Shaun Kenney | Politics and Religion in Virginia's Public Square

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Howling Latina: Weeping for Saddam

Howling Latina wept as she saw a picture of Saddam Hussein next to the rope that would soon end his life, as posted earlier this evening on the Web site of a national newspaper and thankfully taken down.

Hell, I popped popcorn and high-fived my brother when he dropped.

Saddam Hussein was the most brutal dictator of my generation. He killed 1.2 million people (!), gave cash to the families of suicide bombers, vowed to destroy the State of Israel, waged war on Kuwait and Iran, not to mention the brutal terrorism he waged on his own people and abroad (anyone remember Salman Pak?).

The world is a better place when dictators expire. I have no tears for Saddam, only his victims.

Saturday, December 30, 2006

The Ward View: Why I write. Why I’m staying.

Pen name Ward Smythe gives his explanation as to why he's sticking around. Perhaps the best quote comes from none other than Mr. Not Larry Sabato himself:

I’m glad I read this whole thing, because that was the conclusion I came to when I started NLS. You either have to be a party hack or you have to be yourself. No one agrees with the party and its candidates 100% of the time, so I don’t think it is possible to be both.

The best thing about the Virginia blogosphere is people willing to say their mind outnumbers the RK’s of the world.

Good stuff. Read it all, and let's hope it's the final word on the matter.

Friday, December 29, 2006

The Dr. Isis Initiative

Not Not Jay Hughes has a modest proposal for VRE (with advanced apologies to Jonathan Swift).

Official: Saddam to Be Executed Tonight

Before 10.00pm tonight, by hanging.

Methods of execution that won't be used tonight: electrocution, mustard gas, mutilation in a beef grinder, suffocation, shot behind the head, buried half alive, stoning, mass warfare... you get the point.

Justice will be served. Sic Semper Tyrannis.

UPDATE: Here's another method I forgot:

State television ran footage of the Saddam era's atrocities, including images of uniformed men placing a bomb next to a youth's chest and blowing him up in what looked like a desert, and handcuffed men being thrown from a high building.

Nope. None of these methods will be used.

QandO: The Minimum Wage

Jon Henke once again effortlessly destroys the myth of the minimum wage:

I recently objected to a Washington Post claim that about "450,000 Virginians are paid the minimum wage". They have since added a correction to the story, noting that "about 60,000 Virginia residents are paid the minimum wage." They did not mention that the source of their 450,000 figure was the liberal, Democratic Party-aligned think-tank EPI. (they misunderstood the figure, but that was the origin of the figure)

That's much better, but it's far from the whole story. As I pointed out previously, only 22,000 of those 60,000 Virginians actually earn the minimum wage, with the majority of the rest working at restaurants where employer-provided wages are below $5.15/r, but tips generally bring the figure substantially higher than $5.15/hr.

It gets better, worse if you support feel-good policies over empirical evidence.

Commonwealth Conservative: Can we disagree without being disagreeable?

Out of retirement?

Probably not... but he had something important to say.

Why Braveheart Fails; Why Watling Street Works

So I read the criticism from Spank That Donkey. I'm sure the folks in Fredericksburg will be highly amused to see I am no longer a "grassroots conservative" but rather some cushy elitist moderate.

See Shaun, here is something you may be overlooking, while in your comfy ‘eldership’ at the ODBA… The Blogs, SWAC Girl, Elle, the Journal of the Common Man, and GGD have something in common….. They are all related to grass roots volunteer work on Republican Campaigns going back to 1990’s. This group, came together quickly recognizing, that Waldo was censoring just as the MSM and decided to take a stand…

Let me elaborate further, Grass Roots volunteers don’t do it for the $$ or the ego trip, they come together over PRINCIPLES… Such as smaller govt, lower taxes, etc. and they absolutely abhor the MSM, whom Waldo and his aggregator now came to represent.

My uncontrolled laughter actually interrupted my resume-folding for jobs with the Gang of Five in the Virginia State Senate. Another day, perhaps... people say silly things when they are hurt. All is forgiven.

What interested me was that the Braveheart analogy was introduced. Here's the short story: the "old guard" types in the Old Dominion Blog Alliance are representative of the deceitful backstabbing nobles, the crowd supporting the lawyer-turned-high school student are the brave William Wallace and company. In short, my support for Waldo (or more accurately, my opposition to the silly personal attacks) is indicative of the Battle of Falkirk, where William Wallace rides into the British and the nobles run away in exchange for lands, titles, etc.

Wrong analogy. Poor analogy.

This is the Battle of Watling Street. Queen Boudiccia and 100,000 Britons had just defeated three (!) Roman legions, sacked Colchester, sacked London, and now faced the only remaining vestige of Roman power in lower Briton: the 14th Legion -- a dishonored and displaced unit that was certainly no match for the British horde.

Some Britions advised a full-scale attack. Others advised caution. But with victory in grasp, Boudiccia sided with those blinded with victory.

The 14th Legion had other ideas. Facing the massed hordes of Britons united and flushed with victory, Seutonius chose his ground, organized his legionaires in the center in wedge formation. To the left and the right he organized his horsemen so that the horde would be channelled into the waiting phalanxes in the center. All that remained was for the Britons to make the mistake Seutonius knew they would make.

Boudiccia attacked. Britons upon Britons clashed with the 14th Legion. As the ones behind began to pressure the front guard, the Britons were so tightly packed they couldn't raise their shields or swords. Unable to move due to the massive weight of the numbers behind them (and poor planning of their leaders), the Britons began to be slaughtered.

As the 14th Legion continued to slice from behind their shield when they did the unthinkable: they advanced.

Panicked, the Britons ran. They trampled over their own. Of the 100,000 Britions on the field that day, 80,000 were killed. Only 400 Romans died. In the end, the Britons did not escape the wrath of the Roman legions and were severely punished. Roman rule was re-established for 400 years, and the 14th Legion was given the title "Martia Vicrix" for their historic efforts that day and erasing their past shame.

Watling Street falls into the same categories of impossible victories as Sterling Bridge, Teutorborg Forest, Bastgone, and Agincourt. Despite superior numbers (and a just cause -- Boudiccia was forced to witness her two daughters being raped by Roman soldiers, which started the rebellion), the Britons failed because they refused to fight intelligently, stressing unity over strategy and blinded by previous victories.

Moral of the story? Don't send a pseudonymous 16-year old posting posing as a lawyer to do your dirty work. Play smart. Don't overplay your hand. And certainly don't expect people to stand by you if you're not going to be honest about who you are.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Saddam Hussein Deserves the Maximum Penalty of DEATH

Sometimes I really can't believe how secularism has blinded some within the Church. Cardinal Martino for instance:

Cardinal Renato Martino, Pope Benedict XVI's top prelate for justice issues and a former Vatican envoy to the U.N., condemned the death sentence in a newspaper interview published Thursday, saying capital punishment goes against the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

Capital punishment does not go against the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

In fact, Catholic teaching up until the mid-20th century specifically supported the death penalty. On top of obvious Biblical commnentary, I offer the answer of St. Thomas Aquinas in the epic Summa Theologicae:

Objection 1. It would seem unlawful to kill men who have sinned. For our Lord in the parable (Mt. 13) forbade the uprooting of the cockle which denotes wicked men according to a gloss. Now whatever is forbidden by God is a sin. Therefore it is a sin to kill a sinner.

