Monday, March 19. 2012
The guarantee-issue provision of ObamaCare is expected to result in many enrolling in individual plans who are ill, or waiting to enroll until ill. The Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will require group health plans to subsidize individual health plans with about $27-billion between 2014-2016. That is expected to keep individual premiums about 10-15% lower but raise group premiums by 1%.
The estimate is supposedly based upon the experience of New York's guarantee-issue requirement since 1993, where premiums have actually skyrocketed compared to the rest of the US. According to Kaiser Health Facts, in 2010 the average individual premium in New York was $357 versus the US average of $215, while the employer-provided family coverage premium is 6% higher in New York. It'll take much more than $27-billion taken from employers to subsidize the added individuals covered by insurance under ObamaCare.
Video is at Althouse's Alexandra Pelosi "is declining to understand the critique."
Redstate: There Will Be A Reckoning Against These People.
David French: The Problem with Mocking the Poor
Via Insty:
“Maher criticizes the whites and finds excuses for the blacks. That’s because he has adult expectations for whites while having only child-like expectations for blacks.” Yeah, well, that’s how racists think.
Sunday, March 18. 2012
Photo is the East Haddam, CT, Congo church
...as many as 3 in 10 young adults postponed marriage, starting a family, or both, due to the economy, according to the Pew report. Another third have returned to school and untold numbers have settled for a job simply to make ends meet.
"settled for a job"?
How they view me: Why Conservatives Are Still Crazy After All These Years
Friday night news dump: Administration to move forward with and expand contraception mandate
Obama building largest campaign in history
Stop the demagoguery on oil and gas, Mr. President
Union Thugs Threaten Citizen Election Watchdogs
Santorini: This Is All That Greece Needs
EDITORIAL: Destroy all churches - Obama silent while Saudi grand mufti targets Christianity
California’s Endangered Charter Schools - The state’s powerful teachers’ unions want to regulate charters into submission
In Search of Vienna's Vanished Jewish Elite
President Barack Obama promised over and over during the health care debate that “if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”
It turns out that, for a lot of people, that isn’t true.
Saturday, March 17. 2012
Today’s lead editorial in the San Diego Union-Tribune, “Saving lives is the moral high ground”, validates the post I wrote February 24, "Pig Politics Vs Marine Lives". San Diego area congressman Bob Filner, one of the most liberal in Congress, along with PETA, seek to halt the training of Corpsmen using anesthetized pigs, claiming falsely that using simulators is better. The editorial may be traced not only to my piece but also to the correspondence I had with the reporter who admitted his articles in the newspaper were poorly researched. Kudos to the reporter for taking responsibility. The newspaper’s editor is an excellent, moderate and professional journalist. The editorial is evidence that there are such and they are to be prized and congratulated for upholding journalistic standards.
The newspaper editorial follows:
Saving lives is the moral high ground
by U-T San Diego Editorial Staff
There has long been a soft spot in the Editorial Board heart for animals great and small. We love the seals at Children’s Pool in La Jolla. We supported Proposition 2 in 2008 to ban the inhumane cages and crates used by many California farms to house hens, veal calves and pregnant pigs. We support efforts to protect California gray whales and to save the giant California condor from extinction.
But our soft spot hardens a bit when it comes to the controversy over the use of live pigs in the training of American military corpsmen to help save the lives of the men and women who tragically find their bodies shredded by roadside bombs or other armaments of war on far-off battlefields.
Rep. Bob Filner, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee and a candidate for mayor of San Diego, has introduced misguided legislation to phase out the use of live animals in combat simulations by 2016 at training grounds such as the privately operated facility at Covert Canyon near Alpine in East County. Supported by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Filner argues that there are alternatives that simulate human body injuries just as well and that the use of live pigs is unwarranted.
But military officials argue that there is no substitute as realistic as live animals in helping corpsmen learn how to keep severely wounded soldiers alive in the stressful conditions of the battlefield. And they emphasize that the pigs are anesthetized throughout the training and monitored by veterinarians.
We hope a 2009 Defense Department report proves true that in years to come there will be high-quality and cost-effective alternatives to the use of live animals for this training. But, today, the lives of U.S. military personnel in combat are being saved in unprecedented numbers thanks to medical training at places like Covert Canyon. And that gives it the moral and ethical high ground.
