Quoteworthy 2012

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The Regressives want us to think there’s a “war on women” going on, but the fact is, there’s a war on children — which means there’s a war on the future, and the future is losing. What World War II could not accomplish — the complete eradication of whole populations — western-style feminism just might.
You’ve come a long way, baby. Michael Walsh

The central fact of our age is the unprecedented, voluntary self-extinction of the developed world. Mark Steyn

Of course, to describe newborn children in their boundless possibilities and wonder would be to acknowledge, foremost, their humanity. That is why, instead, abortion enthusiasts must grope for words when circumstances force them to speak publicly about their gruesome business.“That fetus, or child — however way you want to describe it,” Mr. Obama once stammered. This was back when, as a state senator, he was unnerved by the natural resistance of babies to the unnatural insistence of their mothers — of the culture — that they just disappear. If you’ve ever watched a hit man testify, you’ve heard the same stammer: the faint glimmer of a long-forgotten but stubbornly indelible line between right and wrong.It is the line that makes killing much easier to do than to talk about. It is the line that now impels a self-imposed media embargo against news about the shocking trial of Kermit Gosnell. Andrew McCarthy

It’s very weird to live in a society where mass death is important insofar as it serves the political needs of the dominant ideology. A white male loner killing white kindergartners in Connecticut is news; a black doctor butchering black babies in Pennsylvania is not. Mark Steyn
One solitary act of mass infanticide by a mentally-ill loner calls into question the constitutional right to guns, but a sustained conveyor belt of infanticide by an entire cadre of cold-blooded killers apparently has no implications for the constitutional right to abortion. Mark Steyn

A man of straw with a bland rictus grin: That seems kind of emblematic of the British establishment as it assures everyone there’s nothing to see here. Mark Steyn

In every state, the portion of families where children have two parents, rather than one, has dropped significantly over the past decade. Even as the country added 160,000 families with children, the number of two-parent households decreased by 1.2 million. Fifteen million U.S. children, or 1 in 3, live without a father, and nearly 5 million live without a mother. In 1960, just 11 percent of American children lived in homes without fathers. Washington Times

Contrary to a lot of sloppy prepackaged rhetoric, these weren’t “our” children. They were their parents’ children. To claim otherwise is to try to purchase the sympathy rightly reserved for the grieving on the cheap. Jonah Goldberg

People may choose to continue hiding behind the ironic mantle, but this choice equals a surrender to commercial and political entities more than happy to act as parents for a self-infantilizing citizenry. Christy Wampole

The media are the artillery wing of the Democratic party, big-bore ground softeners that pound the terrain until the once unthinkable becomes acceptable, and the formerly unacceptable becomes mandatory. Michael Walsh

Back in Benghazi, the president who looks so cool in a bomber jacket declined to answer his beleaguered diplomats’ calls for help — even though he had aircraft and special forces in the region. Too bad. He’s all jacket and no bombers. Mark Steyn

If you need a reminder to buy bottled water and tape the windows before a hurricane, Obama is your man. If you’re running a machine gun, soon to be covered in your own blood, on the roof of a building under fire in Libya at 3 a.m., if you’ve called three times over a period of almost seven hours for air cover that is within a couple of hours away (or, as we might learn, in the armed drone directly above) — well, you’re on your own. The president will get back to you. Molly Powell

In the smoking ruins of that consulate in Benghazi, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods fought for hours and killed 60 of the enemy before they were overwhelmed, waiting for the cavalry that never came. They’re still waiting – for Candy Crowley, David Gregory, Bob Schieffer, and George Stephanopoulos to do their job. Mark Steyn

Nevertheless, when the president and other prominent officials stand by as four Americans die and then abuse their sacrifice as contemptuously as this administration did, decency requires that they be voted out of office as an act of urgent political hygiene. Mark Steyn

One of the most foolish, and most dangerous, things one can do is to take love for granted, instead of nurturing it and safeguarding it as the prize jewel of one's life. Thomas Sowell

The final irony? The real culprit for Obama’s disastrous night is not entirely Barack Obama, but rather the media training-wheels who assured Obama for years that he was riding on his own; when they came off last night, he immediately fell, and for some reason we are supposed to be surprised? Victor Davis Hanson

. . . Barack Obama makes a perfectly adequate (if somewhat cheesy and downmarket) ceremonial queen. Mark Steyn

I always thought there something ill-fated about the promise of three million “shovel ready jobs” made to a society that no longer encourages people to pick up a shovel. Mike Rowe

. . . whoops, sorry, I apologize for saying “Chicago” Mark Steyn

The thing we adore about these dog-whistle kerfuffles is that the people who react to the whistle always assume it's intended for somebody else. The whole point of the metaphor is that if you can hear the whistle, you're the dog. James Taranto

No dictator will ever need to declare martial law in America. All he’ll need to do is issue a “severe weather advisory” and everyone will stay indoors until they’re told it’s safe to come out. Mark Steyn

An authentically conservative party would find Romney's unprincipled position far more chilling than Akin's gaffe. If unborn children gain or lose their right to life depending upon the circumstances of their conception, then the party has already conceded that that right doesn't exist. George Neumayr

He demonizes some. He panders to others. His campaign strategy is to smash America apart and then cobble together 51 percent of the pieces. Mitt Romney
No matter. I’m sure everyone had a grand old time. The British police are among the most useless in the world and launching an in-depth investigation into Saddam Hussein’s missing rear end seems almost too perfectly symbolic. Mark Steyn

