35 words.

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Sunday January 24, 2010 · 6:17 AM PST

2010/01/24 · 06:17

"Everyone knows what republican means-- get the refs off the field and give the poor rich people a break. The past decade was a laboratory for that premise and everyone knows how that movie ended."

I'm....no-one. Just a young guy who's not (now) exceptionally involved in politics, who has on ok-ish job (customer service for a big P&C carrier) that pays ok-ish money (33ish), no big contacts or connections. But I think the 35 words above are as concise as I can make a pretty compelling argument. That has the added advantage of being true. If I'm just some schlub. why haven't I heard anyone on the Sunday shows, any of the "elders" ostensibly on "my side" say anything ever half as pithy as the few words above?

ChristopherMays

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Thursday August 13, 2009 · 9:35 PM PDT

2009/08/13 · 21:35

Because all a "Death panel" really is, after all, is just reimbursing your doctor for spending time talking about end of life issues with you. That's not scary.

Well, it is a little scary. But people should do it.

Just in some interview sometime, just casually toss out that making a living will is a responsible thing that you should do for the sake of your family, to save them needless heartache and grief at a very difficult time. Just make your wishes known -- It's a moral, responsible thing to do for them. That's all. We like it when you give us homework like reading to our kids or checking our tire pressure; those have been some of your best, most relatable moments.

Really, this is an absurdly easy way to flip the frame on the whole counseling issue. Just say that the point of writing your wishes down is so that it's between you and your doctor, precisely so that no one --your family, the goverment, your doctor, your insurance -- has to guess. To prevent and forestall possible government intrusion. You don't need to point out that this is in fact the complete and total opposite of what crazy people are saying; we'll get it, and they'll look even crazier.

ChristopherMays

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Tuesday May 19, 2009 · 10:57 PM PDT

2009/05/19 · 22:57

Every week on ABC, it seems, Will feels the need to point out that they'll tell you "what kind of car you can buy." He's apparently obsessed with the automotive options that will be presented to him several years hence. Good thing there's an alternative to the "nanny-state socialism" of the Democrats, the freedom-loving, freedom-granting, Republican party.

Who you can marry

It's their signature issue. Freedom. Freedom from an expansive, market-squelching, overreaching state that's going to take all your choices, squeeze and mold you into a party-planned drone.

What kind of medicines you can buy

The teabaggers were not Republican per se, just average Americans concerned about the onerous, grinding tax burden that steals the sweat of your brow to buy frivolous things like roads and bridges. Not partisan per se, but we all know which party stands for limited government, which of course means more freedom.

What kind of magazinesyou can buy

ChristopherMays

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Monday May 04, 2009 · 10:37 PM PDT

2009/05/04 · 22:37

The problem with having to waste my day at work is that I read excellent diaries on the trolley in the morning, and stew and ruminate and percolate all day but don't have time to comment on them. So once in a while, after I'm home and four fingers of JB green in, I just have to riff on them a little bit, even if I'm not able to do so as cogently and powerfully as Hunter.

((Srsly, this is one of the best things on dk this year. Do we have an annual award? "The Kozzy??"))

Hunter's comments about "Effective Crimes" were stirring, and they got me thinking about situational ethics, and what an important, rallying issue that has been to the far right for many, many years....

Hunter's post may even be more powerful than he realized, with just a bit of context:

ChristopherMays

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Wednesday January 07, 2009 · 6:49 PM PST

2009/01/07 · 18:49

Or, "I'm so tired being angry at the big stuff (war, torture, habeas), I've decided to start being angry about the little stuff.

So, what started as a casual email to my father (who's not a congressman) today devolved into a rant, but also got me thinking about low-hanging fruit.

I remember sitting up late with Keith on November of 06, waiting breathlessly for those last 200 votes from Montana, of all places. We were finally in charge! The things we would do. End the war! Utopia! Huzzah!

Now, I'm not a far-radical crazy person. I know that with everything else going on, no one's going to be put on trial for war crimes. I can even reluctantly admit that with everything else going on right now, that might not even be desirable. But what made me stop and think about the last two years is that there's so much progressive stuff that is NEITHER explosively controversial NOR fabulously expensive that we could just...do.

* A good hate crimes bill. Is someone really gonna read the phonebook to keep a tool out of the hands of cops? I say let 'em, if they're that soft on crime.

*Good architecture/remodeling credits. This can be insanely impactful in terms of energy--and who doesn't love tax cuts.

ChristopherMays

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Wednesday July 30, 2008 · 12:24 AM PDT

2008/07/30 · 00:24

*His job

*Planted a tree

*Tipped a busker

*Been intellectually consistent

*Watched Ratatouille

*Eaten ratatouille

*~~Made his own cranky, crotchety list of things people could have arbitrarily done in a feeble effort to secure his place in the Adlerian power dynamic~~

*Been eaten by a shark

*Been eaten by a shark, and still worked twenty-leven jobs, including the one he's being paid for, a la Seacrest

*Talked to his ex-wife

*Smiled (non-creepy)

Marriage and Drinking Fountains

ChristopherMays

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Sunday July 13, 2008 · 1:30 PM PDT

2008/07/13 · 13:30

Molly Ivins (Lord, how we miss ya) wrote several times that it was the drinking fountains that turned manys of my parent's generation to the left as children--it was so ridiculously, obviously, and demonstrably wrong it just made you think what else where they lying about?

