Interesting Posts From Around The Web - 25 April 2008

The interesting posts of the day, all below the fold

Art: Music, Hans Bauldun Grien, 1529
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Stop the ACLU tries their hand at creating Pelosi-esque biblical quotations.

Transterrestrial Musings ponders the incredible policy disaster of the ethanol program. Interestingly, they note a scientific advance that may provide us with an alternative for using agricultural land and crops for the creation of ethanol. The rush to adopt alternative energy is problematic in that many alternative forms of energy are far less reliable or are, for other reasons, far more problematic than originally thought. In this regard, Deleware Crumudgeon notes that Texas is learning now about all the problems associated with making wind turbines a significant piece of their power generating scheme.

Villagers With Torches discusses the real danger posed by William Ayers to our country. It is in his pushing a radical left "social justice" curriculum into our grade school systems – something which the right should be fighting tooth and nail. As VWT states, "The next time Obama--the candidate who purports to be our next "education president"--discusses education on the campaign trail, it would be nice to hear what he thinks of his Hyde Park neighbor's vision for turning the nation's schools into left-wing indoctrination centers."

At Blonde Sagacity, commentary on possibly the most asinine oped of the political season, a British op-ed claiming that America is simply too racist for a black president. It is sophomoric and delusional anti-Americanism. Right Truth hits the nail on the head. "Race doesn't matter to [conservatives] -- give us a qualified man OR woman of any race, and we will be more than happy to support them with our time, money and votes. It's about the PERSON, not the color of their skin." As Discriminations notes, someone needs to pass the message to Joe Klein.

Barking Moonbats uses a Time magazine prop to show the application of math to modern politics, demonstrating that two halves make "a hole." Heh. This type of lesson is important because, as pointed out by No Oil for Pacifists, our liberal media has a real problem with basic math.

KG at Crusader Rabbit is distinctly unimpressed by the nonsensical musings of a Harvard Professor whose specialty is "’post-colonial studies,’ i.e., a reader-proof species of anti-Western multicultural claptrap." This is the second Harvard Prof I have been exposed to in the past month - Orlando Patterson being the other - whose intellectual prowess is, to put it tactfully, lacking.

April 25 is Anzac Day, when our cousins to the West honor their fallen soldiers. John Ray posts an explanation at a Western Heart. MK posts a poem for the occasion written by a 12 year old boy that is exceptional.

France is not so much policing its Muslim population as it is using military raids to enforce some order.

At Ankle Biting Pundits, a telling juxtaposition of two vastly different reports on the same McCain visit. There’s the upbeat local news, then there is the agenda journalism coming out of the MSM spin cycle.

At Jammie Wearing Fools, Supreme Court Justice Scalia has a message for the morons (with video) – its time to get over the Florida recount.

There is a disconnect between reality and the MSM Iraq narrative. It is tough to reconcile MSM reports with the reality of Iraqi refugees returning in droves.

Seraphic Secret has a series of exceptional posts on the Muslim uprising in Algeria over half a century ago.

Gay Patriot has an interesting post on Dutch gays and the limits of tolerance.

On the cultural corner, Pen and Spindle ponders the development of the romance novel and famous authors of the genre who are still relevant. And also blogging on themes of history and literature is Dave in Boca with an exceptional post.

ABC did very shoddy journalism if not outright fabrication in their recent story claiming that guns available in America were fueling the drug wars in Mexico. Confederate Yankee has the story.

A point worth emphasizing at the Common Room, that civil liberties are for all. It is, at times, hard to keep that elementary point in perspective.

The Midnight Sun ponders the case of Brigitte Bardot and the unfortunate overlap of racism and anti-jihadism in parties labled right-wing. She rightly notes a looming the danger to the anti-jihad movement if they do not seperate themselves from the racists.

Reality is usually spun a full 180 degrees when it comes to the UN and anything to do with Israel. Meryl Yourish has an excellent post on the topic. But, as Rightwing Conspiracy notes, the people at the UN are all on the invite list for former President Carter.

Since the partisan dems cannot force a legislated surrender in Iraq with the next bill to fund the Iraq war, they are changing tack and larding the bill with pork and vastly expanded Democratic pet projects. These people truly are despicable.

