Maggie's Farm

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.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Doc's Computin' Tips: The Snipping Tool
Woodstock, CT, #1
Feminism and Femininity
German Idiot Fits In Hollywood
Equal Justice for All: Socialize Legal Care Now to Solve the Crisis!
Veterans Day: “Before You Go”
A matter of definition - The Fort Hood reporting
Abortion, Money, and Freedom
Euroland vs. America
Start-Up Nation
The AMA rebels, plus the "deep swimmers of the Left"
Lesson of the Berlin Wall, Still Relevant
Subsidized suburbanization and sprawl
"I wish that I were..."
Happy Guy Fawkes Day
AP Screws The Pooch On Kennedy, Vietnam & Afghanistan
Prayer is another insanity in ObamaCare
The villeins and the ploughmen: What Cap & Trade and Government Health Care have in common
Insurance freedom
In Defense of Health Insurance Agents, and You

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Friday, November 20. 2009

Friday links


Toon via Lucianne.


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.


Somebody read Sarah Palin's book


Via Gateway on the weekend healthcare voting:



Senate Dems Will Only Deliberate 10 Hours Before Vote to Nationalize Health Care


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.

It only will take a minute.

** HERE IS THE PHONE LIST.

Don’t let the democrats destroy our health care system.


Support for this disastrous bill is down to 40% with 52% opposing.



At Am Thinker:



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.


Pethokoukis does the odds on the heath care takeover.



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?


Will Osama need to be read his Miranda rights? Before some SEAL shoots him?


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.


Big, Bigger, Biggest: Three Examples of Government-Induced Failure






Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 08:00 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)
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Thursday, November 19. 2009

Thursday mid-day links


The social psychology of subways 


The importance of social networking in life:



...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.



Men often treat their friends better than women do.
Duh. h/t, Retriever


The '09 rally vs the '82 rally. I think the '09 rally is full of hopey.


Check the net for your stolen ID


Voters say what we say: To Create Jobs, Voters Say Cut Taxes and Stop Spending


Hewitt: In A Sane World, This Report Would Kill Obamacare.


Related: Harry Reid has a health care tax increase for you. Of course he does.


Some scientists puzzled: Why doesn't nature fit our computer models? Mother Nature defies your human models, sillies.


Jerry Brown and ACORN


Circling Sharks Smell American Blood


Neoneo: The liberal meme de jour: those cowardly conservatives, afraid of the US criminal justice system


Vanderleun's book: Let It Bleed


Did Holder stiff Senate on Justice Dept. lawyers who defended jihadis?



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.



This is cute, BL:







Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 13:56 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)
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Wednesday, November 18. 2009

Weds. morning links

Non-elites: Joe and Carrie


Report: FOX is fair



Top Ten Reasons Black America Fears Rush Limbaugh


Kossers are angry old white men?


Is Obama planning a $3 trillion income tax increase?


Barone: A Jacksonian sweep?


China questions costs of U.S. healthcare reform. They own us now, don't they?


Al Gore, Ignoramus


Little Benefit Seen, So Far, in Electronic Patient Records


From the Dean of the Harvard Med School:


...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.

McArdle: Deciphering The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Report


Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:55 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)
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Tuesday, November 17. 2009

Tuesday morning links

"Green fuel" destroying the rain forest


Catholics Organize Against Annual Church Drive to Fund ACORN Groups


Engineering degrees on the upswing


How the Dems got health bill thru the House:


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.



The case against the Stupak amendment. Forbes


The Importance of Being Lieberman


Union protests volunteers


Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 07:23 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
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Monday, November 16. 2009

Monday morning links

Global warming: World leaders agree to hold off agreement. Related: Al Gore begins attracting protesters:



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.



Related: Rasmussen polls on climate hysteria and energy policy. The rationalists are winning the debate.


Is Deval Patrick an Obama leading indicator?


The bow: Japanese call it an embarrassment. I figure if "Japanese always bow," then why didn't the Emperor bow to Obama?


State Finance Directors Warn of More Trouble Ahead


New Study Says Costs Rise Under Health Bill


Althouse: Palin is dumb


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.



KSM: A staggering ego, at the center of difficult issues


Res ipsa loquitur: Repubs are just complete a-holes


Again already? The decline of the Left


Wilkinson discusses income inequality: it's all due to the top .5% and not part of a large trend. Thus can stats be abused by politicans.


Soros' closed society. Insty


Columnists Who Blamed Conservative Media for 'Right-Wing' Killings Ignoring Fort Hood. It doesn't fit the narrative of the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy.


Our 'Constitutional Moment' The New York newspaperman says our founding document is especially vital today, in an age of expanding state power.

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 07:00 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)
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Saturday, November 14. 2009

Saturday morning links

CUNY students can't do math. You would think the SAT would have made that clear.


Newt Gingrich: The job-killing president and Congress


Climate change bill to back burner. I think it's dead. Or frozen.


Jesus the Capitalist? I do not think that He spent a lot of time on politics. His agenda had to do with higher matters. I did learn the word eisegesis from the article.


I Really Need To Stop Watching The Main Stream Media Because My Face Will Freeze Like This  h/t, Riehl



England gone mad: Jail time for turning in gun to cops


Thompson: Careful, dear readers. That’s the white heat of insight.


Why Compel Young Adults to Buy Health Insurance They Don't Need and Don't Want?


The Audacity of Extremism:



The Audacity of Obama is a
front, and it's starting to crumble. America's endurance is in our
people, the tens of millions who remember our history -- not the phony
history that the vulgar Marxists are now peddling all over the schools.
The conservative media are beginning to seize the national narrative
again. All we need to do is to tell the truth over and over, every
single chance we get.



Andy McCarthy via Michelle on the notion of giving Khalid Sheik Mohammed a civilian trial:



We are now going to have a trial that never had to happen for
defendants who have no defense. And when defendants have no defense for
their own actions, there is only one thing for their lawyers to do: put
the government on trial in hopes of getting the jury (and the media)
spun up over government errors, abuses and incompetence. That is what
is going to happen in the trial of KSM et al. It will be a soapbox for
al-Qaeda’s case against America. Since that will be their “defense,”
the defendants will demand every bit of information they can get about
interrogations, renditions, secret prisons, undercover operations
targeting Muslims and mosques, etc., and — depending on what judge
catches the case — they are likely to be given a lot of it. The
administration will be able to claim that the judge, not the
administration, is responsible for the exposure of our defense secrets.
And the circus will be played out for all to see — in the middle of the
war. It will provide endless fodder for the transnational Left to press
its case that actions taken in America’s defense are violations of
international law that must be addressed by foreign courts. And the
intelligence bounty will make our enemies more efficient at killing us.



Related, as Dino says,  "As the man said, it really is impossible to caricature this administration." (That's from a cool site which is new to us: Baseball Crank)



Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:22 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)
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Friday, November 13. 2009

Friday morning links

Photos from Cassini (as is this photo)


For history buffs, two books via Theo:



Greek And Roman Artillery, Technical Treaties
E. W. Marsden

And
Greek and Roman Artillery. Historical Development
E. W. Marsden




FBI seizes mosques in NYC


Prayer is ruining me for blogging. Anchoress. Prayer, as I have come to understand it, is a conversation with God. That is indeed more precious than writing.


A harmless moonbat, for once.


Would government medical care cover "perfect vaginas"?


More on SEIU: A civil war


Sullivan is always an easy target. Dithering is good. Not in a battle, Andrew.


Speaking of dithering, here's a Mom who did not dither.


How politically divided is America? Very. Not a bad thing.


Putting the brakes on hysteria. Lowry:




Supporters of Obamacare have their next
target for obloquy and shame. It’s the United States Senate, an
institution whose villainy will almost match that of the insurers and
Fox News if the health-care bill sinks there.

The
anti-senatorial campaign is already revving up. Liberal columnist
Harold Meyerson stamped his feet in frustration yesterday in the Washington Post at the cussed balkiness of the Senate: “Dithering Heights.” “Proceeds glacially and produces next to nothing.”

This amounts to raging at the Senate for its very nature and purpose. It’s supposed
to be slow-paced and unproductive. Everyone has their moments of
frustration at the Senate (I’ve had plenty) because it is designed to
be frustrating, especially when a majority in the House is electric
with ideological excitement. Conservatives spent most of 1995 hurling
epithets at the Senate.

So it’s not surprising that the Left
is upset at it at a time when “Iron Nancy” is using her solid majority
to muscle massive pieces of legislation through the House by a handful
of votes. Why can’t the Senate do the same, goes the
cry, entirely missing the point. It’s not just that the Senate is built
differently from the House: It won’t truly be fulfilling its role in
our constitutional scheme if doesn’t deep-six Obamacare.


Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:39 | Comments (7) | Trackbacks (0)
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Thursday, November 12. 2009

Leer at will - only for UMass students (and faculty)

From a pointed Graham post at NRO, we learn that



UMass (also) has a speech code, by the way (it bans, among other things, "staring or leering"), so figure that one out. 



