For Real

The downturn continues to expose the crooks and the scammers. But more than that, this economy will show us who really knows what they are doing. Anybody could make money in real estate in the middle of a massive real estate bubble. But the real estate agent who's still doing good in this market, that's the agent you want. Anybody with an E-Trade account and two brain cells could make money when the stock market is booming. But show me the guy who's making money in the market right now and that's somebody who deserves a big year-end bonus.

And what if no one is making money right now? What if you can't beat the market and can't beat the recession and can't beat the system? Then maybe its not about dog eat dog and personal achievement and everybody for themselves as much as we are told. Maybe we are really all in this together and maybe we should start acting like it.

Revelations

From Jess, head of the Craigorian Chant San Diego Bureau:

The mayor's daughter is GAY!!!!

So the city council recently passed (5-3) a resolution to support the fight in court to try to overturn the evil CA gay marriage ban. SD passed it by more than most in '04, but apparently our city council is much more liberal than our general population. Until recently, he had said he would veto it. Apparently, he determined yesterday that he couldn't look his daughter in the eye if he did that. So, yesterday afternoon, he publicly outed her (I assume with her permission) and changed his stance. A rare socially liberal moment in the city of San Diego. And today, he officially launches his re-election campaign. We'll see how that goes. While he's still not my favorite person in SD politics, he just took a step up in my book.

Mark down another conservative done in by reality.

Personal Experience

The best antidote to conservative policy is personal experience. I can cite a long list of "principal" conservatives who abandon their conservative principals the as soon as a personal experience teaches them different. Dick Cheney is notable absent from advocating against gay marriage. Why? His daughter is gay. Nasty old Strom Thurmond was all for regulating the alcohol industry because he lost a granddaughter to a drunk driver. The latest is pro-tort reform Trent Lot discovering that he does, in fact, love lawsuits when Katrina destroyed a house of his and the insurance company is wiggling out of paying up.

In that vane, that always attentive Chris alerts us to a program to buy your Senator an I-pod. The idea being that if we give all the 70-something Senators some experience with digital music they are much less likely to do the biding of the MPAA and RIAA and adopt measures that screw digital music users.

The major philosophical point to take from all of this is that conservatism as a philosophy is a load of bunk. Even its most ardent believer will abandon it in a heartbeat the moment reality hits them in the eyes.