Yet another catch by the blogosphere that will take the media days to “break”. Iran released photos this morning of several missile test launches. The following is the image the super fact-checking media released to us without any hesitation:
Ah yes, quite lovely, isn’t it? Good to know the Western media, holder of all that is truth, is quickly becoming the radical Islamic world’s very own PR wing.
Update: Interestingly, even when the media does pick up on it, it’s not a major story, but rather relegated to the “blog” section that nearly every major media outlet has in the last few years found necessary to keep on their website. The New York Times. The Daily Telegraph.
Update II: And now, apparently, the original image:
See the truck that wasn’t there before? And the dark mound to the right of the truck? Now go back to the faked image. Notice the dark mound has been partially reconstructed, most likely using the clone tool, to cover up the truck.
Update III: Well that didn’t take long. Apparently it doesn’t take much information for Americans to immediately assume it’s the U.S. Government’s conspiracy. Too bad the faked image came from Iran’s state run media. Come on people, this is obviously Iran continuing to posture. They’ve seen how the international community reacts when the U.S. or Israel goes on the offensive. I’m not saying Iran won’t ever initiate aggressive operations, but I know they’d really prefer to just taunt us until we attack them. They want war, they just don’t want to have to start it.
I’m constantly frustrated by those people who seem determined to throw cold water on a good patriotic party. I’m talking about the type of over-intellectual person who behaves as if any sign of love for this country is some sort of a backwoods, redneck, “we’re America and we don’t do anything wrong” patriotism. What angers me most is that this particular kind of person is determined to point out our most egregious flaws at just the moment there is any hint of patriotic support. It’s not the criticism that I can’t handle; it’s the attitude behind it. Chesterton said it best (via WoC):
A man who says that no patriot should attack the Boer War until it is over is not worth answering intelligently; he is saying that no good son should warn his mother off a cliff until she has fallen over it. But there is an anti-patriot who honestly angers honest men, and the explanation of him is, I think, what I have suggested: he is the uncandid candid friend; the man who says, “I am sorry to say we are ruined,” and is not sorry at all…
The evil of the pessimist is, then, not that he chastises gods and men, but that he does not love what he chastises — he has not this primary and supernatural loyalty to things.
It’s as if they truly despise America, but are trying to hide this disgust inside patriotic critique. Being a true patriotic America doesn’t mean never having anything negative to say about our country. But it does mean that those critiques are wrapped in love and a desire to see us be even greater.
I like it when other people have already written a detailed account of how I’ve been feeling:
No, what really put me off Barack Obama was the increasingly creepy and pathological tenor of the relationship between him and his fans. I think it was in mid-February, a bit before the Jeremiah Wright story got really ugly, that I started to notice my “Never Again!” nerves tingling.
Be honest. We have NEVER seen this kind of thing in an American leader, and while it does not necessarily indict Obama as a fascist leader, the necessary dynamic for fascism is certainly present. And that’s a frightening thing. As much as Americans claim to remember the Holocaust and vow to never let it happen again, I don’t think we could actually prevent it. Not because our hearts aren’t in the right place, but because we’ve learned nothing from the “non-stop train of horrors” that is the twentieth century. If there’s one major fault I can project on the American citizenry as a whole, it’s the wholesale lack of historical understanding.
Oh sure, we’re all aware the Holocaust happened. Almost no one is denying that, except the real moon-bats. But we’ve learned to demonize the German people during that time as being horrible people that hated Jews and wanted to kill them. We forget that Hilter was a rightfully elected leader who, rather than usurp power by force, actually used the legislature and the laws in place to wield absolute power. He was essentially given full authority in order to find the terrorists who burned the Bundestadt and restore order– he just never gave that power back. This wasn’t by accident, of course. While in prison, Hilter wrote about his plans for the then outcast Nazi Party:
…Instead of working to achieve power by an armed coup we shall have to hold our noses and enter the Reichstag against the Catholic and Marxist deputies. If outvoting them takes longer than outshooting them, at least the results will be guaranteed by their own Constitution! Any lawful process is slow. But sooner or later we shall have a majority - and after that Germany.
Hilter knew that he needed the hearts of the majority of people behind him in order to really have any true kind of power. Once out of prison, he played on the fears of the people caused by the economic downturn and the negative international sentiment following the first World War that Germany. He promised to put Germany back in her rightful place as the leader of the world and bolster her economic standing. How could you not get behind a speaker with such power and promise of actual change?
I’m not panicked yet, because Obama is still a long way off from behaving like a megalomaniacal nut-job. But if the lives of people like Napoleon, Mussolini, or Hitler show us anything it’s that the road from Obama’s flavor of charismatic leader to tyrant is open, and dangerously seductive to the leader himself.
Certainly, most of his followers will see this as complete lunacy. But anyone with respect for history must be able to look at the current situation, compare it with uber-charismatic and tyrannical leaders of the past, and see why it’s so important that for America to be a land of secure checks and balances. During the presidency of George W. Bush, we’ve already seen a congress that’s willing to transfer it’s power to the president in the name of solidarity and support for finding the terrorists. And the FISA bill, criticized by groups across the political spectrum for enabling the Executive branch to authorize spying on the American people, has suddenly found support from Obama, a man who hopes to find himself at the helm of the presidency next year. Don’t worry though, the Leader has promised he won’t abuse the power.
