The Courtney Messerschmidt Scam

I've held off posting this. Last weekend brought the news that Courtney Messerschmidt is merely the front-woman with a fake name for a collective of writers at GSGF.

Thomas Ricks, who invested a lot in Courtney, wasn't too bothered by the outing: "pHoNy GrEaT sAtAn'S gIrLfRiEnD." Neither was Crispin Burke at Wings Over Iraq.

I can't say the news didn't bother me, although I'd known for a long time that all was not right with Courtney Messerschmidt.

I got the news via Facebook, as did a number of people who Courtney'd been working with. I didn't quite understand it at first, because it wasn't a personalized note. Yeah, she confessed that she wasn't the primary author of GSGF, and that she hadn't attended the University of Georgia. But Courtney's been communicating with me since mid-2007. She'd write emails to wish me a good day at work, or to ask questions about neoconservatism. I considered her a friend and neocon protégé.

So I felt a real sense of betrayal. Indeed, Courtney and I exchanged hundreds of e-mails. She sent me this background in late 2007:

On Wed, Nov 21, 2007 at 6:28 PM, Courtney Messerschmidt wrote:

Hi Donald,

Ok - whenever you start to zzzzz out, please remember that you asked.

My 'rents are very old. In fact I have nieces and nephews older than me. My mom taught college and my dad retired frm the AF and works at a world famous aeronautical firm near Atlanta. He says he'll know when he gets to retire from that depending on what school I go to. One of my brother in laws is a Capt in 'Old Ironsides' - America's Armor division. He was an LT in Najaf I think in Aug 2003 when Mookie Al Sadr's Mahdih Army v1.0 was granted access to the perfumed halls of Allah.

When all my friends plowed through Paris' heiress book - I was plowing through Dennis Ross' "Missing Peace", Bodansky's "High Cost of Peace" and "Beyond Paradise and Power" by Ischinger, Fukyama, Applebaum and others, Michael Oren's "6 days of war". Alexander Bevin's "How America got it right' and Larry Schwiekert's "America's Victories" are essntial reading.

I have widely traveled throughout Europe including Ireland, Great Britain, France, Benelux, Deutschland, Czech repub, Italy, Greece and Belgium. In The ME I've been to Israel, Egypt and Turkey. In March 2002 me and some friends almost singlehandedly crashed HAMAS's condolences site for suicide bombers and their family after the Seder massacre. Hasn't been up since..

Being blessed with an unusual last name helped drive me towards history. Having to drive through multiple civil war battlefields to get any where tended to fuel my curiousity.

911 was a big influenece as I remember sitting on the floor at home eating my Captain Crunch Berries when that couple held hands and jumped from the 70th floor of the WTC. Just then the avuncular Peter Jennings cut to their man in Gaza. THere they were. Having a great old time - passing out laffy taffy with that demonic cry Alluha Ackbah. "I only wish that Bush was in those towers with his precious baby Sharon" is what one woman alledgedly said.

I was trapped at home one summer with my dads immense library. New books like James Spahns 'Rise of the Vulcans' and old ones Gary Dorrein's "Imperial Designs" or Robert Kagan's "Paradise and Power' had an effect - The more I studied American History the more convinced I became that America "...ain't what's wrong with the world..." I saw Victor Davis Hanson on Britt Hume's show back around Xmas 2001. I've been hooked every since.

Ivo Daalder's book "America Unbound" is crucial - though not the reasons Daalder would hope for. He kinda wails that 'Merica can do whatever she dang well pleases - unbound by the UN, the EU, NATO, OPEC, OAS, G7's and G8's. I love that!

Curently, my life is so controlled - do this, don't do that so I started my own blog. Mainly because I was sick of people saying the American military was broken, Iraq is a quagmire etc. A random reading of American history shows that is so incorrect - it's either stupid or weirdly unAmerican. Places I went to began to block me from challenging their inappropiate, weak, boring and incorrect handwringing. Empowerment I reckon. Also like Gollum says to Smeagul in "2 Towers" - "Now we be the master!"

