. . . Mark Steyn argues two points:
1) All the discussion about whether we have an "exit strategy" in Iraq is misdirected, and
2) The real source of the Democrats’ rage at the redstaters is not that the redstaters are too stupid but that they aren’t stupid enough.
Good riddance to it, too.
The Constitution doesn’t requires more than a majority vote on presidential appointments to the judiciary, and it twists the meaning of the Constitution to use Senate debate rules to up that to a 60-vote supermajority.
In fact, I’m rethinking the existence of the filibuster. Certainly the way it’s come to be used, a case can be made that it is a contra-Constitutional rule that we ought to simply get rid of.
But that’s a question for another day. For now,
Okay, a little lunchtime blogging due to a special situation going on today.
I don’t know what’s going on with the Associated Press these days. They seem congenitally unable to Get The Story Right.
TAKE THIS STORY, FOR INSTANCE.
It leads one to believe that Spain’s national conference of bishops has endorsed the idea that condoms should be used to help prevent the spread of AIDS. As a result, it has a lot of folks alarmed, wondering what’s up with that.
But here’s the deal: That article (on CNN’s web site) is an edited-down version of
Or perhaps that one is an edited-up version of the one that CNN has.
Anyway . . .
The key sentence in the longer article is this:
Martinez Camino met the health minister as a representative of the church, though it was unclear whether he was expressing the official view of the church.
No, duh!!!
Listen: A person is Not Qualified To Be A Religion Reporter On Catholic Issues if he doesn’t know that something said by a single spokesman IS NOT AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF THE CHURCH. The only way policies get changed on the part of a national conference is if the conference as a whole takes a vote on it and issues a paper stating the policy change. Some offhand remark in front of the press by a spokesman of some kind does not a policy change make.
It doesn’t even matter if the spokesman is the president of the conference. The way Church law is structured, you have to have the whole conference take a vote or it isn’t policy. Think of it like Congress: It doesn’t matter what some senator’s aide says, or even what the president of the Senate says, unless Congress as a whole votes, it ain’t policy (or law).
Once again, the press gets it wrong.
Now, on a side note, if there really is an effort on the part of the Spanish bishops to change this then all I can say is los obispos son locos and we’ll have an interesting showdown with the Vatican.
UPDATE: THE VATICAN STRIKES BACK.
UPDATEUPDATE: SPAIN DENIES.
It’s mentioned near the end of this
DEVASTATING CRITIQUE OF THE CBS INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION REPORT.
It’s mentioned near the end of this
DEVASTATING CRITIQUE OF THE CBS INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION REPORT.
From John O’Sullivan of the Chicago Sun-Times:
What makes this internal paralysis so dangerous to the Democrats is that they are even more out of touch with ordinary Americans than they or the pundits realize. There are two political spectrums in America today — an elite spectrum and a popular spectrum.
The elite spectrum has the Democrats in the center, the voters on the center-right, and the Republicans on the far right. No one ever outlines this structure of opinion as clearly and explicitly as that. But it is regularly implied by the establishment media or centrist pundits in the course of their commentaries.
The popular spectrum of political opinion has the Democrats and liberal elites on the left, the Republicans in the middle, and the voters further out to their right.
Of course, not all issues fit into the popular spectrum comfortably. On some economic issues, for instance, the elite spectrum represents reality better. Thus, the voters are instinctively closer to the Democrats than to the Republicans on Social Security — which is why the congressional Republicans are distinctly nervous about the reform program proposed by the Bush administration.
What makes the Democrats’ task of recovery so difficult is that many of the issues that most concern voters — for instance, national security and gay marriage — fit into the popular spectrum better. But because the Democrats think in terms of the elite spectrum — and are encouraged to do so by elite institutions such as Hollywood and the media — they never realize their vulnerability.
He’s the Syrian Archbishop of Mosul, Iraq and has been kidnapped by terrorists.
UPDATE: PRAYERS ANSWERED!
No, not the "love bombing" that Mormons and some Evangelicals do–whereby a person is so surrounded by expressions of love, affection, and friendship that they are pressured to join a religious organization.
The Pentagon apparently considered love bombing of a wholly different and more literal kind: A chemical weapon designed to induce an irresistible (and unnatural) amorous state among enemy troops and thereby disrupt their morale and operations.
And this was just one of the weird chemical weapons that was considered.
Personally, I don’t have a problem with the halitosis bad-guy marker.
‘Course, hitting them with indelible dye in water balloons might do almost as well.
No, not the "love bombing" that Mormons and some Evangelicals do–whereby a person is so surrounded by expressions of love, affection, and friendship that they are pressured to join a religious organization.
The Pentagon apparently considered love bombing of a wholly different and more literal kind: A chemical weapon designed to induce an irresistible (and unnatural) amorous state among enemy troops and thereby disrupt their morale and operations.
And this was just one of the weird chemical weapons that was considered.
Personally, I don’t have a problem with the halitosis bad-guy marker.
‘Course, hitting them with indelible dye in water balloons might do almost as well.