If the Republicans are an Eternally Barking Dog, Democrats are a Zombie Apocalypse

Frank Fleming rules:

It’s Godzilla-smashing-through-a-city level of suck — but a really patronizing Godzilla who says you’re just too stupid and hateful to see all the buildings he’s saved or created as he smashes everything apart. Or, to use Obama’s favorite analogy, you have a car stuck in ditch, so you call the mechanic, but the only tool he brings with him is a sledgehammer. And then he smashes your car to pieces and charges you $100,000 for his service. Finally, he calls you racist for complaining.

 Read the whole thing.

The Once and Future Governor: Ehrlich Rally, Bel Air, MD

I am told that I live in a deeply blue state. The outward evidence for this abounds: our House of Delegates and State Senate has been dominated by Democrats for a long time, controlling almost 3/4 or the lower house and 2/3 of the Senate.

The Taxer we Raise, the Broker we Get

The Chinese have had this concept called the Dynastic Cycle for some time: a predictable rise and fall based on human nature and the inherent errors of monarchial government. A family rises to power, becomes corrupt, and falls. Time both seals later emperors in tradition and blocks them from the awareness of what they need to be. The result is the belief that they need do very little.

Monty, over at Ace of Spades:

Governments the world over are discovering that the river of money is not endless. That seemingly-inexhaustable mountain of wealth has been turned into an ocean of debt that will take decades to pay off. The spendthrift habits of the Western nations will put burdens on our children, and other generations not yet born, that should outrage us as a people. We are investing in the old rather than the young, and are punishing risk-taking and entrepreneurship rather than rewarding it. Our tax regimes seem to be deliberately crafted to kill innovation and long-term thinking. (What does "legacy" mean if the wealth I have accumulated in my life cannot be passed on to my children or heirs, but is instead eaten by the all-consuming government?) Young people -- young families -- are the foundation upon which Western Civilization is built. Neglect them, overburden them, cheat them, and you are committing societal suicide.

The premise of democracy is that the people, who live in the world and market, are far closer to reality than a prince sealed off by decorum and thick castle walls. That premise is about to be tested.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: "I need teens to be having more kids, pronto! Legitimate, illegitimate, I don’t care — somebody’s got to pay my Social Security."

Imaginary Benevolence

Ace notices a particular trend:

Liberals love to talk up their abstract obligations to the greater good -- a greater good of undefined, unknown "society at large."



And what happens? Because the are pursuing in their minds some greater good involving the abstract, in the tangible ethical decisions of everyday life, they cheat and behave more selfishly than conservatives -- because they feel they're already doing some moral thing like only buying local produce so that gives them some wiggle room to behave unethically in their personal lives. Papal indulgences again, in other words.


Conservatives believe the opposite. We think we have a high duty to perform ethically in our personal real lives and less of a duty to just generally give money or other support to people we don't know and never could know. We're sort of against alienation of the moral sense from its ultimate object.

Which, as a commenter points out, is pure Screwtape:

Do what you will, there is going to be some benevolence, as well as some malice, in your patient's soul. The great thing is to direct the malic to his immediate neighbors whom he meets every day and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to people he does not know. The malice thus becomes wholly real, and the benevolence largely imaginary

-C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, Chp. 6

Now, a great many people suffer from hypocrisy. We all, to a degree more or less fail to keep the moral code we espouse (which is a point Lewis makes in Mere Christianity). But one of the peculiar aspects of revolutionary creeds is the way in which sacrificing the good of people around you for an imagined Golden Age becomes almost a moral duty. Progressivism overlows with this. One need not look long to find those on the left who think it absolutely essential to tax gasoline with the deliberate purpose of increasing the suffering of those who use it. This is needed, so that we can "save the Earth."

One of the questions I'd love to ask the greenies who want to rescue us all from the Industrial Revolution is "Who has to die?" Given that the current population of the Earth is 6 billion or so, and given that the pre-industrial earth had a population of about 1 billion or so, we're going to find ourselves in a Malthusian nightmare to get anywhere near a level that Greenpeace would be happy with. I don't suppose any sustainability advocates are going to be volunteering for euthanasia to Save the Earth.

Nah, they'll probably be Chinese.

Hippes = Tea Partiers

Zombie » The Electric Tea Party Acid Test

Come for the amusing premise, stay for the neat graphic and stipulation of the difference between bums and hobos.

Those Gosh-Darn Republicans Complain Too Much

So says David Halperin, in Time:

His opponents haven't put forth specifics of their own, nor offered genuine compromise, while the media have allowed the right's activists and gabbers to run wild with criticism without furnishing legitimate alternative solutions.

Right. Because back when the Democrats were running against Bush in 2002, 2004, and 2006, they were stuffed with legitimate alternative solutions. And the media certainly didn't let Democratic activists and gabbers run wild without holding their feet to the fire.

Hey, David. This garden slug I just stepped on called for you. He wants his self-awareness back.

Progress! Mahmoud Won't Throw a Rock!

The Peace Process is clearly working:

Hizbullah head Hassan Nasrallah confirmed that the Iranian President will not be throwing rocks at Israel in a speech he gave Saturday. "If President Ahmadinejad asks my opinion, I shall say: 'A stone? You are capable of throwing more than a stone,'" he said.

Yup. I can just feel the peace breaking out.

Obama Does NOT Have Bush's Reflexes.

At least, judged by this:

 Knowledge is Power!

Personally, I'm suspicious of the fact that the title of the book has not been released. Don't you think if it was a wingnut tome, we'd know it by now?

Best line, in the comments:

It must be a copy of the US Constitution.  He didn't seem to notice it.

UPDATE: Gateway Pundit has the video.

Mahmoud and the Pope

The things one does for Holy Spirit:

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sent a letter to the pope thanking him for opposing a Florida pastor’s threat to burn the Quran and calling for cooperation against secularism, the Vatican and the Iranian presidency said Saturday. 

Because a Florida pastor was going to burn a Quran out of respect for secularism.

The Vatican said Pope Benedict XVI had received the letter during a brief meeting with one of Iran’s vice presidents at the end of his weekly general audience Wednesday.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi did not release the contents of the message.

Because, Funny.

I have nothing to say on the subjet of Meghan McCain, because Meghan McCain is not nearly annoying enough to be interesting. But when SnarkandBoobs rips her into tiny tiny pieces and laughs at the pieces lying on the floor, I respond with lusty huzzahs:

Others may not have had my fortitude, so forgive them if they failed to ask about your fancy-pants Uggs, your inane “big tent” comments, your “crazy-sex” tales, or your tragic over-use of commas. Your book was basically a tale told by a useful idiot. Full of shrieking sound and temper tantrum fury, signifying nothing.

 Also, I decide to add her to my linksheet. Because, snark. And boobs.