Have Another Helping of Idiotic With That Turkey?

In the latest of our dispatches from tree-hugger land, we have this inspired piece of work from the Redmond Reporter, demonstrating further why the dead tree media is on the decline.

Be thankful, but true to our past

Nov 26 2008, 12:00 AM · NEW


On the fourth Thursday of every November, Americans pig out to the fullest extent while ignoring the sins of the past.

I guess I missed the part where I might somehow need to feel responsibility for things that occurred before I was born. I guess more time in the soon-to-be erected "re-education" camps will teach me where I went so tragically wrong.

Teachers have long since squashed the myth that Christopher Columbus sailed to America to prove the world was round, but some still perpetuate the myth that he was the peaceful discoverer of the American continent.

You found a school where Columbus was still part of the curriculum? That in itself is a miracle in these days of revisionist hate America first pap that you spoon feed to our children at every opportunity.

Columbus, in fact, was the precursor to a mass genocide.

gen-o-cide  [jen-uh-sahyd]

–noun the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.

Origin:
1940–45; < Gk géno(s) race + -cide
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc.

Considering that a 'precursor" is something that comes before, does that mean all of the revised histories will again have to be re-written? You know, the ones that call Columbus a murderer? Really, it is starting to get like we need a scorecard to keep track of these things any more. And Genocide? When was there ever a concerted effort on behalf of all Europeans here in the New World to systematically exterminate all living peoples? I'm fairly well versed in history, and I really don't remember coming across anything resembling a stated policy or governmental mandate to eradicate all indigenous peoples from North America. Can you say "flawed premise"? I knew you could.

More than 100 years later, the Pilgrims arrived peacefully to participate in the first Thanksgiving dinner. But, instead they opened the door to more death and destruction of the Native Americans.

Except that if it wasn't the Pilgrims, it would have been someone else. Mankind tends to stretch out in many different directions, but it really was a very skillful attempt to paint those evil Christofascist Pilgrims as murdering monsters, set on building their homes on the bones of unfortunate Indian children. Well, except for the part where I pointed out that the facts don't support the impression created. Sorry about that.

Eventually, they became the minority, captives in their own land. You can bet, they were never thankful for the famine, war, death, and plagues brought on by the Europeans.

Yeah, because they never had famine, war, death, or plagues before the Europeans came. Everybody knows that those were strictly inventions of the evil Europeans used to subjugate lands that they were not born to. All those tribes that warred with and killed each other, some times enslaving, but more frequently seeking extinction? How do you explain them? Famine? The phrase "hunger moon" did not arrive with the Europeans. Plagues? Disease does not exist in a vacuum. Simple reading in the field of epidemiology should be sufficient to convince you of this. And, since you are so blindingly ignorant of history, you might want to read up on the origins of swine flu...the native people's gift to Europeans, and the effects that it had.

Thanksgiving was a holiday created by President Abraham Lincoln to give Americans something to be thankful for during the Civil War. People can be thankful for a lot of things, but genocide should not be one of them.

Actually, the origins appear to reach back to St. Augustine in Florida, and then the Virgina and Massachusetts Colony. The Internet is a wonderful research tool. I suggest you use it to educate yourself on the true meaning of a holiday before you project your unreasonable self-loathing on the celebration of an entire nation. Yes, I know. You are not willing to let facts interfere with a serious bit of navel-gazing self-righteousness.

How can something so devastating as genocide become so overshadowed by a national holiday? Even if it happened centuries ago, a subject like genocide is something that should not be ignored no matter when it happened.

I'm not sure that such a thing can occur. I certainly have not witnessed where the Germans have a day where they load their tables with sausages and sauerkraut to celebrate the Holocaust. But then, that would be because the Holocaust was an actual, you know, genocide.

So this Thanksgiving you can be thankful for the money in your pocket or the freedom you have, but just remember the indigenous “Americans” who yearned for that freedom first.

Ok, now I'm confused. First you use the word "genocide" like a bludgeon, arguing passionately for the requirement that I feel guilt for a "genocide" that never happened, and I certainly had nothing to do with, and now you imply that our nation denied these people their 'freedoms'. They do not teach coherency in journalism course anymore, do they?

This Thanksgiving, we should be careful of what we’re grateful for.

Why this Thanksgiving? Why not last Thanksgiving? Why not next Thanksgiving? I refuse to let the triumph of form over substance that occurred in our recent Presidential election make me ashamed of being an American, or of the history of our nation, and being dictated to by sanctimonious dimwits such as yourself tends to reinforce the feeling. Somewhere, Zig Zigler is laughing hysterically at your flawed sales technique.

America, taken brutally from the natives already happily settled, built on the backs of slaves, and made powerful through numerous wars, has a bloody history.

Taken brutally from natives happily settled? You need to brush up on your native american histories. Tribes wiping entire tribes out. Enslaving others? Brutally attacking settlers who's only crime was moving into land that did not appear to be occupied. And bloody? Read some of the accounts of the French and Indian War. The tomahawk is not known for making a 'clean' wound. Built on the backs of slaves? If there was even a scintilla of truth to this assertion, then how is it that the north, with its noted absence of slaves, managed to win the Civil War? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? Compare the numbers of Americans killed in the Civil War compared to any other conflict our nation has been in, and then try to make your case for bloody.

