Men Without Chests: A President…A Nation

    “It is an outrage that they should be commonly spoken of as Intellectuals. … It is not excess of thought but defect of fertile and generous emotion that marks them out. Their heads are no bigger than the ordinary: it is the atrophy of the chest beneath that makes them seem so. … We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. | Read More »

    Terminologies with Expiration Dates

    It seems there used to be a certain term dogmatically used in every story about the warrantless wiretapping program…or should I say Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program. In fact, I suspect it would be nearly impossible to find a pre-2009 story on the subject that went on for nearly 2500 words without using the phrase: DOMESTIC SPYING.  Well, times have changed and CBS DC does just | Read More »

    All Government is Propaganda: The Prevention of Liberty

    This little diary has no hidden agenda. It is offered in the most cheerful and polemical spirit, as a attack on those of both parties pushing an anti-liberty progressive agenda, that is to say the Executive, Legislative, Judicial, and Media branches of our modern American ruling class, and the plunderous voters who support and shield them in those efforts. (1) “Attack” actually overstates it a | Read More »

    Now Watching the American Demise on Mute: An Addendum

    The following started as a “thank you” response to lineholder for his comment under last week’s dairy (1) …a response that quickly grew out of control into another full ramble that I then abandoned out of exhaustion – and due to school night kid duties – late Sunday evening. After much trimming and some adding, here’s a short follow-on: “…from bureaucracy to shining bureaucracy.” (2) | Read More »

    Now Watching the American Demise on Mute: An Ntrepid Ramble

    I trace my addiction to news/politics to exactly twenty years ago – my final semester in college – and the blatant media assist to elect an unworthy man to our nation’s highest office. That team…”a crooked president and [his] corrupt and reactionary administration” (1) along with allies and cheerleaders in the media…proved quite the warm-up act for the current shameful American travesty. And just like | Read More »

    Ambassador Rice Legally Changes First Name to “Senator”; McCain Now Supports Promotion to State

    No, not really…but it wouldn’t surprise me.  Yet today we are treated to this: McCain: Susan Rice “not qualified” to be Secretary of State after Benghazi (1) Where was this guy (and his posse) in early 2008 when the nominee wasn’t just “not qualified” but demonstrably not suitable for “any future position of public or private trust” (2).  Let’s go to the transcript of the | Read More »

    “The choice is made. The Traveller has come.”

    And with that, Gozer the Gozerian (1) announces unstoppable horrors are quickly approaching. (Yes, in the end, the scariest of all evils is stopped but not before it gets really messy…as in “I feel like the floor of a taxi cab.“) It seems fitting that in the immediate chaotic aftermath of that “election” the voters are heard to say “We didn’t choose anything! … My | Read More »

    At the Threshold of a Reckoning: The Great Mistake and the Soul of Americanism’s Discontent

    Just after dedicating his work “To the socialists of all parties“, Hayek opens The Road to Serfdom with: “When the course of civilization takes an unexpected turn – when, instead of the continuous progress which we have come to expect , we find ourselves threatened by evils associated by us with past ages of barbarism – we naturally blame anything but ourselves.” … ‘We are | Read More »

    “…an activist merely mimicking the mannerisms of an intellectual”

    Several months ago I flagged an Instapundit quote about the President and his team that may prove even more insightful in the coming days: “He hasn’t had a lot of practice dealing with criticism and frustration. And — judging by the whole constellation of actions coming out of his operation — they know something I don’t that’s got them genuinely nervous.” (5) That was in | Read More »

    The Smallest of Men…

    […and really just a reason to post a few jabs that make me giggle at the expense of the most powerful “man” on Earth] If memory serves, it was still relatively early in 2009 when comments were made on the Hugh Hewitt radio show to the effect that “no incoming President is as big as the office he is entering but most grow into it…and | Read More »

    “My Struggle” Circa 2007 – When Amateurs Spoke

    Amateur deniers that is. I often reference back to the old days…before Mr. Gore’s Nobel and the collapse of the hoax he served…when, what seemed like nearly every weekend, a Red State diary or two would delve into the issue among a few resident supporters, the hard core deniers, and (many times) several compromising / tepid deniers. Once again, I just couldn’t resist the search | Read More »

    The Sophomore (Generously)

    “…an act…gives birth not only to an effect, but to a series of effects.  Of these effects, the first only is immediate; it manifests itself simultaneously with its cause – it is seen.  The others unfold in succession – they are not seen: it is well for us, if they are foreseen.” (1) [Emphasis Added] In recent days I have seen sporadic coverage and commentary | Read More »

    Even After the Passage of More Than One Hundred Sundays…The Grotesqueness Endures

    As many others have already ably documented, “news” items this week referencing that unrepentant whore – who, for some reason, is still sometimes honored(?) with the  title “non-partisan…” proceeding its three lettered acronym – have further exposed Obamacare as the fraud it has always been.  Of course, the quotes around the term news are required here because the cost and impact of this program were | Read More »

