Safire ahead of his time?

While doing research, I came across a William Safire piece in the NY Times in January 1976. Did he forsee the coming of Glenn Reynolds?

This would be funny if it wasn't so scary

Hillary thinks that Bill deserves a 'thank you' from the Bush administration for his handling of the military. In the same speech, she also noted that 'on paper', women in Iraq had more rights under Saddam than they do now. It's like when Communists lament that the price of bread used to be so low forgetting that the shelves were empty.

Do you friendster?

I started writing a post about Andrew Sullivan calling The Economist magazine 'conservative' and how funny I found that but the painkillers that I'm taking for my back are getting in the way of full sentences. So, instead, I'll link to my friendster profile. I like friendster. I think it's pretty cool to see how you're connected to people all over the country and world. The other day, I was surfing by Bo Cowgill's site and clicked on his friendster profile, that he has posted on his front page, only to discover that we are already 'connected' through two of my friendsters. As I said a few days ago, small world.

For you rap fans

My childhood friend Dave has become a really good rapper. His site is here, check out his tracks (warning: it's rap, expect bad language). I say he is one to watch (and not just because I'm hoping he'll remember me when he's rich and famous).

Anniversary

Eleven years ago today, the World Trade Center was attacked for the first time. Eleven years ago tomorrow, we pretty much went back to normal as if nothing had happened. It will soon be three years since the last time the WTC was attacked. Have we learned how dangerous it is to return to normal as if nothing had happened?

Via the Corner.

Get organized

As most of you know, I do an events site for NYC rightwingers. If you are interested in doing such a site in your area, let me know and I'll put you in touch with Josh, the fabulous owner of the bushblog.us domain and he'll set it up. My pitch for why these sites are a great organizational tool is here.

Spare a thought

The Yeti feels sorry for the real victims of gay marriage.

9/11 heals all wounds

Read all about how a well known French writer made up with all his estranged friends as they watched with glee the events of 9/11 unfold. How special and touching.

Via Daily Lunch.

I love the blogosphere.

Last night, my adorably raised brother, his friend, Ari, her brother and Doug came over to visit me (and Peter) in my invalid state. At some point after my brother and his friend left, Ari, Doug, Peter and I were talking about anti-Semitism and I mentioned that I had read a funny post about how anti-Semitism only matters, to some people, when it might be practiced by Christians. I had been blogsurfing yesterday and had forgotten where I saw it. And then today, Gib, the writer of the post, commented here. Small blog world. Go read it, it's great.

Whatever it is, it's all Bush's fault!

What is it about president Bush that drives some people so competely over the edge? I'm a reader of the Buzzmachine blog for awhile now. Jeff Jarvis was never a Bush fan but it seems that the amendment has forced him to cross into the darkside of irrationality that so many Bush haters make frequent forays into. It seems that Clear Channel has pulled Howard Stern off the air. And, with the zeal of any Kucinich supporter or Indymedia poster, Jarvis proclaims it is all....Bush's fault. But of course. A private company suspends an employee and it's the fault of the government.

Jarvis writes: 'Let's hear a little liberartarian outrage at government meddling in our lives and our speech. Let's hear a little conservative outrage at government growing beyond its bounds. Let's hear a little liberal outrage at goverment stiffling free spech.'

His commenters respond:

'Private companies making their own decisions on what they will tolerate from their employees--the horror!'

'Seriously, what does Bush have to do with this? I am looking for the two s**ts Bush gives about Howard Stern -- so far, I am not finding them. Also, radio has been government-controlled since Dubya was but a naughty gleam in H.W. and Barbara's eyes; you can't very well blame him for not disbanding the FCC, or whatever it is you want him to do in order to make sure you can get your Howard fix if you happen to be in Miami. (All the major Miami radio stations are actually in Ft. Lauderdale, long story, no doubt gummint meddling is at the bottom of it).
But don't worry -- Clear Channel being a commercial enterprise not a crypto-fascist org in the pay of the Shadow Government will no doubt take into account the shrieks of the legions of Stern fans, and he'll probably get his show back everywhere in jig time.'

'Gosh, I didn't know I had the right to have a syndicated show on Clear Channel. I thought that was ... a job. One from which you can be fired.
I didn't know Clear Channel was the only forum via which Howard Stern is capable of speaking. Because that would have to be true for this to qualify as censorship, or a squashing of free speech.'

'Stern asked Salomon if he engaged in anal sex and referred to the size of his penis. Using a racist term, a caller to the show asked Solomon if he had ever had sex with any famous black women.
The "racist" term by the way was the "nigger"....
you are happy about this kind of "speech" on public airwaves? Please explain why this is acceptable, I cannot wait. Plus, it was a private company that pulled Stern NOT the Government. '

'Oh yes, I forgot the fifth branch of government, ClearChannel. How stupid of me.'

'Gee Jeff. Your post is flat out hysterical. No, I don't mean a laughing matter. What I mean, is get a freaking grip.'

'Jeff have censored your posters before due to bad language because you explain, your son might read it. Yet Clear Channels can't fire who they want?
JEFF! I HAVE NEWS FOR YOU! I CAN BE FIRED FOR BEING SEXUALLY EXPLICIT AT WORK! ARE YOU SHOCKED?'

And on and on went the outrage.

Um....

.....someone please tell Peter 'says he was born in NY but you could tell he was raised in West Virgina' why this is no good.

More on the gay marriage amendment

There are a couple of possible versions of the amendment floating around so it is interesting how so many people, myself included, have taken a side before even seeing one final version. I'm against the concept of altering the constitution for almost any purpose, that is my explanation. Still, James Taranto has a proposal for an amendment that would work for those of us who believe in state's rights and also appease those who don't want the laws of some states imposing their will on others: "Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to require any state or the federal government to recognize any marriage except between a man and a woman."

What do you think?

Am I weird or is it everyone else?

I don't care about Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of Christ. I have no urge to see it. I don't care if the movie portrays Jews killing Christ or what the reprecussions of that imagery on sensitive skulled people will be. It's just not interesting enough to me. Are any of you rushing out to the theatre to see it?

