Archive for the ‘opinion/news’ Category

4:00 a.m. The 70th guest left at this time and the party officially ended. Wow!

7:44 p.m. 63 and counting

5:40 p.m. 52 the record is broken

4:11 49 people already 3 shy of the record Wow!

42 at it’s not even 4 p.m. !

31 after 90 min holy guacamole!

Up to 28 and it’s only an hour in!

17

Update 3: 13 down 39 to go

Update: Two guys have come early, current guest count 2

Update 2: count now 11 41 to go for the record

My annual Christmas Open house is today from 2 p.m. till the last person leaves.

The rules are: turn up any time, stay as long as you want, leave any time. The party end when the last person leaves.

There is a VERY limited amount of beer and some booze but there is Lasagna, Ham, braciole, wings, sauce, meatballs, some sausage, deserts etc etc etc.

The only beer is a sixpack of Wachusett Country Ale (even though they aren’t advertising with me HINT HINT) so if you have a favorite you might want to bring it.

One note, due to today’s show I’ll be leaving around 8:15 p.m. to go to the studio, do the show and then come back, likely around 11:15 or so.

Remember the party ends when the last person leaves, the latest its gone is 2 a.m. and the earliest 10:45 but since DaScienceGuy will be in the car the last guest will be here till 11:15 at least.

There will be game systems set up in two rooms and many types of board games to choose from Apples to apples to Cave Troll to the munchkin games to chess.

So eat drink and be Merry and celebrate the 8th day of Christmas with us!

And if you want to know what to bring:

  • Your favorite Booze or beer in case we don’t have it (we have vodka, stoli, Rum and raspberry stoli, a little Lambrusco and some Chivas)
  • Ice
  • Or any dish you wish if you wish.

but mainly bring yourself.

And not to be a party popper but don’t be bringing drugs, if you do we will kick you out and call the cops on you.  And if you are under age I don’t care if your 21st birthday is tomorrow don’t even think of touching a drop of booze here or you will be kicked out and the cops called on you.

Remember that old death panel debate that the MSM called a lie when Sarah Palin brought it up, but then was suddenly pulled from the legislation? Well guess what:

And now they’re able to accomplish through regulatory fiat what they couldn’t get through Congress, even with a playing field tilted steeply in their favor.

Now the author of a memo on the subject being a representative of the people elected in an open election decided to of course be totally open about this…or not

“While we are very happy with the result, we won’t be shouting it from the rooftops because we aren’t out of the woods yet,” Mr. Blumenauer’s office said in an e-mail in early November to people working with him on the issue. “This regulation could be modified or reversed, especially if Republican leaders try to use this small provision to perpetuate the ‘death panel’ myth.”

So according to Representative Blumenauer they shouldn’t talk about this “good thing” that they are doing because Republicans will know about. There’s open government for you.

Well now that the cat is out of the bad suddenly we hear a different tune from Representative Blumenauer

Blumenauer now says he regrets the letter’s secretive language, which has only bolstered conservatives’ claims that the Obama administration tried to sneak the provision in under the radar.

Yeah why would the idea that you said you didn’t want to let this be public make people think that you are doing something sneaky?

Weasel Zippers describes him best:

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Shhhh)

yet these same democrats from the land of Shhhh are accusing Republicans of a “lack of transparency

As I been reading the continuing commentary on the Washington Post piece that has really got the attention of bloggers and readers from the daily pundit

DADT as the reason for ROTC’s banning was always a sham. Now the mask is finally off. The elite professoriat doesn’t hate ROTC because of DADT, they hate ROTC because they just can’t stand “the warrior ethic”. That’s code for courage, honor, and duty, ethics all anathema to Leftist indoctrinators. They prefer us supine, afraid, and dependent on them.”

an opinion I share to Vodkapundit

See there, Mr. U.S. Marine Captain — McCarthy doesn’t hate you. Why, he thinks you’re every bit as respectable as a Taliban.

who adds a graphic that says it all to this post at Ace of Spades HQ that compares the course requirement for ROTC at Sienna College and woman and gender studies at Columbia guess which one is more challenging academically?

While all of these are first-rate there is a thought that hit me this morning that hasn’t been touched on. Namely that the McCarthy’s of the world actually bring about the results they claim to deplore.

Consider; our media tends to reflect the views of people like McCarthy and the movies and media we put out there tend to show our troops in a very poor light, particularly over the last 40 years that has been exported as American Cultural and elite opinion to foes all over the world that the Saddam’s, Bin Ladin’s and Chavez’s et/al have bought into. It is precisely believe they have bought into the weakness of American culture and the people opposition to the military and the troops as uneducated rabble that they have been bold enough to make war figuring we can’t defeat them or oppose them.

