Patterico's Pontifications

11/21/2012

Open Thread

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:54 am



We’re still working on the site. I have a pretty good post about a Daily Caller article that I can’t publish because I currently cannot upload images, and I have to get to work. So it’s another open thread — but it’s the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so it’s bound to be a slow news day anyway.

310 Responses to “Open Thread”

  1. This has me really looking forward to 2016:

    GQ: How old do you think the Earth is?

    Marco Rubio: I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I’m not a scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries.

    OK, I’ll start.

    GQ: How many bones are in the human body?

    Marco Rubio: I’m not a doctor, man.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  2. Interesting story. A judge in Oklahoma sentenced a 17-year old who pleaded guilty to DUI manslaughter to ten years of church attendance plus finishing high school and welding. http://www.ksl.com/?sid=23047435&nid=1016&title=teen-sentenced-to-10-years-of-church-attendance&s_cid=queue-5

    Who is objecting? The family of the victim? No, the ACLU. I guess the ACLU would prefer ten years in prison.

    It’s a plea deal, in the first place, and in the second place does ACLU standing?

    nk (875f57)

  3. And it’s been a long time since I was in fifth grade. Is the Earth four billion years old?

    nk (875f57)

  4. Carlitos,

    Clearly Rubio is unelectable.

    The push against him has already begun….

    Dana (292dcf)

  5. I thought you couldn’t have two threads with the same name.

    But, wait: this is Open Thread number 20.

    Yesterday was number 19.

    https://patterico.com/2012/11/20/open-thread-19/#comments

    I didn’t notice that. There seemed to be a conflict with the one started June 1 when I tried to save it. I had to change the name to avoid overwriting it.

    Sammy Finkelman (69e89f)

  6. Carlitos – how is that any different than Obama’s position?

    JD (419d6b)

  7. Q: Senator, if one of your daughters asked you—and maybe they already have—“Daddy, did god really create the world in 6 days?,” what would you say?

    A: What I’ve said to them is that I believe that God created the universe and that the six days in the Bible may not be six days as we understand it … it may not be 24-hour days, and that’s what I believe. I know there’s always a debate between those who read the Bible literally and those who don’t, and I think it’s a legitimate debate within the Christian community of which I’m a part. My belief is that the story that the Bible tells about God creating this magnificent Earth on which we live—that is essentially true, that is fundamentally true. Now, whether it happened exactly as we might understand it reading the text of the Bible: That, I don’t presume to know.

    JD (419d6b)

  8. JD – I have no idea. Nor does Obama.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  9. Shorter JD:
    Q: Senator, if one of your daughters asked you—and maybe they already have—“Daddy, did god really create the world in 6 days?,” what would you say?

    A: You d

    Icy (1b97e9)

  10. I’d have no problem, my daughter claims to be an atheist. Now if the question were whether Loki is a god or a an ice-giant … 😉

    nk (875f57)

  11. Shorter JD:
    Q: Senator, if one of your daughters asked you—and maybe they already have—“Daddy, did god really create the world in 6 days?,” what would you say?

    A: You didn’t build that!

    Icy (1b97e9)

  12. 🙂 That’s funny, Icy.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  13. GQ: Should we teach creation myths in science class?

    Marco Rubio: I’m not the Texas Board of Education, man.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  14. GQ: Should we teach creation myths in science class?

    Marco Rubio: Is this a religion interview? Why don’t we talk about something more relevant to GQ readers. Do you want a mushroom bruise from my giant trouser python?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  15. How long did it take God to create 57 states and did the people of Babel speak Austrian?

    SPQR (2dab96)

  16. GQ: Can a Republican give an accurate answer to a science question, or will he have to pander to the ignorant religious nutbags that vote in the primaries?

    Marco Rubio: I’m not stupid, man.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  17. PETA brings a waddle full of Thansgiving crazy.

    Now Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, says the turkey pardon has got to go.
    “It makes light of the mass slaughter of some 46 million gentle, intelligent birds and portrays the United States’ president as being in some sort of business partnership with the turkey-killing industry,” Newkirk wrote in a letter sent to President Obama today. “Turkeys do not need to be ‘pardoned’-they are not guilty of anything other than being born into a world of prejudice. They are innocents who should be respected for who they are: good mothers, smart birds, and interesting animals.”
    “You understand so well that African-Americans, women, and members of the LGBT community have been poorly served throughout history,” Newkirk writes, “and now I am asking you to consider other living beings who are ridiculed, belittled, and treated as if their sentience, feelings, and very natures count for nothing.”

    Dana (292dcf)

  18. When asked if the comparison of turkeys with minority Americans was a little extreme, PETA spokesperson Ashley Byrne answered that turkeys feel pain and fear, just like humans.

    “Everyone deserves to be free from suffering, and that includes turkeys,” Byrne said.

    Dana (292dcf)

  19. In California, I think that they put lentils into a turkey-shaped mold for tomorrow’s special meal.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  20. rubio is like tracy flick deep fried in jesus to a golden brown I think

    happyfeet (077da7)

  21. Dana – How many angels can dance on the head of a PETA pinhead?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  22. GQ: What’s up with evolution?

    Marco Rubio: I’m on the Science Committee, man.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  23. if you say the earth is billions of years old what happens is a ton of republicans won’t vote for you cause you is against the bible

    happyfeet (077da7)

  24. Why can’t there be a socially liberal, fiscally conservative Republican? It seems so obvious. People like weed and sex and stuff, right? People like keeping more of their own money, right?

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  25. So what should he do? Lie?!

    if you say the earth is billions of years old what happens is a ton of republicans won’t vote for you cause you is against the bible

    Not true. But it is true that if you dare question, ever so lightly, the religious doctrine that there is no God, and the world happened all by itself billions of years ago, then all the lefties who would never have voted for you anyway won’t vote for you, and will tell everyone that you’re crazy. Well, screw them. We should refuse to play their game. We should be in their faces asking them why exactly Rubio’s careful, rational answer is crazy, while 0bama’s identical answer was “thoughtful”. Challenge them to say outright that the Bible is a pack of lies and religious people are crazy and shouldn’t be allowed to vote. And then publicise their answers and show them to be the crazies. Because most Americans do believe in the Bible, and don’t think it’s crazy.

    Milhouse (15b6fd)

  26. What was so objectionable to what Rubio said?

    JD (318f81)

  27. What was so objectionable to what Rubio said?

    While it was admittedly a “gotcha” question, someone on the Senate Science Committee could have said “billions of years, but I’m not exactly sure” without all of the bible-pandering bullshit. I learned how old the Earth was in seventh grade. Him saying “I’m not qualified to answer that” is ridiculous. If he’s not qualified to answer that, he should resign from the Committee.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  28. christie accounts for a half of that ton of republicans.

    mg (31009b)

  29. 24- Jack Herer is dead.

    mg (31009b)

  30. This was a GQ profile, not a political piece, so he couldn’t simply refuse to answer any questions that had nothing to do with politics. His views on rap music are also not relevant to politics, but he spoke on that anyway, because it was that kind of interview. So how could he have dodged this question any better than he did?

    Milhouse (15b6fd)

  31. By not bringing up something completely irrelevant to the question, like the bible and “theologians?” What the hell do theologians have to do with the age of the Earth? This is why team R is losing, people. You have ignoramuses talking about “real rape” and the bible when the whole world sees that real science brings you internet porn.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  32. Rubio sorta redeems himself:

    GQ: Your three favorite rap songs?

    Marco Rubio: “Straight Outta Compton” by N.W.A. “Killuminati” by Tupac. Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.”

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  33. What the hell do theologians have to do with the age of the Earth?

    It’s their job to figure out what God meant when He told us how and when He made it. You’d think that would be relevant. If your car’s manufacturer tells you it was made in a certain year, don’t you think that’s relevant?

    You have ignoramuses talking about “real rape”

    What’s ignorant about the difference between real rape (“rape rape”) and things that are called rape but aren’t?

    Milhouse (15b6fd)

  34. Carlitos, you may be an atheist but that is not the default position in American politics, and it must not be allowed to become the default position.

    Milhouse (15b6fd)

  35. Rubio sorta redeems himself:

    GQ: Your three favorite rap songs?

    Marco Rubio: “Straight Outta Compton” by N.W.A. “Killuminati” by Tupac. Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.”

    So you’re OK with his answering that question but not the one about the Creation? Why? How many Americans are rap fans, compared with how many believe that God isn’t a liar?

    Milhouse (15b6fd)

  36. The verdict (http://sprocket-trials.blogspot.com/2012/11/christian-newsom-murders-vanessa.html) in the retrial of the female defendant in the Christian-Newsom torture-murder case in Knoxville, Tennessee came down on Tuesday. She was guilty on 13 of 17 counts.

    DN (322684)

  37. GQ: How old do you think the Earth is?

    Marco Rubio: As a Christian, my position on that is the same as President Obama’s.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  38. GQ: P in NP?

    Marco Rubio: I’m not a computer scientist, man!

    Left wing nutbags Media: Is this guy really ready to be president? He doesn’t understand basic science!

    egd (d580cc)

  39. “Why can’t there be a socially liberal, fiscally conservative Republican”

    carlitos – You have to define what you mean by socially liberal, because in a lot of cases what are considered socially liberal issues directly conflict with fiscal conservatism. In other cases socially liberal causes mean excessive government regulation. We already have anti-discrimination laws on the books, but now we have extra-special categories of people and hate crime laws that treat different types of people in a disparate manner. So I have a problem with just slinging the term out there without defining what you mean with examples. Sex and weed don’t do it for me.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  40. Well i recall Charlton Heston’s voiceover of ‘Jurassic Park,’ where he pointed out the earth being billions of years old, and the relative fraction of time, that mankind has been around, it puts into perspective, the delusion about AGW,

    narciso (ee31f1)

  41. carlitos – Does Mayor Nanny Bloomberg of New York dictating what people can drink and eat fall into your category of socially liberal?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  42. Carlitos, what’s wrong with Palin? She’s not a social liberal, but why should she be? She’s not into interfering with people’s private lives, so what difference should her social views make to you or anyone else? What conceivable objection could a social liberal have to her? And yet we saw how she was treated.

    Unless by “social liberal” you mean supports killing babies and redefining marriage.

    Milhouse (15b6fd)

  43. What conceivable objection could a social liberal have to her?

    Gov Palin isn’t subsidizing and forcing social liberalism on us. That’s the problem.

    Dustin (73fead)

  44. 206 bones. The hard part is listing them. I suspect there’s a mnemomic to help, but don’t know it.

    htom (412a17)

  45. How about “socially libertarian” then? Legal pot, legal abortion, legal beer, legal gay or straight marriage. No “hate speech” laws.

    Milhouse – convince me. Name one thing that Christianity helps in terms of government policy.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  46. There was an interesting op Ed in the LAT this week suggesting Palin is right for 2016 . The writer believes she fits the bill of what conservatives want and need.

    http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-allen-palin-for-president-20121118,0,1525685.story

    Of course, the next day was a mocking snark of an op ed pointing out why the mere suggestion was nuts and anyone who buys into the possibility is equally nuts.

    http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-sarah-palin-charlotte-allen-the-jokes-on-us-20121120,0,2720636.story

    Dana (292dcf)

  47. There’s nothing libertarian about abortion, or about redefining marriage. And why should Christianity “help”? You seem to be proceeding from the position that atheism is the default, and religious people should apologise for and justify their existence. That we should put up atheist candidates, or ones who can pass for atheist, and treat their religion as an embarrassing private foible. Forget it. This is a religious country, and religious people should be able to hold their heads high. Especially in the Republican Party.

