NoCo Surrounds Them - We Will Not Fall: June 2011

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Balance

Flashback: MSNBC Hosts Called Bush Fascist, Murderous and War Criminal, Never Faced Suspensions | NewsBusters.org: "On MSNBC you can call a sitting president a 'murderous' 'fascist' even muse about putting the President on trial for war crimes, so long as that president is a Republican. But if you dare call a Democratic president a 'd–ck,' as MSNBC analyst Mark Halperin did this morning it's grounds for indefinite suspension.

While calling any president the D-word is probably not showing the proper respect for the office, it has to be asked where does it rank compared to essentially accusing a president of mass murder and war crimes?"

Watching

Moonbattery: Open Thread: "Via Tea Party Patriots."

Have Mercy!

Instapundit » Blog Archive » ANDREW KLAVAN: Why Do Blacks Vote for Democrats? …: "ANDREW KLAVAN: Why Do Blacks Vote for Democrats?"

O Really?

James Pethokoukis | Analysis & Opinion | Reuters.com: "Buckle your seat belts low and tight, America, there’s going to be turbulence all the way to Election Day, 2012. It’s only the summer of 2011 and already we have kids vs. corporate jets, courtesy of the White House political machine.

The most newsworthy bit of President Obama’s press conference certainly had nothing to do with economics or America’s precarious fiscal position. Recall: The president’s most recent budget plan would add $9.5 trillion in cumulative new debt over the next decade. Eliminating a tax break for the purchase of corporate jets – it’s called “accelerated depreciation” and Obama has endorsed the deduction twice before to boost growth and create jobs – would save $3 billion, or 0.03 percent of that total.

Yet this is the place where the president has chosen to stand his ground, to say “Here and no further!” Obama astride the bridge Khazad Dûm. He challenged the GOP to “go talk to your constituents, the Republican constituents, and ask them, are they willing to compromise their kids’ safety so that some corporate-jet owner continues to get a tax break.”

Really?"

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Wings Of Petulance

Ace of Spades HQ: "And immediately after this presser, Obama got down to the serious business of...holding a Rose Garden ceremony to honor the WNBA champs.

Obama wrapped up his presser by talking about a company he recently visited in Iowa.
I was in Alcoa, in Iowa, one of our most successful companies. They took a big hit during the recession, but they still invested $90 million in new equipment in a plant that makes airplane wings and parts for automobiles. And they’ve bounced back. They’ve hired back all their people and are increasing market share because they made those investments.
Well, I hope they don't make wings for those evil corporate jets.

This was just a taste of what President Wonderful had to say today. It was his usual mix of arrogant, misleading and petulant. He can't get tossed out of the office soon enough."

The sad part is that most commu-libs seem to have the same twenty-two second attention span he does... How could it be otherwise?

Will Boehner Fold?

Obama: Please, PLEASE Raise Taxes! | Power Line: "The President’s remarks today ignore legislative and economic reality, and demonstrate remarkable irony. His administration has been burying our kids and grandkids in new debt and offered no plan to rein in spending. Republicans have been leading and offering solutions to put the brakes on this spending binge. The President has been AWOL from that debate.

The President is sorely mistaken if he believes a bill to raise the debt ceiling and raise taxes would pass the House. The votes simply aren’t there – and they aren’t going to be there, because the American people know tax hikes destroy jobs. They also know Washington has been on a spending binge for many years, and they will only tolerate a debt limit increase if we stop it.

The new majority in the House is going to stand with the American people. A debt limit increase can only pass the House if it includes spending cuts larger than the debt limit increase; includes reforms to hold down spending in the future; and is free from tax hikes. The longer the President denies these realities, the more difficult he makes this process."

My bet is yes but I'd love to be proven wrong...

Monday, June 27, 2011

Permanent Vacation

How Capitalism Went On A Brief Sabbatical Which Became A Permanent Vacation: Rosenberg Explains "The Artificial Recovery" | zero hedge: "Indeed, this 2009-2011 recovery and cyclical bull market has been as artificial as the 2003-07 expansion. That last one was fuelled by financial engineering in the financial sector. This one is being underpinned by unprecedented government intrusion in the credit markets. As of this quarter, your government has replaced the private sector as the largest source of outstanding mortgage market and consumer-related credit (see front page of the Investor's Business Daily). So not only is the U.S.A. turning Japanese in many respects, it is also now resembling China where the government also redirects the flow of private sector credit.

When we said capitalism went on a sabbatical three years ago, we didn't expect this to be a permanent vacation. In the past five years, private sector loans have deflated by $1.9 trillion, while public sector assisted credit has surged a similar amount. Roughly nine in 10 dollars of mortgage flow is being dominated by the Federal government — Fannie Mae, Ginnie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the FHA. That is amazing, and these entities have actually been tightening their scorecards to avoid political taxpayer backlash.

Be that as it may, in this new era of socialized credit, the private sector now accounts for 42% of outstanding residential mortgages, down from nearly 60% at the bubble peak in 2006. The only reason why consumer credit has not shown a complete implosion is because in the past three years, federally- assisted student loans have soared by $250 billion.
"

Friday, June 24, 2011

Kid-Nabbed

Hoffman reveals: The Forgotten Slaves--Whites in Servitude: "I challenge any researcher to study 17th century colonial America, sifting the documents, the jargon and the statutes on both sides of the Atlantic and one will discover that White slavery was a far more extensive operation than Black enslavement. It is when we come to the 18th century that one begins to encounter more 'servitude' on the basis of a contract of indenture. But even in that period there was kidnapping of Anglo-Saxons into slavery as well as convict slavery.

In 1855, Frederic Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who designed New York's Central Park, was in Alabama on a pleasure trip and saw bales of cotton being thrown from a considerable height into a cargo ship's hold. The men tossing the bales somewhat recklessly into the hold were Negroes, the men in the hold were Irish.

Olmsted inquired about this to a shipworker. "Oh," said the worker, "the niggers are worth too much to be risked here; if the Paddies are knocked overboard or get their backs broke, nobody loses anything."

Before British slavers traveled to Africa's western coast to buy Black slaves from African chieftains, they sold their own White working class kindred ("the surplus poor" as they were known) from the streets and towns of England, into slavery. Tens of thousands of these White slaves were kidnapped children. In fact the very origin of the word kidnapped is kid-nabbed, the stealing of White children for enslavement.

According to the English Dictionary of the Underworld, under the heading kidnapper is the following definition: "A stealer of human beings, esp. of children; originally for exportation to the plantations of North America.""

Don't know much about history?

"Liberation"

Instapundit » Blog Archive » HOPE AND CHANGE: Retirement As We Know It Is “Dead.” If we had a Republican President, I bet we’…: "HOPE AND CHANGE: Retirement As We Know It Is “Dead.”

