Below the fold is a simple question for Barack Obama and everyone else who insists that “we can’t drill our way out of the problem” of skyrocketing gas prices.
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Rachel Lucas recently threw the principle fetishists a bone with an identically-titled blog entry, conceding that it is sometimes appropriate to cut off one’s nose to spite one’s face stand on principle. She describes some goofy cable TV show she recently saw in which some parents state that if their kids are going to smoke pot anyway, they (the parents, who I’ll dub the Idiot Parents ) should go out and buy it for them, so at least the kids won’t have to deal with drug dealers and the parents will supposedly have more control over the quality and/or quantity of the drug. Rachel writes:

The moment of my epiphany was when one parent said something that was almost verbatim what I’ve said about voting for McCain and the fact that you are getting a new president whether you like it or not so you may as well do what you can to get the less shitty one. It was something like, “Well, Billy IS going to smoke pot. There’s nothing I can do about that, he’s GONNA smoke it no matter what I say. So I may as well at least try to keep him as safe as I can, and if that means I have to buy it for him, I will.”

Quickly I ran it through my brain: what if I had kids and was in this situation? Would I get drugs for them just because that was better than them getting drugs from strangers and scumbags? Especially if I knew for a fact that my kids were just dumb enough to get busted and would almost certainly end up in jail if I didn’t choose the lesser evil by getting the drugs for them?

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For 5 1/2 years, I’ve blogged under a pseudonym. My reason was simple: I wanted to keep my professional and blogging lives separate. Sure, I could tell you my name but refuse to divulge where I worked, but who are we kidding? I never made it a secret that I was a lawyer admitted to practice in California, so any reader who knew my name would have no trouble tracking down my employer. So as a practical matter, if my employer’s identity was to remain a secret, mine needed to, as well. And no, I wasn’t under strict orders from my boss to remain anonymous, but my boss at the time did express considerable relief upon learning that I was, anyway, for the simple reason that no one can think I spoke for a company I hadn’t even identified.

With pseudonymity comes a certain responsibility. Taking my identity off the table carried the implicit promise that my identity is not relevant to what I say. If I blog about the idiocy of secondhand smoke, you as the reader should be entitled to assume that whoever I work for, it ain’t the tobacco industry or anyone else with an obvious interest in the subject, else I would have told you. Conversely, if I do work for an insurance company owned by a mortgage lender, but do not wish to tell you that, then let’s face it, I’m not going to be able to say all that much about mortgages or insurance on this blog. What little I can say about these topics must be information that is publicly known and related to the industry as a whole, rather than to my particular company. Therein lies the problem.

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Barack Obama’s Fight With Smears site sez:

Lie:
On May 30th, Rush Limbaugh said he had heard a rumor that a tape exists of Michelle Obama using the word “Whitey” from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ.

Truth:
No such tape exists. Michelle Obama has not spoken from the pulpit at Trinity and has not used that word.

So according to Mr. Hope/Change, merely mentioning that you’ve heard a rumor makes you a liar if the rumor itself isn’t true. I’ve heard rumors that the CIA invented crack and 9/11 was an inside job. Does that make me a liar, too?

Worse, the Obama campaign lies outright on the front page:

LIE: Rush Limbaugh says a tape exists of Michelle Obama using the word “whitey” from the pulpit of Trinity United

Yup, that is a lie all right. Limbaugh never said any such thing.

According to the FBI, Hispanics are often victims of hate crimes, but they never, ever commit them. Cute, eh?

H/t: Patterico.

Phronesis, on Hot Air, said:

“Winning with Huck on the ticket is like being liberated from the Nazi’s [sic] by the Soviets. “

True, but then again, if you ask the guys Obama’s great uncle helped to liberate, getting liberated by the Americans isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be, either.

Jim Johnson has resigned amidst the recent Countryversy over some sweetheart loans he may have obtained from my former employer. I’m not sure what all the fuss was about. Everyone knows that choosing a Vice President is only tangentially related to running for President, right?

Cheering at a soldier’s funeral? Free speech, baby. Cheering at a graduation? Not so much.

So, with crude oil at a record high, gasoline now costs as much in the U.S. as it used to cost in friggin’ Europe. What to do? I know, let’s create a new tax to drive the cost even higher!

On second thought, let’s not.

Vote for me, dammit. Not just because Barack Obama sucks, but because it’s the right thing to do. That said, Barack Obama does suck. So there.