Author: Fuzzy Curmudgeon

This one got the coveted “Letter Spotlight” in today’s Star. Say hello to Mr. Charlie Wiles, Treasurer of the Indianapolis Peace and Justice Center.

Give dialogue a chance before going to war

Whoops. Gotta stop you right there, Mr. Wiles. 12 years of dialogue hasn’t produced the expected results. In fact, it hasn’t been a dialogue at all; it’s been more like a monologue, with Mr. Saddam Hussein ignoring it like I ignore Jay Leno’s.
I won’t waste my time with the rest of the article, which you can easily read for yourself, because it addresses the same tired issues of the Left, but I do have issues with his last paragraph:

Our government should heed the recommendation offered by many, including Pope John Paul II, and begin to engage in dialogue to address this crisis.

We’ve been dialoging…or trying to…ever since we dialogued with Saddam’s lackeys at the end of GWI and told him to disarm within two weeks. That was 12 years ago.

Now is the time for world leaders to engage in one of the most effective tools in conflict resolution: listening.

Exactly what Saddam Hussein hasn’t been doing for 12 years. Son, are you too young to remember Gulf War I? Or are you just stupid? Don’t answer. Give war a chance.

Every now and then it’s worth reading the Letters to the Editor in the Star…for their stupidity. Today’s candidate for the Stupid Hat: Kerry Karner of Indianapolis. Come on down, sir, or ma’am, or whatever sex your androgynous name doesn’t help much with identifying!

Former Libertarian turns ‘carpetbagger’
I was surprised to learn of Andy Horning’s move to the Republican Party. It seems to me he is doing nothing but taking advantage of a larger audience for his own gain.

Well, you know, the Libertarian Party was doing so well in Indiana politics. As in “shouting from a deep well”. So just about any move the man could make would be a good move for him. I suspect the letter writer of sour grapes because she/he/it didn’t think of it first.

In past campaigns, he has been critical of both the Democratic and Republican parties; how then does he suppose to align himself with one of them?

He supposed that he’d do it about like he did; he became a Republican. Probably marched right down to his voter registration office and signed a little card. Easy. “Piece of pie. Easy as cake.”

The former Libertarian has become a political “carpetbagger,” and I believe his motives are suspect.

I’d say it sounds more like he’s leaving the sinking hulk before it goes completely under, but I’m not a Libertarian. I’m a Hayekian liberal democrat (we’re sometimes erroneously called conservatives, these days). Certainly his motives are not suspect at all — he appears to know the stink of rotting hemp when he smells it.
Whether or not the Republicans in this state will ever trust him is another story. To them, I’m sure his motives are indeed suspect. But they shouldn’t be suspect to the Libertarians, unless the Libertarians are so stoned they simply can’t see reason.

I don’t always pay attention to comments after about a week (well, face it, after the posting slides off the front page I pretty much forget about it), but I see some folks have been piling on the French in the comments of my “Fuck France” posting back on 19 February…
So far it looks like 6 to 1 telling the French where to get off.
Just FYI, new policy here (with the advent of MT 2.62) is going to be that posts more than a week old will be comment-blocked (to save my sanity, bandwidth, and disk space). Except for the FUCK FRANCE post 🙂

Just happened to be listening to Greg Garrison’s radio show on WIBC on the way back from the airport, and he was talking about this article.
I may have comments later, I’m only home to take my pills that I forgot to take before I went out to the airport 🙂

How evil are you?
“He don’t know me vewwy well…do he?”

is what White House Counsel Alberto Gonzalez has done in re the Estrada confirmation hearings…
His summation:

As I have said before, I appreciate and respect the Senate’s constitutional role in the confirmation process. You have expressed concern that you do not know enough about Mr. Estrada’s views, but you have not submitted any follow-up questions to him. We respectfully submit that the Senate has ample information and has had more than enough time to consider questions about the qualifications and suitability of a nominee submitted more than 21 months ago. Most important, we believe that a majority of Senators have now concluded that they possess sufficient information on Mr. Estrada and would vote to confirm him. We believe it is past time for the Senate to vote on this nominee, and we urge your support.

And that isn’t even the half of it. Damn, I think I heard that *smack* from 600 miles away…

Saddam wants to debate Dubya.
In other words, he wants to use the tools of democracy to justify his dictatorship.
Smart cookie, that guy. Too smart for his own good. Let’s fire a smart bomb or six at him.

Seriously sad that we can’t do the same kind of thing here. But I’m sure it would raise a 1st Amendment howl you could hear to Jupiter.
And he’s a fagin as well:

Prosecutors said el-Faisal addressed young, impressionable Muslims “from a position of authority” and was a “fanatic and extremist.” Perry said he encouraged British Muslims to attend terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.

Geez.

Snow on roof blocking satellite dish line of sight to 119W…no Fox News…more snow falling…aieeee….
This could be serious. I may have to climb on the roof with the leaf blower. Or raise the dish 8 inches.

Peggy Noonan makes a lot of good points here.