Republican Post-Mortum

Why did Republicans suffer the loss of the House in November? Due to my other responsibilities, I couln't give analysis at the time, but I will now. What did Congressional Republicans do to stop the runaway spending when they held power? To my knowledge, nothing. Did they enact the term limits Newt Gingerich called for in 1994? Hardly- - they seemed to forget all about the advantages of citizen legislators, going so far as to increase incumbent advantages.
Why did Judy Baar Topinka lose her challenge to Governor Rod Blagojevich? Before her candidacy was even announced, Topinka in 2005 gloated that Alan Keyes lost because " Illinoisans want a center-right government." In a contest between a pro-abortion Republican and a rabidly pro-abortion Democrat, Estase voted for the pro-abortion Republican. He did not want a "center-right" governor, but had no choice but vote for an insipid, charmless time-server. The Illinois Republican party is a mess. The new year will include Dick Durbin's campaign for reelection. Illinois Republicans should be able to defeat the laughably stupid Durbin, but they won't as long as the party leadership puts forward candidates who are no different from the Democrats. No more pro-abortion Republicans!
Please!!!

Baldwin Blows

Apparently Professor Jean Kirkpatrick died this week. She was a voice for treating our enemies like enemies. Actor Alec Baldwin chose to say that Dr. Kirkpatrick was a war-monger, and questioned her sexuality. So Alec, here's Estase's hope that what goes around comes around. On the day you die, I hope people insult you and soon forget your stupid, meaningless life.

The Two Possibilties

The psychotic and/or ideological ass-wipe at the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran recently wrote a letter to the American people. I would include the text of this maniac's remarks, but I'm sure they can be found elsewhere on the net. The remarkable thing about his remarks is that they are indistinguishable from the words of the press and Democratic party. The same concerns (waste of life and money, the "futility" of the war) as what we have heard from the Pelosis and Murthas are now echoed by the leader of the most dangerous man in Southwest Asia. When an obvious enemy of the Free World says things that are indistinguishable from the words of the majority party in Congress, we have to conclude one of two things. One, the Iranian president is really a kind and generous man, or, two, the Democratic Party has become subversive to American liberty.
There is no third possibility.

Draft Dodger's Wife Tells Abizaid His Job

"Hope is not a strategy. Horatory talk about what the Iraqi government must do is getting old. I mean, I have heard over and over again the government must do this, the Iraqi army must do that. Nobody disagrees with that. The brutal fact is, it is not happening."
Military expert Hillary Rodham Clinton

What Catiline Didn't Do

And the nature of man, he said, is such, that as it were a code of law subsists between the individual and the human race, so that he who upholds this code will be just and he who departs from it, unjust. But just as, though the theatre is a public place, yet it is correct to say that the particular seat a man has taken belongs to him, so in the state or in the universe, though these are common to all, no principle of justice militates against the possession of private property. Again, since we see that man is designed by nature to safeguard and protect his fellows, it follows from this natural disposition, that the Wise Man should desire to engage in politics and government, and also to live in accordance with nature by taking himself a wife and desiring to have children by her.

Cicero, On Final Good and Evil, Rackham
trans., 289.

Popularity

For my part I hold that what is popular is often positively base, and that, if ever it is not base, this is only when the multitude happens to applaud something that is right and praiseworthy in and for itself; which even so is not called "moral" (honorable) because it is widely applauded, but because it is of such a nature that even if men were unaware of its existance, or never spoke of it, it would still be worthy of praise for its own beauty and loveliness. Cicero On Final Good and Evil Rackham trans., p137.

Samson Leftism

One really wonders how the Democrats will govern, since they campaigned on nothing but Bush and Iraq. Their only stated objective is to impeach the president. They seem more destructive than constructive.

On a similar note, student government at Orange Coast College in Los Angeles will not permit the use of the Pledge of Allegiance. Fine. The U.S. government can't stop them, but it seems only fair to me if it denied Federal funding to Orange Coast College. This will never happen with liberals in charge. Why is it that the socialist left pretends to be courageous about defying the rest of us, but the rest of us refuses to penalize them? It would be nice if we gave them an actual reason for feeling courageous.

Passions

Burke- Society requires not only that the passions of individuals should be subjected, but that even in the mass and body as well as in the individuals, the inclinations of men should frequently be thwarted, their will controlled, and their passions brought into subjection.

Hume- Reason is and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.

Kerry Didn't Say What He Said!

