Saturday, June 09, 2007

Heh - two follow-ups


First another Ramirez gem:




Secondly, this quote from some Progressive Loon/Edwards-Lover over at Kos suggests how far from comprehension the Left really is:
"The best way to reduce terrorism

as was so eloquently stated here by another poster who I don't recall....

Stop being a dick to the rest of the world.

The "terrorists" don't hate us because we're free or rich or white or because we drive nice cars or have nice houses or any other bullshit right wing talking points.

They hate us because of what we do around the world.

If America stops being a dick to much of the third world, very few people would be willing to strap on a bomb and blow themselves up in hopes of taking a few of us with them."


So far from the truth as to be comic if ignorance were not so dangerous.

Some Thoughts on John Edwards

It's not hard for me to be disappointed with the majority of the 18 Democrats and Republicans running for President right now. Democrats are hardly paying attention to some of their more thoughtful contenders (Joe Biden); Barack Obama's rhetorical gift is wasted, much as Churchill's would have been if it hadn't been paired with his clear-eyed understanding of the world and history, something Obama obviously lacks. On the right side of the aisle, I'm hard-pressed to be enthused about anyone - especially since many (the majority?) eschew science in favor of creationism - though for what it's worth that does align them with the majority of Americans.

But of everyone running, there is no one I despise as much as John Edwards. He's a smarmy shill, made rich off of frivolous lawsuits, boldly hypocritical and regularly espousing dangerous and/or stupid policies. No wonder the Left fawns all over him.

Let's begin with the hypocritical. For a man whose spent years harping on his ridiculous "Two Americas" theme, he's certainly done a fine job of exemplifying it. He is the anti-poverty crusader who famously paid $400 for a haircut and owns the largest house in Wake County, North Carolina. He is the anti-corporate activist who spent time working for a hedge fund; his excuse of "research" is as pathetic as they come. Why Leftists continue to willingly overlook all of these follies is confounding, until you look at his policies.

His platform kowtows to environmentalists and to the Democratic strawman of a struggling middle class, among other things. Though he's understandably vague, one cannot read his policies without suspecting that his economic program would be simple: raise taxes. But it's on our national struggle against Islamo-fascism that his rhetoric becomes truly dangerous.

Edwards recently dismissed the War on Terror as a mere "bumper sticker," showing that he is either naively unaware - or willfully ignorant - of the nature of our enemy. His recently released plan for fighting terrorism comprises six major planks:

  • Rebalance our force structure for the challenges of the new century
  • Ensure our intelligence strategy adheres to proven and effective methods
  • Hold regular meetings with top military leadership
  • Create a "Marshall Corps" to stabilize weak and failing states
  • Rebuild equipment
  • Create a National Security Budget

The first of these is the usual Democratic argument that our troops are returning to Iraq with insufficient time home, and presumably that we're ill-equipped for our current mission. Never mind, of course, that our soldiers in World War II rarely got off the line at all, let alone a year home. And if our army is not the force we need for counter-insurgency and nation-building, much of the blame for that can be laid squarely on the shoulders of the Clinton Administration. The nature of our War on Terror, which began far before 9/11, should have been clear to them; they failed, however, to respond accordingly.

His second is, if possible, even more extreme, ridiculously claiming that we cannot do anything that might "give terrorists, or even other nations, an excuse to abandon international law." Johnny Boy, any foe we face in this struggle doesn't give a damn for international law. And as for us, we should comply only so far as it corresponds to our national interest. He also promises to close Gitmo, restore habeas corpus, and ban terror, though he fails to say what will happen to current Gitmo detainees, that habeas isn't really dead, and that American personnel do not torture (unless of course you use the most absurd definitions of torture, as Democrats and the Left do so often); I suppose this means that in the "ticking bomb" scenario, we'll be left to sweet-talk any suspect into cooperating.

As to meeting with military officials: what nonsense. He claims that civil-military relations are strained and retired officers are speaking out as a result, thus necessitating this empty gesture. That the majority of officers remain aligned with the President's policies - with varying degrees of criticism - reduces this to mere rhetoric (not that the rest is anything else).

A "Marshall Corps"? Excuse me? We're effectively creating an Anti-Terror Peace Corps. I suppose we might be able to find 10,000 out of work idealistic ex-hippies to send to foreign countries, but it won't do any good. Such a suggestion suggests a basic misunderstanding of our struggle.

Equipment repair? Filler. Of course things are being used outside of their peacetime usage - this is a war. I have no problem stockpiling additional armored vehicles, helicopters, etc. However, such weapons seem at least partially antithetical to his warm, fuzzy approach to the issue - it's boots on the ground, face to face, not behind inches of steel armor, that will win people over.

A national security budget? Among other things, this means declassifying the Pentagon budget, which should be reason enough to discard it.

