A moment's reflection in anger.

"1 down, 534 to go."*

No one should be considered an American, who honestly believes this. Or this.

If anyone thinks they should undo the votes of hundreds of thousands or millions of people with a single bullet, they don't deserve to live here. They don't belong here. They are not conservatives, they are not liberals, they are not libertarians, they are neither right nor left, but tyrant wanna-bes.

A bullet is not a vote. It's a not a legitimate political argument. Disagreement will not be resolved in their favor if they exercise their belief that they have the right (or responsibility) to murder elected officials. If they must lash out, there are nonviolent means at their disposal. If those means don't generate results, maybe it's time for them to re-evaluate their ideas, not advocate the slaughter those who dare to disagree with them.

That is what tyrants do.

So when tea partiers show up to the next town hall or the next meeting carrying firearms, they should consider this:

"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."--Mao Tse-Tung, "Problems of War and Strategy" (November 6, 1938), Selected Works,  Vol. II.

I consider this a repudiation. 

---

* I believe this fellow is simply a stupid man, who said the wrong thing at the wrong time, and has no idea how to say, "I'm sorry, I was wrong. That was an inappropriate and stupid thing to say." That doesn't engender in me any sympathy, however, just pity. Sympathy in this case only exists for the misunderstood.

As of Now, My Dad Has Been In Surgery for Four Hours...

...With another 2-4 to go. A bypass has been mentioned as a possibility, in addition to the valve replacement. If that turns out to be the case, there will be an extra two hours in surgery for that.

[UPDATE: He's out and doing fine now. It's all recovery from here.]

...

I did vote today. I voted against Stevens and the corruption which seems to have embraced our representatives. Perhaps their replacements, if elected, will heed these words: you work for us, and nobody else. You forget that at your peril. I do have a question for anyone who voted for Stevens, in spite of his guilt: do you really think that he was going to last forever anyway? It takes someone awfully committed to a culture of decadence to willingly vote for a convict in the vain hope of preserving the pork Alaska has typically gotten. Perhaps its time Alaska learned to do without him. As in sooner, rather than later.

McCain-Palin: I voted against the both of you, because neither of you are suitable to run one of the greatest nations on earth. Both of your anti-science attitudes were a large part of my decision, and Palin's appalling ignorance and stupidity has made the rest of us Alaskans look bad to the rest of the nation. I've read too many conservative commentators that appear to have swallowed the hook that Palin would be useful to McCain, and found only an incredible capacity for self-delusion. And to the both of you: your comments regarding the opposition towards the end were out of line. McCain, I respected you once. You lost it. (Palin I never really liked or voted for, so she can't really lose what she never had.)

Some lessons here for everbody:

Conservatives in general: if you don't start returning to your roots (and get off the creationism kick already; it just looks sad using a bunch of rubes just for personal political gain), you will become increasingly irrelevant.

Liberals: please, stop whining already. (And stop opposing nuclear power and handguns. If you're serious about handguns, prove it and pass a constitutional amendment dealing with it; otherwise, stop wasting your time, let it go, and pick your battles.)

And Libertarians: you're already irrelevant. Keep up the good work.