Don’t Hurt Me

September 15, 2012

New York Times – President Obama has petitioned a Virginia Superior Court judge to issue a restraining order against Fox News contributor Brit Hume prior to tonight’s Presidential debate at James Madison University.

Obama stated in his complaint he fears for his campaign and is concerned Hume may “rough him up” in his role as moderator of the debate.  The President wants Hume enjoined from coming within 500 feet of him with a question which might appear harmless but could be used to bludgeon him.

Drop the Ballot; Step Away from the Voting Booth

November 6, 2012

Reuters – In a massive protest today against the almost certain election of Republican Mitch Daniels to the Presidency, Democrats across the country avoided the polls, casting the integrity of the results into doubt.

In Washington, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) said it was heroic for 30 million Democrats to choose self-disenfranchisement rather than allow their votes to count for nothing.  An AP survey last weekend had the President down to Daniels by 20%, despite gross oversampling of Wisconsin academics.

Summat for Nothing

July 22, 2013

Boston Globe — Cambridge Police Officer James Crowley of “beer summit” fame was arrested outside his Natick, Massachusetts home today and charged with disorderly conduct after pleading with a mob chanting “racist pig” to calm down.

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Two years ago today, William F. Buckley moved on to the great Firing Line in the Sky where he is, no doubt, still debating the wisdom of turning over the Panama Canal with the Gipper. Buckley’s legacy lives on, not only in the remarkable generation of writers that he spawned after he first dared to stand athwart history and yell stop but, in an odd sort of way, in the manner in which some of the liberals he defied over the course of five decades seem to pine for the great man’s genteel ways.

On a personal note, Buckley was one of the two great influences in the creative life of this particular – not particularly humble – correspondent. The other was that irascible Chicago newspaperman/Everyman: Mike Royko. It’s difficult to imagine an odder couple, but Buckley and Royko shared at least a couple of common characteristics. One took them on at one’s peril (and very few ever successfully did so) and neither could be neatly constrained within an ideological box. Royko was classically liberal, but he openly scorned the liberal elite. Buckley became the symbol of the conservative movement, but he refused to let the movement define him, cutting his own path through the ideological jungle when necessary, most famously when he argued for the legalization of many illegal drugs. Agree or disagree, both Royko and Buckley were thinkers, and honest thinkers to boot, who had a knack for expressing their thoughts with the kind of panache that left their readers breathless in awe. (more…)