Read it. Democrats: The party of “We Give Up!”

Democrats just wander the earth looking for people to whom to lose. At least the socialists pretended that they would make life better.

Read it. My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Reminder for the dimwitted: Islam is an oppressive totalitarian ideology with which no co-existence is possible.

Read it.

Read it.

Read it. My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Read it. What’s “Arrrrr!” in Somali?

Mencius Moldbug is at it again.

I am pretty confident that “Australia” is more or less what everyone thinks it is. I am not at all confident that the same can be said for “democracy.”

As you can see, there is a certain amount of contempt in this perspective. This makes sense, because it’s more or less the perspective of the global ruling class.

Having to deal with an American high school was not pleasant, but it gave me a certain respect for America: it exists. Once you go to college, you are no longer in the real America. You are in a fortified outpost of future America, which has been planted in the real America to enlighten and assimilate it. Respect is not on the menu.

I think I once saw a pro-Israeli crowd in New York. It was maybe ten or twenty people. Of course, it wasn’t in 1984, either. On the other hand, when I think of “aggressive and vociferous” in 1984, what I think of is the anti-apartheid divestment movement. Was there ever an anti-Palestinian divestment movement? Promising not to invest in companies that do business with Arab states that support Palestinian terrorism? Maybe I just missed it.

By compiling the facts of history and expecting some objective algorithm to magically arrange them in the most plausible narrative, we think we are being scientific. In fact we have only rediscovered artificial stupidity.

I love this guy. Don’t always agree with him, but he has a fresh perspective, and that’s rare.

Read it. This makes a great deal of sense.

Read it. Who would know better than Karl Rove?

Read it. Didn’t know that Ross Douthat was a Tolkien fan.

Read it. A review of Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism in the American Thinker. Very accurate — and refreshing.

Steve Sailer is always worth reading.

Also, can somebody explain exactly what the difference is between McCain and Giuliani? They both are invade-the-world, invite-the-world, in-hock-to-the-world guys, just like Bush. So, why is McCain doing well and Giuliani is in the tank? Is it just because McCain showed up in the first few primaries while Giuliani was off acting like he had something better to do than run for President? Perhaps Woody Allen was right and 90% of success is showing up.

Read it. In an era of Identity Politics, it ought to come as no surprise that they Democratic Party would ineveitably host a fight between the fashionable victim groups, blacks and latinos. Perhaps this year is the year.

Read it. A useful reminder that, were it not for his assassination, and the administration of Jimmy Carter, John F. Kennedy might well be known as the worst American President of this century.

I was there. I saw.

If he hadn’t allowed Krischev to roll him in Vienna, there wouldn’t have been a Cuban Missile Crisis for him to handle. A fantastic save after you trip doesn’t make you any less a klutz, it just makes you a very lucky klutz.

He colluded in the murder of President Diem in Vietnam, which war (and country) had been doing very well until then.

He didn’t do shit for civil rights, other than have the FBI wiretap Martin Luther King.

Other than boffing more women-not-his-wife in the White House than Bill Clinton, it’s truly hard to think of one positive accomplishment of the Kennedy administration.

Feh.

Read it. Some interesting stuff from Language Log. Spelling checkers are apparently smarter than I thought.

Read it. A good reason to steer clear of MySpace, at least so long as most people are stupid.

I suspect that our country may have exhausted its supply of common sense. Or at least the tank is making those ugly gurgling noises.

Read it. I like the picture — I don’t care who you are, that’s funny.

Read it. Shucks, I missed it.

Christopher Hitchens is almost always worth reading.

Inside Politics.

Inside the Beltway.

Read it. Me want. How about one of these in the ol’ glove compartment?

Read it.

Read it. Not a pretty sight, but a useful reminder.

McCain seems to have conned a lot of Republicans into thinking he’s transformed his position on immigration–for example, Victor Davis Hanson, author of “Mexifornia,” who now writes about “McCain’s won’t-make-that-mistake-again changed views on closing the border.” This even though it’s obvious to anyone paying attention that McCain hasn’t altered his ultimate support for legalization of illegals (once he’s declared the border “secure”). One reason we know this is because he’s said it–he said it again on Meet the Press yesterday, when asked if he’d sign the McCain-Kennedy “comprehensive” immigration bill as president if it came to his desk. Answer: “Yeah.” If somebody like Hernandez, as McCain also said yesterday, “supports my policies and my proposals,” it serves to emphasize that those policies may not have changed as much as cheap dates like Hanson seem to believe. Hernandez’s own Web site features an article describing him as “passionately” advocating legalization of “all Mexican workers in the U.S.” [What about McCain’s statement that: “I will not allow anyone to receive Social Security or any other benefits because they have come here illegally and broken our laws”?–ed Obvious BS. If he offers legalization to the “12 million” who are here they will clearly get benefits from having come here illegally–the benefit of being here legally, for one. Medicaid, Medicare, and public schooling for another. People who came here illegally would also immediately qualify for Social Security benefits as soon as they got the quickie “probationary” Z-visa under McCain’s bill. The only way McCain’s statement would make sense is if he was also planning to offer these benefits to everyone who didn’t cross the border–i.e. the entire population of Mexico. … Actually, that doesn’t seem too far from Dr. Hernandez’s philosophy. … You don’t think …]

Read it. Well, there you have it.

