The Other McCain

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

Ron Paul Still A Few Foreign Policy Briefs Behind, But Tempering His Rhetoric

Posted on | November 20, 2011 | 65 Comments

by Smitty

Via Political Class Dismissed, we have Ron Paul on Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer, born under FDR and who has been with CBS since, shag me, I was born.

Schieffer sounds his age, and tries to go after Paul on the usual foreign policy topics. Interestingly, Paul tempers his opinions on questions of causality for events like 9/11. Let me form my objection to Paul as a question: when should you ever take your enemy’s propaganda at face value? When they are Commies? Nazis? Radical Muslims waging explosive jihad? Teach is just a little less gentle in objecting to Ron Paul.

The remark about 900 bases in north of 130 countries is equally worrisome. Paul is correct about the unaffordability of the arrangements we have, for example, troops in South Korea and Japan. The ‘bring the boys home’ argument, though, ignores both the historical reasons the troops are there and the unintended consequences of creating a power vacuum. The Chinese don’t like the Koreans don’t like the Japanese don’t like the Chinese. While none of the peoples involved have any screaming love of Americans, they do give us basing and buy our debt so that we can provide a Pax Americana.

It is an interesting policy question to talk about pulling the plug on the Pax Americana, but Ron Paul owes potential voters just a little more detail on how he intends to shore up the status quo.

It is as though Ron Paul has really done his homework on fiscal policy, and opted for something perhaps over-simplified on the foreign policy front.

After all that, Ron Paul is way ahead of the pack in discussions about trimming federal over-reach, which is 15 trillion kinds of essential. Thus, I’m glad to see him linger in the debates, if only as a thorn in the side of the RINO crowd, which is more interested in admiring problems than demonstrating leadership in going after them.

Update: linked at Katy Pundit.

Category: Ron Paul, Video

Palate Cleanser: A Marriage Proposal

Posted on | November 20, 2011 | 5 Comments

by Smitty

via Jazz Shaw and Off Color Funny Videos, although this is completely safe for work:

Mine was a poem recital at the Japanese Garden in Portland, Oregon. Proposal videos are a refreshing break from the standard idiocy of the news.

Category: Video

TrogloPundit And His Automotivators

Posted on | November 20, 2011 | Comments Off on TrogloPundit And His Automotivators

by Smitty

A reliable dose of Heh.

Category: humor, Troglopundit

Gillespie On Forgiving Student Loan Debt

Posted on | November 20, 2011 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

I like all three of Nick’s arguments, but he’s focusing on the Economics:

Let me add three more:

  • Student loans are not a federal task, and never were. The federal government should be forcibly precluded from queering the education market any further. If Virginians need student loans, we should be handling that in Richmond.
  • This is a transparent vote buying scheme. Not only will this act of Roman-style patronage turn into votes for whoever is waiving the magic wand, those grateful little creatures will hail their caesar and support his re-election as motivated campaign workers.
  • This is yet another brick in the wall of the mausoleum of separation of powers. This Administration continues to undertake tasks that, if not rightfully those of the States, certainly belong to the Congress. I guess Congress may be too busy figuring out how to rig legislation to maximize portfolio values to notice.

via Veronique de Rugy

Update: linked at Eternity Matters

Update: picked up at Chockblock’s Weblog.

Some liberal wag held up a sign “Pay your taxes teabaggers!”. I propose we tell him and his freinds in the tents to “Pay back our money, deadbeats!”. That’s what a loan is after all.

Category: Economics, Education

‘Mitt Romney’ On SNL: Among The Stranger Campaign Ads Of All Time

Posted on | November 20, 2011 | 41 Comments

by Smitty

Last night’s SNL campaign ad is pure Mitt. Superficially, the ad is about how stiff and un-funny Mitt is. Jason Sudeikis doesn’t go far enough in capturing the slightly congested, Brokaw-esque diction that helps me understand why some people really don’t care for Sarah Palin’s accent, either (she bothers me not).

