.com\/18965459\/status\/1010039437755969536 @pencilsdown4 @KikiAdine @FLOTUS Sheriff's stars are generally seven-pointed. Six-pointed stars are largely associated with Judaism (and certainly were by the Nazis).","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135321,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/08\/election-results-good-news-democrats-not-necessarily-dnc.html","url_meta":{"origin":8447,"position":1},"title":"The election results are good news for Democrats, not necessarily the DNC","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 8-Nov-17 11:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"If folk at the Democratic National Committee are busy patting themselves on the back this morning, that would be a huge mistake. As far as I can tell, the success by Democratic candidates in yesterday's election were more in spite of the DNC and institutional politics than because of it.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/unnamed-5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":136746,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/06\/12\/aint-that-a-kick-in-the-head.html","url_meta":{"origin":8447,"position":2},"title":"Ain’t that a kick in the head?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 12-Jun-18 7:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"While I am largely a fan of organized labor as a counter-balance against the inherent power of large employers whose wealth and power to hire\/fire gives them the opportunity to exploit workers ... despite that, one except that continues to become all the more glaring in it danger are police\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/unnamed-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":138742,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/05\/11\/sinification.html","url_meta":{"origin":8447,"position":3},"title":"Sinification","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 11-May-19 10:46am","format":false,"excerpt":"China is in a campaign to literally tear down the cultural heritage of the Uighurs","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/uighur-mosque.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":135259,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/02\/gop-house-unveils-tax-cut-plan-will-cost-1-5-trillion-dollars.html","url_meta":{"origin":8447,"position":4},"title":"GOP House unveils a tax cut plan that will cost $1.5 trillion dollars","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 2-Nov-17 9:36am","format":false,"excerpt":"While some of the scarier bits that had been floated as ideas have gone away, there, still plenty of goofiness in this plan, which largely benefits the most wealthy, because that's what they paid for with the GOP. It's worth noting that none of this is final -- further GOP\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/paul-ryan.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":132205,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/10\/the-things-we-did.html","url_meta":{"origin":8447,"position":5},"title":"The Things We Did","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 10-Dec-16 11:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The 1930s-40s award-winning photographer Dorothea Lange was hired by the US Government to document the 1942 \u201cevacuation\u201d and \u201crelocation\u201d of Japanese-Americans to internment camps.'The military commanders that reviewed her work realized that Lange\u2019s contrary point of view was evident through her photographs, and seized them for the duration of World\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}