We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Related: Aromatherapy too? Reid Health Bill Has Hidden Perks for Chiropractors. I was always told they were quacks, but I hear they can do a good massage.
Negotiation is not a policy. It is a technique. It is a way of achieving our objectives. It doesn’t tell us what the objectives are. The emphasis on negotiation as an end in itself reflects a shallowness in this administration’s approach to international affairs, and gives us little confidence that our interests will be well served.
Among numerous problems, I think the biggest problem with the Dem medical care bill is that there is no national consensus for this.
It is unwise to do things this large without a national consensus, but the Left is intoxicated with their (temporary, cocaine-like) power. With Medicare - for better or worse - there was a consensus. With Medicaid for the very poor, there was too. As it stands now, the Dems are proposing a solution without a problem. Or, a government solution seeking a problem...
It's a manufactured "crisis." There are easy, simple, cheap, non-governmental solutions to medical insurance unfairnesses which do not increase Federal power. (Yes, we have already noted that Federal employees are the only ones exempt from the bill.)
Cui bono?
Well, the Dems think they will benefit with their names on an historic take-over of 1/6th of the American economy by being rewarded with the gratitude and eternal dependency of the voters. Secondarily, the government will benefit by accruing more money and bureaucracies (111 of them by the last count I read, for our enjoyment) - which means jobs to distribute and more power over our lives. Third, unions will benefit - or so they believe. (Just wait until your doc is a de facto government employee treating you the cost-benefit-analyzed-by-experts government way - and his or her nurse is a member of SEIU.)
The 81% of Americans who are satisfied with their medical care will not. Nor will those increasingly-few who actually pay the Federal income and capital gains taxes to pay the bills.
Today we vote whether to even discuss one of the greatest issues of our generation - indeed, one of the greatest issues this body has ever faced: whether this nation will finally guarantee its people the right to live free from the fear of illness and death, which can be prevented by decent health care for all.
Yes, we already knew that Government is the Church for the Left.It ain't my religion. And I don't want to work on Maggie's Farm No More.
Eighty One percent say the quality of their own, personal health care is Good or Excellent. No wonder there is no popular support for the Dems' plans to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Who wants their doc working for the government? I want them working for me.
Related: SF bookstores refuse to carry Palin's "gross" book. OK, I'll say it: They are weird in SF, but don't know it. It is the Alaskans who are normal.
Bad news for the O: Polls dropping like a rock. All Presidents fall below 50%, he notes. People are fickle, and invest too much in Presidents. It's because they do not trust themselves to be the President of their own lives.
In the primaries, Obama distinguished himself from Clinton on health care by opposing an individual mandate. In the general election, he distinguished himself from McCain by opposing taxes on health benefits. So now he is trying to pass bills with both an individual mandate and taxes on health benefits—and his supporters are saying that Congress should go along because he won the election.
Photo: That is my Christmas Mincemeat, ready now for the brandy and aging. The venison in it provided by my bow-hunting buddy.Too bad our smellovision isn't working today.Allspice, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, cider, vinegar, molasses, apples, raisins, currants, cranberry, meat.
More than 150 Christian leaders, most of them conservative evangelicals and
traditionalist Roman Catholics, issued a joint declaration reaffirming their
opposition to abortion and gay marriage and pledging to protect religious
freedoms.
The 4,700-word document, called "The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of
Christian Conscience," was unveiled one day before the Senate is expected to
consider it's sweeping health care bill that includes a measure permitting
abortion funding.
The Moonbats want to get rid of "Fighting Sioux." The Indians want it kept. How does "The Fighting Sue" sound instead? Or "The Pacifist Sue"? Beat us, please.
The bill will nationalize the nation’s health care industry, increase costs, ration care, tax cosmetic surgery, cut Medicare, charge a monthly abortion fee, and take away your freedom.
Please take time tomorrow and Saturday to call your US Senator.
According to a recent paper by Drs. June and Dave O'Neill of Baruch College, the City University of New York, two national studies--the National Health Interview Survey and the Current Population Survey--put the number of folks who don't have health insurance because they can't afford it at 21.6 million. That's almost exactly the number that Dr. Reid's big spending plan would leave uninsured.
After spending $848 billion, of course.
