Oliver Willis has been kind enough to introduce the world to Pundette! She’s America’s sexy new right-wing pundit.

It’s only been a month since that scout from the Heritage Foundation approached me after my set at Club Pink Kitty Kat. It was almost like something out of old Hollywood, him telling me that I “had the kind of face that looks like it should be selling faulty supply side economics to an unwitting public”. I didn’t think he made sense at first, but after a couple weeks at Heritage boot camp (”The facts don’t matter, just as long as the sizzle is right”) things got much clearer. Yes, belly dancing for the Rev. Moon on occasion is a little odd, but everyone swears this is how Laura Ingraham started out – and look where she is today!

Hilarious.

A few days ago, I posted a link suggesting that the North Korean government would prefer a Kerry Administration. On the other hand, maybe they don’t.

Apparently, a North Korean spokesman has recently done an interview warning that Kerry’s call for CVID, and pressures from Democrats for military action mean that a Kerry administration would lead to heightened military tensions. He suggests that North Korea would respond to increased pressure from Kerry by test-firing ICBMs into the high seas close to prominent American cities, and test-detonating a H-Bomb. I’m not a qualified North-Korea tea-leaf reader by any stretch of the imagination, so I don’t want to speculate too much on the source and meaning of this. Still, on its face, it certainly appears to give the lie to Republican claims that North Korea would prefer a Democratic administration.

Beats me as to what the truth is. Personally, I doubt the North Koreans know, either. I just hope that whoever wins, the problem of North Korea can be taken care of in a way that doesn’t involve an irradiated city or two.

Fallen Angel is one of those tragedies of modern comics. It’s not about someone in the spandex and tights set, so the fanboys don’t read it. It’s not about some mailboy’s relationship with a prostitute, so critics ignore it. But the fact is, Fallen Angel is one of the best ongoing series in comics today. Don’t believe me? Well, Johanna Draper Carlson is giving you the chance to find out about Fallen Angel for free. So take her up on her offer. Or better yet, go buy the trade paperback collection of the first six issues. You won’t be disappointed. Trust me.

(link via Jim Henley, who’s back from hiatus!)

(see more of Chris Muir’s stuff)

Both Matthew Yglesias and Rick DeMent have endorsed the idea that protesters shouldn’t protest.

If people put all the time, energy, intelligence and ingenuity that they currently spend doing these things into boring jobs in Washington that involved ties and desks and offices then progressive politics would be about five times as effective as it is.

No no no no no no no no! Wrong! Keep protesters protesting! Keep them out there in the media and away from anything remotely resembling a policymaking authority. The last thing I want is the kind of nut who’ll spend hours crafting a puppet that looks more like Guy Smiley than George Bush drafting legislation. Good lord, the legislators we have now are bad enough! If anything, we just need to balance things out. Give money to the Republican protest groups and encourage a right-wing protest culture, too! That way, the nuts on the left and the nuts on the right can harangue each other with semi-witty signs on the street while sane, reasonable people can breathe a sigh of relief and work on real policy issues.

Is it just me, or did watching John McCain speak at the convention tonight make you long for the concise, definitive stands of Kerry and George W’s powerful command of the English language? Maybe his speech got better–I dunno. I fell asleep in the middle.

I have to say, the trial balloon floating from the Kerry-Edwards camp regarding Iran doesn’t strike me as the soundest policy in the world.

If elected U.S. president, Sen. John Kerry would offer Iran a deal allowing it to keep its nuclear power plants if it gave up the right to retain bomb-making nuclear fuel, said Kerry’s vice presidential running mate in an interview published on Monday.

Sen. John Edwards told The Washington Post if Iran did not accept this “great bargain,” this would confirm the Islamic state was building nuclear weapons under cover of a nuclear power initiative.

If Iran rejected this proposal, Kerry would ensure European allies were prepared to join the United States in imposing strict sanctions against Iran, said Edwards.

“If we are engaging with Iranians in an effort to reach this great bargain and if in fact this is a bluff that they are trying to develop nuclear weapons capability, then we know that our European friends will stand with us,” said the North Carolina Democrat.

First of all, there’s no real guarantee that Iran would stick to this bargain, is there? I mean, you’d have to get Iran to agree to a really strict inspection regimen, or else the deal is pointless.

Second, I don’t know what policy alternatives there are, but I think it’s pretty evident that sanctions don’t work at all. All a strict sanctions regime would do to Iran is cut them off from Western culture. And considering that most of the people fighting for freedom in Iran are inspired by Western culture, that seems like a very counterproductive thing to do.

On the other hand, I’m not even sure Bush has an Iranian policy, so at least Kerry-Edwards is starting the conversation…

In the comments to this post, Cynthia Jane, the woman who runs one of my favorite liberal blogs, had this to say about my knocks against MTV:

I’m fairly certain I’m not brain dead and I’m also certain I enjoy MTV every now and then. Even the silly reality programs and “Pimp My Ride.”

While I don’t take political advice from Sean Combs, I do appreciate the network’s desire to encourage young people to vote.

For the first part, I’m sorry to say but as far as I’m concerned, MTV died when Headbanger’s Ball was cancelled. And yeah, I know they brought it back, but it’s not the same. MTV is dead to me.

But as for the second point, I’m not altogether sure that “encouraging young people to vote” is necessarily the right thing to do. Look, if you’re going to vote, you ought to be an informed voter, and you ought to take the time to look at issues. If you’re inclined to do those things, you don’t need to be encouraged to vote–you’re already going to. [Well, in this election, an informed voter might stay at home and play Playstation. - Ed. Good point.] But why encourage people to vote if they already don’t care enough to educate themselves? Why insert people into the political process when the method of doing so is much more likely to have them voting based on peer pressure and gut emotions than reason and knowledge? I’m not sure that’s the best way to let the system work.

(Floor’s open, CJ…)

“This morning I looked in the fridge and thought: What am I going to do with all this beer? The stupidest thing I have ever thought.”
– James Lileks

As Election Day nears, there are important issues that must be weighed in the selection of a candidate for the Presidency. There is also a lot of annoying crap that doesn’t matter in the slightest.

As a public service announcement, we at Heretical Ideas would like to point out what is and isn’t important in weighing the two candidates.

Important:

• Foreign Policy towards the Middle East

• The growth in entitlement spending as the Boomers retire
• The growing budget deficit and tax policy

Not Important:

• Which set of candidate’s daughters got booed by the brain-dead idiots who actually enjoy MTV

• Which set of protesters was the cleverest or weirdest
• The Democratic and Republican Conventions

While there is certainly nothing wrong with enjoying Non-Important items as a source of humor or entertainment, we at Heretical Ideas would caution the use of such items as making any kind of substantive point about anything.

Thank you for your time. We will now resume our regular programming.