The web-based home of the mental wanderings of Jeff Burkholder
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Tuesday, November 18, 2003
So, I realized something the other day about the political climate in the U.S.: Liberals are doomed to failure when it comes to presenting a united front against conservatives. They're getting better, but still have a long way to go.
Allow me to explain. Since the 2000 election, conservatives seem baffled at the amount of animosity the left holds for President Bush. They point to the President's accomplishments in office, his displays of leadership, and his efforts to win the world for freedom and democracy. Yes, they say, there have been a few missteps, but when you find the overall balance, he certainly comes out on top. I mean, especially if you compare him to Bill Clinton.
It's at this point that a lot of liberals balk, and the beginnings of a cogent, coherent backlash takes form. President Bush took the U.S.'s biggest budget surplus in generations (handed to him by Clinton) and completely reversed it into a massive amount of debt, largely due to tax cuts that weren't really necessary. The enormous outpouring of international support for the U.S. after 9/11? Wasted, scattered, and gone. President Bush took on the task of finding Osama bin Laden, and bombed the entire country of Afghanistan to do so. Still waiting for that "Bin Laden Behind Bars" headline to appear. Then, forgetting that tedious routine of "rebuilding the infrastructure" in Afghanistan, he moved his sights (both literal and figurative) to Iraq. On fuzzy logic-based "evidence" of Weapons of Mass Destruction(TM)--not to mention the need to "take out" Saddam Hussein--we bombed them as well. Apparently, the headlines for "WMDs Found" and "Hussein Discovered Hiding Under Rock" were published in the same non-existent paper as the bin Laden one from above. The government has deliberately misled the American people about the reasons for war in Iraq, Saddam Hussein's involvement in 9/11, and more, leading to daily averages of 2 American soldiers and 44 innocent civilians killed in Iraq during our occupation.
And Clinton lied about having sex. Whoops.
Conservatives' hatred of Clinton was/is pretty much on par with liberals' hatred of Bush. However, here's where the difference arises. Conservatives (particularly the "Religious Right" portion thereof) have the market cornered on unilateral, self-righteous hatred. If you don't agree with us, you're evil. Think I'm being harsh? Reflect on how innocent members of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea might have felt at that whole "Axis of Evil" classification from the President.
Unfortunately, the worst liberals can dish out is something akin to: "I think you're massively wrong, but I can understand where you're coming from." Even amongst the liberals' hatred of President Bush, there's a certain amount of condescending "He's in over his head," to balance the vitriol, rather than anything like Ann Coulter's position of liberals as being, "either traitors or idiots, and on the matter of America's self-preservation, the difference is irrelevant."
So, liberals are definitely at a deficit when it comes to hating the other side. Too much deference to conservatives is leaving our message tempered with a large dose of "Not that there's anything wrong with that."
12:39 PM
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
All right. Hold your breath. Or if you were holding it, feel free to let it out. I'm back.
There's no telling how long this return will last; perhaps just this post, perhaps a good deal of time. I was just taking a lunch break and decided to do something resembling (but is not actually) productive with my time.
By the way, the cartoons have been coming along quite well. I'm much more faithful and consistent with posting them every Saturday than I am with pretty much anything else I do -- except perhaps washing my hands after going to the bathroom. Stickler for that, I am.
Life continues to move inexorably forward, despite my utter lack of involvement in the process. Seriously, though, a number of updates:
Impending baby news: We're down to less than three weeks from the due date. Emotions bounce back and forth between "Can't wait to see him!" and "Wow...only three weeks left as a couple..." Nursery is all set up; hospital bags are packed and in the trunk of the car so they're ready at a moment's notice; Nean's already made up the vast majority of the birth announcements. Oh, and yes, in case you didn't know, baby's a he. Downright nifty, huh? Ah, and to address the one burning question most people are asking: No, we're not telling you his name until the doctor slaps his bum. Truly no room for negotiations on this, sorry. Everyone will just have to wait.
On the job front: Some very big news, here, but a lot of it's still yet to be completely nailed down. I'll fill you in as I can at a later date.
Well, lunch's just about over, so I probably ought to work on looking like I'm doing something I actually get paid for. Again, please not only check out Zoidland.com, but tell your friends. Heck, tell your enemies. I'm equal-opportunity. I've got some pretty cool ideas for future improvements to the site and would love input from you, my faithful reader(s).
Have a day full of excellence!
--Jeff
P.S. Oh, and just in case you were concerned, I'm still just as cynical as ever about the political and economic climate in the United States of America. I haven't ranted much about that lately, but still waters run deep and all that. Just wanted to allay any concerns that I was starting to become complacent or conservative or something else stupid like that... ;)
1:31 PM
Saturday, July 26, 2003
Hey! All you regular attendees of my website, listen up. I've begun posting some of my cartoons under the "Zoidland" link on the main page. Check it out!
Thank you,
The management.
11:59 PM
Saturday, July 12, 2003
Had an interesting (at least to me) conversation with another person in my office yesterday. She asked me how I felt about my impending fatherhood.
I paused for a moment and considered. "You know," I replied, "A lot of people have asked me at various points in my life what I want to do 'when I grow up.' If I could do anything I wanted to do, what would it be? And I've never been able to give a definitive answer to that. Until now. I'm scared as crap about becoming a father, but at the same time, that's my biggest dream. I can't think of anything I'd rather do than be a daddy."
Just thought you'd like to know.
2:35 PM
Monday, June 30, 2003
...(ahem)...