Objection 2. Further, human justice is conformed to Divine justice. Now according to Divine justice sinners are kept back for repentance, according to Ezech. 33:11, "I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live." Therefore it seems altogether unjust to kill sinners.

Objection 3. Further, it is not lawful, for any good end whatever, to do that which is evil in itself, according to Augustine (Contra Mendac. vii) and the Philosopher (Ethic. ii, 6). Now to kill a man is evil in itself, since we are bound to have charity towards all men, and "we wish our friends to live and to exist," according to Ethic. ix, 4. Therefore it is nowise lawful to kill a man who has sinned.

On the contrary, It is written (Ex. 22:18): "Wizards thou shalt not suffer to live"; and (Ps. 100:8): "In the morning I put to death all the wicked of the land."

I answer that, As stated above . . ., it is lawful to kill dumb animals, in so far as they are naturally directed to man's use, as the imperfect is directed to the perfect. Now every part is directed to the whole, as imperfect to perfect, wherefore every part is naturally for the sake of the whole. For this reason we observe that if the health of the whole body demands the excision of a member, through its being decayed or infectious to the other members, it will be both praiseworthy and advantageous to have it cut away. Now every individual person is compared to the whole community, as part to whole. Therefore if a man be dangerous and infectious to the community, on account of some sin, it is praiseworthy and advantageous that he be killed in order to safeguard the common good, since "a little leaven corrupteth the whole lump" (1 Cor. 5:6).

Reply to Objection 1. Our Lord commanded them to forbear from uprooting the cockle in order to spare the wheat, i.e. the good. This occurs when the wicked cannot be slain without the good being killed with them, either because the wicked lie hidden among the good, or because they have many followers, so that they cannot be killed without danger to the good, as Augustine says (Contra Parmen. iii, 2). Wherefore our Lord teaches that we should rather allow the wicked to live, and that vengeance is to be delayed until the last judgment, rather than that the good be put to death together with the wicked. When, however, the good incur no danger, but rather are protected and saved by the slaying of the wicked, then the latter may be lawfully put to death.

Reply to Objection 2. According to the order of His wisdom, God sometimes slays sinners forthwith in order to deliver the good, whereas sometimes He allows them time to repent, according as He knows what is expedient for His elect. This also does human justice imitate according to its powers; for it puts to death those who are dangerous to others, while it allows time for repentance to those who sin without grievously harming others.

Reply to Objection 3. By sinning man departs from the order of reason, and consequently falls away from the dignity of his manhood, in so far as he is naturally free, and exists for himself, and he falls into the slavish state of the beasts, by being disposed of according as he is useful to others. This is expressed in Ps. 48:21: "Man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he hath been compared to senseless beasts, and made like to them," and Prov. 11:29: "The fool shall serve the wise." Hence, although it be evil in itself to kill a man so long as he preserve his dignity, yet it may be good to kill a man who has sinned, even as it is to kill a beast. For a bad man is worse than a beast, and is more harmful, as the Philosopher states (Polit. i, 1 and Ethic. vii, 6).

In fact, Pope Pius XII as recently as 1952 re-iterates the theme of the previous 1950 years of Catholic teaching, that the death penalty is a lawful and just means of carrying out punishment.

Now I am a firm believer in the dictum summa ius, summa iniruia. There are many instances worldwide where the death penalty is carried out where it should not be.

But Saddam Hussein?

Saddam Hussein deserves the penalty of death. As he lives, more Iraqis continue to be sacrificed to a Ba'athist insurgency. When he dies, justice -- not violence, not terrorism, and not revenge -- will be served.

Apologia Pro Waldo Jaquith

There are so many avenues to this it's tough to get started. Waldo removes a blog from his aggregator for posting the aftermath of an act of terrorism, calling it "political pornography" and booting the blog.

Now General Greivious' Dog isn't the only photoshop blog out there. In fact, it was predated by Perseverando, the author of which is currenly being considered to replace the outgoing Tucker Watkins as a representative for Virginia's U.S. Senate seat transitioning from Allen to Webb.

I will leave aside the obvious dichotomy between allowing the liberal photoshoppers and excluding the conservative ones. I will also leave aside the propriety of removing GGD for posting an un-photoshopped and factual occurence. Free speech isn't always pretty, but warts and all it has it's place.

Let's step back for a moment to the very first Sorenson Institute Blog Summit. A verifyable success IMO, and it was due to one individual: Waldo Jaquith.

The second Sorenson Blog Summit was an even greater success than the first. Credit can be given to one man: Waldo Jaquith.

The Virginia Polticial Blogs aggregator was a "gift" to the Virgina blogosphere to help the smaller blogs enter the mainstream. This was a tremendous boon to those blogs who didn't have the clout that a Commonwealth Conservative or Bearing Drift have, yet at the expense of his own readership one man took the time to do this: Waldo Jaquith.

Given the opportunity to use his skills to coarsen the Virginia blogosphere, one guy actually did his best to widen the scope and create opportunities for people to take advantage of the new media: Waldo Jaqith.

Folks, I'm not arguing that I agreed with the removal of GGD. Mr Jaquith is an unabashed, socialist, commie-pinko, leftist, tree-hugging, socialist (for good measure) Democrat. So now that my conservative credentials are firmly re-established....

Waldo is a rare example of how a partisan can still be objective and altruistic for the good of his neighbor. Considering how Waldo Jaquith could have very well been otherwise, taking the tack of his erstwhile colleagues on the left, blogs should be grateful for an even playing field.

Now I realize there are growing pains in the blogosphere -- aggregators could very well be the next big thing and may very well become partisan in the same way independent blogs have been snapped up and influenced by campaigns. Heck, aggregators could very well re-align that paradigm, because who the hell wants to read 15 posts on one site saying the same thing? Death of the echo-chamber? Perhaps...

I have to touch on the War on Terrorism and the graphics produced from this policy. Firstly, I don't view the "War on Terrorism" as a true war. Like a "War on Poverty", an anti-terrorist stance is a policy of the United States. It will take years to root it out as an acceptable method of political communication. It will take farsightedness to effect the Renaissance upon those nations who have never expereienced an Age of Reason.

Now there are images that will undoubtedly offend. They are designed to offend, but they are also a window into the souls of those impacting the violence. Terrorists such as these deserve to be rooted out and destroyed, and as a public we should be made to understand the seriousness of the threat of terrorism.

Covering up the pictures, "political pornography" as it may seem, doesn't do anyone justice.

Now I've taken a bit of flack for not revealing sources with regards to the files kept by the Jim Webb campaign (specifically Vanden Berg) on Virginia bloggers on the left and the right, and for good reason. I believe the practice to be particularly "Nixonian" (as it was described to me), something that would never occur to a MSM reporter.

Ironically, for as concerned as Republicans were about such vindictiveness, I can't help but compare the spectre of files on bloggers to the "VandenBerging" of Waldo Jaquith.

