absolut-ly

update re the absolut boycott: if it's not a googlebomb, should it perhaps be called a google-molotov? (googletov?)

I'm kidding; Absolut wasn't.



"This particular ad, which ran in Japan, was based upon historical perspectives and was created with a Japanese sensibility. In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-Allies sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues. Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of Japan may feel was more ideal."



"This particular ad, which ran in Israel, was based upon historical perspectives and was created with a Israeli sensibility. In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-Arab sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues. Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of Israel may feel was more ideal."



"This particular ad, which ran in Atlanta, was based upon historical perspectives and was created with a Southern sensibility. In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-dam-yankee sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues. Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of the South may feel was more ideal."




"This particular ad, which ran in Russia, was based upon historical perspectives and was created with a Russian sensibility. In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-NATO sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues. Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of Russia may feel was more ideal."



"This particular ad, which ran in America, was based upon historical perspectives and was created with a American sensibility. In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-fur'ner sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues. Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of America may feel was more ideal."



"This particular ad, which ran in China, was based upon historical perspectives and was created with a Chinese sensibility. In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-Tibet/Taiwan/Aksai Chin sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues. Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of China may feel was more ideal."



"This particular ad, which ran in Germany, was based upon historical perspectives and was created with a German sensibility. In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-freedom sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues. Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of Germany may feel was more ideal."

Lileks summed it up nicely in one word: Idiots.

PRUDE PRIDE!

Created by OnePlusYou

inspired by a 2.3'er

yes, let's...

do have barack's "conversation about race in America".

update: so, how's that conversation going?

forty years later

most sensible people still "have the dream":

Today is the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, and media commentators have throughout the day been making references to King's I Have Dream speech and talking about keeping King's dream alive.

I'd like to, but I'm afraid that King's dream is pretty much moribund. The dream was, in part, that someday his children would be "judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin." The dream was that we would live in a color-blind society where people would look past one's race and pigment to one's values and achievement. Unfortunately, modern liberalism has made that all but impossible.

So far from making race an irrelevancy, liberalism has made it a matter of crucial importance. Affirmative action, race-based scholarships, minority set-asides, race-norming, school busing, welfare, etc. were all attempts to compensate blacks - a kind of reparations - for the abominations of the past, but whatever they accomplished for black people in general, they surely stoked white resentments and pushed further into the distance the day when skin color doesn't matter.

...(read the rest)...

Like Martin Luther King a lot of us have a dream, too. We dream of the day when what matters in a man is what values he holds. What kind of morals he lives by, his ambitions, his attitudes toward his family, his community, and his country. We dream of a day when the things that we share in common are more important than the things which make us different. We dream of a day when the color of one's skin matters no more than the color of one's eyes, and when everyone, regardless of ethnicity, recognizes that the best way to guarantee a united, cohesive future is to share grandchildren in common. Even so, if that day is ever going to come, liberalism is just going to have to get out of the way.

victory seeds

Magdi Allam has seen the light:

Magdi Allam forsook Islam because he considers it to be "inherently evil". As he wrote to his editor at the Corriere della Sera:

My conversion to Catholicism is the touching down of a gradual and profound interior meditation from which I could not pull myself away, given that for five years I have been confined to a life under guard, with permanent surveillance at home and a police escort for my every movement, because of death threats and death sentences from Islamic extremists and terrorists, both those in and outside of Italy ...

I asked myself how it was possible that those who, like me, sincerely and boldly called for a "moderate Islam", assuming the responsibility of exposing themselves in the first person in denouncing Islamic extremism and terrorism, ended up being sentenced to death in the name of Islam on the basis of the Koran. I was forced to see that, beyond the contingency of the phenomenon of Islamic extremism and terrorism that has appeared on a global level, the root of evil is inherent in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictive.

Far more important than denouncing the evils of Islam, though, is Magdi Allam's embrace of what he calls the God of faith and reason:

The miracle of the Resurrection of Christ has reverberated through my soul, liberating it from the darkness of a tendency where hate and intolerance in before the "other", condemning it uncritically as an "enemy", and ascending to love and respect for one's "neighbor", who is always and in any case a person; thus my mind has been released from the obscurantism of an ideology which legitimates lying and dissimulation, the violent death that leads to homicide and suicide, blind submission and tyranny - permitting me to adhere to the authentic religion of Truth, of Life, and freedom. Upon my first Easter as a Christian I have not only discovered Jesus, but I have discovered for the first time the true and only God, which is the God of Faith and Reason ...

Read the rest.

Defeating both "islamofascism" and "the decadent west" at the same time? Now that's a win-win.

(via snadrs)

questions and (hopefully) answers

viewpoint thinks there should be more to the presidential campaign than "gaffes, scandals, missteps and debate zingers... to delight the talking heads and newspaper columnists".

The only thing we have to fear is fearmongering!

these facts should give some perspective which the recent barrage of US economy gloom-and-doom stories lack:

Zimbabwe's inflation rate is over 66,000 percent, and it has been worse in Germany in 1923 and Yugoslavia in the winter of 1993.

Unemployment is still relativelyand historically low.

(this post inspired by dustbury)

update: no oil for pacifists reports additional details.

a cornball joke

that's not too funny.

abuse

house of eratosthenes tells a sad story of abuse. it begins:

If a man loved his wife the way democrats love America, how would he treat her?

Well, he wouldn’t act very manly at all, the way he’d keep bringing up things she did in the past, completely out of context. That’s a stereotype applied to small-minded, intemperate girlfriends and wives, isn’t it? Bringing up a bunch of things out of nowhere that you did ten years ago? So I guess he’d go to work, hang around the water cooler, babble away during the lunch hour — never getting far away from the subject of what a moral reprobate his wife is. You talk about sports, he’ll find a way to change the subject to a check his wife bounced a few years ago. You talk about religion, he’ll talk about his wife’s unpaid parking tickets. You talk about politics, he’ll talk about her old boyfriends — not humorously, but ominously, about the lack of character she must still have today, for ever interlocking with someone like that.

Always always always: Coming to unflattering conclusions about her, will be the point. The evidence will be cherry-picked to support this. He won’t even pretend to be analyzing it even-handedly. He’ll just be there to talk some smack.

Loving husband?

read the rest.

obama's new rules

update: a related cartoon

local malcontent carries barack's tablets to the rest of us mortals. here's an edited list; follow the link to read the details:

DO NOT talk about my race.

DO NOT complain that I am permitted to talk about racism, while you are being prohibited from doing so.

DO NOT bring up my own multi-racial ancestry.

REFER ALWAYS to my speech on race as the final word on the subject.

DO NOT mention my spiritual mentor.

DO NOT talk about my middle name, Hussein.

DO NOT talk about my wife's own words concerning her feelings of shame in our country.

DO NOT bring up my light-weight legislative experience.

DO NOT investigate my Chicago-brand election to either post, either.

DO NOT bring up Tony Rezko, my best fund-raiser, friend, and current defendant in a money-laundering scheme trial.

DO NOT ever bring up my total lack of military experience.

IGNORE the fact that my candidacy for President is based entirely upon empty words.

IGNORE that I, Barack Obama, am listed as the most liberal and most Communistic-rated Senator in the past 70 years.

IF YOU do not follow all of these rules, you are a racist.

VOTE for me unquestioningly, or I and my Islamic friends will target you as a racist.

veep?

fred barnes ponders a question that many (including mcgehee, snugg harbor, and the local malcontent) are asking: who should mccain choose to be his vice presidential running mate? i have even less of an idea than fred does, unfortunately. and even if i did, he or she would likely be disqualified by the increasingly spineless republican party for being too qualified for the actual job.

short answer: i see no political solution to our problems.

---

update: wizbang has some relevant (yet seemingly contradictory) quotes:

"The days of unquestioning loyalty are gone... It's time for principled leadership."

"...the anti-McCain sentiments [threaten] to have some Republicans stay home in November even though they know what will be the result of that action. Gather your senses Republicans, a Democrat in the White House with Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate is going to be a nightmare you'll be regretting not too far down the road."

fruit

The Anglican Archbishop endorses Islam.

The Vatican invents some new sins.

