By Gabor Zolna
Ever wonder why no matter what a white person says or does that is not fully agreeable to an African American, they tend to be called a racist? Contains some strong language.
Tag Archives: conservative
The Best Leaders Are Vulnerable
By David K. Williams, Contributor
We all know leaders who are filled with the kind of bravado that takes great pains to hide any very hint of misgiving. No matter what happens, they “knew it all along”. At the very essence of their strategy is the fierce belief that showing even the slightest hint of vulnerability would cause their teams to see them as “weak”. They couldn’t be more mistaken. In reality, vulnerability is a strength. Every leader has vulnerability. The greatest leaders have the self awareness to recognize this fact. They also recognize that showing their vulnerability is a sign of courage, and strength. Courage is the sixth Non-Negotiable that I cover in my book The 7 Non-Negotiables of Winning. Vulnerability is not a weakness. In reality, the courage to show up and be seen. I was very compelled by the recent thoughts of business writer Kimberly Weisul, who recently discussed a presentation on vulnerability by author and researcher Brene Brown.At a Leadership Forum for Inc. Magazine, Brown turned the popular notions of vulnerability on their head. In reality, she says, vulnerability is actually the courage to show up and be seen. I agree. “Vulnerability is the absolute heartbeat of innovation and creativity,” she says. “There can be zero innovation without vulnerability.” How does vulnerability work? According to Brown, here are the four common mythes of vulnerability and how to combat them. Myth #1: Vulnerability is Weakness. In her research, Brown asked thousands of people to talk about times they felt vulnerable. They provide answers like “Starting my own business; the first date after my divorce; taking my company public.” Other answers include “owning something I’ve done wrong at work” (a big one, as you know from my prior columns) or “cheering my son on because he wants to make first chair in the orchestra and I know that it’s unlikely to happen”. Brown realized that none of these situations had anything to do with weakness. In fact, she points out that vulnerability is not a weakness at all. It is, perhaps, one of our most accurate measures of courage. Every entrepreneurial endeavor, by its very definition, is courageous and risky. For example, in my book I share the full experience of heading up the company buyback of our company, Fishbowl, in 2010. Rarely in my life have I been in such a vulnerable position. Although we’d always run our company in a very cash conservative way, the need of our majority investor to divest himself left us in the most vulnerable place of our life. Banks were not lending. Against all odds, we’d received an agreement for the only enterprise loan our regional bank offered in 2010, but at the last minute, we discovered the final approval was $500,000 short of our goal. I spoke to my executive team openly about the situation we were facing. I was humbled, and the discussion even involved tears (my own, and many from these longtime friends and esteemed partners as well). It took courage beyond words …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Marco Rubio Turns Away From Immigration As Bill’s Prospects Flounder
After relentlessly defending for months the Senate’s ambitious overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, Sen. Marco Rubio didn’t respond when House GOP leaders last week trashed it as a “flawed … massive, Obama-care like bill.”
The Florida Republican’s office, which churned out countless press releases touting his interviews and speeches about the legislation, hasn’t said a word about immigration since the Senate passed the bill on June 27.
The silence is a sign that, at least publicly, Rubio won’t try to dissuade the House from a piecemeal approach that excludes a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
Instead, Rubio is turning to the safer, more-conservative-friendly issues he campaigned on in 2010—President Obama’s health care law, federal spending, the deficit—but with less support from Republicans than before, according to public polls. He’s put off abortion opponents clamoring for him to spearhead a controversial ban after 20 weeks of pregnancy and staying put while potential rivals in 2016 jockey in the early-primary states.
In the past week, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., addressed Republican activists in Nevada, while Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, announced plans to headline a fundraiser in New Hampshire on Aug. 23. (Both Paul and Cruz voted against the immigration bill.) Rubio hasn’t been to a presidential stomping ground outside of Florida since November, when he visited Iowa.
Read More at National Journal . By Beth Reinhard.
