Farenheit meets its match in Michael Medved.

Jews defending Christianity--has the world gone topsy-turvy?

No. It is the children that are to blame.

UPDATE: Here's Krauthammer defending Christmas.

Also very good.

the UNPOPULIST

Posted by: Ace at 09:15 PM | Comments (4)
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That Rob A.

Rob A. runs a good site.

Don't see something that interests you right away? Just scroll.

Scroll, scroll, scroll.

Rob A. is the man.

I steal from Rob A. big time.

the UNPOPULIST

Posted by: Ace at 09:06 PM | Comments (2)
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Gonzalez' approval today by the Senate Judiciary Committee reminded me of the frustrating Committee hearings on the AG nominee earlier this month.
Then I remembered - I did a post about those hearings! IOW, this a retread.

Dear Inconsiderate Jackass,

Just a quick note to let you know that I would appreciate it if you could turn your freaking guitar amplifier down to, oh, say, somewhere below the volume of a Ted Nugent concert, after 10:00 PM. Also, while I'm sure it's a lot of fun to play the first twelve notes of "Smoke On the Water" for hours on end, listening to it is enough to make you want to slash your...

Wait, that's the wrong letter. Oh, here it is:

Mr. WuzzaDem,

Thanks for taking time to interview with us recently. Unfortunately, upon further review of your resume, we have found several inconsistencies, including the fact that you claim to have spent the last three years working for the former employer of our Human Resources Director, who says he has never heard of...

That's not it either (I didn't even write that one). Ah! Here we are:

Dude,

Pull your head out! Even if Wile E. Coyote did manage to somehow buy the rocket-powered skates from Acme (and you still haven't explained where he'd get the money, and I'm not buying your "trust fund" theory), there is no way he could hang in mid-air for a full three seconds once he went off a cliff...

OK, this embarrassing. Sorry, I know the letter's around here somewhere, I'll post it as soon as I find it.

Posted by John from WuzzaDem

Posted by: Ace at 07:54 PM | Comments (4)
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Every time I link My Pet Jawa over on *The* Official Blog Of The 2005 Glutton Bowl, nobody seems to care, least of all Jawa. Ace and Jawa get along, however, so perhaps he'll think this link is from Ace.

In this excellent post Jawa spends an inordinate amount of time concerning himself with a clueless dolt.

Jawa's bottom line? This "national security" thing is hard, people.

-- Dave at Garfield Ridge

Posted by: Ace at 07:27 PM | Comments (7)
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The far-left British publication The Guardian is really scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to slamming President Bush.

The Guardian - It is perhaps not the best omen for US foreign affairs. Local historians in Wexford have discovered that George Bush is a descendant of Strongbow, the power-hungry warlord who led the Norman invasion of Ireland thus heralding 800 years of mutual misery.

With a long line of Scots Irish presidents including Woodrow Wilson, the Irish are normally quick to claim US leaders as their own. But, despite President Bush's large Ulster Scots vote in the American Bible belt, Ireland had let his family escape the genealogical microscope.

But now Ann Griffin Bernstorff, an artist working on a tapestry to commemorate Ireland's Norman heritage, has discovered what she claims is the Bushs' missing Irish link.

Ms Griffin Bernstorff was researching Strongbow's son-in-law, William Marshal, when she discovered the connection. A descendant of Marshal married Anne Marbury Hutchinson, a famous 16th century religious dissenter who had already been linked to Mr Bush.

"It is one of those bizarre developments," she said. "We traced the Bush genealogy through a Republican source in Chicago and found it was correct. People here are absolutely shocked. I'm not sure what the wider reaction will be, Bush has not been seen as a great friend of the Irish."

So Bush is related to an ancient warlord.

By marriage.

And this is supposed to provide us with some sort of meaningful commentary on the President and his administration? That's pretty pathetic. I'll bet the editors at The Guardian are cursing the fact that Bush isn't of German or Austrian heritage so they could trace a tenuous connection to Hitler and validate the complaints of moonbat protesters around the globe.

[Cross-posted at Say Anything]

Posted by: Ace at 06:10 PM | Comments (13)
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Between work and posting on two great blogs that taste great together, I didnÂ’t have a lot of time to read my usual haunts, like The Corner. So, even if it's old hat to some of you, I totally missed this story:

Senator Barbara Boxer is writing a novel.

The novel will tell a tale of personal friendships and betrayal, political in-fighting and pragmatism. The novel follows Ellen from her days as an idealistic college student, through romantic entanglements, to a difficult marriage to a rising political star. When her husband is killed, she steps into his campaign for the Senate and is elected. On the eve of a crucial senate vote, her personal and political worlds collide when her right-wing adversaries recruit her former lover to sabotage her credibility and career.

Now, I can't be certain, but this sounds autobiographical. Except that part about the dead husband. BoxerÂ’s divorced, but her husband is very much alive.

For now.

Hey, youÂ’ve got to write what you know. And if Barbara Boxer knows anything, itÂ’s passionate, hot romance.

Really, her novel sounds action packed. An incredibly riveting page-turner, in the tradition of the Da Vinci Code, or Highlights for Children. Man, that crazy Goofus, I just can't get enough of his silly antics!

