Archive for October, 2009
AIP Column: The Mind Of A Socialist, The Heart Of Compassion
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009If socialism is state-sponsored compassion, what is conservatism? In the binary political world, the default is that a small-government mindset is cruel. This political duality was turned on its ear by George W. Bush’s campaigning and governing as a “compassionate conservative.” A compassionate conservative, it turns out, buys into the liberal’s criticism. Compassion meant the government “helping”. Compassion meant giving the American taxpayer’s money to the needy all over the world. Compassion meant going into debt in order to feel good.
The premise stinks to high heaven.
There is much more, I hope you’ll go read it and come back and comment here. I think that compassion is misused and abused by the liberals. Conservatism is compassionate. By definition.
Reforming A Spork-Wielding Six Year Old
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009Think the public schools are just fine? I beg to differ. Have you heard about this via Boing Boing:
Zachary Christie is a six-year old student in Newark, Delaware who is facing 45 days in reform school because he brought his new Cub Scout eating utensil to school for lunch. The utensil includes a knife, and this violates the school’s
brainlessly, robotically enforcedzero-tolerance policy on “weapons on school property.”
Jimmie Bise and Tabitha Hale join me to discuss this stupidity. You might be surprised at their ideas. We also talk about how this relates to socialism….because it does.
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Listen and get hooked. Best stuff on podcasts!
Podcast: Final Americans For Prosperity, Defending The American Dream Summit Installment With Mark Kelly of the Heritage Foundation and Erik Telford of AFP
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009Activists, do you wonder where to go from here? Mark Kelly and Erik Telford explain how the movement is growing and developing. They also share the resources their organizations have for you.
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Podcast: More From AFP Including Phelim McAleer of Not Evil Just Wrong, Breast Cancer Survivor, Anti-Health Care Plan Activist & Mom Tracy Walsh, and The Great Ed Morrissey
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009These conversations were like three gems. I encourage you to listen.
For you bloggers and conservative new media types, Ed has some interesting insights into our role in the political and news process. Well, worth a listen.
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Helping Republicans Help Themselves
Monday, October 12th, 2009After Obama and the Democrats swept the Republicans out of office it became clear that Republican leaders got one message and everyone else got another message. The Tea Party movement was not borne of Democrat failure.
I will say that again: The Tea Party movement was not borne of Democrat failure.
The Tea Party movement was borne of Republican failure and consequently, the fear of Democrat success.
While the Republicans ruled (and they did rule as imperious potentates), they expanded the size and scope of the government. They used the taxpayer as their personal checkbook. They disrespected and ignored their constituents. They manipulated the President financial during a time of war. It was an unholy alliance.
As frustration built, the Tea Partiers saw the press give Barack Obama a free pass. Unquestioned and never challenged, he sailed through his pre-election campaigning. His associations with communists, anarchists, criminals, etc. were deemed irrelevant.
Many Americans bought President Obama’s speech. He talked of responsibility. He talked of restraint. He was reasonable.
Where do Americans now turn?
I’ve been saying for a while that the way back to the promised land is not through a third party. It’s not through hoping the Republicans will get it. It’s through taking back the Republican party.
Erick Erickson of Redstate says this:
Erick Erickson, founder and editor of the influential conservative blog RedState, has urged Tea Party activists to “put down the protest signs” and stage takeovers of local Republican parties.
“Grassroots activists need to start infiltrating the party,” said Erickson. “The only way to start getting [the establishment] back is to start pounding them with every fist we have.”
Activists need to help Republicans save themselves. The word Republican is nearly meaningless as it has no contrast with Democrats. When people get involved and transform the party from within, real change will happen.
I Get Emails: 4 Reasons Why Conspiracy Theories Don’t Pan Out
Friday, October 9th, 2009While I was at the Defending the American Dream Summit, I received the following email that yes, you’re reading it right, is making serious reference to alien reptiles running the planet:
Subject: David Icke
Alright mate
My names Andy. Dont get me wrong i have nothing against you and your entitled to your opinion but have you really put in the hours checking out the conspiracy and Ickes views on it? I know you’ve done some research because you pulled out those extracts from various books, but if you take the time to check out the whole thing, it actually makes a lot of sense.
I know the reptilians sounds a bit far out, but thats not the place to start looking into this whole thing, you really need to start now, in the modern world, in order to look at the history, i know that sounds a bit mad.
Im not expecting you to listen to me because your views are clear reading your article, and im not trying to start an argument or anything im just interested in why you have such negative views on this. Dont start with the reptilians, start with the new world order, our governments f*cking us over, 9/11, the illuminati, and so on. You would be very surprised.
