Did I Forget To Mention That Steyn Rocks?

Instapundit » Blog Archive » TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Mark Steyn on double standards: “These two stories usefully clarify …: "TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Mark Steyn on double standards: “These two stories usefully clarify the peculiar pathology of the antiwar left. On the one hand, we need international investigations if Americans are insufficiently decorous in their questioning. On the other, it’s perfectly justifiable for disaffected Muslims to target Western civilians purely on the basis of their ethnic identity.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 11:35 pm"

Because he does.

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The Ongoing Obamagate (Part 78,947)

KUHNER: Obama's Watergate - Washington Times: "A year ago this week, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered. He died protecting his country from brutal Mexican gangsters. Two AK-47 assault rifles were found at his death site. We now know the horrifying truth: Agent Terry was killed by weapons that were part of an illegal Obama administration operation to smuggle arms to the dangerous drug cartels. He was a victim of his own government. This is not only a major scandal; it is a high crime that potentially reaches all the way to the White House, implicating senior officials. It is President Obama’s Watergate.

Operation Fast and Furious was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and overseen by the Justice Department. It started under the leadership of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. Fast and Furious enabled straw gun purchases from licensed dealers in Arizona, in which more than 2,000 weapons were smuggled to Mexican drug kingpins. ATF claims it was seeking to track the weapons as part of a larger crackdown on the growing violence in the Southwest. Instead, ATF effectively has armed murderous gangs. About 300 Mexicans have been killed by Fast and Furious weapons. More than 1,400 guns remain lost. Agent Terry likely will not be the last U.S. casualty.

Mr. Holder insists he was unaware of what took place until after media reports of the scandal appeared in early 2011. This is false."

Gangsta Gubmint. What a disaster. Meanwhile the sheep all fall in line. Bad Tea Party. Bad, Bad Tea Party.

Read this from Palin so you can understand how far removed we are from a non-kleptocracy and what needs to be done. And finally will when people's children are starving in the dark like North Koreans ... but by then everyone will be too weak to do anything. Just like O'Duce wants.

Throw them all out:

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A Few Hundred?!

Tom Friedman Goes Mearsheimer and Walt | Power Line: "Friedman’s thinking on this entire subject is hopelessly confused, as shown by his casual smear of Newt Gingrich:

That thought came to mind last week when Newt Gingrich took the Republican competition to grovel for Jewish votes — by outloving Israel — to a new low by suggesting that the Palestinians are an “invented” people and not a real nation entitled to a state.

Stop to consider that for a moment. Gingrich and other Republicans are “grovel[ing] for Jewish votes” by supporting Israel? How much does Friedman know about the demographics of America west of the Hudson? As of 2010, there were 6,190 Jews in Iowa out of a population of more than three million–0.2% of Iowa’s population. How many of those do you suppose are Republican caucus-goers? A few hundred?"

But the world is flat you know ... or is that Friedman's brain that's flat? Good God.

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The Great Escape, Eh

Kyoto – in the past for Canada | Watts Up With That?: "The cost of meeting Canada’s obligations under Kyoto would be $13.6 billion, Kent said.

“That’s $1,600 from every Canadian family — that’s the Kyoto cost to Canadians, that was the legacy of an incompetent liberal government,” the Conservative minister said."

Numeracy. What a concept.

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Fasci(fi)sts

Instapundit » Blog Archive » #OCCUPYFAIL: Our movement became fascist, says an Occupier. Rand Simberg comments: “You don’t s…: "#OCCUPYFAIL: Our movement became fascist, says an Occupier. Rand Simberg comments: “You don’t say. Actually, if you understood fascism, you’d realize it started that way.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 2:44 pm"

The title comes from Eric Blair. I'm betting you don't know who Eric Blair was.