 Jesse James probably regarded himself as an idealist at heart
Anne Tyler: A writer's modesty
Alan Bean: An astronaut at 80
Siri vs. Evi voice commands
Everyone Out of the Pool
Pap smears? Mammograms? Prostate exams? Not under Obamacare
Modern Environmentalism, 1970 – 2012, RIP
White House moves into full reelection mode
Interesting Example of How the Possibility of Surveillance Interferes With Free Expression
Rotting from the Head Down - A member of Britain’s intellectual elite celebrates his nation’s social collapse.
58% Favor Taxing All At The Same Percentage Rate
So do I. Dues are dues.
Financing Terror
Obama Team Mining Personal Info to Woo Donors
No Pasaran:
There are no angels, but there are certainly more demons in trying to dupe the working man into believing that fake issues such as Gay Marriage, Global Warming, open borders (which costs the working class jobs and lowers their wages), forcing medical insurance companies to cover the contraceptive pill at no additional cost, and the like.
It’s agitprop – plain, old fashioned agitprop thrown out there in the hope that anger at the shlebobbeth can be raised, and the public’s mean IQ lowered.
A new anti-Israel tactic
Opposition to Obamacare Grows as Anniversary Approaches
Nicky Larkin: Israel is a refuge, but a refuge under siege - Through making a film about the Israeli-Arab conflict, artist Nicky Larkin found his allegiances swaying
Major RED FLAG: Military Cover-up in Afghanistan
McCain sees another Solyndra in Navy biofuels spending
Iran’s stealth financial partners in Latin America
New Pro-Palestinian Chutzpah Tactic To Silence Pro-Israel Professors
In a Friday night news dump, the Obama administration’s proposed solution to paying for free contraception provided to health plan members got ratcheted up to a new level of feeble three-card monte, only not transparent to utter fools, which the Obama administration relies upon.
The Obama administration already mandated that religious employers with insured plans can opt out, but their insurers will have to pay for the contraception. The transparent ruse there is that such costs will actually be passed back to employers in higher premiums, aside from violating their religious doctrine.
The Washington Post reports, Friday night the Obama administration mandated that colleges with self-insured plans, covering about 200,000 students, those in which the college directly self-funds claims via an administrator it pays to process them, will have the tab picked up by the administrator. Several schemes are proposed to accomplish this. Ultimately the cost reverbs back to the sponsor of the self-funded plan. (800,000 more students are covered in insured plans, already mandated by ObamaCare -- or should I call it FlukeCare -- to include contraceptives.)
Over a third of covered workers, over 50-million, receive their medical coverage through their employers’ self-funded plan. Employers have lately been flocking to self-insured plans, to avoid aspects of the ObamaCare onslaught. The Obama administration just brought the siege tower to breach the plans sheltering tens of millions, with more ObamaCare salvos to follow through to devastate another sector of free enterprise health care and freedoms.
Thursday, March 15. 2012
The best you could say is that he at least defends Limbaugh's right to speak. Beyond that, this is a very pale attempt to sidestep outrage at his otherwise outlandish and clearly misogynist use of language. He claims because he gets a laugh, it's fine to use words that demean a woman. What he's really saying is it's fine to use those words regarding Sarah Palin or any woman on the Right who he dislikes, especially if it gets a laugh.
The bit I did about Palin using the word c-, one of the biggest laughs in my act, I did it all over the country, not one person ever registered disapproval, and believe me, audiences are not afraid to let you know.
The outrage regarding Fluke was about the use of the word, and had little to do with context. That, somehow, just using it was wrong. Limbaugh didn't use it to label all women, it wasn't a misogynistic commentary. He did not show hatred or distrust toward women in general.
Maher was not misogynistic, either (to be fair, my original statement above was meant to be sarcastic). But he cannot distance himself from Limbaugh on this. Both of them utilized language and imagery that is inappropriate. Getting a laugh, I have been told by my Human Relations Department, does not make something okay to say. Now, Maher lacks an HR Department, but common sense is clearly lacking if he thinks that just because people laughed, his jokes were acceptable. And being a "pottymouth" doesn't make it okay, either.
