Memorial Day Tribute: Operation Enduring Freedom

Mural at the Bagram Pax Terminal.  Caption:  
"This is a tribute to all who have fallen during Operation Enduring Freedom. Live a Life Worthy of Their Sacrifice."

We still have people fighting and dying in Afghanistan, and Kandahar is heating up
.

KANDAHAR

I saw it for the first time from the window of the plane
We touched down I looked around, history called my name
There’s a prison made of mud and wire, the roof is caving in
It’s where they put the ones who wouldn’t listen
But they’re listening now, and looking down,
on Kandahar

We attacked them in October, we paid them back in spades
We swung the hammer from the north, a people fierce and brave
And the Taliban, made their last stand
We broke down their walls and chased them out
We spilled our blood and guts upon the ground,
at Kandahar

The Greeks were there before us, Alexander led the way
The Persians brought their fire and their gods
The Mongols swarmed out of the north and brought their cities down
Then the Arabs came, and gave their God a name,
in Kandahar

The Russians, Persians, Mongols, and the Greeks
Our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines
Their blood is crying out from the ground
Their souls echo off the mountains way out loud
in Kandahar

Want to honor our heroes this Memorial Day?  Live a live worthy of their sacrifice.

What do Jim Crow and Today's Liberals Have in Common?

The Rand Paul-civil rights hubbub caused me somewhat of an intellectual crisis.  An ideology that indifferently resigns people to second-class status cannot be defended in my mind.  Time for Silverfiddle to abandon libertarianism?  Perish the thought!  Happily, I stumbled across two pieces that put everything in proper context.

First, David Paul Kuhn did an excellent job explaining why sincere civil rights champions were so incensed.  Then along came Jacob Sullum to reiterate basic libertarian fundamentals and apply them in defense of civil rights for all.  These two excerpts reconciled my crisis.  I'm still proudly in the libertarian camp.

Some Anger is indeed Righteous

David Paul Kuhn explains why sincere liberals and civil rights activists are upset over Rand Paul's comments concerning the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  Shorn of the MSNBC screeching and community activist bullhorn shouting, the argument makes a lot of sense. 

This calls to mind, for the left, a long-standing grievance. Many of today's conservatives speak of the civil rights movement's virtues and denounce racism. But they also rail against an activist government that was vital to ending Jim Crow. For liberals, Paul personifies how the right tries to have it both ways. They hear a conservatism that espouses the virtues of equality but opposed the only means to attain it.

Buckley later expressed deep regret for his stance on civil rights, as did Goldwater. But to liberals, that leaves much unresolved. They believe one cannot champion the civil rights movement today without coming to terms with yesterday's arguments for opposing it. This is why phrases like "states rights" still anger progressives.  (David Paul Kuhn)

Jim Crow is No Libertarian

Meanwhile, Jacob Sullum makes an important point:  Jim Crow laws also violate libertarian private property principles:

If we own ourselves, it follows that no one else can own us—the most obvious way in which slavery violates human rights.

It also follows that we own our labor, which means we decide who benefits from it and under what terms, and the fruits of our labor, which means we control access to our property.

All these rights were flagrantly violated not only by slavery but by the racist Jim Crow regime that succeeded it, which forced businesses to discriminate against blacks as customers and employees. (Jacob Sullum)

 He also defends the 1964 act by pointing out that it "belatedly implemented the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal treatment under the law."

Every Coin Has Two Sides
But he also reminds us, with a twist on Voltaire, that "we cannot abridge the freedom of those we despise without endangering our own freedom."

As Dr. Sowell is fond of reminding us, there are no magic bullets, only trade-offs.  Defend a theoretical point or right an historic wrong?  No contest, especially if you are the one experiencing discrimination.
 

Life is full of double edged swords.

Saturday Humor: Philosophy of Ambiguity

Courtesy of my brother Toro,

1.  DON'T SWEAT THE PETTY THINGS AND DON'T PET THE SWEATY THINGS.

2.  ONE TEQUILA, TWO TEQUILA, THREE TEQUILA, FLOOR.

3.  ATHEISM IS A NON-PROPHET ORGANIZATION.

4.  IF MAN EVOLVED FROM MONKEYS AND APES, WHY DO WE STILL HAVE MONKEYS AND APES?

5.  THE MAIN REASON THAT SANTA IS SO JOLLY IS BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHERE ALL THE BAD GIRLS LIVE.

6. I WENT TO A BOOKSTORE AND ASKED THE SALESWOMAN, "WHERE'S THE SELF- HELP SECTION?" SHE SAID IF SHE TOLD ME, IT WOULD DEFEAT THE PURPOSE.

7.  WHAT IF THERE WERE NO HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS?

8.  IF A DEAF CHILD SIGNS SWEAR WORDS, DOES HIS MOTHER WASH HIS HANDS WITH SOAP?

9.  IF SOMEONE WITH MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES THREATENS TO KILL HIMSELF, IS IT CONSIDERED A HOSTAGE SITUATION?

10.  IS THERE ANOTHER WORD FOR SYNONYM?

11.  WHERE DO FOREST RANGERS GO TO "GET AWAY FROM IT ALL?"

12.  WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU SEE AN ENDANGERED ANIMAL EATING AN ENDANGERED PLANT?

13.  IF A PARSLEY FARMER IS SUED, CAN THEY GARNISH HIS WAGES?

14.  WOULD A FLY WITHOUT WINGS BE CALLED A WALK?

15.  WHY DO THEY LOCK GAS STATION BATHROOMS? ARE THEY AFRAID SOMEONE WILL CLEAN THEM?

16.  IF A TURTLE DOESN'T HAVE A SHELL, IS HE HOMELESS OR NAKED?

17.  CAN VEGETARIANS EAT ANIMAL CRACKERS?

18.  IF THE POLICE ARREST A MIME, DO THEY TELL HIM HE HAS THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT?

19.  WHY DO THEY PUT BRAILLE ON THE DRIVE-THROUGH BANK MACHINES?

20.  HOW DO THEY GET DEER TO CROSS THE ROAD ONLY AT THOSE YELLOW ROAD SIGNS?

21.  WHAT WAS THE BEST THING BEFORE SLICED BREAD?

22.  ONE NICE THING ABOUT EGOTISTS: THEY DON'T TALK ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE.

23..  DOES THE LITTLE MERMAID WEAR AN ALGEBRA?