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Accentuating Insolvency

Thumbs Up for the House Bill | Power Line: "But there is something more serious going on as well. If the payroll tax holiday extension passes–and both parties are now on record as favoring it–the dam will have been breached, and Social Security will be massively insolvent, not at some point in the future, but today. Many liberals have argued–I think correctly–that this is a decisive step that will probably doom the program in anything like its present form. Inevitably, with revenues grossly inadequate to pay benefits to all retirees, Social Security will be means tested. In other words, it will become a welfare program that provides a safety net to the indigent elderly. Will today’s young workers be willing to pay for forty years into a program from which they anticipate that they will get no benefit when they retire–unless, of course, they are planning on being indigent? No way. The consensus that has sustained Social Security will be broken, and the program will be just as popular as other welfare programs; which is to say, not very popular at all. It will be the beginning of the end of the welfare state as we now know it. (That trend, by the way, is prefigured in another feature of the House Republican bill, which would begin the means testing of Medicare.)

Is that prediction overstated? Perhaps. But no one doubts that the entitlement crisis is coming, and I don’t see how the contemplated holiday extension can do anything but accelerate the process. Moreover, it puts the federal government on a path toward accentuating insolvency, not–as in the past–mitigating it."

I'm fascinated to see how O Duce will spin this one. Mostly just that the so-called journalists won't report what's actually in the bill. It will somehow be all about killing orphans or something completely ridiculous. And the sheep will believe it of course.

TURN. THE. IDIOT. BOX. OFF.

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Gone

Satellite Images Suggest Something Happened At Iranian Nuclear Facility -- But Was It An Explosion? | Fox News: "“The pictures we have seen were dramatic insofar as the buildings were there for at least 15 years,” he said. “On Dec. 5, they were gone. Whether or not that is circumstantial is not clear, but it warrants further scrutiny.”

Brannan says much of Iran’s yellowcake has been converted to UF6, but the Iranians still have some stock. Beyond that, however, the nation’s ability to mine and mill yellowcake is limited.

“There is something strange going on,” he said. “It is not clear what it is. There was the recent blast at the missile facility with people killed. There was a report of a blast at Isfahan’s uranium conversion site. A U.S. drone has been downed.

“Something is going on. It’s not clear what it is.”"

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Explain To Me Again Why Nikki Haley Isn't Already Our President

Nikki Haley Intends to Govern | RedState: "It didn’t work out that way. Neither the Governor nor the agencies responsible for getting the good old boys’ their backs scratched actually did it. Georgia gets to dredge and South Carolina will get a port expansion in Charleston, but it will still take a while.

The good old boys decided then to haul all of Governor Haley’s top aides into the legislature for examination. They couldn’t find that anyone did any wrong doing. And now Governor Haley has responded. She means to keep changing South Carolina, keep moving the state forward, and keep making it place where business is free to do business without scratching backs or letting government pick winners or losers."

Oh. I forgot. Not enough backscratchin' goin' on. You go girl...

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Look!

The Demagoguery of Incompetence | Power Line: "One imagines that there are several causes of demagoguery, multiple circumstances under which it arises or becomes necessary. In Barack Obama’s case, we are seeing a demagoguery born of incompetence. As the failure of Obama’s policies has become ever more stark, as the clock ticks toward his rendezvous with the electorate in November, as the public’s disapproval of his performance hardens, he has reacted in the only way he knows, by becoming ever more shrill and ever more fanciful in his denunciations of those who dare to point out that his record is awful and his policies inept.

Michael Ramirez makes the point humorously:"

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COTD: Delivered To Hell, Part 2

The Egyptian Elections: Analyzing the Runoff Results - By Samuel Tadros - The Corner - National Review Online: "As Jimmah gave us Islamist Iran, so Barry gives us Islamist Egypt. The two largest, most powerful muslim states - handed to (I would say deliberately delivered into the hands of) the Islamists by DEM Presidents.

A friend of Iranian descent sent me a YouTube about life in Iran 19040 - 1980. It was not surprising to me, but maybe some of NRO's younger readers should take a gander (search YouTube for Shah's Iran, etc. - there are many videos). The Shah had made Iran into a very Westernized, modern State. but his state police, the Savak, were not nice enough to the communists & islamists wishing to oust him. So in the name of "human rights" Carter threw our ally, the Shah, to the dogs. The result was not hard to imagine.

