Thursday, October 31, 2002

A few yuks and a schmuck

Fritz and Billy laugh it up at the Wellstone funeral political rally.

Meanwhile, Ted Rall poses that President Bush could have been involved in eliminating The Most Liberal Senator.

Wednesday, October 30, 2002

More fun with Google

Found this site, Googlism, via Didelphis marsupialisBlog.

One of the results for "patrick carver":

patrick carver is likely to approve building the new national stadium at wembley when the findings are published on august

Man, I am way behind since it is referring to August 2001 and I have yet to approve the new Wembley building.

Tuesday, October 29, 2002

The Ole Miss Conservative's Top Ten List of State Slogans

10. Mississippi: Memphis shall be ours!
9. Washington: No, we're not the place that elected a crack-head mayor
8. Texas: Home of the Texecution
7. Connecticut: Better than you since 1789
6. Georgia: If you have an out-of-state car tag, kiss your posterior goodbye
5. Louisiana: Cajun-free by 2025
4. Oklahoma: Think of us as Texas's "Mini-Me"
3. New Jersey: The Garden State....hey, stop laughing
2. Arkansas: For the last time, WE'RE SORRY ABOUT BILL CLINTON
1. Alabama: Mississippi's evil twin brother
Daschle's Treats

A great animation from the RNC
And in this corner...

If you are in need of diversion or more procrasination material (aren't we all?), check out GoogleFight.com where you can pit Gore Vidal vs. William F. Buckley, Noam Chomsky vs. Thomas Sowell, or my personal favorite matchup: TAPPED vs. The Corner. The "winner" is picked by how many google search results each receives.
May have to mount a rescue expedition to find New York Liberal

Monday, October 28, 2002

Quick Links

In the Land of Carneval, Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, a former labor union leader, won the presidential runoff 61% to 39%. Looks like there's going to a be another Hugo Chavez running around in South America.

Laurence Foley, an American diplomat in Jordan, has been gunned down outside his residence there.

How do you know when a Republican has moved to the pretty far to the Left? When the New York Times gives him its endorsement (albeit a tepid one).
Victory over Mon-dull

Ramesh Ponnuru points out that Walter Mondale can be beat in the Minnesota Senate race.


If he is forced to run a real, albeit quick, campaign, Mondale could also have some problems with his base. Yes, he's a liberal Democrat. But he's not a child of the New Left, as Wellstone was. The fact that he's on the board of an HMO won't endear him to Wellstone's core constituency. Mondale also co-chaired a commission that came out for Social Security reform, including both private accounts and an increased retirement age (according to an AP report from earlier this year). Mondale can also reasonably be asked to state his position on Iraq: Would he have voted for or against the war resolution? He won't want to be against the president on this. But if he says he would have voted for the resolution, the Wellstonites will feel betrayed.


UPDATE: Ponnuru makes a correction stating that while Mondale was on the Social Security commission, he issued a dissent.

Sunday, October 27, 2002

Another Heartbreaker

Ole Miss loses to Arkansas: 28-48

Friday, October 25, 2002

"I'm not an investigator, but I play one on TV"

via El Rushbo
Some Hostages Killed in Russia

Listening to Fox News just now, I heard the reporter say that the Chechen terrorists who have held a theatre audience hostage have killed 2 and injured 2 others.
Friday night and I'm here blogging. Yeah...
Paul Wellstone: 1944-2002

Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone has died in a plane crash along with his wife, daughter, three staffers, and two pilots. At the risk of sounding like many other conservative bloggers, I wish to note that while Mr. Wellstone held many "progressive" views that I oppose, he always exuded a sense of earnestness and sincerity (unlike many current top Dem pols). He may have been a only a couple of steps from socialism, but he was a decent fella.

Thursday, October 24, 2002

There are some professors with some sense

Lee Ann points out this article authored by Ole Miss Law Professor Richard Rychlak that "gently corrects" a New Republic piece bashing Pius XII, who was Pope during WWII.

Dr. Rychlak was my instructor for University Studies, a five-week class that all freshmen and transfers are required to take. It mainly covers topics like academic integrity, the purpose of universities, and general history of Ole Miss.

Berkeley, this place ain't.
Somebody failed geography

Somebody at MSNBC has mislabeled Mississippi as Alabama in a flash graphic showing locations connected to the MD/VA sniper case.

This is almost as annoying as when media-types refer to the Confederate Battle Flag as the Stars and Bars (a completely different flag). Or when encyclopedias on CD-ROM show Missouri's state bird when it is supposed to Mississippi's. To paraphrase Rodney Dangerfield, Mississippi gets no repect.

via MCJ
Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's SuperBush!

Republicans respond to the nasty cartoon on the DNC site.
Quick Links

Police arrested John Allen Muhammad, 42, and his stepson John Lee Malvo, 17, late last night (or depending how you look at things, early this morning) in connection with the Maryland/Virginia sniper case. Another Fox News story relates that Mr. Trigger Happy Mr. Muhammad help provide security at the Nation of Islam's Million Man March in DC.

