No more peanuts is news?

From the AP:

US Airways will stop serving peanuts on its flights because of concerns about passengers who are allergic to the snacks.

The airline expects to exhaust its peanut supply this month and will then offer passengers pretzels or mixed nuts without peanuts.

A lot of airlines had already made the change to miniature snack bars or pretzels. I fly a few select airlines, and I don't believe any of them serve peanuts anymore. We are in one hell of a slow news cycle if this is news. What's next, a news story on how the airlines don't issue passengers parachutes anymore? The passing of the wing walkers?

Come to the Wisconsin Blogosphere Spring Fling!

T-60 minutes until the Wisconsin Blogosphere Spring Fling at Nagawaukee Park on Highway 83 in Waukesha County. Don't have anything to do today? Stop on out. Festivities begin at noon, but people will be filtering and out throughout the afternoon. You can find more details here, and a map here. We hope to see a lot of people out there this afternoon.

Is a third party in our future?

Peggy Noonan feels a change a-comin’, and to her that change includes a third political party in the United States. I agree with her whole heartedly that there is a very disconnected feel in the air right now, but I’m not so sure that I agree with her opinion that we are on the cusp of the development of a lasting third party.

It is not unusual in American politics that the country occasionally develops third party fever. Ralph Nader, Ross Perot, John Anderson, Strom Thurmond, and Theodore Roosevelt all were third party candidates that people easily remember from the last 100 years. The love affair with the third party always wears off pretty quickly, though, when people realize that most third parties only serve to give the oppose party an easy electoral majority. Sometimes third parties can alter the course of the parent party, but often as not they do not even accomplish that. There are several ways in which a viable third party may develop, and none of them resemble the third parties of the last 100 years, and all will have their own set of problems.

The most logical place to look for a constituency for a third party is in the center of American politics. It is in that middle ground where a third party may be able to siphon off enough Democrats and Republicans from the big two to form some sort of rough parity. Divisive as politics in the United States sometimes seems, there is remarkable balance in our system, and our politics always move toward maintaining that balance. For a breakaway party to work, it is going to have to weaken both existing parties a bit to prevent its constituency from moving back to the status quo 2 or 4 years later. The problem is that the middle of American politics is not a place of reasoned positions but of compromises. Any new third party that develops from the political center will either have to struggle to maintain morale while molding the positions of the left and right into compromises, or they will have to break that paradigm and find a way to develop centrist positions that do not splinter back off former Democrats or Republicans. Neither one of those would be an easy task.

Another possibility is the Libertarian party. Libertarians are unique in that they already cross the traditional political spectrum, and would thus already be well placed to draw power away from both parties. The Libertarian party has an inherent flaw when it comes to party politics, though. Many Libertarians are so independent and strong willed that they do not “play well with others,” even within their own party. Libertarians tend to be an “army of one,” if you will, and melding them together along with former Democrats and Republicans to form coherent platforms that play the party politics game would be a Herculean task. The individualism of Libertarianism may make it difficult to ever create a strong party or to recruit enough members to maintain it.

A third possibility, and if the status quo changes anytime soon, perhaps most likely, may actually be the formation of a third and a fourth party. The four party system would require a near simultaneous break in both parties. It has to occur at the same time because if one party cracks before the other, the remaining whole party will come together as they salivate over an electoral feast. The conditions are certainly ripe for this, as we are in a near perfect storm of frustrations in both parties. The Kos Progressives are trying to exert their new found strength over the Democratic party, and Conservatives are trying with much frustration to steer the Republican ship back onto a conservative heading. If this would occur, it would create strong ideological parties on both the right and the left, and leave less ideological Republican and Democratic parties in place that are more concerned with political expediencies. This double split is still highly unlikely, though, and if it occurred it could conceivably have serious unintended consequences for both Progressives and Conservatives. Minus their core ideologies, the remaining Democratic and Republican parties could easily ally with one another or merge, creating a three party system where one majority party is everything that Conservatives and Progressives hate.

This post is, without a doubt, a reasoned guess. Given that, I’d like to hear from a lot of people in the comments as to what you think both of the third party possibilities, and also on my thoughts from this post.

GPL Podcast

Download the latest GPL Podcast! Do it now! Why? Because I'm a guest this week, along with Owen and the GPL's gracious hosts, Aaron and Jenna. I'm the quiet, good looking one in the podcast.

