LIVE AT FIVE: 12.19.12
Posted on | December 19, 2012 | 7 Comments
— compiled by Wombat-socho
TOP NEWS
Inquiry Slams State Department Over Benghazi
Panel sharply critical of failures at Foggy Bottom
Boehner Unveils Plan B As Fiscal Cliff Deadline Looms
Can Speaker sell millionaire tax hike to his own caucus?
Zuma Wins ANC Leadership Election By Overwhelming Margin
2983-991; vote secures Zuma’s position until 2019
POLITICS
Obama Backs Assault Weapon Ban
Will support Feinstein’s attempt to reintroduce 1994 “assault weapon” ban
NRA Promises “Meaningful Contributions” To Prevent Another Newtown
Senator Leahy Sworn In As President Pro tempore
Lhota Quitting: Mayor Race Next Stop For MTA Boss
Hagel’s Comments On Israel Scrutinized
California Releases Draft Hydraulic Fracturing Regulations
Montana Supreme Court Denies Gay Couple’s Suit For Benefits
State Lawmakers Propose Steps To Control Guns
THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Crude Prices Rise On Hopes For Budget Deal: NYMEX $87.51, Brent $108.24
UBS Agrees To $1.5 Billion In Fines Over LIBOR Rigging
Housing Market Builds (Some) Momentum
Mark Zuckerberg Donates $500 Million To Charity
Oracle Earnings Top Expectations, Shares Jump
Nielsen Agrees To Buy Arbitron For $1.26 Billion
National Geographic Turns Off Instagram Over New Terms
FTC’s Google Inquiry To Continue
Samsung Withdraws EU Suit Against Apple
Facebook About To Get Even More Annoying
Santa Ditches Google For Microsoft
Yahoo To End Music Service In China
Microsoft Urges Orphaned GMail Active Sync Users To Jump To Outlook.com
SPORTS
Gasol Returns As Lakers Survive Bobcats
Lakers actually win one, 101-100; Bobcats’ skid reaches 12
Jazz Survive Late Gaffe, Escape With Win Over Nyets
Will A’s Import Nakajima Pan Out In The Majors?
Despite Nine-Game Win Streak, Peyton Manning Says He’s Not Back Yet
Joakim Noah Notches Triple-Double As Celtics Get Buried In Chicago
Mets Hope D’Arnaud Will Be The Difference They Need Behind The Plate
How The Nationals Shaped The Market For Adam LaRoche
FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Kate Upton Stripped For Antarctic Action!
A bikini in 35-below weather? Hardcore!
“Game Of Thrones” Gets Super-Sized Season Three
Ke$ha’s “Die Young” Plummets Down Charts After Newtown Massacre
Rihanna Buys $12 Million House In Pacific Palisades
“Gossip Girl” Revealed In Series Finale
TV Episodes, Movie Premieres Postponed After School Shooting; Tarantino Defends Movie Violence
Katie Holmes Celebrates Her 34th Birthday With Suri
Lindsay Lohan: I’m Too Broke To See A Shrink!
Clay Aiken Says “American Idol” Now All About The Judges
FOREIGNERS
Outrage Erupts In India Over Gang Rape On Bus; Angry Protests In New Delhi
Huge Turnout In ROK Presidential Election
Japan, PRC Set Course For Confrontation
Russia Sends Warships To Syria For Possible Evacuation
Gunmen Target Pakistan Polio Workers Again
Hugo Chavez Stable After Respiratory Infection
Iraqi President Talabani Suffers Stroke
Ireland To Legalize Abortion
Ahmadinejad Cancels Visit To Turkey
BLOGS & STUFF
Michelle Malkin: Letter From a Young Video Gamer/Designer
American Thinker: NY Post – Second Amendment Is “Obsolete”
John McCormack: Does Harry Reid Still Oppose The “So-Called Assault Weapons Ban”?
Power Line: Sandy Hook – The Corrections Begin
WTOP: Governor McDonnell Says It’s Time To Discuss Arming School Officials
Weasel Zippers: Unions Take Credit For Gov. Snyder’s Veto Of Concealed Carry In Schools
Ramesh Ponnuru: Cass Sunstein And The Second Amendment
The Lid: State Department Report On Benghazi Issued – Embedded Here
NY Post: Hillary Clinton’s Head Fake
JustOneMinute: More Fun With Numbers At The Times
Volokh Conspiracy: Why Bans On So-Called “Assault Weapons” Won’t Diminish Mass Shooting Deaths
Israel Matzav: Senate Republicans To Oppose Hagel?
