Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Bet

I have a bet with my eighth grade son. If he wins he gets a small Lego set. If he loses he gets to read yet another book of my recommendation (how do you think he got to be so smart except for the occasional bad bet or two? ;)

The bet? That his history teacher will not allow him to distribute pocket Constitutions to the class. He thinks his teacher will allow it. Nothing against his teacher -- I've met him and he seems like a good guy. I told my son that he would have to have the teacher review the pocket Constitution before distributing them because I genuinely did not want to get him fired -- and my assessment is that he would be fired if he allowed them to be handed out.

Why?

Here's my first example of a long list. Watch for more in a continuing series.

Page 8 has a summary of the Ten Commandments and their importance to American jurisprudence and how there is a tablet signifying them directly above the Supreme Court Chief Justice's chair among other things. And the bottom section of page 8 has the contrasting summary of the plan from Marx' Communist Manifesto (which of course is more or less equivalent to the Democratic Party platform)!

Herewith the relevant section of the Manifesto presented for you to marvel at:

The Communist revolution is the most radical rupture with traditional property relations; no wonder that its development involved the most radical rupture with traditional ideas.

But let us have done with the bourgeois objections to Communism.

We have seen above, that the first step in the revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class to win the battle of democracy.

The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organised as the ruling class; and to increase the total productive forces as rapidly as possible.

Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production.

These measures will, of course, be different in different countries.

Communist Manifesto (Chapter 2): "Nevertheless, in most advanced countries, the following will be pretty generally applicable.

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly."
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, &c, &c.
Ten Commandments: Religion not allowed in school. Communist Manifesto: Too much chance someone might recognize the Democrat Party agenda.

And did I mention that on the cover of this particular edition is 2 Corinthians 3:17 : "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

So even the cover fails!

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Monday, September 27, 2010

Yep, That's Right

Global Cooling and the New World Order – Telegraph Blogs: "The 58th Bilderberg Meeting will be held in Sitges, Spain 3 – 6 June 2010. The Conference will deal mainly with Financial Reform, Security, Cyber Technology, Energy, Pakistan, Afghanistan, World Food Problem, Global Cooling, Social Networking, Medical Science, EU-US relations.

Yep, that’s right. Global Cooling.
Which means one of two things.
Either it was a printing error.
Or the global elite is perfectly well aware that global cooling represents a far more serious and imminent threat to the world than global warming, but is so far unwilling to admit it except behind closed doors.
Let me explain briefly why this is a bombshell waiting to explode."

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In Point Of Fact, We Do


Moe Lane � #rsrh He left out ‘derivative.’: "[Oops: H/T Hot Air Headlines] In the process of whining about why a bunch of apparatchik bureaucrats and tawdry identity-politicians can’t come up with a better logo for their party than their current one – which is, by the way, one good Photoshop from looking like the overhead view of an urinal* – this guy ever-so-wistfully sighed:
Remember that glorious day on the Mall in January?
In point of fact, we do."

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Sunday, September 26, 2010

The Reagan Obama Debate

You're going to want to watch this several times until you either get it or deserve your chains.

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Saturday, September 25, 2010

Iran Watch


Things are once again heating up in Iran folks:
Video: 'Allah-O-Akbar' chants send chilling message to Iranian regime | The Green Voice of Freedom: "GVF -- Iranians took to rooftops once more on Monday night in another show of unity and voiced their support for the leaders of their Green Movement, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi.

