Republicans Going Centerist?

For John, BLUF:  Is this what Brian Bond is calling for?

Not everyone is happy with the latest moves by Mr Karl Rove, with regard to defining who is a Republican.

Here is the take of Cartoonist Chris Muir.  Mr Muir can be a little harsh in his criticism.

In the other hand, Fox News is keeping Mr Rove, but dropping Analyst Dick Morris and former Governor Sarah Palin.  Then there is the argument that Karl Rove is not a Conservative.

Where is the Republican Party, and if it goes all Centerist, who will bother to voter for the candidates?  Elections will be like providing Democrats with the primary challengers they can't gin up themselves.

I wonder where Kristen Hughes stands on this?

Regards  —  Cliff

Stopping Vaccinations

For John, BLUF:  Polio workers being shot for fear they are Western "Operatives".

Someone EMailed me about this article in The Wall Street Journal, but I found it at Greenwich Times.  It is about Nigerian gunmen killing a number of women engaged in giving polio vaccinations.

Gunmen suspected of belonging to a radical Islamic sect shot and killed at least nine women who were taking part in a polio vaccination drive in northern Nigeria on Friday, highlighting the religious tensions surrounding the inoculation of children in one of the few nations where the disease still remains endemic.

This is like what is happening in Pakistan, where some relate the killings to the US used of polio workers as a cover for gathering information on the late Osama bin Laden.  Yes, this appears to be in the Muslim portion of Nigeria, though it might be culture under the color of religion.

Regards  —  Cliff

Getting Away With It

For John, BLUF:  Just because it is OK in your culture doesn't mean it is OK in mine.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

Yesterday, writing in his own blog, The Volokh Conspiracy, Law Professor Eugene Volokh talked about culture as an excuse.

This is from The Daily Mail, and it is about the UK:

A muslim who raped [in the sense of statutory rape -EV] a 13-year-old girl he groomed on Facebook has been spared a prison sentence after a judge heard he went to an Islamic faith school where he was taught that women are worthless.

Adil Rashid, 18, claimed he was not aware that it was illegal for him to have sex with the girl because his education left him ignorant of British law.

At some point Mr Rashid told psychologists "women are no more worthy than a lollipop that has been dropped on the ground".

Unless it is your daughter or granddaughter, or mine.

This is cultural relativism run amok.  What happened to "ignorance of the law is no excuse"?  Is a 13 year old girl who is raped (even if it is statutory rape) not harmed and does not society have a responsibility to say to everyone that it is not acceptable to commit this crime?  I don't care if she did "consent" to intercourse.  He took advantage of her and it was wrong.

This young man should have been made an example of, pour encourager les autres.♠

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  For the encouragement of the others, referring to the execution of Admiral John Byng.  The author was Voltaire and the work Candide.

Shooter Takes Map From Internet

For John, BLUF:  It is the Southern Poverty Law Center, so it is OK.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

Per The Daily Caller, a map developed and produced by the SPLC was used by shooter Floyd Corkins when he shot up the Family Research Council offices in Washington, DC.

And he admitted [in court] that he picked the FRC and several other targets based on a “Hate Map” at the Southern Poverty Law Center website...

Wide brush the SPLC uses.

Bonus revelation.  He was going to smear the faces of the victims with Chick-fil-A sandwiches, as they were expiring.  A man with a plan, and a map.

I would say the shooter was wacko, but then I remember how psychiatry was used for political oppression in the former Soviet Union.  Let's not compound the problem.

Regards  —  Cliff

Winterfest?

For John, BLUF:  You already know—a slip of the dates due to wx.

Soon it will be competing with Lent.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Future of Republicans

For John, BLUF:  It is just Republicans.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

Over at the Lowell Republican City Committee Blog, this blogger talks about the assert of Mr Brian Bond, of Dracut, on LTC's City Life Friday last, that Republicans need to become more moderate.

This contrasts with Producer John McDonough's view that the Republican part has ceased to exist in Massachusetts.  Mr McDonough may be correct, given that The [Lowell] Sun yesterday editorialized that the Republican Party should sit out the Special Election and try to recover for the General Election in 2014.

On the other hand, given that the Republican Party, notwithstanding the best efforts of Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the coattails of President Obama, is still in control in the US House of Representatives, the Republican Party in the US is not going away before 2014.  If we in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts want to play, as we have in the past, we need to reorganize and move out smartly.  Following are some high level (big hand/small map) thoughts on the process.

The election process is a trinity of the voters, the candidates, and the party.

This can be seen as emotion, chance and reason.

• The Voters play the role of emotion and we see it time after time.
• The Candidates represent the play of chance and probability within which the creative spirit is free to roam.
• The Party is supposed to provide policy and reason.

That Scott Brown won meant that we had a Republican in the US Senate where we haven't before (right of Ted Kennedy). It also meant that Martha Coakley is not still our Senator. These are good things.
That Scott Brown lost means that Elizabeth Warren has become a dark horse for 2016. Just a fact of life.

The question is, what role is the State Party playing in all this.  What reason and policy are they bringing to the table, which the Voters will recognize and which will allow possible Candidates to see chance and probability on their side?  Look at the candidates who have stepped aside from running for John Kerry's vacant seat.  Chance and probability does not favor them.

So, back to the Party.  We must give Ms Hughes, our new MassGOP Chairwoman, a sporting chance, but we must also realize that we have to go from grass roots up.  That means the voters, the ones who bring emotion to the game.

And, the Party, to be a Party, has to stand for something besides elections and reelections.

Regards  —  Cliff

Press On

For John, BLUF:  The answer is "Press on".  Nothing to see here; just move along.

Yesterday the Editor of The [Lowell] Sun, Mr Jim Campanini, editorialized that the Massachusetts Republican Party should just sit out the Special Election to fill Secretary of State John Kerry's now vacant Senate seat.

I tried to rebut that argument here.  In doing so, I paraphrased a speech by Demosthenes, or what Thucydides (History of the Peloponnesian War) said he said.  My on-line source is Wikisource, at this URL, paragraph 10.

Soldiers and comrades in this adventure, I hope that none of you in our present strait will think to show his wit by exactly calculating all the perils that encompass us, but that you will rather hasten to close with the enemy, without staying to count the odds, seeing in this your best chance of safety.  In emergencies like ours calculation is out of place; the sooner the danger is faced the better. To my mind also most of the chances are for us, if we will only stand fast and not throw away our advantages, overawed by the numbers of the enemy.

The version I read, long ago, said:

Soldiers, all of us together are in this, and I do not want any of you in our present awkward position to try to show off his intelligence by making a precise calculation of the dangers which surround us...

I liked the part about not trying to show off your intelliegence.

Or, as a former Governor of Massachusetts put it:

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.  Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.  Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.  Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.  Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.  The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

So, there will be no backing down.  We just need to find our Demosthenes, or Calvin Coolidge.

Regards  —  Cliff