Via James, Tim Cavanaugh discusses his feeling that Bush will be a lock this fall. I've been saying much the same thing myself—that it won't even be that close.

Whether people vote security or the economy, Bush is the guy. This should become clearer and clearer as time goes on.

One interesting phenomenon in the Reason blog is former Gore voters documenting, in the comments section, their "road to Damascus" moments, and explaining why they are now voting for Bush.

Hint: Damascus must be somewhere in New York City.

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I vote for the $20 bill. Why fuck around?

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When SondraK was guest-blogging over at Dean's World, she drew our attention to the fact that there are Pagan Conservatives. Matter of fact, there are a few Yahoo Groups that deal with Pagan issues from a conservative perspective, and vice versa.

Steven Malcolm Anderson, the most colorful (and among the most lucid) of Dean's commenters, had this to say on the subject:

"Pagan" and "Conservative" are practically synonymous. "Pagan" or "Heathen" comes from "country-dweller", a "rustic" , or (today) "redneck". They were those in the late Roman Empire who lived out in the country and held to their old Gods and Goddesses while the city-slickers were taking up exotic eastern cults like Mithraism or -- what's the name of that new one they've got? Christos? Christo? Christianity? Never heard of it! What's with young people today? Aren't the Deities of their grandfathers good enough for them?

In ancient Egypt, these Conservatives opposed Akhenaton and his monotheistic revolution. I would have been one of those reactionary polytheists. I have often said that Akhenaton was the first Communist.

Today in America and the West, the Conservatives, the "Pagans", are usually traditional Christians. Yes, the Jack T. Chick Protestants and the Latin Mass Catholics are the most "Pagan" of the "Pagans" of today, sticking to the old ways. The deepest Christians today are precisely those who would have most fiercely resisted Christianity a thousand years ago.

Polytheist Pagans and traditional Christians ought to be allies against the secularizing, levelling, homogenizing forces of the modern world.

Thomas Molnar, a Conservative Catholic who used to write in the "National Review", once co-authored a book with Alain de Benoist, a polytheist who leads Europe's New Right (Nouvelle Droite), "Eclipse du Sacre" ("Eclipse of the Sacred").

"New Right"? Old Right. Ancient Right! Eternal Right!

Posted by Steven Malcolm Anderson, the Lesbian-worshipping gun-loving selfish aesthete, on June 07, 2004 at 9:53 PM

A friend of mine who is interested in a lot of different approaches to spirituality—yet has a head on his shoulders, and politics a bit right of center on some issues—has this take:

Yes, I've heard of these folks, and am glad they're around to provide some of that DIVERSITY that the lefty-pagans are always whining about.

As a self-confessed "Apollonian Pagan," I've always been ill at ease with the lockstep leftism and knee-jerk counterculturalism that infests the "earth religion" scene. If anyone's to blame for it, I'd name Miriam (Starhawk) Simos as a prime suspect; she's spent the last 30-odd years trying to turn Paganism/Wicca into a spiritual front for ultra-left activism, and has been fairly successful, especially in the Bay Area.

My friend wants me to turn you, my loyal readers, on to this site which could be the biggest clearinghouse for Conservative Pagan thought.

I am a Christian, but I love the fact that these people exist, and I'm glad they are blowing the minds of their fellow pagans. Tear those stereotypes down! The people who learn T'ai Chi with my husband and me are gradually learning that their Bush jokes may get a chilly reception from us. It's a bigger world than they might think.

In fact, that's one of the biggest attractions about driving a Prius: if I get one I can put a nice GOP bumpersticker on it. No one will be expecting that.

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1 SHHHH... I BELONG to Pagan Conservatives and Phoenix is a personal pal Thanks for gleaning the veiled trail I had wished to draw folks down..... And honey....I am tearing down those walls and leaving people scratching their heads as a mission. One of the most common introduction e-mails to or group is one that exclaims relief and camaraderie that "I am not alone". And we're quite an iconoclastic bunch even within ourselves!

Posted by: SondraK at June 11, 2004 08:39 PM (+9BwC)

2 Oh, girl. Thanks for stopping by, You are the woman, and now on my regular stomping grounds.

Posted by: Attila Girl at June 12, 2004 02:54 AM (LcVoH)

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Who would have thought that this man we looked down upon, thought of as a buffoon, and denigrated at every opportunity would end up saving millions of lives and bringing freedom to so many in the world—Eastern Europe in particular?