24.  DO INFANTS ENJOY INFANCY AS MUCH AS ADULTS ENJOY ADULTERY?

25.  HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE A CIVIL WAR?

26.  IF ONE SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMER DROWNS, DO THE REST DROWN TOO?

27.  IF YOU ATE BOTH PASTA AND ANTIPASTO, WOULD YOU STILL BE HUNGRY?

28.  IF YOU TRY TO FAIL, AND SUCCEED, WHICH HAVE YOU DONE?

29.  WHOSE CRUEL IDEA WAS IT FOR THE WORD 'LISP' TO HAVE 'S' IN IT?

30.  WHY ARE HEMORRHOIDS CALLED "HEMORRHOIDS" INSTEAD OF "ASSTEROIDS"?

31.  WHY IS IT CALLED TOURIST SEASON IF WE CAN'T SHOOT THEM?

32.  WHY IS THERE AN EXPIRATION DATE ON SOUR CREAM?

33.  IF YOU SPIN AN ORIENTAL PERSON IN A CIRCLE THREE TIMES, DO THEY BECOME DISORIENTED?

34.  CAN AN ATHEIST GET INSURANCE AGAINST ACTS OF GOD

Plug That Damned Hole!!!

Fixing Immigration Step by Step

http://chicagoray.blogspot.com

We Can't Deport Them All
It pains me to say it, but we can't.  That's the realpolitik situation we find ourselves in.

We cannot round them all up and send them home.  There are not enough planes, trains and automobiles to haul 20 million people out of the country.  Even if we could, imagine the humanitarian nightmare it would cause.  It would make the Trail of Tears look like an Easter parade. 

In light of the hysteria the recent Arizona law has caused, imagine what it would do to our society (and our nation's image) to see footage of tearful families being dragged from their homes and forcibly expelled from The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

So Here is My Solution

Step 1:  Secure the Damned Border!

The border is still leaking, and unscrupulous business owners are still hiring illegal immigrants and paying them slave-labor wages.  Controlling traffic in and out is a logical first step.

Step 2:  Stand and Be Counted!
To proceed to a solution, we must first know who is here, how many, and where.  We should offer illegal immigrants a deal:  Pop your head up and be counted.  In exchange we will give you documentation that allows you to work here, for say 5 years.  We may eventually ask you to leave or to go to the back of the line, but if you self-identify and have no criminal record, you've got a clean shot. 

Step 3:  Mandatory Worker Verification
Part and parcel of securing the border is putting an iron-clad worker verification law in place that harshly punishes the unscrupulous bastards who hire illegal immigrants.  Documented foreigners would be eligible to work, but no longer subject to employer abuse.  

Step 4:  End Birthright Citizenship
Some believe this would require a constitutional amendment, but George Will isn't so sure: 

Appropriately, in 1884 the Supreme Court held that children born to Indian parents were not born "subject to" U.S. jurisdiction because, among other reasons, the person so born could not change his status by his "own will without the action or assent of the United States." And "no one can become a citizen of a nation without its consent."

... this decision "seemed to establish" that U.S. citizenship is "a consensual relation, requiring the consent of the United States."

So: "This would clearly settle the question of birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens. There cannot be a more total or forceful denial of consent to a person's citizenship than to make the source of that person's presence in the nation illegal."

Step 5:  Provide visas and citizenship opportunities based on the needs of the country
Yes, this would include "amnesty" for some with a stable history of work and home ownership.  But we should not indiscriminately hand out citizenship.  Some merely want to be able to legally come in and out of the country to work and visit family.  They should be issued visas, not given citizenship. 

Steps 1, 3 and 4 will guard against this happening again, since barriers are in place and the major magnets of illegal job opportunities and birthright citizenship have been removed. 

The Easy Way:  Self Deportation
For my friends who disagree and just want them gone, we could implement steps 1 and 3.  Seal the border and bar them from working, and most would self-deport.

Further Reading: RCP - Michael Barone

Plug The Damn Hole!

It's The Big Government, Stupid!

The Crash of 1929 kicked off the great depression and moved the country left.  Now, there appears to be a movement of similar magnitude to the right.  But is it political?

It may be that the movement being seen now is less an ideological statement by Americans and more a reflection of a broad loss of confidence in big institutions, including the government.

To the extent that Democrats are the ones who have offered up government programs as the solution to the nation's recession-induced woes, then they are the ones being hurt more now, because the public simply lacks any deep faith in government's competence to solve those problems.  (Gerald Seib - WSJ)

It's The Big Government, Stupid!

Excellent summation.  Many of us are not so much anti-Democrat as anti-big government, which explains why we aren't letting big government Republicans off the hook either.

FEMA formaldahyde trailers, Wall Street Watchdogs turned porn-surfing horndogs, and now Obama's staged outrage, fecklessly commanding his hapless staff to "Plug the damn hole!"

America, We Have a Problem

It gets worse...

WASHINGTON – Staff members at an agency that oversees offshore drilling accepted tickets to sports events, lunches and other gifts from oil and gas companies and used government computers to view pornography, according to an Interior Department report alleging a culture of cronyism between regulators and the industry. (Yahoo News)  See also WSJ - Regulators Accept Gifts

Yeah, some of it happened on Bush's watch.  So what!  It's the Big Demican-Republicrat, Statist Government, Stupid!  They had no plans to deal with such a catastrophe, no prepositioned assets...  They were literally partying and playing with themselves on our dime, and now this happens.

Plug The Damn Hole?

Yeah!  Plug the damn hole in the US Treasury!

Plug the damn hole that the toxic political lies and BS are spewing out of!

Plug your damn hole and do your damn job!

Dreams of Obama: We're Just Another Country

Screw You, America!

We are no longer respected in the world.  You can argue that it's Bush's fault, but Obama has done nothing to improve our standing. 

Anyone who's lived in a dangerous area knows how people react to the weak and the naive.  The cowardly run away to the bullies' side (some daring to take a jab before running), and the bullies draw their knives and smile.

If Obama had actually ever lived in a bad part of town like his fake biography claims, he would know this.  Maybe he's just ignorant or doesn't understand basic human nature... 

Charles Krauthammer studiously catalogs Obama's global bowing and scraping and apologizing.  He then shines a light on the logical consequences.  His focus is on Turkey and Brazil sticking a thumb in our eye by providing Iran cover to make nuclear weapons, but the article is a great laundry list of Obama's foreign policy blunders:

This is not just an America in decline. This is an America in retreat -- accepting, ratifying and declaring its decline, and inviting rising powers to fill the vacuum.

Given Obama's policies and principles, Turkey and Brazil are acting rationally. Why not give cover to Ahmadinejad and his nuclear ambitions? As the United States retreats in the face of Iran, China, Russia and Venezuela, why not hedge your bets? 

Pray for America
We have at least two and a half more years of this.  If you're a praying person, hit your knees and pray for our country.  This man is an incompetent boob.  Some say he knows exactly what he is doing, but I don't want to even contemplate that.

