Nice Summary

From a comment by Pat Hickey

The Progressive demands that all things skew and with their argument at the moment.

Stalin is a great guy; Catholic Church is fascist; Jews are Neo-Nazis; al Queda is freedom fighters; Police abuse minorites; Gun Manufacturers go over to black neighborhoods kill black children and blame ‘victimized’ gang members - read community activists; Iraq is war of occupation; soldiers are rapists and serial tortureers; the ACLU protects religion.

But Pat, it's not the perfect country song. Not yet.

Thomas Miller adds:

Pat,

You forgot a couple 1). All conservatives are racists 2). Rich people don’t pay their fair share of taxes.

I could go on but this wears me out Rosie.

Betray Us?

Saw MO Representative Russ Carnahan interviewed on a local St. Louis Sunday Morning TV show, and he was asked directly about the Betray Us comment being over the top, what's his opinion.

He replied that it was "unhelpful" and that "people are frustrated."

Good. No judgement of the action. Just apologetics. So... if I ever get frustrated, then, I can be forgiven for anything I say? Right? Is that the precedent we are setting here? Because if it is, let us remember that the next time someone says something the Left finds "offensive". Hey, we're just frustrated.

Taxes and idiots

So not that I follow baseball much, really, but I did hear about Barry Bonds' record breaking home run a while back. And of course I knew some guy caught the ball, and I knew that he could probably sell the ball for a lot of money.

I also knew he would be taxed on that transaction if it did take place.

What I didn't know was that some tax experts suggested that he would be subject to a tax on the estimated worth of the ball even if he didn't sell it.

Now I'm no huge fan of taxes. I do believe, of course, that we need some. But this kind of money grubbing is nuts. So the government can tax monetary transactions -- great. But what the hell? Taxing on potential income? Or would it be property tax? This should shine a big light on how we do taxes in this country and what should be considered out of bounds (no pun intended).

Now here's the real kicker. In the comments section of some internet discussion I was reading there was this comment:

I just want a bullshit reason to hate capitalism more.

Huh? Goverment tax policy is capitalism? Idiots.

Well Put

From Charles Krauthammer:

Having poisoned one country and been expelled from it (Afghanistan), al-Qaeda seized upon post-Hussein instability to establish itself in the very heart of the Arab Middle East -- Sunni Iraq. Yet now, in front of all the world, Iraq's Sunnis are, to use the biblical phrase, vomiting out al-Qaeda. This is a defeat and humiliation in the extreme -- an Arab Muslim population rejecting al-Qaeda so violently that it allies itself in battle with the infidel, the foreigner, the occupier.

Just carrying this battle to its successful conclusion -- independent of its larger effect of helping stabilize Iraq -- is justification enough for the surge. The turning of Sunni Iraq against al-Qaeda is a signal event in the war on terrorism. Petraeus's plan is to be allowed to see it through.

Sums it up pretty well.

Leave Brittany Patreus Alone

Got an IM from Morgan this morning, pointing me to a video on Tammy Bruce's blog.

Incidentally, Tammy, I like the shot with the mic and the pistol. The mighty mic and the mighty sword. Plus there's the whole "chick's 'n guns" thing. Works for me.

Anyway, the video is a spoof someone made of the "Leave Brittany Alone" video on YouTube, which, in itself, (I hope) was meant to make fun of Brittany and the Brittanyites.

At first, I really didn't want to say anything about it on my blog, and I went to reply to him in an email.

By the time I was done with the email I decided there was something worthwhile to say in there.... so here it is, as its own post:

Yeah, I'm not so sure about that one, either. My guess is that it was done by some lefty to make fun of those of us who think the "Betray Us" ad was tasteless and indicative of the mindset of that 21% that keeps showing up in polls that opposes anything related to Bush no matter what. It's calling us whiners, which I don't think we are by any reasonable stretch of the imagination. Key word here being "reasonable".

I'd hate to draw any unwarranted attention to it.

