What's Next for the Blogosphere?

How much time do you put into your blogging?

I blog most of the day, depending on what's going. If it's a workday, I'll post in the morning before lectures. Read the newspapers at break, and then write something at lunch. Then I'll blog in the late afternoon and evening. In the summer, I can organize my activities around blogging. Today I'll post a couple of more times this morning, then I'll be out most of the afternoon for my family's 4th of July party. Then more tonight.

I'm thinking of this while reading Laura McKenna's piece, "The Blogosphere 2.0."

Many of the top bloggers have been absorbed into some other professional enterprise or are burnt. It's a lot of work to blog. Most bloggers, and not just the A-listers, spend 3-5 hours every day blogging. That's hard to maintain, especially since there is no money in this. They used that time to not only write their posts and monitor their comment sections, but to read and foster other bloggers. Blogging survived based on the goodwill and generosity of others. It's probably no coincidence that every blogger that I've met face-to-face is an extraordinarily nice person. But it's hard to volunteer that much time over a long period of time. The spouses tend to get annoyed.

Make sure you read the whole thing.

McKenna seems to be burned out herself, or at least she's not hip to some new trends in blogging (I'd called them elite partisan network effects). Rick Moran wrote about changing norms and practices last fall at Pajamas Media, "Blogs and the 2008 Election." Moran's main point is that political blogging is the new muckraking, with attacks and counterattacks consuming the time of most partisan bloggers:

While the nation is going through an economic crisis, trying to decide the best course of action in Iraq, and wrestling with serious questions of war, peace, and financial security, blogs as a whole are concerned with either promoting or knocking down the latest smear from their opponents. Or, even worse, trivializing the utterances of both candidates so that the elections seems more about the best way to make the opposition look bad by blowing a statement out of all sensible proportion while, at the same time, accusing the candidate of all manner of hair raising-perfidy.

Perhaps it is time to pause and ask “Is this the best blogs can do?”

I think the more appropriate question is "how can we do it better"?

Really, blogs aren't on the sidelines anymore, obviously; and hence they're by no means passé. The Obama administration plants Huffington Post bloggers at its faux town hall meetings. And the president reads top leftists bloggers to get a clue of what's happening politically. Conservative bloggers like Glenn Reynolds serve as the portal for the right wing opposition, in the tea party movement, for example.

So I hardly find much significance to this idea of the lost "glory days" of blogging (note how McKenna's "glory days" were when the Democrats were out of power).

It takes a lot of work to build a readership and reputation, as I wrote about in "How to Become a Successful Conservative Blogger." I'd warn folks not to get their expecations too high. But I think the key is to build alliances and networks. Share a lot of links and promote others in your work. Some days will be slow, and you will "burn out" a bit. But blogging will continue to be a central means of political communication in the new era of Facebook, Twitter, and the "next big thing."

Palin in 2012!

From Pamela Geller, "Palin in 2012!":

Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska announced yesterday that she is resigning and will not seek a second term as governor. Many conservatives are characterizing this as an abdication of responsibility and a failure of will. Quin Hillyer wrote in the American Spectator that "Sarah Palin's resignation is an appalling dereliction of duty and a highly cynical move to set herself up for a presidential run for which she is manifestly unqualified."

I vehemently disagree. She did not quit. From what I saw of her speech before Fox inexplicably cut it off (after seven days of wall-to-wall Michael Jackson coverage), this is not a woman who is retiring or "cutting and running," as Hillyer put it. She is getting into the fight to save America. Palin committed herself to fighting "for our state and our country, and campaign(ing) for those who believe in smaller government, free enterprise, strong national security, support for our troops and energy independence." Obama's treasonous presidency has made this struggle necessary. Palin, like all patriotic Americans, is shocked by what is happening. Obama is destroying this country. She knows it. We all know it. We need a leader.

Palin is that leader. On Friday she assumed the mantle. She delivered a campaign speech. She spoke on the eve of Independence Day about the sacrifices great Americans have made, and what our Founding Fathers fought and died for. Without naming Obama, she went after his disastrous policies, saying that "living beyond our means today is irresponsible for tomorrow," and noting that as governor she had "vetoed debt-ridden stimulus dollars." She believes in and wants to fight for free enterprise, small government and national security.

Read the whole thing at the link.

I'm still thinking 2016. And so is Victor Davis Hanson, "Writing Sarah Off."

