Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Credit Where Credit Is Due -- Romney Edition

Mitt Romney is right, culture matters, Part Two | Power Line: "Economic freedom is the only force that has consistently succeeded in lifting people out of poverty. It is the only principle that has ever created sustained prosperity. It is why our economy rose to rival those of the world’s leading powers — and has long since surpassed them all.

The linkage between freedom and economic development has a universal applicability. One only has to look at the contrast between East and West Germany, and between North and South Korea for the starkest demonstrations of the meaning of freedom and the absence of freedom.

Israel is also a telling example. Like the United States, the state of Israel has a culture that is based upon individual freedom and the rule of law."
Definitely a RTWT.

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Ramirez +1000

You Didn’t Win That Gold Medal! | Power Line: "Of course, if we were in the U.S., the medal stand probably would have been built by a small business that is threatened with extinction by the Obama administration’s hostile policies."
Heh.

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COTD: The Trough Slopper

The PJ Tatler » Why ‘You Didn’t Build That’ is a Problem: "And for a guy who did nothing in his life except find ways to tear down business, protest them, tie them up with bureaucratic red tape and threatened litigation…he has some chutzpah telling these “bitter clingers” that they aren’t smart and they aren’t hard working enough for his tastes.

The golfer/vacationer who has slopped at the public trough throughout his life hit a nerve and it has prompted a recoil that still is resonating.

No matter how much he tries to water it down and scrub it from its true intent, it’s the “you’re not that smart, you’re not that hard working” that teed up the “you didn’t build that”. After it was teed up, the duffer in chief hit it out of bounds…and now is trying to kick it back onto the fairway with a foot wedge. He just needs to get his cleats out of his mouth to do that."

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Figments Or Something

Instapundit » Blog Archive » HEY, WAIT, I THOUGHT THOSE WERE FIGMENTS OF DICK CHENEY’S IMAGINATION: “Britain will help the Iraqi…: "HEY, WAIT, I THOUGHT THOSE WERE FIGMENTS OF DICK CHENEY’S IMAGINATION: “Britain will help the Iraqi government dispose of what’s left of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons, still stored in two bunkers in north of Baghdad, the British embassy in Baghdad announced Monday. . . . Saddam stored the chemical weapons near population centers so that he could access them quickly, despite the danger to his civilian population.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 6:40 pm"
And thank God Assad doesn't have any chemical weapons either ... stored near population centers ... because surely he wouldn't ... use them on his ... population ... because like Saddam ... he doesn't have any ... or something.

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Out: Houses, In: Grass Huts

Hammer-Wielding Man in Suit Attacks Spanish Tourist at City Hall Park | NBC New York: "A Spanish tourist was attacked by a hammer-wielding man, apparently at random, while sitting inside City Hall Park Monday afternoon, authorities say.

The 31-year-old tourist from Barcelona was sitting in the park at Murray Street and Broadway when a man dressed in a suit and tie began hitting him with a hammer, witnesses told investigators."
And as one of the commenters notes, we should all live in jail cells so the government can keep us safe...

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Monday, July 30, 2012

Grand Theft Auto -- DEA Edition

DEA Gone Wild - National Review Online: "In short, the DEA here commandeered private property from a law-abiding businessman and ineptly deployed it in an operation that got a man killed and now endangers a family that had nothing to do with the case. There is a term for what the DEA did with that truck: grand theft auto.

The DEA is running neck-and-neck with the ATF for the title of most dangerous federal law-enforcement agency; in my view, both should be dissolved and their responsibilities handed over to some more responsible party, such as a group of drunken rodeo clowns or ADD-addled teen-agers.

Whoever approved this operation belongs in a jail cell next to whoever approved Fast and Furious."
What the hell is happening to our law enforcement establishment?

Bueller?

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Sunday, July 29, 2012

Air Temperature Measurement Today: Siting And Equipment Matter ... Who'd A Thunk It?

An innocuous start to today's blockbuster press release:

PRESS RELEASE | Watts Up With That?: "A reanalysis of U.S. surface station temperatures has been performed using the recently WMO-approved Siting Classification System devised by METEO-France’s Michel Leroy. The new siting classification more accurately characterizes the quality of the location in terms of monitoring long-term spatially representative surface temperature trends. The new analysis demonstrates that reported 1979-2008 U.S. temperature trends are spuriously doubled, with 92% of that over-estimation resulting from erroneous NOAA adjustments of well-sited stations upward. The paper is the first to use the updated siting system which addresses USHCN siting issues and data adjustments."
... yields this summary chart for you geeks:
Go read the paper and especially the Powerpoint. You can think of the chart I created just above as a summary of the Powerpoint.

The way I would describe the summary chart I have created here is that it shows that over the historical range of the datasets being examined by the paper, the better the siting and measurement equipment, the lower the amount of USHCN warming that can be supported.

The datapoint for "Rural MMTS, No Airports" (0.032 DegC / decade) is particularly damning as it is the best data available -- though it's also one of the smallest sample sets so it cannot be over-relied upon at this time (the very fact of it's relatively small size being somewhat damning in and of itself). But it should be noted that all of the "Compliant" data subset values line up very much in the ordinal relationship that common-sense site analysis would predict.

It's also interesting that the "Non-Compliant" data results also yield a very similar gross ordinal relationship.

And it doesn't matter what raw data subset you feed the NOAA process, the answer is always +0.3 (+3%/-0%) DegC / decade.

But perhaps strangest of all, the micro-zoomed detailed ordinal relationship of the NOAA results nearly match the paper's ordinal set relationships for "Compliant" data except for the "Rural, No Airports" value.  Hmm -- what are the odds of that?...
(NOTE: I'm having some fun with this this chart -- don't let it distract you from the first chart which is the one truly meant to summarize actual results of the paper.)

Luckily, we're assured that the NOAA process is a completely apolitical result -- and also certainly not based on scientism in any way...

UPDATE: A commenter to the press release post on WUWT reminds us:
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” George Orwell.

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Saturday, July 28, 2012

It Stinks

CHART OF THE DAY: The US Garbage Indicator Is Sending An Ominous Sign For The Economy - Business Insider: "According to a 2010 piece on Bloomberg, economists Michael McDonough and Carl Riccadonna note that waste has an 82 percent correlation to US economic growth.

This should be pretty intuitive.  The more you produce, the more you throw out. McDonough, a Bloomberg BRIEF economist, tweeted out an update on the indicator.

And frankly, it stinks.  Waste carloads are way down."

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Brown Calls Fake! Scores!

Let America Be America Again - YouTube: "Let America Be America Again"

Brown has this one nailed. Included is a reminder where the fake head goofball got got his fake American ideas -- from the fake Indian that Brown has to deal with!  Well, actually it would be closer to the truth that she got her fake ideas from Obama but I'm getting ahead of myself.

From one of my recent posts:

"Alternative headline: “Supporter of fake Indian ranch supports fake Indian.”"