Anyway thanks a lot, take it easy.
Andy
Let me answer this seriously — well, as seriously as I can in an email mentioning a potpourri of wacky conspiracy theories.
First off, I tend to be extremely skeptical of conspiracy theories simply because, objectively, almost none of them ever pan out. Setting that aside, there are certain things I’ve learned about people in my life that make these conspiracy theories unlikely:
* I literally talk and chat with people who have genius level IQs on a daily basis and you know what? They’re very smart, but they’re not as smart as some people might think they are. There are no “Batman super villain” type geniuses out there who can think 5 steps ahead of everyone else. It just doesn’t work like that.
* Do you seriously believe that the same guys who can’t even run Cash-for-Clunkers can turn right around and execute a brilliant conspiracy theory? Government is just too slow, stupid, and incompetent to genuinely pull off a major conspiracy.
* Having talked to a number of members of Congress, both on and off the record, I can tell you that these guys tend to have huge egos. They’re not letting the Illumimati, the ZOG, the New World Order or any other outside group order them around.
* Keeping secrets is extraordinarily difficult. Look at all the information that leaked out during the Bush years. Moreover, think back to Abu Ghraib where the soldiers involved were so dumb that they took pictures of themselves breaking the law and then let those pics slip out.
Put it all together and it’s nearly impossible for a conspiracy theory to pan out.
What Exactly Did Barack Obama Do To Win A Nobel Peace Prize?
Friday, October 9th, 2009At about 5:15 AM this morning, I was still awake, paying my dues on all three of my blogs. Suddenly, the phone rang. It was my friend Cara Ellison, who knew I was up, phoning me so that she could alert me that Barack Obama had just won a Nobel Peace Prize.
It was puzzling news.
“He won a Nobel Peace Prize?” I asked Cara, “How? For what? What did he do?” She replied, “I don’t know.”
So immediately, I did a search and here’s the info from CNN,
President Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
Less than nine months into his presidency, Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
The first African-American to win the White House, Obama was praised by the Norweigan Nobel Committee for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the committee said. “His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.”
The committee also said Obama has “created a new climate in international politics.”
Uh, what? After reading that, I’m still scratching my noggin trying to figure out what makes Barack Obama deserving of this honor. He won a Nobel Peace Prize for, “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”? Is what you call doing speeches across Europe talking about how wonderful you are while you put down your own country?
Even Jimmy Carter, who was a fairly pathetic recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, once played a big role in engineering a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. In Obama’s case, his efforts on the international stage have amounted to zilch. There are simply no accomplishments whatsoever to point at.
Of course, after terrorists like Yasser Arafat and frauds like Al Gore have won the award, we should be happy that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad isn’t being given a Nobel Peace Prize for Holocaust Denial. Compared to that, even Barack Obama basically being given the award for existing isn’t so bad.
A Teleconference With Joe Wilson
Thursday, October 8th, 2009I was a touch late and missed the beginning of Joe Wilson’s opening statement and unfortunately, coming in during the middle of it, I had a bit of trouble following it. Usually in that sort of situation, I don’t write up the teleconference. However, the Q&A session was so good, I thought it merited a post. What follows are my notes, not quotes, the questions posed to Joe Wilson and his answers:
There is a high level of unemployment and homelessness with our troops returning from overseas. What do we do about it?
I have two sons who’ve fought in Iraq, so this is an important issue to me. We do have screening for post-traumatic stress disorder and soldiers can get help that way. There are also organizations that work on it.
How long have you known about the new nuclear site in Iran?
It was top secret, so we couldn’t say, but yes, we’ve known about it for a while. We saw them clear the land, build it, and then try to disguise it as a parking lot.
There are extremists in Iran and they believe that if there is a nuclear exchange, that’s good because it would guarantee the return of the 12th Imam. That’s who runs Iran.
The good news is that Iran is theocratic and authoritarian, but it’s not a closed state. The young people can get information from outside. I’ve been to North Korea. They don’t have any cell phones or computers. The favorite country on earth of young people in Iran is the United States. So, we can make a difference.
Where is our foreign policy in Iran going?
Barack Obama knows Iran is developing on full pace to develop nuclear weapons. They have missiles that can reach Greece and India. They can vaporize Tel Aviv. They can hit American bases throughout the region. This is a terrorist supporting country that has provided weapons to kill Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran has done all they can to destabilize Iraq. They have tried to destabilize Lebanon. They’ve aided Hamas in their terrorism. Barack Obama has been very naive in dealing with them.
