Saturday, April 12. 2008
These two pieces attempt to address the "Why can't we all just get along?" attitude towards international relations: "Diplomacy is not the Dr. Phil Show." Am. Thinker "A cup of tea with a thug." Denver Post
Friday, April 11. 2008
Obama on Sunday: You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them...And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Query for Barry: Are you, perhaps, referring the the Great Unwashed? Like me? To what should I cling, if not to guns and God? To you?
And a comment: Unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled manufacturing jobs have been disappearing for far longer than 25 years. In our parts, they disappeared 50-80 years ago. Barry has a short time-frame. New England is filled with old mill towns and old empty factories with broken windows. Things change, and I thought you were in favor of change. Anyway, I know the economic facts don't matter: it's just routine pandering, because those old jobs are never coming back and people have to learn how to do things for which there is a labor market.
Good poll news for John McCain NYT writes unbiased article on Iraq Truth-telling about immigration in Swedish MSM. Gates An illustrated history of data storage (h/t, Thompson's Friday Ephemera) The disastrous 17th Amendment (h/t, Right Wing Prof) Shipping containers and the economy
Thursday, April 10. 2008
Barry Obama has a race problem: he is pissed off at whites despite his charmed life in America. The guy misses the point that almost everybody in America is post-racial these days (not in Euroland, however). White folks do not spend one second of their lives thinking about oppressing black, brown, yellow or red people, and to imply that they do is hateful, malicious, manipulative, - and wrong. Character and behavior, not skin, is what folks are interested in. I do not give a damn about skin, and I believe that very few people are hung up on skin these days, and we would be even less so except for the Left constantly pushing skin and genitalia and transgender-mixed-frozen-vegetables in our faces. Honestly, would Obama be a presidential candidate today if he were a white guy? Of course not. Hillary would have eaten him as an hors d'oevre by now. It's plain as day, but people don't say it. Heck, Congress is full of glib Leftists: consider the always-charming and articulate Barney Frank. Obama is a phee-nom because he is half-black (and he is a likeable fellow, as pols go). The Obama effect is pure reverse-racism - mixed with ageism (he's a kid) and a touch of jaunty metrosexual bias (the American MSM press is not known for its comfort with manliness). I find this video disturbing, insulting, dumb, and offensive (from piece at Gateway):
 I'll be away tomorrow, but I have these gems now:
Ship rigging, and other technologies which created wealth in antiquity. How to blog. Sipp Canada: A link to libel constitutes libel? This could render blogging dangerous up there. SDA. More on related Canadian insanity at Coyote. I wonder what Canada would do with this link to Riehl: God Bless Racist America. Your sexual intentions show on your face. Sheesh. Where's my mask? A tough cop: "Kill the bastards." Krugman denounces ethanol subsidies. So does McCain. So do I. An "all-Bolshevik conference" remembers the Columbia student riots. Groovy, dudes: how very advanced and progressive. More on how free trade has increased American prosperity. As far as I can tell, only dinosaur unions oppose it, as with the recently-tabled Colombia agreement. Affirmative Action for boys. Dems planning $40 million hit on McCain Nationalized medical care? Polls are against it
Assessment 101. How teachers (should) do it. Clinton's missteps. Politico The University of Delaware's freshman indoctrination. The knock on the door: House to house searches for guns...and twinkies? The population crisis. Steyn The real cost of public schools.
Wednesday, April 9. 2008
We have officially termed the Obama campaign "The Teeny-bopper Campaign." (All Rights Reserved) The money is not coming from the youthful masses, however. Rich guys in suits. Still, the question always does come up: Did the GOP lose the youth vote? Well, for the yout', it's all about image and fashion. Grown-ups are past that nonsense. Is John McCain a cool MTV dude? I wouldn't know, but I prefer an adult - and I don't do childish dreams anymore: I try to do reality.
Not. They are Moslem schools. Allah Akbar, Baby.
 I am meeting John McCain at a fund-raiser this week, to which our Editor Dog-in-Chief, Bird Dog, has invited me and the Mrs.
