Posts (page 2)

By James Taranto:

Man Without a Party
The Great and General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is considering passing a "Jessica's law." Named after 12-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was raped and murdered by a repeat sex offender, the proposed law would require a mandatory 20-year prison sentence for anyone convicted of raping a child under 12.

The Boston Herald reports that Rep. James Fagan is a critic of the legislation:

Fagan, a defense attorney, infuriated victims' rights advocates during a recent House debate when he said he would "rip apart" 6-year-old victims on the witness stand and "make sure the rest of their life is ruined."

In a fiery soliloquy on the House floor, Fagan said he'd grill victims so that, "when they're 8 years old they throw up; when they're 12 years old, they won't sleep; when they're 19 years old, they'll have nightmares and they'll never have a relationship with anybody."

Fagan did not return calls seeking comment.

What political party does Fagan belong to? The Herald doesn't say, but we'll give you three guesses.

On the heels of breaking his pledge to accept public financing and naming as his reason, those big, bad Republican 527s, the Rottenest Man Who Ever Ran, invoked race again last Friday in a warning to his Snowys, saying that Republicans will remind people that, besides his seemingly endless faults, he's also black.

Rush Limbaugh called him diabolical - adding that Obama would literally do and say anything that he considers to be to his advantage. For the record, I described Obama as the Devil some time ago.  Now I can't, but maybe someone else can point to some Republican quote reminding people of Obo's semi-blackness?

The liberal media, by the way, almost universally approved of Obama's "tactic."

For my part, what was most disturbing was the reaction of Obo's supporters in the audience - they whooped and cheered, not unlike the congregation behind "Reverend" Wright.

So this Transformer has not only made the campaign about race, but he's set race relations back decades. At least I hope he has. Because to my astonishment, we come to find out, that's where blacks have always been, and whites didn't even know it. I've mentioned that I thought race was behind us, and that I was shocked when the Trinity Church shed light on the numbers and the intensity of black racism. that initial shock has only grown...

Did you catch Spike Lee's comment implying that Obama would turn all of America into a "chocolate city?"

Has Obama made racism mainstream?

Will we have to redefine "rotten' down?

I can't tell you how much I love it when someone saves me time and effort because:

A) I'm lazy

2) I hate telling people things they ought to know implicitly

C) Other people generally say it better than I can

In light of all that, can you imagine my delight at discovering just now that Randall Hoven has taken time out of his busy schedule to finish off Snowy and Henny for me? I'm going to drop him a thank-you note right now.

Recently, a long-time reader and part-time thinker expressed his anger at the "predictions" he claimed I was making about fuel prices, the future of the Warming religion, and other things, exactly what it's hard to know since his comments were apparently made while he was fully immersed in some sort of stupor. Nevertheless, I thought some clarifying was in order, since if he could have so badly misunderstood what I was saying, it's entirely possible that some other readers could have misunderstood ever so slightly. And you know me, I hate people to be in the dark about anything

So first off, let me make this perfectly clear - I was not predicting. I was merely detailing what was currently happening and extrapolating from there. In other words, what the warmists are saying about what will happen regarding "climate change"... those sorts of things are predictions - they may or may not happen, and since they are arising from rank speculation, any of their predictions that do come to pass are due to Newton's "Crap thrown at the wall" law.

I, on the other hand, was talking about what WILL happen given a continuing rise in fuel prices and the failure of the Democrat Congress to take any meaningful action. You don't have to be a genius (you just have to not be a liberal) to see that oil drives everything, and that the public's uncertainty about price and supply will have a fundamental effect on attitudes - even those of lesser liberals - of the man-on-the-street variety. They are the ones in which economics still trumps ideology, and they are the ones who will be most able to see (because they'll live it) the consequences of failed liberal policy.

Still, having said all that, I don't care if the least among us, i.e. liberals, want to call me a prognosticator, just as long as they don't call me late for dinner, even if dinner is a lot more expensive this year, and well, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

I'm so confident in what I've been saying that I actually have no confidence at all - because I don't need any. What I mean is, to say that I had confidence would also mean that I had some doubt, and since I am only commenting on what's actually happening, albeit it's early stages, words like "confidence" and "doubt" do not apply. Put another way - a way, one even rankest liberal can understand, you're about to see what the meaning of "is" is.

To that end, there's a thoroughly enjoyable article in that magnificent British liberal rag, The Guardian, this very day in which the headline itself would ordinarily be enough to send Hens worldwide screeching that the sky is falling: "Poll: most Britons doubt cause of climate change."