The Southern Baptist Convention lets the nose of the green camel in the tent.

but who am i to judge?

update 1: also beware of the peaceniks.

update 2: ...and obama's pastor.

update 3: Monday Evening reports a sadly typical incident of Islamofascism, while the Arab League remains as fruity as ever.

now i'm even more frightened

one blog had summarized the obama-vs-clinton contest as "when liberal guilt meets identity politics". and in that context, i agree with geraldine ferraro (gasp!):

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color), he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."

"Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up."

"Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"

no matter the intentions, racism is bad whichever way it points.

via csm

---

update 3: this incident gets a good scrapplefacing :)

update 2: looks like david mamet is coming to his senses as well.

update 1: in related news, i also agree with this former clinton apologist (emphases, italics, and links mine)

She has no idea how many times I defended her. How many right-leaning friends and relatives I battled with. How many times I played down her shady business deals and penchant for scandals -- whether it was Whitewater, Travelgate, Vince Foster, Cattle Futures, Web Hubbell, or Norman Hsu. She has no idea how frequently I dismissed her husband's serial adultery as an unfortunate trait of an otherwise brilliant man. For sixteen years, I was a proud soldier in the legion of "Clinton apologists" -- who believed that peace and prosperity were more important than regrettable personality traits.

And then she ran for president.

After seven years of George W. Bush, America is hungry for change. Big change. (okay, i disagree with that phrase) And let's face it -- Hillary Clinton, the party standard-bearer and former White House denizen -- isn't it. But even after voters coalesced around Barack Obama, handing him eleven straight primaries (twelve, if you count Vermont), she refused to accept the possibility -though math, money and momentum were clearly against her -- that the Bush/Clinton Family Band might not be #1 on America's Billboard chart anymore.

So, rather than step aside and become the hero of her party, she made a strategy decision to go negative in advance of Ohio and Texas. Not just negative -- personal. She cynically chided Mr. Obama's message of hope. She played the victim card. The gender card. The Muslim card. She cried "shame on you, Barack Obama" for his campaign tactics, while (if we're to believe Matt Drudge) simultaneously floating a picture of him in Somali garb to stir up questions of his patriotism.

She accused Mr. Obama of his own shady business deals (the irony of which nearly ripped a hole in the fabric of space/time). She accused him of being two-faced on NAFTA, when it was her campaign that had winked at the Canadians. She demanded that he "reject" the endorsement of Louis Farrakhan, but remained silent when Rush Limbaugh stirred up votes for her in Texas. And she crafted the now-infamous "3am" attack ad -- which used scare tactics to highlight Senator Obama's perceived lack of experience in foreign affairs. Straight out of the ol' Atwater/Rove playbook. Of course, all of this paled in comparison to her husband's patronizing, racially insensitive comments earlier in the primary season.

Was this the same Hillary Clinton whose husband ran on the idea that hope was more powerful than fear? The wife of a president who had less foreign policy experience than Barack Obama when he was elected? And exactly which crisis is she referring to when she claims to have more experience? And while we're at it, where the h*** are those tax returns?

It's clear that Hillary's back in this thing, at least for the time being. But at what cost? Short of some cataclysmic event, there's no way either she or Mr. Obama can reach 2,025 delegates in the remaining contests. That means she's accepted the inevitability of a brokered convention. A convention she'll almost certainly enter with fewer delegates than her opponent. That raises some important questions:

Will she subvert the will of the voters? Will she turn Denver into a series of shady back-room deals and arm twisting? Will she dispatch her husband to pressure superdelegates into switching allegiances at the last minute? Are we in for, as one pundit put it, a good ol' fashioned "knife fight?" (probably all of the above)

And if she does manage to secure the nomination, what about the scores of disenfranchised Obama supporters (many of them young people with little loyalty to the Democratic Party)? How will she bring them back into the tent? Hillary seems confident that this can be remedied by offering Mr. Obama a spot on her ticket. Really? And what would his motivation be for accepting? Playing third-fiddle to Bill?

However, if Mr. Obama goes on to secure the nomination, she'll have handed his rival a treasure trove of sound bites. All John McCain has to do between August and November is play clips of Hillary questioning Obama's experience and belittling his platitudes. In a way, she'll have become Mr. McCain's second running mate.

She's proven that she cares more about "Hillary" than "unity." More about defeating Obama than defeating the Republicans. She's become a political suicide-bomber, happy to blow herself to bits -- as long as she takes everyone else with her.

On Friday, one of Barack Obama's foreign policy advisors, Samantha Power, resigned after calling Senator Clinton "a monster" during an off-the-record exchange. It was an unfortunate slip, but one that echoed the sentiments of many Clinton apologists like me (and most sensible people) -- who've watched Hillary's descent into pettiness and fear-mongering with the heartbreak of a child who grows up to realize that his beloved mother has been a terrible person all along.

Are the conservatives right about the Clintons? Will they do and say anything to get elected? (they always have. why would they change now?)

I don't know.

All I know is...I'm through apologizing.

on spitzer

scrappleface takes the high road

update: tehran's police chief follows spitzer

they only bring out the good china for visitors

also from csm, a foreign policy pop quiz:

What did the State Department do as a result of (China's history of human rights abuses)? If you guessed "It removed China from its list of the world's worst human rights violators," you're right! Congratulations! You've won a trip to the gulag of your choice!

Sure, the top ten offenders could give China a run for its money. After all (those countries) have nothing much to be proud of in the human rights arena. But with a population of 1.3 billion, China can trounce on more human rights in an afternoon than its competitors can falsely imprison, torture or just plain murder in a month of Sundays.

---

Before we go, let's do a little exercise in civics with the top ten (human rights violating countries):

• North Korea, Communist dictatorship
• Myanmar, Communist junta
• Iran, Islamist theocracy
• Syria, Islamist dictatorship
• Zimbabwe, Socialist dictatorship
• Cuba, Communist dictatorship
• Belarus, Soviet anachronism, Communist style
• Uzbekistan, Soviet anachronism, Islamist style
• Eritrea, Islamist dictatorship
• Sudan, Islamist theocratic dictatorship

Gee, not a democratic nation, Judeo-Christian or otherwise, among them. What have we learned, class?

first ingsoc, now nc-soc

the flannel avenger warns of big brother's intrusion into north carolina: on the roads and down the wells. and liberty dad has some generally related links.

"When everybody’s a victim, nobody’s a victim."

Mark Steyn on the Democratic primaries:

The Democratic primary season seems to have dwindled down into a psycho remake of Driving Miss Daisy. The fading matriarch Mizz Hill’ry doesn’t want to give up the keys to the Democratic-party vehicle but the dignified black chauffeur Hokey insists it’ll be a much smoother ride with him in the driver’s seat, full of gear change you can believe in, etc. Yet, just as he thinks the old biddy’s resigned to a nomination as Best Supporting Actress, the backseat driver plunges her hat pin into his spine, wrests the wheel away and lurches across the median.

Read the rest

i'm actually somewhat frightened

dustbury has a semi-regular feature of "strange search engine queries", but this blog may have just gotten one of the strangest ones ever:

#1 of 243 on google for "Quaker Oats made past the Crab nebula, near the Planet Q".

update: looks like this post has reinforced that #1 position. if you found this post via those search terms, could you please leave a comment clarifying what this search is for? (i'm hoping it's song lyrics...)

continuation

I agree with the first part of Echo Zoe's statement against political compromise, and I respect his conclusion. Tying in to my previous post, here are the key parts I agree with - emphases mine:

...realizing that voting Democrat because my parents did was a bit silly, and I needed to figure things out for myself. However, I still hadn’t softened to the Republicans. In 1998, I voted to elect Jesse Ventura Governor of Minnesota. My second mistake, but heading in the right direction.

Six months later, in May of 1999, at the age of 21, I came face to face with my Savior. It was a radical change in my life, and I would never be the same. I immediately took interest in all things related to Christianity. Among the first things I ever prayed was that the Lord would show me His view of the world, and where mine was wrong. I chalk it up to answered prayer, but I immediately became very Conservative. I understood at once that no matter how I tried to justify it, abortion is murder. I realized that there was a reason why socialism is a relatively new phenomenon in America, which it hasn’t always been - that the redistribution of wealth is nothing more than legalized theft - “Plunder” as Bastiat called it. I had a year and a half to go before the next election, and I was firmly on the Right.