If we had a Republican President, I bet we’d be seeing a lot of tearjerker news stories about how low interest rates are squeezing retirees. Luckily, with a Democrat in the White House, we won’t be subjected to those. Instead, we’ll hear about how liberating it is to work at McDonald’s when you’re 70!

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 9:27 pm"

Slavery Clue Watch

When Europeans Were Slaves: Research Suggests White Slavery Was Much More Common Than Previously Believed: "Davis said it is useful to compare this Mediterranean slavery to the Atlantic slave trade that brought black Africans to the Americas. Over the course of four centuries, the Atlantic slave trade was much larger – about 10 to 12 million black Africans were brought to the Americas. But from 1500 to 1650, when trans-Atlantic slaving was still in its infancy, more white Christian slaves were probably taken to Barbary than black African slaves to the Americas, according to Davis.

“One of the things that both the public and many scholars have tended to take as given is that slavery was always racial in nature – that only blacks have been slaves. But that is not true,” Davis said. “We cannot think of slavery as something that only white people did to black people.”

During the time period Davis studied, it was religion and ethnicity, as much as race, that determined who became slaves.

“Enslavement was a very real possibility for anyone who traveled in the Mediterranean, or who lived along the shores in places like Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, and even as far north as England and Iceland,” he said.

Pirates (called corsairs) from cities along the Barbary Coast in north Africa – cities such as Tunis and Algiers – would raid ships in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as seaside villages to capture men, women and children. The impact of these attacks were devastating – France, England, and Spain each lost thousands of ships, and long stretches of the Spanish and Italian coasts were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants."

Interesting how that got left out of your history book, eh? Could there be an agenda somewhere? Something about clinging to guns and religion?

War On The Weak Watch

Instapundit » Blog Archive » TREVOR BURRUS: One Generation of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. is Enough. Holmes, Jr. is overrated. …: "TREVOR BURRUS: One Generation of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. is Enough. Holmes, Jr. is overrated. Holmes, Sr. is underrated.

But here’s the key: “In all, more than 60,000 people—including 7,600 in North Carolina—were forcibly sterilized in the United States in the name of ‘progress.’ Progressives of the time lauded the decision in Buck. Individual rights, they firmly believed, should not be allowed to stand in the way of collective progress.” Related item here."

If you haven't read Edwin Black's "War Against The Weak" you are sorely remiss...

Reasoned Debate In ChristieWalkerVille

Cool:

Christie goes all Scott Walker on Jersey « Hot Air: "In a statement released after the vote, Mr. Christie said, “We are putting the people first and daring to touch the third rail of politics in order to bring reform to an unsustainable system.”
What were the horrible, unreasonable, punishing changes the governor demanded in this reform effort? Public union workers will need to kick in a bit more for their benefits, on par with private sector employees. The retirement age will need to go up slightly. There will be a temporary suspension of cost of living increases for current retirees. Oh, and the collective bargaining rights of the unions over benefits packages will be curbed. (Any of this sounding familiar?)

The response was predictable if you paid attention to recent events in Wisconsin. Here’s a photo of the reasoned debate being proffered by the other side after the news broke."

Thursday, June 23, 2011

2012: Don't Tread On Me Edition

Ace of Spades HQ: "Original version of flag found at The Chicago Boyz; alternate version (with yellow field depicted here) created by Points and Figures."

You do realize where the snake came from don't you? It turns out that Ben Franklin didn't like eagles!

But apparently Ben Franklin was a wacko just like the rest of us Tea Partiers! LOL

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Buyer Beware: Housing Market Death Spiral Edition

Instapundit » Blog Archive » CHANGE: Home Sales Hit New Low. “Fewer people purchased previously occupied homes in May, bringing…: "Glenn,

For a month I have looked for a used home in Henderson, NV.

Concerning “The Realtors’ trade group has noted that an increasing number of deals have been canceled because an appraisal came in below a negotiated price…”, I think this is half the story. The other half is the failure to pass a final inspection. Many of these homes in Las Vegas have been without maintenance for months and months. Mold and wall cracks are asserting themselves. Appraisers are willing to give the value of the home the benefit of the doubt, factoring in the labor of the new home owner to bring the home up to the value they grant to it. I have seen 20 homes recently, and most of them needed $20-25K of improvements to reach the offered price.

While appraisers need to please real estate agents for referrals, home inspectors do not. They are shutting down these deals to protect the new owners from themselves.
Like people who stay unemployed for too long, houses that stay unsold for too long lose some of their saleability.

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 10:45 am"

Who’s The Dummy?

It’s Time To Play “Who’s The Dummy?”…Palin vs Obama | The Gateway Pundit: "This video is from our friends at I Own The World. It brilliantly illustrates the so-called brilliance of President Obama and the so-called stupidity of Governor Palin."

Monday, June 20, 2011

Zimbabwe USA

Ain't it grand?

Ace of Spades HQ: "3) A neighbor has a house for sale. It is unoccupied and rather isolated. I saw someone approach it on Friday, and drove over to ensure he was lawful. It was the owner’s assistant, who lamented that someone had just stolen all the new appliances out of the house — carting off the refrigerator, dishwasher, stove, and microwave. ...Don’t the appliance thieves have homes, and if so, do they have locks on the doors to protect their investments from the likes of themselves?
Sadly VDH's observations remind me of the experiences of white farmers in Rhodesia who decided to stay when Mugabe took over. No matter how armed and committed you are, if a large enough proportion of the surrounding population is determined to steal your property (and/or kill you), it's simply an untenable situation in the long run. And now the farmland confiscated by Mugabe from the white farmers is under-farmed or simply lies vacant to the detriment of all concerned.

In more cheery CA news Companies Are Leaving California in Record Numbers. Which isn't really surprising given that California ranks #49 in the nation in business climate. And it turns out that retired San Francisco city employees get more in retirement benefits than the average working private worker in the city earns."

Sunday, June 19, 2011

1865

Madison's Necessary Redundancy - Ricochet.com: "'The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.'

Madison was prescient, to put it mildly.

The Tenth Amendment is often characterized as a redundant truism in the context of the larger document.

If only.

In case we missed--in our Progressive lemming march to deconstruct American Exceptionalism--all the implied restraints in the main body of the Constitution, the Tenth Amendment makes it idiot-proof.

If only.

That is what we are taking back. We need to message it as if our lives and sacred honor depended on it...because it does."

Question is: When was the 10th Amendment stricken from the Constitution and the modern American Leviathan begun?

Hey Rube! Happy Father's Day!

