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Belgians whine en masse over VW pull out.

Posted by Mugged on Saturday, December 02, 2006 6:49:24 PM

 

If you get a pink slip in Brussels what do you do? Start looking for another job? Nahhhhhhhh! You take to the streets! Those wacky Euros just can't seem to make the connection between poor production and poor performance. Who's to blame? Why it's those evil, money grubbing capitalist pigs at VW. Here's a fun quote:

Francis Wurtz, French European parliament member and head of the parliament's left bloc, complained multinationals were making European workers fight each other and accept ever worse conditions.

"If we allow that to happen there will be no social Europe left," he said.

I hope our Belgian pals keep their placards and marching shoes handy, 'cause I'm sure this is just the vanguard of corporate exodus. Socialism, my Belgian brothers, has decimated every culture it's infected.

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If you can't wow 'em with profundity, whack 'em with profanity

Posted by Mugged on Friday, December 01, 2006 10:48:02 AM
   This post goes under my  "Why I abandoned liberalism" tab. Check out this over at Oliver WIllis' blog. This is a classic example of the intellectual vacuum that is liberal discourse.  Oliver's point here is that Michelle Malkin was proven wrong in her coverage of the spurious AP source dust up currently being highlighted by Michelle and others. 
    What I'm taking issue with here isn't the fact that Oliver is utterly misguided on this issue. He is. But it's the churlish, sophomoric manner in which so much liberal discussion takes places that helped to push me to the right. Pay particular attention to the comment sting on that post from Oliver.  To be sure plenty of insults are hurled at the left from conservative bloggers, but you just don't see this sort of pettiness. The lefties just consistently  spiral downward  to vulgar, personal attacks against anyone daring to disagree with their point of view. Surely if they had a coherent argument to make they'd make it. But time after time after time we see instead that kind of shill name calling supplanting legitimate debate. 

                                          Here's another taste from an earlier post of mine. 

  
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Hollyweird: Eroding your Standards since 1915

Posted by Mugged on Thursday, November 30, 2006 11:50:04 AM
   I'm open to argument on this, so if anybody wants to convince me I'm making too much out of this feel free to comment. Last weekend I took my family to the movies, and among the many previews was one for an animated feature due to be released in the US in January called Arthur and the Invisibles.
     I have no reason to think that the content of this film is suspect in any way. My misgivings are with their choice of Madonna and Snoop Dog for the voices of two of the characters. Even before his arrest earlier this week on drug charges Snoop Dog was low on my list of role models for my kids. The guy has multiple arrests just this year, and, among other unsavory  things, has even been featured in a version of the Girls Gone Wild videos ( no way I'm linking to that one!). I also don't consider Madonna with her apparent disdain for Christianity, her embrace of Kaballah, and her over all trashiness to be a paragon of moral virtue or a sterling example for my 10yr old daughter. 
     It may be argued that since they're only doing the voices their impact will be minimal. But I know from talking with my kids that they are aware of the actors behind the characters and I think it matters. Imagine if the voices were being done by Jenna Jamison and Ron Jeremy.  In my book there are only a couple of shades of difference.
     To me this seems to be another example of the subtle, slow erosion of our standards. Hollyweird: Eroding your standards since 1915
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PC trumps reason in LA schools

Posted by Mugged on Monday, November 13, 2006 2:26:57 PM
Check out this review of Kill Your Teacher over at Front Page Magazine. My wife has suggested many times that I'd make a great teacher. Here's why I never persued it. The Madness! The Madness! Here's a bit:

 Shifren tells of his referral of one student to the principal's office for discipline for stabbing another student in class with a pencil. The student soon returned to class with a taxpayer-paid community activist, designated as a "parent rep," who screamed at him in front of the class. "I'm tired of you kicking Black kids out of your class," she yelled. But Shifren points out that every student in his class was Black.
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A Letter Home From Canada

Posted by Mugged on Friday, November 10, 2006 9:56:18 AM
 

Dear Mom,

Wow! Great news about the election! We’re so looking forward to coming home to a liberated America.

