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Saturday, January 29, 2011

Mark Steyn on Hugh Hewitt

We're not getting much of Mark Steyn lately, though of course he still will be found chatting with us all on the Rush Limbaugh show, and stopping off to speak with long time friend Hugh Hewitt:
"But the fact of the matter is, as I’m sure you’re aware, Hugh, is that what goes on in the right is that every time we try to hold an argument about health care, Obamacare, we’re told we’re racists. If we have differences over gay marriage, we’re told we’re homophobic. If we object to, if we support Arizona’s law, we’re told we’re xenophobic. If we oppose the Ground Zero Mosque, we’re told we’re Islamophobic. We’re told that we don’t have policy differences, but in fact, we’re mentally ill all the time. The right in this country is the one that wants to hold the debate. Rabbis should not be on the side of saying no, we’re ruling the debate out of order, because that is Mubarak territory."
The effort on the left to stifle dissent against their edicts is vile and base, and runs against everything this republic was founded upon.

Read the whole thing here.

Viva Steyn.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Sara Palin Hears President and Ponders...'What the...?'

Sarah Palin is a leader I find quite refreshing, if nothing else than just for the fact that she is willing to speak her mind and let the chips fall. Of all speakers on the national stage, she is the most unguarded and least "beltway" sounding, never better illustrated than with her WTF comment on the Obama State of the Union address:
"His theme last night in the State of the Union was the "WTF," you know, "Winning the Future." And I thought, "OK, that acronym, spot on." There were a lot of "WTF" moments throughout that speech, namely, when he made the statement, Greta, that he believed that we can't allow ourselves to, I guess, eventually become buried under a mountain of debt. That right there tells you he is so disconnected from reality! The problem is, we are buried under a mountain of debt, and jobs cannot be created by the private sector. We cannot grow and thrive and prosper as a nation when we are buried under this $14 trillion debt."
Damn straight.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Monday, January 24, 2011

Rahm Emanuel Effort to Run Chicago Thwarted by Law

In a town rife with political insider moves and control held by a single party for as long as can be remembered, Rahm Emanuel, the heir apparent of the Daley family to take over control of the Second City has been rejected as a candidate for the 2012 Chicago mayoral race.
"Rahm Emanuel was thrown off the ballot for mayor of Chicago Monday by an Illinois appellate court panel, according to the Cook County Appellate Court's office.

The panel ruled 2-1 that Emanuel did not meet the residency standard to run for the city's top office.

"A candidate must meet not only the Election Code's voter residency standard, but also must have actually resided within the municipality for one year prior to the election, a qualification that the candidate unquestionably does not satisfy," the court stated in the decision."
It is a shock to find a Democrat political insider like Emanuel can't get a court ruling to swing his way in Chicago.
"Emanuel is expected to appeal the decision to the Illinois Supreme Court, and a federal appeal could follow."
No kidding.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Robert Stacy McCain Calls For Nooki Shortage

In an MTV world where we are daily bathed in a Jacuzzi tub worth of excessively sexualized teenagers made up of dolt teenage boys and the girls in their orbit who just want to have fun, there exists a lone voice in the wilderness, calling out for reason:
"Which is to say that it is in women’s long-term best interests to organize a nookie shortage — making sex available only on condition of marriage — and to revile as sluts those floozies who refuse to cooperate with efforts of the Nookie Cartel to increase the value of the aforesaid commodity."
Teenage boys have no sense at all. They're not bad per se, they're simply young men. Young women should keep that in mind, and not allow themselves to be taking their lead off the life style choices of such a fickle and short sighted group of individuals. As the father of two young girls who will most certainly grow up into lovely young women, I whole heartedly agree with Mr. McCain (Stacy of course, not his crazy cousin John).  The point was further illustrated by the wisdom of the Georgia Satellites:
I said "oh honey, my baby, don't put my love on a shelf'
She said 'Don't give me no lines, and keep your hands to yourself'
Read the whole thing here.

Update
Blog fav Roxeanne de Luca of Haemet offers some insights into loutish behavior, and as it is right on target and served up cold, you all will have to check out what she recommends for the poorly mannered among us.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Warren on 'Blood Libel'

David Warren has entered the discussion on the term 'Blood libel'.  In truth, he had entered it earlier when he used the expression in a column a few hours before Sarah Palin did the same, but it was the Palin comment that seems to have stirred up the lion's share of controversy.

