J A Davis's blog
Posted at 2:11pm on Jul. 6, 2008 Historical Perspectives on 2008
By J A Davis
Many of our friends on the left seem to think that this year will usher in a radical change in American politics on the wings of a glorious victory for Senator Barack Obama. This could happen but I think it highly unlikely. Don't get me wrong; Obama could definitely win the election, but I don't believe it will amount to anything remotely resembling radical change.
First, it is highly likely that the next president will only serve one term. If McCain wins, that would be 12 years of continuous GOP control of the White House and make the Democratic nomination highly prized in 2012. If Obama wins, his ill-advised deification of himself will likely come back to bite him in the arse when the reality of life in governance forces him to abandon current positions and and make tough decisions that don't always work out. I think his numbers have nowhere to go but down and he will be Jimmy Carter's second term.
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Posted at 1:17am on Jun. 26, 2008 On Energy
By J A Davis
"The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one." -Albert Einstein
The problem of energy is not a new problem by any means. In fact it is quite an old problem, and the apparent permanency of the rise in price has simply made it more urgent.
The old problem is the natural competition between a product's supply and the buying public's demand for that product. If demand outgrows supply then the price goes up, and vice versa. There is another factor at play in that if the price of that product rises too high then the profit motive will compel an entrepreneur to innovate. That innovation will in turn replace the demand of the former product with the new and the price will adjust itself accordingly to the new reality.
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Posted at 11:41pm on Jun. 24, 2008 On Viewing Liberals Charitably
By J A Davis
This article is in response to Matthew G's "Bashing Liberals, and Myself."
First off, I am in the same age bracket as Mr. G and fully understand where he is coming from. I do not consider myself a lawyer, but I do happen to practice law for a living, and as a result, I find myself wondering about the sanity of the general public on a fairly regular basis.
I feel I have aged decades since I first started practicing because I now understand that most people are ignorant about most things and the things they did know better than to do they didn't consider the consequences at the time. How can you spend 75% of your income on your car alone and not foresee the foreclosure and bankruptcy in your future? How can you marry a man who cheated on his first wife with you and then not expect him to cheat on you?
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Posted at 10:28pm on May 19, 2008 Left Wing Journalists Don't Understand The Problem of Judicial Activism
By J A Davis
This afternoon I read two ignorant articles about McCain's judicial views that were written by people who obviously have no idea what they are talking about. The New Yorker and the LA Times (links below) had articles that claimed John McCain approved of executing children because he spoke out against the Supreme Court's ruling banning execution of minors.
The New Yorker:
"McCain’s reference to the Court’s “discourse” on the law of “other nations” refers to Kennedy’s observation of the “stark reality that the United States is the only country in the world that continues to give official sanction to the juvenile death penalty.” Likewise, Kennedy noted that the only other countries to execute juvenile offenders since 1990 have been China, Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. According to McCain, the United States apparently belongs on this dismal list."
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Posted at 1:52am on May 17, 2008 Freedom Demands Optimism
By J A Davis
Pessimism is revolting and un-American. No one can know the future, but men do have a tendency to foresee the future they want. Anyone who sees darkness ahead reveals darkness inside, and surely anyone who calls himself a conservative or a libertarian should be ashamed of himself when he peddles in pessimism.
The one unifying principle of American conservatism is actually one of the most radical thoughts ever to be created by man: freedom leads to victory. Is it not true that the more free a man is, the higher he can climb? How else could it be that a small colony of about 2.5 million farmers, immigrants, merchants, and slaves could grow into the world's most prosperous and powerful nation state with a continuously growing population of over 300 million souls?
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Posted at 6:04pm on Mar. 1, 2008 Obama, the Charismatic Disaster
By J A Davis
The nation seems ready to make a sharp turn away from the controversial leadership of a wartime president who embroiled the United States in a foreign war carrying the banner of freedom and democracy abroad as a moral mission against tyranny. The voters are yearning for a return to normalcy at home and disentanglement from involvement in foreign adventures.
The man they believe will bring the change they want is a one-term senator from the Midwest who was not known by most of the public just a few years ago but had captivated the nation with a powerful speaking style, good looks, and Hollywood endorsements. This is not 2008; it is 1920.
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Posted at 5:37pm on Dec. 21, 2007 Let's Play the Drop-out Endorsement Game!
By J A Davis
With so many candidates still in the hunt, we are likely to see some drop outs and endorsements that actually move numbers since so many voters are invested in their guy. Here's how I think it could go without any respect as to order of drop outs.
