Ott on Rudy's "Aborted" Campaign

This is sick, and funny.

I was talking to a political operative the other day; I remarked that at least now we know that the Rudy primary plan of skipping early primaries just doesn't work. "Yeah," remarked, "you can't afford to be out of the news cycle for that long, especially nowadays."

My opinion, shared by many, is that the whole primary system needs to be scrapped and rebuilt, probably via cutting the country into regions and then rotating who gets to go first every 2 years.

Billary Picture

Nasty pic from Patrick of Driving Out the Snakes. (How about "Scaring the Snakes"?)

One Goofball = Widespread Inability to Function

This is why a lot of people think that Mark Shea needs to calm down a great deal and empty a few cans of Raid into the ol' bonnet.

At the March for Life in DC last week, our group (mostly young teens) came across a marcher holding aloft a Crucifix with a big sign: "Latin Mass = Truth; New Mass = Abortion". As I respectfully disagreed with him, he brought up receiving the Eucharist by hand, as if that somehow that had to do with saving unborn children.

See, this is what I'm talking about when I note the widespread inability of Traditionalists to function outside of the bunker. Traditionalists are going to have to figure out how to be fully Catholic or they are going to disappear, because true Catholic faith evangelizes and, like it or not, this is not evangelizing: this is shouting "Repel boarders" and then pouring boiling oil on the your own archers.

Well, I've encountered just about the same kind of nonsense from the ultra-traditionalists on several occasions. But I guess it hasn't made me so embarrassed to be a Catholic that I've tried to write all traditionalists out of the Faith by calling them a "doomed faction", based on the misplaced fervor of one or two straw-men.

Also, why isn't this person "fully Catholic"? In my experience with these people I've learned that they just usually aren't that bright. But that's never made me feel like intellectually bullying them.

On that note, I'll stop and let commenters react to his ending quote regarding the Fruits of the Spirit.

Romney and McCain Tie in the Pauli Poll

Ain't it cool? We even had 3 Ron Paul votes and 2 for Obama. We are so hip.

Final tally:
Romney: 7
McCain: 7
Thompson: 5
Paul: 3
Obama: 2
Rudy: 1
Huckabee: 1
Other: 1

Please consider voting in the meaningless car quiz. Cubeland asked for it. I'm not going to vote beause I'm afraid I'll get it wrong.

A big "Word up" to Mark Kilmer at Redstate

On the futility of invoking Reagan to make the case for Romney. Excerpt:

We all know what Mitt Romney is saying now, as opposed to what he said before, and before that, and before that... and so it goes. With Ronald Reagan, we knew what we were getting; with Romney, we get the right words said to the right audience at the right time. That and a federal bailout of the automobile industry and the largest proposed demand-sided "stimulus" package which won't stimulate will get you, if you throw in some money, an ice cream cone from lefty ex-hippies Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. (Folks, I'm not dissing the ice cream. Perhaps if someone would have taught me how to make ice cream at Penn State, as happened with Ben & Jerry, I'd be able to fund my own Presidential campaign and none of you would need to ask who is the real conservative.)

Positive LF Review by Richard Bernstein

Jonah links to a mostly positive review from Richard Bernstein. Excerpt:

But Goldberg's book takes the argument into new territory, reinterpreting large swaths of American history in order to support his point that the left has always been fascistic and the right, well, genuinely liberal - in the sense that true conservatives respect limits on governing power, encourage both individual choice and responsibility and disavow social engineering.

His main villain among those he calls American fascists is Woodrow Wilson, who, he argues, turned the United States during World War I into "a fascist country, albeit temporarily."

Before anybody had heard of Mussolini (who in his early years in power was widely admired by American progressives), Wilson established the first propaganda ministry, shut newspapers and magazines, encouraged vigilantes and formed dozens of boards to subordinate every aspect of life to the great cause of winning the war to end all wars.

That's a strong argument, because, after all, who would think of the moralistic and well-intentioned Wilson, whose decision to enter World War I was certainly a defensible one, a fascist? But Goldberg's point isn't to liken Wilson to Hitler. Wilson, he understands perfectly well, was entirely different than Hitler, whom he would have despised.

Goldberg's point is rather that a lot of what the American liberal culture takes as good - and he lists a lot of things, from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps to Hillary Rodham Clinton's ideas about it taking a village to raise a child - bears a similarity to some of the intellectual underpinnings of fascism.

And of course, the obligatory observation:

Goldberg is also insightful and thought-provoking in his treatment of some modern fads, showing their admittedly benign fascist connections. The contemporary cult of organic food, he says, is built on a deep wish to return to an imagined prelapsarian earth where everything was unpolluted and organic and a natural harmony prevailed, not all that different from the vegan Hitler's romantic cult of the organic, authentic Germanic connection with the soil.

But the fact is that it's a long way from eating organic tomatoes to committing genocide, even if Goldberg is right about the overlap between the whole earth cult of today and Germanic romanticism.

Of course there was a pre-lapsarian earth; it wasn't "imagined". But I'm sure the apple that Eve fell for was 100% organic, pesticide-free and contained no artificial colors. (Pun intended)

Jonah "organic food" Goldberg

We had a pretty windy night last night up here in Northeast Ohio. Windy enough to blow the neighbors crappy shed into our yard. Neat. Since we already have a shed in our yard, this made us the "Two-shed Frys". Obviously.



Yes, I know, I know.... Mr. Goldberg actually does mention organic food in his book. The focus on that one aspect of the book on the part of those hostile to his thesis remains quite funny to me. I have the book now and I have to say it's very informative and insightful. I'll throw some quotes up later.

Ambulance Drivers' Union to members: "Polish your rear-view mirrors."

John Edwards is out of the race and will be going back to chasing you guys again in the near future.

Handey Book: "What I'd Say to the Martians"

Oh, good, Jack Handey has a new book out.

I must confess that Handey is just about my favorite comic writer. Fortunately (for me) none of you have had to abide my "double-Jack episodes". That's when I sit down at a festive gathering with a bottle of Jack Daniel's and a stack of Jack Handey books and read aloud the Deep Thoughts contained therein until I've utterly cleared the room.

WD in B&W

Looks like Willie borrowed some duds from Mr. Rogers.

Get out your flamethrowers...

...because I agree with Andrew Sullivan: "Something has gone seriously wrong with the right when John McCain is not regarded as a conservative."

Especially in comparison with the other front-runners.

Looks like Medved was right.


Incidentally, McCain won Florida.

Those Cheeks Ain't Cheap

I'm linking to this mainly because of the outrageousness of the headline "Nude buttocks may cost ABC $1.4 Million".

JLH: Boom Boom Boom Boom

Nice Versus Nasty

Good article. Not that Obama is "nice" and Hillary is "nasty", it's just the way they come off. Right?

Moreover, the multi-state field of Super Tuesday does not play to Obama's signature strength: his ability to win over voters in live town-hall settings, using his soaring oratory and personal charm. That worked for him in Iowa, where many voters met him personally more than once. In a national campaign, by contrast, most voters' only contact with Obama will be through advertising and surrogates.

So does this mean that folks who vote for Hillary Clinton are most likely those who have never met Barack Obama?

My bet is still on Hillary to win the nomination. Obama is young and idealistic, but she's battle-hardened. That is about the nicest way I can put it, and I'm not that nice, it's just the way I come off. Right?

Failure

The FeedBlitz drive ended yesterday. My goal was to sign up 15 readers, and I utterly failed to meet my goal. This is failure defined. Of course, I haven't blogged in several days, but I can't help that I'm human and have other things to do. Sheeeeeeeesh....

Words fail me. Let's see what the "Man in Black" says about the situation:


OMG, that is so rude, Mr. Cash! I'm shocked that you would make such an uncourteous gesture. After all, I did sign up three new people. Now they will probably stop reading my blog as well.

LOL: "We're not just talking about, you know, something else, you know, we're talking about my life, you know...."