The move is part of a campaign by various reformist factions to send a clear and loud signal to Iranian authorities that any action against the two popular politicians would constitute a breach of a dangerous red line. In recent weeks there have been growing fears that the Iranian regime might be planning to stage further attacks against 2009 presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi in order to finally put an end the opposition Green Movement. Security forces, Basij militia and the IRGC have in recent weeks, shown a readiness to carry out raids against the office of former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, vandalise the house of Mahdi Karroubi and attack mosques and centres affiliated with pro-reform Muslim clerics such as the outspoken cleric Ayatollah Dastgheib."
And I'm guessing you might have missed this little story:
After last week's Stuxnet disclosures, it was only a matter of time before the viral sabotage was flushed into the open, with Iran confirming that it had been in fact attacked. As expected, Al-Jazeera has just confirmed that not only has Bushehr been infected, but so have numerous other industrial sites all over Iran. Yet despite the pervasive attack, "no damage or disruption of nuclear facilities has yet been reported, however." What is surprising is that Iran has made such a major media splash on the topic: one would assume that demonstrating such broad cyberdefensive weakness would not be in the country's favor...

More from Al-Jazeera:
Iran's nuclear agency is trying to combat a complex computer worm that has affected industrial sites throughout the country and is capable of taking over the control systems of power plants, Iranian media reports have said.
I'd like to assure you that the war with Iran hasn't just broken out but unfortunately I can't.

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A Saturday Cleanser

Here we learn that even Herman Cain -- a serious contender for my 2012 presidential vote if we can't draft Thomas Sowell -- can be surprised.


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Tranquilizers

I highly recommend "The Black Swan". Taleb will open your eyes...

Obama Stimulus Made Economic Crisis Worse, `Black Swan' Author Taleb Says - Bloomberg: "U.S. President Barack Obama and his administration weakened the country’s economy by seeking to foster growth instead of paying down the federal debt, said Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of “The Black Swan.”

“Obama did exactly the opposite of what should have been done,” Taleb said yesterday in Montreal in a speech as part of Canada’s Salon Speakers series. “He surrounded himself with people who exacerbated the problem. You have a person who has cancer and instead of removing the cancer, you give him tranquilizers. When you give tranquilizers to a cancer patient, they feel better but the cancer gets worse.”

Today, Taleb said, “total debt is higher than it was in 2008 and unemployment is worse.”"

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Friday, September 24, 2010

A Different Malik

Riiight.

Which Malik Shabazz Visited White House in July 2009, Mr. President? - Big Government: "The White House has assured the American people that the Malik Shabazz that visited the White House at that time is not the same Malik Shabazz at the center of the New Black Panther story. But, the White House has not provided any information to verify its contention or who this “other” Malik Shabazz is.
We call on the White House to act in the spirit of their transparency policy and provide further information, sufficient to independently verify the identity of the person named Malik Shabazz who visited the White House private residence in July of 2009."

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Watch The Left Hand

Aren't you shocked?

Instapundit � Blog Archive � DISTRACTION: So, yesterday reader John Mark Williams suggested that the Colbert testimony was inten…: "DISTRACTION: So, yesterday reader John Mark Williams suggested that the Colbert testimony was intended to distract from coverage of Christopher Coates’ testimony about the Justice Department’s racism scandals. If so, it’s worked. Front page of Daily Caller: Colbert. Drudge led with Colbert until the news of the Klein & Zucker firings came out. Limbaugh led off today talking about Colbert. NRO has covered Colbert at The Corner, but not Coates. Washington Examiner headline: Colbert. Looking around other sites, I see more about Colbert than Coates. Hot Air and Power Line did better.

But let me quote the Power Line treatment: “Coates’s testimony is a bombshell. It exposes a couple of Obama administration scandals at once. One involves the Obama administration’s attempt to cover up the rationale for burying the case against the NBPP. The other involves the Obama administration’s support for the racially based administration of justice. Coates’s testimony is suggestive of other scandals as well. You probably won’t be hearing much about it on the broadcast news tonight or in the papers tomorrow, but we all should do everything we can to get the word out.”"

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Thursday, September 23, 2010

Reggie On Real Estate

Pay attention to this man.

Take It From Someone Who Called the Housing Crash (and its victims) in 2005, We Are About Midway Through the Downturn, If That Far | zero hedge: "This should be of no surprise to anyone that reads the BoomBust or follows me regularly. I’ve been warning about the crash for over 5 years now, and those who feel we are nearing a bottom need to take out their spreadsheets and plug in some historical numbers."

