Pardon the Dust

The Woundup was in need of spring cleaning. Fresh coat of paint, new look, streamlined gadgets in the sidebar.

Got rid of things like the "Twitter" gadget. I fell in and out of love with Twitter pretty durned quick, truth to tell. It encourages thinking in sound bites. If it can't be said in 140 characters, it's not worth saying? Thanks, but I can't even tell you my name in less than 140 characters.

Likewise I have severed my temporary ties with Haloscan's annointed (and annoying) successor, Echo.com. Comments have reverted back to Blogger control, and that's fine. I'll probably enforce a little more moderation on comments because the Google spammers are coming out of the woodwork again.

One change, strictly for fun, was to turn the labels display into a cloud. Kind of fun to see which ones I use over and over. Equally dismaying to see how many I've created over time that have never been used more than once or twice.

Anyway, I like this new layout, I think. It's cleaner and feels less crowded. Now if only I could think of something worth writing about...

UPDATE: Full comment moderation now. The spammers seem to feel they've wasted their time if they haven't slipped in all sorts of links to malware, porn, or other dangerous content.

Parental Rights Amendment

Mrs. Woody sent me an item that's making the email rounds. It's a proposed constitutional amendment "relating to parental rights." It was introduced into the House on June 26, and contains the following intriguing language:

`Article --

`Section 1. The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right.

`Section 2. Neither the United States nor any State shall infringe upon this right without demonstrating that its governmental interest as applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwise served.

`Section 3. No treaty may be adopted nor shall any source of international law be employed to supersede, modify, interpret, or apply to the rights guaranteed by this article.'.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan introduced it, and Section 1 is spot-on. You'll not get any disagreement from any homeschooling parent that this has always been one of our most fundamental rights. Truth is, the very fact that we need to make this a constitutional amendment at all is a very telling indictment of just how ludicrous our interfering governments — federal and local — have become.

Section 2, however, bothers me. Rather than leave it where it was in Section 1, the lawyers just couldn't resist keeping that little loophole in there. So long as the feds or the states fail to demonstrate that their interests are of the "highest order," then no problem. But how on earth do they define "highest order?" I know how I define it, and I hardly think I'm on the same wavelength as a bunch of legal parasites in expensive clothing.

I can pretty much guarantee that, were this amendment to actually be ratified (and it has a loooooooong way to go before that happens) the Democrats of California would expend every effort to demonstrate exactly how the "problem" of homeschooling is an issue of the "highest order." You could probably measure how long it would take them to file the first court challenges with a stop-watch. I would prefer (silly me) to have that section redacted completely. Or, failing that, some language that speaks to only allowing the government to intervene where clear and demonstrable danger to the children exists. Even this language would be frought with potential misinterpretation, so a much smarter person than I am would have to craft that section.

It really is a nice gesture, but I won't be holding my breath. It's only just been introduced. It has to fight its way through both a Pelosi House and a Reid Senate before it can even be sent to the various states for consideration. If history is any teacher, this thing will die in committee long before it makes it to our state legislatures.

Another Day, Another Primary

Although well documented over at the OC Flash Report (Fleischman may look smarmy, but he's undeniably bright), I need to outline my own reasons why this primary was a farce from the beginning.

It was a crap shoot over a year ago when Schwarzenegger signed the legislation that moved California's presidential primary up to February 5th. While the headlines were breathless ("With Earlier Primary, Calif. Reshapes Race"), the analysis underneath spoke of a potential result that had all the glamour and excitement of a mine field. Indeed, rather than "reshaping" the race this year, all California did in the long run was exhaust its voters.

That's not how you want to run your politics.

Thus we arrive at the normal June primary election in this state with a hugely underwhelming voter turnout after having acheived record-breaking numbers in February. Even for me, and in spite of having written an admittedly lackluster "Curmudgeon's Guide" once again, this election caught me pretty much by complete surprise. Or perhaps I was just so politically spent that I didn't really register the numerous campaign placards posted on all street corners this year. I certainly saw them when I was driving home from the polling place earlier this afternoon. Oh, well. C'est le guerre.

The polling place should have tipped me off. When I arrived at about 2:30(ish), the place was deserted. I literally had the run of the booths. The polling workers were so happy to see me that I could have sworn that they were kind of deliberately dragging out the process of getting me signed in, just so they could say they were occasionally busy today. On later reflection, although incredibly convenient for me, it was pathetic in the extreme.

Truthfully, though, I can't lay all of the blame at Schwarzenegger's feet, much as I may want to. There are other elements at play, and they have to do with the "larger picture," the one whose results we're most interested in this November.

For months now, we've been subjected to one of the most rancorous races just to capture the nomination that the Democrats have ever run. I may only vaguely remember the Sixties, but once Johnson dropped out in '68 I still don't remember a race that was anywhere near as contentious as the one between Clinton II and the Religion of Obama (whatever that may be). Citizens, fueled partly by an enabling internet, along with their own absolute "moral authority" as whatever victims they choose to portray, have yelled themselves hoarse (virtually) in proclaiming the merits of their candidates of choice.

Meanwhile, those of us at the other end of the political spectrum are left to contemplate whether we live with what we've been given, or whether we dare try to write in our own candidate this November purely out of principle.

I'd do it, but the only thing stopping me (and I do mean the ONLY thing) is the dread of having Obama in the driver's seat and dictating our foreign policy, especially in the Fertile Crescent. At a point in time where the surge is producing demonstrable benefits in that region, an Obama win in November will nearly instantly erase whatever gains we've made and thoroughly negate the sacrifices made by numerous U. S. heroes throughout this conflict. No matter what the argument, I just can't justify in my own mind and heart allowing that to happen.

(Please understand: this same dread extended to Hillary as well. We've just finally reached the point where Obama seems to be the Anointed One of the Party, so we may as well accept that and move on. So to speak.)

So now I face the unenviable task of choking down my distaste of John McCain and voting for him this November. I am absolutely certain that I will regret this decision on several fronts. I have no delusions that he will not buy into the Global Warming hysteria. He already has. I do not look to this man to stand up to (rather than with) the Open Borders special interests. I have known many conservatives, and this man is no conservative. He's far too chummy with the far-left side of the aisle. But he's all we've got.

If I look listless this November, just push me into the booth and remind me what my duties are. That should rouse me long enough to push the buttons, then fall back into my politically-induced stupor once again.