Fifty years and a whole generation later, civil rights still holds that place for me. It's not my only, or even most focused upon issue - the debt, the environment, the war, the rule of law often distract me because they seem so much more emergent. But on just about every other issue I can at least have a debate, a conversation with the other side. What's the proper role and scope of the state, freedom and security, the sanctity of life within certain narrowly defined constraints--I have my own (strongly held) opinions, but I can at least ken where the other side is coming from.

Poll

18 votes Show Results

I am against Marriage Equality Because...

18 votes Vote Now!

I am against Marriage Equality Because...

Marriage means kids--I'm looking at you, Lance and Rudy

1 vote

It not what the word "means" and the state has no higher role than enforcing ontological precision

3 votes

Pure "squick" factor

2 votes

Because goats are obviously next

11 votes

Other (explain below)

1 vote

The John McCain OMY@C Drinking Game

ChristopherMays

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Saturday July 12, 2008 · 2:58 PM PDT

2008/07/12 · 14:58

"I've never said that." (1 shot)
"I've always said that..." (1 shot)
"I've cast manys of votes in the Senate, and can't possibly remember them all" (2 shots)
"Twerp." (2 shots)
"As you know, I seldom talk about my service" (1 shot if by press, 3 shots if by candidate)
"Whiners" (1 shot)
"The economy is psychological" (3 shots)
"Cunt." (4 shots)
"I was proud to vote for X bill last year (Demonstrably false)" (2 shots)

And the one we're all listening for...

"Earlier tonight I called Senator Obama to congratulate him...." (Whole damn keg....)

Additions welcome in comments below. I know there've been several credibility diaries posted this morning--after the past week how could there not be -- but I only have so much time to be online...

Asterisk Culture

ChristopherMays

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Friday June 13, 2008 · 8:19 PM PDT

2008/06/13 · 20:19

There's a front page diary right now about the McCains, and the fact they have credit cards. The debate rages on the thread there about the appropriateness in political debate of this level of granular detail about the candidates' personal lives. (Most people are either simply fer it or agin it--I personally believe {Ms Teen SC reference conscious} that we've been gifted such a wonderfully flaw opponent that sticking to our beliefs is a luxury in addition to a necessity.) Leaving that issue aside, it prompted me to ramble and try to clarify some my thoughts about corporate regulation in recent history, and the biggest issue no ever talks about--the asterisk culture.

Some of these ideas and examples are sparked from an interview on Fresh Air I heard about six months ago. I can't remember the name of the book. If anyone knows what I'm talking about please post so I can link it.
UPDATE: Gotcha Capitalism By Bob Sullivan

ChristopherMays

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Thursday June 12, 2008 · 12:26 AM PDT

2008/06/12 · 00:26

At what point does the specificity get bizarre?

I almost wrote this diary the other day when I was watch McNovaCane talk about the "town hall challenge", and I just saw the same thing again in my Newsweek and remembered.

Now, giving advice or suggestions to your opponent is a time-honored campaign trope--it has to do with Alderian power dynamics. Hence the gracious offer last week to "show around" Obama in Iraq. (Especially when your candidacy rests almost solely on a [purported] experience gap.) But there's a difference between challenging an opponent to a debate, or series of (fixed number of) debates, and challenging them to a debate on a certain date, at a certain time, in a certain state, in a certain city, in a certain, arbitrarily chosen building, in front of an audience selected by an arbitrarily chosen third-party organization.

He even was going to handle travel arrangements--"We can fly there on the same plane" (quote from memory, but near enough. There was a lame joke about fundraising disparity which was only funny b/c his loophole use of trophy wife's plane has gotten wide ink).

ChristopherMays

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Saturday June 07, 2008 · 10:45 AM PDT

2008/06/07 · 10:45

One congressional race completely off everyone's radar is Eastern Washington's fifth congressional district. However, this is a race that may very well be in play: We have a uniquely qualified and capable candidate in Dr. Mark Mays, a veteran, psychologist, lawyer, and professor. (And, full disclosure, father.)

As a medical practitioner in Spokane for over 30 years, and a member of a panoply of different boards and professional organizations, he is uniquely qualified to talk about health care.

As a small business owner, and as professor of law, business, and medicine, and Chair of the Board of Eastern, he is able to speak quite well about jobs and the economy

As a veteran who helped the develop the Survival Rescue school here at Farichild, he understands exactly what torture means in a way that few others do, and speaks quite passionately about ending the war in responsible time frame.

RSS

35 words.

Dear Mr. President--Start talking about living wills.

"The Party of Freedom"

"The Lifeboat Game"

Why the frak don't we get anything?

My arbirtrary list of things McCain could have done today, but didn't

Marriage and Drinking Fountains

The John McCain OMY@C Drinking Game

Asterisk Culture

Enuff about freakin Federal Hall

The Flippable District No One Knows About