I'm Using Technology

Apparently Robert Knight feels that with all this talk about Japan and Libya, we are losing sight of what is really important; making sure the Gays stay second class citizens.

Now there’s a scenario for building respect for the military among the nation’s youngsters. Boy: “Look, mom, those men in uniforms are, uh, making out right there in the food court! I’m not sure I want to be a soldier after all.” Liberal mom: “Well, that’s a relief. I didn’t want you to be in the military anyway. All those guns give me the creeps. But why do you find this odd? Are you some kind of religious bigot? Honestly, we’re going to have to call your school and ask them to step up the tolerance training. You won’t even wear that nice polka dot dress and pumps I bought you.”

"All those guns give me thec creeps?" Anyway it's sad drivel, of the sort you expect from a town hall third tier columnist trying to build his profile by being extra hateful. Fortunately his readers enjoy hating Homosexuals.

Homosexuals are about trashing this country and Christianity. Look at every program advanced by the Leftists, it is at it's root, anti-Christian. No open homosexuals should not be allowed in the miltary since the lack the discipine to be good sailors, Marines, ect.

So there you go.

America is the Bestest Nation Ever!

This is American Exceptionalism. Basically idea that America is better than all the other nations intellectually, morally, and militarily. And this is the theme of Lurita Doan's latest article. She comments on liberal reactions to the Gulf oil spill, the coal mining tragedy, and the nuclear situation in Japn, and how Liberals seem to think these accidents prove that we should move away from oil, coal and nuclear power.

In each of these cases, the defeatists seemed to be saying is that America was no longer capable of inventing better solutions to solve these and other challenges--better to just give up after any setback.

This may be the silliest American Exceptionalism article I've read. First of all, if you want to talk about not beliving in our ability to innovate, go read articles on solar or wind power by your fellow conservatives. You will see some real defeatism there.

Secondly, it's not American ingenuity that is being tested in some of these cases. It's American corpratism. It's not that we can't make safe coal mines or protect against oil spills; it's that it is unprofitable to do so (not to mention that we are eventually going to start running out of oil and probably coal).

Doan is down on Obama too, as you would expect.

Americans deserve a president who believes that we are an exceptional nation, capable of achieving everything that is good and great.

Everything that is good and great. You know what I believe America is capable of achieving everything that is good and great. I suspect many of my fellow liberals agree with me. It's just that our definition of what is good and great probably differs from your own.

But her readers are very supportive.

Democrats and other liberals are losers who project their own inability to succeed onto the rest of us.

As for humility, there's nothing un-humble about knowing that our system is best, because the evidence for that FACT is all there for anyone to see.

And then this gem.

Any problems with nuclear, oil, coal or other energy source can be overcome if we only just lined up all the regulators from the EPA and other alphabet soup agencies that constantly get in the way, and just shoot them.

That's just hilarious. After 8 years of Bush gutting the regulatory industries, we just need to shoot anybody with the temerity to work there? Do people really think that corporations are going to do spend the money to do things safely if they aren't required to? Apparently they do.

"The most evil population on the face of the planet"

Ben Shapiro's latest article is about the Israeli Palestine conflict. In particular he writes about a particularly brutal murder of Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

And the Arab Palestinian populace, which by and large constitutes the most evil population on the face of the planet, celebrated.

So that is Shapiro's opinion of the Palestinians. But he's particularly upset about a movie shown at the United Nations.

It was a premiere screening of "Miral," a film by Julian Schnabel, a self-hating Jew and world-famous director; it's based on a book by his Arab Palestinian girlfriend, Rula Jebreal. "Miral" is a virulently anti-Israel movie casting the state of Israel in the worst possible light. Every Israeli soldier is a brutal murderer; every Palestinian is a wounded innocent; Jews are usurpers of Arab Palestinian property rights. Every anti-Israel trope is employed. "These settlers living here are our real cancer," says one Arab Palestinian character.

A few interesting points to make, but let's start with the key one. Moments after writing Palestinians off as the most evil population on the face of the planet, Shapiro excoriates Schnabel for not showing both sides in the Palestinian Israeli conflict. Presumably, in Shapiro's mind, a fair representation of the Arab Israeli conflict would show the Arabs to be the monsters they are, and would completely exonerate the Israelis.

