Wisconsin promotes winter camping

I enjoy camping with my wife and friends, but I don't think Governor Jesus Christ could convince me to camp during a Wisconsin winter, even if my eternal salvation depended upon it:

James Bishop, DNR public affairs manager and avid winter camper, said “Winter camping, whether in a campground or remote wilderness at minus 20 below zero or 30 degrees above, can be fun, but only with the right preparation and gear.”

I have a sleeping bag rated to 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and you know what? It is far more pleasant when slept in at 40 degrees than 0. I admire the state's efforts, but I'll take mosquitoes over freezing my rocks off any day.

Quote of the election

From Power Line:

In the business world, Mitt Romney is as successful as anyone can be. No one attains his level of achievement without enormous talents and an oversized ego. Yet, compared to John McCain, Romney is modest and self-effacing. As a businessman among politicians, he is a boy among men.

In my opinion, in order to be a successful pro athlete, you need the ego of a god. In order to be a successful businessman, you need the ego and the intelligence of a god. In order to be a successful politician, you need to think you are God. McCain clearly does have that mindset.

On the Presidential Election

Right now, I and probably 90% of my 7 regular readers are obsessing over the primaries. We represent the political geeks that are out there. We try to make the primaries into this life or death battle, and in a certain sense it is. But at the same time, a lot of people who will vote in the general election in November aren't even paying attention yet. Why do so many in this country allow others to set the field for them? Or should I be thankful that those who don't care enough to follow along allow others to make their choices for them?

Snow tracks thieves

Go to WQOW for the story, but since I'm pretty sure that the Eau Claire area TV station doesn't archive stories for a long period of time, I'm going to reproduce the mugshot here, because it is really my favorite part of the story:













You should have run farther away, dude.

The Lovely Mrs. Jib Listens to Me On The Radio

My wife listened to my first appearance on the radio. She's happy she can still show her face in public. She had three reactions:

-She thinks my new catch phrase should be "Yep, yep, yep," which I uttered twice early on when I was particularly nervous. But before she told me that, she laughed. Hard.

-She caught the fact that I accidentally pitted social conservatives against social conservatives, which makes absolutely no sense.

-When host Jane Hampden quoted my "Gas guzzlin'" catch phrase above and then said that I was much more low key in studio, she translated "low key" to "boring."

The unquestioning support, folks. That's why I married her.

Illumination on the State of the Republican Party

If you want to get a feel for why McCain's momentum is rolling in the Republican party, a good place to look might be the comment section of this Ann Althouse post. It'll give you a chance to read the mindset of a few Republicans who have chosen to support McCain. It is a small sample so it is hardly a scientific representation, but I think they illuminate why McCain's head of steam is building. To summarize, I'd say part of it is a lack of understanding of why people oppose a number of McCain's past initiatives (more than just immigration). Part of it is not being all that bothered by some of those things. Another part would be perceived electability. Throw in a healthy dose of "lesser of two evils," sprinkle in a touch of backlash against perceived conservative ideologues, and you have McMentum.

If this McCain surge has done one thing for me, it is that I've begun to ponder how big a part of the Republican party conservatism really has been the last twenty years. It seems that the old Republican party has been there all along, but it just hitched its caboose to the heady Reagan conservatism that was pulling the party. Now that that engine has lost a little steam, it is starting to reassert itself. Unfortunately, that old Republican party has already amply proven itself to be a loser, particularly when it came to congressional politics.

There will be no McCain/Lieberman

...so we've got that going for us. As much as McCain loves thumbing conservatives in the eye, though, I'm still cringing at who he would choose.

Hear My Silky Voice On the Airwaves

Of course, I'm being dry and wry with the headline, but you can hear me on the radio tomorrow in the Milwaukee area. I did a short segment for WUWM's Wisconsin Bloggers series on their 10 am to 11 am show Lake Effect. It will also be available on their website. It was probably okay for my first time on the radio, but I wish I had been a touch more polished. I could have been more concise in some places and expanded my thoughts in others. The good news is that I wasn't nearly as nervous as I was when I did Aaron & Jenna's podcast in '06. The bad news is, unlike the podcast, there are no peanut butter jokes.

