The Conservative Reader

Art Smith August 7th, 2008

Today was the first day of the Iowa State Fair.  I had intended to participate in the early morning event (but slept in instead) to break the record for the most corn-dogs eaten by the most people at the same time in the same place.  Sounds like it was a rip-roaring success, with over 15,000 people showing up, only 10,000 of which were able to enter the Grand Stand, and I’m not sure, but I think only about 8,400 corn-dogs were available.  We listened to the actual “Chomp!” on the radio, and it sounded like a lot of fun!

All 15,000 or so were admiteed to the fair for free.  By late this afternoon, I was still meeting people who had been there since the beginning of the day.  I spoke to a co-worker who had actually gotten a corn dog, who said when they handed it to her it was hot, but by the time they actually were ready to eat them, they had gotten kind of cold.

I arrived at the fair grounds to find the parking lots full, and parked instead on someone’s lawn for a dollar less than the fair grounds lot… and when I left it was much easier to get out as well!  I told the young lady collecting money for the parking that I would have gladly paid $20.  :)

So, I worked at the Republican Party of Iowa booth at the Varied Industries Building.  It was a great pleasure to meet some many people from around Iowa!  And a number of people shared some very strong opinions about the Presidential Election… although I had a couple of people who were still not willing to vote for McCain (nor Obama, by the way) most were extremely enthusiastic about getting McCain this fall.

It was a real pleasure to meet incoming Republican National Committee Woman Kim Lehman’s father, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey’s parents, and US House District 3 Representative Steve King’s sister-in-law.  I had a nice chat with US House District 3 Republican candidate Kim Schmett’s wife Connie (who is also his campaign manager) and US House District 2 Republican candidate Dr. Marrianette Miller-Meeks.

I also got a chance to meet and thank several members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.  I spent some time with Lee (whose last name I missed) who served in Viet Nam as a Navy Seal, and is a big-time barbeque master (he has 3 big smokers!).  It was neat to hear him share about some of the people he has met, served with, and the work that the VFW is doing.  If you see any of these folks, you be sure and thank them too!

It’s really great to see so many people who are passionate about the state of our nation and want desparately to see the right kind of leadership in Washington!

Tomorrow, John McCain will be speaking at the Des Moines Register Soap Box at 10:30 AM.  We plan to be there to see what he has to say.

Lastly, I had to try the all-new Pineapple-on-a-stick!  A pineapple spear with a stick through it, deep-fat-fried in funnel-cake batter, and covered with a little liquid sugar.  It sounds like it might be too rich, but I thought it was awesome!

Tags: barbeque, Bill Northey, Bill Northy, Connie Schmett, Corn-dog record breaker, Des Moines Register Soap Box, Dr. Marrianete Miller-Meeks, Iowa State Fair, John McCain, Kim Lehman, Kim Schmett, Pineapple-on-a-stick, Steve King, Veterans of Foreign Wars, VFW

• 2008 Congressional Election , 2008 Presidential Election , Iowa , Iowa Politics , Iowa State Fair , John McCain , Military , Uncategorized
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Art Smith July 22nd, 2008

Tonight I attended my first Polk County (Iowa) Republican Central Committee meeting. I have never been at this level of politics (okay, 2008 continues to be a year of firsts for me in local politics), and it was more interesting than I expected.

I won’t get into a lot of details about the meeting, except that it was half speeches (which was good, actually) and half business. Fund-raising is definitely a high priority for the party, along with voter turnout.

I was impressed with the variety of people there, various ages, ethnicities, and walks of life. We definitely have a party with a cross-section of the community that takes the time to participate.

Just to clarify, the Central Committee is made up of as many as 2 people from each precinct in the county (I am one of two from my precinct). We could have over 300 people in the room if every precinct were fully represented… I would estimate we had about 80 people or so there.

My other precinct representative is the chairman of the Organization Committee, which is responsible for building up the Central Committee membership and overseeing the absentee-ballot availability effort.

