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Conservative Cultural Commentary

Posted by Icarus on Friday, November 27, 2009 11:08:01 PM
In order to bring my conservative cultural commentary to the visual arts, entertainment, education and journalism I have moved on from this Icarus blog to other venues.

I now post at S.T. Karnick's The American Culture. A couple of posts I've put up have been picked up the American Conservative Union's Conservative Battleline Online and blogged about at the Acton Institute's PowerBlog.

I have taken on the role of Culture Front Director for ModernConservative.com. My goal is to make it the source for the best in creative fiction, visual arts and multimedia by conservative cultural creatives. I know you're out there.

I am also the Director of Campus Programs for The Culture Alliance. Our mission is to foster a culture of liberty and personal responsibility by helping young, right-of-center individuals find their way into the arts, entertainment, education and journalism, or what we refer to as the Cultural Influence ProfessionsTM.

Finally, my reviews and commentary as Seattle's Conservative Culture Examiner are available at Examiner.com. I encourage you to drop by or, better yet, subscribe and get the best in cultural information from someone who doesn't buy into the left-wing ideological tripe coming from almost everyone else working in the creative realms.
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The economy gets personal

Posted by Icarus on Tuesday, June 02, 2009 5:38:42 PM
I never thought I'd be in this situation. I lost my job in October of 2008 and have been unable to find another position since then.

On Sunday I spent some 10 hours in the sun, developing a righteous sunburn, selling some of my books so I would have enough money to buy my wife some shoes for her birthday.

Conservatives demand a government limited to what the Founding Fathers wrote in the Constitution.. Liberals demand a government that takes from those according to their ability and gives to those according to their need.

While everyone's attention is focused on Washington D.C. our communities are dying.

Just thought I'd let you know.


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Seattle, Welcome to the Big Dig

Posted by Icarus on Saturday, April 25, 2009 1:08:06 PM
Washington State lawmakers approved, Friday, April 24th, a deep bore tunnel to replace the Alaska Way Viaduct, a section of major highway that bisects the city of Seattle. Will this be the Pacific Northwest's version of Boston's Big Dig? One hopes the engineers get this one right, given that Washington State's One Party (Democrat) Rulers put Seattle Taxpayers on the hook for ANY cost overruns. (One wonders at the coincidence of this decision coming down and the news about it being released on a Friday, a notoriously slow news day, when stories the government would like people to ignore are routinely released.)

As one who spent 7 years in the construction industry I can attest that, without a doubt, there will be cost overruns. The Rulers in Olympia have allocated $2.8 Billion for the project, and anything over that, according to the spending bill, which will be signed by Gov. Gregoire, must be paid for by Seattle Taxpayers. The current estimate for total replacement cost is $4.2 Billion. Before one ounce of dirt has been turned on this project, Seattle Taxpayers are on the hook for an additional $1.4 Billion. The Bill's language (link opens a PDF document) that sticks Seattle Taxpayers with the bill for cost overruns is, of course, incredibly vague: "Any costs in excess of two billion eight hundred million dollars shall be borne by property owners in the Seattle area who benefit from replacement of the existing viaduct with the deep bore tunnel."

What do the Olympian Rulers care, it isn't their money that's being spent. After all, as Gov. Gregoire said, "The deep bored tunnel replacement will create jobs, help us emerge from this recession stronger and prepare our state for a 21st economy." Thousands of Seattle citizens have lost their jobs recently. At least one analyst is predicting that Boeing will leave Seattle in the coming years if the business climate does not improve. I know, speaking from personal experience, those in the construction industry looking for work are very willing to relocate to another state. The fact that there may not be a tax base to cover this project's costs, apparently never crossed these morons' tiny brains.

In the midst of a recessionary economy, everyone; businesses and citizens alike, are reevaluating budgets and cutting back on spending. Government, in contrast, goes blissfully along, spending Other People's Money. I sure wish that voice whispering to government bureaucrats, "If you spend it. They will come." would shut up.