Random Presidential Politics Thoughts

-Do you ever get the feeling that the old Rockefeller Republicans snuck a giant, hollow wooden horse into the modern Republican party?

-I think we can all safely look back and say that Rudy Giuliani employed perhaps the dumbest strategy in recent presidential campaign history. Too bad for him there seemed to be a certain logic to it at one point.

-Maybe if Hillary sexually harassed and/or assaulted a few men, she too could be as popular as her husband used to be.

-If either nomination isn't settled by the time the primaries wrap up, I'd bet we still won't see the classic brokered convention. I'm sure deals would be struck long before a convention.

-If we do see a classic brokered convention, this is going to be one of the shortest and most brutal Republican-Democrat presidential slug fests we've ever seen. Can you imagine the hay makers that'll be thrown if one party can't decide on their candidate until the end of summer, just two plus months before the general election?

The Terror of the Trees

It is an extremely windy night here in southern Wisconsin, and I absolutely hate nights like this. My house is bordered by a number of trees. Most of the time, I love my trees, but I get antsy when severe thunderstorms and extremely windy day/nights come along. The last thing I want is one of those trees to come down on my house or a neighbors' house. So about ten minutes ago when I heard the crack and crash during a wind gust, I jumped nearly as high out of my recliner as the cat did, and she's a leaper. It wasn't my house, so I did a quick perimeter check to make sure it wasn't one of my trees. Thankfully it wasn't, but by the sounds of it, somebody in the neighborhood just had their nice warm night of sleep ruined. Trees are dirty bastards that way. They just give, give, give, but the day that they decide to take, you're screwed.

The Return of Leinie's Northwoods

I am indescribably happy right now:

A legendary cold one returns with a timely dose of Northwoods flavor to lure taste buds out of hibernation. Specialty craft beer fans are in for a nice surprise with the return of Leinenkugel's Northwoods Lager this February. The Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company will reintroduce Northwoods Lager to Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and select distributors in Michigan and Illinois beginning February 4th for a limited time. After a two-year hiatus, the award-winning brew will re-join the Leinenkugel's family of premium craft brews on retailer shelves.

The only thing that could make me happier is if they brought it back under its original black and gold label of Leinie's Limited. I've been considering starting a "beer fridge" and this just may be my inspiration to do so.

Gore as king maker?

I am a full throated critic of most of the idiots at the Huffington Post, but even I think that this scenario could conceivably come to pass:

Enter Al Gore. If he has a chance to make an influential endorsement, possibly even to nudge Obama to victory, does he have the willpower to refrain? I don't see how. It would be such sweet balance to his botched endorsement of Howard Dean in '04. Like Ted Kennedy, Gore would become a huge fish in the comparatively small(er) pond of Obama's powerful backers. He would enter 2009 with the full power of an historic new presidency at his back. Imagine what could be done with that power. Gore as climate envoy? Climate czar? Climate secretary?

In that event, Gore would have achieved a balance between the conflicting demands of his conscience. He would have the freedom to be a focused advocate and change public opinion, alongside the power of government to affect real change. Best of all, he could get there without the inanities and indignities of a political campaign.

If the Democratic primary reaches the point where Gore could become kingmaker, I suspect the temptation will be irresistible.

I agree, but I think that the author of this post is a little too focused on Obama. Al Gore is a politician first, and I have no doubt that in a close race, he'd throw his weight behind whichever candidate promised him more for his support, and in such a scenario you should never underestimated the Clintons.

Ethanol and E. Coli

Ethanol production might be contributing to the increased number of beef recalls because of E. coli:

Studies from two universities show evidence that feeding cattle a byproduct of ethanol production known as distillers grains can increase their levels of a deadly form of E. coli bacteria.

In direct response to the findings, the U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists recently put 300 cattle on a diet of distillers grains and plans to test the cows regularly for the bacteria. Results of the test won't be known until later this year.

