Kim, if you are implying that this verdict suggests that forced sodomy is now “OK” I’m thinking maybe you didn’t read the article. No one said that. The issue is that the way the law is written prevented a guilty verdict. Everyone quoted in the article agreed that the law needs to be corrected and the perpetrator should have been punished.
Here’s an interesting piece on the generally unfavorable reactions people (including conservative people) tend to have to Ted Cruz.
I wish I could like him more than I do (although the best I’ve seen of him was when he and his family did the CNN town hall with Anderson Cooper — he seemed actually human to me for the first time!).
I will vote for him if he’s the nominee. I hope he wins Indiana and California and can stop Trump. But I don’t think that’s possible. And I don’t think Cruz would have much of a chance of winning a general election against Clinton — nor do I necessarily believe he’d be the kind of president the nation needs right now.
So I’m feeling pretty dis-engaged at this point, to say the least.
I can’t fathom voting for Trump in a general election — but how I wish some other candidate had been able to ultimately capture voters’ imaginations and bring conservatives enthusiastically together, inspiring a few non-conservatives along the way.
All we have now are the usual warring, minority factions as the party implodes.
I just keep wondering how the GOP wound up without a genuinely good (and widely-supported) candidate in a year that was literally theirs to lose.
smh
As I’ve said, books will be written on what the heck went so wrong this year. They will be long books.
(Written by Charles Hurt, who writes the “Nuclear Option” column for The Washington Times. A former D.C. bureau chief for the New York Post, he has covered the White House, Congress and presidential campaigns since 2001.)
Maybe Cruz makes a better supreme court justice than a president?
________________________________
… In the past eight years, no one has captivated the realistic hopes of conservative constitutionalists the way that Cruz has in this election. On every single issue of importance to conservatives, Cruz is right. He is a walking, living, breathing Supreme Court dissent, masterfully articulated and extensively annotated on paper.
Then, he opens his mouth. And people scream. They run for the exits as if their hair is on fire. They want to take a shower.
Even hardcore conservatives still stewing over the shabby defenestration of Robert Bork find Cruz cloying and unctuous. Leading conservatives who publicly support Cruz’s presidential campaign groan in private when he starts talking.
Cruz may entertain himself by impersonating characters from “The Simpsons,” but it is hard to get out of your mind that Cruz just might, in fact, be Mr. Burns, with those evil snake eyes and the sharp, downward curved beak. Heartless, robotic, ever-calculating, willing to do anything to maximize profits at his nuclear power plant. …
So, what, exactly, is the problem with Cruz? Why is he so terrible?
For starters, his face and natural demeanor appear bionically opposed to a sunny disposition. The forced smiles only make him look more demonic. And because his facial contortions are so clearly faked, he always looks like he must be lying. “Lyin’ Ted,” you might say.
Then there are the promises he makes and the things he says. …
… Cruz’s grand promises always failed. His only success was raising his own profile, raking in piles of donations and advancing his own professional political career. This is the reason Cruz is so despised on both sides of the aisle in the U.S. Senate — not because he is some kind of heroic stalwart standing up the leadership.
… Even when he says things you agree with, Cruz sounds and looks like the oiliest money-grubbing television evangelist. He invokes Almighty God and Jesus Christ at every campaign event. He talks about praying for this and praying for that and then undulates about “God’s will.”
… One of his most famous surrogates, Glenn Beck, actually invoked divine intervention in the untimely death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. As an altar-call to vote for Cruz. …
______________________________
Meanwhile, the candidates now are descending on California.
Trump made an appearance last night — same venue that last weekend hosted the pet expo I attended — and the predictable riot unfolded outside. 🙂 Fun times.
Trump continues to rile the illegal immigrant loving left. They’re even taking to small riots at his events, lead by Mexican flag waving illegals. Meanwhile he continues to push his message.
“At a rally Thursday night in Orange County, CA, Donald Trump was joined on stage by Jamiel Shaw, whose son was murdered by an illegal alien in 2008, and other members of the Remembrance Project.
“They’re unbelievable, they’ve suffered,” Trump said before bringing them up on the stage. “These are great people.”
“We demand Americans first,” Shaw said. “We don’t care about illegal aliens.” The person who murdered his son was an “illegal alien on his third gun charge.”
“They all have a very similar story to tell,” Trump said. “People that shouldn’t have been here, people that should have never been allowed to come over the border and they come here like its nothing, they walk through it like its nothing,” he said as the crowd chanted “build a wall.”