Whether or not Danny Boyle’s NHS musical will run longer than Cats, the waiting list already does. Yet there they were, dozens of Mary Poppins figures descending into the Olympic Stadium on unfurled umbrellas, like British paratroopers behind German lines on D-day. When everywhere’s a nanny state, inventing the great iconic nanny is a source of national pride. Mark Steyn


The Obama administration won’t take our advice, of course, because it embraces a shriveled view of religious liberty that is alien to the American tradition. Under its view, religious liberty is not an independent good essential to the flourishing of civil society. Traditional religious believers stand in the way of the progressive agenda, and they are to be coerced, stigmatized, penalized, and ultimately crushed. NRO


The obvious interpretation sticks because it fits with the reality of the last three-and-a-half years – that America's chief executive is a man entirely ignorant of business who presides over an administration profoundly hostile to it. Mark Steyn

He - in spite of his inherent greatness! - might still be ineffectually haranguing small groups of neighborhood malcontents had it not been for the small army of helping hands that shoved him up the career ladder; therefore, you (poor schlep!) must obviously need similar assistance –and, truth to tell, far more, because, let’s face it, he’s special and you’re just, you know, you. Paco

The state makes for a bad parent. The number of children it brings up should be kept to a minimum. Harry Phibbs, Daily Mail

No color TV or luxury sedan could compensate for the freedom we enjoyed by having mom around. Christopher Orlet

Children do not flourish when their mothers are absent, and they are not happy as long as Mom is happy. That’s part of the feminist script. All children want, all they’ve ever wanted, is Mom. Not in spirit — in the flesh. Suzanne Venker
Knives are also routinely confiscated at Joe Biden’s dinner speeches, but that’s to eliminate any chance of audience members taking their own lives. Doug Powers

In other words, what is it about a second term that’s so important to him that he’s willing to expose what has essentially been a sham presidency — certainly, aside from health care, a sham first term of basketball games, parties, golf, and vacations — in his quest for something that’s clearly greater to him? In short, what is Barack Hussein Obama really after, once he’s freed from campaigning and any electoral responsibility to the voters? Michael Walsh
And where is the president in all this? On his way to Anna Wintour's house. He's busy. He's running for president.
But why? He could be president now if he wanted to be.
Peggy Noonan

So we are in an interesting paradox: All empirical evidence points to the worldwide failure of the blue-state model (e.g., California, the southern Mediterranean, anti-Walker Wisconsin), and yet Barack Obama’s entire career, from community organizing, to the state legislature, to the Senate, was predicated on just such a protocol of public borrowing to provide expansive government entitlements and jobs in exchange for a loyal political constituency, with the debt, in redistributive fashion, to be serviced by wringing more revenue from the suspect private sector that is always doing “fine.” Victor Davis Hanson
The march of science cannot be stopped, we are told. But this is about ethics, not science. What we do with our technological prowess is what matters. The answer to the evil potentials of the coming genomic screening is to strengthen our commitment to human life and deepen our capacity to love. Wesley Smith

That’s to say, the unsustainable “bubble” is not student debt or subprime mortgages or anything else. The bubble is us, and the assumptions of entitlement. Too many citizens of advanced Western democracies live a life they have not earned, and are not willing to earn. Mark Steyn

Needless to say, had Dick Cheney consulted “baseball cards” to decide in weekly meetings attended by Karl Rove who deserved to have close encounters with drone-fired missiles, Nancy Pelosi would have drafted the articles of impeachment herself. Rich Lowry
It’s a symbol not of success but of failure. I’m afraid the reason that the stimulus has been unsuccessful, that the turnaround has taken so long to occur, that the recovery has been tepid, is that the president fails to understand the basic nature of free enterprise in America. Mitt Romney

The Obama administration is effectively saying that all the practices and beliefs embedded in the Obama health-care law are established in America and consent is required, no matter what some religion purports to believe. It is this attempt to displace religious belief with an alternative belief system that goes against the American grain and has Catholics up in arms. Daniel Henninger

Perhaps what the president meant is that he’s known more Jews than other presidents. This too is an absurdity, as Ronald Reagan spent 30 years in Hollywood and had Jews coming out his ears. In fact, chances are Barack Obama knows less about Judaism than most presidents, except that he knows a lot of liberal Jews.  What the president does, without question, know a great deal about is the act of preening. John Podhoretz

Everyone must buy health insurance, regardless of whether he wants it. The FAA streamlines rules for the domestic use of drones. The president redefines marriage. Armed Environmental Police shut down — and stand guard over — an ice cream stand in Lowell, Mass., for not having a permit. A Harvard law professor is referred to as a “woman of color” because she imagines herself 1/32nd Cherokee. Thousands are put out of work because the state values a tiny fish more than its citizens. Americans may not buy incandescent 100-watt light bulbs.

