A parting of the clouds

Danger is much improving. Modern antibiotics are wonderful things- some scant few years ago, we probably would have been a tick in the column marked Deadly Fever, and today we are a few short, scary days from a healthy, thriving newborn. Thank you, anyone who offered prayers and thoughts on his behalf. They aided greatly, I have no doubt.

Blog content may return to its previous, ridiculously unpredictable schedule. Lets face it, I aint gonna get famous blogging like this.

Still raining...

Our little man is still under the weather, but the clouds are lightening. If anyone out there is planning on sacrificing a chicken or something on his behalf (or eating one, or anything, really) theres still time. His antibiotics are working well, and now its just a matter of time until we get Danger home again.

Thanks, anyone out there praying and pulling for him. Danger appreciates it.

Under the Weather

Blog content often dries up around here- this time I have a good reason. My Lovely Wife and I welcomed our happy baby boy (Codename: Danger) to the world the day before Halloween. Well, he's back in the hospital again. A bladder infection, at two weeks of age, is a serious thing.

So Danger is a bit under the weather. We will be spending the next week in and out if the NICU.

I would never ask this for myself, but seeing as this is my kid- if anyone has an extra prayer, or a positive vibe, or a sacrifice to Gaia; whatever your thing is, we're not picky. Just send them his way. He's doing well in antibiotics, but a little extra help never hurt anyone.

Thanks, from us and from Danger.

Just for the record

Sometimes they get it right. Police shoot and injure Oregon man.

They were there inside 5 minutes, tased him, then fired 2 shots. He was punching a woman in the face, stabbed his neighbor, and advanced on the officers with a weapon. As much as the cops get dogged on, sometimes its important to remember there are good ones, who do the right things in the right order. Would that their number increases, and the other declines.

Armistice, Thankfulness, and Remembrance

To all of my friends and family in service to the nation, my profound thanks. My young son sleeps in peace because rough men stand in the dark, or in the mud, or in the sand, or ship decks, on his behalf.

To those of you who have passed the fire thus far unscathed- you pledged yourself to accept scars and injury on our part, and I am thankful it has not been required of you.

To those of you who bear those scars- on this day in 1918, the guns fell silent. I hope for you a future that holds healing, as those men looked to the future and no longer saw war, but healing and rest. May you feel the swell of pride, and not the twinge of wounds.

Everyone loves a good Conspiracy Theory

And heres the seeds of one- why are the Presidents picks (Holder, now Petraeus, at CIA) suddenly vacating, or considering doing so?

Hypothesize away!

Whither shall we go from here?

Now that I've got that last rant off of my chest, I have a few observations to make regarding where I will be spending my time and attention moving forward.

I have been at odds with the Republican party for some time now, mostly regarding their social engineering platforms. I grew up in a rural community in a very sparsely populated state, and it may surprise more than a few people that my family traditionally belongs to the Democratic Party. My Grandad was actually the chairman of the local Democratic board for many years, and was fairly active in local and statewide politics. Most of my family still consider themselves Democrats, for a variety of reasons. Many of those reasons involve the ham-fisted social engineering of the Republican party, and the tendency towards the very rich and the megacorporations that goes hand in hand with the party as it is today. While I have many faults with the Democratic Party on the Federal scale, those beliefs do not often coincide with the ground level politics of many of its members.

In the last 50 years, we have seen some pretty major shifts in the focus of the two major parties. Somehow, the 'Peace, Love, and Freedom' Democrats of the 60s and 70s have morphed into the 'Nanny State' Democrats of today. The Republican Party has shifted away from Barry Goldwater and become ever increasingly Puritan- to their detriment.

We saw this play out numerous times in this election cycle. Witness the backlash on Todd Akin for his ill-advised 'Shut that whole thing down' comment, and Richard Mourdock's 'God-Intended Baby' comment. In both these races, an ostensibly viable candidate was brought to a halt by the Republican Party's insistence on Social and Moral Engineering through government power. Other Republicans, such as Minnesota's Michelle Bachmann, faced tough races, for reasons certain to include their support for the Defense of Marriage Act (which I find a travesty on any number of levels). Social and Moral engineering is losing races for the Republican Party. Unfortunately, it is one of the few places where they place the majority of their effort. Ultimately, I expect a wholesale shift away from these morality play politics, which will leave these players high and dry, and probably end in giving away their seats to the opposing party.

