Merry Christmas

To our fans and followers, as well as everyone else,

Merry Christmas, and God Bless. May He watch over you, your families and loved ones, those who cannot be with their families today and those who are otherwise struggling with difficulties.

I stole the following from The New Hampshire Union Leader:

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following editorial, first published in The New York Sun in 1897, has become a Christmas favorite for its poetic defense of faith. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Merry Christmas.

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.”
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon
115 West Ninety-Fifth St.

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except (what) they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Top 5: Obama Passes School, Apparently List

Have you seen that video where Obama talks about how great he is?? That’s really every video, but this one is the one I’m specifically speaking about.

Couple of things that are starting to cause me to go crazy when I hear them:

1. “We inhereted x,y,z.” – At what point does the Obama administration start taking responsibility for problems that currently exist under his administration?
2. “Something, something, something, accomplishments.” – Obama hasn’t accomplished anything but spend our money.? What has he accomplished?? Honestly.? I invite any liberal/progressive to explain to me what he has accomplished.? National debt has increased.? Unemployment has increased.? Resolute Middle-East strategy has waned.? Provision of citizenship rights to 9/11 terrorists secured. Appeasement of other countries and disregard for sovereignty assured.? Presidential popularity 30 point decreased affirmed.
3. “The 4 hour work week.” – I know more about Obama’s nightly basketball prowess, his weekly dates with his wife, and his gallivanting all over Hollywood tv shows and world tours than I do about any actual work he has performed.? Honestly, when is the guy in the White House to carry out any of his duties.? Makes you wonder whose running the country doesn’t it?
4. “Award for what?” – Obama received his Nobel Peace Prize this week.? Does anyone know why?? According to the Nobel Committee, “during the preceding year[...] shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Did Obama accomplish something in 2008 that I’m not aware of that improved the brotherhood between nations and reduced standing armies?? Seems ironic that he gave his speech the week after he ordered more troops to Afghanistan.? You know members of the committee complained that Toby Keith was playing at the Peace Prize Concert because he sung about his support for the war?? I guess it’s ok to be send more troops to war, but if you sing about it, that’s simply not acceptable.
5. “You thought there would be a #5 didn’t you?” – Well I took it from you!? And I’m sharing it with all the unfortunate blogs that could only afford a Top 3.

-nick

Talking Points From The Last Week

Highlights of two interesting conversations I had last week:

First, I ran into two acquaintances in Harris-Teeter a week ago Sunday, and as part of our conversation one of the people- both were women- mentioned that in Freakanomics the point was made that abortion has helped to lower crime, poverty, the welfare rolls etc. because more poor women have abortions than those of other socioeconomic classes. I said that statement made sense, but there were two weaknesses in it. The first was that the ?positive? side of abortion depended on your priorities, in this case murder vs. crime, poverty and welfare. The second was that her statement was analogous to saying black people benefited from slavery because survival of the fittest kicked in to make blacks more athletic in the modern age. (She agreed with me that it was analogous.)

Secondly, in the middle of last week, I got into a long discussion/debate with two Muslim women, one a convert who spent time in the American military before her conversion and the other a lifelong member of Islam who grew up in America. We began discussing Arab and Muslim terrorism against the United States, and particularly the recent shootings at Fort Hood. I made the argument that a high percentage of terrorist attacks against this country have been made by Muslims- see an LA Times article today about the threat of homegrown terrorism- and so I did not find it hard to believe that Americans might be a bit hesitant around someone of the Islamic faith or appearing to be Arabic, and the Fort Hood shootings did not help the Muslim cause in America. The two women made a great case, however, that it was not the fault of the Muslim faith that the Fort Hood shooter went after his fellow soldiers. Instead, they claimed that the man was mentally unstable, and what he said was merely what he knew and how he spoke. The lifelong Muslim said that if a Jew or Christian was to kill a lot of people in a similar manner, she would not blame the Christian faith but would instead chalk it up to mental instability. They also said it was the fault of the Army for not recognizing the man?s mental illness and taking action before he killed his fellow soldiers.