Mr. Warren has a great wealth of knowledge at the ready, and his most recent column places the discussion in context:
"The rewriting of history is a necessary component of the world view in which the forces of "progress" are constantly warring with the forces of "reaction." It is necessary because, to make that view plausible at all, we must overlook the daisy chain of social, moral, demographic, fiscal, and associated disasters that have followed from triumphs of the left; and the retreat of traditional American values to what they ungenerously call "the flyover country."
Read the whole thing here.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Milton Friedman Pares Down Feds on Uncommon Knowledge

I recently enjoyed a taped interview of a discussion held on the talk show Uncommon Knowledge. Host Peter Robinson had been interviewing Milton Friedman. In the end Mr. Robinson presented the late Mr. Friedman with a list of the fourteen (now fifteen) cabinet level positions which the executive branch currently has, and asked him which did he think were necessary and a good idea for our nation. The list included:

The Department of Defense
The Department of Education
The Department of Commerce
The Department of the Treasury
The State Department
The Department of Justice
The Department of the Interior
The Department of Agriculture
The Department of Labor
The Department of Health and Human Services
The Department of Housing and Urban Development
The Department of Transportation
The Department of Energy
The Department of Veteran Affairs
The Department of Homeland Security

How many cabinet positions did Mr. Friedman select as being worth keeping, and how many did he say should be done away with? Take a guess, then find out here.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

How many fingers am I holding up?

The pleasant smile of today's civil left.
The Venerable Bede has weighed in on the left's grotesque politicization of the Tuscon shooting, and he pierces through the political fog in his usual peerless manner:
This time, though, they've added a new flavour to their souffle of madness and bile. Their boiling hatred for the voices of America's popular Right has finally gone psychotic, with outright allegations of culpability in what, it could not be more painfully obvious, was the un-politically motivated action of a total whackadoodle with no political agenda or affiliations. The idea that this 22 year old loser, whose widely published ramblings and all anecdotal evidence show to be a typical counter-cultural internet conspiracist, and as far from the Republican stereotype as can be, might have been inspired by political reactionaries would be laughable if it were not released into a culture capable of taking it seriously.
And further along:
Like the supposed right wing bias in the media they're always going on about, the Left know damned well that the idea of militant conservatives inspiring violence is not merely untrue but the opposite of the truth...

Love that guy. Read the whole thing here.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Obama Seeks Political Advantage from Arizona Tragedy

President Barack Obama's capacity for hypocrisy knows no bounds.  Addressing the nation from Arizona, a state whose citizen's he has ridiculed, brow beaten and sued,  he forgot it all and was true to his chameleon like form, claiming no role for the current political strife in the nation and subtly suggesting his opposition was responsible for a mentally ill person of no party affiliation who shot to death Republicans, Democrats and children.
"Obama settled on a theme of challenging the country to have a debate that is worthy of those who died. He tapped into the raging debate about the role of incendiary rhetoric without dwelling on it.
Right.  Look, this guy wants his critics to go away, and thinks people dying in Arizona gets it done.
"Let's remember that it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy. It did not," the president said.
Yeah.  Who is the instigator of the unrest we find in the country today? Whose policies were forced through against the will of the people?   Whose Deputy Chief of Staff, in commenting to Democrat congressmen over their troubled town hall meetings, offered them the following:

"If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard"

and who was the President who gave us this quote:

"If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun".

Not exactly a reach across the isle kind of guy.
After offering personal accounts of every person who died, he challenged anyone listening to think of how to honor their memories, and he was not shy about offering direction. He admonished against any instinct to point blame or to drift into political pettiness or to latch onto simple explanations that may have no merit.
Whose party looked to blame this shooting on Sarah Palin, Mr. President?
"At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized — at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do — it's important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds," the president said."
Most people would be ashamed to try to make political hay out of this tragedy.  Not so for Mr. Obama.  That's quite enough, Mr. President.  Leave off giving advice to others and focus on taking it for yourself.

Update

The always reliable Bobby B has a similar assessment of the President's efforts to teach the nation about civility... something akin to don't piss in my ear and tell me it's raining. He's done. He doesn't want to argue any more, no sense in talking to people that aren't going to listen.

