IN OUR OWN WORDS

HOW DID I MISS this McCain ad, entitled Remote Control?

As Filler wrote, "Effective. I know the tired Democrat response: "Republican fear tactics". The thing is both sides appeal to fear: Democrats want you to be afraid of losing your job, of not having enough money for food or health care. Republicans want you to be a afraid of terrorists and tyrannical regimes. One fear is out of our individual control, the other fear can be faced individually. We don't need a president to face our individual fears, but we need one to face the larger, existential fear. I'll let you figure out which is which."

Actually, McCain is using the Democratic fear card. Each of the statements in this video are from prominent Democrats including Biden and Obama.

The only reason some (and they know who they are) will think this ad is a gross and low blow is because it is an effective ad. It uses other candidates' words against Obama. Then at the end, Obama's own words grab him by the throat. And for all you liberals who caterwaul about the ad containing scenes of war, surely you realize that this is indeed the dangerous and volatile world we inhabit. To deny what is going on in the world is all the more reason that you people have no business in positions of leadership of this country. The WHOLE ENCHILADA must be considered, lest we fall into some make-believe fantasy and a vulnerability where things can get real nasty really quick down the road.

Like most intelligent Americans, the Democrats in this video realize that experience is a necessity when choosing a president. And while we're taking a breather from all this critical thinking, let's ponder the uglier than thou liberal fear card...

1. Global Warming
2. RECESSION!!!!!
3. Bush is a fascist!
4. McCain = Bush 3

Both fear cards are somewhat factual. Both fear cards are largely unprovable, since they exist solely as an existential hunch, based on a loose amalgamation of moving targets without regard to the fullness of time and the specificity of space. Frankly, politics as such, is a mendacious bore.

I'm pretty certain at the end of the day I will have preferred the mosh pit of my old punk rock days to all this political pudwhacking. Every soldier of the spirit who revels in the presumption of truth and banks solely on powers of persuasion and fact-laundrying sophistication when presenting one's visceral issues while I wither in the solitude of the keyboard, I say, more power to you, but I say it in jest, because frankly, in all generosity of spirit, I know I have other, perhaps better, perhaps not, but other things to do than to work that sort of con on myself, or you.

Life is fiercely complicated. I aim to persuade no one to my side of the equation beyond what I produce as a lone artist and occasional friend. Vote with your heart. Vote with your brain. Don't vote at all. But know this. Some of us aren't as stupid or as timid as we appear, and others are far more stupid and loathsome than they presume themselves to be. Life is a gamble, a mine-infested path, that way. Despite any promise of payoff in this gamble, I can only hope that God (whatever) will save us from the frenetic demons that live within us, one and all, politics be damned.

THE DERVISH DANCE OF THE DOLLAR

Our conservative friend Tony Blankley of the Washington Times has written an opinion piece in which he puts several menacing questions to the candidates currently still in the race for the toughest job in the world—the US presidency. Now we realize that many of our friends perched on the Left want no part of an America that sustains ANY SORT of advantage, temporary or permanent, over anybody else, being all-gracious selfless players in the eternal game of life that they purport to be (at least in their own minds, intellectually that is, because the material requirements of just making it in the USA are just too overwhelming to bypass for far too many of them for us not to notice), but here is one question that does nor presume that the rest of the world automatically confirms to his idea of goodness because he wishes it so, but by hard work, and intelligent design (not to be confused with that theological mess formerly known as creationism):

"...are you for a strong dollar or will you continue Mr. Bush's policy of letting the dollar sink? Some presidents think that a weak dollar helps trade and we should do little to support the dollar. But today, for the first time in living memory there is a risk that the dollar, if it continues to slide, would be replaced by the Euro as the global store of value. The United States benefits from the dollar's unique role in the world. It has permitted us to have influence in many ways, such as disrupting financial flows to adversaries like Iran and North Korea. With international contracts denominated in dollars we gain unfair advantage over all other currencies. Are you prepared to protect the dollar and drive its value up (again, working closely with the Fed chairman) or not?

Fourth, and flowing from the previous question: As noted by Benn Steil (director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations) to protect the dollar's value, we cannot let the Federal Reserve, by itself, try to solve the financial crises by flooding the market with dollars. If we are to strengthen the dollar, then we need the president and Congress to directly fund "on the books," the hundreds of billions of dollars the Fed is creating to help at risk financial institutions.

Of course, if you protect the dollar and fight inflation you won't have money for new spending programs. Mr. and Mrs. presidential candidates, please tell us now—before we vote—what your priority will be in this painfully difficult decision."