Hewitt: Arnie gets to stand and deliver

by Smitty
Arnie gets to stand and deliver on the 19th:

If the tax hikes are rejected by large margins next week, the country's political elite ought to study that result closely. Despite huge spending margins and despite a thin veneer of bipartisanship, the tax hike gang is getting thumped because the electorate is saying --no, shouting-- "Enough!"
Everyone has a story of a state or county employee friend who is retiring at 55 with a guaranteed life pension of $75,000 or more plus gold-plated medical benefits. Almost everyone knows that massive amounts of money have flowed into Los Angeles public schools and still half of the kids drop out. Majorities realize that businesses don't have to operate here, and that places like Texas may lack the Rose Parade but let you grow a business and keep most of the profits.

The good news about that last sentence is that the ecosystem in the southwest really can't handle the population load. Crashing the California economy may bring some left-handed benefit to the rest of the Colorado River basin.

In the near term, the vote promises to be good fodder for the 04 July and 12 September Tea Parties. Plus, the Federalism Amendment. Truthfully, if a state like California or Massachusetts wants to tax itself into oblivion, that should be allowed. It's the borg effect of bringing that mentality to DC that we must oppose.

Pope walks out after Muslim cleric goes on anti-Jew rant during 'interfaith dialogue'

Via Instapundit and Gateway Pundit, the Jerusalem Post:

Chief Islamic Judge of the Palestinian Authority, Sheikh Tayseer Rajab Tamimi, launched a poisonous verbal attack at Israel at a Monday night gathering attended by Pope Benedict XVI. . . .
Taking the podium after the pope without being on the original list of speakers scheduled for the evening, Tamimi, speaking at length in Arabic, accused Israel of murdering women and children in Gaza and making Palestinians refugees, and declared Jerusalem the eternal Palestinian capital.
Following the diatribe and before the meeting was officially over, the pope exited the premises. Army Radio reported that the pope shook Tamimi's hand before walking out.
The Pope was immediately denounced as a "Eurofascist" and a "notorious Pamela Geller sympathizer" by the Little Green Footballs blog.

I might have added that last part.

How to save $2 trillion in health care

• 1. Organize a conference call with reporters.
• 2. Tell them you're going to save $2 trillion.
• 3. Details to be announced later.

Any resemblance between HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the Underpants Gnomes is purely coincidental.

Corner: "45 cents of every dollar Washington spends this year will be borrowed."

by Smitty (h/t The Corner)

The president also talks of cutting the deficit in half from this bloated level. But even after the recession ends and the troops return home, he'd still run $1 trillion deficits — compared to President Bush's $162 billion pre-recession deficit. In other words, the structural budget deficit (which excludes the impacts of booms/recessions) would more than quintuple.

"Kidney failure?" said the Yorkshireman, as he spread the Dijon mustard on his bison sandwich, glancing past Frumdreher. Out the window of Air Force One lay Tent City IV. "Oh, how my cousins dreamed of such a noble passage, as they worried out their last days under yoke of that fascist, W. Our Hope and Change era combines all the best features of Huxley and Orwell, don't you think?

SCANDAL! A HETEROSEXUAL PRIEST!

Some of my Catholic friends may be shocked to discover that somehow a heterosexual made it through seminary and, indeed, there is scandalous photographic proof of his interest in women:

Father Alberto Cutie, known as "Padre Oprah," the nationally known Spanish language television host, advice columnist and bestselling author of the book "Real Life, Real Love," is creating quite a stir as he appears to be getting a dose of real love himself.
A Mexican magazine ran pictures of Father Cutie cuddling with a woman on a Florida beach and kissing her at a bar.
In an interview with the Spanish language network Univision, Father Cutie said that despite the scandal the photos have created, he doesn't want to give up either his collar or the woman he loves.

Yes, you read that right: Father Cutie, which is actually pronounced "Koo-tee-ay." When I saw the "Father Cutie" headline at Pundit & Pundette, I thought it must be a joke. But (a) he is kind of a cutie, and (b) the real joke is that this guy, who couldn't be faithful to his own vows, was on the archdiocese's radio show giving "relationship advice" to others.

Father Cutie is now reportedly considering leaving the priesthood. As I said at Taki's:

Of course, conservative Catholics can expect a spree of columns pondering "what this means" for the celibate priesthood, whereas liberal Catholics will wax nostalgic for the "good old days" when priests molested altar boys.

