Rule 5 Sunday: Raquel Welch

Posted on | August 29, 2022 | 1 Comment

Couldn’t find any decent pics of Raquel Welch (nee Tejada) as a weather girl in LA. so here’s the next best thing, a publicity photo of her from the Hammer film One Million Years B.C.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Mmmm, deerskin.

NINETY MILES FROM TYRANNY: The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1820, Hot Pick of the Late Night, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule Five Man Test Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: MAGA Redaction, Krakatoa, Emily Carey, Gabrielle Drake, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Rock & Roll High School, Louise Perry, Darya Drugina, and House Of The Dragon.

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: TV Turns Tatania Maslany Green, Fish Pic Friday – Anne Marie Down Under, Biden Announces Jubilee, Thursday Tanlines, Some Wednesday Wetness, York Bans Car Washing, Tattoo Tuesday, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Gone Fishin’ and Palm Sunday

Thanks to everyone for all the bodacious links!

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Category: Rule 5

What Time Is It?

Posted on | August 28, 2022 | Comments Off on What Time Is It?

Not long ago, I mentioned how Ace of Spades has for a while been referring to certain Republicans as believing it’s still 2003, i.e., they’re stuck in the obsolete politics of Bushism, incapable of dealing with the current reality. Ace makes the same point in referring to those who know What Time It Is, i.e., fully conscious of the current political reality.

Politico has an interview with Vanderbilt University history professor Nicole Hemmer, author of a new book called Partisans: The Conservative Revolutionaries Who Remade American Politics in the 1990s. It should go without saying — because she is employed in academia — that Hemmer is a left-winger who vehemently hates all Republicans, but from the interview it seems that she at least notices some important points about the history she covers:

One of the biggest factors contributing to the fragility of Reaganism was the end of the Cold War. I think in some ways we’ve forgotten how much Reagan was a Cold War president and that the conditions of the Cold War shaped his rhetoric, shaped the policies that he preferred, and really were necessary for the kind of conservatism that he championed. When the Cold War ends, it loosens not just the motivation for conservatives to get involved internationally, but also the motivation for them to champion democracy, which they hold on to a little more lightly after Reagan leaves office.
There’s also a massive shift in terms of domestic politics. It had been a goal of conservatives for so long to capture the presidency, and then they had captured it [in 1980], and they didn’t get everything they wanted. They knew that was partly because they hadn’t won control of Congress at that point for something like 40 years. So there is a real refocusing on congressional politics, not just in opposition to Bill Clinton but in opposition to George H.W. Bush as well.

This is something that I think most conservatives simply haven’t factored into their understanding of Reagan, and the meaning of Reagan’s legacy. Nothing mattered to Reagan more than defeating Communism, which had been the focus of his politics ever since the late 1940s when, as president of the Screen Actors Guild, he found himself targeted by Communists who had taken over other film-industry unions. As president, Reagan was willing to compromise on domestic policy if it helped him increase his ability to confront the Soviets. This was why, for example, Reagan was willing to sign the 1986 amnesty bill, a necessary compromise that has been completely misunderstood by some Republicans. Cold War anti-Communism was the “glue” that held the Reagan coalition together and, without the existential threat of an aggressive nuclear-armed Soviet Union, the conservative movement lost focus after 1990. A lot of the Cold War hawks just weren’t down for the fight over domestic issues that came to the forefront of politics in the 1990s. For them, the 9/11 attacks were a godsend, putting international geopolitics back in the center of public policy, but the subsequent failure of the Global War on Terror — the unpopularity of fighting an endless “insurgency” in Iraq — left them embarrassed, though unrepentant.

