Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Let's Hope This is the Lesson Democrats Take Away From Brown's Election
Paul Mirengoff at Powerline reports at least one Democrat's take on Scott Brown's upset of Coakley in Massachusetts is that it is George Bush's fault. If only we could be so lucky that the Democrats as a whole buy into and act on that explanation.
Democrats thought they were blessed by the sun,
But Republican Brown came up and won.
The Dem’s fell soundly right on their tush,
And quickly began to blame it on Bush,
But try as they might, they're not having fun.
The number to know is now forty-one.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Democrats thought they were blessed by the sun,
But Republican Brown came up and won.
The Dem’s fell soundly right on their tush,
And quickly began to blame it on Bush,
But try as they might, they're not having fun.
The number to know is now forty-one.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Labels: Congress, cultural divide
Monday, December 07, 2009
An Explanation for What I Have Perceived as a Cultural Divide
Steven Den Beste writes of the difference between materialism and teleology. As I understand the point, teleologists support pacifism and socialism because they are beautiful ideas and it would be so nice if they worked. Materialists, such as myself, believe in free markets and peace through strength, because experience says they produce superior results.
Read the whole thing for a better explanation. The dichotomy addresses what I have observed and puzzled over in our society and offers a more detailed and persuasive explanation than anything I have come up with.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Read the whole thing for a better explanation. The dichotomy addresses what I have observed and puzzled over in our society and offers a more detailed and persuasive explanation than anything I have come up with.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Labels: cultural divide
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Disingenuous Testimony Regarding Canadian Human Rights Commissions
"Scary Fundamentalist" reports on testimony by Jennifer Lynch about Canadian Human Rights commissions. Canada's experience with these censors is a warning of what will happen to us if we drink too much multi-culti Koolaid. Though I gather the hearing did not go well for Ms. Lynch, it apparently went better for her than she deserved.
What caught my eye was that "Scary Fundamentalist" included doggerel in the post, so here's some doggerel not by me:
There once was a Justice Committee,
Where Lynch went to plead for pity,
With faux grin displayed,
The members waylaid,
Time’s up and she’s still sitting pretty.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
What caught my eye was that "Scary Fundamentalist" included doggerel in the post, so here's some doggerel not by me:
There once was a Justice Committee,
Where Lynch went to plead for pity,
With faux grin displayed,
The members waylaid,
Time’s up and she’s still sitting pretty.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Labels: cultural divide, doggerel
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Of Mass Murderers and Philosophers
Ricketyclick on White House Communication Director Anita Dunn:
What can you do but say wow?
A murderous old brute,
The thug sure could shoot.
His insights, they ended with pow!
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Mao Tse Tung, ladies and gentlemen. Seventy million dead, one of the oldest, richest cultures on Earth burned to the ground and replaced by gray concrete and black pajamas, the worst genocide in all history, and the architect of this chaos is the “favorite philosopher” of the woman who sits with the President of the United States and passes His Holy Words to you unwashed proletarian masses and your children.Dunn’s favorite philosopher’s old Mao!
What can you do but say wow?
A murderous old brute,
The thug sure could shoot.
His insights, they ended with pow!
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Labels: cultural divide, doggerel
Friday, October 09, 2009
Peace Plan for Afghanistan
I was searching for other political doggerel sites and was disappointed in how little I found. Then I ran across a site with the linked poem. Here's a excerpt:
Send Clowns without Borders into the 'stan?
That by golly's a Hell of a plan.
They'll tell the Talib to lay down their guns.
"Let's twist up balloons and have some real fun."
Incredulous Taliban, standing dumbstruck,
May take a whole minute to run full amok.
Let's warn all the clowns to take a quick chill:
They best had not go without making a will.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
send Clowns without BordersWhat do you suppose the Taliban, never mind al Qaeda, would do to Clowns without Borders or people handing out musical instruments? Has this person ever seen "The Kite Runner"? Read the whole poem for full effect.
into the cities and mountains
hand out lutes and fiddles, harps and drums.
Soldiers, fresh from Boot Camp of the Arts,
would distribute cameras and watercolors
Send Clowns without Borders into the 'stan?
That by golly's a Hell of a plan.
They'll tell the Talib to lay down their guns.
"Let's twist up balloons and have some real fun."
Incredulous Taliban, standing dumbstruck,
May take a whole minute to run full amok.