Being a proud Protestant means there is no ecclesiastical hierarchy to blame when these scandals happen. Jimmy Swaggart? Jim Bakker? Ted Haggard? They were never my leaders, and their scandals were their own embarrassment.

The Left won't let it go, will they?

When William Jacobson started blogging about "DijonGate," my reaction was one of amusement -- which, in case you haven't noticed, is my reaction to pretty much everything, including the Barack Obama dildo.

But, as I pointed out, DijonGate drove more than 100K visits Thursday and Friday for Professor Jacobson -- nearly an average month's worth of traffic in just two days -- mainly because the Left has gone wacko over this story. And they won't let it go.

Today, Pandagon's Jesse Taylor is back at it, arguing whether a $7 hamburger is a typical American lunch. Look, Jesse: I can get a junior cheeseburger, fries and a soft drink at Sheetz for about $4, total. But it's not about the burger price. It's not about the burger or the condiments or anything else.

It's about the fact that NBC News was afraid to let its viewers hear Barack Obama say "Dijon mustard," like he'd asked for a side order of Beluga caviar or something. As with their "reporting" on the economy, it's about elite journalism's obsession with safeguarding Obama's image.

So now there's a whole new Memeorandum thread, and Vox Day weighs in:

If you think that little of your potential audience's intelligence, you shouldn't be surprised that no one watches you; they clearly aren't capable of finding the on-switch.

Exactly. The producers who edited out "Dijon mustard" think Americans are stupid. Here's Ed Driscoll:

Obama and Biden's trip to Ray’s Hell-Burger in Arlington is remarkably reminiscent of Kerry and Edwards’ campaign photo-op at an New York State Wendy's. Mark Steyn's August 2004 Telegraph article is the definitive take on that classic faux-populist debacle. Much like the dangers of being photographed while wearing silly hats on the campaign trail, perhaps elitist politicians might want to think twice before slumming it at the local fast-food joint.

And here's Jehuda at the Rhetorican:

In this media environment it's easier than ever to point at the man behind the curtain, especially when the curtain isn't even hanging anymore.

What we are seeing on the Left is a fanatical devotion to the Politics of Perception. It doesn't matter that millions of Americans -- including lots of us who didn't vote for Obama -- share his preference for a burger topping that is neither exotic nor particularly expensive.

Dijon mustard can be purchased at any Safeway or Food Lion at a cost only modestly higher than the plain yellow variety. And, as Jesse Taylor accurately points out, lots of Ordinary Americans eat at Applebee's -- or TGI Friday's or similar chain restaurances -- where the appetizers are $7 and the entrees are $15 or more.

However, as regards DijonGate, none of this does matters. We've gone from DijonGate to Dijongeddon because what matters, at least in the minds of TV news producers and left-wing bloggers, is the careful maintenance of Obama's positive image.

The same is true of their reporting on the economy, where the question for elite journalists is not how many Americans are losing their jobs, but rather if Obama will be blamed for the job losses. We await the headline in the entertainment section of the New York Times:

'Star Trek' Breaks Box Office Record;
Film Helps Obama With Sci-Fi Voters

Is everything political now? Is news only relevant insofar as it causes people to vote Republican or Democrat? Will we soon see the TV weatherman telling us how the latest high-pressure system in the Midwest affects Obama's popularity? Will ESPN discuss the political impact of the Cardinals-Mets game?

Allow me the self-serving observation that when Professor Jacobson gets more traffic for a mustard story than I get for "Carrie Prejean nude," the politicization of news has gone too far. If Rush Limbaugh can't be allowed a laugh at the president's expense -- and if Bush-Cheney jokes are the only laughs allowed at the White House Correspondents Dinner -- Professor Jacobson's remarks about an Obama "cult of personality" may foretell a humorless future for American political culture.

UPDATE: At least the folks who make Grey Poupon haven't lost their sense of humor:

The Honorable Barack H. Obama
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20006
Dear Mr. President:
We applaud you, Mr. President, for exercising your freedom of taste when recently ordering a burger with Dijon mustard. We're always happy to see people use Dijon mustard to add flair and flavor to their favorite foods. The right to choose condiments freely is quintessentially American and embodies the spirit of our democracy.
So we urge you to respond to "Dijon-gate" by issuing a "pardon" to any American who has ever been criticized for putting a liberal spread of Dijon mustard on a burger or a conservative dollop on a ham & cheese sandwich. These "Pardon Me for Loving Dijon" proclamations will empower the millions of Dijon mustard-loving Americans to ask for their favorite condiment with pride.
Respectfully yours,
The GREY POUPON Team

See? Greedy capitalists have a sense of humor. Hat-tip to Legal Insurrection via Instapundit, who also links the latest on yellow -- or is that spicy brown? -- journalism.

