Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 467

From citizens to clients

George Will sums up Spoiled Rotten: How the Politics of Patronage Corrupted the Once Noble Democratic Party and Now Threatens the American Republic by Jay Cost, who argues “that the party has succumbed to ‘clientelism,’ the process of purchasing cohorts of voters with federal favors.”

Before Franklin Roosevelt, “liberal” described policies emphasizing liberty and individual rights. He, however, pioneered the politics of collective rights — of group entitlements. And his liberalism systematically developed policies not just to buy the allegiance of existing groups but to create groups that henceforth would be dependent on government.

Under FDR, liberalism became the politics of creating an electoral majority from a mosaic of client groups. Labor unions got special legal standing, farmers got crop supports, business people got tariff protection and other subsidies, the elderly got pensions, and so on and on.

Government no longer existed to protect natural rights but to confer special rights on favored cohorts. As Irving Kristol said, the New Deal preached not equal rights for all but equal privileges for all — for all, that is, who banded together to become wards of the government.

In the 1960s, public-employee unions were expanded to feast from quantitative liberalism (favors measured in quantities of money). And qualitative liberalism was born as environmentalists, feminists and others got government to regulate behavior in the service of social “diversity,” “meaningful” work, etc. Cost notes that with the 1982 amendments to the Voting Rights Act, a few government-approved minorities were given an entitlement to public offices: About 40 “majority-minority” congressional districts would henceforth be guaranteed to elect minority members.

Walter Mondale, conceding to Ronald Reagan after the 1984 election, listed the groups he thought government should assist: “the poor, the unemployed, the elderly, the handicapped, the helpless and the sad.” Yes, the sad.

Republicans also practice clientelism, but with a (sometimes) uneasy conscience. Both parties have narrowed their appeals as they have broadened their search for clients to cosset.

via George Will: An election to call voters’ bluff – The Washington Post.

Favorite TV shows of different political factions

If you are an ultra-liberal “Super-Democrat,” your favorite TV show is The Daily Show (no surprise there).  If you are an “On-the-Fence Liberal,” your favorite show is the Graham Norton Show (that of the flamboyantly gay variety show host).  If you are an “ultra-conservative,” your favorite TV watching is college football.  If you are a “mild Republican,” you like Rules of Engagement.  If you are a “Green Traditionalist,” you like Lizard Lick Towing, as well as other reality shows (contrary to the image or self-image of crunchy conservatives being all intellectual and sophisticated).

So says a study that gives the top 20 TV shows for each political category.  Find yourself, if you can.  (I found no category for someone who watches the few eclectic shows that I prefer.)  But assuming this is, in the aggregate, correct, what can you learn about the different groups based on the TV shows they watch?  (For example, “Super Democrats” seem to be the main ones subscribing to  premium channels like HBO and Showtime.  What does that mean?  And why would crunch-cons like reality shows?)  After the jump is the entire list.

SUPER-DEMOCRATS

1. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)

2. The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)

3. 30 Rock (NBC)

4. Shameless (Showtime)

5. Modern Family (ABC)

6. Game of Thrones (HBO)

7. Project Runway (Lifetime)

8. Saturday Night Live (NBC)

9. Parks and Recreation (NBC)

10. The Soup (E!)

11. Parenthood (NBC)

12. The Killing (AMC)

13. Mad Men (AMC)

14. Watch What Happens Live (Bravo)

15. Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (Travel Channel)

