The Other McCain

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

Unprecedented Uprising in Chinese Village Chases Out Communist Party

Posted on | December 14, 2011 | 20 Comments

Malcolm Moore reports from Wukan, China:

For the first time on record, the Chinese Communist party has lost all control, with the population of 20,000 in this southern fishing village now in open revolt.
The last of Wukan’s dozen party officials fled on Monday after thousands of people blocked armed police from retaking the village, standing firm against tear gas and water cannons.
Since then, the police have retreated to a roadblock, some three miles away, in order to prevent food and water from entering, and villagers from leaving. Wukan’s fishing fleet, its main source of income, has also been stopped from leaving harbour.
The plan appears to be to lay siege to Wukan and choke a rebellion which began three months ago when an angry mob, incensed at having the village’s land sold off, rampaged through the streets and overturned cars.
Although China suffers an estimated 180,000 “mass incidents” a year, it is unheard of for the Party to sound a retreat. . . .

Read the whole article, which was sent to me by Bert the Samoan Lawyer in an e-mail with the subject line, “This needs to go viral.” Damn right!

Category: China

Jeffrey Lord vs. the Paulistas

Posted on | December 14, 2011 | 55 Comments

Driving back today from picking up my twin sons at college — today was the last day of final exams in their first semester — I heard my American Spectator colleague Jeffrey Lord on Sean Hannity’s radio show talking about his war against Ron Paul’s supporters.

It makes my head hurt to think about it, stirring unfortunate memories of internecine feuds between paleocons and neocons stretching back at least 30 years.

My own nuanced take on the situation: Beginning with the Bush 41 administration, the neocons began insisting not merely on their own dominance within the Republican Party, but started demanding that their paleocon adversaries be utterly purged from the ranks. (David Frum, among others, so insisted.) And so it was that, by the time of the Bush 43 administration, there was no one inside the “Big Tent” disposed to say a discouraging word about the prospects for a bloodless conquest of Mesopotamia while also, incidentally, using U.S. armed forces as the necessary means to introduce Pashtun tribesmen to the wonders of Western democracy, including women’s suffrage.

“Hey, Chief, can we have a brief discussion about the concept of ‘imperial overreach’ here?”

You don’t have to think Ron Paul is The Only Hope of the Republic, or be a devout disciple of Lew Rockwell, to say that maybe it would have been helpful if, circa 2002-03, some non-interventionists had been in a position to influence the decision-making process at the White House.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m all in favor of kicking jihadi butt. And I’m not one of these kooks who sits around brooding about the “military-industrial complex,” “international bankers,” et cetera. But isn’t it fair to ask, three years into the Obama Age, if GOP foreign policy got a wee bit hubristic during Bush 43’s presidency?

Mine is a modest criticism, then, of neoconservative influence in U.S. foreign policy, as distinct from the all-out crusade that Jeffrey Lord seems to be pursuing against Ron Paul and the Paulistas. I’m not sure how this started, but here are some recent items by Lord at the Spectator:

Sean Hannity’s interview with Jeffrey Lord — and I only heard a few minutes of it — reminded me of all the reasons why I sometimes hate Sean Hannity, who has a tendency toward a Manichean worldview in which there are always exactly two sides to any argument:

  1. Hannity’s side, and
  2. UN-AMERICAN LEFT-WING RADICAL EVIL!

Having been occasionally accused of “simplistic” politics, I would assert that I am an enigmatic tapestry of layered complexity by comparison to Hanntiy’s accustomed mode of discourse.

Stipulate that Ron Paul’s supporters include legions of monomaniacal fanatics and a certain number of outright Jew-haters. Is it not possible to engage the more decent and rational Paulistas in a discourse leading toward a principled and honorable compromise, so that their energy (and profound opposition to the Welfare State) can be harnessed within a broad-based coalition aimed at defeating the common enemy, Democratic PartyLiberalism?

UPDATE: Speaking of Manichean worldviews — MSNBC compares Mitt Romney to the Ku Klux Klan.

