Watch it, then judge for yourself.

The Hysterical Heart-Ache Machine claims, of course, that conservatives' dislike of the question is due to the fact that the South is anti-semitic, and any "taint" of Jewish blood would be bad for George Allen:

The premise of this argument is that many Southern voters are anti-Semitic. Is that Hugh Hewitt's belief, as well as his colleague, Dean Barnett's? (Hat tip: Mike.) Here's the video, where Allen regards asking about his Jewish inheritance is a way to cast "aspersions" on him.

Note that the statement he mischaracterizes is in fact offered by a Jew, who was himself offended by the question.

Over at National Review Online's The Corner, there also seems to be some debate as to whether Allen's annoyance at the question indicates some sort of anti-semitism or at least mean-spiritedness.

I don't think so.

Watch the question again. Listen as the questioner links the question the "macaca" imbroglio. Note how she doesn't ask if there is any Jewish heritage in his family, but rather "when that Jewish heritage ended." The question, in other words, isn't about whether or not Allen has a Jewish heritage, but when, precisely, his nigger-hatin' white-supremacist Christianist mother chose to turn her back on her Jewish roots and purge any Jewishness from her descendants.

That's what the question was about. And that's what rankled Allen.

For God's sakes.

The question was not simply asking if his grandfather Felix was Jewish. It was asking why the Allen family had decided to "end" its "Jewish heritage."

Newsflash: In any interfaith marriage, the kids can be raised as one faith, the other faith, or a hybrid sort of non-faith that incorporates the traditions of both (with an awful lot of inherent contradiction in religious dogma).

This particular questioner was suggesting that it was wrong, wrong, wrong for Allen's mother to have raised George Allen as an evil Christian rather than a Jew.

It was the perfect Gotcha question, admitting of few good responses. Which is precisely why it was asked. It's a variation of "When did you stop beating your wife?" It's just "When did your family decide to become self-hating Jew-hatin' heritage-deniers?"

No one ever asked John Kerry why his grandfather had decided to turn his back on Judaism in a debate.

Update: Dean Barnett, who is Jewish,* who posted a comment crying foul about this question from a reader, who is also Jewish, responds to Andrew Goldfarb Sullivan's accusations that he is not sufficiently senstive to Jewish slurs.

Andrew Sullivan's got a full plate. He's not conservative, but is the self-appointed spokesman for "true conservativism," and he's not Jewish, but is now, apparently, bucking to get Abe Foxman's job at the ADL, and criticizing Jewish writers for being too stupid to know when they should be offended.

(Previously, of course, he declared himself no longer Catholic and then, upon the ascension of Benedict to Pope, began explaining to the Catholic Church what "true Catholicism" ought to look like.)

Okay, I can play that game. I'm not gay, but I hereby appoint myself Spokesman for True Homosexuality, and as my first action in this capacity, I declare that Andi really ought to suck on a nice fat shut-the-fuck-up dick, because really, you're embarrassing the rest of us homos.

* At least I think he's Jewish. He tried to sell me a rug and other schmattas when I met him.

I would have asked if he were Jewish or not, but that's considered impolite, so I simply socially ostracized him and accused him of murdering Jesus behind his back.

Posted by: Ace at 11:43 AM | Comments (64)
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For God's sakes, people are being slapped in the belly. Slapped. In the belly.

And yet some weisenheimers think it's funny.

Like this militant Christianist.

Or this evil neocon personally responsible for selling "the soul of conservativism" to the Devil for 600 pieces of silver. (Inflation.)

It's a good premise, so I'll steal it.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:14 AM | Comments (64)
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Maybe this is why Ace left town. Let's see if the infestation hits Boston next.

By SEWELL CHAN

Published: September 19, 2006

New York City is experiencing a dramatic resurgence in bedbugs — those pesky oval insects that hide in the crevices of furniture and feast on human blood at night — and officials are confounded about how best to respond.

Moreover, city officials revealed yesterday that state regulators had failed to publish standards for sanitizing used mattresses and box springs before they can be resold — even though such standards were supposed to be developed years ago. The proliferation of secondhand furniture is believed to be one factor in the rise in bedbug infestations.

Although bedbugs are not considered a major health threat because they do not transmit disease, they can cause itchy welts and often require expensive exterminations. In the last fiscal year, the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development received 4,638 complaints about bedbugs in rental housing — nearly five times as many as in the previous year.

Gotta love the New York Times. They can't even report on bedbugs without immediately assuming that this illustrates the need for more government regulations. Why not just let the bedbugs bite until people get wise about buying used mattresses?

Another Reason City Never Sleeps: More Bedbugs

Posted by: Ace at 10:08 AM | Comments (17)
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Militant homosexualist Andrew Sullivan links TPMCafe for "proof" of this.

Apparently he missed the Gallup poll. He sure doesn't bother to mention it.

As they say: You can have your own opinions, but you can't have your own facts.

Unless you're a lunatic. If so, have a party.

Related: Dutch researchers claim that hearing voices in one's head is "normal."

Hearing voices in your head is so common that it is normal, psychologists believe.
Dutch findings suggest one in 25 people regularly hears voices.