Paul Krugman is an Intellectually Dishonest Crapweasel

Krugman Distorts, Stossel Clarifies

Nobody is better at distorting economic data for political purposes than liberal Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman.  When Mark Twain spoke his famous "lies, damned lies, and statistics" quote, he anticipated Krugman by 100 years.

Nobody is better at cutting through the BS than John Stossel, and he does it in a brief burst of brilliance,  Krugman Misleads On Greece

How does Krugman mislead?  By dazzling us with a chart comparing deficits as a percentage of GDP.  He soothes us with data showing Obama and the Pelosicrats' spending really isn't that bad and we are not destined to suffer the fate of Greece.

Stossel points out that Debt as a Percentage of GDP is where the danger lies, since it is cumulative.  And he uses Krugman's data to produce a chart that damns to liars' hell Obama, the Democrats, and chief economic propagandist Krugman.  By even the rosiest predictions, we will be where Greece is at by 2020.

Go read Stossel's piece.  It is very short but quite instructive on how liberals will distort data to trick people and avoid facing reality.

Rand Paul MSNBC Update!

MSNBC lives up to its name:  Moonbats Spouting Nothing But Crap.

MSNBC published a fraudulent transcript of the Rand Paul, Rachel Madow exchange.

A fill-in for Rachel Maddow acknowledged on Friday's show that their transcript was "totally misleading", but said the quote was still "technically correct" and declined to apologize for it. The host also acted like it was just the New York Times that used the misquote, when in fact there were many more media outlets that did, all because of their shady transcript.

Hit the link above and read for yourself.  Truth is liberalism's greatest enemy...

He still expressed some controversial views, but he did not answer "yes" when asked if it was OK to discriminate.  Julian Sanchez breaks it down at CATO.

When Theory and Reality Collide

Well, libertarian hero Rand Paul is off to a rough start.

He was asked his opinion about the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  He gave a nuanced answer based upon property rights theory as understood by libertarian natural law (and our founding fathers).  It resounded badly in the ears of a nation marinated in statist progressivism for the past 100 years, and the hooting loons on the left are having a field day. 

Equating a defense of property rights with racism is the same as calling anti-war people un-American.  It doesn't follow.  Someone can choose to be racist with their property, but all defenders of property rights are not racist. 

Racism and Civil Rights: Theory colliding with reality

The Civil Rights Act gave all people the same rights under our government and its accommodations, an obviously great good.   It also constrained the rights of private property owners to decide who they allow on their property, a fundamental violation of one of the unalienable rights of man, and one more abuse of the commerce clause.

A person has a natural right to do whatever he wants with his property as long as he does no harm to others.  Being a racist and barring certain people from your establishment is mean and un-Christian, but it does not harm those who are barred.  Libertarians argue that it ultimately harms the proprietor because he has narrowed his pool of customers and workers.

However, history shows us that societies can easily continue to discriminate until stopped from doing so by force.  So we have a conundrum.
 
Irony Bites
The 1964 Civil Rights Act satisfies our struggle for equality for all human beings, while also violating our god-given rights. 
 
So, upon applauding the act, I can thereafter only do a poor William F. Buckley imitation and stand athwart government social tinkering and shout "Enough!  No More!"

But the social meddlers march on, and that is the problem.  Allowing a government to violate a fundamental right for a good purpose erodes the bulwark and that particular right is now lost.  How is it OK to condone government violation of rights in one case but condemn it in others?

Ironically, progressives are making a classical, Thomas Carlyle conservative argument
Modern-day progressives want government to regulate private behavior, and private property, for the good of society.  It is a very un-liberal cry for a Hobbesean Leviathan constituted in the Federal Government. 

Here is the problem with that
Conservatives and liberals end up abusing the power of the Leviathan for base partisan purposes when they win control of government, cramming their narrow ideologies down everyone's throats every 4 or 8 years.  It is rule by caprice that disrespects our unalienable rights that the founders sought to protect.

Classical Liberalism (and Libertarianism) Rejects the Leviathan
The philosophers of the enlightenment (Classical Liberals), Locke and Rousseau among them, posited than man's rights are inherent and inviolable because they come from God (or nature, if you prefer).   No earthly power may abridge them.  This was a radical idea, and it is the idea upon which the founding fathers created this nation.

So we are now in a position where private property is declared a "public accommodation" and the state of Colorado can ban smoking in bars and restaurants.  They ignore the power of citizens who don't like the smell of cigarettes to go somewhere else.  Ideas such as banning salt and sugar are toyed with, and this all constitutes a verifiable slippery slope.  Who knows where it will end?

Further Reading:  WSJ - Paul Remarks Have Deep Roots

Amnesty: Letting the Genie out of the Bottle

Give Amnesty, and Muslims Will Want Their "Fair Share"

Bureaucratic sloth and an addiction to cheap labor have created a massive human rights violation right here in the United States of America.

We encourage foreigners to break our immigration laws by promising jobs, social programs unheard of in their own countries, and the jackpot of being able to create their very own US citizens, also known as anchor babies.

My anger is not directed at the illegal immigrant parents who have forcefully created millions of new impoverished citizens.  It is aimed at a negligent federal government and an unscrupulous business community that put the come hither on them.

It further galls me that some who broke into this country now loudly march through our major cities waving the flags of the failed countries they have chosen to abandon. 

WWCMD?  (What Would Cardinal Mahony Do?)
The final galling factor is the community agitation groups, from La Raza and Mecha, and lately the Catholic Church.  Plenty of good criticism has been unleashed from the right, so I won't bore you with more of the same. 

I will only say that there is no legal right to violate internationally-recognized borders, and demanding your government enforce the law does not violate Christian teachings.  It is possible to enforce immigration laws in a humane way that respects the human dignity of those here illegally.

Would Cardinal Mahony defend these illegal aliens if, instead of Catholic, they were noisy Muslims declaring his stained glass windows and crosses were an affront to the Prophet Mohammad?

The Problem With Created Rights
Create a right for all immigrants to come here and stay here, Amnesty, and it will not escape the militant Muslim agitation groups. 

Muslims will demand their fair share.  And trust me, they have the means to bring millions here, and they won't be the good, peaceful Muslims longing to escape the religious tyranny of their native lands.  They will be at best a poor, easily manipulable band of adherents, putty in the hands of the illiberal imams.  At worst, they will be angry in-you-face militants, having been primed on what cowering, politically-correct patsies we are. 

Culture Clash in Babylon
Progressives have bastardized the American dream.  Once it was merely a chance to roll up your sleeves and succeed or fail by the sweat of your brow.

