Why Daily Kos is full of nastiness

The Left has a problem. Its view of life does not conform to reality. So it is continually receiving hard blows when its worldview collides with facts. One of the important polemical consequences of both talk radio and the Web is that the Left can no longer massage the news to suit its predilections as it could when there was a monopoly, or at least an oligopoly, in mass media.

The limited ability of the Left to actually make an argument leads it to treat all opposition as ipso facto "hate." We saw this with the formulation "Clinton haters" directed at anybody who disagreed with the Clintons on policy or thought that they should not be exempted from the legal process, at least while holding high office.

To a conservative, the Daily Kos is simply not an interesting venue. As Rush says about the NY Times, we don't need to read Daily Kos postings, we can write them. On important issues, they don't make arguments, they offer attitude, and very unpleasant attitude at that.

Source

**************************

RECENT ARTICLES ON ICJS

Counterpoint: A liberal's lament
A byline for Hamas?
Train leaders to think differently
What about Muslim moderates?
Why I am not joining the party
The case for mistrusting Muslims

************************************

ELSEWHERE

There's a rather hilarious story here about a new Iranian invention: A Camera For the Blind. The last sentence of the post is the funniest.

Treacherous Syria: "Terrorism, radical Islamist Jihad, Iraq, Iran's growing power, and the Arab-Israeli conflict all beset the West and in each Syria plays a central, threatening role. Barry Rubin's new book The Truth about Syria explains Syria's regime, interests, policies, and society, as well as how it shows how Arab and Muslim world politics and ideology work. To survive, Syria's minority-dominated, dictatorial, and economically incompetent government needs radicalism, control over Lebanon, regional instability, anti-Americanism, and using Israel as a scapegoat. The Truth About Syria explains how the country has run; how it attacks U.S. interests; and why the regime is incapable of another type of policy."

Absurd exclusion of India: "A permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council has eluded India despite its relentless efforts as it has not adopted a broader role in settling international issues, Vijay Nambiar, Chief of Staff to the U.N. Secretary General has said. "India is not doing enough to become a permanent member of the Security Council. Instead of demanding for it, India should play a more participatory role in world affairs," he told PTI here".

EU and UN sponsor antisemitic campaign: "The United Nations has scheduled an "International Conference of Civil Society in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace", to be held in the European Parliament in Brussels, August 30-31. This misleading title not withstanding, this annual conference is held under the auspices of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, and the International Coordinating Network for Palestine - frameworks that promote the conflict through NGOs involved in implementing the Durban agenda of demonization . This year, for the first time, the exercise is gaining the legitimacy of sponsorship by the European Parliament, further highlighting the role that the Europe Union plays in supporting the NGO campaign."

Methodist hatred of Israel: "Ratcheting up the simmering debate over how Protestant denominations should express their concern about Israel, the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church is advising congregations and individuals to divest their holdings from a wide variety of American corporations that the United Methodists believe support the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. The action, although largely symbolic, is being greeted with dismay by leaders of the local Jewish community, but is giving new energy to the divestment movement, which had lost steam in other mainline Protestant denominations. The United Methodist Church, with 8 million members nationally, is expected to discuss the Middle East at its General Conference next year; in addition to New England, other conferences of the denomination have been debating divestment as a means to pressure Israel"

Loony Leftist exlains why Republicans think America has a strong economy: "The obvious reason is, "Because we do have a strong economy," as virtually every metric shows. Matt Stoller (proud member of the Reality-Based Community) rejects this reason. Rather, he has a "pretty simple" explanation for the odd phenomenon of Republicans thinking a strong economy is strong. The reason? Republicans live in areas where the "Republican Economy," which relies almost entirely on military spending, weapons manufacture, clear-cutting forests, and strip-mining, is actually doing quite well, unlike the Non-Republican Economy (chief exports: enlightement, sharing, caring, and love) is doing horribly. Near the end of this idiocy he notes, rather redundantly it seems to me, that he's not an economist."

Hillary's Experience is at Surviving: "Polls suggest that the leading attribute attracting voters to Hillary's presidential candidacy is her "experience," a virtue which contrasts, presumably, with the lack of it in Senator Barack Obama, her chief rival. But a close examination of her record as first lady and as New York Senator suggests that her experience is largely in the avoidance of death by scandal.... Consider what her experience has been. She burst forth on the national stage with two tasks in her husband's administration: The selection of the nation's first female Attorney General and the design and adoption of a comprehensive program of health care reform. Her efforts to designate an Attorney General hamstrung the new Administration for months as two nominees, in succession, had to withdraw their names from consideration. Finally, at the eleventh hour, she urged her husband to appoint Florida's Janet Reno, a selection Bill Clinton would come to describe as "my worst mistake" ....."

There is a new lot of postings by Chris Brand just up -- on his usual themes.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

****************************