Instapundit » Blog Archive » JACK BALKIN: Hey, the Obama Administration is looking a lot like the Bush Administration on this wh…: "Meanwhile, Greenwald says the Obama lawyers are worse than the Bush lawyers:
That George Bush would knowingly order an eavesdropping program to continue which his own top lawyers were telling him was illegal was, of course, a major controversy, at least in many progressive circles. Now we have Barack Obama not merely eavesdropping in a way that his own top lawyers are telling him is illegal, but waging war in that manner (though, notably, there is no indication that these Obama lawyers have the situational integrity those Bush lawyers had [and which Archibald Cox, Eliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus had before them] by threatening to resign if the lawlessness continues).
All I can say is, you expected respect for legal niceties from a Chicago machine politician? Hey, Rube!

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 8:22 am"

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Demagoguery

Instapundit » Blog Archive » ANDREW KLAVAN: Klavan’s Economic Smackdown: Paul Ryan vs. Barack Obama. UPDATE: Pajamas is c…: "ANDREW KLAVAN: Klavan’s Economic Smackdown: Paul Ryan vs. Barack Obama."

emOtional

Guest Post: What Writing A Book Taught Me About Obama And Those Who Followed Him | zero hedge: "In the America of 2008, the times were right. I know a lot of bright, successful people whose opinions and expertise on so many matters I deeply respect who were passionately in the Obama tank even wearing his buttons everywhere they went—yet I noticed that they could never quite explain to me why, beyond uttering vague touchy-feely slogans or the deflective “he isn’t Bush.” Wow. As an independent-minded voter who grew up in Chicago and thus am aware of just what kind of pragmatic, even ruthless, ambition it takes to ascend the political ladder so rapidly there as did Obama, I needed more convincing than a cool campaign “O” emblem and Dave Matthews’ endorsement to earn my vote. Yet I found nothing but a paper thin image as the talking points. This vacuum of reasoning left me scratching my head. And the more I did my own research on this smooth-talking Cook County machine politician (as I would eventually conclude he was) the more anxious for my country I became. I realized that, for all too many, Barack Obama's appeal to them was purely emotional. Nothing more. An exercise in collective self-actualization that may have had its place in a 1920's München brauhaus, a plaza in 1940's Buenos Aires or 1960's Havana, but certainly no place in what I once thought was the most developed and wary of Republics."

Doreen Ketchens

A Slice of New Orleans - Ricochet.com: "If there's a better way to start a weekend, I'm not sure what it is. The video starts with three musicians sitting curbside in old New Orleans. The clarinetist appears to be battling a cough. The tuba player wipes the sweat from his brow while an adorable little girl appears to be scolding her imaginary friend. Just another group of street musicians in the French Quarter, right?"

Once in a while we take a break from the unrelenting gloom for something different. Don't you think?

The Indefensible

Obama CoS: Yeah, that bureaucratic expansion is really indefensible « Hot Air: "I’ve written plenty about Barack Obama’s regulatory adventurism and his attempt to impose his political agenda by conducting end-arounds of Congress. The massive expansion of regulation has strangled business, I’ve argued, and stifled economic growth. You know who agrees with me? Barack Obama’s right-hand man in the White House. In a meeting with the National Association of Manufacturers, William Daley didn’t mount a very impressive defense of his boss’ regulatory adventurism — and in fact conceded that no defense was possible"

Sleeping Well?

When Syria Explodes - Ricochet.com: "Judith reported with surprise that the Mavi Marmara dropped out of the Gaza flotilla. Of course it did, Judith. Turkey's scared to death by this situation. Expect a nice warming in Turkish-Israeli relations now. The AKP has just received such a loud phone call from reality that even they can't pretend it was just a wrong number.

Before you say, 'Well, that's good news!' re-read my last sentence: This is a phone call from reality so loud that even the AKP can't ignore it. That means the phone just jumped off the nightstand and body-slammed them. If you're still sleeping well, that's your clue that you shouldn't be."

You probably shouldn't be.

Friday, June 17, 2011

hypOcrisy

NYT: Obama overruled top Pentagon, DOJ lawyers on Libya war powers « Hot Air: "The Times is treating it as the major story that it is, but under a Republican president (especially one named, say, George Bush) it would be a scandal of nuclear proportions. What they’re basically saying here, without actually saying it, is that the president’s own lawyers told him that the Libya war is illegal and he responded by looking around for other lawyers who’d tell him what he wanted to hear."

Dear Mr. Obama

Open Letter to Barack Obama: "Dear Mr. Obama:

In your recent interview with NBC News you explained that your policies would promote more private-sector job creation were it not for (as you put it) “some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers. You see it when you go to a bank and you use an ATM, you don’t go to a bank teller, or you go to the airport and you’re using a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate.”

With respect, sir, you’re complaining about the source of our prosperity: innovation and the increases it causes in worker productivity.

With no less justification – but with no more validity – any of your predecessors might have issued complaints similar to yours. Pres. Grant, for example, might have grumbled in 1873 about “some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers. You see it when you go to a bank that uses a modern safe and so employs fewer armed guards than before, or when you travel on trains which, compared to stage coaches, transport many more passengers using fewer workers.”"

Thank you for electing a fourth-grader as POTUS. It's really working out well...

Thursday, June 16, 2011

"Stimulus" Explained

Addressing The Fallacious Views Of Contemptuous Keynesians - Louis Woodhill - Unconventional Logic - Forbes: "The purpose of stimulus is to increase demand (and thereby nominal GDP) over what it would have otherwise have been. Operationally, stimulus consists of selling bonds and then spending the money thus obtained.

“Dollars” exist as entries in on the “liabilities” portion of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet. When the Treasury sells bonds to finance stimulus, the operational effect is to transfer dollars from the “Other deposits held by depository institutions” line on the Fed’s balance sheet to the “U.S. Treasury, general account” line. This action is, in and of itself, highly contractionary. It directly reduces the size of the monetary base and the funds available to the banking system for lending.

When the government spends the “stimulus” money, the effect is to transfer the dollars from the “U.S. Treasury, general account” line back to the “Other deposits held by depository institutions” line.” This action is expansionary. It restores bank reserves and the monetary base to the levels that they were before the bonds were sold. But this is all that it does.

From looking at stimulus in physical, operational terms, it is clear that this process cannot increase total demand. However, by taking capital out of the private sector to finance increased government spending, stimulus can reduce capital investment, and thereby GDP and employment. This appears to be what happened in the case of Obama’s $814 billion stimulus program."

Too Smart To Explain Themselves

Why John Maynard Keynes Was A Keynesian - Jerry Bowyer - The Great Relearning - Forbes: "The truth is that both knowledge and wisdom are disbursed: disbursed throughout the economy, which is why market price signals are important; disbursed throughout the world, which is why trade is essential; disbursed through both genders, which is why both passive savings and active investing are necessary ; and disbursed through the centuries, which is why foundational principles are essential.

