Wednesday, March 18. 2009
 In a 2006 interview, then- prospective candidate Barack Obama praised our troops in Iraq but when asked whether “Did [Congressman John] Murtha say that in the right way?” his charge that Haditha Marines committed “cold-blooded murder," Obama deferred to Murtha:
“You know, I don't have the exact quotes in front of me. What I know is here is a guy who served our country. I would never second guess John Murtha... I think he's somebody who knows of which he speaks.”
One after another, the Haditha Marines have been found not guilty. I’ve written many, many blog posts on the details of each case. I’ve yet to read anywhere, including the leftist blogs, any substantive criticism of the proceedings’ consideration of the facts.
Two cases remain open: Platoon leader SSgt Frank Wuterich and Battalion Commander LtCol Jeffrey Chessani. As in the other cases, the politically-propelled zealous prosecution has been handed a series of setbacks to their legal position. The latest is the appeals court upholding of the dismissal of charges against Chessani because of undue command influence. The entire judgment is here. A portion gets down to tacks:
“[W]e are convinced the Government failed to meet its burden of demonstrating, beyond a reasonable doubt, that these proceedings were untainted by the appearance of UCI. [Undue Command Influence] We are similarly convinced that an objective, disinterested observer, fully informed of all the facts and circumstances, would harbor significant doubt about the fairness of this proceeding.”
The prosecution can appeal further, up to the US Supreme Court. Otherwise, the prosecution can choose to restart the case from scratch, under new leadership. The same cause of dismissal, for SSgt Wuterich, is expected.
These Marines have suffered from a runaway frenzy in prosecution. It’s time it ended.
The father of one of the boys in my son’s Little League team is a similarly distinguished LtCol of many years service in the Marine Corps, preparing to assume a vital and very challenging command. Is the message we want to give him and his family that they may face similar ruinous consequences of simply doing their duty?
Unlike Obama, I won’t defer to Murtha but to the known honor and courage of my fellow Marines.
Tuesday, March 17. 2009
Roger's post here today captures some of the inanity swirling around the AIG situation over the past few days. In my view, the AIG focus is populist, boob-bait scapegoating - along with a (doubtless welcome) chance to trash Wall St. Everybody loves to trash it until they need a loan, want to make an investment, or want to start a business. It's a distraction from the real issues in the economy which pose hard and complicated questions. Tough finance and tough politics.
The previous owners of AIG (the shareholders and bond holders - me included, I am sorry to say) have already been thoroughly punished. Like it or not, though, AIG is still one stone in the arch that holds up the superstructure of the global economy, same as Citigroup (same as Lehman was, and we saw how that worked out). Unlike Citi, We The People now own AIG, so it behooves us to run it well in a businesslike fashion unless or until it is broken into parts and sold. Thus of course those folks should get their contractual bonuses. That's how these folks get paid: it's not "extra" for doing a good job. Their salaries are token, and generally quite modest. Not getting your bonus is a finance company's gentle way of saying "Start looking for another job. We don't need you here anymore because you are not adding enough value to our enterprise." If they don't get paid they will leave, and our national "investment" in AIG will go down the toilet. We are getting these guys cheap, too.
Sorkin at the NYT agrees.
Our friend Tigerhawk has written one of the clearest and most succinct pieces on the background of the financial mess. Too much easy money from governments too politically timid to sit through economic contractions, too many greedy borrowers, and overly-lax lending. We are headed back in that same direction again.
Related: Bank punished by Fed for not making bad loans
The Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. MSM reporters on board, of course, to do the heavy lifting.
 "I am just going out and I may be some time."
The conference that went unreported in Europe. Why?
Imagine the luck!
Rewriting the history of Poland
I'm surprised that Clinton didn't think of this: White House Council on Women and Girls
Dick Morris: Can the Pres do the job?
Why we have to take good care of AIG. We own it.
What exactly did Obama inherit? Good or bad?