Moe Lane: Is Chuck Hagel A Stalking Horse For Michelle Flournoy At Defense?
NRO Corner: Roadblocks For Hagel
Jawa Report: “Fast And Furious” Gun Found At Site Where Mexican Beauty Queen Died
Lonely Conservative: SWATter Of Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher Arrested
Gateway Pundit: Ben Affleck May Run For John Kerry’s Senate Seat
Doug Powers: Boehner Suggests Tax Plan Originally Suggested By Pelosi; “Not A Serious Proposal”, Says…Pelosi
EAG News: Professor Blames Mass Shootings On “White Male Privilege”
He’s a Lumberjack, and He’s OK: The Wobbly Scholarship of Erik Loomis, Ph.D.
Posted on | December 18, 2012 | 47 Comments
(Note: University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor of History Erik Loomis has recently established himself as a famous laughingstock of online political argument, using the excuse “metaphor” to claim that it’s OK to say that the National Rifle Association is a “terrorist organization” and that he wants NRA chief Wayne LaPierre’s “head on a stick,” prior to deleting his Twitter account. This inspired curiosity as to Professor Loomis’s academic qualifications. — RSM)
By “Badger Pundit“
Having recently delved a bit into Erik Loomis’s apparent craving for attention. I thought I’d delve a bit into his scholarship in response to R.S. McCain’s tweet wondering what Loomis wrote about for his history Ph.D dissertation. McCain suggested the dissertation might be on “Historical Uses of Violent Obscene Language in Political Discourse.” I suppose he meant that in jest, but what I found was actually weirder. Loomis earned his Ph.D (with distinction!; C.V. here) writing about (in part) homosexual lumberjacks and castrated Marxists in the early 1900s (well, okay, only one castrated Marxist).
An abstract of Loomis’s 2008 dissertation, “The Battle for the Body: Work and Environment in the Pacific Northwest Lumber Industry, 1800-1940,” is available here.
I downloaded the full dissertation and skimmed through it. I don’t recommend that you follow suit, unless — perhaps — you’re intrigued by homosexual lumberjacks, the lynching and castration of Marxists, and/or Marxist labor organizing generally. And even then, it’s a dull, plodding read. (By contrast, I have to give Loomis credit for cranking out interesting tweets; too bad he recently deleted his Twitter account, so that all we can look forward to is the chance to peruse the archive of his past tweets, still available on Topsy.com.)
The dissertation’s basic story is pretty much what you’d expect of your typical leftist historian at an American university. During the first century or so of trees being felled in the Northwest after the white man first arrived in force, the greedy capitalists raped the land and killed the gentle forest creatures, despite the best efforts of the ordinary, salt-of-the-earth lumberjacks who wanted to preserve the environment and save the animals. Plus, they wanted better pay and working conditions, of course.
Marxist unionists (with the Industrial Workers of the World, “I.W.W.”) seized on the situation early in the 1910s and sought to unionize the lumberjacks. Their efforts were bearing fruit, but then World War I intervened. The government had an urgent need for spruce wood for its airplanes, so in an E – V – I – L conspiracy, it: (1) forced the timber companies to give the lumberjacks basically everything they wanted, in terms of pay and working conditions; (2) forced the lumberjacks to join a government-established union; and (3) forced the lumberjacks to reject the Marxist unionists, and their I.W.W. But, the government did nothing to help save the earth or help the animals — all it cared about was winning the war by preventing disruption of spruce wood production!
The Marxist unionists weren’t happy with this, so as soon as the war was over, in the small town of Centralia, Washington, the Marxists staged an ambush of American Legion members who opposed them, using two snipers hidden in the hills — killing four of the Legionnaires (including two war heroes). The town folk weren’t happy with this, so they lynched one of the Marxists and prosecuted the rest, getting them sentenced to long prison terms. Thus died the chance for the Marxists to unionize the lumberjacks and thereby improve their pay and working conditions and save the environment and animals. Eventually, in the mid-1930s, the AFL-CIO unionized the lumberjacks, but by that point environmental conditions in the forests weren’t a pressing issue; all the AFL-CIO focused on was pay and working conditions. The bottom line is that despite the lumberjacks’ long-held wish to help save the earth and the peaceful forest creatures, they never got the union backing they needed to effectively advance this agenda against the greedy capitalists (and the E – V – I – L government forces).
