Friday, December 31, 2010

If Global Warming Causes Snow, Do We Still Need to Paint Our Roofs White?

If Global Warming Causes Snow, Do We Still Need to Paint Our Roofs White? - By Greg Pollowitz - Planet Gore - National Review Online: "James Taranto responds to this op-ed that claims global warming causes snow:
We were out on the streets of New York last night. The whole place was white! And we haven’t run our air-conditioner since the snow started. But that’s nothing. Manhattan is roughly 1/175,000th the size of Siberia. You could paint the town red and it would absorb only a tiny fraction of the solar radiation reflected by Russia’s vast, snow-covered expanse."
Heh.

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You Will Once More Be Called Unpatriotic ...

... because you haven't yet done enough to help the environment:

Instapundit » Blog Archive » HAPPY NEW YEAR: Oil Surges to Highest Year-End Price Since 2007 on Dollar. “Oil surged to its high…: "HAPPY NEW YEAR: Oil Surges to Highest Year-End Price Since 2007 on Dollar. “Oil surged to its highest year-end price since 2007 as the dollar weakened and gasoline and heating oil futures climbed.”

I paid 3.22/gallon for gas today. I expect I’ll be paying more soon. Expect a flurry of JournoListism telling us that high gasoline prices are good because they help the environment."

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Have a Merry Union Membership and a Happy New Year

And now you know why you can't afford a theatre ticket:

Why theater tickets cost so much: "At Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, the average stagehand salary and benefits package is $290,000 a year.
To repeat, that is the average compensation of all the workers who move musicians’ chairs into place and hang lights, not the pay of the top five.
Across the plaza at the Metropolitan Opera, a spokesman said stagehands rarely broke into the top-five category. But a couple of years ago, one did. The props master, James Blumenfeld, got $334,000 at that time, including some vacation back pay."

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An Interview With Milton Friedman

Powerline has an interview with Milton Friedman you ought to watch if you haven't seen it before:

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Introduction to the Perestroika Deception

You might remember my recent post highlighting a lecture by the Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov.

Then there's what Vladimir Bukovsky has to say in "The Power of Memory and Acknowledgement":

Because we didn’t win the Cold War, it isn’t over. We were given a chance to win in 1991. To do it we needed a Nuremburg trial, but not a trial of people. In a country like the Soviet Union, if you tried to find all the guilty, you would end up with 19 million people, and who needs another Gulag? This isn’t about punishing individuals. It’s about judging the system. I spent a lot of time trying to persuade the Yeltsin government to conduct such a trial. Yeltsin finally said, “No.” The reason he had to say no was the enormous pressure he felt from the West not to have such a trial. I’ve seen the cables he received from all over the world, mostly from Russian embassies, ex-plaining that local politicians and governments were vehemently against any trials or disclosure of crimes or opening of archives. Finally Yeltsin just gave in.

Because of documents I recovered, we now understand why the West was so against putting the communist system on trial. It is not only that the West was infiltrated by the Soviets much deeper than we ever thought, but also that there was ideological collaboration between left-wing parties in the West and the Soviet Union. This ideological collaboration ran very
deep.

For example—and this brings us back to the European Union—in the middle of the 1980s the European left parties talked to Gorbachev and explained to him that because it is difficult to organize socialism in one country, it should be done in all of Europe at once. Gorbachev agreed. They launched a project called “Common European Home,” which was, in essence, the precursor to the European Union.
RTWT. But what does he know as a Soviet dissident? Why he must be crazy since he was a Soviet "psychiatric patient" right?

Welcome to the "Perestroika Deception":
The Cold War is over and Communism is a non-issue for most Americans. Communism is such a non-issue that Communist plans to undermine American society have proceeded for years virtually undetected and unhindered. Recent events have aided this process, with President Obama's aggressive drive toward Socialism fitting neatly into decades of Communist strategy.[2]

That long and patient strategy of deception was developed in the halls of the KGB, and dutifully carried out by Communist subversives in the United States. Prominent KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn has called it the "perestroika deception."[3]

According to KGB documents published by Golitsyn, "perestroika" and "glasnost" were always intended from the beginning to serve as a media ploy to deceive the West into lowering its defenses to the point where Soviet goals could proceed unchallenged. Of Golitsyn's 194 predictions, 139 had been fulfilled as of 1993.[4]
It's easy to be a prole. It's much harder to open your eyes.

Financial crisis? We are indeed living in a crisis -- but it's much worse than you think.

Oh never mind, who's going to be on "Dancing with the Stars" today?

UPDATE: Video added of Bukovsky lecturing at the Cato Institute. Below is a short version and the full hour long version is here.



