No joke: now there’s a debate in the Evergreen State about whether to outlaw bestiality.

Wesley J. Smith, writing for the Weekly Standard, explains that what’s at stake isn’t anything so parochial as “Judeo-Christian morality,” but human worth itself, without which there is no morality.

Most people take human exceptionalism for granted. They can no longer afford to do so. The great philosophical question of the 21st Century is going to be whether we will knock humans off the pedestal of moral exceptionalism and instead define ourselves as just another animal in the forest. The stakes of the coming debate couldn’t be more important: It is our exalted moral status that both bestows special rights upon us and imposes unique and solemn moral responsibilities–including the human duty not to abuse animals.

(Fixed an error since posting. I had somehow cited the wrong publication.)

In their efforts to demonize the president, the Left have vociferously denounced the thousands of crimes committed by George W. Bush and his cronies. They have made ever-longer lists of his crimes, including murders, perjuries, briberies, blackmails, and assorted felonies. The populace never took these indictments seriously. Even the often-credulous press never took them seriously. That’s because the “crimes” were just a bunch of made-up stuff, and everyone knew it.

But then in July of 2003, with ‘Plamegate’ came a slim ray of hope.

The tale told by the conspiracy mongers went like this: Joe Wilson went to Nigeria and back, then wrote a report critical of the Bush administration. In retaliation, Karl Rove called several prominent journalists to smear Joe Wilson, by leaking the unflattering information that his wife Valerie Plame, a CIA official, had sent Wilson to Nigeria.

Okay, ‘Plamegate’ admittedly wasn’t much of a crime, at least compared with all those murders and perjuries and things. It was probably not even technically a crime, in the narrow, legal sense of “something against the law.” But it was a “wrongdoing” at the very least, and perhaps even a “breach of ethics.” If it were true, it would be the only not-made-up, real-life wrongdoing by a Bush Administration official! If it were true.

It was the Left’s last, best hope of taking down George W. Bush. A candle in their dark cave.

But last month the New York Times quietly snuffed the candle:

The date was July 8, 2003, and the phone call was initiated by Novak. The source, wrote the Times’ David Johnson and Richard W. Stevenson, was “someone who has been officially briefed on the matter.”

The [New York Times] article further revealed that Rove has told investigators that he learned from the columnist the name of Plame, not the other way around. After hearing from Novak about Plame, according to this source, Rove told the columnist: “I heard that, too.” The Novak column appeared six days later.

…

Asked by investigators how he knew enough to confirm Novak’s information was accurate, write Johnston and Stevenson, Rove said he had heard portions of the story about Plame helping to arrange her husband’s trip to Africa from other journalists, but had not heard her name.

Rove has said he did not know the C.I.A. officer’s name and did not leak it. The Times’ source holds that Rove did not know that Plame was a covert officer.

…

The Times added this description of its source: “The person who provided the information about Mr. Rove’s conversation with Mr. Novak declined to be identified, citing requests by Mr. Fitzgerald that no one discuss the case. The person discussed the matter in the belief that Mr. Rove was truthful in saying he did not disclose Ms. Wilson’s identity.”

[emphases added]

So, it turns out, the conspiracy was exactly backwards. Karl Rove didn’t call any reporters to smear Joe Wilson; they called him to smear Joe Wilson! Karl Rove didn’t leak any information to them; they leaked it to him. Rove didn’t know anything about Valerie Plame — not even her name — until he read it in the newspaper, just like the rest of us.

Letting go of ‘Plamegate’ will be a long and painful process. For the New York Times, I mean. (Their silly headline for their article clearing Rove was not “Rove exhonerated, suspicion turns to Wilson,” or anything descriptive like that. It was “Rove Talked to Novak About Plame.”) But let go they must.

The Left, however, will avoid this pain. There is no need to let go of ‘Plamegate’ for them. They can just add it to their long, long list of made-up Bush crimes. Perhaps Michael Moore can make a movie about it.

