Gay Patriot Header Image

Watcher of Weasels Nominations — 05.22.13 Edition

Posted by B. Daniel Blatt at 12:07 pm - May 23, 2013.
Filed under: Blogging,Conservative Ideas

Council Submissions

Watcher of Weasels — Ides of May 2013 Nominations

Posted by B. Daniel Blatt at 5:47 pm - May 16, 2013.
Filed under: Blogging,Conservative Ideas

Council Submissions

Watcher of Weasels — May 9th Nominations (2013 Edition)

Posted by B. Daniel Blatt at 9:36 am - May 9, 2013.
Filed under: Blogging,Conservative Ideas

Council Submissions

Watcher of Weasels–1st Winners of May 2013

Posted by B. Daniel Blatt at 10:00 pm - May 8, 2013.
Filed under: Blogging,Conservative Ideas

Council Winners

GOP needs to “effectively address” working/middle class concerns

Earlier this morning, caught a good piece from Byron York on why winning the Hispanic vote would not be enough to secure a GOP presidential victory.  Here’s the crucial paragraph:

But here is the real solution. Romney lost because he did not appeal to the millions of Americans who have seen their standard of living decline over the past decades. They’re nervous about the future. When Romney did not address their concerns, they either voted for Obama or didn’t vote at all. If the next Republican candidate can address their concerns effectively, he will win. And, amazingly enough, he’ll win a lot more Hispanic votes in the process. A lot from other groups, too.

Read the whole thing.  Did recall reading something about a year ago on Mitt Romney’s failure to appeal to working class votes disaffected from the incumbent administration.  York is right; the next Republican candidate needs to effectively address their concerns.

Part of the answer, ironically enough (given the premise of York’s piece), lies in a piece Jill Lawrence published last week in the National Journal, a piece on Republicans’ challenges with Hispanic voters.  Lawrence cited a focus group whose participants . . .

liked what they heard about Medicaid, immigration, economics, and education in clips from speeches by some prominent party figures. But the people they listened to—New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush—are unusual in how they talk about these issues and seemed like anomalies to the focus-group participants. (more…)

Watcher of Weasels Nominations — May Day 2013

Posted by B. Daniel Blatt at 10:00 pm - May 2, 2013.
Filed under: Blogging,Conservative Ideas

Council Submissions

“Did Ron Paul go too far this time?”

The headline is what I just saw on Yahoo! (hence the quotes). The article is from Peter Grier of the Christian Science Monitor:

Former GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul has slammed US law enforcement for responding to the Boston Marathon bombing with “police state tactics.”

In a post on the website of libertarian activist Lew Rockwell, Mr. Paul said Monday that the governmental reaction to the tragic explosions was worse than the attack itself. The forced lockdown of much of the Boston area, police riding armored vehicles through the streets, and door-to-door searches without warrants were all reminiscent of a military coup or martial law, Paul added.

“The Boston bombing provided the opportunity for the government to turn what should have been a police investigation into a military-style occupation of an American city,” according to Paul.

Furthermore, this response did not result in the capture of suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Paul charged. He was discovered hiding in a boat by a private citizen, who called police…

The article seems to be written by a leftie: it unfortunately goes on to quote the pompous and silly Glenn Greenwald, and uses guilt-by-association to insinuate that Austrian economics (Ludwig von Mises) somehow goes with racism.

But brush that aside: the main topic is still interesting. Your thoughts? Who went too far: Ron Paul, or the Boston police?

Watcher of Weasels Nominations — Late April 2013 Edition

Posted by B. Daniel Blatt at 2:20 pm - April 25, 2013.
Filed under: Blogging,Conservative Ideas

Council Submissions

Millennials & the Real Republican Problem

In a piece on the immigration bill, Stanley Kurtz offers a nutshell version of the real problem facing Republicans today:

Republicans have been in a funk ever since Obama’s re-election. I’m the first to agree that there’s a deeper problem, but it’s got more to do with under-thirties and what education and the culture are doing to them than with anything a path to citizenship will fix.

When I listen to my non-Republican twentysomething friends talking about the GOP, I hear an image of a party drawn from Democratic talking points and college professors’ prejudices. Few are aware of the ideals of liberty and civil society that have stood as the guideposts for the conservative and libertarian thinkers who have defined the basic philosophy of the Republican Party since Reagan.

