Wednesday, June 11. 2008
Who knew that pandering pols put a 54-cent tariff on imported ethanol for the benefit of domestic corn farmers and ethanol producers? Story here. The ethanol scam industry would not exist without subsidies (which we pay for - via our income taxes, not at the pump) and protective tariffs. Of course, federal and state taxes on a gallon of gas add plenty too. And this leads me to the big missing campaign issue: Dems refuse further drilling, block refineries, block nuclear and, due to their greenie alliance, want to force fuel prices higher to reduce usage. Yet, at the same time, they complain vehemently about energy costs and want to punish the oil companies. It's nonsense, unless you believe in fairies. The Dems are selling fairy tales about energy - and about other things too.
Tuesday, June 10. 2008
 How Amnesty International frames their questions. Norm
Iowahawk will soon be an internet millionaire. Let's hope he continues his Presidential campaign, despite his coming wealth. Will the press actually raise some questions about Obama? Well, they did here. Related: CT's Joe Lieberman fights back. I guess Joe passed on the Kool Aid. Yacht sales sinking. No surprise. Oil prices up, demand down. Only a socialist couldn't understand that. Oil demand down. Prices up, demand down. Only a socialist couldn't understand that. A question of timing: How come suddenly we hear all about Saddam's ties with Al Qaida? "Shut the hell up." A Roger Simon quote from his Pajamas piece: It’s time in America to say - enough. Spike Lee - like Sharpton and Jackson - is now part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Image: A sultry Theo lovely, lounging in a Springtime meadow with that olde Springtime "Come hither" look.
A quote from Michael Lewis at Bloomberg: There's a new feeling in the Wall Street air: The big firms are now too big to fail. If the chaos that might ensue from Bear Stearns going bankrupt, and stiffing its counterparties on its billions of dollars of trades, is too much for the world to endure, the chaos that might be caused by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. or Goldman Sachs Group Inc. or Merrill Lynch & Co. or Morgan Stanley going bankrupt must also be too much to endure.
Congress privatizes their restaurants. Story at Surber.
At TigerHawk. One quote: Taking these stories together, one is forced to conclude that the Democrats and their political allies in the environmental movement are pushing for policies that have a disproportionate impact on the rural "working poor," the vast majority of whom live in states that tend to vote Republican. Smart move.
Monday, June 9. 2008
 FYI: I will likely be away the rest of this week and next, depending on the weather. I really do need a vacation with plenty of salt water, seafood, sand, and sun. Boating this week around RI, Montauk, Cuttyhunk, Nantucket, and Chatham, then, afterwards, camping on the coast in Maine. That is my current plan, anyway, but I do not camp in rain: been there, done that. I will try to post if and when I can, and will pre-post a few items if I feel inspired.
Sometimes I wonder why I turned my "links" posts into a near-daily item. It just grew like Topsy, but it was never intended. And it was never intended to try to be timely - just interesting. Our original idea here was to avoid the timely (and to limit our total number of posts to 3-4/day max), because you can depend on the rest of the web for hot news. However, one does tend to get caught up in ephemera - if only as diversion and for its entertainment value. Yes, I do need a little vacation from politics, work, and the internets - and some good American perspective and some good American clams and a good American sunburn or two. I am amused to see our excellent blog pal and fellow Yankee Jules doing the same thing. This Irishman knows what he's doing. Apparently he is not inclined to vote his freedom and autonomy away. Clearly, he is not "Progressive." With health care "reform," Ted Kennedy would die right away, In the remarkable world of modern medicine, only rationing can cut costs. I forget the exact stats, but something like 80% of US medical care costs are in the final year of life. Adding weeks or months to dying peoples' lives is one expensive thing at which medical science has excelled. (Don't get me wrong - it has also produced wonderful, near-miraculous things.)  Stuff White People Like: Having gay friends.
Al Gore investing in a carbon credit company. Related: Is global warming really a pressing problem? Related: The cost of an insurance policy matters. The fundamental right to be left alone Steyn on Obama's "humility". I still think Obama's promising nice weather forever could set people up for disappointment. Related: Obama - A True Ideologue, at Pajamas. Related: No Pasaran quotes Goldberg: [FDR's] New Deal gave Americans "hope" and "faith" in a "cause larger than themselves." Hope for what? Faith in what? What "cause"? The answer: the liberal God-state or, if you prefer, the Great Society — which is merely that society governed by the God-state in accordance with the general will.
Panda s*x. With photos Upper photo: Nice boat
Lower photo: The News Junkie, hard at work.
 I support John McCain. I believe he is a good fellow, but seemingly not as conservative or as reflective a fellow as I would like. However, I've been around long enough to know that life is never perfect.
