tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-127029812024-03-07T19:27:07.399-08:00Sane NationA place where freedom reigns, individuals aspire, the Constitution matters, and P.C. group-think is a really bad detour. A place where it's still possible to get a darned good cup of coffee for under a buck. This blog is a travelogue about that place. Buckle up. The trip starts now.Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comBlogger457125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-64355982881496159762010-04-06T08:12:00.000-07:002010-04-06T08:21:27.307-07:00Sane Nation's New LocationSane Nation's Web Location Has Changed.Click Here and Be Sure to Bookmark the New Permanent Site.Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-28565757264452484612008-03-17T15:28:00.000-07:002008-03-17T15:55:00.297-07:00Obama's (Bi) Racial PredicamentConventional political wisdom holds that Barack Obama's biracial identity works entirely to his benefit politically. Having a foot in both camps, so to speak (the theory goes), he doesn't have to play racial identity politics of the kind that have earned Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton reputations as notorious race hucksters. The problem with the Ebony Plus Ivory hypothesis is this: It doesn't Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-75456244300757268832008-03-10T08:59:00.000-07:002008-12-10T14:17:32.700-08:00Even then a scold
Notice Hillary's wagging finger.Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-85875103569305239132008-02-29T12:11:00.000-08:002008-02-29T12:18:47.616-08:00Clinton Endorses Obama. I mean, Bill. Sorta KindaYou decide:
Now, one of Clinton's laws of politics is this. If one candidate is trying to scare you and the other one is try get you to think, if one candidate is appealing to your fears and the other one is appealing to your hopes, you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope.
Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-3775182068037879352008-02-22T12:58:00.000-08:002008-02-22T13:44:16.890-08:00Barbara Jordan's true legacyLast night both Obama and Clinton invoked the late Texas congresswoman Barbara Jordan's legacy of deep conviction. Then the two candidates declared their shared commitment to the idea that open borders are the best borders. Barbara Jordan would have been appalled. Over a decade ago she called for eliminating chain migration, ending the nonsensical Visa Lottery program, and enforcing tight Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-48291547182362009082008-02-18T11:00:00.000-08:002008-02-18T17:47:17.694-08:00Obama's Oratory Hillary's accusation that Obama stole key phrases from speeches by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is significant because it has the potential to strike at the heart of Obama's central political asset, namely the widespread perception (held even by those who don't share his views) that he's a "man of integrity."
Is it acceptable to borrow language from another politician, without Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-72690871102741097142008-02-11T12:16:00.000-08:002008-02-11T19:05:26.692-08:00What Will Hillary Try Next?Another weeping spell? Crying briefly helped in New Hampshire. Lots of women identified with the idea that she was being bullied by The Guys. But many of these same women are too savvy to buy whimpering as an ongoing winning strategy. Tears won't do the trick.
The race card. Bill tried it when he smugly compared Obama's victory to Jesse Jackson's 1980s presidential campaign. The strategy failed, Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-1163207042993248382006-11-10T16:48:00.000-08:002006-11-13T14:44:56.210-08:00Democrats Seek the MainstreamSee, I actually believe the Democrats when they say they want to govern from the middle. I just think it's been so long since they've been anywhere near the mainstream, they don't know what it looks like any more.
1. Leading anti-war congressional Democrats have asked George McGovern to help them formulate the Democrat's Iraq exit policy. George McGovern! He could save himself a plane ride by Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-1163110463279816242006-11-09T14:04:00.000-08:002006-11-10T12:51:29.083-08:00Nancy Goes Hawk HuntingThere's word that Pelosi intends to prevent colleagues who are hawkish on national security from getting important chairmanships. The speaker-to-be is said to be especially keen on punishing California Rep. Jane Harman for supporting the war in Iraq and the Patriot Act.
Let's put this in perspective.
With Dennis Kucinich ("Let's surrender as fast as possible") and Joe Lieberman ("We cannot Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-1163013888454406342006-11-08T11:21:00.000-08:002006-11-08T11:24:48.600-08:00Coburn Gets ItSen. Tom Coburn weighs in with an excellent analysis:
The overriding theme of this election ... is that voters are more interested in changing the culture in Washington than changing course in Washington, D.C. This election was not a rejection of conservative principles per se, but a rejection of corrupt, complacent and incompetent government...This election does not show that voters have Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-1163003397371300952006-11-08T07:43:00.000-08:002006-11-08T09:48:14.086-08:00The Day AfterRepublicans ran as the Party of Reform, harking back to 1994 when they took over the House with a commitment to start explaining America to Washington again rather than the opposite. Twelve years later, what had they "reformed"? Republicans talked about reforming the "culture of corruption" that characterized their Democrat House predecessors. Twelve years later: Jack Abramoff. Congressional Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-1162962559716541742006-11-07T20:39:00.000-08:002006-11-07T21:25:30.680-08:00The ElectionThe Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives by searching out and recruiting a strong team of moderate and conservative candidates who steered clear of hot-button cultural issues like abortion, homosexual marriage, and affirmative action. These candidates hammered their Republican opponents on scandal, excessive spending, economic anxiety, and the need to resolve our involvement Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-1162670552714832852006-11-04T11:33:00.000-08:002006-11-04T13:38:09.916-08:00Pastor Ted, Family Man
Everything we need to know about the character of Ted Haggard is revealed by the mode of his denials ("No sex") and the medium of his admission ("Bought meth, didn't use it").