Now, it's a chance to cash in.  Liberal statism has turned our nation into a declining, decadent Babylon; a sagging, multi-teated Astarte where competing interest groups jostle for position as the mother's life slowly dwindles away.

Meanwhile, our legal immigrants watch in horror as their beloved adopted country becomes the dysfunctional pit they came from, with the angry agitation, culture clashes, government favoritism, and social programs that break the state and encourage sloth and corruption.

Real Social Justice
Social justice is protecting the rights of all by refereeing an even playing field.  It is not rigging the game for preferred aggrieved groups and driving the nation deeper in debt playing Robin Hood.

Racial Attacks

Violent racial attacks are occurring... in Alabama?  Arizona?  Whitebread Iowa?  Nope.  In that nut and fruit bowl of diversity, San Francisco.

What are the attacks about?  Angry tea partiers beating and shooting minorities?  Arizona cowboys rounding up Mexicans?  White klansmen and neo-nazi Republicans attacking African Americans?  Nope.

African Americans attacking Asians

Although both groups have suffered discrimination over the decades, the African-American community has been declining here faster than in any other major city, while the Asian-American community has been growing, partly due to immigration.

Now almost one in three San Franciscans is of Asian descent, and many have moved into affordable, historically black neighborhoods. (Breitbart-Attacks on Asians)

Oh, that explains it!

Maxwell emphasized race was not a factor in the attacks—the problem was the violence inflicted on a neighborhood.

Race is not a factor...  That's good.  If it were whites beating up Asians or blacks, I'm sure it would have been, but anyway...

When Asian-Americans moved into black neighborhoods like Mrs. Cheng's, it may have created tensions that were exacerbated by economic stresses and deep language and cultural barriers, experts say.

Imagine if the sentence read, "When Mexicans moved into white neighborhoods like Mrs. Whitebread's, it may have created tensions..."  If the victims had been Muslims, this would be a federal case, and Reverend Sharpton's bullhorn brigade would be inflamed with righteous indignation. 

But it's just a bunch of old Chinese women getting beaten and robbed by poor black kids...  Nothing to see here, move along...

Liberals making excuses for the behavior of minority criminals is a form of racism

Crime is crime, regardless of which government-approved category the perpetrator or victim belong to.  Every group has its superstars and bad apples.  It does no one any good to leave the bad apples in the barrel. 

Melik Kaylan points out that tiptoeing around dysfunctions within a culture does no one any good:

As we laud and empower minority cultures for their vibrancy, when do we (or they) get to point out their shortcomings? Here's what happens: the minority culturati blame their flaws entirely on the dominant culture and get a free pass on the flaws within their own tradition.

How insulting to assume that minorities must be coddled and infantilized with ethnic cheerleading as a substitute for knowledge.

Indeed.  And the way you stop crime is to chase down the criminals and lock them up. I guess that's too simple for the social meddlers on the left.

A Modest Immigration Proposal

1. Federal, local, and municipal police must cooperate with federal immigration authorities in the arrest of illegal immigrants.

2. Illegal immigration is a felony punishable by up to two years in prison.

3. Immigrants who are deported and reenter the country may be imprisoned for up to ten years.

4. Visa violators may be imprisoned for up to six years.

5. Assisting illegal immigrants by citizens is a criminal act.

6. Foreigners deemed detrimental to economic or national interest may be deported without trial or legal recourse.

7. Foreigners who are not physically or mentally healthy may be deported without trial or legal recourse.

8. Foreigners who lack the necessary funds for their or their dependents sustenance may be deported without trial or legal recourse.

Unfortunately, these eight items are not the policy of the Department of Homeland Security Citizenship and Immigration Services... these eight items are currently law not in the United States of America, but in the United States of Mexico.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has the gall to address the Congress of the United States and say that the Arizona law "ignores a reality that can not be erased by decree".

Oh Really?

"the Executive Branch of Federal Government shall have the power to expel from the national territory, without a trial and in an immediate way any foreigner whose presence is considered to be inconvenient."
-Mexican Constitution, Article 33

He called Arizona's law "discriminatory" and warned Mexico would "reject any effort to criminalize migration".

"Every person has a right to enter and leave the Republic... The enforcement of such a right shall be restrained by judicial resolutions on both civil and criminal trials or by administrative authorities managing under the law the immigration procedures and general public health services or dealing with harmful foreign individuals living in the country."
-Mexican Constitution, Article 11.

Calderon also urged Congress to restore the ban on assault weapons, saying easy access to high-powered weapons is contributing to drug related violence along the border.

-Mexican Constitution, Article 33: Foreigners shall not participate in the country's political affairs."

I would venture so far as to say that it is not those dang American firearms but your inept and corrupt government that is contributing to drug related violence along the border. Those weapons are much more readily available to those on this side of the border, and if your reasoning were correct, the problem would be much worse here than south of the Rio Grande.

All I can say to Felipe Calderon is:

¡Vete a la mierda y tambien el burro que te llevó, Pendejo corrupto!

~Finntann~

Today is Draw Muhammad Day

I never really wondered or cared what Muhammad looked like.  I always thought his story was pretty cool but that was the extent of it...

Now, with all the fleckspittle fatwas flying, embassy's burning, Danish pastries boycotted, etc., and all because someone insulted The Religion of Peace, his countenance has become an issue.  The forces of liberty and secular liberalism are fighting back by sponsoring Draw Mohammad Day.

Kandahar Airfield

OK, I guess I always thought he looked like the guy on the right in this picture (the guy on my left).  













Created Controversy
Anyway, Reason Magazine has a great article on the whole global hubub.  The most egregious and insulting of the original cartoons were not created by Islam-hating westerners, but by Islamists themselves.  A kind of self-created "Protocols of Zion" to whip the sweaty hordes into a white hot frenzy.  It worked.

These images were included in a dossier that aggrieved imams livingin Denmark took with them to the Middle East specifically to stokeoutrage at a dozen cartoons published in September 2005 in theDanish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. 

The images include an amateurishdoodle identifying Mohammed as a pedophile, a dog humping aprostrate praying Muslim (with the caption, "This is why Muslimpray five times a day"), and a photocopy of a French comedian in apig-squealing contest (with the phony caption, "Here is the realimage of Mohammed"). 

It is nothing less than amazing that holy mendecrying the desecration of their religion would create such foulimages, but there you have it. It is as if the pope created "PissChrist" and then passed it off as the work of critics ofCatholicism.

We are patsies for allowing 7th century woman-hating troglodytes to drag their petty third-world bigotry and grievances into our lands.  Shame on Europe!  Shame on the United states!  Shame on us all for not having the balls to ship these angry goblins back to the stinking toilets they crawled out of.

Whose Side is God On?  You Decide...

