The Bird Flu is Falling! The Bird Flu is Falling!

Nice to see that Glenn Reynolds is still paranoid about the bird flu. Logical advice, but sharing it on his stage seems awfully alarmist.

Programming Note

On election night next Tuesday, I will not be live blogging. I will be drinking, and drinking heavily. Carry on.

The Brewers Lost to the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies

I can live with that at this point in the franchise's progression.

Fisking A Reuters Reporter

I haven't been big on fisking (point by point rebuttals) over the year, but this Reuters reporter who has spent more time in Germany than the U.S. recently has my dander up, so here I go.

There may be no better place in the world to witness the shift in sentiment toward the United States than Berlin.

It was hard to imagine a more pro-American city when I first moved here in 1993, yet the wind has changed and the love affair is over.

America was at its peak in Europe in 1993. The Wall had fallen, but nobody was sure that communism and the USSR were completely dead yet. Yeah, I can imagine it was hard to find a more pro-American place at that point. We'd already saved it, but the lingering threat still hovered, and Europe was not yet ascendant. Europe, specifically Germany, and more specifically West Berlin, still felt vulnerable.

The infatuation with all things American has all but disappeared.

It was bound to disappear. For the entirety of the Cold War, Western Europe was essentially a ward of the United States. They were independent, yet they were entirely dependent upon the United State's military guarantee of their sovereignty. As Europe rose as an international competitor of the United States, it was natural that any infatuation that might have been would fade away. It is ignorant to think otherwise.

Perhaps it will change after the November 4 U.S. presidential election -- even though things will never be the same no matter who wins.

As in other countries, America's image has suffered. A June PEW survey found 31 percent of Germans had a favorable view of the United States, down from 78 percent in 2000.

Europe had yet to really feel its oats in 2000. I don't care who was President of the United States the last 8 years, that number was destined to plunge as the Euro, and as a result, the European Union, strengthened. And don't think that the Obamessiah is going to change that significantly unless Russian tanks begin to roll across the European plains.

Being an American in Berlin was once special. Not any more.

A city saved and protected by the Americans during the Cold War, Berlin was an island of overwhelming admiration for America, its presidents and above all the American way of life -- at least its altruistic, kind-hearted, justice-seeking side.

America was once special in Berlin because Berlin's very freedom was entirely dependent on the United States. It isn't all that uncommon for the dependent to chafe against those they are dependent upon as they become more able to fend for themselves. See teenagers.

Avenues were named after U.S. generals, schools after U.S. leaders and squares named after U.S. cities. American disc jockeys speaking mangled German were radio stars.

The U.S. ambassador's Fourth of July gathering was once the most coveted ticket on the garden party calendar. Not any more.

"Ways" and "Passes" were once named after triumphant Packers in Green Bay, Wisconsin. But as time moved on, so did the public.

Berlin mayors spoke American-accented English and everyone from children to the elderly had a twinkle in their eye when recalling the 1940s Berlin airlift, Checkpoint Charlie tank standoffs or John F. Kennedy's 1963 speech in the city proclaiming "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a Berliner").

It isn't hard to be a big fan of the people that are currently pulling your fat out of the fire. That fandom is not destined to last when your own team has it's own strength, tough.

Probably the most moving assignment of my 18 years as a correspondent abroad was in 1994, when a district that hosted 6,000 U.S. soldiers who protected them from 90,000 Soviet forces stationed outside the Berlin Wall held a parade for the departing GIs.

Steglitz is a low-rise district with a small-town feel, and I had expected perhaps a few thousand to interrupt their Saturday shopping for a quick wave goodbye -- or good riddance.

Instead, more than 250,000 packed the streets on that sunny summer morning. As the soldiers marched, the Berliners cheered, and cheered, and cheered. They threw tons of confetti from windows and gave their departing heroes a thunderous send-off.

The reporter in question should not confuse a "thank you" with a "we love you so much that we want you to be here forever." Sometimes thank yous are synonymous with "good bye."

I was born 11 years after the airlift ended in 1949, was toddler in 1963 when Kennedy came, never served in the army and, frankly, never learned in school about the U.S. role in Berlin.

Obviously.

Even in a big city with its stressed and grumpy residents, Berliners always seemed eager to help when I opened my mouth and American-accented German came out.

