Really, what’s three months of no content among friends?

And on that misogynistic note, Happy 2008!

… help Fred Thompson.

We’ve been holding off on endorsements here at McRingtail Comics largely because (1) I didn’t think the opinion of an anti-social raccoon and his sexually violent rooster friend would sway many reader, and (2) I figured an actual endorsement from said anti-social raccoon and his sexually violent rooster friend would hurt my preferred candidate.

But whatever. It’s late in the game, and my guy is behind. So I’m asking, if you’ve enjoyed this site over the last few months, or if at least it’s given you a cheap chuckle here and there, consider contributing to Fred Thompson.

Yes, at this point, Fred’s candidacy is, unfortunately, a longshot. But that said, it’s a shot worth taking because, in the end, his is a candidacy worthy of your support.

Why? In his own endorsement of Fred, Rick Moran of Right Wing Nuthouse writes:

He is a man who knows his mind and has the intellectual heft to flesh out his ideas in an impressive, rational, and completely logical way. He knows government, knows the Congress, and knows what he believes. As a communicator, he may lack passion. But he makes up for it by speaking clearly and concisely about issues he cares deeply about.

This touches on the two things that I think are most important in selecting a president. First, does he have a cogent, philosophical underpinning to his policy positions? Second, can he articulate his ideas to the American people?

The first question is is important because having a philosophy or ideology makes a candidate less likely to surrender on things he was elected to enact and to govern using something more dependable than a gut-feeling. Bill Clinton, for instance, had no philosophical undergirding towards governing absent preservation of his own power. While liberals may long for him now, I recall reading about their grumblings over how little he had achieved for them and the larger Democrat party when he left office. George W. Bush, on the other, had a gut-feeling approach to conservatism — which is why he’s right on some issue (like the war) and wrong on so many others (such as spending, the Harriet Myers nomination and immigration). Without a set philosophy to guide a president, policy becomes whatever feels right to him, which makes for inconsistent if not bad policy choices.

Similarly, the second question is crucial because it doesn’t matter if one has the best plan for America unless you can explain it well and convince others to buy into it. It’s been often said that during a war, the American public needs to be told early and often about the importance of what we’re doing in, say, Iraq, and how it fits into the larger war on terror. The Bush Administration has typically relied on press secretaries to get the message out, and understandably so; the White House hides President Bush because he’s not an able speaker, and even when he’s on the right side of an issue, it’s impossible to get a really good, clear speech from him. Unfortunately, this doesn’t cut it. On something as big as war, and often on even modest new domestic initiatives, it has to come from the president and it has to come from him regularly.

Thompson answers both the above questions in the positive. The man has a philosophical approach to conservatism. Just as importantly, he can convey big ideas with the clarity they need and the seriousness they deserve. Indeed, Moran notes in an update to his endorsement that Fred might be handicapped in the campaign because his arguments appeal more to the rational than to the emotional. Maybe so, but in a president, doesn’t that sound refreshing?

Bottom line: please join me in supporting Fred Thompson. A good showing in Iowa is crucial, so if you’re able, please contribute to Fred here.

The best part about our Torture Offsets is that they alleviate leftist guilt about what’s being done to all the poor Johnny Jihads down in Gitmo while not actually doing anything to free them.  Added bonus: by contributing to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, they also drain away money that may have gone to more viable Democrat candidates.

Well, this is stupid:

The founders of the Green Hanukkia campaign found that every candle that burns completely produces 15 grams of carbon dioxide. If an estimated one million Israeli households light for eight days, they said, it would do significant damage to the atmosphere.

I just got an email from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saying this is a great idea, but why stop with the candles? What, he asks, about the “people” that are lighting those Hanukkah candles? Thanks to the recent NIE, calculated as it was to neuter any hard liner approach with the Iranians, his wish for less Kosher carbon is probably considerably closer.

UPDATE at 9:59pm, 12/11/07: First they came for the candles. Then they came for the babies. (h/t LGF)

UPDATE at 11:17pm, 12/16/07: First they came for the candles, then they came for the babies.

We really shouldn’t be surprised that democracy is next. (h/t Instapundit and Mark Steyn)

More after the jump…

Much like the Larry Craig story a few months ago, the Teddy Bear Jihad is the gift that keeps on giving. The teacher is home safely, having been pardoned by the Sudanese president, but we’re still feeling the fallout:

Kes Gray, a former advertising executive, first decided on his gesture of cross-cultural solidarity after meeting Muslims in Egypt.

The character, Mohammed the Mole, appeared in Who’s Poorly Too, an illustrated children’s book, which also included Dipak Dalmatian and Pedro Penguin, in an effort to be “inclusive”.

