Factors Militating Journalistic Renaissance Action

by Smitty

6. And thus did the dextrosphere send forth its quixotic champion, the heir to the gonzo pen, His Angus Youngsterness, Robert Stacy McCain.
7. The readers indeed rejoiced, for they received constant insights, interesting exclusives, and intriguing anecdotes.
8. Despite all that, or perhaps because of it, the Foe waxed pissed, and spake harshly unto the Fell Minions and saith: "Who will rid me of this meddlesom priest of Real Journalism?"
9. And the Fell Minions were like: "Dude, Alisnky didn't say jack about what to do with The Mac."
--The Annals of Stacy McCain, CIV 6-9

NY-23
This blog thanks everyone for their excellent support. Help us help you on the FMJRA goodness by emailing your URLs to Smitty for inclusion.
Legal Insurrection honored Stacy's efforts with the Special Alert position on the top left column. Thank you, sir.

• Instapundit picked us up last Saturday asking the Wo ist die Sarah? question.
• SI VIS PACEM was initially cautious on the Sarah Palin endorsement. Then Ran went for the grass fire angle, hoping that the Hoffman excitement transfers to Marco Rubio.
• So it goes in Shreveport was on the edge of her seat, both for NY-23 and the NJ/VA races.
• The Left Coast Rebel is shocked, but quickly recovers, from the discovery that Stacy, was born Democrat, but got better. Hear that, Young 4 Eyes? Hope abideth. LCR came back later with GOP's New York 23 District RINO Disaster
• Little Miss Attila plays the "Stacy McCain? He owes me beverages!" card. Take a number, LMA. ;)
• Rhetorican managed to seem surprised that the RNC would support a RINO. Michael Steele: we hang together, or the conservatives will hang separately from you moderate fops, y'hear?
• Another Black Conservative has a rather revealing graphic: Stacy has Canada on his mind. A new front for the Flemish Menace?
• Right Wing Ramblin' suggests: Un- Support Dede...NOW!
• Fishersville Mike wonders if NY-23 is a local election, or a litmus test for national concerns. He's also reported on a tangential matter regarding a certain missing book. Mugs, books: it all ties together.
• American Daughter: "The 23rd Congressional District is 'the Big One'"
• Kn@ppster points out some possible downsides to Hoffman's policies.
• The Daily Pundit: " the Blogosphere’s best shoe-leather reporter, Stacy McCain."
• The Mind Numbed Robot celebrates Stacy's efforts.
• Dustbury appreciates the whole freelancer gig, and thinks Stacy should cover the fish wars on Migingo Island. I, for one, am more concerned about the difficulty in getting a good hamburger on Fernando Poo over on the West side of Africa.
• Gateway Pundit picked us up shortly after the Palin endorsement, when the support picked up.
• Obi's Sister offered an excellent overview of the NY-23 details.
• Lost Tails of Exeter: "By the way, who else is backing The Scozz along with the RNC? Why, that would be [the Daily] Kos."
• The Lonely Conservative had some Armey clips and noted Stacy's presence. Mrs. B. also hat-tipped this blog for the Sarah Palin endorsement.
• Da Tech Guy captured Stacy's efforts nicely.
• Carol's Closet quoted my "play to your base, or progressivism, but not both" remark.
• Gathering of Eagles: NY mentions us while celebrating the Sarah Palin endorsement.
• A Conservative Shemale pointed to Newt's attempt at redemption for the Dede endorsement. I recommend gentle teasing as a means of improving behavior.
• The Camp of the Saints offered support for which we cannot be sufficiently thankful. Thanks, Bob. The 23-Skidoo post also bears mention--great title.
• UPDATE Rightofcourse surveys the situation, concludes that RINOs are losing their minds.

A Week Without LGF Shenanigans is Like Winter Without Flu:

• Christmas Ghost put Stacy back in his schoolboy attire for the 'toonblogger roundup.

Cue the Angus:

Little Miss Attila linked us, correcting some spelling infelicities and noting that the Angus look was an improvement over the infamous speedo look.

Political Byline helped out with the identities of the bloggers.

Jumping in Pools had a dust-up with His Lizardry over a picture on their site. I guess Charles does portraits, too. Apparently Charles has labeled Mike Huckabee a theocrat. Charles's quest to become Dan Rather continues apace.

Thoughtful Atheists:

• Carol's Closet picked up our re-transmission of Pat Condell.
• Political Byline also linked Pat, and wished there were more like him.
• UPDATE Boom Boom Boom had a post on Sharia in Arizona that linked us.

Other FMJRA Outings:

The Blogprof has been on something of a rampage. We usually settle for once a week for our FMJRA fest. Sensing a cowbell opening, he's pressed ahead, linking the whole g'dang dextrosphere:

• Saturday
• Sunday
• Tuesday
• Wednesday
• Friday
• Paco Enterprises
• Another Black Conservative who featured a cute Technorati graphic. I hope the blowback awakens those jokers.
• Fishersville Mike keeps me on my toes with the backronyms. We shall have exhausted all the possibilities before too long, friend.
• The Daley Gator
• The Indentured Servant Girl
• Robert Pearson's Chess Blog, which has an FMJRA outing and some Rule 5 chess ladies. Normally I wouldn't use the same link two days in a row, but he praised Czar d'Oz, which flattery will get him practically anywhere.
• SI VIS PACEM
• No Sheeples Here, flaunting that lack of Presidential approval.
• So it Goes in Shreveport
• Reaganite Republican Resistance

Miscellaneous Shouts:

• Fishersville Mike passed the 20k post mark. Go, VA!
• Smashmouth Politics congratulated Mike on the 20k: "hat’s like hitting a hole in one after you just bet your mother in law $100 bucks that you could do it."
• Dan Riehl beat me up and took my milk money. While Troglopundit laughed. Booger.
• Fish Fear Me liked the ObamaCare Pace Car.
• Paco Enterprises offers sympathy for the troll-beset.
• Obi's Sister awarded me a Quote of the Month. (bows). She also linked Life Without Consequences right
• Grand Rants played the raaaaaacism card.
• A Conservative Shemale wonders what you call merciless teasing about bikini photos, as in Hannah Giles and the semi-infamous Stacy McCain images. In Information Technology, this is known as "vaporware". In gaming, it's called "Duke Nukem Forever". I think the Materials Science people call it "Unobtanium".
• Dyspepsia Generation ponders testing in life.
• Bob Belvedere offered an overview of the Anita Dunn situation. He also covered Stacy's Green Room post on conservative activism. He also linked the Steny Hoyer post.
• UPDATE: RightofCourse links us while discussing the ominous slide to totalitarian media control

That's the FMJRA for now. Please mail updates and corrections to Smitty. I have a cunning plan to restore some of the functionality formerly enjoyed via Technorati. I'll be out gathering appropriate pagan sacrifices for the geek godz (spending a lot of time hacking a script and cursing its failures) and get back to everyone with a criminally over-engineered solution that all can despise.

