Monday, September 29, 2014

The Feudal Eternity

Belmont Club » Dynasty: "Beijing’s behavior not at all unusual in today’s world. In every country and continent the elites seem to prefer Ruling in Hell if the alternative is Serving in Heaven. European and American elites, are just like their Chinese counterparts,  bent on pursuing policies that maximize power at the center rather than the growth, prosperity and security of the whole. Feudalism is back.

The Kings are dead. Long live the Kings."
The eternal lyrics can be found here:
Cities full of hatred
Fear and lies
Withered hearts
And cruel, tormented eyes
Scheming demons
Dressed in kingly guise
Beating down the multitude
And scoffing at the wise

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The Bookworm Beat (9/29/14)

The Bookworm Beat (9/29/14) — the Illustrated edition, plus a lighthearted video: "The Bookworm Beat"

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Progressivism: A Panorama Of Hoaxes

Instapundit » Blog Archive » DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY: Politico illustrates story about race and the modern GOP with a pict…: "Tom Wolfe once wrote that “the greatest hoax of modern history” occurred when “Russia’s ruling ‘socialist workers party,’ the Communists established themselves as the polar opposites of their two socialist clones, the National Socialist German Workers Party (quicknamed ‘The Nazis’) and Italy’s Marxist-inspired Fascisiti, by branding both as “the fascists,” which quickly led to those two socialist clones as being described, per Stalin’s orders, as “right wing” for the rest of the 20th century with very little pushback from limited-government conservatives and libertarians until recent years. The Democrats’ ongoing efforts to offload their shameful racist past onto the GOP has to run a close second. Don’t let them get away with it."
Or just bullshit hip deep as I prefer to call it...

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Sunday, September 28, 2014

Building A Real Consensus

Poll: 72% Do Not Believe Obama's 'No Boots on the Ground' Promise: "A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Annenberg poll finds that, despite President Barack Obama's promises to the contrary, 72% of Americans believe the United States will end up using combat troops in the war against the Islamic State (ISIS)."

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Co-InkyDink (Part 8,948,382)

Another One: Fired OK City Nursing Home Employee Threatened to Behead Co-Worker: "In what the local media is calling "a bizarre coincidence," a fired Oklahoma City nursing home worker was arrested Friday after allegedly threatening to cut a co-worker's head off. "

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Saturday, September 27, 2014

Because There Isn't One

National Review Online | Print: "You haven’t heard of the Khorosan Group because there isn’t one. It is a name the administration came up with, calculating that Khorosan — the –Iranian–​Afghan border region — had sufficient connection to jihadist lore that no one would call the president on it.

The “Khorosan Group” is al-Qaeda. It is simply a faction within the global terror network’s Syrian franchise, “Jabhat al-Nusra.” Its leader, Mushin al-Fadhli (believed to have been killed in this week’s U.S.-led air strikes), was an intimate of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the emir of al-Qaeda who dispatched him to the jihad in Syria. Except that if you listen to administration officials long enough, you come away thinking that Zawahiri is not really al-Qaeda, either. Instead, he’s something the administration is at pains to call “core al-Qaeda.”"
RTWT. Must Reading ^ 3

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There Were Only 40 Thieves

Belmont Club » Poor In a Cave of Wonders: "One commenter on this site recalls that politicians in California were seriously hoping the government would pay for the proposed high-speed train so that taxpayers wouldn’t have to. It’s not as dumb as one might think. That is really the equivalent of being relieved that the $117,000 bill is going to be picked up by the insurance company. That way nobody has to pay for it.

The slums of the 21st century will be — already are — strange things: inhabited by enormously fat people surrounded by a clutter of magic gadgets none of which whose operation they can understand.   They can watch but can’t read. They can eat but unable to get their teeth fixed or unable to hire a skilled workman to fix anything.

We are poor in a cave of wonders. How come this tragedy never befell Ali Baba in the story? Because in the Ali Baba story there were only 40 Thieves."

