Libtards 2008: Stayin’ Classy as Always

The Intertubez are really a funny thing.  I doubt that when The Goreon invented it, he envisioned the kind of impact it would have on society and on global communications.  For all the lightning-fast information and the opening of numerous societies that the webz facilitates, there's a downside too...

One big one that I see is the false bravado it enables in many cowards who inhabit the web.  After all -- it's relatively anonymous, inexpensive and easy to manipulate.  You can post attacks, gang up on individuals and ruin reputations and lives in one fell swoop without leaving your mother's basement or taking that ho-ho out of your maw.  You can ridicule, mock, needle and harass with impunity.  After all, no one knows who you are, and you never have to face your victim in person...

I've seen this too many times.  The anonymity the Internet provides breeds this kind of false courage - a willingness to attack an individual or a family, knowing that you don't have to face your victim, see how much you've hurt them, or be pummeled into a fine powder in response to your assault.  It also gives the attacker the attention they so desire and breeds a mob mentality that allows a number of such cowards to band together and make themselves feel superior to their victim.

Such are the people who create websites such as this. They're sad, pathetic little classless weaklings, who are using the relative obscurity offered by the webz to launch senseless attacks in order to garner attention from those looking for some escapist entertainment or simply hurl insults like monkeys tossing excrement in impotent rage at a particular candidate.




Obviously this is an attempt to paint Bristol Palin as a trailer trash whore.  Because obviously, she's the only 17-year-old in the country to get knocked up.  There aren't millions of unwed, welfare-suckling, single baby mamas out there who popped out their first crotchfruit at 14, and who happen to support Obama.  But since this is the daughter of a REPUBLICAN, who happens to support religious and conservative ideals, she's fair game.   Apparently bigotry is OK against the white oppressor and his family, but not OK against the oppressed minorities.

And after all, it's not like they'll ever have to confront the butt of their heinous little joke!  That makes it a whole lot easier to be brave.

Stay classy, libtards! 

ANOTHER THOUGHT:  It's incredible how these types of scum are the first ones to shriek "FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND EXPRESSION!" should anyone DARE question their actions, but they're also the first ones to attack others' ability to speak out against their Chosen One by launching attacks, disabling websites and harassing those with whom they don't agree by posting their personal information on the web in hopes that someone with bigger balls than theirs will harass their victims in person.

Such galling hypocrisy from such small, scared minds!

Ya know


When ya feel the need for speed, ya just gotta go with the flow, cause baby, those targets just get in the way.

But after the first two stages, I wrangled it in, still shot my fast, and my revolvers faster then normal, and shot the final three stages clean.

      

MO governor takes on the Obama Truth Squad

And he doesn't mince words.

“What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment.

This abuse of the law for intimidation insults the most sacred principles and ideals of Jefferson. I can think of nothing more offensive to Jefferson’s thinking than using the power of the state to deprive Americans of their civil rights. The only conceivable purpose of Messrs. McCulloch, Obama and the others is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill free and open debate, to suppress support and donations to conservative organizations targeted by this anti-civil rights, to strangle criticism of Mr. Obama, to suppress ads about his support of higher taxes, and to choke out criticism on television, radio, the Internet, blogs, e-mail and daily conversation about the election.

Barack Obama needs to grow up. Leftist blogs and others in the press constantly say false things about me and my family. Usually, we ignore false and scurrilous accusations because the purveyors have no credibility. When necessary, we refute them. Enlisting Missouri law enforcement to intimidate people and kill free debate is reminiscent of the Sedition Acts - not a free society.”

Oh, and Damnum Absque Injuria unloads on them, too. He makes the governor sound mild:

"Apparently, it’s not enough for Barack the Bully to have the Washington Post, the New York Times, the L.A. Times Jake Tapper, Annenberg Political (humorously known as “Factcheck.org”) and every other mainstream media outlet in its pocket. No, that’s not good enough; you got to stop the paid ads, too. What good would Pravda or Neues Deutschland have been if they ran paid editorials from dissidents? ... Enter Robert F. Bauer, the scum attorney serving as General Counsel to another scum attorney currently seeking the Presidency."

Good legal analysis there, too.

Hat tip to reader Jack Anderson...

The Texas State…

...Rifle Association PAC Voters' Guides are out.


One thing that might surprise folks who have preconceived perceptions of organizations like the TSRA, is the large number of candidates with a "D" next to their name who have received an endorsement from the association.

This is Texas after all, and many Texas Democrats are to the Right of Illinois Republicans.

Use this guide as one resource to help you make your decision on who to vote for come November.

Once you do make up your mind, do all you can to support that candidate.

Note to the Republicans who did not get a TSRA endorsement, that is a hint that you can (and should) do better to support our right to keep and bear arms.

KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND ENGINES

What always strikes me when I get together with a certain bunch of gun blog friends is as all the conversations going on all at once about such varied subjects. . Heinlein, Cordwainer Smith, reloading, airplanes, caffeinated beverages, camels vs. Sherpas and scotch eggs. One discussion was on starting steam engines on trains, and I passed on my limited knowledge on starting old turbine engines

Gun Rights Policy Conference

Just got back from it, tired as can be. Some notes in wrap up:

Alan Gura was appropriately commended, gave a speech, and received a standing ovation. Two, actually, if my foggy memory is correct.

I rec'd Citizens' Committee's Bill of Rights Award. (I thought the awards were over when the last speaker got it, so I stepped outside for a bit -- when Peggy Tartaro found me, I had to rush back in and improvise a speech on the fly).

Sandy Froman gave a good speech endorsing John McCain. At the evening reception, Bob Barr spoke, noting (quite correctly) that he is the most pro-gun candidate in the presidential race. Tim Bee, running for the US House here, also spoke of his pro-gun stands.

One fellow (not an official speaker) told of having lived in Scotland, and seeing a friend prosecuted for weapons possession. He kept a baseball bat in his car, lest the neighborhood thugs, who had threatened him, beat him up. He admitted that when pulled over for a random breathalyzer (no 4th Amendment there, so they can do it at random). And wound up convicted and fined for having possessed a defensive weapon. The judge said something about we have to stop this country from becoming a "Wild West." No concern about the thugs already making it along those lines.

Don Kilmer mentioned that he and Don Kates would be filing a 14th Amendment brief in the 9th Circuit, in Nordyke, on Tuesday. In his presentation, he had to take a while to explain just how Nordyke is still pending, six or seven years after filing.

John Lott spoke, with an interesting point. He'd held a fellowship at Univ. of Chicago School of Law, when Obama was a prof. or sorta-prof. there, and they talked a few times. The first time Obama said "oh, you're the gun guy." When he said that he was, Obama said "I don't believe people should be allowed to own guns." Lott said maybe they should talk about it. Obama just smirked and left without a word. Lott noted that he is happy to debate the topic fairly; he's often had Cass Sunstein, who is very anti-2A, to his house for dinner and they debate gun control amicably. But not Obama.

Yesterday…

...was worth blogging about, but I'm waiting on a post from Caleb (hint, hint, no pressure...)

Today I am going to take a bicycle ride on the Monon and then turn up for the Indy Blog Meet. Hopefully the ruffians and vagabonds that have plagued the Monon of late have not come this far north, but if so, we have a better remedy than batphone call boxes.

Hurricane Kyle

To my readers up in Newfoundland (there's about 8 of you now), the storm is not much more than a gunshot away. Here's prayers that you will be safe through the strong winds and rain, as will the residents of Maine, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, who may take the brunt of it. Brigid

Great Expectations

Really, David. I expected better from Bracken, and I certainly expected better from you.

Commentator Joel expresses disappointment with racial theme elements in the "Foreign Enemies" online sample.

Author Matthew Bracken responds:

I’m not sure what politically correct planet Joel hails from, or if he has some other axe to grind, but I’m confused by his comments. He begins by referring to “all those EEEVIL dirty brown people” in Domestic Enemies. Was he referring to the heroine, the Arab-American Ranya Bardiwell? Or perhaps to the hero, Alexandro Garabanda, a Cuban-American? Domestic Enemies is set in the future in New Mexico, during a period when the Southwest is fracturing away from the United States. Yes, plenty of bad guys in the novel are Hispanic. Plenty of the good guys are as well. Perhaps if I had set the novel in North Dakota, and invented an immigration invasion by Canadians leading to…never mind. You get my point. If I’m going to write reality-based fiction about the breakup of the USA, set in the Southwest, it’s going to be pretty hard to avoid some Hispanic bad guys. Sorry Joel, if that offends your PC sensibilities. (And don’t hold your breath waiting for my novel about North Dakota.)

As far as cannibalism occurring three weeks after the complete cutoff of Memphis from the outside world, following a Richter level eight earthquake—yes Joel, that would happen. Spend a little time researching such disasters. People don’t quietly starve, while calmly sitting at home. The young and the strong quickly revert to cannibalism in the face of the total cutoff of other sources of food. History shows this, over and over. In the posted excerpt, there is one case of cannibalism described, in a city of over a million inhabitants.

Considering that you found the internet posted sections of Domestic Enemies to be full of “all those EEEVIL dirty brown people,” (despite the ethnicity of the heroes and its Southwestern setting), I’m not surprised that you would compare the posted excerpt from Foreign Enemies to the infamous white racist screed, “The Turner Diaries.” Perhaps you stopped reading these excerpts, before you got to the story of Web Hardesty? He is a white racist villain of the first order, using the breakdown of law and order following the earthquake to engage in a vendetta against African-Americans and Hispanics in Western Tennessee. I’ll say it in your terms: Web Hardesty is an “EEEVIL dirty white person.”