In general, pretty much a waste of paper and computer storage space, though probably not the worst liberal claptrap ever produced by an American history Ph.D candidate. However, three parts of Loomis’s dissertation caught my attention, because they suggest that weird, sometimes violence-supportive, ideas are hardly new to Loomis (in other words, it seems he exhibited a weird streak in his writing even before Twitter; Twitter just gave him a more visible outlet).
1. For some reason, Loomis can’t resist talking about early 20th century homosexual lumberjacks, and the anal sex they preferred (over oral sex). I mean, after reading pages 155-56 I immediately thought of the Monty Python “Lumberjack Song” (video here; lyrics here). And I felt I needed a shower, too. Here’s the key excerpt (bottom of p. 155 and top of p. 156) (citations omitted):
“The Wobblies [Marxist unionists] claimed that workers spread these diseases [syphilis and other STDs] to one another through men using contaminated blankets, but homosexuality in the camps seems a more likely explanation, though neither union or lumber industry publications ever discussed this.
Historian Peter Boag discusses in great detail the history of homosexual men in the Pacific Northwest of the early twentieth century. Boag shows us that working-class men, including loggers, looked to find a partner that could cut through their loneliness and misery, share sex, and provide companionship as they moved around the West. Usually these relationships consisted of an older man and a younger man where the older man generally dominated and took care of the younger. Boag asserts that these men generally preferred anal sex, as opposed to the oral sex often practiced by the middle-class gay subculture thriving in the Northwest’s cities. Given that males dominated the population of the Northwest throughout its industrial expansion after 1890 it is not surprising that so many loggers made partners of other men.
2. For some reason Loomis can’t resist spending three pages (pp. 191-93) discussing whether or not the town folk of Centralia castrated the Marxist who was involved in the ambush before they lynched him. I guess this is one of Loomis’s few opportunities to talk about “genderized” discourse. Here are the key excerpts from that discussion:
“[N]o one could match Wesley Everest’s manhood. The Wobblies defended Everest’s manhood with intense vigor because they wanted to make him a martyr but also because they believed the mob had castrated him before killing him thus stripping him of the ultimate symbol of his manhood.”
* * *
“Wesley Everest’s alleged castration raises ideas about gendered bodies. Whether Everest’s murderers actually castrated him is in doubt. But soon the legend sprung up that the mob had castrated Everest, a notion promulgated by John Dos Passos in his novel, 1919. . . . [T]he Wobblies used the idea of castration, the ultimate demanning of the body, to further their agenda about manhood, the body, and the environment. For the I.W.W., Everest’s testicles held the core of working-class manhood.
3. In his discussion of the Marxists’ deadly ambush of the American Legion members in Centralia (pp. 195-200), one gets the strong sense that Loomis is rooting for the Marxist assassins (perhaps no surprise, given recent developments). I didn’t notice any criticism of the Marxists for staging the ambush, but I did notice Loomis going into some detail about why the Marxists felt their ambush justified. Further, Loomis portrays the overwhelming contemporary newspaper opinion against the Marxists as perhaps indicative of xenophobia, and as reflecting the public’s view that Marxist unionists weren’t patriotic (because, Loomis to his credit notes, of the minor detail that they had been against the U.S. winning the war). Loomis implies that the effort of the Legionnaires “to get their side of the story out” (p. 198) was some sort of propaganda effort even though it mostly involved pointing out that the two Marxists who hid in the hills as snipers, so they could kill the four Legionnaires, didn’t face the Legionnaires “straight on.” (P. 199).
I can’t say I enjoyed reading Loomis’s dissertation, which struck me as basically aimless and uninteresting, and contributing little if anything to the study of U.S. history. ( I fear for our current generation of students if Loomis is typical of modern professors.). But I did think it worthwhile to take a look at the dissertation, and write this up, for the perspective it may supply in evaluating Loomis’s recent activities. Thanks to R.S. McCain for suggesting an inquiry into Loomis’s dissertation.
Herbert Marcuse, Wile E. Coyote and the Auto-Beclownment of Erik Loomis, Ph.D.
Posted on | December 18, 2012 | 22 Comments
Erik Loomis, Ph.D., is to Twitter what Wile E. Coyote is to Acme rocket skates. twitchy.com/2012/12/18/unv…
— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) December 19, 2012
The epic saga of University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor of History Erik Loomis shall live long in blogospheric lore. Twitchy is taking a victory lap over the professor’s unfortunate metaphorical seppuku: He had to delete his Twitter account, but not before Tweeting this:
“I love teaching books on the history of sexuality. I talked about dildos in a completely appropriate way in class today.”
