The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Right On, Michael Zak

Posted on | April 16, 2012 | 16 Comments

by Smitty

Zak continues to fight the good fight:

Yesterday, I attended a 150th anniversary ceremony in honor of the DC Emancipation Act. The event was held at Abraham Lincoln’s summer cottage.

The quartet Just Righteous inspired with A Change Is Gonna Come and other classic songs. Frank Williams discussed President Lincoln’s views on the DC Emancipation Act. Harold Holzer spoke about media reaction. Edna Greene Medford recounted the city’s response to the law.

While the speakers were informative, all three over-emphasized Lincoln’s role and managed to avoid mentioning an important political context. So, in the Q&A, I informed the audience of these crucial facts:

  • The DC Emancipation Act was written by a Republican Senator, Henry Wilson.
  • Republicans voted unanimously for the DC Emancipation Act
  • Democrats voted unanimously against the DC Emancipation Act
  • One of the 3,100 slaves liberated by the GOP made the statue “Freedom” which stands atop the U.S. Capitol dome

In his closing remarks, Mayor Vincent Gray said that just as slaves back then were held in bondage, city residents today are also “held in bondage” because DC is not a state. Yes, that’s what he said — trivializing the horrors of slavery in order to make a political point.

I’m more of a fan of History than I am of the Republican Party as such; parties are a necessary evil, and sometimes, perhaps, more evil than necessary.

But, if we can somehow recover the GOP from Progressivism, it could return to its former level of utility for the United States.

Follow Zak on Twitter.

Category: GOP, Republicans

At Least Daily Pundit Gets It

Posted on | April 16, 2012 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

Quick shaves my point on racism a little more finely. I’m OK with that:

Nobody actually cares about racism in America. As compared to much of the world, racism simply isn’t a major factor here. Cultural problems based on race and ethnicity do exist, but racism itself is not a real problem in America.

It’s not a major factor, but it would be a bit hasty to say that there are no people engaging in racist activities; that would imply some human perfection that we’re just short on.

I do feel with some confidence that the U.S. is about the least racist, most meritocratic place you’re going to find, though. Meanwhile in an update, Stooksbury continues to badger:

Smitty replies and denies seeing Zimmerman as one of “Us” but he can’t discuss the case without reference to a series of “Them.”

The scare quotes invite the question of whether Stooksbury buys into Postmodernism and notions of The ‘Other’.

Not to be coy, I do think that we’re living through the aftershocks of the Cold War. The dirty Commie vermin who knew they were losing in the last century have engaged in a long march through our institutions, playing good-natured American Exceptionalism against itself. #OccupyResoluteDesk is the crowning dung beetle of the Marxist midden heap.

Anybody who thinks that the Sandra Fluke/political aspects of the Trayvon Martin tragedy/Ann Romney business lack substantial overlap centered on the Obama campaign, directed by Them is either coy or daft. I’ll admit some value in the concern trolling. We should be both (a) clear, and (b) committed to combating the Orwellian onslaught of the Left without contamination from it. Keeping it American and Exceptional takes continuous self-examination.

Category: Bill Quick, Uncategorized

Further Omens of Impending Doom

Posted on | April 16, 2012 | 31 Comments

It’s Romney 47%, Obama 45% in the first Gallup Daily Tracking Poll of the 2012 general election campaign, and I’m sure everybody’s happy at this apparent falsification of the claim that a bitterly contested fight for the nomination was bad for GOP prospects.

Having foresworn any actual optimism, however, I regard this as a false hope: We’re still as doomed as ever, but the pollsters and media are trying to trick us into thinking Mitt can really beat Obama. They want to get everybody’s hopes up, so that Republicans are utterly demoralized and disillusioned by the inevitable defeat on Nov. 6.

