Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Bet

I have a bet with my eighth grade son. If he wins he gets a small Lego set. If he loses he gets to read yet another book of my recommendation (how do you think he got to be so smart except for the occasional bad bet or two? ;)

The bet? That his history teacher will not allow him to distribute pocket Constitutions to the class. He thinks his teacher will allow it. Nothing against his teacher -- I've met him and he seems like a good guy. I told my son that he would have to have the teacher review the pocket Constitution before distributing them because I genuinely did not want to get him fired -- and my assessment is that he would be fired if he allowed them to be handed out.

Why?

Here's my first example of a long list. Watch for more in a continuing series.

Page 8 has a summary of the Ten Commandments and their importance to American jurisprudence and how there is a tablet signifying them directly above the Supreme Court Chief Justice's chair among other things. And the bottom section of page 8 has the contrasting summary of the plan from Marx' Communist Manifesto (which of course is more or less equivalent to the Democratic Party platform)!

Herewith the relevant section of the Manifesto presented for you to marvel at:

The Communist revolution is the most radical rupture with traditional property relations; no wonder that its development involved the most radical rupture with traditional ideas.

But let us have done with the bourgeois objections to Communism.

We have seen above, that the first step in the revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class to win the battle of democracy.

The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organised as the ruling class; and to increase the total productive forces as rapidly as possible.

Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production.

These measures will, of course, be different in different countries.

Communist Manifesto (Chapter 2): "Nevertheless, in most advanced countries, the following will be pretty generally applicable.

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly."
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, &c, &c.
Ten Commandments: Religion not allowed in school. Communist Manifesto: Too much chance someone might recognize the Democrat Party agenda.

And did I mention that on the cover of this particular edition is 2 Corinthians 3:17 : "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

So even the cover fails!

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Monday, September 27, 2010

Yep, That's Right

Global Cooling and the New World Order – Telegraph Blogs: "The 58th Bilderberg Meeting will be held in Sitges, Spain 3 – 6 June 2010. The Conference will deal mainly with Financial Reform, Security, Cyber Technology, Energy, Pakistan, Afghanistan, World Food Problem, Global Cooling, Social Networking, Medical Science, EU-US relations.

Yep, that’s right. Global Cooling.
Which means one of two things.
Either it was a printing error.
Or the global elite is perfectly well aware that global cooling represents a far more serious and imminent threat to the world than global warming, but is so far unwilling to admit it except behind closed doors.
Let me explain briefly why this is a bombshell waiting to explode."

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In Point Of Fact, We Do


Moe Lane � #rsrh He left out ‘derivative.’: "[Oops: H/T Hot Air Headlines] In the process of whining about why a bunch of apparatchik bureaucrats and tawdry identity-politicians can’t come up with a better logo for their party than their current one – which is, by the way, one good Photoshop from looking like the overhead view of an urinal* – this guy ever-so-wistfully sighed:
Remember that glorious day on the Mall in January?
In point of fact, we do."

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Sunday, September 26, 2010

The Reagan Obama Debate

You're going to want to watch this several times until you either get it or deserve your chains.

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Saturday, September 25, 2010

Iran Watch


Things are once again heating up in Iran folks:
Video: 'Allah-O-Akbar' chants send chilling message to Iranian regime | The Green Voice of Freedom: "GVF -- Iranians took to rooftops once more on Monday night in another show of unity and voiced their support for the leaders of their Green Movement, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi.

The move is part of a campaign by various reformist factions to send a clear and loud signal to Iranian authorities that any action against the two popular politicians would constitute a breach of a dangerous red line. In recent weeks there have been growing fears that the Iranian regime might be planning to stage further attacks against 2009 presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi in order to finally put an end the opposition Green Movement. Security forces, Basij militia and the IRGC have in recent weeks, shown a readiness to carry out raids against the office of former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, vandalise the house of Mahdi Karroubi and attack mosques and centres affiliated with pro-reform Muslim clerics such as the outspoken cleric Ayatollah Dastgheib."
And I'm guessing you might have missed this little story:
After last week's Stuxnet disclosures, it was only a matter of time before the viral sabotage was flushed into the open, with Iran confirming that it had been in fact attacked. As expected, Al-Jazeera has just confirmed that not only has Bushehr been infected, but so have numerous other industrial sites all over Iran. Yet despite the pervasive attack, "no damage or disruption of nuclear facilities has yet been reported, however." What is surprising is that Iran has made such a major media splash on the topic: one would assume that demonstrating such broad cyberdefensive weakness would not be in the country's favor...

More from Al-Jazeera:
Iran's nuclear agency is trying to combat a complex computer worm that has affected industrial sites throughout the country and is capable of taking over the control systems of power plants, Iranian media reports have said.
I'd like to assure you that the war with Iran hasn't just broken out but unfortunately I can't.

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A Saturday Cleanser

Here we learn that even Herman Cain -- a serious contender for my 2012 presidential vote if we can't draft Thomas Sowell -- can be surprised.


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Tranquilizers

I highly recommend "The Black Swan". Taleb will open your eyes...

Obama Stimulus Made Economic Crisis Worse, `Black Swan' Author Taleb Says - Bloomberg: "U.S. President Barack Obama and his administration weakened the country’s economy by seeking to foster growth instead of paying down the federal debt, said Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of “The Black Swan.”

“Obama did exactly the opposite of what should have been done,” Taleb said yesterday in Montreal in a speech as part of Canada’s Salon Speakers series. “He surrounded himself with people who exacerbated the problem. You have a person who has cancer and instead of removing the cancer, you give him tranquilizers. When you give tranquilizers to a cancer patient, they feel better but the cancer gets worse.”

Today, Taleb said, “total debt is higher than it was in 2008 and unemployment is worse.”"

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Friday, September 24, 2010

A Different Malik

Riiight.

Which Malik Shabazz Visited White House in July 2009, Mr. President? - Big Government: "The White House has assured the American people that the Malik Shabazz that visited the White House at that time is not the same Malik Shabazz at the center of the New Black Panther story. But, the White House has not provided any information to verify its contention or who this “other” Malik Shabazz is.
We call on the White House to act in the spirit of their transparency policy and provide further information, sufficient to independently verify the identity of the person named Malik Shabazz who visited the White House private residence in July of 2009."

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Watch The Left Hand

Aren't you shocked?