This weekend Gray said he had decided to postpone a reprint and rename the character Morgan the Mole…

Maybe some have lost the spirit of inclusiveness, but we’re hoping to reverse the trend of niche terrorist death cult multicultural marketing. Expect Muhammad Bear plush toys, complete with Semtex-detonating pull string and real working machete, in stores in time for Ramadan.

More seriously, Powerline probably sums up best what we’ve learned from the entire controversy:

The fact is that most of the Islamic world is backward economically, politically and culturally. To ignore this backwardness, and the extent to which a kind of madness, by no means limited to a handful of mass murderers, has taken root within many Islamic societies, is a willful blindness that serves no one’s interest.

Updates on the Teddy bear jihad, care of Michelle Malkin here. Meanwhile, Investor’s Business Daily today asks if violence is integral to Islam (h/t LGF). And Jihad Watch offers a mathematical analysis of the controversy.

( “Take a Muhammad” is trademark of McRingtail Comics, all rights reserved, 2007.)

Primitives.

UPDATE at 12:17pm, 11/30/07:

…Imagine my surprise when I read this:

Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied Friday in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear “Muhammad.”

[...] They called for [the teacher's] execution, saying, “No tolerance: Execution,” and “Kill her, kill her by firing squad.”

It’s a regime-sanctioned protest, so it’s conceivable that this is more a reflection of a corrupt, morally bankrupt government than a corrupt, morally bankrupt culture and religion. But since Sudan is a Muslim thugocracy (see the CIA World Factbook), that’s a distinction without a difference.

And another thing… The teacher was charged with inciting religious hatred, which is funny because, you know, it makes it sound as though they need a reason to feel religious hatred. And I wonder if they understand that stories of Muslims acting like this tend to inspire religious hatred as well. If only they showed half as much outrage over suicide-bombers named Muhammad as they do over plush toys named Muhammad.

UPDATE at 2:28pm, 11/30/07: This post is getting longer than the Narrator prefers to have on the front page, so I’ll put the rest of my application for a death-fatwa beneath the fold.

NRO’s Media Blog links to a bunch of comments left on a BBC story:

I was at the Unity High School when the event took place. I am a student there. I think it was a misunderstanding. I feel sorry for the teacher, sadly she lacked common sense. I am supporting Miss Gillian and I hope she can be free soon.
Mohamed Ahmed Osman, Khartoum, Sudan

Yes, she lacked the common sense to know she was in a country run by savages. The idiot obviously bought all that “Religion of Peace” stuff.

From BBCArabic.com: Why did she choose this name in particular? There are many other names for these toy bears and children’s TV shows are full of them. It is actually an insult to Prophet Mohammed.
Amira al-Marani, Yemen

Well, Mr. (Ms.?) al-Marani, did you ever think that maybe your prophet’s name (may the spellings of it be many) is just not that damn important? That maybe you should just get over it? That lots of other religions gets insulted everyday (your co-religionists feelings towards Jews come to mind) but don’t make a habit of jailing folks over it? That the ferocity with which you fight over an issue so small speaks to your culture’s larger lack of self-confidence, itself a product of centuries self-inflicted backwardness? Just saying…

I was born in Sudan. I moved to the UK two years ago. The teacher went to Sudan and she should have learnt the laws of that country. Here in England people think that what she did was an innocent mistake, but I don’t think that. She was very wrong to make fun of the Prophet Muhammad. Boys are called Muhammad and that’s alright because mothers are proud to name their sons after the Prophet. But to name a teddy bear after him is wrong. The teacher should be punished because she has insulted Islam and Muslim people.
Meizu, UK

I’m sorry you think it’s inappropriate to make fun of your prophet. On a completely unrelated note, I’ve decided from now on that whenever I go to the bathroom, I’m going to call it, “Taking a Muhammad.”

And while we’re talking… Apparently, the Teddy Bear Teacher’s son hasn’t lost sight of what’s important while his Mom settles into her Sudanese dungeon:

“I don’t want the verdict to lead to any anti feeling towards Muslims. … One of my fears, and I imagine my mother’s also, will be that this results in any sort of resentment towards Muslim people.”

One of my fears is that people like this exist and, unfortunately, probably vote.

UPDATE at 4:02pm, 11/30/07: Notwithstanding their quickness to argue for ever-better treatment of jihadists, according to James Taranto (fifth item) Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations have yet to make any pronouncements on the teacher’s sentence.

At the rate this is going, it’s starting to look like every question CNN chose for last night’s GOP-YouTube debate came from someone with an anti-Republican ax to grind.