Pacific Ocean Wants To Sue Gulf Of Mexico For Limelight Thuggery

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by Smitty

Seth Borenstein, in Salon reports that we still have plenty of oil to fear in the Gulf:

The evidence of microscopic amounts of oil mixing into the soil of the canyon was gathered by scientists at the University of South Florida, who also found poisoned plant plankton — the vital base of the ocean food web — which they blamed on a toxic brew of oil and dispersants.Their work is preliminary, hasn’t been reviewed by other scientists, requires more tests to confirm it is BP’s oil they found, and is based on a 10-day research cruise that ended late Monday night. Scientists who were not involved said they were uncomfortable drawing conclusions based on such a brief look.

The Pacific Ocean took a peevish view to this report. Pacific Ocean spokesman Buffington Imboodaga stated that:

We really need to get attention focused back on that trash vortex the size of Texas.
Specifically, we need:

  • A panicked, guilty public that hates its very humanity.
  • Legislation by the ream, specifying whole divisions of unelected bureaucrats to suck vitality out of the economy, thereby reducing the pollution.
  • Increased funding for our research staff, at the usual campaign kickback rate for our sugar mommas and daddies.

Screw the Gulf of Mexico. We’re a far more senior source of gnawing fear.

In related news, Anthropogenic Global Warming is still maintaining a low profile at an un-named Carribbean resort. A spokesman for AGW denied the rumor that it may be getting a makeover, with a re-launch in its old Global Cooling guise. AGW press agent Morriston Baxter-Dempsey rejected the notion:

We are keeping an eye on the 1970’s, but, other than politically, the ’70s are not sufficiently ‘in’ for AGW to go the cooling route.Specific plans to kick start AGW have been pushed back to December. It really all depends on the weather. Who can predict that?

Is The Government My Shepherd?

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by Smitty

Via Insty, John Samples at Cato says “They Should Earn Our Trust“.

He concludes that these signs of distrust “point toward a widely shared conviction that the country’s public and private leadership is protecting its own interest at the expense of average (and even comfortable) Americans.”

Via HotAir Gene Healy at the Examiner starts off by noting:

By 2012, our national debt will be larger than the entire U.S. economy, according to the International Monetary Fund. So what’s on the front burner in Washington these days? Zoning issues in lower Manhattan!

Ace of Spades develops the theory that Blagojevich went on TV to establish some humanity in advance of his trial, so that a TV-junky jurist might be persuaded by the charm and the hair to hang the trial.

Faith in government is wholly misplaced. It is never more than a necessary evil. As there seem to be some fans of my arguably tasteless, cynical re-writes of Biblical passages, here is a shamelessly cooked reading of the 23rd Psalm:

  1. The GOVERNMENT is my shepherd; I shall not want capitalism.
  2. It maketh me to lie down in green, environmentally cleansed, carbon-managed pastures: it leadeth me beside the still, occasionally oil-slicked waters.
  3. It restoreth my propaganda: it leadeth me in the paths of collectivism for its brand’s sake.
  4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of liberty, I will fear no outbreak of capitalism: for thy propaganda art be with me; thy rod and thy staff and their reams of legislation, they comfort, discipline, and otherwise satisfy me.
  5. Thou preparest a cheese table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.  Thou swappest it with a smaller vessel occasionally, as supplies dwindle, so that the ‘runneth over’ fiction be maintained for all my thirsty days.
  6. Surely managed goodness and something which objectively sucks, but has been conveniently re-labeled mercy shall follow me all the days of my carefully managed life: and I will dwell in the house of the GOVERNMENT for ever, for reasonably ‘fair’ values of ‘ever’, as determined by faceless bureaucrats armed with a spreadsheet in some posh office.

Walking back from this cynical outburst, you might enjoy Dr. Zero’s Churchill-esque palate cleanser:

We don’t have “unrealistic” expectations about “oversold” government programs. We don’t have any more expectations about Big Government at all. That’s why we’re going to tear it down, and reclaim what it has taken from us. We aren’t expecting the government to work miracles with our tax dollars. We expect it to return them. We’ll handle the miracles.

RTWT.

Liberal Women Try ‘Mama Grizzly’ Shtick: ‘You Know What Threatens Me? My Daughter Not Having the Right to Choose’

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From the pro-abortion group Emily’s List, which presumes to answer Sarah Palin:

Ace does the “Top Ten Reasons” this video doesn’t work, but I stopped cold at the woman expressing adamant support for her daughter’s “right to choose.”