“The number of people crossing the border illegally is on the rise. The Border Patrol chief said the number of people coming across is consistent with the surge two years ago.
Chief Patrol Agent and Commander of the South Texas Corridor Manuel Padilla Jr. insisted this time, his agents are better prepared and border security isn’t in jeopardy.
However, some people don’t agree.
More than 80,000 people crossed the border illegally since October. It includes more unaccompanied children and family members from Central America and Mexico.
It’s about the same as during the immigration crisis of 2014.
But Padilla said this time, it’s different.
“So what happened in 2014, we had a surge but it became a crisis because we did not have the infrastructure and the processes to deal with those numbers. I can tell you 2016, even if we were to reach the numbers of 2014, it will not be a crisis,” Padilla said.”
————————–
Yep. Now the Obama admin is ready for ’em. The red carpet is out.
I’m doubtful any particular leader can “fix” us in the state we’re in, sadly. But I do think a highly partisan figure on either the right or left — right now — would drive us into an even worse condition (although 4 more years under a very liberal president, in particular, will be nothing short of disaster).
Remember those signs that all went up after 9/11, “United we stand”?
Can you even imagine that kind of a sign having any relevance today? We’re a nation seriously divided — it’s not the first time, but it doesn’t bode well for any kind of a healthy future.
And I agree that the border simply must get under control. Apparently the Democrats now support, de facto anyway, an open border policy with full benefits for everyone attached — which simply is financially unsustainable (and poses potential security risks). Insanity.
I’ve always advocated making legal immigration ‘easier’ or more streamlined, if possible, (coupled with better assimilation) while making illegal immigration much, much harder.
But there seems to be no willingness to control anything on the part of the left.
We obviously (and rightly) all have standards that we personally won’t compromise. For many it’s the pro-life issue, for some it may be immigration, gay marriage, etc. On other issues we can bend. I see this is a matter of conscience. Sometimes that may (and should) lead a person to abstain from voting.
There also are other leadership skills we look for in potential presidents and those are appropriately weighed as well.
Since we shouldn’t elect a highly partisan figure of the left or right, let’s elect an insane buffoon who is slightly left of center. Oh, look! One party is about to nominate such a figure. Trust me. He will be willing to compromise on any issue except his right to another Eastern European wife.
Trump isn’t just riling the immigrant hating left. He is fooling his fact hating supporters. Will they ever listen or read? Since The economy collapsed in 2007, there has been a net outflow of illegal immigrants. Little Bush, Obama and the other liberals are taking care of the immigration problem. They have ruined our economy. By all means, let the moron Trump start a trade war. That will really kill job opportunities. Then the Mexicans will build and pay for a wall. They will be trying to keep desperate Americans out of their country.
And thus the real problem is at the ground level, with the culture itself. The leadership represents that — although that’s not to say that a gifted and wise president might not improve the landscape.
But that doesn’t seem to be in the cards for 2016, alas.
Trump is now in the northern part of the state. More pandemonium.
Burlingame, California (CNN) Hundreds of demonstrators descended on the California Republican Convention Friday to protest Donald Trump ahead of his speech.
Protesters — some of whom wore bandanas over their faces and carried Mexican flags — blocked off the road in front of the Hyatt Regency here, forcing the GOP front-runner’s motorcade to pull over along a concrete median outside the hotel’s back entrance. Trump and his entourage got out and walked into the building. …
While the quality of the Republican front runner is at an alltime low, the quality of this year’s NBA season is at an alltime high. This is for you, Tychicus:
Wandering Views 
Don’t say Chas hasn’t warned us…
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/29/us/oklahoma-sodomy-laws-inebriation/index.html
LikeLiked by 1 person
Kim, if you are implying that this verdict suggests that forced sodomy is now “OK” I’m thinking maybe you didn’t read the article. No one said that. The issue is that the way the law is written prevented a guilty verdict. Everyone quoted in the article agreed that the law needs to be corrected and the perpetrator should have been punished.
LikeLike
Here’s an interesting piece on the generally unfavorable reactions people (including conservative people) tend to have to Ted Cruz.
I wish I could like him more than I do (although the best I’ve seen of him was when he and his family did the CNN town hall with Anderson Cooper — he seemed actually human to me for the first time!).
I will vote for him if he’s the nominee. I hope he wins Indiana and California and can stop Trump. But I don’t think that’s possible. And I don’t think Cruz would have much of a chance of winning a general election against Clinton — nor do I necessarily believe he’d be the kind of president the nation needs right now.