While I have no doubt that Mr. Kirschbaum is thoroughly Deutsch-ified, I don't think, after all this time, he understands the long love-loathe relationship that Germans have for the United States.

At first, I wondered why I kept running into so many retired GIs in Berlin who stayed. There are thousands of teachers, mechanics, cooks, DJs, bakers, and many in other professions.

It did not take long to figure out why. And I stayed too, one of almost 13,000 Americans who live permanently in the city.

When I first arrived in 1982 as a student, I had the naive goal of losing my American accent. I feared a "foreign accent" would bring disadvantages -- as it might in the United States.

Fortunately, my language abilities are limited and the bad accent actually opened many doors. Years after I married a Berliner, my wife admitted the only thing she remembered about our first meeting was my accent.

I'm not really seeing the point of these paragraphs. Any time you bring new people into a new area, a certain number of them will fall in love with their new home. I did with an area that I still think is inferior to my hometown. Some people even fall in love with Detroit. The fact that a number of Americans fell in love with Berlin (and Berliners) means nothing.

I used to hitch-hike across Germany when I was a student and often felt a surprising warmth toward the United States. Strangers wanted to buy me lunch; for many it was a personal recompense for a piece of chocolate a GI had given them decades earlier.

During the 1990s pro-American sentiment was still high.

They appreciated George Bush's support for reunification in 1990 that overcame British and French reticence. And Bill Clinton got rock star treatment every time he came here.

Even in the wake of September 11 attacks, Berlin's support for the United States was special. More than 200,000 attended a pro-America rally in Berlin on September 14, 2001 to hear German President Johannes Rau say:

"No one knows better than the people here in Berlin what America has done for freedom and democracy in Germany. So, we say to all Americans from Berlin: America does not stand alone."

The author mistakes the transition from dependent to competitor for some nefarious shift of opinion from pro-'good America' to con-'competitor America'.

It was, of course, the dispute over the invasion of Iraq.

Before that, U.S. presidents had always been welcomed in Berlin. However, in May 2002 George W. Bush needed 10,000 German police to shield him from 10,000 anti-war protesters.

While Iraq played a role, Europe, Germany included, began a reflexive resistance against the U.S. this decade because it was no longer fully reliant upon the United States for its security because there really wasn't much in the way of threats. Instead of defender-defended, the relationship became that of more adversarial competitors.

It was difficult to believe that a U.S. president seemed to be avoiding the city that owed its very survival to America. There was a brief ray of hope a month later when Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama gave a speech in Berlin -- and 200,000 people showed up.

The response to Obama was not to Barack Obama. It was Europe's response against America. While I hold no doubt that Obama's yellow bellied ways will appeal to Europeans, he'll never be Jack Kennedy. And because of that, any hope that the author has of Obama reinvigorating the Cold War era relationship is grossly misplaced.

In case things don't change after November 4, perhaps it's time to try finally to get rid of the American accent.

Better get working on that, bud, because the days of the U.S. acting as benevolent host while Europe acted as the symbiotic parasite are long gone.

A Quick Question

If the half-Caucasian Barack Obama loses next week, am I, as a 3/4 Caucasian, supposed to go into a rage over the fact that my fellow mixed racial American was denied the presidency? Or am I an oppressor simply because that extra 25% of white genetics left my skin significantly paler than his? Can someone please tell me what makes us one race or another anymore, because I'm a little lost.

Where are the Obama Press Conferences?

Jay Leno brought up an excellent point in an interview with the raging lefty David Gregory tonight. He asked Gregory why it was that Obama had not held a press conference in a month and a half. They press has been obsessed with VP candidate Palin's accessibility to the press, but only Jay Leno, an obviously left-leaning guy, has bothered to ask why presidential candidate Obama is dodging direct press accessibility. Given how favorable the press has been to him, one has to wonder why he is restricting their access.

What does this mean, Senator Obama?

I encourage everyone to ask that of Senator Obama, multiple times if necessary, in the next 5 days. I'd like an answer to this prior to election day.

"There's a lot of change going on outside of the court. The judges have to essentially take judicial notice up, I mean you've got WW II, the doctrines of Nazism that we are fighting against that started looking uncomfortably similar to what's going on back here at home."

Details, Senator. Quickly, please.

