CHENEY/PALIN 2012
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Obama's Fiscal Policy Report Card
Heh
Breitbart reports, three and a half hours later: "Suspected US missiles, Pakistan jets hit militants."
Labels: Politics, War on Terror
Monday, July 06, 2009
The Space Race Just Got More Interesting
Uranium Found on the Moon
Better keep an eye on the Iranian space program...
Drink Beer, Win a Trip to Space
But will some frat boy get to the uranium first?
Labels: Science
What's My Take On The Palin Resignation?
Labels: Politics
False Prophecy Recommendation Du Jour
Labels: Politics
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Odes To Liberty
2003 Original image of WTC replaced with mini-collage of WTC, Liberty Bell, and the flag raising on Mount Suribachi.
2004 Image of young girl celebrating the liberation Iraq; LOTR quote.
2005 Iraqi girl image replaced by Iraqi voter; Cathy Seipp quote via Samizdata.
2006 Viktor Frankl quote
2007 Oriana Fallaci quote
2008 William F. Buckley quote
2009 YouTube video, scene from "John Adams" miniseries
The scene from "John Adams" shows the meeting of the Second Continental Congress, at which the vote for independence from Great Britain is conducted, and (at 3:07) the public reading of the Declaration of Independence. 
Through these fields of destruction
Baptisms of fire
I've watched all your suffering
As the battle raged higher
And though they did hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms
Dire Straits, "Brothers in Arms"
"Then I will live in Montana, and I will marry a round American woman and raise rabbits and she will cook them for me. And I will have a pickup truck, or possibly even a recreational vehicle, and drive from state to state. Do they let you do that?"
Vasili Borodin (played by Sam Neill), The Hunt for Red October
"'We hold these truths to be self-evident... That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights... That among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness... That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men ...'. And this paper that from the French Revolution on the whole West has copied, from which each of us has drawn inspiration, still constitutes the backbone of America. Her vital lymph. Know why? Because it transforms the subjects into citizens. Because it turns the plebes into people. Because it invites, no, it orders the plebes turned into citizens to rebel against tyranny and to govern themselves. To express their individualities, to search for their own happiness. (Something that for the poor, for the plebes, means to get rich). The exact contrary, in short, of what the communists used to do with their practice of forbidding people to govern themselves, to express themselves, to get rich. With their practice of installing His Majesty the State on the throne."
Oriana Fallaci, The Rage and the Pride
"With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood."
Martin Luther King
"There is an inverse relationship between reliance on the state and self-reliance."
"The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden - that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time."
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
"Funny that the same people to whom diversity is a holy word so often bemoan diversity of opinion as divisive. But in a democracy, politics are naturally divisive: you vote for this candidate and someone else votes for that one; you vote yes (or no) on a proposition and other citizens disagree. What's not divisive? Saddam and his 99.96% of the vote. That's how it went during the previous Iraqi election -- an illustration of the Latin roots of the word fascism, which actually means a bunch of sticks all tied together in one big unhappy unified bunch, and not (despite what many assume) any variation from p.c. received-wisdom regarding gay rights, affirmative action, bilingual education, etc. This election was different because it was divisive, which means it was better."
Cathy Seipp (Samizdata quote of the day, February 01, 2005)
"It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened. But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn't. Because they were holding on to something...That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it's worth fighting for."
Sam Gamgee (played by Sean Astin), Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers
"[W]e recognize that we are living in the middle of the most overwhelmingly successful experiment in human history. Not perfect. Just the best place in the world to live in, that's all."
"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered! My life is my own."
Number Six (played by Patrick McGoohan, "The Prisoner" TV series)
"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country."
Theodore Roosevelt
"So this Jefferson dude was like, 'Look, the reason we left this England place is 'cause it was so bogus. So if we don't get some primo rules ourselves - pronto - then we're just gonna be bogus, too."
Jeff Spiccoli (played by Sean Penn), Fast Times at Ridgemont High
"Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude."
Alexis deTocqueville, Democracy in America Vol. 2
"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way"
Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning
Labels: Blog traditions, Holidays
Friday, July 03, 2009
Blast From The Past
I want to highlight Obama's statement at 1:39 (written transcript here):
Under my tax plan, you would be keeping more of your paycheck, you'd be spending lower taxes, which means that you would have saved and gotten to the point where you are faster.