Protesting Reality

The Welfare State is in a Death Spiral, and Liberals Can't Handle the Truth

"The spectacle of government workers, cranky retirees, militant unionists, and mad dog socialists locked arm in arm protesting reality is a sight we'd better get used to."  (Bill Frezza - Our Greek Future)

As Robert Samuelson notes dryly, we are witnessing "the death spiral of the welfare state."  Greece now, with the rest of Europe and the US soon to follow.

Virtually every advanced nation, including the United States, faces the same prospect. Aging populations have been promised huge health and retirement benefits, which countries haven't fully covered with taxes. The reckoning has arrived in Greece, but it awaits most wealthy societies.

Budget deficits and debt are the real problems; and these stem from all the welfare benefits (unemployment insurance, old-age assistance, health insurance) provided by modern governments.

Bill Frezza's snapshots from Greece show the results of a government-heavy, socialized welfare state like Obama and the Democrats want to create here:

Athens is a squat, graffiti covered dump badly in need of a paint job whose population all seemed to be off somewhere taking a nap.

The Greek economy relies heavily on tourism yet there was hardly a hint of a service mentality. Doughy stares and listless shrugs were the order of the day.

Wake up America! How many million unionists are we expected to carry on our public payrolls? How long can we keep government employees on defined-benefit pension plans while the rest of us scramble to fund our 401(k)s?

Richard Blumenthal: From Hero to Zero

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is a POS poseur*.  He falsely claimed to be a Vietnam vet for political gain, and now he's been called on it.

He rounded up some compliant VFW members as a backdrop for his non-apology.  The scene reminded me of the faithful wife standing by her man as he confessed his philandering:  

"On a few occasions, I have misspoken about my service and I regret that. I take full responsibility," he said, surrounded by friendly veterans at a VFW hall in West Hartford. (NY Daily News)

Taking responsibility for his own BS...  How refreshing!

You don't "misspeak" about such topics.  You know if you were there or not.  Honorable veterans know that and are careful to characterize their service so there are no misunderstandings.  It's for this reason I don't harp on about my service in various places.  Yes, I was there, and there was a war on, but I was a comm troop, not a door kicker or out on patrol, and I don't want to give anyone the false idea that I did anything heroic.

The only saving grace for this serial exaggerator is that he has been a rock-solid advocate for veterans, which probably explains the VFW photo op. 

The Connecticut VFW Commander was not too happy about the whole thing:

The commander of Connecticut’s Veterans of Foreign Wars organization blasted Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal Tuesday, referring to his prior statements of service in Vietnam as “outrageous.” 

“Mr. Blumenthal was considered one of the best friends a veteran could have in Connecticut. It is a true shame that he let a false claim of Vietnam service change that,” said Richard DiFederico, in a statement. “Those who served in uniform during the Vietnam era also deserve our gratitude, which makes Mr. Blumenthal's claim to be something he is not so outrageous.” (Politico)

Commander DiFederico makes an important point:  All who served in uniform have earned our gratitude, and Blumenthal has served honorably.  It is a shame he has now dishonored himself by trying to steal the honestly-earned glory of our true war heroes, some of whom never made it home.

He needs to drop the weasel words and give a direct and sincere apology to the true heroes whose glory he attempted to steal.

* - Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive - Go see what he has to say about all this...

All Immigrants are Not Equal

The Times Square Bomber Was a Naturalized Citizen

I have met many Muslims, and I've never had a bad experience with one.  In fact, one of my most favorite supervisors was a Pakistani-descent Lt Colonel in the US Air Force.  The man was very smart and just a great guy to work for. 

I really do believe the vast majority of America's Muslims are are glad to have escaped the horror show that is the Muslim world.  They are doctors and scientist and business owners, and they fight and die in the service of our country.

One example is our newest Miss USA is Rima Fakih, a beautiful young lady of Arabic descent.  She's not just an immigrant, she's an American.  She believes that health insurance coverage should include birth control, and she's in some hot water for some racy photos.  That's not typical for a jihad-loving Muslim, but it is a very American (and unfortunately liberal) phenomenon.

Unfortunately, some of the Muslims we've been allowing in lately would probably cut this young woman's head off if given the chance.

Since 9/11, Muslim hatred of the west has been whipped into a bloody, foamy, fleck-spittle froth.  Intelligence agencies have identified a conveyor belt from the west to Pakistan:  Young men heading east, and returning west as terrorists.   

My simple question is, "Why do continue to allow Muslims to immigrate to our country?"

'A Muslim has no nationality except his belief," the intellectual godfather of the Islamists, Egyptian Sayyid Qutb, wrote decades ago.
Qutb's "children" are everywhere now; they carry the nationalities of foreign lands and plot against them.

The Islamists are now within the gates. They fled the fires and the failures of the Islamic world but brought the ruin with them. They mock national borders and identities. (Fouad Ajami - Islam's Nowhere Men)

Diana West catalogs the stupidity of people like Contessa Brewer and Michael Bloomberg.  They represent the idiotic crowd that hoped against hope that the Times Square bomber was not a Muslim, but rather a disgruntled homeowner who had been forclosed upon, or even better, an angry rightwing tea bagger!  

Welcome to your world, where self-defense is bigotry, and thus worse than death by fireball, ax or vaporizing over the Atlantic.

This is as ridiculous as it is obscene. There is no "bigotry" in understanding jihad as the engine of Islamic supremacism driven by the imperative to spread Islamic law (Shariah).

If our leaders faced facts, you see, they might also have to act. They might have to consider such measures as halting Islamic immigration to stop the demographic spread of Shariah.

In Pakistan, after all, 79 percent of the people, according to a 2007 survey by WorldPublicOpinion.org, favor the "strict application of Shariah." (Diana West - American Interests First)

Simply put, there is an 80% chance that a newly-naturalized citizen from Pakistan wants to bring Sharia to America

And still we allow them to immigrate.  Our government is wishing death upon us.

Here is what a smart government would say: 

To all of you good Middle Easterners and South Asians wanting to come to America, sorry.  We can't sort you out from the bad ones.  Unlike Europe, we used to be able to, but not anymore.  So for the safety of our people and the good of our society, we're banning all of you.   Sort you problems out and maybe one day we can reestablish contact.

Think I'm out of line?   Watch this Breitbart.tv piece featuring David Horowitz facing down a Jew-hating girl in a headscarf.  She may be a citizen, but she's no American.

Another Health Care Bill "Told Ya So!"

CBO:  Health Care Bill Will Cost $115 Billion More Than Previously Assessed

This news comes from the last reporter in America, Jake Tapper, bravely doing the job that the rest of the American press just won't do.