Of course, the KKK never flip-flopped but . . . Never mind.

Category: American Spectator, Election 2012, Ron Paul, Talk Radio

Newt Staffer Fired for Mormon ‘Cult’ Comment Got a Raw Deal, Source Says

Posted on | December 14, 2011 | 73 Comments

When I blogged about this controversy last night, I realized the story would cut at least three ways:

  1. Gingrich would be hurt by association with a “controversy.” Most people would just hear a blurb about it on TV or radio and absorb the notion that Newt was somehow connected to what would appear to be an unfair attack on his chief rival’s religion.
  2. Romney would be hurt, because the “controversy” would remind a certain number of conservative Christians that Mitt is a Mormon and, yeah, many people have categorized Mormonism as a cult.
  3. Gingrich would be hurt — and here’s the weird two-bumper carom shot — because some conservative Christians would see Newt as a gutless sellout for firing a guy who (in their view) had the courage to speak the truth about “the cult of Mormonism.”

Cui bono? Rick Santorum, of course!

But some friends last night on Twitter pointed out that fired Gingrich staffer Craig Bergman  — speaking in an Iowa focus group last week, the day before he was hired as Newt’s Iowa political director — hadn’t said that he personally believes Mormonism to be a cult. Rather, Bergman was merely describing the beliefs of “a lot of the evangelicals.”

These are two vastly different things. It’s the difference between saying, “Let’s go burn a mosque to celebrate Tim Tebow leading the Broncos to victory over the Patriots” and saying . . .

Well, maybe that’s not the perfect example. But you get the point, and the point is amplified today by the Iowa Republican, the Web site that co-sponsored last week’s focus group:

The controversial comment came in regards to Mitt Romney’s prospects, if he captured the GOP nomination. “There is a national pastor who is very much on the anti-Mitt Romney bandwagon,” Bergman said. “A lot of the evangelicals believe God would give us four more years of Obama just for the opportunity to expose the cult of Mormon…There’s a thousand pastors ready to do that.” . . .
As co-moderator of the focus group, TheIowaRepublican.com believes Bergman was not making a statement that reflected his own views of the Mormon religion, but was relaying what he heard from the “national pastor” referenced in his comment.

In other words: Bergman got screwed.

He wasn’t saying that he has a problem with Romney’s religion. He was saying that many evangelicals — including “a national pastor,” whom he did not name — have a problem with Mormonism, and who can deny that Bergman has acccurately stated a fact?

Furthermore, having studied the subject some years ago, I can attest that many Christian theologians agree that Mormonism should be categorized as a cult. In defense of Mitt Romney, however, I’ll say that liberalism is also a cult, and it’s liberalism that’s taking America to hell in a hurry, so you can judge for yourself which cult poses the greater danger in 2012.

Look, if a Protestant like me can support a papist like Rick Santorum — “papist” being the kind of slur you don’t hear very often in our politically correct age — clearly the crisis is upon us.

In a contested Republican primary, everybody’s got their most favorite and least favorite candidates. For me, Newt Gingrich is down near the bottom of the list — worse than Ron Paul, but better than Jon Huntsman — and your mileage may vary, but I think we can all agree that Obama’s worse than any of the Republicans.

Except maybe Huntsman, who could be the Anti-Christ for all we know.

 

UPDATE: It was rather surprising to me that the very first comment — alas, from our loyal commenter Joe! — was to the effect that it is “offensive” to call Mormonism a cult. (Y’know, if you’re easily offended, this blog will give you a half-dozen reasons a day to be offended, at a minimum.)

Ask yourself this: Why are we required to tolerate atheists, who insist that all Christians are ignorant and deluded propagators of implausible superstition, and yet orthodox Christians are shouted down if they feel obliged to identify heterodox faiths as “cults”?

Why is that so, huh?

Answer: Because we have been, as the apostle Paul said, “conformed to this world,” and have adopted the widespread popular opinion that the greatest danger in American society is posed by those dangerous right-wing Christian theocratic extremists, that’s why.

