Catholic and Conservative Former Radio Talk Host Featuring DaTechGuy's Magnificent Seven
The teaser for this week’s commentary is titled “They behaved as if ‘Twere flat”
The full commentary is here if you would like to see it here is what you should do:
If you want the code simply hit DaTipJar
and I’ll send you the code as soon as I see the confirmation e-mail. If you don’t want to worry about ever missing a single video choose any subscription level
and I will e-mail you the codes every week as soon as the videos are uploaded and the posts are ready.
I’ve long had the opinion that there is no sense in having complicated campaign finance laws.
The limits on campaign contributes and the rules on dinners and where you can fund raise simply create Byzantine schemes to defy or skit the law. It’s a full employment scheme for consultants and lawyers who make a good living taking their clients as close to the sidelines of the law as they can without going out-of-bounds.
I’ve always found this wasteful, impractical nonsense, particularly in an internet age. My thought has always been: No limits, full disclosure and huge penalties for non-disclosure. That increases the incentive for people to openly give what they want and full disclosure means when a candidate or sitting pol is being bought you know it.
This plan rests on two pillars:
The people. If the people have access to this information via the net, they can discover who is paying what to who. This gives every voter has the ability to make an informed decision if they choose to.
The press: It would require little effort for the press to access such a public database, in fact one would assume a large city paper would assign at least a few people to monitor it. A smaller paper might do the same for their member of congress and senators and the members of the state legislatures in their district. It assures them of a nice three-story sequence with commentary to wit:
Reporting of said contribution: “Amalgamated Widgets of Walla Walla today make a large contribution to congressman Igot Bigpockets (R-Walla Walla) in the amount of $35,000. Congressman bigpockets sits on the committee that supervises the export of proprietary widgets to Asia.”
Reporting of comments or lack thereof: “Amalgamated Widgets had no comment on their large contribution to the campaign of congressman Bigpockets yesterday. When asked for comment congressman Bigpockets spokeswoman I. Candi said: ‘The congressman appreciates the support of an employer of so many in his district and will fight to help keep those jobs in Walla Walla.'”
Analysis of the moves: “With a bill relaxing widget export rules in committee congress, Amalgamated Widgets is taxing no chances. With the environmental group AOTBS (American Opposed to Building Stuff) lavishing dollars on committee members to keep the bill stalled Amalgamated decided it was time to go all in.”
and commentary: from the left: “The apparent ownership of congressman Bigpockets by amalgamated couldn’t be more clear if it was 1767 and he was a man named Kunta Kinte standing on a block in Virgina.” and from the right: “The Irony of the activists of AOTBS deriding industry while chattering away on cell phones and tapping on their tablets is only exceeded by their ultra rich supporters with large stakes in Xai Widgets International who stands to lose most from this bill.”
Such a system in theory would work fine, the data would be out there, active and involved voters will get the information and act on it, while thanks to the press reports on it more passive voters will have at least an inkling of what is going on.
However the more I see how far the left the press has gone where we’ve reached a point where sex scandals involving US Senators and underage hookers are not newsworthy while videos can be altered to create outrage to support an issue and where “Look at the ass on her” doesn’t draw a comment from Feminist authors. I must conclude there is little or no chance under the system I envision of money going to liberal pols from liberal contributors from business or groups on the left to enter into the conversation.
Given that situation, these lousy and incomprehensible laws are the only restraint on the influence or restraint to the outright purchase of the pols of the left.
Until and unless we of the right gain a stronger voice in media and culture we will have to settle for the law to provide the stick that the press will not.
This decision, is exactly the wrong one.
And so it was that I was scheduled to appear at a Catholic Men’s Conference in Worcester, Massachusetts on March 16, until today, when the Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester, Robert McManus, directed that my appearance be canceled. McManus was under pressure from Islamic supremacist groups who were calling and emailing the diocese demanding that he cancel my appearance. I’ve been informed that they were asked to call the diocese and demand the cancellation by a Boston Globe reporter named Lisa J. Wangsness, who contacted me this morning and appears to have instigated the entire controversy.
It will win us no friends and simply embolden those who hate the church and wish to bring us down.
I know Robert Spencer, he’s a good and honorable man, Bishop Robert McManus is a good man and has been an excellent bishop but the key word here is “man” and every man makes a bad move on occasion.
The dis-invitation of Robert Spencer to this year’s Worcester Catholic Men’s Conference is not a sin, but it is a shame.
I have sent an e-mail urging the Bishop to reconsider this decision and I would further urge you to pray the Bishop be given discernment, (Perhaps the guardian Angel prayer).
Angel of God his guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits him here, ever this day be at his side, to light, to guard to rule to guide.
This btw is a prayer that should be used liberally for people and for yourself in times of temptation.
Chief Wild Eagle: This funny country, once only buffalo live here, Indian come, then paleface come, now paleface give $300 for land Indian take away from buffalo…could only happen in America.
F Troop Iron Horse Go Home 1965
I’ve been very busy with the new Syndicated Radio show so I haven’t had a lot of time to finish the excellent book my son gave me for Christmas Ships of Oak Guns of Iron on the War of 1812. The book jumps from land to see (the land war is often ignored In the 275 pages that I’ve finished as the chapters jump from land to sea there was a note concerning the Creek Indian Wars that leaped off the page 261:
The southern tribes were incurring burdensome trade debts with the United States in exchange for manufactured goods and foods and land concessions had become a common mechanism to extinguish the debt.
And that’s when it hit
Every day the Federal government, states and cities seize land from individuals and corporations for unpaid taxes, illegal activities etc etc etc.
All we have to do is, at fair market value, cede said land on the federal, state and city level to the recognized tribe whose lands at the time of the foundation of the nation were closest to the said land while the tribes assume a portion of the city, state or federal debt equal to the value of the land ceded.
In every public school our liberal friends inform our children how HORRIBLE we are, how America is built on land stolen from the American Indian, well under this plan the American Indian can get their land back piece by piece while retiring debts that our government can’t hope to repay otherwise.
Here’s the big chance for Barack Obama, Andrew Cuomo, Pat Quinn, Jerry Brown and Martin O’Malley to not only get their fiscal houses in order but to strike a blow for justice for the American Indian.
And for American Indians, here is a chance to get back the land of your ancestors and prove that you can certainly do better with it than a bunch of Europeans or even better to eschew all that nasty non-stone age technology and mechanics those interlopers brought with them and get back get back to nature with no carbon footprint for the eye to see.
Environmentalists, and Animals lovers will adore you as will the bear, wolf, and the bobcat who can return to those areas without worrying about those nasty evil guns used to drive them out in the first place.
It will be wonderful, Unless of course today’s American Indian has picked up certain bad habits:
Chief Wild Eagle:We can not lose business or my people will starve!
Corporal Agarn:What are you talking about chief? The woods are full of game, fish in the streams, nuts berries…
Roaring Chicken:Hekawis never learn to live off land
Chief Wild Eagle:Last time we have hunting party have to send out search party to find them
Roaring Chicken:Still waiting for search party to come back
F-Troop The Girl from Philadelphia 1965
Now I know what some of you are thinking: Such a deal gives an unfair advantages to tribes like the Narraganset, Delaware, Paiute, Mohave, the Winnebago, Miami, Shawnee, Chickasaw, Susquehannock, Powhatan and the Iroquois, whose ancestral lands are in blue states where budgets are doing poorly as opposed to tribes like the Apache, Comanche, Wichita and Kiowa, Dakota Sioux, Menominee, Creek and the united Seminoles as their states governed by people like Scott Walker and Rick Perry.
Have no fear thanks to the Urban areas run into the ground by Democrats who have an iron grip upon them those Red State Tribes can make deals with large democrat cities like Detroit to get prime spots in cities that were once Indian settlements in days past.
After all I’m sure the UN would approve.
Today on Morning Joe Joe Scarborough used an argument so convoluted that only an MSNBC audience could fall for it.
Joe attacked “the survivalist wing” of the NRA as he put it. He insisted nobody is coming for your guns and assured viewers that thanks to the 5-4 decision of the supreme court on guns, the right to bear arms is protected and any suggestion otherwise is fantasy.
THEN practically in the same breath, he warned the GOP that if they stand against “sensible gun restricts” we will get a democrat in 2016 appointing liberal judges who will gut the 2nd amendment.
Here is my question:
“If nobody is coming for our guns, why would the 2nd amendment be in danger of being ‘gutted’ by liberal judges?”
Despite many people’s belief that liberal judges are created by Saruman fully formed in the depths of the earth of a scared Isengard, liberal Supreme court judges are created out of liberal federal circuit judges and liberal lawyers. They are created by liberal by liberal universities on liberal campuses financed liberally by grants by liberals and tax dollars provided by big government.
By your own argument therefore we must conclude the following: There is, in fact, a large cadre of liberals out to gut the 2nd amendment just waiting for the chance to do so.
Most Conservatives of course are smart enough to know liberals will try to disarm us regardless of what we do, but prolonged exposure to MSNBC must do things to some folks over time.
Bottom line while Joe Scarbrough is saying something like: Support gun control to keep a liberal supreme court from gutting the 2nd amendment the REAL argument he is making is this: “Give up your arms willingly or a liberal supreme court will come and take them.”
the proper answer to that statement of course is this:
Come and take them then. Who will be first?
Update: here is the video via Unedited Politics
Perchik: Money is the world’s curse.
Tevye: May the Lord smite me with it. And may I never recover!
Fiddler on the Roof 1971
A while Back the twin city tea party hosted Pat Barron who ran as an independent for Congress back in 2010 in what was at the time the 3rd Massachusetts district. He spoke about money in politics and noted that one of the real surprises that a lot of new members of congress face is the huge demands from the party to raise funds.
He described phone banking with long lists of potential contributes and thresholds that members are expected to attain. The mental picture is something like a giant telemarketing scheme that never seems to end with members of congress a direct cog in it
So when I read this story out of New Jersey…
An Elmwood Park man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiring with his brother to violate federal election law by steering $21,400 in illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez.
Benedetto Bigica, 45, admitted that he worked with his brother, Joseph, of Franklin Lakes, from April 2005 to April 2008 to make the illegal contributions
…and this response from the Menendez campaign…
A spokesman for Menendez has acknowledged that the senator was the unnamed federal official cited in court papers in the case but said Menendez was a victim of Joseph Bigica’s.
