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1. Castro is reelected in Cuba -- and still clings to both power and life at the end of 2008.
2. A drawdown of US troops continues in Iraq, with stability increasing even as Democrats like Reid and Pelosi continue to claim that we have lost the war.
3. Democrat ticket in 2008 -- Hillary-Obama
4. GOP ticket in 2008 -- Romney-Thompson (following a brokered convention that sees Rudy promised the position of AG and McCain the position of Secretary of Defense).
5. November 2008 -- Romney Wins! Cornyn beats Noriega in Texas Senate race -- and Shelley Sekula Gibbs returns to Congress after defeating Nick Lampson following a hard fought primary runoff against Dean Hrbacek. Ron Paul loses in his bid to be reelected to Congress as well as his quest for the White House.
6. Pakistani elections will be delayed until the end of February, and will make Pervez Musharraf a mere figurehead as the parties of the late Benazir Bhutto and former Nawaz Sharif win a majority of seats in Parliament, allowing them to ignore the former general.
7. No successful terrorist attacks in the US in 2008 -- but an airplane bombing abroad will make airport security a renewed priority.
8. Conservatives will be happy as the Roberts Court continues to hand down strict-constructionist decisions. Gun rights, voter ID, and capital punishment decisions will delight most Americans while sending the ACLU into a fit of apoplexy.
9. England is overjoyed with the announcement of the engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton -- and shocked by a sudden, unexpected royal death.
10. And going out on a limb again this year -- Muslims riot yet again over a perceived slight to Muhammad.
BONUS PREDICTION: The Houston Texans end the 2008 season at 10-6, making the playoffs for the first time in team history.
Not A Bad Choice
I wasn't upset last week when Time Magazine named Vladimir Putin as it's Man of the Year. After all, as it often reminds readers, the choice is the person who most impacted the world for good or evil.
Thus 1938 saw the award go to Hitler, followed by Stalin in 1939 and again in 1942. Another Soviet dictator, Nikita Krushchev, got the nod in 1957, while China's Chairman Den Xiaoping won in 1978 (and again in 1985) and Ayatollah Khomeni in 1979.
I'd have to argue that a similar argument can therefore be made about the selection made by the Dallas Morning News as Texan of the Year -- the law-breaking, border-jumping immigration criminal (although they called him "The Illegal Immigrant").
He breaks the law by his very presence. He hustles to do hard work many Americans won't, at least not at the low wages he accepts. The American consumer economy depends on him. America as we have known it for generations may not survive him.
We can't seem to live with him and his family, and if we can live without him, nobody's figured out how.
He's the Illegal Immigrant, and he's the 2007 Dallas Morning News Texan of the Year – for better or for worse. Given the public mood, there seems to be little middle ground in debate over illegal immigrants. Spectacular fights over their presence broke out across Texas this year, adding to the national pressure cooker as only Texas can.
And as with any such criminal, he is clearly detrimental to those of us who he victimizes by his presence.
Nationally, a Congressional Budget Office report released this month said illegal immigrants cost more in tax dollars than they provide, especially in the areas of education, law enforcement and health. Indeed, 70 percent of babies born in Dallas' Parkland Hospital in the first three months of 2006 were to illegal immigrant mothers. Taxpayers spend tens of millions of dollars annually subsidizing births in that one hospital.
Yes, boys and girls, that's right -- you and I are the victims of these folks, as they reach their hands right into our wallets to take from us money to provide them with benefits to which they have no legal or moral entitlement. The notion of some soft-heated, soft-minded judges that these folks are entitled to anything other than a bus ticket home and a computer entry denying them the privilege of ever crossing the border into the US again is the main thing preventing crackdowns on such benefits and the presence of such folks in our communities. Well that and the desire of Democrat politicians to get these folks legalized and voting Democrat, and businessmen who would rather hire cheap illegal worker than American citizens at American wages (and yes, that does include you, Bob Perry).
I don't care about most of the cultural issues -- I have no problem with new pieces added to the mosaic of American life. I speak Spanish (with a serious gringo accent, according to some of my students), like Mexican food, and love certain of the customs that these people bring with them. But I do believe that a measure of assimilation is a necessity, and to that end believe that learning English is a necessity rather than setting up the parallel cultural institutions we have seen develop.
Do I believe that we need to fight illegal immigration? You bet I do -- every bit as much as we needed to fight the twin menaces of Nazism and Communism, and as we need to fight Islamism today. Yet at the same time, I welcome legally immigrating foreigners from every country, provided they are willing to embrace America's history and values even as they share elements of their own with us. The choice is not between having immigration and having none. Rather, it is between having an orderly system with enforced immigration control, or the pell-mell invasion of our country by those who take more than they give.
British MPs Complain Catholic Bishops Too Catholic
Yeah, heaven forbid (oops -- is that too "fundamentalist" for these MPs?) that Catholic bishops insist that Catholic institutions operate in a Catholic manner.
Roman Catholic bishops are to appear in front of a powerful committee of MPs amid fears that they are pushing a fundamentalist brand of their religion in schools. Bishops have called on parents, teachers and priests to strengthen the role of religion in education. In one case the Bishop of Lancaster, Patrick O'Donoghue, instructed Catholic schools across much of north-west England to stop 'safe-sex' education and place crucifixes in all classrooms.
Crucifixes in the classrooms! Quick -- pass the smelling salts! And the teaching of traditional Catholic sexual morality -- the horror of it all!
Perhaps this comment from one of the MPs is the most telling.
'It seems to me that faith education works all right as long as people are not that serious about their faith.
Yes, we can't have folks who are serious about a religious faith teaching the doctrines of that faith and controlling that faith's institutions. That won't work at all. It might cause people to believe that religious faith -- or at least CHRISTIAN religious faith -- matters.
And yet, oddly enough, militant Islamist organizations are allowed to freely operate in the UK without much restriction at all. I guess that the reason is that the MPs know that neither the "doctrinaire" and "fundamentalist" bishops won't detonate themselves in the face of criticism.
1
The Roman Catholic Church is an Irish fifth column in Britain, just like the GAA, Glasgow Celtic F.C., and the Catholic school system.
I wonder how many Labour (not SDLP) M.P.s hold Irish passports, like the late Michael O'Halloran.
Posted by: Robert Sieger at Thu Jan 17 07:07:34 2008 (Ou+oK)
2
WTF? Now we've got a British hatemonger here, too?
3
I am neither British nor a hate-monger. I am a U.S. citizen with a modicum of intelligence and common sense. Obviously you cannot dispute what I posted, as you did not do so, so you merely respond with typical Fenian insults. I guess you are the Irish passport holder.
RMS
Posted by: Robert Sieger at Wed Jan 23 07:04:55 2008 (OUe60)
4
The values you express are certainly not those of an American, but clearly are those of a hatemonger. Anti-Catholicism is not an American value -- nor is it the hallmark of any individual with any particular intelligence.
As for my passport, it is American -- and my last Irish ancestor (an Orangeman, I might add) arrived here some twelve decades ago.
5
Catholic converts are often worse than the real thing. Ta.
Posted by: Robert Sieger at Thu Jan 24 08:12:19 2008 (Y45Pt)
6
Convert? Yes -- but from Catholicism, not to.
And your bigotry is so clear, given you haven't made one statement that indicates what in particular is wrong with Catholics and the Catholic Church.
7
OK:
1) Crusades
2) Inquisition(s) -note plural
3) Anti-Semitism
4) Nazism - created by Catholics in Catholic Bavaria
5) Third Reich - most Catholic government in modern German history
6) Refusal of Church to excommunicate a single fascist or Nazi before, during and after the Holocaust
6) Censorship of American movies by (Irish-American) clergy and (Irish-American) lackeys like Quigley and Breen
7) See (http://www.tenc.net/croatia/stepinac1.htm)
for Catholic war crimes in former Yugoslavia
P.S.: If Catholicism is so great, why did you leave???
Posted by: Robert Sieger at Tue Jan 29 11:33:09 2008 (OWHq9)
8
Let's deal with those things:
1) Gee -- reaching back nearly a milennium is a bit of a stretch.
2) And most of them were very different from the image propagated by the "Black Legend" of the Spanish Inquisition (which is itself inaccurate).
3) Pre-dated the beginning of Christianity. Condemned repeatedly by the Church over the last century, including PRIOR TO WWII in papal encyclicals.
4) Except, of course, that the Nazis received fewer votes in Catholic parts of Germany than in Protestant parts of the country. Oh, and it was condemned by both Pius XI and Pius XII.
5) Because many of the Catholic parts were abandoned to the Communists following WWII and spend decades behind the Iron Curtain.
6) The Church generally does not excommunicate anyone over political issues, and there was nothing heretical about the Fascist movement in Italy. As for the Nazis, most of the top leaders were lapsed Catholics. besides -- excommunication is a penalty imposed to encourage repentance by a sinner -- I would presume that you would be complaining that those excommunicated were allowed back into the Church after they repented their actions. Nothing would make you happy on this one.
6) (since you can't count) The Church did not (and could not) censor movies. Rather, it offered guidance and gave ratings. Movie producers were free to ignore that guidance -- and suffer the financial consequences when the leaders of the Church urged their flock to stay away. You certainly don't have a problem with Catholic leaders engaging in free speech on matters of faith and morals, and with Catholics being guided by such statements, do you?
7) And war crimes by Orthodox and Muslims, too -- not to mention atheists! Proves nothing, other than that Catholics are as likely to sin as any other human being.
As for why I left, let's just say "theological differences and the integrity to not demand the Church conform to me".
9
And as I look back at your list, I think that most of these points, culled out of a 2000 year history, can be generally ascribed to human sinfulness and/or weakness.
I'm curious -- since there are sinners in other faiths, are do you heap equal scorn upon them? Do you insist that their leaders and members are somehow disloyal and a "fifth column"? Or is it, as I noted to begin with, a particular bigotry against Catholicism and individual Catholics that make you magnify their faults above all others?