I forget where I read it, but somebody noted that John McCain has to burst the Obama bubble before he can be heard in the face of MSM and teeny-bopper Obamamania. How does an aging pol like John McCain say "Hey - this isn't real. This is fluff, BS, and pixie dust" without sounding like Gramps breaking up a kegger? Hillary Clinton tried all that, and nothing seemed to stick because the guy seems so young and cheerfully confident, and such a purveyor of "hope." Try telling an amateur investor that "Hope is not a plan." They get mad when they are told that. Plus having the gatekeeper MSM deep in Obama's underpants makes it all much more difficult. I think we saw this same scenario with Bill Clinton, not so long ago. And with Jimmy Carter, too, if anybody is old enough to remember that. He was going to change politics forever.
Sunday, June 8. 2008
 No slacker left behind. Moonbattery. After all, rewarding effort and achievement is just so Capitalistic.
1000 kg WW2 bomb defused in London. Still ticking? How can that be? Chavez eating some crow. About time. Actor Bob Anderson died. Who? You remember him. I always loved Simenon. Read some of his in French (in school), most in English. I had no idea he was so prolific. Canada signs trade agreement with Colombia. Not the US, though. Since when did "Love thine enemy" mean "Hate thine friend"? And who elects people to love my enemy anyway? Chuck Hagel joins the Blame America First crowd. How John McCain can use the internet Why the electoral college will never go away. The Guardian's position on Islam Britain's Free Speech breakdown. Can I say it again? Brave New World is not a handbook. What could Mark Steyn's punishment look like? h/t, piece at Tiger Serious finger-painting Lots of good posts at Coyote Quoted in a piece at Villainous: The U.S. birth rate is 2.0, just below replacement. We have an increase in population because of immigration. When broken down by ethnicity, the Anglo birth rate is 1.6 (same as France) while the Hispanic birth rate is 2.7. In the U.S., the baby boomers are starting to retire in massive numbers. This will push the "elder dependency" ratio from 19 to 38 over the next 10 to 15 years. This is not as bad as Europe, but still represents the same kind of trend.
Obama: Lightworker. Good grief. Maybe he really is the real Mighty Quinn. Either that, or our reporter is freakin' insane from homoerotomania. To me, he is the teeny-bopper candidate. Hey - the dude is just a Commie Chicago pol who talks like a preacher, for heaven's sake. Maybe reporters just aren't used to hearing preachers. O'Rourke as quoted in a piece at No Left Turns: The problem on the left is, now that Karl Marx has forsaken them, they have no philosophy. Thank goodness. Think what evil creeps liberals would be if their plans to enfeeble the individual, exhaust the economy, impede the rule of law, and cripple national defense were guided by a coherent ideology instead of smug ignorance.
Obama maps a 57 50-state campaign. They have the money and the volunteers to do it. Related: Phony ops build the Obama Myth. Related, from Big Lizards: Barack Obama, giving commencement speeches, sneers at graduates whose vision is to own their home or business. Instead he exhorts them to do something about global warming or other manufactured crises of the left. “You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should buy,” he said about a week ago, as if this were an ignoble pursuit. He would prefer this: But I hope you don’t. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, though you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all those who helped you get here, though you do have that debt. “It’s because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role you’ll play in writing the next great chapter in America’s story.
That interpretation of the promise of America might be a surprise to the people who actually did build the country. You know, those who hitched their wagons to oxen, not ideology. That’s how this country was built. Obama might know that if he had ever actually created a job, instead of attacking those who have.
My "individual salvation depends on collective salvation." Huh? What? Since when? I think I need a vacation to deeply ponder this notion of "collective salvation." Or is the "wagon" I am supposed to hitch onto just the same old IRS?
From Tom Friedman on Israel: From outside, Israel looks as if it’s in turmoil, largely because the entire political leadership seems to be under investigation. But Israel is a weak state with a strong civil society. The economy is exploding from the bottom up. Israel’s currency, the shekel, has appreciated nearly 30 percent against the dollar since the start of 2007. The reason? Israel is a country that is hard-wired to compete in a flat world. It has a population drawn from 100 different countries, speaking 100 different languages, with a business culture that strongly encourages individual imagination and adaptation and where being a nonconformist is the norm. While you were sleeping, Israel has gone from oranges to software, or as they say around here, from Jaffa to Java.
