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.
Needed his sleep before fund-raiser in Las Vegas in the morning. Staff and press covered for him. This goes beyond "scandal" into other more serious categories like abrogation of duty.
...fasten your seat belt, because the Democrats are about to pull out every stop in their desperate greed to hang on to unearned wealth and political power.
Everything that the West has done to appease Muslims has worked as well as a man jumping into a tiger cage and pouring meat sauce all over his body. Each act of appeasement only makes Muslim violence necessary and inevitable.
I think the Romney people are looking at their inside numbers, and believe that they are winning, or close to it, with momentum on their side. I think the Obama people are watching their lead of the summertime slip through their fingers with little they can do about it other than to sling one more $100 million worth of slime at Romney. Going all-negative and throwing hopey-changey under the bus.
Hence the nature of the "debate" last night, with Romney rising amiably above the fray while Obama irritably yipped and yapped and snapped at him like a sharp-toothed puppy trying to get a rise out of a big dog.
“I can personally relate to a lot of the things Sue was saying about microaggressions against Asian-Americans,” said Christine Noh, a sophomore journalism student. “Yet I was never one to take offense to it- but I see it in a different light now.”
Woodward became a hero not because of WHAT he did, but WHO he did it to. Liberal Democrat politicians can do REPEATEDLY things any one of which would another’s career. These can range from the criminal to the absurd. Imagine if a Republican Presidential or ANY candidate had a girl get weak — “wait, give her some air….somebody give her a bottle of water” at EIGHT consecutive rallies as if it was an old burlesque routine where a singer pops up in the audience the way Al Jolsen was introduced as a kid. Obama pulled that and it was never mentioned in the press –even on Fox. Clinton was accused of rape by two different women and had another brought to his room by state police, when he proceded to “drop trou”…. result??? He is routinely declared a “political genius”. A republican can — after being misled about a foreign word and its meaning say “makaka” at a rally— career over. Get it?
Obama has run far and fast from his own record. Romney, I’m sorry to say, hasn’t always hit him for that as much or as strongly as I think he should have.
But is Romney credible?
Yes. Romney is credible. Perfect? No. Credible, yes.
And that’s a win tonight.
Obama came in with an impossible task, to act as a spoiler and to appear presidential.
Amtrak has around 20,000 employees with an average income of $90,000. I thought that the government takeover of passenger rail had been meant to be a temporary rescue measure, but I guess I was wrong.
Now I am not sure why passenger rail should be viewed any differently from the also-government-supported interstate highway system, or government-supported airports, but Clark Whelton claims Amtrak is a jobs program on wheels.
Where should one draw the line on taxpayer support of life amenities? I must confess that the high-speed Boston-Providence-NYC-Philly-Baltimore-DC Acela service is a very fine and heavily-used amenity for those in the Northeast corridor, as are the New York area commuter trains.
Re Mitt Romney’s toughest debate, he probably can't "win" on details of foreign policy. However, the election is not about details of foreign policy. There are no votes in the Benghazi mess up and coverup, and nobody cares too much about the entire crack-up in the ME, or whether Obama hearts Putin.
I think Romney can make his mark on two themes. First, the importance that America remain the leader of the free world, and the most generous and helpful nation on the planet. Second, that America's beneficial influence is founded on two things: our ideas of freedom and the wealth born of (relatively) free markets. The Reagan approach, minus the Cold War. That leads back to talking about prosperity at home.
(If he has the nerve to talk about respect, and bowing to foreign leaders, that would be fun but would not win any votes. This is fun too: Chavez, Castro, Putin endorse Obama... )
Obama’s last stand is also the Democratic Party’s last stand. A hundred years of foreign policy and economic failures at the hands of a corrupt mafia is about to come home to roost. The Democratic Party has marginalized itself, abandoning mainstream Americans while openly embracing a trillion dollar welfare state.
Iconography elevated Obama as it did FDR and JFK, but it cannot see him through a constellation of crises. And if he falls, then his party falls with him.
"Is there a doctor in the house?" is likely to be increasingly heard in coming years, according to one of the largest surveys ever of doctors. The Physicians Foundation contacted most of the doctors in the US and had the replies checked for statistical representativeness. Among the results:
A whopping 61 percent of doctors said they would retire today if they had the ability to do so. That's up from 45 percent in 2008.
More than 68 percent of doctors have a negative view of the current state of the medical profession. Just 3.9 percent have a "very positive" view.
Nearly three-quarters of all doctors have a pessimistic view of the future of the medical profession. Just 3.1 percent have a "very optimistic" view.
More than 59 percent of doctors have a more negative view of the medical profession as a result of ObamaCare. Just 18.5 percent of doctors have a more positive view as a result of ObamaCare.
Nearly 56 percent of doctors believe that more widespread use of health savings accounts will improve quality and reduce costs.