Which brings back memories of the "Fake but accurate" fiasco. A lot of folks don't actually realize just how fake the Bush Guard memos were. The answer is here -- and you should at least read the first five paragraphs even if you understand zip about computer science. (Hint: Microsoft Word had not yet been invented in the 1970s...)

I have an MSCS plus I am old enough to be familiar first hand with the typewriters of that era and can attest that Dr. Newcomer has this completely nailed. Frankly, if there was any justice in this world, Dan Rather would be rotting in prison.

Fraud is a criminal offense but everyone seems to have been brainwashed to the point they can't understand that any longer.  Fake is actually just fraud, but somehow fraud is just fine if not the new ideal...

I salute Scott Brown in his fight against the "Fraud Borgs" but I don't think he knows what he is actually up against.

When Brown solves the riddle that Obama was born in Hawaii and has posted a fake B.C. -- yes the B.C. is fraudulent -- he'll approach full contact with how ugly and fraudulent our Brave New U.S. World and his opponent actually is...

But then as the great and wise David Maraniss says (while carefully avoiding mentioning the actual truth that some of us know Obama's real fraud) -- I'm just a racist.  That would of course explain why I'm married to an actual Hispanic ... and not a fake Indian.

And did I forget to mention that my college roommate and friend was black? And yes, that would be an actual black and not a fake one like our President.

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The Evil Dick Strikes Again

Instapundit » Blog Archive » SEEN ON FACEBOOK, an amusing commentary on the Chick-Fil-A brouhaha. Also: And: …: "SEEN ON FACEBOOK, an amusing commentary on the Chick-Fil-A brouhaha."
LOL!

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A Tale O The Enemy

A younger Obama considered his first employer, “the enemy” « Hot Air: "None of this is illegal, of course, nor even immoral. But it does provide a yet another look into the formative process that the President went through as a young man, which certainly speaks to his opinions later in life. Is it really such a stretch to assert that he’s not exactly a fan of private business and capitalism? B.I. was self-described as a firm with a goal, “to advance profitable corporate and economic growth in socially desirable ways.” And this is the company which, after giving the young Obama a job, he described as, “The Enemy.”"
And I do mean tale. RTWT.

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Another Epic O Fail

America's Failing Grade on Cyber Attack Readiness - ABC News: "The man in charge of America's cyber operations said that on a scale of one to 10, the nation's preparedness to deal with a major cyber attack on critical infrastructure sits at a dismal three.

"Somebody who finds vulnerability in our infrastructure could cause tremendous problems," Army Gen. Keith Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency and chief of U.S. Cyber Command, told audience members at the Aspen Institute's annual security forum late Thursday, according to multiple reports. Alexander said that since 2009, attempted cyber attacks on the nation's infrastructure systems have risen seventeen-fold.

"I'm worried most about power. I'm worried about water. I think those are the ones that need the most help," he said."
And what kind of moron would want to publicize this? I guess the military is now filled with morons in the general staff. Lord help us...

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Friday, July 27, 2012

Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction

Will four words — or two — derail Obama’s re-election? « Hot Air: "Investors Business Daily’s double Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez has a sharp riposte to those who insist that quoting Obama accurately is somehow unfair:"

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Deathly Democrats

Instapundit: "GAY-HATRED’S OKAY IF IT’S DIVERSE GAY-HATRED: Boston Mayor was at ribbon cutting for city-subsidized mosque that teaches “death to gays.”

Posted at 10:06 am by Glenn Reynolds  

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Senate Democrats To Small Business: Drop Dead. Hey, it’s not like you built that business yourself or anything.

Posted at 10:00 am by Glenn Reynolds  "

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Nightmare

Top Immigration Officials Describe Border Chaos Resulting From Admin's Amnesty Policy - YouTube: "As you will hear today, this administration has engaged in a sustained, relentless effort to undermine America's immigration laws. They have handcuffed and muffled those charged with protecting the public safety and the integrity of our borders. Such action has not only weakened our security but our democracy...

All Americans, immigrant and native born, will have a better future if our nation remains unique in the world for the special reverence it places in the rule of law and fairness in our immigration system.""
Drop everything and watch this.

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Time To Ban Knives Next?

Gun carrying man ends stabbing spree at Salt Lake grocery store - ABC4.com - Salt Lake City, Utah News: "SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - A citizen with a gun stopped a knife wielding man as he began stabbing people Thursday evening at the downtown Salt Lake City Smith's store.

Police say the suspect purchased a knife inside the store and then turned it into a weapon. Smith's employee Dorothy Espinoza says, "He pulled it out and stood outside the Smiths in the foyer. And just started stabbing people and yelling you killed my people. You killed my people.""
I have no doubt that's next. Boy have I been a dummy not figuring this one out: When they take the knives away there goes eating meat! Paging Mayor BloomNanny's next press conference...

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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Miracles

Moonbattery » Miracles of Evil: "Bill Whittle explains why Obama’s repugnant denunciation of individual achievement was not all that surprising, considering who it was coming from:"

Talk about psychological projection! No, he didn't get there on his own, did he?

And from the comments: "If you killed a well-known terrorist, you didn't do that. Somebody else made that happen."

Heh.

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O Plans To Nuke Own Foot In Response To Nobody Built That In The 57 States Or Whatever...

Stop claiming Obama said what he said, just because he said it | The Daily Caller: "This has now gone beyond Obama’s collectivist, big-government beliefs. Most people have figured those out by now, assuming they haven’t been in a coma for the last four years. This is just the latest example of Obama looking you in the eye and telling you 2 + 2 = 5. This is about the Obama campaign depending on voters being too ignorant to know they’re being told the most blatant, ridiculous lies. This is about Obama thinking Americans are stupid.

And he may have a point. After all, we did elect him.

This guy makes Richard Nixon look like George Washington. I’ll bet his pulse rate didn’t even go up a single BPM as he recorded that ad. He can lie to your face, knowing you know it’s a lie, and it doesn’t bother him one bit. As long as he can still fool enough of the suckers, maybe he can still pull it off in November. He’s gotta hope that part doesn’t change.

Obama 2012: What Else Are You Gonna Do, Rube?

P.S. The Democrats are planning to “go nuclear” in response. That should be fun to watch. I’ve never seen somebody drop a nuke on their own foot."

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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Thunderstruck

Refreshing News: Iranian nuclear facilities hit by AC/DC virus that turns off automated system operations, turns on PCs at night playing 'Thunderstruck': "Iranian nuclear facilities have reportedly been attacked by a “music” virus, turning on lab PCs at night and blasting AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck.”

Mikko Hypponen, Chief Researcher at Finnish digital security firm F-secure, publicly released a letter he received from an unnamed Iranian scientist. The researcher, who claimed to work for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said that another virus has struck the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran and a secret underground research facility at Fordo, southwest of Tehran.

The letter’s author reported that the virus shut down equipment (made by Germany’s Siemens Corporation) and automated systems at both research centers.

Hypponen published the letter on his blog, but cautioned that there is no way for him to verify the accusations. He was able to confirm, however, that the letter did originate from the AEOI’s servers.