Hundreds of thousands of idiotic and fanatical followers of these fools have learned the hard way that this is not true (in fact it was the last thing they ever learned), yet their fanatical leaders who are not hiding in caves manage to convince them that America will simply roll over. Why don’t they believe the evidence of the empty chairs where their predecessors have been? Because men like McCarthy promote the idea of a military unwanted and supported, because our media is so focused on the number of our casualties in war that they ignored the losses of our foes that dwarf ours.

These men are the enablers of the very wars they claim to oppose, and even more ironically are only able to be such enablers because our military is precisely NOT like the Taliban or any of these guys.

The secret here is that the McCarthy’s on the left’s position is really less about their hatred of the military, but more about convincing themselves of their own moral superiority. They can’t match the courage or the honor or the sacrifice of these men and women so they denigrate them in a vain attempt to convince themselves that it is their words and good wishes, dare I say it their faith in their own love for their fellow-man that outweighs the works of the military in risking their own lives to save others.

That’s liberalism in a nutshell belief and good intention trump works and results every time.

Update: Oh Brother!

Hitler could have been waited out. He might have been overthrown by his own government. Who knows? To have 50 million people killed: Hitler would have died within 10 years no matter what he did.

Oh and Lincoln was wrong to fight the civil war too. Moe Lane nails it:

Whichever editor approved this Washington Post article should be ashamed of him- or herself. I do not expect shame, but it’s long past time that we started telling these people when they’ve done something foul.

He certainly has the right to free speech but did he have the right to a Washington Post op-ed?

If you only listen to the MSM you might not realize that long before anyone was talking about open homosexuality in the military universities on the left were banning ROTC. Those on the left used DADT as a convenient mask to justify such bans on grounds other than “I hate the US military” In the Washington Post today Colman McCarthy takes the mask of outrage off and puts the face of the left out there for all to see:

It should not be forgotten that schools have legitimate and moral reasons for keeping the military at bay, regardless of the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” They can stand with those who for reasons of conscience reject military solutions to conflicts.

Yeah I’m sure the British would have given us independence without a fight, the slaveholders would have freed their slaves without a battle, Saddam would have left Kuwait in his own good time, the North Koreans really weren’t planning to say in the south and of course there’s the guy with the silly mustache would have gotten sick of Paris or at least run out of Jews to kill.

The kicker however is this:

I admire those who join armies, whether America’s or the Taliban’s: for their discipline, for their loyalty to their buddies and to their principles, for their sacrifices to be away from home.

Because of course we know deep down aren’t the US Soldiers and the Taliban just two sides of the same coin!

This Washington Post pinata has already been smacked by Jonah Goldberg, booted by Allahpundit and dismembered by Victor Davis Hanson mocked by Blackfive, denounced by the moderate voice (yes you read that right), and analyzed by Glenn Reynolds who notes:

Looking at Colman McCarthy’s language drawing equivalence between U.S. soldiers and the Taliban, I don’t think he’s just a dreamy peacenik. And I’ve grown increasingly skeptical of the good intentions of “dreamy peacenik” types anyway, since, somehow, they always seem to promote things that help the other side. At best, they’re oikophobes.

I would suggest that US elite universities have been on the other side of US wars and interests since the 60’s, they supported the NVA, backed the soviets at every chance, opposed fighting against communism in central America, fought against Star Wars, opposed the gulf wars and the current wars that we are fighting. To them a weak, demoralized and defeated United States is not a bug…its a feature.

The problem for them is those same elites no longer have the exclusive access to disseminating the message, the internet, social networking, and conservative media provides an effective counter to this nonsense.

The tactical mistake of the left in turning DADT, which was meant as a compromise to allow gays to serve (but was apparently used as a quick way out for many who didn’t want to serve) into THE public reason for opposing ROTC meant that once repeal did come, the moral urgency of keeping soldiers away, was now gone.

This op-ed is the first salvo for the left to find a new excuse to bar the military from campus. If this meme is picked up by leftist blogs in support of banning ROTC we will know that this has been plan B from the get go.

I call on blogs on the left to denounce this comparison and the argument of this “gentleman”. Their actions will answer a lot of questions about whose side the left is actually on. I know a lot of people on the left of good faith who won’t stand for this nonsense, it’s time for them to say it loudly.