Conservative Donnybrook

I think I speak for all of the regular contributors when I say that Conservative Donnybrook is embarrassed to admit that it missed a pretty major story. Apparently, there was some sort of ill-conceived effort to increase the tax on beer in Oregon by 1900%. This should have been filed under OUTRAGE ALERT and all of us missed this story. I did not learn of it until my father came to visit me this previous weekend and he asked me about. You can imagine his astonishment as I admitted that I knew nothing about it. Even worse, it appears that the ultra-left-wing-activist site, Huffington Post, cadged to the tragedy while we sailed blithely onward. We apologize to our readers and pledge to spend more attention on beer and alcohol-related stories in the future.

This is what is wrong with the Republican Party. I wrote a comment (which did not make it past the moderation queue, or, for that matter, the trackback queue with this posting) in which I asked Emily, where exactly was the line beyond which she would refuse to compromise with the Left. But, it’s not just Emily, the entire Congress is infected with the notion that compromise, that bipartisanism, reaching across the aisle, and incrementalism is the way to arrest our Republic from careening headlong down the slippery slope into full-blown Socialism. Indeed, there seems to be an attitude out there that a little Socialism will a) appease those who are bent on displacing capitalism and b) is an effective way to bide our time until we can reverse its baleful effects. Indeed, Emily seems to think that one can appease the Left in order to preserve our ideals. And what’s worse is, it appears she knows it.

Now, I’ll be honest. I’m not one to sympathize with Congress or Congresspersons very much, but even I can come to understand that we’ve started to demand a purist position that is really impossible, if not unworkable and problematic for the country. They may not understand us, but we sure as hell don’t understand them. I’m not saying I like the idea of throwing billions of dollars down the proverbial toilet, but if its going to happen, the least we can do is hope that some of that money goes to the right places and does the right things. It sounds defeatist and honestly, it feels defeatist, but I think, at this point, it may be the only hope we have left of making sure that, in practice, our ideals live to see another day.

How, I ask, can one compromise one’s ideals in order to preserve them? Is there a line past which Republicans will say, “No more?” And, if so, where is it? What must the Left propose before we demur, before we draw a line in the sand and dare them to pass it? We’re like the cartoon character who scratches a line in the sand and dares the other to cross it. Of course, the opponent casually steps across it and we draw another line. To make this analogy completely realistic imagine that each time we step back to draw a new line, we step toward the cliff edge which is behind us. At some point, stepping back again will be fatal.

Why do so-called conservatives find it so easy to retreat and retreat? I suspect it has something to do with complacence and fear. First, I suspect most conservatives are not really sold on the virtues of small government. Certainly, George W. Bush was not. And, his constant proposals for a “Compassionate Conservatism” were a transparent foreshadowing of a new era of “conservative”-sponsored Big Government. Unfortunately, after eight years of “Compassionate” “Conservatism,” the Republicans seem to have lost their stomach for the fight. They tasted the power which comes from handing out goodies to constituents. But, NEWS FLASH, Democrats are better at that. If that is how you intend to compete with the Democrats, you will lose. And, by simply playing their game, you encourage them to take larger steps. Indeed, President Obama’s $925 billion stimulus plan would have made FDR blush. For heaven’s sake, the stimulus package is almost as large as the entire government budget, and after one considers that it will have to be 100% financed with borrowed money, its size dwarfs this year’s budget.Second, I think Republicans are afraid if they hold the line on spending, they will be excoriated by the press, the Left, and ultimately the voters. Certainly the press and the Left will try to demonize the Right if they attempt to hold the line. In fact, the president has already taken to the airwaves to begin the attack. But, it’s not at all clear that voters would revolt against the Republicans if they were the grown-ups in the room and said this country cannot afford Obama’s wishlist.

Emily raises a good (if defeatist) point. Republicans will almost certainly cave; that is the nature of the Republicans. Even if they don’t, the Democrats have the votes to pass any legislation they want. Does this let conservatives off the hook? According to Emily, we should get on the gravy train and try to divert as much of that gravy as we can to our causes, constituents and projects. What the hell else could “the least we can do is hope that some of that money goes to the right places and does the right things” mean? But, her point is well taken, we are not discussing whether there should be some monstrous spending bill. Earlier this afternoon, Karl Rove was on Fox News saying that there should be a plan which is “targeted, temporary, and timely.” As Willmoore has pointed out, this is the new mantra. With a mantra like that, it is only a matter of time before a package of some sort is passed. It needs only the working out of the details at this point. Continue Reading »

LONDON, July 7 (UPI)—Toddlers who say “yuck” when given flavorful foreign food may be exhibiting racist behavior, a British government-sponsored organization says. …

“…babies must also be included in the effort to eliminate racism because they have the ability to “recognize different people in their lives.”

