Quote of the Day
They can conquer who believe they can.
Virgil
"FNC 'The Five': An Initial Take
First of all, this show is a vast improvement over Beck's apocalyptic monologues. My take is it seemed more like a variation of 'The View' Meets 'Cross-Fire'. I like the open-ended debate style exchanges. The problem from my point is that these commentators are predictable and these issues are mostly recycled stories from earlier coverage. I was hoping for more of a magazine format. I like Gutfeld as a humorist, less as a competing serious commentator. I need to see more shows before making a final recommendation. I think it's a cut above their regular daily coverage, but I think they're going to need to retool the concept as I've previously suggested, because at best it's little more than a repackaging of the kind of stuff we see in primetime.
Pawlenty and Sunday Talk Soup
David Gregory as usual was trying to stir the pot. It was inevitable that Congressman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) would come up in his interview with former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-MN). Basically, Pawlenty noted that they share a number of conservative views but her public sector administration skills were lacking and her résumé of accomplishments in office was fairly thin. Of course, her campaign has fought back playing the boys-picking-on-girls victim card, Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment (over criticizing other Republicans), and related nonsense. I have been sharply critical of Bachmann in recent posts, but after 2.5 years of a President with no prior public sector administrative experience and a thin resume, the background and accomplishments questions are highly relevant.
The second item that struck me as odd was Pawlenty's odd equivocation on gay behavior and issues. In essence, he was trying to triangulate between science and a social conservative base, which was trying to get to the question of whether gay behavior is genetic or learned behavior. (Many social conservatives believe the latter.) Pawlenty basically hedged his position by implying the learned behavior hypothesis is still viable. There are 2 principal points to make: (1) this is a predictable type question by the mainstream media seeking to marginalize conservatives (just like the predictable challenge to abortion by focusing on extremely improbable exceptions of rape and incest); Pawlenty should never allow himself to get defined in that matter; (2) the fact of the matter is that homosexual behaviors happen in numerous species most of which cannot be attributed to trained behavior. It is simply disingenuous to suggest that humans are a special case from other species.
Gay issues for the most part have zero near-term relevance for salient Presidential politics. I understand the controversies of DADT, gay "marriage", etc. But most of these issues are ultimately addressed by the courts, not the legislative or executive branches. We need to focus on key issues, particularly, overextended military, budgetary and regulatory problems and convoluted foreign involvements.
Overall, Pawlenty put in a fine performance, one of his strongest to date.
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
ELO, "Rockaria"
