Quickies

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A round-up of news items, columns, articles and blog posts that caught our eye this past week.





Of course, he did:

Sean Stone, son of American Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone, said on Wednesday that Islam is the religion of justice and equality.

'Unfortunately, those displaying grievances over the injustice imposed by the capitalist and liberal governing system in the worldwide Occupy protests are not aware that they would not achieve their goals in the absence divine religions and Islam as well,' Sean said.

Not to mention being the religion of stonings, honor killings and genital mutilation. So, yeah, maybe Islam and Occupy is a good fit.







Did the Catholic Church paint themselves into a corner with respect to the contraceptives controversy?

Here is what Cardinal Bernardin said in the Gannon Lecture at Fordham University that he delivered in 1983:

Those who defend the right to life of the weakest among us must be equally visible in support of the quality of life of the powerless among us: the old and the young, the hungry and the homeless, the undocumented immigrant and the unemployed worker.

When you start equating the rights of the unborn to clothing the homeless, you start backing yourself into some morally untenable situations.

Selling out to social justice will do that for you. Go ahead and read the whole excellent piece at Ricochet.






Is it really for the kids? We start watching our backside whenever we hear about legislation couched in that manner.

Leslie at Temple of Mut wonders why her children and church are being weaponized against her.






Here's B-Daddy on the Greek debt crisis:

But let's also be clear about the game being played by the rest of the EU. An anonymous commenter previously posted that it is not really that big a deal if the Greeks default, the worry is the example set and the impact to banks. Much of the worry has been about the spread of bank failure if Greek default causes Italian and Spanish bond yields to rise. Once again, too big to fail leads to irrational economic policy. No one wants to learn this lesson, not the U.S. and not the Europeans. Heck even the Chinese prop up their banks with enforced savings and below market interest rates for the working stiff. So instead of too big to fail, why don't we require ever increasing capital reserve requirements as banks become larger? That would make it harder for big banks to leverage access to cheap capital from the Fed to make easy money, but that should be their problem.

No, you wouldn't. No, you wouldn't be mistaken if you sensed a complete lack of seriousness, worldwide, when it comes to making hard decisions with respect to sovereign debt. It's 10 PM, the final exam is tomorrow but everbody in the dorm is munching out on Hot Pockets and playing Mortal Combat.





W.C. Varones on a potential leading economic indicator: runs on safe deposit boxes.





Fed up with the current state of the GOP primaries, Sarah B. wonders: Gov. McDonnell, Where For Art Thou?

For you Romney fans out there, the Governor of Virginia does indeed have great hair.







Here's Sir Charles of Doo Doo Economics on that post-constitutional notion of "freedom":

This is why the wisdom of America's founders is so profound. We are supposed to be a society where people on their unique paths are free to join or separate in the pursuit of happiness. Even if you take a dead end job, you have the opportunity to become your own boss through individual effort. Unions, governments and other tyrants should not control the fate of you, your property or your hopes and dreams.

We are here for a fleeting moment in time. Forge your own path or join with us who wish to ensure future liberty. Whatever you decide, do not give up, do not surrender, and do not lose your dreams. Andy Whitfield pursued his happiness and contributed to freedom, so can you.

After a months-long absence Secular Apostate is back. Check out his most excellent blog at the link.




OK, gang. That's probably it for today. We hope to enjoy the remainder of our 3-day weekend so we'll most likely give the staff the rest of the day off and see everybody tomorrow.

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Stow it! (UPDATED)

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Once again, it's the ladies that look to be displaying the most sense in the GOP.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer came out in opposition to the “birther” movement in stronger terms than ever, saying Monday that doubts about President Barack Obama’s citizenship are leading the country toward “destruction.”

Just as birtherism has been re-energized by potential presidential candidate Donald Trump’s media blitz, questioning Obama’s birthplace, the Republican governor has moved in the opposite direction.

“It’s become such a huge distraction,” Brewer said Monday night on CNN. “I, for one — I believe that from what I have seen and after speaking with … the prior governor of Hawaii that indeed he was born in Hawaii. It’s just something that I think is leading our country down a path of destruction, and it just is not serving any good purpose.”

Last week, Brewer vetoed a bill passed by the Arizona state Legislature that would have required presidential candidates to provide documentation showing that they were born in the United States to get on the state’s presidential ballot. The bill, she said in a letter about her veto, was a “distraction” and “a bridge too far” that would have created “significant new problems while failing to do anything constructive for Arizona.”

