A Perfect Example of Pro-Obama Media Bias

Take a close look at this story:


Do you notice something strange about the headline and about the way it's written? It completely misleads the casual reader, trying to imply that a top McCain aide thinks that he and Palin are the primary ones in this election unsuitable to run a corporation.

That's not what she said. She succinctly stated that neither of the 4 top contenders - Obama, McCain, Biden, & Palin - have the experience and background to run a major corporation. That's definitely the case WITH ALL FOUR OF THEM, so why try to say something quite different in a N-E-W-S story?

No media bias? Give me a break!!!

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Of the four of them, Sarah Palin clearly has the most executive experience. But no mention of that of course.

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Update: Dennis Prager expands upon my exact thoughts (a day later) here @ 16:40.

John McCain Tribute Video

Handicapped Americans: Fair Game in Obama Ads

Is Sarah Palin an Anti-Feminist?

Earlier today I was referred to this editorial from Ann Althouse's popular blog. To it I added this comment:

If I happen to not hate Sarah Palin does that make me a “troll” by your way of thinking? Put another way, all of you are of course free to think any way you wish (as am I), but thinking the way you do, are you open to actually listening to others who happen to have another point of view?

Here are two interesting articles that I found most enlightening:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2008/09/10/palin/index.html
http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.28410/pub_detail.asp

Compare those with these:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler/drill-drill-drill_b_124829.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/09/05/f-vp-mallick.html

If you still choose to label me as a troll, simply because I very politely and respectfully chose to post this then that’s your prerogative. It would be sad though.

Someone with the moniker of "JPlum" responded with this:

Robert, we have listened to other points of view, and disagreed with them. Reality, in fact, disagrees with Paglia’s opinion that Palin is a feminist. You see, feminists advocate for the rights of women. Palin advocates taking away the rights of women. Therefore, she is not a feminist. How many times do we have to say this? Opposing policies and funding that would help women is the antithesis of feminism. Palin opposes policies and funding that would help women. Therefor she is the antithesis of feminism.

I could say that you, Robert, are a turnip. Does that make you a turnip? Do you possess many-or any-of the qualities that make up a turnip? No? Then, I could call you a turnip ‘til the polar bears come home* and it wouldn’t actually turn you into a turnip.

*Ssince Sarah Palin wants to take polar bears off the endangered species list, we could be waiting a while for them to come home

To that I responded with this, which I felt I should repost here:

Thank you for your thoughtful response, JPlum. Consider this though: Your political views assert that more government funded programs are the answer to solving problems. Fair enough. But others just as sincerely believe that such programs are unnecessary and, in fact, often have the opposite effect. You have every right to disagree with such people and believe that your way is the better way. But then to go the extra step and conclude that therefore such people don't care about 'X' or want to take away the rights of 'X' is a logical leap of faith that is not warranted.

I'll give you a good case in point. Checking out my blog you would have learned that I'm a Canadian living in Vancouver, BC. We're currently engaged in our own federal election these days.

One of the parties asserts that the best way to provide low-cost childcare is to create government funded childcare programs to which any family (no means test) can take their children to for less than $10 per day. There's only so much money available for this, so once the funds are spent, no more families will be eligible.

Another party doesn't think such a program is equitable because it provides no funding for families who choose for either the mother or the father to stay at home with the children until they enter school. So they've decided to give money directly to all parents, totaling a budget amount that's comparable to what the first party wanted to spent on their program.

A 3rd party may come along and feel that current funding for current health care and education is also strapped and choose to increase the budgets of these existing programs instead of creating a new childcare program. Or perhaps they feel that with a rapidly growing elderly population, more money needs to go to low income seniors instead of to families where both parents are still of working age.

Like you, I would have my own opinion on which party's platform makes the most sense but perhaps unlike you, I would never say that any are "taking away the rights of children or parents". It makes for a great soundbite but only goes to stifle debate.

Here's another example. I frequently visit Chicago. I have a good friend there named Melissa who has been a registered Democrat all of her adult life. We've often discussed the massive ghettos that exist on the Southside of Chicago. She carefully explained to me the history of how they got to the abysmal state they're now in. Back in the 1960's well meaning politicians felt that the poor needed to be provided for. So they built huge apartment complexes which later became known as "The Projects". Apartments were provided at low or even no cost. Over time they deteriorated so badly that now many are being demolished.

Why did this happen? I think it can be summed up in one word: Incentive. More accurately, the lack thereof. If you give someone something for nothing and continue to do it over time, most people take it for granted. This is because you've taken away any incentive for them to try harder, work harder, and strive for more. I'm not a particularly religious person but there's an old parable that is quite apropos: "Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day (and be back again tomorrow looking for another fish). But teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime."

I realize that some consider this parable to be a fallacy. I, on the other hand, adamantly believe it is the cornerstone of human psychology.