We all use words, from time to time, we wish we hadn't. Limbaugh apologized for using his. Maher tries to rationalize his.
"If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story."
Orson Welles
And on where you start it. We may not be professional scientists here on the Farm, but we've all read the classic How to Lie with Statistics, and I assume we've all studed at least basic calculus.
(And we all also know that computer modeling depends on the parameters you chose, or adjust ex post facto: "With four parameters I can fit an elephant, and with five I can make him wiggle his trunk." - John Von Neuman. In science, if data fails to fit models, they adjust the models to fit the data, and keep their jobs and federal grants. In finance, you get fired or lose your bonus.)
Sticking with Orson Welles for today, my point is elementary math: If you select your end point (and your starting point), you can extrapolate out any line from any piece of any graph or curve you want. That's termed "cherry picking." That's why they say that, if you extrapolate the curve of the log graph of the population of Houston from 1950 to 1980, Houston would shortly contain the entire population of the USA.
Climate alarmists are famous for extrapolating from small, selected pieces of data - and also for continual realignment of modeling parameters (which is not science, it's computer gaming).
Let's accept that post-glacial global warming has been going on, with dramatic bumps up and down but generally beneficially for humans (not for Wooly Mammoths), for 10,000 years, with the resulting 120-150 meters of ocean rise. (There are many Neolithic villages underwater in the English Channel and the North Sea, many Indian villages underwater 50-60 miles out from the coast of Virginia, etc.) This will continue until the climate tide changes back to the next glaciation in the next few centuries or millennia. Given recent predictions, we are warned to expect at least several decades of global cooling around now. Will it be the Big One? A warning to go long Key Largo real estate?
Here's an amusing alarmist example which is being fed to our benighted, innocent kiddies: Warming Doubles Extreme Coastal Flood Risk Across U.S. They begin:
Global warming has raised global sea level about 8 inches since 1880, and the rate of rise is accelerating. Rising seas dramatically increase the odds of damaging floods from storm surges.
As if it all began in 1880. It's probably closer to 6 inches in the past 200 years, but let that pass. The real question is why they picked 1880 instead of saying "Rising seas since 1800 increase the risk of damaging storm surges"? The line would be less scarey. Or better yet, why not say "Rising seas since 15,000 BC increase the risk of damaging storm surges"? Look at this graph. Why not draw your average beginning at 1800?
Aha. they picked a low point and a high point on the curvacious historical graph, and are extrapolating from that teensy piece of it to instill terror. If you picked 1800 as your starting point, your line would look different.
And, as we posted yesterday, if you picked 18,000 years ago, your take on the data would be quite different again. You would relax and turn on the basketball game. Go Huskies - and we may need real Huskies here soon:
Call me paranoid if you want, but my view is that there is an unspoken alliance (not a conscious conspiracy) between greedy scientists and greedy governments of all sorts to make a big deal out of a big nothing. I hope to survive the big chill to see that finally people will have admitted, as they finally admitted about the imminent Ice Age scare of the 1970s - that it is pure hype.
But, what the heck, let's step even further backwards from the frame for the really Big Picture. I'll bet teacher never told you that we remain in a cold spell, historically-speaking. Yes, indeed. Polar ice caps are not normal for planet Earth. The earth doesn't have a fever - it has a very bad cold right now:
 This is a vacation week for lots of people in the US, isn't it? Not for me, though. The town is empty.
New species of Leopard Frog discovered in New York City
Do Statins Make It Tough to Exercise?
Evangelicals’ Collapsing Cultural Influence
Ban Dante?
Gay Man Sues Over Thong Discrimination
IRS to Mom and Pop: Drop Dead.
What’s the Left-Wing Case for Federalism?
The Incredible Shrinking Postal Service
Use of pigs in training classes sparks protest
If you want to be treated with respect by The New York Times and the rest of the multiculti establishment, make it clear you’re willing to kill them
An Excellent Article from Politico and some Thoughts about any Biases at Politico
NY Suicide Caucus Votes Down Cuomo Pension Reform
CBO: New 10-year projected cost of ObamaCare is … $1.76 trillion
ObamaCare: If Possible, The News Is Getting Worse
Scarce Oil? U.S. Has 60 Times More Than Obama Claims
Texas vs. California - Why so many people are moving from the Golden State to the Lone Star State.