The Sixties holdovers strike again! In exactly the same way that Dick Durbin did! Kerry, who pretends to be a war hero when it suits him, says that America's servicemen are losers! See my ancient blog "Right for the Wrong Reason." The similarities of Durbin comparing servicemen to the Nazis, Michael Moore claiming America brings misery to every place it involves itself, and the new Kerry quote are easy to triangulate. These three show that Democrats hate our military, or at least the MoveOn.com types do. They think our military is a jobs program. They don't believe in fighting our enemies, choosing instead to call the president Hitler. They disagree with a war that Kerry himself voted for. And their fondest dream is to impeach the president for "lying." Kerry supported the war when he thought it would be a short-lived pep rally like Desert Storm/Gulf War I was like. And now Kerry can't even take the heat for something he said freely.

Cicero versus Catilina

You can see them about, lovely young men with elegantly combed hair, either beardless or bearded to excess, wearing tunics that reach down to the wrists and ankles, and togas which look more like veils. Their entire interest in life and all the alertness they can muster are squandered on parties that last all night long. In these gangs are to be found every gambler, adulterer, debauchee and sensualist who exists. These soft and pretty boys are experts at making love and having love made to them, and they know how to dance and sing; but they have also learnt to wave daggers about and sprinkle poisons.

Michael Grant, translator

Doctor Burke

I reprobate no form of government merely upon abstract principles. There may be situations in which the purely democratic form will become necessary. There may be some (very few and very particularly circumstanced) where it would clearly be desirable. This I do not take to be the case of France, or of any other great country. Until now, we have seen no examples of considerable democracies. The antients were better acquainted with them. Not being wholly unread in the authors, who had seen the most of those constitutions, and who best understood them, I cannot help concurring with their opinion, that an absolute democracy, no more than absolute monarchy, is to be reckoned among the legitimate forms of government.
Edmund Burke
Reflections on the Revolution in France
p. 228 (Penguin Edition)

Suicide is Painless

Is our intelligence service idiotic or not? The liberals have hated the intelligence service since the 1980s when Daniel Patrick Moynihan wanted to get rid of the CIA. The liberals next sought to make the CIA responsible for the September eleven attacks. The newest thing is that liberals are now claiming the "all of the intelligence experts say the war in Iraq is making us less safe." First of all, who are "all the intelligence experts"? Second, if they had no inklings about Al-Qaeda, why are they so smart now? Third, the only way to test this claim is to pull out of Iraq and then see what happens. Sorry Dems, nice try. Dick Durbin would be smart enough to see the outcome of that. Hmm. . . we leave the Middle East as a playground and training center for Al-Qaeda, and then we'll be safer in North America. Or. . . the Al-Qaeda people will see their jihad worked, that the infidel is powerless, and then take over everything south of Vienna. The world will surely see that Islam is blessed by God when they see the only superpower existing was rolled over with some car bombs. Yeah, the way to lasting peace is to stick our tails between our legs and run.

Force of Numbers

The will of the many, and their interest, must very often differ; and great will be the difference when they make an evil choice.
Edmund Burke
Reflections on the Revolution in France
p. 141 (Penguin Edition)

Opposition of Interests

They render deliberation a matter not of choice, but of necessity; they make all changes a subject of compromise, which naturally begets moderation; they produce temperments, preventing the sore evil of harsh, crude, unqualified reformations; and rendering all the headlong exertions of arbitrary power, in the few or in the many, for ever impracticable.
Edmund Burke

Maoist Baby Killer

If there is to be choice, there must be a party of choice. Without a pro-choice party, without a party built on the Planned Parenthood theory, and in the Liberal style it is impossible to lead the working class and the broad masses of the people in defeating conservatism and its running dogs.

Doesn't that sound just like Bela Pelosi and her half-rabid coterie of liberal extremists? Whose writing is this? Mao Tse-Tung said this, only he used communist terms instead of liberal-pro abortion ones. Oh, and why am I comparing communism to the "pro-choice" position? A high school classmate of mine went to Yale, and then came back to Illinois to start his political career. Mike Frerichs started his political life as a pro-life Democrat. Estase is glad to see pro-lifers of any stripe, but he was unclear why anyone who really found abortion repugnant would support a party so infected with baby killers. Estase was, sadly, right. For Chicago political cash, Mike Frerichs sold his soul, and declared himself pro-abortion. Mike, if you're reading this, I hope you can look yourself in the mirror and not recoil at the Judas you have become.