There was jubilation in the streets throughout Saskatchewan to be sure. Moonbeam closed the new age book store and I took the day off from the hydroponic farm to drive into town and celebrate. And celebrate we did! There were the usual burnings of the American flag and Bush in effigy, of course. The library had children’s programs and a Noam Chomsky reading. Everywhere was a festive atmosphere. MB and I splurged and both had colonics to symbolize the cleansing of the Republican evil from the American gut..

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know we got the plane tickets you sent, and not a moment too soon as it turns out. Moonbeam slipped a disc attempting a particularly ambitious Yoga pose 19 months ago, and we’re still waiting to get an MRI. We’ve been seeing a local shaman in the meantime, but she never seems to get any better. But, hey, the wait is the least we can do to ensure universal healthcare, but see if you can get her an appointment anyway.

Uncle Steve sends his love, but, plead as we might, we weren’t able to convince him to come home with us. He’s still convinced that “that basta*d Nixon” will have him arrested at the border. We tried to convince him that Nixon was dead and that 40 yrs was long enough to wait, but he just starts mumbling and hides under the Subaru.

So, I guess we’ll be seeing you next week. My mouth is watering in anticipation of one of your tofu and goat cheese casseroles. Hug Dad for us,

Love, Woody

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France notices the speck in America's eye, ignores the board in it's own

Posted by Mugged on Thursday, November 09, 2006 4:25:53 PM
You just gotta love them Frogs. Check out this item over at Little Green Footballs.
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in loco parentis

Posted by Mugged on Thursday, November 09, 2006 11:57:34 AM
Check out Robert Shibley's response to Carol Iannone's criticism of F.I.R.E.s take on the Amy Guttman controversy.
The dust up over University of Pennsylvania president Amy Guttman appearing in photos with a student dressed as a suicide bomber at her recent Halloween party has occasioned quite a bit of negative comment within the blogosphere. F.I.R.E. holds that President Guttman has no obligation, and indeed has no business, vetting students costumes. Carol Iannone disagrees:

I admire much of what FIRE does but I think they are wrong with their libertarian absolutism and repudiation of all in loco parentis. As I’ve said before, I think colleges should exercise some degree of guidance and supervision and cultivation of students, and not pretend that they are fully mature adults, which they are so self-evidently not. 

I couldn't disagree more. It can't be at once right to censor adult students according to a traditional notion of decency and not by a more liberal one. They're both wrong. The notion that college administrators should be the arbiters of decency has caused conservative students no end of problems as liberal universities have trampled their rights with reckless abandon. Are we now to accept heavy handed (and often illegal) speech codes now that it's our sensibilities that have been offended? Neither common sense nor our constitution grant anyone the right not to be offended - a point the good folks at F.I.R.E. drive home at every opportunity.
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Yeeeouchhhh!

Posted by Mugged on Wednesday, November 08, 2006 10:29:45 AM
Well, that wasn't such a pleasant night. But, we have a whole 2 yrs in which to turn things around and a president to elect. And nothing could aid our cause more than having the Dems wreck things for 24 months. Let's Get Busy!
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I'm now a baptized Republican!!! Free at Last!!

Posted by Mugged on Tuesday, November 07, 2006 8:31:39 AM
 Well, at 7:10 am I cast my first general election Republican vote! Felt pretty good, y'all. Thank God I came to my senses before it was too late.

  Ok, then on the way to work I heard the most ironic Harold Ford ad yet from neighboring Tennessee.  It begins with "Are you conservative? Do you have traditional conservative values?" Then the sound of a needle slipping off of a vinyl record.."Then don't vote for Bob Corker!" The ad then rattled off a list of sins they imagine Bob committed against true conservatism. But the best was kept for last. The tag line was: " He's not one of us! Not by a long shot!...I'm Harold Ford and I approve this message."  I mean COME ON! The Democrat is attempting to woo conservatives by proclaiming the Republican's not one of "US." Sheesh!
   I don't know why Harold just didn't run on the Republican ticket. His entire campaign has been run as though he were.