Boston's Big Dig was originally estimated at $2.8 Billion in 1982 (in 2006 dollars this was equivalent to $6 Billion). When all was said and done, including a fatal ceiling collapse attributed to poor construction methods, the project's final bill was $22 Billion, which will not be paid off until 2038.

Seattle, ... Welcome ... to the Big Dig.
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Frank Herbert, Author of Dune, Republican Speechwriter

Posted by Icarus on Monday, April 20, 2009 1:51:54 AM
I watched David Lynch's wretched 1984 film version of Dune, the one with Sting wearing some funky underwear in one particular scene. There is a line in the film concerning jihad, which got me wondering about Frank Herbert's politics given our current struggle against Islamic Supremacists. I was surprised to find, in a brief search for information about Frank Herbert, that the writer of a Science Fiction Classic was nothing less than a Republican speechwriter.

His son, Brian Herbert briefly mentions his father's political activity in this interview. Frank Herbert wrote speeches for no less then four Republicans, Guy Cordon, Phil Hitchcock, Phil Roth and Big Bill Bantz. The latter had the misfortune of running against Henry "Scoop" Jackson, by whom Mr. Bantz was soundly defeated.

It is always fascinating to learn about writers who happen to be associated with conservative / libertarian / Republican politics. I am fairly convinced that if Frank Herbert's political writings were associated with Democrats they would be readily available. When Brian Herbert mentions his father's political work he does so in the context that they were all losing efforts. While this is factually correct, it is interesting nonetheless. "My father wrote for Republicans, they all lost, and that's that." There is no effort to explore this aspect of a Science Fiction legend, which many of Herbert's readers might find interesting.

I would very much like to find some of the speeches Herbert wrote.
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Academics preceded Napolitano and DHS in pathologizing conservatism

Posted by Icarus on Sunday, April 19, 2009 2:59:45 AM
What the Left sees when they imagine Conservatives. Is the short one John Adams?

I should not have been skeptical when I first heard about the DHS report on "Rightwing Extremism". Academics, after all, have been pathologizing conservatism for years. Now that Left-wing academics control the White House and Congress, it should be no surprise that government policy reflects the academic tendency to dismiss political opponents as mentally deranged and one small step from violence and mayhem.

A University of Manitoba associate professor created the "Right Wing Authoritarian" scale. "[R]ight-wing authoritarians are cognitively rigid, aggressive, and intolerant. They are characterized by steadfast conformity to group norms, submission to higher status individuals, and aggression toward out-groups and unconventional group members." I wonder how many conservatives have a watch file at DHS that notes their RWA score. Given Pope Benedict XVI's strong stance on abortion, his RWA score must be off the charts.

Not to be outdone, of course: "Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley ... linked to political conservatism [to] fear and aggression, dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity, uncertainty avoidance, need for cognitive closure, and terror management that causes conservatives to shun and even punish outsiders and those who threaten the status of their cherished world views." So it's no wonder that conservative Americans is the only group in reference to which DHS Sec. Napolitano and White House Spokesman Nick Shapiro have both used the word terrorist and terrorism, respectively. Those "disaffected youths", who happen to be Islamic, in New York, England, France, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc, ad nauseum, are merely experiencing "man caused disasters" (even if the perpetrator was a woman, because men are at the root of all violence, dontcha ya know).

Ronald Bailey, writing in the Reason article linked above, suggests that it may be just a matter of time before conservatism is listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. He writes, "Reasonable people, such as the distinguished academic researchers cited here, will no doubt agree that until effective treatments can be developed, we should reconsider whether sufferers of conservatism, like other mental defectives, should be allowed freely to exercise the franchise." The current Administration and the bureaucrats at the Department of Homeland Security seem to be considering Mr. Bailey's advice, at least to the extent that these "Rightwing Extremist" mental defectives should be monitored.
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Handling Pirates: Dirty Harry vs. Jacque Clouseau

Posted by Icarus on Sunday, April 19, 2009 1:51:30 AM
Clouseau"Nope, sorry, no one here has the guts to deal with that."

So this is the World opinion and action to which America should be "seeking to partner with" according to Pres. Obama? God help us all.