I empathezize with Bob and hear his "Don't throw your pearls before swine" wisdom. For my part, I'm not quite there yet. I still am willing to argue the conservative side, not that I will ever convince the die-hard types that have no trust in the people but place all their trust in government, but for others that may read the argument and be encouraged by it.

Update II
Blog pal Ilion has entered the fray with some interesting comments on the inconsistencies of the left leaning world view. Catch it here.

- 'The 39 Steps' Open Thread






   What did you think?






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Auburn Wins National Championship in Barn-Burner

Freshman running back Michael Dyer celebrates a late game run with teammates.
In a match-up that  most experts had expected would be a shoot out, the University of Auburn Tigers defeated the University of Oregon Ducks 22-19 in a tightly fought game to win the NCAA National Football Championship. The Duck's wide-open, no-huddle spread option offense had been racking up 304 rushing yards and 49 points per game. Their fast pace and frequent risk taking had opposing defenses on their heels. Their consistently productive drives and relentless style had opponents approaching exhaustion by the end of the third quarter, allowing the Duck offense to pour on the yards and points as they closed out their opposition.

Two factors minimized the effectiveness of the Ducks 'blur' offense, the first being the Auburn defense, which was significantly more stout up the middle and fast to the edges than any prior Duck opponent. Oregon's efforts to run the ball between the tackles on various option reads was more often than not stymied at the line of scrimmage or tackled for a loss by the Auburn defenders. Equally effective in reducing Oregon's offensive production was Auburn's own offense, which had the capacity to sustain long drives and keep the Ducks off the field, giving the Tiger defense the chance to keep fresh as the game wound down.

The classic confrontation occured in the third quarter. Auburn had stopped Oregon near mid-field when the aggressive Ducks ran the ball off a fake punt formation, gaining 11 yards and the first down. Auburn's defense had to return to the field and were immediately placed under pressure by a long pass from Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas, who completed it to receiver Lavsier Tuinei to reach the Auburn 3 yard line. From there Oregon attempted to power the ball in for the go ahead touchdown. With their backs against the wall and facing the high powered Ducks offense, the Auburn defense stuffed the first three attempts, yielding only two yards and leaving the Ducks at 4th and goal from the one. The next play saw Oregon test the middle of the Auburn defense again. As Oregon's Kenjon Barner found out, it's rather difficult to run the ball between the tackles when you are running against Auburn's defense. Stuffed for no gain, the ball was turned over on downs.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Self-Loathing West Hides Its Face From the Truth

Reading David Warren is like taking a trip abroad with a very pleasant companion. His thoughtful and insightful pieces have the smell of the far off places that he has known. His desire to see the world for what it is illuminates his work. His latest piece reflects upon the troubles of the Middle-east and the lack of effort exerted by the West to understand and know what is going on.

"Worse, the flow of good information even to the U.S. White House and State Department has largely dried up. This is because the providers of it -- scholars who were actually reading and excerpting transcripts from Arabic, Persian, Turkish -- were successfully demonized as "orientalists" and "neo-conservatives" and successively pushed out of their (typically Pentagon) offices. So that at the highest levels of government in the West, the attitude is now, "We don't want to know."

It is the business of the Pentagon and the State Department to understand the world we live in, and the threats that loom before us. An administration and an entire Western culture that does not seek to know the truth fails its people.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

The Constitution of the United States

The House Republicans followed through on their promise to read the US Constitution in its entirety, over the objections of the House Democrats who had claimed it was a waste of their time.

I love the way the preamble begins, with the first three words so boldly: "We the People..." It is such a strong reminder that our nation is not a nation designed so that the government controls the people, but rather we are a nation whose people control their government.  It is the striking difference between our nation and all others that existed at its time. Over the last hundred years the growth of Federal powers and the ever increasing expansion of Federal regulatory agencies has placed into question the basis upon which this nation was founded. The love of power and the arrogant belief in big government is fully embraced by President Obama and his fellow Democrats in the Congress.

In the event, the reading was shared by both parties, though with markedly less enthusiasm on the part of the Democrats:
For the first hour of the recital the Republican side of the chamber was full, while far fewer Democrats occupied the other side.
Why am I not surprised?

Monday, January 3, 2011

- 'The Graduate' Open Thread







     What did you think?











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