POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Civil Service Positions? Republicans Need Not Apply

To the victors go the spoils, I guess, but this sets a terrible precedent. It's like Hillary Clinton's Travelgate turned into a general policy:

In other words, if a “careered-into” civil servant worked for President Bush in the executive branch at any time during his second term in the White House, that employee may not be approved. The same applies if that civil servant worked for a Republican Member of Congress at any point during the past five years, in effect freezing these employees out of other positions, denying them promotions, and forcing them out of their jobs.

Dig the post-partisanship. Embrace the change. It's like using your tax money for something crazy . . . say, funding a group that fabricates Democrat voter registrations and throws out legitimate registrations of Republicans.

You know, I can't wait to bring this up when we discuss term limits.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Forget Muslim Extremism, You Know Who’s Controversial? MORMONS

 

I know we are long overdue for a post from me featuring crazy shoes and tawdry movie-star gossip, but something else has been bugging me for the last two weeks.

Apologies in advance to those of you who don't use Twitter, who hate Twitter, or think writing about anything involving Twitter is a waste of time. The general questions posed by the end will be Twitter-free, I promise.

Twitter has been slightly magical for me. As a classical musician and a Conservative, I'm in a definite minority. That would be fine, except in my line of business it is perfectly acceptable to discriminate against those who aren't hardcore lefties, and it has sadly become more or less of a witch hunt. When I gradually started figuring out how to tweet, I was amazed that there were so many politically like-minded people around who were not only intelligent, but who were SPEAKING FREELY ABOUT THEIR BELIEFS! Something I can't do at work without being assailed with Olbermannisms. I also couldn't believe that I could talk to all of these geniuses with blogs and books, and that some of my adored TV Pundits were real humans who wrote things back to me. I was in heaven. There was finally somewhere free of hatred towards what "we" believe in, yet different views could also be discussed objectively. Somewhere free of the ignorant, empty blanket statements I'm used to hearing from the mouths of ignorant, empty opera heads.

Well, kinda.

It's no secret to my followers that I really like Glenn Beck. I'm not a recent convert; I've been following his career closely since about 2003. I was a fan of his radio show the very second I heard it. I also don't agree with absolutely everything he has ever said and done, but like him and respect him for my own reasons. One of those reasons being HE knows and reminds everyone DAILY that he's not perfect. I've been called a "Beck apologist" (whatever the crap that means) simply for liking him and for sticking up for him when someone gets facts wrong (which happens a lot).

Here's another non-secret. I was raised Mormon, and Beck is what I like to call nouveau-Mormon. I'm no longer practicing, but a huge side of my family is extremely active in the church. Even though I'm pretty heathen-esque when it comes to boys and such, I still practice a lot of the things I was taught growing up. Things most of us were perhaps taught growing up. Things like, oh, be polite, don't judge those you don't know, don't call OTHER PEOPLE CRAZY SIMPLY BECAUSE OF THEIR RELIGION. You know. Things like that.

Of course there's a little exception. When a religion encourages the murders of non-believers, when a religion says you must massacre, must promote jihad, then I think it's fine to talk about the Crazy. In fact, there should be no political correctness whatsoever.

So what exactly did I have a problem with on my beloved Twitter? An exchange between two other Conservatives went very vaguely like this:

Con 1: OMG like that Beck guy is such a nut. Why does he love those stupid Founding Fathers so much? He talks about them more than real people OMG. Why doesn't he just have a seance with them since he's so crazy?

Con 2: Um, I don't think Mormons are allowed to have seances.

Con 1: OMG he's MORMON? NO WONDER. That explains so much. Now I think he's extra crazy. What a nutjob.