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Ford/Corker Senate Race Spurring Heavy Early Voter Turnout in Tennessee

Posted by Mugged on Friday, November 03, 2006 2:15:49 PM
  I'm local to Chattanooga, and stong early voter turnout was the lead story on the local TV news.  You can see the Chattanooga Times Free Press story here and the same in Nashville's Tennessean here.  The last time I can remember this much electoral interest being generated in this area was the 92 Bush/Perot/Clinton debacle. Tennessee shamefully fell to Clinton in that one. My read locally is that Corker is heavily favored, but that's no doubt skewed by the fact that this is Corker's home turf. 
    Off topic a bit: During the 92 race I remember one old country guy on the local TV news declaring: "I'm votin' for Bush 'cause I don't think I can stand four years of Hillary!"  If he'd only known...   
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My Bad

Posted by Mugged on Friday, November 03, 2006 1:32:30 PM
 I just deleted a post entitled "Shameless Hypocrisy from the Academy" that I posted just a couple of hours ago. At issue in the post was the recent revelation of photos of University of Pennsylvania president Amy Guttman posing with a student dressed as a suicide bomber at her annual Halloween party. This can be found at The Democracy Project . The gist of my post was that it was very hypocritical for the president of a university allow such a get up at her party and to pose for a photo when colleges and universities routinely trample the constitutional rights of their students for far more innocent violations of their hysterical, politically correct, and illegal speech codes. I linked to several posts from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (F.I.R.E.) website citing examples of this sort of abuse coming on the heels of costumes/ costume parties deemed to be racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive.
Well, my new blog buddy edmcgon did me a great service (pigskins and politics) by pointing out that The University of Pennsylvania had no significant mentions off abuse on the F.I.R.E. site. And on checking for myself I found that F.I.R.E. actually gives U of Pa a green light (best) rating in terms of their upholding first amendment rights. Whoops!
I originally just updated the post with his comments, but on reconsideration I felt it was best to delete the post altogether since I could hardly accuse President Guttmann of hypocrisy. Much the opposite. So, I took it down.
Thanks to edmogon for the heads up. I should have done my homework on this one, and I'll be doubly circumspect and thorough with my research in future posts.
I feel the issue of freedom of speech on our campuses warrants our attention, and I encourage everyone to follow that link to the F.I.R.E website. There's tons of enlightening info there. Thanks
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GOTV at Home

Posted by Mugged on Wednesday, November 01, 2006 11:13:33 AM
    The other day I posted about the ideological debate I'm having with my Mother in Law. I later inadvertently deleted the post. Anyway, the gist of that post was that my mother in law, a devout christian in her 70s, surprised me by voicing her support of the Democrats and blaming all of our nations troubles on the Republicans. I was surprised since by any measure she's someone you'd expect to be a staunch conservative.  But a peek at her background helps to explain the disparity.
   She grew up in depression era West Virginia where her dad worked a coal mining concern. He later worked on some to the big TVA project. They were fairly poor and there was FDR coming on strong with the relief projects, so it's understandable that she grew up in a Dem leaning household.
    What's more difficult to understand is the fact that she still reflexively supports the Dems in the face of all the evidence that they've become a very different party since the 30s. Mom in law is pro-life, for lower taxes, not thrilled about gay marriage, etc, etc, etc. Yet, she adamantly refuses to even consider the evidence.
    This morning I told her that I was going to work on her for the next week about changing her party loyalty and she replied "I've been a Democrat all my life. My Momma and Daddy would roll over in their graves if I voted Republican".  Goodness!
     Last night I was with she and my Father in Law as they watched reports of the John Kerry blow up on ABC, and it seemed pretty obvious that they were pretty much accepting everything they were being told at face value.  Ok, at one point while discussing these things with her she told me that I just hadn't been paying attention to what's been going on. And yet she's getting all of her information unfiltered from the MSM!
      And there's no doubt that she'll vote come Tuesday. In Georgia a ballot cast for a Democrat is pretty much a wasted effort (as I well know from my years as a confused liberal voter), but I'm still a bit frustrated that I've not been able to break through her resistance with reason. And the whole issue underscores the danger of a media nearly unified in support of the left.
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The Wisdom of Cameron Diaz

Posted by Mugged on Monday, October 30, 2006 7:24:28 PM
Just a quickie!