CBO had originally estimated that the health care reform bill would result in a net reduction in federal deficits of $143 billion from 2010-2019; this revised number would eliminate most of that savings.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  Add in "Doc Fix" (paying doctors a decent reimbursement rate) and they've exploded the deficit further.

How many more financial landmines lurk just below the surface?  Democrats have proven themselves irresponsible and unfit for governing.  They are following the European model.  Anybody notice which way the welfare states of Europe are heading?  It ain't up...

Crouching Democrats, Hidden Agenda

The craven, cowardly Democrats will not pass a budget resolution this year. 

With the midterm elections looming and primary results showing voters in a sour mood, Congress will probably forgo laying out tax-and-spending plan for the fifth time in the last 12 years.

Why?  Because they are chickenshits, and doing so would expose their progressive Chicago-style street hustle.  They've paid off a lot of friends these past few years, and they had to borrow from China what they couldn't take from you.  Free-market conservatism and allowing people to manage their own lives as our founders envisioned cost nothing.  Progressivism costs everything. 

The government is projected run $10 trillion in deficits over the next 10 years, with interest payments on the debt forecast to quadruple to more than $900 billion annually. Moody’s Investors Service has said it might eventually cut the government’s bond rating if the fiscal outlook doesn’t improve.

And still they promise us more.  Wasn't Obama care supposed to save money?

Chris Christie:  A Courageous Conservative

Chris Christie, newly-elected governor of New Jersey, shows us the way out of this fiscal hell:

Christie is tackling the nation’s worst state deficit — $10.7 billion of a $29.3 billion budget. In doing so, Christie has become the politician so many Americans crave, one willing to lose his job.

Upon taking office Christie declared a state of emergency, signing an executive order that froze spending, and then, in eight weeks, cutting $13 billion in spending. 
In March he presented to the Legislature his first budget, which cuts 9 percent of spending, including more than $800 million in education funding; seeks to privatize numerous government functions; projects 1,300 layoffs; and caps tax increases. 

Teachers unions are incensed...

Smoke 'em Out!
Now is the time for conservatives to press the attack.  Republicans need to hound these democratic weasels into facing up to the fiscal calamity their collectivism has created.  Time to flush them from their fetid lairs.  Chris Christie is leading the charge, and the cowardly Democrats are on the run.  We need to chase them.

It's the Statism, Stupid!

The whole barracks was in the state of filth and chaos to which the militia reduced every building they occupied and which seems to be one of the by-products of revolution.  (George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia)

Everybody to the right of national embarrassment Jimmy Carter has been smeared and declared out of bounds by propagandists in the media and the craven clot of liberals who eagerly await their daily marching orders.

The left must trash everything in order to advance their twisted progressive agenda

All conservative thinking is a thought crime.

All conservative and libertarian speech emanating from the tea parties is hate speech.

Recent gun rallies produced no violence, but the fevered left insists against all evidence that we are irresponsible and murderous.

Liberal Agitprop:  Have you heard the one about the powerful woman, the homosexual and the black man?


Pelosi and a diverse gang of liberal democrats marched through a tea party crowd in DC, trying their damnedest to provoke a hateful outburst.  A powerful woman, a gay chairman and a black man, oh my!  All they were missing was a Muslim Mufti and and a she-male in a leather thong.

"The banjo playing morons can't resist this bait!" they imagined.

Despite the plethora of cameras trained on this left-wing agitprop, no evidence of hate or racism was produced.  A skittles bowl of patriotic Americans show up at tea parties, but we're still called racist.  The conservative bastion known as the US Military continues to be the nation's preeminent showpiece of racial, gender and cultural egalitarianism, but it is scorned by much of the left.

Meanwhile, angry diaper rash ranters like Randi Rhodes, Keith Olbermann, and Ed Schultz are held up as heroes by the left... 

This is not left versus right.  It is Liberty versus Tyranny
Their aim is to protect and defend a collapsing statist model.  It has steamrollered our liberties for over 100 years and now has us on the brink of bankruptcy.  The collapse is not just financial.  The State suffers an  intellectual and moral rot as well.

Watchdogs or Horndogs? Where's the real greed? A race to the bottom...

Progressives say more government is the remedy.  Oh really?  You mean like the SEC watchdogs who were really porn-surfing horndogs?  How about the government unions angrily demanding more money when 10% of the country is unemployed?  A teacher's union that has driven our kids' academic performance to third-world toilet status?  That kind of government? 
 
Danger!  People are waking up and talking about the constitution!

Have you noticed something?  We talk about the constitution, the founders, first principles.

The statists and their patsies on the left talk about racism, hate, and what morons we are.

See the difference?  We want a debate.  They smear us to avoid the debate because they cannot win.  They don't have the intellectual firepower.  They have deconstructionism, angry grievances, Plouffian propaganda, and Sunstein's buggerish nudgery. 

We have The Founding Fathers, natural law, free market capitalism and the US Constitution on our side.  It's no contest.  No wonder they smear and scream.  They cannot win the debate, so they try to shut it down.  Like all bullies who hijack the state to impose their will on the masses, at their core they are cowards.

They have reduced themselves and everything they've touched to a state of filth and chaos.  It's a natural by-product of the progressive revolution.

Dennis Prager Breaks Down Lefist Tactics

Dennis Prager is a wise man and a gifted teacher. He explains why the left continues to scream that the tea party is rich, white, hateful and racist. This is a brilliant analysis of how propaganda works, and it is a scary descent in to the dark, tangled mind of the left:

Opponents of ... the tea parties regularly note that tea partiers are overwhelmingly white. This is intended to disqualify the tea parties from serious moral consideration.

But there are two other facts that are far more troubling:

The first is the observation itself. The fact that the Left believes that the preponderance of whites among tea partiers invalidates the tea party movement tells us much more about the Left than it does about the tea partiers.

It confirms that the Left really does see the world through the prism of race, gender and class rather than through the moral prism of right and wrong.

 One would hope that all people would assess ideas by their moral rightness or wrongness, not by the race, gender or class of those who hold them. But in the world of the Left, people are taught not to assess ideas but to identify the race, class and gender of those who espouse those ideas. 

 Name Calling to Avoid a Debate

This helps explain the widespread use of ad hominem attacks by the Left: Rather than argue against their opponents' ideas, the Left usually dismisses those making the argument disagreed with as "racist," "intolerant," "bigoted," "sexist," "homophobic" and/or "xenophobic."

You're against race-based affirmative action? No need to argue the issue because you're a racist. You're a tea partier against ever-expanding government? No need to argue the issue because you're a racist.

It's not about ideas with progressives--it's about shouting us down because we are a danger to their money-gobbling, freedom-stealing schemes.

Go read the whole article here:  Dennis Prager

Fretless Acoustic Bass, Way Cool!

