"A Socialist is only a Communist without a gun."
Rodger, the Real King of France (as quoted by)
--Dolly
Friday July 28, 2006...
Observation #291 ::.
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Friday July 28, 2006...
DisAppointed ::.
CLUB FOR GROWTH has been tracking the votes of Members of the House on amendments offered by Jeff Flake against earmarked projects. There have been 19 of these votes, and CfG has a list of how each Member has voted.
I regret to inform that my Rep, Jean Schmidt, is 0 for 19. She has voted against all of them. Not what her district would want, I'm sure.
Color us disappointed. For shame, Mrs. Schmidt.
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Friday July 28, 2006...
Poor Bigwig ::.
I THINK I WOULD HAVE gone ballistic, too. RTWT.
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Friday July 28, 2006...
Heh! Of The Week ::.
The welfare state is the engine of so many of the problems that the people who run this country complain about you would think its inherent problems would at least be a topic of discussion by the political class. But no. Yet a culture of entitlement without responsibility is not just a consequence of the welfare state, it is pretty much the objective of the welfare state. As a result it seems odd that the political class who presided over the growth of the all encompassing nanny state should decry the fact that people do not take responsibility for their health or behaviour when the very system they created is designed to prevent people paying directly for the health consequences of their life styles.
--Perry de Havilland, Samizdata
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Friday July 28, 2006...
Sexy Voices ::.
THE ENGLISHMAN has made one, as has the Good Baron du Toit. But, me, I'm too lazy to make a whole list and order it and defend my choices, so I'll just take potshots at theirs.
First the obvious. Marc Bolan, I can sort of understand -- T Rex and all...
Well you're slim and you're weak
You got the teeth of the hydra upon you
You're dirty-sweet and you're my girl.
--T Rex, "Bang a Gong"
What's not to love?
but... David Bowie? Sexy? A sexy woman? I. Don't. Think. So. Not even Ziggy Stardust.
Then there's the missing and obvious: Annie Lennox. (Post "Sweet Dreams," I mean.) And the ethereal beauty of Sarah McLachlan. Nobody can swear like her.
But the obvious, the ... er ... (no, Alger, don't say "The Elephant in the Rooom") ... really obvious one they're missing is, of course, the lady who can make your knees tremble when she tells you she NEVER. DOES.
ANYTHING...
NICE.
and EASY...
Tina (of course) Turner. (Ow!)
Come on, guys! Get with it! One listen to Foreign Affair and that's it fer you, then.
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Friday July 28, 2006...
Slam Books ::.
BACK IN HIGH SCHOOL -- at least, in my high school -- there was the fad of passing Slam Books hand-to-hand. They were spiral bound notebooks that circulated among the cool kids and in which they played an early version of Slander or Truth or Dare. Someone would start a discussion topic like, "Mark Alger: cool or uber nerd?" and pass it around. Each subsequent recipient of the book was to add his/her note to the discussion. Then the book was passed around for rebuttals. Lather, rinse, reiterate ad nauseam.
Of course, the rule was that the subject was never supposed to see the book, but if you had friends in that circle (or enemies), you'd hear about it. And, trust me, the topics could get quite vicious. The behavior of Cassie-Possessed recently in 1st Season Hex only slightly exaggerates what smart-as-a-whip spoiled preppy brats can get up to.
Think of it as social Darwinism with teeth. Except these "fittest" were a self-selected elite and the "losers" never had a chance.
This whole thing in the blogosphere with Lefty bloggers and commenters acting out against Righties strikes me as So Highschool -- electronic slam books. With about as much import in the Cosmic Scheme of Things. Id est, zero.
Sure, they act like stalkers with their ankle-biting desperate cries for attention. But just remember the old 'Net admonition: don't feed the trolls.
By all means, file the reports, but not with the police. Take it to the FBI. After all, it is interstate harrassment, and with the death threats -- especially in the political arena -- it most assuredly falls under terrorism statutes.
But, for God's sake, don't take it so freaking seriously!
Can ya just smell the disonnance?
You know what I mean!
Sure. Right.
"Smell."
It was the moment.
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Friday July 28, 2006...
James Lileks Went to His Reunion ::.
AND APPARENTLY ENJOYED IT I did and didn't. It's been 34 years since In graduated from high school. I feel warm and fuzzy nostalgia about aspects of the place, and remember the awful wrench it was leaving. But, at the same time, I really don't miss it much. Or -- most of -- the people. Much.
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Friday July 28, 2006...
Boortz on the Other Hand ::.