“Senator Menendez’s campaign, a victim of the fraud that ensued, cooperated fully with the investigation,” Mike Soliman, Menendez’s state director and former campaign manager, said Tuesday.
…my head started to spin.
Pols like Senator Menendez routinely seek donations of large amounts of money, A businessman funnels a large amount of money to him and rather than an accomplice as a receiver of $98,000 in illegal campaign funds this makes Senator Menendez… a victim!
True it wasn’t until there was a guilty plea in this case that the Senator decided to abdicate victim status by giving the money to charity, but sometimes it takes time for victims to come forward.
What I find interesting is how little stretching of this elastic definition of “victimhood” it would take for Joseph Bigica to claim the title:
Joseph Bigica, 47, an insurance broker, was a prominent Democratic contributor who won millions of dollars in no-bid government contracts across North Jersey.
After all if the Senator is a victim for receiving tens of thousands by less that ethical means surely those millions of dollars make Mr Bigica an even bigger victim!
This story might be an alternative explanation as to why Senator Menendez abruptly left yesterday’s hurricane Sandy press conference, although it makes little sense. The press conference is about helping victims and the senator as a victim should have fit right in.
The victim status that comes from obtaining money from an illegal source also explains his silence to Kerry Picket concerning the underage Dominican Hooker Story
Two women from the Dominican Republic told The Daily Caller that Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez paid them for sex earlier this year.
In interviews, the two women said they met Menendez around Easter at Casa de Campo, an expensive 7,000-acre resort in the Dominican Republic. They claimed Menendez agreed to pay them $500 for sex acts, but in the end they each received only $100.
The senator’s alleged underpayment of these young ladies apparently was an effort to limit the degree of their victimhood.
Furthermore his continued silence on the matter in the face of a FBI investigation is clearly an effort by the senator to keep the embarrassment of these young ladies victim status away from the national press, or at least away from the members of the national press that finds it newsworthy.
And you thought Chivalry is dead?
Update: Chivalry or no, once Jay Leno starts joking
it’s hard to ignore it. Particular when the FBI is banging down doors:
FBI agents late Tuesday night raided the West Palm Beach business of an eye doctor suspected of providing free trips and even underage Dominican Republic prostitutes to U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. — who has denied what he calls the “fallacious allegations.”
Agents gathered at the medical-office complex of Dr. Salomon Melgen, a contributor to Menendez and other prominent politicians, to start hauling away potential evidence in several vans.
Another contributor, Don’t tell me the Senator has been victimized again!
Hey Jewish democrats, remember at the convention when Democrats removed Jerusalem from the platform and it took three tries to put it back in. Remember when the Media and the party told you that it was just a bad political fluke and that the party and President Obama really Really REALLY supports Israel?
Well…PSYCHE!
Now that he has secured his second term, President Barack Obama has already secretly pledged to the Palestinians he will press Israel into a new round of so-called land-for-peace negotiations, a top Palestinian Authority negotiator told KleinOnline.
The negotiator said top members of the Obama administration told the Palestinians the U.S. president will renew talks aimed at creating a Palestinian state in the so-called 1967 borders – meaning in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and, notably, eastern Jerusalem.
If you want to be suckers that’s one thing but when you put an entire people at risk by being fools, it’s simply wrong.
There is a bit on the net this week on Fr Corapi, but while I like Fr. Longnecker and Mark Shea if I had to pick someone to comment on his situation, I’d pick this guy.
I urge you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose. For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers, by Chloe’s people, that there are rivalries among you. I mean that each of you is saying, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Kephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
Good advice to anyone too enamored
There is a reason why Pride is first on the deadly sin list, every priest no matter how skilled or right should keep this in mind.
A friend’s daughter recently started at a highly regarded boarding school. When her mother asked how she was enjoying the mixed-sex environment, the girl said quietly: “You have to give the boys oral sex or they get cross.” Reeling with shock, the mum protested that her darling daughter did not have to do anything of the sort. “Oh yes you do,” replied the girl. “And you have to shave down there or the boys don’t like it.”
That’s just a sample. There’s also:
Only last week, we heard the awful story of Chevonea Kendall-Bryan, who fell to her death after pleading with a boy on the pavement below to erase the recording of her performing a sex act on him. “How much can I handle? HONESTLY. I beg you, delete that,” texted Chevonea. She was 13.
The author of this article, Allison Pearson, talks a lot about the porn culture and the ready access to a “virtual world” (online, texting, etc.). But she misses the point. We could have thrown mobile phones at women in the 1860s, but no man would have dared to ask a lady to perform fellatio on him, because her dad would shoot him. As in, dual to the death, all members of her family lined up to protest the treatment of their sister. (I will note that some very backwards countries shoot the wronged woman, not the offending man.)
This is a sexual revolution issue. Once we started saying that promiscuity is empowering, that sexual experimentation is fun for women, that pregnancy is the only obstacle a woman faces in intimate acts, we gave young men license to treat young women like unpaid prostitutes. (Actually, worse – a man might understand if a prostitute said that she was off-duty for the night.)
The leaders of the sexual revolution – courted by men brought up with different standards than the ones espoused by the likes of Steinem – had it good. But their legacy to my generation, and the generation behind me, is men brought up to believe that only a repressed woman does not put out, that sex is their right, and that there is nothing emotional that happens to a woman when she performs intimate (and sometimes quite vulgar and undignified) sex acts on men who are not her husband. The logical result, no matter what the intentions of these Baby Boomer women were, is that men feel it is their natural right to sexually exploit all women.
Nice going, “feminists”. Nice going.
Did you miss the first Syndicated edition of DaTechGuy on DaRadio?
That’s very sad, but you know what would be sadder? Never EVER getting to hear it!
So if you want to catch the Great Debate between Smitty & Cynthia Yockey and the first hour with the Mandate Amendment Coalition you can listen here.
And this week don’t miss the Chicks on the Right on DaTechGuy on DaRadio Syndicated by Cameo Productions on the Money Matters Radio Network For more information click here.
King Edward (Longshanks) I: I shall offer a truce and buy him off.
Braveheart 1995
Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Today the Washington Post is all over a poll showing trouble for Mitch McConnell:
Only 17 percent of registered voters in Kentucky say they will vote for him in 2014, including only 34 percent of Republicans. Thirty-four percent of voters plan to oppose him, 44 percent want to see their other options, and 6 percent are not sure.
Politico jumps on it and notices that Democrats are hoping to do what they did in Missouri, dangling dollars preempting a strong tea party candidate (such as a Sarah Steelman supported by Sarah Palin supported) in favor of a weak tea party candidate (such as Todd Akin) in the primary instead.
Interestingly enough Mitch McConnell is also making moves to preempt the tea party. Rather than taking the Mitt Romney “destroy the Paul People” route he has not only reached out victorious Tea Party candidates who he opposed but their staffs too:
Now, Paul is supporting McConnell’s reelection bid. And much to the chagrin of tea party activists looking for a McConnell primary challenger, Massie has emphatically said he won’t take on McConnell. The conservative congressman is even scheduled to be a featured guest at a McConnell fundraiser in February in Northern Kentucky.
And one of McConnell’s first moves in his campaign was to hire a trusted aide of the Paul family — Jesse Benton — to run his campaign.
“Sen. McConnell is a true friend of the tea party and is working to help carry their voices in Washington,” said Benton, who led both Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign and Rand Paul’s 2010 Senate race. “As I talk to grass-roots activists across Kentucky, I am very pleased at my reception and the great relationship we are building.
and McConnell has suddenly showed up at tea party events:
FRANK HARRIS: As far as I’m concerned, bringing Mitch in just shows that Mitch is afraid. He finally has to acknowledge the power, and the strength, of the Tea Party Movement.
BAILEY: Still, McConnell received a warm reception, and polite applause, from the Tea Party crowd. Louisville resident Jim Coyle MC’d the event. He admits he doesn’t agree with McConnell on much but will back him, anyway.
JIM COYLE: We have put out invitations to Senator McConnell before. And he hasn’t responded – and he hasn’t replied. But he did decide to come work with us on this one, so I’ll take him at his word. And we’ll work on Obamacare, one step at a time.
The various mechanization are to some degree uninteresting, after all this is the way politics is done but I find one question very interesting:
Since the election the media has been telling us the tea party is weak, the tea party is irrelevant, the tea party is finished…
…if this is true, why is the left even considering dealing with them to defeat or weaken or Mitch McConnell and why is McConnell courting them to keep it from happening?
Not long ago when NY decided to impose one of the stiffest Gun Laws in the nation upon it’s people Texas Decided to say to New Yorkers to come on down.
Now Governor Patrick of Massachusetts has decided to run his own ad for the Lone Star State in the form of his budget:
Gov. Deval Patrick has asked for $1.9 billion in new and increased taxes, and on Wednesday he reportedly advanced a plan that would expand the state’s budget by $2.6 billion – an 8.1 percent increase that would bring state spending to $34.8 billion.
This includes tax increases on soda, candy & gas, along with increased fees.
He is also talking about eliminating several tax deductions, counting on people in a bad economy willing to be played for suckers gamble their money away and in the one sop in a pile of manure he proposes dropping the sales tax (from 6.25). The once sensible move in the entire stack.
Hey we re-elected this government and we deserve what we get but I’d think the Governor might allow Texas and other states to produce their own ads rather than creating a ready-made one for them with this budget.
Before the Governor’s budget a fellow on Twitter gave me this advice.
@datechguyblog @joenbc Thought that in #CT; #CA; #NV. Finally moved to #TX. Believe me: move. Plenty of room for you here.
— Paul A’Barge (@pabarge) January 22, 2013
even with this new budget I’m unlikely to leave, but I have two sons in college and I can’t see either one staying, meaning unless I follow them Chris Christie’s prediction about airplane grandparents will come true.
and I suspect I won’t be alone.
IAN: If only you could stand away from this thing, you’d see it clearly. Autloc’s the extraordinary man here. He’s the reasonable one, the civilised one, the one that’s prepared to listen to advice. But he’s one man, Barbara. One man.
Doctor Who The Aztecs 1964
“Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.”
General Charles Napier 1843.”
