Obama has shown, with his speech on race, that he has a talent for candor.
Apollo posted this at 9:51 PM EDT on Monday, June 30th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype
June 30th, 2008
Obasmic Howler of the Day
Throwing Stones From a Teflon House
I’d care about what Barack Obama had to say about dissent and not questioning the patriotism of others, if one of the defining moments of his campaign wasn’t him questioning the patriotism of people who wear flag pins, and then allowing the media somehow to portray it as him being attacked.
“I will never question the patriotism of others in this campaign.”
Hah!
“The young soldier who first spoke about the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib – he is a patriot. Recognizing a wrong being committed in this country’s name; insisting that we deliver on the promise of our Constitution – these are the acts of patriots, men and women who are defending that which is best in America. And we should never forget that – especially when we disagree with them; especially when they make us uncomfortable with their words.”
What about those young soldiers who were stripping Iraqis and photographing them in pyramids? Are they patriots?
What I hate – absolutely hate – about patriotism talk from Leftists is that it’s pretty focused on defining those who kvetch the loudest as the most patriotic. It generally involves snooty people like Obama using their highfalutin ideals to look down on people who do mundane things like wear flag pins.
What I’d really love is if a Democrat candidate would stop telling everyone what a great patriot he is and instead simply be such a great patriot that everyone says, “Wow, that guy’s a great patriot.” Instead we get some guy who spent three years as a “community organizer,” went to Harvard Law, and now spends his spare time griping about how much his student loans cost and how flag pins are phony patriotism. How about some guy who takes America’s side in a war from time to time, or stands up for us when a bunch of foreign pinkos rail against our imperialist foreign policy? How about someone who openly encourages his children to join the military and advocates military service as being a little more noble than being a community organizer? Or not spending 20 years in Jeremiah Wright’s church. There are all sorts of ways for those on the Left to show their patriotism, but, their political leaders at least, routinely fail to do so. Instead, they offer us speeches saying, in essence, being a kvetching Leftist is per se patriotic.
Like everything with Obama, there needs to be less talk and more substance.
P.S. “As we begin our fourth century as a nation…” Huh? I question his maths.
P.P.S. I like it when he praises Lincoln for not “demonizing” his enemies. I guess he didn’t so much “demonize” them as imprison them and banish them. I think no other president was as active at using his powers to attack his political enemies as Lincoln. Of course, with Lincoln, a great many of his enemies really were traitorous. But that wouldn’t have really fit in with the theme of Obama’s speech.
Apollo posted this at 7:59 PM EDT on Monday, June 30th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype, Politics
Great Moments in Campaign History
I stand by my 2004 comments that Gen. Wesley Clark would make a really great political figure, minus the fact that he’s Wesley Clark:
“I certainly honor [McCain's] service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in the armed forces, as a prisoner of war. And he has traveled all over the world. But he hasn’t held executive responsibility,” said Clark, a former NATO commander who campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004.
“He hasn’t been there and ordered the bombs to fall. He hasn’t seen what it’s like when diplomats come in and say, I don’t know whether we’re going to be able to get this point through or not,” Clark said.
Schieffer noted that Obama did not have any of those experiences, nor had he “ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down.”
“Well, I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president,” Clark said.
That makes sense.
Tom posted this at 8:02 AM EDT on Monday, June 30th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype, Buffoon Watch
June 29th, 2008
Out of Touch
On the one hand, preparing graves for your enemy could be a bad-ass don’t-eff-with-me statement. On the other hand, as with any intimidating statement, there’s a fine line between intimidation and and farce.
So in what alternate universe would 320,000 enemy soldiers die on Iranian soil?
Apollo posted this at 5:29 PM EDT on Sunday, June 29th, 2008 as Those Wacky Foreigners
June 28th, 2008
Gauging Personal Economies
Tonight in Corpus Christi, there were six cars idling in line at the Starbucks drive-through. I went inside and there was no line whatsoever, but still there were people willing to idle their cars for fifteen minutes in line to buy $4 drinks.
Posited: Here, at least, we are not in a recession, and gas is not sufficiently expensive to alter daily activities.
Apollo posted this at 9:50 PM EDT on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 as Deep in the Heart of Texas
Pure Class
Bill Clinton on Obama:
The Telegraph has learned that the former president’s rage is still so great that even loyal allies are shocked by his patronising attitude to Mr Obama, and believe that he risks damaging his own reputation by his intransigence.
A senior Democrat who worked for Mr Clinton has revealed that he recently told friends Mr Obama could “kiss my a**” in return for his support.
The article describes Clinton as “bitter.” Clinton’s reputation will probably never recover from his scandals, since it looks like he won’t have a second act, a chance for redemption. Naturally he’s upset. I still can’t believe some Democrats want Hillary on the ticket, since she comes with this vulgarian.
Hubbard posted this at 9:29 PM EDT on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype, Excruciatingly Correct Behavior
Don’t Call Me a Blogger, I’m a Web Artist
After reading this, how is anyone not an artist?
Carlin’s career spanned more than 40 years, remarkable longevity for a stand-up artist…
Sure, Carlin had tightly scripted presentations, using pretty delicate word play, that were about as high as stand up comedy gets. But it’s still a guy on a stage telling jokes, a large portion of which are scatological or sexual in nature. If this is art, I tell you, the word is meaningless.