Hello, Winston. Peter Kirsanow

Obama and his accomplices certainly believe the voters are too clueless to remember his promises that Obamacare would reduce health insurance premiums, or to notice that our health care costs are still increasing at twice the rate of inflation. Likewise, they believe the public is too dumb to remember the president's promise that his economic policies would prevent unemployment from reaching 8 percent, or to notice that average unemployment during his first term has exceeded 9 percent. And they obviously believe that the voters don't have enough sense to remember how badly they wanted Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress to give up their health care obsession and focus on the most serious issue facing the country then and now. David Catron

Obama and his accomplices certainly believe the voters are too clueless to remember his promises that Obamacare would reduce health insurance premiums, or to notice that our health care costs are still increasing at twice the rate of inflation. Likewise, they believe the public is too dumb to remember the president's promise that his economic policies would prevent unemployment from reaching 8 percent, or to notice that average unemployment during his first term has exceeded 9 percent. And they obviously believe that the voters don't have enough sense to remember how badly they wanted Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress to give up their health care obsession and focus on the most serious issue facing the country then and now. David Catron


George Zimmerman, redneck; Elizabeth Warren, redskin. Under the Third Reich’s Nuremberg Laws, Ms. Warren would have been classified as Aryan and Mr. Zimmerman as non-Aryan. Now it’s the other way round. Progress! Mark Steyn

Whoever writes the epitaph of Western civilization will marvel at the thoroughness with which higher education led to mass delusion — indeed, mass moronization. Mark Steyn

Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order. Mitt Romney

We routinely ask ourselves these types of questions: Why are kids not doing well in school? Why are they overweight? Why are they getting into so much trouble? Why are they sleep deprived? Why are they on Ritalin? Why are they so disrespectful? Why are they spoiled? We simply refuse to connect the dots between the problems that exist among today’s children and the mass exodus of mothers from the home.
Just what did we think mothers were for? Suzanne Venker
Do you realize that you can deduct child-care expenses--unless you care for your own children. And you can deduct education expenses--unless you educate your children at home? If you drop you toddler off at the day-care center, the cost is a deductible expense. But you can’t pay yourself, and you can’t deduct the expenses you run up keeping your child out of that day-care center. Philip Lawler

All that's unprecedented here is the spectacle of the president of the United States, while the judges are deliberating, idly swinging his tire iron and saying, "Nice little Supreme Court you got here. Shame if anything were to happen to it." Mark Steyn

But really, doesn't he have an aide who can tell him that the symbol of America is not the bald ego? James Taranto

History will not be kind to a president who, when it came time to confront our generation’s defining challenge, chose to duck and run. Rep. Paul Ryan

He does realize that there are three branches of government, right? Checks and balances and all that jazz that we learned about in Elementary School? Didn’t he teach Constitutional Law? Martha Martha

That's a rule, now? You must keep your shirt on? Shirts were coming off? At the Prom? So, basically, we're doomed as a culture, wouldn't you say? Rob Long
I mean, Kennedy seems a cheery enough cove, but who died and made him the all-powerful Sultan of Swing? Mark Steyn

Coercion begets coercion: If you’re going to force the hospitals, then you have to force the insurers; if you’re going to force the insurers, then you have to force the citizens. Andrew McCarthy

Anybody who makes $250,000 becomes a millionaire very quickly if you save it. You just need four years. Gov. Jerry Brown

... who knew Jerry Brown could multiply? Walt 

I detect throughout this litigation and especially in the SG’s oral argument: the government’s lawyers seem to have no idea how conservative jurists typically think about the Constitution. Instead, they make arguments that would get almost unanimous nods of approval in the Harvard (or Columbia, the SG’s alma mater) Law School faculty lounge, but are not remotely persuasive to the other side. David Bernstein

If Cardinal Wuerl doesn't have the guts to deny Communion to an agitprop lesbian Buddhist, he should just close up shop and hand the keys to his chancery over to Obama. George Neumayr

Centralized health care turns us, snarling, against each other, grabbing for our own piece of the carcass, ready to exclude others to feed ourselves. Wesley Smith
I would go even further and observe that we once crossed the Plains in covered wagons and braved the rounding of Cape Horn and now we forbid our kids to play on jungle gyms or sell lemonade without a license. The issue is not that we can’t do it, we won’t do it; the suicide cult that is the modern American Left won’t allow it, so devoted is it to the expiation of the sin of its own existence. Michael Walsh

If contraception is prevention, what are fertility clinics? Disease inducers? And if contraception is prevention because it lessens morbidity and saves money, by that logic, mass sterilization would be the greatest boon to public health since the pasteurization of milk. Charles Krauthammer

A thousand-calorie salad. God bless America! The Troglopundit
After all, you can't make a baby by hugging a tree. James Taranto

I’m not sure if I can wait for liberals to make themselves extinct. Politicaljunkie Mom

Isn't the fact that conventional morality is now "weird" itself deeply weird? The instant weirdification of ideas taken for granted for millennia is surely mega-weird — unless you think that our generation is possessed of wisdom unique to human history. In which case, why are we broke? Mark Steyn

Let me remind Team Obama of a favorite Geithner aphorism: “Plan beats no plan.” Barack Obama doesn’t have a long-term, debt-reduction plan. Paul Ryan does. So under the Geithner formulation, Ryan wins by default.But the latest version of Ryan’s Path to Prosperity, released today, does far more than defeat a rival who’s decided to forfeit the field. It presents a bold and sweeping solution to America’s twin problems: too much debt and too little economic growth. James Pethokoukis
This latest episode isn't even a close call. If Cardinal Wuerl doesn't have the guts to deny Communion to an agitprop lesbian Buddhist, he should just close up shop and hand the keys to his chancery over to Obama. George Neumayr

Somehow I can't imagine the Jesuit founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola, describing a demand from one of his students for subsidized sin as an "expression of conscience." George Neumayr

Amira could avoid such a struggle if Ms. Fernandez taught Amira those basic skills herself. Is that too much to ask? But the larger the government grows, the more parents offload their responsibilities onto it — from feeding, to socializing, to reading to their children. . . . Single motherhood and big government are symbiotic and co-dependent. Heather MacDonald