Saddam Hussein has ordered his diplomats abroad to send their children back home to Iraq. Nothing deters defection better than having a family member being held hostage.

The Slate reports where those Nigerian e-mail scams come from. Interestingly, the U.S. Secret Service states that these frauds have raked in at least $100 million.
Happy United Nations Day Everybody!

We really need to come up with some traditions to go along with this wonderful holiday. Any suggestions?

Wednesday, October 23, 2002

Nex Fox Show: When Senatorial Candidates Attack

The Washington Post reports that Paul Shelby Hunton, a 27-year-old Democratic Party activist, claims that 62-year-old Repulican Senate candidate Lamar Alexander twisted his finger while the two shook hands. He went so far as file a complaint, but stated that he wouldn't press charges since the swelling had nearly gone down on his finger.

A great response by LAMAR!:


Alexander, the front-runner in the Senate race, laughed off the incident as "just a media stunt." He told us: "He gave me a firm handshake and I gave him a firm handshake, and I've just shaken 2,000 more hands at a barbecue in Knoxville. I feel fine. I think I may go home tonight and play a little Chopin."


If (or more likely, when) Alexander wins he could be valuable asset for the Republicans in Senate. Imagine this scenario:

Alexander: So, Mr. Hollings, I heard that you are planning to vote against the new tax cut bill.
Senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D-SC): Yeah suh, Ah believe that it gives too much monuh to da rich and we'uns need to spend that monuh investing in da chil'rens, da po', da old folks, da--
Alexander: --uh, okay, okay. I understand and respect your position.
Hollings: Really? Why thank ya, suh. ah 'preciate it.
Alexander: To show that there's no hard feelings, put 'er there.
Hollings: Well, alrighty then. It's good that da two of us can.....YEEEEEEEEEOOOOOW! YA HURTIN' MAH HAND!!! GREAT GOOGLY-MOOGLY THAT SMARTS!
Alexander [smiling]: So, Senator, wish to change your mind?
Hollings: WHOOOOOA NELLIE!!!! DA PAIN! DA PAIN!
Alexander: Fritz, I'm waiting.....
Hollings: OKAY! OKAY! AH SUPPORT DA BILL!
Alexander: Good boy. [releases grip] I love this spirit of bi-partisanship. Now, where's Sen. Kennedy?.....
Weasels

I got my Dilbert Newsletter written by Scott Adams (the creator of the comic strip) yesterday and it contained the results of an online poll given at Dilbert.com. I've formatted the data in order to make if more readable

My comments in italics

Weasel Poll Results
-------------------

Here are the results of the Weasel Poll on Dilbert.com. Don't blame me for any of it. I was only one of the 19,000 voters.

I'm not entirely sure why France beat out Iran, North Korea, Iraq, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia as the weaseliest country. I suspect we got a lot of votes from England.

Mr. Adams, if you hanged around NRO a lot more, you would know that there are plenty of red-blooded Americans who detest the cheese-eating surrender monkeys.

Weaseliest Organization
Democratic Party5,727
Major League Baseball4,118
White House3,700
Congress2,702
Republican Party2,333
FBI872


The Democratic Party? Weasely? Surely they jest!

Weaseliest Country
France6,684
Saudi Arabia4,488
Pakistan3,601
Iraq3,453
North Korea669
Iran285


Congrats France! It's nice that a 3rd rate country can come in first sometimes. Soak up the adulation, you wine-sipping, deodorant-adverse, capitulating simians! You deserve it!

Weaseliest Company
Microsoft7,661
Arthur Andersen3,908
Enron3,621
WorldCom1,381
Rite Aid1,255
Merrill Lynch576
Tyco535
Qwest486


Many of the corporate corruption companies (ah, alliteration!) fill out the list and, of course, everyone's favorite Evil Because It Merely Exists Corporation to pick on, Microsoft

Weaseliest Profession
News reporters4,875
Lawyers4,447
Politicians 3,539
Tobacco executives3,484
Oil executives1,159
Accountants1,098
Advertising executives926


No huge surprises here

Weaseliest Individual
Martha Stewart4,734
Gary Condit 3,810
Marie Reine Le Gougne
(French Ice Skating Olympic Judge)
3,475
Kenneth Lay (Enron)3,284
Michael Jackson2,009
Dennis Kozlowski (Tyco)810
Gary Winnick (Glob. Cross.) 483
"Chainsaw" Al Dunlap342
Sam Waksal (ImClone)255


I would have chosen DNC chariman Terry McAuliffe, that corrupt, smarmy @#$*!