Read it. We’re from the government, and we’re here to help … ourselves.

Read it. My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

After all, they’re breaking the law just by being here. Not a big step to breaking the law in other respects.

Inside Politics.

Inside the Beltway.

Read it. Well, democracy in Russia didn’t last long, did it? Wonder how long before we’re back to 95% turnout and 95% majorities.

Read it.

In some circles elections are held to be a sort of universal balm or cure for what ails a society. Terrorism? Elections will cure it. Poverty? Just need elections. Corruption? Elections will throw the bums out. Well, in reality elections sometimes tear a society apart into warring tribes.

Read it. Hint: A new one is born every minute.

For extra amusement, imagine what would happen if they tried that in a Muslim country.

Read it. By “Christian” I presume they mean do-it-yourself Protestants.

Read it. Democrats can dish it out but they can’t take it. Of course, only a publication run by Regressives would characterize Bill Clinton as any kind of “statesman”.

Read it. Thus aiding and abetting criminals is described as “Christian duty”. No wonder their church is dissolving around them.

Read it. Of course, Regressives in charge of the Political Correctness Police don’t have the mental acuity to make — or appreciate — such distinctions.

Read it. This is extremely silly. Your tax dollars are paying these idiotic judges, folks.

Read it. Coming soon to freak out an environmentalist near you.

Read it. No connection, of course, between the diocese’s financial problems and the lawsuit against separating parishes, oh no.

They don’t have these problems in Europe, of course, because of the church tax.

Read it. This explains why our political system sucks.

Watch it. And marvel.

Read it. And pity a country that thinks more of political correctness than its own heritage.

A Reigate and Banstead Borough Council spokes-woman said: “The site is located on the Green Belt and the developments constitute inappropriate development, which is harmful to the openness of the Green Belt.”

1. Thank God you don’t live in Britain.
2. Without eternal vigilance, it could happen here.

Apparently the rock band Journey was looking for a new lead singer, and found him on YouTube. I read about it in the Wall Street Journal, which unfortunately hasn’t dropped it’s paywall yet (c’mon, Rupert, get with the program), but the guy sounds amazingly like Steve Parry. Proof here and here. And you can search YouTube for Arnal Pineda and get a lot of the material that’s been posted on it.

Speculation is that YouTube will be the audition venue of choice very soon, if it isn’t already.

Read it. Makes you wonder what the buckle looks like.

Read it. Spain is in the process of learning about the relationship between Danegeld and Danes. The same relationship obtains between jizya and Muslims.

Read it. And you can believe as much or as little of that as you care to.

Just because Bill Gates has a lot of money doesn’t make him an expert economist, or a political philosopher. The same goes for Warren Buffet, although I’ll listen to Buffet when it comes to business analysis, since he has a good track record there. Bill Gates doesn’t even have all that good a track record in IT, much less Econ.

I wish non-socialist people would just quit using the term “capitalism”, a word invented by Marxists that operates entirely within their little sandbox of a focus on production. The free market is not about production and never has been; it’s about distribution, unrestricted exchange, and I wish there were a good term for that. “Freemarketarian” is about as close as I’ve seen, and it’s pretty ugly.

Watch it. Hold ’em high at Eighth and I.

Read it.

Peggy Noonan on how the scales are falling from Democrat eyes about Bill Clinton. And other things.

George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other. He did this on spending, the size of government, war, the ability to prosecute war, immigration and other issues.

And that will be Bush’s “legacy”, like it or not.

Jerry Pournelle is feeling morose.

We do note, though, that the American people are not stupid: unlike most countries we don’t save money. We know darned well that politicians cannot resist stealing from any pool of money they can find: retirement funds, savings accounts, real estate equity: if they can see the money they will have it. Interest rate meddling, tax rebates to those who don’t pay taxes when there’s no money in the first place, all these are easy ways of getting at savings. The American people know this which is why we don’t save much. Can anyone blame them?

Read it. Pretty disgraceful.

Read it. It’s amazing how often non-rich people who don’t really have to work for a living (writers, politicians, that crowd) seem to feel that they’re in a unique position to be able to tell rich people how they can better spend their money.

Dudes, if you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich? There’s a reason….