Right-Wing Vitriol

Yes, I Am Bitter

The only thing that I am bitter about, is the fact that Obama has called me bitter in about a million different ways.

Diplomacy and Force

Not to put a damper on any of the Mother's Day festivities (Happy Birthday, Mothers!), or the fashion critiques (accurate as they may be), but the whole situation in Burma has been bothering me for the past few days.  The background:  cyclone heads towards Burma, India gives Burma warning a few days beforehand, the military junta ruling Burma decides not to notify the hundreds of thousands of people about said cyclone coming right towards them.  The current state:  a huge death toll rapidly rising, disease festering, thousands starving, and the military junta is refusing to allow aid from the United States into the region.  A bad situation, right?  Now let's see how our favorite three presidential candidates are responding...

The Bushes Know How to Rock a Mother's Day Weekend

Happy Mother's Day! Though Barbara looks a slightly Glamour Shot-y in this photo, and Mrs. Bush draped herself in a great color of gift wrap ribbon, the President and the bride look fantastic. It sounds like it was an awesome wedding for the new Mr. and Mrs. Hager. So, as always, thank your lovely mother for all she does.

Sleeve Lengths are not Difficult to Match, Chelsea

A few days ago on the Grim and Bear It Express, Chelsea trotted this out. Now, normally, she looks pretty sharp -- a portrait of working with what you have -- but this takes a classic, but cool three-quarter length jacket and turns into something a four year-old puts together. Or something she stole from a four-year old. Whatever.

Graceland Finally Safe from Terrorists

From the Dated But Awesome File: the Memphis sheriff office's new attempt at its own Choose Your Own Adventure Series, "Tourist or Terrorist?"  After all, "You may think a guy is just shooting pictures, but if you report it to us, we'll send it on to the FBI and they may have four or five other reports of the same thing." Clearly, Al Qaeda operatives rank Dollywood and Graceland just behind the Whitehouse (but over Capitol Hill, the Empire State building, and the Golden Gate Bridge) as national landmarks. The reporter seems to find this as hilarious as I do, because on the page there's an image of a guy with a camera with the following caption: "Elvis fan or al-Qaeda operative? You make the call." At right: "Timeless icons of fabulousness or covert Islamofascist sheiks?"

Conservative-o-meter

Well, I started to read "The Conservative Mind" by Russell Kirk last night, and I am having a Grand Ole time with all 500 pages of it.  Usually I don’t like anything but racy, romantic tales about real historical characters, or of course the Vanderbilt baseball team, but this kind of looked cool.  And it is.  In it he lists some of the principles of conservatism that have been relevant in history since the French Revolution. Here are a few of those principles that follow through as canons of conservative thought even today:

1. A belief in some sort of natural law that “rules society as well as conscience.”
2. “Affection for the proliferating variety and mystery of human existence, as opposed to the narrowing uniformity, egalitarianism,…” etc. ect. of our annoying neighbors on the left.
3. This one has to do with classes in society, which might be a little intense, but what we can get out of it is that forced equality of condition is bad.
4. Freedom and property go hand and hand.  When you “separate property from private possession…Leviathan becomes master of all.”
5. We are not supposed to be big fans of innovation.  We should always have “custom, convention, and old prescription” as checks against a man’s “anarchic impulses.”
6. But society must be altered sometimes, the conservatives admit, so if there is change, by gosh, it better be prudent. Very prudent.

So this as my first post this may seem pointless, and this is all probably old news, but maybe this random look into the past can help evaluate the present…?  Maybe a little “Conserv-o-meter.” Actually that is very Al Gorish sounding.  “Conservative-o-meter,”—for constituents to see is their senator is really as conservative as he says he is!

Well, He's Looking...Festive.

The Obama campaign sent the correct member of their faction to the Kentucky Derby: Bill Richardson -- I mean, you can't send "I've Never Been Proud of My Country" to an event where they may as well make an American flag out of seersucker and madras.

But, Bill, a bolo tie? At the Derby? Also of note: check out the cheap, materialistic patriotism on his lapel there. The nerve of that Bill Richardson!

[Ed. Note: My pledge for the summer is to do a daily post on the of the fashion, or lack thereof, for the fine political machines at work all under the tag "Necessary & Proper Attire," in the vein of my heroes, the Fug Girls. Should be fun, right? -KMM]

Congratulations Seniors!

No, those aren't stormtroopers assembling on Alumni Lawn for Phase IV of the Torch Takeover (just wait until August for that).  They are just chairs, which are today being filled by the thousands of family and friends of the Class of 2008.  We here at RWV would like to especially congratulate those seniors who worked so hard on The Torch - they are off to do great things, including attending law school at some top schools and going to serve the United States Navy.  These seniors deserve our thanks for all of their support, and our premature thanks for all the cash they will donate to the Torch once they start getting a paycheck.  Torch Tithe, anyone? 

This should really make you sick

Here's TIME Magazine's new cover. I'll wait while you collect yourself:

 

It's like Camelot all over again! He's so handsome and charismatic and all that jazz. Could TIME have made the media's continuous love affair with BO anymore obvious? Actually, I can't really point the finger at whichever editor made this call, he was probably just following industry protocol. Observe some other fawning magazine covers featuring Barry O after the jump.

$600?...$750?...Painfully Ugly Pantsuit?

The Price is Right Pantsuit of Doom has returned. It ran on down and got all the way to the Showcase round last fall at one of those debates, and now, it has returned. Apparently, loaning herself $6.4 million has reduced the pantsuit budget.