Is it clear I despise this man? Is it equally clear that he is utterly incapable of acknowledging the nature of our enemy, and that his plan is uniquely unsuited to face them? Thankfully, if the polls have even a kernel of truth, he has no chance of winning.

Stand by Impeached Men?

Hillary announced her Florida Campaign Co-Chairs today, Reps Debbie Wasserman Schultz and (drum roll) Alcee Hastings. Wait for it...wait for the media outrage...

Nothing.

No complaints from the media about the leading Democratic contender naming an impeached federal judge to be her Florida co-chair? No? Imagine the uproar if a Republican named, say, Mark Foley to be their Florida chair. Hastings has contended in the past that the impeachment was a political hatchet job - something akin to Dollar Bill Jefferson saying he's innocent - but even Democrats have said that the procedure was justified.

(oh and if the blogosphere gets on Hillary's case for this one, I predict we'll hear the Left whining about how vicious and abusive we all are...)

(h/t Taranto/Best of the Web)

Academic Inanity

KC Johnson (over at the peerless Durham-In-Wonderland) continues to blog about the aftermath of the Duke Lacrosse Travesty. Those unlucky enough to be under his microscope today? The "Group of 88," those academics (I use the term in the loosest possible sense of the word, and Johnson's research supports that) who decried the lacrosse case and the whole culture of the university on the tired lines of class/race/gender. Specifically, he highlights the kind of nonsense these people are teaching, often with an aim to brainwash their students. Just to cite a few gems:

Maurice Wallace (African-American Literature): 16 of 40 [It would seem that most Duke students do not respond to the pedagogical approach preferred by Wallace: “I have a responsibility to all of my students—every single one of them—to disabuse them of all of the national, racial, middle-class, gender and sexual myths they’ve been taught to comfort or flatter themselves and, of course, the people who, perhaps unknowingly, miseducated them.”

Kim Curtis (Ecological Crisis and Political Theory): 18 of 30 [The class explores the “ethical, political, economic, aesthetic, social, and technological approaches to contemporary ecological crisis,” though how Kim Curtis, of all people, can teach others about “ethics” is not clear.]

Wahneema Lubiano (Social Facts and Narrative: “Story telling as it establishes, relies on, and transforms socially recognized categories of [naturally] gender, class, race, sexual orientation, and region): 13 of 18

BS doesn't begin to do all of this justice. In laying all of this out, Johnson devastates the fallacious argument that the Group of 88 are popular; 'scuse me? Popular and under half-full? Mind you I've taken some incredible courses that were under-enrolled, but most of the truly great classes I've had at Duke have been over-enrolled! He also rightly points out that the reason for some of these somewhat respectable enrollment numbers may not be "quality of instruction;" when all you have to do is parrot your professor's neomarxist gobdleygook to get an A, many students will be there for the wrong reason (it's also reasonable to assume that these students don't entirely buy into the nonsense their professors peddle).

Check out the full post here.

Morning Amusement

Tunagate, Dollar Bill Jefferson, her own son being hired by shady, Clinton-connected InfoUSA, a failure to pass any sort of ethics reform. Thanks to Ramirez for pointing out the obvious...




















PS - how dumb does Jefferson have to be plead not guilty. How much more guilty can you get? A NoLa-born friend of mine and I have a running debate over whether pols from the Crescent City or Chicago are more corrupt; I finally have to concede defeat.

Updates

So I've spent some time tonight watching old Bond movies and working on the blog. The only new features of any note are: you can now subscribe via email! if you're using a feed reader (including the simple Google Reader) - click "Subscribe in a Reader" on the bottom to simply add it to your reader and get updated every time I post; hopefully that will be more frequently. So basically, that's the two of note. I've also been tagging or retagging posts so my Technorati cloud (if it ever gets working) can more accurately provide a sense of my musings.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Book Review: South Park Conservatives

Brian Anderson's South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias is a gem of a book; short, to the point, and leaving its reader (so long as you're right of center) with a renewed sense of hope. Starting with the same premise as so many other authors (Bernard Goldberg comes to mind), Anderson lambasts the hopelessly biased media. Rathergate is only one count of many in his indictment.

He is also, fitting for a fellow who is the editor of City Journal, willing to look at the disturbing degree to which modern liberalism is inherently illiberal. These are the people who whole-heartedly buy into Marcuse's doctrine of "liberating tolerance" and Rawls's argument that political debate must only take into account "reasonable" doctrines; both thinkers' constructs obviously have no place for conservatism or conservative principles. Thus liberal attempts to depict Republicans and conservatives as racist, misogynistic and homophobic bigots is part of their own internal effort to throw conservatism out of the bounds of "reasonableness." This is also, of course, a liberalism with a penchant for ironic Orwellianism and double speak, and the unspoken rule that free speech ends if you don't agree with them. See the treatment at Columbia of the Minutemen (or closer to home, the treatment at Duke of David Horowitz). Further this is the group that refuses to see bias in anyone that agrees with them; thus they can justify calling Dan Rather objective while working themselves into a lather over anyone who airs a conservative perspective. By extension, this is why Democrats are making noises about reinstating the "Fairness Doctrine" (itself an Orwellian misnomer) - because only those that disagree with them are biased and in need of balancing.

