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By Elvin Lim

Mitt Romney must be the happiest Republican in the world. His political rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, Herman Cain and Rick Perry, seem to be trying to out-do the other in terms of whose campaign can implode faster.

Let’s start with Rick Perry’s campaign. Now we know why his campaign advisors were telling him to skip upcoming debates. Perry’s “oops” moment in Wednesday’s debate will enter into the political hall of infamy because that was the moment when his sponsors will realize that he is just a bad investment. If Perry cannot think just one sentence faster than he can talk, he will be demolished by a law professor when they debate next year.

Perry’s gaffe’s was probably a godsend to Herman Cain, but it would be little relief in the worst week of his campaign yet. It doesn’t matter if the accusations of sexual harassment are true because they are now distractions to Cain’s message, which he was already struggling to explain. And then he had to go call former Speaker Pelosi “Princess Nancy.”

Sarah Palin wasn’t an aberration in a line of competent Republican candidates from Eisenhower to Nixon. She is the new rule. The thing about modern conservatism is that it has become so anti-establishment that it now happily accepts any political outsider as a potential candidate for the highest office in the land. Political outsiders aren’t tainted by politics, by Washington, so we are told. But, by the same token, they can therefore also make terrible candidates.

The irony, of course, is that the slew of debates being held this year was meant to give voters greater choice and knowledge of the candidates’ positions. But all this is doing is reinforcing the front-runner status of the establishment candidate. There is a reason why Mitt Romney and his perfect haircut has coasted through the debate without any oops moments. He’s a professional politician! Tea Partiers are going to have to come to the uncomfortable realization that it takes one professional politician to beat another.

One relatively unmentioned reason why Mitt Romney is still hovering at 25 per cent is because in 2010 the Republican party changed the nomination rules away from winner-takes-all so that states (except the first four) would allocate their delegates proportionately to the candidates at the national convention. This has the effect of giving less-known candidates more of a chance of lasting longer in the race than they normally would, but the unintended consequence is that Republican voters will have to watch their candidates battle it out, and even suffer the potentially demoralizing conclusion that in choosing their candidate, they must follow their mind, not their hearts.

It is far from clear, then, that 2012 will be a Republican year. Conservatives have yet to explain away a fundamental puzzle: if government is so unnecessary, so inefficient, and so corrupt, why seek an office in it? This is possibly why the very brightest and savviest would-be candidates are in Wall Street, and can’t be bothered with an address change to Pennsylvania Avenue. Except Rick Perry and Herman Cain, of course.

Elvin Lim is Associate Professor of Government at Wesleyan University and author of The Anti-intellectual

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About 4 years ago I retired from TV animation... Or so I thought.About a year or so ago I got a call from Mitch Hurwitz, which is cool because I like to watch his show, Arrested Development. Turns out we have a few things in common besides both having had a TV show suddenly canceled. Turns out Mitch likes Knuffle Bunny. Well, so do IWell, before I know it my new pal has asked me to make some

I’m watching a NOVA special about NASA’s Apollo program.

On the first mission, during a test, there was a horrible fire. Virgil Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee are incinerated inside the capsule.

(is this an official Sparky Firepants post? What the hell?)

It was a combination of factors that caused the tragedy, no one person or thing was to blame.

There are two powerful lessons here. (Brought to you by the letters N, A, S, and a documentarily-absorbed artist.)

Immediately after burying his son, Roger Caffee’s father was asked by a reporter if he was angry.

He said no, he wasn’t angry, that “Sometimes progress comes at a high price.”

Wow. That answer stunned me.

I think about how that relates to my life and my business.

For example, if I lament over the fact that my salary is lower than it was when I worked for someone else, it could make me angry.

Soon it will be back up there again, but for a relatively young biz like mine, it takes time. Progress.

I don’t have stellar benefits as an entrepreneur. I could shake my fist at the government, but I would lose sight of the incredible freedom I have to make my own benefits package, to get creative about it. Progress.

It’s amazing how nowadays the impulse tends to be achieving retribution for losses or criminalizing the people who messed up.

Feeling self-righteous is short term.