Again, I’m not saying Obama is a fascist leader. And I’m not accusing Bush of being a fascist either, nor that the need to find the terrorists is anything less than an important one. I’m merely recognizing the elements that must be present for fascism to occur, and strangely enough, we’re seeing a lot of them here. We’ve been lulled into complacency over the years by a fantastic economy, incredible growth, and the general protection that the Atlantic and Pacific oceans bring. The motto of the useful idiot truly is, “That could never happen here!”
Absolutely it could.
No political leader merits uncritical devotion — neither when they are running for office nor when they occupy it — and there are few things more dangerous than announcing that you so deeply believe in the Core Goodness of a political leader, or that we face such extreme political crises that you trust and support whatever your Leader does, even when you don’t understand it or think that it’s wrong.
That sentiment is something that we’re already seeing by a wide, enthusiastic margin among Obama followers.
Sure, he’s got big plans for America, not the least of which involved undetermined amounts of Hope and Change, but what kind of preview does his rather short track record provide?
Grove Parc and several other prominent failures were developed and managed by Obama’s close friends and political supporters. Those people profited from the subsidies even as many of Obama’s constituents suffered. Tenants lost their homes; surrounding neighborhoods were blighted.
Yikes. Even if he did fight to “to make livable, affordable housing in mixed-income neighborhoods available to all,” it was still clearly a massive failure. Even more so, I would add, if he really did fight that hard. Can’t really blame it on a lack of trying, can you?
Ironically enough, Ted Kennedy would probably be dead by now if we had the socialized health care that he’s been pushing at us for so long. More on just how wonderful it is to get a brain tumor in Canada:
UPDATE: Also, the British are now enjoying the new trend of Self Dentistry!
I don’t really have time for a write-up on this just yet, but I saw it and thought it interesting. Gallup poll:
Americans’ lack of support for redistributing wealth to fix the economy spans political parties: Republicans (by 90% to 9%) prefer that the government focus on improving the economy, as do independents (by 85% to 13%) and Democrats (by 77% to 19%). This sentiment also extends across income groups: upper-income Americans prefer that the government focus on improving the economy and jobs by 88% to 10%, concurring with middle-income (83% to 16%) and lower-income (78% to 17%) Americans.
He’s a conservative, but not a Republican. I feel like that, too. I can’t honestly push my values out of the way in favor of the party nod. And they’re liars, too. Both parties.
After all, the Republicans said they stood for smaller government, but the size of our government grew enormously under a Republican president and a Republican majority in Congress. Democrats said they stood for an end to the war in Iraq, but for better or worse, nearly two years after taking over Congress, they don’t even have a timetable for withdrawal.
What does he believe? Oh, I love and quite agree with this one:
A conservative believes that our inalienable rights DO include the pursuit of happiness. That means it is guaranteed to no one.
My point? Friends, quit your belly aching. The Government couldn’t bring you happiness even if it tried. All we want the Government to do is protect our right to pursue it.
A conservative believes that there are no protections against the hardship and heartache of failure. We believe that the right to fail is just as important as the chance to succeed and that those who do fail learn essential lessons that will help them the next time around.
Wow. That was a close one. In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court struck down the unconstitutional gun ban in our nation’s capital.
As I’m watching CNN, I’m becoming more and more convinced by the media bias. Instead of reporting on any kind of actual statistical facts that surround the presence of guns in a community vs. a community where guns are banned, they bring on a Chicago police officer whose son was killed around Mother’s day as he went shopping for a gift. Heartbreaking story, I know.
And I don’t mean to dimish the man’s pain at all, but let’s look at the whole news story here. Why did CNN bring him on and conveniently leave out any kind of data on the subject? They seem real quick to report data on anything that upholds their agenda, but in line with classic the current strain of liberalism, they’re right at home with using people’s emotions to change their opinion when facts don’t support the agenda.
Listen, it’s real sad when people die at the hands of a gun. But people: more often than not, it’s not the gun that’s the problem. It’s almost never an accidental shooting. Only in the rare case is it not intentional. In that light, I’d submit that the perpetrator would use whatever means they have. If they don’t have a gun, they’ll use a knife. And in Australia, they’ve banned those as well. Hasn’t really curbed the violence though. (Hell, even Australia’s Herald Sun Times has better coverage on the ruling than our own media.)
Quite rarely do we see stabbings in America. And liberals, being quite short minded as usual, are far too comfortable in their simple math. Lots of murders + Guns being used = Guns are the problem. Get rid of the guns, they philosophize, and you get rid of the problem. What’s the real problem? Lots of people who use violence to solve problems + A Gun Ban = Criminals move on to other means to weaponry.
I’m glad the Supreme Court upheld the Second Amendment. It means I can stop arguing with gun control loonies who have this misguided notion that if you deprive criminals of their weapons, they’ll just be sad and give up.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the only proven deterrent to violent crime is a well-armed public.
“Undoubtedly some think that the Second Amendment is outmoded in a society where our standing army is the pride of our nation, where well-trained police forces provide personal security and where gun violence is a serious problem…That is perhaps debatable, but what is not debatable is that it is not the role of this court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.” - Justice Scalia
