Theirs. To you.
Stacy’s possibly the hardest working guy in the ‘sphere, which is why we call him The Hustler. So, when he submerges for a little bit, it often means that he’s about to disgorge something important, like this takedown of the Per Se Conservatives.
That’s one of the reasons that, with respect to the proper around-reaching, I try not to be disappointed when he doesn’t respond in timely fashion to something that I’ve done that I feel merits wider circulation. I figure that he and others will get around to it when they’ve got the time.
In the blogosphere, Sullivan and Wonkette are about to have a blogasm.
How simply delicious for them, allegations of incest between Levi Johnson and his sister from Redstate. Because nothing gets Sullivan off more than Palin bashing and having a tie in to Redstate too.
If Levi Johnson’s sister got her brother’s name tatooed on her back that is rather creepy and Angelina Jolie-y, although I am not sure that is proof of incest. Still, the facination with saga of Wasilla continues.
Of course, I anticipate Patterico, Allah and Johnson to immediately denounce Redstate. And Palin. It is obviously all their fault.
Ace Opines
Joe, I saw that, yesterday, and decided that I didn’t have anything to add to the very important conversation.
To me, the “White Trash” issue is more compelling. Well, how do they define that? I mean, I’m half-Trash, but I can pass as 100% trash because of my home-made tattoos and stuff. My brother Matt, though, has all his teeth, so it’s not like he can just walk through some Trash neighborhood where people don’t know him.
This is WAY oversimplified.
Does Wonkette have any redeeming value? The only good thing they ever did was to inspire Ace to write his Greatest Post Ever.
I have a fun link for you, Dan. It’s here…
backstory
RS McCain writes a great piece. Dan links to it for discussion. And the first comment is about, well nothing about the McCain piece.
I like his take on the pragmatics. My own view is slightly different in that I think the DC social scene is also a major factor. Not getting invites to the best events has got to cause career problems and martial strife.
Now for my wonderful social life I’m off to install a dishwasher for my son and daughter-in-law.
martial strife? heh, heh.
NSFW NSFW Happy …
Rick Moran is flaccid, even for one of us.
Ace comments… Were Allah’s lips moving? I kid. I kid.
That McCain piece is outstanding. His explanation of the Austrian school of economics is clear and to the point. Read it.
oh … sorry … are you sure? It all seems like an edge up to the line but not cross it sort of thing. I thought it was brilliant and I wanted to share is all. This is not my day.
Feets:
OT, but I wanted to thank you for your “Lucas with the Lid Off” reference the other day. I listened on Youtube and then bought it for my IPod! Even my kids like it.
Happyfeet,
Are you one of those folks? I’m guessing the dude in the Mexican wrestling mask. To preserve your aura of mystery.
Sorry to wreck the thread by veering back on topic, but:
The problem — for still-hopeful OUTLAW!s — that McCain only brushes against in his (good) piece is that conservatism, the Reagan kind, is bad for (actually existing) politics, in the same way that a free market is bad for (actually existing) business.
You often hear libertarians wondering “Where’s our Soros? Why isn’t Bill Gates funding us? Why don’t we have a cable network?” etc. It’s because every Soros or Gates or Turner knows that in a libertarian world (or even a “fiscal conservative” one), there’s no way to be a Soros or a Gates or a Turner; they know how they got there, and it wasn’t the meritorious way WSJ editorials say they did. So their money goes to their side. Libertarians (and conservatives) aren’t on it; they’re the enemy.
Likewise, Republican voters often wonder why Republican politicians never — and it really is never — enact popular fiscal conservative policies. It’s because they’re politicians. They do what’s good for their side, and conservatives aren’t on it. They’ll take your contributions and your votes, but that’s the end of your relationship. Doing the things that you — a majority, often — want them to do would lower their status. So you’re the enemy. And if you listen to them talk about you, you know they know it.
So, what to do? Well…
In “Austrian” terms: Only politics can be done by political means.
So.
okay this day is getting better. Glad you liked that Lucas … I wish I could youtoob stuff at work.
No I am not not not involved it’s just something I’ve never seen done before that I can think of… building a campaign around having lost a client. I’m pretty dazzled really.
the base closings were something of a triumph I thought
No I am not not not involved….