But why bring up Liz Cheney at this point, eh? The larger point is that times change and politics change, and that nostalgia for the Good Old Days is not helpful as a guide to organizing one’s public policy priorities in the here and now. We must know What Time It Is, or else be defeated because of our obsolete goals and tactics. Meanwhile, in the Politico interview with Hemmer, I smiled when I read this part:

“Middle American radicals” is a term that was popularized by Sam Francis, who — spoiler alert — becomes a pretty out-and-out white nationalist by the 1990s, and who was an adviser to the Buchanan campaign. The idea was that there were these people in middle America — today, we often call it “the flyover states” — who were generally white, generally Christian of some stripe, and who had been radicalized by the politics of the second half of the 20th century. There was a sense that they were under threat, that they were no longer the dominant demographic, that they were losing power and losing control of politics. But now they were finally rearing up and fighting back.
It’s a lot like the Silent Majority that Richard Nixon talks about, but Richard Nixon’s Silent Majority was supposed to be the opposite of radical. They were supposed to be the reactionaries who were holding the center during a period of change and upheaval in the United States. The idea behind these Middle American Radicals was that no, actually, these are the people who want to radically remake American politics. Sam Francis, and later Pat Buchanan, really tapped into those folks.

Guys, I knew Sam Francis. Literally had beers with the guy, and have often thought that, on the night of the 2016 election, I could hear ghostly laughter coming from the general direction of the cemetery in Chattanooga where Sam Francis is buried. Somewhere in my bookshelves, there’s an autographed copy of Revolution From the Middle which, in hindsight, was either a roadmap for, or a prophecy of, the Trump revolution. Of course never in a million years could Sam Francis (who died in 2005) have imagined that Donald Trump would have been the man to inspire those “Middle American radicals” he talked about; that was Andrew Breitbart’s doing, when he arranged to have Trump speak at CPAC 2011. So that makes two visionary architects of the Trump revolution that I had beers with, literally. All successful political movements begin on the radical fringe, inspired by “extremists.” When Sam Adams started stirring up trouble in Boston? “Extremist”!

While nostalgia for the politics of yesteryear is generally misguided, nevertheless history offers inspiring examples of leaders who emerged in moments of crisis, men who knew What Time It Is and didn’t mind being called “extremists” for speaking the unpopular truth. Deo Vindice.

Category: History

FMJRA 2.0: Countdown To Looking Glass

Posted on | August 28, 2022 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Countdown To Looking Glass

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Another frustrating week with the ~~Kansas City A’s~~Senators, as we lost both games against Oakland and three games at Atlanta. The only good thing was that none of the games were blowouts, which gives me some faint hope that we can beat the Yankees in at least one game on Tuesday.
I haven’t downloaded any of the Conelcast podcasts in a while, but if you enjoy electronic music you could do a lot worse than either checking out the podcasts or buying one of his older albums off Bandcamp.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League.

Rule 5 Sunday: Yanet Garcia
Animal Magnetism
The DaleyGator
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
A View From The Beach
EBL

Louise Perry Gets It
Nebraska Energy Observer
Okrahead
Proof Positive
EBL
357 Magnum

Julie Jaman, Mayor David Faber and the Transgender War Against Women
The Mad Irishman
The Pirate’s Cove
EBL

FMJRA 2.0: Igneous
The DaleyGator
A View From The Beach
EBL

Professors of Politics
Okrahead
EBL

Killadelphia Update: Nearly 100 Shots Fired in Rec Center Drive-By Shooting
The First Street Journal
The DaleyGator
EBL

Ex-NFL Player’s Brother Charged With Fatal Shooting of Youth Football Coach
EBL

In The Mailbox: 08.22.22
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
EBL
357 Magnum

Joe Biden Has Not Condemned This Atlanta ‘Hate Crime,’ For Some Reason
Okrahead
The DaleyGator
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 08.23.22
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 08.24.22
Proof Positive
EBL
357 Magnum

Biden’s Illegal Boondoggle Giveaway
The DaleyGator
EBL

Suspect Charged for Hit-and-Run That Killed Three Outside Chicago Gay Bar
EBL

In The Mailbox: 08.25.22
A View From The Beach
EBL
Proof Positive
357 Magnum

Politics and Friendship
EBL

In The Mailbox: 08.26.22
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
EBL

Top linkers for the week ending August 27:

EBL (16)
(tied) 357 Magnum, A View From The Beach, and Proof Positive (6)
The DaleyGator (5)

Thanks to everyone for all the links!

