A Dixie Carpetbagger

Via the Scalawag, Judge Napolitano, the Cato Institute and Dr. Lott on the MacDonald case. 

Via Robb, a great Gura quote: “Justice Sotomayor, States may have grown accustomed to violating the rights of American citizens, but that does not bootstrap those violations into something that is constitutional”

Jay, Weer’d, Linoge and Miguel respond to Sebastian.  Miguel makes the point that: “McDonald is not just a “case” or an argument or a amicus curiae. Mr. McDonald is a human being which was denied the tools for defensing himself in a violent neighborhood.”

This is correct.  However, there are two quotes that lay out how I feel about this– “… as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31– the “Golden Rule”) and “[y]our enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can [eliminate] him without hate — and quickly.”  (Bob Heinlein)

Put simply, the Bradys think that they’re right.  The pro-rights groups (and the majority of Americans) disagree.  We’ll win eventually, and people like this woman will become discredited and objects of scorn.

To lighten the mood, and play you out with music, Laurel’s take on the McDonald case.  Please secure your beverage…

You’ve been President just over one year. You’ve achieved nothing, and while the percentage of people who like you hasn’t fallen much (around 10%), the number of people who don’t like you is skyrocketing. Every candidate you’ve campaigned for has lost, but the one member of your party who won a race not only didn’t seek your help, he was endorsed by the Republicans… and he promised to vote against you.

What do you do?

Try even harder in the next year, of course! “What the president will not do is let this moment slip away. He hopes to have Republican support in doing so — but he is going to move forward on health reform.” Oh, and you admit that you and your predecessor are alike in a lot of ways. And you call your detractors terrorists. And you have your Treasury Secretary (who can’t figure out TurboTax) say that your spending money like a drunken sailor in a Hong Kong bar will “never” hurt your credit rating.

I… I… oh, blood and martyrs. (shakes head) You would think that his approval rating dropping like a thermometer in an icebox would be a hint that his ideas were crap, but apparently not. But, hey, at least he’s not Bush, right?

(H/T Uncle, Robb, Gun Free Zone )

“You can’t say nuclear, that really scares me, sometimes a brain can come  in quite handy…”

Breda has a post with video of Dear Leader saying “corpse-man” instead of “core-man.” Man, I’m so glad we have an eloquent President now, not a drunken, mumbling cowboy.*

The irony of the Bush “new-coo-lar” is that that pronunciation has been used by four Presidents: Eisenhower, Carter, Clinton, and Bush 43.  Two of these four were mocked for being raving dumbasses who couldn’t talk right.  (Hint: it’s not the Democrats.)

One of the weird things I have about Carter’s using “new-coo-lar” is that I can’t find any reference to how Hyman Rickover pronounced “nuclear.”  Carter was a prospective reactor officer, and Rickover would latch onto any little thing to harass a candidate with, like not being able to pronounce a word correctly.

* True story– right after the coronation inauguration, I was eating lunch at my favorite watering hole when the President came on, making a speech.  The gentleman down the bar (who had killed half a bottle of wine in 20 minutes)  looked at me, said “damn, it’s good to have a President who’s not a drunk, mumbling cowboy!”  He then got up, put on his cowboy hat, made sure his jeans came over his cowboy boots, then walked out to his duallie diesel truck and drove off.

Irony, they name is “Obama voter.”

Look, Senator LePew LeMieux… I’ve unsubscribed from your newsletter four times already. I don’t want any news from you except to hear that you’re no longer my Senator. I’m not kidding, being coy, or playing hard to get– I don’t want to get email from you. PERIOD.

I’m not buying your conversion to fiscal conservatism… remember, you’re “a Charlie Crist Republican,” and he’s not exactly a small spender. You’re Charlie’s handpicked seat warmer, and in January of next year, you’ll be gone. Might want to see if Marco Rubio wants any customizations made to the chair you’re sitting in… it’ll be his chair come 2011.

The one thing you could do to merit a smile on my face is to publicly announce you’re resigning, and that you’ve appointed Chuck Baldwin to your seat. Shy of that, stop sending me emails.

Tam has a link to a Media Matters story (no link from me, though) where the Left is now accusing CNN of learning conservative.

