Tuesday, December 18. 2012
 I have nothing new to post about today.
It is a difficult time in central Connecticut, but it is almost Christ's birthday party. Being fresh out of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, what can we offer? We can offer receptivity.
We can offer anticipation of a mystery, new life, birth and re-birth, gifts of the spirit to be delivered by FedEx or Santa or the Holy Spirit on Christmas Eve, or any other time, to each heart open to those precious gifts.
"... store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be."
Matthew 6
Monday, December 17. 2012
Human rights abroad are not of real concern to President Obama. This is clearly signaled by the potential nominations of John Kerry and Chuck Hegel to be Secretary of State and Defense, respectively, two men who throughout their careers have buddied up to tyrants and downplayed oppression.
None are arguing for direct armed intervention in every case of brutality toward human rights, or the US would be invading at least half the members of the United Nations. But, where US foreign policy interests are aligned with defense of the human rights within a country, there is no justification to ignore or excuse or downplay the gross denial of basic rights, nor for that matter not to aid those aligned with Western values.
This is not a new concern unique to the current administration, but it is a heightened problem in the Obama lead-from-behind or the Obama skedaddle-from-town foreign policy.
The major human rights organizations have a spotty record of holding this administration’s feet to the fire. Should Kerry and Hegel be the policy-making and public face of US foreign policy, the major human rights organizations either better rise to their pretenses or be self-labeled as frauds.
Michael Rubin describes the issue:
It is no secret that when it comes to staffing, the most famous U.S.-based human rights organizations are skewed more toward Democrats than even universities. The most professional organizations try not to allow partisanship to corrupt analysis, but they are seldom successful….
The coming four years, however, should force real soul searching among the human rights community. President Obama’s reported pick of John Kerry to be secretary of state and the looming choice of Chuck Hagel to be secretary of defense will cement in his cabinet two figures that lack a moral compass in international affairs. If Kerry considered Bashar al-Assad “a dear friend” and a genuine reformer because they had a nice coffee and bike ride together, sympathizes with Latin America’s new populist dictators, and believes human rights should be shunted aside because Vladimir Putin is a sincere democrat, dictators will understand they have a free pass and democratic dissidents will realize they have no friend in the U.S. government.Hagel’s gut instincts are even worse: He is not naïve like Kerry, but rather cold and callous when it comes to human rights. His instincts are to dismiss his opponents’ worst excesses as a domestic affair. Hagel embraces traditional appeasement, unaware that rather than satiate dictators, it only emboldens them. It won’t take long for dictators to understand that, with both Kerry and Hagel at the helm, they will have carte blanche to repress and murder their own people in a manner unseen for decades
.…The question for the human rights community will be if they will hold water for such men and confirm the political corruption which infuses the professional human rights community.
A prime example of the hypocrisy of a leading human rights organization, Human Rights Watch, is 9/11 truther, virulent anti-Israel pro-Hamas apologist Richard Falk's membership on its Board of Directors. The anti-Israel animus in President Obama's potential appointments of Kerry and/or Hegel are described by Caroline Glick.
 Spam University
The Third Annual Nigerian Email Conference
HESCHMEYER: Radical feminism waging the real war on women
Reid vs. the filibuster
The Coming Regulatory Black Hole - Thousands of new proposed regulations, delayed by the election, will be issued over the next few months.
I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother
Gun Crime Soars in England by 35% Where Guns Are Banned
Surprise! 40% Of Democrats Own Guns
Media Sets Gun Control Narrative, Shuts Down Mental Health Debate
Volokh: A Thought Experiment Related to School Shootings
Fund:
Until the Newtown horror, the three worst K–12 school shootings ever had taken place in either Britain or Germany.
and
Economists John Lott and William Landes conducted a groundbreaking study in 1999, and found that a common theme of mass shootings is that they occur in places where guns are banned and killers know everyone will be unarmed, such as shopping malls and schools.
At Jacobson:
I sometimes wonder whether black Americans would be happy or disappointed to know how little most white Americans think about race. And more and more, I think they’d be disappointed. Or mad.
Green Grift: Solar Firms Under Investigation for Inflating Costs
ObamaCare Will Bring Bureaucracy, Endless Rules And Coercion, But Improve Nothing
'Israel and 1938 Czechoslovakia are similar'
"Israel Through the Eyes of a Christian Sojourner,”
Muslim Country With 25% Slave Population Elected VP of UN Human Rights Council
What North Korea's Rocket Launch Tells Us About Iran's Role
Sunday, December 16. 2012
 COME EMMANUEL, GOD WITH US!