But Keynes then, and Soros now, believed that principles tried and proven and received gratefully from the loving hands of past generations were to be replaced by an elite of academic planners. These men are sure that they are simply smarter than we are; smart enough to overrule our billions of individual decisions, too smart to explain themselves to us, and too superior to have to. Then, as now, the meme was that people like Hayek who held to foundational principles were arrogant, not humble. Then as now, the answer is that humility in economics requires an admission that knowledge is widely distributed through markets, not captured in curricula. The recent reemergence of this debate in the circles of George Soros and the Financial Times in their critique of Hayek shows just how little the elite have learned in the past century."

Metaphor Alert

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: Wisconsin Protesters Lock Their Heads To Metal Railings, And Become Their Own Metaphors: "Locking one's head to a metal railing without a key is a pretty accurate metaphor for what the public employee unions want to do to the taxpayers and union members.

There was an easier solution to the problem:
Turn out the lights, lock the doors, and go home. And leave them there."

How Facebook Happened

Irish Setter Dad | The Weekly Standard: "Have you ever heard a kid learning to play the violin? A cat in the microwave is nothing to it. And let me add an addendum to the things my children were never allowed to do—put a cat in the microwave. I’m not saying it didn’t happen; I’m just saying they weren’t allowed to do it.

Whose children are going to succeed in life, Amy Chua’s or mine? Her Lulu has that violin going for her—there’s hardly a Silicon Valley billionaire, Wall Street plutocrat, senator, four-star general, or pope who isn’t a violin virtuoso. And Sophia, who tickles the ivories, can always say, “Don’t tell Mom I work for Goldman Sachs, she thinks I play piano in a house of ill repute.” But my kids practice too, hour after hour every day. They practice being jerks. And since almost every boss I’ve ever had was a jerk, this gives them a leg up. Plus there’s the cat in the microwave. That shows an inquisitive, experimental turn of mind. You can see how electronic cat-zapping could lead directly to the invention of something like Facebook."

You should always read everything P. J. O'Rourke writes. One of his best is over on the right sidebar:

"When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators." - P. J. O'Rourke

Any questions?

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Nothing A Little Irradiation Couldn't Have Cured...

Researchers, companies quick to crack E. coli case - FierceBiotech Research: "'Working with OpGen, Optical Mapping allowed us to quickly compare multiple isolates from this outbreak to demonstrate convincingly the clonality of the ongoing outbreak here in Germany,' University Hospital's Harmsen said in the release.

Other groups claiming some credit include The Genome Analysis Centre in the UK., which 'crowd-sourced' a genome analysis through scientific cooperation throughout Europe.

And, according to Wall Street Journal editorial writer Anne Jolis, all this science is well and good, but the real culprit is an anti-science attitude in Europe. The origin of the E. coli outbreak came from tainted sprouts in an organic farm. In other words, it wasn't anything a little irradiation couldn't have cured."

Pray The Alarmists Are Right...

Sun's Fading Spots Signal Big Drop in Solar Activity | Sunspots, Solar Weather & Solar Storms | Solar Cycle | Space.com: "Currently, the sun is in the midst of the period designated as Cycle 24 and is ramping up toward the cycle's period of maximum activity. However, the recent findings indicate that the activity in the next 11-year solar cycle, Cycle 25, could be greatly reduced. In fact, some scientists are questioning whether this drop in activity could lead to a second Maunder Minimum, which was a 70-year period from 1645 to 1715 when the sun showed virtually no sunspots. [Video: Rivers of Fire Inflame Sunspots]

Hill is the lead author of one of the studies that used data from the Global Oscillation Network Group to look at characteristics of the solar interior. (The group includes six observing stations around the world.) The astronomers examined an east-west zonal wind flow inside the sun, called torsional oscillation. The latitude of this jet stream matches the new sunspot formation in each cycle, and models successfully predicted the late onset of the current Cycle 24.

"We expected to see the start of the zonal flow for Cycle 25 by now, but we see no sign of it," Hill said. "The flow for Cycle 25 should have appeared in 2008 or 2009. This leads us to believe that the next cycle will be very much delayed, with a minimum longer than the one we just went through."

Hill estimated that the start of Cycle 25 could be delayed to 2021 or 2022 and will be very weak, if it even happens at all."

... otherwise crop yields are toast. And you won't be having much toast.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

O Duce By Fiat

Instapundit » Blog Archive » MARK STEYN: It’s all bumps, no road in Obamaville. “There are always going to be bumps on the ro…: "We’re not on the road to recovery. You can’t get there from here, as they say. Obama was in Toledo to “celebrate” the sale of the government’s remaining stake in Chrysler to Fiat. That’s “Fiat” as in the Italian car manufacturer rather than “an authoritative or arbitrary decree (from the Latin ‘let it be done’),” which would be almost too perfect a name for an Obamafied automobile. The Treasury crowed that Fiat had agreed to pay a whopping $560 million for the government’s Chrysler shares. Wow! 560 million smackeroos! If you laid them out end to end, they’re equivalent to what the federal government borrows every three hours. That’s some windfall! In the time it takes to fly Obama to Toledo to boast about it, he’d already blown through the Italians’ check. But who knows? If every business in the U.S. were to be nationalized and sold to foreigners to cover another three hours’ worth of debt, this summer’s “Recovery Summer” would be going even more gangbusters. I’d ask one of Obama’s egghead economists to explain it to you simpletons, but unfortunately they’ve all resigned and returned to cozy sinecures in academia."

And Il Duce by Fiat too...

West O Greece

Is the debt problem as bad as they say? | Sovereign Man: Finance, lifestyle design, Offshore Business and Expat news: "I’ve often said that bureaucrats and politicians have an extremely limited playbook consisting of taxation, regulation, and inflation. These three ugly sisters of bureaucracy effectively serve to steal from people, make things more difficult for them, and rob them of their purchasing power… and yet they’re dressed up as solutions instead of problems.

Consider the case of Illinois– the state is completely insolvent and running out of cash quickly. It doesn’t have the luxury of printing its own currency, and is thus being forced to deal with its fiscal reality… much like Greece.

Rather than trying to make their state more competitive in order to attract talent and capital, they’ve opted for the old playbook… starting with taxes. Specifically, Illinois lawmakers have targeted companies like Amazon, arguing that online transactions through the company’s Illinois-based affiliates are within the state’s sales tax jurisdiction.

For Amazon, the calculus involved is totally objective– once the Illinois legislature passed this legislation, the cost of doing business in the state exceeded the benefit, and Amazon cut all ties to its Illinois affiliates.

Thousands of people across the state who used to earn a portion of their living as an Amazon affiliate were stripped of their income thanks to do good lawmakers trying to squeeze a little more dough out of a productive company.

Peoria, Illinois based Caterpillar Inc. is in a similar position, now threatening to leave Illinois because the politicians keep raising income taxes. Now the financial powerhouse CME Group is echoing this sentiment. The impact this would have to the state economy is devastating."

And don't forget that you elected "Mayor Daley with lipstick and a Che T-shirt" from this hellhole...

