Conservative Conversation and Community
Yes. They lie. Their lies, coming from allegedly left and right (social conservative) positions, are swathed in “good intentions” and focus on “the children.” Yet, any citizen, any member of Congress, any judge, Article II or Article III, and any president who has merely been alert to their environment as they walked past, at least, a hotel bar, knows the basic claim is a flat-out lie. Why? See for yourself:
The curtains are about to come down. The audience is leaving the auditorium, shaking their heads either in dismay or victory, having seen the 
whole show. Even if they see the play again, they will never see anything quite like what was presented in this arena.
It has all been like a show. Yet, the impeachment inquiry and trial have been an education like I would never have imagined. It will take a while for me to fully digest what I have witnessed. But this is my first take . . .
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Just when we could see the impeachment trial winding down as the President’s defense team squashed the House Managers, we learn that the John Bolton manuscript of his new book has been leaked. What a shock. The manuscript has not been quoted and the references to it have been vague. (The NY Times article is behind a paywall.)
The manuscript was sent to the National Security Council’s Records Management Division for a “standard prepublication security review” on December 30, in the belief that no classified information was included. Over the weekend, the information was conveniently leaked to the New York Times. Yet there was this report:
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It’s a bleak search for good news on the Three Martini Lunch. Today, Jim and Greg cringe as reports show the federal government has been flailing unsuccessfully for a sound policy in Afghanistan, lying to the public about what’s been achieved, and wasting an obscene amount of taxpayer dollars. They also react to the mass […]
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The unfolding of the impeachment saga sounds like a very poorly written detective story, where the Left already knows who committed the crime. But the Democrats are still trying to re-write a story that the public will swallow. It’s not going well.
This story required dozens, maybe hundreds, of bureaucrats, who were delighted to be led along in the Trump impeachment story. It’s not difficult to understand why those who have been interviewed are so angry (since Trump violates everything about their Leftist agenda), but their determination to indulge in lies and distortions is revolting and even bewildering. They have decided to be “strung along” and assist in the writing of the detective story because they hate the supposed perpetrator.
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“But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt” — Francis Bacon, “Of Truth”
Which are the lies that pass through the mind and which are those that sink in? In the latter category, I’d put:
MoreWhen I first came to Ricochet, I was baffled at how people engaged so seriously in political discussion. I mean, it’s just politics—right?
As discussions got especially rabid and polarized over the entry of Donald Trump, I found myself feeling compelled to take sides. At the same time, I was trying to keep up with the destructive efforts of the Left and the media. What in the world was going on?
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We are experiencing the worst case of confirmation bias in this presidency that we’ve ever seen. Due to the extreme nature of its appearance and the rage with which it’s expressed, we should be very concerned. Let me explain what confirmation bias is:
MoreConfirmation bias occurs from the direct influence of desire on beliefs. When people would like a certain idea or concept to be true, they end up believing it to be true. They are motivated by wishful thinking. This error leads the individual to stop gathering information when the evidence gathered so far confirms the views or prejudices one would like to be true.
MoreIt’s well beyond whether or not [climate change] affects me personally, which it does, and it did my family, and still does. Just like your families. This is personal. Every one of you probably have a story that can talk about what’s happened to something you care greatly about, whether it’s a species or it’s your son or daughter coming down with cancer because of this.
— Joe Biden, 2019
“Christine Blasey may have been sexually assaulted, he said, but not by him, adding that he intended no ill will to her or her family. ‘The other night Ashley and my daughter Liza said their prayers, and little Liza—all of ten years old—said to Ashley, ‘We should pray for the woman.’ That’s a lot of wisdom from a ten-year-old. We mean no ill will,’ he said, choking up. The hearing room was full of people crying. Kavanaugh’s parents were there to support him and could barely maintain their composure. Watching their anguish over their only son’s ordeal was brutal for the other members of Kavanaugh’s team.” — Justice Brett Kavanaugh, from Justice on Trial, by Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino
The last thing that most of us would wish for is to re-experience that moment when we watched the devastation that the Democrats tried to inflict on the life of Brett Kavanaugh. When he choked up, I felt tears in my eyes. My heart ached for him, for his family and friends and even for the country. How had we come to this moment?