GETS IT RIGHT in most respects, but falls down on this one:
Israel tried to do the right thing. They withdrew. They sought peace. They asked nothing more to be left alone.
No, what Israel "tried" wasn't the "right thing." It was exactly, diametrically opposed to the "right thing" according to the only criterion that matters -- does it work. What Israel should have done was ignore "world opinion" -- which is amaranthine in its anti-Semitism -- and continued on until its interior could be completely and permanently secure.
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Friday July 28, 2006...
The Soul of the Party ::.
GOLDSTEIN PUTS IT well with this
[T]here just aren't that many Reagans around to pull us back from the hell that the hard left -- which is currently wrestling for the soul of the Democratic Party -- is likely to lead us into, I'm afraid.
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Friday July 28, 2006...
A Bifurcated Response ::.
HINDROCKET (John Hinderaker, PowerLine) is pessimistic about the fighting in Lebanon.
For a long time now, an implicit premise of much discussion about the Middle East has been the assumption that Israel's military far outclasses that of the Arab states, and that Israel can achieve military victory more or less at will. Sadly, that assumption may no longer be true. I may be wrong about this--I hope I am--but it appears that the fighting in Lebanon is not going particularly well.
Whereas Wretchard sees things somewhat differently (albeit -- he avers -- fictively):
The Hezbollah are doing the single most stupid thing imaginable for a guerilla organization. They are fighting to keep territory. Oh, I know that this will be justified in terms of "inflicting casualties" on the Israelis. But the Hez are probably losing 10 for every Israeli lost. A bad bargain for Israel you say? No. A bad bargain for Hezbollah to trade their terrorist elite for highly trained but nevertheless conventional infantry. Guerillas should trade 1 for 10, not 10 for 1.
I rather subscribe to Wretchard's generally better-informed view.
Hinderaker does have it right in one respect, though, when he writes, "Hezbollah should be crushed now and not left to fight again another day."
Dead right.
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Friday July 28, 2006...
Green Tiled Wall ::.
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Thursday July 27, 2006...
Observation #290 ::.
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Thursday July 27, 2006...
Why Don't Bad Manners ::.
INVALIDATE? At Maliki's speech, a Code Pink irritant (lovely term --thanks to Laura Ingraham) can be heard shouting the Big Lie of the moment (Iraqis want the troops out) over and over. Beyond how such a person gained entry into what surely must be one of the most secure sites in the nation aside, one is forced to wonder: why is it that bad manners are not simply treated as outrê? Disqualifying? The contention that rudeness and "acting out" like spoiled brats is necessary in order to gain the attention of the public for issues of vital importance just doesn't wash any more (if it ever did, really). Far from it. It seems to me that a willingness to start out a discussion by poisoning the discourse should render the poisoner beyond the pale. Not worthy of serious consideration.
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Thursday July 27, 2006...
Backstreets ::.
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Wednesday July 26, 2006...
Observation #289 ::.
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Wednesday July 26, 2006...
Diplomacy is a Fig Leaf ::.
COVERING THE SHRIVELED pudenda of Europe's and the Left's anti-semitism. No other explanation. Surely those puuling for diplomacy and cease fires as solutions to the problems of the Holy Land cannot be so stupid as to actually believe negotiation can possibly have a prayer of success? They must really hate the Jews, hate Israel, and wish to encompass the destruction of both, yet appear to have clean hands of it.
And the Arabs... What if they were to find themselves in the position of the dog who, after years of chasing cars in the street, finally caught one? What if they were to gain their dearest wish and Israel were to cease to exist? What then?
Read Victor Hanson.
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Wednesday July 26, 2006...
Moxie Crapblogs ::.
AND WE THOUGHT OG was the king of TMI blogging.
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Wednesday July 26, 2006...
No Big Surprise, But ::.
HILLARY CLINTON IS DEAD WRONG when she says:
America was not made a better place by rich people.
Typical airheaded wittering from arrogant, invincible ignorance.
Every significant advancement in the human condition since -- forever -- has been brought about in one way or another by wealth. For wealth is, in the final analysis, only an accumulation of the freedom and ability to do that which "ordinary" people cannot.
(Ordinary people are anything but. All of us have seeds of greatness within us. All it takes is the right circumstances and our response to them to fulfill the promise of those seeds.)
It should be obvious that to do a thing for the first time -- or the first few times -- it can be quite expensive. But, once it has been done, the price comes down. And the more it does, the more it comes into the reach of those quotidian folk mis-called "ordinary."