16. Chelsea Lately (E!)

17. Tosh.0 (Comedy Central)

18. Glee (Fox)

19. Millionaire Matchmaker (Bravo)

20. Hockey Central (Versus)

ULTRA-CONSERVATIVES

1. College football regular season (ESPN)

2. Antiques Roadshow (PBS)

3. Today With Kathie Lee & Hoda (NBC)

4. College football regular season (ESPN2)

5. Dancing With the Stars: Results Show (ABC)

6. NCIS (CBS)

7. Undercover Boss (CBS)

8. Hawaii Five-O (CBS)

9. Wheel of Fortune (syndicated)

10. ABC Saturday night college football (ABC)

11. Today (NBC)

12. Dancing With the Stars (ABC)

13. Big 12 college football (FSN)

14. Property Brothers (HGTV)

15. House Hunters ( HGTV)

16. The Biggest Loser (NBC)

17. Shark Tank (ABC)

18. The Bachelor (ABC)

19. College basketball regular season (ESPN2)

20. Days of Our Lives (NBC)

MILD REPUBLICANS

1. Rules of Engagement (CBS)

2. Sons of Guns (Discovery)

3. Brad Meltzer’s Decoded (History)

4. Sons of Anarchy (FX)

5. Tosh.O (Comedy Central)

6. The Glades (A&E)

7. Gold Rush (Discovery)

8. Deadliest Catch (Discovery)

9. Pawn Stars (History)

10. Holmes Inspection (HGTV)

11. Storage Wars (HGTV)

12. The Big Bang Theory (CBS)

13. American Pickers (History)

14. Top Shot (History)

15. American Restoration (History)

16. The Soup (E!)

17. Chelsea Lately (E!)

18. TMZ (syndicated)

19. Two and a Half Men (CBS)

20. Revenge (ABC)

GREEN TRADITIONALISTS

1. Lizard Lick Towing (truTV)

2. Extreme Couponing (TLC)

3. Four Weddings (TLC)

4. Covert Affairs (USA)

5. Blue Bloods (CBS)

6. The Mentalist (syndicated)

7. 19 Kids and Counting (TLC)

8. White Collar (USA)

9. Hot in Cleveland (TV Land)

10. Minute to Win It (NBC)

11. Little Couple (TLC)

12. Rizzoli & Isles (TNT)

13. The Closer (TNT)

14. Storage Hunters (truTV)

15. Castle (ABC)

16. Hawaii Five-O (CBS)

17. College football regular season (ESPN2)

18. Only in America With Larry the Cable Guy (History)

19. Nova (PBS)

20. Hoarding: Buried Alive (TLC)

ON-THE-FENCE LIBERALS

1. The Graham Norton Show (BBC America)

2. Aqua Teen Hunger Force (Adult Swim)

3. Top Gear (BBC America)

4. Tosh.O (Comedy Central)

5. American Dad (Fox)

6. Robot Chicken (Adult Swim)

7. Wilfred (FX)

8. Futurama (Comedy Central)

9. Bob’s Burgers (Fox)

10. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX)

11. Louie (FX)

12. Ink Master (Spike)

13. The Simpsons (Fox)

14. Up All Night (NBC)

15. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)

16. Squidbillies (Adult Swim)

17. Breaking Bad (AMC)

18. The Soup (E!)

19. Weeds (Showtime)

20. The Office (NBC)

via TV Column sidebar – The Washington Post.

Romney’s big night

The Republican convention–after a bunch of testimonials from Olympic athletes, businesses saved by Bain Capital, and others about what a good person Mitt Romney is–wrapped up with rambling musings by Clint Eastwood, an impressive speech by Marco Rubio, and then the presidential candidate’s acceptance speech.

What are your thoughts on the last night of the convention and especially Romney’s speech?  Do you think the convention succeeded in its stated goal of introducing Mitt Romney to the American people?  And of humanizing him?  Will the convention prove to be a successful infomercial for the Republican party?

Next week, starting Tuesday, will be the Democrats’ turn.  I hear it will be a veritable abortion-fest.  Expect to hear from a college student at a Catholic colleges whining for her right to free birth control, from teacher union leaders praising our public schools, from in-your-face gay activists, from Obamacare fans, and from would-be comedians mocking conservatives, moderates, creationists, gun-owners, and the general public in general.  Democrats, especially when they play to their base, sometimes over-reach.  They think they are populist, but they are not, and they may come across in ways they do not intend, putting off more voters than they attract.  But we’ll see.

Cataract update

My cataract surgery went well, as far as I know.  (I go in for my post-op exam later this morning.)  Usually it’s done with local anesthetic, but my eye-muscles and reflexes were such that they put me completely under, which was nice, actually.  Instead of watching the probe move closer and closer to the jelly of my eye, I simply went to sleep.  When I woke up, it was done.  My vision from the eye that was operated on is still really blurry.  Some patients report immediate and dramatic improvements, but, from what I’ve read, it sometimes takes longer.  Reading and computering (to coin a verb) is pretty difficult right now.   I’ll keep the blog going, though.  I’m working on formatting something big for you to chew on, so stay tuned.  I really do appreciate the support and the prayers that many of you have been offering.

Convention or conventional?

After my cataract surgery, I was told that reading might be hard, but that I should be able watch TV.  As if that was supposed to make me feel better!  So while convalescing I caught up on Netflix and then finally slipped back into my long-held tradition (or is it betrayal) of watching the political conventions.  (My custom, engrained into me from childhood, is that I should watch both of them.)  So last night I tuned into the GOP speeches.