Thank you to Jenna and Aaron for allowing me on the podcast, and I promise to hog the microphone next time.

A barrier to assimilation in modern immigration

Is it possible to assimilate immigrants who perhaps have no interest in assimilating?

Mexicans are not your typical immigrants, it seems.

"We're not here for the American Dream,'' Gonzalez said. "We're here to survive.''

Read the rest of the column for the background on that quote from Jose Gonzalez, a former illegal immigrant and now U.S. citizen. The bigger point here is that the assimilation of Mexican immigrants, particularly illegal immigrants, may not be as easy as assimilating previous immigrant groups in this country. There is first the proximity to home issue, but more importantly there is the mindset Gonzalez imparts. Previous generations of immigrants came here for the American Dream, to become Americans. They could be assimilated over a generation or two because they wanted to assimilate. It is much more difficult to assimilate those who are unwilling to do so.

A peak inside Hastert's mind

Denny Hastert's recent blow up over the warrant served to search William Jefferson's and his subsequent complaints about the separation of powers has been mind numbingly stupid on Hastert's part. Again in Blankley's column today, we get a little peak what might have been behind Hastert's actions:

It is hard to believe that the speaker's unlikely outburst was entirely motivated by the incident in question. Rather -- though the speaker may not yet recognize the fuller source of his passion -- it may be simply the last straw.

The previous hundred bales of straw may well have been the White House's unseemly firing of Hastert's good friend CIA Director Porter Goss -- another event that occurred without the White House having the courtesy and common sense to previously inform the speaker.

Other bales of straw may include the Dubai Port deal, the president's egregious immigration initiative and last year's failed Social Security initiative (which was hotly, if privately, opposed on political grounds by Hastert's House).

It has been a hard year for House Republican/ White House relations. And it will get worse if the leaders of both institutions don't get a grip.

That says it all. It doesn't excuse Hastert's foolishness on this, but at least it helps explain where all of this might be coming from.

Paragraph of the month

In a piece on the Haster-Jefferson mess, Tony Blankley has the paragraph of the month, if not the year:

The attorney general (indeed anyone who has been in town an hour and a half) should know better than to needlessly ruffle the feathers of such a large and ungainly bird as Congress. While it cannot gain flight, its sheer wing flapping can cause violently turbulent air across the continent. (italics mine)

Heh.

On good galactic empires, ewoks, and evolution

Over at Right Wing News last year, there was a discussion about whether The Empire from Star Wars fame should be worthy of a little more respect (HT-The Office of Homeland Security). It is an interesting thought, but I can't contribute to the conversation because I never followed Star Wars close enough to intelligently enter the debate. When it comes to Lucas's six films, the only mystery that I'm qualified to mull over is whether or not this guy is the genetic ancestor of these guys.

A glimpse into future: Pro-Iran, anti-U.S. rhetoric

Reuters reports:

A secret U.S. plan to attack Chinese nuclear weapons sites more than four decades ago prompted Mao Zedong to temporarily abandon efforts to improve living standards, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

Hmm. Interesting article and interesting timing from Xinhua. Something tells me that we're about to see some new anti-U.S. rhetoric as it pertains to Iran's nuclear program. Expect to see a lot of people blaming our efforts to forestall a nuclear Iran for piss poor living conditions in Iran. Expect a lot of people to ignore the fact that responsibility for poor living conditions still rests squarely with the Iranian leadership (and previously, with Mao's).

Living in an irrational age

Jenna has a good example of the irrational world we live in today. In that example, computers are accused of racism. Somewhere along the line, the world seems to have discarded a wonderful intellectual tool called logic.

Well, at least it's positive

I guess I'm happy. The New York Times has written a very positive story about the sailors that dock at New York City:

The city they are visiting is different from the city New Yorkers live in, even different from the city as experienced by other tourists. But it is also nothing like the one experienced by the untold thousands of sailors in untold thousands of ships who have come before them over the decades.

Once it was strip clubs and bars and tattoo parlors and girls. And while there still may be some of that, sailors who sauntered around Midtown on Memorial Day gave some surprising answers when asked how they experience New York City in the two or three short days they are here.

They mentioned frozen cappuccinos, and Off Broadway, and the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, and architecture — specifically, terra cotta facades.

In the past, I'm sure that there have been sailors who have indulged themselves in some of the finer aspects of New York City-even in the seedy days. That may even be more the case today with the increased access most people have to "culture." But I've known many a soldier, and the salty side is still there. If the Times needs to envision all sailors as metrosexuals, good for them. It's nice to see this side of the military, even if I know that there is still plenty of trouble being found by the young and single sailors.

