Stuff from my desktop - Feb. 1, 2008

• Jeff Stark at StarkTruth.com has coined the term electile dysfunction: "the inability to become aroused over any of the choices for president put forth by either party in the 2008 election year."

For me, perhaps the most unpalatable aspects of any election season are the rhetorical offerings to the gods of stupidity that are regularly articulated by virtually all of the candidates.

For some candidates, like John Edwards, such mind-numbing balderdash is expected; Edwards is a sleazy personal injury lawyer, and his campaign has simply been a 30-second ambulance chaser TV spot stretched out over two and a half years.  His only real connection with the "other America" has been a continuous series of ventures designed to make a profit off of them.  The same thing holds true for the Clintons.  They will say anything to fire up an audience and win an election, including things that are completely fabricated out of thin air.

But John McCain's recent anti-business attacks against Mitt Romney surprised me.  McCain is hated by conservative pundits and intellectuals because he has never blindly towed the Republican party line.  But he has never come out directly against businesses earning a profit, nor has he ever expressed the idea that Americans who are successful in business are somehow more sinister than the rest of us.  Maybe McCain thinks that this sort of cheesy class envy-driven populism will win over voters in the poorer South.  But it is a perfect example of the sort of thing that causes electile dysfunction for many of the rest of us.

• Bill Clinton has done so much damage to race relations within the Democratic party that Hillary is now desperate to be seen with any black person, even if it is her "great friend" Alcee Hastings, who was impeached by the House and convicted on bribery and perjury charges by the Senate twenty-odd years ago.

Hey Hillary, Rent A Negro is still around, you know.

• Robert Novak notes that Hillary is now playing the race card in California, attempting to shore up support among Hispanics by softly stirring the long-standing animosity between blacks and Hispanics. 

Take note of this now if you haven't figured it out already: the "Southern Strategy" is alive and well in today's Democratic party and its chief exponents are Bill and Hillary Clinton.

• It seems as though doctors have accidentally discovered a way to reverse memory loss and stimulate memory retention, by electrical stimulation of deep brain tissue.

• The Anchoress waxes almost poetic in this reminiscence of George W. Bush and his years in the White House. 

I agree with most everything Anchoress says here.  Love or hate the man, only idiots who believe in black helicopters and controlled demolition of the WTC will disagree with the fact that George W. Bush has never been a phony.  He is certainly the most genuine president since Reagan and his ability to remain unflappable in the face of the storm of vile, partisan hatred raised against him by his opponents is nothing short of awe-inspiring.  He has never shifted course; he has never triangulated or flip-flopped or spun new policies based on focus groups or opinion polls.  The George W. Bush of 2008 is largely the same man as the George W. Bush of 1998 -- same convictions, same religious beliefs, same worldview, same vision for what America should be.  Many disagree with his worldview and vision, but at least we know, without a doubt, where he stands.  I fear that such a distinction will be impossible after Jan. 20, 2009.

• In Moscow, the glamorous Russian female bodyguard Anna Loginova was killed after failing to prevent her own Porsche from being carjacked.  Loginova ran a real-life VIP agency that rented out high-dollar female bodyguards to wealthy Russian clients.

• Here is more evidence that Saddam Hussein was ready to reconstitute his nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs, just as soon as the UN sanctions against Iraq were lifted.  Saddam also admits point-blank to ordering the "necessary" murder of Kurdish civilians with poison gas in 1988.
  

• And even though it's only Feb. 1, I'm going to go ahead and nominate this for the absolute stupidist quote of 2008:  “We are the defenders of democracy, the upholders of the Constitution,” said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink. “If it weren’t for people like the people in Berkeley, standing up for what they believe, we’d be living under Hitler.” (spoken in response to the Berkeley city council granting Code Pink a permanent spot to protest in front of the USMC recruiting office)

No, you moron.  If it weren't for the United States Marines, you would be living in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and your children would be learning to speak Japanese.

The gods of stupidity have just been appeased.

Comments

[BullOfMizzou, MO]

Im a 20 Year Military Veteran and a Vietnam Veteran, and I will NOT vote for John McCain. Even though I feel respect for his past pain and misery during his Nam POW experience, I can not support him because he feels that America Owes him the Presidency....We Do Not. Sen McCain has turned his back on Conservatives too many times along with his Cronies "across the Isle" and bullish arrogance toward the party that has embraced him for so long. I cant trust the man and I dont like his attitude towards his fellow congressmen, and disregard for his constituants' better judgements. Its Time for Mitt Romney.