What did I do before Youtube?

I'm laughing so hard at this out-take. Really crude lingo, I know, but TOO FUNNY.

BTW, new favorite site.

Our dog used to do this kind of thing

I'll have what she's having

Honestly....

Hillary Clinton raised eyebrows on her first visit to Europe as secretary of state when she mispronounced her EU counterparts' names and claimed U.S. democracy was older than Europe's.

moar funny pictures

A veteran politician, Clinton compared the complex European political environment to that of the two-party U.S. system, before adding:

"I have never understood multiparty democracy.

"It is hard enough with two parties to come to any resolution, and I say this very respectfully, because I feel the same way about our own democracy, which has been around a lot longer than European democracy."

The remark provoked much headshaking in the parliament of a bloc that likes to trace back its democratic tradition thousands of years to the days of classical Greece.

Bzzzt, F-A-I-L. Then:

She also dubbed European Commission External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner as "Benito."

Ooops! Better than Adolf, I suppose.

Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering was effusive in his praise, saying that with the new administration, the United States and Europe once again "share the same values."

"What you said mostly could have been said by a European," he told Clinton after she fielded questions ranging from climate change to energy security and aid to Africa and one on gay rights from a participant wearing an "I love Hillary" t-shirt.

I guess "sharing the same values" means they have casual Fridays in Europe now.

03/06/09 12:15:18

I don't have a lot to say right now. Just wanted to commemorate the cool date and time. I've been counting by threes ever since watching Schoolhouse Rock when I was 6 or 7. Now the kids watch the recently-released DVDs and go around singing the songs which is pretty cool.

Anyway, was just listening to the podcast on this page, about 5 weeks old, but pretty good.

Also the Iowahawk piece is funny. As a companion piece to that, Kathleen sent me this audio link to a radio altercation between David Frum and Mark Levin. Usually Mark Levin tends to get overly excited and Frum is calm and collected; in this audio is basically the other way around. Another illustration of the absurdity of attacking Rush Limbaugh.

Have a good weekend.

More Examples of, uh... Idiotarian Behavior

New Google Search Terms

...are of course Dreher mongoloid. Here are some hits:

Ace of Spades. Excerpt:

Insult, incidentally, Hanson didn't intend, as the professor is obviously quite a bit more highbrow than the blogger Dreher. It is simply a descriptive term, intended to neither slander nor flatter. Dreher obviously considers himself among the cultural vanguard; Hanson is merely attempting to explain to Mr. Sophisticate what it is that his analysis misses; but Mr. Sophisticate needs no instruction on this whatsoever for, while lowbrows obviously need the guidance of highbrows, ultra-accomplished blogger elites like Dreher can learn nothing at all from the lowbrows. Their input unnecessary, as they're fucking retards anyway.

Fucking retards, I mean, in the Ignatian sense, meaning "brain damaged mental defectives."

If there's any insult here, it's to actual highbrows, chagrined to see their cachet diminished by the naming of Dreher as one of their cohort.

Too funny. Read the whole thing. No punches are pulled.

Creative Minority Report. Excerpt:

Ignatian sense? Yeah, ummm?. No. I do not suspect Mr. Dreher of any malice but rather of a deplorable cluelessness especially for a Christian supportive of the culture of life. The use of this term in any context helps no one, least of all Dreher.

To be fair, the post does accomplish its objective. Mr. Dreher used this unfortunate term in his own defense from Victor Davis Hanson 's jab at certain "highbrows." After reading this lamentable post it is quite clear that the term highbrow does not fairly apply to him. Well done, Mr. Dreher.

Meanwhile, Athens & Jerusalem provides an insightful analysis of what's wrong with Confederacy of Dunces and how Dreher's love of the book is probably what got him into trouble. One of the comments links to this review of Crunchy Conservatives which I'm not sure I had seen before.



