Friday, August 27, 2010

Soccer Dad

Soccer Dad

The post-w "either you're with us or you're against us"

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 04:20 AM PDT

Charles Krauthammer hits one out of the park with The last refuge of a liberal.

Liberalism under siege is an ugly sight indeed. Just yesterday it was all hope and change and returning power to the people. But the people have proved so disappointing. Their recalcitrance has, in only 19 months, turned the predicted 40-year liberal ascendancy (James Carville) into a full retreat. Ah, the people, the little people, the small-town people, the "bitter" people, as Barack Obama in an unguarded moment once memorably called them, clinging "to guns or religion or" -- this part is less remembered -- "antipathy toward people who aren't like them."

That's a polite way of saying: clinging to bigotry. And promiscuous charges of bigotry are precisely how our current rulers and their vast media auxiliary react to an obstreperous citizenry that insists on incorrect thinking.

I noticed this trend in terms of the Ground Zero Mosque. This tendency to eqate all disagreement with the president (and in general to what the MSM considers right thinking) seems to be a function of having an African American president. It's interesting the degree to which President Obama's election has actually made some people (his supporters) throw out charges of bigotry more easily. Effectively, then, the election of President Obama has made our society less, not more, conscious about color. And ironically it's mostly been his champions who are responsible for this.

Remember how liberals mocked President Bush's "either you're with us or you're against us" formulation applied to our foreign enemies? Now they're applying it, to their domestic political opponents.

UPDATE: Yesterday's Day by Day.

Working together might be more productive than boycotting

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 04:03 AM PDT

Robert Mackey, unsurprisingly, gives a promo to Israeli actors who refuse to perform in the city of Ariel.

Two Israeli actors have announced that they will not travel with the country's national theater company to perform in a new cultural center nearing completion in the West Bank settlement of Ariel.

What Mackey does not do, is write about Jews and Arabs working together. (via Daily Alert blog)

One hundred and thirty-four employees arrive at the Rami Levy supermarket in Shaar Binyamin every morning from around the area. Some of them come by bus from the towns of Beit-El, Kochav Yaakov, and Adam, while others, 60 in number, arrive in orange taxis from the villages of Hizma and Anata or by foot from the nearby Jab'a. . . . Ever since the supermarket branch was opened five years ago, Palestinians and settlers work there in a near idyllic state. Their friendships continue even after work hours, though it is usually the Palestinians that visit their Jewish friends and not the other way around.

I remember similar instances of economic cooperation before the first intifada. The peace processors, though, had an interest in inviting the "sole legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people" - the PLO - in, which made such cooperation even more difficult.

You don't have to dig so deep to find the antisemitism though

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 02:20 AM PDT

The attack on a cabbie and the desecration of a mosque have led some hysterical folks to suggest that the debate over the Ground Zero Mosque has unleashed a tide of anti-Islam behavior. (via memeorandum)

Jonah Goldberg, though, throws some cold water on the hysteria. (via Daily Alert blog)

Let's put this in even sharper focus. America is, outside of Israel ,probably the most receptive and tolerant country in the world to Jews. And yet, in every year since 9/11, more Jews have been hate-crime victims than Muslims. A lot more.

In 2001, there were twice as many anti-Jewish incidents as there were anti-Muslim, again according to the FBI. In 2002 and pretty much every year since, anti-Jewish incidents have outstripped anti-Muslim ones by at least 6 to 1. Why aren't we talking about the anti-Jewish climate in America?

Because there isn't one. And there isn't an anti-Muslim climate either. Yes, there's a lot of heated rhetoric on the Internet. Absolutely, some Americans don't like Muslims. But if you watch TV or movies or read, say, the op-ed page of the New York Times -- never mind left-wing blogs -- you'll hear much more open bigotry toward evangelical Christians (in blogspeak, the "Taliban wing of the Republican Party") than you will toward Muslims.

Of course, he could point to what's happening in Europe and note that the anti-Israel "reporting" is even worse there than it is here. I don't doubt that the blatant misrepresentations of Israel that pass for "reporting" play some role in feeding the resurgent antisemitism in Europe. But no one who is concerned for Islamaphobia, is truly much concerned about demonstrated antisemitism.

Crossposted on Yourish.

This statement is false

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 02:09 AM PDT

Levi Johnston finds himself in a logical paradox.

Levi Johnston, the father of Sarah Palin's grandson, says he wishes he hadn't apologized for telling lies about the former Alaska governor because he's "never lied about anything."

(via memeorandum)

In other essential celebrity news the twice future and now never, Mrs. Levi Johnston has a found a new way to trade in on her dubious fame.

We can report to you exclusively that Sarah Palin's 19-year-old daughter Bristol Palin has been cast on the 11th season of DWTS, set to premiere Sept. 20, according to sources.

In other essential celebrity news:

The whole sorry saga of her recent jail sentence and spell in drug treatment was down to driving under the influence.

But the first thing Lindsay Lohan did after her release from rehab the night before, was to get back her driving licence.

Fortunately I don't drive in California. And in case you missed it, she even sent off her first post-rehab Tweet! If any of you check it out, no need to inform me of its contents. I don't have any interest.

That's about all the gossip I can handle for now.
Posted by Soccer Dad at 10:15 PM

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