One of the most amazing terms that has become prevalent among the left is something they call cultural imperialism. The idea that all cultures and all practices are equally good and equally right and to impose one set of beliefs upon another people is a moral wrong.
The left unites on this subject as they do on few others, using it as a club against both Christianity and Western Civilization in general. I recall the outrage when Ann Coulter a few days after September 11th with close friends newly slaughtered had this to say:
We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren’t punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That’s war
No doubt such sentiments were fueled by the newly dead in NY and Washington but a dozen years after she was pilloried for her statements as we prepare to leave the Afghan women to the tender mercies of the Taliban, Egypt to the tender mercies of the Muslim Brotherhood, Algeria, Syria and Libya to the tender mercies of Islamsts, the oil states to the tender mercies of an atomic Iran and debate aiding France in Mali against Radical Islamsits the time has come to re-consider our thinking about Islam in general and radical Islam in particular.
That being the case the thing that naturally comes to my mind to understand what is going on is…Doctor Who.
When the series was first launched the choice of a Science Teach and a History Teacher in the TARDIS was deliberate as stories would go from history based to science or sci-fi based. In the current series whenever the Doctor and his friends end up in Earth history it’s invariably to deal with some kind of alien invasion or space threat threatening to change history, but in the early years of Dr. Who it was just interacting with the people of the time and dealing with whatever came up.
Yesterday BBC America played the 1964 1st Doctor Episode The Aztecs. With only 17 stories available in their entirety and not all of them 2 hours or less, the use of a historical story (meaning the cheesy special effects of 1964 are bypassed) combined with the reputation of the story as one of the best of the era it was an easy choice, but there is not a single story more relevant to events taking place today then this one.
The following contains spoilers so if you don’t want to know details about the episode skip to page 3, otherwise go to page 2 for a summary of Doctor Who and the Aztecs.
and so we return to the present day. What were the lessons of that episode?
Barbara’s expertise on the Aztecs was in the classroom, when she said:
BARBARA: Ah, well, that was one of my specialties, Susan.
what she knew about the Aztecs came from her studies and while she was aware of the violent and bloodthirsty side of them, her civilized upbringing making it difficult to visualize the more brutal aspects of Aztec cultures (Considering her age and proximity to WW 2 that’s actually odd. That she meets an exceptional man (Autloc) makes it all the more difficult for her to see the Aztecs as they are, yet even she doesn’t catch that while he is willing to consider her words he doesn’t reflexively reject their ways:
BARBARA: To say there shall be no more human sacrifice?
AUTLOC: I shall not oppose the gods if it is their will that such sacrifices cease.
Note the phraseology I shall not oppose, not: “I believe it’s wrong,” or “I see what you mean.” He is willing to reject human sacrifice because he sees it as the command of a god, not because it is inhumanity to his fellow-man.
And while Barbara doesn’t see the Aztec world as it is. Ian who would have been of age for national service does and has been outside the temple does:
IAN: … If only you could stand away from this thing, you’d see it clearly. Autloc’s the extraordinary man here. He’s the reasonable one, the civilized one, the one that’s prepared to listen to advice. But he’s one man, Barbara. One man.
While the Dr. Who special notes the implications of history, the real story here is the difference between an abstract academic knowledge of a culture and practical experience living within it…
…and that neatly summarizes the educated and diplomatic left and the young fools they teach when it comes to Islam in general and Radical Islam in particular.
Islam has certain set of teachings, and they do not change. Consider the recent case of a female Islamic Teacher who taught in school that homosexuals should be incinerated:
The Islamic Religious Community presumes that after having spent a whole year near Mecca, she has lost sense of what one can say in a Western society.”
Note what the community doesn’t say: “Incinerating Homosexuals is wrong“, “We don’t believe in incinerating homosexuals” they say “she has lost the sense of what one can say in a Western Society“.
Let’s note that these are members of the Islamic community IN THE WEST, not in the Middle east.
Or consider the stoning in Dearborn here is a comment from the group that was stoned:
This is a police officer in uniform cheering the crowd on as they throw us out. Now, let me explain something. We preach to a lot of venues. We go to Mardi Gras, spring break, the Academy Awards, baseball games, plus we preach to a lot of religious people as well. Such as Salt Lake City, when the Pope comes to America, we have signs for him and we follow him in the city that he is in; some of the Evangelicals that are on TV that are nothing more than money hungry devils, we preach to them too.
Nobody gets violent except the Muslims. Yet they are under the umbrella of the ‘Religion of Peace.’ They are nothing more than people just waiting to attack us and because the sheriff’s department did nothing to those little kids throwing debris at us, all that did was fuel fire for these kids because they feel invincible. They throw things at us for an hour and a half, they got away with it, they screamed and hollered and we got kicked out of the event. They just fueled a monster that one day is going to strap a bomb on themselves and blow themselves up for their god and this sheriff’s department actually fueled that monster.
Again this is in an American City where this takes place, with Muslims who live in America, not in Iran or Egypt.
The bottom line is this: diplomats, academics and celebrities tend to encounter a sanitized version of Islam if they actually encounter it at all. They are an army of Barbaras who see only what they’ve read and been told. Granted some of them do understand and don’t care for reasons I describe here, but most will never encounter Muslims as they are in their own land (as Lara Logan did) or in their own language as translated by MEMRI.
Let me give a personal example:
I will be having the Imam of the Fitchburg Mosque on my show next month (Feb 23rd 1 pm. I’ve interviewed him before and talked to him. He’s a pretty nice guy and the local Muslims have never been anything but friendly, but they are also in a Muslim sect called the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
In many ways the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is what academic west dreams Islam to be: they eschew violence and advocate Islam through argument and persuasion “Jihad of the tongue” per their founder.
He (Mirza Ghulam Ahmad) advocated a peaceful propagation of Islam and emphatically argued against the necessity of Jihad in its military form in the present age.
They believe Ahmad to be the messiah and like Autloc, obey said messiah.
Whenever radical Islamists or CAIR need an example of peaceful Islam the Ahmadiyya Muslims are pushed to the forefront however outside of the US in Muslim lands Ahmadiyya Muslims are a tiny sect considered non-believers by almost all mainstream Muslims and widely and at times violently persecuted outside of the west.
Yet these facts are ignored by the Army of Barbaras in the west. The fact that they are non-representative of Islam both in the US and internationally would shatter the image of Islam that they carry and they simply don’t want to accept it.
The time will come when their Ian will come along and acquaint them with the reality. Whether that Ian will be in the form of an argument such as the one I’ve made today or of an action that can’t be denied remains to be seen.
Hopefully said action will not be as fatal as the sacrifices made by the Aztecs.
The TARDIS lands in pre-conquistador Mexico inside a tomb as the crew go outside they examine the area. The Doctor’s grandchild Susan comments on the barbarism of the Aztecs but Barbara while putting on a bracelet counters:
BARBARA: Oh, that was only one side to their nature. The other side was highly civilized.
SUSAN: The Spanish didn’t think so.
BARBARA: They only saw the acts of sacrifice. That was the tragedy of the Aztecs. The whole civilization was completely destroyed, the good as well as the evil.
as Susan returns to the TARDIS to get the others a section of the wall opens and Barbara goes through it. The Aztec high priest of knowledge Autloc sees her and orders her seized until they spot the bracelet. When the other come through the door looking for her they are shocked to discover that Barbara is thought to be the reincarnation of the priest Yetaxa, but also discover there is no way to open the door from their side of the wall to the sealed tomb.
The Doctor takes advantage convincing Autloc and the priest of sacrifice Tlotoxl to let them mingle with the people in the hopes of finding a way back through the temple to the TARDIS meanwhile Barbara is scheduled by the priests to appear at a ceremony to the Aztec rain god.
When the Doctor discovers a human sacrifice is to be made at the ceremony he quickly goes to Barbara to warn her not to interfere but Barbara, having none of it, decides to use her place as a God to stop human sacrifice once and for all. Things don’t quite work out as planned:
BARBARA: Stop. I, Yetaxa, command you. There shall be no more blood split.
MAN: You have denied me honour.
TLOTOXL: Honour us then with your death.
(the man jumps off the platform to his death)
This brings her under the suspicion of Tlotoxl who deems her a false goddess.. He demands the punishment of Susan who cried out at the impending sacrifice. Autloc backs Barbara (Yetaxa) that Susan be instead schooled in proper Aztec ways. When alone the Doctor scolds Barbara and suggests she play Autloc who still has faith in her off of Tlotoxl while he continues to look for a way back in the temple.
While Tlotoxl hatches plots to destroy or discredit Barbara and the “servants of Yetaxa” who he sees as rivals to his power, Autloc already impressed by Susan’s intelligence, speaks to Barbara. She again tries to convince him that Human Sacrifice must end:
BARBARA: Were you not angry when I forbade the sacrifice to the Rain God?
AUTLOC: No.
BARBARA: Do you question the value of such sacrifice?
AUTLOC: I accepted it. But we send messengers to the gods, why should the gods not send a messenger to us?
BARBARA: To say there shall be no more human sacrifice?
AUTLOC: I shall not oppose the gods if it is their will that such sacrifices cease.BARBARA: The High Priest of Knowledge speaks with great wisdom.
AUTLOC: If your words are denied, shall we not be living in defiance of the gods?
The Doctor befriends a woman Cameca who introduces him to the builder of the temple’s son Ixta, who unknown to the Doctor, has become Ian’s rival for command of the Aztec armies. In exchange for aid to defeat “an enemy” (Ian) in combat The Doctor gains Ixta’s promise to see the temple plans
Meanwhile things continue to go poorly for Barbara as she has to overrule Aztec law to save the Doctor from punishment for violating an Aztec law while needing to resort to a knife to Tlotoxl throat to foil his and Ixta’s scheme to slay Ian when the Doctors slow acting drug takes effect. That public embarrassment goes over poorly and continues to put Autloc, who still backs Barbara on the spot:
BARBARA: There’s to be an eclipse. And Tlotoxl will offer human blood so that the sun will shine again.
AUTLOC: Yes.
BARBARA: But it’s a trick! As the High Priest of Knowledge, you know the sun will shine again.
AUTLOC: Unless the gods withdraw their favour from us.
BARBARA: Am I not a god? Support me. Tlotoxl won’t dare defy us both.
AUTLOC: If I take that course, there is no way back for me. In all humility, I beg you, do not deceive me or prove false to me.