How is that possible? Hadn't they been thoroughly indoctrinated. Ah yes, but what liberals don't get is that economics and security will overcome indoctrination almost every time. Besides, the "warming" indoctrination actually was successful as this quote from the article will attest:

"Those most worried were more likely to have a degree, be in social classes A or B, have a higher income, said Phil Downing, Ipsos MORI's head of environmental research."

You see, the public schools did what they were supposed to do - and now reality is doing its job on real people. Me, I got rhythm, I got music, who could ask for anything more? Which is why the following quote is just the cherry on top - -

"There is growing concern that an economic depression and rising fuel and food prices are denting public interest in environmental issues."

YES! And gee, I hope it wasn't something I said?!?

Just kidding, as overly-serious as I may fancy myself to be, even I couldn't affect British thinking... could I? I mean I know I didn't set those European truckers to protestin' fuel prices... did I? No really, did I?

But seriously folks, -denting-? Well remember, the British ARE prone to understatement.

To be fair, the article wasn't all bad news for enviro-warmists. The poll shows people are rightfully doubtful... and cynical... and wary of "stealth taxes, and generally lacking in confidence that their government could handle anything, much less handle it competently, but on the bright side, they are still "broadly concerned" about "climate change."

I'm not worried. it's one thing to be broadly concerned about "warming," and quite another to be imminently concerned about one's degrading lifestyle.

Do I think the Fuel Crisis of 2008 will be the death knell for enviro-wackos? No? If I did, I'd be making a prediction, and if I were to do that, I'd predict just the opposite - no amount of discrediting will cause enviro-warmists to abandon their positions. Why there are still people who believe the Earth is flat, for God's sake. Although in their defense, even those people don't believe man is responsible for "climate change."

And the good news for me personally, and wackos everywhere should be pleased too, is that the rapid rise in fuel prices - and everything prices - has actually caused me to regain my sense of humor. I may be too serious on the outside, but I'm laughing on the inside that the enviro-warmists sowed the seeds of their own demise and that their comeuppance may finally at hand. Looks like we may not have to be hauling dry ice to the arctic after all!

The things liberals have been saying about our current oil price woes are so stupid that even stupid people should be embarrassed for them. But in case you aren't, I'm here to help you revel in the fact that you're now officially smarter than somebody - than an entire group. Yes, it's been speculation and innuendo up to now, but it's finally official - Liberals are morons!

They want to investigate the oil speculators, they want to tax "excess profits," they want to nationalize refineries, and above all, they don't want to drill in areas with proven reserves, and to compound that, they want oil companies to drill in areas where there are no proven reserves - "use it (oil leases) or lose it," one no-name idiot Dem Congressman says. "Thanks, we'll pass," the companies say back en masse.

Now look at the above paragraph and ask yourself how any of that will help lower oil prices?

And here's what the the Democrat Presidential nominee-in-serious-mental-decline had to say recently: “We can’t drill our way out of the problem because there's just a finite amount of oil out there and you have got increasing demand from countries like China and India."

Are you suddenly feeling better about yourself? I bet a serious number of special-ed students can see what's wrong with Obama's statement, but let's not leave it to chance. First, define "finite," because we know that he's right if he means "contained within the Earth." But apart from that, we have no idea what's there, and we're finding more all the time. So it could be a thousand years before the supply runs out, and by then, we should have that "cheaper and greener" energy solution the Enviro Don Quixotes think exists at the end of the rainbow, but more on that and them shortly.

Even more incredibly stupid than the first part of Obama's comment is the second part. He says that we shouldn't bother drilling because China and India will just use it all anyway. Did I just hear you smack yourself in the forehead? What does Obo think they'll use if we don't drill? Even worse, we can't stop THEM from drilling, and they may soon be drilling in waters near you. Oh the irony!

So lets set the record straight. ANY new oil will affect price. Depending on the amount found, it will either restrain future increases or, if the find is a bonanza, prices will stabilize and even decline. In fact, the mere mention that we're going to turn America into Swiss Cheese in an all-out effort to increase our domestic supply could very well drive short-term prices down and keep them down - because then speculators will have a harder time speculating.

I'm sure you get that, so why doesn't Obama? And his advisors? And Democrats in Congress? And liberals in general?

Well, the simple answer is, we don't know that they don't. In other words, such an idiotic comment may just be a diversion, because what liberals really want is higher energy prices and more misery. Without misery, liberals perish, and without high prices, they can't bring about Shangri-La in their lifetimes. No matter that even trying to do that will require they make a lot of people expendable.

But for liberals, there's a downside to those high prices: they make real people want real solutions - NOW! I don't know how high prices will need to go, but I'm actually with the enviro-wackos and warmalarmists... I want prices to march steadily upward. Because I'll bet the farm that if that happens, I'll win.

