Most recent blog entries

Use Your Delusion

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:29:00 GMT

First, it was "Oppostion to SB1070 will turn Arizona blue!"

Now it's "Help us, Obi-Wan Giffords, you're our only hope."

President Obama is eyeing Arizona as one of the few Republican states he might flip in November, but to do that he might need the help of its brightest star: former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D).

Whether Giffords will lend her considerable clout to the president’s reelection campaign remains an open — and exceedingly delicate — question.

But as always, Raul Grijalva rushes in where angels fear to tread.

Grijalva said Giffords could be helpful in southern Arizona, where the Democratic base is. “I think Gabby could be very effective there and statewide because of the goodwill she enjoys right now,” he said.

Never let a crisis go to waste, even if it involves a horrific act of violence. At least he's not calling for a boycott of Gabby's book, so I guess his morals are gradually improving.

Will Gabby Giffords campaign for Obama in 2012? I don't know, and I don't think anyone knows.

Will her involvement flip Arizona from Red to Purple?

Oh. Heck. No.

We interrupt the political coverage for something much more important

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:12:00 GMT

A little perspective on things, because "what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul" ?

There is a split opening up inside the Christian mission community over how the Bible is translated into Arabic.

Mainline Christian organizations are changing their holy scripture to avoid offending Muslims. Not only does this violate their scripture, but it also defeats the purpose of their mission--to share the Gospel. If mainline Christian organizations fear Muslims so much that they have to edit what they believe to be the Word of God, how far can they be from submission?

For example, the verse which Christians use to justify going all over the world to make disciples, thus fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) reads, “Cleanse them by water in the name of Allah, his Messiah and his Holy Spirit” instead of “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Rev. Bassam Madany, an Arab American who runs Middle East Resources, terms these organization’s efforts as “a western imperialistic attempt that’s inspired by cultural anthropology, and not by biblical theology.”

If this is true, for the parties they are trying not to offend, anything short of Islam -- of professing that there is no god but Allah, and that Muhammad is his messenger -- would be "offensive." This is not making Christianity more palatable. It is de-Christianizing it. It is manufacturing yet another Christian heresy.

Indeed, for many denominations, the validity of baptism depends on the words used: "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." No euphemisms, no nicknames: for example, trial balloons aiming to portray a more gender-neutral God have already been burst: the use of "Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier" in baptism has been rejected by the Catholic Church, if not others.

So, what can YOU do?

Educate yourself about extreme contextualization in scriptural translation in the emergent church
Pray for humility and truth to reign over the body of Christ
Sign a petition at change.org asking the organizations involved to keep the doctrine of the Trinity in Arabic and other translations of the Bible.

We'll return to our regular coverage later. Thanks for listening.

Too Fast, Too Furious

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:11:00 GMT

I haven't written much about Fast and Furious here, even though a) I live in Arizona and b) I'm a ~~gun nut~~ shooting sports enthusiast because other blogs are doing a bang-up job (no pun intended) of reportage.

Or maybe I'm just upset that BATFE didn't give me an AK-47. I'm an immigrant. I live in Arizona. I like rifles. C'mon, ATF, What gives?

The biggest issue I've had with this is why? Why would government officials do such a thing. Bureaucrats are a sub-species of human that is generally adverse to such things as adventurism and innovative thinking, and to engage in such reckless, criminal behaviour with such limited, tenuous goals requires a leap of faith that even Kierkegaard would shy away from.

But.

It turns out one of the key players in the Arizona Attorney's office has a long history of hoplophobia, namely former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke.

DeConcini said Burke helped draft the Anti-Drug Assault Weapons Limitation Act of 1989. A five-year battle ensued, ending with President Bill Clinton signing the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which made it a federal offense to possess certain semiautomatic rifles manufactured after the law's passage.

DeConcini said Burke fostered the measure in concert with a key figure in the White House, policy analyst Rahm Emanuel, who years later would become chief of staff for President Obama. Emanuel now is mayor of Chicago.

"Dennis was the one who worked with everyone on the Judiciary Committee to line up these members and votes," DeConcini said. "Dennis had all these pictures of these guns -- the Streetsweepers and the AK-47s. And it passed by one vote. A lot of it was not my eloquence on the bill, it was stuff that Dennis had done."

The law was adopted shortly before Burke left his Senate job for a position in the Clinton White House as a senior policy analyst for law enforcement and drug issues, again working with Emanuel.

According to preserved e-mails, Burke continued handling firearm issues, discussing whether executive orders could be used to extend the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act requirement for background checks.

Whether the anti-gun fervor started by Burke in the late 80's blossoms into a blaze that consumes the Obama administration remains to be seen. But at least we now have an inkling as to how such a reckless and legally questionable policy came into fruition.

May we soon have justice for Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and the hundreds (if not thousands) of innocent people killed by the Department of Justice's reckless actions.

No Longer in the Hunt(sman)

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:18:00 GMT

NPR's favorite Republican candidate is no longer in the hunt for the nomination.

Think about that one for a moment...

