Owner: Matters of Manner and Type URL:http://mattersofmannerandtype.blogspot.com Join Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:26:33 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: This is a weblog of thoughtful conservative commentary on politics, culture and media. Site statistics:Click here
Coming Home [Digg] 2007-11-06 22:00:29 Reportage from the New York Times Magazine notwithstanding, recent Gallup polling data suggests that Republicans still hold a significant advantage with religious voters. Read more:Digg
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Coming Home, pt. 3.5 2007-11-06 21:51:00 A little bit ago, this page discussed a recent New York Times Magazine article entitled "The Evangelical Crackup," which posited that evangelical Christians - a bedrock constituency for the GOP since the 1980s - were beginning to defect from the party over a wide array of issues, to include immigration, the environment and the role of religion in politics.At that time, it was my opinion that some of what's being seen on the part of evangelical Republicans is a function of their disillusionment with politics in general, and with GOP politicians in particular. (To be sure, there have been enough unfortunate situations as of late to disillusion both the religious and political factions within the GOP.)Quite correctly, the NYT article pointed out that much of the Religious Right's lack of enthusiasm for politics is related to a certain fatigue with President Bush and his handling of the Iraq War more specifically. To a degree, this perception is born out by data from a recent Gallup pol Read more:Coming Home
I've Got the Power [Digg] 2007-11-04 22:20:19 Besides being something out of Orwell's 1984, the University of Delaware's proposed Diversity Facilitation program exemplified everything that conservatives bemoan about liberalism. Read more:Digg
I've Got the Power 2007-11-04 22:10:00 I will begin by pleading your indulgence; the march of time has been merciless, and the newsprint of my memories has faded with age. But I seem to recall taking a bus ride, sitting in the back third of the Chicago Transit Authority's Jeffrey Express bus. I was coming home from either from middle or high school, so this would have occurred between approximately 1975 to 1981. I shared the back of the bus with three or four other black kids, along with a white boy who was in his pre-teens or teenage years, as were we all. That a young white male was on my bus was curious enough, as these where the years after the "white flight" of the 1960s that rendered my neighborhood as chromatically homogeneous as a midnight sky.I wish I could report that I had some premonition of what would happen next; without so much as a word, the other black youths set upon the white kid, kicking him with a ferocity that my not yet fully formed mind could not completely wrap itself around. A better man (or a bo
Is Nina 'Kneepads' Burleigh the Ideal Reviewer of Hillary Books? [Digg] 2007-11-01 15:05:07 On the front page of Thursday's Style section, The Washington Post awarded its book review of Sally Bedell Smith's new book on the Clinton marriage to none other than Nina Burleigh (file photo at right), the former Time reporter who so memorably said she in 1998 that she would gladly offer oral sex to Bill Clinton just for keeping abortion legal... Read more:Hillary
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The Arrogance [Digg] 2007-11-12 22:38:39 In his recent "Meet the Press" interview, Sen. Obama appeared to display an unnatural sense of how much of their earnings American workers "need." This was either a result of his clairvoyance or his arrogance. Read more:Digg
The Arrogance 2007-11-12 22:25:00 Over any number of presidential campaigns, the Democratic Party has made much of the diversity of its candidates, with this year being no exception. This is entirely understandable, as their slate of contenders is the first that includes both a black and a woman who are in serious competition for the nomination.Inconsequential differences (except to liberals) in the race and gender of the candidates notwithstanding, the Democratic candidates have expressed a unanimity of opinion on the issue of taxation. All of them to a person have indicated their interest in rolling back the Bush tax cuts - even as the economy hangs over a precipice of subprime mortgage defaults, rising oil prices and a falling dollar. And nearly all have attached their candidacies to some form of universal health care, which would only increase government spending and taxes, if not immediately, then at some point in the none too distant future.So how does an ambitious young man establish any sort of singularity. If
