Three Links (Vol. 11)

11/3/2008, 8:03 pm -- by | 1 Comment

— A reminder from pacifist, agitator, and singer-songwriter Derek Webb: “If your conscience is seriously conflicted over both candidates, you are at liberty to not vote.” That’s the position of many Amish, enough so that “looking for Amish voters is a little like trying to buy drugs.”

— Obama Warns He May Cease To Exist Unless America Believes In Him [The Onion]. Don’t laugh — it can happen. “In Texas, he is nothing more than a gentle wind, rustling through the trees””a ghostly visitor soon departed.”

— James Lileks — writer, polymath, and a personal role model — has started a separate political blog, perhaps foretelling the impending tide of leftism.

P.S.: While I was looking up my first-ever reference to Lileks (wherein I called him “the love child of Garrison Keillor and Dave Barry”), I spent a solid few hours looking through my old journal. Fascinating reading, some of it. Linking to it here should help my biographers.

As for what I found there, you might enjoy this actual picture of a logged forest, this list of things to do when you’re bored, or this story about how Abraham Lincoln was almost in a duel to the death, thanks to a satirical letter he wrote.

Or — if you’re interested in the actual content — here’s a consideration of how quickly taboos become anachronisms, an indictment of the modern focus on feelings over ideas, and my acknowledgment that I’m not nearly as smart as I think I am.

Now that I remember where this stuff is, I might use it for a “Best Of” article someday.

Presidential Haiku Prediction 9

11/3/2008, 6:21 pm -- by | No Comments

If Obama wins,
God’s deserved judgment has come;
if not: His mercy

Presidential Haiku Prediction 8

11/3/2008, 6:04 pm -- by | No Comments

Barack Obama
will win PA and CO:
John McCain loses

Presidential Haiku Prediction 7

11/3/2008, 4:08 pm -- by | No Comments

Today’s spam subject:
“McCane kicks Obama’s butt”
Can you say “Bradley“?

Presidential Haiku Prediction 6

11/3/2008, 3:07 pm -- by | No Comments

McCain the crack-up
Going down in a blaze of
SNL glory

Presidential Haiku Prediction 5

11/3/2008, 2:56 pm -- by | No Comments

They say Mack can win
with some help from a redskin
I can blush, Meghan!

Presidential Haiku Prediction 4

11/3/2008, 2:50 pm -- by | No Comments

Obama rises
Victorious with Biden
Dorks have won the day

Presidential Haiku Prediction 3

11/3/2008, 2:09 pm -- by | No Comments

Virginia called early:
the beginning of the end?
Or this year’s Florida?

Presidential Haiku Prediction 2

11/3/2008, 2:04 pm -- by | 1 Comment

Lawsuits like raindrops
Lawyers: Biblical locusts
Apocalypse soon

Presidential Haiku Prediction 1

11/3/2008, 1:59 pm -- by | No Comments

Beauty and Maverick
versus record fund raising?
Barry by a nose.

Our Endorsement

10/31/2008, 12:00 am -- by | 5 Comments

After an interminably long campaign season, the 2008 election is finally, blessedly, upon us. And as we vote, our nation faces immense challenges, from without and within: a gathering economic storm, two ongoing wars, and potential threats from Russia, China, and the Middle East. Our choice is not merely academic. We cannot afford a mistake. America must elect a leader with the experience to guide us safely through the next four years, the judgment to choose the best course through trouble, and the wisdom to make the difficult decisions.

Given the choices on the ballot, we have no trouble concluding: that leader is Senator John McCain.

Senator McCain has a long and storied record of serving this country with honor. He was shot down over Vietnam and tortured for over five years, enduring this suffering even after he was given the opportunity to be released before his fellow prisoners. He has been in the Senate for 22 years, where he is recognized by members of both parties as a pragmatic and independent leader, willing to hammer out a compromise when he believes it is in the best interest of the country, regardless of his party’s policies. He has long fought excessive spending and corruption in politics. His life tells a tale of accomplishments and action.

Contrast this record with his opponent’s. Senator Barack Obama has run an inspiring campaign that may well land him in the White House, but nothing in his history suggests that he is qualified for the job. From the Ivy League, he immediately entered the sleazy world of Chicago machine politics, where his ambition and gifts allowed him to quickly climb from local community organizer to U.S. Senator, with the help of several unseemly characters.

What has he done in that time? Precious little but run for higher office and vote “present” on controversial bills. What does he offer in support of his candidacy? Precious little but soaring rhetoric and vague promises of “hope” and “change” — welcome words in a time when so many believe the nation is on the wrong track, but ultimately, nothing more than hypnotic platitudes. He is simply a blank slate onto which his followers project their wildest political fantasies.

He has never — not once — taken a stance opposed to the wishes of his party.

He has never — not once — shown the courage to stand by an unpopular position.

