In this column I pose questions and raise issues. I don't always agree with the conclusion, implied or stated. The purpose is to put a slightly different spin on each item and to promote discussion.

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• On April 5, 2005, Airhead America's Morning Sedition Featherweights described conservative opponents of the effort to redefine marriage as "anti‑American" and "treasonous." Saying the terrorists in Iraq should win is not "anti‑American," but saying marriage should not be redefined is "anti‑American"?
• To many Americans, anything older than their grandparents is ancient history, and anything older than the United States is prehistoric.
• On April 5th, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken claimed that progressives have plenty of ideas about such things as alternative fuels and universal healthcare. He's right, they do. Not all of them are bad, either, which is why conservatives share some of the same ideas.
• It's irrational to believe that it's superstitious to acknowledge that there is an uncreated first cause.
• Ever since Teresa Heinz Kerry told Colin McNickle to "shove it" when he asked her what she meant by "un‑American traits," progressive‑liberals have gone to great lengths to claim that conservatives are the ones who go around accusing people of being "un‑American."
• With her new book, Jane Fonda is out stumping for John Kerry. On the April 6th edition of Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken show, she complained that Republicans called John Kerry "unpatriotic" during the campaign. No doubt, some on the far‑right fringe did, but it didn't come from the Republican mainstream. In fact, many conservatives, such as Michael Medved, repeatedly acknowledged Kerry as a patriot. Demonstrating once again, that while the radicals of the right are in the fringe, the loons of the left are in the Democratic mainstream.
• Humans are strange. To keep this in check, we build fences. Conservatives believe that little fences will suffice. Progressives believe that big fences which they control are best. Liberals believe in big fences for everybody else and little fences for themselves. Libertarians believe all fences should be privately owned. Socialists believe in state owned fences. And Anarchists believe in no fences.
• A wound ignored, festers. A truism which progressive‑liberals ignore in their attacks against the War on Terror.
• On April 8th, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken said we are not paying enough attention and money to the genocide in Darfur. The situation there is tragic. One of many which we will be better able to address once Iraq is a wealthy democracy.
• To progressive‑liberals, "tolerant" means that you agree with them. To conservatives, it means accepting and defending the right of others to their beliefs, even if you do not believe the same thing or agree with them.
• Political correctness lowers the level of discourse and decreases the degree of critical thinking by removing opportunities for us to engage in civil debate and discussion regarding topics which are now frequently prohibited.
• On April 11th, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken said that Republicans are "cracking up" as a result of the fighting over Tom DeLay and John Bolton. He keeps doing this, trying to be the Rush Limbaugh of the left. But it's tough when he knows so much less about politics than Rush does.
• Next, Mumbling Al noted that some Iraqis are drinking sewage‑tainted water, and their electricity is on only a few times a day. He's right. But the same is true of India. Will he blame that on Bush, too?
• In the past, Mumbling Al has noted that Medicare is in worse shape than Social Security. He's right. But reducing the load on Social Security will alleviate the pressure on Medicare, while fixing Medicare alone will do nothing to alleviate the looming crisis for Social Security.
• On April 18th, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken criticized Condoleezza Rice for seeing the silver lining to the cloud caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami. Optimism, it's a conservative thing.
• Global warming—and global cooling—are not matters for debate. It is a matter of historical fact that they occur, with or without us. One of the relevant questions, therefore, is, when they do occur, how will we adapt? For conservatives, I think one answer would be, with optimism.
• Progressive‑liberals don't much care for honest Indians, but they love Native Parrots.
• Sparta collapsed in part because the core of their culture invested too little in having children.
• Like Rush Limbaugh, Mumbling Al and other hosts on Airhead America portray the differences between conservatives and progressive‑liberals as the differences between Republicans and Democrats. Both are wrong.
• Recently, on the Michael Medved Show, Sherman Alexie repeated the oft‑observed fact that most American Indians vote for Democrats but live like Republicans, which is to say, like conservatives. The reasons are complex, and include a historical dependency on the federal government. But another, largely ignored though very significant reason, is that many Republicans, particularly at the local level, often demand an end to Indian rights. They are like home buyers who, once they move into a house, band together against the former land owners to repudiate their debts.
• Mumbling Al frequently hammers on Rush Limbaugh. I like Limbaugh. He's a likeable guy. I like Al, too, and regret that when he was standing a few feet away from the Washington state delegation at the Republican National Convention, I didn't take the opportunity to say hello. But we all know the reason Franken aspires to be the Limbaugh of the Left, is because he's intellectually incapable of rising to the level of Michael Medved.