Unfortunately for Shapiro the events portrayed in Miral are historically accurate; they did happen. By all accounts (and the movie hasn't made it's way to the US yet), the movie is disjointed and ungainly, but has some good performances (although reviewers are torn about the performance of the actress in the title role). But the history is essentially correct, even if presented from one specific point of view.

At any rate, the choice for the United Nations to screen this movie, and to allow the attendance of Hollywierdos like Robert DeNiro and Sean Penn proves the immorality of the United Nations.

His readers certainly agree.

Yes, our departure from the UN should be immediate for a thousand reasons. It is corrupt from top to bottom.

I'll say it again: GET THE U. S. OUT OF THE U. N. AND THE U. N. OUT OF THE U. S.

there should be a new united nations for CIVILIZED nations only! no muslim nations need apply. agree 100% this UN should be shut down.

So nice to see some unity; although crapping on the United Nations is always popular over there at Townhall.

Caricatures are Reality

John Hawkin's latest article is written from the point of view of a liberal. Not a real liberal mind you, but a pleasing caricature of a liberal. Which is why his version of a liberal basically thinks America Sucks.

The problem with you Teabaggers is that, unlike liberals, you have such an unrealistic view of America. Liberals have a balanced view of America, which is why they understand that America is the source of all evil in the world. Hello, slavery! Like any other nations ever did that? And we brought slaves to a country that shouldn't even be ours in the first place. It should belong to the Indians, Mexicans and buffalo. Then there were all the people we've killed in our wars of aggression against the Nazis, the Soviets, and Al-Qaeda, all of whom hated us for perfectly valid reasons. Maybe if you Teabaggers stopped waving your flags and chewing your chaw for 5 seconds, you'd realize the world might be better off if "Murica" were broke, poor, and humbled.

Part of me thinks there is no point to responding to this kind of tripe. But the problem is that Hawkins probably thinks this is a fair representation of what people like me think. They really think we don't like America. It's telling that he brings up slavery, our taking of the land from the indians, and our wars (although he botches all three's description particularly the war one. Yes America has aggressively interfered in other nations affairs, but the three enemies he mentions aren't the ones that we feel ashamed about opposing). Hawkins has correctly identified our nations great sins. But in traditional Conservatoid fashion the solution isn't to be an adult, admit our mistakes while also being proud of our successes. Instead, even bringing up slavery and our treatment of Native Americans makes one not love America. Either America is perfect or it is evil, apparently.

The Big A

Mike S. Adams has taken a break from complaining about how hard it is being a Conservative University Professer to write a confusing article on Abortion. Short answer is that he is against it. He thinks that people who are pro-choice are hypocritical or confused, and he proves this by asking leading questions that don't make any sense. The overall thrust seems to beas follows.

You pro-choice people seem to believe in a right and wrong.

11. My opposition to those who bomb abortion clinics is rooted in my religious views. Should I impose those views on others by supporting laws against bombing abortion clinics?

Ideas about right and wrong come from God, who definitely exists.

12. If the universe’s expansion had been too slow or too fast the result would have been elements either too light or too heavy to sustain life. Do you think there is a God who intended for life to be sustained on this planet?

Abortion kills a baby.

8. Is ultrasound technology helping people converge upon certain undeniable truths about the complexity and origins of life?

. . . 13. Do you consider the fetus to be a life? If not, would you concede that it is at least intended to be a life?

. . . 19. Do human beings have a right to commit murder in a safe way?

That last one is interesting in light of his comments on bombing abortion clinics. He doesn't reference Dr. Tiller here, but if you see Abortion as Murder doesn't it follow the executing those who perform abortions is the correct action (assuming you favor the death penalty I suppose). He lends further credence to this argument in another pair of questions.

16. Imagine that a woman is headed to the hospital to have an abortion. Her car is hit by a man who ran a stop light in his car. Her offspring is killed. In most states, he can be charged with homicide. Does that make sense to you?

17. In the previous example, I forgot to add that the man who hit the woman headed to the hospital just happened to be her doctor – the one scheduled to perform the abortion. In most states, he can still be charged with homicide. Does that still make sense?

Of course pro-choice people generally don't think it should be homicide. But leave that aside, isn't this a clear argument that Doctors who kill babies should be charged with homicide? And isn't homocide a capital crime? So what is wrong with executing abortion doctors (if you follow this chain of thought)?

There is also this gem.

18. In 1961, there were 210,000 abortions performed in America. Within seven years of Roe v. Wade, there were 1.2 million abortions in America. Have we succeeded in making abortions safe, legal and, rare?

