May
24
2007

URLs du Jour

2007-05-24

  • The National Republican Congressional Committee has established an entertaining website: The Real Democrat Story. They've targeted 21 freshman Congresscritters, including mine own, Carol Shea-Porter. She has her "personalized" page here.

    It's good clean hyperpartisan fun, but it mainly demonstrates that—get ready—Congresswoman Carol votes with the Democrats a lot! For a typical example, here's one damning accusation:

    Carol Shea-Porter voted against providing affordable health care to uninsured working families. (House Roll Call 10)
    Wha?! But click through to the voting tally, and it turns out the bill was "Adopting the Rules of the House of Representatives for the One Hundred Tenth Congress", all Democrats voting one way, all Republicans the other. I'm supposed to be shocked that she voted with her party on a straight party-line vote? Sorry, I'll pass.

  • John Derbyshire has an insightful and entertaining review of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle tomes at The New Atlantis. If you've been wondering whether to undertake the project of reading those approximately 2600 pages (of unlarge type and unwide margins), Derbyshire's review might help make the choice.

  • Iowahawk forwards the results of a recent Pew Research study: "Midwest Lutherans Largely Reject Violence". As an ex-Midwest Lutheran myself, I'm happy to see that solid research on that misunderstood minority is finally debunking long-held stereotypes and prejudices about being "violence-prone" and having "bad coffee in the church basement." For example:
    "If there is one headline here, it's how remarkably moderate the Lutheran community is," said Pew director Andrew Kohut of the survey, which was co-sponsored by the Council on American-Yooper Relations. "It really paints a picture of a dynamic culture in or somewhere near the American mainstream."

    Kohut pointed to one of the study's key findings that only 29% of all respondents agreed that "bloody, random violence against infidels" was "always" or "frequently" justified, versus 56% who said such violence was "seldom" or "never" justified. The approval of violence rose slightly among younger Lutherans and when the hypothetical violence was targeted against Presbyterians, but still fell well short of a majority.

    Presbyterians … don't get me started.

    [Oh, yeah. If you missed the thing the Hawk is lampooning, a straight news story is here.]