I disagree with that mental illness was the main cause of the Fort Hood attack as opposed to his Muslim faith; but I found their argument very interesting and something I hadn’t considered (that Hasan was merely expressing his thoughts in the way he had been taught) and I definitely agree the Army failed to protect its soldiers.

It’s Our Birthday!

Today, one year ago, I launched thelobbyist.net.? thelobbyist was an idea that was burning a hole in my back pocket for a couple of years.? For good or bad, most of my peers will tell you I’m very opinionated.? Admittedly, often to the point of needing to shut my mouth. (My mother often reminds me of this).? But I had never delved into the foray because my attention was focused on finishing school, work, finishing grad school, and then getting back to work.? Finally, last Fall, after watching the Shawshank Redemption for the umpteenth time and hearing the immortal words of Andy Dufresne, You gotta get busy living, or get busy dying, it dawned on me that I would most likely never be less pre-occupied.? It was now or never.

So I began the tedious process of putting together what I imagined would be a seldom viewed blog of my thoughts on politics.? In late October I mentioned what I was doing to my close friend Tom Qualtere, currently the Research Assistant for Ed Feulner at The Heritage Foundation.? He was ecstatic about the idea and wanted to get on board as well.

After a few months of us blogging, to our surprise we were gaining a fairly sizable audience for our scope.? Between our first month with roughly only 300 visitors, we had moved to about 4,000 unique visits. (To be specific, a website usually receives many more visitors, but much of the traffic is repeat visitors.? A unique visit is characterized as 1 visit per unique individual.? In other words, a website may received 2000 total visits, but only 500 were unique.? Meaning that each unique visitor visited the site roughly 4 times.)

It was at this time we decided to step it up a notch and revitalize the image of the website into a true commentary presence on politics.? Our friends Dustin Siggins and RJ Caster jumped on board and have been a real boon to our efforts.

Since that time we have grown by leaps and bounds.? This month we are on track to break 20,000 unique visitors and over 100,000 total visits.? That communicates to us that our audience loves what we do, and our growth is obvious evidence of this.? If it wasn’t for our audience, we would obviously just be talking to ourselves.? We thank our fans and friends, who have helped push us forward and keep us motivated to do what we do!

I would also personally like to thank Tom Qualtere, Dustin Siggins, RJ Caster, and Wallace Forman for their fantastic work every month.? And additionally, a special thanks goes out to our contributors Sam Theodosopoulos, Catherine Helsley, and our brother-sister duo of Nick J. and Annie Rohrhoff.? Thanks for all your hard work!

We’ll keep doing what we do, and strive to continue doing it better.? And you guys keep coming back, and we will look forward to celebrating our birthday with you again next year!

-nick r brown

John Ziegler You’re Just Wrong

You may not immediately recognize the name John Ziegler.? But you probably recognize the the documentary title Media Malpractice.? Media Malpractice was a documentary that Ziegler put together exposing the corruption and vitriol within the media toward Palin during the 2008 Presidential election.

So now Ziegler has decided to go after people that he has determined are counter productive to appropriate leadership in the conservative movement.? Part of the decision to do this is because he is under the impression that donations and sponsorships are earning speaking positions at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

Yet he cavalierly and ironically admits that he has been given speaking slots and panel positions at both CPAC and WCPAC (the conference on the West coast) because of his documentary being a sponsor of the event.

Double standard much?

This past Sunday, Zieglar posted the afore-linked to post on Mediaite.com tearing into CPAC Chairman David Keene.? Zieglar issued three main complaints as to why Keene wasn’t fit for leadership, and postulated that he wasn’t even a Conservative.? Actual evidence withstanding…

Here is Sherlock Zieglar’s list of dastardly Keene deeds:

1) Keene believes Sarah Palin’s decision to step down was a mistake, that she “bailed out” on her duties and that it would hurt her candidacy for the presidency.? –? Is this really a big deal?? I mean our own RJ Caster essentially said the same thing back in June.? People have a right to their opinion.? And furthermore, I would actually argue that it’s bad for the conservative movement for everyone to always be in total agreement, or to jump on an “Obama-esque” idolization bandwagon.