    The Ntrepid Endorsement (Preview: Speaker Gingrich is NOT Up to the Task)

    First, I must dispense with the formality of a few disclosures.  I am a conservative work in progress and leaning farther right all the time.  Therefore, it is probably impossible to find a candidate that would make me completely happy. More, I am a (hopefully) recovering political masochist of sorts.  In the worst of times I forced myself to sit alone on a yearly basis | Read More »

    Declinists, Collapsists, and Their Rose Colored Glasses: Another Pessimistic Ntrepid Ramble

    “…the economy, according to the CBO, shuts down in 2027 on this path.” (1) Despite the reference to that three lettered evil whore (see Obamacare), I draw attention to this quote…lifted from an excellent blog post whose title included the phrase “the debt chart Obama and Geithner should be ashamed of”…because it signals much more than even the rare serious discussion of unavoidable financial doom-ism | Read More »

    Facing Unpleasant Facts: My Country Right of Left

    “Twitter and Facebook speed up communication, but slow down thought” (1) I must admit that I came into this election year with the lowest of all expectations for my party and my country. On a personal level, I vowed to pay less attention to news…at least the finer details and (mind numbing) chatter associated with so many stories blasted out in the daily news cycle. | Read More »

    Death of a Contrarian

    “This little book has no ‘hidden agenda’. it is offered in the most cheerful and open polemical spirit, as an attack on a crooked president and a corrupt and reactionary administration” With that as the opening line in the Preface of his 1999 book “No One Left To Lie To (The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton)“, I quickly became a fan of this author…Christopher Hitchens. | Read More »

    Remedial Book Notes: Volume 1.6 – “Only Bigots and Liberals!”

    For anyone interested, this is the sixth installment of a little self-educational, comparative study of Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Clarence Thomas in their own words perhaps inappropriately posted under the Book Notes banner.  Please refer back to my Preface diary for a little more background (1). While obviously amateurish in nature, we’ll see where this one time experiment takes me/us and hopefully the | Read More »

    Passing the Torch: Twelve Words that Should Terrify the Civilized World

    Buried way down in the eighth paragraph of the Micheal Rubin piece titled “Iran’s Nuclear Project – The IAEA’s report on the Iranian nuclear bomb was predictable and inevitable” (1) is the passage reference in the only-slightly-overstated title above: “…Van Diepen, whom Secretary of State Clinton has taken under her wing…” Those who know me best may initially think that I am referring primarily to | Read More »

    Remedial Book Notes: Volume 1.5 – Douglass Decimates Obamacare

    For anyone interested, this is the fifth installment of a little self-educational, comparative study of Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Clarence Thomas in their own words perhaps inappropriately posted under the Book Notes banner.  Please refer back to my Preface diary for a little more background (1). While obviously amateurish in nature, we’ll see where this one time experiment takes me/us and hopefully the | Read More »

    Remedial Book Notes: Volume 1.4 – “a tonic like no other”

    For anyone interested, this is the fourth installment of a little self-educational, comparative study of Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Clarence Thomas in their own words perhaps inappropriately posted under the Book Notes banner.  Please refer back to my Preface diary for a little more background (1). While obviously amateurish in nature, we’ll see where this one time experiment takes me/us and hopefully the | Read More »

    Remedial Book Notes: Volume 1.3 – “Slavery was a State of War”

    For anyone interested, this is the third installment of a little self-educational, comparative study of Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Clarence Thomas in their own words perhaps inappropriately posted under the Book Notes banner.  Please refer back to my Preface diary for a little more background (1). While obviously amateurish in nature, we’ll see where this one time experiment takes me/us and hopefully the | Read More »

    Remedial Book Notes: Volume 1.2 – “I had better things to do than be angry.”

    For anyone interested, this is the second installment of a little self-educational, comparative study of Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Clarence Thomas in their own words perhaps inappropriately posted under the Book Notes banner. Please refer back to my Preface diary for a little more background (1). While obviously amateurish in nature, we’ll see where this one time experiment takes me/us and hopefully the | Read More »

    A Multi-Digressioned Ode to MY Gardasil Pumping Warm Bucket of #!$$

    Inflammatory diary titles aside, let me just state up front that I don’t have a favorite among the current GOP candidates and I would like to think that I am now way too mature to throw down crazy “…will never cast my vote for Candidate X…” ultimatums (1).  As you will see, I have never been a fan of my governor (Mr. Perry) but I | Read More »

    Remedial Book Notes: Volume 1.1 – Evolving Expectations…?

    For anyone interested, this is the first installment of a little self-educational, comparative study of Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Clarence Thomas in their own words perhaps inappropriately posted under the Book Notes banner.  Please refer back to my Preface diary for a little more background (1). While obviously amateurish in nature, we’ll see where this one time experiment takes me/us and hopefully the | Read More »