Wednesday, December 12. 2007
 Leadership and intellectualism. Am Thinker
Now it makes sense. The Venezuela vote Hillary's Glass House. National Journal The Camorra - Naples' international criminal empire. Don Martin's genius. Dirda in WaPo Study: Ethanol can improve mileage. h/t, reader Hillary Clinton quote: "We just can't trust the American people to make those types of choices.... Government has to make those choices for people " -From the book "I've Always Been A Yankee Fan" by Thomas D. Kuiper, p. 20 - (Hillary to Rep. Dennis Hasert in 1993 discussing her expensive, disastrous taxpayer-funded health care plan.) My reaction? Who the heck is she to make my adult decisions? She's not my mommy.
Tuesday, December 11. 2007
 "BOHICA." Bend over, here it comes again. Thanks for the useful new lingo, Synth. Will use it.
Warming skeptic scientists urge world to do nothing. Hillary desperately searching for dirt on Obama. That lady "security guard" who saved many lives was an armed church volunteer. Great story. Powerline notes that this was a true hate crime. More on the Canada/Steyn story. This evil sword is two-edged. Special to Maggie's Farm: This morning, from a cave somewhere in Pakistan, Taliban Minister of Migration, Mohammed Omar, warned the United States that, if military action against Iraq continues, Taliban authorities will cut off America's supply of convenience store managers. If this action does not yield sufficient results, cab drivers will be next, followed by Dell and AOL customer service reps, and finally Motel 6 managers.
We have been writing about evolution, and this makes no sense in evolutionary theory. Jews speak up for Christmas. Walter Williams on poverty in America: Listening to people like Lou Dobbs, John Edwards and Mike Huckabee lamenting the plight of America's middle class and poor, you'd have to conclude that things are going to hell in a handbasket. According to them, there's wage stagnation, while the rich are getting richer and the poor becoming poorer. There are a couple of updates that tell quite a different story.
Read the whole thing, which tells the truth.
It was 78 degrees in Nashville today - an all-time record for the date, and perfect weather for taking a walk outside. Here's a scene along Belmont Boulevard, the former site of another streetcar line. 
Monday, December 10. 2007
How to identify a cigar at a distance: Know your cigars. Dems knew about "torture," but kept silent until now. Why? They knew all along. Lying phonies. Who is Andrew Ferguson? An interesting guy. Four hours, 400 on stage, plus a goat. War and Peace at the Met. Somebody, please invite me! How green was Bali? Bali was a joke. Nanny-staters just never, ever, ever stop fucking with people. Ace Nobel winner: Y chromosome greatest threat to mankind. Take your glasses off and try saying that to my face, you pencil-neck weenie. Best-kept secret in the MSM: Despite everything, the Bush economic boom continues. Boom and Bust. US housing. CSM. And Kling on your income and your house, at TCS Let them eat cake. NY Philharmonic to play in N Korea Candidates' net worth. Money Rubber room? Big tension in Hillaryland. As low-life scheming politicians go, I do like Obama - but none of his views. I think Hillary is a liar and a Commie and a closet Fabian. Time Magazine has carried a torch for Russia since Stalin. Still does. Afghan Army goes after Taliban. CSM
 Eco-Religion. It's usually not as dramatic as this one-minute video depicts, but I still think it's basically a religion.
K-Mart Shoppers! Holiday Trees? I still do not know why "Christmas" is so offensive to retailers. Is any shopper in the world outside of Saudi Arabia offended by Christmas? IPC caught manipulating data on sea levels. IBD. Locally subsiding lands, like eroding places, are not examples of sea level rise - and how can sea level rise be local anyway? h/t, Tangled Web Cathedrals of Insanity. EU Referendum on wind turbines in the UK Clear simple explanation of the sub-prime ripple effect. S&M. And how it happened on the ground, at Dino. Is there a grim hysteria in the financial world? Yes. I hear it everywhere I go. Ignoramus du Jour. Maureen Dowd Dems admit that "paygo" was a con game. No kidding! Somebody told me that they thought Hillary Clinton was a Fabian. I think so. She looks like one. The horserace. There is something to this at NY Magazine: ...Romney’s entire presidential bid has the feel of a PowerPoint presentation come to life: linear, analytical, bloodless. The game plan that he and his advisers devised was straightforward. First, raise a ton of dough. Second, play the inside game: Court the Beltway Republican Establishment, neutralize the most vocal sources of potential opposition, rack up gold-plated endorsements. On issues, cravenly disregard what Romney once stood for, tailoring his positions to make him minimally acceptable to the three legs of the GOP stool: social, economic, and national-security conservatives. Pour resources into Iowa, win there and in New Hampshire (where Romney retains a pronounced quasi-hometown edge), then roll to the nomination.