The letter, which was reportedly sent to various cybersecurity experts, said that Metasploit’s Penetration Testing Software had been used to direct this new attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities."
UPDATE: "Those lucky Iranian bastards don't even have to watch an ad first..."

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Casualties

Doc says 'physicians have reached a tipping point' | The Daily Caller: "In 1995, Westchester Orthopedic employed one person to perform administrative tasks. By the late ’90s, they employed one per doctor.

Mark Smith, president of physician recruiter Merritt Hawkins in Irving, Texas, said there are more regulations today than ever before. Doctors in his association report spending 60 percent of their time on completing regulatory paperwork.

“There have even been reports of small practices going out of business,” Smith said. “This has been unheard of in my 24 years in this organization.”"
And the real casualty will of course be ... you.

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Heh

best bar joke ever: "Guy goes into a bar in Louisiana where there’s a robot bartender! The robot says, “What will you have?” The guy says, “Whiskey.” The robot brings back his drink and says to the man, “What’s your IQ?” The guy says,” 168.” The robot then proceeds to talk about physics, space exploration and medical technology.

The guy leaves, . . . but he is curious . . . So he goes back into the bar. The robot bartender says, “What will you have?” The guy says, “Whiskey.” Again, the robot brings the man his drink and says, “What’s your IQ?” The guy says, “100.” The robot then starts to talk about Nascar, Budweiser, the Saints and LSU Tigers

The guy leaves, but finds it very interesting, so he thinks he will try it one more time. He goes back into the bar. The robot says, “What will you have?” The guy says, “Whiskey,” and the robot brings him his whiskey. The robot then says, “What’s your IQ?” The guy says, “Uh, about 50.”

The robot leans in real close and says, “SO, . . . you people . . . still happy . . . with Obama?”"

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Shock O Bama

NSA whistleblowers: Government spying on every single American — RT: "“Domestically, they're pulling together all the data about virtually every U.S. citizen in the country and assembling that information, building communities that you have relationships with, and knowledge about you; what your activities are; what you're doing. So the government is accumulating that kind of information about every individual person and it's a very dangerous process,” Binney said.

Drake and Binney’s statements follow the revelation that law enforcement officers collected cell phone records on 1.3 million Americans in 2011. More news articles are emerging every day suggesting that the surveillance of Americans — off-the-radar and under wraps — is growing at an exponential rate."
Or is that O Nixon?

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Feeling Worse

Could ObamaCare Make The Uninsured Problem Worse? - Investors.com: ""The individual mandate," they conclude, "may not actually be mandatory after all."

The problem is that if the mandate doesn't work, ObamaCare could make the uninsured problem worse, at least in the individual insurance market.

That's because ObamaCare's insurance market reforms — called "guaranteed issue" and "community rating" — force insurers to cover anyone, regardless of their health status, while forbidding them from charging the sick more than the healthy.

ObamaCare's designers knew that without an effective individual mandate, these market reforms could cause a "death spiral" as healthy people dropped coverage knowing they could get it — guaranteed — whenever they got sick. This death spiral, in fact, is just what happened in states that tried those market reforms without imposing a mandate.

ObamaCare backers say that generous subsidies offered through the ObamaCare "exchanges" will more than make up for a neutered mandate.

But Obama's solicitor general, Donald Verrilli, admitted before the Supreme Court that without an effective individual mandate, "guaranteed issue and community rating will, as the experience in the states showed, make matters worse, not better. There will be fewer people covered; it will cost more.""
RTWT. Proudly brought to you by Cloward and Piven's "Collapse the system" ideology.

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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Three Days O The Jackass

You tell me what bit you enjoyed the most: "After being questioned about why her demand for more transparency from Romney shouldn’t apply to Congress as well, she briefly changed course and said the issue of tax returns was not important.

“The tradition that was honored by this same person’s father,” Pelosi said, recalling how George Romney released several years of his tax returns when he ran for president in 1968. “Now I’m not here, this is not important to me, let me say this: What’s important to me are jobs and the rest,” Pelosi said.
Jackass."
Heh. RTWT. I's all about context you know...

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Sunday, July 22, 2012

Which One Is It?

Obama the Banal - By Peter Kirsanow - The Corner - National Review Online: "For the past four years, liberals have tried to sell us on the idea that Obama is one of the greatest speakers of all time. Now they’re complaining that conservatives are taking his words literally and not cutting him enough slack. Which one is it?

Not long after his election, even some Obama supporters began to notice that his teleprompter-supported speeches were unremarkable– more  style than substance. Obviously, delivery is important, but not more so than content. Soon Obama’s familiar head swiveling, tennis- match- spectator orations became a source of amusement, if not annoyance.
Obama benefits from having a distinctive name and announcer’s voice. Thought experiment: Imagine Barack Obama’s name is Bob Smith and his voice sounds like, say, John McCain’s. Now imagine Bob Smith/Obama delivering any one of Obama’s addresses, even his celebrated 2008 speech on race.

Try not to fall asleep. "

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Iowahawk Strikes Again

iowahawk: You Didn't Build That: "31 The Lord Govt was in wrath, and said, “For I am the Lord Govt, creator of Eden! 32 I gave unto you the roads and bridges, and schools and cops, brought unto you of gentle showers of Tarp and Stimulus and rivers of Subsidy, I am the purifier of the waters, cleanser of the air, without which you and your profits would not exist. Thus all that thou have created is created by Us. Thus ye shall render unto Govt what is Govt's, and this is the Word of your Lord.”

33 At these words, Solydra and Gm and Seiu and all the Cronyans and Laborites dropped to their knees in trembling fear and supplicated themselves before the Lord, presenting Him golden gifts of contributions."
This is definitely a RTWT.

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Saturday, July 21, 2012

I Built This

Outstanding!… Here It Is – ‘Hey Obama, We Built This!’ – The Video | The Gateway Pundit: "Now small business owners across America are standing up, speaking out and fighting back.

Here is their response to Barack Obama…

“I Built This” – the video. Via the Ulsterman report:"

Nice.

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What Comes Around...

Doing unto Brian Ross, part 2 | Power Line: "The great Iowahawk has been doing unto Brian Ross something like what Brian Ross did unto the wrong Jim Holmes yesterday. Check out Iowahawk’s Twitter feed here. With thanks to reader Jennifer, below is a screen shot of Iowahawk at work yesterday."

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Whoops

Warner Bros Paired 'Dark Knight Rises' With Trailer Of Movie Showing Gangster Shooting In Theater: "According to Warner Bros, this distribution exec suddenly remembered that the trailer for the mob movie contained a scene showing a gangster with a machine gun shooting up people in a movie theater from behind the big screen. This distribution exec quickly instructed the studio to “replace it as soon as possible”. At 6 AM, Warner Bros started notifying the theater circuits to pull the offensive Gangster Squad trailer. That is being done all over North America today."

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Friday, July 20, 2012

Turn. Off. The. Constant. T. V. And. Movies.