• On April 22nd, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken interviewed Jorge Ramos about the many haeart‑breaking stories of the burdens afflicting Mexicans. They are sad and cry out for action. But progressive‑liberals use such stories as the basis for enacting laws and implementing policies that create burdens for all Americans. Rather than celebrating America and spreading the American way, they encourage guilt and spread the pain.
• Ramos told Mumbling Al that the solution to Mexican poverty isn't to replace their corrupt oligarchy with a democratic republic and capitalism, which would attract investment capital from Americans. No, he wants American taxpayers to give money to the Mexican oligarchy, which would spend some of it to modernize their industrial base so they can compete more effectively against American workers. Here's the punch line: Franken and his co‑host, Airhead America's Cachinnating Katherine Lanpher, agreed with him.
• Mumbling Al's next guest, Joe Conason, suggested that Franken listeners register to attend Family Research Council events under assumed names. This demonstrates the dishonesty that is rampant among progressive‑liberals. As Kevin Bacon said in Hollow Man, "It's amazing what you can do when you can't see yourself."
• In a skit, Mumbling Al Franken and Cachinnating Katherine Lanpher portrayed the Minute Men patrolling the border as xenophobes. Evidently, they favor open borders. More cheap labor to compete against American workers.
• Then, Mumbling Al discussed a recording of Republicans plotting to get rid of liberal judges by cutting off their funding. A conspiracy! Except, conservative commentators have been talking about doing this for several weeks. It wasn't secret, there was no conspiracy. Strategizing is a thing intelligent people do. One would presume that includes progressive‑liberals.
• Mumbling Al also said that you can't vote in American elections if you're "here illegally." Evidently, he's unaware of what's been happing in King County, home of the illegal vote.
• Commenting about a caller to Bill O'Reilly's Radio Factor, Mumbling Al said he would have just hung up on the caller. This demonstrates a difference between the left and the right. Most on the right engage in communication. Right or wrong, we are pro‑free speech. Most on the left, on the other hand, only want cheerleaders. That's why so many leftists engage in so much censorship while screaming rage at the slightest hint of limitations on their own speech.
• Thanks to feminists, dating has been so vulgarized that to ask a woman out is viewed as tantamount to an invitation to sex. When unwanted, this is automatically transformed into an offense and sexual harassment.
• Proponents of unisex restrooms say it will increase safety for transgendered individuals. But it will decrease safety for female individuals. The feminist solution will be to further demonize men.
• Right‑wing liberals talk big about principles, but laud corporate pragmatism.
• On April 22, 2005, Shouting Ed Schultz said we must give Democratic leaders the chance to talk to a national audience because it's the righties who have been name‑calling and falsely accusing for years. Evidently, Shouting Ed has forgotten that, at least since the 1960s, the feminists, socialists, hippies, black power, and a multitude of others on the left have commonly used false accusations and name‑calling.
• Shouting Ed also claimed that President Bush and others call themselves neoconservatives. President Bush does not call himself a neoconservative.
• Next, Shouting Ed expressed shock at President Bush for holding hands with Saudi Crown Prince Abdula while they walked. Is Shouting Ed a homophobe? Has the left now embraced homophobia?
• Finally, Shouting Ed agreed with a caller who said neocons should be called "neonazis," because, like Hitler, Bush held rallies. Maybe Shouting Ed doesn't know that John Kerry held rallies, too.
• Because one of President Bush's judicial nominees— Janice Rogers Brown—is a black woman, on April 22, 2005, the Airhead America's Morning Sedition Featherweights complained that he was playing "the race card and the chick card." What a sexist, racist thing to say.
• The Morning Sedition Featherweights went on to sneer that conservative listeners have no ethics, and only care whether we have an "efficient argument." Given how few facts they have to back up their opinions, evidently they define "efficient argument" and having no ethics as being fact‑based rather than feelings‑based.
• The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution does not just say that the government "shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," but, as American Indians evidently know better than the ACLU, it also says the government (including the courts) shall make no law " prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Yet, the ACLU and others use the government—through the courts—to prohibit the free exercise of religion.
• The Makah's want to hunt whales. Who opposes them? Progressive‑liberals. The Inupiat Eskimos want to allow drilling for oil in their indigenous territory—Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—and who opposes them? Progressive‑liberals. Why do so many American Indians think progressive‑liberals are our friends?