URGGGGGGGG

You know when you have a pain and you ignore it and ignore it until it becomes unbearable? Yeah, I'm at that stage right now. I have a horrendous leg pain that my doctor suspects is from a back injury. I can't walk too well and I can't sit at all. Peter has been amazing, putting my socks on for me, making me coffee and letting me hang on to him as I hobble around. I couldn't adore him more. So, what I'm saying is, if you're here because you followed a link besmirching my good name, just know not to believe your sources.

Side note: huge thanks to Ari for taking such fabulous care of my crippled self last night. All of you should wish she lived down the block from you.

Just sayin'

I am against amending the Constitution to codify what marriage is or isn't. Still, it's been curious today hearing other opponents of the amendment saying 'why now, we've got so many other problems, why is Bush doing this now?' Seriously, that's an easy one.

Update: Annika is for gay marriage and for the amendment. Go read her interesting take.

Further Update: While against the amendment, Physics Geek has some words for those that were voting for President Bush but say they won't now that he is supporting the amendment. He also has a good roundup of other blogger reactions.

Oops

That protest I mentioned the other day is this Saturday, not last Saturday.

Alarming, indeed (By Guest Blogger Candace)

If she hasn't posted in ages, is she still a guest blogger?

I think so.

I thought I would share the news that today, President Vladimir Putin of Russia has dismissed the federal government.

Just one of many idiosyncracies of the Russian constitution, I suppose. And another shameless display of authoritarian power.

It's not actually all that shocking, really. Independent thinking anywhere, let alone among government officials, isn't typically approved of by Mr. Putin. And Prime Minister Kasianov wasn't so comfortable after having criticized the Yukos affair.

Furthermore, criticisms of Kasianov were bolstered last week by critical economic adviser Andrei Illarionov's poor grading of the federal government's economic policies.

Public reaction should be positive. Kasianov is the last major holdover from the not-so-much-loved Yeltsin administration, which initially thought it would keep power in "the family" as it were by passing power on to this no-name KGB guy back on New Year's Eve four years ago.

Already, Putin's opponents for the March election are dropping out. It will be interesting to see what effect, if any, this move has on that trend, not to mention his ratings.

Just imagine an America where Bush, for example, dismissed Colin Powell and all of his State Department advisers three weeks before the reelection.

Not to be suggestive or anything.

Cute but dumb?

Edwards nay too bright, like.

Rightwing events in NYC

There are four remaining events in February:

February 24, 2004, 7pm: John Podhoretz, author of "Bush Country" will be reading and signing books at the Barnes & Noble, on the corner of Broadway and West 82nd Street.

February 24, 2004, 6pm: ACLU Marriage Panel (with Log Cabin Republican/NY speaker Jeff Cook), Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South.

February 24, 5pm: Press Conference and Rally in support of Michael Benjamin's candidacy for US Senate. Corner of 52nd Street & 7th Avenue. In front of Sheraton Hotel.

February 26, 2004, 7pm: Republican Party Meetup at Waikiki Wally's (Tiki Bar & Hawaiian Restaurant), 101 E. 2nd St between First Avenue and Avenue A. All meetup.com events are free.

The March events list is now up here. If you have an event to promote, please send me an email.

Oh....

....it's so on:

Come November, the voters are going to have a very clear choice. It's a choice between keeping the tax relief that is moving the economy forward, or putting the burden of higher taxes back on the American people. It is a choice between an America that leads the world with strength and confidence, or an America that is uncertain in the face of danger. The American people will decide between two visions of government: a government that encourages ownership and opportunity and responsibility, or a government that takes your money and makes your choices.
-Candidate George W. Bush

2 months in 1975

I've been doing research for a book and here are some interesting events from November and December 1975:

We were criticizing the Brits for ‘detention without trial’ in Ulster.

Lebanon was on the verge of collapse. Beirut was just becoming a war zone.

Angola (where?) was the huge international crisis. Debate raged as to if the US should get involved.

Israel was being criticized for responding to terrorism and the UN passed the 'Zionism is racism' resolution. (Is there anything more depressing than seeing zero movement on this front in almost 30 years?)

The NY Times didn’t like Ford’s new appointments of Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and George HW Bush.

Ford suspected the Russians weren’t being entirely honest.

Hostages were taken in London by the IRA, in Amsterdam by an East Asian terrorist group, and in Vienna by Arab revolutionaries. Everybody was negotiating.

Democrats wanted to choose a candidate early to go up against Ford but all the articles note how they have ‘failed to unite behind a single candidate’.

Soviets had a disastrous harvest season, and there were doubts that they could feed themselves.

The NY Times(!) editorial page, on 12/10/75, noted that the UN General Assembly is a place where ‘meaningless and tedious resolutions have become the norm.’

Karol's rule (similar to Murphy's in US and Sod's in UK)

After freezing for the past week, I will decide that I need to start dressing warmer and that my t-shirts and skirts aren't going to cut it anymore. I will put on tights under my pants, I will have a sweatshirt over a long sleeve shirt. I will not forget my scarf. And the weather on this day will, of course, be the warmest of the entire winter.

If you're not into Nader...

....there's always Vader.

Via Ken Wheaton.

We love Nader.

He's in!

Um, it's working?

I'm not going to breathe or press anything or even feel relief that my site seems to be working again, in hope that it'll stay fixed.

UPDATE: Oh well, that didn't work.

Site problems

I'm having technical issues with the site (and suddenly I feel in way over my head with Movable Type), so I apologize if you're experiencing difficulty. I hope to have all the kinks worked out today.

Has the world gone mad?

Ok, I'm only going to say this once for Andrew Sullivan, Instapundit and everyone else who has been quoting the poll numbers that show Bush being beaten by either Kerry or Edwards: these are national polls. We do not have national elections. I don't understand how all these much more brilliant than me writers can not mention that when citing the polls. We have state by state elections, therefore these polls are, well, meaningless. I keep waiting for someone to point this out but no one ever does. Good thing I have a blog, eh?