10
As a good apologist, you managed to answer without saying or proving anything - well done.
As far as
Q) "I'm curious -- since there are sinners in other faiths, are do you heap equal scorn upon them? Do you insist that their leaders and members are somehow disloyal and a "fifth column"? Or is it, as I noted to begin with, a particular bigotry against Catholicism and individual Catholics that make you magnify their faults above all others?"
A) Obviously all faiths have sinners - not all faiths have been responsible for the wanton slaughter of millions, a slight distinction you choose to overlook. While I know that right now Islamic terror and fundamentalist are, and rightly so, the focus of the world's attention, this does not in any way diminish the Roman Catholic church's crimes against humanity.
Q) "The Church generally does not excommunicate anyone over political issues, and there was nothing heretical about the Fascist movement in Italy. As for the Nazis, most of the top leaders were lapsed Catholics. besides -- excommunication is a penalty imposed to encourage repentance by a sinner -- I would presume that you would be complaining that those excommunicated were allowed back into the Church after they repented their actions. Nothing would make you happy on this one."
A) The Church has excommunicated communists, free thinkers, divorcees and even non-Catholics (Queen Elizabeth I), but not fascists or Nazis. The only thing you're right about is that nothing would make me happier on this one, because it is impossible to derive happiness from such ugliness.
Let's not mention Pope Pius' attempts for an amnesty for war criminals and the Church's assistance to many Nazis to escape justice in Europe by enabling flight to South America, Spain, Canada and Australia (the last two break my heart).
As for the rest, I am not going to engage in apologetics. You went to Catholic school, not me, so I am sure you are better at it.
Posted by: Robert Sieger at Wed Jan 30 01:12:36 2008 (tFwYG)
11
Btw: Please name any papal encyclicals condemning anti-Semitism before the Second Vatican Council, if you can.
Thanks.
Posted by: Robert Sieger at Wed Jan 30 01:15:02 2008 (tFwYG)
12
Mit Breneneder Sorge -- Pius XI, 1937 (which also strongly denounces Nazism). This is the same pope who is repeatedly and publicly condemned anti-Semitism in person, stating that as Christians we are all "spiritual Semites" and that anti-Semitism is therefore unacceptable stance for any Christian to take.
There was also a planned encyclical, Humani Generis Unitas, that was not released due to his death. The draft text was made available not long ago by Pope Benedict XVI.
You also seem to forget that Pius XI spoke against fascism (at least some elements of it) in Non abbiamo bisogno.
But then again, you've admitted it yourself -- no amount of positive evidence regarding the Catholic Church will convince you of any opinion other than what you hold. A clear sign of a bigoted individual, harboring an unChristian hate in his heart.
13
Oh, and if you want to deal with the question of Pius XII -- when you consider that "Hitler's Pope" was called "the mouthpiece of the Jews" by Hitler, the accusation of being pro-Nazi fails. But then again, when you consider that the state of Israel honored him as a hero during his life and at the time of his death, it should be clear that any attempt to argue that he was an anti-Semite falls laughably short of credibility.
14
As far as Israeli opinion about Pius XII, the following, from Yad Vashem, is far more accurate:
"Pius XIIÂ’s reaction toward the killing of Jews during the period of the Holocaust is controversial. In 1933, as the Vatican Secretary of State, in order to maintain the rights of the Church in Germany, he signed a Concordat with the Nazi regime even at the price of recognizing the racist Nazi regime. When he was elected Pope in 1939, he put aside an encyclical against racism and anti-Semitism prepared by his predecessor.... Although reports about the assassination of Jews reached the Vatican, the Pope did not protest either by speaking out or in writing. ... In December of 1942, he did not participate in the condemnation by members of the Allies regarding the killing of Jews. Even when the Jews were being deported from Rome to Auschwitz, the Pope did not intervene. ... He maintained a neutral position except toward the end of the war when he appealed on behalf of the government of Hungary and of Slovakia. His silence and the absence of directives obliged the clergy in Europe to decide independently how they should behave toward the persecuted Jews." As for the rest of it, Israel is a country which largely depends on the kindness of strangers, especially United States. Given the disproportionate influence of Catholics in American public life, that sometimes means quid pro quo, which is why Jewish-American politicians bend over backwards for IRA terrorists seeking green cards, for example. The fact remains that the Vatican did not establish full diplomatic relations with Israel until December 30, 1993 (the Republic of Ireland followed suit). If you think Jews or Israels have forgotten this insult, you are sadly mistaken.
Posted by: Robert Sieger at Sat Feb 2 05:01:07 2008 (Ts8K2)
15
And why was Humani Generis Unitas, not released just because of his death?? Because his successor either didn't care about it or opposed it.
Had the Vatican announced that any Catholic in the Nazi Party was automatically excommunicated, there is no doubt that history would have turned out differently.
Posted by: Robert Sieger at Sat Feb 2 05:04:06 2008 (Ts8K2)
16
Yeah -- we would have had six million dead Catholics to go along with six million dead Jews.
And by the way, the Yad Vashem statement is really inaccurate.
Consider the NY Times editorial of December 25, 1941 and the editorial of December 25. 1942 which would show that he did, in fact, speak out against Hitler and his persecution of the Jews.
Oh, and why did he not speak out as a part of the declaration of the Allies in 1942? Could it be that the Vatican was a neutral in the war -- a legitimate place for a 1-square-mile state surrounded on all sides by one of the combatants in the war.
As the Papal Nuncio (ambassador) in Germany in the 1930s, Cardinal Pacelli denounced the Nazis, as documented in a November 14, 1923 letter in the Vatican Archives.
And let's not forget the fact that Jews were actually sheltered in the Vatican and in monasteries and convents during the war -- at the direction of the ePope himself.
Or that the Chief Rabbi of Rome, one of those saved by the actions of the Pope, coverted to Catholicism after the war and took the name Eugenio (Pius XII's baptismal name) out of respect for the efforts of the Pope and the Catholic Church on behalf of the Jews.
Or that it is estimated that a great many Jews were saved by the intervention of Catholic officials and institutions.
No one knows exactly how many Jews were hidden and saved by the Church, but according to "Three Popes and the Jews" by Jewish historian Emilio Pinchas Lapide, then consul general in Milan, "the Holy See, the nuncios, and the Catholic Church saved between 740,000 and 850,000 Jews from certain death."
Could Pius XII have said more? Perhaps, but he faced the delicate balance between more explicitly condemning a murderous system of murder he could not stop and protecting the faithful who would personally suffer for any words he spoke. Not a choice either of us would want to face, wouldn't you agree?
Oh, and why wasn't Humani Generis Unitas released. probably because it was in draft form, having been unsatisfactory to Pius XI and overtaken by the events of 1939, which you may recall included a rush into something of a military scuffle between a number of nations. But even without that document, Mit Breneneder Sorge (which I referenced and you ignored) constitutes a denunciation of both anti-Semitism and Nazism by the Vatican as early as 1937.
17
Israel Zoller (aka Eugenio Maria Zolli) was rejected by the Jews of Rome after WWII for his behaviour during the war and that is at least one reason why he converted.
Posted by: Robert Sieger at Wed Feb 6 03:28:51 2008 (07Dqh)
18
"But even without that document, Mit Breneneder Sorge (which I referenced and you ignored) constitutes a denunciation of both anti-Semitism and Nazism by the Vatican as early as 1937."
Q: Then why did the Church sign a concordat with the Nazis, unlike other religions to my knowledge - just to protect church property??
Posted by: Robert Sieger at Wed Feb 6 03:31:20 2008 (07Dqh)
19
1) The Concordat was signed because, unlike most cases, the Pope is also is a head of state not merely the head of a religion. A Concordat is, of course, a treaty, and was designed to protect both the temporal interests of the Vatican and the spiritual interests of the Church.
Unfortunately, Hitler began violating its terms before the ink had hardly dried.
2) The Concordat was signed in 1933, right after Hitler came to power. Mit Breneneder Sorge was not issued until 4 years later, after Hitler began to carry out his monstrous plans.
3) Why was he rejected by the Jewish community as you claim? Because he (like many other Jews) accepted the protection of the Vatican in the face of death at the hands of the Nazis. Interestingly enough, this puts the lie to the claim that the Vatican and Pius XII didn't act to protect Jews from Hitler. You really can't have it both ways.
Posted by: Iufiwzpp at Mon May 18 06:14:58 2009 (RoXaB)
173
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175
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Algerian Parliamentarians Demand law Against Exercise Of Human Rights
There is simply no other way to define what they are asking for here.
Lawmakers from the Algerian Islamic political party of al-Nahda have asked the government to intervene to slow down "the activities of Christian missionaries in the country".
Algerian MP Muhammad Hudeibi was quoted as saying this in the local el-Khabar newspaper.
"We want the government to cut down this type of activity because the expansion of evangelisation in Algeria has become an important problem and is not marginal as some think it is," said Hudeibi.
For some years, the local media in Algeria have reported on the activities of a number of missionaries, particularly those from evangelical and Protestant churches, who have succeeded in converting entire Algerian families to Christianity, particularly those who come from the eastern area of Kabilia.
"We condemn the government's silence with regard to this phenomenon," said the Algerian MP.
"We are collecting the signatures of other lawmakers in order to begin a discussion in parliament on this problem," he said.
"All 11 parliamentarians of al-Nahda have been mobilised, but we are convinced that others will also help us."
The Islamic party also asked the Algerian ulema or Islamic scholars and imams to give their opinion on the issue of Christian evangelism.
Actually, the opinion of Muslim scholars or religious leaders on this matter should be irrelevant.
After all, the right to change one's religion is an internationally recognized human right, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As such, banning proselytism or conversion would fundamentally be a violation of the human rights of every individual living in or visiting Algeria. That such human rights violations are daily committed in other Muslim countries is irrelevant -- and if it is argued that Islam forbids such activities, then it must be conceded by those making such a claim that Islam itself is the enemy of human rights.
