The American Spectator : While George Was Calling Donald a 'Bloviating Ignoramus'

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The Current Crisis

While George Was Calling Donald a ‘Bloviating Ignoramus’

By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. from the July - Aug 2012 issue

The New York Times gets on its high horse about the Romneys and their German friend.

WASHINGTON — Did I waste my time last Sunday? In the morning I was reading the New York Times, acquainting myself with precisely how the rich and famous live. The editors of the Times chose this story for its front page so I figured they thought it important. It involved the Romney family and someone called Jan Ebeling. It turns out I could have spent my time otherwise.

On Sunday morning the syndicated columnist George Will appeared on ABC News’ “This Week” and, though I failed to watch it, he ruminated over Mitt Romney’s fundraising and those donors whom he cultivates. George noted one donor in particular, Donald Trump. He called Trump a “bloviating ignoramus.” That was not the end of it. Trump detected George’s rude utterance somehow and leapt to Twitter where he Twitted — I presume that is the verb — that “George Will may be the dumbest (and most overrated) political commentator of all time.” What an exciting exchange of ideas!

Meanwhile I was lost in the Times’ vast explication of the toney life of the Romneys with Ebeling and a cast of what seemed like hundreds of rich people, their lawyers, the horse cardiologists, and, of course, their horses. Mrs. Romney’s is, by the way, named Super Hit.

Ann Romney, some years ago, took up horseback riding as therapy for multiple sclerosis. That would be bad enough for these were expensive horses, but it gets worse. She took up a very posh kind of horseback riding called “dressage.” At first, I thought dressage involved cross-dressing or something risqué. After all, the Times’ tone was decidedly alarmist. But the story is more troubling still. Dressage is very, very expensive and, as the Times sees it, frivolous. Moreover, the Romneys had become very friendly with this fellow Ebeling, who emigrated here in 1980 from Germany. Since then Ebeling has become a mentor to the rich and famous and is now trying out for our Olympic team. The horse he plans to ride at the Olympic tryouts is in part owned by Ann Romney and she and her husband, the Republicans’ presumed nominee, have loaned Ebeling and his wife money for their horse farm at which the Romneys take quiet getaways in a “Mediterranean-style guesthouse.” Why a Mediterranean-style as opposed to an Igloo-style is left to the imagination.

Well, those getaways will not be quiet any longer. The Times has blown the whistle on the whole sordid deceit, and I anticipate we shall be informed of even more lavish recreations in the months to come. The Times and the Washington Post are nothing if not exhaustive and exhausting. Recall, if you will, the Post’s extensive piece about Romney’s high school bullying of a boy or the rumor of his bullying of a boy, or some Democratic acquaintance’s recollection of Romney’s bullying or, perhaps, someone else’s bullying of the boy who, incidentally, is now dead and whose family objects to the Post’s characterization of him.

Frankly, I think I shall stick with the New York Times. For sheerest boredom they take all cakes. What of Mitt Romney’s other recreations? Doubtless before this election is over we shall read all about them. We already have heard about how he treated his dog 29 years ago. And then the Romneys have five sons. They may be windsurfers, as Jean-François Kerry windsurfed during the 2004 election. They may be bungee-jumpers. Was not Al Gore a bungee-jumper until he developed those multitudinous inner tubes of flesh around his midsection? On one subject I think we shall hear very little, Mitt Romney’s drug use as a young man. It is abundantly clear that he did not use drugs, even caffeine.

On the other hand, President Barack Obama did use drugs. And he actually did bully a fellow high school student, though the student was not a boy. President Obama admits in his memoirs, Dreams from My Father, to having bullied a girl. Where did he get the money to pay for his drugs and why did he bully a girl? I shall never know. I read the New York Times.

