Daily Diversions (Web Log)

David's Mental Meanderings
12^th November 2000

I have been writing and re-writing this Meandering for several days, each time coming up with a great introduction. As the post-election events have unfolded, it seems there is hardly a way to make timely comments upon them. Nonetheless, I will attempt to make a few before shifting the focus to this side of the Atlantic. Just in case this is so long that it truncates on some of e-mail services, I have also attached it as a MS Word document.

At the conclusion of the final significant battle of the American Revolution (or the American War of Independence, as it is called over here), Gen. Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown on 20^th October 1781. His soldiers marched out to the tune of a popular song, "The World Turned Upside Down".

On the first Wednesday after the first Monday in November eight years ago, I was sitting in Constitutional Law class and wrote a new song with the same title. The lyrics begin:

Right becomes wrong, wrong becomes right
Babies die, but not the sodomites
Euphemistic methods of suicide
Look for our values in the lost and found
It's the world turned upside down

On the first Wednesday after the first Monday this month, I wish I had been presented with the opportunity to write new lyrics. However, even if George Bush is victorious, it still waits to be see whether America can be turned right-side up again.

That the election for both the Executive and Legislative branches was so close, speaks one truth very loud and clear. America is not particularly interested in righteousness. Not everyone that votes Republican does so to preserve or promote a Christian worldview. Other the other hand, with very few exceptions, no one votes Democrat for that reason. The days of the conservative Southern Democrat are gone.

George Bush is a champion of the unborn. However, if he is the one who takes the Oath of Office in on what will almost undoubtedly be a cold January day, do not expect Roe v. Wade to be overturned. With the GOP controlling the Senate with either 51 or 50 plus the Vice-president, it will be impossible to get a potential justice past the litmus test which will be imposed by "moderate" Republicans, committed like the Democrats to the culture of death.

I'm not suggesting that things would be the same with Al Gore. Having traded the lives of the innocent in exchange for political opportunity when he flip-flopped on the issue several years ago, we can be sure that the slaughter will continue unabated.

Now on this matter of the electoral college thwarting the will of the American people, why is no one bothering to discuss Constitutional theory? Probably because the illiterate morons who are marching up and down in Palm Beach County under the sway of Congressman Wexler's demagoguery wouldn't understand that the People were never supposed to elect the President. He doesn't represent the People. He represents the united States.

I am perfectly happy for the People to elect the President, as soon as Rhode Island, Delaware, and North Dakota give up their two seats in the Senate. No one seems to realize that liberty is safe without direct democracy. It seems that the demographic groups upon which the Democratic Party depend for it's base vote have no idea that the United States is a federal republic. If it is time to finish the dismantling of the republican government, which began with Texas v. White and continued with the 17^th Amendment, then so be it.

And one final note on this fiasco... The last time the Republicans were credibly accused of voter fraud was in 1888 (when voters were brought across the Wabash from Illinois to Indiana, each being paid to vote several times). The last time the Democrats were involved in voter fraud? It happens so often, who can keep track? One need only look to the father of the man in charge of the Gore campaign. Or "Landslide Lyndon" Johnson and the Texas courthouse that mysteriously burned to the ground after he won election to the U.S. Senate by 48 votes. Which party did everything they could do to keep black voters out of the polls in the South? Hint: there weren't any Republicans in the South back then.

Enough of this for now.

The one part of the world that does seem right-side up is the Holford household. (Yes, that's the best transition I could I devise...) I have promised an update, so here it is.

Mrs Holford is working full-time for Herefordshire College of Technology. She has decided to take at least a year off before pursuing her University degree. She enjoys her work in the Management Information Services department. In her spare time she feeds me, does a lot of work for our local LIFE group, and nags me about how bad the guinea pigs smell.

I suppose this is the only negative thing I have to report. There will soon be an ad in the classifieds of the Hereford Times offering a couple of pleasant, but stinky, cavies named after saints. We will probably throw in a deluxe, hand-crafted, two-storey, linoleum-floored hutch, ceramic food dish, gravity-powered water distribution unit (plastic water bottle) and all the hay we have left. Things have gotten to the point that even I have to admit these adorable, cuddly creatures (well, Hilda is cuddly -- Brigid is not quite as social) absolutely pong. No matter how often I change the urine-soaked newspaper and bedding, they just reek. I will miss buying cheap vegetables in the reduced items basket at Safeway and watching the excitement on their furry little faces as I put fresh veggies (and especially greens) in their bowl.

Other than the imminent departure of the pigs, things are going rather well. Not only do I finally have my full British driver's license, but I have now have received my indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom. For a while it seemed there was going to be a problem with the latter. There wasn't a question that I would get it -- it was just a matter of when.