I got a chance to speak briefly with Jonathon Narcisse, an outspoken member of the Des Moines School Board. I appreciate the fact he is focused on understanding and resolving the issues we have with poor graduation rates in Des Moines. In the few minutes that I spoke with him, I could tell he is very well knowledgeable about education issues and the needs of students and parents.

I also made contact with Kim Schmett, who is running against Leonard Boswell for US House Iowa District 3.
I’m hoping we can get an interview setup soon. If you have questions for Kim Schmett, please leave comments on this post or email me.

A few Iowa General Assembly candidates were on hand, including Larry Disney, Chris Sanger, Chris Hagenow, and Erik Helland.  So far, Erik is unopposed (evidently, there’s 2 weeks left to close that up).  All four gave a very brief speech, mostly encouraging the efforts to get the vote out.

So, a question I hope some might ask is, how to do you get on a Central Committee or somehow involved to help your local organization? Simple answer: contact your county party office and tell them you are interesting in participating. Different groups will work different ways, but starting with the phone call is pretty much all it takes.

Tonight was a great experience, and the work of the next few months volunteering to impact the community directly in bringing out the vote will be very interesting.

Tags: Central Committee, Chris Hagenow, Chris Sanger, Des Moines School Board, Erik Helland, Grassroots, Iowa, Iowa General Assembly, Jonathon Narcisse, Kim Schmett, Larry Disney, Organization Committee, Polk County, Republican

• 2008 Congressional Election , 2008 Local Elections , 2008 Presidential Election , Grassroots , Iowa , Iowa Politics , Republican Party , Uncategorized
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Art Smith June 28th, 2008

When I was in college, my first major was Psychology. I was planning to become a counselor like psychologist in my high school who helped me work through some issues (sure, not all of them, but you should have seen me then). One semester was enough to tell me this was not my field. A lot of work was done to reach conclusions that just seemed too obvious to me, and although I do respect those that work in the field to serve the needs of individuals, the overarching view by some that psychology/psychiatry provides a method for improving society is tenuous in my mind.

And so today I find in one of my favorite weekly columns in the Wall Street Journal, the “Five Best” (five books recommended by someone of interest and covering a common topic) to be offered by Paul McHugh, a professor at Johns Hopkins University. The books mentioned are touted as “factions and follies of psychiatry”. Sadly, I could not find an electronic posting of the list at wsj.com.

Interesting in that his list focuses on Psychiatry, which is the medically related segment of the spectrum (so, surgery, drugs, etc.). I’m sure there are similar lists related to Psychology (more counseling related), but this list is fairly interesting.

1. Great and Desperate Cures: The Rise and Decline of Psychosurgery and Other Radical Treatments for Mental Illness by Eliot S. Valenstein. This book reviews the history of the use of lobotomy as a form of treatment.
2. In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity by Daniel J. Kevles. Covers the the history of Eugenics, especially in the early part of the 20th century. Includes reference to Buck v Bell, Nazi work in this field prior to the mass extermination of Jews, and the current efforts in screening for genetic defects and using abortions to manage genetic purification even in the 21st century.
3. Remembering Trauma by Richard J. McNally. This book covers the topic of repressed memories, and the popularity of this now heavily disputed form of diagnosis and associated treatment.
4. Stolen Valor by B. G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley. Uncovers the political and popular drivers behind how Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder became such a widely diagnosed and treated malady even for those that never faced combat. Not to take away from the impact that facing war and death day-to-day has on people, but to bring some understanding to the political anti-war drivers that are tending to over state this impact.
5. Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens by Susan A. Clancy. This book provides details around a study by the author to understand why so many people believed they needed treatment as a result of being abducted by aliens. Interesting to see how easy it might be to convince people of this.

Take a look. I plan to purchase all 5 this week… might take a while to read through. Without a doubt, this looks like a good set of content to see many of our historical mistakes in trying to manage society with psychology/psychiatry. Again, not intending to criticize the disciplines as a whole, just to see where our desire to control through any means can lead to disastrous failure.

Updated: Reader Richard Perlman, obviously more adept at finding content on the Wall Street Journal web site, graciously provided me with the link to Paul McHugh’s Five Best reviews.  Thanks, Richard, for the assistance!