Restaurant Recommendation

Yesterday was the lovely Peter's birthday. He met me after my polling class and I took him out to dinner. We went to Craft on East 19th between Park and Broadway. I had wanted to go there since it opened a few years ago but it was impossible to get reservations at first (of course) and by the time the hype died down I was a poor student who couldn't afford it (unless for a special occasion such as this). And, it was pricey but really amazing and, I think, worth it. The idea at Craft is that you order every part of your meal separately. You choose the main dish and then the side you'd like to accompany it. Peter had the Kobe skirt steak. I had the lobster. We had a mushroom risotto, potatos au gratin and whipped potatos as sides. It was dreamy. I highly recommend it (but, again, be sure to bring your platinum card or lots of cash).

Protest

I'm not a protester. I don't get the concept. I think protesting accomplishes little (yes, yes, once upon a time protests in America changed everything but now is not then and the protest culture has dulled people's feelings toward large groups marching and screaming) and I don't like yelling much. Still, I've gotten an email from six different people, a few of which are completely outside of my political circle, about a Vietnam Vets and Vietnamese Americans against Kerry protest tomorrow, Saturday, February 28th at 12 noon. It will be at the Kerry NY headquarters at 373 Park Ave. South between 26th & 27th Streets. This is a non-partisan rally and all the emails I've gotten ask that people leave partisanship (ie: signs supporting Bush etc.) completely out of it.

John Edwards: Not the worst.

Allahpundit has some on-point John Edwards posters.

Via Ken Wheaton.

He really is that good

That's my 'adorably well-raised' brother in Dawn Summers' post!

Obsessed

It would bother me if my country's press dedicated so much of its coverage to another country's politics.

The Maverick Event tonight

The event that I've been pitching was tonight and it was really fun. I got to Eugene, the event space, about 20 minutes early. I was on the host committee and so was getting a coveted photo taken with Karl Rove. Scott had emailed me that there were going to be the usual corny protesters outside, so I was expecting the small crowd gathered across the street from the place. I walked in and checked my coat and while I was doing that I heard someone say 'Karl is going to talk to them!' I walked over to the door and looked through the glass and indeed, Karl Rove was crossing the street to go talk to the protesters. Everybody watched and whispered 'what is he doing' as he walked over to them. The crowd shifted down the street as he approached them. I watched some of the protesters take his picture. It was stunning.

Later on, when I met him to take the photo, I had to ask: 'what did the protesters say to you?' He said 'they ran away, they wouldn't talk to me.' Outstanding.

The other amazing thing was that Mike Bloomberg was great. Yes, really, you read that right. Fewer people have less love for the mayor than I do. I worked for Herman Badillo in the primary against Bloomberg. I was bitter that he bought my party's nomination. I was going to vote third party until Mark Green forced me to vote against him, and for Bloomberg, with his 'kill it, kill it, kill it' ad a month of so after 3000 were killed, killed, killed downtown. Soon after Bloomberg took office, the needling began. It's not that Bloomberg has done that much wrong (with the exception of the tax increase), it's the little things that drive everybody insane. The no smoking in bars law (with the poor political maneuver of saying 'becuse I think it's a disgusting habit' accompanying it), the meters on Sundays, the subway fare hike (only to have the MTA discover they were actually running a surplus), the doubling of parking ticket prices etc. But tonight, he was on. He was funny, charming, self-deprecating. He said that he saw Vice President Cheney recently and he looked really relaxed and that made Bloomberg say to himself 'I bought the wrong office!' He had a couple of other funny lines. I have to say that I was sure he stood zero shot in 2005, but really, who knows? If it's another Mark Green-esque candidate that the Dems put up, anything can happen.

I had been to Eugene a couple of times before but have never seen it even nearly as packed as tonight. It was quite inspiring to see that many people turn out, in one of the most liberal cities in the country, to support the president. I hope it's a sign for the approaching campaign.

Why 'pollster' is the one political career I'm not interested in

How do you conduct a poll like this and not mention Florida?

W is for Wictory

So, you're thinking that Bush is in a good spot, in regards to money, because he's got over a hundred million dollars and no primary challenger. Not so. As the Note noted a few weeks ago, Bush has a lot of money but the 527s that seek to oust him, led by Emperor Soros, have much, much more.

Today is Wictory Wednesday, the brainchild of Polipundit. Every Wednesday, dozens of bloggers ask their readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush 2004 campaign. It doesn't have to be a lot of money. $10, $20, every dollar counts. Please enter solicitor number 585354 when you donate.

If you're a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays simply by putting up a post like this one every Wednesday, asking your readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush campaign. And then e-mail wictory@blogsforbush.com so that you'll be added to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll, which will be part of the Wictory Wednesday post on all participating blogs:

Events Events Events

I just updated my events site which seeks to list all the right-leaning events going on around NY. There are some really good ones coming up and I encourage all of you New Yorkers to check it out and get involved. If you know of any events that should be included on my list, e-mail me.

When I'm three times my age....

.....I hope I'm half as cool as Rummy.

Via Daily Lunch.

You've got to be kidding me

Headline: Vietnam War haunts Kerry's campaign

Can something you invite, embrace and adore also haunt? There's a good way to dispel the ghosts of Vietnam haunting the Kerry campaign: stop bringing it up, dingbat.

Jimmy Carter must retire

No, seriously, go sit on a porch somewhere and stop embarrassing us.

I'm shocked! Shocked!

I can't believe that Saddam was funding part of the anti-war movement. Why would he do such a thing?

Via Andrew Sullivan.

My weekend

I had a pretty Russian-centered weekend and, oddly, it wasn't even with my usual Russian-Brooklyn crew.

On Saturday night, Peter and I joined our friend Warren and went to see Lubka's Valentine's Day show at the always fun Collective Unconcious. Warren's girlfriend Tia was performing (she was great). Being greeted at the door with vodka and Russian candy can never be a bad thing. I had been there a few times for Reverend Jen's anti-slam Wednesdays but this was my first time seeing an actual show at the space. It was really good. I recommend catching a show or open mic at Collective while there is still time (they've lost their lease and will be moving soon). The 'art stars' of the Collective have a kind of homebase website at Girlbomb.com. Girlbomb is both a website and a girl and though we have completely different politics and though we've never met, I have a warm feeling toward her (the girl, that is).