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Category: Linkagery

Affidavit, Laugh-idavit

Posted on | August 27, 2022 | 1 Comment

This “Rick Roll” joke by Jim Jordan’s staff, and the similar jest by my friend John Hoge, is really no laughing matter. The private home of the former President of the United States was raided by the FBI under the pretext of . . . well, what, exactly? It’s like what Gertrude Stein said of Oakland, “There’s no ‘there’ there.” Such an unprecedented action as the Mar-a-Lago raid, one might think, would only be undertaken with clear evidence of wrongdoing, but what this seems to be about is that some librarian at the National Archives in February complained about Trump possessing documents that the librarian wanted. Six months later, the raid happened, the idea being that Trump had “classified” or “top secret” material, so that the national security was imperiled. But if it was such a five-alarm emergency, why did they wait six months to do the raid?

If I were a Democrat who hoped the affidavit would have enough to condemn Trump I would be deeply disappointed. Their only hope would have to be that there is something in the redacted bits to justify raiding a former POTUS. Don't be fooled by whatever BS they post; they're upset

— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) August 26, 2022

Trump’s lawyers have pointed out that the affidavit raises more questions than it answers. Everything about this raid stinks of political motivation, and Margot Cleveland is probably pretty close to the target in saying that this was just a “get Trump” fishing expedition.

More on Monday @FDRLST but teaser on significance of Friday's partially unsealed affidavit with attachments: Biden Administration knew it couldn't charge Trump w/ mishandling of classified documents (assuming they were classified), so they went in search of crime for orange man. pic.twitter.com/jfasCK9b2T

— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) August 27, 2022

Category: Donald Trump

Why Do Democrats Hate Women?

Posted on | August 27, 2022 | Comments Off on Why Do Democrats Hate Women?

Charlie Crist and Nikki Fried

Florida Democrats had a chance to nominate a “progressive” woman for governor, but instead of Nikki Fried, they chose Charlie Crist — and it wasn’t even close. Crist won by almost a 25-point margin, 59.7% to 35.3% for Fried. Of course, it goes without saying that I loathe Nikki Fried, but I’m a Republican, so I’ve got an excuse. The big question is, why do Democratic voters in Florida hate Nikki Fried so much that they’d prefer that desiccated fossil Charlie Crist? Meanwhile, in New York . . .

Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney

Democratic primary voters had a chance to send Carolyn Maloney back to Congress in the 12th District, but instead they chose Jerry Nadler and, again, it wasn’t even close. Nadler beat Maloney by more than 30 points, 55% to 24%, with another 19% voting for Suraj Patel, so that between them, the two male candidates, Nadler and Patel, ran up a 3-to-1 margin over the lone woman, Maloney. Again, as in the case of Nikki Fried, I loathe Carolyn Maloney, a dangerous dingbat who is committed to depriving Americans of their Second Amendment rights. But I’m a Republican, so I’ve got an excuse. What needs to be explained is this evidence of blatant woman-hating from New York Democrats.

By the way, this collision of two incumbent Democrats in 12th District was the result of New York losing one House seat due to the 2020 census, in which the state came up a mere 89 people short of enough to avoid losing a seat. When you consider the thousands of elderly New Yorkers who died as a result of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s misguided COVID-19 policy, this was a self-inflicted wound by Democrats. When you think about it, Carolyn Maloney was Cuomo’s last victim. Meanwhile . . .

Sean Patrick Maloney and Alessandra Biaggi

In the suburban 17th District of New York, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) chairman Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney defeated “progressive” challenger Alessandra Biaggi and it wasn’t even close. Maloney stomped her by a 2-to-1 margin. A state senator, Biaggi was endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the UAW and other left-wing groups and yet Maloney, sitting on that big pile of DCCC cash, defeated her without breaking a sweat. Why? Because Democrats hate women!

Just weeks ago Sean Patrick Maloney asked for DCCC donations to protect Roe — and then used the money to prop up an anti-choice election denier in Michigan.

Voters are tired of DC politicians demanding donations and lying about where the money will go.https://t.co/affhg2gvun

— Alessandra Biaggi (@Biaggi4NY) August 16, 2022

It’s battered women’s syndrome — they keep going back to the abuser, thinking he’ll change his ways if they just love him enough.

