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Evangelical Outpost posts some interesting quotes from what would appear to be an astoundingly politically incorrect British homosexual:

“So the idea of a gay fascist seems ridiculous. Yet when the British National Party – our own home-grown Holocaust-denying bigots – announced it was fielding an openly gay candidate in the European elections this June, dedicated followers of fascism didn’t blink. The twisted truth is that gay men have been at the heart of every major fascist movement that ever was – including the gay-gassing, homo-cidal Third Reich.

With the exception of Jean-Marie Le Pen, all the most high-profile fascists in Europe in the past thirty years have been gay. It’s time to admit something. Fascism isn’t something that happens out there, a nasty habit acquired by the straight boys. It’s a gay thing, and it’s time for non-fascist gay people to wake up and face the marching music.”

[British journalist Johann] Hari, who lists “seducing straight men” as one of his favorite things, can’t be dismissed as another gay-bashing conservative homophobe. Nor should his detailed explication of the connection between gays and fascism be taken lightly. Beneath its homophobic veneer, European fascism has a long history of gay leadership. From Ernest Rohm, one of the founding fathers of Nazism, to the anti-Muslim Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, homosexuals have found a home at the top of fascist political organizations.

I don’t think Mr. Hari has all his details straight, as the ideology of the List Pim Fortuyn is rather less fascist than the American Democratic party, and Hari clearly fails to grasp the political spectrum as defined by the relationship between State and Individual. But his assertions are interesting, as one must note that the terms “faggot” and “fascist” share the same etymological roots, and certainly Freudians such as Camille Paglia would see the link between the homosexual’s eternal search for the father and the over-the-top authoritarian symbolism of historical German and Italian fascism.

I expect Hari’s statements will inspire more than a few hissy fits among the whitewash-prone gay community, but as always, the truth is simply what it is. And one can easily point out fascist tendencies at work in the homosexual activist community in their complete disregard for the truth, rigid enforcement of a party line and ruthlesss determination to completely redefine long-held concepts of good and evil.

Marc Cuban writes on his blog:

Let’s just hope the accountants for the Tribune Company have a higher regard for accuracy in reporting than Sam the Sham does. Perfect example of Sam in action is Jerry West going on the air during the draft saying the Grizz can’t afford to trade for Shaq. Then Sham chimes on the show saying Shaq is going to Memphis. Sam then does his daily rip on the Mavs and, in particular, our new draft pick, Pavel who he calls a stiff.

How about this for a challenge Sam the Sham Smith?…I will donate 10k dollars to the charity of your choice if you can prove that you have ever seen Pavel play in person or on tape — excluding the footage on the ESPN draft shows. Two minutes of ESPN tape doesn’t qualify as scouting. If you lose, you change your business card title and Tribune byline to “Sports Gossip Columnist”. I will even pay for the cards. Doesn’t the Tribune Company realize that you are a blight on the entire company? I brought this up to an exec I met who works at the company. He told me they knew it, but that you were like the crazy old uncle they had learned to live with. Great support from your company, Sam.

If they only knew how many times I have told brokers and possible investors that they shouldn’t buy Trib stock because if they can’t get simple details on their sports pages right, how can you trust their accountants? Corporate culture either values accuracy or it doesn’t. The Tribune Company obviously doesn’t.

******** Stop The Presses ********

No lie: After I wrote this blog entry, I sat down to read the NY Times and there in the business section is an article accusing (among others) the Tribune Company for inflating audited subscriber numbers…Maybe the company encourages Sam to lie…who knows…Is lying pervasive at the Tribune Company? Corporate culture is amazingly powerful…

******** We now return to our regularly scheduled blog entry ********

Brilliant stuff. I only wish there was someone like Cuban writing a blog about Wall Street.

At least if Michael Moore had asked us to eat of his body, we would have all eaten well. My friends at Fraters Libertas point us to these paired quotes from movie reviewers who seem to have overwhelmingly preferred the Corpulent One’s testimony of faith to Mr. Gibson’s. An example:

Jami Bernard, NY Daily News:

F9/11: I was in tears after first seeing “Fahrenheit” at Cannes.

Passion: The most virulently anti-Semitic movie made since the German propaganda films of World War II.

