This and that *UPDATED*
I don’t have any coherent thoughts of my own this morning but, thank goodness, others have pulled together wonderful stuff. Here’s a list, in no particular order, of things I found interesting:
Herbert Meyers writes that this presidential election may be the decisive battle in the culture war that has been raging in American for several decades.
Barack and Michelle Obama’s organization, Public Allies, which you may be funding soon, has a much more radical agenda than the current soft-soap sell reveals.
The New York Post enthusiastically (its word) endorses McCain for President. Read why here.
Byron York examines old Palin debate footage and discovers some good things — including the definitive answer to the Lib’s attack against her on contraceptive grounds.
Jay Nordlinger’s Impromptus are always delightful, but his reprinted comment from a reader is wonderful, and truly describes a major difference between the two candidates and the two parties:
A reader had an interesting observation about the two conventions: “Did you get the impression that McCain’s message was that the government needs fixing, while Obama’s message was that the country needs fixing? Quite a difference there.”
There are crimes, and then there are crimes. This last one isn’t quite ready for prime time.
Sarah Palin put on the front of the burner an important question about Obama’s big resume item: “What is a community organizer?” Byron York wa asking that question months ago, and he wrote about it here. It’s a lengthy and interesting article, with a key paragraph giving the short form job description:
Perhaps the simplest way to describe community organizing is to say it is the practice of identifying a specific aggrieved population, say unemployed steelworkers, or itinerant fruit-pickers, or residents of a particularly bad neighborhood, and agitating them until they become so upset about their condition that they take collective action to put pressure on local, state, or federal officials to fix the problem, often by giving the affected group money. Organizers like to call that “direct action.”
Myrna Blyth, who rose through the ranks of the women’s magazines, dissects the overt and subtle attacks those Manhattan rags ran immediately upon learning of Palin’s selection.
Okay, I admit to having skimmed rapidly over Michelle Cottle’s anti-Palin rant, but I still found what I sort-of read amusing. According to Cottle, Feminism has nothing to do with removing institutional obstacles against women, thereby allowing each individual woman to realize, in her own way, her full potential as an American citizen. Instead, it has to do with unlimited abortion, unlimited contraception and nationalized health care. Now you know.
John Hawkins, who is no McCain fan, has looked at Obama’s and the media’s performance over the summer, and concluded that McCain is so much the lesser of two evils that it has become a no-brainer to vote for him.
Biden, bless his lying little heart, now takes credit for success in Iraq. Wait. I take it back. I suddenly realized why Obama picked Biden of all possible non-Hillary VP candidates. It’s one narcissist calling to another. Remember, narcissists never lie. Because they are the centers of their own universe, because every narcissist is his own be-it-and-end-all, there is no absolute truth. Instead, truth is what the narcissist wants it to be at the moment he is opening his mouth and emitting words. In other words, Biden’s internal truth just shifted, he is his own reality, and the words he spoke are not, in his mind, a lie.
Good reading!
UPDATE: Tammy Bruce has written what stands as a good rebuttal to Michelle Cottle’s hysterical anti-woman diatribel.