Of course, the tables got turned quickly with the VandenBerging of John Maxwell, a 16-year old named Alex who posted pseudonymously as an attorney in the Valley. Oops... but one more reason why pseudonymous blogs are not to be trusted.

Still, the entire episode of bloggers breaking stories (e.g. Waldo with Goode, Hoeft with Kellam, or myself with the anti-Miller flyer) only for those stories to ultimately break the blogger is appalling. Some have argued that by blogging about politics, you have opened yourself up as a public figure to be scrutinized. Others have insisted that as no MSM reporter would be challenged, neither should a blogger. I argue somewhere in the middle, that MSM reporters really report under the aegis of a larger organization, while bloggers are soapboxes for individuals.

It doesn't mean you get the inner details of your life posted, but neither does that mean you get a free pass, either.

Back to Waldo Jaquith, it's his damn aggregator. Let him have it, and let him be. Life does in fact move along.

For Republicans who typically argue in favor of property rights (I tend to be the guy that says you have property right up to the point that it affects my own property rights), this is an open/shut case.

For a moment, I don't beleive Waldo was being malicious in removing the post with the butchered American.

THIS GETS ME TO THE POINT OF THIS ENTIRE POST. (so please read)

Waldo Jaquith's prime metaconcern has always been with the tone of the blogosphere. He isn't alone. Chad Dotson, Norm Leahy, Cory Chandler, myself, Jon Henke, the gang at SST, Jim Bacon, and much of the "Old Guard" that consist of the larger and longer existing blogs have been keen enough to understand what might happen if things got out of hand.

Most of us would agree: Sorenson I and II, VaPoliticalBlogs, and many of the constructive items that have benefited the Virginia blogosphere (both in tone and technology) have happened because of the altruism of Waldo Jaquith.

Waldo is a Democrat, I am a Republican. I would like to think that there are parallels between the left and right when it comes to blogs. We have Commonwealth Conservative, they have Raising Kaine. We have Bearing Drift, they have Not Larry Sabato. We have GGD, they have Perseverando.

Now I'm not saying I'm the parallel to Jaquith, but I'd like to think that someone else thinks so. He's a smart guy, he's well respected on both sides. I'll take that.

Now I know there are critics of every stripe. Democrats will undoubtedly read this as vindication or scoff with insincerity. It's neither. Some Republicans may read this as being "squishy" on the issue. If so, you would count yourself as the fifth person in the world to charge me with leftism or moderation.

There is an old Napoleonic dictum: "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." These same critics (to their glee or head-shaking confoundment) will readily add that no Democrat would ever come to my defense on such an issue. Perhaps so.

I disagree with the man's politics, but I think Waldo is a fine individual who doesn't deserve many of the personal insults he's had to endure.

So here it goes:

I will add the following: I am very glad to see the ODBA cut its teeth, step up, and defend GGD's post regarding Islamic terrorism. That is an issue we cannot ignore and must discuss as a society. It's real, and it should be discussed in an open forum. Unfortunately, some forums are more open than others.

That having been said, Waldo Jaquith is a good man who made a decision with which I disagree. It wasn't the first, it won't be the last. But we can be grown-ups and disagree without being disagreeable. Not everyone lives up to it, but those who realize it first get the better of everyone else.

Communist Chinese: Partners for Peace

How do we know? Because they're buinding a powerful navy to invade Taiw... er, protect shipping lanes.

OTB: Good News In the Housing Market

The housing market seems to have hit bottom, which is great news for anyone who is thinking about buying a home in the next three months. By springtime, we'll be back to the same frentic pace we were two years ago.

Why? Because the demand for housing is going up, rental costs are increasing, and people certainly aren't moving out of Virginia...

Add to the stack that not only does Virginia have an exploding tech industry, government (both state and federal) is always in business.

Naturally, this dovetails into a favorite topic of mine: affordable housing and smart growth. I won't bore anyone with the strum-und-drang, but I will mention it as food for thought as the housing market rebounds.

FIRST THINGS: On Intellectuals

Why are lawyers considered intellectuals and engineers not? Are journalists intellectuals? Does any profession give you instant credentials as an intellectual? Joseph Bottum over at First Things asks precisely that question.

A good read. If you haven't put the First Things blog on your aggregator, you're missing something, especially if you are an avid reader of First Things as I am.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Save The GOP: Newt’s 1978 Speech to CRs

One can practically hear this same speech given today:

Do you like the state of the Republican Party? Do you think you ought to respect Bill Brock because he has done such a great job? Or Richard Nixon, or Gerald Ford, the only incumbent president since Herbert Hoover to lose an election? They have done a terrible job, a pathetic job. In my lifetime, literally in my lifetime, I was born in 1943, we have not had a competent national Republican leader. Not ever! We’ve had some guys who weren’t too embarrassed. But what’s the primary purpose of a political leader, above anything else? In this system, it is to build a majority capable of sustaining itself, because if we don’t do that, we don’t make the laws, we don’t write the taxes, we don’t decide how to start a war, we don’t keep the country strong, we don’t do nothing except carve from these people’s ability. And in my lifetime, we have not had a single Republican leader capable of doing that. Oh, they’ve had opportunities: The Korean War, rapid inflation, the racial crisis of the 50’s and 60’s, the Vietnam war. We’ve had tremendous opportunities and we’ve blown it, but we’re all nice people.

Problem is, Newt Gingrich is one of those former leaders today, and after the 1994 Republican Revolution he helped lead, is our government small and less intrusive?

What do conservatives have to show for the last twelve years? Why this question isn't reverberating to the very core of the GOP today boggles my mind.

The right-wing liberal: Let's hear it for Ethiopia!

Hear, hear!

President Ford Dead at 93

Prepare yourself for the SNL quotes... Former President Gerald Ford passed away yesterday at 93:

Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon's scandal- shattered White House as the 38th president and the only one never elected to nationwide office, has died. He was 93.

'My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age,' former first lady Betty Ford said in a brief statement issued from her husband's office in Rancho Mirage. 'His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country.'

It's funny that most folks under the age of 30 (myself included) have very little inclnation or memory of the Ford Administration, Watergate, Vietnam, or any of the 1970's political era. For us, it's memories of Reagan, the Fall of Communism, the Space Shuttle Challenger, and everything that was wrong with the 1970's (Jimmy Carter, Iran, Nixon).

Ford was a notable bright spot, and his passing will be marked with what should hopefully become a conversation as to what we owe the American political system as citizens and volunteers. God Bless President Ford and the Ford family.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

The Virginia Progressive Says...

If you're straight, you hate babies with AIDS, or at least are not willing to adpot babies testing HIV-positive.

Gay couples on the other hand love these babies, but sadly cannot adopt these unwanted children because of the hate-filled hearts of Virginia voters passing the Marriage Amendment this November.

I kid you not. Read the post. This is what passes for intelligence in some circles.

Monday, December 25, 2006

Ivan Drago: Justice Enforcer!

My Christmas present to the Virginia Blogosphere... or well-planned and delayed payback to the boys at Richmond War Room, I give you Ivan Drago: Justice Enforcer!