The Secret [Digg] 2007-11-11 18:07:21 Hillary Clinton's campaign has turned furtiveness into high art. It appears that she knows she has something to hide. Read more:Digg
The Secret 2007-11-11 17:37:00 Last evening, my wife and I were watching a fairly violent movie that included a particularly gruesome sequence where a young woman was shorn of her hair and confined in a dank prison cell. Being especially squeamish as of late, my wife took in most of it with her hand over her eyes, repeatedly asking, "Is it over yet?" At one point I quipped, "Here's the waterboarding scene."With an earnestness only to be summoned by a woman round with child, my wife said to me, "What is waterboarding?" I do not begrudge my wife her blissful ignorance of media hot buttons, as I have taken up that cross, and her interests and gifts lie elsewhere. (She is a natural fundraiser for charitable organizations, her having grown up in the ultimate not-for-profit environment as a Lutheran pastor's daughter.)If the goings-on last week at the Parkway Ballroom in Chicago were a scene out of a movie, it might have been called "Clinton Comes To Bronzeville." As reported in the Chicago Sun-Times (and scarcely anypl
Rhymes with "itch" [Digg] 2007-11-18 21:19:07 The issue isn't whether John McCain should have chided a woman for calling Hillary Clinton a bitch at a campaign event, but whether the woman was right in using the word. Read more:Rhymes
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Rhymes with "itch" 2007-11-18 21:10:00 Although it would have been more noteworthy if John McCain were polling better than single digits, the contretemps surrounding the Senator's answering a question posed by a woman who referred to Hillary Clinton as a bitch, as in "How do we beat the bitch?" made a bit of news last week. (It even made the rounds at the home of $500 haircuts and $0.50 heads, The View.)Perhaps the operative question is not what Sen. McCain should have done vis-a-vis the campaign rally attendee, but rather whether the woman at last Monday's event offered a description that is at all accurate. To be sure, Hillary Clinton can be personable for limited periods of time, particularly in the types of highly controlled settings that she prefers. But it is also true that she has demonstrated a penchant for secrecy, a maniacal desire for power and a mean streak as wide as a Texas highway.To the end of securing her party's nomination, she has surrounded herself with a crew of political animals whose sole purpose i Read more:Rhymes
U.S. demands Israel make more compromises [Digg] 2007-11-18 17:32:42 JERUSALEM - The U.S. is pressuring Israel
to declare a complete freeze on West Bank settlement construction ahead of a high-stakes peace conference, rejecting Israel's long-standing policy of expanding existing communities, Israeli government officials say. Read more:Digg
Clinton fights back against debate rivals [Digg] 2007-11-16 13:44:26 Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois -- Clinton
's closest rival -- went on the offensive against
the former first lady early on, saying that "what the American people are looking for right now is straight answers to tough questions, and that is not what we've seen out of Sen. Clinton on a host of issues." Read more:Digg
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What Didn't Happen in Vegas [Digg] 2007-11-16 12:56:11 Based on last evening's debate, Hillary Clinton is still sailing towards her party's nomination (and eventual defeat) in 2008. Read more:Digg
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What Didn't Happen in Vegas 2007-11-16 12:48:00 Last night it took a University of Nevada Las Vegas
student having a Farai Chideya moment to confirm that those who do remember history are also doomed to repeat it. But rather than ask about boxers or briefs, the question posed by Maria Parra Sandoval to Hillary Clinton had to do more with a preference of diamonds versus pearls. (Seeing a perfect opportunity to straddle, Hillary said she would want both.) Nevertheless, it provided a memorable ending to a debate that was short on such moments. Except for the first 10 minutes, the debate was largely inert, having collapsed of the weight of its own expectations.But what also collapsed last evening was any perception that Ms. Clinton's rivals would be able to overtake her, or even slow her momentum towards her party's nomination. While Barack Obama and John Edwards were able to land some glancing blows, Clinton's deft use of both the gender card and the party unifier card allowed her to bob and weave until her opponents ran out of stea