The Fox Is Watching The Hen House

PressTV - Anti-graft group lists Obama among top 10 corrupt US statesmen: "U.S. President Barack Obama has hit the 2010 list of Washington's “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians”, which has recently been released by Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption.

The list, in alphabetical order, includes: Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Rahm Emanuel, Former Obama White House Chief of Staff, Senator John Ensign (R-NV), Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL), President Barack Obama, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY), and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)."

The same as it ever was ... except worse.

O The Profound Evil Worshipped By Liberals

Chris Hitchens takes you on a vicarious tour of hell. Believe him -- he's been there:

Moonbattery: "If patriots put up insufficient resistance, liberals of both parties will continue to expand the scope and power of Big Government until it crowds everything else out of existence. This has already been accomplished in North Korea, the statist ideal toward which progressives are progressing.

Government grows at the expense of not only our wealth and our freedom, but also the meaningfulness of our lives. As Christopher Hitchens notes, the final triumph of oligarchical collectivism reduces human existence to complete meaninglessness. This even more than the massive piles of corpses stacked up by socialist dictators is key to understanding that socialism is not merely a bad idea embraced by well-meaning fools, but evil in the most profound sense of the word."

O Duce will take you there too if you just let him. And so far you have...

Debt For Du'Ommies

Guest Post: It's The Debt, Dummy | zero hedge: "It should be clear to anyone that we have a bit of a debt problem. The government solutions jammed down our throats since 2008 have added $7 trillion of debt to the national balance sheet. The only thing keeping this house of cards from collapsing immediately has been the extremely low interest rates put in place by the Federal Reserve. The end of QE2 potentially could result in interest rates rising. If interest rates were to rise 2%, this country’s economic system would implode. Time is not on our side. The debt cannot be repaid. The debt cannot be serviced. The debt has destroyed this country. Years from now when historians ponder what caused the great American Empire to collapse, the answer on the exam will be:

IT WAS THE DEBT, DUMMY."

This one is vewwy, vewwy definitely a RTWT. I will start posting Wiener pics unless you go read it immediately. Oh. And actually DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. At least as far as your personal finances.

Good God.

(The) God (Particle) Is (Not) Dead

Cosmic Log - Subatomic mystery leads to standoff: "Two months ago, physicists on the CDF detector team at Fermilab's Tevatron collider, just outside Chicago, reported a mysterious 'bump' in the distribution of data from their proton-antiproton collisions, hinting at a non-standard twist in the Standard Model that has governed particle physics for decades.
The anomaly could have been caused by a glitch in the analysis of results from the CDF detector, or it could have been caused by a previously undetected breed of subatomic particle. If the latter turned out to be the case, that would send theorists back to the drawing board — lending weight to exotic concepts such as the existence of a 'fifth force' known as technicolor. Such a finding might also suggest that the Higgs boson, the so-called 'God Particle,' needn't exist.

Since then, additional data from the CDF detector added to the team's confidence. They thought it was increasingly likely that something strange was really happening. But the CDF isn't the only detector at the Tevatron. There's a second detector, known as DZero, which should have seen the bump as well. In fact, the main reason why there are two detectors is so that one detector's data can be confirmed by the other. So researchers around the world anxiously awaited word from the DZero team.

Now the DZero tribe has spoken: They don't see the bump. "Nope, nothing here — sorry," New Scientist quoted DZero co-spokesperson Dmitri Denisov as saying.

The discrepancy may be due to the different computer models that the teams used to interpret what they were seeing in the masses of data from the collider. It's also possible that as more readings are added to the analysis, the margins of uncertainty will narrow down and result in more consistent conclusions. But in any case, it's way too early to write off the Standard Model, or to declare that the God (Particle) is dead."

RTWT. And I kind of like my title...

The Next Ice Age: Not A Matter Of If...

... but a matter of when:

Ace of Spades HQ: "The graph is pretty simple, really. Temperatures that the IPCC predicted to continue trending upwards have failed to cooperate with the computer models and are, in fact, below the low-end of even the most conservative of their predictions. So, crisis averted, right? We can just disband the IPCC and go home.

Not on your life! This thing is its own industry now, and something so simple as its fundamental prediction failing to come to pass isn't going to stand in the way of its business model:

1. Blame capitalism
2. ???
3. Profit

If facts did matter, AGW true believers would have already been kicked to the curb. For instance, in this 4-part series by Australian geologist Bob Carter. (Mitt, you really should watch this.)"

To understand the title of this post, take 10 minutes to watch this:
And if you have a brain you'll follow the links on YouTube to the rest of it...

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Crumbling Pyramids

The Unwind Begins: Eurogroup President Juncker Redirects From A Broke Europe By Throwing US And Japan Under The Insolvency Bus: "The Debt Level Of The USA Is Disastrous" | zero hedge: "The first rule of media (especially when dealing with an idiot audience that has a 7 second attention span): when all else fails, redirect. That's precisely what Eurogroup president, and certified, sanctimonious, pompous liar, Jean-Claude Juncker just did today, as it is becoming increasingly clear that nobody in Europe has any clue just what the Greek bailout #2 will look like now that the ECB and Germany are at polar opposites on how to proceed, the ECB thinks it is a rating agency and can dictate what an Event of Default is, and German bankers are willing to cede to private involvement in the bailout, but in a way that is voluntary.The problem is that these three are very much mutually exclusive. So what does Juncker go ahead and do - he redirects to highlighting the problems of the US: "The debt level of the USA is disastrous," Mr. Juncker said. "The real problem is that no one can explain well why the euro zone is in the epicenter of a global financial challenge at a moment, at which the fundamental indicators of the euro zone are substantially better than those of the U.S. or Japanese economy." That may well be the defining moment: by now everyone knows that the global economy is a massive pyramid scheme. Yet to this point, those in control have at least kept their mouths shut. However, when in order to explain one's insolvency, those at the very top of the control pyramid have no other choice than to point out just how broke others are (when in reality it is all one big, interconnected, "globalized" and truly insolvent Ponzi), then the unwind has begun."

Whoops.

COTD: The (Globalist) Art Of War

Sol Sanders -- Follow the Money No. 70 -- On China | zero hedge: "by i-dog
on Sat, 06/11/2011 - 11:50
#1361118
'weakens our defensive capabilities by ruining our supply chains and industrial base .... makes me suspicious of their true underlying motives'
Some very astute observations there, lieto.

On top of that, Kissinger is simply flagging the next step in the globalist strategy: convergence with China and Russia as the US and Euro economies go into depression.

It's somewhat ironic that the result of the West 'winning' the Cold War is to find itself coming under the resurgent Russian and Chinese umbrella as bankrupt dependents. A significant portion of the blame for that can be laid squarely at Kissinger's treacherous feet ... especially since it looks like it has been the plan for over 50 years."