Instapundit � Blog Archive � DISTRACTION: So, yesterday reader John Mark Williams suggested that the Colbert testimony was inten…: "DISTRACTION: So, yesterday reader John Mark Williams suggested that the Colbert testimony was intended to distract from coverage of Christopher Coates’ testimony about the Justice Department’s racism scandals. If so, it’s worked. Front page of Daily Caller: Colbert. Drudge led with Colbert until the news of the Klein & Zucker firings came out. Limbaugh led off today talking about Colbert. NRO has covered Colbert at The Corner, but not Coates. Washington Examiner headline: Colbert. Looking around other sites, I see more about Colbert than Coates. Hot Air and Power Line did better.

But let me quote the Power Line treatment: “Coates’s testimony is a bombshell. It exposes a couple of Obama administration scandals at once. One involves the Obama administration’s attempt to cover up the rationale for burying the case against the NBPP. The other involves the Obama administration’s support for the racially based administration of justice. Coates’s testimony is suggestive of other scandals as well. You probably won’t be hearing much about it on the broadcast news tonight or in the papers tomorrow, but we all should do everything we can to get the word out.”"

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Thursday, September 23, 2010

Reggie On Real Estate

Pay attention to this man.

Take It From Someone Who Called the Housing Crash (and its victims) in 2005, We Are About Midway Through the Downturn, If That Far | zero hedge: "This should be of no surprise to anyone that reads the BoomBust or follows me regularly. I’ve been warning about the crash for over 5 years now, and those who feel we are nearing a bottom need to take out their spreadsheets and plug in some historical numbers."

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Projection Update

Ace catches Michael Barone with a key insight that's intuitively obvious once you stop and think about it:

Ace of Spades HQ: "I asked Michael Barone about the Democrats' full year of denial, about when they finally started to grasp that this was genuine outrage, a citizenry aroused.

He didn't answer that, but he did offer this explanation: The Democrats assumed all the Tea Party rallies and Town Hall confrontations were astroturfed and filled with Republican operatives, because that's precisely how they gin up their public displays of support.

They almost couldn't grasp the possibility that our rallies, unlike theirs, might be real."

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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

This Is It


You might have seen the chart of actual unemployment vs what Obama predicted with the "stimulus" boondoggle. It turns out you ain't seen nuttin':

Ace of Spades HQ: "You can see that from the late 60's up until 2000 federal spending was pretty much a straight line relative to the median household income. Then jumps to a new higher growth rate around 2002 (most likely due to 9/11). But look at what happened in 2007 when the Democrats took over the House.

Ho-ly crap!

Not only did federal spending shoot up but median income actually fell. This isn't just new unsustainable growth - this is an effin death spiral where spending has become completely decoupled from people's incomes. This is the kind of graph you see in engineering when a system is heading into failure. A few more years of this and we will be in Greek bankruptcy territory.

So if you're looking for a single chart that crystallizes the current greatest danger to the US and why the Tea Party has appeared, this is it."

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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

To "Church" With The Manchurian Moonbat

Moonbattery: Obama Finally Attends Church — To Hear Muslim Speaker: "At last we know how to get supposedly Christian Comrade Obama into a church — invite a politically active Muslim speaker:
[O]n Sunday, September 19, 2010, the Obama family attended church for only the third time in a year. They went on foot to the St. John's Episcopal Church situated across the Lafayette Park.
But what is widely not reported by the White House and the MSM is that on that particular Sunday in that particular church, Dr. Ziad Asali, M.D., a Muslim, founder and president of the American Task Force on Palestine, was the guest speaker. He was there to speak on the subject of 'Prospects of the two-state solution in the Middle-East.' …
Dr. Ziad J. Asali is described as 'a long-time activist on Middle East issues' who has testified to both chambers of Congress about Palestinian interests, increased U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority, and 'Israel's disproportionate use of force' in Gaza.
Pro-jihadist moonbattery — now there's something other than his reflection the Manchurian Moonbat can worship."

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dOne

Moonbattery: Animated Dem Logo: "Ever on the cutting edge, Democrats even have an animated version of their stylish new logo:"

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Monday, September 20, 2010

Teh Gangsta

Power Line - The Down-Side of Gangster Government: "Bulls of the US economy frequently point to the flush state of the US corporate balance sheet to support the idea that an investment boom will soon be riding to the rescue of growth and job creation, but as things stand there is little reason for wanting to invest in the US, which seems as politically inept as it is economically marooned.
I'm not sure we're economically marooned, but we certainly are politically inept. The rule of law is probably the single most important factor in generating long-term economic growth. The consequences of the Obama administration's abandonment of the rule of law in favor of gangster government may not be felt immediately, but they nonetheless are likely to be immense."

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Sunday, September 19, 2010

Cancelled

This is one of the most concise summaries of the current "economic" disaster you will ever read -- so take the two minutes:

Bill Buckler Discusses The Last Price Standing Of "True Money", Answers The Only Question Relevant To Gold Bugs | zero hedge: "'Before it can be exchanged, wealth must be created. Wealth cannot be created out of thin air. By definition, an economic good is “scarce”. If it were not, there would be no such thing as economics or exchange. Neither would be necessary because no effort or choice in the face of alternatives would be required in order to provide the GOODS which further our lives. Before we can talk about money and the VITAL role it performs, we must stress this point. Money is NOT wealth, it is the means by which wealth is exchanged amongst those who produce it. Paper money is not suited to this function.' So what is the only rational investment in times in which money's role is so often confused by pretty much everyone? 'Ninety-seven percent of all existing Treasury debt has been created since August 15, 1971! Ninety-three percent of it has been created since Mr Volcker “saved” the paper Dollar in late 1979! Please note that the gain in Treasuries and the loss in the US Dollar almost exactly cancel out. Please note also that even the biggest gain in these paper markets fades into insignificance against Gold’s rise."And here is the answer all the "gold bugs" have been waiting for: "The paper money “price” of Gold will last as long as the attempt to make paper money “work” lasts. In the end, Gold will no longer have a “price” because it has reverted to its role as MONEY. Whenever and wherever that happens, that nation can return to the production of wealth - rather than “money”."
Then click through and RTWT which is still pretty concise. And very enlightening...

UPDATE: This is quite extraordinary also. A perfect companion piece.

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The Scum Slither Down The Drain At Last

Wall Street’s Engines of Profit Are Slowing Down - NYTimes.com: "Inside the great investment houses on Wall Street, business has taken a surprising turn — downward.

Even after taxpayer bailouts restored bankers’ profits and pay, the great Wall Street money machine is decelerating. Big financial institutions, including commercial banks, are still making a lot of money. But given unease in the financial markets and the economy, brokerages and investment banks are not making nearly as much as their executives, employees and investors had hoped.