Read the whole thing at the NYT
Saturday, June 7. 2008
How about a vaccine for human flatulence? The Reaper in action, in Afghanistan. Video Bob will be touring in New England in August We need more leaders like Vaclav Havel Is DC's military checkpoint plan unconstitutional? The blooming of red Burgundies Getting Mugabe out. LA Times Israel: Iran attack unavoidable Cashing in on Castro's cashing out. Parliament has little to do anymore. Peak oil vs speculation. Blodget on oil prices
Friday, June 6. 2008
RFK in Palestine. Belmont Anna Quindlen gets the gay marriage issue wrong. Ankle Biting Oregon Health won't pay for cancer drugs, but will pay for doctor-assisted suicide. That is called Pragmatism. NASA is doctoring temps. Ace Some wealthy UBS clients are going to be very sorry. EU to ban ads for performance cars. Lucky Europeans to have such wise and caring rulers. Shut Up and Sing Department: Dylan praises Obama
Thursday, June 5. 2008
 Rick Moran on Hillary. A quote:
I will fight her hammer and tongs over what will be an effort to pass national health insurance regardless of who wins in November and her other schemes. But I will do it with a new found appreciation for her tenacity and a recognition that she is more than just an empty pantsuit.
Obama as King Canute. Never Yet Melted. The guy really does speak messianically (sp?). A quagmire. US Out of DC Now! It's a civil war. John Bolton lights into Obama. Michelle Now that a woman has come within inches of the White House, can we declare feminism obsolete? And with Obama's nomination, can we declare the obsolescence of the old Civil Rights movement? From the peak of the housing bubble, Americans have lost a lot of $. Bubbles create a false sense of wealth. No one has to starve in Africa. It's their rulers. That's why Clinton gave up on Africa. Easily fooled. Obama as Candide? I don't think so. Don't break one of those supposedly greenie fluorescent bulbs. A quote from Nidra Poller, via Scott at Powerline, on the Al Dura Affair: The French media blackout of information about this gigantic media hoax is an indication of the abysmal absence of a vibrant free press here in France. The media sleaze Sarkozy, trash Bush, and protect Charles Enderlin whose reports from Israel perpetuate the tiresome bashing that serves no honest purpose. This zombie French press silence should not be contagious. American mass media broadcast the al Dura image, participated in the dissemination of the hatred it bears. They have not even begun to examine the case, the footage, the sources.
They never checked with Snopes first.
Basic life skills: How to shake hands Random facts: Population of Long Island in NY State: 7.5 million. Population of Iowa: 3 million. More on McCain's speech: Leaves FOX speechless. Shake your tomatoes, and related topics. SISU Once again, global temps take a dive in May What happened to free markets and hard work? Conspiracy. "What happened to Thrift?" WSJ Why we can count on rates going up: Inflation. SDA is a good place to get summaries of the antics of the Steyn Witch Hunt
Wednesday, June 4. 2008
The below came in over the transom (thanks, reader), and our fact checker is on strike this week so you have to take this as it is: 1.) Selma Got Me Born - NOT EXACTLY, your parents felt safe enough to have you in 1961 - Selma had no effect on your birth, as Selma was in 1965. (Google 'Obama Selma' for his full March 4,2007 speech and articles about its various untruths.) 2.) Father Was A Goat Herder - NOT EXACTLY, he was a privileged, well educated youth, who went on to work with the Kenyan Government. 3.) Father Was A Proud Freedom Fighter - NOT EXACTLY, he was part of one of the most corrupt and violent governments Kenya has ever had. 4.) My Family Has Strong Ties To African Freedom - NOT EXACTLY, your cousin Raila Odinga has created mass violence in attempting to overturn a legitimate election in 2007, in Kenya. It is the first widespread violence in decades. The current government is pro-American but Odinga wants to overthrow it and establish Muslim Sharia law. Your half-brother, Abongo Obama, is Odinga's follower. You interrupted your New Hampshire campaigning to speak to Odinga on the phone. Obama's cousin Odinga in Kenya ran for president and tried to get Sharia muslim law in place there. When Odinga lost the elections, his followers have burned Christians' homes and then burned men, women and children alive in a Christian church where they took shelter. Obama SUPPORTED his cousin before the election process here started. Google Obama and Odinga and see what you get. No one wants to know the truth. 