In fact, several of the Maggie's Farm crew will drive there, with money in hand, regardless of our beefs with McCain. I have my sentence ready for the guy: "I am happy to meet you, and thank you for your service." I want to say "Global warming is BS," but the Mrs. will not let me say that to him or there will be hell to pay. I disagree with him on about 30% of the issues of the day (eg immigration, McCain-Feingold, global cooling). But what the heck, I disagree with everybody about something or other, being a difficult, cantankerous, opinionated Yankee. We have warnings that the AFL-CIO might be protesting something or other, along with other lefty loonies. Good on 'em. A free country. But are they aware that the employment rate right now is higher than it was during Clinton? No, and they don't care. They have their agenda. Update: Got a photo with him. Thanked him for his service to the country. He is solid, somewhat of a tough guy, enormously likeable, and uninspiring. Those are all probably good qualities for a president.
A good point. If China were not a totalitarian country, I doubt Tibet would have the same complaints. And why does China want to control Tibet anyway...other than that China is the last imperialist totalitarian nation on earth? Unless you count teensy Cuba and tin-pot dictator and joke du jour Chavez.
Obama campaign: "Get me more white people." Dick Morris: Obama's weakness is weakness Mr. Free Market loves Texas LaShawn on chastity. Fun with Richard Dawkins. Video at Thompson Mugabe evicting farmers, wants revote. I reckon I was wrong to trust that guy. "Prevention" does not reduce medical costs Traumatizing blacks to serve the Left. Am Thinker. The Dem Party is a plantation. Michelle has slides from Petraeus' talk Surber got all the answers: Just Ask Me A website dedicated to "exposing" the "Christian Right." Any excuse to raise taxes: LA wants global warming tax. Meanwhile, Al Gore plans mega-buck advertising scare campaign. Quoted from Jim Miller on wars: Those who know little military history often think that most wars are like World War II, immense and relatively short. In fact, many wars are like our two century long war with pirates, low intensity, but unending.
Americans are often criticized for wanting instant results, and I think there is some truth in that criticism. Perhaps if we knew our own history better, we would be more patient, less ready to expect a quick victory in our wars with the pirates— or in the war on terror.
Tuesday, April 8. 2008
 More on global cooling. But of course it has nothing to do with "climate change." Huh? Isn't cooling "change"?
Paul Mirengoff for 2nd VP Smallest girl in the world. Happy little kid. American Indians were Arabs, claims US textbook. Probably Palestinians, don't you think? Trying to turn the battle of Basra into Tet. If I recall correctly, the good guys won Tet, didn't they? It was Cronkite who lost it. Law School deans prepare for US News ranking changes. Amusing. (h/t, Insty) Obama tries to make it clear that he does love America. Also, Does Obama understand defeat? Generational divisions about climate change. Sad story about how Mexico serves as a stepping stone for illegals. McCain: Dems show failure of leadership. Leadership is an interesting subject. Been thinking about it lately, although I do not lead anything or anybody except, barely, myself. Terrible economy, right? No jobs, right? Dr. Sanity. The media distortion is unbelievable. As Dr. Helen says on another topic: Funny, if a Democrat gets in the White House next year, my guess is that the US will suddenly become a wonderland where pretty ponies and butterflies live.
More on pessimism and protectionism. Heritage Foundation Why Hillary should be winning. Salon Confederate Heritage Month. Prof B. takes a look at the Civil War, suspects it would have happened without slavery as a factor.
Monday, April 7. 2008
Global warming causing disease, says Doc. He's a shameless fear-monger. Shiver my timbers. More pirates KKK supports Obama, says noted commentator Snoop Dogg Bloggers dying? It's an epidemic, a crisis! It's their wishful thinking, thinks me. How surprising. Brit employers like to employ people who want to work hard. We celebrated too soon: Mugabe plans a delay Petraeus comes home to face another battle. I think he can handle it. Privileged teens who "hate America". I thought you had to be taught to hate. Who taught 'em? A "green" 7000 sq/ ft. house? Ugly as sin.
Sunday, April 6. 2008
Bob Brinker noted on the radio today that many Americans would find themselves in the 64% tax rate in some states, such as NY, MA, and California, with Obama's Social Security and tax plan. Brinker said, correctly, that few Americans are willing to work for 36 cents on the dollar unless they are desperate. The entrepreneurs and job-creators would go fishin' or golfin', and cut back hard on their expenses. Thus, on the tax income, job-creation, charitable donation, and consumer sides, the economy would go into an ugly spasm and a downward spiral. "It's nuts," says Bob (who is a political "moderate"). I, for one, would retire immediately and remove my income from the tax rolls: I enjoy my work very much, but I won't be a chump, or a serf or slave to the Federal government. I thought we left feudalism behind us...I think we already had a war about that. Russia now has a 13% flat tax on everybody, on all income. I would be OK with that. How can they be ahead of us? Off topic, Charlton Heston said, before his decline, "I'd like to be remembered as: American, husband, father, actor."
