WSJ: Liberals Can’t Comprehend Elementary Level Lessons
This article is terrific. I didn’t write it, and I wish I had. You should all read this and promptly pass it around to your liberal friends. Be sure to hover over them and laugh slyly while they read.
My favorite part, and one that was very telling, was the 67% of liberals who believe that more restrictions on housing makes housing more affordable. Talk about everything happening in the world suddenly making sense!
-nick
“They Punch You, I Punch Them”
Okay, so American conservatism has been a bit too into New Jersey governor Chris Christie…but who can help themselves when he makes speeches like this one? (H/T to Hot Air.)
It’s On: O’Reilly vs. Ingraham
Bill O’Reilly and Laura Ingraham go toe-to-toe over whether Janet Napolitano should be held responsible for the administration’s response to the oil spill. O’Reilly says to cut her some slack, and Ingraham says O’Reilly is drinking the Kool-Aid. It’s a great exchange, both for entertainment and perspectives on how government should handle crises. I think Ingraham won handily, though O’Reilly makes some good points. Ingraham DEFINITELY won for entertainment/showmanship.
H/T to Hot Air for the video.
Talk About Guts
Protesters in front of an Israeli embassy try to harass a lone Israel supporter, but the police stop them. The guy- he can’t be more than 25- sure has a lot of guts, and he knows his stuff. Other supporters of Israel show up later in the video, but the first five minutes or so star the lone supporter.
H/T to Hot Air for the link, and H/T to The Right Scoop for the video.
Creative & Cost-Effective
Jonah Goldberg wrote positively about Mickey Kaus, Senator Barbara Boxer’s (D-CA) primary opponent, a couple of weeks ago. It was a really good column. Yesterday, Goldberg followed up by posting Kaus’ very creative political ad on The Corner. The video is below:
Mortgage Accountability, Meh…
Hot Air has an excellent post by Cassy Fiano regarding the entitlement mentality that is developing amongst home “owners” who can’t pay their mortgage and simply stop sending their bank a check on the loan.
You can find the post here. The sad truth of this is that this mentality will continue to spread like a disease into other areas of life (You can’t take my car! I have a right to “own” a vehicle to drive to Wal-Mart in.) until two things happen in this country:
- We have to stop punishing our citizens for working harder. The harder you work in this country, the more we tax you and the more you are punished. So why should anyone be encouraged to work hard?
- There must be a fundamental shift in the mentality and vision of the Federal government away from encouraging citizens to have their needs met to encouraging citizens to work hard to meet their own needs.
-nick
Happy Memorial Day
Happy Memorial Day, everyone.May all Americans take a few moments today to thank a veteran; thank God; and reflect on why we have the freedoms we do.
May our leaders use the members of our military wisely; only when necessary; and only for the good of the nation and the world. May they be guided by the wisdom of God.
And may God Bless America, and may He bless those who fell in battle and otherwise.
Memorial Day Plans?
I don’t know what everyone else has planned for Memorial Day. Sadly enough, it has become less a day about remembering the sacrifices of our Service members here and abroad, and more about bar-b-queing, drinking and going to the pool. Of course, the original intent for Memorial Day was to remember the Union troops that gave their life during the Civil War (earning the day the nickname “Confederate Marksmanship Day” by our friends below the Mason-Dixon line).
Nevertheless, DrudgeReport is reporting (ignore the redundancy) that President Obama is skipping Arlington Cemetery for a trip to Chicago…
I seriously hope this is not true.
-rj
[UPDATE]
The quote above has been taken down off of DrudgeReport right now. We’ll see what happens through the day.
[NEW UPDATE]
This is what Drudgereport has on the website now…
Another Vacation? Obama schedules second since oil spill…
Withdrew to Grove Park Inn & Spa as flow began to grow…
Under fire, Obama heads to CA to host Boxer fundraiser…
Skips Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington Nat’l Cemetery; sends Biden…
You Know Those Forwarded Political Emails You Get?