5.) My Grandmother Has Always Been A Christian - NOT EXACTLY, she does her daily Salat prayers at 5am according to her own interviews. Not to mention, Christianity wouldn't allow her to have been one of 14 wives to 1 man. 6.) My Name is African Swahili - NOT EXACTLY, your name is Arabic and 'Baraka' (from which Barack came) means 'blessed' in that language. Hussein is also Arabic and so is Obama. Barack Hussein Obama is not half black. If elected, he would be the first Arab-American President, not the first black President. Barack Hussein Obama is 50% Caucasian from his mother's side and 43.75% Arabic and 6.25% African Negro from his father's side. While Barack Hussein Obama's father was from Kenya, his father's family was mainly Arabs. Barack Hussein Obama's father was Arab (his father's birth certificate even states he's Arab, not African Negro). http://www.arcadeathome.com/newsboy.phtml?Barack_ Hussein_Obama_-_Arab-American,_only_6.25%25_African 7.) I Never Practiced Islam - NOT EXACTLY, you practiced it daily at school, where you were registered as a Muslim and kept that faith for 31 years, until your wife made you change, so you could run for office. 4-3-08 Article "Obama was 'quite religious in 8.) My School In Indonesia Was Christian - NOT EXACTLY, you were registered as Muslim there and got in trouble in Koranic Studies for making faces (check your own book). February 28, 2008. Kristoff from the New York Times a year ago: Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it'll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset." This is just one example of what Pamela is talking about when she says "Obama's narrative is being altered, enhanced and manipulated to whitewash troubling facts." 9.) I Was Fluent In Indonesian - NOT EXACTLY, not one teacher says you could speak the language. 10.) Because I Lived In Indonesia, I Have More Foreign Experience - NOT EXACTLY, you were there from the ages of 6 to 10, and couldn't even speak the language. What did you learn, how to study the Koran and watch cartoons. 11.) I Am Stronger On Foreign Affairs - NOT EXACTLY, except for Africa (surprise) and the Middle East (bigger surprise), you have never been anywhere else on the planet and thus have NO experience with our closest allies. Lots more, below. Just "distractions from the critical issues," of course...
Continue reading "More Obama issues that the MSM ignores"
A quote from his Obama's Real Religion: ...what troubles me most is what he said... while campaigning in Oregon: "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK." "That's not leadership," Obama declared. "That's not going to happen." What's not going to happen? Us continuing to drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes at 72 degrees? Or other nations saying OK? We already know, from Obama's comments at a private meeting with big-pocket donors in San Francisco, that he's an elitist who sneers at the common people who cling to religion and guns because they're bitter about job losses twenty years ago. But what this statement reveals is that Obama's real religion has nothing to do with Reverend Wright. Obama is a true believer in the religion of Environmentalism.
Well, I don't know. You never know whether pols believe in anything or not - except in their own advancement. In any event, he is, at the least, pretending to drink the Kool-Aid. Or will they ban Kool-Aid, and make us all drink organic Chardonnay?
Ghana more advanced than the US. Ghana opts for nuclear energy. Is Todd Purdam a "scumbag"? Bruce Kesler says no. Pickled. Red wine slows aging. McCain launches his campaign with an excellent speech, poorly, uninspiringly and stumblingly-delivered. He cannot compete with Obama in flash, but he's got to do better than this. The WSJ asks "Who is Obama?" The young Senator has been a supernova exploding into our politics, more phenomenon than conventional candidate. His achievement in winning the Democratic nomination has been impressive. Now comes a harder audience. The presidency has to be earned, and Americans have a right to know much more about the gifted man who is the least tested and experienced major party nominee in modern times.
AVI asks: "Do you really want to help the poor and the developing nations of the world, or do you just want to do those things that feel good?" He alerts us to The Copenhagen Consensus on the world's top 30 problems. "Climate" comes in 30th. Quote from the above piece in Reason: At number 30, the lowest priority is a proposal to mitigate man-made global warming by cutting the emissions of greenhouse gases. This ranking caused some consternation among the European journalists at the press conference. Nobelist and University of Maryland economist Thomas Schelling noted that part of the reason for the low ranking is that spending $75 billion on cutting greenhouses gases would achieve almost nothing. In fact, the climate change analysis presented to the panel found that spending $800 billion until 2100 would yield just $685 billion in climate change benefits.
Betsy on Dem populism, which, as we have often noted here, is negative as it is designed to inspire childish feelings of helplessness and grievance - and the delusion that government can offer you a life make-over. She quotes Mrs. Obama: Obama begins with a broad assessment of life in America in 2008, and life is not good: we’re a divided country, we’re a country that is “just downright mean,” we are “guided by fear,” we’re a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents. “We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day,” she said, as heads bobbed in the pews. “Folks are just jammed up, and it’s gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, I’m young. Forty-four!”