Amen to that, sister.

We're beginning to think that Donald Trump is actually a Democratic plant. Funny how he just explodes onto the scene at the same time we lose interest in that other overseas distraction in Libya.

Those prices at the pump got you a little chapped? Fugheddaboutit - who's up for some more birtherism?


Of all the legitimate issues for which we can and do take this administration to task and this is the one that has everybody's attention right now? Congratulations, David Axelrod.

O.K. New rule: In winnowing down the field of GOP contenders (we're still not sure if we are actually going to endorse anybody, regardless) you're out if you support ethanol subsidies and now you're automatically DQed for flirtation in any way shape or form with birtherism. In fact, condemnation in the strongest terms a' la Governor Brewer wins you bonus points.

Talk about taking your eye off the ball.



(UPDATE #1): Surprise! The President held a birth certificate news conference early this morning causing us to nearly swerve off the road on our way into work.

Our first reaction was "why?" The administration has now taken off the table a perfect opportunity to paint birthers and anyone within arms-length of them as wackos.

Amazingly, the President said that the reason for holding this press conference was that the whole birther thing had become a distraction. Well, no kidding. Wasn't that the point for the administration in keeping this thing alive in the first place? Now, all the President has left for distractions is Libya and the waste, fraud and abuse hotline set up by the Justice Department to help investigate why gas prices are so high.

For a phenomena that was, ahem, birthed by Clinton Inc. during the Democratic primaries 3 - 3-1/2 years ago and had achieved gale force cultural impact thanks to the relentless pounding by Donald Trump, the ending proved to be rather unceremonious.

And proving that it was indeed time to get down to addressing and solving real issues, the President promptly left after his remarks refusing to field any questions from the press, the first being about General Patraeus moving to the CIA... you know, a real issue.

So, the President took the opportunity to make some political hay. Terrific. Now that we've got all this out of the way, how about that deficit reduction plan, Mr. President?

Of mold, county GOP headquarters and slippin' out the back door (UPDATED)

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Speaking of 3 am in the morning, I think my Republican friends may want to know about another early morning event: The GOP Headquarters were moved under the cover of a dark December night. The details are in this San Diego City Beat article by John R. Lamb: Whine and chocolates –GOP headquarters abandoned, left in ‘mind-boggling’ disarray, landlord says.

The machinations between a party boss and a landlord may seem unimportant in the wake of Obamacare repeals and Middle East turmoil. However, given the fact that the BIG RED WAVE of NOVEMBER didn’t reach California, it does. California is under one party rule. This is not good for democracy or the long-term success of our state. This article, I think, points to issues of party organization and integrity that hinder the success of the second major party in our great state.

Leslie at Temple of Mut does some outstanding citizen-investigative journalism in looking into just what is going on with the San Diego County GOP abruptly leaving their old digs and finding safe haven in the business offices of county GOP HMFIC, Tony Krvaric.

Read about it, here.

Our two face-to-face dealings with the San Diego County Republican Party were less than stellar experiences. There was both a lack of professionalism and urgency that we found discouraging a mere few weeks before a general election.

It's a long but entirely worthwhile read. Please do check it out.



(UPDATE #1): B-Daddy chimes in on the Krvaric case at SDRostra, commenter food fight ensues.

A big tent update

From New York Magazine:

When the Conservative Political Action Conference launches on February 10, the mood will be uncharacteristically flamboyant. Not only because the gay caucus GOProud will be prominently participating, but because the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage, the Family Research Council, and other “values” organizations won’t be. Together, they’ve mounted a CPAC boycott, an effort to strip the newish homosexual element from the conservative coalition and part of a larger bid to forcibly remarry social and fiscal conservatives. The bet was that distaste for gay people themselves—as opposed to lightning rods like gay marriage or adoption, which aren’t included in GOProud’s platform—is still a strong right-wing motivator. It’s a bet they seem to have lost

Maybe it's just us but we see no contradiction nor conflict of interest in being supporters of traditional marriage while realizing that maybe, just maybe, there are quite a few gays out there that are concerned with matters beyond, you know, gay stuff.

The GOP and the conservative movement as a whole would do well to keep the doors open to those concerned with individual liberty and free markets and a hyper-active federal government that has been increasingly infringing upon the two former subjects regardless of race, sex, creed or sexual orientation.

