Tandra Page 1080, The Lunatic Fringe

Created on 02/22/2010

by Hanther

There was a CPAC meeting this past week, I am told. I was made aware of this fact from two sources. My primary source was Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs 2000. She and Robert Spencer, a scholar on Islam and the war Islam is waging against Western Civilization, set up an education center at CPAC and financed it out of their own pockets. I visit Pamela’s web site daily. She frequently has breaking news hours if not days before any other news outlet. I also had a heads up from a self described “Pinko Liberal” who sent me a commentary by one of the original organizers behind CPAC who was condemning the direction CPAC has moved since he stopped being consulted as to CPAC’s ongoing agenda. His objections sounded a bit suspect on the face of it, but I do not normally pay much attention to CPAC and thus am not qualified to offer an objective appraisal.

His primary lament was, essentially, that CPAC has changed since the golden days when he was the guiding force behind it. Not much surprise here. Most things change with the passage of time. In this world you either change or you die. Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, two of this critic’s idols of conservative ideology, would not recognize CPAC today. It should be noted, for that matter, neither would Lincoln recognize today’s Republican Party nor, certainly, would Jefferson recognize the Democrats. Nothing remains as it began.

There were also the standard objections to the lunatics and extremists that showed up to promote their agendas. This complaint is pretty much standard fare for those who object to a given political persuasion. If 30,000 people in suits and ties show up to engage in a Tea Party event and one Nazi lunatic puts in a brief appearance, all the news reporters will converge on the loon so as to make it appear the nut case is the star representative of the whole event. While partisans may complain the news media is showing liberal bias in smearing 30,000 Tea Party supporters with the broad brush of a single Nazi lunatic, that’s not the only thing going on here. Walter Cronkite once opined “100,000 cats who do not get stranded up in a tree are not news.” In the same way, 30,000 small town average American business owners peacefully attending a political meeting are not news. One lone Nazi nut, however, is news and he will sell papers or television time or Internet bandwidth. And, frankly, news reporting is a commercial enterprise. News providers are more interested in news that sells than news that presents an accurate narrative. In fact, reputable news organizations are so desperate to sell news they have been known to bring in the lone Nazi lunatic themselves and to promote his antics. More devastating, it is on record news organizations have gone so far as to stage fictitious events and sell them as news. An old newspaper admonition is, “When there is no news, make some”, though the editor who gave this advice probably did not have in mind the staging of fictitious events.

One of the objections given for the CPAC event was attendance by out of step radicals who favor torture. While I cannot verify such people were at the event, I don’t doubt such was the case. I have personal knowledge of Americans who would not shrink from torture if it would prevent harm to a loved one. Any number of Americans could condone torture they believed would reveal information that might prevent another 9-11. Also, I’m not privy to the degree of torture those fringe lunatics at CPAC were comfortable with. Were they all up for pressing burning splinters under the victim’s fingernails? Did they go for cutting the victim’s toes off one at the time until he decided to talk? Were they comfortable with simple sleep deprivation? Did they have in mind substituting a different brand of breakfast cereal for the victim’s favourite variety? What exactly did they have in mind? Any number of procedures can be considered torture these days.

While being disdainful of the objectionable types to show up at CPAC, should we not ask how many card carrying members of the lunatic fringe showed up at the most recent national Democratic Convention? How many people were there who openly advocated the murder of George W. Bush? That’s a position that seems a bit off the charts in America to me. How about people who are convinced the Bush Administration in cooperation with the Jewish Lobby manufactured 9-11 from whole cloth? Let’s not forget the certifiable nut cases that insist, against all rational evidence available, that the greatest danger facing mankind is global warming and that the same people who can’t accurately predict the weather for this afternoon can somehow reliably predict within two degrees what weather will be ten years from now? While we are fashionably horrified by extremists who condone torture of murderous terrorists for the express purpose of saving American lives from future murderous attacks, isn’t the routine slaughter of babies one of the essential planks of the Democratic Party Platform?

While so called “Birthers” are ridiculed as addicted to the most absurd fantasies imaginable and to consider requesting a birth certificate to demonstrate the man sitting in the White House is even marginally qualified for his position, the Kenya Hottentot himself insists upon the validity of the Global Warming fabrication which every intelligent person on Earth understands is simply a fantasy built upon a lie birthed by fraud and fed by delusion inspired by paranoia. Even in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence, the Administration continues to push full ahead for the demented Cap And Trade agenda.

If political gatherings are to be judged by the certifiable nut cases that crawl into the tent, the Liberal Democrats have more evidence against them than any other group currently available on the political landscape. So far as the Dems are concerned, the nut cases are not just inside the tent.. They have taken over and are running the show!

Never forget Lexington and Concord!

Hanther

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