I've been staying away from any kind of sensitive politics to some degree, lately... and I can't remember why. I may have lost sight of why I created this blog in the first place. Until just recently, I guess I've had it in the back of my mind of late that, as a Christian, I shouldn't offend anyone. That's nonsense. I shouldn't harm anyone, and I should make some effort to express myself without ranting... but if I never post anything that might offend anyone, I'll have to stop blogging entirely.

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Hat tip to Where Have You Gone, Ronald Reagan? for this item... Bono has actually said something nice about Dubya:

"Well, I think [President Bush has] done an incredible job, his administration, on AIDS. And 250,000 Africans are on antiviral drugs. They literally owe their lives to America ... Yes, there's a lot of pressure on President Bush. If he, though, in his second term, is as bold in his commitments to Africa as he was in the first term, he indeed deserves a place in history in turning the fate of that continent around."

Wow. I gotta give Bono more credit. It's easy to assume that a liberal celebrity falls right in step with the US-hating left and has nothing positive to say about President Bush at all. That is, in fact, one of the main differences between today's left and today's right. Ask a conservative to name a couple of good things about Clinton's administration and he'll think about it and then actually name a couple of good things. Ask one of today's leftists to name a couple of good things about George W. Bush, and he'll balk and instead rant and rave about how Dubya is the antichrist. Bono, unlike so many leftists, seems to actually be paying attention and thinking for himself. Good for him.

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I picked this item up at Weapons of Mass Distraction:

“I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator,” (Barack) Obama said. “As a law professor and civil rights lawyer and as an African-American, I am fully aware of his limited views on race. Anyone who actually reads the Emancipation Proclamation knows it was more a military document than a clarion call for justice.”

I agree with Derek on this one; Barack Obama is right.

The Emancipation Proclamation was carefully thought out, deliberate, and important... but it really had nothing to do with freeing anyone. It was a political move, pure and simple. Lincoln was a great president, but the giving the Emancipation Proclamation credit for freeing anyone is as simple-minded as saying that the Civil War was entirely about slavery.

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If you think you're bugged about the Eminent Domain issue? Try living in New London, Connecticut.

The redevelopment program at issue in yesterday's case -- the plan of the Connecticut city of New London to turn 90 acres of waterfront land into office buildings, upscale housing, a marina and other facilities near a $300 million research center being built by pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer -- was also expected to generate hundreds of jobs and, city officials say, $680,000 in property tax revenue.

New London, with a population of about 24,000, is reeling from the 1996 closing of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, which had employed more than 1,500 people.

But owners of 15 homes on 1.54 acres of the proposed site had refused to go. One of them, Susette Kelo, had extensively remodeled her home and wanted to stay for its view of the water. Another, Wilhelmina Dery, was born in her house in 1918 and has lived there her entire life.

Tom at MuD & PHuD is doing a great job keeping up with the crisis in New London. Click here for a great deal of information and links, and click here for the latest, as of now.

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The Gun Toting Liberal has some good observations about the Supreme Court and the Ten Commandments:

Just how in the HELL do you explain 9 Supreme Court justices all showing up together at work one morning; still rubbing the sleep out of their eyes, still sipping their morning coffee, engaging in a little "small talk" to begin their day, then things get SERIOUS.

Then, in the tradition of their predecessors established over decades and DECADES... they all suddenly bow their heads together in unison to hold their morning prayer to GOD; something they've always shared together in this freaking COURTHOUSE they consider to be their place of employment, for the entire time they've been employees here.

After they all have finished praising God, asking Him to help them to guide them in their decisions, it is time for them to go to work. Before long, the majority of them agree that the 10 Commandments have no place in a COURTHOUSE. Yes, that is correct. I am not making this up. I couldn't make it up and try to pass it off as "fact"; you, the reader, would call "B.S." right away. But yep, this actually DID happen today (source: The Star Ledger). At the Supreme Court of the United States of America, even. …

With damn near every ruling they've come out with lately, I'm evermore convinced these people are little more than snobby, mental midgets who've been entrusted with more personal power than I'd feel comfortable granting to my own county licensing commissioner, much less, to the top law construers of the land.

Hey, he might call himself a “liberal,” but I’m pretty sure that the Gun Toting Liberal is a liberal of the FDR, Woodrow Wilson variety. You know, the kind of liberal that actually loves this country and doesn't see himself as the ultimate authority on everything. The kind of liberal that thinks that concepts like right, wrong, and common sense are valid, rather than thinking that such concepts aren't "nuanced" enough for the world today. Yes, it's true! Such creatures once existed! And it looks like there's still one out there! We need more of these kinds of liberals. GTL is one of the good guys.

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Nobody has time to read every blog out there, and good ones are always going to fall between the cracks. Thanks to Fedora Pundit I found out about the Gay Patriot. I agree with what he has to say about this quote from Karl Rove:

Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.....Let me just put this in fairly simple terms: Al Jazeera now broadcasts the words of Senator Durbin to the Mideast, certainly putting our troops in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals.

Gay Patriot says:

First of all, Karl Rove is absolutely correct...

...Rove said "liberals"... not necessarily Democrats. But wow, the Democrats who, in the 2004 Presidential Election couldn't run fast enough from the word "liberal" now seem to be embracing it wholeheartedly in their "outrage" I also never saw a Democrat refuse to take campaign money from MoveOn.org and their ilk.

...a brilliant chess-move by Karl Rove to refocus the country on the matters of national security and the War on Terror (Worldwide Theatres). There is no doubt in my mind that Republicans do see this as a war, while on the whole, Democrats/Liberals see this as a "police action"....in the words of John Kerry.

Karl Rove was spot on... and the Dems fell for the bait: Hook, Line & Sinker

Damn! Couldn't have said it better myself! I'm happy to add Gay Patriot to my blogroll.

He's absolutely right, and so is Rove. I don't know what it's going to take to make today's left wing nutjobs wake up to the real threat of terrorism. The smoke was still in the air above New York City after 9/11 when they started talking about how the threat of terrorism was imaginary. These people are so caught up in their self-congratulatory "enlightened" world view that they can't tell how far up their butts they've rammed their heads.

Today's liberals are mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore... trouble is, they have no idea what they're mad at. They don't understand the issues they talk about. Their grasp of world politics is as brief and insubstantial as the bumper stickers they express themselves with. They are protesters in search of something to protest, and they'll settle for issues that are beyond their comprehension. It's pointless to argue with them.

Still, Rove was right, and it needed to be said. Good for him.