So you’d think I’d be a Republican now, right? Wrong. In late 1999 and into 2000, I could see that most of the candidates seeking the Republican Presidential Nomination were watered-down Democrats. John McCain was getting great praise from the media, and W. was preaching “Compassionate Conservatism”, which struck me as neither compassionate nor Conservative...

Between 2000 and 2004, and also the 2002 and 2006 mid-term elections, I received a lot heat from my friends on the Right for not jumping in line with the Republican Party. When I argued that they hadn’t done anything to convince me that they deserve my vote, or that they are even Conservative, I got all the usual platitudes about them being better than the alternative. I didn’t believe there to be only one alternative...

I have sat back this season and watched as so many Conservatives lamented the poor selection this time around. The mainstream media had decided early on that McCain, Romney, Giuliani, and Huckabee were the “viable” candidates. The punditry lamented that Fred Thompson wasn’t running, and quickly abandoned him when he did enter the race. After 7 years of unprecedented spending increases under G.W. Bush and the Republican Legislature, a war that has been promised to last decades, no dent in the abortion holocaust, and the curtailing of person freedom in the name of a “War on Terror”, one would have hoped that the Right would be eager to rally around a true Conservative. However, they quickly decided that Conservatives were “unelectable,” and resolved to have a Liberal candidate be the nominee.

leaders? leaders? we don' need no steenkin leaders!

dustbury shows us a view from the porch:

Folks, we have a serious perception problem in this country. A bunch of people seem to think we have "leaders" instead of "representatives". Bosses and not employees.

Folks, we hired them. We pay them. They work for you, not the other way around. If you are sitting around and waiting for leadership from this collection of do-gooders, used car salesmen, and former Student Body Treasurers, you might as well wait for Santa while you're at it.

These are the people we hire to schlep out our legislative trash in Washington, DC because we're too busy being, you know, productive to handle scutwork like that. We've given them a metaphorical Roto-Rooter and asked them to keep the navigable waterways clear; handed them a calculator and asked them to keep an eye on the national checking account. And, like a sixteen year-old left home with a simple list of chores who instead gets into the liquor cabinet and invites her friends over for a party, look what's happened to them.

Folks, if you want "Political Leaders" you're living in the wrong country; the closest provision we have for a "Political Leader" in the Constitution is the guy we hire to mind the Army & Navy and shake hands with foreigners for us. This is the country where we're supposed to be leading ourselves, not waiting for solutions to be handed down from on high. Your representatives are supposed to be representing you, hence the name. They are not the legislative equivalent of grenades, where you pull the electoral pin, lob them towards Washington, and hope they go off the way you expected. They're your employees; you need to tell them what to do and keep an eye on them, or they'll be stealing the petty cash and spending their whole shift leaning on a broom handle and slacking off.

Don't wait to be led.

options

this history lesson posted at mostly cajun is being noted around the blogododecahedron, and rightly so. here's the core of it (edited):

We find ourselves at another one of those key moments in history.

There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that either has, or wants, and may soon have, the ability to deliver small nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, almost anywhere in the world.

The Jihadis... believe that Wahhabi Islam should own and control the Middle East first, then Europe, then the world. All who do not bow to their will of thinking should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel, and purge the world of Jews. This is their mantra and their goal. There is also a civil war raging in the Middle East - for the most part not a hot war, but a war of ideas. Islam is having its Inquisition and its Reformation, but it is not yet known which side will win, - the Inquisitors, or the Reformationists.

If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, the Jihadis, will control the Middle East, the OPEC oil, and (eventually) the US, European, and Asian economies. The techno-industrial economies will be at the mercy of OPEC - not an OPEC dominated by the educated, more rational Saudis of today, but an OPEC dominated by the Jihadis. Do you want gas in your car? Do you want heating oil next winter? Do you want the dollar to be worth anything? You had better hope the Jihad, the Muslim Inquisition loses, and the Islamic Reformation wins.

If the Reformation movement wins, that is, the moderate Muslims who believe that Islam can respect and tolerate other religions, live in peace with the rest of the world, and move out of the 10th century into the 21st, then the troubles in the Middle East will eventually fade away. A moderate and prosperous Middle East will emerge.

...

The Cold War lasted from about 1947 at least until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989; 42 years!

Europe spent the first half of the 19th century fighting Napoleon, and from 1870 to 1945 fighting Germany!

World War II began (with the Japanese invasion of China) in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus a ten-year occupation, and the U.S. still has troops in Germany and Japan. World War II resulted in the death of more than 50,000,000 people, maybe more than 100,000,000 people, depending on which estimates you accept.

The U.S. has taken more than 3,000 killed in action in Iraq. The U.S. took more than 4,000 killed in action on the morning of June 6, 1944, the first day of the Normandy invasion to rid Europe of Nazi Imperialism.

In WWII the U.S. averaged 2,000 KIA a week - for four years. Most of the individual battles of WWII lost more Americans than the entire Iraq war has done so far. The stakes are at least as high... a world dominated by representative governments with civil rights, human rights, and personal freedoms or a world dominated by a radical Islamic Wahhabi movement, by the Jihad, under the Mullahs and the Sharia (Islamic law).

...

The history of the world is the history of civilization clashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about what society and civilizations should be like, and the most determined always win... The pacifists always lose, because the anti-peace militants kill them.

...

WWII cost the United States an amount equal to approximately a full year’s GDP - adjusted for inflation, equal to about $12 trillion dollars. WWII cost America more than 400,000 soldiers killed in action, and nearly 100,000 still missing in action.

The cost of not fighting and winning WWII would have been unimaginably greater - a world dominated by Japanese Imperialism and German Nazism.

The Iraq war has, so far, cost the United States about $160,000,000,000, which is roughly what the 9/11 terrorist attack cost New York. It has also cost about 3,000 American lives, which is roughly equivalent to lives that the Jihad killed (within the United States) in the 9/11 terrorist attack.

This is not a TV show or a two-hour movie in which everything comes out okay. The real world is not like that. It is messy, uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. It always has been, and probably always will be.

The bottom line is that we will have to deal with Islamic terrorism until we defeat it, whenever that is. It will not go away if we ignore it.

If the U.S. can create a reasonably democratic and stable Iraq, then we have an ally (like England in WWII) in the Middle East, a platform from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the Middle East. The history of the world is the clash between the forces of relative civility and civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at the gates to conquer the world. The Iraq War is merely another battle in this ancient and never-ending war. Now, for the first time ever, the barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons unless somebody prevents them from getting them.

We have four options:

1. We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets nuclear weapons.
2. We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets nuclear weapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran’s progress on nuclear weapons is what Iran claims it is).
3. We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its dominance in the Middle East now, in Europe in the next few years or decades, and ultimately in America.
4. Or, we can stand down now, and pick up the fight later when the Jihad is more widespread and better armed, perhaps after the Jihad has dominated France and Germany and possibly most of the rest of Europe. It will, of course, be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier.

If you oppose this war, you are effectively condemning our children and grandchildren to live in an Islamic America under the Mullahs and the Sharia, an America that resembles Iran today.

welcome to the choir

Larry Norman, "father of christian rock music", left the planet on the same day as grandmother.

led zeppelin would be proud

i've heard of yellow-dogs and blue-dogs, but now dustbury is reporting some black dogs in the democratic party. :)

look again

at language

Who gave us the terms "Left" and "Right"? The atheistic, murderous French Revolutionaries, who were themselves on the Left Bank of the Seine, and whose implacable enemies were on the Right Bank of the Seine. These monsters, overshadowed by the evils of other Leftists later, were quite prepared, by their own admission, to kill one quarter of the population of France - many millions of people - to achieve their revolutionary aims.

Who invented the terms "liberal," "conservative," "progressive," "reactionary," "revolutionary," "radical," and "moderate" in the sense that we use those terms today? Karl Marx and those who largely accepted the Marxian view of things created this lexicon of political shades. Marx, who influenced Lenin, Mussolini and Mao, has been allowed from the grave to give us those words that we use to describe our politics today.

Orwell presciently told us that language is the key to politics. He also warned us that the intention of those who seek power was to drain meaning from words so that we could not cogently grasp the enemy or his weapons.

and hoover vs. f.d.r.

