Monday Morning Rant 162

Good grief! You mean to tell me that my late Sundays have been devoted to compiling the “Monday Morning Rant” a hundred and sixty two consecutive evenings? That’s over three years of very unaccustomed regularity. Maybe I should think about “getting a life.”

You might be interested in the reasoning for having the weekly rant on Monday morning. Governments, regardless of party, have a nasty habit of airing iffy news from late Friday evening, through Saturday, and on to Sundays. The current administration has mastered the art. Therefore, I carefully scan the news over the weekend, looking with the righteous assumption that they are hiding something and to be sure I am not deprived of expressing my outrage before it becomes “old news.” Hey, don’t thank me, just keep on dropping by. A prime example follows.

Another “Fake” Tea Partier

In a continuing saga, we find a string of folks who assume the mantle of the Tea Party and allegedly do everything from shoot up Democrat campaign headquarters (see Russ Carnahan, D-MO, and his former aide,) hurl epithets at the Black Caucus (see Breitbart’s Big Government for rebuttal,) and most recently, Bruce Majors.

This guy published a map of DC for the Tea Party folks coming to hear Glenn Beck to instruct them on how to avoid dangerous neighborhoods in the District—as if that were possible. He gave tips on what public transportation to avoid plus how to act around people of color, all the while claiming to be part of the movement.

Fortunately, Benjamin Sarlin of the Daily Beast did some digging and found that this dedicated—so called—conservative has given over $15,000 to various Democrat interests since 2003. His only claim to fame is a donation to Rep. Jim Kolbe back in 2003 for $250. His vested interest in that case appears to be driven mostly by the fact that Rep. Kolbe was the only “outed” gay Republican in the House. For the rest of Sarlin’s observations, click here.

Of course, the mainstream media ate it up as they do with any opportunity to disparage the Tea Party, conservatives or Republicans. I do wonder though; is crow tastier fried or boiled?

Harry Reid loses NRA Endorsement

In this recent announcement by Chris Cox at the NRA, we find that they are looking critically at more than votes on individual relevant legislation on firearms. The posture on the two most recent Supreme Court nominees, both of whom are highly suspect in 2nd Amendment matters, apparently figured in the decision by the NRA.

It is highly probable that the established posture of a person assuming that high office would have a greater impact on matters of gun control than just about any piece of legislation. In the case of both Sotomayor and Kagan, we find some squishy constitutionalism muddying their intellectual waters. The beauty of that document lies in the clear cut language which in most amendments starts out by saying “Congress shall make no law.” It will take some serious convolution to misunderstand that injunction.

By reversing the formerly assumed posture of the NRA, we may now expect a huge boost for Sharron Angle in her effort to unseat the long term senator, Harry Reid in Nevada. It is possible that this development may prove the necessary straw to break Nevadan’s hide bound affection for their incumbent. They do love their guns.

Victor Davis Hanson Fully Understands

Before I provide the link, let me assure you that I have an immense respect not just for the writing style of Victor Davis Hanson but also his understanding of and his portrayal of the country he loves and its people. In his usual manner he nails it.

This “Ground Zero Mosque” thing has gotten out of hand and is not helped by the disappearance of Rauf into the warrens of diplomacy. Given his attitudes and subsequent accusations it might be prudent if he were to stay abroad. Meanwhile, keep in mind that he is doing it on the American taxpayer’s dime.

Most important, Hanson clearly explains how so many with a voice manage to enrage the speech deprived with their notions of who and what America is and what it stands for. For the clearest breakdown of the divergent attitudes, click here. and enjoy a man who is not only a superb writer but a deep thinker as well.

The Abilene Paradox

Because I’m clumsy with embeds, URLs, and other computer magic I was tempted to just leave this alone. I changed my mind because I think it is too important to miss and also we can all benefit from seeing this short little video.

It deals largely with group decision making and the possibility of disastrous results. I promise you will relate to at least one or more of the examples shown and gain much in your further understanding of human relations.

To see this short, yet priceless video go to Ace of Spades and scroll down to Sunday, Aug. 28 and find the piece posted by Open Blogger at 05:1l entitled Abilene Paradox. Humor me and go the link and you may just see yourself participating in some equivalent madness. I did. Granny did. We both escaped unharmed and you may too if recognize the problems of group dynamics.

And finally

The Glenn Beck thing at the Lincoln Memorial in DC apparently went off without a news-worthy hitch. That’s a good thing. The criticisms were pretty much standard for the breed of liberals who lodged them. Since I have experienced carrying a big sign around all day I see that as an endorsement from the crowd that they were banned. No public complaint has been registered in that regard.

The crowd size was reported as between “several dozen” to over a million. No doubt that was the result of a broken calculator by the news agencies covering the event. About the only agreement which could be reached is that Al Sharpton’s was quite a bit smaller. As I was unable to attend and observe, we can’t use the Moon “Porta-Potty” line metric to determine the size of the group. From the pictures, the 500,000 looks pretty good.

All in all, it appeared to be a very successful event.

You are no doubt as sick of hearing about this as I am in relating it. We haven’t seen a real rain in about three weeks and my 4 acre pride and joy yard looks a lot like an ill kept parking lot. It’s brown and brittle and I seriously question if it will come back again. Irrigation is out of the question due to Granny’s proclivity for clean dishes, laundry, and person. I’m pretty sure I don’t even want to know how she’ll react to toting the clothes down to the river to beat them on a rock. The well is good so far but we have yet to see a drought this severe. My only encouragement is that the neighbors don’t seem all that concerned. There’s a 30% chance of rain on Tuesday so please pray for us.

In His abiding love,

Cecil Moon