How much would Joe the Plumber get to keep if the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill passes the senate?
Labels: Politics
Fifty Things Wrong With Cap-And-Trade
Has this country ever had a more rapacious government?
Labels: Politics
Thursday, July 02, 2009
My One Thought About The Supreme Court's Ruling On Ricci
In the wake of the SCOTUS Ricci ruling, I can hardly wait for that moment in the confirmation hearings when some senator asks Sotomayor if she'll adhere to precedent.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Firearms Demotivational Posters
Posted by Alan at 9:15 AM | |
More About Cap-And-Trade
Having a hard time selling your home? Here’s one more hurdle to jump: all homes sales are conditioned upon an energy audit and a new energy rating assessment and energy labeling program for your home that’s outlined in the Democrats’ bill. And if you thought you could improve your property with a fresh coat of paint and some granite counters? Think again! Now your home will be subjected to a new energy rating assessment and energy labeling program that will penalize you for older windows, original fixtures, and dated appliances. So the Democrats’ bill would bring down the value of your home!
Read the whole thing, and follow Boehner's links, including that to the Republican-proposed American Energy Act. Educate yourselves and CALL YOUR SENATORS, especially if you live in a lefty state. (Another reason why I'm glad I live in Texas.) Your livelihoods are at stake.
Labels: Politics
Monday, June 29, 2009
The Cap and Traitors
I say we put New Jersey on eBay.
Here in its entirety is the 309-page amendment that was inserted at 3:00 AM. Think anyone had time to read it?
Greenpeace thinks the bill is too weak.
James Inhofe thinks the bill is dead in the Senate. But don't take his prognostication for granted. Fight! Call your Senators!
Before you make any calls, educate yourselves about the bill. Start with Heritage scholar Ben Lieberman's Congressional testimony. This was delivered before the 309-page amendment, so this portion might not be entiurely correct:
The only entities directly regulated by Waxman-Markey would be the electric utilities, oil refiners, natural gas producers, and some manufacturers that produce energy on site.
On his show today, Rush Limbaugh said that cap-and-trade would directly regulate home sales. Anyone selling a house would be required to get an EPA inspection; certain "green" renovations such as replacing older heat-leaky windows with the better-insulating kind would be required before sale. One gets the impression that the law would make it nearly impossible to sell fixer-upper houses anymore. I need some documentation on this to get a better picture. Limbaugh hasn't mentioned this exhange on his website yet (the broadcast day just ended a little over an hour ago); I'll check back later to see if he mentions this segment and documents his source.
Labels: Politics
Lawbreaking Honduran President Deposed
That Mr. Zelaya acted as if he were above the law, there is no doubt. While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite [to change the term limits law], the power to open that door does not lie with the president. A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress.
But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. [Hugo] Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do.
Fausta's blog is all over this story.
Naturally, President Obama is siding with the crook.
Labels: World
Friday, June 26, 2009
Anti-Socialism Friday
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Ed McMahon (1923-2009)
Read my tribute to Johnny Carson's show here.
Update: The California State Military Museum's website has a page briefly summarizing McMahon's military career.
Labels: Obituaries, Television
Monday, June 22, 2009
Anti-Socialism Day
Memo to the United Auto Workers: if the government can nationalize General Motors, it can nationalize you. And not just because this video says so.
No Pasaran has Ronald Reagan's 1961 warning against socialized medicine.
Labels: Politics
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Bottom Story Of The Day
Posted by Alan at 9:15 AM | |
Obama vs. PETA
PETA is sending the President a humane bug catcher. Why not send a Venus Flytrap? They gotta eat, ya know.
Does Ingrid know about this? Red/blue bipartisanship in its full glory!
Labels: Culture
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The Real Tragedy Of The Iranian Election
Iran's government is not a true democracy but a theocratic dictatorship that cloaks the rule of the ayatollahs with a façade of representative government. The clerical regime hand-picked the four contending candidates from a pool of 475 who initially sought to run for the presidency. The senior clerics on the Guardian Council, which vets the candidates, severely narrowed the choices to less than 1 percent of the original field of challengers. The four who were permitted to run for the presidency share a deep commitment to the extremist Islamist ideology that sparked Iran's 1979 revolution.