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Projection Update

Ace catches Michael Barone with a key insight that's intuitively obvious once you stop and think about it:

Ace of Spades HQ: "I asked Michael Barone about the Democrats' full year of denial, about when they finally started to grasp that this was genuine outrage, a citizenry aroused.

He didn't answer that, but he did offer this explanation: The Democrats assumed all the Tea Party rallies and Town Hall confrontations were astroturfed and filled with Republican operatives, because that's precisely how they gin up their public displays of support.

They almost couldn't grasp the possibility that our rallies, unlike theirs, might be real."

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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

This Is It


You might have seen the chart of actual unemployment vs what Obama predicted with the "stimulus" boondoggle. It turns out you ain't seen nuttin':

Ace of Spades HQ: "You can see that from the late 60's up until 2000 federal spending was pretty much a straight line relative to the median household income. Then jumps to a new higher growth rate around 2002 (most likely due to 9/11). But look at what happened in 2007 when the Democrats took over the House.

Ho-ly crap!

Not only did federal spending shoot up but median income actually fell. This isn't just new unsustainable growth - this is an effin death spiral where spending has become completely decoupled from people's incomes. This is the kind of graph you see in engineering when a system is heading into failure. A few more years of this and we will be in Greek bankruptcy territory.

So if you're looking for a single chart that crystallizes the current greatest danger to the US and why the Tea Party has appeared, this is it."

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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

To "Church" With The Manchurian Moonbat

Moonbattery: Obama Finally Attends Church — To Hear Muslim Speaker: "At last we know how to get supposedly Christian Comrade Obama into a church — invite a politically active Muslim speaker:
[O]n Sunday, September 19, 2010, the Obama family attended church for only the third time in a year. They went on foot to the St. John's Episcopal Church situated across the Lafayette Park.
But what is widely not reported by the White House and the MSM is that on that particular Sunday in that particular church, Dr. Ziad Asali, M.D., a Muslim, founder and president of the American Task Force on Palestine, was the guest speaker. He was there to speak on the subject of 'Prospects of the two-state solution in the Middle-East.' …
Dr. Ziad J. Asali is described as 'a long-time activist on Middle East issues' who has testified to both chambers of Congress about Palestinian interests, increased U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority, and 'Israel's disproportionate use of force' in Gaza.
Pro-jihadist moonbattery — now there's something other than his reflection the Manchurian Moonbat can worship."

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dOne

Moonbattery: Animated Dem Logo: "Ever on the cutting edge, Democrats even have an animated version of their stylish new logo:"

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Monday, September 20, 2010

Teh Gangsta

Power Line - The Down-Side of Gangster Government: "Bulls of the US economy frequently point to the flush state of the US corporate balance sheet to support the idea that an investment boom will soon be riding to the rescue of growth and job creation, but as things stand there is little reason for wanting to invest in the US, which seems as politically inept as it is economically marooned.
I'm not sure we're economically marooned, but we certainly are politically inept. The rule of law is probably the single most important factor in generating long-term economic growth. The consequences of the Obama administration's abandonment of the rule of law in favor of gangster government may not be felt immediately, but they nonetheless are likely to be immense."

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Sunday, September 19, 2010

Cancelled

This is one of the most concise summaries of the current "economic" disaster you will ever read -- so take the two minutes:

