In Praise Of Chinese Mothers

First you need to click through and RTWT:

Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior - WSJ.com: "Western parents try to respect their children's individuality, encouraging them to pursue their true passions, supporting their choices, and providing positive reinforcement and a nurturing environment. By contrast, the Chinese believe that the best way to protect their children is by preparing them for the future, letting them see what they're capable of, and arming them with skills, work habits and inner confidence that no one can ever take away."

And only then you need to click over here and read this. But culture doesn't matter you see... (Two additional references here and here in case you're dim enough to think the real issue is race and not culture.)

After which you will be well equipped to be called a racist by know-nothing liberals when you mention anything about your new learnings touching on this subject at social gatherings. If you were able to follow your new accusers around -- which you'll be very happy you can't of course -- you might find that they display a lot of this behaviour (from the WSJ article of course):

For example, if a child comes home with an A-minus on a test, a Western parent will most likely praise the child. The Chinese mother will gasp in horror and ask what went wrong. If the child comes home with a B on the test, some Western parents will still praise the child. Other Western parents will sit their child down and express disapproval, but they will be careful not to make their child feel inadequate or insecure, and they will not call their child "stupid," "worthless" or "a disgrace." Privately, the Western parents may worry that their child does not test well or have aptitude in the subject or that there is something wrong with the curriculum and possibly the whole school. If the child's grades do not improve, they may eventually schedule a meeting with the school principal to challenge the way the subject is being taught or to call into question the teacher's credentials.

Nuff said.

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6 O 6 O 6 ...

... shall be the number O the beast:

Obama to hand Commerce Dept. authority over cybersecurity ID | Privacy Inc. - CNET News: "STANFORD, Calif.--President Obama is planning to hand the U.S. Commerce Department authority over a forthcoming cybersecurity effort to create an Internet ID for Americans, a White House official said here today.

It's 'the absolute perfect spot in the U.S. government' to centralize efforts toward creating an 'identity ecosystem' for the Internet, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt said.

That news, first reported by CNET, effectively pushes the department to the forefront of the issue, beating out other potential candidates, including the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. The move also is likely to please privacy and civil-liberties groups that have raised concerns in the past over the dual roles of police and intelligence agencies."

Feeling up your junk was just the start. Unbelievable.

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Norman Thomas' Grandson Sees The Light?

Newsweek’s Evan Thomas: ‘The health care bill is a disaster’ | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "Back in November 2009, Thomas admitted the health care reform bill had flaws, but still voiced his support for it. Now he has proclaimed it a failure.

“The health care bill is a disaster,” Thomas continued. “We’re sort of slowly learning – it’s not working. It’s interesting – they’re implementing it and it’s not working out at all as people anticipated. There’s all sorts of wildly wrong projections. As it’s being practiced – it’s failed.”"

Wow.

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The Real "Target List"

Lots of lefty blather about to get nullified. And by that I mean the truth will never be reported as per the usual "name that party" charades:

Ace of Spades HQ: "She's tweeting more -- unless she's just making up an ever-more elaborate lie, I think she's on the level.

Tami reports her as tweeting:

This is a circus. Good Morning America just called me. it's loughner just checked my year book. I haven't seen him since '07. Then, he was left wing. more left. I haven't seen him since '07 though. He became very reclusive. he had a lot of friends until he got alcohol poisoning in '06, & dropped out of school. Mainly loner very philosophical. As I knew him he was left wing, quite liberal. & oddly obsessed with the 2012 prophecy. he was a pot head & into rock like Hendrix,The Doors, Anti-Flag. I haven't seen him in person since '07 in a sign language class He was a political radical & met Giffords once before in '07, asked her a question & he told me she was 'stupid & unintelligent'

You know who had Gabrille Giffords on her 'target list'? I don't mean Sarah Palin, I mean this screechy little girl.

Who to primary? Well, I'd argue that we can narrow the target list by looking at those Democrats who sold out the Constitution last week. I've bolded members of the Blue Dogs for added emphasis.
I added italics to 'target list,' but Kos used that term."