So much for thinking we were going to see the Peter Parker under the mask.
So Jefferson, who didn’t [take ’em up], in his pre-Declaration days:
“So much for thinking we were going to see the Peter Parker under the mask.”
Wait just a…..
Turtleman?
Hey, I just realized: we could call Obama “Lil Bow Bow”
Turtleman?
Holy crap!
#15 – Good God, I would never hope to hear a libertarian wondering where their Soros was… But I do have to say, that, depressingly enough, you are 99% correct when you state “It’s because they’re politicians. They do what’s good for their side, and conservatives aren’t on it.”
Occassionally a Jeff Flake or someone is accidentally elected to Congress. Supposedly the elections every two years thing was supposed to be our cure for ‘politicians’. I am not a real big fan of term limits – but I can see how people get frustrated enough to want them.
Say, if any one needs a spare comma or two – feel free to take them from #23.
Well also the media doesn’t help rouse enthusiasm for the issues conservatives get elected on or hold them accountable for fulfilling their mandate. Just something I’ve noticed.
is that some kind of turtle furry?
oh … sorry … are you sure? It all seems like an edge up to the line but not cross it sort of thing. I thought it was brilliant and I wanted to share is all. This is not my day.
Well, the first one I checked had the teabagging thing. The worst of the lot. The rest were just playful.
yeah, that was startling how it starts with that one – I had to play the teabagging one twice cause I didn’t think I heard it right the first time
here is a followup to Darleen’s thing the other day
Say, if any one needs a spare comma or two – feel free to take them from #23.
You only have one to spare. I’ll take the one before “that.”
You’ve done a fine job detailing a very intriguing case. It’s not the only fascinating murder case in that area which remains unsolved–IIRC two young professional Chinese American women were murdered under bizarre circumstances near there and their murders also are unsolved.
The D.C. homicide unit is not very good but all three cases are difficult. In the case of the women no one saw them after they were dropped off in the area and no one knows who would have any reason to kill them. Mr. Wone’s case involves the apparent absence of any dispositive evidence and three men who haven’t and won’t tell what they know.
The large number of homosexuals involved in one way or another in this case is less unsual when you consider that D.C. has the highest percentage of gays of any city in the country and the Dupont Circle and Adama Morgan areas are where many of them live.
There is one error though–there is no statute of limitations for murder. As for the dismissed charges, as you noted:”Under the city’s criminal code, felony charges must be dismissed if the government fails to obtain an indictment within that time frame. At the government’s request, Johnson issued the dismissals “without prejudice,†which allows the U.S. Attorney’s office to reinstate the charges at a later date.
”
Years ago there was another series of intriguing , still unsolved murders–a number of young women all of whom seemed to have worked at a very prominent law firm but had no other apparent connection with eachother.
Oh, thanks very much, Clarice! The charges that were dismissed, though, were the ones that had to do with the burglary arranged by Joseph Price’s brother, Michael, and his accomplice, Phelps Collins. I would indeed be interested in those other stories if you can find links for me.
Brilliant.
oh. that was from Rick Moran’s reply to Stacey McCain –
“and exhibit paranoia about government”
Both left and right should agree on that.
Rick still doesn’t get it, but he is apparently a thoughtful guy.
I have not really enjoyed Mr. Moran in quite some time.
I think that’s profoundly stupid. You play the hand you’re dealt and if teh people think you’re bad you need to get out there and tell them why the dirty socialists are worse, but he seems completely incapable of grasping the fact that his Republicans with their John McCain and their pussy boy senators and their Eric Cantor that tried to steal that money from those AIG guys’ families and their fatass biatch Newt Gingrich maundering on about global warming… his Republicans made their own bed and it is in their dreams that these limpwristed budding little fascists are perceived as “angry, southern white males” and the rest.
Rick is wrong, but he says it well. He basically thinks like that guy with the Italian-sounding name who argued with our host a few weeks ago. Most of us believe that we cannot cede language to the opposition. Rick thinks we can, and that if we play real nice people will welcome us. Like I said, he does not get it.