Just days after the United States Navy SEALs show the World how to deal with Islamo-Nazi pirates, NATO forces show just how tough they can be in dealing with high seas terrorism. While Dutch forces were able to rescue 20 Yemeni hostages, when it came to dealing out justice to the pirates, it was "no harm, no foul", you can go now.
"The seven Somali pirates who held the Yemenis captive were released despite allegations that they attacked the tanker using assault rifles and grenades. [NATO spokesman Lt. Capt. Alexandre Santos] Fernades is quoted by Sky News as saying that Dutch law does not allow the pirates to be detained at sea in those circumstances."
Which do you think makes sailors feel safer: Shooting dead the pirates that attack your ships or letting them go because some bureaucrat has yet to decide if your country has jurisdiction.
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Robert Nisbet: "the contemporary liberal mind"

Posted by Icarus on Saturday, April 18, 2009 1:41:43 PM
A post by Jonah Goldberg, at National Review Online's blog The Corner, inspired me to pull out a book I've not looked at for some time, Robert Nisbet's Prejudices: A Philosophical Dictionary. In it I found Nisbet's definition of "Liberalism" very interesting given the times we are in today. It begins:
     "The question is how liberalism has come to represent, after two centuries, so blatantly schizoid a condition. There are two easily predicatable penchants in the contemporary liberal mind. One has to do with power, the other with freedom reaching the boundary of license. Liberasl are first and most important the ardent oadvocates of the kind of power that is resident in the national state. They are never so happy as when something in the private economic or social sector is being broght within the purview of the federal bureaucracy. When they see somthing big and private, they lust for its nationalization.
     "But at the same time contemporary liberals are perversely the friends, if not the ardent advocates, of certain types of freedom in the moral and legal realms. They sympathize with the mugger and the rapist in contrast to the vicitm. Indeed the only victim with whom liberals identify is what they call the victim of society, of a social order not yet fully politicized in the name of equality. There is no extreme of obscenity and pornography that liberals will not justify in the name of the First Amendment. Fully liberated women, homosexuals, lesbians, sniffers of cocaine, members of the Weatherman underground, and thrice-convicted felons who can write letters are all objects of liberal adoration. The lover of political power, a liberal is the knee-jerk adversary of al moral authority."
I do not believe that anything approaching a majority of those who voted for Obama in November, 2008, approach "so blatantly schizoid a condition." I think they care about their fellow Americans, but were too busy watching Dancing with the Stars, or Lost and getting their news from the various Alphabet Networks that they did not know to whom they were giving power.
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A light at the end of the tunnel?

Posted by Icarus on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 12:35:53 PM
A recent survey checking the mood of Washington State citizens found that there just might be a lot of "Rightwing Extremists" outside of downtown Seattle. The Department of Homeland Security is probably focusing its search for terrorists in Spokane, since a majority of Seattle-ites have been appropriately brainwashed.

Moore Information surveyed 500 Washington State voters on April 4th and 5th and found 51% of them think things are going in the wrong direction while only 37% think things are going in the right direction (12% are too busy watching "The Cougar" or "American Idol" to give a d*mn). Once you get outside of downtown Seattle the picture changes quite a bit.

In Kitsap, Pierce, Snohomish and Thurston counties: 55% wrong direction - 33% right direction.
In other Western Washington Counties: 57% wrong direction - 28% right direction
In Eastern Washington: 61% wrong direction - 33% right direction.

Only in downtown Seattle does one find a majority who think things are going in the right direction: 58 percent right direction, 27 percent wrong direction. And this is the fact that is used by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer website: "Seattle happy where Wash. headed, others not so much."

Is there a light at the end of this massive government tunnel into which America has been shoved? Maybe. This survey gives me some small hope that there may be a change in 2010.
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Texas Governor Rick Perry understands

Posted by Icarus on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 11:56:30 AM
I heard about Texas Governor Rick Perry recent statements concerning Texas House Concurrent Resolution 50. I am seriously thinking about moving to Texas, even if that means I have to live in my car until I find work and a place to live (unless someone wants to put me up for a while). Are there any other politicians who speak this plainly about the federal government's oppressive nature?
“I believe that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state,” Gov. Perry said. “That is why I am here today to express my unwavering support for efforts all across our country to reaffirm the states’ rights affirmed by the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I believe that returning to the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution and its essential 10th Amendment will free our state from undue regulations, and ultimately strengthen our Union.”
Here's the video of the Gov. Perry's statement in support of HRC 50. There are politicians who understand this crisis. God Bless Texas.
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DHS "Rightwing Extremist" report - bogus? Nope. It's for Real.