So I’m feeling pretty dis-engaged at this point, to say the least.
I can’t fathom voting for Trump in a general election — but how I wish some other candidate had been able to ultimately capture voters’ imaginations and bring conservatives enthusiastically together, inspiring a few non-conservatives along the way.
All we have now are the usual warring, minority factions as the party implodes.
I just keep wondering how the GOP wound up without a genuinely good (and widely-supported) candidate in a year that was literally theirs to lose.
smh
As I’ve said, books will be written on what the heck went so wrong this year. They will be long books.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/278112-the-problem-with-ted-cruz
(Written by Charles Hurt, who writes the “Nuclear Option” column for The Washington Times. A former D.C. bureau chief for the New York Post, he has covered the White House, Congress and presidential campaigns since 2001.)
Maybe Cruz makes a better supreme court justice than a president?
________________________________
… In the past eight years, no one has captivated the realistic hopes of conservative constitutionalists the way that Cruz has in this election. On every single issue of importance to conservatives, Cruz is right. He is a walking, living, breathing Supreme Court dissent, masterfully articulated and extensively annotated on paper.
Then, he opens his mouth. And people scream. They run for the exits as if their hair is on fire. They want to take a shower.
Even hardcore conservatives still stewing over the shabby defenestration of Robert Bork find Cruz cloying and unctuous. Leading conservatives who publicly support Cruz’s presidential campaign groan in private when he starts talking.
Cruz may entertain himself by impersonating characters from “The Simpsons,” but it is hard to get out of your mind that Cruz just might, in fact, be Mr. Burns, with those evil snake eyes and the sharp, downward curved beak. Heartless, robotic, ever-calculating, willing to do anything to maximize profits at his nuclear power plant. …
So, what, exactly, is the problem with Cruz? Why is he so terrible?
For starters, his face and natural demeanor appear bionically opposed to a sunny disposition. The forced smiles only make him look more demonic. And because his facial contortions are so clearly faked, he always looks like he must be lying. “Lyin’ Ted,” you might say.
Then there are the promises he makes and the things he says. …
… Cruz’s grand promises always failed. His only success was raising his own profile, raking in piles of donations and advancing his own professional political career. This is the reason Cruz is so despised on both sides of the aisle in the U.S. Senate — not because he is some kind of heroic stalwart standing up the leadership.
… Even when he says things you agree with, Cruz sounds and looks like the oiliest money-grubbing television evangelist. He invokes Almighty God and Jesus Christ at every campaign event. He talks about praying for this and praying for that and then undulates about “God’s will.”
… One of his most famous surrogates, Glenn Beck, actually invoked divine intervention in the untimely death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. As an altar-call to vote for Cruz. …
______________________________
LikeLike
Meanwhile, the candidates now are descending on California.
Trump made an appearance last night — same venue that last weekend hosted the pet expo I attended — and the predictable riot unfolded outside. 🙂 Fun times.
LikeLike
Trump continues to rile the illegal immigrant loving left. They’re even taking to small riots at his events, lead by Mexican flag waving illegals. Meanwhile he continues to push his message.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/04/29/at_first_california_rally_trump_honors_families_of_those_killed_by_illegal_aliens.html
“At a rally Thursday night in Orange County, CA, Donald Trump was joined on stage by Jamiel Shaw, whose son was murdered by an illegal alien in 2008, and other members of the Remembrance Project.
“They’re unbelievable, they’ve suffered,” Trump said before bringing them up on the stage. “These are great people.”
“We demand Americans first,” Shaw said. “We don’t care about illegal aliens.” The person who murdered his son was an “illegal alien on his third gun charge.”
“They all have a very similar story to tell,” Trump said. “People that shouldn’t have been here, people that should have never been allowed to come over the border and they come here like its nothing, they walk through it like its nothing,” he said as the crowd chanted “build a wall.”
LikeLike
Meanwhile, the next wave is overrunning the southern border. Again. Still.
http://www.krgv.com/story/31844858/consistent-surge-of-undocumented-immigrants
“The number of people crossing the border illegally is on the rise. The Border Patrol chief said the number of people coming across is consistent with the surge two years ago.
Chief Patrol Agent and Commander of the South Texas Corridor Manuel Padilla Jr. insisted this time, his agents are better prepared and border security isn’t in jeopardy.
However, some people don’t agree.