Apollo posted this at 7:50 PM EDT on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 as Politics and the English Language
June 27th, 2008
Gun Control Thoughtlessness
In the midst of a column that generally makes sense, Eugene Robinson says something stupid:
The practical benefits of effective gun control are obvious: If there are fewer guns, there are fewer shootings and fewer funerals. As everyone knows, in the District of Columbia — and in just about every city in the nation, big or small — there are far too many funerals. The handgun is the weapon of choice in keeping the U.S. homicide rate at a level that the rest of the civilized world finds incomprehensible and appalling.
D.C. banned handguns. In 2006, something of a good year for crime in D.C., it had only the 7th highest murder rate in the country. Compare the murder rate in D.C. to the cities in Texas. If what Robinson writes is true, why does the most murderous city in gun-friendly Texas, Houston, have a murder rate 40% lower than D.C.? If you sort that list by murder rate, you’ll see that three of the four least murderous cities are in Texas. I guess there’s a wise crack to be made here that Texans are better at controlling their guns than people in other states, but such flippancy takes away from the point, which is Robinson’s inaccuracy.
Anyone who keeps repeating such misinformation should be banned from writing in newspapers until they actually do a smidgeon of research on the topic. Frankly, editors should be embarrassed to allow this sort of uniformed ignorance to go to press.
P.S. Also note that Robinson refers to the Second Amendment’s “pride of place” within the Bill of Rights by its position as the 2nd amendment. That is, of course, wrong. It was actually the 4th amendment submitted to the states for approval, but the first two proposed amendments didn’t get the approval of enough states. The actual amendment that was proposed as the 1st amendment was a rather confused compromise that would have had virtually no impact had it passed. The original proposed second amendment was not ratified by the requisite number of states until 1992 and became the Twenty-seventh amendment. Hence, it’s goofy and ill-informed to infer that the order of amendments relates to their importance. I have a feeling that had the Founders ranked amendments by their importance, the Third would have come 1st.
Apollo posted this at 4:24 PM EDT on Friday, June 27th, 2008 as Journalism
I Hear Rumblings in the Deep
Since Obama decided not to be bound by his word to accept public financing, the media has, slowly but surely, started to notice that perhaps their Holy One isn’t as pure as they’d lead themselves to believe.
This Washington Post editorial is indicative, I think, of the sort of soft u-turn journalists are going to start making in this election. When the only option is Hillary Clinton, it’s easy to overlook Obama’s deceitfulness. But when he’s next to John McCain, it starts to become obvious that McCain walks the walk that Obama talks.
I didn’t think there was much that could swing the media from Obama, but they have become significantly less enthralled since the public financing decision. How much will he have to spend to compensate for the loss of media goodwill he’s suffered?
Apollo posted this at 3:36 PM EDT on Friday, June 27th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype, Journalism
June 26th, 2008
To Apollo, With Love
A vintage clip of a Jaguar v. Caiman fight.
I must say though, I’m a bit concerned about the line at the end ‘Again the jaguars conquer, because they know no fear.’ We can’t have the kitties getting too uppity.
Tom posted this at 2:51 PM EDT on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 as Uncategorized
It’s not just you
Even Bill Gates (H/T) has trouble with windows. A sample from his e-mail:
From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM
To: Jim Allchin
Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will Poole; Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH)
Subject: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flameI am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don’t drive usability issues.
Let me give you my experience from yesterday.
I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack … so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.
The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.
This site is so slow it is unusable.
Hubbard posted this at 12:23 PM EDT on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 as Excruciatingly Correct Behavior, Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be!
June 25th, 2008
Now we need a conservative parody of liberals
I thought this ad was funny—not because it was lampooning conservatives, but because I know some liberals who actually think we think like this.
I happen to think that the conservative answer to this ad would have Peter Paul & Mary’s Kumbaya playing in the background. Any suggestions as to what the people on the street would be saying?
Hubbard posted this at 11:11 PM EDT on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 as Amer-I-Can!, Audacity of Hype
A Food Post
I try to restrict myself from making food posts . . . but . . . a $17 croque monsieur? I take a backseat to no one in my love of a good croque, but jambon de Paris and gruyere? Does this guy make hamburgers out of Kobe filet? Fish and chips with sushi grade tuna? This is the sort of stupid conspicuous consumption that gives urban elites a bad name.
Apollo posted this at 10:57 PM EDT on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 as Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be!
I concur
Yeah, those pandas are gonna die.
Knut posted this at 3:08 PM EDT on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 as Animal Kingdom Strikes Back
Congress to Apollo: You Are an Idiot
Well this is fantastic. $300 billion – i.e. $1000 from every man, woman, and child in America – going to bail out people who can’t pay their mortgages.
If you were responsible, if you thought twice before buying a home you couldn’t afford, if you bought a smaller home or a home in a not as nice neighborhood so that you could make the payments, if you stayed in your apartment for another year while you saved up for a down payment: Congress will take your money and subsidize the home purchases of people who chose to be irresponsible. Hope you enjoy your smaller home, or living in apartment that additional year, because the irresponsible are sure going to enjoy living it up in their nicer houses thanks to the money taken from your paycheck. P.S. And if you want to move up to a nicer house, fat chance, because part of the purpose of government spending this $300 billion is to jack up home prices.
This is about as unjust as government spending gets.
Apollo posted this at 6:33 AM EDT on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 as Amer-I-Can!, An Insult to Drunken Sailors