Isn’t that kind of creepy? Basically, you’re saying that the abortion of your own grandchild is such a grand idea as to assume paramount importance in your political worldview.

Yeah, I know: She’s talking about the “right to choose,” but the abstract right to abortion can’t be separated from the concrete reality of abortion, and that reality is a gruesome, blood-chilling thing to consider. Philosophical theorizing about “rights” can’t elude that reality. And neither can bear costumes.

Bumped: VIDEO: If You Liked Reagan, You’ll Love Whittle

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by Smitty

Those of you who have not done so, watch Bill Whittle’s PJTV essay discussing the Ground Zero Mosque.

Bill juxtaposes our modern cowards with the British cowards of 1938, then moves to the Mosque question.

Wow. Spread this one around. Devastating on every level.

Update: The Moderate Voice, for contrast, serves up Eugene Robinson emitting an example of Grade-A knobbery.

Update II: They went right to YouTube with this one:

Yeah, But Tell Me About The Frogskins

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by Smitty (h/t Paco)

Thomas Sowell in RCP, on the Constitution being a urinal cake:

While various political leaders have, over the centuries, done things that violated either the spirit or the letter of the Constitution, few dared to openly say that the Constitution was wrong and that what they wanted was right.

It was the Progressives of a hundred years ago who began saying that the Constitution needed to be subordinated to whatever they chose to call “the needs of the times.” Nor were they content to say that the Constitution needed more Amendments, for that would have meant that the much disdained masses would have something to say about whether, or what kind, of Amendments were needed.

The agenda then, as now, has been for our betters to decide among themselves which Constitutional safeguards against arbitrary government power should be disregarded, in the name of meeting “the needs of the times”– as they choose to define those needs.

The first open attack on the Constitution by a President of the United States was made by our only president with a Ph.D., Woodrow Wilson. Virtually all the arguments as to why judges should not take the Constitution as meaning what its words plainly say, but “interpret” it to mean whatever it ought to mean, in order to meet “the needs of the times,” were made by Woodrow Wilson.

Via Insty, we have the Freedom Works dudes on the hostile GOP takeover by the Tea Party:

The American values of individual freedom, fiscal responsibility and limited government bind the ranks of our movement. That makes the tea party better than a political party. It is a growing community that can sustain itself after November, ensuring a better means of holding a new generation of elected officials accountable.

All this is swell and spiffy, but if you haven’t answered the mail on the Federal Reserve Act, and the ludicrous Federal expansion of power it has enabled, then you simply haven’t said much.

Stacy would say “Smittiot! We’ve got to win the election first!” Fine. But be thinking about ways in which we’re going to support the leadership needed to roll back 100 years of incumbency, elitism, and ruling class over-reach.

My chief worry is that, faced with the ugly realities that our government is more or less effectively hiding from us, the Tea Party will wet itself, and the Cloward-Piven will prevail. We have to get ready with the “bring it on, mike foxtrot”.

Alyssa Milano Re-Tweeted This, So . . .

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. . . I take that as a hint she wants me to blog about it:

Top 10 Reasons I Did Not RT Your DM Request
This article is not meant to offend anyone, but I am sure it will. If you have ever been asked to retweet links for someone, at least I think you can sympathize. I have spent hours defending my right to say no to a retweet request. At some point I realized it’s time to just lay it out for everyone so you know where I am coming from. . . .

The author, Susan Elaine Cooper, then goes on to list ten important reasons why people don’t get re-Tweeted, none of which are, “Because I’m Alyssa Freaking Milano and You’re Just a Creepy Old Blogger.”

Which means there’s still hope.

I’ll have to discuss strategic Twitterology with Dan Collins, who is in charge of the Let’s Get Alyssa to Re-Tweet Stacy Just So He’ll Finally Shut Up About It campaign.

Remember, this all started with Mickey Kaus, back when Alyssa had fewer than 400,000 followers. She’s now closing in on 1 million followers, many of whom are following her in anticipation of the glorious moment when I’ll finally get that coveted RT from . . . 

AMERICA’S TWEETHEART!