Heh! Arab Spring, my patootie! The only uprising that was not Islamist (and thereby worse than the status quo) was the Iranain "green revolution". And which uprising was the ONLY one the US sat on its hand for? The stupidity is mindboggling."

Not the stupidity, the plan...

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Out O Touch

Showdown Coming Over Keystone XL? - By Andrew Stiles - The Corner - National Review Online: "To get a sense of how stunningly out of touch the president is when it comes to the Keystone pipeline, consider that he finds himself on the wrong side of an issue on which the AFL-CIO and Republicans both agree. Here’s Mark Ayers, President of the Building and Construction Trades Department at the AFL-CIO, writing in the Huffington Post:

For America’s skilled craft construction professionals, any discussion of the Keystone XL project begins and ends with one word: JOBS. Today, roughly 14% of the American construction workforce is unemployed — which is significantly higher than the overall national unemployment rate of 9%.

Throughout America’s Heartland, the Keystone Pipeline represents the prospect for 20,000 immediate jobs, and as many as 500,000 indirect jobs via a strong economic multiplier effect…"

Half a million new jobs delivering energy would make it more difficult for him to collapse the economy and make our children starve in the dark. So naturally he's against them. Or any jobs for people that don't contribute to his perpetual campaign of graft and corruption for that matter ... as you may have noticed if you're ... sentient.

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The War On The Economy

Is Rain Water An Industrial Pollutant? | Power Line: "The new administrative burdens the 9th Circuit decision puts on landowners and federal and state government is staggering. The U.S. Forest Service reports there are about 378,000 road miles in our national forests and that it will need about 400,000 permits. By the most conservative estimate, adding in state and private forests nearly doubles that number. Other estimates place the total well into the millions. Simply obtaining the Forest Service’s permits will take 10 years.

The economic consequences of devastating the logging industry, and other industries that depend on wood products, are incalculable. We are living in an extraordinary time, in which the nation’s political class frequently makes war on our economy. No wonder economic recovery is so difficult! The Supreme Court can solve this particular problem if it grants the motion for certiorari tomorrow and reverses the 9th Circuit’s ruling, but more broadly, we need to drastically reform, and limit the powers of, our political class."

I keep saying they're corrupt mental midgets and you won't believe me. Maybe you'll believe me when you're living in a yurt ... no, wait, they use wood too...

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More Postal Disgruntlement

Man-Caused Disaster - By Peter Kirsanow - The Corner - National Review Online: "Fox reports that during a joint session of the Senate and House Homeland Security Committee, Sen. Susan Collins and other Republicans are blasting the administration for referring to the Ft. Hood massacre as an incident of  ”workplace violence.”

Yep. Must’ve been a disgruntled employee upset that he didn’t get a raise. Move along. Nothing else to see here."

Who knows. Maybe even Ron Paul might join the objections next...

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Surely You've Known This, Right? Please Say Yes...

The Strenuously Hushed-Up Fundamental Flaw In The Tax Code | ZeroHedge: "“Corporate Tax Dodging In The Fifty States,” a report that the CTJ released today, found that the largest corporations paid little or no state income taxes in any state for the years 2008-2010. In a prior report, the CTJ found that some of the most profitable US corporations paid no federal income taxes over the same period. Both reports are an indictment of one of the major problems dogging the US economy: our tax system—and its most fundamental flaw that not even tax reformers dare to mention.

The Internal Revenue Code serves two functions: raise money for the government; and dole out benefits and subsidies to industries, companies, pet projects, individuals, shrimp fisheries, etc. in return for campaign contributions, votes, and fringe benefits such as free plane rides, bundles of cash, sweetheart mortgages, or well-paid jobs for staffers when they move on. It’s the congressional bread and butter. And the economy pays the price."

RTWT even if you're part of the 1% who do...

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Hmmmmmm

Ron Paul Tells Newsmax: I Support Israel: "Newsmax: Some object to your policy of cutting foreign aid to Israel.

Ron Paul: I have objected to all foreign aid. I define foreign aid as taking money from poor people in rich countries and giving it to rich people in poor countries. We just can’t keep doing this. We don’t have the money anymore.