Chavez Aids Canada

Sources close to President Bush and Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice confirm that plans are underway for an invasion of Canada. White House and Pentagon sources have long believed that there is a "Beer Gap", and that premptive war is needed to assure Americans that there will be plenty of beer for the essential football tailgating planners have long expected. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi says the Canadian Army will win the war, and asked "How much blood is a pint of beer worth." Congressman John Murtha says that our troops will not be able to survive the onslought of Canadian firepower, and that Canada will be another Vietnam. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez commented, " This is just the kind of thing we should expect from an alcoholic running-dog imperialist. We can see the same thing in the American invasion of Antartica last year."

Existential Threat

The cockroach leading Al-Qaeda in Iraq has stated that they mean to destroy America. Hear that, Michael Moron? They want to kick us out of the region. Hear that, Cos? These people want to destroy America. Bruce Ackerman, take notice. Mr. Ackerman doesn't think that Al-Qaeda is an "existential threat" to America. Al-Qaeda means us just as much harm as the Confederate army or Hitler did. What Al-Qaeda shares with Hitler (and, unfortunately, American liberals) is a desire that we awful Americans butt out of world events. The language of Al-Qaeda is almost the same as that from Nancy Lugosi and the other crackpots who have taken over their party. The Democrats of 2006 are shallow, and cannot be fairly compared with Franklin Roosevelt. Did FDR ever say that events abroad didn't affect us? Did 1941 Democrats say that we should let a rogue regime alone, no matter how they violate the rights of their own and other peoples'? Al Qaeda wants us to withdraw to our national borders, so that they may have free reign to invade "traditionally Muslim" countries like Austria and Spain. These people are fanatics, and if we don't stop them now, the time will come when we are alone in the world.

MSNBC FU

You know, someone with a name like Obermann ought to be careful about calling people Nazis.

Paradise Lost

I've always been able to understand why people romanticize certain eras. Racists romanticize antebellum Georgia. Nazis romanticize the Hitler era. Japanese people romanticize the American 1950s. Hippies idealize Woodstock. In each of these instances, there is a long for return to a era of Glory.
What I can't understand is a bumper sticker Estase saw last week. "I Miss Bill," speaking, of course of Bill Clinton. Did Clinton give us a healthy economy? No, despite what Dan Rather would tell you. Estase had a bachelor's degree, and the best job he could get in the Clinton years was as a janitor. Did Clinton protect us from crime? He would provide half the funding for communities to hire new police officers. That's like telling a poor man that if he wants a new car, you'll pick up the second half of the cost. Did he bring America together? One of the classic Clinton moves was when he blamed his political opponants for the Oklahoma City bombing in 1996. Talk about a cheap shot. Did he protect the nation from terrorism? Clinton's response to the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole was, well, nothing. When asked why the original Al Qaeda attack wasn't acted upon, Clinton's Secretary of State, Madeline Albright explained that they didn't get many calls on that. So Clinton ran his foreign policy by public opinion. Why did he bomb Serbia in 1998? There was a certain 19 year old, whose relationship with the President was just coming to light. It is apparent that after seven long years of indiscriminate killing, action was taken to cover up a sex scandal.
One looks at Clinton's record, and sees little to be missing. Are Democrats nostalgic for a president who failed to reduce spending, blamed political opponents for a psychotic bombing, ignored international terror, and sent American forces to war in Somalia and Serbia for ideas so nebulous as to make Iraq look well thought out.
What of this is to be commended? Do we want to go back to muddle headed foreign policy and Wag the Dog military excursions?
And, to be fair, Clinton isn't alone. Anyone who loves this creep as much as George H.W. Bush does must be very corrupt themselves. If there is no difference between Bush and Clinton, the rational thing to do is mistrust both of them. No more Clintons. No more Bushes.

Why Liberals Should Fear Illegals

The claim is often made that unless we're Indians, we have no right to ask that our immigration laws be enforced. Which is like saying that unless you've had food poisoning, you have no right to have your food cooked. Most of us did not have ancestors who could claim unlimited social benefits the minute they reached America. No nation can afford to confer unlimited social programs on anyone who wants them. It can't be done. The ultimate result of conferring social benefits on illegal immigrants is that no one will be able to receive such benefits. If liberals want people to have welfare and health care, they need to realize that unlimited immigration will mean that will never happen. Never.

Aborting Liberals

I was at the conservative site Townhall.com, and saw something there that reminded me that not all Republicans are conservative in any cultural sense. Someone had written a comment appended to a pro-life article excoriating pro-lifers on the basis that aborted children would have turned out to be liberal drains on society. This sort of crap makes me sick to my stomach. That may be anti-government, but it sure as hell isn't conservative. That's like saying that inner city violence is OK because the victims are poor, and probably vote Democratic. Would Edmund Burke have said that despotism and murder are acceptable, so long as its victims favor big government? I suspect that this kind of thinking is common among the people who consider themselves Libertarian. And this is why Libertarianism is basically the same as liberalism. Ugh.

