Thursday, April 16. 2009
"The Sleuth" in the WaPo thinks this must have been a thrill for the Dead.
I think that's exactly backwards - but it tells you where she's coming from.
Wednesday, April 15. 2009
 Tea Parties all over. Martini Parties too, but in private I suppose. Photo from Ann Arbor. Map of today's Parties: Lots of 'em.
Also, Why you should go to one. LAT: Tea Parties are insane. Tea parties are about future taxes: Q&O.
Each one is identically different: Sipp.
Pirates talking tough. AAARRRGhhh. It's the most trivial of our international problems. Related: More support for the pirates. Let's all collect bottles of Bacardi for the poor fellows.
Social class in America:
For readers who somehow missed this snide, martini-dry American classic, do have your assistant Tessa run out and get it immediately (Upper), or at least be sure to worriedly skim this magazine summary over a low-fat bagel (Middle), because Fussell’s bibelot-rich tropes still resonate.
When Viktor met Olga.
More Lefty thugs preventing free speech at UNC. Aren't different points of view interesting?
The unbearable lightness of Paul Krugman
If you are a single guy, and paid your taxes today honestly (or at least filed your extension), your reward, besides feeling patriotic and honest, is the young lassie below the fold courtesy of Obama and Timmy Geithner. She's waiting at home for ya.
Continue reading "Thursday morning links, posted early"
Big Dog (not Bird Dog) is a danger to our country: I am a right wing extremist.
 IRS agents see double standard on tax errors (Image via Theo)
Breaking news: Sunspots cause climate fluctuations
DHS targets conservatives instead of Moslem terrorists. I knew that creating that Dept. was a bad idea. She is watching me? This is a bad joke.
Illinois gets the pork. Like Roger says. Related, Jesse Jackson Jr. offered Blago $5 million for Senate seat
Faked Obama story passed off as real by the MSM
Are we wasting $ on Alzheimer's care? Sheesh. I think I have a mild case of it, but I do OK.
Black Caucus duped by Fidel. (Why is there a Black Caucus? Don't we have a black President, for heaven's sake? Sheesh. It's just skin tone.)
Gov. Rick Perry and the Tenth Amendment. Nobody told him that the Constitution was obsolete.
More on the paper scam. Mankiw. It's only $8 billion.
Kaus takes a look at medical care costs
Metrosexual Dems go all giddy about guns. Jules:
I’m thrilled about the handwringing, Kumbayah-singing, peacenik left’s new enthusiasm for swift, extra-judicial 7.62 justice by executive order, and the lack of calls for human rights investigations, prosecutions, etc.
He's not joking: We have created more pirates. Good grief. We had the power to create Jihadists, and now we create pirates. Yo ho ho.
Mao and Marx have disappeared from China. Remarkable paean to Capitalism, but
...meanwhile in the USA, Modern Collectivism. A quote:
Collectivism holds that the individual has no rights. Your life, your existence, your interests and the product of your labor now belongs to the group. If the group needs a bailout, heath care, green cars, low mortgage rates, a job, an education—anything at all, it now becomes your responsibility to provide it, whether you want to or not.
You see it in both the redistributive legislation, which takes money from people who’ve earned it and give it to those who have not, along with the language itself. Phrases like “we’re all in it together”, “I am my brother’s keeper” and “shared sacrifice” boil down to the same frightening reality: You are here to serve. And unlike the charity of volunteerism, the “will of the people” is implemented by force, not by voluntary trade.
This is a profoundly anti-American ideal.
image by Big Fur Hat of iOwnTheWorld.com
George Bush had a dog too, but that pup wasn't a PR stunt - he had it long before he was elected, and it wasn't a stage prop.
Tuesday, April 14. 2009
Until today,the greatest news headline evar- the gold standard, really - has been:
But now a new competitor in the WTF sweepstakes, 8 pica division, is in, and it's a daisy:
Japanese Popstar Dressed As Pineapple Robbed In Malmo
I'd like to give the author credit, but these things write themselves these days, don't they?