Quick review, because I can’t see very well to type:  The speech by Ohio’s Rob Portman was not very good–he would have been a disaster as the vice presidential candidate, as he was widely expected to be.  Mike Huckabee did well.  Then Condoleeza Rice gave an outstanding seminar on our foreign policy woes.  Followed by New Mexico governor Susana Martinez, the Hispanic woman who acquitted herself well as a rising star in the Republican party.  Finally, vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan gave an outstanding speech, showing strong promise as a campaigner, as well as an intellectual bright light.  (The vice presidential debate between him and Joe Biden should be especially fun.)

Are any of the rest of you watching the convention?  Or do you have to be laid up from an operation to do so?  What observations do you have?

Rudy Giuliani has said that Republicans have a better and deeper “bench” than the Democrats do.  Do you agree?  Who are the upcoming potential stars?   This will be a good thing to watch for in the Democratic convention also.  Who are the upcoming Democratic stars?  Are they centrists, leftists, or do they  have some new ideas?

Cataracts

Things started looking kind of blurry, so I figured it was time for some new glasses.  It turns out, I have cataracts!  I have surgery this morning.

I had assumed that they just peel the cloudy film off.  It turns out that they take out the lens inside the eye.  But then, these days, they replace it with a lens implant that actually corrects vision!  The doctor told me that after all of this is over I might not even need glasses!  Which would be for the first time since around seventh grade.  I am astounded and kind of excited about it.

The operation is reportedly no big deal to go through, nothing to worry about.  My only concern is my vision between the first surgery and when it is all over–three weeks later, they’ll do my other eye, and then it takes a few more weeks to heal and for the brain to get used to the new optic signals–so I may have some visual limitations for a month or more.

I’m thinking that after today I’ll have one really good eye, adept at distant vision, but my other eye will still be bad and my glasses will be useless.  Will I be able to read?  Fool with the computer?  Later my other eye will get a new lens for close vision and all will be well.  (Realistically, I might need glasses for reading, though those reading glasses you buy at the drug store may be all I’ll need.)  But what to do until then?

I’m pretty sure I’ll find a way to function.  I’m not supposed to do anything for a couple days after the procedure, which I’m looking forward to also, an enforced rest without guilt.  I’ll probably keep up the blog–that surely doesn’t count as “anything”–though I might have trouble seeing for a day or two.  So if I miss some days of posting, you’ll know why.

Pinch to zoom

If you have a smart phone, can you pinch your fingers together while touching the screen to make the images smaller?  And move your fingers apart to make the images bigger?

Well, that so-called “pinch to zoom” technology was invented by Apple for its iPhones, even though other cell phone makers are now also including the feature.  But this was one of the patents upheld by that recent court ruling in Apple’s suit against Samsung.

Some people are indignant that Apple is able to patent a gesture, saying that pinching the screen to change the image is so “natural” that everyone should be able to do that, complaining further that Apple is harming consumers by limiting their choices, and that sort of thing.

I say that Apple is entitled to their patents and to the fruits of their creativity.  Some years ago, Apple lost a patent lawsuit against Microsoft, which copied Apple’s point-and-click device known as a “mouse.”  Microsoft also lifted Apple’s graphic interface, that is, the use of icons, which simply have to be clicked by said mouse, as a way of accessing software and all that a computer can do.  Apple deserves to win this patent dispute, at least.

All Samsung or other cell phone manufacturers have to do if they want to include this feature is to pay Apple a licensing fee, as they do for other patent holders.

Is there any argument–based on justice and equity–why Apple should give away their intellectual property?  Other than someone wanting them to or the desire to have iPhone features without having to pay for an iPhone?  But those arguments lack justice and equity.

Post-‘pinch’? Apple patent-case win could point to new digital age for smartphones – The Washington Post.

One giant leap for a man

Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon, has died.  Another  Lutheran with an interesting vocation.[image error]

Tradition & Betrayal

Pastor Douthwaite gave a great sermon on Sunday, on Mark 7:1-13, in which Jesus chastizes the Pharisees for replacing God’s  word with the “traditions of men.”  The whole thing is very much worth reading, but I would like to focus on a curious fact that he brought out:  the Greek word translated as “tradition” is also the word translated as “betrayal.”  The word is paradidomi, meaning, literally handed down (as in a tradition) or handed over (as in a betrayal).  Pastor Douthwaite then plunged us into a fascinating word study, ringing the changes on all of those senses in a Law & Gospel kind of way.

