Archive for the ‘internet/free speech’ Category

My latest for the Examiner: The Pauline Kaels of NPR

Posted: March 9, 2011 by datechguy in examiner columns, internet/free speech
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My latest for the examiner The Pauline Kaels of NPR:

“The current Republican Party, particularly the Tea Party, is fanatically involved in people’s personal lives and very fundamental Christian – I wouldn’t even call it Christian. It’s this weird evangelical kind of move,”

It appears he also missed the Twin City tea party meeting I covered in December where the panel of tea party leaders from the area said this:

The suggestion was to avoid social issues, the tea party is a movement based on fiscal responsibility and constitutional authority. The only approach to social issues if any would be constitutional insomuch as the Federal Government spending on items not authorized constitutionally or on 10th amendment grounds.

The whole NPR story is a minefield for the left.

The sign that the battle in Wisconsin is practically won

Posted: March 8, 2011 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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One thing I’ve noticed in covering protests is that you get a lot of hangers-on.

For example at almost every Boston protest you will get one guy who carries his US flag with corporate symbols replacing stripes, you will get a guy with a Palestinian flag. And if the tea party is anywhere nearby I guarantee you that the LaRouche democrats will be around, usually with their Obama Hitler posters, and of course there are the truthers.

Generally these guys are the crazy uncles of any movement they find themselves a parade and try to get noticed within it.

Which brings us to Michael Moore getting in FRONT of the crowd:

Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore urged Wisconsin residents Saturday to fight against Republican efforts to strip most public workers of their collective bargaining rights, telling thousands of protesters that “Madison is only the beginning.”

There has been story after story about Moore’s appearance, I submit it shows that the left is losing this fight.

Moore’s biggest fans are on the far left, not in the mainstream. If Moore is the story, if he is the man in front. That tells you the message isn’t working or playing, polls or no.

As I was writing this I noticed this at Althouse who apparently agrees:

I wonder if the teachers and other Wisconsin union members who got the protest started 3 weeks ago appreciate having Michael Moore absorb their issue — maintaining the quality of professional public employment in Wisconsin — into his larger anti-capitalist agenda for America.

This is a problem with extending the protests. The crowd changes, new infusions of energy come from outsiders who see a ready-made platform to climb up on. These old-school, left-wing attacks on corporations have little to do with the distinct problems of jobs in the public sector — where, management is the government of the state and its citzens.

If their big draw is Michael Moore that tells you something about what is going on.

Ride right through them, they’re demoralized as hell.

I have no idea who put my comment on Fark…

Posted: March 7, 2011 by datechguy in fun, internet/free speech, oddities
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…and as a person who doesn’t go to fark, never checks it out and doesn’t really read it it’s no big deal expect for it has produced a little less than the third of the hits that the instalance did for that post.

I took the liberty of checking the fark thread when I came home. The comments on the Fark thread are fascinating: The reactions thereof concerning me are very amusing and show a level of rational discourse that is seldom seen without a 15 second delay and a cable TV show.

It’s been suggested I should go over there and defend myself, but I don’t see why. These guys make my point about the left better than I could and adds to the point I was making on the Wonkette post.

It is exactly the reason why Andrew Breitbart retweets the most nonsensical and vulgar stuff that is said about him. It allows the “best of the left” to self identify so I’m all for getting out of the way and letting them do so.

But hey if you came to the blog from Fark, nice to have you, take a look around and feel free to come back if you want.

Update: I didn’t realize this is all part of the new tone!

Unclear on the concept…

Posted: March 7, 2011 by datechguy in economy, internet/free speech
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of Fascism and terrorism:

Make no mistake about it; this is a political attack on teachers for supporting democratic leaders who have stood up for education in our state. If passed, these fascist measures will silence the voice of teachers working to improve our schools, communities and our state.

and this:

“He has the power to stop this madness now,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner of Nashville said to loud shouts of approval at the teachers rally. “Governor Haslam, if you’re listening, please stop this terrorism against our teachers.”

Terrorism! (You know that a certain section of this crowd was, about three years ago, in the streets, marching and protesting that the Bush administration was over-hyping the threat of terrorism and complaining that the term “war on terror” was too broad and was an imprecise definition.)

One of the things I’ve noticed in interviewing people is that those who have actually lived under communism or fascism tend not to make these kind of statements, but leftism has as I’ve said before morphed into a quasi-religion where if you have the right beliefs are you counted among the righteous no matter how much money you take from murderous dictators.

All of this self-righteous posturing is all about being part of the suffering masses in the mind and has no relationship with actual reality:

The characteristic of Pains and Pleasures is that they are unmistakably real, and therefore, as far as they go, give the man who feels them a touchstone of reality. Thus if you had been trying to damn your man by the Romantic method—by making him a kind of Childe Harold or Werther submerged in self-pity for imaginary distresses—you would try to protect him at all costs from any real pain; because, of course, five minutes’ genuine toothache would reveal the romantic sorrows for the nonsense they were and unmask your whole stratagem.

I really thing that the left started to believe its own rhetoric during the Bush years and has never gotten over it. It’s going to take a really nasty piece of reality to shock them out of it.

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