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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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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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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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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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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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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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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