by two Americas.
Stacy’s got a post up about the desire of some Republicans to separate themselves from the South and fundamentalists, presumably the extremist wing of conservatism. And he’s right to say that the impulse arises out of scorn that in turn arises from buying into the progressive characterization of Southerners (apart from those in Athens, Georgia and Greater San Antonio in Texas, maybe) as backwater hicks. Donald Douglas illustrates the point nicely when he breaks down Carrie Prejean’s treatment at the hands of gay media hacks, and the Miss America USA [h/t Baldilocks] Pageant’s demands that Miss Prejean apologize for expressing views that offend them.
As you’re aware, I’ve just returned from a sojourn down there, and I’ve got some things to say on the subject. The Northeast is gone. New York’s latest round of tax raising is going to drive capital away from the city and the state. Much of the Midwest is gone, too. Nobody’s going to be building manufacturing facilities in Michigan or Illinois or Wisconsin anytime soon, clearly. And before it goes to Honduras, the money’s going south. Rush Limbaugh’s not alone in this regard, and I don’t think he’s being petulant when he says he’s going to seek greener pastures.
One of the things that drives people who might otherwise consider Vermont, for example, a great place to set up a business, is the torture of the permitting process. I can tell you, for example, that it would be unthinkable back in Wisconsin to have bail bondsmen and check cashing services located anywhere near half-million dollar homes, but so it is down there. And Mexican grocers, dollar stores, discount liquor and cigarette outlets, bare-all buffets that open at 11 am and “adult book stores.” You can yammer on all you like about the quantities of toney golf courses and the snowbirds and well-off middle-aged German guys on the beach in tiny swimsuits, but it’s more America, as far as I can tell, than this synthaholic version you see in Northern suburbia.
Does it offend you? I took Mom and Dad to Ave Maria, Florida, for their 51st anniversary. It’s a sprawling community for Catholics built around Ave Maria University and the Oratory, and a little central city. But there you’ll find coffee houses and pizza parlors that serve beer, and ashtrays outside the student union on tables placed under awnings. There’s a 12:30 Latin Mass on Sunday, which we attended, and religious art and biblical quotations and excerpts from Papal encyclicals, and quite a bit of interracial dating, if looks are to be believed, and dudes hitting on girls who are mostly wearing skirts. Is that too far out for you? I don’t know whether I’d feel at home there, exactly, but it was a pleasure to see young mothers wheeling around multiple monsters dressed in their Sunday best, and to overhear the servers mocking each other for gaffes in their performances, and to watch people going about their business. There’s a gas station going in just outside the town center, and a Publix market. Now I don’t know if this was the original vision of the Domino’s Pizza guy who founded this sprawling community in the middle of nowhere, but what I can say is that as planned communities go, it’s one of the wiggliest I’ve ever seen.
I’m not saying, either, that I’d want Vermont to resemble Southwestern Florida, with its multiple highways and megaplex outlet malls and billboards and enormous sprawl, but what I will say is that, as well as being snowier and New Englandier, Vermont is a whole lot NIMBYer than Florida and the South in general. The Buddhist communities in Vermont don’t raise an eyebrow, as Naropa does not in Boulder, Colorado, but consider the venom that’s hurled at Liberty University, or the uproar that might result from someone trying to found a Catholic community in–oh, I don’t know–Maryland.
All of this is just to say that the inclusivity movement is at its core exclusive. Did you know that at that big-ass airport in Atlanta they’ve got enclosed smoking facilities? It’s gauche, I know, and such a disgusting habit, but . . . thanks for the hospitality, y’all.
Conservative icon Jack Kerouac
Some of the most successful national pageants in the last decade have been Venezuela, USA, Puerto Rico, India, Mexico, and etc which command consistently high interest and television ratings in their respective countries.[6]Recent arrivals in the pageant include China (2002), Albania (2002), Vietnam (2004), Georgia (2004), Ethiopia (2004), Latvia (2005), Kazakhstan (2006), Tanzania (2007) and Kosovo (2008); there have also been efforts to revive strong national pageants in South Africa, Canada, Spain, Japan, Colombia; Latin America among other regions.
There are continually efforts to expand the pageant, but the participation of some countries such as Algeria has proven difficult due to cultural barriers to the swimsuit competition, while others such as Mozambique, Armenia and Nepal have balked at sending representatives due to the cost (in fact, of all the major international pageants, the franchise fee for Miss Universe is the most expensive). As of 2007, only four countries have been present at every Miss Universe since its inception in 1952: Canada, France, Germany, and the United States. Many European countries allow 17-year-old contestants to compete in their pageants, while Miss Universe’s minimum age is 18, so national titleholders often have to be replaced by their runners-up. Miss Universe also prohibits transsexual applicants and age fabrication.
I’m sure Perez will be springing his question on Miss China or Miss Tanzania, and lobbying hard for the transsexuals. Aw, hell, just let them compete in chadors and we’ll get to their inner beauty, by which I mean progressive orthodoxy, won’t we?
People are weak and stupid a lot Dan and they get confused between who they are and who other people what don’t reflect on them in any way are. Douchebags like Eric Ulrich and slutty uneducated low-self-esteem fat chicks like Meghan have more of a sports fan approach to politics where they are branding themselves with a team what they need to be cool and winners and sexy and worthy of their idealized view of themselves. I can’t help them. What might could help is if Meghan’s coward daddy pimp-slapped her fat face and called her what he calls his wife but he’s too much of a pussy for anyone to expect that I think.