Cambridge MA votes down Scouts' aid for Iraqi GIs By Mike Underwood [Digg] 2007-11-16 08:30:49 “We just wanted to make a lot of troops happy,” said Scout Patrick O’Connor, 16. “I was devastated that someone would think to take (the donation boxes) out,” O’Connor of West Cambridge
was one of the Scouts who wanted to collect toiletries, magazines, candy and other items for care packages after one of his relatives was injured in an IED explotio Read more:Digg
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Heroes step up in daring rescue By Jessica Van Sack [Digg] 2007-11-13 07:04:28 Brave bystanders rushed into the flames shooting out of a Mattapan triple-decker yesterday to rescue screaming residents trying to escape a blaze that left 14 people injured, including a toddler in critical condition. “We thought, ‘We have to help these people,’ ” said passer-by Donald Flynn, 28, of Quincy. Read more:Digg
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Significant Accumulations [Digg] 2007-11-23 23:16:18 The greatest threat posed by global warming zealotry is not to the global economy, but to the moral efficacy of mankind. Read more:Significant
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Significant Accumulations 2007-11-23 23:07:00 The Nature Reports article from which this graph was taken suggests that by way of their efforts to assess climate models on their ability to reproduce 20th Century temperature changes, the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) "may give a false sense of [the models'] predictive capability." As becomes evident by observing the levels of scientific understanding (LOSU) and the associated uncertainties for each radiative forcing component, there is a great deal yet to be understood about the elements that comprise climate simulation models.While the tone of the piece was predictably supportive of the theory of anthropogenic global warming, it did indicate the possibility that "the forcings used in the models did not span the full range of the uncertainty." In plain English, the models may underestimate the uncertainties associated with factors used in their models (or climate researchers may overestimate their understanding of forcing factors.) The air of infallibilit Read more:Significant
Moments of Truth [Digg] 2007-11-20 17:25:51 The continued success of the US mission in Iraq - seen in ways and small - confirms several that we already know about those who support and oppose the war. Read more:Digg
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Analysis: A Mideast nuclear war? [Digg] 2007-11-23 16:09:16 Being contained within the region, such a nuclear exchange might not be Armageddon for the human race; it would certainly be Armageddon for the global economy. Read more:Digg
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Iraqi Judges Receive Laptops, Training on Legislative Software [Digg] 2007-11-20 06:38:24 Thirty-six judges received laptops equipped with an Iraqi
law database and a training program containing Iraqi police procedural information, Nov. 14 and 15 at Forward Operating Base Delta. The database gives the judges access to all Iraqi laws and precedence, according to Capt. Philip Maxwell, the 214th Fires Brigade command judge advocate. Read more:Digg
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Moments of Truth 2007-11-20 05:17:00 There are few things more laden with significance than marriage. As much is why the gay "rights" movement is atwitter over homosexuals having the option to marry (even though in at least one area where same-sex civil unions have been legal, precious few have availed themselves of the opportunity.) Issues of sexual orientation aside, marriage speaks to the optimism shared by the betrothed, as well as to that of the society in which they hope to spend their wedded bliss.As I can personally attest, marriage also reveals fundamental truths about those who enter therein, particularly as the years progress. Every conflict, every disappointment, every sacrificial labor and every shared joy will serve to lay bear the true nature of the person underneath the veil or behind the cummerbund. And it is the prospect of seeing that truth, naked before us and the God to whom we made our vows, that makes marriage a situation not to be entered into ill-advisedly.So perhaps just as one can discern improv Read more:Moments
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CNN's Sandbags [Digg] 2007-11-28 22:53:18 Ask yourself why CNN
allowed a Hillary Clinton supporter to ask a question at a REPUBLICAN debate!! (While you're at it, ask yourself what would happen if Fox News Channel were involved in similar shenanigans in a Democrat debate.) Read more:Digg
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