Moe Lane

Evangelicals. (Wiggling fingers) Oooooh.

by

Sorry about the title, Good Readers, but I seem to be always encountering people online who react to That Word in much the same way that a vampire would react to a garlic crucifix, or possibly me towards the Special Limited Edition of Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers, provided that such a mythical thing existed (WHICH IT DOESN’T).

Umm.

Right. Moving along, Andrew Sullivan linked today to an interesting Boston Globe article by Alan Jacobs about evangelicals, fundamentalists and why Bush is one but not the other: Apocalyptic president?

AS THE PRESIDENTIAL election draws closer, some people are asking, in ominous tones, a question: What impact does President Bush’s evangelical Christianity have on his administration’s policies? As an evangelical, an interpreter of literary and cultural texts, and a long-time observer of the evangelical world, I have both a personal and a professional interest in this question. And I’m here to offer an answer: Probably not much.

Read more

Originally a Nader post, but now it’s a Rice one…

by

…as I decided to be merciful to everyone, especially my readers. Instead, topic for speculation: Networks to Air Rice Testimony Live Thursday: LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The three major U.S. broadcast networks said on Tuesday they will broadcast live National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice (news – web sites)’s testimony before the commission investigating the Sept. … Read more

If you want to laugh at this, how can I stop you?

by

It’s funny, after all: Pictures of candidate in women’s clothes surface (Registration required) AUSTIN – His family made a fortune on men’s work clothing. But it’s Sam Walls’ apparent fondness for women’s apparel that is dividing the Johnson County Republican Party. Short version: this guy’s running for state office in TX and some photos of … Read more

Checklist.

by

1). I am, in point of fact, awake. I retain a full sensorium (I don’t usually dream smells or tastes) and I can read printed text (something that I almost never do in dreams, if ever). There are none of the freighted psychological images associated with dreams or nightmares currently present, and the rules of … Read more

Motto Contest!

by

Jim Henley dropped a classic bit in comments which I decided to use to test out our catchphrase feature… and it worked! Huzzah! Time for a contest for the real motto for the site. Nothing that would violate the Posting Rules and try to keep it below twenty words; funny good. We’ll give it a … Read more

Sated?

by

It’s odd that I missed this TCS article by Michael Totten (Are the Jacksonians Sated?) when it came out. He says that the answer is Yes, by the way: Now that Saddam Hussein and the Taliban have been routed, the Jacksonians have mellowed. There isn’t much of a push to open another front in a … Read more

Why are there no Great Centrist Demonstrations?

by

Because our slogans are kind of lame, that’s why. “WHAT DO WE WANT?” “MORE OF THE SAME!” “WHEN DO WE WANT IT?” “WHENEVER’S CONVENIENT!” Forgive the joke; it’s a segue (not a seque) into this blog I found while noodling around the Net: Centerfield, which is the official blog of the Centrist Coalition. Like ObWi, … Read more

Chag Pesach Sameach!

by

Apologies if the above does not mean Happy Passover: I don’t speak Hebrew. Anyway, no doubt a good number of you already know, tonight is the first night of the Jewish holiday of Passover. While not Jewish myself, I think that it is not inappropriate for me to wish those of the Jewish** faith a … Read more

I would normally consider this just a stunt.

by

But mc master chef is all right*, so I figure that there must be something to it. The Bike and Build site is here; at first glance there doesn’t seem to be anything pernicious about it – indeed, quite the opposite. And that was my ‘crusty VRWC Death Beast grudgingly supporting a progressive notion’ impression. … Read more

Thanks for covering it, btw*.

by

Von and Edward seem to be be on top of the Iraqi situation for the moment, so I’ll let them get on with it. For the record, I am not as pessimistic as either about what’s happening, although I recognize that they have both raised legitimate concerns and I’ll be regularly checking up on developments. … Read more

Your tax dollars at work.

by

McQ over at QandO has a link to a soon-to-be-legendary US government study that could serve as a textbook example of the Law of Unintended Consequences, or possibly the Law of Well, It Seemed a Good Idea at the Time. I won’t spoil the surprise; Conrad of the Gweilo Diaries found it fair and square, … Read more

Don’t call us, we’ll call you.

by

John Cole takes a moment from this weekend’s regularly scheduled righteous chastisement* to target Senator Jim Bunning, Kentucky Republican and schmuck. Seems that Sen. Bunning declared that his likely Democratic opponent (Dr. Daniel Mongiardo) looked like one of the Hussein sons; I don’t know about you, but that’d piss me off, so I’m not going … Read more

Living la Vida Dorka…

by

…which is in itself a geek reference (John Kovalic, Dork Tower, primo stuff*). At any rate, took the last two days off to read the latest Harry Turtledove and catch the Hellboy movie. Said movie was quite tasty, all in all; the main characters were well matched with their actors, who did generally did good … Read more

Last post for tonight…

by

…from me, at least. At any rate, I decided to not go to bed before saying that this Patrick Lasswell post about 9/11, Bush and comic book superheroes was extremely good, although I sincerely doubt that the people who would most stand to benefit from its insight would agree. Not that it follows that all … Read more

