Stories by Leon H Wolf
Posted at 3:15pm on Dec. 7, 2005 Open Thread
By Leon H Wolf
There are a lot of diaries right now that would get promoted if we didn't already have 7 stories up today. Please be sure to swing on by and drop in a few comments. It's always encouraging when you put in lots of work on a piece, like several of our diarists have, when folks take the time to discuss your work.
Of particular interest, the Republican Michigander keeps us abreast of developments in the Michigan Senate race, Mark I covers the President's latest speech in fine fashion, La Shawn Barber asks for input on 2008, Academic Elephant breaks down the latest in Rumsfeld v. FAIR, and Carey Roberts takes a look at something that is NOT part of a radical feminist conspiracy. At least, not as far as we can tell. Plus, many other diarists have interesting breakdowns of the various events of the day. Be sure to check them out!
This is an open thread.
Posted in Miscellanea — Comments (56)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 3:22am on Dec. 7, 2005 Merry Christmas, Michael Newdow
By Leon H Wolf
Let me start this off right: I don’t believe in Christmas. At least, not Christmas as it is generally understood by the Catholics/Evangelicals in America today. Now, my family always celebrated Christmas as a nice holiday with Red and Green and family time; but specifically, I don’t believe that Christmas is the actual birth day of Christ, nor that the observation of the birthday of Christ on any day is either commanded by the Bible or a good idea, theologically speaking. I don’t really want to get into the theological reasons for why that is, and please don’t threadjack by arguing the point. If you really want, email me privately and I’ll try to respond.
With that in mind, let me explain to you why (a) The ACLU and Michael Newdow are dead wrong and (b) I hope they just keep right on doing what they’re doing.
More below the fold:
UPDATE [12-07-05 01:32:00 EST by Leon H]: In case you are wondering, yes, I do think that this is a bit silly.
Posted in Culture — Comments (25)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 1:46pm on Nov. 30, 2005 RedState on the Radio
By Leon H Wolf
I'll be doing a show today sponsored by the a group called Blackpolicy.org that is affiliated with the University of Denver. I'll be discussing (what else?) abortion, Alito, and racism at SIU. The show will be streamed live on the KVDU website from 7:30-8:00pm Eastern time. Be sure to tune in if you get a chance.
Posted in Miscellanea — Comments (6)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 2:41am on Nov. 30, 2005 Your Daily Dose of Perspective
By Leon H Wolf
Today, Virginia Governor Mark Warner (D) granted clemency to Robin Leavitt, thus saving him from the death penalty. This is front-page news because Levitt would have been the 1,000th person legally executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, a period of almost 30 years.
The 999 convicted criminals thus far executed since 1976 had an opportunity to make their case for their innocence to a jury of their peers. They had opportunity to have friends and family plead with the judge for a lenient sentence on their behalf. All had access to an extensive appellate review system, where every aspect of their trial was gone over with a fine-tooth comb. During this process, the overwhelming majority of these convicted criminals had over a decade to get their affairs in order before their execution was finally carried out.
Today, this very day, approximately 3,013 unborn children were killed. Since 1976, approximately 38 million unborn children have been killed. Nearly all of them have had their own heartbeats. Most have had fully formed (if undeveloped) organ systems. Many of them have felt pain, and some of them have surely been conscious. By "some," I mean a number several orders of magnitude larger than 999.
None of them had an opportunity to make a defense to a jury of their peers. None of them were provided a lawyer if they could not afford one - which is irrelevant, because there were no trials. No appellate review for the decision to end their life was available. Even those that were conscious were given no effective warning of their death sentence at all.
They were put to death by methods that would shock the conscience of the most calloused observer - Potassium Chloride shots to the heart, suction devices designed to pulverize the fetus into pieces, cut into pieces with knives and sucked out of the womb (D & C), dismemberment by forceps, saline poisoning (usually taking more than an hour), or scissors through the back of the skull.
More below the fold:
Posted in Culture — Comments (391)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 12:23pm on Nov. 26, 2005 College Football Thread
By Leon H Wolf
As a brief reminder of what this thread is all about, I offer you this: 
Give me a break, I might not get a chance to gloat for another 22 years.
Key games today (all times Eastern):
Georgia v. Georgia Tech (20:00)
Virginia v. Miami (15:30)
Florida State v. Florida (15:30)
Oklahoma v. Oklahoma State (15:30)
Notre Dame v. Stanford (20:00)
Congrats to John's Mountaineers for their win on Thanksgiving, and the impending BCS bid it earned them. Since this is also a once-in-a-generation phenomenon, I have decided to show West Virginia some love, too.
Discuss: 
Posted in Miscellanea — Comments (32)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 4:52am on Nov. 21, 2005 Inevitability and Collapse
By Leon H Wolf
Peggy Noonan is worried. The current Presidency is in trouble, the institution of the Presidency is in trouble, the bureacracy cannot maintain itself, the center does not hold. In other words, Peggy Noonan is worried about the survival of Western Civilization itself.
And she is right to be so worried.