Elizabeth Edwards: You Make Stupid Decisions

Elizabeth Edwards thinks you are too stupid to make your own decisions:

However, Edwards’ critique of Obama’s plan doesn’t mean that she’s saving any love for McCain’s health care proposals. Edwards – who has battled breast cancer since 2004 – said McCain’s plan fails in all important areas by leaving the decision-making process up to individuals, who can frequently “make stupid economics decisions.”

She isn't the only one. It is a hallmark of the left to think that the government makes smarter choices than you do. And by giving Democrats a historic victory with your vote next week, you'll be agreeing with them that you are too dumb to make choices for your own life (but somehow not too dumb to make a critical choice for the impending life of others).

Bud Selig Needs to Punch Back

Baseball has been the media's chew toy for longer than Bud Selig has been commissioner. Just the same, they seem to reserve a special, perverse pleasure in ripping any and every decision that he makes. Often, the man is in a no win situation. Take the World Series last night. The decision had already been made that no game would be rain shortened. It was exactly the right decision. As a result, Game 5 was suspended and would have been suspended no matter the score. Bud Selig cannot control the weather, and unbelievably, for the first time in World Series history, a game was threatened by weather after it already started. And the sports media jumped on the suspension. But had the game been called and a decision enforced with the Phillies up 2-1, the media would have compared it to the All Star game in Milwaukee.

Bud needs to start standing up to the sports media. Cut off access to idiots. Throw his weight around the way NFL and NBA commissioners do. Selig has helped enable this caustic sports media, and they know that there are no repercussions for continually lambasting baseball. While I think Bud Selig has been an excellent commissioner, he is notoriously poor at managing the press. While playing hard ball with them now will not help his cause, it will make the next commissioner and baseball in general stronger.

And just as a side note, suspended, tied games are not without precedent in baseball history. In fact, in 1984 during the regular season, a game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago White Sox was suspended in the 17th inning because of a curfew. The game was picked up the next day, with the White Sox winning in the 25th.

Dean Barnett, 1967-2008

I first started reading Dean Barnett via Hugh Hewitt. It wasn't long before I looked more forward to Barnett's posts than even Hewitt's. He was an intelligent, principled, conservative read, and the right is reduced by his loss. I never had the chance to meet him, but my condolences to his family and loved ones. He will be missed.

Yet Another Observation on the 2008 Election

In sales, you should always ask for the sale. Likewise, in politics you should always ask for someone's vote. This year, I've been asked for my vote for Obama so often that it is actually starting to piss me off. I haven't been asked to vote for McCain once. Now there could be any number of reasons for this. For example, I live in territory the McCain camp may have already conceded. Additionally, it isn't like I'm unknown to the local Republican party, so perhaps they have just moved past me, better using their resources on individuals they are less certain about. Still, it is disappointing, and I hope the McCain campaign is doing a better job of asking for voters' votes elsewhere.

Where Do We Go Now

As I examine this election, I've decided that there will be one of two results:

1. There is a Dewey Defeats Truman moment. In other words, my few colleagues who target their fire at the polls are right, and McCain pulls out a most unlikely victory. And I am humbled as a commentator.

2. Obama wins with some varying but convincing margin.

I am of the opinion that #2 is most likely at this point. And if that does occur, we are at a 1964 moment. If we are lucky, this bottoming out will trampoline the right to new heights. Unfortunately, I fear that we are not in a 1964 moment when it comes to ideas. The right is not transcendent right now. Our ideas are in disarray, not at the verge of ascendancy. There are few natural leaders of any movement. There is nothing cementing the conservative-libertarian-evangelical alliance. The right is facing a reckoning. It is up to leaders at all levels to make sure that conservative/libertarian values come out the other side of this strong.

Reason has left the arena

John McCain's only hope this election was a strong, reasoned public. Then he began co-opting Obama rhetoric. In doing so, he ceded reason, and as a result, reason has left the arena. Emotion and rhetoric will rule this election, and that is going to leave John McCain wondering what could have been. If you think he is bitter now, imagine how bitter he'll be after Jimmy Carter the Second (history will determine if Obama is Jimmy Carter the Lessor, and may God help us if he is).

At What Point Does the SUV Become Cool Again?

Apparently, that point is when gas hits $2.50.

