Friday, August 1. 2008
 They went to Russia to build socialism.
Dems say they're OK with $10 gas. Hey, John! You can be a celeb too. Moderate Voice Why the growing Gulf dead zone? What if Iraq works out? VDH Monitoring the enemy's broadcasts. No Pasaran Some real numbers on PC in education. h/t, David Thompson
Politics is so complex, isn't it? No joke - apparently Obama promises his kids a puppy if he's elected. It's all about hope, kids. The News Junkie believes that Obama will give him a pony and a new, hopeful outlook on the communal paradise to come.
Definitely water on Mars. And oil on Saturn's moon Titan. Lots of it. Well, it's close to oil. Is it possible that oil is not a fossil fuel?
 Why everybody hates gas prices. Mankiw. Unlike yogurt, you watch the numbers click.
Corporate donations and the law. Bainbridge. I do not want any business I invest in making charitable donations with my money. I can do that myself. But I guess it's a sort of PR. Can Britain survive Multiculturalism? Definitely not. Related: The English flag is deemed unsafe. The American flag is not, happily. Here's a cheap house for ya. Sipp might not like it. The MSM rebels on the dumb Edwards story. Who cares? The guy is a joke. Big-time food fight. The bad guys are on the run. Where to? Hope you don't have any money in Legg-Mason value funds. Fun with Obama Update: Gaffe-o-matic. Also, you only get to play that race card once. Also, Arrogance Watch. Also, inflate those tires! Also, quit insulting my intelligence. Also, the preemptive racist smear. Fun with McCain update: Is he stupid? And Vanderleun's dream ticket: McCain-Clinton! Still can't see the sun in Beijing. The place is a polluted mess. What sort of college education should physicians have? My opinion? Rigorous arts and sciences, like everybody else. Larry Summers was right. But we already knew that. Every worker believes (from Kling): 1. I should have more autonomy.
2. I should be rewarded more for my own ideas that work.
3. I should be penalized less for my own ideas that fail.
4. Competition that is innovative or inexpensive is unfair.
Image: Yes, it's a Theo sailing pin-up
Thursday, July 31. 2008
But Roger Kimball says it better. One quote: Which brings me back to the Times’s story on Obama’s career at the University of Chicago. In course of that story, the reporter confronts the reader with “what may be the ultimate test of racial equality–whether Americans will elect a black president.” I stopped short reading that because I think it gets the issue 100% wrong. The implication is that if Obama is not elected, then Americans fail the test. But that, I submit, is a racist idea. How many liberals do you know who plan to vote for Barack Obama because he is black, that is to say, for a racist reason? Sure, they also like the fact that he plans to institute a European-style confiscatory tax plan...
That must be it. Nobody complains about Obama's prayers for God's guidance and protection. Maybe they assume he's faking it for political purposes. But what if it's for real?
No, that's not what he said. What he said was if you're white and vote against me, you're racist: Democrat Barack Obama, the first black candidate with a shot at winning the White House, says John McCain and his Republican allies will try to scare them by saying Obama "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."
The Obama campaign wants to divert attention to the issues by making this an election about race. Hillary tried to pull the same trick, but with her genitalia. I don't give a damn about Obama's color - or anybody's color. I will vote against him because he is a naive, extreme Lefty nut who has never accomplished anything in his life other than the smooth delivery of pablum speeches and maneuvering quickly in the sleazy, corrupt world of Chicago politics.
 Physician-Senator Tom Coburn wants to kill your granny. "The tyranny of good intentions." That's a damn good phrase.
The crime of "destroying social order." That's Asia, for you. We value truth and freedom; they value order. Except for their truth-speakers. Linens'n Shit Not from The Onion: Blacks hurt most by climate change How messing around can cost you. NY Sun The wonderful John Templeton died. I missed that. Why is the black vote always in the Dem's pocket? Pajamas. I think it's crazy. Why do gay guys always seem to put on a freak show? If somebody wants to be accepted as normal, they need to act normal, with modesty, self-restraint, and dignity. If you need to be kinky, why not do it at home? I confess, though, that their displays are interesting in a sick sort of way. Living in a small world. Megan McArdle Reaching the post-2004 voter. National Journal. Post-partisan? Not me. I am a Conservative. The whole interesting story of GM's Volt, at The Atlantic. Great business case study. But what's the point? The power comes from coal. Not that I care. Photo: That's Montauk Light, where I plan to do some fishing this weekend.
Wednesday, July 30. 2008
Notice how they have kept her locked in the closet for the past few months? When she opens her mouth, she offends people. She seems angry. The fact that she was a highly privileged and fortunate young lady who had an elite education and became more wealthy and powerful than 99.99% of white folks seems to elude her. Here's the story of her Princeton thesis which had been blocked until after the election, but which got out anyway.