Herbert Hoover, Republican

• Race: In 1924, Hoover maintains that America's anti-Japanese immigration quotas are wrong, full stop.
• Integrity: Hoover disdains anti-Semitic jokes, and stands against tricks "to smuggle fascism into America through a back door."
• WWII: Hoover is not against all wars, but against Roosevelt's handling of the war, and shares John F. Kennedy's concerns.
• Childhood: "Hoover was born in pinch poverty in the little town of West Branch, Iowa, where every home is humble."
• Hobbies: "Hoover [the poor country pupil] entertained himself with sticks and tacks, strings, wires and nails and the assortment of things the village smithy leaves scattered in the shade of the chestnut tree."
• Education: Hoover, the orphan, worked his way though Stanford, because he was not too proud to do laundry work.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democrat

• Race: During WWII, FDR sends Japanese families to "internment camps" while many white Germans are free to play, and travel.
• Integrity: Like so many Democrats, President Roosevelt adopts a fondness for anti-Semitic jokes.
• WWII: FDR often falls out with Churchill, makes a series of costly blunders, and falls in love with Stalin.
• Childhood: Roosevelt was America's little Lord Fauntleroy, the child of a Hudson River squire. He grew up in Hyde Park, NY.
• Hobbies: "Franklin played with imported toys under the tutelage and protection of a governess [to the age of fourteen!], which ever is the nicest term." Then, he was off to Groton, the elite preparatory school.
• Education: Franklin Roosevelt's daddy dear, paid his son's way into Harvard, living "on the Gold Coast" and then Columbia.

both links via molten thought

road hazards

some due to rage, more due to ignorance and inattention

something i never thought i'd say

Clinton Obama 08!

:)

"It Takes a Village to Steal an Election"

Looks like the Clinton machine is at it again:

Black voters are heavily represented in the 94th Election District in Harlem’s 70th Assembly District. Yet according to the unofficial results from the New York Democratic primary last week, not a single vote in the district was cast for Senator Barack Obama.

That anomaly was not unique. In fact, a review by The New York Times of the unofficial results reported on primary night found about 80 election districts among the city’s 6,106 where Mr. Obama supposedly did not receive even one vote, including cases where he ran a respectable race in a nearby district.

City election officials this week said that their formal review of the results, which will not be completed for weeks, had confirmed some major discrepancies between the vote totals reported publicly — and unofficially — on primary night and the actual tally on hundreds of voting machines across the city.

Vince Foster and Ron Brown could not be reached for comment.

slaveowners then and now

apology nothing, how about reparations?

letter to both sides

Fellow GOMLPer The View From Out Here wrote an open letter to both of the political parties:

As a citizen of this, the greatest country on earth, I want to say that I find the choices you have given me to be disgusting. The lack of consideration for the voices of American citizens shows that both parties desire power above the good of the country.

My first grievance is the continued lack of response to American citizen’s cries to stop illegal immigration. The influx of illegal immigrants and the rush to grant them all the privileges of citizens has lowered our standard of living and taken away benefits of citizenship. Both parties have worked to give this group amnesty so they can win them as voters. When we rose up you backed off, till you thought we were asleep again. But I am not.

The next issue is your desire to enslave the people through expansion of government programs. The expansion of the safety net that will turn our nation into a cradle to the grave social state goes against the founding principles of this country. Look to Europe, Socialism has not worked there. Yet you seek to choke the life out of our country, through government give aways, so that the citizens will vote for your party perpetually.

It may be too late to have a good choice for President, but I state my intent to work to elect people to congress who will uphold the foundations of our country, and work for the freedoms of the people.

, and recommends that if you agree, "print it out and place it on both the Republican and Democratic parties offices in your city or county."

The Abomination of Taxation

and we don't even get to rest on the seventh day...

10 reasons to doubt global warming

(paraphrased)

the first five:

1. It hasn’t gotten warmer in the past seven years.
2. The Sun, which by itself accounts for about 99.8% of the solar system’s mass, just might have a profound impact on the temperature.
3. There is a lot of money in global warming. There have been charges laid against companies like Exxon/Mobil for paying for climate change research, however, there is more money involved in proving the theory than debunking it.
4. Kyoto isn’t about reducing carbon... Kyoto “is not a simple environmental issue... This is about international relations, this is about the economy, about trying to create a level playing field for big businesses throughout the world... the Kyoto Protocol is “the first component of authentic global governance.”
5. Regardless of what really happens, the alarmists fit reality into their predictions, or they just ignore reality completely.
   

then the second five begins with this:

In 1895, the New York Times was telling America to stock up on firewood, because the Ice Age was coming... Then in the 20s, the Earth got a fever and temperatures increased a half a degree, leading the Times to report on the new impending doom: global warming. In 1954, the Earth was destined to freeze again... This global cooling talk went through the 70s and the first Earth Day... In 1974 Fortune wrote:

“It is the root cause of a lot of that unpleasant weather around the world and they warn that it carries the potential for human disasters of unprecedented magnitude,”

Sound familiar?... either way they were certain we were doomed. And remember, those journalists didn’t just make these stories up out of thin air. Each one was backed up with science. Or so they thought.

read both links.

but don't question his patriotism!

update 2: Hussein also refuses to salute the American flag.

update & bump: Lamest. Apology. Ever.

Barack Hussein Obama refuses to wear an American flag pin, and there are Che Guevara flags hanging in his campaign offices. Maybe he doesn't personally idolize that communist mass-murderer, but his staffers sure do.

valentine 08

as per usual, nothing special about this day for me. go read this, which is far better than both this and this combined.

salutes

America's newest Korean War fighter ace, Retired Lt. Gen. Charles G. Cleveland.

Southeast Oklahoma's newest Electronic Gaming Regulation Enforcement Agent, Local Malcontent.

on meaninglessness

great title, great concept: Of Pro Bowls and Nematodes

new york london paris munich

everybody talk about hot planet!

the sun rises on the west

Even though Ibn Warraq doesn't mention the theological underpinnings, he proves the West's superiority of values.

The World Turned Upside Down

A few centuries ago the British bemoaned their cultural upheaval in song. Unfortunately it seems time to start singing a new version, inspired by this pathetic bit of news: "Archbishop of Canterbury argues for Islamic law in Britain"

Listen to me and you shall hear,
news hath not been this thousand year:
Since Herod, Caesar, and many more,
you never heard the like before.
Holy days are despised.
new fashions are devised.
Old Christmas is kicked out of Town.
Yet let's be content, and the times lament,
You see the world turn'd upside down.

The wise men did rejoice to see
our Savior Christ's Nativity:
The Angels did good tidings bring,
the Shepherds did rejoice and sing.
Let all honest men,
take example by them.
Why should we from good Laws be bound?
Yet let's be content, and the times lament,
You see the world turn'd upside down.

P.C. now reigns, we must obey
and quite forget the Christian way.
Kill three thousand men, or two towers fall?
We must not say a word at all!
The world must all be linked,
while we just feast and drink.
And then strange notions will abound.
Yet let's be content, and the times lament,
You see the world turn'd upside down.

Our Lefts and Rights and Centrists too
dare not offend a soul (but you):
Deploying sappers at our wall,
invaders shan't be hindered at all.
They count it as good
to play Robin Hood
while good men in bad laws are drowned.
Yet let's be content, and the times lament,
You see the world turn'd upside down.

A list of rulers, truly mad -
Ayatollah to Ahmenadijad -
slay all who stand to block their paths.
Dance halls and bus stops? Now bloodbaths.
The deaths of innocents they rejoice
with insane ululating voice.
Jew, Gentile, Hindu - no quarter found.
Yet let's be content, and the times lament,
You see the world turn'd upside down.

The mullahs will rejoice aloud
to make their western mushroom clouds,
and stoning women and children to death
won't cause them even one sad breath.
Now stand, my brothers, to cease
their bloodthirsty cult of "peace"!
And once again we shall hear
true peace throughout the year.
Let's not be content, and weakly lament,
To see the world turn'd upside down.

update: sadly, it's not just "across the pond" any more

ClearPlay

This looks like a good idea: a self-censoring DVD player.

how about "America is great, ignore the whiners."

Lileks has a six-word motto for the NYTimes, and its little poll too, "Hundreds of snippets of derisive snark."