2) Keene gave Arlen Specter $2,000 in 2008.? Arlen is a long time friend, supposedly.? –? You know, a lot of dyed in the wool conservatives gave Specter a lot of money in 2008.? And a lot of them were ham hogged! (my word)? I’d be willing to bet Keene gave a lot of Republicans with conservative values across the range money in 2008.? The guy isn’t a psychic.

3) Ziegler alleges that the American Conservative Union, whom Keene is Chairman of, offered to give FedEx Keene’s Op-Ed support on a legislative issue if they paid ACU a $2 million.? — First of all, shouldn’t Ziegler be in favor of the free market?? If that is the cost of Op-Ed support, and you have the name recognition to get published to help a client, then what’s the problem?? If you do feel that is unethical, that’s fine too.? That would also be a valid opinion.

Turns out, it wasn’t the case at all.? As Keene explains in this video Ziegler made of a interview he asked if he could have with Keene at WCPAC.? Which turns out to actually be a setup where Ziegler unethically and maliciously corners Keene with his ridiculous assumptions.

The No-Bull Prize: 2009

Friday, October 9, 2009; the President of the United States became the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner through a committee vote.? Alfred Nobel stipulated in his will that the peace prize should be awarded ?to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses.?? The Nobel committee cited President Obama as deserving of the award ?for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.??

The first question to escape the lips of many people when the announcement was made was, ?for what??? Surely it is no shock to the diligent observer that the committee would award it to someone who has yet to accomplish anything truly substantive (I am not saying that he won?t), when we cannot forget the fact that President Obama was nominated a mere two weeks after he was inaugurated.? Again, ?for what??? Giving the Nobel Peace prize to President Obama before he has even done anything is like the NFL awarding Tony Romo the MVP for the 2009-2010 season.? I think both Romo’s start to the season, and President Obama’s start to his presidency, warrant the parallel.?

To be honest, the Nobel prize has proven itself less and less relevant and less and less capable of understanding the world as it is.? Instead of awarding true innovators, or people with the drive or spirited attempt to?change the world for the better, right wrongs and free people; the Nobel has been bastardized to mean nothing more than what?a New York Timesendorsement means to elections.? Everyone knows it?s going to someone who adheres to the conformity of the worldy leftist-geist and will rarely if ever adorn the garb of someone who has actually made a principled stand against evil in the world.? ??

-rj

We’ve Never Begged For Money…

So we’ve decided we may have to sort of beg for some money.? Just real quick like, though.

As founder of thelobbyist.net and thelobbyistgroup sites that we hope you’ve come to love, I always want to be upfront with our readership.? I love thelobbyist and I love our writers.? I honestly feel that we have some of the most creative and best conservative and libertarian writers posting commentary on current political events that you’ll find on an Internet full of keyboard cats and other great writers.

But a majority of those other writers you read on a daily basis are being paid to perform a job.? I didn’t start thelobbyist to get rich.? The percentage of commentary websites and blogs that make it big on the Internet is slim to none.? I started thelobbyist because I love politics, I love our country, and I love to write.? Those that have joined me in this venture on thelobbyist and our sister sites contribute for these same reasons.? It’s a love and a passion, and they do it in their free time outside of work instead of doing things that may be a little bit more fun.

That being said, I have a position that I will never start begging our readership for money.? There is a donation button on the website, and that is exactly what it is.? It’s for donations.? If someone likes our work, and they want to help us keep it up then we certainly appreciate it.? Trust me.? Like I said, I didn’t start this site to get rich, but it does cost money to run.? And those donations help keep us going.

