23 August 2011 noon: Obama Derangement Syndrome, Rick Perry’s stimulus and other topics

Workout notes yoga with Ms. Vickie. (easy class)
Then 5 mile run (5.3 actually) in 55 minutes; I ran 1.05 miles to the gooseloop, did 9 laps (3.24 miles) in 31:45 and then ran 1.05 back. So far so good; the knee started to “feel it” late. No biggie. Then I walked 3.2 miles, and that was 1 mile too much. The knee (behind the knee) squawked at me toward the end. Total time: 1:41.

But it rained pretty hard (stormed) and my knees ALWAYS hurt during quick weather changes.

Posts
If Obama did it, it must be wrong! No, I am not talking about Republicans this time.
Yes, Obama decided to get rid of some useless business regulations. Surely, liberals are not the group of people who are pro-useless regulations, right? Right?

Really, these days, the conversation goes something like this:
1. Obama does something.
2. Some conservative group says “I like this aspect of it, but it doesn’t go far enough.”
3. Know it all liberal activist picks up on the part in bold and claims that once again, Obama is either
a. A closet Republican in bed with the oligarchy
b. Pandering to the moderates
c. Being pushed around by those meanie Republicans

In this case, the liberal activist in question is NOT a drooling idiot, but her “self perception of knowledge and IQ” to “actual knowledge and IQ” ratio is well above unity.

The idea: “if Obama did it, it must be bad”…from the left.

Oh well…at least I am not a Republican…:

Yes, I know, Jon Huntsman took shots at President Obama too. I decided to post his correct criticisms and leave off where he is wrong.

Seriously, this was great politics by the DNC to pounce on this.

Rick Perry
I suppose that Mr. Perry isn’t against ALL types of stimulus:

Leading Republican contender and prominent Christian candidate Rick Perry has been accused of hypocrisy after it was revealed that he invested thousands of dollars in the country’s largest pornography distributor.

Just a week after he launched his presidential campaign, the Texas governor has come under fire for his investment in Movie Gallery, a company that rented pornographic movies.

In 1995, while serving as Texas’ agriculture commissioner, financial disclosures reveal that Mr Perry bought between $5,000 and $10,000 worth of the company’s stock.

Can I get an AMEN???

Richard Dawkins: weighs in on Mr. Perry’s evolution comments:

A. There is nothing unusual about Governor Rick Perry. Uneducated fools can be found in every country and every period of history, and they are not unknown in high office. What is unusual about today’s Republican party (I disavow the ridiculous ‘GOP’ nickname, because the party of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt has lately forfeited all claim to be considered ‘grand’) is this: In any other party and in any other country, an individual may occasionally rise to the top in spite of being an uneducated ignoramus. In today’s Republican Party ‘in spite of’ is not the phrase we need. Ignorance and lack of education are positive qualifications, bordering on obligatory. Intellect, knowledge and linguistic mastery are mistrusted by Republican voters, who, when choosing a president, would apparently prefer someone like themselves over someone actually qualified for the job.

Any other organization — a big corporation, say, or a university, or a learned society – -when seeking a new leader, will go to immense trouble over the choice. The CVs of candidates and their portfolios of relevant experience are meticulously scrutinized, their publications are read by a learned committee, references are taken up and scrupulously discussed, the candidates are subjected to rigorous interviews and vetting procedures. Mistakes are still made, but not through lack of serious effort.

The population of the United States is more than 300 million and it includes some of the best and brightest that the human species has to offer, probably more so than any other country in the world. There is surely something wrong with a system for choosing a leader when, given a pool of such talent and a process that occupies more than a year and consumes billions of dollars, what rises to the top of the heap is George W Bush. Or when the likes of Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin can be mentioned as even remote possibilities. [...]

Dr. Dawkins goes on to address evolution and to explain why current evolutionary theory is not a mere conjecture like, say, string theory.

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