Month: September 2013

Member Post

Scarlet Pimpernel
Scarlet Pimpernel
12
 

Is it simply to attack or not to attack?  Do we need to keep in mind who is in charge?  Do we think that President Obama would do the job well enough if we decide that, in the abstract, Syria Assad should be punished for using chemichal weapons? President Obama has been quite willing to […]
Join Ricochet!

This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

Member Post

Ray Kujawa
Ray Kujawa
10
 

Last weekend I returned from spending a week at the 66th Coupe Mondiale, this year held in Victoria, BC Canada. This is the accordion world championships sponsored yearly by the Confédération Internationale des Accordéonistes (CIA).  As an amateur accordion student and enthusiast, I last attended the Coupe Mondiale held in 2007 in Alexandria, Virginia. Accordionists from […]
Join Ricochet!

This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

Because Sometimes, A Quiz Is Just the Thing

Judith Levy
Judith Levy
410
 

Today’s my birthday, and I’ve decided I’m going to give myself a little break from the intervention countdown. My husband told me I should think of some things I want to do today and do them, which seems like good advice. Fulfilling this instruction will almost certainly involve Indian food and a movie later, but right now, what I feel like doing is writing a quiz. And so, because nothing says “The news is wearing me out and I’m craving a time suck” like a long string of false dichotomies, I submit to you, dear Ricochetti,

Judith’s Birthday Quiz:

Preview Open

Member Post

RushBabe49
RushBabe49
83
 

Yesterday, some of us from the Seattle area met at Meadowdale Beach Park in Edmonds for our first annual summer picnic.  The weather was perfect, bright and sunny, in the high 70’s.  The trek down the woodland trail to the beach was strenuous (yours truly will be sore for a week), but beautiful.  We had […]
Join Ricochet!

This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

Member Post

J. D. Fitzpatrick
J. D. Fitzpatrick
106
 

I tutor literature and writing for a living. In teaching essay writing, I stress the importance of illustrating the argument with good examples. I usually encourage students to use examples from books they have read either for school or with me. But I would also like to see them use more examples from history.  The […]
Join Ricochet!

This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

Member Post

mildlyo
mildlyo
33
 

John Kerry – Resign in the next week. make no official statement. Leak to everyone that will listen that you are doing this out of principle, and that you consulted with the President over timing to minimize  damage to the nation. This is your last chance to distance yourself from Hillary and to move beyond […]
Join Ricochet!

This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

Member Post

Evan Pokroy
Evan Pokroy
54
 

Obama just gave his speech on Syria. The decision? Do nothing for another week and then go to Congress. While I’m certainly in favor of going to Congress before authorizing military action, it’s clear that Obama doesn’t think it’s necessary. He even said as much. So, why is he going to Congress? Because it’s an […]
Join Ricochet!

This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

Member Post

Doug Kimball
Doug Kimball
50
 

Things are evolving in the middle-east and in the broader Muslim world.  As the Obama administration squirms uncomfortably with the Syria situation, it’s time to reflect on exactly what is happening there.  Islam is the common thread that binds the politics in this reason.  Oil, and money from oil, are the accelerants that fuel the […]
Join Ricochet!

This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

Syria and International Law

John Yoo
John Yoo
139
 

President Obama today claimed that the United States does not need the U.N.’s approval to launch strikes against Syria for its use of chemical weapons against its own citizens.  This, of course, reverses his position on Libya and his criticisms of the Bush administration. This time Obama got it right.  

I argue at National Review that the United States can intervene in Syria without the approval of the U.N.  International law should allow uses of force that improve international peace and security. Blindly reading international law to forbid all uses of force except in self-defense is like failing to note a difference between the man who pushes an old woman into traffic and the man who pushes her out of it.

Preview Open

Member Post

Rachel Lu
Rachel Lu
197
 

Tim Tebow as Patriot. It couldn’t really have worked, could it? Tebow and Belichick seem like a matter and anti-matter combination. Somehow they would have canceled each other out, and there would be no more Boston Patriots. I wish Tebow all the best in his continued quest for a quarterback job. But if it doesn’t […]
Join Ricochet!

This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

Member Post

SteveS
SteveS
01
 

In late October 2011, several months after Building One America’s White House conference, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan addressed a meeting of BOA’s state affiliate, Building One Pennsylvania, in Lancaster. There Donovan decried what he called “the tyranny of the zip code,” a catchphrase that may someday become a rallying cry for Building […]
Join Ricochet!

This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

Member Post

Mothership_Greg
Mothership_Greg
12
 

This is how the Libyan “kinetic military action” was sold to us, this is how this plan to bomb something-or-other in Syria is being sold.  Can someone explain this formulation of words?  Is it really much worse to gas “your own people” with sarin than to gas your enemies?  Are we to believe that Syria […]
Join Ricochet!

This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

Member Post

Jon in SC
Jon in SC
12
 

I have seen nothing about the September 10 DC rally here on Ricochet. It is sponsored by bunch of conservative organizations including the Heritage Foundation, Freedom Works, and many TEA Party groups. For more information on the event go to http://www.exemptamerica.com/ . It seems like short notice and hotels in the DC area are expensive making participation […]
Join Ricochet!

This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

Member Post

DocJay
DocJay
210
 

Goodness know what I was thinking but every time my friend goes to Africa I keep donating more for women’s toilets.  I don’t have the details of this building but I’m positive it’s a bathroom and I’m positive I gave money for it. Here is my friend’s email to me.  Preview Open
Join Ricochet!

This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

Are You a Purist?

D.C. McAllister
D.C. McAllister
1300
 

I went to the ABC store the other day to buy my husband some absinthe for his birthday. It had been a while since I’d bought some liquor—I usually leave that job to my husband. I live in one of the nanny states that makes you feel like a sleaze or criminal for buying liquor, so instead of picking up my vodka at the local grocery store—as I should be able to do!—I have to slip into the county-owned ABC shop to get my Grey Goose, Maker’s Mark, or Macallan. Since I don’t want to feel like I’m brokering a drug deal, I prefer just to let my husband do it.

When I opened the door to the store, I was shocked by the rows upon rows of vodka flavors that are now available. I was overwhelmed, and to be honest, a little repulsed. Besides your typical fruity flavors like mango and raspberry, there were a host of others I couldn’t even imagine putting into a drink.

Preview Open

Member Post

Ole Summers
Ole Summers
75
 

I have already introduced you to the Old Man in another entry. As I said before he was well into his sixties when I was in my very early teens and helping him gather wild cattle in the summers. He had left school before high school to cowboy and rodeo. He had made and lost […]
Join Ricochet!

This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.