Many, as Arthur Brooks sagely observed last month in the Wall Street Journal believe Republicans are indifferent to the poor.  Republicans need to change that faulty perception.  They have to show the “under-thirties”, as Kurtz described this demographic suffering the most under Obama’s policies, that conservatives are aware of — and sympathetic to — their plight and will, if elected, put into place policies which will make it easier for them to find jobs commensurate with their talents and their training, allowing them to prosper as did young people in the Reagan Era.

FROM THE COMMENTS:  Cactus Bill gets it:

There has been a bastardization of the language for some now. When compassion is defined by how much government can provide instead of what you can provide for yourself the notion of pursuing your own happiness is turned on it’s head. Real compassion is allowing an environment where a business of any type can actually HIRE someone. A real job is more compassionate and rewarding to the soul than all the government provided resources have ever been able to give. (more…)

Economic odds & ends

Posted by Jeff (ILoveCapitalism) at 2:16 am - April 23, 2013.
Filed under: Conservative Ideas,Debt Crisis,Economy,Free Enterprise

Here’s a fun chart. (Source: Gluskin-Sheff. Hat tip, Zero Hedge.)

What does it mean? It means that, starting around 2008 or so, the stock market has been strongly linked to the Federal Reserve Bank’s “Quantitative Easing” (QE) policy.

We’ve seen that point before; this chart shows it another way. Since the second half of 2008, the market moves up if the Fed is growing its balance sheet; the market stops (or declines) if the Fed stops; which means that the ratio of them (shown above) has kept fairly level.

In other news (and also hat tipping Zero Hedge), a Chinese woman wants to sue the Fed over its QE policy:

A woman in Kunming, Yunnan province, is trying to sue the United States central bank after discovering that the real value of the US$250 she put in an account in 2006 had shrunk by 30 per cent.

She claims it was a result of the Federal Reserve issuing too much money.

Her attorney, her son Li Zhen , called the lawsuit “litigation for the public good” which aimed to stop the Fed from continuing its quantitive easing policy…

He filed the lawsuit alleging “the abuse of monopoly in issuing currency” last month at the Kunming Intermediate People’s Court…but the court has yet to decide whether to officially place the case on file.

Why didn’t I think of that? The woman gets the issue: that the Fed has been debauching the dollar. Whether her suit succeeds is another question, but God bless her!

Finally, I want to mention the recent controversy over Reinhart-Rogoff’s work. It might be boring, so further discussion is beneath the following ‘fold’.

(now with updates) (more…)

Watcher of Weasels Nominations — 04.18.13 Edition

Posted by B. Daniel Blatt at 10:00 pm - April 18, 2013.
Filed under: Blogging,Conservative Ideas

Council Submissions

The Gosnell trial

This will be a rambling non-post, inviting your input (even) more than usual.

First, here’s my general position on abortion. Having long believed that both total permissiveness on abortion and a total prohibition of it will lead to some horribly unjust outcomes, and that a line must be drawn somewhere even though the line will be permeable and arbitrary: I would ban late-term abortions – let’s say, I don’t think second-semester abortions should be allowed – while permitting early-term abortions – let’s say, I’d allow first-semester. (Again, I know the “semester” line is unclear and highly debatable; I simply believe that the other lines that people propose are worse.) Also, I favor counseling about the alternatives, and parental notification where the mother is a minor. Finally, I oppose publicly-funded abortions, i.e., I am against our government forcing taxpayers to pay for abortions against their conscience.

Having arrived at the above positions some time ago, I spend little time on the issue of abortion. It’s just not a top one for my interest.

But abortion may interest many of you. This is, after all, a gay conservative blog (and, as a non-conservative on certain issues, I am a guest).

So, what’s up with the Gosnell trial? It’s big right now, in Bruce’s Twitter stream. In my slower-moving way, I gather that:

  1. Gosnell did some particularly shocking, immoral late-term abortions; and that
  2. The media silence about the trial is shocking and repugnant in itself.

