Jan 5, 2012 CHEERS and JEERS

CHEERS to Rick Santorum for what might be a last minute, come-from-behind win. No, seriously....apparently a typo at IAGOPHQ might have given Mitt Romney twenty more votes than he deserves, which would erase his eight-vote win and make Rick Santorum the winner of the 2012 Iowa Caucuses by twelve votes. Whoops!!

Literal JEERS for Rick Santorum from an audience of New Hampshire college students after he compared gay marriage to polygamy. You know, because polygamy is bad, and if we allow gay marriage, then we have to allow polygamy, so gay marriage must be bad. Or something. (You can watch video of this exchange here).

Clearly, this is not an argument that goes over well with the fiercely libertarian Republicans of New Hampshire. On the other hand, despite Mr Santorum's rather "frothy" axioms, I will concede that he is correct about the direction in which history is taking the United States. Legal, socially accepted polygamy, even if not state sanctioned, will come sometime in my lifetime; and I will welcome that day. As far as I'm concerned, it's perfectly fine, so long as it's consensual ... and not an excuse for pedophilia.

Feh to Obama's new defense focus. You can read about it here. The good: cheaper in person-years and treasure, with more focus on instruments that have been the backbone of American defense of late (special forces, drones). The bad: the thing that screwed us up in Iraq wasn't the war itself, but the failure to bring stability and order in the aftermath. This new approach actually makes this situation worse by cutting counterinsurgency forces. The ugly: it still assumes that the main purpose of the military is to protect our strategic (read: economic) interests rather than defend our borders.

JEERS to derivative musicals. The Producers is understandable as a new spin on an old classic. Spider Man, worth a mention because it's daring. The Lion King, worth the spectacle, maybe. But Harry Potter? What's next...Twilight the Musical? Unfortunately, we now know the answer to that last one.

(Thanks to nowgoesquickly for the find. I will now go cleanse my brain with The Colbert Report.)

Jan 5, 2012 CHEERS and JEERS

CHEERS to Rick Santorum for what might be a last minute, come-from-behind win. No, seriously....apparently a typo at IAGOPHQ might have given Mitt Romney twenty more votes than he deserves, which would erase his eight-vote win and make Rick Santorum the winner of the 2012 Iowa Caucuses by twelve votes. Whoops!!

Literal JEERS for Rick Santorum from an audience of New Hampshire college students after he compared gay marriage to polygamy. You know, because polygamy is bad, and if we allow gay marriage, then we have to allow polygamy, so gay marriage must be bad. Or something. (You can watch video of this exchange here).

Clearly, this is not an argument that goes over well with the fiercely libertarian Republicans of New Hampshire. On the other hand, despite Mr Santorum's rather "frothy" axioms, I will concede that he is correct about the direction in which history is taking the United States. Legal, socially accepted polygamy, even if not state sanctioned, will come sometime in my lifetime; and I will welcome that day. As far as I'm concerned, it's perfectly fine, so long as it's consensual ... and not an excuse for pedophilia.

Feh to Obama's new defense focus. You can read about it here. The good: cheaper in person-years and treasure, with more focus on instruments that have been the backbone of American defense of late (special forces, drones). The bad: the thing that screwed us up in Iraq wasn't the war itself, but the failure to bring stability and order in the aftermath. This new approach actually makes this situation worse by cutting counterinsurgency forces. The ugly: it still assumes that the main purpose of the military is to protect our strategic (read: economic) interests rather than defend our borders.

JEERS to derivative musicals. The Producers is understandable as a new spin on an old classic. Spider Man, worth a mention because it's daring. The Lion King, worth the spectacle, maybe. But Harry Potter? What's next...Twilight the Musical? Unfortunately, we now know the answer to that last one.

(Thanks to nowgoesquickly for the find. I will now go cleanse my brain with The Colbert Report.)