When James was talking a few days ago about George H.W. Bush and the great example he set for other former Presidents, in terms of the happy, active and fulfilling life he lives now, I couldn't help but think about Reagan. And it broke my heart that he was going this way, enduring ten years of suffering. Incurring huge suffering for his family—especially Nancy.

And I hoped this day would come soon, so we could mourn for him honestly, and regard him as being really dead—rather than existing in a sort of twilight wherein we couldn't reach him, or see him, or really discuss him in the past tense, either.

It was time. I do not know God's reasoning for anything any of us goes through, but I'm glad Nancy's ordeal is over. I'm glad Ronald Reagan is at peace.

The world owes him a huge debt.

James has some good roundups, as does Dean. Since each has multiple entries on Reagan, I suggest you go there and scroll.

Light a candle. Fly the flag. Pray we have more like him.

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Bill Whittle is at it again. The guy who brought you the mind-blowing essay "Magic" is at it again, with a two-part article entitled "Strength." (As in, why being strong should not make us hate ourselves.) It has to do with why we will not give up the faith, and why we cannot. And why this war is crucial to the survival of the West. It's about the length of an Atlantic feature, so make yourself comfortable.

It contains within it both a defense of the War in Iraq and a defense of U.S. strategy in Fallujah.

This one is impossible to summarize, but here's a passage I like because it's acerbic, and well-written:

Senator Kennedy claims Abu Ghraib is simply Saddam Hussein’s torture chambers “under new management – U.S. management.” Taking him at his word – a somewhat iffy proposition right out of the gate – he apparently cannot see the difference between the humiliation and bullying of enemy combatants, which is shameful, disgusting and reprehensible, and the gleeful, mocking murder, torture and gang rape of over 300,000 innocent men, women and children -- which is something worse. So Senator, here is a helpful analogy which you may find useful: The difference is about the same as pulling over and leaving a young female secretary on the curb in the rain, which is shameful, disgusting and reprehensible, vs. leaving her trapped in the car at the bottom of a river while you look at the bubbles and ponder the political repercussions.

Which is something worse, Senator.

Americans living today have never known torture or oppression or state-sponsored murder, and so it becomes nothing more than a rhetorical concept for most of us. People who defend Saddam and Kim and Castro have no idea at all about what that life entails. None. And so, in their safe and antiseptic little worlds of coffee shops and chat rooms, it all reduces to rhetoric. And since, in the end, itÂ’s nothing but words anyway, they feel they can win an argument because their rhetoric goes up to eleven.

Bushitler.

(And, by the way, if you're too young to know what Bill's talking about with respect to Senator Kennedy, you need to Google the name Chappaquiddick, and/or drop by here, to find out why the Third Brother was never considered Presidential material.)

Via Reverend Pixy.

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Dean Esmay discusses land mass on our little planet, and how there's a bit more of it than you might think. It's required reading, so get to it.

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I hear that Gore's family is organizing an intervention to get him into treatment. The crack situation is out of hand.

The full text of his embarrassing hiccup of a speech is at Salon. The New York Times also has a brief summary. (It's lovely to note that although several of the officials and cabinet members Gore called upon to resign issued brief "we serve at the pleasure of the President" statements, Condi Rice didn't dignify Gore's remarks with a response. Quite right.)

I won't fisk it or anything, but there are a few priceless quotes:

In my opinion, John Kerry is dealing with this unfolding tragedy in an impressive and extremely responsible way. Our nation's best interest lies in having a new president who can turn a new page, sweep clean with a new broom, and take office on January 20th of next year with the ability to make a fresh assessment of exactly what our nation's strategic position is as of the time the reins of power are finally wrested from the group of incompetents that created this catastrophe.

Kerry should not tie his own hands by offering overly specific, detailed proposals concerning a situation that is rapidly changing and unfortunately, rapidly deteriorating, but should rather preserve his, and our country's, options, to retrieve our national honor as soon as this long national nightmare is over.

In other words, the Democrats should get to throw grenades at the President's plan without having to offer any real alternatives. Vote for Kerry! Take Door #3! The Lovely Carol Merrill will show you what you've elected!

How dare the incompetent and willful members of this Bush/Cheney administration humiliate our nation and our people in the eyes of the world and in the conscience of our own people. How dare they subject us to such dishonor and disgrace.