This is almost as bad as the old Soviet "elections" that featured unopposed candidates.
Labels: Middle East
Monday, June 15, 2009
Sixty Candles
Reason's Cathy Young wrote an unremarkable article about the book and its current relevance. One disappointment is this passage:
Yet 1984 does have lessons beyond the totalitarian experience. Take the book's definition of "doublethink," the ideal mental state of the citizen of Orwell's dystopia: it is "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them," the ability "to tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies."
It is not just governments—democratic or not—that engage in a less extreme version of such mental gymnastics. It's activists of all stripes; talk show hosts and pundits across the political spectrum; and, finally, ordinary people.
Now is the time to cite specific examples. She doesn't have one. Okay, let me offer a few. Those who believe that racial discrimination of nonfavored groups is not racial discrimination - whites and Asians with regard to certain academic affirmative action admissions policies, individual white and Hispanic firefighters with regard to Ricci v. DeStefano. Some people say they don't believe in moral absolutes, but if you press them hard enough you'll find out that they really do. (Quickest way to find out is to discuss politics.) Many environmentalists oppose nuclear power despite its environmental benefits. The rationale that views a once-in-a-blue moon shooting of an abortionist as a clear and present danger pervasive in the right-to-life community is held by many who refuse to view commonplace jihadism as a danger pervasive in the Islamic community. Many who believe that it is evil to kill strangers who never did anything to you make excuses for Palestinian terrorists and Bill Ayers. What sort of doublethink allows Colin Powell to endorse the political ally of someone who founded the organization that tried to blow up Fort Dix?
Immediately following is this lameness:
The same is true of "newspeak," terminology invented to shade the real meaning of certain beliefs or acts and make them more appealing. (Even such popular terms as "pro-choice" for "pro-abortion rights" and "pro-life" for "anti-abortion" have overtones of newspeak.)
Earlier in the article she criticized the Competitive Enterprise Institute for trivializing Orwellian imagery in an ad combating anthropogenic global warming hawks. Here she trivializes Newspeak. Of the four abortion-relevant terms she trots out, only "pro-choice" disguises the goals of its associated goals.
A key aspect of Newspeak that is often overlooked is that it is implemented by force. In the real life United States the primary example is the crusade to change the historic definition of marriage by force of law. Gay activism objects to the historic definition, because it implies that homosexuality is somehow less value than heterosexuality. The radical Left originally tried to get rid of the notion of marriage altogether; I am old enough to recall when it panned marriage altogether as a cheap piece of paper that got in the way of sexual fulfillment. Somehow the Left abandoned that goal, and has joined with gay activism to use force to enshrine its ideology in the English language.
Newspeak seeks not only to redefine the vocabulary buta also to shrink it, to get rid of "troublesome" words. We see a little of that in the Political Correctness culture, especially with regard to gender-specific nouns. Star Trek took the idea to extremes, making "Mister" a gender-neutral title. We don't have waiters and waitresses anymore, or stewards and stewardesses, or hosts and hostesses. But we still have gays and lesbians - cue the doublethink.
The article concludes by trivializing the Two Minute Hate and Hate Week. Wikipedia defines the conceptas:
[A] daily period in which Party members of the society of Oceania must watch a film depicting The Party's enemies (notably Emmanuel Goldstein and his followers) and express their hatred for them and the principles of democracy.
The film and its accompanying auditory and visual cues (which include a grinding noise that Orwell describes as "of some monstrous machine running without oil") are a form of brainwashing to Party members, attempting to whip them into a frenzy of hatred and loathing for Emmanuel Goldstein and the current enemy superstate...The film becomes more surreal as it progresses, with Goldstein's face morphing into a sheep as enemy soldiers advance on the viewers, before one such soldier charges at the screen, machine gun blazing. He morphs, finally, into the face of Big Brother at the end of the two minutes.
Back to the article:
Another pervasive feature of the Orwellian state was the practice of constantly whipping up hatred toward the ideological enemy du jour. Looking at much of our political discourse today, from right-wing talk radio to left-wing blogs, it's hard not to think of such rituals as "Two-Minute Hate" and "Hate Week." On too many political websites, every week is Hate Week—whether the object of hate is liberals, Muslims, neocons, or Christian bigots. Partisan propagandists and professional hate-mongers bear a large share of the blame, but so do "regular" people who need little encouragement to demonize political opponents.
