May 2006

Selfish Hedonism

ArchPundit May 31, 2006 0 Comment

Is alive and well in North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District where Representative Brad Miller was attacked by Vernon Robinson for not having kids

Soon after winning the GOP primary in the 13th District in May, Robinson mailed literature to more than 400,000 households portraying Miller’s voting record and personal life as being out of the mainstream.

Among many other things, the literature calls Miller a “childless, middle-aged personal injury lawyer.”

Miller said he was “stunned” by the letter.

“I think that should not be part of what you agree to take on if you want to be involved in politics — that kind of personal attack without any basis,” Miller said.

Miller said his wife of nearly 25 years, Esther Hall, could not bear children because she had endometriosis and then a hysterectomy at age 27 before the couple were married.

I believe Robinson sinks to being more despicable than Keyes on this one. I can’t wait for the commercial suggesting Miller shouldn’t be having sex with his wife since they can’t procreate. You’ll notice that Keyes standard was that in principle a woman and a man can procreate so it’s okay if a sterile married couple have sex. In this case, the plumbing was removed so it’s hard to tell how that fits the idea of being in principle.

The Problem with Freedom Fries

ArchPundit May 31, 2006 0 Comment

It used to be fun to make fun of the French for things like this

The crusade against Lance by the French Press can only be matched by the interest in the US press concerning the Clenis.

The Fountain of Bad Ideas

ArchPundit May 26, 2006 0 Comment

Roeser’s little empire of personal pet peeve pushing is far more connected to much of the right wing crap brought up in this state. Case in point is the recent kerfluffle in District 214 over novels deemed pornographic by a few well organized angry folks.

How well organized? Check out one guy quoted in the Daily Herald, The Pioneer Press and Tribune as if he were just another resident (misspelled his name).

Resident Bruce Pincknell was one of the few who supported Pinney’s plan, saying that teachers promoting the books were motivated by their own progressive social agendas.

And from the Herald:

Bruce Tincknell, a former Prospect High parent, read an excerpt from the book, omitting some terms he felt were too inappropriate.

“This is unacceptable to many of us,” he told those in the room. “We want better.”

Pioneer Press

Arlington Heights resident Bruce Tincknell said although he does not have children currently attending District 214 schools, he is concerned about the content of the required novels.

Tincknell said he has read The Perks of Being a Wallflower and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent, as well as excerpts from the list of books.

“When I read some of the excerpts, it concerned me as a parent, as a taxpayer. It’s quite outrageous. I can’t see any literary value,” he said prior to the board’s decision.

Who is Tincknell?

He’s a Board of Director at the Illinois Family Institute

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The IFI Board of Directors consists of:

Dr. John & Dena Koehler (Chairman)
Dr. Gary & Mary Draper
Mrs. Virginia Nurmi
Dr. Don & Sandra Helfer
Mr. Bruce Tincknell

This is a case of the Right Wing Wurlitzer continuing the efforts to make a controversy out of something where the community doesn’t find anything controversial. I don’t blame the reporters since Tincknell, Pinney and the others affiliated with IFI and Roeser probably set it up to get exactly this kind of coverage, but it is something to watch out for.

It gets better, his affiliations go unmentioned in other articles where is more of the focus. In one from the Herald on February 12th,

“It’s branded Paul Simon. It is an institute representing the Democratic Party,” said Bruce Tincknell, a former District 214 parent who’s heading up Citizens for Quality Education, a watchdog group focused primarily on District 214 goings-on. “It’s more than a name.”

He’s also in a December 3rd article challenging the current superintendent in relation to his record in Stevens Point.

Funny, the guy shows up talking about public education funding and ‘family values’, two of Jack Roeser’s hobby horses, but he never is identified as attached to Roeser affiliated groups.

Now to Erin Holmes credit, she does identify Tincknell on April 1, 2005 as

Meanwhile, Illinois State Board of Elections records show Jack Roeser, head of the Family Taxpayers Network that endorsed Pinney, made a $12,000 contribution this week to Mount Prospect-based “Just the Facts,” a group headed by Tincknell.

This was during the election which Pinney won.

The point here being the amount of noise from a small number of people is awfully loud and this ought to be pointed out more regularly.