The faults and failures — both real and imaginary — of traditional Christians have been magnified in the public mind over the course of the past several decades, so that the Christian who merely defends the basic beliefs of his faith is automatically accused of aspiring to “impose his beliefs” on others, among much other mischief and malice attributed to Bible-believers.

Look around you, my fellow Americans. Does it really seem to you as if the greatest danger to our nation is that right-wing Christians might suddenly seize control of government and start imposing their beliefs on society? I think not.

You see that I have attached to this post Amazon links for three books by Christian writers who are critics of Mormonism. Their characterizations of the LDS belief system, and the evidence they adduce, may be perused by any of you, and accepted or rejected as you see fit. I’m not trying to “impose” my own beliefs on anyone, but merely stating that there are — as Craig Bergman was fired for saying — many Christians who categorize Mormonism as a cult. And this categorization is perhaps only important to Christians who consider it their sacred obligation to proclaim the Way, the Hope and the Light.

Secularists are under no such obligation, and I understand that they may be offended by the evangelical impulse. But proclaiming the Gospel is not as “offensive” as, for example, flying jetliners into skyscrapers or strapping plastic explosives to your body and detonating yourself in the middle of a crowded disco. So stop whining about being “offended,” or I’m likely to do something genuinely offensive like posting photos of Helen Thomas.

And you wouldn’t want that, would you?

As far as politics goes, Mitt’s Mormonism bothers me less than RomneyCare. And if you want a Republican presidential candidate who stands solidly for religious freedom, Lisa Graas has a suggestion.

UPDATE II: Linked by Da Tech Guy, Lisa Graas and Daily Pundit — thanks! — and now a Memeorandum thread.

Category: Election 2012, Iowa, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Religion

Occupy Wall Street Demonstrations Destroy Jobs for New York Cafe Workers

Posted on | December 14, 2011 | 14 Comments

Waiters, cooks, dishwashers, busboys — they’re the 99% whose economic interests the protesters never gave a damn about:

Milk Street Cafe, the restaurant whose business dried up in the face of the Occupy Wall Street barricades, is shutting down. . . .
Milk Street Cafe’s closure will result in the layoff of 70 workers. That’s on top of the 21 let go in October.

“91 jobs lost thanks to Occupy Wall Street,” says Jeff Quinton of the Quinton Report, who got his first Instalanche today.

Maybe that’s not quite as big as being named Time‘s “Person of the Year,” but a blogger never forgets his first Instalanche.

Feb. 9, 2008: “A bit harsh.”

 

Category: #Occupy, Instapundit, Quinton Report

Responsible Elite In ‘A Face In The Crowd’

Posted on | December 14, 2011 | 14 Comments

by Smitty

At the suggestion of Ladd Ehlinger, I took in A Face in the Crowd, a 1957 Kazan flick that is well worth your time. ‘Lonesome’ Rhodes goes from nowhere to national stardom. Andy Griffith is powerful as an Icarian pop culture icon.
The documentary on the DVD includes a couple of interesting quotes from the writer and director:

  • Schulberg: “This movie was really meant as kind of a warning that, with the phenomenon of television, that politics would never be the same.”
  • Kazan, attributed: “There is a cost for everything.”

However, what piqued my interest was the General Haynesworth character. He says, starting at 53:06:

My study of history has convinced me that every strong and healthy society from from the Egyptians on, the mass had to be guided with a strong hand by a responsible elite.

Mention of ‘the mass’ recalls The Crowd, by Gustave Le Bon, a serious study of crowd psychology. Basically, information diffuses poorly in a wad of people. If you’re at a Lady GaGa concert, rumors about whether she will perform the next song dressed in fresh beef cuts, or in a huge flour tortilla worn as a toga, won’t cross the music hall very well. When she comes out on stage, the TV screen will move that crucial information instantly. That’s the difference at which Schulberg was getting.YouTube amplifies the point:

But the crowd has an aggregate pulse, as the information-deprived individuals repeat this or that rumor, or YouTube clips go viral. The beef cuts on Lady GaGa become three strategically placed young baboons, which may or may not be real. Charismatic people like the Lonesome Rhodes character can tap into that aggregate pulse of the crowd, and ride it to fame. Stacy McCain wondered aloud if Huey Long was an inspiration for the Rhodes character, but Wikipedia cites other entertainment names as inspirations. Amusingly, according to IMDB, sombody named Keith Olbermann likes to refer to Glenn Beck as Lonesome Rhodes.