Obama Foreign Policy: Less Deserving of 'We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident'

From Kori Schake, at Foreign Policy: "Missing the "freedom agenda" on the Fourth of July":

This weekend we celebrate our country's independence and the courage of those brave men who met in congress in Philadelphia to chart a path to greater liberty. Despite the considerable effort Jefferson goes to in the Declaration to enumerate the crown's depredations, and the very real grievances Americans had against the British government, we stand now far enough from the colonial experience to acknowledge we rebelled against perhaps the most humane and legally responsible government of its time.

And yet we rebelled. We are a country founded on the belief that people have rights, and they loan them in limited ways for limited purposes to their government. We were made great by distrust of a largely beneficial British government, and we remain great by distrust of our own.

Which is what makes our president's response to Iran's elections so discouraging. America's reflex -- our natural position as a country -- is to stand with a people against their government when that government is infringing upon their natural rights. But our president chose the course of deference to an authoritarian government as it repressed its own people...

Our president expressed "deep concern" and urged the Iranian government to respect its people. He had to be pulled by public reaction into condemning the Iranian government as it threatened executions of protestors. This from a president who repeatedly lectures us that there is no conflict between our values and our interests.

His "realism" and caution now are of a kind with his initial reaction to Russia's invasion of Georgia last summer, when he urged both the invader and the invaded to exercise restraint. President Obama is a "realist," unwilling to impinge on our national interests or the established international rules of state sovereignty, even when those interests and rules crush the hopes of others striving to gain by peaceful means what we have long enjoyed.

This all makes me a little homesick for what came to be called "the freedom agenda" in the Bush administration - now that we are hearing what the alternative sounds like, now that we are taking the measure of ourselves as a nation, and now that we are willing to consign other people's freedom to our interests. It makes us a little less a force for good in the world, a little less deserving to say we hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Coup d'Etat: Roundup on Honduras

The Big Picture has a photo-essay, "The Honduran Coup d'Etat":

A soldier fires his weapon toward supporters of Manuel Zelaya during a protest in Tegucigalpa June 29, 2009. (REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas (HONDURAS POLITICS CONFLICT) #

William Jacobson has an analysis, "Let Them Come to Tegucigalpa":

With each passing day, the vapidness of the Obama administration's foreign policy becomes more clear. Lofty words spoken in the capitals of Europe and the Middle East were just words. From the warm

embrace of the bully Hugo Chavez, to the cynical mixed-messages on the Iran protests, Obama has shown a willingness to "work with" repressive regimes hostile to the United States while ignoring friends.

Now it is Honduras, where Obama sides with Manuel Zelaya, a Chavez-prototype who tried to put himself in a perpetual presidency, in violation of Honduran court ordersto the contrary. The evidence is overwhelming that had the Honduran military not acted, Honduras would have gone the way of Venezuela.

When is Obama going to learn that you cannot work with the Hugo Chavez's and Mahmood Ahmadinejad's of the world. That doesn't mean military action, but it does mean standing up to them on the world stage, and supporting our friends.

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See also:

* CNN, "Video Shows Honduran Troops Shooting Protesters' Bus Tires."

* Douglas Farah, "Honduras and the Bolivarian Revolution."

* Gateway Pundit, "Honduran Democracy Protesters Bash Obama & CNN."

* Honduras Abandoned, "First Impressions."

* Fausta Wertz, "#Honduras under state of emergency while Chavez talks bloodbath."

* Ray Walser (The Heritage Foundation), "Beware of the Not-So-Hidden Agendas In Honduras."

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ADDED: The Los Angeles Times, "Tensions Mount as Honduras Defies OAS."

E.D. Kain's Retraction: Update on Dan Riehl Meltdown at Ordinary Gentlemen

I just caught this: I'm reading E.D. Kain's comment on his attack on Dan Riehl.

First, read Riehl World View for the background. Here's the original attack at The League of Ordinary Gentlemen. Basically, E.D. Kain called out Dan during the Friedersdorf dustup. He apparently flipped his wig, and regretting it, he then took down the bulk of the post a short while later.