Romney would be a fine President, but he is not an inspiring candidate, and people - rightly or wrongly - want to feel inspired. He is like the CEO/Country Club candidate. That's what we need.
Sunday, December 9. 2007
 Phony: Gore takes train, his luggage takes a Mercedes. So does he really believe, or is he a poser?
Politics: The Oprah and Obama Show: Althouse. The show is making big waves. CA diocese splits from the Episcopal Church. I doubt that it's all about homosexuality. The Episcopal Church has been an empty suit for years. Do we need death? Bailey at Cato Unbound Nowadays, even cranks get a hearing. Central Park horses A quote about Krugman and health care at Just One Minute: ...Hillary and Bill made it clear in 1993 that their goal was use health care to create a huge new middle-class entitlement, thereby positioning the Democratic Party as the purveyor and protector of these middle-class benefits in the same way that (back in the day) the Democratic Party wooed the elderly by being generous with Social Security.
Biofoolishness at Blue Crab. I was about to comment that Rufus will have something to say about this, but I see he has already engaged Gaius in the comments. "Should my wordless kid go to school with your normal kid?" Another view on 9-11 and Afghanistan and Iraq at Overcoming Bias: If the USA had completely ignored the 9/11 attack - just shrugged and rebuilt the building - it would have been better than the real course of history. But that wasn't a political option. Even if anyone privately guessed that the immune response would be more damaging than the disease, American politicians had no career-preserving choice but to walk straight into al Qaeda's trap. Whoever argues for a greater response is a patriot. Whoever dissects a patriotic claim is a traitor. Initially, there were smarter responses to 9/11 than I had guessed. I saw a Congressperson - I forget who - say in front of the cameras, "We have forgotten that the first purpose of government is not the economy, it is not health care, it is defending the country from attack." That widened my eyes, not so much for agreement, as for that a politician could say something that wasn't an applause light. The emotional shock must have been very great for a Congressperson to say something that... real. But within two days, the genuine shock faded, and concern-for-image regained total control of the political discourse. Then the spiral of escalation took over completely. Once restraint becomes unspeakable, no matter where the discourse starts out, the level of fury and folly can only rise with time.
Saturday, December 8. 2007
 Baby-selling in Guatemala. Even worse, baby factories for the American market. But I ask this: If you're a middle class white suburban American family and adopt a Guatemalan baby, can that kid put "Hispanic" on his college application? And, if so, what does it mean?
Cuba damaged by Chavez defeat. h/t, Insty How our military has had success in Iraq. A Merry Media Christmas. Am. Thinker Gays in the military: A statement from some retired generals. China to the West: You can go to hell messing with your emissions. Gay Patriot thought this sounded like an interesting book, and I think so too. Education's End: Why Our Colleges Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life
Friday, December 7. 2007
 Quackery supported by Brit NHS. Why? Because it's political, of course. Socialized medicine is all about politics, not medicine.
Eye disease and Impressionism. Neurophilosophy Before we go all hysterical like Andy Sullivan, here are the facts about those CIA tapes. A player to make people like golf who don't like golf Chavez: Our people aren't mature enough. Dr. Sanity. Not mature enough to want to be serfs to the State? What is "sloth"? Kimball When a bad kid smiles at a teacher. What gun laws do for us. The case for English as the official language. NY Sun Is this guy getting a bad deal? I have never seen a child porn site, but what if I just wanted to see what was on them? Cramer Magna Carta for sale. Dissent not allowed in Bali. h/t, Insty More on The Death of the Grown-Up: Driscoll The logical flaw in modern Darwinism. Auster. It's about the human instinct for teleology. Kangaroo farts are Green. What about Wallabees? All I have here is a whole bunch of Wallabees. G.I. Jill. Gateway Image: Thomas Nast's Santa. History of Santa here.
 When will the global warming arrive? It's cold as hell up here. When is warming supposed to begin? Do I have to wait 20 years? I can't wait.