In case you're interested, I passed on our conversation to a female friend of mine here in Vancouver. She's 46, a single mom, upper-middle class but not wealthy. In times past I've heard her describe herself as a strong feminist, but not a radical one. Her words, not mine. She's no fan of Sarah Palin (or Barack Obama) but is adamant that Palin is just as much a feminist as you or she is.

I can only conclude therefore that what you're really against is Sarah Palin's more libertarian views on the size and breadth of government. In the democracies we both live in you have absolutely every right to oppose her political views. In fact, I sincerely compliment you for exercising your democratic rights. But when you then jump the shark and assert that she is not a feminist, you choose to stray far away from what this woman has actually accomplished in her life and how much inspiration she is giving little girls to aspire to be anything they want to be.

Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator

An Obama supporter has created a Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator, intended to denigrate her. But in a perhaps not unexpected turn of events, Palin supporters are now wearing their altered names with pride! Turns out I'm "Rust Mustang Palin". Here are the monikers of some famous pundits and politicians:

Mark Steyn		Ladel Torque Palin
Michelle Malkin		Khaki Salmon Palin
Rush Limbaugh		Crank Widow Palin
Sean Hannity		Speck Backfire Palin
Mark Levin		Stoppage Lead Palin
Bob Grant		Pump Bust Palin
Hugh Hewitt		Strangle Thicket Palin
Dennis Prager		Bomb Locamotive Palin
Laura Ingraham		Puck Mule Palin
Dennis Miller		Hen Waffle Palin
Ann Coulter		Plop Hero Palin
Amy Alkon		Bowl Antler Palin
Maureen Dowd		Spackle Camshaft Palin
John McCain		Steam Fangs Palin
Ronald Reagan		Shot Corrugated Palin
Abraham Lincoln		Still Hardrock Palin
George Bush		Open Aircraft Palin
Dick Cheney		Wood Corps Palin
Stephen Harper		Tangle Jig Palin
Stephane Dion		Mole Valdez Palin
Gordon Brown		Rope Hoover Palin
Hugo Chavez		Hlater Grasshopper Palin
Fidel Castro		Revolver Trooper Palin

Will Obama's Arrogance Destroy Obama?

Here's a detailed, fascinating article published in the UK's Telegraph newspaper. Here are some key quotes from it:

A senior Democratic strategist, who has played a prominent role in two presidential campaigns, told The Sunday Telegraph: "These guys are on the verge of blowing the greatest gimme in the history of American politics. They're the most arrogant bunch Ive ever seen. They won't accept that they are losing and they won't listen." A Democratic National Committee official told The Sunday Telegraph: "I really find it offensive when Democrats ask the Republicans not to be nasty to us, which is effectively what Obama keeps doing. They know thats how the game is played."

The Democratic strategist told The Sunday Telegraph: "[Obama's inner circle] thinks they know best. They don't return calls. There are governors and senators calling them up with ideas. They don't get back to them. "These are senior people from the border states and the South who know how to beat Republicans, and they're being ignored. They ignored everyone during the primaries and they came through it, so they think they can do the same again."

Mark Cunningham of the New York Post summed up the private views of many: "If it suddenly seems like the Obama campaign doesn't have any idea what it's doing, maybe that's because it doesn't."

Doug Schoen, a former pollster for Bill Clinton, last week declared it insanity not to concentrate resources on the swing states. The Democratic strategist said: "My Republican friends think its mad. Before Sarah Palin came along we were investing money in Alaska, for Christ's sake, that could have been spent in Ohio and Pennsylvania. It assumes Republicans are stupid and, when it comes to winning elections, they're not."

Peggy Noonan, the former Reagan speechwriter, blamed the defection of women voters from Mr Obama on the atom bomb of ritual abuse by left-wing bloggers and Democratic officials, painting Mrs Palin as a bad mother and religious weirdo. Ms Noonan wrote: "The snobbery of it, the meanness of it, reminded the entire country, for the first time in a decade, what it is they don't like about the Left." The Republican strategist Dan Schnur said that the effect was to repel blue collar, family-oriented voters. "They didn't like Obama in the primaries and voted for Hillary. And they still don't like him now so they're voting for Palin."

Latest News on "Troopergate"

Matt Damon and Chevy Chase must be crying today, as Sarah Palin fights back with actual facts in the so-called "Troopergate" investigation. Here are the actual documents she released.

Sarah Palin vs. Teddy Roosevelt

My favourite radio talk show host, John Batchelor, is also a well regarded historian. He makes an interesting comparison between Sarah Palin and Teddy Roosevelt here.

First Interview with Todd Palin

Todd Palin races snow machines on a 2,000 mile races, flies his own plane, and drops moose. Sarah Palin is married to the American James Bond!

