The Other McCain

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

The Flying Machine? Execute Him.

Posted on | November 6, 2011 | 27 Comments

by Smitty

This would have been cool back in the day of innovation and capitalism. These foolish Germans are working on something that could have led to that flying car that Glenn Reynolds is always on about.  Apparently these Germans had not read their Bradbury. They don’t know that it is ‘unfair’ for some people to be smart and make the slackers feel bad things about their slackerhood. I’ll bet these Germans haven’t listened to Rush, either. (Aside: is it funny or sad that these music industry moochers want to label Rush a ‘Progressive’ act?)

However, we’re now in the inverted Era of Progress, where by ‘progress’ we really mean ‘regress’:
Emphasis mine:

October 28, 2011 — The White Salmon River in Washington state is flowing again as the nearly 100-year-old Condit Dam was disabled with explosives Wednesday. The reservoir draining took about 2 hours. Further demolition is scheduled in 2012. The event is a significant milestone for river restoration and dam removal nationwide.

It doesn’t sound like these guys are doing an improvement project. Rather, its the Noble Savage Myth playing out. While I don’t believe that these Progressives should be repressed in any way, we must, I repeat, must, expose them for the nutjobs they are and ensure that they don’t completely wreck Western Civilization in their pursuit of folly.

via Engaget

Update: Overpopulation myths.

Category: Progressivism

Dear Byron York: Huh?

Posted on | November 6, 2011 | 49 Comments

“This could have been Tim Pawlenty’s moment. With many Republicans writing off Rick Perry, worried Herman Cain can’t last, and perpetually dissatisfied with Mitt Romney, the former Minnesota governor might have gotten another look, had he stayed in the race. Given all the changes that have taken place in the GOP presidential contest, who knows? Pawlenty might have been a serious contender by now.
“Instead, Pawlenty is at home, having quit immediately after finishing third in the Aug. 13 Ames, Iowa, Republican straw poll. He has endorsed Romney — in what seemed a not-terribly-enthusiastic gesture — and he has publicly mused that maybe he got out too early. Indeed, there must be moments where Pawlenty kicks himself for bailing out of a race that proved much more volatile than anyone thought.”
— Byron York, “Pawlenty coulda been contender in this race”

No, sir, Mr. York. You’re completely wrong. Pawlenty’s mistake wasn’t quitting too soon. Pawlenty’s mistake was running for president.

Whatever his merits, Pawlenty lacks charisma. He’s less charismatic than Mitt Romney, and that’s saying something.

It is probably unfair that so many Americans believe that they can judge a man’s qualification for high office based on how he seems on TV. This process favors people who are good at seeming qualified, regardless of whether they actually are qualified. Nevertheless, we must live in the real world, and the reality is that “Minnesota Nice” didn’t play well on TV.

Back when he was actually running, people kept telling me that Pawlenty seemed weak in the debates. And the word “seemed” is inescapable in that formulation. Regardless of whether Pawlenty is weak, he seemed that way to a lot of people, and this was enough to destroy his candidacy. Because apparently the voters reckoned that whoever goes up against Obama must be ostentatiously strong. The fact that Michele Bachmann seemed stronger on TV than Pawlenty . . .

Finish that sentence however you wish. The point is that Byron York or anyone else who thinks Pawlenty would fare better now than he did three months ago is deluded. Pawlenty just didn’t have what it takes, and York’s revisionist “what if” hypothesis points to what was wrong with the idea of Pawlenty’s candidacy from the start. Pawlenty’s campaign was always more plausible in theory than it was in fact.

“Successful two-term Midwestern governor” is, theoretically, a splendid description of a presidential candidate. But when the successful two-term Midwestern governor has the demeanor of an undertaker, the theory is much less splendid than it might appear on paper.

One look at Tim Pawlenty ought to have been enough to dispel the theory of his candidacy, yet he was one of two names — along with Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels — mentioned by George Will in May as having a “reasonably certainty” of winning the GOP nomination and beating Obama. And one look at Mitch Daniels . . .

Perhaps you get my point. The TV Age doesn’t necessarily require successful presidential candidates to look like movie stars, although being an Evil Dead ringer for Bruce Campbell certainly hasn’t hurt Mitt Romney. Yet it is amazing that candidates like Pawlenty and Daniels, who simply don’t look the part, always strike pundits as so eminently plausible. Ditto the jolly jelly belly from Jersey, Chris Christie.

Also, Byron, you get a five-point foul for invoking “many Republicans” as a sock-puppet for espousing your own sense of the campaign. It’s a convenient rhetorical device, but it’s sort of a push-poll kind of thing — the “suggested sell,” as they say in food service: “Would you like to add a fried apple pie to your Value Meal, sir?”

