The Other McCain

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

Whatever Happened to AuH2O?

Posted on | May 14, 2011 | 43 Comments

“People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.”
— Edmund Burke, 1790

In 1964, Sen. Barry Goldwater (a) voted against the Civil Rights Act, and (b) was the Republican nominee for president. Goldwater’s argument against the Civil Right Act was that it constituted an infringement of property rights. Ron Paul made the same argument Friday on Hardball:

I believe that property rights should be protected. Your right to be on TV is protected by property rights because somebody owns that station. I can’t walk into your station. So right of freedom of speech is protected by property. The right of your church is protected by property. So people should honor and protect it. This gimmick, Chris, it’s off the wall when you say I’m for property rights and states rights therefore I’m a racist. That’s just outlandish.

When Ron Paul’s son, Rand Paul, was criticized for making a similar argument last year, David Weigel was one of the few bloggers to defend his libertarian perspective. And as I looked at the Memeorandum thread Friday night, I didn’t see a single conservative blogger defending Paul.

Even though this is, as Paul says, “ancient history” — liberal Chris Matthews ginning up a moot controversy to smear a Republican — it troubles me that conservatives have become so intimidated by the Left’s constant cries of “raaaaacism” that no one is willing to defend the position advocated by Barry Goldwater in 1964.

“Oh, well, it’s just that wacko Ron Paul,” they say. “Who cares?”

Yeah? Well, it’s also Ronald Reagan, my friend. If you’re willing to let Ron Paul be smeared as a bigot over this, then I guess you might as well throw the Gipper under the bus while you’re at it. Read more

Category: Conservatism 101, History, Ronald Reagan

Kate Puzey and the Death of Beauty

Posted on | May 13, 2011 | 8 Comments

I asked myself — “Of all melancholy topics, what, according to the universal understanding of mankind, is the most melancholy?” Death — was the obvious reply. “And when,” I said, “is this most melancholy of topics most poetical?” From what I have already explained at some length, the answer, here also, is obvious — “When it most closely allies itself to Beauty: the death, then, of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world . . .”
— Edgar Allen Poe, “The Philosophy of Composition”

Benin is one of the poorest countries in the world. With a per-capita GDP of $1,600, Benin is poorer than Pakistan, Sudan, Cambodia and even North Korea. So if an idealistic young person wanted to help poor people, Benin would be a good place to start.

Wedged into the Atlantic coast of west Africa between Togo and Nigeria and home to about 10 million people, Benin ranks 187th among the world’s nations in life expectancy, while ranking 30th in infant mortality. A host of terrible diseases contribute to this high death rate: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, malaria, yellow fever and meningococcal meningitis.

Public sources about the leading causes of death in Benin, however, don’t rank murder among them.

However, murder was the cause of death of Catherine “Kate” Puzey, a Peace Corps volunteer working in Badjoude, Benin, when she was killed in March 2009. Read more

Category: Benin, Crime

Where Have I Been?

Posted on | May 13, 2011 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

I’ve been in Mazar-i-Sharif for a couple of weeks. Camp Marmal, as it’s called, is on the east side of town. The Germans actually run this, and it’s highly international. Which means a lot of weird little rules, and lousy internet connectivity.
After three tries, I finally found a card that logs me onto something that, you know works. Unfortunately, as the Ops/Sustainment/Training/Force Protection/Whatever guy, my discretionary time to add my voice to the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Chorus is limited.
Things may improve. Seeing Stacy’s post about Osama’s porn stash, and having a bit of twitter access, I managed to get re-tweeted by the New York Times ‘bot:

So, I have some connectivity. Still no electricity, and sitting on the steps for a couple of hours is hard on the bottom.
The good news is that the deployment is half over.

Category: Aghanistan

Eyes of Texas on Herman Cain

Posted on | May 13, 2011 | 13 Comments

A standing overation from a “capacity crowd” at the Austin Economic Club, Bryan Preston reports at PJ Tatler:

Cain hit all of the major issues, coming out strong for border security in this border state (“Instead of suing Arizona, they should have gotten a prize!”), hammering away at liberal politicians and policies (“The problem with liberals is, they can’t handle the facts!”), race (“I am black, but I happen to be an American first.”) and his conservatism (“I escaped the Democrat plantation and I’m not going back.”) Cain closed with a simple call to what makes him an optimist, and what makes him believe he can win, as well as what he tells his grandkids when they ask for his advice: “Believe in God, believe in yourself, and believe in the greatest country in the world, the United States of America.”

Just another week until the big announcement Saturday, May 21 at Atlanta’s Olympic Centennial Park.

Isn’t it time you joined the online grassroots army at Citizens for Cain?

Category: Election 2012, Herman Cain, Texas

Osama bin Laden’s Porn Stash?

Posted on | May 13, 2011 | 19 Comments

Sam Foster at the Lonely Conservative was the first to predict that the “treasure trove” of electronic data discovered at Osama’s Pakistan compound would turn out to include computer porn. Now Reuters reports:

A stash of pornography was found in the hideout of Osama bin Laden by the U.S. commandos who killed him, current and former U.S. officials said on Friday.
The pornography recovered in bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, consists of modern, electronically recorded video and is fairly extensive, according to the officials, who discussed the discovery with Reuters on condition of anonymity.

No word yet on whether Osama had been Googling for “Kate Middleton upskirt photo.”