About the Author

R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator. He is the author of The Death of Liberalism, published by Thomas Nelson Inc. His previous books include the New York Times bestseller Boy Clinton: the Political Biography; The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton; The Liberal Crack-Up; The Conservative Crack-Up; Public Nuisances; The Future that Doesn’t Work: Social Democracy’s Failure in Britain; Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House; The Clinton Crack-Up; and After the Hangover: The Conservatives’ Road to Recovery.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (73) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

Appleby| 5.31.12 @ 6:41AM

Since Mr. and Mrs. Obama have taken approximately 17 expensive (to the taxpayers) vacations a year during their term in the White House, including the one where Mrs. Obama and the girls used Air Force One to buzz skyscrapers in New York and scare the natives witless, I would think perhaps the Times might have a bit of shame. Apparently it's only a crime when people spend THEIR OWN money to practice hobbies and go on vacations -- or are invited by friends who LIKE THEM rather than seek favours under the table from them. As long as you're doing the Grand Tour on the money taxpayers could use for food, clothing and shelter if only you hadn't extorted it from them, that's, like, OKAY, maaaan.

I will be glad to see the back of the nightmare couple, although I daresay the press will continue to fawn long after nobody cares.

CJW| 5.31.12 @ 7:00AM

You will be glad to see Obama leave but you cannot lower yourself to vote for Romney.

Gary B| 5.31.12 @ 7:09AM

Step one: vote for Romney to displace The Muslim. Step two: primary Romney out in four years with an actual conservative.

Appleby| 5.31.12 @ 7:07PM

Yes, I refuse to choose between being stabbed to death or shot.

Skippy| 6.1.12 @ 1:26PM

"Thanks babe!"
BHO

Gary B| 5.31.12 @ 7:02AM

Appleby, you said what I was thinking.

Skippy| 6.1.12 @ 1:47PM

"Great! Another conservative becomes irrelevent. Perfect timing Gary. Thanks!"
BHO

Von Mises Jr| 5.31.12 @ 8:15AM

Appleby, remember the Obama 2010 trip to India for the "Festival of Lights?" It cost $200M per day for a total cost to the taxpayers of $2 billion. It included:
- 40 Jets
- 34 War Ships
- 400 Cars
- 800 Luxury Rooms
- 3 Helicopters
- 3 Luxury Jets
- 800 Personnel (also known as "cronies")
Notice to CJW: I would vote for "Super Hit" before I would vote for Obama. "Super Hit" is more of a Doctor than Obama is a Professor, since "Super Hit" as President "would do no harm."

tminus1| 5.31.12 @ 9:20AM

At least with "Super Hit" in the White House, we'd have both ends of the horse.

CJW| 5.31.12 @ 10:00AM

Von
I would not mind paying for expensive vacations for Obama provided he did not issue any regulations, sign laws, and appoint judges. He could vacation for four years, and that would be better than him "working" and vacationing. Or he could play golf for four years.

Presidents should be forbidden to take vacations overseas, including Hawaii, especially as you described, and Michelle's jaunt to Spain. If we have to pay for a royal lifestyle at least the money should be spent in the USA.
(this is W, using more letters)

Von Mises Jr| 5.31.12 @ 10:53AM

CJW, while you are correct that even the $2B is chump change in this regime, we desperately need a leader, not an American Spectator (sorry for the dumb joke) in the White House.

tminus1, good comment. I would just add that it would be a relief to have JUST one horse's back end in the WH. Can't forget the Chicago crew and the return of Pillary.

I think this new login system is helping greatly with the trolls. I am sure it was one of the main goals.

One Mediator 1 Tim. 2:5. | 5.31.12 @ 11:10AM

Depends on your definition of Troll, Von. Ah-hem.

CJW| 5.31.12 @ 11:20AM

Hi Margie.

Von Mises Jr| 5.31.12 @ 11:48AM

CJW, I have been saying for a month that it was a handful of trolls using half-dozen names each. Not only has this new system proved my point, but I know it for fact.
This should make all readers and people that comment feel great that TAS dealt them a major blow and they proved me correct. Actually Purp proved me right by answering a question directed to the Perpster as "Jefferson." So his/her/its stupidity became undeniable. Hi Margie/vitwin/DRed/Brooksie/whoever.

DRed| 5.31.12 @ 12:11PM

Sorry my friend, there's only one me. If I wasn't here, who else would point out that your 2 billion dollar trip story is factually untrue. You're an educated guy, Von. You really think almost 10% of our Navy went all over Asia with Obama? Aside from the stupidity of diverting that much of our Navy for no good reason, how do you think the Navy would keep pace with a guy who travels by jet? Finally, it costs us about 200 million dollars a day to fund the war in Afghanistan. You really think that's how much it costs the President for diplomatic travel?

