Sunday, April 29, 2007
Conspiracy! Conspiracy, I tell you!
This couldn't have happened as reported because as we all know, materials engineering expert Rosie O'Donnell has informed us that fire can't melt steel.
Clearly GWB and the CIA, perhaps with the assistance of the Republican Party, have committed an act of terrorism against the good (i.e., heavily left-leaning) people of the Bay Area, especially San Franciscans and citizens of the People's Republic of Berkeley, who use that road a lot.
UPDATE 20070429:1215PDT. I didn't see this before I wrote this post. Honest!
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Clearly GWB and the CIA, perhaps with the assistance of the Republican Party, have committed an act of terrorism against the good (i.e., heavily left-leaning) people of the Bay Area, especially San Franciscans and citizens of the People's Republic of Berkeley, who use that road a lot.
UPDATE 20070429:1215PDT. I didn't see this before I wrote this post. Honest!
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Everything's Rosy for Rosie
Today ABC and Rosie O'Donnell announced that they will be parting ways in June. That's good, because Rosie has been a poisonous presence on broadcast TV, spouting ignorance and mean-spirited misinformation, not to mention outright lies, to millions of people who, unfortunately, believe everything she says. I'm glad to see Rosie leaving ABC, and I hope she doesn't get picked up by any other broadcast television network. She more properly belongs on cable.
I hold with the theory that Rosie has spent the last few months trying to get fired, probably because she senses that she's a hot property and that there is someone in the business who's willing to throw a lot more money at her. More importantly to Rosie, that someone would not be anywhere near as skittish about Rosie's pronouncements. Something like MTV comes to mind.
The story is that Rosie and ABC couldn't agree on "key elements" of her new contract. I'm sure. I wouldn't be surprised if ABC wanted something like a "morals clause" that would allow them to terminate Rosie if she did or said something so outrageous that they thought it would hurt ABC's bottom line or the Mouse House's stock price, and Rosie wouldn't agree to any such thing because, well, Rosie is Rosie.
Being a big believer in the right of free speech, I wouldn't advocate muzzling Rosie. I think it was Mark Twain who said, "It is better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt." Rosie, in my view, is a living example of Twain's wisdom. But freedom to speak one's mind does not equate to being able to do so without consequences, contrary to what many seem to believe. It wouldn't bother me one whit if Rosie found herself marginalized and derided as the ignorant buffoon she is.
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I hold with the theory that Rosie has spent the last few months trying to get fired, probably because she senses that she's a hot property and that there is someone in the business who's willing to throw a lot more money at her. More importantly to Rosie, that someone would not be anywhere near as skittish about Rosie's pronouncements. Something like MTV comes to mind.
The story is that Rosie and ABC couldn't agree on "key elements" of her new contract. I'm sure. I wouldn't be surprised if ABC wanted something like a "morals clause" that would allow them to terminate Rosie if she did or said something so outrageous that they thought it would hurt ABC's bottom line or the Mouse House's stock price, and Rosie wouldn't agree to any such thing because, well, Rosie is Rosie.
Being a big believer in the right of free speech, I wouldn't advocate muzzling Rosie. I think it was Mark Twain who said, "It is better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt." Rosie, in my view, is a living example of Twain's wisdom. But freedom to speak one's mind does not equate to being able to do so without consequences, contrary to what many seem to believe. It wouldn't bother me one whit if Rosie found herself marginalized and derided as the ignorant buffoon she is.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
New Meme?
When I wrote this post I thought it might be a bit over the top, even as humorous fantasy, but today Instapundit, commenting on a WaPo editorial about Nancy Pelosi's Middle East adventure, said this:
"If Bush and Cheney were really evil, they'd both resign and stick the Democrats with a Pelosi Presidency for the next two years. The Democratic Party would never recover. Alas, neither would the country."
How 'bout that for vindication!
I don't think Professor Reynolds reads this blog, so I'm confident he developed his comment independently. I also believe he thinks things through before he posts, which makes me feel less outre. Of course, his statement of the idea is much more elegant than mine.
Maybe there's something to it, after all ....
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"If Bush and Cheney were really evil, they'd both resign and stick the Democrats with a Pelosi Presidency for the next two years. The Democratic Party would never recover. Alas, neither would the country."
How 'bout that for vindication!
I don't think Professor Reynolds reads this blog, so I'm confident he developed his comment independently. I also believe he thinks things through before he posts, which makes me feel less outre. Of course, his statement of the idea is much more elegant than mine.
Maybe there's something to it, after all ....
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Pessimism
I've come to the conclusion that, unless we in the West wake up, and soon, radical Islam is going to win.
I believe this to be true because:
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I believe this to be true because:
- We think of the future in terms of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years; they think of the future in terms of months, years, decades, generations, centuries and millennia.
- In our society, people are generally not willing to give our lives, or even to fight for what we supposedly believe in; they are eager to die in service to Allah.
- We believe in "live and let live" and they believe that it is their solemn duty to convert everyone on Earth to Islam, or put those who refuse to death.
- We believe in fairness, accommodation and compromise as among all peoples and cultures; they believe when a Muslim deals with an infidel, there are no rules, and accommodation and compromise are only tools to achieve the end of the victory of Allah.
- In Western societies, the birth rate is below two per woman, and is insufficient to maintain the current population level; in Muslim societies, the birth rate is above three per woman.