Full Metal Jacket Saturday

In keeping with Rule 2 of "How to Get a Million Hits on Your Blog," we once again devote a Saturday thread to the FMJRA principle of linking those who link us:

• Conveniently, this week we can combine the FMJRA principle with some Rule 5 action by linking Clever S. Logan who -- and I think we can all agree on this -- needs to update more often.
• Also quite conveniently, we can combine the FMJRA with Rule 4 by linking young Evan McLaren, to whom we introduced ourselves with such punk-smacking glee yesterday. (Evan, my grandfather was an Alabama mule trader. There's an old joke, the punchline of which is that if you're ever going to teach a mule anything, you must first get his attention. Ask Andrew Sargus Klein about my preferred method in this regard.)
• Tigerhawk: OMG! THIS IS SO F---ING FUNNY!
• Pundit & Pundette have been throwing some good linkage my way lately, so check out their roundup on the Obama-snubs-Gordon-Brown saga.
• Jules Crittenden: Sprinkles of Hope.
• El Cerdo Ignatius: Mortgages twisted until they crack.
• Kleinheider on the stimulus scams -- not the original scam by Obama, Pelosi and Reid, but imitation scams by amateurs who don't have a federal license to steal.
• Lead and Gold: "The media arrogance might remain, but the audience’s powerlessness is a thing of the past."
• Kathy Shaidle at Five Feet of Fury notes the continuation of the smackarounds between conservatives and "conservatives."
• Twisted Spinster: "The Obamessiah Crapministration continues to ride the failboat down the Fail River straight for the Fail Falls."
• Cold Fury: "It's only words" -- and every time Obama says "responsibility" it only costs us another billion.
• Serr8d: Some news is too bad to be true.
• Dad29: Sondheim was a prophet.
• Ace of Spades has a great post about the Obama sell-off on Wall Street. (Ace hasn't been giving me lots of linky-love lately, but the man is just such an inspiration to us all he gets the reach-around anyway.)
• Hot Air threw me a schweet headline hit last week, and Ed Morrissey's "Quote of the Day" selection for Friday reminds us what the Democrats find "outrageous and reprehensible" -- the truth!
• Speaking of schweet hits, Michelle Malkin threw me the Malkinlanche this week, and Friday she had a great post on Whoopi Goldberg (!) "going Galt." (BTW, I advised Miss Logan when she started blogging to observe Malkin's method. Aggregation is the key value-added factor in good blogging, and notice how Michelle shares the linky-love in that one post.)
• Since we're on the topic of aggregation, notice my good friend Stephen Gordon's mega-aggregation on the "going Galt" phenomenon that got him the Malkinlanche. Doing a solid comprehensive round-up on a timely subject is always a useful contribution to the blogospheric community.
• The past master aggregator, Instapundit has a Tea Party roundup. (Perhaps by including the magic word "Cthulhu" and also cueing his Google alert, Professor Glenn Reynolds can be persuaded to link this little lesson in mega-aggregation, for the edification of the newbies.)
• What does a 'Lanche look like? Check Jimmie Bise's SiteMeter for Feb. 12-13. Being 'Lanche-worthy gets you lots more FMJRA action, because bloggers want to get the secondary effect of other blogger's 'Lanches. To explain this principle in full would require charts, graphs and footnotes, but if I link you in a post, and then Insty links that post, you're gold baby.
• Speaking of Jimmie Bise: "I swear it’s like our President never held an executive position before in his life. Oh, wait…"
• Jennifer Rubin: Michael Gerson has it exactly backward. But what else did you expect?
• Donald Douglas: Love, California Style.
• VodkaPundit: The Week in Blogs.
• Ed Driscoll: Canadian slacker hooch.
• John Hawkins: Naked racism or just funny? (We report, you decide!)
• At The Point of a Gun: "The 'we inherited this mess' line reeks with the stench of deceit and dishonesty to begin with."
• Legal Insurrection: On-again, off-again David Brooks love for Obama is on again
• Dan Riehl: "Do they still teach the American Revolution straight up in public schools today? I hope so, but, again, I'm just not sure."
• Your one-stop source for aggregation is, of course, Memeorandum (Rule 3), via which we find Gina Cobb at Right Wing News doing some excellent aggregation on the "reset/overcharge" debacle.
• Rule 2? Rule 5? What's the difference when Conservatives4Palin has video of Glenn Beck paying tribute to her incomparable hotness principled leadership.
• There are two basic tools for monitoring your traffic -- SiteMeter and Technorati -- which perform slightly overlapping but quite different functions. Learn to use them both for Rule 2. Via the latter tool, we learn that Dan Collins is sorry. (Note how Dan provides the aggregation, newbies.)
• Earlier this week, the venerable Moe Lane was driven to Gonzo by a certain newbie, and now he displays his excellent taste in outlaws. ("Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining," Moe.)
• Speaking of Gonzo, the late good doctor's widow -- and trust me, buddy, she's definitely a Rule 5 -- shares thoughts on the "stimulus" and advises to buy only domestic herbage. (Mrs. Thompson, please blog more often!)
• During my adolescence, I consumed Spicoliesque quantities of herbage, thus losing more brain cells than most folks will ever have. (Just say no, kids!) So the Erstwhile Child Genius actually had to check the list to remind himself of what the heck Rule 1 is, whereby he was reminded of valued contributor Little Miss Attila: "Issues with Respect to Which Obama Does Not Suck." A very short list, indeed.
• Which brings me, at last, to Sully. As the bear market heads to the bottom, arousing hot throbbing passions in the blogosphere, even the most notoriously homophobic right-winger enjoys having his SiteMeter stroked until the traffic comes gushing out. Blogging is a rough trade and, in hard times, even a Speedo-filling stud has to hustle the hits any way he can get 'em. So when dear Andy nominates me for the Malkin Award and then nominates me again less than two weeks later, I'm going to do what Gunnery Sergeant Hartman said:

  A British prime minister
  calls Prop 8 "unacceptable"

  Right. Reminding us of the difference between British boarding school and Parris Island.

