The answer to both questions is a surprising “yes.” Tim Walz is less qualified than Kamala, and Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan were the worst debate moderators in the history of debate moderators.
It was another three-way gang-up, with the three Democrats (Walz, O’Donnell and Brennan) taking turns hurling accusations at Vance. Every question was either a Democratic Party talking point or, in some cases, a set-up to give Walz a chance to explain away his own various scandals. Like, they asked Walz about changing his gun-control stance, and he does his yada, yada, yada (obviously a rehearsed response) and then — without giving Vance a chance to reply — they moved on to housing.
Then, after Walz gets to do his spin on housing, they go to Vance and then back to Walz, so he can “respond to an allegation” that Vance made about Harris’s immigration policy. This is one example of a pattern that repeated itself throughout the “debate.” Any criticism Vance made of the Biden-Harris administration was labeled by the moderators as an “allegation” to which Walz was then invited to respond.
Give credit to J.D. Vance. He was focused and unflappable, maintaining his poise and stating his points clearly and confidently. Also, Vance is just much better-looking than Walz, which matters a lot on TV, especially when the target audience is confused suburban white women who can’t make up their mind who they want to vote for: “Hey, that guy with the beard has cute blue eyes . . .” That’s a few votes in swing states.
Condolences to my favorite actuary & sumo fan, Mary Pat Campbell, on the loss of her husband Stu. Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine; et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Did you back the Starquest Indiegogo campaign but haven’t heard from the Wrights? They want to hear from you! Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.
I forgot to mention this in the FMJRA, your usual source for all things Senators, but Pete Da Tech Guy has asked me to inform the commentariat that the Cubs are available for the upcoming 1974 season in our Dynasty Baseball league. The Cubs finished 57-105, eleven games ahead of the hapless Dodgers, so they’ll get to draft second.
If you’re of a certain age, you probably remember this hilarious Wendy’s commercial poking fun at the lack of choice in the former Soviet Union. Fortunately, our ladies’ choices in loungewear are considerably more attractive and varied. This pic comes to us courtesy of Rule 5 Texan on X. Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.
The season ended with the Pirates sweeping the Senators at Three Rivers, finally putting the season out of its misery. We finished last in the Beta Division of the American League at 67-95, six games behind the A’s but still ahead of the O’s and Royals, who finished at 62-100. This is actually the second-best season we’ve had so far if you exclude the short 1969 season when we were 60-66, but after last year’s 91-71 finish we were hoping to at least break .500.
After much blowback — were college interns working the weekend copy desk? — Associated Press has changed that headline, but what was the logic? How does the journalistic “mainstream” reach a point where a bloodthirsty Jew-hater like Hassan Nasrallah gets such a fond send-off from AP? Dig the euphemism in the lead paragraph, where Hezbollah is described as a “Lebanese militant group” when, in fact, they are a gang of Islamic terrorist thugs sponsored by Iran which, to their credit, the AP more or less admits farther down in the story:
An astute strategist, the 64-year-old Nasrallah reshaped Hezbollah into an archenemy of Israel, cementing alliances with Shiite religious leaders in Iran and Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas.
Under his leadership, Hezbollah fought wars against Israel and took part in the conflict in neighboring Syria, helping tip the balance of power in favor of President Bashar Assad.
Idolized by his Lebanese Shiite followers and respected by millions of others across the Arab and Islamic world, Nasrallah held the title of sayyid, an honorific meant to signify the Shiite cleric’s lineage dating back to the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam. A fiery orator viewed as an extremist in the United States and much of the West, he was also considered a pragmatist compared to the militants who dominated Hezbollah after its founding in 1982, during Lebanon’s civil war.
You know who else was “fiery orator viewed as an extremist in the United States and much of the West”? A guy named Adolf Hitler. Perhaps you’ve heard of him. Anyway, Nasrallah is dead, as are other top Hezbollah leaders including Ali Karaki. Bibi Netanyahu is Israel’s Michael Corleone, settling all the family business. Can you imagine being a junior “militant” in Hezbollah and learning that you’ve gotten promoted because the guy above you in the terrorist hierarchy just got killed?
Netanyahu just declared “we are winning” at his UN speech.
Usual weekend deadlines for the usual weekend posts.
