The Other McCain

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

FMJRA 2.0: Tangaroa

Posted on | September 18, 2011 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

On September 10th

The Todd Palin Legal Defense Fund

Krugman Shows Off His Oxymoron

NY-9: Turner Time?
UPDATE: ‘I See Dead Voters!’
UPDATE: GOP’S TURNER WINS!

Union Activist Teaches Civility Seminar

Arguably The Best Thing Written On The Subject Of 9/11

Joe Fein, in a Fighting Mood

Lakoff: A Seminar In Hooey?

LIVE AT FIVE – 09.12.11

Standing By For The Muslim Protest Against The Flight 93 Memorial

As If One Needed Another Reason For Uncertainty About Romney

So, Does This Mean Bono Should Be The Front Man For Rammstein?

Fear and Loathing in Tampa

CNN: Sarah Palin Turned Down Invitation to Appear in Tonight’s Tea Party Debate

No Time for Final Wisdom in Tampa

CNN/TEA PARTY EXPRESS DEBATE

LIVE AT FIVE – 09.13.11

Looking Forward To GBTV

Goldman Sees The Image Of A Piece Of Toast In Egypt

The Prisoner on Flight 1884

‘I Fear No Boy Named Sioux,’ Said Custer

Peopleware Goes To Software

Democrats Discover the SCOAMF Factor

Could Anthony Weiner Offer Jim Moran Some Life Coaching?

Obama’s Down. Can GOP Put Him Out?

Did You Know the Word ‘Miscegenation’ Was Invented by Democrats as a Smear?

The Recklessness of Joe McGinniss

LIVE AT FIVE – 09.15.11

AttackWatch: HR2911 Thugs The Title ‘American Jobs Act’

James Carville Brings The Funny

‘This Neofascist Fantasy’

Sex, Drugs and … Fifth-Graders?

‘This Crazy Blogger, Stacy McCain’

LIVE AT FIVESIX – 09.16.11

In Search Of, You Know, A More Peaceful Kind Of Peace

Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn, 1820-1863

Republicans? In California?

Solyndra: Pump And Dump

This week’s top linkers:

  1. Daily Pundit (9)
  2. (tied) Da Tech Guy and Don Surber (8)
  3. The Camp Of The Saints (5)

Thanks to all for their linkagery! If you want to be included in next week’s FMJRA, and your trackbacks don’t automatically show up, please send me an e-mail by Friday, September 23 with “FMJRA” or “Shameless Blogwhoring” in the subject line.

Category: FMJRA Award

Will The Next Smitty Chariot Be A Ford?

Posted on | September 18, 2011 | 23 Comments

by Smitty (h/t Power and Control)

Before deploying, I went to CarMax and bid farewell to the ’02 PT Cruiser that, for all the 110K+ good miles, had taken on annoying habits, like snapping a timing belt while on I-64 just east of Lewisburg, WV.

Mrs. Other Smitty wants us to get another car. I’m pointing out that the lack of a car payment, property taxes, insurance, and maintenance costs is a Really Good Thing. The economy is likely to worsen further before improving.

However, if Ford can hang on until the country gives the current Administration in particular, and anti-capitalist ideology in general a big heave-ho, then something from Ford will be high on the list of possible rides.

How about a diesel Ford Escape with a manual transmission?

Over at Power Line, Scott Johnson notes that Ford is defying Chicago-upon-Potomac quite openly here:

So you have to wonder about the audacity of Ford in producing the Drive One ad featuring F-150 pickup truck buyer Chris. Hasn’t Ford got the memo? Steve Hayward comments on my post on the Drive One ad: “The really interesting thing to me is that Ford and/or its ad agency apparently have no fear of offending Obama or Washington, and no concern that it will alienate enough potential customers with this ad. Normally a consumer products company would never come within a country mile of this kind of ad. That alone makes this a significant indicator of where public opinion is trending.”

Category: humor

‘Systematically Ignored’!