On the issues, Sen. McCain outshines Sen. Obama, especially given the near-certainty of Democratic control in both the House and Senate. McCain’s tax plan focuses on relief for those who currently pay taxes; Obama would raise taxes on investors and confiscate money from some Americans to give to others. Obama has promised that one of his first actions in office would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which purports to abolish all state restrictions on abortion. McCain is, and has always been, unapologetically pro-life. Obama’s responses to foreign crises, such as the Russian invasion of Georgia, have been unsurprisingly naive, while McCain speaks with the gravity of a man who has been deeply involved on the foreign stage for a generation.

While Obama has swayed with every gust of wind, McCain has been steadfast and right on Iraq and Afghanistan, promising that those countries will be secured and self-governing before we leave them. McCain would nominate Supreme Court judges who will free Congress and the states to make the law; Obama supports an unelected activist judiciary that would impose its policy preferences on the nation. McCain supports the continuation and expansion of free trade, which has been a tremendous boon to American industry. Obama would “renegotiate” the treaties, hamstringing our fragile economy even further.

John McCain is not a perfect man. He is anything but a perfect candidate. We disagree with him on several issues, and we need no help seeing his myriad flaws. But to choose a third-party candidate, as many have done, is no choice at all — not when the differences between the two major candidates are this stark, not when the stakes for our nation are so great. We have no time for foolish quibbles over irrelevant issues, the political equivalent of leaving a church over the color of the nursery carpet.

No, these are serious days for our nation and the world. We deserve, we need, more than a smooth-talking first-term senator who has never run anything larger than a law review office and a campaign. We deserve experienced leadership, a man who has been thoroughly tested and found worthy of the job and its tremendous responsibility. A man who respects the presidency, but does not lust for it.

Sen. Obama might inspire and uplift, but beneath the words, he is an unqualified man with one of the most extreme voting records in the Senate. Sen. McCain has a proven record of bipartisan accomplishment and consistent leadership.

One talks, and talks, and talks. The other has followed through.

Bweinh! proudly endorses Senator John S. McCain for President.

Spam Subject Line of the Day

10/30/2008, 11:15 am -- by | No Comments

McCane kicks Obama’s butt

Three Links (Vol. 10)

10/28/2008, 2:14 pm -- by | No Comments

— I certainly reserve the right to not support Sarah Palin in the next election, but I’m tired of the recent flood of critical articles from members of the conservative intelligentsia, wanting to establish their independence from the purportedly fast-sinking ship.

So it’s nice to see her described, by a liberal feminist who’s actually spent some time on her press plane, as “thoughtful [and] curious, with a discernable pattern of associative thinking and insight.” But then, why would you personally speak to the candidate when you can just jump to conclusions based on fevered hallucinations about her church attendance?

— My time on British buses was actually quite pleasant. Tube stations, though — they’d be a better fit for this new “there’s probably no God” ad campaign.

— And on the heels of that painting horse, here’s a site where you too can let your inner abstract expressionist/equine prodigy run free.

McCain down 31 — in New York

10/27/2008, 2:11 pm -- by | No Comments

Remember how, a little over a month ago, McCain was supposedly down only 5 points in New York? Well, now he’s down by just a little more. 31, to be specific. 62% for Obama, 31% for McCain. Doubled up.

If people are generally irrational creatures who make decisions based on emotional reasons they don’t understand, but rationalize after the fact — and I have a feeling that they are — then this election wasn’t decided by John McCain’s “dirty campaigning,” or so-called “lack of judgment” in picking Palin or suspending his campaign.

It was decided when people first checked out Obama and came away thinking that he understood them. That he spoke for them.

Once that switch was flipped, attacks couldn’t stick — he became a walking canvas for American hopes and dreams, the vague principle of change representing whatever a voter happened to want most. He’s not just a man, he’s a cult of personality.

People are most likely to wind up agreeing with you when you just present the facts and let them connect the dots in argument. Barack Obama just showed up — with his preternatural cool, his dusky baritone, and his meager resume — and let America fill in the blanks.

God help him. God help us.

Whither Bono

10/24/2008, 1:49 pm -- by | No Comments

From the Guardian:

“A new writer will be joining the New York Times editorial staff, issuing literate meditations on the issues of the day. He’s Irish. He wears wrap-around sunglasses. And his name rhymes with ‘Oh no!’ ”

Well, no. No, it doesn’t. It rhymes with “I have mono!” and maybe “Check out my tonneau!” Trust me, I’m a limerick expert and I named my second (tonneau-less) car after the guy.

A little later in the article, the Times’ editorial page editor offers: “The problem with conservative columnists is that many of them lie in print.”

Oh! Like those famous right-wingers, Jayson Blair [NY Times] and Stephen Glass [the New Republic]? It seems the Times’ definition of a lie isn’t deceit: it’s disagreeing with them. Enjoy those sliding profits and declining circulation numbers.

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