Right. He does not get it not even a little. I think if Mr. Moran wants to change perceptions of the GOP than the for real elected Republicans are going to have to send some creative over to marketing that we can work with. The dirty socialist media has elected themselves a president and it’s crack to them and a Republican would have to be Meghan McCain stupid to think that now for no reason at all the dirty socialists are willing to negotiate how Republicans get portrayed in their propaganda.
it takes moxie, guts and self-confidence to live a truly libertarian or even, in many ways, a classically conservative life. Not seeking support from others or the federal government is challenging to many; committing to a life of independant means and thought is doubly so, given the student loan and educrat burdens many of our children endure.
Modern life is fast, loud and scary. Change happens at a velocity unimaginable several years prior. Having an agreeably presented multi-culturally perfect man telling you that he and the federal purse is on your side is quite comforting in an age where parents are often divorced or financially stressed, and the Christian church (or the traditional Judaic firmament) is unable or unwilling to connect with many who once had self-identified with them.
I suppose in the end that a Goldwater-quality libertarian existance is just too much of an intellectual leap of faith for many in the electorate. In modern life, when you can be laid off repeatedly before you are 30 and the safety nets of pensions and 401Ks are relics, Mr. Obama, his smile and that big purse are a lot easier sell than what we who say OUTLAW! have an offer.
Sadly, though, we are right and they are wrong. In my house at least, the old ways will be adhered to.
If anything, the liberals will step up their propaganda against Republicans, because it seems to be working well. Their propaganda has even convinced a lot of Republicans that many of their fellow travelers are bad people who need to be shunned. That’s a pretty successful campaign.
that is exactly it, cranky. Mr. mcgruder is probably all too right as well, though I think that’s an a lot urban-accented perspective.
It really isn’t as simple as how Republicans are portrayed in the media. Equally at issue is the fact that the conservatives people like Moran get all hot and bothered about are the ones who endeavor to dimensionalize the left. Democrats, with the help of the media, are able to soften their edges in elections and take all manner of positions that are at variance with the truth. All with a wink and a nod to their constituencies. (See: Obama on gay marriage, gun control, taxes, extremist abortion procedures, his lunatic reverend, etc). Republicans have no such ability.
The net effect of this , obviously, is that Republicans are presented in the worst possible light while Democrats are presented in the most favorable. But it is as much about hiding politically disadvantageous aspects of the left as it is hyper-accentuating the same on the right. And who, pray tell, is most dogged in revealing the lefties for what they are? The people Moran and his kind most actively frown upon. It’s a neat little box the Democrats have Republicans in, but these so-called conservatives can go fuck themselves as far as I’m concerned, because all they do is enable the perpetuation of this dynamic.
It’s like the Rick Moran ones are frantic to define Republican loss of majority as a consequence of things what they find embarrassing when they come up at dinner. Hey knock it off guys you’re embarrassing me. Rick Moran is too dim to ever consider that the last thing Democrats want is a consensus on gay marriage. Rs won’t get points for getting their gay marriage on. The dirty socialists and their media will just get a new frame what makes the Rs look hateful, at which point Rick Moran will nod knowingly and stamp his foot and say knock it off guys you’re embarrassing me.
a Republican would have to be Meghan McCain stupid to think that now for no reason at all the dirty socialists are willing to negotiate how Republicans get portrayed in their propaganda.
‘feets wins the thread. That’s a quotable quote, that is.
Equally at issue is the fact that the conservatives people like Moran get all hot and bothered about are the ones who endeavor to dimensionalize the left.
And many people like Moran have lots of friends on the Left, before whom they don’t want to be embarrassed. That’s what the original Rush FAIL kerfuffle was all about: “gee thanks Rush for making us explain you.”
Except that they should recognize those outbursts of MSM outrage as openings to explain the truth to the squishy middle, or at least to begin a dialog.
If nothing else, you can show people the context and add to their tally of “MSM lies, misrepresentations, and distortions.”
I’d like to see a constitutional amendment to increase the number of Senators to, say, 20 per state, and the number of Representatives to, say, 5,000.
In 1790 there were 26 Senators and 60 Representatives for about 4 million people, so we had about 150,000 people per Senator and about 60,000 people per Representative.
Now we have 300 million people, 100 Senators, and 435 Representatives, giving 3 million people per Senator and 690,000 per Representative. That’s way too many.