With that understanding, I have a free market attitude about what we do and how we may move forward in regards to new ideas.? Two ideas that have been bouncing around between our authors and editors the last few months is getting a newsletter together and starting a podcast.

With all the social networks available on the Internet, it has been proven time and again that email is still the best way to reach your base.? I know many of you follow us on our rss feed.? But when you consider that we only have several hundred people following on rss and we have tens of thousands of people visiting the site every month, then you realize there is a big possibility that many of you are missing out on posts.? A weekly newsletter letting our readers know what posts went up that week, tracking of popular posts, and management of an email database runs about $20 a month.

For us to get a podcast going and provide some more in depth coverage of current events issues in politics on either a weekly or bi-weekly basis will probably run us a little over $100.? This would be a one time cost to get needed equipment, and then after that, it is just a time requirement for us to put it together.

Like I said, I have a free market attitude about these things.? And I feel like if these are things our readership want, then the readership will donate what’s needed to get them done.? We have tens of thousands of readers across our sites.? So if 20 people donated a $1 a month we could afford to run a newsletter.? And if a couple dozens readers donate a few bucks we can get the equipment necessary to run a podcast.

So in the end, our “begging” for money isn’t really begging for money.? We want to let you know what we’ve been considering doing to benefit you, our readers and improve on what the site has to offer.? If it’s something our readers want, I feel like you will let us know by way of donating to help us get there.

Thanks for your support and thanks for making thelobbyist one of the sites you visit for the best political commentary on the net.? If it wasn’t for our readers, we wouldn’t be here.? Well…accept for those of us that like to talk to ourselves.? If you feel that you can help us out, you can find a PayPal donation button on the right hand column under the social networking icons.

-nick

Where?s the Sense? A look at the Hofstra Rape Hoax

Many of you may be familiar with the recent arrests of 4 men for the alleged rape of an 18-year-old freshman student at Hofstra University.? The ?victim? reported an incident where she was bound in a bathroom and raped by 5 young men at a frat party.? Later this week the young woman recanted her story claiming that she didn?t want to tell her boyfriend about the consensual activity between herself and the several other young men; this coming of course after the 4 arrests had been made and the men falsely dragged through the mud for their ?crimes.?

This looks to be a classic case of ?hook-up regret? where a consensual situation quickly ran into a downward spiral of morning-after denial and disgust.? Perhaps it would be worthwhile to look at how and why young women and men have progressed to a place where such activity is acceptable.

In the past, if an 18-20 year-old college student of either gender wanted to be sexually intimate with another it was done in the strictest of secrecy and in areas where others were not likely to loiter (the term ?parking? comes to mind here).? Nowadays if your college roommate is expecting to engage in sexual activity, you the helpless bystander are encouraged and sometimes forced to leave the situation and retreat in what is sometimes called being ?sexiled.?

What happened?? The answer: the tail end of the sexual revolution and the last wave of feminism.? Women were encouraged to engage in sexual activity just like men did and were told that they could do so with as many partners as they wanted with no consequence to them thanks to the evolution of birth control and the legalization of abortion.

The truth about frivolous sexual activity is being sacrificed in the name of political correctness and young women, and indeed young men such as the 4 arrested in the Hofstra case, are suffering because of it.

Various scientific studies have suggested that there are a number of biological and chemical affects of intimate activity that occur in men and women.? The most prevalent of these is the chemical Oxytocin which releases in the brain of a woman causing them to form emotional bonds with those they are intimate with.? This often leads to feelings of depression and regret when a casual hook-up does not produce a relationship.

The Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute is launching a new website called Sense & Sexuality that deals with these very issues and tackles the myths of sexual activity full force.? Check out the new website www.senseandsexuality.org starting September 21st and start getting answers about the frightening misinformation that produces the kind of situation seen this week at Hofstra University.

- catherine

We’re All Racists Now…

Apparently we’re all racists now. Jimmy Carter told me so.