It is easy, from the comfort and warmth of our living rooms, surrounded by the safe light of civlization and freedom, to call Ms. Noonan the chicken little of our time. But while most of us have only ever known civilization and safety, only a fool who is ignorant of history would fail to realize that civilization and safety are fragile things, and that centuries of progress can be swept away in the blink of an eye. Indeed, the norm throughout history has not been democracy, freedom and light - but rather oppression, tyranny and darkness. Not only has this been the norm throughout history, but it is even the norm, planet-wide, to this very day. We have chiseled out a small section of light in a world of darkness, let us not pretend that this light must, of necessity, last forever.
Posted in War — Comments (120)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 4:12am on Nov. 19, 2005 College Football Thread
By Leon H Wolf
Our non-partisan segment of the week.
No, there's nothing wrong with the display on your screen.
UPDATE [16:04:00 EST by Leon H]: !!!!!!!!!!!
UPDATE [17:16:00 EST by Leon H]: 
!!!!!!!!!!
Posted in Miscellanea — Comments (103)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 2:49am on Nov. 19, 2005 IWCRRSIRMWMDNBHTSTMDRWWNHBVAI
By Leon H Wolf
Or, for non-acronym fans, "In Which Congress Rejects a Resolution Substantively Identical to Rep. Murtha's, which Murtha Disowned as Not Being His, Then Spent 30 Minutes Defending the Resolution Which Was Not His Before Voting Against It." Apparently, Scoop doesn't allow titles that are that long. Nonetheless, we shall not split hairs over such niceties, and perform a post-mortem on Democrat fund-raising below the fold.
Posted in War — Comments (162)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 7:13pm on Nov. 18, 2005 A Time for Declaration
By Leon H Wolf
In response to John Murtha's resolution calling for cut-and-run in Iraq, the House leadership has decided to put the Democrats on the record. For those of us who believe that staying the course is still the right course of action, who do not believe in capitulation at the first sign of political trouble, and more importantly believe that the conflict will be won, this vote is necessary for the historical record. Let us see, once and for all, who called for surrender and when - and let history judge them accordingly when all is said and done.
The vote is scheduled to happen between 5:30 and 7:30EST today. This is an open thread. Liveblogging is appreciated. NoEndButVictory provides additional coverage.
UPDATE: It appears from the liveblogging at No End But Victory, that a number of Democrats seem to feel that bringing John Murtha's resolution to a roll call vote somehow constitutes an attack on Murtha. Only the modern Democrats, folks - only the modern Democrats.
UPDATE [17:19:00 EST by Leon H]: Just spoke with a hill staffer who told me that there is a feeling that the Democrats will just absolutely skip this vote. More as it becomes available.
UPDATE [17:34:00 EST by Leon H]: I currently don't have access to C-Span, so I can't watch the actual debate. However, as I've outlined here, every major news organization is calling this a vote on Murtha's resolution. If it's not the exact resolution, I stand corrected on that point.
However, the point remains that Murtha called for immediate withdrawal, the many minions of the left have called for immediate withdrawal numerous times, and they are all currently upset that a resolution calling for immediate withdrawal is on the floor of the House.
UPDATE: I've considered the "action portion" of Murtha's resolution, and given that it calls for the deployment of forces in Iraq to be "hereby terminated," the many caterwauls of the left basically amount to complaints over the removal of the many WHEREAS (justification) portions. If that sort of language, which has nil actual effect, matters to you, then I suppose you have a beef. If not, the Democrats are expressing outrage over a distinction without a difference.
UPDATE [21:14:00 EST by Leon H]: Apparently, the minority whip is on the floor right now. House members not currently in the chamber are making their way back to the floor. Expect a vote soon.
UPDATE [21:53:00 EST by Leon H]: By a 210-202 vote, the resolution comes to the floor for one hour of debate. Not surprisingly, Republican turncoats included Simpson and Hostetler.
Posted in War — Comments (237)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 11:42am on Nov. 18, 2005 Giving the Lie to Democrat Fiscal Responsibility<br>A Victory at Last
By Leon H Wolf
At long last, the GOP leadership in Congress managed to exert party discipline and get some fiscal responsibility forced through last night, with a 217-215 vote:
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, and Acting Majority Leader Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, were buoyant -- if exhausted -- after sweating out a big victory on the budget cut bill.
After all, they had just salvaged -- at least for the moment -- a major pillar of their agenda despite divisions within the party and nervousness among moderates that the vote could cost them in next year's elections.
The bill, passed 217-215 after a 25-minute-long roll call, makes modest but politically painful cuts across an array of programs for the poor, students and farmers.
I use the phrase "party discipline" deliberately, because while the Democrats have been shocked (shocked!) at the level of spending during the Bush years, there was not a single Democrat who voted for this bill. That's right, zero. Zilch. Nada.
Zero, by the way, is exactly four less than the number of Democrat Senators who voted for the Coburn Amendment to cut funding for the Bridge to Nowhere. It's wonderful how they consistently give us these handy reminders of why nothing they say (particularly about fiscal responsibility) should ever be taken seriously.
More below the fold: