Call It A Comeback
Who let Poindexter back in government? There truly is nothing one can do anymore that will disqualify one from serving in the government. And that isn’t even the worst part of th story! Normally I find Safire a bit paranoid, but this is a good subject to be paranoid about.
Instapundit is trying to sell the Islamic connection to the snipers still. The reference is to the Moonie Times and as usual, there is no actual evidence. This shouldn’t be a surprise. Given we have evidence of attacks all across the country that fit the amazing non-pattern of a spree and reasons for the cross country killing trek, one would generally conclude, we have two nuts on a killing spree.
That would be the case if it wasn’t for repeating the mantra "Everything has changed now" caused one’s brain to fall out.
The reality is the world hasn’t changed a bit other than some big craters being created. The perception of safety may have changed, but the world is no more or no less dangerous than before 9-11. The inability to grasp this basic point has lead to paranoia looking for Islamist terrorism where it doesn’t exist. The conclusion of the more rabid paranoid individuals is that barring clear disproof, Islamist terrorist must be the cause of any evil act. If only the world was that simple. The number of dangers hasn’t changed and a whole bunch were present before that aren’t Islamist in nature. Those dangers haven’t gone anywhere.
A lot of paranoia isn’t a big deal for a group of people on vanity web sites, but it sure would be a bad way to run a country. The world is a dangerous place in more than one way. Assuming the cause of any particular act is automatically Islamist doesn’t help a rational evaluation of different threats. Fortunately, vanity web sites aren’t that influential.
Slate has a good point on Pelosi
But despite her formidable political skills?even the Wall Street Journal acknowledged that she’s smart and telegenic and hard-working?her tenure as House Democratic leader, which hasn’t even begun yet, has been a complete disaster from a PR standpoint. Perhaps the Democrats would be best advised to once again take a page from the Republicans: The GOP has an effective leader and party strategist who fires up the party base. His name is Tom DeLay, and he’s not the No. 1 House Republican. Pelosi needs a puppet. Too bad Denny Hastert is already spoken for.
In the election and efforts to start up the new site, I hadn’t been able to link to the new Christian movement to ask What Would Jesus Drive. Michelle Cottle has a good piece at TNR on the movement.
The Instapundit links to another twit. The best line here is the addendum:
"Maybe she was aware of the swiftian connotations of making a modest proposal, but it sure doesn’t seem like it"
Actually, it seems like she did, but thanks for playing. And it is Burk, not Burke.
Update: Apparently terrorists have attacked our water supply and infected select portions of the population with the idiot disease. I thought it was pretty weak on Crossfire, but the fact that it continues amazes me.
Sounds pretty creepy to me. In the Corner post linked above, Kathryn Jean Lopez says that this is exaggeration for effect. Perhaps. But I can only imagine the response in, say, Ms. if some conservative male engaged in similar exaggeration where women’s reproductive rights were concerned.
Actually, the whole point of the article appears to be a critique of conservative arguments restricting female reproductive freedom. The point is that often conservative magazines say very similar things about women’s fertility. The literary device of satire is used to point out how ridiculous such claims would be were the situation reversed. Who let’s that man loose on a college campus?
Satire (from Dictionary.com): Irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity.
Here.
The problem is it doesn’t deal with the "to rid Augusta of Men". Worse, she tries to tar Burk for the satirical piece and even in the ‘retraction’ Lopez says "I also suspected Burk didn’t really want to sterilize all men."
So why did Lopez present the article as serious? More strangely she claims the piece focuses on the poll claiming little support for Burk’s position. Only two paragraphs effectively deal with it compared to five for the Ms. article.
The Grapefruit is reporting Jeb is moving to the right for 2008. While 2004 is still up in the air I’d be a bit more circumspect about the American people wanting a 3rd Bush in 20 years.
Then again, I thought 2 was unlikely. Shrug.
How screwed up is the Illinois Circular Firing Squad Team? Denny Hastert is now considered a moderate along with Judy Barr Topinka according to Rich Miller. Is Tom DeLay’s boy a moderate like Topinka? ROTFLMAO. No. However, in the coming civil war, he apparently is smart enough to realize Illinois isn’t a conservative state making him an enemy of the True Conservatives TM. The TC TM are also known as the Illinois Democratic Party’s best friends.
More interesting is the decline of the DuPage GOP’s patronage operations–especially the Tollway Authority.
Kristen McQueary reports that Tom Cross is the likely winner of the House GOP leadership race. The Illinois Leader will like that.
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