Free Republic

I like ‘em all.

Me too. Allah has his squishy areas, for sure, and he bends over backwards to give the benefit of the doubt to the lefties when there's any possible wiggle room, but it's all worth it, to see his skilled takedowns when even he concedes that some lefty has engaged in unabashed foulness, and he brings his full rhetorical power to bear. He's a really talented writer, and often writes things that have me smiling in admiration or laughing out loud.

You go, girl! No, really. Just go. Please.

Against, for sure. I’m no McCain fan, though I concede he’s probably a better man than I’m willing to give him credit for at the moment. But to vote for anyone but McCain this fall is to vote in either the most liberal man in the Senate, or the unspeakable Hillary. There’s no evading my responsibility to prevent either of those unthinkable options, so I will pull the lever for McCain.

This is a watershed election. Bill Clinton, whatever his inadequacies as a man and as a president, was a moderate Democrat. The two Dem candidates this time are super-liberals, and we MUST oppose them. Think Supreme Court justices. Think socialized medicine, which I believe no country has ever rolled back once it’s in place.

Word is that the Prince, being of high value to his country, did have a security detail. They stayed back at the base — while he went out to the front lines. Got something snarky to say about that too?

Ah. I see where you’re coming from, but personally, I’d have preferred that he neglect this particular “responsibility.” Thanks for the clarification.

Ninety to one hundred commutations per year in Arkansas is a pittance. Arkansas, as I understand, does not have the "time off for good behavior" that other states have. Hence, it is customary for massive numbers of such requests to flow into the Governor's office. Gov. Huckabee paid attention to his responsibility, there.

OK. Then please account for this:

Gov. Huckabee is on a roll: He has freed more convicts than all of his recent predecessors combined – more than 10 times as many as Gov. Clinton during a 10-year period from 1983 to 1992.

How did he, as a conservative presumably cognizant of what evil is, exceed Clinton's record in this area, in your opinion?

Cool. Any updates on the whole “freeing rapists like Dumond to rape again” thing? He got any changes of heart, apologies, admissions of error, anything like that? Any platform positions about how he’d use the Presidential pardon power? The last Arkansas guy really burned us there, and this one seems almost worse in that area, so an update would be good.

The magnificent Danish unwillingness to accept Dhimmitude should be an example for all other countries. Certainly that includes the U.S., but mostly we’re on decent ground there. Some countries are not. I’m looking at you, formerly-Great-Britain.

This “Lifelong Republican” gag is getting pretty shopworn. When I see or hear the phrase now, I think “Democrat troll ahead.”

Muslims are the new Jews, eh? Literate, entrepreneurial, intellectual, valuing education? I'm not seeing it myself.

Racial profiling at airports and immigration processes;

Yeah, why would that be. Can't think of a reason...

the blasphemous cartoons of their prophet;

Welcome to freedom of expression. It's not just you who's expected to tolerate expressions you don't like. Ever heard of "Piss Christ?" Let's see, did anyone die over that one? Or even get injured? Gosh, no. What's the difference there?

the U.S. forces flushing the Qur’an down in toilets,

Are you citing the debunked Newsweek story? Myths don't count.

blowing up mosques in false flag operations

Huh? Got a citation for this one, dude?

and showering civilians with White Phosphorus;

I remember something about this. Wasn't it another myth?

the labelling of Muslims as Islamists

No, the labeling of Islamists as Islamists

and promotion of heretics such as Manji and Rushdie as “moderate” Muslims,

Hadn't heard that one.

these are all manifestations of how Muslims are viewed in the 21st century.

Suggestion: stop your co-religionists from blowing people up, demonstrating with "Behead those who insult Islam" signs, going nuts over a few cartoons, lashing women who were raped, having religious policeman, wrapping women in bags, etc. The reputation of Islam will improve.

We underestimate this "couple" at our peril. Bill's tricky. What I conclude from this is that H!llary would rather face Romney than McCain in the general. So Bill's been sent out to undermine McCain with conservatives.

Not that that's a tough assignment or anything.

As has been said, there is a deal of ruin in a nation. And one might add, in a highly interconnected global economy. Yes, many around the world have eaten a load of bad paper, egged on by a surfeit of liquidity and by a dysfunctional ratings process. It will cause indigestion, and an economic contraction, and a likely bursting of the Chinese stock market bubble. But ruin? A replay of the 30’s? I think not.

Tomorrow will likely not be a pretty day in the U.S. stockmarket. But at times like these it’s worth keeping some perspective. Not least about the natural advantages of the U.S. Freedom has the advantage, and in a world where even Canada and the UK have lost sight of the meaning of free speech, we’ve still got the world’s biggest stocks of it. The U.S. isn’t going down, not by a long shot.

but this newsletter non-issue is just pure nonsense.

Not entirely. As the same sort of time-traveling politically-correct gotcha that causes Huckleberry Finn to be banned in some schools, well, maybe, though if these statements don't quite cross the line, they certainly walk right up to it and send a Bronx cheer across.

But the point is that Ron Paul is running for the most challenging and ambitious executive position in the world, presiding over a massive bureaucracy. However much he may wish to shrink it, that's the job description, and it requires a highly competent executive.

This newsletter episode speaks to Ron Paul's executive abilities, in that an organization for which he was responsible was apparently putting out a newsletter under his name, and Mr. Paul had managed neither to do his homework, nor imprint his personality on his own organization, nor have checks and balances in place to catch mistakes, so that his own newsletter insulted his friends under his own name, and made disparaging racial remarks that he apparently does not endorse. If such a small organization has such problems when run by Ron Paul, what may we expect if we put him in charge of the Executive branch, as he is asking us to consider?

Maybe you missed the writer's word "about," as in "about fourteen [drinks].

I did, yes. And one source now says she admits to being "under the weather," so it's looking credible after all. My mistake.

Much as I’d enjoy believing that story, the precision as to the number of drinks she had makes it less than credible, unless it was written by an employee of the bar.

Much as I’d enjoy believing that story, the precision as to the number of drinks she had makes it less than credible, unless it was written by an employee of the bar.

It's a free country.

Well, unless you're GM and want to cut some substandard employees. Yeah, I know, it's contractual. More fools they for in effect signing onto a private version of Eurosclerosis.

It’s not commercial paper at the root of the problem - it’s the home loans to risky borrowers.

True enough. But where were the rating agencies, and the sophisticated buyers at the consuming financial institutions, on this? Asleep at at the switch, as far as I can tell. It's the fact that such paper was salable in a secondary market, at something other than an appropriately deep discount, that allowed the game to continue as long as it did.

Nice job, guys and gals. Now global warming is solved. I can go ahead and get that SUV now.

Well, he might be used to the flames thing, but maybe there’ll be a giant kicking replica of John Smeaton down there to keep him company.