After Ian overhears Tlotoxl conspiring with a 3rd priest Tonla to harm Barbara he goes to warn with her:
BARBARA: I’ll watch them both. Tlotoxl’s dangerous. He seems able to bring people around to his way of thinking.
IAN: You’ve got it all wrong, Barbara. All the people here share Tlotoxl’s views.
BARBARA: What about Autloc? I’m sick and tired of all this arguing and quarreling. First the Doctor and now you. Why can’t you see what I’m trying to do?
Barbara has been only in the temple with regular contact with Tlotoxl & Autloc while Ian has been among the people and sees thing differently
BARBARA: Well you’re not helping. Tlotoxl’s evil and he’ll make everyone else the same.
IAN: They are the same, Barbara. That’s the whole point. You keep on insisting that Tlotoxl’s the odd man out, but he isn’t.
BARBARA: I don’t believe it.
IAN: Well, you must. If only you could stand away from this thing, you’d see it clearly. Autloc’s the extraordinary man here. He’s the reasonable one, the civilized one, the one that’s prepared to listen to advice. But he’s one man, Barbara. One man.
BARBARA: Then everything I’ve tried to do. Oh, I thought I could alter them.
IAN: You can’t fight a whole way of life, Barbara.
BARBARA: I suppose not. I’ve just been fooling myself.
Ian’s warning foils an attempt to poison Barbara, but Susan’s refusal to marry the “perfect victim” (scheduled to be sacrificed thus all his requests must be obeyed) puts her in Tlotolx’s power for punishment. Meanwhile the Doctor’s attempts to get discover not only leads to his accidental engagement to Cameca but allows Ixta to trap Ian behind a heavy stone which is regularly flooded.
The death trap for Ian turns into a way back into the tomb. He with the Doctor help secures a method of opening the sealed passage from the outside and aids Susan in her escape with the help of the Doctor’s affianced. Autloc disillusioned by all removes himself to the wilderness, no longer believing in the Aztec way, and after a climatic battle between Ian and Ixta the TARDIS crew escapes behind the wall. Tlotoxl sacrifices the perfect victim to the Gods as scheduled and history resumes its course. Barbara is despondent:
BARBARA: What’s the point of traveling through time and space if we can’t change anything? Nothing. Tlotoxl had to win.
DOCTOR: Yes.
BARBARA: And the one man I had respect for, I deceived. Poor Autloc. I gave him false hope and in the end he lost his faith.
DOCTOR: He found another faith, a better, and that’s the good you’ve done. You failed to save a civilization, but at least you helped one man.
and with that they enter the TARDIS and leave with the doctor keeping a keepsake of the first human women he ever was attracted to.
Tonight comes the first of the BBC specials celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who
BBC America plans to do a doctor a month starting with the 1st Doctor William Hartnell.
After the Special they will show an episode from the Hartnell era. I had expected them to go with the very first Dr. Who episode but instead they are picking my favorite of the Hartnell era The Aztecs.
It is not only one of the best written and best acted of the era, it is the most provocative, at least it’s provocative if you live in 2013.
Watch the episode tonight (10 PM EST) and lets see if you spot the allegory to take with you.
Two Simple words in the English Language: I Forgot
Steve Martin
In the movie “A guide for the married man” there is a famous exchange between Walter Mathew and Robert Morse when Matthau’s character is advised what to do in case his wife gets suspicious in the event of an affair:
Mosre: Deny Deny Deny, no matter what she knows or thinks she knows, Deny it!
Matthau: But what if she really knows…
Mosre: Deny it
Mosre: but what if she really
Mosre: Deny
Mosre: but what if she
Mosre: Deny Deny DENY!
I suspect this was the strategy of Senator Robert Melendez as he appeared on ABC’s THIS WEEK two days after news of the FBI investigation of a sexual scandal involving underage Dominican Hookers broke.
Alas for the Senator ABC News’ Martha Raddatz totally foiled that strategy by cleverly choosing to refuse to ask a single question on the subject provoking this comment from Jim Hoft
That’s outrageous. You could imagine the grilling this man would have taken if he had an “R” behind his name instead of a “D”. Instead, ABC willfully keeps the public in the dark on this horrific scandal.
and this from Glenn Reynolds
That’s what media apparatchiks do.
I’d say that Senator Menendez should think his lucky starts, but as this story actually broke before the election and no member of the mainstream media had bothered to touch it, perhaps Martha Raddatz thought it would be unfair for them to start now.
Of course, now we have two scandals. Senator Menendez’s scandal now being investigated by the FBI and the scandal of Martha (of course I’m not too Biased for the VP debate) Raddatz deciding that a senator being investigated by the FBI for banging underage hookers isn’t newsworthy.
Naturally the new media and Radio Hosts will have a field day with it tomorrow, in fact I’ll certainly mention it in Under the Fedora and on next week’s show. That being so the real question becomes: How will Martha the unbiased choose to answer these questions?
Well, if I may be so bold as to suggest the Morse/Matthew strategy is still tanned rested and ready for use….
“You shall not act dishonestly in rendering judgment. Show neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty, but judge your fellow men justly.
Leviticus 18:15
“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, (and) from now on do not sin any more.“
John 8:11-12
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams
Father Damien Karras: I think it might be helpful if I gave you some background on the different personalities Regan has manifested. So far, I’d say there seem to be three. She’s convinced…
Father Merrin: There is only one.
The Exorcist 1973
For quite a bit I’ve been writing about a common thread that we see on the left
I wrote about the media’s big lie concerning Hurricane Sandy
If George Bush was in office Ginny White would be on every TV network but this is the time of the Big Lie.
The Big Lie, it’s all about not telling the truth or “speaking truth to power” but about pushing a meme and if some people are without blankets that’s just the way it is.
Susan Rice and Benghazi:
Note that the death of four Americans is not the issue, the administration sending out a person before the election to deceive is not the issue, no it is the idea that two of the three Senators who have critiqued said person are white men (we’ll ignore female Senator in the group) and she is a black woman and because she is a black woman the standards of truth and honesty do not apply here.
Israel & Hamas:
So in public Israel needs to show restraint, in private Hamas and their rocket firing friends are “some hooligans” than normal people would just go kill?
I object to the use of the term “Hooligans” it’s not like they are a bunch of bikers dragging their murdered people behind them as they ride…oh wait:
Note that, not what is true, not what is right, what can be said.What can’t be said is any critique of Islam, no matter how true.
Amnesty International:
Managing that change has led to problems – an indication of which emerged in 2009, when Amnesty handed over about 800,000 pounds ($1.2 million) to two former executives as part of a confidential payout upon departure.
Normally one must speak truth to and about power, but if the group is a mainstay of the left apparently Silence is golden, particularly if it means suppressing truth about an iconic left money machine.
Sen Kelly Ayotte again:
this is the left, if the truth and the reality is not favorable we shall simply ignore it, deny it or pretend it was never there.
On the bright side they can still play the race card if they include her.
Update: Jennifer Rubin appreciates Ayotte, but she is not the left.
Elizabeth Elizabeth Elizabeth you are so close, being kind-hearted you conclude that Ms Williams is taking herself on a monstrous route unknowingly, but observe her argument carefully. This is a place she has been forever, in fact an honest reading of her piece admits the pro-abortion side has been there all along. The only reason she is making this statement in public is she believes it will advance her cause.
And the sanctity of life:
How many years do you think it will take before “So What” extends to other people who the left concludes are less important and less worthy of life?
How long before it becomes a matter of faith that those who would stand up and object or obstruct such obvious truths that are held by the more enlightened must be suppressed? Of course you’d have to disarm them first.
All these things have a common thread, a pattern and it’s consistent:
1. Truth is not valued unless it serves a particular ideology.
2. The reality of people’s state is subordinate to the perception of their actual condition.
3. Critique can be made based on optics rather than fact.
4. Behaviors that are considered beyond the pale by their own standards are tolerated from specific groups or people.
5. Public standards only exist until they are no longer useful or needed in the fight.
Looking that this list, one might say, it’s a fight the laws of human nature, yet that is not entirely true, after all, if a person of the right has, say an affair, the left apply said rules to destroy them, as opposed to a Bill Clinton who is still celebrated.
Or one could say it’s a battle for “modern feminism” the right for women to advance, yet a Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Nikki Haley or a Michelle Malkin can be publicly attacked in ways 1000 times beyond Sandra Fluke was, and the attackers are embraced and celebrated.
You might argue that its conservative values that prompt the attack, which is why a Kelly Ayotte can be ignored, yet Islam is far more conservative and it is defended.
You could say openness and justice are the goal, but such openness doesn’t extend to their own.
You can plead equality for gays, yet the murder or beating of gays in Islamic controlled lands is not an issue while Israel’s allowing of gay culture to exist is “pink washing”
In short there appears to be a double standard being employed here, people complain of it often, but that appearance is deceiving. There is a single standard being applied a common thread a singular target that must be destroyed:
That target, Judeo-Christian values, or put simply Christianity.
Christianity is everything the left despises:
It teaches the unity of men, when the power of the left comes from dividing by race or color or creed.
It acknowledges God as the source of our freedom and free will, rather than the state or another giving such freedom
It restrains appetites, greed (thou shalt not covet), lust ( thou shalt not commit adultery), spin (though shalt not bear false witness) and does so by simple rules, rather than letting one do what they want, when you want.
It forgives and accepts anyone, on the condition that said person acknowledges and repents of their sins or at the very least commits to fight the temptation to them.
It gives the absolute freedom to walk away from it, while giving you until the very last second of your life to re-consider before actual judgement is passed.
And worst of all, to those who embrace it the strongest it gives courage, the courage to stand against any slander, any pressure and even die for the sake of Christ rather than sin.
Now some might look at this and scoff, there are Christians without number who violate these rules. Well YEAH of course they do, it’s sin, man is susceptible to sin and temptation yet Christianity accepts them and dares to forgive them if only they change. Even the Pope has a confessor.
One might give numerous examples of preachers and priests who have used Christianity as a cloak for their own sins, YEAH of course but there are corrupt police, corrupt courts, corrupt politicians and dishonest accountants, that doesn’t mean we should abolish Police, Courts, Government and Math.
