The View From Arlen

Why Arlen? Arlen is the TV home of "King of the Hill." It's a small conservative town that is threatened with ruination on a regular basis by twig boys, enviro wackos, diversity nuts, "PC" police and other ivory tower liberals. I like to think of Arlen as a metaphor for this here great nation of ours.

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Posted 4:37 AM by Hank
WHAT PASSES FOR "INTELLIGENT DISCOURSE" ON THE LEFT TODAY...

Comic book artist Alex Ross apparently drew this picture of President Bush for the October 2004 Village Voice, entitled "Sucking Democracy Dry":

You hear a lot from conservatives that liberals "hate" the President. This seems to be another example of that.

It also seems like a good example of how this hatred has prevented, and is preventing, them from making a serious argument against the President.

Portraying a world leader as a blood sucking monster is neither original nor insightful. In fact, the voice could have saved itself Ross's commission and just drawn devil horns and fangs on a picture of the President to make the same simplistic point.

And they wonder why they lost the election.

Friday, March 25, 2005

Posted 2:47 PM by Hank
NEW YORK'S COOKIE MONSTERS

Heading into its 21st year without an on-time budget, the State of New York is working diligently to put aside its partisan differences and select....a state cookie.

According to the Elmira Star Gazette:

Assemblywoman Sandra Lee Wirth, R-Elma, Erie County, has proposed making cinnamon applesauce the official New York cookie.
"Given both the popularity of the cinnamon applesauce cookie, and its symbolic representation of both New York's apple growers and of agriculture in general, no better candidate for the official cookie can be imagined," says Wirth's memo on the bill to settle the cookie debate once and for all.

If a state cookie is chosen, it would join other state "mascots," including "a state beverage (milk) and a state muffin (apple) ...a state insect (ladybug) and state fossil (sea scorpion)."

Wirth all but admits her bill is "frivolous" and "stupid," but defends it as a "lesson" to an elementary school in her district.

I'd submit it's a lesson, just not the one our elected officials intended.

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Posted 7:04 AM by Hank
CORNELL CUTS FUNDING FOR PRO-LIFE, OTHER, GROUPS; "ROE" VISIT CANCELLED.

ITHACA NY--Following a thirty-three percent cut in its funding, the Cornell Coalition for Life was prevented from bringing pro-life activict Norma McCorvey to speak at Cornell, the Cornell Daily Sun reports.

McCorvey is better known as Jane Roe, the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court case that created the right to abortion. In 1995, she converted to evangelical Christianity and founded an anti-abortion organization called Roe No More.

McCorvey was scheduled to speak on campus, and the event was confirmed last year, the article says. However the University's Student Assembly Finance Committee cut the group's budget last week, the article explains.

According to the article:

The student organizations sponsoring the event asked for $5,700 and received $3,800 from the SAFC. [Paul Ibrahim, the group's president] said that he had committed at least 80 hours personally planning the event and that McCorvey had spent time scheduling and planning as well. According to Ibrahim, $700 in funds from co-sponsoring organizations had already been spent on the event.

According to the article, the Student Assembly maintains that the budget cuts were "for all student organizations," not just Cornell Coalition for Life.

However, Ibrahim feels that SAFC money could be better allocated among different types of groups, with more diverse political views, noting "'There are so many identical groups that [the SAFC] keeps funding ...'"

The article reports that the Cornell Coalition for Life will continue fund-raising to bring McCorvey to campus. Other potential fund-raising options, the article notes, include, "CU2Nite" and sponsorship through one of Cornell's academic departments.

However, given that studies have indicated that only approximately three percent of Cornell's faculty are Republican or Conservative, the student group may have little luck funding such a sponsor.

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