At long last — my Wednesday post
First of all, thanks to every one of who wrote asking after my blog. You have no idea how much I appreciate the fact that you were paying attention and that you cared what was going on.
I have to say that this whole experience has made me realize how tenuous the conservative’s hold on the media is. Aside from Fox and AM radio, conservatives have no outlets other than blogs. The administration seems to have temporarily backed off from its attacks against Fox and AM radio, but there is always the possibility that it will resume those attacks. If it then turns its attention to the internet, the ways to get the conservative message out, including corrections to long-standing liberal falsehoods (global warming, for example) becomes exponentially difficult. We must, therefore, be vigorous in protecting our access to TV, radio and the internet. All are equally important.
Speaking of important, despite the fact that my blog has been down, I haven’t been idle. I’ve been trolling the news intermittently all day for interesting stuff. Just because it’s a little late getting to you today doesn’t mean it’s not still worthwhile. So, here goes:
John Dietrich, writing at American Thinker, points out the enormous disconnect between the Obamas’ insistence that Americans sacrifice their comments, even as the Obamas wallow in the perks of high office, whether that means overheated meeting rooms or overdone fashions. I can just hear Michelle murmuring, “Let them eat cake.” Marie Antoinette, of course, said no such thing, but I would put it past Michelle.
American Thinker, by the way, celebrated its sixth anniversary yesterday. That is certainly something to celebrate. Separate from the fact that Thomas Lifson is periodically kind enough to post my ruminations, I think American Thinker is one of the most important conservative sites out there. The editors do a superb job of bringing different conservative voices to the fore. The flow of information and analysis is constantly varying, and always of the highest quality. I know that it has informed my conservative viewpoints for many years now.
Okay, this one is a collection of four links that the incredibly astute Steve Schippert brought to my attention. The first is a Washington Times editorial detailing the fact that Iran and al Qaeda have formed an unholy alliance in Yemen (starting point of the Flaming Panties bomber) – something the MSM refuses to acknowledge. The second is Steve’s own prescient April 2007 analysis of the way in which the MSM assiduously avoids connecting the dots when it comes to Al Qaeda and Iran. The third and fourth links are actually parts 1 and 2 of a two part article Thomas Joscelyn wrote back in 2005, detailing the connections between all sorts of fanatical Muslims, whether in Syria, Iraq, Iran, or the floating al Qaeda presence.
If you’re feeling like being moved, uplifted and inspired today, please visit Our Treasures From Afar. There, you can see Kim Priestap’s nephew getting sworn into the US Army. These young men (and they are so young), are willing stepping forward during war time to carry the burden for our nation.
What’s not to like about Jonah Goldberg? I can’t think of a thing, but I am especially delighted when he tackles the insanity that is modern air travel: “The petty humiliations, the routine deceptions from airline employees desperate to rid themselves of troublesome travelers (“Oh, they can definitely help you at the gate!”), the stress-position seats, the ever-changing rules for what can and cannot be in your carry-on, being charged for food that the Red Cross would condemn if it were served at Gitmo: Air travel is the most expensive unpleasant experience in everyday life outside the realm of words ending in -oscopy.” The bottom line, of course, is that our security system, by always responding to yesterday’s terror tactics in ways that inconvenience, without protecting, today’s traveler, is an ineffective disaster in the making.
Are you as disgusted as I am by the fact that the Democrats are reconciling the disastrous Senate and House health care bills in the dark? That is, they’re not only blocking Republicans from participating, they’re also making sure the public doesn’t see the dirty deals necessary to push this disgraceful legislation through – legislation, I might add, that is hated by Americans from every point on the political spectrum. If you are disgusted, please bop over here and sign a petition demanding that the Democrats follow through on Obama’s currently very dishonest promise that all debates would be held in the light of day.
I just learned today that an old school friend who works for a public university here in California took a pay cut. While a little sorry for her — pay cuts are awful — I still thought that was good news. Usually, when government entities function inefficiently, they ratchet up their budgets and dig their hands in the taxpayers’ pockets. It’s nice to know that at least some government agencies are doing what ordinary businesses do: cutting back. The fact is, no part of our economy should be immune from cause and effect. This is especially true if it’s the government sector that’s immune, because that distorts both politics and economics almost past bearing. As it is, my suspicion is that, even with a pay cut, my friend will just end up with an ordinary person’s salary, since it’s likely that her salary started out higher than a similarly situated employees in the private sector. I was also glad to see that her government entity isn’t the only one that’s figured out that the taxpayers are not an infinite source of money. As I said to my mother, the government approach for these past many years has been to fund the cancer at the expense of the body. This is stupid, since when the body finally dies, the cancer dies too.
You know Avatar is anti-American and anti-military when even ESPN starts blogging about that fact.
I just wanted to do a “shout out” (a phrase I learned from Mr. President) to those Muslims in Norway who have decided to speak out against the violent attacks in the wake of Mohamed cartoons in Jyllands-Posten. It remains to be soon if they will have an impact, but it’s enormously important, I think, that Muslims around the world don’t view the fanatics as the only voice for their religion.
It seems like only yesterday that we learned that Michael Yon got detained and handcuffed by American customs. Oh, wait! It was only yesterday. And here it is today, and it turns out that at least one Department of Homeland Security employee, thinking he was safely anonymous, started attacking those who were less than pleased by Yon’s treatment.
Only the New York Times could write an article “The First Senator From the Tea Party?,” front-page the link with a picture of Marco Rubio, and then spent more than 50% of the article (all frontloaded) lauding poor, pathetic, ultra RINO Charlie Crist. My rule of thumb, of course, is that any Republican the Times praises probably isn’t much of a conservative.
Here’s something exciting: Andrew Brietbart has now launched Big Journalism, which will focus on the media. I think Breitbart has become one of the most important people in politics today, so I find this new “big” effort very heartening.
