Primary Reason

Useful idiots

2009-04-06T21:06:00.002-04:00

Over the weekend, we here in Pittsburgh watched a tragedy unfold as three Pittsburgh police officers, responding to a domestic violence call, were gunned down by a lunatic with an AK-47.

Predictably, our local branches of the mainstream media immediately seized on the fact that the gunman was an anarchistic nutcase who frequented neo-Nazi websites to conclude that this sort of thing is bound to happen in a society that permits Republicans to wander the streets.

Now, reasonable minds can differ on whether private citizens should be able to own assault rifles. In truth, this incident powerfully aids the case that they should not. But the media gatekeepers, perhaps taking a cue from our president, have decided that a crime is nothing if not an opportunity.

And so we get coverage like today's lead editorial in the consistently liberal Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Read it in full, and take note of where the logic goes off the tracks:

A contagious rage has seemingly possessed America in recent days. The common denominators -- guns in the hands of angry and irrational people -- have been the same whether the scene is a nursing home or a community English class for immigrants.

And, on Saturday morning, in a city that prides itself on its decency, friendliness and common sense, the madness came home. The deadly ambush of three Pittsburgh police officers in Stanton Heights was more than a tragedy for immediate families and colleagues.

These brave men died for us. Nobody doubts that this was an assault on the community, and the community has reacted with the proper mix of anger and deep sorrow. In a city that hasn't seen a police fatality for almost 14 years, three officers were suddenly lost in a single incident for the first time in its history. It was horrible and senseless almost beyond belief.

The person accused of the crimes, Richard Andrew Poplawski, appears to be another archetype loser who was all about rights but not responsibilities and whose mind had been poisoned by drinking deep of irrational anti-government conspiracies and gospels of hate.

On Fairfield Street, no rights of gun ownership or free speech were vindicated. The police were just doing their thankless duty, answering a domestic disturbance call, for which they were caught in a coward's ambush and murdered. It was their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that were lost.

But there will be time enough to consider how lunatic it is that an AK-47 assault rifle can find its way into the hands of a seething fool, to weigh the culpability of politicians who resist sensible limits on guns and to take to task the radio talk show hosts who foment evil by banging drums of hatred.

Today we mourn Pittsburgh's fallen heroes -- Officers Paul Sciullo III, Stephen J. Mayhle and Eric Kelly. God bless them and their colleagues (two of whom were also injured). God bless these United States, where we have come to this.

Did you spot it? For those not well conditioned to detecting red herrings, here it is: ". . . . the radio talk show hosts who foment evil by banging drums of hatred . . . ."

Ah, yes. The talk show hosts. Those evil conservative muckrakers, who have had the temerity to criticize President Hopen Change. If only they didn't have the freedom to spout their divisive criticisms of His Holiness, we would never have nutcases committing acts of violence.

You see: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, et al., are essentially complicit in this crime. If they had never taken to the airwaves and disagreed with The Great and Merciful Leader, the local nutjob never would have committed a violent act.

Of course, if what's good for the goose were good for the gander, the guy would be able to mount a credible Rush-Listener Defense, much akin the Black-Rage Defense commended by my risible former law professor, Regina Austin. But I digress.

So. Here's is your take-away lesson, oh children of the Mighty Progressive Ozymandias: If a man commits a violent crime with a gun, the actual guilty parties are: (1) Guns, and (2) Anyone Who Expresses Disagreement With Barack Obama, Praised Be His Name.

Quod Erat Demonstradum.

In Barack Obama's America...

2009-04-05T11:39:00.002-04:00

The president of the United States gets to tell bank CEOs when they can and can't pay back loans from the federal government;

the President of the United States gets to decide which companies are important enough for him to remove CEOs and install his own people to "fix" said company, even if his own people know nothing about that company or industry;

a "community organizing" group under investigation for fraud all over the country (fraud which, somehow, always seems to benefit the President's political party) gets to help conduct the census, and the census will be managed by a sampling expert, though the Supreme Court has already ruled that "sampling" for purposes of taking the census is unconstitutional;

the "newspaper of record" voluntarily kills well-sourced stories about the connection between a certain presidential candidate and that same fraud-mongering "community organizing" group, while making ill-founded gossip about the other candidate front page news; and

the Attorney General can ignore an opinion issued by the (partisan and politically like-minded) Office of Legal Counsel regarding the constitutionality of a bill, if that opinion doesn't jive with the AG's (or the president's) political objectives;

...and nobody in the mainstream media bats an eye.

It must be so nice to be a Democrat!

Also Resistant to the Hopenchange: Kim Jong-Il

2009-04-05T11:28:00.002-04:00

Don't worry, though. Despite the fact that North Korea launched a ballistic missile that could conceivably harm our allies in Asia (if not our own citizens in Hawaii), we're in safe hands. After Kim Jong-Il blatantly defied the most recent U.N. resolution, President Teleprompter immediately warned the North Koreans that he was going to....go to the U.N. and get ANOTHER resolution!!!

Good thing we're going to keep that missile defense system well funded and ready to go. Oh, wait....

Europe Surprisingly Resistant to Our Dear Leader's Hopenchange

2009-04-05T11:01:00.004-04:00

Despite President Obama's best efforts to show the European elite just how little he thinks of the country that just elected him president (the same country of which his wife was never proud until it showed her husband some electoral love), Europe's response to the Messiah's request for more troops in Afghanistan (the good war, remember?) was a resounding "Screw you, buddy!"

Which, if memory serves, was the same response that President Bush got. So much for the idea that the election of Barack Obama would make the world love us again. In fact, it seems to this observer that Europe doesn't give a rat's ass about helping the U.S. fight a war no matter who is in charge! And if that's true, then I figure we might as well skip the part where the President of the United States shits all over his own country and go back to kicking al Qaeda ass all on our own.

Let the Europeans sneer at America and call us a bunch of cowboys. We all know whom they'll go to begging for help when their Islamic chickens come home to roost.

Subservience To Unions For Thee, But Not For Me

2009-04-04T08:55:00.005-04:00

The New York Times leads the mainstream media in promoting the commercially destructive political agenda of Big Labor. Turns out, though, when it comes to The Times's own business interests, the principle of profit-death isn't quite so sacred:

The New York Times Co has threatened to shut The Boston Globe unless the newspaper's unions agree to $20 million in concessions, The Boston Globe reported, quoting union leaders.
The union officials said executives from the Times and the Globe made the demands on Thursday morning in a meeting with leaders of the newspaper's 13 unions, the Globe reported.

"Management told union leaders Thursday that the Globe will lose $85 million in 2009, unless serious cutbacks are made, according to a Globe employee briefed on the discussions," the Globe report said. That compares with an estimated $50 million loss last year, the newspaper quoted the employee as saying.

Do as we say, not as we do.

Changey Diplomacy: French Edition

2009-04-04T08:28:00.003-04:00

Having dazzled the Brits by lavishing the prime minister and the queen with unplayable DVDs and an iPod, respectively, the President-Who-Will-Restore-America's-World-Image has moved on to France. There, at a press conference, he deftly demonstrated his respect for another of the world's oldest democracies by taking questions only from American reporters and ignoring the French.

President Obama held a much ballyhooed town hall in Strasbourg, France, on Friday, touted by the White House as an outreach to Europeans on the second leg of the president's "listening" tour.

But the first person he called on was an American -- and the third, too. By the end of the hourlong session, not a single French citizen got to ask the U.S. president a question.

Brilliant! Diplomacy by pettiness and the art of the snub. Good thing we're rid of that tone-deaf rube from Texas.

Dinner With Dan

2009-03-31T20:11:00.003-04:00

Dan Collins has been a regular contributor at Protein Wisdom (easily our most linked-to site) for quite awhile now, and -- among other things -- he's also the teacher who orchestrated the online Shakespeare metapoetics course I attempted to promote here.

I find myself in Vermont this week (i.e., Dan's neck of the woods) on work-related matters, and so I emailed Dan to see if I could meet this legendary blogger-instructor in person. To my delight, Dan agreed, and we had dinner this evening. It was really kind of him to go out of his way (the man has a family, dammit) to spend some time with an admiring reader, and he couldn't have been more gracious.

The steaks were great, the beer was delicious, and the transsexual escorts were . . . well, perhaps a bit aggressive given our presence in a dining room filled with families toting young children, but a truly thoughtful gesture nonetheless.

In all seriousness (I was kidding about the beer), I truly enjoyed the opportunity to sow a real-world friendship (or, if that's too presumptuous, a friendly connection) with another member of an almost-completely virtual, online community of souls who happen to share similar values and who tend to communicate about them exclusively via written words and pixels.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying that stalking has rewards. Your mileage may vary.

Q: How Do You Know Joe Biden Is Saying Something Stupid?

2009-03-31T13:29:00.003-04:00

A: His lips are moving.

Which leads me to my next question. When Joe Biden recently thanked Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero for all of his and Spain's help in Iraq, was he aware that Zapatero was the guy who, upon his election, pulled Spain's troops out of Iraq faster than you can say el cowardissimo, thereby assisting the U.S. Democrats -- Joey Hairplugs included -- in their bid to lose that war on President Bush's watch? Or is Biden just as pig-ignorant and unprepared to be a vice-president as the mainstream media told us Sarah Palin would be?

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Clinton left another pile of diplomatic dog droppings in our backyard. Free advice for Madame Secretary: when you visit another country's holy site, one famous for displaying an item considered to be a miracle, do do some research on the item before you talk to the locals, and don't ask stupid questions that might insult your audience.

I mean, it's not like Mexico's going to start a war with us over Hillary's ignorance of the miraculous cloak's history, but since these are the kind of amateur-hour goofs that Democrats always pestered George Bush about, I think it's fair to expect better of the head of the Smarter Diplomacy department (and former "co-president") Mrs. Clinton.

Life With a Two Year Old, Chapter One: The Wake-Up Call

2009-03-28T17:10:00.003-04:00

The Piglet otherwise known as my darling two-year old daughter graduated from her crib some months back and recently has discovered the joys of getting out of bed at a time of her choosing -- and making sure everyone else in the house does too.

Just a few days ago, she popped out of her room 10 minutes before my alarm was set to go off. Having spent most of the night pleading with my infant son to go to sleep, I was none too happy to be roused from whatever rest I had left -- so I did what any normal parent would have done: I feigned sleep and totally ignored her pleas for me to get up.

Alas, two year olds can be persistent. And inventive. After tapping me on my head, pulling off all my covers, and advising me that she was in need of chocolate milk, Lucky Charms, and a new diaper, all failed to get the job done, she grew very quiet. Too quiet. I opened my eyes just a wee little bit and saw a dingy sock-clad foot approaching my face, coming to rest not two centimeters from my nose. Then did my Piglet lean over and whisper, ever so sweetly, in my ear:

"Mommy! Mommy, smell my feet."

I got up.

Headline of the Day

2009-03-27T17:50:00.001-04:00

CNN Journalist, Others Arrested on Fargo Dikes

Hey! That's D-I-K-E-S. Get you mind outta the gutter.

Can We Adopt Him?

2009-03-27T17:39:00.002-04:00

British member of the European Parliament Daniel Hannan has become an internet sensation, thanks to the YouTube-ification of his remarks to British Prime Minister Gordon Blair.

Too bad he's ineligible to run for POTUS.

Zing.

Obama: "Defeat Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Support Al Qaeda in the U.S."

2009-03-27T14:07:00.009-04:00

The big headlines today report that President Obama is getting tough on terrorists -- or is that "man-caused disasterists"? The Obama administration's new language confuses me so -- by authorizing an additional 4000* troops to Afghanistan and increased aid to stabilize Pakistan. In an unexpected (but very welcome) twist, the president even used language suggesting he actually wants to win this war, not just end it: "coalition forces," he said, "must disrupt, dismantle, and defeat" Al Qaeda (emphasis mine).

(* EDIT: In addition to 17,000 other previously promised troops.)