• One can imagine right‑wing liberals who would oppose the Fair Tax because it would benefit members of American Indian tribes more than other Americans.
• On April 27, 2005, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken lambasted Rush Limbaugh for claiming that the United States spends more on environmental measures than defense and other items combined. What does that have to do with the national deficit, he wanted to know. Either Mumbling Al isn't as smart as I think he is, or he's a liar. All the money spent in the private sector on conforming to ineffective environmental regulations is a tax. Taxes reduce the amount of money we have to spend. That decreases investing. Less investing constricts commerce. Commerce, which produces the profits that pay the employees who spend the money that gets taxed to reduce the national deficit.
• Later, David Brock told Mumbling Al that Senator Bill Frist, M.D. was the first to use the term, "nuclear option." I believe Brock is right. But then he claimed that for this reason, it's dishonest for Republicans to accuse Democrats of calling it that. But wait! Democrats were and are calling it that. So where's the beef?
• Mumbling Al began frothing with indignation over the GOPs use of Video News Releases (VNRs) during the 2004 Campaign. Unfortunately for him, Mumbling Al's guest, John Stauber, explained that VNRs and Radio News Releases (RNRs) have been in use for a long time. Franken evinced an ignorance about this which is suspect. Just as the fury over the Bush Administration's VNRs, last year, was suspect. My introduction to VNRs was at a 1984 University of Washington lecture. The use of VNRs is pervasive. That doesn't make it right, but it does cast Democrat indignation in a hypocritical light.
• Progressive‑liberals confuse tolerance with approval.
• Like feminists, progressive‑liberals ignore that any law they impose to protect their side will ultimately protect their opposition.
• Whether one agrees with the reasons used to justify the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, all Americans should be proud of what our military is doing in those countries.
• One quality for which President Bush is often criticized, is his ability to listen. Many liberals, and conservatives, too, said we need more innovation and conservation to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. He listened, and now agrees. But, demonstrating they are motivated by hate for the man, progressive‑liberals attacked him for this. How sad.
• Time‑after‑time, progressive‑liberals have used the courts to overrule the will of the people; now, they correctly see President Bush's judicial nominees as a threat to their attacks on the American people.
• In opposition to National ID cards, on the May 2, 2005, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken joked that his New York driver's license says "Jew" on it. Gee, Mumbling Al, my National ID card says "Indian" on it. No joke. Typical, progressive‑liberals can't stand the idea of the federal government doing to them what it has done for generations to American Indians.
• Later, when Mumbling Al couldn't persuade his "dittohead" friend, Mark Luther that Rush Limbaugh was wrong about Terri Schindler‑Schiavo, at the commercial break he growled that Mark might not be there after the break. This demonstrates that, while there may be plenty of intolerant extremists on fringe of the right, one need go no further than Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken Show to find them in the mainstream of the left.
• Periodically, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken laments how hard it is to fill the time on his show. Maybe if he took callers it wouldn't be so hard. But that would reveal how much he doesn't know, too.
• A primary tactic of the left is to equate disagreement with hate. If you do not agree with them, then you are promoting hate. Not that they actually believe this is true. It's is a pragmatic tactic. They use it because it works.
• Scott Ritter pocketed $42,000 to produce a pro‑Saddam Hussein movie.
• Anger comes and goes, but eyes once opened, never close.
• On May 2, 2005, Michael Medved advocated a device called TV B‑Gone that allows you to harass your neighbors by remotely turning off their TV. Now maybe he was joking, but is something that increases frustration, hostility and tension by facilitating anonymous harassment really a good idea?
• On May 3, 2005, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken said he preferred the "stability" of Saddam Hussein's regime to the current civil war in Iraq.
• Next, Mumbling Al claimed there are many nice Republicans, but they're still racists. He doesn't get it. There's racism on both sides, it just wears a different face.
• Mumbling Al then panned President Bush for criticizing the fact that Social Security is backed by Treasury Bonds, but supports Treasury Bonds for individual accounts. "I don't get it," he said. I don't believe him. The difference is obvious. Under the current plan, everybody's retirement is funded by Treasury Bonds. All the eggs are in one basket. Under an ownership society plan, however, Treasury Bonds would be one among many options. And diversity is a good thing, right?
• Mumbling Al also complained that vehicle efficiency is not part of the president's agenda. He's wrong. In an April 28th Press Conference, President Bush emphatically stated the need for us to make "better use technology to become better conservers of energy."