Tags: B. G. Burkett, Books, Daniel J. Kevles, Elliot S. Valenstein, Five Bes, Glenna Whitley, Paul McHugh, Psychiatry, Psychology, Richard J. McNally, Susan A. Clancy, Wall Street Journal

• Books , Eugenics , Psychiatry , Psychology , Uncategorized , society
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Art Smith June 26th, 2008

Thank goodness, albeit another split decision, the court came through with a good decision. In DC v Heller, the court ruled in favor of gun ownership. We discussed this case back when arguments wrapped up in April. For those of you that are sure to argue that my position yesterday was that the court should have stayed away from the state’s right to legislate on the death penalty, one must understand that there are significant differences here.

One (death penalty) has to do with the meting out of punishment, which is certainly addressed in the 8th amendment.  For that reason, the court certainly has a role in ensuring that the 8th Amendment is not abrogated.  In Kennedy v Louisiana, however, the case does not appear to me to offend the 8th Amendment.

In DC v Heller, the 2nd Amendment is directly attacked by the DC law.

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Infringed this right has been by DC, which is not a state and therefore enjoys existence in a special class, but nonetheless should not have be allowed to remove the right to bear arms from its citizens.

Of course, the court has essentially set the same process and issue in motion in both cases, that is, finding against the legislated laws which it believes (wrongly and rightly in my opinion) are unconstitutional.  The impact will be substantial review and representing of new cases in the future which may create a bigger mess as the court’s makeup will certainly change before too long… the question is in which direction will it sway?

Great conversation at Sister Toldjah, BitsBlog, McGehee, SCOTUSBlog, Michelle Malkin, TownHall, Stop the ACLU, and Hot AIr.

Tags: 2nd Amendment, 8th Amendment, Bill of Rights, D.C. v. Heller, death penalty, Kennedy v Louisiana, Right to Bear Arms, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, US Constitution

• 2008 Presidential Election , Featured , Gun Control , Rights , SCOTUS , Second Amendment , Uncategorized
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Art Smith June 23rd, 2008

It looks like the hubbub about Obama and the fake presidential seal is over, at least for now.  I hadn’t had a chance to comment on it until today, and I was surprised not so much because the act of using this seal was essentially illegal (although we’ll probably never get a chance to have that vetted in the courts), but because it was just so immature.  There are days I wonder whether people have any proper seriousness left when it comes to things like the office of the President, or if we’ve become so accustomed to the excess of inane humor and blustering anger that we we’re unable to behave in a respectful manner any longer.

Thanks to David at BitsBlog!

Tags: 2008 Presidential Election, Barack Obama, BitsBlog, Fake Presidential Seal

• 2008 Presidential Election , Barack Obama , BitsBlog , Uncategorized
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Thomas Laryea March 8th, 2008

I will strongly recommend that our readers to take a look at the cover story of Newsweek’s March 10 edition . It is a great story about the late Mr. William F. Buckley.  You will find additional articles from various contributors also in this edition.  It will be quite an understatement to say that with the passing of Mr Right,  conservatives have lost a staunch supporter.

Those of you who have any of numerous books will attest to his tremendous talent. Here is a guy who could write a column in twenty minutes. It takes me a few days sometimes to write a post here because I allow myself to be distracted by events happening around me as I write.  For example, I had planned to write this piece as soon as I plucked the magazine out of my mailbox this past Monday. Here I am almost a week later putting it together. What happened you asked? Well, I read the article and proceeded to read other related articles.  Before I knew it, the days had flown by and I had not even started putting my thoughts on paper.

Anyway, I digress. Please clink on any of the links in this piece and read about THE RIGHT GUY and let me know you impressions about the Real Conservative. Thanks.  

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Thomas Laryea January 24th, 2008

A couple of days ago, I expressed concern about our nation’s economy. You will recall  from an article  I posted here I worried about our nation’s business running to foreign countries looking for more capital to prop up their companies.  Evidently, the President and Congress believe that additional help won’t hurt.

