Food Fight

What is it with Liberals and throwing food? David Horowitz, Ann Coulter (more than once), Pat Buchanan, and Bill Kristol have all been victims. And there are others -- like Richard Perle (who had a shoe thrown at him) and Katherine Harris (who someone attempted to run over). Michelle Malkin thinks this is all evidence of the lack of liberal tolerance. I'm incline to agree (though it is problematic to generalize from a few instances. Still, the evidence is mounting).

I thought it was conservatives, and not liberals who were the intolerant one? Take homosexuality as an example. Conservatives are suposed to be bigots and intolerant for not embracing homosexuality. Sure there are those conservatives who do actually hate homosexuals, but these aren't the ones that are ususally denounced. Even conservatives denounce Randall Terry, and are critical of Alan Keys. Some (namely Andrew Sullivan --if he still counts as conservative) are even suspect of Jerry Falwell (I think this is unnecessarily so, because, even though Falwell denounces homosexuality typically on religious grounds, I have seen Falwell say that if his son or daughter came out as a homosexual, he would still say (I paraphrase) "there is your bedroom, I still love you." This, I think, shows tolerance). Thus, we conservatives are willing to purge the the hate-mongers from among us (and besides those mentioned above, I can't think of any really).

But for liberals this is not the case. "Tolerance" is number one on liberals' agenda when tolerance = allowing gay-marriage. But that isn't tolerance at all. It is possible to not like/endorse same-sex marriage and still be tolerant of homosexuals. We conservative, for the most part, just respectfully disagree to the correctness, morality, a benefit to society of same-sex marriage. And we believe that allowing gay-marriage is tantamount to condoning, not tolerating the practice (we already tolerate it).

But for not condoning we are bigots -- and herein lies the conservatives' beef as well the evidence against liberal tolerance. All of the assaulted conservatives, listed above, went to colleges to share ideas -- specifically political ideas. If ever there was something that needed tolerance it is political speech,which is really the one type of speech the first amendment is supposed to protect unconditionally (not kiddy porn -- a suprize to some I'm sure). But apparently liberals can't say to themselves, "Well, I don't like Coulter, or Horowitz, and do not agree with them, but I will -- in the spirit of tolerance -- let them express themselves, and, if needs be, counter with my own opinions and facts in due time."

Instead the message conveyed by throwing fruit is, " Your ideas aren't worth listening to or thinking about, and, in addition, I despise you and your ideas so much you deserve to be punished for even having them!" What other justification can you have for such behavior?

Need more evidence? Larry Summers. Here is a liberal man who expressed the idea the men and women may just have different strengths and aptitudes -- a conclusion based on his economic research. For this he has been criticized relentlessly by feminists, and many have called for his resignation. Liberals, it seems, cannot even tolerate their own when they make a observation -- true or not -- that is at odds with there dogma. And who has come to Summers defense? Conservatives! Sure we agree with Summers on this point that men and women have differences --and because of his liberalism this may be the only point we agree with him on. But, to the feminist this idea is not only wrong, its intolerable.

Ukranian News

A rundown of President Yushchenko's trip to Washington here.

Bizarre

This I just can't believe:

OKLAHOMA CITY — A convicted murderer and a deputy warden's wife who disappeared nearly 11 years ago have been found living together and raising chickens in Texas. The woman said she was held captive the whole time, staying with the killer out of fear her family would be harmed if she fled.

Pelosi hypocrisy

From Powerline:

Where's the outrage?

The Washington Times reports that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi helped secure $3 million last year for a nonprofit organization, WestStart-CALSTART, whose president gave money to her political action committee. The organization also paid for the European trip of one of Pelosi's policy advisers. Republicans are suggesting that nothing distinguishes Pelosi's actions from those of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and other Republican members Pelosi has criticized.

Same-Sex Marriage Cont.

A very long and good blog entry by a Libertarian with no opinion on same-sex marriage. Nevertheless, she undermines this "the thought that someone would decide not to get married because gays are allowed to married is preposterous" argument.

Same-sex Marriage: Not That Popular

From the Corner:

Americans now oppose gay marriage by a margin of 68 percent to 28 percent. Last year, the figures were 58 percent opposed and 42 percent in favor. That’s a 10 percent increase in opposition and a 14 percent drop of those in favor. Support for a Federal Marriage Amendment has also risen sharply. Americans now favor a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a
woman by a margin of 57 percent to 37 percent. Last year the figures were 48 percent in favor and 46 percent opposed. So support for a Federal Marriage Amendment has moved up by nine percent.

Sandy Berger

From the New York Post:

Sandy Berger, the top Clinton national- security official and erstwhile close adviser to Sen. John Kerry, has finally confessed what he spent nearly a year heatedly denying: that he intentionally smuggled classified documents from the National Archives — and deliberately destroyed them.

What Did I Tell You!

Exactly what I was talking about in my post, now reiterated in a Corner post about a Ruth Bader Ginsberg:

Here are excerpts from a speech Ginsburg gave on Friday to the American Society of International Law, as reported by the New York Times:

"Judges in the United States are free to consult all manner of commentary." "The notion that it is improper to look beyond the borders of the United States in grappling with hard questions has a certain kinship to the view that the U.S. Constitution is a document essentially frozen in time as of the date of its ratification."

"Even more so today, the United States is subject to the scrutiny of a candid world. What the United States does, for good or for ill, continues to be watched by the international community, in particular by organizations concerned with the advancement of the rule of law and respect for human dignity."

Ginsburg and her like view themselves as a combination of ambassadors, legislators, and Cabinet members. She simply will not confine herself to the dictates of the Constitution. So, what do we do about judges who brazenly continue to thumb their noses at the rule of law?

Sensible Liberalism

Martin Peretz, the editor of the liberal New Republic, may not have many liberal friends left if he continues to write collumns like "The Politics of Churlishness." (available online here) Here's the opening paragraph:

If George W. Bush were to discover a cure for cancer, his critics would denounce him for having done it unilaterally, without adequate consultation, with a crude disregard for the sensibilities of others. He pursued his goal obstinately, they would say, without filtering his thoughts through the medical research establishment. And he didn't share his research with competing labs and thus caused resentment among other scientists who didn't have the resources or the bold--perhaps even somewhat reckless--instincts to pursue the task as he
did. And he completely ignored the World Health Organization, showing his contempt for international institutions. Anyway, a cure for cancer is all fine and nice, but what about aids?

New Poll

We've been inundated with pole results that show Americans favoring Terri Shiavo's death -- sometimes by large margins. I always suspected something was not right with those polls. Here is a new Zogby poll with fairly neutral wording, showing that in circumstances such as Terri's, 79 percent of people are against denying a person food and water.