Congress at its best

This is what I call teeth!

From the AP:

Culminating years of frustration with the performance and behavior of the United Nations, the House voted Friday to slash U.S. contributions to the world body if it does not substantially change the way it operates.

The 221-184 vote, which came despite a Bush administration warning that such a move could actually sabotage reform efforts, was a strong signal from Congress that a policy of persuasion wasn't enough to straighten out the U.N.

I think the Bush administration has the wrong goal. They are operating under the assumption that the UN could be a credible authority in the world with just a few changes here and there. That way, if this passes the Senate, and UN doesn't follow through (I almost hope they don't), the current feelings of loathing for this world body might be put to even greater use to completely discredit and neutralize this farce of government (as if they aren't well on their way already).

The UN is simply hearing the voice of the American people in this vote. They ignore it at their peril.

Crossposted at Head West, Turn Right

Pictures from D.C.

The trip was awesome. Plenty of great new ideas, running around on the metro at all hours of the night, new friends and the opportunity to rub elbows with the conservative movement's finest.



Myself (left) with the great Phyllis Schlafly and my traveling partner Joshua.



I took this at Union Station, where we had our pizza party on Thursday.



This is the inestimable Mike Adams who I mentioned being excited to hear in person. Yes I did get my book signed and he really is really awesome. (excuse the understatement)



The fact that we are represented by Rep. Larsen is compounded in this tragic picture as Joshua and I come face to face with the truth.



This random shot of a few us making our way out of the Library of Congress with Joe Calandra from Human Events (center right).

Finals and a trip

My finals are over and now I'm headed to Washington D.C. in a matter of hours.

For those who are interested, I'm going to Eagle Forum's Collegiate Summit this Thursday and Friday. It should be a good trip and I'm hoping to bring some pictures back. The potential highlight of the conference itself is that the inestimable Dr. Mike Adams will be speaking. I'm bringing along my copy of Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel just for the chance to get it signed.

Cheers one and all. Be back on Monday.

Deep throated, over rated

As a general rule, I think the media needs to lay off the deep throat story. For one, there are many people out there who haven't a clue who deep throat or Bob Woodward were. Also, the glory days of the Watergate exposure might have gotten dimmer since Mr. Felt revealed himself as the mysterious anonymous source nick-named "deep throat." Felt was passed over for the director's spot at the FBI. I don't know if that motivated him to squeal but I'm not comfortable with saying he's a hero. Lastly, the public is not about to be impressed with anonymous sources after Newsweek's bumbling.

The media has toned it down a little since the story first broke in Vanity Fair, but they would do well to just forget about it. The journalism department here at Western is one of the few conclaves of interest in such issues. Yesterday I overheard another journalism student complaining that so few of her friends know who deep throat was. I just laughed.

If journalists could stop being journalists for a day and still do their jobs, they would see the truth: it's not that big a story to ordinary people--don't cover it too much.

Planning ahead

Just a little housekeeping info:

I plan to keep the blog up over the summer to some degree. I don't know what degree that will turn out to be, because I know I personally will not be taking summer classes.

Be sure to send a note our way if you are interested in contributing next year or if you just have ideas or comments you'd like to see implimented in the next go-around.