It's off to the elephant graveyard...

...if the GOP doesn't get serious about limited government.

Senator DeMint is absolutely right. The battle lines have been drawn - not by the respective establishments of the two major parties, but by the people themselves. If the only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans turns out to be that the former are racing toward socialism, while the latter are merely jogging in its general direction, then the Republicans are finished. The people who support the Democratic party are those who, by and large, want more government intervention in our daily lives. Those who are devoted to restoring the original intent of the founders, which was to devise a constitution dedicated to the preservation of individual liberty, will not keep supporting a party that is too lazy to challenge the ingrained liberal orthodoxy, and too timid to attack its ideology root and branch.

On another subject: I find the constant civil wars breaking out on the right to be subversive of the great effort that is needed to defeat the real enemy, which is the Democratic senate and house of representatives (not to mention the White House). Better, by far, to draw off the fire of my fractious brethren and, er, sistren by attracting their destructive energy to myself. So, permit me to declare, from the bottom of my heart, that I think Talk Like a Pirate Day is one of the most idiotic examples of mindless herd enthusiasm that it has ever been my misfortune to stumble across. I will have none of that nonsense aboard HMS Paco, and the first sodding lubber I hear roaring fifth-rate impersonations of Long John Silver will be flogged around the fleet, hanged from the yardarm, and his remains will then be sewn into a canvas sack with a 32-pound ball and dumped unceremoniously in the Sargasso Sea. I expect every man will do his duty.