The Two Minute Hate and Hate Week employ ritual ad hominem attacks with no attention whatsoever given to ideology. Virtually none of the sources fit the latter half of the bill.
Once again, Young describes a perceived phenomenon without offering specific examples - no specific right wing talk shows or lefty blogs or political sites. The name of the magazine is Reason, not Innuendo. C'mon, Cathy, get with it.
I'd especially like to know where in the talk radio universe she sees commonplace ad hominem attacks. I don't see it in the ones I've listened to with some regularity: Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin, Sliwa, Beck, Ingraham. They have their quirks; Levin occasionally dives into angry rants, and Ingraham says "uh huh" with the same tone of voice as the wife who's been told by her husband for the 87th time that he won't stay out at the bar too late. But these hosts target real issues.
But what about Savage? Never listened to him, so I can't comment. He's just one guy, anyway- why should I believe that he's representative of talk radio in any fashion (other than being conservative)?
(Anyone know where I can find a list of talk radio hosts ranked by listenership?)
But they put down people, too. Yeah, for doing what they believe to be bad things. Cathy Young does in print the same thing that Sean Hannity does on the air (without bumper music).
But doesn't criticism inspire hatred? Only in hateful people, not in mature folks. Take another close look at that animated GIF near the top corner of my blog.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Twenty-Two Years Ago Today
Posted by Alan at 9:00 AM | |
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
The British National Party And -- Screwtape?
There’s a difference between selling out your ideas, and selling your ideas. And the British National Party isn’t about selling out its ideas ... but we are determined now to sell them. And that means basically to use the saleable words. As I say, freedom, security, identity, democracy. Nobody can criticise them, nobody can come at you and attack you on those ideas. They are saleable.
Perhaps one day, once by being rather more subtle we’ve got ourselves in a position where we control the British broadcasting media, then perhaps one day the British people might change their mind and say, “Yes, every last one must go.” Perhaps they will one day, but if you offer that as your sole aim to start with, you’re gonna get absolutely nowhere. So, instead of talking about racial purity, we talk about identity.
These are the words of Screwtape, C. S. Lewis' fictional bureaucrat from Hell, instructing demonic field agent Wormwood on using one of the most powerful of saleable words: "democracy" (emphasis added).
Democracy is the word with which you must lead them by the nose. The good work which our philological experts have already done in the corruption of human language makes it unnecessary to warn you that they should never be allowed to give this word a clear and definable meaning. They won't. It will never occur to them that democracy is properly the name of a political system, even a system of voting, and that this has only the most remote and tenuous connection with what you are trying to sell them. Nor of course must they ever be allowed to raise Aristotle's question: whether "democratic behaviour" means the behaviour that democracies like or the behaviour that will preserve a democracy. For if they did, it could hardly fail to occur to them that these need not be the same.
You are to use the word purely as an incantation; if you like, purely for its selling power. It is a name they venerate. And of course it is connected with the political ideal that men should be equally treated. You then make a stealthy transition in their minds from this political ideal to a factual belief that all men are equal. Especially the man you are working on. As a result you can use the word democracy to sanction in his thought the most degrading (and also the least enjoyable) of human feelings. You can get him to practice, not only without shame but with a positive glow of self-approval, conduct which, if undefended by the magic word, would be universally derided.
...
Under the influence of this incantation those who are in any or every way inferior can labour more wholeheartedly and successfully than ever before to pull down everyone else to their own level. But that is not all. Under the same influence, those who come, or could come, nearer to a full humanity, actually draw back from fear of being undemocratic.
Later in the passage, Screwtape relates a tale of a tyrant who seeks advice on governing from another tyrant. Using the allegory of cutting wheat stalks all down to the same size, Screwtape defines the diabolical sense of democracy:
Allow no preeminence among your subjects. Let no man live who is wiser or better or more famous or even handsomer than the mass. Cut them all down to a level: all slaves, all ciphers, all nobodies. All equals.
BNP may or may not share this view of "democracy." That's not the point. The lesson here is that we must look past deceptive jargon.
Labels: Politics
Monday, June 08, 2009
Socialists Take A Hit In European Elections
The UK results are astonishing; the Labour Party, which holds a solid majority in the UK parliament, came in third among Britain's delegation in the European Parliament.