It doesn’t get any better than this.

So I leave work tonight shortly after midnight (big appellate brief due on Monday that I hadn’t yet started), and walked out to my car. Because of all the storms in Indy this weekend, I had the radio set to a station I don’t normally listen to. The first words I heard when the car started were “law school.” Being narcissistic, like most Americans, I paused to find out what the random talk radio commenter was saying about law school.

It turns out he wasn’t talking about law school at all, but rather the Cornell School of Law’s online compilation of federal statutes. In particular, he was talking about this one.

Now, I listen almost exclusively to talk radio these days. And, I’ve pretty much heard almost every national radio program in existence. It didn’t take me long to realize that I was listening to Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM (or whatever his show is called these days). Knowing the caliber and mentality of listener to that show, I thought to myself, “This ought to be interesting.” So, I continued to listen.

Side note: I realize that that is a VERY long way to go to alert our kind readers that I am not a regular listener to UFO/contrails/government conspiracy/remote viewing/paranormal-type shows. Although, the fact that I can string together the programming list I just did may say otherwise. But, please trust me, I don’t listen to it often. For the record, I got hooked on the Midnight Trucking Radio Network for my late-night, after-the-bars-close, talk radio when I lived in Ann Arbor (but, I can’t find it on any station in Indy). But, when your choice is Art Bell v. Alan Colmes, what are you supposed to do? I suppose I could have shoved a CD in the slot. But, he said “law school”…

As I listened, I realized that he was talking about a real-life, no kidding, this is no Bravo Sierra thing. He was talking about a federal statute that is actually verifiable. I arrived home and looked up the statute. I’ve linked to it above, but I’ll reproduce it here because I know there’s a certain population of people (I am often one) who will not click on the links in a blog post, but rather will try to ferret out what the link says from the context. If you are one of those people, don’t bother clicking the link, because here is what it says: Continue Reading »

I am the party responsible for the deleted posts under the Tibbets thread. I apologize if I offended anyone. I was not attempting to silence any discussion, point of views or disagreements. Instead, I was attempting to keep the Tibbets post an obituary. As Karl had opened another thread I did not see the harm. Know that in the future I will not delete any comments without prior consensus of the Donny Brook authors.

Again, my apologies for not handling this situation better. Feel free to berate me in your comments to this thread. they are secure!

In the words of the never-to-be-forgotten urban philosopher, Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?” I am willing to admit that I crossed a threshold in naming a few of you Anti-American. For that, I apologize.

I will simply ask that our commenters, please confine your comments to the topic of the post. I will give a very recent example of what I consider a transgression. SM offered a post about a recent court case concerning abstinence. One of our commenters responded with a post about “the law.” Was he referring to United States law? No. He was referring to St. Augustine’s understanding of God’s law. Now, I am every bit as much of a believing and practicing Catholic as the next guy. But, when we discuss court cases on this website, it would seem that we are commenting on contemporary United States (or State) law and the culture which creates/tolerates/precipitates it. We are not talking about moral law that was “promulgated” 1600 or more years ago. Such a comment is completely unresponsive to the original post and drags the whole discussion off-topic. You may personally hold the view that contemporary law is divorced from our foundations as a Christian country; I may hold that view; and I’m pretty sure SM holds that view. But, that is not the topic of the post.

Please make sure if you are going to comment that the comment is pertinent to the original post.

Relatedly, let us all try to take each others posts and comments in the most charitable possible light. I make that pledge to anyone who posts here or comments here. I hope that all of the readers and contributors can find it in their hearts to start over and do the same.

On a slightly different note, I must note that something is working. Daily we are breaking records for visits. Already today at 6:37 Eastern Time, we have logged more visits than on any other single day in the history of Conservative Donnybrook. I attribute that first to excellent content. But, also to some extent to the readers and commenters that we have attracted to this site. I’d like to publicly congratulate all of the contributors to this site. And, I would also like to thank our readers and commenters.

Let us all try to start again.