Not only would this provide a more representative government, it would cut down on bribery.
Presumably the pool of bribe money (though large) is not infinite. If you force the briber to come up with ten times the amount of bribe money to buy off a state’s Congresscritters, it becomes much less attractive to do so. Conversely, if the same amount of bribe money were split among ten times the number of ‘critters, becoming a career ‘critter for the purpose of receiving payola also becomes much less attractive.
I would also like to see us go back to having the Senators appointed. The Seventeenth Amendment was almost as big a mistake as the Eighteenth.
RS McCain writes a great piece. Dan links to it for discussion. And the first comment is about, well nothing about the McCain piece.
Thar she joes!
As a liberal, I am more than fine with neo-Confederate, member of the Legion of the South, and a guy who oppose inter-racial marriage describe what “conservatism” is. McCain is disgusting, as any google search will show. I urge you all to support him
so you’re signing on to castro’s plantation with the cbc?
Exactly, hf.
And the guy in the picture; his whale or his scooter?
From the Rick Moran reply,
Italics mine to point something out. He castigates Beck for saying Obama is trying to bring about “socialism”, “communism” or “totalitarianism” and goes on to in each case to say what he sees as the Obama objective. Everyone of them is, for anyone who has read “Liberal Fascism” simply the Fascist way of doing things to exactly the same effect as the Socialist. Slightly different means to the same bad end.
He is making a distinction that can be made but seeing a difference where there is none. To a murder victim the difference between 1st degree, 2nd degree, and manslaughter do not matter, they are just as dead. What exact form of tyranny is used to destroy liberty and freedom does not matter as much as that they are being destroyed.
please shut your traps: rick & his brother terry @ abc are trying to write the narrative
he’s sort of dim I think, geoff
I do get a kick out of these dweebs calling Rush cotton candy or some such. Anybody who thinks the dude is a lightweight thinker hasn’t listened to him.
“As a liberal, I am more than fine with neo-Confederate, member of the Legion of the South, and a guy who oppose inter-racial marriage describe what “conservatism†is. McCain is disgusting, as any google search will show. I urge you all to support him”
Aside from the fact that there’s nothing I care less about than left-wing bullshit and smear jobs, he’s just a blogger. It isn’t like he’s President of the United States and worshipped for years in a lunatic church, was friends with terrorist Marxist nutbags or voted twice against protecting botched abortion babies from a garbage chute.
See what I did there asswipe?
I just see him as a guy from a certain type of environment, Chicago in this case, who has been living all his life in a system somewhat like what Obama wants for the entire nation.
A city can do that and even thrive to a certain extent. They resemble the social architecture of a third world nation. A small powerful wealthy elite and a much larger always in poverty class.
The middle class that is needed for the system to work is in the suburbs. Politically disconnected from the city’s power structure but still economically tied so that resources flow into the city’s 3rd world to keep it afloat.
A nation cannot be made to work for long with the same system. there are no “suburban” countries to leach off of surrounding the USA.
HF @ #45, you are entirely correct.
It would seem then that the rational approach would be to punt Moran, since his accession to the spin only serves to lend further credence to the lies.
rick moran should be a democrat. groupthink is democrat thing.
Perhaps Moran could spend a few pixels enlightening us on exactly why he wants to be considered a republican. Maybe enlighten us on whatever principles or ideals he values that hold currency within the party.
Cleanup in aisle 50.
Now what we could do if we wanted everyone to know how moderate we are is to start condemning the other McCain. Or we could call bullshit on what the lying liar Josh said.
I like the second option better.
there are no “suburban†countries to leach off of surrounding the USA.
Well, the historical precedent is to just take over the surrounding countries and run them as outright client states.
Of course, that requires a certain amount of ruthlessness, and works much better for an empire than it does a republic.
Remember when Bush was accused of wanting to “steal the oil”?
Obama’s crew might actually do it.
Plenty of oil in Canada. Plenty of grain, too. And not much of a military to defend it (the Canadian Forces are pretty good, but there simply aren’t very many of them).
Republics based on free enterprise and the rule of law can coexist and engage in peaceful trade. Empires and communist slave states, not so much.