    Why don’t you tell us what you mean by that last sentence. And tell us exactly why Palin is not the perfect candidate you’re looking for.

    Milhouse (15b6fd)

  48. That other writer, if one can be so charitable, relies strongly on ‘Julianne’s Bender’ as source material,

    narciso (ee31f1)

  49. atheism is the default

    That’s almost exactly right. It’s the null hypothesis. When evidence for God or gods are presented, we will disprove the null. Pretty simple.

    There’s nothing libertarian about legal abortion or gay marriage? What? That’s the whole point of libertarianism – keeping the government out of your private business.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  50. Nom it’s about dismantling institutions with government fiat and resources,

    narciso (ee31f1)

  51. Carlitos, this is a religious country, founded by and for religious people. “And this be our motto: In God is our trust.” Atheism is the exception here, the weird belief that has to hide itself in shame. How many political candidates admit their atheism in public? 0bama pretends to be a Xian because he knows he’d lose if he didn’t. So why are you advocating that Republicans nominate atheists, or that Republican candidates pretend to be atheists?

    There’s nothing libertarian about legal abortion, any more than there is about legal burglary or legal rape. The entire purpose of government is to protect people from the initiation of force, and abortion is the biggest initiation of force possible. Abortion is no more your private business than is mugging or pickpocketing.

    And how the law defines marriage is certainly not anybody’s private business. By definition it is government business.

    Milhouse (15b6fd)

  52. That other writer, if one can be so charitable, relies strongly on ‘Julianne’s Bender’ as source material,

    Yes, he seems to be under the impression that Game Change is a documentary.

    Milhouse (15b6fd)

  53. this is a religious country,

    Appeal to Common Practice, a logical fallacy.

    founded by and for religious people. “And this be our motto: In God is our trust.”

    Appeal to Tradition, a logical fallacy.

    Atheism is the exception here, the weird belief that has to hide itself in shame. How many political candidates admit their atheism in public? 0bama pretends to be a Xian because he knows he’d lose if he didn’t.

    Appeal to Popularity, a logical fallacy.

    So why are you advocating that Republicans nominate atheists, or that Republican candidates pretend to be atheists?

    I’m advocating that people use science, and that Republicans stop appealing to the ignorance and bigotry of the religious right to get a bit less than half the vote (and less in four years). Long-term, it’s a losing strategy. It doubly offends me because it forces intelligent people to pretend not to understand the world around them.

    There’s nothing libertarian about legal abortion, any more than there is about legal burglary or legal rape. The entire purpose of government is to protect people from the initiation of force, and abortion is the biggest initiation of force possible. Abortion is no more your private business than is mugging or pickpocketing.

    Abortion is force used against a clump of cells. You could make the same argument against liposuction, in the extreme.

    And how the law defines marriage is certainly not anybody’s private business. By definition it is government business.

    If that’s the case, then the government shouldn’t be able to discriminate against gay people. But it does, so it’s wrong.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  54. … Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion … which is what you want it to do. Your religious beliefs and the practices they establish are not a proper basis for law in the good old USA. In the Talibanic USA, why, of course they are. You don’t want an abortion, don’t have one. Don’t want to marry a gay, don’t. Let your neighbors go to their own hells in peace, as they should let you.

    htom (412a17)

  55. My three favorite rap songs FTW are:
    Hos Got Me Boned—SMK
    That Girl Tried To Kill Me—Ice-T
    Hate My @$$—Triple Life

    Mayor Marathon (721840)

  56. htom got it. This a country tolerant of religion. Not demanding of religion. We are not Israel. Or England for that matter.

    nk (875f57)

  57. I’m advocating that people use science, and that Republicans stop appealing to the ignorance and bigotry of the religious right

    But only certain science. And the rest is a snarky attack on people of faith.

    JD (318f81)

  58. htom, I don’t think anyone gives a rip about gays marrying, they just don’t want their church to be sued for refusing to marry gays. And please don’t tell me they won’t try. Look what they’re now teaching in elementary schools under the guise of tolerance.

    Amalgamated Cliff Divers, Local 157 (721840)

  59. I think calling people ignorant and bigots is going to prove to be about as successful as running McCain and Romney. .

    JD (318f81)

  60. Abortion is force used against a clump of cells. You could make the same argument against liposuction, in the extreme.

    You could make the same argument against a six week old infant, in the extreme.

    What’s the difference between murdering a six week old baby and liposuction?

    Well, the baby has a soul and is a person who may grow up to be a citizen that has values and intrinsic and extrinsic rights. That seems to be the difference.

    Dustin (73fead)

  61. hyperactive no
    they blinded me with science
    and Howard teh Duck

    Colonel Haiku (a22607)

  62. Certain science? What do you mean, JD?

    Does anyone even deny that the religious right exhibit ignorance and bigotry? It’s kind of their whole reason for being, isn’t it?

    My favorite 3 rap songs are:
    The Message, by Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five
    How Ya Like Me Now, by Kool Moe Dee
    Fight the Power, by Public Enemy

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  63. Does anyone even deny that the religious right exhibit ignorance and bigotry? It’s kind of their whole reason for being, isn’t it?

    I am religious, and I am in the right. Do you find me to be ignorant, bigoted, or both?

    Science like AGW, is an article of faith.

    JD (318f81)

  64. Does anyone even deny that the religious right exhibit ignorance and bigotry?

    As a general group, I would absolutely deny this. There are some profoundly ignorant individuals within any group of significant size.

    It’s kind of their whole reason for being, isn’t it?

    That was really kind of beneath you.

    JD (318f81)

  65. htom and carlitos–thanks for at least trying to make some sense of this and asking people to think.

    This why Republicans lose. Republicans lose because a vocal minority in the party dictates extremist positions in the primary and forces all R candidates to “go there” as a litmus test in what appears to many of us on the right (and much of the rest of the populace) to be a stupid and insincere flip flop from their previously stated positions (which it is). Then “we” put a wholly impossible to ever achieve Constitutional amendment plank in our platform and do it consistently for twenty years which touches all R candidates who are running in local, state, and federal elections across the country –and when anyone asks about it (say in a debate or editorial board session, townhall) we say “look! a squirrel.” Then, “we” go into the general election thinking that independent women, blacks, Hispanics, gays, and everyone under 35 should just overlook those positions because we are so totally right on the fiscal issues.

    elissa (51a301)

  66. “It’s kind of their whole reason for being, isn’t it?”

    Carlitos – Do atheist exist to make other people unhappy?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  67. “Certain science? What do you mean, JD?”

    carlitos – Probably better stated as science you agree with. Remember, these days we do science by consensus, not scientific method.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  68. Jesse Shakedown, Jr. resigned before they could give him a chairmanship…D’OH!

    Colonel Haiku (a22607)

  69. Liberals are all about the science, unless it’s inconvenient science.

    Colonel Haiku (a22607)

  70. carlitos:

    Name one thing that Christianity helps in terms of government policy.

    Judeo-Christian values are at the heart of our system of government. That is the culture that made America strong, and the abandonment of that culture is ruining us.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  71. Does anyone even deny that the religious right exhibit ignorance and bigotry? It’s kind of their whole reason for being, isn’t it?

    Carlitos, there are indeed those who on the right who exhibit ignorance and bigotry, yes. However, I would suggest that asking your second question evidences ignorance and bigotry are exhibited on the left of right as well.

    Dana (292dcf)

  72. PETA brings a waddle full of Thansgiving crazy.

    The President should be required to publicly axe a turkey each Thanksgiving. Is that as stupid as the annual pardon? Sure, but it’d be a lot more run to watch.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  73. Evan Sayet describes the moral and ethical decay passed along to our children by liberals in our culture… “You see, if mankind lost paradise when we ate the apple and gained knowledge of right and wrong they believe that if they can just force us all to regurgitate the apple, give up on knowledge of right and wrong, we can return to paradise. So let’s start with some of the bullet points of what we need to revisit.

    First and foremost, to understand how the modern liberal thinks. I got – I borrowed a line from Professor Allan Bloom in his brilliant “The Closing of the American Mind.” And if there are any liberals watching at home, if there – are there any liberals in the room? Yes, good, okay, well I promise not to be condescending, all right. Condescending means to talk down to people.

    See, Professor Bloom was trying to figure out why suddenly in the 80s his students were suddenly so stupid. Okay, he didn’t use the word “stupid;” he’s a lot more diplomatic than I am. He had been teaching since the 50s and the 50s, 60s, 70s and the 80s, he said that what he received from the public schools, from the primary schools were what he called scholars.
    All right, not all of them as smart as each other, some of them harder working, some of them more accomplished. But what he meant by scholars and he tells us in this book — and by the way, the reason I asked if you were liberal, this book was called “Essential Reading for Anyone Who Wishes to Understand the State of Liberal Education in America Today” by the New York Times. I’ll wait while you genuflect.

    All right, so this is not just some right winged book. That’s what it was called. And he was trying to discover, and he would be presented with scholars. And what he meant by scholars were people who arrived at the university to seek the better: the better literature, the better religion, the better philosophy, the better forms of governments. Suddenly in the 1980s by no coincidence when the first children of the children of the 60s were arriving in school, when the first generation not to have been brought up by those from those of the greatest generation and those were the values that preceded the greatest generation.

    It was no coincidence that they arrived in the schools, not only not seeking the better, but denying the existence of the better. And what Bloom concluded was that they were raised to believe — this is the big bullet point. They were raised to believe that indiscriminateness is a moral imperative. That the only way to be moral is to not discriminate between right and wrong, good and evil, better and worse, truth and lies because your act of discrimination – discriminating between these things might just be a reflection of your personal discrimination, your bigotries.

    They were raised to believe that indiscriminateness is a moral imperative because its opposite is the evil of having discriminated. The second bullet point, and this is an essential corollary, is that indiscriminateness of thought does not lead to indiscriminateness of policy. It leads the modern liberal to invariably side with evil over good, wrong over right and the behaviors that lead to failure over those that lead to success. Why? Very simply if nothing is to be recognized as better or worse than anything else then success is de facto unjust.”

    http://youtu.be/eaE98w1KZ-c

    Colonel Haiku (a22607)

  74. the republican party is a shabby instrument of theology

    and yet so many R’s just can’t help themselves

    What’s sad is they end up cheapening our pitiful little country’s already-debased politics and christianity in equal measure

    happyfeet (3753ce)

  75. However, I would suggest that asking your second question evidences ignorance and bigotry are exhibited on the left of right as well.

    …*by* asking

    Dana (292dcf)

  76. There are scientific reasons to think the universe is young. They just assume things for which there is no actual evidence to explain them, in a circular reasoning type of process. The rejection of non-evolution scientific theories tends to rest on circular reasoning.

    Gerald A (f26857)

  77. “Does anyone even deny that the religious right exhibit ignorance and bigotry? It’s kind of their whole reason for being, isn’t it?”

    carlitos – I find the left more bigoted, intolerant and close-minded than the right, religious or not.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  78. Does anyone even deny that the religious right exhibit ignorance and bigotry? It’s kind of their whole reason for being, isn’t it?

