And don't forget about Palin's new book: America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag.
Due out in November.
Commentary and analysis on American politics, culture, and national identity, U.S. foreign policy and international relations, and the state of education - from a neoconservative perspective! - Keeping an eye on the communist-left so you don't have to!
And don't forget about Palin's new book: America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag.
RELATED: At The Blog Prof, "Video of Bill Kristol: These Democrats 'Would Have Given Up on WWII in 1942'."
The whole notion of marijuana at dispensaries being sold for strictly "medical" purposes has long been a sham.Check out Pastor Ron Allen of Sacramento at the video — he suggests this is an ultimate tragedy in a city with murder rates among the highest in the nation. Unbelievable, really. But that's what the nihilist left wants in today's America.
True, there are many seriously ill people who benefit from smoking marijuana. A friend who passed away from brain cancer five years ago smoked the drug to help boost his appetite after chemo treatments made him nauseous.
He was an eligible candidate for a medical marijuana card.
Yet it's also true that pretty much anyone and their mother can qualify for a medical marijuana prescription in California.
You can get a medical card if you have insomnia or mood swings. Who doesn't?
There are so many conditions that make you eligible, a de facto state of legalization pretty much already exists.
For those who don't want to go through the motions of obtaining a card, there are plenty of "medical" growers with flourishing pot-sale businesses catering to recreational uses on the side.
Those who support legalization say that marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol.
They say it's unfair to criminalize pot while allowing the legal sale of booze.
Prop. 19 supporters argue that both marijuana and alcohol should be regulated and taxed.
California NAACP President Alice Huffman came out in support of the measure. She said legalizing marijuana for recreational use would reduce the number of young black men in jail for marijuana-related offenses. Out of some 1,500 people in California prisons on marijuana charges, half are black.
Yet judging from the firestorm that Huffman's comments have created, there is a huge gulf between those who believe Prop. 19 will lead to more widespread use of marijuana and those who argue that the war on drugs has been a costly failure.
A coalition of black pastors is actively campaigning against Prop. 19.
They aren't moved by the argument that it would reduce the numbers of black men disproportionately incarcerated on marijuana possession charges.
They see marijuana as a scourge in their communities, an addictive substance that often leads to harder drug use. Sacramento pastor Ron Allen says he was on crack cocaine for 11 years. He said marijuana started him on the road to drug addiction.
There is no question that marijuana is an addictive drug. I know people whose brains are totally fried from decades of marijuana abuse.
Yet I also know people who use marijuana recreationally.
They aren't any more likely to become addicts than those who drink responsibly are to develop cirrhosis.
It's time we had an open and honest debate on the issue before voters go to the polls in November.
Captain, I share your feelings on a very personal level. My home state of North Carolina had a 300% increase in its Hispanic population as of the 2000 census. I expect that when all the 2010 numbers are in there will be another substantial increase. As the Hispanic population has increased, so has the bigotry against them. What I was not prepared for and still cannot fathom is the strength of African-American prejudice against Hispanics. Far too many of my people make the same bigoted commentary and enact the same disgraceful racism against Hispanics that we ourselves have suffered. For years, there has been a coalition of Blacks and Hispanics working together to combat this divide so all is not hopeless but I feel shame and frustration that such bias even exists. Being oppressed does not teach one to refrain from becoming an oppressor. This is one of the most dificult [sic] truths that I have had to face. It fills me with despair. If those who have sufferd [sic] the lash are willing to become wielders of the lash, then what hope is there for humankind?Blacks vote Democrat overwhelming, ergo, Democrats as "wielders of the lash"? Oh, the humanity!
"Open Your Eyes" (The Lords of the New Church:).Video games train the kids for war.
Army chic in high-fashion stores.
Law and order's done their job.
Prisons filled while the rich still rob.
Assassination politics.
Violence rules within' our nation's midst.
Well ignorance is their power tool.
You'll only know what they want you to know.
The television cannot lie.
Controlling media with smokescreen eyes.
Nuclear politicians picture show.
The acting's lousy but the blind don't know.
They scare us all with threats of war.
So we forget just how bad things are.
You taste the fear when you're all alone.
They gonna git'cha when you're on your own.
The silence of conspiracy.
Slaughtered on the altar of apathy.
You gotta wake up from your sleep.
'Cause meek inherits earth...six feet deep.
Open your eyes see the lies right in front of ya.
Open your eyes.....
Canada’s misguided experiment with multiculturalism pretends that all cultural ideas are equal, and Canadian values, such as the equality of men and women, are no better than foreign values like the subjugation of women.Or, you could board a plane, completely covered!
Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, enacted in 1982 when our Muslim population was tiny, is contradictory.
Section 27 of the Charter calls for “the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians.”
But Section 28 says that rights “are guaranteed equally to male and female persons.”
Well, which is it? “Enhancing” Saudi values? Or guaranteeing women’s equality?
Because you can’t have both.
Margaret Atwood published her sci-fi novel The Handmaid’s Tale, about America being taken over by a Christian theocracy that treats women as sexual property, 25 years ago.
It has become trite to watch cultural liberals like Atwood bravely attack imaginary discrimination, while staying silent on real discrimination.
The Handmaid’s Tale won Atwood the Governor General’s Award for fiction. A book about the subjugation of women in radical Islam would win Atwood a death threat.
Atwood loves posing as a feminist at champagne receptions in her honour. But she’ll leave the heavy lifting to people like Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
She’s the Somali refugee who wrote and narrated a movie called Submission, about the place of women in radical Islam.