Weaseliest Religion
Islam6,112
Catholicism5,227
Atheism4,221
Protestantism1,710
Judaism1,147
Buddhism239
Hinduism233


Why did people vote Islam the weaseliest religion? Could it be all those "Well, we condemn the actions of terrorists, BUT....blah, blah, blah...." statements made by many "moderate" Muslim clerics?
Conservative Quotes, Part II

These are complied from the Federalist Chronicle e-mail newsletter [link not available]

"Public affairs go on pretty much as usual: perpetual chicanery and rather more personal abuse than there used to be...."
John Adams

"He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper."
Edmund Burke

"Did you ever know a politician that was not 'facing the most critical time in the world's affairs' every time he spoke in public?"
Will Rogers

"Our military strength is a prerequisite to peace, but let it be clear we maintain this strength in the hope it will never be used, for the ultimate determinant in the struggle that's now going on in the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas, a trial of spiritual resolve, the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish, the ideals to which we are dedicated."
Ronald Reagan (1982)

"A man's character is his fate."
Heraclitus

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
Theodore Roosevelt

"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and known them for what they are."
Marcus Aurelius

"The wise person questions himself, the fool others."
Henri Arnold

"Nothing fails like success because we don't learn from it. We learn only from failure."
Kenneth Ewart Boulding

"I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is -- try to please everybody."
Herbert Bayard Swope

"Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other."
Edmund Burke

"We must never attempt to use the United Nations as a substitute for clear and resolute U.S. policy."
Barry Goldwater

"American values have always included the belief that war must have a moral component. ...Americans believe we fight just wars against aggressors who threaten us or other innocent allied nations."
Maggie Gallagher

"Jimmy Carter has long been a favorite of those abroad who are anti-American, and a case could even be made that he was the first anti-American president."
Thomas Sowell

"If the Democrats were as bellicose toward Saddam Hussein as they are toward the Republicans, Iraq would be a smoking crater."
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

"This is the argument from fear: Dare to take on the bully, and we might get hurt. Which is the kind of threat Saddam Hussein long has relied on -- in Iraq and beyond."
Paul Greenberg

"The threat of mass death on a scale never before seen residing in the hands of an unstable madman is simply intolerable -- and must be preempted."
Charles Krauthammer

"We cannot ask what will happen if we act [against Iraq] but, rather, what will happen if we don't."
Rep. Mark Foley (R-Florida)

 "How can we pretend to be serious about protecting our borders when prominent politicians so casually dismiss illegal activity? How can we claim to be fighting the war on terrorism on all fronts when we are unwilling to enforce immigration laws?"
David Limbaugh

"I've got a problem, obviously, with Mr. Saddam Hussein, and so do you."
President Bush

Monday, October 21, 2002

Another Hokie site

Another Marching Virginian has a blog. To go over there and read an excellent post on drinking and Christianity. Welcome aboard Stefie!
This post 100% political commentary free

I believe that I have finished my Project 2 for my MIS 410 class to my satisfaction. Now the question is "Is it to my professor's satisfaction?"

Also, y'all are more than welcome to play around on that webpage. Just keep it clean.

Sunday, October 20, 2002

You're 3 Musketeers!
You're kind of plain. Nothing amazing. But hey, that's not always a bad thing.


It's strange how accruate these things can be.
Watched SNL hosted by Sen. John McCain last night. I think he gave a pretty good performance, though his John Ashcroft impression leaves a lot to be desired. After watching the "John McCain sings Streisand" skit, I almost would take back every bad thing I've ever said about him.

Favorite quotes: "Streisand has been trying to do my job for 20 years, so now I'm going to try and do her job!" and
"Can I sing? About as well as Barbra Streisand knows how to govern America!"
D'oh!

Ole Miss drowns in the Crimson Tide: 7-42
Being the cutting edge fella that I am, I signed up for AOL Instant Messenger over the week-end. If you are so inclined, you can IM me at msboy1981.
Quote this, Bartlett's

Miss Morawski e-mailed me to be a part of a blog-mania of conservative quotes in response to Bartlett's severe lack of sayings from many right-wing intellectuals. So, below is a collection of quotes from my own personal file (feel free to add s'more in the comments box or e-mail me them at jpcarver@olemiss.edu):

C.S. Lewis Can't Lose

Extra credit to those who know what '90s Fox TV series that this title is a pun of.


The safest road to hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), British author. Screwtape, in The Screwtape Letters, letter 12 (1942).


Much of the modern resistance to chastity comes from men’s belief that they "own" their bodies--those vast and perilous estates, pulsating with the energy that made the worlds, in which they find themselves without their consent and from which they are ejected at the pleasure of Another!
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), British author. Screwtape, in The Screwtape Letters, Letter 21 (1942).


There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963), British author. The Screwtape Letters, Preface (1942).


Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963), British author. Quoted in: Cyril Connoly,The Unquiet Grave, pt. 3 (1944; rev. 1951).


It is hard to have patience with people who say "There is no death" or "Death doesn’t matter." There is death. And whatever is matters. And whatever happens has consequences, and it and they are irrevocable and irreversible. You might as well say that birth doesn’t matter.
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963), British author. A Grief Observed, pt. 1 (1961).


Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963), British author. A Grief Observed, pt. 4 (1961).


Every American Conservative's Favorite Limey Politician

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British statesman, writer. Quoted in: The Reader's Digest (Pleasantville, N.Y., Dec. 1954).