That's the good news for those of you keeping up with the Global War on Terror -- er, I mean the "Overseas Contingency Operation" (goshdarnit, there's that new Obama language again!).

The bad news comes via OUTLAW Jeff Goldstein at protein wisdom:

During his news conference, [National Intelligence Director Dennis] Blair also said the Obama administration is still wrestling with what to do with the remaining 240 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which the president has ordered closed.

Some of the detainees, deemed non-threatening, may be released into the United States as free men, Blair confirmed.

That would happen when they can’t be returned to their home countries, because the governments either won’t take them or the U.S. fears they will be abused or tortured. That is the case with 17 Uighurs (WEE’-gurz), Chinese Muslim separatists who were cleared for release from the jail long ago. The U.S. can’t find a country willing to take them, and it will not turn them over to China.

Blair said the former prisoners would have [to] get some sort of assistance to start their new lives in the United States.

“We can’t put them out on the street,” he said.

That assistance (cruder people might call it "welfare") will be provided by Mr. and Mrs. John Q. American Taxpayer. Meanwhile, the released enemy combatants -- or whatever the f$#% we are calling them these days -- will be laughing all the way to the nearest anonymous money-wiring facility.

And can't you already hear the Obama folks trying to justify their reasons for setting these bastards free in the U.S., after one of them takes out a mall, or a birthday party, or a busy Starbucks? "But but but -- he said he was never part of that Al Qaeda training camp! He was just travelling through the area and had stopped in to use their bathroom when our soldiers captured him! He claimed to have no affinity for global jihadism! Holy underwear, people, we've been had!"

This cannot end well.

Statism So Statist That Even Statist European Statesmen State: "Too Statist!"

2009-03-25T14:47:00.003-04:00

Big Government pols in Europe have weighed in once again on the Democrats' $2 Trillion Big Government "stimulus" boondoggle. Simply put, it's "the road to Hell."

EU Head Mirek Topolanek suggested his American friends stop and take a look at history before sinking government talons into every facet of the economy and punishing market activity.

Topolanek, who is also prime minister of a former Soviet Bloc state, ought to have some perspective on the matter.

$orry, $orry, $orry

2009-03-25T13:16:00.009-04:00

I hope an Obama administration spokesperson can rationally explain how cutting the wealthiest one-percent of tax-payers' ability to write-off donations to charitable organizations by eleven percent (read: hundreds of millions of dollars) won't result in thousands of non-profit, research, and private foundation job losses.

"Obama rejected this claim, saying there 'was very little evidence' to suggest there would be a significant drop in donations as a result of the tax increase."

Sorry, genome.
Sorry, AIDS.
Sorry, diabetes.
Sorry, homeless.
Sorry, drug addicts.
Sorry, cancer.
Sorry, Africa.
Sorry, cystic fibrosis.
Sorry, Boys Club.
Sorry, Katrina victims.
Sorry, sickle cell.
Sorry, Lou Gehrig's Disease.
Sorry, Habitat For Humanity.
Sorry, Bill & Melinda Gates.
Sorry, environment.
Sorry, Alzheimer's.
Sorry, Warren Buffett.
Sorry, Jerry's Kids.
Sorry, 9/11 Victims.
Sorry, Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans.
Sorry, ASPCA.
Sorry, first responders.

Don't think of it as unemployment. Think of it as.... Patriotism?

The Teleprompter Speaks!

2009-03-25T11:04:00.001-04:00

If you haven't yet checked out Barack Obama's Teleprompter's Blog, please do so. In these trying times, we all need a good laugh. And the 'Prompter provides.

Most Smartest Diplomacy Evahhhh! (UPDATED)

2009-03-23T16:55:00.004-04:00

So, now we're pissing off the French government too? Or, at minimum, French President Nicholas Sarkozy, a far better friend and supporter of the U.S. than his predecessors, cozying up instead to Jacques Chirac, the leftist former French president?)

It's either willful incitement of poor relations, or blatant stupidity. I can't think of a third option.

UPDATED: I thought of a third option. Wait for it ....

wait for it...

wait for it...

SPECIAL OLYMPICS DIPLOMACY!!!

Ba-dum-bum.

See you all in hell.

Via Gateway Pundit, via Ace.

Speaking of Which . . .

2009-03-21T10:16:00.001-04:00

How about an Iowa Hawk flashback?

Seems to me the president's recent teleprompter . . . er, difficulties . . . may have a logical explanation.

Mwahahahaha.

Saturday Thought Experiments

2009-03-21T09:36:00.004-04:00

What. If. Bush. Had. Done. These. Things?

Seriously. Close your eyes. Imagine that in the span of just a few weeks, George W. Bush had cracked a joke about the physically handicapped, bumped his head while boarding Marine One, thanked himself for his own hospitality because that's what the teleprompter said, ordered defense officials to conceal the budget process from public scrutiny, grandstanded about bonus payments by AIG only to have it revealed that he had, himself, accepted six figures from AIG, tried to walk through a window, and gifted the British Prime Minister with DVDs that are incompatible with UK DVD players.

I think it's beyond dispute that Maureen Dowd would be hosting an orgy in the New York Times editorial office.

And Other Days I Want To Walk Down Bedford Avenue With A Kalashnikov

2009-03-19T12:50:00.009-04:00

The fashion forward are abuzz with exciting news of the latest trend soon-to-be-rocked among Williamsburg, Brooklyn's Hipster Illuminati:

Slanties.

The "nihilistically optimistic" eyewear you never asked for but can, thankfully, propagate:

"slanties are based on ancient Inuit eyewear design. Handcrafted out of solid wood and backed with fiberglass for strength. slanties are available in four different varieties of wood and three different sizes, including a child’s size."

I'm assuming, for trademarking purposes, that gooks, slopes, injuns, and chinkamos were all taken. Yours for $75.

I'm Weary

2009-03-17T22:25:00.003-04:00

There's no room in this post for sarcasm or quips.

In the wake of opting to spend billions on pork-barrel trifles, President Obama has decided to save the government a comparatively miniscule sum of money by (of all things) requiring wounded American soldiers to pay for their own medical care.

There is room in this post for shock, anger, and scorn. But I don't even know how to muster any of them at an appropriate level of volume.

I'm just sad. Not only that a president would do such a thing, but that his Democrat supporters -- who shrieked like stabbed infants every time President Bush exhaled -- can't be moved to so much as raise an eyebrow.

You know who you are. Your silence is deafening. Way to be patriots.

For shame.

Getting the Word Out

2009-03-17T11:19:00.003-04:00

There's a lot of talk amongst conservative types these days about how best to communicate their ideas in the face of a hostile media and an administration that isn't shy about baring its teeth to the opposition.

Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom has been en fuego on this topic lately. Goldstein, a former university professor, knows language and knows how control of language leads to control of the message. For that reason, Jeff has written a number of pieces on the importance of intentionalism, or, in smaller words, understanding the message the speaker is intending -- not whatever message the listener superimposes on that message. Important stuff.

Similarly, Andrew Breitbart talks about the importance of engaging in debate, even with those who are "debating" in bad faith and are utterly unwilling to consider the conservative viewpoint.

Glenn Beck's 912 Project offers some suggestions as to principles and values that appeal to Americans of all political persuasions -- or ought to, at any rate.

Food for thought.

Consensus!

2009-03-15T13:39:00.002-04:00

Al Gore, 2005:

Now, the scientific community is warning us that the average hurricane will continue to get stronger because of global warming. A scientist at MIT has published a study well before this tragedy showing that since the 1970s, hurricanes in both the Atlantic and the Pacific have increased in duration, and in intensity, by about 50 %. The newscasters told us after Hurricane Katrina went over the southern tip of Florida that there was a particular danger for the Gulf Coast of the hurricanes becoming much stronger because it was passing over unusually warm waters in the gulf. The waters in the gulf have been unusually warm. The oceans generally have been getting warmer. And the pattern is exactly consistent with what scientists have predicted for twenty years. Two thousand scientists, in a hundred countries, engaged in the most elaborate, well organized scientific collaboration in the history of humankind, have produced long-since a consensus that we will face a string of terrible catastrophes unless we act to prepare ourselves and deal with the underlying causes of global warming. [applause] It is important to learn the lessons of what happens when scientific evidence and clear authoritative warnings are ignored in order to induce our leaders not to do it again and not to ignore the scientists again and not to leave us unprotected in the face of those threats that are facing us right now.

Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Predictions Studies, 2009:

As previously reported here and here at Climate Audit, and chronicled at my Florida State Global Hurricane Update page, both Northern Hemisphere and overall Global hurricane activity has continued to sink to levels not seen since the 1970s. Even more astounding, when the Southern Hemisphere hurricane data is analyzed to create a global value, we see that Global Hurricane Energy has sunk to 30-year lows, at the least.

But, but, but . . . our planet has a fever!!! Look at this graph!!!

Commandments 1-4 Refresher

2009-03-15T13:35:00.000-04:00

1. I am the Lord your God.

2. You shall have no other gods before me.

3. You shall not make for yourself an idol.

4. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God.

Seriously, it's right there in the Constitution. Goddamn blasphemers.

Religion of Peace Update

2009-03-15T13:29:00.001-04:00

Dateline: London.

A Christian minister who has had heated arguments with Muslims on his TV Gospel show has been brutally attacked by three men who ripped off his cross and warned: "If you go back to the studio, we’ll break your legs."

If only we understood them better, we could all live together in harmony.

Why I Love Charles Krauthammer

2009-03-13T16:12:00.003-04:00

I started reading Krauthammer regularly after September 11, 2001. I don't always agree with where he ends up, but I find him to be among the most consistently solid thinkers and writers on the Right side of the talking-head-o-sphere.

Take today's column, for example. Krauthammer disagreed with then-President Bush's decision to block federal funds for research on new embryonic stem cell lines, Unless you are living under a rock, you know that President Obama rather publicly removed that block earlier this week. Seemingly unable to do anything without taking a swipe at his predecessor, however, Obama simultaneously issued a memo boasting that his administration would "restor[e] scientific integrity to government decision-making."

Krauthammer responds:

Restoring? The implication, of course, is that while Obama is guided solely by science, Bush was driven by dogma, ideology and politics.

What an outrage. Bush's nationally televised stem cell speech was the most morally serious address on medical ethics ever given by an American president. It was so scrupulous in presenting the best case for both his view and the contrary view that until the last few minutes, the listener had no idea where Bush would come out.

Obama's address was morally unserious in the extreme. It was populated, as his didactic discourses always are, with a forest of straw men. Such as his admonition that we must resist the "false choice between sound science and moral values." Yet, exactly 2 minutes and 12 seconds later he went on to declare that he would never open the door to the "use of cloning for human reproduction."

Does he not think that a cloned human would be of extraordinary scientific interest? And yet he banned it.

Is he so obtuse as not to see that he had just made a choice of ethics over science? Yet, unlike Bush, who painstakingly explained the balance of ethical and scientific goods he was trying to achieve, Obama did not even pretend to make the case why some practices are morally permissible and others not.

This is not just intellectual laziness. It is the moral arrogance of a man who continuously dismisses his critics as ideological while he is guided exclusively by pragmatism (in economics, social policy, foreign policy) and science in medical ethics.

You would do well to read the whole thing (free subscription required) -- and anything else by Charles Krauthammer you can get your hands on.

Nefarious Jewish Lobby Strikes Again!

2009-03-13T15:48:00.004-04:00

This time, those sly Jews managed to derail the nomination of Charles Freeman, that fabulous "veteran diplomat" who, as Benedick reported a few weeks back,

has a long and deep association with Saudi Arabia. In particular, he became president of the Middle East Policy Council in 1997. The MEPC is a mouthpiece for the Saudi government, which finances it. In this capacity, the MEPC has published an abridged version of the notorious essay by John Mearsheimer and Walt, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," which argues that American Jews have a stranglehold on the U.S. Congress, and use it to advance Israeli interests at the expense of those of the U.S. According to Schoenfeld, Freeman has expressly endorsed this thesis. ...