Thursday is 'Poolmageddon' for trial lawyers
Mearsheimer’s Anti-Semitism Scandal
WaPo: Obama’s troubled handling of Afghanistan
Too many wars, too few U.S. soldiers
Morning Bell: Obama’s New Regulations Cost Billions
From a commenter at Zero Hedge:
According to Monday's CBS/NYTimes Poll, a MAJORITY of Americans believe the President directly controls the price of gas.
The Democrats and the media spent YEARS, and a hundred million dollars in advertising (Free media and other) pimping this to the sheeple, who swallowed it. Now it's biting them in the ass.
NBC Evening News/MSNBC did 37 live gas price reports from the station two blocks away from the White House to illustrate just how high gas prices were in 2008. It was $5.69 for Reg at this station on Monday. I wonder why NBC/MSBC aren't doing live reports from this station now? Anyone know why??
ANYONE????
Wednesday, March 14. 2012
Catholic and other institutions are forced by the Obama administration to provide for killing the unborn, contrary to their religious doctrine, but the Obama administration just granted the Northern Arapaho tribe permission to kill bald eagles for their religious freedom, even though US law prohibits the killing of bald eagles in almost all cases.
The agency’s decision comes after the Northern Arapaho Tribe filed a federal lawsuit last year contending the refusal to issue such permits violates tribal members’ religious freedom. Although thousands of American Indians apply for eagle feathers and carcasses from a federal repository, permits allowing the killing of bald eagles are exceedingly rare, according to both tribal and legal experts on the matter.
Far rarer than allowing the killing of unborn humans.
Promoted from the Comments: "If their permit is refused, then they should apply to construct a wind farm. Then wait." (The author is Earl. Anyone remember the TV show "My Name Is Earl." I didn't know he is a reader!)
The machinations of the Army Corps of Engineers - levees, water diversions, flood control etc - around New Orleans prevented the maintenance of the Mississippi delta by blocking the flow of the silt down the river.
Thus, over 80 years, the delta has shrunk. Louisiana wants to restore enough of the natural river flow to help restore the delta. That sounds good to me.
But, if you read the article, the LA Times writer repeated brings up "climate change" and how the current situation "left the sinking Mississippi Delta defenseless against the slower but inexorable onslaught of rising seas brought about by climate change." (By the way, it is not "sinking. River deltas are sustained by river silt, or else normal erosion and currents wash them away.)
Thus the author first explains the real mechanics of why the delta has shrunk, and then brings in the irrelevant topic of "climate change" and seal level, converting an interesting article into a propaganda piece. That bugs me.
Sea levels have been slowly rising to a total of around 120 meters since the last Ice Age, recently by an unalarming average of 3 millimeters per year. (Since 2010, they have been dropping, to the dismay of the alarmists.)
and, just for fun, post-glacial climates. Looks like we're trending downward from the optimum, which is not good:
Tuesday, March 13. 2012
Hundreds of articles analyze whether the US should or not take a stronger stand vis a vis Syria or Iran. The articles usually increase uncertainty among readers. In the absence of complete information as to all the players’ goals and means or perfect knowledge beforehand about the outcomes, the reader is understandably confused or paralyzed by doubts. Indeed, that seems the purpose of many analyses and comments by officials.
It is impossible to know with certainty in advance the effect and outcomes of the many variables and responses possible. So, uncertainty is natural. But, uncertainty does not require indecisiveness nor excuse inaction.
Despite being told for decades that the Israel-Palestinian issues are central to peace or progress in the Middle East, the past year has demonstrated conclusively that is not so. Internal and external ethnic and religious divisions among the Moslem states, and the rise of Iran in its efforts to predominate among all, were distracted from, often purposely, by attacking Israel. That veil has been ripped off in the past year.
A pox on all their houses would be a proper response, if the outcomes among them didn’t have a significant effect on the West.
Continue reading "Uncertainty Is An Excuse For Obama Inaction In Middle East"
 I guess you could call it "Occupy Sandra," but that sounds a little bit disrespectful of her natural feminine sex drives and desires, and I'd hate to get into a brouhaha like Rush.
