Tag: Important If True

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Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas both – thank God – know more about what Thomas Jefferson intended than Jefferson himself did. I mean, as Tony himself has said, _______. Jefferson, on the other hand (that clueless idiot), clearly had no frickin’ clue what the Framers had in mind when he said, “I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects.  But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the same coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors” . . . Where’d you find this guy, anyway? . . .

“A ground element came under fire from that building that we had to neutralize,” Admiral Smith said. It was not clear on Friday whether American commanders knew that so many civilians were in or near the structure when they authorized the airstrike.

“The enemy has a vote here,” Admiral Smith said, “and when he chooses to surround himself with civilians and then fire upon U.S. forces, our forces have no choice but to return a commensurate amount of fire. Which is what they did last evening.”

Important If True: Things I didn’t know edition  1/20

BLIND SQUIRREL, OR DOUGHY PANTLOAD?:

http://www.latimes.com/news/op…

joe conason book review

http://www.latimes.com/feature…

georgia gun bill

http://news.mywebpal.com/partn…

Gen. Robert Scales on ATC january 11 – very end of the broadcast

http://www.npr.org/templates/s…

The reason we’re in Iraq is to establish a military presence there. Finally – someone comes out and admits that the reason we illegally invaded and occupied a sovereign nation that posed no threat to us was to fulfill the agenda of the Project for the New American Century, first laid out in 1997 and more fully explicated in 2000.

defense secretary gates on gunboats

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/200…

Asked about the Iranian charge of fabrication, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said: “I think that the most appropriate answer is actually the one that I heard on television last night from former Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen, who said, ‘Are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?’

I’LL BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW THIS: thompson not even in the same ballpark – he’s on a little league diamond

http://www.humanevents.com/art…

Fred Thompson knew he had to hit it out of the park last night — so he did.

more scintillating commentary from the same columnist, Ericka Andersen (a real piece of journalistic work herself):

Huckabee wasn’t the only one out of place last night. Ron Paul, who was invited to the debate only after receiving 8% of the New Hampshire vote, displayed his lack of understanding of the military by second-guessing on-scene commanders who didn’t fire on Iran speedboats in the incident last Sunday in the Strait of Hormuz. Worse still, Paul seemed to suggest that the American version of the incident — in which a radio transmission from the Iranian boats included a threat, “you will explode in two minutes” — was untrue.

Paul suggested that “voice may not even have come from those vessels” and argued that “there are people in this administration and in Washington DC that are looking for a chance” to go to war….an excuse to bomb Iran.”

WELL, I’LL BE A FILIPINO MONKEY’S UNCLE:

http://ap.google.com/article/A…

http://www.ncseweb.org/resourc…

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

my kids are all in favor of schools being required to validate opposing views. In fact, one of my daughters is adamant that her algebra teacher give as much weight to the belief that holds that factoring

o’reilly and trained monkey fling poo

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

creationism museum closing

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

depending upon the 40,000 year age of an artifact

The meek shall not inherit the scorched earth: everybody knows there’s a difference between campaigning and governing.  Campaigning can be exciting: the adrenaline rush, the strategizing, the maneuvering, the gamesmanship,-but what to do once the election is won?  Putting aside for the moment we illegality of the entire enterprise, the “defeat” of the Iraqi army took a little bit over three weeks.  That was the easy part, and the most telegenic.  The hard part-and the part for which those who carried out the Blitzkrieg had no plan and no clue-came afterward.  So what is my point?  Simply this: conducting a scorched earth Blitzkrieg campaign whose sole object is to win, regardless of the costs, consequences or repercussions, might be a nice tactic, but a terrible strategy.  Just sayin.

alcides moreno

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01…

“Important If True” is an irregularly-scheduled Mojo Swap Meet wherein the diarist cobbles together a collection of seemingly random thoughts, no single one of which, taken by itself, may be worthy of attention, but which, when presented en masse in a veritable mélange, a pastiche, as it were, of cerebral offal, might thus put to rest any niggling doubts that you may have had about whether the effort would be worth it. Or, to paraphrase someone, you should waste no time in reading this . . .