Thompson endorses McCain. That's a no brainer.
Huck endorses Romney because I have a feeling the two religious candidates belong together. However, there is also the possibility that their battle in Iowa has ruined any chance of later fraternity. In that case Huck goes with McCain as well.
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Posted at 5:18pm on Dec. 21, 2007 What Paul Should Do With His Money
By J A Davis
One of the stranger aspects of this presidential contest is the insane amount of cash that Ron Paul has collected over the Internet from his fanatical fan base. Of course, we all know he can't get the nomination and probably won't end up spending all that cash before he drops out. So what should he do with it?
I say the winner of the nomination should pull Dr. No aside and ask him to do something productive for the party. This is probably wishful thinking, but Paul should tour America's college campuses giving speeches undermining the liberal/socialist philosophy so prevalent among the professoriat and student activists.
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Posted at 7:19pm on Dec. 12, 2007 Would You Vote for the Other Mike?
By J A Davis
Let's assume for a brief moment that the current Iowa leaders win their parties' nomination: Obama and Huckabee. Does anyone doubt that Mike Bloomberg would enter the race to fill the New York-sized gap in the middle of the electorate? Let's be honest, if you could vote for Rudy, voting for Bloomberg is just one small step further towards the center.
In this scenario Bloomberg would be the best economic conservative in the race and it's by no means clear that he would be less of a hawk than Huckabee. However, he would be more socially liberal than most GOP voters would be able to stomach.
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Posted at 12:54am on Dec. 4, 2007 Baritone, Brains, and Balls
By J A Davis
I think I have finally discovered what Republicans truly want from a presidential candidate: Reagan's voice, Newt's brain, and W.'s balls. No matter what was going on, if you heard Reagan speak in his calm and reassuring tone, you knew everything was going to be fine. There is no problem for which Newt cannot dream up some kind of creative solution that baffles the Left. And W is raw political courage personified.
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Posted at 1:56pm on Dec. 1, 2007 Democrats Legislate Limitations to Innovation
By J A Davis
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gleefully announced that they had reached a deal on the energy bill and that a vote in the House was likely to come next week. Headlines read that this bill will increase national fuel economy by about 40 percent by setting a fuel economy standard of 35 mpg to be reached by 2020.
My first instinct is to call this a timid attempt at accomplishing nothing significant. Despite the constant lament in the press about our awful polluting ways from our chronically inefficient automobile fleet, the Democrat House wants to take 13 years to raise fuel efficiency by 8 mpg for cars and 13 mpg for trucks and SUVs. That's .67 mpg a year for cars and 1 mpg for trucks.
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Posted at 6:09am on Feb. 7, 2007 Giuliani: 392 Clinton: 146
By J A Davis
I gazed into my crystal ball to take a look at the electoral outcome of the 2008 race and guess what I saw? Rudy would absolutely crush Hillary. Though I lean towards Romney, I strongly believe that he would not be so fortunate as Rudy in the electoral college. It is hard to imagine any state Bush won in 2004 going to Hillary in a contest with Giuliani, so it's really a question of how many states will Rudy take from Kerry's score.
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Posted at 5:58am on Feb. 2, 2007 National Wireless?
By J A Davis
What would you think if a presidential candidate came out with a plan to cover the entire United States with high speed broadband wireless Internet service? It would be as free and available as broadcast television, and it could be as significant as Eisenhower building the Interstate system in terms of how it ties this country together and boosts our economy in the long and short term.
I really know nothing of the finer points of wireless technology, but how hard could it be to have universal Internet coverage? It probably wouldn't cost as much as many other government initiatives, and it could have a largely positive economic impact.
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Posted at 11:26am on Jan. 27, 2007 Reality Check
By J A Davis
I am amazed at the amount of comments there are from y'all about candidates for president that are no more likely to be sworn in as president on January 20th, 2009 than I am. Sit down and think about it in more terms than just policy positions. If you want a president who agrees with you on everything, nominate yourself. As for the rest of us, let's consider policy with charisma, image, and personal history. On that score there are three candidates on both sides of the aisle: John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards.
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Posted at 7:58am on Nov. 8, 2006 Republicans Sweep Election
By J A Davis
January 9, 2009
WASHINGTON
It is a typical cold winter day in the nation’s capital as Republicans gather to witness the swearing in of President Bush’s successor to the White House. Two years ago few would have believed that the GOP would sweep both houses of Congress and win the White House by such a large margin, but here we are watching Rudolph Giuliani become the 44th President of the United States.
