The SoapBoxers

Labor Day is a day of celebration.  The celebration is sometimes not understood by the majority of people benefitting from the day off.  Labor Day is the recognition of organized labor in the United States.  That’s right conservatives, a national holiday for Unions.  So the question arises, why a holiday for labor, don’t they get off for all of the other holidays?

When the first “informal” Labor day was celebrated in the late 1800’s, there were no official holidays, there were not even official weekends.  The majority of corporate workers (admittedly not the majority of people as most people worked their own farms or small businesses) worked at the pleasure of the company.  If you were a coal worker, you lived in company housing, shopped at the company store and usually owed the company more at the end of the month than you paycheck was worth.  Then if you got hurt or killed, your family was thrown out to make room for a new worker.  There were equally deplorable conditions in the garment industry, transportation and others.

Labor unions started in Europe in the 1600’s to protect the integrity of specific trades.  You could not sell your services as a carpenter unless you were a recognized member of the carpenter’s union.  This ensured quality for the whole industry and ensured higher compensation for the members of the union.  In the United Sates and England, labor unions took on the abuses of industry during the industrial revolution and into the 20th century.  These abuses were real and dangerous, there was no Department of Labor or OSHA.  The government even sent out thugs to break up protests, including beatings and killings.  Most people today cannot claim that the union movement was not needed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

For those of you who are not union members (called free loaders), you have a lot to celebrate as well.  Two day weekends, the 40 hour week, federal holiday, sick leave, vacation, and even disablity insurance are all the result of the labor movement.  There were and are companies that provided these benefits without the need for union or governmental pressure (to get and keep the best employees), but for the largest industries, there is no evidence that they would ever have changed the policies that resulted in the labor disputes of 100 years ago.

Now comes the question as to the necessity of unions today.  There is a strong effort today by the federal government to revitalize unions.  Union membership has been dropping over the last 30 years.  So of this is because the unions won.  The major grievances have been addressed.  New workers do not have the history to understand what was achieved and what can be lost.  But there is another driver.  After World War II, union leaders became separated for the union membership.  A myth arose that in order to negotiate with corporate leaders, union leaders had to be of equal compensation with staff and support.  Early union leaders were the guys willing to walk up to a line of armed thugs and tell them off, true works and true heroes.  Today’s leadership is just another layer of management between the worker and the corporate leaders.  This extra layer spend the money of the rank and file on things the ordinary worker does not understand.  So today, there are law suites against unions for using funds to lobby for legislation or bonus for leadership.

To answer the question posed above, unions are definitely still necessary.  We simply cannot depend on the government protecting our rights and ensuring proper treatment.  The government has been on the wrong side of the argument too many times (labor and civil rights are just tow examples) where force has been used to suppress legitimate complaints.  Are unions effective in their present form?  That question is up for debate.  When the federal government has to step in to assure membership, something is fundamentally wrong.  When the most significant issue being pushed by organized labor is “card check” is to remove the rights of union members (elimination of the secret ballot in union activities), things just do not seem right.

Enjoy this last hurray of summer.  Celebrate labor as one of the three pillars of what makes America great; Military strength, Agricultural independence, and Labor Union.  We owe our lives, our comfort and our livelihood to every other American we share this great nation with.

When I was in high school, we filled out questionnaires to gauge our interests.  When the results came back, we were given handouts about which careers would be a good fit.

Most people received info on a few careers.  Two of us received the entire handout, with information on dozens of different careers.  The computers had choked on our answers and couldn’t really determine where we fit.  Even at this early stage, The Man was learning not to pigeonhole the Kos.

I ended up working in IT.  It’s an interesting job on most days, a good company to work for, and my co-workers are great.  Often, though, I wonder what it would have been like to end up in a different job.  Here’s my list of dream jobs.

1.  Baseball player.  I’m 36, so the window is really closing on this.  Lack of talent could also be a roadblock.

1B.  Baseball General Manager.  If I can’t play the game, why not control the game?  The general manager is in charge of nearly every aspect of team operations, from the annual draft to trades.

2.  Writer – As the Beatles would say, I want to be a paperback writer.  I’ve had an interest in writing since elementary school.  In recent years, I’ve been working harder toward this goal.  It would be great if I can eventually become a full-time writer, but barring that, it’s a fun part-time gig.