One can point to the sins of a government that professes Christianity but even then Christianity is a walk toward perfection, such perfection can’t be achieved on earth, the left constantly holds Christianity to a utopian standard that they promise but never deliver knowing that very few if any individual Christians reach that standard.
I can hear the arguments now: There are all kinds of Christians that the left celebrates, yes They are, from breakaway Catholics to Protestants that abandon the written faith the left is always ready to celebrate any Christian that is willing to walk away from the plain language of scripture and tradition. And since anyone and pretty much make their own protestant church by a vote of a group of people however small, there is no problem finding the willing, particularly when fame and acceptance from the right people is offered as a carrot.
Now I can hear those crying: DaTechGuy you’re full of it! It’s just a load of right wing nonsense you’re just upset because we are opposed to that wildly repressive organization known as the Roman Catholic Church that you follow.
That arrangement might hold weight if you didn’t consider the left and Islam.
Islam in general and radical Islam in particular is everything those who attack Christianity in general and the Roman Catholic Church in particular despise:
The left says Christianity is misogynistic pointing to Paul words about subordination in verses 22-24 of Ephesians (while conveniently ignoring the radical for the time elevation of women in verses 21, 25-33) yet ignore the open misogyny when practiced without violence (divorce by simple proclamation of a man, subordination in practice, polygamy ), or with violence (honor killing, justified rape or slavery of non-believers)
They condemn Christianity as against homosexual acts (as indeed it is, just as Christianity is against any other sin) yet the actual murder of Gays in Islamic lands or beating of Gays even in Western countries in Muslim enclaves are not newsworthy to them.
They abhor Christianity complaints about the free expression of things we find aberrant or insulting to Christ (as is our right) in public or private display to and roundly condemn us a “puritanical” in defense of free speech.
Yet Molly Norris is still in hiding for a cartoon, South Park’s Muhammad episodes are still censored, Christians marching in Dearborn can be physically stoned and a filmmaker is still in prison over a (really lousy) film hitting Islam.
The question then is asked? Why isn’t Islam even critiqued when Christianity is targeted? The answer is simple. Christianity IS the target thus the behaviors of Islam are acceptable because it is diametrically opposed to Christianity.
But what about they Jews you might ask? Jews are no more Christians than Hindus are. That’s true, but Judaism is the building block that Christianity is built upon. We worship the same God, revere the same prophets and do our best to obey the same 10 commandments. One can describe the difference between Judaism and Christianity in one simple expression:
Jews and Christians are running the same race, but Jews think Christians have jumped the gun, Christians think Jews didn’t hear it go off.
—————————————————————-
Now like any generality there are exceptions. Pat Correll and the late Chris Hitchens come instantly to mind. They have no use for Christianity but also have no use for Islam and at no little risk to themselves loudly fought its Fascism. Likewise my friend Cynthia Yockey might take an exception to my arguments on the truth of Christianity but she is an implacable foe of Radical Islam and has abandoned the fiscal liberalism for the sake of her freedom.
It is no coincidence that all three of these people were rejected by the left for their apostasy although in fairness the left hasn’t yet reached the point where, like Islam such apostasy is punishable by death.
—————————————————————
I ask you to look at the last 40 years. Look at where the culture and the media has gone and ask your self, why? Ask why children three generations removed from the cultural influences of Christianity find themselves killing themselves and others in numbers not seen before? Ask why schools, particularly those controlled in places the left is strongest are places not of safety or education but of danger and mediocrity. Ask why you have the most medicated culture in history, the most litigious culture in history and a generation that has physical and material advantages that their grandparents and great grandparents could only dream of, can’t cope with life and despair of their future.
None of this is a bug, it’s all a feature. Is this what you want for your children and grandchildren?
I’m quite sure that this argument will produce scoffs, insults, pejorative labels and maybe even some counter arguments. That’s fine, the nonsense I can deal with and as for the arguments, if my thesis is any good it will hold up under critique.
But whatever you say, however you phase it, if you look at the left and the path they have led our culture I submit and suggest there is one way to understand it:
The common thread of the left is the destruction of Judeo Christian culture, standards belief and If you start from that position it all makes perfect sense.
Paul Abdul: Well Whatdaya think?
Man in suit: (uncomfortable) It’s very nice
Cold Hearted Snake (Video) 1989
Dryden: How did he die?
James Bond: Your contact? Not well.
Dryden: Made you feel it, did he? Well, you needn’t worry. The second is…
[Bond shoots Dryden]
James Bond: Yes… considerably.
Casino Royale 2006
Yesterday I wrote about the rather incredible Salon piece on abortion.
One of the best comments on the subject of abortion came last year from Andrew Klavin on July 11th 2011:
I still believe it’s possible for a person of good will to make the argument that a fetus is not fully human for some small period of its development. Thomas Aquinas did — and the man was a saint. But more and more, that point of view is coming to seem to me pre-scientific. In any case, if that’s the argument pro-choicers want to have, let’s have that argument, and no other — because no other matters. And if we as a free people decide that unborn children are children indeed, there is no moral alternative: we must not only end abortion but put our full efforts into supporting humane and broadly available methods of welcoming the unwanted.
I thought it put the entire argument into the perspective needed. If we are killing innocent life then abortion is wrong, period!. If not then it’s no worse than a hangnail, the Salon piece took the opposite track, saying So What if abortion ends life.
Almost every writer critiquing the piece gave the author credit for courage, to wit:
I give Ms. Williams props for her unstinting honesty here. It is, to my way of thinking, a rather courageous thing to speak plainly, these days, and without euphemism. It is perhaps doubly so when one is willing to simply stand up and say, “yes, I believe this is a human being, and I’m totally okay with killing him or her. People should be able to decide who lives and who dies, for any variety of reasons.”
As I’ve said I think this is misreading of the situation. Consider the Music video I quoted at the top of this post:
The song is very good, the dancing is professional but what makes the video is the discomfort of the executives watching it, getting shocked and aroused by it and when questioned for a reaction saying it’s “nice”
In 1989 this was a hot and provocative video, that had a funny ending. In 2013 it’s just funny.
This is the basic truth of what has gone on. Until this point it has been the conclusion of those on the left that to openly say “So What” to the taking of innocent life was beyond the pale.
No more, time has taken its toll and the generation that was taught Judeo-Christian values as part of the normal course of life has been replaced. Now two parallel culture exists where morality is relative, right and wrong are relative and the value of life is relative.
The secular culture has concluded it’s strong enough, prevalent enough and supported enough by the popular media that it can slowly take off the mask that has been necessary for years.
How many years do you think it will take before “So What” extends to other people who the left concludes are less important and less worthy of life?
How long before it becomes a matter of faith that those who would stand up and object or obstruct such obvious truths that are held by the more enlightened must be suppressed? Of course you’d have to disarm them first.
I’ve been writing about a common thread of the left for a while. I’ve beaten about the bush on it, what IS the common thread to all of these things? Well that’s my lead post for tomorrow…
This week’s Under the Fedora at The Minority Report, The Conservative Commune, NACBU, Conservatively Speaking and Zilla of the Resistance touches Lee Stranahan’s coverage of the Steubenville rape case, outsourcing your own job and Nice Deb’s incredible story on a litmus test for US commanders under the President. It’s titled “The Man” for Stan Musial who died a week ago today and whose funeral is being live streamed today at mlb.com:
Musial never dated movie stars, he wasn’t known for fights with the press, brawls in bars, or bad behavior of any time. He was married for 72 years to the same woman who died last May and was never known to mistreat anyone expect opposing pitchers whose offering he deposited all over the field or over the fence from 1940 till 1962.
Musial won 3 MVP and was runner up 4 times. Think of that a second, for one third of his career it was the consensus that he was the best or second best at what he did in the league.
That’s simply incredible.
Additionally my latest for the Examiner is on the GOP election for party chair: Two Roads for the GOP in Massachusetts:
In interviews after the event Hughes and Green talked about reaching out to the Tea Party, Liberty (Ron Paul) people and the unenrolled. My impression from people in the room suggests Tom Green strength is from the Tea Party while Hughes has support from party regulars.
But the real question to be answered is: What do the state committee people who are the only ones who have a vote in this election think? The answer to that question which will determine if the GOP rises again in Massachusetts…
…and that will make all the difference.
If there is one thing we need in the Massachusetts GOP it’s a new road.
So check out both the Examiner piece or Under the Fedora at any of the Five blogs that carry it every week.
Note: Don’t Miss DaTechGuy on DaRadio Syndicated 1-3 PM EST on the Money Matters Radio Network to listen live click here
————————————————————————————————————
I remember in the waning days of the first term of the Obama administration the left through their primary organ of communication MSNBC decided that Grover Norquist was the root of all evil when it came to taxes.
The greatest success of this campaign came when Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss decided to renounce it:
Appearing on a local Georgia television station Wednesday evening, Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) said that fixing America’s debt woes may require him breaking with anti-tax activist Grover Norquist‘s long-standing pledge, saying that “I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge.”
It was a great day for the left, and the MSNBC crowd praised Chambliss and pooh poohed Norquist when he answered thus:
Norquist responded on CNN tonight, finding it odd that Chambliss would target him specifically when the Americans for Tax Reform pledge is a promise not to him, but to a politician’s constituents.
Norquist said Chambliss’ remarks were “confusing” because the pledge was not made on his behalf, but on the behalf of Chambliss’ own constitutents.
Norquist not withstanding the left continued to celebrate Chambliss’ After all they were in a no lose situation. If the GOP primaried him and he won that would simply strengthen the spine of those in the GOP willing to betray the voters consider revenues, if he was defeated in a primary, well I’ll let a commentator at Mediate explain:
This is wonderful! I look forward to the teabagger who primaries him and wins the nomination, a la O’Donnell/Mourdock, handing his seat over to the Democrats. Republicans don’t seem to realize how screwed they are after courting the crazies for short term political gains in 2010.
Edwin from NJ would have been less encouraged if he read Stacy McCain who said at the time:
Mark my word, the handwriting on the wall will become clear enough pretty soon and, by mid-2013 at the latest, Chambliss will announce that he will retire rather than seek re-election.