 Legal scam or real problem? Chinese wallboard
Is there a freedom not to buy medical insurance? Why does that question even need to be asked?
Animal nutritionists at the National Zoo
A "quick" bankruptcy for GM? Megan
Nuclear disarmament: a bad idea in many ways.
A generation of selfish, self-centered liars. Perfect for the Brave New World.
Yes, the Dems killed it, but
What’s a bunch of African-American kids, versus the teachers’ union? Especially in this administration?
Related at Ace who says Obama hates black people.
Goldman beats expectations. Clever dudes down there. From what I heard, they hedged their AIG debt with AIG shorts.
Speaking of Goldman, Wilkinson considers whether there is something nasty about wanting to make lots of money. Of course there isn't: everybody is free to pursue their own (legal) aspirations. The contemptuous assumption that "all the rich are crooks" is as foolish as "all poor are honest." People without functional morals are well-distributed everywhere.
News flash: Economics is an art, not a science
Pirate photo via Theo. Rick Moran offers another side to the Somalia piracy story. Of course, lousy fishing conditions do not justify piracy. These pirates are just thugs with a heretofore easy gig.
Shades of Larry Summers: Disney uses science to attract boy viewers
We posted previously that Western Civilization is not consistent with Brown University's values. Jules attempts to comprehend what is consistent with Harvard's values. It's confusing to say the least. He quotes young Kristol 3rd:
Harvard today happily pays for future bankers to take accounting courses at MIT, but refuses to pay for aspiring military officers who take ROTC courses. Since 1994, anonymous donors have generously picked up the tab, providing hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for Harvard’s ROTC students.
Monday, April 13. 2009
Bravo to our Navy, our SEALs, and to Captain Phillips.
 NY taxes now #1.
Mr. Silver says of the coming tax hikes: "We've done it before. There hasn't been a catastrophe." Oh, really? According to Census Bureau data, over the past decade 1.97 million New Yorkers left the state for greener pastures -- the biggest exodus of any state. New York City has lost more than 75,000 jobs since last August, and many industrial areas upstate are as rundown as Detroit. The American Legislative Exchange Council recently said New York had the worst economic outlook of all 50 states, including Michigan. And that analysis was done before these $4 billion in new taxes. How does Mr. Silver define "catastrophe"?
I think he could more accurately say that it hasn't been a catastrophe for the politicians.
Move along. Nothing to be learned here.
A history of the computer mouse. h/t, Thompson
Turns out that all of that about the evil Bush power grabs was insincere electioneering. Gee, who knew?
Daniel Hannen MEP on the Brit NHS:
Imagine that, in 1945, we had created a National Food Service. Suppose that, in the name of "fairness" and "need and not ability to pay", sustenance had been rationed by the state. Conjecture that every citizen had been allocated one butcher, one baker, one café and so on. We all know where that would have led: to bureaucracy, to duplication, to surpluses in one field and scarcity in another, to racketeering, to hunger. No one, not even Prescott, is suggesting that we socialise food distribution - even though food is at least as basic human need as healthcare. As those Americans of whom you seem so contemptuous might put it, John, go figure.
Chris Dodd's "Banking for Change" does seem like an unfortunate choice of campaign motto
More on China's excess of males
The NYT, Obama, and the UN Human Rights Council
The Blago case: Biz as usual?
The AP is sword-rattling towards the internet. I agree with the article that the relationship is symbiotic.
The Left hopes the New America will no longer be exporting democracy. I understand Realpolitik, but it hardly seems like something to be enthused about.
What is it about Europe and free speech?
Proposed: the right to sue the Fed gov for the weather
Saturday, April 11. 2009
VDH, via NRO. It's called "politics."
What I fail to understand about it all is that our hispanic illegals do not seem to me to be dependency-driven, but more opportunity-driven, traditionalist, family-oriented, and religious.