He began by citing traditions we have (turkey on Thanksgiving, wedding customs), which can end up displacing the true meaning of what the traditions are supposed to be about (Turkey Day as opposed to giving thanks to God; white dresses and the bride’s perfect day as opposed to marriage as the one flesh union between a man and a woman that is an image of Christ and the Church):

Those are examples of when tradition becomes betrayal. And I put it like that because in the Bible, in the Greek of the New Testament, tradition and betrayal are the same word – paradidomi – which means to hand down or to hand over. When something is handed down (paradidomi-ed) from one generation to the next, it is a tradition. When Jesus is handed over (paradidomi-ed) by Judas, it is betrayal. And so traditions – all those things I mentioned before – are good, as long as they do not become betrayals; as long as they do not betray their original meaning and purpose. . . .

You see, because you and me are as we are – sinful and unclean – therefore, the wonderful thing God will do is Jesus. He is (literally) the tradition of God. For He was handed down (paradidomi-ed) to us, the Father handed down His Son to us, that He be handed over (paradidomi-ed) into death for us – death on the cross for our sins – that raised from the dead (for us), we who once walked in darkness (or inside-out and upside-down, as Isaiah also puts it) now live a new life in His light. Living not because of what we do, but because of what our Lord does for us. For you.

Living by what He does for you in Holy Baptism, where Jesus’ cross becomes your cross; where Jesus joins you to Himself and raises you with Himself from the death of sin to a new life in Him. In that water you were born from above to a new life with a new Father and a new heart and a new Spirit. In that water all your sins, all your betrayals, were washed away – the old is gone, behold the new has come. That’s what your Lord hands down and hands over (paradidomis) to you there.

And living by what He does for you in Holy Communion, where Jesus – on the night when He was paradidomi-ed (betrayed) – before He was paradidomi-ed first handed over (paradidomi-ed) His Body and Blood to His disciples and said: keep doing this, keep eating and drinking this, keep remembering and receiving this, for the forgiveness of your sins. That the new life and faith only your Lord can give be fed and strengthened by the food only your Lord can give. 

And living by what He does for you when you hear the Word of God – the Gospel of all that Jesus, the wonderful one, has done for you – whether it’s in the sermon or in the words of absolution or in the consolation of a fellow Christian, it is the voice of Jesus you hear, that is being handed over (paradidomi-ed) to you. Not advice, but good news. Not instruction, but the very Word of the Lord that opens the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, that changes hearts of stone to hearts of flesh, and which has done all that for you.

That why St. Paul calls Jesus the good and perfect bridegroom who came to hand over (paradidomi) His life for His dirty, sinful bride, that she – that you and me – may be dirty and sinful no more. It’s all about what He has done, that we may be. It’s all about His cross, His death and resurrection, that we who are born dead in sin may rise with Him. It’s all about His love that we may love. It’s all about His washing that we may be clean. It’s all about His tradition that we may be traditioned; that we receive what He has come to hand down and hand over to us.

And then, having received all that, there is a new tradition, and we begin to see others, those around us – our husbands and wives, our families, our friends and neighbors – as those our Lord has handed over to us, that we not withhold or “Corban” them, but hand down to them, what we ourselves have received. For that’s what tradition is all about, isn’t it? Handing down to others what has been handed down to us. And so the care and love and forgiveness and mercy and word we have received doesn’t stop with us, but is traditioned, paradidomi-ed, handed down. That’s good tradition, right tradition, godly tradition.

And – to turn Jesus’ words around just a bit – and many such things you do. Yes, you. As a Christian. A sinner-saint, forgiven and new. Not perfectly, to be sure. Always repenting and receiving forgiveness. But in Christ, made new. In Christ, handing yourself over – traditioning yourself – for others. That they too may receive what you have received. For that is the tradition we have received from Him.

via St. Athanasius Lutheran Church: Pentecost 13 Sermon.

TV ads vs. boots on the ground

Which do you think is more effective in a political campaign?  Having lots of campaign workers and volunteers organized in key districts, knocking on doors, working the phones, handing out flyers, and getting out the vote?  Or running lots and lots of television ads?

We’re going to see which strategy works better.  The Obama campaign is concentrating on having lots of boots on the ground.  Currently the Democrats have three times more campaign workers than the Republicans do, and they are setting up tight regional and local organizations.  The Romney campaign, flush with money, has decided to concentrate its efforts instead on  television ads.

So, how much do you enjoy political ads?  Do you think the rest of the country appreciates them more than you do?  (Another reason for what DonS so aptly terms my legendary pessimism!)

See  Obama campaign is depending on a strong ground game against Romney – The Washington Post.

See also this.