3.  Paleontologist – You didn’t see that one coming, did you?  I’ve had a deep interest in dinosaurs since the day I was first made aware of them.  I’m sure that a large part of the allure is that fact that this is an almost entirely theoretical field.  The fossil record can provide a lot of clues, but you can’t directly observe dinosaurs.  (Or can you?  maybe a trip to Costa Rica would do the trick?)

4.  FBI Agent – At one point, I went as far as contacting them regarding a position in the computer crimes division.  By the time I heard back from them, life circumstances had changed and the window had pretty much closed.  Computer crimes would be an interesting gig, but so would forensic science.  Although I don’t watch the fictionalized shows like CSI, I’m a big fan of The Forensic Files.

5.  Lawyer – If you’ve been a long time reader, you’ve probably seen me swerve into legal topics from time to time.  I’ve always found the law interesting.  I’d be interested in a lot of different areas, but I think I’d end up as a defense lawyer (with only innocent people for clients, of course).

6.  Professional student – If money was no option, I’d pursue a few degrees (or maybe just attend a few hundred random classes).  I have a very broad set of interests, and could easily fill the rest of my life learning new things (and reading contemporary fiction in my down time).

Now it’s your turn.  If you could change jobs, what would you be?

[Editor’s note: It’s that time of the year again. The kids are back in school, summer’s enjoying one last hurrah until the autumn inevitably causes the leaves and temperatures to fall. In the coming weeks, one lonely hot dog will become the final wiener to die a martyr’s death – dropping between grill grates and into the fires below. The television lineup gets refreshed with new shows (Hope Solo on Dancing With the Stars – how can other shows possibly compete with such high drama?</sarcasm>). On the athletic fields, baseball has already separated the chaff from the wheat, with several teams on the cusp of having their playoff tickets punched.

But for our sports writer Johnny Goodman, this time of year means one thing – COLLEGE FOOTBALL. Without further ado, I turn it over to Johnny for his pigskin picks.]

The last several years we’ve been plastered with a push for everything green. We are asked to stop receiving bank statements and bills via paper in the name of going green. We have green micro size cars that plug in and will drive 75 miles on a single charge, SUV’s are bad in the name of green, we are losing normal incandescent light bulbs in the name of green and soon we will have to use CFL’s in the name of green.

Another enormous push the last couple of years (since the stimulus) has been the creation and promotion of green jobs. The stimulus funneled roughly $70 Billion to the energy economy most of which was to green energy.

Personally, I’m willing to make some green concessions, I recycle (most of the “stuff most of the time), I bought a kegerator so I’m not creating the can and bottle waste that all you other beer drinkers are leaving behind (truth be told that wasn’t my motivation). I even have a refillable water bottle and a small car (Volvo S60) that I use for commuting to/from work. For a conservative chap, I feel like that makes me pretty green. I don’t have solar added to our home; I don’t contribute to the electric company so they can buy more of those gigantic windmills to produce electricity. I certainly don’t wear green on my sleeves like many people do, but I try to do my part. (I know…how big of me).

I have to laugh at the ignorance of some people though. I have neighbors that refuse to run their A/C on 95 degree days in the name of reducing their carbon footprint. I know people that have invested in solar panels for their home even though they will never see the return on their investment. I know our federal government gave $20 Million dollars to the city of Seattle to create green jobs only to see a return of 14 jobs from that investment. That equates to a cost of $1,428,571.43 per job. Great job!

I have to lay something out here…I have no problem with making a shift and trying to be more green, but I believe in being responsible about it because I have not drank any of that Kool-Aid.

I understand why the government wants clean coal technology, I understand why they want to get away from crude oil, I understand why they want to find alternative fuel sources and encourage companies to be more innovative. I just don’t understand why anyone thinks we can run over all the energy companies forcing them in a short amount of time to change the way they do business without having something to take its place. I don’t understand how we can give $20 million to a city to produce green jobs and basically just abandon all sense of reason.

Why didn’t we invest some of this money in new refineries to help reduce the cost of gasoline (last refinery built in the US was 1993)? Why aren’t we drilling in the oil rich portions of the US instead of giving Venezuela $2 Billion for offshore drilling? Why didn’t we produce another nuclear facility to help cover the current need while still using some of the stimulus to research and learn more about how we could create green energy for a lower price? Why are we trying to cut off the use of fossil fuels even though we Gasoline powered engines are not disappearing overnight so let’s slow down and make this change responsibly. Green jobs aren’t going to be the only jobs overnight either so let’s stop penalizing the current energy companies because that will just equate to higher prices for us.