So, I theorize:

  • Romney paid for this space. We have here an appeal to the SNL’s hipster viewership.
  • The message is that, while as exciting as watching the lawn grow, Mitt is not stone-cold scary, like the rest of the GOP field.
  • If you just put your trust in Mitt, you can return to your rationally ignorant ways about politics with no ill effects.
  • Mitt’s new Double-Action Boringness is so boring that he can bore conservatives into believing he will repeal ObamaCare during the election. Stage Two Boring kicks in when he does not repeal repeal ObamaCare, but rather re-labels it and has it hidden in other boring bills so that the velvet handcuffs which have been such a great success in Europe continue to tighten on American wrists and ankles. That, folks, isn’t just boring: it’s Mitt Strength Boring.

Does this work?

I guess we’ll find out, when the independents cross over, Operation Chaos style, and vote for Mitt in GOP primaries. Meanwhile, a quick bit of Wikipedia research reveals that Gingrich was supposed to host an episode around 14 years ago. Could Newt rock him some SNL? If they brought in Doug Hoffman for a sketch, would Stacy McCain’s head ‘splode? What about Michele Bachmann hosting? I think she would be surprisingly good. However, if you watch a lot of SNL, you soon discover that if the cast doesn’t respect the host, they phone in the episode in a subtle way.

Category: Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Video

If Kathleen Parker Was Just A Bit Less Masculine, She Might Be David Brooks

Posted on | November 20, 2011 | 34 Comments

by Smitty

Via Hot Air, we have Kathleen Parker going down a list of Paul Begala arguments regurgitated from Newsweek. She very vaguely seems to be trying to dispute Begala’s title “The Stupid Party” as a moniker for the GOP, but comes across more as: “Don’t. Stop. Don’t stop.” Yet another faux-conservative writer whose desire for the acceptance of the elite makes her look an abject fool on paper.

In this tired Lefty myth, the right’s John Bircher extremists were vanquished by Buckley, but then Reagan’s tent got too big, and those extremist knuckle-draggers came back to submerge the GOP in barbarism:

Meanwhile, the big tent fashioned by Ronald Reagan has become bilious with the hot air of religious fervor. No one was more devout than the very-Catholic Buckley, but you didn’t see him convening revivals in the public square. Nor is it likely he would have embraced fundamentalist views that increasingly have forced the party into a corner where science and religion can’t coexist.
Scientific skepticism, the engine that propels intellectual inquiry, has morphed into skepticism of science fueled by religious certitude. In this strange world, it is heresy to express concern about, for example, climate change — or even to suggest that human behavior may be a contributing factor. Jon Huntsman committed blasphemy when he told ABC’s Jake Tapper that he trusts scientists on global warming.

The fact that conservatives are fine with conservation, but not so keen on Ruling Class stock market manipulation scams, would be lost on Parker. Kathleen may be either (a) making her own pile of cash on the scam, or (b) dumb as a mud hut, or (c) both. Conservatives are not paranoid; the global warming scam is increasing revealed as honest scientists break through the hack researcher/politician/green lobby triangle with proper skepticism. However, the transparent media drive to force-feed a Huntsman candidacy (did you catch him on SNL’s Weekend Update segment? Really? Oh, wait, that part had Kermit the Frog, the other muppet) would be a really funny farce, if it was not such a flipping serious threat.

It takes courage to swim against the tide of know-nothingness that has become de rigueur among the anti-elite, anti-intellectual Republican base. Call it the Palinization of the GOP, in which the least informed earns the loudest applause. The latest to this spectacle is Herman Cain, who has figured out how to turn his liabilities into assets. After fumbling for an answer during an editorial board meeting to a simple question about his position on Libya, a lead news item since February, Cain blamed — who else? — the media.

Parker, if our elite had any arete, and our so-called intellectuals were more than the cast of Deliverance, hold the banjos, having you for their herald, your  argument might work. Seriously. What do you think a James Madison would do to a worm like Harry Reid? I’m not coming out in favor of a resurgence in dueling, mind you, but faced with the sort of actual intellectuals and war heros who founded this country, Barney Frank’s likely reaction would be incontinence.