• One of Airhead America's promotional spots in Seattle says, "slow moving talk radio, keep to the right." Cute, unfortunately, their mind‑numbing antics and the endless dirge about Republicans dooming the planet makes their own shows so boring that they could be a remedy for insomnia.
• On the May 4, 2005, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken Show, Christy Harvey, Director of Strategic Communications at the Center for American Progress, said the United States puts out more CO2 than any other industrial nation. The BBC and others agree with her. She did not say the US produces more than all the other nations combined, however, because that would be wrong. What's more, the numbers are misleading. Under the Kyoto treaty, participating nations are allowed to buy and sell credits. (See Greenhouse gas market to slow global warming, by Alison Graab, CNN, April 8, 2005.) Consequently, many industrialized nations are essentially giving money to less developed nations in exchange for the appearance that they're doing a good job of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• If it's sexual harassment, in a typical American office, to look at a woman's cleavage, then why isn't it sexual harassment for a woman to show cleavage? Under the same court case that established a distinct "reasonable woman standard," it is sexual harassment.
• Bishop John Shelby Spong, author of Sins of Scripture, speculates that the Jesus taught in most churches is an idol. Maybe he's right. So what? Christianity has been one of the most powerfully civilizing influences in history. No good purpose is served by attacking their faith.
• On May 5, 2005, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken joked about banning Boston Globe Columnist Tom Oliphant from the show. "But that would have made us as bad as the (conservative⁄right‑wing) shows we criticize," he said. Except, the shows he criticizes have callers and guests with opposing views every day, unlike the guests on Mumbling Al's show, who are mostly members of the progressive‑liberal choir.
• Mumbling Al went on to tease Oliphant, telling him that "a healthy person can accept affection." I wonder what feminists, many of whom see sexual harassment in the slightest evidence of "unwanted" affection, would have to say about that.
• Mumbling Al also said that, for old people like him, young people are not the future, old people are. Another demonstration of ways in which the principles of progressive‑liberalism differ from conservative principles.
• On May 6, 2005, after reviewing the recently published memo of a British official identified as "C," which allegedly revealed that by July 2002, President Bush had already decided to invade Iraq, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken described it as "disgraceful." What's disgraceful, is Mumbling Al pretending that most Americans were too dumb to figure that out. As one young Marine explained, WMDs were the "legal reason," not the real reasons. Mumbling Al is a smart, well‑educated guy; he knows this. But he maintains the pretence, because to do otherwise would mean mounting arguments against the real reasons. That would be impossible to do and still appear to be the decent, good‑hearted people we all know he his sidekick, Cachinnating Katherine, really are.
• Many in the media criticized Laura Bush for her jokes at the 2005 White House Correspondents Dinner. And I thought feminists were humorless!
• On May 9, 2005, talking about GOP fundraiser Jack Abramoff, who fended off proposals to extend the U.S. minimum wage to the Northern Mariana Islands, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken said that the Islands have sweatshops. Worse, they have sex shops. That's bad! But, not to speak in defense of Abramoff, who reportedly has a low opinion of American Indians, in fairness we should note that there are sweatshops, sex shops, and worse in America, too.
• Later, while poking fun at Intelligent Design, Mumbling Al quipped that "gravity is just a theory, too." For a man of his education, you'd think he'd know that there are theories to explain gravity, but that gravity, itself, is not a theory but an empirical phenomenon.
• Mumbling Al then noted that we have the technology to build high mileage cars right now. As an early proponent of hybrid cars, I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that, in 1989, one of the popular technology magazines published an article about Unique Mobility's proposal for a hybrid car. Today, the McMaster Motor looks interesting. Why do rich progressive‑liberals always whine about the need for such developments when they could be investing in them?
• On the May 9th, 2005, Mumbling Al Franken Show, King County Executive Ron Sims bragged that his administration sought out a group of homosexuals to sue King County to allow them to get married. While progressive‑liberals around the world may laud him for this, were I still a King County taxpayer, I'd be questioning the use of my tax dollars to recruit people to sue the county.
• When Sims also announced that they had renamed King County after Martin Luther King Jr., Cachinnating Katherine Lanpher asked how conservatives reacted to this. Sims snarled, "They're in pain!" Proving what we already knew, that the only time progressive‑liberals are happy is when they think—mistakenly, in this case—that they are causing somebody pain. It was a hateful thing for Sims to say. I'm a conservative, and I admire Dr. King.
• Ironic, that Sims and Mumbling Al cheered this triumph in a city named after Chief See‑at‑la, whose mother's tribe, the Duwamish, have languished under the smiling racism of progressivism for more than 100 years.