Yeah: The taxpayers of Rhode Island (and the parents of university students) are paying Erik Loomis to teach kids the history of dildos.
Do you need a Ph.D. to do that? Where do you get a doctoral degree in Historical Dildology? Are there federal research grants available?
Humor aside, Instapundit exposes Loomis’s pretzel logic:
The anti-NRA syllogism seems to work this way: (1) Something bad happened; (2) I hate you; so (3) It’s your fault.
This is how people “think” when the object is not to find truth, but to justify their own prejudices. This is the dangerous logic of scapegoating. The characteristic viciousness of the Left stems from a radical certainty of their own moral and intellectual superiority and, by the obverse, the inferiority of the Right:
These destructive tactics are the radical offspring of what Frankfurt School intellectual Herbert Marcuse advocated in his notorious 1965 essay “Repressive Tolerance”:
Liberating tolerance, then, would mean intolerance against movements from the Right and toleration of movements from the Left.
Elsewhere in the same essay, Marcuse denounces “pure” or “non-partisan” tolerance, which he describes as the “active, official tolerance granted to the Right as well as to the Left, to movements of aggression as well as to movements of peace, to the party of hate as well as to that of humanity.”
When you think of yourself (as Loomis most surely does) as an apostolic soldier in the Righteous Army of Peace and Humanity, doing battle against the forces of Hate, there is no such thing as “fairness,” nor any rule of conduct that can limit your action. This mentality is expressed in the radical slogan, “By Any Means Necessary.”
This necessarily involves the de-humanization of one’s antagonists, a degradation of moral standards — excusing dishonesty and malicious action, so long as it is done on behalf of the Sacred Progressive Cause — and inevitably results in thuggery on behalf of “social justice,” a movement whose actions exemplify the very opposite qualities of “peace and humanity” that progressives claims to be pursuing.
This was how the idealists of the 1960s ended up, in the 1970s, being apologists for the bloody reign of Pol Pot in Cambodia, and supporting domestic terrorists like Bill Ayers and Kathy Boudin.
Without any real moral principles, judging everything only by its political expediency, they exempt themselves from judgment, even while harshly judging the demonized Other whom they target with transparently invalid smears. The Wheelerization of Steven Crowder was one recent example of this, as is the “argument” offered by Scott Slemmons, a commenter at Erik Loomis’s blog:
Maybe if you Malkinites weren’t such anti-America McVeigh-fanboys, people wouldn’t hate you so much.
Notice the ridiculous name-calling — “Malkinites”? — and the attempt to do a guilt-by-association between (a) critics of Loomis and (b) 1990s terrorist Timothy McVeigh.
Question: When did Michelle Malkin ever endorse the 1995 Oklahama City bombing, or anything like it? The standards of acceptable discourse among Loomis’s admirers are no standards at all. You will perhaps not be surprised to learn that Scott Slemmons is a comic book blogger.
Who could possibly admire someone like Erik Loomis, Ph.D? Who could consider him an acceptable teacher of impressionable youth? His anger issues mark him as an intemperate person with a near-infinite capacity for making a fool of himself, yet see his university duties:
Courses Taught:
- HIS 141 – History of the United States to 1877
- HIS 339 – Emergence of Industrial America, 1877-1914
- HIS 364 – U.S. Environmental History
- HIS 365 – Civil War and Reconstruction
- HIS 441 – Topics in U.S. History (U.S. West)
- HIS 495 – Senior Seminar
This amoral monster is entrusted with instructing student from their freshmen to their senior year. Why was the second-rate intellect hired? Here’s a significant hint:
Flashback: Erik Loomis criticized
Sarah Palin for ‘violent rhetoric’
Hating Republicans is the ultimate resumé-enhancer in academia. Any dimwit can advance if he has the “correct” political views.
UPDATE: He’s a Lumberjack, and He’s OK: The Wobbly Scholarship of Erik Loomis, Ph.D. — Guest Post by Badger Pundit.
Why the Creepy Little Weirdo Did It
Posted on | December 18, 2012 | 27 Comments
We now have the first clear suggestion of a motive:
NEWTOWN, Conn. – The gunman who slaughtered 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school may have snapped because his mother was planning to commit him to a psychiatric facility . . .