Bill Buckler Discusses The Last Price Standing Of "True Money", Answers The Only Question Relevant To Gold Bugs | zero hedge: "'Before it can be exchanged, wealth must be created. Wealth cannot be created out of thin air. By definition, an economic good is “scarce”. If it were not, there would be no such thing as economics or exchange. Neither would be necessary because no effort or choice in the face of alternatives would be required in order to provide the GOODS which further our lives. Before we can talk about money and the VITAL role it performs, we must stress this point. Money is NOT wealth, it is the means by which wealth is exchanged amongst those who produce it. Paper money is not suited to this function.' So what is the only rational investment in times in which money's role is so often confused by pretty much everyone? 'Ninety-seven percent of all existing Treasury debt has been created since August 15, 1971! Ninety-three percent of it has been created since Mr Volcker “saved” the paper Dollar in late 1979! Please note that the gain in Treasuries and the loss in the US Dollar almost exactly cancel out. Please note also that even the biggest gain in these paper markets fades into insignificance against Gold’s rise."And here is the answer all the "gold bugs" have been waiting for: "The paper money “price” of Gold will last as long as the attempt to make paper money “work” lasts. In the end, Gold will no longer have a “price” because it has reverted to its role as MONEY. Whenever and wherever that happens, that nation can return to the production of wealth - rather than “money”."
Then click through and RTWT which is still pretty concise. And very enlightening...

UPDATE: This is quite extraordinary also. A perfect companion piece.

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The Scum Slither Down The Drain At Last

Wall Street’s Engines of Profit Are Slowing Down - NYTimes.com: "Inside the great investment houses on Wall Street, business has taken a surprising turn — downward.

Even after taxpayer bailouts restored bankers’ profits and pay, the great Wall Street money machine is decelerating. Big financial institutions, including commercial banks, are still making a lot of money. But given unease in the financial markets and the economy, brokerages and investment banks are not making nearly as much as their executives, employees and investors had hoped.

After an unusually sharp slowdown in trading this summer, analysts are rethinking their profit forecasts for 2010."

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Eye Beams

The Beam In Their Eyes | The New Ledger: "So, University of Chicago law professor Todd Henderson wrote a blog post discussing how his family would be affected by a rollback in the Bush tax cuts. Instantly, he was accused of “whining” by various commenters, and by the likes of Michael O’Hare, and Brad DeLong.

Via Glenn Reynolds, we find out another law instructor at the University of Chicago–and his wife–are much given to whining, despite being substantially wealthy. I wonder if O’Hare and DeLong will go after this latter couple anytime soon. Something tells me that they won’t.

Why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, can’t we have a better Reality-Based Community?"
And of course the actual point of what Henderson writes -- go laugh yourself silly at all the ignorant "Mommy Marxist" comments -- is that on the margin, no matter whether his taxes are raised a lot or a little, something has to give. And note that any fool can figure out that likely options include job destruction for recent immigrants he employs. This is simply the same thing writ on a smaller scale than what happens for the "fat cats". (Note that by "fat cats" I exclude the Wall Street leeches most of whom should be in jail for being the living embodiment of Hamilton's dream of corruption curse.)

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The ChiComs Know Who We Elected


Gateway Pundit: "A Chinese shopkeeper shows the latest t-shirt featuring U.S. President Barack Obama as a socialist soldier, in Beijing, September 9, 2010. (UPI/Stephen Shaver)"

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Saturday, September 18, 2010

The Big Bang


Debunking The Great Myth Of US Consumer Deleveraging, Or Why The US Economy Will End Not With A Whimper But A Bang | zero hedge: "Putting numbers to the data confirms that of the over $600 billion in deleveraging, only $20 billion or so of it was voluntary, with the balance occurring due to continuously irresponsible borrowing practices, in which US consumers spend, spend, spend themselves into oblivion only to be cut off cold turkey, instead of entering a slow deleveraging rehabilitation which would allow them to shift into the transition to a new creditless normal far easier.

The last observation is key as it has rather startling implications to David Rosenberg's theme of the New Frugal Normal. It would appear consumers do not, in fact, moderate their spending while still in possession of credit (regardless of its cost) - quite the contrary: they accelerate spending until the charge off threshold at the lender is breached, and all credit is cut off, also resulting in a collapse in a creditor's FICO score, cutting him or her off completely from future (at least near term) credit access. Thus what is occurring at the end of a typical consumer credit lifespan, is not a whimper but a massive bang."


UPDATE: And more on Washington's Blog. This is a RTWT.

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