This, by the way, is the same Charles Freeman who

is an unabashed supporter of the Chinese tyrants. And not out of Hillary Clinton style pragmatism, either. Freeman has written (in a "confidential" internet discussion) in favor of the Tiananmen Square massacre, calling it "a monument to overly cautious behavior on the part of the leadership, not an example of rash action." He added, "I do not believe it is acceptable for any country to allow the heart of its national capital to be occupied by disidents intent on disrupting the normal functions of government, however appealing to foreigners their propaganda may be."

Naturally, Freeman's nomination for a top U.S. intelligence position in the Obama administration -- essentially, Freeman was poised to be the guy who interprets the intelligence and reports it to the president -- led to more than a few raised eyebrows. Support, even from the Obama folks, was lukewarm. And yet, blessed with the self-awareness of your average dishrag, Mr. Freeman withdrew from consideration for the top intelligence position for which he'd been nominated, blaming not his questionable ties with certain unfriendly foreign governments or ill-advised and vocal support for murderous communist regimes, but those pesky Joooooooos!

Those Jews! Is there anything they can't do? But seriously. You think any of those American Jews who ignored candidate Obama's long history of association with anti-Israeli, anti-Semetic, and pro-Palestinian people and causes, is having buyer's remorse? I certainly hope so.

Even Smarter Diplomacy!

2009-03-09T15:29:00.006-04:00

Last week, yours truly told you how badly President Obama stepped on his you-know-what by treating British Prime Minister Gordon Brown like the leader of any old country. As it happens, President Hopenchange telephoned Prime Minister Brown shortly after the low-key visit ended -- in fact, Brown was still on his plane when Obama reached out to him. British papers are speculating that the president called to apologize for overlooking diplomatic niceties. Apparently, according to American sources inside the White House, President Obama is so "exhausted" and "overwhelmed" by the demands of his job that he just hasn't had time to get up to speed on all this presidential protocol stuff. (Yes, even with all that community organizing experience, it turns out that being president is really hard work! I mean, who knew?)

But, before we throw our Dear Leader a pity party replete with tiny violins (remember, Barry: you won!), I think it's worth considering that maybe, just maybe, President Obama does think that Britain is just any old country and deserves to be treated accordingly. Witness:

[A] State Department official involved in planning the Brown visit []reacted with fury when questioned by The Sunday Telegraph about why the event was so low-key.

The official dismissed any notion of the special relationship, saying: "There's nothing special about Britain. You're just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn't expect special treatment."

Now, whether or not this guy was taking his cue from President Obama, that's an impolitic thing to say, period. It's also a very stupid thing to say to a reporter, especially a reporter from the country you just royally pissed off.

Worst of all, it's really going to suck for our soldiers when President Obama goes hat-in-hand to Britain asking her to commit her armed forces to a cause he seeks to win, and has that quote thrown back in his arrogant face.

In other Smarter Diplomacy! news, there's this.

Tra la. I feel safer already.

M4W4T4M4W

2009-03-07T21:18:00.009-05:00

Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart is suing popular online clearinghouse Craigslist for promoting rampant prostitution. Craigslist, however, is totally baffled by the suit as they've been partnering with various law enforcement departments throughout the homeland and have even been featured on MSNBC's ~~entrapment~~ "doc block" assisting local P.D.s, busting pimps and reuniting turned-out runaways with their families.

"Craigslist says it has since instituted new measures to prevent the website from being used as a tool in the illegal sex trade and implemented an anti-abuse plan endorsed by attorneys general in Illinois and 39 other states."

Me and Kiki (my GFE transsexual whore) are totally convinced. This suit is baseless. Shame on you, Sheriff!

A Trillion Dollars

2009-03-07T11:29:00.000-05:00

This is pretty cool.

The only thing missing is the lit match.

They All Hurt

2009-03-07T10:21:00.003-05:00

But this one hurts a blogosphere friend of mine, who served with her, particularly hard.

Godspeed, Sgt. Robinson.

One Step Ahead Of You, There, Hugo

2009-03-06T19:08:00.002-05:00

CHAVEZ CALLS ON OBAMA TO FOLLOW PATH OF SOCIALISM

Chavez must not watch the news.

Smarter Diplomacy!

2009-03-05T16:41:00.008-05:00

Beware of Obamas bearing gifts:

Our British cousins are getting the feeling that the new administration doesn't fancy them.

The murmurs began when President Obama returned to the British Embassy the Winston Churchill bust that had been displayed in the Oval Office since Tony Blair lent it to George W. Bush.

The fears intensified when press secretary Robert Gibbs, announcing British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's visit to the White House, demoted the Churchillian phrase "special relationship" to a mere "special partnership" across the Atlantic.

And the alarm bells really went off when Brown's entourage landed at Andrews Air Force Base on Monday night. Obama, breaking with precedent, wouldn't grant the prime minister the customary honor of standing beside him in front of the two nations' flags for the TV cameras. The Camp David sleepover that Blair got on his first meeting with Bush? Sorry, chaps.

Pissing off our best friend and the only major world power that has stood alongside us in the War on Terror? Genius! But it gets worse. It seems that, compared to their British counterparts, our elegant, sophisticated, Ivy League president and his lovely wife are a couple of thoughtless cheapskates:

During his historic trip to Washington, Gordon Brown gave Barack Obama an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet - once called HMS President. ... [along with] a framed commission for HMS Resolute, a vessel that came to mark Anglo-US peace when it was saved from ice packs by Americans and given to Queen Victoria.

He also gave a first edition set of the seven-volume classic biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert.

Nice. Thoughtful. Classy! Meanwhile,

...despite being leader of the world's most bountiful nation, President Obama handed over nothing more thought-provoking than 25 classic American films on DVD. ...

Number 10 was staying silent about the gift, but the Mail has learned the American Film Institute produced a box set of 25 top U.S. movies as a "special request" for the White House last month.

No word as to whether these American DVDs can even be played in Britain. The Brown children fared no better:

Mr Brown and his wife also showered gifts on the Obama children giving Sasha and Malia an outfit each from Topshop and six children's books by British authors which are shortly to be published in America.

In return, the Obamas gave the Browns two models of the presidential helicopter, Marine One, to take home to sons Fraser and John.

Which, as a commenter at Protein Wisdom notes, can be purchased at the White House gift shop for $15 a pop.

All I can say is, thank goodness we don't have that classless Texan cowboy in the White House anymore.

Via baldilocks, Ace, and Protein Wisdom.

BENEDICK ADDS: The Brits have a word for that: Niggardly. Go ahead and denounce me, knee-jerk non-grammarians.

Do The Math

2009-03-02T22:28:00.000-05:00

President Obama is reportedly prepared to dismantle the U.S. missile shield program in exchange for Russian promises of cooperation in attempting to convince Iran to give up its nuclear missile program.

Think about that.

Think about it some more.

Now be angry.

Are you @#$%ing Kidding Me?

2009-03-02T22:19:00.001-05:00

Can we call it a trend yet?

Leaders of the Senate Finance Committee this afternoon revealed that another of President Obama's nominees -- U.S. Trade Representative-designate Ron Kirk -- has tax problems.

Finance staff briefed aides to committee members today on the revelations, which indicate the former Dallas mayor underpaid taxes to the tune of $9,975 during 2005-07, and that he has agreed to promptly file adjustments. The underpayments deal in part with speaking honoraria he received that he listed as charitable donations to his alma mater, Austin College.

Anyone else remember when McCain was excoriated for failing to fully "vet" Sarah Palin and her *gasp* pregnant daughter? How it constituted evidence that McCain was inept and non-thorough? Anyone? New York Times, I'm looking at you.

But treasury and trade officials who feloniously evade their income taxes? Meh.

PUCK ADDS: So, now can we question their patriotism?

The Environment vs. My Delicate Tushie

2009-03-02T12:59:00.003-05:00

Sorry treehuggers, but if the choice is left up to me, my delicate tushie wins every time.

I suspect most people would make the same call -- which is why our liberal betters will soon take the choice away from the (heh - spot the irony!) great unwashed. Maybe one day we can all be like the Russian family I stayed with in the early 1990s, when there was no toilet paper to be found and we were stuck wiping our bottoms with cut-up newsprint.

And maybe it's just me, but the day my husband has to look at my naked backside to read the latest "Mary Worth" is the day romance dies in this world. And who would want that?

About Right

2009-03-01T13:44:00.000-05:00

President Obama gave a speech Friday at Camp Lejeune about the current state of Iraq and the future of U.S. policy there. All things considered, I like where he stands, certainly in comparison to his childish campaign rhetoric. Gone are the whining and pessimism, which he replaces with frank acknowledgment of U.S. successes and a measured plan designed to ensure that our gains (and Iraq's) are not lost.

Although I'm still appalled by the president's shameful domestic policies and his overt hostility to Israel, I'm heartened that his campaign promises of a weak, craven military policy (which solidified his support on the Left) are among the many he's chosen to break since assuming office.

Obama Shows his Cards on Israel, Civil Liberties

2009-02-26T19:50:00.001-05:00

Meet your new National Intelligence Council chairman, Charles Freeman, Jr.:

Freeman is a shocking choice. He has a long and deep association with Saudi Arabia. In particular, he became president of the Middle East Policy Council in 1997. The MEPC is a mouthpiece for the Saudi government, which finances it. In this capacity, the MEPC has published an abridged version of the notorious essay by John Mearsheimer and Walt, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," which argues that American Jews have a stranglehold on the U.S. Congress, and use it to advance Israeli interests at the expense of those of the U.S. According to Schoenfeld, Freeman has expressly endorsed this thesis. It looks like Samantha Power won't be lonely in the Obama administration.

An attack on the "Israel Lobby" by this tool of Saudi interests is actually rather amusing, or would be but for Obama's decision to put Freeman in charge of a potentially key intelligence group. Will the left be offended by the appointment of King Abdullah's lapdog? I feel confident that, with the possibility of a few exceptions, it will not be.

If all of this weren't disconcerting enough, Schoenfeld also points out that Freeman is an unabashed supporter of the Chinese tyrants. And not out of Hillary Clinton style pragmatism, either. Freeman has written (in a "confidential" internet discussion) in favor of the Tiananmen Square massacre, calling it "a monument to overly cautious behavior on the part of the leadership, not an example of rash action." He added, "I do not believe it is acceptable for any country to allow the heart of its national capital to be occupied by disidents intent on disrupting the normal functions of government, however appealing to foreigners their propaganda may be."

To Hell with those filthy Jews and Chinese community organizers. Fire up the tanks.

But What A Way To Go!

2009-02-26T19:43:00.001-05:00

Man, 28, Dies After 'Guzzling' Viagra During 12-Hour Romp:

A Russian man died after guzzling a bottle of Viagra to keep him going for a 12-hour orgy with two female pals.

The women had bet mechanic Sergey Tuganov $4,300 that he wouldn’t be able to follow through with the half-day sex marathon.

But minutes after winning the bet, the 28-year-old died of a heart attack, Moscow police said.

Hmm. I can't decide on a snarky closing line. The contenders:

1) Talk about rigor mortis!

2) If he'd survived, the girls probably would have stiffed him anyway.

3) Hey, what the Hell happened to 'Viva Viagra'?!!

Cruel Obama Regime Ratchets Up Prisoner Abuse

2009-02-25T19:09:00.001-05:00

President Obama continues to do exactly the opposite of what he promised during his campaign, only his policy reversals are becoming more and more shocking. Not only is he dragging his feet on the promised closure of the Gitmo detention facility, but he's actually stepped up the abuse of Muslim inmates:

Abuses began to pick up in December after Obama was elected, human rights lawyer Ahmed Ghappour told Reuters. He cited beatings, the dislocation of limbs, spraying of pepper spray into closed cells, applying pepper spray to toilet paper and over-forcefeeding detainees who are on hunger strike.
The Pentagon said on Monday that it had received renewed reports of prisoner abuse during a recent review of conditions at Guantanamo, but had concluded that all prisoners were being kept in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.
"According to my clients, there has been a ramping up in abuse since President Obama was inaugurated," said Ghappour, a British-American lawyer with Reprieve, a legal charity that represents 31 detainees at Guantanamo.

