Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “Swatchers of Swine”

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December 11, 2007

Swatchers of Swine

Hatched by Dafydd

Egads... I prepared all the scutwork for this post (putting in all the links) -- and then I went and forgot to finish and post it! So on the theory that twice done is half begun, here is last week's Watcher's Council post. A little late.

Council

In both the Council and Nouncil categories, one of our posts won; in this instance, it was our second-place choice:

Buchanan's New Book: “Prepare Ye for the End”, by Right Wing Nut House.

Rick Moran turns his mocking dialectic upon the ever darker Patrick J. Buchanan. I must admit, I very much enjoyed his autobiography, Right From the Beginning; his -- Buchanan's, I mean -- his conservatism was of the muscular, workingman's type... not the limp-wristed asceticism of a George Will, nor even the aristocratic, antidisestablishmentarian hauteur of a William F. Buckley, jr.

But Pat seems to have gotten himself into a slump. I covered the Reform Party's convention in Long Beach in 2000 -- well, one of them, anyway; I never could find John Hagelin's separate convention, even though I stood still in the street, cupped my ears, and listened intently for the "AAUUuuuuummmmm..."

I found Buchanan's, however; but the man seemed tired and distracted, just going through the motions. He didn't even blink or comment when several people in the front row stood and gave a Sieg heil type Nazi salute to Buchanan (and his black, female running mate, Ezola Foster). I badgered Bayh Buchanan (his sister and campaign mangler) until she finally admitted that Pat wouldn't even have been in the race were it not for the $12.5 million in matching funds the Reform Party had earned in 1996... but never again, of course, since Buchanan's run killed it off.

But if Moran's review of Buchanan's new book, Day of Reckoning, is accurate (and I have no reason to disbelieve it), then the man has finally sunk to quotidian armageddon-mongering for hoi polloi: Doom is Nigh!

This is a sad end to a fascinating and enigmatic man, falling from the heights of power -- White House advisor and speech-writer under both Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan -- to the slough of irrelevance and apathy.

Our second choice was another nice piece by Laer at Cheat Seeking Missiles:

Still No Evidence 9/11 Nuts Rule, by Cheat Seeking Missiles;

Laer examines the Left Wing Nut House, which has nothing to do with Rick Moran, and in particular the 9/11 "Truthers" (Laer hates the term); he asks whether the disturbingly large number of Americans who believe this or that insane conspiracy theory about 9/11 bodes ill for our republic.

I think not. Whenever an event of such magnitude and momentum as the terrorist attacks on New York, Washington, and wherever Flight 93 was aimed (probably the White House) occurs, many people are going to be so overwhelmed by the almost cartoon-like reality that they will naturally retreat into the somewhat more understandable, if not comforting, surreality of a conspiracy theory.

Nouncil

In this category, our first-place vote took first place... a piece by Wolf Howling, which evidently encouraged the anonymous lupine author "GW" to join up with the Watcher's Pack:

Have Our Copperheads Found Their McClellan in Retired LTG General Sanchez?, by Wolf Howling;

The "McClellan" he refers to is, of course, retired Army Lt.Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, formerly the head of Coalition Forces Iraq (which today would be called Multinational Forces - Iraq, the position now held by Gen. David Petraeus). Sanchez flung himself into the arms of the defeatist Democrats, just as McClellan did in 1864; however, the former has not elected to make a run for the presidency.

It was a great post, and GW followed it up by another winner next week (isn't the tense of that sentence off somehow?)

Finally, we voted for a La Shawn Barber post in second place, but it was good enough to be a first-place vote in any other week:

Another Victory for Colorblind Government Policy, by La Shawn Barber's Corner.

Barber has a personal stake in eliminating racist, "affirmative-action" policies enacted in the name of a "color-blind society" -- which is rather like the Weight-Loss Donut Shoppe. She recounts the sorry history of a couple of counties still desperately trying to find some way around the Constitution, so they can feel like good guys by stiffing white kids.

Illiterate? Write for our free booklet

All last week's winners and whiners can be found in this post.

Note that we're setting this post's date back one day, so we can maintain the fiction that we posted today's post yesterday. We'll post this week's post tomorrow, which will be today by the time you actually read it. (Don't be cross, it's quite simple.)

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, December 11, 2007, at the time of 11:51 PM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: Geoman

"...more understandable, if not comforting, surreality of a conspiracy theory."

You've hit on the part I've always had trouble understanding, namely that people take comfort in the theory that our own government somehow caused 9/11. I guess the devil you think you know is always more comforting.

The above hissed in response by: Geoman at December 12, 2007 10:34 AM

The following hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh

Geoman:

You've hit on the part I've always had trouble understanding, namely that people take comfort in the theory that our own government somehow caused 9/11.

Well, if it were all plotted by George W. Bush, then the whole problem goes away in January 2009. No need to worry, no heavy lifting required, and we're not really dealing with Terminators who won't quit until we're dead.

Everything goes away when Bush goes away. Ya fallah?

Besides, you can protest against Bush and feel brave -- risking Gitmo, and all that -- without really risking anything. It's like a horror movie: Gooseflesh and a good scare, but deep down you know it's only a movie.

Dafydd

The above hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh at December 12, 2007 12:33 PM