Steve Skojec

This impression is laugh-out-loud funny, particularly if you enjoy the leftist pomposity of Olbermann as much as I don’t:

My latest, on voting third party, is up at Inside Catholic.

I expect a lot of love.

I’ve been hearing this a lot lately. The presumption is that if you don’t vote for John McCain, you’re voting for Barack Obama, and are therefore complicit in the evils which will be perpetrated in his administration. It’s a baseless charge which falsely presumes there are only two options available because statistically, there can only be two possible outcomes.

To show the logical discrepancy here, let’s imagine a situation where a man and his four children are being held at gunpoint. The sadistic gunman offers the father a chilling choice: “Pick one child who will die so that the rest may live, or I will shoot them all.” What is a father to do? Does he sentence one child to death to save the others? Does he do nothing and let them all die? Can he even trust the word of a man who promises to kill only one of his children but spare the remainder?

I’ve got news for you: if you’re a traditional conservative voter, you are that father. You have a choice between killing all the unborn this nation wants to kill and killing only some to save the others. But you will be making that choice - and you will do so without certitude that you can trust either gunman to live up to their word. You know only that some will be killed regardless of what you do. It’s up to you how you want to hedge your bet.

Personally, I can’t countenance one evil to stop another. I’ve laid out multiple times why I don’t trust McCain on the life issue, and it’s a virtual certainty that a Democratic majority in Congress will nullify any potential pro-life pick he might make for the SCOTUS bench. But McCain is legendary for his willingness to compromise when faced with opposition, and his record shows that he doesn’t just walk across the aisle, he leaps.

Add to that the fact that he’s a hot-headed scrapper who loves combat, has dangerous foreign policy positions, and bears the scars of a mind and body ravaged by torture, and the likelihood is high that he’ll be adding even more numbers to the body count in America. Attack Iran? Expect to face terrorist attacks in the U.S. indefinitely. Go toe-to-toe with Russia? Heaven only knows what the result will be. Want us out of this unjust war in Iraq? Not under his watch.

Now, if you want to make a case to goad my conscience, you can make this one with a lot more credibility: “A vote for George W. Bush was a vote for Obama.” (In that case, I’m guilty twice-over.) This argument is entirely valid, and has the benefit of analysis by hindsight. If Obama wins this election, which by all accounts it appears he will, he will have been carried to victory by the failed policies of the last eight years. Bush’s approval rating, which has remained remarkably stagnant at historic lows, provides the impetus of discontent that has created Obamamania. If the American people were happy with their leadership, their economy, these endless wars, and all the rest of it, McCain, unlikable as he is, would have a good shot at this. Look how hard he’s had to try to distance himself from the idea that his would be a third Bush term. Look how unsuccessful he’s been at that very attempt.

The problem with these arguments of “A vote for X is a vote for Obama” is that they are as short-sighted as the arguments that the attacks that happened on 9/11 were solely the result of a freedom-hating, militant ideology of a Muslim lunatic fringe. The fact is that our foreign policy in the middle east has been disastrous for decades, and has inspired no small amount of ill-will, and our enemies are not, in fact, a lunatic fringe, but faithful to their forebears in Jihad, like their militant founder and his immediate successors, who swept through and conquered a large swatch of the ancient Christian world (the near East; North Africa; Southwest Europe) in the 7th century like a force of nature. But something in our collective mentality in this nation keeps us from seeing the truth about either ourselves or our enemies. The fact remains that actions - and policies - have consequences which stretch long beyond the present moment.

While I’m heartbroken by the realization that no matter who wins the election tomorrow, the country will be irrevocably driven closer to the brink of disaster, it is a simple fact, and denial will do nothing to mitigate it. I will not be complicit in electing Obama, who I believe will be the worst thing to happen to this country in perhaps its entire two-and-a-half century history; but neither will I be complicit in electing McCain, who will only be slightly better, but who will almost certainly guarantee (if he wins) that the next election will bring upon us consequences even more dire from the gathering darkness on the left. Our country’s slide into moral decay has gone unchecked for so long that even people whom I would consider good and decent human beings do not flinch or lose a moment’s peace at the thought of a 50-million strong holocaust of our most innocent and precious resource - our children.

Our wits have been dulled by this bloodbath, and like the cannibals of papua new guinea, it’s begun to eat away at our collective brain. Nothing short of a revolutionary movement - which need not be violent, and may yet still be political - can steer us back on course. For such a movement to take hold, however, I fear that we will first have to suffer some as yet not-conceived-of catastrophe. Our complacency is so thick that it seems invulnerable.