What? No "venal/stupid" dichotomy?
Do you think it necessary?
I guess not.
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Wednesday July 26, 2006...
PerfesserRay ::.
And for Leftists, politics is NOTHING BUT power. They have no principles and openly ridicule (particularly via postmodernism) the idea that anything could be right or wrong. Policies that were once popular but which have become unpopular (such as eugenics) are abandoned so completely by Leftists that only historians know that such policies once had large-scale Leftist support. And with the way antisemitism is surging on the Left, the time will come when people will have forgotten that Leftists were for a time anti-racist. So for Leftists it is only party that matters and conservative thinkers such as myself and many others who take ideas, principles and ideology seriously are simply incomprehensible and fit only for ridicule. Leftist thinkers do very often work their way carefully through an argument or set of ideas but do so only if the conclusion of the argument is suitable for propaganda purposes. They want to persuade others that something which suits them is "right" but they themselves do not believe in "rightness" at all. And for many conservatives too, of course, their conservatism is more of an instinct than a systematic philosophy -- as R.J. White in The Conservative Tradition notes (see here).
-- Australian political scientist, John Jay Ray
(Hat tip: GM Roper.)
As GM notes, Ray's writings are copious, and he blogs on a brazillion subjects. Well worth R'ing TWT.
But the appeal of Leftism to the average person is simple: The preacher of Leftism offers something for nothing. And that is always hard to resist -- fraudulent though it usually is. If the Leftist offers to redistribute somebody else's wealth into your pocket, that is one hell of an appealing scam. The Leftist's constant hypocritical preaching of equality does sometimes succeed in creating the impression that the Leftists will manage to give poorer or working class people a bigger slice of the national cake -- and poorer people must obviously find that at least initially appealing. This is of course why labour unions have always had strong affinities with the Left. Leftists appear to want a better deal for union members.
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Wednesday July 26, 2006...
Resolved: Algore Doesn't Exist ::.
Gabrielle Francesca East (Dolly) | . | .
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Wednesday July 26, 2006...
So Simple Only ::.
AN INTELLECTUAL could fail to understand it.
Tax cuts are good for everyone--and everyone knows it but Washington Democrats.
--Pete du Pont
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Wednesday July 26, 2006...
Nurse Bloomberg Seems To Have ::.
FORGOTTEN SOMETHING when he claims that "he is only going after illegal guns."
According to this provision of the Constitution:
"...[T]he right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.'
...renders the phrase "illegal guns" oxymoronic. No government -- at any level of jurisdiction -- within the United States has the authority to make contraband of any arms. Period. End of discussion.
Statist claims of acting for public safety have dispositively been demonstrated to be specious. In disarming the law-abiding populace, far from rendering them safer, the meddling do-gooders have rendered them defenseless before savage predators who don't give a rat's ass about the law.
Somehow this fundamental fact escapes them.
And I suspect it is time for my oft-voiced question. If it is permissable, even lawful, for an individual to use lethal force in the prevention of a felony in process, what level of force is appropriate to prevent the violation of a provision of the supreme law of the land -- whence the sovereign authority to define felonies descends?
If you may kill a felon in the process of committing his crime, what are you allowed to do to prevent a civil rights violation in-process?
Just askin'.
...Ragin' Dave has stuff to say too.
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Wednesday July 26, 2006...
Tallyman Tallyman Tally Me Bananas ::.
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Tuesday July 25, 2006...
Observation #288 ::.
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Tuesday July 25, 2006...
Need To Get This Straight ::.
IF YOU ARE A SUPPORTER OF the Democratic [sic] Party, you are neither liberal nor progressive, no matter what you call yourself.
Of course, you will voice all these leftist shibboleths in your defense -- social justice, child labor laws, women's sufferage, the minimum wage, the drive toward national single-payer health insurance, and the Earned Income Tax Credit. But these are the modern-day equivalent of the old fascist saying that, "At least Mussolini made the trains run on time."
Every claim the left makes on benchmarks of human progress is either false (some other party did the actual heavy listing), arguably not progressive (in that it is in indicator of retrograde motion toward greater individual liberty), or comes only at a high cost in individual liberty and/or an outright infringement upon or abridgement of individual rights.
But of course, as Our Nummy Curmudgeon observed here, the Left does not believe in rights. Its collective actions over time have demonstrated that most clearly.