Contrary to traditional belief, hearing voices is not necessarily a symptom of mental illness, UK researchers at Manchester University say.

Indeed, many who hear voices do not seek help and say the voices have a positive impact on their lives, comforting or inspiring them.

Rove... Abu Ghraib... Rove... Madonna...
Beagles... Rove... Rove forcing beagles to form
sexual dog-pyramids... P-Town... Rove...
Rove wearing Speedos on a beach in P-Town
and smearing fake menstrual blood all over beagles...

Correction: Hubris notes that Andi mentioned the Gallup poll today, briefly, tucked into yet another Hate-Rove post. Also, he notes that Andi's post came yesterday, when Gallup's poll only came out midnight yesterday-- after he'd posted his no-bounce-for-Bush post. My apologies.

However, he's still guilty of serious cherry-picking. The FoxNews OpinionDynamics poll, which came out three or four days ago, had the House race within the margin of error, and also showed a five point uptick for Bush.

In his Hate-Rove post, he says he's "struck" by the uptick for Bush. Well, sure. Because he hasn't been paying atttention, and almost exclusively reads leftwing blogs, which of course provide him with nothing but Bush-bashing and bad news for the GOP.

Credit Where Credit's Due: I should mention that that brilliant parody jpg comes from McGurk, who made some changes to Sullivan's blog illo.

Posted by: Ace at 09:54 AM | Comments (62)
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Major, Major Correction. See below.

At least that's the plan.

Not to rap on Dean Esmay too much, but there is nonjudgmentalism and then there is willful naivete. Perhaps he should talk to the Muslims about to kill Christians for the greivous crime of prosyletizing masterminding a massacre and ask them whether Islam is, at least as currently practiced by, yes, a majority of the world's Muslims, a violent, intolerant, totalitarian creed. (See Correction.)

A majority? Well, hey, when 40-60% of the world's Muslims say they support Osama bin Ladin, it simply does not obtain to claim we're simply talking about "a few bad apples."

1% is a "a few bad apples." 5% is a not-so-few bad apples.

40-60% is either a very strong minority or outright majority.

A Few Bad Apples In Palestinian Sixth-Grade Classrooms: What a lovely textbook for eleven-year-olds:

As if things weren't crazy enough already in the Middle East, here's the officially sanctioned message in sixth-grade Palestinian textbooks for 11- and 12-year-old kids: "The noble soul has two goals: death and the desire for it."

The goal isn't to build magnificent skyscrapers or write brilliant novels or to work on cures for the world's most lethal diseases. The noble goal for the noble soul is as simple as strapping on a dynamite belt and blowing oneself into a million pieces in an Israeli pizza shop.

The "death-and-the-desire-for-it" line is from a poem by Abd al-Rahim Mahmoud. Along with other writings that glorify child martyrs, the quote is included in "Our Beautiful Language," a standard text for sixth-graders after the Palestinian Liberation Organization took control over education in the Palestinian territories.

As officially stated, the underlying ethos of the Palestinian curriculum is "built on the principle of breeding the individual on the basis of serving society as a whole." Translated, that means breeding kids who believe suicide and murder are noble, who believe it's noble to create a society where the individual reaches his highest stage of development by extinguishing his own individualism, his own existence.

Whether Islam is inherently violent is an unknown. Certainly there are non-violent strains of Islam.

But the industry-standard of Islam currently selling the most units seems to come pre-configured for violence.

Correction To Lead Piece: Read the f'n' article, Ace. RTFA.

I made a major and seriously embarrassing error on the lead story. The Christians are not being executed for prosyletizing. Where I got that, I don't know, but that's what I thought the story was about since it's been running. I think I conflated this case with previous cases.

That's not an excuse, it's an explanation. I was horribly sloppy here.

The Christians are being executed for their alleged role in a massacre of Muslims.

Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marinus Riwa were condemned to death because they were found guilty of masterminding a massacre of 200 Muslims in Poso during inter-faith clashes in 2000. Their case has drawn international attention, with both Christian leaders and human-rights activists protesting that the court convicted them under heavy pressure from Islamic militants.

Big thanks to the commenters who caught this huge error. Thank you all.

Posted by: Ace at 09:21 AM | Comments (13)
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The headline here seems to oversell the "pornstar" thing. It's not clear if this movie-- All in the Family -- is actually what we think of as "porn" or just Cinemax-style bump-and-grinding, or even less than that.

John Travolta, meanwhile, dogged by gay rumors all his life, decides to kiss a man on the lips while the papparazzi snaps pictures.

Could just be one of those European things. It's not a tongue kiss or anything.

Either way, hey, I'm a fan. Never got the whole "sexy" thing about him, but I've always found him very likable.

The whispers about TravoltaÂ’s sexuality which have plagued his movie career almost from the outset are now reaching a crescendo.

Indeed, one Los Angeles casting director described the photograph as 'an absolute disaster' for the actor.

No wonder the Pulp Fiction and Grease star is said to be seething — not least because the rumours are threatening his position as one of Hollywood’s leading men.

