Elections

J’accuse—**updated**

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Here is the speech that Governor Sarah Palin was going to give at the anti-Ahmadinejad rally in NYC. It’s a good speech, and deserves your attention. Excerpt:

Ahmadinejad may choose his words carefully, but underneath all of the rhetoric is an agenda that threatens all who seek a safer and freer world. We gather here today to highlight the Iranian dictator’s intentions and to call for action to thwart him.

He must be stopped.

The world must awake to the threat this man poses to all of us. Ahmadinejad denies that the Holocaust ever took place. He dreams of being an agent in a “Final Solution” — the elimination of the Jewish people.

Note that I referred to a speech that Sarah Palin was going to give. She was not allowed to give it, because she was disinvited from the rally.

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Shannon’s Prodigality

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I am thankful to Shannon for continuing his prodigal prodding (those words don’t work together very well, do they?) that leads us to define our own agreements with him and sometimes disagreements.   Mine keep outgrowing the comments section, so here’s another long-winded response.   It has moved from elitism to the last discussions between Shannon & Sean.   If you  want  more of that,  hit the key below.   If you don’t, don’t.    Reminder:    this is  someone who makes her living  in the nebulous (Shannon)  or uncertain (Sean) realm of the liberal arts.

 

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They Just Can’t Stop Themselves

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Joe Biden:

The Republican party and some of the blogs and others on the far right, are trying very hard to paint a picture of this man, they’re trying the best as they can to mischaracterize who he is and what he stands for.

All this stuff about how different Barack Obama is, they’re not just used to somebody really smart. They’re just not used to somebody who’s really well educated. They just don’t know quite how to handle it. Cause if he’s as smart as Barack is he must not be from my neighborhood.

(via Rachel Lucas, whose post on this is worth reading)

They just can’t stop themselves. The Democratic leadership, together with its core of “progressive” supporters, is so convinced of their own superior brilliance that they can’t stop talking about it, even though it should be obvious that the arrogance is turning people off.

What is the evidence for the claimed superintelligence of Senator Obama? Where are the great scientific discoveries or the patents for vital new technology? Where are the deep analyses of the history of political thought? Where is the carefully-crafted legislation? Where is the brilliant reorganization of a government agency or a business that dramatically improved its effectiveness? Where are Obama’s books and articles dealing with any subject other than himself?

Obama seems to be a pretty smart guy who can give a very nice talk, as long as he doesn’t have to do it impromptu and you don’t listen too carefully or too often, and who gives the impression, correctly or not, of being likeable. Biden himself can’t even offer those distinctions.

I’d also note that when Biden spoke at a Democratic rally where he made the above comments, he was introduced by a woman who referred to Governor Pailin as “a bucket of fluff.” It’s part of the same pattern of arrogance. (And, anyhow, isn’t the phrase usually “a ball of fluff?”)

Marriage and Models

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 “Mrs. Palin’s marriage actually makes her a terrific role model.   One of the best choices a woman can make if she wants a career and a family is to pick a partner who will be able to take on equal or primary responsibility for child-rearing.”     Cathy Young

 Re.:   Thanks to Jay Manifold’s argument below and link to Young.   Heinlein’s women seemed to me (and I wasn’t a fan and read them long, long ago) a bit  how a man imagined a strong woman to be.   He is no Michelangelo but both  capture energy.   David’s beauty is power & grace,  the swirling power of  God awesome.   Of course, his women, too, are muscular.    But, then,  I’ll take Manifold (and Heinlein’s) model   I’d like to be  someone who pulls her weight.   Most women would.

The attraction of Democratic largesse for a woman who wants the government as mate is countered by self-reliance (and family-reliance) when a woman takes a  fallible  & loving, flesh  & blood partner.   Governor Palin  values her husband,  which  is not submissive but mature.   Franklin’s belief that “God helps them that helps themselves” is seldom more true than in marriage.    This understanding  eliminates the synthetic and sentimental drama of the Lifetime channel, “women’s issue” politics, and daily bitching sessions that  resemble spinning car wheels deep in mud.  But that  understanding, that engagement   not consciousness raising liberates.

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Re. Shannon’s Obama’s Misunderstanding

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Some points:

1.Democrats might begun to understand that looking straight into the camera is counterproductive.   We don’t like to feel gamed.    Clinton looks at us & says  he didn’t have sex with “that” woman; Kerry tells us he’s  reporting for duty; Obama says he’s putting country first.   We  expect politicians to squirm and obfuscate.   But we are offended when they become earnest in their pretense;  looking us straight in the eye implies a contract.   And we know they either don’t understand or don’t care that they aren’t holding up their side of the contract – that it is a lie.   (Shannon’s  incredibly productive:    this reinforces the post he put up while I was writing.)

2.   Re. his earlier post:   Obama speaks to people that don’t understand because much about our culture discourages what we long considered virtues:   integrity, loyalty, duty.   All these require putting something or someone’s good ahead of our own.   Our customers, our children, our spouse, our community – the point isn’t to game them for our advantage but to enter into an appropriate, sympathetic, productive, and reciprocal relationship.     Of course, in some, “appropriate” is hierarchical, in some it includes making a profit.   But appropriate still arises from respect.   The misunderstanding of this has led to a cynicism and disengagement that permeates our society.

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