Back in the day, before the damage inflicted by imported herbage, I was an irrepressible class clown. My teachers in middle school would send me to the principal's office for double-entendres that made them blush, but which none of my classmates understood.

So when Private Joker smiles, you don't always know what he's smiling at. Rule 2 is shorthand for a basic life principle, of showing gratitude for those who have done you a favor. Let me therefore give you a brief excerpt from Page One of a new book:

Death hides in the the tall grass of Southern Sudan. What looks like empty landscape can explode in a heartbeat with rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army shooting, slashing, and burning their way through an unsuspecting village. Government officials and NGOs . . . give these renegade soldiers a wide berth; they usually know where the trouble areas are and steer clear of them. Local residents, left to make it on their own, are constantly on the edge, always afraid. There are no peaceful nights in the bush. None, that is, except in one place -- a forty-acre island of safety and calm in the middle of a hellish, endless civil war. The Shekinah Fellowship Children's Village.

That's from Another Man's War: The True Story of One Man's Battle to Save Children in the Sudan, by Sam Childers. Lots of people talk about helping Sudan. Sam Childers does it.

When God needed a born fighter to save children from the vicious monsters of Joseph Kony's LRA, it was this two-fisted son of a Pennsylvania steelworker who got the call. "Pastor Sam," as he is known, had worked hard all his life to build his own million-dollar construction firm -- and then he gave it all up to go help children in Africa.

You may have heard ministers talk about the Christian principle of "servant leadership," but until you've met Sam Childers, you don't know what a servant leader is. The Machine Gun Preacher has put his life on the line to serve God and save God's children.

Please help Sam Childers and his ministry. Click that link and give what can, folks. If you're a blogger with an Amazon Associates account, please link Pastor Sam's book on your page. Order a copy for yourself and do a review. Link his site from your page, and tell your own readers to help this man who has given up so much to help so many.

Everything and anything you do to help Pastor Sam will help save lives and save souls -- and not just in Africa, either. His church in Pennsylvania is a refuge for all the hard-luck losers and outcast souls that other ministries say they want to reach. Sam knows how to reach them, because he was once an outcast soul himself. He knows very well that there is no sinner so wretched as to be beyond the aid of grace.

If ever you wanted to do me a favor, and deserve a future Rule 2, please do all you can to help this man of God, Pastor Sam Childers.

Like the people of Plataea conquered by the Spartans, it may some day be asked of you what you have done to aid the victor in this epic battle. And as wildly inappropriate as this reminder might seem after such a sermon, don't forget, folks, to get your babe-blogging done today, and e-mail me the links for Rule 5 Sunday. Aggregation is the name of the game.

All Your Links Are Belong To Us!

Fantastic Multimedia Jamboree Resurrects Art

by Smitty

This week's FMJRA salutes the mighty Iowahawk. It's not often we admit that anyone's flair for insanity exceeds our own, but "A man's got to know his limitations."

This blog's entry into the fray, entitled "Subliminal Presidential Logic" puts us on the contest map. It spelunks within the underbelly of the substantial sub-terranian sub-text of the latest US rhetorical embarrassment, delivered at the UN by BHO, and appears at the end of this post, in an effort to minimize browser damage.

Green Tea Wolverines

• Bonzai linked the GTP post, and will hopefully attend. I'm dragging my parents. Woo hoo!
• Fishersville Mike echoed the announcement. Hopefully he makes it.

Feeding Frenzies
This blog never goes Rule 4 without didactic purpose. One of Stacy McCain's unconscious skills is that of teaching. Even when a 49% flagrant goof-off, he's still 51% making a valuable point.
Feeback on Can't all conservatives at least agree that Glenn Beck is not the enemy?

• Bits Blog quotes and analyzes Stacy's work.
• NoisyRoom picks it up.
• Carol's Closet: "This little dust up between Beck and Levin is simply par for the course. Neither of the two men are known for their meekness so it stands to reason that any disagreement would be articulated strongly."
• Lead and Gold: "I don't like Beck. I actually blogged about how much i disliked him over four years ago. But i DVR his program everyday now. Not because i am a 100% fan but because he has been "breaking" news or at least pushing important matters out to a wider audience." I'm personally non-plussed by his style, but thankful for his substance.
• Below the Beltway gathers a chorus of 'no' answers.
• The Lonely Conservative "The Other McCain covered it so well I can’t really add to it. With the exception of so called conservatives who endorsed Barack Obama, and primaries, I try to shy away from dissing our side."
• Poliblogger quotes Rick Moran, whose myopia is on clear display in that statement.
• Instpundit quoted Stacy.
• Texas for Sarah Palin linked and analyzed the situation.
• Ruby Slippers: "That Beck said something controversial should shock no one. Disagree with him on that point if you must. Beck, however, is not the one with his foot on the pedal with the car teetering on the verge of the Big Government abyss."
• The Classic Liberal rounds things up nicely.
• One Fine Jay discusses polemics and apologists.
• Dana Loesch at BigGovernment.com: "Thankfully, fellow conservative bloggers like RS McCain, Little Miss Attila and others recognized early on and by way of SEO made sure that their mentions of search terms involving Giles and bikinis brought searchers to their blogs, effectively lampooning those of ill will."
• Belvedere is very insightful on this topic.
• Fishersville Mike figures Beck is in hot standby.

The Proposition That "X is not a racist person" is not Falsifiable
At least, not on this mortal plane.

• Kn@ppster, nevertheless, flogs a dead horse.
• Ordinary Gentlemen hedges on the subject.
• Moralia denounces pretty much everyone in a raaaaacism roundup.
• The Daily Gator hat tipped us for "Obama Loves the Little Children"
• Rightofcourse also linked the raaaaacism post on the Obama school hymn.
• Saberpoint continues its staunch, truthful, and correct support of this blog.