Truth to Power| 5.31.12 @ 12:31PM

As usual you are clueless.

"Aside from the stupidity of diverting that much of our Navy for no good reason, how do you think the Navy would keep pace with a guy who travels by jet?"

President O is into PR and didn't think of it as a waste. He is the kind of guy that would sacrifice human life for some good press. The Chicago way is to get lots of money and things to your friends. After watching the stimulus flow to President O's money bundlers it is a little hard to think that the most knowledgeable President ever couldn't easily blow 200 million a day. To get the Navy to India on time just takes a little planning. That seems magical to a troll but it can happen. The military does stuff like that all the time.

DRed| 5.31.12 @ 12:42PM

Yes, the Navy does go places. According to the actual Navy, though, they didn't send 34 ships to India with Obama. They called that story 'absurd' and 'comical'. You can look it up.

Drunken Sailor| 5.31.12 @ 12:53PM

It cost approximately $1.4 million a day to run a aircraft carrier at sea.

Now consider that a Carrier strike group routinely consist of at least 5 different ships and you can see how fast that adds up. Of course the carrier is the most expensive to run, but still.

http://www.navy.mil/navydata/s.....e/cvbg.asp

C'mon Man!| 5.31.12 @ 3:11PM

Dude D, you nitpick a few (million) dollars, look at what's important - his complete waste of millions of dollars. I have a friend who says don't worry about a million here and there, I disagree, every dollar matters when it isn't his (obama's).

One Mediator 1 Tim. 2:5. | 5.31.12 @ 12:26PM

"Hi Margie/vitwin/DRed/Brooksie/whoever".

Good old Von just proved my point.
Idiot.

One Mediator 1 Tim. 2:5. | 5.31.12 @ 12:35PM

Furthermore, "Von", what would your priest say to you about bearing false witness?

Or is that something that's par for the course in your Religion.

One Mediator 1 Tim. 2:5. | 5.31.12 @ 12:41PM

Oh, my! So "W" is allowed to change his handle, but according to good old haughty Von, I am not and am accused of being the vile Brooks, vtwin & dRed?

LOL! What a bunch of imbeciles you Religionists are.
I was posting as One Mediator Christ Jesus before registration, and openly as well as myself, Margie.
You all knew that & I hid nothing.
Ready for the cries of "Who cares!"
Well, I do. Screw all you phonies who look down your nose at me.

Von Mises Jr| 5.31.12 @ 1:43PM

Looks like I hit a nerve? When you spend a few decades in sales and learn to research and listen, you find reality. Then you figure ways to test your hypothesis. This is more proof that it is true. There is probably about three of you trolls on the site total.

I can’t wait until Tuesday when Scott Walker beats the snot out of Whom? Who is that guy? He is getting less press the squaw Dizzy Lizzy Warren.

DRed| 5.31.12 @ 1:54PM

If you'd done maybe 45 seconds of research on Obama's trip to India and Asia in 2010 you would have learned that it didn't cost 2 billion dollars and involve 10% of the surface navy. It's fascinating to me that a story like Obama's 2 billion dollar visit, which was ridiculous on its face and was widely debunked and ridiculed when it came out can still be believed by otherwise intelligent people.

One Mediator 1 Tim. 2:5. | 5.31.12 @ 2:05PM

"Looks like I hit a nerve?"
In my case, yes, you did.
"If you want to make a Conservative angry, tell him a lie. If you want to make a Liberal angry, tell him the truth." - Rush Limbaugh.

I don't appreciate being Brooks/DRed/vtwin, et al.
Got it?

Now, go do your pennance!

Von Mises Jr| 5.31.12 @ 5:20PM

Looks like I am being double teamed by two of the three trolls. Change names and you can make it four or six.

lost| 5.31.12 @ 11:18AM

Air Force One is the call sign used only when the President is on board. When the President is not on board other call signs are used.

