Today’s forecast: partly cloudy and breezy here in my part of Colorado, with highs in the low-to-mid 80s.
And the GOP will never become a viable party for classical liberals, because too many Republicans and putative “conservatives” have already surrendered to the progressives — and they either don’t know it, are too proud to admit it, or are able to justify it based on some always-pressing short term crisis that forces them, against their will, to temporarily bracket their principles.
Also, light humidity, with the allergy index pinned on “high.”
We allow the Left to define the terms of debate — we lose. That’s why they get so hysterical about “redefining”. They have a monopoly on that.
Why can’t you understand? Acting on our principles, or even standing up for our principles, will prevent us from acting on our principles or standing up for our principles in the future, therefore we must neither act on nor stand up for our principles.
Only by embracing the language and ideals of those who seek to destroy us can we continue to aspire to the day when we might act on or stand up for our principles. I mean, except for the risks I pointed out above.
Not just defining the terms of the debate, but also the subject. I know abortion is important to many of you, but the fact is the basic law isn’t going to change anytime soon. Both sides know this buth the also know this makes it is such an easy and emotional target to demogogue and distract with, so they don’t have to talk about the real, existential threats we face.
And everybody just plays along.
I am done with it, third party only from here on out, if I bother to even vote at all.
But which way is the wind blow– Oh! I get it.
That’s just you voting for Obama, B Moe. Selfish bastard who is against freedom.
What. What is against freedom.
Judas…
The Democrats are going to devote a whole bunch of their three-day convention to all things abortion. I can’t think of a kinder gift they could give to Republicans.
They figure they have to fire up the base, which apparently considers abortion the single most important thing in the world. After the Republicans spend four days hammering home how horribly the Oministration has handled economic issues, pissed off our friends and kow-towed to our enemies, that’s going to be their only hope, because the independent voters are going to break for Romney in huge numbers.
– Akin is intolerant of abortion, and made that clear in several obtuse statements, so the Republican establishment branded him an infidel and extremist.
– The Republican convention commitee is intolorant of abortion, and made it a specific policy declaration in its platform, so they consider themselves compasionate.
– Choose one of the following:
A) The statements are diametric, and the parties position is coherent.
B) The statements are congruent, but the parties position is embarrassing.
C) Statement comparisons in politics are, by their very nature, fundementally incoherent.
D) Chachi loves Ritchie.
E) These pretzles are making me thirsty.
– For extra credit write a short essay explaining and defending your selection.
My left-leaning friends are happy that I am not voting of course. I tell them I *may* let them visit my goat farm after the Apocalypse.
They’ll have to shovel all the poo though.
https://twitter.com/AoSHQ/status/238684421748846592
Aside from that fact that we’ll all be funding it, that is.
I eagerly await the debate on same-sex marriage where I get to defend the Patriarchal Church that loves preying on boys while they get to espouse two beautiful people with so much love to give the world.
I can’t lose! Thanks GOP. We’re destroying our country, but we’ll be polite all the way down.
To the base, abortion is the single most important thing in the world. The only “freedom” progressives really care about is consequence-free sex. I’m not sure if it’s because it leads to a breakdown of the family (the goal of the Frankfurt School) or the voluntary killing of “undesirable” swaths of the population (Sanger’s goal) or simply because it allows the indulgence in hedonism so that people never have to grow up. I think the latter is most likely goal for the rank and file. It’s part and parcel of the basic denial of the fact that women are truly different from men on a fundamental level.
Without abortion, they don’t have much left.
Is it okay if I just call William a moby right now and be done with it, or do I need to wait a while?
Oops, too late.
The Democrats are going to devote a whole bunch of their three-day convention to all things abortion.
Somewhere I saw a comment that the Democrats will end the convention with a live abortion onstage, and then an Islamic beheading.
“. . . if it’s because . . .”
Is there any room for the possibility that in opposition to the natural right stance that life is the first right, the opponents determine that to defeat this first proposition at the root they must begin at the root? It’s abstruse, I’ll grant ya, but still seems a possibility.
