Well, that’s one way to try to downsize the military. Plus, it’s the next best thing to billing families for the bullets.
March 12, 2009
March 12, 2009
The closing of the “liberal” mind
Gormless worm sends me the following from Politico, “Clyburn: Zimbabwe crack “beyond the pale”: House Minority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) told me he thinks S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford’s quip comparing President Obama’s stimulus package to Zimbabwe’s economic policies are “beyond the pale” — and suggested they might carry a racial subtext. “For him to compare the president of this country to Mugabe. … It’s just beyond the pale,” said Clyburn,
March 12, 2009
Losing more slowly: an OUTLAW’s lament
As a follow-up to Dan’s piece on the (ironic, surreal, and — let’s just say it, profoundly Orwellian) shouting down of a “conservative” speaker looking to address the question of hate speech, I’d like to offer a few observations: first, students are taught, from early on in their writing and literature courses, that they, as readers, control meaning. So it follows that, acting through that particular linguistically faulty hermeneutic (drink!)
March 12, 2009
Don’t Take Them To Your Non-Existent Leader [Dan Collins]
S.E. (“Size E”) Cupp*: At the end of January, Michael Steele was elected chair of the Republican National Committee – becoming, in fact, the actual leader of the Republican Party. But Steele was smart, likeable, unthreatening – and black. So it was only when he started saying ridiculous things like “off the hook” and “bling bling” that Democrats thought, “He might just be the leader after all . . .”
March 12, 2009
Broder: Chas Freeman Could Have Been a Contender [Dan Collins]
If he hadn’t been such a freaking douchebag: Had the lobbyists not prevailed, Freeman would have assigned the intelligence analysts this week to figure out why the Chinese provoked a naval incident off their coast and what lessons we could draw from the mixed reactions of other nations. Oh, the music of what doesn’t happen! “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter!” Therefore op-ed columnist, pipe to me
March 12, 2009
Hug Me, Or Else [Dan Collins]
David Thompson has up another one of his excellent posts, but before I get to that, I’d like to show a snippet from an article to which I was directed by La Malkin, regarding the shouting down of a speech at the University of Massachusetts: “We intended for the event to be a forum for the expression of a conservative perspective on hate crime legislation, but also to provide a
March 12, 2009
The Song of Iowahawk [Dan Collins]
or, a Fragment of a Vision in a Dream Smoking a Pipe with a St. Bernard Coming Out of It (For tomorrow is National Iowahawk Day) At the bending of the river Where it bows the brackish water In the fertile land of Hawkeyes Where the Hy-Vee vends its groceries And employees own the business There was taught the Iowahawk.
March 12, 2009
Compare and Contrast [Dan Collins]
Drives me crazy when my students opt for this kind of essay, because I usually end up wanting to shake them around saying, “What made you decide to compare a trebuchet with a pomegranate? Why, why, WHY did you make me read this? Have I been cruel to you?” Nevertheless, Dan Riehl makes a good point here. It appears that there’s been a ginned up report of David Vitter pitching