    How is that not a bigoted statement? It’s also a logical fallacy, i.e. the gratuitous assertion. It’s ironic that Carlitos was listing a bunch of logical fallacies.

    Gerald A (f26857)

  79. I don’t want to start a holiday weekend by arguing with and offending people that I like and respect. I apologize for the previous couple of comments. JD is right, that was beneath me. Sorry. I will work on that in the future.

    Have a look at elissa’s post at 1:49 above – it’s makes my point much more eloquently and civilly than I did.

    Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving, everyone.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  80. Jesse Jackson Jr. has resigned from Congress due to mental health reasons.

    Icy (1b97e9)

  81. Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving, everyone.

    Comment by carlitos — 11/21/2012 @ 2:29 pm

    Same to you sir.

    Gerald A (f26857)

  82. Yeah, Milhouse, only two choices: atheism or young earth creationism.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  83. There’s a complicated technical term for the difference between the six-week old clump of cells and the six-week old baby. You may have even heard of it — breathing.

    Not all of the babies born do that.

    There’s a difference between Christian values and Christian theology. The former are common to a number of religions and non-religious philosophies of life; the latter … is not.

    htom (412a17)

  84. I don’t want to start a holiday weekend by arguing with and offending people that I like and respect.

    I’ve nuked about 5 posts on this topic just for that reason. Let me just say this:

    I have watched the Republican Party in California go from the party that elected 4 of the last 7 governors, including Ronald Reagan, and voting for Republican Presidents even in Democratic years, to an irrelevance. Mainly because the People moved on in social matters and the party did not.

    What was at issue 40 years ago is not at issue now and beating these dead horses every campaign is political suicide. Nationally now as it was 20 years ago in California.

    If the Republican Party continues to knuckle under to the diminishing rump of the social conservatives, it won’t have to worry about the fiscal conservatives, libertarians and general small government types splitting off. No more than it was the Republicans splitting off from the Whigs.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  85. Happy Thanksgiving , Carlitos.

    Republicans lose because a vocal minority in the party dictates extremist positions

    Who decided that the pro-life position (I assume this is what you’re referring to) is extremist? And why do they get to make that determination for the big tent party – if that’s what we are?

    Dana (292dcf)

  86. it always ends up being a very narrow white people version of christianity what all R’s are supposed to bow down to

    it’s decidedly not something remotely ecumenical

    it’s more like a tacky niche cable channel

    happyfeet (ff8e03)

  87. What was at issue 40 years ago is not at issue now and beating these dead horses every campaign is political suicide. Nationally now as it was 20 years ago in California.

    For most, moral issues aren’t determined by the passage of time, they are the result of ethics, beliefs, and are even moral imperatives. What you are saying then is that people need to be willing to compromise on what is almost foundational for them if they want to see R’s effectively back in the game, no?

    I can understand that, however, it’s narrow minded to diminish those values as nothing more than annoying obstacles to a supposed greater good.

    Dana (292dcf)

  88. Yes, because of the zealotry of Matt Fong and Meg Whitman, seriously, they can’t be serious, oh and Arnold, a virtual Savaranola

    narciso (ee31f1)

  89. Dana – being pro life is no more extreme than voting to deny medical care to a mistake than mistakenly survived an attempted abortion, or abortion on demand at any point taxpayer funded.

    JD (419d6b)

  90. “Does anyone even deny that the religious right exhibit ignorance and bigotry?”

    I deny it. The religious right is less anti-semitic than the Left these days.

    And it was the left that made all the derogatory remarks about candidates religion this election cycle.

    SPQR (32a911)

  91. Why can’t Christianity and evolution co-exist?

    JD (419d6b)

  92. Even in this heavily Democratic turnout election last month, exit polling showed 38% identified themselves as “pro life”.

    While a minority, the idea that more than a third of the electorate is “extremist” is laughable horse manure.

    SPQR (32a911)

  93. JD, it does coexist. Most protestant sects and the Catholic church do not contest evolution.

    SPQR (32a911)

  94. They can. The Catholic Church calls Genesis a myth. And Darwin’s was The Origin of Species not the Origin of Life.

    nk (875f57)

  95. nk, I think you are confusing the Anglican church with the Catholic church. Its Anglican bishops who call Genesis a myth … as well as Jesus himself last I checked 😉

    SPQR (32a911)

  96. The problem is created by Creationism which I consider a cult. Now that’s one bastard mix of religion and science.

    nk (875f57)

  97. That is, my snark should have read that the Anglican church calls Jesus a myth. I am sure that Jesus himself thinks that the Anglican church is a myth …

    SPQR (32a911)

  98. No, Catholic priest, in a mainstream parish, during his sermon, giving a lesson from Genesis.

    nk (875f57)

  99. JD @ 88,

    I understands that. What I’m asking I guess, is why one group gets to determine for everyone else under the big tent that it’s their views that are extremist and dragging the party down?

    Also, is it because of the right really believing that or is it the ferocity of the left and media determining that, and if so, doesn’t that make us look weak in caving under?

    Dana (292dcf)

  100. For most, moral issues aren’t determined by the passage of time, they are the result of ethics, beliefs, and are even moral imperatives. What you are saying then is that people need to be willing to compromise on what is almost foundational for them if they want to see R’s effectively back in the game, no?

    Moral issues, no. Political issues, yes.

    I suggest that getting redress through the political system has failed and will continue to fail and attempting to continue to ignore this fact subverts all attempts to accomplish actual political objectives, and ones that you also believe in.

    To me, your response is “I’d rather be right than effective” which is the hallmark of a 3rd party, not a big tent one.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  101. __________________________________________

    Does anyone even deny that the religious right exhibit ignorance and bigotry? It’s kind of their whole reason for being, isn’t it?

    I’ll tell you what. You worry about the left, let someone else worry about the right.

    townhall.com, Neal Boortz: For the first time in many presidential election years, the word God was omitted from the [Democrat Party’s] platform. The platform also failed to acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Both of these breaks from Democrat Party tradition were reportedly ordered by Obama.

    …According to reports, Obama [then] ordered that God and Jerusalem be put back into the platform. That should be easy enough…just introduce an amendment and have the convention delegates approve it by voice vote. Easy enough…right?

    According to the rules of the convention, — the RULES, mind you — under which the convention is to be run, a 2/3 majority of ayes over nays would be required to adopt this amendment. Now you have to feel a bit sorry for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa here. Poor guy. He was actually giving the impression (or it was a pretty good act) that the rules meant something and that it was really going to take a 2/3 majority to approve the amendment.

    When the vote was taken the first time it was clear that the 2/3 majority did not exist. So … he asked for the vote again. The second time the nays seemed to be even more powerful. Uh oh. What is the chair going to do here? Durned if it doesn’t sound like the delegates to this convention are not in favor of putting God and Jerusalem as Israel’s capital back in the Democrat platform.

    Mark (52bc92)

  102. Argh. Grammatical errors due to inability to successfully learn to thumb type.

    Dana (292dcf)

  103. The Anglican Church is one of my arguments against establishmentarianism. 😉

    nk (875f57)

  104. Comment by nk — 11/21/2012 @ 3:12 pm

    Probably one of those marxist ones, Benedict will take him out for you.

    SPQR (32a911)

  105. You worry about the left, let someone else worry about the right.

    Mark,

    I normally ignore your posts (thanks for putting the line there so they are easy to spot). Just to set you straight – I consider myself “on the right,” so that’s what I worry about. Whether the Democrats have God or Allah or Thor in their platform, I really don’t care.

    Well, maybe Thor. That would be cool.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  106. Thor can barely handle Loki, he certainly couldn’t handle Obama.

    SPQR (32a911)

  107. I think it was President Jack Ryan that recognized both Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and Taiwan as an independent nation. A girl can dream….

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  108. when even Missouri won’t vote for the rape baby boy there’s a clue that fetus fetishists like Rubio maybe can’t just get away with patently insincere protestations of needing to “focus on the economy” anymore

    these people are stale clichés and we all know their idea of a big tent means “watches or has recently watched the 700 Club”… or at least that talk show hosted by the nun lady whatever her name is

    happyfeet (92e7c4)

  109. Oh, and in my rap songs I totally forgot “You Gots to Chill” by EMPD and “Follow the Leader” by Eric B and Rakim. What a monumental oversight. Turning on Sirius Backspin, opening malt liquor to rectify oversight.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  110. Sister Mary Elephant Mother Mary Angelica?

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  111. GQ: Should we teach creation myths in science class?

    No, I think that is taught in Native American Studies. At least that’s why they made the university bury Kennewick Man. Ask them.

    According to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, if human remains are found on federal lands and their cultural affiliation to a Native American tribe can be established, the affiliated tribe may claim them. The Umatilla tribe requested custody of the remains, wanting to bury them according to tribal tradition. Their claim was contested by researchers hoping to study the remains.

    The Umatilla argued that their oral history goes back 10,000 years and say that their people have been present on their historical territory since the dawn of time,[17] so a government holding that Kennewick Man is not Native American is tantamount to the government’s rejection of their religious beliefs.

    Mike K (326cba)

  112. Some thoughts …

    “Name one thing that Christianity helps in terms of government policy.” – the Christianity in government policy helps to protect us against sharia law … and it allows a lot of us to enjoy bacon …

    “Does anyone even deny that the religious right exhibit ignorance and bigotry?” – the “religious right” is an artifact of ignorance and bigotry, designed to marginalise and demonise political opponents – those who freely toss around the term “religious right” without putting it in quotes are projecting their own bigotries and ignorance on others …

    I have a question for carlitos …

    carlitos – which ‘flavour’ of atheist are you ?

    Are you the atheist who personally does not believe that any deity exists and believes that others can and must make up their own minds ?

    Or are you the atheist who religiously and passionately believes that no deity exists, and, as such, prosyletises and evangelises belief in the religion of zero deities, often to the extent of joining the ACLU in their jihad against Christmas, Nativity scenes, memorial crosses, et cetera ?

    And to one and all, may your Thanksgiving be filled with those things and people who are reminders of all for which we can be and are thankful !

    Alasdair (e0d8b4)

  113. I pray that all of you have wonderful Thanksgiving celebrations with your friends and families, and safe voyages to them and home again.

    htom (412a17)

  114. carlitos – which ‘flavour’ of atheist are you ?

    Alasdair,

    I’m somewhere in between, but I’d rather not discuss it in detail right now. I’ve got malt liquor chilling and videos to watch.

    Happy Thanksgiving. Let’s never forget that in most places, throughout most of history, conversations like this would have resulted in one of us being killed for his views. And for “her” views, they never would have been heard in the first place. Life is probably as amazing as it ever has been; let’s appreciate it.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  115. GQ: Should we teach creation myths in science class?

    Actually, in a way, I would. If you wanted to talk about “what Science is about”, you’d have to come back to the basic questions, such as “Why is there anything at all?” The various creation myths (and other lesser myths like volcano gods) are an attempt to answer these questions through philosophy and/or religion. These questions and their attempted answers are the basis of the scientific quest.

    So, yes, as a foundation to the philosophy of science, they have a place. You would also want to look at how well they explain things, and what (if any) questions they leave unanswered. Later you would want to see if Science answers any of these better (or in fact differently).