Frank Capra had nothing to do with the making of this Flash game. But the Nintendo-quality graphics are cool.

Peace in Bethlehem

Christmas in the place of Christ's birth:

In an annual custom, Bethlehem's residents enacted Christmas rituals that seem out of place in the Middle East. Palestinian Scouts marched
through the streets, some wearing kilts and pompom-topped berets, playing drums and bagpipes. They passed inflatable red-suited Santas, looking forlorn in the West Bank sunshine.

Other aspects of this Bethlehem Christmas, however, could take place nowhere else. To get to town, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, the Roman Catholic Church's highest official in the Holy Land, rode in his motorcade through a huge steel gate in the Israeli security fence that separates Jerusalem from Bethlehem.

"God wants us all to be peacemakers. He wants every believer who has faith in God, Jewish, Muslim or Christian to work to make peace," Sabbah said in his annual Christmas address at his Jerusalem office before departing for Bethlehem. "Our leaders so far have only made war, they haven't made peace," Sabbah said.

How much longer will Palestinian Christians have to wait?

Pray for the Church in the Holy Land this Christmas.

The Virginia Progressive: A Liberal Argument for Christmas

AJD over at The Virginia Progressive presents a liberal argument for Christmas in culture:

I would argue that Christmas has moved beyond it’s religious origins and into a similar place in our society. We don’t just gather to remember the birth of a man, but instead to remember the importance of family and friendship in our society. It is a time to remember those people who stood next to us, proudly, in our darkest times; who helped us when we stumbled, and cheered for us when we soared. It is a time to celebrate that, as individuals, we falter and stumble, but as a community we can rise up and become so much better.

This shouldn’t serve as a means to put down the holiday traditions of other religious, be it Hanukah, Kwanza, or Ramadan (which I realize didn’t fall along the traditional holiday season this year, but is still an all important time for American Muslims). But Christmas has, for better or worse, become an American tradition that crosses religious boundaries. Christmas is as much about the Macy’s Parade as the Midnight Mass, and as much about gift giving to family and friends as God’s gift to the world in his only son.

Christmas as culture. I couldn't have said it any better myself.

Shrieks From the Booby Hatch: The Grand Unified Theory of Gift-Wrapping

A great idea whose time had come about two weeks ago:

The Grand Unified Theory of Gift-Wrapping is a remarkably simple solution. One buys a gift and avails oneself of the in-store wrapping service. The gift is then safe for storage at home, in the usual place. (The usual place is the place where your cohabitant pretends not to know you store gifts and you pretend not to know that he knows.) Then, at some discreet and convenient date, one replaces the outer, store-wrapped wrapping with one's own miserable excuse for wrapping. This can be done in either of two ways. First, one can place the wrapped gift in a larger box, and then wrap the outer box itself.

Alternatively, one can unwrap the gift, discard the store-wrapping, and re-wrap from scratch. If one suffers from adequate mental illness, one can even pretend to be the recipient and express joy and amazement at the contents of the store-wrapping, as if one had not bought the gift inside.

(I choose the former approach because, frankly, I'm close enough to the booby hatch as it is, what with the talking to myself in different languages and arguing with the computer.)

But, for those of you who also face the challenge of hiding Christmas presents from the people you live with and actually like, I offer the Grand Unified Theory of Gift-Wrapping as my own little present from me to you.

Indeed. My mother always employed the trunk o' the car as the natural hiding spot from four roving Kenney brothers. Santa Claus neverwrapped the presents from his sleigh, because after all he's a busy guy...

Waldo Jaquith: FBI says “It’s a Wonderful Life” is for commies.

Via Waldo Jaquith, the curtain is pulled back and the truth is known. A FBI memo in 1947 cited It's a Wonderful Life as communist propoganda because of its similarities to a 1932 Soviet flick entitled "The Letter", as well as it's portrayal of Mr. Potter.

Naturally, this is perfectly congruent with the theories that the fat jolly old man in red who hands out toys for free through the employment of slave labor isn't exactly all "up with capitalism" either.

And now, I give you more communism, this time with bunnies.

It's a c-o-n-spiracy after all....

Sunday, December 24, 2006

For Those Who Have Forgotten...

Ayman al-Zawahiri repeats that there can be no Islamic state without the shari'ah, that he will continue terror attacks against the West, and "as you bomb, you will be bombed, and as you kill, you will be killed."

He also has many kind words for secular Arabs, and even for Democrats:

The third thing I wish to talk about is a message to the Democrats in America.

I tell them: you must realize two facts.

The first is that you aren’t the ones who won the midterm elections, nor are the Republicans the ones who lost: rather, the Mujahideen – the Muslim Ummah’s vanguard in Afghanistan and Iraq – are the ones who won, and the American forces and their Crusader allies are the ones who lost.

The second fact is that the Mujahideen are still – by the grace of Allah – in the field, their weapons with which they fell the Democrats are still ready and aimed, and the Mujahideen won’t stop inflicting losses on you until you leave our lands, stop plundering our treasures, and stop backing the corrupt rulers in our countries.

And if you don’t refrain from the foolish American policy of backing Israel, occupying the lands of Islam, and stealing the treasures of the Muslims, then await the same fate.

You must realize that a new period of world history has begun. The period of the offspring of Abd al-Aziz Al-Sa’ud, the grandsons of the Sharif Husayn and Sadat, Mubarak and Arafat has passed, and the period of Khalid Islambouli, Abdullah Azzam, Abu Hafs the Commander, Khattab, Muhammad Atta, Muhammad Siddique Khan, and Shehzad Tanwir (Allah have mercy on them) has begun. And if you are unable to comprehend this transformation, then blame no one but yourselves.

Depart from our lands and stop supporting the corrupt rulers, and don’t prevent the Muslim Ummah from establishing its legitimate Shura state accountable to it.

And I tell both the Republicans and Democrats: you are attempting in panic to find a way out of the disasters which surround you in Iraq and Afghanistan, but you are still thinking with the same idiotic mentality. Thus you try to negotiate with certain parties to secure your departure, although these parties don’t have a way out for you, and your attempts will only succeed in further frustrating you, Allah willing, because you aren’t negotiating with the real powers in the Islamic world. And it appears that you shall embark on a painful journey of failed negotiations, after which you shall come back – Allah permitting – with no other choice but to negotiate with the real powers.

And I tell them: Bush reflects the level of thought of the American nation, despite all the research centers, specialists, thinkers and historians it has. A nation which chooses Bush as its president is a nation of negligible morals, ideology and intellect. And it suffices to take a look at his recent meeting with the beggar al-Maliki in Amman, and the differences and disputes which permeated it and blew up in public despite their strong need to project it as a successful meeting.

Merry Christmas from your friends at al-Qaeda...

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Jaded JD: Merry Christmas

Jaded JD reveals their true identities.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Leaders (so far) on the 2008 Presidential Poll

That feisty little poll to the right has some results:

7th Place (tied): Mike Huckabee and Duncan Hunter
6th Place: Tailspinning from Allen's loss...
5th Place: John McCain
4th Place (tied): Sam Brownback and Rudy Giuliani
2nd Place: Newt Gingrich

...and your first place winner?