President Obama Remains Popular; Women, Minorities Hit Hardest

Over at The American Spectator blog, I noted that elite journalists now view everything through an Obama prism:

The Jobless Rate, Slow to Improve, Tests Obama
On the economy, President Obama has a timing problem. Congressional Democrats may have a bigger one.
Nearly four months into his presidency, Mr. Obama has begun to describe a pivot from economic crisis to economic recovery. From stabilized consumer spending to higher construction spending, he said last week, "the gears of our economic engine" are "slowly turning once again."
The problem is that those gears are unlikely to churn out many new jobs anytime soon. . . .

"The problem," as the New York Times sees it, is purely about politics, and politics is now about a single person. Never mind the nearly 2 million Americans who've lost their jobs since Jan. 20. There is only one person in the world who really matters, and his name is Obama.

The White House Correspondent Dinner Routine We Should Have Gotten

Never heard of C. Brooks Kurtz before, but this is more like it:

. . .Meghan McCain appears to be writing down her phone number on a cocktail napkin -- no wait, she's grabbing scraps of food off other people's plates, putting them in cloth napkins and stuffing them into her oversized purse. She's showing some decent cleavage . . . The crowd is howling -- I want to ask the President if he still has any of his coke connections because this is going to be a very long night. . . .

There's lots more.

'Sleazy tabloid accusations . . .'

. . . have a predictable way of proving true:

When a person's image is a commodity -- as was the case with John Edwards, the millionaire of humble origins whose family life supposedly kept him grounded -- the ideas of privacy and good taste become part of the marketing effort. The tabloids, rude and prying, are able to break through such images to the truth behind them in ways the conventional media cannot. . . .
"False, absolute nonsense," an Edwards spokesperson told the Enquirer at the beginning of the Edwards-affair affair in October 2007, while the candidate was still working the heartland on his way to a second-place finish, ahead of Hillary Clinton, in the Iowa caucuses. Against that blanket denial, the paper cited "a source close to the woman" and "one bombshell e-mail message" to support what it called a "shocking allegation -- if proven true."

As previously noted, newspapers were generally more successful when they were more tabloid-ish, and before they gave op-ed space to dishonest twits like Frank Rich.

New video from Mary Katharine Spam

No relation to any other girls named Mary Katharine. Or at least not that we know of, anyways.

That was sent to me by a Canadian Who Shall Remain Nameless, for fear of provoking reprisals.

Brit Army Lasses Preggers in Iraq!

Sort of a Fleet Street headline for this story from the Daily Star:

At least 133 Brit servicewomen have been sent home from Afghanistan and Iraq after getting pregnant.
The Daily Star Sunday has learned 102 of Our Girls returned early from Iraq between January 1, 2003 and February 28 of this year because they were expecting. And at least 31 female squaddies were fl own home from Afghanistan for the same reason.
Of those, 50 returned early from Iraq or Afghanistan between April 1, 2007 and February 28, 2009.
A total of 5,600 women have been sent to war so far and the Ministry of Defence admitted there may be even more cases which have not been recorded.

Shocker! Send women to war and they'll be women, not warriors. And lads will be lads, after all . . .

Fear, Loathing and Smitty in Las Vegas

"We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold . . ."
-- Hunter S. Thompson,
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

The photo above was one of several that arrived yesterday in a brown manilla envelope with no return address, accompanied by a cryptic note assembled by some maniac who had cut letters out of magazines and pasted them together to create a message so disgustingly obscene that even I would not reprint it here.

No matter what this anonymous extortionist claims, I refuse to believe that my dear friend Smitty could have engaged in the repulsive acts portrayed by these photographs. As far as I'm aware, for example, there are no teenage Ukrainian albino prostitutes employed in Nevada. Even if there are, I sincerely doubt there could be two of them -- identical twins at that and, to judge from the astonishing variety of poses, double-jointed bisexual acrobats who've spent years studying the Kama Sutra.

However, if these lurid scenes are genuine, Smitty is either racing toward the Mexican border or headed for a long spell in a federal penitentiary. He has no alibi, because everyone knows he spent the past week in Las Vegas, a place notorious for its decadent hedonism. Certainly I cannot be held accountable because, so far as I knew, he was merely going on holiday with his German in-laws. Granted, one occasionally hears bizarre rumors about elderly German tourists, but . . .