Now I find that E.D. wrote some comments on the retraction in later entry. It turns out that E.D. was called out by a reader, "Bob," for his cowardice and irresponsiblity. That sounds about right, for as I've written previously, "rarely in my personal and political life have I encountered anyone with less integrity and credibility." The comments are intriguing from my vantage point. I have issues with E.D., and also Mark Thompson, who once cheered Hamas' rationality in rocket attacks against Israelis. But reading the comment below, I'm asking, who is this unnamed blogger who these folks "agreed we would never actually mention or link to for various reasons"?

Look Bob, no individual OG talked me into doing that. I just got the distinct impression that everyone was very uncomfortable with the post, that it was a direction nobody wanted to take the site, that it was the possible start of a feud that I had no right dragging the rest of the group into. I wrote it on a day I’d felt especially cantankerous. I wrote it largely out of anger toward not just the target of that post but toward another target who we’ve all agreed we would never actually mention or link to for various reasons (but primarily in the hopes that said blogger would stop slandering various members of the League) and I felt that it was not only unfair to the rest of the group but to the person I wrote the post about. Beyond that, I decided it was the wrong tone entirely for this blog. It went too far. I retracted within an hour or two of the post’s appearance. I’m not sure if that’s simply taboo or what, but if I had to do it all over again I’d first of all likely not write the damn post to begin with, and if I had I wouldn’t have retracted. I would have added an update with an apology for having gone too far. So I made two mistakes at once, and rest assured, it has bothered me ever since. Losing 97.8% of your respect does not help matters, believe me, as I value each and every one of our readers and commenters opinions and take that sort of thing to heart. If it had been my blog and mine alone I would not have retracted anything. As I felt this was a group effort and putting others in an uncomfortable situation was unfair to them, I did.

It's an interesting explanation, but utlimately unsatisfying.

E.D. Kain, like many of "neoclassicons," is spineless. I wrote up some example here, "Liberaltarianism and Intellectual Dishonesty."

If anyone knows any high-traffic enemies of Ordinary Gentlemen (who is allegedly "slandering" them), drop me an e-mail.

Max Blumenthal, Self-Hating Israel-Basher, Dishes 'Scandal' Smear Over Palin Resignation

Recall my previous entry on Max Blumenthal, "Despicable: Huffington Post Equates Iran Neda Murderers to Israel." This guy is way over on the left of the spectrum, and his screed asserting moral equivalence between Israel and Iran was widely condemned.

Now here comes Blumenthal dishing up allegations of "scandal" surrounding Sarah Palin's resignation today. See, "Did a Scandal Sink the U.S.S. Palin?":

CNN and other major news outlets have reported that Sarah Palin has abruptly resigned as governor of Alaska. The suddenness of her announcement raises the question about whether Palin resigned to avert a major scandal. One logical place to start looking is the affair that has Alaska political circles buzzing: an alleged scandal centered around a building contractor, Spenard Building Supplies, with close ties to Palin and her husband, Todd.

Many political observers in Alaska are fixated on rumors that federal investigators have been seizing paperwork from SBS in recent months, searching for evidence that Palin and her husband Todd steered lucrative contracts to the well-connected company in exchange for gifts like the construction of their home on pristine Lake Lucille in 2002. The home was built just two months before Palin began campaigning for governor, a job which would have provided her enhanced power to grant building contracts in the wide-open state.

There's nothing here to indicate scandal. It's all speculation. Not even one person speaking on the record. But this muckraking trash will take off on the left, where scandal-hounds are looking for blood. Think Progress is citing Blumenthal in its piece on Palin's "yet-to-be-disclosed corruption scandal." Earlier, Josh Marshall was tripping over himself with speculation:

Palin is a wildly unethical public official, guilty at a minimum of numerous instances of abusing her authority as governor. And a lot of very damaging information has come out about her in the last few days - though mainly embarrassing information about her character rather than new evidence of bad acts.

Exactly. And even less so, actually, since the "embarrassing information" is the baseless attack fodder and lawsuits that left-wing enemies have lobbed at the Alaska Governor. This is "the politics of personal destruction" that Sarah Palin mentioned today in her announcement today.

Even Adam Nagourney and Jim Ruttenberg's piece today at the New York Times showed a decent level of circumspection and restraint in report on Palin's resignation (and the Old Gray Lady is hardly above the politics of personal destruction itself).

But restraint is the last thing we should expect from Max Blumenthal and the leftist smear merchant at Think Progress, Talking Points Memo and the other cesspool scum pits of the left's bottomless attack media.