Michael Moore is the Sweet White Savior who waren’t never a Jew for the ignorant hicks of the global Left. Large, fat and loud, Europeans love him because he personally confirms their view of the ugly American even as he provides cover for their political cluelessness. When I was in Venice a few years ago, I complimented an artist on how his work had captured the city’s moody, mouldering ambience, in contrast to the many nearby watercolorists whose cheerful, brightly colored paintings could have easily been mistaken for Florence had they only lacked the famous Venetian landmarks.

The artist asked from whence I came, and his eyes literally widened when I told him I am an American. “No, you cannot be, you are too cultured,” he said. Which is ridiculous, but demonstrates rather clearly that it is not only the European elite that has no understanding of America and Americans. Their portly pied-piper allows them to preserve an outmoded view of a world that is passing them by, as they blithely stroll towards the deep waters of Islamic electoral majorities.

Ben Shapiro writes on WND:

In the last few years, the Supreme Court has written sodomy into the Constitution of the United States; affirmed that affirmative action was constitutional, citing a broader need for “diversity”; refused to rule on whether or not “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance was constitutional; and ruled that campaign-finance reform laws restricting free speech do not actually restrict free speech.

The saddest part of this judicial tragedy: Seven of these justices, including O’Connor, Stevens and Souter, were appointed by Republicans. While legitimate conservative Robert Bork promotes his books, Justice Kennedy decides cases. Chances are good that at least one justice will step down during the next term. There’s no guarantee President Bush would appoint a hard-line conservative to the court, but the chances are certainly better with Bush than with Kerry. Republicans must strengthen their control of the Senate to ensure that a real conservative reaches the court.

Conservatives would do well to remember what liberals ignore: The court is liberal, not conservative. And unless Republicans strengthen their hold on power, it’s going to stay that way.

Let me make sure I’ve got this right. Republicans have nominated 78 percent of this insanely liberal Supreme Court, seven of the nine sitting justices. Ergo, the solution is to elect more Republicans so they can nominate more justices in the future.

This is mind-numbingly stupid stuff. The Republican Party was founded as a big government pro-State party and except for a brief period of time when Ronald Reagan wrested control away from the party grandees, (to ultimately little effect), it has always been a big government pro-State party. It is nothing more than a brake on the Democratic party, it is not an engine for driving in the opposite direction.

The sooner conservatives and others who respect the US Constitution as written realize this and abandon the party, the sooner they can begin moving the country towards the freedom and liberty that are our national birthright. Shapiro’s not dumb, he’s merely inexperienced. I predict in ten years, he’ll be as disgusted with the Republican Party as I am.

FOX News Channel (FNC) garnered more than 50% of the cable news audience in primetime and total day during 2Q’04, according to Nielsen Media Research. In contrast, CNN and MSNBC both attracted less than a third of the same market share in 2Q ’04. In primetime, FNC commanded 55% of the cable news market share, averaging 1.4 million viewers, while CNN claimed just 32% of that audience with 828,000 viewers. During Rick Kaplan’s first full quarter as president, MSNBC’s primetime line-up attracted a paltry 13% of the cable news audience with 321,000 viewers (down 41% in viewership year to year).

FNC’s Total Day average of 820,000 viewers made up 54% of the cable news pie, nearly doubling CNN’s 31% (468,000 viewers) and more than tripling MSNBC’s 15% share (226,000 viewers). In the key 25-54 demo, both CNN and MSNBC lost more than half their 25-54 audience in these day parts over the same period last year. FNC averaged 457,000 persons in primetime and 291,000 persons in total day, exceeding CNN and MSNBC’s combined totals of 344,000 persons in prime and 231,000 persons in the total day time periods.

In addition, FNC sustained its programming dominance capturing nine out of the top ten shows in cable news, as CNN’s heavily promoted primetime lineup continued to flounder. CNN’s only show in the top ten, Larry King Live, remained stagnant at number four with 1,291,000 viewers, trailing FNC’s The O’Reilly Factor (2,051,000 viewers), Hannity & Colmes (1,492,000 viewers) and The FOX Report with Shepard Smith (1,339,000 viewers) respectively. Since launching in September 2003, Paula Zahn Now and Anderson Cooper 360 have yet to rank within the top ten cable news programs — Zahn currently ranks at 16th while Cooper is languishing at number 21.