But basing morality on feelings is the core of relativism, allowing us to do what we want and, as Oprah tells us we should, feel good about ourselves. But feelings are ephemeral. They justify expedience. They are the house built of straw and can’t provide any real basis for determining morality or ethics. Indeed, the process of desensitizing us–that is, changing our feelings–about killing–abortion, now euthanasia–is the current modos operandi for shattering Western morality and liberty. Wesley Smith

But in any case, why does it so bother Miller that the Romneys, Santorums and Pauls (and also the Palins, whom she mentions in another paragraph) made the choice to have large families? If she cared about choice, she would recognize it's none of her business. But contemporary feminism does not actually value choice, except as a means to an ideological end, which is the obliteration of differences between the sexes. The biggest such difference consists in the distinct and disparate demands that reproduction makes on women. Thus in order to equalize the sexes, it is necessary to discourage fertility. Implicit in contemporary feminism is a normative judgment that having children is bad. James Taranto


That’s when it hit me: I should go back to Hell. Stacy McCain

Besides, aren’t you arguably a better person for having gone to school rather than having it funneled into you by dreary old Ma or Pa in their faded bathrobes at home? Dick Cavett

Meanwhile, Romney enacted legislation that in its view of the citizen’s subordination to the state is philosophically indistinguishable from Obamacare — in every respect that matters. Mark Steyn

Darn. If only the government could've stopped me from reproducing so much. Matthew Archbold

How could Rick Santorum–even if all of the Pennsylvanian’s haters are right about his most fevered sexually repressed sweater-vestified Opus Dei-fueled fetus-empowering right-to-lifer fantasies–do any worse than the last four years? King Shamus

I can't see Mr. Darcy being much help around the house. Elizabeth Kantor

“Guys, Valentine's Day is not that complicated. Give - and you shall receive.” This is a new low. A Super Bowl ad basically pimped out the women of America for Valentine's Day. Buy her something pretty, and she’ll put out. It’s not what you’d call a romantic proposition. Elizabeth Kantor


Really? Is he not even remotely familiar with the fullness of Catholic theology regarding sex and families? Does he not realize that living out Catholic theology — intact, God-honoring, mother-father households joined in a sacramental relationship for life — would actually do more to end poverty than dump trucks full of free birth-control pills?

Yes, Jesus spoke quite a bit about the poor, and as our Creator He understands how we truly flourish. And it’s not by viewing sex as god and forcing even His church to bow before the latest cultural “health care” fashions. The issue isn’t about “offending Bishops.” It’s about whether people like Nicholas Kristof (except that they draw a government check and work for a technocratic liberal administration) can tell the Church not only that it can’t live its own values but that it has to actively advance the other side’s failed agenda. David French

When a bunch of wealthy white women and elite Washington bureaucrats defend the trampling of religious liberties in the name of “increased access” to “reproductive services” for “poor” women, the ghost of Margaret Sanger is cackling. Michelle Malkin

Santorum, a Catholic ethnic with strong blue-collar appeal, should grab the reins of Obamacare and ride it right up Romneycare. Because now that the coercive evil of Obamacare is visible even to E.J. Dionne Jr., Romney’s “signature achievement” during his one term as governor ought to finish him as the GOP standard-bearer.
...
Santorum will get precious little help from the sniveling apparatchiks, time-servers, and collaborationists in the “GOP leadership,” but he should pound this issue home at every opportunity and position himself as the champion of the real little guy: not the entitlement loafer whose kids are too dumb to peel their own grapes but the lunch-pail worker who pays for those grapes. This is a fight we’re going to have to have sooner or later, so why not have it now, before the Party of Take completely overwhelms the Party of Give?
Michael Walsh

For the average Catholic out there working for a private employer who doesn't have any religious affiliation whatsoever, they're being told by the government through this requirement that they too have to pay premiums into a plan that covers all of these things and there's no right whatsoever to get out from under it. James Capretta

Why would they say that? They are all so unfashionable. Let them say what they want! Scarlett Johansson

The Obama administration views pregnancy as a disease, and they want to force all of us to see it as a disease, too. They view this great human blessing as a curse. Robert Morrison

Do we not all value our liberties? Do we believe that the state can love its citizens better than Christ operating through His followers? David French

Liberals take the same view as the proprietors of the Dar al-Islam: Once they hold this land, they hold it forever. Notwithstanding that those who give to the foundation are specifically giving to support breast-cancer research, Komen could not be permitted to get away with disrespecting Big Abortion. We don’t want to return to the bad old days of the back alley, when a poor vulnerable person who made the mistake of stepping out of line had to be forced into the shadows and have the realities explained to them with a tire iron. Now Big Liberalism’s enforcers do it on the front pages with the panjandrums of tolerance and diversity cheering them all the way. Mark Steyn

Imagine I volunteered to run a cub scout troop, and for years, when the annual soapbox derby came near, I knew I could count on Joe’s Deli as good for a hundred dollar donation. If one year Old Man Joe decided he didn’t want to donate any more — because he didn’t like the design of our racer, or because he thought his hundred bucks was better spent on a little league team, or because he disapproved of the scouts’ stance on gays — what on earth would justify me going on public access TV to grill Old Man Joe on why he hates kids? What would justify me hacking the Joe’s Deli web site or maliciously editing Old Man Joe’s Wikipedia page? What would justify me goading a handful of my city councilman into standing up at the next town meeting and publicly calling on Old Man Joe to reinstate his donation? Daniel Foster