Obama’s Hollywood Disaster

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ROSSYLYN, Va. — Just as I predicted, President Obama’s Hollywood fundraiser produced a traffic catastrophe in Los Angeles:

While I was in Los Angeles yesterday, I got a call from my friend Joe Fein, who told me he wouldn’t be able to make it to an event featuring Pamela Geller, author of The Post-American Presidency, that he had hoped to attend.
“They’ve shut down Olympic Boulevard!” Joe said in outraged tones, explaining that the major east-west thoroughfare had been closed to allow President Obama’s motorcade to proceed from Los Angeles International Airport to a fundraising dinner with Nancy Pelosi at the home of one of the president’s liberal Hollywood friends.

It turned out that Evan Sayet was right in advising that my trip from the San Fernando Valley down the 405 to LAX would not be delayed by the presidential visit, but pity those Angelenos who were trying to travel east-to-west or vice-versa:

Someone apparently decided that Obama’s $30,000-a-plate dinner at the house of “West Wing” producer John Wells necessitated shutting down most of the major east-west through streets in Los Angeles. . . .
If the President was unable to get to John Wells’ house without causing this level of disruption, then perhaps he should have done his fundraising somewhere else . . .

A reporter for the Los Angeles Times quoted one reader’s comment:

“I was an Obama supporter, but … was stopped by police from crossing Olympic to get home … during my daily dog walk. . . . I’ve lost all belief in his judgment. Can he really think he’s more important than the tens of thousands of people trying to get home to their families?“

Yes He Can!

UPDATE: Joe Fein, who has been trying to get the dysfunctional California GOP to fight for votes in L.A., says Obama’s Mother Of All Traffic Jams has made his job easier.

UPDATE II: Smile and say, “Charles Johnson!”

Professor Donald Douglas has more on last night’s L.A. event with Pamela Geller. I was very impressed with the turnout. Among the 250 or so in attendance was a woman named Rita who, when I asked her last name, became fearful: “Don’t put my last name in there. I’m in the entertainment business. You do that” — i.e., identify yourself as a Republican in Hollywood — “and you’re blacklisted.”

BTW, to explain the Rosslyn dateline on this post: I’m blogging from the offices of The American Spectator, whence I’ve come to spend a few hours because my wife can’t pick me up until this afternoon. Let me suggest that you should subscribe today, because sooner or later I’m going to file another expense report and . . . well, talk about a nightmare!

Thanks to all those who’ve contributed to the Shoe Leather Fund to help keep me traveling during this campaign year. My current plans are to visit Delaware next, before taking a trip down South. And thanks, of course, to Mrs. Other McCain for putting up with my vagabond existence. I should point out that my lovely bride recently got her own Twitter account. She doesn’t Tweet much, although she did suggest she’s looking forward to my homecoming, IYKWIMAITYD.

UPDATE III: Obama’s departure was no less disastrous than his arrival, a Twitter friend informs me:

Obama arrived in rush hour traffic, and he left this morning in it, too. Everyone in my office was late to work this morning.

And in the comments, our California friend Jehuda the Rhetorican says:

It is very likely POTUS saved or created thousands of GOP voters through the traffic jams he unleashed last night. . . . I was in one of them. Not fun.

“Fun”? Whoever said Hope and Change would be fun?

UPDATE IV: Wow, they’re really angry out there:

One man, who did not want to give his name, said it had taken his wife four hours to drive home from Brentwood. Another man trying to walk west on 6th Street to his office shouted at the officers blocking his way and told them he wished he had voted for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Obama’s opponent in the 2008 presidential race.

Heh.

Ron Miller Question And Answer Part 3

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by Smitty

This is the concluding entry in the series of posts supporting Ron Miller, and his excellent book, Sellout. Here are the concluding bits of Q&A, plus a couple of bonus Bob Knight clips from the event.

The most controversial issue: abortion

Hammering churches for supporting our national shame.

Bob Knight asks a puzzling follow-up to abortion

Abortion as a ‘sacrament’, alongside the need to expand the client base.

Ron Miller reacts to Harry Reid on Hispanics and ‘Authentic Blacks’

In reacting to the ‘bringing home the bacon’ over principle, Ron really gets at how incumbency is among the most subtle evils of our current political situation.

Media collusion

We’re learning about collusion between Democrats and media. Midterms and low turnout might be a major motivator for attempts to stir people up via the race card.

Previously:

Bonus Bob Knight testimonials

In support of Ron Miller:

A jolly plug for your humble blog:

Robert Knight is a Senior Fellow at the Americal Civil Rights Union, which, for a quick glance, appears to be what you thought the ACLU was supposed to be. Go, Bob!

In conclusion, this blog wishes Ron Miller all the best in his service to Christ and country, and looks forward to future opportunities to hang out.