It's no coincidence, either.

"Certainly in my experience there have been many, many more reported incidents of abuse since the inauguration," added Ghappour, who has visited Guantanamo six times since late September and based his comments on his own observations and conversations with both prisoners and guards.

Reuters, of course, attempts to absolve President Obama of any responsibility for the treatment of prisoners in a facility run by the military of which he is Commander-in-Chief. But we all know from eight years of media coverage of the Bush administration that any misdeed by any member of the armed forces is ipso facto evidence of official executive-branch policy to sow cruelty and inhumanity.

Applying the same standard to which bush was held, we see clearly that any improper actions on the part of Guantanamo guards are President Obama's fault.

Will we ever be free of this monster?

Barack Obama Hates Human Rights

2009-02-21T21:01:00.003-05:00

I'm not making this up, and neither, I suspect, is the New York Times:

The Obama administration has told a federal judge that military detainees in Afghanistan have no legal right to challenge their imprisonment there, embracing a key argument of former President Bush’s legal team.

In a two-sentence filing late Friday, the Justice Department said that the new administration had reviewed its position in a case brought by prisoners at the United States Air Force base at Bagram, just north of the Afghan capital. The Obama team determined that the Bush policy was correct: such prisoners cannot sue for their release.

“Having considered the matter, the government adheres to its previously articulated position,” wrote Michael F. Hertz, acting assistant attorney general....

[snip]

The Bush administration had argued that federal courts have no jurisdiction to hear such a case because the prisoners are noncitizens being held in the course of military operations outside the United States. The Obama team was required to take a stand on whether those arguments were correct because a federal district judge, John D. Bates, asked the new government whether it wanted to alter that position.

The Obama administration’s decision was generally expected among legal specialists. But it was a blow to human rights lawyers who have challenged the Bush administration’s policy of indefinitely detaining “enemy combatants” without trials.

The power of civilian federal judges to review individual decisions by the executive branch to hold a terrorism suspect as an enemy combatant was one of the most contentious legal issues surrounding the Bush administration. For years, President Bush’s legal team argued that federal judges had no authority under the Constitution to hear challenges by detainees being held at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere.

When will we ever be free of this monstrous regime?

h/t - Jonah at NRO

Lifecycle of a Meme

2009-02-21T20:38:00.002-05:00

1. Liberal website The Huffington Post breathlessly publishes video of Fox News commentator John Gibson referring on the air to African-American Attorney General "Eric Holder and his Bright Blue Scrotum."

2. Huffington Post readers post venomous comments declaring that Gibson is inhuman, vile and racist, and should die.

3. Other liberal websites pick up the video and post it.

4. Readers at those sites post similar comments regarding Gibson's inherent evil and his resulting need to suffer horribly.

5. A simple fact-check by a conservative blogger reveals that the original video was doctored. To wit: Gibson never said any such thing.

6. Huffington Post blames unaffiliated third party for its own failure to conduct a simple fact-check before libeling Gibson.

7. The hoax is revealed to have originated with a Baltimore television reporter, who created the doctored video.

8. The ruse being revealed, commentators at Huffington Post don't care, insisting that, anyway, what really matters here is that Gibson and Fox News are sooooo evil that it was plausible that this video could have been authentic. Thus, despite being fake, it's accurate.

Aaaaaand . . . scene.

Detailed version here.

Dan Rather, call your office.

Speaking Truth To Power: Obama Era Edition

2009-02-21T20:15:00.001-05:00

In the comments to my post the other day about the market's response to Obama's spending boondoggle, reader Marcus posted a link to this, the rant of the year so far:

Ain't from Fox neither.

At What Point Will Obamaniancs Join Me In Not Taking Him Seriously?

2009-02-21T19:48:00.003-05:00

He campaigned on a promise to end wiretapping and electronic surveillance programs. Once elected? Not so much.

He campaigned on a promise to “tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over.” Once elected? Not so much.

He campaigned on a promise to give the public 5 days to review proposed legislation before signing it. Once elected? Not so much.

Broken campaign promises are one thing. (In fact, I'm glad for some of them, like his broken promises to pull out of Iraq and close Gitmo immediately upon taking office.) But there's a whole other level of cravenness involved when -- in the course of one week -- he signs the most expensive, bloated, unnecessary, palm-greasing, crony-rewarding, budget-destroying piece of legislation in the history of human civilization, and then announces, with all the down-his-nose-talking sternness he can muster, that it's time to restore "fiscal responsibility to Washington."

Counterintuitive? Counterproductive? Sure. But, Hell, He Won. So shut up and stop asking questions. If you know what's good for you.

Goldstein: It's Hard Out There for a Chimp

2009-02-21T13:49:00.004-05:00

Apropos to the introductory paragraphs of my most recent post (below), Jeff Goldstein weighs in on the same chimp-cartoon faux controversy that Yorick picked up on yesterday:

We are going backwards in this country on issues of race and identity — moving more toward the dark side of identity politics than toward the idea that individualism transcends group affiliation — and so, as a country grounded in a shared set of institutionalized beliefs, we are moving toward the left not only politically but ideologically. And each time we do, we move further away from our own founding principles.
The idea the we now need to be circumspect about our expression because there are more idiots in the electorate who don’t know who writes legislation and, more generally, who are simply looking to be offended (because it is far easier a feat than becoming informed, and one that provides the offended attention, which they crave far more than knowledge), is proof that the left’s identity politics and victim patronage system is taking popular hold — not surprising, given that its components, from the way we are taught to think about interpretation to the way we are taught to “deconstruct” “truths”, have been carefully spoonfed to us over the last 40 or so years.

Chickens coming home to roost and all that.

On the bright side, the "offending" cartoon is nothing less than stimulus for Al Sharpton.

We Read Books

2009-02-21T12:54:00.002-05:00

I've been slacking lately. Lots of work travel is at fault, but so is a recent extracurricular . . . er, curriculum.

Jeff Goldstein's inimitable blog, Protein Wisdom, deals frequently in language, semiotics and the politics of meaning. Jeff's key thematic contribution to contemporary political discourse is his robust defense of intentionalism -- the notion that in faithfully interpreting text (or art), the primary goal should be to determine the writer's (or artist's) intent. This is an important principle in a society that has unfortunately come to embrace the opposite approach; modern (or post-modern) academics have become infatuated with deconstructionism, the upshot of which is that contemporary audiences are encouraged to graft their own meanings (or simply emotional responses) onto the works of others and to judge those works according to the sensibilities of the percipient, subverting the intent of the creator, and defying any notion that expression can have "true" meaning.

Hence, the Constitution confers whatever rights modern readers choose to find in it, innocent works of art become "racist" when observed by those predisposed to manufactured grievance, and everything becomes, as they say, relative.

But setting modern political argumentation aside, Jeff also enlightens his readers with his formidable background in literature. And one of his regular co-bloggers, Dan Collins, has taken that effort to another level. Recently Dan invited PW readers to join him in a guided study of Shakespeare's writing, with an emphasis on how the Bard's use of language reveals truths -- or if not truths, then at least motivations -- somewhat removed from the literal action of his plays and even purposefully obscured from the surface of the text in the scripts.

The starting point in our little academic journey was a book I commend to all: James Shapiro's A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599. Shapiro, a literary and cultural historian at Columbia University, takes a slice of Elizabethan England's history and fashions a vivid, page-turning exploration of the world in which Shakespeare lived and worked, and how facets of that world likely influenced what and how he wrote.

Drawing on such "current events" as England's struggles to put down an Irish rebellion, an anticipated attack by Spain on England's shores, and the cultural ramifications of transforming a Catholic society into a Protestant one, Shapiro illuminates how pressures and trends of the age manifested themselves in the plays Shakespeare penned that year, including Henry V, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, and As You Like It.

It's a remarkably accessible work, given its subject matter, and designed for casual readers as much as for scholars; indeed -- despite not having read any Shakespeare since college, nor having been particularly interested in his work even then -- I scarcely could put it down.

If this sort of thing interests you, Dan's online course may as well. You can find him at Protein Wisdom. Drop him a line (vermontaigne [at] gmail.com) and join us.

Anatomy of a Liberal Scold

2009-02-21T12:36:00.002-05:00

Bill Moyers is a liberal "journalist" who has spent his post-political career (at CBS, NBC, and PBS) attacking the character of every Republican who catches his attention. He's notorious for condemning all conservative talk radio as hate speech and calling for its censorship. Above all, he is a smug scold.

Which made it all the more interesting when, earlier this week, the Washington Post revealed what a FOIA request turned up regarding how Moyers made his living as a political operative for the Johnson administration before he became a "journalist." In particular, "Moyers, a White House aide now best known as a liberal television commentator, is described in the records as seeking information on the sexual preferences of White House staff members."

Moreover, "[o]nly a few weeks before the 1964 election, a powerful presidential assistant, Walter Jenkins, was arrested in a men’s room in Washington. Evidently, the president was concerned that Barry Goldwater would use that against him in the election . . . . Moyers was tasked to direct [FBI Director J. Edgar] Hoover to do an investigation of Goldwater’s staff to find similar evidence of homosexual activity. Mr. Moyers’ memo to the FBI was in one of the files."

Huh.

I wonder what Moyers would say about similar efforts by a Republican political operative. I also wonder whether Moyers would accept the following explanation from such an operative under questioning by a journalist: "Moyers said by e-mail yesterday that his memory is unclear after so many years but that he may have been simply looking for details of allegations first brought to the president by Hoover."

Yeah, I bet he'd accept that and move along.

Racism & The Media 101

2009-02-20T18:35:00.008-05:00

Racist:

Hilarious:

What Does Wall Street Think About the Spending Boondoggle?

2009-02-17T14:30:00.002-05:00

The Cruel Scimitar of Irony

2009-02-17T12:34:00.003-05:00

So there's this:

"The founder of an Islamic television station in upstate New York aimed at countering Muslim stereotypes has confessed to beheading his wife..."

I'm convinced.

Ah, So THAT'S What "New Politics" Means

2009-02-12T11:45:00.002-05:00

President Obama has created a new position in the White House Counsel's office: "White House Counsel Research Director."

What are the duties of the job? It's not entirely clear yet, but some compelling clues can be gleaned by considering the individual President Obama has appointed to the new post.

Shauna Daly is a 29-year-old Democrat campaign worker. In particular, Daly has specialized in "opposition research," which is really a euphemistic term for "digging up dirt on political opponents. (And, yes, the GOP does this, too.)

Daly led the effort, for example, to dig up information on Mitt Romney dating back to his birth (as well as on other GOP candidates for various offices), signing DNC letters to state agencies requesting "any and all records of communication" relating to the targets.

Given that Daly's new executive branch gig is in the office of the White House Counsel, it bears noting that Daly has absolutely zero legal education, training or background.

What reasonable conclusion can we draw? It appears to me that President Obama has just installed a Chief Opposition Dirt-Digger in his administration, and that he has secreted her in his lawyer's office, which will enable efforts to keep her activities hidden behind the veil of privilege.

Inspirational, neh?

(h/t Dan Collins at Protein Wisdom)

Is A Little Self-Consciousness Too Much To Ask?

2009-02-10T18:13:00.004-05:00

I've made no secret of the fact that I think Obama's following in this country is cultish, creepy, irrational, and dangerous. I think there are some liberals who recognize this. But most are either too blinded by the hopeful gaze of The One or simply too disingenuous to admit it.

Mostly, they just carry on with their ecstatic rapture, making no effort to mitigate the obviousness of their obsession.

