The Other McCain

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

Exploring ‘Explaining Postmodernism’ By Stephen Hicks 2: Counter-Enlightenment

Posted on | November 28, 2011 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

The Enlightenment’s emphasis on rationality quickly came under attack. Figuring that reality is mechanistic offend pietistic Germans, as it seemed to lead to Deism at best, and atheism at worst. The French absorbed the Enlightenment by way of Rousseau and arrived at the Terror, a.k.a. the French Revolution.

Immanuel Kant, if I may oversimplify, called the Enlightenment oversimplified. Read more

Category: Intellectuals

BLACK MONDAY DEALS WEEK: Thanks to the Reader Who Bought a 55-Inch TV!

Posted on | November 28, 2011 | 6 Comments

Yesterday, one of our readers got a great bargain via our Amazon links: A 55-inch HDTV for $949.99! Other purchases made by our readers yesterday included a Garmin Navigator GPS for $129.99, a Makita saw for $79, and a Skagen men’s titanium watch for $68.99.

Great bargains for you, a commission for me and even free Super Saver shipping on most items over $25 — you gotta love it.

Shoppers spent more than $52.4 billion over Black Friday weekend and is any blog more deserving of a slice of that action, huh? We are proud to be an online bastion of Shameless Capitalism™ and our Amazon “Black Monday Deals Week” specialsgive you many opportunities to celebrate The American Way of Free Enterprise:

What are you waiting for? Are you some kind of “Occupy Wall Street” anti-American commie scum who hates capitalism?

 

RECENTLY:

Category: Amazon

A Lump Of Coal For That Special Congresscritter’s Stocking

Posted on | November 28, 2011 | 4 Comments

by Smitty

The news of Barney Frank ejecting really puts Tea in the teacup. Via Sissy Willis, we have Brendan Steinhauser offering a bi-partisan list of people who may not be on Santa’s ‘Nice’ list next month:Remember: it’s all swell and spiffy to decry the corruption, and eject the incumbents, but unless the next round of knobs is elected specifically unwind the system that drives all this corruption, those new knobs will be indistinguishable from the current round in no time flat.

Category: Democrats, Republicans

VIDEO: Gary Glenn Vows ‘We Will Restore the Greatness of Our Republic’

Posted on | November 28, 2011 | 7 Comments

Gary Glenn, running in the Republican primary to take on Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow next year, just released this video:

Glenn has emerged as the favorite of Tea Party activists in Michigan, and has won a series of straw polls. Last week, he won 45% of the vote following a Tea Party-sponsored debate in Richland, Michigan, among five GOP candidates. That followed on Glenn’s victory in an October straw poll at a Tea Party event in DeWitt, Michigan.

Glenn’s chief rivals in the Republican primary are former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, who has a record of supporting Big Labor, and Detroit charter school founder Clark Durant, who is backed by much of Michigan’s GOP establishment.

UPDATE: Here is the script of the video:

Lou Dobbs: “. . . critics, predicting the fall of the American empire”
Glenn Beck: ” . . . something far worse than the depression”
Michael Savage: “America is the biggest debtor in the history of human civilizaiton”
Pat Buchanan: “Socially the country seems to be disintegrating”
Bill O’Reilly: “We are in decline.”
Laura Ingraham: “Dominance of the United States is slipping away by the day”
Fred Thompson: “We’re beginning to go like all the rest. We’re starting to decline.”
Mark Levin: “It’s just a nation in decline. It just is.”

Gary Glenn: “How many times have we heard this before? In 1979, pundits predicted American decline. The president said our best days were behind us. And Americans were uncertain about the future.
“But decline is a choice. A choice Ronald Reagan refused to make.”

Ronald Reagan: “It is time for us to realize that we’re too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We’re not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. . . .
“And after all, why shouldn’t we believe that? We are Americans.”

Gary Glenn: “We need that leadership again. For more than two centuries, America has been a light of freedom to the world. That freedom lifted mankind from the horse and carriage to the moon in 70 years.
“Now pundits say we can’t balance our checkbook? I don’t think so.
“In the span of human history, the dream that is America is a candle in the darkness. It’s up to us — you and me — to make sure that flame doesn’t go out.
“Can we cut government spending and make the sacrifices to keep Freedom’s torch burning for our children and their children?
“Of course we can. We are Americans.
“I’m Gary Glenn. I approved this message. And I need your prayers and financial support today to be the next US Senator from Michigan.
“With God’s grace, we will restore the greatness of our Republic.”

UPDATE II: Welcome, Instapundit readers! I’m sure Gary Glenn will welcome your support.