Brittany -- well you can probably guess I can't stand Brittany. I will say that those who say she is "out of shape" are wrong. So many women would kill to look like
that. But that's not what I can't stand about Brittany and the Brittanyites. What I can't stand is their blatant self-absorbtion and their narcissistic pride in that same blatant self-absorbtion.

It ain't right. And anyone who gives a rot about what Brittany Spears is doing is, in my book, just feeding the monster. Incidentally, that monster is a whole lot bigger than Brittany. The fact that so many Americans buy into this mindset is disturbing and has a lot to do with what's wrong in this country today. IMHO.

I did, finally, after a few days and after seeing this drag queen video finally go out to see what everyone was talking about and I saw about half of the Brittany MTV Awards video.

My guess is that she's too immature to be a professional, too self-absorbed to be serious about giving her audience (and employer, in this case, MTV) a good performance (of her trashy "art", even) -- and had been partying way too much. She was probably on some depressant drug other than alcohol, and didn't have the energy to put in to her performance. She looked lazy, disinterested, not there at all.

Frankly I don't care if she does drugs or whatever. She can do whatever the heck she wants. She just shouldn't expect to stay in business if she doesn't give her work the priority it needs to keep her in the game.

But she lost me before the performance started with the "lyric" from her "song" "Give Me More"

"It's Brittany, Bitch!"

Click. Buh-bye.

More Patraeus'. Fewer Brittanys.

Too Young to Vote

There's this AARP ad out that I wish someone would make a response video (using the same format ... kids saying what they would vote for if they could).



Yup. They're too young to vote. But you'd think, listening to this tripe, that voting age is just an unfortnate technicality. The subliminal message here, of course, is that we are letting our children (The Children!™ ) down if we don't vote for people who not only think government is here to solve all of our problems for us and protect us from illness, and strife, amen. Of course, maybe they're too young to vote because they're not yet mature enough to think things through in light of the complexities of the world and especially of human nature.

How about a video that shows children saying "I'd vote for the candidate who sticks closest to First Principles." "I'd vote for the candidate who is for Liberty and Justice for All". "I'd vote for the candidate who isn't pandering to Socialists for power." Yeah, something along those lines.

Intolerable

This morning on NPR I heard Steve Inskeep comment that Patreus' critics say that while violence in Iraq may have decreased, it has only decreased from "unbelievable" to "intolerable".

Of course, Patreus' critics want us to leave.

What they don't want to say is that if we do, the violence will go from "intolerable", shoot right past "unbelievable" and straight to "monumentally and tragically horrific".

Don't let them kid you. It's not about violence and lives. It's about seething hatred for Bush.

Quote of the day

From Thomas Sowell:

Life's choices are seldom as easy as they may seem to people writing in the safety and comfort of an editorial office.

T-Shirt

I saw a T-Shirt today.

Picture of George Bush. Caption: "George Bush doesn't care about Black People."

It's one thing to spontaneously blurt that out in a display of emotional ignorance on national television.

It's another thing to make and sell a t-shirt.

It's yet another to buy it and wear it in public.

Yet there are people who fervently believe this is true, just as many believe that Allah considers infidels fodder for slavery and Muslim booty, and their blood as so much nitrogen for desert vegetation.

Refering you to a reference about the Second Amendment

Hey, the internet's all about efficiency, right?

Consider me a part of the wide portion of the funnel.

Go read this post by Morgan.

Whom do you trust?

So I'm looking at these poll results (New York Times article). They look awful for president Bush at first glance. But they're really not. I think they show the reality of the spectrum of support for the war.

It's been sold to us through the media that the american public is Against The War™. And I think that has a lot to do with the way poll questions are worded and the answers interpreted.

Do you want the troops to come home? Do you want the war to end? Well, of course we do, even those of us who support the effort. Are we unhappy with the way the war has gone? In hindsight, yes. Since it was the Bush Administration handling the war, are we unhappy with the way the Bush Administration handled the war?

Is there a "B" choice?

No.