From these bleak generalities, Obama moves into specific complaints. Used to be, she will say, that you could count on a decent education in the neighborhood. But now there are all these charter schools and magnet schools that you have to “finagle” to get into. (Obama herself attended a magnet school, but never mind.) Health care is out of reach (“Let me tell you, don’t get sick in America”), pensions are disappearing, college is too expensive, and even if you can figure out a way to go to college you won’t be able to recoup the cost of the degree in many of the professions for which you needed it in the first place. “You’re looking at a young couple that’s just a few years out of debt,” Obama said. “See, because, we went to those good schools, and we didn’t have trust funds. I’m still waiting for Barack’s trust fund. Especially after I heard that Dick Cheney was s’posed to be a relative or something. Give us something here!” Give us something? Like what? Would the Presidency suffice for your family, Mrs. O?
Tuesday, June 3. 2008
 June 14th is Flag Day. Got your bright shiny new one?
I love our flag, but remain quite fond of the old Gadsden flag.
 Both Andrew Coyne and Ezra Levant are live-blogging the BC kangaroo court today.
How volunteerism became un-American. Pajamas. Only right-wing nuts volunteer for things, of course, such as for the armed forces, etc etc. Emotional trauma: talking about it doesn't help. Well, maybe for some it does, but apparently not for most. Is the UN a haven for pedophiles? Iowa sells votes for ethanol subsidies - that ethanol which ruins our lawn-mower and brush-wacker and chain saw engines. Now swing state Florida has its own plan to extract our money from pandering pols. Disgusting. The Death and Life of Bushwick, Brooklyn. Malanga at City Journal. Fascinating. It's partly the story of government policies gone wrong - as usual. One quote: As race riots ripped apart other cities, including Detroit and Newark, unscrupulous real-estate agents and speculators tried to frighten white Bushwick residents—a practice known as “blockbusting.” Homeowners would find ominous messages in their mailÂboxes—“Don’t wait until it’s too late!”—as well as encouraging ones: “Houses wanted, cash waiting.” In a massive scandal reminiscent of today’s subprime-mortgage meltdown, speculators bought homes from Bushwick residents for an average of $8,000 apiece, and then, using fraudulent appraisals and a Great Society federal mortgage program that insured home loans to low-income buyers, sold them to poor blacks and Puerto Ricans at prices that they couldn’t afford— on average, about $20,000 per home. Many defaulted, abandoning their homes and massively depressing local property values. By 1972, in one city estimate, some 500 Bushwick buildings stood empty because of the bad loans; others, not part of the federal program, also emptied as housing prices plummeted and buyers balked at investing in the neighborhood.
Obama say's he'll remove the wage ceiling for Social Security taxes (without increasing benefits). What states' workers get hit hardest? I read the WaPo Sunday editorial about winning the war in Iraq, but I just noticed the last line: "Now he (Obama) needs a plan for success." Don't count on it: the Left has much invested in American weakness and failure. Glenn says: THOUGHTS ON BIGOTRY AND DESTINY from Eric Scheie. All I know is that if Obama isn't President, it'll be because of racism. And if Hillary isn't President, it'll be because of sexism. And if either one somehow does manage to get elected in spite of all the bigotry, that will nonetheless be a sign that the federal government needs to redouble its efforts to extirpate whatever bigotry is still out there.
Related to above: Dem Party "tolerant and inclusive no more" Obama's Marxist political ties
From our friend Ed Driscoll. Good stuff. If this is interrupted for some reason, go to Driscoll's site.
The Iraqi Army is finally dealing with the reality of Iran's proxy war in Iraq.
Monday, June 2. 2008
Good grief: Senate votes to begin global warming debate. I have a much better idea for those guys and gals: Begin your summer vacations now. Leave Washington. Enjoy America - it's really a nice place full of tons of good people, even if it is a bit warm in the summertime.
 Conservatives: More generous, and now more honest, too. What does all that mean?
For liberals, soldiers are victims. Am Thinker. Not to me. To me, it's a remarkable service to me, my family, and my country. More on Bishop Michael Azir-Ali, at Sisu. In the UK these days, maybe you have to be named Azir-Ali to speak the unvarnished truth. Want to be rich? Don't get too happy. More on how Sarkozy lost France. WSJ. What a pity. A master blog post: "Barack Obama's Song of Himself," by Scott Mirengoff. READ IT. How Obama won the nomination, and why it feels hollow An Aussie stands up for America. Tiger. I'd like to hear more of that from Americans. A longer solar cycle. Cooler years ahead. No recession in Iowa. As we have said, the only recession is on Wall Street. Mr. Free Market says: I have to say that it is to Britannia’s credit that we take it upon ourselves to import so many people that are unskilled, don’t share our traditions & values or even speak our language … just so that we can give them huge amounts of the taxpayers money. It makes me proud to be British.
Happiness, for only $2.50. Help you make friends, too. Pin-up on loan from friend Theo's collection of fine art.
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