baldilocks

Who Raised This Guy?

Since I stopped watching TV in the morning, I tend to miss fun stuff like watching Fox and Friends morning host Gretchen Carlson make White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs look foolish--something that requires no effort really. Enjoy.

It's curious that President Obama's two most public representatives, Gibbs and Vice President Joseph Biden, seem so--how to put this gently--dim. Gibbs' mental deficiencies are particularly vexing (and, ironically, funny) because they are joined with sneering condescension in the same small space. He thinks he's smarter than anyone interviewing him and he unfailingly attempts to prove it--to show that interviewer who his/her intellectual better is. 

But every time Gibbs tries this, he ends up looking all the dimmer for it. Who didn't know that Carlson was going to put Gibbs in his place when he attempted to interview her? (And don't you just love trying to have a conversation with a person who throws up the "playing games" smoke screen when they are trying to avoid answering a question honestly?)

I feel sorry for Robert Gibbs;  but if I had to interview the guy, it's probable that my sympathy level would be much lower.  Look at the expression on Carlson's face! Not a drop of sympathy for the learning disabled.

:)

(Thanks to Yid with Lid)

Conservatism, Political Ads, Art-Ace Interviews Ladd Ehlinger, Jr (KS)

Who is Ladd Ehlinger Jr, you ask?  He's the guy behind the Dale Peterson campaign ad, viewed by all right-thinking people as the greatest political commercial ever.  Check it out.

Anyhoo, AceofSpades gets a great interview from Ehlinger.  In a wide-ranging discussion, Ace and the filmmaker talk about everything from the nature of artists to the difference between TV ads and internet spots.

This exchange was really interesting.

Ace:  Is there any danger you see of a ghettoization sort of effect, where conservative artists are doing expressly conservative art? And only that, and are engaged in a parallel media universe but not the main media universe?

Ehlinger:  I don't think the main media universe has much longer to live. So it doesn't matter. Everything is fracturing and falling apart. The smart money realizes that and is doing what it can now to build a brand before it's impossible to do so any longer.

Ace:  I've read a lot that tv's model is unsustainable but there aren't many good alternatives. you mean like that? magazines and newspapers first, then tv, then Hollywood?

Ehlinger:  It'll devolve into national tribes. Online tribes. Like your website. And then no one will make any money anymore.

Ace:  to some extent I think that's sort of the case now but one tribe -- the one that dominates the media -- won't concede it's tribal even after it consistently goes out of the way to insult the other tribes. You ever watch a movie with no political content at all, just about a human story, and then, pow, out of nowhere, some [conservative-baiting] insult? it's like -- what was doing there? Did they WANT 30% of the audience to walk out badmouthing it?

Ehlinger:  Well, it's a case of the cool kids in high school... they eventually get fat, turn into drunks, and get DUI's when they get older. That is their collective media career destinies.

Ya gotta read the whole piece.  It is truly elucidating stuff.  Seriously.  Go now.

Re:  Conservative art-I'll be honest.  This has troubled me for a while.  Maybe not 'troubled', but it's an issue that has certainly puzzled me.

It's sorta obvious that the old media paradigm...a liberal monopoly that runs the big TV networks/large newspapers/national glossy magazines/La-La Land...is circling the drain.  For instance, 2008 was probably (hopefully) the last election where MSNBC, The New York Times and a raft of music industry hacks could simply pick up a left-wing presidential candidate and carry his butt across the finish line.

I've basically viewed the crack-up of the old-skool media environment as a good thing.  But a part of me has been concerned about what Ace calls ghettoization.  What happens when there is no national news/entertainment culture?  Do we Balkanize?

First, there's pretty much nothing anybody can do about it, so there's really no point in fretting about it too much.  It's almost like worrying about the Sun being hot.  Best to get over it and deal with the consequences of any potential Balkanization when/if it occurs.

Now, if the breakdown of the media universe we inhabit is inevitable, then the idea of conservative art has to be entertained.  The vast anti-statist/pro-free market tribe is going to need culture.  It'll need cultural artifacts like songs, novels and dramatic works.  As Ehlinger said, right-wing documentaries have their place, but they're not enough.

Conservatives should do what they can to support right-of-center art and artists.  The creators are going to need money in order to...you know...eat.  It's one thing to make a great short-length Obama satire  that gets thrown onto DailyMotion and has a million views.  It's another thing to actually get paid to do creative stuff.

In the long run, how is this all going to play out?  I really don't know.  The outlines of the new media paradigm are only just starting to form.  But in a lot of ways, it'll be better for the Right than it has been in 50 years.  Listening to guys like Ladd Ehlinger Jr., one gets a sense of the great possibilities that are available to conservative artists right now.

Before I brain-cramp:  I sorta beefed on the whole Balkanization line I was toying with.  As I was thinking about it some more I realized I hadn't really explained myself very well.