A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British statesman, writer. Quoted in: New York Times (5 July 1954).


Moral of the Work. In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British statesman, writer. Epigraph to The Second World War: The Gathering Storm, vol. 1 (1948).


My Boy Burke

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites; in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity; in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption; in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves.
Edmund Burke (1729–97), Irish philosopher, statesman. A Letter to a Member of the National Assembly, 19 Jan. 1791.


We must not always judge of the generality of the opinion by the noise of the acclamation.
Edmund Burke (1729–97), Irish philosopher, statesman. First Letter on a Regicide Peace (1796; published in The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke, vol. 9, ed. by Paul Langford, 1991).


It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.
Edmund Burke (1729–97), Irish philosopher, statesman. Observations on a Publication, “The Present State of the Nation” (1769).


Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.
Edmund Burke (1729–97), Irish philosopher, statesman. Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, 3 April 1777 (published in Works, vol. 2).


The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.
Edmund Burke (1729–97), Irish philosopher, statesman. Letter, 3 April 1777, to the Sheriffs of Bristol.


There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity—the law of nature and of nations.
Edmund Burke (1729–97), Irish philosopher, statesman. Speech, 28 May 1794, Westminster Hall, at the impeachment of Warren Hastings.


Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
Edmund Burke (1729–97), Irish philosopher, statesman. Speech, 3 Nov. 1774, to the electors of Bristol, England.


I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business.
Edmund Burke (1729–97), Irish philosopher, statesman. Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790).


And having looked to government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them. To avoid that evil, government will redouble the causes of it; and then it will become inveterate and incurable.
Edmund Burke (1729–97), Irish philosopher, statesman. Thoughts and Details on Scarcity (Nov. 1795; published in Works, vol. 5), cautioning against the “attempt to feed the people out of the hands of the magistrates.”


To drive men from independence to live on alms, is itself great cruelty.
Edmund Burke (1729–97), Irish philosopher, statesman. Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790).


Reagan Reasoning


No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!
Ronald Reagan (b. 1911), U.S. Republican politician, president. "A Time for Choosing," television address, 27 Oct. 1964 (published in Speaking My Mind, 1989).


We might come closer to balancing the Budget if all of us lived closer to the Commandments and the Golden Rule.
Ronald Reagan (b. 1911), U.S. president. Quoted in: Observer (London, 5 Feb. 1983).


The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
Ronald Reagan (b. 1911), U.S. Republican politician, president. Address, 15 Aug. 1986, to the White House Conference on Small Business.


Freedom-loving people around the world must say . . . I am a refugee in a crowded boat foundering off the coast of Vietnam. I am Laotian, a Cambodian, a Cuban, and a Miskito Indian in Nicaragua. I, too, am a potential victim of totalitarianism.
Ronald Reagan (b. 1911), U.S. Republican politician, president. Speech, 27 May 1985, at Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Germany (published in Speaking My Mind, 1989).


If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn't be here. It'd still be waiting for an environmental impact statement.
Ronald Reagan (b. 1911), U.S. Republican politician, president. Speech, 9 Feb. 1982 (published in Speaking My Mind, "The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan," 1989).


Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.
Ronald Reagan (b. 1911), U.S. Republican politician, president. Speech, 8 March 1983, at the Annual Convention of the National Association of Evangelicals, Orlando, Fla. (published in Speaking My Mind, 1989).


Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.
Ronald Reagan (b. 1911), U.S. Republican politician, president. Speech, 11 Dec. 1972 (published in Speaking My Mind, "The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan," 1989).


No, Disraeli is not a MidEast nationality

My objection to Liberalism is this-that it is the introduction into the practical business of life of the highest kind-namely, politics-of philosophical ideas instead of political principles.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81), English statesman, author. Speech, 5 June 1848, to House of Commons, London, on the expulsion of the British ambassador from Madrid.


[Referring to liberals] Cosmopolitan critics, men who are the friends of every country save their own.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81), English statesman, author. Speech, 9 Nov. 1877, Guildhall, London.


O'Rourke Forks Dorks

The principle feature of American liberalism is sanctimoniousness. By loudly denouncing all bad things--war and hunger and date rape--liberals testify to their own terrific goodness. More important, they promote themselves to membership in a self-selecting elite of those who care deeply about such things. . . . It’s a kind of natural aristocracy, and the wonderful thing about this aristocracy is that you don’t have to be brave, smart, strong or even lucky to join it, you just have to be liberal.
P. J. O’Rourke (b. 1947), U.S. journalist. Give War a Chance, Introduction (1992).



In the end we beat them with Levi 501 jeans. Seventy-two years of Communist indoctrination and propaganda was drowned out by a three-ounce Sony Walkman. A huge totalitarian system . . . has been brought to its knees because nobody wants to wear Bulgarian shoes. . . . Now they're lunch, and we're number one on the planet.
P. J. O'Rourke (b. 1947), U.S. journalist. "The Death of Communism," in Rolling Stone (New York, Nov. 1989; repr. in Give War a Chance, 1992).