Stop and consider America’s policy: We give $3 billion a year to Israel in loans; and we give $12 billion or more in assistance to Israel’s self-declared enemies. Some of these are countries that say they will drive Israel into the sea.

Newsmax: What do you say to evangelical Christians who want that aid to continue?

Ron Paul: I say to them that our aid in the region is out of balance and it is wrong. Foreign aid does not help Israel. It is a net disadvantage. I say to them that “the borrower is servant to the lender” and America should never be the master of Israel and its fate. We should be her friend.

In October, 1981, most of the world and most of the Congress voiced outrage over Israel’s attack on Iraq and their nuclear development. I was one of the few who defended her right to make her own decisions on foreign policy and to act in her own self-interest.

Newsmax: What then, if anything, should we do for Israel?

Ron Paul: We should share intelligence for mutually agreed-upon goals. We should honor our pledge to refuse any arms sales that would undermine Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region.

But we should stop interfering with them. We should not announce bargaining positions even before she begins her negotiations. We should not dictate what she can and cannot do. We should stop trying to buy her allegiance. And Israel should stop sacrificing their sovereignty as an independent state to us or anybody else, no matter how well-intentioned.

Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!"

Hmmm. Well that's certainly not what I thought he'd say. Maybe he's listening to the base after all. I suppose he could be a liar on this but I'm inclined not to believe it. Hmmmm.

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Gunning For Gun Control

Was Fast and Furious All About Gun Control? | Power Line: "The Democrats have longed to impose gun control, or confiscation, for decades, but after a series of electoral defeats they finally backed off. The issue has largely receded from view, although gun owners have remained vigilant. For some time, Second Amendment advocates have suspected that the Obama administration’s gun walking program (“Fast and Furious”) was intended to create a pretext for bringing back the gun control issue. There has been a little evidence of that, but not much. Today, however, Sharyl Attkisson of CBS, who has been all over the Fast and Furious scandal and would, in a sane world, get a Pulitzer Prize, broke another scoop:

Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation “Fast and Furious” to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales."

Shocking, isn't it?

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Top 3

LearnLiberty's Channel - YouTube: "Top 3 Myths About the Great Depression and the New Deal"

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Tribes

It All Begins With Football | Via Meadia: "Alumni watching their schools’ games on TV, or celebrating or mourning their schools’ results each week with friends, family and colleagues are renewing their ties with their alma maters affirming that being an “Aggie” or a “Tar Heel” is an identity, not a line on the resume.

This is why most of them give.  It is irrational and tribal love.  It is intense emotion, not a vague sense of obligation or philanthropy.  They want to beat State.

If you want your students to become loyal, giving alumni, you must turn them into members of a tribe.  You must make them fall in love with their school, and believe that they and all the other alums are united in a family.  Your temple of reason cannot rise to the heavens unless it is grounded in irrational love."

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A Tale O Haavaad (Part 388,000)

The Democrats’ Fuzzy Math | Power Line: "According to the Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute/Brookings Institute, approximately 388,000 households have income above $1 million in any given year; the average income of such households is about $2.7 million. The surtax would be levied on the increment above $1 million. So the arithmetic is simple on a static analysis: 388,000 * $1.7 million * 3.25% = $21.437 billion.

So the “millionaires and billionaires” surtax doesn’t come even remotely close to the reduction in payroll tax. It’s a complete fraud–gratuitous class warfare for revenues that, in the overall scheme of things, are trivial."

The dimwits are from Haaavaaad you know...

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BINGO: Reynold's Law

Instapundit » Blog Archive » HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Dwindling Power Of A College Degree. “Until the early 1970s, l…: "Of course, one reason why a bachelor’s degree on its own no longer conveys intelligence and capability is that a bachelor’s degree has gotten much easier to get, as part of a conscious strategy of giving everyone the markers of intelligence and capability. Remember Reynolds’ Law:

The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people. But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits — self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. — that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them."

I had missed or forgotten this one from Glenn but it's somewhere beyond a home run and nearly approaching orbital velocity as far as I can tell. Talk about a perfect encapsulation of our multiple crises...

And not unrelated to the Tinfoil Apocalypse...

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