The film’s producer, Theo Van Gogh, was murdered for it, but a note pinned with a knife into his body referred primarily to Hirsi Ali, who has had to live under around-the-clock security ever since.
That’s all a bit too real for Atwood, and is the reason why other feminists like the once-noisy Judy Rebick are so meek and gentle with the real butchers of women’s rights.
So, should the burka be banned?
It’s anathema for a free country like Canada to tell citizens how to dress.
The same liberty that allows the rest of us to dress as we like is the liberty that allows a woman to hide her face.
But what about in a bank?
Should masked women, Muslim or not, be allowed into a bank? If that’s okay, how about a man in a ski mask?
How about testifying in court?
Who else can hide their eyes and facial expressions while condemning an accused or swearing to their own innocence?
And why stop at witnesses — what about judges or police officers in a burka?
What about ID cards like a driver’s licence?
What point is an ID card if it doesn’t actually ID you?
Grant Bowler is new to me, since I'm not a "Lost" fan, or whatever. And that's better. I'd hate to have Brad Pitt star (for example) and then while watching the movie have flashbacks to "Fight Club" or "Seven." Basically, it makes for a clean slate with a fresh star.
You may have heard about the Palestinian BDS movement. The letters in their acronym stand for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction. They really ought to add another D for Destroy. Their goal—and they aren’t shy about saying so publicly even in English—isn’t peace between Israelis and Palestinians, which is what all civilized people should want, but the end of Israel.
Take a look at the video and see for yourself.
HAT TIP: Instapundit.
"There really are two Americas: the Democrat ruling class and everyone else."I for one (as well as my wife) don't begrudge the Clintons for having a smash-bang wedding with lavish no-holds barred accomodations, luxuries, etc. This is America. It's what we do. But I don't see any effort by the Clintons at moderation, a point that Mrs. Ross points out at the post:
"These people are such f***ing hypocrites it makes me sick to my stomach."It seems hypocritical, but again, who's to complain? That said, I am fascinated by the contrast with Jenna Bush's marriage in summer 2008. There's an article at New York Times, "Jenna Bush Has Wedding at Ranch in Crawford." The Bush family spent $100,000. No matter (I think my father-in-law spent under $10,000 when I married my wife). That said, iOWNTHEWORLD offers an observation:
I never saw pictures of Jenna’s wedding before. Did you notice that the racists had a black minister??? Wow. How did that guy get in there?
AND NO-JOKE DOUBLE BONUS: "Why the Clintons, not the Bushes, are the new royal family."
What has become of conservatism? We have reached a point at which nothing could be more important than to stop and recall what brought us here, to the right, in the first place.RTWT.
Buckley's National Review, where I was the literary editor through the 1990s, remains as vital and interesting as ever. But more characteristic of conservative leadership are figures on TV, radio and the Internet who make their money by stirring fears and resentments. With its descent to baiting blacks, Mexicans and Muslims, its accommodation of conspiracy theories and an increasing nastiness and vulgarity, the conservative movement has undergone a shift toward demagoguery and hucksterism. Once the talk was of "neocons" versus "paleocons." Now we observe the rule of the crazy-cons.
Looks like the Clinton family was rockin' the Hudson River yesterday, by the way. Chelsea's ceremony was estimated at between $3 million and $5 million, quite a bit more than what the Bush family spent for Jenna's wedding. Ruby Slippers has more on that, "Fireworks, $250,000 in Jewelry, and a Vegan Cake - Oh My."
... at 58, he sees no reason to divorce. Their children have grown and left home. He asked himself: Why bring in a bunch of lawyers? Why create rancor when there’s nowhere to go but down?And check this out:
“To tie a bow around it would only make it uglier,” Mr. Frost said. “When people ask about my relationship status, I usually just say: ‘It’s complicated. I like my wife, I just can’t live with her.’ ”
One woman, a 39-year-old mother of two from Brooklyn, who like many interviewed for this article wished to remain anonymous, has stayed separated for nearly two years at the suggestion of five lawyers.Man, that'd be rough if my wife left me for another ... woman?
“There’s no advantage to getting divorced,” she said. Both she and her husband are in new relationships. Most people assume they’ve officially split. But given the health insurance issue and the prospect of legal fees, she said, “I feel like we could just drift on like this for years.”
Not being divorced is also an excuse not to remarry.
“In my day, we’d refer to a man as a bon vivant, a gadabout who doesn’t want to worry about marrying anyone else because he’s already married,” said Sheila Riesel, a New York divorce lawyer for more than three decades.
In the end, some people just don’t want to divorce. Perhaps one spouse desires it and the other drags his or her feet. Sometimes, people are just confused; separation can be a wake-up call.
In other cases, initiating divorce ultimately serves that purpose. Last year, a 67-year-old professor in New York filed for divorce from the man she married in 1969 and separated from in 1988 after she had an affair with a woman.
“I had images of Vita Sackville-West, but it was very messy and the children suffered a lot,” she recalled. “My husband had been more attached to me than I thought.”
And she considered him a pal; they even took vacations together. “I think I liked that we were still married in some way,” she admitted. “But last year I met someone who minds that I’m still married to someone else.”
And thus, time to divorce. Call it an old-fashioned romance.
And how about that "my husband was more attached to me than I thought"? Amanda Marcotte could go a mile with that one, LOL!
Via Memeorandum.
"Die With a Smile."
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The Free Press, "The Passion of Pope Francis..."Instapundit, "CHRIS QUEEN: Progressive Christianity Watch: Heretical Easter Edition..."