Seeing as words cannot adequately describe my response to the sheer disconnect that it takes of accusing CNN of leaning conservative, I created a GIF that shows the trajectory of Media Matters.  (You’re going to have to click the GIF.  For some reason it doesn’t animate otherwise.)

*Yes, this pun was intentional.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana

“How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints.” – C. S. Lewis

Breda comments on the fact that recent events seem to be almost miraculous, but also fated to happen. Simply put, when a person is ignorant of history, their path is set. No matter how many turns they take, no matter how their pace changes… their endpoint is marked, and the only variable is how long it takes to get there.

To those of us who know their history, the path is clear… to quote Gator in the comments of Breda’s post: “now go back and re-read the first couple of paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence. It’ll make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.”

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness—-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

With a few changes, the list of grievances could’ve been written yesterday.  One line stands out, due to the fact that it rings so true now.  “In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.”

I think that the Founders knew that they were effecting history, and even the very patterns of future events.  Hopefully, we work under a rising, and not a setting sun.

This post by Linoge kept tickling the back of my mind. I just figured out what it reminded me of.

O, the parallels! A man who was given his position and enjoys what those before him have built up getting a message… and not being able to understand it, but knowing that he needed to be afraid. One verse in particular makes me smile.

¹⁷Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation.

Makes me want to dress up in the heigth of Babylonian fashion and make a trip to D. C. “This is the writing that has been written, Mr. President: TOO FAR, TOO FAR, FAILURE, ROLL BACK. “

Doubleplus ungood crimethinking enemies stole election Tuesday night.  Enemies blackwhite crimethinkers.  Enemies led by doubleplus ungood sexcriminal, guncriminal, truckcriminal.  Enemies trying to spread crimethink.

Good Amsoc proles will crimestop, but douleplus good proles bellyfeel.  Dayorder is to
destroy doubleplus ungood ownlifers.

Amsoc will destroy these doubleplus ungood crimethinkers.  Crimethinkers get joycamp or become unpersons.  Doubleplus good bellyfeelers get prolefeed.

Victory belongs to Amsoc.  Doubleplus ungood crimethinkers cannot stop Amsoc.  Doubleplus ungood crimethinkers futilely attempt to stop Amsoc.  Crimethink is death.  Goodthink is life.  Goodthink must destroy crimethink.  Amsoc must destroy crimethink.

You are AMSOC.  AMSOC is life.  Life is AMSOC.

No Brown celebration post. Meant to do one last night, but I laughed myself to sleep. A Republican Congressman from Massachusetts? HA! This seat hasn’t been held by a Republican since 1953, as Rustmeister points out. (For those of you curious, it was Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.)

The past few years, I’ve found myself wondering if I’d entered a parallel universe. This just makes it worse. I’m halfway tempted to start asking people who the first man on the moon was. (Just to check, it was Leslie LeCroix, right?) Like Sebastian, I’m halfway expecting to wake up from a weird dream.

Now, the finger pointing has started. Unsurprisingly, Olberman is in on the action, too.

Now for some humor, courtesy of Weer’d.

Keep crying, Dems.  You need the practice for November.

This race is one of the most exciting I’ve seen in a while.  The very prospect of Massachusetts being represented in the Senate by a Republican is astounding.  I’ve felt that I woke up in an alternate reality sometime back in 2008, but now I have hard proof– people in Massachusetts rallying for a Republican.

Of course, this isn’t going to be easy.  The Brady Bunch have come out for what’s-her-name, and even Chuck Schumer has thrown in his two cents.  The governor is trying to find a way to disqualify Brown, the attack ads and mailers are getting truly hysteric (Brown is a Bush puppet!  BUSH BAD!  BUUUUUSH BAAAAAAD!).  Note to the Dems: stop try to frighten the children your base.  It’ll backfire; they’ve grown up, up understand that you’re going to have to take responsibility for your actions.

The situation looks bad… for the Dems.  Obama has had to go and throw in his contribution, and even The One couldn’t slow down Brown.  Even CNN is having to report this.  Even the bookies like Brown.

Now, to quote Jay…  GO SCOTT, GO!