Leer at will, my Yankee friends, below the fold, and indulge in a little healthy Thoreauvian civil disobedience -


Continue reading "Leer at will - only for UMass students (and faculty)"

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 20:29 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)
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Thursday links, delivered late

What's the SEIU up to, with Stern's 22 visits so far this year to the WH?


Oh no - not another government jobs bill


What the heck is wrong with From Dixie With Love?


The Decider, or The Ditherer?


Hasan's self-serving narrative of victimhood. Related: ABC News: Nidal Hasan & Followers of Islam Are the Real Victims (Video). Unbelievable. I guess those nuts who used to shoot up abortion clinics were the real victims too.


Related, from Dr. Sanity:



The key aspects of this psychobabble include an overemphasis on "self-esteem" at the expense of self-control and personal responsibility; an attitude that practically worships "feelings" at the expense of reason and truth; a fundamental misunderstanding about stress and the role of stress in life (i.e., that "all stress is bad", for example; and failing to appreciate that stress, when it is acknowledged and dealt with in healthy ways can enhance maturity and psychological health); and finally the glorification of victimhood and the celebration of unhealthy narcissism and the narcissists who exhibit it.



How is the idea of other people not paying for your abortions an assault on women's rights?


Employer-Provided Medicine Is Completely Illogical. Yes it is. It was a fluke of history. 


Reid wants to muscle health care through ASAP. Will threats and bribes do the job? Related, via Vanderleun:



Yesterday 4 Deputy US Marshals were detailed to serve an arrest warrant
on Philip Gordon 63 of Carroll County in west Georgia. Mr Gordon
refused to allow the Marshals entrance to his gated property whereupon
the gate was breached using necessary force. During the process Mr
Gordon’s 2 Labrador retrievers charged the federal agents and were
dispatched. Mr Gordon refused to submit to arrest and brandished an
assault rifle accusing the Marshals of trespassing before retreating
into his home. The Marshals summoned backup from the local Carroll
County Sheriff’s office and two of the 6 responding deputies refused to
cooperate in serving the lawful warrant. They were immediately relieved
of duty. Additional backup of federal agents in the Atlanta field
offices of the FBI and BATFE surrounded the Gordon residence. Repeated
demands for Gordon to surrender went unheeded and chemical agents were
introduced into the structure. An hour later an unconscious Gordon was
taken into custody and booked into the Fulton county jail on the
warrant charging refusal to pay the $15,000.00 penalty for failure to
maintain a government approved medical insurance policy. -- Francis W. Porretto Leonidas - Eternity Road




Malaise Polls:



AP called it a "funk." The Pew Research Center describes the mood of the nation as "glum" in its new survey (2,000 Americans, 10/28-11/8, +/- 3%), which offers a significant warning for incumbents in both parties in the 2010 midterms.



Well, it's no wonder, with promises of higher taxes, bigger government, and record-making unemployment in our future.

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 09:51 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)
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"Who are you calling selfish, Kemo Sabe?"

From American Spectator:



...it REALLY REALLY REALLY grates to hear, again, especially on such an occasion, the following rhetorical trope:


"In an age of selfishness, they embody responsibility. In an era of division, they call upon us to come together. In a time of cynicism, they remind us of who we are as Americans."


What era does Obama live in? The America I know, that we all know, in 2009, is not an America that is suffering from an age of selfishness, an era of division, a time of cynicism. Mr. Obama can speak for himself. This is not a land nor an epoch of selfishness and cynicism, and the divisiveness is not extraordinary or even terribly bad -- and it often comes from Obama himself. But somebody should look the president in the eye and say "WHo are you calling selfish and cynical, Kemosabe?" I look around me and see idealism, love of country, generosity. I see the incredible outpouring of church groups and other citizens in aiding the victims of Katrina. I see people volunteering hither and yon for all sorts of good causes. And yes, I even see TEA partiers who are out there of their own free will, at their own expense, trying to defend the freedoms they love for the sake of their children, for the sake of posterity.


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Wednesday, November 11. 2009

More Wednesday links

Are women pickier about men than men about women?


Kelo update: It's a vacant lot


How Muslim piracy changed the world


SISU, a few weeks ago: "It compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies"


Jim Carrey: Self-hating capitalist


Political arrogance:



...at the end of the day, we're the ones who reward them. Unless and until we seek out candidates who share Coolidge's modesty, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves.



Trusting The Government To Take Care Of You: H1N1 Debacle


Why the O doesn't focus on the economy, at Pajamas. One quote:



Obama persuaded many small business people to pull in their horns and make plans to keep a low profile (including laying people off) in order to avoid the wealth confiscation of the populist, socialist, economic storm they saw coming with his election.



Senate Healthcare Bill: Not Until 2011?


Bolton: Foreign policy is "feeble." Feeble on purpose, Ambassador Bolton.


92% of docs want tort reform. People have no idea what it costs for docs to protect themselves from their few litigious patients and the legal piranhas.


Is government health care Constitutional in the US? We posted a bit on the Constitution yesterday.

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David Brooks sees the light. More accurately, sees the darkness.

We did a post on Mad or Bad last week, and I am happy to see David Brooks is willing to see evil, in his The Rush to Therapy:



The conversation in the first few days after the massacre was well intentioned, but it suggested a willful flight from reality. It ignored the fact that the war narrative of the struggle against Islam is the central feature of American foreign policy. It ignored the fact that this narrative can be embraced by a self-radicalizing individual in the U.S. as much as by groups in Tehran, Gaza or Kandahar.


It denied, before the evidence was in, the possibility of evil. It sought to reduce a heinous act to social maladjustment. It wasn’t the reaction of a morally or politically serious nation.



Toon via NYM on the same topic.


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ObamaCare supporter lets the mask slip

Via the WSJ:



Mr. Cassidy is more honest than the politicians whose dishonesty he supports. "The U.S. government is making a costly and open-ended commitment," he writes. "Let's not pretend that it isn't a big deal, or that it will be self-financing, or that it will work out exactly as planned. It won't. What is really unfolding, I suspect, is the scenario that many conservatives feared. The Obama Administration . . . is creating a new entitlement program, which, once established, will be virtually impossible to rescind."


Why are they doing it? Because, according to Mr. Cassidy, ObamaCare serves the twin goals of "making the United States a more equitable country" and furthering the Democrats' "political calculus." In other words, the purpose is to further redistribute income by putting health care further under government control, and in the process making the middle class more dependent on government. As the party of government, Democrats will benefit over the long run.


This explains why Nancy Pelosi is willing to risk the seats of so many Blue Dog Democrats by forcing such an unpopular bill through Congress on a narrow, partisan vote: You have to break a few eggs to make a permanent welfare state.


Speaking of breaking eggs, the Left has historically approved of doing that.


Kaus considers the real "id" politics of health care.


Since the game is now in the Senate, Hewitt offers a list of The Potentially Reasonable Democratic Senators, with addresses, phone numbers, etc


Viking:



I'll just borrow this thought from Mark Steyn on the passage of the health care bill:


If "health care" were about health care, the devil would be in the details. But it's not about health or costs or coverage; it's about getting over the river and burning the bridge. It doesn't matter what form of governmentalized health care gets passed as long as it passes. Once it’s in place, it will be "reformed", endlessly, but it will never be undone.

The history of Social Security and Medicare and damn near every government program follows the same pattern: start small and expand later. When Social Security was started in the mid-1930's, the program collected 1% from your income along with 1% from your employer; these contributions went to fund a program to prevent poverty in old age. Now Social Security collects 6.2% of your income (12.4% for the self-employed) to fund a much healthier and wealthier senior population compared to their Depression-era counterparts.

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Monday, November 9. 2009

Tuesday morning links, posted early


Going Muslim vs. Going Postal. What about Going Medieval and Going Menopausal?


Not a joke: 'Islam not responsible' for Fort Hood massacre: US imam


Related: The O identifies the real extremists. Ace


Related: "Concerned" about the wrong things. Commentary


Related: Fort Hood. Let's drop the PC. Never understood what was so PC about radical Islam anyway,


The good news from Venezuela. The people might be unhappy with Chavez, but the WH is not.


Shrinkwrapped sends a doubtless unread letter to his Congresscritter, including



You have no idea how many unexpected and bad consequences will flow from this bill. 


Explaining Rent-Seeking


Some insurance plans cover abortions? News to me. That's strange. Abortion is a totally elective procedure. Doc, I have a little growth in my uterus. What do "rights" have to do with freebies? I have the right to own guns, but not for the gummint to buy them for me.


The Obama politics of the Berlin Wall. Related in the WSJ: Four Little Words


China's race problem.


Not a reference to Michelle Malkin: Barack on Michelle: “She just seems so bitter, so angry all the time.”


Murdoch wants to get paid for the WSJ. I do not blame him. The product is worth money.


More nuke plants in Britain. Good for them.


Wrong side of what? The march to feudalism? Via NYT:



“This is an opportunity to do something as big as Social Security,” he added. “And me, personally, I don’t want to be on the wrong side of history.”


