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- Rep. Dean Heller (R-NV) says he believes "there should be a federal safety net" yet also asks rhetorically whether extending unemployment insurance is the equivalent of the government "creating hobos." In attempting to reconcile these two sentiments, I have to ask: at which point do our unemployed on government assistance officially become hobos? After one year? Two? That's what I don't understand about these conservative "dependency" arguments. People who take unemployment insurance under normal economic conditions by and large end up with paying jobs after some period of time. They do not become hobos. Is there just something in particular about very bad recessions that leads to bindle-toting hobodom, and more important, is Heller admitting that our current crisis is at least as bad as the Great Depression?
- Conservative writer Mark Steyn is very concerned about Europe. You see, he wrote a book about declining birth rates on The Continent and the influx of Muslim immigrants that paints a clear picture: By failing to replenish their stock, Europeans are on the verge of being overrun by crescent flags and Sharia law. So I have to admit I'm a bit confused by this Steyn post that approvingly mocks the new President of the European Coucil (including scare quotes around "president," as if the position does not actually exist) as some no-name bureaucrat from a country no one cares about. Shouldn't Steyn, more than anyone, recognize that we must put our petty differences aside if we're to resist the teeming hordes of Muslims who are poised to destroy Western Civilization?
- Jon Chait is confused about conservatives' condescension problem: "But I don't get the right-wing's chronic anger when highly intelligent people like Al Gore and Barack Obama try to speak to the average American about complex issues while assuming, correctly, that the audience may not have much information about the subject at hand." It's not intelligence that conservatives hate. It's intelligent liberals, because liberals are, as we all know, elitists who are sickened by the fact that they have to stoop to talk to their social lessers, the salt-of-the-Earth conservatives who love God, freedom, and the former governor of Alaska. Not necessarily in that order.
- Remainders: President John McCain says using reconciliation "would be an outrage to the American people," the people, unsurprisingly, disagree; Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) has some comments about abortion and slavery that are inappropriate to reproduce here; and I'm sure Liz Cheney's willingness to exploit the victims of terrorism to attack the president will make the MSM reconsider her for future appearances on their TV shows.
--Mori Dinauer