It’s time for people to pull their heads out of their asses. We are not Europe and most of us don’t want to be Europe. We need to start approaching future decisions with common sense and accountability. The days of blindly throwing money at problems has to change. We need to add accountability and find someone in Washington DC that has at least a shred of common sense to start monitoring this garbage. In the months leading up to the 2012 Presidential election, I bet we’ll hear a lot more of these examples. We passed this asinine stimulus and health care bills and we found out what was in it. It’s just too bad we trusted our representatives to actually represent us.

Anyone but Obama 2012

Squeaky…

“To our health,” exclaimed Charles.

“He’s here,” announced Tiffany Belkin, as she clinked champagne glasses with her dinner companion, took a sip of the sparkling wine, and leaned toward Charles for a quick kiss. Sitting in a dark corner of the restaurant on a busy Saturday night, they were indistinguishable from a number of other young couples, enjoying a romantic dinner on a pleasant spring evening.

A block away, Tiffany’s words caused the personnel in the van to go on high alert.

A short distance from Tiffany and Charles, their quarry was perusing the menu.

“What would you recommend?” he asked the man sitting across from him.

“What a silly question, dear Marcel. The prime rib, but of course.”

Marcel smiled at Boris’s characteristic response. Each time they met to do business, Boris selected prime rib.

“Don’t you ever tire of the prime rib, Boris? Perhaps a rib eye, veal parmigiana, or even a nice Caesar salad?”

“Salad? Salad? We are carnivores. Carnivores. Man rose not to the top of the food chain with the eating of lettuce.”

“You keep talking that way and people are going to mistake you for an American.”

“Good, good,” said Boris with a smile. “That would suit my needs very well.”

Charles winked at Tiffany as Boris uttered these words. Confirmation that Boris was a foreign national on U.S. soil for the sole purpose of espionage. Tiffany returned his wink and placed a hand on his thigh. Undercover work had its advantages, he mused.

Marcel opted for shrimp, while Boris remanded dedicated to his prime rib. As they waited for their meals to arrive, the conversation shifted toward business.

“I have a package for you,” announced Boris.

“And I for you,” responded Marcel.

“You have the real deal, yes? I’ve encountered some problems with some of your comrades. In a few cases, outright forgeries.”

“Oh no,” replied Marcel with a soothing smile. “I’ve got the bona fide stuff – intellectual property of the U.S. government.”

“Yes, I believe you do. My people have a great deal of trust in you.”

Tiffany leaned over and whispered into Charles’s ear. “BUSTED. We got ’em! This is so exciting.”

Charles kissed her gently on the lips while speaking softly to her. “We still need to wait for the transfer.”

Tiffany nodded in response and gulped the rest of her champagne with a giggle. Charles could see the impact the adrenaline was having on her – transforming her from merely pretty into an extremely seductive woman. He could feel himself being drawn into her web … but the time for such thoughts was later. They needed to focus on the task at hand.

An hour later, as Marcel crossed the street carrying the package from Boris, he was apprehended by federal agents. Inside the restaurant, Boris smiled as the attractive women from a nearby table sat down across from him. He had noticed her earlier. He smiled with anticipation. American women were so bold.

Then her male companion slide in beside her, and Boris frowned. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Federal agents,” explained Tiffany, flashing her badge.

“We’re busted your little spy ring, commie,” explained Charles.

“Spy?”

“Give us the package.”

Boris slowly handed the packaged to Charles, who ripped it open. He stared at the contents for a long moment, trying to make sense of it.

“Stamps?”

“Stamps,” replied Boris. “I am a collector, as is Marcel. We trade.”

“We heard you discussing forgeries, and documents that were the intellectual property of the U.S. government,” pressed Tiffany.

“Of course they are the intellectual property of your government. They are the ones who commission the artwork for the stamps. And forgeries … ah, this is the scourge of the hobby. You can never be sure until you place them under a magnifier, but Marcel comes to me well recommended.”

In the van, a similar scene was unfolding. A half hour later, the agents were drowning their sorrows in a nearby bar. Marcel Ackerman of the State Department was not a spy after all. Once again, bad information had led them astray, and they had harassed innocent people. Sometimes this job sucked.

In a hotel across town, Boris Korovin was using an Xacto knife to split the cover of a stamp album into two pieces. He pulled out the document encased between the halves, placed the album to the side, and began work on the next one in the pile.

