Monthly Archives: May 2010

Barry Short writes…

Just thought I should say, as someone who's actually running for office as a Libertarian, that you are absolutely correct about Rand Paul. Way too much of what he's saying (I am tempted to say, "blathering about") is the opposite of what I believe, and not at all representative of what's in the Libertarian platform as I read it. Without belaboring a whole lot of stuff you already know and have covered well, let me just say this: there's a reason Rand Paul is running as a Republican, and not as a Libertarian.

Here's how I describe my stands, and I think it's not too incorrect for the national party stands as well: Libertarians are the most truly conservative party, because we believe government should stay out of things that don't have anything to do with running government. We're also the most truly liberal party, because we believe government should stay out of things that don't have anything to do with running government. (Though I admit I'm a little bit loathe to use the terms "conservative" and "liberal" at all — they've both been reduced to meaningless pejoratives, with only a tiny minority actually knowing what they mean.)

Rand, as you very correctly point out, seems to have missed the second part of that description.

I have a certain respect for Libertarians who don't fudge the principles, applying the philosophy in a uniform manner. I don't think it can work…or will ever be really tried in this country. But I think there's at least an intellectual honesty to defining the role of government and then adhering to that definition, regardless of what it yields in terms of social change. I once heard someone define a true Libertarian as someone who is willing to live in a world where the government cannot stop his neighbors from doing an awful lot of things he doesn't like even though they don't harm him. I don't see that's true of Rand Paul…or his father, for that matter.

Ten fictitious Tea Party beliefs.

Number three in a series…

My problem with Dr. Rand Paul is the same problem I have with most Libertarians, which is that they espouse a theory that sometimes/sorta sounds kinda good on paper…but even they don't really believe it can be applied too far across reality. The ones who'll never be in a position to impact public policy are often maniacal that you could, but it's really one of those "be careful what you wish for" philosophies. Once there's a chance of actually imposing Libertarian views on the world, their advocates apply them selectively and toss 'em out the window completely if it might yield an outcome they don't like.

They can explain to you why America will be a better place if the Federal Gov't would just butt out of matters that are best left to the Free Market or, at least, the state level…but they really aren't against the Fed propping up the Free Market when it doesn't work the way they want it to. Rand is for coal subsidies and other Federal spending programs that aid that industry in his home state of Kentucky. And he's for Washington keeping its nose out of matters of individual choice that can be regulated by the states…but not if that would let a state legalize marijuana use, plus he wants a Constitutional Amendment banning abortion everywhere in the country.

So he's all for states' rights except, of course, if that means some state might exercise those rights in the wrong way. He also wants to slash Federal spending in just about every area that even vaguely resembles an entitlement…except (heh heh) Medicare payments to Physicians such as himself. As David Frum noted, "Rand Paul's Libertarianism stops where his pocketbook starts." It goes on from there. The Libertarian Party advocates a strict separation of Church and State, and rejects the kind of favoritism of one religion exemplified by claims that the U.S. is a Christian nation. Rand Paul believes the U.S. is a Christian nation and should become more so. His father feels the same way.

If I were a Libertarian, I think I'd be pissed. So far, all Rand is doing for their cause is backing away from half of it and doing a bad job of defending the other half. The guy might win but he's going to have to sound like a Garden Variety Republican from now 'til Election Day to have a chance.

Michael Kinsley on how to save Newsweek. And we should. If next week's issue doesn't come out, what will I read a year or two from now in my doctor's waiting room?

Because I may have confused the heck outta some of you with awkward phrasing, I have revised my post about the DVD of the Dungeons & Dragons animated series and I shall now clarify…

There have been a couple of official DVD releases. This one, called Dungeons & Dragons: The Beginning, features the first nine episodes. You don't want that one. It's $10.49 and all it is is the first disc of…

…Dungeons & Dragons: The Complete Animated Series. This is the one I plugged earlier today. It's three discs and features all 27 episodes and it's selling at the moment for $11.99. That's how come you don't want the DVD with only nine episodes. For a buck and a half more, you get the other 18.