I think that’s a good point, sdferr. However, I’m not sure they have thought it through that much. I would say, though, that once you concede that killing unborn babies is a completely okay thing to do in all circumstances, it isn’t much of a leap to get to a point that people have no natural rights at all, which is definitely where progressives are headed.
I think it more likely in general that they see babies as a way to control women, and make women different from men, when the goal is to achieve some sort of parity among the sexes that does not exist in reality. I do not doubt that some have worked directly from what you have posited, but they were likely in the minority in the beginning. I imagine that their ranks have swelled a little in the interim.
Just ignore William, cranky. Everyone else does.
That probably should have been “grown” rather than “swelled.”
Ignore mode activated.
S’okay, Jeff. The sun shines down just as warmly on a liberal fascist distopia as it does on an illiberal one.
Which,come next winter, is going to be a right proper *bitch*.
OT. Well, noted GOP sonofabitch Haley Barbour comes out in favor of large retailer crony capitalism, and higher taxes for the consumer.
http://bit.ly/NLxHxY
contra the Act:
http://bit.ly/NLxZEY
Why can’t the marketplace dictate who survives? Aren’t conservatives supposed to support that?
Why must the regional chains pay because the big box retailers won’t adapt and change their business model?
Why are “conservatives” in favor of forced collection of sales taxes by somebody other than the state benefiting? Weren’t we against that when the shoe was on the other foot and it was Wisconsin collecting dues on behalf of the unions? How is this different?
Is it really a big leap from sales tax collection to income tax obligations and business licenses in jurisdictions with no physical presence? At what point will it stop?
It’s time to end this nonsense and kill the Marketplace Fairness Act.
” However, I’m not sure they have thought it through that much.”
Let me, or you with me, restrict the “they” to the best thinkers thinking through the problem amongst the opposition to natural rights theorists and social contractarians on the other, leaving aside the mere followers of either for the time being.
About this:
“the goal is to achieve some sort of parity among the sexes that does not exist in reality”,
there is a great deal to be said, and possibly to recommend it as an explanation of the motives on the left. One thing though, at least as I understand it of Marx, is this: it is less a “goal” than it is a premise, a starting point. Perfect equality, in other words, is for him the condition which is, is simply, in a sense, but has been overthrown by conventional dispositions in favor of things like the “division of labor”.
ach, I screwed that sentence royally. Apologies, cranky-d. Make it ‘opposition to’ on the one hand and ‘nat rights and social contractarians’ on the other.
I think it more likely in general that they see babies as a way to control women, and make women different from men, when the goal is to achieve some sort of parity among the sexes that does not exist in reality.
As early as 100 years ago, feminists asserted that women will never truly be free until they can exercise absolute control over their reproduction.
Because children are the original ball and chain, and childbearing makes women clumsy and vulnerable, and child-rearing allows Teh Patriarchy to classify women as tall children who deal with the baby-poo instead of making it.
It was actually a same sex marriage ceremony, then a beheading. I know because it was my Tweet.
But the edited version works well too, given the events of the last few days.
No, William is not a Moby. He’s suggesting — quite correctly — that soon the left will have us blowing each other on stage to show how non-homophobic and inclusive we are.
Okay, so he didn’t say that specifically. But I’m extrapolating.
It was actually a same sex marriage ceremony, then a beheading. I know because it was my Tweet.
Oh yes, that’s right! That was fucking hilarious. And almost plausible.
– To which George I can imagine a chorus of burned out voters crying out in one voice, “Please just make it stop period!”
– I must be falling behind on the meme’s again. I thought the stonings were part of the reception.
That would be funny if it was less true.
soon the left will have us blowing each other on stage to show how non-homophobic and inclusive we are.
Repeating prediction: In ten to fifteen years, single-payer socialized medicine will come to The Nation Below Canada. It will be signed into law by a Republican president.
“William says August 23, 2012 at 12:03 pm
I eagerly await the debate on same-sex marriage where I get to defend the Patriarchal Church that loves preying on boys while they get to espouse two beautiful people with so much love to give the world.