Unfortunately, "winning" the cold war turns out to have been a head fake, doesn't it? And now they are the chief supplier of the now nearly full wall LCD's that help Big Brother keep us mesmerized.

Wait, I have to go now ... Simon Cowell is on... /s

Friday, June 10, 2011

O Du Che

Moonbattery: Che Guevara Demotivator Collection: "Compliments of J."

Gold Smokes

In Hyperinflation's Aftermath, How Germany Went Back to Gold Page 2 of 2 - Forbes.com: "What did he do? He sat on his chair and smoked in his little dark room which still smelled of old floor cloths. Did he read letters? No, he read no letters. Did he write letters? No, he wrote no letters. He telephoned a great deal--he telephoned in every direction and to every German or foreign place that had anything to do with money and foreign exchange as well as with the Reichsbank and the Finance Minister. And he smoked. We usually went home late, often by the last suburban train, traveling third class. Apart from that he did nothing.'

Farmers accepted the rentenmark in trade for their crop, and the crisis was resolved. A new reichsmark replaced the rentenmark a year later, at 1:1, putting Germany’s return to a gold standard on a more long-term basis.

So we see that it takes almost nothing to adopt a gold standard system. The Rentenbank held little if any gold. The rentenmark was not convertible into gold. No preparation was necessary. No staff was necessary. No time was necessary. The only thing that was necessary was a clear policy, namely to maintain the value of the rentenmark equivalent to a prewar gold mark, and a clear means to accomplish this policy, by restricting the supply of rentenmarks to maintain its value."

COTD: Ya Sure, You Go Girl

Explosive e-mail revelation: Palin, staff were excited when McCain named her to the ticket « Hot Air: "The nation needs to be spending $ on fixing what we have – Minnesota needs “bridge money” today more than we need a few Alaskans to perpetuate the nonsensicle notion that our Gravina earmark is more important than fixing aged infrastructure.
We would gain so much if we get that message out there – that the nation can pull, and work, together and make wise decisions on federal priorities… we should see that earmark redirected to Minnesota’s tragedy be the Gravina bridge isn’t going to happen on our watch anyway.
OMG!!!!111!!!!! Palin called for the bridge to nowhere money to be redirected to fix the bridge collapse in Minn.

unseen on June 10, 2011 at 10:17 PM"

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Du'O (Part 7,493,836)

AEP says it will close five coal plants to comply with EPA regs - The Hill's E2-Wire: "Utility giant American Electric Power said Thursday that it will shut down five coal-fired power plants and spend billions of dollars to comply with a series of pending Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

The company’s dramatic plan to comply with the regulations could give Republicans and moderate Democrats ammunition in their ongoing fight against EPA's efforts to impose new regulations aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants including mercury and arsenic.

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) immediately pounced on AEP's announcement.

“This is a perfect example of the EPA implementing rules and regulations without considering the devastating impact they may have on local economies and jobs,” Capito said. "

"Under my plan electricity rates will necessarily skyrocket." -- O Duce

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

The Best Day Yet?

The Obamacare Lawsuit: From the Courtroom in Atlanta | Cato @ Liberty: "ATLANTA — In the most important appeal of the Obamacare constitutional saga, today was the best day yet for individual freedom. The government’s lawyer, Neal Katyal, spent most of the hearing on the ropes, with the judicial panel extremely cautious not to extend federal power beyond its present outer limits of regulating economic activity that has a substantial aggregate effect on interstate commerce.

As the lawyer representing 26 states against the federal government said, “The whole reason we do this is to protect liberty.” With those words, former solicitor general Paul Clement reached the essence of the Obamacare lawsuits. With apologies to Joe Biden, this is a big deal not because we’re dealing with a huge reorganization of the health care industry, but because our most fundamental first principle is at stake: we limit government power so people can live their lives the way they want."

The best day yet? Well, it might be if the alternative was falling into an actual black hole as opposed to a virtual one...

Rape O Pillage (Part 78,395)

Obama Wants American Taxpayers to Bail Out Greek Politicians and Dig the Debt Hole even Deeper « International Liberty: "Here’s some completely depressing news. CNBC is reporting that President Obama is putting American taxpayers on the chopping block to bail out Greece’s corrupt politicians. But, to show he doesn’t discriminate, he also encouraged the German Chancellor to rape her nation’s taxpayers for the same purpose.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday…pledged U.S. support to help tackle the country’s debt crisis. …After a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he stressed the importance of German “leadership” on the issue – a hint that he expects Berlin to help – while expressing sympathy for the political difficulties European Union countries face in helping a struggling member state."

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Regime Uncertainty

What Paul Krugman Misses About 1937 Redux: Echoes - Bloomberg: "Roosevelt relished hunting down big firms through regulatory action and blaming new sectors, such as utilities, for slowdowns -- on some days. Other days, he invited business leaders into the Oval Office and talked about partnership and a 'breathing spell.'

This inconsistency itself posed a problem. The diary of an Ohio lawyer named Daniel Roth, which was recently republished, captures the pervasive anxiety of the period. 'We are having a bad steel strike in Youngstown and the mills have closed,' Roth wrote on June 22, 1937. 'The state and federal governments seem to support the labor unions and there has been a complete breakdown of law and order. Business is very quiet.'

From the U.K., John Maynard Keynes wrote to FDR that it was all right to nationalize utilities or to leave them alone -- but what, Keynes asked, was 'the object of chasing the utilities around the lot every other week?”'"

Monday, June 6, 2011

It's That Simple

Instapundit » Blog Archive » WEINER HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: Erections Have Consequences. “Let’s put it this way: Any offenses tha…: "WEINER HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: Erections Have Consequences. “Let’s put it this way: Any offenses that result in a press conference in which a member of Congress can relevantly be asked ‘Were you fully erect?’ are offenses that disqualify that congressman from public service. It’s that simple.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 12:23 am"

Good God.

Hubris

Works and Days » The Collapse of a Rotten Edifice: "Nemesis is always hot on the trail of hubris, across time and space, and the goddess has been particularly busy in destroying the carefully crafted images of Bono, John Edwards, Timothy Geithner, Al Gore, Eliot Spitzer, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Anthony Weiner, and a host of others. What do their tax hypocrisies, sexual indulgences, and aristocratic socialist lifestyles all have in common?

Collectively, they represent a self-appointed or elected global elite that oversees, lectures about — in sanctimonious fashion — the ethical responsibilities of the redistributive state. Bono and his ensemble may be the highest paid rock group in the world, the most eager to shake a finger at Western governments on their moral duties to help the less fortunate. He is a pop icon always ready to fault the consumerist Western lifestyle. But Bono and his pals are quite determined to avoid Irish tax laws to ensure more of their hard-won capitalist profits so necessary to support their global lifestyles, at a time when their alma mater is broke and unable to fund its once ample entitlements."