“Many Republicans” can be deployed endlessly, e.g.: “Many Republicans are glad they don’t have to worry any longer about that boring blowhard Tim Pawlenty,” or “Many Republicans don’t even remember that a guy named Tim Pawlenty was ever a candidate for president.”

The last thing in the world we need at this point is a bunch of woulda-coulda-shoulda second-guessing over stuff that we can’t go back and change. Pawlenty is gone, and best forgotten, and I don’t want to hear any more about him.

Category: Election 2012, Tim Pawlenty

The Spokes Council

Posted on | November 6, 2011 | 31 Comments

by Smitty

This is more than a little chilling:

On Sunday, October 23, a meeting was held at 60 Wall Street. Six leaders discussed what to do with the half-million dollars that had been donated to their organization, since, in their estimation, the organization was incapable of making sound financial decisions. The proposed solution was not to spend the money educating their co-workers or stimulating more active participation by improving the organization’s structures and tactics. Instead, those present discussed how they could commandeer the $500,000 for their new, more exclusive organization. No, this was not the meeting of any traditional influence on Wall Street. These were six of the leaders of Occupy Wall Street (OWS).
Occupy Wall Street’s Structure Working Group (WG) has created a new organization called the Spokes Council. “Teach-ins” were held to workshop and promote the Spokes Council throughout the week of October 22-28. I attended the teach-in on Sunday the 23rd.

And, toward the end:

When my turn came to speak, I brought up the plans of “the leaders of the allegedly leaderless movement” to commandeer the half-million dollars sent to the General Assembly for their new, exclusive, undemocratic, representational organization. Before I could finish, the facilitators and other members of the OWS inner circle started shouting over me. Amidst the confusion, the human mic stopped projecting what I, or anybody was saying. Because silence was what they were after, the leaders won.
Eventually one of the facilitators regained control of the crowd and explained that I was speaking “opinions, not facts,” which is why I would not be allowed to continue. He also asserted untruthfully that I had gone over my allotted minute. Notably, the facilitators and members of the OWS inner circle regularly ignore time restrictions.
This reaction shouldn’t surprise anyone. It is reasonable to expect any undemocratic organization to be co-opted eventually by a vocal minority or charismatic individual. On Friday, October 29, the proposal to create the Spokes Council was put to the NYC-GA for a fifth time, and finally received a 90% majority. The facilitators assisted the process by denying two vocal critics of the Spokes Council their allotted time to speak against it.
Sometimes it snows before the leaves have fallen.

Read the whole thing.

Thus, it appears the Left’s dying (?) gasp is rooted in trying to reprise the French Revolution within the United States. The two reason I expect this sad effort to fail are:

  • We’re paying attention. For the effort sanctioned by #OccupyResoluteDesk to succeed, We The People would have to have our attention focused more fully elsewhere. Three years of political decay, like a cockroach infestation, have had the opposite effect. People know it’s time to clean up our political Zuccotti Park, and that anyone on the Left is at least a tacit abetter of the #OWS idiots, if not a direct crapflooder.
  • The Left’s media control is too far from absolute. Totalitarian regimes across time and the planet go after media control. Sure, the Left can have their media poodles crank the #OWS coverage up and down at the drop of a hat. Sure, they can have the FCC attempt to usurp the U.S. Congress. Will it work in this Army of Davids era?

 

Being put in the position of fighting the patriotic, Constitutional fight is something I would have considered unfathomable a decade ago. Yet here we are. Lord have mercy on these peddlers of evil and their Useful Idiot minions.

Update: linked at Da Tech Guy.

Update II: Linked at The Conservative Hideout.

via Memeorandum

Category: Progressivism

Urbane, Cosmopolitan President Looked Quite The Mouth-Breather In France

Posted on | November 6, 2011 | 17 Comments

by Smitty (via Insty)

The Washington Times reports that BHO gave it the Full Archie Bunker while visiting France, emphasis mine:

“I want to make mention that this is our first meeting since the arrival of the newest Sarkozy, and so I want to congratulate Nicolas and Carla on the birth of Giulia,” Mr. Obama told reporters shortly after his arrival at the G-20, with Mr. Sarkozy at his side. “And I informed Nicolas on the way in that I am confident that Giulia inherited her mother’s looks rather than her father’s, which I think is an excellent thing.”
He added, “And so now we share one of the greatest challenges and blessings of life, and that is being fathers to our daughters.”
Mr. Sarkozy, who is said to be very conscious about his looks, did not appear greatly amused by the comment, and some observers who attended the meeting said Mr. Obama’s remark fell flat.
The French president, who has three sons from two previous marriages, later told reporters, “You see the great influence of Barack Obama. It’s been four years now he tells me to be a father of girls is fantastic, he has two. So I listened and followed his example.”

