Thursday, March 28, 2024
Miles from the Mainstream
D. R. ZUKERMAN, proprietor
Observations - December 2005

DECEMBER 25, 2005 --

LPR to NYC …

LPR would ask the New York City establishment , borrowing from the words of this sign on the Ground
Zero fence, to resolve this new year, "to maintain this site as a very special place." (And not as a residential or commercial space.)


Ground Zero on December 21.



DECEMBER 18, 2005 --

And to LPR Clicksters …


Merry Christmas, and Happy Chanukah and Happy Kwanzaa with good will to all.



DECEMBER 11, 2005 --

Flight Advice …


LPR heard a radio commercial for Tiger Balm, a day after the unfortunate shooting of Rigoberto Alpizar at Miami International Airport.

Perhaps the name of this product should be changed to Tiger Salve. Certainly air travelers would be advised not to announce that they are carrying Tiger B---.
(LPR wonders how often terrorists announce they have explosives before detonating them. LPR also wonders if a shot at a terrorist might cause a detonation situation.)

Finally, LPR noticed an on-line story that reported Mr. Alpizar's brother wondered how the deceased could have been a threat after passing security checkpoints.


Frank Talk …

David Lightman, Washington bureau chief of The Hartford Courant quoted Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) in the paper, December 5, that, concerning Iraq, "The question is not so much Bush's intelligence anymore. It's his stupidity."

For LPR, name-calling, is not the basis of persuasive argument. No doubt Rep. Frank's remark will be enjoyed by people on the left--but don't they have fixed views on the president without need of argument from Congressman Frank?

Within this writer's lifetime, people on the left have had a habit of questioning the intelligence of Republican presidents -- going back to Dwight D. Eisenhower.

(Perhaps the one Republican not dismissed by the left as lacking intelligence was Richard M. Nixon.)

LPR recalls the late Murray Kempton writing that if President Eisenhower was not very bright, how come he was such a good bridge player?


24...24?

LPR caught a rerun of "24" the Fox counter-terrorism program, starring Kiefer Sutherland, on New York's CBS station, Channel 2, in the early hours of December
11.

LPR wonders when some station will give viewers a "24" marathon -- showing the program's 24 hours in 24 hours?


After "Raymond"?

Was that Peter (Raymond's TV Dad) Boyle LPR spotted in an Alka Seltzer commercial during the Dallas-Kansas
City football game, December 11?


Another Anniversary …

December 11 marked the 64th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's declaration of war against the U.S., which had not declared war on Nazi Germany after its Axis ally. Japan, attacked Pearl Harbor
.

DECEMBER 4, 2005 --

Bring Back Titled Nobility?

George Will, in his Washington Post column, December 4, described Sen. Charles Grassley as increasingly eccentric" after calling him a "populist."

The senator apparently irked Will for
suggesting that oil revenues should, in part, assist persons facing high fuel bills this winter.

LPR understands, via Federalist 57, that a populist is someone, official or private citizen, who stands with the people, against, among others, economic aggrandizers.

If populism is a form of eccentricity, the idea that the people are sovereign (the guiding principle of our Founders) must be downright bizarre.

LPR would inquire, how could anyone who is true to our founding legacy NOT be a populist?


Bring Back Titled Nobility?

The Mobil Station on Winsted Rd. in Torrington, CT, on Nov. 29.


Gas prices are still edging downwards, as indicated by the prices at this Mobil station on Winsted Road in Torrington, CT.

But, as the Waterbury Republican-American recently noted, these prices are still much higher than a year ago, and are low only in relation to the Great Gas Spike of 2005.


Not so, Mr. Fineman …


Newsweek columnist Howard Fineman chatted with Imus, on air, last week, and, among other things, suggested, as heard by LPR, that leaders are above the people.

Not so. Our Founders, as indicated in Federalist No. 57, intended that leaders stay among the people. The idea that leaders are above the people is, to LPR
anyway -- not part of the American political tradition, notwithstanding efforts of officials and media to ignore that tradition.



Quoting Sen. Lieberman from the November 29 Wall Street Journal …

"I am disappointed by Democrats who are more focused on how President Bush took America into the war in Iraq almost three years ago, and by Republicans who are more worried about whether the war will bring them down in next November's elections, than they are concerned about how we continue the progress in Iraq
in the months and years ahead."



Paraphrasing Dick Armey's axiom, November 29 Wall Street Journal …

When Republicans act like Republicans they win; when they act like Democrats, they lose.



The LPR Response to the Army
axiom …


Just follow the counsel of Federalist 57 to work for "the common good of the society" and stay close to the people. If Republicans are unwilling to stand up for
our founding principles, how can we expect them to stand for anything other than political ambition and power - concerns of our Founders who gave us a Constitution to limit political overreaching by the federal government.



Unsolicited phone calls …

This writer has been getting phone calls from people who address me by my first name and say they will lower the interest rate on my credit cards. Why can't we get humane interest rates from the credit
card companies, instead of partronizing and unwanted phone calls that indicate
the caller knows a lot about my credit card situation?


NOTE TO LPR CLICKSTERS:
If we don't speak out against economic bullying by Oil, Credit Cards, Municipalities, WHO WILL?