NRO's The Corner: Rolling Bile, Spit, and Gnash Thread

How Many Corner Readers
August 28, 2010 12:41 P.M.
By Kathryn Jean Lopez
are Restoring Honor today?

Dumb as hell, this Jonah. And a liar:

This time last year, there was a wide and deep consensus that the country needed a second stimulus (President Bush’s first one of $152 billion was thrown down the memory hole). Many Republicans, licking their wounds after successive drubbings at the polls and fearful that prophecies of a generation “in the wilderness” might prove true, were either eager to side with the popular new president or were at least resigned to the fact that they might have to, particularly if Obama was going to honor his commitments to bipartisan governance.

A letter from a concerned father:

Hello Mr. Miller, I have followed your posts for years on NR’s Corner, including putting together lists of conservative books, movies, etc. My daughter is taking an AP U.S. History course at her high school [in Maryland]… One of her assignments is to read and do a report on one of three books (only one of the three and no other). They are: Kerouac’s “On The Road”, Friedan’s “Feminine Mystique”, and Carson’s “Silent Spring”. As you can quickly determine, all books of a nihilist, leftist bent, written during the 50′s and 60′s. While I am not concerned about my daughter being radicalized, as I’ve taught her critical thinking, l am concerned about the limitiing, one-sided approach that is being dictated to students at least at this high school … My problem is that despite growing up during this era, and now teaching college history at the local community college, I cannot think of intellectually challenging books that would offer a counterbalance to these three. During my formative years, I read “Conscience of a Conservative”, “God and Man at Yale”, and other books by, then, contemporary conservative authors. I would like to meet with my daughter’s teacher and suggest three alternate books for him to consider in the future to equlaize this one-sided requirement. If you have any recommendations, I would appreciate them.

"I've taught her critical thinking"

On the road...to serfdom!

Also he has no idea what nihilism means.

His daughter will teach him after reading Hayek.

we believe in nossing!!

Honestly I'd be willing to bet that if the students read conservative texts that are contemporary with Friedan et al they'd prob laugh their asses off at how retrograde they are

Now I'm wracking my brain for semi-respectable books that might apply. The Culture of Narcissism? Not sure Lasch was much of a conservative though

Election Movie Recommendation
September 1, 2010 4:45 P.M.
By Hans A. von Spakovsky

I don’t usually do movie reviews for NRO, but this week I got a chance to preview a movie that will be released on October 15, just two weeks before the general elections. I Want Your Money is a terrific documentary limning the starkly different visions of Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. It goes beyond the economic issues suggested by the title and explores the limited-government–vs.–nanny-state differences as well.

The movie mixes interviews, archival footage of speeches, and some very funny animation. The latter includes a segment in which Ronald Reagan teaches an economics lesson to a classroom filled with students such as Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, and Arnold Schwarzenegger (all of whom would probably get an “F” for the course). This is not your usual (boring) political documentary. It’s engaging and funny, even as it conveys a serious message about economics and politics.

What made seeing it particularly interesting for me was that I was accompanied by my boss, former attorney general Ed Meese. It was quite something to watch Ronald Reagan giving his 1980 inauguration speech and his RNC convention address in 1984 while sitting next to a man who was actually at the capitol or near the podium when the Great Communicator delivered those eminent expositions on liberty, economic freedom, and who we are as a nation.

This documentary dramatically shows the dangers to our nation’s economy and well-being of deficit spending and an unsustainable national debt. It also vividly illustrates how differently two presidents handled economic recessions: one pushing tax cuts, reducing regulations, controlling spending, and limiting the size of government; the other pushing tax hikes, additional regulation, huge deficits, and an exponential increase in the size of government.

As the movie’s flier says, the film is about “mounting government debt and deficits, and why it matters.” Why it matters can be seen in the contrast between the largest peacetime economic expansion in history and continued record unemployment sans recovery.

Hollywood will hate this movie, as will supporters of President Obama, Senator Reid, and Speaker Pelosi. Director Ray Griggs is probably risking his career in Tinseltown. But it’s a movie that needed to be made, and is well worth seeing. I hope lots of Americans do—before November 2.

here is Ray Griggs' career in tinseltown:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2050708/

I don't have any problem with professors assigning Burke, Disraeli, Hayek, or whatever actually.

and that father must realize his daughter will probably get those assigned readings...in a good liberal arts college.