But the thoughts of a mere blogger (decades in journalism not withstanding) meant nothing to the real jounoalists like Mike Barnicle:
“Grover’s taken a big hit since the election, there’s no doubt about it,” Morning Joe’s Mike Barnicle said. “I’ve talked to a couple of United States Senators who said there’s at least 10 to 12 Republican senators who are willing to walk away from Grover Norquist on the tax pledge.”
and John Heilemann
“Sanity is contagious,”
And on Morning Joe they discussed Frank Bruni’s piece: Is Grover Over?
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
As late as December you had posts at Morning Joe saying:
Sen. Saxby Chambliss, 69, isn’t afraid of anti-tax bogeyman Grover Norquist,
Chambliss was at worst going to lose a primary and give Dems a shot at an unreachable seat, and at best Chambliss wins a primary encouraging others in the GOP to spend spend spend! Yup MSNBC & the MSM has spoken anti-tax pledge was finished, the conventional wisdom had changed…
…right up until the point when it had not:
Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss said Friday he will not seek a third term next year, expressing deep frustration with Washington gridlock that he doesn’t see changing in a divided government.
…deep frustration with Washington Gridlock? Funny just two months ago the Washington Gridlock wasn’t frustrating enough for him to keep him from seeking re-election.
Let this an object lesson to every member of the GOP caucus living inside the media bubble. Reports of both Grover Norquist and the Tea Party’s political demise have been greatly exaggerated…reports of Saxby Chambliss’ political demise have not.
The media will no doubt spin this as an indictment of gridlock and bemoan Sen Chambliss departure in the same way they did Olympia Snowe. As for the hoped for victory in GA I regret to inform Edwin from NJ that GA is not Maine.
John Heileman was right. Saxby Chambliss IS contagious and members of the GOP who catch this disease are likely to suffer the same political fate.
Update: The most hilarious piece on this story comes from the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s “Political Insider” piece that in 777 words on Chambliss’ decision doesn’t mention his flip flop on the Norquist at all.
Move on nothing to see here
One week of a Double Dose of DaTechGuy on DaRadio was fun but DaTechGuy on DaRadio Syndicated. That’s awesome!
DaTechGuy syndicated run begins at a temporary time on the Money Matters Radio network from 1-3 PM EST bringing you Matt O’Brien talking about a new initiative to stop Obamacare in its tracks in our the first hour and in our second hour the great debate. Chris Smitty Smith of The Other McCain on one side and Cynthia Yockey from A Conservative Lesbian on the other with the topic, Gay Marriage!
The call in number is 888-205-2263 the live stream for the Money Matters Network is here and or you can listen live via TuneIn.
So get your DaTechGuy Dose this Saturday Syndicated and talk those Saturday blues away!
Update: You can of course call in at 888-9-FEDORA as always.
Why don’t you want your vote to count?
Tom Lavin Jan 18th 2013
What do you think the Swedes’ll say sir?” he asked, greatly daring. The responsibility was none of his, and he knew by experience that Hornblower was likely to resent being reminded that Bush was thinking about it.
“They can say what they like” said Hornblower, “but nothing they can say can but Blanchefleur together again”
C. S. Forester Commodore Hornblower 1945 p 129
Back in January my liberal friend in NH Tom Lavin was hoping NH would vote on the plan that Massachusettes pushed though it overwhelming democrat legislature surrendering their electoral votes to whoever won the popular vote nationwide.
It led to a long spirited twitter exchange between us two examples:
@datechguyblog I just find it to be a shame that Ds have to do this alone and that Rs are so suspicious of this.
— Thomas Lavin (@TomLavinNH) January 18, 2013
Because of Course this has nothing to do with trying to neutralize the population outside of urban areas where Democrats have a stranglehold. When he asked about my “vote not counting” I answered
@tomlavinnh talk about a #strawman by your argument nobody’s vote has been counting for hundreds of years
— Peter Ingemi (@DaTechGuyblog) January 18, 2013
But in the end the constitution EXPLICITLY gives state legislatures the right to allocate electoral votes so while I objected…
@tomlavinnh mind you its consititutional, if the NH wants to allocate EV based on coin flips, superbowl results or burping contests they can
— Peter Ingemi (@DaTechGuyblog) January 18, 2013
Well the Plan that I commented on back in December that the GOP was considering in PA is now advancing in several states
In the vast majority of states, the presidential candidate who wins receives all of that state’s electoral votes. The proposed changes would instead apportion electoral votes by congressional district, a setup far more favorable to Republicans. Under such a system in Virginia, for instance, President Obama would have claimed four of the state’s 13 electoral votes in the 2012 election, rather than all of them. Other states considering similar changes include Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, which share a common dynamic with Virginia: They went for Obama in the past two elections but are controlled by Republicans at the state level.
It’s axiomatic that the closer you get to the electorate the better representation the people have, also note the words in the piece Vast majority of states. Some states already have such a system so naturally the left would have no objection, right?
TPM: NAACP: VA’s Electoral Vote Scheme Would Leave Minorities ‘More Disenfranchised Than Ever’
CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: Grand Theft Election How Republicans Plan to Rig the Electoral College and Steal the White House
THE HUFFINGTON POST: What The 2012 Election Would Look Like Under The Republicans’ Vote-Rigging Plan
Guess not.
Legal Insurrection makes the logical point:
Award by congressional district is in use in two states, has been proposed many times before elsewhere, and still requires presidential candidates to win elections in congressional districts. It may favor Republicans, or it may not, depending on the state and the presidential candidate. Awarding electoral votes by district may have a positive impact of forcing candidates to campaign outside the large cities and bring a more geographically diverse electorate into the voting booth for them. To equate it to cheating is constitutionally ignorant.
This system would certainly put individual districts in play in states which would mean a presidential campaign would have to focus on the needs of individual districts, and of course to the needs of the local people there. All politics local right? It would also make elections in a state legislature more critical meaning parties would have to be more concerned with the voters as individuals not as blocks.
Now oddly enough the single most interesting response from the left comes from Kevin Drum (emphasis mine)
Democrats don’t have the votes to fight back with anything similar, but they do have another weapon in their back pocket: the National Popular Vote interstate compact, an agreement among states to award all their electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the popular vote nationwide. If states with more than half of all electoral votes sign up for this, it goes into effect.
So far, only nine states with a total of 132 electoral votes have signed up. But if Republicans continue their patently shameful effort to game the electoral college system, it might spur more states to sign up. That’s what a sense of outrage can do. Republicans might want to think about that as they move forward. If they keep going, the end result might be a system even less favorable to them than the current electoral college.
So if the GOP goes forward with this plan then Democrats will go forward with theirs, that would be a pretty effective argument if it wasn’t for the fact that Democrats have ALREADY gone forward with this plan and will go forward no matter what the GOP does.
If I had one piece of advice for the GOP it would be what I said back in December when this first came up.
One of the things that tends to drive me nuts about the GOP is their unwillingness to take off the gloves, too afraid of what the media and the democrats will say ignoring the fact that the left, the media and the Democrats (who are pretty much the same thing) are going to object no matter what the GOP does.
That being the case the best choice is to ignore them and do what you want to do, or better yet what your supporters elected you to do.
They left can say what they want, if we have the votes then we should just do it. I’ll give the last word to Tom:
@datechguyblog it is the right move for Rs who want power.
— Thomas Lavin (@TomLavinNH) January 25, 2013
James Taylor: I’ll make public opinion out there within five hours! I’ve done it all my life. I’ll blacken this punk so that he’ll – You leave public opinion to me.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1939
I was reading Glenn Reynolds short paper HAM SANDWICH NATION: DUE PROCESS WHEN EVERYTHING IS A CRIME (you can download it here) when something jumped out at me:
“The most dangerous power of the prosecutor:that he will pick people he thinks he should get,rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted.” Prosecutors could easily fall prey to the temptation of “picking the man, and then searching the law books…to pin some offense on him.”
While Glenn Reynolds make his point (particularly when he references a popular “game” in he US Attorney’s name a famous person and find a crime to jail them with) it hit me this is exactly the same problem one faces with the MSM.
The greatest power of the MSM is the ability to decide what is “newsworthy” and what is not. To decide say, the death of a Trayvon Martin or a Matthew Shepard is a national outrage worthy of universal condemnation, marches and action while the murder of 13-year-old Jesse Dirkhising or the killing of 15-year-old Porshe Foster are local stories of no significance outside of their communities and certainly not worthy of any kind of outrage on a national level.
When the motive for a news organization is profit, the goal is to get the public to buy a magazine or paper, or to attract enough readers to a site or a program to attract high rates from advertisers.
If that was the case, all four of these stories would have been reported nationally and all four of those names would be known at least tangentially known to anyone who reads a paper or watches news regularly
That this is not case.
Instead the Mainstream media chooses its stories carefully, when there is an agenda to be advanced, theirs or their allies agenda an issue. Take campaign finance reform, for years the media pushed it as a critical issue, the most important thing for any American to consider. The actual importance to the people they are selling this issue is not relevant. In reality:
In a tape obtained by the New York Post, Mr. Treglia tells his USC audience they are going to hear a story he can reveal only now that campaign finance reform has become law. “The target audience for all this [foundation] activity was 535 people in [Congress],” Mr. Treglia says in his talk. “The idea was to create an impression that a mass movement was afoot. That everywhere [Congress] looked, in academic institutions, in the business community, in religious groups, in ethnic groups, everywhere, people were talking about reform.”
Meanwhile as the big money of the “Democracy Institute” launches what is described as:
a coordinated effort by about 36 different interest groups with reported revenues of no less than $1.69 billion, pledging millions of dollars to work together to attack conservative supporters and organizations, to intervene directly in Democratic politics, to push for filibuster reform to better enable a push through their agenda without any input from the opposition, and expanding “voting rights” and fighting voter registration laws to further grease the skids for their legislative agenda.
That story, gets no press, no attention no pixels in the mainstream media.
That’s why Mitt Romney’s words about Cario can be an outrage but Barack Obama’s & Hillary Clinton’s actions/inaction on Sept 11th is can be ignored. It’s why saying “what difference does it make” to the death of Americans is an “unfair tactic” but unsubstanciated affair Rumors concerning John McCain was part of all the news that’s fit to print at the NYT.
Until there is a price for this type of mendacity the MSM will continue to do it, just like until there is a price for the same conduct by prosecutors things will not change.