I saw Michelle Malkin's post on Hollyweird on the campaign trail , and she ended with this:
   
"Will Cameron Diaz do a repeat on Oprah this year about how, like, rape could be legalized if we don't make the right voting choices?"

I'm thinking that Cameron is more insightful than she's knows, 'cause if you vote for the Jihad loving Dems you may have the Rape Sheikh  coming soon to a mosque near you!
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Jungle of Inanity

Posted by Mugged on Monday, October 30, 2006 7:14:21 PM
I just read this at Michelle Malkin's site regarding the whacked out response from Hollywood producer Don Murphy to the prolife rebuttal to Michael J. Fox's recent pro-stem cell research ads on behalf of Democratic candidates. The rebuttal ad features several Hollywood celebrities, and this guy just came unglued over this. I'd paste it here, but the language is too vile.
    This episode is a perfect example of the sort of  mindlessness from the left that drove me to conservatism. Nowhere in this tantrum does this guy attempt to address any issue. It's simply 6th grade name calling.
     He begins by accusing the ad of being morally and logically unsound and of mocking Fox, but there's nothing else to support this. Anyone who could find this ad mocking of Michael Fox would probably hear jungle drums in the background of a Bob Coker ad. He obviously thinks his point is sufficiently self-evident as to need no illumination.
     The rest of the post he simply obscenely defames the actors and ends with a call for medical experimentation on Patricia Heaton. Man o man!
      Anyone with any capacity for reason will find this sort of intellectually vacuous tripe unacceptable. This is an extreme example, but as I read more and more from the liberal blogs I found that vitriol and outrage were nearly always used in place of reason. A sure sign of an indefensible position. You simply don't hear this from the right.
       I count myself as very fortunate to have escape from this inane jungle unscathed.
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local perspective on the Ford/Coker Senate race.

Posted by Mugged on Monday, October 30, 2006 7:12:49 PM
    I live in Georgia just south of Chattanooga, Tennessee (Corker's last gig was mayor of Chattanooga), and,  while I'm obviously not voting in that race,  being local to Chattanooga I'm experiencing the media blitz. Last night one entire commercial break was nothing but Corker and Ford ads. It's pretty intense.
  So now we're hearing charges of subtle racism in a couple of Corker's ads and I wanted to weigh in with my take.
  As anyone can see from my last post I'm an erstwhile liberal, so my credentials as a "typical southern white male republican" might be a little weak. But in any case I can tell you that until the MSM brought up charges of racism in that now infamous Corker ad it never once occurred to me that this was a white woman entreating a black man to "call me". The race of neither the actress or Ford ever were at issue. Didn't notice. Never.
   In fact, and this is actually pretty surprising to me, I never really thought of Harold in terms of race from the outset. To me he was first and foremost a Democrat. His race never entered my mind while making my assessment of the guy. Honestly.
   Sorry lefties, but the brand of racism you all depend on for rationalization and, in some cases, your very livelihoods doesn't actually exist in todays south - at least as I know it. There are, of course, isolated pockets of knuckle draggers, but they are very marginalized and insignificant. My experience has been one of racial harmony, in the main.
    Anyway, back to the race. The Chatanooga Times Free Press ran about a page on each candidate this morning. There was no real bias that I could discern. At one point in the piece though, a woman described him as a "rock star".  First Obama, now Ford? Oy!
     The next next few days promise to be interesting
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