An interesting facet of the old media environment was that it had created a national culture of sorts.  Remember that until the early 80's there were only three TV networks, talk radio was lost in the sauce of the Fairness Doctrine and there were large nationwide systems for distributing movies and music.  Thus if you were a consumer of mass culture, you were basically seeing or hearing or watching what everybody else did.  

But what did people do before there was a national media culture?  There were regional tastes that determined what people did to entertain themselves.  Music and musicians patronized in the South was different than what people tended to like in places like New York City or Massachusetts.

My feeling is that once the nationwide system that reigned from the late 1940's till the late 1980's finally drifts into obsolescence, we will see a renaissance of the older more separated cultures.  They will be less determined by location and more organized by tastes, age and yes, political ideology.

It will be quite different than what many people are used to.  But as I stated before, it could result in a new flowering of right-of-center culture.   

Cross-posted at Blog De KingShamus.  Thanks, Juliette.

A Good Morning (UPDATE)

A quick report: 23 books sold from the Tale of the Tigers website, $2,100 in sales and donations, 74 Kindle Editions sold (the price is right!) and an untold number of copies sold at Amazon!  I've got books to autograph and send, thank-you notes to send out and some blogging to do.  This is my kind of morning!

UPDATE: Amazon rank was 270K+ this morning; now it's down to 2,732...it's overwhelming...

How To Steer into a Disaster

Also known as the 'Abilene Paradox.'

And the perfect cliff notes version:

[T]he Abilene Paradox theory was created by the typical management "consultant" as a fancy term to explain to senior management why it is a bad idea to surround yourselves with ass kissing yes men.

Of course it helps to have a leader who isn't a narcissist.

(Thanks to Ace of Spades HQ)

Tale of the Tigers: My Personal Debt and Ours (UPDATE: Yes!!)

At Real Clear Politics this morning, the Top 5 Stories are as follows:

Record Number in Government Anti-Poverty Programs

More than 40 million people get food stamps, an increase of nearly 50% during the economic downturn, according to government data through May. The program has grown steadily for three years.

The Folly of Subsidizing Unemployment

The unemployment-insurance program involves a balance between compassion—providing for persons temporarily without work—and efficiency. The loss in efficiency results partly because the program subsidizes unemployment, causing insufficient job-search, job-acceptance and levels of employment. A further inefficiency concerns the distortions from the increases in taxes required to pay for the program.

Why the Recovery Lags

The recovery is a creature of confidence, or its absence. "In normal times, psychology doesn't matter much. It reflects economic conditions," says Zandi. "But in abnormal times, it's the reverse. Psychology determines economic conditions." What the boom and bust left is a massive case of collective doubt.

The Obama Vision of Federal Government

[President Obama gave] a stirring Sunday secular sermon [in New Orleans on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina] on the value of the federal government—and on the idea of national community that, in its best incarnations, it does or should represent to us all.

He wanted to prove not only to the people of the [Louisiana] but the people of the nation that the feds can be a source for good.

70% of Americans Know They’ve Been Conned

Two years into what had been sold as a new politics and a new approach, the 70 percent are fully aware that they have been conned, suckered, and taken to the cleaners by a hyper-ideological amalgam of leftist public intellectuals, snarling bloggers, career politicians with limited abilities who are often corrupt, and a president wholly inexperienced in the management of complex problems who is in way over his head and prisoner to slogans and schemes that make for great campus debates -- but for disaster in the real world.

The Total Outstanding Public Debt as of today: 13 trillion dollars and change. (See what I did there?)

It’s a High-Tech Looting of We, the People; it’s reparations to the "deserving" from the "undeserving."  Forget about the injustice and the immorality of it all and follow the mass dependence on public funding to its logical conclusion:  what happens when there are no jobs to service this debt via tax revenue?  What happens to all and sundry who are fed, clothed and sheltered by American treasury monies when the treasury money is gone?

Speaking of unemployment, I’ve been laid off from my position as Social Media Consultant at Carmel Coast Publishing Enterprises—no worries; it’s a friendly parting and but a sign of the times.  And even though it was only a part-time job, it was sufficient for my needs.  But now, my only source of income is…you guessed it, my novel.

I’ll get right to the point: I need to raise $10,000 to pay my bills and my taxes.  So far, I’ve sold 23 books from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, 15 via Kindle and 150+ via my novel’s website.  Here’s what I need:

556 books sold from Amazon and B&N;

589 books sold from the Tale of the Tigers website;

2000 Kindle Editions sold. (Only $5.00!)

I will accept any combination thereof and, of course, donations will be much appreciated.