I want to work on grand strategy like Dr Posen's but since I have no PHD's or Pulitzer prizes behind my name it may take a while.

I'vr been meaninig to raise this subject with you and now I shall.

Redefinition. The term Neo Con is so misunderstood, so falsely painted that it may be time for a new term to describe that especial perspective. Since Posen himself espoused neo conish views as a fait accompli in FP circles that can be used to our advantage. As far as a new name - I'm leaning towards New Millenialism myself.
Redefinition will be critical in the near future.

Example - Islamo Fascism is out (regardless of what Hitchens says). Mohammedism should be the new term.Tough for critics to cry about that term - after all Mohammed was a fighting, conquering, ruthless, merciless intolerant dictator.

Wow - didn't mean to ramble but remember you did ask. Now how about a bit of reciprication?

I appreciate you sharing your time and ideas with me - spiritually we are very close.

As Fisher said to Churchill,

"yours til charcoal sprouts",

Courtney

Last weekend I asked Courtney to confirm four questions:

You are a genuine neocon, right? I believe you are and that our communications on that were genuine.

And the picture of you is genuine, right?

What about your 'rents? Is the stuff you told me about your parents and family true? The military background of your brothers? And so forth. That's all true, right?

And did you write the majority of posts at GSGF, and I mean at least more than half? Or about what percentage?

The only thing she would confirm on record was that she is indeed a hardcore neoconservative. The remaining questions she fudged or ignored. She wouldn't give me a straight answer on the percentage of her self-authored posts at GSGF and she ignored my questions about her personal background. I finally wrote back to say that we were no longer friends.

Courtney's maintained her Facebook page, although she's removed all the pictures of herself. She'd sent me some by e-mail, like the one above. And since she says that Courtney is her real first name, it's likely that the personal pictures are genuine and she's scrubbed them to protect her identity from the inevitable harm to her reputation, should she move on from anonymous blogging to the real world of college and employment.

John Hawkins, unlike some of the others, severed ties with her: "The Courtney Messerschmidt Controversy."

Courtney still publishes at Theo Spark's, where I am a co-blogger, so I may have some peripheral interactions with her in that role. But that's it. Folks get the real me online, through blogging and social networking, email, etc. I expect the same in return, as just the decent thing to do.

Turning Conservative After September 11, 2001

I've mentioned it a few times in the past. It was actually the left's reaction to the Bush administration and the Iraq war that made me realize I was conservative. In fact, I realized it on the morning of March 19th, 2003, when I spoke at a campus panel on the war. I didn't feel at home. I was surrounded by bloodthirsty leftists, students and professors, who looked like they had vengeance in their eyes. I went home that night and had dinner with my family, and I remember President Bush coming on the air to announce that combat operations had begun in Iraq. My political beliefs have never been the same. I voted for Al Gore in 2000. I still thought the Democratic Party was the party of Truman and Kennedy. How naive I must have been. But my vision has become clearer every year since then.

The annual debate over the September 11th attacks always reminds me of my political transformation. By now it's safe to say that 9/11 and the Iraq war have merged in my consciousness, although it wasn't always so. It took me a couple of years to understand the partisan divide in America, that one side stands for old-time values, love of country, individualism and sacrifice. The other side stands for ideological intolerance, anti-Americanism, and appeasement toward the forces of evil in the world. It's a stark difference that took stark historical events to congeal for me personally.

I'm reminded of this by some of the comments at my post from yesterday, "Progressives Shame the Country on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11." I wrote at the conclusion there: "For many people like myself, that's why they became conservative." And my good friend Kenneth Davenport dropped by to comment, responding in particular to my conclusion:

I haven't thought about it in this way before, but I've certainly become more conservative in response to the painful nihilism that regularly comes from the left. I live in a different world than they do, and there really are no areas of common ground. That's the truth. They see America as a flawed nation which should apologize for itself at every turn and which deserved the attacks of 9/11. And I see America as the last best hope of earth, a place of unbounded fairness and generosity, forged in the belief that the individual -- and not government -- is sovereign. There is no reconciling these two different belief systems. So I don't try. Instead, I surround myself with good people who share my values and who give thanks every day that there are those who are willing to sacrifice everything for our survival as a nation.

