The “Benign Neglect” Party

Robb Allen, commenting at Roberta’s:

...No politician is going to say “You know, the best way for me to help you out is to leave you alone.”

Maybe not, but I’d bet you could build a pretty successful campaign if you added this:

“...and the second best way is for me to make sure those other #@(*&$^s in Washington leave you alone, too.”

Sign me up.

LATER (100514 16:50), related:

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Maybe he’s lying.

Paul Berman:  [Swiss-born islamist Tariq Ramadan] is fated by his family heritage to stand for certain things.  But he is fated by his own personal temper and the time in which he lives to stand for other things.  He upholds every possible position and its opposite, which did seem to me kind of interesting.

...I read works by [him], by his family, and sometimes by people around him.  I read works written about him.  And I marveled at the contrasts and confusions.

If you listen to Ramadan for fifteen minutes, you will learn that he says all the right things, whatever a liberal-minded person would want such a man to say.

Michael J. Totten:  He does.

Paul Berman:  He’s against bigotry, he’s against anti-Semitism, he’s against terrorism, he’s for the rights of women, he’s in favor of democratic liberties, he’s for a tolerant and multi-religious society...  There isn’t a single objectionable point in the first fifteen minutes of his presentation.

MJT:  Yes.

Paul Berman:  Unfortunately, the sixteenth minute arrives, and, if you are still paying attention, you learn that he wants us to revere the most vicious and and reactionary of Islamist sheikhs -- the people who promote violence, bigotry, totalitarianism, and terror.  The sixteenth minute is not good.  The liberal quality of his thinking falls apart entirely.
...
Tariq Ramadan tells his audiences: you must tread in the path of Hassan al-Banna.  This means treading in the path of all kinds of terrible people.  But Ramadan also says: the path of Hassan al-Banna is the path of democracy, tolerance, and rationalism.  And so, Ramadan introduces a remarkable ambiguity into the debate, which ends up producing a sea of intellectual confusion.

"Ambiguity” maybe, but the "intellectual confusion” probably lies only in the minds of his audience.  Because Ramadan is likely engaged in taqiyya - systematic lying to the infidel for religious purposes.

It has full Quranic authority (3:28 and 16:106) and allows the Muslim to conform outwardly to the requirements of unislamic or non-Islamic government, while inwardly "remaining faithful” to whatever he conceives to be proper Islam, while waiting for the tide to turn. - Mervyn Hiskett, Some to Mecca Turn to Pray: Islamic Values and the Modern World

Meaning we must firmly keep in mind that what’s actually going on is: We’re being conned.

Elsewhere:

Via:  IP

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 01:15:08 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Behind the curve?

In the e-mail, a week ago: “NFIB SmartBrief: Better marketing with Facebook, Twitter”

Today:

Start typing “How do I” into a Google search...

...As of this post, the #6 suggestion is:

“How do I delete my Facebook account”

Well, it was a nice idea...

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 17:56:29 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Another triumph for Indiana Republicans

Dick Lugar awakens, speaks:

I am deeply concerned that [Utah Senator Bob Bennett] faces opposition that I don’t believe is warranted.

And how’d that work for ya? What say we check in over at Ace of Spades...?


Too bad Indiana couldn’t have done that to Dan Coats.

Via: “It's Vintage, Duh,” who responds (at ++undead):

How about this, asshole: The people of Utah get to decide if it's warranted, not you.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 00:46:39 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Give ’em hell, Arizona

Nathan:

If leftists keep boycotting Arizona, it might become a reasonable place to retire.

...or at least for a vacation.

And (building on Nathan’s post)...  Oh, by the way, can you say “No tax dollars to professional sports?”

Related:

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 18:04:54 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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More reasons that Congress==a bunch of weasels

Alliance for Natural Health (HT: Bill Quick):

The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 (H.R. 4173), recently passed in the House of Representatives, includes language going far beyond finance inserted by Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA).  This language could be used for an end run around the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), the legislation that governs dietary supplement regulation by the FDA [by expanding powers of the FTC].

Washington Post (via Ed, via: Insty):

The Federal Trade Commission could become a more powerful watchdog for Internet users under a little-known provision in financial overhaul legislation that would expand the agency’s ability to create rules.
...
The version of regulatory overhaul legislation passed by the House would allow the FTC to issue rules on a fast track and permit the agency to impose civil penalties on [internet service providers] that hurt consumers.^[1]

Reason One:  Instead of forthrightly passing regulations that might be unpopular, “enabling” their implementation by unelected agencies.

Reason Two:  Burying the “enabling” in unrelated legislation, in hope no one will notice.

And then there’s this:

Remember all that scorn in Congress about evil shortsellers betting against America and bringing the country down?

Well, it turns out Congress-people did it, too.  And they used derivatives to do it, which they now say they abhor.

Via Instapundit, who quotes reader George Poletes:

A member of Congress purchasing bearish exchange-traded funds is analogous to a professional baseball [player] betting against his own team.

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Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 16:19:51 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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