After an unusually sharp slowdown in trading this summer, analysts are rethinking their profit forecasts for 2010."

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Eye Beams

The Beam In Their Eyes | The New Ledger: "So, University of Chicago law professor Todd Henderson wrote a blog post discussing how his family would be affected by a rollback in the Bush tax cuts. Instantly, he was accused of “whining” by various commenters, and by the likes of Michael O’Hare, and Brad DeLong.

Via Glenn Reynolds, we find out another law instructor at the University of Chicago–and his wife–are much given to whining, despite being substantially wealthy. I wonder if O’Hare and DeLong will go after this latter couple anytime soon. Something tells me that they won’t.

Why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, can’t we have a better Reality-Based Community?"
And of course the actual point of what Henderson writes -- go laugh yourself silly at all the ignorant "Mommy Marxist" comments -- is that on the margin, no matter whether his taxes are raised a lot or a little, something has to give. And note that any fool can figure out that likely options include job destruction for recent immigrants he employs. This is simply the same thing writ on a smaller scale than what happens for the "fat cats". (Note that by "fat cats" I exclude the Wall Street leeches most of whom should be in jail for being the living embodiment of Hamilton's dream of corruption curse.)

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The ChiComs Know Who We Elected


Gateway Pundit: "A Chinese shopkeeper shows the latest t-shirt featuring U.S. President Barack Obama as a socialist soldier, in Beijing, September 9, 2010. (UPI/Stephen Shaver)"

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Saturday, September 18, 2010

The Big Bang


Debunking The Great Myth Of US Consumer Deleveraging, Or Why The US Economy Will End Not With A Whimper But A Bang | zero hedge: "Putting numbers to the data confirms that of the over $600 billion in deleveraging, only $20 billion or so of it was voluntary, with the balance occurring due to continuously irresponsible borrowing practices, in which US consumers spend, spend, spend themselves into oblivion only to be cut off cold turkey, instead of entering a slow deleveraging rehabilitation which would allow them to shift into the transition to a new creditless normal far easier.

The last observation is key as it has rather startling implications to David Rosenberg's theme of the New Frugal Normal. It would appear consumers do not, in fact, moderate their spending while still in possession of credit (regardless of its cost) - quite the contrary: they accelerate spending until the charge off threshold at the lender is breached, and all credit is cut off, also resulting in a collapse in a creditor's FICO score, cutting him or her off completely from future (at least near term) credit access. Thus what is occurring at the end of a typical consumer credit lifespan, is not a whimper but a massive bang."


UPDATE: And more on Washington's Blog. This is a RTWT.

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Zero On Zero

Down for the Zero count:

The Palin Card - Doctor Zero: "Let me put this bluntly: virtually no one in America gives a damn what Barack Obama says about anything at this point. What could be more predictable, and less interesting, than Obama’s opinion on any given subject? Who wants to contemplate the economic wisdom of a guy who looted the Treasury for a trillion dollars, with less benefit than we could have achieved by stuffing hundred dollar bills into random cereal boxes? Who’s excited to hear about the next plan to convert taxpayer dollars into Democrat campaign funds? Who’s hungry for another hour of tedious excuses about permanently broken markets and the titanic dead hand of George W. Bush? Who wants a lecture on ethical business practices from the titular head of the party that gave us Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters? What use is another hollow foreign-policy speech from a man who sees no global adversary to rival the menace of Arizona? Even Obama’s supporters don’t hear anything he says any more. There’s nothing left to hear."

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Papering Over Madison

From Madison's Federalist #10:

The Federalist #10: "The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States. A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source. A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire State."
Ah, yes. The architect of the Constitution knew quite well what was wicked, no? A cogent summary of the entire progressive project of the last 100 years. Written in 1787. And how was he papered over? Two amendments starting here. And at the same time the Fed and the decline into paper money was created, which everyone assumes was covered by a constitutional amendment but was not.

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The "Elitest"

The Dhimmi's attacks on Boehner are hysterical!

John Boehner: the second of 12 kids from Ohio who is Barack Obama's elitist target - Telegraph: "Yet Mr Boehner's life story is the type of classic up-by-the-bootstraps tale of the American Dream that can put a tear in a voter's eye. As his story becomes better known, the Democrats could even be drawing favourable attention upon him. Right now, most Americans have never heard of Mr Boehner, and fewer still can pronounce his name, which rhymes with Rayner. The alleged elitist country club Republican is an Ohio Congressman who grew up in near poverty.
His sister Lynda Meineke, who is 51, is a waitress and bar tender at Andy's Cafe in Carthage, Ohio, a family business that was founded by their grandfather Andy Boehner in 1938. As a child, one of Mr Boehner's jobs was to mop the floor.
Sitting outside the bar this week, sipping a bottle of Bud Light and smoking a cigarette, Mrs Meineke described her childhood as 'cramped' but happy. 'We learned how to share. If there was a toy, it wasn't just for you but for all the younger ones.'
Mr Boehner, 61, is the second of 12 who grew up in a German-Irish family in Reading, Ohio, just outside Cincinnati."
And we have moonbat Obama too stupid to understand that he is mocking Boehner for his skin color!
Mr Boehner's deep tan is often mocked by Democrats. At a dinner last year, Mr Obama said: "He is a person of colour, although not a colour that appears in the natural world."
Like Mr Obama, Mr Boehner is a keen golfer and a smoker. His sister sniggered at the suggestion her brother might ever have been on a tanning bed. The "dark hair and olive skin", she said, came from her mother.
LOL! As usual, if you're going to read the paper it better be a foreign one for anything resembling facts...

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Friday, September 17, 2010

EMS Unit 1

I'm missing W's socialism lite more and more.

Moonbattery: Open Thread: "Spotted in Austin, compliments of Tom."

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How It Works Out

Althouse restates the obvious:

Instapundit � Blog Archive � HEY, BEARDED MARXISTS, THIS IS HOW COMMUNISM WORKS OUT: “State retribution for tiny thefts, such …: "HEY, BEARDED MARXISTS, THIS IS HOW COMMUNISM WORKS OUT:
“State retribution for tiny thefts, such as stealing a potato, even by a child, would include being tied up and thrown into a pond…”

“… parents were forced to bury their children alive or were doused in excrement and urine, others were set alight, or had a nose or ear cut off. One record shows how a man was branded with hot metal. People were forced to work naked in the middle of winter; 80 per cent of all the villagers in one region of a quarter of a million Chinese were banned from the official canteen because they were too old or ill to be effective workers, so were deliberately starved to death.”"