Note: this fiction story is based very loosely on an interaction between alleged U.S. spy Felix Bloch (a State Department employee) and a Soviet agent whom Bloch knew as Pierre Bart.  You can read more about Bloch on Wikipedia. 

The big news in the sports world today is Michael’s Vick’s new six year, one hundred million dollar deal with the Philadelphia Eagles.  The Eagles nabbed Vick off the NFL trash heap as a reclamation project after his legal troubles involving dogfighting.  Last season, Vick set career highs with 21 touchdowns and 3018 passing yards, while tossing only 6 interceptions.  The Eagles were sold on Vick enough to trade away former savior Kevin Kolb.

Obviously, Vick’s greatest asset is his ability to scramble.  Vick has surpassed 500 rushing yards in a season on 5 occasions, and has even topped 1000 yards once.  His career rushing average of 7.1 yards per carry is very impressive.  His ability to run also buys him time to find an open receiver.

Unfortunately, those legs are going to get old.  In the last year of that deal, you’re going to be watching a 36 year old Michael Vick who last lost a step or three.  The rushing yards will drop and the number of sacks will climb a bit.  He’ll have to win games with his arms instead of his legs.  Can he do that?  Let’s look at the numbers throughout his career.

* denotes partial year

Let’s look at those TD:INT ratio.  0.67, 2:1, 1.33:1, 1.17:1, 1.15:1, 1.54:1.  Last year, he had a ratio of  3.5:1.  Those aren’t great ratios, and it’s quite possible that the interceptions could climb if Vick’s declining speed forces him to make more throws that he does today.  In spite of his obvious talent, his career high in total passing+rushing yards is the 3694 yards from last season.  Far from being a 4000 yard passer, Vick isn’t even a 4000 yard player.

Worth having on your team?  Certainly.  Worth $16M this year?  Perhaps.  Worth $16M in 2016?  Probably not.  Of course, NFL deals are non-guaranteed, so the Eagles could also cut Vick to shed payroll.

Around the NFL

Peyton Manning has been clear for limited practice.  There’s still a good chance he won’t be available for the season opener on September 11.  The Colts coaxed veteran QB Kerry Collins out of retirement to take the reins if Manning in unable to go.  The existing backups for the Colts did not inspire much confidence.

The Raiders drafted Terrelle Pryor in the third round of the supplemental draft (which means they will forfeit their third round pick in the 2011 draft.  Pryor will not be eligible to play until the sixth week of the season. Is the “born to be bad” Raiders organization the best fit for a guy who ran afoul of NCAA regs? Probably not.

Crittenton Arrested on Murder Charges

Former NBA player Javaris Crittenton was arrested Monday.  Authorities allege that he fatally shot Jullian Jones on August 19.  They also believe that Jones, a mother of four, was not the intended victim, but that Crittenton was trying to get revenge for an earlier robbery.

Crittenton was a one-and-one player at Georgia Tech.  He was drafted 19th overall in the 2007 drafted.  Since then, he has played for three NBA teams (he also signed with a fourth team, the Bobcats, but did not play for them), China’s Zhejiang Guangsha Lions, and most recently the Dakota Wizards of the NBA’s developmental league.  In February of 2010, he was in the midst of a locker room incident involving guns.

All this, and Crittenton is still just 23 years old.

[Editor’s note: turn back the clock to October 13, 2008.  In a dark corner of Blogspot, I launched the blog that would become The Soap Boxers.  This was the very first article.  As alluded to in the original title, and again in the final sentence, Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal was an inspiration for this article.]

A modest proposal: guerilla investments tactics

Many times, we hear about class warfare. The poor and middle class doing battle with the rich.

Unfortunately, this is not the battle that they should be fighting. Instead of fighting people outside of your socioeconomic status, you should instead be fighting the people within your own financial strata.

There are two ways to get ahead in life. You can pull yourself up or push others down. Is it easier to climb the ladder, or to push others off? Is it easier to sail around the world, or to sit in ambush and sink the ships of those who would attempt such a folly?

In the financial arena, many people are overlooking a simple fact. The prices of goods and services rise and fall with respect to the relative supply and demand. You might have a million dollars in the bank – but the true test of wealth is what you can buy with the money.

I recommend commencing guerrilla economic warfare.