Like a zillion follow-up questions from the same person which went on until I noted that I’d like to ask a question as well: What’s going on in Russia? Why did we ditch the Eastern Democracies to cooperate with Russia on missile defense? What is going on with our foreign policy?
Obama has betrayed Poland & the Czech Republic. He’s put our allies at risk all over the world with his short sighted policies. The disconnect is: why are our enemies rejoicing? Why are our allies and the American people concerned? That suggests there is something very wrong with how Obama is conducting his foreign policy. Hugo Chavez is praising our President. Gaddaffi is praising our President at the UN. Mark Levin said it looked like a Conga line of nutjobs was appearing before the United Nations.
The signs are very clear from Iran. When they say death to America or death to Israel, that’s exactly what they mean. We have had meetings with Iran and we’ve gotten nowhere. When we have talked 1-on-1 with North Korea, the meetings all concern how much money, food, and things we are going to give Kim Jong-Il. That’s why Bush wanted six party talks.
I’ve been to Russia a number of times and have even lectured on Democracy there. I think there is a bright future for the people in Russia, but not the government in Russia. If they come to understand the rule of law by meeting people around the world, it will help them. Russia is at risk here, too. Russia should know that Iran can be dangerous to them, too. The Iranians have connections to Chechnya.
(Question from me) The situation in Afghanistan seems dire. McChrystal is saying we need more troops to win. Michael Yon, who’s an outstanding battlefield reporter, is saying we are in dangerous of losing and that it will be extremely difficult to win. The President seems to be refusing to make a decision. Thoughts on that?
I am going to be consistent. In Iraq, I said we should listen to military advisors. I think we need to do the same in Afghanistan. Obama was saying that it was important to win there just last August. I don’t understand Obama’s equivocation since this was his policy.
I do understand it takes time. The people in Afghanistan have an average income of $350. There was one paved road in the country when we got there. I have confidence in Hamid Karzai. These people really do want to develop a civil society and a good relationship with the United States. Moreover, stability in Afghanistan is vitally important to the stability of Pakistan.
Summary: Joe Wilson is not a charismatic speaker per se and he occasionally has a roundabout way of saying things, but you get the feeling he knows EXACTLY what he’s talking about on foreign policy. He’s a vet, who has sons who serve. He has made a lot of overseas trips. He has a tremendous command of facts and details about these nations — there is just a lot of gravitas there. And he says Obama’s making terrible mistakes in his foreign policy decisions. I think he’s right.
I’d Prefer Unretouched Photos Of Women
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
This image has spurred yet another debate about touching up photos of women.
In recent years an ongoing debate has brewed over advertisers and fashion magazines using photographs, particularly photographs of women, that have seemingly been altered, or “retouched,” by airbrushing and photo editing software such as Photoshop. The latest such image to cause an uproar is one featured in a new Ralph Lauren advertisement that shows a model, Filippa Hamilton, so emaciated that her waist actually appears to be smaller than her head.
…On September 29th, Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin posted the ad, which originally appeared on a blog dedicated to pointing out suspected retouched images called Photoshop Disasters, with the comment, “Dude, her head’s bigger than her pelvis.” Ralph Lauren responded by filing a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaint against Boing Boing and Photoshop Disasters, claiming that their use of the image was a copyright infringement that fell outside of the Fair Use laws which allow the media to reproduce creative content for the purposes of commentary and criticism.
…Another website to garner attention for its dedication to exposing photo retouching offenses is Jezebel.com. Speaking on the subject of retouching, Jezebel editor-in-chief Anna Holmes told Yahoo!, “I don’t see any point in retouching anymore … The cat’s out of the bag.” She added, “I think Americans in particular are sick of having the wool pulled over their eyes … even if it’s regarding fashion models and actresses. The more they do this sort of retouching — and then try to justify it, as the editor of SELF magazine recently did — the less anyone believes anything else they have to say, or show. They are, in a sense, digging their own (shallow) graves.”
Retouching has been taken to such an extent that it’s unhealthy for our society. This kind of retouching gives men an unrealistic standard of what to expect from a woman even as it gives women, who care a great deal about their looks, an impossible standard of perfection that they’re expected to work towards.
It’s one thing to correct red eye or edit out a pimple, but what does it say about us that we have to take the most beautiful women on earth and photoshop them to make them presentable for a magazine cover? Very little good, I think.
Chaos At The Daily Kos Over Afghanistan
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009A reader who wishes to remain anonymous tipped me off to a fascinating thread over at the Daily Kos that echoes the utter confusion of the Left on Afghanistan.