[The creepy little weirdo], targeted Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown after killing his mother early Friday because he believed she loved the school “more than she loved him,” said Joshua Flashman, 25 . . .
“From what I’ve been told, [the creepy little weirdo] was aware of her petitioning the court for conservatorship and (her) plans to have him committed,” Flashman told FoxNews.com. “[The creepy little weirdo] was apparently very upset about this. He thought she just wanted to send him away. From what I understand, he was really, really angry. I think this could have been it, what set him off.”
A senior law enforcement official involved in the investigation confirmed that [the creepy little weirdo’s] anger at his mother over plans for “his future mental health treatment” is being looked at as a possible motive for the deadly shooting.
News organizations keep trying to bestow post-massacre fame on the creepy little weirdo. I’ve decided to stop cooperating with that agenda.
Is It ‘Metaphor’ to Suggest Erik Loomis Should Be Sodomized by Orangutangs? UPDATE: Is Professor ‘Head on a Stick’ Now Under State Police Protection?
Posted on | December 18, 2012 | 46 Comments
Who knows? Maybe he’d enjoy it. At any rate, University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor of History Erik Loomis seems to consider colorful language acceptable in political discourse, so that it’s OK to say that the National Rifle Association is a “terrorist organization” and that he wants NRA chief Wayne LaPierre’s “head on a stick,” among other thought-provoking figures of speech:
A professor of history turned to Twitter over the weekend to call for the death of National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre, branding the gun rights group he heads as a terrorist organization.
A professor used twitter over the weekend to call for the death of the NRA’s CEO.
“[I] want Wayne LaPierre’s head on a stick,” Erik Loomis, a professor at the University of Rhode Island (URI), tweeted.
It “looks like the National Rifle Association has murdered some more children,” he added.”
Can [we] define NRA membership as dues contributing to a terrorist organization?” he asked in a separate tweet.
Loomis’ comments come on the heels of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which left 20 young children and six faculty members dead.
The professor contended Democratic lawmakers should exploit the tragedy to force more restrictive gun control measures into law.
“You are goddamn right we should politicize this tragedy,” Loomis tweeted. “[F]uck the NRA.”
“Dear Republicans, do you know the definition of family values?” he continued. “It’s not having our kids FUCKING SHOT AT SCHOOL! Fuck the NRA.” …
See, the problem here is not that Erik Loomis is on Twitter. The problem is that you’re too stupid to understand academic literature:
Dear right-wing morons, saying you “want someone’s head on a stick” is a metaphor. I know metaphor is hard for you to understand.
Dear rightwingers, to be clear, I don’t want to see Wayne LaPierre dead. I want to see him in prison for the rest of his life. #nraterrorism
Erik Loomis deleted that Tweet already, and also deleted a Tweet in which he claimed to be the victim of a “right-wing intimidation campaign.” He apparently deleted his entire Twitter account. Because he’s a Ph.D., and you’re too stupid understand what a “metaphor” is.
UPDATE: Before he deleted his Twitter account, University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor of History Erik Loomis re-Tweeted this message from another blogger:
First fucker to say the solution is for elementary school teachers to carry guns needs to get beaten to death.
So we can add “needs to get beaten to death” to the repertoire of progressive metaphors that are approved by University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor of History Erik Loomis. However, if you criticize University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor of History Erik Loomis with such colorful metaphors, he might call the cops:
Being attacked by a David Horowitz wannabe for saying I wanted to see Wayne LaPierre’s head on a stick has led to a world of fun, ranging from a meeting with the Rhode Island State Police last night to people inundating the University of Rhode Island community with warnings of their murderous colleague in their midst.
What kind of insult metaphor does he mean by “David Horowitz wannabe,” and to whom does this phrase refer?
UPDATE II: It appears from comments at University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor of History Erik Loomis’s blog that his “meeting with the Rhode Island State Police last night” was perhaps not because he called the cops, but that someone call the cops on him.
Perhaps they were worried the professor might commit seppuku.
Metaphorically, of course.
#Newtown: ‘Exotic Weapons’? Nope.
Posted on | December 18, 2012 | 13 Comments
I’m convinced #MSNBC is a signifcant contributor to America’s mental illness problem.
— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) December 18, 2012
Today on the Endless Gun Control Telethon that is MSNBC — I Watch, So You Don’t Have To™ — a guest on Morning Joe referred to the Newtown shooting as exemplifying the problem caused by “exotic weapons.” This demonstrates the problem caused by common ignorance.