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The "Henny" Bob Show

Michelle O's latest "health" campaign seems aimed to turn us into the "Banana Republic" that her husband desires -- but literally this time. And without the "Republic" part.

Speaking of which, I'll be glad to put apple slices on my steak just as soon as the big O takes her advice to put out the fire sticks.

Heh.

UPDATE: At least he's good about not smoking in public:

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90%

Heh. Who would have thought that Bob would post this instead of the Gonz?

Debunking 9 Classic Myths and Whoppers about Firearms: "The conversation turned to trigger pull and he made a statement that blew me away. He said, and I quote, “I never dry fire my weapon, it will damage them.” Lordy, lordy, lordy! Really? What rock have you been under for the past 40 years? The Marine Corps has made dry firing an art form with a week of Boot camp devoted to it, every competitor out there advocates it and I advise everyone in all my classes to do so (in a safe and secure manner with the weapon and ammo in separate rooms of the house, the lawyers made me add this part).

I can’t think of a better way to work on trigger control, which in my estimation is about 90% of the equation of shooting."

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Thursday, September 16, 2010

Welcome To OBozo Healthcare

Problem? What problem?

Moonbattery: Even Dems Sour on ObamaCare Disaster: "Too bad the ObamaCare abomination has already been rammed through into law. Maybe it can be defunded, eventually even repealed — but this won't be accomplished by electing Democrats, no matter what they say in their ads."

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Lightening Strikes

FT.com / Global Economy - Computers set for quantum leap: "A new photonic chip that works on light rather than electricity has been built by an international research team, paving the way for the production of ultra-fast quantum computers with capabilities far beyond today’s devices."
They're claiming maybe five years to first product with this. As Michael Ledeen would say, faster please.

Oh, and yesterday was a good day for the Tea Party too, wasn't it? ;)

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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

The Burning

Hard to improve on this one.

Power Line - Book Burning: "President Obama says burning a Koran would be antithetical to American ideals. Michael Ramirez comments; click to enlarge:"

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The Curse of Fiat Money

I don't suppose you were looking at what happened to gold and silver today, did you?

Guest Post: The Curse of Fiat Money | zero hedge: "The Fed's monetary policy tries to keep the balance sheet of the commercial banking sector from shrinking. For a shrinking of banks' assets would be accompanied by a decline in the credit and money supply — a development that is widely seen as being harmful to production and employment growth.

However, this is a severe, and actually fatal, misinterpretation of cause and effect. It is bank-credit expansion that has brought about the trouble in the first place, and a policy of ever lower interest rates, provoked by ever greater doses of credit and money injections, is not going to solve the damage done but will actually make matters even worse."
RTWT.

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Monday, September 13, 2010

Without Comment: The Federalist #68

The Federalist #68: "Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption. These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one querter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils. How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union?"

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A **Living** Medal Of Honor Winner (Bumped)

(Newer posts just below. -ed)

Hot Air � Medal of Honor to be awarded to living solder for first time since Vietnam: "Take everything cowardly, pathetic, and low from the last 48 hours or so of news and imagine the precise opposite. If you can’t, just read this.
ACTION FROM WHICH THE MEDAL OF HONOR WAS EARNED:

Then-Specialist Salvatore A. Giunta distinguished himself by acts of gallantry at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a rifle team leader with Company B, 2d Battalion (Airborne), 503d Infantry Regiment during combat operations against an armed enemy in the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan on October 25, 2007.

When an insurgent force ambush split Specialist Giunta’s squad into two groups, he exposed himself to enemy fire to pull a comrade back to cover. Later, while engaging the enemy and attempting to link up with the rest of his squad, Specialist Giunta noticed two insurgents carrying away a fellow soldier. He immediately engaged the enemy, killing one and wounding the other, and provided medical aid to his wounded comrade while the rest of his squad caught up and provided security. His courage and leadership while under extreme enemy fire were integral to his platoon’s ability defeat an enemy ambush and recover a fellow American paratrooper from enemy hands."
WOW. The first living Medal of Honor winner since Vietnam.

RTWT. I think that's all I'm going to post for 9-11. The only competition to this is Rudy's post so he is bumped to the top for all day 9-11. But then this one will stay bumped to top for a while...

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Sunday, September 12, 2010

Rubes

A rube ignorantly invokes Madison to trash opponents of the Victory Mosque.

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Just One Story From 9-11 (Bumped)

Just One Story From 9-11...
that We Must Never Forget!
By Rudy Zitti

She probably awoke early that morning preparing for work just as she had done hundreds of times before. The commute from South Farmingdale amid the hustle and bustle of a typical work day in New York City was also uneventful. Upon arrival at the World Trade Center Captain Kathy Mazza went about her duties as the Commanding Officer of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Academy. She was unaware of the incredible events, challenges and fate that awaited her.

At 8:46 AM the first hijacked plane struck the North Tower which began to burn. Seventeen minutes later at 9:03 a second hijacked plane struck the South Tower where Mazza was working. Captain Mazza would spend the next fifty six minutes of her life rescuing people who were trapped in the building. Mazza led a group of people down a stairwell to street level. While people were trying to exit through the revolving doors they became jammed. Mazza used her 9mm sidearm and shot out the huge glass panel walls leading to the street enabling hundreds to escape. She went back into the stairwell to assist in the rescue of a wheel-chair bound person when the South tower collapsed. She was found only inches from a door that led to safety.

That same morning my family and I were in New York visiting relatives and friends. It was our last day and we were saying our goodbyes and making preparations for our departure from Laguardia Airport later that afternoon.

A concerned friend called and told us to turn on the television. My wife and I watched in confusion and disbelieve at the images that were being televised and while we were trying to make some sense out of all that was unfolding before our eyes we saw the second hijacked plane crash into the South Tower.

I remember the horrible sickening and helpless feeling that came over me as we watched the towers burning and stared in horror as people could be seen clearly leaping to their death from the North Tower. Then I was paralyzed engulfed in an eerie silence and crushing sadness as we saw the towers collapsed.

We were still numb from the events that we witnessed on television when we decided to drive to another relatives house who was supposed to take us to the airport. We drove along the Ocean Parkway which runs along the south shore of Long Island. As I stated before it was a crystal clear day and as we got closer to New York City you could see the smoke from the burning towers for miles. At one point we stopped with other people on the side of the road. We exited the car and watched in silence as the plume of never ending smoke rose toward the sky. No one said a word but you could tell that they were all thinking the same thing. How many lives were lost? What about all the families who's lives will be forever changed.