Nearly 73 percent of doctors believe that less government regulation will improve quality and reduce costs.
More than 35 percent of doctors have closed their practice to Medicare and/or Medicaid patients. That's up from 24 percent in 2008.
#8) Only in America would we make people who want to legally become American citizens wait for years in their home countries and pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege while we discuss letting anyone who sneaks into the country illegally just become American citizens
Conservatives in particular need to accept that Cuba is now just another loser Third World dictatorship, ruled by parasite-gangsters who ought to be hanging from lampposts, but who do not pose a strategic threat to the security of our republic.
No Humanitarian Aid on Estelle Ship, Says IDF - The IDF has confirmed that there was no humanitarian aid on the Estelle, the boat which sought to break Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza
NPR reports, “48 percent of the money spent on food in the U.S. today goes to a restaurant, while in 1955, only a quarter of every food dollar was spent in restaurants.”
The claimed respect held by an organization of Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) anti-Israel California professors toward academic freedom and open exchange of views is contradicted by their actual activities and speech. On November 6, the electorate of California will vote on whether to increase their taxes, against the threat by Governor Brown that the state’s severe deficits will otherwise have to be made up by cuts to education funding. The letter from California Scholars For Academic Freedom and the facts behind it do not argue for taxpayers increasing their taxes in order to fund abusers and deniers of academic freedom.
Thirty-five of the 134 California Scholars For Academic Freedom (CSAF) wrote to each member of the California State Assembly denouncing their unanimous passing of House Resolution 35. As they say:
HR 35 does not create new law, but it calls upon university administrators to deny First Amendment rights to students and faculty. The Assembly resolution states,”[university] leadership from the top remains an important priority so that no administrator, faculty, or student group can be in any doubt that anti-Semitic activity will not be tolerated in the classroom or on campus, and that no public resources will be allowed to be used for anti-Semitic or any intolerant agitation.”
Common wisdom coming into today’s debate was that Obama needed a win to reverse Romney’s momentum, whereas a tie would have been sufficient for Romney to keep capitalizing on the new campaign dynamic. I think that was right. While I think Romney did a bit better than Obama tonight, neither side can point to an obvious, lopsided victory.
The core dynamic here is that Romney has proven himself to be a perfectly acceptable alternative to Obama. The silly portrayal of Romney in all those negative ads has been exploded. Obama’s inevitability is gone. The underlying state of the country, which is not at all good, has become the issue. All of that is bad for Obama and very good for Romney.
Frank Rich: The Tea Party Will Win in the End - This is a nation that loathes government and always has. Liberals should not be deluded: The Goldwater revolution will ultimately triumph, regardless of what happens in November.
The Politics of Impatience - For Michael Grunwald, the president’s vision matters more than his results.
This is either endlessly amusing or endlessly pathetic.
Or both.
For the background, you'll want to read the only real-time evolving post I've ever written. Glenn Reynolds liked it so much he gave it a link when the madness was over.
And, of course, as the holiday shopping season advances further and further every year, and more and more people buy their presents at some "Pre-Christmas Summer Close-Out Sale", fewer and fewer people spend their money during December, the actual holiday shopping season.
As such, every year after Christmas, the major chains complain more and more about how holiday sales were "disappointing". Every year, a longer season, and a bigger disappointment.
Now, in a rational world, the retailers would recognize this terrible trend and do something to counter it. Like, oh, actually leaving the holiday shopping season for the holidays.
Despite the loud sighs and eye rolling that usually occurs when shoppers see Christmas decorations in stores parked next to an aisle of Halloween candy, shoppers are taking advantage of the layaway programs, the toy reservation schemes and early discounting as a way to soften the holiday’s blow to the household budget.
If you read my article, you'll recognize 'early discounting' as one of the innumerable, interminable reasons for the disappointing season.
But wait, you cry! That's just one silly article. Surely, the media isn't actually going to fall for such tomfoolery, are they?
We were driving around blue New England yesterday. We did not see a single Obama bumper sticker or yard sign. We saw one Romney yard sign. They might vote Blue, but the thrill is gone. We even saw a number of Priuses with the factory-installed Obama stickers removed or painted over.
I had more good recent links on the topic, but I lost them in cyberspace. The governments of the world, and the UN, seem to be on a big censorship kick these days. While we can assume that governments love censorship to protect themselves, it seems to me that the latest excuse is fear of Muslim barbarianism.
Muslims deeply offend my Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist friends daily. Let them, as long as it is just hateful and crazy words. Good manners cannot be made illegal: we'd all end up in trouble for talking with food in our mouths.
Governments always make an excuse to exert control and power over their citizens. For their own good, of course.
Pic is a Sugar Maple, on fire yesterday
5 Life Advantages You Acquire from Experiencing Poverty
ADMISSIONS OFFICER: 
*Yet Another In An Endless String Of