Was the Batman movie shooting imitated from scene in 1986 comic? | WashingtonExaminer.com: "The horrific shooting at the screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Colorado late last night bears eerie similarities to a scene in the 1986 comic Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. In the comic, a crazed, gun-toting loner walks into a movie theater and begins shooting it up, killing three in the process. The passage concludes with the media blaming Batman for inspiring the shooting, though he is not involved in the incident at all.

The 1986 comic, written and drawn by Frank Miller, was a key inspiration for the Chris Nolan Batman films. It helped to reimagine the character away from his Saturday morning cartoon image and into a dark, grim avenger. The point of this particular scene in the comic was to show just how far Gotham has fallen since Batman had retired."
Now.

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The Narrative

Instapundit » Blog Archive » BLOG COMMENT OF THE DAY: “Fascinating that a man shouting ‘Allahu akbar’ as he mows down 35 people …: "BLOG COMMENT OF THE DAY: “Fascinating that a man shouting ‘Allahu akbar’ as he mows down 35 people on an army base isn’t motivated by Islam… but a guy who has the same name as hundreds of others—and says nothing as he fires—is obviously a Tea Party zealot.”

It’s all about the narrative.

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 10:52 pm"

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Who's Way Off?

Obama’s ‘Gaffe,’ History and Context - By Stanley Kurtz - The Corner - National Review Online: "In America we have this strong bias toward individual action. You know, we idolize the John Wayne hero who comes in to correct things with both guns blazing. But individual actions, individual dreams, are not sufficient. We must unite in collective action, build collective institutions and organizations.
Obama’s defenders argue that his “You didn’t build that” remark was just a clumsy attempt to make the obvious point that both government and the individual play a role in getting things done. Certainly, Obama’s 1995 comment leaves a place for both individual and collective action. Yet it’s also clear that Obama’s early remark paints the traditional American balance between individual and collective action as way off."

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Thursday, July 19, 2012

Back To The Chained Future

What Obama Doesn’t Get - By Peter Kirsanow - The Corner - National Review Online: "The man was able to send his son to an Ivy League school without any government assistance. And the son’s graduation was one of the proudest days in the man’s harsh and strenuous life.

But here’s what President Obama doesn’t seem to get: It wasn’t the infrastructure, or teachers, or government services — as essential as they may be — that made the man a modest success. After all, those things were provided (albeit in most cases of inferior quality) in the brutally repressive country from which he’d escaped. The Soviet Union had infrastructure and government programs galore, along with considerable misery and failure.

No, what permitted the man to become a success was the freedom afforded by the United States of America; the opportunity to use his native skills and determination — without undue government interference — to make a life for himself and his family. Were he alive today, he’d work furiously to ensure those freedoms aren’t eroded any further."
This is a RTWT. I'll wait since it's not long...

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The Little Engine That Couldn’t Without Federal Assistance

Instapundit » Blog Archive » MORE MOCKERY: #OBAMAKIDSBOOKS. I like The Little Engine That Couldn’t Without Federal Assistance. …: "MORE MOCKERY: #OBAMAKIDSBOOKS. I like The Little Engine That Couldn’t Without Federal Assistance. Also, My Little Crony. And Fast and Furious George is pretty good. So is Heather Has Two Mommies Without Jobs. And Solynderella.

UPDATE: Reader Sean-David Hubbard writes: “I wonder if Obama’s comments in Roanoke might have become his Macaca moment.” Well, the Macaca thing was driven by the press. The press will do its best to ignore this one.

ANOTHER UPDATE: I was just talking on the phone with a friend who said: “Without me doing anything, my net worth has dropped 40% since Obama took office. I didn’t do that. He did.” Ouch.

And reader Jed Kane writes: “Green Jobs and Scams. I do not like them Sam, I am.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 8:54 am"

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Mockery

Instapundit » Blog Archive » ED DRISCOLL: Quote Me As Saying I Was Misquoted: A roundup of reactions to Obama’s build-it gaffe….: "ANOTHER UPDATE: #IBuiltThis: Bristol Palin jumps in on Twitter, starts ‘I built this, Mr. President’ photo campaign. That’s right, Barack. Now you’re being mocked by Bristol Palin.

Plus, seen on Facebook:"

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pOland

Obama Liberates Poland? | Power Line: "Ford’s not-so-clever attempt at diplomatic hair-splitting didn’t work any better than Obama and his defenders arguing today that Obama was merely trying to highlight the importance of those basic functions of government, such as infrastructure and the rule of law, that make commerce possible.  Okay—let’s have that debate, and ask what business needs from government today.  Not high-speed rail in California (or anywhere else), investments in “green energy,” massive regulatory uncertainty from the EPA and Dodd-Frank, a health care law expanding by the day as the regulators figure it out, massive financial uncertainty from taxes set to explode in January, and a permit-process-from-hell to build anything bigger than an outhouse.  That’s just for starters.  I note that Obama hasn’t even met with his highly touted Jobs Council for more than six months now, which shows how unserious he is about all of this.  Bring it on."
Heh.

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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

hypOcriteOrama

Moonbattery: "On a tip from Wilberforce."

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Barack's How-To Manual Discovered

Instapundit » Blog Archive » MORE PROOF THAT FOR BARACK OBAMA, Atlas Shrugged isn’t a cautionary tale, it’s a how-to manual. …: "MORE PROOF THAT FOR BARACK OBAMA, Atlas Shrugged isn’t a cautionary tale, it’s a how-to manual.
“He didn’t invent iron ore and blast furnaces, did he?”

“Who?”

“Rearden. He didn’t invent smelting and chemistry and air compression. He couldn’t have invented his Metal but for thousands and thousands of other people. His Metal! Why does he think it’s his? Why does he think it’s his invention? Everybody uses the work of everybody else. Nobody ever invents anything.”

She said, puzzled, “But the iron ore and all those other things were there all the time. Why didn’t anybody else make that Metal, but Mr. Rearden did?”
Ouch."
Perfect.

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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

“Why Everything Sucks”

“Why Everything Sucks” - By Jonah Goldberg - The Tyranny Blog - National Review Online: "Craig Ferguson on Youth:"

And don't forget G. K.: "When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing -- they believe in anything."

But they still need to believe they're not an insignificant pimple -- so they worship youth in the vain hope it's a God that will keep them alive...

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This Is Just Too Easy

Bookworm Room » Pictorial commentary on Obama’s “they didn’t do it themselves” speech: "Distilled to its essence:  Barack Obama is saying that only government makes things happen.   He fundamentally fails to understand that a healthy, stable society, one in which government does its job (such as letting the military work on defense and communication systems that might also aid the general public), is one that enables the hard workers, the innovators, the — yes — the lucky ones to rise above the crowd.  When government tries to innovate for innovation’s sake — essentially substituting itself for the wisdom of the marketplace — we end up with TSA and Solyndra."

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Good God, What A mOron

Instapundit » Blog Archive » AT TUMBLR, You Didn’t Build That. UPDATE: Romney Punches Back Twice As Hard. “President Obama a…: "ANOTHER UPDATE: Seen on Facebook:"

Obama did, yeah, that's the ticket...