Sometimes, after a hard day at the office, I come home and find something like this in my inbox:

Your autorantic moonbat is now a treasured feature on my blog (www.capecodporcupine.blogspot.com), and I have endless hours of joy clicking for rants - and NEVER getting a repeat! 
 
It is now spreading like chicken pox throughout New England GOP circles, where the name of ‘Gleeson’ is indeed cause for another Sam Adams ale!

- “Peter Porcupine”

I like finding things like that in my inbox. Thanks! I don’t have any Samuel Adams, but there’s a Miller High Life in the fridge, and I think this calls for a toast. To New England!

Imagine a dystopian alternative future, where America-hating liberals have seized the reins of power. A free people has been reduced to slavery, and all dissent is outlawed as “hate speech.” A faithful remnant of conservatives goes underground, becoming the Freedom of Information League, or “F.O.I.L.” Now keep imagining…

Tomorrow is September 11, 2021, the twentieth anniversary of the horror of 9/11, or as it has become more politically correct to say “the unfortunate events resulting from the uprising of middle-eastern fundamentalist Islam”. Just days before his arrival in NYC, Bin Laden made a brief visit to Iraq, now a nuclear power that is run by the vicious Uday Hussein. In Iraq, Bin Laden received a tactical nuke that is now contained in his private diplomatic briefcase. Bin Laden plans far more than an apology at the Unity Tower.

F.O.I.L. has become aware of Bin Laden’s plot to destroy NYC and has devised a plan to stop him while simultaneously gaining permanent control of LIB’s satellite network. Unfortunately, U.N. Forces have discovered the secret location of the F.O.I.L. Lair. It is a race against the clock to save NYC from a nuclear holocaust and the world from liberal domination. Only with F.O.I.L.’s help, can “Liberality For All” once again become “Liberty For All!”

Find out how it all goes down in a new 8-issue comic book miniseries, “Liberality For All“! Coming October 2005.

(Hat tip: John J. Miller)

Charles posted a picture of a crude, hand-drawn poster from a follower of Lyndon Larouche. But we’ve been trying to divine the poster’s meaning for quite some time now. (Read the comments to that post.)

Say what you will about moonbat leftists, their graphics usually have a simplistic and comprehendible message. I mean, George Bush with bloody fangs and a Hitler mustache? Okay, I get it. But these Larouchies? What on God’s green earth are they even saying?

(Being rather modest and retiring, I found this a pretty tough assignment. My boss at the college where I have started teaching asked me to write a profile of myself — but written in the third person — for use in a school newsletter. This is what I sent her. I am posting it here in case anyone else is curious about my background.)

Sean Gleeson, who is joining the OKCCC faculty to teach Web Design and Multimedia Design, should prove to be an interesting instructor, if his past work is any guide.

Although Gleeson is new to teaching, he has spent almost two decades immersed in the world of professional design. Beginning in 1988, he has toiled in the vineyard of graphic communications at advertising agencies, for in-house departments, and as a freelance artisan in Chicago, in Wichita, and finally here in Oklahoma City. He has created print, broadcast, Web, and multimedia pieces for small businesses and multinational corporations.

The things Gleeson designs can be a bit unconventional. The “Mission Statement” at Gleeson’s own website (found at www.gleeson.us) states that his driving purpose is “to design the things that need designing.” This bold yet facile motto is also inscribed into a bronze plaque behind Gleeson in the photograph on his home page. But by clicking on the “re-write our mission statement” button, any visitor to the site can amend his slogan, and watch as the website discards the old motto and incorporates the new phrase, even onto the bronze plaque in the photo! The visitor may also turn Gleeson into a grinning baby, or a chicken.

“The editable mission statement was kind of a joke, but a joke with a serious point,” Gleeson says. “No, wait, two serious points. The first is, that Web pages are very much unlike print pages; on the Web, even something as apparently solid as a mission statement on a bronze plaque on a brick wall has no more substance or permanence than a passing breeze. Second, my real honest-to-goodness purpose is to do whatever is desired of me; enabling the reader to dictate my own mission to me demonstrates this credo more truly than spelling it out would have.”
Read the rest of this entry »