“Palinization of the GOP”

I had let myself get talked into a WaPoo subscription about a year ago, and suspended it while I was deployed to Afghanistan. And so your dreck has been cluttering my driveway, Kathleen. However, I believe I shall call the WaPoo and tell them to cancel my subscription, based upon the rank idiocy of your characterization of the political movement that will recover this country. The exceptional American tradition of liberty does come down through Buckley, and Reagan to the Tea Parties. Sure, Sarah is there, but she knows it’s not about her. Your sad little Alinskyite attempt to “Pick the Target,Freeze It, Personalize It and Polarize It” is an insult to the intellectual, meritocratic resurgence that is the Tea Party. These resurgence blows your ruling-class brain cell, I know, Kathleen, but the American people have figured out that there is something stinky in American culture. That stench is your ilk.

So you take the cheap “Palinization” shot, and then your little river of bile slows to a trickle as you hold forth Newt as a means of redemption:

there are signs that the GOP is recognizing its weaknesses and is ready to play smarter. To wit: The sudden surge of Gingrich, who, whatever his flaws and despite the weight of his considerable baggage, is no intellectual slouch. Whether he can pull off a victory in Iowa remains to be seen, but a populist professor — a bombastic smarty-pants Republicans can call their own — may be just the ticket.

You couldn’t have mischaracterized the situation any more fully, Kathleen, without saying that Newt is really a mere stalking-horse for Huntsman. What’s really going on is that the Survivor-style series of GOP gotcha debates are making all of the top-tier candidates look relatively shallow. But the media effort to shape the narrative is turning out to be more about how utterly stupid the media is than anything else.

Whoever remains standing on the island after the primaries is going to have strong Tea Party support, and then about a honey-week instead of a honeymoon after the election. The winner is going to be expected to repeal (and I do not mean re-label) ObamaCare within hours, assuming Elena Kagan’s Mission Impossible: SCOTUS Edition efforts are successful. ObmaCare cannot be to the GOP winner what GITMO is to BHO, or that GOP winner will be metaphorically whisked off to GITMO to ponder the sins.

Why, Kathleen? Because you’re completely wrong. There is no ‘Palinization of the GOP’. There is a ‘de-personalization of the conservatives’. We really don’t even care about the GOP as such. The pragmatic analysis is that the Commies did a relatively better job infiltrating the Democrat Party than the GOP. With less Commie rot to clear out, the likelihood of success with the GOP is higher in recovering the country. But really–shag the GOP! A union is a corporation without a product, and a political party is a union that doesn’t stage walk-outs. That’s about as much regard as can be afforded the GOP as such. The GOP’s list of positive contributions to American history, while significant, are only as meaningful as the next pro-Constitutional act carried out by the people who associate themselves with the Republican label, however loosely.

Sure, I intend to write in Sarah Palin in the primaries. Both as a statement of regard for an excellent American whose ideas could substantially remove so much of the rot that miscalls itself our government, and as someone who stands undaunted by the poo-flinging Parker-ite pygmies populating politics today. Does it matter? No, it’s a pure protest vote at the primary.

The hope is that whoever does take the nomination looks at the numbers and realizes that the jig is up. The traditional Ruling Class swerve to the center, as conducted by BHO, and then just play the DC game after the election, Will Not Do. That tactic ran out of gas $5 trillion back. It’s done. Whoever you are, GOP Primary Victor, you’re going to be elected as a reformer, or the Tea Party that gets you elected is going to turn on you, and make you regret you didn’t opt for the spinal implant.

Via Insty, David “Estrogen-boy” Brooks remains the same jolly piece of work he ever was. This time, the topic is the Stupor Committee:

“Yes, I mean, I’m hearing the exact same thing,” Brooks said. “I think the tragedy of it is, if it was ever going to work, it was going to work under these circumstances. The rules were rigged to make a deal as possible as possible as possible, which is to say there was going to be a clean vote on the House. They were going to meet in private. They had this sword of Damocles hanging over them. And they still couldn’t reach a deal.”
According to Brooks, with this missed opportunity and other missed opportunities over the years – it doesn’t bode well for any deal in the future. And that he says means the United States will eventually face a Greek-like situation.