Let's warn all the clowns to take a quick chill:
They best had not go without making a will.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Labels: cultural divide, doggerel, jihad
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Garofalo and Hateful Nonsense
JammieWearingFool links to a video in which Janeane Garofalo vehemently accuses all Obama opponents of racism. Lord have mercy.
Janeane Garofalo spews her slurs;
Republicans are, she says, just curs.
Opposing Obama has got to be racist:
She can’t imagine another basis.
The limits of Janie’s imagination
Suggest a lot more, in my estimation,
Of Janie, herself, and how she thinks
Than suggesting Republican-hate group links.
Political control of the economy’s at stake,
And liberals want to cut up the cake.
Conservatives think that will make us much poorer
And fear the liberals will put up a fuhrer.
Janeane’s apparently not even able
To comprehend what we see on the table:
The total remaking of American life,
Fostering envy and fomenting strife.
Though Janie sure shows lack of insight,
It's not that she is not very bright.
Instead I think she’s so blinded by hate,
That all she can do is erupt and berate.
This sort of invective comes often, of course,
Given what passes for public discourse.
I sometimes wonder how mankind’s survived,
With serious debate so greatly contrived.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Janeane Garofalo spews her slurs;
Republicans are, she says, just curs.
Opposing Obama has got to be racist:
She can’t imagine another basis.
The limits of Janie’s imagination
Suggest a lot more, in my estimation,
Of Janie, herself, and how she thinks
Than suggesting Republican-hate group links.
Political control of the economy’s at stake,
And liberals want to cut up the cake.
Conservatives think that will make us much poorer
And fear the liberals will put up a fuhrer.
Janeane’s apparently not even able
To comprehend what we see on the table:
The total remaking of American life,
Fostering envy and fomenting strife.
Though Janie sure shows lack of insight,
It's not that she is not very bright.
Instead I think she’s so blinded by hate,
That all she can do is erupt and berate.
This sort of invective comes often, of course,
Given what passes for public discourse.
I sometimes wonder how mankind’s survived,
With serious debate so greatly contrived.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Labels: cultural divide, doggerel
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Marcus was a Little Lamb
John Birmingham of the Brisbane Times reports on an Australian school teaching children about animal husbandry. Among the animals was a lamb named Marcus. At some point, the kids voted to send Marcus to the slaughter house, and the animal rights-types came forth with predictable laments.
The doggerel potential was too obvious to pass up:
Marcus was a little lamb.
He lived at school, you know.
The kids thought he’d be good to eat.
The greenies all said “No!”
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
The doggerel potential was too obvious to pass up:
Marcus was a little lamb.
He lived at school, you know.
The kids thought he’d be good to eat.
The greenies all said “No!”
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Labels: cultural divide, doggerel, Miscellaneous
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Nanny Bloomberg
Of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Slate's Jacob Weiss reports:
Oh Nanny boy, the Coca-Cola’s calling,
From store to store and down 5th Avenue.
Tobacco’s gone, your nanny drive is stalling.
Go after Cokes and then find something new.
You must not stop, we need you as Big Brother
Without you, I'd know not what to do,
For at times our thoughts might turn to burgers.
Oh Nanny boy, oh Nanny boy, you so and so.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
By 2012, the mayor hopes "to lower the proportion of adults who drink one or more sugar-sweetened beverages each day by 20 percent."Not satisfied with being mayor Bloomberg wants to be our mother.
Oh Nanny boy, the Coca-Cola’s calling,
From store to store and down 5th Avenue.
Tobacco’s gone, your nanny drive is stalling.
Go after Cokes and then find something new.
You must not stop, we need you as Big Brother
Without you, I'd know not what to do,
For at times our thoughts might turn to burgers.
Oh Nanny boy, oh Nanny boy, you so and so.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Labels: cultural divide, doggerel, nanny state
Friday, September 25, 2009
To the Commenter Who Called me an Imbecile
Is it just Obama men
Attracted to ad hominem?
I’m not sure; I have my doubts.
Perhaps we’re all a bunch of louts.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Attracted to ad hominem?
I’m not sure; I have my doubts.
Perhaps we’re all a bunch of louts.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Labels: cultural divide, doggerel
Monday, September 21, 2009
Down Like a Dog on the Highway, With a Government Boot at Your Throat
David Henderson reports: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is squelching the speech of insurance companies expressing concerns about Obamacare to their insureds. Many a liberal acquaintance were dismayed at George Bush's civil liberties shortcomings, but I don't recall a single incident of the Bush administration trying to silence its critics.