From Consul at Arms, reports that the State Dept. is about to issue guidance requiring employees to stop using the term jihad are, as of yet, unsubstantiated.

From the Jawa Report, the problems in Pakistan continue to grow as the government tries yet again to gain peace with the terrorists in their midst by granting concessions. In the words of Churchill, this is feeding the alligator in the hopes that it will eat you last.

Root causes of social ills and common sense prescriptions at Liberty Corner.

BDS and 9-11 have been very bad for Hollywood’s bottom line.

Did you ever wonder how to spot a Persian prostitute?

The Shield of Achilles sees clear of evidence of Britain voluntarily submerging its anglo-saxon identity in response to Islamists. Britian is being led by the socialists into oblivion.

Finally, an answer to that burning question, "what’s the deal with all those medieval midgets?"

"C’mon baby. Moo like a cow." (shiver).

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McCain Through The AP's BDS Lens

McCain gave a good speech on foreign policy that the AP then took and put through their own unique BDS spin cycle, framing it only as a split from Bush foreign policy while missing the import of McCain's radical foreign policy proposal for neutering the UN and strengthening Western democracies.




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McCain recently gave a foreign policy speech that was notable for several points and which signaled a dissatisfaction with the status quo. It was a plain vanilla speech in many ways, at least until interpreted by the AP:

"Our great power does not mean we can do whatever we want whenever we want, nor should we assume we have all the wisdom and knowledge necessary to succeed, . . . We need to listen to the views and respect the collective will of our democratic allies."

This is typical of the humility of McCain that one hears in his many speeches. Given that many of our "allies" as acting as craven and spoiled children, if he can make them cooperate by ignoring their recent past actions and making them feel more important, so be it. It is always much easier to get cooperation with honey than curses. But the AP takes this and puts it through their own unique spin cycle, transferring their own beliefs onto McCain and then interpreting his speech in that light:

McCain's speech was intended to signal to leaders abroad - and voters at home - that he would end an era of what critics have called Bush's cowboy diplomay. McCain never mentioned Bush's name, though he evoked former Democratic Presidents Truman and Kennedy.

It was, in effect, a fresh acknowledgment from the Arizona senator that the United States' standing on the world stage has been tarnished and that the country has an image problem under Bush.

Critics at home and abroad have accused Bush of employing a go-it-alone foreign policy in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when the administration spurned international calls for caution and led the invasion into Iraq.

Wow, talk about spin. This is the AP redlining the rpm's. The cowboy diplomacy label is a canard. When Bush entered office, our "allies" were Shroeder in Germany and Chirac in France, both of whom were highly anti-American. The "cowboy diplomacy" label grew out of Bush's refusal to give them a say in our foreign policy. Bush has always sought out support from other countries - as well documented today in a WSJ article. There is no apparent split here between McCain and Bush, merely a different method of expression.

To continue:

"The United States cannot lead by virtue of its power alone," McCain said in the speech, noting that the United States did not single-handedly win the Cold War or other conflicts in its history. Instead, he said, the country must lead by attracting others to its cause, demonstrating the virtues of freedom and democracy, defending the rules of an international civilized society and creating new international institutions.

McCain wants to lead the nation as he leads his life - in accordance with principles, not hypocrisy. And McCain is correct that we need lots of allies if we are to effectively deal with the potentially existential problems we face today, both militarilly and economically. There is nothing in those words that conflicts with Bush foreign policy, yet the AP acts as if this is a complete change.

McCain is in fact proposing some radical changes in his foreign policy, though because they do not obviously conflict with the Bush media construct into which AP is fully invested, the AP misses it. McCain wants to set up a sort of shadow UN composed only of democracies. It would wholly neuter that most cherished of leftist institutions. Yet the import of all of that seems to pass by the AP, who report without comment:

. . . [McCain] renewed his call for creating a new global compact of more than 100 democratic countries to advance shared values and defend shared interests. Later, he told reporters he discussed his League of Democracies idea last week with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

You can read the AP article here. The only way in which the AP can report McCain's speech as a stark divergence from Bush's policies is if they have fallen into the trap of believing their own spin over the last eight years.

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