October 15th 2008

A Big Thank You!

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esterday, C-SM had what I believe is its best day since I started blogging four years ago (my first post* was on October 18, 2004). I doubt if five people read that post, but yesterday C-SM got 1,386 hits and 1,786 page views. I’m humbled and grateful.

* Looking back at that first post, I’m pretty proud of what I wrote. It is as applicable as McCain and Obama race to the finish as it was in the final days of Bush/Kerry:

A Purposeful Presidency

A life purpose isn’t built overnight. It is formed early and grows slowly, nurtured by feedback and strengthened by milestones in passion, pain, achievement and failure. The president of the only superpower on the planet should understand his purpose with clarity and pursue it with integrity.

President Bush may not always understand how mind, larynx and mouth are supposed to work together; he my frighten timid Europeans with his assured, straightforward beliefs, but he certainly understands his purpose. When the 757s hit the Twin Towers, his entire lifetime — early exposure to world politics, youthful misadventures, mid-life conversion, private and public sector work — congealed into a fierce purpose: to protect American democracy, world democracy, from terrorist repressors of life, libery and happiness.

And Senator Kerry? His purpose is to be president. Beyond that, clarity fogs. The mist may be the result of his 20-year Senate career, where passion, pain, achievement and purpose were dulled by Senatorial privilege, three re-election campaigns and two remarkable successes at gold-digging. His lack of purpose is evident in his record; his staff’s insistence on 59 bills in a 20-year career is both pathetic and false, and not a single piece of Kerry legislation is the result of a long-term passion for anything but pandering to the electorate.

This November, vote with a purpose.

Amen.

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August 23rd 2008

North Coast - Day 5: Bookworm Revealed!

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‘m writing this in my usual spot in the kitchen nook, the good Lord having returned our little expedition safely home. The last day was like the others in that I was completely, blessedly, out of the news loop with VP selections not even approaching my consciousness. Lucky me. But it was entirely unlike the other days, as well: One of high-tailing it down a freeway, not arcing through curves along the shore and through the redwoods. Out of the foggy forests we flew, across wine country, through a traffic-choked San Francisco, into the Silicon Valley, on a flight, and home.

But against that benign backdrop is this: I will shortly reveal Bookworm’s identity. The secretive Bay Area conservative blogger has been masked for far too long!

But first, a tale prefaced by this: Incredible Daughter #1 is a serious BMW fanatic. She tracks her Z4 at various raceways, regularly goes to meets and drives with other BMW owners, and is a moderator at Bimmerforums, a very popular BMW page. So yesterday, when the drive turned out to be less engaging than on the earlier days and we found the conversation lacking, we made the simple decision to play “spot the German car.”

Even including Volkswagens (think VW bus in NorCal) the pickings were few, and after 20 or so challenging minutes, our count was around five. A VW or two, an old and a middle-aged Mercedes, a BMW 3 series. Then after a long-ish dry spell, we came down a hill and onto a straightaway through a little, picturesque farming valley, when suddenly there appeared a vision: A glorious 1930s vintage burgundy and cream BMW roadster. This is almost certainly the same car, from a photo I found of a 2004 vintage BMW rally.

It was immediately followed by a silver 507, a 1950s era luxury sportscar BMW put up against the Mercedes gull-wing coupe. It almost put BMW into bankruptcy, but is achingly beautiful and technologically hyper-advanced. It was easily worth $500,000 and who even knows what the vintage roadster would command.

Incredible Daughter #1 was making sounds I’d never heard from her before: Squeals, screams and ooohs strung together in a very easily understood if not particularly well articulated expression of delight and shock. There followed another classic roadster from the 30s, plus various newer models. The count of German cars soared to the teens, and the rest of the game, which ended in the 50s as we approached the wealthy Bay Area, was a let-down.

It turned out we had stumbled upon the BMW Vintage & Classic Car Club of America’s Aptos to Eureka to Tahoe to Aptos rally. Read more here.

Discounting the visit with Bookworm, which I’ll get to next, the next most exciting thing was seeing a Prius - a Prius! - in Marin County - Marin County! - with a McCain bumper sticker on it. Albeit, a small one, but still …

So we (Incredible Daughters #1 and #3 and me) carried out our stealth meeting with the secretive proprietress of Bookworm Room in a coffee shop somewhere in Marin County. She is delightful, as expected. We had a wide-ranging discussion on everything from history (she’s reading about Einstein, I’m reading about the American West) to stealth conservatism, to raising kids and how acorns may or may not fall far from the tree. Talking to Bookworm is something of a cross between electroshock therapy and a perfect hot fudge sundae. Your brain gets quite a work-out, but it’s a fabulously indulgent pleasure. Blogging can make a good friend out of someone you’ve never even met - and I see the feeling was mutual.

So why would I destroy Bookworm’s confidentiality and expose her secret identity? Why would I put my blogfriend at risk of negative social stigma, of being treated like a leper in her home town?

It’s simple, really: Once a journalist, always a journalist. You really can’t trust me with a secret.

Besides, what right does she have to write about public persona while keeping her own persona secret? The public has a right to know her identity that overpowers her right to keep her identity secret.

And no, it doesn’t matter one whit that the public will not benefit much at all from the considerable harm I’m about to cause her. The only important thing is the relentless rush of knowledge, and knowing her identity is just one more piece of the puzzle; one of little consequence purchased at great price for sure, but I’m willing to hurt her in the name of the public’s right to know.

So,

without further delay,

here is a photo of me

with the until no longer unrevealed

Bookworm:

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With Obama winning the presidency by seven percent, we can't blame the media. Their laudatory coverage and refusal to extensively probe into Obama's background and [lack of] experience was at best responsible for five percent of his vote, the pundits tell us. Here is a compilation of over 100 significant instances of pro-Obama/anti-McCain bias during the 2008 campaign.

For all 'Media Bias 2008' – Click Here