I gave a reading at Naropa once. Went over well, but as I was on the stage I kept thinking that I was looking out at a helluva lot of future buskers.
Stacy loses me here…
I think people should proudly trash their own party. Not just Republicans but dirty socialists too. Because they are sucky gay parties is why.
I’ve heard stories about people migrating away from Massachusetts into New Hampshire, to get away from the stifle, it was alleged, the taxes, the regulation, the whatever they thought they were getting away from, yet arriving, these same people begin immediately to fiddle here and meddle there, bringing the stifle along with them. Those are just stories, I’m sure.
Dan, I lived in Alabama for years. I grew up in New York state and lived out west and always thought the South was backwards and Nowheresville, but it is by far a more tolerant and pleasant place to be than most of the rest of the USA. I am currently in Tucson and mindnumbed by the liberal groupthink. If the Stupid Party kicks Southern social conservatives to the curb to please people like the Fat Chick making the media circuit; they are done as a serious party.
Sdferr: Northern transplants do similar things when they move to the Atlanta ‘burbs (McGehee excepted). They come to get away from the snow, the unions, etc., and then hey! Why can’t I get a rutabaga salad? Is it always this hot here? Haow come yez all twok s’funny, hah?
Well, sure it’s a more tolerant place, Bill. Those inbred toothless trailer park hicks don’t know any better.
Again I ask: Why is it that moderate voters are A OK with voting for the Democrat Party and their 15% screechy hate America socialist redistribution social justice planet melting loonwaffles …
But
Moderates run screaming from social cons? Really? The cartooning of the religious is becoming pandemic. I never knew that I was an intolerant, backwoods, Holy Spirit raising dickweed even though I live in East PA and have an Ivy League Education.
Is there some place I can go to keep up on the Social Cons Ur Eeval narrative? Somewhere Arlen Spector is cackling out loud just before he drools all over his cheap assed suit.
Sdferr
You mean like what they did to California in the 1960s and 70s?
I guess what I mean, Spiny, is one ought to hope to be living in a place relatively free, but a place to which, on account of one cause or another, is seen by the douchebags as not a place they’d choose to go and, with themselves, bring their ruin.
Hey, that nest over there doesn’t look too crapped in.
But the reason the GOP is organized in the South is because people there really don’t want the socialism and the abortions and stuff and they don’t care if Jon Stewart tilts his head and raises his eyebrow at them. And here in Texas, they’re getting pretty tired of the GOP, which is why Rick Perry is being all stupid and throwing around secession hoping to distract from the fact that he is a silly GOP stooge.
BJT-FREE! on 4/28 @ 9:34 am
Is there some place I can go to keep up on the Social Cons Ur Eeval narrative?
Yes, it’s called LGF.
Hey Zelda! Long time no see!
Zelda – you mean the secession talk isn’t serious?
I don’t care a lick for Rick Perry, but I was really hoping that secession-chanting crowd was going somewhere. The only way to protect Texas from the coming flight of Californians and Easterners is to secede and make it Officially Uncool and Lame to be there.
Perhaps it is a good time to begin pointedly advertising things like “Swarming with mosquitoes! — CAN YOU SPELL ARBOVIRUS?” and “searingly hot sun 2/3’s of the year — SKIN CANCER PEOPLE!!”.
But I see you. Always.
Why do the Ulrich-types never ask why the Democrats have basically pursued the Suthren’ Evangilicals by running candidates that appeal to them?
“HUMIDITY WILL MAKE YOU MISERABLE — YOU DON’T WANT TO GO THERE!”
Ella – I don’t know, it seemed premature and very smoke and mirrors. He supported that resolution right before the Tea Parties. I drove to the one in San Antonio and they raked him over the coals for several stealth tax increases and a toll road project which is very unpopular. It was an intensely unpartisan event – and I use ‘un’ instead of ‘non’ for a reason.
And Perry’s so shady I don’t trust him with the word much less the action.
Oh, and the secession chanting crowd may be serious, but they won’t get anywhere if Perry puts his greasy little fingers all over their nice movement.
BJT, haven’t you heard ? Christians are worse than radical muslims. They may not behead people but they make people feel bad about themselves sometimes. So they’re evil. Because the worst thing you can do in this entire world is make people like perez hilton feel bad. Its about tolerance and christians don’t have it…
Oh and Specter is switching to Democrat.
Fuck him. I hope he loses the general, or better yet has a Democratic challenger who beats him in the primaries (although I suspect they have worked out a deal for him not to get challenged).
I like Vermont, but it is the way it is because its timber economy collapsed in the mid to late 1800s when architecture was still pretty good and the economy never recovered. Eventually the maples grew back and made it pretty again. But it is a hell of a place to do business. It is basically a place for cheap vacation homes for people from Massachusetts and New York who do not care for the beach (or can’t afford the beach).
And John Cornyn was heard to say?
Gelatinous Traitor-Tool. Democrat.
I don’t if I have ever despised a single politician more than my senator at this moment.