Charles Johnson and the Powdered Pferd Herd
Speaking of flogging a dead horse...

• Update: Cynthia Yockey makes an important point concerning Kejda Gjermani, and the FMJRA would like to issues a formal apology and plead for mercy for taking so long to recognize Cynthia's excellent post. This is proof that even the dumbest head (mine) can be calibrated by sufficient boots thereto.
• Honesty in Motion links the latest episode, and also here.
• Infidel Blogger's Alliance plays the Cochrane card.
• Centurean2 has a lengthy roundup/analysis.
• The Rude News: "Poor Charles Johnson. He has a hand on his head and is swinging for R.S. McCain’s knees. In a recent post, which shall remain unlinked, the formerly great Johnson bemoans his condition as McCain’s 'deranged one-sided "war" against me.'"
• Snapped Shot has some great thoughts on the topic.
• NoisyRoom linked the 'Troll with own website' post.
• his vorpal sword has a daft take on the matter.
• Stop the ACLU Calls Charles Johnson 'Ishmael'.
• Shield of Achilles brings the subject to heel.
• The Daley Gator: Stacy "is beating Charlie like a rented, red-headed, government mule!"
• [NSFW] Political Bylne throws down the gauntlet
• NoisyRoom picked up on LGF and the culture of death.
• A Conservative Shemale notes the current fracas.
• Paco Enterprises noted us in "Decline and Fall".
• Daily Pundit suggests a Steve Miller Band moment for Charles.
• Piece of Work in Progress spends a Shakespearean round on Charles. Great clip.
• Stogie has some excellent background intel on LGF staff.

Emotional Rescue

• HotMES re-ice-capped the glacial state of Lefty female hotness, linking us when things got emotional.
• Little Miss Attila suggests Stacy should go bison hunting.

Can't Think of ACORNy Joke

• Honesty in Motion hat tipped us while embedding a Rush Limbaugh clip on the topic.
• Snapped Shot mentions the IRS punting of ACORN, and the scourge of raaaaacism along with it.
• Snapped Shot quotes us as saying "Pfffffffft!"

Keep Us On The Road

• NoisyRoom linked the Motörhead reference to the Tea Party Express.
• The Reaganite Republican Resistance had another well-formatted roundup, and linked the TPE post.

'AT&T' Rhymes With 'Suppository'

I like my new, un-cheap paperweight, but I would have preferred (a) service (b) a cel phone. It was pointed out to me at the AT&T store that I had in fact bought the hardware from a re-seller, not a corporate AT&T outfit. My diaper is still full, but one must be fair.

• Dustbury offered some commiseration. "Vendors, if pressed on the matter, will argue that it’s those crappy policies that keep them in business." Pressed, crushed: what's in a verb?
• Dyspepsia Generation "Two tin cans and a string give better service than AT&T, and cost far less."

Piling on Beautifully

• Troglidarity is solid on the Michael Lind hammering.
• WyBlog liked the "nice hot cup of STFU"
• The Camp of the Saints placed a review of this post alongside Pundette, who is excellent company indeed.

Million Med March

• NoisyRoom linked it.

Carville

• The Rude News liked the SNL Carville impression.
• A Conservative Shemale did, too, and has a re-done site.
• KURU Lounge liked the SNL Carville clip.

Senseless Violence

• Kenny's Sideshow picked us up.
• Political Byline rounds up the Kentucky Census tragedy.
• Bob Belvedere rounds up links on the issue.

Other FMJRA Outings

• Carol's Closet
• The Right Guy
• So it Goes in Shreveport
• Medary
• Rightpundits
• The Classic Liberal and also here
• The Reaganite Republican Resistance

Miscellaneous Shouts

• Grand Rants links a Moe Lane distillation of Stacy.
• Moe Lane picks up the latest IG-Gate news with Senator Grassley.
• Political Castaway notes that Jim Moran cannot be reached for comment on the racism inherent in Virgnia traffic lanes.
• Carol's Closet links us on the population bomb.
• The Sundries Shack recalls the IG-Gate scandal in connection to the NEA scandal.
• Dyspepsia Generation concurs on Bushism and Latimerism.
• Apologies Demanded expands on the Keynsian threat.
• Rightofcourse linked Gold Medal Mental Gymnastics on the Left, amidst the usual blogwhoring.
• NoisyRoom linked the Bernard Navarro clip.
• Moe Lane hat tips us on Blitzer talking to Axelrod.
• Tai Chi Policy summarizes the tactics of the left.
• Medary linked "Foreign Policy Made Simple".
• The Classic Liberal responds to with Rule 5 goodness to appropriate feedback.
• NoisyRoom liked the Andrew Klavan link, and also Noted the Census worker tragedy. Finally, the best blog headline evah.
• The Classic Liberal linked the free speech clip.
• Obi's Sister is still bailing out down in Georgia.
• The Camp of the Saints picks us up variously:
  
  • Miles and miles of Hannah Giles search terms.
  • Quoting me concerning Giles and O'Keefe's work.
  • Rumors about the two.
  • The Mirage of social justice.
  • A spot-on quote of the day.
• Ed Driscoll noted "the ransom note method of editing".

The FMJRA is compiled by an army of marginally competent clone bots. If you've linked us and would like to claim your lovin', send the URL to Smitty.

Update:
Adrienne's Catholic Corner not only blames RSM for the complete destruction of her schedule (his book Donkey Cons seems the chief instrument), but insists that FMJRA note an unnoticed, yet shamefully obedient devotee of Rule #1.
That would be Mark in Spokane, who picked us up on last Wednesday and Friday. Mark noted Stacy's ongoing Rule 4 altercation with LGF, and a short roundup of blogs on the right. We need to get more Technorati participation, or direct emailing of links to me for inclusion.

Update II:
Graciously quoted by one of the senior members of the blogosphere, Daily Pundit.

---

"Subliminal Presidential Logic"

This piece takes a quotation from the latest Presidential train wreck and applies Eccl 7:13 Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked? as best as possible to the underlying logic. A surprising message pours forth for the attentive.