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Da Fu Bears

Cartoon: Da Bears Talk China Currency Manipulation | zero hedge: "Who says the xtranormal bubble has popped? Today we present the latest 'bearish' cartoon with one particular take on Chinese currency manipulation. While we don't necessarily agree with the argument that Chinese monetary policy is the 'single most protectionist policy in the world' as China is merely holding up a mirror to the Fed's own monetary tools, it does provide some entertaining perspectives. On the other hand, the observation that China takes 6,000 jobs for every billion dollars in incremental trade deficit, is spot on."

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cOrrupt (Part 83,831)

Tim Carney Makes Jonathan Alter Sad - By Jonah Goldberg - The Corner - National Review Online: "Tim Carney Makes Jonathan Alter Sad"

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The New Jihad ...

... same as the old Jihad:

New rate of stratospheric photolysis questions ozone hole | Watts Up With That?: "“The Montreal Protocol may not have been necessary to save the ozone, but it had limited economic damage. It has caused much more damage in the way it has corrupted science. It showed how quickly a scientist or activist can gain fame and fortune by purporting to save planet earth.  We have the same situation with CO2 now, but CO2 is completely natural, unlike freons. Planet earth is quite happy to have lots more CO2 than current values, as the geological record clearly shows.  If the jihad against CO2 succeeds, there will be enormous economic damage, and even worse consequences for human liberty at the hands of the successful jihadists.”

LIKE GLOBAL WARMING THE DATA DOESN’T SUPPORT THE THEORY

The ozone hole has not closed off after we banned CFCs. See this story in Nature:

Scientific Consensus on Man-Made Ozone Hole May Be Coming Apart

As the world marks 20 years since the introduction of the Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer, Nature has learned of experimental data that threaten to shatter established theories of ozone chemistry. If the data are right, scientists will have to rethink their understanding of how ozone holes are formed and how that relates to climate change."

Whoops! And if you take the time to RTWT this little section might jump out at you:

The ozone crusade also had business opportunities for firms like Dupont to market proprietary “ozone-friendly” refrigerants at much better prices than the conventional (and more easily used) freons that had long-since lost patent protection and were not a cheap commodity with little profit potential”

As well at this comment:

Joe D'Aleo says:
January 8, 2011 at 9:26 am
One thing not mentioned was the ban also included the propellants used in inhalers for the many millions of people suffering from asthma (as I do) or COPD. The new formulations were no longer available in low cost generic form and the prices of the inhalers skyrocketed. Big pharma was all too glad to make the change and rake it in.

Hmmm. Our old friend "corporatism" with green paint. And on the rare occasions when it is outed you can bet on it being painted as that bad old capitalism. Ugghh.

I got a big laugh from my oldest son pointing out to his science teacher that the climate alarmist movie they were being shown was sponsored by one of the big oil companies -- immediately after the teacher telling the class that the those skeptical of the alarmists were bought off by big oil!

Let me think hard now -- higher prices for oil will leave more or less room for higher profits by big petroleum? Wait, wait, I just know I'll figure it out soon!

Let's root around in the memory hole shall we?:

• The DDT scare: total garbage finally rescinded by WHO. Maybe 40 million dead?
  
• The population and resources scare: more garbage. I'm guessing you never heard of Simon's bet with Ehrlich and Holdren (now the idiot O Duce's "science advisor"). No, hundred's of millions didn't die but you might want to check out Ehrlich's views on DDT.
  
• The global cooling scare: garbage at the time but at this point we need to hope and pray that it's not true since the oligarch loons might lately have forgotten to tell you we live in a short respite from an Ice Age. How many hundreds of millions do you suppose will die if we limit greenhouse gases when we should be increasing them?
  
• The ozone hole scare: nuff said already.
  
• The AGW totalitarian scandal: and I do mean scandal. You might have noticed that all the same players in the cooling scare are now in the AGW scam. I'm frankly amazed that Svensmark and Kirkby are still allowed to live. Apparently CERN still has enough sway that it won't take lightly to having real physicist's touched in any way. Especially when the AGW political goons are about to be kicked out the door on their *sses by actual scientists.
  

Did I forget to mention that Orwell has been stuffed down his own memory hole?