Thanks for nothing, Arlen. I’ll work my butt off to get you defeated in November.
I don’t know …
I’m to howlingly pissed to write coherently.
Is everyone here really that obtuse? Let a Constitutional originalist, die-hard Federalist and reluctant Republican from the NYC ‘burbs in Jersey spell it out for you: Terry Schiavo.
The “problem”, such as it is, isn’t with everyday Southerners going about their business at Ava Maria U. It’s with the hypocrisy and political bullshit that arises over abortion and right-to-life issues generally. Like how Bush canceled foreign aid spending to programs that provided condoms in Africa. Hello? Are you insane or just stupid? Sure, abstinence classes are nice is theory but you know they doesn’t work any better than “Just Say No!” stopped drug usage among US teens, right? The problem is that small government, state’s rights, and all that other blather goes right out the fucking window the second it’s some social conservative’s pet issue that’s on the line.
I will now quote a Republican asshole that Ulrich wishes to distance himself from: “Federalism? That’s just for the 2nd Amendment. States can’t be trusted to decide when a fetus becomes a child.”
And why does Ulrich wish to distance himself from such a douchbag? Because he wants to get elected in Queens, that’s why. The above argument may work in Athens, GA, but it flies like a lead balloon off the Brooklyn Bridge around here.
Huh, I was thinking that Bush’s massive AIDS spending in Africa pressed billions of condoms into those markets. Do you have some story link to your assertion Brock?
Yah, I got a feeling that Brock’s take on PEPFAR has the ring of John Stewart Truthiness about it, like a Sarah Palin ethics complaint.
Drudge is posting that Arlen Specter just, as they say, “peaced out” of the GOP.
So, well, plus ca change.
We deserved that defeat and ultimately we will be a better, stronger party for it.
But if what Drudge is reporting (via Human Events. which has astrong line into the Conservative wing) the interim is going to be very, very hard.
I’d also like to see a citation for this howler. I don’t doubt that it exists, but it sounds more like a “throw the underwear against the tent wall and see if it sticks” kind of quotation that is common in Astroturfing.
i see my news is not so breaking after all.
still, big stuff.
“Miss America Pageant’s”
Miss USA Pageant. The winner goes on to represent USA in the Miss Universe Pageant.
Arlen, if he has ANY brains, will run as an Indie, like Lieberman did.
I hate to tell you this, folks, but I have my doubts as to whether Toomey can win in this present atmosphere. However, things can change in six months.
One might think that the Leftists are trying to ‘herd’ the real conservatives. Too tinfoilhat-ish? Almost nothing is anymore.
“As a Concerned Christian Conservative and lifelong Republican voter……………………..”
brock is barking up the wrong tree with the schiavo thing. I have to wonder why that keeps coming up, years after it happened. I’ve never understood why the heck it caused such conniptions.
On the upside, apparently the UAW is getting 55% of Chrysler. Bondholders getting 10%. I am speechless.
Only you.
“Defeat”?
Specter making his party alignment official isn’t a defeat.
I’ve read that the bondholders won’t go along and that therefore, this plan won’t be implemented. But these are early days yet, so, endwise, there ain’t no telling.
It’s not a case of “herding”, Juliette. It’s a case of deliberate misrepresentation, enabled by the media, consisting of either flat-out lies or taking extremes as the median.
Brock, for instance. The problem in Africa isn’t supplying condoms; it’s getting Africans to use the fucking things (or the things for fucking, depending on how you prefer to phrase it.) The Bush Administration has spent more and done more to combat AIDS (and poverty) in Africa than anybody else on the planet — but because the preferred method isn’t airdropping Trojans (specially ribbed for extreme sensation) Brock and others feel free to incorporate “Bush won’t give ’em condoms” into Teh Narrative.
Regards,
Ric
Because it gets the Right People up in arms. You know, the people who think life is wasted on the less-than-perfect.
Yeah. Kinda amazing that the people who screech over the Schiavo affair — particularly the ones who toss around “federalism” as the basis of their objections — seem to take this in stride.
Are the ribbed ones wasted on those who’ve undergone clitorectomies?
I, on the other hand, am on balance pleased. Sorry for the bondholders, who lose their shirts, but…
55% is a controlling interest. The next time the UAW walks out of a plant over whether or not a pipefitter is permitted to pick up a hammer, they’ll be screwing themselves, and the letters that’ll be going out, telling the retirees to suck it up, might as well be on United Auto Workers letterhead.
Regards,
Ric
I made it up. It was a ‘quote’ of an idea or state of mind, not an actual quote. I’m not sure anyone would ever be that honest, but I was ‘quoting’ actions rather than words. I figured I wouldn’t need to spell that out on a site that occasionally quotes ham sandwiches … :-)
Linky. So, neither of us are on the money (I blame a faulty memory – it was five years ago). I can admit that for myself. Only 1/3rd of the money was diverted to abstinence education; not sure where all of the rest went from this story but it does confirm 550 million condoms were in the spending “package” (heh). But still, the very ask will bother a plurality in Queens – abstinence education has the same whiff of stupid-headed idealism that the temperance movement of yestercentury did. Sorry Alice, you can’t improve people.