Posted by Icarus on Monday, April 13, 2009 8:42:04 PM
Conservative websites are all abuzz about an alleged Department of Homeland Security report titled, "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment." Be skeptical about this report. Be very skeptical.

Here are some of the reasons why I think this report is bogus.

The first thing that struck me is that report is so short. It is only 10 pages long. Does anyone think the government can produce a report containing "Law Enforcment Sensivitive information" that is only going to be 10 pages long?

Note how "Key Findings" are nothing more than repeats of paragraphs from the text. Show me a report that is that straightforward and I'll show you a bureaucrat that doesn't know write in legalese.

Check out the emails at page 10, "for comments & questions" etc. The email address end with "@hq.dhs.gov", "@dhs.sgov.gov" [sgov? what, 'secret government'? Come on] "@dhs.ic.gov"?!? The DHS email address I've seen on that agency's website are nothing more than "@dhs.gov". I'd send a message to some of those so-called DHS email address in what looks very much like a bogus report, but I don't want the conspiracy nutter spam I think that will open me up to.

Here are some quotes that I would be surprised if they came from any government agency; anti-government nutters trying to scare people onto their side of the fence maybe, but not from the Department of Homeland Security.

Note on Page 2 of 9: “[Rightwing extremism] may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”

“The information is provided to federal, state, local, and tribal counterterrorism and law enforcement officials” Emphasis added. Tribal counterterrorism & law enforcement official?

"The economic downturn and the election of the first African American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalization and recruitment.” This is the same canard a lot of liberal-left activists were putting out there in order to discredit any and all criticisms of Pres. Obama. I guess ACORN is now writing law enforcement reports for DHS?

The report includes reference to the Philadelphia shooting werein 3 of Philly's finest lost their lives. Do people really think a DHS report could be that timely, even one related to law enforcement?

I think some nutter saw this phrase that is on at the DHS website and ran with it: "[Office of Intelligence and Analysis] has five analytic thrusts aligned with the principal threats to the Homeland addressed by DHS. The first is threats related to border security. ... The second is the threat of radicalization and extremism. Our top priority is radicalized Islam (Sunni and Shia groups), but we also look at radicalized domestic groups. We do not monitor known extremists and their activities; instead, we are interested in the radicalization process - why and how people who are attracted to radical beliefs cross the line into violence." Emphasis in original.

I also think that this is being used to set the table for Left-wing infiltration of the Tax Day Tea Parties, in the sense that this will be used to get some conservatives so fired up that they start screaming nonsesne about the Obama administration and what it's doing vis a vis conservative protests. Look how this just happened to come out at the same time as Paul Krugman's dismissive attack on Republicans and the grassroots Tea Parties. Note that Krugman refers to "the G.O.P. looked as crazy 10 or 15 years ago as it does now." And also note that the "DHS report" makes several references to the 90s. What better way to make conservatives look crazy than to plant this nonsense in their brains days before what may be the largest spontaneous gethering of conservatives and others critical of the Big Government?

Do not buy into this stuff, people. The Left wants to discredit the Tea Party movement. Don't help them by buying into what I think is a bogus report.

UPDATE - I was wrong: I know how to admit a mistake, and it looks like I'm wrong. This report is a real DHS document. "The [DHS] press office got back to [Michelle Malkin] and verified that the document is indeed for real." Good God. How did federal government become so blatantly antagonistic; labeling people who do nothing more than question the growth of federal government as potential terrorists who need to be monitored? Where is the Obama Propaganda Machine Main Stream Media in ferreting out this blatant government attack on freedom of speech? What is going on in this country? I guess I should have known that the radical Leftists who produced this steaming pile of a report were actually federal government bureaucrats. This is just insane. I guess now, with posts like this, and many more, I'm probably on some DHS watch list. Is this why I'm having a hard time finding a job? Things that make you go ... Hmmmm ...
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Black African thugs are cool

Posted by Icarus on Monday, April 13, 2009 2:42:54 PM
Meet and greet with terrorist pirates, just another day in the field for a Reuters Bureau Chief.