"You can picture the satisfied little grins on the authors’ faces; you can imagine the whole tableau – the computer (which most people in the world will never touch, let alone use, let alone own) the TV in the corner connected to a network that has channels catering to every taste, the iPod stocked with music hoovered up free of charge without consequence, the fridge stocked with food – the light comes on when you open the door, too, unless it’s burned out, and then you go to the store and get another one; they always have another one. The soft bed, the coffee machine, the well-fed pet, the vast panoply of free information and unfettered opinion flowing 24/7 from the internet. You can drink alcohol without being sentenced to death; you can be a girl alone in a room with a man without earning a public stoning; you can stand up in a room and argue for the candidate of your choice without being arrested; you stand in a society that allows for astonishing amounts of freedom, comfort and opportunity. But.

But. Someone somewhere is a practicing Baptist and someone somewhere else is eating a hamburger larger than you’d prefer, and other people are watching cars go around a track at high speed. As your skinny unhappy friend said the other night: people are just too fat and happy. He bites his nails and plays WoW six hours a night, but he has a point. It doesn’t matter that these fascists-in-fetal-form never quite seem to accomplish anything; it’s not like they drove the gay Teletubbies off the air or had Tony Kushner drawn and quartered in the public square. But they’re preventing something. Something wonderful. And they’re driving large cars to Wal-Mart and putting 18-roll packs of Charmin in the back and they have three kids. Earth has withstood a lot in its four billion years, but it cannot withstand them. And even if it does, who wants to live in a world where these people don’t care that they’re being mocked by small, underfunded theaters in honest, gritty neighborhoods?"

my motto for that article is "read the rest, it gets better."

"progress"ing us off a cliff

Bidinotto says "anybody but McCain"

"While the (Jonah) Goldberg article zeroes in on Democrat "progressives" like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, he surprisingly -- and completely inconsistently -- gives a pass to Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain. McCain embodies not Wilsonian progressivism, like the other two; rather, he embodies Teddy Roosevelt progressivism. Here's a candidate who calls himself "conservative," but who spends much of his time channeling bully-boy Teddy R while bashing corporations, extolling "patriotism" over "profits," assaulting the First Amendment (McCain-Feingold), pushing hardcore environmentalism (no oil drilling in Alaska; imposing cap-and-trade restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions; touting the horrors of "global warming"), voting against major tax cuts, demanding individual self-sacrifice on behalf the great unifying causes of The State -- and calling us "my friends" while he picks our pockets and directs our lives.

If Mike Huckabee embodies the extreme social-conservatism minority within the GOP, McCain represents a resurrection of progressivism, long-interred since the early twentieth century. And his brand of progressive statism, like Hillary's, borrows from an ugly intellectual tradition long denied by progressives, but thoroughly exposed by Goldberg: fascism.

No, Bidinotto is not saying that the election of Hillary, Obama, or McCain will be a harbinger of brownshirts in the streets kicking down doors and beating up writers, bloggers, and editors like...well, like me. No, modern times require more sophisticated methods of social control and coercion. Like compulsory "national service" programs, in which we will all be required to do our Patriotic Duty by participating in various "progressive" social causes. Like controls on political activity and political speech via the IRS and "campaign finance reforms."

For people on the right, opposition to the liberal, Wilsonian progressivism of Hillary and Obama is a no-brainer. But in their visceral reactions against liberal Democrat progressives, many of these same right-wingers seem poised to rush headlong and without reflection into the waiting arms of conservative Republican progressive John McCain.

On the heels of George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" -- i.e., big-government altruism on behalf of conservative values -- John McCain's selection as the GOP leader would be a further ideological disaster for the party, and for the nation. His ascendancy would cement in place within American politics two hard-core variants of statism as the only major-party alternatives, and thus effectively banish the individualist/limited-government faction from participation in the political process.

That trend has been underway for decades, with growing numbers of Republican candidates doing their best to repudiate and run from the party's individualist premises. Some of the better conservatives, like George Will and Rush Limbaugh, have been sounding the alarm. So has Objectivist writer Robert Tracinski, the most philosophically astute of the various commentators.

But now, with the best GOP candidates (Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson) gone, and two remaining candidates (Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul, in their own ways just as bad ideologically as McCain) not realistically in contention, that leaves the underwhelming Mitt Romney as the last best hope of stopping McCain. But at this point, unless Romney manages to pull the proverbial rabbit out of the proverbial hat (I turn my secular eyes to California tonight, and desperately offer up a secular prayer), then the fall election will be a choice between Tweedledee liberal progressivism and Tweedledum conservative progressivism. And either way the election turns out, the next four years will be a statist nightmare."

(emphases mine)

I'm not ready to say who I'd vote for in a McCain-vs-either-dem race (update: CSM is), but in the "lesser of two evils" sense it might feel like a choice between cthulhu and morgoth...

undersea cable cut

If you pay close attention to online news, you may have heard about undersea communications lines being cut around the Middle East. While Occam's Razor might point to an earthquake in the region, the comments here are much more entertaining. I'll paraphrase the best ones:

First time is an accident. Second time's a coincidence. Third time it's a conspiracy. So what's the fourth time, profit???

It was American Tech Support, getting revenge for all the outsourcing.

USS Jimmah say hai!!1!

Cloverfield?

of course, i had to add

"lolsquid say "i'm on ur seaflor chuwin ur cablz nom nom nom""

stuck in the commune

Get Offa My Lawn Party member Twisted Spinster is upset about what will happen to the TV series 24:

"...it’s a shame that yet another apparently hard-hitting and gritty show is going to be shoved into the Very Special Lesson cesspool...

...(also) two extremely obnoxious "Global Warming Will Kill Cuddly Things" spots, one by the World Wildlife Federation (due to the length, the lies told — it uses those shots of polar bears floating on ice floes as emotional manipulation devices, images which we know to have been edited in such a way as to not show the fact that the bears were floating next to much larger and more solid ice sheets which they could easily reach by their usual method of just swimming over to them — and the gulpy sobbing voice of the actress they used I have resolved never to give them a dime in contribution); and another by some website which uses the anti-appeal of a Cute Widdle Kids montage of them each saying “Tick.” “Tick.” “Tick.” “Tick.” “Tick.” until I hit the mute button... Way to get me on your side, Glopaholics.

But it’s always been like this. Dealing with what our so-called entertainment media sees fit to serve up to us here in the US of A has always been an exercise in torment for anyone who thinks that art should not take a back seat to teaching five-year-olds how to share their toys. Unfortunately to get into power in this country... you have to be the sort of person who really believes that the rest of the nation is comprised of toddlers clutching their dollies stubbornly to their chests. I don’t think I have to give any examples, do I? Just think of the upcoming election, or look at the night’s television schedule. The media, of course, is part of the powers that run this country. Back when I was young the problem was an entertainment industry hamstrung by the need to be “proper” according to the standards of no later than twenty years previous. In the Sixties and Seventies that meant the Forties and Fifties was the touchstone of progress, and Depression-era decorum was the norm, which meant only women on TV wore white gloves and hats when they went outdoors. Today, in the supposedly progressive first decade of the 21st century, our Baby-Boomer-run media empire has stalled in those halcyon days when women considered themselves “emancipated” if they were living with bearded stoners, being called “my old lady,” and serving mushroom tea instead of coffee to all the bearded stoner’s bearded stoner pals. There have been a few attempts to crawl at least into the Reagan era, but for the most part we’re stuck in the commune..."

(slightly edited)

what a wonderful world it would be :P

I was a little young to have paid close attention to Jimmy Carter's administration at the time. Except for hearing about high interest rates and gas prices (plus having a vague sense of malaise), I had no idea then how his presidency was.

But these days, the more I hear about him, the less I think of him. And the following article really sealed that low opinion - Jimmy thinks that Jesus should have given in to the devil's temptation:

"What a wonderful and benevolent government Jesus could have set up. How exemplary justice would have been. Maybe there would have been Habitat projects all over Israel for anyone who needed a home. And the proud, the rich, and the powerful could not have dominated their fellow citizens. As a twentieth-century governor and president I would have had a perfect pattern to follow. I could have pointed to the Bible and told other government leaders, "This is what Jesus did 2000 years ago in government. Why don't we do the same?""

