"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler
Steve Eggleston reports that the recount demanded by JoAnne Kloppenburg in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election has now reached the 69% point, and that the liberal Kloppenburg has gained less than 200 votes, an insignificant dent in Judge David Prosser’s 7,000-vote margin.
It’s always nice when liberals waste their time and money on such futile quixotic efforts and get their hopes crushed anyway.
One of my habits is re-reading good books. Any book worth reading is worth re-reading, and there are some books that I have read multiple times, including William Shirer’s Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, and P.J. O’Rourke’s Parliament of Whores.
Another habit, picked up during my college days: I always prefer to read while lying down. When I was in college, I’d take my textbooks to bed with me, fall asleep reading them, wake up and read some more until I fell asleep again. I’d sometimes spend most of the weekend like that, reading and napping all day, only leaving my dorm room to go eat lunch, until it was time to go out and party at night.
All of which is preamble to saying that I was re-reading Ann Coulter’s Slander last night when I went to bed. It had been a while since I first read it — it was published in 2002 — and I had almost forgotten how good it is. People who only know Coulter as a TV personality, trading snark with Hannity and O’Reilly on Fox News, ought to take time to read some of her books. She is a much better writer than most of her critics give her credit for, and probably even better than most of her fans realize.
Coulter’s writing is often aphoristic: She writes brilliant little sentences that hit the nail square on the head. At her best, she strikes those hammer blows in succession — bam! bam! bam! — and keeps it up for page after page. Such is the case with the seventh chapter of Slander, “The Joy of Arguing With Liberals: You’re Stupid!” Continue reading It’s Kinda Hard to ‘Work the Refs’ When the Refs Are Playing for the Other Team →
Megan McArdle observes an important phenomenon:
A significant number of teens didn’t know who Osama Bin Laden was until we killed him. I can’t believe it — and yet I do believe it. I didn’t know what Iran Contra was when I was in high school, and I was a sophomore when it happened. Teenagers live in their own little world, only tangentially connected to the one the rest of us occupy. Today’s high-school freshmen weren’t even in Kindergarten when 9/11 happened. Why would they remember?
I think it’s just as significant in a way that so many of the people celebrating at Ground Zero and the White House seemed to be college kids. These were people who were nine or ten when the towers came down. I wonder if for them, hearing that Bin Laden had been killed wasn’t a bit like hearing that we mowed down Satan, or the Grinch — not the death of a specific person, but striking down the personification of evil in the world.
One of the most pernicious ideas of recent decades — originating in the 1960s “Generation Gap,” but getting worse all the time — is the belief that youth per se has some distinct political value, a belief which in turn involves a willingness to accept pop-culture hipness as actual knowledge.
You saw this attitude displayed, for example, in the mainstream media’s attempt to elevate Meghan McCain as a Republican spokesperson, the apparent thought being: “She is young and is therefore presumably tuned into future trends.” A similar attitude explains the Tiger-Beat-meets-the-Jonas-Brothers enthusiasm for the “Juicebox Mafia.”
What accounts for this attitude? I would argue that it is actually rooted in Baby Boom nostalgia. Continue reading Youthful Ignorance →
Sarah Palin was the runaway winner with 27%, while Mitt Romney (11.6%) edged out Herman Cain (11.3%) for second. It’s also interesting to see that all the hype for Tim Pawlenty couldn’t boost the former Minnesota governor past 6%, while Newt Gingrich didn’t crack 2%.
Of course, this isn’t a random-sample scientific poll, but it does indicate how competitive Cain is among conservative activists online.
Isn’t it time you joined the online grassroots army at Citizens for Cain?
Since taking over the 8 p.m. spot vacated by Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, Lawrence O’Donnell has mounted an extraordinary effort to achieve what many would consider an impossible goal: Being more absurdly self-righteous than Olbermann.
Tuesday night, O’Donnell may have reached that mark by asserting that John Kerry was the gold standard in national security policy:
(Via Memeorandum.) Is O’Donnell serious? Did he even listen to his own video clip, when Kerry said that fighting terrorism “requires cooperation around the world”? In point of fact, although the U.S. shoveled out all kinds of foreign aid to Pakistan, we did not get that kind of cooperation. It wasn’t “cooperation” that resulted in finding Osama bin Laden: It was the “enhanced interrogation” of detainees captured by the CIA and U.S. military during the Bush presidency — interrogations that Democrats condemned, involving terrorists they insisted were being detained illegally. And the raid that killed bin Laden was conducted by military Special Operations troops (a branch of the service increased under Donald Rumsfeld’s tenure as Secretary of Defense), not by “law enforcement,” and certainly not by the European allies that Kerry kept insisting should be granted veto authority over U.S. policy.