How is that Social Security working out? And never mind that private insurance is readily available. Tom Sowell asks:



What is so wrong with the current medical system in the United States that we are being urged to rush headlong into a new government system that we are not even supposed to understand, because this legislation is to be rushed through Congress before even the Senators and Representatives have a chance to read it?


Related: The fall of the wall didn't kill the Left. Big Government

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Monday morning links

The contortions people are going through to avoid the obvious reality that Major Hasan was a one-man Jihad are remarkable. Scott at Powerline identified his disorder: PISS. Why do Moslems get a pass on violence? Wizbang: Hasan worshipped with 9-11 hijackers. At Moonbattery, Moslems defend the Major. The world has gone mad.


Related at Jammie: 'It Would Be a Shame If Our Diversity Became a Casualty as Well'. Hmmm. In Brain Dead Country, Horowitz says:



We have a vast internal threat in this country in the form of this unholy alliance between the anti-American Left and radical Islam
– whose Muslim Brotherhood network extends
through our universities
, our government and our military. It is “politically incorrect” to recognize this fact. You can be
barred — as I have been — from speaking at universities for even talking about
it.



Related: Joe Lieberman says it, though:



Mr. Lieberman said that if news reports were true that Mr. Hasan had
turned to Islamic extremism, "the murder of these 13 people was a
terrorist act and, in fact, it was the most-destructive terrorist act
to be committed on American soil since 9/11."



Meanwhile,  Nidal Hasan’s Imam Praises Fort Hood Massacre



Somebody at the Guardian wishes the Berlin Wall were still up. A pathetic soul. I feel sorry for her, in a way. But also creeped out by her.


SEIU is feeling their oats.


Rick Moran with THOUGHTS ON THE PASSAGE OF HEALTH CARE REFORM


Among other garbage in the giant stinking garbage truck that is the Dem bill, there is $200 million for veterinarians. Not Vets - Veterinarians.


Legal immigrant Steyn on health care:



Obama believes in “the fierce urgency of now”, and fierce it is. That’s where all the poor befuddled sober centrists who can’t understand why the Democrats keep passing incoherent 1,200-page bills every week are missing the point. If “health care” were about health care, the devil would be in the details. But it’s not about health or costs or coverage; it’s about getting over the river and burning the bridge. It doesn’t matter what form of governmentalized health care gets passed as long as it passes. Once it’s in place, it will be “reformed”, endlessly, but it will never be undone.


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Sunday, November 8. 2009

The vote

Rahmed/rammed through. House narrowly and unilaterally passes government take-over of American medicine. If the Senate passes anything similar to this, our medical care will be in the hands of Washington politicians and the 111 bureaucracies the plan calls for. Damn scary - and so unnecessary.


In my view, it's like a move backwards to the 1930s. It's a throwback to the old, bloated, freedom-limiting social welfare statism that European nations are struggling to free themselves from today.


Here's Insty:



A NARROW SLIVER:
“One would think such an historic and noble action, as the Democrats
have styled it, would enjoy robust support from the full spectrum of
the House Democratic caucus. But in this case, only those who occupy
safe seats (or think they do) can be corralled. If Pelosi gets her 218
votes, it will be unprecedented. It is fair to say that never will a
piece of legislation this sweeping (and damaging) have been passed over
the opposition of so much of the electorate and on the votes of such a
narrow ideological slice of the governing class.”



Even Canadians must be worried today: they rely on America for their needed medical care.


The Dems who voted Nay did so with Pelosi permission once the votes were secured - to try to save their seats. Clever Dems. The bill contains payoffs, exemptions, and hand-outs to every Dem interest group that can be imagined, the least of which is that Federal employees including the politicians are exempt from the plan. Plus, of course, no malpractice reform.


Here's Rep. Paul Ryan before the vote:



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Saturday, November 7. 2009

Saturday morning links

The Right Wing Prof offers thanks to all for prayers and support.


This Is Not Your Grandma's Humane Society. Just one more non-profit co-opted by moonbats.


Pelosi: Buy a $15,000 policy or go to jail. They had better begin building more jails - maybe with stimulus money.


AARP's tacit endorsement of Medicare cuts line its pockets, but shortchanges seniors


The O at MIT: “We’ll just have to deal with those people.” I guess he means me. Nice approach to a fellow citizen.


Related: Frustrated in Copenhagen. Good. Those people are nuts. Al Gore Himself already said that CO2 isn't the main problem.


This is crazy, isn't it?



The Headline of the Day, from the BBC:



Shooting Raises Fears For Muslims In US Army


Really? Right now the body count stands at:


Non-Muslims 13
Muslims 0


Obama cedes the center. RCP


The truth leaks out on health care. Powerline. Not only do the Dems want to cover abortions - a truly elective procedure - they want to cover sex change operations. On my nickel? Of course, boob jobs would be fine with me...


Insty:



ROBERT REICH: Forget healthcare, focus on employment. “Obama’s focus on health care rather than jobs, when the economy is still so fragile and unemployment moving toward double digits, could make it appear that the administration has its priorities confused. While affordable health care is critically important to Americans, making a living is more urgent. Yet the administration’s efforts to date on this more basic concern have been neither particularly visible nor coherent.”


Problem is, the only way to make jobs would be to cut taxes and spending.


Bad: Obama's Frightening Insensitivity Following Shooting. A bad week for Democrats compounded by an awful moment for Barack Obama.


Via Viking: Yeah...we know - Real Clear Markets: "Why middle class tax hikes are coming"


From the Krautman:



November ’08 was one-shot, one-time, never to be replicated. Nor was November ’09 a realignment. It was a return to the norm — and definitive confirmation that 2008 was one of the great flukes in American political history.


PTSD by Proxy? Plus the video of the Major in a minimart.


Who wants the Gitmo terrorists and Jihadists in the USA? Besides the O?


A short essay on ubermensch myth and politics. Flopping. Related and equally good: No-one saw Barack in the balloon?


"In a fast-breaking development comes word that agents of the Attorney’s General office in Louisiana have raided ACORN’s offices in New Orleans. ACORN’s New Orleans was, for decades, the headquarters of the national community organizing association"


Canadian students march for "good jobs for all." What's a "good job"?


Joblessness:



"This may be the toughest employment situation we've seen in the postwar era," Mark Gertler, an economics professor at New York University, said in an interview earlier this week.


Who would hire a new employee if you don't know how the Dems will screw you? How can you make a business plan?

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Friday, November 6. 2009

Friday morning links


Photo from yesterday's protest in DC


Office gossip. NYT


AVI: The liberals I am most familiar with


Is abortion pro-family?


WSJ: The Madness of Queen Nancy


Guy reinvents the Constitution


Eurocourt Bans Crucifixes in Italy


Related: Europe - a leviathan is born


Are mammograms worthwhile? NYT


Get a clue, O: Iran doesn't like you. But they enjoy toying with you.


Gitmo prisoners don't like the alternative


VDH on the plutocratic Left


Voegli on California vs. Texas


We'll miss Jungle Trader


Census blocked from asking citizenship questions


Stossel:



Reporters who think coercive government control is generally good
and I, who thinks voluntary market forces are generally better, both have a point of view.


So why am I the one called biased?


Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 05:36 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)
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Thursday, November 5. 2009

Thursday morning links, updated

Is this the truth about men?



'All men want is sex and for you to make them a sandwich.'



In that order. And a few cold Coronas, please, with lime. Some gratitude for the masculine attention and some snappy repartee are always welcome too. Don't forget the chips with the sandwich, and please turn on ESPN.




Is this true about the O?



But he was right the first time about not being ready for the Oval Office. As president, he seems confused and a bit distant on the issues, leaving the details to congressional Democrats and an ever-growing number of “czars” while he golfs and launches attacks at Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.




I hate to say it, but our friend The Englishman eats ripe arse.


Thanksgiving dinner for 8 for $20. WalMart. Plus other great deals there. h/t, Carpe Diem


Global income inequality is down. I guess that's a good thing. Income is good. It provides choices. We want everybody to be as rich as they want to be.


Famous Prof proposes punitive taxes on meat.


Health Care was a loser in Tuesday's elections. It does make me wonder why a new Pres would want to start out with hugely divisive issues  and a combative style instead of with more widely popular issues, more modest steps, and the kind of conciliatory approach he brings to Putin, Chavez, and Iran.


Related: Perhaps part of the problem is that the O is surrounded by partisan campaign hacks instead of by some seasoned statesman-types with perspective and governing experience.


Related: Will the Left try a kamikaze rush?


Eliot Spitzer - morality expert


Kaus: The winners and the losers


No limits: voters in two states reject government limits. Why?


I've heard of Pay to Play, but this Pay to Pray is ridiculous.

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Wednesday, November 4. 2009

Weds. morning links

Claude Levi-Strauss


We are disappointed that Hoffman lost in NY 23. Surprised, too. The "meaning" of these elections will be spun to death. Ace notes that the O managed one big win in Maine.