She still wants me to buy her condoms, and yet I've never even met her, much less taken her out to dinner at a nice French bistro and gazed deeply and soulfully into her eyes with deep sympathy (for her inability to afford needed condoms). Lib Hero Sandra Fluke: Free Birth Control Is a Natural Human Right – I Won’t Be Silenced.
It occurred to me that, as an act of charity, caring Americans ought to each mail her a box of condoms from the minimart. She is begging, after all, and she, bravely, heroically, will not be silenced until she gets them. As pictured on the right, they appear to come in three sizes: Tall, Grande, and Venti so maybe one pack of each size, just in case.
Let's all show some compassion for this 30 year-old single law student and bury her Georgetown apartment in ultra-ribbed lubricated Trojans so she can have the fun she deserves as an American citizen.
I am a believer in freedom from government power, a believer in self-governance and self-determination. I am deeply skeptical about the notion of "rights to free stuff" because that always entails government power and usually government coercion by our betters.
We already have seen Obamacare become politicized, and that is just the beginning. It will get much worse, because I need daily cigar aromatherapy to maintain my mental health and count on my fellow citizens to provide it for me for free. Habanos, please.
This whole topic of "positive rights," ie entitlements, is a strange thing, isn't it? Come on, people. Do you want the government in your sex life and your cigar life, or out of it?
(Condoms For Sandra, aka Occupy Sandra, is not a 501(c)3 company, but it is coming soon through your government on your nickel - for Sandra)
 The Dingo as the Default Dog?
How to Tap the Missus
Seek and you shall find': Secret message that led to 'lost' Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece hidden behind wall for 400 years
The Isle Where Buffalo Roam
Topography of religion in the US, by state
The Grad-School Decline
Did You Skip College?
Interesting comments there
Raquel Welch: American men are sex addicts
I blame her
Repetition: The Key to Spreading Lies
115-year-old electric car gets same 40 miles to the charge as Chevy Volt
Blue Blights Empire State:
New York as a state has been committed to the belief that a high regulation, high cost, big government approach to state and municipal management would pay off in the long run: yes, government in New York would cost more than in Texas or Alabama or other benighted hell holes, but New Yorkers would be better educated and more productive. New York’s infrastructure might be expensive, but it would facilitate business growth. New York’s public sector labor force might be expensive, but it would be competent and motivated so that it would deliver more. New York could make a high cost, high regulation governance model work: that was the big bet.
It has failed.
Also, Golden State Gloom
Big new taxes on the way. Also from Norquist: The taxman cometh
The Rich are Different From You and Me: They're Old
50% of UK Nursing Home Patients Abused By Government Health Care
California Asks Judges: Gay or Straight?
Kimball: The Real Entitlement Mentality
The TSA’s Insane Budget And Woeful Track Record
“Why I Still Support Barack Obama”
Next Important Manufactured Obama Issue: Gay Homeless Teens
Marines Offer Brutally Honest Insight On Military Rape Culture
Monday, March 12. 2012
Ace had this insight: In the Future, Socialism Will Advance Through "Insurance":
The endgame is just that no one actually pays for anything; the government, or a co-opted government-controlled industry which provides the functions of a socialist government ("insurance companies" which no longer insure anything, but merely send checks to people), simply takes over almost all costs in life.
As long as they call it "insurance," people can pretend they aren't mooching off their neighbors.
Coffee Is an Essential Benefit Too - Here are some other health-care mandates that government should impose on employers.
Definitely the free gym memberships
AVI: Family Tradition
School for quants
What You Need To Know About “Pink Slime”
Britain's Shed of the Year 2012 entrants
Britain again: Christians have no right to wear cross at work, says Government - Christians do not have a right to wear a cross or crucifix openly at work, the Government is to argue in a landmark court case.
There is a deep confusion there. The government does not dispense or remove rights. Government is supposed to be there to protect freedom.
If China is to excel at innovation, the state must give entrepreneurs more freedom
Rep. Darrell Issa Confronts Forced Unionism
Forced unionization is pretty bad. But also, who knew you could get paid for taking care of your own kid?
