The boy who was told he could not attach a flag to the bike he rides to school is not only making his patriotic ride again, but he’s doing it with a hefty escort.  From Gateway Pundit (via RightWingNews):

Hundreds of American Legion Riders and fellow patriots escorted Cody Alicea to Denair Middle School this morning. They all had American Flags on their bikes.

I’ve been on vacation, and forgot to put up a blog about it before hand.  Needless to say, I am back now and will be blogging again shortly.

From BankruptingAmerica.org

The Daily Caller recently reported on a twitter exchange between Matt Yglesias, blogger savant at Think Progress, and the Washington Examiner’s Mark Hemingway.  During the discussion, Yglesias basically endorsed lying and deception as legitimate when used to advance the left-wing agenda.

“Fighting dishonesty with dishonesty is sometimes the right thing for advocates to do, yes,” said Yglesias.

The exchange, with Washington Examiner writer Mark Hemingway, came on the heels of a debate between the two on transportation policy.

Yglesias pressed his point with another conservative writer, saying, “Do you really think deception is immoral in all circumstances?”

Well, no.  But who’s talking about all circumstances?  We’re talking about public debates and policy.  Stay focused, Matt.

…[W]hat set off a flurry of Tweets today – and Yglesias’s advocacy of lying – was a charge by Yglesias via Twitter that Washington Timesreporter Eli Lake has a “deserved reputation for dishonesty.” Hemingway, Lake and others confronted Yglesias on Twitter about the charge, pointing out that Yglesias himself had actually advocated dishonesty.

“When [Yglesias] gets frustrated because he can’t counter an argument, he calls people ‘dishonest’,” Lake said, also calling him “a child.”

Yglesias’s Twitter opponents also charged he does not take criticism well.

Then, Yglesias dug in, saying lying was a necessary part of politics.

In concluding his interview with The Daily Caller, Yglesias said “go fuck yourself” and hung up the phone.

Lying is a part of politics because liars are a part of politics, but it’s hardly necessary.

This ends-justify-the-means attitude seems unfortunately common on the left. That’s not to say it doesn’t exist on the right – it does – but it’s not publicly embraced and doesn’t seem as prevalent.

Just look at Saul Alinsky, the intellectual father of nearly everyone in the Obama administration. He was no high-minded idealist out to convince others of his views.  Deception was an integral part of his disgusting strategy.

The reason the left is so willing to accept the use of dishonesty to advance their agenda is correlated with the very nature of their beliefs.  The reason they support big government nanny states is because they think people are too stupid to take care of themselves.  It should come as no surprise, then, that they’d also think people are too stupid to reach the correct conclusions (in their minds) given an honest accounting of the facts.

Susan Estrich thinks the crop of Republican women winning primaries is problematic because they don’t have enough political experience:

Some years ago, the late New York Times and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist William Safire wrote a great column comparing politicians to plumbers. It was during one of those periods when (like now) experience had become a dirty word in politics and incumbency was a veritable curse. There was nothing worse you could say about someone than to call him a “career politician” — just what California Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman called her rival for the office only yesterday.

Safire’s point was a simple one: Would you hire a plumber who’d never done any plumbing to fix your pipes?

Why is politics different? If the plumber messes up, your toilet might flood or, worse, your pipes might burst. If the governor gets it wrong…

Politics looks easy until you try it.

She goes on to highlight a political mistake made by Carly Fiorina – allowing offhand remarks to be unknowingly picked up by a nearby mic – which was the same mistake made by expert politician Joe Biden. This point has nothing to do with her premise, however, because allowing someone to catch you in an unscripted moment is not the kind of mistake that fits her metaphor. It has no consequences beyond the politician’s electoral hopes.

Estrich has simply confused politics with lawmaking.

There is no doubt that having political experience makes one a better politician. Shaking hands, kissing babies, and speaking for hours without saying a damn thing are all skills a “good” politician learns over his or her career. It’s just too bad that none of these skills make someone a good lawmaker.

A good lawmaker has lived in society and worked in the private sector, and therefore understands the consequences for real people of the legislation they are voting on. On the other hand, career politicians long removed from the normal issues of life and business are the ones who pass god-awful legislation that result in catastrophic “unintended” consequences that any normal person could have easily predicted. This is why we need more normal people in office instead of career politicians, no matter how extensive their political “experience.”

This article about demographics offers more proof that Political Correctness stunts the ability to think:

“More of the country is going to be like California,” said William Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution. Minorities make up 57% of the population in California.

Ow. My head hurts.