Tag: politics

American Exceptionalism

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There has been some discussion around the web on the topic of American Exceptionalism, brought about by the recent Q&A of Senator McCain at Columbia University. Dr. Sanity‘s piece is quite illuminating, as she includes a transcript of the question-and-answer session, and notes that the audience was completely silent during and after McCain’s answers. I would like to answer Judy Woodruff’s questions myself:

Woodruff: Senator, I want to come back to something you said earlier, I think you used the word exceptional and unique about being an American. On this 9/11, this special day, what — help us understand what you think it means to be an American. And I don’t mean that in the obvious way.

I mean, people who live in Canada, who live in Mexico, around the world feel special about their country, so what is it that’s different about being in America? Are Americans better than people in some of these other countries? We hear the term “exceptionalism” about the United States.

No, Judy, American’s aren’t “better than people in some of those other countries,” Americans are the people of all those other countries. That’s what makes America exceptional. From the perspective of political freedom, where else but in America can an Austrian immigrant become governor of a state with a Gross State Product so high it places seventh worldwide behind Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and China, but ahead of Spain, Canada, India, South Korea and Mexico? Where else but in America could a second-generation Indian immigrant become a governor? Where else but in America can people come, work hard, and achieve a life that in their country of origin would represent unimaginable wealth? What other country is so attractive that people literally risk death in the deserts and oceans to reach it? And they come here, by and large, not to wall themselves off in enclaves of their own kind, but to be Americans.

America is exceptional, Judy, because America is the combination of all the peoples of the world, many of whom made a conscious choice to become Americans, and many more are the immediate descendants of such people. Look at the last Olympic games. Review just some of the names of American medal winners: Liukin, Liezak, Torres, Vanderkaay, Zagunis, Kai, Rodriguez, Taurasi, O’Reilly, Ah Mow-Santos, Haneef-Park, Nnamani. Those are all AMERICAN names, Judy. Don’t you think that’s exceptional?

McCain’s reply was still very good:

MCCAIN: I do believe in American exceptionalism.

And I think it was best articulated by our founding fathers. But I also think that my hero, Teddy Roosevelt, expressed it very well, and other leaders throughout our history.

We’re the only nation I know in the world that really is deeply concerned about adhering to the principle that all of us are created equal and endowed by our creators with certain rights. And those we have tried to bring to the world. And we have not so much militarily, but through example, through leadership, through economic assistance.

Look at what we did for Europe after World War II, look at the continuous efforts we make throughout the world. Look at the efforts we’re making to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa. There’s a lot more America can do.

And I love these other countries, and I’m not trying to denigrate them. But I know of no other country in the world with the generosity of spirit and the concern for fellow human beings than the United States of America, and I think that goes back to our very beginnings.

And I think it goes back to our national makeup. We are all those other nations, often the best of them.

Woodruff presses:

WOODRUFF: Does that make America better than these other…?

MCCAIN: I think it makes us exceptional. I think it makes us exceptional in the kind of citizenry we have and the kind of service and sacrifice that we are capable of.

And I mean that in no disrespect to any other nation, our close and unique relationship with the British. I have — I’m not trying to in any way denigrate any other nation, but it doesn’t in any way diminish my pride in the history of this nation, which has literally shed our blood in all four corners of the earth many times in defense of someone else’s freedom and have tried to further the principles of freedom and democracy everywhere in the world. I think we’re dedicated to that proposition. And, frankly, I think we’ve done a pretty good job.

And nobody so much as applauded.

Interesting Observation

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Earlier this week my wife said, “I’m off Saturday. We need to go to the range. It’s been too long since I’ve shot that .38.” We have a S&W Model 60 2″ .38 Special that we keep in a quick-access safe (along with a 4″ Ruger GP-100). The .38 is “hers,” though she can shoot either in a pinch.

As I’ve noted here previously, my wife is not a “gunnie,” but she’s a decent shot, and I can hand her my Ruger MkII Target, a brick of 500 .22LR, and set up our swinging target stand, and she’ll happily blast away all day.

So we got up bright and early this morning, loaded up the truck with the .38, the .357, the MkII and the Single-Six, my Kimber Classic and M1 Carbine, the swinger stand and the rest of the paraphernalia, and we headed out to the Tucson Rifle Club – a 45 minute drive. The TRC is a nice facility, with a 500 meter rifle silhouette range, two 100-yard “public” rifle/pistol ranges, a 100-yard .22 rifle range, a 100-yard range dedicated to law-enforcement (members can use it when law-enforcement isn’t), a 200 yard handgun silhouette range, an action shooting range with three bays for cowboy and IDPA/IPSC shooters, and a 1,000 yard range with shooting positions also at 200, 300, and 600 yards. There is some interference. For example, if there is a match on the 1,000 yard range at anything over 200 yards, then the action bays are closed since they can be observed from the shooting positions on the 1,000 yard range.

