KEILLOR: A SELF-RIGHTEOUS FOOL

This review of a book by the righteous Garrison Keillor is amusing. After hearing a torrent of mindless abuse directed at conservatives in the usual Leftist style, we learn that in his youth Keillor "joined the campus radio station, unwittingly broadcasting the news for six months to nobody because the transmitter had burned out". Definitely a man of good judgment and realism, wouldn't you say? Sounds like typical Leftist lack of reality-checking to me. Like all Leftists, Keillor asserts that anyone who does not share his simplistic approach to welfare therefore opposes all welfare -- completely ignoring the fact that the three greatest welfare innovators in history -- Disraeli, Bismarck and TR -- were all conservatives! See here. Did you ever wonder why the U.S. Social Security Administration has a picture of this Prussian militarist up on their site? It's not only because of his great hat.

From Keillor, you would never guess that twenty-seven out of thirty-three Republican senators supported the famous 1964 civil rights bill or that twenty-one Democrat senators voted against it. And the Garrison that Garrison Keillor was named after was presumably the great anti-slavery activist, William Lloyd Garrison, who "remained an active Republican until his death in 1879". Leftists are good at propaganda but only because they ignore the facts. (Link to the review via What If).

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ELSEWHERE

About the occupation of conquered Germany just after World War 2: "John Dos Passos, a communist, wrote in Life magazine in January 1946, "Americans Are Losing the Victory.. Never has American prestige in Europe been lower," a phrase oft repeated by former Vice President Al Gore when speaking about Iraq."

German TV loved Michael Moore and the Abu Ghraib abuses but not a single station has agreed to broadcast a more balanced account of U.S. troops in Iraq. Childish envy of America's dynamism and power is what they display.

Another group of "social" Christians shows what they are: "By an overwhelming vote of its general assembly, the Presbyterian Church USA, boasting 3 million members, is siding with Palestinian Arabs and against Israel, choosing to divest from the Jewish state as it did only with apartheid South Africa.

Iran and El Qaeda : "A senior U.S. official told TIME that the Commission has uncovered evidence suggesting that between eight and ten of the 14 "muscle" hijackers-that is, those involved in gaining control of the four 9/11 aircraft and subduing the crew and passengers-passed through Iran in the period from October 2000 to February 2001. Sources also tell TIME that Commission investigators found that Iran had a history of allowing al-Qaeda members to enter and exit Iran across the Afghan border". See also here.

Sometimes in war you need to kill people to win: "Faced with implacable enemies who would kill every man, woman, and child in our country and call the killing good (the ultimate war of attrition), we must be willing to use that power wisely, but remorselessly. We are, militarily and nationally, in a transition phase. Even after 9/11, we do not fully appreciate the cruelty and determination of our enemies. We will learn our lesson, painfully, because the terrorists will not quit. The only solution is to kill them and keep on killing them: a war of attrition. But a war of attrition fought on our terms, not theirs".

Rap music: "For some people this music is a religion.... It's a body language, it's a way of speaking. It's a creed. It's literally a religion." It's a religion that McWhorter finds deeply repellent. In his interpretation, rap preaches "recreational outrage" to the black community, encouraging "oppositionalism" for the sake of it. McWhorter's main gripe is with gangsta rap, which originated in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s and represented, for a time at least, the music's most popular genre.... "The point is the thug attitude is what anchors rap and what sells most," he says. "No matter how much consciousness rap brings, no matter how many cuts there are that are constructive, what really drives it is that thug pose.

One bishop who does not waffle: "Denver's Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput was interviewed on Colorado Public Radio about his position in the debate over giving communion for Catholic public officials who support abortion. He wrote a column, one of a continuing series, in which he said that Catholics' who support abortion are not really Catholics, but "a very different kind of creature."" (Via Mark Shea)

"Homophobia"? "The idea that opposition to homosexual activity and its public sanction is equivalent to or leads to hatred of individual homosexuals is a "big lie" created to demonize, intimidate, and silence opponents of the "gay rights" agenda. And the data confirms the "big lie." Every crime of violence against another human being is reprehensible, but according to the latest FBI Hate Crimes statistics, it is estimated that less than 0.0001 of homosexuals were victims of violent assaults; not exactly an epidemic of homophobic rage spreading across America"

Wayne Lusvardi has a rather Straussian account of why the USA invaded Iraq here. I myself think it was simpler than that. Saddam was the most dangerous and defiant anti-American in the Middle East so was the logical next target after Afghanistan. The invasion was a lesson that America WILL strike back when attacked.

Marc Miyake and David Boxenhorn are having an amusing debate about "existence". They seem to think that believing in existence is an act of faith! I would like to know what a non-faith belief was like in that case!

Australian illustrator Kilmeny Niland, one of the two artistic daughters of famous Australian author D'Arcy Niland has just put up a most impressive gallery of her art. How do I know that? Australian philosopher Rafe Champion tells me so. I believe he has a personal interest in the matter.

Wicked Thoughts is recommending an essay by Tom Wolfe and has a link to a hilarious story about the Nigerian scammers.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

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Puzzle 1: Leftists always say that human nature is fundamentally good and that people can be trusted. So why do they say that whilst at the same time wanting to regulate everybody to death and take as many decisions and choices out of the hands of the individual as they possibly can? Easy: They say that about human nature because, if it is true, then THEY are good at heart and can be trusted -- and, given their destructive deeds, they need all the propaganda help they can get in that regard.

Puzzle 2: Why do "postmodern" Leftists make the strange claim that everything ever written has to be interpreted in terms of how it serves power? Easy: Because everything THEY say is directed towards getting themselves power

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