Whatsthatsmell?

Just thinking out loud...

I'm wondering how instructive it would be for some regulatory body to look into recent stock market transactions by employees of a particular bank that's about to get taken over...

Just saying...

Two more quarters to go...

Despite difficult fits and starts, I earned an "A" in this quarter's class on HR Management.  The Grade Point Average is up to 3.88 out of 4.0.

I start Organizational Communication in a couple of weeks.  Then the Capstone business simulation class in January.  Then graduation in March/April.  God willing.

21 years from the first time I attended university.

Breaking News Story about Palin...

(Hat tip to Uncle Joe)

Gee, I may have to reconsider my thoughts on Palin...

After reading this.

McCain-Palin...Wow!

I have to say, I was going with McCain mostly because he was the last bastion against the farthest left presidential candidate ever to run.

I was a Romney guy during the primaries.  And Romney really appealed to my intellect.  He was the smartest guy running for President, but not the best politician in the fray.

The selection of Sarah Palin confirms just how accomplished a politician McCain is.  In selecting Palin, McCain has attracted a lot of people who wouldn't even give him a look in.  Sarah Palin plays well to a lot of people.  For us normal everyday people, Sarah reminds us of a librarian-hot version of all those steely women we know in our lives as mothers, wives, sisters, and aunts.  The sort of women we meet every day, who happen to rise to the occasion when called upon.  The sort of woman who meets the slings and arrows that life throws up in her way, keeps taking it, and then continues to say: Bring it on.

I have to say, watching her speak and come out swinging, I was overwhelmed with emotion, and choked down that lump in my throat.  It reminded me of how great America is that nomal every day people like her choose to go into politics.

I also had a similar response to McCain's acceptance speech last night.  I can't help but keep thinking that the real change people are waiting for is a change wherein politicians have a core belief system and act upon it.  I now have no doubt that McCain, as much as I have disagreed with him at times, works from that core that says that America is the greatest country in the world, and that every political move he makes is less about McCain and more about America.

I think we are seeing the beginning of the end of Obama.

Is it possible for Libertarians not to be Utopian?

It was Ronald Reagan that said: "The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally"

How about when that person agrees with you more than 90%?

I was waiting to see what this lot would come up with in regard to Defence, Immigration and other issues...Their Manifesto is now available and contains wording which floats my boat.

On Immigration:

Totally free movement of people into the UK is not practical whilst we have a large welfare state and other countries are themselves not broadly Libertarian in nature. In line with the Rule of Law, a transparent, consistent points based system is one of our key proposed measures to humanely manage migration.

I was expecting to see them embrace the wholesale opening of our borders in fundamentalist Libertarian form.

On Defence:

Our aim is to ensure a strong, independent, sovereign nation. This requires a well funded, trained and equipped professional Armed Forces (both full time and Reservist), geared for the defence of our nation and shipping.

I wasn't expecting much here, either, but this is a stronger plank than the Tories.

And on the Constitution:

The Libertarian Party is committed to reassert the primacy of our Bill of Rights and Common Law system over the Napoleonic system that has encroached from the continent in recent years.

There is actually some very patriotic aspects to this brand of Libertarianism.

Maybe worth a further look.

Genuinely excited...

What a perfect pick for a Vice Presidential candidate: Sarah Palin.

Hugh Hewitt summed it up beautifully:

When the Dems come after Palin for inexperience in foreign affairs, the reply will be obvious --the GOP vice-presidential nominee is as experienced as the Democratic presidential nominee but also has executive decision-making that Obama lacks.  

Palin's  tough stance on reform of long corrupt practices is going to give her a very clear advantage over practiced cronyists Obama and Biden.

And she knows the crucial energy issue very, very well, as well as a variety of land-use and property rights issues dear to many in the crucial mountain west.

I have to say, I am genuinely excited about this.  A real coup for McCain.

Chuckle of the day...

Mark at Blognor Regis on why Gary Glitter should have elected to get shot by a Vietnamese firing squad:

1) When your Rock and Roll legacy has gone down the pan like no others', going out in a blaze of glory in front of a firing squad in a squalid Indo-Chinese prison yard gives you at least one notable and slightly cool footnote. And, hey, it makes a change from the usual air-crash.

This makes me sick...

Here.

This is really horrible.  It is very reminiscent of a disturbing scene in this book, which I was talking about with a friend last night.  And what the book set out to do using fictional allegory has actually come true.

Say a prayer for the victim.

To warm the heart's cockles...

I just had the pleasure of my eight-year-old daughter showing me her new backpack for school along with her really cool Simpsons pencil case.  The joy she had in showing it off...

I’m sort of holding back the lump in my throat, as I wonder how far away we are from the day she stops deriving pleasure in something as simple as a pencil case.  And I also thank God that He gave her to us.