Another EU Greenfail As Poland Blocks Carbon Targets
Detroit Nears Bankruptcy. From a commenter there:
In a column a couple of years ago, political commentator and Detroit native Michael Barone stated that when people ask him why a former liberal Democrat like himself became a Republican, he always gave a one word response, “Detroit.”
A federal takeover of education
Monckton’s Schenectady showdown (video here)
World can use power of the Internet to destabilize Iran's regime
NOW President Terry O’Neill Calls Rush Limbaugh a “Godsend” For Giving Dems an Issue to Distract Voters
In blatant chutzpah, if the pro-Palestinians at UCSD will allow a Yiddish term, they have launched a specious campaign to claim they were harassed and insulted by their opponents. This false claim is in order to step up their own fear, slander and harassment that silences students and faculty at UCSD and other campuses from defending Israel.
These false charges are a test experiment to use elsewhere to counter the documented charges of harassment and violence by pro-Palestinian students at other campuses that have been deemed serious enough to be taken up by the federal government under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and for which ten students were convicted for their acts at U of C Irvine.
The absurdity of their specific claims at UCSD is even more manifest, and dangerous, because it is actually the opposite that occurs at many campuses. The activities of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli students and faculty have harassed pro-Israeli students and faculty, leading many to be silent rather than become involved because of fear of attack or that it would endanger their career path in retribution by the alliance of virulent Israel haters with extremist Leftist allies.
Continue reading "New Pro-Palestinian Chutzpah Tactic To Silence Pro-Israel Professors"
Sunday, March 11. 2012
 Penn Sounds Off on Daylight Savings Idiocy
LATIN IS THE BEST LANGUAGE
Book review: The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt
Supersize, please: The fattest and skinniest US cities
Why Baby Boomers Will Have a Troubled Retirement (h/t Insty)
What retirement?
Some good links at Carpe
China: electricity use down 7.5%, 26MM newly unemployed
Romney Beats Obama 48%-43% In New Rasmussen Poll
Steyn: The Fluke Charade - Why should we have to fund a middle-aged schoolgirl’s sex life?
All of us are born with the unalienable right to life, liberty, and a lifetime supply of premium ribbed silky-smooth ultrasensitive spermicidal lubricant condoms. No taxation without rubberization, as the Minutemen said. The shot heard round the world, and all that.
Because pregnancy is a disease, right?
Symposium: Why Do Progressives Love Criminals?
Prosor: Arab Countries Support an Attack on Iran
Afghanistan joins railroad era - 100 years late
Argentina’s Slow-Motion Disaster
Falklands War: China learns from Argentina's mistakes
Why Is Washington so Bad at Strategy? Generals and politicians never seem to be on the same page. Is there any way to fix it?
Incoming UC Students May Be Asked To Declare Their Sexual Orientation
Reminds me of a story a friend told me about enlisting in the Navy during Vietnam as an officer. An interviewer asked him "What is your religious preference?" "Episcopalian, " he replied. "But you wrote down that you were Jewish," said the interviewer. "I am," he said, "but you asked my preference. I would prefer be to be Episcopalian."
The real bias of 'Game Change'
"There is no disagreement that we need action by our government, a recovery plan that will help to jumpstart the economy." — PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA, JANUARY 9 , 2009 With all due respect Mr. President, that is not true.
Fiscal Phonies
Hidden unemployment numbers stymie Obama’s job growth claims
Saturday, March 10. 2012
Instead of preaching kindness, we should realize, as the Bible did long ago, that we’re all bullies—and that the best advice is to give in to that reality
Hygiene Hypothesis And Why Amish Kids Have Less Asthma
Our kids don't play in the dirt or in sandboxes, or shovel enough horse poop
More White-Collar Job Woes
20 years of school and then they put you on the day shift. Look out kids...
I Wrote This In 2006. There's Been A Lot Of Effluent Under The Bridge Since Then. I'm Still In Business
A Swan Song for the Old New Republic
Michigan Considers Free Tuition
"Free"? Watch out! It's a government take-over, ultimately, on your tax nickel. It's greed and greed for power. Politicians can never leave well-enough alone. Primum non nocere and all that is not on their agenda.
Why is Jon Corzine Still at Liberty?