OK - let's unpack this. In 1961 there were 210,000 abortions. In the seven years following Roe V Wade, which I take to be 1973 to 1979 (Roe was decided January 1973, so it could also be 1974 to 1980), there were 1.2 million abortions. That works out to be an average of 171,428 million abortions annually, which is fewer abortions than previous. However in those years, I don't think the goal was to make Abortion "safe legal and rare" as that particular terminology was coined by President Clinton in the 1990s. Or to put it another way, I don't know what the hell Adams is talking about here. He probably meant to put in an "annually" there.

Abortions, incidentally, peaked in the 80s and declined through the 90s.

Some interesting bits in the comments.

I told you that on Wednesday, my dad bought a Mossberg 500 12-gauge shotgun.

Well, on Friday, he took it shooting for the very first time, with his retired policeman neighbor.

The neighbor was actually fairly impressed with my dad's aplomb with the gun, considering he had never been a gun owner before in his life and the last time he probably even FIRED a gun would have to be at least over 40 years ago.

So if some libcreeps try breaking into my parents' home at night with the thought of "aborting" my parents, the libcreeps are likely to be "aborted" first!

You don't really abort adults, do you? But lets get on to what Townhall readers should be done about abortion.

If abortion is murder then it is to be dealt with as every other murder.

Christians can use this column to stiffen up their backbone and follow Jesus Christ of Nazareth in educating American that ACCORDING TO GOD, abortion is MURDER.

“Don’t like Abortion? Don’t Have One?" Don’t like murder? Don’t commit any. Don't allow any to be committed, either.

i beleive abortion is murder and anyone supporting it has blood on their hands ,,, and they know it and a only denie it when it when the light of truth shines on em

Yeah they really think abortion is murder; and at least a few of them have thought through the implications of believing that.

2012

Jonah Goldberg's latest article is a reaction to George Will's latest article, in which he talks about who the likely candidate for the GOP will be in 2012. Will suggests it will be one of the more centrist possibilities (Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Jon Huntsman, Mitt Romney, or Pawlenty), writing off Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Herman Cain, and Mike Huckabee.

Ultimately the election will largely be a referendum on Obama and the economy. The desire to order off-menu will abate over time. And Republicans will surely stomach the nominee, if for no other reason than they're ravenous to make Obama a one-termer. And, as the Irish say, hunger is the best sauce.

I hope Goldberg's wrong, but I have to admit, Steve Kornacki over at Salon has an article largely arguing the same thing, giving the nomination to Romney.

Meanwhile, Romney, for all his flaws, starts with a significant base of support -- or at least potential support. The elites still see him as an acceptable, maybe even preferable, option for the nomination and plenty of Republican voters are still open to supporting him. If you assume that Huckabee and Palin won't run (or that Palin, if she does, will be marginalized), then Romney still begins this campaign as the closest thing there is to a default choice for Republicans.

I don't want to see Romney as the candidate for a number of reasons. He's patently phoney, he changes his opinions with the political winds, and he's Mormon (which I am as well).

I think though, a lot can happen between now and then. The base may or may not be as hungry as they should be to settle for a Romney (as exemplified by the comments to Goldberg's column).

I will NOT vote for Romney or Huckabee. Romney is deeply flawed and I don't even consider him to be a republican.

If any of the old RINO "retreads" run, THEY WILL LOSE. Yes, this includes, romney, huckabee, gingrich and any of the "old guard".

I will not vote for Romney whom I consider to be a closet socialist . . .

I certainly don't want Romney, whoever he is THIS week.

In fairness there are plenty of posts that assert they will vote for whoever runs against Obama.

I have a Legal Right to be an Asshole and I'm Determined to Exercise It

Apparently Doug Giles feels this way in his latest article in which he gleefully smokes a cigar despite annoying a nearby lesbian.

Yes, I don’t believe in being bullied to put out my legal smoke just because she finds it offensive. I’ll put out my smoke when she gets a new doo and quits lip locking Melissa Etheridge in public. Maybe.

It's not clear that he is defending his right to be an asshole or his right to be an asshole to lesbians. If a nice clean-cut heterosexual mom had come up to him, what would he have done? But apparently his point is that oral sex is more dangerous than cigars. Therefore even though he seems like a total asshole, he really has a point.

It's hard to see past his mountain of assholery to see his point, though.