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Texans 2007 -- .500 At Last!
After six years as a Houston Texans season ticket holder, this one was sweet.
The guys beat Jacksonville 42-28, and finally had a non-losing season. Not bad for the team with the most guys on injured reserve, and bitten by the injury bug the way they were all season.
But the highlight has to be this pair of kickoff returns by Andre Davis -- which came on top of a clutch fumble recovery he made on a Texans punt..
The victory, accomplished over a Jacksonville team that rested seven starters, allowed the Texans to finish with a franchise-best 8-8 record – a six-game improvement from the franchise-worst 2-14 record of 2005.
Davis, who recovered a muffed punt that set up the TexansÂ’ first touchdown, returned the last kickoff of the first half 97 yards for a touchdown that gave them a 21-14 lead they never surrendered.
Then, Davis returned the second-half kickoff 104 yards for a touchdown that boosted the lead to 28-14.
WOW!
I feel great about next year -- and we are all thinking playoff here in Houston.
And to the Texans, may I just say THANK YOU FOR A MEMORABLE SEASON.
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Bhutto Assassination Should Remind Us Of The Humanity Of LeadersAndrew Sullivan links to this piece from a Pakistani blogger on the death of Benazir Bhutto. It reminds us all that, for all the international importance of this event, there is an aspect to such events that is frequently overlooked and yet more tragic still.
At a human level this is a tragedy like no other. Only a few days ago I was mentioning to someone that the single most tragic person in all of Pakistan - maybe all the world - is Nusrat Bhutto. BenazirÂ’s mother. Think about it. Her husband, killed. One son poisoned. Another son assasinated. One daughter dead possibly of drug overdose. Another daughter rises to be Prime Minister twice, but jailed, exiled, and finally gunned down.
Today, in shock, I can think only of Benazir Bhutto the human being. Tomorrow, maybe, I will think of politics.
All too often, we forget that political leaders are human beings first -- mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters and a host of other relationships -- and politicians second. And so while our hearts ache and minds whirl this day as Pakistan continues in its orgy of violent despair following the terrorist murder of its favorite daughter, let us not forget that the Bhutto family has suffered a grievous loss that is more than equal to the loss suffered by the nation of Pakistan itself.
After all, Bhutto, who marked her 20th wedding anniversary only nine days before her murder, leaves behind not only her mother, but also an ill husband and three children. May we each take a moment to spare them a bit of the concern that we have spent on the political and security ramifications of this very human tragedy.
One of my sisters attended Harvard University as an undergraduate. I helped her move into her freshman dorm in Wigglesworth Hall on Harvard Yard. Wigglesworth was divided into suites with bedrooms and bathrooms off a sitting room with a fireplace. It was an old building and the suites looked like Sherlock Holmes' apartment.
* * *
In the stairwell that first day, the very first new friend my sister made was a cute little freshman in tan corduroy jeans with her dark hair pulled into two pigtails. She looked more like a high school freshman than a college student. She was tacking up fliers for some kind of cause (might have been related to world hunger) on the bulletin boards in the stairwell.
She was pretty and outgoing and introduced herself to us at once, "Hi, I'm Bennie, Bennie Bhutto." She offered to help move the bedding in, and may have carried up the pillows. She had arrived a couple days before my sister and filled us in on the lay of the land: Where the Baskin Robbins was; how to find the bookstore; you name it, she was willing to tour guide.
Over the course of my sister's freshman year, I often drove up to Boston to visit. From Bennie and from stories my sister told me, I learned that Bennie's real name was Benazir, but she had decided to use her nickname in order to fit in better in America.
There is more, much more, about the girl (age 16) who would become the woman. It explains a lot about the family dynamics that resulted in her rise to power, and the problems between her and her brothers. And I'm particularly struck by the closing paragraph.
Other people can analyze what her death means in political terms, in human terms. An intelligent, thoughtful woman is gone from this world, and I am saddened to learn that.
Terror leader Osama bin Laden will release a new Internet message that focuses on Iraq and an al-Qaida linked insurgent group, a terrorism monitoring group said Thursday.
The SITE intelligence group said the al-Qaida leader will discuss Iraq and the group the Islamic State of Iraq, a longtime foe of the Iraqi government and U.S. forces.
SITE, which provides counter-terrorism information to government and private groups, said the announcement of the impending message was posted to Islamic militant Web sites earlier in the day.
The posting said the message — titled `The way to contain conspiracies" — would last 56 minutes. It did not say when it would be released, but such ads usually precede the actual message by one to three days.
An interesting length, that 56 minutes -- perhaps to allow for commercial breaks on network television, given the ongoing strike by the Writer's Guild of America?
But more seriously, the fact that Osama is releasing a new video in time for the new year, and in the wake of the Bhutto assassination, leaves me wondering if this is not the signal of more terrorist action to come. And coming on the even of the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, I wonder what bombshells it will have intended to influence the US electoral process.
1
"He's a good guy with great conservative values."
He also has an astounding $363 cash-on-hand according to his last report. Hate to say it, but this guy's a non-starter.
Posted by: Ryan at Thu Dec 27 16:58:02 2007 (Wcxk1)
2
Yeah, you are right about his finances as of Sept 30.
I'll be more interested in the numbers as of Dec. 31.
3
He is a non issue. Dont get excited, you will only wear yourself out.
Posted by: D Garcia at Fri Dec 28 16:27:26 2007 (EpO8T)
4
I lived near Lake Jackson, Texas 1980 when a very well-financed politician supported by the media ran against Ron Paul. Even then Ron Paul had the kind of excited, dedicated following he has today. He beat that guy, admittedy in a close election. Two years later that fellow moved to a neighboring district and won easily.
I don't think anyone can take Ron Paul in Galveston. They know him there.
Posted by: Bob at Sat Dec 29 07:50:02 2007 (mWU/e)
Posted by: Ghmkinze at Sat Feb 7 07:08:46 2009 (nL8Jd)
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Hello. That's very nice site but I've seen this before here:
http://text.inguaro.com/669a208667cbe0a7946b60d5d0fbae80
669a208667cbe0a7946b60d5d0fbae80
A Case Of Bush Derangement Syndrome?
I wouldn't be surprised if this act of arson was precisely that. After all, why else hit this tiny museum exhibit?
A home where President George W. Bush lived as a young boy with his parents in Odessa, Texas, and that is now part of a presidential museum there was damaged on Thursday by a fire that investigators blamed on arson.
"I can tell you it has been determined that it was intentionally set, but I cannot discuss anything about evidence or possible suspects because this is an ongoing criminal investigation," said city of Odessa spokeswoman Andrea Goodson.
Museum administrator Lettie England said no motive for the blaze had been determined and there was no reason at this point to believe it was a political act. She said there were no notes or messages left at the scene.
England said in a telephone interview from the west Texas city that the arsonist spread some kind of flammable liquid on the door and front windows and set the fire.
Now I'll be honest -- I don't necessarily see this old house as particularly significant in any historical sense. Indeed, I'm at a loss as to why anyone would find this to be a building worth preserving, given that the seven months of the toddlerhood of the current President is probably not particularly significant, nor is that particular time frame really important to the lives of his parents. But regardless, torching the place cannot be defended.
Now the police have not assigned a motive for the blaze, which is classified as arson. But I really can't think of a more likely reason for the attack, because there would surely be easier targets for someone to hit.
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A Visit To An Ancient Ancestor
When I was 14 or 15, I had the opportunity to see the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago. I remember standing about three feet from the case, just staring, with a sense of awe and wonder as I gazed at an artifact that was more than 200 time my age. To this day, I shudder as I think back upon that experience and my nearness to such a significant piece of human history.
And tonight, I find myself reveling in a similar experience -- yet one that is in some ways even more profound. You see, only a sheet of polycarbonate glass stood between my hand and this wonder today.
Yes, that is one of the most significant fossil finds in human history Lucy (known also as Dinkenesh in Ethiopia). She is currently on exhibit here in Houston until late April. I remember reading about the discovery of this fossil in the newspaper back when I was in sixth grade or so, and being amazed by the discover. I could not have imagined the opportunity to actually see this early hominid fossil up close. Call me a history geek if you want, but I found myself near to tears as I gazed down on this collection of fossilized bones and considered their significance.
Let me offer two videos of note related to this topic.
The first is about the exhibit here in Houston.
The second is about the discovery of Lucy and her significance to the stucddy of human evolution.
I encourage you to see this exhibit if you are near to Houston in the next few months -- and if it comes to a city near you while it is in this country, make a point of seeing it. It also is quite informative about the history of Ethiopia up to the modern day, and has many interesting cultural artifacts.
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MURDER IN PAKISTAN!
I was about to start typing about the attempted assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto when my wife shouted to me that the attack had been successful, and that the near-certain head of the nextPakistanigovernmentwasdead.
Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday, shot in the neck and chest before a homicide bomber blew himself up at a campaign rally. Twenty others also died.
The assassin struck just minutes after Bhutto addressed a rally of thousands of supporters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. She was shot as she was entering her car. Her attacker then set off his bomb.
Bhutto was rushed to the hospital and taken into emergency surgery.
Outraged supporters of the martyred politician have placed the blame upon President Pervez Musharraf, though there is currently no evidence to support that presumption.
Her main ally, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has been banned from the upcoming election by the Musharraf government, was reportedly at the hospital.
Nawaz Sharif, another former premier and opposition leader, arrived at the hospital and sat silently next to Bhutto's body.
"Certainly, we condemn the attack on this rally. It demonstrates that there are still those in Pakistan who want to subvert reconciliation and efforts to advance democracy," said deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey.