Bukovsky was also involved in "The Soviet Story". Oh yes -- how could we forget that?:

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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Ogabe's Zimbabwe-fornia

RTWT:

California’s Central Valley: Zimbabwe West? « Hot Air: "Until recently, California’s Central Valley was one of the nation’s most productive agricultural regions.  Not only did it feed itself, the state of California, and the entire country, it also produced exports to other nations.  That kind of enterprise employed a lot of people in Central California, from farm hands to wholesalers, and created a high standard of living.

That continued right up to the moment that the federal government got more concerned over the Delta smelt, a small, inedible fish, than feeding people.  A court order cut off water deliveries for seven months out of the year to the Central Valley at the same time a drought hit, and the combination turned a once-fertile breadbasket to the world into a Dust Bowl — or as Investors Business Daily suggests, a government-initiated agricultural disaster on the same order as Zimbabwe today or Ukraine in the 1930s."

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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Obligations


Power Line - The Real Blizzard of 2010: "Mayor Bloomberg may be receiving an unfair amount of criticism for his lackluster performance in coping with Mother Nature, given the almost unprecedented nature of the storm, but the unplowed city streets provide a metaphor for the nanny state: It can order us to do anything, but it can't take care of the basic obligations of government."

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"Education" Lunacy Update

Lunchbox mix-up leads to charges for Sanford teen :: WRAL.com: "SANFORD, N.C. — An athletic and academic standout in Lee County said a lunchbox mix-up has cut short her senior year of high school and might hurt her college opportunities.

Ashley Smithwick, 17, of Sanford, was suspended from Southern Lee High School in October after school personnel found a small paring knife in her lunchbox.

Smithwick said personnel found the knife while searching the belongings of several students, possibly looking for drugs.

“She got pulled into it. She doesn’t have to be a bad person to be searched,” Smithwick’s father, Joe Smithwick, said.

The lunchbox really belonged to Joe Smithwick, who packs a paring knife to slice his apple. He and his daughter have matching lunchboxes.

“It’s just an honest mistake. That was supposed to be my lunch because it was a whole apple,” he said."

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Monday, December 27, 2010

Turning Blue

Defending States' Rights | No Left Turns: "If, as E. J. Dionne allows, 'the central cause of the [Civil] war was our national disagreement over race and slavery, not states' rights or anything else,' then there is no reason why we need to associate the defense of federalism with either slavery or racism.
Perhaps Mr. Dionne will soon come out in support of Randy Barnett's proposed federalism amendment."

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Big BrO Jumps The Salamander Crossing

Moonbattery: Christmas Continues: "For Big Government and those with access to its bountiful teats, Christmas isn't over, because it's Christmas every day:"


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Honor


Guns Holsters and Gear » Honor: "This has to be one of the best definitions of honor that I have seen.  Thank you to all of our military for their service.  Stay safe, know we are praying for you, and come home soon!"

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priOrities

Obama calls Pakistani Prez to appeal for clemency for Asia Bibi -- no, wait... - Jihad Watch: "Actually, Obama has done nothing whatsoever about Asia Bibi, the Christian woman who faces judicial murder for blasphemy in Pakistan. But he did find the time to call the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles to congratulate him for giving Michael Vick a second chance."
We have a whack job for a President. But he is tall, nice looking and has a soothing voice. In short, our stupefied "voters" have elected an American Idol.

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Sunday, December 26, 2010

Venezuela North

Moonbattery: The Venezuela of North America: "Joe Vranich explains why California's rule by moonbats has businesses in relocation mode:"


Lights out.

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Saturday, December 25, 2010

Of Herring And Cosmics

Something to go with all the pickled herring you're eating:

Global Warming - Some Real Science - Hmmm Imagine That!: "I'm an personally sick of the global warming hysteria. I was talking to my 84 year old dad the other day and he clearly remembered all these same 'experts' were freaking everyone out about an impending ice age back in the 70s. Yes, global warming is happening, but it's not because of CO2. Those with the most wealth and power have whipped this CO2 myth into a frenzy to advance their own selfish globalization goals. These people are just doing what they always do, lie, distort and manipulate reality then launch a massive sales campaign to con us all into believing it. Remember, having a PhD is no guarantee that you are someone who tells the truth."


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Wizards

Moonbattery: Merry Christmas!: "On a tip from Dan."

