Another Offering from that King of Comedic Writing, John

Our friend John, the right-wing commenter strikes again with more humor, grammatical errors and unrelenting rant over at Rick Esenberg's Shark and Shepherd.

Rick and our very own hero, the unpatriotic, LIBERAL, lose at all costs villain, Jay Bullock (folkbum's rambles and rants) are engaged in a fine discussion on waterboarding (is it torture or a fun summer activity) and whether or not waterboarding (the tortuous kind) was really effective in getting Abu Zubadayh to confess to vicious plots against American citizens, or to the location of his favorite hot dog stands on the east coast.

John decided to take matters into his own hands and he came up with this gem ... nay, masterpiece (note the exquisite use of the sticky caps lock key).

Rick, whether waterboarding has been effective "enough", is specious and unrelated to the question of whether it is TORTURE or not.

To wit, Jay et al, will NEVER acknowledge a rough technique as being "effective", as long as Jay, et al, are "invested" in discrediting President Bush, and as such are "invested" in our countries "discredit or failure" in terms of political discourse.

It's far beyond obvious. Jay Bullock, will NEVER, accept any victories by our Country, so long as HIS, party/friends, are not responsible for said victories.

That is pretty much the emblematic definition of being a traitor,(yes I am questioning Jay's patiotism or lack thereof).

Rick, I'm confident that you agree, but as usual, I recognize that you are above most of this rancor.I'll end with this.

Jay Bullock sais the following:

((No one has been able to demonstrate that a single life has been saved or a single attack prevented through the use of the technique}}

Rick, if you do not recognize how far Jay Bullock and his like, will go to deny what is obvious, then you too are nuts.

John's confidence that Rick will agree with him may or may not be founded in fact. I'd bet the house John's confidence is misplaced, however, it does beg another question. Most of us would agree that a large percentage of conservative writers are well-meaning and thoughtful (stop laughing back there, it's the season for generosity). Truly though, most do not stoop to John's level. The question being begged is when does Rick, and even Jessica McBride (whose blog John frequents) who has famously decried anonymous commenters though John has no blog and anyone could set up with the name John to make comments, say something about this clown?

I see all the time where liberal voices will disagree with each other and even call out someone for something said. Heck, in one of my more sleepy moments I once wrote something untrue about James Wigderson as a comment at Jay's blog. James caught it and wrote a gracious denial, even suspecting that I had to have been tired. Jay jumped on it and told me quite frankly it wasn't true.

I offered my apologies to James, which he accepted. We all make mistakes, but Jay stood up for a - gasp – conservative. Frankly, other than James who is always fair (and perhaps Dean Mundy, though I read his blog less often, to my shame) I have never seen another do the same.

It's really not that big of a deal. John's comments do provide comic relief and fodder for more Whallah posts, but it would be nice to see it happen just occasionally.

Howling at the Moon

Rick Esenberg recently commented about a post by Mike McCabe (some Democratic party guy ... I don't really know all their names) that, Esenberg said, ranted a bit about the listening audience of Charlie Sykes' show, and, presumably, talk radio in general (I have no link because one was not provided and anyway, that's not really what this post is about).

I found this paragraph at the end of Esenberg's post interesting.

I am gobsmacked by the fact that a presumably sophisticated and intelligent public figure actually thinks that talk radio's audience is made up of bible thumping young earth creationists. If you really think that folks you don't agree with must be a bunch of mouth-breathing morons, I suppose you never will encounter any ideas but your own and will continue to commit howler after howler in your isolation. If you think that you and your friends are oh-so-much-smarter, why take anyone else seriously? Why take the time to make sure that you know what you're talking about?

Aside from Esenberg playing a little bit of the victim game (oh those darn libs think they are so smart), one cannot help but wonder whether he feels as gobsmacked by the fact that four of the Republican candidates for president have admitted to disbelieving evolution in favor of the notion of the 6,000 year-old Earth (Sen. John McCain, Sen. Mike Huckabee, Sen. Sam Brownback and Rep. Tom Tancredo).

Oh those creationist-believing Christian candidates, they think they are so much more inteliigent by design than the rest of us. Talk about howler after howler just to capture votes.

Friday Thoughts

My five-month old daughter, Quin, has been taking up most of my time at late ... and gardening.

I have two older children, but I was not as involved, nor interested really, in their early baby years. I fed them their bubbas (baby bottles), changed their often stinky diapers and tossed them around a bit (the kids, not the diapers). Taking care of a baby full-time is quite a bit more. Consequently, less time for other activities ... a sacrifice I am glad to make (and I am sure many in the blogging world are glad of too).

Quin is an awful lot of fun. She rolls over onto her tummy now. The other day I set her down on the rug by her toys and turned away to do something for no more than a minute and she had rolled half-way across the rug ... she looked up at me with a huge toothless grin as though to say, "Look what I did, Daddy."

We read together. We watch Law and Order and Star Trek together. We even sing together. She makes a humming sound occassionally. When I join in we can actually harmonize. I have a song made for her (similar to one I made up for my other kids).

I know this little girl

Her name is Quin

Her favorite thing is to ride on her Schwin

Yes it is ... yeah yeah yeah

Yes it is.

I love my little baby

I love her so

I love very much

To nibble on the toes

of baby Quin.

And on and on ... she also likes it when I make clucking sounds. None of which the general public will ever hear ... Probably for the best (regarding their ear drums).

No where in any of the time we spend together do I talk politics. But I do have to say this ... I hope she never has to live in a world in which the distasteful affirmative action policy recommendations of Glenn Grothman are enacted. In Grothman's world, song and dance is something minorities should be good at (It's in their genes, right?). And, regarding his recommendation that affirmative action applicants be able to speak the language of the heritage they claim ... raise your hands if any of you can remember how to speak the language of your African ancestors, 300 years removed?

Rick Esenberg was right that no one is planning to do a Kristallnacht anytime soon ... regarding the smashing of windows and shops and such. I suppose I can agree that some sort of verification might be required. However, not in the abominable ways that Grothman proposed. You see, I do believe it's a spiritual Kristallnacht that Grothmanand his kind are planning. One in which the American traditions of fair play and decency are thrown out to accomodate the wishes of a few angry white men.

By the way, the garden is coming along nicely, considering the reduced amount of time I have to work on it. As I write I'm thinking of the thistles that must be removed, and some new plants that must be planted in the front before Sunday (we're having a big barbecue ... more on that later).

UPDATE: More today from Michael Mathias on the onerous tactics of Grothman.