Jacob Sullum takes Michael Medved apart for a Townhall column about what "real conservatism" means.

Medved doesn't get it right, though: nearly no one does. A "real conservative" is someone who is running for President of the United States, and hopes to get the GOP nomination. That is all.

The money quote is in Sullum's comments on Hit & Run, by someone named Ashley: "The Right wants control of your body. The Left wants control of your production."

Correct. And they each want control of your mind.

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Robert Bluey on the "A-Plus" plan the Heritage Foundation espouses.

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Regarding his remark that "nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people":

The left euphemizes the Palestinians' self-defeating choices by saying "The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." By which they mean the Palestinians never forgo an opportunity to kill Jewish children, nor actually choose peace over war, nor to accept reasonable, if not generous by their lights, proposals to cede back most of their lost land. All in favor of killing, and killing, and killing some more.

My own reservoir of pity for the Palestinians ended on September 11th when I saw that grotesque witch handing out cake in celebration of the American dead. They've chosen their path, and that path is misery and murder.

They are suffering. They chose to make others suffer, and to suffer themselves in return. Let there be no tears over their embrace of murder and masochism.

Democratic Jews are demanding to know exactly what Obama meant by the remark. Democratic Jews are, I've decided, idiots. Let me explain what he meant: He meant precisely what you think he meant, and he further meant all the implications that flow from that.

Grow up. Your party has collectively decided that no Muslim outrage cannot be mitigated or explained away by pointing to supposed sins of the west compelling them to behave as monsters.

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. . . is almost as difficult as finding a Real Conservative.

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Cousin Attila has the scoop.

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Alan Simpson shares his epiphany with the readers of WaPo.

My thinking shifted when I read that the military was firing translators because they are gay. According to the Government Accountability Office, more than 300 language experts have been fired under "don't ask, don't tell," including more than 50 who are fluent in Arabic. This when even Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently acknowledged the nation's "foreign language deficit" and how much our government needs Farsi and Arabic speakers. Is there a "straight" way to translate Arabic? Is there a "gay" Farsi? My God, we'd better start talking sense before it is too late. We need every able-bodied, smart patriot to help us win this war.

Via Ramesh Ponnuru, who points out that

At one point [. . .] Simpson seems to suggest that regarding homosexual sex as immoral is "completely out of the mainstream of American thinking," which seems false.

Yeah. On the other hand, I know both evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics with strong feelings about homosexuality being sinful: one Roman Catholic theologian I spoke with said the Church's stance was that a homosexual person was called to celibacy. The evengelicals seem divided on whether homosexuality is intrinsic, but do not seem to regard its expression as worse than any other form of sexual immorality, such as premarital sex. Both groups—the hard-core Catholics and the evangelicals—seem prepared to accept minority status in mainstream society, particularly when it comes of matters of human sexuality.

If the policy of the Armed Forces is going to be that we can't have people serving who are sinners, then our military readiness is about to sustain a very sharp drop.

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Pi.

I only know ten digits, myself.

But I can roll out an amazing crust, and that has to count for something.

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. . . has meeting rooms with names like the Felicity Room, the Serenity Room, the Harmony Room, and the Prosperity Room. And the Room of Rainbows and Cute Kittens.

Okay: I made that last one up.

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is, as Dan Collins points out, almost unprecedented. Almost.

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the news is not so much that Al Gore exaggerated its potential consequences, and the degree of human responsibility for it; of course he did. The news is that even The New York Times is pointing this out:

Critics have zeroed in on Mr. Gore’s claim that the energy industry ran a “disinformation campaign” that produced false discord on global warming. The truth, he said, was that virtually all unbiased scientists agreed that humans were the main culprits. But Benny J. Peiser, a social anthropologist in Britain who runs the Cambridge-Conference Network, or CCNet, an Internet newsletter on climate change and natural disasters, challenged the claim of scientific consensus with examples of pointed disagreement.

“Hardly a week goes by,” Dr. Peiser said, “without a new research paper that questions part or even some basics of climate change theory,” including some reports that offer alternatives to human activity for global warming.

Geologists have documented age upon age of climate swings, and some charge Mr. Gore with ignoring such rhythms.

“Nowhere does Mr. Gore tell his audience that all of the phenomena that he describes fall within the natural range of environmental change on our planet,” Robert M. Carter, a marine geologist at James Cook University in Australia, said in a September blog. “Nor does he present any evidence that climate during the 20th century departed discernibly from its historical pattern of constant change.”

Now that is what I call climate change.

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Among the Cotillion bloggers, we argue about this a great deal: some feel that Islam itself is a threat to liberalism and democracy. Some see the possibility that "moderate Muslims" can be brought back from the verge of extinction; others remain tremendously skeptical.

I think we all know that columnist Mark Steyn—a stud/god in so many other respects—is in the latter category.

