The Sundries Shack

I’m glad to see that some blogging friends and favorites of mine have also been nominated for a Weblog Award. The Anchoress is a finalist in a very tough category that also includes Jules Crittenden, Melissa Clouthier, and Rachel Lucas. I wouldn’t blame you for voting for any one of the four, but I have to give the nod to The Anchoress.

Her post also has a number of very good recommendations. I’d have a very tough time disagreeing with any of them, so I won’t.

The only quibble I have with her list is that I’m not on it. I know she didn’t leave me out on purpose. I’m in one of the categories that’s easy to overlook. Don’t hold that against her, guys. Go give her all the voting love and don’t forget to vote up The Sundries Shack. I’m holding strong in the middle of the pack and there’s plenty of room for me to overtake the leader.

Jeffrey Goldberg on the “world’s pornographic interest” in Israel’s flaws.

It’s absolutely astonishing to me how interested the world is in Israel’s failings. This is the source of a bitter but hilarious observation I once heard a Kurdish leader make: He was complaining to me that his people were cursed, and I asked him what he meant: Cursed by geography, cursed by their proximity to Kurd-hating Arabs, what? He said the Kurds were cursed because they didn’t have Jewish enemies. Only with Jewish enemies would the world pay attention to their plight.

What I’ve seen from the supposedly-civilized West and the MSM has ticked me off to the point where I can’t watch very much. The casual hatred that has been on display is sickening to me and I think it should sicken any decent human being. Goldberg’s post goes on to explain how it is we see so many photos of dead Palestinian children. The explanation ought to permanently disqualify the Islamists (and make no mistake, those who wish death on every single Jew in the world are Islamists, root and branch) from the human race.

Glenn Reynolds wonders if what we’re seeing isn’t pornographic fascination but cowardice. I think that’s the right answer. Israeli soldiers will never saw off someone’s head and broadcast the murder around the world. They will never hide in hospitals and schools to launch their attacks against their enemies. They will abide by the rules of war as well as any nation ever has even though their enemies never have and never will. It’s easy to criticize Israel, easy to burn Jews in effigy, easy to hurl the most vile accusations against them. They will not retaliate, no matter what you say nor how much hate you spew at them. They are a safe target. Islamists are not and that is why the West is so loathe to criticize them for anything.

Mmmm…that’s some good nanny state right there.

The Anne Arundel County Council has voted to require that sprinklers be installed in all new homes built in the county, starting later this year.

County Executive John Leopold is praising the 6-1 vote as “a major victory” for county residents. “There can be no greater priority than saving lives,” he said.

Nor personal freedom. Not individual choice.

No greater priority than more government shackles. For your own good, of course. Would you be safer? Probably so. It is your government’s responsibility to make you that way? Not in a free country.

See, the progressive left (and do not doubt that the Anne Arundel County Government is abidingly progressive) screams about the alleged attempts by the religious right to intrude into your home life with any sort of moral code. Yet they do not hesitate for a second to do the very same thing. Because they care more than you. And they’re smarter than you. Ask them.

I wonder if, in a couple years, we’ll be hearing whining from Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold about how there’s so little affordable housing in his county. He probably won’t connect that to the $1.00 to $1.50 per square foot extra cost he just helped add to the cost of every new house.

*sigh*

President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the neurosurgeon and correspondent for CNN and CBS, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.

Well, at least the guy knows something about medicine, which is more than anyone can say about the guy whom the President-elect wants to head up his takeover of our medical system.

And he’s worked for Hillary Clinton in the 1990s, so we’re reasonably sure that he’s fine with socialized medicine, too. I wonder if Republicans will bring up his role in her secretive failure to socialize a huge chunk of our economy.

And he looks great on television, which seems to be the thing that Barack Obama prizes most highly. After all, you can’t gull the masses with a bunch of highly-competent but boring policy wonks. You need to dazzle ‘em with pretty, well-spoken talking heads. Gupta fills that role more than adequately.