Update: Great Example of this on Morning Joe today, all the hits on the GOP were on politics while the praise of Mrs. Clinton was on style (one “Journolist actually called Hillary Clinton “GENUINE” lucky for me I wasn’t drinking anything at the time) while the critiques of Mrs. Clinton (such that there was) were on substance.
That my dear readers is the whole thing in a nutshell.
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
George Orwell: Animal Farm 1945
Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.
One of the first arguments that generally come out of the mouth of a person who supports abortion when confronted by the argument on innocent life is that you aren’t killing baby in abortion.
Not anymore. Mary Elizabeth Williams has decided to go the other way here is the title or her Salon Piece
Mary Katherine Ham notes the thinking process:
This was the exact thought process that led me to the exact opposite position. I, too, noticed a distinction between how women approached an in-utero child when they wanted the child and how they felt about it when the pregnancy was unexpected and unwanted. Logically, it made no sense to me that the mother’s disposition should change the biological disposition of the baby. Therefore, it made no sense that it should change the ethics of the situation. But Mary Elizabeth Williams goes a whole different direction
Mary Elizabeth Williams doesn’t just go in a different direction she goes all Comrade Napoleon on us
All life is not equal. That’s a difficult thing for liberals like me to talk about, lest we wind up looking like death-panel-loving, kill-your-grandma-and-your-precious-baby storm troopers. Yet a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides. She’s the boss
Katrina Trinko calls asks the obvious:
By this same logic, isn’t infanticide also fine and dandy? After all, if we’re talking about autonomy, kids aren’t exactly independent as soon as they are born. No infant can take care of themselves. And even later on in childhood, children rely heavily on the adults in their life to provide shelter, food, and emotional support. What about kids and adults who become disabled in life? What about quadriplegics?
Elizabeth Scalia, meanwhile is horrified:
When terrorists flew jets into tall buildings, they believed that those 3,000 lives were “worth sacrificing” for the furtherance of their situation. When Nazis led people with disabilities into gas chambers, those lives were “worth sacrificing” for society. When Herod had all the male children killed Bethlehem, those lives were “worth sacrificing” for his ease of mind.
The utilitarian mindset is a crystalline brutality of efficiency. If human beings of unknown or dubious worth cannot contribute to the comfort of a society, or the success of an endeavor or the happiness of one’s life, they are swept aside and away.
I’m shocked none of these ladies mentioned slavery, the ultimate utilitarian argument, consider these words from Williams…
She understands that it saves lives not just in the most medically literal way, but in the roads that women who have choice then get to go down, in the possibilities for them and for their families.
..and remember the arguments in the past concerning the black man, and the red man and how their subordination allowed the superior the more important to advance and achieve, to give them roads to go down and possibilities for them and their families.
And it also ignores something else, the costs of abortion:
A recent study published by Great Britain’s Royal College of Psychiatrists (H/T Alveda King Blog) includes data collected from 22 studies, conducted over 14 years, involving over 887,000 women, of which at least 166,831 had abortions. The results? Eighty-one percent of women (81%) who have had abortions suffer an increased risk of severe mental health problems.
All these reactions have merit but they miss the real story of the Salon piece although Elizabeth comes closest…
Were I a cartographer, I would hasten to warn Ms. Williams against this route; I would mark the map, “Here be Monsters.”
Elizabeth Elizabeth Elizabeth you are so close, being kind-hearted you conclude that Ms Williams is taking herself on a monstrous route unknowingly, but observe her argument carefully. This is a place she has been forever, in fact an honest reading of her piece admits the pro-abortion side has been there all along. The only reason she is making this statement in public is she believes it will advance her cause.
In short Ms. Williams is not taking the route toward the monsters, she is the MONSTER and the monster has decided it is strong enough to show true colors. By it being printed in a national magazine publicly it informs others that they can openly discuss this topic without fear.
That begs the question why now? Well that’s a piece is for tomorrow.
Well there is a big development on the radio front.
This week I will NOT be on WCRN AM 830, in fact, let me officially inform you all that last Saturday’s show marks the end of DaTechGuy on DaRadio on WCRN (at least for now).
However that is due to some HUGE news.
As of this week (well officially Feb 2nd) DaTechGuy on DaRadio goes into Syndication through Cameo Productions!
Yes DaTechGuy will be on DaRadio on 3 count ’em 3 radio stations in New England at its new time Saturdays 1-3 PM EST
Tune into AM 1390 Plymouth, WBNW 1120 Concord or 970 WESO in Southbridge to find me on your dial, or simply pick up the feed from here the Money Matter Radio Network.
Three things:
1. This is a very big step, It took a lot of work to get here but it would not have been possible without a lot of people. From Stacy McCain first pushing the blog, Conservatively Speaking having me as a guest to WCRN offering the show folks have helped set the table. And of course the advertisers and you the listeners and readers brought it home. My thanks to each and every one of you.
2. The deal is not a salary deal. I’m still gotta move the time and shake DaTipJar if I’m going to have any chance to draw a pay. However I figure with the Money Matters Radio Network as the host, groups like the GOP, Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Works and others will certainly have a reason to get involved. After all the listener base for a financial network is pretty much people who can write checks with 4 figures and more. If that doesn’t draw ads from advocacy groups I can’t think of what will.
3. While the official announcement is well, now, I’ve told people locally and in places like the GOP Chairman forum and how they reacted spoke volumes. The difference between “Hi I’m DaTechGuy a Radio talk host on W— vs “Hi I’m DaTechGuy a Syndicated Radio talk host is tremendous and as stations are added through the Cameo Media either in New England or outside that reaction will only grow. It should increase my ability to get top line guests, it will however also bring a greater responsibility to create a better show.
The goal is what is has always been. The ability to pay the mortgage and support the family since the loss of my job and the end of unemployment benefits. Re-inventing yourself when you’re about to turn fifty isn’t easy. It’s been a lot of work and a lot of risk to get this far. Over the next year I’ll find out if the goal is possible or if it’s all be just an impossible dream.
It won’t be boring.
Today’s subscription tease invokes the Waterboy…
To find out what I’m talking about you need to see the full commentary here
If you want the code to see it simply hit DaTipJar
and I’ll send you the code as soon as I see the confirmation e-mail. If you don’t want to worry about ever missing a single video choose any subscription level
and I will e-mail you the codes every week as soon as the videos are uploaded and the posts are ready.
Update: corrected bad code
Yesterday I linked to Chip Jones’ piece on Benghazi, he has a follow-up that’s pretty provocative:
Looking at the map of North Africa above, we see a growing pattern of radical Islamist governments growing, first in Egypt and sparked in no small part by our President’s June 4th speech at the University of Cairo, leading then to Libya, the aftermath of which was the death of our ambassador, a CIA civilian employee and two valiant Navy SEALS at the hands of terrorists that included Egyptian Islamists, and now to the deaths of 5 US citizens working in Algeria at the hands of terrorists that included the selfsame Egyptian Islamists that were involved in the attack on Special Mission Benghazi, and who are being given safe haven in both Islamist Libya and Islamist Al Qaeda Mali on the other.
And when you look at the map of North Africa, and see the ever widening swath of Islamist states who oppose the presence of Christians, burn their churches and kill their members, you have to ask yourself this question:
Did Barack Obama take his thirty pieces of silver in Cairo on that June 4th day?
But given this story out of England…
The footage, from a group calling themselves Muslim Patrol, shows the gang abusing the unnamed man who was walking by himself in Whitechapel, East London.
Today Scotland Yard said they were investigating the video, which was posted on YouTube. Muslim leaders also condemned the thugs’ behaviour.
It comes after the gang uploaded another video called “The Truth About Saturday Night”, in which white women were called “naked animals with no self-respect”.
In the latest video, hooded thugs shout at the terrified man, who appears to be wearing make-up, before one tells him: “Mate, don’t you know this is a Muslim area. What’s wrong with your face?”
Another then shouts: “This is a Muslim area get out of here. Get out here you b—– f–. You can’t stay round here anymore.”
…I have a different question concerning the March of Islam: Is all this actually just things going according to plan?
I’m sure the MSM will be all over that England Story, after all they don’t tolerate Gays being mistreated…
…wait a moment, this is being done by Muslims, Not Catholics or Protestants? In that case, Cue Frank Drebin
I suspect when the media ignores radical Islam they are not so much channeling Drebin as they are channeling Sheldon Cooper & MONTE: don’t hurt us, Don’t Hurt us DON’T HURT US!
Yes, women in combat. Women, who can’t figure out how to go to the Target pharmacy and $9/month birth control, will be gunning down terrorists. Women, who think that telling them to buy their own birth control, cupcake, is a “war on women,” will be seeing actual combat. Women who complain about a “rape culture” want girls out into the front lines as rape-bait if captured by the enemy (and those front lines will be six thousand miles away from the nearest Planned Parenthood clinic). The same people who think that it’s a right wing nutjob idea for women teachers to be ready to use force to defend their pupils against school shooters also believe that there those same women can use deadly force to defend their country against the Taliban.
I would be cracking up if the consequences to this absurdity were not so deadly.
Seriously, chickies, you can’t have it both ways. You’re either wilting wallflowers who can’t be expected to figure out how to bargain-shop for condoms, or you’re a big strong woman who can gun down the Muslim Brotherhood like a boss.
It would also be nice if we could do a quick primer on why women have historically not been allowed in combat; if you answer “the evil patriarchy,” then you have issues. Our generation, and even Da TechGuy’s generation, has not seen a war that wiped out most of the young male population. But those exist and tend to crop up with frightening regularity – WWII, WWI, the Civil War, the American Revolution. Hundreds of thousands of young men dead in all of them, but the country kept going strong.
You can kill half of your young men and repopulate your country in relatively short order. You can go all Old Testament and men can take multiple wives; old men can marry young women who are desperate for a husband; men whose wives pass away at a young age can remarry. But when you kill your young women – and make no mistake, it will be young women in combat – your country has no future. Liberals salivate over The Handmaid’s Tale, the premise of which is that most women have become infertile. What insanity has to possess you to create that situation by leading young women to their slaughter in combat?
Bad enough, too, that many children lose their dads in wars (and some lose their mothers); do we really need an entire generation of war orphans, with both Mom and Dad dead on the front lines? Bad enough that many women at home and abroad are raped; do we really want to subject young women to that particular form of intel-gathering torture? (On the plus side, waterboarding is about to be vindicated.) We saw what happened to Lara Logan; what sort of psycho do you have to be to deliberately put young woman in the way of that harm?
