Small Minds in Big Hollywood

Andrew Breitbart skewers the Hollywood elite for their mind-numbingly stupid and blatantly self-serving pronouncements. This article is definitely a must read.

A Peaceful, Uneasy Feeling

As usual, Victor Davis Hanson has a way of putting things in an historical perspective. In this case, it is the election of Barak Obama as President of the United States of America.

Closing Guantanamo Without a Plan

As he promised during the campaign, President Obama has signed an Executive Order requiring the closure of the Guantanamo detainment facility. Aside from being an idealistic and stupid idea, it was exacerbated by Obama's's lack of any plan for dealing with the terrorists housed there. Keep in mind that the Bush administration and the military have released hundreds of detainees from Guantanamo, presumably those deemed least dangerous. About 10 percent of those released have gone back to try and kill our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. What percentage of the hardcore terrorists are likely to go back to attacking our soldiers - or worse, attack American citizens on American soil? This is not just hypothetical. A Guantanamo detainee released in 2007 has just emerged as a deputy leader of the Al Qaeda branch in Yemen. I guess you can take the man out of the terrorist group, but you can't take the terrorist out of the man. Maybe if we all hold hands, think utopian thoughts and sing songs from the 1960's, they will be moved and decide to embrace a completely different world-view. Then again, maybe they'll just opt for the 72 virgins, press the detonator for their suicide belt and try to kill and maim as many of us as they can.

Propaganda By the Numbers

Once again, Hamas has played fast and loose with the facts -- more specifically, the number of civilian deaths in the recent clash between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. A Gazan doctor, who didn't give his name because he wanted to live for at least another 24 hours, told an Italian newspaper:

"The number of deceased stands at no more than 500 to 600. Most of them are youths between the ages of 17 to 23 who were recruited to the ranks of Hamas, who sent them to the slaughter,"

A resident of Tal al-Hawa, who also preferred to not paint a target on his own back, had this to say to the newspaper:

"Armed Hamas men sought out a good position for provoking the Israelis. There were mostly teenagers, aged 16 or 17, and armed. They couldn't do a thing against a tank or a jet. They knew they are much weaker, but they fired at our houses so that they could blame Israel for war crimes."

Read more on this story at Ynetnews.com.

Meryl Yourish has also posted on this story. However, her post also contains links to video evidence of previous fallacious claims by Hamas. I recommend you check them out. You will discover how the UN is used by Hamas and that the "dead" can come back to life!

Hamas' Crucifixion Revival

Hamas must be concerned that all the portrayals of them as victims in the recent Middle East unpleasantness is harming their image as terrorists and ruthless thugs.  On Christmas Day 2008 (no subtlety intended, I'm sure), Hamas legislators legalized the crucifixion of "enemies of Islam", according to Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick.

Apparently, building a Colosseum and rounding up some hungry lions was too much trouble.

A.G.W. on the Rocks

Once again, facts fly in the face of anthropogenic global warming dogma. According to the University of Illinois's Arctic Climate Research Center, the sea ice is not melting at an alarming rate, much to the relief of the booming polar bear population. Here's a hint, folks. Climate should be evaluated not by reviewing years and decades of data, but by hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of years of data. That's the only way to put it in a proper context. Of course, that would leave the global warming Chicken Little alarmists with only one thing to shout:  "The sky is normal! The sky is normal!" 

And that wouldn't sell very many movie tickets. Right, Al?

HT: Daily Tech

Postmodernism & the Middle-East

In his latest article, "The Gaza Rules", Victor Davis Hanson provides an excellent summary of how the usual rules have been turned upside-down when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Here is a sample:

Watching both this week's war and the world's predictable reaction to it, we can recall the Gaza rules. Most are reflections of our postmodern age, and completely at odds with the past protocols of war.

First is the now-familiar Middle East doctrine of proportionality. Legitimate military action is strangely defined by the relative strength of the combatants. World opinion more vehemently condemns Israel's countermeasures, apparently because its rockets are far more accurate and deadly than previous Hamas barrages that are poorly targeted and thus not so lethal.

If America had accepted such rules in, say, World War II, then by late 1944 we, not the Axis, would have been the culpable party, since by then once-aggressive German, Italian and Japanese forces were increasingly on the defensive and far less lethal than the Allies.

Now go read the other four points that VDH makes in his very timely article.

Fact-checking the fact-checkers

Byron York's National Review Online article, McCain and the Fact-Checking Fallacy, examines the subjective world of political fact-checking. It seems even the facts provided by the fact-checkers aren't always facts. And that's a fact. Really.

Justice Applied - Simpson Convicted

There's an old adage "Justice delayed is justice denied". However, I would guess that the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown are feeling a certain amount of satisfaction with O. J. Simpson's armed robbery conviction on Friday. The verdict was delivered exactly 13 years to the day after a Los Angeles jury declared him not guilty of the murders of Goldman and Brown. He may have gotten away with a double murder 13 years ago, but he couldn't get away from his own narcissism which drove him commit robbery at gunpoint to retrieve some of his memorabilia which he believed was stolen from him. Never mind the fact that he still owes the Goldman's over $30 million from the civil suit.