One of these days, I’ll have to start covering this campaign as if the outcome were not a foregone conclusion, but that day has not yet arrived, and so here are the latest headlines via Memeorandum:

Romney offers policy details
at closed-door fundraiser
— MSNBC

Romney Specifies Deductions He’d Cut
— Wall Street Journal

Spilled Details Reveal Romney’s
Tax Promises As A Mirage
— Talking Points Memo

Even Behind Closed Doors,
Mitt Romney’s Tax Reform Ideas Are Timid
— Slate

Exclusive: Romney Sells Inauguration
Access, Nine Months Early
— Buzz Feed

That last headline bespeaks such deadly hubris, I think it safe to say that anyone who pays for access to the “Romney inauguration” is proving the truth of an old saying: A fool and his money are soon parted.

Another earthquake in Vanuatu? Existential dread overwhelms me.

UPDATE: Optimism from . . . Allahpundit? Say it ain’t so!

 

Category: Doomed Beyond All Hope of Redemption, Election 2012, Mitt Romney

Ain’t I Done Told Ya So? (Part III)

Posted on | April 16, 2012 | 66 Comments

We are shocked — shocked! — to discover liberals in the media hinting at future coverage about Mitt’s Mormonism:

Panelist Jon Meacham asked whether any of the focus on Romney’s “secrecy” may have something to do with his faith, Mormonism, a religion shrouded in mystery for many non-Mormons. “Is this code for the secrecy of the Mormon Church?” he asked Allen. . . .
“As the Obama campaign makes the case that Romney is somehow weird, different,” Allen replied, “some supporters of Romney will say that that is a dog whistle, that is a way to come near the religion issue. The Obama campaign will tell you they’re not going to touch it, they don’t poll on it, they don’t talk about it in focus groups because they know that it would blow up if they did and that got public.”
Host Joe Scarborough, meanwhile, was upset that he’s not allowed to enter a Mormon temple. “You can’t go into the temple, right? … Not even on the West Side? You go to Salt Lake, and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s pretty, I want to go in.’ And they are like, ‘No, you’re Southern Baptist.’”

Let’s be clear: No one expects the Obama campaign to do anything overt to raise the Mormonism issue. But liberals in the media are already researching articles about the history, beliefs and practices of LDS, interviewing critics and ex-Mormons, and those Serious Journalism stories will start cropping up in due time. You can bet on it.

Meanwhile, this kind of major-media chatter about Mitt’s Mormonism — “Oh, wouldn’t it be terrible if anyone exploited religious bigotry against Romney?” — is a way of legitimizing the trump-card issue that liberals will certainly find some way to exploit if they can.

 

 

RECENTLY:

Category: Election 2012, Mitt Romney, MSNBC, Religion

‘I Believed at the Time That the Documents Were Genuine and I’ve Never Ceased Believing That They Are Genuine’

Posted on | April 16, 2012 | 19 Comments

Dan Rather still refuses to accept the truth that he was bamboozled by Bill Burkett and, with characteristic narcissism, offers his own belief in the authenticity of the Texas Air National Guard document as evidence of their actual authenticity, saying in effect: “If I, Dan Rather, believed they were authentic, therefore they must be authentic.”

No one that I know of ever accused Rather of being a conscious collaborator in Burkett’s hoax. Nobody said that CBS News published the phony documents knowing that they were phony.

Without having read the entirety of Joe Hagan’s Texas Monthly article, it would appear to be an effort to rescue the “fake but accurate” narrative of the RatherGate scandal, to say that — without regard for the authenticity of the Burkett papers — the crux of the CBS story was true: George W. Bush did indeed receive favorable treatment in the National Guard, so that he was, in effect, an overprivileged draft-dodger.

Let us stipulate the obvious: Membership in the 147th Fighter Interceptor Group was not allotted randomly, and it isn’t difficult to imagine what kind of string-pulling may have been involved in Dubya getting that coveted assignment. But (a) National Guard service is not dishonorable; (b) the alleged incidents of Dubya being AWOL from Guard duty occurred when the war was winding down, long after there was any danger of Bush being drafted and sent to Vietnam; and (c) suspecting favoritism toward the scion of an affluent family is not the same thing as proving such favoritism.

