Category Archives: Environmentalism & Animal Rights

Trump Doesn’t Need To Talk Like A Conservative

Conservatism, Donald Trump, Environmentalism & Animal Rights, IMMIGRATION, Republicans

“Trump Doesn’t Need To Talk Like A Conservative” is the current column, now on WND. An excerpt:

With his decisive victory on Super Tuesday II (March 15), Trump is already winning for America.

We’ve won a reprieve. There will be no 13th Republican debate. It was cancelled by the candidate. Megyn Kelly can save her new outfit and mink eyelashes for the next liberal shindig she attends.

Despite the best efforts of Scarlet Letter “E” Republicans and conservatives, Trump has 673 out of the 1237 delegates required, 263 more than runner-up Ted Cruz. The New York Times—it lies a little less than Fox News—has conceded that “Rubio’s exit leaves Trump with an open path to 1,237 delegates.”

Alas, bar the last debate, in Coral Gables, Miami, March 10, the other 11 debates have not showcased the best of Trump.

And it’s not that Trump doesn’t talk like a conservative. Talking like a conservative is meaningless.

The Marco Mattel Doll mouthed near-perfect conservative bulletin points. Pull a string, and Barbie’s beau would disgorge conservative words and phrases from a rotating repertoire. Look the other way, and the Cuban Ken was passing liberal legislation with Chucky Schumer (Dem).

Talking like a conservative doesn’t mean a politician will act like a conservative.

Come to think of it, Republican presidents who talk and act conservatively are as elusive as Big Foot. There hasn’t been a sighting in maybe a century. A purist would cite Democrat Grover Cleveland as America’s last conservative president. He preached and practiced the maxim that “the people must support the government, but the government must not support the people.”

True, too, is that conservatives, younger ones, it seems, have adopted much of the Left’s Orwellian, illiberal thinking, thankfully alien to The Donald.

While the Left controls the intellectual means of production—schools (primary, secondary, tertiary), media, foundations, think tanks, publishing prints—the “Respectable Right” is hardly on the outs with the liberal smart set.

Both factions are agreed:

Endless immigration is a net good, as long as it’s legal.

Source of immigration is insignificant, as long as it’s legal. At heart, every Afghani, Iraqi or Somali are just closeted Jeffersonians.

Racism: Whites have come a long way and have a long way to go, ad infinitum.

Michelle Fields: New Conservatives get as exercised as liberals about pursuing legal remedies for hysteria.

In such a national emergency as Fields caused, the advice of Humphrey Bogart, playing Rick Blaine in “Casablanca” (channeled by Woody Allen in “Play It Again Sam”), should be considered: “I never saw a dame yet that didn’t understand a good slap in the mouth …”

Fields, a reporter, claimed she was assaulted by the Republican front-runner’s surrogate. She offered iffy evidence for her allegations. Fields had scrummed Trump. She was too close for comfort to a candidate who’s the target of daily death threats. Solemnly, conservatives took to debating the “assault” endured by Fields and the merits of a legal remedy.

The law is an ass. But so are these conservatives. (The Fields matter has since been settled: Megyn Kelly will get Fields a spread in Vogue, Kelly’s alma mater.) …

… . Conservative talk is not all it’s cut out to be. When it comes to philosophical convictions (the stuff discussed above), most conservatives more closely resemble their beltway liberal friends than Republican Party voters. …

… Read the complete column. “Trump Doesn’t Need To Talk Like A Conservative” is now on WND.

Operation Parrot Bone Grab

Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Family, Ilana Mercer, Parrots

Missing from the picture of Oscar-Wood in chicken-bone heaven is operation bone grab. Oscar-Wood Mercer swooped down onto the counter, grabbed the chicken bone and flew up to the top of the cabinet to savor. (It’s hard to believe, but unlike the kitchen, which Oscar-Wood has modified, the rest of the home is tastefully appointed and quite lovely).

2015, bone grab

2015, bone grab II

UPDATE II (12/19/016): Open Your Hearts & Minds To Parrots; You’ll Be The Richer For it

Conflict, Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Parrots

They are so much more intelligent than dogs and cats (which, make no mistake, I love)—yet they are treated like ornaments to display, expected to eek out a life (often as long as that of a human being) in the confines of stark, dirty, small cages; their wing feathers clipped to permit only a pathetic, helpless hop (and no fighting chance against the family dog or cat).

Parrots—from which I’ve learned so many lessons about my own humanity—do not have the advocates dogs and cats have. When last did you see the Humane Society soliciting donations with reference to the plight of the ptisatine family? Parrots do not even make the Humane Society’s list of needy.

In fact, the achingly beautiful piece penned by our Charles Bergman (a Washington State treasure), circa 2013, is still one of the few features on the Humane Society’s site pertaining to parrots.

The emotional needs of an animal who can reason on this level of abstraction are considerable. Watch:

Alas, parrots can be “picked up” at a yard sale like objects; discarded old chairs. Here’s the latest in a sad saga:

AVALON – Edmund bites and is “pathological.” Arthur is long-suffering, a sweetheart who tolerates the bad behavior of his roommate. Both talk too much.

Or, more accurately, too loudly — a trait that landed their owner, Elaine Scattergood, in court Monday on a noise complaint citation that police issued her in response to a caller who squawked about the chatty birds. Judge George Neidig held the charge for 90 days, saying if no further violations were reported, Scattergood’s summons would be dismissed.

“I wanted a definite ‘not guilty’ plea,” Scattergood said afterward at her home on 30th Street, where she shared the news of her probation with Arthur and Edmund. “I don’t feel good about this at all.”

MORE.

UPDATED I (4/30/016):

UPDATE II (12/19/016):

Pictures From The Hungarian-Austrian Front

Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Europe, IMMIGRATION, Nationhood, The West

Looting, littering, throwing feces, overturning vehicles, assaulting and pulling the occupants from within: “Never in my short life had I an opportunity to see such scenes and I feel that this is just the beginning,” writes a Polish travel blog writer and eyewitness to the centrally authorized and planned invasion of Europe (Hat tip to Ken Coffman). Behold. This is what you inflict on a land and a people you don’t care about: your generous hosts. A similar specter can be seen on visiting America’s Southern border.