Now,
	lIke			the	in
	all	Of	interest		act
	my	of	you,		to
nation				my	is
and					responsibility
my
people,
and				tHose	interests.
I			defending		But
Will		for			it
never	Apologize			is
			my
		deeply
	held
	belief
	thAt	in	the	year	2009--
					more
			any	at	than
		in	point
	history--	human
	the
		interests	of	nations
				and
convictions			are	peoples
that	religious		shared.
We		The
hold
in	our	hearts	can	forge	new
					bonds
apart.	us			people,	among
	The	tear			or
	technology		can	they
		we
			harness		the
	it.		can	light	path
		darKen			to
			forever	or	peace,

Furtive Manbearpig Jester Running Amok

Smitty

As the Naughties draw to a close, who has been more naughty than former Vice President Albert Gore, Junior? Not to accuse the man of lying: he's too smart for that. I'm quite confident he lives a 'filtered fact fantasy', where 'trained professionals' feed him 'groomed information' so that he can maintain plausible deniability at all points. By dividing the effort amongst several compartments, an organization can argue its individual integrity with maximal vigor while being nowhere near forthright, overall. For example, take Iraq. By force. Ah, yes: the raw CRU data were co-located with the WMD. Oh, ManBearPig. Anthropogenic Global Warming is your revenge for being unable to finagle a win in 2000, isn't it? I may feel another bit of farce brewing...

Farces come in various sizes. Hopefully the last bit of the dead 'raaaaacist Stacy' horse has been eliminated, as that zombie pferd was exhumed, ridden, flogged, and dispatched for the third time or so this year by Patterico. For an undead animal, it does manage to imitatate life better than an Alan Colmes post. Wasting time on that proved an unwelcome distraction from blogging substantial news. Let me move on to the FMJRA before I stand accused of over-selling Alan.

Roll Tide (though I confess a preference for Method, since meine frau ist one of thse eco-German types)
Last week's FMJRA was launched amid the Alabama win, which may have been the sand grain a the heart of a pearl informing a hairball that turned into a confusing eruption of whisky-tango-foxtrot-ery last week, courtesy of Patterico.

• Carol's Closet congratulated Stacy and No Sheeples Here for last weekend's big win.
• Obi's Sister: Sweet, sweet bittersweet.
• Piece of Work in Progress favors sending Stacy to The Big Game.
• Fischersville Mike piled on.
• Little Miss Attila had the adult beverage angle on the game trip, but then overindulged, mis-spelling "Suzanna Logan" as "Monique Stuart". Shocking. Tragic. Messy catfight to follow. Stand by.
• Jumping in Pools supports the effort to get Stacy on the road.
• Troglopundit tried to set up some kind of riff on the superiority of Wisconsin to Alabama. As I look at the Bowl Championship Series page, I see no mention of this "Wisconsin" team. My home state of Oregon is playing in the Rose Bowl, I note (go, Ducks!). Try not to fail so hard next time, Troggy.
• The Daley Gator echoed the idea of The Other McCain Championchip Series.

Patterico Suave Starring In: The Case Of The Odd Timing.
One admits that this seems an 'inside baseball' story largely between Jeff Goldstein and Patrick Frey. It seems that ancient mutterings of Robert Stacy McCain are some sort of ping-pong ball between JG and PF. The sad truth of this, alluding to Ronald Regan, is that internecine warfare is joy to the foe.

• South Texian got in early and played a strong defense.
• Saberpoint dignified the discussion with the Shakespeare allusion.
• Paco Enterprises noted the 52 card racial pickup game.
• Villainous Company took a Tiger Woods swing in the analysis.
• Carol's Closet hit full-on burnout.
• Baldilocks: "Charles Johnson is gone. Face it. He was never ours. How about we let him take his delusions and slanders and paranoias and obsessions and falsehoods with him?"
• American Power: "...it's no surprise that Patrick Frey's trying to weasel out of his insinuations of racism against Robert Stacy McCain."
• The Reganite Republican Resistance offered some of the LGF backstory.
• Da Tech Guy speculated as to Patterico's motive.
• The Old Rebel offered support.
• Valley of the Shadow, as we've linked previously, indexed ToM and Patterico links in a handy way. His call for Stacy to apologize for misconstruing Patterico's words may go unfulfilled for the foreseeable future.
• Snapped Shot is also fully supports this blog, fully grasping the underpants gnome business model under which we operate.
• Enoch Root at Piece of Work in Progress makes a telling point:

  What I am saying is that the discerning of patterns is the only manner in which we can really even glimpse a man's heart. Again, I do not know the details of Mr. McCain's alleged or even real propensities. What I do know is that I am saddened because a man (any man or woman) can do very little to defend himself or herself once a certain meme is floated, introduced, embraced, disseminated--SYNDICATED.

  He then offers a related parable which is worth your time.
• Bob Belvedere thought that Stacy's apology directed at POWIP was, hopefully the last word on this topic. As your FMJRA summarizer, I would cheerfully direct efforts at other topics. The defensive efforts of friends are laudable, but the energy could be employed more gainfully still somewhere else.
• Protein Wisdom, home of Jeff Goldstien, was in the thick of things, driving analytic trucks through the contemptable Potemkin village known as Patterico's argument. See also this post getting at the absurdity of using political correctness to draw hasty conclusions. Goldstein has been a top-drawer blog for years, and is well worth subscribing and linking.
• Little Miss Attila had the family photos. She alludes to RSM cryptically here. The latest dialogue with Patterico, apparently, is happening in her comments section.

Hapless Harry Reid:

• The Camp of the Saints linked Stacy while rounding up the hammering of Hapless Harry Reid's slavery remark. Concur with TCotS's credit to Paco for best title.
• Daley Gator reached Dennis Miller-esqe heights of irritation with the dim bulb from Vegas:

  Senator, let me make myself perfectly clear, it sickens me that a Marxist fool such as you is a United States Senator, until the next election anyway, those poll numbers are looking BAD for you Senator. The Founding Fathers would be irate that a miscreant such as yourself had been elected to any office, much less the United States Senate!

Leave the unspeakable unspoken:
Desperately seeking not to be informed about what other consenting adults are getting up to in private.

