"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler
by Smitty
Chris Cassone breaks out a tear-jerking feel good clip on Mother’s Day. It’s actually about veterans returning home, but there are plenty of moms included.
It recalls my own childhood poignantly, down in San Diego, California, waiting for dad or some other relative to come in from deployment. Only there wasn’t much surprise in my case. A big grey hunk of steel laboriously pushed about by tugs, while we waved at the crew in their dress uniforms, trying to spot the loved one.
by Smitty
Dan Riehl was grim on the topic:
. . .on the heels of her misguided Rand Paul endorsement, now Palin backs Fiorina in California. Chuck DeVore is the conservative in the race. That’s two endorsements she shouldn’t have made, as they hurt her brand, as much as they may help the candidate. I suspect she’s now lost a large part of her original base. And she doesn’t get a pass on this one because of John McCain.
Clifton at Another Black Conservative noted Sarah’s follow-up:
Carly is the only conservative in the race who can beat Barbara Boxer. That’s no RINO. That’s a winner.
For heaven’s sake, Sarah: if RINO Johnny had won in ’08, would he have been less a RINO?
Uncoverage picks up Chuck DeVore’s classy response (emphasis mine). An exerpt:
I call [Carly] a “John McCain Republican” – she talks the talk from time to time and says she’s a conservative but she has a “never with us when it counts” record just like McCain.
Don’t get me wrong, if a liberal Republican like Tom Campbell or a moderate Republican like Carly Fiorina win the primary instead of me, I will support them against Barbara Boxer.
But there’s no need to make a compromise like that.
This is not a primary election where electability needs to be a factor.
Again, let me offer the cold hard facts.
Here’s the most recent polling numbers from the independent Rasmussen poll.
Fiorina 38% – Boxer 42%
DeVore 39% – Boxer 42%
Campbell 41% – Boxer 43%
The margin of error in the poll was 4.5%.
That means Fiornia is statistically tied with Boxer.
So am I (actually one point better than Fiorina).
Remember, Carly supported McCain in 2008 rather heavily, and is clearly calling in a marker through John McCain.
On the one hand, as Reagan said at CPAC you “dance with the one that brung ya.”
On the other hand, Sarah is looking all too cozy with the insider crowd. One hopes she can find a way to recover.
I enthusiastically hope that both DeVore and Hayworth win the Republican primaries in their states. Recovering the country is going to involve load-shedding as many of the old-schoolers who have been party to the creation of the problem as possible. Whatever experience value is added by the old war horses is outweighed by their Beltway worldview.
Sorry, Carly, it’s time for Charlie.
If either or both of DeVore and Hayworth do win their primaries, will Sarah eat crow and endorse them?
Update: HotAir has quotes of the day on this topic.
Wow, I rarely find myself disagreeing with PZ, Melissa, and Samhita, but I have to say that I don’t really see the problem with the American Academy of Pediatrics advising doctors to offer a “ritual nick” in lieu of the more serious forms of female circumcision that are often on offer in some other parts of the world. The practice is something that is done in modern places that want to have a link to tradition without actually doing any real harm to little girls, from what I understand. All they do is prick your genitals, or make a small cut that heals over, but nothing is removed. You’re basically scratching the girl. It’s not awesome . . . but comparing it to more severe forms of female circumcision troubles me.
In guessing why Marcotte doesn’t object to the “ritual nick,” I postulate either:
OR . . .
Quite possibly both. Anyway, hat-tip to Dennis the Peasant.
The one element of the Confederate Constitution that is generally praised by historians was its provision of the line-item veto, a power that our progressive POTUS now craves:
President Obama, in his latest effort to signal fiscal responsibility against the rising debt, plans this month to ask Congress to give him and future presidents greater power to try to delete individual items from spending bills.
In doing so, Mr. Obama will join a long line of his predecessors who have sought either line-item veto power or, after the Supreme Court in 1998 ruled such a veto unconstitutional, some other rescission authority that passes muster. Congress once again is unlikely to be receptive, though growing antidebt sentiment could give the proposal life. . . .
Of course, the damned Yankees at the New York Times would never acknowledge the historical precedent. But add the president’s advocacy of the line-item veto to his Marlboro habit on the (very short) list of Things I Like About Obama.
by Smitty
Kathryn Jean Lopez notes:
Rachel Campos-Duffy was a cast member on MTV’s The Real World. She actually brought Paul Ryan and Empower America to The Real World, believe it or not. But her starring role right now is as a young mom of six and wife of Sean Duffy
Follow to the NRO link to get to a full interview of Rachel. Mom of six? What do we know about this Sean Duffy? The answer comes from a No Quarter post:
It looks like the candidate for Wisconsin 7 is packin’ the gear.