You see, despite all the caterwauling about foreign policy that we heard from the Left during the Bush years, it’s still ultimately little more than a political football to them. So now, the aimless indecision of the White House has drifted down to the activist level. And no wonder:
* During the campaign, Barack Obama “made it clear” that winning in Afghanistan was vitally important. Now, he seems much more indifferent.
* Liberals told everyone who would listen that we were wasting resources in Iraq that could better be used in Afghanistan. But, now that resources have been freed up, Obama’s hedging on sending them even though the generals say they need them to win the war.
* The poll numbers on Afghanistan seem roughly split at the moment, but that may be misleading. Whatever else may be said about Bush, he was a dogged man. He would have stayed as long as necessary and done whatever it took to win in Afghanistan, no matter what the political fallout turned out to be. If we lose in Afghanistan, how is Barack Obama, who has zero “tough guy” credibility with the public, going to look? How would the American people react to losing a war because of the personal weakness and political machinations of the man in the White House?
With all that in mind, comes a Daily Kos ad page for an anti-war show called, “Obama’s war.”
Here’s the initial post about it:
Getting online today the first thing I notice was the DKOS background and the words ‘Obama’s war’.
WTF? I beg to differ, but this is NOT Obama’s war. This is Bush’s war, plain and simple. One thing we do NOT need to be doing at this juncture is feeding into the right wing meme that this is Obama’s war. Obama is trying to clean up the mess started by Bush and his cronies at Halliburton.
I know that Obama is trying to wind this quagmire down, but that does NOT make it ‘his war’. It must suck being the only adult in the room for him, but that’s the job he applied for, and he is doing the best at it humanly possible.
I see those around here giving Obama down the road all the time, and that’s fine by me. But this ‘Obama’s War’ crap is going too far, and simply parroting FoxNews talking points.
So please, people. Let’s stay level headed about this.
This is NOT OBAMA’S WAR.
Dammit.
Because Obama is not sending a clear signal about which way he is going to go (the Left is actually much more authoritarian and centralized in thinking than the Right), the responses to this are all over the map.
Well, then it is an … (1+ / 0-)
… American war, at least until we can get out, which means that “Obama’s War” is an incorrect appellation. Thanks for proving that for the diarist.People can demand that troops be pulled out and not put in, and they can be careful about what they call it. But, if they want to voice their right to call it “Obama’s War,” then I can call them clueless. That’s my right.
“Obama, Obama, I love ya, Obama; you’re only November away” — cute ginger kid
by Tortmaster
You can call (1+ / 0-)
it any kind of war ya want.I sure don’t have a problem with calling it Obama’s war, since he’s the CinC, and he’s ramped it up there.
If you want to speak to the current administration, who do you go to?
by Hound Dog
Thank you (4+ / 0-)
I don’t care if it’s an ad or not, and it matters little what the overall intent is–either on the part of the site or the show itself.But this is exactly the message it sends–that it’s “Obama’s War”, and it also makes it look like it’s something the site supports.
Disgusting. If I was really full of myself, I’d go GBCW and get lost. But nobody really knows me from adam around here anyway, so I think I’ll just get lost. This has absolutely, thoroughly disgusted me.
Necessity is the mother of revolution…
by o the umanity
Most Americans (7+ / 0-)
did support the invasion of Afghanistan. (I was not one of them). And while I agree that the execution and decision for the war was Bush’s, he no longer has power. It is Obama’s war now. Just as Viet Nam became Nixon’s war as opposed to Johnson’s – those of us who voted for Obama did so hoping he’d apply sanity to the situation – and we are not terribly comfortable with the statements coming from his White House on this nor the actions.More drones? More civilian deaths? That’s not going to resolve this situation.
by KibbutzAmiad
Actually, Afghanistan is an American war. However, Barack Obama is the Commander-In-Chief and therefore, he’s the one ultimately responsible for winning it.
Moreover, the fact that Barack Obama is starting to take political considerations into account in fighting the war in Afghanistan may not be surprising, but it is alarming. When his generals are telling him that they need more troops to win and he’s hemming and hawing while his political handlers pour over polling data, it’s disturbing. This is a time for leadership, not a time for “voting present.”
As long as Barack Obama is doing the best he can to win in Afghanistan, Barack Obama deserves conservative support for that part of his agenda. But, if he ultimately chooses to waffle on doing what it takes to achieve victory, he should be forewarned that the criticism will be merciless and savage.
John Hawkins blogs at Linkiest, among other blogs, and is happy to have been given the opportunity to help fill in for Dr. Melissa Clouthier.
