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BOOKWORM ROOM:CONSERVATIVES DEAL WITH FACTS AND REACH CONCLUSIONS; LIBERALS HAVE CONCLUSIONS AND SELL THEM AS FACTS.
To sell their ideas, conservatives must first re-train Americans to recognize their humanity
BY BOOKWORM
One of the striking paradoxes in Marin is that the same people who reliably vote for Democrat candidates actually have quite conservative values. In my Marin world, people are educated, ambitious, hard-working, married, and family-oriented, and they happily live in almost entirely white communities. As to that last, it’s not that they would object if a black family moved it. It would simply have to be a black family that was “one of us,” meaning educated, ambitious, etc. Despite their essentially conservative values, these hard-working people support endless welfare; these family-oriented, helicopter parents happily consign poor children to the tender mercies of the state; and these married parents, who have the luxury of a stay-at-home mom, support any policy that advances single motherhood. The Marin dwellers I know are the living embodiment of Charles Murray’s wonderful observation that elite Democrats don’t preach what they practice.
Tiburon and Belvedere, in Marin County, California
On the rare occasions when I’m able to speak with my friends without using political labels, they invariably agree with me about the benefits of hard work and marriage, about the social and economic virtues of two-parent families, about the problem with the hypersexualization of young children, and about the fact that the best defense against bullies is projecting a strong attitude of self-defense. Point out, though, that these values align them with Ted Cruz or Mitt Romney, who support profiting from ones own labor, being married as a predicate to children, encouraging (although not legislating) a more wholesome popular culture, and projecting American strength abroad, and they’ll back away from you as if you’ve suddenly sprouted horns.
How Democrats are trained to view conservatives/Republicans
It’s that last phrase that explains why theseDemocrats, even if their values are completely at odds with their own party, would never, never vote Republican. In their minds, it’s not that DemocratsRepublicans have bad ideas; it’s that they’re eeeevvviiiilll. Not just “evil,” but eeeevvviiiilll. To them, Republicans haven’t merely sold their souls to the Devil, which implies that it’s possible to regain those lost souls. Instead, it’s that Republicans have no souls. To the Marin liberal, politics are controlled by a simple syllogism:
Republicans/conservatives are evil.
I am not evil.
Therefore I can never be a Republican/conservative. Continued
We The People address President Obama
From Oklahoma State University:
The Real Life of Julia
Remember the Julia character used in Obama’s campaign?
See the full adventure here: http://reallifeofjulia.tumblr.com/
From our Friends at CAPR
Dear Fellow Islander, December 9th, 2013
The San Juan County Critical Areas Ordinance (“CAO”) was passed by the prior County Council at their last meeting in December of 2012. The Ordinance places new onerous restrictions on both upland and shoreline home owners. The administrative appeals to the law have run their course and complex litigation filed by numerous parties will begin. This will be a financial burden for our County and citizens for years to come.
CAPR’s legal challenge to the CAO has followed a slightly different path which is ahead of the newer appeals and has the potential of resolving this issue in a much more expedient fashion. CAPR recognized that the CAO was crafted by the County Council and planning staff in closed and secret meetings that, we believe, illegally excluded the public from the process. This was the primary basis for a lawsuit filed by CAPR in Superior Court on Oct. 15th, 2012. Unfortunately, the lower court did not agree with CAPR’s position. Consequently, CAPR has appealed what we believe are fundamental errors of law in the decision of the Superior Court. That appeal is now pending before the Washington State Court of Appeals. Visit http://caprsanjuan.wordpress.com/ to view CAPR Brief Our Brief shows why we are confident of a win in the upper court, and why closed door meetings are a violation of the Washington Open Public Meetings Act.
We are writing to ask for your continued financial help and support in this legal action. We believe that if the court requires the new Council to re-examine the CAO in open public meetings, the outcome will be far more favorable to the home and land owners in San Juan County. Continued