And what exactly will I win? Well, as people realize that you can't ride a polar bear to work, but you can get oil from a whale, with any luck, "environmentalism" will become a dirty word, and if I'm really fortunate, enviro-warmists will be afraid to  leave home, and not because they don't have American Express cards - it'll be because their predictions were right - the climate will be too hot outside - but only for them.

Why am I so hostile to enviro-warmists, you ask? Is it simply because they are the dumbest people on the planet? Of course not. If that were the case, I'd actually have no compassion for the lowest among us, and as you know, I'm nothing if not compassionate when it comes to the less fortunate. Unfortunately though, the wackos are not less fortunate. Many are actually 'educated,' but I put that in quotes because if they were truly educated, they wouldn't think as they do. So either their educators failed them or they failed themselves, but in any case, we have to deal with the result.

And the result of their thinking is immoral. They would sacrifice real lives for their fantasy, and that's not mere speculation, they already have, and they are perfectly willing to continue doing so. In fact, they won't even notice the carnage.

The worst of it is that their fantasy isn't even attainable/ The idiot who thinks that we'll be finding "cheaper and greener" energy sources first has to manipulate the market so that oil prices go so high as to make their alternatives attractive by comparison. In other words, if Mohammad (you) won't go to the mountain, they'll bring the mountain to you. Sound good? Because if it does, let me make it still worse.

There are two important components to our energy supply - price and availability. enviro-warmists have succeeded in restricting availability. it took three decades or so, and many people saw the current situation coming long ago, but I confess that I hoped to escape this life before it affected me. Still, I didn't turn a blind eye. I took measures that would help insult me from the pain others are feeling.

But no one can escape the consequences completely, and here's an ugly fact - we saw the price of corn affecting the poor in Mexico a year and a half ago. And when the price of corn goes up, it affects the price of other food, from wheat to meat. But that's nothing compared to what happens when the price of oil goes up - it affects the price of... EVERYTHING! Just watch the daily news and see for yourself what went up in price today. I hope you'll think of me when you do, because with each new increase, I'm getting closer to getting my wish - a hunting season on enviro-warmists.

Right now, the Midwest is reeling, and the nation will be along with it since the flooding there is far more consequential than the New Orleans rain-out. The timing couldn't be worse, the corn crop is devastated - good news for those who are still able to grow it, but awful news for everyone else. And Congress has mandated that a huge portion of the corn crop go toward ethanol production - immoral.

And another thing about availability:"cheaper and greener," on top of everything else, requires a non-disruptable supply. So much for corn in your tank, huh? Not only must energy supplies be relatively unaffected by the whims of Mother Nature, but the enviro-warmists and the general liberal population which promotes alternative energy has stymied virtually every effort to establish new and sustainable sources in the real world, thus making sustainable energy unsustainable.

So not only can't we drill our way out of this energy crisis solely because they won't allow it, we also can't blow and grow our way out, nor can we build nuclear plants or refineries, and solar energy remains an inefficient niche. Well, here's another fine mess they've gotten us into.

But the day of reckoning may finally be at hand for these dangerous idiots. Average Americans (and even a liberal plurality) finally want to drill like there's no tomorrow. But nobody's frantic yet, so liberals can still hold press conferences and spout their stupidity without fear of being shot. But the longer they do, the worse it will be for them.

When China's first oil rig goes up off the Florida coast, everyone will take notice, and surprisingly, that will be good news. Not only will it be the wake-up call for which there is no snooze alarm, but it almost doesn't matter who gets the oil as long as someone does. The general supply goes up America just misses out on the profits and taxes.

And wouldn't it be the supreme irony if an eco-disaster happened because the Chinese aren't as skilled and careful as American companies would be, so greased manatees started washing up on Florida beaches, and there was no one we could hold accountable?

That's what I'd call Shangri-La, but I'm not normal. You can look at it another way of you'd like: do you think the imagined results of global warming will be worse than what we're about to experience in the here and now? If you do, cap and trade THIS, you moron.

"Osama bin Laden and his top leadership--the people who murdered 3,000 Americans--have a safe-haven in northwest Pakistan, where they operate with such freedom of action that they can still put out hate-filled audiotapes to the outside world. That's the result of the Bush-McCain approach to the war on terrorism." - Barack Hussein Obama

"We're no fan of hate-filled audiotapes, but we prefer them to bombings and hijackings, which is what bin Laden and his cronies were doing before "the Bush-McCain approach." James (The Mind) Taranto

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that Mike Baker was my new favorite columnist. This time out, he captures the essence of Obama and his enablers - simple and surreal.