Here's one reason, via Dino. Obama plans to tax you into a state of dependency on the government: 
Some times I wonder whether we are electing a "Most Popular" or a High School Class President rather than a President of the USA. Even Maureen Dowd seems to wonder. This toon via Theo: 
Not just to pander to the Greenies as Powerline says, but also simply to keep voters cranky and disgruntled, and willing to roll the dice on "change."
 It's Rush Week at Human Events, with many salutations to the big guy on his 20th anniversary.
I do not listen to Rush much these days, but back in '90-'93 I did every day, during my mid-day commute. I enjoy his humor, the apparent joy he takes in living, his self-mockery (eg "with half my brain tied behind my back, just to make it fair"), and his upbeat attitude, but it was his cheerful irreverence towards conventional views that engaged me. Plus his kindness and gentleness to all of his callers. Whether you agree with him about everything or not, he is a brilliant entertainer.
 Photo: He served in Vietnam. Where are they now?
Good news: Ten things to be happy about - from the NYT! Can't read or write, but will know how to put on a condom. What Iran plans for the USA. Lying about the federal debt. Am Thinker Fat? Blame it on your neighborhood. Not your fault. Bush's remarkable homeless legacy. Nobody talks about this. Heller ll? This could be interesting. Ten best small cities in the USA. Kim du Toit plans his blog retirement. I don't get my website pension until I'm 75 - or 80. I forget. "Just tell me one thing Barack Obama has done that you admire." RCP. Easy to answer: he gave me hope for a pony. I like ponies. Victims of lenders. Ankle-Biting. Hey, could you lend me five bucks? Thanks. I'm a victim! I'm a victim! From Gateway: Iraqis were most surprised by Obama's apparent readiness to throw away all the gains made in Iraq simply to prove that he'd been right in opposing the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein. "He gave us the impression that the last thing he wanted was for Iraq to look anything like a success for the United States," a senior Iraqi official told me. "As far as he is concerned, this is Bush's war and must end in lack of success, if not actual defeat."
McCain not good enough to write op-eds for the NYT, but this lunatic is. Related: The new, improved McCain. Pajamas. Related: Can oil and affirmative action redefine the race? The bad news about the House for Repubs Great news for Brit wives: Killing your husband is OK. Especially if he's a jerk, which all guys are. The electoral college doesn't look certain for BHO. Related: Why do Europeans love BHO? VDH
Monday, July 28. 2008
Gateway found this Move On ad for Obama. Hope. It could happen to you. Do they think I am 6 years old? I hope for a pretty pony, and $50 million in cash, unmarked bills.
Bob Novak, hospitalized today in Boston for a brain tumor while on a trip to Cape Cod, filed his Closer than He Should Be for today's WaPo. One quote: In the contest for president, Barack Obama is a magnetic candidate supported by a disciplined, well-organized campaign. John McCain seems wooden, with a campaign that appears to be in shambles. Yet Obama's lead in the polls over McCain is fragile because he so far has not won the support of a majority of American voters.
We shall see whether McCain can add some zip to his campaign. As we have said here, "John - give people a reason to vote for you." We already have a multitude of reasons not to vote for Obama. Also, our best wishes to Bob. Seems like he's been around forever. The Old Guard.
"The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin, in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting."
McCain now supports, Obama opposes. I support: "All men are created equal." Story at Betsy
 Giving yourself totally to your spouse. The only way it works, I am told.