Further, you can notice the anecdote of “upset social conservatives” at the bottom of the story at the mere suggestion by the President condoms could be effective. Laura Bush could call out the abstinence requirement for the crap it is, but her husband could not because of the need for political support from “certain people” that refuse to admit that their religious beliefs don’t also make the best government policy.
As for Ulrich’s words, I see this is no different than a Texas Democrat disavowing any relationship with the positions of Greenpeace or ACORN. Those groups are political poison in certain circles (and for good reason), but the reality of our duopolistic Party system is that it’s either “Reps and Dems” or single-party rule in a given district. To make a local Party acceptable to the local electorate certain national characteristics of that party may need to be disavowed. Ultimately Ulrich must be elected (or not) by the people of Queens. If not him, then someone they do agree with. If you don’t like those views, blame all of Queens, not just their elected Rep.
Also, he watches The Family Guy and may or may not have a lover apart from his fiancee.
And isn’t there a fiscally conservative, even libertarian reason for not wanting to spend tax dollars on Condoms for Africa? I guess I don’t really care what motivates people to not steal money and give it to someone else.
Gotta protect those rubber trees, Zelda.
If you “can’t improve people,” why would condoms be effective?
Wow, who knew I’d be off by a little less than a factor of four, so divide my wild assed guess of Billions (at least 2 to make a plural) by that. Heh. Whereas canceled aid programs are equivalent to more than doubling the number of condoms. My shame it is neverending.
That reminds me of something that’s pertinent in a way I’ll resist going on and on about.
In the entire oeuvre of Allen Ginsberg — who’s responsible for all that stuff at Naropa being named after Kerouac, so much did he revere his memory… — there is precisely one (1) reference to Joe McCarthy.
Less than you’d expect, eh? By a lot?
Here it is (and context doesn’t change it):
…
Understand?
Not even being Jack Kerouac is enough.
Nothing is.
Ric,
What I meant was that the Left is making conditions so unlivable in NE states, California, etc. for conservatives and other people who simply want minimal government intervention in their lives it almost seem as though they are herding “resistance” into the South. /paranoia
mcgruder,
If you see me at Mario’s, say ‘hi.’
In other words, you’re a liar — but we knew that. Hint for you: when you’re making up pseudoquotes, they go in regular quotes “” with an intro that directly or indirectly acknowledges the invention, not in <blockquote> </blockquote> pairs.
On the issue — never mind that “abstinence” means something entirely different in the African context than it does in, say, Vermont, and to Hell with the distinction between “abstinence” and “abstinence based” (although it’s a bit odd that people who brag about their command of nuance can’t be bothered). The Absolute Trooooooooooooth is that every ill present in the world can be laid at the feet of George W. Bush and those who sail in her, no matter how the facts on the ground have to be manipulated to prooooooooooove it, right?
Regards,
Ric
Yeah, psycho, he and Burroughs were awfully creepy regarding Kerouac in that Burroughs biopic, as I recall.
Emphasis mine.
As a general rule of thumb, if a significant chunk of any given group of people is upset by something, the wiser course is to understand the source of the concern rather than dismiss it. Once you understand why it caused such conniptions you might also understand why it keeps coming up.
As for my part I will say this: Because it was an obvious example. The incident is long past but the culture that cause the passage of “Terry’s Law” that allowed a State Governor to personally intervene in medical decisions for an individual, and caused Federal Congressman to subpoena individuals involved, is with us still. This is a clear breach of personal liberty on the theory that the ends (preserving a life) justify the means. It’s no better than Treasury forcing BofA management to buy Merrill Lynch and lie to its shareholders about it when they have no authority to spend that money or infringe property rights.
“Are the ribbed ones wasted on those who’ve undergone clitorectomies?” One would think. Imagine if someone cut “little Dan” off–that is what has been perpetrated on these women.
That’s something I’d rather not imagine, Juliette, but I think it does speak to the rather strange buffet of tolerance that makes up progressivism.
#45 – Ric, as attractive as that is…. the UAW will probably end up panhandling more of our money from Congress.
You do realize that you’re arguing with the wrong people, don’t you, Brock?
If one doesn’t want condoms sent to Africa for religions reasons, then one is a horrid Christian. If one doesn’t want them to be sent for financial reasons, then one is a horrid non-Christian. So in order to be idealistic and pragmatic and moral and logical, condoms have to be sent to Africa. What is a fiscally conservative Republican to do?
You’re a nasty piece of work, aren’t you? Do you always revert to ad hominem attacks when someone disagrees with you politically?
Hint: Read my fucking post. It was in regular quotes and wasn’t in blockquote pairs. If you’re going to nasty at least be accurate. And I did “indirectly acknowledge” the invention by using a phrasing that was so over-the-top that I thought the readership on this forum was smart enough to figure it out. My bad for being wrong on that one.
You really have me confused with someone else.
Brock is a porn name. Or a daytime drama name. Same dif. This is a nice day cause I like the days when nishi visits. Democrats want to abort lots and lots of Africans. If I ever did porn my name would be Brock Obamba I think. Is there a place where I can register that?
I don’t know, hf, but you can probably get a star named after you for shelling out a mere $60 bucks or so.
Instapundit on Spector: “…this gives Obama a filibuster-proof majority.”