That's so well-said, and reaffirming. And Ken's posted a photo-essay from yesterday as well, where he demonstrates his love of country and appreciation of sacrifice: "9/11 on the USS Midway."

Now remember that it was Paul Krugman who got me going yesterday, and it turns out Glenn Reynolds received a load of comments about that. See, "EVERYBODY’S ANGRY, to judge from my email, about Paul Krugman’s typo-burdened 9/11 screed":

Don’t be angry. Understand it for what it is, an admission of impotence from a sad and irrelevant little man. Things haven’t gone the way he wanted lately, his messiah has feet of clay — hell, forget the “feet” part, the clay goes at least waist-high — and it seems likely he’ll have even less reason to like the coming decade than the last, and he’ll certainly have even less influence than he’s had. Thus, he tries to piss all over the people he’s always hated and envied. No surprise there. But no importance, either. You’ll see more and worse from Krugman and his ilk as the left nationally undergoes the kind of crackup it’s already experiencing in Wisconsin. They thought Barack Obama was going to bring back the glory days of liberal hegemony in politics, but it turned out he was their Ghost Dance, their Bear Shirt, a mystically believed-in totem that lacked the power to reverse their onrushing decline, no matter what the shamans claimed.

I'm not angry, as much as continually shocked at the brazen progressive hatred. It forces me to look inward, to my values and beliefs, and to history and national purpose. But sticking with the theme here, recall the essay from Cinnamon Stillwell in 2005, "The Making of a 9/11 Republican":

I was raised in liberal Marin County, and my first name (which garners more comments than anything else) is a direct product of the hippie generation. Growing up, I bought into the prevailing liberal wisdom of my surroundings because I didn't know anything else. I wrote off all Republicans as ignorant, intolerant yahoos. It didn't matter that I knew none personally; it was simply de rigueur to look down on such people. The fact that I was being a bigot never occurred to me, because I was certain that I inhabited the moral high ground.

Having been indoctrinated in the postcolonialist, self-loathing school of multiculturalism, I thought America was the root of all evil in the world. Its democratic form of government and capitalist economic system was nothing more than a machine in which citizens were forced to be cogs. I put aside the nagging question of why so many people all over the world risk their lives to come to the United States. Freedom of speech, religious freedom, women's rights, gay rights (yes, even without same-sex marriage), social and economic mobility, relative racial harmony and democracy itself were all taken for granted in my narrow, insulated world view.

So, what happened to change all that? In a nutshell, 9/11. The terrorist attacks on this country were not only an act of war but also a crime against humanity. It seemed glaringly obvious to me at the time, and it still does today. But the reaction of my former comrades on the left bespoke a different perspective. The day after the attacks, I dragged myself into work, still in a state of shock, and the first thing I heard was one of my co-workers bellowing triumphantly, "Bush got his war!" There was little sympathy for the victims of this horrific attack, only an irrational hatred for their own country.

As I spent months grieving the losses, others around me wrapped themselves in the comfortable shell of cynicism and acted as if nothing had changed. I soon began to recognize in them an inability to view America or its people as victims, born of years of indoctrination in which we were always presented as the bad guys.

Never mind that every country in the world acts in its own self-interest, forms alliances with unsavory countries -- some of which change later -- and are forced to act militarily at times. America was singled out as the sole guilty party on the globe. I, on the other hand, for the first time in my life, had come to truly appreciate my country and all that it encompassed, as well as the bravery and sacrifices of those who fight to protect it.

