Posts Tagged ‘reality’

Raheel Raza and Tarek Fatah see what others try to ignore

Posted: August 9, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
Tags: , , , , , ,

Rush Limbaugh has called the ground zero mosque “planting the flag of victory“. It has been suggested that to oppose the mosque is an act of bigotry. CNN’s Fareed Zakaria returned an award from the ADL for opposing it saying in part:

That is why I was stunned at your decision to publicly side with those urging the relocation of the planned Islamic center in lower Manhattan. You are choosing to use your immense prestige to take a side that is utterly opposed to the animating purpose of your organization. Your own statements subsequently, asserting that we must honor the feelings of victims even if irrational or bigoted, made matters worse.

Today at the Ottawa Citizen. Raheel Raza and Tarek Fatah of the Muslim Canadian Congress put the lie to Zakaria’s nonsense.

New York currently boasts at least 30 mosques so it’s not as if there is pressing need to find space for worshippers. The fact we Muslims know the idea behind the Ground Zero mosque is meant to be a deliberate provocation to thumb our noses at the infidel. The proposal has been made in bad faith and in Islamic parlance, such an act is referred to as “Fitna,” meaning “mischief-making” that is clearly forbidden in the Koran.

The Koran commands Muslims to, “Be considerate when you debate with the People of the Book” – i.e., Jews and Christians. Building an exclusive place of worship for Muslims at the place where Muslims killed thousands of New Yorkers is not being considerate or sensitive, it is undoubtedly an act of “fitna”

At least 30 mosques in NY? The horror, how will the community function without one more at ground zero? The local mosque in Fitchburg gets the whole “Be considerate” message. The people who are putting up the Ground Zero mosque reject it.

Worse than the builders rejection is the well traveled Zakaria inability to see what is in front of him. It takes a lot of education to be as ignorant as Zakaria is being. Of course he could be in denial, or just cowardly? Or maybe he and NY is operating under a double standard.

It goes without saying that everyone here should be prayed for.

I have a simple solution for those who think Sharon Angle flubbed that question…

Posted: August 4, 2010 by datechguy in elections, media
Tags: , , , , , , ,

…about media coverage.

Let’s ask every democratic candidate what they think of Angle’s statement, if they mock it or critique her for it then in the spirit of that question we should immediately follow up with the toughest possible questions on the most uncomfortable topics that said candidate doesn’t want to answer. When the candidate or their press and campaign people duck or give “No Comment” they should be pressed, after all they think Angle is foolish for trying to get favorable coverage then they should be willing to answer the tough questions.

The Truth is every candidate wants favorable coverage, every candidate tries to answer what they want and duck what they don’t. Angle being a normal person said aloud what every person knows.

What a concept, a candidate actually saying the truth. No wonder the left is outraged!

Perhaps we should ask every democrat their position on the Ground Zero Mosque (or as Rush put it, the Islamic Victory Lap). Right now their reaction to said question is duck and cover.

Two last things concerning Bainbridge’s post…

Posted: August 3, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
Tags: , , , ,

…first of all I must link to Roxeanne De Luca’s excellent piece that not only linked to mine, but puts the lie to his anti-intellectual point that the professor tried to make:

While Bielat is the only one of those guys (and gals) who pulled off the double-Ivy education, one can hardly call the small army of JDs, CPAs, MBAs, and professors “anti-intellectual”. One then has to wonder at Bainbridge’s assertions: who, among this growing conservative movement, is really “anti-intellectual”? Are we stupid? uneducated? have the audacity to think that our BC, Georgetown, and Tufts educations are not so dismal as to disqualify us from public debate and office? or just not relentlessly focused on degrees obtained two decades ago? is what is happening in Massachusetts not representative?

As they say, read the whole thing as the young lady with TWO DEGREES of her own defends the tea party she is so much a part of.

Secondly and more importantly as I re-read his piece I noticed something that I hadn’t caught in his 10th point, lets review:

Whatever happened to smart, well-read, articulate leaders like Buckley, Neuhaus, Kirk, Jack Kent, Goldwater, and, yes, even Ronald Reagan? emphasis mine

Even Ronald Reagan? EVEN RONALD REAGAN?! That sentence, the idea that: Today’s conservatives are so dumb they even make Ronald Reagan look smart, well-read and articulate, brings me back to my college days.