Awesome. Note well my problem with Con 1 isn't that they don't like Beck, it's that they're smearing him with being crazy because of his religion. Gee, what would happen if I started calling all Baptists stupid? All Catholics drunk pedophiles? Would that be just funny or bawdy? Or impolite and inappropriate? Clearly this person doesn't even know anything about him, since his faith (which he doesn't keep a secret) was not even known to them. I expect behavior like this from the Janeane Garofalos of the world, with her "redneck racist tea-baggers" generalization. I expect it and don't blink. But from someone who is followed by several people I respect, and who yuk-yuks it up on a regular basis as a "Conservative", it's beyond disheartening. Not that they would just say something like that, but that so many people wouldn't respond with even a "tsk tsk, that's not very nice". It was a very junior high moment---"uhhhh, they're like my friend and stuff and they're cool, I better not disagree with them so I'll just like play along, LOLOLOLOLOL, I'm not going to speak out, nope, not me, heh heh heh". In fact, there is a whole clique of "conservatives" who are rabid Beck-haters, and they get in their little huddle and go to town on how wacky-nutty he is (some are even so cool that they have their own TV show on Beck's network, and are getting more and more outspoken about their dislike). Guess what? That's cool. That's cool if you like clique-y things. You probably liked junior high. But adding the discriminatory gesture of religion-bashing? Is that what we're doing now?

I was fuming, but all I said was "guys, seriously? you're saying he's extra crazy because he's Mormon? nice." How did Con.1 respond? They said that Mr. Beck, for having the audacity to CONVERT to a "SOMEWHAT CONTROVERSIAL RELIGION" made him "crazy, unstable, and weak". Okay. I meant to stress several times here that in no way does this mean I think everyone should love and accept the Latter-Day Saint beliefs. I joke about certain things with ease. Mormons do all the time, just watch the famous Joseph Smith South Park episode. I'm fine with whatever everyone's own beliefs are. But SERIOUSLY? A "somewhat controversial religion" REALLY? Don't you think you could maybe concentrate on, oh say those OTHER "somewhat controversial religions" that KILL PEOPLE? The very second you, Con. 1,  present me with marauding Mormons beating and killing people with their leather-bound Books of Mormon to believe in what they believe in or else, I will gladly agree with you and call you Prophet. But until then, howsabout you concentrate on the real evils in the world, the real crimes, the REAL crazy people, and stop worrying about Glenn Beck. He's not doing anything to you. He does, however, have better manners than you.

In the end, I guess I have a question. Is that how our general political sphere is? They want and expect their views to be heard but at the same time want to be able to be just like the Olbermanns of the world and spew hate, hate, hate? Or please tell me that isn't the case, that we are actually like the vast majority of "us" who are kind individuals with firm beliefs that are not based in vitriol, despite how the Left labels us. Please tell me this, or I am truly idealogically homeless.

UPDATE:

So Con 1 has outed herself quite proudly, and has been stamping her feet over being "misrepresented" in my post. Simultaneously, she is promoting Freedom of all kinds, including practicing her freedom of speech and freedom of religion. If she would read the part above my depiction of the "tweet exchange" that said it went very vauguely like this then maybe she would see that in no way was I claiming direct quotage. The stuff later, the "unstable" things, WERE quotes. But since she wants to be absolutely represented, here is her actual response to finding out Beck is LDS. See, there's a naughty word in there. But I was just exercising my freedom of speech by implying what she said was a teeny tiny less bigoted. And even though freedom of anything wasn't remotely part of the point of my post, I thought I'd play along with our Moral Betters.

Dahlhalla

Dahlhalla is a professional troublemaker and classical musician living in New York City. Schooled in Seattle (with Liz Mair), and college-d in San Francisco (where she played with the Grateful Dead once, no joke). She truly lives the plots of several telenovellas on a daily basis. Yeah. Just ask any anonymous blogger you know. Currently dating her way through the former Bush Administration, Dahlhalla is gathering enough material to hopefully post more than once every other month. But until then…OMG SHOES.

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Good Enough for a “Christian”

or, When Satanic Cults Collide. Via Jammie Wearing Fool comes this story of a Christian who gave his life to save the female students at a Pakistani Muslim university. I know from other accounts that he had been on his job as a janitor for less than a week, and that his monthly salary was to have been about $60:

It's not specified what Christian sect he belonged to, but if you watch and then go to the comments at this Breitbart.TV post, you'll find that in fact it's a Satanic cult.

And, just like clockwork . . . cuckoo.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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More on NY-23 [UPDATED]

Absentee ballots have Hoffman closing, though it's moot since he conceded, however:

[M]y source points out, the fact that Democrat Bill Owens was sworn in -- and voted for ObamaCare -- before the official result was certified by New York election officials, demonstrates the fundamental lawlessness of Nancy Pelosi's regime in Washington.