– but definitely spread the mojo around in the comments! Thanks for reading!

“Important If True” is an irregularly-scheduled Mojo Swap Meet wherein the diarist cobbles together a collection of seemingly random thoughts, no single one of which, taken by itself, may be worthy of attention, but which, when presented en masse in a veritable mélange, a pastiche, as it were, of cerebral offal, might thus put to rest any niggling doubts that you may have had about whether the effort would be worth it. Or, to paraphrase someone, you should waste no time in reading this . . .

- but definitely spread the mojo around in the comments! Thanks for reading!

“Important If True” is an irregularly-scheduled Mojo Swap Meet wherein the diarist cobbles together a collection of seemingly random thoughts, no single one of which, taken by itself, may be worthy of attention, but which, when presented en masse in a veritable mélange, a pastiche, as it were, of cerebral offal, might thus put to rest any niggling doubts that you may have had about whether the effort would be worth it. Or, to paraphrase someone, you should waste no time in reading this . . .

- but definitely spread the mojo around in the comments! Thanks for reading!

SAD, AND TRUE: Yesterday’s brutal killing of Benazir Bhutto has precipitated much discussion about the U.S. relationship with Pakistan, our erstwhile ally in The Business Formerly Known As The Global Struggle Against Violent Extremists®.  (continued below)

TERRORISM TAKES A HOLIDAY: So, today is http://www.infopleas… >the day the Brits celebrate an anti-Christian, civilian-bombing, government-hating insurgent by going door-to-door and asking for money (“Penny for the Guy?”). Why do the British hate America? . . . . Michael Mukasey would approve: After he was captured, before he could detonate his bomb that was intended to destroy the Protestant Parliament, Fawkes was tortured, at the explicit direction of King James, who instructed that the torture should be gentle at first, and increase in severity. (And yes, I’m sure King James had a note from his solicitor general saying that the whole thing was perfectly OK, provided there was no organ failure.) “The torture only revealed the names of those conspirators who were already dead or whose names were known to the authorities,” according to Wikipedia. Why does Wikipedia hate America?

– wherein the diarist cobbles together on a semi-regular basis a collection of seemingly random thoughts, no single one of which, taken by itself, may be worthy of your attention, dear reader(s?), but which, when presented en masse in a veritable mélange, a pastiche, as it were, of cerebral offal, might thus put to rest any niggling doubts that you may have had about whether the effort would be worth it. Or, to paraphrase someone, you should waste no time in reading this . . .

PAGING CAPT. OBVIOUS: I wonder why President Bush was in such a big hurry to get to the San Diego County photo op? I mean, it took him four days to land in New Orleans and screw up rescue efforts, right? Well, folks, the answer should be easy – it’s as simple as black and white – erm, I mean, blue and red (just zoom in on this map of the 2004 presidential vote by county; San Diego, Orange and Riverside counties are all the way down in the lower left-hand corner) . . .

prosecution of key anti terrorism case falls apart http://www.latimes.c… “serious consequences” Cheney uses the phrase to set up an attack on Iran. How ’bout we use the phrase on congressional Dems to set up a primary challenge to them?

Back when I was a kid, I used to look forward every day to reading the San Francisco Chronicle. The Chronicle was a paper that was – how to put this – unique in its outlook and editorial stance. Freed from the stifling journalistic rigor of, say, its distant and uptight cousins, The New York Times or the The Washington Post (and if you’re wondering how I can use the phrase “journalistic rigor” in the same sentence as “The New York Times” or “The Washington Post,” remember: this was when I was a kid, okay?), the Chron (as we called it) practiced a more, umm, Bohemian style of journalism, one that reflected, perhaps, the decidedly less weighty priorities of the residents of Baghdad-by-the-Bay and its environs.