1st Place: Jim Gilmore

Interesting to note that of the votes for conservative candidates (Hunter, Huckabee, Gingrich, Brownback, and Gilmore) that they outpoll the moderates 2-1, and Gilmore takes nearly half of that conservative vote.

The poll will continue to run until stagnant. Looking forward to the results!

Al-Qaeda Sends Message to Democrats

Ayman al Zawahri reminds Democrats that it was al-Qaeda inflicting pain on American soldiers in Iraq that won the election, and that if the Democrats do not start negotiating with al-Qaeda and abandon Israel, the same fate awaits them.

Nice.

Progressives Issue Fatwa Against Republitarian!!!

How embarassing.

So much for tolerance on the left.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Bearing Drift Podcast: Major announcments

A new blogger joins Bearing Drift, and Jim comes along with big news -- Blogs United 2007 will be hosted in Virginia Beach this year in conjunction with the Jamestown Quadrennial.

Issues also talked on the podcast include Phil Kellam's 2-month vacation, blog research, "Birth of a Nation", the nature of the blogosphere vs. talk radio, and Christmas.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Right-Wing Liberal

D.J. McGuire (a long time poster here) has decided to toss his hat into the ODBA circle and join the fray at Right-Wing Liberal.

Gotta love the Chambers quote he has posted. Heh.

2008 GOP Presidential Nominee Poll!

Here we go!

Go ahead and vote for your favorite GOP presidential candidate of the moment. One IP address, one computer, one vote (and no paper trail). Be sure to get the word out if you want to really see how the Virginia blogosphere lines up.

Vote is on the right hand side, just point folks here to the ol' blog!

UPDATE: NeoMyz only allows for 100 page views before the poll shuts down. Nice...

Acton: John Cornwell, Call Your Office!

Jennifer Morse over at Acton asks that all too important question:

In light of Iran’s Holocaust Denial conference, you’d think we would hear something from some of the authors who have made a name for themselves attacking the Catholic Church for not doing enough to prevent the Holocaust. Where is John Cornwell, author of Hitler’s Pope, a scurilous attack on Pius XII for not doing enough to save Jews?

While we wait to hear from John Cornwell or James Carroll (author of Constantine’s Sword) or Susan Zuccotti (author of Under His Very Window) to speak out, let the record show that the Catholic Church is speaking out against the denial of the Holocaust.

Could it be that the authors above were less concerned about the well-being of Jews and more concerned with making a dime off of attacking the Catholic Church?

It's just a wild guess.

Bloggers Now Must Disclose Sponsored Posts

You can bet this has consequences for those who pay to blog for political candidates.

Trump: I Look Forward To Taking Lots of Money From My Fat Little Rosie

God has a sense of humor and justice.

Scam Using Capital One?

Just received a phone call using an IVR:

This is a phone call from the Capital One Fraud Department. If this is Melissa Kenney, please press 1.

No option for an operator. So I go ahead and press 1.

Thank you. For verification purposes, please enter the last four digits of your Social Security Number. For instance, if your number is...

Click.

Folks, if someone is asking for any part of your SSN, that's a scam. If it's legitimate, they are going to contact you and approach you with information (e.g. Mrs. Kenney, we discovered a $444.44 charge in Geneva, and we wanted to make sure you didn't charge this to your account).

Morons. Clever morons, but morons nonetheless.

This Pope Rocks

Pope Benedict XVI lays the smackdown on secularism at Christmas:

Pope Benedict XVI urged Christians on Wednesday to defend the spirit of Christmas against secular trends during his last general audience before the holiday.

He wished the several thousand pilgrims and tourists gathered in a Vatican auditorium decorated with Christmas trees a 'Happy Christmas' in seven languages and told them that 'false prophets continue to offer cheap salvation which ends up in deep delusions.'

'It is the duty of Christians to spread through a witness of life the truth of Christmas, which Christ brings to every man and woman of good will.'
Throughout the audience, choral groups sang Christmas carols, including 'Silent Night,' a favorite in the pope's native Germany. Shepherds from Italy's Abruzzi mountains, in their traditional fur- trimmed costumes, played Italian carols on their bagpipes.

During his speech, Benedict also posed the question of the relevance of religion in modern society, one of his leading themes.

'Today, many consider God irrelevant. Even believers sometimes seek tempting but illusory shortcuts to happiness. And yet perhaps even because of this confusion humanity seeks a savior, and awaits the coming of Christ,' the pope said.

If you truly believe that Jesus Christ brought salvation to mankind, then this is not the season to be silent.

Celebrate Christmas!

Bush: Minimum Wage Plus Tax Relief

I'm a bit of a dichotomy on this. I wholeheartedly support a living wage. As an employer, it is my responsibility to pay people enough to live, and not the price I can take advantage of their labor.

This having been said, living wage legislation simply doesn't work on an empirical basis. It has a negligible effect on the working poor, it restricts job growth, punishes small businesses who cannot afford the increase, and ultimately the costs are passed along to the consumer.

So when I see an effective tax cut wedded to an ineffective minimum wage increase, I really don't mind all that much:

President George W. Bush said on Wednesday that he supports a Democratic proposal to increase the U.S. minimum wage but said it should be coupled with tax and regulatory relief for small businesses.

'I believe we should do it in a way that does not punish the millions of small businesses that are creating most of the new jobs in our country,' Bush told a news conference. 'So, I support pairing it with targeted tax and regulatory relief to help these small businesses stay competitive and to help keep our economy growing.'

In fact, it's the best of all worlds. Raise the minimum wage, lower taxes on small businesses, all parties (percievably) win.

Frankly, if you want to do the working poor a favor, eliminate their tax burden and offer low-interest educational microcredit for trade school or post-secondary education. At the state level, eliminate the property and sales tax and move towards a value added and income tax. But that's way ahead of the game...

Gilmore for President? Believe it.

Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore is forming an exploratory committee for a 2008 presidential run.

Among other accomplishments, Gilmore is a former RNC chairman and former Attorney General of Virginia. Gilmore is more famously known (or infamously known in Democratic circles) as the author of the "No Car Tax" campaign in 1997.

UPDATE: DraftGilmore.com isn't all that impressive to the eye (where's the blog, Jim?), but there are several resources there -- including bumper stickers, downloadable PDFs for unit committee meetings and such, and a platform of sorts.

Heck folks -- I'm interested. Who's the better candidate than Jim Gilmore?

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Kaine Scuttles Compromise; Prepares for Fistfight w/ GOP

First here, then confirmed here, it seems as if Governor Kaine is getting ready to go to war against Republicans.

Tsk, tsk.

What is it with Democrats and background checks, anyhow?

Zucker TV, the ISG, and Peace In Our Time!

Thanks Jim!

How do you fix the LP? Get rid of the libertines!

McQ over at QandO laments over the ineffectiveness of the Libertarian Party:

You may remember the blogger who likened libertarian philosophy to that which would a appeal to a 13 year old? It is the LP/C-SPAN circus and the positions of many of its national candidates which establishes and perpetuates that image and makes it easy for both the left and right to dismiss as a whole even the serious, pragmatic libertarians and their ideas.