Nearly everything Americans have to be thankful for has hurt someone else along the way.

You're right. We hurt the Axis Powers...the ones who declared war on us, when we defeated them in WWII. We hurt the North Korean communists when they attempted to brutally repress their countrymen in South Korea. Ditto for the North Vietnamese. We hurt the man in the moon with the moon landings. We hurt the eastern bloc countries when we won the Cold War and they won their freedom. We hurt Sadam Hussein when we pushed him out of Kuwait and back into his own country. We hurt him again when we removed him from power so he could no longer arbitrarily and capriciously kill Iraquis who displeased him. We hurt the whole world with velcro, microwave ovens, incandescent light, the automobile, the zipper, refrigeration, the airplane, manned spaceflight, steel, and the various advances to existing technologies and processes that the Americans are responsible for bringing to the world. We hurt other people when we put our unique take on liberty and freedom and put it into writing. We hurt other people when we breathed life into those words with the sacrifices of our brave citizens as they fell time and again on foreign shores bringing those freedoms to lands that had previously only know tyranny.

The thought behind Thanksgiving is a pure and good one – set a day apart when we gather with family and friends and remember all the many things we have to be thankful for.

And to remember other times...some good, some bad, but always to be thankful for the providence that God has blessed this nation with, and the family and friends that we are fortunate enough to spend time with, regardless of all other circumstances, past, present, and future.

And we Americans have a lot to be thankful for.

Amen. Something we can both agree on. How did that happen?

The problem isn’t what we remember; rather, the problem is what we forget.

No, the problem is that you assume that because I don't engage in a lot of silly handwringing about things that I had nothing to do with, I need the benefit of your preachy admonition.

Americans simply don’t think about the people they have to step on to get where they are. This Thanksgiving, don’t make that mistake.

Insulting and stupid. If we are indelibly stained by any misdeeds that may have been committed by our fathers and grandfathers, then I submit to you that the rest of the world has as much or more to answer for than this great nation, yet I don't see you on your soapbox wagging your finger at any other country. Why is that?

Freedom is wonderful. By all means, be grateful for it. Enjoy that turkey dinner and be thankful for our freedom, friends and family.

Thank you. I intend to.

Just don’t forget about all the people who don’t get to be grateful for American freedom.

I'm confused. Did we change the subject of your outrage screed again? Because if they live here, they get the same freedoms you and I do. If they don't, then maybe they can aspire to it where they are, and that would be a good thing.

I'm thankful that your wretched 'opinion piece' was mercifully short. I would have been more thankful if you could have checked your "Hate America First" attitude before writing it and instead penned a thoughtful, factually based piece that would have treated thanks and pride as the centerpiece, rather than a half-hearted afterthought, tossed out to deflect any deserved criticism of your page of bile.

Adrift on a Sea of Stupid

Have you ever been in the grip of the belief that it just didn't matter? Rightly or wrongly, this is how I have felt in the last few weeks. And every day, I get a little bit more to make me think that way. The video of the Obama voters who couldn't identify the speaker of astonishingly stupid Obamaisms. Glenn Beck's random calls to people, asking them pointed questions about government, politics,and the economy. We are adrift on a sea of stupid. More and more, I am convinced that we have brought about C.M. Kornbluth's Marching Morons, and the shrinking numbers of intelligent people will soon be tasked (unofficially, of course) with the burden of making the world work so the rest of the world doesn't just start dying off wholesale from their stupidity and making the rest of us choke on the odor of their own decay.

Right now it is very cold comfort to know exactly where the blame for this all lies. The left, in its insatiable quest for power in exchange for the individual's self-sufficiency appears poised to get exactly what they have plotted and schemed and worked for over the course of decades. Of course, being fixated on the goal for so long, it is clear that they have given very little thought to what it actually means. I'd pity them for their tunnel vision and the coming brainduster to be administered by our old friend, The Law Of Unintended Consequences™, but since they have destroyed a once great nation by cutting all ties with its moral roots and catering to the fickle and shortsighted nature of human emotion, I believe I'll just stoke a low fire of contempt for them instead. They will soon be able to declare that the reward of individuality that has been the great genius of this country have given way to the primacy of the lowest common denominator. Rather than aspiring to greatness, we can be enslaved to the service of the least of us. And when the left's intelligentsia comes to the inevitable conclusion that there is nothing to be gained from blaming the ultimate result of their policies on conservatism, they will finally be fully aware of what responsibilities come with the leadership of a nanny state that is hostile to innovation, freedom, and excellence.

I think about this a lot these days as I watch the Hopey-Changey One fill his cabinet with Clinton retreads. No change, no hope. Only the inevitable march toward mediocrity and national malaise that it will bring. But I guess after surveying the collective awareness of the country, maybe we did get the government we deserve. Maybe others will be considering more in the coming days.

The Right To See Things Your Way...Even If You Force It Down My Throat.

Watching the fallout from the Prop 8 vote in California has been disturbing. For anyone who has been living under a rock, the voters of California got to vote on whether to keep or get rid of their court-mandate right for gays to marry. And by a very surprising margin, the voters elected to get rid of it. The result? The rainbow and pink swastika brigades have taken it upon themselves to riot, vandalize, assault, and intimidate those who do not share their "tolerant" and "enlightened" views. This has included venom-laced invective directed against the Mormon church, which was a major contributor to the "No" campaign, leaving burning Books of Mormon at the entry ways to Mormon temples, marching and assaulting those who express different viewpoints, and "outing" and harassing various donors to the "No" campaign. I suspect that this behavior is influencing people, but not in the way that the "activists" would like. The sad thing is that in addition to sabotaging their interests, they will eventually endanger themselves by deciding to assault someone who won't be as forgiving as most of the Christians they have made a point of bullying up to this point. Unfortunately, this outbreak of asshattery is not confined to the gay and lesbian community. It is part of a larger trend of "thugocracy" which is casting its shadow across the country in the names of "Change" and "Enlightenment".

We saw this during the Presidential campaign. Joe the Plumber asks a question, and in two days, every detail of his life is laid bare, when we still knew so little about the candidate that he dared to question. When critics of Obama were scheduled to be interviewed, supporters rallied and swamped radio/TV stations with calls, threatening the stations and repeating any lie or smear to discredit the speaker. Like it or not, this was leading by example, and is an unsettling herald of the age of Obama. Now there are rumblings about a return of the Fairness Doctrine. I was and remain skeptical. I have read the court cases. There is even less justification, in the age of cable TV and satellite radio for such an overbearing imposition of federal authority. Especially when the other side has begun to grow bold enough to abandon spin in favor of fiction. However, since the left is now so emboldened, and feeling the power gained from the skillful employment of fiction, I can concede that they may well try it. After all, the acolytes of Algore and the fable of global warming have been thuggishly enforcing their rigid dogma on the scientific community and lately by extension, national governments for sometime now, regardless of the size or weight of inconvenient facts to the contrary of their new religion. But they have of course, felt justified. They are, afterall, saving us from ourselves, right. And pay no attention to the enormous profits to be reaped from the practice of selling carbon credit indulgences offsets.

The point I'm coming to is this: There is a growing movement among the left that says that the rest of us are not smart enough to decide for ourselves what is right. We aren't 'tolerant' enough. We aren't 'diverse' enough. We don't do enough for the planet, and therefore it is up to them, those who see themselves as both smarter and morally superior to us, to save us from ourselves, and they see nothing wrong with forcing us to see it their way. The lump on the back of my head is ok if Steve and Bob can get 'married'. It is ok to question authority, as long as it doesn't come with a (D) after its name. The job I used to have and the standard of living I once knew and wanted to pass to my children is an acceptable sacrifice, as long as it slows the rate of global warming that isn't really occurring...and its OK for Algore himself to have a carbon footprint the size of Godzilla on steroids because he buys those indulgences offsets himself as he is trying to save the planet from the evviiillll humans. All the behaviors the left has accused the right of committing for the last four years are those the left currently engages in now. I have been talking for a while about the Great Pushback™. It seems to me that there is a growing restlessness on the right and it won't take too much more to trigger the pushback. And on that terrible day, I don't think I'd want to be standing on the left, because I don't believe the left will be standing for long.

The ONE Will Be Deprived of Divine Communication.

An amusing story from the NYTimes...Apparently they haven't shut the doors yet...

WASHINGTON — Sorry, Mr. President. Please surrender your BlackBerry.

BLACKberry???? THAT'S JUST RACIST!!!!!!11!!

Those are seven words President-elect Barack Obama is dreading but expecting to hear, friends and advisers say, when he takes office in 65 days.

Peasants! He is THE ONE!!! He dreads nothing!!!

For years, like legions of other professionals, Mr. Obama has been all but addicted to his BlackBerry. The device has rarely been far from his side — on most days, it was fastened to his belt — to provide a singular conduit to the outside world as the bubble around him grew tighter and tighter throughout his campaign.

It must have annoyed his campaign gurus to no end...a source of info that wasn't filtered through them. Maybe it was one of his Ayers-educated friends who talked to him about the 57 states?

“How about that?” Mr. Obama replied to a friend’s congratulatory e-mail message on the night of his victory.

"There really are that many foolish people voting in this country. We didn't even need the votes we had ACORN stealing for us."

But before he arrives at the White House, he will probably be forced to sign off. In addition to concerns about e-mail security, he faces the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpoenas. A decision has not been made on whether he could become the first e-mailing president, but aides said that seemed doubtful.

Oh snap! Now we are going to have a newly recovering addict in the oval office...a guy just jonesin' for his daily fix of IM'ing on yahoo, or the BBF at The Hostages. And he'll have access to the nuclear codes. Just sayin', s'all.

For all the perquisites and power afforded the president, the chief executive of the United States is essentially deprived by law and by culture of some of the very tools that other chief executives depend on to survive and to thrive. Mr. Obama, however, seems intent on pulling the office at least partly into the 21st century on that score; aides said he hopes to have a laptop computer on his desk in the Oval Office, making him the first American president to do so.

And I'm sure that there are several laptop makers vying for the privilege of saying that it is their hardware which is preferred by the ONE.

Mr. Obama has not sent a farewell dispatch from the personal e-mail account he uses — he has not changed his address in years — but friends say the frequency of correspondence has diminished. In recent days, though, he has been seen typing his thoughts on transition matters and other items on his BlackBerry, bypassing, at least temporarily, the bureaucracy that is quickly encircling him.

"Now that we made him the President, he never writes, he never calls..." But at least he is typing his thoughts on it still. How wonderful for all involved!

A year ago, when many Democratic contributors and other observers were worried about his prospects against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, they reached out to him directly. Mr. Obama had changed his cellphone number, so e-mail remained the most reliable way of communicating directly with him.

Thus demonstrating something that the rest of us on the web learned a long time ago. It pays to have the "public" email address, and the "private" email address.

“His BlackBerry was constantly crackling with e-mails,” said David Axelrod, the campaign’s chief strategist. “People were generous with their advice — much of it conflicting.”

"Crackling"? Now I just have a lowly Motorola, and IM/Text will only a few choice persons, but if my electronic communication device "Crackled", I would change the chime, or GET A NEW ONE. No wonder he and Michelle are always shouting at us. They have no nerves left after hearing the damn thing crackle all the time.

Mr. Obama is the second president to grapple with the idea of this self-imposed isolation. Three days before his first inauguration, George W. Bush sent a message to 42 friends and relatives that explained his predicament.

Maybe he can use the cleaning staff to smuggle messages back and forth between himself and Bombing Billy Ayers.

“Since I do not want my private conversations looked at by those out to embarrass, the only course of action is not to correspond in cyberspace,” Mr. Bush wrote from his old address, G94B@aol.com. “This saddens me. I have enjoyed conversing with each of you.”

Thus ruling out the Clinton Precedent of having people meet with accidents when they become inconvenient.

But in the interceding eight years, as BlackBerrys have become ubiquitous — and often less intrusive than a telephone, the volume of e-mail has multiplied and the role of technology has matured. Mr. Obama used e-mail to stay in constant touch with friends from the lonely confines of the road, often sending messages like “Sox!” when the Chicago White Sox won a game. He also relied on e-mail to keep abreast of the rapid whirl of events on a given campaign day.

But now that he has ascended to office, he can feel free to communicate through his mental telepathy, when he isn't using to root out those who resist his onerous brand of "Hope" and "Change".

Mr. Obama’s memorandums and briefing books were seldom printed out and delivered to his house or hotel room, aides said. They were simply sent to his BlackBerry for his review. If a document was too long, he would read and respond from his laptop computer, often putting his editing changes in red type.

In otherwords, he acted like a "newstyle" attorney. Less to shred, but God help you if you get hacked.

His messages to advisers and friends, they say, are generally crisp, properly spelled and free of symbols or emoticons. The time stamps provided a window into how much he was sleeping on a given night, with messages often being sent to staff members at 1 a.m. or as late as 3 a.m. if he was working on an important speech.

I tend to think that if he can email all the time without an emoticon, then he probably isn't a very complex person...not that I find that very surprising. The singular drawback of email is that there is no facial expression or body language to be read. That rules out humor, sarcasm, and irony, which any "executive" worth the title will have in their quiver of arrows.

He received a scaled-down list of news clippings, with his advisers wanting to keep him from reading blogs and news updates all day long, yet aides said he still seemed to hear about nearly everything in real time. A network of friends — some from college, others from Chicago and various chapters in his life — promised to keep him plugged in.

I understand. When I do not get to read my normal daily blogroll, I get a little testy myself.

Not having such a ready line to that network, staff members who spent countless hours with him say, is likely to be a challenge.

Kind of like a heroin addict needing a fix kind of challenge. Good luck to them.

“Given how important it is for him to get unfiltered information from as many sources as possible, I can imagine he will miss that freedom,” said Linda Douglass, a senior adviser who traveled with the campaign.

Again, I'm not surprised. I'm not so foolish as to believe that there is any source of information that doesn't come with a bias; I just want to be able to select the bias. He's losing that choice.

Mr. Obama has, for at least brief moments, been forced offline. As he sat down with a small circle of advisers to prepare for debates with Senator John McCain, one rule was quickly established: No BlackBerrys. Mr. Axelrod ordered everyone to put their devices in the center of a table during work sessions. Mr. Obama, who was known to sneak a peek at his, was no exception.

A big difference between a meeting and years.

In the closing stages of the campaign, as exhaustion set in and the workload increased, aides said Mr. Obama spent more time reading than responding to messages. As his team prepares a final judgment on whether he can keep using e-mail, perhaps even in a read-only fashion, several authorities in presidential communication said they believed it was highly unlikely that he would be able to do so.

Duh!!! His time is no longer his own.

Diana Owen, who leads the American Studies program at Georgetown University, said presidents were not advised to use e-mail because of security risks and fear that messages could be intercepted.

Besides, its always better to have his surrogates communicating with Hamas. That way he can continue to toss the bodies under the bus when convenient.

“They could come up with some bulletproof way of protecting his e-mail and digital correspondence, but anything can be hacked,” said Ms. Owen, who has studied how presidents communicate in the Internet era. “The nature of the president’s job is that others can use e-mail for him.”

And as long as someone else is talking to Hamas, it isn't his problem.

She added: “It’s a time burner. It might be easier for him to say, ‘I can’t be on e-mail.’ ”

Should Mr. Obama want to break ground and become the first president to fire off e-mail messages from the West Wing and wherever he travels, he could turn to Al Gore as a model. In the later years of his vice presidency, Democrats said, Mr. Gore used a government e-mail address and a campaign address in his race against Mr. Bush.

Yeah, copy from Algore...that's inspired!!!

The president, though, faces far greater public scrutiny. And even if he does not wear a BlackBerry on his belt or carry a cellphone in his pocket, he almost certainly will not lack from a variety of new communication.

Even better! Hook him on something new, so you can take that away from him, too in a few years. Cruel Bastages!

On Saturday, as Mr. Obama broadcast the weekly Democratic radio address, it came with a twist. For the first time, it was also videotaped and will be archived on YouTube.

Not exactly the Sermon on the Mount, but wow! They will get the word out.

And From The Lastest CD in the Car...

I love this band, although in reading up on them, I think it is fair to say it is all about her, since she is the constant and the rest of the line up continues to change. Best heard through the car stereo. Turned up so the bass is rattling the mirrors, of course.

A Song For A Sunday Afternoon

The thing I love about youtube is sooner or later, everything ends up on it. Like this little ditty. I stumbled on this song when I was 35 and I find that it speaks volumes to me. You might consider it my theme song.

Jars of Clay singing their reflection on the human condition, Trouble Is:

Reports of My Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated...

...so put my stuff down, dammit. You can't have it yet.

Seriously, I was just kind of on chill mode in the aftermath of the election. While some things never change (politicians lie and do things that they shouldn't or are suspicious), sometimes I have to step back for a bit and reset my focus. The problem with doing that is that I then start asking all sorts of uncomfortable questions. I can direct the first one to my fellow conservatives. Hey! You guys! WTF??? I mean, WTF??? Have you listened to yourselves? Zero hasn't taken office yet, and still, any utterance is treated as a done deal. Yeah, I read about his plan for compulsory voluntary service, and his civilian army that he wants to have better funded than the real Army. But right now, its just that. A plan. Yes, I know that his party will have a majority in Congress, and yeah, I know party leaders are so far left that they bleed hammers and sickles, but not everyone in Congress is an idiot. These people will remind the others of the little problems they have with their plans, like the 13th Amendment. Then there was the howling over the memory-holing of the detailed agenda on his website. Duh. What do you think would happen if he actually tried to rule from the left, where that agenda sat,instead of from the center? Yeah. That's what I thought. As for the analysis of every single word, and every announcement? I see us sounding like THEM. I'm not saying that we do not need to be vigilant. I'm not saying we need to trust him. I'm not saying that he isn't out to revoke the 2nd Amendment and change our government. I'm not an idiot. I am saying the pointing and howling at every little thing is not really worthwhile. Having solid plans to react to certain activities? That is worthwhile. Speaking out when he is clearly wrong? That is worthwhile. Ridiculing every moronic move made? Worthwhile and satisfying. I'm not saying that criticism is bad. You should know me better than that. What I am saying is that it won't hurt to wait until he and the Keystone Kommunists in Kongress actually DO SOMETHING.

On a lighter note, I spent the day getting Continuing Legal Education credits in Tacoma. It was an unusual CLE. They actually fed us real a breakfast and lunch. I also learned more about issues to address when your client inherits real estate that may be polluted.

All better now? Good, 'cause you were all starting to sound like KosKids.

Veterans Day

To all who served:
Thank You.

As counterpoints to the chin-stroking pseudo-intellectual just elected...

...bring you the Five most badassed Presidents ever elected, courtesy of a fellow Captive of the Hostages, TatooedIntellectual.


*****SPEW ALERT****

Moving Forward

I have to say that I am a bit surprised.

Many of my internet friends have expressed that they are going to proceed to vilify and condemn the new President just because of the crap that left has spewed 24/7 for the last eight years. This exhibition of Obama Derangement Syndrome is disturbing, not because I think he is going to be a great President. If you have been reading my page for very long, you know that isn't true. No, I find it disturbing because people that I respect, people I like, people I consider very rational and logical have apparently lost their minds and have expressed a willingness to attack purely for the sake of attack. I have seen a threat of the banhammer leveled at a commenter who I think fails to get it consistently, but is worthwhile because he will actually debate and defend what he says, simply because he expressed an opinion, that while apparently idiotic, was not worthy of such an attack, especially in a forum where the one true sin is making threats against another. I watched as person after person pledged to exhibit symptoms of ODS starting now simply because all we have heard is BDS for the last 8 years. And this was coming from people who generally had feelings for Bush the vacillated between outrage at his positions on spending and border security/illegal immigration and indifference on nearly everything else. Now, I like a good dogpile as much as the next right-wing deathbeast, but I am disturbed by this willingness to spend so much time in wasted effort. 8 years of these loons spouting endless stupidity and venom about Bush did nothing to change our minds; there is no reason to think doing the same about Obama for the next four will achieve a different result. That is not to say that I will not generously apply ridicule and criticism in liberal doses when Barry the Blessed™ screws it up. That is my right as an American, and he seems to have gotten there already with his plans for mandatory "volunteer" service and taking a swipe at Nancy Reagan at a press conference. Congratulations there, speedy, way to demonstrate that brilliant intellect that we keep hearing so much about.

Having said that, I think we are further ahead doing the following:

1. Get behind young conservative politicians. Do what it takes to get them elected, support them if they have already been elected. We have to stop putting up candidates who are getting the nomination as a lifetime achievement award. (I wish I remembered where I heard that. I would love to give the attribution.)

2. Continue to support conservative principals.

3. Criticize the foibles of the left's leadership, but stay on message, and keep it so simple that even an Obama supporter like Peggy Joseph can understand it.

4. Educate, educate, educate.

5. Make the mainstream media irrelevant. They are on the ropes already, but we can put them under by continuing to report the news that they won't.


I started some of this already. Today, I dropped a three-page handwritten letter in the mail to Governor Palin. I thanked her for her decision to run, I thanked her for shattering the Left's carefully cultivated perception that we need to have a ruling class, and I thanked her and her family for dealing with some truly uncalled for and inexcusable attacks leveled at her and her family. Then I asked her to run again, because I truly believe that she is an excellent leader and is well qualified to run the country.

What's it gonna be guys and gals? Our own change we can believe in, or the same song only us singing it?

I Love This Guy.

Diversity Rears Its Ugly Head Again

I was flipping through the local legal journal this week, and came across a charming little tidbit on our State Supreme Court supporting a new initiative in the legal community of our state. It seems that someone got looking around and determined that the legal community did not represent the diverse make up the state's population, and since our bar is always quick to embrace notions of diversity and political correctness, it was decided that SOMETHING MUST BE DONE! That something was the spontaneous formation of a consensus that we must diversify the legal community to reflect the population of the state, or PEOPLE WOULD LOSE CONFIDENCE IN THE PROFESSION. Therefore, the state supreme court, and prominent members of the bar set up a group to help make this a reality, and even established guidelines to help smaller law firms meet this perceived need for diversity.

Fortunately, the measures are voluntary, for the time being, but I fully expect that we have them mandated to us sooner than I'd like. Why does this bother me? Because if diversity is forced upon us, we lose our freedom of association...I don't get to chose who I do business with, and the diversity will become a moral imperative to override such factors as, say....merit?

I am very tired of an organization that compells my membership requiring me at every turn to accept doctrines and beliefs that I find personally, professionally, and yes, morally repugnant.

For You Eyeores Out There

Thanks to Dirty Harry.

NSFW

...

I'm going to get this part of it out of the way first:

To the Obama supporters, do not come crying on my shoulders when the Government's sticky fingers, emboldened by your Dear Leader, and lengthened by Pelosi, Reid, and a Democratically controlled Congress unleash a confiscatory process the likes of which has not been seen in decades upon your wallets, your 401(k)s, your IRAs, and your wages.

Do not come crying into my presence when you realize you traded your potential for what your government decides to let you have.

Do not weep in my hearing when you realize the "fairness" of the HOPE! and CHANGE! you sought places us all in the tyranny of mediocrity, an equality not of opportunity but of condition, which will lower more than it raises.

Do not sniffle in my arm's reach when you discover that some are more equal than others.

We warned you. We told you at every opportunity, and you refused to see.

I went into a Cub Scout meeting this evening, and came out to find that Americans had rejected their birthright. No longer content to be the pioneers and cowboys that changed the world, we have chosen to serve a government, rather than choosing a government that serves us.

To those who supported Obama, congratulations. We get the government we deserve. You don't realize yet what that means, but you will. To those of us who see the man for what he is, rather than what he wants us to see, take heart. Without Jimmy Carter, we could not have had a Ronald Reagan. The eagle took a beating tonight, but our symbol is not a chicken, or lemming.

The eagle will soar again.

I Can See That The Press Still Wants To Be Irresponsible

Thanks to my brother Alex, I got to read the NY Times Article about the press still calling the election before the voting is done. The RCOB moment:

Similarly, the editor of the Web site Slate, David Plotz, said in an e-mail message that “if Obama is winning heavily,” he could see calling the race “sometime between 8 and 9.”

“Our readers are not stupid, and we shouldn’t engage in a weird Kabuki drama that pretends McCain could win California and thus the presidency,” Mr. Plotz wrote. “We will call it when a sensible person — not a TV news anchor who has to engage in a silly pretense about West Coast voters — would call it.”

This would be the same Slate that jumped on the bandwagon of anyone not voting for Obama being "RACIST!!!1!!", so we no how authoritative and impartial they are.

As one of those West Coast voters, suggest that Mr. Plotz go play in traffic. Blindfolded.

I Earned My Right To Continue Speaking Out

After getting the boys out the door and fixing my hair, I got in the car and drove to my polling place. I stood in line, and before long, an elderly black gentleman in an "Obama for President" shirt and a Purple Heart baseball cap came up and stood next to the front door, so everyone could see his shirt. An older gentleman in line in front of me looked at the RCW section posted on the door, and said to the other man standing by the door "You're standing too close."
The elderly black gentleman pretended not to hear. The gentleman repeated himself. This time the elderly black gentleman said "I paid my dues, sir."
The gentleman said "I never said you didn't, but the law says you have to stand 300 feet away from the polls." A poll worker saw what was going on and told the elderly black gentleman that he was violating the law and standing too close to the door. They needed more voters from the back half of the alphabet, so I went in. He wasn't there when I came out. If I see him on the 11 o'clock news bitching about "being intimidated at the polls", I just might scream.

The Long View

I realize that it is probably early for this, but the featured quote below struck me more than I was ready to admit. Dirty Harry has a post on the Breitbart article on Bush's legacy. DH's wife added this insight:

In defending Bush, Breitbart hits the main points, but there’s something my wife frequently reminds me of: Between world events, the monstrous behavior of the opposition and an unrelenting biased media, no president since Lincoln has ever been so personally vilified. Eight years of sustained poison and venom hurled at a man never allowed to do anything right even when he does something right.

I had never thought of it that way before, but I can see the wisdom in the comparison.

Celebrating Barbarity

The AP still refuses to pay bloggers who direct traffic to their stories, but once again, the story is worth noting, so I guess I'll just put this on their tab. The Iranians are celebrating their take over of our embassy in 1979, by letting kids out of school to chant, and burn U.S. and Isreali flags.

They continue to justify this act of war by declaring the act the end of U.S. hegemony in the world and an act of defiance. The money quotes:

Today, some of Iran's leaders see Barack Obama as a harbinger of much-wanted change in U.S. policy toward their government. Iranian state radio broadcast a commentary Monday in a positive spin toward the Democrat.

"Obama entered the race under the slogan of change," it said. "The American people expect their government to put aside neo-conservative policy of unilateralism and return to dialogue in their dealings with the international community."

Game. Set. And Match.

The Press Tells Diogenes, "Baby, Put Out That Lamp, and Come To Bed. I Got What You Need."

Free sex toys — and much more — for voting
Businesses across nation ready to reward citizens for casting their ballots
By Mike Stuckey
Senior news editor
msnbc.com

Just when you thought it was safe to focus on the issues in this historic election season, a chain of sex toy shops has joined retailers, restaurateurs and other businesses across the nation in the time-honored tradition of rewarding Americans who go to the polls.

Because nothing makes me think of sex like politics.

Babeland, with stores in New York, Los Angeles and Seattle, is offering a pair of self-gratifying incentives for voters who present their registration cards, ballot stubs or “word of honor” that they voted next Tuesday.

How will they deal with multiple stubs from the ACORN-registered voters?

The rewards are no-so-subtle reminders of this year’s campaign rhetoric. For men, it’s the “Maverick,” a "sleeve" for self-pleasuring. According to a press release, “He’s always there to lend a hand, he works for every man, and he bucks the status quo.” Women can choose the “Silver Bullet” mini-vibrator, which is “a magical solution to difficult problems” and “a great stress-reliever during these troubled economic times!” The promotion lasts through Nov. 11.

The idea for an Obama-related toy was abandoned. No one has yet found a way to successfully sell being slipped a mickey, and waking up alone and sticky in a hotel room with an empty wallet. They can always consult David Axelrod after the campaign. He seems to have found a way to successfully sell something similar.

Babeland spokeswoman Pamela Doan told msnbc.com in an interview that the promotion is a first for the company, which she describes as “a sex-positive, women-friendly retailer for sex toys and accessories.”

I don't think anyone is truly "sex-adverse", although more than a few of us would prefer not having it occur within sight of our children, especially when its guy-guy- or girl-girl.

Although the company is relying on press releases and bloggers to get the word out, “We’re expecting a good response,” Doan said. “Both of these toys are very popular. The Maverick retails for $20 and the Silver Bullet retails for $15. It’s a good reward.”

I think there is a message here somewhere...something about getting screwed by an important act and still having to do all the work.

'Sex crosses party lines'
As to whether Babeland expects voters who take them up on the offer to lean one way or the other politically, Doan said, “Sex crosses party lines. … We’ve tried to make this into a nonpartisan reward because we welcome everyone. That’s our philosophy and our mission. We didn’t want to reward only Obama supporters. We have a lot of Republicans who shop at Babeland too.”

Actually a smart thing. They cater to a universal market. I wonder how much they'll dig an Obama tax scheme.

If the sex toys don’t float your vote, there are plenty of other less racy rewards to choose from in the afterglow of casting your ballot.

"Afterglow?" Voting conjures many different concepts in my mind, but it has never made me orgasmic. I think the author is going to choke on his own purple prose.

How about a free cup of Joe? Starbucks stores across the nation and Eat’n Park outlets in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia are among many U.S. restaurants offering complimentary coffee to anyone who presents a ballot stub or “I Voted” sticker.

I like the whole "incentive for voting" thing, but I do it 'cause its important, not because Starbucks will give me a bitter cup of coffee for my trouble.

Voters can get a beer on the house at Todd Conner’s pub in Baltimore’s historic Fells Point neighborhood.

I predict he'll have a busy night.

FRED! has a few things to say about this election and the guy running for Socialist-In-Chief

Part Two



H/T to NiceDeb

I Wish I Could Say I Am Shocked...

She'll be among those crying the hardest when the nasty surprises flow forth when Barry The Blessed™'s mask slips.



H/T to Pajamma Momma at The Hostages.

An Object Lesson...For Both Sides

From the evil AP, who still refuses to pay bloggers for directing traffic to their pathetic excuse for a news organization comes a story of a Grosse Pointe Woods resident who refused to give Halloween treats to "Obama supporters, liars, tricksters or kids of supporters."