E-mail from a Dad
September 2, 2010 9:32 A.M.
By Kathryn Jean Lopez
When my son was in second grade (1987) in public school, my wife came home in tears one day because the school had told her that Matthew had ADD and needed to be medicated for it. Long story short, we took him out and enrolled him in Catholic school.

He is a Marine Corps sniper team leader and a policeman at a local municipality, having graduated number one in his class at the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Academy. (and all without Ritalin). Imagine that.

(ducks)

So he was a terror to his Catholic school teachers and fellow students, became asshole fascist as an adult = compassionate conservatism at its best.

ha i dunno, that's not so different from stories of kids getting slapped with an ADD diagnosis and growing up to be professional dancers or something.

a lot of cops present with "symptoms" of ADD (i'm told) cos they have to be good at sitting in a car and staring at every little thing they come across.

Classic Alfred post

ha! The implication of that letter is that liberal psychologists overmedicate their students, no?

I would assume so considering its NRO

medication is for pussies, suck it up etc

i dunno, it seems like a right-wing parody of a well-known hippie trope.

"not everybody is good at boring old school, just because a kid doesn't want to sit still doesn't mean he's sick, he's just talented in other ways... like getting screamed at by nuns and dropping a gangbanger at 400 yards"

K-Lo has never said no to Carrabas meatballs.

i thought the gist was more like "public school administrators are morons" with a dash of "ADD & other learning disorders are just mollycoddling liberal psychology bullshit"

seems like general undirected resentment at basically everyone

public schools, seculars, psychologists, liberals, diseases, the modern world, criminals, enemies foreign and domestic, drugs

Reaching Across the Aisle
September 8, 2010 11:17 A.M.
By Matthew Shaffer

Last night Karl Rove went into the belly of the beast, debating “Resolved: Repeal Obamacare” with the Yale Political Union in the Yale Law School auditorium. Rove was a sensation, quickly disarming and charming a hostile audience. When the chairman of Yale’s Progressive Party, sophomore Jordon Walker, satirically praised Rove’s good looks, the former deputy chief of staff rose, bowed, approached Walker, and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead. “If only you were twenty years older and an attractive woman,” Rove pined.

Walker later described the kiss as “a wet one.”

what the

http://crooksandliars.com/files/uploads/2008/06/karl_rove_01.jpg

what the

Back when Karl was just another Bernhard Goetz fanboy.

this fucking guy:

Enough Already with Reverend Jones

By Victor Davis Hanson

Everyone is trying to outdo one another in righteous condemnation of the Reverend Terry Jones and his micro-flock, to assure the world that 50 people out of 300 million does not a majority make. That is altogether fine and good, and yet we all know the asymmetry involved — whether it is a scholarly remark made by a pope and the Muslim riots in response, or the policies of many Arab countries forbidding open worship by other religions and, in some cases, the presence of non-Muslims in entire cities.

But all that said, our political and military leaders — whether a general, a secretary of defense, or a president — are making a grave mistake by commenting directly on this pathetic figure. If a gesture is needed by our leaders, a simple “The United States ensures freedom of speech, even disturbing expressions of it, and has always paid the subsequent price for ill-manners” would have been enough.

How long before we see some loons somewhere in the US demand that Saudi Arabia open Mecca up to non-Muslims? And insist that the policy is a deliberate insult to the west?

to assure the world that 50 people out of 300 million does not a majority make.

the irony does my head in

Oh. My. God.

Citing a recent Forbes article by Dinesh D’Souza, former House speaker Newt Gingrich tells National Review Online that President Obama may follow a “Kenyan, anti-colonial” worldview.

Gingrich says that D’Souza has made a “stunning insight” into Obama’s behavior — the “most profound insight I have read in the last six years about Barack Obama.”

“What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]?” Gingrich asks. “That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior.”

“This is a person who is fundamentally out of touch with how the world works, who happened to have played a wonderful con, as a result of which he is now president,” Gingrich tells us.

“I think he worked very hard at being a person who is normal, reasonable, moderate, bipartisan, transparent, accommodating — none of which was true,” Gingrich continues. “In the Alinksy tradition, he was being the person he needed to be in order to achieve the position he needed to achieve . . . He was authentically dishonest.”

big scoop for NRO!