Report from a seething climate-crazed cranium
UW study says climate shifts are natural. h/t, Surber
Berkeley physics prof: Gore "exaggerates"
Shelby Steele on Why the GOP can't win with minorities. One quote:
...American minorities of color -- especially blacks -- are often born into grievance-focused identities. The idea of grievance will seem to define them in some eternal way, and it will link them atavistically to a community of loved ones. To separate from grievance -- to say simply that one is no longer racially aggrieved -- will surely feel like an act of betrayal that threatens to cut one off from community, family and history. So, paradoxically, a certain chauvinism develops around one's sense of grievance. Today the feeling of being aggrieved by American bigotry is far more a matter of identity than of actual aggrievement.
Photo: Since he asked so nicely, and since we love old rugs, we'll add the informative Rug Rag to our Eclectic blogroll. That's a Soumac. Our favorites are antique Caucasians, but they are expensive, even now. We are also adding the newly-crowned Ross Douthat's site to our blogroll (even though we do not know how to pronounce his name).
Monday, March 16. 2009
 More snow tonight here. Where's that warming they keep promising?
Sex in church in Alabama. Makes sense to me.
Famous war criminal to visit Canada
Dramatic advances sweep Iraq. (h/t, Insty)
Victimology 101 at Yale
Management 101 at Sippican
AIG defends their bonus compensation. Bonuses are how these folks get paid. Not their salaries. Same way with me. My salary is pin money. My bonus is what I get paid for working hard. No bonus means it's your time to leave because you aren't adding enough value to the enterprise. A job is not an entitlement.
Need financial aid for college? Related: Do we really need more college grads?
Also related: The College of Social Change
How is Roubini investing?
How a college defines hate. Idiots.
Paging Dr. Obama: Looking forward to government-run health care. If anbody imagines that the gummint will offer more, better, cheaper, they are dreaming. Gummint will offer controls and rationing of medicines and procedures, way beyond what any "evil insurance company" would do. You can count on it, because they are already saying so.
Related, a quote from Dr. Bob:
Here’s the question I’ve been pondering: is it an absolute good to be continually striving for a longer life span? Such a question may seem a bit odd coming from a physician, whose mission it is to restore and maintain health and prolong life. But the article which Glenn linked to, describing the striking changes in health and longevity of our present age, seemingly presents this achievement as an absolute good, and thereby left me a tad uneasy — perhaps because I find myself increasingly ambivalent about this unceasing pursuit of longer life.
Of course, long life and good health have always been considered blessings, as indeed they are. But long life in particular seems to have become a goal unto itself — and from where I stand is most decidedly a mixed blessing.
The joke is on our kids. (I have no kids, yet. No wife, either, yet: she will need to be lovely, sweet, serene, sexy, competent, smart, outdoorsy, vigorous, and devoted to me despite my flaws - and interested in everything.)
Related: Administration not Socialist enough, at Jules
Related: The Obama team decides to take control of the Capitol. Don't I recall that "one-party rule" was a bad thing? Never mind.
Who is my neighbor?, posted here at Maggie's.
If it's just a symbol, the heck with it. Anchoress
Facebook? Pointless. Twitter? Pointless. No doubt.
Kaus: Is this Admin too preoccupied with morals? Doesn't strike me that way. At all.
Bumpersticker below from Theo:
That's the evaporation of wealth in the US in 2008 - not including 2009. Some of that was mine - enough to make a difference in my plans and in my comfort level. No, I do not expect markets to only go up, nor do I ever expect to sell our house (which still has a significant mortgage) - but this was a tornado. A fluke.
Being no longer a young fellow, I must admit that it causes me some anxiety. We don't have pensions (who does these days, except government employees?). We have 401-Ks. I have no problem with working forever, but I did want some choice about it. I like choices.
IBD explains why it matters to everyone.
Tigerhawk explains why Lefties should be pleased about wealth destruction. More equality, etc. Tigerhawk can be a bit flip about it, though, because he is a young guy, full of beans and ideas, and clever enough to outsmart Obama's Socialist plans for us.
Sunday, March 15. 2009
Steyn: There are no enemies anymore
How the NYT covered the skeptic conference. Related: In denial about denial, Dr Sanity
Also related: Clouding up global warming. Reason
"pour encourager les autres." Origin of the phrase.
Health care reform taking place in secret. With no normal people, either.