You know, I wonder whether you can take that to the bank, actually. It could be that on some issues Spector will go along with the Dem crowd. It could also be that on others, Spector will prove to be just as big a pain in the ass to the Dems as he often has been to the Reps, just because he’s a jerk.
Pot.
Kettle.
BANG!
that’ll do – nice to see you back home in the people’s republic, D
Only if it’s considered “nasty” and “ad hominem” to call a cow bovine. A false statement is a lie, and a person who makes false statements is a liar — that’s the precise, technical definition of the word. Call me pedantic, if you prefer.
Oh, and
Unless, of course, it’s people pointing out that the guy who wants to pull the plug stands to make a nice piece of change out of it. Those are just bizarre winger Xtianists, right?
Regards,
Ric
Oops. Forgot to close that bold tag on the last post.
Yes, but I haven’t diagnosed the exact reason for that. Your thoughts? Are the commenters here just as sure of their convictions / close-minded as the Kossacks and the Little Green Lizards? I don’t understand why they don’t understand that certain social conservative concerns would be unacceptable in Queens. I don’t understand why they don’t understand that opposition to gay marriage (to pick another topic where I’m out of the mainstream here) is based on a value judgment they have made, rather than any objective truth?
I really don’t know, but I’m trying.
*unacceptable* in Queens? As in ‘a view that nobody I want to associate with holds’
Why is ACCEPTANCE of gay marriage objectively truthful, for that matter?
They, poor benighted souls, just haven’t gotten the memo yet, Brock, that’s all.
happyfeet, your contribution here is a useless turd. ‘Brock’ is just my name; the only my mother gave me; a family name. You want to make fun of it? Go ahead. Just know this: You are the little man here, the one of tiny intellect who cannot muster argument. If you have arguments, make them. If all you have are useless jabs, go away.
And I have failed to understand concerns where?
Honestly, you have completely lost me. Did the husband have a life insurance policy? So what? That gives the Governor authority to make over-ride an individual’s medical wishes? The Court found (as a matter of fact, not law) that Terry would not have wanted to be kept alive in a persistent vegetative state. In a country of individual liberty we should be able to make that decision without a politician second-guessing it. How would you feel if it were the other way around – if the Court found that she wanted to persist but the Governor intervened to euthanize her?
This (to me) isn’t about whether she lived for died, but rather about whether her medical wishes and self-determination (as determined by a Court since there was no living will) were respected by State and Federal authorities. They were not.
Brock
” The Court found (as a matter of fact, not law) that Terry would not have wanted to be kept alive in a persistent vegetative state.”
Do you have a citation for that assertion?
oh no you dih-int!
It isn’t, and I didn’t say it was. Honestly, can anyone on this site besides Jeff G. read text for intent?
Both disapproval and approval of gay marriage are value judgments. Things like “gravity points down” and “things get wet when it rains” are objective; anything as squishy as “marriage” is a value judgment, and therefore a political question. Just like whether you define “life with enforceable legal rights” as beginning at birth or at conception – value judgment. There’s no clear line in nature that will tell you when these things happen.
So hang on, the objective is merely the tautological now?
…the participation of some countries such as Algeria has proven difficult due to cultural barriers to the swimsuit competition…
Hey, problem solved!
Oh no … no … tell me Arlen Spector didn’t go there. Tell me in his statement he didn’t … didn’t … didn’t invoke Ronald Reagan:
Republicans have moved … what? Even further to the right? From Reagan? Yea, Arlen, that George Bush was some kinda right wing loopy ost, he was!
Please describe the scenery around you in the world you have chosen to live in, Arlen. Do flaming hippos fall from the sky?
Unh hunh. And we, for our part, are scratching our heads over why the definition of the word “coalition” seems to be so elusive. Social conservatives are gonna vote for somebody. If you’re utterly bound and determined to cast us totally into the Outer Darkness, why would those votes go to you or somebody you support?
Because at least for us, here, it isn’t a “value judgement”, it’s a matter of word meaning and usage. If you pass a Constitutional amendment to declare cows vegetables, can vegetarians eat hamburgers?
Regards,
Ric
my commentings may have been useless but they weren’t a jab because you know why? I wasn’t jabbing you Mr. Brock! People whom today I have jabbed include media slut Meghan, her coward daddy, droopy diseased Arlen, and our Chicago street trash hungarian muppet piece of shit president. But not you, Mr. Brock. Brocka brocka chicka bow bow you and me we are all good.
Hey, Brock! Your sense of humor just called. It hitched a ride with a caballero running illegals and ended up in a Tijuana hospital with swine flu.
You need to wire it some pesos, dude.
#80: “But not you, Mr. Brock. Brocka brocka chicka bow bow you and me we are all good.”
Stop, happy. I’m dying here! (heh)
Ric – I’m walking away. You’re reading things into my postings that just aren’t there. Or maybe you’re making assumptions about me. I just don’t know. But effective communication doesn’t seem to be happening, so I’m out.
happyfeet: sorry then. … hungarian?
WHERE’S MY BUTTERCREAM FROSTING RECIPE!? I bought a can of fluffy white yesterday, because they only had small cans of buttercream and I’m cheap.
Daddy Soros is the tail what wags the Chicago street trash dirty socialist dog, Mr. Brock. It’s a stunning development in terms of the history of our once-promising little country I think.