We have one administration at a time, and that's the one we had. So yeah. We're unhappy. I expect Bush is, too. Which is why last spring -- and really since the last election, he's changed the way he's handled the war by changing the people handling the war.

Now.... do we think Mr. Kerry or Mr. Gore would've done a better job? Anybody ever ask that question?

Here's the answer I expect you'd get: Something close to 21% would say "yes".

Your 3% there are your Alex Jones fans. Your 21% is your hard-left core Democratic base, and people who would vote for Hitler if he were running as a democrat (yeah, there are people almost that bad. In both of the major parties, I might add -- but I'd venture to say it's more prevalent in the "D" category. The ones in the "R" category are probably represented somewhere in that 5% number.)

The 68% number represents mainstream America. The ones that don't have binary brains. The ones who can hold two opposing concepts in their heads and retain the ability to function. The ones who understand nuance as something other than a vehicle to justify their own very non-nuanced biases.

68% trust the military to resolve the war. Does that sound like a mandate for a pullout to you?

Now here's the kicker. Knowing that Bush's style is to delegate -- one could argue he's in that 68% himself. Think about it.

Hiatus, and Fred Thompson

I've taken a break from politics and such for a while. I imagine I'll be back soon. Sometimes you have to put stuff down for a while and go out and live life and do things you need to do and just spend a little less time on ... well, things you've been spending too much time on.

I will say that I was impressed by what Fred Thompson had to say on the Tonight Show. You can criticize him for not being at the debates, but as he points out, what are the debates, really? Best way to put it is to hope for an Aha! soundbyte to either beat your opponent(s) with or hope that some really profound soundbyte slips out of your mouth in 40 seconds or less. He's right.

I think he's dead on about waiting until after Labor Day to "announce" for several reasons, one being tradition, and another being it did let all the early starters beat up on each other a bit. It also puts a little extra focus on him. They've been blathering over each other for months and we all know what they have to say. It makes his voice stand out a little better and that can only help him, especially with his message as clear as it is.

Now at this time, I would say that in the general election, no matter who the Republicans put up against which Democrat, I like any of the Republican candidates more than any of the Democrat candidates. I am not a Republican or a Democrat, I am an American and I just call them as I see them.

Right now the Republicans seem to have a set of ideas that is closest to my own of the two, and the Democrats right now seem to have a set of ideas that is uncomfortably far, on the whole, from my own. So uncomfortably far that defeating them is more important to me than my guy winning.

Right now, I'm going to throw behind Fred. I hope he wins. If he doesn't, I hope that none of the Democrat candidates win the general election. And I'll do whatever I can to do my part.

Republicans for Voldermort

Saw a bumper sticker on the way to work today that said "Republicans for Voldermort".

I'm not the first to make the observation that liberals think conservatives are evil, while conservatives think that liberals are naive and/or misguided. We generally think their hearts are in the right place (although the relatively recent volume and intensity of the bile they spew our direction makes us wonder).... they think our hearts are in the wrong place.

Deal is, our hearts are in the right place, and our brains are fully engaged in the real world.

And Then What?

My man Sowell, talking about the question that needs to be asked of the "pull out now" crowd:

And Then What?

says:

Should American troops stay in Iraq indefinitely?

Nobody has ever wanted that. Our whole history shows that American troops have repeatedly pulled out of countries around the world when wars ended and enough order was restored to turn the country over to its own people.

The political conflict today is between people who think that pulling out should depend on conditions in Iraq, as those conditions unfold, rather than on arbitrary timetables created by politicians with no military experience, and with a time horizon that extends no further than the 2008 elections.

Extends no further than the 2008 elections is the key phrase here. It means, we want to be able to use the unpopularity of the war against our political enemies, but we don't actually have a solution to the problem. We prefer it get neatly wrapped up with this administration so that 1) it will be the fall guy for all the pre-war, war, and post-war problems, and 2) we won't have to address these important problems at all.

And this crowd is gaining a few Republican members, too. Sad.

Remember when Hillary outright complained about the possibility of inheriting the war?