Why Keynes is so popular in Washington
Brain begins aging at 27 (but wisdom continues to increase)
Riding the Blame Bush theme as long as possible
Corrupt Dem du jour: Rep. Engel
Obama's overtures to Cuba and Russia have been answered
Private school for me but not for thee
I don't know about you, but I don't want my medical records online
George McGovern revisited. Am Thinker
Hayek grabbing a bull by the balls, photo
Emerging question: Is the Administration incompetent?
The case for big tent parties. National Journal. I agree.
Saturday, March 14. 2009
How computer modeling worsened the financial crisis. American Scholar
How the Wall St. physicists tried to outsmart the markets. NYT.
Everybody loves to find a scapegoat. Never imagined that physicists would be them. Me? I blame Congress.
 Why did Lincoln pick Andrew Johnson?
Representation without taxation
Brussels Journal reports on this week's NYC climate conference. They begin:
More than six hundred scientists, economists, legislators, and journalists from around the world met in New York on March 8-10 for the second International Conference on Climate Change. Presentation after presentation documented the pseudoscience and dictatorial intentions behind the climate alarmism of the UN, EU, and Obama administration.
Read the whole thing.
Stocks that are never coming back.
Pride goeth before a fall in the polls.
Social status prudery. Overcoming Bias
How Radical is Obama? RWNH
The Myth of Relativism and the Cult of Tolerance. Anderson at American Thinker
Friday, March 13. 2009
Toon above from Theo
Some people just want to see the world burn. Goldberg
Cockpit Chatter. Amusing.
Carefully calibrating your fear to accomplish their goals. And it's quite clear what those goals are.
James Lovelock: Anti-Green Ecologist and classic Brit crank/harmless lunatic. How does he get newspaper coverage? If every person who is a bit off in the world got news coverage...never mind.
Now yet another one. Oh, almost forgot. A second one today. (It's usually just one per day.) How many Dems are crooks and finaglers? Has this been studied yet?
The Constitution says we should redistribute wealth. But how often? Hourly? Daily? Monthly? Seems to me that people move in and out of money. Mostly out, lately.
Good old Yankee Pittsfield, where the cops confiscate semen
IPCC Update: We're all gonna drown. I don't care. I have a boat.
Only going to tax the rich - as long as you don't count everybody else
It's tough being a woman making $350,00/yr in a do-nothing job. Government can solve it.
I am all in favor of natural forest fires, but this lady is wacked
Psychology Abuse. Shrinkwrapped
Dang gun lobby won't stop killing people. Will no one stop them?
The Liberal Revolution: Come for the egalitarianism, stay for the bestiality and tyranny.
Photo below from a NYC health food (?) shop in NYC, borrowed from Conspiracy. Worth every penny, no doubt:
Via Right Wing Prof:
"Since when is the secret ballot a basic tenet of democracy?" - Jimmy Hoffa
 Re Yale: "Get the hell over yourselves, you whiny, parasitic little bitches.” More on Yale's peculiar preoccupation with sexuality from Yalie Never Yet Melted.
Finally, we have affordable housing. (h/t, Coyote)
This guy Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, posted by Roger here yesterday, is a piece of work. Where has he been hiding?
Wisdom from AVI:
I know how dangerous I am when I make pronouncements without examining my own motives. Do I fear poisonous ideas being left out on the buffet for anyone to take? A bit. There should at least be a sign that says, “Some people think this is poison.” But I object more strongly when the poison is being actively loaded onto people’s plates. I tend to intervene.
That comes awfully close to the center of my religious, social, and political arguments. Do you want a particular answer to be true? Then be most suspicious of that. Or, working in reverse, is there an answer you resist? Find out why.
Now Obama: Economic probs "not as bad as we think." Huh? Higher energy taxes and socialized medicine is what economy needs, claims Obama. How dumb does he think I am?
And how about this one: Cigar tax hike and other Congressional bullshit. Must be a tax aimed at Rush - and at The Barrister.
Taxman. You have to give the Brits credit for finding excuses to tax things. Well, maybe it's because they still believe they need to give China economic aid. More likely the opposite is true.
A new and frightening number. Dino
Insty:
BUSTING THE BRADY CAMPAIGN for firearms dishonesty. Of course, the alternative explanation — complete ignorance of what they’ve been banning — is even more damning.