The cost of ambition as in “a drop of talent in an ocean of ambition,” is a lot more widespread than the political class. In addition to that, what has happened to our understanding of competence?
A few weeks ago, here, an item was linked that described the US as a combination welfare/warfare State. Succinctly, it captured even a bit more than McCain’s piece. Not to denigrate him, by the way. I think he’s a very good writer. More than that, he has deep sense of fair-play. And that’s admirable to me.
In the comments section of McCain’s piece, a person commenting noted the following, which I think indisputable:
Sorry to disagree with you, but what the Austrians never quite grasped was that what they thought was man’s fundamental nature was in fact the localized, in both time and place, outlook on life of a handful of Europeans.
Austrian economics presupposes the existence of what the Enlightenment called “rational man”. But he was the artificial creation of the existing order. Now that order has collapsed, and the sort of person who possesses what used to be called “the bourgeois virtues” is a dying breed.
Libertarianism itself has been very destructive of the sort of people it needs to succeed.
A few months ago, a detailed survey was released on Americans take on money and status. I never bookmark what I should and always bookmark what’s likely to have one interested reader: me.
Anyhoo, what I remember from the survey, and which rings true, is the enormous appetite for status. No epoch can send forth the virgins, I know that, but without the protection of a moral milieu built up over centuries by a penetrating understanding of what is right and what is wrong, we revert to a type predating Moses.
The Jews constructed that milieu better than anyone else had before them. The RCC picked up where they left off -Jews and Christians, whether they like it or not, are eternally bound- and when its back was broken, and justifiably, I think, the longstanding and solid craftsmanship and competence provided for the centuries that followed. The Protestant Ethic added a dynamism that Rome denied almost by doctrinal necessity and then praxis. It too conceived and produced what could be used for a long time after its cultural/spiritual collapse.
Not an original thought here, but one I agree with and that is that Nihilism is a word that has been so overused that it’s lost original intent: nothing is sacred.
Glenn Beck is popular because he senses and can convey, with depth of feeling, what we’re losing or have surely lost.
The job of Left is to flagellate the middle class until greater and greater numbers of it lose heart, flee and learn to demand dependency.
I like APundit, I really do. But when even he sees not paying back his student loans as something not particularly dishonorable or problematic; “it’s on!”
Listen, I’d really like to contribute to PW, but I’ve had problems with Pay Pal and to be honest, I don’t want to be on grid. If there’s an address I can mail a contribution to, I’d be happy to oblige. Same for McCain, who justifiably beats the “tip me” drum. Provide an address, S’il vous plaît.
Axiom: When you say “who worship at the altar of” you are about to make an ass of yourself. Some people agree with people you don’t agree with ASS, do you think you can make that sound unseemly by drawing a crude little crosshatched cartoon with words?
Trite is the handmaiden of dim I think, Mr. M… He does his best.
I’d like to add that for at least since WWII the United States has played the “suburbs”, the middle class, holding up the whole of the socialist societies, the 3rd world elites, ones who dominate the UN and the NGO’s of the planet.
The leaches now see their victory over the host coming. The wilier of them sense that this will not end well for them either. The others, like the Menendez boys, look forward to spending all those goodies that they will have once those despised parents are dead.
your #53 was a lot devastating to his piece I thought
Geoff duly noted the influence of Golberg’s book, where he also touched on the original meaning of totalitarianism. Which, give that our current POTUS who sees government as the solution to everything, is precisely where we are heading.
Yet somehow Moran cannot address any of this with substance, dancing around the topic and always staying too trite by half. Oh, and never missing any opportunity to repeat lefty libel directed at conservatives.
You still win the thread ‘feets. When dicentra calls it, it’s a done deal.
Now this is downright unhelpful.
#49- Has anyone seen Andrew Sullivan in Taiwan lately?
One draw back to successfully demonizing an opponent who isn’t remotely the evil inbred tent meeting snake dancer you paint him to be is that eventually the target decides that the issue is no longer political but is rather become personal.
People with real lives, real jobs, real families who have to make time for the personal tend to surprise those who base their lives on embraced narratives and feigned outrage.
Ric, I’d say it’s more along the lines of “If I’m going to have the name and the disadvantages no matter what I do, might as well get the benefits, too.”