• Mulieris Dignitatem echoed Stacy's posting concerning the 'Safe School' Czar.
• The Daley Gator also picked up Stacy's Kevin Jennings post.

Will Mark Sanford Caddy for Tiger Woods?

• Obi's Sister quoted the front/back nine jape.
• Bob Belvedere quoted Mrs. ToM via Stacy: 'I swear to God, Stacy, I'd kill you,' she said. Having come under that gaze myself, I wouldn't go testing that oath for all the data in East Agnlia University.
• Mulieris Dignitatem linked the post about sympathy for the idea of ventilating Sanford.

Gearing up for the next exlection:

• Mulieris Dignitatem liked the post about the people picking up the slack from the SCOTUS.
• Bob Belvedere agreed substantially with my point, though raised the question of whether we should seek to eliminate entitltements outright, rather than punt them to the states. In the comments, I was trying to make the point about segmenting the argument, so that one can use Federalism in discussion with a lefty and not be seen attacking Socialist ideas *as such*. He replied by comparing my position to David Frum. Ow. Let me expand. I'm endorsing Socialist ideas to the extent I endorse unspeakable sexual acts: not at all. However, in the name of suggesting a tangible course of action, I'd say that Socialist ideas and every other uspeakable thing should be allowed to die at the state level, so that conservatives can vote with their feet and let the utopians reap the value of their ideas. Why? Because every human has a finite number of breaths, and why waste my time trying to teach one for whom even experience may prove insufficient?

Other FMJRA action:

• Blogprof: Sat, Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri
• Fischersville Mike
• The Classic Liberal
• Snapped Shot
• SI VIS PACEM
• Paco Enterprises
• Rightofcourse
• The Camp of the Saints
• No Sheeples Here
• The Daley Gator

Miscellaneous Shouts:

• Over at Progressive Alaska all both of the Progressives in Alaska take Stacy to task for failing blogging about Andrew Sullivan while failing to mention some alleged lie made by Sarah Palin on some Thursday. I need to write a cron job to go through Sitemeter and scrape this sort of hilarity more often.
• Left Coast Rebel links us while touting Danny Tarkanian for the Senate to replace somebody with the personality of a vacuum cleaner.
• Troglopundit feels a newfoud sense of acceptance, since Matthews called Sarah Palin a 'Troglodyte'.
• That's Right linked us while posting Governor Palin and Michelle Malkin, and also on the post-trillion post

That's your FMJRA. Thanks to those who loaded me with links. Gear up for Rule 5 Sunday, sending URLs to Smitty, which will again have a tearline under which any Tiger Woods reporting will go. Sure, it's news, but infedility bites.

Also, links to any sites are concerned with Rule 5 posts only. Inclusion of a link to a Semi-Conscious Liberation Army site does not constitute an endorsement of their insurgency in Zambiniland. Those teddy bear killings are clearly in violation of the Geneva Convention, but Rule 5 goes on in any case.

Facts Make Jiggery-pokery Really Arduous

by Smitty

This weeks FMJRA title celebrates a level of global thievery vast enough to make Bernie Madoff blush. The CRU clowns were not only playing fast and loose with grant money, their duplicity has been distorting public policy along heinous lines for years now. May the perpetrators rot.

It's hard to tell whether the Big Lie of global warming exceeds die Große Lüge that the health care debate is become. What amount of cure-worse-than-disease is sufficient to give even modern hyper-partisan über-pragmatists pause? Is it sheer religious zealotry? Do they grasp their wrong-headedness, but need to play out the charade in full, in political tool fashion, for their owners?

May the grace of God continue to empower us to deal peacefully, legally with these destroyers in the 111th Congress.

And now onto our regular FMJRA.

Yeah, Top Ten: Yeah
Special recognition is afforded to Bombs and Dollars for putting us at #7. This is exactly the sort of shamelessness we applaud and encourage.
Not to be outshone, Mulieris Dignitatem inaugurates The Other McCain Award, with a photo hinting at Stacy's heretofore unknown sci-fi alter-ego.

Try-dumb-virate Care:
PelosiCare, ReidCare, ObamaCare, I don't care: it's giving steaming piles of hooey a bad name, like that of the atrocious 111th Congress from whence 'twas excreted.

• Dixinet reveals the surprise identity of Senator Louisiana Purchase.
• Belvedere rounds up reactions and adds some thoughts.

Yeah, I Bought Three Copies:
Gave one away today to someone.

• The Daley Gator hat tips our 11 reporters fact-checking Going Rogue post. Then he suggests Stacy run her 2012 campaign, to which she hasn't exactly committed ATM.

Bill Sparkman Results:
Stacy, of course, owned his own Memeorandum thread on the topic.

• The Reganite Republican Resistance honored Stacy's shoe leather efforts.
• Paco Enterprises: "...once again, the idiots wind up accidentally self-administering suppositories made with their own bottle-rockets."
• The Camp of the Saints picks it up, and offers a roundup coda.

Clubbing SEALs:

• American Power picked up our re-transmit of Blackfive's reaction.
• The Camp of the Saints concurs on the "brick in the wall" observation.

The New Stage in the Struggle:
It will be an open question for historians whether the bizzarre revelations of 2009 for the climate, about ACORN, Insptectors General, and all of the other noise swirling about amounts to a new phase. Bob Belvedere maintains the definitive index on the IG-Gate.

• SI VIS PACEM picked up the post.
• So it Goes in Shreveport links us while rounding up coverage of the Gerald Walpin case, and follows with the Michelle Rhee angle.
• The Camp of the Saints echos the concern.

Rush puts the whole mood to music in this video that might last for too long on YouTube:

South by Southwest?

• Stogie links us, but doubts the lefty drift: "I think it is unlikely that South Park will go too far left. If they do, they will surely hear about it."
• Political ByLine is amazed that the state media can get away with much.
• The Camp of the Saints is moderate in its South Park views.

A Week Without Andrew Sullivan? Not This One:

• The Reganite Republican Resistance picked up on the Andrew Sullivan as anti-Semite question.
• Carol's Closet opines that that Andrew is 'plain nuts'. No salt of the earth on the assortment.
• Dan Riehl points out that some japes are simply unfunny.
• Political ByLine links us in a related post.