If the studies do show a link between distillers grains and E. coli, it is going to prove problematic for both industries.

Elizabeth Kucinich drops out of 2008 First Lady race

Okay, now this is a funny bumper sticker. (Credit Fark commenter):

What the hell is up with HuffPo bloggers?

From a Huffpo post by Terri Cheney:

The truth is, Britney's done more to raise awareness of bipolar disorder than all the efforts of doctors, patients and drug companies combined. Whether or not she actually turns out to be one of us, I'm grateful for what she's accomplished. Everybody knows what bipolar is now. (Emphasis mine)

That's sick. People knew what bipolar was before. Don't be grateful for what Brit has accomplished-she's in all likelihood very sick. She's not accomplishing anything but destroying her life and making life more difficult for her children. Instead of wasting your time being grateful for Britney's mental illness, how about being concerned for her well being, as well as that of her children?

Heath Ledger died for Linda Keenan

Vapid. Absolutely vapid.

Thanks for the ad idea, HuffPo!

If you are Barack Obama, who needs enemies when your purported friends are giving the enemy ad ideas for the general election?

Random Thought, Obama-Reagan Edition

A lot of conservatives, myself included, took a certain amount of pleasure over the internecine warfare that broke out in the Democratic presidential race after Barack Obama praised Ronald Reagan. Enjoy it now, my fellow conservatives, because it will only be a matter of time before a Republican pays the same reverence to Bill Clinton. Learn from the Democrats' experience and tuck it away, because you'll need it in 4, 8, or 12 years. I guarantee it.

Duncan Hunter endorses...(drum roll, please)

...Mike Huckabee?! (cue the dying duck on the trumpet)

California Rep. Duncan Hunter, a former presidential candidate, announced Wednesday he is endorsing Mike Huckabee’s White House bid.

“I got to know Governor Huckabee well on the campaign trail,” Huckabee said in a statement. “Of the remaining candidates I feel that he is strongly committed to strengthening national defense, constructing the border fence and meeting the challenge of China’s emergence as a military superpower that is taking large portions of America’s industrial base.

“Along with these issues of national security, border enforcement and protecting the U.S. industrial base, I see another quality of Mike Huckabee’s candidacy that compels my endorsement,” he added. “Mike Huckabee is a man of outstanding character and integrity. I saw that character over the last year of campaigning and was greatly impressed. The other Republican candidates have many strengths and I wish them all well.”

2008 is shaping up to be one bizarro year in Republican politics. The respect I had for Hunter and his doomed campaign is pretty much in shambles right now. In practice, Hunter's endorsement will deliver between 8 to 12 total new votes to the Huckabee campaign, so what makes this so unusual is the odd fit between the two. Unless Hunter expounds on this, one has to assume he's been offered a cabinet position in a Huckabee presidency.

Additional
Former Hunter campaign consultant John Hawkins also endorses Huckabee. Sort of, in a very weak and unenthusiastic way.

Sell your AT&T stock

Why? Well, because AT&T is looking at potentially opening themselves up to a world of liability.

AT&T Inc. is still evaluating whether to examine traffic on its Internet lines to stop illegal sharing of copyright material, its chief executive said Wednesday.

CEO Randall Stephenson told a conference at the World Economic Forum that the company is looking at monitoring peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, one of the largest drivers of online traffic but also a common way to illegally exchange copyright files.

Here's why this will be troublesome for them:

They represent a break with the current practice of U.S. Internet service providers, who are shielded by law from liability if their subscribers trade copyright files like movies.

Once AT&T starts fiddling around with the content on their networks, they stand to lose that protection from liability. So not only would AT&T be opening itself up to a bevy of lawsuits, it would also face the likelihood of losing a lot of customers who don't like the idea of their ISP spying on their web traffic. For the life of me, I cannot understand why AT&T would want to open that Pandora's Box. Ostensibly, such a policy would reduce congestion on their networks, but their are much better ways to deal with that than this.