Category: The Dish

"He leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country," – Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Donald Rumsfeld.

Surely the military leadership can be a place where expression of religious faith of one particular variety is restrained. Especially when we are at war with Islamic extremists, and when we must take every care to make sure our millitary actions aren’t perceived abroad as religiously motivated. And surely military decisions should be made on an empirical, pragmatic basis, rather than on messages from Heaven.

The good Senator from … er, Heaven, has a form for potential judges. Enjoy.

He didn’t want it enough. Who can blame him?

West Chicago, Illinois, 11.50 am.

Is it now a danger to America’s national self-interest? There’s a discussion here. Money quote from David Rieff to Gregory Djerejian:

I think it is American exceptionalism itself, as our official national ideology, that is now dangerous to our national interest in a way it has not been in the past. The reason for this is simple. During much of the 20th century, much of the world (outside of Latin America, that is, where we were always viewed as the empire) concurred with America’s image of itself. Perhaps that was because of what we represented; perhaps, to take the realist approach you and I both favor, it was because it was in Europe’s and much of East Asia’s interest to do so. But at the very least, the sense we had of ourselves did not seem illegitimate to much of the world as it does now. But now is now, and we are still proceeding as if we get a kind of moral free pass no matter what we do, that we are exceptional.

"It will make you feel better to say, I didn’t lose the election; Foley lost it for me. Your wife and kids will believe it," – Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform.

If the Republicans lose this election, it will be for a simple reason. They have forgotten what conservatism means. You cannot spend and borrow more than any Democratic Congress since FDR and remain a credible conservative. You cannot elevate executive power permanently above individual liberty and remain a credible conservative. You cannot wage a war without the care, resources, and troops needed to win and remain a credible conservative. You cannot wage a religiously-based culture war and remain a limited government conservative. It’s not that complicated really.

Every now and again, the plight of the heterosexual male deserves some sympathy. Wired for sex, yet programmed for marriage, and forced to deal with an opposite sex they can neither fully understand nor easily resist, straight men do not have an easy time of it. Gareth Keenan, in a deleted scene from the British comedy classic, "The Office," explains:

Here’s David Kuo’s appearance on Colbert.

My favorite line:

"I think someone had to point out that Jesus and George W. Bush are different people…"

Yep, one was tortured; and the other tortures.

"One day I will be asked whether I have been in touch with someone who told me we would win, and I will respond: ‘Yes, I have been in touch with God’," – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (Hat tip: Tom Gross.)

Not so fast, says Clive Davis, with a particularly sharp elbow toward Mark Steyn.