Additionally, as Bartlett points out, the deck is stacked against the success of a 3rd party. Bartlett points to the Electoral College as one of the main reasons, but another equally important reason has to do with the major parties co-opting third party ideas and essentially rendering that party to marginal status at best.

So what is the solution? Well, per Mr. Bartlett, one thing would help is if the Libertarian Party would go away. Unfortunately I don't think that will happen. And while some see the conversion of Bob Barr to a member of the Libertarian Party as a hopeful sign, my guess is Bob Barr will soon discover exactly what Bartlett and others discovered long ago...

In order for the libertarian philosophy to be effective, it must accomplish one of two general scenarios:

A. Co-opt one of the major parties (see Goldwater in 1964).

B. Start it's own party and feed off the dying husk of another major party (see Whigs and Republicans).

To be honest, in winner-take-all Electoral College math, a third party could make a huge dent if it were committed to victory.

Libertarians (capital L) haven't gotten the point yet, nor do they know what they believe, how they can responsibly implement their philosophy, and what kind of candidates they should run.

Take Michael Badnarik in 2004. A pro-life libertarian (!) until he won the nomination, when the kooks forced him to waffle to pro-abortion.

Then you have the conventions... and the platforms... ugh. For being Libertarians, they sure are rather oppressive when it comes to ideological conformity.

The quick-and-dirty solution is to purge the libertines from the LP. Get rid of the pro-legalization crowd, the no-IRS crowd, the Illuminati-control-everything crowd and set up a long pole for the big tent. Surprisingly, the blogosphere can almost be neatly split into three groups of conservatives, liberals (self-styled progressives), and libertarians. The soil is fertile, but the wrong people are sowing the seeds.

Until then, there are going to continue to be many, many potential recruits that will lurk on the sidelines and influence the major parties from within. The GOP is starting to rumble with the libertarian-conservative rift, but it's not a Goldwater/Reaganesque revolution as conservatives enjoyed in the years leading up to 1980.

Reader comments in jeopardy

One MSM outlet's experiment with comments sections gone horribly wrong.

Unfortunately you get two options -- Wild West, or heavy moderation. Inbetween, comments sections that are self moderated work best (i.e. moderated by the community, with admins giving certain prominent users the "ban stick"), but ultimately this is the nature of the beast.

Hypocrisy at the DNC?

And they haven't even taken power in Congress yet:

With a decision expected any day on where the Democratic Party will hold its 2008 national convention, a union leader in Denver has refused to sign a no-strike pledge, a move one organizer called a possible deal-breaker.

How ironic is that!

UPDATE: Not nearly as ironic as completely misspelling hypocrisy...

LIVEBLOG: Jeff Caruso with the Virginia Catholic Conference, 19 December 2006

Feel free to start listing your questions below!

Tuesday, 10:00am on 19 December I will be hosting Jeff Caruso, the Executive Director of the Virginia Catholic Conference. The following is the mission statement of the VCC:

The Virginia Catholic Conference represents the mutual public-policy interests of the Diocese of Richmond and the Diocese of Arlington. The Conference engages in advocacy on respect-life, social-justice, and education issues through contacts with state and federal lawmakers and with grassroots advocates throughout the Commonwealth.

Some folks have already looked over the 2007 Legislative Agenda (PDF) for the General Assembly this year. Some of the items include:

* Prohibiting the use of state funds for research on stem cells obtained by destroying human embryos or fetuses.
* Requiring abortion clinics to be licensed by the state and regulated as outpatient surgical hospitals.
* Abolishing the death penalty in Virginia.
* Imposing a moratorium on executions in Virginia while flaws in the justice system are addressed.
* Restricting over-the-counter availability of the “Plan B” morning-after pill in Virginia.
* Increasing state funding for employment, housing, and health care for individuals with disabilities.
* Increasing the minimum wage (currently $5.15 per hour) by at least one dollar.
* Continuing to permit the children of undocumented immigrants to attend state colleges and universities, and helping them access in-state tuition if they attend Virginia high schools.
* Preserving the ability of localities to establish centers for day laborers.
* Supporting consumer protections against predatory practices by companies offering “payday” and car-title loans.
* Increasing state funding for the Meals on Wheels program.
* Establishing income-tax credits for business entities and individuals who make contributions to public-school foundations or scholarship foundations.
* Preventing minors’ access to pornography.
* Supporting financial assistance for grandparents and other relatives who care for children when their parents are unable to provide care.

And that is just a small smattering of what the Catholic Bishops will be advocating this session.

Don't be afraid to limit your questions to the legislative agenda! I'll bump this thread next Tuesday and Mr. Caruso will begin answering questions promptly at 10:00am.

Monday, December 18, 2006

I want the jersey

The Vatican (yes that Vatican) is mulling over the idea of forming it's own soccer team.

Now I don't know how I feel about the Vatican playing some communist kickball... but the jersey would certainly be worth owning!

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Battle of the Bulge

16 December 1944: Operaton Wacht am Rhein began when elements of the German 6th SS Panzer and 5th Panzer attacked through the Ardennes forest. The Battle of the Bulge would become the bloodiest battle of World War II with 19,000 Americans dead, involving over 630,000 American soldiers -- more than at the Battle of Gettysburg.

NUTS!

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Pennies, Nickels Worth More Melted Down

Every once in awhile someone in Washington makes the argument against the penny, saying it needs to be replaced, etc.

Guess there's a reason for that after all, most of which is that copper and nickel are worth more than your $0.01 and $0.05 pieces themselves:

What's the big deal? First, Mint officials said, the coins are needed for their normal purpose. Second, it costs money to make them. According to the Mint, each nickel costs more than 8 cents to produce, while each penny costs 1.73 cents.

Of course, if you get caught melting down your change, it's a $10,000 fine and five years in federal prison.

All this having been said, eight cents to make five cents isn't exactly brilliance.

Friday, December 15, 2006

globeandmail.com: Man with no pulse considered a medical breakthrough

A gentleman in Canada has received an artificial heart that lasts 10 years.

So at what point does he stop becoming human and start becoming say.... a cyborg!

Interesting stuff. Not approved for widespread medical use just yet, but give it time.

Bacon's Rebellion: The House Desperately Needs to Re-Frame the Debate

Jim Bacon over at Bacon's Rebellion shows how:

Conservative, low-tax Republicans can't out-spend Democrats and the 'pragmatic' wing of the Republican Party. They will lose that debate every time. They have to re-cast the debate. The issue isn't how much money to spend, it's how the money is spent. The issue is creating a funding system in which people pay for transportation in direct proportion to which they use it. The issue is adapting a 1930s-vintage transportation system and a 1950s-era land use system for the 21st century. Unless the House can change the meta-narrative, it will lose the debate -- if not in 2007 General Assembly session, then in the 2007 electoral campaign.

Bingo.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

General Grievous' Dog

First Perseverando on the left, now General Grievous' Dog on the right.

Heh.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Oppo Research on Bloggers???

DEVELOPING...