All of which is to say that the facts are 180 degrees out of phase with O’Donnell’s argument. With complete disregard for facts, O’Donnell evidently believes that counterfactual things can be made true merely by his say-so. “Fiat lux!”
My God, did you ever believe you’d see such a thing? O’Donnell has got me pining for the Good Old Days of Keith Olbermann!
But some things remain constant at MSNBC, especially the familiar douchebaggery of Chris Matthews who, amid his otherwise giddy celebration of the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s successful assassination of a Muslim leader, described Dick Cheny as a “sadist” :
Did you see that? It was a complete non sequitur. They were sitting there praising all Obama’s wonders when Howard Fineman mentioned Dick Cheney, so out of the blue, for no discernible reason whatsoever, Matthews says: “There’s a difference between being cold blooded — I think presidents have to be cold blooded — and being a sadist.” Howard Fineman then begins to say something else, but Matthews interrupts: “I was referring to Cheney, of course.”
Fineman, certainly no fan of Dick Cheney, wisely ignored that idiotic remark. You really have to feel sorry for the guests on Matthews’s show, who have to sit there and be polite while he blabs out that kind of nonsense.
UPDATE: Welcome, Don Surber readers!
TOP NEWS
Levee Breach Diverts River Water Into Floodway To Save Cairo
About a third of rural Mississippi County flooded, certainly out of production this year and possibly for several due to river silt and debris
Shelter Shortage For Alabama Storm Survivors
Thousands homeless, but there’s only shelter for hundreds
Portugal Agrees To Bailout Terms, Will Receive 78 Million Euros
But will the likely conservative successors to caretaker PM Socrates stick to the agreement?
POLITICS
Indiana Ready To Rumble With Administration Over Abortion
Indirect funding vs. the Medicaid Act
TurboTax Timmy Blinks; Extends Date To Avoid Default By Three Weeks
President Ford Honored With Capitol Statue
Massachusetts Lawmakers To Hear Casino Bills (Again)
Huntsman Forms Committee Ahead Of Possible 2012 White House Bid
THE ECONOMY, STUPID
US Sues Deutsche Bank, Alleging Fraud
Dollar Rises After Profit-Taking By Forex Traders
US Stocks Close Unchanged; Energy & Materials Down, Telecoms Up
Gold, Silver Continue Declines In Asian Trading
Small Cars Spur April Sales
Sears Earnings Warning Raises Concerns About Retailer’s Future
Mobile App Stores A $3.8 Billion Business In 2011
Android Tethering Free Ride Is Over
Windows TPC Turns Old PCs Into New Thin Clients
SPORTS
Liriano-No! Twins Lefty Hurls No-Hitter Against White Sox
Snaps Twins’ six-game losing streak
Heat Beat Celtics For 2-0 Playoff Lead
Huff Hits Leadoff Homer In 10th To Lead Giants Past Mets
Astros Rout Reds 10-4 With Six-Run Fourth
Lightning Take 3-0 Lead Over Capitals
NFL Appeal Of Lockout Order Expedited
FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Katy Perry: “My Career Is Like An Artichoke”
The Vanity Fair interview.