Forgeries or felonies, the photos were certainly interesting, although fearing an inquiry by the Postmaster General's office -- some kind of sting operation? -- I immediately destroyed all of them except the one relatively safe picture I scanned in and displayed at the top of this post. That is obviously Smitty at the right side of the photo. I'd recognize the bowtie anywhere, but . . . who is that woman on the left?

Little Miss Attila? Well, certainly some of the tales Matthew Vadum told of their CPAC escapades two years ago might lead me to believe she could do such things. And she does live in L.A., a reasonable driving distance from Vegas, assuming you have a radar detector and you're driving one of those big Chevy convertibles with a powerful V-8 engine.

For a few minutes, I stared at the photo while smoking a bowl of Kashmir's finest and decided no, it couldn't be Attila. Too tall. Which also rules out Cynthia Yockey who was, after all, still in Baltimore so far as anyone knew.

Who could she be? And then it hit me.

One of the photos I'd burned immediately after receiving the package had depicted Smitty participating in altogether despicable behavior with a certain breed of domesticated livestock.

Sheep? No Sheeples? Oh, Carol, you temptress . . .

Just call me Lucas, ma'am

A post about "cowboy values" at The American Thinker inspires Pundette to muse at the Hot Air Green Room:

So mamas, go git yurself some Westerns fur yur young 'uns to watch this weekend. Ah'm right parshull to the television series The Rifleman. In addition to the qualities above, Lucas McCain and the folks in North Fork believe in personal responsibility, risk-taking, hard work, and no cussin' in front of the womenfolk.

Ah, The Rifleman! Arguably (and yes, I know this will inspire fierce arguments from fans of "Gunsmoke") the best television Western ever. It debuted the year before I was born, ran for five seasons, played in re-runs forever, and the delightful coincidence of the protagonist's surname meant that I spent years answering to, "Hey, Lucas!"

For those too young to remember, here is the famous opening sequence, followed by the closing credits:

Like other frontier icons of that era -- Fess Parker as Davy Crockett, for example -- Lucas McCain was an ideal role model, a paragon of virtue. His actions were always just. His words were always wise. And the Rifleman was utterly fearless.

Manly courage was the essence of Lucas McCain. It didn't matter how numerous the bad guys were, Lucas was never going to be intimidated. Why? Because he knew he was fighting on the side of right.

Lucas McCain was always the friend of the helpless, always a defender of the weak, always the righteous avenger of those done wrong by the selfish and vicious. And the series took pains to show that Lucas was, by nature, peaceful and amiable. He had a cheerful sense of humor, and could always smile at the mischief of his boy, Mark. There was a poignant nostalgia in his heart for his late wife.

That Lucas was a widower -- a key scriptwriter's convenience he shared with many another fatherly protagonist of the 1950s and '60s -- allowed for the development of romantic subplots. There frequently seemed to be some lovestruck schoolmarm in need of rescue, and you could be sure that in his conduct toward her, Lucas McCain would be impeccably honorable, the embodiment of medieval courtliness transposed to the rustic terms of the 19th-century American frontier.

He was loved by women because Lucas was a man's man. This aspect of the Rifleman's character expresses a great truth that I would advise any young man to contemplate: If you wish to be admired by women, conduct yourself in such a way as to win the respect of men.

You will always notice that the man who is genuinely popular with women is not a selfish, dishonest, cowardly loner, but is the sort of frank, generous and cheerful comrade who is always a welcome companion to his fellow man. He is a team player, always ready in the hour of crisis, and modest enough not to care whether he receives public credit for his good deeds. He does what is right because it is right, confident that his true merit will be known among those courageous souls who shared the burden of his labors.

Lucas McCain was not a show-off, not a braggart, not a bully. He never lied, he never quit. His quiet confidence inspired others to hope that humble virtue must ultimately triumph over arrogant evil. He never started a fight, and always sought to avert violence, so long as it could be averted without dishonor or injustice. But when it was time to fight, he was never afraid, and when the fight was over, the bad guys were always vanquished. The good, the true and the right were vindicated. And Lucas was standing tall.

Which is to say, he was not remotely like David Brooks.

Having just completed the celebration of National Offend A Feminist Week, I should point out that I often fall woefully short of the high mark set by Lucas McCain. Yet I alway know where the mark is set, you see.