Thoroughly disgusted by the behavior of those on the left, I began to look elsewhere for support. To my astonishment, I found that the only voices that seemed to me to be intellectually and morally honest were on the right. Suddenly, I was listening to conservative talk-show hosts on the radio and reading conservative columnists, and they were making sense. When I actually met conservatives, I discovered that they did not at all embody the stereotypes with which I'd been inculcated as a liberal.

PROTO CREDIT: "Faith, Freedom, and Memory: Report From Ground Zero, September 11, 2010."

9/11 Remembered — Ezra Levant

Really astounding commemoration.

I enjoy Ezra Levant more each time I listen, via Blazing Cat Fur:

Sarah Palin: Don’t Be Taken In by Union Thugs Like James Hoffa

On Facebook, "Welcome, Union Brothers and Sisters":

In my speech on Saturday in Iowa, I said: “Between bailouts for Wall Street cronies and stimulus projects for union bosses’ security and ‘green energy’ giveaways, [Barack Obama] took care of his friends. And now they’re on course to raise a billion dollars for his re-election bid so that they can do it all over again.” This was shamefully on display yesterday at President Obama’s taxpayer-funded campaign rally in Detroit. In introducing the President, Teamsters President James Hoffa represented precisely what I was talking about as he declared war on concerned independent Americans and on the freshman members we sent to Congress last November by saying, “Let’s take these son-of-a-bitches out!”

What I say now, I say as a proud former union member and the wife, daughter, and sister of union members. So, as a former card-carrying IBEW sister married to a proud former Laborers, IBEW, and later USW member, please hear me out. What I have to say is for the hard working, patriotic, selfless union brothers and sisters in Michigan and throughout our country: Please don’t be taken in by union bosses’ thuggery like Jim Hoffa represented yesterday. Union bosses like this do not have your best interests at heart. What they care about is their own power and re-electing their friend Barack Obama so he will take care of them to the detriment of everyone else.

Read it all...

The Complexities of Life

I am extremely pro-life. I can barely think of an instance in which I'd support an abortion, although perhaps rape or incest. I'm mostly opposed to what abortion has become in this country, just another form of birth control. Life is so devalued by so many. While I'm always thrilled by how many conservative students I have in class, I'm horrified sometimes by the aggressive and/or nonchalant student attitudes toward killing the unborn.



That said, I remember especially when my first son was born. I hoped for a healthy child because I didn't know if my wife and I would have the strength and resources to raise a child with mental or physical challenges. I was less concerned when we were expecting my second son, but it's something that always kind of bothered me, to think that way about having a child, say, with Down syndrome.



In any case, my oldest is fifteen now. Science has progressed. By this time questions of "choice" among prospective families are more widely available (options for "fetal-DNA testing"), and frankly, more of a shop of horrors for the designer-child movement. It's all more horrifying, and I keep using that word because all this about whether we should kill. Whether parents should take the life of an unborn child, a baby not yet born into God's physical space. I cry sometimes when I read those "happy abortion" stories I blog about occasionally. It's so deathly.



Anyway, I'm just reminded of this by reading this incredibly intense and personal story at Toronto's Globe and Mail, "I’m glad I never had to decide whether my strange, lonely boy ought to exist." It's a longish piece but worth a few more minutes than normal. Ian Brown's son Walker was born with cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome (CFC). Ian asks his wife Johanna if she'd have aborted Walker if at the time they'd had the availability of current genetic testing:

“Would you have taken the test and had an abortion,” I once asked my wife, “if there had been one?” It was his loneliness I couldn't bear, the boy's own sad sense of how different he was. Somehow he knew that.



“If there had been a test when I was pregnant that revealed what Walker's life would have been like, I would have had the abortion.”



“But then you wouldn't have had Walker,” I said.



Suddenly Johanna began to move around the kitchen a little faster. “You can't say that after I've known Walker – would I have done something to get rid of him? It's one thing to abort an anonymous fetus. It's another to murder Walker. A fetus wouldn't be Walker.”