Hat Tip: Memeorandum.

Reformers 'Confess' to Iran Plot; British Embassy Show Trials, Regime Consolidates Blood Purge!

Just in from the New York Times, "Top Reformers Admitted Plot, Iran Declares:"

Iranian leaders say they have obtained confessions from top reformist officials that they plotted to bring down the government with a “velvet” revolution. Such confessions, almost always extracted under duress, are part of an effort to recast the civil unrest set off by Iran’s disputed presidential election as a conspiracy orchestrated by foreign nations, human rights groups say.

Reports on Iranian Web sites associated with prominent conservatives said that leading reformers have confessed to taking velvet revolution “training courses” outside the country. Atef, a Web site of a conservative member of Parliament, referred to a video of Mohammad Ali Abtahi, who served as vice president in the reform government of former President Mohammed Khatami, as showing that he tearfully “welcomed being defrocked and has confessed to provoking people, causing tension and creating media chaos.”

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s representative to the Revolutionary Guards, Mojtaba Zolnour, said in a speech Thursday that almost everyone now detained had confessed — raising the prospect that more confessions will be made public. Ayatollah Khamenei is supreme religious leader.

The government has made it a practice to publicize confessions from political prisoners held without charge or legal representation, often subjected to pressure tactics like sleep deprivation, solitary confinement and torture, according to human rights groups and former political prisoners. Human rights groups estimate that hundreds of people have been detained.

Read the whole thing at the link.

Plus, "Iran Cleric Says British Embassy Staff to Stand Trial," and "EU Summons All Iranian Ambassadors in Co-ordinated Protest."

See also, Atlas Shrugs, "Iranian Revolution Day 21: Germany Reverts to Nazism, Sells Torture Devices to Mullahcracy, Obama Backs Murdering Mullahs."

Tea Party America: Protesting Big Government on Independence Day

Via Glenn Reynolds, an estimated 5,000 people attended an anti-tax rally in Marietta, Georgia today:

Another photo at the link.

Also, from the Washington Times, "July 4 Tea Parties: Protesting Big Government on Independence Day":

The tea party movement has become more than a one-time tax protest. The grass-roots political crusade is growing and expanding. As "tea party" organizer Candace E. Salima notes on our facing page, more than 1,300 parties are scheduled nationwide to mark the Fourth of July. This popular uprising against oppressive big government is in the best tradition of the American independence movement that we are celebrating this weekend.

The tea parties are a genuine expression of the American democratic spirit. The April round of tea parties - held to protest tax day - was studiously ignored by President Obama and ridiculed by liberal critics, no doubt in hopes the movement would go away. But the party keeps on rolling.

Like the contemporary movement, the 1773 Boston Tea Party was not just about taxes. The original party started when the bankrupt British East India Co. was given a 1.4 million pound bailout by the British Parliament and granted a tea monopoly over the Americas to help them shed their "troubled assets." Politically well-connected consignees were given exclusive rights to sell the tea and were set to drive local merchants out of business. When the first tea ship sailed into Boston Harbor, a flyer was posted declaring "the hour of destruction, or manly opposition to the machinations of Tyranny, stares you in the face."

More at the link.

Plus, the San Francisco Chronicle, "Anti-tax Tea Party Protests Planned for Fourth."

See also, Midnight Blue, "Tea Party 3 - Independence Hall - July 4th."

Obama Stands With Tyrants

From the Washington Times:

Dictators and demagogues can rest easy on President Obama's watch. When thousands of Iranians flooded the streets of Tehran protesting a rigged election and were beaten and shot down by pro-regime thugs, the president bided his time before making a series of noncommittal statements. He seemed to hope it would all just go away. However, when a socialist demagogue was ejected unceremoniously from Honduras on Sunday by his own government for trying to establish a presidency for life, Mr. Obama instantly sprang to his defense.

Read the whole thing, here.

Leftist Reaction to Palin Resignation

From The Rhetorican, "Charming to the Very End," on the DNC's reaction to Sarah Palin's resignation:

"Either Sarah Palin is leaving the people of Alaska high and dry to pursue her long shot national political ambitions or she simply can't handle the job now that her popularity has dimmed and oil revenues are down. Either way – her decision to abandon her post and the people of Alaska who elected her continues a pattern of bizarre behavior that more than anything else may explain the decision she made today."

That's fairly measured, actually.

Let's survey some of the left's Palin derangement:

* Via Memeorandum, Kimberly Krautter, at Huffington Post, "Sarah Palin - What a Schmuck."

* From Mamabigblog, in the comments at Daily Kos:

Sarah's worth a fortune in media terms. She'll get her own show on Fox, she'll work the speech circuit and the fundraising circuit, and she'll make a fortune. Staying in office means she's restricted from milking the fame cow for all it's worth. Running for and holding public office is actual work, and she just wants to be rich and famous. Now, she'll be able to take full advantage of that, because she's irresistible to the media circus.

It will be comedy gold for years to come, folks. She wants to be the incoherent female version of Rush Limbaugh. Maybe she'll get together with Ann Coulter and they can do a show together...

* Swopa at Firedoglake, "Sarah Palin: No Longer Alaska’s Problem, Aspiring to Be America’s Problem."

* Jed Lewison at Daily Kos, "Unless she's a total moron, there's no way she's running for president. Then again, maybe she is a total moron."

And here's this from demon TBogg:

Sarah Palin is quitting because it's hard to campaign for President from North Snowhell and because she can be more effective outside of politics which probably means that she going to be starring on Fox as White Trash Oprah.

Rolling updates thoughout the evening ...

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UPDATE: From the Daily Beast, "Palin Resignation: 10 Theories Why."

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UPDATE II: "Obama's Huffington Post: "Palin Will Run in '12 on More Retardation Platform" (via Pundit & Pundette):

She will be the first politician to actually try to increase the population of retarded people. To me, it’s kinda like saying the world needs more cancer patients because they teach us such personal lessons.

Her first act as President: To introduce a Pre-K lunch buffet that includes lead paint chips. Sort of a Large HEAD-START Program.

She will then encourage women to hold off on pregnancies until their 40’s just to mix up some chromosomes.

She now is in favor of abortion only in case of diploid birth.

Sarah Palin Quits! Career Breaker? No Joy in Palinville?

I just now caught this, "Gov. Sarah Palin to resign her office." Also, Fox News, "Palin Quits as Alaska Governor," and CNN, "Palin stepping down as governor by end of July, not seeking re-election" (via Memeorandum).

Turning on CNN I watch portions of Palin's farewell speech. Allahpundit's all over the story. Is Palin done? "Breaking: Palin to resign within weeks? Update: Is her career over?"

Is she going national or going away?

I caught this earlier, and it sounds about right:

If she wants to be the Republican Party's presidential nominee in 2012, she needs to spend more time raising money, establishing her international and national expertise, and traveling the Lower 48. And she needs to start now.

But the handicapping is on (running updates):

* AOSHQ: "It's over. You can't resign from a governorship and then run for higher office. Barring some strong reason, like needing treatment for cancer."

* But Dan Riehl adds:

I think it's way to early to presume that, assuming she ever does plan on running. At her age, 45, she doesn't even have to be thinking 2012. Heck, she'd only be 56 in 2020, for heaven's sake. A Fox interview with her Brother shed some light on her reasoning. She was telling him off the record that it was eating up 80% of her and her staff's time fighting spurious ethics charges and national battles over media attacks. And it was costing Alaska a great deal of time and money.

She could spend the next eight years raising her kids, writing books, getting rich and developing any national GOP identity she wants. Bill Kristol, an obvious fan, thinks this is an opening shot for 2012. Could be, though she has a lot of work to do in a short time, if so. But she isn't going to lose a lot of core support over this. I don't think she sees politics the way most politicians do.

Folks need to remember that Barack Obama won the Democratic presidential nomination with just over three years experience in national office. Palin has now run on a presidential ticket. She's performed on the national stage, and taken more withering fire than most politicians will take in a lifetime.

I think Dan Riehl is right that it's absurd to think Palin is through in national politics. The danger is that someone even more attractive and motivating could come along and dominate national GOP politics while she's out of the limelight. But who? At this point, Bobby Jindal and Tim Pawlenty can't hold a candle to Palin. Huckabee's going to be strong, and Mitt Romney may be the GOP's rock in the '12 "invisible primary." But today we might have seen Palin's "you won't have Sarah Palin to kick around" moment. If she stays on the sidelines in '12 AND if Barack Obama is reelected to a second term, look for Sarah Palin to be the prohibitive frontrunner in 2016. The conservative base will be looking for the most genuine conservative around, and Palin's youthful vigor, and canny ability to raise the passions of the conservative stalwarts, may be too much for even the most well-organized primary challenger that year. All of this depends on Palin indeed taking the time to polish her resume and skills. Being out of office, and free from the endless attacks - what Palin called "the politics of personal destruction" - may well be an asset in launching a presidential bid from the outside.