WSJ: Obama and the Liberal Paradigm. "The sheep are quite capable of looking out for themselves. Someone tell the Democrats."


We sheep would be even more capable if the gummint would leave us alone.


Health Care Bill postponed further. That's good. This bill is antiquated New Deal entitlement: government-heavy baloney. Regressive - not Progressive.


Sen Lieberman on the O:



ANDREW NAPOLITANO, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST:  Is he a Marxist, as Bill Kristol says might be the case in today‘s “New York Times?”


LIEBERMAN:  Well, you know, I must say that‘s a good question.



From Sowell on the costs of medical care:



Britain has had a government-run medical system for more than half a century and it has to import doctors, including some from Third World countries where the medical training may not be the best. In short, reducing doctors' income is not reducing the cost of medical care, it is refusing to pay those costs. Like other ways of refusing to pay costs, it has consequences.



I do not think this is a racial thing. I think it's an effect of urban one-party governmental cultures of corruption. A generation or two ago, it would have been Irish pols - but nobody expected integrity in pols then.


Gays protest against free speech. Good grief.


The Archbishop has a blog? Cool.


Coyote: An ACORN Relief Act


Politico terms it an "uncivil war." I think it's just what parties do to figure out what they are about. It's healthy. Parties should debate and contain conflict.

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Third Party Payers

Powerline: "This video on health care, produced by the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, features Eline van den Broek, founder of the European Independent Institute."


She makes the point that it is third party payments for medical care which have permitted the rise in cost of medical care in the US. I think that is part of the story, but the other part of the story is that our higher costs buy us access, choices, abundance, and quality.


 


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Tuesday, November 3. 2009

Tuesday morning links

More Dem dirty tricks in NJ. The third party guy is splitting the anti-Corzine vote.


Big Con: Gore making millions from "warming" scam, headed for his first billion.


Stanley Black and Decker? Sounds like a slip-and-fall law firm.


59% say country on the wrong track


Our obsolete US Constitution. Am Thinker


Hubris of the incompetent. What's the Dunning-Kruger Effect?


Please conceal your shock


The American: I’ve taken a look at the data, and, I’m sad to report, the Great Recession has badly damaged the entrepreneurial sector of the U.S. economy. Oh yeah? Well wait til the Dems do what they want to do...

Where the white Leftist men live in America. Related: Why are the groovy  "Progressive" cities the white cities? Real, interesting cities are full of everybody. Portland is white bread. I'll take NYC.


How come we never found this blog before? Black and Right. This one goes straight onto Ye Olde Blogroll.


Roy Spencer: AGW is an urban legend


Those taxes on the rich aren't inflation-indexed. We know what that means.


From Ace, the pithily amusing AP: Even If Republicans Win Tomorrow, They Still Suck


Related, from Red State: We hear this all time — conservatives in the GOP have to play nice with the moderates.


The Krautman has it right: those "saved" jobs are all gummint jobs. Plenty of SEIU jobs, I am sure.


Everything - and more - that you might want to know about Nancy Pelosi


Related, in WSJ:



Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reportedly told fellow Democrats that she's prepared to lose seats in 2010 if that's what it takes to pass ObamaCare, and little wonder. The health bill she unwrapped last Thursday, which President Obama hailed as a "critical milestone," may well be the worst piece of post-New Deal legislation ever introduced.


In a rational political world, this 1,990-page runaway train would have been derailed months ago. With spending and debt already at record peacetime levels, the bill creates a new and probably unrepealable middle-class entitlement that is designed to expand over time. Taxes will need to rise precipitously, even as ObamaCare so dramatically expands government control of health care that eventually all medicine will be rationed via politics.



Boeing begins to say Good-bye to Seattle

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Monday, November 2. 2009

Monday morning links

My trick or treaters said Thank you.


Coleman waders 50-60% off


Academic ranking of the world's great universities


"Roots" was a bogus book. Well, a work of fiction - with plagiarism.


Should alimony be forever?


When people get richer, families get smaller. How many dressage horses, ballet lessons, piano lessons, trips to Europe, tuitions, and tutors can a large family afford?


Iowahawk considers Caesar's writings, in view of Landesman's claims. One Quote from Julius:



Back in the day those Gauls had some straightup warrior badasses like Vercingetorix and Ambiorix, but apparently somewhere over the last 2000 years they turned into the biggest bunch of Eurohomos since the Athenians. Yo, you Gauls think Obama is sorry? The Juice is sorry he ever introduced you assholes to public baths.



We like Rep. Michelle Bachman, but the Left hates her as much as they hate Palin. From her bio (my bold):



Congresswoman Bachmann is a graduate of Anoka High School and Winona State University. Bachmann and her husband, Marcus, live in Stillwater where they own a small business mental health care practice that employs 42 people. The Bachmanns have five children, Lucas, Harrison, Elisa, Caroline, and Sophia. In addition, the Bachmanns have opened their home to 23 foster children, which has inspired Congresswoman Bachmann to become one of Congress’ leading advocates for foster and adopted children, earning her bipartisan praise for her efforts.



Repubs try to protect us from Cap & Trade nonsense


Now it's time to worry about what the Dems are doing to Death Taxes


Chavez cannot bring power to the people


Byron York: It's OK to criticize the O now


Natural Food Fight: Obamacare vs. Mackeycare. On the video, the white Lefty essentially terms the happy black female Whole Foods employee "ignorant"


Bribing the voters of New Jersey: How Democrats like Corzine survive


Biofuels will destroy the planet


Dede, and the Gingrich view vs. the Limbaugh view. Uh oh, she endorsed the Dem. This is strange.


Who is Ted Cruz?


The Aussies beat the US in per capita carbon. Good on 'em. I think they beat us on per capita beer too.


Obamacare vs. the Hippocratic Oath


The other side of the Scozzafava case: RWNH


WSJ:



...at this point, Democrats have dumped any pretense of genuine bipartisan "reform" and moved into the realm of pure power politics as they race against the unpopularity of their own agenda. The goal is to ram through whatever income-redistribution scheme they can claim to be "universal coverage." The result will be destructive on every level—for the health-care system, for the country's fiscal condition, and ultimately for American freedom and prosperity.



How did government insurance mandates work out in Massachusetts?


Via Driscoll:



...Nancy Pelosi has taken the Peter Principle to its logical conclusion — “She’s combined the most unpopular Democratic and Republican proposals of the last generation in one piece of legislation”



Big Lizards offers a reform plan everybody would probably support


Rush:


“This is not about insuring the uninsured, this is not about health care, this is about stealing one sixth of the private sector and putting it under the control of the Federal government, and when they get this health care bill, it they do, that’s the easiest fastest way for them to be able to regulate every aspect of human behavior.


“Because it will all have some related costs to health care, what you drive, what you eat, where you live, what you do, there will be penalties for violating regulations, it’s gonna be the biggest snatch of freedom and liberty that has yet occurred in this country.”


 

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Sunday, November 1. 2009

Ask what your country can do for you?

At National Journal, A Reaganite or Jacksonian wave?


I think it's time for a JFK wave. Things have changed: he would be a pretty good Republican candidate today. His murder by a Lefty-loser-Commie-Cuba-sympathizer set in motion a generation or so of bad things from which we continue to experience the repercussions.

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Saturday, October 31. 2009

Halloween Links Guaranteed to Frighten You


Photo is Saul Alinsky. His ghost walks. Boo!


Thomas Sowell's Dismantling America, Part 1 and Part 2


Soros and Gore among WH visitors, but Andrew Stern of the SEIU was the most frequent, chalking up 20 visits.


Coyote on the Dem tax/health bill:



The implications for my business are staggering.  I have already mentioned in the previous post that it imposes an 8% tax on wages on my business — a business where 50% of revenues go to wages and margins are in the 6-7% range.  You do the math.



Via Gateway:



Rick sent this on the Pelosi Health Care Bill pages 1219-1246–



Just these 27 pages are enough to see what this bill is all about. I bet you will agree. PLEASE take time to read these 27 pages. Anyone who reads these pages and still says this bill isn’t about the government takeover of health care is either a fool or a liar. It’s just that simple.




The high cost of Aromatherapy: Premiums to Skyrocket Under Obamacare


‘Jobs Created or Saved’ Is White House Fantasy


Washington culture of corruption proceeds on course. Actually, dozens.


Re Henninger's piece which we linked:



Daniel Henninger writes a biting and inspired column today in the WSJ.  Oh, the irony!  Democrats caught hopelessly in the out-moded and tired ways of the past?  In an age of iPhone apps and de-centralizing trends, Dems are pushing a miserable model of government that should have been left in the 1930s where it originated.  Obama rides on a false reputation as a hipster.  He's actually a crusty throw-back.  As Henninger puts it, it appears irrefutable.  