Politics and the international criminal court. This sounds like a big problem for Chrysler The Mountain Pine Beetle I'm not interested in the Edwards story, only in the media's effort to suppress it A Richard Cory effect? Shrinkwrappped Bailouts privatize gains but socialize losses. Kudlow Women still complaining about their blogs. We'd better not mention how rich we are all getting from writing for Maggie's Farm. Obama's "world tour" gave him a good bump in the polls. In the same week, McCain's astonishingly lame campaign couldn't even get him to an oil rig for a photo op. Related: Annoy your liberal neighbors (surely you must have some) "First, Lose Three Straight Elections: Britain's Conservatives are finally emerging from the wilderness. Republicans can learn from them." Fred Barnes Is "race and ethnicity" a reporter's beat? Am Thinker. Good grief. Al Qaida's appetite for civilian blood. Belmont The ebbing of the power of the Shiite militia. Politics and taxes. McArdle Texas: still a booming economy
Sunday, July 27. 2008
A big h/t to Vanderleun, who is supposedly on vacation but isn't, quite. He found this piece at the Independent by an Irish journalist who had covered Africa, Writing what I should have written so many years ago. One quote: The people of Ireland remained in ignorance of the reality of Africa because of cowardly journalists like me. When I went to Ethiopia just over 20 years ago, I saw many things I never reported -- such as the menacing effect of gangs of young men with Kalashnikovs everywhere, while women did all the work. In the very middle of starvation and death, men spent their time drinking the local hooch in the boonabate shebeens. Alongside the boonabates were shanty-brothels, to which drinkers would casually repair, to briefly relieve themselves in the scarred orifice of some wretched prostitute (whom God preserve and protect). I saw all this and did not report it, nor the anger of the Irish aid workers at the sexual incontinence and fecklessness of Ethiopian men. Why? Because I wanted to write much-acclaimed, tear-jerkingly purple prose about wide-eyed, fly-infested children -- not cold, unpopular and even "racist" accusations about African male culpability. Am I able to rebut good and honourable people like John O'Shea, who are now warning us that once again, we must feed the starving Ethiopian children? No, of course I'm not. But I am lost in awe at the dreadful options open to us. This is the greatest moral quandary facing the world. We cannot allow the starving children of Ethiopia to die. Yet the wide-eyed children of 1984-86, who were saved by western medicines and foodstuffs, helped begin the greatest population explosion in human history, which will bring Ethiopia's population to 170 million by 2050. By that time, Nigeria's population will be 340 million, (up from just 19 million in 1930). The same is true over much of Africa. Thus we are heading towards a demographic holocaust, with a potential premature loss of life far exceeding that of all the wars of the 20th Century. This terrible truth cannot be ignored. But back in Ireland, there are sanctimonious ginger-groups, which yearn to prevent discussion, and even to imprison those of us who try, however imperfectly, to expose the truth about Africa. And of that saccharine, sickly shower, more tomorrow.
 We missed this one: Global warming causes kittens. No doubt predicted by Climate Models. Related, from Al Gore to the Brits:
As your parliament moves forward to debate legislation this session, it is essential that you imagine this not solely as a scientific discussion or even a political dialogue, but as a moral moment where we decide who we are as human beings, and what obligation to the future we feel is appropriate for us to accept as part of our responsibility in this generation. At stake is nothing less than the survival of human civilisation and the habitability of the earth for our species.
Good grief. He wanted to be the Messiah, but Obama one-upped him in that department. Now, he's just a regular crank again. Why it's so hard to teach students these days. h/t, Minding the Campus I have felt this way about power tools many times. AP stunningly acknowledges that the surge has worked spectacularly. Ace They went down fighting hard. Villainous. Sons and warriors. The NEA is our Taliban. Moonbattery Maybe appointing his transition team was a bit premature. Related, via Classical Values: The New Republic has a pretty good article up explaining European misconceptions of America. The article especially looks at Obama's recent German rallies and how those rallies feed European misconceptions. Europe's favorite dream: a post-Bush America cut down to size and chastened, a meeker and more modest America, a more "European" (that is, a more social-democratic) America, which at last casts off some of its nastier capitalist habits. An America that is a lot more like us Europeans who have forgone power politics and sovereignty in favor of communitarian politics and integration.
From Insty: MICHAEL BARONE: "Sometimes public opinion doesn't flow smoothly; it shifts sharply when a tipping point is reached. Case in point: gas prices. $3 a gallon gas didn't change anybody's mind about energy issues. $4 a gallon gas did. . . . In a country with less in the way of checks and balances, which can be gamed by adroit lobbyists and litigators, we would be building more nuclear plants, and would be drilling offshore and in ANWR. We would be phasing out the corn ethanol subsidies that are enriching Iowa farmers and impoverishing Mexican tortilla eaters, and we would be repealing the 54-cent tariff on Brazilian sugar ethanol (the sugar for which would be produced not in defoliated Amazon rainforests but in the desolate and currently unused certao)."
Why would Maliki vote for Obama? Krauthammer What Dr. Roy Spencer said to the Senate
Saturday, July 26. 2008
Quote from Surber: Maliki got Obama off the hook in Iraq. But Berlin was a bridge too far. He became a rock star. And like many American celebrities on a high from European adulation, Obama knocked his native nation. I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.
He went on to say he loves his country, but the damage was done. He slammed the country. Factual, yes. But totally unnecessary. He apologized overseas for”mistakes” ahem “around the world” in a nation we liberated and protected for 45 years at a great cost of treasure, as critics of Iraq say. He apologized to a nation that exterminated 6 million Jews — two-thirds of all the Jews in Europe before the start of the war — for America? That is surreal even for an Ivy League egghead. His praise of German’s love of freedom was a joke. Germans no more love freedom than they love Jews.
You do not knock America in a foreign country, to suck up to their America-envy, in a campaign. Maybe he should run for office in Germany? Fortunately, German groupies do not vote in the USA. I think people just want McCain to give them a reason to vote for him. Powerline shares this McCain response ad:
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