    But if you mean as an equally valid scientific answer, no, as they have nothing but faith to back them up. Evolution has quite a bit or evidence to back it up but it still doesn’t really answer that “Why is there anything?” question.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  116. Jesse Jackson, Jr.’s parting gift to the people of his district and the state of Illinois is a $5 million tab for holding a special election.

    With apologies to our friends in Illinois, I love that they are being stuck with the bill. My former rep, Jane Harman, did this to us when she decided right after winning reelection in 2010 that she didn’t want to be part of the House minority party and thus bailed out on us and forced us into a special election to replace her. I am a firm believer that whenever this happens, the Congressional seat (whether House or Senate) should be held empty until the next regularly scheduled election. Exceptions can be made when a Congressional member dies suddenly and maybe if they are appointed to the cabinet, but all resignations should cause that seat to be vacated. Let the people of the district suffer for electing such unserious people to public office.

    JVW (4826a9)

  117. Mike K – #110 – funny you should mention that …

    I am seriously convinced that a large part of our current cultural problems stem from that fact that we teach almost no cultural teaching tales to our children …

    There is a reason that (as far as I know) every successful human culture has had its teaching tales which included some form(s) of creation myth as well as flood myth … the teaching tales teach the rules and values of the culture – and the more different and diverse sets of teaching tales one reads and understands, the better equipped one becomes to deal with real-life situations …

    Teaching tales, while most often religious, do not have to be … Aesop’s Fables are one example … and the US (and many other nations) could use a better understanding and practice of *not* being “Dog in the manger” in so many situations …

    Alasdair (e0d8b4)

  118. BTW, how about that SEIU local closing down LAX today to throw a fit about a company going non-union.

    1. I note the non-union workers who quit the union say they have better pay and benefits now.

    2. I fail to see how destroying the travel plans of 10s of thousands is a good way to rally people to your cause. BWDIKINASEIUM.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  119. I am a firm believer that whenever this happens, the Congressional seat (whether House or Senate) should be held empty until the next regularly scheduled election.

    I think it should go to the runner-up.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  120. 113-Carlitos
    Pistol Grip Pump & Colt 45 ?

    mg (31009b)

  121. it always ends up being a very narrow white people version of christianity what all R’s are supposed to bow down to

    it’s decidedly not something remotely ecumenical

    it’s more like a tacky niche cable channel

    Comment by happyfeet — 11/21/2012 @ 2:47 pm

    It’s probably pointless but, what’s a white people version of christianity?

    Gerald A (f26857)

  122. Missouri voting for McCaskill,again, illustrates the Einstein definition of insanity

    narciso (ee31f1)

  123. pistol grip pump on my lap at all times.

    That one song really speaks to the brilliance of Roger Troutman. Super funky. A good reason to invest in a sub woofer.

    Carlitos (49ef9f)

  124. White people Christianity is clapping on the one and three beats instead of the two and four beats. Think of the Osmonds or something.

    Carlitos (49ef9f)

  125. COme on. The King family had rhythm.

    SarahW (b0e533)

  126. ==While a minority, the idea that more than a third of the electorate is “extremist” is laughable horse manure==

    SPQR and Dana–I think you both may be misinterpreting the political point I hoped to make upthread. (And it’s obviously my failing that I did not succeed in expressing it in a manner that could be better understood.) It is most certainly not extreme that 30 some percent of Americans profess to be personally pro-life and choose to live their lives that way. Not at all. The perception of extremism to which I refer is that many (including some egregiously vocal and biologically misinformed R politicians as well as some very religious commenters here) in that group of sincere pro-life people appear to feel they have not only the right, but also the duty and the obligation to force their views on other free Americans whose own values and beliefs happen to be different. I firmly believe this is what many voters are reacting negatively to when they see (R) next to a candidate’s name.

    Here is what I think the bottom line needs to be going forward: Are the R pro-life pols and their most vocal activist supporters planning to do something immediate to officially and pro-actively change current policy which has been in place for 40 years? If so–they need to be aware that they are apparently in conflict with a majority of current American citizens and are therefore likely to lose elections. If they are not planning to advocate or try to legislate significant change with respect to reproductive rights post- Roe v. Wade, then why don’t they just say they won’t–explicitly–quit making this a litmus test for R candidates, and thereby take this particular issue off the table so maybe we can get some traction on fiscal stuff?

    elissa (51a301)

  127. it always ends up being a very narrow white people version of christianity what all R’s are supposed to bow down to

    it’s decidedly not something remotely ecumenical

    it’s more like a tacky niche cable channel

    Playing church and religion is *not* Christianity. But it’s easier to lump it all together to try and prove ome’s point.

    Dana (292dcf)

  128. I’m big on lumping

    happyfeet (92e7c4)

  129. SarahW,

    Heh. Those bossa nova hipsters….

    Dana (292dcf)

  130. If they are not planning to advocate or try to legislate significant change with respect to reproductive rights post- Roe v. Wade, then why don’t they just say they won’t–explicitly–quit making this a litmus test for R candidates, and thereby take this particular issue off the table so maybe we can get some traction on fiscal stuff?

    Comment by elissa — 11/21/2012 @ 4:25 pm

    I believe that few of Obama’s supporters would have changed their vote if Romney had advocated a clear pro-choice position. I don’t know if any of the competitive lost Senate seats would have been won if the candidates had been pro-choice except that the MO and IN candidates wouldn’t have made their gaffes, but if they had been more skillful in answering the questions without abandoning their pro-life positions then certainly Akin would have won. I don’t know how the IN race stood before his gaffe.

    Gerald A (f26857)

  131. Pretty funny SEIU fail: they pissed off the public today blocking streets at LAX and pissed off the employees, who have already voted against joining the union. The national president of SEIU was at LAX today, so I guess this is like Custer’s Last Stand or something.

    Workers to SEIU: Drop Dead

    Patricia (be0117)

  132. elissa – thanks again. You’re reading my mind and you’re much more eloquent than I.

    Carlitos (49ef9f)

  133. Not sure how my handle got capitalized. Weird.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  134. You lost in Conneticut, no Akin situation, howabout North Dakota, the place with the fracking boom, or Montana, voting for Tester again,

    narciso (ee31f1)

  135. The idea of the video was already there in Cairo on September 11th.

    I saw something saying the protest was also about the video – but this was actually circulated later.

    Al Qaeda-linked jihadists helped incite 9/11 Cairo protest By Thomas Joscelyn October 26, 2012

    Spontaneous anger over an obscure anti-Islam video titled “Innocence of Muslims” has been widely cited as the cause of the embassy protest in Cairo. But clear evidence shows that these al Qaeda-linked jihadists used clips from that film that were televised on Egyptian television as a pretext to incite a mob…..

    The role of al Qaeda’s allies, including Musa, in the embassy protest was documented in a video released by Al Faroq media earlier this month. Al Faroq, which is based in Egypt, is not an official al Qaeda media outlet, but it clearly espouses al Qaeda’s ideology and frequently trumpets the terrorist organization’s message. Al Qaeda has also used clips from Al Faroq’s productions in its own official videos.

    The Al Faroq video of the Sept. 11 US embassy protest in Cairo was first obtained and translated by SITE Intelligence Group.

    The Al Faroq video attempts to brand the protest as an al Qaeda event…..

    But, also:

    During his appearance in the video, according to SITE’s translation, Mohammed al Zawahiri calls for the makers of the film “Innocence of Muslims” to be prosecuted and “demand(s) the questioning of all of those and to stop that film that is calling for trouble.”

    Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/10/al_qaeda-linked_jiha.php#ixzz2CuKF38Nj

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  136. elissa, democracy is the majority forcing their views on the minority. A republic is a democracy where some set of limitations on the ability of the majority to force their opinion on the minority exist.

    A “majority” decided to make me pay a penalty on my taxes if I didn’t buy something they wanted me to buy. Regardless of whether that product violated my religious, moral or ethical beliefs.

    A “majority” decided that I can’t shoot people who need shooting. Even if I think the deaths of certain human debris would bring joy to my God and ensure a good growing season next year. Or stop global warming.

    A “majority” decided to force me not to rob my neighbors, rape women, assault children or expose my genitals in public outside of San Francisco.

    SPQR (32a911)

  137. Now – was taht actually recorded after September 11th?

    It was on Egyptian TV.

    Or was there some attempt to fool the U.S. into thinking it was about the video because in that case you could hope they could be mollified?

    Or was this simply an attempt to make the crowd look like it was assembled spontaneously>? (In Cairo)

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  138. The Republican Party doesn’t do nearly as good a job scaring people about guns as the Dems do about abortion.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  139. You lost in Conneticut, no Akin situation, howabout North Dakota, the place with the fracking boom, or Montana, voting for Tester again,

    Comment by narciso — 11/21/2012 @ 4:41 pm

    Was abortion an issue in the CT or MT races?

    Gerald A (f26857)

  140. No, Sammy it was recorded in July, aired on El Nas, on September 8th, but the AQ video, dropped on the 10th, including the members of the Egyptian branch of Ansar Al Sharia,

    narciso (ee31f1)

  141. Missouri voting for McCaskill,again, illustrates the Einstein definition of insanity

    In this case the insanity was judged using the theory of relativity.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  142. Patricia

    The LAT wants you,to believe that the majority of rote stores were union members, contrary to the first-hand article you provided.

    The roughly 1,000 protesters, mostly union members, marched down Century Boulevard toward LAX about 12:15 p.m. to demand better pay and benefits from airport-related employers.

    Dana (292dcf)

  143. Argh.

    Rote stores = protesters

    Dana (292dcf)

  144. _____________________________________________

    I normally ignore your posts (thanks for putting the line there so they are easy to spot). Just to set you straight – I consider myself “on the right,” so that’s what I worry about.

    Carlitos, you can label yourself anyway you want, which is fine with me. But if my posts (which are often mainly snippets from articles that highlight what I think shines a light on various issues) trigger some resentment in you, and if you believe the Republican Party is too rightwing in 2012 — even more so in the context of the mid-point of the socio-economic spectrum having gravitated towards the left over the past 50-plus years — then, okay, you’re a conservative. But a conservative in the eyes of a person surrounded by a culture similar to that which is found in San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago, Austin, Hollywood, Venezuela, France, or a typical university campus in America.

    It was one thing to lean left (or to struggle to lean right instead of left) decades ago when a movie like “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” still seemed relevant and not quaint. Or when parts of the MSM, including Time magazine and the LA Times, were generally of the right, or (in terms of the latter) even notoriously partisan in favor of the Republican Party. When an actress like Ingrid Bergman in the 1950s was shunned (by Hollywood, no less!) because she had a child out of wedlock. But to lean left in today’s era — or to feel conservatism in 2012 is too rightwing — that’s a whole different matter.

    Mark (52bc92)

  145. dana– heh. rote stores = protesters may be the best one yet!

    elissa (51a301)

  146. White people Christianity is clapping on the one and three beats instead of the two and four beats. Think of the Osmonds or something.