Last night, after a great dinner at Ruth's Chris with Peter, his mom, and his home-for-the-weekend-from-the-Navy brother Kevin, Peter and I went to CB's Gallery to catch one of my favorite performers in NYC: Ilias Murtov. He is the frontman of a band called Yoke that I have long loved and taken many friends to see. Ilias is one of the most charismatic musicians I've ever seen. He sings in Russian and even my non-Russian speaking friends have had a great time at Yoke shows. I have to say, though, that I like Ilias solo and acoustic a little better than him with Yoke. The reason is that I'm a lyrics person and Ilias's lyrics are incredible and I can hear them better when he's acoustic. Yoke has a lot going on, a reggae singer and a horns section, that, though great, make the lyrics harder to hear. He's even got two non-Russian songs these days for those of you who don't speak the language. You can download a few Yoke's songs on their website. My favorite are 'Understand' and 'I'm not always happy'.

Republican events in NYC

The Guardian covered the last meeting of the Young Republican club, of which I am a member (and former Board Member). I was at another meeting earlier in the evening, watching John Stossel speak, and so got there late and missed the outburst regarding Bush being a true conservative. I actually like articles like this, and wish the American press would pick up on it, about Bush's base being disillusioned. I think it is more likely to rile up the voters on election day than pieces saying that Bush has the election on lock. The problem Republicans often face is complacency and articles that note that the battle will be tough are good for us. Even if they do run in leftwing rags like the Guardian.

Blogging for Bush

What I spent the last hour working on.

Blog Issues

Just a short note: I have no idea what happened to the 'just a question' post and why the comments refused to function. I've republished the post and the comments that were there when the problem happened. Happy commenting, everything should be fine now.

Just a question

I'm told that my political knowledge will be considered limited until I start watching the Sunday morning political shows. So, I've been trying. I caught the last 10 minutes of Meet the Press and then watched part of the Chris Matthews Show. It's not the worst, but it's not the internet. It seems flat to me, I can't click on the links and read it for myself.

Anyway, Matthews showed a clip of idiot musician Chris Martin of Coldplay accepting his grammy and dedicating it to Johnny Cash and John Kerry who, Martin said he hoped, would be our president someday. So, my question is this: I get the 'anyone but Bush' mentality. It's one of kneejerk, unthinking hatred that hardly goes beyond the surface. And I get that Martin needs to be the coolest kid on the deep, politically motivated celebrity block. I even get how that mentality will transfer into support for Kerry. He is, indeed, someone other than Bush. What I don't get is how these Bush haters are going to explain their man Kerry voting for the war they were so violently against. And then, once the war began, and even the craziest of lefties knew we were there for awhile, Kerry voted, bizarrely, against funding the war. How are these followers going to explain this away? I'm not talking about the lacking two brain cells to rub together Martin. I'm talking about you, Kerry supporters. You hated the war but are now excited about someone who voted for it? Explain.

'It's just a fantasy....

....oh woh oh, it's not the real thing....'-Billy Joel.

Victor Davis Hanson wishes the implausible beliefs of how the world works held by certain pundits were true. Don't we all.

Among them:

That when all the Israelis vacate the Gaza Strip and, like most of the Arab world elsewhere it is free of Jews, indigenous Palestinian consensual government will at last quickly bring peace and tranquility there to its own delighted native citizenry.

That bin Laden will shortly announce an end to his war against America just as the last American soldier in Saudi Arabia — his oft-stated prime grievance against the United States — leaves the kingdom.

That a long-term, scholarly study of the social and economic background of the Hamas suicide bombers, the Hezbollah killers, the al Qaeda leadership, and the suicide-murderers of September 11 will soon reveal a consistent, predictable, and unfortunate pattern of impoverishment, lack of education, and absence of contact with or knowledge of the West.

Read the whole, terrifying thing.

More Vincent Gallo

Sigh, I love this man. BTW, I want the jacket mentioned in the linked story and yes I would really wear it.

Have you heard about this whole thing at Duke?

Responding to the charge that there are extremely few conservative faculty members at Duke University, Robert Brandon, philosophy chairman, drew the ire of several students and garnered national attention when The Chronicle quoted him Tuesday as saying:

"I will go on the record as saying that some conservatives are stupid, but so are some liberals; there is plenty of stupidity to go around," he said.

Actually, I think you're hogging most of it, Mr. Brandon.

Drinking latte and sneering?

Window Manager asks: where are the protestors who cared so much about the life of 'innocent Iraqis' these days?

Update to blogroll

I thought it was already on the blogroll (this happens a lot) but I've added the Bush Blog run by the excellent Josh, who was kind enough to help me set up my other site that lists rightwing events in NYC.

Pizza for the troops

I knew that the you could send pizza to Israeli troops but it turns out you can send them to our guys too.

Via DGCI.

C'mon, get the shirt.

The original Iraqi blogger, (I think it is the greatest thing that there are so many others these days), Salam Pax writes:'Anyway, all that doesn’t matter now. Saddam is gone, thanks to you. Was it worth it? Be assured it was. We all know that it got to a point where we would have never been rid of Saddam without foreign intervention; I just wish it would have been a bit better planned. Does this mean that I will be wearing a (I [heart] Bush) t-shirt? NO, because I don’t believe there is any altruism in politics and the way he sees the world scares me.'
I wonder if he knows that there actually are I heart Bush t-shirts and that they're the brainchild of a really cool chick. Probably not.

So, I've decided.

Hi, I'm Karol.

Bombs on the 9/11 planes?

An interesting post over at Reason doesn't think that idea is so farfetched.

Gotta love the internet.

Thanks to this post that mentions the words 'John Kerry' and 'girlfriend' (though not together), my site came up fourth on google yesterday for people trying to find information on the alleged indiscretions of one presidential candidate. I got about 100 hits from these searches. Hit-whore, Dawn, upon hearing my numbers posted this working the words 'girlfriend', 'affair' and 'intern' into her post. I just found that amusing.

I'm really trying not to be too happy about this....

.....especially in light of the fact that I think Edwards is, by far, a stronger candidate than Kerry, but this conversation is pretty accurate as to how I'm feeling.

Me: So did you hear about Kerry?
Michael D.: No, what happened?
Me: You didn't hear! There's an intern.
Michael D. (smiling): There's an intern?!?
Me (major smiling): Oh yeah.