Parodies in Paradise

• Fischersville Mike thinks that he created a monster, with the afterbirth of the Copacabana parody. "Its name was RICO. It was a statute..."

Still Unsure Why Rick Moran Torques Me So Much:
The last week afforded a couple of opportunities to rebut Rick.

• Smash Mouth Politics decided she is litmus paper.
• SI VIS PACEM: "I don't care how Moran sees himself, but in framing his argument in Leftist fashion and adopting Leftist premises, it's... difficult for him to make his argument from Conservatism."
• House of Eratosthenes offered a coveted "Best Sentence I’ve Heard Or Read Lately (BSIHORL)" to the following: To tweak Nietzsche, socialism is the opiate of the bureaucracy, but addiction lacks middle ground.
• Paco Enterprises thinks that aspiring to be as smart as Rick Moran is a low bar. Hey, man: 'Set low goals, fail to meet them' is one of my major points in life.
• Bob Belvedere nominates me for Fisk Chef. That would be Stacy. Out here on the porch, I'm just the sous chef. One does not over-rate one's apron.

Your Organization Supports the Opposition:
Stacy managed to post about the CCHD issue in a model of journalistic restraint.

• Da Tech Guy reacts favorably to Stacy's post.

Brewhahah:

• So it Goes in Shreveport slices Stacy's argument thinly, differentiating between genuine enjoyment and foppishness in beverage choice.

Monty Python settles the argument definitively, [NSFW]:

• Dustbury links us with a retro title that is highly appreciated.

Other FMJRA outings:

• The Reganite Republican Resistance, and also here.
• The Blogprof: Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
• So it Goes In Shreveport
• The Daley Gator
• Adrienne's Catholic Corner has a short one, with a picture of a cotton ball disguised as a kitten.
• Fischersville Mike, on the internet, with the Buffet reference.
• Piece of Work in Progress
• Paco Enterprises
• Instapundit
• No Sheeples Here attacks, conquers parade.

Miscellaneous Shouts:

• Fischersville Mike noted the Dennis Moore retirement post.
• American Glob asks if this blog has any ideas about the curious mis-alignment of resources in the war on terror. Yes: involvement. The only reason the left isn't rolling over us is that we're paying attention. No charlatan gets away with anything before the truly attentive audience. What we see is a pile of tripe, but don't let the horror deflect the gaze.
• The Classic Liberal opines that Ed Begley is just plain crazy.

There's your Thanksgiving weekend FMJRA. Technorati still has not technical restoration in sight. Which remains a crying shame. I've got some other ideas, but I need to STFU and implement them before wasting anyone's time on the hand waving. In the meantime, don't let my inattentiveness in the RSS reader get you down. Take action. Mail your updates, corrections, and rubber-chicken floggings to Smitty.

Finally Mustered the Jaded Retro Approach

by Smitty

Paraphrasing the Ancient Commenter Solomon on the sordid and tragic nature of the Technorati situation:

Vanity of vanities, saith the Blogger, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
What profit hath a poster of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
One post passeth away, and another post cometh: but the markup abideth for ever.
The browser also ariseth, and the browser goeth down, particularly when a Microsoft product, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
The URL goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the URL returneth again according to his circuits.
All the links run into the Shineytubes; yet the Shinytubes are not full; unto the place from whence the links come, thither they return again.
All FMJRAs are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the reader is not satisfied with seeing, nor the commenter filled with hearing.

So, we've lost some of our technical muscle for the FMJRA: I'll have to drag my lazy self off the porch and research alternatives.

The NY-23 Special Election:

• Fishersville Mike points to the Watertown Daily Times, in addition to linking us graciously.
• In Mala Fide is tracking the story.
• Rightofcourse: "Republicans to re-found the party...in the same place they left it."
• Bob Belvedere has a related "RINO the Sailor Girl" riff on Olympia Snowe, which is not as good as Popeye the Sailor Man, but, hey: budget cuts.
• Jumping in pools has a couple links on this topic.

Wait Five Minutes, and Megan McCain will Offer Ammunition:

• Political Byline picks up on a good Megan riff.
• Little Miss Attila opines:

  I regret to say that Stacy M’s boobs do not strike me as the least bit impressive. But he’s a nice guy anyway.

• Carol's Closet offers the cleavage in question a question mark.
• American Power has a fine 'rack' pun.
• Pat in Shreveport notes Stacy's boobie-bomb.
• In Mala Fide notes that Megan makes turgid traffic for blogosphere members.
• Stogie makes what I think is a Bob Seger reference, sittin' way up high on his horse, or something.
• Left Coast Rebel noted the cleavage in a roundup.
• The Classic Liberal didn't do his usual Rule 5 treatment of Megan. I should note that Rule 5 Sunday has never depended upon Techorotten, and Megan McCain pics will be excluded from consideration. We're keeping Megan links in FMJRA where we can focus on her bodacious...intellect and vast tracts of...insight.
• Piece of Work in Progress had some pink funbags that might not be real on display.
• Rightofcourse piled on.
• Another Black Conservative is spot on:

  Quite frankly, I say Meghan knew exactly what she was doing. She is a first class attention whore who has not been in the news for a long time. So it was lights, camera, action and cheesecake! Personally I hope she continues tweeting cheesecake photos, she is far better suited for that then giving advice on how to remake the Republican party.

• Bob Belvedere got his dig in on the dugs.
• Honesty in Motion offers a triptych on the...can't think of a word that rhymes.

Michelle Action Figures:

• WyBlog picked up the 'void in South Carolina' bit.

PETA Your Poultry:

• Fishersville Mike brought in the Colonel himself for comment.

Administration Project: Bus Shield Over Entire Country
To paraphrase Steven Wright: The Obama Administration has a bus-model of the US that is actual size. 1 mile = 1 mile. Once we're all safely under the bus, utopia sets in.

• A Conservative Lesbian notes Stacy covered the story of the National Equity March "without gloating or rancor".

Wasting Hate on POTUS

• Left Coast Rebel appreciated the Pharaoh quip.

On the Flogging of Mark Potok:

• Stogie liked the AmSpec article.
• Ed Driscoll hat tipped it in "Hey, That Water Won't Carry Itself".