PREVIOUSLY:

Category: Election 2012, Gary Glenn, Michigan, Politics, Republicans, Senate, Video

BARNEY FRANK WILL RETIRE UPDATES: ‘Corrupt Creature of Washington Who Helped Usher in the Great Recession’; Maxine Waters to Become Top Dem on Banking Committee

Posted on | November 28, 2011 | 31 Comments

by Smitty

Via Stacy’s close friend Tabitha Hale and Weasel Zippers, you know something is headed in the right direction when those that are utterly wrong start heading for the exit.

There is to be a 1300 EST press conference, wherein the relatively un-sordid details are trotted about for public consumption.
Along with whatever else he packs, this blog would like to suggest a couple of other bits of rubbish that can go with him:

Wow, I guess the deck I scanned those cards from might be collectable. I can’t seem to find the web site anymore.

UPDATE (RSM): The Boston Globe:

US Representative Barney Frank, the state’s highest-profile congressman and one of the nation’s leading liberal voices after being among its first openly gay elected officials, has decided not to seek reelection next year.
A close adviser told the Globe today that the new district in which Frank would have had to run next year was a major factor in his decision. While it retained his Newton stronghold, it was revised to encompass more conservative towns while losing New Bedford, a blue-collar city where the Democrat had invested a lot of time and become a leading figure in the region’s fisheries debate. . . .

Not a word about Frank’s scandal-tainted legacy and involvement in creating the housing bubble.

Now a Memeorandum thread.

UPDATE II (RSM): Jazz Shaw at Hot Air:

The one thing Barney has going for him is a massive amount of seniority. If he and his party were solidly of the opinion that they would be taking back the majority in the House next fall, he would doubtless be back at the front of the line for one or more of any number of influential committee leadership spots. That translates to a lot of power and influence and would probably make it a bit harder to just walk away. Does this sudden exit indicate that the Democrats have pretty much given up hope of that happening?

UPDATE III (RSM): Bryan Preston at PJ Tatler:

He deserves to be considered a corrupt creature of Washington who helped usher in the Great Recession. Frank was among the Democrats who prevented scrutiny and reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when it could have prevented the economic collapse. Republicans at the time wanted more oversight and regulation of Fannie and Freddie. Frank and many of his fellow Democrats stood in the way.

Bryan provides video clips of Barney defending the bubble-makers, and also quotes Jonah Goldberg on the dread consequences:

By the way, with Frank retiring Maxine Waters is slated to be the ranking Dem on the banking committee.

Lord, help us: Maxine makes Barney look like a pillar of virtue.

UPDATE IV (RSM): Michelle Malkin on Barney’s future career:

Top Barney Frank job prospect: Advising wealthy Wall Street clients how to weasel out of the Dodd-Frank regulatory monstrosity. Cha-ching!

Read the whole thing: She also includes Ladd Ehlinger’s famous “Dancing Barney” video. Advice to bloggers: Everything you need to know about aggregated commentary, you can learn by watching Malkin when big news breaks: Update, update, update!

UPDATE V (RSM): Pete Da Tech Guy is doing the Happy Hance on behalf of all honest and decent citizens of Massachusetts (alas, they are a beleaguered a minority). Pete is in Newton, where Barney’s press conference begins at 1 p.m. ET. More bye-bye Barney blogging at Patterico, American Thinker and Sister Toldjah.

Linked at Temple of Mut — thanks!

UPDATE VI (RSM): Welcome, Instapundit readers! Love his link to Althouse, wondering why Massachusetts hates the rest of America so much.

And it’s “just one damned thing after another,” says Bill Quick.


Category: Democrats, Massachusetts

Hoffman at The College Conservative Misses the Genius of Meghan McCain

Posted on | November 28, 2011 | 17 Comments

by Smitty

And by misses I mean thoroughly rejects (emphasis original):

Moreover, the “brilliant” Meghan McCain — daughter of “Lord of the TARP” John McCain — has taken every opportunity to deride conservative women and social issues.
McCain said, “I consider myself a progressive Republican. I am liberal on social issues. And I think that the party is at a place where social issues shouldn’t be the issues that define the party.”
Recently, I heard the same rallying cry to hose down “extreme” conservative viewpoints at a conference. The male attendee — one markedly dumbfounded by conservatism at this conservative conference — bemoaned how Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum, along with social issues, are “too extreme” for the Republican Party.
The horror, the horror!
The question beckons: Who are these people to chide conservatives for holding their beliefs? Why must political expediency — not principles — be the sole path to winning elections?