Therefore, I agree wholeheartedly with Pundette. If you want your sons or grandsons to have a role model of old-fashioned manly virtue, The Rifleman is the man for the job.

Rule 5 Sunday

by Smitty
Welcome back to another episode of Rule 5 Sunday, the most cheerful roundup of (cheese/beef)cake on the webbytubes, or somebody else gets a bailout. Submit links to Smitty for inclusion. And now to the post:

• We'll get things rolling with Three Beers Later. This comparatively recent blog features everything a knuckle-dragger could want. Beer: check. Feminist-offensive clip: check. Great blog intro, Sarah Palin, Carrie Prejean: check, check, check. Dude, you rock. Additionally, the character in question may irritate Stacy into trotting out old Brooks Rossington Frumdreher III, whose absinthe is enough to drive one to distraction.
• Bob's Bar and Grill picks up about the only thing Three Beers Later omitted: Milla Jovovich with cannons.
• And if Milla isn't enough, the Kuru Lounge has Sienna Miller as the Baroness. Kuru ups the ante with an Ewa Sonnet clip. Life is beachy-keen.
• Monique Stewart trades iron for fashion with Rachel McAdams, which is not such a bad deal. Monique was also getting her Columbo on WRT Carrie Prejean:

  What bothers me about this story is, why would an aspiring Victoria’s Secret model without a chest take nude photos in her pursuit to become a Vicky’s Secret model? I mean, has she ever seen a VS model?

• Pat in Shreveport calls in Condi Rice for the diplomatic take on Rule 5. Officially, she serves up the beefcake, as in this Steve McQueen example.
• HuffPo had something about the next Cindy Crawford. Because we're openminded about lefty blogs, and stuff.
• You can see Jennifer Ellison on Rollerblades over at Freeberg's blog. At least I think she's on rollerblades. For some reason, his interest did not extend as far South as her footwear.
• Jeffords ponders a Megan Fox/Scarlett Johansson imbroglio over handling "sex symbol" status. Me, I gave that up to be a Porch Manqué. The whole sex symbol thing involved too much math.
• Paco contributes his signature silver screen enticements.
• The Daily Gator babe is both far out and far East.
• The cheeky Troglopundit contributes a smiley.
• Carol at No Sheeples Here has some photoshop fun at my expense. For the record, I did spend $5 on gaming, but it was all pinball. Gambling involves too much math.
• Pax Parabellum brings us to a somber conclusion about beauty contests in other societies.
• And, finally, it's Mother's Day.

Quick, send more links to bring the buzz back to Smitty.

Update:

• The Clever S.Logan proves the name by coaxing some unintended self-advertising from Mitt Romney. Nicely done.
• Serr8d combines Rule 5 with a Star Trek review. I guess this means he liked it?

• Here is the Patriot Room featuring Miss Rhode Island, but that photo isn't of any part of RI I've ever seen. Presumably the Providence Plantations

Update II:

• We have a thoughtful, highbrow submission from the Skepticrats. Taste is such a moving target, no?
• Serr8d points us to someone code-named Wyatt Earp, who has some Mother's Day fare for consideration.
• American Power points to Heidi Klum. Viva Mother's Day!
• HotMES contributes Goldie Hawn/Kate Hudson. It sounds as though they may be related.

DijonGate: What have we learned?

"I'm going to have a basic cheddar cheese burger, medium well, with mustard. . . . You got a spicy mustard or something like that, or a Dijon mustard, something like that?"
-- Barack Obama, May 5, 2009

"The reaction proved one thing I already knew: The cult of personality surrounding Obama is real. And many of the cultists are demented, dangerous or both."
-- William Jacobson, May 8, 2009

Congratulations to Professor Jacobson. Traffic at his Legal Insurrection blog, which was about 37,000 visits in February, surged to more than 107,000 in just two days Thursday and Friday, because he dared to point out how dishonest news coverage has become.

The point was not that Obama likes Dijon mustard -- I do, too, as does the man who named it "DijonGate" -- but rather that MSNBC and other major media are no longer in the news business. They're doing public relations for the Obama administration and the Democratic Party.

What was the purpose of Obama and Joe Biden going to Ray's Hell-Burger in Arlington, Va.? It was a photo-op, to show O and Joe bein' Regular Guys, standin' in line, eatin' some burgers.