Asylum boats 'god-awful' problem, Australia says
Asylum-seekers drowning on the treacherous boat journey to Australia presented a “god-awful” problem, Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said, after four more deaths were reported following a dramatic sea rescue.
Authorities pulled 144 people from the surging waters off the Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island late Tuesday, but they also recovered four bodies after the ship carrying an estimated 150 people capsized and sank.
“This is a wretchedly difficult area and it has been poisoned by politics,” Clare said of boatpeople.
“If we are going to fix this god-awful problem then we need to work together.”
Australia has struggled to stem an influx of asylum-seekers arriving by boat, with record numbers turning up in 2012 and more than 13,000 so far in 2013.
Hundreds have drowned making the journey and Canberra’s plans to send asylum-seekers to remote Pacific islands for processing has so far failed to stop the numbers from increasing.
Clare said the centre-left Labor government — whose scheme to transfer asylum-seekers arriving by boats to refugee camps in Malaysia was blocked by the conservative opposition — was working on changes to its policy.
But he said the problem required domestic and regional cooperation and Australians wanted the political parties to work together on the issue.
“We have been fighting about this for more than 10 years,” he said.
“The government should be given the power it needs to stop people dying at sea.”
In the latest tragedy, the boat capsized as it was being escorted in heavy weather by two Australian navy ships to Christmas Island, after issuing a distress call earlier in the day.
The boats pulled survivors from the water as a military aircraft dropped life rafts.
Rear Admiral David Johnston, commander of Border Protection Command, said the 30-metre boat had not been as “jam packed” as other vessels that had been intercepted and appeared quite solid.
But he said the vessel, which was carrying men, women and children, sank quite quickly once it overturned.
Australian border protection officials have been faced with an increased tempo of arrivals in recent months, despite scores of drownings.
On Friday a boat carrying 97 asylum-seekers sank, claiming the life of a baby boy and leaving eight others missing.
In a bid to slow down arrivals, Australia’s refugee tribunals have reportedly been ordered to take revised country assessments into account when looking at asylum claims from people from Iran, Afghanistan and Vietnam.
This directive came after Foreign Minister Bob Carr said many people seeking asylum, particularly from Iran, were economic migrants, not refugees.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is expected to soon announce a new-look asylum-seeker policy — an issue set to be key in elections due this year.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Official Pie of Worthy, VOTING HAS BEGUN
Nominations are over, time to vote:
Omegaman editorial (shameless)
It is expected that the pie vote will mirror recent U.S. Voting trends, with the liberal candidate (chocolate) winning over the conservative candidates (tart fruit flavors) while foreign candidates (salty/meat pies) not even making it to the ballot. In spite of my obvious biases and attempts to influence votes against bland pies (usually pies with the word “crème” in them), I elected to refrain from nominating a pie, so as to keep my considerable influence out of the picture.
Source: Worthy Christian Forums
Rush Limbaugh: Rachel Jeantel Said Trayvon Thought Zimmerman Was a Gay Rapist
Latching onto recent comments made by star witness Rachel Jeantel on CNN, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said she admitted Trayvon Martin attacked George Zimmerman because he thought Zimmerman was a gay rapist. …read more
Source: The Christian Post
Neurosurgeon Ben Carson Says US Government Is 'Like a Morbidly Obese Individual'
Criticizing the U.S. government as having become too big, neurosurgeon and conservative star Dr. Benjamin Carson likened it to “a morbidly obese individual,” who could do well with shedding a few pounds. …read more
Source: The Christian Post
Divine Inspiration: Is the New Pope Having an Influence on Designers?
Designers get their inspiration from all sorts of places, people, and ideas, but the latest muse to have an influence on the runway seems to have come from above. In her review of the recent collections shown in Rome, fashion critic Suzy Menkes points to Pope Francis as the reason so many designers turned out simple, conservative pieces that look like nothing so much as chic robes and vestments.
“It’s a whole new spirit in Rome, and this is evident when we have a new pope going back to real Christianity, which lately was far from the church,” said Silvia Venturini Fendi, who co-designs Fendi with Karl Lagerfeld. “People are looking for meaning, and the real meaning of fashion is as a tool to express yourself.”