The author adds some choice words,

"Carter places the miracles of government bureaucracy ahead of those of his own church, yet still wonders why the largest single contingent of Baptists in the country is skeptical of his New Covenant. "I treat theological arguments gingerly but am bolder when it comes to connecting my religious beliefs with life and current events in the world, even when the issues are controversial," Carter writes in Living Faith. In other words, the details of scripture are uninteresting until they offer a rationale for Carter's left-wing predilections or somehow justify the four years of tribulation known as his presidency."

and FrankJ adds elsewhere,

"So if you're wondering what means liberals think are okay to achieve their goals, the line is apparently drawn somewhere beyond deals with Satan."

math against tyranny?

why the electoral college is still a good idea

to the uttermost

Herescope excerpted part of a great sermon which should be read in its entirety. Here is part of the conclusion:

Was there ever a poor needy object that came and tell down at the feet of Christ when upon earth, whom that blessed Man of Sorrows sent away unheeded? Not one! And has He not now the same tender feelings, and are not these all united with infinite power, mercy, grace, and love? Thus He is able to save to the uttermost... However desperate the circumstances of the case may be, the Lord's arm is long enough and strong enough to pluck His child out of the depths of the Fall. Why? Because He ever liveth to make intercession for them; because the steam of His incense ever fills the court of heaven above. By sitting at God's right hand in glory, majesty, and power, "he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him."

Shall not this be more or less our experience to the end of our days? Shall we ever get beyond this coming to God by Jesus Christ, and being saved experimentally by His blood and righteousness.'? No, there will be a daily coming to the Lord through Jesus Christ, – coming as poor and needy, having nothing and being nothing, and looking up to Him to supply all our wants out of His fulness, seeing we are destitute and have nothing but rags, and ruin, and misery in ourselves. It is thus we get comfort, and crown Him Lord of all. And what a precious thing it is for a poor sinner who is come to the Lord, though it may be from the ends of the earth, to know that He is a God that cannot lie! He hath said, "All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me, and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out."

csm: "the religion of peace strikes again"

There can be no more apt title than the one Cheat Seeking Missiles made for this sickening story.

If serving Allah includes hiding behind retarded women while murdering innocent people (and pedophilia), put me down as the Anti-Allah.

time was...

If you're not already reading "The Daily Spurgeon", I would highly recommend it.

Time was... when every shower of rain was seen to come from heaven, when every ray of sunshine was blessed, and God was thanked for having given fair weather to ingather the fruits of the harvest. Then, men talked of God as doing everything. But in our days where is our God? We have the laws of matter... We talk now of phenomena, and of the chain of event, as if all things happened by machinery, as if the world were a huge clock which had been wound up in eternity, and continued to work without a present God. Nay, not only our philosophers, but even our poets rant in the same way. They sing of the works of Nature. But who is that fair goddess, Nature? Is she a heathen deity, or what? Do we not act as if we were ashamed of our God, or as if his name had become obsolete? Go abroad wherever you may, you hear but little said concerning Him who made the heavens, and who formed the earth and the sea; but everything is nature, and the laws of motion and of matter. And do not Christians often use words which would lead you to suppose that they believed in the old goddess, Luck, or rested in that equally false deity, Fortune, or trembled before the demon of Misfortune? Oh for the day when God shall be seen, and little else beside!

sick sad world

oh woe is we!

how can we have "no child left behind"? let no child get ahead!

yet another quagmire!

real men

...are still needed today:

You see a lot of things which are called men, who turn the way the wind blows; a number of preachers that turn north, south, east and west, just according as the times shall dictate and their circumstances and the hope of gain shall drift them. I pray God to send a few men with what the Americans call “grit” in them; men who when they know a thing to be right, will not turn away, or turn aside, or stop, men who will persevere all the more because there are difficulties to meet or foes to encounter; who stand all the more true to their Master because they are opposed; who, the more they are thrust into the fire, the hotter they become, who, just like the bow, the further the string is drawn, the more powerfully will it send forth its arrows, and so, the more they are trodden upon, the more mighty will they become in the cause of truth against error.

conservative leadership

if it's not fred, it may be scott.

update 1: well crud.

update 2: sad but true, however...

if 1) there is "no taxation without representation" and 2) there are no conservatives in government, then it should follow that conservatives no longer have to pay taxes, right?

re: Dana Jacobson

Let's leave the fatwas to the Muslims

Quagmire!

If you thought the "War on Terror" and "War on Drugs" have been bad, the "War on Poverty" has been absolutely devastating! Pull out now!!

;)

the stifling of dissent, part 8375692

yet another example of the left's mantra of "free speech for us"...

the osprey works

some of us already knew it would...

go fly a... balloon

this one made it almost twenty miles up

party time

update & bump: Welcome all visitors from McGehee, HotAir, and beyond!

Since neither of the major US political parties are truly (i.e. small-government) conservative, it might be time to start a new political party - GET OFFA MY LAWN!

The preliminary platform is:

You want to tax me for the bribes you’re offering people to vote for you? GET OFFA MY LAWN!

You want to impose limits on the kinds of food I eat, based on junk science? GET OFFA MY LAWN!

You want to drag the freest and most prosperous society in human history back to the Stone Age because some wacko claims we’re going to burn the planet to a crisp and drown those cuddly polar bears? GET OFFA MY LAWN!

You want to kill me and everyone else who doesn’t share your belief in the holiness of a meteorite in Mecca? GET OFFA MY LAWN!

update: Dustbury wants a logo, so here's my take:

what more reason do you have?

Wry Mouth ridicules belief in the imaginary. :)

don't be (whatever it is that i happen to think is) evil

certain quotes stand out of the (several) pages of this article:

"Evil," says Google CEO Eric Schmidt, "is what Sergey says is evil."

...it's difficult to say on which side of the good-evil line the company's China resolution falls. Brin seems at peace with how it all turned out.

Talking about his decisions and the values he holds most dear, Brin chooses his language carefully, but one word he repeatedly comes back to is "useful."

If Brin's code of good and evil permits the company to negotiate with sovereign governments and allows for some legal meddling from unpopular religions, there is no wiggle room - no gray area whatsoever - when it comes to those who attempt to subvert the power of Google to their own commercial ends. One thing Brin is sure of: On the side of evil lies trickery.

The fact that Google accepts advertising for adult content sites is an intriguing commentary on Brin's morality: Cigarettes and booze are evil; porn is not. It's a policy that would become progressively harder to defend were Google to go public.

What if an influential group of politically active netizens makes a rousing case for boycotting Google on the grounds that it is anti-free speech and in cahoots with repressive governments? How long can a hugely powerful company that plays its decisions so close to the vest and refuses to justify itself publicly count on the devotion of the average information-hungry Web user?

It's inevitable that a company of Google's size and influence will have to compromise on purity.

and also in context of these articles:

Hiding in Plain Sight, Google Seeks More Power

Google permits ads for spamware, rejects firearms-related ads

the curse

update: viewpoint has more on the topic.

I knew how much she inspired cursing in others, now here's some curses straight from the horse's... mouth (not safe for work, play, or government):

Selwyn Duke's list

Tammy Bruce's list

and let's not forget the clinton body count, which, if even one of them is true, should immediately disqualify hillary.

on the weekdays

another spurgeon excerpt:

Our religion is to be an everyday religion — a religion for the kitchen as well as for the parlor, a religion for the rolling pin, and the jack-towel, quite as much as for the pulpit stairs and the Bible — a religion that we can take with us wherever we go. And there is such a thing as glorifying Christ in all the common actions of life. “Servants be obedient to your masters, not only to those who are good and gentle, but to the froward.” You men of business, you need not think that when you are measuring your ribbons, or weighing out your pounds of sugar, or when you are selling, or buying, or going to market, and such like, that you cannot be serving Christ. Why a builder can serve Christ in putting his bricks together, and you can serve Christ in whatever you are called to do with your hands, if you do it as unto the Lord, and not unto men. I remember Mr. Jay once said, that if a shoeblack were a Christian, he could serve Christ in blacking shoes. He ought to black them, he said, better than anyone else in the parish; and then people would say, “Ah, this Christian shoeblack, he is conscientious; he won’t send the boots away with the heels half done, but will do them thoroughly.” And so ought you. You can say of every article you sell, and of everything you do, “I turned that out of my hands in such a manner that it shall defy competition. The man has got his money’s worth; he cannot say I am a rogue or a cheat. There are tricks in many trades, but I will not have anything to do with them; many get money fast by adulteration in trade, but I will not do it, I would sooner be poor than do it.”

ze sky, she notta fallin

Lileks doesn't look forward to today (edited).

