Powered By Blogger

The principles that rule this blog

Principles that will govern my thoughts as I express them here (from my opening statement):


  • Freedom of the individual should be as total as possible, limited only by the fact that nobody should be free to cause physical injury to another, or to deprive another person of his freedoms.
  • Government is necessary primarily to provide those services that private enterprise won't, or won't at a price that people can afford.
  • No person has a right to have his own beliefs on religious, moral, political, or other controversial issues imposed on others who do not share those beliefs.

I believe that Abraham Lincoln expressed it very well:

“The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, at all, or cannot
so well do, for themselves — in their separate, individual capacities.”


Comments will be invited, and I will attempt to reply to any comments that are offered in a serious and non-abusive manner. However, I will not tolerate abusive or profane language (my reasoning is that this is my blog, and so I can control it; I wouldn't interfere with your using such language on your own!)

If anyone finds an opinion that I express to be contrary to my principles, they are welcome to point this out. I hope that I can make a rational case for my comments. Because, in fact, one label I'll happily accept is rationalist.

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

And the numbers are (almost all) in

When I posted my last one last night, only a quarter of the precincts were in. Scott Walker had a better than 60-40 lead. Now, with 99.9% in, the margin is down to 53-47. Still big enough that one can say that the people have spoken and defeated Big Labor, but nowhere near as big a margin as what it first seemed.

It is great to see that in a “progressive” State like Wisconsin, the unions got their come-uppance. And it was even better than that: Tom Barrett, who was the candidate that had to carry their water, was not even their original choice. The unions' favorite candidate didn't even make it through the Democratic primary. She had vowed, if elected Governor, to veto any budget that did not restore the unions all the rights that Walker had taken away; Barrett was somewhat more moderate. So even in the Democratic primary, the Wisconsin public refused to vote the unions' way.

Unfortunately, there was one note that was not so good — many of the Wisconsinites who voted for Scott Walker did so simply because they felt that a recall was going too far and should be reserved for official misconduct, so they are still Democratic-aligned as far as November is concerned, and Obama remains a big favorite in Wisconsin. But Wisconsin is, as I said earlier, a “progressive” State. Mitt Romney does not have to win Wisconsin, and if he wins the presidency, it will probably still be while losing Wisconsin. So those results are not too disturbing. For now, let us just rejoice that — as I said earlier — even in a “progressive” State like Wisconsin, the unions got their come-uppance.

No comments: