Category: Uncategorized

Ran wishes to be mindful of the majority:

Only 19% of the American population say they oppose abortion under any circumstances, and many of that minority have of course had a family member or friend they know of who has had an abortion and they still socialize with the “baby killer”.

Pandering to that small minority for the Republicans is like the Democrats being led by the nose by the hate America, Michael Moore minority of Democrats. Not how you become a majority Party.

More power to the Republicans for having a Big Tent where Coleman, Arnold, Rudy and company can rise and help keep the Republicans looking at the Center, rather than be the party of pro life fanatics or the war hawks

Yes, let’s keep that in mind when the elite decides that Jews, blacks, Armenians, Kurds, Christians, Muslims or the elderly are the next group to be declared subhuman. As long as the majority is fine with it, I don’t see any reason they shouldn’t be killed.

After all, when overpopulation is the problem, (as we’re so often told), the solution is fairly simple.

A few Minnesotans have sent me Norm Coleman’s response to them regarding their protest of Arlen Spector:

Thank you for taking the time to contact me concerning Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) becoming the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. While I have great respect for and share many, if not most, of the causes that compel some to oppose Senator Specter becoming chairman of this committee, I strongly support his bid to become chairman.

And, although I am not a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, all of my Republican colleagues who serve on it, including current Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT), support him. Senator Specter has served with distinction in the United States Senate and on the Senate Judiciary Committee for years. His understanding and command of the issues that come before this important committee are unrivaled. He is a man of sound character, solid judgment, and of the utmost integrity. Senator Specter’s record is one having supported every judicial nomination that President George W. Bush has sent to the Senate for its advice and consent. He was also an outspoken champion of President George H. W. Bush’s nomination of Clarence Thomas to the United States Supreme Court.

Senator Specter has also publicly committed to working to ensure that the President’s nominees receive a fair vote in committee and an up or down vote on the Senate floor.Please know that I always appreciate hearing from you and that I value your advice even when, from time to time, we may disagree. But, on this issue, I hope you will join me in supporting a good man for Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

That pretty much speaks for itself. Norm, of course, was a New York Democrat before moving to Minnesota and switching parties. Interesting, isn’t it, that Republicans keep selecting ex-Democrats to lead their half of the bi-factional ruling party. One of the many reasons I’m an ex-Republican.

Maureen Dowd suffers an old Freudian standby:

The networks don’t even give lip service to looking for women and blacks for anchor jobs – they just put pretty-boy clones in the pipeline. “I think we’re still stuck in a society that looks at white males as authority figures,” Mr. Brokaw conceded. Bill Carter, a TV reporter at The Times, agreed: “Katie Couric may be a much bigger star and even more experienced than Brian Williams. But when the next 9/11 happens, it’ll be Brian, not Katie, in the central role. The attitude still seems to be, ‘We want a daddy in that chair'”….

I know that women have surpassed men, in many respects, by embracing their femininity and frivolity. Katie Couric and Diane Sawyer, who mix news with dish, cooking and fashion in the morning, are the real breadwinners of their news divisions, generating more ratings and revenue than the cookie-cutter men of the night….

But my pal admits that she watched Mr. Brokaw partly because he was “eye candy,” and declares women at fault in this matter: “Women like to read books about men and go to movies about men. But men don’t like to read books about women or go to movies about women. The only way this is going to change is if women refuse to watch men. And the problem is, women like watching men.”

The problem is that women in the media are so frivolous and portray themselves in a such a lightweight manner that most men – and women – cannot possibly conclude that they are to be taken seriously. Perhaps this is because women so often insist on being frivolous. Maureen Dowd is herself an indication of this; one could read her for a year and never encounter a mention of any philosophy from Aristotle to Zarathustra but nary a week will pass without her citing Sex in the City, Desperate Housewives or another television show du jour.

Katie Couric may be popular with the public, but so is Howard Stern, who arguably would do better job and be more believable as a news anchor than the affable Eva Braun analog. It shouldn’t be surprising that men don’t have any interest in women’s entertainment, as women’s entertainment is nothing but complaints about men. As Roger Ailes’ hilarously tells her: “You ought to call the Lifetime network or, as we say, the ‘Men Are No Damn Good Network,’ and protest it.”