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Monday, July 16, 2012

Conquest's Laws

Ed Driscoll.com: Conquest's Laws Meets Muggeridge's: "Robert Conquest's Three Laws of Politics:
1. Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.

2. Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.

3. The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies."
Yup.

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Sunday, July 15, 2012

The Entrepreneur Idiot In Chief

Wow! Barack Obama: “If You’ve Got a Business – You Didn’t Build That! Somebody Else Made That Happen” (Video) | The Gateway Pundit: "Barack Obama lectured supporters on economics and entrepreneurship last night in Roanoke, Virginia.

He told the crowd, “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”"
UPDATE:
“Obama to Americans: You don’t deserve what you’ve earned”

Americans to Obama: “Funny, we were thinking the exact same thing about you…”
UPDATED AGAIN:

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brOke

James Howard Kunstler: It's Too Late for Solutions | ZeroHedge: "Author and social critic James Howard Kunstler has been one of the earliest, most direct, and most articulate voices to warn of the consequences -- economic and otherwise -- of modern society's profligate wasting of the resources that underlie its growth.

In his new book Too Much Magic [7], Jim attacks the wishful thinking dominant today that with a little more growth, a little more energy, a little more technology -- a little more magic -- we'll somehow sail past our current tribulations without having to change our behavior.

Such self-delusion is particularly dangerous because it is preventing us from taking intelligent, constructive action at the national level when the clock is fast ticking out of our favor. In fact, Jim claims we are past the state where solutions are possible - instead, we need a response plan to help us best brace for the impact of the coming consequences. And we need it fast."

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The Welfare Cliff

Ace of Spades HQ: "A Picture Of How Redistribution Programs Trap The Less Fortunate Into Lives Of Dependency. Now let me ask you this. Which candidate wants to trap you into a life of dependency (Julia ring a bell)? If you guessed Obama, pat yourself on the back. Why just yesterday he Gutted The Work Requirements From Clinton-era Welfare Reform. As the chart indicates above, there is NO incentive to work and get off the government crutch and the Democrats are pushing forward with agendas to add more."

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Democrats: Then And Now

Ace of Spades HQ: "The guy who runs the People's Cube, Oleg Atbashian, is a Soviet-bloc immigrant who has been force-fed the crap sandwich of socialism all his life, and he came here to get away from it. So you can imagine that he's not real happy that he is now seeing the same policies that have destroyed his homeland being implemented here. And couched in the same rhetoric.

Fortunately for us, Oleg has compiled his witty and urbane thoughts on such matters into a book, Shakedown Socialism, which sounds like it's worth checking out."

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The Real Dog-Eat-Dog

The Dog-Eat-Dog Welfare State Is Lose-Lose - Forbes: "John Maynard Keynes—not exactly history’s greatest opponent of government spending—is reported to have said he would be worried if government outlays ever surpassed 25 percent of GDP. Well, in recent years both American and British government expenditures have hovered around 40 percent of GDP. The bulk of that spending, perhaps as much as 70 percent in Britain, goes to feed the ravenous welfare state.

Clearly it’s time to question the welfare state."
RTWT -- it's short and to the point.

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Green Death

Instapundit » Blog Archive » WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: “Green” Energy Bias Killing California. “Destroying the economic hopes of…: "WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: “Green” Energy Bias Killing California. “Destroying the economic hopes of low income people in order to stoke the self esteem of entitled Boomers is not Via Meadia’s idea of progressive politics, but that just goes to show how backwards we are by the exalted moral standards of the California elites. The destruction of California isn’t a victimless crime. Millions of low income California residents are trapped in decaying cities where, thanks in large part to narcissistic green unicorn chasers, the manufacturing base has withered away. And anything that blights California, blights us all. America and the world need California back on line; the Golden State has too much to offer for anyone to remain indifferent to its fate.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 10:42 am"

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Saturday, July 14, 2012

Where There's Smoke There's Liar

Can a Candidate Lie His Way to the Presidency? | Power Line: "Barack Obama has developed quite a record as a liar. He lied for more than a decade about where he was born. He lied about many aspects of his life in his fictional “memoir.” He lied about his Chicago years and his activities and associations there. (Has anyone ever asked the question, what did Obama do when he lived in Chicago, and whom did he know there, since it seems that all of the activities and associations of which we have a record are now, as Nixon might say, inoperative.) To answer my own question, I think a candidate likely can lie his way into office, but I doubt that in incumbent president can lie his way to re-election. For the first time in his life, apparently, Barack Obama has a record."
Ramirez is a national treasure...

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Stinky Brats (And The Fall O Rome)

Why Our Elites Stink - NYTimes.com: "Today’s elite is more talented and open but lacks a self-conscious leadership code. The language of meritocracy (how to succeed) has eclipsed the language of morality (how to be virtuous). Wall Street firms, for example, now hire on the basis of youth and brains, not experience and character. Most of their problems can be traced to this.

If you read the e-mails from the Libor scandal you get the same sensation you get from reading the e-mails in so many recent scandals: these people are brats; they have no sense that they are guardians for an institution the world depends on; they have no consciousness of their larger social role.

The difference between the Hayes view and mine is a bit like the difference between the French Revolution and the American Revolution. He wants to upend the social order. I want to keep the current social order, but I want to give it a different ethos and institutions that are more consistent with its existing ideals."

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Fake But Accurate In LA LA MA

» “I support fakes, and I vote” - Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: "Alternative headline:  “Supporter of fake Indian ranch supports fake Indian.”"

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You Want To Talk Felony? UPDATED: "A Giant Bag Of Cheetos"

Instapundit » Blog Archive » HYPOCRITE: Over 30% of President Obama’s 2009-2011 Gross Income Came From Foreign Sources. And…: "HYPOCRITE: Over 30% of President Obama’s 2009-2011 Gross Income Came From Foreign Sources.

And that’s not counting all those unverified credit-card donations to his campaign.

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 10:26 am"
It's a good thing O Duce has never read anything about the circumstances of the founding of this country or his conscience might be pained in the "avoiding foreign influence" area. Well, if he had a conscience that is instead of being a Chicago-land commie gangster dirtbag...

UPDATE: “They really don’t want to talk about the economy now, do they?” Eric Bolling asked, before handing it off to Greg Gutfeld, who seemed somewhat amused by the whole thing amusing consider Obama is from Chicago. Chicago. You know, the city “where if every criminal wore an orange jumpsuit, the city would look like a giant bag of Cheetos.”

Andrea Tantaros called the ordeal “a stretch,” going on to note that “arming Mexican drug cartels” is what sounds like a felony to her. She then took a look at the Obama family tree, citing two relatives who were undocumented in this country. And then there’s Obama himself. Tantaros noted that in Dreams from My Father, Obama “talked about snorting cocaine, which is still criminal behavior. So, um yeah, I’d be careful to throw stones.”

Heh.