Obviously, reporters didn't think "Dijon mustard" fit the narrative the White House wanted, and so they fudged the quote -- and NBC even edited its own video -- to omit the offensive French phrase. Jacobson pointed this out, and it was like showing a Rorshach inkblot to Charles Manson.

Obama Mustard Attack Becomes Full-Blown Right-Wing Talking Point
-- Huffington Post

Ivy League Professor Wingnut Pens Masterpiece About Dijon Mustard
-- Wonkette

Dijon Derangement Syndrome: Conservative media attack Obama for burger order
-- Media Matters

Why was the reaction so hideously overblown? Gateway Pundit, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and others were just doing the same thing they did with John Kerry's ill-fated wind-surfing vacation or any number of other incidents in which prominent Democrats act in ways that conflict with their populist rhetoric.

A burger at Ray's Hell-Burger costs $6.95, so lunch at the Arlington restaurant isn't exactly the value menu at Mickey D's. If the White House believed they could show Obama as a Regular Guy by having him eat at a place where the burgers are seven bucks, maybe they need to work on their definition of populism.

Jacobson's posts, however, pointed out how news organizations were actively involved in the image-shaping function of the Obama P.R. machine. It would be like learning that Fox News provided the "Mission Accomplished" banner at Bush's famous 2003 aircraft-carrier event.

Exposure of the media role in the Obama phenomenon is what the Left fears most because, at some level, they understand that if the press were ever to report honestly on what the Democrats are doing, the game would change. So the Obama cultists, accustomed to only fawning coverage of their Leader, react with fury when the fawning coverage is demonstrated to be dishonest.

Obama's high level of public support is largely a product of his positive image the media have crafted. "DijonGate" exposed how this image-making role is played. And therefore William Jacobson is denounced as a "wing-nut" pushing "right-wing talking points."

Of course, there are no "left-wing talking points," and if you dare suggest that Media Matters and Huffington Post are participating in an orchestrated propaganda effort -- perhaps organized by Astroturf king David Axelrod -- this only proves you are a "wing nut."

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! My second 'Lanche this weekend. I suspect Professor Reynolds was watching what I was watching -- Ross Douthat doing "Q&A" on C-SPAN -- and thought to himself, "If I don't hit him now, there'll be another raving manic e-mail at 4 a.m."

Damned callow pretentious Harvard boy prattling on about Chesterton and Christopher Lasch and skinny-dipping with Buckley . . . well, never mind all that now. The raven's calling your name, Douthat!

UPDATE II: Paco quotes . . . Lionel Trilling? What the hell? Has everybody gone all Douthat on me? "As Jeanne Kirkpatrick once said to Daniel Patrick Moynihan . . . ."

Barack Obama dildo. And what would Jeanne Kirkpatrick have to say about that, huh?

UPDATE III: Hey, remember when John Edwards was the liberal media's idol?

UPDATE IV: The Left won't let it go, will they?

The Sambo Progressives

Why does TBogg get away with using a Sambo image? It's a question Donald Douglas is asking:

I've long documented the most vile bigotry and racism on the left end of the dial. During the 2008 primaries, we witnessed some of the most disgusting racism and sexism in decades. And across the blogosphere, the most reprehensible racial slurs and bigoted attacks on conservatives are considered fair game, penetrating social "commentary," and biting "satire."

You should go read the whole thing. The Left gets away with it, of course, because (a) they control the means of cultural production, (b) they claim to speak on the behalf of the designated victims, and (c) by defining their politics as synonymous with virtue, therefore they cannot be guilty of any vice.

Happy Mother's Day, Hot Mama!

OK, I've become notorious for that old Speedo photo, but brother let me tell you, Mrs. Other McCain could rock a swimuit back in the day:

That's at our apartment swimming pool, from the summer of 1990, when she was 26 and already a mother of one. Here's another photo from a year later:

In the background, you see the ruins of the New Manchester mill at Sweetwater Creek State Park in my hometown of Lithia Springs, Ga. And in the foreground, well . . . ain't she sexy? One more:

That's last summer at a Hagerstown Suns baseball game, with youngest daughter Reagan. Being adorable is a genetic hereditary condition. And you should hit the tip jar.

* * * * *

BTW, having crossed the million-hits threshold on Feb. 13, we topped 1.5 million yesterday, so we're on track to clear 2 million by Labor Day. But I gotta up my game, or William Jacobson will beat me to it. Who could ever have imagined that "DijonGate" would be more controversial than "Carrie Prejean nude" or "Marie Osmond's lesbian daughter"?