The only reason we’re getting Greeked here, David, is the likes of you and Kathleen &c who have blown Progressive sunshine up the public bottom these decades.

You have the gall to denigrate the actual ideas of patriots of the Palin caliber, which could make a difference, while coddling up to the Ruling Class Overlords who are the cause of the woes. Get stuffed, you worthless sack. If your Pundit Card had any less value, it would be a Raaaaace Card. Your worthlessness shines in the way you never espouse liberty, American Exceptionalism, State’s rights, or, any ideas of value. Your chief value is in helping to identify valuable conservative leadership by process of elimination; anybody you favor simply isn’t worth a hoot. Could you fall off the planet, and take Kathleen with you?

Update: linked at Daily Pundit, if only for the use of an obscure word.

Category: Intellectuals, Newt Gingrich, Republicans

Indoctrination: What the Occupiers Believe and Why They Believe It

Posted on | November 19, 2011 | 103 Comments

NYPD arrest Occupy Wall Street protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge, Oct. 1

“In the hands of a skillful indoctrinator, the average student not only thinks what the indoctrinator wants him to think . . . but is altogether positive that he has arrived at his position by independent intellectual exertion. This man is outraged by the suggestion that he is the flesh-and-blood tribute to the success of his indoctrinators.”
– William F. Buckley Jr., Up From Liberalism (1959)

“We have a class called 21st Century Challenges and Choices. They’re studying the current world. They went on a field trip to see Occupy Denver.”
— Dierdre Cryor, principal, St. Mary’s Academy

“We want them to see the democratic process in action.”
— Celia Bard, Social Studies Department chair, St. Mary’s Academy

“You’re f–king up our future. . . . What do you think we learn at school? This is what we learned about. . . . We’re the 99 percent.”
— 17-year-old student, St. Mary’s Academy

Workers World Party national conference, New York, Oct. 8

“An epic battle is underway for the direction of our country. The Occupy movement is not alone. . . . We stand with the courageous young people who have sparked this movement and join with the occupiers who are putting themselves on the line to transform our nation and achieve a secure and sustainable future. . . . The time has come to put people before profits.”
— “Communist Party heralds Occupy Wall Street movement,” Oct. 18, 2011, CPUSA.org

“How do you tell a Communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.”
— Ronald Reagan, Sept. 25, 1987

During today’s first anniversary broadcast of Da Tech Guy‘s radio show on WCRN, Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom was discussing his video of Catholic schoolgirls who took part in an Occupy Denver protest against last weekend’s BlogCon:

In discussing the beliefs of the Occupiers, including these 17-year-old girls who attend a private Catholic academy where the tuition is $14,000 a year, Jeff suggested they had been “indoctrinated.” This called to mind Buckley’s description of indoctrination in Up From Liberalism, and made me wonder how these girls were taught that they are “the 99 percent” on whose behalf the Occupiers claim to speak.

Born in 1994, these girls cannot possibly have any useful memory of political events prior to the Bush presidency. They were in first grade during the 2000 election and were 14 when Obama was elected. Therefore whatever “knowledge” they have of history is what they have been taught, and the content of that curriculum undoubtedly accounts for their sympathy with the Occupy movement. Read more

Category: #Occupy, Conservatism 101, Education, Progressivism, Protein Wisdom

New Metal Is 100 Times Lighter Than Styrofoam, But Still Shiny

Posted on | November 19, 2011 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Mythusmage Opines has the story about “New metal 100 times lighter than Styrofoam” while there was some John Denver show on the telly.

This led me to wonder aloud: what maximal mis-interpretation of that title would be most likely to make Stacy’s head ‘splode?

Category: humor, Uncategorized
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