You can do so here:

It’s tough for me to get out and do the hard-core, in-person marketing I need to do because I’m the sole caregiver for my great-aunt.  (My inability to be away from home for long periods stands as one of the reasons that I finished the novel and took the chance on self-publishing.  Therefore, nearly all of my marketing has been online, word-of-mouth and reputational.)  All of the reviewers have judged Tale of the Tigers to be an exceptional work and I am grateful to those who have bought, read and commented.  But now I need more.

About the national debt:  many observers conclude that it is impossible for the United States to recover from such a crushing weight.  I’m not sure that I believe this, though.  Oh, it isn’t that I don’t believe that the debt isn’t lethal or isn’t meant to be so.  It’s merely that God-inspired human inventiveness and ingenuity always seem to save the day.  Sometimes we see through a glass darkly as to how, but, with faith, hope, love—and work—the light can be turned on.

God gifted to me an allotment of talents and I chose to invest them rather than bury them.  I know for a fact that I am far from being the only recipient.

UPDATE: Love ya, Jeff.

UPDATE: To the fine gentlemen at the RoadRaceAutoX.com message boards: I would say that my work isn't "chick book," but others might be a better judge.  There's no bodice-ripping and there's some cussing and violence, so there's that. :)  At any rate, welcome and thanks for the link!  I think you will enjoy it; my reviewers are mostly men.

UPDATE:  Welcome Instapundit and Ace of Spades HQ readers! I'm humbled by your purchases, donations and good wishes.  As for the tally: 37 additional Kindle Editions sold and $1,100 in sales and donations!  As for Amazon, I have to get a report from my publisher but I can tell that the book is selling when my rank drops.  More report--and blogging tomorrow.  I'm very grateful!

On Love,Taking a Stand, and Clear Vision (UPDATE)

After you give your life to God, when He commands you to stand, you have no choice.

--Glenn Beck

It was a joy and a privilege to watch Glenn Beck, Marcus Lutrell, Alveda King, Bishop Harry Jackson, and hundreds of thousands of others as they stood to remind the government that our rights are a free gift from God and that no man or government of men may insert its being in between that providential connection.  Like all who love liberty, I would have found it a blessing to have attended, but other responsibilities took precedence.

However, during my morning reading and prayer, it “occurred” to me—again--to ask God what His will is for my life.  I wanted to know what I was or wasn’t doing that is against His will.  Was there something I needed to do more of?  Had I failed to say ‘how high’ when God told me to jump?  Every person still breathing has an assigned mission, whether it be great or small.

After admitting publically that I had had an abortion, I received many compliments for my courage and honesty, but I felt neither courageous nor particularly honest.  It wasn’t false humility; it was simply a feeling that there was more—as if there was something else I needed to face.  And there was.

The accolades I received for that admission were watered down by a very sobering state of affairs in my life.  The one person from whom I needed love and support has, because of my confession, repeatedly ridiculed me for it--seeming to want to induce shame in me for being so public.  The irony contained therein is that, prior to my admission, I had avoided blogging about abortion due to the shame I had felt for doing away with my own child.  Admitting it publicly was an attempt to free myself from that shame and it was done in the hope that at least one young woman reading would realize that she did not have to be the fool that I had been.

Abortion was my greatest shame and, though my eternal guilt has been washed away by the acceptance of Jesus Christ as my Savior, its earthly effects have been extremely painful, spiritually and emotionally—the consciousness of sin and the regret at committing a form of suicide. 

The interesting part is this: when God opens your eyes, your spiritual vision is 20-20.  The person who wants me to feel shame for my admission once claimed to love me.  But, my being continues to be shaped by God and when He says, “Stand,” I have no choice.  And what I’ve had to face is this: anyone who would ridicule me and attempt to provoke shame from me for my obedience to the Lord cannot possibly love me.

Even more interesting is the realization that when you are doing what you know is morally correct in the sight of God—when you take a stand in the name of Jesus Christ—any chastisement you receive is an indication that you are on the right path.  Additionally, the source of that chastisement will give you a clear window into the soul of that source.  Be sure to pray for that soul, however.

In Glenn Beck’s decidedly pastoral address on the Mall in Washington, DC, the emphasis was on Restoring Honor.  The primary recipient of our honor as individual human beings is to God and is simply outlined in Mark 12:30-31; each human being is commanded to love God with an entire heart, and with full mental power and to love one’s neighbor as self.  Love is the variant of honor that should constantly pour from our being—the highest type of honor.

For the longest time, I did not understand what it meant to love God, this incorporeal being.  But how does one love a sentient earthly being?  We communicate.  We talk to that person and, most importantly, we listen to them and when we do this, we trust that the communication consists of truth—we extend good faith to our beloved.  (And we show love by rejoicing in our beloved’s happiness and comforting him in his pain.  And we never, never, never ridicule our beloved when he reveals his soul.)