Category: Democrats

In The Mailbox: 08.26.22

Posted on | August 26, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 08.26.22

— compiled by Wombat-socho

It’s Friday, and the usual weekend deadlines are in effect for the usual weekend posts.
For those of you who have been bedeviled by this week’s Taylor Swift memes, I hope today’s meme explains everything to your satisfaction; given that Ms. Swift made the mistake of coming out of the political closet and supporting Democrats, who are acting a lot like a certain former Austrian art student’s followers, she deserves all the mockery she can stand.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Marcha Real, also, Fakebook Zuckerberg Admits FBI Told Them To Quash Hunter Biden Laptop Story
Twitchy: The IRS Is Leaking Information About Conservative Donors Again, also, Dee Snider’s Not Happy About “MAGAT Fascists” Using His Song – Reality Checks Ensue
Louder With Crowder: Watch: Drew Barrymore is being race shamed for frolicking in the rain. No, really., also, Stripper goes viral giving little kid a ride on her pole at a parade while other grown adults celebrate
Vox Popoli: Gavin McInnes Arrested, Proxy War 2.0, and It Tolls for DC
According To Hoyt: Rains of Spiders and Women Birthing Snakes
Monster Hunter Nation: WriterDojo S3 E7: Supporter Spectacular (Round V), also, No Game For Knights – Out in September

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: The Last Village
American Conservative: History Is History, also, The Secret Of Latin Mass (And Divine Liturgy)
American Greatness: Morning Greatness: Critics Say Biden Student Loan Plan Illegal, also, Trump Calls DOJ’s Heavily Redacted Affidavit For Mar-A-Lago Raid a ‘Total Public Relations Subterfuge’
American Thinker: The Senate is Very Much in Play for the GOP, also, The Man Who Won the War
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Man Test Friday
Babalu Blog: Cuban doctors sent to Mexico working under slave conditions, When it comes to Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, Pope Francis sees no evil, hears no evil, and speaks no evil, and While some Cubans hex their dictatorship through witchcraft, a Catholic priest calls for active resistance by the people
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm for August 26, 2022
Behind The Black: T-Mobile and Starlink to team up, FCC commissioner questions legality of FCC cancellation of SpaceX’s $900 million subsidy, and Today’s blacklisted American: Blacklisting is not enough, leftists now aim to get conservatives killed by police
Cafe Hayek: The Mad Witch Hunting Intensifies
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Da Tech Guy: Here comes the Predicted MSM’s “Trump Vaccine” Pivot ( #Unexpectedly of course )
Don Surber: Take the language back, also, Student loan ingrates yawn at $10,000 gift
First Street Journal: The problem is not mass incarceration
Gates Of Vienna: The Wayward Bus, Thai Premier Placed on Non-Active, and Party Like It’s 2015
The Geller Report: Mark Zuckerberg Tells Joe Rogan: FBI Pressured Facebook To Censor Hunter Biden Story Just Weeks Before 2020 Election, also, Wall Street Journal: The Trump Warrant Had No Legal Basis
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, NGC 7027, The Actual Cost of Electric Cars, and Main Basis for Probable Cause for the Mar-a-Largo Search Warrant Revealed
Hollywood In Toto: Three Thousand Years of Longing Is Nothing Like You Expect, Bill Maher: I Still Believe Trump Colluded with Russia to Beat Hillary, and Orphan: First Kill Laps the Original (Faint Praise Alert!)
The Lid: Joe Biden, How Dare You Compare Me To Hitler
Legal Insurrection: SCOTUS Affirmative Action Reply Briefs: Harvard and UNC Make Arguments Similar To Segregationists, ‘Viewer Discretion is Advised:’ Podcast Movement Organizers Mocked After Apologizing for Ben Shapiro’s ‘Presence’ at Expo, and Minnesota Proposing Teachers Integrate ‘Racial Consciousness and Reflection’ to Receive License
Nebraska Energy Observer: Legends and Freedom of Speech
Outkick: Hockey Goalie Mikayla Demaiter Is Ready For The Weekend, ‘I’ll Whip Yer Ass’, Lee Westwood Torches ‘Hypocrites’ Tiger, Rory And PGA For ‘Copying’ LIV, and Colorado Baseball Team Cancels Family Night Event With Pro-Life Groups
Power Line: The O’Keefe Project: Footsteps getting closer, Did the FBI Rig the 2020 Election?, and Thoughts from the ammo line
Shark Tank: Demings Calls Rubio An “Anti-abortion Extremist” Despite Her Own Extreme Pro-Abortion Record
Shot In The Dark: The Best Of Hands, Let It Be Noted, and Never Forget
The Political Hat: Stealth Veganism
This Ain’t Hell: Valor Friday, Christian schools as an answer to public school woke agenda, and Spambot Attack
Transterrestrial Musings: The Lunacy Of The Left, also, The Wonders Of Obamacare
Victory Girls: The White House is having a Twitter meltdown comparing Student Debt to PPP, also, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser Quickly Backtracks On School Vaccine Mandate
Volokh Conspiracy: Heavily Redacted Mar-a-Lago Search Warrant Affidavit Now Available
Watts Up With That: Green Energy Fail: Germany Imposes Strict Winter Rationing on Individuals and Companies
Weasel Zippers: Biden Loan Student Loan Give Away To Deadbeats Could Cost $6,000 Per Taxpayer Or Over $1 Trillion, Mark Zuckerberg Tells Joe Rogan The FBI Told Him To Censor Hunter Biden Story, and Radical Group Trying To Transition Your Kids Now Operating In 4,000 Schools Nationwide
The Federalist: Judge Denies Michigan Secretary of State’s Motion To Dismiss Lawsuit Removing 26,000 Dead Registrants From Voter Rolls, After Proclaiming The Opposite, Medical Pros Quietly Admit Mutilating Trans Kids Doesn’t Fix Depression, Ranked-Choice Voting Is A Nightmare — And It’s On The Ballot In Nevada, and FBI Is So Committed To Transparency Nearly Entire Trump Raid Affidavit Is Redacted
Mark Steyn: Live Around the Planet: Friday August 26th, also, Woke Welfare