Here's a short exchange I had with my wife about the column:

Wife: Does he really correct people about getting his name backwards?

Me: Probably. Lot's of people have called him Osama, so they probably get get his name backwards too.

Wife: I think if you add Hussein, you won't reverse the names.

And if you happen to catch Mr. Baker when he's a guest on Red Eye one night, I think you'll find he's a got real presence. He's well-spoken, and funny too, not unlike how you might picture and an American James Bond to be.

The Amazing Race

I can't imagine you'll see another one like it even if America manages to survive an Obama Presidency, because this election cycle has it all - all the intrigue, rumors, stupidity, bigotry (and on top of it all, the worst proposals ever conceived of by living candidates) that could possibly be packed into one campaign, and we haven't even really begun yet.

So here's why Bush Is a bastard, McCain's a moron, and Obama's an abomination, although I won't be spending much time on the latter, since I've already said a lot about him previously, and I'd prefer to wait until I've come up with a sufficient number of new analogies before getting my second wind. Which reminds me, why is it that Obama never seems to run out of wind? Oh, and did I mention that he's the rottenest man who ever ran?

Now Bush has embarked on a "final attempt" to get bin Laden. Good luck, Jorge, I hope you succeed, and if you do, I'll dislike you even more, and that's despite the absolute fact that no matter what you see and hear elsewhere, I offer my personal guarantee that no one dislikes you more than I do already. And if someone can demonstrate they do, I'll add capacity.

But let's say Bush nabs Binnie. Good. Great! Why didn't you do it last week or last year then? Is it because you've literally been doing nothing for five years while people you've sent to war have died and you ceased playing golf in tribute? Don't get me wrong, abandoning the links was the right thing to do. After all, it's why I hate your father You apparently, as was I, were shocked to see dad in the cart while the first Gulf War raged? yet pops had a 90% approval rating when it ended, so golfing while Baghdad burned probably wouldn't have hurt your own approval rating any, ha-ha.

No, Jorge, you're in a class by yourself, that of being a tone-deaf, uncommunicative do-nothing who, despite all that has managed to keep us safe and make the world a little safer as he apparently regards the capture of bin laden as more important than stopping Iran's nuclear ambition while allowing his black version of Madeleine Albright to "scold" Israel for "jeopardizing" the 'peace process" by building more settlements on "Palestinian land."

Sorry, but there's just no way to describe our relationship with Israel without a a boatload of apostrophes. That's why I haven't said much about Israel lately, I had to wait for a new shipment before I could do it here.

And McCain? let me just say upfront, this ain't the McCain I knew...

Here's a guy who's running against an otherwise fatally flawed candidate, and he's looking more like Bob Dole with each passing day. Never were the issues so clear for Republicans, and yet so utterly overlooked, and that's even taking the last twelve years of Republican disintegration into account.

McCain - "Drill & Kill" should be his campaign slogan, but instead, he really does look like a doddering old fool as he talks about keeping places - those which people will never see and which have no value other than the oil beneath them - pristine. Even George Bush understood the need for drilling in Alaska as he added the idea to his do-nothing portfolio. And if that weren't bad enough, McCain takes to chastising oil companies just as if he were a Democrat. He's not, right?

Then there's the matter of his two best pals, Lieberman and Graham. man, there's a law firm for ya. When you consider Lieberman's recent " warming" bill, it makes me proud that I was denigrating him when conservatives thought he'd make a wonderful Democrat candidate for President.

But it's what I've been seeing from McCain himself that makes me think maybe there's a lot of truth to the stereotype that old people are too set in their ways to change, much less realize that change is necessary, and I say that as one who's far too close to doddering than I want to be. Someone (and I'm sorry that I can't remember who) said that McCain is still and constantly playing to his maverick role, and I think that's it - it's all he knows. The trouble is, it shows that if we elect him to the presidency, we should expect his term to make a great "Worst of John McCain" video when it's over since everything he's been and done up to now is mere prelude.

And yet, McCain will still be, and I can say this with absolute certainty, an enormously better President than Obama, and the reason I can say that is, we'll never get to make the actual comparison.

But you can trust me. Why? Because you can't point to a single other person who's criticizing both sides in the harshest terms I can think of and when I can't, I make them up... I'm the Lone Assailant!

Was Tim Russert The Last Of A Dying Breed?

I continue to be shocked by Tim Russert's ongoing death, and I didn't even like him either personally or as a journalist. As the latter, he was merely an intermittently objective liberal. As the former, I was dismayed that he didn't speak out when Don Imus was the victim of vile accusations because of a tasteless but insignificant remark. Of course, I don't know what transpired behind the scenes, but Russert and Imus had been friends, and I felt he was one person, perhaps the only one, who could have tempered the rabid herd.