I picked up a fretless acoustic base at a pawn shop for way cheap! 
Granted, it's an Applause (el cheapo Ovation), but it's got a great sound and feel to it as well as having integrated pickups.  I went and read up on it at internet sites, and all the reviewers seemed pleasantly surprised by it, which made me feel better since this was a spur of the moment thing and I'm not a bass expert.

At most guitar places here in town you have to special order one of these things and you're going to pay over $700.  I love acoustic instruments, so I couldn't resist when I saw it.  I play fiddle, so the fretless thing doesn't scare me.  Cheater dots on the neck help you hit the notes.  I don't sound too bad, although Sonny Boy Silverfiddle does much better than the old man.

I was especially surprised to find a full 34" long scale model.  All the info on the internet mentions only a short scale version (maybe I've got a collector's item???)

Anyway, I'm jazzed (Grunge rocked?).  It's the simple pleasures that bring the most joy...

Left Wing Hate and Anger

It's a collectivist fit of psychological projection:  The enraged, hateful left who sorts everyone by race and gender, is accusing conservatives of being hate-mongering racists.

Their rage has blinded them to reason.  Check this out from the Washington Post:

As several states with active "tea party" groups prepare to hold important primary elections this month, the movement is struggling to overcome accusations of racism that are tinting perceptions of this loose network of conservatives. 

These authors are not journalists; they are propagandists shaping the debate for the progressive cause.  

This is an old trick:  Level a baseless charge, then force the accused to prove a negative.  How do you prove you're not a racist?  Goebbels would be proud of such demagoguery. The burden falls upon those leveling the accusations, as anyone following the Obama "birther" issue should be well aware of.   

More correctly stated...

A delusional and noisy rabble of hopium smoking liberals are struggling to paint conservatives as racist.  Angrily they march on, undeterred by facts and reality. 

For an excellent example of hate on the left, Go Here and read what they want to do to Dick Cheney

Reason.tv sums it all up so excellently.  You'll love this montage of unhinged lefty nutbags shouting their BS into the echo chamber.  Fortunately, it is contained, like the human hazmat spill it is, on the basement-rated MSNBC.

America's HisPanic Attack

We are conflicted about illegal immigration

Americans back Arizona's Immigration Law

But, 

Americans who want secure borders also express sympathy for illegal immigrants

Two-thirds of Americans want the government to do a better job of securing the borders, but they are sympathetic to illegal immigrants who have been working hard and staying out of trouble, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

Eight in 10 Americans are concerned that illegal immigrants burden schools, hospitals and other government services, and 77% worry that they drive down wages, the poll finds.

Yet 77% are concerned that stricter laws would mean illegal immigrants and their families who have lived productively in the USA for years would be forced to leave.

I cite these recent articles because I am just as conflicted as everyone else.  I hate the lawlessness of illegal immigration, but I also sympathize with people who come here to make a better life for themselves and their families.

Latinos are Like Us

Some may feel threatened by the Latino invasion, but I'm telling you that we have nothing to fear.  I have spent years living in Latin America, as well as down on the border.  Latinos are wonderful people, and the 10-20 million illegal ones that are here are not an existential threat to this nation or even our culture.

Our differences are slight (we share Christianity, democracy and entrepreneurial capitalism), especially when compared to the Islamic nightmare Europe is going through.  God has thankfully saved us from that.

Texans know it.  The entire state, and San Antonio in particular, is a testament to how Hispanics not living in the shadows contribute greatly to our nation and our culture.  That great state has produced many of our nation's heroes, Medal of Honor recipient Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez being one of the most decorated   

Criminal Cooks and Carpenters
Yes, they broke in, but the burglary analogy is inapt.  How may burglars cook your food, do your laundry and take care of your kids?  We must not overlook the lawbreaking aspect of all of this, but also need to keep it all in context.  Official US policy and our collective greed are also contributing factors.

Reason.tv provides a characteristically balanced view of May Day demonstrations in LA.  Note that the most reasoned and nuanced comments are from Latinos...



We're going to have to solve this problem, and it's too important to be left to the bullhorn shouters and the politicians who got us here in the first place.

No Apologies

Cinco de Mayo culture clashes are a sad result of letting angry, America-hating leftists indoctrinate our immigrants into a culture of nursed grievances and passive-aggressive agitprop. 

Instead of assimilating them into America's melting pot, fringe elements are recruiting them as foot soldiers of international progressivism, with the help of guilty multiculturist handmaidens who infest our public institutions.

High School students who were kicked off campus for wearing American flag apparel on Cinco de Mayo, have flatly refused to apologize.  Good for them.  

"I think they should apologize cause it is a Mexican Heritage Day," Annicia Nunez, a Live Oak High student, said. "We don't deserve to be get disrespected like that. We wouldn't do that on Fourth of July."

As for an apology, the boys and their families say, 'fat chance.' (NBC-Bay Area)

The "aggrieved" little self-entitlement girls and boys need to get over it.  (and their ignorance is stunning:  Of our constitutional rights, as well as their ignorance of what Cinco de Mayo really is)  Somebody needs to inform this little girl that this is America, not some third world hell-hole where people riot and kill one another over being "disrespected."

The American flag and other patriotic symbols are NEVER out of place anywhere in the United States of America.  Got it, little girly?  And we are damned tolerant of chintzy third-world trinkets and paraphernalia here as well, so get over it. 

The Political Correctness Guilt Trip Ain't Workin' Anymore
Tom Bevan at RCP says it way better than me, and puts this in broader context.  We are fed up with this PC crap!  Every time some "oppressed minority*" is "offended*" we are supposed to bow down in hushed, repentant silence .

The fact is, Americans are increasingly fed up with the racially divisive, politically correct insanity pulsating through the country today. After years of being pressured and browbeaten by the left-wing PC police about what they can say, do, think, and wear, many Americans have had enough. And they're especially furious with being asked to apologize for things that aren't or shouldn't be in the least bit offensive.

Call me racist, jingoistic, I don't care.  This is America, I am proud of my country, and if some are offended by American patriotism they can go to hell, or better yet, go back to the primitive toilet they crawled out of.

* - We have no oppressed minorities in this country.  The credentialed professions and the halls of power are sprinkled liberally with a rainbow of diversity, and rightly so.  No one race, creed, color or gender is superior to another, and we recognize that here in America, which is unique among the countries of the world.

* - There is no right to not be offended in America.  Just ask Christians who have had their holy symbols dunked in urine and sculpted in elephant dung, all to great applause from the liberal cognoscenti and the press.