"I think it's the height of irresponsibility and I really resent it." [..] "This was his decision to go to war, he went with an ill-conceived plan, an incompetently executed strategy and we should expect him to extricate our country from this before he leaves office."

No mention of what the implications for Iraq and America and the rest of the West for that matter -- would be. It's like "If we pull out, it's like a do-over. Like it never happened." except we get to say "bad! bad Bush!"

And never mind the constant encouragement she and hers give the enemy by telling them "just wait, America will prove you right and leave. We have no stomach for a fight." Just like Bin Laden has said over and over and predicted for Iraq.

This isn't about what is the best thing to do. This is about what I think will get me in to office.

I Love it When a Plan Comes Together

Chalk one up to the "A" Team.

Things I Know #13

#13 You don't get to decide when a war is over until you decide to lose it.

Al Queda understands this. The "insurgents" understand this.

Do we?

Taking America for Granted

I wanted to come up with a stirring July 4 post. I did not. I spent July 4 with family, and lots of it. Which is the way it should be, in the end.

I did, in honor of the occasion, buy a new gun - asserting my right to keep and bear arms.

However, Thomas Sowell -- who I point you guys to a lot (sorry, but he's good) -- did come up with a stirring July 4 post, which I encourage you to read.

>> Taking America for Granted <<

Live Earth

This whole event did nothing to erode my opionion that most activists are in this to feel good about themselves, and have no clue what they are talking about. They really don't care as long as they can portray themselves as morally superior on their stage which all the world makes up.

Madonna, on Saturday:

"If you want to save the planet, I want you to start jumping up and down. Come on, mother-[@*#%ers!] If you want to save the planet, let me see you jump!"

Yes, jump indeed. Jump to save the planet. Jump passionately. Make sure the cameras get a good shot of your jumpage. I wonder if anyone in the crowd thought to shout back "how high?"

Yes, Massah Madonna. (carbon footprint 92 times your average person's).

In Germany [...] newspapers were more upbeat about Saturday’s gigs designed to pressure leaders to sign a new treaty by 2009 that would cut global warming pollution by 90 percent in rich nations and more than half worldwide by 2050.

Let me clue these folks in on something. Treaties don't cut "global warming pollution". People do. And to do it, the energy that runs your computer games and your little iPods that play your Madonna songs and warms and cools your houses and lights your rooms and gets you from point A to point B will go away. From you.

They're going to pressure world governments into signing treaties that have as much chance of having any effect than your average U.N. resolution on Iraq. Then, in 2050 when the cuts have fallen far short of this ridiculously ambitious goal dispite the ink on the various papers -- they can complain "We jumped! What did you do?"

Actually the whole thing reminds me of Officer Shrift in "The Phantom Tollbooth". He was very interested in sentencing people, but the acutal carrying out of the sentence was irrelevant. When Milo, after being sentenced to 1,000 years, gets out of the very open jail the next day at the urging of the Which who tells him how to get out, Shrift sees him on the street and says "my, my, has it been 1,000 years already?" and walks on.

We jumped for Mother Gaia. It's up to somebody else to do something about it. And frankly, we don't care how hard that is. For you. That's not our problem. And you'd better not make it our problem, either. [turns up iPod and goes back to typing anti-Bush tirades on her computer, making a note on her calendar not to miss her appointment at the tanning salon]

I saw some chick in a news story several days ago telling us we can all cut global warming by using re-usable canvas shopping bags instead of paper or plastic disposable ones. Now I'm all for reasonable efforts to reduce pollution and sustaining our forest resources, frankly. I've got no problem with canvas bags. But cutting global warming by using them?

No. Clue.

An Announcement

Thatisall

Quote of the Day

This one from Michael Ledeen in "Stupid Terrorist"

No terrorist leader has ever blown himself up. No way, that’s not their job. Their job is to get other people to blow themselves up. The leader sends them to die, and pays off the family, having done whatever it takes to convince the martyr-to-be to go through with it.