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Pants O Fire

Calling Your Opposition Liars Does not Change the Facts about Fannie and Freddie « The Enterprise Blog: "What kind of organization is the Huffington Post? We’re not regular readers, but it’s astonishing that the Huffington Post would publish a libelous attack such as David Fiderer’s December 29 article without at least checking to determine whether there is any truth in his statement that we “lied” in our September 2008 Financial Services Outlook entitled “The Last Trillion Dollar Commitment: The Destruction of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.” As participants in academic and scholarly work, we are used to challenges to data—that’s how the academic world operates—but to be called liars, which implies bad motives rather than simple error, is a disgraceful breach of all acceptable standards. It is a bad mark on the Huffington Post as well as the author of the article."

As linked to here, this piece of excrement is still in the Google cache. Any bets on whether Google soon sends it down the memory hole as being inconvenient?

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A Microscopic Promise Kept

Politifact: Score one promise kept by GOP House « Hot Air: "Who voted against it?  All thirteen were Democrats, including Jan Schakowski, John Conyers, Jim Moran, Edolphus Towns, and Minnesota’s own Keith Ellison.  It’s a measure of just how far outside the mainstream this handful of Representatives are.  Do they really believe that their constituents think that Congress should keep up its current level of spending on itself?  The vast majority of their fellow Democrats agree with the cut, which prompts the question of why the Pelosi-led House never bothered to propose it in the first place.

Of course, this was a rather easy promise to keep, since the negative impact will only be felt by the people who work in the House.  It also required no cooperation with the Senate or White House, since the House makes its own rules and budget.  Making the necessary cuts in the rest of the federal budget will prove much tougher, especially when the beneficiaries of federal largesse begin sharing tales of woe with the press.  But at least it was a promise kept, one small step in rebuilding the credibility of the GOP as a governing party."

I'll believe the bigger promises when I see them. Oh, and 5% is pretty much nothing in relation to the kinds of cuts that need to be made all throughout FedGov.

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Freezing In The Dark: Preview Edition

Gas Prices Under President Obama in Pictures | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.: "Fact: President Barack Obama’s Energy Secretary Steven Chu wants to “figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” At the time he made the statement, gas cost $7 – $8 a gallon in Europe.
Fact: Since taking office, President Obama’s entire energy agenda has made a gallon of gas more expensive:

Immediately after taking office in 2009, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, canceled 77 leases for oil and gas drilling in Utah.
The EPA announced new rules mandating the use of 36 billion gallons worth of renewable fuels (like ethanol) by 2020."

And exactly what part of this don't you understand?:

Premium is now over $3 in my neighborhood -- how about yours?

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The Social Security Myth

Watch and weep:

Belmont Club » The Song Remains the Same: "Milton Friedman pondered the future of Social Security and publicly funded health care 30 years ago. How much of his argument has proved true? How much false?"

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cOrrupt

Are you getting it yet?

Power Line - Obamacare: A Uniquely Vicious Form of Corruption: "We've heard a lot about 'crony capitalism' in recent years, but this is something worse--crony socialism. The Obama administration is running, in effect, a protection racket--nice business you have here, too bad if something should happen to it. We're passing legislation that may destroy your business, but don't worry--if you pay us our protection money, we will give you a waiver. By American standards, this is corruption of a uniquely vicious sort."

If you don't you probably never will. RTWT.

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Huck In The hOle

Moonbattery: Mark Twain's Great Works Rewritten to Conform to Political Correctness: "Under liberalism, watering down Twain's masterpiece into lukewarm mush may be the only way to get it back into schools.

Published in the U.S. in 1885, 'Huck Finn' is the fourth most banned book in schools, according to 'Banned in the U.S.A.' by Herbert N. Foerstal, a retired college librarian who has written several books on First Amendment issues.

Despite failing to conform to contemporary thought codes, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a key part of our culture. Here's what Ernest Hemingway had to say about it:

'All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called 'Huckleberry Finn.' … All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.'"

And shock of shocks, Hemingway himself is being stuffed down the memory hole...

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Silence Of The Yellow Wolves

I'm guessing you might have missed this:

Media Slow To Show WikiLeaks Justified Iraq War - HUMAN EVENTS: "While the media have been quick to run with WikiLeaks’ U.S. State Department cable releases to undermine Washington’s efforts to effect stability in unstable parts of the world, it is slow, if not silent, in giving credit where credit is due. Although other credible sources confirmed it before WikiLeaks did, in receiving similar disinterested responses from the media, it should be clear now that President Bush’s concerns about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program were well-founded.