"There will be blood." Henninger says This presidency is going to be an act of retribution (h/t, Blue Crab). Obama is a multimillionaire living off tax money. How about a cut in his salary?
The O's honeymoon fading: The Hill. Obama's quirks: Weekly Standard
We never mentioned the closing of Yucca Mountain. That means they don't want us to have nuclear power.
Sen. Dodd may have worn out his welcome. It's about time.
Americans like Big Government. They just don't know it yet.
How do you cut medical costs without tort reform? asks Zoller at Pajamas. Around here, OBs pay $150-200,000/year in malpractice insurance. In medicine these days, the rule is CYA rather than applying considered judgement. Thus a $2000 MRI for anybody with a bad headache or a dizzy spell.
Powerline:
...the destruction of trillions of dollars in wealth that we have witnessed over the last six months is unique in modern history. It isn't just the bursting of a bubble like the dot com collapse of 2000. It is a sort of neutron bomb effect, in which the physical means of production--buildings, fields, factories--are still standing, but the living heart of the economy, confidence in the future, has been wounded if not killed. I don't think that confidence (or, as Bill says, trust) will return any time soon.
Photo: Jefferson, at a rainy and foggy Quai d'Orsay, taken by our friend Nathan yesterday. He holds his plans for Monticello in his left hand.
Thursday, March 12. 2009
A Mr. Free Marketesque wave of a fine cigar to all of the sites that linked with Bruce Kesler's excellent and well-researched post on ObamaCare here. Light one up for the cause of freedom and choice in medical treatment, with our thanks.
We do want to get those facts out there because in a DC health care debate we will be the recipients of many self-serving and emotionally-manipulative lies and scare tactics.
 Our Editor and I have had an email discussion about Kesler's post. Sad to say, we agree that the facts often play a minor role in politics because Lefty politics is all about accumulating State power. Their term is "by all means necessary." Of course, that means removing notions of freedom, free choice, and self-reliance from all of their political equations. It isn't even discussed.
Except for abortion (which is arguably a political issue of self-determination but not, of course, for the tiny new life that is snuffed out), have you ever heard a single Dem or Lefty argument for more freedom, more independence, and less State power over the individual person? Or his/her hard-earned money?
Here at Maggie's, we tend to believe in the virtues of freedom and self-reliance for most, and the human tragedy of dependency only for those unfortunates who require it. That's the only way to build people with strong spirits. The only "universal" things we want from the Feds are protection from foreign enemies and law-enforcement.
(We should note that our blog friend Shrinkwrapped posted a simultaneous and fine piece on the same subject: Preparing for the "Healthcare Reform in the United States" Debate: Beware of GIGO)
 John Sununu speaks on the Politics of Global Warming.
Not satire: EU considers Fart Tax
Advanced paternal age and neural abnormalities
States ranked by freedom. Barone
Via Insty:
GOOD THING WE’RE NOT FACING A FINANCIAL CRISIS: “More than one out of every five dollars of the $126 million Massachusetts is receiving in earmarks from a $410 billion federal spending package is going to help preserve the legacy of the Kennedys.”
What "legacy" is that, exactly? Will it include a stone memorial for Mary Jo on Chappaquiddick?
Stimulus for illegals, but no jobs allowed for foreign-born US biz school grads.
Horowitz' book: The One-Party Classroom
NYT: In favor of filibustering GOP nominees, but not for Dem nominees
Warren Buffett's comments. I like them.
Pelosi's air rage. Sheesh. She is shameless. Who does she think she is? The new mandarins.
Sec. of Education Duncan says:
D.C. has had more money than God for a long time, but the outcomes are still disastrous.’
Judd Gregg says:
All the presidents -- including George Bush -- since the beginning of our republic, will not have run up as much debt as this budget will run up in the first period of its term.
And there is no factoring in, really, of what is coming at us in a significant way, which is the retirement of the baby boom generation, the cost of entitlements on top of all of that.
So, you essentially have set up a scenario here under this budget, where we will pass on to our children in the very near future, at about the end of four years from now, a debt-to-GDP ratio which is unsustainable and a deficit ratio which is unsustainable. And that means our kids are going to have a hard time digging themselves out of this hole.