The Next Prime Minister of Israel?

Tzipi Livni is Israel's Foreign Minister but may very well be the Prime Minister of the country by early 2009.

You can read much more here.

The world's a changin'!

Obama Compulsive Disorder

The hallowed NBC brand of old is now devolved into MSNBC's Matthews-Olbermann embarrassment. The once revered Atlantic Monthly now hosts blogger Andrew Sullivan trafficking in rumors that Gov. Palin's daughter really delivered her Down Syndrome child, and then hires an unhinged photographer (best known previously for making children cry to make political statements) who brags post facto that she tried to subvert her own cover photos of McCain, before posting creepy photo-shopped out-takes of him on her website. To read a NY Times columnist is to be told ad nauseam that Gov. Palin is a bumpkin hockey mom. Whether an US magazine cover picture of Palin, or the Washington Post's recycling old stories about Cindy McCain, the result is always the same: a concerted effort to ensure an Obama election.

The university crowd weighs in with op-eds warning us about white rural culture and the toxic landscapes that raised Sarah Palin, or why she is a counterfeit woman who piggybacked on the heroic work of pro-abortion pioneers. Every day another Hollywood dimwit—a Matt Damon, Lindsay Lohan, or Chevy Chase—attacks Palin or McCain in a fashion as crude as it is half-educated and incoherent.

Is it that hard to see, then, why McCain is dead-even or ahead—even when the incumbent Republican brand is suffering by association to war, economic uncertainty, and now financial meltdown?

There is a growing public anger at the petty amateurish biases of those who claim they are sophisticated and subtle; and it is not just that they sympathize with a smeared Palin, but are angry that the media thinks they are so stupid not to catch on. The odder thing still is that the media obsession has turned into some sort of compulsive disorder—they know that they are way out of bounds; know that they are hurting their own candidate Obama— and they know that they simply can't and won't quit now.

Victor Davis Hanson

A Radical Liberal's Sense of Humor

Speculate no further about what constitutes an extreme liberal's sense of humor:

What is one supposed to say to this other than Sicker Than Sick!

If you'd like to see another example of what another radical liberal considers funny then click here.

The Roots of Palin Derangement Syndrome

On August 1, 2008, long before Sarah Palin became a national figure, an academic & author named Christina Hoff Sommers authored this lengthy but fascinating essay that documents the history of feminism and how it has evolved (devolved?) into its current state.

She was vilified in despicable ways by the same feminists for the same reasons they attack Palin: both women do not subscribe to the extremely radical left-wing views of the "official" feminist movement.

Her essay is indeed a long one but well worth reading if you want to understand what is fueling PDS. Here are some key parts:

Pick up a women's studies textbook, visit a college women's center, or look at the websites of leading feminist organizations, and you will likely find the same fixation on intimate anatomy combined with left-wing politics and a poisonous antipathy to men. (Campus feminists were among the most vocal and zealous accusers of the young men on the Duke University lacrosse team who were falsely indicted for rape in 2006.)

But modern "women's liberation" has little to do with liberty. It aims not to free women to pursue their own interests and inclinations, but rather to reeducate them to attitudes often profoundly contrary to their natures. In "Professing Feminism: Education and Indoctrination in Women's Studies (2003)", two once-committed women's studies professors, Daphne Patai and Noretta Koertge, describe how the feminist classroom transforms idealistic female students into "relentless grievance collectors."

In 1991, the culture critic and dissident feminist Camille Paglia put the matter even more bluntly. She described women's studies as

a jumble of vulgarians, bunglers, whiners, French faddicts, apparatchiks, dough-faced party-liners, pie-in-the-sky utopians and bullying sanctimonious sermonizers. Reasonable, moderate feminists hang back and keep silent in the face of fascism.

Truth be told, there are also great numbers of contemporary American women who would today readily label themselves as feminists were they aware of a conservative alternative in which liberty, rather than "liberation," is the dominant idea. Today, more than 70 percent of American women reject the label "feminist," largely because the label has been appropriated by those who reject the very idea of a feminine sphere.

In a 1975 exchange in the Saturday Review, the feminist pioneer Betty Friedan and the French philosopher and women's rights advocate Simone de Beauvoir discussed the "problem" of stay-at-home mothers. Friedan told Beauvoir that she believed women should have the choice to stay home to raise their children if that is what they wished to do. Beauvoir candidly disagreed:

No, we don't believe that any woman should have this choice. No woman should be authorized to stay at home to raise her children. Society should be totally different. Women should not have that choice, precisely because if there is such a choice, too many women will make that one.

