Things I've done and said that have surprised people in the last couple months

• Publicly commented that the Clinton administration wasn't a disaster. Taken as a whole, I'd take four more years of WJC over four more years of Jimmy Carter.


• Bush was something of a disappointment as a president. I should have expected it, though - the whole "compassionate conservatism" thing really rubbed me wrong.


• I switched my voter regisration to the Democratic Party this year. I'm in good company there, I know. Still, it surprised me.


• Refused to give John McCain more support than at the ballot box. I don't want a yard sign or a bumper sticker, and have no plans to contribute to his campaign. This after going to see Bush in person in 2004, and sporting a Bush/Cheney bumper sticker and pin for four years.

Woo-hoo (Or, watch this space please)

A personal record: six months without posting.

I'm not dead. I'd like to think this site isn't either. This is me developing the motivation to come back and post.

This used to be me

Not so much anymore.

The Republicans in Congress haven't done a lot right in the last six years

But they did this much, at least.

Power Line: SCHIP veto override fails in House

Why don't we just tax the poor and give it to the middle class?

If a republican came up with that gem of an idea, he'd get the kind of press that... republicans usually get. But when a democratic congress comes up with it, they're courageous for standing up for the underprivileged. Yeah, right.

S-CHIP is the supposedly state-funded children's health insurance program. But the fact is it's supported very heavily by the federal government, and - I believe - administered by the states. The program is used to pay for health care for children whose families are above the poverty level but still have trouble buying insurance. The program has been around since 1997, and was authorized by Congress then as a 10-year program. But it's a program designed to make the states - and the citizens - increasingly dependent on Washington.

States receive a 2:1 (or better) match in federal funds for every dollar spent, encouraging them to spend the maximum in fat years and making it extremely painful to cut in lean years. This is a reasonable compromise for most people, when you consider two details:

• S-CHIP is capped by law, unlike Medicaid
  
• The program is meant to protect those left outside the safety net of Medicaid. Currently limited to children in families making 2x the federal poverty level
  

I don't mean to oversimplify. There's plenty to make everyone uncomfortable with the existing S-CHIP program. And certain provisions are just a joke. But the bill the President vetoed would raise the cap which makes the program palatable and expand the program beyond the group for whom it was intended. There's no doubt that this is the opening legislative salvo in the democrats' war for universal health coverage, and President Bush was right to take a stand here - for a host of reasons.

First, the bill more than doubles the federal budget for the program over ten years, to $60 billion. At the same time, it raises the income cap to 4x the federal poverty level, which would make a family of 4 making $82,500 eligible for government assistance.

That's not even the kicker. The plan is to add a 61-cent tax to a pack of cigarettes to pay for the increase, and the cost of that tax will be disproportionately borne by the poor. So the idea here - as I understand it - is to expand the program by making it available to people who are less needy and by raising taxes on the poor. I guess you can justify anything with the phrase "but it's for the children".

So a veto for this bill is exactly what it deserved as a matter of good fiscal policy and good politics. But as I said earlier, this is just the opening salvo in the war. The House vote was 15 republican votes short of overriding the veto, virtually guaranteeing that it will die - in which case the spin will be that the evil republicans killed a bill to give health care to people who don't have it, regardless of the details. And they will take that spin straight into the election season. If enough republicans cave to the pressure to pass the bill, then the narrative will be that The People overwhelmingly want government-provided health care, without regard for cost or quality.

Now is the time for the leading republican presidential candidates to begin laying down their specific plans as to how health care can be reformed without nationalizing more of it or over-regulating it. If they're not ready to do that, they might as well save their campaign money for 2012.

Some pet peeves:

1. Seeing their, there, and they're used interchangeably.
2. Ditto your, you're (and yore?, well maybe not)

and this one, I noticed today:

3. People who don't know the difference between "ten times more than" and "ten times as much as".

And yet when people say nuklear, it doesn't bug me at all. Go figure.

My wife suggests Christmas letters which don't include spell-check. And newscasters who refer to the police as cops, or refuse to refer to POTUS by his title.

HP

Took the older kids to see Order of the Phoenix last night. The movies always let me down to a certain extent. Few of the actors carry the roles as well as I hope, and there just isn't time in a commercial feature to give proper attention to the details that make the books worth reading. But that's just me nitpicking. The books are still perceived, I think, primarily as children's literature. The movies are made to keep children's attention. They mostly underestimate the audience.

