***Monday, February 13 — Scroll down for updates***
Looking for the “podcast?” Download the MP3 at Captain’s Quarters.
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Third and final day of CPAC. I asked Judge Charles Pickering (pictured) his opinion of blogs. (See Judicial battles stem from culture war)
Blogging is citizen participation, which is good, and blogging is a lot like pamphleteering during the American Revolution. I made the same comparison in Blogging Matt Drudge. Responsible bloggers make great contributions to democracy.
I attended a session this morning called “The Entitlement Crash.” Standard fare about social security reform, health care reform, and the success of welfare reform, but a couple of comments at the end caught my attention. Moderator Peter Ferrara of the Institute for Policy Innovation made a reference to the Lord. Hold the phone! An elderly woman who asked a question about raising the retirement age takes care of her elderly mother. Long lives! Before Ferrara answered the question, he said something like, “You’re doing the Lord’s work taking care of your mother, by the way…”
The Lord’s work. I was overjoyed to hear that. As much as people malign Christianity, there is a strong sense of family responsibility throughout the Bible. I’ve heard some Christians argue that putting your elderly parents in a nursing home is unbiblical. Part of honoring our mothers and fathers means that we take care of them in their old age. Back in the day, that’s what a lot of people did before the nanny state took over. The very idea that we sacrifice and take care of those who took care of us is so…
3:24 p.m.: I broke off mid-sentence. Got distracted! First, I had lunch with the man from the endangered species list I mentioned yesterday and missed the session on illegal immigration. I’m not complaining, though. 
Second, ran into and took photos with Richard Miniter, whose book I reviewed. Great read. Was introduced to and took photos with Joel Mowbray. We talked about why he doesn’t have a blog. Third, I was interviewed on Ed Morrissey’s radio show. Reception was very bad in the hotel, so I became a walking Verizon commercial. “Can you hear me now? How about now?” As soon as Ed said he could hear me clearly, I stopped abruptly. I was standing in the middle of a crowded room practically shouting as Ed and Mitch Berg interviewed me about CPAC. Hilarious. But fun.
This morning I met and took a photo of a lovely Muslim woman who works for Muslims for America. I regret not asking her questions, but I will set up a time to speak with her about global terrorism, her opinion about the cartoon riots, etc. I had a too-brief chat with Michelle Malkin. No photos.
Either tonight or tomorrow, I’ll post more pictures and finish my thoughts on the Entitlement session and offer final thoughts on this year’s CPAC. I must mention all the great bloggers I saw again and others I met for the first time.
10:15 p.m.: My interview with Mitch Berg and Captain Ed is available for download. I thought I was shouting because of the noise around me, but I wasn’t. Cool.
Correction: Ken Yarmosh and I presented “Crash Course on Blogging” on Thursday afternoon. In the interview I said Friday.
If you’d like us to present this two-hour course at your organization, please contact me or Ken.
Sweet dreams…
Update (2/13): CPAC is already a fading memory. Playing catch up with neglected tasks will occupy my week, but I’m glad I attended. (pictured with author Richard Miniter)
CPAC is the place to be if you want to network with and meet well-known conservatives. I thought of skipping the conference this year; I’m glad I changed my mind.
I would like to have seen more “debate” on the two panels I saw, but since panelists pretty much agreed with each other, there wasn’t much. Other bloggers complained about that, too. The organizers should have invited a few liberals to add spark. Perhaps they were invited but turned down the invites.
Then again, the homogeneity is comforting and affirming, especially if you’re around liberals all day.
A man on the Entitlement panel made a comment that ties in loosely with Star Parker’s latest book, White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay. Robert Moffitt of The Heritage Foundation said that government aid programs used to be for the indigent (no news there) but have become a middle-class entitlement. Think health care subsidies, the broken Social Security system, etc.
Without a clear and unrevised historical perspective, people tend to forget that Americans in general used to have a healthy suspicion of the government. That’s no longer the case. We all complain about rising health care costs, but health care is a business like anything else. As extreme as this may sound to nanny staters’ ears (conservatives included), we have no “right” to free or reduced-cost health care or to expect the government to help to keep us healthy. Radical, isn’t it? If you think so, then you understand how far we’ve fallen.
You’ve heard of the trickle down theory popularized by Ronald Reagan, haven’t you? The idea is that investing in companies and giving them tax breaks will benefit the entire economy. Well, the entitlement mentality has worked in reverse, a trickle up theory, if you will. The “right” to government benefits has spread from the “poor” to the higher classes.
It seems the definition of “indigent” has changed over the years. Once upon a time, the government adopted the very biblical concept of taking care of “widows and orphans.” Bums were excluded. There was also a distinction between the working poor and bums. People with little money but who worked for a living were proud and didn’t want government handouts. If someone labored at a back-breaking and thankless job but took care of his family and paid his bills, he was and still is intrinsically different from the “poor” person who didn’t want to work.
These days “the poor” are lumped in one big group, as if they are a uniquely identifiable group. The “poor” woman collecting a government check with no interest in ever working and who continues to have kids she can’t afford is different from the woman who gets up every morning and clocks in. A man who makes a family, married to the mother of the children or not, and goes to a low-paying job to make sure they have shelter, food, and clothing is of a different character than the “poor,” fit-looking bums on the street hustling me for money.
But character, good or bad, is an antiquated and “judgmental” notion that went out of style with the dinosaurs.
In our economic system, low-wage earners don’t have to remain low-wage earners their whole lives. They can gain the experience and skills needed to move to the next higher-paying job and the next, even in a system that, unfortunately, oursources and hires illegal aliens. I have no patience for people living without hope and constantly complaining and blaming others.
The old v. new media panel discussion I attended was unenlightening. Same old, same old. Terry Jeffrey, Human Events, Nick Schulz of TCSDaily.com, Martha Zoller, radio talk show host and author, and Diana Banister, Shirley & Banister Public Affairs (moderator) talked about how the new media is impacting the old media, the flexibility of new media, etc. They talked about bloggers but had no bloggers on the panel. For whatever reason Glenn Reynolds couldn’t make it, and they didn’t seek a replacement. There was a whole row of bloggers downstairs, but whoever put together the panel didn’t bother.
I enjoyed meeting bloggers, people who read LBC and/or remembered seeing me on C-SPAN and/or attended my blogging presentation. It was a great opportunity professionally and personally.
I spent two days sitting next to Rocco DiPippo of The Autonomist. This guy is one of the most outgoing people I’ve ever met. He told me how one contact led to his contribution to David Horowitz’s new book, The ProFessors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America, a FrontPageMag.com column, and other cool things. Rocco said he couldn’t believe that a regular guy like himself would ever meet and mingle with the kind of people he’s always admired.
It would take too long to list all the great people I met, but check the previous posts (Endangered Species and CPAC 2006) for links to bloggers and Technorati for more CPAC blogging and photos.
That’s a wrap…