The latest example comes from the New York Times Online opinion pages. NYT blogger Judith Warner has Obama on the brain something fierce, and apparently so do her friends:

The other night I dreamt of Barack Obama. He was taking a shower right when I needed to get into the bathroom to shave my legs, and then he was being yelled at by my husband, Max, for smoking in the house. It was not clear whether Max was feeling protective of the president’s health or jealous because of the cigarette.

Paints a picture, huh? Warner doesn't elaborate on what might have transpired before The One lit a smoke and hopped in the shower (or whether Max was involved in the festivities). But since she found herself dreaming about Obama, Warner wondered whether she was alone, and launched an email inquiry to her friends and readers. Fortunately -- well, maybe unfortunately -- some of Warner's respondents didn't leave as much to the imagination:

Many women — not too surprisingly — were dreaming about sex with the president. In these dreams, the women replaced Michelle with greater or lesser guilt or, in the case of a 62-year-old woman in North Florida, whose dream was reported to me by her daughter, found a fully above-board solution: “Michelle had divorced Barack because he had become ‘too much of a star.’ He then married my mother, who was oh so proud to be the first lady,” the daughter wrote me.

There was some daydreaming too, much of it a collective fantasy about the still-hot Obama marriage. “Barack and Michelle Obama look like they have sex. They look like they like having sex,” a Los Angeles woman wrote to me, summing up the comments of many. “Often. With each other. These days when the sexless marriage is such a big celebrity in America (and when first couples are icons of rigid propriety), that’s one interesting mental drama.”

Perhaps the "interesting mental drama" is the one that has seemingly functional adults staring at the ceiling and speculating about how frequently the president and the first lady get nasty.

Don't get me wrong, though, the dreams (whether nocturnal or daytime) don't have to be sexual to be creepy:

There was a dream, sent from Minneapolis, about buying Barack the perfect sandwich, and a dream from Westport, Conn., about inviting Michelle and the girls over for lunch and a play date: “I told her I’d make tuna fish sandwiches and cupcakes, and told her that she didn’t need to worry about the kids, no need to hire a sitter or extra secret service, that I had a nice basement/playroom for them. I explained how hard it was to move to a new home, and to take her time if she needed to unpack or run to Costco or something. She asked me about other supermarkets, and I told her that Stop & Shop had a sale on tuna fish and paper towels.” And one woman in Wisconsin had frequent daydreams about having the Obamas over for a glass of wine.

One woman wrote that when she couldn’t get to sleep at night, she “lay in bed and thought about the Obama girls in their rooms at the White House. I thought about Marian Robinson up on the third floor. And about Barack and Michelle, a couple who clearly have a ‘thing’ for each other, spooning together in bed. It helped me relax.”

I hope the Secret Service is paying attention. 'Cause that's some crazy right there.

Of course, as in just about any blog, the really fun stuff is in the comments. A sampling:

"Also, I am as obsessed with the Obamas having sex as the next person, but we don’t know marriages until you’re inside them, and let’s just leave the Obamas alone."
"What’s wonderful is that this political/cultural experience is propelling American society - and perhaps the planet - into a whole new phase of evolution and development. "
"great column. I too had a dream about Barack Obama. We were at some sort of luncheon together. He was very friendly and a bit provocative . I may have sat in his lap. It was a little surprising, but he seemed very real and approachable. I guess I’m not alone in my dreaming."
"Phew… now I feel somehow left out, since I so far have not had any dreams about the Obamas at all. What I would like, however, is the chance to write to both President and Mrs Obama from time to time and know they they themselves actually read what I write.
They wouldn’t have to write back: I’d know that they’d heard me because of the policies they’d pursue and because they’d refer to my ideas and anecdotes in their speeches. But of course I’d love it if they did respond personally, and if the first thing they said was, “Please, call me Michelle (or Barack).” That’s my fantasy."
"Oh My God. Count me as one who has had several warm sexual sleep dreams about Barack. What is even funnier is how my regular old daydreams stop when I watch the Obamas on TV. Its as if the Obama Presidency is more fantastic that my fantasies. For years I’ve conjured up a politician to fight for what I believe in, but Obama is actually better than that imaginary guy. it’s weird!"

Now, look. I'm not saying these comments are representative of most Democrats. What I am suggesting, rather, is that there is no precedent for Americans to feel so blithe -- compelled even -- to proclaim to the world their mindless obsession with a politician, particularly where the obsession is explicitly sexual.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. It's creepy, unseemly, cultish, disgusting, and dangerous. At least, once in awhile, we can laugh at their expense.

Enough

2009-02-08T17:20:00.003-05:00

Last week's World Economic Forum in Davos featured a panel discussion on the Middle East conflict. Participants included Turkish prime minister Tayypi Erdogan, Arab League chief Amr Moussa, and U.N. secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

Predictably, Erdogan and Moussa seized the opportunity to slander Israel and whitewash Islamic terror groups' efforts to destroy the Jews.

Also present was Israeli President (and former Prime Minister) Shimon Peres. Peres is a well-known dove. He has spent his long public life bargaining land for peace, giving the likes of Yasir Arafat the benefit of the doubt, and tempering criticism of Palestinian violence in favor of the rhetoric of hope.

Evidently, however, even the Great Dove can only take so much. His response speaks for itself, below (in three parts).

Transparency

2009-02-06T18:16:00.002-05:00

The drums are starting to beat ever more loudly on the march toward the so-called Fairness Doctrine -- the drive by liberals to shut down conservative talk radio. Today, Democrat Senator Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) added her support to the initiative:

"I think it's absolutely time to pass a standard. Now, whether it's called the Fairness Standard, whether it's called something else – I absolutely think it's time to be bringing accountability to the airwaves. I mean, our new president has talked rightly about accountability and transparency. You know, that we all have to step up and be responsible. And, I think in this case, there needs to be some accountability and standards put in place."

Yes! Fairness! Accountability! Fairness! Standards! Stabenow has nothing but the purest of motives.

Oh, wait . . . what's this:

Stabenow's husband, Tom Athans, was executive vice president of the left-leaning talk radio network Air America. He left the network in 2006, when it filed for bankruptcy, and co-founded the TalkUSA Radio Network.

Huh. Stabenow's husband is the co-founder of a liberal talk-radio network and the former executive VP of a similar network that failed utterly to compete with conservative talk radio. And now Stabenow is using her office to level the playing field by threatening to take away radio stations' broadcasting licenses unless they -- wait for it -- air more liberal talk radio to "balance out" conservative programming.

I wonder if that would benefit her husband financially. I wonder if it would benefit her financially.

I'll give her this: It's transparent, alright.

NEW POLITICS!

Finally, We're Done With the Politics of Fear!

2009-02-05T19:33:00.001-05:00

Dateline - Washington:

President Barack Obama warned on Thursday that failure to act on an economic recovery package could plunge the nation into a long-lasting recession that might prove irreversible, a fresh call to a recalcitrant Congress to move quickly.

In an op-ed piece in The Washington Post, the president argued that each day without his stimulus package, Americans lose more jobs, savings and homes. His message came as congressional leaders struggle to control the huge stimulus bill that's been growing larger by the day in the Senate. The addition of a new tax break for homebuyers Wednesday evening sent the price tag well past $900 billion.

Senate Democratic leaders hope for passage of the legislation by Friday at the latest, although prospects appear to hinge on crafting a series of spending reductions that would make the bill more palatable to centrists in both parties.

Obama painted a bleak picture if lawmakers do nothing.

"This recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse," Obama wrote in the newspaper piece titled, "The Action Americans Need."

Nevermind.

But, Heck, nothin' says short-term macroeconomic stimulus like taxpayer-funded community activists and high-def TV subsidies.

Is That Any Way to Treat The Choir?

2009-02-04T18:58:00.001-05:00

Dateline Washington DC:

At the end of the SCHIP signing, a member of the press corps jumped the rope penning off reporters to get an autograph from POTUS. Secret Service swooped in and stopped him. An Obama aide said the man is still being held by Secret Service. No details yet on the reporter's name or publication.

Nor any details on whether the reporter is subject to excommunication. For his sake, I hope The One is as forgiving of feisty worshippers as the Pope is of Holocaust-deniers.

Oh, That Holocaust....

2009-02-03T11:00:00.025-05:00

Combining my two loves of the Catholic Church and Nazis — ~~Hilter Youth Alumnus~~ Pope Benedict XVI (a story so compelling it merited fifteen sequels) has unexcommunicated Bishop Richard Williamson, an admitted, on-the-record Holocaust denier.

Grab an air sickness bag and watch this:

Okay, terrific. I hate to bore his holiness with science but similar case studies carried out as late as 1994 through 2000 produced the following conclusions:

"The present study shows that in spite of the passage of a considerable period of time (over 45 years) in the walls of the facilities which once were in contact with hydrogen cyanide the vestigial amounts of the combinations of this constituent of Zyklon B have been preserved. This is also true of the ruins of the former gas chambers."

Translation: there are gas chambers and people died there, Bishop.

Revisionism — in its modern & basic application — is an agenda of hate, of marginalization, of bigotry, of malice to reason. It is corrupted data, disassociated facts, a perversion of statistics to introduce a palatable notion of doubt into established tragedy. A deletion of every Jew, homosexual, Gypsy, POW, Arab, Slav and unknown slaughtered for the air they breathed. For being. The tinkerings of genocide.

Yet here remains the Catholic Church — the storied T Rex of revisionism — that moves its ~~child molesting~~ troubled Priests from parish to parish with the deftness of chess masters, their personal histories wiped virginal and pure with each arrival; quietly paying ~~rape~~ hush money with each grisly departure. There's always another flock, little lambs, the willing faithful, the submissive.

In the interest of slander I would never intimate that Bishop Williamson molested innocent Catholic children but anything is possible.

In the wake of Williamson's reinstatement came these comments from Monsignor Robert Wister, professor of church history at Immaculate Conception School of Theology at Seton Hall University in New Jersey to the Huffington Post:

"While Williamson's comments may be offensive and erroneous, they are not an excommunicable offense... 'To deny the Holocaust is not a heresy even though it is a lie,' he said. 'The excommunication can be lifted because he is not a heretic, but he remains a liar.'"

A liar. A denier. A great Catholic.

Just like his Pope.

Mazel Tov

2009-02-01T14:09:00.000-05:00

. . . to Puck and Mr. G, who are the proud parents of a strapping baby boy (to go with their beautiful daughter).

Here's hoping the hospital has HD to meet Mr. G's discerning Superbowl-watching standards!

Before The Superbowl Festivities Begin . . .

2009-02-01T09:39:00.002-05:00

. . . I can't help pointing out how absurd this is.

This is a cult. This is your Democratic Party. This is what it means to be a liberal these days. It's silly, creepy, and dangerous. If Republicans ever behaved this way . . . well, nevermind; Republicans don't behave this way.

Germans have done it from time to time. North Koreans, too.

It Worked!

2009-01-31T11:42:00.001-05:00

Congratulations to House Republicans

2009-01-30T12:02:00.002-05:00

...for finally locating their manly bits and voting down en masse (along with eleven brave Democrats) the ridiculously pork-laden "stimulus" bill.

I mean, I'm no economist, but I'm at a loss to explain how giving a trillion dollars to such job-creating enterprises as STD education, global warming research, ACORN and other "community organizing" groups, the National Endowment of the Arts, and other Democrat-favored goodies, will get our economy zooming again. These 200 guys, who are economists, can't figure it out either.

But hey, as President Obama reminded everybody a few days ago, he won.

Yep, you sure did, buddy. And for now at least, this turd of a "stimulus" is all yours.

A Worthy Proposal

2009-01-29T07:38:00.003-05:00

Via Ponnuru at NRO's The Corner:

Rep. John Carter, a Texas Republican, sent out a press release earlier today about his innovative new bill:

"Rangel Rule"

All U.S. taxpayers would enjoy the same immunity from IRS penalties and interest as House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Obama Administration Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, if a bill introduced today by Congressman John Carter (R-TX) becomes law.