On growing up

Lileks was asked what he thought of John Kerry's anti-war activism during the Vietnam War. He wrote a phenomenal piece about changing your opinions as one grows older. Click on to read it.

"It matters only if he still believes these things. I don’t hold anyone accountable for what they said when they were in their 20s, frankly. Otherwise I’d have to dismiss much of what I believe today because - I held contrary positions when I was Young and Idealistic, and thought that those were attributes that lent some sort of moral weight to what I thought. (Hah!) I believed:

Ronald Reagan had the IQ of a Sea-Monkey, and not only wanted nuclear war but was completely unaware of the consequences of such an event, because he hadn’t read that New Yorker article by Jonathan Schell!

All people in the military were either brainwashed killbots, or generals who saw weapons as phallic substitutes, playthings whose lethality they could not possibly comprehend (The phrase “Boys and their toys” was the height of insight in our circle)

The Soviets could be best deterred by signing agreements that spelled out exactly how many thousand ICBMs we could point at one another, and the more we showed we desperately wanted peace the more they would want to be our friends, and while the USSR was possibly, maybe, perhaps an evil empire, it was extremely unhelpful to say such a thing out loud

It was better to let all of Latin America fall to Soviet-friendly regimes than to support governments that did not resemble North Dakota school boards

Europe had it all figured out

Rich people suck

Anyone who was socially conservative was probably repressing a vast amount of perversity, and your average Republican spent his private moments panting over the bra section in the Sears catalog

Religious people were okay as long as they didn’t seem to take it all that seriously

People who opposed unrestricted abortion rights wanted women to be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen; somehow “Ozzie and Harriet” got dragged into the discussion, since that stood for the bad old days when women were manacled to gas stoves

And so forth. As the years passed, I grew uncomfortable with a number of these commandments. I loved this country; I still thought it was the last best hope, and I became increasingly impatient with those who regarded it as the first worst evil. A great number of my ideas did not survive contact with the real world. Add to that a tenure in DC, and you had a mid-30s polar realignment. I suppose by modern definitions I am a CONSERVATIVE, but I’m all over the road. Total freedom in the arts, no censorship – just don’t force Mormons to pay for an exhibit that shows the Prophet Moroni getting a lapdance, okay? Let the cable channels supply naughty tales for paying customers – just don’t insist that anyone has a First Amendment right to wardrobe malfunction on broadcast TV. Our family business is petroleum – Lord,, I know all about EPA overreach. I know exactly what I did with my tax cut, and the six people who wouldn’t have gotten paid if I hadn’t got it.

Most important issue now: the war. This cuts across the grain; this changed everything, as we said in the post 9/11 days.

What matters, then, is intellectual flexibility. When you are presented with new facts that blast apart your old beloved precepts, you either reexamine what you believe, or you hammer the new round pegs into old square holes. We all know people who refuse to revise their past, who’ve fixed their identity in a Golden Age and resist any attempts to revise their judgments. They’re stuck in a world where “Hotel California” is a bitchin’ album and “WKRP” is classic TV and vans with airbrushed scenes of surfer girls are the apotheosis of automotive art and there was this one Saturday Night Life skit where Reagan like totally lost it and went all mental, and . . . those were the days, dude.

Fine, whatever. This much is true: when you’re 50, holding on to the details of your 20-something convictions is like being 40 and trusting the insights you had when you were ten.
I don’t care what John Kerry said when he was 25.

I care about what John Kerry says today . . . about what he said when he was 25."

Ohhhhh snap.

Them's fightin' words where I come from:

At a House hearing on the State Department budget, Secretary of State Colin Powell snapped when a congressman suggested Bush might have been AWOL. "You don't know what you're talking about," Powell said to Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. "If you want to have a political fight, fine. But let's not go there."

Via Blogs for Bush.

More on Kerry:

Please, please, please, Republicans, follow this advice.

Music

A funky picture from Peter's show:



On a different music related note (and something I'm sure has been said before), have you ever noticed that bands are a lot like relationships? First, you get together and you're kind of feeling each other out. You might like each other, it feels kind of good when you're together, you might be ready to commit. Then, you're together as much as possible. It feels so right. Everything just fits. You can't imagine being with anyone else. Then, things start to go wrong. It's just tension really but no one wants to talk about it. Instead, you just let things fade away. It's over and everyone is sad. But you still want to be friends. It's kind of weird at first, you're not sure how the other parties feel. After awhile, you're friends for real and everything is good. When you see each other though, you can't help but compare it to the other experiences you're having and it just doesn't match up. You could've been so good together! One drunken night, someone says it: let's get back together. But, there's so much history and so much that was unsaid. You decide to meet for a drink to talk things out. You decide to give it a go. It's going to be different but you're willing to try.

UPDATE: Since someone asked, no I've never been in a band but I've been around a few and this seems to always be the formula. Confirm/deny, musicians?

INTERN!!!!

Oh. My. Gosh. Does Kerry have a girlfriend?

Drudge has a few incredible headlines:

"In an off-the-record conversation with a dozen reporters earlier this week, General Wesley Clark plainly stated: 'Kerry will implode over an intern issue'..."

"Kerry commotion is why Howard Dean has turned increasingly aggressive against Kerry in recent days, and is the key reason why Dean reversed his decision not to drop out of the race after Wisconsin... "

"A serious investigation of the woman and the nature of her relationship with Sen. John Kerry has been underway at TIME magazine, ABC NEWS, the WASHINGTON POST and the ASSOCIATED PRESS, where the woman in question once worked... "

Dawn Summers (on the phone) asks: 'Is he going to lose all the Ketchup money?'

Update: Doug writes that Kerry's favorite slogan may take on new meaning.

Fix your own windows first

Is there anything more pretentious than an employee of the embattled (that's for you, Dawn) BBC criticizing the American media? Stuart Hughes has the usual, unoriginal, blah blah about how our news is so homogenized and how the media is filtered through a 'how does this affect America' prism. Now, I'm clearly an internet junkie and, as such, I find news from other sources to be one-dimensional and uninteresting. Why just hear the story when I can read it and 15 different takes on it? Still, it's a bit rich for a BBC employee to have words about our press, considering.

