Fred Thompson’s new book
I bet it’s a good book to read while wearing your new t-shirt.
Archive of entries posted on 17th May 2010
Apologizing to the Chinese?
So we’re in human rights talks with the Chinese, and what’s the topic of discussion? How awful Arizona’s new law is.
When Assistant [to the] Secretary Posner was asked whether the Arizona law came up, he said:
We brought it up early and often. It was mentioned in the first session, and as a troubling trend in our society and an indication that we have to deal with issues of discrimination or potential discrimination, and that these are issues very much being debated in our own society.
I was wondering how that went, so I obtained a transcript from the talk:
OBAMA: I want you to know it’s not like the U.S. thinks its better than you. For instance, we have that draconian law in Arizona.
CHINA: Sorry, can’t hear you over the gunshots as we shoot political prisoners in the face.
OBAMA: It just saddens us how Arizona is doing something so oppressive as deporting people who are in the country illegally… or something. We never did get around to reading the law, but MSNBC makes it sound bad.
CHINA: Yes, it is a disgusting, oppressive law. I was just telling that to someone the other day before I executed him for being a political dissident.
OBAMA: I just wish we could from how civilized China is. Not only do you have abortion on demand, you give people abortions even when they don’t demand.
CHINA: You really are going to have to speak up if I’m going to be able to hear you over us shooting political prisoners. And stop bowing to me; it embarrasses us both.
Possible Endings to LOST
Hurley is fat. I hope the finale explains why.
POSSIBLE ENDINGS TO LOST
* It was all a long con by Sawyer to steal Jacob’s buried treasure (Jacob is a pirate).
* It’s revealed it was all Vincent’s dream. Apparently, what a dog is dreaming when he runs in his sleep is more complicated than most people would imagine.
* It ends quite predictably with a basketball competition between the Harlem Globetrotters and robots.
* Ends up it’s not an island at all… but a peninsula!
* The show was an analogy for the true meaning of Christmas, hinted at when they early on encountered polar bears (the island is the remains of Santa’s workshop).
* The ending isn’t shown at all, and when people call ABC, they will claim to never have heard of LOST. ABC will then ask the people calling, “If it’s a real show, describe the plot.” When people try, they’ll realize how made up it sounds and start to question their own sanity.
* They discover that all the weird stuff is caused by Hurley messing up the gravitational field of the earth.
* The Smoke Monster lays dying, but Jack is able to save him by urging the viewers at home to clap and shout, “I believe in random nonsense!”
* The answers to everything were always hidden in Kate’s freckles.
* The Dharma accounting department finally notices the “Ship food to mysterious island” budget item and ends it. Everyone on the island starves.
* While the Oceanic-flight-815-crashed timeline ends in the finale, the one where it didn’t crash was basically a reboot so that the alternate time line goes on for five more seasons.
* Considering all that’s happened, it ends the only sensible way it can: With a disco dance competition — IN SPACE!
* It’s a two and half hour long apology from the writers admitting they have no idea where the story is going.
Are Squishes Becoming Unhinged?
I’m starting to get a little worried about the squishes. Ever since Tea Parties started, the squishes in the Republican Party have had all these paranoid fantasies about them. And then there are people like David Brooks rating about how Bob Bennett not getting reelected is a “damn outrage” and screeds over at FrumForum about how the squishes needs to seize the Republican Party from the right. The squishes just seem to be becoming increasingly shrill and desperate, and I’m starting to wonder if the next stage is squish violence. Any day now, squishes could start ambushing the right in violent attacks, whacking them with nerf bats. That’s probably marginally more annoying than hearing them talk.
It’s time to confront these squishes before their unhinged, unprincipled ways infect the GOP. They keep talking about purging the Republican Party of the right, and that is just political suicide. We have to tell them, “You guys are acting irrationally, and we are not going to listen to you — even more so than usual.” We have to stop the squishes to keep the Republican Party an open tent — one where even squishes can call home as long as they never ever talk.
Ever.
Random Thoughts
I keep thinking the chickens next door are mocking me, but I guess that’s the sound they always make.
Did anyone ever release the Kraken? I thought I told someone to do that, but I could be mistaken.
So whose idea was it that the nation should be primarily run by lawyers, because that was a stupid idea.
If I made a list of occupations of people best suited to run a nation, I doubt lawyers would even be in my top 100.
Next Constitution, we should really think ahead of time, “Is this just going to lead to lawyers being in charge of everything?”
Saw someone get a Doctorate of Philosophy in Computer and Electrical Engineering. Would not want to be the one to flip the power on one of the circuits he designed.
I’m all confused; is the reason Nazis are considered so evil is because they kept deporting Jews who snuck into their country?
You do well to please God – unless you like your current name, as God has a habit of changing the names of people who please Him.
The squishes in the Republican Party seem to be becoming unhinged.
Now I’ll never find out what Dio meant when he said I could see the tiger’s stripes but knew he was clean.
If Arizona started randomly executing Hispanics, their opponents couldn’t actually up their rhetoric condemning Arizona from where it already is.
All politics is relative
All politics is local.
It’s also relative.
Let’s take a moment and think about one of Einstein’s famous examples: the man dropping the ball on a train.
There’s a man on a train. And you’re standing outside the train, watching the train go by. And you can see through the walls of the train.
When the man drops the ball, he sees it fall straight down. But you, standing outside the train, see the ball fall in an arc. If you don’t follow that right off, think about it for a minute; draw it out, if necessary.
But the question is: which view is right?
Both. It’s relative to your motion whether the ball falls in a straight line or in an arc.
Politics is like that.
Think about Scott Brown and Mitt Romney. They’re Republicans from Massachusetts. Normally, you’d think of a Republican as conservative. And, compared to most of Massachusetts, they are.
But move Scott Brown or Mitt Romney to a more conservative place. Like Georgia or Alabama. Around here, Brown and Romney would be considered flaming liberals. In this part of the country, there are Democrats that are more conservative than either of those two Massachusetts politicians.
California is pretty much the same way. What passes for a Republican in California would get you run out parts of Alabama or Georgia with a stick. And I’d probably be the person wielding that stick.
Sometimes I just shake my head and wonder about some of the people who pass for conservatives in some places. But, I have to remember that, like the ball on the train, it’s relative to your position and movement.
So, I won’t get all worked up about what some states do, as long as some progress is being made.
Massachusetts elected a Republican instead of a Democrat as U.S. Senator. Despite Brown not being what I’d call a conservative, that’s an improvement from how things were.
And, if California elects a Republican instead of reelecting Barbara Boxer, that’ll be an improvement.
That doesn’t mean Mission Accomplished. It means Task Accomplished and the mission remains.
If the GOP picks up a boat-load of seats this November — and they should — they don’t need to get cocky. And we conservatives need to keep the pressure on. How much energy should we expend to keep pushing the GOP to run conservatives?
Well, according to Einstein, energy equals mass times the speed of light squared…