Just in case you found yourself let down on your quest for Christmas lights:

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Merry Christmas

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Friday, December 24, 2010

Have A Very CARBy Christmas

Moonbattery: What CARB Would Do to Santa's Sleigh: "Why Santa might find that with his busy schedule, California will have to be cut from his itinerary — at least until they get the moonbattery under control:"


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Hitler's "Christmas" Party


You have been brainwashed to believe that Hitler was a "right wing" Christian. Frankly, you have been brainwashed to a point almost beyond belief:

Hitler's Christmas party: Rare photographs capture leading Nazis celebrating in 1941 | Mail Online: "The pictures from December 18, which have only just come to light, show Hitler and his generals at a party for SS officer cadets in Munich.

But the Nazi Christmas was far from traditional.

Hitler believed religion had no place in his 1,000-year Reich, so he replaced the Christian figure of Saint Nicholas with the Norse god Odin and urged Germans to celebrate the season as a holiday of the ‘winter solstice’, rather than Christmas.

Out of sight at the top of the tree behind Hitler was a swastika instead of an angel, and many of the baubles carried runic symbols and iron cross motifs. The remarkable pictures were captured by Hugo Jaeger, one of the Fuhrer’s personal photographers."
Here's what's really been going on:


After watching this, click through to YouTube and follow the links over right through the multi-part series.There are the wolves, the sheep and the sheepdogs have all gone on strike. The ending is predictable.

You know that treaty with Putin that O Duce just rammed through in total contempt of the 20th Amendment? (Even Wikipedia has a reasonable understanding of the 20th Amendment.)

Did I forget to mention that Putin was (is) a KGB Colonel?

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Thursday, December 23, 2010

Nothing They Like Less

I get a great belly laugh when lefties say the "free market" has failed us! LOL!

Why Businesses Can't Stand Free Markets: Veronique de Rugy - Bloomberg: "For almost two decades, the monks of St. Joseph Abbey in Covington, Louisiana, supported themselves by making and selling unadorned handmade pine and cypress caskets.

But if embalmers and funeral directors in the state of Louisiana have their way, the monks will be barred from earning a living by making coffins without a license issued by a state government board, eight of whose nine members work in the funeral industry.

Business people love to say how much they cherish free markets, all the while decrying government that limits entrepreneurialism and personal freedom.

But the truth is there is nothing most business people like less than free markets."

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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The Game

I'll believe the "wins" when I see them happen -- until then I don't even trust Paul or Rubio farther than I can throw them after this latest lunacy by their "peers":

Lindsey Graham Gives Away the Game | RedState: "There has been a lot of speculation this week about why the GOP rolled over in the Senate on virtually every issue. From Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’s repeal to START to you name it — the GOP became the party of capitulation. So much so that even Lindsey Graham is blasting the Senate GOP “for a ‘capitulation … of dramatic proportions’ to Democrats and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in the lame-duck Congress.”

In his statement about why the GOP folded like a cheap suit, Graham gives away the game. He says, “I can understand the Democrats being afraid of the new Republicans; I can’t understand Republicans being afraid of the new Republicans.”

...

Why worry? Because the Senate GOP wants to cut deals with the Senate Democrats and they know that just Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Jim DeMint will be able to force deals much more conservative than the Senate GOP is.

So Senate Republicans decided to roll over on big issues now knowing that next year they will be forced further right than they might be comfortable.

Here’s a golden truth some of you won’t like, but is true nonetheless: Mike Lee and Rand Paul are worth ten regular Republican Senators any day of the week. They’ll fight. And they’ll win."

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The Only Thing Worse

There's the bullsh*t the Obamedia feeds you. Then there's reality:

The Real Story Behind the Comcast-Level 3 Battle: Tech News «: "All of this said, no one here did anything wrong; these disputes aren’t uncommon. Well, no one did anything wrong until Level 3 whined to the press and regulators. When you’re on the losing side of a peering dispute, you’re always tempted to complain to regulators about how you’ve been treated unfairly. Then you remember a regulated peering arrangement is the only thing worse than what we have now. More regulation puts more power in the hands of the big providers, not less, as they have the experience, resources, and the legions of regulatory lawyers necessary to “play the game.”

Look at the Telecom Act of 1996; the Baby Bells won that fight due to their superior regulatory game-playing ability. The cable companies, PTTs (national telephone companies), AT&T, and Verizon would surely come out on top of any major movement towards peering regulation which would cut out the large number of small firms that peer 50 percent to 70 percent of their traffic."

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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

O Chavez Watch

O and Chavez are different how again?

Chavez defends plan for Internet regulations: "'We aren't eliminating the Internet here ... nor censoring the Internet,' Chavez said during his weekly television and radio program, 'Hello, President.' 'What we're doing is protecting ourselves against crimes, cybercrimes, through a law.'