Let me know, America, how you will look young women in the face when they arrive back in America, finally released from capture, violated in every way a woman can be violated, and bearing the children of our enemies. Let me know how that’s gonna work out for you.
And be well-aware, this is aimed directly at attacking the constitutionality of the Selective Service Act, so we will either draft women to the front lines, or we’re going to end the draft entirely and become some neutered, declawed nation incapable of defending itself. I shall leave you, gentle readers, to guess which will happen.
Sir Robin: Would it help if we ran away more?
Monty Python and the Holy Grail 1975
DaTechGuy: January 19th 2013:
I can see it now. A crazed angry heavily armed guy with a grudge with the IRS overpowers the guard at the ground floor by the elevator, goes inside and gets to the floor where the Social Security & IRS offices are ready to get his name on the national news broadcast. Then the elevator opens he see that big sign with the big red letters and the exclamation point!
Of COURSE he is going to not only instantly think better of it and go home, he’s going to write a short note of apology while the elevator is heading down and leave it on the prone body of the guard that he left behind the desk.
David Burnett from Students for Concealed Carry is quoted at the Huffington Post
“We all want solutions, but Texas already outlaws guns on campus,” Burnett said. “So what are we going to do? Ban them harder? Put up twice as many signs and stickers?”
That’s a really good question and I’d be delighted to hear the answer
Got no opinion sir, they’re bad for business
Inherit the Wind 1960
Saw the following tweet last night:
GEICO cancels insurance of a business that makes firearms parts? What’s up with that Buffett? fb.me/29mzZCVGk
— David Darnell (@DlorenDarnell) January 23, 2013
The story went to a facebook page but a quick Google search came up with this:
I’m typing this at 11:05 PM Eastern Time so it’s a tad late to be calling GEICO concerning this for comment, but assuming this is not a forgery or a photoshop this will likely have the effect on the company that the safe dropping on Wile E Coyote did in their commercial.
I’d go a step further, due to the nature of the internet it’s not going to matter if this image is a true image or if there is a logical valid business explanation for this. That fact that this is out there means that a lot of people involved in the gun argument are going to see it and react accordingly
The result? That can be explained in a single tweet:
@dlorendarnell If true it will take more than talking pigs & cute lizards to protect @geico from the backlash @nra gulfcoastgunforum.com/showthread.php…
— Peter Ingemi (@DaTechGuyblog) January 23, 2013
In our balkanized country we will see more and more of this. To those business about to take sides I’d refer them to this Scott Adams cartoon before they choose.
Chip Jones has asked the $64,000 question concerning Benghazi:
Therefore, the question that is simply asked and objectively answered, without placing any of the SF or CIA operatives at mortal risk is a simple one. You see, the Kalashnikov rifle chambers a 7.62 mm round. The US M-4 rifle chambers a 5.56 mm round. What is widely reported and accepted is that at least two of the TDY Green Berets who were assigned by the CIA as ARSO’s (assistant regional safety officers) were badly wounded and were treated for multiple gunshot wounds after they rescued over 20 civilian CIA workers from the compound.
The single question that needs to be asked is: “Were the rounds taken out of the wounded ARSO’s 7.62 mm or 5.56 mm?” And when the answer comes back “5.56 mm”, it opens the door to the proof that the cover up was meant to hide the fact that the Obama administration had been caught once again arming offshore groups that did not have the interests of our country at heart. It would open the door to proof that Benghazi was “Fast and Furious on Steroids.”
Rest assured if it turns out that Benghazi was “fast and furious on steroids” we can be sure that the MSM be all over it sometime around the end of the 2nd Biden Term.
Yesterday in Gardner at Williams Restaurant I attended the GOP party forum with two of the candidates for party chair Kristen Hughes and Rick Green in attendance
A pretty good crowd turned up, snow not withstanding:
I talked to some of Kirsten Hughes supporters just outside of the restaurant:
Then did a pan of the crowd:
The format was an opening statement by each candidate Rick Green
then Kirsten Hugues
Then came the Q & A with questions submitted in advance, the moderator was Former Ma3 candidate Jon Golnik. Continue reading “Gop Party Chair Forum Kirsten Hughes vs Rick Green”
Stacy McCain links to a story in the NYT concerning a young Marxist who has developed a following:
Since its debut in September 2010 it has attracted nearly 2,000 print and digital subscribers, some 250,000 Web hits a month, regular name-checks from prominent bloggers, and book deals from two New York publishers.
While Stacy comments on the lack of interest in bloggers with bigger audiences I found the following words much more significant: (emphasis mine)
it got my attention because, of course, Marxism is the deadliest idea in human history. Marxist-Leninist regimes killed 100 million of their own citizens in the 20th century but, hey, let’s assign a cheerful human-interest story about this young idiot who thinks it’s hip and cool to revive a discredited ideology.
It’s that 100,000,000 in a century that is significant, that’s not as easy as it sounds.
Think about it for a moment. Government sponsored murder is a lot of work, there is apprehending a person, holding them, stripping them of valuables, mock trials, guards preventing the person from escaping or overpowering those holding them, the actual killing of the victim, disposal of the body, record keeping to make sure its done right and people to supervise the entire operation in case anyone gets cold feet.
Now consider the number of people murdered. 100,000,000 people murdered in a century works out to 1,000,000 a year or 2739 people a day, 114 an hour or just over one person murdered every 31 seconds 24 hours a day every day for a full 100 years.
How many people do you think murder on such a scale requires: 1000? 10,000? 100,000?
Maybe even 250,000!
Those hits aren’t visits to a web site, they are a reminder to the next person who wants to pick up the bloody mantle of 20th century Marxism that there are people ready willing and able to do its dirty work, they are the resume pool for the next Marxist regime
Update: Last paragraph repeated, removed
Do you mean to tell me that DaTechGuy was on TWICE last week on four different radio stations and you STILL missed one or both of them?
Well I’m very disappointed in you but we can get by this. If you missed me my regular show on WCRN this week with Mary Lotze and Evan Sayet you can listen to that show here.
And if you Missed me on the Money Matters Radio Network Including WESO Southbridge, WPLM Plymouth and WBNW Concord we can fix that too, Click here for our first hour where we brought back Evan Sayet (who ran late on WCRN) and here for our 2nd with James O’Keefe of Project Veritas
Mind you there is no excuse for not tuning in this week On WCRN we will be talking with Matt O’Brien of the Worcester Tea Party about the Mandate Amendment Coalition about their ongoing fight to stop Obamacare and on the Money Matters Radio Network we will host a great debate between Cynthia Yockey of A Conservative Lesbian and Smithy of The Other McCain on Gay Marriage.
So at 10 AM tune into WCRN AM 830 to catch show #1 and then at 1 PM catch me on either 970 WESO, 1120 WBNW or 1390 WPLM or go online at the Money Matters Radio Network here and catch DaTechGuy on DaRadio AGAIN!
The best part? Not only can you hear BOTH shows via TuneIn but you can reach either show from the same toll-free number 888-9-FEDORA!
So no excuses this week, you’ve got two chances to catch DaTechGuy on DaRadio again, let’s make the most of it!
Today on Morning Joe Scarbrough took issue with Ted Cruz on Meet the Press for suggesting the president is using children as a political football.
Later in that very same show Mika brought up man who killed his family with an AR 15 (as if a different weapon would have prevented such a man) as an argument for banning them.
But just before the 7 AM hour Mika Brzezinski said something so incredible that I couldn’t believe I heard it. Talking about the push for Gun control post Newtown she referred to the aftermath of Newtown as an “OPPORTUNITY”
OPPORTUNITY? A bunch of dead kids is an OPPORTUNITY?
Let’s go to the dictionary:
op·por·tu·ni·ty
[op-er-too-ni-tee, -tyoo-] Show IPA
noun, plural op·por·tu·ni·ties.
1. an appropriate or favorable time or occasion: Their meeting afforded an opportunity to exchange views.
2. a situation or condition favorable for attainment of a goal.
3. a good position, chance, or prospect, as for advancement or success.
Joe Scarborough is OUTRAGED at Ted Cruz saying children are being exploited in the “gun control” debate. Mike Barnicle insists the idea people are coming for guns is a lie yet in the same half hour Mika sees Newtown as “OPPORTUNITY!”
Pray tell Mika when you say Newtown is an Opportunity, can you tell us for what?
I guess Ted Cruz has you guys pegged.
Closing thought: Pray tell why the story of 12 year old Kendra St. Clair will not be found newsworthy) on Morning Joe today? Could it be her story offers no “OPPORTUNITY”?
Update: If you haven’t heard about Kendra St. Clair here is the video.
No Opportunity there for Morning Joe
Update 2: Colin Powell on Morning Joe:
Colin Powel “WE are not taking away your 2nd amendment rights”Pray tell general who is “WE?” #tcot #p2 #tlot @nra @morning_joe
— Peter Ingemi (@DaTechGuyblog) January 21, 2013
I’d love to know who “We” is. I think that’s a good question.
The Greatest Left fielder in the History of baseball, Stan Musial died yesterday at the age of 92.
That many of you might not have heard of him is understandable. He didn’t play in NY or Boston, he didn’t have feuds with the press, he didn’t have headlines with starlets nor was known for carousing. He married in 1940 and stayed married 72 years until his wife death last may.
What he did was play and play hard in a career that started when he was signed in 1938 and ended with his retirement in 1963. He made a good living off of baseball saved his money, went into business and made more of it.
He was voted into the Hall of Fame in the first year he was eligible appearing on 93.2 percent of the ballots proving that at least 6.8% of the HOF voters in 1969 were out of their minds.
I wrote about him last February saying this:
For reasons I still can’t understand Stan Musial somehow doesn’t seem to get the respect among the greats of Baseball.
You don’t hear people speaking about his greatness outside of St. Louis. They don’t talk about his longevity, his hitting, his work ethic and the killer numbers he put up year after year.
Looking closer at America today I think I understand now
Stan the Man Musial was a shining example of hard word, decency, honesty and how to live a life well.
Which explains more than anything else, why he was not and could not be celebrated in the America of 2013. Musial was a walking talking indictment of Modern America just by being himself.