Archive for May, 2010
Bookworm on May 18 2010 | Filed under: Just Because Music
Sometimes, one just needs some easy listening 70s love songs. Or maybe, someone, like me, who came of age in the late 70s, needs some easy listening 70s love songs. This qualifies:
Bookworm on May 18 2010 | Filed under: Uncategorized
Bookworm on May 18 2010 | Filed under: Congress
In a time of economic uncertainty, which is not helped by runaway government spending, you might be surprised (happily or otherwise) to learn where your Senator or House member stands when it comes to pro-growth policies. I was not at all surprised to learn that my representatives — Woolsey, Boxer and Feinstein — are busy [...]
Bookworm on May 18 2010 | Filed under: Uncategorized
You heard about Jumanah Imad Albahri, the Muslim young woman who found unexpected fame when she stated to David Horowitz that she was for Hezbollah’s genocidal policy against all Jews. Uncomfortable in the spotlight, Albahri has now written a response explaining how she was tricked and misunderstood. (H/t: Brutally Honest.) I was going to fisk [...]
Bookworm on May 18 2010 | Filed under: African-Americans, Capitalism, Gun control, Palestinians
“Logic! Why don’t they teach logic at these schools?” — C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Neither Data nor Mr. Spock, two relentlessly logical creations, could ever be liberals or Democrats or Progressives, or whatever the Hell else they’re calling themselves nowadays. (For convenience, I’ll just lump them all together under the [...]
Bookworm on May 17 2010 | Filed under: Uncategorized
England’s National Health Service is failing. Yes, everyone gets treatment, but it’s lousy treatment, so its women die faster than women in just about any other European country. Because the government is the only game in town, efficiency is nonexistent (no competition to stiffen bureaucratic spines) and women die. The headlines about vanishing species are [...]
Bookworm on May 17 2010 | Filed under: Hollywood
I’ve never been able to last more than a couple of minutes watching Family Guy. It is, quite simply, way too crude for my tastes. It takes vulgar, and puts it into hyperdrive. I’m also out of sync with its liberal sensibilities, but that goes for 99% of what’s on TV nowadays, so that fact [...]
Bookworm on May 17 2010 | Filed under: Uplifting stories
I got an email from a friend about Ed Freeman, a Medal of Honor winner due to his courageous and inspiring service during the Vietnam War. The email implies that Freeman died recently, which isn’t true — he died in August 2008. Nevertheless, having learned of his service history, I would be remiss if I [...]
Bookworm on May 17 2010 | Filed under: Anti-Americanism
You and I have seen Howling Mobs, although, if we’re lucky, not up close and personal. This is a Howling Mob (in Fallujah, with murdered contractors hanging in the background): This is a Howling Mob (in London, a part of the Danish cartoon riots): This is a Howling Mob (with thanks to Zombie, from a [...]
Bookworm on May 17 2010 | Filed under: Watcher of Weasels
I have been very remiss in posting the Watcher’s Council winners for the past two weeks. No excuses; just my apologies — and the winners, of course. From two weeks ago: Council Winners First Place with 2 1/3 votes! – The Razor -Dumb Luck Highlights Failure of the Obama Administration Second Place with 1 2/3 [...]
Bookworm on May 17 2010 | Filed under: Open Threads
I’ve got a post in the works, but it’s not finished yet. Until then, it’s open thread time! Yay!
Bookworm on May 17 2010 | Filed under: Government
This guy joins Gov. Christie as someone who doesn’t pull his punches. Alabama voters are going to have some fun at the polls:
Bookworm on May 17 2010 | Filed under: Just Because Music
I like to dance. I’m not trained. I just like to get out there and wiggle around. So it was awfully nice this weekend, when I was dancing, to have someone tell me “You are a wonderful dancer. You’re so good, you’re the reason other people don’t have the courage to get out on the [...]
Bookworm on May 16 2010 | Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Media matters
At HonestReporting.com there is a story I thought was a prank, but isn’t. It turns out that the same network that collapsed utterly at there mere specter of Palestinian outrage over a South Park cartoon suggesting that freedom of speech trumps Islam, is running an online computer game that would fit on the official Palestinian [...]
Bookworm on May 16 2010 | Filed under: Uncategorized
I was talking with someone the other day who is actually worried about the changes being wrought in the American health care system. However, his touchstone, his security blanket regarding the socialization of American medicine is France. France, he told me, has a great health care system that is the envy of the world. Sweden [...]
Bookworm on May 15 2010 | Filed under: California
Numbers can lie, but the numbers here are consistent with the same numbers I’ve seen in dozens of other places, and the numbers are consistently drawn directly from government sources. If you want to know one reason why California has gone from the most extraordinary state in the Union (something I vaguely remember from my [...]
Bookworm on May 14 2010 | Filed under: Identity politics, Immigration
Turns out that Hispanics, who are probably as misinformed as Eric Holder about the actual contents of the Arizona immigration law, are opposed to it in vast numbers. I don’t get it. When the illegal immigrants pour into American communities, bringing with them all their pathologies (gangs, drugs, alcoholism, violence, and poverty), they’re not coming [...]
Bookworm on May 14 2010 | Filed under: Education
The language is blue, but don’t let that stop you. Read it. Read it all. My favorite line, incidentally, is this one: Despite her underprivileged background Professor Kagan rose to the challenge and graduated magna cum laude, an honor reserved for the top 89% of Harvard Law alumni. Right there is one of the dirty [...]
Bookworm on May 14 2010 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Military
It’s not Memorial Day yet, but it’s time to start thinking about it, and this beautiful video, by wordsmith at Flopping Aces, is a good place to start. Be prepared with a hankie, though, ’cause you’ll need it. I just want to add one thing now that you’ve spent a few minutes thinking about the [...]
Bookworm on May 14 2010 | Filed under: Hollywood
The enemy of my enemy is my friend, so when the New York Times disses a movie based upon its politics, that may just be enough to mobilize me and move me to a theater. Here’s the NYT on Robin Hood: You may have heard that Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to [...]
Bookworm on May 14 2010 | Filed under: Congress
I met Mickey Kaus a few years ago at a blogger’s gathering. He is precisely as Jonah Goldberg describes him: middle aged, a little disheveled (albeit quite attractive), and hostile to BS. I don’t agree with his political views, but he is smart, honest with himself and others, and he’s not an axe-grinder. Democrats, Californians [...]
Bookworm on May 14 2010 | Filed under: Judges
I read E.J. Dionne’s fatuous defense of Kagan in The New Republic, and started formulating a response to his superficial argument comparing Kagan to Roberts. (It was so superficial it almost, but not quite, devolved into “and they’re both homo sapiens.”) Fortunately, I was spared that effort when I read both Paul Mirengoff’s and Ed [...]
Bookworm on May 14 2010 | Filed under: Uncategorized
Gov. Christie of New Jersey takes on the media, and those of us with Blue State governments, jealous: Gov Christie calls S-L columnist thin-skinned for inquiring about his ‘confrontational tone’
Bookworm on May 13 2010 | Filed under: Uncategorized
My husband and I have a tacit agreement — I don’t give our money to conservative causes and he doesn’t give it to liberal ones. The only way in which we do spend our money semi-politically is that he subscribes to The New Yorker, and I subscribe to Commentary. However, there are often conservative writers [...]
Bookworm on May 13 2010 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Bush Derangement Syndrome
Presidents get photographed hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of time. Each photograph captures a mere moment. Some are flattering; some less so. Many, however, go on to become iconic. My generation, the 1970s generation, is deeply imprinted with this photo of Richard Nixon flashing the victory sign: Then there is this 1932 photograph of FDR, [...]