With God, loving Him has an extra component, of course.  Since He’s omnipotent and omniscient, we show our love to Him by doing what He commands and trusting that the commandments of a loving God are meant for good.  We extend to God the ultimate in Good Faith.

After talking to Him (praying in the name of Jesus Christ) and listening to Him (reading the Word), we do what He puts in our hearts, in spite of any earthly consequences.  We take a stand.

So my eyes are open and my vision is clear.  I will continue to stand for the unborn and the murdered.

And I will remember that true love is (Holy) spiritual.

UPDATE: Though the story seems sad, I feel set free; very happy and peaceful. Peace is what I prayed for.  It's a great birthday gift.

                                                                                                                                                                     

Comments on a Love Note (UPDATE: Field Negro Responds and So Do I)

Yesterday, a blogger styling himself as the Field Negro dubbed me the "House Negro of the Day":

(JULIETTE OCHIENG) I SWEAR SOME OF YOU NEGROES MUST GET PAID BY THE WORD TO SAY DUMB STUFF. THIS CONSERVATIVE BLOGGER CALLS THE MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO A "SECURITY RISK". SAYING DUMB S#*T JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN IS ALWAYS HNB

[Link added by me; don't worry--it leads to my post, "Beacon."]

Field Negro--may I call you Negro?--would it actually hurt you to expound on why you think my opinion is "dumb?"

Show your lack of "dumbness" by explaining to your readers how building such a mosque--set to be funded and "pastored" by a person who has continually called for the the implementation of Sharia law in the United States--is not a security risk. Take it step by step.

I can further defend my position.  Are you capable of defending yours?  I'd sure like to read it.  You never know--if you're premises are sound and your conclusion follows logically from them, I would be compelled to change my opinion.  In case you have never heard of this concept, it's called 'intellectual honesty.'  Try it, you'll like it--eventually.

Otherwise, I'll merely write you off as one of the conditioned.

UPDATE:

Field Negro is “gracious” enough to respond:

Ms. House Negro, you may call me whatever you like, just as long as you don't call me collect. Now let me "expound" -just a little-on why I think your opinion is dumb:

You argue that putting this Mosque two blocks from Ground Zero would put Americans at risk because the leader of the Mosque believes in a strict form of Islamic law. (Sharia) That, in of itself, is ludicrous. Iam not connecting the dots between an interpretation of an ancient religious philosophy and bombs dropping on suburbia.

And, just for argument sake, let's assume that Faisal Abdul Rauf does believe in the most negative and regressive form of Sharia law as you allege; what difference would it make if he built his Mosque a block from Ground Zero or in Jersey City?

Just because you are unable to connect the dots, it does not follow that my opinion is ludicrous.  You may have a shortcoming or two. However, I will assist you.

Islam’s raison d’être is to convert the world to Islam, by force if necessary.  One of the tools of force is fear.  And inducing fear is the goal of terrorism.

Of course, we know that many Muslims consider the Islamist attacks of September 11, 2001 to be one of Islam’s greatest victories against the United States/Great Satan.  Building a mosque adjacent to what used to be the Twin Towers would be like planting a flag of victory for Allah.  This is not an unprecedented concept; armies of Islam and many other armies use this sort of symbolism to say to observers the equivalent of “we won; you lost.”  In the eyes of others wishing to spread Islam by the “sword,” such a statement would be a…Beacon, one drawing those of like desire; this beacon would encourage other Soldiers for Allah to perpetrate further attacks in America in order to win more victories for Allah, in order to win his blessings and in order to gain glory for themselves.

Does that help?

But my rebuttal above assumes that you were right about Rauf and his position when it comes Sharia Law. You were not. Only a person whose mind has been poisoned by right wing ideology -A poison that was inflicted by the likes of Newt Gingrich- could view a man who has published writings such as this in such spurious and mendacious manner. Parroting right wing talking points to score "brownie points" with your ideological soul mates does not make you a critical thinker, or, for that matter, someone capable of "intellectual honesty". It makes you a fraud, and a fraud of the worse kind: one whose sole purpose in life is to remain in the comfort of a poorly constructed house.

So many assumptions in one short paragraph!  I haven’t listened to or read anything by Newt Gingrich since he appeared in that Global Warming TV ad with Nancy Pelosi.  However, here is some of what I have read about Ra’uf:

Feisal Abdul Rauf is the imam behind the “Cordoba Initiative” that is spearheading plans to build a $100 million Islamic center at Ground Zero, the site where nearly 3,000 Americans were killed by jihadists on 9/11. He is also the author of a book called What’s Right with Islam Is What’s Right with America. But the book hasn’t always been called that. It was called quite something else for non-English-speaking audiences. In Malaysia, it was published as A Call to Prayer from the World Trade Center Rubble: Islamic Dawa in the Heart of America Post-9/11.