Our mission here at BTB is to peel away from the Left those who truly do believe in human progress and that said progress is best served by sure and steady movement in human affairs toward greater liberty for the individual human being. If that's you, you do not belong in the Democrat fold. All you need do to prove this to yourself is to examine the causes the -- scorn quotes -- "mainstream" Left espouses, embraces, puts forward, and seeks to enact policy prescriptions to solve or aid. In each case, ask yourself if the means or the end -- either one -- will enhance or diminish individual liberty.
We await you with open arms.
Gabrielle Francesca East (Dolly) | . | .
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Tuesday July 25, 2006...
So I've Finally Figured It Out ::.
EVERYWHERE BUT HERE television programmers are either loonier than ours or less-so. They don't do everything in neat, 22-segment blocks that fit a school-year TV season, complete with sweeps weeks twice or three times a year.
Well, Sci-Fi doesn't. After all, they just started the new Stargate seasons last week.
Well, actually, those are technically speaking not new seasons, if I recall correctly, but the second "halves" of the previous ones.
Really? Oh.
But here I was assuming that we were bumbling along still in the first season of Hex, when -- it appears -- we just saw (BBC America, Thursdays, Ten Eastern, checklocallistings) Season2, Episode 2, and the birth of Malachai was the last ep (No 5) of Season 1.
Confused yet? I was. And now I hear the show's been cancelled between seasons Two and Three? I think?
Anyway, so SWMBO was correct when she noticed several sharp continuity errors in character appearance in the next episode. I commented that it was almost as though there'd been a summer break between the two episodes -- which there was, of a kind.
And last week's episode confirmed what I've maintained from first viewing of the pilot -- Jemima Rooper (Thelma) is the real star of the show.
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Tuesday July 25, 2006...
Loo-kin Good, Tam! ::.
YA GOTTA WONDER WHY women don't think of themselves as attractive, even when they are. Something I don't get.
Don't generalize.
You don't count. You're not real.
Ouch! You sure know how to hurt a girl.
Maybe. Might just be dumb... well, dumb.
So. Tam needs -- or wants -- more traffic and is using the timeless truism that sex sells to build some. Let's help her out, shall we?
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Tuesday July 25, 2006...
Bare Trees ::.
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Monday July 24, 2006...
Observation #287 ::.
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Monday July 24, 2006...
This Is SO Going in My Blog ::.
AS OG SO ASTUTELY observed in an email, I must be beat.
-ten. Beat-TEN.
Wuffo?
For being so stupid as to take this project on...?
Wassamatta, bunky? Author neglecting you?
You noticed!
Sorry. Can't help you. Noplace to write, y'see. Not until my OFFICE IS FINISHED!
::turns to break the fourth wall:: I rest my case. The man is nuts.
Must be catching, then. Cause I seem to recall Jesse and Steve bein' over Saturday to help out.
Nah. They're just enabling you. You're the crazy one.
ANY way... Did the insulation and drywall thing. And when you say it that way, it sounds ... small. Minor. No big. But... We have a 14x14 room with nine-foot ceilings, recently gutted, with new-brand electrical lights and ever'thin'. And this past weekend, I and some friends -- well, a friend and my brother -- hung fiberglass insulation and drywall on studs that are actually 2 inches by 4 inches in cross-section (You do know that "2x4" boards are actually 1½ inches by 3½ inches, don't you?) -- except for that one odd one that's 2½ inches thick. And spaced... well, we have this theory that the place was built by German carpenters who drank beer at lunch. 'Cause the spacing of the studs is fine on the north wall, but it starts to drift on the east wall and just goes all to hell on the south wall. Like they started on the north side in the morning and worked their way around.
We didn't get the whole room finished because -- well, the materials weren't delivered until about quarter to four in the afternoon Saturday.
Home Depot.
You're a multi-billion-dollar, international, publicly-traded company riding the do-it-yourself wave and you can't get reliable delivery drivers to work on Saturday?
What's wrong with this picture.
But even so, we did manage, in about two and half hours to put batting in ten or eleven openings and hang three sheets of drywall (AND carry the shit in from the street). And then, in about seven hours today, working by myself, I put insulation in three openings, above and below the windows and over the front door, and hung two full sheets of drywall and pieced in around the windows.
And, yes, I'm beat. And even though I don't care if you think I'm slow, I will say this -- you try it.
And SWMBO helped by taking the nails out of a pile of scrap lumber we've been trying to foist of on the city (don't ask) and -- get this -- cut it up using my reciprocating saw. She is very proud of that, as she should be. Congratulate her, won't you?
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Monday July 24, 2006...
Catwalk ::.
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IS 