Maybe it won't insure anybody, but it will achieve control of us. That's the point.
Next on the Dem agenda: Legalizing illegals. Pete DuPont says Congress is hard of hearing, but they are not. They have a small window of opportunity to ram through their wish list before they are voted out next November. These are not issues that there is a national consensus about. Bad politics, bad news, bad everything.
Seven trees? Isn't the hockey stick graph dead already?
How times have changed. The CA students once protested for free speech. Now they protest about Gimme gimme. What pathetic, whining, entitled children this country has raised. Yes, I worked my way through UMass, and I am the better man for it. The young benefit from challenges. I did.
...the history of humanity is a history of social networking all the same, according to Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler, authors of Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. “Our connections affect every aspect of our daily lives,” they write.
Some Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee were taken aback Wednesday by Attorney General Eric Holder's refusal to reveal conflicts of interest involving Justice Department lawyers who, before joining the Obama administration, worked on behalf of Guatanamo detainees.
Sarah seems to be a subject of great fascination. She was charming, smart, and funny on Hannity last night. Yes, her political points were shallow - but more substantial than "hopey-changey," and she has had more experience than he had - both in life and in government.
Here's her book tour schedule. Alas, nothing in New England. She should go to Boston.
The AP supposedly hired 11 fact-checkers to discredit Ms. Palin’s memoir (Did Fox News hire 11 to question the very questionable things found in the two Obama memoirs?)
(I wondered, as did Jammy, whether the AP will assign as many to studying the details of he health care bill: "Considering the AP assigned 11 "fact-checkers" to pore over Sarah Palin's 415-page book, I figure they'll assign a proportional amount to this, right? That would be 55 of them, assuming they're interested.")
If you believe, as I do, that the GOP once again needs to become the “party of ideas” — as it did under Ronald Reagan — then Palin is not the solution to what ails it. At this stage, based on the interviews I have seen with her, she doesn’t seem able to articulate the case for conservatism in a manner that is compelling or even particularly persuasive. She is nothing like, to take three individuals I would hold up as public models, Margaret Thatcher, William Bennett, and Antonin Scalia — people brimming with ideas, knowledgeable and formidable, intellectually well-grounded, and impossible to dismiss.
True, but those folks are not American politicians -
Finally, a word from our commenter MM on our Palin-mania post yesterday:
Sarah is doing a lot of things right. Holding true to her principles in spite of the ugly backbiting of the liberal media, remaining a faithful wife to Todd and a good mother to their children -- these are admirable things. Since I come from 'flyover country' myself, I have learned to discount what the limousine liberals have to say about most things and people. They view the world through a skewed lens of anger and resentment. But I still haven't figured out why they reveal their worst and ugliest selves whenever Sarah Palin is mentioned or comes on the scene. As a New England based commenter said on Neptunus lex the other evening, by all rights, by all they say they believe in, feminists ought to love her. She got her college degree, she married her high school sweetheart, she has five children, and she has been a successful governor of the largest state in the Union, and got a more than 60% approval rating from her constituents..
What's not to like? Of course, she has had more real world experience in managing effectively a large complex enterprise, meeting payrolls, and solving problems by concentrated effort. But what's so bad about that? Ohh, right. I forgot. Our present President hasn't done any of that. No governing ... no meeting payrolls ... no solving difficult diplomatic problems.
I guess you just have to hate a woman [or a man] who can do all of the above, successfully.
Or maybe it's just because she's beautiful. And her husband adores her. And encourages her in her achievements. Yeah ... that's probably it.
‘I love the tea party movement,’ she said. ‘It’s beautiful, it’s healthy. It’s part of that good healthy competition that’s needed in a political party.’ She contrasted the somewhat tumultuous state of the GOP to what’s going on in the Democratic party today. ‘It seems like the Democratic party is filled with more sheep-like individuals, who go along and get along,’ she said.”
The health-care mess grows worse: The Chinese have caught on that Obama wants to borrow more billions for us, who are cash
poor, to create entitlements that they, who are cash rich, would not
create for their own people. The new government suggestion that women
not begin receiving routine mammograms until age 50 comes at a bad
time, given that critics of Obamacare have been arguing that it will
lead to rationing of service.