Ace blogged about it the other day and concludes that Huntsman made two fundamental mistakes. One was not emphasising his conservative record as Utah's Governor and the executive experience that came with it. The GOP tends to have better success with governors (Reagan, GWB, and probably Romney) than Senators (Goldwater, Dole, and McCain) as Presidential candidates. He had a record that would appeal to voters interested in fiscal restraint.

Another area where Huntsman went wrong was actively insulting/attacking the Republican electorate. This was odd since he was running for the GOP nomination. Captain Ed opines that his campaign advisors told him to take that approach...and the results showed this was not effective. C'mon, appearing in Vogue and appealing to the NPR demographic is not the way to win over Republican voters, especially in the primaries.

His withdrawl leaves a smaller field but it looks like Governor Romney has the momentum that will carry him through to the nomination. I'd be surprised if any of the remaining candidates can sustain their campaigns and garner enough support to take the nomination.

Governor Huntsman may have been a good candidate...circa 2008. As we have seen over the last few years, the political mood of the country has changed considerably. Much of this is due to the progressive/liberal overreach that took place after Obama won the Presidency. Some of it can also be attributed to the cyclical nature of American politics that is trending conservative/traditional. Huntsman failed to understand both the times he lived in as well as the mood of the Republican electorate he was courting. In the end, his campaign failed to resonate outside of a very small niche and became a historical footnote.

This is my shocked face

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:14:00 GMT

Alternate headline: Washington Post (and others) pull their collective heads out of ... the sand and catch up with reality.

For decades, the prevailing wisdom in education was that high self-esteem would lead to high achievement. The theory led to an avalanche of daily affirmations, awards ceremonies and attendance certificates — but few, if any, academic gains.

Now, an increasing number of teachers are weaning themselves from what some call empty praise. Drawing on psychology and brain research, these educators aim to articulate a more precise, and scientific, vocabulary for praise that will push children to work through mistakes and take on more challenging assignments.

It's as if ~~millions~~ ~~thousands~~ ~~hundreds~~ a few dozen trust-fund babies cried out in terror, and then suddenly became completely irrelevant.

(via A Rock In A Sea Of Chaos)

Just like that rash you can't get rid of...

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:46:00 GMT

... we're back. Call your doctor if symptoms persist for more than four hours.

Bloggus Interruptus

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:48:00 GMT

We gotta take a short break to move things around a bit. See you in a week.

Masters of Delusion

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 23:31:00 GMT

Just when you thought the hard left couldn't separate themselves any further from reality, something like this happens.

Arizona, which Messina says was only off the table in 2008 because the Republican nominee, John McCain, was the state’s senior Senator, is the main target in an Obama path to 270 that expands on his 2008 tally of states. Arizona Democrats certainly say the state’s nasty fight over SB 1070 has led to a fired up base that could flip the state into Obama’s column next year, especially with a GOP nominee running with Romney’s baggage when it comes to the Hispanic vote. (Someone like Newt Gingrich may have less of a problem with that slice of the electorate.)

Let's see. SB1070 "fired up the base" so much the Dems were able to replace SB1070's champion, State Senator Russell Pearce, with...

... another Republican.

The Democratic Party can't afford many more wins like that one.

If the Dems think that SB1070 has "fired up their base", let's take a look at what Obama has done to fire up the Republican base in Arizona.

The Obama Administration is suing the state of Arizona over SB1070, and may very well lose in the Supreme Court
Obama's Attorney General sent hundreds of guns to Mexico's drug cartels
Rather than secure the border, Obama's DHS put up signs telling Americans to keep out of America
Obama used Gabby Giffords' shooting as a podium to blast away at his foes in the name of promoting politcal bipartisanship

That's just the direct actions he's taken against the Copper State. We'll leave his complete and utter failure to manage the economy and the housing crisis for another day.

And if the Democratic base is so "fired up", why did the head of the Progressive Caucus have a tough battle last election cycle against a political newcomer?

And if that wasn't enough (and it is) the Dems have to deal with history. (source)

Yeah, that screams "Dem Pickup!" to me....

The Obama campaign can talk about winning Arizona all they want, but their dreams stand little chance of becoming reality. But then again, dealing with reality hasn't been their strength for a long, long time.

The walls are starting to fall.

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:35:00 GMT

Jack Cafferty is not a fan of Eric Holder.

And he's not a fan of George Bush, either, lest anyone think he's being a partisan stooge for the right wing.

Number IV

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:47:00 GMT

Who ranks himself as the Forth Best President of all Time?

Like you had to guess.

In the full interview, Barack Hussein Obama said:

The issue here is not going be a list of accomplishments. As you said yourself, Steve, you know, I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president — with the possible exceptions of Johnson, F.D.R., and Lincoln — just in terms of what we’ve gotten done in modern history. But, you know, but when it comes to the economy, we’ve got a lot more work to do.

Of course, that part was cut from the interview (I'm shocked, shocked...) because the media doesn't want this laughable quote from Hussein the Wise getting out to Middle America. Gotta keep up appearances of being competent and serious, past performances notwithstanding.

Well, at least he thinks highly of himself...