September 14, 2005 by s.z.

More Stupid Thoughts From All Over

As somebody (I think it was Harlan Ellison) said, the two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.  And I'm really tired this week, and don't feel like searching for some of the more exotic elements, like argon and perspicacity, so here's another round of quotations from some of those about whom the alien Eros said, "You see?  You see? Your stupid minds!  Stupid, stupid!"

1.  First up is Phyllis Schlafly with "Give Illegal Aliens' Jobs to Unemployed Katrina Victims." The title alone is enough to qualify Phyllis for a mention, but here's an excerpt anyway. 

Katrina has displaced hundreds of thousands of Americans who now need food, housing, and cash.  Relief for those necessities will have to be temporary and it will be many months before they can return to New Orleans, if ever, so what they need most of all is jobs.

Our government should act immediately to put these displaced Americans in the jobs now held by illegal aliens.  Some 10 million illegal aliens are now working in our country, so there is no excuse for not replacing a million of them with unemployed American citizens.

What a great plan!  With one fell swoop, Phyllis find a way to rid the country of those pesky illegals AND end the need for our tax monies to be used to aid the Katrina victims.  Yes, we just have the National Guard evict everyone without valid papers, and then those displaced by the hurricane will either take jobs harvesting crops, serving as maids and busboys, and working construction for $5 an hour, or they will starve.  That's the compassionate conservative way.

Meanwhile, the Senate voted $10 billion and then another $50 billion for hurricane relief, and that's all deficit spending.  Why not take that money out of foreign aid handouts since we have an obligation to help our own first?

And Katrina also gives us a great excuse to quit giving handouts to all those ungrateful foreigners. 

Interestingly enough, the same issue of Human Events Online that features Phyllis's piece has a column ("After Katrina: Free Enterprise Is Needed Now More than Ever") which says that we can't abandon our support for the abolishment of the estate tax, and for making permanent the Bush tax cuts, because the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast shouldn't come "at the expense of jobs and wealth for all Americans."  So, if the money taken from our foreign aid commitments isn't enough to cover the reconstruction costs, we'll just add to the deficit some more while we wait for the economy to grow and pay for everything.  And, of course, there are the magic beans.

2.  Meghan Basham, a Townhall movie critic, offers a review of The Exorcism of Emily Rose.  

In what is destined to become one of the classic films of the last few decades, The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey as uber-villian Keyser Soze utters the unforgettable line: “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” 

Well, Charles Baudelaire said roughly the same thing quite a while before Spacey did, but I guess his line was forgettable, because he was French.

A movie about exorcism may seem like rather flashy material for bringing up such weighty issues, but if you take the Bible at its word, as I assume many readers of this publication do, then the question of when and how often demonic possession is misconstrued as a psychological disorder is a legitimate one.  And its cultural implications need not only apply to something as dramatic as possession. 

Is it possible, for example, that depression is sometimes treated as a physical condition when it is more symptomatic of a spiritual sickness—of the malaise that comes from living a purposeless life?  Or are the behaviors we now label “compulsive” (over-eating, over-drinking, over-copulating) nothing more than old-fashioned sin? 

And what about obsessive-compulsive disorder -- is it nothing more than old-fashioned sin too?  And is it possible that ADD is nothing more than simple brattiness that could be cured by the proper administration of the rod of correction?  And hey, since epilepsy and schizophrenia are really caused by demonic possession, aren't drugs just masking the real problem, and so aren't pharmaceutical companies playing into the devil's hands? 

These are the kinds of questions we should be asking ourselves instead of worrying about which President did or didn't cause Hurricane Katrina.

3.  Our old pal Annie "Scary Skies" Jacobsen recently had an "essay adapted from her book" published in the Dallas Morning News.  It's about how there were Arabs on a flight she took from Chicago to L.A., and this could happen to YOU!  Oh, and don't depend on the government to protect you, because it seems to believe that we should allow Arabs to fly on our airplanes and have civil liberties, even in wartime.

Anyway, although we've heard Annie's story roughly 720,876 times by now, this essay does offer some a new tidbit. See, even though the men who glared at her were identified as musicians who were traveling to CA to play a casino gig, as they were the back-up band for the Syrian Wayne Newton, they were terrorists anyway!

Finally, I located a photo of Mr. Mehana and his band performing at a northern California club, just two weeks before Flight 327. The men in the photograph were not the men on the plane. Two other passengers from Flight 327 looked at the photo and reached the same conclusion.

So who were the men on Flight 327? I have a theory, one supported by federal air marshals who believe they have witnessed in-flight probes.