As examples, Chavez mentioned messages promoting drug use, prostitution and other crimes, and said his government has an obligation to take a stand. Questions remain about how the measures would be enforced.

Chavez also rebuffed criticism over the National Assembly's vote on Friday granting him special powers to enact laws by decree in a range of areas for the next year and a half.

Critics called it a power grab, noting that Chavez will be able to largely bypass the incoming National Assembly that takes office next month with a larger opposition contingent."

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Monday, December 20, 2010

Even See B.S. Gets It

And nothing predicts a reality freight train better than see B.S. getting it. Because that means it's far, far too late to get off the tracks.

60 Minutes: Fiscal day of reckoning is here | The Right Scoop: "I know this problem is bigger than Obama, but geez, how can the MSM do fabulous reports like this and not see that the whole trillion dollar stimulus was just a load of crap. It did nothing more than grow our debt, and all the money that was given to state and local governments has now run out. Just like GM, after taking tax payer money several times and finally having to go bankrupt to fix their core problems, state and local governments will have to do the same. It’s ridiculous that they just continue to let Obama and crew lie about this when the facts are staring them right in the face!"


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A Drinking Story

You'll want to get sloshed after you see it. Unless you're a leftist in which case math can never displace your feeeeelings.

Moonbattery: Bar Stool Economics: How Taxes Work: "The crazy chart from the commies at Mother Jones he refers to can be seen here.

Basically, moonbats want an economic system in which the energetic and able are enslaved to a nonproductive parasite class. One problem is that people forced to work not for their own benefit but for the benefit of hostile freeloaders aren't as productive. The closer America comes to the communism our rulers are incrementally imposing, the less productive the slaves will be, until we reach the point that they aren't willing or able to produce anything at all. Then there will be no drinks for anybody, and utopian equality will have been achieved at last."

And by the way, the continuing project of the left is to create a world gulag where people with brains have nowhere left to flee. Looks only a few years away from fruition to me...

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Unintended Consequences

Watch and weep.

Unmasking The Unintended Consequences Of US Central Planning | zero hedge: "The NIA continues with its series of bite-sized video documentaries exposing the stupidity and lies out of the US government. While the previous clip looked at a fictitious world in which the dollar had just died, today's is one which analyzes the plethora of unintended consequences that emerge as a result of the government's centrally planned tinkering. As always, it is a must watch, even if one does not agree with the NIA's overarching theme that government policies will ultimately result in uncontrollable price moves following the destruction of the reserve currency."




Just to be clear: I don't agree with absolutely everything shown -- most notably the simplistic comments about national defense. For instance, most libs have no clue about the existence of this little ditty by someone you might have assumed was in your hip pocket. He has been swallowed by his own memory hole.

On the other hand, defense -- much less outright war -- is unmistakably a costly endeavor that needs careful deliberation and should never be undertaken without either winnable objectives or to demonstrate unmistakably to an enemy that the price of further aggression is unacceptable -- and preferably before the enemy can gather strength. Or to fight for our very survival which is what we always somehow end up in because these are never achieved now are they?

That said, WTWT.

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Saturday, December 18, 2010

It Was A Bright Cold Day

Have you been careful to avoid your thoughtcrimes today?

That thing from 1984: Oligarchical Collectivism « Orwell's Dreams: "On April 4, 1984, the main character begins to pen a diary. Winston Smith and everyone around him are strictly controlled in a collective. The collective is so harsh and belittling of the individual that free thinking is illegal, a thought-crime. There is Big Brother, the entity adopted by the state and there is the Brotherhood, a supposed loose group of people who defy Big Brother. Big Brother issues a dictionary that eliminates language with every edition. And the Brotherhood has its own required reading, called The Theory and Practice to Oligarchical Collectivism. It has become known as the book within the book. Oligarchical Collectivism means the linking or joining of institutions, institutions designed to keep control in the hands of the few.
There are three types of institutions in the world, those of state, those of corporate and those of religion. A foundational concept of the United States is, or was, a separation of these institutions to eliminate the potential for oligarchical collectivism. The founding fathers may not have used the term, but they certainly observed such diabolical collectives of institutions, states supported by churches, with corporate functions."

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But Don't Raise The Retirement Age!

We wouldn't want real science so get done now would we? Not when we can spend our lives on drunken vacations instead:

CERN Research Budget Gets Cut: "European particle physics research center CERN located near Geneva, Switzerland has gotten its budget cut by 6% over the next five years. Europe no longer has the money to fund it.

CERN's budget gets the axe as Europe pisses away all its money on climate research.
It was just a question of time. With so much money being pissed away on bogus climate research and save-the-world projects, eventually you run out of funds to pay for real science and research.

How many billions have been poured into researching the non-problem of climate change? The IPCC? Hansen’s GISS surface station folly? Green subsidies? The list is endless."
And I'll bet about a hundred dollars that you were unaware of this:
An experiment designed to investigate the link between solar activity and the climate has its first results in the bag. At the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco today, Joachim Curtius presented data from the first runs of the CLOUD (‘cosmics leaving outdoor droplets’) experiment at CERN – the European particle physics lab outside of Geneva.

The experiment has a long and bumpy history. The idea is to test the theory that cosmic rays spur the formation of particles in the air that nucleate clouds, in turn making skies cloudier and the planet cooler. Researchers have noted a dearth of sunspots (which is linked to more cosmic rays) during the ‘little ice age’ of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and a peak in sunspots (linked to a drop in cosmic rays) during the late 1980s, when global cloudiness dropped by about 3% (see Nature‘s feature on the project). No one knows how big this effect might be, and the idea that it might account for a big chunk of the warming over the last century is highly controversial.

CLOUD uses a particle beam from CERN as a stand-in for cosmic rays, and fires them through an ultra-clean steel chamber filled with select atmospheric gases, to see if and how particles that could nucleate clouds are formed. Project head Jasper Kirkby proposed the experiment back in 1998. But it had a hard time getting off the ground – perhaps in part because Kirkby received bad press for emphasizing the importance of cosmic rays to climate change (see this story from the National Post). CLOUD finally got going in 2006, and they started work with the full kit in November 2009 (here’s a CERN video update about that).

The results haven’t yet been published, so Curtius declined to discuss the details. But the important thing is that the project is working – they have seen sulphuric acid and water combine to make particles when blasted by the CERN beam, for example, in a way that matches predictions of the most recent models. The data should help the team to quantify how much of an impact the Sun is having on climate within 2-3 years, Curtius says – though there are a lot more pieces of the puzzle to fill in.
You can watch the most recent lecture by Kirkby at CERN here. WTWT -- you will quickly learn you have been soaked in lies by the oligarchical collectivists.

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Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Unrestricted?

An Honest Question for Lefties | The Agitator: "If your answer is no, that is, that the Constitution puts no real restraints on the federal government at all, why do you suppose they bothered writing and passing one in the first place?"

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KYAG (Kiss Your A** Goodbye)

In case you will be wondering why all the duck and cover advice suddenly appears:

Instapundit » Blog Archive » NUCLEAR SURVIVAL: Get Indoors And Stay There: The advice is based on recent scientific analyses …: "MORE STILL: “Did Obama and his people get a burst of Lileksian nostalgia? . . . It’s all of a piece with ‘we could absorb a terrorist attack’. What they’re telling you is that you’re going to get nuked, there’s nothing they can do about it, they have no intention of trying to do anything substantive about it, and the best thing for you to do is to learn to be a contortionist — it’s hard to bend over far enough to kiss your ass goodbye. . . . A strong America might well absorb a terrorist hit with little damage, even a nuclear one. A weak America, especially an America with weaklings in its highest offices, might very well feel it had something to prove, and that could be very dangerous to miscalculators — and more so to their innocent bystanders."
RTWT.

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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

A Rage For Paper Money

In case you wondered about what Madison would have thought of O Duce, here it is:

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.
Did I forget to mention that Madison is widely considered the architect of the Constitution and that Federalist #10 -- from which this is a lynch-pin passage -- is considered one of the two most important of the series? And for that matter, the Federalist is argued by some to be on par in importance with the Constitution as it is the contemporaneous set of arguments published to convince the population to vote for ratification.

The lib loons will tell you it's hard to understand what the founders meant. I don't think so. (Time for a reminder.)

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Busted

Moonbattery: Obama Myths Busted: "Mythbusters will never run short of untruths to debunk so long as the Moonbat Messiah has a teleprompter to read:"


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Sunday, December 12, 2010

99'ers Update

A note on the unemployment extension « Hot Air: "There seems to be some continuing confusion over exactly what form the unemployment extension takes in the Obama-GOP tax deal.  On every occasion where I have discussed this, people have understood it to mean that unemployment benefits are being extended past the 99-week limit, allowing people to collect another 13 months of unemployment checks.  That’s not actually the case, which I have stated in two earlier posts this week but not as a standalone point.

...

For instance, a person who has received the standard 26 weeks of unemployment from the state and another 20 weeks through the EUC will continue to be eligible for payments, up to another 53 weeks in half of the states. Those who have already received 99 weeks, or whatever the maximum is for their state, will still be ineligible for any other unemployment compensation. The caps remain in place, while the program continues for those who more recently lost their jobs or will lose their jobs in the near future."
Interesting that the Dems would allow unemployment payments to remain capped at 99 weeks. They must think their (unemployed) base must be ready to riot like the Euros...