The week I spent at Oak Ridge TN was educational, informative, interesting, and unfortunately I was hideously jet-lagged and short on sleep for about half of it. That having been said, if you’re in the neighborhood, you should absolutely visit the K-25 Museum, which is chock-full of cool Manhattan Project information and spiffy exhibits. Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.
“I picked a bad week to give up booze and smoking.”
The benefits of having a readership full of nerds is that sometimes they can teach you things, as in this comment on yesterday’s post:
Obscure wargaming reference here. In the old Avalon Hill Game called Kingmaker — a simulation of the Wars of the Roses — one of the most annoying random event cards is “Defeatism Rife”. Worse than “Plague!” and less amusing then “The King Goes Hunting”. No matter how powerful your faction is, you suddenly lose the ability to leverage your offices, bishoprics, and mercenaries. Your winning faction with an military power of 540 is now a weak 40 for a Turn.
In life, defeatism is similar. I love it — in my enemies and rivals. They defeat themselves before I even move against them. That is why despair is a sin — the Sin of Sloth IIRC.
One is reminded of the old adage that England’s wars were won on the playing fields of Eton, by which it was meant that the education system of British leadership caste was such as to instill in young men the attitudes necessary to victory. The old “stiff upper lip” disposition of British officers, the quality of calm amid crisis, the dogged persistence in the face of daunting odds and discouraging setbacks — “the playing fields of Eton” taught those qualities, somehow. If there is any cause to be pessimistic about America’s future, certainly the state of our education system is at the top of the list, because there is no effort to create leadership of that character. Indeed, our education system is run by people who lack patriotism and clearly do not wish to make our nation stronger. How could “gender theory” lectures contribute to such a project?
Whenever the topic turns to tactics and strategy in politics, we naturally borrow our metaphors from sports and warfare, both of which involve competition between rival teams, in which victory requires cooperation — good teamwork — by the winning side. One of the surest harbingers of failure in any such endeavor is when team members cannot restrain their selfish ambitions and suppress their personal pride in the way necessary for successful team cooperation. Think of the numerous humiliations that George S. Patton had to endure — e.g., being sidelined because of controversy over his slapping a soldier he regarded as a cowardly malingerer — before finally getting his chance at military glory. Or think about the “Wilderness Years” of Churchill, when he was frozen out of the Cabinet while Baldwin and Chamberlain pursued a disastrous policy of appeasement. Being able to keep up the fight — to maintain one’s morale — amid such discouragement is the stuff of greatness.
In any long conflict, history teaches, the leader who emerges victorious at the end usually is someone who was relatively obscure when the conflict began. Prior to the American Civil War, U.S. Grant was certainly not the kind of figure anyone would have expected to end the war as top army commander, and when World War II began, Dwight Eisenhower was not a household name. The lesson history teaches is that men destined for greatness often have to “wait their turn,” to persevere through adversity and overcome disadvantages, in order to find their opportunity.
Carolina Panthers fans were celebrating Sunday after veteran quarterback Andy Dalton threw for 319 yards and three touchdowns to lead their team to their first victory of the season — in fact, their first win since last December. The Panthers had the worst record in the NFL last year (2-15) as No. 1 draft pick quarterback Bryce Young struggled in his rookie season and, by “struggled,” I mean failed. After back-to-back defeats to open this season, Carolina head coach Dave Canales benched Young and brought in Dalton, a 36-year-old who has bounced around the league since his glory days with the Cincinnati Bengals more than a decade ago. Dalton hadn’t done much during stints with Dallas, Chicago and New Orleans, and most NFL fans had figured he was nearing retirement while riding the bench behind the rookie QB Young in Carolina. Would replacing Young with Dalton make a difference for the Panthers, who seemed so lacking in overall talent? I didn’t expect any such thing, but what Andy Dalton did against the Raiders on Sunday was a clinic, a showcase of football excellence that seemed to lift the entire team to new heights. I still don’t think Carolina has a snowball’s chance in hell of making the playoffs, but for one day, Andy Dalton was Hercules in cleats, a demigod hero. (I should be writing scripts for NFL Films.)
That’s the kind of saga that inspires us to hope at times when our situation seems hopeless. There was no reason Panthers fans should have expected that, after more than 15 years in the league, Andy Dalton should suddenly recapture his former Pro Bowl form to spark an upset over the Raiders, and yet that’s what happened. The lession — never get demoralized. Don’t let the “Defeatism Rife” card defeat you.