Pakistan's elections are scheduled for January 8. This event obviously raises the issue of whether the election can proceed on schedule, and of the legitimacy of the results if they do. Developments in the next several hours, and the next few days, will be critical to determining whether or not Pakistan emerges from its era of dictatorship, and whether it slides into political chaos.
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Imagine The Outrage
If a prominent right-wing blogger allowed one of his/her co-bloggers to post a piece like this on a blog and left it there. And this anti-Semitic piece of crap, worthy of those other socialists who ran Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, has been there since Christmas Eve.
Several months ago, at the suggestion of MSOC, I returned to this site, resolved that I would never again descend to the moral cesspit occupied by the haters. I would willingly engage in civil and rational discourse with anyone of good will, but if they refused, I would ignore them.
Unfortunately, the same persons whose emnity and hostility were so pervasive before immediately resumed their campaign to discredit me, not only rejecting my overtures of peace, but mocking them.
These hateful persons are Jews. At one point, I would have disregarded this fact, but I no longer can. This site has been nothing but the battleground of the Jew Wars, and it is not possible to escape the toxic fallout.
Some persons here have posted remarks offensive to Jews, remarks that no one would have regarded seriously if not for the Jews, as they stridently identify themselves, calling for banning and lynch mobs and denunciation of the posters whose words have offended them. They have made it very clear that they are willing to destroy this site, to make it a barren no-man's-land where no civil discourse can survive, unless the persons they charge with antisemitism are silenced and driven out.
I know that these Jews will continue to conduct their hate campaigns with impunity as well as self-righteousness, because the people in charge of this site regard them as friends, but they are false, treacherous friends, willing to destroy the site that has befriended them.
And these same persons, these Jews, have not only continued their malicious attacks on me, but others, also Jews, have joined their Hate Squad, solely on the grounds that they are Jews and have been offended by someone, and thus arrogate to themselves the right to hate and insult a person who has done them no harm and no offense.
And the consequence is this: I now find myself, for the first time in my life, hating Jews. I find myself hating the Jews on this site, both the Jews who have conducted their malicious campaign against me for so long and the Jews who have stood by in silent solidarity with them, never saying a word against their vile attacks, their cruelty and ugliness.
I find myself thinking that Proximity perhaps has the right idea, that Jews regard other human beings as objects, to be sacrificed to the interests of Jews. That Jews will always stand with other Jews no matter their guilt, and against non-Jews, no matter their innocence. The face of Jews has become unspeakably ugly in my sight, because of the ugliness of the Jewish haters here.
There you have it -- Jew-hatred is a rational response to Jewish condemnation of Jew-hatred. Courtesy of the Left-wing. And remaining un-deleted from that Left-Wing blog, and uncondemned by its owner.
But then again, what do you expect -- the owner proudly proclaimed how she revels in hatred in a WaPo profilelast year.
It Is Official -- Keeney Challenges Davis
John R. Keeney of Taylor Lake Village has filed to challenge John Davis for Representative in the 129th District.
As I've indicated elsewhere, I believe that we can do significantly better than the ethically troubled Davis, and Keeney seems to be just the man.
1
Just what we need. A fat, old, white guy, without any experience, with a toupee.
Gosh. What happened to the republicans?
Posted by: D Garcia at Sun Dec 30 14:31:34 2007 (EpO8T)
2
So what do you have against white people, Garcia? Sounds like a racist remark to me.
Not to mention the ageism and sizeism and lookism -- all things you lefty's like to criticize.
And as for experience, is it your believe that a career in business is insignificant? DO you believe that only career politicians need apply for office.
You have a mighty shallow point of view. And as you are typical of Democrats, I feel very comfortable about Jon winning in the fall.
(By the way -- may I mention that the likely Democrat candidate -- already rejected once by the people of the district -- is also white, old, and inexperienced? I won't comment upon her looks, except to say I doubt she meets your exacting standards. So who will YOU vote for?)
Damned If You Do; Damned If You Don't
If ever there has been a case of reaching a conclusion first and then searching for evidence and a theory to back that conclusion, thisis it.
A research paper that won a Hebrew University teachers' committee prize finds that the lack of IDF rapes of Palestinian women is designed to serve a political purpose.
The abstract of the paper, authored by doctoral candidate Tal Nitzan, notes that the paper shows that "the lack of organized military rape is an alternate way of realizing [particular] political goals."
The next sentence delineates the particular goals that are realized in this manner: "In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it can be seen that the lack of military rape merely strengthens the ethnic boundaries and clarifies the inter-ethnic differences - just as organized military rape would have done."
The paper further theorizes that Arab women in Judea and Samaria are not raped by IDF soldiers because the women are de-humanized in the soldiers' eyes.
So let's make this clear -- the act of rape occurs in time of war because the enemy has been "de-humanized" and the sexual assault of their women is therefore not seen as morally culpable. On the other hand, the failure to rape the women of the enemy is a sign that the enemy has been "de-humanized" and that sexual assault of their women does not happen as a result. In other words, every course of action that might be taken is a sign of the enemy having been "de-humanized", and a presumed racist attitude towards the enemy.
Am I the only one who sees the fundamentally absurd nature of this academic paper?
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You may not recognize his two friends -- Stormfront's Don Black and his son Derek. You know, big-time white supremacists and neo-Nazis. And, of course, Ron Paul campaign donors -- whose money Ron Paul insists upon keeping rather than doing the honorable thing like divesting himself of it by giving it to a charity that promotes racial tolerance or combats the putrid ideology of Don Black.
So let's see here. Ron Paul hangs out with racists. Hetakestheirmoney. He and his supporters claim that the Constitution requires him to do so, because to do otherwise would be to violate the First Amendment -- despite the fact that Ron Paul has a First Amendment right not to associate with scum like the Black family and their followers.
On the other hand, Ron Paul claims that much of federal spending is unconstitutional -- yet he freely admits that he sponsorsgobs of porkfor his district. Of course, in doing so he actively sponsors what he believes to be unconstitutional spending -- you know, because his supporters and constituents demand it, of course. He claims that he is virtuous and pure because he votes against the bill that contains the spending, even though he knows that the spending line items he supports will be enacted anyway. So much for his principles and claims to be a strict constitutionalist -- if he were, he would refuse to put the spending into the bill in the first place on the grounds that it is unconstitutional.
I'm curious -- since Ron Paul by his own admission is willing to lay aside his principles and alleged devotion to the Constitution for his supporters and constituents, why should we believe that he will not do the same for these hate-mongering campaign contributors?
1
And pray tell what kinds of people are contributing to the other campaigns? Let's be fair.
What did Stormfront donate? $500? That's a drop in the bucket.
As a Jewish person I am glad Paul took their money - it's less that they can use to spread hate -
Posted by: Roger Wiley at Fri Dec 28 11:06:18 2007 (sRtgj)
2
Any political "leader" who sees fit to knowingly take and keep money from Nazis and white supremacists is unfit for any office -- if Ron Paul had any decency, he would divest himself of it by giving it to a charity in the manner I have mentioned.
As for who is giving to other candidates, show me a single one taking from such groups. And if you do find such contributors, let me know and I will make an issue of it.
But if all you can say is "who is giving to the other guys", my response is "no one as reprehensible as the folks giving to Ron Paul."
The Dictator Resurgent
Not long ago, I was expressing hopes that Fidel Castro would fade from the world scene. It appears that the Cuban dictator will not go gently into that good night (or, more likely, the gaping maw of Hell which awaits him).
Fidel Castro remains on the mend, gaining weight, exercising twice a day and continuing to help make the Cuban government's top decisions, his brother Raul Castro says.
The island's acting president gave the first clues about his brother's health in weeks, saying during a Monday speech that he has a "healthier mentality, full use of his mental faculties with some small physical limitations."
At 76, Raul is five years younger than his ailing brother, who has not been seen in public since announcing he had undergone emergency intestinal surgery and was stepping down in favor of a provisional government in July 2006.
But the younger Castro said his brother remains a key voice in government and that Communist Party leaders support his re-election to Cuba's parliament, the National Assembly — a move that could allow Fidel Castro to keep his post as president of the Council of State.
"We consult him on principal matters, that is why we the leaders of the party defend his right to run again as deputy of the National Assembly as a first step," Raul Castro said.
And so the dictatorship will continue. It is a pity, for the Cuban people deserve better than the decades of oppression they have suffered -- oppression which has caused their best and brightest to flee. And yet we can still hope for a brighter day for Cuba, one in which his corpse is treated with the abuse and contempt received by the body of the dictator Mussolini.
Property Rights Trumped In California
California has a very odd view of property rights -- it seems that if you operate a business open to the public, you are subject to all the impediments placed upon government by the First Amendment. This means, of course, that if there are any "public areas" to the establishment, the public can come in and engage in speech that is detrimental to one's business or that or one's clients.
The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that privately owned shopping malls cannot stop protesters from demonstrating there to urge a boycott of one of the tenants.
In a 4-to-3 decision, the court said a San Diego mall violated California law protecting free speech when its owners barred protesters from distributing leaflets in front of one of the mallÂ’s stores, asking shoppers not to give the store their business.
“A shopping mall is a public forum in which persons may reasonably exercise their right to free speech,” Justice Carlos R. Moreno wrote in the majority opinion.
Justice Moreno said shopping malls were entitled to enact and enforce “reasonable regulations of the time, place and manner of such free expression,” to avoid a disruption of business.
“But they may not prohibit certain types of speech based upon its content,” he wrote, like speech urging a boycott of stores.
Thre are, of course, two points in this article that leap rapidly to mind.
1) Why the heck can't private property owners prohibit any or all speech -- including based upon content -- as a proper and legitimate exercise of their property rights?
2) Why has this case taken nearly a decade to percolate through the courts? After all, this is based upon a protest that took place in 1998!