    Comment by Carlitos

    Damn Jackson 5 fans anyway…

    Colonel Haiku (7f719f)

  147. It’s an anagram, its a spoonerism, like Notlob

    narciso (ee31f1)

  148. “dana– heh. rote stores = protesters may be the best one yet!”

    elissa – I tried to call one of my kids a rat bastard for stealing my phone and faking a text message to my sister, but auto-correct changed it to “rat mustard.” It didn’t have quite the same impact.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  149. Daley, here you go – auto correct blunders, pretty cubby.

    http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/39619/maybe-dont-go-home/

    Dana (292dcf)

  150. ==Was abortion an issue in the CT or MT races?==

    Yes. Unfortunately, the “Republican war on women” theme was made an underlying issue in every single state to some degree this year. The ads and robocalls helpfully and scarily reminded people that each Republican elected to congress (no matter how nice they might seem when you meet them) was one vote closer for women to have their “reproductive rights” taken away and return to the dark ages.

    elissa (51a301)

  151. Mark again forgot to make a point.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  152. Elissa and Kevin M,

    So the take away is, keep quiet about the moral beliefs (which naturally inform ones politics to a great degree) if they are considered extreme and/or potentially jeopardize a possible win?

    I think there are candidates simply unable to do that because they feel so strongly about it. I think, however, that there is a serious lack of savvy and preparation with those pols in being ready to have a smart, efficient response to the inevitable gotcha questions. Questions that are never a surprise because they are as habitual as WH lies.

    Dana (292dcf)

  153. daleyrocks-
    Dana-

    Since I don’t have one of those infernal devices (yet) here are my questions: Ddo you not get to see the zany/funny auto correction which has been made to your message before you send the message? Or do you see it but are not allowed by the devil inside to re-correct it manually? Is this something you’re thumb typing, or is it the result of bad voice recognition? Should there perhaps be a low end age limit for people to be allowed access to this technology? (i.e., younger than us?)

    elissa (51a301)

  154. 153. “moral beliefs (which naturally inform ones politics to a great degree)”

    Which tenet has been the bedrock of Western thought since David Hume. Its like we’ve lost the genetic drift toward the sapiens for the sake of the homo so what the hell, orderly retreat, we’ll get the bastards with zoonotic infectious disease on the descent back to pond slime.

    Eat yer bush meat and shaddup.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  155. Linda McMahon really was running to the left of her opponent.

    She ran ads that he didn’t support spending for Connecticut – in other words, that he was too fiscally conservative. The whole tone also was against someone acting in the national interest.

    She also accused him of being a career lawyer and hack.

    Sammy Finkelman (69e89f)

  156. ==Was abortion an issue in the CT or MT races?==

    Yes. Unfortunately, the “Republican war on women” theme was made an underlying issue in every single state to some degree this year. The ads and robocalls helpfully and scarily reminded people that each Republican elected to congress (no matter how nice they might seem when you meet them) was one vote closer for women to have their “reproductive rights” taken away and return to the dark ages.

    Comment by elissa — 11/21/2012 @ 5:53 pm

    McMahon’s pro-choice so that race proves my point. According to the “if only the GOP got off the social issues” crowd, she should have won. I don’t think abortion was a big issue in MT which is probably a fairly conservative state on social issues anyway.

    Gerald A (f26857)

  157. People really don’t look over what is going to be sent – until they reread it after it posted. That’s why they get caught by somthing like Autocorrect.

    Sometimes they see it, but they can’t change it, or perhaps they change it and then ¨it gets changed back again.

    Sammy Finkelman (69e89f)

  158. Volokh had, maybe still has, something where you have 5 minutes after posting to edit your comment and/or correct your typos, but it didn’t work on all platforms. It did on an iMac3, but not in I think Internet Explorer 7 on a networked windows computer.

    Sammy Finkelman (69e89f)

  159. 137. “Now – was taht actually recorded after September 11th?

    It was on Egyptian TV.”

    I meant denunciations of the video.

    140. omment by narciso — 11/21/2012 @ 4:46 pm

    No, Sammy it was recorded in July, aired on El Nas, on September 8th, but the AQ video, dropped on the 10th, including the members of the Egyptian branch of Ansar Al Sharia,

    In the Al Qaeda video were they talking about the movie? And did that air on Sept 10th?

    Sammy Finkelman (69e89f)

  160. dana, CBS local actually interviewed the “rote stores” and none of them knew why they were there and none of them worked for the company! On the evening news!

    Is there hope for the media, or is this a one-off?

    Patricia (be0117)

  161. the rote stores should go home and make queso

    happyfeet (fc9387)

  162. Elissa,

    I’m only using the infernal device post-surgery rehab cuz I can’t maneuver laptop. The touch pad is hyper sensitive- I miss the solid keys and I suddenly feel Ike my fingers are ten unyielding shovels. It’s exhausting copy pasting, and I can see the autocorrect before I send but sometimes miss it because the incorrect word usage isn’t underlined or noted because it’ll assume what you intended, which I find rather rude presumptuous .

    I hate saying there might e an age limit to the learning curve of this contraption cuz hub is a bit older than e and took to it like a fish to water. Clearly he does not have shove fingers.

    Dana (292dcf)

  163. Argh.

    Shove = shovel

    E an age = be an age

    On and on it goes…

    Dana (292dcf)

  164. It’s carbon on the valves.

    nk (875f57)

  165. Why can’t Christianity and evolution co-exist?
    Comment by JD — 11/21/2012 @ 3:01 pm

    — Because of the pathological need & desire of the left to demonize everything that it doesn’t believe in.

    Icy (71f135)

  166. elissa – I had the autocorrect disabled on my phone and my son enabled it. I don’t know how to turn the damn thing back off. Of course, I’m not going to stoop to reading the manual or anything as demeaning as that.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  167. Daley, if it’s an iphone, go to settings, general, keyboard, autocorrect.

    Dustin (73fead)

  168. Why can’t Christianity and evolution co-exist?

    Is somebody arguing for the abolition of teaching evolution? I don’t believe in evolution and to call it a “fact” doesn’t stand up to scrutiny but I don’t support banning the teaching of it.

    Gerald A (f26857)

  169. ==So the take away is, keep quiet about the moral beliefs (which naturally inform ones politics to a great degree) if they are considered extreme and/or potentially jeopardize a possible win?==

    I don’t pretend to know what your take away is and I respect you far too much to tell you how to think. Here is my takeaway, FWIW. Quite simply, what. is. the. point? The right has had 40 years of wandering in the desert over this weighty moral issue. Meanwhile, two whole generations in our country have grown up with Roe v. Wade and legal abortion on demand. If after all this time some in the Republican party are ready to move on the Constitutional amendment (from the platforms) to outlaw abortion in some or all cases, then do it, dammit. Write the legislation and see how far it gets in congress and in the states when it comes down to criminalizing women who would have an abortion or the doctors who perform them. What are the parameters? Lay it all out. What is the punishment to be? Medical licenses pulled? Jail time, fines, other children taken away? Do boyfriends and husbands have culpability and would they be criminalized, too? Could a family member forcibly detain a pregnant woman, put her under 24 hour guard to prevent her from a home-style or back alley abortion? Does it matter if a relative or a rapist fathered the fetus, or if the “mother” is still a child herself?

    This is ugly stuff, yes, but I think America deserves to know the answers to these questions. America needs to know what “pro-life” rhetoric actually means to the Republican party in terms of enforcement and how far it might be willing to go in infringing someone else’s rights to protect unborn life. Is it as stark as the Democrats have been warning and scaring people about for years? As a Republican, I deserve to know the answers to these questions, too, so I can decide how I can operate inside or outside the party for all my non abortion political needs.

    Also, I wonder about this: If the segment of the R party and the pols and church leaders who are not happy with the current abortion situation are not yet ready to bravely confront political headwinds and deal with the fallout from all I’ve outlined above, (and more) then really what is the point of all the continuing party of life moral outrage and the futile game we’ve been playing while increasingly losing key elections? If not yet and not now, then when? I’m sorry to be vulgar but after 40 years it’s about sh*t or get off the pot time on this issue, I think.

    elissa (51a301)

  170. rubio rubio wherefore art thou rubio

    um I’m not like a gps expert or anything and I really don’t see what that has to do with how to make the economy more bigger

    happyfeet (fc9387)

  171. JD said:

    “Why can’t Christianity and evolution co-exist?”

    They can, and have, for a while now. It only becomes a problem when you piss off Christians.

    Except for Presbyterians and Episcopalians. They only get pissed when you take the drinks away. 🙂

    Ag80 (b2c81f)

  172. ==Of course, I’m not going to stoop to reading the manual or anything as demeaning as that.==

    I understand completely! Of course you’re not going to waste your time widdat. I’ve still only made it about 1/3 of the way through the technology system’s manual for my new car. (It’s now 3 years old.) It’s such fun to get lost in a baddish part of St. Louis because you didn’t know how to program the map feature to get you from the restaurant back to the hotel.

    elissa (51a301)

  173. Sheesh, I can’t even get a rise from trolling anymore.

    ** sniff ** ** sniff ** I’m a hasbeen.

    SPQR (768505)

  174. I think Rubio gave a great answer. He’s a really sharp guy, and he recognized instantly that GQ was posing a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” gotcha question intended to split GOP primary voters along creationist vs science faultlines, and potentially provide fodder for Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart.

    The lefty media are already attempting to make preemptive strikes against Rubio because they know he’s a formidable candidate for 2016.

    Elephant Stone (65d289)

  175. Comment by daleyrocks — 11/21/2012 @ 7:53 pm

    Of course, I’m not going to stoop to reading the manual or anything as demeaning as that

    You think you can actually find the answer (t oa common, but not obvious question) by reading the manual?

    If there is a manual.

    No, what you need is something written by a third party, no later than a year and a half or so after the item became available.

    Somebody here posted a link to a file in the other open thread.

    Sammy Finkelman (69e89f)

  176. Elissa,

    Thanks for yor thoughtful and thought provoking comment at #172.

    Machine keeps upper casing your handle. It takes liberties.

    Dana (292dcf)

  177. Rubio’s answers need to be much sharper.

    GQ: How old do you think the Earth is?

    A: Billions of years I guess but that has nothing to do with making America great again. Let us try more relevant questions and avoid gotcha religion questions ….

    Rodney King's Spirit (951136)

  178. “Daley, if it’s an iphone, go to settings, general, keyboard, autocorrect.”

    Dustin – Thanks, but I don’t buy fruit products. Just a basic sideways slide phone with a full keyboard, no internet capability.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  179. More seriously, here’s a fascinating report:

    From Science, 26 October 2012
    From News of the Week
    “Rogue Geoengineering Experiment”
    Apparently an unknown entity, using a converted fishing trawler, dumped about 100 tons of iron dust into an ocean eddy 321 miles west of British Columbia last July. Iron is often a limiting nutrient in open ocean water, and satellites showed a phytoplankton bloom after the iron dumping; however such blooms are also known from ocean water with no artificial fertilization. The short note doesn’t speculate on who dumped the iron or if they took control samples.

    This really astonishes me. Why would someone finance such an experiment? (The point being to see if we can use such artificial fertilization to create a CO2 sink in the ocean)

    Why not announce it? To avoid the usual counterproductive environmental protest? (most AGW activists really don’t want to find counters to global warming other than shutting down industrial civilization) or to avoid litigation?

    SPQR (768505)

  180. Thanks, but I don’t buy fruit products.

    Me neither.

    Dustin (73fead)

  181. Recent comments are back!

    Ding!

    Dustin (73fead)

  182. Comment by SPQR — 11/21/2012 @ 4:43 pm

    A “majority” decided to force me not to rob my neighbors, rape women, assault children or expose my genitals in public outside of San Francisco.

    In San Francisco, too, now.

