Vox Popoli

Naturally, so is the Sports Guy:

It’s a two-word phrase that can’t be printed on ESPN.com, but it’s become the mantra of the 2007 Patriots season…. You can see it with every rubbing-it-in touchdown in the fourth quarter, as well as every “Get ’em a body bag … YEAHHHHHHHHH!” reaction on the sidelines after it happens. You can see it with Brady’s ticked-off game face that hasn’t changed for five straight weeks….Maybe the 2007 Pats were caught stealing signals, but only one signal matters anymore: two middle fingers turned toward the sky.

I still remember every game from 1998. That was a very different situation, the ’98 Vikings seemed to be almost joyful in their casual destruction of opposing defenses. The closest they got to the ’07 Patriots was when Randall Cunningham threw a 45-yard bomb to Jake Reed for a touchdown that was called back for some ticky-tack holding penalty, then hit Reed running exactly the same fly pattern for a 55-yard TD.

You couldn’t stop them, only Denny Green’s playoff coaching could contain them. I still think that Belichick should have been suspended, but I am nevertheless thoroughly enjoying his team’s response to the rest of the league. I love seeing Randy Moss play like himself again, I like Wes Welker’s Energizer Bunny deal and seeing Tom Brady do an uncanny imitation of Clint Eastwood: NFL QB is fascinating. When the announcers were saying that he “looked rattled” against Dallas, I just rolled my eyes; he didn’t look rattled, he looked irritated. Sure enough, he threw a strike for six on the next play.

Of course, in enjoying this surprising dominance in the so-called parity era, it also helps that the Vikings have absolutely no shot at anything but a one-and-out as an NFC wild card. Regardless, the transformation of the Patriots from Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader has got to be the signature sports event of the decade.

I always know that my critics are hard up for material when they have to blatantly misrepresent something I’ve written in order to criticize it:

In his Oct. 15 WorldNetDaily column defending Ann Coutler’s remarks that Jews should become Christian, Vox Day gets disturbingly anti-Jewish.

Day writes that the apology sought from Coulter by “left-wing Jewish interest groups” “would appear to be an extraordinarily silly demand, except for the fact that Vanity Fair has recently announced that a remarkable 51 percent of the Vanity Fair 100 Power List are Jewish in a country in which Jews make up approximately two percent of the population.

Quoting Vanity Fair? How very disturbing! Actually, it kind of is, but not for the reasons ConWebWatch gave. The little problem here is that I never once mentioned an apology of any kind, nor did I write anything about a demand for one. What I did reference was Ira Forman’s demand that media outlets not permit Ann Coulter to talk about politics, in fact, I quoted him directly in my column yesterday:

Scenting a fundraising issue, left-wing Jewish interest groups demonstrated their commitment to human liberty and free intellectual discourse by demanding that the mainstream media stop talking to the best-selling author who also happens to be one of the most popular right-wing commentators in the country. The executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, Ira N. Forman, reluctantly admitted that while Ann Coulter has freedom of speech, he would very much like to see her forced to exercise it in private.

“Just as media outlets don’t invite those who believe that Martians walk the earth to frequently comment on science stories, it’s time they stop inviting Ann Coulter to comment on politics,” he said.

There’s a big difference between seeking an apology – however unnecessary – and demanding the media shunning of one of the most popular political figures in the nation. Now, I don’t believe Miss Coulter should apologize as she said nothing for which to apologize, and if any apologies are due, it is from Mr. Deutsch, whose persistent questions about Ann Coulter’s religion and subsequent feigned outrage were clearly not within the context of a book tour interview. But regardless, I didn’t write about an apology, I wrote about a specific and very silly demand made by a specific, very silly left-wing Jew.

Christopher Hitchens has publicly articulated far more outrageous and offensive things in the last week than Ann Coulter, (he even managed to upset a sizeable number of his fellow atheists, amusingly enough), but should a right-wing Christian demand that media outlets across the country stop inviting him to comment on political issues, I would consider that to be every bit as silly.

As I informed Terry K in an email alerting her to the errant nature of her post, I am generally pro-Jew and pro-Israel. However, I also believe that the Israel Lobby is a negative thing for both Jewish and non-Jewish Americans, as well as for Israel. Their thinking, in my opinion, is short-sighted, bellicose, strategically dubious and likely to harm Jewish-Christian relations as well as fostering a dangerous Israeli dependency on the USA.

