digamma.net - notes

So on the Corner, I saw this:

GAY PATRIOT SILENCED [Jonah Goldberg]
I posted his stuff several times around here. He’s been bullied out of the blogging business.

And on Instapundit I saw this:

MORE crushing of dissent. (Via LGF).

I followed the link to Outlet Radio to see exactly what outrage was being perpetrated on this gay patriot.

GayPatriot, the anonymous gay Republican blogger, has officially signed off. In a statement, no explanation was given. With GayPatriot’s permission, I am now able to recount the real story.

On Friday, GayPatriot posted “WANTED: GAY TERRORISTS” in which he identified gay activists and bloggers John Aravosis (Americablog) and Michael Rogers (BlogActive) as terrorists.

I had to stop reading there. What is the world coming to if I can’t identify bloggers as terrorists anymore?

I haven’t posted on the Schiavo case because I didn’t care much about it. But now I do.

From Knight-Ridder, via Eschaton:

Agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement told police in Pinellas Park, where Schiavo lies at Hospice Woodside, that they were on the way to take her to a hospital to resume her feeding.

For a brief period Thursday morning, local police, who have officers around the hospice to keep protesters out, prepared for what sources called a showdown.

A “showdown” between local and state police. In 2005, not 1805. In the United States of America, not Sierra Leone.

Whatever you think about this case, is it really worth the breakdown of law and order?

Over at chez Yglesias, there’s a discussion going on about when one can and cannot claim to have visited a country or state. The consensus is, as usual, that a layover in an airport does not count as a visit to its location. And, as usual, I am the lone dissenter.

I ate food, bought souvenirs, and talked to people during layovers in Narita and Keflavik that I would not have encountered anywhere but in their respective countries. In Narita, I even got online and trolled elementropy for saying nice things about Justice Hugo Black, author of Michelle Malkin’s favorite decision. Was I lying when I said I was in Japan at the time?

Anyway, I won’t do one of those maps, because there are big countries of which I’ve visited very small pieces, and I don’t deserve those big blotches of red. I’ve also been to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, which takes up no space on the map, but of which I’m much more proud. So the maps mean nothing.

Another Monday night, another hour in the life of AMIGO - America’s Most Incompetent Government Organization.

• Best line of the episode: “Secretary Heller is very sensitive to personal conflicts on the job.” I would hope so. His two top assistants, one of whom is his daughter, are screwing, one of them is currently out endangering the life of the other’s husband. Oh, and his son has been in some kind of torture chamber for a few hours, although we haven’t seen him for a period of time that vastly exceeds this show’s attention span.
• Second best line of the episode: “I can’t force you to leave your own property.” I can torture you or kidnap you, but I’ve got to draw the line somewhere.
• The heartfelt conversation between Heller and Audrey confirmed all of Jim Henley’s criticisms, which I’ve tried to refute, and was pretty damn sexist to boot. “I know it’s hard, honey, but deep down you know torturing your husband was what a man like Jack has to do.”
• Tony didn’t just “risk his career” to save Michelle. He risked the lives of everyone living in the US who wasn’t confirmed as immune to the virus. It was outright treason, and he should still be in prison for it.
• On the subject of torture, it’s been noted before that they seem to find a different interrogation method for everyone. So in the age of Abu Ghraib, why not get creative? They should have established Sarah as homophobic and then put her in a pyramid of naked chicks.
• The producers should really get a sitcom laughtrack and have it fire anytime someone says, “Go to AMIGO - you’ll be safe there.”

Napoleon Dynamite finally came up in my Netflix queue after I was told by any number of people that I just HAD to see it and, well, Shaun Brady of Philadelphia City Paper said it better than I possibly could, in devastatingly few words:

The bastard child of Rushmore and Welcome to the Dollhouse, Jared Hess’ debut marries Wes Anderson’s 2-D compositions and deadpan smash-cuts to Todd Solondz’s misfit grotesques, but lacks his predecessors’ flair for empathy…. Heder throws himself vigorously into the role and can’t help but earn some laughs along the way, but the endless variations on the same joke soon grow tiresome and Hess too often resorts to laughing down at his characters. Only Tina Majorino, as Napoleon’s would-be love interest, creates anything resembling a human being; the rest of the cast are one-note caricatures and clothes hangers for thrift store kitsch.

Straight up. I’d question whether Solondz ever really had a flair for empathy, but that’s another post.

Via Arthur Silber and Atrios, I find this lovely slice of American life:

The only way to get her sons back early would be if one were killed, captured, maimed or missing.

Then the so-called Sullivan rule, named for the Iowa family who lost five sons on the USS Juneau after it was attacked in 1942, would apply. Swann could request that her remaining sons be excluded from combat or any duty that would expose them to hostile fire.

That’s what John and Lori Witmer did when their daughter Michelle, 20, was killed in Iraq last year serving in the Wisconsin National Guard. Her sister Rachel, 25, who served with her in the 32nd Military Police Company, and her twin sister, Charity, 21, a medic, did not to return to Iraq after their parents pleaded that they be allowed to remain stateside….

Their decision led to death threats and criticism from some who thought the other daughters should return to their units despite their sister’s death, he said. Radio stations held call-in discussions and the family received numerous threatening phone calls.

What has consistently amazed about the craziness that’s happened in this country since September 11, 2001 is how little of it the military is actually responsible for. After Abu Ghraib, the right-wing here at home desperately reached for every pathetic excuse, while military authorities responded quickly and convicted those responsible.

Here we have a policy voluntarily created by the United States Armed Forces. But try to take advantage of it, and all hell breaks loose - not from the military, but from the patriotic correctness police at home - known online as the 101st Fighting Keyboarders - isn’t satisfied.

All along over the last three and a half years, the military have been the good guys, and all the worst decisions and behavior have come from civilian leadership.

You know why we need publicly-funded campaigns and restrictions on privately-funded political speech? Because otherwise those damn Republicans and their corporate paymasters will control the debate!

Oh, wait:

WASHINGTON (AP) - A new Social Security war room inside the Treasury Department is pumping out information to sell President Bush’s plan, much like any political campaign might do. It’s part of a coordinated effort by the Bush administration.

The internal, taxpayer-funded campaigning is backed up by television advertisements, grass-roots organizing and lobbying from business and other groups that support the Bush plan. The president’s opponents are organized too, though they do not enjoy the resources of the White House or Treasury to sell their message.

So before you take out an ad opposing Bush’s “plan” for Social Security in a newspaper, and before you can contribute to MoveOn or some other group planning something similar, part of each paycheck is going to pay to steer the debate against you. Congratulations.

Reason #359823735 why I have always opposed campaign finance “reform".