I can’t lose! Thanks GOP. We’re destroying our country, but we’ll be polite all the way down.”
We keep having the debate (and referendums on it) over and over again because it never turns out how the side who promotes the concept wants it to.
So now, it’s skipped unreliable methods like suasion and democracy, and headed for the courts and presidents deciding not to enforce laws tey don’t like.
Soon there won’t be any further need for debate and so debate will not be allowed on the matter and it will be proclaimed “settled”. Y’know, just like AGW, big government, and gun control.
Because FREEDOM.
Sigh. Yes, Jeff gets the point I was trying to make.
Still, for the good of the site, I renounce myself. It’s been a great 12 weeks, everybody! Best of luck!
Because FREEDOM.
Awesome. We can take a page from Our Betters™ then, we can all do as we see fit!
I see fit not to listen to those assholes any longer.
It’s been a great 12 weeks, everybody!
Shane! Come baaack!
soon the left will have us blowing each other on stage to show how non-homophobic and inclusive we are.
I cackled — then I felt sick. :/
FTFY.
That’s ‘denounce’ yourself, William.
Oh, and I’ll lend a hand:
RAAAAACIST11!!!1!11!!
(Oh, and William, that sobriquet you chose has some awful ramifications hereabouts, going back some period of time. Can I call you Bill? )
Doh! Can’t even denounce myself properly. Just shows how ill prepared I am for the “Internet Commenter” field.
Sure, go ahead Serr8d. Wasn’t even around for that: I just went with my actual name.
Incidentally, I can understand a bit of the “trolling” assumption, since I can’t update my profile to include an actual picture. No idea why.
The picture comes from Gravatar.com, not your WordPress profile. Sign up, associate a picture with the email address you used signing up here, and Bob’s your uncle.
Unless he self-identifies as a woman, in which case he’s your aunt.
“No idea why.”
Some folks have run into a dual e-mail address conflict when signing on at Gravatar, though I don’t know your situation. Anyhow, as I understood it, the e-mail you leave with Jeff has to correspond to the one you propose to use at Gravatar, if I have that memory right.
Weird. Thanks, I’ll fix that later today.
Whatever you choose as avatar, avoid a lute, a guitar, and/or a cat. Such items, with your name, are contraindicated.
No paella would be good, too.
Huh. This guy sounds…. yeah.
Well, most of the William’s I know from experience are lousy. Not sure why.
– A word of caution William, about taking avitar advice from McGehee, because, well, it took the PW community years to get him to wear pants.
– Another potential problem I came across with gravitar – an old registry wuth the same nick, of which I could only vaguely remember. Easy solution….the nickname you setup at the gravitar site does not have to be the one you use in wordpress, only the emails have to mtch. Have no idea why, but there you have it.
Thanks, BBH. I’ll keep that in mind.
Team Obama breaks precedent to try to spoil Romney’s convention in Tampa
By Mike Lillis – 08/23/12 06:00 AM
Bucking protocol, President Obama and the Democrats are planning a full-scale assault on Republicans next week during their convention.
Presidential candidates have traditionally kept a low profile during their opponent’s nominating celebration, but Democrats are throwing those rules out the window in an attempt to spoil Mitt Romney’s coronation as the GOP nominee.
President Obama, Vice President Biden and leading congressional Democrats have all scheduled high-profile events next week to counter-program the Republican gathering in Tampa, Fla.
Even first lady Michelle Obama is in on the act, scheduling an appearance on the “David Letterman Show” smack in the middle of Romney’s nominating bash.
Political historians say the high stakes of this year’s elections — combined with the rise of today’s 24/7 media culture — have forced leaders on both sides of the aisle to get more aggressive.
