Under the Fedora Eastwood, Atheists and a tale of Two Platforms

Last week the GOP convention took place in Tampa, it was shorted by a day due to the Hurricane but as far as the media is concerned the only person who spoke during that week was Clint Eastwood.

Eastwood’s speech was totally unexpected.  Not only was nobody expecting a comedy routine, but the style of the comedy was something out of the early sixties.  A time Eastwood would remember well but the audience familiar with Eastwood would have forgotten.

The media has been unanimous in it’s condemnation of the quality of the Eastwood business, it’s been a foolish, it’s been bizarre it’s been the joke of the RNC and Eastwood is a old man who doesn’t know what he’s doing.

The only problem with this argument is the reaction has been exactly the opposite, Eastwood’s empty chair has produced “Empty Chair Day”, the empty chair (with apologies to Amsterdam & Newheart) is now known as “Eastwooding” and we’ve even reached the point where people are urging the DNC to bring in it’s own elderly advocate in the form of Betty White to help boost the cause, and as late as Tuesday, Eastwood related items topped Memeorandum and if you go to the front page of CNN’s web page today.

Maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t sound like a joke, an oddity or a failure.  I mean you actually had a union president beating up on a chair in response to Eastwood:

“Mitt Romney doesn’t have anything to say, Paul Ryan doesn’t have anything to say.”

 

Things took a dark turn when he then kicked and threw the chair, yelling “Dirty Harry, make my day! We’re gonna kick ass in November!” The crowd nevertheless, cheered him on.

Fear makes people do very weird things.  These people are scared.

But that’s not odd, it’s not the first time Eastwoods foes have been afraid of him.

Meanwhile there were a lot of other speakers at the RNC that the left found less interesting, the ignored Mia Love, the passed on Artur Davis on MSNBC but his speech while not producing a reaction from MSNBC certainly managed to drive Roland Martin up a wall.

What did Davis say that was so damaging to the left?  This:

“There are Americans watching right now who voted for the President but they’re searching right now, because they know their votes didn’t build the country they wanted. To those democrats and Independents whose minds are open to argument, listen closely to the Democratic party that will gather in Charlotte, ask yourself if you hear your voice in the clamor, ask if these Democrats still speak for you?

This was the re-occurring theme of the GOP convention and of speaker after speaker, not so much a reaffirmation for true believers but a message reaching out to those who voted the other way saying:   It’s OK to switch.

Oddly enough Mitt Romney, who gave a pretty good speech, has become almost an afterthought.  That was both good, (the media and the left was too busy hitting Eastwood to lay a glove on Mitt), and bad  (lot of people didn’t get much exposure to what he had to say).

Still a good week for him.

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There also were a lot of questions about the RNC platform on Abortion, no specific exception for rape and incest. Never mind that this is the same platform line that they’ve had for years, in the Age of Akin this is breaking news to the MSM.

Strangely enough this week we there were some major changes to the DNC platform that came out.  The document came out for taxpayer funded abortion, the media yawned.

Language favoring Israel was removed.

Below is the section missing from the 2012 document. Pay special attention to the areas in bold (H/T @RJCHQ) :

 

The United States and its Quartet partners should continue to isolate Hamas until it renounces terrorism, recognizes Israel’s right to exist, and abides by past agreements. Sustained American leadership for peace and security will require patient efforts and the personal commitment of the President of the United States. The creation of a Palestinian state through final status negotiations, together with an international compensation mechanism, should resolve the issue of Palestinian refugees by allowing them to settle there, rather than in Israel. All understand that it is unrealistic to expect the outcome of final status negotiations to be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949. Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel.The parties have agreed that Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations. It should remain an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths.

 

Each of these items are crucial to Israel and each have been key areas of contention for those who believe this President has not been friendly to the Jewish State.

And the MSM didn’t blink an eye, never mind there was a time when risking a split with American Jews would be big news, that would be front page headlines, in every paper and every newscast there is.

But there was a bigger change that came up.

For years religious types have been moving away from the Democrat party.  In their last platform the word “God” only had a single appearance.  This time around they don’t even have that, which produced an incredible piece of video when Brett Baier dared to ask Dick Durbin about it.

Outside of Fox this got very little press, Piers Morgan asked Debbie Wasserman Schultz about it and her answer was classic

“What I can tell you is our policies and our values are is reflected in many faith traditions and that what our platform is all about.”

What a generic piece of pabulum this is.  I can’t believe a party chairman would be willing to say it aloud.

While a platform Sans God might play poorly with the general public, it is playing well with the atheist movement, they might be celebrating if they weren’t so busy feuding among themselves.

Atheism ought to be a progressive social movement in addition to being a philosophical and scientific position, because living in a godless universe means something to humanity.

That’ PZ Myers last seen putting nails through Eucharist hosts.  And according to Myers what happens if you don’t buy into this new Athiest club (known as Athiest+) well:

And if you don’t agree with any of that — and this is the only ‘divisive’ part — then you’re an asshole. I suggest you form your own label, “Asshole Atheists” and own it, proudly.

Yeah this is really going to play well in Peoria

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Doctor who came back finally this week, we had a good but tragic story that was a real tear jerker but I was really annoyed to see what they did with the new companion.

I think Stephen Moffat  is a brilliant writer, Silence in the Library and Blink were classic episodes as was Time Crash featuring the 5^th doctor meeting the 10^th.

But since he became the head of the series it’s as if every story was a temporal paradox.

Finally the Brett Kimberlin crowd continues to issue threats to all concerned of Lawsuits and worse but his record in court doesn’t seem to be doing too well:

And then Kimberlin foolishly rested without asking me to authenticate the documents that were allegedly by me.  (I didn’t highlight this mistake when discussing the case because I hoped he would continue to make that mistake.)  At that point, my able attorney, Reginald Bours III stood up and said:

 

I’m going to ask that you [the court] make a finding now that the petitioner [Kimberlin] has not met, even initially, the burden of proof required under the statute.

 

In other words, Bours felt that Kimberlin’s presentation was so feeble that a defense was not necessary.  Every person is presumed not to have violated the peace order statute until they have been proven by the petitioner to have done so.  And further, an appeal to the circuit court it is a trial de novo, which means it is an entirely new trial, with the presumption I am “innocent” until proven “guilty” just like in the first trial.  (Or more precisely they presume I did nothing justifying a peace order until Kimberlin proves I had.)  The court agreed and dismissed the petition.

There is still a long way to go in this case but if I was a betting man I’d be betting against the bad guys here, oh and if you want to help the fight there is a rather cool auction going on with some great items from artist Chris Muir of Day by Day

Each 11″ x 19″ print has been signed by the following giants of the Blogosphere: Michelle Malkin, Glenn and Helen Reynolds (Instapundit and Dr.Helen), Bill Whittle (Afterburner), Jeff Goldstein (Protein Wisdom), Ed Morrissey (Hot Air), Robert Stacy McCain (The Other McCain), and Mandy Nagy (Liberty Chick).

And now you can get a copy of the print in one of two ways.  Two of them will be raffled off.  The third will be auctioned off.

And all proceeds will go to the Blogger’s Defense Team.

Sounds like a worthy investment to me