There’s something inexplicable that happens to a woman when she becomes a mother. I guess it’s probably best explained as an instinctive response to protect their young. But, I’ve found that this instinct or whatever it is doesn’t diminish or go away when the kids grow up. Even if your baby is six feet tall, when he is under attack the old mama grizzly rears up without even thinking.

That’s what happened when I saw that #1 Son twittered about this Republican Party Platform plank:

Homosexual Acts
We support the clear will of the people of Montana expressed by legislation to keep homosexual acts illegal.

Here comes the she-bear.

What the hell were they thinking? More to the point – who the hell came up with this piece of vile, hateful stupidity? And what, pray tell, might this “legislation” be that is so clearly supported by the people of Montana? No specific reference is mentioned in the Platform. Might it be a Koopman plan (whispered directly into his ear by God, of course) to round up all the gays in the state and ship them off to concentration camps ala Hitler? Gosh, Roger – are you sure that’s such a popular proposal? Or could it be something equally bizarre and sinister that’s being shared only by the chosen few homophobic, uneducated, religious zealots who still think that the Spanish Inquisition was a great time in the annals of Western history and Torquemada a real swell guy?

And how many otherwise rational conservatives thought that criminalizing a whole class of people was such a cool idea that they supported and voted in favor of this abomination that would have our government willy-nilly breaking down bedroom doors?

I am a Republican, and generally speaking, proud of my party and what it stands for. Not this. This is beyond unacceptable. As a conservative, I’ve always felt that what any consenting adult does in private is none of my business and certainly nothing that “small government” needs to regulate. As long as you don’t do it on Main Street and scare the horses, I really don’t need to know about it. And I sure as hell don’t need to have my tax dollars pay to police it.

In a time of serious economic crisis, this kind of absurd posturing is not only unnecessary, it’s completely counterproductive. When our candidates should be carrying a message of fiscal responsibility and job creation, sound energy and resource development, the mental midgets behind this idiocy have now offered the Democrats a huge weapon with which to deflect the debate and wage a successful attack focusing on an issue that has no place in the arena of conservative ideas. In an election where our party should have the upper hand on the issues that matter, we could end up losing some swing seats simply because of this one sentence.

This statement of our party’s official position is breathtakingly offensive to many good republicans; I am not the only one who objects – ” This is the criminalization of the private lives of consenting adults. I am embarrassed such language was approved.”

Yes, I am ashamed of my party. Very ashamed. And angry. And hurt. There is no room in my party for this kind of short-sighted, hypocritical, mean-spirited, asinine activism. As the parent of a gay child, I have witnessed, first-hand, the unwarranted, bigoted attacks from small-minded, loud-mouthed jerks, and I have no intention of participating in an effort to promote or condone any legislation that is intended to endorse or support such attitudes.

I certainly never expected that the Montana Republican Party would become a branch of the Westboro Baptist Church and I, for one, won’t be a party to it. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

First it was the dotcom bubble. Then the Wall Street and housing bubbles. Is the education bubble next?

To be honest, I hadn’t realized there was such a thing as an “education bubble”. As the parent of three young adults, I can personally attest to experiencing the inflationary trend in higher education. Heck, we’re still helping our youngest pay back her student loans. But something I read last week got me thinking about it, and then I did a little more research. Just Google it yourself – over 57 million hits. Obviously there’s something out there, even if it’s still flying mostly under the radar.

Okay – so exactly just what is this “Education Bubble”? Basically, it refers to the concept of the increasing cost of higher education that has been nurtured by a societal belief in the unarguable value of a college degree at any cost compounded by the availability of easy credit. If you’ve spent any time surfing the net, you’ve seen the ads offering thousands of dollars in student loans to low-income adults and even homeless people. Like that’s a real smart risk on its face.

The chart above certainly illustrates the cost component of the equation. “How high can it go?”, you may be thinking? Who knows – but that’s not the part that should concern you most. Oh, no – it’s the Department of Labor’s one sentence prediction that should raise the red flags about the coming collapse – “Over the next decade, there will be fewer new jobs requiring college degrees than there will be new college graduates.” Dang. That old supply/demand thing rears its ugly head.

From Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit:

The money and time you spend on college matters. College education is so universally viewed as such a great investment that the cost and its return on investment get too little scrutiny. The statistics that trumpet the value of college are generalized in ways that tend to obscure the reality. A typical statistic cited is “the expected life time earnings of a bachelor’s college graduate are $2.1 million and the expected lifetime earnings of a high-school (only) graduate are $1.2 million (Day and Newburger, 2002)”. This statistic, while impressive, ignores many other factors. When a student borrows large amounts of money to finance a poorly planned education, he or she can be put at a big disadvantage for many years to come. The availability of student loans, grants, and other financial aid has made college education possible for many more people than ever before. However, the availability of this money has created a large group of people who borrow carelessly with little or no planning, and without setting realistic goals or objectives.

It’s not unusual to hear of recent college graduates with $100,000 and more in student loans unable to find a job that pays more than $10-15/hr., with little prospect for advancement anytime soon. The average cost of a degree from U of M, MSU, or MSU-B in 2009 was over $75,000. And there aren’t a whole bunch of high-paying entry level jobs just waiting around for a new grad to step into. It’s tough to live on even $30 grand a year when the student loan payment is over $500 per month.

So why has the cost of a college education gotten more expensive?