. . . Komen broke ranks, and it must be dealt with harshly. And the sympathetic mainstream media is helping them do the job. All this reminds one of exactly what we’re dealing with here: what John Paul II called the culture of death. It is helpful to be reminded which side you’re on. Rod Dreher

Planned Parenthood's bitter campaign against Komen--aided by left-liberal activists and media--is analogous to a protection racket: Nice charity you've got there. It'd be a shame if anything happened to it. The message to other Planned Parenthood donors is that if they don't play nice and keep coughing up the cash, they'll get the Komen treatment. James Taranto

This is either painful or sadistically pleasurable to read, depending on how bad a person you are. James Taranto

I guess the camels of “Obama Catholics” have backs of steel if they could pile on so much evil before finally breaking under the weight of the HHS ruling. I guess instead of being snarky I should welcome them back to reality. Jeff Miller

Modern liberalism uses the power of the state to impose liberal values on institutions it regards as backward. Michael Gerson

Contraception harms marriage and the family, and it subverts the nature of sex, the Church teaches. I understand this isn't a popular belief this days, even among Catholics, but it is a belief many of us still hold. Obama has decided to force folks who oppose contraception to pay for contraception. Tim Carney

I’m not much interested in having the talent, creativity, and faith socialized out of my daughter, so I am happy to play a small part in frustrating the system’s designs on her. Matthew Hennessey

This means war. Politicaljunkie Mom

In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences. Archbishop Timothy Dolan

For a while, various Catholic leaders had hoped that they might reach an understanding with the Administration, and some even felt more at peace with the president’s assurances. But “peace for our time” only lasts until Poland is invaded.
[. . .]
Since our Lord did not humiliate the frightened apostles by saying “I told you so” when he rose from the dead, I shall not say “I told you so” to any who underestimated the plottings of social engineers whose audacity is only an audacity of despair. Fr. George Rutler

The establishment never fails to choose the more liberal of two leading candidates. The boys from the yacht club have once again decided to lose with a semi-reformed RINO. George Neumayr

If you look at the swing in the electorate in Florida, it’s just amazing these mood swings. Two weeks ago, Romney was up by 20 over Gingrich and now it looks as if he’s down by ten. That’s a 30-point swing. If you get that in a patient, you pull out the lithium. Charles Krauthammer

Over the next few weeks, or months, Gingrich will argue that Romney isn't conservative and isn't as electable as the establishment will have you believe, while Romney will argue that Gingrich isn't electable and isn't as conservative as he'd have you believe. And they'll both be right. Philip Klein


This is a lovely speech. There is no bitterness. No spite. It's all humility, grace, acceptance. Perry goes out with class. Drew Cline

While basic human decency vs govt mandate isn't a zero-sum equation, it is pretty damn close. Increase one, decrease the other. Steve Eggleston

Whenever I write about these subjects, I receive a lot of mail from men along the lines of this correspondent:
"The feminists wanted a gender-neutral society. Now they've got it. So what are you complaining about?"
And so the manly virtues (if you'll forgive a quaint phrase) shrivel away to the so-called "man caves," those sad little redoubts of beer and premium cable sports networks.
We are beyond social norms these days. A woman can be a soldier. A man can be a woman. A 7-year-old cross-dressing boy can join the Girl Scouts in Colorado because he "identifies" as a girl. It all adds to life's rich tapestry, no doubt. But I can't help wondering, when the ship hits the fan, how many of us will still be willing to identify as a man. Mark Steyn 1/20/12

Don’t call me a hero. I just did my duty, the duty of a sea captain – actually the duty of a normal man. I and the others with me just did our duty. We looked each other in the eyes for a second and then we Just got on with it. Capt. Robert Bosio 

He’s not able to warm a room immediately or make an audience feel like he is speaking to them. You’d have to put a new card in him for that to happen. Doug Gross, Romney's 2008 Iowa state chairman

Bain and Romney made millions off of this steel mill below. They did not kick any of it back to support the failed pension fund. No, we the taxpayers were left to take care of that. Dan Riehl

Romney’s campaign is all technique and no music. His speech in Exeter was schmaltz piled on top of saccharin in a perfect storm of substanceless sentimentality. First, he said he believed in America. Then, he said he loved America. And in conclusion, he quoted verses from “America the Beautiful.” Rich Lowry

Romney the Republican establishment businessman is telling us with his limited, crabbed policy kowtowing to Obama's class warfare rhetoric that he feels, like Bush I and Republican RINO moderates generally, that he cannot explain and defend good supply-side policy to the public. Given his background and who he is as a rich Wall Street takeover artist, he personally may be right about that. Who is going to take seriously a Wall Street millionaire calling for tax cuts for millionaires? That is why he personally is not a good vessel for carrying the Republican standard this year. He is actually a perfect caricature for the neo-Marxist class warfare arguments of Obama and the Occupy Wall Street rabble. That is one reason why Romney, in fact, is the least electable. Peter Ferrara
 
While basic human decency vs govt mandate isn't a zero-sum equation, it is pretty damn close. Increase one, decrease the other. Steve Eggleston

Bain and Romney made millions off of this steel mill below. They did not kick any of it back to support the failed pension fund. No, we the taxpayers were left to take care of that. Dan Riehl

Romney’s campaign is all technique and no music. His speech in Exeter was schmaltz piled on top of saccharin in a perfect storm of substanceless sentimentality. First, he said he believed in America. Then, he said he loved America. And in conclusion, he quoted verses from “America the Beautiful.” Rich Lowry