Obviously there’s no market for right-wing commentary. Six months ago the St. Paul Pioneer Press turned down my column – for the second time in five years – despite the fact that I’m one of the only writers in their history to have been nationally syndicated. In thematically related news, the Pioneer Press’s readership just dropped below 200,000 for the first time in a long, long time and a (ahem) restructuring was announced last week.

Now, I understand that newspaper editors have probably studied less economics than the average NBA draftee, but you wouldn’t think it would take a rocket scientist to understand that if your dominant competitor does X, then you have to do Y if you want to compete. Offering more of X simply means that you’ll eventually be run out of business or acquired. Rupert Murdoch, on the other hand, saw the huge market left unaddressed by the ABCNNBCBS cabal and is cleaning up with a monopoly position in the rightward 50 percent of the political spectrum while he leaves all the others to fight it out for the leftward half. Surprise, surprise, guess who’s winning?

I wonder how Eric Alterman explains this. I suppose he thinks the number of stupid people is growing every day. No doubt it’s George Bush’s fault.

Big Chilly once told me that he greatly respected how I often use my public platform for mysterious and seemingly nonsensical purposes. In that light, it gives me great pleasure to present more of that for which no one is asking, a translation of an article by Umberto Eco which appeared on June 25th in L’espresso: Apparire piu come essere.

To appear more than to be

Sixty-four years before Christ, Marcus Tullius Cicero, already a celebrated orator but the epitome of a New Man, estranged from the nobility, decided to declare himself a candidate for Consul. His brother, Quintus Tullius, wrote for him a manual in which he was instructed how to make an impression. In the front of the current Italian edition, (Manuele del candidato – Istruzioni per vincere le elezioni, editore Manni, 8 euros), are comments by Luca Canali, in which he lucidly describes the histoical circumstances and the personalities of that campaign. Furio Colombo writes the introduction, with a reflective essay on the First Republic.

In fact, there are many similarities between our Second Republic and this Roman Republic, in the virtues, (very small), as well as the defects. The example of Rome, over the course of more than two millenia, has continued to hold much influence on many successive visions of the State. As Colombo records, the antique model of the Roman Republic inspired the authors of the Federalist Papers, which delineated the fundamental lines of the American Constitution. They saw in Rome, more than in Athens, the example of what was truly a democracy of the people. In their pragmatic realism, the neocons around Bush were inspired by the image of imperial Rome and many of their actual political discussions gave recourse to the idea of an empire, that of a “Pax Americana” which makes explicit reference to the ideology of the “Pax Romana”.

I must note that the image of electoral competition that emerges in the 20 pages of Quintus is of extremely small virtue compared to that which had inspired the federalists of the 18th century. Quintus does not seem to even consider the possibility of a political man who boldly confronts the electorate in the face of dissent with a courageous project, with the hope of conquering the voters on the powerful strength of a utopian idea. As Canali also notes, totally absent from these pages is any notion of debating ideas; instead, there is recommendation to never expose oneself on any political issue, so as to avoid making enemies. The candidate envisioned by Quintus must only be sure to appear fascinating, doing favors and other self-promotion, never saying no to anyone but leaving everyone with the impression he will do what they want. The memory of the electorate is short, and before long they will forget old promises….

At the end of the letter we ask: but is democracy truly only this, a form of conquering the public favor that is founded on nothing but appearances and a strategy of deceit? It is certainly so, and it cannot be differently if this system, (which, as Churchill said, is imperfect, but is less imperfect than all the others), allows one to arrive at power only through consensus and not through force and violence. But we must not forget that these instructions for a political campaign were written at moment when Roman democracy was already in crisis.

It was not long after when Caesar definitively took power with the assistance of his legions, and with his life Marcus Tullius paid the passage from a regime founded on consensus to a regime founded on the fist of the State. But one cannot avoid the thought that Roman democracy had begun to die when its politicians understood that they no longer had to be serious about their policies but had only to engineer the obtaining of the sympathies of those we might well call television viewers.

This demonstrates that there is truly nothing new under the sun. In our modern arrogance, we believe that we are different, that our pseudo-democracy, (as false in every way to the democratic ideal as was its Roman predecessor), is a light illuminating all mankind. Quintus Tullius might easily have been Dick Morris or Karl Rove, advising hollow-suited frauds such as Bill Clinton and George Bush.