Not that it's any surprise, or that it's particulary well related, but Andrew Sullivan has outdone himself in sucking up to Obama, speaking of his rejection of the options presented to him with regards to Afghanistan as a sign of strength, since it opens him to criticism of dithering. He also says that this is the sort of matter that ought to be worked out in meticulous detail in the public arena, yadda yadda.

The fact is, Obama and his advisers ought to have had their Afghanistan strategy completely mapped out by the time that he arrived in Washington. The repeated leaks and obvious discord do nothing to project the image of an administration that has the slightest idea what it is doing.

One would think that the massive Porkulousity foisted on all of us by the administration might have taken more time, especially since Obama promised to go through it line by line and excise all the pork. The jobs created or saved numbers are a terrible fraud. He also promised to post legislation online and to hold health care hearings on C-SPAN, neither of which promises materialized. Skipping the matter of his promises with regard to lobbyists, then, and his obomises not to raise taxes on 95% of Americans, we can go directly to the manner in which he has managed the health care fiasco, turning over the crafting to a multiplicity of committees, and asking them to fudge the data to bring in a CBO estimate in the range of 900 billion dollars. All of this, as well as the economy-crippling cap-and-trade legislation needs to be rammed through without public deliberation, because it's all an emergency, even as the military situation in the country he deemed most important to our security continues to deteriorate.

They say that this is because they wish to eliminate corruption and graft in the Afghani government, though investigations into graft and corruption in our own are stalled, and Obama will meet with tyrants and dictators anywhere less strongly associated with US interests. Burma's a good example, and he'll be going there this coming week.

UPDATE: On the other hand, kudos to Obama for letting this go through.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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MILF Rebel Kidnappers Welcome

What an unfortunate story.

“I don’t know who kidnapped me…," said the 79-year-old priest during a press conference at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City...

If I were to be kidnapped by a band of MILFs, I would be completely okay with it. But then, I am not a priest.

The luck of the Irish - for him at least...

"I have no desire to leave [my work in the Philippines], although I don't think they'll kidnap me again. I think if they wanted to kidnap somebody they'd be inclined to go for a much younger man because I was not able always to ... keep going - I often had to rest..."

A simple search of the term "MILF" makes me very jealous of the good priest.  I didn't know this group was so active... and flexible... and such good sports. Kind of smashes the stereotype of the typical Muslim Extremist.

Enoch_Root

AKA. Bobby Donn Brubaker (the most popular man in Mesa, AZ), the Umbrella of Terror, Jack Ketch.

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More of Hasan’s Picture Emerges

At Walter Reed, colleagues discussed privately whether his astonishing behavior might be a sign of psychosis. The NIH, which excels in these kinds of diagnosis (which i know from experience, my son Aidan having been diagnosed with Childhood Onset Schizophrenia there), was just across the road, but colleagues were prevented by considerations of political correctness from intervening, feeling that they'd have been 'crucified' if they did.

It appears as well, according to this Washington Times article, that his internet contacts with Islamists apart from Awlaki---whether al-Qaeda or not---were extensive, and that viewed in the aggregate they present a quite troubling picture.

Now comes the news that packaging for anti-AIDS drugs Combivir and AZT were found among Hasan's personal possessions. This certainly adds a new dimension to the story, in view of his visits to local strip club Starz over several weeks, where he purchased lap dances and asked the dancers personal questions, as well as a certain demented poignancy to the times he asked a local store owner in an apparently jocular way whether he'd found a bride for him.

Perhaps he was hopeful that the six dozen virgins included some guys.

As for the mainstream interpretation of jihad, here are some examples, courtesy of CAIR.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Here’s a Story I Really Hope Doesn’t Pan Out

But so far it sounds horrific.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Righteously Angry Halfrican American Punches Pigment-Challenged Woman Because of PTSD

Dude freaks out on woman in bar - while discussing "White Privilege" - cold cocks her in what alleged perpetrator deems "unfortunate event".

We at POWIP have researched the story, and are happy to inform our readers that this attack had nothing to do with the race of the "victim" or the alleged "attacker." We are promulgating the notion that the attacker, having lived in the oppressive environment that is the US of A.... on and on and on + blah-blah-blah = PTSD = totally understandable

Enoch_Root

AKA. Bobby Donn Brubaker (the most popular man in Mesa, AZ), the Umbrella of Terror, Jack Ketch.

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