Face it, as good as it is to go green by buying a hybrid or gas-saving small car, there are just some things those cars can't do. Plus, because of their popularity, small car and hybrid buyers are now paying an extra premium for the honor of driving a little econobox that may not suit their needs. Before you fork over a lot of green to go green, check out five reasons why buying a large truck or SUV may still make sense.

All five are great reasons-and politically incorrect one month ago. If the economy continues to tank and oil prices follow, I project articles singing the praises of 1970's muscle cars by January.

Observations on Trick or Treating 2008

We have completed our annual exercise in keeping hoodlums off the street by giving all kids candy. I have a few observations from this year's event, and the observations come with advice for parents.

1. I had many kids tell me the pieces of candy they wanted from my bowl. Parents, that's rude of your kids, and I'm likely to deny their request and give them the crappiest pieces I have. If they ask with a 'please', I may be of a different mind.

2. I have a rule. If you are old enough to dress slutty, you are too old to trick or treat. If you are young enough to trick or treat, you are too young to dress slutty. In previous years, the offenders were older girls who were well past their trick or treating years. This year, it was the reverse. Don't let your little girls dress like that, moms and dads. There are a lot of sick SOBs out there, and while you may be allowing your little one their wants, you aren't protecting them at all.

3. Don't send your 4 year old to my door with two bags because you have a six month old in the stroller. I know that six month old won't be eating candy.

4. If your child has a cumbersome mask or is still working on his or her fine motor skills, don't send them up the stairs to my porch without any help. If they fall, I'll feel bad, but I'll fight your lawsuit with much ferocity because you were too stupid to know your kid needed help.

5. Don't walk the kids down the street with a beer in your hand. I have enough respect for your kids not to drink on a football Sunday, so you need to have enough respect for them not to get a snootful while taking them out. (Exception: Houses that offer parents a quick drink. Everything in moderation).

6. Do not drive your kids house to house in a dense residential area. They can make the walk just fine, and given the volume of candy that will be given them, they probably should. And yes, your little prince or princess can handle wind and cold. The only exception to this rule that I can think of came in the very first year I handled the candy doling duties. That year, we got over 20 inches of snow between October 31 and November 1.

7. If you are two houses down and I shut off my light, you have my apologies, but I've run out of candy. Don't send your kids up to the door, please.

The Right is a Mess

What a cluster. The Presidential and VP candidate are diverging. Fiscal, social, national security, and Reagan conservatives, along with Libertarians, are barely tolerating each other. Some are jumping ship for what they perceive to be the 'stronger horse'. Most conservatives can barely stomach the Republican label. A standard bearer of conservatism is awash in controversy created by its founder's son endorsing the socialist-liberal candidate for the presidency. We are a long way from the conservative ascendancy most of us foresaw 4 years ago.

No More Brett

But Days of Our Brett may never end:

Butler also said there are “other stories that are going to come out” about Favre.

“This is just the beginning,” (LeRoy) Butler said. “This is only the smallest one.”

Butler did not elaborate.

If there is a cascade of Brett Favre scandals, Wisconsinites may end up just as jaded as New Yorkers.

Two Years

I realize that I have been an electoral pessimist lately, and because of that I've decided to pocket a post I'd handwritten a couple of days ago. Instead, if the worst comes to pass on election day, I will re-write it with a more positive outlook. All I will say right now is this: My fellow conservatives, if this election gets ugly, we will have to fight like starving, wounded, cornered badgers for two years just to survive. But at the 2010 midterms, the momentum will swing back our way.

If this presidential thing doesn't work...

...Barack Obama may just have a place in the WWE as The Rock's replacement:

On Brett the Jet

The big news around Packerland is that Brett Favre spent an hour and a half discussing the Packer offense with the Lions prior to their game earlier this season. This brings two thoughts to mind.

1. What Brett did was not against NFL rules. That does not clear him, though. Many of us out here in fan land have jobs that are subject to confidentiality agreements and non-competes. If I were to do something analogous to what Brett did (and I have no doubt he did it), it would cost me in damages and legal fees. Brett should be grateful he doesn't work here in the real world, because that sort of activity is not taken as lightly as it is in the NFL.

2. Note to current GMs and future GMs: Never hire Brett as a coach. If that's the best he could do scouting his own old offense for the Lions, then he'd be a disaster as an actual coach.