• Later, during that same show in Seattle, Dan Savage complained to Mumbling Al that a lot of straight people don't know the kind of fear that haunts homosexuals. They feel threatened, poor dears, by "anti‑gay" legislation. Compared to the violence, discrimination, and competing prejudices from both the left and the right, that haunt American Indians, few homosexuals know what real oppression is.
• Progressive‑liberals claim that if Christine Gregoire had not stolen the Washington state gubernatorial election from Dino Rossi, Washington state would now have an election system like they have in Ohio and Florida. I don't know what they have in those states, but evidently progressive‑liberals feel it justifies the fraud that has been exposed in King County.
• On the May 9, 2005, Michael Medved Show, Professor Hubert G. Locke complained that, absent the Civil War, slavery would have persisted in the United States for another 50 years. So, what if there had been no war, just a gradual transition? Would the lives lost to slavery during those 50 years have been more or less than the lives lost to the war? This is not just a rhetorical question. We answer it every time we vote.
• As American society evolves, we reach moments when we can conceive a milestone within another generation. Individually, we want it now. It is characteristic of conservatism to advocate for and encourage change, but to otherwise let evolution take its gradual course. Conversely, it is characteristic of progressive‑liberalism to employ often very destructive and disruptive means to get it, now.
• Why do progressive‑liberals hate, with such a vitriolic rage, President Bush's call to carry freedom and democracy to every nation in the world? Because they didn't do it, first.
• As a general rule, liberals and progressive‑liberals who oppose Indian tribes, do so because they want to control us; conservatives who oppose us do so because our governments, which are on roughly equal footing with state governments, are not subject to municipal rules.
• As progressive‑liberals take over the Democrat party, they are creating a natural alliance between Indian tribes and the GOP.
• On May 10, 2005, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken complained that President Bush doesn't go to the funerals of Americans who died in Afghanistan and Iraq. Obviously, he's being facetious. It would be impossible for the president to do that and all his other duties, too.
• One of Mumbling Al's guests, Nigel Jaquiss, of Willamette Week (whose website appears to advertise prostitution), portrayed Progressivism as being willing to try new ideas. What he meant is, social experimentation. But that's a key element of Liberalism. Progressivism stems from a more violent and socialist legacy.
• In post‑feminist society, employers who discriminate against single people unduly disadvantage men.
• Increasing the barriers to committing bankruptcy will increase the barriers to going into debt. In the short‑term, it will be painful. In the long‑run, it will help keep more Americans out of debt. I say this as one who lost a well‑paying job after Qwest took over US West. Suddenly, my debt went from easily managed to overwhelming. That was in 2000. In 2001 I had a medical emergency. With no health insurance came more debt. Bankruptcy was tempting. Instead, I went on a payment plan and, as of July 10, I will pay off the last of it. So I do not speak as some callous fat cat, but one who's been there.
• Demonstrating how popular it is in Oregon to be illiberal, intolerant and anti‑conservative, Airhead America's affiliate in Portland, Oregon, debuted at number 3 in their market.
• Airhead America reached 60 percent of the market within a year, while it took Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk radio many years to achieve that kind of market penetration. And they still deny that the media is predominantly liberal?
• On May 11, 2005, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken said, "We document almost daily Rush lying." What a coincidence! I document almost daily Al lying.
• Mumbling Al refers to illegal immigrants as "undocumented workers." They're the ones who work in America's undocumented sweatshops and sex shops.
• On the May 12, 2005, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken Show, Randy Hays said that their organization, Rainforest Action Network, got Home Depot to stop selling "old growth" wood. Conservation is a good thing. But their "stop old growth logging" campaign produces stagnation, not conservation.
• Another one of Mumbling Al's guests that day was Gavin Newson, Mayor of San Francisco, who said civil unions won't work as a replacement for marriage, because "civil union is not marriage." One flaw with his passionate assertion, is that lesbians and gays already can get married in a religious ceremony. What they're demanding, as Michael Medved has repeatedly pointed out, is government sanction of same‑sex marriage. They want the government to redefine it, they want the government to license it, and they want the government to force the majority of Americans, who disagree with them, to accept it.
• Proof that progressive‑liberals are good friends of the black community: When Mumbling Al and Cachinnating Katherine were in Seattle, Al declared that it's harder to be gay than to be black.
• Progressive‑liberals often confuse Libertarian and Republican rhetoric.