I sure do hope Senator Boxer goes on Oprah to promote her novel. Because Oprah really asks the tough questions, you know? Hey, if we're lucky, maybe Boxer will appear on the same episode Oprah wheels out her next barrow of fat!

Hmmm. I wonder what other book ideas might be out there waiting in Congress?

-- Senator Ted Kennedy, “Zen And The Art Of Defensive Driving Under The Influence”

-- Barney Frank, “The Homeowners Guide To Discrete Subletting”

-- John McCain, “Choosing Sides: Why I’m A Republican Democrat”

-- Chuck Hagel, “Sides I Choose: Why I’m A Democrat Republican”

-- Trent Lott, "Things You Should Never Say At A Birthday Party."

-- Jim Jeffords, "Seven Habits Of Highly Ineffective People."

-- The General Printing Office, “Cox, Dicks, and Swett: The Best Names In Congress, 1787-2005”

-- John Lieberman, “101 Yiddish Words For Irrelevance”

-- John Kerry, “The Irishman Who Went Up A River And Came Down A Presidential Loser”

-- Charlie Rangel, “Things I Like To Snack: A Coffee Table Book”

-- Joe Biden, “John Grisham’s The Firm”

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

Posted by: Ace at 05:51 PM | Comments (5)
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Also posted at The Urban Grind

So says the International Organization for Migration, which is closely allied to the U.N.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Rich countries poach doctors and nurses that poor nations spend millions to train, taxing already underfunded, over-stretched hospitals in Africa and elsewhere, according to a report released Wednesday.

Have they taken into account the fact that these doctors are moving to the U.S. and Europe for a better life for themselves and their families. I guess not. For them, the prosperous nations are to blame, as if these doctors had no free will of their own.

Poor nations, meanwhile, spend $500 million a year training health workers, according to the report presented at a two-day meeting to discuss the impact of the migration of Africans.

Now if they're so poor, where on earth do they get $500 million from. I doubt it's from their dictators. If anything, I should think it's from developed countries who, for one thing, make available their medical journals at not cost to the developing countries.

Or how about presitigious U.S. medical schools, such as the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York?

In Nigeria, health workers blame mismanagement by a succession of corrupt military and civilian regimes for the economic woes of the past two decades that have continued to force them abroad.

Poor salaries are paid late and overworked doctors have to work with outdated equipment, leaving most dissatisfied and eager to leave, said John Adebowale, a general practitioner at the Lagos Island Hospital in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos.

What kind of doctor would want to work under such conditions?

The character of Dr. Hendriks in Ayn Rand's Magnum Opus "Atlas Shrugged" put it best:

I quit when medicine was placed under state control some years ago...Do you know what it takes to perform a brian operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward. I observed in all the discussions that preceded the enslavement of medicine, men discussed everything -- except the desires of the doctors. Men considered only the 'welfare' of the patients, with no thought for those who were to provide it. That a doctor should have any right, desire or choice in the matter, was regarded as irrelevant selfishness; his is not to choose, they said, only 'to serve.' That a man who's willing to work under compulsion is too dangerous a brute to entrust with a job in the stockyards -- never occurred to those who proposed to help the sick by making life impossible for the healthy. I have often wondered at the smugness with which people assert their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind -- yet what is it they expect to depend on when they lie on an operating table under my hands? Their moral code has taught them to believe that it is safe to rely on the virtue of their victims. Well that is the virtue I have withdrawn. Let them discover the kind of doctors that their system will now produce. Let them discover in their operating rooms and hospital wards, that it is not safe to place their lives in the hands of a man whose life they have throttled. It is not safe, if he is the sort of man who resents it -- and still less safe if he is the sort who doesn't.

So what is the IOM doing about this?

Ndiaye told The Associated Press that the IOM is working to have rich countries pay for professionals from poor countries to return home and work there for an unspecified time each year.

That's it. Just keep on penalizing success and see where that takes you. I guess these people are impervious to the concept of laissez-faire capitalism. What if those doctors don't want to return to Africa?

Do they take into account that several U.S. medical schools offer their students the opportunity to work in developing countries, as a course elective? A SUNY in Brooklyn does, as does the Loyola medical school. Obviously this doesn't count for the IOM.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Posted by: Ace at 04:53 PM | Comments (15)
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"Fork over the royalties, kid!"

Via Drudge:

WolfyÂ’s, a lower Broadway restaurant and bar, was sued by the performing rights organization ASCAP Monday for failing to pay royalties for music played in the nightclub over the past several years.

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Nashville after attempting for several years to collect payment from WolfyÂ’s, said Vincent Candilora, ASCAPÂ’s Nashville-based senior vice president of licensing.

“We went in there literally 10, 15 times, and they keep just kind of thumbing their nose at us. This is what will happen eventually,” Candilora said.

"Hey, I'm jus' sayin'; sumthin' could happen if youse ain't careful."

More from the article:

The suits allege that the establishments have publicly performed the copyrighted musical works of ASCAPÂ’s member songwriters, composers and music publishers without permission.