...top-of-the-hour radio news with the newsreaders using their Important Concern inflection because G**-forbid the story should speak for itself. Then tomorrow there will be an editorial cartoon that has someone selling apples. Panic. Stupid, useless snowballing hysteria. I’m not worried about the economy at this point; I’m worried what people will do save it. Rebates! Oh, that’s grand. Nothing restores fundamental consumer confidence like shoving money in their hands and yelling SPEND IT! SPEND IT NOW! ON ANYTHING! THROW PILLOWS! STEEPLY DISCOUNTED HD-DVD PLAYERS! BLOWN-GLASS GEEGAWS! TRAILER HITCHES! BUCKETS OF PICKLES! IT DOESN’T MATTER! Or you could tax everyone more so they feel poorer, so they spend less, then wonder why retail sales are down, commercial property is soft, and business tax receipts have cratered.

Just leave it all alone, please. It’s like a cold. You can put it off and cover it up but you’re going to have three miserable shuddering days of congestion and hacking no matter what you do. Unless you take zinc, of course.

That’s it! Spray the markets with zinc!

I’m not an economist, but I’ve noted something interesting. Since we decided that ethanol would be the cure to our “addiction to oil,” we managed to bump up the cost of corn, encourage a shift to corn production, and raise the price of foodstuffs. Which fueled inflation fears. Now that we have increased inflation, we have a fear of a recession, which drives the price of oil down, since demand is expected to slump. The price of gas has gone down a quarter in the last ten days, and it’s idling in the low $2.8x range. As others have noted, the cure for $100 barrel oil is $100 barrel oil. It all works out. There’s a boom and then there’s a bust. Having lived through a few, it’s annoying to hear the same fargin’ end-of-the-world hairshirt orations, especially from those who have spent their entire lives walking around with a bucket of black paint and a brush looking for good news to deface...

We’re not even in a recession, but you’d think the morning sun was about to be blotted out by the rain of money managers hurling themselves out windows. Of course the news is bad. The news is always bad. Even the good news is bad, eventually. If they cured cancer tomorrow it would take a day before analysts worried about the impact on Medicare, what with people living so d*** long and all.

what reason do you have?

Where Eddie said "I don't wanna speak to yer little gawd", Spurgeon elaborated:

Our God is a spirit, and his hands made the heavens and the earth: well may we worship him, and we need not be disturbed at the sneering question of those who are so insane as to refuse to adore the living God, and yet bow their knees before images of their own carving. We may make an application of all this to the times in which we are now living. The god of modern thought is the creation of the thinker himself, evolved out of his own consciousness, or fashioned according to his own notion of what a god should be.

Now, it is evident that such a being is no God. It is impossible that there should be a God at all except the God of revelation. A god who can be fashioned by our own thoughts is no more a God than the image manufactured or produced by our own hands. The true God must of necessity be his own revealer. It is clearly impossible that a being who can be excogitated and comprehended by the reason of man should be the infinite and incomprehensible God. Their idols are blinded reason and diseased thought, the product of men's muddled brains, and they will come to nought.

update: yet another take on this theme.

peak oil?

maybe later...

back to steyn

it's been too long since i've quoted mark steyn, so here's a few:

"After all, Granite State conservatism is not known for its religious fervor: it prefers small government, low taxes, minimal regulation, the freedom to be left alone by the state. So they're voting for a guy who opposed the Bush tax cuts, and imposed on the nation the most explicit restriction in political speech in years. Better yet, after a freezing first week of January and the snowiest December in a century, New Hampshire conservatives are googoo for a fellow who believes in the scariest of global-warming scenarios and all the big-government solutions necessary to avert them. Well, okay, maybe we can rustle up an alternative to the alternative. Rudy Giuliani's team are betting than after a Huck/McCain seesaw through the early states, by January 29th Florida voters will be ready to unite their party behind a less divisive figure, if by "less divisive figure" you mean a pro-abortion gun-grabbing cross-dresser."

"Don't worry about (Obama's) "Change You Can Believe In" shtick. He doesn't believe in it, and neither should you. He's a fresh face on the same-old-same-old — which is the only change Democrats are looking for."

"the sub-text of both Democrat and Republican messages is essentially that this country is so rich it can afford to be stupid — it can afford to pork up the federal budget; it can afford to put middle-class families on government health care; it can afford to surrender its borders."

"(the Americal electorate is) tired of the artificial and, indeed, creepily coercive secular multiculti pseudo-religion imposed on American grade schools... I think it's actually connected to the jihad, in the sense that radical Islamism is an opportunist enemy which has arisen in the wake of the western world's one-way multiculturalism. In the long run, the relativist mush peddled in our grade schools is a national security threat. But, even in the short term, it's a form of child abuse that cuts off America's next generation from the glories of their inheritance."

true now and ever

i know, i've been there (except for translating latin & greek):

There are many men who are exceedingly well read in heathen mythologies; who can tell you the history of any one of the heathen gods, but who at the same time know very little of the history of Jehovah, and cannot rehearse His mighty acts. In our schools to this day there are books put into the hands of our youth that are by no means fit for them to read — books which contain all kinds of filth, and if not always filth, yet all kinds of fables and vanities, which are simply put into our hands when we are lads, because they happen to be written in Latin and Greek; and, therefore, I suppose it is imagined that we shall all the better recollect the wickedness that is contained in them, by having the trouble of translating them into our own mother tongue.

I would that instead of this, all our youth were made acquainted with the history of the Lord our God. Would that we could give them for classics some books which record what He has done, the victories of His glorious arm, and how He has put to nought the gods of the heathen and cast them down even into the depths. At any rate, the Christian will always find it to be useful to have at hand some history of what God did in the days of yore.

The more you know of God’s attributes, the more you understand of His acts; the more you treasure up of His promises, and the more you fully dive into the depths of His covenant, the more difficult will it become for Satan to tempt you to despondency and despair.

can he say that?

or can you? or can anyone?

Sen. Harry Reid has a bill in the Senate that will in effect require any blog that reaches more than 500 people and discusses politics must register with the FEC as a lobbyist.

I thought that liberals supported free speech and dissent and all that first amendment stuff. What's going on?...

...as long as I am talking to the people of the United States, whether I seek to influence their vote or not, you have absolutely no right under the Constitution to interfere with or restrict that speech in any way. Let me refresh your memory, sir:

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

If this is what the progressives call progress (ed: or change), they need a new dictionary.

p.s. our overgrown government needs to be reminded of some of the other complaints in that wonderful declaration as well (edited for modern circumstances):

(the unelected beltway bureaucracy) has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance

(the unelected beltway bureaucracy) imposing Taxes (and innumerable regulations) on us without our Consent

(the left is) abolishing our most valuable Laws (like freedom of speech and gun ownership), and (the distant bureaucracy is) altering fundamentally the Forms of our (state's rights) Governments

(true patriots) have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us

(the leftist-media complex) has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless (islamofascist terrorists), whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions

pay attention to our founding fathers? what a revolutionary thought!

six what what?

this list is to the beast what achmed the dead terrorist (nsfw) is to terrorists.

(this post inspired by this bit of odd news)

orange you glad i didn't say banana?

Normally orange is my least favorite color (except among citrus). But please consider wearing something orange today.

Not for the ACLU or DNC (boooooo)...

or the Texas Longhorns (boooooo)...

or the Denver Broncos (whatever)...

or the New York Mets (boooooo)...

Or even Daffy Duck's feet (which is a vastly superior reason than the previous five.)

But for the Local Malcontent's 39th birthday (hiphiphooray!)

