Christopher J. Arndt fights a never ending battle for truth and justice...


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Anything Sharper Than Steele?

I just read about him today. I've just watched him now.

Sen. Edwards can say that hope is on the way. Lt. Governor Michael Steele of Maryland told us what hope doesn't do. "Hope doesn't buy a home." among other things.

"You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong." He knows his words. I would like him as President in 2008.

posted by Chris Arndt at 8/31/2004 09:47:00 PM | |

Kerry Doesn't Take What's Swift In Stride

Eric Spratling wrote a pretty comprehensive bit for his paper early this new semester, hitting all the right points and just the right beats. The published product is just a little flawed so the perfect, as-intended article are published on the Dixonverse board by Mr. Spratling.

When a certain Vermont governor pulled his Screamin’ Dean act earlier this year, it heralded the impending death of a campaign always doomed to be nothing more than a historical footnote. Similarly, future historians might well one day mark John Kerry’s near-hysterical panic attack in reaction to his Vietnam service being questioned as the beginning of his campaign’s end.
Anyone following the election recently has probably heard of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group of 240 or so retired military men who served on or commanded Navy swift boats in Vietnam dedicated to taking down John Kerry, who himself served on a swift during his tour of duty. SBVT has thus far released two television advertisements and one book critically questioning Kerry’s war record.
Pretty blistering stuff, so Kerry reacted in the only reasonable way he could: by accusing the Swift Vets group of being a “front for the Bush campaign” doing the President’s “dirty work”. This argument is apparently based on the fact that a wealthy Republican has donated money to both the Bush campaign and the Swift Vets’ non-partisan 527-designated group. Considering how much the deep pockets of millionaire liberals like George Soros have come in handy for both Kerry AND leftist 527s such as MoveOn.org, that’s an awfully odd charge to make.
However, it’s Kerry’s other “defense” that really nudges his reaction into the gentlemen-doth-protest-too-much category. On Friday his campaign officially filed a complaint with the FEC against SBVT, alleging that their “inaccurate ads” have been “illegally coordinated” with the Bush campaign.
Incidentally, the prospect of President Bush actually taking (and getting away with) legal action to silence his mainstream political enemies is a far-fetched one, considering that the country we’ve lived in for the past couple years is one where any Republican couldn’t so much as roll his or her eyes after listening to the latest in “Bush knew about 9/11!” conspiracy mantra without immediate cries of “censorship” and “chill wind” ringing throughout the land.
But are the words of the Swift Vets not entirely accurate? Possibly. Several journalists and Kerry defenders have sprung up to demonstrate that many of the vets from SBVT who served with Kerry have made claims that are inconsistent or unsubstantiated. The story is still hot, but with any luck the whole truth will likely come out in the end. What’s worth noting right now, though, is Kerry’s reaction.
Or overreaction, more accurately. If you don’t think that the Kerry team is acting with undue panic, there is indeed a recent precedent for how a major politician should behave when his military record is unduly questioned. A while back, it suddenly became all the rage to claim that during the Vietnam years, a young George W. Bush had skipped out on his service in the National Guard. The Bush team reacted by calmly producing pay stubs and records of a military dental visit from the time frame when the President was supposedly “AWOL”. End of discussion.
Quite the opposite with John Kerry-- he may or may not have behaved gracefully under fire back in Vietnam, but he certainly isn’t now. Criticizing your opponent for not condemning supposedly sleazy attack ads is maximum hypocrisy for a guy who let Michael Moore have a VIP seat at his nominating convention, and trying to legally silence commercials is just plain dirty pool.
But there’s a method to this madness: it’s an open secret that John Kerry has built his entire candidacy around his four months of service in Vietnam. Criticisms about, for instance, his voting record (the most liberal, anti-military, and consistently wrong about foreign policy issues such as the Cold War), his plan to get us out of Iraq (he’s got a great one, but he’s keeping it a secret!), or his flip-flopping desire to be both on sides of every issue (it’s called “nuance”, don’t you see) have all been brushed off because Hey, he’s John Kerry and he served in Vietnam. He spent four months in the bush so who are you to question him, you pansy-ass draft dodger?
Perpetually hiding behind four months of service from thirty-five years ago was obviously always a house of cards, but it’s been a fortress for John Kerry. SBVT are storming that fortress, and the Massachusetts senator’s inadequacies are bubbling to the surface, such as questions about his conflicting stories about being on a clandestine mission to Cambodia in Christmas of ’68, or the fact that his campaign team recently all but admitted that his first Purple Heart wound was indeed self-inflicted.
The most telling sign so far has come from poor, panicked John Kerry last Thursday. In between trying to sue his fellow vets and calling them liars and Bush cronies, Kerry was able to fit in some more feeble bluster at a campaign rally. “If [Bush] wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam,” he puffed, “here is my answer: Bring. It. On!”
Of course, Kerry has proven that any attempts to “bring it on” to him will be met with whining and lawsuits, so his wannabe tough-talk falls just a little flat. Unlike screaming Howard Dean, that’s the way Kerry’s campaign will end: not with a bang, but with a whimper.