Brooksifier | 5.31.12 @ 10:16PM

Donald Trump is a clown, comic relief.
He could get out charts and play Ross Perot.

solidground| 5.31.12 @ 6:45AM

Reading the NYT is a form of mental torture. I try to avoid it.

CJW| 5.31.12 @ 7:01AM

George Will is the conservative pet for ABC. Safe, longwinded remarks, and will always attack a Republican.

Gary B| 5.31.12 @ 7:04AM

He's a little to self-important for me. Haven't read his stuff in years.

Cobalt| 5.31.12 @ 8:43AM

Charles Krauthammer is the real deal.

He was paralyzed in a diving accident in his first year of medical school. He went on to graduate on time with his class, and become a psychiatrist.

CJW| 5.31.12 @ 10:01AM

Agree. Krauthammer is brilliant, as is Laura Ingraham, Michelle Malkin, and Monica Crowley.

Skippy| 6.1.12 @ 1:29PM

Steyn!

Cobalt| 5.31.12 @ 11:12AM

"and became"

Hardcard| 5.31.12 @ 7:58AM

Dear Bob,
Stop sending the NYT money. Take a nap instead.

Paul McGrath| 5.31.12 @ 10:49AM

ON the other hand, when Mr. Tyrell reads the NYT, he comments on it. And when he comments on it, I laugh. Keep reading the NYT Mr. Tyrell!

Anthony| 5.31.12 @ 8:59AM

Trump is an insatiable egoist, no doubt about it. I haven't much use for him, especially when he was hinting at a 3rd party run, which was all mouth, but still, I hated it. His publicist is 24/7 running The Donald everywhere!!
However Trump is one of the few, besides Breitbart and Sheriff Arpario, who willl not let the Muslim Marxist's protean past lie untouched. The rest of the media, especially the conservative media, are COWARDS.
How that sclerotic Bob Schieffer can say Trump looks like a fool when Obozo's own publicist called an unknown, unaccomplished young black man a Kenyan, which was not "corrected" for 16 years, is proof positive that leftism is indeed a mental disorder.
Obozo is either a Kenyan, as admitted by his grandmother and Kenyan media reports, or lied about being a Kenyan in order to get into a better school with scholarship money, because he was nothing but a teenage druggie.
When all is finally exposed, and it will, the whores in the MSM should forever be tainted as the frauds who almost destroyed America. In times of revolutions past, people have been shot for far less.

LiveFreeOrDie| 5.31.12 @ 10:16AM

Shhh...they don't talk about that here. When you line up all the evidence it's clear he's hiding something. The selective service card, the eligibility declaration where Pelosi and the DNC chair removed the phrase, "constitutionally eligible" and responded with, "No comment." The SS number from a state where he never lived. A blogger rightly pointed out that BO wouldn't be able to get a job at a fast food restaurant with his lack of documentation. His SS number fails E-verify, or did until it was somehow "fixed." Missing files at the National Archives. The list just goes on and on. Not to mention he's never refuted any allegations, publicly. He did learn something in law school.

His background is slowly coming to light. Remember it was BO who repeatedly hinted at a single term, probably underestimating the media's unyielding loyalty. Like you, I'd like to see every alphabet "news" organization with permanent, egg-stained faces. The "conservative" media is complicit through their own cowardice.

Gary B| 5.31.12 @ 10:16AM

Anthony, I couldn't agree more. Trump's greatest contribution to the effort is his willingness to speak out. Yes, he's a clown, but, when he tells the MSM to go jump in the lake, he's worth his weight in gold.

TrueBlue | 5.31.12 @ 11:42AM

And he has enough money they can't just make him shut up with lawsuits like they do with your average citizen.

C'mon Man!| 5.31.12 @ 3:19PM

I love Sheriff Joe! I agree with you on The Donald too, I wish more, especially repub cingressman and senators, would stop catering to the libs.

George Collins| 5.31.12 @ 9:01AM

Dear Bob,
Another excellent article with incisive reasoning and entertaining prose. Perhaps you are the G. K. Chesterton of our time, or more precisely, sui generis.
However, I heard you lamenting the fact that you are no longer welcome in various media outlets to promote your new opus, The Death of Liberalism, which I have purchased and read. My point is that you are an excellent writer and an icon for Conservatives, but you are not a skilled speaker. I think that your problem is the halting way you muddle through an interview, and your inclination to read straight from text when making a presentation, rather than speak from the heart. Just an observation.