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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Permanent Dupes

"The Use Of Temps Is Outpacing Outright New Hirings By A 10-To-1 Ratio" | ZeroHedge: "There are some pundits who believe that the +25k pickup in temp agency employment is a good sign since in the past this sector acted as a leading indicator for job creation... if only we can bring back those old days. In today's world, the reliance on temp agencies is akin to "just in time" employment strategies — the use of temps is outpacing outright new hirings by a 10-to-1 ratio. The reality is that few businesses want to commit and this shows through in the Household Survey as well with part-time employment in an uptrend and full-time in a downtrend. Moreover, according to a Manpower survey, 30% of temporary staffing this year has led to permanent jobs, down from 45% in 2011.

As this all relates to the upcoming U.S. election, there are some more interesting tidbits to chew on. Looking at the social groupings in the data, we see that since President °barna moved into the White House in January 2009, the unemployment rate for African Americans has climbed to 14.4% from 12.7%, the unemployment rate for Hispanics has risen to 11% from 10%, the unemployment rate for women has risen to 8% from 7%, and the unemployment rate for youth (20 to 24 years old) has jumped from 12.4% to 13.7%. By and large, these were the segments of the popu}ation that helped President Obama win in that historic election in November 2008. The Reaganesque' question that must be posed is: Are these folks better off than they were four years ago?"
If only they were temporary dupes. Then the country would at least have a dim shot at survival...

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All Sham, All O The Time

Immigration officers doubted Obama birth story: "In the third sentence of the third paragraph, the Dahlin memo adds the detail that McCabe reported the Kenyan had gotten Dunham pregnant, a fact that would have been consistent with the marriage being legitimate.

Except, Dahlin adds, McCabe reported that the Kenyan and Dunham did not live together and Obama Sr. and Dunham were contemplating giving the baby away to the Salvation Army.

The facts suggest a sham marriage arranged for immigration purposes only: a supposedly married couple who do not live together, a “husband” with multiple girl friends on the side and a baby neither parent seems determined to raise.

INS suspicion of the marriage is further reinforced by the handwritten note at the end of the memo. Dahlin makes clear an apparent superior officer within the INS section agreed that the facts did not merit deportation for the Kenyan, a non-immigrant student in the USA on a temporary visa. But an investigation would be warranted if he sought to further extend his visa."
RTWT.

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Our Dear Reader From Tribal Iraq ... Or Kenya ... Or Hawaii... Or Something...

Chicago police sergeant: "Tribal warfare" on the streets - CBS News: "He sees the same people "all the time."

Sgt. Little is a decorated veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. He said that parts of Chicago are comparable to what he saw in combat.

It's "tribal warfare," he said, "and as it continues to build unless we manage to interdict it, and manage to stop it long enough for the blood to stop boiling, the heat to die down.""

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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Just Wait For The "Flexibility" After The Election...

Instapundit » Blog Archive » JIM GERAGHTY: If offshoring is so bad, Mr. President, then why are we paying the Russians to fly ou…: "JIM GERAGHTY: If offshoring is so bad, Mr. President, then why are we paying the Russians to fly our astronauts to the International Space Station?

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 11:21 pm"
Ooof.

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Monday, July 9, 2012

Tip O The Iceberg

All the Ways Businesses Get Special Treats from the Government - By Veronique de Rugy - The Corner - National Review Online: "Business people love to say how much they cherish free markets, while decrying government interventions that limit entrepreneurship and personal freedom. But the truth is, business people when given a chance happily give up free-markets in exchange for cronyism.

Think about it. Competition is good for consumers because it keeps prices low while increasing the quality and choices of products and services. Yet competition is hard work for businesses. They have to fight for customers by innovating and evolving in ways that consumers demand. To avoid the gritty work of fighting it out in a free market, organized private interests lobby the government for special regulations, preferential tax treatment, and laws that keep out competition. They lobby lawmakers to constrain the same free markets in which they originally achieved success. This practice has been around for as long as there have been businesses and governments."
Did I forget to mention you really need to read "Ending Big SIS"? Get it now.

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A Grim And Bloody Irony

Ace of Spades HQ: "For the first time, federal officials also revealed that Terry and an elite squad of federal agents initially fired bean bags -- not bullets -- at a heavily armed drug cartel crew in the mountains south of Tucson in December 2010.
Now, this was long suspected by Fast and Furious investigators -- Katie Pavlich's book mentions it in Chapter One-- but this is the first official confirmation of this sad fact.

She reported that Border Patrol policy required them to use beanbag ammunition as "warning shots" -- despite the fact they shot these "warning shots" even as they told the bandits to drop their plainly-visible weapons.

It's one thing to require beanbag ammunition when confronting unarmed men. But when demanding that openly armed men drop their in-plain-sight AK-47s?!?!

Has Holder modified this requirement, or is this another thing he wants to call Executive Privilege on?

At Gateway Pundit, a commenter notes the grim and bloody irony that Brian Terry was disarmed by the very government that armed his murderers."
Ugghh.

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Sunday, July 8, 2012

Resurrecting Madison

Articles: Madison Revived: "The basic legislative strategy of the Madison Coalition is simple but not easy.  The Coalition needed to find a practical and workable way for the states to call a constitutional convention and endorse the Madison amendment and at the same time put safeguards in place that would prevent the delegates from going rogue.  The solution to this is straightforward.  The key is to persuade a sufficient number of the state legislatures to pass carefully crafted "Madison laws" restricting their delegates to a constitutional convention to approve the Madison Amendment and that amendment only.  And since those delegates will constitute a mathematical majority of the delegates, it will be mathematically impossible for rogue amendments to be passed."
RTWT.

This seems worthy of support. I suspect that the real issue is whether there are enough blue states to block this new mechanism from being either adopted or used successfully to roll back FedGov once it is in place. Unfortunately I suspect that's the case...

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The Economy Has Been Disabled

Moonbattery » Under Obama, Disability Claims Have Outpaced Job Growth: "At least our socialist rulers have found a way to ease the unemployment they’ve caused. After a couple of years, when your unemployment comp finally runs out, you can just claim disability. It’s so easy, practically everybody’s doing it:
The economy created just 80,000 jobs in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. But that same month, 85,000 workers left the workforce entirely to enroll in the Social Security Disability Insurance program, according to the Social Security Administration.

The disability ranks have outpaced job growth throughout President Obama’s recovery. While the economy has created 2.6 million jobs since June 2009, fully 3.1 million workers signed up for disability benefits.

In other words, the number of new disability enrollees has climbed 19% faster than the number of jobs created during the sluggish recovery."

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Saturday, July 7, 2012

Amazing

Moonbattery » Open Thread: "On a tip from TED."

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Robbing Peter To Pay J.P.

LIeBOR Gets Interesting As Regulatory Capture Reverses Itself In England | ZeroHedge: "Libor manipulation is a crime that already robs the public to create bonuses for bankers. By artificially lowering interest rates, the banks caused cities, towns, countries, and other public entities to receive smaller returns on their variable-rate investment holdings. If it turns out that taxpayers end up paying the fine for RBS's crime of robbing taxpayers, how perfect would that be?
More importantly Matt, synthetically depressed LIeBOR rates artificially lowers the bar for economic profit, in layman's terms it makes the bank look more profitable and less risky than they actually are. As you stated, this leads to bigger bonuses funded by bigger taxes borne by financially smaller taxpayers. Hmmmm....