Nevertheless, liberals always believe the worst of Republicans and so are notoriously gullible in accepting anything as “proof” of their suspicions. Hence, we are hardly surprised to find discredited Dan piously confessing his continued credulity to Joe Hagan:

Rather says he remains “optimistic” that somebody, somewhere, will one day come forward and reveal the truth of what happened. “They’re out there,” he says. “Let’s set the record straight.”

Yeah, Dan: The truth is out there!

Category: CBS, Military, Texas

RAAAAACISM!

Posted on | April 16, 2012 | 23 Comments

Just pre-empting the predicted liberal spin on this story:

Obama applied for a position as an adjunct and wasn’t even considered. A few weeks later the law school got a phone call from the Board of Trustees telling them to find him an office, put him on the payroll, and give him a class to teach. The Board told him he didn’t have to be a member of the faculty, but they needed to give him a temporary position. He was never a professor and was hardly an adjunct.
The other professors hated him because he was lazy, unqualified, never attended any of the faculty meetings, and it was clear that the position was nothing more than a political stepping stool. According to my professor friend, he had the lowest intellectual capacity in the building.

(Hat-tip: Jim Hoft and Don Surber.)

Category: Barack Obama

Naomi Wolf: Don’t Think of a Scam

Posted on | April 16, 2012 | 36 Comments

Katy Perry’s ‘glorification of violence’?

Pop singers rarely show up on my radar. I’m more of a classic rock guy. My occasionaly interest in celebrity news tends more toward starlet meltdowns, and other such “Hollywood Babylon” stuff. So I’m grateful to feminist Naomi Wolf for denouncing Katy Perry’s music video:

Have you all seen the Katy Perry Marines video? It is a total piece of propaganda for the Marines…I really want to find out if she was paid by them for making it…it is truly shameful. I would suggest a boycott of this singer whom I really liked — if you are as offended at this glorification of violence as I am.

Chris Bannon observes that the video portrays Katy Perry “as a feminist dream — a strong, independent, empowered young woman,” and you’ll excuse me for pointing out that FEMINISTS HAVE BEEN ALL ABOUT WOMEN IN COMBAT FOR THE PAST 20 YEARS! Read more

Category: Celebrities, Doomed Beyond All Hope of Redemption, Feminism, Military

Dear Victor Davis Hanson: Racism Is A Power Pump

Posted on | April 16, 2012 | 68 Comments

by Smitty

Here’s a great essay by Victor Davis Hanson on the racial divide, epitomized by the Trayvon Martin tragedy.

And yet. . .I just don’t think the great scholar gets it, or, at least, seemed to pull his punches:

Why?
I could go on and on, but one gets the message. So why the anger at this point and not, say, in 2007, when the evil Bush was president and Obama was but a weak senator and a dubious presidential candidate? For eight years there were African-American secretaries of state. Bush, through his African AIDS initiatives, saved millions of blacks who had no access to medicine. Minorities were visible in his cabinet. No one objected to the fact that Obama garnered 96% of the black vote, or thought much about it when, in the bitter Democratic primaries, the Clintons alleged that race was used to whip up support against them. So why, then, the anger now, when things should have improved even more?

I’ll tell you why, sir: power. 2008’s Racial Healer is 2012’s Master Baiter not because he cares fig #1 about the state of racial discourse in the United States. Rather, he maximizes power on both ends. 2008 was the year when harmony was a hot stock; this year, #OccupyResoluteDesk is shorting it like Carbonite.

Here’s a principle to keep in mind: assume anyone on the Left is arguing disingenuously until proven otherwise. Sometimes they are full of crap due to simple ignorance. But that seems increasingly less likely with each crappy gambit this year (Fluke, race, Rosen).

Power is the only unifying motive at work across these disparate threads.

Category: Democrats, Racism
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