Today, everything was busy. There was a match on the 500 meter range, the two 100 yard public ranges don’t really suit themselves to close-range pistol shooting aside from the fact that they were nearly full, the .22 range and the police range were occupied by a Hunter Safety class, the pistol silhouette range was running a Cowboy Lever Gun silhouette match (pistol caliber lever guns), and there was a 600 yard match going on.

The place was hopping.

So I asked my wife if she was game to go to the Elsy Pearson public range in Casa Grande, which is quite a hike North of town, and she said “Fine!” (No, the actual, heartfelt “Fine!” Not the “Whatever the hell you want” “Fine!” which doesn’t really mean “Whatever the hell you want.”) On the way back towards town I had an idea. There is a 100 yard range operated by the County in Tucson Mountain Park, and it was not far off the track. I have never shot there, but I’ve driven up to it to check it out before. I thought we’d give that a shot (so to speak.)

It was packed. And it wasn’t packed with deer hunters sighting in for the fall hunt, either. More on this in a bit.

So, we decided to go ahead with the original fallback plan, stopped and got some breakfast, continued home so I could pick up my home-made target stand (the Casa Grande range is unattended and has no target frames or targets. Bring your own, and take ’em home when you’re finished with ’em.) Then we hit the road again.

It’s about an hour from my house to the range, mostly on I-10 and a short stint on I-8. Unfortunately the I-8 exit was closed due to an accident, so I had to take the long way around to get to the range. It wasn’t packed, but it was pretty busy. Recently the City of Casa Grande got some grant money from the department of Game and Fish and have done a very nice job in expanding and improving the range. There are now four bays; a 100 yard, a 250 yard, and two 25 yard bays, all with concrete shooting benches under sunshades. The 25-yard bays have three shooting positions each, and the 100 yard has six or eight, I believe. We took one of the 25 yard pistol bays for ourselves, but the main 250 yard bay (some 20 shooting positions, I think) was damned near full. Again, not filled with Bambi hunters. One thing I noticed at TRC, the Tucson Mountain Park and again at Casa Grande, it appeared that at least half the shooters were there for purely recreational purposes, and at least 10% of the guns on the firing line were EBRs (you know, the guns that Barack If it Looks Like a Machine Gun it Must Be a Machine Gun Obama believes are fully automatic and not used by “sportsmen and hunters,” but which are, in fact semi-automatic and of a “kind in common use at (this) time.”

Moreover, at least 10% of the shooters on the line were of the female persuasion as well. And some were shooting those EBRs.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable morning, even though I put some 240 miles on my truck. I got to spend several hours with my favorite person in the world in the pursuit (and capture!) of my (second!) favorite recreational activity. 😉 Can’t beat that even with a big stick.

Hey, FEC? BITE ME.

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Hey, FEC? BITE ME.

If this blog post represents a “contribution” to McCain’s campaign under the McCain-Feingold incumbent protection, er campaign finance reform act, then take me to court!

This individually produced viral ad is making the rounds of the blogosphere. I am more than happy to host it and help pass it along. I’ve seen it several places, but it was up at LawDog’s and someone offered to send the Flash video to anyone who wanted it.

I wanted it:

http://img.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v99/smallestminority/Dear_Mr_Obama.flv
I dislike John McCain as a candidate for President of the United States, but I have made my position quite clear vis-à-vis his Democrat opposition. When the choice is castration versus wedgie, I vote wedgie.

Also On the Topic of Elites

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Also On the Topic of Elites

Another very good piece, also from Rational Passion – McCain Will Win – I Will Abstain. An excerpt:

For (Bill) Maher and (Sam) Harris, the Democrats fight for the little guy, peace, justice, and all good things. And if you don’t vote for them, you’re an idiot. And a narcissistic idiot for not realizing how stupid you are! You are to defer to the wisdom of your betters–people like Maher, Harris, Obama, and other left-liberals–and shut up! Why? Because you’re stupid, fool!

If this is how you view the little guy–as a bitter, narcissistic, idiot who clings to religion, guns, and xenophobia to give him comfort and security in a world without the blessings of “progressive” Democrats in charge–how can you be said to be his representative? Note that I have nothing against elitism. I have a problem with a certain kind of elitism. I have a problem with an elitist who claims to support the little guy out of one side of his mouth while sneering at his stupid Wal-Mart-shopping-gun-toting-Bible-believing ways out of the other.