Read the whole interesting thing. To answer the fine question, I would say that compromise is tactical and that principles are strategic. When you talk to people who are serious about campaigning, and Stacy has boxed my ears on this point multiple times, you have to understand that if war is The Father of Us All, then politics is the mother.

The more ‘nanny’ the state, the more ‘Crazy Cat Lady’ the outlook. And by that, I mean the more that the simple, common sense virtues of conservativism are punted in favor of wanton emotional appeal.

Consider Chincoteague:

In a new plan to deal with beach erosion and prepare for sea-level rise, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed changes that the mayor, the chamber of commerce and homeowners say would eventually drive away summer tourism and drive down the economy that depends on it.

What would a heavyweight conservative thinker like Maggy Mac say about the genius of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service attacking the Commonwealth of Virginia? (emphasis mine)

“I ask our generation to demand better,” said McCain. “By bringing civility back to politics, we will be bringing back respect, tolerance and goodwill.”
McCain said she holds an “amalgam of beliefs” and believes that breaking out of extreme partisanship is essential for the future of both Republicans and Democrats.
McCain said she believes in both strong national defense and climate change and is “determined to pass marriage equality in this country.”
“I have a cross tattooed on my wrist to remind me of my faith,” McCain said. She doesn’t believe being gay is a sin and noted that “the straight, white male is not the face of America anymore.”

You see Gabby, this notion of starting from any invariant principles and applying those principles to life is all backward. We have to embrace the notion that wise experts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service somehow know better, despite the news that anthropogenic globalclimate warmingchange, like the rest of the Progressive project, stands revealed as a giant, steaming crock of. . .oatmeal.

And social issues like drugs and abortion are just another case of Maggie Is Right. We should welcome our new Priests of Baal just as much as we scoff at the notion of ideological purity (read: common sense).

Don’t let this here internet thingy fool you, Gabby. Just because you think you have access to better information does not mean you can reject the ‘wisdom’ of the self-appointed elite. They may be incompetent, Hoffman, but they’re all we’ve got, to hear them tell it. And Progressivism may suck, but time only moves forward, and that means our political ideas cannot look back, even if the ideas we reject were relatively superior to the dog’s breakfast currently before us.

via Gabby on Twitter

Category: Meghan McCain, Progressivism

Exploring ‘Explaining Postmodernism’ By Stephen R. C. Hicks

Posted on | November 28, 2011 | 24 Comments

by Smitty

Explaining Postmodernism is among the better books I have read in some time. Hicks, in a concise, lucid way, serves PoMo’s historical development since the Enlightenment.
EP, in my opinion, is to philosophy what Liberal Fascism by Goldberg is to politics. In many ways, EP offers a different angle on a broader slice of the history covered by LF, though Hicks is less explicitely partisan than Goldberg. Then again, the PoMo crowd mostly speaks for itself.

The intention in this blog is to do a series of six posts on Hicks, using his Table of Contents as an outline, and offer a short response to the ideas offered by the PoMo crowd. By way of introduction, I’m approaching life as a Christian of the Baptist persuasion, with an undergraduate engineering degree and military experience. Read more

Category: Intellectuals

MONDAY DOOM WATCH: Europe Circling the Economic Drain

Posted on | November 28, 2011 | 26 Comments

Four headlines from Drudge:

Britain draws up emergency
plans for collapse of Euro …

IMF drafting $800 billion
bailout plan for Italy, Spain …

REPORT: FRANCE, GERMANY PREPARE
TO TAKE DRASTIC MEASURES …

NYT: Time runs short …

Remember, these are sophisticated Europeans. Liberals have always wanted America to be more like sophisticated Europe, where everybody has a mistress and six weeks of paid vacation.

Speaking of liberals, how does Paul Krugman explain the European economic crisis? Because I’m pretty sure Greece, Spain and Italy haven’t been governed by tax-cutting Republicans recently, and yet Krugman insists that all economic woe is caused by tax-cutting Republicans.

For example, when a city like Pontiac, Michigan, goes bankrupt:

The unemployment rate in Pontiac is pegged at 25 percent. In 2009, as GM restructured under a government bailout, it shuttered its plant in Pontiac and ceased production on the line of cars named after the city, calling it a “damaged brand.”

Read the whole thing and draw your own conclusion. My point is that, to Krugman, this problem must somehow be the fault of those evil tax-cutting Republicans, who are to blame for everything.

Exactly how Krugman will blame the Euro crisis on the GOP, I don’t know, but surely he’ll find a way. He’s got a Nobel Prize, you know.

Category: Economics, Greece, Italy, Spain
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