But will people express themselves with conservative clothing inspired by the pope, who tends to wear simpler, more minimal garb than his Prada-clad predecessor? Or have we simply entered a period when many designers are creating more modernist clothing that’s easy to wear? Tell us what you think about this potential new trend by casting your vote below.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at fashionologie
Video: Where Were Hispanic Groups During Zimmerman Trial?
By NewsEditor
On Monday, the hosts of Fox & Friends asked conservative radio host Laura Ingraham for her impressions of the jury’s decision to acquit George Zimmerman of all charges relating to the killing of Trayvon Martin. Ingraham and the hosts blasted Hispanic advocacy groups for deciding to remain silent for the course of the trial.
Video: #BroChoice – Support Abortion For Casual Sex
By NewsEditor
Do pro-choice leftists really support abortion “on-demand” because their sex life is at stake? Well, the #BroChoice movement does.
(PS: the guy in this video, Caleb Bonham, is a conservative.)
Bill to overhaul military justice system gains support
An effort to overhaul the military justice system to stem the tide of sexual assault has gained a crucial conservative backer in the Senate.
Reform Conservatism And Libertarian Populism: Two Great Tastes That Go Great Together
By Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, Contributor
The two most interesting schools of thought reforming the conservative movement are “libertarian populism” and what I’ve called “lower-middle conservatism.” …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Behind the Tea Party Push For Solar in Georgia
By Michael Kanellos, Contributor
In many regions in the country, conservative politicians view solar power as an unwarranted extension of government regulation. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
How To Recognize Latent Conservative Tendencies And Dare To Come Out Of The Closet
Okay…this is going to be really tough. I’ve come to be aware time that some of you who have been reading my column have suspected that I occasionally reveal subtle conservative tendencies… maybe just a careless word slip, like referring to global warming as a “hoax”, to green energy as a “scam”, or to carbon dioxide as “plant food”. Occasionally when I catch sight of fellow faculty members whispering when they don’t think I’m looking, I worry that they may have noticed this as well. As you might imagine, living with all of this anxiety has been a quite an emotional burden. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Odds Increase For GOP Senate Takeover
For the first time this year, Republican strategists believe they’re within striking distance of taking back control of the Senate, thanks to untimely Democratic Senate retirements and red-state Democratic recruits deciding not to run for Congress. The latest blow to Democrats: former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s surprising decision Saturday to pass up a campaign.
Republican recognize they need to win only three Senate seats in the most of conservative of states–Arkansas, Louisiana, and Alaska–and Mitch McConnell could be majority leader in 2015. (That is, if McConnell can hold onto his own Kentucky seat.) The latest developments underline how punishing the map is for Democrats for 2014, and how little margin for error they have.
Democrats can afford to lose up to five Senate seats and still maintain their majority, but they already risk conceding over half that number before campaigning even gets under way.
Schweitzer was the type of grade-A recruit who could nearly guarantee victory despite Montana’s Republican leanings. His near-universal name recognition, blunt outspokenness, and statewide organization made him a heavy favorite, especially when Republicans had yet to field a first-tier challenger. Big Sky Country was beginning to look like a long shot for the GOP.
But somewhere along the way, Schweitzer got cold feet. Montana Democratic officials were expecting Schweitzer to announce his campaign earlier this week, and were caught by surprise when they didn’t hear from the former governor. Democrats are claiming–after the fact–that they were concerned about vulnerabilities in his background, but Republicans say that the difficult political environment for Democrats in Montana also played a role.
Read More at National Journal . By Alex Roarty.
Photo Credit: Donkey Hotey (Creative Commons)
Erase The Boarders And Erase The Republican Party
We’ve heard ad nauseam the advice from our good friend Chuck Schumer about how the Republicans can win the White House back if they would only grant amnesty to millions of new Democrat voters and erase our southern border. This is of course a lie designed to destroy the Republican Party akin to deliberately directing a lost motorist to take a washed out bridge during a roaring Nor’easter. Because what Democrats say and do is so often purposefully dishonest, here’s some advice from a rank and file conservative who actually wants the Republican Party to survive and grow.