Adam Lanza’s weapons were a Bushmaster .223-caliber semi-automatic, a type described by the New York Times as “the most popular rifle in America, according to gun dealers,” as well as two 9-mm pistols (Glock and Sig Sauer) and a shotgun of unknown make.
These are not “exotic weapons” by any definition.
It has been reported that the shotgun was found in the deranged gunman’s mother’s vehicle, which he drove to the school after shooting her in the face, and that the main weapon he used in his massacre was the Bushmaster, using 30-round magazines. Here’s a headline:
Assault weapons in the cross hairs
— Law.com
Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Californication) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Corruption) are vowing legislation to bring back the (absurdly misnamed) “assault weapons ban.”
We will leave aside the biggest aspect of the misnomer (i.e., semi-automatic rifles are not “assault weapons”) and focus instead on the “ban” part of this rhetorical delusion. The Bushmaster was NOT banned under the law Democrats want to bring back.
What we are dealing with here — amidst the chaotic cacophony of frenzied liberal noise — is another one of those “do something” episodes that occasionally afflict the media/politics nexus. The follies that result from the “do something” impulse, as politicians react to the latest headline and try to reassure voters that government can fix whatever problem concerns them, has resulted in some of the most awful stupidity in history, including Republican stupidity: Terrorists strike New York? Create a new government agency for airport security! Give the feds more wiretapping authority! Invade some foreign countries! And . . . how’d that work out for ya?
There’s Little We Can Do to Prevent Another Massacre
— Megan McArdle
Consider the possibility that we really can’t “do something” in terms of dramatic new legislation, but rather that seemingly small adjustments — in terms of policy and practice, in terms of training, enforcement and investigation — could make a significant difference. I have sarcastically referred to “The Dangerous Lunatic Incarceration Act of 2013,” meaning to suggest we re-examine how we deal with mental illness, especially in terms of the policies (and misguided court decisions) of the 1960s and ’70s that we refer to collectively as “de-institutionalization.”
Da Tech Guy offers an interesting idea: Let retired law enforcement and military personnel serve as volunteer armed “sheepdogs” in schools.
My personal favorite quote of the day:
“I refuse to dwell in the madness and melancholia
inherent in the human condition.”
Whatever you do, if you’re feeling depressed or stressed, don’t watch MSNBC. This insane crap could drive anybody nuts.
I’d Always Taken ‘Valley of the Shadow’ As A Psalm 23 Reference
Posted on | December 18, 2012 | 19 Comments
by Smitty
Joe Fein has an important post up about dealing with existential issues. Go read/comment/link.
Americans come in all manner of shades, sizes and ideals.
One of the first lessons I learned in NYC was not to stereotype anyone.
All I can hope for is that we are treated as individuals, not as a group.
If I may offer a positive, non-prescriptive observation, I’ve never heard of a major atrocity committed by someone who:
- Got decent rest,
- Took exercise,
- Ate reasonably, and
- Was active in some community of faith.
The possible exception that comes to mind is Charles C. Roberts, but even the extreme case gets at my point: be engaged. The well-reflected life is not lived passively, disconnected from those in the immediate vicinity*. The social and political order of the country depends upon Americans NOT being sheep. Progressivism wants to build some Orwellian/Huxlian paradise, where Statism supersedes the Judeo-Christian emphasis upon the individual/family as the unit of societal analysis.
The struggle to be who we are and carry out or individual destinies is really where life is located, at least from a temporal sense. So be about that. Sorry, I can’t pull a “Just do what I did.” My own path was unique to an introverted Navy brat. Though, to divulge a secret, taking a prayerful read through the Bible was life-changing. Especially Ecclesiastes, for whatever odd reason.
The alternative is to permit these political creeps to sell your liberty short on the market for political power, and then use that power to beat you down.
Fight the good fight, Joe.
*Significant medical barrier notwithstanding, obviously.