With Peter Robinson hiking in the Sierras (that's not a euphemism, he actually is hiking in the Sierras), Jonah Goldberg sits in and perhaps needless to say, adult supervision is in short supply. Hence, we cover Star Trek (of course), gay bars and the GZM, the use of fake swear words in popular culture (Johnny Dangerously, anyone?), and the time Rob spotted former Labor Secretary Robert Reich in a hot tub. Really. Not to worry though, there's plenty of serious discussion (tenure and taxes, primary election analysis, and of course, conservatives and pop culture) to go around.

http://ricochet.com/Ricochet-Podcast

oh man, the pat sajak columns on there. Ricochet might be the new corner.

How long before we see some loons somewhere in the US demand that Saudi Arabia open Mecca up to non-Muslims? And insist that the policy is a deliberate insult to the west? - hannity's been on this tip for awhile but esp stressing it w/ regard to ground zero victory mosque.

But all that said, our political and military leaders — whether a general, a secretary of defense, or a president — are making a grave mistake by commenting directly on this pathetic figure. If a gesture is needed by our leaders, a simple “The United States ensures freedom of speech, even disturbing expressions of it, and has always paid the subsequent price for ill-manners” would have been enough.

Heh I don't entirely disagree, particularly w/r/t Obama. He shouldn't have given it the time of day. And then, only if pressed, been like "Oh yeah I heard about that. What a shame. You see, in America, we place a great deal of importance on the right to burn whatever you want (within reason): Quran, Bible, flag, etc. But hey, you know what's really awesome about America?" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/08/heartsong-church-memphis-islamic-center_n_710053.html

WH comm staff needs some Toby Ziegler up in that piece.

So now we are supposed to understand that Ground Zero == Mecca For Right Thinking Americans?

I can't understand the thinking behind this "Victory Mosque" language. Do Hannity, etc. think that Muslims have conquered America already? Do Muslims historically build preemptive Victory Mosque in countries they plan to conquer at some future date? When Muslims did invade a country did they actually build Mosques as some sort of suck-on-this statement or because there were a bunch of Muslims there now who needed somewhere to pray?

INTERCEPTION!

Wrong thread, lol

lol

How crazy can you go in only three paragraphs? This crazy!!!

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/246272/imagining-islam-andrew-c-mccarthy

f only the fantasy were true: If only there actually were a dominant, pro-American, echt moderate Islam, an ideology so dedicated to human rights, so sternly set against savagery, that acts of terrorism were, by definition, “un-Islamic activity.” Imagine an Islam that, far from a liability, proved an asset (indeed, an indispensable asset) in combating the threat against us. Imagine that we could accurately call the threat mere “extremism” — no “Islamic” (or even “Islamist”) modifier being necessary because the “extremists” truly were a tiny, aberrant band, fraudulently “hijacking” a great religion.

If the fantasy were true, who among us would not be proud to mark the annual observance of September 11 by breaking ground on a $100 million Islamic center cum mosque at the site of the most horrific attack in American history? In the nine years since the atrocities that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 Americans at the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Shanksville, Pa., such an Islam — if it really existed — would have spearheaded the defeat of America’s enemies.

Such an Islam, over nine long years, would have risen up and made itself heard. It would have identified by name and condemned with moral outrage the imposters purporting to act in its name. It would have honored America’s sacrifice of blood and treasure in the liberation of oppressed Muslim peoples. It would have said “thank you” to our troops. It would have joined America, without ambiguity or hesitation, in crushing terror networks and dismantling the regimes that abet them. It would not have needed trillion-dollar American investments to forge democracies; it would naturally have adopted democracy on its own.

hooooly shit

i'll be damned, still not jaded enough, andy mccarthy can still say shit that makes me want to punch him in the neck

But all that said, our political and military leaders — whether a general, a secretary of defense, or a president — are making a grave mistake by commenting directly on this pathetic figure.

this is tru tho

what i didn't know when this got brewing a week or so ago -- and of course was not reported in anything i've read about it, but blogged by tom ricks (iirc) -- is that this thing has been getting HUGE play in middle east media. it's a big deal already. p sure that's the audience that petraeus, gates etc are thinking of. since domestic media sure as shit isn't.

why isn't victor davis hanson remarking on that? because he's a fucking numbskull

while i can understand petraeus/gates/etc wanting to stop it, they should have known they would only fan the flames.

i understand westboro has picked up the flag? what next

also yeah our media sux

that mccarthy quote isnt crazy imo, he's just dumb

It would have said “thank you” to our troops.

it would naturally have adopted democracy on its own.

these statements are all-out crazy

He must have done an incredible amount of research to understand what Muslims stand for.