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Category: Linkagery

Politics and Friendship

Posted on | August 26, 2022 | Comments Off on Politics and Friendship

If you squint very hard at this 1973 photo of the low-brass section of the Douglas County (Ga.) High School Marching Tiger Band, you can see a 14-year-old trombonist, squatting down in the center, who is now a professional journalist of some minor notoriety. Among his good friends in this photo, kneeling to the left, is Phil Underwood, son of the local Church of God pastor who, of course, grew up to become a pastor himself. But that was after Phil got kicked out of the band because, during a trip to Florida — where we performed at Walt Disney World — the future pastor went on an unauthorized dune-buggy ride with two girls.

Also pictured in this photo, standing at the rear just left of center, is a tuba player known by his nickname “Sasquatch,” who went on to tremendous renown as a member of the Spirit of Atlanta drum-and-bugle corps. The last time I saw him was at a Fourth of July at Lake Weiss in Alabama circa 2010, where I did the fireworks show and “Sasquatch” showed up to cook barbecue (which was fall-off-the-bone excellent).

Anyway, I learned this week that my old buddy “Sasquatch” had just rejoined Facebook after a four-year hiatus — a “self-imposed departure,” as he called it — due to political quarrels. This kind of thing happens, unfortunately, but I’ve never understood it. Perhaps I’ve developed advanced skills in ignoring anything that doesn’t interest me, e.g., “reality TV” personalities. There is a sort of media cottage industry devoted to covering the no-talent “celebrities” created by shows like Real Housewives and the Bachelor franchise, and I occasionally see references to these trashy people on my Google feed, but have never been tempted to click on any of those links, much less to waste my time watching those tacky travesties. There are apparently millions of Americans who can’t get enough of dreadful shows like The Bachelor, and yet — because of my prowess at ignoring things — I couldn’t tell you anything about “reality TV” shows, except that they’re all fake. But I digress . . .