A recent Money magazine report notes: “After adjusting for financial aid, the amount families pay for college has skyrocketed 439 percent since 1982. … Normal supply and demand can’t begin to explain cost increases of this magnitude.” Consumers would balk, except for two things. First — as with the housing bubble — cheap and readily available credit has let people borrow to finance education. They’re willing to do so because of (1) consumer ignorance, as students (and, often, their parents) don’t fully grasp just how harsh the impact of student loan payments will be after graduation; and (2) a belief that, whatever the cost, a college education is a necessary ticket to future prosperity.

Bubbles burst when there are no longer enough excessively optimistic and ignorant folks to fuel them. And there are signs that this is beginning to happen already.

Here’s the real question for us – what does this mean for Montana’s university system and for our current crop of high school students? Should the Board of Regents start trimming back some of the “Do you want fries with that?” college courses and focus on the degree programs that offer a reasonable return on investment for the cost of the education? Should we, as taxpayers, start getting serious about demanding our K-12 schools actually teach students the basics so that colleges aren’t forced to include remedial classes as a standard part of the freshman curriculum? Should we, as a society, begin to admit that not every kid has the aptitude or mental ability for college? Should we, as adults, finally admit the the purpose of a basic education is to provide students with the skills necessary to earn a living and provide for themselves and their families – and maybe start evaluating our investment in public education not in terms of cost, but rather in terms of value – to the student and to society?

Should we, as Montanans, maybe do something proactive to prevent the bubble from bursting and ruining the future for a generation of our kids?

This idiot is the product of the American public school system. From her official biography:

Peggy West was elected 12th District Supervisor in 2004 and, after being reelected in 2008, is serving her second term representing 50,000 residents on Milwaukee’s south side. She currently serves as 2nd Vice-Chair on the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. Supervisor West also has the unique distinction of being the first Latino/Hispanic American to be elected to the Milwaukee County Board.

Supervisor West grew up in Milwaukee and graduated with a degree in Human Services from the Milwaukee Area Technical College.

The taxpayers of Milwaukee’s south side should demand a refund on their taxes.

It’s pretty well known that most military personnel tend to be largely conservative, but last year President Obumbles managed to find the one general who voted for him in 2008 and promptly installed him as the commander in Afghanistan. Of course, he-who-would-be-PresidentoftheWorld then dithered around and dissed the general a couple of times publicly before finally giving him some – but not all – of the troops the general requested in order to get the job done.

Seems like the relationship between the General and the Commander in Chief may have gone downhill following their little Come to Jesus meeting on Air Force One, and Stan may be busted back to private in the next day or two.

I’m pretty sure that most military officers are informed about the teeny section of the code that advises them that speaking ill in public about the civilian leadership is frowned upon (Art. 88 UCMJ) – but then again maybe there’s a separate school at the War College for liberal generals where they leave this part out. Who knows? They get their weird ideas from somewhere after all. Perhaps it’s just a case of two passive-agressive personalities clashing. Whatever.

One thing’s for sure – General McChrystal sure understands guerrilla warfare – because he just snuck up and lobbed another huge IED at the White House. And although it may cost him a few stars, the good general may end up being one of this country’s greatest military heroes.

Stick around for the after-action and mop-up. The body count and collateral damage might just be interesting.

Well, the ink has dried on Tuesdays returns, and while there is still much to be reviewed, analyzed, and debated, there is apparently one overarching theme that is emerging – here in Montana as well as around the country: Americans, in general, and Republicans, more specifically, owe this president a huge debt of gratitude.

Yep. You read that right. Thank you very much, Barack Obama – we couldn’t have done it without you!

I received this message today and it pretty well spells out the silver lining:

1. It was just two years ago he destroyed the Clinton Political Machine – driving a stake thru the heart of Hillary’s presidential aspirations – something that no Republican was ever able to do. (Remember when a Hillary presidency scared the daylights out of you?)

2. He killed off the Kennedy Dynasty – no more Kennedy’s trolling Washington looking for booze and women wanting rides home. American women and Freedom are safer than they’ve been in years!

3. He is destroying the Democratic Party before our eyes:
Dennis Moore had never lost a race – quit
Evan Bayh had never lost a race – quit
Byron Dorgan had never lost a race – quit
Harry Reid – soon to be GONE
These are just a handful of the Democrats whose political careers Obama has destroyed! By the end of 2010 dozens more will be gone.

In December of 2008 the Democrats were on the rise. In the last two election cycles they had picked up 14 senate seats and 52 house seats. The press was touting the death of the Conservative Movement and the Republican Party. In just one year, Obama put a stop to all of this and will probably give the house and possibly the senate back to the Republicans.

He has completely exposed liberals and progressives for what they are.

He has brought more Americans back to conservatism than anyone since Reagan. In one year he has rejuvenated the Conservative movement and brought out to the streets millions of Freedom Loving Americans. Name me one other time in your life that you saw your friends and neighbors this interested in taking back America!

His amazing leadership has sparked the greatest period of sales of firearms and ammunition this country has seen. Law abiding citizens have rallied and have provided a “stimulus” to the sporting goods field while other industries have failed, faded, or moved off-shore.

In all honesty one year ago I was more afraid than I have been in my life. Not of the economy but of the direction our country was going. I thought Americans had forgotten what this country was all about. My neighbors, friends and strangers proved to me that my lack of confidence of the Greatness and Wisdom of the American people was flat wrong.

When the American People wake up no smooth talking teleprompter reader can fool them! Barack Obama woke up these Great Americans!

Here in Montana, almost twice as many Republicans voted in the primary as Democrats. We haven’t seen that in about a month of Sundays.

Again I want to say Thank You Barack Obama! This is exactly the kind of hope and change we desperately needed.

H/T to my buddy BH

In case you haven’t heard this one yet… (Trust me – it’s not your regular political ad!)

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