MEP Daniel Hannan thinks it's time for UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to go.
Update: Andrew Ian Dodge has some observations on the British side of the elections aftermath at Pajamas Media.
Update: Via Andrew Sullivan, the majority of those who voted for the British National Party are (quoting Sully) "disaffected labour voters."
Friday, June 05, 2009
Correction Corrected
Benham's is the organization that put out the video linked in that post. Newman's is the organization that Roeder had contacted on several occasions inquiring about Tiller's court appearances.
Activist outfits routinely get calls from complete strangers about their pet issues; there's no scandal here, unless OR senior analyst Cheryl Sullenger actually knew Roeder and had reason to believe him a violent threat. I do question OR's wisdom in giving high office to someone who, quoting LGF, had been "convicted of conspiracy to bomb an abortion clinic in 1988" - even if she is repentant. Activist organizations are duty-bound to avoid any appearance of being a threat to public safety - especially one like OR; the right-to-life movement in general is painted with some of the most vicious bigotry one can find.
Labels: Politics
Why I Read Volokh Conspiracy
Best line: "It started out as Hogwarts, now it's Lord of the Flies."
Blogiversary
Labels: Blogs
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Since Some Of Y'all Are Probably Wondering
The post below explains why Tiller's murder is not just use of deadly force..
Labels: Crime
God, Caesar, George Tiller, And Batman
The religious aspect. This is important, because it’s something that the loony left doesn’t understand (along with almost everything else). “How can you not feel bad about this man being murdered while at the same time insisting that his murderer is a murderer?” Simple, really. Tiller’s murderer violated a law of man, and by that he must be judged here on Earth, as I hope and expect that he will be. But Tiller also violated the Laws of G-d, and therefore I cannot feel bad about him being a recipient of “what goes around, comes around.” It is improper, however, for man to take it upon himself to enforce the Laws of G-d, only G-d has that prerogative, and Tiller’s murderer, no matter how much I feel that this world is a cleaner place because Tiller has been removed from it, did just that. For that he will answer, just as Tiller will answer for his sins.
Here's some food for thought. Ever wonder what it would be like if Batman really existed? Many would find it cool at first - a Caped Crusader taking out crooks that conventional law enforcement can't get to. Thing is, there's a huge lack of consensus over just who the crooks are; many see villainy where it does not exist, or where it is exaggerated. In Batman Nation, the innocent have more to fear from vigilantes than from the usual criminal sorts.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Andrew Sullivan Is Unhinged, Too
Sully quotes a grammatically-impaired reader:
That quote by Michelle Malkin that you posted describing the killing of Tiller as "terrorism" wasn't by Michelle. It was a quote from a post on some other blog and she linked to Google. She didn't call it terrorism. In fact, she was basically pulling the "oh NOW the left uses the word 'terrorism'" card. Just didn't want you giving her credit for something she didn't actually do.
Sullivan had given her an Yglesias Award nomination for this:
"Late-term abortion doctor George Tiller was gunned down at his church in Kansas Sunday morning in a thoroughly evil, cold-blooded act of domestic terrorism. Yes, terrorism. Not 'extremism,'"
The Malkin article in question is here. What threw off the reader - and Sully - was the sentence immediately following that excerpted in the Dish:
Interesting how the t-word has been rediscovered.
First, the reader is misrepresenting facts about the origins of her quote. I did a Google search on the exact phrase "thoroughly evil, cold-blooded act of domestic terrorism." The results clearly show that Malkin is the originator of the quote.
Second, one like Malkin can both believe that the Tiller shooting was terrorism AND note the resurgence of the word "terrorism" in the media.
Third, please take note of the definition of the Yglesias Award: its purpose is (emphasis added)...
"for writers, politicians, columnists or pundits who actually criticize their own side, make enemies among political allies, and generally risk something for the sake of saying what they believe."
Andrew Sullivan insinuates that a guy who murders an abortionist is representative of the conservative majority. Sully should win his own Moore Award.
Monday, June 01, 2009
A Closer Look At Ricci
Posted by Alan at 6:20 PM | |
George Tiller Murdered
Update: LGF has background on Scott Roeder, who was arrested for the murder.