But the bigger issue in my book is that a shopping mall is not a public forum -- it is a place of business to which the public is invited for the limited purpose of shopping. To the degree that groups are invited in for other purposes -- such as carolers in the central plaza or antique car shows or other such events -- that is done to facilitate the primary purpose of the shopping mall, which is the sale of tenant merchandise. And to require that the mall permit speech explicitly intended to disrupt that the primary purpose of the mall seems to be an outrageous infringement upon the property rights of the owners and the rights of their tenants.
1
So, does this extend to recognizing that Criminal Free Fire Zones (Gun Free Zones) imposed by mall owners are an infringement upon the rights protected by the Second Amendment?
Posted by: Fox 2! at Wed Dec 26 05:30:12 2007 (mS51q)
2
We are dealing with California, my friend, where they don't believe the Second Amendment exists at all.
3
Too true.
I still think that Bloomberg (capo di tutti capo), the Corporation Counsel (consiglieri) and the Corporation of the City of New York (famiglia) should be prosecuted under RICO for the "straw purchase in Carolina" program.
Posted by: Fox 2! at Wed Dec 26 06:42:28 2007 (mS51q)
Posted by: Fox 2! at Wed Dec 26 06:44:43 2007 (mS51q)
5
Sorry about that. Thought it hadn't gone through. Mea culpa.
Posted by: Fox 2! at Wed Dec 26 06:45:37 2007 (mS51q)
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Cool -- we've been having some commenting problems here.
Were I not having template problems on the new blogging platform i was planning to go to on January 1 (had plans for an exciting new design launch), I'd dump MT right now.
Jokes
I don't know about you, but I enjoy good jokes every now and then. And certainly there are lots of places to find jokes on the internet. You can find lots of funny jokes at LotsOfJokes.com, categorized by type. Some are funny, some are groaners, and some are a bit on the dicey side -- but hey, a good joke is always worth it.
I especially enjoyed this one, which contains more than a grain of truth about my profession.
As a new school principal, Mr. Mitchell was checking over his school on the first day. Passing the stockroom, he was startled to see the door wide open and teachers bustling in and out, carrying off books and supplies in preparation for the arrival of students the next day. The school where he had been a Principal the previous year had used a check-out system only slightly less elaborate than that at Fort Knox. Cautiously, he asked the school's long time Custodian, "Do you think it's wise to keep the stock room unlocked and to let the teachers take things without requisitions?" The Custodian looked at him gravely... "We trust them with the children, don't we?"
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Merry Christmas 2007
Christmas is a time of hope, of expectation. We mark the birth of a child whose tragic fate we know, and yet we exult because of the glorious triumph that grows out of that seeming ignominious death and the possibility that opens for each of us.
And yet, some years it seems that there is much in this world to despair over.
And so I offer you one of my favorite Christmas songs, which reminds us that the victory has already been won for us by our Savior, Jesus Christ.
I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day
I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”
And in this day when the prophets of faithlessness seek to disparage and deny the truth of the Gospel, I repeat with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow the most stirring words of this composition -- God is not dead, nor doth He sleep!
May each of you find your hearts filled with joy this Christmas, and may you find your spirit renewed with the Easter Promise contained within the Christmas Miracle.
A Christmas Gift From George Washington
A Republic not a Monarchy.
There is a Christmas story at the birth of this country that very few Americans know. It involves a single act by George Washington -- his refusal to take absolute power -- that affirms our own deepest beliefs about self-government, and still has profound meaning in today's world. To appreciate its significance, however, we must revisit a dark period at the end of America's eight-year struggle for independence.
The story begins with Gen. Washington's arrival in Annapolis, Md., on Dec. 19, 1783. The country was finally at peace -- just a few weeks earlier the last British army on American soil had sailed out of New York harbor. But the previous eight months had been a time of terrible turmoil and anguish for Gen. Washington, outwardly always so composed. His army had been discharged and sent home, unpaid, by a bankrupt Congress -- without a victory parade or even a statement of thanks for their years of sacrifices and sufferings.
George Washington could have seized power.
His officers and men would have supported him.
The powers of Europe would have certainly reacted favorably.
And we might well live today with some royal family or other ruling over us, with not the notion of "a republican form of government" nothing but a pipe=dream of a few political scientists and philosophers.
Instead, Washington committed an act of moral and political heroism that ultimately lead to the creation of the nation we know today. Read about it here.
With the New England Patriots now one win away from finishing the regular season undefeated, Sen. John Kerry is stepping up his campaign to get the final game broadcast on national television.
The contest Saturday with the New York Giants is to air locally in Boston and New York. But outside those markets it is scheduled to appear only on the NFL Network, a cable channel that reaches just 35 million households nationwide while the league and cable operators dicker over pricing and distribution.
Kerry asked football Commissioner Roger Goodell today to move the game to NBC – and threatened Senate hearings if he does not.
“Under the unfortunate circumstance that this matter remains unresolved, leaving 60 percent of households across the country – including thousands in Massachusetts – without access to Saturday’s game, I will ask the Senate Commerce Committee to hold hearings on how the emergence of premium sports channels are impacting the consumer,” he wrote to Goodell today in a letter released by his office.
The Massachusetts Democrat added that he would “consider what legislative measures may be necessary to ensure that consumers are more than bystanders in this process.”
Actually, the appropriateremedy is for the cable companies to be required to follow the terms of their agreement with the NFL and make the NFL Network a part of their basic cable package. Unfortunately, a single state court set a nation-wide precedent on the matter some months back, allowing the cable companies to violate their agreement.
And if we can't make the cable companies abide by the agreement, maybe the time has come for Congress to mandate an end to monopolistic cable franchises -- so that consumers can have a choice in cable providers, just as they do with their long distance service..
The Absurdity Of Taking Christ Out Of Christmas
Bravo to Dinesh D'Souza for making clear the absurdity of those who would expunge Christ from the public square and American culture.
But apply this logic to another holiday and its absurdity becomes manifest. Imagine if the ACLU filed lawsuits nationwide to remove all references to Martin Luther King on Martin Luther King day. The reason is that not everyone agrees that King's legacy was a positive one, and that the main beneficiaries of King's activism have been African Americans and other minorities. Southern segregationists, in particular, feel excluded from King's "beloved community." So in the name of diversity and tolerance all monuments and symbols and references to King should be erased. Instead Martin Luther King day becomes another "happy holiday."
This would be crazy. The answer to the ACLU would go something like this: "We are honoring King because we believe he has changed our civilization and our world vastly for the better. If you don't agree, by all means write a letter to the editor. But it is intolerance bordering on bigotry for institutions to get rid of all references to King simply because some people don't like him or feel excluded by his vision."
Like it or not, the Western Culture of which our nation is a part is in large part rooted in Christianity. Many of our cultural celebrations and practices are influenced by and connected to the Christian faith. Those who seek to wipe them out are not just attacking the faith of the overwhelming majority of Americans, but also the bedrock upon which our society rests.
Such individuals are welcome here. Our nation, our society, are built upon toleration of differing beliefs, even those which are so wrong-headed and intolerant as those of the Christ-erasers. But as in the hypothetical above, their sense of exclusion is not a legitimate basis for the suppression of the heart-felt beliefs of the majority.
An Open Letter To Rep. John Davis
Yesterday evening, I sent the following letter to Rep. John Davis of House District 129, in my official capacity as GOP Precinct Chair for Harris County Precinct 333. After much consideration, I have decided to post the letter here, in the hope of encouraging other Republicans to contact Davis and encourage him to withdraw from the race. It is my belief that the people of District 129 and the State of Texas deserve better in the Texas Legislature.
* * * * * * *
Dear Rep. Davis:
This is a hard email to write, especially at this time of the year. Unfortunately, the filing deadline make this the appropriate time for me to say these things to you, despite the proximity to the holidays.
I have talked with a number of my fellow Republicans, both in my precinct and outside of it. Some are grassroots leaders, some are long-time activists, and others are simply voters with no other involvement in the political process. As I have spoken with them, I have heard several common themes run through their comments on your candidacy for reelection. These can be summarized as follows:
1. "I like John, but I'm not impressed with how he represents the district."
2. "John really doesn't present himself well in public settings -- I'm worried that will hurt him this year."
3. "I can't think of a significant accomplishment of his that has benefited our area."
4. "Constituent services are really slow."
As you can see, the image problem is big. Still, I think you could overcome these problems were it not for the point that was touched upon by every single person with whom I spoke.
"John has shown some really poor judgment in how he handles his campaign money and by casting votes for other legislators. He appears corrupt and sleazy, even if there is a reasonable explanation for everything."
Frankly, I do not believe you can overcome that perception among our own primary voters. Furthermore, I believe that this is a problem that will be exploited by the Democrats in the fall if you do survive the primary, and that you are likely to be defeated in November as a result. As such, I find myself unable to support or endorse your candidacy for reelection.
This morning I had a long talk with one my fellow worshipers following the service. This wonderful lady, a long-time Republican who has served as a precinct chair, RWC officer, and campaign volunteer for your campaign, looked me in the eye and said something that touched my heart quite deeply.
"I've known John and his wife for years, and am very fond of them both. As things stand, I just can't support him this time around. Unfortunately, this is going to be a very ugly campaign, and I would hate to see him put Jayne and the boys through it. Please tell him that he needs to drop out of this race for their sake, and for the sake of the people of the district. We just don't need things to be like this."
I have to say that she is right. I believe the best course of action for you, your family, and your constituents is for you to step aside and allow a someone else to be the GOP standard-bearer this November. I urge you to immediately withdraw as a candidate for reelection in House District 129.
Posted by: D Garcia at Mon Dec 24 07:39:15 2007 (EpO8T)
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Imagine that, another Republican to join the ever growing ranks of sleazy R's: Congressman Tom Delay, Senator Larry Craig, CIA Leaker Karl Rove, and the beat goes on!