“What do you think the world would be like without people like Walker?” I asked. It was an obnoxious thing to ask. “Without kids like him, I mean, kids who have real setbacks.” Fetal-DNA testing makes this more and more of a possibility.



I'll always remember her answer. “A world where there are only masters of the universe would be like Sparta,” she said. “It would not be a kind country. It would be a cruel place.”



By then she was crying.

Ian Brown is the author of The Boy in the Moon: A Father’s Journey to Understand His Extraordinary Son. There's a review at New York Times, "What Disabled Children Teach Us." It's a wise essay, and it ends peacefully. And all of this makes me count my blessings and also gird myself for the next challenges for me and my family, for surely they will come.

Chevy Runs Deep

Via Althouse, "How did Chevrolet manage to make such an effective commercial?"



You pull on the heartstrings. We've all felt like this, with or without a Chevy pickup:

Sarah Palin Runs Unannounced Half-Marathon in Storm Lake, Iowa

Greta Van Susteren has a photo, "Governor Sarah Palin is running!"



And another one from Josh Hafner at Des Moines Register, "Sarah Palin runs unannounced in Iowa half-marathon." Palin stays in excellent shape. That's awesome.



And from Robin Abcarian at Los Angeles Times, "Sarah Palin runs half-marathon incognito in Iowa." RTWT. Palin registered under her maiden name, Sarah Heath.

America's Taken a Hammering Since 9/11, But ...

From Richard Littlejohn, at London's Daily Mail, "America's taken a hammering in the decade since 9/11. But never doubt that it can rediscover its awesome self-belief":

My family connections with the U.S. stretch back almost half a century. I’ve been a regular visitor since 1969, the year of the moon landing and Woodstock.



Although it is a vast continent, there are ties which bind all Americans from New York’s wealthy Upper East Side to the kind of tumbleweed, one-horse towns familiar from movies like The Last Picture Show.



The proud patriotism which European liberals despise and mock is both genuine and sincere. It cuts across class, religious and racial divides.



Most people in the U.S. still subscribe to the notion of American ‘exceptionalism’: the idea that theirs is a unique nation, forged from revolution; underpinned by a properly functioning democracy and the rule of law; blessed with abundant natural resources, human ingenuity and endeavour; and insulated by geography and military might ...



The American Century may have come crashing to a tragic halt on 9/11, but we must all hope the U.S. soon recovers its sense of purpose and self-belief.



I still have faith in the American capacity for ingenuity, enterprise and reinvention. The idea of American exceptionalism may be battered, but it hasn’t been extinguished.



We need a strong, confident, optimistic, outward-looking America. It’s still the planet’s last best hope. If you doubt that, imagine living in a world dominated by those bastions of liberty, China and Russia. The EU is a basket case, riddled with corruption and duplicity.



The U.S. has always emerged stronger from wars and economic depression. Despite the traumas of the past decade, it still can.



As we prepare to remember those who died on 9/11, let’s pray nothing else bad happens.

Do RTWT.



I agree with Littlejohn entirely, and the something else bad happening would be Obama's reelection, so it's not as if things are outside of our control. The GOP has work to do, and I won't be sitting on the sidelines. When the going gets rough, Americans roll up their sleeves. But sometimes it feels as though only half the nation represents heartland America, which is the repository of our historical goodness. That other half just hates our exceptionalism and wants to destroy all that has held us together for so long.



More on this later, as always ...

Pamela Geller on 9/11: A Day of Mourning, Grieving and Remembering

I so much wish I could be in New York for 9/11, but it's not happening this year. Ten years is a long time, but decades from now I'm confident that Pamela Geller will be remembered as one of the brightest lights commemorating the fallen. She'll also be remembered for sounding the tocsin of "Never Again." And for that, she takes a lot of grief for all of us who live in dignity and work to preserve our cherished freedoms against the forces of modern totalitarianism.