The road to future political dominance is blindingly obvious to anyone who can count, but our Republican “leaders” are playing make believe with the clear truth. As damaged as our economy is we are still head and shoulders above the rest of the world’s cultures and economies.
The wagon of America’s economy is pulled by people who understand Judeo-Christian ethics and the value of hard work. Tending to the demands of White Americans, and those who share their values is simply a matter of siding with America’s “makers over our nation’s takers.”
With huge portions of Blacks and Hispanics falling outside of these parameters, it’s very easy to understand why both groups consistently vote Democrat. The Democrat lure of something for nothing is so overwhelming that it is not only foolhardy, but politically dangerous, to believe these “no worries minorities” will ever vote Republican in any meaningful numbers.
Minority groups make up about 32% of the American voting public. Whites are more than double that number at about 68%. Analysis of last November’s presidential vote showed that had Mitt Romney merely gotten the same amount of White votes John McCain got in 2008 he would have won despite his poorly run campaign. Further examination shows that had Romney gotten an impossible 70% of the Latino vote he still would have lost. Chasing minority votes is worse than a zero sum game. The minority votes a Republican picks up by pandering to Hispanics or Black voters comes nowhere near offsetting the Whites who continue to flee the Republican Party in protest.
It is an undeniable fact that Whites and people of like mind and ethic have a bigger stake in the survival of America than those who will flood into our country should the Republicans grant them amnesty. When the lifeblood of America is drained out they will simply pack up and leave for Mexico as has happened since the start of Obama’s depression.
So what does all this say? It clearly says that if the Republicans want to live as free Americans and continue as a national Party they will have to concentrate on meeting the needs of Whites and like-minded people. Democrats focus on catering to Blacks and Hispanics as their natural constituency; why shouldn’t Republicans focus on their natural constituency? Going after a bloc of voters, that is more than twice as large as the Democrat pool of minorities, makes sense even to a fourth grader.
Either Republicans …read more
Conservative Scott Black's Delphi Management – Five New Buys
As of July 12, 2013, the updated portfolio of Boston-based Delphi Management Inc., led by the firm’s founder and president Scott M. Black, lists 121 stocks, 12 of them new, with a total value of $839 million and a quarter-over-quarter turnover of 19%. According to GuruFocus research, Delphi Management was very busy buying and selling in the second quarter of 2013. Here are the highlights of the conservative investor Guru Scott Black’s new buys as of June 30, 2013. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Spanish PM under pressure over slush fund scandal
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy faced calls to explain himself or resign over his alleged support for the ruling Popular Party’s disgraced former treasurer, who headed to court Monday over a slush fund scandal.
The 58-year-old, grey-bearded premier has denied any wrongdoing and refused to comment in past weeks on the growing controversy centred on former party treasurer Luis Barcenas.
Pressure on Rajoy mounted, however, as more allegations were revealed and as the 55-year-old Barcenas faced a High Court judge to answer questions over secret political payments.
Barcenas was called to appear in the Madrid court after conservative daily El Mundo last week published what it said was an original page from Barcenas’ slush fund ledger and delivered the document to the court.
The excerpt purportedly showed extra payments from a secret fund to party officials including Rajoy when he was a minister under then prime minister Jose Maria Aznar in 1997, 1998 and 1999.
Barcenas is suspected of running a slush fund financed by corporate donors who were then rewarded with public contracts. The cash was allegedly used to supplement senior party members’ salaries.
In the latest blow to Rajoy, the conservative daily El Mundo on Sunday published friendly mobile text messages between the prime minister and Barcenas from May 2011 to March 2013, ending some two months after the scandal erupted.
“Luis, I understand, be strong. I will call you tomorrow. Best wishes,” said one of the messages reportedly from Rajoy to Barcenas, dated January 18 when El Mundo first published allegations over the slush fund.