Grab Bag of Goodies


Communism is the opiate of the intellectuals [with] no cure except as a guillotine might be called a cure for dandruff.
Clare Boothe Luce (1903-87), U.S. diplomat, writer. Newsweek (New York, 24 Jan. 1955).


The word "conservative" is used by the BBC as a portmanteau word of abuse for anyone whose views differ from the insufferable, smug, sanctimonious, naive, guilt-ridden, wet, pink orthodoxy of that sunset home of the third-rate minds of that third-rate decade, the nineteen-sixties.
Norman Tebbit (b. 1931), British Conservative politician. Quoted in: Independent (London, 24 Feb. 1990).


There are two kinds of liberalism. A liberalism which is always, subterraneously authoritative and paternalistic, on the side of one's good conscience. And then there is a liberalism which is more ethical than political; one would have to find another name for this. Something like a profound suspension of judgment.
Roland Barthes (1915-80), French semiologist. Interview with Bernard-Henri Lévy, in Art and Text, no. 8 (1977; repr. in Discourses: Conversations in Postmodern Art and Culture, ed. by Russell Ferguson, et al., 1990).


[Referring to liberals] I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means-except by getting off his back.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), Russian novelist, philosopher. What Then Must We Do? ch. 16 (1886).


The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.
G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936), British author. What’s Wrong With the World, pt. 1, ch. 5 (1910).


I’m not an Uncle Tom. . .. I’m going to be here for 40 years. For those who don’t like it, get over it.
Clarence Thomas (b. 1948), U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Washington Post, (October 28, 1994), answering attacks on his character at a meeting of African American journalists and other African Americans.


Whew!


The Dave Matthew Band will release a new live album on Nov. 5. Now, neither CDNOW nor Amazon.com list what songs are on the release, but through my diligent efforts I have procured one for you:

Don't Drink the Water
JTR
When The World Ends
So Right
Big Eyed Fish
Bartender
What You Are
Crash Into Me
Everyday (#36)
I Did It
If I Had It All
Angel
Warehouse
Recently
Digging a Ditch
What Would You Say
All Along the Watchtower
The Space Between
Stay
Two Step
Ants Marching

Friday, October 18, 2002

Today's reading list

"Why the Left Hates America" by Dan Flynn [link]
"Voices in the Wilderness" by Victor Davis Hanson [link]
"TAPs for a Magazine" by Christopher Caldwell [link]
"Conservative Pop Music? The Top 40 of the Top 40" by Bruce Bartlett [link]
"'Bowling for Columbine' throws a gutter ball" by Michael Medved [link]

Thursday, October 17, 2002

Smacking idiocy upside its head

Joseph Farah slams Harry Belafonte idiotically declaring Colin Powell a "house slave."

While Belafonte was making millions of dollars entertaining white folks in the 1960s, Colin Powell wasn't living the good life. He wasn't singing "Day-o." He wasn't rubbing shoulders with the Hollywood elite. He was fighting for his country in Vietnam.


Nothing was handed to Colin Powell in his life. He worked hard, studied hard, fought hard and became a general and, later, the first black secretary of state in the history of the United States. Harry Belafonte sang the "Banana Boat Song."
I guess I was wrong about my dorm's Internet connection; it's still slower than molasses in January. So, if I'm going to do any posting, it'll be from the computer labs or classrooms here in the business/accounting school building.

Wednesday, October 16, 2002

Does the law mean anything to the Left?

The Drudge Report points out this little project of the Democratic Socialists of America:

DSA’s national electoral project this year is the Minnesota Senate Election. Together with YDS, DSA’s Youth Section, we are mobilizing to bring young people to Minnesota. Minnesota is one of the few states that allow same day voter registration. We will therefore focus our energy on registering young Minnesotans. Wellstone will need a high percentage of young people to register and vote for him if he is to stave off the campaign that Bush, the Republicans and the Greens are waging against him. He is the Right’s Number One electoral target.


Because we are focusing on issue-based voter registration, this electoral work can be supported by tax-deductible contributions. The DSA FUND is soliciting tax-deductible contributions to support this project. Contributions are needed to underwrite the costs of transportation as well as providing a stipend for expenses; housing is being donated.


This is a clear illustration of why "same day voter registration" policies are a bad idea since they can and will lead to this type of voting fraud.

UPDATE: Lesson to all, never quickly read over an article in a computer lab right before you leave for lunch, or you might miss a key sentence. You see, this piece seemed to imply that the DSA was recruiting young people to move temporarily to Minnesota and vote illegally. Upon further review it appears to be a call for young'uns to help with registering voters and other such legal activities. My bad.
Sorry for the lack of posting, but the Internet connection in the dorm has been slower than a 14.4k modem for the last two days, but it now seems to be almost normal.

Monday, October 14, 2002

What are you doing? Go read Jay Nordlinger's piece on Carter, pronto!
Error

A Runtime Error has occurred.
Do you wish to Debug?