In Beauvoir, we see how starkly the ideology of liberation has come to oppose actual, practical liberty--even "choice." Her intolerance and condescension toward family-centered women is shared by many in today's feminist establishment and has affected the education of American students. Historian Christine Rosen, in a recent survey of women's studies texts, found that every one disparaged traditional marriage, stay-at-home mothers, and the culture of romance. Perhaps there is a sensible women's studies text out there somewhere, but, for the most part, the sphere of life that has the greatest appeal to most women and is inseparable from traditional ideas of feminine fulfillment is rejected in the name of liberation.

Today's feminist establishment in the United States is dominated by the radical wing of the egalitarian tradition. Not only do its members not cooperate with their conservative sisters, but they also often denigrate and vilify them; indeed they have all but eliminated them from the history of American feminism. Revisionist history is never a pretty sight. But feminist revisionists are destructive in special ways. They seek to obliterate not only feminist history but the femininity that made it a success.

[Young women of the U.S. can] make the movement attractive once again to the silent majority of American women who really do not want to be liberated from their womanhood. And then take on the cause of the women who have yet to find the liberty that Western women have won for themselves and that all women everywhere deserve.

Smash From the Past!

I received a call out of the blue today from a lawyer about this car accident that occurred nearly 3 years ago. As I often do, I had my camera with me and captured these scenes. He was absolutely blown away that I was able to provide him with photos. Welcome to the Brave New Digital World!

BC Cancer Research Building

I've always loved this building!

South Granville Landmarks Soon To Disappear

Remember the old Pretenders song, My City Was Gone? That's what my neighbourhood of South Granville has felt like for some time. The latest stores to go are these, the butcher, the baker, and grocery store. Sadness.

Assorted Photos

We're still enjoying an unexpected late summer here in Vancouver. Here's a shot of several downtown buildings, along with the Northshore mountains in the background.

This is the massive redevelopment on West Broadway at Cambie Street.
Finally the Barcode Nightclub in the 1200 Block West Broadway was knocked down!

Eve Ensler - The Heather Mallick of the U.S.

If you'd like to see how deeply PDS has infected some, read this hate-filled diatribe by Eve Ensler. Seems to be reminiscent of her fellow deranged Canadian cousin, Heather Mallick.

Let me respond directly to some of the things she wrote:

I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.
You claim to not like raging at women but then go on to spew more venom than even a King Cobra snake (or Queen Cobra if you prefer). You allude to the "goodness and solidarity of Feminists" before illustrating that there is no "goodness" in your hate piece whatsoever. The only solidarity that you & your ilk have is how much vile bile you can spew out at Sarah Palin and by extension any Americans who disagree with your narrow world view.


But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.
You really mean "antithetical to Radical Leftist Feminism" but are too disingenuous to admit it. Sarah Palin is very much a feminist. Furthermore, using your own words, let's look at what you're really saying about Palin: She is trying to destroy the earth, in support of racism, disenfranchising women, giving young girls no options, closing the minds of fellow women, encouraging intolerance, and promoting violence and war.

Do you know the meaning of the phrase, "deep irony"? You're charging a woman who is running for vice-president of the United States of America as disenfranchising women and giving young girls no options? Even one of your gal pals, Judith Warner, has realized how incredibly incorrect your assertion is. Do you even realize, Ms. Ensler, that if you said this about a regular person that you'd be found guilty on multiple counts of libel?!? Indeed, "truth" is a defense, but you're not speaking on the side of truth.


I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover.
Such insane rhetoric has just guaranteed McCain-Palin more votes. Many more votes!


Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently.
No Ms. Ensler, YOU do not believe in independent thinking. She did not try to ban books from the library, no matter how many times you wish to repeat this lie. When it comes to asserting that someone else does not believe in thinking, 3 words come to mind: Pot, Kettle, Black.


Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.
Do you actually understand that your liberal elitist view that no American should be allowed to go hunting only exists amongst a radical minority in America? Your comment about her shooting wolves from the air is a LIE. The Alaskan Aerial Predator program was enacted to cull the wolf population (and bears in some areas) so as to expand the numbers of moose and caribou. Are you a moose-ist and caribou-ist, Ms Ensler? As for Sarah Palin killing "40 caribou at a clip", can we see the proof please?! Or did this vision of her only occur in your dreams? Ancillary question: Do you eat meat?


Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right.

But you don't like very much that she believes in God, do you Ms. Ensler? It's pretty scary for you that she does, isn't it?! Quick question: How come Barack Obama's Christian beliefs have never been a source of controversy?


Toward the end of her piece she epouses this great piece of wisdom:

If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.
I'm too busy shaking my head to say much. I guess being a former mining engineer makes me a rapist. At least in your tiny, extremely radical left-wing mind.

Pop Political Quiz

I am under 45 years old,
I love the outdoors,
I hunt,
I am a Republican reformer,
I have taken on the Republican Party establishment,
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La Luna

Taken by a good friend of mine in Metro Seattle.