Friday, March 14, 2008

Heavy Flak Over Obamaburg.

Questions about Barack Obama's association with the recently retired pastor of Chicago Trinity United Church of Christ, Jeremiah Wright have forced Obama's hand; he has now removed Wright from any official association with his campaign. Obama, in an interview on Fox News, has also stated the following: he never attended a sermon in which Wright made one of his now infamous statements, and if he had been he would have quit the church. These assertions may be very problematic to the Obama campaign, for given Wright's relentless stridency, it is unlikely that the publicized comments were anomalous to anything else he would have said on any given Sunday, and Obama's association with Wright is a very deep twenty year history. And apologetics for Wright by Obama proxies, requiring that one views Wright while standing on one's head, is just an insult to intelligence.

Similarly, and no less emphatically, John McCain needs to jettison Pastors Hagee and Parsley. Hagee's anti-Catholic and Parsley's anti-Islamic views are as un-American as the rants of Wright.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

This Year's Templeton Prize.

...is awarded to Michael Heller, the Polish priest-cosmologist; the award committee noted his invention of "the theology of science". The New Scientist magazine recently interviewed him.

More on the Templeton Prize can be found here.
Democrat Wishful Thinking.

Clifford May writes at National Review Online about the downplay of Islamofascism by both Obama and Clinton.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Uncle Sugar Daddy Buys the Leases on the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Fed rescued the Big Banks today by buying up the Banks' rotten mortage-backed securities with treasuries, and the market soared by over 400 points. $200B worth of bad debt that will be eaten by the United States Government, and ultimately by the taxpayer.

Monday, March 10, 2008

A Solemn Read.

Our workday commute now includes the audio adaptation of Tom Ricks' "Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq". Ricks attempts a comprehensive indictment of the Bush administration, from deliberate deception in the case for war to the lack of planning of "Phase Four", establishing a functional Post-Saddam Iraq. On the first point, Ricks is not persuasive, but on the latter he successfully documents what must be considered an A-1 SNAFU by the Rumsfeld Pentagon. John McCain frequently mentions this book while on the stump, and it supports his view that Petraeus' approach in Iraq is a necessary component of success. Necessary, but not sufficient, for ultimately it is the emerging political leadership in Iraq that will win the peace or lose it to a power darker than Saddam. And the Democrats input on this critical issue is as valuable as a one-armed cymbals player.
A Tonic for Today's Politics.

If you find yourself suffering from Election 2008 Fatigue, we suggest you watch John Ford's adaptation of the Edwin O'Connor novel "The Last Hurrah". Loosely based on the adventures of legendary Boston mayor James Curley, Ford's movie will make you smile and cry and wish for the days of a simpler and "honester" politics. Pay particular attention to character actor O.Z. Whitehead, who nearly steals the film as the nitwit son of blueblood banker Basil Rathbone.

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Buckley in Flint.

Stephen Rodrick, an expatriate of Flint, Michigan, provides a hilarious memoir of an encounter with WFB during his visit to the Buick City.