Line 13
Error: 'ycso' is undefined

I'm getting tired of clicking "No" on this error message box a thousand times every time the YACCS server decides to be unavailable. Yes, it's free, so I shouldn't complain, but still, it is aggravating.
"I think I'm movin to Idaho"

WorldNetDaily reports on a project that encourages 20,000 Libertarians to move to a state and peacefully take over the state government. There are ten states under consideration, with Idaho being one of them.
New Blog

Here's a new blog by Aakash Raut who's currently attending college in Illinois. It's good to see a paleocon site largely absent of the bitterness common to many "Old Right" webpages.

Sunday, October 13, 2002

Gripes

If VH-1 reruns that !@#$!@#$ The Jacksons miniseries (that originally aired on ABC in 1992) one more time...

Those Virgin Mobile commericals are just too disturbing.

I severely dislike pop-up and pop-under ads on the Internet. Now, companies wouldn't use these if people weren't clicking on them. Therefore, I severely dislike those ad-clickers.
Note to self: mail absentee ballot request tomorrow.
Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of left-wing The Nation magazine, and Peter Beinart, editor of the liberal The New Republic , debate over the need for war with Hussein on an NPR program. Requires RealPlayer to listen.
Jimmy Carter has won the Nobel Peace Prize.


The chairman of the committee, Gunnar Berge, used the prize to make a scathing attack on President Bush's campaign to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

U.S. lawmakers gave Bush solid bipartisan support on Thursday for a strike on Iraq. Carter said last month it would be a "tragic mistake" for the United States to attack Iraq without U.N. backing.

"With the position Carter has taken...(the award) can and must also be seen as criticism of the line the current U.S. administration has taken on Iraq," Berge, a former Labour cabinet minister, told reporters after announcing the award.

Asked if it was a "kick in the leg" at Washington, Berge said: "Yes, the answer is an unconditional 'yes."' A "kick in the leg" is a Norwegian phrase meaning "a slap in the face."


Ah, Gunnar Berge: fair and balanced as always.

All this Carter coverage reminds me of a scene in the 1986 movie Iron Eagle, where a teenager (Doug) whose Air Force fighter pilot father had been shot down and held hostage by a small Libya-esque Middle Eastern country is being consoled by his friends. [Note: I'm doing this entirely from memory]

Friend 1: Don't worry Doug, they'll get him out.
Doug: Like when they tried to rescue the hostages in Iran? [ed note: Carter send a a group of helicopters to free the hostages, but they crashed and burned in the desert]
Friend 2 (Reggie): Now, that was back when Mr. Peanut was in charge. There's now a guy in the White House that doesn't take s@#$ from puny little countries. Why do you think they call him Ronald RAY GUN?
Huzzah!

Ole Miss laid the smack down on Arkansas State, 52-17, on Saturday.

I expected nothing less.
From the American Prowler:

CATO RULES
Sen. Robert Byrd has been waging a week-long war on the floor of the Senate to block the one that President Bush wants to wage in Iraq. On Thursday Byrd could be seen waving about a palm-sized version of the U.S. Constitution in booklet form, which has been published and distributed around the world by the Cato Institute.

"When we pointed out that the think tank that published it was libertarian, he didn't want to bring it on the floor," says a Democratic staffer on the Appropriations Committee, which Byrd chairs. "But it was the only copy we could find in the office."

And where did they find it? "We took it from a Republican staffer's desk," says the Democrat.

Friday, October 11, 2002

"...stinks like a toxic waste dump."

The editors of NR slam the New Jersey Supreme Court decision that allowed the Dems to dump the Torch and replace him with Frank "Yes, He Is Alive" Lautenberg.

New Jersey law says that substitutions must be made at least 51 days before the vote. Sen. Torricelli was not dead, or in jail, or otherwise incapacitated. He had simply been revealed as a sleazebag, and was becoming a deeply unpopular one. Yanking him off the ballot canceled the will of New Jersey's Democratic-primary voters; popping in Lautenberg at the last minute deprives all New Jersey voters of the back-and-forth of a normal campaign.

Thursday, October 10, 2002

Song Lyrics of the Day

It seems it's always the crazy times
You find you'll wake up and realize
It takes more than your saline eyes
To make things right

-- "Crazy Times" by Jars of Clay
Heading home to Clarksville, TN, tomorrow afternoon for the week-end, so expect little posting until maybe that evening or Saturday.

Saturday is Homecoming at Ole Miss, so I guess it's appropriate that I would be coming home.
War Stuff

The House passed a resolution authorizing the President the use of force against Iraq 296-133.

I'm starting to get the impression Juan Gato doesn't like Robert C. Byrd or his stance on war with Hussein very much.

Candidate Drops Out of Montana Senate Race [clever post title unavailable]

State Sen. Mike Taylor, the Republican candidate for the US Senate, is dropping out of the race against incumbent Democrat Max Baucus. Taylor has been wayyyy behind in the polls, 52%-35%. And apparently a recent campaign ad featuring a video clip of Taylor run by the Democratic Party implies that Taylor "prances with the fairies."