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The Abolition Of Jack And Sarah

Power Line - He doesn't know Jack: "Almost everyone knows that C.S. Lewis, known to his friends and family as Jack, was a remarkable man of letters. For a serious writer of quality, he was incredibly prolific and incredibly popular. Almost everything he wrote is still in print, and almost everything he wrote is worth reading. Amazon lists 157 or 160 titles under his name. I mention here only a few items of interest.

Every high school senior should read The Abolition of Man. In it Lewis makes a powerful case for a version of natural law that belies the relativism in which students are inculcated in one way or another in school, especially in college. The problem is not strictly American or of recent vintage. Lewis was prompted to write the lectures that make up the book by a British high school English textbook. The Abolition of Man was published in 1943.

...

Richard Wolffe is a charter member of the Obamamania media. He is the author of the Chronicles of Obama, now comprising the two books Renegade: The Making of a President and, most recently, Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside the Obama White House.

In an appearance on Hardball last week (video below), Wolffe demonstrated his intellectual daring with critical words about Sarah Palin. Palin had cited C.S. Lewis as an author to whom she turns for divine inspiration. Wolffe thought this was absurd. Wolffe expressed incredulity that Palin turned to the author of children's books for inspiration.

Matthews interrupted Wolffe: "I wouldn't put down C.S. Lewis."
Moron.

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Junk Science Terror Tales

But don't worry, John Holdren has it right now with global warming.

Moonbattery: A Short History of Overpopulation: "The terror tales of Thomas Malthus and Paul Ehrlich have long since been discredited. Yet population bomb ideology lives on in the envirowacko movement. Obama's Science Czar John Holdren has even floated the idea of putting sterilants in our drinking water.

So long as there are progressives, there will be people who believe that there are too many of us, and that it's up to them to do something about it."


< BAD LANGUAGE DELETED >

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Children At Play


Moonbattery: Open Thread: "Via iOwnTheWorld, on a tip from TED."

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Friday, December 10, 2010

Bill Is Back!

... where he will head the Federal Government's Executive Branch!

Did Obama just quit? | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "All is forgiven, Monica. Bill is back!

I guess Obama abandoning his post is some sort of brilliant strategy. Or maybe he just doesn’t want the job anymore. Maybe he’s finally realizing that the more he talks, the worse things get for him.

Say what you want about Sarah Palin quitting her job, but at least she finished her own press conference.

(Hat tip: Hot Air)

P.S. Jon Ward: “In terms of Washington political drama, Friday was an instant classic.”

P.P.S. James Taranto: “I was at the 2004 Democratic Convention, where I watched Bill Clinton deliver a very effective, though completely wrongheaded, attack on the Bush tax rates. Today I turn on the TV to see Bill Clinton holding a White House news conference to endorse those same tax rates. It’s great to see him come around, even if his return to the presidential podium runs counter to the spirit of the 22nd Amendment.”

P.P.P.S. Iowahawk: “Ending weeks of speculation and rumors, President-Elect Barack Obama today named Bill Clinton to join his incoming administration as President of the United States, where he will head the federal government’s executive branch.”



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Imperious

Instapundit » Blog Archive » WALTER OLSON: Rise Of An Imperial City, Cont’d. “Even as most of the country remains mired in seri…: "WALTER OLSON: Rise Of An Imperial City, Cont’d. “Even as most of the country remains mired in serious housing recession, the capital has bounced back smartly . . . . The rise has been so dramatic that for the first time in five years, the average asking rent in D.C. is higher than in New York City, according to CoStar and a new report of third-quarter activity by commercial real estate firm Cassidy Turley.” Plus this: “Even as veteran reporters elsewhere scrounge for work, talent and money continue to pour into Washington’s specialized news-gathering business, most particularly the sorts of newsletters that (for a subscription price in the thousands of dollars) will bring you fresh and fine-grained news of the doings of federal regulatory agencies in fields like energy, pharmaceuticals, securities and telecommunications.”"
But don't worry. Those Tea Party types are just innumerate hicks. Ummm, hmmm...

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Thursday, December 9, 2010

Di-Hydrogen Monoxide, Part Dos

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Your Great-Great-Great-Great-Granddaddies

John Stossel: Why do poor people remain poor? | Washington Examiner: "'Oh, yes. Of course. But let me tell you, bringing in the rule of law is no easy thing.'