“Traditionally, there was a kind of courtesy extended to the party having the convention — the [other] party would basically stay out of the public eye,” said Ross Baker, political scientist at Rutgers University.
link
Here we are arguing about the sense and sensibilities of the electorate and the Liberal/Estab. attempt to propagandize a conservative for their own political agenda by wrapping it in heightened degrees of fantods and megrims in chorus with their supposed opponents (actually slightly sooner but on key) and we have this:
Dogs being shamed on the internet for their misdeeds by their owners:
http://www.wtop.com//681/3004940/Dog-Shaming-makes-a-splash-on-Tumblr
Words escape me.
William is a selfish idiot and he’s going to cost us Missouri! Gooble Gobble! Not one of us!
The joke’s on you, BBH. I just started having the pictures taken from the waist up.
btw; what html is allowed in a comment by the filters?
I don’t like to paste urls and prefer to use the alias allowed by the <a link but don’t want break any rules or recommendations. (well I just used the escape so . . .)
No see, the preview showed it as okay but when posted it was gone. (the & lt escape for the less than char.)
We need to run a third party commenter named William to counteract his comments then we KNOW we’ll lose Missouri.
HTML entities have a semicolon at their end. < and > will have the desired <effect>.
And yeah, you can do proper cool urls (he said, plugging his free auto-racing art for no good reason) by doing <a href=”url“>link text</a>.
Which is easier to do than it is to demonstrate.
Oh, good. And yes, I forgot the semicolon but for some reason it showed up okay in the preview.
I’ll try that again. now escaping the < character.
Thanks, john
I still say we should be able to buy Cuban cigars.
That’s just bullshit.
I didn’t recognize that William was doing sarcasm. Sorry, William. I guess my troll detector is broken.
I blame George Bush.
And Jeff, I know you’re not a great fan of Romney…but as an Ex-Pat Texan you need to throw out a “Bless his heart” post. That shit was priceless.
I need to make that “bless his heart” bit into a ring-tone. That was an awesome beat-down and it most likely sailed over all those yankees heads, since they all think it’s teh raaaaaaacist!!
Nah, no worries. I do like to make delicate points with sledgehammers.
… though like any good politician I promise to go away, and then I can’t stop posting about myself.
Gah.
Democrats escalate, Republicans respond, and impartial, objective political historians deplore the cycle of political violence.
Feh. All campaigns degenerate into mutual finger-pointing and proclaimations of “Clearly, my opponent is a crooked, lying, double-dealing POS. And we all know that.”
Green beer and a puppy! That’ll work just fine,
BillWilliam; just keep Insty and his puppy blender away from it is all.Couldn’t do the find-and-link thing with the Droid earlier, but here’s an epic pic of William (Paella Boi) hisself.
I’m sick of Akin. He screwed the pooch; now we have to either join with the horrible far-Left and agree that he’s dummerer than a sack of hammers and probably shouldn’t be in the august institute* that is the US Senate, or scramble to find a plausible reason to defend his goofy ass.
Since I’d rather cut off various body parts and pieces than agree with any far-Left neo-Commie who has vigorously jumped on the hate-America-and-anyone-but-Lefties bandwagon to attack Akin, I find myself supporting him as best I can. Because I will NOT join with his attackers, as a matter of principle.
*
I was thinking more along the lines of tactics like cigarette man and macaca boy. Democrats pull crap, Republicans respond in kind in an effort to keep them honest, and this dipshit Hill reporter finds a political scientist to hide behind when he sneaks in his both sides do it moral equivalency card.
Elections are a process for orchestrating the peaceful and orderly transfer of power.
What then happens when one side is no longer interested in the orderly part?
Oh I knew what you meant.
Civility in campaigning? Orderly transfer of power? When was this the norm?
At least there was a time when it was still the ideal, Leigh.
Though, sadly, I think we might have tossed it out the window first, with the go-go Newt Gingrich 90’s.
Though I’m young, and defer to others on this.
As recently as 1996. Hasn’t been as orderly as it used to be since 2000.
1992, not 1996, which was a reelection year, and not just the election before the Democrats lost their shit —seemingly permanently.
I think we might have tossed it out the window first, with the go-go Newt Gingrich 90?s.
what’s newt got to do with it?
Wise decision.
New generation, Ernst? The introduction of the “Soundbite or die” news cycle? How the hell did we get like this?
