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April 26, 2007
Fred Thompson on Federalism
This is a few days late, but I thought worth posting. Fred Thompson, still waiting in the wings as a conservative savior in 2008, debated the National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru earlier this week on the topic of federalism. Their debate is reminiscent of the one "process" conservatives (loosely: federalists) had with social conservatives over the Terri Schiavo fiasco. And I think Thompson is right -- as he explains, there is no reason the federal government should be regulating areas of state law. But few elected Republicans entered that debate on Schiavo, or elsewhere. And this is it's significant that Thompson is doing so. Thompson points out this is
"not an idle exercise":
Republicans have struggled in recent years, because they have strayed from basic principles. Federalism is one of those principles. It is something we all give lip service to and then proceed to ignore when it serves our purposes. During my eight years in the Senate, I tried to adhere to this principle. For me it was a lodestar. Not only was it what our Founding Fathers created — a federal government with limited, enumerated powers with respect for other levels of government, it also provided a basis for a proper analysis of most issues: "Is this something government should be doing? If so, at what level of government?"
Run, Fred, run!
Posted by bill at 09:07 AM | Comments (1)
April 25, 2007
Your Wednesday barf
Tony Blankley makes a pretty convincing case that we're all doomed. As Blankley points out, he'll continue to try to persuade people that "jihad" is not, to quote Mark Steyn, "a harmless concept meaning "decaf latte with skimmed milk and cinnamon sprinkles". But people have made their mind up, and perceptions of the threat of Islamic jihad are, one way or the other, the driver for all things political:
Every political decision -- from the Iraq war appropriation vote this week, to the Patriot Act, to the status of Guantanamo Prison, to NSA intercepts, to the presidential election -- is seen through our conceptual squint of the threat or non-threat from radical Islam....
while others and I will continue to make our case in public, it seems probably inevitable that the correctness or incorrectness of our views will only become persuasive to the multitude when history teaches its cruel, unavoidable lessons. It was ever thus, which is why history is strewed with broken nations and civilizations that couldn't read the writing on the wall. Of course, it is also strewed with sad hulks of false predictors of doom.
Blankley's point seems to be that the debate is over because no one's listening anymore. There's no "undecided" votes left to be counted. And he seems disheartened by the inability of both political leaders and pundits to rally Americans in the face of the jihadis. It's not an optimistic picture.
Posted by bill at 08:43 AM | Comments (1)
April 17, 2007
Least helpful conversation of the week
WAITRESS: "Oh, your baby is so cute."
WIFE AND ME: "Why, thank you."
WAITRESS: "I just love babies."
WIFE AND ME: "Yes they are precious."
WAITRESS: "Some friends of mine have a new baby too."
WIFE AND ME: "Oh that's lovely. How nice."
WAITRESS: "They are probably getting divorced. Every minute that baby is crying or doing this or that. They just couldn't handle it. All they do is fight. Their marriage has really paid the price."
WIFE AND ME: (Still smiling) "Oh that's lovely. How nice."
Posted by bill at 01:02 PM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2007
Virginia Tech shootings
At Virginia Tech, someone has entered student buildings and shot and killed over 20 students.
I've linked here before to the Democratic Underground and their sometimes inhuman response to the news. And they're doing it again. Here, DUmmies are already ridiculing gun rights; calling this a "distraction" for tomorrow's Alberto Gonzalez hearings; and saying this isn't such a big deal considering what happens in Iraq everyday. Read for yourself. Are these people human?
Having said this, conservatives are saying stupid things, too. Not to single out Hot Air -- it's one of my favorites -- but commenters here immediately started asking whether the shooter might be a Muslim or whatnot.
Give me a break.
UPDATE - Via Tom L.:
Here's a story from The Roanoke Times, dated April 13, 2005: "We think we have the right to adhere to and enforce that ["Gun Free"] policy because, in the end, we think it's a common-sense policy for the protection of students, staff and faculty as well as guests and visitors," [Virginia Tech spokesman, Larry] Hincker said.
Tom asks -- "Common sense? Apparently not. I guess the outcome of the Appalachian Law School shooting, one of the rare instances where such an incident was stopped in progress, will be ignored by the "Mainstream Media" as the renewed calls for citizen disarmament begin anew."
Posted by bill at 01:12 PM | Comments (1)
Factless reporting about a pilotless plane
Tom L. writes:
Thought you all might appreciate this item from today's Aviation Week & Space Technology's "Ares Defense Technology Blog." The author of this blog entry is Bill Sweetman, who is among the preeminent aviation and military technology writers in the world. Apparently, in their Sunday profile of General Atomics (builder of the Predator and a number of other UAV/UCAVs) the New York Times got some facts very wrong, and throws in some laughers for good measure. Now as a self professed aviation geek, this sort of stuff gets me goosed all the time, but, like Sweetman alludes to, the mistakes made in this article were beyond the pale and easily findable/correctable if the Times' fact checker simply bothered to spend ten or so minutes on Google before giving the article a pass.
As Sweetman says, "If you really want to get your credibility above the Jayson Blair level, maybe you should assign aerospace stories to someone who knows the difference between a propeller and a jet....This is not war-geek nitpicking: the NYT would never, ever make such errors concerning something that they gave a rodent's rear end about, like the latest Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit, or allegations of unspecified wrongdoing by the third cousin three times removed of a former deputy assistant White House aide."
