#rsrh Snarlin’ Arlen not Matt’s Darlin’.

One gets the feeling that Matt Patterson does not like Arlen Specter:

One of the most ignominious political careers of the modern era will at last sputter to a pitiful end when the 111th Congress finally relinquishes its strangle-hold on the American Republic.

Then again, who does?  I’d like to say that it was a disappointment that Specter lost the primary – it would have been fun to beat him in the general – but, truth be told, it was just as much fun to beat Joe Sestak, and this way we got to drink the Other Side’s pain, too.  The wild hope added a certain piquancy to the mix.

Moe Lane

QotD, excellent advice edition.

From a New Hampshire Union Leader editorial crediting the Tea Party with ensuring that Senate Minority Leader McConnell would refuse to play ball on the Omnibus:

The truth is that without the constant vigilance currently provided by what can loosely be called the Tea Party movement, Republicans would be just as happy as Democrats to squander taxpayer money. They are only acting frugal now because they know they’re being closely watched, so keep watching.

For the rest of your lives, in fact: civic duty never ends.  Just in case nobody’s ever mentioned that.

(H/T: Real Clear Politics)

Moe Lane (crosspost)

I’m cringing from a White Christmas…

The news is so bad that I’m afraid to check it: Jim Geraghty notes – idly! With very little visible dread! – in his Daily Jolt that we might be seeing snow for Christmas down here in MD/DC.

God help us – more accurately, God help me, because I have to deal with everybody else in the area.  Three flakes of FALLING FROZEN SKY-WATER OF DOOM!!!!! and everybody freaks out.  Seriously: last week we got… maybe half an inch of snow.  Not enough to completely cover the grass, which is my usual rule of thumb for serious snow.  In NJ that’s a slight treat for kids – they can get some snowball time in – but otherwise not worth mentioning.  In MD that’s an excuse for a two hour school delayed opening the next day.

It’s bad when a guy from coastal NJ can mock an area for its snow savvy…

#rsrh Wow. The Republicans MUST have won big.

We’re getting calls for civility; you only see those when the Left* suddenly realizes that they’re roughly two weeks away from having to face the consequences of their rhetoric for the last four years.  Personally, I prefer their rhetoric when they’re winning: it’s more… honest.  Blustering and contemptuous, to be sure – but better than passive-aggressive whining any day of the week.

And I’m not even going to get into the appallingly personal aspects of that Matthew Dowd article.

Moe Lane

*Dowd breaks bread with the antiwar movement these days, Cindy Sheehan edition.

#rsrh QotD, Humor us edition.

Doug Ross, on the Democratic leadership’s reaction to being told that from now on they’re going to have to demonstrate a working knowledge of the US Constitution and how it permits their particular bills if they want to introduce said bills into the House:

Say, I wonder if Nancy Pelosi would approve? Oh, wait. I don’t give a crap. The American people kicked her dimpled butt out of the Speaker’s seat and back into Coach.

I am about as unsympathetic as Doug is, myself. Sure, it’s embarrassing to treat grown legislators as if they were not particularly bright children; but not nearly as embarrassing as when said legislators demonstrate that such treatment is warranted.

More to the point: elections have consequences.  And may I say that it is a pleasure to be on the other side of that saying, for a change?

Moe Lane

OK, this Hollywood Ninja thing…

…that Assassin’s Creed 2 seems to be grooving off of – seriously, look at the costume:

…anyway, since apparently this costume is now MAKING IT EASIER FOR THE GUARDS TO NOTICE ME it’d be really, really helpful if I could take the damned thing off and replace it with, I don’t know, CLOTHES THAT DO NOT SCREAM OUT “HI. I’M THE GUY THAT HAD TO RUN FROM THE EXECUTION OF MY FAMILY THIS MORNING AND JUMP INTO THE RIVER TO ESCAPE.”

I also want to take the player’s guide and use it to beat the people who wrote the player’s guide. I spent twenty bucks to have a handy cheat sheet for the PC keyboard commands. Don’t tell me “Buy an XBox controller” and expect that to be an answer.

Moe Lane

PS: I did enjoy swaggering around Florence like a… heh, like a Renaissance Italian noble scion with a certain grand indifference for propriety. And the architecture and costumes look pretty good.

Potemkin Villages of Democratic faith.

This New Republic article on the Democrats’ abrupt loss of religious voters suffers from a fatal flaw: it’s all ‘how,’ and no ‘why.’  Despite the slightly breathless tone of the author, the ‘how’ is both obvious and not particularly surprising: from 2004 to 2008 the Democrats actively went out and told voters that liberalism and religious belief complemented each other.  The Democratic party spent a good deal of money and resources on that message, and it paid off in 2006 and 2008.  Since that point, the Democrats have effectively stopped their religious outreach except among African-American voters – and their support among religious voters has effectively cratered.  That’s the ‘how.’

‘Why’ is more interesting, though.  It is significant that liberal religious outreach requires constant funding and attention to get anywhere among American voters; it at least implies that the entire thing is a highly artificial construct that is not capable of independent, organic growth.  It is also significant that the organizational structure of the Democratic party was apparently deeply institutionally hostile to the continued development of this particular special-interest group (religious progressives): the entire edifice apparently depended on no more than half a dozen people keeping fairly specific jobs in the party hierarchy, and when they went elsewhere, nobody was permitted to really take their places.  Take those two points together and it is not unreasonable to conclude that there is something in either the Democratic party’s organizational structure or its ideology that is at best indifferent, and at worst actively hostile, to religious sentiment; and, given that the predominant element in both is liberalism, it does not seem unreasonable to conclude that perhaps it and religious sentiment do not complement each other.

There is some evidence in favor of this statement.  At least, on the street level – which is where the work’s being done.  Or, in this case, where the work isn’t being done; and is fact instead being curb-stomped.

Moe Lane (crosspost)