Here she's interviewed by Ezra Levant, via Blazing Cat Fur:

And see Pamela's post, "PAMELA GELLER ON SUN TV WITH EZRA LEVANT: 911 FREEDOM RALLY."

Jane Jamison of Uncoverage.net Has Died

I like her blog. There are so many out there that sometimes a blog has to really make an impact before gaining attention, and Uncoverage.net is one of those. See Robert Stacy McCain for the details: "Jane Jamison, R.I.P." And John Hawkins has more: "Jane Jamison From Uncoverage Has Passed Away."



Please join me in a prayer for Jane, and for her friends and family.

Conservative Happy Hour with Bill Whittle

Okay, I'm heading out to the Bill Whittle event, in Newport Beach.



I'm sure he'll have a bang up presentation, given all that's been in the news just this last week. And for questions and answers, I'll be interested to see if he has an emendation to his optimistic take on American exceptionalism, seen here, in part, at his outstanding video presentation: "Bill Whittle's Firewall: 'What We Believe, Part 7: American Exceptionalism."

And tune back in here later tonight for a report and more regular blogging!

Belladonna Rogers: 'Conservatives and Gay Marriage'

The piece is from a couple of weeks ago, and it's very well done, "Conservatives and Gay Marriage: A Guide for the Perplexed." That said, a lot of this is straw man argumentation, with a bit of hopeless defeatism thrown in. Also interesting is her endorsement of Jennifer Chrisler, of Family Equality Council. She's articulate and attractive, and has honed fear-calming to high art. Yet as I pointed out yesterday, these "nice" people are hunkered down inside the Trojan horse driving a radical LGBT agenda that would horrify a majority of Americans if the truth were known. It turns out Chrisler's spouse is Cheryl Jacques, the former Executive Director of Human Rights Campaign, the extremist gay rights organization that rejects the morality and goodness of a majority of the American people. Here's an interesting tidbit from the comments at Popehat:

The radical LBGT agenda is best defined by such a person as President Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings program intended to sexualize school chidren. Kevin Jennings agenda would be held in high regard by the NAMBLA pedophiles. Closer to home Scott Brown replaced Lesbian Senator Cheryl Jacques who went to Washington to head up the LBGT Human Rights Campaign. The mission of the Human Rights campaign is to ram gay rights down the throat of the American people. Scott Brown in turn defeated Cheryl Jacques chief of staff Chief of Staff, and openly homosexual Angus, McQuilken. He is also the Chief of Staff of Planned Partenhood League of Mass. Funny how much of this ties together. I believe that we may be on the eve of a new revolution.

Chrisler's spouse is also discussed here: "The FISTGATE Report." No one is saying gays can't make a family. It's a lie though to entertain the notion the gay family values are mainstream. They're not. And gays activists must use subterfuge and thuggery to ram that agenda home.

Related: At Nampion, "Please Don’t Hurt The Gerbil – New And Improved 2011 Version."

Joseph Fein Defends Pamela Geller

My friend Joseph Fein, who regrettably I haven't linked here in a while, made a very shrewd argument the other day in his post standing up for Pamela Geller, "History Will Look Kindly on Pamela Geller Not Glenn Greenwald." I'm not so focused on the commentary on Glenn Greenwald, who while I've slammed mercilessly in the past (he's a genuine asshole, frankly), I've also commended him for avoiding the herd Obama cult mentality (I recognize consistency when I see it). What caught my eye about Joseph's essay was this passage on ideological rationalization:

Glenn Greenwald wanted Gay marriage to be the norm in the United States. As a Social libertarian, I see no issue here. As a partisan, I see a weak person who won't even stay in his own country and fight for what he believes in. He expects others to do the heavy lifting. Speaking to partisans who think the same way you do on TV, radio and the Internet does not expand converts. (nor does sock-puppeting).



I voted No on 8; I support any two consenting adults to be happy. But every time Andrew Sullivan attacks Palin's family, I always have to rethink that vote.