 It's Holy Saturday - another day to mourn and to reflect on the cross - and to anticipate Easter. We all encounter our personal Good Fridays - the seeming death of God to us in our own foolish lives, and the feeling of abandonment by God. Through prayer, constant prayer, we can humble and diminish our precious selves and reestablish the link by making space for Him to return to us and to talk to us. Think I am crazy? Try it. Our self-love and self-pity leave little room for Him in our hearts.
But here are some unholy links:
Who are the Socialists in America? Whatever happened to love of freedom? When did a decadent yearning for dependency take over?
Health care reform and free markets. Q&O
Piracy. Why there are no armed men on freighters in that area is a mystery to me.
Western Civilization inconsistent with Brown's values. Which are what????
Global sea ice far above normal now. Explain that. Related: NASA now says it's not CO2 - it's aerosols. So much for "settled science."
The elephant in the room: Obama vs. USA. A quote from Phila Enquirer:
What is indisputable is that Koh calls himself a "transnationalist." He believes U.S. courts "must look beyond national interest to the mutual interests of all nations in a smoothly functioning international legal regime. ..." He thinks the courts have "a central role to play in domesticating international law into U.S. law" and should "use their interpretive powers to promote the development of a global legal system."
Koh's "transnationalism" stands in contrast to good, old-fashioned notions of national sovereignty, in which our Constitution is the highest law of the land. In the traditional view, controversial matters, whatever they may be, are subject to democratic debate here. They should be resolved by the American people and their representatives, not "internationalized." What Holland or Belgium or Kenya or any other nation or coalition of nations thinks has no bearing on our exercise of executive, legislative, or judicial power.
Koh disagrees. He would decide such matters based on the views of other countries or transnational organizations - or, rather, those entities' elites.
Shades of Oceania.
Obama's arrogance: neoneo. I think he thinks he's smarter than he is.
What is the carbon footprint of green pizza? It reminds me of how Elvis used to send his plane from Memphis to LA to pick up his favorite PB&J sandwiches.
The Left is "monitoring" the Tea Parties
Obama is reaching out to the moderate pirate community
Hey Dems - keep your hands off Teddy Roosevelt
I wondered this too: if universities receive federal funds, why doesn't the gov try to run them too?
O makes a case for unilateral disarmament. Bret Stephens:
It's also worth considering just what a new round of arms control is meant to accomplish. In his speech, Mr. Obama painted it as a matter of setting an example to the wider world.
But as the journalist Walter Lippmann observed in 1943, the disarmament movement of the interwar years only proved "tragically successful in disarming the nations that believed in disarmament." Mr. Obama himself noted that "some countries will break the rules" of nuclear nonproliferation, adding that "That's why we need a structure in place that ensures when any nation does, they will face consequences."
Sure. Like the UN? Related: The Department of No Defence
 Poor Joe Biden. He really seems to be a compulsive liar and self-aggrandizer. Maybe it's a good match. Related: Rush Limbaugh's meeting with Obama!
Different visions. David Limbaugh via Intell Cons:
The liberals see they now have a chance to actualize their vision for an America remade in their image and radically at odds with the vision of this nation's Founders. It doesn't matter that there couldn't be a worse time in our history for implementing their reckless policies. They know they may not get another chance in their lifetimes to work such mischief. Even though it will break the federal bank, us, our children and our grandchildren, it's all going to be OK because they will finally have achieved their statist vision for America.
Yep, they think they are smarter and wiser than the average rubes like us.
From Vanderleun's Deer in the headlights:
Of course, much of the current government's institutionalized death wish, and the culture of cowardice that both precedes and envelops it, is carefully camouflaged, hidden from the sight of the less-than-persuaded centrists, independents, and other Americans who might not be ready to follow the Democrats across the Styx and down into the hell of collectivism "done right, this time, trust us." The love of death-in-life in political philosophies must always be hidden. If it were not the American collectivist party would wither to its small and wizened core. After all one must, even while taking the country down the path to defeat and ruin, pretend that one has only the very best core American values at heart. It keeps the marks and the rubes from wising up, waking up, or blinking in the glare of the headlights.