 The internet will become obsolete, beginning this summer. It was nice while it lasted.
"Who says San Francisco doesn't honor vets?" Driscoll The school crotch inspector. Reason Fallacies: A nice example of data selection bias. Coyote The real inconvenient truth: How warming zealotry can damage the earth. Fun stuff at Bits and Pieces How the heavy hand of China creates a Potemkin village for the Olympics A quote from Luskin: WOW. How fortunate are we to live in an age where all major political parties want to stabilize both the Earth's atmosphere and stabilize financial markets." Take THAT, global warmers! Take THAT, subprimates!
And speaking of grandiosity, our friend Sissy notes in Saint Obama awaits his Michael Kelly that Michael Kelly's 1993 NYT essay, St. Hillary, which Peggy Noonan refers to as the first and definitive Hillary take-down, can be read online. A quote from Kelly: ...asked if she has always been impelled by what she called, in a recent interview with the Washington Post, "a burning desire" to "make the world better for everybody," Mrs. Clinton say, with a slight, self-conscious laugh: "Yeah, I always have. I have not always known what it meant, but I have always had it."
Sheesh. Who asked her to fix my life? I am an adult. I just want the govt to leave me alone. Virtue sure can be creepy when combined with vanity and power. And speaking of Mrs. Clinton, another repeated campaign lie comes out. It's a campaign based on lies from start to finish. From an intriguing essay on the psychology of voting by Sewell at Am. Thinker: Erich Fromm can tell us a lot about what is behind how most people vote. He makes the point that most people are terrified of being an on-their-own, take-care-of-themselves, free, adult human being. So, we attach ourselves to surrogate family units and surrogate parents to escape from our freedom. That translates to belonging to and becoming psychologically dependant organizations as diverse as the company for which we work and our boss, to the church we attend and its clergy, and the political party to which we belong and the parent figure who gets our vote. Identifying with the group becomes our new collective identity, and we surrender our individual identity and freedom.
Ask any priest, pastor, rabbi, teacher, psychotherapist, supervisor, or elected official and they will be happy to confirm that the people they deal with are all trying to work out their childhood agendas on any available authority figure.
Photo: Wuzzat? A reader sent in this photo of somebody's well-decorated Butterfly House. Do those things work? How soon before it's filled with bees and wasps?
Saturday, April 5. 2008
 Islam has taken over the UN's Human Rights Council
Thinking about prayer. Dr. Bob Drug companies invent new diseases? Sometimes, maybe. Good example. The Fed caused the credit crunch. Mankiw Writing mastery eludes NYC schoolkids. It eludes me, too. Mercedes Marxists: The Clintons Insty: LARRY KUDLOW: "Recessions are part of capitalism. They happen every so often. We’ve had two in the last 25 years. And it looks like we are entering a third one after today’s jobs-loss report."
Sexual harrassment in Kindergarten Finally, someone in the MSM admits: No current global warming Luck vs. hard work. A poll, by country Who are the people who stiff the banks? Colorado College punishes for satire. What idiots (h/t, Minding the Campus). They might expel Jonathan Swift and give tenure to Ward Churchill. MSM bias joke Cow humor Hillary's error, from Dick Morris. A quote: The Clintons' entire approach to this campaign season was based on learning the wrong lessons from their political history. They survived the Lewinsky imbroglio, the pardons scandal, and the theft of White House gifts and assumed they were bulletproof. They confused our forgiveness with gullibility and came to feel that they could get away with anything. When Hillary won her Senate seat in New York, after Giuliani dropped out and Lazio could offer only nominal opposition, she believed she could sell voters any kind of chimera and they would fall for it.