• On May 13, 2005, Michael Medved said private corporations have the right to make stupid decisions, and he's right. Long‑established corporations, however, are seldom run by founders or owners of the company. Instead, they are run by professional executives who have no stake in the long‑term success of the company. Because they are motivated, as individuals, almost exclusively by short‑term stock performance, their decisions often sacrifice the future of the company, along with stockholders' long‑term investment and employees' jobs, to fly‑by‑night profit‑taking. That's not right.
• Sometime toward the end of the month of May 2005, Mumbling Al Franken was hammering on right‑wing talk show host Rusty Humphries, who got excited about going to Iraq. Rusty made it sound like a big adventure. Cachinnating Katherine Lanpher stopped Mumbling Al, and they cut to a commercial break. When they came back, Mumbling Al changed the subject. Why? Rusty, who went to my old high school, did a stint on 570 KVI in Seattle, where he told his listeners what the Airheads don't want you to know: Rusty lost his dad in the Vietnam War. Rusty lived what Mumbling Al only blusters about.
• Individuality does not exist outside of society.
• On May 17, 2005, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken complained that, although President Bush says he supports biodiesel, he has not issued a mandate supporting it. Mumbling Al is right. We need more mandates! Where's the presidential mandate supporting ice cream? Oh, wait, a mandate isn't needed, because market‑driven sales of ice cream remain strong. Confronted with high prices for gasoline, the market for biodiesel is improving, too. Market‑driven mandates are more cost‑effective than political mandates. They bring products to market faster and at a lower cost. But, being a progressive, Mumbling Al doesn't believe in allowing freedom of choice. He would rather use government fiat to cram it down our throat.
• Mumbling Al also noted that Fox News takes credit for virtually every news item. This hubris, he attributed to "the right" and conservatives. While his criticism of some Fox celebrities is sadly warranted, the same can be said of people on the left.
• During the May 17th show, Mumbling Al began talking with his mouth full. Given how vulgar and ill‑mannered he's prone to be, it was no surprise to hear him eating as he talked live on his show. Bad manners may be chic among the Hollywood elite, but good manners, as American Indians know, are a token of respect.
• Later in Mumbling Al's show, Eric Alterman joined them. He complained that even though public airwaves were given to TV corporations, the corporations give nothing back to the public. This, from leftists, who claim the public has no interest—no right—to "censor" what they put in their broadcasts.
• There is a tendency among progressive‑liberals to project the insanity of Islamic extremists onto all Christian fundamentalists.
• Whenever I have difficulty figuring out how conservative principles can be applied to solve a big problem, I put it into the context of my tribe. If it were a tribal issue, how would I handle it? This never fails to resolve the issue. That's because, once you get past the details, the principles work.
• On May 18th, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken noted that Republicans blocked a lot of President Clinton's judicial appointees. Blithely, he ignored that Republicans had the majority at the time. Just as they do, today.
• Mumbling Al is so lacking in substance that he spent a good 5 minutes, that day, picking apart Bill O'Reilly for referring to heterosexual men as "macho." It was a silly thing to say, end of story, get over it and move on.
• Mumbling Al repeatedly lied about Senator Bill Frist. According to Mumbling Al, Frist said that a judicial nominee has never been denied an up‑or‑down vote, and this made Frist wrong and a hypocrite. Mumbling Al lied. Frist said that a nominee with majority support has never been denied an up‑or‑down vote.
• Whether it's blacks on racism, or Mexican elites on the subject of Texas and California, they intentionally ignore that American Indian claims supercede their own. The difference is that, like most blacks, most Indians aren't stuck in the past.
• In my experience, "freedom of speech" means that progressive‑liberals have the freedom to tell me what is true, I am free to be penalized if I don't listen, and they are free to shout me down if I try to share what's true for me.
• Socialism will always fail because of the intrinsic flaws in human nature. That's why conservative principles never lead to socialism.
• Ward Churchill contends that blood quantum is irrelevant. To some extent, I agree. Tribes that require a minimum blood quantum rather than lineal descent risk inbreeding or dying out. According to some of his disciples…er, students, however, he also claims that being "native in spirit" is all that matters. Nonsense. This is nothing more than an attempt by progressive‑liberals to steal our native identity for themselves. With it, they can escape ridiculously broad charges of racism from extremists within the black community, and simultaneously make themselves the nation's "first victims." Just what this country needs, more "victims."
• Lots of people have claimed that John Bolton is abrasive. They assume that's bad. But it's time America showed some backbone in the UN. We need a bulldog, not another lapdog for the job.