TrogloPundit has neither confirmed nor denied rumors that the motive for Duffy’s campaign was Rachels’ insistence that Sean get her away from the stench of Trog’s swamp, STAT!
by Smitty
American Power takes National Offend A Feminist Week quite seriously, relating an incident wherein he quoted Alaina Podmorow, a 13 year old Afghan girl actually supporting the cause of oppressed young women.
Laura Sjoberg, like any ivory tower authoritarian or Barack Obama, is having none of this.
This is not to take anything away from the very bright, very passionate “little woman” whose blog post was appropriated on American Power. Her passionate writing is clearly intelligent, well beyond her years, and a valid and important point of view.
That said, it is, of course, not all there is to the issue. One cannot expect someone who has not yet had a college education to dig through decades and even centuries of theorizing and empirical work on gender relations in political and social life, and certainly activism on behalf of women, in whatever form, is far preferable to the sort of apathy that seems to be largely endemic in younger people now.
Alaina’s current thesis,
Education=peace
cannot be congratulated without a heavy dose of condescension. Alaina cannot be allowed to question whether the work of the academic behind the curtain adds much value, or, indeed perpetuates the problem as much as the racism industrial complex does those of skin tone. Alaina, similar to Joe, is not worthy of dialog.
Not having perused Sjoberg’s work, e.g. “Gender and International Security: Feminist Perspectives”, I’ll withhold judgement. But, having suffered through a bit of such navel gazing academic writing within the last decade, here is something I learned. A colon in the title of an academic paper is symbolic of the vampiric puncture wound left upon the neck of the reader, sucking life after the fashion of this paragraph:
Whatever is in Melanie Butler’s Masters Thesis (which, however excellent it might be, is not “the” statement of postcolonial feminism), it remains, in my opinion, crucially important to look at the complexities of providing aid, generally and in this specific case, especially as relates to the power relationship between the “aid givers” and those who are “aided.” In fact, I don’t know why it is so hard for us to envision that sometimes people offer people “help” they do not want and do not see as helpful (christian evangelism, anyone?)
Brevity.
Again, Laura Sjoberg (I hope) exceeds the stereotype of the academic, just as I hope(d) Barack would exceed the stereotype of the banana republic thug, and failed in Joe’s case. Donald at American Power is sort of a Rush Limbaugh in this equation, enabling the dialog and getting hammered for threatening the narrative.
Update: The Daley Gator calls attention to this fine post, which offers a fine solution to the Elisabeth/Erin fued.
RicketyClick responded to National Offend a Feminist Week by asking where’s the feminist outrage over this video of little girls in skimpy outfits dancing to Beyonce’s “Single Lady.”
Any attempt to describe this creepazoid video fails due to the inadequacy of language. A few of the more printable YouTube comments:
“The parents should be hanged by their thumbs.”
“Holy s—. What the bloody hell were these girls’ parents thinking?”
“Omfg is this a f—ing pedophile organization?? wtf is wrong with people.”
Yeah, it’s enough to make “family values” people cuss. RicketyClick notes that this was a performance at “World of Dance,” sponsored by Paul Mitchell beauty products, and quotes Roissy in DC:
I really wonder what goes through the minds of parents who would skank up their five year old daughters. . . . I bet single moms are more prone to doing this sort of experimentation with their bastard spawn.
Disturbing commentary about a disturbing phenomenon. Beyond its satirical value, National Offend a Feminist Week sometimes provokes discussion of serious issues and this is certainly one of those. This particular discussion, however, deserves a much larger and more serious venue.
Short of asking John Walsh to investigate the choreographer and costume director of this “World of Dance” travesty, I can think of nothing better than to call it to the attention of Michelle Malkin, who has so often decried the “Girls Gone Wild” culture.
Happy Mother’s Day, America.
UPDATE: Melissa Clouthier dubs it “Future Pole Dancer Club of America.”
UPDATE II: Andrew Lawton at Strictly Right:
As can be seen in the video, Paul Mitchell (the hair company) was a key sponsor of the event. I called their holding company, John Paul Mitchell Systems for comment from their media relations department. It took me two hours to find out who I needed to talk to, let alone get a hold of them. With some further sleuthing, I found out that Paul Mitchell has shut down their phone lines to incoming calls today.
“Shut down their phone lines”? Just keep calling, people.
Paul Mitchell customer service:
1-800-793-8790
Connie Hair at Human Events reports:
On Thursday a group of House conservatives from the Republican Study Committee (RSC) announced the launch of the 10th Amendment Task Force — a project of the RSC — designed as a means for legislators to change tactics on downsizing the leviathan federal government.
With an eye toward November elections and the increasing likelihood of Republicans making great gains if not taking back Congress outright, the RSC is positioning an avenue by which conservative legislators can begin to reverse the unprecedented and unconstitutional power grabs inflicted on the states by an out-of-control Congress.
The 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is simple: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
The task force will develop and promote proposals that aim to disburse power, decision-making, and money away from Washington back to states, local governments and individuals.
Let’s hope it’s not too little, too late.