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Clearing the Browser Tabs – Don’t Play the Partisan Hacks’ Game Monday Edition Posted: 29 Aug 2011 03:10 AM PDT A couple of days I wrote about Bill Keller’s risible New York Times column wherein he proved that he knows as much about religion as a mouse does about quantum entanglement. I opted for a more measured approach, which, in retrospect, I don’t think is the right way to approach such intentional ignorance. I had considered another post — had made a few notes on it, in fact — but then I saw this incredible piece by Kurt Schlichter at Big Government and realized I don’t have to. He said everything I wanted to say, and did it far better than I could have. Bill Keller doesn’t really care about the religious beliefs of Republican presidential candidates any more than he did about the beliefs of Barack Obama’s mentor for twenty years when the man was damning America for a bushel basket full of invented sins. What he does care about is how much mayhem he can cause among the electorate by asking loaded questions and twisting any answers he gets into the shapes he desires. His questions are not honest, his motives are purely partisan, and we are under no obligation to do anything but call him out for his dishonesty and bigotry. We will see this again, folks. Don’t play the game the hacks want you to play. It’s rigged and you won’t ever win. And now, links! Not that I want to channel Mark Steyn, but none of these nations have to worry about dying out because they’re not having enough babies. Unchecked immigration will kill them off long before depopulation will. Now that our manned space program is dead, at least for the foreseeable future, the International Space Station is in real trouble. Maybe the Chinese will take it over in a few years when their space program eclipses ours. Nice Deb asked how think-skinned our President is. I’m pretty sure the answer is “very”. I’m very sure he’d act less like an emo middle school girl if the MSM didn’t pat his hand and tell him he’s special. Then again, if the MSM hasn’t covered for him as much as they did a few years ago, he wouldn’t be President today. Remember when Michelle Obama told college students that they shouldn’t look for jobs that paid good money and instead should go into “public service”? Yes, well, it appears that public service pays pretty darned well if you have all the right connections. No one likes the Chevy Volt, not even the guy who runs the company that makes it. One of the things I want our next President to do in his first hundred days is tear down the tenure-based pay scale for Federal Employees in favor of one based on merit. I admit, I have a couple of these verbal tics, and you can hear them on occasion when you listen to The Delivery. I do try to use them as little as possible, though, so that’s something. Also, you really should listen to The Delivery! Do you want to live longer? Just add 15 minutes of exercise to your day and you can add three years to your life. Sounds like a good deal to me. Forty-five years ago this month, NASA’s Lunar Orbiter took the first picture of Earth from the orbit of the moon. The story behind that photograph is worth a lunch-time read today.. I did not know that Def Leppard has a new live album out, but now that I do, I want it! So what do you say — think you might give the tip jar a hit?

Mule-Headed Republicans and the Whomping Club of Motivation Posted: 28 Aug 2011 07:27 PM PDT Slowly, Republicans in Congress are getting the message that America isn’t in any mood to play silly political games. Unemployment is unacceptably high and not likely to come down to a reasonable level any time soon. We’re running a debt so large that it changes the orbit of celestial bodies. The Democrats refuse to come up with an economic plan that doesn’t involve unicorns, powdered Bigfoot toenails, and elfin magic. You don’t have to be a political genius to see how well a simple and positive plan would be received. Of course, Republicans are stubborn beasts and it appears that we’ll have to continue to beat some political sense into them. Fearing angry protests, some GOP lawmakers have decided to skip public town-hall meetings. Others have mustered courage to face constituents in unpredictable settings, sometimes with uncomfortable results. "I've never seen people as angry as they are right now. They're angry at the whole system and evidencing that in their comments to me," said Rep. Timothy Johnson (R-Ill.), who has crisscrossed his district attending chicken dinners and state fairs. "Being an incumbent in either chamber in either party is an unpopular brand. I'm trying to show people that I'm different, that I listen and don't engage in a lot of partisanship," said Johnson, who plans to redouble his efforts as a member of the Congressional Center Aisle Caucus to promote bipartisan cooperation in the fall. Yep, that’s exactly what the voters want — a politician who can’t lead unless he’s surrounded by members of the opposition party who, I hasten to remind you, have called ordinary Americans like you and me terrorists and racists because we won’t give them as much control over our lives as they desire. I don’t know Rep. Johnson from Adam, but I’d hazard a guess that he couldn’t give you an opinion on anything unless he asked someone else what they thought. That isn’t leadership. That’s cowardice. The other Republicans in the article aren’t much better. All of them think they can help the economy by swapping one government program out for another one that brings more taxpayer money back to their districts. We already know that won’t work. If it did, West Virginia would be a prosperous utopia. They all talk a great game — how we need to hack away at the jungle of regulations that strangles entrepreneurship in its crib, and that jobs have been a priority for the Republicans since “day one” — but they still don’t understand what it is we want. Paul Ryan’s flawed but brilliant plan is all but dead because his fellow Republicans couldn’t muster the backbone to defend it as fiercely as Democrats attacked it. If they wouldn’t stand up for a plan that didn’t get around to a balanced budget for at least a decade, why would they get behind a more aggressive idea? We all know the answer to that one. They won’t. They’re playing defense while the other team is barely on the field. And so, once again, we voters are going to have to break out the Whomping Clubs of Motivation and apply them to the foreheads of another bunch of reluctant elephants. Eventually, we’ll get some members of Congress who truly do understand the enormity of our problems and push bold solutions to them. I only hope they show up in sufficient numbers before it’s too late.