Tim the Enchanter| 6.1.12 @ 11:59AM

R. Emmett Tyrrell is an excellent writer, but I don't quite think he's in Chesterton's league. In fact, I don't think anyone's in Chesterton's league but Chesterton.

MainelyDoc| 5.31.12 @ 9:04AM

Please don't forget that Obama stole from his employer, Baskin-Robbins, giving away free ice cream to his friends. At least that's what his HS friends claim. That begs the question as to what he used for a Social Security number when he got the job.

Cobalt| 5.31.12 @ 9:17AM

No, Obama didn't steal ice cream, he just redistributed it.

Anthony| 5.31.12 @ 10:20AM

Only the NYT and the WaPo could, with a straight face, demean Mrs. Romney and her equestrian life style, after having fawned over the cumly Jackie Kennedy in her jodhpurs, in both Hyannis and the Virginia countryside during the Kennedy era. And for the most part, get away with it!!
If memory serves, Ben Bradlee was always begging to carry Jackie's whip, but that's another story.
The absolute insane all out brashness of leftism today, with its preposterous lies and rationalizations doesn't lead me to conclude that leftism is dead, unless this is the last all out death knell before it dies.
Let's hope Emmett is correct, America can't take any more of leftism, or Obozo's Marxism.

Ruckweiler| 5.31.12 @ 11:00AM

Such nonsense. So dressage is now an unfit activity? Wonder what the Fool at 1600 Pennsylvania's rich donor/bundler friends do for sport. Go Ann Romney and Jan Ebling and on to the Olympics! Sehr gut!

Drunken Sailor| 5.31.12 @ 12:58PM

I guess once Jackie Kennedy quit doing that sport it became something only the Snobby elitist do in the Democrat playbook. Funny how times change

Cpm| 6.1.12 @ 1:59PM

Dressage was responsible for the paralysis of St. Christopher Reeve, patron saint of stem-cell research. Or, Reeve was responsible for falling. I hope they didn't execute the poor horse.

One Mediator 1 Tim. 2:5. | 5.31.12 @ 11:13AM

Whoever doesn't vote for Romney is siding with the enemy of America, plain & simple.

The choice is clear: Four more years of a Communist dictator or four years of a Republican White House?
What is so hard about choosing to do the best thing?

Nancy in NC| 5.31.12 @ 11:40AM

Not difficult at all. Only the ideologues or those depending on the largesse of others will vote for the loser.

One Mediator 1 Tim. 2:5. | 5.31.12 @ 12:27PM

The loser being Obama, of course.

Appleby| 5.31.12 @ 7:14PM

Whoever doesn't do what YOU think is best is the enemy of America? Please take a look in the mirror and get over yourself.

Some of us don't believe the only choice is between being stabbed to death or shot to death. Some of us would rather choose something else. There have been dark ages before and mankind has survived...because there were people who made sure the light didn't die while the rest of the people were stabbing and shooting each other.

One Mediator 1 Tim. 2:5. | 5.31.12 @ 7:46PM

"Whoever doesn't do what YOU think is best is the enemy of America?"

You are an enemy of America, that's right. If you see fit to contribute to the re-election of the one who you so often write against here. then you're either out of your mind, as in delusional, or an enemy of America.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. And I look in the mirror and don't mind at all that I see a person under the Grace and Mercy of God.
I am humble enough to even vote for Romney. Yep.

Skippy| 6.1.12 @ 1:36PM

"Some of us would rather choose something else. "
I'm thinking complicity through faux purity.
Either way,
"That's my gal!"
BHO

Cpm| 6.1.12 @ 2:12PM

Don't complain about Obama if you are copacetic with his re-election. There is a way we remove people from office in this country, by voting them out. If you aren't prepared to do that then your other arguments ring hollow. You could cut off your nose to spite your face but then it would be impossible to walk around with it stuck up in the air. "Some of us" see the choice that you apparently don't. "Some of us" don't find the dark ages acceptable.