Posted by: Paul at Wed Dec 26 03:26:15 2007 (Ykw9f)
3
Well, we could go into the sleazy Ds -- Racist Robert Byrd, CIA Leaker Patrick Leahy (whose leak got peopled killed, not a book contract), page molester Gerry Studds, Bill Clinton (whose sleazy deeds are too numerous to mention), Ted Kennedy (leaving your date to drown while you sleep it off is pretty sleazy), Barney Franks (gay hookers run out of his house), William Jefferson, etc.
I won't get into the question of whether some of what you condemn is actually even accurate or sleazy. I'll just point out the difference.
1) We don't embrace our wrongdoers like the Democrats do.
2) It is news when a Republican is involved in a scandal because it is less frequent than Democrat scandals -- and because we actually claim to have moral standards in the first place.
Posted by: Papa at Wed Aug 6 11:53:15 2008 (lfaBT)
5
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
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Posted by: RolAdmin at Fri Jan 9 07:44:58 2009 (LAlM4)
The Ultimate In Redneck Christmas Gifts
And someone in the Clear Lake area is getting one.
My wife and I were driving home from lunch and trivia at BW3 in Webster when we saw one of these in the bed of a pickup truck.
I would never have believed such a thing -- a recliner done in a Mossy Oak Camouflage! And what's more, I just discovered that you can even get a matching sofa and love seat.
You've gotta love any wife who would let that thing through the front door, that's for sure!
More On Electronic Voting
In light of this editorial in the New York Times, I feel a need to repost what I wrote a couple of weeks ago on the topic.
* * * * * * *
Let's begin with this caveat: No system for casting and counting votes is fool-proof or fraud-proof. For that reason, I take the comments by Ohio's secretary of state with a grain of salt. That said, she raises an important point.
All five voting systems used in Ohio, a state whose electoral votes narrowly swung two elections toward President Bush, have critical flaws that could undermine the integrity of the 2008 general election, a report commissioned by the stateÂ’s top elections official has found.
“It was worse than I anticipated,” the official, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, said of the report. “I had hoped that perhaps one system would test superior to the others.”
At polling stations, teams working on the study were able to pick locks to access memory cards and use hand-held devices to plug false vote counts into machines. At boards of election, they were able to introduce malignant software into servers.
Ms. Brunner proposed replacing all of the stateÂ’s voting machines, including the touch-screen ones used in more than 50 of OhioÂ’s 88 counties. She wants all counties to use optical scan machines that read and electronically record paper ballots that are filled in manually by voters.
When the eSlate system was adopted here in Harris County, I strongly urged against it. I wanted to see an optical scanner system adopted because of the paper trail it would provide. That said, I figure that if I can trust an ATM with my money, I can also trust a system like the one we have and like those they have in Ohio.
"But," some will object, "doesn't this show that the machines can be tampered with?"
Yeah, it does.
But if the conditions are what I suspect they were, the test itself was essentially meaningless. The testers would have been given unlimited access to and time with the equipment, access to schematics and source code, and would not have faced any of the other security methods imposed by elections officials. These are not conditions that anyone tampering with election results is likely to face.
And let's not forget that there are ways to game an optical scanner system. You can still program the software to miscount votes. You can still add fake voters to the rolls or vote folks who were not at the polls. Ballots can still be tampered with after they are cast. In other words, optical scanners have many of the same flaws as both the paperless systems and the punch card system used in much of the country prior to the 2000 fiasco in Florida. No system is perfect.
Indeed, the only real safeguard of an election is the integrity of those who are involved in the process of running the election, from state officials to county and city elections officials to those of us who actually operate the polling places on Election Day. And so while I explicitly endorse a change to optical scanners, I am under no illusion that erroneous vote counts or outright election fraud can ever be completely eliminated until we can figure out a way to eliminate human fallibility and mankind's sinful nature from the equation.
* * * * * * *
Oh, and let me correct a point from the NY Times editorial -- the 2000 presidential election was not "irreparably harmed" -- every subsequent study of the 2000 vote has shown that the winner in Florida was George W. Bush. And if there was irreparable harm done, it was by Al Gore and his minions in their attempt to overturn the results of the election so as to award Florida's electoral votes to the candidate who lost the state. Fortunately, the repeated erroneous rulings by SCOFLA (Supreme Court of Florida) were overturned by the United States Supreme Court, which saved the nation from the irreparable harm of an election stolen through partisan chicanery and judicial malfeasance.
1
And I intend to vote against retaining anybody who was on the SCOFLAW in November 2000. When SCOTUS basically writes your remanded opinion for you in a matter of federal law, all you can do is sign your name. (I may be a little too submissive to federal authority here. But when you move the question into the courts, SCOTUS wields the bigger gavel)
Do you have an audio ad that auto-starts when you enter the site?
Posted by: Fox2! at Mon Dec 24 04:03:08 2007 (mS51q)
2
Not that I am aware of, my friend. If i do, I am unaware of it.
SchoolPop.com
How can folks help their local schools and student organizations raise money? By participating in easy school fundraisers -- including those where all school fundraising supporters do is purchase things — whether online or otherwise — using their credit card. You can also dedicate a portion of it for your church or an organization of your choosing.
So far, folks participating in the program offered by SchoolPop.com have contributed over $200 million to such organization. You can even contribute by just paying your student loans through them!
Sounds like a great way to raise money for worthy causes, doing things you would do anyway.
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Houston Chronicle Misses The Point
But then again, what else is new? They really don't seem to understand the dynamics at work in CD22.
People from across the globe live in the growing Houston suburbs that make up the 22nd Congressional District, which has been represented most recently by politicians born elsewhere in Texas: Tom DeLay, Shelley Sekula Gibbs, briefly, and now Nick Lampson.
But in the congested race for the Republican nomination to face Democrat Lampson in the November 2008 election, the candidates' roots, in and out of the district, have become an issue in the campaign.
* * *
The term "carpetbagger" was created for Northerners who moved to the South seeking riches after the Civil War. Republican contenders in the local race apply it to Lampson because he once represented a nearby congressional district that included his birthplace of Beaumont — although Lampson is quick to point out his family has deep roots in Fort Bend County.
Without naming names, some of the eight Republican candidates also use the term to favorably compare their home-turf credentials to those of their opponents in the March GOP primary — especially since at first glance there appears to be little room for the contenders to one-up each other on being conservative.
Speaking as a GOP precinct chair here in CD22, I don't care where someone was born -- but then again, I say that as a man who was born in an Army hospital in San Francisco and who moved into CD22 only 10 1/2 years ago. However, I think most of my friends and neighbors share that perspective.
The problem, of course, is not who was born where. The issue is really one of who knows the district and has roots here to represent it well.
If you look at the overwhelming majority of the GOP candidates, they are rooted in the communities of the district. That is true of Shelley Sekula Gibbs, Talton, Hrbacek, Manlove, and even Rowley. Squier cannot say that. And Pete Olsen, a good man beyond all doubt, hasn't lived here in 15-20 years, and I understand that he didn't even have a Texas DL or voter registration until a few months ago.
More to the point, there is the question of where the money is coming from to finance candidates. Most of these folks are getting the bulk of their cash from within the district (or at least the Houston area), while one is getting most of his cash from DC lobbyists and other Beltway insiders.
Too bad that they Chronicle missed what the real point of the discussion is all about. But then again, why am I surprised at the shamefully poor level of political reporting from what is supposed to be a major metropolitan daily? They've done a lousy job of it for years.
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Health Insurance
Unlike other countries, in the United States you have to get your own health insurance. Often times that insurance comes through your employer, but not always. And there are many people who for a variety of reasons donÂ’t find themselves with employer-provided health insurance.
Of course, self-employed individuals, part-time employees, students, singles, and families all have different needs. Their lifestyles lead to different needs in a health insurance plan.
CVTY-HealthInsurance.com® gives access to the best rates from Coventry Health Care. This makes getting health insurance simple and affordable as they are an authorized independent agent of Coventry Health Care, Inc. (Coventry).
If you donÂ’t have group health insurance, Coventry offers a suite of health plans called CoventryOneSM,. It is ideal for self-employed individuals, part-time employees, students, singles and families.
OfficialPetHotels.com
If you are like my wife and I, your pets are a part of the family. Indeed, for us our dog actually is our family, since we have no kids. She even wrote this yearÂ’s holiday missive to friends and family members around the country.
But when your pet is family, it can be frustrating to travel. Many hotels do not allow pets. That limits your travel options. But instead of staying at home or traveling without your beloved pet, you can check out the list of Pet Friendly Hotels at OfficialPetHotels.com. This way you can travel with your furry four-legged friend or family member, and not feel guilty about having to leave that precious pet behind. Trust me – your pet will prefer traveling with you to staying behind in a kennel.
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Less Onerous A Restriction
Labor unions are up in arms over this one -- but ignore the fact that this is a restriction that can be easily circumvented.
The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that employers have the right to prohibit workers from using the companyÂ’s e-mail system to send out union-related messages, a decision that could hamper communications between labor unions and their membership.
In a 3-to-2 ruling released on Friday, the board held that it was legal for employers to prohibit union-related e-mail so long as employers had a policy barring employees from sending e-mail for “non-job-related solicitations” for outside organizations.
The ruling is a significant setback to the nationÂ’s labor unions, which argued that e-mail systems have become a modern-day gathering place where employees should be able to communicate freely with co-workers to discuss work-related matters of mutual concern.
Imagine that -- the work email system should be used for work. You aren't allowed to use your work email for union activity -- which is akin to using company letterhead for union solicitations.
There is, of course, a way around this. With all the FREE email programs out there -- Gmail and the like -- you can establish an address that you are can use for union activity as much as you want. And you can still send your notices TO employees at their company email address under the decision. And employees could, presumably, use their work address to email back to that free email address.
Thoughts.com
Yes, there are many good blogging platforms out there. That includes a number that have the distinct advantage of being free, and therefore not costing you a penny. Well, I've recently come across a new one that appears sort of interesting to me at http://www.thoughts.com/.