Posted on | September 18, 2011 | 26 Comments

A stunning allegation from Dan Collins at The Conservatory:

Besides, it’s about me (although it penumbrates Joy, Bruce and Enoch). What I mean to say is, it’s time to expose the sinister cabal of new media people who have conspired to ignore Conservative Commune, among whom I name: VodkaPundit, PJM Chief Exclusionist; Jim Treacherous of Daily Caller; High Hypocrite Eric Erickson of RedState; John Nolte, Breitbart.com’s Prime Rejector; Television’s Andy Levy, as well as many others who will be named later in my formal complaint.
If you’ve been deliberately and systematically ignored by any of these parties, let us know, and we will add you to our High Class Action. Let’s get these mofos.

Restraint of trade, conspiracy, failure to reciprocate linkage — the federal indictment will be a long one, I suspect. I’m tempted to file suit myself, citing various human rights violations such as last month’s traffic genocide, when we went 16 days without a link from Instapundit. But my lawyer advises me that “discovery is a bitch,” and if we sued over lack of linkage, we might be required to disclose valuable trade secrets including our patented Advanced Blogwhoring™ system.

Also, my lawyer suggests that the defendants might claim that the reason I don’t get linked more often is that sometimes my blogging sucks.

Slander! Libel! Defamation!

Category: Blogging

What’s Luck Got To Do With It?

Posted on | September 18, 2011 | 13 Comments

by Smitty

Lifehacker has an article referencing a study about luck that raises a hackle. “Good luck,” people say, even Christians, and I wonder why. What is this ‘luck’?

If one professes Christianity, and I do, then doesn’t Destiny have a bit more appeal than this ‘luck’ stuff? In other words, in mentioning ‘luck’, are you throwing theodicy under the bus? (Asides: [a] evil is a side-effect of free will, and [b] do I need hair like Leibniz in that Wikipedia link?)

As free will and Destiny intereact over time to form your life, who accounts for this ‘luck’? Because if I can buy off on some vague sub-atomic ‘luck’ force, then maybe the database managing the luck could also support re-incarnation. Why not? Carnations need ‘re-in’ from time to time, too. Why do you hate flowers?

Back to the Lifehacker link, the psychological study with the newspaper is genuinely interesting. It’s always interesting to see how clever researchers come up with ways to approach a question. The researchers conclude:

“Unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner, and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through the newspaper determined to find certain job advertisements and, as a result, miss other types of jobs.Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there, rather than just what they are looking for.”

Now, putting on my atheist hat for the sake of argument: Christians are nuts. It makes no pure, closed-form, mathematical sense to think that God exists, loves you individually, ever miraculously arrived, and offered humanity redemption, or might return to bat cleanup on the current mess. If such an objective proof did exist, the arguments about religion should have long since been solved. Yet, we’re still “bickering and arguing over ‘oo out-faithed ‘oo”. Can’t wear the atheist hat too long, lest the gaping hole in my knowledge of why I am here drag me down into a pit of nihilism, or lead to some misplaced faith in government.

Rather, as a Christian, I’ve felt that the closer my free will is prayerfully aligned with what I perceive is God’s Will, the lower the existential tension. Yeah, you have to check that daily, lest the Adversary lead you astray. The act of becoming a blogger, for example, involved a lengthy series of steps. Another example was following my father’s footsteps into the Navy, and marriage, and a trip to Afghanistan, and fatherhood. These ingredients converge in a single image:

You really want to call that ‘luck’? Seriously? The World’s Youngest Blogger was less than a week old in that picture. He’s now pushing a venerable two months. With good fortune, I’ll be hanging out with him again in another week. If you believe in ‘luck’, I submit that you also may love Obama, and should pass his bill. Because ‘luck’ us about the only way such a random collection of economically stinky ideas could stumble its way to success. Get the ‘luck’ out of here, say I.

via Instapundit

Category: Religion

STOP THE HATE: Danish Sperm Bank Turns Down Redheaded Donors

Posted on | September 18, 2011 | 10 Comments

This is just cruel:

Redheaded men are being turned away as sperm donors — because demand for their progeny is so low.
Ole Schou, director of Cryos in Denmark, the world’s biggest sperm bank, said the facility had become so successful it was now much more selective about choosing donors. . . .
‘There are too many redheads in relation to demand,’ Mr Schou told the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet.
‘I do not think you chose a redhead, unless the partner —for example, the sterile male — has red hair, or because the lone woman has a preference for redheads.
‘And that’s perhaps not so many, especially in the latter case.’