Reuters East Africa Bureau Chief Andrew Cawthorne shakes hands with terrorist thugs who keep food aid from reaching hundreds of thousands of starving Somolians.

At what point during Mr. Cawthorne's journalism education and career was his conscience amputated?
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USNavy SEALs free ship's captain, ensure aid delivery to Africa

Posted by Icarus on Monday, April 13, 2009 1:38:34 PM
How many folks do think can answer the questions: What was that ship, captured off the Somolia coast, delivering? What could not get to Somolia because of Islamo-Nazi jihadists? Do you know?

The American flagged ship, which was manned entirely by Americans, was carrying food to feed "hundred of thousands of starving people in Somalia."

How I would have loved to see the headline, "American Navy frees captain and ensures Somolia aid delivery." If Main Stream Media wrote headlines like that instead of headlines like, "Standoff with Somolia pirates shows limits to U.S. power" do you think the world would see America in a slightly different light?

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Rick Warren, America's Pastor?

Posted by Icarus on Monday, April 13, 2009 12:45:16 PM
Hugh Hewitt declared it so it must be so. Right? Hmmm ...

According to the Washington Times, "[Pastor Rick] Warren told CNN's Larry King on Monday that he 'never once even gave an endorsement' " to California's Proposition 8, which maintained the traditional definition of marriage and defeated the rule of judges on that issue (at least for now).

But wait a minute. Rev. America's Pastor, according to that Washington Times article, "the week before Proposition 8 went before state voters on Nov. 4" you said, 'Now let me say this really clearly: We support Proposition 8 ... and if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8. I never support a candidate, but on moral issues, I come out very clear.' "

That was then. This is now. "In his conversation with Mr. King, Mr. Warren said, 'All of a sudden out of it, [opponents] made me something that I really wasn't. And I actually — there were a number of things that were put out. I wrote to all my gay friends — the leaders that I knew — and actually apologized to them. That never got out.' "

So America's Pastor can say one thing then, and something completely different now.

And does Hugh Hewitt ever bring this up? Not that I can see in the transcript.

So why were two hours on Hewitt's show handed to Warren? I have a strong suspicion that Warren's flip-flop on same-sex marriage did not sit well with his center-right congregation in South Orange County, California. Did Warren and Hewitt discuss, before these interviews, how "America's Pastor" might ameliorate the PR damage his sudden switch on this issue might do to Saddleback Church's coffers? Who knows.

America's Pastor? I don't think so.

 

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Blacklists aren't just in Hollywood

Posted by Icarus on Thursday, April 09, 2009 2:44:57 PM
Those with eyes to see and ears to hear know that, in Hollywood, coming out in support of a strong American military; coming out in support of America in the war against Islamo-Nazism is a potential career death sentence, unless, that is, one is too big to take down (sometimes, however, even being a big star doesn't make one safe). Blacklisting, it appears, is not just a Hollywood phenomenon; construction and engineering industry seems to have a blacklist as well that is unassociated with one's position on labor unions.

KBR, "a leading global engineering, construction and services company supporting the energy, hydrocarbon, government services and civil infrastructure sectors,"  had a highway construction contract pulled by the Hays County Commission because, it seems, KBR did work in Iraq.

According to Hays County Commissioner Jeff Barton (Democrat), "Sometimes it does matter who you associate with and what's going on in your company." A government official telling a private company that who that company associates with will determine whether or not that company can do work in the county. Where, my friends, is the outrage?
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Dear Leader Comrade Obama's inspiration for Government Motors

Posted by Icarus on Thursday, April 09, 2009 2:04:54 PM


If you like this short, check out and support the Moving Pictures Institute.
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