Yes, that's right -- Thoughts.com offers you a free blog with many great features, including participation in a free blog community. And it is much more than that. For example, they recognize that many bloggers like to have a lot of graphics and photos on their websites, so you get great, high-speed uploading of your photos and other graphics files as a part of the free service. And in addition, you can also upload video and host it right from your own site – no more relying on YouTube and hoping that the code works right and the video isn’t removed. Even better, you have podcasting capabilities available through Thoughts.com, too. You also have the ability to create friends lists like on other big-name social networking sites. Good grief! What more could you ask for as a novice blogger – or even an experienced one?
Now all of that is in addition to all of the regular features we have come to expect. So what are you waiting for? If you are interested in trying your hand at blogging, check out Thoughts.com "!
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Eight people have been charged with faking voter registration forms in St. Louis city and county in 2006, federal authorities announced today.
The federal indictments were unsealed this morning. Some of the accused have not been arrested yet, so their names are being withheld.
The eight people were employed as voter registration recruiters by ACORN, the not-for-profit Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. ACORN ran a voter registration drive for the general election in November 2006.
This organization is involved in such cases again and again and again. There have been indictments, and convictions, in a number of states. I therefore find it difficult to accept at face value the claim that they are opposed to vote fraud.
1
Blonde.And.Blonder.2007
Dee and Dawn are two dim-witted, pink-clad, blond ladies whom meet by accident and try to make a living with their dull lives, until a series of circumstances ensue when after they unwittingly take jobs at a local strip club, they are mistaken for two deadly female brunette assassins known only as the Cat and the Kit whom are hired to kill the club owner whom is a mobster in a witness protection program. With two persistent, but inept, FBI agents on their tail, the ditsy Dee and Dawn try to stay one step head of the law, as well as try to figure out what is really going on.
http://www.gilesh.com
Posted by: mariuszdudek at Sun Dec 14 20:23:50 2008 (guMuR)
Holiday Travel Of America
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Holiday Travel of America can make those dreams happen, helping to ensure that you have the best vacation ever. Their mission? “Lower your overall marketing cost, increase the value of incentive offered, increase your store’s foot traffic and more importantly increase your sales revenue.”
This great company was established in 1988 and they have earned a reputation of giving full satisfaction to all their clients and customers. The staff is prompt, courteous and professional in assisting and accommodating their clientsÂ’ needs according to their many satisfied customers. Simply by filling out the form on their website will allow their representatives to answer your questions about your proposed travel plans during normal business hours.
Are there advantages to booking your trips early? Of course there are! We all know that early birds often catch some of the best available deals, meaning you save more money and be able to do more on your holiday. And with many of the most popular destinations in high demand, its not always easy to be fulfill your dreams for a perfect vacation without thinking and planning in advance. Also, the more flexible you are, the greater your chances of grabbing cheap tickets and low room rates.
Holiday Travel of America has received multiple awards and accolades from its satisfied customers. It is certainly to your advantage to consider http://www.holidayways.com when you want to book a trip to an exotic locale for your vacation getaway!
A Holiday Primer For Ron Paul Supporters
After a Christmas party my wife and I attended last night, I have a few pieces of holiday advice for Ron Paul supporters.
1) Proper Christmas celebration headgear is a Santa hat, not a "Ron Paul for President" ball cap.
2) It is appropriate to share pictures (including those on your cell phone) of your family, pets, and close friends with other guests. It is not appropriate to share photos of Ron Paul with other guests in order to prove how close you got to him at a rally.
3) "He does have some interesting ideas" is properly understood as "He and his supporters are loons," not an opening to invite a Democrat to cross over to vote in the GOP primary (this is especially true when she is married to the GOP precinct chair/election judge).
4) "My cousin was seriously wounded in Iraq" is intended to shut down further discussion of Ron Paul, not encourage discussion of his plan to get us out of Iraq, the problem with the military-industrial complex, and Washington's words about entangling alliances in his Farewell Address.
5) "Would you like some more chips" are words intended to distract you from further discussion of Ron Paul by filling your mouth with food, not an invitation to discussion of the federal budget and Ron Paul's plans to eliminate everything that he considers to be unconstitutional federal spending.
6) No, we don't want to know when Ron Paul is going to next be on C-Span. Don't ask, don't tell.
7) Comments about the amusing video another guest saw on YouTube are small-talk, not a request for you to drag someone back to the host's computer to show her the latest videos from Ron Paul and his supporters.
Christmas is the birthday of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Sorry, that means we don't believe that Ron Paul is the Messiah, even if you do.
9) When someone steers the conversation to something other than Ron Paul (the guacamole dip, for example), that doesn't mean they want you to relate the new topic to Ron Paul and his campaign for President.
10) Shut up. We don't want to hear about Ron Paul. Really.
So, all you Truthers, conspiracy theorists, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other Ron Paul supporters reading my words from your room in your Mom's basement, feel free to print out this post and refer back to it so that your friends(?) and family members can have a Merry Christmas.
1
Most of your points are fair, and admittedly, some of my fellow libertarian minded Ron Paul supporters can get rather zealous in their attempts to spread the word and recruit new supporters. The spirit of most of this post seems to be in jest, and you are certainly not the only person to express such sentiments.
However, your closing remark is unnecessarily aggressive, hateful, and slanderous. For a man who professes to be a Christian, you sure are quick to throw stones at those who don't agree with you.
Understand, the average Ron Paul supporter is not a racist or a gay-basher or a misogynist. He or she is a literate, educated, tech-savvy person who much prefers funding local charities from their own pockets than pouring it wastefully into the giant Washington machine... Our parent's generation believed signing a large enough check meant something was being accomplished. Our generation is freezing the accounts, seizing the assets, and doing ourselves what we know must be done.
I'm not a "Truther", a conspiracy theorist, or a Neo-Nazi, or a white supremacist. I'm a 26 year old soon to be law student with a B.A. in philosophy. Nor do I live in my mother's basement. Shocking as this might be to you from a Ron Paul supporter, I rent my own home, and care for a dog and a cat. Also, I'm Jewish, as are a number of Ron Paul supporters I know, so please back off with the Neo-Nazi crap. I've given money to the humane society, the ASPCA, the WSPA, MS research, MD research, and local homeless shelters, to name some.
Your comments are offensive and ignorant. Humor is humor, and mean-spirited comments that your messiah would never approve of are exactly that.
Posted by: Michael Schocket at Sat Dec 22 16:33:40 2007 (cApGN)
2
I'll back off on "the neo-Nazi crap" when your candidate quits embracing them and taking their money.
As for the rest, I've encountered a great many more of the losers cited above than than folks like you -- though I will concede that the individual upon whom the post cited above does have an advanced degree and works in the aerospace industry.
And to be fair, he does not live in Mom's basement -- he and his wife moved out of her parents' garage about a year ago.
However, the entire tone of the piece was intended to be satirical -- and good satire has more than a little truth to it. That you are uncomfortable with what I wrote should tell you that you need to be (justifiably) uncomfortable with some of your political associates in the Ron Paul camp, not those of us who point out who they are.
3
You have a classic here. It could get copied and pasted in viral emails across the net. However, it will go further and win you a ton of hits if you got a little more fair. Number 4 isn't funny and number 10 is too mean.
Ron Paul has the most support from military and veterans, often from those of us who believe Operation Iraqi Freedom was the right thing to do. Your average RP supporter has a great job as well. You are not telling me that you believe the MSM do you? Heck, they are not even bothering to explain the methodology of their polls any more.
And what are the other Rep choices? None wish to mention the word Constitution in their speeches. Huckleberry and Romney push religiosity. Julie Annie and McCain push their similarity to Dems.
Posted by: Jim Peterson at Sun Dec 23 00:17:59 2007 (w1DrB)
4
From a non-truther, non-conspiracy theorist, non-neo-Nazi, non-white supremacist and not from a room in my Mom's basement (she doesn't even have a basement):
I'm a married, 28 year old father of 1 and a homeowner in New Hampshire- I'm also a Ron Paul supporter. I thought this post was actually kinda funny at first. But then it took a sudden turn into wack-ville- just like the people you described in your last sentence there. Chill out. Having hate in your heart is something that those people we stand against share in common with you- don't let them spread their hate to you!
So in the spirit of the holidays, please take a moment and imagine that you might be wrong about Ron Paul. Think for a moment that it's possible that with millions of supporters that there are always going to be wack-jobs at the edges. Imagine, that it's possible that his libertarian viewpoints are not in support of those people at the fringes, but are actually in support of liberty itself.
Does any of that sound plausible? Do you know for sure that your interpretation of Ron Paul is accurate? Let the hate out of your heart and then see what it tells you.
Peace be with you, Merry Christmas.
Walter
Posted by: Walter at Sun Dec 23 01:24:36 2007 (HbRrQ)
5
You guys really don't understand satire, do you.
A couple of points.
First, I include #4 BECAUSE IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED. My wife's cousin lost a leg and was left a quadriplegic by an IED. She tried to fend off a discussion of the war by mentioning that fact, only to have this guy plow right into the topics mentioned.
Second, #10 was what it finally took to get the guy to quit talking about Ron Paul -- at which point he went to sulk next to his wife.
As for the racist donors, I'm a former staffer of the website that broke the story, and remain friends with many current writers.
And yeah, I know that the bulk of Ron Paul supporters are not the sort of mutants I mention -- but I've met, read, or banned too many of the sort of folks I mentioned to call them an aberration. And as I mentioned, the guy in question has an advanced degree and works in the aerospace industry (for a government contractor, no less) -- and he is married to a former colleague who isn't quite as loopy about Ron Paul as he is (I only had to mention Mitt Romney once to get her to back off. And I do have a friend who is actively involved in the Ron Paul campaign, and who is none of the things I mentioned.
As for my opinion of Ron Paul -- He's the Congressman in the next district south of mine. I'm the GOP precinct chair in the last precinct north of CD14 in Harris County. I've met the man and had one extended conversation with him. I admired him up until that point. My decision to defeat him both nationally and locally was made shortly thereafter.