Here's the announcement:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

UPDATE: Mere Rhetoric fleshes out in detail Palin's possiblities for 2016.

Standard Operating Procedures for Summer BBQ

Good stuff! Barbeque etiquette from Maggie's Farm (humor alert!!):

We are about to enter the BBQ season. Therefore it is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking activity. When a man volunteers to do the BBQ the following chain of events are put into motion:

Routine...

(1) The woman buys the food.

(2) The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes dessert.

(3) The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill - beer in hand.

(4) The woman remains outside the compulsory three meter exclusion zone where the exuberance of testosterone and other manly bonding activities can take place without the interference of the woman.

Here comes the important part:

(5) THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL.

More routine...

(6) The woman goes inside to organize the plates and cutlery.

(7) The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is looking great. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he flips the meat ...

More at the link!

Fireworks Suck: This Year's Leftist Attack on Independence Day

July 4th is practically sacred, so on this holiday, they can't come right out and call America a racist imperialist abomination without looking like total creeps.

Or can they? Yep. No problem, attack fireworks. That's a good proxy. It's the esthetics, you know. Scott Lemieux hates 'em. Freaking boring. And he gets a big rah rah from ... wait for it ... Matthew Yglesias! At least you can catch a good party!

Their inspiration is Slate (where else), "Fireworks Suck: They Really Do." Forget aesthetics. Go for full anti-Americanism (via Memeorandum):

... the professional fireworks display is an exercise in pomposity, aggression, triumphalism, and hubris. The pyrotechnician—and, more importantly, his patron—intends to ornament the night sky beyond the powers of God himself. He means to inspire awe for little purpose other than to demonstrate his power. The first great fireworks nuts in the Western world were Peter the Great (who put on a five-hour show to celebrate the birth of his first son) and Louis XIV (who, with a specially equipped sundial, used them to tell time at Versailles). Fireworks are imperialist and, as we used to say in school, hegemonic. That they are popularly believed to be populist entertainment does not say much for the populace.

An Important Milestone in Iraq

From Peter Wehner, at Commentary:

The ultimate wisdom in initiating the Iraq war is still to be validated by contingent events still to unfold. What is happening today is a transition, not a final triumph. And while Iraq is today a legitimate, representative, and responsible democracy, it remains fragile. Hard-earned progress can still be undone. The Iraqi military will have to prove it can provide security to its citizens. Relations between the Iraqi government and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in the north, particularly over the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, are tense. None of us can foretell the future, and almost all of us have been wrong about some aspect of the war or another.

Still, it is worth pointing out that those who wrote off the war as unwinnable and a miserable failure, who made confident, sweeping arguments that have been overturned by events, and who had grown so weary of the conflict that they were willing to consign Iraqis to mass slaughters and America to a historically consequential defeat -- they were thankfully, blessedly wrong. And the Land between the Rivers, which has known too much tyranny and too many tears, may yet bind up its wounds.

Why They Hate Her...

From Jim Geraghty, "Why They Hate Her, the Angelina Jolie of Politics" (via Cold Fury):

Liberals believe that their ideas, philosophy, worldview, and policies liberate believers, and that the conservative equivalents limit people. Liberals see themselves as rejecting outdated beliefs and obsolete ideas, overturning established orders, and discarding traditions established by superstitious and ignorant forebears who weren't as enlightened as we are. Conservatives, in their minds, are runaway cultural superegos, always wagging their fingers about individual responsibility, dismissing excuses, reminding people that they can't always do what they want because of the consequences to themselves and to others.

Conservatism, they suspect, will leave you in a marriage that doesn't satisfy you, burden you with children you don't want, repress your passions, and trap you in a empty, boring, and unfulfilled life, with no hand of government able to help.