Search elsewhere. 72 virgins at Wellesley? Lucky just to find 72 cute gals at Wellesley these days. Streisand supports Clinton: Obama dirty tricks blamed Intellectual conformity and the cascade on the globalistical warmening hoax. Never Yet Melted. Ho ho ho. You're fired. Religious schools do best in Britain. Best piece I've read on The New Republic fiasco. Iowahawk A boring subject, but it's no joke. The AMT. Conspiracy. More good on the AMT: Big Lizards Hey shrinks! A new diagnosis: OMS (Offended Muslim Syndrome) The Dems dislike Uribe (he's not a Commie), but he is saving Colombia. The American. Lucky Colombia, unlucky Venezueala. A Harvard guy, but clearly not brainwashed. All too easy to satire. Madeleine Bunting wants the State to control your fun. What a pill!
Thursday, December 6. 2007
 World's hardest easy Geometry problem. Coyote.
Are the Dems still in a Wonderland, where international hostilities can be handled like problems in Sunday School? Opinion Journal No smoking in your own apartment? NY Sun San Francisco will Save the World! With a new tax, conveniently. New taxes are the real Convenient Truth. Iraqis protest Al Quaida. That tells me that they feel safe. Eric thinks the Global Warming hysteria is just the latest device to try to foist communitarianism on America. I agree. With poverty fixed as well as it can be, what else is there to use as a crisis? Re Canada's investigation of Steyn. It is just as we always warn, from Ace: This is shameful. All those dark fantasies conservative "crazies" concocted about the left actually becoming Nazi-like and Stalinist in purging and persecuting those it found troublesome on the right... well, they're not fantasies, and those conservatives weren't crazy. People like me who said "Oh shush with that nonsense, they'd never dare, they too have a commitment to basic liberal values, if perhaps not a very strong one" were actually the crazies.
Whiners. From a Rasmussen South Carolina poll report: Thirty-three percent (33%) of South Carolina Democratic Primary Voters say the economy is the number one voting issue. Twenty-eight percent (28%) name the War in Iraq while 14% say Health Care.
What's wrong with the economy? We have complete employment and the subprime mess doesn't effect the average person - it hurts Wall St. Iraq is going well, and everybody gets medical care if they're sick. What's the problem?
Wednesday, December 5. 2007
 "Uppity nigger" Obama upsets Clintonistas badly. Honestly, the attitude of the Dems towards black Americans does remind me of the segregation days. They are not supposed to wander off the plantation or to make any trouble for Massa.
Portland ME ties 1890 snows. Globalistical Warmening causes weather, dontcha know. We didn't used to have any weather before this warmening crisis. Don't blame me. Blame my credit card. Controlled drinking? LaShawn Enviros oppose wind farms. For the wrong reasons, though. I think wind is stupid because we could easily meet all of our electrical needs with cheap nuke power, with zero environmental impact. The CSM is already blaming world events on global warming, when global warming hasn't happened yet, to a meaningful degree. It's a theoretical prediction, but that is obviously news to our "objective" reporters at the CSM. Bacon comes from rocks? I wish. Washing your car is immoral. Glad to hear it. I hate doing it. If I can now be moral instead of lazy by not doing it, groovy. Polls, shmolls. Rasmussen. Obama: People do not like Hillary Clinton. Duh. Who is your turtle? Evang. Outpost Image: Thanks, BL. More suitable for Halloween, however.
 Seattle parish introduces astrology. It's marketing. Groovy, far out, dude.
Curtis Sliwa wants to get involved in NY politics. Nobody knows the city as well as Curtis does. Doesn't it feel good to "make a difference"? Sanctimonious goofballs. Bali, from Seattlepi (via Drudge) The U.N. estimates 47,000 tons of carbon dioxide and other pollutants will be pumped into the atmosphere during the 12-day conference in Bali, mostly from plane flights but also from waste and electricity used by hotel air conditioners. If correct, Goodall said, that is equivalent to what a Western city of 1.5 million people, such as Marseilles, France, would emit in a day.
And we are supposed to think they take this seriously? From a Brit blogger via Mr. Free Market: I SOLEMNLY SWEAR THAT UNTIL THE PISTOL BAN IS REPEALED I WILL BUY, MANUFACTURE OR OTHERWISE LEGITIMATELY ACQUIRE AT LEAST ONE GUN OF SOME DESCRIPTION EVERY SINGLE YEAR, NO MATTER WHAT MY FINANCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES. Not that I will not break any laws but I will do my best to be as politically-incorrect and individualistic as possible at all times. This is the non-violent, gentle revenge of a freedom writer. Who's with me?
From a piece on climate hysteria at EU Referendum: 
Cartoon from Siggy. More Santa cartoons there.