In the hours that passed we got phone calls from friends and relatives who told us that they had heard from loved ones and that they were safe. It wasn't until a couple of weeks later that I had learned that Kathy Mazza had perished in the tower collapse.

I knew Kathy Mazza through my long time friend and partner, Nassau County Police Detective Dominic Mazza. While I did not know her well, I did see the effect that the circumstances of her death had on family and relatives. The same was true for my wife who's childhood friend and New York City Firefighter Peter Bielfeld also perished that day.

While there are many stories to be told of events that day and in the weeks afterward the one thing that strikes me still, is how people came together in this time of need. Not just people who lived in New York or people like myself who had some direct or indirect connection to the victims, but people from all over America. People who tried their best to find ways to help by donating blood, sending money, creating memorials, volunteering in any way they could or by simply flying the American flag.

It was a time when, quoting Glenn Beck, “We came together as a nation not caring about red states, blue states or political parties, uniting and standing together to protect the greatest nation ever created.”
We were determined that this horrific act of terrorism would not diminish the American spirit. We would rebuild. We would fight back. We would not let this happen again.

There are three reasons why I am telling this story.

First, we must never forget, the heroes, the innocent, and their grieving families. I keep a link to a very powerful and graphic power point of 9-11 posted on my desktop as a reminder.

Second, although it has taken far too long—nine years—to rebuild something at ground zero, I am proud and uplifted by the start of construction. As I see the memorial features being built and the structures rising from the ashes it has elevated my spirit. Once again the indomitable American spirit can prevail. Even during these times of economic hardship and the divisive political atmosphere that exists in our nation and Colorado, we must fight for what we believe in and never give up. We will likewise prevail.

Third, if we are successful in turning the tide in the next two election cycles we must use it to not only turn our country around but to bring people together as a nation with the same purpose and principles that our founders used in building this great country.

After 9-11 we faced many challenges, today we face more challenges and while the quote below was written for a different reason and time in history we would be better off to change course and follow these words of wisdom from Congressman Charles A Lindberg after WWI:

“The one compelling duty of America is to put its own house in shape, and to stand upon an economic system that will make its natural resources available to the intelligence, industry and use of the people. When we do that the way to world redemption from the folly of present chaos will stand out in our country so clearly, honestly and usefully that we shall be copied wherever peoples do their own thinking.” (Charles A Lindberg, Sr., The Economic Pinch 1923)

If you are part of the grassroots movement then let's never forget those who died on 9-11, let's also never forget those who sacrificed everything in building this great nation, let's get to work like those at Ground Zero and start rebuilding, let's create something better, let's be proud of our founding, let's put our passion to work and return America to a leadership roll and greatness in the world.

Some related facts we should never forget.

A memorial for Captain Kathy Mazza has been built constructed in Farmingdale, LI, NY. The family and donors paid for the memorial that bears Mazza's name, along with the names of the 36 other Port Authority officers who died Sept. 11. The memorial also includes the numbers 23 and 343, representing, respectively, the the number of New York City police and firefighters who died that day.

A third hijacked plane crashed (United Flight 93) into a field in rural Pennsylvania killing all 45 people on aboard when the passengers attempted to re-take control of the plane.

A fourth hijacked plane (American Airlines Flight 77) crashed in the Pentagon killing almost 200 military and civilian personnel and all 64 people on board.

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Friday, September 10, 2010

And Did I Forget To Mention The Re-Education Camps?

Hot Air - Sebelius: insurers who criticize ObamaCare may get locked out of system: "“Simply stated, we will not stand idly by as insurers blame their premium hikes and increased profits on the requirement that they provide consumers with basic protections,” Sebelius said. She warned that bad actors may be excluded from new health insurance markets that will open in 2014 under the law. They’d lose out on a big pool of customers, as many as 30 million people nationwide.


By those standards, Sebelius would have to exclude Medicare as well.� Four months ago, Medicare — which is under Sebelius’ authority — released a highly misleading brochure about the impact ObamaCare has on its consumers. It stated that Medicare Advantage patients would “still receive guaranteed Medicare benefits,” which was never in question, but made it sound as though they would suffer no reduction in services or benefits from the $500 billion in cuts to the program. It also bragged about changes in ObamaCare that had nothing to do with Medicare, including the mandate that insurers keep “children” on family policies until age 26 — a provision that does not include Medicare, for obvious reasons.

Rarely have we heard a Cabinet official tell Americans to stay out of political debates at the risk of losing their businesses. It points out the danger in having government run industries and holding a position where politicians can actually destroy a business out of spite. It also demonstrates the thin skin of our current administration, where Hope and Change means keeping your mouth shut and pretending that everyone is happy while businesses slowly circle the drain.

Of course, maybe Sebelius won’t go as far as to lock them out of the state exchanges for disputing the Official Smiley-Face Rhetoric Enforcement Squad at HHS. Perhaps she’ll just send them to a re-education facility instead."
Lovely. And she isn't kidding about the re-education camps either.

Slavery will so becoming on you...

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Thursday, September 9, 2010

Allow Me To Explain

RIGHTNETWORK | Voices | The Mothballing of the Antiwar Movement: "We're still in Iraq—end of so-called 'combat operations' or no, we're still going to have a heavy military presence there for some time—and we’re still in Afghanistan. Guantanamo Bay has not actually closed; FISA is still in full effect. Indeed, with the resumption of rendition and the aggressive deployment of predator drones, the Obama administration may be more offensive to what we will politely call the antiwar movement's ‘sensibilities’ than the Bush administration ever was. In short, everything that ostensibly furthered the growth of the antiwar movement in the first place is still in place—and yet, the movement is withering on the vine. Isn't this odd? Not so odd. Not really.

I assume that RIGHTNETWORK readers are at least of average intelligence, but for any members of Code Pink or International ANSWER who might have stumbled over here by accident, allow me to dumb it down: the antiwar movement is faltering because it was never an antiwar movement to begin with. It was an anti-Bush, anti-Republican movement, and now that neither of those entities is running things right now it is no longer necessary to keep it going."
Du'O.

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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Problems

Power Line - What's Wrong With Those Americans?: "Democrats are panicking over their prospects in November, but don't generally seem to understand why the bottom has fallen out for them so quickly. Michael Ramirez, cartoonist of genius, explains at least one of their problems."

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Farting In A Thunderstorm

Hot Air - The stupidity of politics: Green fables, jobs, and the incandescent bulb: "7. “Immense” is a relative characterization. 45 million is a big number, and is especially impressive when it’s written out with a lot of zeros: 45,000,000. 90 billon – or 90,000,000,000 – is even more impressive; but of course, it describes the same weight as 45 million if you change the unit of measurement. Immense, however, in this case means “fart in a thunderstorm.” Double the 45 million to 90 million, to include emission savings for industry and public installations, and you have a slightly bigger fart in a thunderstorm.