Further down on his page he picks on Fox News for ripping into the BBC regarding the Hutton scandal. Hughes writes 'One day all news will be like this.' Except that the clip he links to isn't 'news', it's commentary. The clip features the newscaster (Tony Snow, if I'm not mistaken) doing a segment titled 'my word'. I don't know how it works in Britain, but in America a segment called 'my word' translates to 'my opinion'. But hey, who needs facts, it's the BBC after all.

Via Buzzmachine.

What I would look like if I was on South Park.

Make your own here.

Via Orange Haired Boy.

I got that 'you're really scared' line too!

Andrew Sullivan on Clark dropping out:

CLARK DEPARTS: We can all now heave a huge sigh of relief. The man had no political experience, had been on every side of a critical issue (the war against Saddam), believed in preposterous conspiracy theories, and backed any left-liberal cause regardless of his previous positions. The sole rationale for his candidacy was his military record - a record which ended in his being fired for being unstable in the Kosovo war. But what amazed me even more was how many otherwise sane Democrats seemed to take him seriously. "You're really scared, aren't you? I can see it" was the refrain from many liberal friends. Yes, I was scared. Not that he was a formidable figure bestriding the political scene like a colossus. But that he was a nut-case who had a shot at becoming the nominee of a serious political party. Now he can go back to what he was planning all along: raking in the usual lobbyist dough. See you at the Palm, Wes.

Just a cool picture

Iraqi boys play soccer at dusk in Samawa, southern Iraq, February 11, 2004. The first troops of Japanese main contingent have arrived in the southern Iraqi city for a humanitarian mission to rebuild Iraq in the first deployment to a war zone since World War Two. REUTERS/Kimimasa Mayama

The music playing boyfriend

A couple of people have asked so I just thought I'd mention that Peter's solo gig last Sunday went really well. He had two people tell him that he reminded them of Bright Eyes, who happen to be one of my favorite bands (despite the singer's ignorant political ideas). If you want more information, Peter's solo project is called Collapsible Kingdoms, the website is here (Scottish readers may recognize many of the photos on the site) and he wrote about the show here.

NYC Events

I've updated some NYC events on my other site including one really interesting event on February 16th at the New Criterion magazine.

If anyone is still interested in the Bush2004 fundraiser that I'm co-hosting on February 18th, the last day to get your payment in is this Friday, the 13th. Send me an email if you'd like to attend. The cost is $250 and the event will feature Rudy Giuliani, George Pataki, Mike Bloomberg and special guest Karl Rove.

Who needs publishers?

Ken Wheaton has posted his novel online. I haven't read it yet but if it's anything like his blog, it'll be entertaining and a great read.

Dennis Miller, Dawn and anonymity

I don't know much about Dennis Miller. I never saw his stand-up comedy and, though I thought it was kind of cool that he was doing football commentary, I never saw that either. When he said and wrote some things on politics, I found him reasonable, if not a complete ideological match. Still, I remain annoyed at celebrities who talk politics, and I don't feel differently when I agree with them(Vincent Gallo being the only gorgeous exception). TV addict Dawn Summers had seen Miller's new show and hated it. Being Dawn's political polar opposite, I figured I would love it. I tuned in tonight to catch Miller talking to Victor Davis Hanson. This was interesting. I know Hanson isn't in the CNN/Fox rotation that grates on my nerves so I took this as a good sign. And Hanson was good. It's just that is was kind of...slow. Following up Hanson, Miller brought on Jon Bon Jovi to talk about parenting and politics. Bon Jovi said a pretty funny line: 'Going to Iraq was great for our troops, who, by the way, I totally support, but ....' although I don't think he was intending to be funny and imply that going to war was great for our troops. I just couldn't get into it. It was a celebrity talking to another celebrity and it just didn't work. It just wasn't funny nor was it serious enough for the topics he was trying to cover. And then I remembered. Dawn Summers and I may have zilch in common politically but there's a reason we spend hours on the phone every day (especially in light of the fact that I hate the telephone and can't use it to communicate with anyone else): we find the same dumb stuff funny. I'm not going to say that the lesson is trust Dawn, just trust Dawn when it comes to TV.

On a different note, I'm thinking of starting to use my real name to post on this site. I started this blog while I had a nice but stuffy job that would've not liked me posting rightwing political commentary, especially during the workday. So, I used a combination of my first and last name to post. I'm in a different place now, the blog has actually been a plus for a lot of what I'm currently doing. Even before this whole thing started regarding anonymous bloggers, I felt that I should start using my real name. Feel free to let me know what you think. I'm still thinking it over (although Dawn uses my real name on her site today and the couple of times James Taranto linked to me he used both my first and last name) and I'll let y'all know what I decide.

Two great Instaposts

CNN's anti-US bias
and
Al Gore has completely lost the plot. Make sure you listen to the audio.

Comments

I have a very lax comment policy, but I guess it needs to be reviewed:

Somewhat on topic is good, completely on another subject is bad.

Praising me is good. Praising me in a way that makes me think you're a homocidal stalker is bad.

Picking on people while having a point is ok. Picking on people for the hell of it-no good.

I delete comments very rarely but it does happen so try to keep these simple rules in mind when posting. Thanks much.

Blah blah 3,000 dead, blah blah blah

It makes me nervous how bored some people seem with the War on Terror. It's just not glitzy and exciting enough to compete with Janet Jackson's breast.

See no evil...

Political Consultant Moby has some ideas on how to make sure Bush loses in 04:

"No one's talking about how to keep the other side home on Election Day," Moby tells us. "It's a lot easier than you think and it doesn't cost that much. This election can be won by 200,000 votes."

"Then you go to an anti-immigration Web site chat room and ask, 'What's all this about George Bush proposing amnesty for illegal aliens?'"

Meanwhile, John Kerry's spokewoman, Stephanie Cutter, has her hands firmly over her ears:

'I doubt that Moby was suggesting anybody suppress the vote', she said, despite the fact that that is exactly what Moby is suggesting. What a populist! Let's make sure some opinions don't get heard, then maybe our guy can win.

Via The Note

That's right, you are.