Just because they’re freaks of nature . . .

(Via NewsAlert with a hat-tip to Dan Collins, who ponders the “Ginger Mystique” at The Conservatory.)

Category: Science

The World’s Youngest Blogger Salutes Silas Paul Lester

Posted on | September 18, 2011 | 4 Comments

by The World’s Youngest Blogger

You haven’t exactly posted yet, Silas. Silas Paul Lester, the newest addition to the All American Blogger family.

So maybe I keep my title. Though my natal adventures may not be toppled by anyone younger soon. There is sort of a lower limit, no?

Niklas Dietrich, the World's Youngest Blogger, now a hoary seven weeks old, salutes Silas Paul.

I hope you’re planning on making CPAC12. It promises to be exciting. Lots of women there, whom we can probably persuade to pose for photos with us. Exciting times.

At any rate, welcome to the ‘hood. Let’s keep it real, bro, and tell the other bloggers to keep adding to the fold. Stay in touch, and remember:

We’re yute.
We’re cute.
It’s not our fault,
The country’s destitute.

Update: linked at the Conservatory!

Category: World's Youngest Blogger

#AttackWatch! Hey, @AttackWatch: This ‘Downfall’ Video Looks Like #tcot Hate

Posted on | September 18, 2011 | 15 Comments

Both inevitable and obligatory:

The laughable failure of AttackWatch.com is a result of the internal logic of the Left: When you believe your politics is an expression of your own moral and intellectual superiority, it logically follows that your opposition is both evil and stupid. While the assumption of right-wing evil is perhaps still unrefuted, we have at least proven that we’re not so stupid as to be incapable of using Twitter hashtags effectively. Ross Kaminsky explains at The American Spectator:

As I follow #attackwatch in my Twitter application on Thursday morning, I can’t keep up with the updates. A new tweet hits about every two seconds, almost all of them obviously by people who are not just opposed to the administration’s Goebbels-like activities, but who are effectively turning AttackWatch into the biggest joke in Internet history.
Here are a few of the tweets which have come across the #attackwatch hashtag just during the writing of this article:
From DrFreeLance: “I saw a werewolf drinkin a pina colada at Trader Vic’s, and his hair was perfect.”
From chuckdevore (Republican state legislator in California): “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean a big majority of us isn’t out to get you…”
From EddieRobbins: “My neighbor removed his Obama bumper sticker. I think he’s a racist.”
From DickMeyers: “Bless me #AttackWatch for I have sinned. I have muttered naughty words about our Dear Leader 9 times & have doubted his divinity a few times”
From joaniekensil: “Ate refried beans & chips for breakfast which is sort of racist foodist – Carbon emissions to follow.”
From PoliticalGravity: “Saw a kid with a lemonade stand and she didn’t have a permit.”
From thorninaz: “Hey #attackwatch, I saw 6 ATM’s in an alley, killing a Job. It looked like a hate crime!”
And from the always excellent IowaHawkBlog: “#AttackWatch have you cried “uncle” yet? Because we can keep this up all f***in’ day.”
Most of these occurred within a 2-minute span. You get the idea. . . .

Read the whole thing. The most beautiful thing about AttackWatch.com is the tiny print at the bottom that says: “Paid for by Obama for America.”

How much money did they piss away on this idiotic waste of pixels? Let’s hope it was a lot, because there is nothing that helps advance the cause of right-wing evil as much as when liberals spend campaign money to hire stupid people.

(P.S.: I signed up for their e-mail list. I’ll let you know if they send me any particularly silly propaganda.)

Category: Barack Obama, Election 2012, humor, Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, Video

Happy 50th Anniversary

Posted on | September 17, 2011 | 17 Comments

GALION, Ohio
My wife’s parents, Jim and Nancy Bittner, were the guests of honor today at a party commemorating their 50th wedding anniversary.

The couple with their seven children: Front row (left to right) Rex, Jeff and Jamie; (back row) Erica, Nancy and Jim, Lou Ann, Anna and Brenda.

Jim and Nancy have 22 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Category: Family
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