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Clearing the Browser Tabs – Wind, Rain, That Sort of Thing Sunday Edition Posted: 28 Aug 2011 03:10 AM PDT I”m writing this at about 2:15 AM. I spent most of the day here riding out Hurricane Irene, which dumped somewhere between 4 and 10 inches of rain on the Southern Maryland area (depending on how close you live to the Chesapeake Bay) and blew a gale for well over 10 hours. I’ve seen reports that my immediate area faced sustained winds of at least 40 MPH at the height of the storm with gusts near 60 MPH, which is solidly in the realm of a tropical storm. Even now, sustained winds have been reported of 35 MPH, with gusts at 50 MPH. I never lost power for more than a few seconds, though things did look bad at about 10 PM. In all, my area appears to weathered the storm without major mishap (thank the Almighty!). We didn’t get hit as badly as some areas of North Carolina or the Atlantic coast of Maryland and there are some pretty big areas that will face Irene’s wrath today. As I’ve written before, your go-to web sites for storm information are here, here, here, and here. For those of you in New Jersey, New York, and points north, be safe and smart. Irene may not be as strong as she was, but she is still a huge and dangerous storm. Don’t mess around. Oh, and a bonus to anyone to can name the movie from which I got the post title today. One hint, it’s not an exact quote. I changed one word. And now, links! Ed Driscoll: On Obama, the MSM, and really big asteroids. No, really. It’s a good read. And while I’m here, let me point you to another Ed Driscoll classic on the intrusion of rock and roll music into our daily lives. It’s now what it sounds like and you’ll probably end up nodding your head in agreement (and in time to your favorite rock song) by the end. The one thing you can say for sure about tyrants is that they are strangers to the truth. I hope Jonathan Alter, who wrote a glowing hagiography of President Obama’s first year in office, was serious when he asked people to tell him how Barack Obama has failed as a President. If so, the answers he receives will enlighten him and make him a better, more insightful, journalist. If not, well, he’ll remain mired in hackery. Bob Belvedere is cleaning out the spam pits of his blog and boy did he find some choice specimens! The more I see of Rick Perry, the more I like him. It takes a certain amount of courage to send the federal government a bill for the cost of incarcerating criminal illegal immigrants. I hope he wins that fight. Stacy McCain asked a question about journalism, hard economic times, and entrepreneurship that has come up a couple times in our conversations. I think it should be asked a bit more often. This is the face of today’s spoiled, ugly left-wing: a protest in front of a school where children are actually getting an education, preceded by petty vandalism. And why were the protesting? Because they despise that Governor Scott Walker took away most of the power of their union to steal money from the citizens of Wisconsin. Maggie’s Notebook reminded us recently that we need to be careful where we send our charitable donations. I restrict my giving to local groups, my church, and bloggers whose work I admire. In each case, I know where my money is going. Not, by the way, that politicians are not on that list. Speaking of which, have you donated to your favorite bloggers this month? Remember that they will do good with your money — more good in many cases than some random Senator or political party.

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• The Bias and Bigotry of Bill Keller
• Clearing the Browser Tabs – Global What Now Saturday Edition
• Why Is Our Government Persecuting a Guitar Maker?