What, no comments about ID4?

by

While Jesse Walker’s Reason article about movies starring politicians doesn’t precisely break new ground – you get the feeling that you’re being told things that you could have easily worked out on your own – it’s pretty well written and mentions some films that I’ve never heard of. That’s always nice to see, especially the … Read more

Surveying some of the April Foolin’

by

Jim Henley apparently got just about everybody good this time around; Cox and Forkum not so much, but a bit. And this post of Treacher’s had better be an April Fool’s… dammit, it probably isn’t. Consider this an open thread of other good examples of April Fool’s blogging. Moe UPDATE: Jim Treacher, you should be … Read more

Gulp.

by

More seriously, Macallan over at the soon-to-go-away version of Tacitus has brought news that Meteor Blades, blogger over at dKos, nearly died last week. I’ve had the odd disagreement with the man, but I’m extremely distressed by what happened and profoundly relieved that he’s being taken care of. Get well soon, MB. Moe

Got a Lot of Post-it notes today

by

It’s probably indicative of something that I skipped past oodles of good War Liberal posts to note this one about the Little Old Lady with the 100 Vultures camped out in her yard, but I shall indulge myself none the less. It’s been that sort of day.

You have to feel for the guy.

by

I mean, write a article critical of Richard Clarke a year ago, have it picked up by Drudge, and suddenly you’re being called a neocon psychopath by a bunch of anonymous Lefty trolls. As you can imagine, George Smith, registered Democrat and self-described lefty puke, is a mite perturbed: The anger was instantly gripping. A … Read more

Might as well admit it.

by

Well, as I couldn’t make myself approvingly post to a Atrios post, and as I couldn’t make myself approvingly link to a John Derbyshire article, and as it’d be just pointlessly mean to sign up under a fake name at dKos and start making trouble, and as nobody’s going to possibly believe me when I … Read more

GASP!!!!!

by

Yup, five exclamation points, sign of a deranged mind… which makes sense, because this seems to be shaping up to be Links to Sites Moe Never Notes, Even If They’re In His Blogroll And Everything Day. Specifically, it would seem that our caption contest was anticipated by one in August of 2003, using the exact … Read more

Brandishing a den Beste link…

by

…yes, yes, I know, the inhumanity of it all, but hey! I liked his commentary on that IHT article starring Senator Joe Biden and his Amazing Technicolor European Reality Check. Mind you, I’d be somewhat less damning with faint praise than den Beste is about the Democrats and their likely foreign policy positions under an … Read more

Endorsements and advisories.

by

…I actually had to do real work today, so my usual Must Blog About This Post-it note stash is seriously depleted. Gotta delete that spambot and that’s about it, at least as far as my scribbles go. We’ll combine the two other items: First, North Georgia Dogma has confirmed our worst fears: Cynthia McKinney is … Read more

To me, my loyal minions!

by

…Oh, right, I don’t have actually have any. Oh, well, so much for that evil notion of everybody going out on April Fool’s Day and posting/commenting as their Spock-has-a-beard Evil Twin*; we’ll instead just use this as an thread for relating classic April Fool’s gags that you, you know, heard about somebody else doing once, … Read more

A minisurvey of what people want re the UN.

by

Richard Cohen wants to be able to make a citizen’s UN Resolution so that there can be an official condemnation of Palestinian terrorism, especially the practive of using children as suicide bombers; he also wants everybody not willing to sign such a resolution to shut the hell up. James Joyner wants more Gomer Pyle at … Read more

Honey, not vinegar.

by

Lt. Smash demonstrates how to bend elected officials to one’s will – or at least get them to listen attentively for a couple of minutes. Amazingly enough, his technique didn’t require schoolbuses, crowds of demonstrators, flocks of signs and rhyming protests to work; there wasn’t even any violations of private property or abuse hurled at … Read more

Oops?

by

Taranto (scroll down) picked up on … actually, I’m not sure if this use of a photo that prominently displayed a ProtestWarrior* poster was an accident, or else the machinations of a VRWC Merry Prankster. Probably the former, although given the generally dour nature of the article it accompanied, you have to wonder. On the … Read more

I don’t know why this struck me…

by

… or even how it’s striking me, precisely: President Bush Welcomes Seven Nations to the NATO Alliance. The nations in question are Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Only two of those countries even existed when I was born, and all of them were ruled by dictatorships. Now…. well, according to Freedom House … Read more

Separation of powers issue.

by

It’s not so much the violation of private property that bothers me, or the fact that they were actually pounding on the man’s windows. It’s the fact that there are actually people out there who can’t quite get it through their heads that Karl Rove is an advisor to the head of the executive branch … Read more

Adding to the mix again.

by

This time, somebody a bit more on my side of the spectrum (just trying to keep up with Katherine, von and Edward all by my lonesome is exhausting, folks); Sebastian Holsclaw has agreeably consented to toss a post or two over here. He’ll still keep his own blog (which doesn’t get the traffic it deserves) … Read more