Fredx| 5.31.12 @ 11:49AM

Emmett, thank you so much for keeping us informed about what those Rascally Rich Romneys are up to. I don't have a parakeet anymore, so I cancelled my subscription to the Times. Let us know when they use the wrong fork or if they have lo-flo toilets and flush them twice. I'm going to need some answers before I vote for Mitt over the Sheer Perfection now ensconced in the White House.

Simon Templar| 5.31.12 @ 12:17PM

Well, perhaps we should point out very clearly that these so-called lavish vacations and activities were paid for by the Romneys out of their own pocket rather than insanely expensive and lavish vacations provided by the tax payers.
We are all waiting to witness the next ridiculous vacation by the First Lady Moocher.

Liberalism is truly a mental disorder that contains an amazing level of hypocrisy, denial, and projection.

George Will is a very weak shill that really has been pretending to be conservative and an intellectual. The question is why does anyone, and I mean anyone, libertarian, conservative, and even moderate Republican listen to anything this twerp spouts on anything?

bill glass| 5.31.12 @ 12:19PM

R.Emmett...Thanks. I didn't know what to think about George and Donald. George does make a solid point once in a blue moon, but I think his writing is difficult. Donald, on the other hand, seems to have mastered the tweet - which can be good. I do seriously want to have an out in the open discussion about the whole eligibility thing. After all, it is about the Constitution!!

bava32| 5.31.12 @ 12:47PM

If my memory is correct (as I know it is), John Kerry has a yacht, quite an expensive one. I don't remember the NY Times article on the first page about Kerry's expensive habits, when Kerry was trying to be President. Maybe because he really never had money of his own making. He married big money twice. I guess if if you are a Liberal who's wife provided for your expensive tastes, that's OK. But if you are a Republican who actually earned your money, then it is just terrible and disgusting and out of touch. (And by the way, Kerry, who supports higher taxes for the rich, docked his yacht in Newport RI. in order to avoid paying taxes in Mass. his home state. Classic do as I say, not as I do).

Appleby| 5.31.12 @ 7:16PM

Kerry is a gigolo, too; where's the story about his marrying rich widows and coasting along on the Marakesh Express?

Skippy| 6.1.12 @ 1:43PM

"Who cares about that stuff? I just want everybody to do like Ms. Appleby! She's my kinda conservative: inert!"
BHO

Occam's Tool| 5.31.12 @ 2:22PM

George Will is extremely knowledgeable about baseball; he is one of my top ten writers to read about BASEBALL.

Oh, he also writes about politics?

Benfarm| 5.31.12 @ 2:41PM

The media has been making total fools of themselves in their characterization of the sport of Dressage in which Ann Romney is involved. It has been described as "elitist" and very expensive. Let me correct you. The majority of the people involved in this sport are middle class people like myself who have made great sacrifices in order to enjoy our horses and our sport. We drive older cars, work extra hours, don't take vacations, and shop for our clothes at discount stores in order to have a horse and participate in the sport at some level. There are many thousands of us, and most of us are not wealthy. Dressage is a classical art dating back to at least 400BC and it has been passed down from generation to generation. Competing at the highest level of any sport is very expensive, and I am happy that Ann Romney is able to do that. I am not envious because I can't, and I will continue to enjoy the success of those who can. In the meantime I am one of those of modest means who draws immense pleasure from my relationship with my horses and my goal of learning more about an ancient art. Horses are very therapeutic and cheaper than a psychiatrist. Ann Romney probably needs them now more than ever!

cicero| 5.31.12 @ 3:57PM

The whole dressage thing used to make me wonder why anyone would want a horse to do that. Same with the Lippazaner horses. After reading as much history as possible, I have come to the conclusion that it was an art form born of necessity. When the warriors on horses got into close combat, they had to be able to control their mounts while stepping over bodies, and covering their exposed sides, while still being able to inflict damage on their enemies. It was necessary to be able to sit a war horse, move in tight quarters, and turn and manuever as was called for. Thus, dressage made sense. It seems that it takes a lot of training and effort to make such a large beast make such small moves on touch command.
I am not sure that my surmise is correct, and would like to hear from anyone who can inform.

threeleafclover| 5.31.12 @ 5:41PM

The very people who are so exercised over Mrs.Romney's expensive riding habit - - not the one she wears - were enthralled at Jackie Kennedy's riding to the hounds in Virginia and little Caroline's pony, Macaroni, who probably enriched and fertilized the very soil Michelle's vegetable garden now grows on.