So, for the sake of a fart in a thunderstorm, the bulb-makers of Winchester, Virginia are this month joining the other Americans who have lost their bulb-making jobs. The free market never produces this kind of result. It takes politics to do this to people. The lesson in politics is beautifully simple: take a questionable premise; steep it in demagoguery and make unthinking adherence to it a litmus test; assert it repeatedly – preferably using impressive but unparsable adjectives – as established fact; and then, when you’ve killed people’s jobs by acting urgently on your unexamined premise, send Washington Post reporters to write a solicitous puff piece on how sad and ironic it is for them."
And here is the correct graphic in response:

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Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Monster For Tea

Roger L. Simon � Holocaust Denial: George Soros vs. the Tea Parties:
"How does Soros feel about what he did as a teenager? Has it kept him up at night?

Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes asked him that. Was it difficult? “Not at all,” Soros answered.

“No feeling of guilt?” asked Kroft. “No,” said Soros. “There was no sense that I shouldn’t be there. If I wasn’t doing it, somebody else would be taking it away anyhow. Whether I was there or not. So I had no sense of guilt.”
Somebody else would have done it. Sound familiar? It’s just the kind of excuse you might use when devaluing the British pound. A psychoanalyst might call it “splitting,” taking a part of your personality and splitting it off, as if there were two disconnected parts of you — the monster and the good citizen. The good citizen provides a mask, a disguise for the monster to do his work.

Am I calling Soros a disturbed person? In probability, yes. A man with two sides who is all the more dangerous for having both.

Starting in the 1980s, the good side went to work using his immense funds to help Eastern European countries transition out of the Soviet Union. This culminated in the 1990s with the establishment of the Open Society Institute.

But here in the United States, the same young man who collaborated with the Nazis has trouble as a grown man making moral distinctions or choosing sensible allies. He funded MoveOn.org, whose astonishing conflation of Bush and Hitler was both morally shameful and psychologically sick. (What an insult that was to the memory of the Holocaust.)

Now — and this is the proximate cause of my wanting to write about him in the first place — Soros is going after the tea party movement. "
And in a nutshell:
So now we have a former (allegedly guilt-free) collaborator with Hitler helping fund an attack on the tea parties. An ex-Ku Kluxer in the Senate was bad enough, but this is crazy, if you take even three baby steps backward to think about it.
Unbelievable.

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Sunday, September 5, 2010

Have You Been Brainwashed?

Moonbattery: David Barton's US Capitol Tour: "A little history lesson for moonbats who have convinced themselves that the Founding Fathers shared their hostility to Christianity:"


Yep.

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Bye Bye Betsy

And in some good local news:

DEMOCRATS PLAN POLITICAL TRIAGE TO RETAIN HOUSE - Inside Bay Area: "WASHINGTON -- As Democrats brace for a November wave that threatens their control of the House, party leaders are preparing a brutal triage of their own members in hopes of saving enough seats to keep a slim grip on the majority.
In the next two weeks, Democratic leaders will review new polls and other data that show whether vulnerable incumbents have a path to victory. If not, the party is poised to redirect money to concentrate on trying to protect up to two dozen lawmakers who appear to be in the strongest position to fend off their challengers.
'We are going to have to win these races one by one,' said Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, conceding that the party would ultimately cut loose members who had not gained ground.
With the midterm campaign entering its final two months, Democrats acknowledged that several races could quickly move out of their reach, including re-election bids by Reps. Betsy Markey of Colorado, Tom Perriello of Virginia, Mary Jo Kilroy of Ohio and Frank Kratovil Jr. of Maryland, whose districts were among the 55 Democrats won from Republicans in the last two election cycles."
Good riddance.

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The (Now Airbrushed Away) Surge Is What Happened

Pajamas Media � Majority of Iraqis Oppose Obama’s Withdrawal: "According to the latest CBS poll, nearly 70 percent of Americans approve of President Obama’s decision to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq. In a remarkable turnaround, the Iraqis are the bigger opponents of the president’s plan. Iraqis want American soldiers to stay in their country more than Americans do.

A new poll by an Iraqi company found that nearly 60 percent feel it is the wrong time for U.S. soldiers to leave and 53 percent oppose President Obama’s ending of the combat mission. A little more than half believe the withdrawal will hurt the country and only one-fourth view the development positively. And in a statistic that is sure to bother those that boast of Obama’s worldwide popularity, nearly 42 percent feel the president does not care about the situation in Iraq.

Back in September 2006, the year when Iraq nearly fell to civil war, 71 percent of Iraqis wanted U.S. forces to leave their country in a year or less. There was a widespread perception that U.S. soldiers were the ones responsible for their misery. Most disturbingly, 61 percent of Iraqis felt attacks on U.S. soldiers were legitimate, a 14 percent increase from the beginning of 2006. But by March 2008, only 38 percent wanted U.S. forces to leave immediately and a majority wanted them to stay until the country was secured.

What happened? The surge is what happened."
Oh. And in other news he actually told our troops that our country is safer because of what they did in Iraq. Of course, he couldn't do that in the moonbat media so he thought he could sneak it by on YouTube. Needless to say the lefty loons found out and are going apesh*t about that. So in a rare "stopped clock" moment, I hereby present our moonbat president actually saying the right thing:

Of course, that doesn't mean he's not lying in terms of what he really thinks. He's just lying directly to the troops. So now you know.

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Saturday, September 4, 2010

Can We Talk?

iowahawk: Barack, Can We Talk?: "Barack, can we, uh, talk for a few minutes?

Oh, nothing. It's just that it just seems we haven't had a chance to talk for a while. I mean, I know we've both been busy for the past year or so. You with your fundraisers and golfing and stuff, and me with all those appointments at the unemployment office. But you know I think it's important in a relationship like ours to keep the lines of communication open.

So anyway, I've been think that... look, this is really hard. God. Do you remember when we met at that big party in Denver back in 08? I mean when I saw you across that crowded convention floor, it was like, Oh My God. I don't think I ever saw anything like you before. I was on the rebound from a bad relationship and you were so tall and articulate and, well hot. And then I couldn't believe that of all the democracies in the room you picked me out!

Yeah I know my some of my friends warned me you were trouble, and that it was the alcohol talking. But I knew that if we gave it a chance we could make it work. You and me, together. And after you moved in, I really think we did for a while. I mean, you've really helped me get over my inhibitions and hangups, and I like to think I've really helped you grow and discover yourself. Like last year when I lent you $800 billion to pay for your demo tape and new rims for the Cadillac."

