Thursday night round-up — and Open Thread *UPDATED*
Oh, my gosh! Have I got good stuff here for all of you.
Rush. Need I say more? Actually, just so you know what you’re linking too, Rush manages to combine into one lucid post American exceptionalism and Clintonian hypocrisy. Whew! [UPDATE: Soccer Dad, every bit as wise as Rush, but lacking the scope, made much the same point here.]
I think we have a moral obligation to support conservative Bay Area bloggers, since we are a very fragile species in a hostile ecosystem. (Did I get that environmentalist language right?) Of course, it’s always easier to provide this support when the blog is good, and Fund47 is good. You’ll find here a slide show of the San Francisco Tea Party as well as audio tape of the superb speech my friend Sally Zelikovsky made. The one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty is that this is no astroturf movement. Every last one of the people you see and hear is the real deal, fed up with vast government overreach.
Obama is working hard to make sure we can’t rely on traditional energy sources, but the fact remains that “renewable” energy is too expensive and risky for sensible people to take on. This explains why a Marin town has opted out of a clean energy program (in which several counties refused to join). It also answers the New York Times‘ perplexed wonderment about the absence of solar power in California. As to that, I can tell you that, yes, solar power does reduce PG&E bills. Sounds good, but it’s not really. If you’re lucky, in 15-20 years, you might break even on your solar system. As for the taxpayers who subsidized your purchase . . . well, they’ll never see that money again. Oh, by the way, unless you want your bill to go through the roof, try not to use any but the most necessary energy during peak hours. During the summer, peak hours are all day, which pretty much puts the kybosh on basic functionality.
There was one person who understand what was really going on with environmentalism, and that was the late George Carlin. If you don’t mind blue language, you want to listen to this.
Muslims, 1; Military/American Christianity, 0: Franklin Graham was disinvited, after he dared to speak slightingly of Islam. Oh, while I’m on the topic of Islam (and why Graham might have spoken slightingly of the religion that can no longer be named), Reason magazine has not one, but three, posts about the disgraceful, quisling censorship of South Park (again, blue language warning). [UPDATE: Red State makes sure to point the finger of blame in the proper direction.]
Of course, all that scary stuff may explain why, in addition to its fear of the long arm of Obama, the L.A. Times is assiduously refusing to release the tape it received showing an evening at which, existent stories hint, Obama cheerfully participated in Israel bashing with leading Palestinian activist Rashid Khalidi. I don’t think the Times is showing journalistic backbone, because it’s never indicated that it has any; I think it’s showing outright fear.
A point about which I frequently blog here is the fact that I find many liberals inarticulate, verging on incoherent, when it comes to explaining their viewpoint. Fortunately, American Digest is here to help.
