Culture War Dispatches

from a Progressive People's Republic

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

'What Makes Chechen Women So Dangerous?'

The focus on the gender of the bomber throughout the mainstream media is a transparent diversion from identifying them as part of the global Islamic jihad.

Read full blog on American Thinker

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Caucasian female alert level raised to amber

The fact that mainstream media coverage of the Muslim terrorist attacks in Moscow was predictable makes it no less craven.

Read full blog on American Thinker

Monday, March 29, 2010

Constitutional separation of powers 'a real drag'

According to Professor Jay Wexler, "separation of powers is not always positive. In times of crisis, when quick and decisive action must be taken to preserve the nation's well-being, a government with many power centers can seem like a real drag."

Read full blog on American Thinker

Friday, March 26, 2010

Who's the enemy here?

Nancy Pelosi compared to Churchill?

Read full blog on American Thinker

The Weatherization Boondoggle

Leave it to the left to turn something as sensible as insulating your house into a big-government organized-labor boondoggle.

Read full article on American Thinker

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Rep. Capuano: Further needed health care reforms

Michael Capuano: "It is my hope that this landmark legislation will...serve as a starting point for further needed reforms."

Read full blog on American Thinker

Run for your life!

Charles Phillips of Concord is thrilled that hundreds of millions of people are “active in social justice” grassroots organizations (Boston Globe letter 3/24/10). From my point of view, most of these “environmental and peace and justice organizations” do not, as Phillips claims, “make a better world.” Most are filled with busybodies who want to write laws, expand government and tell everyone else how to live their lives. For example, Mr. Phillips cites “citizen lobbying efforts…toward…local food purchases.” Why do we need local food lobbyists? If you want local food, buy local food; don’t pass laws forcing your neighbors to follow your example.

Another citizen of Concord, Henry David Thoreau, wrote in Walden: “Philanthropy is almost the only virtue which is sufficiently appreciated by mankind. Nay, it is greatly overrated…If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.”

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Community Organizing 2.0: 'Climate Community Activism'

The Cambridge, Massachusetts Climate Emergency Congress (CEC) is a casebook study of a new movement of "climate community activism" that pushes sustainability issues in municipal governments. It is a worldwide movement that bears watching.

Read full article on American Thinker

Monday, March 15, 2010

Talking Point Alert

This letter in the Globe repeats the talking point that Climategate was about a few "minor" errors in thousands of pages of top-notch scientific reporting. Just because, as the letter writer admits, this point has been "stated many times" doesn't make it true.


Science is not a popularity contest
March 15, 2010
IN HIS March 3 op-ed column “Gore still hot on his doomsday rhetoric,’’ Jeff Jacoby ridicules Al Gore for not “backing down’’ as the case for global warming “is melting faster than . . . glaciers.’’ Jacoby needs to get his facts straight.

The errors discovered in a few paragraphs of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports are minor points that in no way undermine the conclusion of the several-thousand-page reports, as stated many times.

Jacoby cites that polls show that a smaller percentage of the public believes that global warming is serious. Science is not a popularity contest. Would the Globe publish a piece that disagrees with other scientific facts, or that claims that Mars is hot and Venus is cold?

The op-ed page is for people to voice their own opinions. They are not entitled to their own facts.

Patrik Jonsson
Somerville

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Haditha Marines judged guilty by NYT Book Review

The front page of the Sunday New York Times Book Review has a review of Black Hearts, which begins with the following statement:
Of all the crimes that sullied the record of the United States military in Iraq — the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the killings of 24 Iraqi men, women and children by Marines in November 2005 in Haditha…

The Marines accused of murder in Haditha were in fact all cleared of charges. I can’t say for sure that nothing untoward happened in Haditha, but it’s clear that exoneration in a military court will not exonerate the Marines in the historical record as reported by the mainstream media. From now on, Abu Ghraib and Haditha will be code words for American evil perpetrated on innocent third world civilians.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Is the NFL Socialistic?

With the threat of an NFL player walkout in the news, the Boston Globe editorial board grabbed the opportunity to bring up the fatuous argument that football is a socialist enterprise.

Full article on American Thinker

Karl Marx on the 50 Yard Line

Number 4 on American Thinker!

Is the NFL 'Socialistic'?

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

The Boston Globe has acknowledged Climategate in a big story in the Sunday Science and Technology section: After errors, global warming gets a cold shoulder. Sort of. The article spins the story so that skeptics have twisted the story, misleading the public.

Senator Kerry's response is typical:
“What we have to do is go on the offensive,’’ Kerry said. The science “has been maligned and misinterpreted, and we need to fight back . . . people [need to] stop being moved by these talk show [hosts] and start looking for the facts’’ themselves.

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Beds are Burning

Mark Steyn's Happy Warrior column in NR has a story about the Australian Minister of the Environment Peter Garrett, the shaved head lead singer of the band Midnight Oil. It appears that Environment Australia has mandated an aluminum insulation that is causing house fires. Mark doesn't point out that Midnight Oil's biggest hit was "Beds are Burning," a song about giving Australia back to the Aborigines. Coincidence?

"Beds are Burning"

The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share

The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning

Daktari!

I was listening to an R&B compilation that has a group called the Daktaris. I had forgotten about the television show Daktari, based on the movie Clarence the Cross-eyed Lion. It was on from 1966-69, about the same era as Born Free (with Elsa the lion). Back then it was a family show, but today it's classified as a children's show. The plot revolved around a veterinary clinic in Africa where the heroes defend animal rights. It was a more innocent time when we could all cheer for the cause of animal rights. Sadly groups like PETA have radicalized and perverted the cause.

If You Get Too Cold, I'll Tax the Heat

Thanks to American Thinker for running another column.