Minnesota GOP Radio Purity People

Yes, yes, unity and all that. But what happened to the Republican Party of Minnesota on Friday? It's more than just one particular candidate winning; it's the advent of the holier than thou fringe. This includes one bitter clinger from 2006 (a long time ago, we note) as well as many "liberty" type people who are not Republicans (Ron Paul nut jobs, pardon the redundancy). They bore us. They care more about being right in an endorsement than winning. How insider that concern is, winning. Of course, they insist the current Oracle of Wasilla knows all, tells all and others (us) how we should vote. Did Minnesotans ever inject themselves into a contested Alaskan endorsement convention. No, is the short answer.

At the convention, the seals clapped as suggested, you betcha! Especially the ones with microphones. They pretend to independence.

They are the sliver that actually applauds Chris Baker calling Democratic Minnesotans communists and thinking himself (or themselves) clever (that was at the creepy Jesus fest of the Michele and Sarah rally: shazam!). This from a morning drive talk radio show host who insults anyone's intelligence should they have the misfortune of listening into his adolescent drivel. Or others who read those who have a blog and a radio show on stations to which few listen and for good reason. But they are, to quote one such type, "flattered" when one of the leaders of the purity person speaks to them. Really? It takes this little? From the little people, apparently yes. Viola: he's a macher! Just don't call his candidate an angry white male: that just makes that angry white male angry! We'll get back to you about that pizza in forest. (That was a Tweet to this author: can we publish it to let readers in?)

Another of these types said she could not pronounce Rhonda Sivarajah's last name. She holds
forth Saturdays on (fm) radio as being informed. Please. Love of your own ignorance is never pretty.

These marginally educated people constitute the tale wagging the dog of the RPM.

MC is unamused and with more than sufficient reason.

Unlike them, we want to win.

And unlike them, we are demonstrably not stupid.

In Defense Of South Park & The Enlightenment

MC isn't a particularly big fan of Ross Douthat but he's ok. How's that for damning with faint praise? Our fear is he's a David Brooks in training and that's enough to ruin anyone's day. Still, he's penned a not bad piece about how we in America have this thing called the First Amendment and it allows us to shock the rest of our citizens to no end.

Except when it comes to the very violent religion of peace. Then something else kicks in and that something else isn't pretty. MC doesn't think Douthat deserves as much praise as he's been getting for this (then again, the courage bar is set awfully low these days) but we're happy to pass along his piece for our readers. Click on the title of this post to read it. We thought the following was his best bit:

"Our culture has few taboos that can’t be violated, and our establishment has largely given up on setting standards in the first place.

Except where Islam is concerned. There, the standards are established under threat of violence, and accepted out of a mix of self-preservation and self-loathing.

This is what decadence looks like: a frantic coarseness that “bravely” trashes its own values and traditions, and then knuckles under swiftly to totalitarianism and brute force.

Happily, today’s would-be totalitarians are probably too marginal to take full advantage. This isn’t Weimar Germany, and Islam’s radical fringe is still a fringe, rather than an existential enemy.

For that, we should be grateful. Because if a violent fringe is capable of inspiring so much cowardice and self-censorship, it suggests that there’s enough rot in our institutions that a stronger foe might be able to bring them crashing down."

The Triumph Of Polish Democracy

The New Republic has an excellent article about how the worst day in modern Polish history is rapidly becoming its best. Click on the title of this post to read it.

A Cover Can Be Worth A Thousand Words

How Obama Is Weakening America

Click on the title of this post to read yet another excellent piece by Tunku Varadarajan, who seems to be on something of a roll lately.