The laws of history are not as easily discerned as the laws of physics, but they are every bit as inexorable. Eco gives us one more reason to believe that we are living in the last days of the American Republic.

The American marine who is being threatened by his kidnappers with beheading had deserted the military because he was emotionally traumatized, and was abducted by his captors while trying to make his way home to his native Lebanon, a Marine officer said Tuesday. The officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he believed that Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun was betrayed by Iraqis he befriended on his base and ended up in the hands of Islamic extremists.

The officer said Corporal Hassoun, a 24-year-old Marine linguist who was born in Lebanon, was shaken up after he saw one of his sergeants blown apart by a mortar shell.”It was very disturbing to him,” the officer said. “He wanted to go home and quit the game, but since he was relatively early in his deployment, that was not going to happen anytime soon. So he talked to some folks on base he befriended, because they were all fellow Muslims, and they helped sneak him off. Once off, instead of helping him get home, they turned him over to the bad guys.”

The Israeli general Moseh Dayan was once asked what made him so successful. “Fighting Arabs”, he is said to have replied. Hassoun’s desertion would seem to suggest that even the USMC can’t make warriors out of them. A Marine deserting? I can’t even imagine what my Marine grandfather would have to say about that. I think he’d be torn between leaving the guy to his fate and, as he liked to say, giving the guy a fair trial and hanging him.

In World War II the 442nd Regiment (of American-born Japanese Nisei) were sent to fight in Europe because it was considered unwise to put them under the psychological stress of fighting the Japanese. They acquitted themselves heroically, taking tremendous losses in rescuing the surrounded Lost Battalion and ended up as one of the most decorated units of the war. So, it’s not a new problem and it should hardly come as a surprise to learn that using foreign-born Muslim troops to fight other Muslims in a Muslim country doesn’t work out well.

This is yet another suggestion that this administration is hopeless when it comes to war-fighting. Foreign auxilaries can certainly be useful, but not within your own elite units.

Urs Meier, the referee who single-handedly knocked England out of Euro 2004, has the nerve to say:

I’m absolutely shocked by what’s gone on and the attacks from The Sun, the supporters and the other newspapers. I’m really shocked because the decision was 100 per cent correct and the whole world saw this decision was correct.

Meier certainly doesn’t deserve the death threats he’s been getting, but all the stick he’s been receiving from the English press is absolutely justified. Their outrage would probably be significantly mitigated if he simply admitted that he made an honest and all-too-typical mistake of awarding a phantom foul in the box. But instead he flings this “100 percent correct” nonsense around and makes even lukewarm England supporters like me want to punch him in the face.

The truth of the matter is easy to ascertain. All that’s required is a simple review of all the fouls called in the penalty box when there is a chaotic situation and the referee can’t see exactly what is going on. I’d be willing to bet that at least 90 percent of the whistles blown are fouls called on the attacking team. This defies belief, and the unfair bias can be proved by comparing the ratio with the ratio of fouls called in the open field of play.

The only thing I hate more than phantom fouls in the box are diving strikers and phantom offsides calls. UEFA has done a good job dealing with the latter two, it’s now clearly time to do something about the former.

It’s just another Blogger template, but I figured it was time to get rid of that old “F11” problem. If you had that problem beforee, let me know if all the posts are showing up now.

And besides, I dislike orange.

Bellatrys comments over at Dark Window:

Anyone who starts talking ‘Kinder, Kirche, Kuche!” talk *deserves* to be tarred with the fascist brush.

This is an interesting confession. So anyone who supports children, church and women being able to stay at home with their children “deserves to be tarred with the fascist brush”. This would make approximately 75 percent of the planet fascist, but never mind that. The fact that both Hitler, (who was not a fascist), and Mussolini, (who was), saw the Catholic Church as one of their most dangerous and troublesome rivals doesn’t seem to trouble this poor leftist. Note too, that while the actual party manifesto written by the party founder is to be cast aside as mere propaganda, subsequent actions notwithstanding, a general slogan belonging to a different party in a different country somehow suffices to shine a light on my true fascist ideology. Stupendous stuff, Sherlock!