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Tuesday, February 20, 2007Swan Song...Four years. That's a long time to blog. As we get closer and closer to updating the RPV website, my place will be over there shortly. Which means this place - for the purposes of blogging - gets to be in limbo for a time. A long time. So what do I leave behind? An admonishment. Virginia's blogosphere is one of the most sophisticated, collegial, and advanced in the nation. It is this way because many of us have decided to treat one another in a constructive and ethical manner, and for a reason. Our blogosphere is highly susceptible to corruption; by anonymous hacks, by hijackers blogging pseudonymously, by paid bloggers (such as myself), and by our own human nature. What works in our favor is a great deal of Virginia tradition, a general desire for ethical blogging, and a hope that our voice and thoughts will make the Commonwealth a better place to live. Stay principled, jealously guard your reputations, and blog for right reasons! Wednesday, February 14, 2007Norm Leahy is Back!...and blogging at Bearing Drift. If there were any questions about which blog is the best Republican blog out there, this puts it to rest. When this blog grows up, it wants to be Bearing Drift. Tuesday, February 13, 2007Acton: The Role of Limited GovernmentAnother great article from the Acton Institute, this time on the role of limited government. FIRST THINGS: Friends of GodThis has to be one of the most thought-provoking arguments on the condition of the evangelical movement in America I have ever read. Most of which you could overlay onto Catholic attempts to mimic the evangelical movement's appeal. We, “us,” the Evangelicals with the capital E, have become thoughtless, sensualistic braggarts. For some time, we’ve been accused of being simply thoughtless–an unfair charge (Jonathan Edwards was an evangelical after all) but a charge with some truth to it. But what doctrinal rigor we might have had has been progressively smothered by sensuality draped with arrogant irresponsibility. We don’t think; we feel. If it feels right, it’s the Lord’s working, and if it’s the Lord’s working, we can be proud of it. Pelosi lays it all out for us to see.If anything, Michael Linton has taken Alexandra Pelosi's polemic Friends of God and turned it into an introspective argument for humility. Certainly the watering down of the Gospel for pure attendance is an issue that affects many Christian places of worship in the modern age... except for those that hold to orthodox teachings in the face of heterodoxy. Somehow places of worship that believe something seem to do just fine. Monday, February 12, 2007Trailer... but not trash?I will readily admit that I am trailer-raised, on a farm, in Caroline County. A double-wide to be precise, with three bedrooms, two baths, a den, a living room, a dining room, eat-in kitchen, and a porch. Not a bad set up until you see the triple-wides with jacuzzis and such. But alas, a trailer is a trailer, and they all look the same. Drive by any trailer park and you see the same rusted out boxes we all see. Single wide, double wide, it's still a trailer, right? Some of these trailers are downright huge. And given the fact that affordable housing is such a terrible problem in high-density and high-growth localities, some people might assume that trailer parks are low-class and definitely not an option for them. Guess again... for $60,000 you can get something pretty darned classy: It may be a mobile home, but the Glassic Soho won’t be mistaken for any of the single-wides dotting trailer parks across the US. Developed by San Francisco architect and furniture designer Christopher Deam, it’s a sleek, modern alternative living space. At just north of $59,000 for the fully furnished house (wheels included), the Glassic costs at least $10,000 more than a typical trailer. But its target market — think Eames-loving design sophisticates — seems shocked by how cheap the 400-square-foot abode is. "We’re attracting a customer who says, ‘We wouldn’t buy anything else you sell, but we love this,'" explains Denise Walsh, a sales rep at Breckenridge, which manufactures the Glassic.Think it's an exaggeration? Check out some of these homes and tell me that straight out of college, you wouldn't consider one of these? Maybe the solution to affordable housing isn't in the housing, it's in the "affordable" part of the equation? With excellent designs like these and a creative developer, who knows? Sunday, February 11, 2007Google's Master PlanIt's a C-O-N-spiracy... You know, there has got to be a way to create your own conspiracy theories online, just by connecting the dots. Sort of a "Six Degrees of (fill in the blank)". For instance: (1) My brother Jason worked for... (2) the VP of Minor League Baseball, with connections to... (3) Major League Baseball, which is currently involved in... (4) A massive scandal involving the use of illegal drugs supplied by... (5) Drug dealers whose profits go to train in Columbia... (6) Terrorists affiliated with the IRA. Thus the genesis (and silliness) of the vast majority of conspiracy theories. Now repeat after me: Correlation does not imply causality... Saturday, February 10, 2007The Ward View: Riley’s Right, We are already at War with Iran.Ward Smythe and Jim Riley discuss the issue of Iranian IEDs being used against American soldiers in Iraq, with the point being summarized nicely by Riley: If this is true, then we are already at war with Iran and the battlefield is Iraq.Liberals soft on terrorism are already heaping scorn upon Rep. Eric Cantor's interview with Chris Matthews. Ward gives that idea the boot: Of course, Cantor did nothing of the kind. But when has the truth ever been an issue for Virginia Democratick bloggers?Of course, we could always ask the question of Democrats -- given the evidence that Iranians are arming, training, and reinforcing the insurgency in Iraq, pray tell, what would be their response?