96 Masonville Marauders
92 Mounds View Meerkats

91 Cranberry Bogs
54 Burns ICU

79 Greenfield Grizzlies
73 East Mesa WhiteTrash

74 Village Valkyries
31 W.C. Silver Spooners

69 Winston Reverends
23 Black Mouth Curs

I put up 92 points and still lost… this so clearly is not my season. I have the fourth most points – 30 more than the fifth place team – but I’m three games out of SIXTH place.

Yes, I’m whining, but in this case, I think it is eminently excusable. Ah well, at least I can take some consolation in how the Vikings are playing much better than I’d expected.

BL appears to be a classic example of the individual who derives a sense of importance from his imaginary persecution:

You really stepped over the line with this misguided, uninformed, and historically skewed diatribe against the Jewish People. I find it difficult to believe that your screed went to press prior to the WND’s editor reading it thoroughly.

What you think you know, wouldn’t even fill a thimble, and whether knowingly or otherwise, you have opened wide the door for a flood of Jew-hatred to sweep across the United States.

The hate and venom you’ve harbored in your soul against the Jews has been exposed. I won’t bother to dissect the inacurracies and prejudices in your writing which you’ve presented as “historical facts”.

You’re on my shit list now.

Of course he won’t bother to dissect the “inacurracies” of my column, or even list them, as the only inaccuracy was the rhetorical shorthand which referred to Jesus Christ as a Christian, which, technically, is impossible since one can’t follow oneself.

All I can say is that if I am a Jew-hater, then the Jews had better flee the USA immediately, as I am more generally pro-Jew and pro-Israel than the vast majority of people I know in the USA, let alone Europe. BL is either one of those who consciously attempt to keep Jews on the unassimilated reservation by stoking their fears about Gentiles or he’s incapable of understanding the concept of sympathetic criticism.

It is a tremendous mistake for any minority to attempt to push around or otherwise control a large majority, and that is precisely what Forman, Deutsch and Foxman have attempted to do by publicly declaring “war” on Christianity and demanding that Christians be silent about even the most basic tenets of their religious faith. If a floodgate to Jew-hatred is being opened in the United States, it is being opened by organizations like the ACLU and individuals like Forman, Foxman and company.

UPDATE: This intellectually challenged individual can’t keep straight just who is telling who to shut up:

There is no war on Xtainity in the U.S. It may make you feel badly that people ask that the US Constitution be upheld. It may make you feel badly that some people prefer not to have religion stuffed in their face, but that is just too damned bad.

Right, that’s why after Abe Foxman’s attack on American Christian organizations, Haaretz reported: “But this is the first all-out media assault by an ADL head on the U.S. Christian establishment.”

Furthermore, Mr. Deutsch specifically asked Ann Coulter about her religion. He was literally asking to have her religion ‘stuffed in his face’. It is the Jew, Ira Forman, who is demanding that Christians shut up about their faith, whereas I’m completely fine with Jews talking about their faith all they want, I simply pointed out that Forman’s demand is a stunningly obnoxious one in a Christian-majority country. And how, I wonder, could Ann Coulter answering a direct question about her faith possibly violate the U.S. Constitution in any way, shape or form?

It can’t really be a surprise to learn that so many people despise Jews considering the way that some of them are so blindly devoted to seeing anti-semitism under every blanket and trying to turn friends into enemies. If this loser thinks American Christians are anti-semitic, he should try visiting post-Christian Europe.

PZ is shocked, shocked that a prominent atheist calls for committing genocide:

Basically, what Hitchens was proposing is genocide. Or, at least, wholesale execution of the population of the Moslem world until they are sufficiently cowed and frightened and depleted that they are unable to resist us in any way, ever again.

This is insane….

This whole last third of his talk had me concerned about the first part. He had just told us in strong terms about the failures of religion and its detrimental effect on our culture, and now he was explaining to us how the solution in the Middle East was to simply kill everyone who disagreed with you. He didn’t relate the two parts of his talk, which was unfortunate. I’d like to know whether he thinks the way atheists ought to end religion in America is to start shooting Baptists, or whether he sees other ways to educate and enlighten … in which case I wonder why he doesn’t see any virtue in applying those same methods to Islam. I didn’t ask the question since the line for the microphone was long, and I had a depressing feeling that the solution would involve sending the Baptists over to Iraq to kill and be killed….