Carter, a former longtime Texas judge, today introduced the Rangel Rule Act of 2009, HR 735, which would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from charging penalties and interest on back taxes against U.S. citizens. Under the proposed law, any taxpayer who wrote “Rangel Rule” on their return when paying back taxes would be immune from penalties and interest.

Don't Believe Your Lyin' Eyes

2009-01-28T22:29:00.002-05:00

Dateline: Washington DC

Former Vice President Al Gore urged lawmakers Wednesday not to let the economic crisis get in the way of addressing global warming.

Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said Congress should pass President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package as a first step to bringing greenhouse gases under control.

Meanwhile, mere blocks away . . .

Most public school systems in the Washington area closed Wednesday. D.C's public school system was the exception, opening two hours late.

Side streets and sidewalks throughout the region were icy. Some major roadways, including the Dulles Toll Road, were described as a sheet of ice.

A winter storm warning for the D.C. metro area expired at noon.

As is typical with snowy or icy weather, transportation agencies asked people not to venture out.

I know, I know. If it's hot, it's global warming. If it's cold, it's "climate change." Either way, "The Consensus" wins, man's to blame, and the only solution is to end capitalism. Q.E.D.

We get it.

Hope. Change. Bail.

2009-01-27T13:18:00.008-05:00

I'm not sure why these mugshots are funny.

They just are.

Post-Racial America

2009-01-26T18:29:00.001-05:00

Having triumphed over the racial oppression of our past, our post-racial president is getting to work. Meanwhile, the Black Artists Association is pissed off that First Lady Michelle Obama had the, ahem, audacity to wear dresses designed by Whitey.

Yes We Can?

OH NO SHE DI'INT!

Chimperor Obama Continues To Murder Innocent Civilians

2009-01-25T09:49:00.001-05:00

Will the Reign of Terror ever end?

Karzai's latest criticism follows a Saturday raid in Laghman province that the U.S. says killed 15 armed militants, including a woman with an RPG, but that Afghan officials say killed civilians.

Two women and three children were among the 16 dead civilians, Karzai said in a statement.

In Laghman's capital, hundreds of angry demonstrators denounced the U.S. military Sunday and demanded an end to overnight raids. U.S. military leaders, victims' relatives and Afghan officials - including two top Karzai advisers - met at the governor's compound to discuss the issue, Gov. Latifullah Mashal said.

"The U.S. military said 'We are sorry for this incident and after this we are going to coordinate our operations with Afghan forces,'" Mashal said.

Obviously, according to the same reasonable standard to which President Bush was held, Obama the cold-blooded butcher intended to kill these civilians. War Crimes!!!

Brilliant

2009-01-24T15:59:00.000-05:00

"You don't give us tingles, anymore..."

2009-01-24T15:05:00.002-05:00

Well, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit. I think it's safe to say that Chris Wallace -- and the media in general -- is still squarely in Barack Obama's corner.

Still, stories like this -- wherein President Obama jaunts down to the White House briefing room to say hello to the reporters and responds with a how dare you, you insolent peasant! look when one has the audacity to ask a substantive question about His Hopey's apparent breach of a campaign promise to keep lobbyists out of the White House -- suggest that the love affair may be in for some turbulent times. And I for one am going to thoroughly enjoy watching the bloom fall off this particular rose.

I also have a feeling I'm going to be playing the "Imagine the outcry if George Bush had done/said/acted like that" game quite a bit over the next few years.

Warmonger Obama Murders Innocent Civilians

2009-01-24T11:30:00.002-05:00

Dateline Pakistan.

Six more bodies were recovered from the rubble of an Al-Qaeda den hit by a suspected US missile, pushing the death toll in two separate strikes to 21, security officials said Saturday.

"Six bodies of local tribesmen were found in the rubble of the house which was destroyed in a US missile strike on Friday just outside the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan district," the official said.

On Friday officials said eight people including five foreigners -- Pakistani officials use the term "foreigners" to describe Al-Qaeda militants -- died in the missile strike at the house of a pro-Taliban tribesman near Mir Ali.

Hours later another suspected US drone fired two missiles into a house in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, killing seven people.

The strikes were the first under new US President Barack Obama and effectively dashed any hopes that Pakistani officials were nurturing that the new administration in Washington will halt such strikes.

'Course, I suppose we should be thankful he didn't simply follow through on his pledge to invade. Yet.

Will there be no end to the bloodlust of his murderous regime?

Just A Friendly Reminder . . .

2009-01-24T11:01:00.001-05:00

. . . that Obama's throngs of flag-waving, left-wing supporters are true patriots, all, and always have been.

Courtesy of Zombietime.

The Madness of Jack Murtha

2009-01-22T07:25:00.003-05:00

Jack Murtha, a Democrat Congressman representing portions of western Pennsylvania -- including, ironically, Shanksville, where Flight 93 went down on September 11, 2001 -- is in the news again. He is, evidently, doing backflips over President Barack Obama's efforts to close the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay and volunteering to put the terrorists in his constituents' backyards.

Just last week, then President-elect Obama admitted in a television interview that closing Gitmo was a more difficult proposition than most people recognize. That is because -- gasp! -- the people who are in Gitmo are crazy nasty terrorists who want to kill them some infidel Americans, and if you set them free, the likelihood is that they will come back and try again to do exactly that. In addition, many of these bad guys come from countries who outright refuse to take them back. So, where to send them?

Apparently, to Jack Murtha's district. Murtha, who made headlines years ago for possible bribery and definite corruption, and more recently for (falsely) accusing our Marines of cold-blooded murder and his own constituents of being a bunch of redneck racists, has volunteered to put his voters in harm's way by placing unrepentant terrorists in their towns and cities.

What this man will have to do for his constituents to finally fire him is beyond me.

Sexquel

2009-01-21T19:27:00.008-05:00

So imagine having sex with your friend's young-ish grandma.

Entertainment wires are undulating with the news that the ~~old~~ vivacious ladies of Sex & The City have mostly finalized their deals for a sequel.

"Just months after the first movie adaptation of the hit TV series became a box office hit - making more than $400 million (GBP285 million) worldwide - producers have gathered [the original cast] together, and thrashed out lucrative agreements for them to reprise their roles."

Mmmmm.

Critical to the movie's financial backing will be strategic product placement including Metamucil, Boniva, Geritol, Miss Clairol, Calgon, KY and some sort of douche. In a related matter, an initial chunk of financial capital was secured by selling international rights to Geschlecht Mit Den älteren, a German pornographic conglomerate, who interpreted the first draft script as a hybrid Jewish-shiza film.

Class

2009-01-21T19:01:00.001-05:00

Once again, liberals demonstrate their magnanimity and maturity.

Congratulations, Mr. President

2009-01-20T18:53:00.003-05:00

History was made today. We have reason to be proud. I'm assuredly wary of President Obama's policies and politics, but today is not a day for partisan sniping.

It's just too bad Obama's supporters at the Inauguration celebration don't feel the same way.

But we've come to expect this sort of thing.

New Politics, indeed.

Obligatory Light-Blogging Multi-Linky Post

2009-01-20T05:56:00.007-05:00

Yeah, posting has been light for all of us this week. I know Benedick has been very busy dealing with real life stuff. As for me, what little free time I have is being dedicated to last-minute preparations for the new baby (due any day now), both at work and at home. Relatedly, I need to eat something, like, every 15 minutes, and that seriously crimps my blogging time.

But the globe continues to spin. Here's a quick rundown of some big news items from the last week:

President-elect Obama's pick for top Treasury post "forgot" to pay taxes. I think I'll try that this April and see if the President is as forgiving of me.

A Muslim leader scheduled to lead a prayer during P-E Obama's inauguration has ties to Hamas. That didn't stop the State Department or the Pentagon from meeting with her either. Gotta win the hearts and minds of those Hamas folks, and all. Speaking of which...

Israel calls a halt to the Gaza strikes. Hamas vows to fight on (presumably from whatever mosque, school or residential building it can find), but in the meantime is busy torturing Fatah folks.

A politically incorrect question: Do Hamas members - or their supporters - even have hearts or minds, let alone hearts and minds worth winning? But I digress...

Miracle in Manhattan. The pilot deserves a big fat bonus. I'm even considering flying US Air again, in his honor.

Tom Hanks says voting against gay marriage is un-American. If you're a Mormon, anyway. If you're black or Hispanic and vote against gay marriage, you get a pass, apparently. Also, more celebrities who think unity is great, so long as you are unified behind their guy.

Hey look: Joe Biden's wife has diarrhea of the mouth too. What a perfect match they are. Man, I'd have loved to see the look on Hillary's face when she realized she got Joey Hairplugs' sloppy seconds.

Righto. I think that about covers it. I'm off to work so that I can pay the U.S. government to keep the banks and automakers afloat. And to fund The Chosen One's unprecedentedly expensive inaugural events. At least I'll get free gas and someone to pay my mortgage now, though. And a unicorn! Unicorns for everybody!

Sie Nahmen Die Kinder!!!

2009-01-17T02:00:00.009-05:00

From the That's Why Department comes this:

"The three children were taken from their Holland Township home Tuesday night by New Jersey’s Division of Youth and Family Services. The big question is why?

Their parents, Heath and Deborah Campbell gave all three of their children Nazi-inspired names: Adolph Hitler Campbell, 3, Joyce Lynn Aryan Nation Campbell, 1, and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell, who will turn 1 in April....

The Campbells, in interviews, have said repeatedly that they’re not Nazi sympathizers or anything of the sort."

Mein Kake.

That's a relief. Even more exciting, rumor has it Mrs. Campbell might be expecting the couple's fourth lucky winner in the gene-pool lottery: Saddam Bin Eichmann Arafat von Mengele. Boy or Girl.

Thought For the Day

2009-01-15T11:18:00.001-05:00

Courtesy of William Penn's More Fruits of Solitude:

Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent. In this divine glass, they see face to face; and their converse is free, as well as pure. This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal.

It Was A Nice Comeback (While It Lasted)

2009-01-12T14:45:00.004-05:00

Mickey Rourke has been a well-known Hollywood actor since his breakthrough role in Body Heat. His work in Diner, Rumble Fish, The Pope of Greenwich Village, and Barfly (among others) solidified his marquee status. But in the early nineties, Rourke started to come apart at the seams a bit, immersing himself, alternately, in boxing and very bad plastic surgery. And largely disappearing from showbiz.

He's been on a comeback, though, since the 2005 release of Sin City, for which he received critical acclaim. Most recently, he's been the toast of the town for his leading role in the Oscar-nominated The Wrestler, for which he took home a Golden Globe last night.

Sadly, it appears, the comeback is about to fizzle. For Rourke had a renewed lapse in judgment not too long ago and, in an interview with GQ, he committed the unpardonable sin. He defended George Bush:

“President Bush was in the wrong place at the wrong time, I don”t know how anyone could have handled this situation… I don”t give a f**k who’’s in office, Bush or whoever, there is no simple solution to this problem… I’m not one of those who blames Bush for everything. This s**t between Christians and Muslims goes back to the Crusades, doesn’t it.”

Worse yet, he had the audacity to express concern regarding the spread of radical Islam:

"I was in London recently and I couldn’t believe all these hate-talking fanatics you have over here who are allowed to carry on doing their thing even when a bus full of women and children gets blown to pieces… I know you’ve deported one or two of them, but it seems crazy. I think there is worse to come, something terrible will happen to either America or the U.K., or France even. I don’t think these fundamentalists should be allowed to talk all this crap, and brainwashing these young kids.”

Bad move, Mickey. Fortunately it's too late for the Academy members to recall their votes (so you may yet take the Best Actor trophy this year). But your "darling" status is hereby revoked.

So This is What Happens When Members of the Beavis & Butthead Generation Grow Up and Reproduce...

2009-01-12T07:00:00.008-05:00

After a few minutes of rummaging loudly in her toybox, our Piglet toddled into the living room last night, carrying a ball painted in the manner of Spiderman and a partially-deflated bright yellow beach-type ball. The conversation went thusly:

ME: "Whatcha got there, Piglet?"