New Jersey plans vote fraud


Via our Irish friends re the US economy:



Ah well, the economy's getting worse then. Debt spending is not economic growth. Printing fake money does not create wealth no matter how many trillions you order up. The idea that GDP growth on the back of the Fed's printing press means a growing economy is the boneheaded thinking that got the US into this position in the first place. In fact the economy is in an even worse state now than when the recession hit; Americans have been saddled with a debt they cannot ever repay, unemployment is around twenty percent, the Dollar is sinking, inflation has gone orbital and prices will follow when the banks flood the markets. The fundamentals are not only still chronic, they're getting worse.



Cash for clunkers has screwed the used-car buyer. Well, that was predictable. Who got screwed? The taxpayer


Casinos in Ohio? Governments are money addicts.


How is that bending-over approach working with Iran?


Hockey stick returns to climate textbooks. Related: Al Gore still addicted to nonexistent hurricane-climate link in new book


Related: Gore says 220-foot ocean rise in ten years.


The Copenhagen Climate Extortion


Pelosi’s Bill Will Punish States Who Pass Tort Reform.  


Michelle Bachman on Pelosi Health Care Bill: “This Is the Crown Jewel of Socialism”


Masterfleece Theater at RCP:



The word "shall" - as in "must" or "required to" - appears over 3,000 times. The word, alas, is never preceded by the patriotic phrase "mind our own freaking business." Not once.



From Reason's The Unhealthy Public Option:



...the key to the success of this program, writes Cato Institute analyst Michael Cannon, is that "government possesses both the power to hide its true costs (which keeps its premiums artificially low) and to impose costs on its competitors (which unnecessarily pushes private insurance premiums higher)." Private insurers will be "competing" against a team that gets to write the rules, run the draft and hire the referees.


With those artificial advantages, the public option could eventually become the only option. If that happens, a lot of Americans will be surprised. But I suspect Harry Reid and Barack Obama will not be among them.





Mark Helprin: Obama and the Politics of Concession - Iran and Russia put Obama to the test last week, and he blinked twice. 

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:00 | Comments (9) | Trackbacks (0)
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Friday, October 30. 2009

Friday morning links

Do Dodd or Frank care why TARP failed? Washington Examiner


Government Takeovers: Is Charity Next? (h/t, Riehl)


As the GDP shows some growth, Democrats are now admitting that they like their miserable POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) economy.


It's getting old: Intertubes turn 40


AG tries to shut down school voucher ad. Screw the kids. This is union payback.


How Putin is Separating America from Europe


The mess the Dems are creating with health care. From Robb at RCP:



...the change in incentives in the Democratic reform will turn the entire health care market topsy-turvy. Politically, this could be disastrous.


A very large number of people will have to change their health care coverage regardless of whether they want to. That's a hassle to begin with. The combination of a weak individual mandate, guaranteed issue and a public option will mean declining private sector options and a large increase in the number of people on some form of government health care.


Every health care provider, even the government, has to say no sometimes. Even Medicare says no. But now, rather than some demonic health insurance company saying no, it will be the government.


Republicans think the Democrats are engaged in a ruse, that they really want a government takeover of health care.


In their heart of hearts, Democrats do believe that health care should be a public good, provided by government irrespective of ability to pay. But I don't think they've purposely set out to achieve that by misdirection.


Instead, I think they honestly don't appreciate how fundamentally they are changing health care incentives and what the huge consequences of such changes will be.


Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:42 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)
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Thursday, October 29. 2009

Trick or treat?

I think it's a trick. So does Dick Morris. Here are some initial details.


Happy Halloween, from your Federal government.

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 18:14 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
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Thursday morning links

WSJ: Doctors on Health-Care Reform 'Government is in the process of duplicating everything that managed care did for the last 15 years that was reviled by everybody.'


Report: Cash for Clunkers was a lemon


George Soros launches a $50 million effort to purge economics of its free-market zeal.


Peeing on the O's photo would show true artistic courage, but it would be equally adolescent.


Well, nowadays, true artistic courage would be to create something that would add grace, nobility, and beauty to the world.


Speaking of "art," desecrating the flag for health care


Chicago Trib endorses Repub health plans


Hitchens dares enter the Christian world, finds it's not scary


Marginal Rev: Mandates don't stay modest. Autism treatments


Via Vanderleun:



"Northwest Nap"


It's the word of the day @ Urban Dictionary - A very deep sleep where you are unable to hear telephones, text messages, and even the Air Force. Named to honor the two fine pilots from Northwest Airlines and their little "in flight snooze."



Gateway:



Pelosicare will force individuals to buy the government insurance, will tax the wealthy, and will result in rationed care and the end of private health insurance industry.
It’s a socialist’s dream.


Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:51 | Comments (16) | Trackbacks (0)
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Use it

If you want to do something about freedom of speech, then the only choice is USE IT, exercise it.


Kurt Westergaard in this interview

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 05:29 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)
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Wednesday, October 28. 2009

Weds. morning links

The O to tax pacemakers, artificial hips, etc. Brilliant. Heck, plastic canes are cheap at WalMart. 


The O's media control strategy


WSJ: Washington's Suicide Mission


I don't know about "narcissistic rage," but Mr. Bring Us Together isn't bringing us together. Who hasn't the Admin demonized yet? Besides ACORN/SEIU?


Quote via Dr. Sanity on the goals of the enviro movement:



Liberal democracy is sweet and addictive and indeed in the most extreme case, the USA, unbridled individual liberty overwhelms many of the collective needs of the citizens. The subject is almost sacrosanct and those who indulge in criticism are labeled as Marxists, socialists, fundamentalists and worse. These labels are used because alternatives to democracy cannot be perceived! Support for Western democracy is messianic as proselytised by a President leading a flawed democracy

There must be open minds to look critically at liberal democracy. Reform must involve the adoption of structures to act quickly regardless of some perceived liberties....

We are going to have to look how authoritarian decisions based on consensus science can be implemented to contain greenhouse emissions [emphasis mine].



Love that "perceived liberties."


 AA via Insty:



ANN ALTHOUSE: “The answer, Ms. Herron (Merron?) is precisely that pop culture permeates the world of young Americans. Why pursue even more of it in college? Learn new things. Get what you can’t get just living in the world soaking up the things you naturally love and enjoy. What is the point of going to college?”


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Tuesday, October 27. 2009

Tues evening links

Sipp: Norm Abrams is the real Reality TV


Thank you Joe Lieberman


1 in 7 taxpayers flee New York


The KrautMan on why Barack is like Brazil


The hopey-changey National Endowment for the Arts


Gingrich on 23


The new ACORN $ scandal


Robert Reich Fesses Up On Death Panels


UN preparing for a Copenhagen failure. Good.


Neoneo: Why does the government want to give us something nobody wants? Related from Jules: First do no harm.


Kristol: A good time to be a Conservative

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 19:50 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)
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Wild Turkeys and The National WTF


No, this is not about the national WTF? health care bill. While our Editor tends to focus on supporting Ducks Unlimited and the Nature Conservancy, both highly worthy volunteer organizations, I have been a supporter of the National Wild Turkey Federation for many years.


The recovery of the American Wild Turkey populations, like that of Egrets after the turn of the last century, has been a giant success of intelligent conservation.


Whether you want to shoot 'em and eat 'em, or just look at these huge birds (I like to do both), their resurgence is a great gift to America - thanks to conservation organizations.


The WTF has basically accomplished their goal. Turkeys are everywhere now, and huntable in most places. However, like government programs, non-profits rarely close up shop when their work is done. They tend to find something else to do, if only to keep their jobs. It's a sad fact that Ducks Unlimited still has much of their original mission to accomplish - wild duck populations, and the other wetlands critters that inhabit the habitats that DU protects and rehabilitates - remain far below where they were in years past.


There are a number of species of Wild Turkey in the New World. None native to the Old World.


Photo above: You all know that the males only display like that when they are overcome with love and/or horniness.
Photo below:  Our Editor-in-Chief Bird Dog (before he gained weight) with a bird in the hand.


 

Posted by The News Junkie in Hunting, Fishing, Dogs, Guns, etc., Natural History and Conservation, Our Essays at 12:02 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)
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Tuesday morning links

More on the health care debate as a moral struggle


NRO: The conformity enforcers of "tolerance" and "diversity" are growing ever more explicitly totalitarian.


How to lie and get away with it. h/t, Vanderleun


Our Golfer-in-Chief. Hmmm. I don't care if he plays golf a lot. I just wonder what they'd be saying if it were Bush. Plus sets a record for attending fundraisers. Easy gig, President. Just be the figurehead while others do the work.


The power of the Soros-funded think tanks in DC


ACORN. Read the first comment on this Tiger piece. Good grief.


The problem with ignoring Milton Friedman


Via Legal Insurrection:



Instead of solely considering costs, shouldn't we ask if Americans are willing to die sooner from cancer, to give up access to specialists, to be refused safer, more accurate diagnostic imaging, to lose the most accessible screening programs, and to lose their autonomy in pursuing treatments for their families? Shouldn't we ask if Americans want to replace the most advanced and successful medical care in history with the restricted care and lower cost social programs of Europe, and insure the less than 5 percent of people who don't buy insurance but receive care anyway?