Update: LGF's Charles Johnson is unhinged. He thinks Operation Rescue bears culpability in the murder:
But as we’ve shown here at LGF, Roeder also posted comments at anti-abortion websites, subscribed to anti-abortion magazines (including one that advocated the murder of doctors who perform abortions), and when he was arrested he had a Post-It note in his car containing the phone number of Operation Rescue. Exactly how do you qualify to have “connections to the pro-life” movement, if this doesn’t do it?
Note to anti-abortion groups: man up and take responsibility for Scott Roeder. He’s one of yours. Obviously, not everyone who belongs to a “pro-life” group will go to such extreme lengths as Scott Roeder apparently did, but it’s long past time for you folks to start dialing down the rhetoric and acting more responsibly — before anyone else is hurt or killed in a shooting or an abortion clinic bombing.
And if you don’t believe this is necessary, here’s a video created by Operation Rescue. The apparent purpose of the video: to encourage the murder of Dr. George Tiller. At one point, an onscreen message says: “Together We Can Put An End To George Tiller, Abortion and These Horrific Crimes”
Following that commentary is the video in question (warning: graphic images of aborted fetuses).
He has a point that the language "put an end to George Tiller" without any added context comes across as sounding like a death threat. But the context of the video is plainly not that. OR's video clearly seeks to convey the message that abortion kills, and that OR seeks new members and petition signatories. Anyone with common sense would grasp that somebody wanting to off an abortionist doesn't issue a recruitment video with a petition advertised at the end; that somebody quietly hires a hitman, or does the job himself. OR director Flip Benham is a colossal PR nightmare, but he does not incite violence.
(Quite frankly I think that videos of living fetuses would be more effective than the dead fetus pics - not grainy hospital scans, but the kind of image quality you find in the still photos in this YouTube video. The strategy should be to demonstrate that the human fetus is a human life.)
Correction: Flip Benham is not the current OR director. Troy Newman is the current president. (Top two officers listed here.) Benham was director from 1994 to date unknown. He is perhaps the organization's most visible spokesman.
FYI, OR's official statement is here.
Labels: Crime
Saturday, May 30, 2009
I Have A Twitter Page
I also put it to use to promote choice blog posts. This blog's URLs greatly limit the description length I can post.
Labels: Blog
Who Is Sonia Sotomayor?
What baffles me is how her personal background influenced her ruling in Ricci v. DeStefano. As reported by Mark Davis and Slate's Emily Bazelon, the ruling upheld promotion policies that discriminate against whites and Hispanics in favor of blacks.
...
Actually I’m not really all that baffled. Long time ago an online acquaintance coined the term “PC points.” Political Correctness has a hierarchy; some ideals outrank others. I believe that to Sotomayor, as well as Bill Lann Lee, leftist forms of racial discrimination are too important for the civil rights of their respective ethnicities to get in the way. PC collateral damage, as it were.
Or is she Archie Bunker? Read the top item in James Taranto's Best of the Web.
Update: Insty also linked the Taranto piece, along with other related articles.
Update: Would Sotomayor qualify as a juror? (Via Rand Simberg)
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Question Du Jour
Aside from what all party members have to offer - their votes for Republican candidates - what does Colin Powell have to offer the GOP?
Labels: Politics
Bring. It. On.
For lunch, I'm ordering the Cafeteria Surprise.
Now this is what I call pork stimulus.
Dessert! Hey, I had an idea like that once...
The blog is filled with all sorts of artery-popping goodness.
Labels: Food
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Attention All Tea Party Organizations! Red Alert! Shields Up! Load The Photon Torpedoes!
The legitimate Tea Party organizers must take preemptive measures. If Code Pink has the legal right to show up, so does Stormfront. You can't force them away. But you can set up counterprotest, to distinguish yourselves from the interlopers.
It would be a good idea to put your heads together to anticipate other disreputable sorts that might want to horn in on the protests.
As for the photon torpedoes, delegate that responsibility to the NRA.
Bond Analogies
The acronym SPECTRE stands for "Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion." The name cites four distinct policies. Counter-intelligence, roughly defined, means keeping others from finding out your secrets. All political parties do something like that, as do governments, sports team coaches, and all sorts of other endeavors. That leaves three others.