Honestly. When my husband and I saw this we just burst out laughing and looked at each other in amazement. Because, of course, this is Clinton's Vice President discussing dishonor and disgrace. And all we could think about was Clinton in the Oval Office, discussing troop deployments while getting a blowjob. American lives were, to him, just part of the high of abusing the highest office in the land for cheap thrills. Talk about dishonor.

Gore didn't just look bad in terms of the silly things he had to say: he also really looked bad. I mean, he wasn't that bad a specimen in his psuedo-hippie days, but isn't he getting a little fat in his embittered middle age? I'm just asking . . .

But there's this, and it's serious:

He has exposed Americans abroad and Americans in every U.S. town and city to a greater danger of attack by terrorists because of his arrogance, willfulness and bungling at stirring up hornet's nests that pose no threat whatsoever to us . . . . It's not the central front in the war on terror, but it has unfortunately become the central recruiting office for terrorists.

And that is the part that isn't funny. Because what Algore is trying to do here is prepare us for another terrorist attack. And program us to receive this news, when it occurs--for it almost certainly will--as something that is Bush's fault. We are to accept any terrorism over this long, hot, event-filled summer not as evidence of a flaw in our defenses, but as something provoked by the behavior of the President. Gore wants us to blame George W. Bush for the next attack, just as his political allies blamed Bush for 9/11--against all reason.

There are some in the Democratic Party that hope more dead American bodies will pave their path to the White House.

They are hoping al Qaeda will succeed this summer.

It is disgusting, and egregious. And it brings a new definition to dishonor.

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The Westside's* own Phil Carter has moved his blog. Update your blogrolls.

Via James.

*Not in New York, silly. LA. Specifically, Santa Monica IIRC.

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My thanks to Mikal for tipping me off; please go to his site and check out all the obscure and outrageous books he's offering today.

Isn't it nice to have Rachel Lucas back? Things weren't the same without her.

Apparently Rachel had the idea, and LagMonkey executed it. Now we need to get them printed professionally; as Rachel points out, it would be just like printing money.

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1 Click on Rachel's page to get the full-sized version. I'm sure it can be blown up a bit, printed on 11x17 paper or the like, and sold for a tidy profit at gun shows, NRA meetings, and other gatherings of folk who despise Fat Mikey and everything for which he stands.

Posted by: Mikal at May 20, 2004 02:40 PM (fcVnT)

2 Thanks for the link Miss Attila!

Posted by: Libbo at May 21, 2004 05:06 PM (jPrTF)

3 Perfect target

Posted by: Dave at May 22, 2004 10:05 PM (BQkC1)

4 It is rather charming.

Posted by: Attila Girl at May 23, 2004 01:37 AM (i+lmP)

5 Of course, if anyone actually takes Mikal's idea and makes money off of it, they should give a small cut to him and to LagMonkey, and possibly a slighly larger cut to Rachel, for coming up with the idea. Most of the money they should keep for themselves, paying as little taxes on it as feasible (0 is a good figure).

Posted by: Attila Girl at May 23, 2004 01:40 AM (i+lmP)

6 I love your Tax policy

Posted by: Dave at May 23, 2004 04:48 AM (BQkC1)

7 Hey--let's keep this economic recovery going.

Posted by: Attila Girl at May 24, 2004 12:39 AM (i+lmP)

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Kate of Small Dead Animals finally lets the cat out of the bag. Here are a few of the money quotes (I've Dowdified it for those who are in a hurry):

Over at the Shotgun, Laura is frightened.

"This is scary shit. The prison abuses are scary shit. All of the lies are scary shit."

Well, Laura, you found us out. I confess... there is a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy and nobody noticed until now. I know this is true, because, well . . . I'm in it.

There never were any weapons of mass destruction. None. Anywhere. We knew that all along - there never was a Halabja. It was filmed in a remote part of Texas hill country. Mexican illegals, playing dead for the camera.

We murdered Vince Foster, just to watch him die. And so we could blame Hillary.

Udday was gunned down by the capitalist forces of globalization. His hands were in the air, his fingers pleading - "Peace". He knew the cure for cancer, so they couldn't let him live. There were panties on his head.

Nick Berg is on a secret tropical island, with his Helliburton pension, golfing with Jack Kennedy and sharing peanut butter and bacon sandwiches with Elvis. Yucking it up with Danny Pearl. There's a greenish glass jar in the entertainment center, beside the big screen TV. Inside, a Roswell alien floats gently, gently, upside down. A pallid little creature bobbing in a lava lamp. Some sick bastard has slapped a decal on it; "Don't Mess With Texas."