Matt Drudge, Douchebag

ArchPundit May 26, 2006 0 Comment

Referencetone has it–I’ll link after the all clear sign, but here’s the text

On CNN a couple of minutes ago, Dana Bash reported on a new message that went out to locked-down Rayburn HOB staffers over the loudspeaker detailing how they can be sure that the person knocking on their office door is a police officer as opposed to, say, a gun-wielding madman. Bash wisely decided to withhold some of the details just in case a gun-wielding madman happened to be watching CNN and was curious how to make frightened office-dwellers open their doors to him. Enter Matt Drudge:

Lou Dobbs Cites Council of Conservative Citizens

ArchPundit May 26, 2006 0 Comment

I actually don’t think Dobbs is racist–his taken on trade seems to be authentically about the impact on the American Middle Class even if I disagree on both issues. However, there is no excuse that CNN ran a graphic sourced to the Council of Conservative Citizens. The Council is a bunch of knuckledragger racists who are polluting the gene pool with low IQ.

For those who might not remember, I had a run in with a local CofCC assclown a couple years ago who took issue with being called a White Supremacist by sending me this

Earl “I’m not a white supremacist N***** Lover” Holt used to do a radio show with the operational head of the CofCC every Friday night here in Saint Louis. It wasn’t thinly veiled racism on the show either. When I got Earl to confirm he sent the e-mail on the air, he said he called a Spade a Spade. Scheer has the full updates on CNN’s reaction, but they really need to take it more seriously and apologize.

Bush Joins Congress on the Crazy Train

ArchPundit May 25, 2006 0 Comment

Ed Kilgore attacks Hastert and Pelosi for their indefensible fight over Congressional Privilege trumping a legal warrant.

I know there’s a (weak) constitutional argument here, though I have a hard time believing that Hastert and Pelosi really think that the doctrine of separation of powers prevents a court-ordered seizure of documents unrelated to any legislative activity after a subpoena has been ignored. If they do, they’re endorsing a degree of complete immunity from law enforcement rarely seen since Thomas a Becket claimed that Henry II had no jurisdiction over criminal clergy (or at least since the last Bush administration ukase about the president’s imperial powers over national security).

Look, it can’t happen without the other two branches agreeing to it. There is no immunity from prosecution in the Constitution and there shouldn’t be.

Sealing those records for 45 days is an absurd decision from a guy who can’t be bothered with going to a court to listen to Americans on the phone.

There isn’t anything to negotiate. If there is a valid search warrant, the Executive nor the Legislative branches have immunity from the law. Of course there was no warning–we don’t call crack houses and tell them the police are on the way over do we?

If breaking the law includes using one’s position as a Member of Congress, than the records of that Member are fair game. Members of Congress have one special protection in terms of the law and that is they may not be detained on the way to session. That is all. Otherwise they are citizens and subject to the same rules.

One Year, They Are Children, the Next They Are Defending Their Country

ArchPundit May 25, 2006 0 Comment

One of the more amusing aspects of the effort to block 7 books from the classroom in District 214 is that according to Pinney, students shouldn’t be reading “The Things They Carried,” but yet they are old enough in a few months to go to war. Slaughterhouse 5 is based on Vonnegut’s experiences as a 22 year old man watching the bombing of Dresden. The Trib does a good job describing why such movements are stupid

And no one swears in the army. Or real life.

Masturbation is another theme Pinney worries about. There really is nothing to worry about, teenagers figure it out before reading a book mentioning it.

Looking at the agenda, and the links from the IFI page, one can look to this page of a group with similar goals to Pinney

Note that they have refused to review any of the Shakespeare works because, it’s different. Really. Sure, for dumb students who can’t figure out what he was talking about. At best Shakespeare is simply better at letting the individual draw inferences with their imagination. Unless you expect students to NOT THINK about what they are reading.

Fascinating selections for books they disapprove:
A Separate Peace
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
Of Mice and Men
Lord of the Flies–a fairly accurate depiction of life in Junior High
In Cold Blood
Hot Zone
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Heart of Darkness
Catcher in the Rye
All the Pretty Horses

To beat a dead horse, the idiots like LaBarbera and others have built up an incredible infrastructure to challenge anything outside of their narrow ridiculous views of the world. These fights aren’t random, they are choreagraphed exercises in wearing down standards.

I think my constituents think I am entitled to it

ArchPundit May 25, 2006 0 Comment

I’ve seen some quotes that strike me as out of touch, but this fits the all time ones for tone deafness

The current aldermanic salary is $98,125, though not all council members accept that much. Ald. Eugene Schulter (47th), for example, has chosen to forgo some past pay increases, and collects $82,000 a year. Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd) accepts the full amount but donates about $7,000 of his salary annually to local charities.

I might suggest that increasing salaries by 20% in a period where anger at incumbents is high and there are multiple corruptions scandals going on is a bad idea.