Americans who are troubled by the decision to send alleged Sept. 11
mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to New York for trial will feel
better about it when he's put to death, President Barack Obama said
Tuesday.
She's a pheenom. She's a non-elite, non-Hollywood celeb. She is beautiful, fertile, and athletic. Her hard-working, macho hubbie supports whatever she wants to do. The MSM hates her.
She's a yokel with common sense. Like Truman, Lincoln, and Andrew Jackson.
Even if you do not want her to be President, it is difficult not to like her.
...the majority of our representatives may congratulate themselves on reducing the number of uninsured, while quietly understanding this can only be the first step of a multiyear process to more drastically change the organization and funding of health care in America. I have met many people for whom this strategy is conscious and explicit.
We should not be making public policy in such a crucial area by keeping the electorate ignorant of the actual road ahead.
What is the goal of the so-called conservative Democrats? We can infer from Charlie that it is merely to escape the wrath of the voters back home.
Pelosi & Emanuel allow a carefully deduced number of Democratic Members from conservative districts to be untouched because, you see, that serves their ultimate goal — pass a suicidal healthcare bill as they earlier passed a job-killing cap & trade bill out of the House.
A propos our earlier post today about Immune from Logic, here's what they are doing in the UK: Health and safety snoops to enter family homes. Why people would put up with that is beyond me. Oh, I forgot. It's for the Greater Good. Meaning the good of the government.
It makes sense, however, in a sick sort of way: who pays the piper calls the tune. The more government controls the funding of medical care, the sooner they control what we do in our lives. Thus we get to things like this: A cost-benefit analysis of abortion vs. live birth.
Abortions are cheaper, of course. As Chicago Boyz says,
It’s as if we in the U.S. are moving toward a system where just about anything
can be justified because some government official says that it should
be so. It’s all for the greater good, right? What are pesky little
things like individuals and predictable rules in the face of all that
wonderful greater goodness?
In addition to his nonprofit advocacy, Gore is a partner in a venture capital firm that finances "sustainable" and alternative energy businesses, prompting some critics to accuse Gore of promoting environmental policies that will fatten his bank account.
"Cap & Tax — Don't Be Fooled: Al Gore Will Make billions," read a sign carried by Alan Tudor, who drove from Tampa to attend Saturday's protest.
"Gore's Favorite Green Product? Your money in his pocket," said another sign.
On the other hand, it has often been pointed out lately that you catch the most flak when you are over the target. Via Riehl:
Amazingly, but not surprisingly, the AP somehow nabbed a copy of the
book before it was released. They're now erroneously reporting on the
book's contents and are repeating many of the same things they spewed
during the campaign and afterwards. We've heard 11 writers are engaged
in this opposition research, er, "fact checking" research! Imagine that
– 11 AP reporters dedicating time and resources to tearing up the book,
instead of using the time and resources to "fact check" what's going on
with Sheik Mohammed's trial, Pelosi's health care takeover costs, Hasan's associations, etc. Amazing.
Two prominent blogs raise the question of whether President Obama is an “idiot.”
John Hinderaker at PowerLine wonders, “One seriously hesitates to draw the conclusion that Barack Obama is an idiot, no matter how strongly the evidence may point in that direction. But what are we to make of a man who is ignorant of history; who is ignorant of economics; who despises his own country; and who appears to believe that awareness of his own wonderfulness is enough to guide him? Has such a fool ever played a leading role on the world stage? I think it is fair to say, no: not until now.”
At HotAir, Allahpundit’s headline is, “Japan expert to ABC: Yes, Obama’s bow made him look like an idiot.”The post continues: “So much of an idiot, in fact, that according to Tapper’s source, at least one Japanese paper isn’t running the photo out of embarrassment. This tool actually groveled himself into a minor international incident.”Then, adds: “And yet, having said that, I’m not convinced that the “groveling” explanation for the bow is necessarily the correct one. For one thing, his protocol office is famously run by imbeciles. They may very well have simply given him bum advice: 'Be sure to hunch way the hell over and stare at the ground. They all do it that way.' ”Though, they don’t all do it that way.Jim Hoft, at GatewayPundit, brings us the video, “47 World Leaders – 46 Handshakes – 1 Bow.”