In more ways than one, we are waiting in darkness. Isaiah prophesied Jesus’ birth, saying, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light” (Isaiah 9:2).
Yet, the darkness will never totally go away. I’ve worked long enough in ministry to know that moral evil isn’t going to disappear, but the Gospel offers something much more subtle and helpful: “the light shines on the inside of the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it” (John 1:5). Such is the Christian form of yin-yang, our own belief in paradox and mystery.
We must all hope and work to eliminate darkness, especially in many of the great social issues of our time. We wish world hunger could be eliminated. We wish we could stop wasting the earth’s resources on armaments. We wish we could stop killing people from womb to tomb.
But at a certain point, we have to surrender to the fact that the darkness is part of reality, and my logical mind does not know why. But the only real question becomes how to trust the light, receive the light, and spread the light. That is not a capitulation to evil any more than the cross was a capitulation to evil. It is real transformation into the unique program of the Crucified and Risen Christ. This is the one pattern that redeems reality instead of punishing evil or thinking we can eliminate it entirely. Our main job is to face it in ourselves.
Adapted from Preparing for Christmas with Richard Rohr
My pic is the Congregational Church of Hadlyme, CT, yesterday
Saturday, December 15. 2012
 Vanderleun: The Star
Vultures Quickly Gather to Exploit Tragedy in Connecticut
Is Obama Already Politicizing Sandy Hook Shooting?
Is the wind industry entering panic mode?
Taxing the Successful to Death
At the Ivies, Asians are the new Jews
Mead: Liberal, Educated “Experts” Run American Colleges into the Ground
In fifty years, if not much sooner, half of the roughly 4,500 colleges and universities now operating in the United States will have ceased to exist:
This past spring, Harvard and MIT got the attention of everyone in the higher ed business when they announced a new online education venture called edX. The new venture will make online versions of the universities’ courses available to a virtually unlimited number of enrollees around the world. Think of the ramifications: Now anyone in the world with an internet connection can access the kind of high-level teaching and scholarship previously available only to a select group of the best and most privileged students.
Showcase Campuses, Built With IOUs
High-Mileage Cars: Is 200,000 the new normal?
The man who invented the bar code also "perfected a system for delivering elevator music efficiently."
The Doctor Won’t See You Now -American health care is in a bureaucratic death grip.
The view at small businesses
Where’s Mitt (Cont’d)?
IPCC Admission Has Climate World Buzzing
Jindal Calls for OTC Birth Control Sales
Will China Have the World’s Largest Economy by 2030?
Obama To Troops: Don´t Insult The Taliban
MY SAY: NEWLY DISCOVERED! GENERAL GEORGE PATTON’S GUIDE FOR U.S. SOLDIERS FIGHTING IN WORLD WAR 11
Friday, December 14. 2012
Thursday, December 13. 2012
His daily post, Best of the Web Today at the WSJ site, is the wittiest and most engaging review of national news and random happenings that exists.
I envy his talent, his brains - and his cool gig. I think he has a small staff to help. A daily read with my cup of Dunkin.
Thanks, James, for what you do. Hope you are well-paid for it.
 Peaceable Kingdom: Cart pulled by lion, two sheep, and a bear. More cart pics here.
The Stark Geographic Inequality of the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction
Count me as opposed to the mortgage interest deduction
What art has come to: Bryan Saunders: portrait of the artist on crystal meth
Sippican Cottage Deeply Regrets The Use Of Forced Labor In His Factory
Pelosi Accuses GOP Of Lack Of Concern For Kwanzaa
A new play: Exposing Joseph Stalin’s Media Apologist
It's okay to be rich if liberal because it means you care
Michigan Stuns Labor as Blue Model Continues to Unravel:
Labor needs representation and many of the values that drew millions of working Americans into the labor movement endure. But few American institutions are as ill suited to the 21st century or have proved so inept at reorganization and reform as the unions.
Union rioters: Fat old white men
The Full Effects of Obamacare Just Starting to Make the News
Medical device tax hypocrites
Extreme Weather Belief Like A “pagan rite of human sacrifice to ensure a good harvest”
President Obama's tenure as president will have as one of its benchmarks one of the worst and longest-running unemployment records in recent history -- and he will own it all by himself.