Today almost everyone faces some sort of challenge in balancing work and family; I don't know too many people who believe there are sufficient hours in a day. And then along comes this woman who's made all of these "conservative" choices and now has an amazing career, a supportive husband, a beautiful family, and great health and appearance, and she bears it all, including the inevitable hard times, with pluck and a smile, as far as we can tell. (For all we know, perhaps behind closed doors, Sarah Palin screams into a pillow when it all gets to be too much. But what we know about her suggests she relieves her stress by shooting moose.)

July 4th: More Than Just an American Holiday...

From William Bennett and John Cribb, "The Last Best Hope of Earth":

"I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence." This statement from Abraham Lincoln in Philadelphia in 1861 was no staff-manufactured line. It was an expression from a man filled with deep emotion at finding himself standing in the hall where a courageous band of rebels pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to a high and dangerous purpose -- American independence. We celebrate them on July Fourth.Lincoln revered the Declaration and its ideals of liberty and equality. In an 1858 speech in Chicago, he said it was "the father of all moral principle" in the American republic, and its spirit "the electric cord . . . that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together."He spent much time pondering the hardships endured by those who had fought for independence. In that speech he called them "iron men." As a boy, he read accounts of the patriots' battlefield struggles in Parson Weems's "Life of Washington" and thought, as he told the New Jersey state Senate in 1861, that "there must have been something more than common that those men struggled for."

More at the link.

Hat Tip: Declaration of Independence via ShrinkWrapped.

Then They Came for ... Blazing Cat Fur

From Mark Steyn's, citing my friend BCF, "Statist Fat Cats vs. Blazing Cat Fur":

Oh, dear, what’s the country coming to? Defenders of state censorship are too cowed to speak out in favour of not letting people speak out? You could hardly ask for a better snapshot of the degradation of “human rights” in contemporary Canada than the chief censor whining to a banqueting suite full of government apparatchiks that the ingrate citizenry are insufficiently respectful of them. The bureaucrats at the top table control hundreds of millions of public dollars. Jennifer Lynch represents state power; Ezra and I represent a bunch of impecunious bloggers. Yet the Dominion of Canada has been reduced to complaining that Blazing Cat Fur is out to get it.

Updates on the insanity at Blazing Cat Fur.

Related: David Warren, "Then They Came for Mark Steyn...", and The MoxArgon Group, XRAN XPLAINS: The Maclean's/Mark Steyn Controversy

Required Reading: Mark Steyn, "The Future Belongs to Islam."

NTCNews Economic Outlook

Via Robert Stacy McCain, from NTCNews, "GRIM U.S. OUTLOOK SENDS ASIAN MARKETS LOWER":

** ASSOCIATED PRESS: Most Asian markets fell Friday as a weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs report signaled more pain ahead for the world's largest economy. . . . Optimism about the U.S. economy, a critical market for Asian-made goods, buckled after the government said employers slashed 467,000 jobs in June. That was far worse than the 363,000 that economists predicted . . . READ MORE ...

** 'TERRIBLE AND GETTING WORSE', WASHINGTON POST ...

** 'VERY SEVERE RECESSION'NEW'', NEW YORK TIMES ...

** 'JOBLESS NUMBERS CONTRADICTADMINISTRATION'S FORECAST'. WALL STREET JOURNAL ...

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UPDATE: From Business Week, "Jobs Report: A Blow to Optimism." Also, "Joblessness Hits 9.5%, Deflating Recovery Hopes." And Wall Street Journal, "No Decision Yet on More Stimulus" (via Memeorandum).

Rule 5 Rescue: Katy Perry, Cosmo Edition!

Well, Monique Stuart has been making herself scarce these days, but she's been one of the hottest Katy Perry Rule 5 bloggers this last few months!

The interview is here: "Katy Perry, Superstar! Broke and on the brink of giving up, the glam siren almost let Hollywood get the best of her. One hit album later, she’s hell-bent on owning the place."