After the storm

We had unexpected severe thunderstorms late last week. As they blew in, they were not very picturesque, but the skies were quite interesting as they departed at sunset.

View from the south-southwest

View from the west

Band of Brothers

I set out to soak myself in war movies this weekend. I've done alright on that, watching several of The Duke's war movies and also The Great Escape. I'm surprised at how much the History Channel's Band of Brothers marathon is cutting into my movie watching. I loved the show when it was first on HBO, and I've wanted the boxed set of DVD's since it came out, but I had forgotten how good it was. I can barely tear myself away from it.

Rememberance

Memorial Day is a day for rememberance, despite current culture treating it as the kick off to summer. In fact, start thinking back on those who gave their lives in service of the United States today by reading about Medal of Honor recipients in your state (Wisconsinites can go here).

Epiglottisotomy

Defintion: Removal of the epiglottis.

Reason for this post: I want to be the number one search result for epiglottisotomy. Someone, somewhere, will eventually call into work sick and offer the epiglottisotomy as an excuse.

The problem with premarital sex?

Grandma might get herpes:

Doctors said sexually transmitted diseases among senior citizens are running rampant at a popular Central Florida retirement community, according to a Local 6 News report.

A gynecologist at The Villages community near Orlando, Fla., said she treats more cases of herpes and the human papilloma virus in the retirement community than she did in the city of Miami.

Doctors blame it on Viagra and the fact that no one needs to worry about pregnancy. I say it is obviously the fault of abstinence education and Christian conservatives trying to keep grandpa and grandma ignorant of sex.

I also have this disturbing tune running through my head:
Grandma caught gonorrhea from Bob Reindeer
In our extra bedroom, Christmas Eve...

Illumination on the Bush Administration illegal immigration mindset

Tony Snow:

The White House on Friday said a Senate bill that would grant legal status to illegal immigrants is analogous to a traffic law that allows a speeder to pay a fine and continue driving.

"If you had a traffic ticket and you paid it, you're not forever a speeder, are you?" White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said in response to questions from The Examiner.

"So the fact is, you have paid your debt to society," he added. "And we have come up with a way to make sure that the debt to society gets paid. Then you move forward."

Every word on illegal immigration that comes from the Bush Administration should be viewed through the prism of those words. This immigration bill is not going to be satisfactory to conservatives, period. The Senate is tone deaf, our President is deeply invested in the Tex-Mex culture and refuses to see that it does not easily extend to the entire nation, and the House is going to be forced to compromise some important issues in their bill. We'll be revisiting this issue again soon-say in 10 years.

Indonesia, a nice place to visit but...

...I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't want to live there. In a story that will fly under the radar of most Americans because of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, Indonesia was hit with an earthquake that has killed an estimated 3,000. Indonesia is a densely populated country that sadly is becoming expert at recovery missions.

Al Gore, Einstein incarnate

With the media fawning over Al Gore this week and his scientific credentials on global warming, I just thought I'd point out a paragraph from an article on his college experience in the March 19, 2000 Washington Post:

For all of Gore's later fascination with science and technology, he often struggled academically in those subjects. The political champion of the natural world received that sophomore D in Natural Sciences 6 (Man's Place in Nature) and then got a C-plus in Natural Sciences 118 his senior year. The self-proclaimed inventor of the Internet avoided all courses in mathematics and logic throughout college, despite his outstanding score on the math portion of the SAT. As was the case with many of his classmates, his high school math grades had dropped from A's to C's as he advanced from trigonometry to calculus in his senior year.

That isn't to say that Al Gore is dead wrong about global warming. I'm just saying that everyone should carefully consider who their source is.

The Congressional Jesters

Sigh. I've been watching the William Jefferson, Dennis Hastert hulabaloo, and I don't have the words for the stupidity. I think Andy McCarthy probably has the best take on it:

You may have thought the Republican congressional leadership had run out of feet to shoot themselves in in their mind-boggling quest to place themselves, in the public mind, squarely on the side of coddling corruption rather than ridding themselves of a disgraced member. Nope.

Maybe it is just time to throw every incumbent bum out of Washington, regardless of party, with a small handful of exceptions. The current Congress is making me more and more sympathetic to term limits all of the time.