If you are a Virginia blogger, chances are that the Webb campaign has an opposition research book on you. Bloggers that made the cut include Chad Dotson, Jim Hoeft, Ben Tribbett, Waldo Jaquith, Josh Chernila, Lowell Feld, Jim Riley, J.C. Wilmore, Jon Henke, and a host of others. These are not your typical background checks either... a significant amount of money was spent crafting the kind of opposition research one would typically find on a candidate running for public office.

It seems as if the Webb campaign made a strategic decision to unleash this opposition research if something damaging came out against their candidate, simply to personally slander the blogger making the claim.

Once source for this information described it as "Nixonian". Not only were Republican bloggers thouroughly researched, but Democratic allies of Webb as well, in the event they turned on the Webb campaign.

UPDATE: NLS is confirming the opposition research as "having some truth behind it,", trying to find out how deep this story really is. So folks on the left aren't happy about this either.

UDPATE x2: From Not Larry Sabato:

What I have been told by some reliable sources is that Shaun's report is very close to reality. However, I am hearing that the list of bloggers researched is "smaller" than Shaun's list, while the amount of information compiled on those bloggers chosen is "very large". My source also assures me that this talk of credit reports that others started (notice Shaun never mentioned them) is totally false, and that the information gathered, while broad, "did not violate anyone's privacy".

I'm adding two toupees.

Webb staffers are now flip-flopping as to the number of oppo reports done, and even if they existed.

To clear up the comments below, what makes this particularly atrocious isn't the fact that research was done. Rather, that it was done (1) on Democratic operatives and volunteers, (2) that it was done to slander bloggers who broke with potentially damaging stories, and (3) the reports are reportedly fairly extensive and deep, designed to tear a reputation down rather than constructively deal with the issue potentially presented.

It also suggests there was something the Webb campaign was concerned about emerging via the blogs -- something that might spook Democrats from supporting Webb -- and they were prepared to go to extreme lengths to control the damage.

General foresees 'generational war' against terrorism

Thoughts on how the War on Terrorism is more akin to policy rather than an actual war.

WND: Soy Makes You Gay?

So sayeth some fella who publishes for WorldNetDaily.

To be honest, I don't read WND, and would never have had my attention drawn to this if not for the round of derisive commentary from Waldo and Vivian. So I looked up some of the claims.

UK Guardian: Should we worry about soya in our food?

Sue Dibb, now food policy expert at the National Consumer Council, was a member of the CoT working group that compiled the final report. She questions whether infant soya milk should still be on public sale and is troubled by the latest marketing of soya. "We looked in detail at the claimed health benefits for adults for soya consumption and concluded there was not sufficient evidence to support many of them. There may be benefits but there are also risks. The groups of adults of particular concern are those with a thyroid problem and women with oestrogen-dependent breast cancer. It worries me that soya is being pushed as a health food by a big soya and supplements industry. We ought to be taking a more cautious approach."

The Food Standards Agency advice is that soya's potential to have an adverse effect on babies' hormonal development is still controversial, but that soya formula should only be given to infants under 12 months old in exceptional circumstances.

Professor Richard Sharpe, head of the Medical Research Council's human reproductive sciences unit at Edinburgh University, was also a member of the committee's working group on phyto-oestrogens in food. He has been studying the decline in male fertility in the past half-century. He recently completed studies on the effects of soya milk on young male monkeys which showed that it interferes with testosterone levels. "In the first three months after birth, baby boys have a neonatal testosterone rise. The testes are very, very active in hormone production at this point and there is a lot of cell activity going on that will determine sperm count in adults and will affect the developing prostate. If you introduce a phyto-oestrogen, which can, in large amounts, alter these changes, you may predispose children to later disease. Soya formula milk is a [recent] western invention. There is not the historical evidence to show it is safe.

Now I'll readily admit that WND has it's share of craziness, but the UK Guardian?

The War Rages On...

Seems as if someone in Shockoe Bottom found some unexploded Yankee ordinance this evening:

The discovery of what may have been an unexploded Civil War-era shell at a construction site prompted police to block off Richmond's Shockoe Bottom area tonight and call a bomb squad.

Now I could be completely off, but my youngest brother works on a similar project in Downtown Richmond... any first-hand accounts?

Regardless, stories of leftover ordinance remind me of stories in Fredericksburg of unexploded ordinance being found after a good storm or something. After all, two years of the war was fought there....

OMT: The Decline of Conservativism?

Norm over at OMT begs the question, commenting on this article from Bradley Thompson of Virginia's very own Objective Standard:

Reading this piece to the end takes a bit of stamina. But it raises a number of questions that conservatives ought to ask themselves, not the least of which is 'Are we really conservatives, dedicated to defend what is right and true...or are we merely shadows of the left?

Whenever I hear the arguments for "vision" from Republicans, I tend to lean towards the latter answer than the former.

What do we want government to do? Less, dammit. That means cutting my taxes, giving me school choice, and dismantling the nanny state (or the avuncular state which I have critiqued before), and allowing the free market to operate.

Good government is no substitute for self-government.

Unfortunately, the national record for conservativism mimics the record here in Virginia. Republican government doesn't mean smaller government anymore. In fact, it's sadly the opposite:

Here are some hard facts. Government spending has increased faster under George Bush and his Republican Congress than it did under Bill Clinton, and more people work for the federal government today than at any time since the end of the Cold War. During Bush’s first term, total government spending skyrocketed from $1.86 trillion to $2.48 trillion, an increase of 33 percent (almost $23,000 per household, the highest level since World War II). The federal budget grew by $616.4 billion during Bush’s first term in office. If post 9/11 defense spending is taken off the table, domestic spending has ballooned by 23 percent since Bush took office. When Bill Clinton left office in 2000, federal spending equaled 18.5 percent of the gross domestic product, but by the end of the first Bush administration, government outlays had increased to 20.3 percent of the GDP. The annualized growth rate of non-defense and non-homeland-security outlays has more than doubled from 2.1 percent under Clinton to 4.8 percent under Bush.

That damages our brand, but it does something much more radical than this. It pushes away the more libertarian-minded Republicans that are spot-on when it comes to fiscal policy.

Indeed, the old fusionist alliance between libertarians and conservatives seems to be headed in the same direction as the progressive/liberal alliance was in the aftermath of 2000 -- divorce court.

The problem with the Republican Party isn't vision; it's moorings. We don't know what we stand for other than preserving power. While we may fool ourselves into believing such a situation saves American families, it does nothing unless we are pro-actively dismantling wasteful government at every turn.

Allow me a Hobbesian moment....

Individuals are given 100% power over their own lives. Thomas Jefferson believed this: "Almighty God hath created the mind free," says the Sage of Monticello. We reduce that freedom by entering compacts, whether it is governance or in business, by shopping at Wal-Mart or borrowing a friend's hammer.

That power is inevitably reduced by interacting with other individuals. From individualism, to society, to culture, to government -- these things sap our freedom. Sometimes necessarily so, other times unnecessarily.

The trick isn't necessarily balance, but restraint. Like any organization, the Leviathan of government quickly becomes "self-aware" of its own existence and will continue to consume resources as it sees fit.