The Bias and Bigotry of Bill Keller Posted: 27 Aug 2011 07:00 AM PDT On Thursday, outgoing executive editor of the New York Times Bill Keller wrote one of the most proudly ignorant columns I have ever had the misfortune to read on the subject of religion and politics. In it, he strongly intimated that Presidential candidates — Republican Presidential candidates, actually, since he obviously didn’t feel that “God damn America” was worth serious news coverage — must set aside their personal beliefs or submit to his inquiry, likened the Catholic communion to the belief in space aliens, and labeled it “baggage”. I honestly don’t have the time or inclination to fisk such hypocritical bigotry, and it was both of those things, but a few other writers around the blogosphere such as Guy Benson and Mollie Hemingway did so convincingly. I will say two things, though. First, Keller’s use of the Dominionism bogeyman proves to me that he is neither honest nor objective about evangelical Christianity. It would have taken him perhaps 30 minutes to read this post or this one to learn that what some have claimed is a large and threatening movement among evangelicals is minuscule and well on the fringe of the fringe. Actually, he didn’t even have to do that much. The New York Times has an entire Religion section, presumably with a few writers who know a thing or two about evangelical Christianity. He could have called one of his own reporters and learned what he needed to know. He didn’t. There’s a bigger issue, though, about media bias to be made. If Keller had any evangelical Christian friends, he would never have written that piece. He doesn’t. He is surrounded by people who think like him all day, every day. Dr. Tim Groseclose, in his superlative book Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind, found that journalists lean even more to the left than such progressive enclaves at Berkeley and Cambridge. There’s a very good chance that Keller spends less than an hour of conversation every week with someone who isn’t ideologically just like him and I can guarantee you he doesn’t spend that hour trying to learn something about the majority of Americans who have religious beliefs and try hard to live up to them. What’s worse, I’m sure it’s never occurred to him that he should.

Clearing the Browser Tabs – Global What Now Saturday Edition Posted: 27 Aug 2011 03:10 AM PDT The Cult of Global Warming suffered another fatal blow this week when CERN published the results of an experiment that prove the sun has a far greater effect on climate change than any of the AGW models have ever taken into account. This is a big deal because those models are what Global Warming proponents have used to scare us into surrendering control over large portions of our lives — everything from our choice of vehicle to what kind of lightbulb we are allowed to buy — to poliicians and bureaucrats who have assured us that they know what they’re talking about. They don’t, and they never have. Hopefully, a few progressive-minded lawmakers who know the value of actual science as opposed to Al Gore-ish voodoo, will take CERN’s findings and use them to push back against the encroaching green state that truly threatens to destroy some of our most essential liberties. And now, links! Hurricane Irene should have made landfall by now, on its way back into the Atlantic and a brush with the Tidewater, VA/DelMarVa peninsula area. Best updates, as usual, from Brendan Loy, Dr. Jeff Masters, the National Hurricane Center, and (if you’re in the DC Metro area) the Capital Weather Gang. Stephen Kruiser is a national treasure, but don’t tell him I said that. He’ll blush. Remember how the President said, as he crammed Obamacare down our throats, that we could keep our health care plans if we liked them, “period”? He was wrong, and we’re going to suffer for it. Bookworm Room has a great post on intelligence and what seems like intelligence but isn’t (via VodkaPundit). This is perhaps the best advice on how to become a professional writer I’ve ever seen. Nothing makes you a better writer like writing, revising, and writing some more. These days, getting your writing out there where people can see your skill (and also how you’ve improved over the years), is absolutely essential. Related to the last link, here is some equally-good career advice from Rob Long (and the late Phil Hartman). What if Major League Baseball held a game and hardly anyone showed up? Well, it happened, and if the league doens’t realize it has a serious problem, it sure as heck ought to now.

Why Is Our Government Persecuting a Guitar Maker? Posted: 26 Aug 2011 01:46 PM PDT I honestly have no idea what authority the Department of Justice has to raid two different Gibson Guitar factories twice in the past two years, shut it down for at least a day, seize files and real property, and hold that property for more than a year without one word of explanation to the rightful owners. Yet that is exactly what has happened. The only explanation our government — and let us be clear that it is our government, elected by us and with power that we explicitly grant to it — has given the CEO of the company is that the Department of Justice believes that Gibson has violated the laws of India or maybe Madagascar. This is important because, as John Hayward explains, the DoJ may be investigating Gibson under the Lacey Act, which states that Americans companies who buy products from foreign countries must comply with all the laws of that country. I say “may be” because our government has sealed the records and no one has bothered to explain to Gibson why it’s been under a federal investigation for more than a year. Henry Juszkiewicz, Gibson’s Chairman and CEO, has called out the Department of Justice publicly and claims the investigation is bunk. He has sworn statements and certifications from government officials who say that Gibson obeyed all of their country’s laws and certifications and that they have no complaint against his company whatever. So what we have is a case where the American government is persecuting an American company for apparent violations of the laws of another country even though the government officials of that country have sworn that no such violations occurred. This is unconscionable. Our government is holding an American company hostage over nothing at all. Attorney General Eric Holder needs to drop this case immediately and apologize to everyone at Gibson for his agency’s inexcusable overreach, that is, unless he’s too busy arming the Mexican drug cartels. With him, you never know. (I had hoped the guitar in the iconic Johnny Cash picture was a Gibson, but alas, it appears it is not. Cash used Martins almost exclusively throughout his career. However, were he alive today, I’m fairly sure he’d be on Gibson’s side.)

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