But while I agree with his goal of working towards a rational, secular world, a triumph of enlightenment values, I disagree entirely with his proposed strategy, which seems to involve putting a bullet through every god-haunted brain. To have a clearly stated position to which we can respond with clearly stated opposition is actually a kind of gift.

Atheists interested in politics and power always end up wanting to kill everyone. This is hardly the first, or even the fortieth time this has happened. It’s not only not new, it’s entirely predictable. Hey, it’s all just rearranging atoms anyhow, right?

If I can borrow Sam Harris’s amusing little formulation, PZ should know that the way he is now regarding Hitchens is exactly the way that Christians, Muslims, Hindus, most theists and more than a few agnostics regard PZ and the rest of his fellow atheists.

From Peter King’s weekly SI column:

“I learned from Bud Grant that every coach needs three things — a loyal dog, a faithful wife and a heck of a quarterback. Finally, we’ve got a guy giving us good, consistent play.”
— Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden on Jeff Garcia

The funniest thing about that, if you know anything about Bud Grant, is that order he gives is totally hierarchical. Nothing against wives, but they don’t retrieve now, do they.

There was an amazingly funny TV interview with Bud Grant a few years ago, where the reporter clearly knew that Grant’s priorities were just a little different than the high profile coach these days. The look of utter disbelief on St. Bud’s face when asked if he regretted not being a head coach now because he could have things like his own cologne really had to be seen to be believed.

And yes, I am liking that Adrian Peterson pick right now, thank you very much. I’m not entirely sold on Tavaris Jackson for the future due to his accuracy issues, but he’s got a pocket discipline, he doesn’t throw many dumb passes and he’s definitely no Slash/Vick clone. In fact, twice I was screaming at him to go ahead and run the three yards for the first down when it was right there in front of him.

Speaking of the Vikings-Bears game… never EVER kick the football to Devin Hester. In fact, just give up punting altogether, I don’t care if it’s fourth-and-fifteen on your own twenty, your odds are still better than kicking it to Hester. And forget chucking, hit him with a baseball bat when he lines up as a wide receiver. A flag and 15 yards is better than 80 plus a touchdown. Yesterday, I felt a bit like all the other teams facing Randy Moss in 1998 must have felt.

Oh, and Childress, when it’s second-and-five on the 33, you only need a field goal to win and your running backs have rushed for approximately six thousand yards, how about NOT calling a FREAKING SLANT PATTERN!

I’m in the middle of Halting State right now. It’s very good, the sort of massively technophilic orgy of creative extrapolation that shows Stross at his best. I’ll write a full review next week, in the meantime, suffice it to say that if you like tech porn or games, you have to get this book.

Text sample: “Good, I need to go get something to eat; I’m starving.” She paused for a couple of seconds. “Well, see you tomorrow, then.”

You smiled. “See you.”

A minute later, you sat bolt upright in your chair and swore at yourself for missing a hidden query – but you’re more at home with SQL than socialization: innuendo wasn’t a language they taught in CS lab.

Simon Jenkins correctly sees that the only serious threat is within:

There may be young Muslims and their teachers with a vested interest in talking up such a war. There are those in the West with the same interest, such as the booming armaments and security industries with their think tanks and lobbyists.

Such vested interests need to be exposed as such. To portray Islam as a whole as a concerted threat to western security, and to imply that the West’s democratic institutions and freedoms are not proof against that threat, is absurd and close to treason.

Merely ending Muslim immigration and sending non-citizens home would be enough to end the only genuine threat Muslims pose anywhere in the West, which is demographic. The fact that the West’s leaders won’t do that while pointing to Iranian and Saudi Arabian Muslims as proving the imminent need for restricting Western freedom tends to show that they are, in fact, entirely treasonous.

They should replace Maureen Dowd with him every week:

I’d like to thank Maureen Dowd for permitting/begging me to write her column today. As I type this, she’s watching from an overstuffed divan, petting her prize Abyssinian and sipping a Dirty Cosmotinijito. Which reminds me: Before I get started, I have to take care of one other bit of business:

Bad things are happening in countries you shouldn’t have to think about. It’s all George Bush’s fault, the vice president is Satan, and God is gay.

There. Now I’ve written Frank Rich’s column too.

I’d certainly rather vote for Colbert than for Clinton or Giuliani.