Thursday, April 9. 2009
 Let's tax 'em at 80%. Just for the heck of it. They'll keep on working hard...won't they?
Is amnesty designed to be a distraction from the Big One - the budget?
One of the scariest things in America is prosecutorial power. Am Thinker discusses.
17 Socialists in the House? At the very least, it seems to me. Plus one in the White House.
From David Warren on Thomas Sowell (and MLK):
I love Sowell, because he can "do" desolation without wandering into despair. Reciprocally, he can do hope -- the real thing, not the rhetorical posture. A black man, from a fatherless home, raised by an aunt whom he thought was his mother, in rural then urban conditions that would excuse any man for failure, he saw through his circumstances. He dragged himself up, through a machine shop, through the Marines, eventually to great eminence in the academic world, at a time before he could trade on his race. And he continued rising, with the help of honest friends, and by ignoring vilifications.
 Medved on Obama the Leveler. It's either a different view of the world, or it's simply a political strategy.
Obama's immigration agenda on the way. Once again, it's either a different view of the world, or it's simply a political strategy. I suspect the latter.
AVI takes on the movie "Doubt" from the DVD cover, without knowing anything about it. A quote:
Doubt is the proper stance to take about anything religious. That way you can be conflicted and can’t ever judge anyone else’s actions, but you can still be a sensitive thoughtful good person and not have to commit to anything as solid as unbelief.
They are transparent to us. We are opaque to them.
More on how the Left is bewildered and upset by the Tea Parties. Remind me - how much money did ACORN get from the "stimulus"? Was it $5 billion? ACORN is a government-supported radical political organization. We hope the Tea Party movement has legs.
Lefty crybaby bloggers want to get paid by political orgs. Lefties always want other peoples' money. (In the interest of fair disclosure, we must admit that MF, like most of us centrist sites, does receive $10,000/month from a low-profile RNC-related media org in return for mindlessly echoing the Repub talking points which are emailed to us daily from deep within a hidden bunker somewhere in the Real America. A pittance, but every little bit helps to keep us in beans and rice.)
Money image on loan from Wall Street Fighter
Wednesday, April 8. 2009
 Getting dates: What's your FICO score?
College admissions officers emote. What a horrible job they have: all those snot-nosed kids putting their egos on the line.
Powerline gets rough on Harold Koh: Curtailing our representative democracy. Yes, this is a serious issue.
Related, from Dick Morris: The repeal of the Declaration of Independence. Not funny.
Utter economic ignorance in the NYT. Does the Left think money is manna from heaven? Somebody has to make it, you know.
A good reason for the gummint to encourage smoking. Plus, they get the tobacco taxes. Smoking is patriotic.
A good story about charter schools: We don't want your money
Taxes heading up for the middle class. Duh. No free lunch.
Guess what? If you spend $50 billion on construction, you do get a little bit of construction. Not a lot, but some.
We are now bailing out life insurance companies. Did you know that?
Paglia on Obama's painful missteps. I would not have made all of those gaffes, nor would have Paglia.
For the ignorant press, this counts as "evidence" nowadays. Unbelievably stupid.
Transgender laws headed for New England. Whoopee! We're almost all transgenders up here, ya know. We like those of the opposite sex, if that is what it means.
76% vote to live off the other 24%. Hey, who wouldn't? Unless you happen to have some dignity and pride...
Let's not offend...Britain? WHT? Do these people know anything?
"It's like Miley Cyrus Does Europe." I don't know who Miley Cyrus is, but Jules does.
The 2010 Census as a welfare project
Tony Blankley begins:
Of all President Barack Obama's transformative domestic policy proposals, none is more far-reaching and less transparent than health care.
President's science advisor: Let's cool the earth. Not up here, please. We had snow today, and we are burning oil like crazy in NYC to keep the furnaces blasting.
Impossible to solve. Just do your best...