Indeed. Hope those aren't documents in Sandy Berger's pocket. UPDATE: D.J. McGuire and James Young pile on and destroy what remains of the leftist argument. Friday, February 09, 2007Does Tim Kaine Even Matter Anymore?Mason Conservative says no, an interesting thought given that the only transportation plans being debated right now are Republican transportation plans... Thursday, February 08, 2007QandO: Zimbabwe’s continued descent into hellGreat article over at QandO regarding Zimbabwe's continued collapse from what was once the breadbasket of southern Africa to a "criminal oligarchy." To paraphrase McQ, Zimbabwe is comparable to Venezuela, without the oil revenue. Wednesday, February 07, 2007Air PelosiHey middle class... feeling the pressure of rising taxes, bloated bureaucraces, and sluggish economic growth? Just get on the Pelosi Plan and get the government to give you access to a big jetliner at taxpayer expense. Minority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri called it a "flying Lincoln Bedroom," and Rep. Patrick T. McHenry, North Carolina Republican, labeled the speaker's plane "Pelosi One."Did we mention that it would provide non-stop service to San Francisco? That's hilarious. Tuesday, February 06, 2007VCAP BlogVCAP has entered the blogosphere! Boaz and RuthWhile I was walking about Downtown Richmond (moreso to acclimate myself to the neighborhood around RPV), I walked into an antique store run by Boaz & Ruth: It's a vicious cycle. When someone is released from prison, they generally return to the old neighborhood, desperately hoping for a new life. But a decent job, a safe home and healthy relationships are hard to come by in a community weighed down by the very problems and issues that helped spawn the crime to begin with. You can't change a life without changing the community as well. That's what makes Boaz & Ruth so unique.Now I wasn't in Highland Park... at least I don't think I was in Highland Park, but I was somewhere along Main and 3rd. In any event, there were two wonderful people running the antique store yesterday, and a very expensive secretary against the back wall running for $7,000. Other neat items in the store, mostly donations and estate sales. If you're in and about Richmond, stop by. Now all I need to do is find a good bookstore nearby... World's Oldest Newspaper Goes DigitalFirst the L.A. Times, now the oldest newspaper on the world gives up the print for the digital age: For centuries, readers thumbed through the crackling pages of Sweden's Post-och Inrikes Tidningar newspaper. No longer. The world's oldest paper still in circulation has dropped its paper edition and now exists only in cyberspace. The newspaper, founded in 1645 by Sweden's Queen Kristina, became a Web-only publication on Jan. 1. It's a fate, many ink-stained writers and readers fear, that may await many of the world's most venerable journals.At some point in time, you wonder whether newsprint will go the way of parchment... and what happens then to the ideas and thoughts of everything you've ever put online? One bad server, one faulty keystroke, and the histoy of the last 10 years is gone. I read somewhere that if the U.S. Constitution had been printed on laserjet, in 50 years it would no longer be in existence. Both the ink and the paper would eventually degrade over time. E-mails and personal correspondence is even more fragile, especially if you consider how many e-mails you have archived from previous years (if at all). The end of an age is at hand. Of course, digital books were supposed to be all the rage as if we were in Star Trek or something, but there's something to a good hardcover book whose novelty can't be replaced. Check out the new Post-och website. Not exactly the worlds greatest, but certainly not the worst. Monday, February 05, 2007Apollo 11-17 PanoramaYou will spend 15 minutes of your life on this: Quicktime panoramic shots of the Apollo Moon landings. Plus, if you go to the top right, you can see other images from around the world as well. When I'm not working, I'm going to spend 15 minutes of my life on this site. Until then, I'm really bookmarking.... :) Why Showing Up is ImportantMatt Lewis gives an excellent example on why showing up really is 80% of life: This isn't an original concept: Why did Ross Perot address the Christian Coalition in 1996? He had to have known that his immediate audience -- the folks in the room with him -- would support Gary Bauer or Alan Keyes -- or whoever was running that year as the 'conservative' favorite. And while he knew the members in attendance wouldn't vote for him, he also knew that they would, at least, be respectful of