In Foreign Enemies, a rough sort of race war is introduced as one of several background plot elements. Blacks and whites are portrayed in both heroic and evil roles. Perhaps you are simply offended that I would dare to suggest that a complete breakdown in the social order would lead to racial atrocities being committed on all sides? If so, I would suggest that you are a Pollyanna, inhabiting the lofty airs of politically correct thought, viewing the world through rose-colored glasses.

Forgive me if I don’t think that folks will be holding hands and singing Kumbaya, three weeks after an earthquake wrecks most of the bridges between Little Rock, Saint Louis and Nashville. In Memphis, after three weeks with no food, drinking water, electricity or gas, I believe that we would see many of the worst traits that humanity has demonstrated under similar circumstances down through the ages.

I don’t expect that Joel will be reading Foreign Enemies, after he saw “all those EEEVIL dirty brown people” in Domestic Enemies, (in spite of the fact that the heroes are themselves “brown people.”) But for anyone else who read and enjoyed my first two novels, I make this promise: Foreign Enemies ends with a positive resolution of most of the various crises described. This includes a racial reconciliation by several of the characters, who had come to distrust members of differing ethnicities.

And please don’t get the idea that Foreign Enemies is primarily about racial conflict. That is merely one of the plot elements, in a novel that is mainly about the total usurpation of the Constitution by a rogue President and Congress.

Matt Bracken

Florida

Places in the Heart


We all have places on this beautiful planet that stir us in powerful, primal ways. We feel a visceral connection with them that may be esthetic, or it may be something more, something deep inside our very core. I have a few of these special places in my life.

The picture above is one of those ur-places for me. It was taken from the top of a tiny road that leads back over the mountain pass to my "home village" in Ireland. Out there, across Dingle Bay, lies the highest mountain in Ireland, and to my left, out of the frame, is the second highest— the mountain to whose peak St. Brendan is said to have gone to meditate before he set out for the Western Lands in his tiny boat, waiting for him in a little harbor at the foot of the mountain.

For twenty years this has been the central venue for my Irish cultural trips, and it's a sight I have seen many times. Often it is a scene that contains a little sadness, for I frequently see it as I make my way east, at dawn, on the way to catch a plane that will return me to America. For the time being, anyway. 


Truth Squad Update

Governor Blunt:

St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, and Obama and the leader of his Missouri campaign Senator Claire McCaskill have attached the stench of police state tactics to the Obama-Biden campaign.

?What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment.

Ouch.

The Buck Stops There

Gov. Brian Schweitzer believes a university system policy banning those with concealed weapons permits from bringing guns on college campuses conflicts with state law, his campaign spokesman said Friday.

The issue arose the night before in a debate with Schweitzer's Republican challenger, state Sen. Roy Brown. During the debate, Brown said it was wrong that those with permits to carry guns could not do so on college campuses...

The Montana Board of Regents, however, has a policy restricting firearms to law enforcement and other officials.

There's something to be said about political rivals arguing over who is the bigger gun rights supporter. And also, lest we become too assured, something to keep an eye on and question more deeply.

Thing is, you can't shove all blame off on the Board of Regents, who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state senate.

Well, gee, our underlings decided and now our hands are tied.

Right.

That ain't where the buck stops.

Ballpark Franks

The discovery of several hot dogs in packages outside Citizens Bank Park brought the bomb squad out and forced the temporary evacuation of the stadium Wednesday evening.
Between scary hot dogs in Philly and Lite Brite Mooninites in Boston, let's take a moment to be thankful we have an all-pervasive government to protect us from such horrors--that is, to protect us from ourselves.

This Day in History: September 28

The enquiry into the Conduct of Dr. Church, Director General of the hospital, and the respective Regimental Surgeons, being finished in the four Brigades in and near Cambridge, conformable to the General Orders of the 7th Instant -- The same is to take place to morrow in Bridgr. Genl. Thomas's brigade, and in Brigadier Genl. Spencer's brigade on saturday.

Quote of the Day – Police State Stench Edition


“St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, and Obama and the leader of his Missouricampaign Senator Claire McCaskill have attached the stench of police state tactics to the Obama-Biden campaign.

 

“What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment. - MO Gov Matt Blunt

Add this to the attempts to stifle the NRA ads, and others, on the tally of Obama’s shameful record of stifling free speech. 

Can you imagine is John McCain or any other Republican had done this? The scandal would be broadcast far and wide, and the candidate’s withdrawal would be demanded. The stench of it would be attached to the party for years. It is time that the same standard was applied across parties.

Hat tip Rustmeister 

      

TALES OF SOURDOUGH

and GRAVY. Not that nasty stuff out of a can or a pouch. But the real thing. With milk and lots of pepper and some little bits of sausage added in after it's creamy. Then SOURDOUGH BISCUITS. The term sourdough originated during the Klondike Gold Rush when settlers began to flood into Alaska. Due to the limited availability of leavening in the remote bush of Alaska, settlers made their bread