Author Archives: Joe Martin

I am a Christian and a political fish out of water. Seriously. I live in Madison, WI (”The Berkley of the Midwest”, “so many square miles surrounded by reality”, etc). I’m mostly libertarian, in my political beliefs; mostly conservative in my personal beliefs.

I have a wife, a car, and a lot of student loan debt. I like thinking about politics, philosophy, and economics. I like airing my opinions for anyone and everyone to read. I like it even more when people talk back and disagree with my opinions.

Why I Don’t Like Senator Obama (1 in a Series)

August 20, 2008 – 8:58 pm

In case it hasn’t been obvious from some of my recent posts, I don’t like Senator Obama. Why? Well, aside from eloquent, soaring rhetoric, I haven’t seen much about him to like. (The same is true of Senator McCain, but that’s a separate series.) While I haven’t seen much to like, I have seen several things [...]

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Why Didn’t Obama Fix the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act?

August 20, 2008 – 12:07 pm

Peter Kirsanow makes a really good point about Senator Abortion and the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act. Even if one accepts any one of Obama’s (four and counting) explanations for his vote against the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act, his position remains problematic, if not untenable. Consider: Obama sits through testimony [...]

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SIGG Should Try a Little Price Gouging

August 18, 2008 – 9:54 pm

Last Christmas I asked for — and received — a SIGG water bottle. After checking it out for a while, my wife decided that she wanted one too. Now our daughter wants in the action. Although she’s only 18 months old, she loves carrying Mommy’s SIGG around and drinking out of the sports top. Tonight, I [...]

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Nobody Wants a Whining Commander in Chief

August 18, 2008 – 3:08 pm

Barack Obama didn’t do so well at Pastor Rick Warren’s forum Saturday night. How did the Obama campaign react? By whining and claiming that somebody else cheated: I’ve been looking into all this buzz that McCain somehow cheated — that he wasn’t in a “cone of silence” — during Barack Obama’s half of the [...]

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Destroying the Oceans Through the Tragedy of the Commons

August 14, 2008 – 3:50 pm

This sounds fairly dire. Oceans on the Precipice: Scripps Scientist Warns of Mass Extinctions and ‘Rise of Slime’. Human activities are cumulatively driving the health of the world’s oceans down a rapid spiral, and only prompt and wholesale changes will slow or perhaps ultimately reverse the catastrophic problems they are facing. Such [...]

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We Have No Idea How Good We Have It

August 13, 2008 – 10:37 am

For a long time I’ve believed that the people who complain most about America have no idea how truly unique, special, and blessed America actually is. James Lilek’s touched on this idea in his euology for Alexander Solzhenitsyn. In the summer of ‘78 I was back home in Fargo between college years — exiled [...]

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I Will Not Vote for Senator Abortion

August 13, 2008 – 10:15 am

This is why I cannot — will not — vote for Senator Barack Obama in November. The tiny newborn baby made very little noise as he struggled to breathe. He lacked the strength to cry. He had been born four months premature. “At that age,” says nurse Jill Stanek, “their lungs [...]

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Obama Backers Officially Unhinged

August 8, 2008 – 8:31 am

Obama fans think that McCain’s “The One” ad tries to link Obama to the anti-Christ. I think they’ve gone completely batty. The ad has also generated criticism from Democrats and religious scholars who see a hidden message linking Sen. Obama to the apocalyptic Biblical figure of the antichrist. The spot, called [...]

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Preoccupied By Race

August 7, 2008 – 5:06 pm

I’ve been reading an article asking Is Obama the end of black politics? This excerpt jumped out at me: I asked [Michael] Nutter [the black mayor of Philadelphia] if, during his private conversations with Obama early in the campaign, the subject of race and the historic nature of his candidacy came up. He stared [...]

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Working Hard — But Not at Home

August 7, 2008 – 2:21 pm

Many people like to point out how Americans work harder — and longer — than the rest of the world. Many leftists like to point out that America’s work / life balance is out of whack and that we need to spend more time at home and less time at the office. Maybe. But we don’t really [...]

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