Unexpectedly

The green killer: Scores of protected golden eagles dying after colliding with wind turbines | Mail Online: "California's attempts to switch to green energy have inadvertently put the survival of the state’s golden eagles at risk.

Scores of the protected birds have been dying each year after colliding with the blades of about 5,000 wind turbines.

Now the drive for renewable power sources, such as wind and the sun, being promoted by President Obama and state Governor Jerry Brown has raised fears that the number of newborn golden eagles may not be able to keep pace with the number of turbine fatalities."

Only us nasty old curmudgeons could have predicted such a thing, eh? Oh, and anyone with a functioning brain.

The Hijacking

Video: Breitbart takes over Weiner’s press conference « Hot Air: "Via Mediaite. The Right Scoop has the full 14-minute extravaganza but this five-minute chunk will give you the flavor. Even if you watched it in real time, watch it again: You’ll never see another political presser like it, even if you live to be a thousand. Says Greg Gutfeld, “If Andrew Breitbart was a leftist, Sean Penn would die to play him.”

If you’re wondering what the left’s next move will be after this, you haven’t been reading blogs for very long. Exit question: If Breitbart hadn’t asked for an apology from Weiner, would the press ever have thought to ask for one on his behalf? A rhetorical question, of course."

And Andrew couldn't have hijacked the press conference of a more deserving idiot... LOL

Sunday, June 5, 2011

In A Field O Straw Men: 1994 Unexamined

Is There A Difference Between QE And Printing Money? - Reuven Brenner - Leapfrogging - Forbes: "Before the recent crisis, Washington guaranteed not only demand deposits in banks, but also, implicitly, money markets funds and vast amount of mortgages through Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The magnitude of the crisis has reflected the government`s unprecedented assurances.

One lesson of the Mexican experience should have been that if the U.S. government maintains explicit or, at times, implicit deposit insurance, Freddie’s and Fannie’s obligations, and relies on unreliable rating agencies, then the financial institutions must be regulated severely.

However, if government is taking the deregulation route, then the guarantees must go too. The lesson of this experience was not learned. U.S. voters were offered only one option of heavy-handed regulation with the alternative of getting government out of the explicit insurance for deposits and mortgages, with the implicit one for money market funds hardly being brought up.

Other mistakes of those 1994 events went unexamined too."

This is a RTWT.

The Fracking Truth Is Not Relevant?

The Gasland movie: a fracking shame – director pulls video to hide inconvenient truths | Watts Up With That?: "The Gasland director apparently didn’t like this video being used to criticize him (which falls under fair use) and he has pulled it from YouTube claiming a copyright violation. Fortunately, there are other options besides YouTube to show Phelim McAleer’s video:
Gasland director hides full facts from Not Evil Just Wrong on Vimeo.

And as way of verification of the Gasland’s claim of fracking causing methane in groundwater was based on a fabricated claim or not, I went looking for the 1976 report that McAleer cited. I didn’t find it, but I did find another report from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) which was equally damning:
DOI: 10.1306/03B5B46B-16D1-11D7-8645000102C1865D
Distinction Between In-Situ Biogenic Gas and Migrated Thermogenic Gas in Ground Water, Denver Basin, Colorado: ABSTRACT
Dudley D. Rice, Lewis R. Ladwig
AAPG Bulletin
Volume 67 (1983)
Methane-rich gas commonly occurs in ground water in the Denver basin, southern Weld County, Colorado. The gas generally is in solution in the ground water of the aquifer. However, exsolution resulting from reduction to hydrostatic pressure during water production may create free gas, which can accumulate in wells and buildings and pose an explosion and fire hazard.

Typical environmentalist bullsh*t.

And the Gramscian/Stalinist march down the memory hole continues (from the comments):

genomega1 says:
June 4, 2011 at 8:47 pm
If you run across any videos you consider important please download and store. Videos are disappearing at the speed of light off the net especially you tube. 25+ channels have been deleted that I subscribed to for a long time.

Not BehOlden

Instapundit » Blog Archive » READER JOHN MACDONALD EMAILS, “WHY DO WE HAVE TO GET ALL THE NEWS FROM THE BRITISH PAPERS?” Daily M…: "READER JOHN MACDONALD EMAILS, “WHY DO WE HAVE TO GET ALL THE NEWS FROM THE BRITISH PAPERS?” Daily Mail: What would Michelle say? President Obama wolfs down TWO chili dogs and fries… the day after his wife unveils new dietary guide. Their photo choices are different than what you see in the American papers, too."

Campaigner In Chief

Who put the chill on American businesses? | Michael Barone | Beltway Confidential | Washington Examiner: "In a blogpost earlier today, I suggested that Barack Obama’s April 13 speech at George Washington University, in which he signaled that he would be in campaign rather than governing mode for the remainder of the 2012 campaign cycle, triggered the economic slowdown clearly indicated by the numbers that have been coming in this week. Here’s some additional evidence for that proposition, from Business Insider’s Joe Weisenthal, reporting Goldman Sachs’s response to the jobs numbers announced this morning.

Key quote from GS: “After the recent run of weaker-than-expected data, our Current Activity Indicator (CAI) now stands at just 1.0% for May, down from 1.6% in April and 4.2% in March.” Weisenthal’s comment: “That is a major drop in almost no time at all.”

Could an April 13 presidential speech account for it? Well, the timing seems right . . . ."

Shocked, Shocked!

Arab newspaper: Why, Arab dictators are worse than the Zionists! « Hot Air: "Via Carl in Jerusalem, this can almost literally be called a Road to Damascus moment — or perhaps a Road to Hama moment, as troops loyal to Syrian strongman Bashar Assad are now surrounding the city where his father killed 10,000 people by dropping bombs on them. The Dubai-based Gulf News, which has no problem running Holocaust-denial columns on occasion and accusing Zionists and Nazis of conspiring to create a Holocaust hoax, published a column this weekend in which a Syrian journalist is shocked, shocked to discover that Arab dictators are much more brutal than Israelis have ever been:
In fact, the Sudanese regime killed hundreds of thousands of its own people in Darfur. The so-called Janjaweed gangs in Sudan used to annihilate the people of Darfur like flies simply because the latter clamoured for their basic rights. An Arab satirist once commented that an Arab dictator would not accept the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza even as an appetiser! …

The ongoing Arab intifadas have shown that some Arab rulers can beat the Israelis at their own game."

Saturday, June 4, 2011

What They Do At The Office

Sunday Reflection: Hard to get good goons these days | Glenn Harlan Reynolds | Columnists | Washington Examiner: "When people who are used to dealing with cave-ins, or ladles of molten metal, hit the streets, they're putting those traits to work in an environment that's probably less dangerous than the one they work in every day. That makes them pretty formidable.