Jews warned not to wear religious symbols in Copenhagen
Prescott and Ohanian: Taxes Are Much Higher Than You Think - The combined levies on labor income and consumer spending have seriously reduced the hours that Europeans work. The U.S. isn't too far behind:
Edward Prescott has shown that the U.S. average marginal effective tax rate is around 40%. This means that if the average worker earns $100 from additional output, he will be able to consume only an additional $60.
Wednesday, December 12. 2012
Tuesday, December 11. 2012
Like the Hannukah reindeer? Ideally, I suppose he'd sport a menorah.
A new war game: Europe 1939-1945.
How Ben Affleck’s Argo Screws History
You Could Tell Santa’s Helper In The UU Church Pageant Was A Drag Queen Because He’s The Only Person In Western Maine That Looks Even Vaguely Feminine
6 Green Lies Threatening to Starve You - It started with the gas in your car. Now the green police are coming after the food in your fridge.
Foodstamps Soar By Most In 16 Months: Over 1 Million Americans Enter Poverty In Last Two Months
“Wage Class War” — well, at least they’re honest about the strategy
Gallup Reports Upper-Income Spending Worst November Ever
New Curricula Will Substitute Government Manuals for Classic Literature
Young Americans Could Experience Shock When medical insurance Exchanges Go Live
One reason to not send your kids to school
At Big Government
A friend from Chicago, involved in Illinois politics who has known Obama since his early days in the Illinois State Senate, told me that two things that trump everything else in Obama’s mind: redistributing the wealth and empowering labor unions. Look at everything the President does, my friend says, and you will find one or the other lurking in the background.
Obama’s Broken Promises to Sandy Victims
Upscale liberal Kentfield discovers that scary phrase “We’re from the government, and we’re here to help”
Conard: Buffett Is Wrong About Taxes
Female Genital Mutilation: An Islamic Crime
Monday, December 10. 2012
When Israel announced that planning would begin for some housing in an area known as E1, the New York Times led the media howling that building there would cut off the northern from the southern parts of a future Palestine in the areas of the West Bank. Despite the Palestinians publicly announcing at the UN their breaking the Oslo Accords, a reason had to be found or created to hold Israel to blame for obstructing peace!
This map (courtesy of Honest Reporting), for example, shows that not to be true.
The New York Times must have bought a map, and just ran two corrections to its prior reporting, if it can be dignified as such. Blind ignorance is blamed on an “editing error.” Yeah, and Delaware is our largest state.
That area has never been offered to Palestinians in any of the many proposals for 98% of the West Bank to be theirs for a state. See this map:
Continue reading "New York Times Sells A Bridge, Then Buys A Map"
I want to highlight this morning's Samuelson link, Is the economy creating a lost generation?
I suspect that many of our readers are seeing this happening around them these days. It is a terrible time to be a graduate, whether of college or of grad school, and this seems unlikely to change any time in the next four years. There will be a glut of job-seekers such that a job - even a job without great career-building prospects - will feel more like a privilege than like an opportunity.
It's sad to see eager talent going unused. What young people in this economy need to do is to ramp up their job-seeking skills to a level of intensity rarely required in the past 40 years, or to make something interesting happen themselves, on their own initiative. Necessity is the mother of invention.
Compared to these youngsters, I feel like I had it easy. And I didn't because I went eight years going from place to place with little kids, never with a real or even semi-permanent home, trying to find my right niche, never making much money at all. Constructing the life or career one dreams of is never easy and often impossible, but it's far more difficult now.
Saturday, December 8. 2012
 None of these are particularly worthy of their own post, but they add up to a fun little collection. Well, except for that horribly sad thing that happened to Bird Dog.
Bring a tissue.
First, some really good news from the political front:
Washington Post Plans a Paywall
That should only eliminate about 90% of this liberal dishrag's readership. Like the NYT, the news will still be open to the public, but to read the op-eds is going to cost a little something, and the only people who'll shell out the bucks are such ardent Lefties that we don't care about them, anyway. But it's a very good thing to keep these creeps away from the average reader.
Next, kind of good news/bad news story. First, the good news:
Johnstown, PA (GlossyNews) – Local and state police scoured the hills outside rural Johnstown, Pennsylvania, after reports of three animal rights activists going missing after attempting to protest the wearing of leather at a large motorcycle gang rally this weekend. Two others, previously reported missing, were discovered by fast food workers “duct taped inside fast food restaurant dumpsters,” according to police officials.
"Something just went wrong," said a still visibly shaken organizer of the protest. "Something just went horribly, horribly, wrong." The organizer said a group of concerned animal rights activists, "growing tired of throwing fake blood and shouting profanities at older women wearing leather or fur coats," decided to protest the annual motorcycle club event "in a hope to show them our outrage at their wanton use of leather in their clothing and motor bike seats."