Now that Mr. Russert is gone, most likely forever, I feel compelled to focus on the consequences of his passing, because based on the direction NBC has been going, it seems to me that Tim Russert was the lone remaining impediment. He was the most tactfully biased mainstream media man I knew. He could finesse a liberal perspective better than anyone to the point where his questions sounded absolutely reasonable until you realized that none of them ever came close to being posed from a conservative perspective.

That's what made Russert as great as he was though - he was Baby Bear's porridge, neither too hot or too cold. Conservatives and Republicans could sit down with him and have a reasonable chance of making a point. Can you think of anyone else at NBC, ABC, or CBS, forget about CNN and MSNBC, who could conduct an interview without any blatant bias and where reasonable argument gets a fair hearing? Or even a fair reception?

And now, it's not even whether Russert may have been one of a kind, it's about who would be willing, much less able, to find a replacement even close to Russert's caliber? Chris Wallace is similar in his approach, and he conceals his liberalism well enough, but he'd be miserably weak if past performance is an indication of future results. And from my admittedly limited perspective, there's no one else besides Wallace who can assume the mantle of liberally slanted impartiality.

Admit it, you wouldn't be surprised one bit if another Chris - Matthews were to become the new head of Meet The Press. And you wouldn't be even too surprised if the position were offered to Keith Olberman. It wouldn't be the first time that a smaller company took over a bigger one, but it would be the first time that, by implication, NBC management had tacitly, finally, declared that standards were now completely out the window - who needs standards anyway when you have control?

If you're wondering what I mean by that since seemingly nothing has really changed in MSMland, it's that Tim Russert may have been the one man standing between any semblance of objectivity and full-blown bias, and even if he wasn't, no one else has either his capabilities or discipline. Of course, it could be a good thing in the long run if the pretense of objectivity is eliminated from the network mix, but even if it is, the short run could be far more disgusting than things have been up to now, and I think that's really saying something.

Apart from  that, Tim Russert's untimely death is a reminder that you don't have to be old to die suddenly, and that neither wealth nor standing can substitute for bad luck. I really don't know why I feel so badly about Tim Russert other than from the perspective that he died while Kennedy lives on, and I simply can't get over the idea that Russert's passing may be an omen for November and beyond...

"There is not a liberal in this country worthy of kissing Bush's rear end." - Ann Coulter

Earlier in her commentary, Ms. Coulter had the paragraph of the year:

"The Iraqis have a democracy -- a miracle on the order of flush toilets in that godforsaken region of the world. Despite its newness, Iraq's democracy appears to be no more dysfunctional than one that would condemn a man who has kept the nation safe for seven years while deifying a man who has accomplished absolutely nothing in his entire life except to give speeches about 'change.'"

People who know me are well aware that I don't share Ann's view that George Bush "will go down in history as one of America's greatest presidents," and especially not if I have anything to say about it, but there is at least one magnificent thing he's done - he affected the departure of Saddam and sons from the planet. Can you imagine what things would be like today if Hussein was still in power?

So one of the biggest reasons I'm very concerned about Obama becoming President is that my designating Bush as the "Worst President there will ever be" will be in immediate jeopardy. After all, Obama is already the rottenest man who ever ran. If you look closely, he literally oozes rottenness.

I also didn't count on Bush being able to turn things around as well as he has. True, he didn't do it himself, but the fact is, he brought it to be and now, every reasonable assessment is that al-Qaeda and other terrorists are in dire straits, not just in Iraq, but worldwide, so Bush has not only kept us safe, he's made the world safer. Remember when the liberal morons claimed he's made the world more dangerous? Some still are. They aren't just liars, they're evil. In fact, it is liberals who can lay claim to making the world more dangerous.

Another thing that amazes me about Bush is that he's always so decent. Even under withering criticism and endless mocking he's been nothing but civil and even pleasant toward his enemies. That's quite something. I don't know about you, but I could never look a scumbag in the eye and be nice, much less shake his hand. Contrast Bush's attitude and demeanor with that of the demon Obama who promised an uplifting campaign, but who has been anything but uplifting himself. "Vicious" would be a better description, and "viciously small" far better yet.

No less than Democrat analyst, Kirsten Powers, says her party plans to engage in a campaign of ageism (Oh? I hadn't really noticed) against John McCain, and Obama himself has talked positives in the abstract, but has been almost universally negative day to day, even going so far as to continue to smoke. Yuck.