They think they own protests. They do not. They have the power now, and I do not like what they do to my country.
Funny how fast compromise and consensus flew out the window.
 Image on right via Surber. Related, at Volokh:
Good to hear that American free speech tradition isn't "too deeply unsettling to world order." But wait -- check out the footnote following this paragraph:
See generally Louis Henkin, Gerald L. Neuman, Diane F. Orentlicher & David W. Leebron, Human Rights 564 (1999). Admittedly, in a globalizing world, our exceptional free speech tradition can cause problems abroad, as, for example, may occur when hate speech is disseminated over the Internet. In my view, however, our Supreme Court can moderate these conflicts by applying more consistently the transnationalist approach to judicial interpretation discussed infra Part III.C.
And what is this "transnationalist approach" that can help "moderate these conflicts" caused by American constitutional protection for "hate speech ... disseminated over the Internet"?
Read it. I say "Good grief."
A vote for sanity: Climate change bill sidetracked
Harvard student takes on Barney Frank
Black Caucus praises Castro. Nice role model. Everybody wants to emigrate to Cuba, don't they? The Gulf of Mexico is packed with Mexicans and Liberals trying to get to the peoples' paradise.
Obama's anti-nuke speech. Dino
Why "quality" medical care is dangerous
Are American housing policies rational? Prof B says no, and I agree. The American Dream isn't home ownership - it's freedom. I am a flat-taxer and opposed on principle to the mortgage interest deduction.
O's foreign apologies: What did you expect? Still, Rick says:
Yes, it discomfits me that Obama seemed eager to disrespect his own country in front of those who, at times, have been equally arrogant, equally dismissive, and certainly more derisive when George Bush was president. But in perilous times, it is best to keep your friends close. And despite a few gaffes (”Austrian” language? Are you fricking kidding me?), Obama’s trip was helpful to our interests and will hopefully pay big dividends in the future.
This is entertaining:
Tuesday, April 7. 2009
 Dept. of Hopey-Changey: A US-based Al Qaida magazine. Does it have a centerfold like the one on the right? If not, I will not subscribe no matter how good the articles may be.
Most Americans have too much wisdom to devote their entire lives to it, but we do have the right to get rich if we want to do that.
Note to depressed Muslims. Keep us out of it.
This may be news to most Americans, from Janet Napolitano: "This is one NAFTA, one area, one continent..."
Too bad. Looking a bit bleak for Coleman. Can't believe those folks voted for the other doofus.
No more buche de chevre? Sucks, dude. Try a government job.
The arrogance. Nobody even knows where the Missouri capitol is. "Hey, Ahmed. I have a great idea. Let's crash into the Missouri capitol to show the infidel the power of Allah." "Cool, dude. Will you do it? But what's Missouri? Show me."
Powerline on the Strib's terminal ailment. Related: Greedy capitalist newspapers want donations from Google. Why not just make them part of the executive branch?
Hey ladies: get your fellow some of this stuff. We need a happier world.
Tiger and Insty both are interested in token Greenie stuff (nothing real), but Tiger at least admits it.
Why docs are refusing Medicare.
Dems push for voting rights for illegals. We saw that coming.
Students: Beware of the one-party classroom
Monday, April 6. 2009
Obama sells himself to the world stage - to help sell himself to the American stage. America is the only audience that matters.
How is he doing?
Is he a pompous windbag? There can be no doubt that he digs himself. That's for certain. More than he merits? You decide.
Went for a family visit and Palm Sunday Mass in MA at the family church yesterday. Still cold up there: rain, wind and snow today. Spring feels very far away, due to Climate Change.
 More Tea Parties. It's a Protest Movement! Power to the Silent Majority!
Not just for out-of-towners. Hop on and hop off tour busses in NYC. Cool.
It's a tie in upstate NY
Charles Blow needs a change of underpants
This is just wonderful. Indeed it is.
AVI rarely seems to have an ugly thought, but he had one.
Why does O bash the US in foreign countries?