What individuals in a free society must do is restrain government so that rather than government relying on individuals for its existence, individuals should never begin to rely on government.

This has an effect on perspective. Certainly there are things government provides that are necessary: common defense, the adjudication of disputes, the rule of law. But these items are items where government relies on the participation of the governed for benefit. Flipped over to an issue such as state-mandated public education, and now government has provided a monopoly on a service individuals must use. Given no other choice, individuals now become reliant upon government for provision, handicapping themselves.

Now there are a myriad of different item government "provides" that could be held up for dispute. Does the federal government really need to be funding space exploration? Public housing? Corporate welfare? Education? Transportation and commerce? Health Care? The Internet?

Some items go on a case-by-case perspective. Certainly there are items on this list that are free from government interference (the Internet for example) that are well-regulated. Other responsibilities such as education are in the best interest of any publically elected government.

Others could use compromise positions, but the general theme of self-governance and a government out of the business of proscribing "thou shalls" is implicit.

Now naturally, one would expect the following prescription for what ails the GOP from an objectivist (Randroid if you prefer):

In the 1950s and 60s, conservatives could be faulted for lacking the courage to morally defend capitalism and for diluting whatever good principles they had with an admixture of bad or contradictory principles. Today’s conservatives, however, have either rejected principles as such, or, as is increasingly the case, have explicitly embraced the moral premises of the Left.

Because they refuse to defend capitalism morally, on the basis of egoism, conservatives have compromised and sold-out the rights of the American people. They have ceded the principled high ground to the Left by accepting the moral rationale for the welfare state—altruism and its attendant notion that “need” is a legitimate moral claim.

Those who value freedom and capitalism must abandon altruism and the fantasy philosophies that support it (including religion). They must embrace egoism and the factual foundation for individual rights. They must defend capitalism—not only because it works better than any other social system—but also, and more fundamentally, because it is the only moral social system.

Obviously I would firmly disagree that religion or altruism are negative impulses that prohibit a free society. In fact, I would argue that both are essential components to culture, which is the only moral substitute for government.

I would also attack the idea that "need" is not a legitimate moral claim. Need is the basic starting point for every human being. It is a moral question because it exists. The moral answer may indeed be capitalism and the application of a truly free market (that doesn't descend into what Pope John Paul II would criticise as unfettered capitalism), but that doesn't erase the moral question of and individual dealing with the question of need.

Different methods are applied to the question of need under capitalism, one of which is opportunity. Another is a judicial system that aims for harmonization rather than vauge notions of "fairness" or "equality" in the eyes of Rawls.

To turn the tables on libertarianism, the sole reason why it doesn't work and hasn't coalesced is because the libertines have taken over the madhouse. Libertarianism isn't a rejection of authority, but rather a rejection of government excess. What it has systematically failed to do (and what objectivists fail to recognize) is establish an authority that applies universally.

Now an objectivist or a utilitarian might argue that capitalism is that bond, but it cannot be at the price of altruism. Altruism is what allows cultures to form, and culture is the bearing that gives sacrifice meaning. To argue that altruism is an abberation or disorder begs the question as to the cause. Many would argue there is no cause; human beings are hardwired to be altruistic. As such, there is a benefit to being giving, both socially and individually.

It is when altruism ceases to be voluntary and instead mandated that objectivists and utilitarians come closer to reality. Government demands involuntary altruism through taxes, businesses demand involuntary altruism through monopolization and usury, etc.

In fact, virtually every act where an individual grants power -- either by buying a product, entering a compact, or paying taxes -- is an act deemed to benefit mutually. Altruism does this as well, even though there is no material benefit to the provider.

But altruism does build something called trust. Any compact that becomes mutually beneficial to both parties builds trust, and trust is what makes capitalism work.

When capitalism ceases to build trust, laws are imposed and socialism enforced to the benefit of either the consumer or producer of said goods. Both ultimately chip away at society by integrating it into government, and in doing so saps the power (and the need) for culture and individualism.

Hence we come full circle. Human beings are essentially social creatures, but they are not rocks unto themselves, nor do they desire to be cogs in a Leviathan. Belonging has a large part to do in our choices. I choose to be Catholic because I choose to belong to a 2,000-year old institution founded by Jesus Christ. I choose to live in the country because my children can grow up enjoying a life I enjoyed. I choose to home-school so I can teach my kids how to think and not what to think. I choose to drive a Ford truck because Chevy trucks break down.

My list of reasons could go on forever, but there are several choices that I make that are linked to like-minded individuals whom I can share experiences. That builds culture. Culture builds trust. Trust establishes capitalism. At it's very root, this is the early idea of classical liberalism.

So how do we regain our footing? Not by rejecting altruism or discerning what is and what is not "good government," but rather dismantling the edifice of socialism and re-establishing the breathing room culture once enjoyed in America. Never did the phrase summa ius, summa iniuria hold so much gravity.

When laws begin to replace trust, good government begins to replace self-government, and a government that can be good one election can quickly swing back to bad in the next. Only in an ethic that demands self-government over total government (or worse, no government at all) can hope to resist the excesses of either socialism or capitalism.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

I'm Back!

Blogger has finally released my account back into the wild after bouncing it around since Thursday.

Ouch.

In any event, back to fighting form.

Monday, December 11, 2006

France vs. Israel?

Seems as if the French peacekeepers have had enough of the IAF doing surveillance over southern Lebanon:

France, a member of UNIFIL, has expressed adamant opposition to IAF overflights in Lebanon. Last month, OC Planning Division Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan traveled to Paris for meetings with senior military officials during which he tried to explain Israel's operational needs. The flights, the IDF claims, are necessary for gathering intelligence and keeping an eye on the Lebanese-Syrian border through which weapons are smuggled to the Hizbullah.

Angered however from an incident in October during which French soldiers almost opened fire at an IAF fighter jet, military sources in Paris told The Jerusalem Post following Nehushtan's visit that they were still opposed to the overflights and that French soldiers stationed in Lebanon were given the authority to open fire at Israeli jets if they felt threatened by the flights.

According to Israeli defense sources, the French initiative is also meant to prove the operational capabilities of its UAVs so they can compete against Israeli defense industries on the global UAV market.

Don't you wish the French could be as adamant concerning the smuggling of arms along the Syrian-Lebanese border to replenish Hezbollah?

Thursday, December 07, 2006

When do you look for bargains? When you're rich.

Interesting tidbit from CNET News. I have a perennial habit of buying quality stuff. Best of the best (so it won't break). Mrs. Kenney on the other hand buys the cheapest of the cheap, seeking deal after deal.

Often we butt heads. Or I am the butthead. Whichever you prefer, seems there's a reason for that:

When times are good, you shop by price. When times are bad, you're actually more willing to go upscale and spend for quality.

That little paradox comes courtesy of Jay Vandenbree, president of consumer sales for Sony Electronics. It's a pattern the company has observed in the past. The thinking is that, in tough economic times, consumers want something that will last. So they buy top brands and research products.

When the economy is roaring, people are obsessed with money, but in a different way. They want a deal. And they figure that if it breaks, they can just buy a new one.

Mrs. Kenney mentions that she did marry me...

Pfft.