But whereas this is as far as many go, Anderson rightly points out that things are changing. Quickly. Sure liberals still hold on to the Big 3 (whose viewership is plummeting) and many major newspapers, to say nothing of large swathes of the academe. But technological revolutions have given rise to a new media - talk radio, cable news, the internet - where Republicans are either a major force or effectively dominate. Rush and O'Reilly are the face of this new media. And they're not just disseminating the conservative message like never before, they (and especially the blogs) are holding the mainstream media accountable, calling BS when (often) appropriate, and forcing them to cover stories that would otherwise be ignored as incompatible with the liberal meta-narrative.

He also suggests that times are changing on campuses around the country as conservative principles, journals, College Republicans chapters, etc. are flourishing. He's quick to point out that the faculty, overwhelmingly liberal, still hold the high ground, but that conservatism is no longer invisible on campuses. Some of his interviewees suggest that this is the result of liberal indoctrination, a sort of classroom blowback; universities also act as a sort of ideological forge where faced with liberal nonsense in all its absurd glory, students embrace and refine their conservative principles.

But what Anderson doesn't point out is that these very instruments of conservative campus revival also suggest that liberals are doomed to another generation of failure. The modern Republican revolution - 1994 to the present (?) - has been grounded in ideas, in alternatives to tired Democratic policies (no matter how you frame it, tax and spend is still tax and spend, and cut and run is still cut and run!); the next generation of conservative activists are already getting introduced to that culture of innovation. Their liberal counterparts , in contrast, are too often picketing against some new "injustice" or soaking up the latest drivel of race/gender/class studies - nice if you're seeking a career in navel-gazing, but absolutely insufficient if you're going to shape the future of the nation.

Finally, the title itself points to an entertainment industry that is in places reacting viciously to the PC nonsense and condescension that characterize the Left as a whole and especially its Hollywood incarnation. Leading the charge here is Comedy Central's South Park - not so much conservative as anti-liberal, gleefully destroying liberal idols and mocking liberals such as Al Gore, Rob Reiner, and Michael Moore. Priceless stuff really.

South Park Conservatives isn't an equally intellectual counterpoint to Bloom's Closing of the American Mind; it isn't meant to be. Rather, it chronicles some critical evolutions in the media and suggests that incessant griping about liberalism's chokehold on the MSM is overwrought, that it is in many ways a colossus with clay feet. It's got a message, but it's light enough to be a beach read. Go forth and enjoy.

Check it out on Amazon


[Posted on Amazon as well, FYI]

Day By Day

So I finally got around to adding Day by Day, or what somone accurately called "the conservative Doonesbury." But aesthetically, I'm not sure what I think of it here. Thoughts?

Israel willing to trade security for..."peace"

By which I mean the Golan Heights to Syria for a Syrian promise of peace. Whatever exactly that means. And really, as this article makes clear, it's largely Olmert considering the deal, with widespread dissent by other parties. Olmert isn't so naive as to seek unconditional peace - Syria must sever its ties with Iran and Hezbollah - but they are conditions that the Syrians have little chance of actually living up to. Sadly we've apparently midwifed this deal, as Bush gave Olmert the go-ahead for negotiations last month. While I think any strategy to isolate Iran by splitting Syria from it is an interesting idea, doing so at the cost of Israeli security is dangerous and shortsighted. Most interesting quote:

Meanwhile, a Ma'ariv-TNS poll showed that only 10% of Israelis supported a full withdrawal from the Golan, 40% were in favor of a partial withdrawal and 44% were opposed to any withdrawal. The poll also showed that despite recent peace overtures from Damascus, 74% of Israelis did not trust Assad.

Obviously this deal won't be easily closed.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Another SCOTUS Confirmation?

White House is making noises (from ABC) about another Supreme Court nomination, raising questions about whether or not Stevens or Ginsberg may be retiring. I don't see Ginsberg retiring under a Republican president; Stevens also isn't likely but is 87 (?) and thus may not be around much longer regardless. If either does step down, their calculus may be that a retirement with a Democratic Senate is palatable. However (and assuming there are 60 votes for cloture), with Landrieu (LA), Pryor (AR), Johnson (SD) and Baucus (MT) up for reelection (as well as Lieberman), the Republicans may just have the necessary votes. On the other side of the equation, Sununu (NH), Snowe (ME) and Smith (OR) may all be Republicans looking to display their independence and moderation. But on some level, a Bush failure here would be beneficial: bringing Democratic intransigence into focus and rallying the base, as well as acting as a proving ground for Republican presidential candidates and opening Democrats running for reelection to criticism for their actions. Anyways, losing one of those two would make a better court regardless of replacement.