What happened? We used to adore Royalty when we had Camelot.

NY Times is trying to whip us into high dudgeon over how the Romney's spend their own money.

I am more concerned at how Obama is spending the entire nation's money - driving the country into bankruptcy.

Incidentally, why do we still use the term, "hard-earned money"? It sounds like walking behind a plow. In today's workplace, you are more likely to find someone shopping on Amazon or reading TAS online. We need to change that to "hardly-earned". Another cliche is,"people who play by the rules..." and "ordinary people" Every time these terms are used, it is a less than subtle classifying of people as some sub-class of bovinely stupid drones being trod upon by those who make more money.

threeleafclover| 5.31.12 @ 5:54PM

Cicero: you are right. Go to any rodeo and you will see the same disciplines employed with working horses, as in dressage - specifically when cowboy goes out of one chute and a yearling comes out another. Cowboy ropes horns, secures rope around saddle horn, dismounts, runs down the line. Horse immediately begins backing off, keeping rope taut, as cowboy takes bull by the horns, wrestles bull to ground and secures 3 hooves with a "piggin' string". Trail horses the same. At horse shows, an intricate trail of tree branches and twigs is set up. Horse must make its way through the obstacle course. Points off for any object touched. You will see the same footwork in dressage.

Occam's Tool| 5.31.12 @ 6:01PM

BREAKING NEWS: RON ("PRO-LIFE") PAUL VOTES TO MURDER BABIES-----

from Weasel Zippers (a much better site):

"The House on Thursday rejected a Republican bill that would impose fines and prison terms on doctors who perform abortions for the sole purpose of controlling the gender of the child, a practice known as sex-selective abortion.

The Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA), H.R. 3541, was defeated in a 246-168 vote. While that’s a clear majority of the House, Republicans called up the bill under a suspension of House rules, which limits debate and requires a two-thirds majority vote to pass. In this case, it would have required more support from Democrats.

Twenty Democrats voted for the bill, while seven Republicans opposed it. The bill would have needed 30 more yeas to pass.

Suspension votes are normally used for noncontroversial bills, but the GOP-backed measure was clearly controversial. Republicans have occasionally put controversial bills on the suspension calendar in order to highlight that Democrats oppose certain policies.

Republicans voting against the bill were Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Charlie Bass (N.H.), Mary Bono Mack (Calif.), Robert Dold (Ill.), Richard Hanna (N.Y.), Nan Hayworth (N.Y.), and Ron Paul (Texas)."

LiveFreeOrDie| 6.2.12 @ 11:47PM

Not voting for a bill does not mean he supports the issue the bill was designed to address. What is it with you and Ron Paul? Your criticisms of the man are always weak and reaching. You obviously have an agenda other than conservatism which you give a much higher priority. You sir, are a fraud.

threeleafclover| 5.31.12 @ 6:07PM

cicero - you might want to also consider jumpers and the judgment and calculation involved in getting that beast to "gather up" (that is what it is called) all four legs at just the right time so as not to reduce the hurdle to a pile of rubble, send his rider over his head. Before any show, you see riders walking the course repeatedly, judging when to "ask" horse to gather up to get over the hurdle. Imagine their disappointment when horse refuses, as can happen if the approach is not quite right. I have seen many a horse balk and unseat rider. I had the good fortune to live just blocks from Earl Warren Show Grounds in Santa Barbara - which afforded the opportunity to see every kind of riding, plus carriage driving.We also had polo fields out from town toward Montecito. Croquet on horseback.

rsanchez1| 6.1.12 @ 3:41AM

At least Romney used his own money to buy his wife suffering from Multiple Sclerosis a horse. And he would use his own money if he wanted to take his wife on vacation to Mexico or to see a concert.

Who Knows?| 6.4.12 @ 3:02PM

Thanks, Greg, for activating old Who Knows?

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