Wait — so ‘feets is sock-puppeting Brock?!
I’m *SO* confused!!!
No, Brock, you’re communicating quite effectively. I just disagree with you (and with many of the premises of your arguments, not just the arguments themselves) and you aren’t familiar with the process.
Stick around. You’re much more entertaining than ninety percent (at least) of the people who parachute in here without knowing anything about the tone or character of the blog and its commenters beyond what you might have picked up at, say, Pandagon.
Regards,
Ric
does this [arless[$] thang
mean jeff sessions will be elevated/?
‘feets you is de man.
There is something demanic about ‘feets.
Nobody fucks with happyfeet.
Ric,
This is what I’m talking about. You are really, really confusing me with someone else. I’ve been a regular reader here for a long time and I’ve hit up Jeff’s tipjar a couple times. And I can tell from many of the comments you’ve made that you don’t understand that, or me, at all. I’d never even heard of Pandagon until you mentioned it, but judging my my quick glance at their front page they aren’t my sort of people.
Brock,
If you haven’t been here recently, you’ll see that PW is on the ‘other side’ of the conservative blog’sphere because the principal, and his primary commenters are resisting the ‘reframing of language’ that’s going on at the moment. This language war is important, because when words become redefined, or become simply noise, it becomes impossible to have a non-trivial discussion.
The point around here is that words do actually have meaning. When you don’t use quotes around words like “unacceptable”, you’re going to raise hackles, because when you say something, we assume you mean what you say. It’s not being closed-minded, it’s just that being told we’re a bunch of “religious and/or moral nuts with no connection to ‘mainstream conservatism’ who will cost the GOP the next election” doesn’t scare us, or encourage us to change our ways.
oh – that’s not to imply that was your intention, simply for illustrative purposes.
For starters, Brock, tossing Terri Schiavo around as proof of your premise shows me that you don’t likely get who you’re talking to.
Who doesn’t understand that? It’s a big country, with vast diversity of opinion. But wait….the concerns are unacceptable? What’s the levy on that?
You’re certainly in a minority of Americans. I think the general attitude here is in favor of civil unions and all the attendant benefits, while believing that the word marriage shouldn’t be redefined because an identity politics group would like it to be. That’s not a value judgment, really. That is based on an objective truth.
I must be too bitter and clingy about the little dead people, I think.
Glad you enjoyed your visit, Dan, and that SW Flo exceeded your expectations. When you want to get the low down on SE Flo let me know.
Brock,
What’s happening here is that a long-term strategy of the Democratic Party, going back to at least Lyndon Johnson, is coming to fruition. Ronald Reagan headed it off temporarily, but now it’s back, working precisely the way ol’ Landslide hisself intended — and you are emblematic of it.
The problem with it, from our point of view, is not so much that it casts us into Outer Darkness as it is that it is based on factionalization, precisely what George Washington’s famous speech warning about the dangers of Party politics was all about. Washington was familiar with the Mother of Parliaments, and therefore with Parliamentary politics, in which interest groups form parties and coalitions. The whole business of splinters and ideologically-based low-grade warfare follows.
For over two centuries the United States has mostly been spared all that, because our “first past the post” system practically mandates a two-party system with the parties forming ruling coalitions before the elections, rather than having official Parties trying to “form a Government” afterward. It’s worked about as well as you can expect a human institution to for quite a long time.
You, and those who appear to be coming from roughly the same philosophy, seem not merely pleased but positively anxious to destroy what has been the Republican coalition for the past quarter century, by describing (and treating) social conservatives in precisely the same terms and ways that the Progressives of the Democratic coalition use. That’s fine, if that’s what you want — but coalition politics requires that you throw bones to all the members of the coalition, and at minimum that you don’t throw stones at them. If you want to throw stones, do go ahead. The country’s still that free, at least. Just don’t expect the people with bruises and contusions to vote for you and your candidates, hmm?
Regards,
Ric
* the wiser course is to understand the source of the concern rather than dismiss it.*
Admittedly my point wasn’t very clear but what I meant about you barking up the wrong tree was people here weren’t in favor of the Schiavo thing. I understood why there was an argument about it. I thought it was a tragic story and the husband was a piece of crap but most people here, even the conservative christian types like myself, want to keep government out of those situations. The difficult thing, however, is that liberals NOT conservatives are the ones constantly arguing for government interference in … well just about everything. I dont’ share Ric’s thoughts about the UAW thing (though I think it would be amusing to watch them negotiate with themselves) because my preference was for GM to go bankrupt and the union contracts, which caused the vast majority of problems for auto companies in the US, be re-worked to something feasible. teleprompter jesus, of course, wouldn’t let that happen, as UAW (and unions in general) vote democratic. He is involving government as a political ploy to hold onto that voting block and its pathetic.
So I can’t ever take liberals seriously when they argue conservatives are all in favor of government intervention because there are very few times when it happens but liberals are all in favor of government interference.
We,, the unions…
Fairbanks is — or was at least, back in the mid-to-late ’90s — one of the most sewn-up union-controlled job markets in the country. Just one more reason why I took to calling Alaska “The Lost Frontier.” Of course the Pipeline is what did it, so I just consider it collateral damage.
If it weren’t for typos I’d have no misspellings at all.
Really.
True story.