"Eric Spratling is a public relations senior who never served in Vietnam, so you probably shouldn’t listen to him. But you can email him at Eric.Spratling@asu.edu."

posted by Chris Arndt at 8/29/2004 10:58:00 PM | |

Wictory Wednesday

It's a long hard slog between now and November 2. Actually it's worse than that. It's still frightfully closely between President Bush and the Forces of Inadequacy and we only have just over two months to fight the good fight.

This is a war with a volunteer army and there's always need to muster up more strength. Also, thanks to the Campaign Finance Laws which tie our hands and wallets so, there's only one week left to donate to the Bush Campaign.

Part of the effort to increase support among the loyal is to participate with the Wictory Wednesday movement. Every week participating bloggers post a Wictory Wednesday blog entry, complete with the Roll below including all the members. Each week the entry shows our support, shows our spirit, and more importantly encourages whatever readers we have to contribute financially and more importantly your time to the campaign.

Remember, Senator Kerry has no plan to defend our nation but the President regularly takes a stand in continued shows of strength.

I hope to see your show of support among these:


posted by Chris Arndt at 8/25/2004 01:14:00 PM | |

The Self-Centered American Fringe Left

Josh Elder writea piece explaining Liberal Noblesse Oblige. It's an interesting theory. If there's something wrong in the world, America caused it. If there is a threat to the world, it's from America. It's self-hatred and I suppose it's a natural extension of any sort of self-centered living and philosophy. We have masochism derived from selfishness and a touch of racism.

posted by Chris Arndt at 8/19/2004 03:41:00 PM | |

Will We, Like Israel, Have a Crippled Self-Defense?

Actually there's an old post long ago but I had to fix the link.

Should we measure our defensive actions, and our offensive actions in a war for our security based on how other people will swallow our treatment of our enemies?

posted by Chris Arndt at 8/19/2004 02:45:00 PM | |

Geoff Johns Doesn't Suck

Comic Book Galaxy posts that Geoff Johns has talent comparative to Chuck Austen and Frank Tieri. I'm not certain where he gets off compariny JSA to stuff like Weapon X and Uncanny X-Men.

Despite the many flaws which statistically have to come in droves when one writes prolifically, there are relatively few flaws per actual production of work from Johns. Even better, JSA is actually entertaining and makes fairly good use of the characters' history/histories and of the franchise's history. Uncanny X-Men had disintegration communion wafers, over-long love stories with characters we have had minimal exposure to (and thus don't care about), rancid executions and even ideas for screwing with Nightcrawler's character, and horribly stupid (and superficial) "examinations" of Christianity and the Catholic church. "Dominant Species" was bad, too. The stories are illogical. Tieri's Wolverine just suffered from... I don't know. I found it overly violent and hard to finish. Tieri created such multi-dimensional characters like T and A and his great ultimate fighting man character, Mr. X, was explained as a telepath, which still doesn't explain half of the stuff we saw him do. That doesn't mean that Geoff John's Avengers was good.