• On May 19, 2005, Charles Goyette, filling in on the Shouting Ed Schultz Show, said that the Republican move against the filibuster is a transparent power grab. Worse, he said, it's hypocritical, because it violates the conservative principle of preserving what has proved its worth through many years of use. That's a good point. But it ignores both that many Republicans are liberal and that Democrats are abusing the tradition.
• Goyette also said that the reason the Downing Street Memo did not shock most Americans, is because the people are complicit. He's right, in the sense that most Americans knew all along that WMDs were a legal pretext. But he's wrong, in that most Americans also knew it was the right thing to do.
• Goyette later asserted that most of the money from the oil for food program that went into Saddam's pocket came from America, so we knew it was a sham. In other words, Bill Clinton and Al Gore knew.
• On the May 20th Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken Show, MSNBC Senior Political Analyst Lawrence O'Donnell cited a Pew Research Center poll showing that more than half surveyed supported Bush's Social Security reform until they learned it was Bush's plan. Demonstrating the hatred that, increasingly, characterizes progressive‑liberals.
• Mumbling Al then complained that in an on‑air editorial, Bill O'Reilly used the term, "Michael Kinsley's little house." Mumbling Al said this was a way for O'Reilly to say he's got more money than Kinsley. Talk about making a tempest in a tea cup! I'm not a big fan of Bill O'Reilly. He's entertaining and generally conservative, but gets plenty of his facts wrong. But it was clear he was impugning Kinsley's political positions, not bragging about his money.
• Next, Mumbling Al said about right‑wing radio, "They just lie! Because they can." He should know.
• During the "dittohead" segment, Mumbling Al agreed with his friend, Mark Luther, that President Bush had been duped about WMDs. So, which is it, Al? Did he lie about weapons of mass destruction, or was he misled?
• Next, Joe Conason complained to Mumbling Al that two of President Bush's judicial nominees—Judge Gonzales and Judge Owen—come from Texas, where they have to run for office. They should be appointed, he said. Why? Don't progressive‑liberals like democracy?
• Progressive‑liberals take the murders in Afghanistan and Iraq as proof we have failed. We have in excess of 20,000 murders every year in the U.S., does that mean America has failed here, too?
• I'm still waiting for progressive‑liberals to claim that the photos of Saddam Hussein in his tidy whities are evidence of Bush Administration badness.
• Progressive‑liberals claim that President Bush's tax cuts will bankrupt the nation. That's because they believe that allowing Americans to keep more of their own money will fail to stimulate the economy.
• Intolerant Jay Marvin, who sat in for Shouting Ed Schultz on May 20th, was still complaining that Republicans called opponents of President Bush "unpatriotic." I keep hearing that, yet I have never heard a Republican call anybody unpatriotic simply for opposing Bush. Without a doubt, there are a few right‑wing extremist kooks who have, which may be why progressive‑liberals won't name any of them.
• Intolerant Jay also claimed that neoconservatives love government getting involved in people's personal lives. Is that why neoconservatives support the progressive‑liberals' demand that the government get involved in people's lives to change the definition of marriage? Oh, that's right, they don't.
• Intolerant Jay went on to say that neocons have a fascist mentality. Now, I consider myself a conservative, but progressive‑liberals would call me a neoconservative because it's their new politically correct n‑word.
• Intolerant Jay continued that women are going to wake up and realize they will lose the right to a medical abortion if Republicans win the fight over the judicial nominees. He doesn't get it. The real threat to the progressive‑liberal agenda, is that men will win the comparable right to a "legal abortion."
• Finally, Intolerant Jay complained that the European Union may be the next super power, and grumbled that Bush isn't doing anything about it. Sounds like some progressive‑liberals are more concerned about maintaining American supremacy than most conservatives.
• Many progressive‑liberals have complained that anonymous Republican operatives remove them from events at which President Bush speaks. They want everybody to know how terrible this is. This happened to me, too. Dr. Cecile Andrews, Executive Director of the local chapter of the AAUW, had me removed from a public meeting before it started. Why? With only 3 questions, I exposed her sexism. (Read the story here.) Typical of how progressive‑liberals respond with force when successfully challenged, she falsely accused me of causing a disruption, called campus security and threatened to have me arrested.
• If Bush invaded Iraq to steal their oil, then why is Iraq selling it on the open market?
• A lot of progressive‑liberals seem to believe they have telepathic powers, because so many say they know what both conservative and liberal Republicans are thinking.