It's a dog-eat-dog world on the Internet . . . and it's Rule 5 Sunday!

Aloha Akbar!

Brilliant Photoshop by Carol at No Sheeples Here, who explains the story. (H/T: Troglopundit.)

Tax the Poor!

One of the things that originally made Rush Limbaugh notorious back in the day was his proposal to tax the poor. The idea being that if you want to discourage something, like cigarette smoking, you tax it. Well, why not a poverty tax?

The Swiftian satire wasn't appreciated when Rush did it, but now look what New York City is doing:

The Bloomberg administration has quietly begun charging rent to homeless families who live in publicly run shelters but have income from jobs.
The new policy is based on a 1997 state law that was not enforced until last week, when shelter operators across the city began requiring residents to pay a certain portion of their income. The amount varies based on factors that include family size and what shelter is being used, but should not exceed 50 percent of a family's income, a state official said.
Vanessa Dacosta, who earns $8.40 an hour as a cashier at Sbarro, received a notice under her door several weeks ago informing her that she had to give $336 of her approximately $800 per month in wages to the Clinton Family Inn, a shelter in Hell’s Kitchen where she has lived since March.
“It’s not right,” said Ms. Dacosta, a single mother of a 2-year-old who said she spends nearly $100 a week on child care. "I pay my baby sitter, I buy diapers, and I’m trying to save money so I can get out of here. I don't want to be in the shelter forever."

(Via Memeorandum.) Hey, Vanessa, why don't you explain this problem to the father of your child? It's like Ann Coulter says in Guilty: Nobody is allowed to criticize single mothers. Single mothers have a right to screw around, have babies out of wedlock and stick taxpayers with the bill.

Say this for the gays, at least they're not trying to bill me for their lifestyle. Beware the hobo menace!

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! It's Mother's Day and Rule 5 Sunday, plus we're also trying to learn the lessons of Dijon Gate and commemorating the fifth anniversary of same-sex Harvard marriage, so please have a look around. And if you feel the overwhelming urge to hit the tip jar, don't fight the feeling!

UPDATE II: The Rhetorican:

You know an economic system whose central conceit is to promote equality by transferring wealth from the have-more’s to the have-not’s has failed when it seeks to transfer wealth from the poor to government.

Ditto! BTW, just in case Rush Limbaugh should happen to read this: I am The Other McCain for a reason, so please don't hate me because of Crazy Cousin John. Or, as I sometimes feel obliged to point out: Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Bob Barr!

Just to clarify this distinction, check out these articles I wrote for The American Spectator:

• Oct. 7: How John McCain Lost
• Nov. 5: You Did Not Lose
• Dec. 8: It Won't Work
• Feb. 9: It Still Won't Work

So please don't confuse me with my distant kinsman, Rush. I'm a lot more like that Dittohead taxi driver Wally Onakoya. I'm a bona fide right-wing extremist. (And if you need an extra hand editing your monthly newsletter, I can provide excellent references. Get in touch. They tell me Palm Beach is lovely this time of year.)

Massachusetts: The Gay State

Associated Press celebrates the five-year anniversary of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts:

According to the latest state figures, [from May 2004] through September 2008, there had been 12,167 same-sex marriages in Massachusetts -- 64 percent of them between women -- out of 170,209 marriages in all

.No figures are cited on gay divorce, of course. If you read the 2,700-word story, you will see that AP reporter David Crary tells a sunshine-on-a-cloudless-day tale, elaborated with picturesque anecdotes about wonderful couples.

Crary won second place in the 2006 National Lesbian & Gay Journalist Association competition. This year, he's going for No. 1, baby!

I would very much like to be able to compare state-by-state marriage data to demonstrate that Massachusetts has one of the lowest marriage rates, and one of the lowest birth rates, in the United States. Unfortunately, as the NCHS bluntly admits, the federal government stopped providing even a semblance of comprensive data on marriage and divorce more than a decade ago.

However, birth data continue to be collected, so let's look at the 2003 total fertility rate for Massachusetts, as well as four other states -- Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and Maine -- that have legalized same-sex marriage, as well as New Hampshire, where legislation is currently awaiting the governor's signature.

Massachusetts......1.74
Connecticut..........1.92
Iowa.....................1.99
Vermont...............1.68
Maine...................1.75
New Hampshire...1.77

You see that in none of these states is the total fertility rate at or above the 2.1 average lifetime births per woman necessary to prevent demographic decline. Now, let's look at the states with the highest fertility rates:

Utah..................2.57
Arizona..............2.39
Alaska................2.37
Texas................2.35
Idaho................2.32

The fertility rate in Utah is 53% higher than the rate in Vermont, and the rate in Idaho is 33% higher than the rate in Massachusetts.