“In fact," said the organizer, "motorcycle gangs are one of the biggest abusers of wearing leather, and we decided it was high time that we let them know that we disagree with them using it, ergo, they should stop."
According to witnesses, protesters arrived at the event in a vintage 1960?s era Volkswagen van and began to pelt the gang members with balloons filled with red colored water, simulating blood, and shouting "you’re murderers" to passersby. This, evidently, is when the brouhaha began.
"They peed on me!!!" charged one activist. "They grabbed me, said I looked like I was French, started calling me ‘La Trene’ and duct taped me to a tree so they could pee on me all day!"
Still others claimed they were forced to eat hamburgers and hot dogs under duress. Those who resisted were allegedly held down while several bikers "farted on their heads."
Forced to eat hamburgers and hot dogs? The horror!
The bad news is that it's just another urban myth, as Snopes debunks here. It's to note, though, as Snopes does, just how easy it was to believe.
Below the fold, two very similar topics. First, one of the most disgusting, foul-mouthed rappers you've ever heard, then a note on Bird Dog's reputation.
Or what's left of it.
Continue reading "Saturday stuff"
Friday, December 7. 2012
Do you know anyone who uses a computer?
My guess is that you know a very special someone who uses a computer. Someone who's using it right now, in fact, and you'd like to give that special someone a really nice computer gift for Christmas. And, honestly, who knows that special someone's needs and tastes better than you, right? That's why you're the perfect person to make this decision.
Following are twelve gift ideas that I think would spruce up anyone's rig.
1. The Disc Carousel
Find the disc you want in the computer database program, click 'Eject', the carousel spins around and out it slides. Holds 150 discs. Price usually lists for $129, sometimes they go on sale. Home site is here, much more info here.
"Hey, Doc, this 'shopping for someone special' stuff is great! My own special someone is going to be so appreciative!"
That's what giving is all about.
Continue reading "Christmas gift ideas: high-tech to low-tech"
Thursday, December 6. 2012
Wednesday, December 5. 2012
Ace made this. Money for nuthin' and the chicks for free.
Key quote from the latter post: "Government has become the one-stop shop to replace all personal inadequacies." And from poor judgement and poor decision-making, I would add, but I guess they come under the category of personal shortcomings.
 Photo: Buddy took that snap of your Editor on a bird hunting trip in Texas a few years ago
The Plight of the Alpha Female - Women remain scarce in the most elite positions. And it’s by choice.
Our friend TigerHawk retired that website. Here's his new one: The Spirit of Enterprise
'Everyone in US under virtual surveillance' - NSA whistleblower
That is sickening
Biggs and Richwine: The Underworked Public Employee - The cliché is true: Government workers do tend to take it easier than their private counterparts.
Judge Napolitano: Woodrow Wilson ‘was awesome the way Hitler was’
Wilson is up there on my list of bad guys, along with FDR. About Teddy and Lincoln I have mixed feelings. The only cool thing JFK did was to get Marilyn Monroe in the sack.
Nails it: Krauthammer’s Take: Obama Wants to ‘Drive a Stake Through’ GOP in Fiscal Cliff Deal
President Obama’s proposal to Republicans to avoid going over the so-called fiscal cliff — huge tax increases, huge spending increases, and no serious entitlement reform — is risible.
Obama Consults with MSNBC Hosts Sharpton, Maddow on Tax Rates
Cops to Congress: We need logs of Americans' text messages
Clinton-era Tax Team Wants Obama to Tax Middle Class
State Business Tax Climate
“The taxpayer-funded PR blitz for Obamacare”
Using our own money to try to sell us something we don't want
Editorial: Obamacare's new tax on health insurance
We'll pay that tax too
Sorry Libs… The NRA Was There to Help Blacks Defend Themselves From KKK Democrats, Not the Other Way Around
What's The Opposite Of Diversity?
Calif. Teachers Union Releases Cartoon Video Featuring ‘The Rich’ Urinating on the Poor
Kuwait Expels Thousands of Palestinians
Nobody likes Palestinians, it seems, except people who don't know them
Top Official: Abbas Has No Plans to Halt Incitement
Tuesday, December 4. 2012
Most of the most prominent in the West who claim to want peace in the Middle East are, instead, prime facilitators of hate.
