Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the sphere… The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble.
This is the “No Little Fish” edition. I mean, I like Anchovies, but on pizza? No thanks.
UCSB political scientist Aaron Belkins‘ HuffPo piece “Obama To Fire His First Gay Arabic Linguist” has drawn quite a bit of blogospheric attention.
Dan Choi, a West Point graduate and officer in the Army National Guard, who is fluent in Arabic and who returned recently from Iraq, received notice today that the military is about to fire him. Why? Because he came out of the closet as a gay man on national television.
[…]
I spent a day with Dan Choi last month, and he is not someone we want to fire from the military. He loves the armed forces. He served bravely under tough combat conditions in Iraq. His Arabic is excellent, and he used his language skills to diffuse many tough situations and to save lives, both Iraqi and American. All of his unit mates know he is gay, and they have been very supportive of him. But he doesn’t want to live a lie.
James gets busy with the blame thing that’s bopping around the sphere just now. I’m not interested past the smirk on my face to see the left ripping itself apart over this one, again.
Let’s consider a practical aspect of this, however; Even absent the political implications here in the west, an openly homosexual translator, doesn’t seem like it would go over well in the Arab world, given their cultural weighting on the subject of homosexuality.
We are told that we must respect their cultures to make any headway with them and understand and acquiesce to their cultural wishes. (The sight of Nancy Pelosi wearing a Muslim inspired head covering leaps to mind) Is Homosexuality the one place where this cultural respect is given a pass by liberals, I wonder?
Washington, we have a problem: I note that the drumbeat over “torture” is slowing down a bit. Why? Well, Pelosi lying about being told is one factor, but as Ann Alhouse notes, most Americans approve of it anyway. Obama finds himself on the wrong side of this discussion. One of her commentors there nails it:
Actually, America thinks the Bush administration used the proper amount of coercion to extract information from our captured enemies. Most of us don’t consider what they did torture. Have you heard of anyone volunteering to have a battery hooked up to his john thomas just to demonstrate how bad torture is? Well, several have volunteered to be waterboarded.
Exactly. Next case, please. That’s the thing about taking the high moral ground in California… the ground out there isn’t very stable.
Got a Job? Matt Hoy… ( he of ‘HoyStory” fame) …is looking for something… (BBCT: Glenn) Matt’s site is an old fave of the Bitmaster, and one frankly I lost contact with for a while. He was on the blog roll when we were over at Blogspot years ago.
Card Check scam on Twitter: Speaking of Glenn, he passes along info about a scam currently going on Twitter. Seems to me I recall liberals screaming that their guy lost because people didn’t know what they were voting for and thereby their votes shouldn’t be counted…. Anyone recall the Butterfly ballot?
The Drew Factor: They arrested Drew Peterson, and charged him with the death of his third wife. It strieks me that any defense lawyer over the age of two is going to insist that given the coverage this guy has gotten that no venue in the country si a gurantee of a ‘fair’ trial. Then again, he seems to have managed to attract a number of females despite his long string of ‘bad luck’ where their longevity is concerned. Maybe they’ll find a jury similarly inclined to trust him. I wonder; is this how Democrats get elected?
The Obama version of Honest: Speaking of beig eleced despite one’s history, there’s the case of one Ronald Sims. Nominated by Obama despite this criminal history, he was blown through the Democrat controlled committee, without a single question. Gee. Some change, huh?
Recovery? I refuse to take seriously any claims by Obama that he’s serious about getting our economy back on track when he starts in with nonsense like this. The short version of the link: Obama’s going to effectively raise taxes on oil companies, saying the ‘breaks’ they’re getting are costing the consumer money. Well, he’ not only shown us his hand, but he’s also shown us his stupidity… one that seems endemic to the left. Who the blink does he figure is going to be paying those taxes? That’s right, the consumer. All of us. He’s apparently hoping you don’t recognize that salient point. This isn’t going to ‘get even’ with the oil companies… this is going to add higher prices to everything you buy since everything you buy gets to where yo are, with oil. No amount of bitching about ‘renewable fuels’ is going to change that fact.
The Old Hsu: Yeah, the Clinton campaign financier. Going up river for a long stay. On what basis is the boss…. either one, really… not going with him, though, would be my question.
Specter fits right in: Speaking of shady campaign dealings, Arlen Specter seems to be fitting right in with his new friends, the Democrats. Seems his campaign fund raising site is passing itself off as a medical research charity.
The Uniter at work: Theres currently more sovereignty resolutions than we have seen since civil war days. Wasn’t Obama supposed to unite us? FAIL.
Suggested Gore Statue: I got to thinking about the Ramble from last night, where I mentioned the statue that the morons in the Tennessee legislature consider it important to erect an Al Gore statue. Here to your left, you see my suggestion for such an honor.
Tags: Al Gore, arab world, arlen specter, BitsBlog, Bush, bush administration, Clinton, Democrat, Democrats, economy, Homosexual, homosexuality, instapundit, James Joyner, Memeorandum, nancy pelosi, Nightly Ramble, oil companies, renewable fuels, Twitter
