Around the World Wide Web 65

1. The great thing about being a Democrat is that you can say anything, anything, no matter how contradictory or nonsensical, and know the MSM will not call you on it. For instance:

"They [Iran] don't pose a serious threat to us." May 18, 2008.
Barack Hussein Obama

"I've made it clear for years that the threat from Iran is grave." May 19, 2008.
Barack Hussein Obama

2. A look at the neoconservative "national greatness" ideology.

McCain shares with the devotees of national greatness a deep distrust of freedom. In a speech in 2002, he said: "Our freedom and our industry must aspire to more than acquisition and luxury. We must live out the true meaning of freedom, and accept 'that we have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shirk neither.'"

McCain's concept of freedom is that we can be free only as long as we sacrifice to the collective. Once this premise is established, there are no limits on what the state might dictate to individuals in the name of some higher national good.

This might strike some readers as over the top, but McCain's vision of freedom is closer to Hitler's than it is to Jefferson's.

3. Jonah Goldberg on the Messiah.

This made my jaw drop:

And then there’s the Gospel according to Obama himself. In January, he told Dartmouth students that they will know to vote for him because “... a light will shine through that window, a beam of light will come down upon you, you will experience an epiphany, and you will suddenly realize that you must go to the polls and vote for Barack.”

Did he really say that?! You will vote for Obama after receiving a mystical revelation? Was he joking?

(HT: Rational Passion)

4. Keith Olbermann and Richard Clarke fantasize on how members of the Bush administration should be punished for the war in Iraq. They are certain that the Bush administration lied to get us into Iraq, and yet there are pages of quotes from members of the Clinton administration and foreign leaders of countries such as France who were certain that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Hell, there is evidence that Saddam himself thought he had these weapons. Could it be that Bush just made a mistake in making weapons of mass destruction the central justification for war?

Olbermann and Clarke are criminalizing politics. It should prove a quick way of tearing down our tradition of free elections and the peaceful transfer of power.

5. Here is an amusing clip of Orson Welles arguing with a director over ad copy he is supposed to read. Sounds to me like Welles went into the session spoiling for a fight. Also, there is a Pinky and the Brain spoof of the Welles clip. How did people get to hear this stuff before the internet?

6. Meditating about some of the quotes above:

We have a candidate on the right whose concept of freedom is fascist. We have a candidate on the left who seems to be a radical trained in Saul Alinsky's methods, with some Messiah complex.

I wonder in fear and amazement, is this America? Is this happening in America?

If America loses its freedom, what happens to the rest of the world?

It's becoming more and more real to me, gentle readers: regardless of who wins in November, we are at the gates of hell.

UPDATE: Slight revision.