Tuesday, December 4. 2007
 Adios to our blog pal Oxford Medievalist
More on killer robots. As the guys in Programmed Trading say, "It's our machine against their machine." Hitchens on An Anglosphere Future. That's my vision too. Lots about Conan Doyle. The Second Annual Worst Quotes from Daily Kos. Good grief. Abortions are associated with breast cancer. Time for the Baby Boomers to apologize to America. I do, right now. Hugo's next move: Kill the Media. "Elite" college admissions: Prof Deneen speaks Major Dem fundraiser Hsu indicted by Feds. A sad story of a motor-voter. Jim Miller Since when is being a hot babe a crime? When I was young, these sorts of wonderful gals were all over the place. Good wholesome fun. Bill jumps in when Hillary is in trouble. That's their deal, but it doesn't make her look good. And speaking of the Clintons, from Lewis at American Thinker: Falling in love with politicians is something of a liberal habit from JFK to Bill Clinton. If you're liberal, you don't vote for a politician but a Savior. It is not how conservatives think, but the enraptured Left keeps doing it. It's kind of like picking a puppy in the window. Somehow Hillary no longer inspires that unfeigned devotion -- or at least, now there is competition to be the love object of the liberal masses.
 A Happy Hannukah to our Jewish readers. (FYI: How to spell Hannukah and other info re this holiday)
I don't know why he included the bit about tomato sauce, but his list of Thanksgiving myths is good. If abortion is murder, who should be punished - and how? Reisman I do not want to vote for people with charisma. Asst. Village Idiot Yale thinks they need more diversity programs. Sheesh. Educated fools? John Leo, via Insty Another reason American medical care is expensive: too many CAT scans. But why? Dr. Bob. The next time your Doc suggests a test, ask him or her whether it's a pure CYA for the malpractice lawyers, or truly necessary. They will tell you. You can refuse to do it. Time for a PC re-write of God Save the Queen. Of course. One must distort your precious and time-honored culture the immigrants want come to, to...please them? Wha? If they don't want to join the culture, why do they come? Just for the money? If so, and they don't want to get on board with the culture, then the hell with them. Offending people is bad manners, but Free Speech. Betsy. Offend at will, if you wish. So much for Iraq as a big campaign issue. We told ya so, last winter. Nobody was asleep at the switch in the White House.  How the Brit Nanny State thinks (and lies) to their "children" adult citizens, from Devil's Advocate:
I have come to the conclusion that the only way to get through modern life is to assume that everything we are told by any public body is either wrong or a lie. Take the ‘safe drinking’ recommendations that have been in place for many years – 21 units a week for men, 14 for women – but are now deemed to be too high.
Writing in the Daily Mail this week, Michael Hanlon describes how he interviewed an eminent cardiologist who had been involved with drawing up the alcohol guidelines: “He said ‘Well, most of us thought that for most men, say, a bottle of wine a day wouldn't do any harm. But that seemed excessive, so we cut it down to 40 units a week. That meant we were saying that it was OK for men to drink two or three pints a night. Medically, that may have been so, but that would be sending out the wrong message in terms of drinking and driving. So we halved it.’”
So there you go. Completely arbitrary and based more on what the Powers That Be think the public might accept rather than on any medical reasoning. And these are the old figures, not the ones blamed this week for an alleged epidemic of liver disease as the Nanny State - as I always said it would - redeploys its Smoke Police against the demon drink.
Cheers. Mine’s a double.
Monday, December 3. 2007
 I am heading off hunting early tomorrow morning, but wanted to leave our readers with a few good links before I leave. Related:
A quite extraordinary thing happened to me on Wednesday. I was out shooting with a few friends and we were walking from one field to the next down a country lane when a battered old Citroen screeched to a halt, the window was wound down and a young hippyish woman stuck her head out and shouted “Murderer” at me.
Read the whole thing at Devil's Advocate. I need to keep an eye on Barry Beelzebub. Mummified dino shows its stripes.  “Is the AP going to be charged with an in-kind contribution to the Clinton Campaign?” Rick Moran
Sarko is wrong about at least one thing. Who in the world is impressed by French policing? Harry Reid: Iraq is getting worse. CNN is the Corrupt News Network. LA Times. Kinda like the BBC. Let us not be timid in the face of bullying. David Warren Vote for the white guy! The hamlet of Narvik lost money speculating in subprimes! Great moments in progressive taxation. Coyote A fine gardening site. Garden Web. h/t, MouseNaround Photos: The 20 ga. I am bringing for grouse tomorrow. It's an old Abercrombie and Fitch. Well-banged-up, but shoots straight. Below, a happy Tuesday Morning tottie from Theo who is not coming with me, I am sorry to say.
I am listening to Imus this morning on his debut on WABC. He is talking about the Rutgers thing in a wonderful, serious, and personal way. He is talking about his alcoholism and drug addiction. He says "Things worked out the way they should have worked out." He says the experience changed him for the better. "You can waste a lot of your life being bitter and unforgiving." Final bit of his monologue: "Dick Cheney is still a war criminal, Hillary Clinton is still Satan, and I'm back on the radio." He has Levon Helm playing on the set with Larry Campbell. Just terrific to hear Levon shoutin' it out. And no, I am not a big Imus fan, but I thought I would give him a chance this morning. A big NO for Chavez. That is great news for the Venezuelans. But, like the EU constitution, he'll find another way. "The things America spends money on." Auster Teddy Bears, Parked Cars, and Moral Equivalence. Powerline Dr X responds to the NYT piece on Psychoanalysis Behead the enemies of Steyn! Dr. Sanity Zimbabwe ringtones. h/t, Theo
 I mentioned The Fear of a Blue Planet yesterday morning. In a piece titled Clear as Mud, Crittenden reminds us of a Hillary Clinton quote:
“We can talk all we want about freedom and opportunity, about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but what does all that mean to a mother or father who can’t take a sick child to the doctor?”
He comments: Well, okay, what does “all that” mean to someone stuck in congested traffic? Or annoyed by the price of cable television? What does Mrs. Clinton mean?
I do not find her quote to be ambiguous. It's plain as day. I believe that she is saying that "liberty and opportunity" are obsolete. Show me one sick child in America who is denied medical care, but, before you begin looking, I will warn you that you will not find one. (Me? I just want free legal care when I get my DUI. And free gas, please, for my truck - and would you throw in free car insurance, please?) How does her view differ from that of Lenin or of Chavez? My point is that if the ends justify the means, then any unmet human want or desire or personal responsibility can be used to rationalize the whittling away of freedom, American values, and the American way of life. And in whose hands does that power end up? In the hands of politicians - the last people in the world one would want in charge of your personal life. We should not re-design the government for those few who have big trouble in life. We should just charitably arrange to take care of them, but not sacrifice our ideals to do so. Charity is good. Government power is not, because government is populated largely by arrogant, ego-driven, power-oriented folks with minimal experience in the real world, and who know more about DC restaurants than they know about folks like me who want nothing from them except to be left alone. Give me American freedom, and let me take my own chances and live by my own choices, wits, and my own luck, and let me deal with my own difficulties without government interference or "help". I am an adult. As readers know, my view is that life in America is meant to be difficult and challenging (while full of opportunity to find one's own path, and with abundant charity from people and from government to protect those who stumble), because that is the price we pay for freedom. Serfdom is secure but soul- and spirit-stifling, whether the Lord of the Manor is the King of France, the Duke of York, a bureaucracy in Brussels or Moscow, a plantation owner, or the US government. A weak government is a good government. I believe that the once-worthy Dems (eg JFK) have been entirely captured by the "deep swimmers of the Left", as Horowitz terms them - abetted by the guilty or noblesse-oblige-oriented ultra-wealthy.
Sunday, December 2. 2007
Some of these links don't work - I apologize - will fix after church.  The Fear of a Blue Planet. NY Post. Yes, it does frighten be a bit because I do not think those folks give a darn about my individual freedom. They claim to care about the "greater good" of "the people," but I never met "the people." History tells me that "the greater good" means a power grab from me to the State, with efforts to placate me with bread and circuses and cheap doctors trained in Pakistan, Russia, and Africa. I do not like that; I do not approve of that, and I do not think that is the American way: that's what our Revolution was all about. If I were running for office, I would run on "the American way."
The Pope on eternal life. NRO Repub candidates and immigration. Flares Dutch CIA spies on Dutch media. Pajamas Canadian Molson Beer drinkers will drown French prisons? The Enigma Machine in flash. h/t, Grow a Brain The Museum of high-heeled shoes. h/t, Thompson Catching up on the teddy bear story. Yes, I am sick of Moslem Rage too. As someone noted recently, Hate Week is every week for the Moslem Rage boys - and for the rabid Dems too. The NYT always finds the negative. Since war is no longer staggering Iraq, now corruption is. Trying to be multiculturally sensitive, I thought that bribes were an intrinsic part of Midde Eastern culture - so this must mean that things are returning to normal. The ripple effects of the subprime mess: Nobody knows what it will mean. Dino Photo from A Slower Pace. Kentucky is Dan'l Boone country.
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