Gitmo guys go back to their same previous job. Moral of the story: Take no prisoners.
Europe warns re US spending
Rush's stats: Not everybody enjoys him. Interestingly, Camille Paglia does. So do I.
Don't kill Armey's Army
The Goracle refuses to debate. Or even to discuss. I think he has a problem of some sort.
Jammy notes Move-On war against medical insurors (and thanks for the link to us, JWF)
Wednesday, March 11. 2009
 Obama wants less college drop-outs. Focus on Outcome. Is "outcome" a piece of paper? That is easily done: High Schools hand them out every June to anybody with the brains and foresight to show up.
Why don't people live within their means, and save for a rainy day? A teed-off Sowell.
Man finds images of D-Day rehearsals
The 11 Most Expensive Catastrophes in History
Remind me again - what's wrong with bottled water? And what's wrong with using water too? Unless there's a local drought. Anybody hear about the water cycle? It all returns. Our drinking water is old dinosaur pee (which is why I stick with beer instead).
Not to worry about the environment. Sweden will save us all!
The results of 10 years of socialism in Britain
The Leftyism of academia is probably underestimated
Why aren't environmentalists celebrating the drop in consumption?
Dems getting worried about Obama. Jack Welch:
[Obama] is locked in another world. And he's throwing all these initiatives into this game in the middle of a crisis. Focus on the crisis! Focus on the economy!
 Related: The Obama Disaster: 50 Days that Changed the World! Related: Why Obama's case for doing so many things at once is pure baloney. (Image from SDA)
Related: Is Obama in trouble? DC Examiner. Is he a charming lightweight with what somebody referred to as a "dorm room philosophy"?
Not a bottom. Short covering. I think so too.
Jacoby at The Boston globe discusses the religion of AGW
2009 college grads face 22% drop in hiring
The new Left Wing conspiracy. Politico
Obama seeks to turn America to the Left of Europe - and the rest of the world. Related from Kimball: An idiot's guide to destroying the economy. Only amateurs can be as arrogant as these folks are.
Quote from Telegraph columnist Janet Daley at Powerline, re the economy:
... I grew up with the Left and what this looks like to me is a power grab: a seizing of the moment by the forces which always believed in state domination. The Left sees an opening here, first for telling a critical lie about the historical origins of this crisis, which was propelled as much by the Left-liberal determination to spread prosperity through easy credit to the poor, as by the greed of bankers. And then, out of the wreckage, to restructure the economy along the lines that it always wanted, complete with central controls over the pay levels in private financial institutions.
Tuesday, March 10. 2009
 North Korea puts Obama to the test.
Last week's purge in Cuba. So progressive!
A shining milestone for social justice. Related: Did Obama intentionally nuke the economy?
Related: Has the O Admin declared a War on Business? Why? It's the private sector which creates the jobs, supports all our charities and non-profits, and pays the gummint's bills. Without strong business, we ain't got nothin...as we are seeing right now. Sometimes I speculate about how many jobs, professions, and industries are ultimately parasitic to Business-produced wealth: law, medicine, advertising, academia, the entire investment and finance industry, every "service" industry, all of government...the list goes on and on. That's why any rational government would be thankful to business enterprise, and would try to get out of the way of those who want to produce and create. We have built a gigantic economically-interdependent superstructure on the backs of our wealth-creators. But this is all obvious, isn't it?
The ten biggest rookie mistakes of the O Admin. Related: Robert Samuelson labels O The Great Pretender
The war on Barbie dolls
Another women-in-science study
The US has 2 million job openings right now
Cap and trade is a tax on everybody. (h/t, Viking) Related: Why "doubling" alternative energy means nothing
Roger Kimball: On the road to serfdom. One quote:
...not only are the President’s naive and utopian fiscal policies exacerbating an already parlous economic situation: his starry-eyed understanding of foreign relations is set to compromise America’s defense capabilities at the very moment when other parts of the world–Iran, Russia, China–are struggling madly to upgrade their military forces.
A simple alternative to socialized medicine. NRO
A Supreme decision which will harm patients
This Pelosi move sounds like something Chavez would do. Only two months, and we have seen the Feds plan government power grabs in the banking biz, the auto biz, the medical biz, the pharmaceutical biz, the oil and energy biz, and the radio biz. And yet no screams about "dictatorship"!
