I Wonder…

I wonder sometimes…

Only those on a desert island (who wouldn’t be reading this anyway) haven’t heard about the tragic shooting of many people including the serious wounding of a US Congresswoman and the killing of a Federal judge.

The shooter by all appearances is a troubled young such as those who have dotted the American landscape, pretty much since the republic was founded.

Recriminations began. Those on the left blamed inflamed political rhetoric centering on a well-know few. Concerns about gun violence were aired as well, citing the right’s continued insistence on 2nd amendment rights.

One network even talked about such words as “campaign,” “war room,” and “target” used in a political sense.

Conservatives (and others) responded by saying that the shooter had no political beliefs, and that controls on speech and guns is a typical knee-jerk reaction.

Who’s right?

I wish I knew.

Really.

Gun violence appalls me. Yes, I still support 2nd amendment rights because it’s in the Constitution. But I wonder if we could still do something beyond the laws on the books.

I’m not much into over-the-top rhetoric either. It’s not that I don’t think Coulter, Beck, Limbaugh, Sykes, Belling, McKenna don’t say good things. It’s just the way they say them sometimes turns me off. The same with the bastions of liberal thought.

I just wonder what it would be like if they toned it down sometimes.

I’m not naive. Both sides hold their positions and think they are right. Strong political rhetoric has been a feature of the American political scene many times over the years. And both sides are guilty of it. Don’t make me link to them; I can.

But I just wonder, what it would be like.

Not that I think it will happen or even should happen. I certainly value my 1st amendment rights too highly to listen to any proposal to limit that, even for the biggest jerk IMHO, of this whole mess, Fred Phelps, who is planning on demonstrating at some of the funerals.

But I do wonder what it would be like, if we really believed that the other side loved their country just as much as we do and just have different ideas than we do about how to make our country great.

Yeah, we differ, sometimes vehemently, and I’m no different than anyone else.

I just wonder…

2010 in review (via WordPress)

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 39,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 5 days for that many people to see it.

 

In 2010, there were 82 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 1333 posts. There were 16 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 7mb. That’s about a picture per month.

The busiest day of the year was November 1st with 506 views. The most popular post that day was Political Cartoons and Thanksgiving.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were [website deleted], playgroundpolitics.blogspot.com, en.wordpress.com, springcitychronicle.com, and bestonlinetravelguide.info.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for political cartoons, thanksgiving, political cartoon, conservative political cartoons, and thanksgiving pictures.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Political Cartoons and Thanksgiving October 2008

2

Political cartoons February 2008

3

Great minds think alike? June 2007
12 comments

4

Five candidates on ballot for Waukesha mayor’s race January 2010
1 comment

5

Cat urine mimics meth? October 2007
1 comment

2011 predictions

I don’t think I’ve ever done this before and thought it might be fun to try. Probably won’t be anything startling here, and you won’t find anything as detailed as James Wigderson’s, but, hey, I’m new to the game.

Now where did I put that crystal ball…

World:

• Tensions between North and South Korea will remain high, but no hot war will break out.
• Iran will continue to extend the middle finger to the world over its nuclear program.
• Withdrawal from Iraq will happen as planned. The country will continue “in peace,” much to the chagrin of Republicans.
• Afghanistan, on the other hand, will continue to struggle, as far as seeing a truce and shared government with the Taliban.

National:

I don’t see any big legislation coming out of the next session of Congress since the House is controlled by Republicans and the Senate and presidency is still in Democratic hands. But then again who would’ve thought that the lame duck session would have passed so much?

• First, despite all the hoopla by conservatives about repealing ObamaCare, nothing will happen.
• On the economic front, numbers will continue to stagnate with some slight improvement; sometimes the numbers will be good, sometimes bad.
• As the economic numbers stagnate so will Obama’s approval numbers.
• The campaign for 2012 will begin to heat up by the end of the year. Republican candidates will start their campaigns, probably Huckabee, Palin and Romney. No one on the Democratic side, except the very dark horse will challenge Obama.

Wisconsin:

This really depends on how the Legislature and Scott Walker get along and agree on priorities. We’ve already seen some of this. Walker’s team would like to get going on job creation. The Legislature has indicated they want to do some work on Voter ID and Concealed Carry among other things.

• The budget and how Scott Walker balances it while holding firm on tax breaks will continue to be criticized by the WHM (Walker Hate Machine).
• Jobs will be a disappointment falling short of Walker’s goal of 250,000.
• Scandal will continue to plague Walker’s team, not a lot of proof will come out, but there will be plenty of noise.

Waukesha:

How hard is this? Mayor Scrima, the Common Council and the city administrator will continue to give entertainment to all who keep watch on the city’s business. Water will continue to be an issue as well as the mayor plunging through the city’s business like a bull in a china closet. Almost makes me wish I would have run for Chris Hernadez’s seat on the council…

Sports:

• Brewers. Sorry, no playoffs again. They do find the .500 mark finishing 83-79. Greinke has a great first half, may even make the All-Star squad, but fades in the second half.
• Packers. After narrowly missing the playoffs this year, develop a running game next year and easily make the playoffs, but not the Super Bowl.
• Bucks. Well, they will continue to be the Bucks. Up and down. And missing the playoffs.

New Years, 2011

A new year. Glad to see it. Last year wasn’t so hot and so far it doesn’t look as though this one will be either. Ah, well. Let’s see what I can do to accomplish something.

Didn’t do so hot on last year’s resolutions.

• I didn’t get close to reading two books a month last year. So I’m going to shoot for one every other month. Six books in the next year. If I can’t do that… My list is still the same.
• I did finish reading through the Bible, so I’m going to do it again this year. I’m just going to use a different method than last year.
• I didn’t lose 30 pounds. Sigh. I just love to eat and hate to exercise too much. I still need to lose some weight though, but I’m going to cut back to 15. Still won’t be enough, but if I get that much, maybe it will give me motivation to lose more.
• I don’t like treadmills, etc., so that means exercising outside. Sometimes it’s just too doggone cold  to do that.
• I still didn’t blog enough, especially toward the end of the year. Posting on the first day of the year hopefully gives me a good start. Right?

There we go. In black and white, or whatever, for another year…