To circle back, I think it is important to recall the number of people involved in the Democratic party that are NOT the major Washington DC players. I find it perfectly reasonable to believe there are large numbers of people, within the Democratic Party, who are open to ideas such as fiscal responsibility and gun rights. The reason that I find this so reasonable is that I know quite a few. Their politics, although they still differ from my own, do not align with the Party leadership. These are the people that we need to be courting. We have seen a few of them- recall the Blue Dog Democrats. While ostensibly moderates, it must be noted that many of them would make acceptable candidates on a fiscal conservative standpoint. They are also, often, from Southern states, where rural areas and gun ownership are certainly prevalent. Too, they are being weeded out in the primaries by more radical and strongly leftist mainstream Democrats.

To that end, I am considering shifting my 'Official' Party affiliation to the Democratic Party- don't get me wrong, here, I'm not changing my views, nor am I compromising my core values. I had almost as many misgivings about registering in Oregon as a Republican as I do about registering as a Democrat. But it seems to me that there are more chances to influence people on a low level in the Democratic Party. By finding ground-level Democrats that are open to reducing debt and government intrusion, and are friendly to gun rights and personal freedom, we can begin to push that party towards our end goal. There may even come a time when we can push the various portions of both parties into cooperating on our behalf- possibly even creating a strong coalition and the seeds of a new party of freedom. Rather than fighting the statist Democrats in the general election, using equally statist and repugnant Republicans, lets fight them in the Primaries, using young buck Democrats that we can convince to back our ideals. What we're doing right now isn't gaining ground- we had best watch our backs lest we lose all the ground we have made in the last 10 years. It may be time to watch the tide, and shore up our lines with a few ascendant Democrats. We know it works when it makes new shooters, maybe it will work when we make new politicians.

Just one election comment

I was going to let this day by, but I have something to say.

Everyone out there saying, "Look what Gary Johnson did to the election!" or "ZOMG VOTE THEFT DAMN YOU LIBERTARIANS" or "Just swallow your pride and vote for us... because vote for us..." I say: Screw you guys.

No, I mean it. Screw you guys. I accept that Barack Obama is not the guy we want in charge of our gun rights, but to come down on your high horse and say, in a most holier than thou way, that this is OUR fault, as though the one million votes that Gary got were the exact million votes that threw the race, is about as smug and infuriating as it is possible to be. If I want smug and superior, I'll register as a Dem and vote in THEIR primary. You want to pin your loss on someone, and we are it. Well, screw you, I'm not taking the fall.

Everyone that wants to blame this on the crazy Libertarians needs to realize- NOBODY COURTED US FOR OUR VOTE. Oh, sure, we get some lip service. But nobody came out and said, "Hey, you, in the back, that just want to be left alone... What can we do to make YOU happy?" Which makes me think that we were not a critical voting bloc, yes? We were, maybe, not the moderate independents that both camps were appealing to? So why, in the fiery depths of bipartisan burning f#$%ing HELL are we the ones that are expected to compromise our beliefs and vote YOUR guy into power? How was that supposed to work? We are goddamn Libertarians, for Pete's sake, not toeing the line IS THE ENTIRETY OF OUR PLATFORM! So we are expected to just fall into place, and vote blindly for the guy thats just as bad, bit in different ways than the other guy that sucks? I repeat: Screw you.

Exceptionally American

I find it worthy of note that we are a nation built of malcontents- not willing to suffer under their heel, we cast aside their society, fled their beloved lands, and began anew. At each turning, American malcontents thrust aside the ideals of their 'betters' and found boundless achievements waiting on the far side of toil. In truth, their disgust at our simplicity may be the horror of watching their castoffs surpass them. While there are some in this nation that would debase their natural right of self governance and supplicate themselves to the lands that sent us forth, many of us recall that fact: where once we were unworthy, we have risen to surpass them. What can they now promise us that we cannot gain for ourselves?

I now send you forth to Borepatch, for Context and Copeland.