Who else is in the sights of the upcoming truth? Citbank, Bank of Lynch (robbing) America Coutrywide and JP Morgan!"
WTWT. Yes, Max and Stacy have a weakness for hyperbole in this one. But unfortunately, you can't argue with their facts.

And Reggie reminds us that "regulatory capture" is the only way to understand this situation. One more time for all of you who still don't get it:
And yes, the regulators are bought and sold just like the legislators.

I haven't finished it yet, but already I can't recommend "Ending 'Big SIS' (The Special Interest State) and Renewing The American Republic" strongly enough by way of understanding the mess we are in.

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Speed Bump

WaPo: It’s looking like Obama has nothing new to offer on jobs, economy « Hot Air: "Good luck with that strategy.  Voters routinely put jobs and the economy first in their concerns when contemplating their vote, and any other issue shows up a distant second.  (In most polls, the second-place issue is the federal deficit, which isn’t a good topic for Obama, either.)  Even Robert Reich has tired of Obama dodging the issue of jobs and the economy with the “I inherited a bad economy” excuse.  As the Post implicitly underscores, the issue is no longer 2008, but 2012, and it’s clear that we’re not moving in the right direction.

Investors Business Daily’s Michael Ramirez offers a more concise look at the impact of the jobs report on the Obama campaign:"

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Weather

The folly of blaming the Eastern U.S. heat wave on global warming | Watts Up With That?: "A picture is worth a thousand words:"

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Not There

Are Banks Raiding "Allocated" Gold Accounts? | ZeroHedge: "Given the numerous reports of supposedly "allocated" gold not being there, it should not be entirely surprising that wealthy investors are taking matters into their own hands ... literally.

Kirby Analytics notes:
We are hearing anecdotal accounts that beneficial owners of “allocated” gold bullion in London and other European centers have showing up at bullion banks and demanding their physical metal be a] viewed and assayed, and then b] withdrawn from the vaults of banks."

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Wait...

The Drone Zone - NYTimes.com: "It took a few seconds to figure out exactly what we were looking at. A white S.U.V. traveling along a highway adjacent to the base came into the cross hairs in the center of the screen and was tracked as it headed south along the desert road. When the S.U.V. drove out of the picture, the drone began following another car.

“Wait, you guys practice tracking enemies by using civilian cars?” a reporter asked. One Air Force officer responded that this was only a training mission, and then the group was quickly hustled out of the room."

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Thursday, July 5, 2012

What's Really Going On

Articles: How Statists Are Getting Away with It: "I would ask Joe Voter to bear with me as we discuss a thing called compound interest.  Let's take two countries, A and B.  A's GDP grows 1.4% per year, and B's grows 3.5% per year.  Let's say both have the same GDP in year zero.

In 20 years, country A would be 32% more wealthy than it started.  Its citizens would have seen progress and wealth growth.  If they had no one to compare themselves to, they might think things were swell.

But in those same 20 years, country B would be 99% more wealthy than it started.  While they both started out equal, after 20 years, country B will be 50% more wealthy than country A.  Average Joe Voter in country A will start to take notice.  In 2011, for example, Canada was 40% more wealthy than Cyprus (GDP per capita, purchasing power parity).  People can notice differences of such magnitudes.

But statists have a solution to this: try to get all countries to grow at the same rate."
RTWT. You'll finally understand why your mammary glands hurt so much. And that goes for the men too...

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Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Jindal: It's Bad When The Town Drunk Holds The Moral High Ground Above Us

Jindal: It’s called the Declaration of Independence, not dependence « Hot Air: "Amazingly, facing the greatest economic recession since the Great Depression, President Obama chose to create a new entitlement program when we cannot afford the ones we already have. Republicans like to go on television and say we are borrowing from our children’s and grandchildren’s future. We can throw those talking points out; we are hurting ourselves now. You know we are in trouble when the German Finance Minister rebuffs President Obama and basically tells him to clean up his own mess before offering advice to others. Even the Europeans feel they have the moral high ground to tell us to tackle our own debt problems; that’s like the town drunk telling you that you have a drinking problem. …"
Yup.

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Boson Fireworks On The 4th?

Higgs Boson Confirmed: "The Higgs boson proves the existence of the Higgs field--a field that permeates the entire universe and imparts the quality of mass to particles through the Higgs mechanism. Here is a good video that explains all that. And more background from an older New York Times article.

In the video embedded below, CERN spokesman Prof. Joe Incandela explains the significance of the discovery and talks about what comes next."
"... pretty darn significant."

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COTD: A Statesman Quoting Jefferson On The 4th

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu Delivers Independance Day Message to the United States (Video) | The Gateway Pundit: "I wish Bibi was our president. He is a true statesman. Unlike what we have now."
Of course you're never going to get a meaningful homage to Jefferson from the deceiving ingrate we have as "President".

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This 4th O July We Have The Best Government Money Can Buy

The Wit and Wisdom of P. J. O'Rourke [OregonMuse]: "This truth should be axiomatic to everyone, especially those in government. Of course, it's not."
And from the comments:
41 Politics is the business of getting power and privilege without possessing merit - PJ O'Rourke
Posted by: kbdabear at July 04, 2012 12:50 PM (Y+DPZ)

42 The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop.
Posted by: P. J. O'Rourke at July 04, 2012 12:51 PM (YdQQY)

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A Concise Summary

Re: Tax vs. Penalty - By Mario Loyola - The Corner - National Review Online: "Now, none of that makes this a tax for purposes of determining whether it may be assessed under Congress’s power to tax “for the general welfare.” In that context, “tax” is a technical term, and is highly restricted by the qualifier “for the general welfare.” 

In common usage this is a tax. For purposes of determining whether the Obama administration has kept its promise, it is a tax. But on the constitutional question, the dissent was entirely correct: This mandate is not a proper exercise of the power to tax “for the general welfare” because it is a penalty meant to enforce a mandate that cannot be sustained under the Commerce Clause or any other enumerated power.

The constitutional issue partly overlaps with the popular one: We know for sure that if the Court rules it is a tax for constitutional purposes then it is a tax for popular purposes. The administration has to face the fact that the only reason its law was upheld is that has been ruled a tax for all purposes. But outside that overlap, there is ample room to insist that this mandate is a tax, and also a penalty, and also not a tax “for the general welfare.”"
RTWT -- it's not much longer than this excerpt.