In fact, it made them so formidable that they were able to put together unions solid enough to send the industries they depended on overseas, where labor was more tractable, because the bosses weren't willing to face the headache of trying to get rid of the unions, and couldn't afford to pay the wages the unions, with their toughness, had managed to extract.

But miners and steelworkers are one thing. When the public employees of, say, Wisconsin hit the streets, it looked more like a bunch of disgruntled DMV clerks and graduate teaching assistants, because, well, that's what it was.

Though they displayed more creativity in signage than you might expect from steelworkers, overall, they brought pretty much the same work habits to their protests that they bring to their jobs. (Sleeping in the capitol? Pretty much what they do at the office.)"

Heh.

The Tragedy O Mockery

Instapundit » Blog Archive » TIMOTHY DALRYMPLE: Battle Of The Bulge: Is The Weiner War Worth It? “The comic value alone is pri…: "TIMOTHY DALRYMPLE: Battle Of The Bulge: Is The Weiner War Worth It? “The comic value alone is priceless.”

I think there’s an important point in the comic value: The people who think they’re smart enough, and morally superior enough, to run everyone else’s lives are risible. They’re not smart enough to run their own lives competently, and they’re actually, overall, morally inferior — I mean, John Edwards, DSK, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barney Frank, Tax Cheat Tim Geithner, just go down the list — and mocking them is inherently valuable. They pursue power, and they exercise power, as much for deference as anything else. Deny them that, and make it painful for them whenever possible. That’s my take.

UPDATE: Reader Walter Oster writes: “You talk about the moral inferiors and incompetents who want to run our lives. I recently re-read Atlas Shrugs and was saddened by the incredible parallels. Geithner and Frank and those guys are James Taggart and Wesley Mouch. I agree that comic value is important but man, is it sad.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 10:02 am"

All Together Now: Baaaaaaaaah!

Moonbattery: Big Government Decrees Data Collectors in All New Cars: "As you might recall, our rulers have been scheming to tax us for each mile we drive, in order to defray the cost of their never-ending frivolous spending, to save the polar bears from the imaginary global warming menace, to keep their boot on the neck of the struggling economy, and most importantly, to limit our mobility, because mobility is freedom. Having nationalized most of the auto industry will make it all the easier to implement the next step in this plan:
Beginning in June of 2011, all new cars manufactured and sold in the United States will be required to have a mandated black box device installed, which can be used to monitor several different physical and technical data points. …
The installation and use of these black boxes can have infinite possibilities for local, state, and federal governments to monitor and record data for a number of other revenue programs that are currently under consideration. In March, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a proposal to institute a tax on mileage to help pay for the federal budget deficit. Additionally, local cities and counties can download information from these black boxes, and they can be used to issue driving citations after the fact in the case of speeding or not wearing a seat belt."

All of a sudden I feel less happy of myself... Oh, never mind. There's a nice clump of grass over there to gnaw at...

I Feel Happy Of Myself

Boy Learns to Ride a Bike, Spreads Positive Message of Personal Growth - Ricochet.com: "The little tyke is wrong, of course. But he's got many years before he needs to realize that."

Abyss

After 29 months of the most left-wing presidency in US history, the American superpower is heading towards the economic abyss – Telegraph Blogs: "Years of profligate spending, massive bailouts and useless stimulus measures have made America poorer, not richer, and threaten the long-term economic foundations of this great country. President Obama’s big government experiment has been a dangerous failure, only further proof that the deadening hand of federal intervention is the last thing America needs at this time. The United States needs more economic freedom, less government regulation and spending, and lower taxes if it is to create jobs, wealth and prosperity, a message that seems to have been lost on the Obama presidency as it drives the United States towards the financial abyss."

Ponzicare

Power Line - Telling the Truth About Medicare: "The most critical feature of any Ponzi scheme is that the early entrants must do well. Why did people crave the privilege of entrusting their money to Bernie Madoff? Because those who did so in the beginning got wonderful returns, through good times and bad.

Likewise with Medicare: those who are now enrolled in the program are consuming medical services at a rate that dwarfs the modest payments they made over their working lives. They are making out like bandits, just like Madoff's early investors. And, exactly like Madoff's early marks, the vast surplus they are reaping has nothing to do with any 'investment' they made. Rather, it represents the government's deliberate perpetration of a fraud--in this case, a fraud that is intended to make Medicare politically sacrosanct so that it will survive, for now, despite the fiscal train wreck that we all know is coming. The liberals' plan is that when Medicare does crash, the market for medical services will be so distorted and so government-driven that it will be too late for any alternative except socialized medicine. We see that already in Obamacare."

Friday, June 3, 2011

The Endless Stream Of O's

O's jobs-export economy - NYPOST.com: "The problem for the average American worker: Businesses have learned to make money by cutting costs (i.e., jobs) or relocating to China and India. And it's not merely that it's cheaper to operate overseas; a huge part of the problem is the fear that it's going to keep getting more expensive to hire here.

Both small-business owners, and analysts who cover these companies tell me that many American businesses would like to stay here, but they see no letup in sight in the endless stream of taxes and regulations coming from an administration most of them consider anti-business.

And now the weakness of the Republican presidential field raises the chances for President Obama's re-election in 2012 -- and even more Washington-imposed woes."

Eat Your Words

"To All of Those People Who Say That the Tea Party is a Racist Organization ... Eat Your Words" - Ricochet.com: "Herman Cain has launched the multimedia component of his presidential campaign with a brand new music video. Personally, I find the song and the format a little retro (anyone else think this is the modern equivalent of the Eisenhower jingles?). But some of the interstitial soundbites featuring black conservatives are priceless. If the excitement factor turns out to be a driving force in the primary season, Herman Cain is going to be a force to be reckoned with:"

COTD: Again

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: So Now All These People Will Apologize to Sarah Palin About Paul Revere, Right?: "'The British weren't coming to take away anyone's arms...'

I think that little maneuver is known as 'stepping on your own d*ck'. They were on their way to seize the magazines.

Don't any of you lefties remember 'party like it's 1773'? She had the right year, you weasels didn't. You assumed that was because SHE was stupid...

And you've done the same thing AGAIN."

NYeT! There Is No Memory Hole!

Power Line - A funny thing happened. . .: "Yesterday Drudge linked to the New York Times story announcing the appointment of Jill Abramson to succeed Bill Keller as the top dog at the Times. I read the story and was amused by Abramson's expression of delight: 'In my house growing up, The Times substituted for religion. If The Times said it, it was the absolute truth.'

That is an incredibly rich quote. The Times serves as the perfect stand-in for liberalism, not just supposed journalistic excellence. It is a substitute religion that comes in several forms. (Over at NRO, Jay Nordlinger commented briefly on the quote.)

A funny thing happened on the way to shul, as we say in Yiddish. The Times has scrubbed the quote from the story."

Perfect. The NYeT is a parody of itself.