This is an instructive review of just who knew what about our so-called “torture” of detainees and when. It’s important to keep these things in mind because there will come a time in the coming administration when these facts will matter greatly. People like Nancy Pelosi will lie right to our faces and swear that she knew nothing when she knew more than nearly everyone else and wanted our government to do more.

When that day comes, we need to remember what really happened so we can throw her lie right back into her perma-grinning face.

President-Elect Obama is ready to drop the Powerball of Pork he’s calling a stimulus package onto Congress for passage, but first, he has to try to woo Republicans to his side or it won’t pass.

First, let me stipulate that no matter how big the stimulus package is, it won’t work. It didn’t work when FDR did it and he can’t miracle his way around the laws of economics to make it work now.

That said, he’s sure as heck going to try because his goal isn’t really economic stimulus but government control of the economy. It doesn’t matter if he creates more jobs because that’s never been his goal. How do I know? He said so.

Keep on reading…

The RNC did something yesterday that neither party has ever done before - held a debate for the candidates running for Chairman. Normally, the President picks who heads his party and the committee members go along with it (a practice which should end for Republicans, I believe) but when a party isn’t in power, there’s an actual contest.

Stacy McCain was there and did some very good reporting on it, including a plethora of links to others who were there as well. The video is available in C-SPAN’s archive and I recommend that you spend at least some time watching it. The candidates, most of them anyhow, had interesting things to say about the party itself, where they want to take it, and how they intend on getting it there. There weren’t any fireworks (debate rules prevented it) and several of the questions, especially those asked during the “lightning round” were just silly and wasted time, but overall the debate was useful.

Useful is a good word, I think. No one candidate really soared over the others, but I learned more about each one and have a better idea of what sort of skills and ideas they have. I can’t really ask more from a debate than that.

In the new Obamamerica, dissenters will no longer be allowed to inflict their tawdry criticisms of The One on the delicate sensibilities of the American television viewer.

The nation’s top selling conservative author has been banned from appearing on NBC, insiders tell the DRUDGE REPORT.
…
“We are just not going to have her on any more, it’s over,” a top network source explains.

NBC’s TODAY show abruptly cut Ann Coulter from its planned Tuesday broadcast, claiming the schedule was overbooked.

But executives at NBC TODAY replaced Coulter with showbiz reporter Perez Hilton, who recently offered $1,000 to anyone who would throw a pie at Ann Coulter. Hilton is also launching a new book this week, RED CARPET SUICIDE.

Coulter was set to unveil her new book, GUILTY.

But one network insider claims it was the book’s theme — a brutal examination of liberal bias in the new era — that got executives to dis-invite the controversialist.

“We are just not interested in anyone so highly critical of President-elect Obama, right now,” a TODAY insider reveals. “It’s such a downer. It’s just not the time, and it’s not what our audience wants, either.”

The ban apparently extends to MS-NBC as well.

NBC responded thusly:

“We’ve had Ann Coulter on ‘Today’ many times, but because of the news in Washington and the Middle East, we decided to cancel her appearance tomorrow. Understanding the media as well as she does, we are sure she knows this happens from time to time. We look forward to welcoming her back in the future.”

Hmmm…who sounds more credible here? It’s awfully hard to decide. I mean, it could be that the NBC (home of Chris Matthews, David Gregory, and Keith Olbermann) took the tough decision that it couldn’t spare ten minutes to interview a conservative political commentator who wrote a book that has to have at least one entire chapter dedicated to its rampant bias because it wanted to stuff that time full of updates about Washington and the Middle East.

Or it could be that the leg-tingling has gotten so bad that the news department of NBC looks like an outbreak of St. Vitus Dance and having Coulter there might have caused the limb-twitching to subside just long enough to harsh their Obama-induced mellow.

I’d say it’s 50-50 either way.

(via Ace, who says that NBC is going all-in on their “urban liberal” branding tactic, and Hot Air)