Being a left-liberal elitist is not a function of one’s economic class or educational attainment per se. Being a left-liberal elitist means believing that helping the little guy is the purpose of politics and simultaneously believing that the little guy would abandon the things that he says he values if only he had a few more dollars in his pocket and a better job, thanks to left-liberal government programs. Some people, shockingly, don’t like being told that their values–right, wrong, or in-between–are symptoms of economic deprivation! Might they be? Sure. But people don’t like being told that, and if you’re going to insult them, don’t expect them to vote for you.

READ THE WHOLE THING. This includes YOU Margaret Soltan.

And here’s the Quote of the Day, from that same piece:

No, it won’t be racism that does Barack Obama in, if he does in fact lose. For every racist white who won’t vote for Obama because he’s a black man, there’s probably a guilty white liberal desperate to vote for a black person to prove how non-racist he is. I think the racial issue is a wash–it may help Obama, and it may hurt him, but on balance, it won’t be the deciding issue. I think the deeper reason for Obama’s probable defeat is something he said in his convention speech. Obama told us why John McCain won’t embrace the brilliant Obama plan of hope and change. Obama said “It’s not because John McCain doesn’t care. It’s because John McCain doesn’t get it.” That, really, is all left-liberals have. To those of us who don’t “get it,” they can offer no reason to support their candidate or their worldview. The bulk of the press, Hollywood, academia, and our cultural institutions generally–they “get it.” They “get it” so well that the need to argue for and explain their views is a skill they’ve lost. And there are a whole bunch of us who don’t “get it” and resent being told that we don’t “get it” by people who use sneers and smears to make their case instead of arguments.

I think I need to add Rational Passion to my daily reads.

Them’s Fightin’ Words!

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Margaret Soltan, author of the blog University Diaries is a professor of English at George Washington University, and a contributor at Inside Higher Ed. I first became aware of Professor Soltan when she began a (currently) 10-part series about learning about, for want of a better term, America’s love affair with the gun. I think Dave Hardy was the original link. Professor Soltan is, insofar as I can tell, not a particularly atypical academic, but her willingness to explore one of America’s gun cultures is unusual, and I was (and still am) supportive of that effort.

However, her most recent two posts at Inside Higher Ed have punched my buttons. The first, Charles Murray on Elites is an example of the kind of thinking that, IMHO, typifies the “liberal elite,” and I told her so. Checking back today to see if there had been a response to my initial comment (there had) I also noted that she had put up a new post, Palin Fire. That one really lit me off.

Instead of posting something long here today, I penned two more comments; one for the Charles Murray piece, and another, briefer one for the Palin piece.

I am endeavoring to remain civil, but this example of blind, blithering elitism by a member of the academic intelligentsia, one of Thomas Sowell’s “Anointed,” really yanks my chain.

If the exchange continues, it should get interesting.

Another Female’s Take

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Another Female’s Take

More linkery:

I have no interest whatsoever in being a citizen of the world. The world actually sucks. In the world, having indoor plumbing and electricity are signs of disproportionate wealth. Never mind personally owned vehicular travel that is not mammal powered.

It drives me crazy when the “for the people, but not of the people” folks get their Atkins full bellies out of their Eames chairs, put down their iPhones, and take a stand from within the palatial air conditioned splendor of their fucking vacation homes.

Wealth in this country is general. The lowest common denominator has a plasma t.v. and a vehicle. Or at least knows someone closely who has one or both. Electricity is taken for granted, and it is considered suffering if one has it turned off temporarily. If the indoor plumbing is faulty, lawsuits follow. If you go anywhere else in the world, that’s not the case. Unless you hit an upside down imperialism, guilt-ridden, welfare (dhimmi tax) paradise like the U.K..

In most places in the world, there’s a trench in which everyone goes, or perhaps, more creatively, a platform off of which one can perform. Even in Europe you’re as likely to find a hole in the ground as a throne. It was about 50/50 last time I was in France. Yes, even in quite a bit of Paris.

And when the sun goes down the light is gone. Dinner is likely gruel cooked over dung. And may have included insects, on purpose. Women are stuck at home when they bleed, are quite probably beaten, even just a little as needed, and babies come too often and die almost as much. Charms are medicine, hope is a luxury, and exploitation is a step above the starvation alternative. Disease is rife, 40 is old, political unrest is daily a clear and present danger, and the idea that we put our plastic organic yogurt containers in the dishwasher before we send them to be recycled is so inconceivably wasteful of resources it cannot even be explained. – Valiens, A Brain Like Mine: Diary of a Feminist Housewife, “Palin, World, War & Kissing Girls”

Another one that’s worth your time.