Friday, April 4. 2008
From Byron York's 527 donation update at The Corner: The top 2007 giver to 527s is — drum roll, please — George Soros, with $3.5 million in contributions to Democrat-affiliated groups. The rest of the top ten are Rachel Mellon, with $3.48 million to Democratic-affiliated groups, Sheldon Adelson, with $2 million to Republican-affiliated groups, Fred Godley, with $1.1 million to Republican-affiliated groups, Donald Sussman, with $1 million to Democratic-affiliated groups, Stephen Bing, with $883,000 to Democratic-affiliated groups, Robert Bingham, with $812,000 to Democratic-affiliated groups, Lee Fikes, with $600,000 to Democratic-affiliated groups, John R. Hunting, with $593,000 to Democratic-affiliated groups, and Francine Goldstein, with $500,000 to Democratic-affiliated groups. (It should be noted that the two Republicans in the top ten, Adelson and Godley, gave most of their money to Gingrich.) And you should remember that these are 2007 figures — off-year figures — and the contributions will likely go way up in 2008.
Well, so much for McCain-Feingold. The Lefties took advantage of that loophole before the Repubs, didn't they?
 This came in over the transom:
CBS is developing a "Texas Version" of the popular TV show "Survivor." The rules are so simple that even a non-Texan can follow them. Each of the contestants must drive from Amarillo to Wichita Falls then Abilene, Fort Worth, Dallas, Waxahachie, Waco, Tyler, Lufkin, Vidor, Houston, skip Austin, on to San Antonio, Burnet, San Angelo, Midland, El Paso, then back to Amarillo through Monahans. Each contestant must do this while driving a Prius with a prominent bumper sticker which reads, "I Voted for John Kerry, I’m voting for Barry Hussein Obama, I Think I'm Transgender, and I'm Here to Take Your Guns." The first one back intact wins.
h/t, Theo
 Limited government vs. expansive government. No Left Turns
Blame these monsters for airline drink policies Radical gays vs. Moslems: Who wins? Protein takes an interesting look at Barone's piece on academics and Jacksonians in the Dem party. Especially the racism part. Speaking of Obama, Coulter read his book. See what she found. Related - Obama, Community Agitator. Israpundit Did Al Gore go nuts in 2000? Am. Thinker Skook made me think about possibles bags, ie pocketbooks, and I was reminded that guys needed them because clothing didn't have pockets. Who invented pockets?
Thursday, April 3. 2008
Hillary has been a dead man walking, while the media has pretended that it's been a race. The fix is in: It's over.
 Obama-Gore 08? Dino. Good grief. And Obama gets another endorsement. That sure will help him.
I don't care how they check up on foreigners on American soil, but I do not like this. Where is our Constitutional right to privacy? And speaking of observation, Garbage Men double as cops. That really stinks. Immigration does nothing positive for the UK. Small Dead Armadillos. No kidding. Iraqis line up to join the army. Ace. Hmmmm. Maybe these dudes know something. A mom discusses raising her autistic kid. Video. "A slice of heaven" It's what's for dinner: Ted Turner says warming will cause cannibalism. He suggested no recipes. Speaking of impending cannibalism outbreaks, it was 19 degrees here this morning when I went to Dunkin Donuts. Why don't "they" like America? AVI thinks about it. I would debate the premises. Exactly who doesn't "like" America, and why should it matter? Clinton lie du jour: No spectacles in the army? The crisis of barmaid ogling in the UK. They are also dealing with the crisis of Euroland bus routes. Aren't they lucky to have folks who really care about them? Speaking of Euroland, poll shows they've had enough with the Moslems. Darn hypocrite racists. The Prof takes a look at McCain's Annapolis speech, and is not impressed by its content. Me neither. Needs a bit of the vision thing. A bit of inspiration and cheerful optimism. (h/t, Insty). Repubs nominated the man - now he needs to become a candidate and show some zip. Since Obama will corner the market on negativity about America, John needs to ring some positive, uplifting bells. Bells of Freedom, I hope. Note to illegals: Get your Maine drivers licenses now, before they go away.
Prof Deneen wonders whether Malthus was right. The sliding scale, from Viking: The sliding scale between "rich" and "poor" - I guess it depends on whether you're being taxed or receiving benefits.
Photo: A Mr. Free Market-style wave of the Capitalist cigar to Buddy and to Roger de Hauteville, (ex-King of Sicily) whose recent efforts at humor have struck a chord. That's a '96 Montecristo #10 - too strong for my taste.
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