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Targeting the Constitution

Targeting the Constitution - The Washington Post: "It is now well known that the IRS targeted tea party organizations. What is less well known, but perhaps even more scandalous, is that the IRS also targeted those who would educate their fellow citizens about the United States Constitution.

According to the inspector general’s report (pp. 30 & 38), this particular IRS targeting commenced on Jan. 25, 2012 — the beginning of the election year for President Obama’s second campaign. On that date: “the BOLO [‘be on the lookout’] criteria were again updated.” The revised criteria included “political action type organizations involved in … educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights.”

Grass-roots organizations around the country, such as the Linchpins of Liberty (Tennessee), the Spirit of Freedom Institute (Wyoming), and the Constitutional Organization of Liberty (Pennsylvania), allege that they were singled out for special scrutiny at least in part for their work in constitutional education. There may have been many more."
And the ultimate irony:
“We the People” do not yet know who first decided to target “political action type organizations involved in … educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights.” But there is at least one person who does know. Ironically, though, Lois Lerner, former director of the Exempt Organizations Division of the IRS, is making full use of her own constitutional education: “I have been advised by my counsel to assert my constitutional right not to testify …. One of the basic functions of the Fifth Amendment is to protect innocent individuals, and that is the protection I’m invoking today.”

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Sunday, September 21, 2014

Today's Bookworm Beat Sample

The Bookworm Beat (9/21/14) — Illustrated edition: "I very much enjoy it when complex ideas can be reduced in an intelligent and amusing way to a single sentence or two."

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Saturday, September 20, 2014

Must Read: CATALIST

Rule of Law » ‘CATALIST’: Obama’s Database for Fundamentally Transforming America: "The Democrats and the institutional left have a new political tool that allows them virtually to ignore moderates yet still win elections.

This tool, the Catalist database, was employed in the 2012 election. That election defied conventional wisdom: Mitt Romney sought and won independent voters overwhelmingly, but still lost. If you wondered why the conventional wisdom about independents and moderates didn’t seem so wise in 2012, the answer is Catalist."
R. T. W. T.    D. r. o. p.  E. v. e. r. y. t. h. i. n. g.

Is the Democrat party as it exists today compatible with personal privacy?  No -- next question...

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Friday, September 19, 2014

The Ray Rice Thing

Video: Remy solves “the ISIS crisis” as only he can « Hot Air: "While we’re on the subject of funny lines about ISIS, which famous comedian recently said this: “What we didn’t do was predict the will to fight. That’s always a problem.”"

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Sunday, September 14, 2014

War O The Teleprompters

Belmont Club » Myron Vs Atilla: "Productive family-men are the most fearsome army the West has. ‘Myron’ and ‘Hank’ are ultimately more dangerous than the Lenins, Trotskys and Osama bin Ladens. In some fundamental sense, the meek do inherit the earth. When Homer described the Shield of Achilles as a metaphor for the defenses of civilization, most of its five folds consisted of images of productive labor.  Only one consisted of men at arms.

Much has been made of the ‘training’ which is going to be provided to American allies.  But it is also worth asking, what training is Obama providing ISIS by allowing it to ultimately survive, replete with the lessons it will learn? And why is America not rampaging down the productive flank, especially in energy independence?  One possible explanation is that the president, Great Man that is, isn’t aware of the potential of plumbers or drilling or nuclear energy.  For him, the field is still dominated by titans such as himself who will solve everything from the socialist equivalent of a pulpit: the teleprompter.

That’s what the Jihadis think. Too bad they’ve convinced the socialist West that they’re right."
Welcome to the JEF's brave new world of teleprompted beheadings...

... and now you know why he has declared all-out war on us "Myron's".

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Thursday, September 11, 2014

Absolutely Brutal

Andrew Klavan gives “microaggression” the politically incorrect treatment it deserves: "Andrew Klavan gives “microaggression” the politically incorrect treatment it deserves"

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9/11/2014: You May Not Be Interested In War...

Ace of Spades HQ: "Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe. ...

They forget that in time of danger, in the face of the Enemy, they must trust and confide in each other, or perish.