It is certain that Simpson's attorneys will appeal the conviction claiming that the police, prosecution and/or jury were out to rectify the outcome of the murder trial. I don't know if there is any truth in that or not and, frankly, it wouldn't bother me if there was. The fact of the matter is that he either committed an armed robbery or he didn't. If the evidence is there, he should be found guilty.

Simpson can only blame himself (though he certainly won't) for the position he is in. If he hadn't murdered two people 13 years ago, his sports memorabilia would have been in his own display case today and he wouldn't be headed for prison.

A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to Work

I decided to take a different route to work today. I was running a little late (as usual) and decided to avoid the backed up freeway.  As I was winding my way through Edina, I saw a pile of Republican lawn signs by the side of the road. Since I didn't have my digital camera with me and was already late for work, I continued on. However, I have emailed MDE since he recently made the local news with his video of an Ashwin Madia campaign worker removing and attempting to trash Erik Paulsen campaign signs. There were both Paulsen and Norm Coleman signs in the pile that I drove by. Since they were laying flat on the ground, I doubt they were just poorly displayed.

Financial Crisis Could Have Been Solved...In 2003

Dennis Prager's blog has two posts by Alan Estrin regarding the current financial crisis. One post provides a link to this Kevin Hassett article at Bloomberg.com. Mr. Hassett, it must be stated, is a McCain advisor so one could attribute at least some bias to his view.  However, this September 11, 2003 New York Times article, which is referenced in Alan's other post, cannot be dismissed so easily. It is clear that it was Democrats who refused to allow regulation of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae which might have prevented the current crisis. Even now, as the President is trying to get legislation that deals with the financial crisis through Congress, the Democrats are playing political games by trying to attach unnecessary and unrelated provisions to the bill. This will only delay the process and create even more uncertainty. There is one very good word for the Congressional Democrats - "irresponsible".

Silencing Sarah

Sarah Palin was invited to speak at a rally protesting Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's appearance at the UN. The very pro-Israel speech she would have given really puts the wood to ol' Mahmoud. When fellow invitee Hillary Clinton found out Sarah had been invited, she threw a fit and refused to participate. The reason given was that inviting Sarah was a "partisan move".  (Isn't it interesting that she considers inviting representatives from both political parties to be partisan.) The organizers of the rally/protest withdrew their invitation to Sarah as a result of Hillary's tantrum. 

However, a major news source has published the transcript of the speech Sarah Palin had prepared for the rally. No, it wasn't Fox, the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard or any other traditional "Conservative" outlets.  The very Left-wing Israeli paper Haaretz (think New York Times, LA Times or Minneapolis Star Tribune) has made a point to publish the speech. It seems that when you have a soon-to-be-nuclear power, led by an unabashed anti-Semite with delusions of finishing what Hitler started, within missile range or your home, you get a clearer understanding of who is on your side. You can read Sarah's speech here.

HT: Prager

Palin: Can-do, No-excuses Moose-hunting Feminist

Camille Paglia had an interesting article in Salon.com yesterday.  If you can get past the McCain bashing in the first three paragraphs and the cognitive dissonance of her positions on abortion and capital punishment (it's probably not what you think), Paglia makes some interesting observations about Sarah Palin and Feminism. I disagree with Paglia on many things, but often she does make some interesting observations and her writing is usually entertaining. Here's a taste from the above referenced article:

Conservative though she may be, I felt that Palin represented an explosion of a brand new style of muscular American feminism. At her startling debut on that day, she was combining male and female qualities in ways that I have never seen before. And she was somehow able to seem simultaneously reassuringly traditional and gung-ho futurist. In terms of redefining the persona for female authority and leadership, Palin has made the biggest step forward in feminism since Madonna channeled the dominatrix persona of high-glam Marlene Dietrich and rammed pro-sex, pro-beauty feminism down the throats of the prissy, victim-mongering, philistine feminist establishment.

I think I could hear Gloria Steinem scream, "Ouch!" from here. Now, go read the entire article. 

The Saudi Arabian Candidate?

The Investor's Business Daily editorial, Barack Obama — Magna Cum Saudi?, looks at the candidate's links to a Saudi billionaire and the Black Panthers, a 1960s radical group.

Peggy Noonan Explains

Peggy Noonan has issued an apology regarding the recent unpleasantness which I addressed in my last post. In using the word 'apology', I mean it in the philosophical sense:  "a defense, excuse, or justification in speech or writing, as for a cause or doctrine." Other than making that distinction, I will let the readers draw their own conclusions.

Noonan's "Jesse Jackson" Moment

I'd like to think that WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan and Republican strategist Mike Murphy are not stupid. I said that I'd LIKE to think that.  However, they apparently didn't learn anything from Jesse Jackson's recent experience with open microphones after television interviews.