    Extra! Extra! Read all about it!!

    San Francisco Officials Approve a Ban on Public Nudity by Malia Wollan – New York Times, Wednesday, November 21, 2012, page A20.

    Published on the Internet: November 20, 2012.

    Sammy Finkelman (69e89f)

  183. It was a joke, Sammy.

    ** shakes head slowly **

    SPQR (768505)

  184. Exceptions will continue to be maintained for certain traditional San Francisco events.

    Sammy Finkelman (69e89f)

  185. Omg. Snazzy new comments section. Like we’re hanging out in a 5 star bog!

    Dana (292dcf)

  186. Dammit! 5 star BLOG, not bog…

    Dana (292dcf)

  187. “bog” worked.

    SPQR (768505)

  188. Heh. Yeah, SPQR, it can get pretty murky in here sometimes… But isn’t this nice? Functional and aesthetically. Easing.

    Dana (292dcf)

  189. The alternating color comment strips are very nice. Classy! Good job, Patterico (and mystery tech person).

    elissa (51a301)

  190. Oh dear god.

    Functional and aestheticallyy. Easing….pleasing, pleasing!

    Dana (292dcf)

  191. ** blink blink **

    I must be color blind, or my CSS ain’t updated yet. I see no colors.

    SPQR (768505)

  192. @193 SPQR
    I’ll see if I can force a style sheet reload. How is that?

    Admin Guy (492627)

  193. Dana–it’s actually kind of fun to guess what you meant to say. It’s ususally obvious. Well, except for rote stores.

    elissa (51a301)

  194. Comment by SPQR — 11/21/2012 @ 9:08 pm

    Why not announce it? To avoid the usual counterproductive environmental protest? (most AGW activists really don’t want to find counters to global warming other than shutting down industrial civilization) or to avoid litigation?

    I think it’s illegal. The environmentalists arranged to have an international treaty against this or something. They’re a couple of steps ahead of everybody else. They saw that loophole a long time ago. Everybody else is late to the game.

    A Rogue Climate Experiment Outrages Scientists

    A spokesman said the [Canadian Environment] ministry had warned the venture in advance that its plan would violate international agreements…..Mr. Parker, of Harvard’s Kennedy School, said it appeared that the project had contravened two international agreements on geoengineering, the London Convention on the dumping of wastes at sea and a moratorium declared by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity — as well as a set of principles developed at Oxford University on transparency, regulation and the need for public participation.

    http://www.imo.org/OurWork/Environment/SpecialProgrammesAndInitiatives/Pages/London-Convention-and-Protocol.aspx

    http://www.cbd.int/

    http://www.geoengineering.ox.ac.uk/oxford-principles/principles

    Sammy Finkelman (69e89f)

  195. Comment by SPQR — 11/21/2012 @ 9:57 pm

    I must be color blind, or my CSS ain’t updated yet. I see no colors.

    Every alternate comment now has a light gray, rather than a white, background – I didn’t see this before, either.

    The whole sidebar on the right is gray, too.

    Sammy Finkelman (69e89f)

  196. @197 SPQR
    I forced a style sheet reload. Sounds like it worked.

    Admin Guy (492627)

  197. Ouch, that’s not where you put a style sheet, admin guy.

    SPQR (768505)

  198. Admin Guy – Thanks for the changes! Way more classy than most of the dirtballs like myself who comment here deserve. Good job.

    Happy Thanksgiving!

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  199. serious lack of savvy and preparation with those pols in being ready to have a smart, efficient response to the inevitable gotcha questions. Questions that are never a surprise because they are as habitual as WH lies.

    Well, yes. For example, talking about a pregnancy from rape as being a gift from God is probably not well thought out. The better answer is something like:

    “I personally disagree with the concept of abortion in almost every case, but as things stand now the thing has been decided. I hope that some day hearts and minds will change — they have before on other subjects — but right now there are other things that are more productive to talk about.”

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  200. McMahon’s pro-choice so that race proves my point. According to the “if only the GOP got off the social issues” crowd, she should have won. I don’t think abortion was a big issue in MT which is probably a fairly conservative state on social issues anyway.

    Many Republican candidates in California are pro-choice and even pro-gay marriage and OK with “immigration reform”. Consider Meg Whitman who was all of those. Problem is that there is an inertia to public perception; that’s what branding is all about.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  201. @199 SPQR
    Agreed, but I inherited the code and my first rule is not to get too drastic when first making changes. It’s difficult enough to not do things like break image uploads. <blush/> It will move soon enough.

    First step was the server move and tuning. Next step is to optimize page generation and caching. Then we’ll move on to optimizing the page code.

    Baby steps, grasshopper.

    Admin Guy (492627)

  202. Bill Whittle should be our next nominee for leader of the free world. Even if he is white.

    bliptv/davidhorowitz/billwhittle6444929

    Happy Thanksgiving.

    mg (31009b)

  203. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

    EPWJ (4cf254)

  204. Christmas came early for commenter Mark.

    Icy (71f135)

  205. #202

    Seems like what you’re calling for is something like a purge of pro-lifers from the Republican party, along with all their votes, so when a pro-choice Republican runs nobody can point to a pro-lifer anywhere in the GOP.

    Rush Limbaugh was talking a few days after the election of the futility of trying to go after pro-choice and pro-amnesty voters by trying to rebrand the GOP, because the Democrats and media would simply not let it happen. They’d find somebody to point to who is still taking the “bad” position on those things. And the GOP would simultaneously be telling the SoCon part of the base, like me, to get lost. It’s a fool’s errand that the Democrats want to see the GOP run off on.

    A more intelligent approach is to try to convince young people, Hispanics etc. that the Democrats are destroying their standard of living. And maybe some of the young voters could be convinced that there’s at least a reasonable case for socially conservative positions, if the candidate is sufficiently articulate. For starters the idea that there’s something “extreme” about being pro-life has to be turned around, because it isn’t.

    Gerald A (f26857)

  206. a Happy Thanksgiving to all!

    Colonel Haiku (63c402)

  207. Ohhh, shiny!

    Dana, it’s the unlearning curve that slows us down.

    Happy Thanksgiving!

    htom (412a17)

  208. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

    BTW, daleyrocks, once I laundered my Blackberry, I retrograded to a phone I imagine like yours. Sliding keyboard, no internet, but messaging capability to another phone or email. I use that to forward photos from the camera to my computer.
    Cosmos LG.

    We do buy fruit products for the daughter. Mac and iPad.

    nk (875f57)

  209. COLOR BLOCKS!

    SarahW (b0e533)

  210. BLOCKHEAD!

    http://youtu.be/-VPtFzh6Ye4

    Colonel Haiku (63c402)

  211. I like it.

    Cambodia’s first lady has more on the ball than 70% of Amerikkka.

    http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/112012-634213-obama-southeast-asian-trip-more-style-than-substance.htm#ixzz2CsnmLciF

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  212. 207. I’m with Gerald. The new 10% Party, just like the ole GOP, freeing the slaves.

    Abe would be so proud.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  213. 123. Much truth to the comment.

    I’ve read Genesis chapters 1 & 2 in English, Greek and Hebrew and I find evolution in the story. First the sea teems, plants cover the earth, then the air is filled with flying creatures, finally hooved animals populate the earth.

    Nowhere do I find dinosaur bones in the dust from whence all comes and to which all returns.

    Then again, I don’t think Rove is a genius so what do I know?

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  214. So why does Bill Whittle eschew pursuit of elective office?

    SarahW (b0e533)

  215. The newly mainline Coulter believes Romney not the prob with GOP losing further ground.

    Opting for moderation, behaving Presidential versus the Manchurian gained 4 Million Indies and lost 5 Million conservatives.

    Winning.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  216. 210. I’m the Luddite in my family. 4 year old has an I-pad, wife an I-phone and Mac-Book, and I stick with a submersible Casio, no smartphone, but I can take it in trunks, tubing with the Squirt.

    Shorty destroyed the first I-phone after a week dunking in in Momma’s water glass.

    The Casio is always charged, always available.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  217. Seems like what you’re calling for is something like a purge of pro-lifers from the Republican party, along with all their votes, so when a pro-choice Republican runs nobody can point to a pro-lifer anywhere in the GOP.

    No, I’m talking about a very public official party-level change-of-mind. Not agreeing with the idea of abortion, but accepting it as a fait accompli and leaving it be. The issue has been decided, we lost, get over it. Preferably before we wake up some day and find liberty lost forever.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  218. What’s ignorant about the difference between real rape (“rape rape”) and things that are called rape but aren’t?

    In some jurisdictions, a 15-year-old boy having consensual sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend is rape. See Michael M. v. Superior Court of Sonoma County, 450 U.S. 464 at 476 (1981) (plurality) (noting that the petitioner, challenging a prosecution for statutory rape, was also under the age of consent) See also Michael M., 25 Ca.3d 608 at 621n.4 (Cal. Sup. Ct. 1979) (Mosk, J., dissenting) (noting that the appellant and the complaining witness were “virtually the same age”)

    Michael Ejercito (2e0217)

  219. Opting for moderation, behaving Presidential versus the Manchurian gained 4 Million Indies and lost 5 Million conservatives.

    And those 5 million Conservatives are either so far off the grid that only a 3rd-party fringe could appease them (and lose everyone else), or they are utterly kicking themselves for letting the communist win.

    BTW, are there any of these conservatives here who voted 3rd party or stayed home? I’d like to hear them defend themselves.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  220. Republicans lose because a vocal minority in the party dictates extremist positions in the primary and forces all R candidates to “go there” as a litmus test in what appears to many of us on the right

    So where are the moderate Democrats?

    Two decades ago, “access” to birth control meant that no law prevented women from getting a prescription for the pill or another contraceptive. “Access” didn’t mean what it means to this administration — no insurance copayments for birth control, even for health plans funded by church-based institutions with deeply held religious objections to birth control.

    In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman and denies federal benefits to same-sex partners. The House passed the bill 342-67; 118 Dems voted yes, and the Senate passed it 85-14. Biden voted yes. It was the centrist position in 1996.

    In 2008, Obama promised to repeal DOMA if elected. Rather than push for a repeal vote, however, the administration announced last year that the Department of Justice no longer would defend the law against legal challenges. A centrist should support the rule of law, not tempt the courts to topple a law passed by a strong majority in Congress.

    all this talk about Republican extremism seems to giver a pass to Democratic extremism.

    Michael Ejercito (2e0217)

  221. To give a perfunctory statement of support to Israel and god, is also apparently the extremist position;

    http://www.melaniephillips.com/more-real-news-again

    narciso (ee31f1)

  222. “In some jurisdictions, a 15-year-old boy having consensual sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend is rape. See Michael M. v. Superior Court of Sonoma County, 450 U.S. 464 at 476 (1981)”

    Not in California. Rape is rape (as defined in California Penal Code 261.5), and what they’re talking about, in that case, is unlawful sexual intercourse.

    Not the same thing.

    Dave Surls (46b08c)

  223. Whoops, change that to: as defined in California Penal Code 261.

    Dave Surls (46b08c)

  224. BTW, are there any of these conservatives here who voted 3rd party or stayed home? I’d like to hear them defend themselves.