Where the criticism of Johns is correct is when and where it takes on his penchant for inserting what is likely inapropriate material into what is essentially a lunchbox hero. The Flash is now, like it or not, a cartoon character with a large audience that includes many many children. What is in the Flash comic book? Faces are being torn off and Captain Cold goes into discussions of hookers. It really is similiar to what Scott Tipton talked about in his article on Identity Crisis issues 1 and 2. The Flash character has a large audience consisting of a wide demographic but making the jump in media from television cartoons to comic books we find something that is apropriate for a decidedly narrow demographic. That is a mistake. Geoff John could tell some fine tales but the better path is to tone down the "adult" material because that would make it possible to widen the audience.

The fact is that that wouldn't widen the audience automatically, but there's no reason to close doors or make a comic for what is now a children's character into something that a child can't consume.

It's not an anomaly ofr Johns. One of the most notorious examples was during his brief run on the Avengers when there was a rather graphic example of a healthy sexual relationship between Hank "Yellowjacket" Pym and his wife. Or it's a graphic example of an unhealthy sexual relationship with his ex-wife. Either way the dialogue combined with the imagery doesn't leave enough to the imagination; there's too much direct implication for my tastes and more importantly it's too direct and too graphic for an immature juvenile audience.

Johns is a mixed bag.

posted by Chris Arndt at 8/19/2004 01:48:00 PM | |

I'm tired

I've updated the blog. My traffic will increase again. All is well. I'm going to bed.

Blog readers are like crack addicts.

posted by Chris Arndt at 8/19/2004 02:05:00 AM | |

I Really Do Get Lost In Her Eyes

I posted this picture to Monitor Duty recently. I love Erica Durance.



Can anyone blame me?

This will lead to a restraining order in the future if thise obsession goes on. It's her eyes. They're very deep, hypnotic; I have trouble pulling out. For a still from an actual episode, click here. For Comics Continuum's transcript of Wizardworld's Smallville panel (with an image of the knockout Ms. Durance answering questions) click here.

I've been showing that big, main image all around sending various internet geeks into a lustful frenzy. It's quite fun. Amorous notions toward this lady are quite logical. The only question we have now is whether or not she can act.

posted by Chris Arndt at 8/19/2004 12:46:00 AM | |

I Found the lost diaries

Al MacDonald's Diary of A Crazed Mimbanite has returned.

This series (which ended awhile ago) of Star Wars parody comic strips vanished a little over a year ago in an site crash and could not be found on the web. Duivba had a complete set but lost the disc.

This is excellent.

posted by Chris Arndt at 8/07/2004 06:38:00 PM | |

There's been some changes

I've altered the template.

I've played with the order of links and donation links as well as blog applet icons. I've also updated the Blog Roll, adding Chris Hunter's new blog, and Steve Duane's as well. I've added the already-popular Dean Esmay in a cheap attempt to get him to link to me and regardless it's a worthy addition to any links roll.

I've deleted The State News Blues because Steve Duane has abandoned it and the latest incarnation didn't link to me anyway. I've removed The American Thinker and Mark Steyn Online because they weren't blogs. That means I'll have to link to them under another avenue. I've also removed vowe.com because I don't care.

I've fixed links and break tags and created a new small list going through and emphasizing my own stuff. I'm really tired now and this seems to be a waste of my time.

Oh well. In the future I hope to add in some other technical links as well post ACTUAL articles and entries regarding stuff like John Kerry being guily of dereliction of duty. That's right; he's been AWOL for practically months.

I also have some second-hand opinions of that rapist that was recently released.

posted by Chris Arndt at 8/05/2004 02:58:00 AM | |

Panoramically Connected

Thanks goes to Chris Hunter for adding AD to the Links roll at Panoramically Challenged.

Having seen his blog it will be added soon enough to my own list.

posted by Chris Arndt at 8/04/2004 10:25:00 AM | |