• On the May 23rd Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken complained that because the Muslims who have been released from Guanatamo are not al‑Qaeda terrorists, this proves Bush is wrong to hold any of them there. Evidently, Mumbling Al has forgotten that these men were enemy combatants who were captured on the battlefield.
• Next, Christy Harvey told Mumbling Al that the Iraqi people can't focus on democracy until they have electricity and other modern amenities. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't America do democracy without things like electricity? India has pervasive, daily brownouts, and still manages to be a democracy. If India can do it, then Iraq, which will soon be one of the richest nations on Earth, can, too.
• During his dittohead segments, Mumbling Al labels Limbaugh's errors as lies. Rush claims to be right only 98.something percent of the time. So Mumbling Al always has something to mumble about. Interestingly, however, I can count on one hand the number of times Mumbling Al has crowed over one of Michael Medved's mistakes: Once. It must really gall Mumbling Al to go to sleep at night knowing he is seriously outclassed.
• On May 24th, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken claimed that Judge Janice Rogers Brown is "not in the mainstream." He's right. She's from California.
• After Mumbling Al got done muttering about Judge Brown, Christy Harvey reported that at the May 23rd White House Press Briefing for President Bush and President Hamid Karzai, few members of the press showed up. So they had to pack the room with White House Interns. And here I thought there was a liberal bias in the media.
• While I respect President Bush's beliefs, the argument against using embryonic stem cells for research is based on the materialist belief that those few cells are a person. In my understanding, the spirit does not attach to the body until later.
• With the rebuilding of Afghanistan and Iraq, are American forces now stretched so thin that we can do little more? Primarily that's true only with respect to ground forces. Our air and sea power remain vast.
• Freedom requires structure, and cannot exist without form.
• On May 25th, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken claimed that Judge Janice Rogers Brown is crazy. He didn't explain why. Maybe he believes she's the right‑wing equivalent of Ruth Bader‑Ginsberg.
• Then, Boston Globe Columnist Tom Oliphant told Mumbling Al that the fact Judge Brown is black and the daughter of sharecroppers isn't as dispositive as it was when Clarence Thomas was nominated. Evidently, blacks who rose from poverty on the basis of their own merits are now so common that progressive‑liberals are no longer reluctant to attack them.
• Oliphant then claimed he was "disgusted" by Bush for standing with children who were adopted as frozen embryos. What he means is, he was angered by its effectiveness.
• The ACLU recently reported that "America is a threat to global values." Good! From the view here in western Washington state, it sometimes looks like we're ready to rename the nation "New Swedish Mexico."
• There is a natural human desire to bias outcomes in judicial proceedings in their own favor. In response, progressive‑liberals, like feminists, demand bias in their favor, while conservatives demand objectivity tempered by wisdom and tradition.
• Better hard words and right acts, than pretty words and wrong acts.
• Some progressive‑liberals claim that if Americans had voted their pocketbooks, they would have voted against Bush. Good point. The majority of Americans voted their principles, not their pocketbook.
• On June 1st, Mumbling Al Franken railed against Bush for his intention to veto the stem cell research bill. Mumbling Al made it sound as if Bush is outlawing the use of fertilized embryos for stem cell research. Wrong. It's legal, and will remain legal. What Mumbling Al wants, is to socialize the research. But then, he wants to socialize American medicine, too.
• Next, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken lambasted Rush Limbaugh for something he probably got off the internet. Today, most major metropolitan newspapers and magazines, as well as numerous University papers and books, are on the internet. Mumbling Al knows this, and he's not suggesting that they're all illegitimate. He's just engaging in the politics of personality, which, in my experience, is what most progressive‑liberals do.
• Finally, Mumbling Al noted that the United States spends more on our military than any other nation in the world, as a reason to criticize Bush. But this has been true for decades.
• On June 2nd, Airhead America's Mumbling Al Franken pointed out that mosquito netting can save children in Africa from malaria. He's right. But DDT would be more effective. Unfortunately, progressive‑liberals, like Mumbling Al, won't let us use it. Thanks to them, millions of children throughout the world have died.
• Mumbling Al later blamed Bush for the recession, which he claimed was caused by the Enron scandal. Interestingly, that scandal began years before Bush took office, during the Clinton Administration.
• Feminists continue to assert that the "world of work" is set up for "man speak." This ignores that most office environments, which are numerically dominated by women, are set up for "woman speak." It also ignores that sexual harassment law, in practice if not in principle, caters primarily to women.