The Dems have already telegraphed a good deal of their playbook — they’ll paint him as a nervous, grinning, stuttering, heartless capitalist who’s also a “weird” social-issues nut — and hope to scare the hell out of the electorate, which by now has grown used to the dull pain of the Obama administration. Michael Walsh

The short life of Gabriel Santorum would seem a curious priority for political discourse at a time when the Brokest Nation in History is hurtling toward its rendezvous with destiny. But needs must, and victory by any means necessary. In 2008, the Left gleefully mocked Sarah Palin's live baby. It was only a matter of time before they moved on to a dead one. [. . .]
Santorum's respect for all life, including even the smallest bleakest meanest two-hour life, speaks well for him, especially in comparison with his fellow Pennsylvanian, the accused mass murderer Kermit Gosnell, an industrial-scale abortionist at a Philadelphia charnel house who plunged scissors into the spinal cords of healthy delivered babies. Few of Gosnell's employees seemed to find anything "weird" about that: Indeed, they helped him out by tossing their remains in jars and bags piled up in freezers and cupboards. Much less crazy than taking 'em home and holding a funeral, right? Mark Steyn  1/6/12

But the problem is not just that some leftists can’t understand the love that some people feel for their unborn children — or for their children who (like Sarah Palin’s son Trig) were born with disabilities. What really infuriates is the contempt they show for parents who make different choices than they would . . . and the smug arrogance with which they pronounce judgment on the most intimate aspects of others’ private lives.
What Robinson has done, and what Colmes did the other day, is indecent. These men would never say such a thing to Santorum’s face. (Or maybe they would — which is possibly even worse.) What sickness has invaded our body politic that people feel free, not only to act the cretin, but to do so on national television while sporting insufferable, supercilious, self-satisfied smirks like those we have seen on the mugs of Colmes and Robinson in recent days?
In short: how dare they? How dare they?! Patterico


You learn that Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) is awful at small talk. Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a ham, breaking into funny voices and goofy faces. And former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is . . . not like that at all. “Like talking to your doctor,” one voter remembered. And, as it turns out, former Utah governor Joh Huntsman Jr. is surprisingly calm after he’s been bitten by a goat. Washington Post

Is the president going to have the authority to decide if the Supreme Court has deliberated too little on a case? Does Congress have the right to decide whether the president has really thought hard enough about granting a pardon? Under Obama’s approach, he could make a recess appointment anytime he is watching C-SPAN and feels that the senators are not working as hard as he did in the Senate (a fairly low bar). John Yoo

. . . but I thought in the debates she punched above her weight, and she got the urgency. She understands that this November is the last chance for serious course correction. I’m not sure how many others do. I’m grateful for the times she cited my book, while obviously regretting that the frequency of citations proved to be inversely proportional to her poll numbers. Funny how that works. Also, I find her rather hot, which is more than I can say about Ron Paul or Newt, or even Jon Huntsman when he does that open-necked shirt thing. Mark Steyn


For those of us who take an interest in the vagaries of the Roman Church, the virtuoso performances of Ms. Collins and Ms. Dowd as earnest, questing papists, almost heartbroken at the failure of the last two popes to undergo sex-change operations and turn the Church into a polling organization, and at other, less glaring illiberalities, are like the concluding number in Chicago of Catherene Zeta-Jones and Renée Zellweger. Conrad Black

Quoteworthy 2011
Quoteworthy 2010

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Smaller cars will lead to smaller families

And smaller families will lead to demographic decline which eventually leads to a Euro-style death spiral.

As Mark Steyn said earlier today, "not to be gloomy, but. . . ." Well, these are gloomy days.

Steyn wrote last month about car size influencing family size. In light of Obama's emissions decree, it's worth revisiting:

Europeans often ask, "Why do Americans need those big cars?" The short answer is: Because Americans have kids and Europeans don't. So Italians and Spaniards and Germans (and Japanese) can drive around in things the size of a Chevy Suburban's cupholder because they've got nothing to put in them.

If you're a soccer mom schlepping three kids plus little Jimmy from next door around, you need a vehicle of a certain size. In the old days, you could just toss 'em all in there and they'd roll around as you took the hairpin bends in fourth gear. But now you can't stick kids in the front and you need baby seats for the youngest and booster seats for the oldest and soon nanny-state regulation will require every American under 37 to be in a rear-facing child seat, which is a pretty good metaphor for where the country's going.

And, if you mandate small cars and child-seat regulations, don't be surprised if the size of the American family starts heading south, too. The difference between U.S. and European vehicles isn't an emblem of environmental irresponsibility or American corpulence but of something more basic and important.

The Foundry calls the new emissions standards Obama's Ban on Soccer Moms. It's also a "ban" on large- and even medium-sized families. When the typical car comes equipped with four seat belts it conveys the message that two children is the default option of family size. Independent-minded Americans will continue to act and think for themselves. But the sheep among us will limit themselves by accepting the implied default option as the more popular, and therefore better, course of action.

The US birthrate is just at replacement level. To implement policies, however subtle, that discourage families from having children will push us ever closer toward Euro-blivion.

Related: Cars and families, See the USA in your Chevrolet

Cross-posted in the Green Room (with a few comments).

Linked by Michelle Malkin (buzzworthy).

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Girl Scouts out themselves, CA schools push gay curriculum on kindergarteners

There's no quicker, easier way* to have yourself labeled a Nazi than to tell your neighbors that you're boycotting Girl Scout cookies** because you're opposed to the GSA. They've been pushing feminism on girls for years. Now they've emerged fully from the closet with their updated image and print materials, and lesbianism (along with radical feminism, moral relativism, and all things new-agey, non-Western, and non-traditional) is just all right with them. Jesus, not so much. "Imagine" is in; Christmas carols are out.