Up in the Pacific Northwest there used to be bumper stickers: “Don’t Californicate Oregon.”
They didn’t work.
Regards,
Ric
They never do Ric, so far as I can remember.
Well, Ric — you know abstinence education never works.
i’ll just quietly leave this here (that’s in htmls, the original pdf is here,) just in case anyone needs it or anything. =P
Plus the position that such matters should be decided by the voters, and/or their representatives in the legislature, rather than by judges.
Or when a slave becomes a citizen.
Regarding the Republican coalition, I get that. But ultimately the only guy who really needs it is the President. Everyone else is local politics and has to work with the electorate they’ve got. I don’t consider a Republican on a Queens city council to really be in the same party as a Republican in Louisiana anyway; they have completely different concerns and constituencies. Same for the Democrats of course.
Man what I wouldn’t give for a range voting system in this country… The plurality-winner system we have is the worst political system that still qualifies as democracy. Mathematically speaking.
Word.
No kidding. It’s just the crazy world that we live in that we have to give governments enough power to enforce individual liberty, but then someone make sure they don’t abuse that power to restrict individual liberty for no good reason. Ultimately it comes down to educating the electorate, since no law or Constitution can anticipate all the ways government might abuse its power.
If this is the same Brock that I remember, he is one heckuva good fellow. He may be wrong about some things ;-) but he is a good guy.
I haven’t read all this thread, but I wanted to mention Michigan.
Obviously, Michigan has very big liberal areas – Detroit, for one. Ann Arbor. Traverse City. And, some of the yuppie burbs around Detroit. But, OUTSIDE of these enclaves, Michiganders are pretty gosh darn conservative. The little (tiny) town I live in had a tea party – I was amazed to see the pictures in the paper, there were easily a couple of hundred. Wild, in my opinion.
People are more of the “leave us the heck alone” kind of folk. They hunt. They go to church. They avoid going to Detroit.
I wonder/hope what may happen as the obvious failures of democratic leadership may do for the future. We’re at rock bottom, and Jenny is no where to be seen. Everything is happening, and she’s off fiddling or something. This will not pass unnoticed by the electorate.
I am continually and forever amazed at the lack of self awareness exhibited by a certain set of commenters on these crazy tubes. To wit, one Brock, who starts off with:
Is everyone here really that obtuse?…It’s with the hypocrisy and political bullshit that arises over abortion and right-to-life issues generally…I will now quote a Republican asshole…And why does Ulrich wish to distance himself from such a douchbag?…
and later, when called out on his errors in fact using the same sort of strong language he himself came in using.
You’re a nasty piece of work, aren’t you? Do you always revert to ad hominem attacks when someone disagrees with you politically?
I assume he gives himself a pass because as he sees himself as meaning well he gets the raising awareness badge of hypocrisy protection.
but it does confirm 550 million condoms were in the spending “packageâ€
So in other words, you parroted a lie that you saw on some leftoid site.
“Faulty memory” my ass.
Hopefully me; there aren’t too many of us. :-) Thanks.
Nah. I give myself a pass because fair-weather friends of liberty who politically intervene in the affairs of private citizens whenever is suits them are douchebags*, and I don’t blame Ulrich from distancing himself from them.
*And I mean that in the most non-partisan sense. I’d pile on the many Democrats who are guilty of this personality flaw, but why bother? I am sure happyfeet has beat me to it.
Not likely. I don’t read Leftoids. Or even at LGF. If I saw it anywhere at the time it was probably Intstapundit or Google News, but I guess I’ll never be able to convince you of that. C’est la vie.
Makewi — I wonder sometimes if that attitude doesn’t stem from an expectation that we’d cringe when confronted. It’s the kind of thing the reflexive bully does — storm into a room hurling around abuse, expecting everyone to give in. When someone returns the same abuse, the reaction is “oh, hey, whoah! Why all the hostility?”
Nah. I give myself a pass because fair-weather friends of liberty who politically intervene in the affairs of private citizens whenever is suits them are douchebags*
It’s all about how you frame it I suppose. You can believe it is all about liberty of an individual if you believe that the husband (with a clear conflict of interest) suddenly remembers her wish to be allowed to die. Do you believe that individiual liberty is trampled when a governor asserts his right to have a say in the staying or carrying out of executions?
No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!
A wish stated only once at that, in the heat of a conversation about someone who was not in anything like the condition Terri Schiavo wound up in.
I don’t think it’s out of line to ask that people who want their situations dealt with differently than society generally assumes, please go to the trouble of putting it in writing.
I don’t think it is out of line to error on the side of life and living whenever things aren’t completely clear. One big reason I can never be a Democrat, their presumption goes the other way.
I understand that we are a nation of laws, and as such don’t paint the other side of the Schiavo question as the sort of liberty crushing monster that the someone like John Cole would paint me as. That said, I question the reasonableness of what might well have been sacrificing the life of innocent on the alter of principle. It must be due to my extremism.
Worth a peek.
It’s just the crazy world that we live in that we have to give governments enough power to enforce individual liberty, but then someone make sure they don’t abuse that power to restrict individual liberty for no good reason.