Supremes narrow minority district protections. I find the whole idea disgusting.
Jim Cramer asks "Why am I a target of the Obama Clan?" Cramer is a Dem, I believe, and a free-market Liberal.
Who listens to Rush Limbaugh? Part of what limits and shapes his audience, I think, is work. Most folks cannot listen to the radio at work.
With the job losses, why do we need illegal labor? Opie reminded us about Operation Wetback. Also: Stimulus gives 300,000 jobs to illegals
David Axelrod having a surreal experience
Monday, March 9. 2009
My cousin Oscar offers this comment -
I don't want to sound like a spoilsport, but does anyone in the Mainstream Media or in the Obama Administration understand that the latest unemployment rate of 8.1% as of February, bad as it now feels, is actually close to the normal unemployment rate in France and most of the European Union (EU) without a recession?
Yes, that is the same EU which Obama and his friends want us to emulate in terms of much bigger Government, higher taxes on producers, weaker Free Markets, and much stronger Labor Unions.
In fact, there is no country in the EU which came close to the United States' former unemployment rate of about 4.5%, save Ireland, which adopted our Free Market approach and so was loathed by the other welfare states.
So, if you're an Obama enthusiast, stop whining. This is the norm for governments whose spending absorbs 30+% of their Gross National Product.
Get used to it...this is what you wanted.
Or, is it?
-Oscar
 To Hell with Niceness. I am all for that. I appreciate good manners, but not niceness.
Cockroach rights in Britain. How about some freedom for humans?
Cruel but funny.
Chris Dodd update: The Hartford Courant finally gives him some attention. (h/t, NRO)
In which Robert Reich calls people like us "crypto-fascist demagogues." Sheesh. May I engage in this mature, elevating and highly-informative discussion of the issues by calling Reich a "pinko dwarf"?
If CO2 is classified as a pollutant
Let them fail. Even God doesn't have enough money to support all these things.
Investing: Timing is nothing. Timing is everything.
Spinning it so it looks like Obama did it.
Repubs are The Stupid Party. They ignore tactics. They don't do tactics. Too honorable or too dumb? I don't know.
Nobody's home in Washington. Maybe that's for the best.
The Admin: Britain is just one more country. Not to me. Methinks The Teleprompter dislikes the Brits. Has he ever been there? No.
The Teleprompter signs on to the Cheney view of surveillance. Crickets chirp.
If the entire EU bureaucracy disappeared, would it harm anything?
Brit Hume says it's Obama's Bear Market. Via Gateway:
It's kind of a bear market within a bear market. The market was already down tremendously over the previous year, and I think most people entered this period of the new Obama administration thinking that it probably was bottoming out and that he would give by his very presence and by what he would offer real hope and that it would at least change the psychology a bit. It has changed the psychology, it seems, for the worse and I think he does bear responsibility for that, and the impression that he has managed to leave is that he's too busy with massive new spending and a scatter shot stimulus bill which was reckless and breathless new initiatives. On top of that you have this budget with all these breathtaking new initiatives to reorder our lives in a multitude of ways.
In the meantime, first order of business, the unfinished business of the previous administration. First order of business for the new administration, the financial crisis, the credit crisis. And, so far, no plan of any discernible shape of dealing with that. A couple of pieces in place as Governor Kaine pointed out. But that's what the market is looking for. It hasn't come. It's very hard. But, that's the big problem.
Sunday, March 8. 2009
 Horse domestication moved back 1000 years. Yet they are just as stupid as they ever were. Moron animals that will get you killed on them.
The Davis Cup, with Moslems. I didn't know that Moslems were big tennis fans.
Still forbidden at the NYT: The T Word
More on CT's attack on the RC Church
Jules uses the A Word. Rightly so.
Bloomberg defends the rich
Even Letterman making fun of Al Gore now. His insanity is not my fault. Blame the Supreme Court.
Bad, good; good, bad; and bad, bad. VDH
A great source of advice: A biz that makes no money. Cool, dude.
What is the CDS market telling us?
It was an insult, but nobody realized it except us.