Regarding the books, my wife scored tickets to the local library's release party for Book 7. I think everyone there got a copy of the book to take home for an unheard of 4 week loan on a new book. I brought the older two, who've been reading them with me for about four years now. (They go back and reread them independently after we've finished each book together. I think our daughter has read the first book a half dozen times.) It was a good time, and the library did a great job building up the mood.

I came down with strep the weekend the book came out, though, and took several days off after the second chapter. Then we had a cousin visiting for several days, so I haven't gotten the book out again yet. I know from history that limiting our reading of a 700-page book to nights when we don't have any other family obligations tends to make it drag on and on. There's no way we'll be finishing that book before it's due. Probably lucky if it's done by Christmas. But yes, I know who dies and who Dumbledore was right to trust. I had to know, and on my own terms, so I went looking for it rather than endure months of having to walk out of the room whenever it came up, only to have it spoiled by someone in the week before I was to finish the book. For the sake of those of you who may still be holding out, I'll respect your choice, and I ask that any readers do the same.

Eight things

I was tagged by Scott over at Ah, Shoot!. And I don't usually do these at all, but for as infrequently as I post it was nice to be remembered at all, so in no particular order:

I am

1. something of a technophile. I like more of those things than I can afford. The ones that cost money and the ones that waste time.

2. a formerly avid comic book collector/reader. Never bought them for value, just for entertainment. I still have about three big boxes in the basement, I think, for when the kids show some kind of interest (and are old enough).

3. a major math geek. Probably not so different from Defiant Infidel, but my tool of choice is Mathcad.

4. an insufferable procrastinator (which you know if you've been here twice in a month and seen that I haven't posted in between).

5. a huge political and economics junkie. I believe firmly that the American experiment has been as successful as it has due to the unique combination of laissez-faire economics, democratic thought, plus belief in a divine Creator.

6. stubborn. Wow. Yes, I am.

7. at a new employer as of last month. Twelve years at the old place, but I got an opportunity that was too good to pass on.

8. going on vacation in a few weeks, but don't worry. Irregular posting will not be noticeably affected.

My personal favorite suggestion:

So Nancy Pelosi apparently has asked people to submit alternative neutral connotation words which could be substituted for earmarks.

Over at Captains Quarters, Ed Morrissey held a poll to determine the best word to convey the meaning, though something tells me Madam Speaker wouldn't have liked any of the alternatives the CQ readers had put forward.

The winner was Congressional Resource Allocation Protection (CRAP), but my vote went to Timely House Endorsed Payments Hidden from Taxpayers (THEPHT).

Whaddya know!

The other night I got the all-too-rare opportunity to spend a little time with the older son: lobbing some pitches to him and helping him work on his swing. He's in coach-pitch this year, and he's spent a few games now feeling like he'll never be able to hit the ball. I know, because I've been there.

We spent about the first half-hour working off a tee, practicing good swing mechanics and showing how a good stance can make a big difference in the swing. We kept working on his swing until I thought he looked comfortable and appeared to know what he was doing. Turns out he knew better than I'd given him credit for.

After I started lobbing him some pitches, he asked if he could switch hands. I was a little bit reluctant, since we had spent all that time on the right side, but we had time, and it couldn't hurt.

So I helped him line up with the "plate" and quickly reviewed the stance and mechanics of the swing. He swung the bat a couple times, and we were ready to go. Not only was he suddenly connecting with the ball , but he was now hitting it further after a couple swings on the left side than he had after a month of (admittedly sporadic) practice on the right side!

He said he felt more comfortable on the left, so I told him to go ahead and try that side during the next game. Last night, he had three at-bats.

His first time up, the coach told him to go back to the right side, but at seven years old he didn't have any problem telling the coach he knew what he was doing. He struck out, but he got a surprised compliment from the coach on his form.

Second time up to bat, he actually connected with the ball! It was short, and went foul on the first base side, but he made it to base before letting them send him back. For the third at-bat he managed a foul tip.

I don't know if he'll end up still batting left at the end of the season. But he did get a taste of what it will feel like when he finally gets his first hit. And something tells me, he believes he can do it.