Posted by bill at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2007
The flooding was so bad...
Ok, this weather completely sucks. Which brings to mind local news reporting, which is always at its finest during weather events. News crews all around the Northeast are scurrying tonight to their respective local babbling brook, borrowing big yellow raincoats from blue collar types and mucking around with locals to put together yet more hard-hitting reports on "my gosh look at the white caps in the Bronx River. Yes, Bob, looks like you'll need a canoe, yuck, yuck, and be careful out there..." It doesn't take a Columbia Journalism degree to know this stuff sells. It's gold, baby. It's gold.
As viewers, though, we must be ever vigilant lest the press make these rainstorms stories a bit sexier. The Today Show's foibles last fall come to mind:
Posted by bill at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
Chain email of the day
"Don't forget to pay your taxes. 20 millions illegals are counting on it"
Posted by bill at 01:18 PM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2007
Shameless
You bet.
Available at the CJ online store. Show someone you care.
Posted by bill at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)
April 12, 2007
The I-man goeth
Imus is done. Now that CBS has fired him, he's doner than done.
What to say. Again, I won't defend his comments, or the business decisions to let him go, although there's a 50/50 shot I'll hear more insulting stuff on my way home today. I will defend Imus's show, though. Most people with half a brain won't be flocking to Howard Stern's fart jokes, either. Imus and his poltics and his Ranch might have been tiresome at times, but Imus in the Morning was often great radio. He is a very good interviewer, and there was something unique about his show that allowed tightasses to let down their guard a bit.
Oh well. Bow at the altar of political correctness, and look what happens. It is never enough. So I agree with Howard Stern - from the get go he should have said, "Eff you. It was a joke."
Posted by bill at 05:02 PM | Comments (0)
"Guaranteed to have a heck of a day..."
From NYC's least redeeming borough, Queens, comes this story out of baseball's least redeeming venue, Shea Stadium.
The story retells the Opening Day saga of two Mets fans. Peter Reubens, watching the game with his Aunt Ellen, says they "were sitting and watching the ball game. And in a split-second a rather large person, a man, came sort of tumbling down upon us and basically landed on my aunt's head and neck."
For some reason, and for reasons not clear, Aunt Ellen was suddenly being smothered by a hefty fellow Mets fan, although Newsday doesn't bother to point out the "300 pound" thing is really just a "ballpark" estimate, pardon the pun. After squashing Ellen, though, the guy was nimble enough to scurry away without being identified, so this figure is already suspect.
Anyway, it turns out Aunt Ellen is an attorney, so this story may soon find its way into a local court house. That is, if the perpetrator is ever identified. Or, God knows, she could simply sue the Mets, on the basis of some novel legal theory. This may be the best bet, because identifying this perp will be a tough task, as many Mets fans are indeed gravy-leaking doofuses. My prime suspects are Rosie O'Donnell and Sid Fernandez.
Posted by bill at 09:21 AM | Comments (1)
April 09, 2007
On Don
I've been listening to Don Imus for a long time. I was one of the 5 or 6 listeners to WFAN in its pre-Imus infancy, enduring the likes of Pete Franklin and Susan Waldman before anyone knew and despised Susan Waldman. I was 13 years old in 1987, and an all sports, all the time radio station meant plenty of sense. In 1990 or so, I was a busboy at the Smithtown Haus on Long Island when I met Mike Francesa in the restaurant's lobby. He was cordial and all, but he was still an arrogant dweeb and it pleased me to hear him and Chris Russo nicknamed by Imus as, "fatso and fruitloops."
I give Don Imus some credit for my interest in politics. One of the beauties of his show was that one minute he might be asking the traffic lady to rub her breasts against the microphone, then go to commercial, then interview a senior US Senator. A little Howard Stern, a little politics, etc.
I am not going to write about how pathetic Imus was today. From the "You know what I'm talkin' 'bout" Hill Clinton impersonation to his "I have black friends" defense to his reference to the "racism" of the Reagan administration, it was beyond pitiful. I'd like the think the 2nd and 3rd words out of my mouth in that situation would have been "Tawana" and "Brawley." But it's leading on Drudge, and I won't try to get above the din.
Posted by bill at 09:05 PM | Comments (0)
April 08, 2007
Happy Easter
On a decidedly un-religious note, I give you:
Let's face it. Ass-kicking Easter bunnies are fun to watch,
Posted by bill at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)
April 04, 2007
Start me up
Apologies for lack of any posting. We ask that you please bear with us until things clear up just a touch.
This morning's big news, besides the very weird Keith Richards thing, is that Iran is "pardoning" the U.K. sailors it took hostage. Should be interesting to see the world respond. No doubt this was designed to sell Iran's image as cooperative, law-abiding nation, buy some goodwill from the "international community" and more time to generate peaceful nukes with which to annihlate Israel, and generally give the left a grounds to claim negotiations, hand-wringing and gift baskets are the best means to confront the world's tyrants. Look for the left react as if this is vindication for them.
Posted by bill at 09:44 AM | Comments (0)