McCain rebukes Hispanics for not supporting him.
Our problems:
We've narrowed down our troubles. Neither small pox nor poor crops are really all that troublesome any more. No, our problems are now pretty much each other. (Inasmuch as small pox and poor crops are still problems in some places, see what the men there are up to.)
If you think man-against-man problems went away in ancient times, recollect the 20th century. One hundred million deaths can be attributed to communism alone. Add in perhaps 21 million more thanks to Hitler. R.J. Rummel tried to count 20th century human deaths caused by governments, not including wars between nations. His count: over 260 million. That was before the Congo (3.9 million), Sudan (2 million), Rwanda (937,000) and recent "famines" in North Korea (2 million), all since 1990.
They say I am afraid of Michelle Obama's vegetable garden. WTH? I am usually afraid of the menacing weeds in Bird Dog's garden, however.
College orientation, for whites only. They've gone full circle! No doubt some pomo logician can explain it to me.
Can we afford to bet our economy on the supposition that Freeman Dyson is wrong?
CNN is running out of religions to respect. h/t Driscoll. In my view, respect for peoples' religion is a simple matter of manners - but all religions need criticism. Everybody and everything needs criticism.
Hate to say it, but I think this is true:
Max Borders argues that the President’s motive is, not ending the recession, but using it as an excuse for truly radical restructuring of American society and further deformation of the Constitution.
If the President’s goals become reality, most of the remaining checks and balances of the 1787 Constitution will effectively have been eviscerated, leaving a nation driven by Tocqueville’s tyranny of the majority, ravenously confiscating other people’s money.
We all know a Prez can't "end a recession" anyway.
No country in the Middle East will take in Palestinian refugees. Is there a reason? Obama wants to take them. I thought they had their own country now, with an elected government and tons of weapons etc.
Tom Sowell says we have a rookie President. Related: Most polarizing Prez in the modern era. Related, the brilliant Obama invents a new language: Austrian.
Protesting Obama at Notre Dame.
Taxation:
"That is the American way," Stroger replied. "And the way that it's generally done is, you find some group that's small enough where they can't beat you up, and you tax them and you tell everybody else, 'See? We didn't tax you.' "
Marriage is a contract, but is it just a contract?
Aussie boobs getting bigger. It's Climate Change.
The politics of vouchers. Choice not allowed:
Mr. Duncan's office spurned our repeated calls and emails asking what and when he and his aides knew about these results. We do know the Administration prohibited anyone involved with the evaluation from discussing it publicly. You'd think we were talking about nuclear secrets, not about a taxpayer-funded pilot program. A reasonable conclusion is that Mr. Duncan's department didn't want proof of voucher success to interfere with Senator Dick Durbin's campaign to kill vouchers at the behest of the teachers unions.
The decision to let 1,700 poor kids get tossed from private schools is a moral disgrace. It also exposes the ugly politics that lies beneath union and liberal efforts across the country to undermine mayoral control, charter schools, vouchers or any reform that threatens their monopoly over public education dollars and jobs.
Meanwhile, the DC pols all send their kids to private schools.
How the NYT does politics (h/t, Moonbattery). I know the NYT plays tricks, but this is beyond what I imagined. Are any reporters anywhere covering this story, or are they too much in awe of the NYT...or of Obama?
Or are they too chicken?
 Sunday's New York Times had an op-ed - a Sunday op-ed having particular prominence - by George Bisharat, “Israel on Trial.” Bisharat recites every charge raised by any source accusing Israel of violating international law in its treatment of Gaza.
Surely the NYT would defend its publishing of this screed as giving both sides of a story. A law professor who has known Bisharat, son of a Palestinian father, since law school remarks on Bisharat’s “Personal Intifada”:
Bisharat has devoted the past 25 years towards delegitimizing Israel. The links are too numerous to list, but almost everything Bisharat does and says is geared towards isolating and demonizing Israel. But Bisharat doesn't stop there, he also seeks to delegitimize Israel's supporters in the U.S.
