Sending a check to the GOP right now....
Update: Rachel understands....
Recently in Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics Category
The MO suggested that maybe Oklaloma is one of Obama's extra states....
During discussions with the M.O. about the Red Fall exhibit at The Station, I speculated that if an equally blatant "right-wing" exhibit were mounted, detractors would be howling about it, and looky-here, turns out I was right.
First off (according the article, I'm in no position to fly to the Farnsworth to see for myself) the subject matter is military, but not overtly "for" or "against" the war. It sounds like it is more documentary work than propagandistic. Yet we have a little group of protestors who want "images of civilian deaths and mass destruction."
I think the silliest objection by one of the protestors is, "The fact that he would come not dressed as an artist, but as a Marine is an affront." What the heck constitutes "dressed as an artist"? The guy is a member of the Marine Corps, right? He's a "combat illustrator." So he's a Marine, and he makes art. He makes art while he's a Marine. How is it that wearing his uniform somehow eclipses or denies his artistry? (In fact, in the photos in the linked profile, he's wearing a uniform and he's drawing at the same time! Apparently donning camouflage doesn't immobilize the limbs or blinker the eyes after all.)
The same protestor goes on to say, "The day-to-day part of war, which we can't imagine, is what we need to see. We need to see images that tell us the truth." Isn't that exactly what this guy is doing? Earlier, the author of the article states, "Fay's paintings show soldiers carrying out their daily duties while serving on hostile ground." I guess the protestor was definitely right about one thing, which is that she can't imagine the day-to-day part of war.
[Original link to news article from James Taranto/WSJ Best of the Web]
The Diplomad has really been on a tear about the UN's response (or lack thereof) to the tsunami relief efforts. There is a whole string of posts detailing the good work that the US and Australian armed forces and other non-UN organizations are doing, and exposing the bureacratic goings-on of the UN machine. The Diplomad has been on my daily read list in FeedDemon for a few months now and is always very interesting reading.
Okay, I can't resist this, courtesy James Taranto/Best of the Web:
...Bush won fair and square, but it was an illegitimate election anyway. This is the "moderate" Democratic position. The extreme position is that Bush "stole" the election by getting three million more votes than Kerry. An outfit called United for Peace and Justice is actually planning an Inauguration Day protest. And if you can't make it to Washington, you can still join in:UFPJ also encourages everyone to wear a white ribbon on January 20, no matter where you are or what you are doing. In many cultures, white is the traditional color of mourning.
Of course, the joke is on these losers, who apparently are unaware that in our culture, white is the traditional color of surrender.
That's one group that certainly isn't "moving on."
Our precinct votes at an elementary school. I figured the kids would have the day off, but no, there they were. Wandering around, seemingly at random. I was beginning to wonder if there were any classes going on. Finally at 8:05 (I had over an hour to wonder about this) the announcements began. Why do the kids get there so early? I got to say the Pledge of Allegiance for the first time in a while, just a few minutes before I voted. Very appropriate, I think. No moonbats with videocameras in evidence. Everybody was pretty well behaved except the guy behind me who kept crowding me. Really, Mr. Space Invader, it didn't get you through the line any quicker.
Hi Mom,
I know you're stuck in Florida with the endless campaigning, and you don't have cable, so you're stuck with network news, but you DO have the internet, and that makes all the difference. Here is a list of some of my favorite places to go to learn more about what's REALLY going on these days. If you do a bit of surfing, I think you'll find reasons to be more optimistic about Iraq and Afghanistan, more pessimistic about the likelihood that Mr. Kerry would be a positive force in the oval office, and much more skeptical of the "regular" news sources.
Love,
Darcy
Every Day:
- BlackFive has a definite military focus, with lots of news from the men and women who are actually there doing the work, i.e. posts like this.
- Michelle Malkin calls it like she sees it, even when she doesn't agree with the President.
- INDC Journal is INDspensible for fact-checking (almost any post) and the occasional Moonbat report just to keep things in perspective.
- Ann Althouse writes about lots more than just politics. I found her through a link to this post, where she explains how and why she gave up on Kerry.
Less Frequently but only because I'm lazy:
- Chrenkoff is best known for his Good news from ... posts, which may take a few sittings to get through, but even if you just scan them, you'll realize how much is happening that you're not hearing about through "normal" channels.
Here is political analysis every which way from Sunday. Pretty cool....
(And just look at that big ol' red 34 on the delightful state of Texas!)
According to the website, I'm supposed to remember this from the 2000 election, but, uh, well, I don't. Anyhow, at the time of this posting, Bush is ahead 56-44.
[Link from Boing Boing, sadly wallowing in their Democrat denial, but as always a source of the weird and wonderful on the net]
No matter how the story ends up, the rules are changing now because of the blogosphere. Watching this unfold has been a wild ride. It will be interesting to see how the undoubtedly intensified attention affects online writers, as the blogging world becomes less and less a fringe element.
I don't often email people I don't know, and it seems that it's usually best when I stick to that policy. Especially where politics are involved. I've twice now sent mild complaints to sites that I think are unreasonably mixing politics with their bread-and-butter, and both times simply been slammed with a fairly standard "freedom of speech" retort. Well, duh, of course you CAN say what you're saying. That doesn't mean it's a good idea. I'm just suggesting that the venue might not be... appropriate. I guess I don't word things well, although I like to think that I can make myself understood through the written word. I'm not trying to squelch anybody's rights. I'm just trying to retain my sanity while shopping/surfing. I try to stay clear of politics here, and certainly on TMI, but I guess that's not the popular thing to do. It's enough to make me want to slap partisan logos all over my site and my signatures (which may yet happen!). I'm just not a confrontational person. I don't think that I'm going to change anybody's mind regarding their political stance, and I figure that my friends know (if they even care) where I come down on the issues of the day. So why do I have to get it shoved in my face when I'm poking around my hobby sites in the evening? It just makes me mad.
And now we have a REAL congressman, whose views run much more along the lines of ours. We're in the new district by only TWO BLOCKS. What a relief!!! If we lived across the street, we'd be stuck with our previous non-representative mouthpiece.
Wow. This is an astounding story about a high-school senior's experiment with free speech at school. I admit to getting goosebumps reading it.