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Powerful -- And Long Forgotten -- Stuff

The Volokh Conspiracy » The Declaration of Independence Annotated: "The assumption of natural rights expressed in the Declaration of Independence can be summed up by the following proposition:  “first comes rights, then comes government.”  According to this view: (1) the rights of individuals do not originate with any government, but preexist its formation;  (2) The protection of these rights is the first duty of government; and (3) Even after government is formed, these rights provide a standard by which its performance is measured and, in extreme cases, its systemic failure to protect rights — or its systematice violation of rights — can justify its alteration or abolition; (4) At least some of these rights are so fundamental that they are “inalienable,” meaning they are so intimately connected to one’s nature as a human being that they cannot be transferred to another even if one consents to do so.  This is powerful stuff."
This is a perfect piece for the 4th -- RTWT and learn. And stop being a drug and television laced serf. If you don't you will deserve your shackles.

Yes, we're on the road to real shackles soon. If you're laughing that means you've never read or watched "Harrison Bergeron":

2081 Trailer from 2081 on Vimeo.

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The Real Reactionaries

The eternal meaning of Independence Day, part 2 | Power Line: "About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers."
"Equality" of outcomes.

"Group" rights.

Dumbed down democracy for television and drug addicts.

Bend over and welcome to hell on this 4th of July...

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Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Horrors

Articles: The Movie on Health Care That Obama Doesn't Want You to See: "Rémy is dying of an unspecified cancer.  His ex-wife Dominique pleads with their estranged son to fly back to Quebec from London and see his father for the final time.

The source of the estrangement is clear enough from the early minutes of the film.  Rémy is an outspoken socialist history professor, a libidinous devotee of the counterculture.  His son, Sébastien, is an arch-capitalist, a commodities arbitrageur for a bank in the City, who "never reads a book," Rémy says disgustedly.  Each heartily despises the values of the other.  But it is only the son's Gordon Gekko morals -- his willingness to bribe and bully -- and his deep pockets that enable Rémy to escape the horrors of the Canadian health care system."

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Two Mints In One

Re: Surrendering Obamacare - By Mario Loyola - The Corner - National Review Online: "The crucial thing is that it is also a penalty. That’s where the Obama administration is absolutely correct. And because it is a penalty, its constitutionality cannot be sustained under the taxing power. And because the mandate itself could not be sustained under the Commerce Clause, it follows inescapably, from the administration’s own hilarious attempt to escape the “tax” label, that the penalty is unconstitutional.

Every time the administration says this is a penalty, it is saying that it is unconstitutional. So rather than drowning in semantics, let’s just agree to call it a “tax penalty.” What the administration’s critics should be driving home is that the administration cannot have it both ways: Either the mandate is nothing other than a tax or it is unconstitutional. "

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Monday, July 2, 2012

COTD: Falling Apart

Belmont Club » You Can’t Take It With You: "9. Cowboy
I was at a Cub Scout camp last week, camping along the Virginia – West Virginia border. I got home from camp just in time for the lights to go out, and spent almost 3 days with power out all over my town. From this I’ve decided that when the grid goes the next time, I’d rather be in the hills than in the town.

The Cub Scout camp was Olympic themed, having events based around Homer’s Odyssey, and I had ample time in the woods to reflect on that great work. Its major theme is a surprising one to moderns, it’s one that goes almost unnoticed. But once you’re turned onto it you see it on every page, in every one of Odysseus’ encounters. This theme is the abuse of the guest-host relationship, the abuse of goodwill. This is the greatest sin for Homer, it marks the beginning of the Illiad (the Rape of Helen) and the end of the Odyssey (the Death of the Suitors) and every step of the way for Odysseus’ travels.

There I was, surrounded by a group of very ‘nice’ people. These were Northern Virginia yuppies and professionals with their boys, and this was Cub Scout mission striving to reflect all the wholesome values transmitted by that laudable moral institution, the Boy Scouts of America. On the whole, the edifice fell apart repeatedly."
As Orwell put it, they live in a "bourgeoise illusion bred of money and security".

The fall won't be pretty.

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A Reminder: No, Europe Hasn't Actually Gotten Any Better...

Clarke and Dawe - European Debt Crisis - YouTube: "Clarke and Dawe - European Debt Crisis"
And no, the rape of Germany won't yield enough money to really fix anything. All you socialists out there can argue that "social justice" and the bad things Germany once did to Europe justify however good and hard you want to give it to Germany.

Well, you could if Nazi wasn't shorthand for "National Socialist Party".

But then to you, a tax is a penalty. Or a mandate. Unless of course you need it to be a tax, right?

Riiiiiight...

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Sunday, July 1, 2012

Cancelled

Blog: A Cautionary Tale: "Friday afternoon the day following SCOTUS' ruling on ObamaCare, I spoke with a friend whose business is high end construction work for smaller projects. After the usual "Hey How Are You," he tells me of the five projects he had on his planner; four called that morning and cancelled.

1. We don't know if we'll be in business after the first of the year. If ObamaCare goes into effect with or without a new President we don't see any way we can go on. The taxes, fees and regulations will destroy us."

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COTD: Big Fire

On why we have a 747 Very Large Air Tanker sitting unused in the U.S. Southwest:

In Colorado wildfires, ‘worst in state history’, why won’t the Forest Service use the biggest firefighting tool available? | Watts Up With That?: "Poems of Our Climate says:
June 30, 2012 at 2:00 pm
The simple answer is firefighting is big business and big money and big union. Putting the fire out ruins the gravy train. This is how firefighting works on every level. They wait until the fires are out of control, then come in to stand there pretty much.

I’ve seen it with my own eyes in my high-fire area. It’s intentional.

Most logging has been banned, enabling incredible danger and a giant anti-fire infrastructure with all the funding. The warmist narritive fits nicely with Big Fire."
UPDATE: And more:
Spend a billion plus dollars fighting with the equipment they got, let hundreds of thousands of acres burn causing many millions of dollars of damage with the disruption and likely injury and death of many humans. But since that 20,000 gallon fast-flying tanker plane can’t be precise enough to guarantee that no slurry will wind up in in some water somewhere, it is all worth it to save the fish. The joke is Green is the new Red. Now Fiery Red is the new Green.

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How Politicians Help Make Us Fat

What Really Makes Us Fat - NYTimes.com: "If we think of Dr. Ludwig’s subjects as pre-obese, then the study tells us that the nutrient composition of the diet can trigger the predisposition to get fat, independent of the calories consumed. The fewer carbohydrates we eat, the more easily we remain lean. The more carbohydrates, the more difficult. In other words, carbohydrates are fattening, and obesity is a fat-storage defect. What matters, then, is the quantity and quality of carbohydrates we consume and their effect on insulin.

From this perspective, the trial suggests that among the bad decisions we can make to maintain our weight is exactly what the government and medical organizations like the American Heart Association have been telling us to do: eat low-fat, carbohydrate-rich diets, even if those diets include whole grains and fruits and vegetables."
So basically for the last fifty years, the government has been propagandizing us to do the WRONG THING -- the government sanctioned food pyramid has killed countless Americans.

No doubt things will be transformed into paradise on earth by giving them even more power over healthcare -- which they have already nearly destroyed even before O DuceCare.

The SCOAMF said we're stupid and need to be transformed after all...

And if the SCOAMF actually weren't a nasty jack*ss on purpose, this would all still be a ridiculous joke because:
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy." --Ernest Benn

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