    Comment by Kevin M — 11/22/2012 @ 9:51 am

    I live in a Democratic Precinct in a Democratic Ward in a Democratic City in a Democratic County in a Democratic State. I voted for Gary Johnson, along with 1.2 million of my closest acquaintances. It made no difference on the outcome, other than helping to keep the LP on the ballot for next time.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  225. And I voted for Huntsman Romney in the primary.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  226. Yet another example of Democratic extremism.

    Have the Democrats thrown their extremists under the bus?

    Not in California. Rape is rape (as defined in California Penal Code 261.5), and what they’re talking about, in that case, is unlawful sexual intercourse.

    True, some jurisdictions found that “rape” is the wrong kind of word to user to describe a 15-year-old boy having consensual sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend.

    Michael Ejercito (2e0217)

  227. There’s breaking news every day in the Benghazi/Petraeaus story (not counting the ceasefire with the unwritten pledge to prevent Hamas from importing more rockets)

    In March, 2011, Jill Kelley was awarded a silver medal by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It was presented to her by general David Petraeus, who was then the commander of the U.S. Central Command and had recommended her for the reward.

    It cited her for “outstanding public service…from October 31, 2008 to May 31, 2010,” noting also her “willingness to host engagements with senior national representatives from more than 60 countries” as well as her work in “advancing various military endeavors.”

    It said that “on multiple occasions, Mrs. Kelley invited senior national representatives, their spouses and senior leaders to her home to demonstrate their gratitude and support”

    It also said she was “instrumental in introducing the commander, [David Petraeus] early in his tenure, to local and state officials, particularly the mayor of Tampa and the Governor of Florida.”

    Sammy Finkelman (69e89f)

  228. And I voted for Huntsman Romney in the primary.

    I voted for Paul.

    Michael Ejercito (2e0217)

  229. silver medal i’m Imagining the “Kelley patrol” making the not-impressed face.

    Still trying to imagine what would make a grown woman with a bright future despite her inadequacies and fudged and slurred resume, send poison pen mails like a 13 yo girl – and thinking this is effective spook technique.

    Sarahw (b0e533)

  230. Liking the new spiffiness in the comments, P. Your spiffy friend’s revamp of the site has my thanks today, too.

    Sarahw (b0e533)

  231. 221. “off the grid”

    Well I thought my vote might matter in a virtual replay of 2010. What a maroon.

    We’re left with ‘$38 Billion in “Real cuts” becomes $380 Million on review” Boehner, “Give Prezzy authority to raise Debt over bipartisan veto” McConnell.

    Seriously, ‘Let’s ditch even lip service toward the base’ recalibration of the GOP is nothing but unilateral surrender.

    Choosing Paul Ryan was my price for voting Romany. I thought he did as well as I thought capable.

    IMHO, There won’t be a next time for the tweaked GOP. They are a third party.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  232. 233. “Give Prezzy authority to raise Debt [short of] bipartisan veto”

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  233. SarahW, no spook stuff, no need to glamorize. Something primal: a jealous woman. No matter her education and resume, at her core, a competitor.

    Dana (292dcf)

  234. 223. And the public, English version, of what Hamas will take for negotiated settlement is ’67 borders with the ‘Right of Return’.

    No matter that this is a total lie, that their flag of Palestine includes no Israel.

    ‘Right of Return’ is code for all descendents of Arab residents of ’67 border-Israel get to become Israeli citizens, along with 1.3 Million Arabs already citizens.

    Forget Peace.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  235. Bill Whittle has a dark and mysterious past I bet

    happyfeet (fc9387)

  236. Dana, what’s so weird is that she thought she was on top of it, “I’ve got this,” she thought.

    40 years old.

    Sarahw (b0e533)

  237. It’s in the DNA.

    Dana (292dcf)

  238. As an episode of NCIS, it would have been rejected as too over the top,

    narciso (ee31f1)

  239. elissa,

    I agree with Dana’s #153. The answer isn’t to give up on values we can’t all agree on. The answer is to find more articulate politicians and to help all of them talk more knowledgeably about the issues. In addition, I don’t think we have to be a party that has all the answers to every problem. We can be a big tent that covers different views, but we have to present them better.

    If we’re going to borrow anything from the Democrats, it shouldn’t be their positions or their talking points. What we need to borrow is their willingness to create talking points and trot them out every time certain issues come up. And it wouldn’t hurt to use more women and minorities as spokespersons, not only current GOP leaders but also people like Condi Rice and Allen West.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  240. They were in the wilderness, in 2004, they refused to accept their loss, thanks to the likes of Kimberlin, they were willing to sabotage the military’s efforts in Iraq, demagogue the tragedy, and minimize their incompetence, in Katrina, thanks to Van Jones, among others,

    narciso (ee31f1)

  241. Dana,

    I like your auto-corrects, especially “rote stores.” And I hope your surgery was minor and you recover quickly.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  242. It made no difference on the outcome, other than helping to keep the LP on the ballot for next time.

    As a former LP member and one-time candidate, I ask in all seriousness: Why?

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  243. So, if the idea is that we “have to fight for the values we beleive in” no matter how far out of the mainstream they have become, and refuse to censor candidates who insist on speaking their mind about fringe issues, I would imaging that you’d have no problem with a libertarian-wing candidate talking about legalizing heroin, liberalizing sexual consent laws, doing away with public schools and privatizing roads.

    Or, maybe you’d say some thing like: “You should maybe wait on those things until the public is more ready to accept them.” Remember, you never heard most of Ron Paul’s crazy.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  244. Rubio blither blathers about fetuses with nigh shakespearian eloquence

    he’s still just a clichéd quintessentially prissy team R retread though

    happyfeet (e6cae3)

  245. double whammy means the college must be doing it right

    happyfeet (e6cae3)

  246. 250. And Romany doubtless got no better’n 1% of their votes.

    So union vulture is begging them to unionize with Teamsters, so kneecaps can be split.

    Wonder if they’ll all be better off then too?

    Before the election the state college administrators were looking for tenure for administrators while indenturing their fixed term instructors.

    We need to place a bounty on Administrators, collected on presentation of excised jowels.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  247. Kevin M #248,

    I don’t think you are talking to me but if you are, then my answer would be that — instead of avoiding difficult topics — conservative/GOP politicians need to work harder at identifying and defending their ideas in the court of public opinion. Specifically, GOP politicians need to think about what they believe, why they believe it, and be able to persistently and clearly explain their beliefs.

    My guess is some of their beliefs will change because on further reflection they will realize there are certain basic things they believe but many others about which their views are more flexible. But as to things they really, really believe, they should be able to clearly discuss and consistently defend their beliefs. Not many of them can do that today, where poll-tested ideas are much more popular than value-tested ideas.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  248. But they got an award from the Energy Department, for their clean energy investments, facepalm,

    narciso (ee31f1)

  249. DRJ @ 2:45,

    Thank you for good wishes. Its been a tough season and as life sometimes goes, the unwanted happens and we’re tasked to work hard towards good health while being mindful to live every day in thankfulness, no matter what we face. The gracious plenty of family and love carries us through.

    Dana (292dcf)

  250. In addition, when it comes to topics like abortion, my impression is that values-based politicians look for support and/or spend much of their time with people who share their beliefs. That is a good way to reinforce their core beliefs but it doesn’t help them prepare to be challenged in a general election. And, frankly, it doesn’t help them convince people that they’re right — and ultimately that’s the point, isn’t it?

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  251. Dana,

    I pray that God will soon return you to good health.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  252. Kevin M,

    I was reminded today that conservatism is not a political strategy. Republicans are the best vehicle to carry out real-life conservatism, but one has to agree to what fits the conservative bill. If you see abortion as an albatross sinking conservatism in elections, then how do you suggest candidates (national) respond to the question in a debate forum where the undecideds are watching?

    Also, the use of terms such as “fringe” or “extremist” with regard to the pro-life faction of conservatives is not only inaccurate, but demeaning as well.

    Dana (292dcf)

  253. Six freaking kinds of pie:

    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/11/22/White-House-Thanksgiving-Six-Types-of-Pie

    No pie at our place. The girls get a dab of Haagen Daz. Trip to Mayo tomorrow.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  254. Hope you’re feeling better, Dana.

    narciso (ee31f1)

  255. I know it’s a holiday but that’s far removed from the recommended daily food plan guidelines, let alone something average people could afford.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  256. Comment by Sarahw — 11/22/2012 @ 11:50 am

    Still trying to imagine what would make a grown woman with a bright future despite her inadequacies and fudged and slurred resume, send poison pen mails like a 13 yo girl – and thinking this is effective spook technique.

    I think she probably didn’t. I think it’s more likel that Jill Kelley – or spook associates of hers – sent all those e-mails. (The only way they were traced to Paula Broadwell, is that some – but only some originated from a GMail account she and David Petraeus shared)

    The silver medal – the military’s second highest civilian award – came in March, 2011. According to what david Petraeus is reported to have said, the relationship became non-platonic about November 2011 – and stopped as a result of the investigation Jill Kelley triggered.

    Sammy Finkelman (4da72c)

  257. It’s easy to see how some enemies of David Petraeus at the CIA could have found out about the GMail account.

    Undoubtably all communications coming out of CIA headquarters are monitored. This would not only include landlines, but anything wireless. If he used that e-mail account while in the building, the log in information would be captured and saved.

    Of course if this is something irrelevant they are not supposed to save any of this information, especially the content, or tell anyone, but if some nontrustworthy person was entrusted with this job, well things would be different.

    My best theory is that there is some foreign intelligence agency involved here that pernetrated the CIA and recruited Jill Kelley.

    Sammy Finkelman (4da72c)

  258. If you see abortion as an albatross sinking conservatism in elections, then how do you suggest candidates (national) respond to the question in a debate forum where the undecideds are watching?

    as I said in #203: like:

    “I personally disagree with the concept of abortion in almost every case, but as things stand now the thing has been decided. I hope that some day hearts and minds will change — they have before on other subjects — but right now there are other things that are more productive to talk about.”

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  259. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/19/reasons_to_be_thankful?page=full

    ..To read the newspaper, you might conclude our leaders in Washington have their priorities all wrong. But then comes the news that, according to Jill Kelley, America’s most influential real housewife of Tampa Bay, both our CIA director and the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan took time out of their busy schedules to seek her help stopping the threat posed by Bubba the Love Sponge.

    Mr. Love Sponge, for those of you who have missed this glittering chapter in America’s national security history, had announced earlier this year that it was his intention to deep fry a copy of the Quran in animal fats. Apparently, according to the estimable Ms. Kelley, whose three visits to the White House last year almost certainly rank her ahead of many members of Congress or ex-presidents, the potential consequences of the repulsive shock jock’s bit of performance diplomacy would have been devastating for America’s standing in the Middle East. (While that is certainly true, you can’t help but wonder whether policies our leaders apparently are more comfortable with, like invading people’s countries, blowing up their villages, and killing their friends and family might be even more inflammatory.)

    Fortunately for America, we have the honorary consul from South Korea, Miss Inviolability herself, Jill Kelley, just one touch of a speed dial button away from our national security brain’s trust. Generals Petraeus and Allen were able to reach out to her, as they had done in the past when other Floridian nitwits had threatened harm to the Quran. She called the mayor of Tampa, to whom she asserted she was acting on behalf of the generals, and sought his assistance bringing the hammer of justice or at least good taste down on the Love Sponge, a man who until recently had been Tampa’s most best-known resident and cultural leader.

