Beethoven - the original Deaf Jam

Checking for crack.

I'M HUNGRY!
I had a tooth pulled by the oral surgeon this morning and for 24 hours I'm restricted to a liquid diet. My mouth hurts, but why does that mean my stomach should suffer? The fact that I hammered a 15-mile ride this morning just before the appt. isn't helping.
Campbell's "Soup at Hand" is actually pretty good. Way too expensive per serving for normal use but in a situation like this it works well.

I heard most of the Mike & Mike interview with Roger Clemmens this morning. The bad news is that he didn't say anything new. So why did he seek (!) the interview? A: he's hired a new P.R. firm.
As a rule of thumb, if you need a P.R. firm to make you look less like a felon you've got serious problems.

Success!
Al will take a treat out of my hand. He's still hesitant but that will improve. And as soon as it does we'll start working on some behaviors. Nothing that needs to be eliminated, but I'd like to teach him how to open the fridge and bring me a Diet Coke.

The China earthquake was one year ago today. Seems longer than that. Maybe that's because we don't get news coverage about post-quake conditions and rebuilding.

The President's Automotive Task Force has mandated that GM close dealerships at a faster rate than originally planned - which was over several years. Seems reasonable in light of the fact GM is getting a whole lot of govt. money. But tomorrow a large group of GM dealers will be in D.C. to urge Pres. Obama to let the market decide which dealerships should close and when. After I read the article I was surprised. Turns out the dealers are independent businessmen who receive very little financial support from GM, and therefore aren't part of the drain on the corporation's bottom line. And 180,000 jobs are at stake. So why should the govt. mandate any dealership's closure?
Hmmm.

The President will be in town tomorrow night to speak at ASU's graduation ceremonies. Evening rush hour will not be a pretty sight for anyone who works anywhere near the airport.

I'm reading a lot about the hand-wringing among Republicans since the last election. According to almost everyone the GOP needs to find its identity, decide what it's going to be. Some think the Republicans took a beating because they moved away from their conservative base. Others think that base is the problem and the party needs to be more centrist. Limbaugh or Powell? Is Arlan Specter's defection a symptom of what's wrong or is it a healthy departure of what ails the GOP?

I read these articles for the same reason I watch sports on TV. Something about the competition, the strategizing, the out-sized personalities, etc. fascinates me. But these articles have spurred me to think about my own position on a policy grid.

That's tough because the issues are more complex than ever. So I'm trying to break it down into units. For example, I am a social conservative. I oppose abortion in every situation except when there's a clear threat to the life of the mother. I support the death penalty and see no contradiction between those two positions. Marriage is for a man and a woman, and while homosexuals should not be the objects of discrimination they also should not receive any special considerations. The freedom of religion is not freedom from religion. Gambling is an evil, and state-sponsored gambling has the govt. in the position of being intentionally dishonest with it citizens in order to take their money.
You get the idea.

Is the U.S. moving away from social conservatism? Was the GOP's poor showing attributable, in any significant degree, to a growing gap between the majority of Americans and the values of social conservatism? That's a very real possibility. We've watched that shift take place in European countries over the last several decades. If the countries of the EU are any predictor we'll soon be a very liberal country on issues of morality.
And if (!) that's the expected course of things is there anything that can be done to stem that tide?
Does the evangelical church bear a burden of responsibility in this regard?
Or is the evangelical church increasingly a part of the problem?