Those evil health insurance companies


Via Powerline:




57% of voters nationwide believe it will raise the cost of health care, and 53% believe the quality of care will get worse. ... Just 18% say passage of the congressional plan will reduce costs, while only 23% believe it will lead to better care.



Remarkable: by a margin of 3-1, voters think Obamacare will raise the cost of health care, and by more than two to one, voters believe it will make the quality of health care worse. Isn't that the death knell for government medicine? If not, why not?



Via SDA:



The huge increases in migrants over the last decade were partly due to a politically motivated attempt by ministers to radically change the country and "rub the Right's nose in diversity", according to Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, Jack Straw and David Blunkett. [...] The "deliberate policy", from late 2000 until "at least February last year", when the new points based system was introduced, was to open up the UK to mass migration, he said. Some 2.3 million migrants have been added to the population since then, according to Whitehall estimates quietly slipped out last month.


Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:26 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)
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Monday, October 26. 2009

Monday afternoon links

Note to self - when fishing in the Alaska bush


More on the polls: New Gallup Poll Finds 40% of America Conservative– 20% Liberal


The O's war on business. Via Driscoll:



Obama has demonized just about every business sector in America.  Through the 2008 campaign to the present,  he has gone after credit card companies, the coal industry, mortgage companies, real estate companies, steelmakers, utilities, drug companies, doctors, oil companies, Wall Street, defense contractors, and health insurance companies, just to name a few.  In each case he has dinged them for greed, taking excessive profits, and failing to put people first.  His criticisms have not been over minor matters but over their basic core functions, and their values or lack of them. [His demonization of talk radio and Fox News also constitutes a front in his attack on business -- Ed]


Obama demonstrates almost complete ignorance about the private sector and it’s no wonder:  he has so little experience in it.  



Noonan: He owns the rubble now


WSJ: Why Government Health Care Keeps Falling in the Polls - The health-care debate is part of a larger moral struggle over the free-enterprise system.


Samuelson on the fake health care debate:



The promise of the public plan is a mirage. Its political brilliance is to use free-market rhetoric (more "choice" and "competition") to expand government power. But why would a plan tied to Medicare control health spending, when Medicare hasn't? From 1970 to 2007, Medicare spending per beneficiary rose 9.2 percent annually compared to the 10.4 percent of private insurers -- and the small difference partly reflects cost shifting. Congress periodically improves Medicare benefits, and there's a limit to how much squeezing reimbursement rates can check costs. Doctors and hospitals already complain that low payments limit services or discourage physicians from taking Medicare patients.


Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 15:05 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)
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Monday links, Part 1

The revealing photo from Politico


Why do I own pianos? AVI explains, or tries to.


David Horowitz’s “Alinsky, Beck, Satan, and Me” Series


Remembering the fall of Communism, 20 years ago. However, the O does not find it a worthy event: I think the Lefties still mourn the day of the collapse of authoritarian socialism and the burst of freedom behind the old Iron Curtain.


Joblessness, by state


Books to read for people who disagree with me. Insty


"Conservatives continue to outnumber moderates and liberals in the American populace in 2009..."


Jerry Nadler's ethics


Dr. Sanity:



The truth is that most of the drivel that issues from the radical environmentalists' mouths these days is pure, unadulterated neo-Marxist fascism, disguised as compassionate concern for the planet; and steeped in a deep hatred of humanity.



Via Blue Crab: What the fraudulent health care “reform” will actually do to health care costs

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 09:09 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)
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Sunday, October 25. 2009

Redefining Deviance: Jim and Sarah D. aspire to acceptance in a world that has left them behind

This is a re-post of an NJ piece from a couple of years ago -


There are people living "deviant" lifestyles in the Northeast, and, sadly, they are frequently invisible and marginalized. After much searching to locate the most deviant family your reporter could find in western Massachusetts, we decided to interview Jim and Sarah D. We summarize our interview with this extremely deviant, euphemistically-termed "traditional family," here:



Social deviant Jim D. 42, leads what we might best term a paleo life, largely out of touch with modern reality and seemingly oblivious to the exciting opportunities of modern lifestyle choices. Married for 21 years, with three kids, Jim drives 25 minutes to work each morning in his 8 year-old Subaru sedan. A college grad, Jim, on his fourth job, is CFO of a medium-sized manufacturing corporation based in Pittsfield, MA, making around $120,000 per year, not including generous benefits.


"I worked my way up the ladder to reach my level of incompetence," he laughs. "The job is a daily challenge, so I try to meet it each day determined to have some fun with it, and to rise to the challenges with a can-do spirit, corny as that sounds. I go to work every morning wondering what sort of pitch will be thrown to me, and hoping at least to hit a single. When I get stuck and confused, I call Sarah to talk it over." Really? "She's my partner, in every way. We joke that by combining the two of us, we add up to one barely competent human."


Jim claims his wife is "great to me and for me" and says "I love my kids to death." They go to their Presbyterian Church together every Sunday, and they tithe. "Budgeting our tithing is a blessing to us," says Sarah. Jim and Sarah have a date night every Thursday night, and family Sunday dinner with his in-laws.


They have lived modestly, and have accumulated over $500,000 in their 401-K savings. Jim says "Business hasn't been loyal to its employees for 20 years, so you have to take care of yourself. That's fine with me. My Dad did it by always living below his means, which were minimal for a long time, and I do the same. Unlike my Dad, though, I doubt anyone will let me continue working as long as I want to."


What did his Dad do? "He quit high school to join the Army. Hated school. They stuck him in the Corps of Engineers. Then worked up to a construction supervisor as a civilian, which he still does. He will never quit work, although he could retire now if he wanted to. He owns three houses; rents two and lives in one. The job gives him something to grouse about, and gets him out of the house and out into the world."


When asked what were the most important things in his life, Jim answers "Knowing God and being a responsible adult male. Working hard, paying my bills, being a good parent and husband, a good citizen and a good friend." For hobbies, Jim and Sarah enjoy gardening, jogging in the Berkshire Hills, and cooking together. When their first child was born, they gave their TV away and have been without one since. "Brain rot," says Sarah. "It interferes with family time, and we didn't want the kids to be passive zombies."


Sarah was a grammar school teacher until the kids came. "I would never have married a woman who wanted to work while we had young kids," Jim says. "That's an experiment with human nature I would not want to subject them to." As the kids enter high school, Sarah is planning to return to teaching high school English this time, having made herself "an amateur expert" in Medieval and Renaissance literature over the past 15 years. "I polished up my French, and learned Italian." What's her dream job? "Teaching Beowulf and Dante."


"Unlike Sarah, I was the first kid in my family to ever go to college," Jim says. "My first day at UMass, my Mom insisted I wear a jacket and tie. That is how traditional - or out to lunch - my parents were then. Mom baked a huge layer cake when I got my admission letter. They were both children of immigrants, my Dad's parents from Romania and my Mom's from Ireland." He says "UMass set me up for a fine career, but I had no big dreams. I just wanted to be able to support my family, and to find a way to have a fairly good time doing it. Math was easy for me, so I majored in it, but I made sure I got myself educated as widely as I had time for, while staying on the Rugby team and without too many drunken nights. I took some accounting classes to be practical about the future, but I met Sarah in a Chaucer class. She was cute as hell, and I said to her after class 'I don't think I belong in this class.' She said 'Let's discuss it.' The rest is history."


Politics? As Sarah says "We go to every Town Meeting, and we speak up when an issue is important to us. We don't obsess too much about national politics. We are local." When pressed on the issue, they confessed "Well, we do listen to Rush when we have the chance, but we are usually too busy." 

Posted by The News Junkie in Our Essays, Politics, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 13:00 | Comments (23) | Trackback (1)
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Sunday morning links

Hinckley Yachts experiencing the recession. Photo is a classic Hinckley DS 42. Perfection. Only problem: in my (limited) experience, Hinckleys cannot point worth a damn.


Kindle-killer: Barnes & Noble Unveils Kindle-Killing, Dual-Screen ‘Nook’ E-Reader


Nookie-reader?


Laptops for overseas Marines - plus dancing Marines


"Victicrat" - cool video


The O in Stamford, CT on Fri raising Dem money, with Dump Dodd. Ted Kennedy's old skirt-chasing, low-life, pub-hopping partner Dodd is a goner.


Mark Steyn: Obama a tough guy, at least with Fox News. With real tough guys, the O is a pussy.


On the other hand, the WH did pick a fight with the Chamber. That takes nerve, because they are tough. They aren't exactly Conservative though.


Related: Beck on The Chicago Gangsta Way


Camille Paglia, last of the open minded liberals


Let's All Buy a Hybrid! It will pay for itself in 25 years!


The facts about high executive pay. WSJ. I don't care what they make. I do care about what I make. I could never be CEO of Goldman Sachs or GE: I lack the brains, talents, skills, knowledge, decisiveness, interpersonal skills and personality for that. Great biz managers are as rare as great shortstops or sopranos or ballerinas. Got to reward them well for what they do or they will quit, retire - or go to your competitor. That's how free labor markets work, isn't it? It's about scarcity and added value. Like truffles. Supply and demand is a fundamental of freedom.