After an interview on MSNBC, Murphy and Noonan decided to provide some audio for future Obama campaign ads. Transcript and video here.  What makes Noonan's comments so astounding is that she had just written positively about Sarah Palin's candidacy earlier today. Not only that, Noonan also proved to be somewhat prophetic when she wrote:

Let me say of myself and almost everyone I know in the press, all the chattering classes and political strategists and inside dopesters of the Amtrak Acela Line: We live in a bubble and have around us bubble people. We are Bubbleheads.

. . . And when you forget you're a Bubblehead you get in trouble, you misjudge things.

That's right, Peggy. When you forget that you're a Bubblehead, you misjudge the American people. You see, Peggy, most Americans don't rub elbows with the Manhattan Elites or attend cocktail parties in Georgetown. When you look at Sarah Palin, you see a "narrative". When we look at Sarah Palin, we see someone like us. We see a woman of faith who loves this country, loves her family, loves life and will do what she needs to do to protect them all. That may be "political B.S."  to the Bubblehead crowd, but to the rest of us out here in "fly-over country" that's who we are.

To end this post, dear Peggy, I remind you of a favorite saying of the late, great Ronald Reagan. It is a quote you, of all people, ought to have remembered:

"Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican."

Sarah Palin on Taking Risks

". . . I didn't get into government to

do the safe and easy things.

A ship in harbor is safe,

but that's not why the ship is built."

Sarah Palin ~ From her speech accepting VP candidacy.

August 29, 2008

UPDATE!!

In the interest of accuracy, I find it necessary to note that at least part of the above quote is not original to Sarah. According to Wikiquote and The Quotations Page, John August Shedd's 1928 book, Salt from My Attic, contained the line:

"A ship in harbor is safe,

but that is not what ships are built for."

In my brief internet search, I found other attributions and variations. However, the attributions to John A. Shedd were the only ones which had detailed information (i.e. title of source material, date published).

THAT'S the Ticket!

McCain ~ Palin  2008

Pawlenty Out, Palin In?

Another political prognostication by the Impudent One ends up on the dust heap of history. It sounds like Pawlenty is not likely to be McCain's pick. I am not making another prediction here, but today's buzz that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will get the nod sounds better all the time. She is likely to appeal to women who want to see a woman in the White House. She will definitely appeal to the superficial-male vote...

My McCain VP Prediction

I have made this prediction in conversations, but have not committed it to paper...I mean, electrons. Since it has been reported that McCain has finally decided on his running mate, I thought the time was right to put myself out on a limb. (As a side note, I predicted Obama would pick Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia, which turned out to be oh, so wrong when he announced "Slow Joe" Biden at three o'clock in the morning. Thus far, I'm not doing very well in the area of prophetic utterances - subcategory: VP selections.)

There have been essentially three prominent names bouncing around the last week or so:  Mitt Romney, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Joe Lieberman, the erstwhile running mate of Al "Carbon Credit" Gore.

Although Lieberman and McCain may be good friends, I would be shocked if he got the nod. The obvious negative for Lieberman is that, aside from being a national defense hawk, he is a Liberal. That's with a capital "L". McCain cannot afford to alienate the Conservatives any more than he already has. Perhaps the less obvious problem with Lieberman is that any voters he might draw would already be inclined to support McCain.

Romney, has a lot of positives. He has been a governor in a very Liberal state, successfully salvaged the Los Angeles Olympics, has lots of his own money and, as far as we know, is scandal-free. However, given the recent so-called gaffe regarding the number of homes McCain and (primarily) his wife own, having another wealthy guy on the ticket could play right into the Dems "class envy" strategy for demonizing Republicans.

Tim Pawlenty would be a good choice for several reasons. He is young, but not too young. He is a two-term governor with plenty of political and leadership experience. (This is a nice contrast with Obama's youth and inexperience.) He has a blue-collar background, is smart and articulate, is very charming and personable (all in contrast to Joe Biden). Pawlenty is fiscally conservative, pro-Second Amendment and pro-Life. Pawlenty is a bit thin when it comes to foreign policy. Minnesota governors do a lot of foreign travel to promote trade between Minnesota and other countries, which is the main reason I used the word "thin" instead of "non-existent". In my view, this isn't a major problem since McCain has plenty of foreign policy experience. 

An area that really bothers me about Pawlenty, may actually work in his favor as VP.  A long time ago, in an Iowa far, far away John McCain very famously spoke out very firmly against farm subsidies for ethanol production. McCain has continued to repeat his opposition to ethanol subsidies as recently as this month. Pawlenty, on the other hand, has been a big advocate for ethanol fuel. Although this is what drives me nuts about Pawlenty, it might help McCain in Iowa, Minnesota and other corn producing states to have him on the ticket.

Well, on Friday John McCain will announce his running mate and I'll find out if my powers of prediction are as good as a coin toss.