LIVE AT FIVE: 12.18.12
Posted on | December 18, 2012 | 1 Comment
— compiled by Wombat-socho
TOP NEWS
President Makes New Proposal To Narrow Gap On Cliff
Obama’s proposal calls for $1.2 trillion in increased revenue, $1.2 trillion in spending cuts
Chief Nanny Bloomberg Appeals Again For More Gun Control
No indication Obama is listening
South Africa’s Zuma Faces Challenge For ANC Leadership
Deputy President Motlanthe aspires to Chairman’s post
POLITICS
Medal Of Honor-Winning Hero, Senator: Daniel Inouye Dies, 88
Won Medal of Honor with legendary 442nd Regimental Combat Team during WW2; became Hawaii’s first Congressman and senior Senator
Former Massachusetts State Chemist Indicted
Pennsylvania, NJ Dems Call For Stricter Gun Control
Governor Haley Picks Rep. Tim Scott To Fill DeMint Seat In Senate
Obama Expected To Nominate Kerry To Succeed Clinton As SecState
Fort Hood Suspect To Appear In Court For Hearing
Hagel Draws Fire For His Position On Israel
THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Remains Below $87 As US Fiscal Concerns Drag On; NYMEX $86.66, Brent $107.82
Stocks Advance With Commodities On Signs Of US Budget Progress
Morgan Stanley Fined $5 Million Over Facebook IPO
Farmers Worry About Dairy Prices As Deadline Nears, And Obsolete 1949 Ag Act Provisions May Be Revived
McDonald’s Might Be Open This Christmas
Clearwire Accepts Sprint Bid At $2.97/Share
Too Big To Jail? Critics Question Why Bank Execs Don’t Face Money Laundering Charges
Judge Denies Apple Request To Ban Samsung Phones
Celebrity Hacker Gets Ten Years For E-Mail Hack
Facebook Takes On Foursquare And Yelp With “Nearby”
IBM Predicts Computers That Embrace The Five Senses
Google, FTC Near Deal To End Probe
If Hulu’s Still For Sale, The Price Just Went Up
SPORTS
Titans’ Defense Delivers In 14-10 Win Over Jets
Tennessee’s defense forces five turnovers from Sanchez, sacks Tebow once
Linsanity Returns To The Garden
Cy Ya Later: Mets Trade R.A. Dickey To The Blue Jays
Red Wings’ Cleary: Nearly Everyone Will Vote To Disband NHLPA
Red Sox Sign Stephen Drew To One-Year Deal
Grizzlies Overcome Slow Start To Beat Bulls
Giants Sign Reliever Casilla To Three-Year Extension
Australian Quicks Secure Dramatic Test Win
FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
It’s Official: Zooey Deschanel Divorced
Both waived claims for spousal support
NBC Honchos Considering Jimmy Fallon To Take Over “Tonight Show”
Channing And Jenna Dewan-Tatum Expecting First Child
New Questions Surrounding Amy Winehouse’s Death
Ricky Gervais In Talks To Star In “Muppets” Sequel
TLC Delays “Best Funeral Ever” In Wake Of School Shootings
Britney To Bow Out Of “X Factor”?
Universal Sets “Skyfall” Scribes To Work On “Kojak” For Vin Diesel
FOREIGNERS
Reform-Minded PRC Shuns Stimulus
Speculation On Bashar Assad Exit Grows As VP Says Loyalists Can’t Win
Overwhelming Majority Of Diet Members Support Amending Japan’s Constitution To Allow Collective Defense
Park Geun-Hye On Verge Of Becoming ROK’s First Female President
PRC Detains 101 For Spreading Mayan Doomsday Rumors
Israel Approves East Jerusalem Settlement Construction
Cleanup Begins After Tornado Devastates Fiji
Berlusconi’s Love Life Lost In Translation
BLOGS & STUFF
Valley Of The Shadow: In The Crosshairs Of Stereotypes – Mental Illness, Being Goth, And Being Republican
Allahpundit: Obama Concedes On New, Higher Income Thresholds For Tax Hikes
Weasel Zippers: Obama Makes Fiscal Cliff Counteroffer
NRO Corner: Obama’s Counteroffer
Megan McArdle: There’s Little We Can Do To Prevent Another Massacre
Joanne Jacobs: “I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother”
Doug Powers: Senator Dukakis? That’s A No
Twitchy: University Of North Alabama Boots Football Player For Racist Tweet About Obama
Gateway Pundit: St. Louis County Police Chief Says Arm The Teachers
Protein Wisdom: Going On The Offensive
Atlas Shrugs: US Ambassador Tells Georgia To Vote For A “Palestinian” State
Jawa Report: Fate Of Hostage Journalist In Syria Unknown
Larry Pratt: Eliminate “Gun-Free Zone” Regulations