UPDATE: Midwest Conservative Journal chimes in. Liked this comment from Christopher Hathaway:

Dreher is a great case study of moral obtuseness and intellectual pinheadedness. Responding to a woman’s criticism that it’s disgusting to call one’s opponents idiots while using that term, and claiming the intellectual high ground at the same time, Dreher finds it appropriate to respond thus:

“Clearly, you suffer from a lack of knowledge of geometry and theology.”

Now, if you haven’t read A Confederacy of Dunces lately, or at all (I never managed to stomach past the first chapter) or if you have nothing better to do than to investigate it (guilty), you wouldn’t know that Dreher isn’t being merely incomprehensibly insulting again but that he is (possibly?) referencing (ironically?) the character of Ignatius Reilly who regularly disparages the world this way. Apart from the incredible conceit that references to what is obviously a favorite book of his, obscure though it is to most of the world, should be as clearly understood as Scripture quotes in a Fundamentalist church (I use that term in the Ignatian sense. Ignatius of Antioch, of course) Dreher obviously thinks it sensible to respond to legitimate criticism of his manner of discourse by impersonating the behavior of an unpleasant character from a deliberately loathsome story.

And he’s calling other people idiots.

I think Mr. Hathaway nails it in that Rod kind of wants to be Ignatius Reilly the way my 4-year old wants to be Batman. They both get to beat up "bad guys", except the "Ignatian" way to beat people up is via vituperative language rather than Ninja chops.

Kathy Shaidle's blast at CoD. I love the word treacly. So apro-freaking-pos.

Also, Riehl World View wieghs in briefly.

Resolution Opposing Freedom of Choice Act Introduced in Ohio Senate

From Ohio Right to Life. The new Ohio Life site is worth checking out, for sure.

(Columbus, OH) Pro-Life State Senators Tim Grendell and Steve Buehrer introduced a resolution in the Ohio Senate opposing the federal "Freedom of Choice Act" (FOCA) on March 3, 2009.

The resolution (S.R.C. 6), which urges the President and Congress to oppose FOCA, states that:

"The Freedom of Choice Act is a radical attempt to enshrine abortion-on-demand into American law, to sweep aside existing laws that the majority of Americans support, such as requirements involving fully informed consent, parental involvement, and that licensed physicians perform abortions, and seeks to prevent states from enacting similar protective laws in the future."

"Ohio Right to Life strongly supports the resolution opposing the so-called "Freedom of Choice Act," said Mike Gonidakis, President of Ohio Right to Life. "FOCA would wipe out common-sense Ohio laws that require informed consent and parental consent before a minor's abortion, and would force taxpayers to pay for abortion on demand. FOCA is the most extreme pro-abortion legislation ever proposed," Gonidakis said.

In addition, S.C.R. 6 was co-sponsored by Pro-Life Senators Kevin Coughlin, Bob Gibbs, Tim Schaffer, Bill Seitz, Mark Wagoner, Kirk Schuring, and Keith Faber.

Iz in yr bong

lolz

Don't blame me, I voted for Bartlet

Good piece on vouchers in DC and Barack Obama's latest opportunity to really be different.

The most honest, decent, and thoughtful Democratic president of modern times, Jed Bartlet, was surprised to find himself supporting vouchers on an episode of NBC’s “The West Wing.” Bartlet’s staff summoned the mayor of Washington, D.C., to the White House to plot strategy for his veto of a Republican-backed bill to provide vouchers for a few students in D.C. schools–and was stunned to discover that the mayor and the D.C. school board president both supported the program, as indeed Mayor Anthony Williams and School Board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz did in real life. Why? the president asked the mayor. “After six years of us promising to make schools better next year,” the mayor replied, “we’re ready to give vouchers a try….We spend over $13,000 per student — that’s more than anywhere else in the country — and we don’t have a lot to show for it.” (As Andrew Coulson wrote recently in the Washington Post, the real cost is actually much higher than that.)

The piece contains the West Wing clip and ends with the question of whether or not the real congress and President will care about the people enough to keep the voucher program intact. My guess is that the Democrats in congress and Barack Obama will once again play the "let 'em eat cake" card. Vouchers just ain't politically correct.