Ah, just that “Now that we’re elected, everybody say what they want, so we can remain the majority” famous story from the “Smell of Marble” book.
Again, I read about this stuff more then live it, so I recognize my limitations.
1992 sounds about right. It’s been blood and guts and stolen furniture ever since.
How the hell did we get like this?
“Network (1976)
In the 1970s, terrorist violence is the stuff of networks’ nightly news programming and the corporate structure of the UBS Television Network is changing. Meanwhile, Howard Beale, the aging UBS news anchor, has lost his once strong ratings share and so the network fires him. Beale reacts in an unexpected way. We then see how this affects the fortunes of Beale, his coworkers (Max Schumacher and Diana Christensen), and the network. ”
link
“The introduction of the “Soundbite or die” news cycle? How the hell did we get like this?”
You could blame it on Galileo Galilei if you like. Or Francis Bacon, or for that matter, Rene Descartes.
I kid, of course. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Yeah, but the modern equivalent is “The Newsroom.” I mean, that’s beyond a wet dream of freaking out about news footage.
… But I see your point. I guess looking for a golden moment in the 90’s is pretty moot.
1992 sounds about right
really ’cause watergate has a special place in the proggtard heart. just ask mrs. clinton the watergate congressional staffer.
Yeah, but the modern equivalent is “The Newsroom.”
is dat the sorkin thing about recreating the past in proggtard terms?
Yeah… I guess the most I’m looking for is how the GOP got like it is. And that’s really kidding myself and working under the assumption that the GOP loved Sarah Palin. Ronald Reagan. Etc.
Oh, newrouter, if you dare.
It dares to answer the question “Yes. Sarah Palin was behind the Arizona shooting. Of course.”
Nr, Nixon resigned. Remember? Orderly transfer of power doesn’t have anything to do with making your bones on a news story. And an overhyped one, at that. Woodward and Bernstein just went to press before the AG did.
William, as and old fart I can tell you the Republican party has been divided since probably Barry Goldwater. Maybe even earlier. Even Romney’s dad was a liberal Republican. The other problem is they usually nominate the guy whose turn it is. McCain, Dole, and now Romney. Hopefully Romney will pull a Reagan and destroy Obama in the debates. I think he is smart enough and I think without the teleprompter Obama’s idiocy will show.
Thanks for the memory jog, charles w. I remember my dad and my uncle having a shouting match about Goldwater when I was just a tot.
Really? ‘Cause not being registered to vote in Missouri I’ve been kind of looking forward to not having to do a goddamn thing about him either way.
Does this mean I have to turn in my secret decoder ring?
I have used my wizard power to block Williams self-renunciation and no tag-on denunciations were allowed. This is why the post-renunciation-denunciation comments appeared. And now that power is used, I must scrounge around for some more power ups and refortify.
The orderly transfer of power became a little less orderly in 2000 when Democrats decided to start trying to delegitimize the outcomes of elections instead of merely seeking to delegitimize the politicians who won those elections, a practice that really took off with Water Gate.
So. Thank you Al Gore. You showed less class than Richard Nixon.
So did Clinton, for that matter.
The last picture I saw of Algore, he was big enough for his own zipcode.
Thanks, Charles. You’re right, that was pretty much the modern dividing line, I’m just too young to have any idea what it was like.
And you’re right too, Ernst. Though I’d say that was more when television started living in it’s own silly world more than anything else. I have seen way too many “Al Gore should have won,” jokes. Including, sadly, Futurama.
Democrats started living in there own silly world. One where George Bush stole the election. And then plotted with the sneaky Jew bastards and Haliburton to bring down the world trade center so he could go and steal Afghanistan’s oil before getting revenge for daddy in Iraq. Next he caused a hurricane to flood out black people in New Orleans because he doesn’t like chocolate. And then he ordered diebold to steal the votes in Ohio so he could stay in office illiegitimately for four more years so he cold lose an unwinnable war before until he didn’t.
Evil Super-Genius Bush.