Chavez to Obama: Wash your ass. Why can't the Socialists just get along?
Brits urged to stop visiting Disney World. That is good advice, but the rest of it is pure BS: Alas, the Brit footprint on the world gets smaller every day.
Book him, Dano
Is Obama lazy? Or is he overwhelmed?
CT goes to war against the RC Church
Our blog friend Prof Bainbridge is always re-working his site, but this is a complete change.
Nyquist: Why not the truth? "The truth will set you free. But freedom signifies responsibility, and who wants to be responsible? Ignorance, after all, is bliss – and bears no responsibility whatsoever. The most common excuse in any language is, “I didn’t know.” ?
Moral bankruptcy. Megan McArdle doesnt want to pay her Home depot bill
Harvard climate scientist Willie Soon: It's the sun, stupid. Related: Alternative Energy is a joke. Reality will rule, eventually.
Dems have doubled Rush Limbaugh's audience. Related: Samples of Rush's hate speech. Speaking about freedom and opportunity and human potential is hateful, right? Of course it is.
The triumph of the Fabians in England, and what we face today
Volker: Bring back Glass-Steagall
Obama keeps looking for enemies
Plenty of opposition to cap and trade
Overtures to Cuba
More on the teleprompter story
It was terrible when Bush wanted to do it, but it's OK for Obama to de-list the Gray wolf
Saturday, March 7. 2009
From Stuart Taylor (h/t, Insty). He begins:
Having praised President Obama's job performance in two recent columns, it is with regret that I now worry that he may be deepening what looks more and more like a depression and may engineer so much spending, debt, and government control of the economy as to leave most Americans permanently less prosperous and less free.
Other Obama-admiring centrists have expressed similar concerns. Like them, I would like to be proved wrong. After all, if this president fails, who will revive our economy? And when? And what kind of America will our children inherit?
Read the whole thing.
The media just found out that Sullenberger is a Republican:
A book: What he must be if he wants to marry my daughter
Hopeful about Afghanistan
Imagine what they'd be saying if Bush did this
How did California commit suicide? VDH
Via Animals as Weapons at Ace:
”A couple drove 170 kilometres (100 miles) from South Africa's famous Kruger National Park with a highly venomous spitting cobra in their car, the Beeld newspaper reported on Wednesday.”
“Gordon Parratt, 69, felt the 85-centimetre (33-inch) long snake wind itself around his leg while he was driving.”
Always check your car for snakes.
From Krauthammer's The Big Bang Agenda:
...with our financial house on fire, Obama makes clear both in his speech and his budget that the essence of his presidency will be the transformation of health care, education and energy. Four months after winning the election, six weeks after his swearing in, Obama has yet to unveil a plan to deal with the banking crisis.
What's going on? "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," said Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. "This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before."
Things. Now we know what they are. The markets' recent precipitous decline is a reaction not just to the absence of any plausible bank rescue plan, but also to the suspicion that Obama sees the continuing financial crisis as usefully creating the psychological conditions -- the sense of crisis bordering on fear-itself panic -- for enacting his "Big Bang" agenda to federalize and/or socialize health care, education and energy, the commanding heights of post-industrial society.
Clever politics, but intellectually dishonest to the core. Health, education and energy -- worthy and weighty as they may be -- are not the cause of our financial collapse. And they are not the cure. The fraudulent claim that they are both cause and cure is the rhetorical device by which an ambitious president intends to enact the most radical agenda of social transformation seen in our lifetime.
From Examiner:
Has this late winter storm left you scratching your head about global warming? This winter itself has proven to be cold and snowy for most of the US, including many southern locations (Las Vegas, New Orleans, Houston, and Hawaii). The snow finally arrived in the Mid Atlantic, albeit late in the season. The irony of five inches of snow still did not stop the Global Warming protest in DC on Monday, but the onslaught of new research may hinder others.
Michael Reilly posted an article in Discovery News that is getting a lot of internet traffic, as well it should. It brings up the possibility that warming of the planet will not resume.
"A financial crisis is the worst time to change the foundations of American capitalism."
Powerline:
Most people ... have figured out that the Obama administration is making war on the private sector. No wonder the stock market is in the tank and employers continue to lay off workers.
The Obama stock market:
|