By disdaining those Muslims who are closer to Western values, instead pandering to Islamist extremists, or one-sidedly denouncing the defensive measures of the only Western oriented nation in the Middle East, Israel, the claimants of upholding peace have consistently encouraged those who believe and act out of hate.
There are a host of reasons, actually excuses, proffered by those who cloak themselves in plastic doves. At root they shield self-hate for enjoying civilization’s comforts while others purportedly suffer. Their solutions all come down to the same end, take away what has been deservedly earned and give it to those who haven’t earned it. One may argue that many of those supporting this redistribution would also be affected, but in reality they usually shield themselves or are just too blind to realize that until the taker is at their door and their generosity has been squandered or stolen.
I haven’t the slightest care if the above offends anyone who is too effete to speak the truth or so befuddled as to not recognize it or so deceitful as to deny it or so quibbling as to host relative trivia against overriding facts.
There may never be peace in the Middle East so long as, as usual, Muslims hate each other and their rulers are primarily concerned with filling their foreign bank accounts. There certainly will not be peace in the Middle East as long as they use Israel as a distraction from their own fetid culture and politics. To now, the only periods of peace have been when Israel soundly thrashed its attacking enemies, and that has only been temporary as the despoiling hatred of the Arabs reblooms and is watered and nourished by the Western morons who confuse payoffs for hate with peace.
Sophistry that masks surrender with endless compromises that are unrequited by the haters is unacceptable.
Homeland Security was one of Bush's dumb moves. Totally unnessary expansion of non-functional federal bureaucracies. Whenever government screws something up, they find a way to hire 10,000 more people to complicate it even worse. That's called "doing something."
Re the TSA, The TSA as we know it is dead - here's why. (h/t Insty).
We recently posted about the Trusted Traveler program. But isn't a US Passport an indication of a "trusted traveler"?
Related, Kimball on Why Kafka Would Like FEMA
Mead on Advent:
For Christians, and nobody else really has much business thinking about Advent or observing it, there is something else. If there is no Christmas, there is no Cross, no answer to the problems of sin, separation, failure and pain. Advent is a time to think about what life would be like if we didn’t have faith in a Redeemer, a Savior who was ready, willing and able to complete the broken arc of our lives, forgive what is past and walk with us step by step to help us build something better in the time that is left.
Middle Class Net Worth Collapses to 1969 Levels
As Americans face a fiscal cliff, the Obamas make do with 54 Christmas trees
Imagine if Bush had done that
Polls: Nation that re-elected Obama wants more spending cuts than tax hikes, still hates Obamacare
2011 Physician Survey: Attitudes on Health Reform and the Future of Medical Practice
Amsterdam to create´scum villages´
Ridiculous WaPo headline + photo combination
Sandy was not a hurricane when she made landfall
Sandy-ravaged communities dealing with cold and lack of housing while FEMA trailers sit idle in PA
Driving while stoned
The Many Ways Cities Are Trying to Make Uber Illegal
Washington Post: “Know Who Benefits From Charitable Giving? Only The Rich”
The new ethanol that voids your car's warranty
"...the youth of America just chose to make themselves poorer and more indebted"
Iraqi refugee arrested for bombing Arizona Social Security office with IED, media silence ensues
The Democrat-Media Complex
Media Hype Comparisons of Obama to Lincoln
Obama Official: With Republicans, The Way Politics Are Today, There Would Still Be Slavery
Obama Administration Silent After Egyptian Constitution Restores Slavery
Pollution: Blame China First
Rahe blames the sexual revolution
Men Find Careers in Collecting Disability
IRS aims to clarify investment income tax under healthcare law - 156 pages of tax law
Obamacare’s regulatory surtax on exchange insurance plans
Morning Bell: What IS the Fiscal Cliff?
Feinstein: ‘Well Over 200′ Threat Warnings Against Benghazi Mission at Time of Attack
Why Christian Persecution Is Islam's Achilles' Heel
Judicial Reach: The Ever-Expanding European Court of Justice
In Gaza, surge of support for Hamas starts to fade
Iran Sanctions Could Harm Rice’s Portfolio
Egypt’s New Constitution: Laying the Basis for an Islamist, Sharia State
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This "Lost Generation" 
Real estate investing, small scale: 
My pic is a Nantucket "3/4 house." December is a good time to throw on a sweater and a scarf and stroll the streets of downtown Nantucket to admire the early 19th C. architecture with the leaves off the trees and the limousine Liberal vacationers off the streets.
Gov. Lincoln Chafee: 
Today is