Is that the gist? Or is there more (or less) to it? Re: the media blackout – Is it a conspiracy perhaps, or just the media’s usual left-wing Herd Instinct? Has the trial been getting, say, foreign coverage?

People who have been following the trial, please feel free to inform me (and everybody) in the comments, and to express your informed opinion. I feel that, certainly on a conservative blog, this topic should get some daylight as a comment thread.

UPDATE: Wouldn’t you know, today Yahoo! is rotating a column on the Gosnell trial through its headlines, on and off. I don’t know if that means the wall of silence is cracking, or only that Yahoo! had me profiled as conservative-leaning.

UPDATE: The wall of silence is cracking. Ace has examples of Jake Tapper and Andersen Cooper both teasing some coverage to come. Naturally, and as Ace puts it, Cooper’s “entree into the story is through the prism of ‘not enough government regulation.’” Better than nothing!

Watcher of Weasels Nominations — Iron Lady Memorial Edition

Posted by B. Daniel Blatt at 6:27 pm - April 11, 2013.
Filed under: Blogging,Conservative Ideas

Council Submissions

(more…)

The World Has Lost A Giant

Rest In Peace, Margaret Thatcher.

20130408-093741.jpg

-Bruce (@GayPatriot)

Brave kid

In Ace’s “Headlines” sidebar, I just noticed this post at FreedomWorks: 15 Year Old Wisconsin Conservative Meets Bullying From Teachers.

Worth a skim. To be clear: By “bullying”, he does not mean physical assault, but rather a series of moral-emotional assaults from teachers who single him out for questioning (sometimes invasive) and ridicule. From Mr. Backer’s conclusion:

If teachers want bullying to end with homosexuals, other races or religious beliefs, they should want it to end with every type of bullying possible, including political views.

I haven’t done any research that would let me vouch for Mr. Backer’s story, but if it’s true, it’s chilling. Or, to say something more positive: that kid has guts!

CPAC: who was best?

Posted by Jeff (ILoveCapitalism) at 1:49 am - March 26, 2013.
Filed under: Conservative Ideas,CPAC2013

Bruce – C’mon, you were there, who did you like?

We slow-witted non-Tweeters need to know. Folks, let’s hear your thoughts in the comments!

(Updating this post with more CPAC speakers, as I watch ‘em and like ‘em.)

Watcher of Weasels — Nominations March 21 2013

Posted by B. Daniel Blatt at 9:43 pm - March 21, 2013.
Filed under: Blogging,Conservative Ideas

Council Submissions

Watcher of Weasels Ides* of March Nominations 2013

Posted by B. Daniel Blatt at 8:24 pm - March 14, 2013.
Filed under: Blogging,Conservative Ideas

Council Submissions

Ryan Unveils GOP Budget Set to Put US on Sane Fiscal Path

Faster, please.

House Republicans unveiled an ambitious cost-cutting plan Tuesday that would balance the budget in 10 years without raising taxes, while repealing ObamaCare and overhauling entitlements — a document Democrats are sure to reject but could be used as a negotiating tool in talks with President Obama.

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., chairman of the House Budget Committee, is sticking by controversial proposals, including one to give future Medicare retirees the option of using government payments for private health care plans.

Taxes are the vehicle that the Federal Government uses to strip power and freedom from its citizens. That immense power is sapping the private sector right now.

Here is the full text of the Ryan Budget Plan.  Read it for yourself.  No filters.

-Bruce (@GayPatriot)

McCain doesn’t get it

From last Friday on Piers Morgan (ugh), McCain complains about the flak he’s been catching, for all the flak that he himself spewed on Rand Paul’s recent filibuster:

“Well, you know, I am always intrigued by the fact that when I disagree with my own party leadership, my own president — like saying that Donald Rumsfeld ought to resign, [or] we need to do the surge — then I’m a brave maverick,” McCain said. “When I’m taking on others, then he’s just an angry old man.”

Here’s a clue for you, Mr. McCain. You are not the only one who gets to be a maverick and take principled stands that disagree with your party leadership. In fact, the year 2008 called and claimed that you ARE your party’s leadership. That would mean others get to be mavericks and take principled stands which disagree with YOU.

Or at least they should be able to, without your whining and pissing on them like a cranky old man, um, teenager.