"Don't Mess With Texas," Laura.

There are alligators in the sewers of New York. I once had a friend who knew someone who had a Doberman who choked on the finger of a burglar. In the fifties there was a engine that got 200 miles to the gallon but Big Oil stole the plans and murdered the inventor. The drug companies created AIDS through genetic engineering to kill the gays. Ronald Reagan told them to. The WTC towers were taken out by Israeli missiles, there never was a Holocaust and the JEWS RULE THE WORLD!!!

So, Laura, there you have it. You're free to go. You've got the truth now - spread the word. Proclaim it far and wide. Write your newspaper. Nobody will believe you, because...

We're a vast right wing conspiracy.

And we own the media.

Be afraid; be very afraid. And go read the whole thing; it's mandatory.

Via James.

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Venomous Kate discusses a practice that makes me see red, every time:

Even so, “honor killings” are believed to be on the rise in Turkey as rural Kurds immigrate to the cities where their daughters, previously sheltered from objectionable lifestyles, are now exposed to situations which their parents believe justify their deaths. As recently as May 1, a 14-year-old girl was buried after her father strangled her with a wire, his idea of expiating the “dishonor” brought to his family when his daughter was kidnapped and raped. (The girl’s father, brother and uncle - who committed the murder at the behest of a family council - have been charged with her death and were released pending their trial.)

The increase in honor killings isn’t limited to the Middle East. In Rochester, New York last month, a Turkish immigrant was charged with killing his wife and fracturing the skulls of his 4- and 22-year-old daughters in an “honor killing” after learning that his own brother had molested his wife and oldest child. He has pled not guilty, explaining to investigators that it was an “honor killing.”

Slow as it is, progress is still occuring. PakistanÂ’s President Musharraf has called for a ban on honor killings, despite the practice being outlawed already. Hundreds of such murders are believed to occur in Pakistan each year.

But the tide may be turning, as not only the Pakistani ban but similar legislation in Jordan seems to indicate. Much of it is due to women who are willing to speak out and demand an end to this ancient form of victimization. Recently, a woman known only as Souad published what is believed to be the first book by a survivor of a failed honor killing. The book, Burned Alive: A Victim of the Law of Men, is receiving worldwide attention from human rights groups due to its powerful look into a practice so poorly documented in the press.

What knocks me out about this is the fact that in the Middle Eastern tradition rape brings dishonor to a family--so that rape victims are often killed by their own fathers and brothers (and sometimes mothers). It's hard to even wrap my mind around that concept.

It makes me want to go there and start handing out Beretta Tomcats to the entire female population, but I'm afraid the solutions will be more complicated. And it'll take a lot of time to educate people and change the laws. Change those fucking laws.

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This wouldn't be enough to change my decision about whom to vote for. But it makes me feel good about the decision I happen to have made.

Via Dean Esmay.

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Apparently a lot of men who served with John Kerry in Vietnam will be getting together tomorrow to publicly sign a document that makes a remarkable assertion: they don't feel he would be a good commander-in-chief:

“What is going to happen on Tuesday is an event that is really historical in dimension,” John O’Neill, a Vietnam veteran who served in the Navy as a PCF (Patrol Craft Fast) boat commander, told CNSNews.com . The event, which is expected to draw about 25 of the letter-signers, is being organized by a newly formed group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

“We have 19 of 23 officers who served with [Kerry]. We have every commanding officer he ever had in Vietnam. They all signed a letter that says he is unfit to be commander-in-chief,” O’Neill said.

Via James, who makes this point:

ThereÂ’s nothing new here, just a renewal of the debate over the Winter Soldiers hearing and KerryÂ’s anti-war activities. Presumably, these things have been factored into votersÂ’ minds at this point, to the extent anyone much cares thirty-odd years later. Further, this is in some sense the mirror image of the chicken hawk argument. Since all theyÂ’re doing is assessing purely political matters, IÂ’m not sure why the opinion of KerryÂ’s former Navy mates should have any special weight.

What is relevant to the question of KerryÂ’s fitness to serve as commander-in-chief is his present maturity on defense matters. Given the advantage of thirty-odd years additional seasoning and reflection, what are KerryÂ’s views on Vietnam now? More importantly, what is his vision for the war on terror and our future in Iraq? ItÂ’s still very early in this campaign but Kerry will need to give a much more coherent view on those issues than he has so far.