Maybe it is best to close with the words of a dear friend from church who worked many Ron Paul campaigns when our area was still a part of his district -- "Dr. Paul is a very nice man, but he's just gotten a bit odd as the years have gone by."
6
Most of your points are fair, and admittedly, some of my fellow libertarian minded Ron Paul supporters can get rather zealous in their attempts to spread the word and recruit new supporters. The spirit of most of this post seems to be in jest, and you are certainly not the only person to express such sentiments.
However, your closing remark is unnecessarily aggressive, hateful, and slanderous. For a man who professes to be a Christian, you sure are quick to throw stones at those who don't agree with you.
Understand, the average Ron Paul supporter is not a racist or a gay-basher or a misogynist. He or she is a literate, educated, tech-savvy person who much prefers funding local charities from their own pockets than pouring it wastefully into the giant Washington machine... Our parent's generation believed signing a large enough check meant something was being accomplished. Our generation is freezing the accounts, seizing the assets, and doing ourselves what we know must be done.
I'm not a "Truther", a conspiracy theorist, or a Neo-Nazi, or a white supremacist. I'm a 26 year old soon to be law student with a B.A. in philosophy. Nor do I live in my mother's basement. Shocking as this might be to you from a Ron Paul supporter, I rent my own home, and care for a dog and a cat. Also, I'm Jewish, as are a number of Ron Paul supporters I know, so please back off with the Neo-Nazi crap. I've given money to the humane society, the ASPCA, the WSPA, MS research, MD research, and local homeless shelters, to name some.
Your comments are offensive and ignorant. Humor is humor, and mean-spirited comments that your messiah would never approve of are exactly that.
Posted by: Michael at Sun Dec 23 05:58:38 2007 (cApGN)
7
Gee, Michael, thanks for coming back and posting the same comment you did twice yesterday. Just goes to show that you haven't bothered to read either of my comments, including the one directly responding to you.
Clearly you fall into the OTHER major category of Ron Paul supporters -- crybabies who claim to support free speech but want to control what others say against them and their candidates. As such, it is no surprise that you losers gravitate to the same candidate as the other losers I cited above.
By the way -- you can come back and comment after you have achieved an understanding of the concept of satire -- something I know is covered in most 10th or 11th grade English classes.
8
I once frequented a website where most of the writers seemed to like this Ron Paul guy. At least one of them even said that he is our greatest congressman.
I got into a drawn-out feud with one of them, because he kept attacking Bush and the War in Iraq without bothering to explain why for a long time (he even blamed the War and Bush for the results of Hurricane Katrina!) and in such a vicious way that he would make Howard Dean proud.
Another writer there, who specializes in history, once claimed that Adolf Hitler was "a man with strange ideas" without bothering to mention that those "strange ideas" cost millions of ######## people their lives. He also strongly opposed the US alliance with Israel, using the George Washington "avoid foreign entanglements" argument. The first writer I mentioned agreed with him on that topic. Not that they're neo-Nazis...
I finally stopped going there because of the first writer (and a weirdo who claimed that rock music kills brain cells, and whom I managed to successfully debate, under the alias "Masked Crusader").
I should mention that this all took place a couple of years ago, at their old URL (www.virtuemag.org), and that I made a bit of a fool of myself, debating the first writer, not that the other guy didn't look foolish as well. Fortunately, I'd honed my debate skills by the time I debated "rock music kills brain cells" girl.
I should mention that all of the writers were home schooled and therefore, really smart. However, they were all in high school/college, so I guess some of them were not very wise. But since I'm still in high school, who am I to judge?
I just went to there website again. They moved to a new URL this year, and don't have any of the archives from their old URL. Perhaps they wanted to hide their previous foolishness...
By the way, the first two writers I mentioned are still writing for the site. Writer #2 has a history article on the front page, and Writer #1 is now the editor(!). (The assistant editor is a much wiser writer, as far as I can recall, never stooping to the other's insanity. I guess age trumps wisdom over there. But enough of my personal baggage).
I listed their current URL as my own because: a) I don't have a website of my own, b) I don't want to broadcast my e-mail address all over the internet, and c) it's easier than linking to them. Click my name if you want to see what they're up to now. (It actually seems pretty innocuous, but maybe with some digging)...
I also went to Walter's website (see above) and while his comment seems reasonable enough, on his website, he seems to borderline worship Ron Paul, seeing as how virtually the whole first page consists of posts about Ron Paul, not to mention (you guessed it), lots of videos of and about Ron Paul.
Anyway, what I am basically trying to say is that based on my personal experience with Ron Paul supporters, not to mention Ron Paul's own crazy views on the war, I am inclined to agree with everything you've said, Mr. Rhymes With Right.
Posted by: Michael at Sun Dec 23 19:43:25 2007 (FYl8N)
9
Oh man, I forgot that someone already used the name Michael. I'm the person who put up that last post.
Please don't confuse me with Michael "crybaby comment spammer" Shocket. I am a completely different human being from him. The opposing viewpoints in our comments should be enough to prove that, but I just wanted to clear things up. I too believe that Ron Paul and many of his supporters are crazy, and I don't want him to win the Republican primary.
Posted by: Michael H. at Tue Dec 25 19:11:49 2007 (FYl8N)
10
You know, it's interesting that you bring up this argument as proof of your position:
"but I've met, read, or banned too many of the sort of folks I mentioned to call them an aberration."
First of all, how do you know the person posting on your blog that you are banning lives in his mother's basement?
Actually, you get a little more candid with us and explain that you think Ron Paul's supporters are loons, get this, simply because YOU disagree. A little self-righteous, perhaps? To me, you appear to be entirely obnoxious and vomit-inducing. We'll just call you crazy. And since we won't know until Febuary if we outnumber you (we do, by far,) I will refrain from calling you a 'fringe basement dwelling techie (you admitted you were a staffer of a website that broke an entirely RIDICULOUS article that indeed made a lot of people laugh...but was not meant to be "satire.") until then.
So, it seems we have us a Mexican standoff. You label us all as fringe wackos, simply because you don't agree. We call you a fringe wacko, well, because your ideologies are killing this country and millions of people.
We'll soon see who's bullets hit who. Don't worry, we won't be as cruel to you as you have been to us. We are about freedom and liberty, remember?
Later whackjob.
Posted by: Scott M. at Wed Dec 26 04:40:39 2007 (TI/ay)
11
Michael H:
Michael S. and I had a very cordial exchange of emails on the matter -- it seemed that he double clicked the first time he posted, and later came back to repost because the message he had gotten the first time said that we were having commenting problems. I was a bit harsh with him.
12
Scott: I generally don't ban folks who live in their Mom's basement. I was referring to the racists and nutjobs referenced there who I have banned. Now call up the stairs and ask your mom to bring you some chocolate chip cookies and ovaltine before reading the rest of this, OK?
Now that I've got you back, Scott, go a little bit further. I don't think they are loons because i disagree with them. Heck, I'm married to a liberal Democrat, and I consider her perfectly sane -- merely wrong on most political issues. The reason I consider so many Ron Paul supporters to be loons is because of their behavior. Based upon my limited coursework in psychology and my encounters with Ron Paul supporters, I'd be willing to bet that paranoid schizophrenia is found at a higher rate among Ron Paul supporters than among the public at large. It isn't their philosophy that is the problem (you'd be surprised to find out how many points I am in rough agreement with you folks). Similarly, claims that Ron Paul supporters outnumber supporters of the rest of the GOP candidates is clearly delusional -- indicating serious psychological problems.
As for your personal opinion of me, you are more than welcome to it. Best of all, you are more than welcome to stay away from my site in order to avoid nausea and vomiting.
Oh, I'm curious -- where have i been cruel to you? How have i limited either your liberty or freedom with my words? Or is it just that you got your wittle feewings hurt?
Oh, one minor detail on the LST article -- while you call it ridiculous, I'm also struck by the fact that you can't call it FALSE. Let's face it -- Ron Paul is willing to accept cash from Nazis and other racists. Why shouldn't we judge him based upon that?
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stuck a toe in the presidential race Friday, taking strong issue after Republican Mike Huckabee accused the administration of having an "arrogant bunker mentality" on foreign policy.
"The idea that somehow this is a go-it-alone policy is just simply ludicrous," she said, briefly weighing in on politics during a State Department news conference in Washington. "One would only have to be not observing the facts, let me say that, to say that this is now a go-it-alone foreign policy."
In response, Huckabee said he held Rice in high regard but questioned whether she had read the entire Foreign Affairs journal article in which he made the "bunker mentality" remark that has drawn fire from fellow Republican candidates.
"Certainly she has a right to speak out. She's still a citizen. I respect her very much," Huckabee told reporters as he campaigned in Iowa.
But he added: "Did she actually read the article or is she reacting as others have to the headlines and to the synopsis that has been printed?"
No, Governor, she read the whole thing -- and she is reacting to the comments of an amateur who is willing to lie about our foreign policy for his own political advantage. Fine, we expect that from Democrats. We expect that from Ron Paul. And now it seems we should expect such things from you. What do all of these individuals have in common -- THEY ARE NOT CONSERVATIVES.
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NAME: Greg
AGE: 40-Something
SEX: Male
MARITAL STATUS: Married
OCCUPATION: World History Teacher
LOCATION: Seabrook, TX
DISCLAIMER: All posts reflect my views alone, and not the view of my wife, my dog, my employer, or anyone else. All comments reflect the view of the commenter, and permitting a comment to remain on this site in no way indicates my support for the ideas expressed in the comment.
D, 
![20071220RonPaulDonBlack[1].jpg](http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu/archives/images/20071220RonPaulDonBlack[1].jpg)
Christmas is the birthday of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Sorry, that means we don't believe that Ron Paul is the Messiah, even if you do.