The old “hope the kid don’t look like you” trope? For Heaven’s sake, BHO this is

  • a completely hackneyed line, right out of S^*t My Dad Says, and
  • the first thing they tell you when doing anything internationally is: humor does not translate. You. Are. Not. Funny. Do not try. It will make you look an ass.

I mean, I get that pretty much everything about the guy has a high probability of falsehood, but you’d think that he’d get at least the No Humor rule right. I’m fairly confident that even Bush got that one.

Then again, maybe he knows it perfectly well, and this knobbery is more of a statement concerning BHO’s attitude about being the chief representative of the country.

Not up for Ambassador to Vanatu: Troglopundit. Study this post, LB.

Via Gateway Pundit,

Category: Barack Obama, France

Cain And Gingrich Conduct Actual Debate: Mitt Romney Hardest Hit

Posted on | November 5, 2011 | 39 Comments

by Smitty

Watch here. Watch Now.
I’m not without qualms about either fellow. However, having potential leaders do more than stand there and trade bumper stickers is such a breath of fresh air that I could even foresee. . .the meltdown in the bunker when You Know Who finds out. . .

Update: stand by for the National Security Debate on 22 November at Heritage.
I predict that Mitt sounds like the preppy dude who completely over-studied, Newt sounds a polished old hand, Paul remains Non-Interventionist (to the extent anyone thinks that would work), and the rest amount to a barbershop quartet with a guest solo from Michele singing “Hit Me With Your Best Shot“.

Update II: Linked at Temple of Mut.

Category: Debates

#OccupyDC ‘What Democracy Looks Like’

Posted on | November 5, 2011 | 92 Comments

“Let it sink in: Their protests now need rape shelters. This is actually happening. And New York City lets it go on. . . . [T]he coverage of OWS protests compared to the coverage of tea-party protests is the worst media double standard in recent history.”
— Allahpundit, Hot Air

“These are the people the Democrats and their accomplices in the media stand with.”
— The Lonely Conservative

Michelle Fields has posted her crew’s video of the violence and intimidation perpetrated by the “Occupy DC” mob Friday night:

About the elderly woman you see on the video (3:20) who got shoved to the ground by the “Occupy” mob:

“Her name is Dolores Broderson, age 78. She rode on a bus for 11 hours from Detroit to get there. She went to the emergency room with a bloody nose and bruises on her hand and leg.”

We can no longer tolerate media assertions that this is a non-violent movement. When your purpose is to inspire hatred, to threaten and intimidate, when you trespass and obstruct traffic, when you chant obscenities and deliberately seek to provoke confrontations — no, you’re not being non-violent, no matter how often you claim to be “peaceful.”

But who can expect honesty from such savages? And who can any longer doubt that the mainstream media are acting as accessories to this criminal movement by pretending that the “Occupy [Whatever]” mob’s regular eruptions of violence and criminality are atypical aberrations? Just look at the headlines:

Occupy Protester Arrested In $10M Arson Fire
— KMGH-TV

Occupy Boston Occupies Israeli Consulate
— Ira Stoll

Zuccotti protesters put up women-only
tent to prevent sexual assaults
— New York Post

Fear Of Violence Spreading To OccupySeattle
— Thomas Ferdousi

“Nothing to see here, move along. Just what ‘democracy looks like.'”
— Darleen Click, Protein Wisdom

Yes, in the sense that “democracy” is a mob contemptuous of Western civilization, without respect for private property, ignorant of the Anglo-American Rule of Law tradition, and worked into a fevered frenzy by ritualistic incantations of radical-egalitarian concepts of “social justice” — well, indeed, this is what democracy looks like.

Those smelly hippies probably never even heard of Edmund Burke, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Richard Weaver, Russell Kirk, Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, et al.

Perhaps the malodorous mobsters would reply: “We’re not going to pay money for books, you capitalist vulture!” But even if you offered them Leonard Read’s classic essay, “I, Pencil,” online for free, they couldn’t be bothered to spend the time needed to read its 2,229 words. Even if you could force them to read it, however, they couldn’t possibly understand it, either because they lack the intelligence to comprehend basic reasoning, or else because they’ve been so thoroughly brainwashed into the collectivist mentality as to have become actively hostile to freedom.

As I explained last week, the “Occupy [Whatever]” movement is about “Organized Ignorance.” Once you’ve seen the phenomenon first-hand — chanting slogans or doing their ridiculous “mike check” call-and-response routines — you realize that their insistence on speaking in unison is a function of their inability to think as individuals.

