Princeton can use a man like Joel.

The lawmaker is a liberal and is revolted at the temperamentally-pacifist nation -- Ireland having been an outspoken critic of the Iraq War (and not a fan of World War II, for that matter) -- sucking up to President Dronestrike as he's about to arm Al Qaeda-affiliated guerrillas in Syria. (Then again, as you now know, the only difference between a Warmonger and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate is the latter's ability to say he feels conflicted n' stuff about killing.)

Parliamentarian Clare Daly said her country's government had showcased the country “as a nation of pimps, prostituting ourselves in return for a pat on the head,” The Irish Times reports.

The “unprecedented slobbering” during Obama's two-day visit to Northern Ireland, she said, had even led to speculation that “you were going to deck the Cabinet out in leprechaun hats decorated with a bit of stars and stripes to really mark abject humiliation.”

Here's a bit of verbiage from the article: "a do-down." A "do-down," an Irish construction, is a putting down of something. So one guy says this woman has given Irish morale a "do-down."

Yeah I'm not adding that to my own vocabulary. Just pointing it out.

Meanwhile, Obama made some controversial remarks in Northern Ireland, blaming violence on his old standby, Christian religiosity.

Likening religious schools to segregation--a racist system that forced blacks to attend different schools and use different facilities than whites in the American South--President Barack Obama told a town hall meeting for youth in Belfast, Northern Ireland on Monday that there should not be Catholic and Protestant schools because such schools cause division.

"Because issues like segregated schools and housing, lack of jobs and opportunity--symbols of history that are a source of pride for some and pain for others--these are not tangential to peace; theyÂ’re essential to it," said Obama. "If towns remain divided--if Catholics have their schools and buildings, and Protestants have theirs--if we canÂ’t see ourselves in one another, if fear or resentment are allowed to harden, that encourages division. It discourages cooperation.

You have to be a real Special Specimen to go all Bull in a China Shop in a foreign country with its own very complicated history and start offering up bromides that are simultaneously childishly naive and completely offensive.

Hey, all you have to do to achieve peace is to give up the central pillars of your identity.

Well why didn't you say so?! That's easy! Let me get started on that right now.

Consider how stupid and counter-productive such statements are. If peace requires sacrificing the central pillars of the self, it's not terribly attractive, is it?

Could peace be had without making such a determined effort at self-abnegation? Could people have differences and retain their basic identities and yet still have peace?

Apparently not. Christian schools will just have to go. Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezey, and nothing of value lost, anyway. Christianity doesn't have the beauty that Islam does, you know.

But Obama knows everything about peace. That's why they gave him the Nobel Peace Prize, and that's why the world is, of course, wholly at peace.

Thanks to @noahcrothman for both.

Is the media talking about Obama's very undiplomatic version of diplomacy? Of course not, Gaffes Are For Republicans.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:12 AM | Comments (389)
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Notably, Bryan Preston, um, notes, this is being reported by CNN, rather than, you know, not reported at all.

DHS official P. Jeffrey Black tried to fix problems that he saw in the Department of Homeland SecurityÂ’s air marshal program. He testified before Congress about it. He appeared in a documentary about it.

Then the IRS magically showed up at his door. What are the odds, huh?

He had taken a long list of complaints to lawmakers about how the air marshals service was run, ranging from problems keeping marshals on flights to allegations of ineptitude and favoritism by managers. The same year he retired, he appeared in “Please Remove Your Shoes,” a documentary critical of the airline security measures travelers endure on every trip.

Then came the audit, which an Internal Revenue Service agent told him about the same day the movie premiered — “almost to the hour,” he said.

They told me that if I voted for Romney, we would see The Burning Times, and they were right.

Posted by: Ace at 10:16 AM | Comments (217)
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Eh.

I have a mixed mind on this one. It's zingy and snarky. But there's a real question here, which I think might be undermined, rather than advanced, by the zingy, snarky, take-that form.

Posted by: Ace at 09:55 AM | Comments (151)
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The Tea Party has gathered in DC for an anti-IRS-targeting rally. But there was also a pro-immigration rally, featuring elected Representatives as speakers, going on at about the same time.

The Capitol Hill Police, who know who sign their checks but seem to have forgotten who actually pay their salaries, attempted to keep citizens from attending a rally in a public space featuring their elected representatives.

Capitol Hill police left a voicemail for Kevin Mooneyhan, Deputy Executive Director of Tea Party Patriots, saying that "your people" only are permitted to assemble for the event on the west side of the Capitol. The activists' presence at the immigration event on the east side, supposedly violates the terms of the Tea Party's permit. Mooneyhan was instructed to move any activists who planned on attending the Tea Party rally away from the immigration event.

Keep in mind, the immigration event is hosted by sitting members of Congress. The notion that citizens can't attend an event featuring duly elected Representatives in a public space is absurd.

