Back From a Long Absence, with Musings

Work has been ludicrous, lately, leaving me little to no energy for blogging.  Standard blogger excuse, I know.   So let's get on with it!  I've still been keeping up with the times, so I have a few points of interest to touch on, as follows: Appointing Kagan, Ahmed Wali Karzai (fun for everyone!), the PA-12 and what I think it means, and President Obama's tin ear on Daniel Pearlman.
So, let's talk about appointing Elena Kagan to the SCOTUS.  Frankly, I'm getting very tired of your standard Alinkyite tempest in a teapot approach to getting your people appointed.  We're hitting the same damn thing as we had with Sonya Sotomayor.  You see, with both Sotomayor and Kagan, we see the bizarre realm of identity politics obscuring the simple facts of basic competence.  Granted, Kagan is Harvard and actually has some experience as a lawyer, but let's touch on a particularly interesting tidbit.  Kagan has become Solicitor General, but she has never been a judge.  Never been a judge, and now she is supposed to become one of the highest judges in the land?  Never mind that, though.  There's scandal to be had because she may or may not be gay.  Which, the President assures us, she is not. But not that there's anything wrong with that! Oh god, what do we do.  I can't keep track of these identity politics any more.  Heaven forbid, however, that Christians should be concerned that a lesbian judge may legislate from the bench and infringe religious freedoms.  Full disclosure: I think the Christians are wrong, but as far as constitutional rights go it is irrelevant.

I'm tired of her already. Next topic.

NATO has decided to play ball with Ahmed Wali Karzai, who is brother in law to Hamid Karzai, both of the intensely powerful Popalzai tribe.  Let's be straight on this one; we have no choice.  Sure, he's a mafioso (the NATO term is "power broker") and has probably more political influence than the President, but we're left with little choice.  While the democratic system is working reasonably well in the Uzbek, Tajik, and other non-Pashtu areas, it's hitting some cultural walls when it gets into deeply Pashtun territory.  You see, culturally, being someone in a position of power requires you to actually give stuff to the people who are related to you.  What we consider nepotism isn't just encouraged, it's actually required!  So poor old Hamid looks viciously weak to most Pashtun, because he can't get them the goods.  Meanwhile, Ahmed Wali Karzai is cruising around like a Baltimore drug dealer, handing out everything short of liquor and whores (he is a good Muslim, after all).  So what's my take?  Work with him.  He's cooperative.  The Taliban want him dead.  Sure, he's an influence peddler, but he isn't into the drug scene. Classic "he's-an-asshole-but-he's-our-asshole" territory.  In that part of the world, probably the best you can do.

On to something less clear-cut.  The PA-12 was fun for me to watch, as the vacillations between hope for a Brown-style underdog and clear-eyed realizations that the PA-12 is union country occurred almost daily.  In the end, Tim Burns ran a good game, but lost.  How? The Democrat ran the Harper game.  Run on almost the same damn platform, and then use party affiliation to your advantage.  Once in power, gradually ratchet things to your way of thinking.  Most Ontarians are fairly centrist, so Harper got his ridings by outflanking the Liberals with their own platform, and harping (ha-ha, I made a funny) on their scandals.  Same thing happened to Burns.  Burns was running an anti-Obama, pro-capitalist platform.  Funny, so did the Democrat.  Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1, and more than 40 percent of workers in PA are unionized.  No surprise that Burns lost.  Not badly, considering, but he still lost.

Finally, President Obama's tin ear on Daniel Pearlman.  Mark Steyn obviously does the issue more justice than I do, but the point deserves to be addressed.  Daniel Pearlman's death didn't "capture my imagination".  I didn't have to imagine it- and neither did thousands of supposedly moderate Muslims.  Within 5 minutes of his grim death, Daniel Pearlman's final moments were in more than 20 countries.  On cell phones, web sites.  Almost always accompanied by the ubiquitous "Allahu Akbar".  There's no dignity in it, no higher message.  It was one man, having his head remove for the sin of being an American Jew.  Hell, he was part of the group most sympathetic to Muslims (Mainstream Media), and they still killed him.  What captures MY imagination, Mr President, is imagining what a real statesman would do.  Ask yourself,  President Obama, what would Churchill do?  And then do it.

That's enough for today.