    As an aside, prior to this bizarro incident in America’s War on Terror, Bubba had most recently made his way into the headlines when it was discovered that his then wife was the sex-tape partner of aging, former wrestler and reality show star Hulk Hogan. Thus it came to pass that the CIA sex scandal and the Hulk Hogan sex scandal somehow merged into one, both part of the seemingly permanent oil slick of sleaze that now floats on the surface of American society.

    Sammy Finkelman (4da72c)

  260. Dana–

    Fringe with respect to “pro-life” depends on what you mean by “pro-life.” If you mean that you think abortion should be illegal in all situations and anyone involved should be imprisoned as a felon, that would be a fringe belief. To the degree that you have exceptions to that, it becomes less of a fringe.

    The 50-60% center position seems to a a mild pro-choice: abortion tolerated in the first trimester and outside of that only for “good reason.” To the degree that tolerance is grudging is the real measure of how well the pro-life position is doing.

    Look, I am not saying that Republicans should embrace the abortion status quo, but we have to admit that we have failed utterly in our approach to the issue and that the current regime seems unlikely to change. If we don’t we will continue to seem obsessed.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  261. Sammy, I cannot begin to tell you how little I care about the Petraeus scandal, unless its about how Obama used this fine man’s petty affair to blackmail Petraeus into silence before the election.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  262. Dana,

    rereading that last, I would edit “you” to “one” throughout, and I meant it as such.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  263. And Bill Richardson and Vernon Jordan scurrying to find Monica a job, really offended the same folk, let’s get real,

    narciso (ee31f1)

  264. Pro-life to me means that abortion should not be used as contraception or eugenics (babies with birth defects). I would not make it a crime nor a sin when there is danger of death or great bodily harm to the mother, or for rape or incest. And I would be very gingerly about criminal laws in all cases.

    nk (875f57)

  265. Nice half by N.E.

    mg (31009b)

  266. Nice lie-down by the Jets.

    Icy (e80715)

  267. gag green, i like it.

    mg (31009b)

  268. You really gotta wonder about a team whose colors blend into the AstroTurf, kinda like they really aren’t there at all.

    Icy (e80715)

  269. Camouflage, there hiding from t bow.

    mg (31009b)

  270. Team R can remain the lifeydoodle party but they have to stop pretending to speak to limited government fiscal conservatives

    that bridge has been burned

    happyfeet on Open Thread (1 minute ago) (fc9387)

  271. They’ve learned ‘the important lesson of not being seen’

    narciso (ee31f1)

  272. Nothing to see here:
    President Mohammed Morsi’s decree put himself above the judiciary and also exempted the Islamist-dominated constituent assembly writing Egypt’s new constitution from judicial review. Liberal and secular members earlier walked out of the body, charging it would impose strict Islamic practices.

    It’s all good, ’cause he was DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED:
    Opponents of President Mohammed Morsi have set fire to offices of his Muslim Brotherhood in several Egyptian cities, clashing with his supporters after the Islamist leader assumed sweeping new powers. State TV says Morsi opponents set fire to the offices in the Suez Canal cities of Suez, Port Said and Ismailia.

    — Susan Rice has issued a statement claiming that her initial praise of the Arab Spring was based on faulty intelligence.

    Icy (e80715)

  273. Gee, I wonder if that new constitution theyre working on will eliminate the “State TV”?

    Icy (OU812) (e80715)

  274. No, that’s a feature they keep, think Press TV, in Iran,

    narciso (ee31f1)

  275. I think this is somehow altogether fitting — somehow quite appropriate symbolically — in today’s America.

    Mark (52bc92)

  276. “Susan Rice has issued a statement claiming that her initial praise of the Arab Spring was based on faulty intelligence.”

    Icy – Easy to mistake them for just another benevolent social organization like Hamas which wants to wipe Israel off the face of the maps.

    Obama will probably have to conduct another investigation to pinpoint the source of the faulty intelligence.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  277. Susan Rice stars in “Clueless in D.C.”

    Colonel Haiku (25f8a9)

  278. speaking of clueless
    turkey in straw ha ha HA!
    nanski pelosi

    http://cnsnews.com/news/article/pelosi-obama-may-be-most-famous-person-whole-galaxy

    Colonel Haiku (25f8a9)

  279. Off to Carmel and lunch at Aw Shucks… good day, all!

    Colonel Haiku (25f8a9)

  280. I can’t believe that Channel 26 preempted Gunsmoke for Chicago High School football.

    nk (875f57)

  281. daleyrocks,

    I’m willing to bet that an investigation would reveal the problem is not that there is faulty intelligence among the Obama Administration, rather, it’s that there is no intelligence among the Obama Administration.

    Elephant Stone (65d289)

  282. “it’s that there is no intelligence among the Obama Administration.”

    ES – You might be right. Any self-investigation will not conclude, however, that the source of the faulty intelligence is the Obama friends, MB front groups, ideology, and political correctness which have been welcomed into his administration with open arms.

    All is well!

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  283. The watchwords of the Obama Adminstration are: Epistemic Closure

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  284. Obama will probably have to conduct another investigation to pinpoint the source of the faulty intelligence.
    Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 11/23/2012 @ 9:50 am

    — Is that your way of saying “he can’t find his ass with both hands”?

    Icy (MyTVC15) (e80715)

  285. Here is a look at the main points of Morsi’s decrees:

    – All laws and decisions by the president are final, cannot be appealed, overturned or halted by the courts or other bodies. This applies to decisions he has made since taking office in June and any he makes until a new constitution is approved and a new parliament is elected, expected in the spring at the earliest.

    – No judicial body can dissolve the upper house of parliament or the assembly writing the new constitution. Both are dominated by the Brotherhood and other Islamists and several cases demanding their disbanding were before the courts, which previously dissolved the lower house of parliament.

    – The president can take any steps or measures necessary to prevent threats to “the revolution, the life of the nation or national unity and security” or to the functioning of state institutions.

    – A new judiciary body of “protection of the revolution” is created to reopen investigations, prosecutions and trials of former regime officials, including ousted President Hosni Mubarak, for the killing of protesters during last year’s uprising. Other police officers accused of killings, however, will not be retried.

    — Anyone up for a dose of “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”?

    Icy (MyTVC15) (e80715)

  286. This is twenty-five hundred years old in history. A tyrant is not a bad king. It is a failure of democracy. Dracon, Hipparchos, the Caesars, Napoleon, Hitler … all commoners raising a mob.

    nk (875f57)

  287. Raised up by a mob, if you prefer. People get the government they deserve.

    nk (875f57)

  288. Morsi still has to answer to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and the United States Congress.

    That would be all right if he didn’t have other sponsors.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  289. Why shouldn’t the Egyptians get strict Islamic law? It’s what they said they wanted. Just like America said they wanted more of Obama. Most of the time people gotta learn the hard way.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  290. “Morsi still has to answer to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and the United States Congress.”

    Sammy – Before or after we make the changes to our free speech laws which he demanded we implement?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  291. Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 11/23/2012 @ 12:42 pm

    “Morsi still has to answer to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and the United States Congress.”

    Sammy – Before or after we make the changes to our free speech laws which he demanded we implement?

    We’re ignoring him. But he isn’t oignoring Obama.

    Obama called on the ophone and read him the riot act or something and all the demonstrations against the U.S Embassy in Cairo stopped cold.

    He sent Hillary Clinton to Egypt, and Hamas stopped firing rockets wiithin a day (although not before satisfying themselves, with the bus bomb, that there was another way to pursue terrorism.)

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  292. Morsi was elected in the runoff because it looked like the old military was seizing all power.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  293. 296 Comment by Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 11/23/2012 @ 12:42 pm

    Why shouldn’t the Egyptians get strict Islamic law? It’s what they said they wanted. Just like America said they wanted more of Obama. Most of the time people

    That’s not hat they wanted and the Islamists are breaking campaign promises.

    They also didn’t want Mubarak number 2. They thought this was the ewway to stop it.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  294. 267.. Comment by Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 11/22/2012 @ 6:25 pm

    Sammy, I cannot begin to tell you how little I care about the Petraeus scandal, unless its about how Obama used this fine man’s petty affair to blackmail Petraeus into silence before the election.

    I think it;s about something bigger, but I think it’s about how the moles got rid of Petraeus before Petraeus could discover and get of the moles.

    Petraeus was silebnt a whole year. They told him that was what a CIA Director was supposed to be. I think he may have had orders from Clapper.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  295. “We’re ignoring him. But he isn’t oignoring Obama.”

    Sammy – Whatever you say. I’m sure ignoring Morsi is why Clinton and Obama continued to publicly denounce the video in public appearances and speeches and even conducted and advertising campaign about it in Pakistan. Plus all those rumors about releasing the Blind Sheik have so far turned out to be just rumors.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  296. “Petraeus was silebnt a whole year.”

    Sammy – Are you suggesting it was somehow strange for Petraeus not to follow the great American tradition of Directors of the CIA maintaining high public profiles, especially about covert operations?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  297. As I was pointing out after the election, they were still counting votes and Romney would wind up with about the same national total as McCain. He actually did a little better nationally, as Kimberly Strassel pointed out today, and if CA is excluded his out performance vs. McCain increases. People have to stop saying Romney got 3 million less votes than McCain. Bill O’Reilly just repeated the 3 million less thing last week.

    Rather than thinking about changing the pro-life message the Republicans need to think about ways to get more minority voters, as Strassel points out. The obvious place to start is with Asians, a group Bush carried, where Romney got creamed worse than with Hispanics.

    Gerald A (f26857)

  298. Well one has to consider the natural growth of the voting age population, then subtract about 10 million total voters, and then he’s at best tied with Obama,

    narciso (ee31f1)

  299. 305. 51% voted versus 53% in 1980. Guess having a wretched incumbent doesn’t guarantee interest.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  300. The non voting public should have enough votes to win elections.
    One would think Ailes and Rove could figure out how. Rove was probably responsible for a few million staying home.

    mg (31009b)

  301. Map of Illinois Congressional District 2 (not finely detailed – probably taken from the Congressional District Atlas)

    http://elections.il.gov/Downloads/VotingInformation/PDF/2011Districts/2011CongDist2.pdf

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  302. Somebody tell Kate Middleton she needs to take Vitamin B6 – because the doctors won’t tell her.

    And perhaps something else she may be short on.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  303. Here is The Week column about the problems the New York Times is having with the trend toward digital:

    http://theweek.com/article/index/237251/the-new-york-times-latest-cutbacks-proof-its-digital-strategy-is-failing

    One comment there, goes in part:

    …The irony of the newspapers is the writers all thought they were saying something so unique, but it turns out they were all saying the same thing.

    When it was print, there were natural monopolies, and captive audiences, and the journolists thought they were the value, but maybe it was actually the monopoly and the want ads.

    Local ads have largely disappeared with Craig’s list and EBay. With the internet, there is no need for sending all the information to the captured base.

    All of these news sites need to collapse down for national news, and have a few companies providing that news for competition.

    Same needs to happen at the state level.

    What’s left is local news.

    I don’t agree it needs to happen, but their business model is in trouble.

    Now the fact is, print ads are better than digital ads.

    But better then both is direct mail, so maybe people could agree to have articles mailed to them, together with advertisements, paid for by the advertiser(s) with the newspaper collecting a fee.

    Sammy Finkelman (2b1acb)


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