My point is that the popularity of same-sex marriage is strongly associated with low fertility rates. If adequate state-by-state data were available, I'm sure you'd see a similar association with low marriage rates.

Don't mistake the direction of causality, however: The decline of the traditional family caused the rise of same-sex marriage, and not vice-versa. It was America's embrace of the Contraceptive Culture -- detroying the natural connection between love, sex, marriage and parenthood -- that has made possible the radical triumph.

Gays did not do this. It was the God-haters, with the help of self-righteous fools who claimed to be religious even while they disobeyed one of God's original commandments: "Be fruitful and multiply." They thought they could embrace the Planned Parenthood lifestyle without consequence.

"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools . . ."
-- Romans 1:22 KJV

Mother's Day, the Planned Parenthood way! Declining birth rates mean an aging population. One of these days, we'll all be as gay -- and gray -- as Massachusetts, and they'll call that "progress."

UPDATE: Pundette says, "Move over, Mark Steyn." No, no, Pundette. It's more like, "Please link me, Mark Steyn!" BTW, Pundette is a mother of seven, and has an excellent Mother's Day linkfest round-up.

UPDATE II: Linked at Creative Minority Report and by Dad 29, who notes that my pro-natalist traditionalism is unusual for a Protestant. I get this all the time, as does Mark Steyn, who is Jewish and, indeed, one will find that nearly all Muslims share a similar attitude. (Dinesh D'Souza caught holy hell a couple years ago for a book in which he suggested that the Muslim world's anti-American rage is a reaction to the decadence of Western pop culture.)

The feminist-infested progressive Left would doubtless characterize this ecumenical pro-natalism as a function of the patriarchal phallocratic desire to oppress The Sisterhood. Rather, I think what accounts for the similarity of perspective is a skepticism toward the truth-claims of modernism. Confronted by the arrogant assertions of the elite consensus, from which dissent is forbidden, we skeptics detect the unmistakable aroma of bovine excrement.

The disciples of Progress look at tradition -- including the traditional belief that a large family is a blessing -- and see everything they despise as obsolete and unjust. The traditionalist agrees with G.K. Chesterton:

My attitude toward progress has passed from antagonism to boredom. I have long ceased to argue with people who prefer Thursday to Wednesday because it is Thursday.

Once an intelligent person begins to question Progress in this way, once he starts wondering whether everything old is bad and everything new is better, he will soon discover evidence that contradicts the modernist truth-claims. At that point, he is likely to become a full-blown reactionary and, unless counseled by men of reason whom he respects, will soon be arguing for the divine right of kings or some other embarrassing anachronism. (The informed reader will smile in recognition of the hint of autobiography here.)

Extremism of one form or another -- and Osama bin Laden will suffice as an example -- is too often the result of the traditionalist's resentment of modernist arrogance. Being a Bible-thumping hillbilly myself, I have sometimes thought the Islamic radicals have the better of the argument with their "moderate" antagonists within the Muslim world. If the Koran is true, if Muhammad was a divine Prophet who spoke on behalf of the Almighty, then jihad against the infidels is the True Faith.

But please note the hypothetical; I certainly do not accept that Mohammed was an agent of divinity, except in the sense that the Babylonian conquest was an act of God. The Israelites were God's chosen people, but disobeyed him, and the Babylonian armies were thus the temporal means of chastisement. In the same way, one might say that the errors and unfaithfulness of the 6th-century church inspired Muhammad's ignorant anti-Christian theology, which from its beginnings in a rebellion of Arab tribesmen, advanced thence by conquest until at last Christendom rallied.

Students of history will find that the Christian world did not defeat the Ottoman Empire (in the 1683 Battle of Vienna) until after Martin Luther had struck the spark of Christian reform. Make of this what you will. The relevant point here, however, is that any crisis or tribulation suffered by Christendom must be seen as the chastisement of human failing, a call to greater faith and greater obedience to God's commandments.

God will not abandon us, if we are faithful and obedient, but if He desires to call us to repentance, He will work through means at hand, and we must pay attention to understand wherein we have failed.

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• 5/3: The Demographics of Dhimmitude
• 4/22: 'Forbidding to marry'
• 2/11: The taxpayer shortage