My Turn!

Hello, happy new year, and greetings to all of you. Like Julie, I was really surprised to see how long it has been since we posted anything. Baby, job, car -- it seems like time just flies out the window nowadays.

Gabriel's arrival has been a polar opposite of Jude's in several ways. First, he's relatively quiet (although he may now be developing reflux). Jude came out making noise and hasn't stopped yet. We were living away from family and had no one we trusted to come into our home and help us with Jude. We now have two doting grandmothers duking it out to help. Julie was laid up for three weeks or so after delivering Jude and suffered complications that haven't dissipated yet. This time, Julie pushed four times and the nurses had to use a net to keep Gabriel from hitting the wall. Amazing, and so much better.

Work is busy busy busy, but it's mostly a good type of busy. The majority of client with whom I deal are extremely happy with my services (I'm a network consultant) and several have requested that I be the only representative from our company to work on their equipment. Even better, we have gotten several new clients on referrals from happy clients for whom I am responsible. My co-workers are trashy and tactless, so I fit right in. Things could be much worse. God has blessed us much more than we deserve. Of course, when is that not the case?

But of course, none of this is what drew me out of my online shell. I found a very thought-provoking article by Peggy Noonan who, I admit, is a columnist who often arouses my ire. Here is an excellent quote from the article:

Eleven years ago the Democrats lost control of Congress. Then they lost the presidency. But just as important, maybe more enduringly important, they lost their monopoly on the means of information in America. They lost control of the pipeline. Or rather there are now many pipelines, and many ways to use the information they carry. The other day, Dana Milbank, an important reporter for the Washington Post, the most important newspaper in the capital, wrote a piece deriding Judge Alito. Once such a piece would have been important. Men in the White House would have fretted over its implications. But within hours of filing, Mr. Milbank found his thinking analyzed and dismissed on the Internet; National Review Online called him a "policy bimbo."

Could Democratic senators today torture Clarence Thomas with tales of Coke cans and porn films? Not likely. Could Ted Kennedy have gotten away with his "Robert Bork's America" speech unanswered? No.

What I find refreshing about this is the fact that, not only are the circumstances changing, but the circumstances are being discussed/admitted to in the first place. Is mainstream media predominantly liberal? Yes, and the need to even ask, much less answer, the question qualifies for a big DUH award. But there are several on the political left who even now dismiss such claims, or even claim that the mainstream media is more conservative. Ah, well.

2006. Get ready for political windbags on both sides to start releasing their hot gas in preparation for the '06 senatorial election as well as the '08 presidential election. Given the increasingly hot tempers that politics have been producing over the last two decades (did I really say that?), this news will make some people's days and ruin others.