Thusly, I return. I apologize for my lengthy absence. Had one or two things going on in the "real world" (in quotes because I have yet to see concrete proof that what we perceive as reality has anything to do with real reality): moving, preparing a wedding, moving other people, lasertag, and other stuff of great import.
By the way, for those curious enough to read my webpage, but not close enough to actually talk to us regularly, yes, the move went quite well. We're now sitting in our brand-new (well, I'm using NBC's "New To You!" rerun slogan rather liberally, here) office. Although I should say that "sitting" should be read as "crammed in like sardines amongst the boxes". The living room is mostly set up, as is the kitchen and our bedroom. Still working on the nursery, office, dining room, and basement & attic. Big pluses: central air, carport (i.e., garage without a door & barely wide enough to fit a car...glad we don't drive a Caddie or some other monstrosity like that), huge kitchen, and so forth. Minus: much more yard to mow. :) I'm dealing.
Other bits of niftiness, my best friend (after Nean!) George just got married. It's about freakin' time! Had a gorgeous outdoor ceremony at King's Gap (just south of Carlisle, PA). As far as the bride & groom are concerned, everything went off without a hitch. It was the rest of us that made sure that all hitches were quickly and quietly eradicated. Really, the bridal party is little more than a wedding-related secret police. Something or somebody starts being disruptive, and the groomsmen drag it/him/her out and take care of it/it/it. 'Nuff said.
Well, I need to get back to one more day of easy breathing before I head back to the office. But, before I go, one final note, since I haven't had a good political rant lately: How 'bout those weapons of mass destruction that turned up in Iraq? What? You mean they still haven't found 'em? Well, maybe we'll have better luck with the next country we bomb to kingdom...er, excuse me, "freedom" come...
1:45 PM
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
The slow-down of postings continues; my apologies. Still waiting to hear if our mortgage application is going to go through. I joked that we're gonna need to rent out a storage unit to hold all the paperwork.
Nean's coming along nicely. The first trimester is pretty much out of the way, and her morning sickness has calmed down somewhat. I tell ya, that's a barrel-full of happiness right there.
Auditions for "Chapter Two" take place this coming weekend. Have I mentioned that yet? Sorry if I haven't. I'm directing this Neil Simon play at the Moravian Church. Should be interesting...
(Ding-ding! Ding-ding!) ...And that sound means time is running out. I'll give the wheel a final spin; vowels are worth nothing & consonants are worth...$750. Mitch?...
7:26 AM
Friday, May 09, 2003
Okay, I know it's been a while since my last update. That's because life has been pretty boring and same-old, same-old lately.
Yeah, in a not sort of way...!
Among events, another sonogram. BabyBurk's up to about an inch long. I'm working on seeing if I can upload another shot of that. Also, from the humongously huge news department, we're looking at buying a house. Friends of ours (Hi, Greg'n'Sara!) are moving away (moment of silence...ahem.), and so we're gonna buy their place. It's got A/C, a 1-car garage, and a gorgeous kitchen. We're quite excited about it, although the whole process is a bit draining. I'm not talking about boxing stuff up and lugging it over; I'm more referring to getting a mortgage and signing documents and all that crapola. Crazy stuff, that.
I've been asked by some folks to start putting up some movie reviews or something to that effect, which I might do when I get some spare time. (pause for derisive chuckle). Yeah, I hear ya.
Anyway, once you're done reading this, go on back to the home page and sign the guest book, so I know who's been reading all this. I'd like to get to know all of my readers. (Who am I kidding? That should have been singular...)
2:01 PM
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
...Wow...
That pretty much sums up the last week and a half. "...Wow...", although that can be coupled with a "Bwah?!" and a "omigosh-omigosh-OMIGOSH!" or two. The fantabulous Neaner is pregnant!! And today (drum roll, please) we got a sonogram! The baby's about 7 weeks along, so it's still pretty tiny. We still got to hear it's heartbeat and everything. Wild stuff. Anyway, without further ado, here is the picture!
Meet the newest Burkholder!
--Proud Papa Jeff
5:02 PM
Monday, April 07, 2003
So didya hear about the Pearl Jam concert the other day? The one where Eddie Vedder, lead singer of Pearl Jam, impaled a photo of President Bush on his microphone stand? And hordes of fans in the audience got up and left in protest?
Didn't happen.
As reported in the band's official press release and elsewhere, there were maybe about 2 dozen people who left. Out of a crowd of 12,000. So, roughly 0.2% of the people watching the show left over that. And that turns into the headline, "Dozens walk out of Pearl Jam concert after anti-Bush remarks." While literally accurate, I doubt that this qualifies as unbiased reporting.
1:45 PM
Thursday, April 03, 2003
Y'know, I had a beautifully eloquent -- if a bit rambly -- post ready to go about the nature of writer's block, and the insanity of the international situation we're all reading about in the papers... Excuse me, the international situation that most of us are pretty much ignoring, 'cause the opening of baseball season, not to mention the question of who will be the next winner of "American Idol", are much more interesting. Anyway, I had all that ready to go, and then I accidentally kicked the power cord to my computer, banning all my work and thought to the eternal cyber wasteland of nothingness. Can nothingness be eternal? And did I sub-consciously kick the power cord to prevent you from reading my mindless drivel? How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop? The world may never know.
All my siblings now live in the south; one in Texas, the other two in Florida. Some things I'll just never understand.
I'm leaving now. More later. When I talk again. Duh.
9:04 PM
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