PIGLET: "That's my two balls, Mommy!"

ME: [involuntarily drops voice, collapses into Beavis giggles] Heh. Heh heh. Hey Mr. G! She said "her two balls." Heh heh.

MR. G: [pauses]

MR. G: [contemplates me for a moment]

MR. G: Cool.

Global Warming Update

2009-01-11T16:03:00.001-05:00

Pravda: Earth on the Brink of an Ice Age. I'm getting very confused about this Consensus we keep hearing about from liberal, anthropogenic-global-warming alarmists.

UPDATE: The Brits don't share my confusion. In a Quixotic gesture of love for the planet, they're banning big-screen plasma TVs. Apparently, the consensus is that watching footie on a smaller screen will lower the oceans and fortify polar bear populations.

Steyn Expands on Larry Miller

2009-01-10T16:02:00.001-05:00

Yesterday Yorick linked to a great 2002 piece by comedian Larry Miller about the "state" of the "Palestinians." Today on NRO, Mark Steyn has a more timely look not only at "Palestine," but more particularly on that state of Jew hatred around the world. It's a must-read.

He begins:

In Toronto, anti-Israel demonstrators yell “You are the brothers of pigs!”, and a protester complains to his interviewer that “Hitler didn’t do a good job.”

In Fort Lauderdale, Palestinian supporters sneer at Jews, “You need a big oven, that’s what you need!”

In Amsterdam, the crowd shouts, “Hamas, Hamas! Jews to the gas!”

In Paris, the state-owned TV network France-2 broadcasts film of dozens of dead Palestinians killed in an Israeli air raid on New Year’s Day. The channel subsequently admits that, in fact, the footage is not from January 1st 2009 but from 2005, and, while the corpses are certainly Palestinian, they were killed when a truck loaded with Hamas explosives detonated prematurely while leaving the Jabaliya refugee camp in another of those unfortunate work-related accidents to which Gaza is sadly prone. Conceding that the Palestinians supposedly killed by Israel were, alas, killed by Hamas, France-2 says the footage was broadcast “accidentally.”

In Toulouse, a synagogue is firebombed; in Bordeaux, two kosher butchers are attacked; at the Auber RER train station, a Jewish man is savagely assaulted by 20 youths taunting, “Palestine will kill the Jews;” in Villiers-le-Bel, a Jewish schoolgirl is brutally beaten by a gang jeering, “Jews must die.”

There much more at the link.

Weekend Reading

2009-01-09T15:09:00.006-05:00

Some years ago comedian Larry Miller wrote an excellent essay on the state of the Middle East and the, ahem, Palestinian plight. Its relevance remains indelible:

"Just reverse the numbers. Imagine five hundred million Jews and five million Arabs. I was stunned at the simple brilliance of it. Can anyone picture the Jews strapping belts of razor blades and dynamite to themselves? Of course not. Or marshalling every fiber and force at their disposal for generations to drive a tiny Arab state into the sea? Nonsense. Or dancing for joy at the murder of innocents? "

It's an amazing read. Read it. NOW.

"When this bullshit is over, I shall become comptroller!"

"The Jews Have Gone Crazy"

2009-01-09T11:44:00.003-05:00

The Arabs are getting nervous. They were expecting Israel to do it's usual, quick-offensive-then-succomb-to-international-pressure routine. Only Israel isn't backing off this time. Uh oh.

Israel may have reached a deterrent moment in its war in Gaza against Iranian-backed Hamas. I spoke with a senior Arab diplomat last night. He told me that the Arab street is afraid that "the Jews have gone crazy."

Yes, it's true. He noted, "Israel has begun to restore its deterrence" in the Arab world. "Hamas miscalculated," he added. They had thought Israel would not attack, but would merely accede to tougher Hamas demands for an improved "Tahdiya," their version of a temporary calm.

This is perhaps one of the more optimistic assessments I have heard from Arab colleagues recently. There is supporting documentation. Hizbullah's immediate public denial yesterday of the Katusha rocket attack from Southern Lebanon against Israel's North and the reports on Lebanese TV of convoys of Lebanese (read: Hizbullah) vehicles moving north in expectation of a major Israeli reprisal strengthens this sense.

It's also notable that Al Jazeera's reportage yesterday avoided interviewing ordinary Gazans. Arab sources in Gaza confided that the public anger is not directed at Israel any more than it is at Hamas. Al Jazeera, doing a superb job as PR agents for Iran's proxies, likely wanted to avoid risking those types of reactions from the battlefield.

The source also said that Hamas is "doing very bad things" to Fatah activists in Gaza both as revenge against claims that Fatah leadership provided intelligence to Israel, and as a warning to Fatah to avoid the temptation of being convinced by Egypt, the US and the West that they reassert control in Gaza.

Fatah officials in the West Bank are also demoralized. Nasser Juma'a, a Palestinian Legislative Council Member from Nablus told a well known British reporter yesterday that the "Hamas are insects" and noted that the Palestinians would likely not see a Palestinian state in his lifetime." Qadura Fares, a Fatah senior, said that the PA would not succeed either in the West Bank or Gaza without "tackling the privileges of the Fatah elite, who he said "have become like princes."

Funny that they should call the Israelis "crazy." I think that translates into, "Holy shit, they actually want to win." If often been said that Europe hates Israel because it cannot countenance the notion of Jews who shoot back. Arabs used to understand well the concept of Jews who shoot back. Let's hope they're re-learning it.

h/t Power Line

In Which Piglet Teaches Her Father A Lesson About Overreaching

2009-01-09T00:31:00.005-05:00

Every night before I take her to her room, read her a few books and tuck her in, we let our 2 1/2 year old daughter snuggle with us in our bed. She sucks down a cup of warm milk, hides underneath the pillows, and exercises her considerable skill in manipulating us into letting her stay up "just two more minutes peeeeeez Mommy."

Last night, she brought out the big guns. When I started to insist that she march into her room NOW, she looked up at me and, in her sweetest, most preciously artful way, announced, "Mommy's pretty."

ME: [taken aback] "What did you say?"

PIGLET: "Mommy's pretty."

ME: "Oh. Well. Thanks. You're pretty too."

MR G.: [clearly jealous] "What about me, Piglet?"

PIGLET: [pause] "Daddy's pretty."

ME: "Honey, how about instead you tell Daddy he's handsome?"

PIGLET: "Daddy's han sum!"

ME: "How about, 'Daddy's gorgeous'?"

PIGLET: "Daddy's goh juss!"

MR. G: [sensing opportunity] "How about, 'Daddy's an Adonis?'"

PIGLET: [looking at me quizzically, unsure of this new word]

ME: "'A-don-is', honey. Go ahead, tell Daddy."

PIGLET: "Daddy's a dum ass."

ME: [stifling a giggle]

MR. G: [glaring murderously at us]

PIGLET: "Daddy's a dum ass! Daddy's a dum ass! [smiling sweetly and nodding in earnestness] A dum ass, yes!"

ME: [in laughter-induced tears]

MR. G: "I can't wait till my son gets here."

Meanwhile, Across the Pond....

2009-01-09T00:07:00.002-05:00

I lived in Jolly Olde England for a year back in the mid-1990s. Spent my junior year of college in Oxford, one of the loveliest cities I have had the privilege to visit: drenched in history, rich in the culture of knowledge for knowledge's sake, and replete with "Dreamy Spires." (Not to mention about 600 pubs per square kilometer, which was way cool too.) For a long time, I had every intention of spending the rest of my life in England.

But, life happens, and plans changed. I have no regrets. Particularly not now, when I see what has become of the country I once felt was my second home -- and thought about making my first home. Melanie Phillips of the London Spectator relays eyewitness accounts from various anti-Israel activities throughout England's capital city:

... As we crossed from the station and walked towards the embassy, we were greeted by lunatics waving Hamas and Hezbollah flags. In front of us walked a young man, wearing a kippah. He got out of his bag and Israeli flag and was immediately taken to the side by two police officers. After questioning him for about 10 minutes, he was issued a caution ... - it stated that by getting out an Israeli flag he was causing provocation to the pro Palestinian demonstration.

....The hatred from the pro-Hamas side [directed at the Israel Solidarity Rally] was intense. They hurled the most wicked abuse imaginable, and threw objects. Some of their number tried to break through the barrier. Thankfully the police had undertaken searches because some of the Hamas supporters had arrived at their demonstration with bricks and knives. One of their lot came over and spat at a young Jewish boy who had been minding his own business. ...

....I witnessed crowds of very angry white, middle-class, respectable Britons wearing keffiyahs and piling onto the Tube from the very start of the Northern Line in faraway Barnet. As my train approached Charing Cross station I realized that if I had identified myself as sympathetic to Israel’s plight I might have been attacked. In Trafalgar Square itself thousands of even angrier people milled about; young men in keffiyahs chanted epithets against Zionists, their fury accompanied by placards with Stars of David superimposed on swastikas and slogans denouncing genocidal, war criminal Israel.

...One priceless poster said ‘Let Iran Have Nuclear Weapons.’ ... Next to me several young Muslims in green Hamas scarves wielding large sticks were booked by the police. Later a large crowd of some 5,000 infuriated protesters descended on the Israeli consulate, burned Israeli flags, and hurled missiles whilst another crowd threw hundreds of shoes at Downing Street.

Phillips offers the following recommendation to England's ruling class, which so far seems reluctant to speak out against this type of thuggery. I can't say it any better:

It is certainly not enough to tolerate ‘anti-extremist’ Muslim advisers who issue veiled threats of violence unless Britain stops supporting Israel. In view of the rising violence and intimidation on the streets in general and towards Jews in particular, senior politicians have a duty now to speak out in defence of Israel against the lies that are inciting this hatred and to deplore the incendiary and false media coverage. They have a duty to tell the British Muslim community publicly and in terms that they have swallowed decades of lies and libels about Israel and the Jewish people and that that sits at the very core of the extremism that has taken them over. They have a duty to say that while free speech is precious, intimidation and thuggery will not be tolerated. And mean it.

For silence is complicity, as once gentle, decent, civilised Britain changes before our horrified eyes into something very ugly indeed.

Via Protein Wisdom.

The World According to Jimmy Carter

2009-01-08T23:40:00.003-05:00

Jimmy Carter was so monumentally wrong on virtually every important issue that came before him during his presidency, that I am baffled anyone listens to him -- let alone seeks out his advice or opinions on world affairs. And yet, there he is, with a sweet little editorial in the Washington Post today, explaining -- as he unfailingly manages to do, every single time -- why the Middle East conflict is all the fault of those nasty Jews.

In Jimmy's world, the tunnels used by Hamas terrorists to smuggle arms and suicide bombers were "defensive" in nature. In Jimmy's world, Hamas -- whose charter explicitly calls for the extermination of Jews and the eradication of Israel -- was really, really hot for a cease-fire, but the Israelis wouldn't go for it. In Jimmy's world, Israel broke the "peace" -- "peace" being defined as a cease-fire in which Hamas never actually ceased firing rockets into Israel.

I could go on, but you get the idea. It's Jimmy's world. We all just live in it.

Peace-Loving Muslims (Who Do Not Fetishize Death) Celebrate Ashura In Style!

2009-01-08T16:25:00.005-05:00

Little Achmed's first Ashura skull slice.

Little Achmed's sister, Amatulla, has done this before.
See how much kids love the holidays?!

Mohammed Jr. thinks about how great it will be
to grow up and negotiate peace with Israel.

"You stick the kniiife in . . . you pull the kniiife out . . .
you stick the kniiife in, and you twist it all about . . . ."

Mustafa wishes you a peaceful, rationale, totally non-blood-thirsty Ashura.

Yusif re-enacts the prom scene from 1976 horror classic, "Carrie."

h/t Atlas Shrugs

Big Porn: Bail Us Out!

2009-01-08T07:36:00.003-05:00

There's a "stimulus" joke in here somewhere, but, as I'm too much of a lady to make it, I shall let my beer-swilling, hairy-chested, manly-man brethren do the honors.