Now it emerges that a “special, non-commercial edition” of this book was later produced, with Feisal’s cooperation, by two American tentacles of the Muslim Brotherhood: the Islamic Society of North America and the International Institute of Islamic Thought.

(…)

Both ISNA and IIIT have been up to their necks in the promotion of Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood’s ruthless Palestinian branch, which is pledged by charter to the destruction of Israel. In fact, both ISNA and IIIT were cited by the Justice Department as unindicted co-conspirators in a crucial terrorism-financing case involving the channeling of tens of millions of dollars to Hamas through an outfit called the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. For the last 15 years, Hamas has been a designated terrorist organization under U.S. law.

(…)

The purpose of dawa, like the purpose of jihad, is to implement, spread, and defend sharia.

(…)

In considering Imam Rauf and his Ground Zero project, [Yusuf] Qaradawi [spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood] and the Muslim Brotherhood are extremely important. Like most Muslims, Rauf regards Qaradawi as a guide, and referred to him in 2001 as “the most well-known legal authority in the whole Muslim world today.”

(…)

Qaradawi regards the United States as the enemy of Islam. He has urged that Muslims “fight the American military if we can, and if we cannot, we should fight the U.S. economically and politically.”

And why do you assume that my goal in saying the things I say is the accrual of “brownie points.”  Brownie points from whom, consisting of what?  I know the history of Islamic conquest in Africa, how it weakened that continent, making it ripe for further conquest by Europeans and how its adherents continue to rape, murder and pillage on my father’s fragmented continent.  And I know what non-black Muslims think about black people—even those in the latter number who are foolish enough to convert. Which one of us is the "House Negro" and the "fraud" again?

A rapidly weakening USA is quickly becoming a target for those who would like to remake it in their own image, whatever that image may be.  Right now, this country is just a financial target, but that could change. The giant is ailing and the wolves—like Russia, China, and Islam—are waiting for it to fall.  So you might say that the “brownie point” I wish to accrue is survival.

I hope you didn't trip over my steps.

Darling, I’m starting to get the feeling that you don’t like me. My heart is broken to be disliked by such a charming gentleman!  :-}

However, I hope that you awaken and decide that you want to survive also.  Really.  And I hope you save a little bit of that snarl for your real enemy.

Christian Terrorism? Moral Equivalence? Get A Grip (King Shamus)

I want to look at something the preeminent jerkweed of our time, Mike Bloomberg, belched out the other day in reference to the Ground Zero Mosque:

"Every time they pass the basket in your church and you throw a buck in, [do you want someone to] run over and say, 'OK, now where do you come from, who are your parents, where'd you get this money?' . . . A handful of people ought to be ashamed of themselves."  

Not only is this a classless little smear on the part of Nurse Bloomie, it's got a whiff of our old friend, Moral Equivalence.  Because nothing gives a liberal a rock hard boner more than negatively comparing Christianity to Islam.

But hey, why not indulge Mayor Mike's magnificent retardation for a moment?

What would it take to make Christianity the moral equivalent to Islam?

There would have to be groups of Christians that call for violent acts in the name of Jesus.  It could not just be the rare lone gunman-type with a Bible stuffed into his drawers and a raging desire to kill people for Christ wilding out.  You'd need to have densely populated structures incorporated for the purpose of fomenting Jesus-inspired terror.  These organizations would be populated by leaders that call for Christians to use terror to spread Christianity.  The power of Christ would compel the members of these religious groups to do violence to other humans.

Ideally, the Christian terrorists in our scenario should be internationalist in scope.  These Super Splodey Jesus Freaks should have sleeper cells and quasi-independent franchises in places like Jakarta, Mumbai, Fallujah, Jerusalem, Aden, London, Paris, Philadelphia and Toronto.  All of them should be vocal about the supremacy of the Christian faith and how Jesus commands them to acts of violence.  Along with the multinational flavor of these groups, there should be members of Christian governments that covertly sponsor our hypothetical Christian terrorists.

There would also have to be a long history of Christian terrorism in the 20th and 21st centuries.  We're talking about elements of the Kooky Christian Thrill Kill Cult carrying out acts of terror over the course of many decades.   As before, these atrocities should be happening all over the world.

Finally, there would have to poll after poll showing rank and file Christian opinion was ambiguous-if not supportive-over the use of terrorism to spread the word of Christ.  Leaders of the Genocidal Jesus Peeps should be supported by disturbing pluralities of Christians. 

Do any of these hypotheticals exist in the real world?  Not even close.  Not even within a light-year.  But still the lefty thumbsuckers just have to make their moral equivalence arguments/slime jobs.

The truth of the matter is that our Muslim friends have a serious existential problem.  Their religion has been infected by vicious life-hating cancers.  The faith desperately needs to kill these tumors before it's too late.  Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists cannot do this for them.  We can support reformers and decry the back-asswards types within Islam, but in the end it's up to them to figure out how to exist peacefully within a multi-religious world.