“no good reason”
I guess you bought the line about how dying of thirst puts one in a euphoric state; you’d think more people would choose it over sleeping pills.
any reason
the pillbox spoke
I’ll say this. That picture of Jack Kerouac, that’s what I grew up knowing writers looked like. They all don’t I realize but still…
I guess you bought the line that “The ends justify the means.” Not liking the result of a Court’s findings is no excuse to tear at the foundations of our legal structure.
A Court without any conflict of interest I am aware of found that to be her preference. The Governor and Congress got involved because they didn’t like the result.
Courts aren’t perfect (far from it) but they’re the best system we have to trying to get at some impartial, objective knowledge of the facts. If Terry’s parents wanted to challenge the finder of fact they could have appealed to a higher court, but instead they made an end-run around the facts and made a political appeal based on emotion.
I don’t blame the parents for that (parents do crazy things for their children all the time, and that’s a good thing) but I do hold the politicians accountable for getting involved. They should have respected the divisions of authority in government and demonstrated a humility as to the limits of their knowledge and authority. Needless to say, such was not in evidence.
[…] but I find that I’m not quite done laying my jackboots into cuntslapping Perez Hilton. So, to quote myself citing Wikipedia on the Miss USA Pageant: Post-script: Some of the most successful national pageants in the last decade have been Venezuela, […]
I’m keen to read what you believe “the foundations of our legal structure” to be. For some reason, I thought that forcing someone to die of thirst was against at least *one* of our laws.
Now you are simply being stupid. Or you are a lawyer by trade.
I suspected the reference is to the idea that Congress could change a law because it doesn’t like the way a court has interpreted it.
Which, if that were prohibited, we’d have elected our last Congress a couple of hundred years ago, and all government decisions would now be made by the courts directly.
I consider the separation of powers between Judiciary, Executive and Legislature to be one of the foundations of our legal system. I consider the liberty of the individual to choose (or even refuse) their medical care to be sacred. The question isn’t whether we should “kill” Terry Schiavo (we only ‘kill’ people legally when they have committed a capital offense) but whether Terry had the right to choose her medical care and whether she would have refused medical treatment under the circumstances even if that resulted in her death. The law is that she does have the right; Court found that she would have exercised it.
You got something better? Step up then. Let’s hear it. For my part I am 100% sure that Gov. Bush acted not out of superior knowledge of the facts of Terry’s wishes but rather because it was politically (or maybe even personally) important for him to cause his constituents’ (or his own) preferences to override Terry’s.
Incorrect. There is a difference between interpretation of law and discovery of fact. Congress is certainly within its power to amend laws. It is not however within Congress’ authority to disagree on the facts. If Congress wanted to remove everyone’s right to refuse medical care, that would be an example of legal amendment. But that’s not what they did. They just acted to intervene in one particular case because they didn’t like the facts.
Brock – I am going to differ with you on this one. This finding of “fact” was based on the representations of a party that stood to gain, and a general douchebag. If the Courts are going to allow someone to be killed, and she was, I would hope they could base their facts on something more concrete and substantive than a douchebag’s word. As for the politicians, they did what politicians do. There were lots of douchebags in this whole scenario.
Terry Schiavo for sure never wanted to be on national tv looking like a shortbus vegetable. Her parents really a lot sullied her memory cause for real I will always remember her as a drooling tard.
If you’re going to differ, do you have a suggestion for how Terry’s preferences should have been determined, given the situation as it actually existed? Sometimes the word of a general douchebag is all we have to work with, this being an imperfect world.
I’m sure everyone would have preferred that Terry had a living will, or at least kept a personal journal that recorded her thoughts on this topic. But unless you’re suggesting that the Court found erroneously (and you have reasonably sound proof of this), I’m not sure what better alternative you’re offering.
By the way, is ‘JD’ your initials or your degree?
No kidding. I’m just a starry-eyed idealist I guess …
The important thing Mr. Brock is that everyone got a lesson in how NOT to handle this sort of situation. Whatever principles may have been in question were entirely subsumed by the appalling tackyness of the spectacle.
This is NOT how we do things is the takeaway I think.
Amen.
Without a living will signed while in good mental health, specifically stating that I/you/they wish to die, I/you/they get to live. Life should be the default option. And yes, we will have to agree to disagree on this.
Brock – I never claimed to be a juris doctorate, nor will I ever do so, unless I am cast into Dante’s 23rd Ring of Hell.
Geoffb nicely summed up my position. Alive should be the default position, and it would require more than someone’s word to rebut that. I know, I am an idealist.
Unchangeable rules must be followed no matter what, eh Brock? As I have stated, I understand your “nation of laws” argument. What I don’t understand is why you can’t understand that without the ability to carve out exceptions, within the framework of the system of laws, the law will always become a steamroller that will crush someone who has no earthly business getting crushed. Try for a moment to wrap your head around that one.
You can’t smoke pot.
But I’m dying of AIDS and can’t eat without puking unless I pull some tubes first.
Fuck you, what do you think you are, special?
2. Comment by Jeff G. on 4/28 @ 9:01 am #
I gave a reading at Naropa once. Went over well, but as I was on the stage I kept thinking that I was looking out at a helluva lot of future buskers.
Card Check Now!
I’ve really enjoyed reading your articles. You obviously know what you are talking about! Your site is so easy to navigate too, I’ve bookmarked it in my favourites :-D