They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the Enemy. And that, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. The very concept of the Enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary. An enemy was just a friend we hadn’t done enough for --yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part --something that we could correct. And this means that that our first task is that we must try to grasp what the concept of the Enemy really means.

The Enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you. And while it is true that the Enemy always hates us for a reason -- it is his reason, and not ours."
... but war is interested in you. -- Leon Trotsky

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TotT

Instapundit » Blog Archive » TWEET OF THE DAY: “If only Roger Goodell…: "TWEET OF THE DAY: “If only Roger Goodell had used some of his $44 million annual salary to hire Lois Lerner, those tapes would’ve been disappeared months ago.”"

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Stuck

Instapundit » Blog Archive » THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Senior Obama official makes terrible geography error. S…: "From the comments: “If you don’t study in college, you may get a job in the Obama Regime talking about the Middle East, working for John Kerry. Which is similar to getting stuck in Iraq, I think.”"

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Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Leading

Instapundit » Blog Archive » TWEET OF THE DAY. Uh oh. In charge of successfully coordinating a global take-down of the psycho…: "TWEET OF THE DAY. Uh oh."

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Monday, September 1, 2014

Teeing Up A Modest Proposal

How Much Does a Golf Course Cost?: "A more practical budget, however, should be between $6 and $8 million (exclusive of land), as outlined below."
So let's say that the average 18 hole course costs $10 million to build including land. And let's go with an average length of an 18 hole course as being 6,000 yards. 

And lets say we wanted to completely line the U.S-Mexican border (approximately 2,000 miles in length) with golf courses on the U.S. side.

Why?  Stay with me...

So, being generous about topography and allowing the 18th hole for each course to end up back at its own clubhouse, let's say that each course would stretch along 2,000 yards of the border.  So 2,000 miles times 1760 yards per mile is approximately 3.5 million yards.  Divide that by 2,000 yards per course and we come up with the figure of 1,760 golf courses to completely cover the length of the border.

At $10 million to construct each course that comes to $17.6 billion dollars.  Never let it be said that freedom lovers were uniformly against raising taxes -- we would gladly pay more taxes to do this. (Well, OK, I admit this is chump change in the current Federal budget so you've got me there.)

But why do this?

Well the modest condition is that there would be a law passed to go along with it: All current and former Presidents are only allowed to golf on these new courses lining the border.  They can golf as much as they want -- in fact the more the better. And surely 1,760 courses would provide enough variety and challenge -- but only these courses can be used.  And surely the weather should be acceptable pretty much all year around, no?

Oh, and the law will also stipulate that each and every month they have to golf on a course selected by a committee of retired border patrol guards.  Surely that's a small compromise to make for year around mandatory rounds of golf?

It doesn't matter how much Air Force One flights and the Secret Service costs to sustain this -- it would be a bargain at any price, really.

In fact, being the spendthrifts we really are at heart, we'd be happy to throw in an additional $20 billion a year in taxes to improve Presidential security...

And don't forget, W and Slick are "included in" -- no saying no!  The more the merrier even if they somehow end up choosing different courses!

In fact, we should expand our generosity to cover Congress next -- who can possibly object to fist bumps all around?



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Slow Joe Speaks On The Smoldering Ruins O Democrat Destroyed Detroit And Proclaims Unions To Be The Source Of Our Rights

VP Joe Biden speaks in Detroit on Labor Day - Fox 2 News Headlines: "The vice president's speech helped kick off the start of the Detroit Labor Day parade. This is the second time Biden has been in Detroit on Labor Day in the past three years.

Biden spoke about the power of the union and how the union really is the reason why many of us have rights. He also stressed the importance of all Americans sticking together and, if we do that, how we will succeed. He believes if the middle class does well, so will everyone else.

"The American people have not stopped dreaming. The American people have not walked away from what they believe they are entitles to. Just give them a chance! No hand out - just give them a chance!" Biden said.

Biden left his supporters with the reassurance that America should not give up and that we are coming back. "
He's both slow and corrupt. Just like the rest of the political class.

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