Kim and Scott's Wedding

Kim and Scott got married on Saturday. Here are some of the pictures. BTW, I hope you guys are almost asleep by now. Oh and it turns out I think Simon took the dress inside the house. That or it improbably got stolen out of my truck. The first picture is just for Kelly since she wanted a photo of her name tag, so you may want to send her a link.

Hoʻomaikaʻi!

Have fun and a safe trip home :)

--Joey

Jeff Flake

You have to love this guy
--Joey

Midas Touch

I recently tried Dogfish Head's Midas Touch, which is a pretty unique "ale". The ingredients were determined based on residues found on bowls from Egyptian tombs. Saffron, White Muskat Grapes, Honey to name a few. This is "beer" (without hops, I think this falls under fermented malt beverage) bridges the gap between beer and sparkling wine. Very unusual, but recommended, at least in small doses.

--Joey

Buzzword demographics and New Coke

On November 7th 2006, Republicans not only lost, but lost their way. Twelve years after the 1994 Republican Revolution, we saw energetic idealists dissolve into Washington's lethargic bureaucracy. They came into office promising sweeping reforms: term limits, smaller government, and lower taxes. Today exit polling suggest voters now view Republicans as the party of big government.

They should have seen this coming. Conservatives felt like they no longer had a political party because their leaders listened to the media proclaiming the rise of new voting blocks. It was a race to target "Security Moms", "Nascar Dads", "Walmart voters", and the like.

Republicans did not learn the lessons of Coca Cola. When Pepsi appeared to be gaining too much ground too quickly, they subsituted a New Coke for Classic Coke only to see it drown it in its own hype. Shortly thereafter, Classic Coke returned to great success. So perhaps in 2008 we will see a return to fiscal conservancy and with it, a new era for Classic Republicanism.

--Joey

What third party?

Every election cycle we hear two things about third parties:

1.) We need one desperately
2.) Pulling the handle for one is throwing your vote away

What is never clear is, what third party is it that we need? To say that we need a party suggests that there is an ideology that is being unrepresented by Republicans and Democrats*. If the call for third parties is anything but philosophical, the voter is simply confusing the need for different elected officials.

The problem with this is (see point two) that most 3rd parties are more like the fringes of the main two. Constitutional (Republican), Libertarian (a little of each) and Green (Democrat). There are others of course, but only the previous three were on enough ballots in 2004 to qualify as "electable" from an electoral college point of view.

So what group needs representation? In my opinion, only Authoritarians.

The Democrats and Republicans are forced into bigtent policies. After all, if you are running for office in a two party system you need 51% of the public to support you. Every two years, in each race, each of the candidates accuse the other person of being who they claimed they were a couple of months earlier to get past the primary process. Hardline positions work on the base, but do not wash well with independents. As such there are many factions within each of the two parties, including, yes, authoritarians.

While both parties share that element, a large voting block of the Democratic base is authoritarian; the Black (and Hispanic to lesser extent) vote. That wing of the base is likely to agree with Jerry Falwell on social issues and Ted Kennedy on fiscal ones.

There are also those who are drawn to the GOP because of religious reasons and do not put as much stock in laissez faire capitalism (pun absolutely intended). For example, they may support government backed subsidies or unions.

So how would the vote shake out if we had a moderate Libertarian party and moderate Authoritarian (the name would have to change obviously--statist)?

--Joey

*Maybe I should say "Conservative and Liberal" instead of Republican and Democrat.