Here's a good editorial on the subject

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is My New Hero

Smart-Ass in Chief
Barack Obama is the rudest, most sarcastic president in this country's history.  He routinely calls out fellow Americans for ridicule and opprobrium, all for narrow partisan purposes.  They used to criticize George Bush for that, but at least he was calling out foreigners...

Governor Jan Brewer is jamming it right back in his smirking, smart-ass punk face.  Good for her.  This is how you fight the Progressive Chicago Syndicate, America.





This is How to Defeat the Progressive Scourge

Regardless of what you think of the Arizona law, at least Governor Brewer and the state legislature took action, while this and previous administrations sat on their hands.

We keep hearing talk of a superhighway from Mexico to the US.  Well, we have one and it's called Arizona.  Only it's a conduit for drug smuggling and human trafficking, not cheap lawn chairs headed for Wal Mart.

All this callow metrosexual can think to do is to marginalize Arizonans by ridicule.  All he's really done is demean the office of the presidency.

Founding Mothers

"Motherhood itself has become a political act," says Ms. Loesch. "And the tea parties are an extension of our need as moms to protect the future for our children."

Moms power the Tea Party movement!

Michael Graham explains in his WSJ Article, Moms to the Barracades:

Forget "angry white men." In the male-dominated world of conservative politics, the tea party stands out as a movement of energized and organized women. In particular, moms.

In fact, a recent Quinnipiac poll of voters found a majority of tea party supporters—55%—are women. To put that in perspective, only 48% of women voted for George W. Bush in 2004. And just two years ago, President Obama won 56% of the female vote.

When I asked Christen Varley, the Boston tea party leader, she said it's because moms tend to be "the CEO's of our households. We do the shopping, bill paying, budgeting, etc. We know less money means less freedom. Maybe if the president and Congress did the grocery shopping, they'd know why we're mad."

Remember back in the old days when the brave, dangerous, and free-thinking women were on the left?  Well, not anymore.  Politics will never be the same...

Rock on sisters!  And Happy Mothers Day!


* - Pictures from Urban Grounds

Hooteries and Bill Maher Madness

A quick quiz to see how well you pay attention to the news

The Hooteries (you know, that rightwing white racist domestic terrorist group) are soooo dangerous, and such a threat to the United States of America, that:

a) President Obama is launching drones over Michigan, and threatening to declare war on the Upper Peninsula

b) Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered them held indefinitely

c) A federal judge has ordered them released, while scolding the government for its tissue-thin case.

If you guessed C, you're right!  Can anybody say "politically motivated?"  Obama can't find any right wing domestic terrorists, so he invented some by wire tapping a group smack-talking nutballs.


Here's your prize:  See what happens when Bill Maher tries sit at the big peoples' table.  
He's not so witty when he has to actually interact with thinking people:



Go read all about it at Big Journalism!

Trouble in Bloggie Land

I've learned a few things in my ramblings across Blogistan.  These lessons apply equally to everyone: left, right, anarcho-libertarian, royalist, whatever.


Tis easier to give offense than receive.
We all talk smack among ourselves and engage in gross generalizations of whole groups of people (Obama voters are leftists, tea partiers are racists, etc.)  Many who engage in this resent it when they are so lumped.  They shouldn't.  Imagine how stilted the writing would be if it were pockmarked with copious qualifiers, exceptions, and exclusionary clauses.  You'd never get your point across and no one would want to read it.


It's a blog, not a doctoral thesis.
Hyperbole, metaphor and other rhetorical devices are what make writing and reading fun.  There's a lot of over-the-top stuff out there, but I tend to grant blog authors pretty wide latitude before I consider a post the equivalent of crying fire in a crowded theater.  References are always good, but if you find yourself pasting in Rachel Madcow and Keith Olberboob videos every day, you may want to expand your horizons...

Everything is not a personal attack.
Lampooning and name-calling in a blog post is not exactly ad hominem, and it often serves a higher purpose.  Again, I grant a blog author lots of room to get her point across.  Saying "The socialists in the Democratic party," or "those moronic tea partiers" is not a direct insult to you, so get over it!  Now, if the author is just slinging that stuff around with absolutely nothing other than MSNBC to back it up, then he is the real moron. 

Don't say anything you would not say to the person's face
Calling someone in a thread a name is impolite, and things do get pretty ugly out there.  My personal rule is that I wouldn't say anything that I'm not willing to say to his face.

Words get abused and curmudgeonly purists need to just get over it.  Nazi, Communist, Racist, and Fascist are the Big Four.  Each word symbolizes a horrible chapter in human history.  Screaming these words at everyone you disagree with is the equivalent of the boy who cried wolf.  It removes the sting from the words by overuse and diminishes the bloody history they represent.  Unfortunately, I only see this lexical abuse increasing.

Blogs are comfy clubhouses for like-minded people.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  Trolling is in the eye of the beholder.  It's all subjective, and the blog owner is lord of the castle.  If you don't like it, start your own petty fiefdom!

Attempts to "reach out" are Quixotic at best, naive at worst.  Guilty as charged.

Friends Don't Let Friends Be Kooks

KOOK ALERT!  KOOK ALERT!  RIGHTWING WACKADOO KOOK ALERT!*

Left Coast Rebel reported on an unverified story that Obama has ordered the US Army to prepare for TEA Party terrorists.  To his credit, he reported it as an unverified (and weird) rumor, and included comments from active duty soldiers saying it was BS since nobody in the Army likes Obama anyway.

Finntann sent me an e-mail on the same subject, asking in a WTF tone if I'd seen anything about it.  We quickly concluded it was bogus.  Because of their skepticism, Left Coast Rebel and Finntann are not kooks. 

It at least sounded somewhat plausible in light of Obama sending in the riot troops after grannies gathered outside one of his demagogic shoutfests.

Or maybe he didn't.



After reviewing the video footage at big government and correlating it with what WaPo says, looks more like an overzealous small town police force having fun with their Darth Vader costumes.

This is the small town America version of a Monty Python skit
That was a town where the mayor could have came out and personally asked people to stay on the sidewalk and they would have done it out of politeness.  I was waiting for Aunt Mabel to come out of the crowd and jerk the helmet off of her nephew:  "Now Delbert!  You stop scaring these good folks!" As she drags one of the cops off the street by his ear.

Damn, if this crap is leaching into the sane sectors of Blogistan, things are getting out of hand!

Please ignore this crap.  If you want to search around, e-mail buddies and do some research, by all means press on.  But please don't post this crap, and I keep calling it crap because that's what it is:  Crap.

By posting crap like this you are polluting Right Blogistan and causing us to be a laughing stock of the hooting baboons who inhabit Left Blogistan.


* - With all apologies to blogger buddy Kook, who is not really a kook, but the Keeper Of Odd Knowledge.