One must wonder if the NYT publishing Bisharat’s op-ed means the NYT disbelieves its own reporting, and if the NYT is even sincere in its attachment to international law.
In January, the NYT examined the charges in long detail, “Weighing Crimes and Ethics in the Fog of Urban Warfare.”
Deciding requires an investigation into battlefield circumstances that cannot be carried out while the fighting rages, and such judgments are especially difficult in urban guerrilla warfare, when fighters like Hamas live among the civilian population and take shelter there. While Israel is the focus of most criticism, legal experts agree that Hamas, a radical Islamic group classified by the United States and Europe as terrorist, violates international law.
Shooting rockets out of Gaza aimed at Israeli cities and civilians is an obvious violation of the principle of discrimination and fits the classic definition of terrorism. Hamas fighters are also putting civilians at undue risk by storing weapons among them, including in mosques, schools and allegedly hospitals, too, making them potential military targets. While urban and guerrilla warfare is not illegal, by fighting in the midst of civilians, often in civilian clothing, Hamas may also bring risk to noncombatants.
But Hamas’s violations tend to be treated as a given and criticized as an afterthought, Israeli spokesmen and officials say. They say that Israel has never sought to hit civilians, medical workers or United Nations facilities or personnel. “The rules of engagement are very clear,” said Mark Regev, the government spokesman. “Not to target civilians, not to target U.N. people, not to target medical staff. All this is very clear in Israeli military doctrine.”
Continue reading "NYT Blows Itself Up In International Law Minefield"
 Prof B:
...the Obama administration is engaged in national industrial policy far more radical than ever before seen in the United States and, worse yet, with policymakers who seemingly know nothing about cars and, for the most part, don't even own American cars.
DC voucher kids performed better. Swedish schools are voucher, I think.
Speaking of Sweden, "The point is that students must feel seen, heard, and affirmed." Or they will set their schools on fire. Arsonist students need special affirmation, no doubt.
Why Levin's is the most important book of the year. But is he preaching to the choir?
God and government. Riehl. Quote:
...if you want to tear down anything and everything beyond man, then man is the only concept you have left in which to invest your rights. And once you do that, rest assured, one day some man is going to come along and take them away.
Dem crook du jour: Monica Conyers
What's more important - getting medical care or having insurance?
Axelrod cashes out before taxes go up
O to N. Korea "Come on, fellas. Please cut it out."
From Diana West's argument against Afghanistan:
The point is that sinking all possible men and materiel into Afghanistan to nation-build an Islamic culture into a pro-Western one (while simultaneously fighting Taliban and wading deep into treacherous Pakistani affairs and wars) is not the way to victory. In fact, it is the best way to bleed and further degrade US military capabilities. If I were a nefarious jihad chieftain, I can't imagine a better strategy than to tie up America's best young men in a grueling and open-ended war of hide and seek in the North West Frontier....
My fellow conservatives will say: But withdrawing from Afghanistan will give sanctuary to terrorists including Al Qaeda! My answer is that sanctuaries for terrorists including Al Qaeda exist all over the world, from Iran to London to . But it will embolden the terrorists! Frankly, I can't imagine anything more emboldening than the disgusting, shameful spectacle of Barack Obama bowing in deference to the oil-garch of Arabia--except maybe serving up Israel on a platter to its jihadist foes...and except maybe exhausting US capabilities indefinitely in Af-pak, as they now say.
Canada update:
About 20 percent of Canadians work for one level of government or their agencies. This is the highest per capita public sector employment in history other than in wartime. According to Statistics Canada, in the last three months of 2008, the number of civil servants grew by 96,000. In 2008, the total compensation package of wages and benefits grew by 4.3%, just over double the rate of the private sector.
A report released in December, 2008 by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business found that federal employees made 42% more than their counterparts in the private sector when salaries, benefits and pensions were factored in. At the provincial level the difference was 25% while at the municipal level the difference was 36%.
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