flagpundit

Paris Hilton energy plan is actually pretty "hot"

I thought the Paris Hilton response to the John McCain ad was brilliant.  Not sure if I should give her too much credit, but the fact that she (and her writers) responded so well is pretty impressive.   Wow, I never thought I’d say “Paris Hilton” and “impressive” in the same paragraph.

But it was.  Her energy policy is dead on, too.  Something McCain has not been able to vocalize.  In fact, something the GOP has not been able to vocalize.

Hell, even I didn’t vocalize it as well as Paris, sadly.

I’ll add to it, though.  Paris said we need offshore drilling to carry us over until the new technologies (wind, solar) can get up to speed.  Bravo, says I!

However, I would add to this that we need to start building new, better, safer, cleaner nuclear plants as well.  And the government would be justified in subsidizing the building of cleaner, safer coal plants as well.  It’s not like we’re going to up and stop using coal, so we might as well do it safely and as clean as possible.

(Mining, of course, will remain dangerous until better safety methods are adopted or enforced.)

Now hat tip in order to My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy which has this to say about Paris’s ad:

First, she picks at McCain a bit. That’s fair. He picked at her in his ad. She didn’t get nasty or mean. She poked and made fun. Then she makes it all about her in a positive way. She’s running for president now she guesses. Oh, and once she reads about the best place to tan, she has an oil plan. A plan that I will point out may not work, but already has more IQ behind it than Obama’s.

The saddest part of this is she shows more intelligence in this ad than Obama has ever shown. And she delivered it without notes or a teleprompter. Barack can’t do that! Now, I know the funny or die guys had their hand in it. But still, this is funny and quite frankly a nice distraction while the media pulls everything out to make Obama’s “inflate your tires and you’ll never have to fill up again” policy seem intelligent.

That’s exactly right.  Obama has not had one single good comeback.  He even denounced the New York Times cover, which was drawn to, you know, help him prove that the accusations against him (of being Muslim, of his wife being a terrorist, etc.) were BS.  He should have made it his own, like Paris did with this ad, rather than cry about it!  Come on, Barack, you’ve got the oratorical skills…now what about a sense of humor?

I have a more well-known blog NeoConstant but it’s somewhat of a cooperative blog, somewhat geared toward foreign policy, so I’ve decided to start The Flagstaffian as my more domestic, libertarian blog.  I’ll cross-post many articles to both, I imagine.

So just another blog to add to the list.  I also have The Daily Elephant, but it’s hosted at Wordpress.com which, in my humble opinion, restricts me too greatly.  I like having more control than the folks at Auttomatic give me.

So here’s my latest upstart start-up blog.  Let’s see if she flies…

So I’m going.  My mom paid for the flight which leaves Monday and gets back Wednesday.  I’ll get lots of reading/writing done as I will be spending numerous hours waiting around in airports.  One day in Montana for the funeral and to see everyone, many of whom I haven’t seen in years.  Perhaps, over a decade?  In any case, a long, long time.

I haven’t been to my hometown since I was in high school.  I think it’s been over ten years.

Flannery O’Connor wrote that a good man is hard to find.  She didn’t mean it like a lot of women mean it–not romantically.  She just meant that most men aren’t good.  Kind of takes a darker view of human nature, as I’m sure you know if you’ve ever read her brilliant, cynical, ironic writing.  “A Good Man is Hard to Find” was the inspiration for the Doors song “Riders on the Storm.”

You know, that bit about “a killer on the road…”

Well, I take a more positive view of humanity as a whole than Flannery did, but when it comes to mechanics it’s a whole new ballgame.  I think most mechanics are bad to the core.  At least most auto-mechanics.  I went in to Brake Masters (those freaking crooks!) and they tried to charge me over a $1000 for my brakes, my serpentine belt, and a number of other things that I didn’t quite understand, but that they said were quite urgent, quite important, quite necessary, and quite worth my hard-earned cash.

New rotors?  Again?  I can barely hear a squeak and you say I need new rotors?  Really?

Uhm…not this time.  I’ll take a second opinion, thanks.

Oh and thank God for references.  My wife’s friend recommended Pinnacle Automotive here in Flagstaff and it is truly night and day the difference between these guys and just about any other mechanic I’ve ever had the misfortune of doing business with.

$200 was the end result of that trip.  Brakes were fine.  Not only did I not need new rotors, I didn’t even need new pads.  Not only did my serpentine belt not need replacing, it was doing great.  The slimebuckets at Brake Masters said it probably wouldn’t last a month.

“He’s only got one month to live, sir, I’m so sorry.”  Bullshit.

There was a leak here, some dirt there, and it was all very easy and quick to fix.  They were friendly.  They were honest.  They were decent human beings.  Why is a good mechanic so hard to find?

I don’t know.  You probably don’t either.  But I found one.  Finally…

The funeral is on Tuesday in Montana, which is a bit of a distance from Arizona.  And work is so busy.  I’m not sure I can afford to make it.  I’m not sure what to do, feel, think at this point.

Tuesday is very soon…and then I was planning on taking time off for my daughter’s birthday.  We’re headed over to keep my mom company tonight, make hamburgers and play with the baby.  It’s hard to feel sad with that kid.  She’s so cute.

Speaking of which here she is one week before her first birthday…

So often life and death sit next to one another on the bus.  Like one comes to add contrast to the other.  One year after the birth of my daughter, my grandfather dies.  One soul enters, one soul exits.  Life changes.  Now my parents are grandparents.  I was a child, now I have my own.  Put away child’s things, they say.

Oh lord it’s hard.

My Grandpa Jim had a stroke a few months ago–a huge blood clot got jammed in his brain–which left him without much movement, almost no communication, and basically only the ability to eat liquids.  In the last photo I saw of him he looked like a concentration camp survivor.  He was always lanky, but in that photo he was so thin it honestly frightened me.

I’ve been trying not to think about it.  About him, and my Nana who must be just utterly devestated.

This afternoon my grandpa died.  He got a clot in his lungs and within a day he had passed away.  They said it might be fatal, but it happened so fast it was almost hard to believe.  It’s still hard to believe.  I love my grandpa and now I’ll never see him again.

I got home and wanted to tell my wife, but she had friends over.  They were going out–the first time in a long time my wife has gotten to go out.  So I held my tongue.  And you know, I was all prepared to cry.  To just let it out and sob.  But it’s so easy to fight that back when you’re under observation.  When strangers or acquaintances are nearby.

So they went out and I ate a whole pizza and I’m on my second beer, which these days is a lot for me.  I feel kind of numb.  I played some video games and tried not to think about it.  That’s probably wrong.  But sometimes you need to grieve in your own time, I suppose.

I enjoy being alone right now.  I enjoy the silence.

I called my mom and she sounded really beat up.  My dad’s in China, and I don’t know if he has even heard yet.  It’s horrible that they’re separated during this.  They need each other so badly right now, but they’re half a world away.  My mom’s going to Montana on Saturday.  Not sure if I’ll make it to the funeral, which is on the 4th of June.

My daughter turns one on the 6th.

She’s such a sweetheart, you’d never guess how sick she is in this video. And me along with her!