"all for the common good, of course"

"There is nothing wrong with your thermostat. Do not attempt to adjust the temperature. We are controlling your power consumption. If we wish to make it hotter, we will turn off your air conditioner. If we wish to make it cooler, we will turn off your heater. For the next millennium, sit quietly and we will control your home temperature. We repeat, there is nothing wrong with your thermostat. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... SACRAMENTO!"

be careful what you wish for

one suspects that the word "change" to some politicians means all that's left of your paycheck after they take what they want (follow the link to see the picture):

Every time I hear the word ("change") I'm reminded of a post we did about a year ago that went something like this:

• The stock market, despite its current dip, has been hovering near all-time highs and America's 401K's are back.
• Unemployment is at 25-year lows.
• Taxes are at 20-year lows.
• Federal tax revenues are at all-time highs.
• The Federal deficit is trending down.
• Inflation is in check, hovering at 20-year lows.

Bear in mind that all of the above occurred in the face of the 1999 tech crash, the epidemic of corporate scandals throughout the 90's, and the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks on NYC which collectively sucked 24 trillion dollars and 7.8 million jobs out of the US economy even before G. W. Bush had time to unpack his suitcases in the White House. It has also occured despite the recent spike in oil prices and the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

• Not a single terrorist attack has struck U.S. soil since 9/11/01.
• Osama bin Laden is living in a cave, unable to surface for more than a few hours at a time, while most of al Qaeda's leadership is either dead or in custody and cooperating with U.S. intelligence services.
• Several major terrorist attacks have been thwarted in the last couple of years by US and British intelligence agencies, including a planned attack involving 10 Jumbo Jets being exploded in mid-air over major U.S. cities in order to celebrate the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
• Iraq appears to be on the road to peace and stability. Afghanistan has been liberated from the Taliban. Some of the luster of Islamo-fascism has faded among Muslims around the world.
• Several nations have decided to forego the pursuit of nuclear weapons. Others are cracking down on the movements of terrorists within their borders.
• Illegal border crossings into the U.S. have dropped sharply in the past year and continue to drop.
• The Supreme Court has seen the addition of two outstanding jurists to the bench in the last couple of years.

What on the above list do the "agents of change" currently running for the presidency propose to undo or alter? What, exactly, do they think should be different?

also take a look at this somewhat-related cartoon.

Where I'm From

(preface: To reiterate, despite the blog name, I've never been to Hattiesburg, much less lived there. I'm sure it's a fine city though.)

Since there's (deliberately) no "about me" link on this blog, I decided to try my hand at a "Where I'm From" post. Inspired by a Texas Trifle, who shares quite a bit of the same background as me but is a much better writer.

---

I'm from old Europe, mostly from England via Germany & Scotland. I'm from Texas, starting in Tarrant county and returning twice. I'm from flat land that's white with cotton just before it's white with snow. I'm from oil-filled mesas and pine-filled lowlands. I'm from cities that defend America and from towns that clothe America.

I'm from allergen to allergen and dust to dust. I'm from 1 to 6 feet of rain per year, and from -14 to 108 degrees Fahrenheit, with gusts over 100 mph. I'm from 11-mile-high thunderheads driving 200-foot rust-colored walls ahead of them. I'm from goatheads, tumbleweeds, devils claws and dirt clods. I'm from irrigation ditches, and the motors that fill them six days a week.

I'm from barbershops that have Koken chairs, no music, drowned combs, and a globe full of candy from the Lions Club. I'm from diners where the adults all know each other, the kids get their heads patted, and the paneling has never been replaced. I'm from stores like Perry's & Woolworth's that have affordable non-branded toys and clothes. I'm from highways where passing isn't always possible, but speeding usually is.

I'm from 8-tracks of Floyd Cramer and Danny Davis and The Carpenters. I'm from the Charlies called Daniels, Pride, Rich, and Angels. I'm from Price Is Right, Hazel, and Ultraman. I'm from Hee-Haw vs Star Trek. I'm from Three Dog Night, Ted Nugent, Van Halen (not hagar), Devo, Styx, Boston, and Thin Lizzie. I'm from KLOL, KY99, KTRU, and the old KOMA. I'm from people who remember back when entertainment didn't have to be morally and intellectually offensive.

I'm from JCPenneys, Chess King, Vans, Ocean Pacific, Levis, London Fog, Converses, & Sears. I'm from Victorian to stucco to brick. I'm from tractor pulls, air shows, and art shows (some of which don't even show windmills or canadian geese). I'm from 2, 7, 1-9 and 10-4, 10-2-4, 22's, the I's of 27 30 35 40 and 45, 42*, 44oz, C64, 66*, the 77s, 81, 84*, 91, 242, 287, the V's of 289 351 400 and 460, 464, 806 and 817, 2068 and 2112. (* in multiple senses). I'm from the ghosts of Alzheimers, Camels, pesticides, arteriosclerosis, Aspergers, SIDS, and various carcinomas. I'm from avocado appliances, dark paneling, gold carpet, credenzas and divans.

I'm from panfried porkchops, goatmeat tamales, ranchstyle beans, iceless tea (and the accompanying odd looks), cornbread in castiron, elbow macaroni and government cheese. I'm from Burger King and Dairy Queen, Mr. Burger and Mrs. Bairds, Allsups, Furrs, Toot-n-Totum, the Pandas called Lucky Golden Happy and Szechuan, and the tacos of Bueno, Bell, and Villa. I'm from (some) people who like peppers hotter than habanero.

I'm from church dinners featuring brisket or casseroles, and community suppers featuring kolaches or chili. I'm from six-man football, accompanied by mosquitos, noise, wind, painful seating, cold, wasps, and mud. I'm from hymnals (with occasional shape notes), quiet prayers, and happy doxologys. I'm from offerings in the velvet-lined plate followed by special music every week. I'm from sermons that were about training you right and making sure you didn't get left, rather than hyping you up or casting you down.

...and I'm sure of where I'm going to, but I have no idea what will happen before I get there.

Fred08

Though I'm not quite ready to officially endorse Fred Thompson for president, there's a lot in this 17-minute message that I agree with, and very little to disagree with.



update: Viewpoint brings up another good point about Fred. "A qualified, conscientious candidate who could otherwise either take the job or leave it, I think, has exactly the kind of attitude toward governance that we should admire in our politicians." (and while you're there, scroll down to read the paragraph that does a good job of "illustrating all at once the arrogance, pomposity, superciliousness, scorn, contempt and sense of superiority many liberals hold for their fellow man.")

how many candidates are there anyway?

i had an idea for a post to compare my viewpoints with those of each of the presidential candidates - as they are presented on each of their own websites. my first step was to find a comprehensive list of the candidates. i knew that there were a few more than the ~3 democrats and ~6 republicans who usually get any news coverage, :

D:
Biden
Clinton
Dodd
Edwards
Gravel
Kucinich
Obama
Richardson

R:
Giuliani
Huckabee
Hunter
McCain
Paul
Romney
Thompson

but i had no idea there were so many others out there:

http://www.truthusa.org/issues.htm
http://www.jaredball.com/?page_id=4
http://www.mesplay.org
http://www.prezkat.info/
http://www.draftnader.org/case-for-nader.php
http://www.imperato2008.com/imperato2008/issues.asp
http://bobjackson.org/issues.aspx
http://www.resetamerica.com/pages/core.html
http://www.kubby2008.com/node/8
http://www.link-for-pres.org/
http://phillies2008.org/issues
http://www.millionairerepublican.com/home/wherestands.php
http://www.christinesmithforpresident.com/Iraq-War.php
http://www.votebrianmoore.com/issues.htm
http://www.presidentadams.com/site/aissues2.asp
http://donaldkallenforpresident.com/
http://www.ashby2008.com/index.php?p=4
http://www.bowlesforpresident.com/id28.html
http://www.doncordellforpresident.com/#bPlatform
http://www.greenspon2008.com/Issues.asp
http://joanne21921.tripod.com/index.html
http://www.aimhigh.com/hlp/h4p/platform.html
http://www.dave08.com/index.php
http://tkozeejr.googlepages.com/home
http://www.georgekunz.org/vote2/issues.html
http://www.michaelslevinson.com/
http://home.earthlink.net/~maxhamforpresident/id11.html
http://www.callonmccall.com/presidentialviews.html
http://www.odom2008.com/issues.html
http://www.voteforjoe.com/stands/stands_domestic.html
http://www.wilson2008.com/planks.html

some of them might even be serious...

2008

my resolution this year is 1080p