I guess that sounds reasonable. So who are they suing? This past weekend I heard the owner of a small dry cleaner calling in to one of those 'free legal advice' radio shows. He said that ASCAP representatives had visited his small, family-owned business three times in the past two weeks to inform him that he was going to have to start paying them, because he plays CDs in the background while his business is open, so, technically, he is 'using the artists' works as entertainment for his clients'.

Does he have a dance floor in the pick-up area?
Is he hosting 'Karaoke Tuesdays'?
Do people come in to hear the bitchin' tunes blasting from giant speakers?
No - it's a dry cleaner.

And here are some of the other businesses currently being sued by ASCAP:

The Back Porch

Saddlerack

Joe's Cafe

Hundred South Grille

Buffalo Billiards

American Sports Cafe

Buffalo Tap & Grille

Soulard Ale House

Scuttlebutts Restaurant and Bar

The attorneys from that call-in show told the dry cleaner that they didn't think he could successfully fight ASCAP. They're probably right. According to this article (again via Drudge):

During 2004, ASCAP achieved a 100% success rate with its copyright infringement litigation, with all concluded cases resulting in either a cash settlement or a judgment in favor of ASCAP members.

For the music industry, this is a PR move on par with suing a five-year-old for illegally downloading Sesame Street's greatest hits.

Maybe Nickie Goomba could have a little talk wit' dese ASCAP guys. Hey, I'm jus' sayin'

Posted by John from WuzzaDem

Update: Ted, the owner of Buffalo Billiards, wrote me to say that he has no other choice but to play CDs in his establishment. According to Ted:

The radio reception in there sucks, and my ex-wife trashed the jukebox because she was sick of people playing "Werewolves of London" just so they could do their impression of Tom Cruise in "The Color of Money."

Posted by: Ace at 04:21 PM | Comments (3)
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I figure that as long as I have access to AceÂ’s wonderful, plentiful readership, I might as well ask you a question I'm sure you have an opinion on.

Before we delve too deeply into the subject, a few comments.

I love movies. I consider myself a conservative. However, I donÂ’t see any aesthetic requirement for the movies I enjoy to be conservative.

First and foremost, movies-- and their snobby siblings, “films”-- are entertainment. Whatever politics they may contain, whatever positions they espouse, in the end, we go to movies to enjoy ourselves. While it's possible that you might learn something, a movie is not a documentary. While it's possible that you might have your political views challenged, a movie is not a peer-reviewed essay in Foreign Affairs.

I am a strong subscriber to the Jonah Goldberg School Of Conservatism, which stipulates that conservatism is only a partial philosophy of life. Like he, I believe that just because a conservative shops at Fresh Fields doesnÂ’t make them a traitor to the One True Faith. In the end, itÂ’s just food, not a way of life.

My politics are just a part of my life. Yes, it's an important part that certainly influences aspects of my life, but nevertheless, itÂ’s only a part. Quite simply, IÂ’m too busy living my life to bother being ideological in my choice of art, or fashion, or car. Besides, if I limited myself to only conservative art, IÂ’d never savor the hotness of Cameron Diaz, envy the studliness of George Clooney, or enjoy the bitchinÂ’ tunes of lesbian punk rockers Sleater-Kinney.

Bottom line: I find a painting pretty because itÂ’s pretty. If the painter wears a Che t-shirt to the gallery opening I couldn't care less.

Even if you share my perspective we can all agree, however, that some movies embody conservative or liberal values more than others, either intentionally or incidentally. For instance, simply off the top of my head, here are some movies commonly identified as “conservative” films:

Red Dawn. One, it portrays the communists as Very Bad Men. Two, it’s an unapologetic defense of the 2nd Amendment. Three, it stars Powers “600 Million Screaming Chinamen” Boothe. I dunno his political affiliation, but he *ought* to be conservative.

Forrest Gump. Every person has a life of value, even the people we think little of. Live your life in loyalty to your family, friends and country, and you will prosper. Live your life like Jessica Cutler, and you will die an early & painful death, and be buried under a tree.

A Simple Plan. Both Jonah Goldberg and George Will called this Sam Raimi film one of the most conservative films ever made. Its lesson was simple: crime doesnÂ’t pay, especially when youÂ’re facing down Gary Cole.

Anyways, now I pose my question to you, the readers:

Which movies do you think are conservative, and why?

---
UPDATE: Over at The Perfect World, Aaron Burr, a.k.a. Jeff Larkin posted a discussion in August on this very same topic. Some enlightening context there.

Ghostbusters as a conservative film? Hmmm. . . I must ponder. . .

-- Dave at Garfield Ridge

Posted by: Ace at 04:00 PM | Comments (30)
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Man who referred to 9/11 victims as 'little Eichmanns' will headline a discussion at Hamilton College.

The best line in the story is this:

Hamilton College spokesman Michael DeBraggio said "to deny students the opportunity to encounter people outside the academic community is to fail to provide a liberal education."

I have a feeling the students are getting a good enough liberal education right on campus.

Cross-posted at Alarming News.

Posted by: Ace at 02:23 PM | Comments (6)
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