The other lesson is even simpler. When you screw up so bad that it feels like you got punched in the gut, that’s exactly when you need to stop and think about how to make it right next time. Progress.

I wish these guys didn’t have to die, but as Gene Krantz said, “We wouldn’t have made it to the moon without that incident.”

I am wearing my lucky Irish socks today - made in China - but I feel hugely unlucky. I have learned the hard way of the dangers of email. Some conversations should never be entrusted to cyberspace because once "sent" clicks, that message is out there for all to see.

So, Karen will use the phone or insist on face to face meetings in the future.

Never put anything in writing - typing - or texting that can't be seen by EVERYONE.

That's my advice for the day.

Oh, and journals should be burnt after a year just in case someone "accidentally" picks one up. Journaling is great for the journalist's mental health but dangerous for relationships.

Um...I've quite recently discovered that "inertia" means precisely the opposite of what I thought it meant. Crap. It's one thing to be a little foggy on a definition, but c'mon -- COMPLETELY OPPOSITE? So now I'm sitting here trying to think of how many times I might have managed to misuse "inertia' in the last, oh, 20 years. And who might have been listening/reading.

Man, what a dumb word: Oops!

"Oops, I accidentally dropped a 40 megaton bomb on the state of New Mexico."

"Oops, I guess that pistol WAS loaded."

"I just fired myself out of a cannon into a cauldron of hot, bubbly magma. Oops."

Anyway, I just thought I should come right out and tell you that I don't know when to leave well enough alone. I sent off a query letter for my 'little-story-that-couldn't' THE SHORT BUS JOURNAL out to an agent this afternoon.

I didn't mean to. It just sort of happened.

Maybe it's some of my friends kind of prompting me not to give up on it or maybe it's just because I think it still has some life left in it.

I don't know.

I guess we'll see what happens. And hey, you'll be the first to know, deal?

Solid.

RUMOR ALERT: It's been said that a mystery box has appeared on the front steps of a certain house in Woodbury, MN (my house!). In it, there could be a bunch of long-overdue author copies of some sort or the other. Stay tuned for all the details...

...and a contest.

*backflips and spins twice in the air before landing in a dumpster full of Orange Tic-Tacs*

Once more, an unintentional yet interesting effect. Medium: suddenly leaky Prismacolor pen, paper towel smearing.

All children mirror themselves through the eyes of their parents.

Our parents reflect our first mirror image, instructing us on our identity

before we ourselves are aware of our own individuality.

That is why it is important to remember the effect our behavior has on our children.

When children suffer from abuse and neglect they are already afraid, angry, and distrustful of

adults, so he helps when non-profit organizations help to strengthen families , and prevent

children from entering institutions or end up on the streets.

Actually many of these parents just need help coping with addictive or mental disorders, and if

given the opportunity these same parents are able to turn themselves and their families around.

Where do kids who suffer neglect or abuse at the hand of parents go in the summer?

Where do parents who want to turn things around for their families go to get help?

These are questions I asked myself recently and decided to fish around on the internet to find

out. You can find many different non-profit organizations who help families deal with crisis

through your local department of social services, the division of mental health, and juvenile

courts in your state. I wish I could write a post on all of them, however I can't, not in a day

anyway, so I decided to write about CHRIS Kids; an accredited member of the Council on

Accreditation of Services For Families and Children, and a member of the Child Welfare League

of America.

CHRIS kids is keeping families together in the greater Atlanta area, together with the help of

Chris kids, parents are developing the skills and the resources they need be effective parents.

Chris kids partners with families, involving grandparents, aunts, and other relatives in helping

parents become self-sufficient and strong.

Chris kids summer camp is a no-eject nine week camp for children who cannot attend regular

summer camps.


Every year Chris kids and other children's non-profit organizations lose the necessary funding

that helps provide families with these valuable resources.

By giving to CHRIS Kids and other children's services you are sending children to camp who

would otherwise lack the resources to attend. Thus, providing these children with strength,

courage, hope, and a summer of fun at summer camp!


Chris Kids -"Healing children, Strengthening families, Building Community"

A Nice Place In The Sun










A Nice Place In The Sun