poignant conservatives power rankings

1. Spengler The formerly anonymous Asia Times Online blogger offered a wonderful Terry Jones: asymmetrical warrior post. Spengler is the pseudonym of David P. Goldman, an economist, Bank of America executive, ex-Lyndon LaRouche devotee, former Reagan supporter and a fascinating blogger. Spengler reasoned that "a madman carrying a match and a copy of the Koran could do more damage to the Muslim world than a busload of suicide bombers," because Islam was particularly "vulnerable to theological war." Spengler gave evidence how and why “theological weapons” may prove to be effective against a “fractious” Islam. Terry Jones, of course, is a character who could have sprung from the pages of Flannery O'Connor. Part huckster, part con man, part religious zealot, Jones has "wise blood" (O’Connor’s words about one of her actual characters) and cannot escape his realization that Islam is theologically fallible.
2. Zombie This anonymous blogger had numerous excellent posts recently. In the days B.G.B. (before Glenn Beck) few knew the names Cloward and Piven, two Columbia University sociologists who, in the Sixties, intended to “destroy the economy as a necessary precursor to a more drastic redistributionist/socialist makeover of society,” by overloading government social programs. In his The Obama-Piven Strategy post, Zombie described Obama’s “muddled combination of Democratic Strategy and the Cloward-Pivan” destructiveness. His is an administration whose Science czar John Holdren speaks aloud about the “de-development” of the country. The Obama administration pushes cap and trade legislation that would eliminate millions of jobs and force energy prices to “necessarily skyrocket” (Obama’s words). How is it his administration seems to mirror the audacious hope of Sixties radicals bent on economic destruction?
3. Thomas Sowell In his Time to be Serious About National Security post on Real Clear Politics, Sowell said that “those who were thrilled” by the prospect of change that Obama peddled during his election campaign likely never realized “that it is a change for the worse-runaway government spending, under the banners of ‘stimulus’ and ‘jobs.’” Yet the most devastating changes that Obama has made, according to Sowell, are “alienating our long-time allies, … reneging on our commitments to putting up a missile shield in Eastern Europe and…doing nothing meaningful to stop the leading terror-sponsoring nation in the world, Iran, from getting nuclear weapons.” Change for the worse: you better believe it.
4. Shannon Love The Chicago Boyz blogger contributed a splendid Palin and the Left’s Status-Anxiety post. Chicago Boyz is an intelligent blog dedicated, not to the Chicago crew that currently holds the White House, but a group associated with the University of Chicago and the city, including F. A. Hayek, actually worthy of veneration. Love argued that leftists “restrict status not by merit but by conformity to their own life pattern.” Sarah Palin does not conform. But shouldn’t the President-to-be enjoy some measure of esteem for the office?
5. Victor Davis Hanson In his ‘Like a Dog’: The Origins of Barack Obama’s Petulance on Pajamas Media, Hanson described how Obama has been “singularly exempt from the usual requirements” and has been accorded “deference not warranted by actual achievement” in gaining educational opportunities, political office and even the Nobel Peace Prize. It’s discernible how one who has been gushed over so much for so little would be perturbed when the petting ceased.
6. Ace of Spades The oft-quoted, oft-cited and oft-obscene Ace of Spades and his co-bloggers were hilarious all month with posts such as Wisconsin Senate Race Moves From “Likely Republican” to “Likely Skullfuck”, Face the Racists: Obama’s Town Hall 50% less Changey, 80% Less Hopey Than Expected and Obamacare Worse Than Imagined. Ace wrote that “everything they said (about Obamacare) was a lie.” Okay, we know Obama’s not a Muslim. But we also know that Obama’s father was a Muslim, his stepfather was a Muslim and he attended public school in Muslim Indonesia. How much of the teaching rubbed off on him? For instance, does Obama accept the concept of takiyya, that deception is all right as long as one deceives to promote Islam, in other words, to promote a supposedly righteous agenda? Would takiyya make it acceptable for a non-Muslim who is understandably Muslim-impressed to claim that he was bending the health care cost curve downward when, in fact, he was bending it up?
7. Frank J. Fleming Frank J. and the folks at IMAO (In My Arrogant Opinion) took a massive load of pleasure at the expense of Obama (lolbama) and the Democrats’ new logo (loldemocratlogo). Gosh, that Saul Alinsky fellow had the right idea. Ridicule can be powerful fun. Derision is a delight. Goad your opponent into doing something stupid.
8. Allahpundit As a reformed Unitarian, the poignarbiter has little use for atheists. After all, didn’t Saint Thomas Aquinas settle the dispute about the existence of God, once and for all, back in the thirteenth century? However, the atheistic and prolific Allahpundit was all over Hot Air all month, almost omnipresent or something.
9. Johnny Rotten With typical Sex Pistols aplomb, as reported at Weekly Standard, Rotten said to the Independent newspaper “If Elvis-f-ing-Costello wants to pull out of a gig in Israel because he’s suddenly got this compassion for Palestinians, then good on him…Until I see an Arab country, a Muslim country, with a democracy, I won’t understand how anyone can have a problem with how they’re treated.” God save the Queen and God save Johnny Rotten.
10. Vodkapundit Stephen Green, in his Change That Matters post on Pajamas Media, questioned the ebbing sanity of the nation. “We’re governed by Democrats,” he wrote. “That can do things to a country.” A bracing dose of Vodkapundit every once and again, helps us to stay frosty.