Could the pictures really be proof that one of the movie worldÂ’s biggest heart-throbs of the past 30 years has been living a double life strikingly at odds with his family man image?

Suffice to say this is not the most opportune time for the 52-year-old Travolta to be filming his latest role — in which he dresses in drag to play a woman in the oh-so-camp musical Hairspray.

Equally ill-timed for him were reports this week that Jennifer Lopez — his would-be leading lady in the upcoming big-screen version of Dallas — turned down the role of his wife Sue Ellen because she decided Travolta is not 'macho' enough to be the double-dealing JR Ewing.

And if that were not enough to darken his mood, there continue to be wild and fanciful claims that his marriage to actress Kelly Preston was arranged by the shadowy cult-like religion of Scientology, of which he is a leading disciple.

Hardly surprising, then, that TravoltaÂ’s PR team at the influential William Morris Agency in Beverly Hills has been holding crisis meetings in an attempt to limit the fall-out.

If you're going to have a beard-wife, might as well make it Kelly Preston. Don't settle for half-measures. Get yourself a full-on bodacious piece of ass.

It may be a "crisis," but I, for one, am just reading about this ten days after the story broke.

Gayness seems to be a dealbreaker for leading men in romantic roles, but I think Travolta could actually break that taboo. After all, gay or not, he's definitely strange, and his strangeness hasn't really held him back all that much.

Has he really played a lot of classic "romantic lead" roles, anyway? I can't think of any off the top of my head. Usually he's in genre pictures in which the romantic plot is definitely of the sub variety.

Thanks to RLW and The Daily Gut.

Posted by: Ace at 09:02 AM | Comments (26)
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It's not everything. And 700 miles isn't all that long. But it's something.

And the conservative base's preferred policy -- security first, and only after the border is secured any debate about amnesty or a "path to citizenship" -- seems to have been heard by the Senate leadership.

Frist's blog/press release site:

"Border security is the essential first step of any effort to enact immigration reform. Only when we have convinced the American people of our commitment to securing our borders will we be able reach a consensus on comprehensive immigration reform. Tonight, I filed cloture on the motion to proceed to the Secure Fence Act of 2006 which will authorize the construction of physical barriers and deploy state-of-the-art technology to secure our border.”

The Secure Fence Act of 2006:

· Authorizes over 700 miles of two-layered reinforced fencing along the southwest border with prioritized placement at critical, highly populated areas and requiring an evaluation of infrastructure needs along the northern border;

· Mandates that DHS achieve and maintain operational control over the entire border through a “virtual fence” that deploys cameras, ground sensors, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and integrated surveillance technology...

You revolted; they backed down. Democracy works. They're afraid of you, and that's a pretty good thing. From Harriet Miers to immigration to spending reform, the conservative base has whipsawed the wayward GOP back into something at least resembling conservative positions.

I guarantee you you won't have that kind of influence with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

I don't know if this will pass. I do know that this is popular with the American people, and any who take a stand against this are putting their electoral fortunes at risk.

I hope John McCain opposes it. I really do. Let the mask be pulled from his face and let the American public see him as the out-of-touch, liberal-leaning politically grandstanding and morally preening peacock he is.

Via Kausfiles, which notes that the New York Times and rest of the mainstream "respectable" media has been saying for weeks that any immigration legislation was dead, dead, dead, and the crazy rightwing Washington Times has been one of the few newspapers saying "It's not quite dead yet."

Posted by: Ace at 08:49 AM | Comments (8)
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Riehl's got it. Riehl opens the piece by suggesting this is confirmed and then later indicates it's supposition (though of a fairly strong sort).

He was definitely snapping pictures in the moments just before Salvatore Sanore's murder.

The Pentagon insists that Bilal had "strong insurgent ties," or, as the AP refers to them, "good, solid contacts within the kidnapping-and-execution community."

Posted by: Ace at 08:38 AM | Comments (7)
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Looks that way.

MKH is following the story.

This sounds like the real deal:

Army television broadcast images of the royal family and songs associated with past military coups.

My big question was whether this was a) a pro-Islamist coup or b) an anti-Islamist coup or c) not really having much to do with Islam at all. Based on MKH's post, the answer looks like c).

Apparently it's about serious allegations of corruption against the PM.

Meanwhile: Rioting In Hungary. Based upon the government lying about the economy in order to dishonestly win the election.

Posted by: Ace at 08:22 AM | Comments (22)
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Okay, the pictures aren't really that good.

Still, Sweden's stock market is soaring.

A little thing I didn't get around to mentioning:

Before the elections, the New York Times was spinning for the socialist government. It claimed it would be hard for the conservative(ish) parties to win, because the socialists had given Sweden (and I quote) "high growth."

High growth. High growth which should have gotten the incumbent government re-elected.

What was the high growth?

4.1%.

Know any other countries having an election where the incumbent party has managed "high growth" of 4.1% or higher?

Has the New York Times ever called America's growth rate "high"? Okay, I admit, it's probably slipped out at one point or another.

But have they ever mentioned America's "high growth" as a reason Democrats ought to have trouble winning the midterms?

Posted by: Ace at 08:06 AM | Comments (6)
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