- Terrorism. The Democratic Party does not engage in terrorism - but it is more than willing to allow public policy to be shaped directly or indirectly by terrorists. The Chicago political mob welcomed the founder of the Weather Underground into its ranks, and felt no qualms about Bill Ayers drafting education programs for select Chicago schools.
As for foreign terrorists...softness on Palestinian terror is not entirely partisan - our two previous Secretaries of State were not exactly Israel's best friends. But we do not see a Republican parallel to the frequent meetings between Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat. Nor do we see among the Right a meme that permeates many bastions of the Left: the perception of Palestinian terrorists as freedom fighters. - Revenge and Extortion. These work hand-in-hand to a great degree. Traditional organized crime engage in extortion for simple self-enrichment. The Democratic leadership does this too, as the auto companies and fionancial institutions know only too well. But the Dem leadership's economic policy serves another purpose: to strike vengeance against various constituencies. The US tax code is the greatest weapon for this purpose.
Maybe the real reasons for leftist opposition to public property Ten Commandments displays are those commandments condemning covetousness and theft.
Recallling my recent bit of fun with Goldfinger, one might place Barack Obama into that role instead, considering the title character's plot to nuke the Fort Knox gold supply - Obama's spending plans will certainly make our money supply radioactive. In that case, I guess the Oddjob role goes to Tim Geithner. I wonder if he wears a bowler...
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Pass Around The Vodka Martinis
Pelosi is neither Pussy Galore nor Octopussy. Both eventually sided with Mr. Bond. Pelosi is the party of SPECTRE.
The GOP is the party of p_ssies galore. They let the Dems run spending policy ever since the government shutdown PR debacle at the end of 1995. They let the Dems control lower-court judicial nominations. And votes for the GOP dwindled over the years as a result. We don’t vote for capitulating wimps. We vote for people who fight for us.
If the GOP wants to find Ian Fleming analogies, there are better places to look.
Labels: Politics
Our Participation In The United Nations Should Look More Like This
Posted by Alan at 9:20 AM | |
Headline Du Jour
Morris Albert was unavailable for comment.
No Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys Here
Monday, May 25, 2009
Remembering The Fallen
Revolutionary War (1775-1783)
Wars on the Barbary Pirates (1801-1805, 1815)
War of 1812 (1812-1815)
War Between the States (1861-1865)
Mexican-American War(1846-1848)
Spanish-American War (1898)
China Relief Expedition (1900-1901)
Pacification of Nicaragua (1912-1913)
Interventions in Mexico (1914-1917)
World War I (1914-1918)
Pacification of Haiti and Dominican Republic (1915-1918)
Allied Intervention in Russian Civil War (1918-1920)
World War II (1939-1945)
Korean War (1950-1953)
Vietnam War (1964-1973)
Hostage rescue mission in Iran (1980)
Lebanon peacekeeping mission (1982-1984)
Counterinsurgency mission in El Salvador (1980-?)
Liberation of Grenada (1983)
Invasion of Panama (1989)
Iraq War (1990-1991, 2002-present)
Somalia peacekeeping mission (1992-1994)
Attack on USS Cole (2000)
Afghanistan War (2001-present)
The Veterans Museum has information on many of these conflicts. Information on Allied activity during the Bolshevik Revolution is here. See Wikipedia entry on Manuel Noriega for details on the Panama conflict. This site tells of American pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain.
Labels: Blog traditions, Holidays
Thursday, May 21, 2009
American Idol Finale
That night I thought Adam Lambert's Idol days were numbered. American Idol is geared for pop singers who can excel in a wide range of genres (many of which bore me, which is why I watch the show so little). Lambert's edgy style places him in a niche market. I predict he winds up on the soundtrack to the Twilight sequel.
If I had a super-great singing voice, mine would be a niche market as well. And there's no way I could survive Disco night. Disco night? How did this show get away with that for eight years without Ryan Seacrest finding a horse's head in his bed?
Labels: Music, Television
Three-Fourths Of The Senate Caution Obama On Israel
Two pleas stand out: to "promote far greater involvement and participation by the Arab states both in moving toward normal ties with Israel and in encouraging moderate Palestinian elements." Long missing from the peace process has been efforts to get Arabs to actually get along with Israel.
Labels: Politics
Monday, May 18, 2009
InstaRoundup
The first hundred days - of President Palin. Heh.