World Net Daily thoroughly reviews the revamped program and exhaustively documents the corruption of the Girl Scouts. No remotely traditional parent will find the program a "good fit" with the values they're trying to instill in their girls. When your mother-in-law wonders why you pulled little Madison out of the Brownies, refer her to this WND article. It will curl her hair.


RS McCain quotes WFB: "All institutions that are not explicitly conservative will eventually become liberal," and extends it:

Fast-forward to 2009, and all institutions that do not explicitly prohibit homosexuality will eventually become pro-gay.

They are both so right.

Case in point: this story from the Alameda Unified School District in California, covered here and the here.

The Alameda Unified School District announced it was considering a supplemental curriculum to eradicate "homophobia" in kindergarten children. Brad Dacus, founder of the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), said the meeting room for the public session earlier this week was overcrowded with angry parents.

"Nowhere at anytime did it give any protection for children being bullied because of their faith, their religion, their size, their race, ethnicity," he points out. "It is only going to give this special anti-bullying protection for homosexuals and transsexuals."

Liberal response: And your point is . . . ?

Dacus said an attorney from PJI spoke before the board meeting. "And [the attorney] made it very clear that this is an abridgement and an affront to the neutral role that school districts are supposed to play in respecting the rights of parents and not to engage in such overt and open indoctrination and mandatory acceptance of such controversial, immoral lifestyles," he concludes.

Parents cannot opt out their children from the curriculum. Dacus says it is important to remember that the children are kindergarten age, and many cannot even write their names -- yet they are being taught that homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle.

Ain't that always the way with liberals? It's all about choice, as long as you choose their way.

(Personal anecdote: "Opting out" of the default option is often effective enough, though, and isn't used only by government. It comes naturally to those who wish to impose their agendas on others. Fifteen years ago, when our oldest was a fifth-grader in a Catholic school, they introduced a "family life curriculum" that included some explicit vocabulary and concepts, and was to be taught in a mixed group of girls and boys. From three classrooms, we were the only parents who opted out. Our daughter spent that class time sitting alone and conspicuous on a bench in the school's foyer.)

Liberals have no qualms about using children as pawns to push through their agenda.

Lost in the shuffle of bullying school boards and angry parents whose rights have been violated is the concept of childhood innocence. It's something worth preserving. Kindergarteners shouldn't have sexuality pushed on them, even in the form of good old plain-vanilla heterosexuality; homosexuality wouldn't enter the mind of an elementary school age child unless it was shoved in his face. And exposing children to transsexuality and other permutations beyond that is the equivalent of child abuse. Why is this something their innocent, developing minds and imaginations need to confront? This is clearly not being done for the benefit of the children.

But when indoctrination is the goal, younger is better, and this is one reason behind the push for universal pre-school.

This California case is getting our attention because it's so extreme and blatant. But subtler indoctrination takes place in our schools every day. If parents are serious about passing their values on to their children, they might want to consider whether they're undermining their own cause by sending them to public schools.

*Except perhaps by declining to give to public school fund-raisers because you don't support public schools. Not voluntarily, anyway.

**Those cookies are such a rip-off. You get, like, five in a box now. Just say no!

Cross-posted in the Green Room. Go there to read more comments.

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Obama: "Be a lighthouse and a crossroads"?

Yes, it sounds like nonsense, but this awkward metaphor is actually a call to keep faith in its place. But I'll save that for the end.

First up, the usual pretense. This portion of the president's Notre Dame commencement speech was vintage Obama:

What bothered the doctor was an entry that my campaign staff had posted on my Web site _ an entry that said I would fight "right-wing ideologues who want to take away a woman's right to choose." The doctor said he had assumed I was a reasonable person, he supported my policy initiatives to help the poor and to lift up our educational system, but that if I truly believed that every pro-life individual was simply an ideologue who wanted to inflict suffering on women, then I was not very reasonable. He wrote, "I do not ask at this point that you oppose abortion, only that you speak about this issue in fair-minded words." Fair-minded words.
After I read the doctor's letter, I wrote back to him and I thanked him. And I didn't change my underlying position, but I did tell my staff to change the words on my Web site.

I understand that this is supposed to be about resisting the temptation to demonize your opponents. But Obama's actions are to consistently dehumanize human babies and try to disguise that by "changing the words."

Next, the responses to Obama's mesmerism. For many, rhetoric and appearance are enough:

"[He] presented a demeanor that contrasted with those who tried to paint him as a demonic, anti-life fanatic."

"He has to reach out to them in a convincing way that shows he's sensitive to the same issues they're concerned about," he said.

"Others might have avoided this venue for that reason," Jenkins said. "But President Obama is not someone who stops talking with those who differ with him."

Pleeze. Snap out of it, Father Jenkins. Your infatuation has overcome your rational faculties. President Obama does not listen to those who differ with him, and in fact has not engaged in the abortion debate at all. He's just rammed through his anti-life policies to maximize abortions worldwide.

Next, the outright lies. Is there anyone out there who thinks these statements can be taken at face value?

So let us work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions,

Well, he's off to an awesome start on that one.

let's reduce unintended pregnancies.

We know how liberals approach that one, with sex-ed for little ones and condoms for all.

Let's make adoption more available. Let's provide care and support for women who do carry their children to term.