Being who I am, I provide some doggerel. What came to my mind was Alfred Noyes' The Highwayman, perhaps appropriate since we are being robbed not only of our money but also of our freedom.
Obamacare critics cry out; they desperately want to be heard.
They post their views on blogs and such, getting out the word.
The media ignore them studiously, hoping they’ll all go away,
And HHS comes censoring, censoring, censoring,
And HHS comes censoring,
Denying the critics their say.
Critics, it says, are misleading, confusing the proletariat.
Keep all the critics quiet, its says, round them up with a lariat.
It sends out threatening letters, abusing its government power
And the HHS is threatening, threatening, threatening,
And the HHS is threatening;
Beware the government’s glower
We’ve got to resist the thuggishness, asserting our right to be free.
They’re taking away all our freedoms, away from you and from me.
Recall that this is America; preserve its ideals when you vote,
Or they’ll drag you down into serfdom,
Down like a dog into serfdom,
With a government boot at your throat.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Being who I am, I provide some doggerel. What came to my mind was Alfred Noyes' The Highwayman, perhaps appropriate since we are being robbed not only of our money but also of our freedom.
Obamacare critics cry out; they desperately want to be heard.
They post their views on blogs and such, getting out the word.
The media ignore them studiously, hoping they’ll all go away,
And HHS comes censoring, censoring, censoring,
And HHS comes censoring,
Denying the critics their say.
Critics, it says, are misleading, confusing the proletariat.
Keep all the critics quiet, its says, round them up with a lariat.
It sends out threatening letters, abusing its government power
And the HHS is threatening, threatening, threatening,
And the HHS is threatening;
Beware the government’s glower
We’ve got to resist the thuggishness, asserting our right to be free.
They’re taking away all our freedoms, away from you and from me.
Recall that this is America; preserve its ideals when you vote,
Or they’ll drag you down into serfdom,
Down like a dog into serfdom,
With a government boot at your throat.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Labels: cultural divide, doggerel, Obamacare
Friday, September 18, 2009
Diluting the Sting of Racism Charges
MSNBC (yes, really, I had to look twice) carries an AP analysis (yes, AP, really) decrying profligate charges of racism.
Our society is not free of genuine racism, though mercifully racism is less common than it used to be. We should not relent in rooting out genuine racism, but in so doing, we should not use the term loosely.
Labeling opposition to Barack Obama's policy proposals as necessarily racist is an abuse of the term, because it unfairly libels innocent people with a vile charge. But worse than that abuse, doing so leads to resentment of charges of racism and to taking the charges less seriously. That result is counter-productive of eliminating racism.
Once upon a time calling someone a Communist was a serious slur in the eyes of almost all Americans. At least partly because of the excesses of the McCarthy era, the charge lost its sting in many quarters and some now regard the charge itself as antiquated even when it fits, as in the case of Hugo Chaves.
We must all hope that a consequence of Barack Obama's presidency is not to lessen the sting of a racism charge. That is not the direction in which our society needs to go. Those throwing the charge around need to bear that in mind.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Our society is not free of genuine racism, though mercifully racism is less common than it used to be. We should not relent in rooting out genuine racism, but in so doing, we should not use the term loosely.
Labeling opposition to Barack Obama's policy proposals as necessarily racist is an abuse of the term, because it unfairly libels innocent people with a vile charge. But worse than that abuse, doing so leads to resentment of charges of racism and to taking the charges less seriously. That result is counter-productive of eliminating racism.
Once upon a time calling someone a Communist was a serious slur in the eyes of almost all Americans. At least partly because of the excesses of the McCarthy era, the charge lost its sting in many quarters and some now regard the charge itself as antiquated even when it fits, as in the case of Hugo Chaves.
We must all hope that a consequence of Barack Obama's presidency is not to lessen the sting of a racism charge. That is not the direction in which our society needs to go. Those throwing the charge around need to bear that in mind.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Labels: Barack Obama, cultural divide
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Of Teaching to Fish and Giving a Fish
If you teach a man to fish, you give him the opportunity for self sufficiency so that he may choose to be independent.
If you give a man a fish, you may increase your own power and prestige by encouraging him to be dependent on you.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
If you give a man a fish, you may increase your own power and prestige by encouraging him to be dependent on you.
To reply, email texthepontificator at yahoo dot com.
Labels: cultural divide, Obamacare