Destroying all the forests can save the planet!


The bailouts were not meant to really save GM and Chrysler. Duh. It was just a payoff to the union - by us, the lowly taxpayers.


More on your tax dollars at work: Cash for Clunkers fails again


Of great value to single, social-climbing, or designing women: Tax records open in Norway


Medical insurance costs rise for small biz. So can they dump the cost on me? People ought to be able to buy their own insurance on their own, like adults, in a free market.

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:05 | Comments (13) | Trackbacks (0)
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Friday, October 23. 2009

Friday morning links

Golden Eagle attacks reindeer calf


What's holding back nuclear power?


Regulating the internet. Is this a slippery slope? However,



...Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said he introduced legislation on Thursday aimed at prohibiting the FCC from enacting rules to regulate the Internet



Dem: Repubs are the real enemies of America. Things are getting strange.


Hey, here's a reason to do it! Cap & trade could be a boon to NYC trading firms


Coyote on free speech and the UN:



I continue to be confused why the Left in this country is so absolutely hostile to Baptists in Alabama but are so deferential to Muslims in Saudi Arabia.  Is it simply because one group makes credible threats of violence while the other does not?



By what Constitutional authority could the Federal government force me to buy medical insurance?


India: We’re Not Hurting Our Economy For “Climate Change”


A Lefty has a Moore-gasm


"Sending" more kids to college? Why? We "send" too many already who just waste time and their parents' money.

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 07:41 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)
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Thursday, October 22. 2009

Congress is all messed up

Health care: They tried to do too much, over-reached, went too far Left, tried to grab too much control, and now they are in a pickle.  It's their own darn fault. Hubris. Even the Blue Dogs are facing spending fatigue.


Meanwhile, the "Great Uniter" remains on the attack. Please, O, bring us together!!!


As VDH rightly says:



Please, please


Right now to save America we need some steady leadership that reassures businesses of lower taxes, less government spending, no new regulations, educational reform to improve the work force, and confident expansionary energy exploration and development. Instead, we get a prescription to terrify private enterprise: Mr. President, every time you besmirch someone as greedy, lying, and unduly rich, some business, somewhere, pulls in its horns.


Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 10:51 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)
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Thurs. morning links

O'Reilly: “Obama is fighting harder against FOX News than he is the Taliban.”


Like we said yesterday


Copenhagen and national sovereignty. No Pasaran


It takes a governor to be an effective Pres


Re ACORN, at Powerline: The last shoe drops


49 of 50 states have lost jobs since stimulus


It's quite simple: price-fixing masks costs


All the Commies in Obama's admin. Am Thinker


Urbanism update: The white city and white flight

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:46 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)
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Wednesday, October 21. 2009

Weds morning links

Outlawing manhood. Human Events


Hurricanes? Global warming. No hurricanes? Global warming.


DOJ: Blacks will only vote for party labels. Unbelievably insulting.


The No Insurance Club. One annual fee to your doc. Basically, the doc takes the risk of his time.


Is it paranoid to imagine that Obamacare is about the government owning your body?


Have fun. It's 1502 pages of bureaucratese.


The Pope welcomes Anglicans back home


Protesting Geert Wilders at Temple:



"The decision to allow Mr. Wilders to share his viewpoints is a danger not only for the public safety of Muslims and the honor of the core principle of Islam, but also for academic integrity and objectivity on campus."



Related: Minuteman's Jim Gilchrist banned from speaking at Harvard. Modern academia is afraid of ideas.


Related: Amherst wants Gitmo detainees.  I guess it's some weird version of Radical Chic.


Polarizing America the Alinsky way.  Related: ACORN vote fraud in NYS

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Tuesday, October 20. 2009

Tuesday late-day links

Even the Left is lining up against the WH proposed Internet regulation. A quote:



Opponents of the policy rightly argue that its implementation would stifle innovation and impact service—a little bit the way that a government takeover of health care would with regard to that industry.  Also like health care, the internet is something that most Americans are unable and unwilling to go without.  Turning the internet into the functional equivalent of the US Postal Service (a communications system in which Genachowski takes a deep, and arguably ironic, personal interest) is the wrong answer to preserving it in a viable, useful form.  



Last week we had Anita Dunn praising Mao. Now we have another Mao-praising Czar in the WH. See Dr Sanity's If it walks like a Marxist...


From a Carville poll report on my half of America:



They believe Obama is ruthlessly advancing a ‘secret agenda’ to bankrupt the United States and dramatically expand government control to an extent nothing short of socialism. While these voters are disdainful of a Republican Party they view to have failed in its mission, they overwhelmingly view a successful Obama presidency as the destruction of this country’s founding principles and are committed to seeing the president fail. Instead of focusing on these intense ideological divisions, the press and elites continue to look for a racial element that drives these voters’ beliefs -– but they need to get over it.



With two Mao-lovers in the WH, it's no surprise some people wonder what's going on.


The Maldives are running a slick scam.


Govt control of insurance will lead to greater denial of care. Fro sure. In fact, Massachusetts now faces government rationing.


Afghanistan: Deciding not to decide is a decision


I want to go into the not raising pigs business


Founder of Human Rights Watch denounces Human Rights Watch. Same thing happened with Greenpeace. Non-profits commonly get taken over by Lefties.


Brit NHS pays its staff to get private medical care

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Monday, October 19. 2009

Monday evening/Tues morning links

Geniuses. Photo shows how they protest Geert Wilders.


World's largest duct tape factory


When firing your greedy money manager is a mistake. Harvard, in this case.


Remaking the system for 5% of the population. It does seem stupid, doesn't it? But it's part of a plan. Related: Only 42% favor health care reform./ Related: Health Bill or Stealth Bill? What's in those 1500 pages?


Why some utilities like cap and trade. They can make money on it.


"the actual climatological outlook is: morally cloudy, with a hyper-political chance of poor discernment." Kathryn Lopez


Via Powerline: Seriously, what can be done to stop this insidious invasion of our public space by left wing propagandists spouting costly nonsense?


AVI on "racism": Progressives may have convinced themselves that the victim claims of numerous groups are so unlimited that any accusation must be acknowledged as fair in its own way.


The New Left Gospel. Am Digest


PM: Only 50 days left to save the world. Yikes.


Via Insty: H1N1 is Obama’s Katrina. The US Gov’s response to H1N1 has been subpar at best.


David Thompson: I sense a malign presence


At Betsy: In his presidential radio address this weekend, Obama criticized insurance companies for offering up "smoke and mirrors" and false promises on reform. How ironic when Obama has been doing the same.


SISU on human nature.


An email we received today:



Law Seminars International presents:


EPA Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Rule
A one-hour TeleBriefing
October 20, 2009
10:00 AM PDT, 11:00 AM MDT, 12:00 PM CDT, 1:00 PM EDT


View the program agenda here.


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Intended Audience
Lawyers and business executives whose business or clients will be impacted by this landmark environmental ruling.


Registration
Register here or call us at (800) 854-8009


Tuition
Tuition is $125 per caller and $50 each for additional people on the same line who wish to receive continuing education credit.


Available Credits:
1.0 CLE Credit Available in the Following States:
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Other credits available, please call


I hope you can join us.


Kate Johnson
President


Note: If you do not want to receive email notice of upcoming professional education programs, or want to limit the topics you receive, you can safely tell us by replying to this email. You also can give us a quick call at (800) 854-8009 or go to LSI News Assistant.


LSI News, Inc.
800 Fifth Avenue, Suite 101
Seattle, WA 98104


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Monday morning links

What is equality? AmThinker


WH: We control the media


Obama’s $787 Billion Stimulus “Created or Saved” 20 Jobs in Connecticut, 28 Jobs in Vermont & 22 Jobs in New Hampshire


Health reform:



The bill creates a new health entitlement program that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates will grow over the longer term at a rate of 8% annually, which is much faster than the growth rate of the economy or tax revenues. This is the same growth rate as the House bill that Sen. Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) deep-sixed by asking the CBO to tell the truth about its impact on health-care costs.



Sad but true: Everybody wants something from big government. I want a pony.


Also, I want my reality back.


FOX has really gotten inside Obama's head.


Is Obama anti-American? h/t, Doug Ross

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Friday, October 16. 2009

Friday links

Grassley: Senate Health Plan Depletes Medicare, Raises Premiums, Thwarts Constitution Related: They said one trillion last week, now its 2 trillion. Do I hear 3?


An appreciation of my husband: Anchoress


The religion of the Left, revisited. Vanderleun


Stimulus Success: At Only $533,000 per Job 


LEAKED NETWORK MEMO REVEALS: Obama Controls Your Television Set


We are all Rush Limbaugh now


Free speech for me but not for thee. Riehl

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Thursday, October 15. 2009

Thursday midday links

Candide (or is it Don Quixote?) goes out into the big world. But these Dems know nothing about Ketman:



Unfortunately, no one prepared Clinton for her trip by explaining the rules of ketman. This is an Oriental form of dissimulation first described by the 19th-century French ethnologist Count Gobineau and perfected, as it happens, by the Persians. According to Gobineau, the people of the East believe that, “He who is in possession of the truth must not expose his person, his relatives or his reputation to the blindness, the folly, the perversity or those whom it has pleased God to place in error.” In other word, he must hide his true beliefs.