More than 80,000 people crossed the border illegally since October. It includes more unaccompanied children and family members from Central America and Mexico.
It’s about the same as during the immigration crisis of 2014.
But Padilla said this time, it’s different.
“So what happened in 2014, we had a surge but it became a crisis because we did not have the infrastructure and the processes to deal with those numbers. I can tell you 2016, even if we were to reach the numbers of 2014, it will not be a crisis,” Padilla said.”
————————–
Yep. Now the Obama admin is ready for ’em. The red carpet is out.
LikeLike
“Then, he opens his mouth. And people scream. They run for the exits as if their hair is on fire. They want to take a shower.”
Who are these people? I haven’t heard anything like this… Charles Hurt writes as though he has a personal vendetta against Sen. Cruz.
Donna, who do you think is the kind of president the nation needs right now?
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A miracle worker, probably.
LikeLike
I’m doubtful any particular leader can “fix” us in the state we’re in, sadly. But I do think a highly partisan figure on either the right or left — right now — would drive us into an even worse condition (although 4 more years under a very liberal president, in particular, will be nothing short of disaster).
LikeLike
Remember those signs that all went up after 9/11, “United we stand”?
Can you even imagine that kind of a sign having any relevance today? We’re a nation seriously divided — it’s not the first time, but it doesn’t bode well for any kind of a healthy future.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Donna, can you expound on this statement:
“a highly partisan figure on either the right or left — right now — would drive us into an even worse condition”
What issues should the right compromise on?
LikeLike
And I agree that the border simply must get under control. Apparently the Democrats now support, de facto anyway, an open border policy with full benefits for everyone attached — which simply is financially unsustainable (and poses potential security risks). Insanity.
I’ve always advocated making legal immigration ‘easier’ or more streamlined, if possible, (coupled with better assimilation) while making illegal immigration much, much harder.
But there seems to be no willingness to control anything on the part of the left.
LikeLike
All politics is compromise. But I believe we’ve been around this circle before 🙂 ?
LikeLike
We obviously (and rightly) all have standards that we personally won’t compromise. For many it’s the pro-life issue, for some it may be immigration, gay marriage, etc. On other issues we can bend. I see this is a matter of conscience. Sometimes that may (and should) lead a person to abstain from voting.
There also are other leadership skills we look for in potential presidents and those are appropriately weighed as well.
LikeLike
Since we shouldn’t elect a highly partisan figure of the left or right, let’s elect an insane buffoon who is slightly left of center. Oh, look! One party is about to nominate such a figure. Trust me. He will be willing to compromise on any issue except his right to another Eastern European wife.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Trump isn’t just riling the immigrant hating left. He is fooling his fact hating supporters. Will they ever listen or read? Since The economy collapsed in 2007, there has been a net outflow of illegal immigrants. Little Bush, Obama and the other liberals are taking care of the immigration problem. They have ruined our economy. By all means, let the moron Trump start a trade war. That will really kill job opportunities. Then the Mexicans will build and pay for a wall. They will be trying to keep desperate Americans out of their country.
LikeLike
In the first line “immigrant hating” s/b “immigrant loving”.
LikeLike
And thus the real problem is at the ground level, with the culture itself. The leadership represents that — although that’s not to say that a gifted and wise president might not improve the landscape.
But that doesn’t seem to be in the cards for 2016, alas.
LikeLiked by 1 person
At 3:30 eastern time today, google hang-out
… “we will discuss the theological foundation for living faithfully amid radically transformed social norms and cultural upheaval.”
http://www.ligonier.org/blog/google-hangout-marshall-april-29/
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Trump is now in the northern part of the state. More pandemonium.
Burlingame, California (CNN) Hundreds of demonstrators descended on the California Republican Convention Friday to protest Donald Trump ahead of his speech.
Protesters — some of whom wore bandanas over their faces and carried Mexican flags — blocked off the road in front of the Hyatt Regency here, forcing the GOP front-runner’s motorcade to pull over along a concrete median outside the hotel’s back entrance. Trump and his entourage got out and walked into the building. …
LikeLike
While the quality of the Republican front runner is at an alltime low, the quality of this year’s NBA season is at an alltime high. This is for you, Tychicus:
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/durant-and-westbrook-have-never-faced-a-defense-like-the-spurs/
538 does sports. Tomorrow is the big game.
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rw: What’s our wager on the series – a nice T-bone?
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I’d be interested in hearing what issues a modern American conservative should compromise on. On what issues are conservatives being too hardline?
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