Now, compare Greenwald to Pam Geller.

I've highlighted in bold the key sentence, but check the whole post for the context. I'd have to talk to Joseph in person to see how he'd vote on a gay marriage proposition next time around (if it's not decided at the U.S. Supreme Court beforehand), but the key is that Joseph would consider changing his position because of the ideological and political violence of the progressive left's pro-gay marriage ayatollahs. I cringed the other day when Andrew Breitbart announced he'd boycott CPAC over the organization's exclusion of GOProud. It's not so much that GOProud is either in or out at CPAC (I think the group's a Trojan horse but I'd let them compete in the marketplace of ideas rather than exclude them). It's that for all of Andrew Breitbart's super aggressive battles against the institutional left, he obviously doesn't get it on this issue. My sense is that he's got friends who are gay. Fine. So do I. But that doesn't mean one has to capitulate to the progressive barebacking agenda. It's bears repeating and repeating again: Gay activists are the most venal, vicious, and unprincipled political organizers going. It's like Rick Santorum noted the other day, when he suggested that gays enjoy "super rights." Progressive gay activists are the left's ultimate bullies. They are in your face, attacking anyone with the slightest inclination toward tradition as a "homophobe" and "racist." They browbeat, intimidate, and harass to get their way. They've threatened to destroy livelihoods over the simple act of voting on a proposition. They's lied and cheated in public forums, for example, with the mock judicial process that reviewed Prop. 8 in Federal District Court. Basically, they've raped the political process to leverage a disgusting and morally reprobate barebacking, rim-station sexual agenda that majorities of voters have consistently rejected nationwide. Fully thirty states continue to prohibit gay marriage across the country, but the tentacles of deathly progressivism have worked their subterfuge in the more left-leaning states, using all manner of deceit and duplicity to carry the day. Most of all is the sickening progressive discrimination that is the centerpiece of folks like the disgusting perv Dan Savage. I wrote recently on his sick bigotry and hatred of regular people: "Gay Sexual Abandon and the Perverse Inversion of Values by Same-Sex Extremists." The gay progressive program of ideological bigotry works because society has been beaten down by political correctness. No one wants to appear intolerant. No one wants to be attacked as anti "civil rights." The problem of course, is that gay marriage isn't a civil right, although regular people have been so brainwashed by progressive Orwellianism they don't know what is good and moral, and to even speak up for something decent is to be viciously attacked, with people's very lives being threatened. So this is why I think Joseph's rethinking of his vote on Prop. 8 is such an incisive opening on this issue. If it were me I'd leave it to the states, and if the voters choose full gay marriage rights so be it. But the process is hijacked by extremists and thugs, and it's not likely those rights would come around through a free and fair democratic process. And thus those folks so happy to call themselves libertarian on the issue just end up being fellow soldiers in the left's campaign to destroy decency in this country.

Secrets to Longevity

Hoping for a long life?

Check with Neo-Neocon for an informative essay on the topic, "Want to reach 100? Just do whatever you want…":

…and hope for the best.

HAT TIP: Instapundit.

Rawley's

Good stuff at Maggie's Farm, "Best Hot Dog in the Northeast, right off I-95 in Fairfield, CT."

August Birthdays

My mom turned seventy-five earlier this week. President Obama turned fifty on Thursday. And Lucille Ball would have turned 100 yesterday.

My youngest boy's going to be 10 years-old next week, but we had a little cake and ice cream party for him earlier. A few of his friends from school came over. They opened presents and played video games (the streamers are still up at top below, and not too messy). And then yesterday I took my boy down to my friend Mikey Hirsch's skateboard pro shop, So Cal Skateboards. I got him a Nijah Huston street skate for his birthday, seen at bottom. Nijah won the street Gold Medal at the X-Games last week, and my son digs him.

'Rich Man, Poor Man'

Afterburner, with Bill Whittle:

Whittle is speaking Thursday in Newport Beach, so look for a report.