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Some Call It A Bonfire (Or Carnival) Of Classiness...

We call it "Classiness, All Around Us."

Tyrants-

Rudy Rummel of Democratic Peace explains that tyrants are far more destructive and deadly than natural disasters:

Dictatorships are human made disasters many times more deadly than nature's. Dictatorships are not simply disasters, they are human catastrophes. Power kills, absolute power kills absolutely.

It should be a crime against humanity for any dictatorship to exist.

Spread the word and help freedom ring.

...Spreading.

2.

Keep On Rocking In The Free World-

Gateway Pundit tells the story of some female rockers in the Middle East:

Rock On, My Sisters!

Rock on indeed.

3.

The Big Three-

Detour Blog has some interesting observations about making cars:

Compounding matters, Japanese profits per vehicle were significantly higher than GM, with q per car profit of $1,433 at Toyota , $1,250 at Honda , and $1,603 for Nissan. Ford had the highest figure among the Big Three, at $620, while GM lost $2,311 per vehicle in 2004.

GM lost 2,311 per vehicle last year! I know I dropped out of my economics PhD program without earning a degree, but I am relatively sure that this is not a sustainable long-run strategy to increase shareholder wealth.

Lots of very interesting data there. Definitely worth a read.

4.

Wally World-

Daniel Drezner explains how Wal-Mart helps the poor (with a nice comment thread):

...the expansion of Wal-Mart over the 1985 to 2004 period can be associated with a cumulative decline of 9.1% in food-at-home prices, a 4.2% decline in commodities (goods) prices, and a 3.1% decline in overall consumer prices...

Some nice reading on Wal-Mart, which, unlike many of the big American automobile companies, has been very successful. Many on the left want Wal-Mart to run itself more like "Detroit." Not a great idea.

5.

Racial Politics-

Wunderkraut tells the story of a bit of dysfunction in our politics:

Tonight, our town saw on camera proof that the black leaders in the town care nothing about the people they are supposed to represent. It was disgusting to see. The incumbent had developed a bad name for himself. People saw him as a race baiter who caused dissention on the Commission and who needed to go. The black candidates in the general election said the same thing. But when the run off came about and it was down to a white guy with good ideas on the future of the Ward, both white and black, and a black incumbent who had more than worn out his welcome, the leaders knee jerk reaction was to vote against the white guy.

It's truly amazing.

6.

Haaaahvaaahhhd-

Speaking of dysfunctional race-based politics, The Anchoress notes a bit of double standard in the media:

...it’s disheartening to see that the president who has - more than any president before him - surrounded himself with exceptional people of every race, gender and creed, is being regarded as “racially oppressive” by those who choose to live in a state of willful misunderstanding, while Harvard’s rather late-to-the-party (decades after Barbara Jordan, they STILL hadn’t named a black woman to the post?) hiring is touted as something…remarkable.

Who are the racists, again? I keep getting confused.

I would like to see us move into a post-racial political period in our country, where race isn't such a petty partisan issue.

7.

Political Will-

Bill Rice offers a two part (Part 1, Part 2) look at political will:

The current statements by the majority of Democrats betray the ideals of John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Bush Administration is focused on timetables for success in building a democracy while promising that US forces will remain until the job is accomplished. This is political will and will be the defining memory of the Bush presidency.

Precisely. There is a cancer in the Democratic Party today. It roots for and cheers on and-- if need be-- makes up American failure, because American failure is Republican failure. And Republican failure is-- politically, speaking-- Democratic success.

But history doesn't work that way. Thankfully.

8.

Propaganda-

The Officers' Club (via Michelle Malkin) offers a glimpse into the soul of the radical anti-war group "Code Pink":

I'm a troop and I don't need Code Pink telling me that patriotism "confuses me." Code Pink does not support the military or speak for the military. They are a reactionary anti-American organization, and should be treated as such.

The scary thing is that these groups comprise increasingly large proportions of the Democratic Party fundraising and electoral base. Moreover, these folks are not treated like the outcasts they are; they are part and parcel of the leadership of the party. Although they have fringe ideas, Code Pink is not a fringe group. Rather, they are the core-- the heart and soul-- of the DNC.

9.

Holiday Shopping, Christmas Layoffs-

Ever notice that Christmas is being sanitized out of the media? Sure, it's a popular topic these days. Well, there's more. When layoffs are involved, "Christmas" is still included. BizzyBlog does a little research and finds some interesting results:

Shopping - “Holiday Shopping Season” (using quote marks)–8,730 hits. - “Christmas shopping season” (using quote marks)–1,170 hits.

Layoffs
- holidays layoffs (without quotes)–141 hits.
- holiday layoffs (without quotes)–687 hits.
- Christmas layoffs (without quotes)–417 hits.

Try it yourself. Why is this?

10.