Russert: But around the world, in Europe, favorable ratings unfavorable ratings, 70 in Germany, 67 in France.

He said to me, he said, ‘You're nearly as unpopular as Ronald Reagan was.’ I said, ‘so, first of all, I'm keeping pretty good company.’

Quote of the Day:

'He had used weapons. He had manufactured weapons. He had funded suicide bombers into Israel. He had terrorist connections. In other words, all of those ingredients said to me: Threat.'

In other words, you can't rely upon a madman, and he was a madman. You can't rely upon him making rational decisions when it comes to war and peace, and it's too late, in my judgment, when a madman who has got terrorist connections is able to act.'
-President George W. Bush on 'Meet the Press'.

Additions to the blogroll

I've added two DC bloggers for your reading pleasure: Julian Sanchez and Swamp City.

Come support my man

Peter will be playing an acoustic set this Sunday night at a bar in Hoboken, NJ. More information here.

Kanyoo Yasna, Vladik

Putin blames Chechens for Moscow blast

Happy Birthday, Mr. President

We miss you and wish you well.

I agree with Russell Simmons!

The Democrats are corny. That's actually one of my favorite words to use to describe them.

'Those damn liberals'

My father is a doctor and one of his offices is in my parent's house. They rent out a part of the office, usually to doctors or dentists and currently to a woman who does skincare. This woman opened the office in the summer. She put a sign in the window. And then she waited for customers to arrive. My mom, a pretty sharp businesswoman who is currently fairly successful at art dealing (a subject she knows less than nothing about), would give her advice about drawing in customers. It wasn't rocket science: if nobody knows this office exists, they probably won't frequent it. My mom had helped my dad get his practice off the ground in the 80's. She stood outside and talked to everyone that walked by. Even if one person became a patient, they figured, word of mouth would bring in many others. They were completely right. This woman would sit in the office and wait for people to come. She did little to no advertising and didn't bother trying to attract walk-by traffic. One of the pieces of advice my mother gave this woman was to transfer her business phoneline home every night so she wouldn't miss any calls. The woman saw the genius of this and simply stopped coming in to the office- what's the point if people can reach her at home?

Needless to say, her business tanked. She stopped paying rent for several months and would avoid my father's calls. The lock broke on the office door and my parents took this opportunity to get the locks changed. Soon after, they got a notice that she was suing them for changing the locks on her.

My mom went to court. While she was waiting, she heard the case of another non-paying tenant, although a residential one. This man has not paid rent in six months. He really didn't seem like he intended to, either. The judge said to the man 'how much time do you need to find a new place to live, one month, two months?' The man said 'oh, it's really cold right now, I can't move right now.' So, the judge said 'well, tell me how much time you need, another six months?' The man said he needed six to nine months. The judge said that would be fine. My mom did not have high hopes for her own case.

The judge ended up saying that my father needed to appear before him since he was the one who ultimately signed the lease with this woman. My parents were ordered to give her a copy of the keys until the next court date. My mom, herself not so much a conservative as a super-realistic Russian, told me the story and ended with 'those damn liberals'.

The next day, my own damn liberal Dawn Summers told me that she wanted to buy investment property to rent out. I told her the difficulty of evicting non-paying renters. Dawn 'I want Dennis Kucinich to be president', 'why can't we pay more taxes', 'you're racist!', 'war is bad' 'I'm African-American even though my family is from Panama' Summers said: 'I can just rent to good people.' {Pause} 'Oh no! This is how racism starts isn't it?' I told her it's ok that her first response was not to rent to black people (and yes, that was clearly what she meant), I wouldn't rent to Russians myself. Then she said 'Man, New York needs to make it easier to evict someone. Or, I guess I can just send my cousins over to make sure they pay.' Ah yes, touting landlord rights, racial profiling and violence. Not very liberal of you, Dawn. What's the line about being mugged by reality?

Quote of the Day:

'First of all, until you've got more than 600,000 American bodies stacked up like cordwood, spare me the "more divided than ever before" talk. We have this phrase in political discourse which is very useful. It goes like this: "...since the end of the Civil War..." You can put it at the end or the beginning of almost any sentence to indicate that you are discussing trends that began after the War Between the States concluded. Because that period in American history is what you might call a statistical outlier. We were really divided then, what with all the shooting each other and stuff. Even in places where there was no shooting, we were very divided. The New York Draft Riots, for example, featured mobs of 50,000 ticked-off New Yorkers and Irish immigrants who burned big chunks of the city over three days and hanged a lot of black people from street lights. I know the Florida recount was a big deal and all, but let's get a little perspective.'

-Jonah Goldberg on our 'divided' country. Read the whole thing, it's great.

On gay marriage.

Over in NRO's Corner, Ramesh Ponnuru asks Jonah Goldberg to clarify his stance on gay marriage. Apparently, Jonah criticized John Kerry for being against gay marriage but also refusing to do anything about it. Ramesh points out that this is, essentially, Jonah's position as well since Jonah is against the constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage but is also against gay marriage.

This is a tricky one, for me, as I'm not really sure where I stand on this myself. I'm definitely against a constitutional amendment indicating that marriage is between a man and a woman. I don't think we should be messing around with the constitution and amending it as we see fit. On the other hand, I feel that gay marriage should be a choice left to the people and not to judicial activists in places that are not representative of the rest of the country (see: Massachusetts). I'm for civil unions but see many problems with laws that would allow full-on gay marriage. Polygamists are already suing for their right to marry more than one person on the basis that if gay people can marry, why can't they. Finally, I don't see this as a federal issue. I think states should be allowed to choose for themselves what they feel is appropriate. Before the left starts cheering this opinion, please note that I feel the same way about abortion and if anything makes me lean toward being against gay marriage it is the idea that the judiciary will again take matters into their own hands and foist their decision onto the public.