In order to reduce the prices of goods, it is simply necessary to reduce the demand. One way to do this is to drain the resources of people in your financial strata, effectively pushing them down into a lower class. Today, there might be five people who are interested in purchasing a certain item. If you can cause three of these people to encounter financial difficulties, you will reduce the competition (demand) for the item, and thus the price.

One of the more effective ways to do this is to convince your victims to play the lottery heavily. Not only does this reduce the finances of your friend, but also takes the money out of the private sector. In theory, it should even reduce – or stall the increase – in your state income tax by providing extra revenue to the state.

You should proceed with caution when suggesting plans that would transfer wealth from your victim to others in the private sector. You do not, of course, want him to give the money to someone who is slightly below you in wealth, allowing the receiver to climb into your class. This would be a complete waste of energy, as it would result in no change in your relative wealth.

Instead, you should convince them to give their money to people who are much wealthier. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have little impact on the market for three bedroom houses. In a best case scenario, you want the money to go to someone with very few employees, to reduce the possibility that the wealthy person’s employees could climb into your financial strata. Ponzi schemes and other scams work very nicely.

Take this advice to heart, and be Swift in your actions. Your financial future is at stake.

OK, it’s a grab bag of random thoughts today.

First of all, the other writers don’t get enough credit.  This site stated out as my baby, and in the early days I was writing 5-7+ articles every single week.  I can’t imagine how this was possible, but I made it happen.  Over the years, the number of regular writers has grown to the point where I write between one and three articles each week – much more manageable.  In addition to taking a big chunk of the load, the other writers also introduce unique perspectives.  A heartfelt thank you.

There’s a new car in Kosmo’s garage.  The first three car purchases I made were Ford Tauruses.  This time around, not only did we go outside the Ford family, but also with a foreign car maker.  The “new” car is a 2007 Hyundai Elantra with about about 66,000 miles on it.  It will be used primarily for for 70 mile round trip commute.  The previous owner stated that it would get 35 on long stretches of highway.  I can definitely believe that.  I mix in a bit of town driving and am getting in the 32-33 mpg range so far.

I’m still hoping to see more $99 HP Touchpads pop onto the market after seeing my order confirmed and then canceled.  However, in fairness, it sounds like I was only able to place an order in the first place because of a glitch with Barnes and Noble’s web site.

Hurricane Irene is going to be in the news all weekend, and she threatens the east coast.  I’m hoping for the best.  If you’re in the affected region, please stay safe and heed any warnings (or orders) to evacuate.  Many people are watching New York City, which has tremendous financial exposure to a hurricane.  Hopefully the storm will have weakened somewhat by the time it hits New York.

I haven’t been writing much new fiction for the site lately.  I do apologize for that, but if you find yourself in dire need of my stories, you can always grab a copy of Mountains, Meadows, and Chasms from Amazon (Kindle edition).  I do expect to get back to at least one story per month in the future.  Weekly stories may be a thing of the past, though.

One of the reasons why I haven’t been writing as many stories – or articles – lately is the sheer number of projects on my plate at the moment.  I’m engaged in a few activities that are actually producing revenue streams, and feel obliged to devote some time to those efforts, even though they aren’t as much fun as writing fiction.

Between the activite projects and the ones I’m trying to get off the ground, I could probably work full time on my writing for the next six months without needing anything new to work on.  However, the fact that I have a “real job” means squeezing these projects into a small chunk of free time.  I’ve just begun work on a series of novellas about an unconventional detective.  I plan to do a simultaneous launch with two of the novellas (on Kindle, naturally), hopefully around the end of the year.  I’ve also gotten a start on a rather interesting non-fiction book that is currently on the back burner.  Then, of course, is my full length serial killer novel, which I’ll find the time to finish … sometime.

*When I say “American” imagery, I’m referring to images beginning with the appearance of white Europeans on the continent. Native Americans have an incredibly rich and diverse history of image making, which I have not studied nearly enough to do justice to it.

Images were rare in early colonial America. Many of the settlers were religious refugees from Europe, where the more ostentatious religions of Catholicism and Anglicanism were intolerant of their austere beliefs. The Calvinists and Puritans that made up early white America took the biblical saying “cursed is the man who carves an image or casts an idol” [Deuteronomy 27:15] very seriously. Puritans often complained about the Catholic devotion to paintings and sculptures in their churches, which they considered to be idolatry. Protestants focused on the word of God, and their plain, clean-lined churches reflect this.