Men’s entertainment seldom revolves around women. We’re far more interested in heroic last stands – I’ve been reading Gemmell’s Drenai Chronicles, they’re great – competition of one sort or another and for the more intellectually minded, contemplating the purpose of life, the universe and everything. When our entertainment does involve women, it tends to revolve around those things we like best about women, namely, their pretty faces, their nicely rounded parts and the inspiration that they can provide, not the things we hate.

Dowd’s column reminds me of the bitter, nasty woman who can’t figure out why her husband doesn’t want to be around her. If you want people to like you, then behave in a likeable manner. If women want men to read their books or watch their movies, then create something interesting. JK Rowling and Margaret Weis don’t lack for male readers, but then, they write fantasy novels, not women’s fantasy novels.

Nor is women refusing to watch men’s entertainment going to change anything. I’m glad that Space Bunny enjoys watching football with me, but I’m going to watch it whether she does or not. And the video game industry has grown from zero to a multi-billion dollar business without any significant female interest. Women should simply do what they want to do, watch what they want to watch and allow men to do the same; the pastime is not political

Farmer Tom doesn’t know what to call himself:

I think I’m confused. I want to end the oppressive socialist welfare state that is we currently live in. I want to return to the freedoms and personal responsibility embodied in the words of the Declaration, “We hold these truths…. So what label do I use?

It depends on why you want to return to those things. If you want to do so primarily because you believe that the Constitution is sacred and the Founding Fathers were inspired by God, you are a Constitutionist. If you want to return to them primarily because you believe they happen to have been an effective means of limiting the evil power of government, you are likely a potential libertarian.

One thing you are not is a modern Republican. While many constitutionists, libertarians, conservatives and republican’s still belong the Republican party, the Republican leadership has not only abandoned republicanism, they have also abandoned conservatism and federalism. They have become much more similar to the European parties of the center-right, like Germany’s Christian Democrats and France’s Conservatives. Remember that Jacques Chirac is the French equivalent of a Republican when you feel tempted to engage in knee-jerk defenses of Republicans simply because they are not Democrats. Chirac uses precisely the same argument; at least he is better than the Socialists.

The Right Wing News is taking a poll:

The Funniest Blog

Best Non-American Blog

Best Group Blog

Best Looking Blog

Most Missed (The best blog that’s out of business now)

Best Up and Coming Blogger

Favorite Columnist Who’s Not A Blogger

Least Liked Columnist Who’s Not A Blogger

Favorite Political Website That’s Not A Blog

Favorite Left-Of-Center Blogger

Most Annoying Left-Of-Center Blogger

Most Annoying Right-Of-Center Blogger

Most Overrated Blog

Best Linker

The Best Original Content For A Blog

I won’t share all my votes, but favorite Left-Of-Center blog had to go to Dark Window, which is also in the running to get my vote for funniest blog thanks to Pete’s commentary on religious t-shirts and right-wing wingnuts.

I’m curious to hear your thoughts on these. Does Beertentistan count as a non-American blog?

Chris Naron is heartened by the literary contributions:

I’m about to turn in after reading the first three. I have to say, those were worth reading. And I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say what I’ve read so far is far above any of the contrived “Christian genre,” as you put it, I have read in recent years. Actually, I can’t say enough about your work. Why, may I ask, are you not on every shelf?

That’s a question perhaps better directed to my publisher. Or better yet, to a Christian media that would rather complain about Dungeons & Dragons or Harry Potter than devote any coverage to genuine and reasonable alternatives.

The main reason my books read very differently than books like Peretti and LaHaye-Jenkins is that as a novelist, I am a Christian who writes in the science fiction and fantasy genre, I am not a writer in the Christian genre. There is a significant stylistic difference.