From the Billings Gazette:

Taylor had a twice weekly segment in the early 1980s on a Denver television station. The clip shows Taylor applying lotions to the face of a man siting in the barber chair and discussing techniques. The ad shows Taylor, then slender, sporting a full beard. He is wearing a tight-fitting, three piece suit, with a big-collared open shirt ala John Travolta in "Saturday Night Fever." Taylor's top two or three shirt buttons are unbuttoned, exposing some bare chest and a number of gold chains.


Another state senator, Ken Toole (D-Helena), stated that the ad "is an overt and obvious appeal to the homophobic (voter) that is playing to that stereotypic imagery." Toole is the program director Montana Human Rights Network and has argued for gay rights in the state legislature for years, says the newspaper.

If memory serves me correctly, isn't it the Democratic Party that proclaims its open-minedness, its diversity, its tolerance? Aren't the Republicans supposed to be the ones just eager to burn homosexuals at the stake given half a chance? Ridiculous.

A rumor being whispered around is that Marc Racicot, current RNC chairman and the popular former governor of Montana, is being urged to run even though the deadline to replace a candidate has long since pasted. But I doubt Republicans there will pull a Torricelli and whine to the Montana Supreme Court about how voters need an electoral choice on the ballot. (Actually, Montanans might be able to vote for Racicot on a write-in) But let's say they do try to put Racicot on ballot, are the Democrats going to be able to complain after the Torricelli and Lautenburg nonsense in New Jersey?

Of course, they can still vote for the gigantic Libertarian Smurf.

UPDATE: Drudge links to this site that has a Real Player version of the ad.

Wednesday, October 09, 2002

Joel Mowbray at NRO shows the visa applications of a few of the 9/11 hijackers.
"Defense Department orders 273,000 bottles of sunblock
Purchase of lotion dwarfs previous requisitions, official insists product not specifically for Iraq"


Perhaps the US military is planning a giant beach party?
It's Wednesday, so that means....

...a random section from the Mississippi Constitution! Yea!

ARTICLE 3, SECTION 18.
No religious test as a qualification for office shall be required; and no preference shall be given by law to any religious sect or mode of worship; but the free enjoyment of all religious sentiments and the different modes of worship shall be held sacred. The rights hereby secured shall not be construed to justify acts of licentiousness injurious to morals or dangerous to the peace and safety of the state, or to exclude the Holy Bible from use in any public school of this state.
Geitner Simmons (a great guy even if he doesn't permalink me) has a snazzy review of Pitchfork Pat's new magazine The American Conservative

Tuesday, October 08, 2002

A Couple of Eb'ning News Pieces

The Marxist government of the southwest African nation of Namibia may be heading into the same land-grab scenario as Zimbabwe.

Harry Belafonte calls Colin Powell a sellout to the black race.

ed. note: "Eb'ning" means "evening" in Mississippian
Remember how I said to skip Conan O'Brien and watch Craig Kilborn since his show would spotlight Ole Miss? Well, if you decided to ignore me and watched Conan instead, you would have been a lot better off. Kilborn's show was, how to put this nicely, a disappointment. I could go into why, but this DM article does a much better job than I could.

Monday, October 07, 2002

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Meet my politicial opposite, The New York Liberal.

Sunday, October 06, 2002

Looky What I Made! or What I Spent Part of My Week-End Doing

Check out my Project 1 for MIS 410.

And it's due this Friday and I'm already done with it. Mercy me, my procrasination skills aren't what they used to be.

There's at least one person in Hollywood with some common sense

To continue my Streisand bashing, here's a piece of an atricle from the Daily Telegraph:

R Lee Ermey, who made his name as the fearsome drill sergeant in the film Full Metal Jacket, told The Telegraph that Streisand's views were far from representative of Hollywood as a whole.

"Once again, Barbra Streisand has opened her alligator-sized mouth wide before her humming-bird brain has had a chance to catch up," said Ermey. "Of course, she has the right to her opinion, but what she does is use the 'bully pulpit', helped by her fame, and people think she's talking for Hollywood."

Ermey, an ex-marine and outspoken supporter of Mr Bush and the war on terror, continued: "We need to do something about the situation before it turns round and bites us in the ass. Democrats are criticising President Bush for not spotting signs that 9/11 was coming. But they don't want him to act to stop the next disaster. Ms Streisand does not speak for me or many other folks in this business."
"Deja vu all over again"

Senator Zell "Closeted Repubilican" Miller (D-GA) writes that the current state of the Democratic Party is just like it was 30 years ago:

Richard Nixon was the Republican president living down on Pennsylvania Avenue. Hubert Humphrey was the still-ambitious former veep who lost but came close enough that it was hard to deny him another chance.

Those senators--wannabe presidents--included the tall New Englander, Edmund Muskie of Maine, the soft-spoken South Dakotan George McGovern, the solid moderate Henry Jackson of Washington. George Wallace was the governor and Shirley Chisholm the "unbought and unbossed" black congresswoman from New York. Larry O'Brien, confidante to John F. Kennedy, was the party chairman and Shirley MacLaine the Hollywood actress.

So, any resemblance to Al Gore, John Kerry, Tom Daschle, Joe Lieberman, John Edwards, Howard Dean, Al Sharpton, Terry McAuliffe and Barbra Streisand is purely coincidental.

Saturday, October 05, 2002

S'more Streisand Stuff

Babra Streisand Foundation invested in Haliburton while Dick Cheney in change of the oil services company, according to the Drudge Report. Drudge also links to a PDF file of the foundation's financial records which include a list of grants given to other organizations (page 17) and stock's bought and sold in 1999 and 2000 (page 24).

Among the stocks Babs's foundation traded are Microsoft (sued by her buddy Bill's Justice Department for being a monopoly) and General Motors (a part of one of the industries urging Bush into war on Saddam, according to her memo to "Gebhardt")

And now let's take a gander at those grants given:

William Jefferson Clinton Foundation--$45,000
People for the American Way (liberal advocacy organization)--$20,000
NARAL--$15,000
Natural Resource Defense Council--$10,000
Save the Children--$7,500
End Hunger Network--$1,000

If the dollar amounts are a guide to what Barbra considers important, then she must think Clinton's foundation is 45 times more important than ending hunger or 6 times more than saving the children. Yes, yes, I know, that's an unfair thing to say.
AFA: The new threat America...yeah, right

Laura Flanders, who some of you may know as that British leftist chick that appears occassionally on Fox News Watch, warns the vast unwashed masses of the threat of the American Family Association taking over NPR stations:


The situation of Lake Charles, Lousiana received some media attention recently (The New York Times, 9/15/02). Public radio listeners there woke up in May 2001 to find Gospel music and preaching playing on 90.5 FM, where NPR's "Morning Edition" had aired. It turned out that the Rev. Wildmon's American Family Radio network had won the right to broadcast on the wavelength formerly assigned to a local NPR affiliate. Indeed, AFA won the license-to-broadcast on some 194 stations in the United States. It has 18 affiliates and applications for hundreds more are pending.


Gasp! Less idiotarian yammering in the morning and more of the Good News.

[via Magnolia Report]

Ole Miss just whupped Florida 17-14


Hotty Toddy!

Thursday, October 03, 2002

You are Scooter!
You're quiet, organized, and a bit put-upon. Though people don't always pay attention to you, you try to keep a sunny attitude.



That's me to a tee

via HokiePundit

Wednesday, October 02, 2002

Some Mighty Fine Reading

Lee Ann is none too pleased with the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Mark Byron fisks a Guardian article about blogging.
Don't watch Conan O'Brien tonight

Because the Late Show with Craig Kilborn will be Ole Miss-themed tonight. Click here for more info.

Tuesday, October 01, 2002

From today's G-File:

"...for the life of me I can't remember the last time the United States was so willing to let an unarmed mob of illiterate malcontents half a world away dictate American foreign policy."
AP is taunting me with its headlines:

"Britain Announces Purchase of Jets"
The UK had previously considered the St. Louis Rams and the Green Bay Packers for purchase. The United Kingdom plans on buying 150 brand spanking new F35's from Lockhead-Martin for $15.6 billion dollars. The jets will replace the aging Harrier figthers, AKA "Argentine practice targets." (See if you can guess which 80s movie that epiphet of the Harriers alludes to.) But here's a head scratcher, the Harriers are planned to be retired 2004 and 2006, but the new jets aren't going to be in service until 2012 at the earliest. What will they use in the mean time?

AND

"Georgia's Anti-Terror Acts Welcomed"
Obviously, this is referring to the former Soviet republic of Georgia, not the US state of Georgia. Anybody reading the headline will immediately know this, so it's a perfectly legitimate way to phrase it. There's no reason to make.....fun....of...the...hard...working...folks....at...the...AP...aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrggggggggghhhh, I can't help myself!!......Gov. Roy Barnes was commended by Army general Ralph McDanger for, "deploying the fearsome Georgian armed forces, who masterfully help defeat al-Qaeda forces with excellent sharpshooting honed by years of deer, squirrel, turkey, and dove hunting." During training, the soldiers were told that all the Islamic terrorist forces were direct descendents of Gen. William Tecumsah Sherman, famous (or infamous) for destroying much of Georgia during the War Between the States. "Once we convinced them," said Seargant Charles "Big Bubba" Hoyt, "they displayed a ferociousness I have rarely seen in my whole career." Some civil rights organizations and European governmets were concerned over the treatment of the few al-Qaeda members that survived Georgian attacks now currently detained at an Army facility on Little St. Simon's Island, just off the Georgian coast. "We have heard of reports that the prisoners are being forced to eat nothing but ham, or bacon, or pork chops," declared Maurice LaRouge, commissioner of the European Commission for Finding Fault with How Georgians Treat Their Detainees "Plus we find the name of the location insensitive toward their religious beliefs."