Category Archives: Intelligence

UPDATED: The Senate Sucks, The President Lies: Just Another Day In The USA

Democrats, Healthcare, Intelligence, Republicans, Ron Paul

He made the statement brilliantly. Nevertheless, it is a sad statement Ted Cruz made, to the effect that Congress was “a profile in courage” for attempting to carry out the will of millions of Americans, and roll back the calamitous ObamaCare.

Sen. Cruz is extremely bright, better able to distill politicking into principle than the son of Ron Paul.

WATCH:

UPDATE: Via Newsmax:

Freshman Sen. Ted Cruz, who has led the tea party wing of Republicans in Congress in their effort to defund Obamacare, is an intelligent and principled debater, says his old Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz.

Appearing Tuesday on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Live,” Dershowitz called the Texas Republican “one of the sharpest students I had, in terms of analytic skills. I’ve had 10,000 students over my 50 years at Harvard . . . He has to qualify among the brightest of the students.”

Ted Cruz’s Odyssey

Celebrity, Conservatism, Healthcare, Intelligence, Republicans

Ted Cruz name-drops on an epic scale. His GQ interview is festooned with celebrated names:

“When I was Texas solicitor general, I did every argument in these boots. The one court that I was not willing to wear them in was the U.S. Supreme Court, and it was because my former boss and dear friend William Rehnquist was still chief justice. He and I were very close—he was a wonderful man—but he was very much a stickler for attire.”

It was only after Rehnquist died that Cruz felt comfortable wearing his cowboy boots in the Supreme Court—and only then because John Roberts (“a friend for many years”) blessed it. “I saw John shortly after his confirmation,” Cruz said, “and I guess I was feeling a little cheeky, because I took the opportunity to ask, ‘Mr. Chief Justice, do you have any views on the appropriateness of boots as footwear at oral argument?’ And Chief Justice Roberts chuckled and he said, ‘You know, Ted, if you’re representing the state of Texas, they’re not only appropriate, they’re required.’ ” … Cruz is a dazzling orator, speaking not merely in precise sentences but complete paragraphs—no teleprompter, sometimes not even a podium—and name-dropping everyone from Reagan to Rawls (as in John, the late Harvard philosopher).

His influences, according to the GQ writer:

“Cruz studied right-wing icons Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Milton Friedman. He also mastered a mnemonic version of the Constitution, which he’d recite, along with four other high school students …”

Cruz should be remembered and commended for winning “the landmark Medellín v. Texas, affirming—in defiance of an international court ruling as well as an order from President Bush—the state’s right to execute a Mexican citizen who’d participated in the gang rape and murder of two teenage girls in Houston.”

MORE.

Fox News:

Cruz’s speech was a symbolic stand, as he was not actually able to stall the bill at this point. In the end, he and every other senator voted to advance the bill and proceed to debate. The vote was 100-0. But Cruz, anticipating that Reid will re-fund ObamaCare, is trying to rally Republicans and moderate Democrats to join in blocking the bill before it comes to a final vote. Another test vote, which will require 60 senators to proceed, is expected in the coming days.

Cruz in action:

Taki On Twittering Twits and Twats*

Intelligence, Internet, Pop-Culture, Technology, The Zeitgeist

This is too good not to post: “… The Ancient Greek philosopher Taki calls people that Tweet and spend their time on Facebook the closest thing to subhumans. Cicero, John Gray, Taki—three great thinkers known for their silences and (I can only speak for the latter) not owning a mobile phone.”

[SNIP]

[To comport with Taki’s claim to greatness, and with respect, I would have edited that last sentence to read: “… known for their silences and (I can only speak for the latter) FOR not owning a mobile phone.”]

Hey, Taki, this writer beat you to it, writing in “The Dumb Generation’s Hand-Held Devotional” that “Myself, I have no interest in hand-held devices. I use my well-appointed PC for work. Away from the PC—during a jog, for instance—I think. Ideas flood my mind during physical exertion and solitude. On the rare occasions that we both go away on vacation, we do not take our work along.”

Yes, I confessed to not owning a mobile phone. I do not plan on acquiring one. My blog posts propagate to Twitter automatically. Facebook is used for the same purpose: post the work, interject on the Timeline when it’s educational, and leave.

But even more interesting, in my opinion, is an item also shared in “The Dumb Generation’s Hand-Held Devotional”:

“I live with an individual who is intimately involved in the design of some wonderful gadgets. Yet he himself hardly uses them in the little spare time he steals for himself. They frustrate him; they don’t seem to satisfy his creativity or sate his intellect. His greatest pleasure is found in composing and playing complex thematic pieces of music in his home studio. To do so he follows eternal, timeless rules of composition. Low-tech, if you like.”

*Twats: I don’t expect the twittering twits to know the word. Suffice it to say that it is a good, honest crudity, perfect for the occasion.

Stupid Bitch At Foggy Bottom*

Affirmative Action, Foreign Policy, Gender, Intelligence, Media, The State, War, WMD

The display below is far more off-putting than Miley Cyrus’s hootchy hoopla. We pay for this stupid bitch to crack her whip at Foggy Bottom.*

In this State Department news conference, a reasonably intelligent, veteran newsman attempts to engage the schoolmarmish (but tartish) young spokeswoman in reasoned repartee. But he fails miserably to get a coherent reply from the low-watt bimbo (who, no doubt, hails from an Ivy League school).

And I thought Dana Perino, who came out of the Bush administration, was dumb. Affirmative action for ditzes like Dana means that press conferences look increasingly like the one you just watched.

Low-Watt Woman attempted to disguise in phony outrage her ignorance about the US’s historical use of the WMD ploy to invade other countries. She got defensive because someone dared to demonstrate that he was on to her.

* The U.S. Department of State.