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Resurrecting Federalism

Ezra Klein’s rather silly defense of the 17th Amendment (updates) | Questions and Observations: "'But it was not sufficient,' say the adversaries of the proposed Constitution, 'for the convention to adhere to the republican form. They ought, with equal care, to have preserved the FEDERAL form, which regards the Union as a CONFEDERACY of sovereign states; instead of which, they have framed a NATIONAL government, which regards the Union as a CONSOLIDATION of the States.'

So there, in the hand of the man who drafted the Constitution, are the working definitions of the two terms as they understood them. Note how the FEDERAL form is defined. As you read through the rest of Federalist 39, you’ll find Madison discussing both the NATIONAL model and the FEDERAL model and pointing out some of both are necessary. They had a purely FEDERAL form under the Articles of Confederation. It didn’t work well. They knew that had to put some national powers into the hands of the new government, but they feared such a type of government, so they wanted to limit the scope of that power. He specifically addresses the Congress and how it was purposely designed to limit the power of a national government while importantly preserving some federalism"
And yes, the 17th Amendment needs to be repealed -- probably even more than the 18th needed to be. And don't get me started on the 16th...

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Gross

The Truth about That Dishonest Vanity Fair Palin Story, from One Who Was There - Big Journalism: "One more thing among your errors: “the boy” in the excerpted quote above, was not Trig Palin. That was my Samuel, also a beautiful boy with Down syndrome.� No “nanny whisk(ed) the boy away.” I am his mother. I took my son, Samuel from Sarah before she went on stage. I told Mr. Gross that fact, but he didn’t let that divert him from his pathetic narrative.
That is not journalism. That is just gross."
Yep. Gross. A name that pretty much sums up the whole mound of jiggling slime that call themselves our betters.

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Thorium: The New Plastic

Development of Tiny Thorium Reactors Could Wean the World Off Oil In Just Five Years | Popular Science: "An abundant metal with vast energy potential could quickly wean the world off oil, if only Western political leaders would muster the will to do it, a UK newspaper says today. The Telegraph makes the case for thorium reactors as the key to a fossil-fuel-free world within five years, and puts the ball firmly in President Barack Obama's court.
Thorium, named for the Norse god of thunder, is much more abundant than uranium and has 200 times that metal's energy potential. Thorium is also a more efficient fuel source -- unlike natural uranium, which must be highly refined before it can be used in nuclear reactors, all thorium is potentially usable as fuel.
The Telegraph says thorium could be used as an energy amplifier in next-generation nuclear power plants, an idea conceived by Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia, former director of CERN."
Yes, that's right - a "nutjob" like the former director of CERN. LOL! And it's a by-product of rare-earth metals mining. But it won't happen until after the collapse and we put all the politicians in jail of course. They won't allow it until then.

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WrongO

Jamie Stiehm - Oval Office rug gets history wrong: "Yet somehow a mistake was made and magnified in our culture to the point that a New England antebellum abolitionist's words have been enshrined in the Oval Office while attributed to a major 20th-century figure. That is a shame, because the slain civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate [MLK -ed] was so eloquent in his own right. Obama, who is known for his rhetorical skills, is likely to feel the slight to King -- and Parker.

My investigation into this error led me to David Remnick's biography of Obama, 'The Bridge,' published this year. Early in the narrative, Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker, presents this as 'Barack Obama's favorite quotation.' It appears that neither Remnick nor Obama has traced the language to its true source.

Parker said in 1853: 'I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one. . . . But from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.'"
Obama's fact checking machine seems to be down. Actually, it would more likely seem that it's never been up wouldn't it? [Cross posted from WTF]

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Bankrupted Breadbaskets

From the Pen of David Horowitz: September 04, 2010 | NewsReal Blog: "How many poor people have progressives starved since 1917? It’s a good question and somebody should do the research and publish it. Russia was the breadbasket of Europe until progressives seized power in that year and started instituting policies to “share the wealth.” For the next 70 years until socialism collapsed, Russia was a net importer of food always on the brink of famine. In the 1930s, Stalin instigated a calculated famine in the Ukraine to rid himself of approximately 10 million political enemies.

His crime was protected by the progressives at the New York Times and on the Pulitzer Prize Committee (they control both institutions to this day). Because soft progressives cover for hard-line progressives like Stalin, Castro and other political monsters — preferring to demonize George Bush and John Ashcroft instead — these atrocities continue.

The left’s inability to understand the most basic economic fact — that people need an incentive to produce — has caused the unnecessary deaths of tens of millions of people — mostly poor — in the last 75 years. But thanks to a politically corrupted media and educational system, their pig-headed pursuit of socialist fantasies goes on."

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A Fitting Metaphor: Shakedown Stripped

Payne: The irony of Jesse Jackson's stripped SUV | themichiganview.com | The Michigan View: "Following the embarrassing news that Mayor Dave Bing’s GMC Yukon was hijacked by criminals this week, Detroit’s Channel 7 reports that the Reverend’s Caddy Escalade SUV was stolen and stripped of its wheels while he was in town last weekend with the UAW’s militant President Bob King leading the “Jobs, Justice, and Peace” march promoting government-funded green jobs.
Read that again: Jackson’s Caddy SUV was stripped while he was in town promoting green jobs.

Add Jesse to the Al Gore-Tom Friedman-Barack Obama School of Environmental Hypocrisy. While preaching to Americans that they need to cram their families into hybrid Priuses to go shopping for compact fluorescent light bulbs to save the planet, they themselves continue to live large."
And then the writer drops the hammer:
Real jobs produced big, profitable SUVs like the one Jesse prefers to ride in. His SUV has been stripped by thugs – a fitting metaphor for what Jesse and his pals have done to the auto industry for the last 35 years.
Perfect.

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Yep

Instapundit - Blog Archive - DER SPIEGEL: Obama’s Misguided Approach: America Has Become Too European. “The nation would be be…: "DER SPIEGEL: Obama’s Misguided Approach: America Has Become Too European. “The nation would be better off embracing traditional American values like self-reliance and small government.” Yep. That’s what they’re writing in Der Spiegel."

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Friday, September 3, 2010

Something Bad Might Happen

Moonbattery: Swing Sets Banned to Ward Off Lawyer Swarms: "Swings are being removed from Cabell County schools in southern West Virginia in part because of lawsuits over injuries.
Cabell County schools safety manager Tim Stewart said Wednesday that a lot of parents are accusing him of being un-American, but he says the cost of maintaining a safe surface is too expensive.
Stewart says a lawsuit in the past year involved a youngster who broke his arm jumping off a swing like Superman. It was settled for $20,000.