And I'm going straight to mass linkage (more commentary on Saturday's holiday Full Metal Roundup!):

GrEaT sAtAn'S gIrLfRiEnD, Steve Bartin's Newsalert, ShrinkWrapped, The Average American, Paco Enterprises, Ken Davenport, Doug Ross Journal, The Blog Prof, Fausta's Blog, Clueless Emma, Obob's World, Seymour Nuts, Red State, Dr. Sanity, The Desert Glows Green, Not One Red Cent, Vinegar and Honey, Dan Collins, Scott Kingsmore, The Astute Bloggers, The BoBo Files, Grant Jones, Tapline, New Testament News, Wizbang, William Jacobson, Phyllis Chesler, Right View from the Left Coast, Generation Patriot, Macsmind, Flopping Aces, Edge's Conservative Movies, Stop the ACLU, Snooper's Report, Grandpa John's, Cranky Conservative, Jimmie Bise, Little Miss Attila, Moe Lane, Private Pigg, Pundit & Pundette, The Rhetorican, R.S. McCain, Saber Point, Stephen Kruiser, Suzanna Logan, TrogloPundit, Villainous Company, PoliGazette, Prying 1, The Western Experience, The Oklahoma Patriot, Right Wing Sparkle, Conservatism With Heart, Duck of Minerva, Wolf Howling, Right Wing Nation, Right Wing Nuthouse, Melissa Clouthier, Paula in Israel, Pamela Geller, Vanessa's Blog, Pat's Daily Rants, Bob's Bar & Grill, Power Line, Melanie Morgan, Dave in Boca, Neo-Neocon, Right in a Left World, Flag Gazer, Stephen Green, The Tygrrrr Express, The News Factor, Israel Matsav, The Conservative Manifesto, Gates of Vienna, Joust The Facts, Panhandle Poet, Steven Givler, The Astute Blogger, Chris Wysocki, Moonbattery, Sweating Through the Fog, Three Beers Later, PA Pundits, Sister Toldjah, Blazing Cat Fur, The Daley Gator, Just One Minute, Dave's World, Sparks From the Anvil, Gateway Pundit, Political Pistachio, Liberty Pundit, Not One Red Cent, Right Truth, Dave's Notepad, The Red Hunter, Maggie's Farm, The Next Right, This Ain't Hell, Stop the ACLU, Politics and Critical Thinking, Riehl World View, Midnight Blue, Caroline Glick, The Griper, FouseSquawk, The Other McCain, Cheat Seeking Missiles, Roger Simon, Classical Values, Samantha Speaks, Grizzly Mama, The Capitol Tribune, The Patriot Room, The Real World, RADARSITE, Serr8d's Cutting Edge, Bloviating Zeppelin, Born Again Redneck The Educated Shoprat, St. Blogustine, Yid With Lid, Pondering Penguin, Betsy's Page, The Anchoress, Ace of Spades HQ, Right Wing Sparkle, Thunder Run, The Classic Liberal, Conservative Grapevine, Cassy Fiano, Jim Treacher, NetRightNation, Q and O, Urban Grounds, Ed Driscoll, Cold Fury, Michelle Malkin, Neptunus Lex, Neo-Neocon, The Liberty Papers, The Monkey Cage, Law and Order Teacher, Mike's America, AubreyJ, Dan Collins, The Jungle Hut, Wake Up America, Dan Riehl, Nikki's Blog, Big Girl Pants, Maggie's Notebook, Hummers & Cigarettes, Mark Goluskin, Jawa Report, Darleen Click, The Skepticrats, Sarge Charlie, Thoughts With Attitude, Kim Priestap, Swedish Meatballs Confidential, Five Feet of Fury, Amy Proctor, Blonde Sagacity, Liberty Papers, TigerHawk, Point of a Gun, Right Wing News, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Nice Deb, Becky Brindle, Fishersville Mike, Monique Stuart, No Sheeples Here!, Dana at CSPT, Glenn Reynolds, Obi’s Sister, Right Truth, Gold-Plated Witch on Wheels, Chicago Ray, Ace of Spades HQ, Natalie's Blog. Ann Althouse, Pirate's Cove, and, Track-a-'Crat.

'HONEST SCRAP' - A Blog Award

I got tagged with this "honest scrap" award (from my good friend RaDena).

I think you're supposed to bestow this award on another 10 "honest scrapers." (It's been a big week blogging, so I'm skipping the ten honest things I'm supposed to say about myself!) So here goes (and this is just a quick round up for now - more to follow, so don't feel left out if I didn't get you linked up):

* Blazing Cat Fur.

* Clueless Emma.

* Cold Fury.

* Dave's Notepad.

* Dave's World.

* Grandpa John.

* Fishersville Mike.

* No Sheeples Here!

* Piece of Work in Progress.

* Pundit & Pundette.

More links later friends ... now go out and bestow some awards.