A probe is about testing the system. A probe is about gathering intelligence to use for a future terrorist attack. In my judgment, Flight 327 was, at the very least, a probe. Operatives from a terrorist cell are often hidden within a larger group. The men on Flight 327, I believe, were not all musicians. Some may have been, but others were treating the airplane like a Trojan horse. And the federal government allowed them to get away with it.

So, my theory was right: the Syrian Wayne Newton KILLED the real musicians, and replaced them with terrorists who were mailed in from Syria!

And what did the terrorists learn from this costly and ruthless operation? Well, that our airplanes have restrooms. Oh, and that you can smuggle a sack of Big Macs and apple turnovers on board without anybody stopping you. Thanks, federal government, for letting them get away with this!

(BTW, both Phyllis's and Annie's new books are published by Spense Publishing Co. -- I think Meghan should be asking whether Satan is behind that too.)

4.  And speaking of old friends, Rachel Alexander, the co-editor of Intellectual Conservative and the author of that guide on you can save tons of money (and spite your ex) by getting custody of your kids, has updated her work.  Here are some new passages from How Fathers Can Win Child Custody 

Although it may sound like the easier choice at first to let your children live most of the time with their mother, the overall negatives may outweigh any benefits. [...] The weekday visitation of the non-custodial parent may be 3 evenings a week. This is really more of a hassle than just having the children with you, since you are most likely the one that must drive and pick the children up, then find something meaningful to do with them for 2-3 hours, which is not really enough time to drive back home, and then drop them off again later. So you now have 3 long evenings a week where you can't choose what you want to do, you are stuck mainly driving around and must adhere to strict visitation times or risk having it held against you later in court.  Is that really easier than having the kids around with you at home during the week, where you can go about your business at home every evening if you want to, while they do their homework, help out with chores, etc.?

Yes, it's really a lot easier to have custody of the little tikes, because they if they live with you, they will just do their homework and help out around the house while you go about your business.  In fact, if you get custody, not only will it free up a lot of time for you, your house will probably be a lot cleaner.  (And, as we learned last time, having custody is way cheaper too, because kids don't eat much, and so having them around should only cost you an extra $50 a month or so, as opposed to the thousands of dollars you'd be paying your hated ex in child support.)

Some have criticized this guide as being "anti-woman." However, in reality, more women are hurt by the current situation than helped. For every mother who receives favorable treatment from the court system, there are several women connected to the father who suffer. Each father has a mother, sisters, new girlfriend, or new wife whose life is also closely affected. When the father can't afford to pay child support, who do you think ends up helping him with payments? His mother, girlfriend, or wife. Those women end up giving their own hard-earned money to pay child support to some woman they probably can't stand and who not only has ruined the father's life, but has made their lives miserable as well.

Let me guess: Rachel is involved with a man who has children with a former wife or girlfriend whom Rachel can't stand -- and Rachel has to help him with his child support payments, using her own hard-earned money.  And that's why there's so little mention of the best interests of the children in this guide: because it's not about the children, it's about sticking it to the hated rival who has made Rachel's life miserable.

5.  Lastly, there's Rush Limbaugh's deranged rant from last week, The Left Celebrates Katrina Destruction, Terror Attack They've Been Waiting For.  While the segment is as stupid as anything you could ever read, the transcript has been archived so now only paying members of the Rush fan club can access it, and I failed to copy it when I had the chance.  So, let me just share with you this portion which I did copy -- it's where Rush responds to a columnist who said that President Bush should just own up to the mistakes he made in regard to pre- and post-Katrina management, and move on to bigger and better things, like screwing up the war some more. 

"Reagan and Clinton both made monumental errors in their second terms and yet finished their times in office with the strong support and even affection of the American people because they recognized their mistakes, apologized for them, and moved on to bigger and better things." Yeah, well, all well and good, but, you know, this business of apologizing? Fine and dandy but, you know, take a look at Monica Lewinsky today. She's trying to get into grad school in Europe someplace and I've got a story in the stack here about how she is just one totally messed-up person. All she wants is to get married and have a family, and she put on a whole bunch of weight. She's just an absolute psychological mess, and there's one reason for it. Well, maybe two, but she was an intern at the time with stars in her eyes, delivering pizza in the Oval Office.

Yes, not only did the Left celebrate the Katrina destruction, but Bush should never apologize for anything, because the Clenis is responsible for making Monica a fat, messed-up person who just wants to get married. 

So, is Rush back on the pills, or is he just possessed by a demon?

6:47:47 AM