The controversy goes back to Bush’s State of the Union address in January 2003. In the speech, he said the British government learned Saddam had "recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." This became one of several justifications leading to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq two months later — and one about which, Bush critics later claimed, he lied.

...

Five years after Joe Wilson’s op-ed claimed no yellowcake was sold to Iraq — the ease with which Saddam could have snapped his fingers and reinstituted his nuclear program became apparent. In July 2008, in an operation kept secret at the time, 37 military air cargo flights shipped more than 500 metric tons of yellowcake — found in Iraq — out of the country for further transport and remediation to Canada."

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A Drive Through Your Future

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Ripped Down The Memory hOle

Yiminy Crismis:

If We Say It Is, It Is . . . - By Victor Davis Hanson - The Corner - National Review Online: "If you had gone to sleep in early 2006 and woken up today, you would learn that the filibuster is no longer a necessary brake on the tyranny of the majority but rather is a fossilized impediment to necessary progressive change. Recess appointments no longer result in “damaged goods” but are necessary protocols to get the talented by ossified ideologues in the Senate. If raising the debt limit beyond $9 trillion was once reckless and proof of a lack of leadership, exceeding $14 trillion is sober and judicious. Iraq is no longer lost, it is our “greatest achievement.” And just as Guantanamo and Predators are no longer constitutional affronts but critical tools against man-made disasters, so too the “fat cat” Bush tax rates ceased being impediments to spreading the wealth and evolved into necessary incentives for economic revival."

VDH nails another one. Did I forget to mention that even Orwell himself has been stuffed down his own memory hole?

H/T Powerline

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The Sum Of Good Government

From Jefferson's first inaugural address:

Thomas Jefferson: First Inaugural Address. U.S. Inaugural Addresses. 1989: "Still one thing more, fellow-citizens—a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities."

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Some Short-Lived Good News

First the good news:

APNewsBreak: ND Oil Patch May Double Production : NPR: "Government and industry officials believe North Dakota's oil patch contains more than twice the amount of oil previously estimated and that the state's already record crude production will double within the decade.

If the forecast is correct, North Dakota could leapfrog in a few years from the fourth-biggest oil producing state to No. 2, trailing only Texas.

'It's a pretty rosy picture,' said Lynn Helms, director of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources. 'We have a huge amount of drilling still in front of us.'

Helms said the state currently is pumping about 350,000 barrels of crude per day and was on pace to produce about 110 million barrels in 2010, up from 79.7 million last year and more than double the amount produced less than three years ago."

Now my prediction: Ogabe will claim all the bison are being poisoned and nationalize the entire state. I give it 3 years tops.

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Omageddon Baby, Omageddon

Welcome to freezing in the dark:

Power Line - Is Obama Intentionally Damaging Our Economy?: "In his recently released book Leadership and Crisis, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal recounts an exchange with President Obama during the Gulf oil drilling moratorium. (Full disclosure: I co-wrote the book with Jindal.) After telling Obama that the moratorium would potentially cost tens of thousands of jobs, 'The president went on to assure me that anyone who lost their job would get a check from BP. When I explained that BP might not write them checks because it was the federal government that imposed the moratorium the president said, 'Well, if BP won't pay the claim, they can file for unemployment.' I was amazed by the level of disconnect. The people of Louisiana want to work, not collect unemployment or BP checks.'

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Time In 1974: Here Comes The Ice Age!

Ah yes, I remember it well:

Science: Another Ice Age? - TIME: "Whatever the cause of the cooling trend, its effects could be extremely serious, if not catastrophic. Scientists figure that only a 1% decrease in the amount of sunlight hitting the earth's surface could tip the climatic balance, and cool the planet enough to send it sliding down the road to another ice age within only a few hundred years.

The earth's current climate is something of an anomaly; in the past 700,000 years, there have been at least seven major episodes of glaciers spreading over much of the planet. Temperatures have been as high as they are now only about 5% of the time."

The Ice Age is baaaaack!

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