There are Muslims of good faith who want to see real positive change.

In fact here's one now, talking about the Ground Zero Mosque: 

“This is not a humble Islamic statement. A mosque such as this is actually a political structure that casts a shadow over a cemetery, over hallowed ground. 9/11 was the beginning of a kinetic war, it is not an opportunity for cultural exchange. It was the beginning of a conflict with those who want to destroy our way of life,” Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, told The Daily Caller.

  “I am in no way looking to infringe on First Amendment issues. I approach this as a Muslim that is dedicated to reform,” he said.

Jasser sees the danger inherent in the Ground Zero Mosque.  He also realizes the need for a peace-loving tolerant renaissance within Islam.  Because he's accepted some hard truths about his faith, he doesn't engage in bullshit moral equivalence.  

We have more than enough head-in-the-sand unrealists like Mike Bloomberg.

The Muslim religion...and the rest of us...desperately need more clear-eyed people like Zuhdi Jasser.

Let's Try This Again (Update: Success!)

Hopefully Blog Talk Radio is ready for the Fausta show this morning after our false start on Monday.  I'll be on today at 8am PDT/11am EDT to talk about Tale of the Tigers.

UPDATE: I had a great time talking with Fausta about the novel, about writing and, of course, about politics--in spite of the fact that my laptop decided to overheat while I was in the middle of a sentence. That's why God made cell phones.

If you want to listen to the interview again, go here!

Love ya, Fausta!

Beacon (Update: What Bill Whittle Said)

Pretty much all who follow the news regularly—and many who don’t—know about the controversy surrounding the proposed construction of a Mosque near the site of what used to be the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.

The backers of this project and many others –including the mayor of New York--have cast the intent as a “freedom of religion” issue.

The opponents of the project—which are many—cast it mostly in emotional terms; I’m with them, but those terms, by their very nature, allow themselves to be argued down.

However, there is one reason to be against it—one which sets itself above all the others, one which is existential and practical rather than emotional. 

A “Victory Mosque” set in the shadow of Ground Zero will be just that: a symbol of victory for the Islamists at the site of one of the greatest body counts in the name of Allah.  And the existence of such symbols will invite more attempts at military conquest from the Soldiers of Allah.

Go on about the First Amendment and about misinterpretations of the phrase ‘hallowed ground.’  Keep pretending that blocking the construction of this particular mosque is somehow preventing New York Muslims from freely exercising their religion—as if permission to build a church or a synagogue anywhere in NYC would automatically be granted.  But know this: our enemies will take our notions of “fairness” and explode it in our faces; not just in Afghanistan or Iraq, but right here on the Hallowed Ground which stretches from sea to shining sea.

By the way, if we infidels aren’t quickly jumping to convert to Islam, to die or to become dhimmis, are we violating the First Amendment?  Just wondering.  Because that would be the full flowering of the free exercise of Islam.

Lots of First Amendment violations in that, don’t you think?

UPDATE: Confirmation.

The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) is urging the Cordoba House Initiative to abandon its proposed Ground-Zero Mosque in New York in the face of outrage expressed by large segments of the American population calling the proposal an act of 'fitna' or mischief.

In a letter to Imam Faisal Rauf that will be delivered on Tuesday, August 10 by MCC’s board member Raheel Raza, the MCC says, “Many Muslims suspect that the idea behind the Ground Zero mosque is meant to be a deliberate provocation, to thumb our noses at the 'infidel.' We believe the proposal has been made in bad faith and, in Islamic parlance, is creating  'fitna,' meaning 'mischief-making,' an act clearly forbidden in the Qur’an.”

(Thanks to The Anchoress)

UPDATE:

(Thanks to Instapundit)

Don't Forget to Listen (UPDATE: Re-sked Due to BTR issues)

I'll be on Fausta's Blog Talk Radio Show at the top of the hour to talk about the book.  I'm having technical difficulties with my wifi so I will probably have to use my cell phone.

UPDATE: Fausta and I are going to re-sked the interview for Wednesday morning at 11EDT/8PDT; BTR and AT&T are on our list--not the good one!!!

Interview with Fausta Monday Morning

Join us at Fausta Wertz' Blog Talk Radio Show tomorrow at 11am EDT/8am PDT where we'll talk about my novel Tale of the Tigers!  Also check out all the great posts at Fausta's blog.

My marketing campaign has picked up. Thirteen Kindle Editions, seven copies of the paperback from my book site, and an untold number of paperbacks from Amazon were sold on Saturday alone, dropping my Amazon ranking down under 100K for the first time!   There will be no letting up though.  However, don't worry about every post having my shameless self-promotion as its subject.

I just want to live my dream while I can.