Naturally, this story is so newsworthy that the AP had to report on it. It was after all a lesson for such people in choices. You make a choice that will take away from me, I can do the same. But my absolute favorite part?

"When asked about children who were turned away empty-handed and crying,"

That damn sense of entitlement rears its ugly head again. Turned away crying? Seems like a bit much to me. Last time I looked, we still had a choice about who we share our bounty with. Another reason to look forward to Obama's HOPE! and CHANGE!, I guess. Mandatory Halloween Candy for all!

Visions From My Pensieve

The post from Wednesday has taken some interesting turns. I had a client in my office yesterday, and of course, the conversation turned to politics. I told him "Hold on, I wrote and posted on my internet site the other day something that I think you might like." and I printed off a copy of Wednesday's post. I handed it to him, he scanned it for two seconds, and he said "I have this. Somebody emailed it to me." I looked at him with shock, and said "Really?"
He said "Yeah. I know this guy up in Arlington, and he's emailing it to people."
To that I say "Guy in Arlington: Its important stuff, so emailing it? Ok, but I ask that you either give a link or attribution. It is an original work, and that particular post actually took a little time to write. A nod to the author, at the least, is in order, and if you have already paid me this courtesy, then Thank You. It's nice to know you thought it was worthy of sharing."

Another part of this conversation? This client sees a whole lot more people in a day than I do. He says he cannot believe how many people he talks to about the election who seem very invested in one issue, but then know nothing about the others. Nothing at all. I thought about that a lot last night and today. The idea bothers me quite a bit. How the Hell did we get to the point where people would be so ignorant about something so important? I realize that it is a combination of factors, but it still irritates me. There is enough ignorance involved with this election, from the people who say "What's wrong with social and economic justice? Then things will finally be fair!!1!" to the geniuses who think that the Constitutional requirement that a person be a "natural born citizen" is either an archaic concept that doesn't fit with modern day standards, or that it is a "nebulous term" that has never been defined in any applicable way, or both. Leave it to members of my tribe to create the perception of ambiguity where none actually exists. If we are to survive as a republic, we cannot allow this standard of ignorance and narrow focus to continue. However, if we are going to turn this course back to a thinking and informed body politic, then we will have to put conservatives back in to the classrooms and newsrooms of this country. We cannot allow these professions to remain as the last resort for those among us who were capable of little else or those determined to execute the leftist strategies of taking our children and corrupting them early with concepts corrosive to our unity as a nation and our tradition of excellence. Concepts like "Diversity" which celebrates the attributes of the individual and teaches that the whole is lessened without each of us retaining and demanding recognition for our respective racial and national identity, rather than adopting the identity of the nation that is our home. Or "Moral Equivalence" which teaches that every philosophy, religion, and culture is no better or no worse than any other, ignoring the fact that this simply isn't true, and there is a wealth of empirical evidence demonstrating the hollowness of this belief. Better yet, we have the cornerstone of newspeak which the left needs to destroy us: "Political Correctness". Political Correctness is the idea that certain people should be forbidden from saying certain things, because someone might get their feelings hurt. This is the wellspring for idiotic notions that everyone should be a winner, or that everything must be fair. It also hampers any real discourse on any matter of consequence because serious people will never be able to make their points. Serious people call things what they are. The acolytes of PC will demand that ephemisms be substituted, and if they still hit too close to home in any conversation, then the person trying to make a point or engage in a serious discussion must further circumvent conversation in an effort not to hurt someone else's feelings. This ignores the fact that sometimes, feelings should be hurt, and feelings should take a backseat to truth. The acolytes believe that this makes them more enlightened; I believe that it makes many of them marginal intellects at best, as they have surrendered the ability to do something in the pursuit of good feelings. As for the rest, they sleep at night secure in the knowledge that they have spawned a whole new shibboleth for serious people to contend with on a daily basis, and have shaped and warped an entire generation of young minds into a de facto police force to monitor and denounce the thought crimes of the rest of us. Think I'm wrong? How many times have Obama supporters or the Press (but I repeat myself) called us "Racist!" because we have expressed the idea that we will not vote for Barack Hussein Obama. Better yet "You CAN'T say HIS middle name!!!11!!! That's racist!!!11!!" or "You're implying that he is a Muslim!!!11!!" You and I both know that no matter how many President's middle names we can name, or how many perfectly good reasons that have nothing to do with Obama's race we give for not voting for him, or the fact that no matter how many years he sat in the pews at Reverend Wright's "Hate Whitey" church, even he can't seem to recall for moment to moment if he is a muslim or not. Their politically correct analysis demands that you be declared guilty of the crimes they accuse you of, because if they ever had to move beyond feelings, then they might just have to consider the idea, even for a microsecond, that they might be wrong in their enthusiastic support for him, and in their presumption of your guilt.

This is the real reason why we need to all become educators. Sure, I'm as guilty as the next conservative of simply lowering the boom on the lefties where ever they sprout up and mouth their talking points, but really, our best offense is also our best defense. Educate them. Innundate them with facts, with logic, with reason. Sooner or later, all but the hardest of the hardcore true believers will no longer be able to ignore the elephant in the room, especially when you introduced them and told them its name. And teach your children well, because no one wants to retire to a socialist workers paradise.