Is nationalized health care inevitable?
Possibly, if the government messes up the current way things work. I can guarantee that people will hate government medical care far more than they are disgruntled with free market medical care.
Column: The Shameless Obama Campaign
Israel and the Plight of Mideast Christians
Why Obama has just a 34.7% chance of being reelected
EXCLUSIVE: Rush Fires Back at Advertiser
He has a lot of fun with his job, and every time he gets hassled his listenership spikes up
Karma Fisker Dies in Consumer Reports Testing
A half-billion dollars of taxpayer $ to build a $100,000 POS car in Finland. WTF? Is this a metaphor for the O Administration?
McCarthy: Re: Obama & the Crits:
In Alinsky’s view, the only radicalism that had a chance to succeed was the one that could bore inside bourgeois institutions, co-opt the language, and move the mainstream in the radical direction — but only as fast as political conditions would allow. Remaining radical but being coldly pragmatic kept the Alinskyite both effective and viable, allowing him to keep coming back for more. Ayers eventually learned this lesson — the lesson that you can do more for the cause by running the classroom than by blowing up the classroom or occupying the campus. As Ayers himself says, he’s just as radical today as he ever was — he is no moderate progressive. But now he’s actually accomplishing things, affecting thousands of minds. To borrow the words of Van Jones, another radical Leftist turned Alinskyite, he decided “to forgo the cheap satisfaction of the radical pose for the deep satisfaction of radical ends.”
Friday, March 9. 2012
29 years ago: THE EVIL EMPIRE SPEECH: The full story of Reagan's historic address (h/t Ricochet)
NY Times stokes Palestinian victimhood, ignores self-inflicted wounds
The Perils of Wishful Thinking: On Europe and the Middle East
Navy spending $26.75/gl for biofuels
Avoiding a bad nuclear deal with Iran
Hamas denies it intends to stay out of Israeli war with Iran
Russia Helps Syria to Upgrade Radar
The Coming China Cyberwar - China’s Military Is Prepared to Wage Large-Scale Cyberwarfare Attacks Against U.S. Military, Civilian Networks
Morning Bell: China’s Military Rising
Chi-Com Influence Op Revealed - U.S. uncovers Chinese spying and influence campaign to derail Pentagon’s Asia buildup
I have no fear of China. They are an old-fashioned technocratic kingdom struggling to control a vast and diverse population. They just want to be players on the world scene.
Claiming Jerusalem is in the Koran
Yemen Is a Hot Battlefield
Iran may be cleaning up nuke work
How AIPAC Beat J Street - It has the formula for healing the dangerous U.S.-Israeli trust deficit that emerged under Obama.
China to soften its one-child policy slogans, but not the law itself
Shaping History - Painter Ward Shelley plays with the history of Judaism in ‘The People of the Book,’ a series of giant, whimsical flowcharts that tell a story
LYONS: Forcing our military’s submission - President’s appeasement after Koran burning only toughens the mission
Islamism and the Syrian uprising
US expert about Azerbaijan: Greater democratic reform is obviously needed
Outrage in Turtle Bay - UNESCO declines to remove Syria from human rights committee
The Anti-Piracy Business – Warning Shots and the Rules of Engagement
Vietnam War's 'uncomfortable' side examined in N.C. exhibit
Bruce Thornton always puts it all in context:
Since pregnancy is a disease, then, someone else should pay the premium for insuring against the consequences of a woman’s risky, careless behavior. She shouldn’t even be responsible for grabbing some free condoms at the clinic and taking care of the risk herself.
Look even closer, and we see the real progressive agenda at work: increasing the power and reach of the federal government and its bureaucratic minions by discrediting and marginalizing any other source of authority over our behavior, especially institutions of moral authority such as churches. That way the government can aggrandize its power by relieving people of the responsibility for their choices through palliating their damaging consequences while making others pay for them. Tocqueville noticed 150 years ago this tendency of centralized power to expand by infantilizing the citizenry. Centralized governments, Tocqueville remarked, act as “if they thought themselves responsible for the actions and private conditions of their subjects, as if they had undertaken to guide and to instruct each of them in the various incidents of life and to secure their happiness quite independently of their own consent.”
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