What about this ‘responsible elite’? No less a figure than Jesus of Nazareth noted For the poor always ye have with you. . .. In other words, there will always be poor, rich, and quite a few in between. There is going to be a distribution of wealth, irrespective of whether the Inner Party uses propaganda to reduce everyone else to poverty (while proclaiming wealth), or not.

The thing that matters, if you’ll allow me something like a Gaussian Distribution of wealth, is that there is a current circulating within the distribution. The simple fact of inequality in wealth distribution is neither evil nor escapable. Money cannot be evenly distributed any more than information in a crowd. That there is wealth movement within that distribution, and that people have liberty to move as much or as little as desired, is crucial. There will be a figure in a burqa doing the next song. Lady GaGa, or not?

And so Lonesome Rhodes has a metorotic rise. Talent and opportunity, along with a soulless media machine, propel him to vast heights. Yet Rhodes lacks the maturity and perspective to handle it. The same figure who casually mentions Grand Theft Auto at the beginning of the movie, who uses women cruelly throughout, never grasps that he is the very thing he despises. To ride the meteor successfully requires a strong internal commitment to something both good and external, where the soul is regularly taken for trimming. Rhodes tries using whiskey, but the whiskey uses him instead. For a worked example of my point, take a tour of Graceland and ask whether Elvis handled the fame well, or did his head ‘splode? Would you date Lady GaGa?

Is Glenn Beck a Lonesome Rhodes figure? Beck seems more in touch with the nature of human evil, including the internal portion. Does he constitute a member of a ‘responsible elite’? In the movie, the General seemed more of an oligarch, delegating the messy work of dealing with the mass to Rhodes. No, Beck wants everyone to do the homework, and move as far in the direction of the elite tail of the income distribution as they care to go. This notion of capitalistic opportunity and movement within the income distribution according to merit is an important facet of American Exceptionalism. Lady GaGa is probably not the Postmodern Rhodes, but I’m confident I’ll never know for sure, as my interest really does not extend past a running gag in a blog post.

Dan Riehl might actually find himself agreeing with Keith Olbermann’s point about Glenn Beck.

Mentioned in this post:
Category: Barack Obama, Celebrities, Ladd Ehlinger, Uncategorized

I Can’t Understand Why Everyone Hates The New Aristocracy

Posted on | December 14, 2011 | 13 Comments

by Smitty

Rush Limbaugh reviews the skewering given to Chelsea Clinton over a debut that was to Katie Couric what #OccupyResoluteDesk is to Jimmy Carter.

Now she’s 31 years old. She is a statist-in-training. She’s working on her 14th college degree. It’s time to get serious about life now. Her future as a statist will require being good on TV–learning how to become likable and what have you–and so that’s not what this is. This is not about Chelsea Clinton learning how to do news. And, remember, there isn’t news in the news anymore. There’s no news. That’s just that’s not why people turn on the TV. There’s no news. She is dutifully learning the inner workings of television in order to learn how to manipulate it later. That’s all this is. Nobody starts at the top like this unless they’re the daughter of an ex-president who can call in some chits. Nobody starts at the top like this.

You get the meritocracy you demand. The people of the United States, as a whole, haven’t demanded anything other than Statism for so long that its sickening.

Quoting Chelsea, emphasis mine:

As a person and professionally and academically, my grandmother, who passed away at the beginning of November, had a core adage in her life, that life is not about what happens to you but about what you do with what happens to you, and she recently had been cajoling me and challenging me to do more with my life, to lead more of a purposefully public life, that being Chelsea Clinton had happened to me and that I had a responsibility to do something with that asset and opportunity, and telling stories through making a difference, I believe, will be one way to manifest that and I hope to make her proud.