To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time. --Leonard Bernstein

Repost: Throwing Away the Crutches

Originally Posted July 15, 2004

What have Republicans/conservatives done for black Americans? I hear that question constantly when I disclose that I am a conservative Republican. Often I will provide the usual facts that seem to be missing from the historical lexicon these days: freed the slaves, were 90%+ in the majority in the votes for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. However, something about the question sets steel to my nerves and I’ve been meaning to articulate the reasons for it here for some time now.

Implied in the question is that a political party must “do something” for blacks. Not merely the usual “something” that a government entity does for all of its constituents, e.g. provide utilities, regulate commerce, etc., but something special.

That word ‘special’ has taken on a new meaning in recent years and I think that it applies to the special items that liberals/leftists believe that the government should provide for the ‘special’ people, the “congenitally retarded” folk.

Yes, we ‘special’ people--with ‘special’ needs--require special handling: special education and special employment. You can’t expect black people to live up to the standards of ‘normal’ people. Like paraplegics or the blind or the deaf or those afflicted with Down’s syndrome, singular accommodations must be made for the great handicap of being born with black skin. To liberals/leftists, black people are a crippled class that can never be made whole just as long as they can never be made not-black. What’s this notion called?

And if anyone tries to treat us as full, competent adults, the liberals/leftists will scream in righteous anger and protest about the unfairness of it all. And if some of us ‘handicapped’ verbally express the desire to be treated like full, competent adults and act in a manner that demonstrates that desire, we are deemed as traitors by those who share the same racial makeup, but buy into the ‘handicap’ philosophy. Yes, we are “traitors,” because if some of us refuse to take advantage of the special needs offered and succeed anyway, the vast majority of America will begin to think that we don’t really require the “handicap slot.”

The vast majority of Americans will begin to think that we’re not really inferior after all. (Optimistically speaking, I believe that the vast majority think this anyway.)

"You do not own, and you are not the arbiters of, African-American authenticity," said [Rod] Paige [to NAACP leaders], who rose from segregated Mississippi to become President Bush's education chief.

(Thanks to reader Wesley J.)

Or, as I might put it, who died and made you the head of the Brutha/Sista Card Registry?

This idea of our race-wide ‘handicap’ is so ingrained in the mindsets of some, however, that it has morphed into the very existentiality of black identity: a black person who believes that black Americans need extra help to succeed is “authentically black.” Conversely, one who doesn’t buy it “isn’t really black” and is, therefore, a traitor to black identity.

In short, blacks who believe in their own inferiority are the real deal and those who don’t, aren’t. How's that for twisted dogma?

(This is why Condoleezza Rice comes in for special scorn among the liberals/leftists, especially black ones. Having been born with not merely one, but the proverbial two strikes against her, her very existence gives lie to the entire notion of black inferiority: she has succeeded through innate intelligence, raw talent and hard work. I’m sure that white supremacists hate her just as much. Now there's a marriage made in...somewhere.)

So when some black people find out that Republicans don’t want to “do anything” for them except to encourage them to take part in the American dream of prosperity, stemming from work and ingenuity, they’re like, “WTF? Where’s my money?” So it is that white Republicans/conservatives, those whose ideology purports to treat blacks as equals are considered Devils. We blacks who agree with this are merely the Devils’ minions.

Those that have wondered why the vast majority of the Republican party don’t spend time on “minority outreach” miss the point. Republicans do outreach already. They just don’t do handicapped outreach, not unless you're really handicapped.

Not Much of a Reader

...is the President of the United States. 

Karl Rove once claimed that President George W. Bush read 95 books in a year as part of a bet.

...

[President Obama:] "Yeah, you have very little chance to really read. I basically floss my teeth and watch Sports Center."

And play, golf, of course. 

This isn't surprising, however.  There's a segment of the so-called highly-educated populace which never reads anything unless there's some immediate gain involved--usually monetary in nature. Additionally, President Obama strikes me as someone who believes he knows all of the things he needs to know.

I'm guessing that means that he won't read my book.  Too bad; he might learn something.

(Thanks to Instapundit)

Tale of the Tigers: A Bit of a Bleg (Update: New Review Comments)

According to my publisher, between Amazon and Barnes&Noble, I have sold a grand total of ten copies of my novel, Tale of the Tigers.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Counting the copies that were sold via the novels website, Kindle copies [UPDATE: Kindle price dropped to $5!] and copies which I’ve sold in person, that’s approaching only about 200.  Included in this number are giveaways for review purposes—none of which have been yet published that I know of—and giveaways to family and close friends.

Because I self-published (POD publisher), marketing is up to me and, no, it isn’t my strong suit.  However, I will continue urge readers of this blog to buy the novel.  To be honest, we won’t be able to have the book release party unless sales pick up dramatically.