Starting college 8 months into Reagan’s first term I recall the way that liberals treated Reagan with disdain and/or fear. My favorite professor the spectacular Ed Thomas, (the best history teacher I ever had) used to talk about how Reagan “Scared him”. Liberals reacted with glee when he got the nomination. They couldn’t believe he won.

But I also remember how elite conservatives absolutely HATED him. They hated his small town background, they hated that he was a Hollywood actor, they hated his abandonment of realpolitik saying bluntly what the Soviet Union actually was, they hated him because he was so comfortable in his own skin and beliefs they he didn’t feel the need to seek their approval.

Most of all they hated that due to his success and popularity among the idiot people that they had to pay homage to someone so obviously beneath them to get elected or to be supported.

Remind you of anyone today?

We have seen this last point often in the last few years among the leftist media and pols (who can’t believe and won’t forgive Reagan for drawing more sympathy in death than Ted Kennedy) who now avoid criticizing him, acting as if they had been with him all the time.

I had almost totally forgotten the absolutely visceral hatred some Republicans had for Ronald Reagan. Thank you Professor Bainbridge for reminding me of an important lesson from the days of a full hairline.

Update: An Instalanche in my sleep. Very odd to wake up and find my first post of yesterday to be linked by Glenn at the very end of the day. Nice to have you all. You may want to check out the article I put up at Examiner.com on the subject called:
Conservatives in Massachusetts should be grateful not embarrassed by the Tea Party that answers the point concerning Tea Parties.

How’s that “Republicans are the party of the Rich!” Meme working out?

Posted: August 2, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , , , , , ,

Two stories that hit the nail on the head here. First Charles Lane in Slate on the new $41,000 Volt:

And that’s my problem with the Obama administration’s energy policy, or at least with his lavish subsidies for the Volt, Nissan’s all-electric Leaf (likely sticker price $33,000), and Tesla’s $100,000 all-electric Roadster: Where does the federal government get off spending the average person’s tax dollars to help better-off-than-average Americans buy expensive new cars?

The newest car in my driveway is 10 years old. The local one man garage I use is overwhelmed by business because people can’t afford new cars. How much less a $41k model. I wonder who is going to by that Volt? Lane answers:

How rarefied is the electric-car demographic? When Deloitte Consulting interviewed industry experts and 2,000 potential buyers, it found that from now until 2020, only “young, very high income individuals”—those from households making more than $200,000 a year—would even be interested in plug-in hybrids or all-electric cars. This “small number” of people will provide “nowhere near the volume needed for mass adoption.” They will be concentrated in Southern California, where weather, state regulations, and infrastructure are all favorable to electric vehicles—”adoption is already being popularized by high-profile celebrities.”

Yeah that’s the Tip O’Neill demographic isn’t it? Speaking of Tip today in the Boston Globe:

DEMOCRAT JOHN Kerry sets sail in a $7 million yacht built in New Zealand. Republican Scott Brown hits the campaign trail in a GMC pickup truck with 200,000 miles on it.

From Newport, R.I., where Kerry’s “Isabel’’ was berthed before heading to Nantucket, to Rhinebeck, N.Y., where Chelsea Clinton was married in a mansion modeled after Versailles, today’s Democrats are looking more like Louis XVI than Tip O’Neill.

It is the Boston Globe and Vennochi goes on to bash the GOP as phonies, but I didn’t see a lot of rich people at the tea party in Boston in April did you, Joan or did you skip that gathering of the Hoi Polloi?

The republicans have (and lets be fair, it has been partly by default) become the party of small business, you know the guys who actually those regular joes that the democrats used to love so much. On occasion I still hear old Roosevelt Democrats call Republicans the party of the rich, and the democrats the party of the working man. If they still believe that it’s only because they just haven’t been paying attention.

Update: Slashdot (via Glenn) includes the Lane Story and a revolt takes place in comments.

Older Entries
Newer Entries