The concept of ‘telling stories’ smacks of ‘narrative’ and the whole Postmodern ‘truth as a social construct’ mumbo-jumbo.

The advice I’d offer Chelsea is to reject everything, return to the Judeo-Christian underpinnings of Western civilization, and go forward with certainty about what matters in life. Consider parenthood. Deal with the fact that you’ve been brought up on shinola, lady, and maybe there will be some hope for you.

via Althouse

Category: Celebrities

Christine O’Donnell Endorses Mitt Romney; Des Moines City Council Member Endorses Rick Santorum

Posted on | December 14, 2011 | 11 Comments

A friend whom I won’t name sent me an e-mail suggesting the headline, “Witches and Mormons, Oh, My!”

Christine O’Donnell, the former Republican Senate candidate and a tea party favorite during the 2010 election, has officially endorsed Mitt Romney for president. . . .
O’Donnell made clear that the Romney campaign did not “come to her,” and that she went to the campaign. She said she would be willing to go out and campaign for Romney.
In a written statement, Romney welcomed the endorsement.
“Christine has been a leader in the conservative movement for many years,” Romney said. “Christine recognizes that excessive government threatens us now and threatens future generations, and I am pleased to have her on my team.”

Meanwhile, in Iowa, Rick Santorum’s hard work paid off with a valuable endorsement:

Des Moines City Councilman
Halley Griess Joins The Fight!
Urbandale, IA – Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum announced that he has received the endorsement of Des Moines, IA City Councilman Halley Griess.
Councilman Griess said, “Rick Santorum has worked harder than any other candidate in garnering the support of the voters I represent. In visiting all 99 counties, and appearing in Iowa more frequently than any other candidate, it is clear that Rick Santorum cares about the individual voters and is willing to invest in the issues they care about. He has clearly demonstrated that he will head to Washington with our families and small business owners in mind. Rick Santorum best reflects the values of Iowa voters and I am honored today to give my support to him.”
Senator Santorum said: “Iowans can’t be bought by TV ads, Iowa votes must be earned. Councilman Griess knows this from his direct work with his constituents in Des Moines. Councilman Griess is a true public servant and I am thrilled to receive his endorsement today. I look forward to working with Halley as we continue our momentum statewide and in Polk County.”
Des Moines, IA City Councilman Halley Griess was elected to the Des Moines City Council in 2009, as the youngest serving Councilman in Des Moines’ history at age 23. He is the son of a self-employed, small business owner and a graduate of Drake University Law School.

(Hat-tip: Lisa Graas) By the way, we got three contributions last night via our Rick Santorum “No Surrender” Money Bomb link, for a total of $80 — that’s 20% of our $400 goal for this three-day event that continues through Friday. The link takes you to a Fundly.com page, which is just a system for tracking which site the contributions came through. The money all goes straight to the Santorum campaign, and here’s a neutral objective fact: They need every dollar you can spare.

In other campaign news, on a conference call with the Santorum campaign’s grassroots supporters last night, their Iowa political director said that the senator’s teenage son John Santorum was in the Urbandale campaign office yesterday stuffing envelopes to send out to undecided Republican voters. The senator’s daughter Elizabeth has also been working in the Urbandale office this week.

The Santorum campaign has a solid “ground game” organization in Iowa, and has already signed up more than 450 “caucus captains,” who are the volunteer leaders at each caucus location. If you’re not in Iowa, you can still help the Santorum campaign in Iowa: Sign up as a volunteer at their Web site and take part in their “phone from home” operation.