It is imperative that I begin this blog by stating that I love my mother. (I love you mom!) She is an awesome lady. And has been a strong encouragement my entire life be it relating to my relationship to my heavenly father, school or my career. But, (You knew there was a “but” coming, right?) my mom is somewhat handicap when it comes to technology. She doesn’t really make any bones about this. She still uses AOL. Like not the Internet variety, like the one you log in to. She asks me for help when she needs it, which I am happy to provide. She laughed last week and apologized to me for being the only one in the house that “can figure all this stuff out.” Sometimes she catches me rolling my eyes, but I think she knows deep down that I like playing the roll of the hero when it comes to rescuing her when she hits a technological brick wall.
Those of us that are heavy Net users are very familiar with the huggy bear lovie-dovy power points that often hit our in boxes. I know you all know exactly what I’m talking about. They have rainbows and scenic views and usually have encouraging messages. I have weened my mother from forwarding these. She finally got to the point where she recognized the annoyance herself and no longer is obliged to pass them around. But I still get a variety of politically themed forwards from her. Still working on that one. These generally get deleted rather quickly, but I actually got one that I was intrigued by today. I really think these insights should be altered to “conservatives” and “liberals,” as I’m not positive how many Republicans in office still honor these tenets. But nonetheless, in her honor I pass it on to you:
If a Republican doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t buy one.
If a Democrat doesn’t like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.
If a Republican is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat.
If a Democrat is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.
If a Republican is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a Democrat is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.
If a Republican is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A Democrat wonders who is going to take care of him.
If a Republican doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Democrats demand that those they don’t like be shut down.
If a Republican is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church.
A Democrat non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced.
If a Republican decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.
A Democrat demands that the rest of us pay for his.
-nick
Wait, Déjà Vu Anyone?
In case you have been out of the loop, here is a quick summary of the political events that have occurred on the right side of the aisle these last few days:
1. Elections Occur on Tuesday, Rand Paul takes the Republican nomination for Senate over Trey Greyson, who was “favored by the establishment.”
2. Antiestablishmentarian ‘conservatives’, libertarians and others celebrate the coming of the populist resurgence in American politics.
3. Rand Paul is in trouble.
Yes, Rand Paul is taking some heat for his stance on myriad issues (most from before most of us at TheLobbyist were born) including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act among others. Now, my link above is to the Salon and the piece(s) written about these matters, which may not be completely fair because they do not have a knack for being impartial if you get my drift. Nevertheless, it is the best way to better understand your views; by taking in and understanding the most penetrating criticisms levied against you or your beliefs and learning from them (Madison’s contributions to the Federalist Papers were best at this in my opinion).
I am not going to get into this Federal government vs State government, civil rights vs. libertarian, right vs. wrong stuff though. I want to point out a coincidence I noticed:
At the liberaltarian dinner, many of the liberals persuasively argued that the pool of freedom isn’t fixed such that if government takes more, then there is necessarily less for the people. Many government interventions expand freedom. A good example would be the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was opposed by libertarians like Barry Goldwater as an unconstitutional infringement on states’ rights. Yet it was obvious that African Americans were suffering tremendously at the hands of state and local governments. If the federal government didn’t step in to redress these crimes, who else would?
This was written by Bruce Bartlett almost exactly a year ago. I am not quite sure where Mr. Bartlett stands these days, probably more as a liberaltarian as a matter of fact; but I always enjoy a good coincidence. Especially when the 1964 CRA was a point that Will Wilkinson at CATO also delved further into:
I think part of the problem is that if you hold up the Civil Rights Act as an example of libertarian success, most libertarians will deny that you are one. I think both the Civil Rights Act and the women’s movement did in fact lead to tremendous net increases in liberty. I think Bruce makes an excellent point. Federal intervention, while certainly limiting freedom of association and trumping more local jurisdictions, resulted IMO in an overall increase in freedom. That many traditional libertarian conservatives, such as Goldwater, seem to have been willing to sacrifice a great gain in overall freedom in order to maintain status quo levels local self-rule seems to me to betray a commitment to ancient ideals of liberty as community self-government in conflict with the modern idea of liberty as freedom from coercion.
All of this, a great dialectic between libertarians and liberaltarians, nearly a year before this current Rand Paul situation hit the fan.
-rj