Stacy Agrees with Andrew Sullivan:

• Rhetorican noted this singular occurance.

Other FMJRA outings:

• Fishersville Mike
• Paco Enterprises
• Adriennes Catholic Corner
• Honesty in Motion more than once.

Rush to Judgement:

• Honesty in Motion: Rush Limbaugh is not the King of all White People.
• Rightofcourse examines the sociological side of LGF, noted that Rush was guilty of things other people said, a football coach who is collateral damage.

Miscellaneous Shouts:

• Troglopundit adds to the Sarahmotivator cannon.
• LISNews sent an interesting post on creating or saving jobs in Ohio. It doesn't link us, but we're know for being easy.
• The Camp of the Saints liked the E. J. Dionne thrashing, and graciously touts Czar d'Oz.

This was not too bad, but not up to our traditional 100+ link-o-rama standard. Please add your goodness onto the pile via email to Smitty. And support Stacy's efforts to bring reality back to journalism.

Update: Carol at No Sheeples was kind enough to hat tip us when it was time for Anita to be Done.
The Daley Gator was after Anita, too, but also Cousin Megan.

Update II: Kn@ppster gave us some linky-love:

• He picks a nit with Stacy's defense of Malkin's writings on WWII internment. My feedback to His Knappage is that Monday Morning quarterbacks abound.
• He also points to thee ways to score hits: crowd, anti-crowd, and boobies.
• His critique of the NY-23 race is quite thoughtful. I take the "shag the GOP" stance, but Knapp says that, from a libertarian perspective, it's not so clear. From a Federalist perspective, anything but the GOP/Democratic neo-aristocracy is an improvement.

Update II:VodkaPundit gave Stacy slot #8 on The Week in Blogs for his AmSpec work. I await my lifetime achievement mention at the end of Czar d'Oz.

Who you calling 'deranged'?

Wednesday morning, I did a round-up of reaction to the Obama inauguration, which was linked several hours later by Instapundit. (Thank you, Professor Reynolds.)

Why did I do that post? Because the Obama inauguration was virtually the only thing anyone was blogging about and it occurred to me that there might be some reader interest in the reaction. Keen deductive powers.

Furthermore, the astute reader may have noticed that first item linked in that round-up was Philip Klein's American Spectator report on the inauguration. Phil writes for the Spectator. I write for the Spectator. Ergo, I was promoting a colleague's work -- and what excellent work it was!

This is consistent with what I call the Full Metal Jacket Reach-Around (FMJRA) Theory of Blogging. I write for various online publications, and when my articles are published, I generally link those articles here at the blog. And I also link articles that my friends publish. You might be surprised at how effective deployment of the FMJRA Theory can reduce, or even entirely eliminate, the cost of refreshments at the National Press Club or other fine establishments in our nation's capital. The Blogger Ethics Commission has not yet specifically condemned the FMJRA Theory and next time I'm in D.C., Phil's buying.

My little roundup post sat there in relative obscurity for 7 hours and 39 minutes, until it was linked by the perspicacious Professor Reynolds, at which time it began to generate comments, some declaring that I had maliciously distorted the meaning of Gregg Levin's Firedoglake post entitled "Worst. Inauguration. Ever."

Truth? I never read Gregg's post. I just saw the title at Memeorandum and thought, "Heh." So I linked it, with the common-sense assumption that what Gregg meant was, the inauguration sucked. Excuse the misunderstanding.

Then, last night, commenter Wayne Fontes suggested I "might be coming down with a case of Obama Derangement Syndrome." Ah . . . no. Let me see if I can clear this up.

As I once tried to explain to Rod Dreher, I write for money. Writing is a commercial enterprise, and blogging is a form of writing, and the whole point of this blog is to make money. Or, at least, as a sort of marketing venture auxilliary to, and supportive of, other forms of writing for money.

This is not to say that I don't enjoy blogging, or that I don't have meaningful insights to offer. Rather, it is to say that if someone wanted to pay me not to blog, I'd consider the offer. And if someone wanted to pay me to blog about a certain topic -- say, for example, to blog about the top-quality, low-priced consumer fireworks available at Wild Wilma's Fireworks in East Tennessee -- I'd consider that offer, too.

See, I am a capitalist writer. To me, capitalism is not merely a theory, but a daily practice. And here at The Other McCain, the theory is put into practice as I try -- brace yourselves -- to write stuff that people want to read. Because if nobody wants to read it, there's no traffic, and if there's no traffic, why bother blogging at all?

Which brings us back to the accusation of "Obama Derangement Syndrome." The guy happens to be the President of the United States -- as you may have noticed -- and is therefore a personality whom people want to read about. (Kind of like Christina Hendricks, except less attractive.) So if I blog about Obama, it's because I think people want to read about Obama.

I don't hate the guy, I have no fear and loathing of the guy -- in fact, as I said back in April, I think it's pretty cool that he's a cigarette smoker -- and I'm not deranged by him. He is a liberal Democrat, as are several of my cousins (hello, Pepper!), but since none of them are Leader of the Free World, there is neither money nor purpose in denouncing my cousins' liberal agenda.

Some of our progressive friends, who've spent the past eight years imagining that the White House had been stolen in a coup masterminded by Dick Cheney, Halliburton and the Mossad, would dearly like to believe that conservatives have been driven similarly bonkers by the Obama presidency. While I can't speak for anyone else, I'm no more bonkers than I've ever been, which isn't saying that I'm entirely sane -- no one who knows me would make that argument -- only that whatever bizarre dementia I'm suffering, Obama has nothing to do with it.
So . . . we now return you to the regularly scheduled shameless capitalist blogging. And remember, when you want low, low prices on the highest quality consumer fireworks, go to Wild Wilma's, just off I-81 at exit 44. Tell 'em I sent ya.

UPDATE: "Obama Worship: Flip Side of Bush Hatred." Hmmm. I've got my own issues with Bush, but that hasn't made me prone to Obamamania. In fact, since becoming disillusioned with Clinton circa 1994, I've been very cynical about politicians in general. The one thing you can't deny about Bush is, he drove the Left nuts, which is always good. But the wild enthusiasm for Obama reminds me of Fred Barnes's insultingly hagiographic Bush book, Rebel in Chief.