RICK SANTORUM
‘NO SURRENDER’
MONEY BOMB

 
RECENTLY:

Category: Christine O'Donnell, Election 2012, Iowa, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum

LIVE AT FIVE – 12.14.11

Posted on | December 14, 2011 | 5 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
House Passes Payroll Tax Cut Extension

Speaker of the House John Boehner

10 Democrats, 14 Republicans cross party lines on vote

NTSB Recommends Banning Texting While Driving
Also other uses of cell phones, other electronic devices


Over 100 Wounded, Killed In Brussels Rampage
Man with history of drug, weapons offenses allegedly responsible



POLITICS
Iowa Aide To Gingrich Axed After Calling Mormonism “A Cult”

Mitt & Newt

Craig Bergman evidently has no idea what “a positive campaign” means

Gov. Jerry Brown Orders $1 Billion In Mid-year Budget Cuts

Pipeline Safety Bill Clears Congress, Heads For White House

Atheist Messages Displace California Park’s Nativity Scenes

AG Signals Tough Stance On Federal Review Of State Voting Reforms



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asia Slips As Fed Offers No New Stimulus
Oil Falls From One-Week High As OPEC Discusses Setting Output Targets
CME Chief: Corzine Was Aware Of Customer Funds Transfer
Jive Shares Surge In Market Debut
Existing Home Sales To Be Revised Down
Andrea Jung To Relinquish Chief’s Role At Avon
Mac App Store Passes 100 Million Downloads
The Ultimate Tablet Smackdown
Google Street View Explores Post-Tsunami Japan



SPORTS
Hit On McCoy Earns Harrison One-Game Suspension

Steelers' Harrison takes down Browns QB Colt McCoy

Defensive back first player penalized for helmet-to-helmet hit; McCoy suffered concussion from the hit

Stern Turns Paul Situation Into Complete Farce



Broncos Focus On 2011, Mum About 2012; Fans Want To Know What More Tebow Needs To Do (Video)

Flyers Beat Capitals 5-1 for 6th Straight Win

Kings Fall To Bruins 3-0 In New Coach’s Debut

Red Wings Skate Past Crosby-Less Pens, 4-1



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Lindsay Misses Flight, Misses “Ellen”…

Lindsay Lohan

…but what about court today?

Unstoppable Angelina

Couric, Boy Toy Call It Quits

Matt Damon: Wicked Smaht?

Jennifer Garner: “I Would Do Anything” For Ben Affleck

Jeter’s Booty Hauls




“Hairspray” Star Nikki Blonsky “Proud To be Working” In A Salon

Experts: Miley Cyrus Got Tupperware Boobs

Steve Carell Returning To TV As Guest On “The Simpsons”

Eva Longoria Sells Legal Drama To CW Network



FOREIGNERS
France, China, Japan Hammer Canada After Latter’s Kyoto Withdrawal
NATO: Pakistan Talking Again To US-Led Afghan Coalition
Karachi Police Free Chained Children From Madrassa
US Help To Upgrade Iraqi Air Force Will Take Time
Former Dissident Sworn In As Tunisia’s President
Two Top “Kommersant” Employees Fired After Running Photos Offending Putin
Beirut Bank Seen As Hub Of Hezbollah Financing



BLOGS & STUFF
David Thompson: It’s The Calibre Of The People That Impresses Me The Most
Eric S. Raymond: Why I Love Wal-Mart Despite Never Shopping There
NRO Corner: Gingrich, Paul Virtually Tied For First In Iowa
WyBlog: Big Brother Cell Phone EAS #FAIL
Valley Of The Shadow: Who Sits In The William F. Buckley Chair Of Conservatism?
Jonah Goldberg: Newtzilla To The Rescue
Jim Geraghty: Glenn Beck Prefers Third-Party Ron Paul To Gingrich?
Michelle Malkin: Trump Cancels Own Debate; Whither Eason Jordan?
Big Journalism: Stephanopoulos To Replace Amanpour On “This Week” As Latter Returns To CNN
Shannen Coffin: The Lowe’s Boycott
Lonely Conservative: Boy, Newt Gingrich Sure Is A Big Fan Of FDR
Power Line: Administration Coordinating With Left-Wing Groups On Voter Fraud?
Weasel Zippers: Obama Still Blaming Bush


SOTD: Take It Off

Category: Live at Five
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