Comments Posted By michael reynolds
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PALIN MAINSTREAMS THE BIRTHERS
Bald Ninja:
Ask a high school drop-out kid's book author:
Q: What newspapers and magazines do you read?
A: Well, Katie, I read mostly online. I usually start with the NYT, WaPo and MSNBC. I check HuffPo to see what the left is interested in, and I check Drudge to see what the right is interested in. I use various blogs to point me to unexpected sources -- smaller papers, other news sources, blogs which don't rise to the level of everyday reading. There are a half dozen blogs I read more than once a day -- 538, Andrew Sullivan, OTB, the Moderate Voice, The Glittering Eye, either for their own writing or because they point me to other interesting data. Then there are another half dozen blogs I check daily. The end result is that in addition to NYT, WaPo and MSNBC, I usually also know what's in the WSJ, the Financial Times and the news weeklies. Of course, I'm not a politician, just an interested voter.Ask an Alaskan governor and VP candidate:
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 4.12.2009 @ 18:44
Q: What newspapers and magazines do you read?
A: Duuuuuuuuuuuh. Uuummmm. (Drool.) Errrr. Hmmmm. (Wink.)
Ninja:
You're kidding, right?
We're not talking about slips of the tongue. Do you actually believe Obama doesn't know how many states there are? You think he got through Harvard without knowing the number of states? Don't base your argument on ridiculous comparisons. No one thinks Obama is either stupid or thoughtless. You may not like his policies, you may think he's wrong, but it takes a complete idiot to think Obama is stupid.
By contrast, pretty much everyone has figured out that Palin is a ninny. People on the left, people on the right, people in the middle. Everyone from Charles Krauthammer and George Will and Rick Moran and Christopher Hitchens (I could go on all day) to absolutely everyone from center right to far left.
In fact, if you want a quick and easy Idiot Identifier just add the people who think Obama is stupid to the people who think Palin is smart. If you fall within that circle it's a pretty sure bet you're an idiot.
Which is not to say that any number of people outside the circle aren't also idiots. (In fact, you could add the number of people who admire Cindy Sheehan and the number of people who think the CIA blew up the twin towers and get the same ambient IQ.)
I'm just saying if aliens show up and demand a meal of complete cretins unadulterated by any indigestible shreds of intelligence, we can safely feed them Palin fans without concern for the aliens' digestion.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 4.12.2009 @ 13:44
Palin generally says whatever pops into her little head. Someone -- I can't recall who -- pointed out that she never sees beyond the next ten minutes. She makes George W. Bush look like Solomon. And people who think she's the next Reagan? I was never a Reagan worshipper but Palin isn't the equal of his big toe.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 4.12.2009 @ 12:58
MY CONSERVATIVE APOSTASY AND WHY I DON'T GIVE A F**K WHAT YOU THINK
Joe:
Thanks. And I am pro-choice, and pro gay marriage, an atheist, sort of indifferent to guns although I grew up with them in the house. My father was a career soldier and I am pro military. Supported both Gulf wars and Afghanistan, though I came to regret the second Gulf war. Cried like a baby when Bush spoke after 911 and would have sold my house and sent the cash to the Treasury if he'd asked. Married once -- still am 30 years later -- and have two kids, one who was born in China, and both of whom are taught to love their country. I'm a Democrat.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 3.12.2009 @ 22:01
Lionheart:
Let’s turn that around Michael: so you think that Democrats are allowed in the party where they are NRA members? They’re pro-life? They are in favor of the traditional definition of marriage? They favor cutting taxes? They see a public option as an additional tax on anybody that already pays taxes?
Harry Reid is pro-life. Any number of Democrats are pro-gun, Tester and Webb come to mind. Obama favors "traditional marriage." Many voted for Bush's tax cuts, go back and look up the roll call. And quite obviously a number oppose a public option.
Sorry, we are not you. You're the Taliban, we're the big tent.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 3.12.2009 @ 21:25
Anon:
That makes you a libertarian-leaning Republican. One of the very people the new overlords of your party want to purge.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 3.12.2009 @ 17:41
Anon:
Candidates won’t have to be pure; they’ll just have to offer something different than the predictable elite liberalism of the guy who currently holds the seat.
So they can favor gun control? Can they be pro-choice? Can they be for gay marriage? Can they favor some higher taxes? Can they support a public option?
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 3.12.2009 @ 15:39
At various points in life you find yourself with a group of friends or acquaintances who are heading in a direction you don't want to go.
If all they want to do is go to a restaurant you don't especially like, you shrug and go along. If what they want to do is go to a strip club and that's over the line for you, you say, 'see you later, guys.' If what they want to do is rob a liquor store you go apostate on them and call the cops.
This is middle school parenting 101: trying to teach your kids when it's okay to compromise, when it's good to walk away, and when you need to actively intervene.
I try to teach my kids (emphasis on 'try') not to be loyal to people so much as loyal to themselves, to what they believe, and to what is right. I would guess Rick, that you got some of that same thing from your parents.
Friends may come and go, even family may fade. In the end you're standing there looking at your own face in the mirror, and that's the guy you answer to.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 3.12.2009 @ 12:25
What will keep the Taliban/Al Qaeda from laying low, building up reserves and making sure conditions on the ground point to the beginning of a withdrawal so that they can return with a vengeance when the USA and its allies leave? What will keep the Afghans from hedging their bets in that pre-pullout period so that the vengeance does not fall on them once withdrawal is effected?
Nothing. But the Afghans know we're leaving. One year, five years, ten years, they know we're leaving. They live there, we don't.
This could be called the "Walk before they make us run," strategy. It's essentially identical to Iraq: use a surge to back the bad guys up for a while so we can make a dignified exit.
In the end Afghanistan goes back to being the corrupt, cruel, primitive, superstition-ridden sh*thole it's been since Alexander the Great wrote the following in reference to his own visit to beautiful Afghanistan: "I am involved in the land of a 'Leonine' (lion-like) and brave people, where every foot of the ground is like a wall of steel, confronting my soldier. You have brought only one son into the world, but everyone in this land can be called an Alexander.”
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 2.12.2009 @ 16:10
It took 90 days because he's not a guy who likes having to choose between bad and worse, between likely to fail and guaranteed to fail.
Let's not kid ourselves that this is anything other than a face-saving exit a la Iraq. That was the best we could realistically hope for.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 2.12.2009 @ 11:09