The New York Times reports on its website that a tentative deal has been reached to send much needed cash to tax payers to help alleviate the credit crunch that the majority of the population is facing. Half a loaf is better than no loaf at all so I am hoping that the majority of receipients would take this as a “hand up” and not a handout.

This national “hand up” is coming to current taxpayers and is also income-based so the more you make the less you will get. Personally, I appreciate the fact that our government is coming to the rescue of our economy. If our economy struggles, the rest of the world would follow suit.  There certainly are far-reaching consequences to our economic hiccups.

So my fellow Americans, let us accept our “hand up” in the spirit in which it is given and use it as it is intended. 

• Business , Uncategorized
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Art Smith December 3rd, 2007

I want to welcome a new writer to the blog.  I hope to see him begin posting in the next day or so.  He will be going by the name "Listener".  I’ll let him introduce himself, and hopefully this will help bring more regular content and more diversity to the content and thoughts!

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Art Smith November 18th, 2007

So at about the same time I voice my (current) support for Mike Huckabee, DavidL at BitsBlog calls him an idiot.  I agree.

What’s really bad is that Huckabee lacks both the basic Constitutional knowledge and historical knowledge. 

As DavidL states, the Constitution does not speak to “morality”, and did not speak to slavery until after the 13th amendment was ratified in 1865 did slavery become a federal issue… until then it was each state’s issue to address.  That’s the Constitutional knowledge.

The historical part of this is, slavery was an economic issue, not a moral issue.  It doesn’t matter how people try to position the matter today, this country’s Civil War was about money.  There were certainly people who believed in eliminating slavery on moral grounds, but predominately people the Northern states, where slavery was outlawed (by the states themselves), were concerned about having to continue to compete with businesses from the South (and concern rang regarding slavery in the about to be formed Western states) that were benefiting from cheap labor.

What’s really sad is that Britain outlawed slavery long before the US every did.  The Emancipation Act was passed in Parliament in 1833, and all slaves were eventually freed by 1838.  Slavery will always be a moral issue in my mind, but the Civil War just was not about morality.

Abortion is only a moral issue.  There is little in the way of economic basis for allowing abortions (except for keeping abortionists rich).  Along with the basic moral issue of murder (which is a topic owned by the states except for a few key situations like Presidential assassinations) is the rarely openly discussed issue of holding down the African American population (the most consistent users of abortion, and most readily recommended group to do so).  For the rest of those that receive abortions, it is an issue of convenience or fear (of parental discipline). 

So, some key questions about abortion:

    1) Since this is a state issue (without doubt at this time), what was the basis for the Supreme Court to rule as it did in Roe v. Wade?  I’m not a lawyer nor a constitutional expert, but it seems to me that this case should not have even been presented let alone used as a tool for creating judicially based law.
    2) Since the freedom to have an abortion has been made the “law of the land”, it has risen to Constitutional level without the required amendment process (since the Supreme Court has essentially “interpreted” the Constitution to imply that abortion is a right? ).  The states’ rights have been stolen.
    3) Since a Constitutional Amendment requires
         a) a proposal by 2/3 of the states or 2/3 of both houses of Congress and then
         b) 3/4 of the states (that would be 38 states right now)
        wouldn’t both steps be contrary to the ruling of Roe v. Wade and therefor themselves perceived as illegal?  I mean, if Roe v. Wade is elevated to the level of the constitution, then this feels like a Catch-22.

What I’m really trying to get to here is that Abortion may NEVER get resolved.  If it was as important to the nation as Slavery, we’d be in our 2nd civil war by now.  But frankly, not enough people really care enough about it to fight over it.  Sad.  Unfortunate. 

Huckabee needs a rewrite on this talking point for sure.

I don’t support anyone for President right now.  No one.

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Art Smith November 16th, 2007

Microsloth’s new security update has apparently caused some kind of havoc with my video driver, and I’m spending my evening trying to resolve the problem.  I’ve also got a big event at church Friday, so I’m probably offline until Saturday.  Sorry about that, folks.  See you then.

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