Some people aren’t as good at ignoring things as I am, so they get upset about politics and actually lose friends over that nonsense:

“The nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) found 24 percent of Democrats distanced themselves from people on social media because of a political posting. Nine percent of both Republicans and independents reported doing the same to those in social media circles. Additionally, 28 percent of liberals surveyed said they removed someone from their social media circle because of the content that person posted, compared with 8 percent of conservatives.”

(Hat-tip: Ace of Spades.) Permit me to suggest that the real problem is a lack of healthy cynicism about politics. Having spent some time in the company of professional political operatives, I can assure you that, whatever their political ideals may be, at the end of the day, they’re mainly about getting paid. Like, during the 2012 cycle, I knew GOP operatives who went from working against Mitt Romney to working for Mitt Romney in a matter of weeks. As a journalist covering politics, I’ve seen enough of that kind of behavior that I take it for granted that more or less everybody’s a sell-out. The business of partisan politics is not a place for Boy Scouts, and I laugh at the pretensions of people like David French, who seems to think the rest of us are too stupid to understand he’s being paid to express a certain point of view, and that his vaunted “principles” are not exactly sturdy pillars of integrity.

So many of my Republican friends get wrathful over being sold down the river by Mitch McConnell, to which I reply, sic semper hoc. Before we were sold out by Mitch, we were sold out by Trent Lott (remember him?) and before Trent, it was Bob Dole. There is a long tradition of Senate Republicans pissing down our back and telling us it’s raining, and after you’ve watched this game a while, you lose your capacity for outrage.

Perhaps being routinely raped by leaders of our own party explains why Republicans are less likely to “unfriend” liberals on Facebook than vice-versa. Do I think the average Biden voter is an idiot? Of course, but I don’t hate them the way I hate the faithless swine in charge of the GOP.

Being an ex-Democrat myself, I’ve explained to friends that the most wonderful thing about becoming a conservative is that you don’t have to stop hating Republicans, you just hate them for different reasons. Apparently, most liberals can’t put themselves in our shoes and see how the Republican politicians they view as DANGEROUS RIGHT-WING EXTREMISTS are, in fact, a cowardly bunch of milquetoast pantywaists afraid of offending their Big Money donors. And the activist grassroots of the Democratic Party — the folks naïve enough to believe all that “progressive” chatter — seldom wise up to the nature of the grift by which people like Hillary Clinton get rich by pretending to stand up for “progressive” principles. Insufficient cynicism, you see.

The damned lying media (dishonest scoundrels whom I hate worse than most politicians of either party) devote a lot of effort to getting people emotionally worked up about politics, and if we don’t learn to tune out this noise, it will drive us crazy. My hunch is that this helps explain why my old friend Sasquatch took a break from Facebook. His politics are more or less diametrically opposed to mine, and I hope it wasn’t anything I put on my Facebook feed that stuck in his craw. But the one thing I don’t do on Facebook is argue about politics. I’ll post memes or articles, but I wouldn’t dream of wasting my time criticizing what someone else posts on their feed, because what could possibly be gained? If your aunt is a dyed-in-the-wool MSNBC-watching “progressive,” you’re not going to change her mind by arguing with her on Facebook (or at Thanksgiving dinner, for that matter). And the same goes for me: It’s not like I became a conservative on a whim, or that I am ignorant of the arguments made in favor of liberalism. No, there’s quite a bit of study behind my political beliefs, and if I don’t feel the need to engage in a point-by-point rebuttal of your argument, you shouldn’t imagine that this means a rebuttal is impossible. It’s just that I’ve concluded it’s a waste of time.

Arguing about politics is also undignified.

You’re basically insulting people, implying that there are no sound reasons for their political beliefs, that they are ignorant, and that you are so superior to them in intelligence and knowledge that they will change their minds merely by listening to your lecture. This is the pose that feminists habitually take toward men, by the way. Feminists seem to think they possess a monopoly of knowledge, and that men have an obligation to shut up and listen to them. God help the fellow who thinks there is something to be gained by attempting to have an actual conversation with a feminist. But again I digress . . .