UPDATE: Linked by WyBlog and The Lonely Conservative — thanks! — and thanks also to the commenter who refers us to Jeff Goldstein’s list of Osama’s favorite porn titles.

Category: Pakistan, Terrorism

Wisconsin Senate Seat Open for 2012 as Democrat Kohl Announces Retirement

Posted on | May 13, 2011 | 6 Comments

This is very bad news for Democrats:

U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl said he would not seek re-election next fall, believing it’s better to “leave a job a little too early than a little too late.”
Kohl, 76, said it is time to give someone else the opportunity to serve in the seat he has held since winning election in 1988. . . .
Dems had been confident Kohl would seek another term, particularly after he transferred $1 million of his own money into his campaign account at the end of 2010. But he said he came to the conclusion as he thought about it over the past few weeks.

(Hat-tip: Ann Althouse at Instapundit.) The odds against Harry Reid maintaining a Democrat majority in the Senate were already pretty long. “Democrats are defending 21 Senate seats next year, compared to 10 for Republicans,” explains Michael O’Brien at The Hill. A lot of first-term Democrats, elected in the GOP’s annus horriblis of 2006, are up for re-election in Republican-leaning “red” states.

Wisconsin is merely a purple state, despite major GOP gains in last year’s mid-terms, so Kohl had a good shot at re-election in 2012, keeping the seat under Democrat control. Now? Not so much:

Another Democrat has decided to retire from the Senate rather than face re-election, and this one will hurt. . . . Not only does [Kohl’s retirement] force Democrats to field a new candidate in Wisconsin, a state that turned Republican in 2010, it means that they lose someone with the potential to be a self-funder as well . . .

The fight earlier this year over Scott Walker’s government union bill “drained union coffers at a particularly tough moment in Wisconsin politics,” Ed Morrissey adds. The National Republican Senatorial Committee is chuckling over the latest woes of the Democrats’ 2012 effort, led by Sen. Patty Murray, who had only recently said there would be no more 2012 retirements.

Wisconsin’s Steve Eggleston has a run-down on the potential candidates to replace Kohl.

UPDATE: The seat just shifted from “Safe Democrat” to “Lean Democrat.” Also, gay activists are pushing lesbian Democratic Rep. Tammy Baldwin to run for Kohl’s seat, which would increase the likelihood of a bitterly contested Democrat primary. More at Memeorandum.

Category: Election 2012, Senate, Wisconsin

Celebrity Herpes or Hollywood Hoax?

Posted on | May 13, 2011 | 15 Comments

The amazing stuff you can learn by reading Wombat’s daily “Live at Five” headline round-up: A well-known “A-list” celebrity has reportedly been sued by a plaintiff who claims that the celebrity “swore he was STD free” prior to their hook-up in Las Vegas, which included unprotected sexual intercourse.

Now the plaintiff has herpes and is suing the star for $20 million, in a complaint that reads like a cheap novel:

JOHN DOE, an A-list celebrity of substantial fame intentionally wielded his influence, money and notoriety to attract his prey. In flaunting his power, fame and money, Defendant lured the unsuspecting Plaintiff into his sprawling Las Vegas Penthouse for an evening of prolonged sex and illicit drug use.

The plaintiff’s attorney says — wouldn’t you know it? — there’s a sex video of the couple’s Vegas tryst, and there is reportedly a $1 million offer for the video.

As tantalizing as that may seem, the really sleazy part is this: The lawsuit does not name the celebrity.

Nor does the complaint specify whether the plaintiff is male or female. So that, assuming the alleged “evening of prolonged sex and illicit drug use” actually took place, this lawsuit is nothing but straight-up blackmail: Fork over the cash, Mr. A-List Celebrity, or else we’ll name names.

And maybe also release the sex video.

There is, however, a very good reason to suspect that this is a hoax, a clue which the folks at TMZ apparenty failed to notice. Read more

Category: Celebrities, Scandal, Sex

Obama Lies About Unemployment

Posted on | May 13, 2011 | 8 Comments

Just flat-out makes up “facts” during a town-hall meeting on the economy in D.C. hosted by CBS News:

“The reason the unemployment rate is still as high as it is, in part, is because there have been huge layoffs of government workers at the federal level, at the state level, at the local level . . . Teachers, police officers, firefighters, social workers– they have really taken it in the chin over the last several months. And so, what we’re trying to do is to see if we can stabilize the budget.”

Jim Geragthy fisks this absurd claim:

All figures come from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics:
Recent peak of private-sector employment, June 2007: 116,603,000.
Total private-sector employment in the month Obama became president, January 2009: 109,084,000.
Recent low of private-sector employment, January 2010: 104,933,000.
Total private-sector employment, April 2011: 108,494,000

Private-sector employment is 8.1 million jobs below its 2007 peak, and 590,000 below where it was when Obama took office. Meanwhile, Geraghty provides BLS numbers on government employment:

June 2007: 22,176,000.
January 2009: 22,471,000.
January 2010: 22,376,000.
April 2011: 22,594,000

No “huge layoffs.” Obama just made that up. And it’s a lie.

Via Memeorandum, with further commentary by The Lonely Conservative, Sister Toldjah, Gateway Pundit and Bryan Preston at PJ Tatler.

Category: Barack Obama, CBS, Economics
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