How do you do a "reset" when the other guys are playing you for fools?  These people are in so far over their heads. Relevant image above via Flares: http://yargb.blogspot.com/2009/10/when-don-quixotes-rule-world.html


The pitfalls of paternalism. Somin at Volokh. It's not a joke. If people want to be children, they will be treated as such.


Raul Castro on Socialism:



"Nobody, no individual nor country, can indefinitely spend more than she or he earns. Two plus two always adds up to four, never five," he said. "Within the conditions of our imperfect socialism, due to our own shortcomings, two plus two often adds up to three."



Reality is a bitch.


FIRE: Victory for Free Speech as College of William & Mary Dumps Speech Codes, Earns ‘Green Light’ Rating


We love FIRE. Please consider them for your end of year donations.


The new America? People are learning from Washington: "Everybody was like, 'I still want my free stuff,' and that started the riot," he said. Related at Betsy: The reality facing the money-for-nothing crowd


Glenn Beck VOGUE puts on blackface and nobody cares


Wall Street Journal surpasses USA Today as No. 1


Dems now represent the rich zip codes. So much for the "evil rich Repubs."


The Baucus plan would bankrupt the states. Say, how's that plan working out in Massachusetts?


From The Mind Boggles at Am Spectator:



It behooves us instead to take a moment to marvel at the insanity of the process we have allowed to steer the fate of the Republic.


Think about this. We have decisions made about matters desperately close to home, affecting our health and wealth, our lives and livelihoods, and by whom? A group of Senators, fairly capable people, farm the work out to aides of whom we know nothing. Who are these people and how is their capability determined, their efficiency measured, their accuracy gauged? The work produced by these ciphers in their crypts is hardly understood by the legislators, then subject to manipulation by jurists. It seems unimaginable that your life and mine may be offered as human sacrifices to the meddling of these wizards of Oz hiding behind their curtains.        



                     More on the topic of covering the field with slime -


The media war on the smart and charming Liz Cheney


Steyn on Rush:



...the geniuses at Media Matters say: You want chapter-and-verse on those "Slavery was great/Give James Earl Ray the Medal of Honor" quotes? Okay, here's some stuff Limbaugh has said about Obama...


The race deck is all trump cards:


Step One: You can't say that. It's racist.


So you don't. Next:


Step Two: You're using "code language".


As I always say, "code language" is code language for "I’m inventing what you really meant to say because the actual quote doesn’t quite do the job for me." Still, you steer clear of "code language". So then:


Step Three: We'll just concoct it out of whole cloth, and, after running for a week with "Slavery Advocate Wants Medal Of Honor For MLK Killer", our fact-checkers will confirm the accuracy of that statement by citing something you said about Donovan McNabb or Obama's economic policy. Close enough.


PS Can Rush buy the St Louis Rams if he gets Roman Polanski to front the deal?



Powerline's post on the topic, Rush is Out, included this pic from CNN with a totally manufactured Rush quote. This kind of thing is dangerous stuff, besides being immoral, unethical, and despicable:



 

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Wednesday, October 14. 2009

Weds. morning links

Aussies hoard incandescent bulbs.


The WH's war against FOX 


The Dem war against Rush: State-Run Media Scum Smear Rush Using Fabricated Quotes. Says Steyn: Prove you never said it. But Rush is rightly contemplating legal action.


As a long-time Rush listener, I can state that Rush has no trace of racism. What he does is to refuse to condescend or pander to anybody. Is that considered racism these days?


The Dem dirty political fights this season


Dems: We don't need no steenkin' ethics


Villainous: E.J. Dionne Explains Angry White Men to Blue America


Who's on the hook for the growing state and municipal pension messes?


Blankley: Washington is nuts:



That's right. The federal government is giving the "green light" for the country to drive to the poorhouse -- and drive there, I would argue, by way of the lunatic asylum. Are they nuts?



Sen Mitch McConnell on the Baucus bill:



"The fact is, this proposal will never come before the Senate. But what we do know is that the bill written behind closed doors here in the Capitol will be another 1,000-page, trillion-dollar Washington takeover. We know it will slash a half-trillion dollars from seniors’ Medicare, add new taxes and raise premiums. That’s not reform.”



WSJ: The Baucus bill is nothing but a huge middle-class tax bill


From Powerline:



It probably never occurred to the Russians that a U.S. president would come to power hoping to "reset" relations with Russian on some basis other than the hard bargain and the "trust but verify" mentality. Yet this is precisely what has fallen into the Kremlin's lap. From what I've heard, the Russian elites can neither believe their good fortune nor hide their amusement.


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Tuesday, October 13. 2009

Tuesday morning links

Afghan Pop. Watch the Afghan Star trailer.


From John yesterday re Columbus Day:



Speaking of Columbus, the Associated Press finds that the boldest explorer in world history did not have quite the same sensibilities as a liberal 21st century schoolmarm. This apparently surprises some.



Is mass transit really green? Probably not, but could you imagine NYC without trains, buses and subways? It just wouldn't work.


Nuclear weapons deserve the Nobel Peace prize


Most ominous graph of the day


So how many properties does Charlie Rangel own?


This kid definitely needs Reform School


Businessman Steve Wynn takes on Michigan Gov.


A fine Driscoll essay: Man’s Crisis Of Identity In The Latter Half Of The 20th Century


Parents & Kids Protest Obama, Democrats & The Teachers' Unions: PJTV Video


Oh great: Obama to SEIU: "Now the Time Has Come For Us to Do It All Across the Country - We Are Going to Paint the Nation Purple With SEIU"


Instructing monsters to be monsters. Am Thinker


Jules:



White House Communications Director Anita Dunn whines that Fox acts as a “wing of the Republican Party.” No complaints about the rest of the White House Press Corps acting as a Democratic high-rise condo development, though.



John at Powerline says of the Dem medical reform "this isn't reform, it is stupidity." I disagree. I believe it is a medium-to-long-term strategy to raise prices to drive people to the government plantation. Trouble is, people will blame the insurance companies instead of the government. The Dems have not really made a secret of their clever but deceptive strategy to achieve government control. Graph from Powerline:



 

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Monday, October 12. 2009

Medical reform update

This is the plan - to drive private insurance out of business so we can be relieved of the burden of making our own choices. 


The insurers have finally caught on to the Dem strategy.


Yes, at the very least the Dem reform will drive costs far higher in the short term. That is, insofar as anybody knows what the heck is in it.


One thing we do know is that insurance creep will be part of it. Not only will we lose the choice of major medical, or to be self-insured, but we'll end up paying for sex change operations, abortions, hair transplants and massage therapy.


Here's the Dem war against the specialists.


The most insulting thing about this whole mess, however, is that the taxes for it begin right away - but the program doesn't begin until after the next Pres election. Hmmm.

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Monday morning links

Aren't most folks working today? Scroll down and catch up with our posts from the weekend.


Darn good point from Powerline: "Any government medicine system suffers from a fatal contradiction: health care is a "right," but a right that must be rationed."


Former Dem Senator Bob Kerry (via Gateway's post on Sen. Feinstein):



On vision, President Obama is very inspiring. He has given moderates in Muslim countries room to move by speaking to them directly and respectfully, while at the same time continuing to wage an aggressive and necessary battle against radical Islamists who have declared war on the U.S. However, he has made too many apologies. And at this point, his strategy is too naïve and has too little coherence to be called a strategy. If the issue of foreign policy had been more important in his presidential campaign—and therefore important to the electorate—I might be more critical. And if I weren't a supporter, my judgment would be harsher. But in this realm, I'm still hoping for improvement.



Insty wonders



COULD MONTY PYTHON BE MADE in today’s Britain?



And as Mark Steyn puts it:



As Canadians have discovered, liberty is lost very quietly and quickly. And trying to get it back is slow and painful - particularly at a time when artists, universities, publishers and others who congratulate themselves incessantly on their truth-telling courage find increasingly pre-emptive self-censorship the better part of valor.



Surber:



Al Gore’s big question is paper or plastic.


I don’t have time for this fool.



A brief history of the prevention of tyranny. Doug Ross. One quote:



The French nobleman and legal expert Charles-Louis de Secondat, the Baron de Montesquieu, studied the rise and fall of the Roman Republic. He believed that a properly designed government, in order to prevent tyranny, would require three branches of government. He wrote, "If it is to provide its citizens with the greatest possible liberty, a government must have certain features. First, since 'constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it … it is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power' . This is achieved through the separation of the executive, legislative, and judicial powers of government... [to prevent any one] from acting tyrannically."



 Want more to read? Try Federalist #42

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