When I was a young fool, I actually enjoyed arguing about politics, but was eventually cured of that bad habit because, when I worked at The Washington Times, my desk was directly across from Victor Morton, a pious Catholic who possessed a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. Victor had been a debate champion in high school, and his forensic skills were remarkable. Because I am, and always have been, a decidedly opinionated person, I’d invariably find myself arguing with Victor about some detail of policy, and he’d refuse to cede anything to me because, by God, he wasn’t going to let a damned redneck with a diploma from Jacksonville (Ala.) State University beat him!

Victor was and is a stout-hearted conservative, and we agreed on about 95% of everything, but we always argued about that other five percent, because this is just how argumentative people are. Arguing is a habit with some people, and they’ll try to provoke an argument just for the sport of it. Well, I used to enjoy that kind of amusement, but arguing with Victor — a dear friend, whom I hold in high esteem — eventually made me accept the futility of it. Apparently, I’m just not a persuasive sort of person, and I finally stopped trying to persuade people.

A couple of weeks ago on The Other Podcast, I informed my friends John Hoge and Dianna Deeley that there are two kinds of people in the world:

1. People who agree with me;
and
2. People who are wrong.

The certainty of my own correctness goes a long way to explaining why I avoid arguing about politics. If other people were as confident in my judgment as I am, there would be no need for argument: I’d say vote this way, and they’d do it. But some people — the ones who are wrong — wish to “think for themselves” rather than to act in accordance with my wisdom, and I am powerless to stop them from doing the wrong thing.

Which explains why Joe Biden is president, obviously. Eighty-one million people thought they were smarter than me, and this is the result.

By the way — and Sasquatch, if you’re reading this, read carefully — why don’t liberals blame Hillary for everything that’s gone wrong lately? Because really, it’s all her fault. In 2007, she was the odds-on favorite to win the Democratic presidential nomination and her main rival was John Edwards (remember him?) the vaguely Kennedyesque senator from North Carolina who eventually wrecked himself with some daffy bimbo named Rielle Hunter. By all reckoning, the 2008 nomination should have been Hillary’s for the asking, but she fumbled it away to Barack Obama. Undaunted by this failure, she tried again in 2016, only this time she had the DNC so tightly within her grasp that she was able to screw over Bernie Sanders with rigged caucuses and “superdelegates” and win the nomination. However much Democrats hate Trump, doesn’t the blame for the Trump presidency really belong to Hillary Clinton? What a combination of arrogance and incompetence it took for Hillary to lose the 2016 election! And she reacted to her self-inflicted defeat by ginning up the “RussiaGate” hoax, with consequences that haunt us to this day — but Democrats still act like Saint Hillary is some kind of martyr.

What’s sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander, and as a Republican, I have to view recent political history in terms of our own failures. Exactly who the hell thought nominating John McCain would be such a brilliant idea? Certainly not me — the reason this blog is The Other McCain is because I didn’t want to be associated with that damned fool. When somebody wins an election, somebody else loses, and a party that nominates losers ought to get its own house in order before getting so worked up about the winners. Which is to say that Republicans must accept some blame for the disaster of the Biden presidency; the only ones who can claim exemption are those serving time for the January 6 riot.

Maybe the kook in the Viking hat was smarter than all of us.

If you want to hear me rant about politics, I can go all day, but I don’t want to argue about politics. What’s the point of arguing? People who disagree with me don’t want to hear my arguments about why they’re wrong, and thus I’d be wasting my time. Whereas, by contrast, my rants are at least entertaining, even if they’re not persuasive — I could probably even get a laugh out of that humorless cadaver Chuck Schumer.

And of course, you’re always free to ignore me, which is basically what I’m saying to Sasquatch. Nobody’s ever accused me of excessive humility, but I perfectly understand that my innate arrogance can be annoying, even to people who agree with me, so just imagine how annoying I am to people who are wrong. My tendency toward sarcasm has led some critics to accuse me of being Not a Serious Person, however, I would contend that we suffer from a surfeit of Serious People, who are also generally boring people. But why bring up David French again?

My real point is that next Fourth of July, I’d very much like some of that excellent fall-off-the-bone barbecue, and hope that Sasquatch will ignore my politics long enough that we can arrange it. Because it would be terrible to ruin an old friendship, merely because of politics.

Category: Politics