“The good news is that more and more Americans are seeing these disgusting creatures in action. It will help Republican candidates immensely in 2012.”
— John Hinderaker, Powerline

Good news? If you look at it from a short-term partisan perspective, I suppose it’s good for independent voters to be reminded of what the Democratic Party’s “base” really looks like. But there is something genuinely tragic, and profoundling troubling, in watching this sorry “Occupy” farce unfold. So many young people have been so miseducated that they can’t tell “heaven from hell, blue skies from pain,” et cetera.

UPDATE (Smitty): Welcome, Instapundit readers!

PREVIOUSLY:


Category: #Occupy, Fear and Loathing at the Defending the American Dream Summit

FMJRA 2.0: Cowboy

Posted on | November 5, 2011 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Cain Spokesman: ‘Smear Campaign Meant to Discredit a True Patriot
UPDATE: Former Campaign Aide Says Cain’s Behavior ‘Never Even Bordered on Inappropriate in the Slightest’

Herman Cain At The National Press Club

Let Her Speak: Cain Accuser Seeks Release from Confidentiality Agreeement

Good-Bye, Vanuatu? Perry-Linked Witness Predicts: If Cain Accuser Speaks, ‘Probably Be the End of His Campaign’

Muslim Calls Republicans ‘Extremists’; Muslim Extremist Attacks U.S. Embassy

#OWS: Public Radio Producer Fired After Taking Advice From Conor Friedersdorf

Don’t Forget To Thank ObamaCare For Further Societal Collapse

Did Anybody Think The Super Committee Was Anything Other Than An Exercise In Pluckin’ That Chicken?

#OWS ‘Adult Party Entertainment’?

In Which I Talk About New Media

Ouch! New Poll Shows Perry at 7% in Iowa

Let’s Just Scuttle Everything And Become An Ant Colony Or Something

What If Everything The Left Has To Say Is Pure Crap? UPDATE: A Shiny New Word

Rule 5 Sunday: Brilliant Disguise

LIVE AT FIVE – 10.31.11

White House Responses To Petitions

Scott Ott Skewers The News

In Single Guy News, Slightly Tarnished Armenian Gal With A 72-Day Definition Of ‘Forever’ May Be Available

LIVE AT FIVE – 11.01.11

BHO And The Medicine Cabinet: Workin’ Hard, Tryin’ To Understand That There ‘Economics’ Stuff

Did Politico Stop By The National Restaurant Association For A Herman Cain Bite, And Wind Up With Botulism?

LIVE AT FIVE – 11.02.11

Eurocrats On Greek Referendum:
‘Are You Serious? Are You Serious?’

Tweet Of The Day

Santorum Ad Cuts To The Heart Of The Real/Fake Problem With Politicians

Cain Accuser: ‘Other Workplace Issues Had Been Making Her Unhappy’

Democrat Supporter Says Romney ‘Masquerading as a Die-Hard Conservative’

Will Perry Be Blamed for Cain Scandal?

LIVE AT FIVE – 11.03.11

Can the Cain Campaign Stand the Strain?

The Herman Cain Rorschach Test Continues To Mystify

PJM’s Pollock Publishes First Specific Account of Cain Harassment Charge UPDATE: PJM Makes Corrections

LIVE AT FIVE – 11.04.11

Boehner: Have I Pissed Off The Tea Party Enough Lately? Maybe Not

A Post Which Tries To Capture The Absurdity Of The Cain Situation In A Way That Some May Find Sacrilegious

Today’s Herman Cain Headlines

MITT TO CHINA: DROP DEAD

Herman Cain: The Third Koch Brother?

Herman Cain Accuser’s Lawyer: ‘No Value of Revisiting the Matter … Now’

#OWS Protesters Attempt to Storm AFP Defending the American Dream Summit

Top linkers this week:

  1. Lonely Conservative (12)
  2. The Camp Of The Saints (10)
  3. Don Surber (9)
  4. (tie) Daily Pundit and Da Tech Guy (8)
  5. Maggie’s Notebook (7)
  6. Rio Norte Line (5)

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! Those of you on Blogger or some other platform WordPress hates should e-mail your links to me by November 11; no guarantee that links received on or after the 12th will be included. Be sure to include “FMJRA” or “Shameless Blogwhoring” in the subject line.

Extra thanks to Smitty for unsnarling the link dump at the last minute this week!

Category: FMJRA Award

The World’s Youngest Blogger Waves To Obi’s Sister

Posted on | November 5, 2011 | 5 Comments

by The World’s Youngest Blogger

Thanks, Obi’s Sister! This blanket is peachy, and I hope to thank you in person sometime, perhaps CPAC12.

Category: Obi's Sister, World's Youngest Blogger
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