MoreWith the latest attack on Donald Trump regarding his plans for Independence Day, I became even more sharply aware of the blatantly deceptive words and actions of the Left. Yes, I know it’s all about politics, but they are so willing to do just about anything—including physical and verbal attacks—that they border on demonstrating a type of psychosis.
It’s difficult to separate their lies and fears from their arrogance.
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I think it became clear to me in my formative years, that beyond good writing and bad writing, there was a style of writing that was meant to obscure. As a fine arts and graphic design student in college, I would sometimes try to decipher the convoluted gibberish about Abstract Expressionism in pretentious magazines like ArtForum and eventually give up, concluding that, either there were human beings (who, for the most part, lived in New York) so vastly superior in intellect than I or that this was all just a load of crap.
The late, great Tom Wolfe wrote a book, The Painted Word, about the pseudo-intellectual poseurs of the New York art scene who pushed great loads of self-indulgent and plainly awful art down the throats of Americans who couldn’t make heads or tails of it and those museum curators and collectors eager to be relevant. As he put it:
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Jen Gennai, the recently embarrassed Head of Responsible Innovation at Google, who, in an undercover video released by James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas divulged that the massive federally-protected social media and search corporation has been developing algorithms to prevent another 2016 Trump situation. Said Ms. Gennai of the results of the last presidential election: We all […]
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and a big fat lie! Have you ever been blasted into the next room when a commercial comes on? They claim the volume isn’t changed between the program and the commercial, but that’s a myth, and a lie. While watching ‘American Pickers’, or ‘Forged in Fire’ (LOVE those shows!), my hearing aids are constantly being […]
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The Democrats running for president are at it again: they are submitting a completely unrealistic proposal for single-payer health insurance and they aren’t sharing the facts. We must get the word out to everyone that we have to stop this proposal that will take us in a catastrophic direction.
The media, of course, will tell everyone that the public loves the idea of single-payer insurance aka, Medicare for All. Although those running for President have several different plans, none of them would be good for this country. But according to one poll, the public supports the idea :
MoreHe unfolded himself from the sedan, straightened up, adjusted his suit jacket and closed the car door quietly. For just a moment he admired the car, thinking about how carefully he had chosen its color, the upholstery and the upgrades. It was a very nice car. He ambled toward the front door and opened it […]
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How do you get into a good college? T.M. Landry College Preparatory school in Louisiana boasts a 100 percent college acceptance rate. What is their secret? Well, according to the New York Times, they lie.
The Times article alleges that the school, “falsified transcripts, made up student accomplishments and mined the worst stereotypes of black America to manufacture up-from-hardship tales that it sold to Ivy League schools hungry for diversity.”
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Major Garrett shifted uneasily in his chair, as the cameras and lights were set up around him. He reflected on his nearly twenty years with the media, especially on his decision to move from Fox News to CBS in 2012. Recently he had wondered if he had made the right decision, given the attitude and behavior of the media toward President Trump and his administration. Today he might be risking his career, but he believed it was the right thing to do.
At that moment the door to the hotel room opened and former President Obama strode into the room, smiling as he saw Garrett waiting for him. Garrett stood up and extended his hand to shake the President’s hand, then invited him to sit down.
MoreIf you’ve been following my daily posts this week, you know that my husband and I are defendants in a specious case that has dragged out for six years. Our hope is that we will finish this week, although the other attorney gets bogged down in bug dust, so I’m worried that the case may […]
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We woke up to another ugly, rainy day this morning. It’s bad enough waking up in a strange bed (at least I knew who the man was next to me), but he’s allergic to something in the room, so he thinks he coughed all night. (I wouldn’t know; I heard him a bit, but my […]
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