China has a new attraction - its "first sex-themed theme park." Don't know if the drunk hookers are covered in the admission price.
David Harsanyi prefers hookers over censors.
Cage match - yuan vs. dollar.
Advantage: yuan.
Headline: "Islamists linked to al-Qaeda on verge of toppling Somali government." Somalia has a government! Who knew?
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Wimpy Earthquake Hits Texas
Chuck Norris lives here. Earthquakes fear Chuck Norris. He growls, and they go away.
Labels: Curiosities, Humor
Unsafe At Any Speed
Posted by Alan at 11:45 AM | |
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Lost - Season Five Finale
Instead of a full-blown review I'll link to this seven-page article that one of my churchmates sent. I do have a few musings, though.
The Flight 815 survivors got caught in the middle of a war between DHARMA and the Others, and between the Others and renegade Charles Widmore, who in turn had been caught in the middle of a war between Jacob and Nameless Guy. Cue the Twilight Zone music...
Something I just out: "Jughead" is yet another Hurley number reference. The bomb is Mark 16 nuclear bomb. But wait, there's another! According to the Operation Castle Wikipedia entry, "Jughead" yielded 8 megatons.
Stuff we don't still know: Alpert's origins. (Was he on the Black Rock?) Jacob's and Nameless Guy's origins. How DHARMA found the island. Clues as to why Radzinsky will doctor the Swan orientation film.
Stuff we do know: Radzinsky and Chang are not on good terms. Chang indeed loses his arm in the Incident. Eloise Hawking of 1977 is pregnant with Daniel. (Gad, I hope it's Daniel and not some sibling he's never been told about.) The "Locke" who rose from the dead is an impostor. Jacob has traveled to and from the island many times. Jacob wanted Hurley on Ajira Flight 316. Ilana's people are working not for Widmore or DHARMA or the Others but for Jacob!!!
Stuff we can guess: Chang will stick Radzinsky into mind-numbing Swan duty as reward for his recklessness.
Wild speculation #1: If "Jughead" is one of those bombs where a conventional explosion triggers the thermonuclear explosion, I'm speculating that Sayid tampered with it to disable the latter but not the former. That would carry out Miles' prediction that Jack was fulfilling history instead of changing it.
Wild speculation #2: The real Locke isn't going to stay dead. In this episode Ben recalls what the Monster, in the guise of Alex, had ordered: to do everything that Locke says. I think Smokey knows the real Locke from the fake, and that Ben will find himself taking the real Locke's lead in the final season.
Update: Two more things we don't know - Smokey's relationship with Jacob and Unnamed Guy, and how the Black Rock got marooned in the missle of the island.
Update: Jay Manifold informs me that nuclear bombs come with a failsafe self-destruct mechanism that blows up the bomb without triggering a nuclear explosion. I think Sayid rigged this mechanism - and that the combination of scattered radioactive elements and the electromagnetic anomaly will cause the phenomenon that affects pregnancies on the island.
Labels: Lost, Television
Friday, May 15, 2009
Hey, If Dead People Can Vote...
Labels: Politics
Remember
"The bottom line is we successfully defended the nation for seven and a half years against a follow-on attack to 9/11. That was a remarkable achievement," he told FOX News. "I think that we are stripping ourselves of some of the capabilities that we used in order to block, if you will, or disrupt activities by Al Qaeda that would have led to additional attacks."
Labels: War on Terror
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Down On The Corner
- This post links various articles on talk radio.
- Sex-selection abortion legalized in...Sweden. I hope they're ready for the gender imbalance problem down the road; they should pay close attention to the phenomenon in India and China.
- Speaking of China, taxpayer dollars will be addressing the problem of Chinese prostitute alcoholism. (At least they survived China's one-child policy.) Wait a minute - doesn't China's vast male surplus have these girls swimming in customers? Why can't China tax them and pay for their own hooker sobriety program?
- Steven Hayward discusses climate change, and lack thereof.
Why I Read National Review Online
Labels: Humor
In The Art News Today
Update: It's not just an early painting, it's the earliest known. And note in the story that this is the first American-owned Michelangelo.
Update: Here's the Kimbell's official announcement, with more background on the painting. When it goes on display I don't know - I thought I heard the ABC Radio Network say August. Inquiring minds can check with the Kimbell.
Labels: Culture