Appallingly, Sean Hannity took to the airwaves yesterday proclaiming that banning swing sets is good because children might hurt themselves. Next will be bicycles, then skateboards, then roller skates, et cetera, ad nauseam, until shoes are banned because if children wear them, they'll be tempted to go outside, where something bad might happen."

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The Real Gun Nuts

Gun politics in Switzerland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Recreational shooting is widespread in Switzerland. Practice with guns is a popular recreation, and is encouraged by the government, particularly for the members of the militia.[11] Swiss firearms-related rights are supported by the organization ProTell.
200,000 people attend the annual Feldschiessen weekend, which is the largest rifle shooting competition in the world.[3][12] Hunting rifles have special exemptions under Swiss law. Purchases from dealers of hunting long guns and of small bore rifles are not even recorded by the dealer. In other words, the dealer would not record the sale of a .30-06 hunting rifle, but would record the sale of a .30-06 M1 Garand rifle.[3] According to chapter 2 article 10 of Swiss law, people over the age of 18 do not need a permit to purchase a rifle for use in hunting, off-duty shooting and sport-shooting events.[10]
In addition, there are several private shooting ranges that rent guns. It is possible to go shooting with minimal supervision and without an id-check."
And so violent too. Did I forget to mention that the gun related death rate per capita in Switzerland is somewhere between 1-10% that of the the United States depending on how you count? In fact the rate is so low that statistics are not even kept. And with a gun ownership rate comparable to or higher than the U.S.?

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And A Good Sweeping After That

Instapundit - Blog Archive - UNEMPLOYMENT: “The jobs lost in the 2000-2001 recession don’t seem to have ever come back. The pe…: "“The USA is increasingly not a good place to do business. We need a stiff broom. I worry that the GOP won’t do what it takes.” So do I. I was on Hugh Hewitt’s show last night, and he said that when he talks to Beltway GOP insiders he’s amazed at how out of touch they are. They’re not even sure about passing a ban on earmarks if they take the majority, much less more significant change. If they get the majority back, and blow it, they’ll be looking at a third-party challenge in 2012, and not just at the Presidential level."

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And About To Throw Out Some More Trash ...

Instapundit - Blog Archive - REVOLT OF THE BOURGEOIS: The much-analyzed speeches at the Glenn Beck Lincoln Memorial rally wer…: "REVOLT OF THE BOURGEOIS:

The much-analyzed speeches at the Glenn Beck Lincoln Memorial rally weren’t as notable as what the estimated 300,000 attendees did: follow instructions, listen quietly to hours of speeches, and throw out their trash.

Just as stunning as the tableaux of the massive throngs lining the reflecting pool were the images of the spotless grounds afterward. If someone had told attendees they were expected to mow the grass before they left, surely some of them would have hitched flatbed trailers to their vehicles for the trip to Washington and gladly brought mowers along with them."
... from DC that is...

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Thursday, September 2, 2010

Did I Forget To Mention The Unexpected?

Althouse: Christina Romer, mystified.: "Saying her good-byes.
When she and her colleagues [on the Council of Economic Advisers] began work, she acknowledged, they did not realize 'how quickly and strongly the financial crisis would affect the economy.' They 'failed to anticipate just how violent the recession would be.'

Even now, Romer said, mystery persists. 'To this day, economists don't fully understand why firms cut production as much as they did or why they cut labor so much more than they normally would.' Her defense was that 'almost all analysts were surprised by the violent reaction.'

Yes, we've noticed that every damned thing that happens is declared 'unexpected.'"
RTWT. I'm betting it wasn't unexpected to you though...

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O Longing For Fidel's Gulag

Instapundit � Blog Archive � DAVE KOPEL: Obama Is Too A Christian. “Coulter is accurate in calling Jeremiah Wright ‘a racist nu…: "DAVE KOPEL: Obama Is Too A Christian. “Coulter is accurate in calling Jeremiah Wright ‘a racist nut.’ However, that does not prove that Wright (and by extension Obama, to whatever extent Obama believes in Wright’s theology) is not a Christian. Some practitioners of ‘liberation theology’ (including the black liberation theology variant) may simply be Marxists looking for some broadly-appealing rhetoric to add to their political program. Other practitioners, however, may be sincerely and otherwise-orthodox Christians who truly believe in both Christianity and Marxism, and in the liberation theology fusion of the two. . . . Similarly, I would suggest that many of the pastors in slave states in antebellum America who taught that slavery was legitimate because of the slaves’ inherent racial inferiority were also sincere Christians, albeit grossly mistaken in their teachings on this matter.”"
This is too kind to O Duce. Of course I can't know what is in Obama's heart -- unlike he is likely certain he knows what is in mine(!) -- but there is plenty of evidence that he spent his life as a a pure Marxist Socialist and certainly none to contradict it from his actions in office.



But then the next paragraph just sings with truth:
And — to take things beyond the Obama question — on a similar moral plane. In fact, if you look at a Marxist Utopia — say, Cuba — what you’ll see is basically a plantation. At the top, you’ve got the Massa and his family — Fidel, Raul, et al. — followed by various layers of overseers — the Communist Party apparat, the secret police — and House Negroes — e.g., the state-controlled media — all living off the surplus labor of the Field Negroes, whose produce is disposed of not according to their own desires (that would be capitalism!) but according to their betters’. This, we’re told, is for the best, since they aren’t smart enough to make their own decisions anyway, and the Massa looks after them with food, housing, and health care. Slaveholders even defended their system as more humane and less exploitative than atomistic capitalism, conveniently ignoring the role of the lash, just as apologists for Marxism conveniently ignore the role of the gulag.
Perfectly executed analysis as Andrew Wilkow would say...

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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

The Country Has Fallen Into The Wrong Hands

The Volokh Conspiracy - Obama import ban on rifles confirmed: "Today, Maxim Lott’s reporting for FoxNews confirms that the Korea Times accurately characterized the American government objections:
The Obama administration approved the sale of the American-made rifles last year. But it reversed course and banned the sale in March – a decision that went largely unnoticed at the time but that is now sparking opposition from gun rights advocates.

A State Department spokesman said the administration’s decision was based on concerns that the guns could fall into the wrong hands."
My title comes from one of the comments on the quoted post.

We need to fund a life-long golf vacation for O Duce post haste. Please join me in beginning the process in early November.

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