“It is not good to try to determine what we will say or to comment on things that must be presented to the courts, which we must all respect,” read another message allegedly sent by Rajoy.
Barcenas reportedly told El Mundo in an interview published July 7 that the Popular Party had engaged in illegal financing for nearly 20 years.
The Popular Party has repeatedly denied secret financing allegations.
The leader of Spain’s main opposition Socialist Party, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, on Sunday accused the premier of “serious collusion” with Barcenas and said he was severing all contact with the prime minister and his party.
“Given the unsustainable political situation in Spain, the Socialist Party calls for the immediate resignation of Mariano Rajoy as head of the government,” he said.
But few people in Spain expect Rajoy to step down given his party’s outright parliamentary majority.
An editorial in leading daily El Pais on Monday demanded an explanation from the premier.
“Out of respect for the democratic system, the citizens and his own party and voters, the head of government must give a true explanation to parliament,” it said.
“Otherwise it will be impossible for him to regain his credibility.”
Rajoy has so far resisted calls to appear before parliament over the scandal and has carefully avoided even mentioning the name Barcenas.
But he is expected to face the press Monday after hosting a visit by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The corruption allegations have outraged Spaniards suffering in a recession with a record unemployment rate of more than 27 percent. Dozens …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Logical Fallacies And Global Warming Alarmism
Columns from a conservative (or classical-liberal) perspective are veritable magnets to the ill- informed, the uninformed, and often to the well-informed, who just happen to be either wrong or illogical in their arguments. And sometimes, they are both wrong and illogical.
Such was the case with a letter to the editor this past week that took issue with my latest column on anthropogenic global warming (AGW) (or climate change as it is now called, since the globe hasn’t warmed at all since 1998, contrary to all of the AGW alarmist’s computer models.) Usually with such detractors, I simply pen a response to their missives clarifying issues and addressing the areas where they felt I had erred.
This particular letter, however, provided a superb teachable moment, and as such, warranted a more formal and analytical response that all can learn from (conservatives and liberals alike.) For that is how I perceive my role, to stimulate thought, reflection, and to provide factual information oftentimes beyond the purview of the mainstream media, from whence most in our society glean their “knowledge.”
A retired chemistry professor, who is undoubtedly superbly competent in his discipline, authored the letter that didn’t even address the points made in my column. Due to the logical fallacies employed (three of which I will focus on), his argument was null and void, constituting little more than wasted column inches (except for the didactic value.)
Remember, a logical fallacy is an error in reasoning that renders an argument invalid. Logicians have identified nearly eighty such fallacies, many of which are employed on a daily basis by those who seek to influence us. But the logical fallacies employed in the professor’s letter represent some of the most widely used inanities.
The most commonly used logical fallacy is the ad hominem, which is literally a verbal attack on the purveyor, or the messenger. It evades addressing the substance of the original argument and goes after the one making the argument. This was employed superbly by the professor, as he not only assailed me personally, but did the same against a source I cited (who authored a peer-reviewed piece referenced in the column) rather than addressing the substance of our combined arguments.
He also used a variant of the ad hominem, the poisoning the well fallacy, where adverse information about someone is presented with the intention of discrediting everything that the targeted person says, whether relevant to the current issue or not. He used this in reference to Dr. Roy Spencer, a source I cited, when he cavalierly dismissed his perspective by calling Spencer “an avowed creationist” and exclaiming “Aha, now I understand!” In other words, all of Spencer’s credentials and expertise as the lead research climatologist at the University of Alabama (and his background as a NASA scientist and the senior scientist for Climate Studies at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center) were dismissed because he’s a creationist. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the invalidity of such a specious position.
And finally, the writer used the …read more
Dakota Fanning, sister Elle look beyond their years in fashion campaign
By DANIELLE HAYNES, UPI.com
Fanning sisters wear conservative dresses, suits in J. Estina jewelry, handbag campaign. …read more