One could make a verrrry long list of President Obama’s ignorant statements and actions, and outright lies, apparently believing the MSM will continue to cover for and excuse him and the American people will continue to believe him. But, does that make him an “idiot”?
In strict definition, “idiot” is an outmoded term for someone so mentally retarded that their mental development is less than a 3-year old’s, with an IQ of 25 or less, but connotes an “uneducated, ignorant, ill-informed person.”In more common usage, Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “idiot” as “a foolish or stupid person.”
So, this jury holds that, yes, President Obama is an idiot, “a foolish or stupid person” who believes the American people are “uneducated, ignorant, ill-informed” idiots who can be gulled to believe in dangerous foolishness by he and his excusers.
The education provided by President Obama, along with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, in their versions of liberal fixes to our health care, economy, and foreign policies has been a boon to Americans, as polls demonstrate, who are now well-informed about the idiocy of Obama-Reid-Pelosi and their apologists. More and more of the Americans who voted for Obama may have been "foolish and stupid", but are no longer. President Obama is, still, an idiot. A very dangerous one.
P.S.: A professor friend at a leading university, who is learned in exegesis, just emailed me: "It's the kind of idiocy that only great arrogance and hubris can produce." So, maybe the strict definition, above, does apply to President Obama, acting like "less than a 3-year old"!
That's a question She Who Must Be Obeyed asked me. Well, here's one.
I do not think it's an issue that lots of people are fired up about. The chanting part is amusing. "Communism" - "Now!" Also, "What do we want?" - "Free stuff." "When do we want it?" - "Now!"
"We're not going to solve the economic problems until we get rid of people like Chris Dodd. As long as Dodd is in there writing regulation, the economy is never going to recover, and more and more people are going to lose their jobs"
Whither government in America, ask the people? How much should we allow it to do for us without losing something essential that makes us who we are? Are we really all that different of a people from everyone else on the planet? Is there an identifiable “American character” that sets us apart?
Our ancestors certainly thought so. Alexis de Tocqueville agreed. Indeed, it may be out of fashion to talk about the basis of our Constitution, but if we ever forget the idea that all power flows from the consent of the governed and not the other way around, we are doomed to suffer a significant loss of personal freedom simply because government can do pretty much whatever it chooses to do unless the people withhold their consent. There hasn’t been a lot of that these last 40 years and government’s ravenous appetite to do what all governments, once created, and regardless of who is in charge, seek to do - control - has gotten out of hand.
This despite the best of intentions of government’s major cheerleaders, and their belief that society can be perfected with the application of the principles of social science; seek out root causes of society’s problems and address them.
Over the last year the Congress and Administration have:
- Printed trillions of dollars of new money, raising the risk of future inflation
- Borrowed trillions of dollars, sucking capital out of private lending markets
- Run up deficits that pretty much guarantee future tax increases
- Toyed with health care bills that will substantially increase the cost of labor
- Toyed with climate bills that will substantially increase the cost of fuel and electricity
- Demagogued industries with average to below-average profitability
for making obscene profits that must be reduced (e.g. health insurance
companies who make 3-4% of sales)
- Taken over whole industries (autos, banks) and run them to the
benefit of favored political constituencies, even when it violates the
law (e.g. trashing for secured creditors of auto companies in favor of
the UAW).
- Demonstrated a disdain for money-making by imposing populist
compensation limits on executives of out-of-favor companies and
industries.
- Spent money in the stimulus mainly to add government jobs, every
one of which is generally focused on making my life running a business
harder. If you do not understand or believe this, you have not run a
business that employs people.
- Shown a general philosophic hostility towards markets and capitalism
Among numerous problems, I think the biggest problem with the Dem medical care bill is that there is no national consensus for this. 
Eighty One percent 
The social psychology 
Sarah seems to be a subject of great fascination. She was charming, smart, and funny on Hannity last night. Yes, her political points were shallow - but more substantial than "hopey-changey," and she has had more experience than he had - both in life and in government.
Hard words from VDH: 
She's a pheenom. She's a non-elite, non-Hollywood celeb. She is beautiful, fertile, and athletic. Her hard-working, macho hubbie supports whatever she wants to do. The MSM hates her. 
Non-elites: 
Global warming: 