I agree that Islam must be reformed, but I sympathize with those who are to do the reforming, since they risk death. That's why I admire the members of Muslims for America, and it is why I salute the participants in the recent Secular Islam Summit in St. Petersberg, Florida. Tashbih Sayyed reports at Family Security Matters:

Muslims being brought up under the tutelage of Islamism refuse to allow their co-religionists to think independently and indulge in individual reasoning. The situation has forced the world to believe that Muslims will always remain a threat to world peace and stability unless they find a way to challenge some of IslamÂ’s perceived foundations that are frozen in a time when barbarism, cruelty, ethnic cleansing and muzzling of opposing voices was the norm.
These were some of the thoughts on the minds of many who participated in a recently concluded Secular Islam summit in St. Petersburg, Florida, that was organized by the Center for Inquiry of New York. The summit provided Muslims with a platform to voice their concerns regarding the regressive hold of radical Islam on their lives. The summit empowered the Muslims to challenge the growing power of political Islam that threatens freedoms totally and absolutely. The SummitÂ’s success ensured that the free thinking Muslims now have a stage and visibility to propose new ideas, introduce new concepts and advance the causes of secularism without being lynched.

It's hard to forget what happened to Theo Van Gogh, and to so many others who dared to criticize Islam and Islamism—both from within the faith and outside it. Read the whole thing for some of the grim stories, and a message of hope.

All we can do in this country is protect speech, encourage debate, and create a "zone of safety" around those who have left Islam and those who attempt to cure its pathologies from within. I'm not sure whether we are "America alone." But we are the foremost promoters of free speech in the world; we are the nation that placed it first on a list of entitlements God grants to human beings. And we are its primary safeguard in the world.

That could make us Islam's best hope. And that's irony you can take to the bank.

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. . . it's time to rock. Frank J. has some important information on Thompson, including the fact that "every night before going to sleep, Osama bin Laden checks under his bed for Fred Thompson."

Over at The American Mind, Sean's waiting for Godot Hegel. Me? I'm hoping for Fred.

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This RedState Post reminds me of Cousin Attila's assertion that when he plays softball he won't use a metal bat, because "the founders never envisioned them."

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Sean has the scoop.

Gee, that's difficult: use our best trackers to hunt terrorists, or people bringing weed in over the border? That's a tough one; I'll have to think about it for a while.

Paging Tony Hillerman.

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. . . to be a Republican."

I'm not so sure overzealous prosecution is limited to the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy, or that all its victims lean right. And I doubt Martha Stewart thinks so.

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. . . here's one way to lose it fast.

Just as I'd need to hear Thompson make a clear statement against rationing political speech—and expressing regret over his misguided support of "campaign finance reform"—I'd need to hear some statement from Giuliani about gun rights in order to be able to vote for him.

I think he's sent signals out about a "deal" on abortion, and in truth there's little that the executive branch can do about reducing abortion right now, other than appointing constructionists to the Supreme Court. The gun issue is a lot more worrisome, and that video clip scared the shit out of me.

H/t: Moe Lane, who's undertaken the project of dampening my Rudy ardor—at my request.

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lefties can be awfully gay.

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traffic.

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Glenn Ann says "yes!" He She quotes this exchange between Thompson and Chris Wallace regarding the current GOP field, and whether anyone in it can "carry the ball" in 2008:

CHRIS WALLACE: And if you search your soul and if you listen to what they're all saying and it doesn't seem to you that they're catching on, making sense—whatever—then what?

THOMPSON: Well, I'm going to give it serious consideration.

I'm not sure that's a "yes." It seems to me that Thompson is taking the same stance with respect to Giuliani (or possibly Romney) that Schwarzenegger took vis a vis Richard Riordan in 2003 after we recalled Gray Davis: "You may have the ball provisionally. However, I'm going to take it back if I don't think you can cross the goal line."

Me? The idea of voting for someone who truly believes in the Second Amendment excites me so much, I may have to send myself to bed without my supper.

UPDATE: Much discussion over at RedState, with one commenter claiming that Thompson doesn't have as much charisma as Giuliani: I see it in precisely the opposite terms, though I do admit Rudy has a better chance of getting the Golden State back into play.

Still: if the base is excited enough, California is optional. When in doubt, get people to vote for your candidate, rather than against the other person.

UPDATE 2: It wasn't Glenn; it was Ann. I've fallen into the "guest blogger" trap again. Thanks, James: for the link, and for fact-checking my entry.

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Patrick Hynes caught part of her speech on video. It's a good old-fashioned warm-and-fuzzy speech about taking care of children, the elderly, single parents, and little puppies with big eyes.

Nicely done. She is certainly becoming one hell of a politician, which isn't surprising. She studied under the very best.

Obama has a steep hill to climb.

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