But in reality, let's not.

Let's honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause,

What will sensible mean?

and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded not only in sound science, but also in clear ethics, as well as respect for the equality of women."

His approach to stem cell research has demonstrated that even he knows that ethics are above his pay grade.

Now the weird metaphor. Obama's remarks about Cardinal Bernadin, "a lighthouse and a crossroads," were fitting. Bernadin was another Catholic, like Fr. Jenkins, who undermined Catholic teaching on abortion. In his case, it was through his "seamless garment," which trivialized the abortion issue by equating it with other social issues. Joseph Sobran explains:

The late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, former archbishop of Chicago, endeared himself to liberals, especially liberal Catholic politicians, by adopting the metaphor of life as a “seamless garment.” It isn’t enough to oppose abortion, he insisted; to be consistent, you have to defend life on every front, as for instance by relieving poverty and illness.

This came as welcome news to the liberals, since it turned “life” into a checklist, in which abortion was only one of many items, and not necessarily the most urgent. You could be “pro-life,” according to the Bernardin standard, merely by supporting the welfare state.

If Obama were Catholic he would belong to the bogus Bernadin school. I can well believe that Obama's "heart and mind were touched by him." That would explain a lot.
These words from the president's commencement address put the icing on the cake:

Hold firm to your faith and allow it to guide you on your journey.

Standing alone they radiate irony. But taken with the next two paragraphs, they constitute a mini-lecture on theology:

But remember, too, that you can be a crossroads. Remember, too, that the ultimate irony of faith is that it necessarily admits doubt. It's the belief in things not seen. It's beyond our capacity as human beings to know with certainty what God has planned for us or what He asks of us. And those of us who believe must trust that His wisdom is greater than our own.

And this doubt should not push us away our faith. But it should humble us. It should temper our passions, cause us to be wary of too much self-righteousness. It should compel us to remain open and curious and eager to continue the spiritual and moral debate that began for so many of you within the walls of Notre Dame. And within our vast democracy, this doubt should remind us even as we cling to our faith to persuade through reason, through an appeal whenever we can to universal rather than parochial principles, and most of all through an abiding example of good works and charity and kindness and service that moves hearts and minds.

You see, it's great to have faith, but we can't ever really know anything, because God and faith are hard to get a handle on, because, they're like, invisible. So go ahead and cling to that faith, but don't get all "self-righteous" and actually act on it. Act, instead, on "universal rather than parochial principles."

It sounds as though he's telling the Notre Dame grads not to let their Catholic faith get in the way of "service." He alludes to a conflict between the practice of "charity" and the practice of religion. This only makes sense when charity and service are defined as rightly coming from the state. In other words, "good works" spring from the practice of liberalism. When one's practice of authentic Christianity conflicts with liberalism, Obama advises us to set the Christianity aside in favor of "the universal."
Obama doesn't separate his Christianity from his liberal ideology, and he would have the rest of us join him in his conflation of the two.

Advising Notre Dame grads to be "wary" in the practice of their faith is odd counsel to offer at a Catholic commencement. And disconcerting, perhaps, to students and parents who sacrificed because they believed a Catholic education mattered.
Cross-posted in the Green Room.

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Sally Quinn on Michelle O's "burnished and beautiful" yet "threatening" arms

Sally Quinn: The Nation's Embracing, and Embraceable, Arms

She has come under attack for exposing her arms. They are toned and muscular, burnished and beautiful. That has to be threatening to some. For some men, often, a strong woman makes them feel diminished. For some feminists, the idea of an educated woman not taking on a full-time serious job is a frightening throwback.

What can I say but gimme a big fat break.

"May I change the subject," said a prominent Washington theologian at a recent dinner. The conversation had been high-minded -- religion, philosophy, the nature of evil. "I'd like to talk about Michelle Obama's arms," he said.

He is a big fan of those arms. We then began a discussion about the significance of the first lady's arms. Actually, it turned out to be equally serious. Michelle Obama's arms, we determined, were transformational. Her arms are representative of a new kind of woman: young, strong, vigorous, intelligent, accomplished, sexual, powerful, embracing and, most of all, loving.

She's not afraid to declare herself a mother:

Today is Mother's Day. Today we should celebrate Michelle Obama's arms as the arms of a mother.

This is a woman who has the courage to say "I am mom in chief" and make her children and her family -- unapologetically -- her No. 1 priority. She is able to do this because she is so intelligent and accomplished that she doesn't have to prove anything to anyone. She is healthy enough to be able to say, this is who I am, these are my values and my priorities.

Courageous, yet beautiful:

Michelle Obama happens to be physically beautiful. She is tall, regal, elegant and statuesque, and her power has been enhanced by that attractiveness. Jackie Kennedy had that kind of power in a different era, and she was able to use it (and her bare arms) in a symbolic way to accomplish as much as she did in the arts. One does not have to be beautiful to be a mother. Being a good mother is beautiful in itself.

Inspiring. It goes on and on. Excuse me while I go cut my throat.

*ETA:
Ms. Quinn and Tom Shales are in competition for most ardent Obama media-admirers. Remember Mr. Shales, torn between the possibilities:

We like our Obama tough even though we also like, and probably prefer, our Obama gentle.

"We"?
Mr. Shales' editor is not his friend.

**And by the way, what was Laura Bush, as a mother and a woman, chopped liver?

***"Burnished"?

****Take it away, Suzanna, and Little Miss A.

*****Sundries Shack: Jimmie on his mom. :)

******Linked by Michelle Malkin.

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