Warning: This is what happens when you get S.L.O.B.s together

We want to say a few more words about the SLOB (San Diego Local Order of Bloggers) quarterly Beer Summit/Confab that we did not get around to in the previous post but first and in a totally related subject...

... we were driving home from work last week and listening to the radio when we heard that House minority leader, John Boehner was taking some grief from Bob Schieffer for Boehner's smoking habit during his appearance on Face the Nation. And it was just a week or two before where we heard some fellow Republican refer to Boehner as "a lazy barhopper". Sheesh. Unfortunately, the context did not allow for whether or not this person thought that Boehner was not applying himself in an sufficient manner while making his appointed rounds. Would've been good to know.

But all this got our mental wheels grinding away and when we got back to BwD headquarters we fired off an email to our friend, Leslie of Temple of Mut. Knowing what a big fan of Mad Men Leslie is, we explained what was rattling around in our head and requested her photoshopping skills in melding the image of John Boehner onto that of the hard-living but brilliant Don Draper. Leslie replied, "Great minds think alike - already working on it." The group-think that exists amongst the SLOBs is truly breath-taking.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased to present the new face of the Republican Party for this election cycle:








Hey, social conservative issues just ain't that important this time around, right?

Meet your new boy, Huckabee.




At the Beer Summit, Leslie hinted that the grand unveiling was nigh and we must say we are blown away by the results.

One other order of business that was accomplished was the development of the Mad Men passion index for rating our election picks. Temple of Mut has all the details, here, because if we're going to allegedly rip the G.O.P. assunder let's do it with a Camel in one hand and a Scotch in the other. Seriously, check it out - we think you will enjoy.

But before we go, we must recognize! Tim of Left Coast Rebel and fellow SLOB, in addition to being picked up by The Daily Caller from time to time, now has a regular paying gig at Pajama's Media. We're damn proud of Tim as he is one of our own and we wish him great success in his burgeoning career as a citizen-activist-journalist. Congratulations, Tim!

Chewing on November 3rd

We honestly don’t know how much stock to put in the election results of a couple nights ago. Was it a repudiation of Obama’s policies? Was it an affirmation of conservative principles? Was it proof that Obama’s victory last November was a product of circumstance: a euphoric swell of emotion propped up by Big Media overwhelming a mediocre candidate that ran a horrible campaign that could not be reproduced one year later?

Maybe it was a little of all the above. And we do think just as strong of a message was sent to GOP leadership as it was to congressional Democrats.

KT has his thoughts here and Temple of Mut has a very nice roundup of opinions and personal thoughts on the election results here.

The Case for Hillary

“…she’s already running as a Republican. She’s out there every day, hammering away at my guy, BO, doing the work the Republican candidate just won’t do. Why, the just other day she complained that if the party of Slavery, Segregation, Secularism, and Sedition followed the same rules as the party of Lincoln, she’d already have won.”

Proving that good writing combined with wit, humor and satire trumps ideological differences, we very much enjoy the work of “David Kahane”, NRO’s liberal embed contributor. Read here.

We can only assume the use of pseudonym for this successful Hollywood writer is a matter of professional life and death.

Fair Game?

Pat Toomey, the President for Club for Growth makes the case for RINO hunting.

We know it’s a political majority survival instinct and we understand party loyalty but what rational reason is there for people like Lincoln Chaffee, Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter to exist in the GOP?

The Club for Growth has been accused of cannibalism as this group that advocates free markets and fiscal responsibility goes after Republicans rather than liberal Democrats but how can you be a cannibal if you are truly not eating one of your own. Did the Republican-controlled Congress during Bush’s tenure look like they were committed to free markets and fiscal responsibility?

As KT points out, Republicans shredded their political capital with the American people and now any “message” they have regarding sound financial policies as we move towards November will be met with much deserved skepticism because… why are they to be believed this time around when they botched it up so badly the last?

This may be the height of pessimism but regardless of who wins the Oval Office, perhaps the best outcome in November would be for the Republicans to retain a cloture-proof miniority in the Senate as they do now and where they have shown some vertebral fortitude in opposing much Democratic legislation. And wouldn't that make for a great bumpersticker for our team?

Vote Republican: Fighting Relatively Effective Rear-Guard Action since 2006.