Bogus Polls-

Ankle Biting Pundits rips open another poll with bad underlying demographics:

Yes, the poll shows the President's ratings going up. But the baseline was faulty. And neither this, nor the other polls from the NYT (and most other MSM organizations) should be used to analyze "what this might mean" for the 2006 elections, as the respondent base appears to bear little resemblance to who will actually show up and vote.

Clearly, the poll is faulty. Age, income, religion, party ID, and so on, the whole sham leads to artificially deflated poll numbers for Bush. But the good news is that even with the same bogus demographics, Bush's numbers are still up, especially on the economy (which the Bush administration has finally started talking up in a concerted and sustained way).

But the bogus poll demographics have such serious consequences for public policy and for our Republic, that it is amazing more people don't speak out against them.

11.

Driving Them Into The Sea-

Publius Pundit sets the record straight on wiping Israel off the face of the earth:

A week ago, the United Nations held a “Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” at the UN headquarters in New York City, which was attended by a man of many fruitless condemnations, Kofi Annan himself. There’s a map behind Kofi Annan between the UN and PLO flags that depicts Israel and the Palestinian territories. Only problem? The words at the top of the map clearly refers to the land as Palestine, making no reference to the separation of territories, effectively wiping Israel off the map.

It certainly does put the recent series of comments from Iran's President about wiping Israel off the map and/or moving it to Europe in context.

12.

Using Terri-

"Generation Why?" blog notes that Howard Dean and friends are making good on their promise to "use" Terri Schiavo in 2006:

Michael Schiavo has launched TerriPAC to exploit his wife's memory for the benefit of raising cash for Democrats.

A closer look at the domain registration for TerriPAC.com shows the site is registered to NovemberGroup.net, a group that bills itself as a "full-service progressive campaign management, political consulting and project coordination company." Translation, Democrat fundraising organization. It's run by Democrat campaign veteran, Derek Newton.

Howard Dean: keeping his promises, since 2005.

13.

Weirdo Lefties-

Katrina survivor Kevin Boyd reports on a "Katrina rally" in downtown New Orleans:

I went to the rally and took some pictures that I doubt will be seen on CNN and the rest of the mainstream media. The photos are here and hopefully sometime next week I'll have some video of some the speeches given.

Crazy, crazy folks.
Grasping to be relevant.
Moonbats on parade.

[That was another haiku.]

14.

Muslim Gang Rape-

IRIS Blog points to sweeping evidence from several countries of a serious gang rape problem:

Harassment of females has therefore exploded throughout the West, most shockingly demonstrated in the recent phenomenon of gang rape for sport. Listed below is the evidence.

Lots of evidence there.

15.

Blurry Democrats-

Betsy's Page looks at the Democrats, who are planning to shake up their nomination process:

There is a political aphorism that states that candidates should run to the margins in the primaries and then move back to the center for the general campaign. In these days of mass and instant communication, every remark that a candidate makes to appeal to those caucus voters in 2008 will be recorded and filed away for the general campaign. And if the eventual nominee tries to shift to the middle in the Fall, the other party will be ready to launch a series of weather-vane type ads to show up the other person as someone who tacks with the wind. The ads will write themselves. And will such accusations be all that different from the 2004 campaign? Remember that GOP ad with John Kerry windsurfing and quotes used from his varying positions on issues? The Democratic Party is setting up the conditions for similar ads in 2008. Rearranging the nomination process isn't going to make any big difference in who ultimately wins the nomination.

Precisely. The Democrats need to shed their far-left base if they want to nominate folks who can win national elections.

Also, don't forget to check out all the old Trivia Tidbits Of the Day, the Reform Thursday series, the Quotational Therapy sessions, the most recent Mainstream Melee, the latest Pundit Roundtable, and the Wednesday Caption Contest (entries are due each Tuesday at 11:59 PM Central Standard Time).

Last Week's Classiness Certification from WILLisms.com:

*December 6, 2005.

WILLisms.com offers a classiness roundup as a bi-weekly feature, every other Tuesday, with 10 blog posts deemed classy. The criteria for submissions: incisive original analysis, quirky topics nobody else (especially the mainstream media) is covering, fantastic graphics, or other posts that took a lot of work. We love to spread the word on upcoming blogs, being that WILLisms.com also fits that description. If you would like to nominate a post on your blog or another blog for inclusion, email us at WILLisms@gmail.com. Write "Classy Nomination" in the subject. You can also utilize this page to make your submissions. The deadline is every other Monday at 11:59 PM Central Time.

Classy.

Posted by Will Franklin · 13 December 2005 10:28 PM

Comments

Posted by: Jody at December 14, 2005 08:59 AM

Posted by: Zsa Zsa at December 14, 2005 09:46 AM

Posted by: Zsa Zsa at December 14, 2005 10:42 AM