Kristen Wiig: The Anti-Comedian
Andy Dick Arrested For Drunken Restaurant Ruckus
Rachel Weisz To Play Evil Witch In Disney’s Oz Reboot
MTV Movie Award Nominations Announced: Twilight And Inception Lead The Pack
Great Dress, Beyonce- Unless You Want To Climb Stairs
Carla Bruni Pregnant With Twins
Jesse James: I Have Started Life Over
FOREIGNERS
Israeli Foreign Ministry Sees Palestinian Deal As An Opportunity, Contra Netanyahu
Syria Protests Defy Deadly Crackdown (Video)
Turks To Unveil Libya Cease-Fire Plan At Rome Meeting
Five Arrested Near UK’s Sellafield Nuclear Plant
Canada’s Tory Majority Gives PM Harper Economic Policy Flexibility
Norks Behind Cyber Attack On ROK Bank
BLOGS & STUFF
Jammie Wearing Fool: W Nixes Appearance At Obama’s Ground Zero Victory Lap
Atlas Shrugs: Jerusalem Imam Threatens Obama
Ace Of Spades: 7 Minutes V. 16 Hours – How The Media Reports Delay
Jihad Watch: Honor Killing In Michigan
— compiled by Wombat-socho
Well, I was feeling pretty good yesterday, but now I realize that was just the Percocet talking. Woke up this morning feeling awful. The good news? Re-reading the directions on the Percocet, I saw that it says “take one or two every four to six hours.” The “or two” is definitely more fun. So while there is hope that I’ll recover from the pneumonia, I’m afraid I’ll be a total junkie by then.
Just kidding. But thanks to everyone who has hit the tip jar for the “Get Well fund” so far: John in Vienna, Michael in Ardmore, Nathan in Missouri, Joseph in Olympia, Joel in Hollister, Jon in Isle of Palms, Jeff in Walla Walla, Charlie in Oregon, Ronald in Oakland, Catherine in Alexandria, Gregory in Elmhurst, Rick in Huntsville, Chris in South Dakota, Peter in Jacksonville and Ladd Ehlinger.
If you haven’t contributed yet, what are you waiting for? Hit the freaking tip jar! And, to show my patriotic support for the Navy SEALs who took out Osama bin Laden — also to continue our celebration of National Offend a Feminist Week — here’s a tasty selection of vintage nautical-themed cheesecake: Continue reading Fun With Pneumonia Update: I’m Still Sick, But These Drugs Are Great! →
Congress should cut off foreign aid to Pakistan “unless we get a clear explanation” of whether the Pakistani government “was harboring Osama bin Laden,” Rep. Allen West (R-Florida) said in a letter sent Tuesday to the chairwoman of the House subcommittee that oversees foreign aid programs.
Click here to see a PDF of Rep. West’s letter to Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.
In the letter, West said that, “like many Americans,” he had believed bin Laden was hiding in northwest Pakistan’s tribal regions, where it would have been “very difficult to locate any individual, especially the most wanted terrorist in the world.”
“However, we now learn that Osama bin Laden was living in a million-dollar compound which was custom-built in 2005 in Abbotabad . . . The heavily fortified compound . . . is only a few hundred yards from the Pakistan Military Academy,” West wrote in the lettter to Granger. “It is not unreasonable for the American people to question if Osama bin Laden was located on government-controlled land, next to a military academy, and so close to the nation’s capital. What real assistance was the Pakistan Government providing for the last 10 years to locate the al-Qaeda leader and bring him to justice?”
West wrote: “I think it is quite clear that unless we get a clear explanation of what the Government of Pakistan knew abojut the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, all foreign aid from American taxpayers to this nation needs to cease. We need to understand whether the Government of Pakistan was harboring Osama bin Laden all these years.”
West, a retired Army lieutenant-colonel, served in Iraq with the 4th Infantry Division. He was elected to Congress in Florida’s 22nd District last year with strong support from the Tea Party movement, and is a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
UPDATE: West’s suspicions about the Pakistani government’s relationship with bin Laden would appear justified by comments from CIA Director Leon Panetta. In an interview with Time magazine, Panetta said that U.S. officials ruled out informing Islamabad of their plans to get the al-Qaeda leader because “it was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission. They might alert the targets.”
UPDATE II: Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) today announced plans to introduce the Pakistan Foreign Aid Accountability Act, which “would require the State Department to certify to Congress that Pakistan wasn’t giving a sanctuary to the former world’s most wanted terrorist,” the Houston Chronicle reports:
Poe noted that Congress has already appropriated $3 billion to Pakistan for the year, and said unless the State Department can show that the country wasn’t harboring bin Laden, it should not receive “one more cent of American aid.”
“This is exactly why we need to reevaluate the foreign aid that we send to countries that do not have America’s best interest in mind,” he said.
UPDATE III: Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic has been catching heat for his defense of the U.S. alliance with Pakistan.
UPDATE IV: PJTV interviews Rep. West (click image to watch):
(Hat-tip: Instapundit.)