UPDATE:

Jonah's response:

DAMN YOU PONNURU! [Jonah Goldberg]

As for me, you know I've wrestled with this. Intellectually, I don't have a problem with saying that judges who make up the law should be impeached. If they're elected, they should be recalled or thrown out of office. But I know that on a practical level that's not all that helpful. Neither is launching a public campaign to solve this problem through the state legislatures. Though certainly Kerry & Co. could say some things on that front too. My public policy solution, "civil unions si, marriage no" is only a political solution if politicians show some leadership on the issue -- which means first and foremost taking a stance against gay marriage if that's actually you're position. My objection to the FMA was never based upon the substance of the policy it represents (depending on which FMA we're talking about of course), but on my reluctance to make this a constitutional issue rather than a state issue. Regardless, at the end of the day, since nobody seems to be listening to me, what else I would do doesn't seem to matter. But I'll keep pondering anyway.

Some things to do in NYC

Fellow blogger Yaron's band, Handwriting, is playing at Pete's Candy Store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn tonight at 9pm.

I can't make it because I'm going to Ronald Reagan's birthday party hosted by the New York Young Republican Club. More info on the party can be found on their website and you can pay at the door.

On Friday night, Julia Gorin of Fox News and Robert George of the New York Post, will be doing a stand up comedy show at 9pm at Don't Tell Mama Cabaret, 343 W. 46th St., between 8th & 9th Aves. $ 10 cover charge, plus a two-drink minimum (cash only). Reservations Recommended: 212-757-0788 (Call after 4:00). I can't make this one either so laugh and applaud extra hard for me if you go.

You can always find political events in NYC listed here. For music happenings, check in with Executive Slacks.

Purim

Send a mishloach manot (loosely translated: food basket) to a soldier or terror victim in Israel for Purim.

Quote of the Day:

'In other words, people who can't break tobacco's tenacious hold suddenly find that they can when the price of cigarettes goes up. Apparently, the free choice that is lost when you start smoking can be restored through taxation. Only the fleeced are truly free.'

-Jacob Sullum on cigarette taxes.

Oh yeah, maybe crazy isn't so good

Tim Graham, over in NRO's Corner has a good theory on what exactly happened to Howard Dean: Saddam done did him in.

So, no more bringing up Vietnam, then?

We do not need to divide America over who served and how. I have personally always believed that many served in many different ways.

-John Kerry

Of course, he was talking about Bill Clinton.

Via Bobm.

There is something really wrong with France

I mean, really, really wrong.

What's a good Israeli?

It depends on the definition.

Hungry?

This is the best pizza place in New York, and therefore the world. But only their Coney Island location, of course.

Not that it really matters anymore, but....

"We're going to tell all those white boys who run the Republican Party to stay out of our bedrooms."-Howard Dean

Via The Politburo Diktat.

Dawn calls me 'hateful'

I'm not a fan of Valentine's Day. It's not that I'm not a fan of loving my boyfriend, I just don't need a special day where red=love to show my affection. Last year, I refused to go to dinner and Peter barely dragged me out of the house at like 11pm to go get a Valentine's Day drink somewhere. So, yes, despite being happily mated, I like to watch fun poked at this silly holiday. That's why, I'm going to this. I've never seen Uffish's blog before but she likes Leonard Cohen so I think I'll be visiting again. I seriously recommend she ask my girl Ari to be in her next production. No one can make boy-girl ick sound as funny as she can.

Via Manhattan Transfer.

Meetups and other events

You know the deal: Bush can't win if you're sitting on your couch all the time. Go get involved. There are townhall.com meetups happening tomorrow in locations all across the country. Show up and get organized. You can find other NYC rightwing events here. A better call to arms from me can be found here.

Al Sharpton for President

I really thought that Moby had reached rock-bottom in terms of political stupidity but he's back, back again, letting me know how wrong I was.

Someone please explain.

"The NEA, a government agency which distributes taxpayer dollars to artists whose work is so good they cannot make a living doing it."-
Scrappleface on Bush's plan to give the NEA a huge boost in funding.

Searching for the National Endowment for the Arts story on Drudge, I came across a different NEA link. $35K NEA GRANT TO DEVELOP MUSICAL ABOUT VERSACE KILLER...

Ah yes, the frugal spending of one of our more useless agencies.

I don't understand Bush's motivation for certain recent ideas. The liberals that love the idea of government sponsored art will not be swayed to vote for him not matter how much money he throws at bad art. The conservatives that think the idea of government having an influence over what art succeeds and what art fails will be unhappy with his budget boost but will probably be voting for him anyway. The vast middle has never heard of the NEA and won't have it affect their vote in any direction. The only conclusion I can reach is that Bush genuinely thinks that more funding for the NEA is a good idea, and well, this is of some concern to me. I'm sure Dawn Summers or one or the other of the Ricks will come by and explain how the boost in funding actually proves that Bush is both evil and stupid. If his 'evilness' turns out to include somehow dismantling or otherwise wounding the NEA, this would make me very happy indeed.

I can't believe I missed it!

So, let me get this straight: it was an accident that Janet Jackson's breast got exposed during the Superbowl and its just a lucky coincidence that she had a metal pasty on it?

Why Paul is not my favorite Beatle

He called Pam Anderson 'Pammy, baby' on Pamela Anderson E! True Hollywood Story (yes that's right, I'm watching E!, it's a lazy Sunday afternoon, ok, and I have no idea where Dawn Summers has gone to as we are usually on one of our marathon phone calls by this point in the day).

So, who is your favorite Beatle? Discuss.

I hate when G-d is used in the name of stupidity.

"All precautions were taken to prevent such an incident, but this is God's will."

Well, that makes sense. It was G-d's will. Nothing they could do to possibly prevent this accident. Except that 'last year, 14 pilgrims were trampled to death during the ritual and 35 died in a 2001 stampede. In 1998, 180 pilgrims died.' So, maybe not so much G-d's will as an absolute refusal to learn from past mistakes? It's like that old joke. Only not so funny.

Somebody make him stop

From today's schedule in the Note for all the candidates:

—9:00 am: Sen. Joe Lieberman has a "Cup of Joe" at Jimmy's Restaurant, Claymont, Del.

There is no Joe-mentum. There are no Liebermaniacs.

Things I learn while doing my homework:

Not only does Cracker Barrel have the best food when you're on the road, they also have a PAC and give 93% of the money they raise to Republicans.

I've been nowhere.

create your own visited states map.

This is pathetic.

Via newly movable-typed Annika.