Jonah Goldberg is getting annoyed:

Guys, I’m only now wading through yesterday’s G-File email. It wasn’t the most popular column. So be it. But one line of argument I find tiresome and entirely unthoughtful: When I say something conservatives or still-ebullient Republicans don’t like it means I’m becoming liberal. More than a dozen readers have made this argument in wildly divergent forms. But the common theme to all of them seems to be if I’m wrong it must be because I’m liberal. I could offer a long response. Instead let me just say wrong and liberal are not synonymous terms. “Two plus two is five” isn’t liberal.

Nor, I assert, is staunch opposition to the George Bush administration liberal, at least not in the American sense of the word. There used to be a word for politicians who spent money like a trophy wife with a new credit card, paid no attention to national sovereignty, expanded the Nanny State and were true believers in the United Nations. Now, THAT is an American-style liberal.

Merely suggesting that the network is looking elsewhere is enough to put ants in the pants of Messrs. Pelley and Roberts, and now Bill O’Reilly, the chief spinmeister at Fox News, has mailed in his resume with a remarkable hymn to both CBS and Dan Rather, published in the New York Daily News, the fiercest rival of the New York Post, which is owned by Mr. O’Reilly’s current employer. (You have to use a good map to follow these media intrigues, and pay close attention.)

“I worked with Rather and have known him for more than 20 years,” writes Mr. O’Reilly. “Listen to me: There is no way on this Earth that he would have knowingly used fake documents on any story…. Dan Rather was slimed. It was disgraceful.” The slimer slimed? The disgraceful sliming, as everybody else in America recalls, was of George W. Bush. But if a chair is big enough, somebody will want to sit in it, even if there won’t be room for both his bottom and his ego.

If Brave Sir William actually replaces Dan Rather at CBS, I will be happier than the brave one himself. Now, there would be a lovely Christmasa present!

From the New York Times

Now a team of researchers has found that severe emotional distress – like that caused by divorce, the loss of a job, or caring for an ill child or parent – may speed up the aging of the body’s cells at the genetic level. The findings, being reported today, are the first to link psychological stress so directly to biological age.

The researchers found that blood cells from women who had spent many years caring for a disabled child were, genetically, about a decade older than those from peers who had much less caretaking experience. The study, which appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also suggests that the perception of being stressed can add years to a person’s biological age.

Since I was a teenager, I’ve noticed that women who have children almost always look older than women the same age who don’t. To a lesser extent, this is also true of fathers as well. I’d always put it down to the mothers being tired and having less time to put themselves together and the men being overfed by their wives, but apparently the damage occurs at an even deeper level.

So, there would appear to be at least one benefit to feminist evolutionary dead-endism. On the other hand, walking around with that massive chip on your shoulder is probably a little stressful too.

A former IRS agent who believes citizens are not required to pay federal income taxes will appear in U.S. District Court in Sacramento tomorrow to face charges for numerous alleged tax crimes. Joseph Banister, 41, a leading figure in the “tax honesty” movement [and former IRS special agent], was taken into custody Nov. 19 by IRS agents and released on $25,000 bond after pleading not guilty….

The IRS spokesman said many courts are getting fed up with lawsuits brought by people who contend federal tax law is fraudulent and are slapping them with frivilous-lawsuit penalties. In response to another common argument, the Department of Justice website says, “courts have both implicitly and explicitly recognized that the 16th Amendment authorizes a non-apportioned direct income tax on United States citizens and that the federal tax laws as applied are valid.”

Of course, every time you actually read the transcripts of these cases, you see that the judge refuses to permit the tax code to be entered as evidence, runs roughshod over the jury and tells them to simply assume the facts are as the prosecution presents them, and in general behaves like someone desperately trying to hide something. Despite his accurate knowledge of tax law and IRS regulations, I suspect Banister will face a very difficult road ahead, as his hiring of a lawyer – an officer of the court – suggests that he doesn’t understand that it is not only the tax law that is fraudulent.

This is nothing but a show trial. Watch for the usual railroading, violations of rules of court procedure, unfounded assertions from the bench, and, if a guilty verdict is pushed through, a shockingly long sentence.