De Soto started his work in Peru, as an economic adviser to the president, trying to establish property rights there. He was successful enough that leaders of 23 countries, including Russia, Libya, Egypt, Honduras and the Philippines, now pay him to teach them about property rights. Those leaders at least get that they're doing something wrong.

'They get it easier than a North American,' he said, 'because the people who brought the rule of law and property rights to the United States (lived) in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were your great-great-great-great-granddaddies.'"

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All Hat And No Cattle

Outcome of the Stimulus and the Burden of Proof | e21 - Economic Policies for the 21st Century: "Importantly, the results are also consistent with another recent analysis of government spending during Great Depression by economists Price Fishback and Valentina Kachanovskaya. During a period in which unemployment was extremely high and the costs of implementing a public works program were far lower than today, one might expect that fiscal stimulus might have proven more effective. Yet Fishback and Kachanovskaya find that a similar state-by-state analysis suggests that fiscal stimulus during the Great Depression failed to yield durable employment gains.

The burden of proof is now increasingly on the side of fiscal stimulus advocates. It is easy to point out possible flaws in each of the studies mentioned here — though the biases may end up either exaggerating or diminishing the estimates of the effects of the stimulus. But where is the evidence that the 2009 ARRA fiscal stimulus enhanced employment recovery in a cost-effective and sustainable manner?"

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Still Stux

FoxNews.com - Stuxnet Worm Still Out of Control at Iran's Nuclear Sites, Experts Say: "“The Iranians don’t have the depth of knowledge to handle the worm or understand its complexity,” he said, raising the possibility that they may never succeed in eliminating it.

“Here is their problem. They should throw out every personal computer involved with the nuclear program and start over, but they can’t do that. Moreover, they are completely dependent on outside companies for the construction and maintenance of their nuclear facilities. They should throw out their computers as well. But they can’t,“ he explained. “They will just continually re-infect themselves.”"
For the few of you nerds out there, this is what you'll take the rest of the night reading in rapt fascination. It's basically a reverse engineered view of what a "nation state" worm actually looks like.

The popular culture says that nerds aren't important and should be laughed at. And it's OK if we suck at science and math.

The popular culture would be the epitome of ignorance.

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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Plus Ca Club

Well, folks, looks like it's time for a third party now doesn't it?

Power Line - Upton update -- House Republicans signal lack of commitment to conservatism: "Also telling is Politico's report that Rep. Joe Barton, who had been the ranking Republican on the committee, 'angered GOP leadership by allowing committee staff to circulate an internal memo pinpointing Upton's moderate voting record.' (Barton was a contender for the committee chair, though certainly not the only alternative to Upton).

In other words, the GOP House leadership is more concerned with etiquette than with ideology. It would rather have one of the most important committees in the House led by a moderate -- among many other things, Upton opposed extending the Bush tax cuts, opposed cuts to stimulus legislation, favored placing vast swaths of land off-limits to energy exploration, and co-authored the infamous ban on incandescent light bulbs -- than by a conservative who allegedly caused this sorry voting record to come more widely to light.

On this evidence at least, Speaker Boehner and his fellow old bulls seem more committed to preserving a club-like House than to pursuing conservative goals and principles steadfastly."

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The CPUSA Is Dead, Long Live The CPUSA!


Moonbattery: They're Socialists, All Right: "A favorite theme in horror/sci-fi movies is the demon or alien that can take over people's bodies. Once the villain has moved to a new host, the body it inhabited previously can be discarded. This is why the old Stalinist vehicle known as the Communist Party USA won't be needed for much longer. The fiend inhabiting it will soon finish its transition to a new host — the Democrat Party:

In [a Rasmussen] survey of 1,000 adults, nearly half of all Democrats, 42 percent, indicated that they believe the government should 'manage the economy completely.'

As for Americans overall,

In total, according to the poll, just 27 percent of Americans believe government should manage the economy."
See you at the Tom Wood's talk tomorrow for the antidote. 7pm 12/9 at the CSU (Fort Collins) Lory Student Center East Ballroom...

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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Not Second

Great news: Shanghai teens destroy U.S. in respected international standardized test « Hot Air: "Follow the link for breakdowns of international scoring in science, reading, and math. I won’t spoil the surprise about where the U.S. placed, but here’s a hint: Not second."
Click through and weep. Note carefully the gap between Shanghai and whoever's in second.

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bOgus

Moonbattery: Obama's Federal Pay Freeze Is Bogus: "Congress is expected to approve Obama's proposal, which cancels only cost-of-living adjustments for two years. Regularly scheduled step increases for the 1.4 million General Schedule employees — who make up two-thirds of the civilian work force — will continue. The size of those increases ranges from 2.6 percent to 3.3 percent and by law kick in every one, two or three years, depending on an employee's time in grade.