Benedick? Yorick? All yours.

BENEDICK ADDS: Mark Steyn has taken care of it.

Israel Update: Enter Hezbollah?

2009-01-08T06:50:00.004-05:00

As Israel continues to battle Hamas in Gaza, its northern civilians -- specifically, elderly Jews in a nursing home -- sustained rocket fire from Lebanon, where Hamas's fellow terrorist group and Iran proxy, Hezbollah, runs the show. Israeli officials say they believe the attacks were from "small Islamic groups" as opposed to Hezbollah. Still, while Israel doubtless would like to focus on one terrorist threat at a time, it is prepared to open a second front up north, should Hezbollah decide to relive its 2006 glory days.

Speaking of which, it bears mention that there is a cease-fire in place between Lebanon and Israel dating from 2006. That cease-fire was breached yesterday, with rocket attacks. Aimed at a nursing home. Full of civilians. Fired not in response to any actions by Israel against Lebanon, but simply because someone in Lebanon -- and we don't yet know who -- wants to "show support" for Hamas in Gaza.

World reaction? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Meanwhile, because it knows that Hamas intentionally hides its fighters and weapons in civilian locations (including UN-run schools), so as to purposely increase civilian Palestinian deaths, Israel has been sending cell phone messages and dropping leaflets on areas in Gaza that it plans to attack (so long, element of surprise), warning civilians to leave. It also stopped the bombing for a few hours yesterday to allow in humanitarian aid -- some of which will doubtless sustain enemy forces.

World reaction? This lady summed it up nicely.

Facing an enemy that does all it can to intentionally harm civilians (Israeli and Palestinian), Israel still goes out of its way to avoid striking civilians. And yet, the world routinely condemns Israel but gives pro-Palestinian terrorists a free pass.

I don't understand it. I will never understand it.

Tell Us How You Really Feel, Derb

2009-01-07T19:39:00.001-05:00

John Derbyshire does not mince words. In light of the current conflict in Gaza, today he re-posted his 2002 national Review piece, "Why Don't I Care About the Palestinians?". Brace yourself. A snippet:

Everywhere you look around the Arab world you see squalor, despotism, cruelty, and hopelessness. The best they have been able to manage, politically speaking, has been the Latin-American style one-party kleptocracies of Egypt and Jordan. Those are the peaks of Arab political achievement under independence, under government by their own people. The norm is just gangsterism, with thugs like Assad, Qaddafi, or Saddam in charge. It doesn't seem to be anything to do with religion: the secular states (Iraq, Syria) are just as horrible as the
religious ones like Saudi Arabia. These people are hopeless. We are all supposed to support the notion of a Palestinian state. Why? We know perfectly well what it would be like. Why should we wish for another gangster-satrapy to be added to the Arab roll of shame, busy manufacturing terrorists to come here and slaughter Americans in their offices? I don't want to see a Palestinian state. I think I'd be crazy to want that.

Read the whole impatient, exasperated, snarky thing.

All They Want Is Peace

2009-01-07T15:39:00.002-05:00

Pro-Palestinian protesters in Florida: "Go back to the oven, Jews!"

Nice sentiment. Can't imagine why Jews would want, you know, a homeland.

Was Dr. Phil Unavailable?

2009-01-06T19:13:00.011-05:00

The Washington Post reports that CNN contributor Doctor Sanjay Gupta has been offered a newly minted "highest-profile" surgeon general position within the everything-1992-to-2000-is-new-again Obama cabinet.

The offer followed a two-hour Chicago meeting in November with Obama, who said that Gupta could be the highest-profile surgeon general in history and would have an expanded role in providing health policy advice, the sources said. Gupta later spoke with Tom Daschle, Obama's White House health czar and nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, and other advisers to the president-elect.

The Michigan-born son of parents who were born in India, Gupta has always been drawn to health policy. He was a White House fellow in the late 1990s, writing speeches and crafting policy for Hillary Clinton. His appointment would give the administration a prominent official of South Asian descent and a skilled television spokesman.

Personally, I'm excited. Sure Gupta hasn't decoded the human genome, created retro-viral therapies, cured AIDS or written any binding public health policy that has saved or improved the quality of American lives. Sure he makes his present living filing reports and advocating whichever fair & balanced view of the medical community or our "suffering" planet brings in the best Nielsen ratings. Sure the biographical thumb-nails littering the press-releases (see above) note that Gupta wrote policy speeches for Hillary Clinton in the 1990s which contributed to her abysmal attempt at legislating universal healthcare. We must overlook Gupta's agenda-less hullaballoo and admit one thing: he looks pretty sharp.

Should something unfortunate happen in the vetting process, a la Richardson, I am happy to sub in the following camera friendly nominees:

1. Doctor Phil: He loves Oprah. Oprah loves Obama. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

2. Doctor Doom: Talk about accomplishments. Not only is he the sitting monarch of Latveria (hello diversity-cred) he has invented any number of original devices and society-advancing/life-saving gadgets including, but not limited to the Bio-Enhancer, Enlarger Ray, the Null-Time Sequencer, the Psycho-Prism, the Time Platform, the Freeze Grenade, the Deflection Staff, and — most importantly — the eco-friendly Energy Fist. Most Americans would rather willingly get a flu-shot over the suggestion of being transdimensionally teleported into a microverse. Seriously.

3. Medical Droid 2-1B: He's a loner, Dottie. He's a rebel. Not only was he the head of surgery in Echo Base on Hoth, he defected from the Evil Galactic Empire on planet Wor Tandell — this only after tending to the mortal wounds of Lord Cuvir, an assassinated Imperial governor 2-1B would later recall as "Not cool." His medical skill set runs the gamut of tending to Wampa-inflicted facial lacerations to seemlessly attaching a cybernetic hand to a lightsabered stump. Bottom line: he knows his way around a bacta tank. On the plus side, for any incoming administration, 2-1B is a droid and — despite the heuristic processors — can be programmed to disseminate any brand of fashionable science.

Read It and Puke

2009-01-06T16:34:00.002-05:00

The Berkeley Lefties are suddenly patriotic again.

Thought experiment: While the Code-Pinksters and other assorted left-wing moonbats are out waving their factory-fresh American flags during Obama's inauguration, suppose some right-wing opponent of Obama's policies went out into the street and burned an American flag while toting a placard portraying Obama as a monkey.

Would the assembled throng of Obamaniacs respect his freedom of speech?

Important Notice

2009-01-06T10:41:00.003-05:00

Disagreement with the actions of the Israeli government is never a feature of anti-semitism:

PARIS (AP) - Signs are mounting that the conflict in Gaza is starting to spill over into violence in Europe's towns and cities, with assaults against Jews and arson attacks on Jewish congregations in France, Sweden and Britain.

Assailants rammed a burning car into the gates of a synagogue in Toulouse, in southwest France, on Monday night. A Jewish congregation in Helsingborg, in southern Sweden, also was attacked Monday night by someone who "broke a window and threw in something that was burning," said police spokesman Leif Nilsson. Neighbors alerted rescue services before the fire took hold.

Someone also started a blaze outside the premises last week. And on Sunday slogans including "murderers ... You broke the cease-fire" and "don't subject Palestine to ethnic cleansing" were daubed on Israel's embassy in Stockholm.

In Denmark, a 27-year-old Dane born in Lebanon of Palestinian parents is alleged to have injured two young Israelis last week, opening fire with a handgun in a shooting that police suspect could be linked to the Gaza crisis.

Europe: As safe for the Jews as it's always been. Kind of makes you wonder why they don't try and get themselves a homeland somewhere.

Ouch

2009-01-06T09:29:00.003-05:00

What did Democrat Congressional leaders know about aggressive interrogation (read: "torture") of terrorists in U.S. custody?

Quite a lot.

When did they know it? Seven years ago.

What did they do about? Nada.

Funny how they weren't outraged until this became public information.

So with all the talk from the Left about criminally prosecuting members of the Bush administration who knew about waterboarding, let's just make sure we remember to put Nancy Pelosi, John Rockefeller, Bob Graham, and Jane Harman in the dock as well.

Galactic Growth

2009-01-06T08:58:00.003-05:00

A new study says our Milky Way Galaxy has expanded:

For decades, astronomers thought when it came to the major galaxies in Earth's cosmic neighborhood, our Milky Way was a weak sister to the larger Andromeda. Not anymore.

The Milky Way is considerably larger, bulkier and spinning faster than astronomers once thought, Andromeda's equal.

Scientists mapped the Milky Way in a more detailed, three-dimensional way and found that it's 15 percent larger in breadth. More important, it's denser, with 50 percent more mass, which is like weight.

Al Gore issued a statement:

For a number of years, 110% of scientists have agreed that mankind's consumption
of fossil fuels is raising our planet's sea levels, generating hurricanes, melting ice caps, killing polar bears, activating volcanoes, destabilizing gravity, and making Jesus cry. We have now reached a consensus that humanity's greed is also expanding the Milky Way. Ladies and gentlemen, our galaxy has a fever. And the only cure is . . . more cowbell.

So be sure and use energy-efficient lightbulbs. For the sake of the galaxy.

A Voice in the Wilderness

2009-01-06T08:24:00.004-05:00

Today electronic media mogul Andrew Breitbart launched his new website, Big Hollywood. Here's how Breitbart describes it:

On Tuesday, I launch Big Hollywood, a big group blog that will feature hundreds of the big minds from the fields of politics, journalism, entertainment and culture.

Big Hollywood is not a “celebrity” gabfest or a gossip outpost - it is a continuous politics and culture posting board for those who think something has gone drastically wrong and that Hollywood should return to its patriotic roots.

Big Hollywood’s modest objective: to change the entertainment industry. To make Hollywood something we can believe in - again. In order to give millions of Americans hope.

Until conservatives, libertarians and Republicans - who will be the lion’s share of Big Hollywood’s contributors - recognize that (pop) culture is the big prize and that politics is secondary, there will be no victory in this important battle.

Initial contributors to the site include crime novelist Andrew Klavan ("True Crime"); Power Line blogger (and prominent attorney) Scott Johnson; veteran actor Orson Bean ("Being John Malkovich," "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman"); national sportswriter Steve Mason; reality TV producer Melanie Graham; and writer and comedian Tom Shillue ("The Daily Show").

Breitbart expects to attract broad contributions from across the pop-culture spectrum. It's certainly something to keep an eye on.

A Message To The Minnesota Electorate

2009-01-05T23:41:00.007-05:00

Way to go, idiots.

BENEDICK ADDS: According to Power Line, there's still hope for a sane result.

Anatomy of a Rube

2009-01-05T16:37:00.002-05:00

How were so many wealthy, successful, even intelligent investors taken in and massively defrauded by Bernie Madoff? One of Madoff's victims, Stephen Greenspan is a psychologist who just happens to specialize in human gullibility. In today's WSJ, he provides a lively summary of what he deems to be the four factors that drive these sorts of foolish decisions: situation, cognition, personality, and emotion.

Making things more interesting, he uses himself as a case study to examine how each factor contributed to the decision to make the unwise investment. And he doesn't go easy on himself. Fascinating stuff.

Just When I Was Getting On Board With "Change"

2009-01-05T14:39:00.004-05:00

Nancy Pelosi pulls this. And by "this," I mean rewriting House rules to bar Republicans from offering alternative bills or amendments to Democrat bills, and preventing open debate of Democrat-initiated legislation. Among other things.

Hooray for Democracy.

Change I Actually Can Believe In?

2009-01-05T10:24:00.002-05:00

Obama's apparently revising his bailout plan to include -- get this -- tax cuts to individuals and businesses. Apparently the steadfast resistance of GOP members of Congress to the initial plan is paying off.

If this passes, Obama can later take credit for the inevitable increase in revenues, which would at least partially offset the cost of the bailout. (Of course, he'll have to find a way to do so without abandoning the liberal dogma that cutting taxes can't possibly benefit the government's bottom line.)