him (they would applaud, etc.)That goes for just about everything, whether it's the Christian Coalition, a PTA meeting, or Sunday services. Iran: Giant achievements coming soonFebruary 11th is the day when Ahmedinejad says Iran's nuclear rights will be established. Hoo. Ray. Also in the article, Iranian scientists have claimed to have found an herbal cure for AIDS. It seems as if this week is the week where the Islamic Revolution took hold in Iran, so expect a litany of announcements from everyone's favorite dictator... Friday, February 02, 2007RTD: For Every Gamer There Should Be a GardenerI've written at length on this topic once before, but never from this perspective: Your respectful gardener might know a godawful lot about horticulture, aesthetics, flower-arranging, and whatnot. He might spend many a diverting hour puttering about in his (or her) garden, getting it just so. He might be positively evangelical about good and bad gardening practices. He might even corner people at cocktail parties and bore them to tears with soliloquies on the subject. But there's one thing he won't do: He won't climb over the stone wall onto his neighbor's property and rip up his neighbor's garden. Even if he could plant a better one, he knows he has no right to do so. It's simply not his garden to tend.I love playing wargames. Not the wargames in the sense of Doom, Wolfenstein, or Call of Duty. But wargames, the old Avalon Hill types where there are chits and counters, dice and rules, arguments over said rules, grand strategies and broken alliances. Mrs. Kenney on the other hand is not a wargamer. She is a gardener, and loves to spend time fixing up plants and making things grow. Our house has a litte courtyard (it's shaped like a C) that was a key selling point when we bought it, and already it has flowers while the rest of the yard depserately needs cleaning. Now I enjoy gardening too, especially when it consists of plants I can place, leave, forget about, and either harvest later or enjoy for many years. Peas and bulbs, that sort of thing. Which only leaves me more time for playing my little wargames! Or spending countless hours playing Civilization IV while my wife shakes her head. I have no problem with this, as even Jonathan and Matthew now are starting to ask questions and "play along". Multiplayer Civ IV is soon on the horizon. Sim City 4 is a good game as well... but there is a "deus ex machina" aspect to most of these games that allow the player to asume the role of the deus in the Sim City machine. Sim City always bothered me, mostly because there was simply no room for free market economics. Drop tax rates to nothing, and a city falls apart. Raise taxes, businesses thrive? Pfft. Almost nothing gets done unless someone (i.e. you) deems it necessary from on high, using taxpayer dollars to do it. So if you need a baseball stadium, you build it. Libraries? No one dontes it, you build it. Education? Better start raising taxes for the kids. At least in Civilization, there is a tradeoff for free market economics, and penalties for other systems. Sure you have to build libraries and universities still, but the populace builds them faster (or slower) depending on your tech rate and civics. I can accept that. But all of this diverges. What's the difference between gamers and gardeners? Bart Hinkle over at the RTD brings my rambling rant to a point in an opinion piece I will laminate and stick to the fridge, the difference between the god-like masters of Sim City environments and the deistic free-marketeers that are gardeners: OK, it's a simplistic analogy now beaten to within an inch of its life. The world's a complex place -- and it needs SimCity players to manage it.This is a great article everyone should get a chance to read. I'm sure it will be a conversation piece in the Kenney household this weekend. The Ward View: Friday Whine and CheeseA new feature over at The Ward View. Friday's Whine and Cheese, which reads more of a carnival of Democrat... Democratic... well, silliness. I really like this blog, for various and sundry reasons. Most of all because Ward holds no cows sacred. If this isn't on your aggregator, it should be. How 'bout those HOOS?!?!Virginia beats Duke 68-66 in OT. Outstanding!
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JEFFERSONIAD POLL: Whom do you support for Virginia Attorney General?1) John Brownlee2) Ken Cuccinelli AboutShaunKenney.com is one of Virginia's oldest political blogs, focusing on the role of religion and politics in public life. Shaun Kenney, 30, lives in Fluvanna County, Virginia.ContactThe Jeffersoniad
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