I’m from Dixie. The land of labels. The area of the country were if anyone has a problem with anything that anyone else of the opposite skin color does it’s always attributed solely to racism. The accusation usual comes from Liberals. It’s frustrating. It’s equally as frustrating to listen to Carter proclaim his excitement of the South’s progress in race relations like he is sitting on some cloud as a deity encouraging his Southern brothers toward some goal that he had already achieved ages ago.

Jimmy Carter, please go away. You aren’t President, you aren’t anything. You have failed so many times I cannot even think of a time you succeeded other than somehow tricking the country into voting for you. Oh, and congrats on that Nobel Prize for keeping North Korea free of nuclear weapons. As a Georgian, if I could kick you out of my state I would. You bring the Empire State of the South nothing but shame.

I was happy to see Robert Gibbs shoot down Carter’s assessment. It may be the first truthful and logical thing I’ve ever heard the man say.

When Maureen Dowd wrote her hate column to Joe Wilson last week she went after his affiliation with the Sons of the Confederacy. Anyone reading this without knowledge of what the SCV is would immediately associate this with some sort of secessionist or racist organization, which is what I’m guessing since it was in the New York Times. The more accurately named Sons of Confederate Veterans is a veterans organization. How dare he be apart of a veterans organization!

SCV was formed in union with the Grand Army of the Republic, which is the veterans organization of Northern soldiers during the Civil War. These groups M.O. is to research and preserve the history of the war, establish battle sight memorials, and help individuals locate information on relatives that fought in the war. The SCV has received commendation from both Republican President George Bush (Bush, George W. “Letter of Commendation.” Confederate Veteran, June, 1996: p.6.) and from Democratic President Bill Clinton (Clinton, Bill. “Letter of June 21, 1994, from Bill Clinton.” UDC Magazine, Sept. 1994: p. 9.). But how dare you be a member Joe Wilson! That makes you a racist!

It must be noted that Obamacare will cover illegal immigrants. Ed Morrissey covered this on HotAir.com when the neutral Congressional Research Office announced this a few weeks ago. I was told recently by a blue crusader that Joe Wilson was a racist because he yelled, “You lie” after Obama mentioned illegals. That somehow because Obama was lying about coverage of illegal immigrants, and Wilson called him on it means that Wilson is a racist because the lie he uncovered pertained to illegal immigrants. Seriously? Informal fallacy perhaps?

Does anyone realize what’s going on here?

That’s right Admiral, it’s a trap. Democrats want us to be having this conversation. They want us to be stirred up and talking about race relations, and our thoughts on the black president. Which is completely ironic in itself considering the fact that WE HAVE A BLACK PRESIDENT! White people had to vote for him too.

But the whole point of all of this is that we are now not talking about what we should be talking about: the health care and cap and trade bills. There is recent precedence for this if you don’t believe me. Remember how concerned we all were for the well fair of the voter in Iran? Then Michael Jackson died. Iran what? Sad but true.

What’s also sad but true is that race relations in this country may have just been set back 20 years. And at the fault of the liberals stirring up the controversy. Ironically the Democrats always proclaim to be the ones promoting minorities. But Robert Byrd is running around unafflicted by his own party for his massive involvement in the KKK. And it’s the Democrats that block conservative efforts to move minorities out of inner city schools to provide them a better education. It’s almost as if the liberals don’t want to see minorities succeed, be well educated, and find successful jobs or become business owners. I wonder why? Ask Herman Cain.

But I digress. Focus people, focus! Let’s get back to the real issue before those in power in DC try to play some sleight of hand while they have us busy with our heads in the clouds over an issue that’s not really an issue.

-nick

Reminder: GRTL Benefit Dinner 10/29

Just a reminder. Our table is filling up for the Georgia Right To Life Benefit Dinner featuring Star Parker.? But there are still seats available, and we can always add a second table.? Check the link below for information on tickets.

Details Here

« Previous Page — Next Page »