The Capitol Hill Police seem to have backed off.

Posted by: Ace at 09:11 AM | Comments (208)
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By the way, Matthews declares the big takeaway from Obama's struggling-with-the-text on surveillance to be "balance."

Note that in every single question put before him, President Present votes for "balance."

This is both stupid and smart. "Balance" obviously poll tests well and means whatever Obama wishes it to mean.

So why aren't we ourselves using the word for our own purposes? more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:24 AM | Comments (296)
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Damn.

Minnesota author Vince Flynn has died after a long battle with prostate cancer.

WCCO-TV has learned that Flynn died Wednesday morning at United Hospital in St. Paul.

Flynn has authored 15 novels centered around the character of Mitch Rapp, an undercover CIA agent. The majority of those novels have made it to the New York Times bestseller list.

Posted by: andy at 06:53 AM | Comments (286)
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• Government Is Just Another Name For Things We All Do Together..Like Intimidate Whistleblowers And Their Children
  
• The Regulated States Of America
  
• Obama Greeted With A Yes We Scan Sign In Germany
  
• The IRS Drags Out A 'Seminar Caller' Conservative Republican Employee To Defend The Tea Party Targeting
  
• IRS To Pay Out 70 Million In Bonuses
  
• Red Green Colorblindness Causes Deadly Train Wreck
  
• MSNBC Really Is Like The Inside Of A Psych Ward At This Point
  
• Handgun Attached To A Drone
  
• We're All Dick Cheney Now
  
• Serena Williams Weighs In On Steubenville Rape Case
  
• Elbert Guillory Switches To The Republican Party
  
• What Happens When A Reporter Asks Tough Abortion Questions To A Democrat
  
• Airlines Finally Recognizing That Some Customers Are Too Fat For Their Seats
  
• Obama Makes A Big Blunder While In Ireland
  
• Buzzfeed Reporter Dies In Car Accident
  
• Houston Man Arrested For Threatening To Kidnap And Murder Ted Cruz
  
• The Art Of The Movie Trailer
  
• Allen West To Primary Rubio?
  
• Feel Good Self Defense Story Of The Day
  
• Stories Like This Make Me Hate My Fellow Man
  

Thanks to CDR-M, DrewM and Gabe for a few of those links.

Follow me on twitter

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:29 AM | Comments (250)
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Happy Wednesday.

Sorry guys. Fighting a cold and just didn't get up early enough to dig up some links. Open thread.

/Atrios

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:48 AM | Comments (458)
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How to Explain Conservatism to Your Squishy Friends

By PJ O'Rourke.

The individual is the wellspring of conservatism. The purpose of conservative politics is to defend the liberty of the individual and - lest individualism run riot - insist upon individual responsibility.

The great religions (and conservatives are known for approving of God) teach salvation as an individual matter. There are no group discounts in the Ten Commandments, Christ was not a committee, and Allah does not welcome believers into Paradise saying, "You weren't much good yourself, but you were standing near some good people." That we are individuals - unique, disparate and willful - is something we understand instinctively from an early age. No child ever wrote to Santa: "Bring me - and a bunch of kids I've never met - a pony, and we'll share."

Virtue is famously lonely. Also vice, as anyone can testify who ever told his mother, "All the other guys were doing it." We experience pleasure separately; Ethan Hawke may go out on any number of wild dates, but I'm able to sleep through them. And, although we may be sorry for people who suffer, we only "feel their pain" when we're full of baloney and running for office.

But what about the old, the poor, the disabled, the helpless, the hopeless, the addled and the daft?

Conservatism is sometimes confused with Social Darwinism or other such me-first dogmas. Sometimes the confusion is deliberate. When those who are against conservative policies don't have sufficient opposition arguments, they call love of freedom "selfish. " Of course it is - in the sense that breathing is selfish. But because you want to breathe doesn't mean you want to suck the breath out of every person you encounter. Conservatives do not believe in the triumph of the large and powerful over the weak and useless. (Although most conservatives would make an exception to see a fistfight between Norman Schwartzkopf and George Stephanopoulos. If all people are free, George Stephanopoulos must be allowed to run loose, too, however annoying this may be.)

But some people cannot enjoy the benefits of freedom without assistance from their fellows. This may be a temporary condition - such as childhood or being me when I say I can drive home from a bar, just fine, thank you very much, at three a.m. - or, due to infirmity or affliction, the condition may be permanent. Because conservatives do not generally propose huge government programs to combat the effects of old age, illness, being a kid or drinking 10 martinis on an empty stomach, conservatives are said to be "mean-spirited."

Read the rest here.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:17 PM | Comments (849)
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Stat.

Posted by: Ace at 04:32 PM | Comments (495)
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