I about died laughing when I saw this.
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Notes
posted 5 / 22 / 2013
[Ezra] Klein is analyzing this in terms of ordinary political gamesmanship. But he has it backward. Suppose the IRS’s abuses were not ordered or explicitly encouraged by the White House. That would mean, as Commentary’s Jonathan Tobin puts it, that the agency “has so thoroughly absorbed the views of its political masters that it doesn’t even recognize when it has crossed the line into illegal activity.”— James Taranto
In other words, if this is the case, the left’s hateful and slanderous campaign against its political foes, especially the Tea Party—the demagoguery of Obama, his fellow Democrats and their supporters in the media, led by the New York Times editorial page—was sufficient to prompt the IRS agents to cast aside their professional obligations and embark on a campaign of political abuse whose effect was to ease Obama’s re-election.
In his testimony to the Senate Watergate Committee—whose hearings opened 40 years ago today—John Dean famously called that scandal “a cancer on the presidency.” If Obama, his campaign or his White House aides are directly implicated in the IRS’s abuses, this will be another cancer on the presidency, remediable by resignation or impeachment.
But if the IRS acted without direction from above—if it “went rogue” against the Constitution and in support of the party in power—then we are dealing with a cancer on the federal government. That, it seems to us, is a far direr diagnosis, one whose treatment is likely to be radical and risky.
You want to know what the real controversy should be about? Both candidates say they believe life begins at conception, yet one candidate is principled enough to advocate protecting that life and the other is not.
If you take the hard-line (some would say “principled”) approach that a mysterious faith-based miracle happens when a sperm meets an egg, doesn’t it logically follow that any and every pregnancy resulting from rape (or, indeed, incest) is a “gift” from the deity responsible for said miracle?
I find this development in Indiana unsurprising.
I also find this recent acknowledgment by the GOP revolting.
“God performs abortions all the time. We just call them miscarriages.” — my friend Rich Mullins
THE FIRST THING MOURDOCK’S STATEMENT WAS
It was politically damaging and unhelpful articulation—not because the intended meaning is wrong, but because it touches on an emotionally complex and politicized issue that the left is guaranteed to knee-jerk and froth at the mouth over. It was a stupid and insensitive way to engage the issue.
THE SECOND THING MOURDOCK’S STATEMENT (MOST LIKELY) WAS
I know little about Mourdock’s religions beliefs, but it sounds like was affirming a traditional, orthodox, and uncontroversial Christian doctrine: the idea that God is sovereign and in control over everything that happens, that nothing occurs without his permission, and that he works everything (both good and evil) into his eternal plan.
Does God “intend” for a rape to occur? Not in the sense that we use the word. Does God allow evil actions (free will) and yet weave them into his broader tapestry, his plan for the eventual moral redemption of the earth and mankind? Absolutely.
The reason Christians defend life in the womb is not because we think we know the details of God’s plans to weave the fruit (pregnancy) of a horrendous crime (rape) into his broader plan. After all, we can’t really know those details definitively, and it’s not our job to. The operating principle here is that when the right to be alive comes into conflict with the right over one’s body, the former is the more fundamental right. The unborn child is fully human, with all God-given rights intact, and the means of conception does not impart or remove those fundamental rights.
Rape is a horrible crime; the answer to it is not to allow a worse one.
anarchei: Corporatism
…into the arms of America
Can we stop voting for 1%ers, already??
I don’t get why this is so hard to understand.
(Source: conservativesforboobs)
I’ll be the first to admit this is not an argument, but it’s funny nonetheless.
But where does this leave contemporary liberalism, the liberalism of the ever-expanding welfare state? If politicians are a bunch of liars, why should anyone trust the government? Faced with a choice between two candidates who are both far from perfect, Shafer’s cynicism about politicians—and Obama’s, too—seems to us an excellent argument in favor of whichever one has a less expansive vision of the ideal government’s size and scope.— James Taranto
I hope and pray Obama loses. I believe Romney would be lots better than Obama, in the same way that Stage I cancer is lots better than Stage IV cancer. I just cannot bring myself to put up a Stage I cancer yard sign. It’s probably just me.—
Douglas Wilson
Nope, it’s not just you.
Wow. This is one of the most damning (i.e. best) anti-Obama ads I’ve seen.
From the article:
Sometimes the “fact checkers” simply pronounce trivial truths. From the AP on Mitt Romney’s convention speech:
ROMNEY: “I have a plan to create 12 million new jobs. It has five steps.”
THE FACTS: No one says he can’t, but economic forecasters are divided on his ability to deliver. He’d have to nearly double the anemic pace of job growth lately.
This is like “fact checking” somebody’s wedding vows by asserting that while marriage can be wonderful, it’s hard work and ends in divorce half the time.
This is freaking hilarious.
4:00 PM - Opening Flag Burning Ceremony - sponsored by CNN
4:05 PM - Singing of “God Damn America ” led by Rev. Jeremiah Wright
4:10 PM - Pledge of Allegiance to Obama
4:15 PM - Ceremonial ‘I hate America’ led by Michelle Obama
4:30 PM - Tips on “How to keep your man trustworthy & true to you while you
travel the world” - Hillary Clinton
4:45 PM -Al Sharpton / Jesse Jackson seminar “How to have a successful
career without having a job.”
5:00 PM - “Great Vacations I’ve Taken on the Taxpayer’s Dime Travel Log”
-Michelle Obama
5:30 PM - Eliot Spitzer Speaks on “Family Values” via Satellite
5:45 PM - Tribute to All 57 States - Nancy Pelosi
6:00 PM - Sen. Harry Reid - 90-minute speech expressing the Democrat’s
appreciation of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and George Soros for
sparing no expense, for all that they have accomplished to unify the
country, improve employment and to boost the economy.
8:30 PM - Airing of Grievances by the Clintons
9:00 PM - “Bias in Media - How we can make it work for you” Tutorial -
sponsored by CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times
9:15 PM - Tribute Film to Brave Freedom Fighters incarcerated at GITMO
-Michael Moore
9:45 PM - Personal Finance Seminar - Charlie Rangle
10:00 PM - Denunciation of Bitter Gun Owners and Bible readers ,
10:30 PM - Ceremonial Waving of White Flag for IRAQ , & Afghanistan
11:00 PM - Obama Energy Plan Symposium / Tire Gauge Demonstration / You too
can get rich with Green Investment bankruptcies
11:15 PM - Free Gov. Blagovich rally
11:30 PM - Obama Accepts Oscar, Tony, and Latin Grammy Awards
11:45 PM - Feeding of the Delegates with 5 Loaves and 2 Fish - Obama
Presiding
12:00 AM - Official Nomination of Obama by Bill Maher and Chris “He sends a
thrill up my leg” Matthews
12:01 AM - Obama Accepts Nomination as Lord and Savior
12:05 AM - Celestial Choirs Sing
03:00 AM - Biden Delivers Acceptance Speech
I don’t mind the president taking a victory lap [about killing Osama Bin Laden] but this was, well, unpresidential. With the Dems’ recent history of being defense pushovers, the folks in the White House are acting like a geek everyone thought would never lose his virginity but unexpectedly did. And, with the hottest chick in school. “That’s right, I nailed Osama.” “Here’s the room where it happened.” “That was the chair I was sitting in.— A reader of James Taranto’s column.
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