Many government employees will also be getting promotions, which come with raises. Then there are performance bonuses. Even the hold on cost-of-living raises applies only to some branches, not to others."
With a capital "O". Or zero if you prefer. As in zero respect for you and me that he thinks he can get away with this buncombe.

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O How Civil

< BAD LANGUAGE DELETED >:

While his base rages, Obama faces tax-cut reality | Washington Examiner: "Obama had to abandon his goal of raising taxes on high earners not because Republicans opposed it but because not enough Democrats supported it. Pelosi couldn't summon up a majority on the issue back in September, and Harry Reid could get only 53 of the needed 60 votes this month.

Democrats, not Republicans, are responsible for extension of all the 'Bush tax cuts.'

Still, Obama in his surly statement Monday evening and his unusually brief press conference Tuesday afternoon was at pains to attack Republicans.

The president who first came to national attention for expressing respect for those with whom he differed insisted that he was eager to 'fight' Republicans and described them as 'hostage takers,' with the American people as hostages. Not much evidence of civility."

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Sunday, December 5, 2010

11

This is Spinal Tap:

Examiner Sunday Reflections by Glenn Harlan Reynolds: Obama presidency turns government up to 11 | Washington Examiner: "President Obama's term so far has been compared to many fictional and non-fictional characters: Chauncey Gardener of 'Being There' is frequently invoked, along with the self-invented charmer Don Draper from 'Mad Men,' and of course there are the usual tiresome comparisons with Hitler that most presidents face these days.
But I have a different character in mind. The more I watch this administration at work, the more I think we're seeing the first Nigel Tufnel presidency.

Nigel Tufnel, many will remember, was the fictitious heavy metal guitarist in the fictional "rockumentary" "This Is Spinal Tap." In a classic scene, he displays his guitar collection and his special amplifier that -- unlike all other amplifiers in existence -- has knobs that go all the way up to 11, instead of just 10.

And that's what Obama has done: In his first two years as president, he's taken us to 11 in so many ways.

Under Bush and the Republican Congress from 2000-2006 federal spending was bad, and many people groused. But Obama has turned it up to 11, running up trillion-dollar-plus deficits that dwarf the worst we saw under Bush and the congressional Republicans, and producing open revolt from Tea Partiers and others.

...

But here's where the analogy fails. In the movie, Tufnel's career was ultimately, saved by a surge of popularity in Japan. Obama, on the other hand, has pursued policies that seem to make America likely to suffer Japan's fate, a decade or more of economic stagnation coupled with massive growth in government debt.

For Spinal Tap, luck produced a happy ending to a humorous story of ineptitude and decline. Can Obama expect similar luck? Sadly, such happy endings are far easier for Hollywood than for Washington."

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Saturday, December 4, 2010

Tilted

PowerLine nails it:

Power Line - Cartoon Common Sense: "Today the Democrats put on a tiresome theatrical performance in the Senate, posturing themselves as advocates for the 'middle class.' Actually, a family that earns $250,000 a year isn't rich; for most such people, it just means they live in a city and have two incomes. And I've been a little surprised at how few people buy the idea that raising someone else's taxes is somehow a big benefit to them. As someone said quite a few years ago, Democrats love employment but they hate employers. Which probably helps to explain why more people aren't Democrats.

Chuck Asay makes the point effectively; click to enlarge:

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Joblessness Made Simple

If you can't figure it out after watching this you never will. Skip ahead a bit until Stockman comes on of course.













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Friday, December 3, 2010

I'm Sorry Dave

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The Corrupt Genius Colorado Put In Office For SIX More Years

Good work morons. Way to evaluate talent. Go back to watching Simon Cowell or whatever else nice looking moron you're addicted to now before you do even more damage.

(Yes, of course he's right the Senate is rigged. Interesting we didn't hear a peep from Bennett about that during the election campaign. That means he's a corrupt bastard himself now doesn't it?)

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Thursday, December 2, 2010

Let Them Eat Pie


The Simple, Two-Color Pie-Chart That Perfectly Illustrates the Fiscal Suicide of the United States of America: "Democrats can blame Bush, Greenspan, Reagan, Millard Fillmore and James Madison. But this year's deficit is on their heads alone.

Karl Denninger is using this chart to speak some truth to power: in a nutshell, the Democrats' era of vast unfunded, unconstitutional social engineering experiments -- Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Department of Education, the Department of Labor and hundreds of other bureaucracies -- is drawing to a close, like it or not.

The Pelosi-Obama-Reid Democrats just hastened their demise."

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