And that's the hard part, for Kerry. He wants to be everything to everyone. This may change a few moderate minds in the months ahead, if the story has "legs." It does have a certain drama in it.

McCain will be pissed, of course.

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James discusses a new ABC poll that shows Bush/43 scoring somewhat higher than John Kerry on "likeability" and "compassion."

If this holds, Bush will be re-elected much more easily than most of us have been predicting. [Editor's note: except me, of course.] It’s probably not surprising that Bush is considered more likeable but Democrats tend to have an edge on the “caring” and especially “shares my values” question.

Off the top of my head, I canÂ’t think of a single presidential election . . . where the candidate that was perceived as more likable and compassionate lost. IÂ’m not old enough to remember the Nixon elections; he was an odd duck [anyway] . . .

I've said all along that it wouldn't even be close. Barring some unforeseen disaster, it'll be Bush by a comfortable margin.

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Michael J. Totten on why he's going to hold his nose and vote for Bush.

(If the display is weird, it's the archiving function. Go back to his main page [delete the word "archive" and everything after it on your browser window] and scroll down to "Bush's Ironic Bounce.")

Personally, I think our friends in the Old Media have been playing up the Iraq conflict, hoping they could Vietnamize it. Instead, they've reminded everyone that there's a war going on, and if we don't want to cut and run at the worst possible time we should re-elect the President.

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The only good terrorist . . .

Per Laurence at TCP, Hamas leaders are irked about Rantissi's death, and are planning "earthquakes of revenge."

Apparently, they are mad enough that they might start killing innocent men, women, and children. Oh, wait . . .

If, every time there is a terrorist act in Israel, the Israelis take out another terrorist leader, we will shortly start to see fewer and fewer attacks. After all, these old guys don't want to die: they want to send young men (and women) out to die for them, with false promises of paradise after death.

That's the thing I admire about the Israelis: they don't fuck around. They aren't barbarians like a lot of their neighbors, but they do not fuck around when it comes to their survival. They will do what it takes to stay on the map.

Deal with it, boys and girls.

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I like Will Collier's verbiage best, so I'll use his version (he's Stephen Green's partner in crime at VodkaPundit, you'll recall):

According to Drudge, Barking Moonbat Radio (aka "Air America") is going broke after just two weeks on the air, and has been pulled from affiliates in Chicago and LA.

You have to wonder if Drudge actually has the goods on this one. I figured it would flop, but I don't think anybody thought it could flop this fast. Still, given Al Franken's dismal record of failure in television and movies, nobody should really be surprised if the story pans out.

"Developing," as they say...

We've all heard about the bounced checks in the seven figures, and the stations that have switched over to "Mexican radio" in Chi-town and L.A.

I imagine all the stunned lefties out there: "but we're smarter. And funnier. It should have worked!" As my grandmother used to say: if wishes were horses, beggars could ride.

It was so futile, so sad. And I happen to know that the smartest and funniest man on the planet is a registered Republican. Stick that in your blender and puree it.

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Laurence of ATS continues to marvel at the wonder that is Noam Chomsky, remarking of the good professor's blog:

[he] has two more posts up . . . and--color me shocked and purple--still no sign of linguistics.

You would think, by now, he'd have accidentally posted something on linguistics. A spelling error here, a microstroke there . . . bam! You've got Linguistics, right? Maybe mixing up a post on the weblog and a note to a coed he wants to bang that he's giving directions to through e-mail:

"Meet me in the Linguistics Department at 10:00PM tonight. Wear a bathrobe, Mickey Mouse ears, and a glow-stick up your ass."

Read the whole thing, and follow the link back to Laurence's original Chomsky Challenge, which is definitely worth the price of admission.

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From Dorothy Rabinowitz and from E-Claire. Rabinowitz discusses the antics of the four "Jersey girls," activist 9-11 widows who have taken it upon themselves to lecture our nation on what, exactly, we did wrong on and before 9-11, and to dictate how we should conduct ourselves in the future. Their conduct is egregious, and it's probably time that they STFU.

Rabinowitz link via James, wie immer.

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The VodkaPundit fisks a Kerry Op-Ed ("If I Ran the Iranian Circus"). Read the fisking, skip the comments.

Via James.

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