I know that this is a time of great economic uncertainty, but buying my book will not only provide the reader with an inexpensive form of entertainment, it will give the reader a bit of insight with what’s happening right now in America.  Well, at least I think so. A morality play? You could call it that, but, as all successful novelists attempt to do, I tried to show more than tell.  I hope that I succeeded.

And, naturally, I want to have an independent source of income using whatever talent and inspiration that God gave me.  But I can’t do that without your help. 

Buy my novel.  You won’t be sorry.  And if you’ve already bought it, please put up a review at Amazon or B&N; those can contribute greatly to my sales and publicity.

By the way: I have fifteen copies here at home for sale.  When a customer buys a copy via the novel's website, that’s its origin and it’s the reason that a copy arrives so quickly at its destination.

UPDATE: And, right on cue, here’s another five-star review!

And, from a fan of the Tale of the Tigers Facebook page:

You know what I really enjoyed about this book? It didn't skirt politically correct comments, afraid of offending anyone. What a pleasure to read how people actually speak. Great first novel!!!!

Pump It! (King Shamus)

I know this is probably old as dirt for many of the military folks that come here, but I'm just seeing it.

100% pure awesomeness.

 

Big thanks to NoOneOfAnyImport.  Also, her husband has recently been deployed, so send prayers and positive vibes to her.  

Reid Feeds the Racial Discord Tree (Updated)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the campaign trail in his native Nevada:

REID: "I don't know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, okay. Do I need to say more?"

How the Left stirs racial discord between Americans of Hispanic decent and other Americans is a topic I want to address in detail in the third part of my "Herding" series. But the assumptions in Senator Reid's short assertion need to be addressed right now.

Leaving aside the 2007 Republican establishment's push for amnesty for illegal aliens already living in the United States, most conservatives are for strict border enforcement first and decisions about illegal aliens already present afterward.  In Harry Reid's statement lies the assumption that, Americans of Hispanic descent must naturally be in favor of allowing any and all Hispanics from Mexico (and other Spanish-speaking countries) into the USA without any controls at all--that, to Hispanic Americans, it's better to have more Spanish-speakers in the country, than it is to enforce the federal and state immigration laws.

A more important Reid assumption is this one:  because conservatives want the borders of the country secure--because the Republican base does not want to give Hispanic Americans what he presumes they want-- Republicans and conservatives hate Hispanics.

Need he say more? No.  The Coconut Treatment proceeds apace.

(Thanks to The Weekly Standard)

UPDATE:  Sissy Willis notes that "A growing chorus of 'minority' Republicans are finding their voice." One, Cubachi, the American-born daughter of of Cuban exiles, has a few words for Senator Reid--well, more than a few:

My father [who had been political prisoner of Castro's Cuba] looked at the platform of the republican party that endorsed small government, lower taxes, and strong defense, while the democrat party embraced Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, murderers and tyrants, as some sort of folk heroes, and endorsed larger governments taking power away from the people.

...

Sweet justice for me, would be to see Marco Rubio enter the senate as you exist your way out to hand the keys to Sharron Angle.

Heh.  I guess I'm so used to Democrats, Liberals and Leftists treating conservative non-whites, women, etc. like their intellectual runaways slaves, I don't even get mad at this stuff anymore.  But it's nice to see Harry get a chewing.  The only problem is this: I'm not sure that the senior Democrat senator from Nevada has enough marbles to comprehend what Cubachi or  Marco Rubio or the good folks at African American Conservatives or LtC. Allen West are saying to him and his party.

Perhaps, in November, we will be able to explain in terms simple enough for even Senator Reid to understand.

The Herding, Part Two

Over at Ace’s, there’s a commenter who continually tells Ace’s presumably mostly white readership that it’s pointless to go on about the history of race relations in this country and that white Americans should simply join the battle which the Obama Administration and the organized Left are trying to provoke.  When I responded with a condensed version of how black American social and political allegiance has been manipulated over the past ten decades, he stated that a people who could be so easily (sic) manipulated must really be inferior.

This man demonstrates the type of limited perspective that I sketched out in Part One and, actually, his type could have furnished me with an additional bullet point; not only is he unable to think strategically, he actually rebukes the notion that such analysis has any value.  Moreover, such a person is blind to how his own thinking and emotional state have been shaped and molded by Leftist ideology in a much shorter time span than was so for black Americans.

In this second part, my purpose is to detail another tactical weapon of the Left, the purpose of which has been to instill a set of attitudes in the minds of the American populace; in this case, the mindset is meant for white Americans.

If the Left has been successful at keeping racial grievance in the forefront of black American agenda—in indoctrinating black Americans into believing that retaining racial anger at whites is inherent in being black and essential for black survival--it has also been successful in later years of producing a certain mindset in white Americans.  Actually this seems to be two mindsets, but it is really a singular one—a two-headed beast.  The first is guilt-fear and the second is unproductive anger.