Haggard rolls down his car window and conducts a fricking news conference, discussing the details of what he did, didn't do, shouldn't have done, ought to have known. He does this with his wife and son sitting in the car,Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-1162316914915336692006-11-01T09:24:00.000-08:002006-11-03T10:44:28.830-08:00When the Smoke Clears, I'll Be Doing ScienceI get asked, "What do you when you're not writing." Answer: I work as an independent high-level social scientist doing high-level research on Human Nature.
This is a broad field, so I specialize. I study actual Human Beings.
Is that thinking outside the box, or what?
My super-specialized research field is Human Stupidity. I began with this hypothesis: People who behave stupidly on a regular Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-1162343796059362082006-10-31T16:52:00.000-08:002006-10-31T21:05:58.156-08:00John Kerry's Epitaph: "It's Over"He's finished. John Kerry will never recover politically from his elitist Freudian-slip/slap
at America's military as a dumping ground for "uneducated" young men and women. Nor will Kerry's slapdash "botched joke" cover story work, because the setup makes no sense. If Bush's alleged failed Iraq policy reflects his lack of education, Senator, please explain how that squares with Bush's earning a Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-1162160962602897542006-10-29T13:40:00.000-08:002006-10-29T15:19:24.070-08:00Proof? We Don't Need No Stinkin' ProofWouldn't you know. The usual suspects in the due-process crowd are raising the roof about the the Durham district attorney's admission that his office didn't bother to actually interview the alleged victim before filing rape charges against the three lacrosse players.
What these critics don't understand is that there's a different standard of proof involved in cases involving gender and race. Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-1162083083343148902006-10-28T17:50:00.000-07:002006-10-29T10:40:54.796-08:00He Lights Up Our LivesSexual? What would make anyone think that?
The campaign of Republican Sen. George Allen on Thursday released excerpts from some of the war novels (Democrat Senate candidate Jim) Webb wrote between 1978 and 2002.
Among the excerpts is a scene from the 2002 novel "Lost Soldiers," in which a man embraces his four-year-old son and places the boy's penis in his mouth.
"It's not a sexual act," Webb Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-1161904398928914342006-10-26T16:04:00.000-07:002006-10-27T16:31:56.183-07:00Separation of Powers? Not in New Jersey"Three separate and coequal branches."
Even if you slept through most of your high school civics classes, your subconscious probably remembers that phrase. It captures one of the defining characteristics of America's experiment in self-government, where three distinct branches of government — executive, legislative, judicial — check and balance each other.
Works in theory, but not always in Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-1161809341189901262006-10-25T12:36:00.000-07:002006-10-26T07:29:02.770-07:00Liberal Racism: Alive and WellThe guy's obviously smart. Hip. Cool. Gracious and graceful. His moderate tone conveys passion. He appears pragmatic yet comes across as a man of ideals. Being new to the national scene makes him an ideal screen upon which the country can project its pen-up hopes for a leader on horseback to ride in, rescue the distressed damsel, chase off the villains and crooks, restore decency and honor to theKeith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-1161703980185008312006-10-24T07:19:00.000-07:002006-10-24T12:23:36.526-07:00Parental Notification: Common Sense, Not Rocket ScienceA few weeks ago my ringing telephone showed a number I don't like to see flashing on my caller I.D. It was my second-grade son's school calling during school hours. My kid had taken a fall from the playground monkey bars; he'd banged his head. "Nothing too serious," the school nurse assured me, "but he says he's got a headache from the fall and would like to come home."
Because I work at home, Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-1161134895997850812006-10-17T18:10:00.000-07:002006-10-24T07:19:19.406-07:00Haven't We All Wanted to Buy a Kid?So Madonna went to Africa and returned home with a black child to add to her diverse family. I don't get what all the fuss is about. What's that? You say you've never wanted to purchase a kid, including a symbolic one?
Think. Maybe you didn't act on it, but wasn't the desire there?
Especially if you're a white liberal American with lots of money and loads of guilt about your country's alleged Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-1161022633274539342006-10-16T10:49:00.000-07:002006-10-16T11:54:19.286-07:00Book Launch: Thursday, Oct. 19
It started as an essay last year for the San Francisco Chronicle, leading to a contract with Sentinel Books to describe the steps and stages by which I came to realize that the contemporary left is unalterably at odds with the classical liberal tradition, which ironically finds its greatest advocates these days among many conservatives (and of course libertarians, federalists, constitutionalistsKeith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-1160507697204152072006-10-10T11:06:00.000-07:002006-10-11T10:46:30.506-07:00The Real Korean AberrationInstead of "madman," how about "ruthless dictator with a relentless determination to achieve his clear strategic aims"? The phrase doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but still: What benefit is to be derived by continuously framing North Korea's leader as a mental health aberration?
The aberration is believing meaningful bargains can be reached with the likes of Kim Jong-il through dialogue Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-1160338065723417322006-10-08T12:28:00.000-07:002006-10-08T19:25:51.900-07:00Melanie Morgan's Moment
I generally don't talk about my personal life here, but the time has come to fess up about something that happens in my bedroom several times each week. I wake up with Melanie Morgan. Mondays through Fridays this striking, articulate blonde begins my morning with some variation on the following: "Just when you thought liberals couldn't be more stupid, get ready to hear about this morning's Keith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12702981.post-1160267515561354682006-10-07T17:08:00.000-07:002006-10-07T17:38:23.623-07:00Has the Foley Affair Changed My Mind?A reader writes:
"In the wake of Foley, do you still see the GOP keeping control of Congress in November?"There's really no way to predict how the Foley tempest will effect the midterm election campaign. And there may be other volatile dynamics yet to enter the political scene; a month is an eternity in today's political climate. But if I'm limited to a binary "yes or no" choice, I would say: yesKeith Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09156446056422613006noreply@blogger.com