Until such time as I see hope in the political parties which dominate our great electoral farce, I will no longer vote for them. There are good men running on third party tickets to whom we can give our votes with the clear conscience of men committed to the propagation of truth and the wellbeing of this nation. Pragmatism be damned - we need to start voting like we mean it. Like we actually care that things change instead of perpetually staying the same, steadily but surely slipping into the abyss as we salve our troubled minds by telling ourselves that “at least we slowed it down a bit!”

If you truly believe that your vote is your voice, why not say something with it that needs saying? Why not stand up for the issues you’d like to see your party represent by voting for the men not of your party who embody them? A vote for McCain now is a vote for worse things in the future - by voting for him, you are validating him, and telling the party you want more candidates like him. And so the cycle continues.

Our shortsightedness, I fear, will be the end of us. That’s why later today at Inside Catholic, I’ll be making the case for a third party vote this year.

And for the record - I’ve already voted, and I voted for the one candidate with whom I agree on every issue - Chuck Baldwin.

(cross-posted at Culture11)

A thirteen-year-old girl who was raped is stoned to death in a stadium in Somalia for adultery as 1,000 savages look on.

A 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped was stoned to death in Somalia after being accused of adultery by Islamic militants, a human rights group said.

Dozens of men stoned Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow to death Oct. 27 in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators in the southern port city of Kismayo, Amnesty International and Somali media reported, citing witnesses. The Islamic militia in charge of Kismayo had accused her of adultery after she reported that three men had raped her, the rights group said.

(There’s nothing I can say about this without using the F-word, repeatedly. Where’s Bl. Pope Urban II when you need him…?)

Thomas Fleming, via Jeff Culbreath:

“Watching McCain on the news or in a commercial, I become convinced that he is the most evil piece of selfishness who has ever run for the presidency, but my disgust quickly ebbs away when the simpering Obama takes the stage.  I can understand people who vote for McCain’s resume or support him as the lesser of two evils, but I no longer want to know anyone who votes for Obama for any reason.  He is an enemy of anything good that has ever been done in this country or this civilization, and when he is elected, I hope that all those Silicon Valley libertarians who supported him will live to see their property confiscated and their kids sent to reeducation camps.  Yes, that is mean-spirited and unChristian but it is unsettling to realize that you have lived among such monsters for so long without grasping the depth of their depravity and stupidity.”

To a man I wish I’d had the wisdom to vote for when I had the chance, and whom I lament more than ever that I can’t elect today - God grant you many years! (Heaven knows we need his insight down here more than they need his company up there.)

Kiana came up with the idea, based on personality and size difference, to do a Cat in the Hat theme. It was perfect.

Kids come home with such a haul these days. We had half a pillowcase full of candy when it was all said and done. And someone in the neighborhood was giving out money - can you tell we live close to the Federal Government?

This octopus can juggle crabs, rearrange a room, throw rocks, shoot out lights, and short circuit an aquarium. And that’s just when he’s bored.

Staff believe that the octopus called Otto had been annoyed by the bright light shining into his aquarium and had discovered he could extinguish it by climbing onto the rim of his tank and squirting a jet of water in its direction.

The short-circuit had baffled electricians as well as staff at the Sea Star Aquarium in Coburg, Germany, who decided to take shifts sleeping on the floor to find out what caused the mysterious blackouts.

A spokesman said: “It was a serious matter because it shorted the electricity supply to the whole aquarium that threatened the lives of the other animals when water pumps ceased to work.

“It was on the third night that we found out that the octopus Otto was responsible for the chaos.

“We knew that he was bored as the aquarium is closed for winter, and at two feet, seven inches Otto had discovered he was big enough to swing onto the edge of his tank and shoot out a the 2000 Watt spot light above him with a carefully directed jet of water.”

Director Elfriede Kummer who witnessed the act said: “We’ve put the light a bit higher now so he shouldn’t be able to reach it. But Otto is constantly craving for attention and always comes up with new stunts so we have realised we will have to keep more careful eye on him - and also perhaps give him a few more toys to play with.

“Once we saw him juggling the hermit crabs in his tank, another time he threw stones against the glass damaging it. And from time to time he completely re-arranges his tank to make it suit his own taste better - much to the distress of his fellow tank inhabitants.”

Not saying I’m going Baldwin, but I’m certainly considering it:

(h/t to MBD)