It is perhaps a little surprising, then, that some of the first images produced by colonial Americans are portraits of ministers. John Foster’s woodcut of Reverend Richard Mather from 1670 (the first portrait print in the colonies),

is typical of pre-eighteenth century images of preachers that would have appeared in books of sermons. Calvinists justified such images by regarding them as moral examples of faithfulness, meant to inspire such feelings in the readers. The importance of the word of God is emphasized by the presence of the Bible, which the Reverend Mather is engaged in reading (note the dainty glasses he holds in his right hand). One of the most important Protestant tenets was reading the Bible yourself to gain a personal understanding of God. John Foster was a member of Mather’s congregation, and would have been familiar with all these principles.

It is evident from looking at the Reverend Mather that Foster was not a trained artist. The woodcut is simple and somewhat blocky, lacking the finesse typical in woodcuts done in Europe by trained artists at the same time. This was typical well into the colonial period. Trained artists were not in high demand in the new settlements, and those who did produce images were typically copying the work of European artists. However, although the print is lacking in depth and realism, Foster paid a lot of attention to the details in the face, especially the kind expression in the eyes.

If Reverend Richard Mather’s portrait represents the birth of American images, his grandson Cotton Mather’s portrait by Peter Pelham in 1728,

represents how far American imagery had come in just over half a century. Cotton Mather was the son of Increase Mather, another preacher in the mold of his father, Richard Mather, and while their Calvinist religious beliefs were the same, their portraits are wildly dissimilar.

Peter Pelham was a well-known mezzotint engraver based in Boston. Trained in England, he brought European expertise to America, and was, in fact, the stepfather of America’s first native painter, John Singleton Copley. Mezzotint, which involved roughening the print plate with thousands of little dots made by a toothed metal tool, allows for a much greater variation of tone than woodcut, and Pelham’s expertise and training is clear in the great realism of the facial details and shading, and the delicate curls of Cotton Mather’s intriguing hair. Even the slight tonal changes in the background and Mather’s delicate beribboned bib speak to the advances made in American art in less than a century. Where Foster’s work was simplistic, austere, and geometric, Pelham’s piece is detailed, sophisticated, and evokes the best European work of the period.

In spirit, both works represent the Puritanical religious spirit that still envelopes the American colonies. Colonists prided themselves on their religious purity and austere lives, even as they began to thrive and become wealthy. This new wealth is evident in Cotton Mather’s elaborate outfit and hair, set against the much more modest attire of his grandfather. In the fifty years between the two portraits, American colonists began to value images more highly, recognizing them as an ideal medium for spreading values and ideas to a wide group of people, regardless of their literacy level. This democratic property of images allowed art to become more and more important to colonists as they began their struggle for independence.

Move over Michele Bachmann, there is now a nutcase in the race with the proper chromosomes to be qualified to be President. Now before you get all hot and bothered by the sexism of me saying such a thing, that is certainly not how I feel. However, it must be how the Republican primary voters feel.

How else do you explain that in less than two weeks since officially jumping into the race that he is already the frontrunner and put good Ole Mittens and the crazy lady well behind in second and fourth place.

The new Gallup poll out today has Perry with 29 percent, Romney with 17, Ron Paul with 13 and Bachmann with just ten percent now in the polls.

There has been constant talk throughout this early stage in the process of the field not being complete or the voters being happy with their choices. Once Bachmann entered the race that quieted down a little bit, but despite running away with a meaningless straw poll vote in Iowa she never took over the lead in polling with the voters.

On the surface Bachmann and Perry appeal to the same audience of voters. Both are firebrands that say the red meat the tea party people want to hear, only one is male and one is female. So that has to be the reason for Perry’s surge to the front. It sure is not about his record as Governor of Texas, as I would say Dubya was a better Governor than him.

Speaking of which, if Perry were to get elected, I would for the first time answer yes to all those ‘Miss Me Yet?’ bumper stickers.

Don’t fret though you Bachmann crazies. You are bound to gather up the preference of those running behind you in the polls now and Perry could always mess things up and vault you back to the top.

One reason that could happen is the biggest difference other than gender between Perry and her. That reason being that she actually means and believes all the stupid and crazy shit that comes out of her mouth. Perry on the other hand, as evidenced by his responses to his own statements and writings in just the past year is already trying to change what he said, or that he meant this instead. If he does this too much the tea party people will start to see him as not much better than Mitt on that account and go back to supporting Bachmann. As genuine, sincere and honest craziness means much more to them, even if it is from a woman.