Neither of these releases has the tons of special features that were included on a DVD set that was also, just to confuse everyone, called Dungeons & Dragons: The Complete Animated Series. This one, which has a red cover, was from a company called BCI and this DVD is out of print. Copies seem to turn up on eBay and from certain sellers from $30 to about $50. If you really care about the show, this is the one you want to seek out.

There have been a few other releases, including some pretty shoddy bootlegs, but I can't imagine why anyone would want any of them as they cost more and give you less.

Hope that clears things up.

For 48 hours, some of which have already gone by as I post this, Google is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the game of Pac-Man, which is tomorrow. How are they celebrating? Go take a look at the current logo on their main search page…and see how far you can get through its 256 levels.

Yesterday afternoon, voice artiste Gregg Berger phoned me excitedly. Near the intersection of Janss Road and Moorpark Road in Thousand Oaks, he drove by a shopping center under construction. There, he saw workers literally putting up a sign that proclaimed the looming presence of a Five Guys. As you may recall, my fave fast food hamburger comes from this chain, which exists primarily on the East Coast. A quick Twitter message to the Five Guys Twitter Person yields the info that they hope to have it open and operational "by the end of August," which probably means September or October. I hear other California outlets are coming, including one in Sacramento that could be serving up burgers 'n' fries as soon as next month.

Thousand Oaks is a wee bit more convenient to me than the current closest location, which is in Carson. We're hoping for a location that is closer…but not too close, if you know what I mean.

Amazon has slashed the price on the Dungeons & Dragons: The Complete Animated Series, a set which features all 27 episodes of the 1983-1986 Saturday morning show which I worked on. It was $24.98 when it came out. Now, it's $11.49, which is about the same price as the many bootleg editions which have been around for years. This DVD is quite handsome with pristine transfers but it didn't sell well because, I suspect, the bootlegs killed the market for the official release. If you want a copy of it cheap, here's a link.

Adam Serwer dismembers the statements by Rand Paul about 1964 Civil Rights Act. Once upon a time, I was briefly a fan of his father's brand of Libertarianism. I liked the first half-dozen or so articles of his I read. Then I came upon the ones that used Libertarianism as a beard for garden-variety racism. Like father, like son…

Neil Gaiman (hi, Neil!) writes about Ray Bradbury.

Not much for me to add so I'll just say that Ray's stories — and a couple of in-person encounters when I was a teen — had a lot to do with me sticking with my plans to write for a living. You would not believe how nice and encouraging he was to me back then.

The reason posting was sparse here for a while recently was that I had to get three half-hours of The Garfield Show done in about six days — four for the writing, two for the voice-recording. The recording sessions were Monday and Tuesday.

Tuesday's session was attended by two up-and-coming voice actors who took the class that I taught last month at Voice One up in San Francisco. One of them, a gifted lady named Cia Court, wrote up the experience for her blog.

If Cia and her friend Chuck had come to Monday's session, they would have seen/heard (along with our regulars) Laraine Newman and Jason Marsden recording. Laraine has been on the show several times now and she keeps reminding me why I always thought she was the best actor/actress in the original cast of Saturday Night Live.

Jason, who voices Nermal and many other recurring characters on the show, wasn't in on Tuesday because I gave him the day off…and for good reason. Some of you may remember a fascinating video I linked to here…a video Jason made of his son Clark, who was born way prematurely, on February 17, at the weight of one pound, ten ounces. On Monday afternoon, shortly after our recording session, Jason and his wife Christy were finally able to take Clark home from the hospital. The kid now weighs a hefty six pounds. We are quite happy about this.

Remember the Chandra Levy case? Let me refresh your memory. A young woman disappeared. It came out that she'd been having an affair with the otherwise-married Congressman Gary Condit. Much of the press (and the nation) suddenly decided that Condit must have arranged to have her killed and the main proof seemed to be that he was reportedly evasive and unhelpful in the police investigation. It eventually came out that someone else had killed her but Congressman Condit's reputation was destroyed, above and beyond the shame that might have befallen a married public official who was caught sleeping around.

Suzanne Smalley was one of the reporters who contributed to the widespread idea that Condit was obviously guilty and had tried to impede the police. Turns out he wasn't guilty and didn't try to impede the police but, hey, it was a good story for a while, right? She looks back at the case.