What I've never understood about Conservatives

  • April 16, 2011
  • James Skemp
I've never understood how conservatives can be anti-government, but also be for government intervention in regards to abortion, prostitution, gay/lesbian marriage/civil unions, video and movie ratings, marijuana, and etcetera. Of course liberals aren't necessarily pushing hard for some of these, but see a benefit to government that doesn't include making the above illegal (and enforcing those laws) and building up the miltary. Maybe it's the fact that some people are for legalizing and then taxing some of those items, and they're anti-new taxes?

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Countries that come to mind ...

  • April 10, 2009
  • James Skemp
When I think of Europe I think of the U.K., France, then Germany. What about Spain though? Moving east, Japan and China, followed by North Korea. I realize that India should be on the list, but it's not one that immediately comes to mind. Africa, as a whole, is not on the list; only bad things come to mind (AIDs and spammers/scammers). Same with Israel; isn't it bad that I think not of religiousness, but rather of constant war?

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Should Obama have a personal blog?

  • January 24, 2009
  • James Skemp
I work at the State Bar of Wisconsin, the membership of which elects a president every year. (Technically they elect a president-elect, but that's moot.) One of the things my co-workers and I (Rob and Dan) bounced off each other was a blog for the president-elect, for the three years they serve (president-elect, president, and outgoing (?)). With the Obama administration, I wonder if the time of weekly addresses is out, and the time of a more timely blog is in.

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Do you assume I'm a liberal because I wear Grateful Dead shirts?

  • November 19, 2008
  • James Skemp
I ran into a co-worker who suggested that I probably held a certain environmental view, because I was wearing a Grateful Dead shirt. While I knew it to be true, I'd never really thought that my political views too may be out there based upon the band t-shirt that I was wearing. Wearing Grateful Dead? Liberal. Wearing Bruce Springsteen? Liberal. Wearing Fleetwood Mac? Liberal. Billy Joel? That's probably liberal as well. My co-worker Rob (looks like his domain expired) was wearing a OS X shirt.

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President Obama

  • November 4, 2008
  • James Skemp
About 10 minutes ago Fox, CNN, NBC, and ABC showed Obama winning the election. After 2 disappointments ... it's hard to feel absolutely confident until there's 100% reporting, but I'm feeling pretty dang happy. :D

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Survey says: Top way to spend your unexpected day off

  • September 9, 2008
  • James Skemp
(Tongue firmly between teeth.)  In today's world, what do you think the best way is to spend a day off? Survey says: ... Working at your second job. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle does just a little worse ...

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Comment re: Go MIT!

  • August 12, 2008
  • James Skemp
I couldn't post this without creating an account, so ... This is in regards to this comment. Full post. I agree with montysimmons - the attack on George Washington was uncalled for. However, he makes an interesting point that they've been able to make the technology easy enough for someone from the 18th Century to understand and use. This is in fact better than saying "easy enough for a child to use," which may have been better, since even children use computers these days.

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What if gas cost $10 a gallon?

  • May 18, 2008
  • James Skemp
Shirley Skeel wrote an interesting article on MSN Money titled "What if gas cost $10 a gallon?" All-in-all, pretty interesting article. I don't know about anyone else, but I've been doing what I can to save money (ignoring the fact that I bought another monitor the other day), including using more energy efficient light bulbs in all of my sockets. But I wish my gas mileage was a bit better .

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Why do we elect judges?

  • March 14, 2008
  • James Skemp
This is the second Supreme Court judicial campaign that I've been aware of. However, the question is, why do Wisconsin citizens even vote for judges? If judges can't tell us how they would vote, why not just let them be elected by their own kind (whether that be judges or lawyers)?

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Romney: A vote for a democrat president aids a surrender to terror

  • February 7, 2008
  • James Skemp
Special edition over my lunch break ... It seems Mitt Romney, former presidential hopeful, has withdrawn from the race. Guardian Unlimited quotes him as such: "In this time of war I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror," he told the Conservative Political Action Committee As with the 2004 race, once again a Republican is stating that a Democrat president would result in the United States surrendering to terror (sadly, it doesn't look like that piece was moved over to the site, but I'll see if I can't dig it up and re-post it tonight).

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