Trouble Free Internationalism

Many in our current debate over Iraq seem to believe in trouble free internationalism. Our position in the world should guarantee us peace with no interruption. They forget that in order to have peace, we must work with other countries, which means occasionally working against violent countries. Take the Korean War, for example. In order to maintain the peace it was necessary to engage in three years of combat in cold weather, with heavy casualties and no end readily in sight. Men were dying, and it was over something that was an abstraction to Americans. South Korea was a place few Americans had visited, and no doubt many wondered why it mattered to defend it from communism. With the Korean war long finished, we can see that it wasn't just an abstraction. Millions of people who currently live under the tyranny of North Korea can attest to the evil and brutality of that regime. So fighting the war in Iraq isn't the black hole its detractors claim it to be. If we withdraw from Iraq, it will have very real consequences for the people of Iraq. And if the Islamic fundamentalists turn Iraq into their domain, it will have consequences for us too.

We Know, We Know

Today Estase was in a fast food place and saw a fat, mannish woman with hair shorter than his own. She wore a T-shirt which read "This is what a feminist looks like."

Non Mentis Compis

The world is gone crazy. Or at least the Bush Administration has. The proposal to allow a Chinese firm to operate a nuclear scanner for the U.S. in the Bahamas is the craziest thing I have ever heard of. Any company from Hong Kong is at least partially controlled by communist China, a brutal dictatorship. Any Chinese company should never be allowed anywhere near U.S. national security functions. Anyone who would trust our security to communist China isn't competant enough to handle his or her own finances. Absolutely crazy.

Jeane Kirkpatrick, Where Are You?

Now, with Jimmy Carter endorsing the U.A.E. ports deal, it is instructive to return to the
Commentary article of November 1979, "Dictatorships and Double Standards." In that excellent article, Jeane Kirkpatrick points out how the Carter Administration was instrumental in the rise of the radical Islamic state in Iran. So, we can trust the arabs just as much now as when Carter helped Ayatollah Khoumeni come to power. The article points out that we were, in those wonderful days, destabilizing friendly regimes and helping unfriendly regimes come to power. Incidentally, all America needs is a Democrat in the White House in 2008. Right.

Catholics Need Not Apply

In my previous blog, Political Rights Versus Choice, I tried to make the point that what the abortion enthusiasts do to the political voice of abortion opponents is very much like what the slavery supporters did to defend slavery. When Lincoln said that slavery opponents were going to make free men slaves, he was metaphorically correct. Indeed, there were several examples of this. Ezra Lovejoy had his anti-slavery paper's press dumped in the Mississippi twice. Charles Sumner was nearly beaten to death on the very floor of the Senate by a slavery supporter. And, as previously described, the House of Representatives had a gag rule directed towards avoiding debate on slavery. We see the conspiracy of similar forces in the defense of abortion. Pro life arguments are suppressed. The suspicion that one might not embrace the unlimited abortion license is very nearly enough to keep one out of federal judgeships. And the longer this debate goes on, more and more judges will be pro-abortion fanatics who won't respect the free speech rights of pro-lifers. See how the media treated Justice Alito?

Out of the Mainstream

Our good friend, Reverend Jesse Jackson, went to Cuba in 1984, where he said "Viva Che Guevara, Viva Fidel Castro." In his speech to the 1992 Democratic Convention, he said the Virgin Mary should have had an abortion. Now, in the track of such proud moments is Jesse's assertion (without proof) that President Bush is eavesdropping on his communications. Just how much of a crackpot can you be, and still be an influential Democrat?

Academic Hooker

A former professor of Sociology in Ellicot City, Maryland was arrested for prostitution. It's nice to see that sociologists can not only sell out to politics, but also sell out their bodies.

Political rights vs. Choice

It appears to me that certain activities's supporters are altogether willing to infringe on the rights of their opponents. The Alito defamation is a good example of what I mean. The Christian Congressman took the floor of the House amid boos and objections. The opposition called him a fanatic and said he was trying to force his religion on others. Any one who wanted to debate this right would be stopped by a coalition of those who supported it.
The Congressman tried to oppose the right, and claimed it was unconstitutional to suppress debate in this way. The opposition claimed their right was part of the Constitution.
This did actually happen. The date was May 26, 1836. The Congressman was John Quincy Adams. And the right was slavery.